#Which is bizarre for multiple reasons but also her boss is completely fine with us having Saturdays off

[shanedoesdoodles]

I don't think just thinking about my work should cause me a panic attack bad enough to nearly make me faint.

I don't think the work environment that produces that reaction should be considered a good one

[jupitermelichios]

On a more possitive note, I’ve started watching Sword Art Online. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen (and the last film I saw in cinemas was Cats to give you context for the scale i’m working on here) and I kind of adore it in much the same way I love garbage like Smallville or Twilight. It’s so stupid on so many levels. You could challenge someone to write the worst anime, and it would almost certainly be better than SAO. It’s almost hypnotic how terrible it is.

No one should watch this terrible terrible show so I therefore don���t feel at all bad that I’m about the spoil absolutely everything, but honestly if you do also hate-watch this please come talk to me about how terrible it is. I don’t know anyone else who watches it.

Highlights of Season 1 include:

everyone is trapped in an MMO, and if you die in the MMO you die IRL. but if you were a beta-tester you’re probably fine because they just let them keep all their levels and items from the testing, so they’re all massively OP and everyone just accepts this as a normal and non-game-breaking thing

it’s a fantasy MMO but there’s no races, no magic system, no weapons except swords and maces, and not even an option to dual wield - literally all you can do in this fucking game is stand in front of an enemy and mash the attack button. I’m pretty sure they’re trapped there because the devs realised no one would play this post launch-day otherwise because it’s boring as shit

when the villain traps everyone he also just changs all their avatars to look like they do IRL for absolutely no reason, like actually none, he doesn’t even say he thinks it would be funny, he just does it and no one questions it and it is literally never mentioned again because this is the worst TV show ever animated.

in the second episode the main character deliberately witholds information about how to defeat a boss, indirectly causing multiple deaths. there is absolutely no reason for him to withhold it, he was just being a jerk because he doesn’t like people

in the third episode they reset his entire personality and he’s now a selfless hero pretending to be a lower level than he really is so people will find him more relateable and be his friend because all he wants is to help people. this is not a consequence of episode 2, they just decided they didnt like the character as he’d previously been written.

he makes some new friends who are all objectively terrible people who have decided for no season that the twelve year old who doesn’t really know how to play and keeps having anxiety attacks about the very real possibility of death has to be the guild tank. the MC is high enough level to be functionally immortal in like half the levels, but doesn’t tell anyone this he just lets them go on bullying this child

none of his friends survive that episode, in the game or IRL. which is also a christmas epsiode. a child dies in battle because she’s a terrible tank and then a man commits suicide out of guilt, so then the main character murders santa to try and bring them back from the actual dead but it doesn’t work because again, this is a video game and they are dead IRL, so then he walks off into the snow alone. Christmas!

we meet the best character in the entire show in episode 4, Rosalia, who has gone evil and started just straight murdering people because she’s sick of being an attractive adult woman who can’t get a date because she’s surrounded by lolicons who are only interested in the preteen characters (not a joke, that comes up, the show is firmly on the side of the lolicons)

in the same episode we get an extended bra and panty sequence staring an actual fucking child, like canonically this character is maybe 13 at best. this is one of only 2 occaisions when they feel the need to undress a character and it’s the fucking 12 year old, it’s so gross it reads like a parody of itself

literally every single named female character aged over 8 who talks to the MC falls in love with him after like 5 minutes (and in season 2 this includes his actual sister). he shows absolutely no interest in any of them (including his sister, thank god) until...

the main character gets engaged to a girl he only knows from an MMO after a virtual single date (he doesn’t actually win her in a PVP match but only because he looses the match, he 100% canonically tries to win her in a match, which she is apparently fine with). he then doesn’t bother to ask for her real name until the final episode, he just calls her by her screen name

(that’s okay though becuase it turns out that this moron of a love interest used her real name, on a local server, in a game where your character looks like you do IRL, because apparently getting doxxed is her hobby)

they then get in-game married off screen. there’s not even like a still of a wedding photo. nothing. the main character proposes and then the show immediately jumps to the honeymoon, it’s fucking bizarre.

they find a creepy child dressed all in white with no memory alone in the woods a week into their honeymoon who starts calling them mommy and daddy literally seconds after they first meet her, and they don’t suspect anything suss is going on and adopt her

for hilarity bear in mind the main character may only be 15 at this point (he says he’s only just turned 16 in the last epsiode, but his actual birthday is never mentioned), and his virtual wifu is 16, but no one ever questions the marriage or the adoption, even though ‘hey marriage in a video game is as important and meaningful as marriage in real life’ is an actual conversation people have multiple times. also they think the child they adopt is an actual IRL 8 year old who thinks these randos she met in an MMO are her mum and dad and everyone just goes with that like it’s a totally normal thing

a character called ‘Thinker’ agrees to meet an enemy faction leader for peace talks. the “peace talks” take place in a high level dungeon and he is told to come alone with no weapons and no fast travel. he does this. no one ever comments that his name is ironic, and in fact they seem to think that being betrayed and trapped in a dungeon with a boss is a totally unexpected turn of events Thinker could never have planned for

they take their new baby into the dungeon to rescue thinker, because they went to the jean grey school of baby rearing, and she imediately reveals that she’s actually a magical maggufin with infinite power, murders the grim reaper, and then dies. In literally the second episode she’s in

after she dies the MC hacks the admin account of the game, converts her corpse into an in game item, and saves to the local storage on his console, with the intention of bringing her back to life as a robot once they’re saved from the game. I’m not joking, that’s an actual thing that happens.

the fact that the main character can just access the main admin account and make massive game-breaking changes isn’t used again in that game and he never thinks to try and use it to force log people out or give himself infinite life so he can just rush the game and free everyone. nope, convert a corpse into an item and then never think about it again.

there’s an entire episode where all they do is go fishing. its the only filler episode in the season, and it immediately follows the death of a small child. it’s the most tone-deaf beach episode in writing history

it turns out this game, this game where they didn’t bother coding in any difference races, weapons, or any kind of magic system, was intended to have fully sentient AI therapists, because why the fuck not at this point honestly

oh also the game has PVP and you can trick the game into thinking a sleeping player is in PVP with you in order to actually murder a real person without it flagging in-game as a murder making the crime impossible for the real life legal system to investigate even though you just murdered a person. and they expect us to believe this game had actual beta testers. at least cyberpunk wasn’t played on microwaves you connected straight to your brain (also not a joke, the VR consoles canonically work by sending microwave radiation into your brain, no wonder VR never caught on)

the set up for the show is that they have to reach level 100 of a dungeon in order to win. At level 75, the writers got bored and the show just ends.

it turns out the power of love allows you to just break the fucking game and the main villain literally has a line about how ‘love allows you to remove debuffs, huh, we didn’t think to plan for that’ because again, there’s no metaphors in this show, everything is 100% literal including the fact that falling in love with another player means you’re immune to the paralysis status effect

power of love also allows you to very briefly become a poltergeist after being killed, but only for like 2 seconds. again not a joke or a metaphor, main character is killed but then gets to hang around as a ghost for a little bit to enable him to defeat the boss. he also doesn’t die in real life despite that being the entire fucking premise of the show, again because power of love.

the bad guy literally has no plan, he’s just doing shit for the sake of having something to do. His actions directly cause the deaths of more than 4,000 people, and it’s not even in aid of anything. they ask him why he trapped 10,000 people in an MMO and allowed them to slowly die, and he’s just like ‘huh, i forgot i did that, random’ and then just fucking peaces out

the fact that he committed one of the largest mass killings outside of war never really comes up again, as far as we know he doesn’t even go to jail. i think the show actually kind of thinks he’s a good guy, which is a fucking WILD moral stance to take on the deaths of 4000 completely innocent people for absolutely no reason

If this sounds hilari-bad but you don’t want to invest the time to watch a show which is objectively garbage, it has an abridged series which is famously better than the show it’s parodying (i’m dead serious, people have character arcs, the getting married after one date thing is properly addressed, the mc has to deal with PTSD because of all his friends dying in epsidode 3, they don’t immediately follow the death of a child with an extended fishing montage, the villain has an actual plan). It’s mostly actually pretty good, but this is the internet and it’s an abridged series, so while there are a lot fewer yikes moments than most it still has enough that I’m not comfortable recommending it without the caveat. that said I still enjoyed it a lot, although possibly not at much as pointing and laughing at the garbage that is the actual show.

[acradaunt]

EON Playthrough: Week 5

Did someone order a bunch of stupid-looking boss fights? Because you're tripping over bosses every ten encounters in the 10th and 11th strata. It was nicer when they were dumped in optional areas. The weirdest thing is that I daresay that 11th's boss is easier than 11th's midboss, which is easier than the 10th's boss, which is easier than the 10th's midboss. Difficulty be weird, because I bought basically nothing after fully kitting out for the 10th's midboss, which still proved highly challenging.

Difficulty is still there, perhaps more than ever, though. I don't know if it's just a side-effect of party-swapping and being underlevelled by 10-15 levels, but I'm having as much or more difficulty than the start of the game. In most RPGs, there's this one magical point where the difficulty goes straight downhill, only to recover for ludicrously cheap and unfair superbosses. In both EOIV and EOV, the 5th and final story stratum was just a bulldoze-fest, where even FOEs were immediately swatted aside. Though EOV's 5th stratum's theming suggests that it's supposed to be the weirdest-timed breather level ever, so, maybe that one was intentional, if bizarre. Sure hasn't been happening here. That's a good thing, I think. Though it does make me feel like I started sucking suddenly, or something.

A fairly pointless word of warning: it seems that the 10th stratum boss will crash your game if all four of its minions are out and active at the end of the turn. It's fairly moot though, because if that's the situation, you're probably not coming back from it anyway. Save data was fine afterwards, so I don't think it's dangerous or anything. Game just probably couldn't handle that much garbage thrown my way. Frankly, I'm surprised someone lived long enough for it to crash. I think I've heard that the 12th stratum boss can crash the game too so that's, ugh, nice.

Iris the Protector/Imperial: Tremendously useful during the 10th stratum's random encounters. Virtually every single enemy does mass-elemental damage, though it's not uncommon to see both Volt+Ice in the same fight, so it's choosing which you think you can bind first. Again, it's just bizarre to think that it took until the very last game in the series for elemental defense to be worth anything. It's also probably a little because every other guard skill does nothing at all against elementals that are making them good. I didn't take her for the 10th's boss, and it was kind of hilarious/infuriating that the one/two encounters you have to deal with on your way there proved to be more troublesome than the boss themselves. I guess I wasn't taking them seriously, trying to conserve TP for the boss, but still. Iris fared decently enough in the 11th stratum, especially with the most irksome threat having INSANE speed, but was more there because I didn't trust Olga's survivability one tiny bit. I'm starting to feel that Imperial was a mistake, as Natural Edge does markedly less damage than Shield Bash, and even the almighty Assault Drive does like maybe 600 damage, well under what Laura's doing waving her tiny staff of doom around. On the other hand, I haven't really invested many points into it, so maybe it's not a fair comparison.

Stella the Zodiac/Protector: Also genuinely great for the 10th stratum, with elemental foes generally hating elemental damage. And even if not, Prophecy can shut down an enemy, though it's four times more expensive than the Protector's version.

Klein the Hero/Imperial: I was correct in thinking he was useless damage-wise against the 10th stratum boss. And he was. But Frigid Slash's splash turned out to be more defensively useful than anything else could be. He then immediately went back to sleep for the entire next stratum.

Laura the Medic/Landsknecht: Laura's unironically doing Ronin-levels of damage with Star Drop and Head Bash, in addition to having a get-out-of-bullshit button and being the only class with an actual way to handle row-wide ailments. Yes, she has been hogging one of the two fairly obscene +45 VIT, +50 HP Amulets, which is making her buff enough to take a hit as well as a Landsknecht, but she's making mighty good use of it. Being a Landsknecht herself lets her refresh Coral's Breaks, but I'm never certain if she's extending Coral's superior debuffs or overwriting them with a longer duration. If I was smart, I'd probably look into figuring that mystery out. I am not smart.

Kagura the Ninja/Ronin: Superstar of the 11th stratum. Didn't really know why, but I just randomly felt like bringing her along into dangerous new territory, and wow did it pan out. Everything down there hated either Sleep or Panic or both. There were multiple times I got ambushed by monsters, thought, well, 'I ain't making it outta this, even with Healing Touch', then one sleepy kunai barrage or panic bomb later, the whole encounter just got trivialized. She also made a habit of making Iris look like an idiot for this reason, with her getting ready for a Full Guard, then every single enemy just miraculously drifts off to sleep in front of her. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Yai the Pugilist/Ninja: Brought her back when Paralysis was needed for a conditional, a whole eight strata since last time. She can hold her own now, though damage remains iffy, but not terrible. As before, her subpar One-Two Punch and Coral/Kahna's subpar Links combine into something rather decent. Being wildly underlevelled meant she wasn't outpacing enemies reliably, either. Still proved her worth, though, as along with universally hating the Ninja's ailment options, nobody really liked Bash, either (probably why Laura could outclip a Ronin in terms of damage). I was sorely debating whether or not to drop the 540k needed to get the ultimate Cestus for the 11th's boss, but after beating it decisively in a 'test run', there really wasn't a need. Now sitting on 630k with the shiny ultimate rapier freshly available (I dumped Formaldehyde on the 11th's boss when it survived with a sliver of HP), I'm tempted more now than ever to buy something dubiously overpowered. Maybe I should buy one of the six or so ultimate armours I've unlocked instead. They're cheaper, and less game-breaky. But I mean, though, I've earned the right to buy them all legitimately, so it's not cheating, so, like, don't judge me if I do buy 'em.

Erika the Ronin/Gunner: Stabbed some foes and bosses. Good as always, though was definitely lagging behind Coral in damage (though she doesn't have Coral's TP issues, so it evens out). I wonder if the rest of the party doesn't think she's got split personality or something, as she and Kagura look nigh identical, are never seen together, and use the same gear.

Olga the Gunner/Ninja: Like Erika, little to say. Came for FOEs/bosses, otherwise was benched for Stella and Yai. Mostly, I just don't have many serious options for backline damage, and with Laura spending 80% of her time up front, there's not a lot of room up there. Heck, even when Iris, the friggin' Protector was around, she was hanging in the back at least half the time.

Leon the Sovereign/Ronin: He definitely would've made the 11th's midboss easier, undoing his highly annoying debuff, but I beat him almost by accident, so I guess it wasn't necessary. Every time I bring him out hoping to use Prevent Order to block Ailments, it fails spectacularly, time and time again. Ronin continues to feel like a complete waste on him. Dunno what would be viable, though. Medic is off the table due to Corsage being that, and Zodiac likewise is taken by Princess Beryl. Landsknecht? Protector? Arcanist? Doesn't really matter, since I'm probably not gonna bother resting, just idle thoughts.

Tate the Arcanist/Harbinger: Proved absolutely vital in taking down a single highly infuriating FOE in a side-dungeon. One who could resurrect itself to full health if it wasn't panicked. Otherwise, still hasn't entered a single battle. So that ice scythe wasn't a total waste of money, after all. Only mostly a waste.

[zukadiary]

Company/BADDY ~ Moon Troupe 2018

Welp I'm in Japan again, for a bizarre trip considering none of my so-called faves are doing anything I'd normally clamor to see live... There are multiple reasons for that, but a big one is I let the idea of this show seduce me completely. I pegged it my most highly anticipated Grand Theater of the year pretty much as soon as the blurbs came out, anticipated it even more after I read and loved the novel, and pretty much lost my mind as soon as the first BADDY tweets surfaced back in February. So I braved Golden Week crowds in Hibiya to squeeze two viewings out of the last week of the run, and I'm quite pleased with my choices.

COMPANY

I summarized Company and its characters a bit before so I won't do it again; they stuck to the premise well enough.

I'd call Company cute and very pleasant; I thought everyone did a wonderful job and any qualms I have are with Ishida-sensei. My love of the book definitely enhanced my appreciation of the show because I went in already attached to the characters, but it also set me up for disappointment in a few places where Ishida fell flat. It's a bit of a long book though, and overall I think he cut exactly what needed to be cut to fit it into one act.

What I LOVE about the play as a whole is the modernness of it; Takarazuka almost never does shows set in present-day Japan, and its shows set in present-day elsewhere often come awkwardly tinged with an uncool dad vibe (LET'S TAKE A SELFIE FOR FACENOTE a la Vampire Succession, for example). Company felt totally natural and it was really refreshing. That said, something bugged me about the line delivery in pretty much the entire show; it was kind of stiff and hammy. I'm inclined to believe it was the direction, but I do wonder if it was just Patented Takarazuka Acting™ and it happened to stand in greater contrast against a modern play (and I also wonder if that's why they shy away from such stories).

Tamakichi was so beautiful it hurt to look at her. Her character Aoyagi's backstory was changed by absolute necessity; the book opens with his wife leaving him, but in the opening song of the show he tells us she's died from cancer two years back. Book Aoyagi is a nobody at work and pretty much a total loser in general at the beginning, and goes on a real journey of self love and improvement. I am a little sad we didn't get this angle because I think Tamakichi could have done an absolutely heartbreaking job portraying that particular transformation, but I also completely understand that including all that simply wasn't possible. Instead we have Cool Good-Looking Senpai Aoyagi, reliable leader from start to finish, whose journey is injecting some joy back into his life and beginning to heal from his wife's death. Tamakichi is so good at the wholesome everyday hero I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. My biggest takeaway from her performance, other than that she slays in a basic clean-cut suit, is that she has blossomed and is such a top star. NO SHADE to Tamakichi up till now; she's done nothing but impress me since assuming office. But while what stood out to me in Grand Hotel and All for One was the balance of the troupe and how perfectly they allowed their other wonderful players support her, SHE stood out to me in Company all on her own; her presence and confidence were incredible. They kept Chapi the exact right amount of time.

This could be Chapi's most typical top musumeyaku role since Tamakichi took over, but it's still unique in that she's the pursuer in their romance and I love that. Minami, while less confident in her ballet/work life than Stage Aoyagi seems to be in his work life, is slightly more confident in their personal interactions—always trying to joke, lighten the mood for him, drop hints—and it's a lovely dynamic. Her portrayal was probably the most faithful to the book. Chapi is bright and cheery and the smoothest actress, and every bit of real ballet we get to see her do is a blessing.

I had the greatest attachment to Haruka (MiyaRuri) and Yui (Umi-chan) going in. My absolute favorite aspect of the book was the slow burn surrounding everything Haruka: his relationship with Yui especially, but also with Aoyagi and the others. Of course I totally understand there is no room for slow burn in one act. Aside from that, Miya was exactly the Haruka I imagined and that was a joy to watch (her costume and countenance in the Dark Gay Swan Lake scene in particular is a VISION). Yui is another refreshing atypical musumeyaku character and Umi did a great job. It's a pretty good show for musumeyaku roles in general; Sara (Wakaba) and Noa (Touka Yurino) are also pretty big parts. I loved Kumichou in particular, she had some amazing one-liners.

My biggest disappointment was in Ishida's handling of Nayuta (Reiko). Reiko did just fine, but I felt that Ishida sucked all the life out of the character. Book Nayuta is a hot-headed asshole who underneath all the strutting and crude commentary cares a lot about his performing. A lot of that comes from him being a trainee idol and trying to prove that he has a place among his equally hot-headed senpai whereas Stage Nayuta is the star of the group, but it's NOT AT ALL HARD TO IMAGINE that a star idol might be kind of a hot-headed asshole. Stage Nayuta was just kind of pretty and there, and as a result the drama surrounding him joining Dark Gay Swan Lake in the Prince role felt flat to me. This is one change I really think could have been made in the given timeframe. (Trivia bit: in the understandably zuka-fied Final Drama where Nayuta injures Sara on stage with a lift gone wrong, Nayuta locks himself in the bathroom at intermission and won't stop crying from guilt. In the book, he feels his finger slip between her ribs during the lift, and dwelling on the sensation makes him so ill he can't stop throwing up).

Toshi is a VERY cool idol group leader; Ari is, as I predicted, herself; and Ruu, Shimon, and Mayupon are a pretty funny group (boss and salarymen), with Mayupon in particular also absolutely WEARING the normal suit look. Everyone else was pretty light on the stage time.

BADDY

BADDY is a triumph. If you still have the opportunity to watch it sans spoilers, I recommend it, I'm jealous, and I would love to know what that's like. However I can also say that I read almost everything about it before seeing it and I felt no less impact from its brilliance.

It's completely ridiculous, but the balance it strikes in its ridiculousness is absolutely sublime. Simplicity combined with absurdist randomness; both using and upending traditional Takarazuka elements JUST enough; it strikes the perfect note.

There's so much to unpack.

For one thing, it's SO META. We open in Takarazuka City on the Peaceful Planet that has seen no disturbance in 103 years, and down comes the Baddies' spaceship with a thunk. Following the thunk, Tamakichi declares "Looks like you've been waiting quite a while for this," RIGHT BEFORE going into the standard opening announcement—"written and directed by Ueda Kumiko," etc—and I am sure that's her sticking in her own jab about Takarazuka waiting 103 years before letting one of their female directors do a revue. Really, I wouldn't be surprised if the ENTIRE THING was a reference to this; I mean we're in TAKARAZUKA CITY where COOL BADDIES infiltrate a BORING LAME SOCIETY THAT HASN'T CHANGED IN 103 YEARS and then they BLOW EVERYTHING UP and EVERYONE GOES TO HEAVEN. That's bold, UeKumi.

There are smaller amusing references too... Reiko commenting that Amashi Juri's character looks new (she just switched to musumeyaku), Tamakichi kidnapping Reiko and giving her to Miya saying "here you're in charge of improving this person's general everything" which I'm pretty sure is Miya and Reiko's IRL relationship.

(Amashi Juri is so cute I can't stand it, help).

Another thing, it flows so beautifully for a revue with a plot (not a theme, a plot... the only other example of which I can recall at the moment is Nova Bossa Nova, which does not flow like this). Despite the scenes connecting perfectly into one cohesive story, they are still individual scenes that feel like standard revue scenes, with variety and costume changes and great music and really fun choreography.

Chapi is given the queenly treatment she deserves; she's as much the star of the revue as anyone else. The rockette with her in the center might be my personal highlight, and it's the perfect example of what I mean by both using and upending Takarazuka traditions. We've got typical rockette-style costumes, synchronized kicking, the works—but we've traded the high-pitched KYAA for YELLING ABOUT HOW ANGRY THEY ARE in unison with some really badass choreo. It's the perfect balance of respect and rebellion; it works because the rockette is such a standard part of our fan lexicon, and the small differences make us open our eyes wide. Crushed velvet kuroenbi. Ray Bans during the parade...

The duet dance also—passionate and angry and LITERALLY fiery, as Tama and Chapi dance and eventually descend through the floor with one long hard kiss surrounded the entire time by swirling flames. I mention that in case the flame effect (like the starlight during Maa's Chopin in HOT EYES) does not show up on the DVD, which would be tragic.

As beautifully and wholesomely as Tamakichi carried herself in Company she pulled out all the stops and slayed in BADDY. Dynamic (and dangerous) radiantly glowing top star. Miya is downright erotic.

Mayupon is just an alien, in the background, through costume changes, the entire time.

There was a fun amount of gender fluidity presented in sort of a nonchalant? way?? Like not the gratuitous otokoyaku-in-drag situation we usually get; paired with the free-flowing top 4 love quadrangle, it felt, dare I say, progressive.

I had an extra fun experience at my first viewing... TSUKI MATSURI! Tsukigumi has a tradition where one day per run (though I imagine not every single run) they all wear afro wigs in one scene and adlib it to hell and back. Since it was my first time and this did not seem at all out of place against the backdrop of BADDY I didn't even realize until after, but what lucky timing.

I can't wait for UeKumi's next show, and I went into QR and came out only with Tsukigumi bromides, I don’t know myself. 

[theareya]

even numbers for the gaming asks!

Okay, its been 1000 years since I posted this gaming ask. But here are the answers!!!! I put most under the read more…

2. First game you played?The first game I ever played ever, in thehistory of forever, was Super Mario Bros. at my babysitter’s house, if mymemory serves me correctly

4. Longest consecutive hours you’ve played agame?Ohkay, let’s see. Without eating or bathing,but I did get up briefly to bathroom and drink water, I finished uncharted 1,2, and 3 consecutively in 120 hrs. Needless to say, I never did that again, asthe blood vessels in my eyes popped, I ate two bigmacs after, and my parentsyelled at me. Otherwise, without moving or tending to most of my basic bodilyneeds, 10 hours max as of late.

6. An underrated game from within the last fewyears?I don’t know, I’m probably biased and neverreally look online to see how the game was rated/how it’s doing. Oh! But! Ireally liked Battleborn, which was basically a game that came out like a littlebefore Overwatch? Or near the same time, actually. You also fight in teamsagainst one another with unique character abilities to obtain certainobjectives. Honestly, it is extremely well done and detailed, but very muchfalls in Overwatch’s shadow possibly due to similarity and budget D:  8. The game with the best atmosphere/scenery?I’m biased. I love Bioshock. But I also am ahuge fan of those apocalyptic, dystopia aesthetics. So, essentially, anythingalong the lines of bioshock, Fallout, and Last of us.

10. Prefer PC or console?I’ve always played on console. And I’m so bad atPC. You would think it’s a bit easier to aim a cursor to shoot at something,but I’m particularly bad at that.

12. Most bizarre game you’ve ever played?Most games are pretty… bizarre. Most of theactual weird ones I’ve only seen online on those “top ten weirdest video games”but maybe Katamari? There are definitely weirder ones… The Nightmare Within wasalso… strange. I don’t actually know what counts as bizarre anymore in thegaming world. Shrek party…

14. Do you watch playthroughs online?Sometimes, yes! If I know I am never going toget the game. For example, an xbox exclusive (I do not have an xbox) or if Ialready played the game and want to see others suffer, lmao. Or if I like thestreamer.

16. The best year in gaming you’ve experienced?… I don’t remember. I’m going to say 2011.

18. Worst game you’ve played?There are probably worse games, but I’ll go withthe most recent one I’ve played, which was Bound by Flame. It was kind of thisunfortunate mix of—attempt at—Dark Souls, Dragon Age, and other medieval games.Some parts of the gameplay were unnecessarily hard for kicks, with no way toovercome the boss aside from chipping away at the health by throwing a rock atit, while your single dead companion lay sprawled in the middle of the fieldten seconds into the fight. And of the one and a half romance options pergender you were allowed, none of them were very enticing. Spoiler** I overcamethe end fight by purchasing 10,000 potions to fight the dragon. I made itthrough just fine, only after using 600 potions. Strategy was little help, butheyo I made it through. 20. Favorite publisher and/or developer?…Sony? I don’t know… I’m terrible at thesequestions.

22. If you could turn one game into movie, whichwould it be?You know I don’t know, since any game thatturns into a movie makes me want to cry bitter tears of hate. I’m looking atresident evil specifically. But if I could turn Bioshock into a really goodmovie with the proper actors/actresses, storyline, extras, atmosphere, then …yeah.

24. Ever cried because of a video game? Whichone(s)?…Too many. Nothing gets me more invested andemotional than a videogame. I guess the only one that has made me actually cryvisible tears is Journey. The ending overwhelmed me in an inexplicable way.

26. How often do you play online? Co-op?Relatively often now, especially withOverwatch, and the fact that a lot of my friends have Overwatch as well. So,like, every other day, if not daily. Otherwise, I love co-oping with a friend mostlybecause the AI that they give to work with you tends to … suck butts. Lookingat Resident Evil… again.

28. Who got YOU into gaming?My babysitter. Haahaa. I used to hang out ather house all the time and I’d watch her play all sorts of games. She’s alsothe one who gifted me my purple game boy color :’D30. On average, how long does it take you in thecharacter creation screen?Could be up to an hour. But at least 30minutes. It depends on if I know what I want.

32. Do you cosplay?I do! But I’ve actually only cosplayed animethings. Most of the video game stuff I would like to cosplay is too hard and/orI wouldn’t do it justice. Also I’ve been parts of group cosplays generally, sowe gotta find a good match.

34. Favorite male npc?For some unknown reason, the only personpopping into my head right now is erandur, the dark elf companion, from skyrim.Like… he’s not my favorite npc, but…my mind is drawing a complete blank. And isjust repeating that name over and over in my head. Oh boy

36. Best antagonist?Albert Wesker. …Spoiler??** Look… if you gottathrow him in a volcano to get rid of him after 200 tries of “just survive longenough” fights, he’s pretty good to me. Please let him die.  

38. Have you tried a game, hated it, then triedagain, and loved it?N….no? There are some games where I getfrustrated, then invite a friend to play, who is extremely over-leveled, andthen they help me… live. Does that count?40. Favorite voice actor?Okay, I love Troy Baker. How can one person beso gosh darn versatile?? For anyone who doesn’t know (I doubt that) He voicesJoel from TLOU, Booker from Bioshock, Sam Drake from Uncharted, to name theones that pop into my head. And he does like a million other voices, and sings,and is just very excellent overall. 

42. A game you will never forget (in a bad ORgood way)?Resident Evil 5 in the respect that I justplayed it during a very happy time in my life with one of my friends. And itwas also when I learned that I really love co-op, as well it was a supertreasured bonding time with that friend. We legit screamed so obnoxiouslythroughout the whole thing, apologized profusely, yelled for help. Like thatgame brought out our full range of emotion while playing.

44. Do graphics matter?Not necessarily. They add a nice kick, butthere are quite a few games I can think of where the gameplay and story aremore prominent. Storyline is generally always the main thing I look for first.Storyline and characters. 46. Always, sometimes, or never use subtitles?ALWAYS. Even for NPCs. Like the setting thatsays “ALL SUBTITLES” one of the reasons is because it alerts me to enemiessometimes too as they whisper in the distance. Which is the closest thing to awarning from jump scares that I’m going to get.

48. A game you’ve always wanted to play but havenever gotten to it?Um. I’ve actually been pretty aggressive ingetting my grubby hands on the games that I want. EXCEPT. Nearly everythingthat came out after Kingdom Hearts: Chain of memories?? Like 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 5 ½,365/3 days  idk there were too many?? AndI basically had almost every console except the PSP so I just kind of gave up??

50. How many games do you own?…uh… too many?? At least 200 if you total allof them from the dawn of my first game boy color.52. A game you will always stand behind, andsupport no matter what?..Fable. OKAY So, even though the game, alongwith the game company crashed and burned, I really loved that first game??Along with The Lost Chapters. I essentially based the experiences I had withFable 2, 3, Journey on how good the first game was. If I were to make someoneplay it now, they would probably think it’s pretty dumb, but I thought it was acleverly made game…54. A sequel you really want?… lmao Fable. AND/OR The Wolf Among us, becausethat’s been sitting there for far too long.56. Do you tell people irl that you play videogames?Yeah. If it comes up in the conversation. Or if…they have merchandise that I want.

58. Ever have someone walk in on a sex scenebetween you and you LI?N…o…60. The game you are best at?I know Bioshock inside and out… I don’t knowwhy I’ve played it so much, it’s a very linear game, but wuh. Also weirdly, I’mvery good at Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. And the only reason I’m obnoxiously goodat that game is because of the Chaos. I love those ridiculous little things andwould do anything to make sure they’re happy and healthy. And in order to dothat I had to play each stage multiple times to get the right power-ups andanimals to feed the Chaos…. There was a whole garden. And god.

62. Would you want to work with video games whenyou are older?I feel like if I start working with it I’llstart disliking it very much, unless I literally work as a tester… that getspaid a decent amount. Like seriously, walk in, sit down, play for… hours uponhours. Otherwise, I do not have the creativity or skill. lmao.

64. Describe your favorite video game using onlythree words?Underwater death city.

66. Game with the yummiest looking food?Final Fantasy XV. Okay, so I haven’t finishedthe game. I’m really not even that far into it, like… at all. I just saw thefood and got hungry. It’s so realistic and pretty.  

68. An older game that you’ve just recentlygotten into?I guess… Fallout New Vegas was pretty old, butthen my friend bought it for me on sale, and I tried it out and it was supergood??? And now I’m really into the Fallout series.

70. Do you play any mobile games?I.. play Fire Emblem Heroes, and a variety ofother mobile games like.. Notice me Senpai, Zen Koi, Mystic Messenger, uhhh…whatever is recommended sometimes. .

72. Have any guilty pleasure games?Not really. I’m pretty prideful in every game Iplay, including my otome games.74. Which game has the best lore?…Once…. Again, BIOSHOCK. Idk there are just somany little things in the city that you can find that point to the history ofthe residents, and what happened to them. There are those audio messages and littlesecrets that everybody has in the city, leading to its fall. I just love it somuch. Skyrim is a close second, to be fair. It’s more immersive and I canroleplay more on there.