#actually i feel like a lot of people either don't know what gacha is or only see the bad stuff

[cal-ico-critter]

why do we dislike the gacha community sm?

(rant!)

okay so if you've been around for a while you've probably heard of the gacha community. unless you've actually been exposed to the community, then it's likely you've strayed away because of the people who create you-know-what with a children's game. I feel like people see the "gacha heat" content more often than not, and most judge the community as a whole based off of the few creators who make "gacha heat".

but actually, there's a lot more to the community then those disgusting people. behind all of that, there's talent. the mini-movie creators are amazing with their ability to tell original stories. those who make edits can animate + edit incredibly well.

there's so much creativity within the community, and if people would be willing to look deeper than just the "gacha heat" content, then they'd see it.

that's mostly it but feel free to give these creators some love!

-redblazer: amazing series and a ton of lgbtq+ rep (transfem character, asexual character in a romantic relationship, polyam rep)

-palecatlover: go check out his series "humaniacs"! it's incredible and and he doesn't get enough love for it :3

-rosyclozy: "the music freaks" creator!

[cerastes]

I've seen people before saying that, in terms of presentation, NIKKE delivers it better than Arknights in telling what they want to tell. And I still see this occasionally whenever people start comparing stories in gacha games. Looking at your post, seems like that wasn't a lie at all.

Right, this is an interesting topic for me, so let me give my two cents on this.

I would say that statement is generally true. Nikke's main strengths are its presentation and knowing how to leverage its strengths in general, but let's focus on presentation: It's story is nothing to write home to (note that I am up to Chapter 18), neither are its events (on this regard, take me lightly, I've only read three), but what Nikke wants to say, you will very clearly understand. It's good at telling its story. Sometimes the localization will have Localization Moments (Chatterbox is described as female in the first cutscene he is mentioned, male every time afterwards; there's a lot of clearly literally translated little expressions that make no sense in the flow of the conversations), but overall, even though you're looking at a story that in a lot of ways you've seen a lot of times, its particularities stand out because Nikke tells them properly, concisely, and clearly. Characterization is consistent, and there's a good amount of care clearly put into both consistency and overarching important parts of the narrative; a favorite example of mine is how, in the tutorial, if you pay close attention, you can actually see Marian's eyes glow red during her reload animation, foreshadowing something pretty important that happens with her later.

So even if the story beats are not particularly good or intriguing -- and sometimes, outright terrible, like in Chapter 18 oh god I hate Chapter 18 -- you at least can tell with clarity what's going on and why it's going on.

Arknights has the yang to the yin here, somewhat: The stories on Arknights tend to range from okay to great, and AK events have a habit of going pretty damn hard, either as a whole or at least parts of them. Sometimes, however, they have a weakness, and this weakness is that the actual story telling can be dense. Density is often attributed to good writing, but the truth is, sometimes, the text isn't advanced, it's simply clumsy, and the prose in Arknights is decidedly clumsy. But when you actually untangle the spaghetti of clumsy prose, you find some strong story telling, strong characterization, and topics you don't often find discussed in video games, less so in gacha. You kinda have to work for it, basically.

Something Nikke does good is also that it keeps its relevant cast at any given story beat low, giving it more cohesion, or rather, making it easy to stay cohesive, because Arknights can handle larger casts pretty well sometimes, but I'll be frank, the current main story has so many literal whos to keep track of that I'm supposed to be invested in that I don't really bother. I'm sorry, but I can't really feel a damn thing about Outcast when she showed up for a few scenes and then got nuked off by a contrivance while fighting some faceless nobodies we are told we should fear.

But on the other hand, Nikke narrative, again, despite its strong delivery, is still built on a feeble base for the most part. I only think of a few characters I care about in Nikke, because a lot of the cast is just fluff and Obligatory Archetypes (bunny girls, school girls, maids, etc), whereas in Arknights, I care about a whole damn lot of them, even those without events, because their files and modules paint a very integral and intriguing picture of them. Even smaller scenes in Arknights sometimes can have a big emotional impact, due to its extensive and well crafted worldbuilding and its clever use of its elements in every event, something Nikke cannot claim, because worldbuilding in Nikke is almost non existent.

They both have their strengths, basically, and it's fascinating to me, a writer, to take a deeper look at them.

[justintaco]

I've been up for almost 24 hours so

superheavy Lonetrail Muelsyse spoilers

Besides the like, uncountable amount of stuff that blew me away in Lonetrail,

linking together Mansfield Break and Dorothy's Vision with Vigilo and Walk in the Dust

creating thematic parallels with Near Light at the end,

what really blew me away was Muelsyse.

Anyone who's followed this blog for a long time knows I'm not big on shipping and I'm semi-public with my opinion that most times shipping brain completely poisons someone's ability to actually engage with a narrative. But honest to god, even to me, they seemed to be almost writing a romance with Doctor and Mumu.

Blink twice if you don't think I'm crazy.

like any gacha you have a lot of flirty lines between the player character and a million of the girls (and guys), but like, this seemed unusually genuine and romantic?

(x)

Like besides them sharing a dance and all their cute little scenes, they seemed to be creating a genuine parallel in their backstories and who they are as people here

Mumu discovers she isn't actually the last of her race but realizes that she has so little in common with them she cannot form any meaningful connection or even find a shared language with them. Her integration into human society is like, almost all just an act of survival by her own admission, she doesn't feel any belonging there either. In fact, most of the time her real body is hiding in her vivarium because the physical world itself is becoming so poisoned by originium that it's dangerous to leave using anything but a clone. Even in her flashback with Saria and Kristen, she seems to be the third wheel.

She is by every possible metric, completely alone. And it seems like her chronic teehee backstabbing is a coping mechanism to feeling completely alienated from even her closest friends and what becomes her second family with the Rhine Lab directors. Even that dysfunctional and over idealized family is gone now too. She even says the following after she betrays Doctor for one last ditch effort to throw in her lot with Kristen and maybe find somewhere out in the stars she can belong:

Compare that with the Doctor, who in this event witnesses what seems to be the death of the last member of their race. In fact, the dialogue implies that Doctor feels an incredible amount of anguish even just pulling the plug on Trevor since it's not so quick a death. Directly after this event, after escaping the big silo bunker thing, Doctor's first thought is to go seek out Mumu rather than regroup with everyone from RI (including Saria who just reentered the atmosphere Halo 3 style). It feels like a response to an epiphany.

Earlier, Doctor had managed to actually get her to tell the truth about herself during their dance. How isolated she feels without any past or family, just like Doctor. So they go directly to her, fresh off of losing the last connection to their past life besides Kal'tsit (who is implied to not only be unwilling but in some way unable to share more info with Doctor).

You then get what is this, extremely deeply intimate conversation between Doctor and Muelsyse, commiserating over their shared loneliness.

She tries to play things off with her usual shtick but pretty quickly she admits that saving those random Control goons on the ship was her failed attempt at suicide because Saria had well and truly kicked her out of the triumvirate to confront Kristen alone.

After that she begins connecting with Doctor on a deeper level than any character I can really recall. As much as I love the ex wife Kal'tsit stuff, they really don't seem to have a romantic attachment. A very very close and intimately trusting one, maybe a past romance, but never romantic with Doctor as they exist in the present since waking up. Doctor views other characters like Amiya, Ifrit, and Rosmontis as children to be protected. But this here is these two really baring their souls and it's just crazy to see in a gacha game where the format discourages stuff like this.

Just, man I love this whole conversation. They've both just learned recently that they can't shed their loneliness with what's left of their races. Muelsyse is totally at the end of her rope, but Doctor has just learned that the only thing they can do is fully commit to the people they know in the present. So despite Mumu's one final attempt to put a barrier up between her and another person, a literal physical barrier of water

Doctor walks right into the barrier and literally reaches out to her to help save her with what they just learned that same day

Muelsyse refers to the parts not in blue here (blue usually being the only confirmed dialogue Doctor says out loud in any given cutscene) when she talks to Nasti later. That means the Doctor said all of this out loud.

Again, am I crazy or does this feel like the most romantic Doctor has ever been with another character?

A lot of himejoshis on Twitter have been mad about the event and what it means for Mumu x Ho'ohleyak, Mumu x Saria, or Muelsyse x her OT3 with Saria and Kristen, and honestly

they might have a point

[mymarifae]

idk how to put this exactly but I 100% get what u mean. Sometimes a gacha game will somehow actually have good writing (like. Actually decent acknowledgement of real world issues that isn't perfect but shows CARE) and then it does something that just fucking puts a hole in your stomach for no fucking reason and it's like. It had no reason to do that and it fucking hurts to lose that little bit of faith u had. Sorry if this is written incomprehensiblely I hope. Idk I hope they fix that shit even if it's unlikely

oh no you misunderstand ! i wasn't upset yesterday because mizu5 was written badly. i was upset because it hit so fucking hard it sent me into a bit of a mental breakdown but we don't need to talk about that HAHAAAAAA

i still think it's bizarre to like. not immediately continue an event that quite literally removes a character from the game's "real world" and changes all of her menu sprites and voicelines. like wdym we have to go watch vbs beach episode after this (unless akito5 IS a continuation but that's highly unlikely...???????) . but the event itself did play out really well. and an event having a direct impact on the game's like... UI and shit is really cool and they should totally do this again sometime if the opportunity arises. it just hurt like a fucking bitch

i honestly do feel like the trans route is more likely than the cross-dresser route. after seeing. everything. i still don't know how to articulate it fully but just the specific way mizuki's classmates were talking about her. the "(she's) kinda cute if you ignore how weird (she) is" shit idr the exact comment... and the way they call ena a "normal" girl - meaning that even though they're actively misgendering her, they don't exactly see mizuki as a boy either, but instead as some kind of weird Other. a very apt representation of transmisogyny i'd say.

and just mizuki's reaction to ena finding out as a whole. the revelation that she wasn't really afraid of nightcord not accepting her - i think she knew they wouldn't exactly care. what really scared her was being looked at differently. nightcord was the first time she's been accepted into a group of people as just... a girl. not a trans girl. not a "girl who used to be a boy." she could just exist and be herself and no one's giving her any side eyes or whispering behind her back or walking on eggshells around her, because they don't know. they thought she was a cis girl, and having a space where she passes perfectly made her really happy. she was just scared of change. because like sometimes you come out to people and they do accept you (at least to your face) but YOU are no longer the first thing they see. they see your gender/sexuality first instead. and treat you differently because of that

IDK I'M RAMBLING but like. i feel a little more hopeful... this could still end badly but this feels so much more like a trans narrative than anything else. so far it's going well. it hurts a lot, but it feels real. i was just distraught because mizuki is such an important character to me and i wasn't like, emotionally prepared to see her in so much pain LOL 😭😭 i feel better and more normal about it now tho

[ma1less]

I don't know who's going to see this, if it'll be seen at all, but I wanted to ask this question somewhere and maybe get one or two answers.

This is directed to the Lunime Gacha Community, so I'm not expecting some positive answers from them (I just had a past idea that got absolutely crapped on so I'm a bit skeptical, that's all), but feel free to provide your points of views. I just need to know the different perspectives and how to approach these things on my end, so whether you're for or against it, I'm willing to take it into account.

(although don't blame me if I start arguing with you if I feel that my point wasn't understood)

Anyways, the question I have at hand...

How would you feel if someone criticized your series/mini movie?

I do want you guys to read the rest of this blog, too, as this question has a lot of open-ended questions or can lead to certain assumptions.

It's something I've always wanted to do for a long while, but I've been putting it off since... you know... criticizing stories made from a younger generation that most likely had little to no experience with creating a story? Really?

But regardless of that backlash, I love helping others, and if it's through writing a story (something I'm extremely passionate about, especially since I've been writing for over 13+ years), that'd be even better. Additionally, I know this sounds kinda bad, but I believe that criticism can be given to anyone regardless of age, experience, and other factors. Of course, as long as it's not "criticism" that specifically targets and belittles certain group.

Which, I think that might be the reason why I'm always cowarding away from doing this---I feel like the term "criticism" lost its meaning over the years and it's almost used like another adjective for hating and/or gatekeeping certain works. In this case, I guess it's only proper to define it in my point of view.

Criticism to me is a form of grading and teaching. The criticizer would find flaws in the work, explain why it's not as great as the artist may see it as, and offer ways to improve. Of course, just like teaching a group of people, criticizing should only be choosing the most problematic and discuss different ways to get to the solution, and this should be done with little to no feelings attached. Being biased would only lead to unfair treatment, in which case would only cause more problems than solutions. Of course, this doesn't mean going full villain mode either as that doesn't do anything other than agitate the other party---unless that is the choice the criticizer decided to go with yet still has the same value as what I've said above.

That's a lot to take in, but criticism is a bit complicated too. I mean, it's more in terms of perspective of how it is given and received, and a good majority tend to receive criticisms as if it's another hate mail.

But, keeping an open mind, I do wonder if this kind of definition shown to the community would be accepted. I mean, I've been a ghost in the Lunime Gacha Community just as long as I've been writing (whenever Anime Gacha came out), so I've seen a lot of bad, bad, bad things happen here. And because of those terrible situations, the community, I feel, had gotten a lot more defensive and tend to jump the gun more faster than most.

I mean, to be fair, that's probably like every community out there, and I can't really blame them. Who wants a community with those types of people roaming around?

Anyways, if you actually read this, thanks. Lemme know your thoughts cuz I wanna proceed with this with a bit more insight from other people that's been, I guess, more nitty-gritty with the community.

Might be deleting this blog too, unless I either forget or feel like it's fine keeping up. I don't know. I'm always on and off about this idea. Not to mention I want to make this as some kind of career (not the whole criticizing a bunch of nonprofessional stories if possible but at least in the editing department), and maybe this can be a practice for me? I don't know.

And if I get no responses........ Meh, oh well. Wasn't really expecting one anyway.

Anyways, thanks. Bye.

[mdhwrites]

Was Ratio a Good Free Five Star?

TL:DR All the things that make him look bad on paper as a free five star are exactly why he was frankly a FANTASTIC choice.

But I do mean it when I say that on paper he looks like Hoyo taking an L while we get left with Ratio. Not because he's bad though. For entrenched players like me, he was exciting. A main DPS that had to have a team comp that was pretty different from a lot of the other hyper carries out there since most supports, especially the hyper carry ones, don't do debuffs. If you try Tingyun and Bronya next to him, you'll often end up missing on MASSIVE damage since you need those three debuffs on the enemies. So who supports him best? That's an exciting question for someone with a wide variety of characters.

BUT.

A free five star like this is literally never for the entrenched players. It's a nice gift to them but this sort of thing is either a sign of desperation as they plead for old players to come back or it's a marketing trick to pull new players in. As Star Rail is still one of the best in its genre monetarily and Ratio was put out specifically because of all the awards it had just won, it was clearly the latter. A way to pull people in while the buzz around the game was big. Finally convert any last Genshin players who were on the fence while also finally moving people over from ALL the other team comp focused, turn-ish based gachas out there. A flex of dominance.

With that in mind... Think about who your first half a dozen, guaranteed characters are. Only half of Trailblazer has a debuff and it lasts one turn. March 7th has her freeze on her ultimate and that lasts for one turn. Dan Heng is the only member of the team with a debuff through his skill but it's only a two turn debuff and again: requires a skill point.

Then after that, the next three guaranteed are Asta, Serval and Natasha. Asta doesn't have a debuff without her trace ability to burn on basic meaning you have to get actually a decent bit into the game to actually get a debuff through her. Serval finally gives you a long lasting debuff with her Shock DoTs and can even extend those, making her not that skill point intensive. Then Natasha is, well... A healer who eventually dispels debuffs, not adds to them.

So two planets into the game and a new player could theoretically have a team of characters who all have debuff on skill but one of those debuffs lasts one turn and they ALL need to be using their skills most rounds in order to keep up the three debuffs to guarantee Ratio has good damage... On his skill. In a game where, unless you have a limited time 5 star that ISN'T free, you only have up to five skill points a round and that's only if you used a lot of basic attacks before hand. If you invest in her, you can swap one of them for Asta who I think would have her burn on basic to help but you'd still be running at a pretty extreme deficit mostly.

That is what you're guaranteed and so the shiny five star you were given, who was pushed towards you, is... Awkward. To put it mildly. Even potentially frustrating as every time you miss with his skill is a failure and feels AWFUL. Worse yet, you can so clearly see how he could work and how he could be strong!

And that's why he's amazing as the free five star.

I've jumped into plenty of long running gacha games that had guaranteed five stars or the like and do you know what happens? They make my brain turn off entirely for the starting content because they are usually demonstrably more powerful than anything else I have and the early game content wasn't designed around them. Even 3rd Impact, which I tried to get into now that it's on PC, has this problem where early on, they actually throw so many 5 star characters at you that you have to pick and choose between them instead of literally anyone else they give you early on. It's overwhelming but it also makes any curve of power just vanish as suddenly you are tackling content already meant to be easy with a character you don't have to think about with.

Ratio (and admittedly a lot of things about Star Rail) avoids this by being a character that requires characters who can work with him to function. He DEMANDS thought and in a way that leans into Star Rail's greatest strength: The fact that team comp matters. I could do an entire blog on how I think Star Rail is genuinely a breath of fresh air for turn based combat but this really is the big one for this blog. A new player is given this new five star who not only demands intelligence as a character trait but also for gameplay purposes. Can't figure out how to make him work? Then his gift is wasted on a fool like you. Maybe find someone a bit more your speed?

And as a Seele main who's only 5 star they used (besides Trailblazer) for over a month of play was Seele when the game came out... I wouldn't have wanted to be given Seele for free. Seele is a great character but she is monstrously powerful, even when played poorly. I don't even hyper carry with my Seele and I can tell you that she'll wreck house for a LONG time just on her own. She doesn't showcase the depth and strategy of the game, especially early on, and so a new player would just think that the game is simple and basic. They'd get bored with the character they potentially see as their win button and move on to a different game.

And for those stubborn enough to go "No, I am using Ratio!" then he becomes a goal. Not only does every limited 5 star that comes out suddenly look all the more appealing if they do debuffs (Boy was Kafka a fucking perfect pairing with Ratio's banner btw) but every four star is all the more exciting because hey, do they do debuffs? How many? How efficiently? How can they fit into the dream team that made me first get into the game?

Just by existing within a player's roster, one way or another, he raises questions about the game that ask the player to dive deeper into the mechanics of the game than they would have otherwise. Makes them think more about the early game, when it's going to be at its slowest, than most mobile games would ever even risk doing until they can hope sunk cost is keeping you there. He's not just a shiny trophy but an actual hook into players, old and new.

Frankly, if I had to say anything critical about choosing him, it's that he's just not had any good content associated with him. I think his quest, especially post 2.0, will mostly be a let down for any new players who came in partially because of him, especially if they decided to force him as their main. Admittedly, he's the like ONLY good thing about that quest (I could do a blog just about why that quest is bad) but even he doesn't get to shine in it. Penacony hasn't done him any favors either with his brief appearance so far. His writing is very strong though, easily some of the best of the smart characters in Star Rail, and his personality is interesting even in those appearances so they're not all bad, just that they could easily be disappointing to those new players who had to wait a while to get to see their boy in story.

But I suppose it had to falter somewhere. Hoyo has a tough act to follow if they ever give out a free five star for Star Rail again and keeping it in the realm of those who are simply intelligent, rather than having pulled off something only a genius could, is befitting for the good doctor. Have a good day everyone and until next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[daphdarling]

Heyyy can I get a mha match up pleaseeee

I'm Poppy, 5'3/160cm, 46kg, have darkish brown curly hair that goes past my shoulders, green eyes and an elbow scar I think is pretty cool. I'm AFAB (she/they) and fem presenting though I'm not sure what my actual gender identity is. My preferred style is kinda cutesy and I have a lot of dungarees/pinafores. I'm also bisexual with no strong preference.

I'm a March Aries (on the Pisces cusp) and ISFP. I'm autistic and have ADHD, bouncing and rocking and hair twirling are my favourite ways to stim. In new/unfamiliar social settings I can get a bit anxious so tend to be on the quieter side which means making friends is a little tricky. As soon as I do know the person though I'm more outgoing. I'm quite clever and got 9s (high A*) without revising for it in the creative/essay subjects. But I can also be unmotivated when it comes to things I'm not hyperfixated on (like my maths and science grades, which I didn't do bad in, but could've done better) and I might procrastinate until the last minute. I can be stubborn in arguments and debates (and have an accidental tendency to get loud), it's very useful when I'm right but not when I'm wrong, though this stubborness mostly comes from my strong sense of justice and fairness. I am generally very polite, kind and funny (I can use sarcasm myself but can be bad at recognising when other people are using it). When I'm hyperfixated on something, it's all I think about and want to talk about it all the time.

I'm a bit insecure about my body since I'm flat. I also have a small appetite and genuinely forget to eat and drink because my body doesn't feel hunger and thirst like other people do (being a picky eater doesn't help). I'm pretty good at managing sensory stimuli but when I get overstimulated, I tend to 'shut down', feel very warm, and need a lot of quiet time to calm down again. I also have a stammer so sometimes trip over my words which I either find very funny or very frustrating depending on the day.

My hobbies include singing (classical/opera and musical theatre), acting (only in school performances since I'm too shy to join a theatre group), and playing gacha games like genshin and honkai star rail. I never spend money on them though. I also like to swim, read, write, and teach people about what I'm learning in my A Levels (I'm doing drama, english literature, philosophy and sociology). Jellyfish and cats (have a black cat myself) are my favourite animals, pinky-orange is my favourite colour, and I love greek food (I'm half Greek) and steak and ale pie. I don't like fizzy drinks, the feeling of jewellery, or getting wet. My winter coat and my teddy bear called Bedtime Bear are my comfort items.

The love language I like to receive is acts of service. I like to give gifts (I'm generous when spending on others but stingy when spending on myself, I have really strong self control with money 😭) and quality time in return. Physical affection is good sometimes, especially since I'm naturally cold to the touch and get cold very easily so it would warm me up

THANK YOUUUU!! ♡♡

HAVE A GREAT DAY :D

YOUR MATCHUPS ARE…

TOBIO KAGEYAMA

Personality Match:

Kageyama shares your stubbornness, especially when it comes to a sense of right and wrong. He has a bit of a blunt exterior but, like you, can be deeply thoughtful and passionate when it comes to things that matter to him. His more introverted side might make him somewhat reserved at first, but once he opens up (just like you do), you’d find that he has a lot more warmth than people expect. The balance between his quiet moments and intense focus on what he loves (volleyball) would match well with your creativity and need for a deep connection. You both might even find yourselves hyperfixating on certain things, but you'd also be understanding of each other's space when overstimulated.

Romantic Connection:

Kageyama doesn’t always express his emotions openly, but he does care deeply in his own way. He’d be supportive of your passions and interests (like singing, acting, and your studies), even if he doesn't know how to express it at first. You’d appreciate that he’s straightforward, and he would come to respect your space when needed, understanding your need for quiet moments. In return, his more caring side would come out through actions, which would align with your love language of acts of service.

Hobbies and Activities:

You both appreciate things you can focus deeply on, and while Kageyama’s main focus is volleyball, you could support each other’s individual passions. You’d likely spend time singing or acting together in a laid-back environment, where his quiet side would balance out your more outgoing moments once you’re comfortable with each other. Maybe you'd both enjoy quiet, creative time — you reading or writing while he practices volleyball or helps you learn new techniques to be more creative.

Looks and Vibes:

Kageyama has a clean, no-nonsense appearance, with his spiky hair and intense gaze. His vibe is intense yet quiet, which would blend well with your gentle, creative aesthetic. You’d complement each other well in terms of looks, both having a bit of an "unassuming" appearance at first, but with a lot of personality beneath the surface.

Final Thoughts:

Kageyama would appreciate your thoughtful and creative nature, while you'd respect his discipline and drive. You both tend to keep to yourselves at first, but once comfortable, you’d share an understanding that doesn’t require too many words. You’d be a great emotional grounding for each other.

AND

SHOTO TODOROKI!!!

Personality Match:

Shoto shares your introspective and reserved side. Like you, he’s a bit quiet in new situations, but once he’s comfortable, he’s open and caring. He has his own struggles with understanding his emotions, something that you’d both empathize with. Shoto’s also a bit stubborn, especially when it comes to his sense of justice (he’d definitely respect your strong morals), and your shared introspection would lead to some great, deep conversations. He’s a bit of a perfectionist like you, but he’s also someone who values real connections once he trusts someone, which I think you’d both build together.

Romantic Connection:

Shoto’s quiet affection would pair well with your love language of quality time and acts of service. He’s not one for grand gestures, but his actions (like helping you with a school project or making sure you’re comfortable) would speak volumes. His warmth would complement your cold touch, and you’d likely enjoy spending time together in peaceful environments, maybe cooking Greek food or just reading in comfortable silence. He might be a bit unsure of how to handle your stimming or sensory overload, but he’s understanding and would take care to respect your boundaries.

Hobbies and Activities:

You and Shoto would likely enjoy quiet, calming activities together — reading, watching shows, or engaging in deep discussions. Shoto might even introduce you to some activities he enjoys, like training (though he may tone it down for you), while you could get him to enjoy more artsy things like singing or attending a school play. You’d also both enjoy moments of solitude, making sure you’re each taking care of your mental health.

Looks and Vibes:

Shoto’s cool, collected exterior matches your cutesy yet thoughtful aesthetic, though you two would stand out in different ways. He has a calm demeanor, with his half-red, half-white hair and piercing eyes, which would contrast nicely with your curly brown hair and softer style. You’d both have an understated kind of charm, neither of you needing to be loud to be noticed.

Final Thoughts:

Todoroki would deeply respect your creative side and emotional depth. He would be an emotionally stable and understanding partner who’d appreciate your intelligence, kindness, and quirky interests. Like Kageyama, he’s a bit reserved at first, but with time, he’d open up and be a rock-solid support for you.

[thekenikaridevblog]

VVV ramble under the cut! VVV

So, one thing i've recently noticed that sets Kenikari apart from other visual novels in itch.io (aside from yttd lol) is its backgrounds

It's not the fact that the backgrounds are pixelated, or that you can click on them, but the fact that they are drawn at all. I've seen plenty of VNs where the backgrounds are stock images with filters on them or those royalty-free drawn backgrounds you've seen in gacha life videos

you know the ones

(btw, no shade to people who don't add backgrounds to their VNs! i should know, drawing these bad boys is hard, and i understand that for stuff like game jams or school projects you don't exactly have a lot of time to make a bunch of them with good quality)

(another similar thing is when people use the default rpgmaker tilesets to fill in the word. and like i said, no shade to those people either! there have been incredible games used with the default graphics, like the original mad father)

and i thought, "why do default backgrounds and default tilesets bother me so much? why was i so headstrong that i wanted to make my own tilesets, even though i could've easily found something of much higher quality that would've taken me much less effort?"

and then i realised. Visual identity.

it is far more easier for a game to stick to you if it has visuals/music that you can't find anywhere else. can you imagine if undertale used royalty-free songs and sound effects? can you imagine if yttd used photos as its backgrounds? they wouldn't stand out as much, because those projects have lost a facet of themselves that could've been used to make them even more unique

not only that, but there is something else that happens specifically when you use a default background, and that is a loss of immersion

it is harder for me to believe that i am in a real environment that is lived-in by these certain characters if there is nothing special about the place that makes it seem like the characters had an impact on it

a good example of this is Danganronpa: Despair Time

you see this dent on the wall? that's there because one of the characters tripped and fell face-first into it

not only is this hilariously stupid, but it also helps the locations the characters are in to feel alive, that you yourself could go there and interact with the world.

It doesn't have to be property damage, but there are so many small things you can add to your backgrounds to make them feel special: the room of the protagonist has a poster of a band they like, there is a photo in the living room of a family, the sofa has cardboard on the sides because the dog chews on it, there is a tree in the forest with an old carving of the initials of your friends' parents. all of these are tiny silly things that makes the place feel like it truly exists, like it couldn't be replaced by a stock photo

now, let's actually talk about Kenikari. What does my game bring to the table in terms of backgrounds?

I'm gonna be honest, they're nothing actually visually spectacular about them. they're pretty average, sometimes the perspective is a little wonky, or the palettes could be better, or the shading is lackluster, but they're my imperfect backgrounds, and there's no other game out there who has them, so i love them

but what about YTTD? This game was originally meant to be a fangame of that, what do these backgrounds have that YTTD doesn't?

I'm gonna be honest, i heavily copied the general vibe of the layout of chapter 2 for the main hub. and still, these are wildly different! not only in palette, angle, and composition, but there is also something that i have neglected to point out

(ignore the Gin) for one, the backgrounds don't take up the entire screen, so they can be as busy as they want without fear of blocking text or making it difficult to read. (trust me, this was an issue i've had to learn to work around). but also, there is a move button.

the reason why this is such a big deal is that, if you want to go from place to place, you have to click the button, then click on one of the options the game gives you.

Kenikari doesn't have that

the way you move around in the game? you click on the door you want to go through, then the game takes you there. if you want to go back to a place whose entrance isn't shown, you click on the lowest part of the screen, as if you were going to a door that's behind you

it might not seem like much. YTTD has that too, there are a bunch of places where you can click on a door or doorway and it takes you to the next room, but that is not how the game was primarily designed to traverse through

let's bring back the main hub

there are 6 doors/passageways to go through. There is a kitchen, a storage room, a gym, a bedroom, a garden, and the trial grounds, where someone will die

I want you to guess which door leads to which place

this is an extra layer of room design i've had to add to the environments. not only do you have to have every entrance visible, but it also has to be easy for the player to guess which door leads where

"now," i hear you ask, "why would you do that? you literally said that having black space under the background makes it easier for the textboxes to read. you also have to make less background, and you don't have to spend time making every entrance visually unique, wouldn't this be nothing but beneficial?"

and, when it comes to game making, the answer yes! it would take me far less time

but

there is one benefit to making the backgrounds like this

it makes the world feel more connected

let's use yttd again

there's a dining room, a bar, a darts-trowing room, and a bunch of tiny rooms with cushions for the players to drop in once they've passed their first trial. i want you to guess which exit leads where

surprise: there is no possible way for the player to know. i don't think even nankidai himself knows

when you click the 'move' button, three options pop up, and you just click on them and go to the next screen. this makes everything feel so off. in the second chapter you literally keep on getting more and more options for the same room as the story progresses even though there is no visual indicator that more options have been opened up

that's one of my main gripes with games that use this move button function. for open areas like a city it's fine. it'd be weird to have all points of interest in a single background image in a single street, and it'd be awkward to go through may street shots so finally get to where you want to go, but in enclosed spaces, it feels off. where does this door lead to? why can you go to five places even though there are only three doors? why does the architecture do a complete 180 in the next room even though this is the same building, with no aesthetic transition?

i didn't want my world to feel disconnected, and that i could just bullshit a new place to go to if i felt like it, so that's why i'm doing it like this

there is also another facet about my backgrounds that it could be interesting to talk about, but i'd say this post is getting far too long already, so if u want me to talk about it, please tell me!

[dandelion-wings]

Aether and Lumine? Paimon too.

Thank you for the ask! :> I am going to split this not on Aether/Lumine lines but on Traveler/Abyss Prince(ss) lines, because, well, canon did set it up that way, and while if absolutely pushed, Lumine is my Traveler, I mostly prefer to be agnostic in my meta and fic about who is who.

TRAVELER

How I feel about this character

Ah, yes, Traveler von Protagonist Disease.

The thing that complicates the Traveler for me is that I absolutely loathe the kind of semi-self-insert-but-semi-independent-character protagonist that seems to be getting popular in video games these days. Byleth in FE3H is another good example. I wish they didn't exist! I wish that it was either a full self-insert, character-builder and all, or that they gave us a protagonist with a personality in the style of Tales Of and Final Fantasy games in the first place. I really enjoy roleplaying a character as I play a video game, whether given to me as a fully-realized character or as one I made up myself, and this in-between kind of robs me of that because I can't go full "this OC of mine believes this" and I also can't try for accuracy to the character I'm presented on-screen.

That said, they have been getting better about this with the Traveler over the last few nations, and I like the increasing sense of actual, independent personality that we've gotten for them! Obviously a protagonist of this kind of game, where all the others have to like the player character to make the gacha appealing, is going to want to help others, so I actually particularly like the occasional thread we get where they're like "no, I don't actually care half as much for Teyvat as I do for my sibling, I don't not care but my main mission is still to get to them" because it's very refreshing to me.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Childe with the Lumine version, as two people who can and will absolutely fuck each other up in a play-battle, post-fight sex optional but fun. (Also I once read a Childe/Lumine AU fic where Childe was attempting to pursue The Greatest Game with Lumine and she turned the tables and pinned him down with knives through his hands, and it was incredibly hot.) Ayaka, as a one-sided crush on Ayaka's part. That's... really about it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Paimon! My bestest and beloved friend. :>

My unpopular opinion about this character

With a handful of exceptions, I... do not particularly enjoy Traveler-centered fic/art/meta. I don't know how unpopular that is but it's all I've got.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I know why Hoyo can't do this with their gacha game full of waifus and husbandos, but I wish we had at least one major/playable character who just did not get along with them. All their voicelines are along the lines of "you think I'm fucking telling you that?" I just want to see how it would play out.

THE ABYSS PRINCE(SS)

How I feel about this character

Honestly much more fascinating to me, in part because they've been a lot more allowed to have some kind of personality from the beginning! I want to know all about what's happened to them, why they hold the positions they do, why they give their twin so few crumbs, etc.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I mean. Dain. XD

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Aside from their twin, also Dain! Love their history.

My unpopular opinion about this character

This sort of overlaps with the second, but while I don't know how plausible or how unpopular it is, the mirror in the Caribert quest where the Traveler saw them in it combined with some minor previous stuff to unlock a Theory for me that the Traveler and the Abyss Prince(ss) aren't twins, but a single person with, for the Traveler, altered memories, whom the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles broke apart in order to nerf their power and/or for other reasons related to the whole "Fourth Descender broken up for parts" thing. Fascinating to me.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Related to the above: Hoyo, please give me this. For all the game's deliberate sibling analogies and their pleasing narrative resonance, this theory honestly has way more appeal to me overall.

PAIMON

How I feel about this character

My buddy! My bestest friend! :> I get mad when people are mean to her (in-game or people who choose those options in play). I get sad when she talks about being scared without us (@chrysoula has a theory that this is all foreshadowing a quest/arc where she's taken away and I think this is reasonably likely but I'm also dreading it). I refuse to believe the theories that she's evil, but I do love the theories that she's a reduced/de-powered version of Something/Someone in Teyvat's lore, that would be very fun. I want to give her so many hugs.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I do not. XD

My non-romantic OTP for this character

The Traveler, of course! :> I also love her rivalry with Itto. I love when characters treat her as a separate person from the Traveler and have their own relationships with her.

My unpopular opinion about this character

From what I've seen in the fandom... that I like her at all? XD;;

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Hoyo stop giving us options to be mean to her. She doesn't deserve it. >:( Appreciating and loving Paimon hours ONLY.

[paintedscales]

PRUDENCE– How far ahead do they plan? Are they able to strategize future potential factors? Do they go out of their way to ask for clarification, or simply assume they know what they’re doing?

I've returned to looking at my inbox and answering things that have just been...sitting there.

Hi, Cloud! Thank you for the ask, and thanks for the patience (both for how late this ask has been answered, and the art trade). I do appreciate it all. ; w ; / ♥ I hope you've also been well and not too terribly bogged down by work on your end, too, though!

Positive Psychology OC Ask Meme

Planning ahead has become a strength of Nomin's after her development with the tribe of Jhungid. It is a positive result of honing her ability to be patient and using that patience to plan ahead and bide her time in preparing for everything that led to her eventual freedom of not just herself, but others as well.

Unfortunately, though, it is all obviously situational, as it is for people that don't reside in fictional stories, I would argue. I mean, how can you plan for something that happens spontaneously? Spontaneity is certainly an obstacle that shows up quite a bit in Nomin's life after the ball really gets rolling on her being the Warrior of Light. Like...how do you plan for Mister Crystal Exarch Playing Gacha Impact™, whisking you and your friends away from the Source onto the First, you know?

Nomin's not necessarily a proud person, either, when it comes to things she knows and things she could still stand to learn. She's actually pretty humble in that regard. So asking for clarification and things to help her understand a situation is probably one of her stronger points...

As long as she's interested.

She's not interested in politics and political movements, for example. She doesn't have the patience for political movements or even politically motivated diplomacy a lot of the time. So she opts out of participating in the planning in those discussion topics.

If she has the downtime to be able to plan for battle, however, she will discuss battle plans and maneuvering the field. She's had to do things like that in the past, and she feels confident enough in being able to plan for combat. That's about as involved as she gets when it comes to political figureheads coming together to speak.

Though, certain plans she can keep close to her chest and act on them in time. Like planning to do something nice for others. That's an easier one that Nomin can do. Listening and paying attention to what people enjoy or what they like is another strength of Nomin's, and it allows her to plan to give people something nice that she knows they'll appreciate if she likes them.

[voxasks]

🫐idk how to do this so i'm just gonna yap i have no clue what my personality type is but one of my favorite characters that i mildly related to was an INTJ 4w5 so i just took that and ran with it. uhh idk if i'm an introvert or extrovert it just depends on my mental state ig. i've been kinda tweekin recently so i'm loud in public like this dude one time caught me saying some of the most devious ahh shii known to man so i pointed at some random dude and blamed bro for saying it and then i sang the my little pony theme song but like 4 octaves higher. my friends hate me i also have no morals whatsoever so i'm cooked. the only reason why i'm not some bonkers dude on a documentary is because i'm a pathetic loser who doesn't actually go through with anything, i just lose interest or go 'nah this is way too much work' i'm a dude and 4'10" (idk lowkey my fault for not taking nutrition supplements when my doctor told me to) and idk what i like because i just have a hyperfixation and then i go batshit over it for several months (my longest hyperfixation was on a character for a year and i spent like 5k on merch of that character and now i highkey hate waking up to see the character's face literally everywhere) i dislike greasy foods with a burning passion, animals of all types (including insects) but actually i highkey used to like sharks but then they got popular online and agreeing with people on tiktok brings me physical pain. oh yeah i also dislike a lot of people online if they disagree with my opinion but depends on my mood because if i'm feeling mildly upset then i spam them with replies and tell them i love them and for them to have a good day but in the most toxic positive way possible and if i'm having a happy day then i do the same thing but i also slander everything i know about them for hobbies i love getting attention, positive or negative like honestly it's so fun. i go on social media a lot i'm pretty much just terminally online except i don't keep up w/ gossip majority of the time because i have no clue who celebrities are. oh yeah i love getting concern i never follow their advice or whatever all i do is make a joke about how pathetic my existence is and they rather don't care or they show concern and either way i get pissed so maybe i should stop with that lmao tbh whenever i read through the things i write i literally sound like those 'quirky >w<' 2020 gacha life ocs i feel like everyone with an ounce of humanity would realize i'm straight up embarrassing anyways ily have a good day!! take care of yourself :3333

“yeah  i'm  gonna  be  real  fucking  honest  with  you  kid—halfway  through  your  life  story  i  genuinely  forgot  i  was  looking  through  my  inbox  and  thought  i  was  reading  an  article  on  a  serial  killer.  you  say  you  don't  have  morals  but  then  you  draw  the  line  at  greasy  foods  and  tiktok?  i  mean  alright  sure  but  then  you  go  on  to  bully  other  people  on  the  internet  over  a  bad  mood?  i'd  say  get  a  life  but  i'm  pretty  sure  if  you  tried  you  would  have  dropped  yourself  on  the  head  like  you  were  as  a  kid.  you  sound  like  someone  who  has  over  ten  restraining  orders  filed  against  them  and  they  still  have  no  clue  as  to  why.  well  fuck  that's  ten  minutes  of  my  time  i'm  never  taking  back—you  have  me  mourning  over  lost  time  when  i'm  a demon  in  literal  fucking  hell,  congrats.  let  me  guess,  you'll  probably  celebrate  by  being   a  keyboard  warrior  in  the  comments  of  this  post,  like  if  junko  enoshima  was  online.  yeah,  that's  the  energy  this  is  giving.” 

based off of the 200 follower event.

“🫐 — tell vox about yourself and he’ll give you his inner thoughts about you.”

[rev-feaw]

First Impression of Reverse: 1999 from a Long Time Gacha Games Player

Hello! Today I'll tell you my first impression about a new gacha game that just release it's global version not too long ago, "Reverse:1999". I preregistered this game and mind you, I actually had zero intention to add more gacha games into my sleeves especially the turn-based ones, but the art... The ART man!! It caught my attention soo let's dig in!

Before we start I'd like the readers (you) to know that I've been playing gacha games daily for a considered long time, since 2017 and still going on today. Although not a lot of them so here are some that I've played for over 3 months (pretty much understand the overall system):

Fate/Grand Order, Arknights, Genshin Impact, Honkai/Star Rail

Bold are my main daily games. And then here are some that I've tried, well at least I know their UI & prologue lol:

SAO MD (discontinued), Food Fantasy, Granblue Fantasy, Punishing/Gray Raven, Tower of Fantasy

I might bring up some titles to compare and most likely from between the "over 3 months" ones. Then, let's start!

What's the big deal of "gacha game" and why I play them?

I like to draw and gacha games have one of the best community for art clout. No this is serious, and one of my top reason of why I'm playing this borderline gambling type of game.

Gacha games are living from their banner rotation. The second ones are new characters and story reveal that updated regularly... Don't you think these are real good timings for posting?? They also got those art gods that somehow helped the promotion and attract the peasants (me included) to get to know the story and make fanarts too. I'm not kidding. This is why I've been here since I started digital art. Lol.

But every actions need consequences. Gacha games are very high maintenance to stay relevant, from the player's side. You missing one update, you'll feel like an old man. This is the most FOMO (fear of missing out) type of game. The main sacrifice is TIME. So many things need to tend in one game, and if you play multiple it means you have to spare some hours in a day. If you can't, get ready to lose something. Why I don't say money? Because I'm pretty much f2p, I never really spent my money for gacha. But time, time bro. Time also money! This is also why I write this post.

The Premise of Reverse: 1999

The early story kind of reminds me to Persona 3 where there are some special times (Dark Hours in P3) where an ordinary human can't survive and there are some special creatures than survived.

In R:1999 the special time is called "storm" which will turn back time further from your original time. For example, MC is from 1999 but she's sent to 1920s thanks to the storm. So they made a foundation or something to get back to the original time. Well in a sense this is kinda similar to FGO (Fate/Grand Order)'s Chaldea, maybe that's why I'm so driven to try this game lol. The name of those "special creatures" are arcanists.

Actually I don't really understand everything yet, but at least that's the glimpse I got. Also they tried to fix the history or something whenever they're getting sent back so, basically a fancier FGO right?? I have no problem though.

Setting

The game's mainly set in the west in 20th century. I think this is the main perks of the game, because the entire design and aesthetic revolves around this so it can differ greatly from most gacha games that either have fantasy RPG setting or urban post/apocalyptic ones. Personally I really like this.

The Main Character

The MC is such a breath of fresh air!! It's a woman, and people called her "Vertin". So no, not your typical self-insert anime degenerate persona like most gacha games. Here is a very beautiful EP of her:

The Characters

The characters are pretty unique imo, you can play as inanimate object (visually) like apple and satellites. The arcanists are the playable (and summonable) characters. So expect to see various 20th century-themed designs.

Also the designs are dope!! They're unlike most gacha games' characters designs where they wore something weird that will awaken your darkest corner of brain but here they're just dressed NORMALLY LIKE A NORMAL FANCY PERSON I'm so glad. Normal doesn't mean boring, this is a compliment. Even the "fanserviced" ones are still pretty tasteful than just put random windows everywhere.

Summoning

This game has a carry-over pity on 70th roll, soft pity started like in the 60th. They use the same gacha currency on both permanent and limited banners. There's 50/50 like in Mihoyo games. You need 180 clear drops (?) to turn them into one rabbit statue (?) for a summon. I think this one is very similar with Arknights. Personally in my opinion this is very generous and reasonable, but I'm a FGO player so yeah my "generous" standard may differ greatly with a lot of people lol.

Oh you also can get guaranteed *6 from beginner's summoning banner.

(Early) Gameplay & Progression

The gameplay is like FGO with extra steps. Or FGO with fewer steps... Anyway, it's a card game. Each character has cards you can choose per turn. Once the "stars" are filled you can unleash the ultimate. Honestly? A little boring lol, but things may change once I get out early-game phase. People said this is very similar to 7 Deadly Sins game but I never get close to the IP so idk.

You can set which enemy to hit per card unlike FGO where it's done per turn. Personally I think this is neat. Although among the games I've tried I think Honkai/Star Rail still superior for turn-based system since they can control the speed and whatsoever. However this kind of "fixed" system also nice since you don't need to farm artifacts/relics to be playable.

The early stages are so easy. Well, most games have very easy early stages though, unless a certain popular furry tower defense game (*cough* Arknights *cough*).

For character progression pretty much just level up, no need for artifacts/relics like Mihoyo games so it's fast and easy.

You can set a "replay" for autofarming once you get 2 stars achievement on the node. You can also choose the "amount" of drop rate for just one battle. This is very neat!

Dailies, Weeklies, etc

R:1999 has similar progression with Arknights and Mihoyo games with this one. The daily and weekly tasks literally like Arknight's.

Tbh their dailies are quite a hassle lol, you need at least spend 5-15 minutes to clear all.

And their "battlepass", looks like Genshin's battlepass or HSR's Nameless Honor

Gotta admit between ALL the games I've played, nothing beats the simple daily of LOGIN in FGO (in exchange with disastrous gacha and tremendous farming🙏).

UI & Visual

Maybe I should've put this a little earlier lol.

The UI is AMAZING!! One of the best. Really (once again) reminds me of Arknights, since I like their UI too, and even better I think especially their retro aesthetic.

The visual is GORGEOUS. The game is presented in common gacha game storytelling method: visual novel, however they tried to incorporate like L2D animation in the STORY'S VISUAL.

The characters have different art styles, I think done by different artists like most gacha games (the only one who didn't do this are Mihoyo games, please explain). And the sprites are full body non-chibi 2d animations! This one's like FGO, although still like 10% chibified so in terms of sprite style, FGO still has the crown.

Music & other sounds

Music is BANGER!

I rate it 4.5/5. Maybe the 2nd music of gacha games that I like after Genshin. It doesn't sound like basic visual novel ost (looking at you FGO and HSR) in most part, tho since this is basically *still* visual novel, so in some part still sounds pretty stale after you heard it so many times.

The voice over is dope! They used various accents, so it's pretty interesting!

Housing/Dorm

The name of housing/dorm in R:1999 is "Wilderness", something like islands. This is once again reminds me to Arknight's "Base" but outdoor.

End game

Honestly I haven't found the endgame content for this one, if you're looking for challenges maybe games like Arknights and HSR still better choice.

Conclusion

Based on every gacha games I've played, I can say progression, UI, and summoning from Reverse:1999 is similar to Arknights, but turn-based and A LOT easier at the start. If you've played Arknights before I think understanding the system will like walk in the park.

For the story it's somewhat like FGO, of course not the same, but still both are "correcting the history and go back to our time" kind of story.

The game doesn't ask much, so I think if you're a gacha game player and barely have any time for more games, this one's still enjoyable with very minimal investment. Suitable as your 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th gacha games. Especially when you're just want to vibe with the art and setting like me.

If you're new in gacha game, there's no problem with trying out this, but I think the game is made with thought that the target market are people that familiar with gacha games. Still, enjoy your time!

Tl;dr if you still want to play your main games daily while join the Reverse:1999 bandwagon, it's totally possible without sacrificing much of your time.

[jamesfalt]

the kabru post and then also that farcille post has me thinking about how people do take these gay ships and just completely mischaracterize them for the sake of having ship content. and i could make a whole long ass post or even video essay on this all but i'm gonna try and keep it short here

i feel like ship culture has gotten like....extremely tropey lately? like you have your ships and they HAVE to behave in certain ways or else you can't enjoy content of them. this is like super vague but i've noticed this in like ao3 fics of a lot of ships i'm into where they'll take the ship and just completely mischaracterize one or both of the characters for the sake of the ship

and in some cases i'm like it's bc the fandom is a bit younger, for example naegami is a ship i can't really read fics for bc all the fics are out of character and tropey. they erase how each character actually feels without giving any explanation as to why they would be like that. but i know that the fandom is by default young teenagers bc i was a young teenager when i was really into it.

and a common thread that i see in these types of ships characterizations is taking characters who aren't "soft" characters and making them soft. with naegami it's taking togami, a cynical bougie asshole who although does soften a bit by the end of the first game and is clearly friends and cares for his friends by dr3, and turning him into a guy who's only care in the world is naegi and he loves naegi soooo much and it makes him weak when we know how he interacts with naegi and it's not that.

kabru gets this exact treatment. where the haphazard feelings he has towards laios throughout THE WHOLE series get quickly thrown away to be the guy who is totally on laios's side all the time bc he loves him sooo much

laios isn't much different in this regard in the handful of fics i've read either where a lot of his tenacity and straightforwardness have been whittled down bc "oh he doesn't understand social cues he doesn't know what to do :(" which is so baffling i literally will close the fic the minute i see him portrayed like this.

i'm gonna go through the farcille ao3 tag next it's just taking me a bit to get through the labru one but from what i've seen on just tumblr and twitter alone it's clear to me that they're taking marcille and making her super soft and one track minded when she has other traits that kind of overwrite that? they forget that she joined laios not just bc she wanted to save falin, but bc she knew he wouldn't make it far without someone who could heal him. she's sharp and quick to jump to conclusions

where was i going with this. it's been a hot minute since i interacted with a fandom that's not gacha based (last time was beastars but that fandom wasn't too bad honestly) and so i just see the way a lot of people take characters and i'm just so baffled bc i'm like we have all the content we need why are you insisting they're not that, this isn't a gacha game where we're waiting several months for their story to progress to get a little more info on how they act. we KNOW how they act. you don't need to make up personality traits for these characters if you just read them.

[northwest-cryptid]

Local amnesiac clockman in dystopian city gets hired/abducted by the 12 complete messes based on literature, the lamest badass in the setting and his funny amnesiac daughter. Gets told to give therapy to said messes by looking for branches in ruined scp facilities while occasionally incurring on the wrath of capitalism and the little prince for some reason.

Said total messes are:

Straight up the korean poet Yi Sang because his most known poem had a character named "I"

Autism filled woman who is technically the actual boss of everyone

Woman don quixote

Fucked up japanese artist except her art is violence

Autistic french man with gap moe

Sheltered chinese man with the most fucked up family ever

A brit with a bat named revenge

Fish bisexual obsessed with murdering a metaphorical whale

Mommy Russian with only food and no hindsight in her head

Closeted young man with a fuckload of trauma involving ableist cultists

Straight up fucking Odysseus but in woman

And our ptsd riddled cockroach: Greg

See on one hand I genuinely appreciate the attempt here.

On the other hand this is extremely fandomized and I can't really learn anything from it as a result, especially considering that this covered stuff I already sorta know from just having played through the first major part of the game before having issues with it but more specifically from the fact that it's on the website for the game.

I need to reiterate my first bit here, I genuinely appreciate the attempt and I do not seek to belittle or insult the sender or anyone in question for attempting to enlighten me on the game but hear me out if you will...

All the information provided can be obtained from the website for the game or the first 10 minutes of the game; however it is only partially factual.

I am interested in Limbus Company, the game; not "Limbus Company The Abridged Version As Seen by the Fandom." When people go on and on about character analysis and plot depth and why it's so cool and interesting and deep and fun I want to jump in and engage with them on the narrative and such, but I can't because I'm not: A. Financially well off to Gacha for shit. B. Good enough at the game to get very far. And as a website that talks a lot about accessibility in games I feel like if anyone is going to shoot me down with a "git gud" it'd be kinda dumb, like sir/ma'am/individual of non-specific gender identity; you are on the "games should let you experience the story even if you're bad" website, please sit down.

I was honestly kind of hopeful that I would get some serious answers; and while some people have given me more serious answers than others; a lot of what I get is either specifically the start of the game which ignores/overlooks/doesn't mention the folks Dante is having an encounter with at the start, the fact they can use their clock head powers to turn back time and revive the sinners; or even the fact that they have no idea why any of it can happen. Like no one has even mentioned the whole star thing? I think it was a star? Something like that, anyways that thing was pretty cool and no one talks about it.

What I do often hear is how cooky and ku-ray-zee the main cast of silly little guys is; which I feel massively takes away from who they actually are.

"And our ptsd riddled cockroach: Greg" Alright since I've actually played through the first bit of the game so I know just enough about Gregor's story, why do we summarize a man who literally was a child experiment; who was betrayed by the only parental figure he knew; who was made to kill and murder without understanding of it literally like drugged or some shit to think he was just cutting apples; and who's body literally mutates into a cockroach down to just "lol he's a silly little guy with ptsd" ptsd from what exactly? Oh you mean the fucking Smoke Wars? One of the if not the biggest event in the PM Universe?

Like okay I understand I said "hey maybe don't send me entire documentary style paragraphs of text because my ADHD brain will not let me read them" and that's true, but I also really don't vibe with this whole concept of "this person doesn't know the characters at all so I'm going to call one bisexual, I'm going to call one a mommy, I'm going to call one a ptsd riddled cockroach named greg lol" Like I don't know how much of this is fandom and how much of this is real anymore. I know that some characters in PM's universe ARE LGBT so the idea of one of the Sinners maybe being Bisexual isn't too far fetched, but is that completely fandom interpretation or is it real? I sure as hell don't know when characters like Gregor who have deeper meaningful stories that tie into the world as a whole are boiled down to a one line joke about, I guess his name being Greg?

Like again I have nothing against the person who sent this or anything, I'm sure you meant well and I'm glad you're excited enough about the game that you reached out to me; that's all great and such, but I can't help but need to point out that you're talking to someone who knows almost nothing, but not nothing; about this game

and you're choosing to represent it in such a way that might be factual or might be fandomized and I can't tell the difference when the things I know are fandomized are present or when it mostly consists of jokes.

"Local amnesiac clockman in dystopian city gets hired/abducted by the 12 complete messes based on literature, the lamest badass in the setting and his funny amnesiac daughter."

Kind of not really. Like I'm not even going to get into the fact that technically speaking Dante is a Clock Person not necessarily confirmed Clock Man. I AM however going to get into the fact that they come to Dante's rescue(?) during what is essentially an execution; Dante is going to die and these 12 sinners jump in to fight for them for seemingly some reason we don't get to know yet. Hired is a much better word than abducted in this sense. Don't even get me started on "the lamest badass" because like, that entirely ignores the fact you're talking about who I can only assume is Vergilius AKA The Red Gaze, which is sorta huge considering what we've seen of Color Fixers, and you know; the entirety of the Comic/Light Novel Leviathan released prior to the game. What would a color fixer be doing with the sinners? What is his connection with Dante? Even having read Leviathan these sorts of questions are interesting and they create interest as someone who wants to question and explore the setting and it's themes.

AND I'M SORRY BUT "HIS DAUGHTER"??? Has that been confirmed because I highly doubt that unless there's some dialogue somewhere in the game that shows he adopted her or something, I mean yea he clearly cares about the orphans, but like I don't recall him ever adopting her and if he did I can't tell if you're telling me a fact or a fandom here because of everything else you've stated.

Are you beginning to see the problem here?

I literally have to wave off everything you just told me as no more than "lol silly jokes man lol" and I don't mean to be some asshole about it either but this isn't really going to help anyone get into a game or a story or anything because I don't really KNOW anything about it.

Again I'm not mad, I'm not trying to be rude; I've got nothing against Alex or anything! I appreciate someone taking the time out of their day to send me this but it ultimately doesn't tell me anything I'm just as much in the dark as I was.

This is specifically why it's so hard for me to interact with a lot of larger communities, a lot of the information I want is factual, from the source material; but I'm perhaps not skilled enough at the games to obtain it myself, so I turn to the community for information since people tend to enjoy talking about the things they like, and instead of getting actual information I get in-jokes I don't yet have context for, and fandomization that isn't actually true to the source material.

I understand I may come off a little harsh here, so for that I do apologize if I've come across rude. That being said, please do try to refrain from sending people who know next to nothing about your interests, a ton of fandomized in-jokes they won't understand, it feeds into the misinformation loop. Can you imagine if I went around telling everyone that Charon was Vergil's daughter when in reality he treats her as "something of a daughter" according to the publicly editable and horrible "fandom wiki" which is the only place that I could find information about it.

This isn't the same thing as say a biological daughter, or even an adoptive one. Which could be an interesting plot dynamic. I mean do you guys remember what happened last time a Color Fixer had a kid? Or rather I should say, last time a Color Fixer WAS GOING to have a kid? That was kind of a big deal. It's not really a shocker to learn that the guy who really likes orphans would be nice to the child.

anyways sorry for the lengthy explanation of "this isn't really what I'm looking for" but I've literally spoke on this whole "fandomization of characters bothers me a lot" topic before several times for literally this exact reason.

[linkspooky]

Why does every potentially cool character in JJK die before actually showing us why they’re cool?

We just don't know anon.

There's an interesting conversation to be had here on the common trend for Shonen Manga to have 1) huge cast sizes, and 2) refuse to develop the existing characters and either kill off the old ones or just constantly throw new characters in.

Character death is common in Jujutsu Kaisen there's no denying that, the tone of the manga is essentially set with Junpei Yoshino dying rather than getting saved. There are also deaths that are kidney-punches but otherwise good story beats, no one thinks Kokichi Muta's death is pointless, but a lot of people are praying Nobara's not dead because her sudden death makes her entire character feel superfluous and unimportant.

I don’t think the problem is even the sheer number of characters. Every story has major characters and minor characters, characters that are probably not going to get development even if they have a good design or a quirky personality. There are stories that have huge casts of characters that you can’t realistically give every character development and yet you don’t feel like the characters we do choose to focus on are underdeveloped. Game of Thrones and Hunter x Hunter have tons and tons and tons of characters, and yet people don’t express disatisfaction with those casts of characters or think there are too many. 

The problem is really just development and the way characters are used by the story. Does the story serve the characters, or do the characters serve the story? A question with no clear answer, and yet the interplay between those two extremes is what makes a story. You can like a story mainly for it’s characters, but a story can’t be good with just characters You take the characters outside the story that’s not a story, that’s just gacha. I mean you can do it. You can just be like “I don’t really like JJK, but I really like Megumi” and be a Megumi fan there’s nothing wrong with that. However, the reason you like Megumi isn’t just because of his personality, he’s also a character with a character development arc that is engaging. Well I don’t know maybe you just think Gojo is hot, no judgement there. 

Ensemble casts aren’t really a new thing in stories. There are like a bajillion x-men, and yet people get deeply invested in individual x-men even if they are more minor characters who aren’t wolverine or storm or Jean Grey. I think the key is really just development, which is your complaint here anon, that all of these characters are killed not because of an arc, but before Gege has even really told us anything about them. 

Like, take Tsukumo Yuki for example. I don’t like the fact that she died. However, it’s also surprising to me that people are upset about her character death. Besides the context that she is a female character that is killed off before she can have any real screentime. But like, I don’t really think people were given enough time or information to develop an emotional attachment for Tsukumo Yuki besides like, the potential she represented as both a scientist and the only female special class. 

This is the part of the conversation where stories, especially shonen jump stories are like a commodity sold to us. Characters are very marketable. I think a lot of shonen jump stories nowadays are written, not to have characters developing onscreen, but to sell the idea of likable characters that will develop eventually. In a good story every time a character is onscreen they should be moving something forward, you should be learning something new either about the plot, or themselves. Kokichi Muta really only has two scenes, but there is development between his first and second one and a shocking reveal that changes what we know about the character. 

I feel like because of the compettitive industry of Shonen Manga, and Shonen Manga really only are secure in their position in the magazine if they win a weekly popularity contest, that oftentimes the priority is not to make characters that will develop and change and grow, but rather to make characters that are likable and eyecatching. Authors sell us on the promise of growth, that we will eventually get from point A to point B, and yet we are hooked reading on a week to week basis where there is very little development in that direction, and then it’s put off for so long that when the characters finally do have to move it seems cheap and easy. Character stagnation is a thing, but it’s genuinely weird how much shonen manga these days have casts that are like “Well, everyone’s stagnant because that’s the point, growing up or changing is hard.”    I think stories are more satisfying when they write that change onscreen rather than put it off to some theoretical point in the future, but I guess that’s how they hook ya. 

People joke about how comic book characters are stagnant forever, but comic book characters do go through gradual arcs and changes over time, 90s batman is different from 2000s batman, who is different from modern batman. They have to keep some things generally the same for marketing reasons yes, but the appeal of superhero comics is we will watch these characters struggle, lose at first, and then eventually win and learn something. There’s a lot of stagnation in Shonen manga, long stretches of time where it seems like things are happening week to week and yet nothing’s really happened because nothing has changed. 

Which is essentially the problem with the deaths of characters like Tsukumo Yuki. She just didn’t get to do anything. The story make a big fuss and to do about how she’s some mysterious character, but like for all of her screentime what ultimately did she do, besides give some exposition and die in a fight? 

Show don’t tell is the rule of stories, and if you want us to get invested in the characters you have to SHOW US about how cool they are. 

[danggirlronpa]

3, 4, 7, 14, 15, 21, 46, and 47? Or any combination thereof! I know that's. a lot in one ask. ><;;;;;;

I've done a couple of these already, so I'll skip those! (And I didn't do 46 and 47 just because my back is starting to hurt from sitting up. I'll try to remember to pull this post up again in the morning to type it out!)

3. Did you have a character you hated at first, and then fell in love with? Who and why?

Toko, for sure. Which is intentional - they specifically set her on a much better arc in Ultra Despair Girls, when she went from "metaphorical manifestation of teen self loathing manifesting as misguided romance" to "a main character with an entire arc that has to bounce off other characters in a manner which is sympathetic." Which retroactively changes a lot of her character in THH, too! I think both the implied off-screen character arc and the on-screen character arc we actually see are exceptional, and a great example of how to give depth to a previously flat character, writing-wise.

4. Which character can you absolutely not stand?

BYAKUYA. AND. KOREKIYO. I loathe them. I didn't use to care about Korekiyo either way, but the more people talk about him in certain ways and specifically talk at me in certain ways, the less and less I've liked him. It's grown into a burning hatred. Sorry y'all. They suck.

14. What is your NOTP?

Byakuya//Toko for sure, though Syo//Chihiro is also up there (sorry Syo//Chihiro shippers, the writers' transphobia did me in).

21. What do you think could be improved about Danganronpa?

The obvious thing is the colorism. But from a purely mechanical perspective: the minigames. The minigames in Danganronpa suck. They suck so bad. It's the game's main way of standing out from other Visual Novels. And it is so, so weak.

Part of this is just that I, As A Game Dev, don't like minigames - which, for our purposes, are a self-contained game with mechanics completely independent from the rest of the gameplay. Things like Salmon Fishing or Logic Dive - these don't connect at all to the core gameplay of Danganronpa (logic and deduction) except superficially.

And that sucks. It breaks immersion, and it feels like transparent for padding for time. It doesn't even have the dignity to be fun for the most part!! The move to imitation gambling in V3 to an outright gacha game in Summer Camp really exemplifies this. I know you were looking for a narrative answer here, but I truly believe that gameplay is Danganronpa's weakest point (including UDG, though to a lesser extent).