#also did i ever mention Akira has a motorcycle?

[laugtherhyena]

Treating her like a barbie doll to put different clothes on

[ghosts-writing-stuffs]

Hey all!! I managed to see the sonic 3 movie a day BEFORE it officially released (THATS RIGHT THE 19TH BABY!!!) and OH BOY WAS IT SOMETHING

IT WAS SO GOOD I WAS FUCKING INSANE THE ENTIRE TIME

I ALSO GOT A LIMITED EDITION POSTER??? READ IT AND WEEP BOYS

(and here is the promo cutout they had, I wish I could've taken it home 😭)

And lemme tell y'all, your fears did not come true!!! There were no fatphonic jokes (that I saw at least) and the gun uniforms were not as they seemed.

I only have one (1) bad thing to say about this movie, which I can't say here, spoilers.

Anyways, I liveblogged (what I could, my fingers could NOT type fast enough) my thoughts in a draft. One of my irls (you know who you are) requested to see my thoughts, so I figured I'd post them

Without further ado,

Sonic 3 spoilers below the cut

"You lost her when you were so young, but you didn't let that pain change you. You stayed the same, in here (points to his heart)"

GUYS IM IM IM!!!!!!!!!!

"we need team sonic" "who chose that name?"

Did they suddenly conscript these children?? Are they that pathetic??? ALSO WHY DIDNT MADDIE OR TOM PUT UP A FIGHT PLEASE GUYS

"talk about a low budget flight, no food or movies? We're outta here" THEY SAID THE THING THE THING THE THING THEY SAID IT

HES GOT A SICKASS ENERGY GUN????

HE DOES THE AKIRA SLIDE UP A SKYSCRAPER?

Also he,,, he has the LIVE AND LEARN THEME EVERYTIME HE DOES SOMETHING COOL

THE RESTAURANT IS CALLED "CHAO GARDEN"

THEY CALLED HIM THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM!!!!!

DUDE STONE ALSO HAS A SICK ASS MOTORCYCLE???? HIS INTRODUCTION IS HIM DODGING A MISSLE

A WHITE MAN DIED ON SCREEN????? Ohhh this is how they're gonna frame sonic

"please join me in the crab" STONE YOU ARE THE FUNNIEST MAN EVER

"the person I trust most in the world" STONEBOTNIK CONFRIMED????

Bro needs his hedgehog electric shock fix 💀💀

WAS MARIA ON EARTH???

Shadow: >:(

Maria: >:)

BLANKET FORT??? 😭😭😭😭

Gerald: *sees a grieving child* what if I manipulate him into being my weapon

THE MENTION OF KNUCKLES AND GHOSTS!! PUMPKIN HILL!!!

THEYRE SO GAY???? STONEBOTNIK WE ARE WINNING

Also he hasn't gotten another shirt this is fucking wonderful 😭😭

OH MY GOD HES BISEXUAL I DIDNT KNOW THAT

"where'd you go hedgehog, I wasn't done trauma dumping"

"LIKE TWO CHARACTERS IN A MOVIE BEING PLAYED BY THE SAME ACTOR" (looks at fourth wall)

I need someone to check if all the quiz questions are true, please

THEY BOTH NEED THEIR HEDGEHOG SHOCK FIX

Damb, not the kink shaming from eggman

"GOOD ONE HOT TOPIC" IM GOING TO SCREAM

YEAHH THE WRITING IN THE PRISON CELL

YEAHHH ECLIPSE CANNON TIME!!!

"holy crab"

"spacious and cretaceous"

"the crab flies :)"

OH YEAH RESOLVING THE DADDY ISSUES

NOO STONE NOT THE GAY LONGING :(((

"don't be bad parents—" "YEAHHH THEYRE GOOD PARENTS"

LASERS FROM SA2!!!! BTW GUYS THE PARENTS ARE IN GUN UNIFORMS BC THEYRE SNEAKING IN!!! THEYRE SPIES!!!!

Knuckles is guardian of the emerald alone 😭

REVENGE GUAC!!!!

Uh oh, Gerald isn't so nice? :(

JIM CARREY GOT MOVES

Break glass in case of emergency!!

NO WAIT TO SHOOT A CHILD WHAT THE FUCK GUN

OH SHIT DID THEY ACTUALLY KILL HIM???

THE REALISTIC FOUR PENETRATING NIPPLES

Stone 😭😭😭 STONEEE 😭😭😭😭

"I already lost you once I can't lose you again" STONE

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LIVE TOM PLEASE

SONIC NO

THE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Man :((( they didn't shoot her directly :(((

Uh ohhh robotnikkkk youu should've listened to stoneeee

HE WENT SUPER

NOT THE PARTHANON

NOT THE SUICIDAL HEDGEHOG

Just two besties,,,, chilling on the moon

"you always have a choice"

Mantis robotnik,,, kinda hot 😳

WHITE MAN DOWN 🥳🥳🎉🎉

HE PULLED OUT THE CHAOS SPEARS!!!

DO IT DO IT PISS ON THE MOON PLEASE

HE PISSED ON THE MOON

So sonic + shadow are fine without air but tails isn't???

HES TAKING OF THE INHIBITORS!!!

"I love the way you make it"

THE BEST WE'LL GET TO AN I LOVE YOU GUYS WE DID IT

OTHER WHITE MAN ALIVE 🥳🥳🎉🎉

[avoutput]

Final Fantasy VII Legacy || Memories of a Great Storm

Legacies take shape before you, around you, through you, and beyond you. As incredible as it might be to be the subject of a legacy, the true strength of a legacy is how it builds you up. When you are young and finding yourself, the building process is a ride, a rumbling beneath your feet, wet clouds in the sky above your head. When a legacy is forming, there are signs that you are still too young to see, but you can feel it. It beckons to you, wanting you to be a part of it. You want to stand at the shore of its coming alongside all the others who want to feel the waves at their feet. Like all storms, everything has to be just right. And like a tree falling in the woods, someone has to be there to witness it, to tell its tale, and in doing so, this tale becomes woven into you. Because it isn’t just the storm, the waves, the quaking that makes the legacy, it’s the people who survive that keep it alive. Final Fantasy VII was for me, this great storm.

The first time I played Final Fantasy VII was on the floor of my cousin’s room on Christmas day. Every tsunami starts as a ripple. I didn’t have a Playstation. In fact, despite reading multiple gaming magazines, I must have glazed past it, because I had never even heard of it. I was too blinded by the Nintendo 64 and its legacy. I went from a Nintendo baby to a Sega kid between console generations, and I missed out on a lot of the SNES until the end of its life cycle. I didn’t want to miss out again, so I put on blinders and put in a parental request for the N64. You can imagine my surprise when FF7’s opening cinematic played out on a tiny tube tv. The ripples became waves and the ocean began to move. When I started playing, I wasn’t even sure what was happening, who anyone was, and how there could have been 6 other games I had never played. My cousin was trying to explain the concept to me, but I couldn’t hear him. I just wanted more. But, it was Christmas day, and in my family, that meant family time. Work. Maybe a slightly unique aspect of my family, but Christmas presents were opened at night around the entire extended family. The middle-kids were responsible for passing out all of the gifts to every other member of the family, and this was a long and painful process, especially for an 11 year old. Once everyone was finished, the middle kids opened their gifts in front of everyone. And even though I hadn’t asked for it, all I could think of was how much I wanted one of those boxes to be a Playstation. Not only did I not have any luck with that, I also didn’t get longer than 30 minutes with the game. Instead, every moment was punctuated by familial obligation. I went home unhappy, unsatisfied, my mind never left Midgar. I took a step further from the shore, deeper into the water.

The internet was still young and so was I. The best I could do, the best I could find, was fan pages and old magazines with little information. I absorbed as much as I could, but color pages and chibi gif animations of the FF7 crew just couldn’t cut it. But in all of the noise, there was some news. They were making a PC port of FF7. Alarm bells. Surely my 2 year-old desktop would be too far behind to play the game. My dreams felt again dashed. Through all of this, my obsession made my mother vaguely happy in a roundabout way. The desktop background of the living room PC was Tifa, and her big breasts helped my mother believe I wasn’t as gay as her earlier impressions, a conspiracy theory of her own making. To this day, she still makes jokes about Tifa. The only thing that would have only made her happier is if she was black. Anyway, the world had caught on to Final Fantasy, and I wanted to be a part of it. But when you’re 11, time is much more of a key to gaining something, it has to pass for anything to happen. As an adult, you can make things happen, but kids, they need an angle. A hard angle. That usually means you need the parents to come through, but they need to be unwitting participants in your obsession, pawns in your game.

Luckily, my dad was KING PAWN. My father, always the type to want to be on the cutting edge, bought us (himself) a laptop. This was out of nowhere, no prodding or manipulation, and while his claims for having bought the machine for work and school were dubious at best, I went with it. And with that came the specs I would need to play the PC version. But there was a catch. Christmas had passed and my birthday was in the fall, months from our current Spring. There wasn’t a free pass in sight. No amount of chores would fill my coffers and quell the storm in my heart. I need another rube. But with Spring came green. Money right out of the ground. My best friend had a lawn mower and I had a plan. Get this, what if we mowed lawns… for money? Bam! Winning ticket. There were one million old ladies and lads dying to give money to cute kids dragging a lawnmower from house to house. After mowing what felt like one thousand lawns, I was able to buy a copy. The storm was becoming a hurricane.

It was time to monopolize my dad’s new toy. Like most of his new toys, if it wasn’t a paperback book, he spent barely any time with it after a few weeks, so it worked in my favor. As fast as childhood actually passes, to children, the relative perception of time’s passing is slower than an adult’s. The more they want something, the longer it takes to manifest. Mix that with a negatively polarized Murphy’s Law, and you get your worst scenario; a computer that can run the first few hours, but crashes during certain enemy moves. This is where we meet the eye of the storm. My resolve is broken, my will shattered. How will I ever play this game? A million years passed (about a week), and that is when I realized my closest friend had gotten a new computer that last Christmas. A proper desktop model, in his own bedroom. It hadn’t occurred to me to bring the game to his house because PC games required an install and I couldn’t just bring the game home and continue my save file whenever I felt like it. Still, that next weekend, like every weekend, we had a sleepover, and for the third time, I started the game over. I took the game as slowly and methodically this time as I had before. The eye of the storm was slipping past. I was able to pass the Sector 5 Slum to Sector 6 tunnel I had gotten stuck in at home. By that time, I was the only one left awake. As I neared the top of the Shinra building, I could feel the storm in my heart reaching a fever pitch. I was so close. I saved Aeris, met Red XIII, beat Rufus, and sat in awe as Cloud rolled down the stairs on a thundering motorcycle. My heart was racing as I took out enemies to save my allies until there was no more road left. I was so excited, I was at the edge of Midgar. As I punished the highway monstrosity between me and my escape, the storm was beginning to calm, and then, turning red, he melted down and exploded in Final Fantasy fashion. And I had done it. My characters were free. The game was over. To be continued in Final Fantasy 8. RIght?

The hurricane died down, the characters begin to discuss their next steps. At this point, I have been playing around 9 hours straight. It was about 2 or 3 AM. I was just beginning to resign myself to take to a pillow and pad on the floor. But then the earth beneath the sea began to move and the waves began to take shape once again. And then, suddenly and with no provocation, the city of Midgar became a mere fraction of its size and Cloud became a giant. The world had shrunk and in the distance the curvature of the world could be seen. I began to move around and enemies appeared on my path. The waves miles of shore had become the size of skyscrapers. All at once I realized that it wasn’t the end. There was more. So much more. It wouldn’t be Final Fantasy 8 until I beat Sephiroth. There were 2 other discs. What was I thinking? Of course there was more. But why did it take so long to get here, to find more. I was bamboozled by the sights and sounds of Midgar, sung a sirens song by Avalanche and Shinra, and believed my mission would take shape and be completed inside the walls of some slums in some city that surely didn’t make up the entire world. Sephiroth and Shinra were a threat to the world, not just the people of this city. That was when the tidal wave met the shore. A tsunami of realization. A whole new identity was consuming me.

In the calm of the wave that had consumed me, weightless in my memories, my brain started making connections. My cousin introduced me to manga like Dragon Ball and Akira. I had grown up on a steady diet of Mario Bros, Sailor Moon, Sonic the Hedgehog, not to mention the growing phenom Pokemon. He told me all these animated dreamscapes came from Japan. A friend of mine showed me Final Fantasy III on his SNES, but it didn’t excite me like Link to the Past or Mario Kart. Cloud was not in Final Fantasy III as far as I could remember, but I had missed the other installments in between. And the world didn’t look at all similar. Who made this game? Squaresoft? I’ve never played a genuine Nintendo game on a computer before. But this came out on Playstation. What is happening? Oh, Sephiroth put a tree through a snake. Maybe all of these things are Japanese? My cousin told me Sega and Nintendo were from Japan. Wow, that is a big cannon and now I have to march and get on a boat? How much longer could this game be? I could feel myself getting tired. This is a nice beach town. What time is it? I have to get to the Golden Saucer next. A tap on my shoulder, sun in my eyes, my friend says, “Dude, you are still awake? Did you play all night?”

My eyes were open. The tidal wave had passed and I was baptised a whole new person. I was awake floating on a sea of my own consciousness. The next 10 years of my life would be shaped by RPG’s, Anime, Manga, Computers, D&D, and Cinema. Nerd Culture. I found a whole new person after playing Final Fantasy VII. It put together pieces that had been lying scattered, shaping a fan, a creative, and a more curious soul. I would challenge peers to try these new experiences, hoping it would awaken them the way it had me. I hadn’t realized that what awoke me was the perfect storm yet and that for most people, they wouldn’t be able to experience it the same way I had. I was able to find comradery in my closest friends and all of these cultural touchstones bound us even to this day. Final Fantasy VII’s legacy, maybe all legacies, aren’t just the collective experiences of having been a part of its success, but in the lives that were shaped around it; we are the base at which the monument stands. It’s legacy is strengthened by those who survived the storm and it continues to thrive because it was the perfect storm. A storm that still draws people in. A great storm that never died. A story we all still tell.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 29-30: LAVA GOLEM

Ah, Kaiba island.

I’m not quite sure how big Kaiba island is. In this picture it looks like we got ourselves a 6 story building on the side, but if we compare the 6 story building to the tower it’s like...that’s a 100 story building, roughly? Our art team has given up trying to make this building look like anything other than what it looks like, and they’re just going to make a metallic cross-section of a dick every time it shows up.

Also, I kinda wish we saw a little bit more of the landing sequence to get here because....

....did we do an Akira motorcycle slide into this island or is that just me?

Meanwhile, as Joey is duking it out on the world’s largest, coldest dildo, Serenity is stationed at the post she made for herself.

LOL Why did they do this? Why would they design this?

(read more under the cut)

Inside the swamp cloud, Marik is shocked that Joey has been largely unphased by this horrific experience.

Clearly Marik has not caught on that Joey’s been conditioned to this stuff living with Yugi for the past many years, and a little bit of pink spirit-sucking wires aren’t really much of a match for that time Joey saw Yugi light a guy on fire with a match once. Well, a lighter. Either way, this isn’t so bad.

And then, I don’t really talk about card games here, but Marik introduces a new card I have not seen before.

Behold, Lava Golem.

Look at him! Like I know everyone’s kinda freaking out about the new pokemon but like...Lava Golem? Remember that sweet face?

He’s just soooooo good.

Man this is the first Yugioh card ever that I’ve actually liked.

And, upon seeing this terrifying situation, Tea turns to Yugi and says:

Thanks Tea.

Also during these few episodes, Marik is starting to undergo a transformation, mostly via his viens. It’s a look. Kind of worried about his blood pressure.

And I was thinking that they just invented a a chin vein, but, as it turns out, they actually did their research.

There is a vein there! I mean this isn’t really that big a deal to most of you, probably, but anime often gets a bad rap for ignoring anatomy (which ... it’s a cartoon so yeah that’s...that’s what you do in cartoons, you ignore most anatomy) but hey--they got this vein correct. I don’t know why they even bothered, but that was very nice of them to make something so gross so correct.

And because some of you might want this just for yourself, cap free:

Enjoy.

Along with this good boy.

Is it just me? Is it just me that’s all ham about this Domo Kun face? This Mario mini-boss?

I usually don’t like the Yugioh monster designs but this one is just...he’s such a good boy.

Anyway, the art team was told at some point to change piss cloud and they decided to do this instead

Why does the width keep changing on the tower? Like I know it was tossed between different artists but like...it just...it keeps changing and it bothers me.

Anyway, back to what matters.

Can this be our new Joey Wheeler? Just leave everything about Joey Wheeler the same but replace his sprite with Lava Golem and with no explanation. I’d be down.

I do think that this arc brought back their A-team for the animation, there was just a lot more going on visually than we’ve had in a good while. Like this Marik face, for instance--this very famous face that I’ve seen drawn on like...a whole lot of characters. This is a much-referenced pose.

I mean, hey, not using reference while drawing is the same as dueling as Yugi Muto and just never using the Pharaoh. Like sure you could, but never, ever, ever do that.

And I just want you to know, I held that really corny anime art joke in for like a straight week on twitter as the entire world was going off about whether or not you’re supposed to use reference materials when you draw as if this is some sort of controversial topic (it’s not. No one cares about your process.) and y’all, it was HARD. But I did it. I resisted the discourse and still found a way to sneak it into here, into the side blog where I can go off about the inane art twitter discourse without getting blocked.

Which, again, was about “Can I use reference?” I...art twitter. Art twitter, I swear. why would you NOT? You have the Pharaoh, art twitter. You have the Pharaoh.

Anyway, I hope at least one of you got that joke. I hope one of you at least was like “lol--Art Reference is the Heart of the Cards.” and the next time someone tells you that using reference is cheating (which will never happen, a infinitesimal number of people in one forum on DeviantArt in 2003 said this once in the entire history of art, and I don’t know why twitter is fighting with these child-run forums that don’t even exist anymore) you can say “Don’t you dare talk about my platonic soulmate that way.” and just end the argument there.

The hell are these people who say artists don’t use reference? Do you write history papers without reading books?

And that’s my rant that was a.) too long for twitter and also b.) maybe too much anime. With art twitter it’s like..there’s no middle ground between too much anime and not enough anime. No middle ground and I have no idea where the people who follow me even stand. I think they just want to see Zelda. I think that’s about it. I really can’t tell with them. I’m like...always confused as to what those people want.

I need to delete my twitter. Anyways, back to Joey, who felt like breaking the fourth wall.

And so Marik decides to sober up and play the God card.

Yo guys, remember God Cards? I’ll be honest, I kinda completely forgot about them.

And then at some point this shot happened and I was living for it.

such a good idea to offset people in a different filter and kinda stack em. Bro was saying he remembered this sort of thing in Cowboy Bebop but I don’t remember what the hell he’s talking about. Bro and his spicy headcanons are mixing up Yugioh and Cowboy Bebop now. Never thought I’d see that.

And then Kaiba’s muscles kinda twitched and it looked like smiling.

Man, were there a lot of phoenix references in the 00′s or is that just me who read way too much Harry Potter?

And like, because I do draw Yugi sometimes, occasionally people will reblog and tag with Pharaoh’s real name in there (I can’t really avoid that spoiler), so I think it’s pretty likely his name comes from Atum of Egyptian legend. Who...wasn’t really a Pharaoh. Atum was kinda weird, he gave birth to...himself. He’s an interesting read. But, we’ll get there when we get there.

But, I didn’t really know about Bennu pyramids until I actually went and looked up Egyptian Phoenixes. I had always thought that the Phoenix was Greek in origin but, according to Wikipedia some people say it happened in Egypt as well. And if it’s good enough for Wikipedia, it’s good enough for Yugioh.

The return of the mystery purple moisturizer jug and it brought it’s entire extended family of fiji waters.

And so, Ishizu decides to do the right thing and take care of Mai. Not sure what Ishizu knows about being a nurse since she lived underground, but since she can help cure poisonous snake bites, maybe comas are a little bit easier?

And so Serenity starts the 30 minute jog up the phallic tower to get to Joey’s death sequence. She’s made it to about...20 ft outside of the plane by the end of this episode. Serenity runs kinda slow.

Bro mentioned that he thinks it looks like Tea’s trying to very stealthily steal Yugi’s wallet. And that’s just my spicy headcanon now, too.

Well now that’s over, lemme see if...

.......it could’ve happened. It only has like a couple of human skulls on it.

And hey if this is the first recap you’ve ever seen from me, here’s a link to read them all from the beginning in Chrono order, back when they weren’t color coded and I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

[pixelgrotto]

Link has an Akira-esque motorcycle now and that’s awesome, but this DLC is just kinda OK

So, what is presumably the final piece of DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild dropped about two days ago at The Game Awards 2017. It was one of those shadowy, no-promotion announcements that only Nintendo can get away with, and it was exciting, if only because the trailer showed Link on a FRIGGIN’ GUARDIAN MOTORCYCLE, DAMN SON. Also, following the tradition of Breath of the Wild having some of the best promotional artwork in the business, the drawing released to promote this DLC pack is basically an Akira reference! That’s so dope! But when it came time to fire up the actual DLC and gave it a whirl...I found myself kinda underwhelmed. (If you haven’t played it yet, go do that first, because spoilers lie ahead.) I’m not going to say that The Champion’s Ballad is a disappointment, because the fact that I wasn’t feeling it is mostly due to my own overblown expectations. But from looking at some reactions in the ResetERA official thread, I think it’s fair to say that myself and a host of other people were expecting something different. Ever since Breath of the Wild’s DLC plan was announced, Nintendo was hyping this second content pack up with promises of a “new original story.” From their ambiguous wording, it seemed like DLC pack 1 - the one that introduced the game’s Master Trials - was supposed to be the gameplay-focused package filled with a hard mode and other challenges, while DLC pack 2 was the one that was going to go heavy on plot content. Some people speculated that we’d be able to play as the deceased Champions or as Zelda herself. I wasn’t expecting anything that ambitious, but I was hoping for something like a little epilogue, or maybe a new map or island to explore.

What was actually released is maybe 30% story content and 70% stuff like the first DLC pack, AKA more endgame challenges and Shrines. The Champion’s Ballad, which is only unlockable after you’ve beaten the four Divine Beasts, actually starts off weirdly in that it makes you go back to the game’s starting area and clear out several enemy camps with a new weapon called the “One-Hit Obliterator,” which lets you KO baddies in a single strike but also decreases your health down to a fourth of a heart. New, more deviously difficult Shrines pop up after you clear out the camps, and once you’re finished with all of them, the Obliterator disappears...making it a strange, temporary tool that seems solely designed to create an arbitrary difficulty ceiling. 

Once you’re done with the One-Hit Obliterator section, you’re sent to four corners of the map. At each location you need to complete three more tasks AND more shrines before tackling a boss and unlocking a never-before-seen memory of each Champion. (Finally, story stuff!) Unfortunately, here’s where I started to get weary, because the challenges to unlock said memories are mainly rehashed tasks from the main game (like sand seal surfing), the Shrines are all sorta annoying and the bosses are the same versions of Ganon that you fought in the past, only slightly harder and now in some nebulous “illusory” realm that looks like it was run through an Instagram filter. (It was at this point when I realized that this DLC felt more like a remix album than anything else.) 

At the very end, there is one new Divine Beast to conquer, followed by an all-original boss battle that’s arguably one of the best parts of the DLC. If you’re successful, Link wins himself a spiffy new motorcycle that makes travelling around Hyrule a breeze...except it’s also kind of useless because by the time players unlock it, there’s just not that much left to DO, unless you’re still trying to collect all of the Korok Seeds or complete the game’s original 120 Shrines. 

Don’t get me wrong, the bike certainly is a fun toy to play with and has resulted in some amusing videos on YouTube. And the new memories, though they amount to little more than 15 minutes in total, are very good. (There’s one scene in particular of Link, Zelda and all the other Champions that’s practically tear-inducing.) But the questline that you need to endure to get the bike and these teeny nuggets of plot just didn’t feel worth it, IMO. It seemed like it was designed to appeal to a certain type of player - the ones who are 100% completionists and loved the complexity of Breath of the Wild’s Shrines. 

If you’re one of those persons, then I think you’ll enjoy this DLC. Sadly, I’m not a member of that group, and I’ve mentioned in the past that dungeons have never been the main reason why I’ve been attracted to Zelda games. For me, I play Zelda to be swept away by a sense of adventure, and the experience of climbing mountains, racing across Hyrule Field and learning more about a post-apocalyptic world was what made Breath of the Wild one of my favorite games of 2017, not its 120 Shrines. If you’re in the same camp as me and haven’t already bought the game’s $20 season pass, I recommend just watching the new cutscenes and boss fight on YouTube and calling it a day.

Speaking of that $20 season pass (which is the only way to purchase the game’s DLC), do I consider it a waste of money in hindsight? Well, not entirely. I did enjoy parts of the Master Trials in DLC pack 1, possibly because that stuff came out shortly after the game’s release and was never advertised as a “new original story.” Would I have enjoyed The Champion’s Ballad more if it had been released earlier and if the marketing language hadn’t shot my expectations skyward? Yeah, probably. As it stands, I still maintain that Breath of the Wild is a fine game, but when it comes to the post-launch content, I need to point out that we live in a world where Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds, Bloodborne: The Old Hunters and both Witcher 3 expansions (the gold standard of recent downloadable content, in my eyes) all exist. DLC doesn’t have to be arbitrary stuff that should have been included in the base game, which kinda feels like the case here.  Nintendo can, and should, consider doing a little better next time. 

I made the Breath of the Wild/Akira comparison pic myself! Though a quick peek at Twitter shows that I wasn’t the only one with that bright idea...

[akiharashizuka]

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS opening 1 reactions

Did I ever mention how much I love the song? Ever since it was revealed that Tominaga will perform it, I knew it had potential, but this is beyond expectations. The vocals are amazing and it fits so well with Yu-Gi-Oh.

Am I the only one who sees the Millennium Eye here?

They probably added it as an easter egg kind of thing. The way it transitions to Ignis’ eye in Yūsaku’s Duel Disk is a great idea.

And here are the birds, which seem to be a recurring motif. Interestingly, there are 6 of them: purple, yellow, green, red, orange and blue. And all of them form a bigger white bird, which takes the form of the logo. That was neat.

Ok, we have Yūsaku walking to school and Shima calling to him. Hmm, so Shima might get over what happened in this week’s episode and try to befriend Yūsaku. That might turn into character development for him.

Also, notice the birds.

Then we have Go Onizuka jogging. I guess this fits with the image he has.

Hmm, showing Aoi with a melancholic expression makes me more curious about her character and how different is she in real life compared to Blue Angel.

Then there’s Kusanagi eating a hot-dog. He does have this laid-back atmosphere to him, but his face expression looks serious.

This shot of Akira Zaizen gives so much. Being surrounded by all those buildings and the car behind him give him that “married to the job” vibe.

With the song reaching a slower tone, the images also follow up, basically showing Yūsaku going into his Vrains form, among other things. Like, the appearance of his younger self might hint towards his reasons. Also, Ignis, who is important to the plot. His two main Monsters are also showcased.

Trivia time: this part of Den City looks like an area in Shibuya, a ward in Tokyo. Just look. I’ve seen the Shibuya crossing depicted in quite a few anime, so I couldn’t help but notice.

These two images only lasted for a split second, but it was enough to give a feeling of distress, that the antagonists are supposed to convey.

There’s also that orange dragon, Topologic Bomber Dragon it seems, which might belong to Revolver. With the Data Storm coming from the opposite side and Playmaker riding the hoverboard, it turns into a quite nice action scene. Only that, the 2 don’t clash yet.

First off, we get to take a look at Blue Angel, Aoi’s Vrains persona, who has a more bubbly disposition, as well as her Trickster Monsters. I liked how the background color changed with each one and, in the final shot, it is split into 4.

Then, we have Go. I’m not really sure what to say about him though...

Now that was an amazing entrance. Ema just jumped from her motorcycle and transformed into a kunoichi. I’m assuming that’s her Vrains form. Also, the colors of her hair seem to switch. What was purple becomes silver and vice-versa. Her eyes also turn from pink to grayish-blue.

We get another shot of revolver, but with Cracking Dragon. Some more emphasis is put on this Monster. It also appeared quite a lot in the episode.

And here is the clash I’ve been expecting. So its Cracking Dragon vs Decode Talker.

Notice how Yūsaku turns into the green light, Revolver into the red one, then Aoi and Go into the blue and yellow one respectively. Now, going back to the beginning of the opening, 4 the birds were also depicted with these colors.

And at the end we have a white bird flying towards the sun. This motif sure comes up a lot. Not that I’m complaining.