#and that I am a top fan deep in the lore xD

[secondbeatsongs]

Not a request, but not sure how best to add this: I'm waiting for the day when a legend/ musical-memelord (e.g. Neil Cicierega) makes a song that needs to be split up into "every other beat" (or some other variation) to unlock the song's full potential(s).

you have no idea how much I want this to happen

I eagerly await the day when I chop up a song, only to have it become another, entirely coherent song, because its creators wanted it to be that way

musicians, artists, songwriters: hear my plea. I am frothing at the mouth. this is enrichment for me, something to keep me from pacing my cage restlessly until my inevitable demise

make me something weird. give me a song intended to be sliced!

[wishingstarinajar]

In all honesty, as an old follower (Sorry, I am reading your posts about old fandom) The online Wakfu community never really was fully about "wakfu" but about your content, similalry to how your new community is built around YOUR content and not necessarily "undertale"- You were at the community's heart because you built it, it's in you to create things that naturally attract people. I hope this time it doesn't become a burden

Thank you, Anon, I agree with you; you're right about the community thing. Though there is something I'd like to add.

There's a big difference this time around; I am not actively digging neck-deep into articles and lore, neither am I translating articles, official comics and transcripts, actively sharing news about upcoming releases and all that jazz that made me interact with 'the old fandom' on a different level. In short, I used to do more with the old fandom than just interacting with the community that was there for my created content.

As I mentioned before in a post several months ago, this was all my own decision; I took on that workload and stress because I was too invested in getting to know the canon world and lore proper. It also felt fair to share whatever I found/translated/whatever, which added more stress because people would turn to me for specific answers or had expectations. Which was fine at first... until it became too much and I was too weak-willed to put a stop to it until it was too late.

But all that isn't the case anymore with the current fandom I'm in. I'm just an average fan. I don't have anything to offer when it comes to canon information, neither official news because it's already out there and easy to access (and in a language many people understand). This already takes away a big part of the stress that I endured in the old fandom which, as I once mentioned before, is something I blame no one for because it was mostly self-inflicted. Again, not blaming anybody but myself on this particular matter.

On top of that, the Undertale (AU) fandom is so damn vast in comparison to the old fandom, you can easily remain a tiny spec in that vastness and not get much attention. A sneeze or fart will just go by unnoticed xD Heck, there are so many Sans-centric AUs that, if you don't create a game, a good-looking/well-told comic or a lot of art for your own AU, it gets easily overlooked. And honestly? I am very fine with this change in pace. I am fine with being a spec in the vast Undertale (AU) fandom. It's all cool. This time I only have my 'little community' for what I create and the whole previous 'found/shared/translated/lore questions/etc' aspect is gone. And I'm not going to lie, it feels great. It's like starting with a clean slate in an environment where I feel like I could be more like myself (with my kinks and everything) and it was just what I needed.

I share the same hope as you though. We'll see what the future holds! I hope yours will treat you well.

[winterune]

Happy 46th birthday Kamiya Hiroshi-san! | 28.01.2021

Alright I’m back to posting birthday celebration/top seiyuu roles stuffs (or at least for Kamiyan’s birthday). My last Kamiyan birthday post was in 2019, so let’s revamp my list now.

#1: Takashi Natsume - Natsume Yuujinchou

Soft Kamiyan is best Kamiyan. I’m sorry, but I guess I just love soft characters. I think I’ve gushed more than enough how much I love Natsume Yuujinchou, Natsume Takashi, and of course his small buta neko companion/self-proclaimed guardian. So here it is, Soft Kamiyan’s best cinnamon roll boi Natsume as my #1 favorite Kamiyan role (heck, my #1 favorite character, series, and performance ever). My heart expands three thousand times every time I hear Natsume speak.

#2: Kakushi Gotou - Kakushigoto

I’ll be honest. This is the reason why I’m coming back to making these posts lol. I just finished watching Kakushigoto and I am in love with it!!! Definitely one of the hidden gems of 2020. A story about a single father who’s trying to raise his daughter while hiding the nature of his job. And Kamiyan nailed Gotou. From his dramatic performance when he’s on the job to the soft and caring side when he’s with his daughter. Everything was just perfect. Hearing Gotou just feels so natural. 

#3: Izaya Orihara - Durarara!!

The heartless little bastard that was probably the first Kamiyan role that stole my heart. Again, Kamiyan gave Izaya life. Still one of my favorite Kamiyan roles to this day. It makes one wonder how this is the same man who voices soft Natsume. Speaking of, I remember thinking ‘I know this voice!’ when Kamiyan used his Natsume voice as Nakura in episode 2 I think

#4: Yato - Noragami

Season 3 when lol but well in all seriousness, Kamiyan as Yato is just amazing. He showed a wider range of emotion in Aragoto after we learn about his past as the God of Calamity, his desire to be the God of Fortune, and finally seeing him with Father for the first time. Just imagine how animated and voiced Yato will kill me if they ever decide to make a season 3 T-T

#5: Koyomi Araragi - Monogatari series

It’s a talent in and of itself to be able to voice a wide range of characters and make each and every one of them memorable. Though he’s that type of seiyuu whose voice is very recognizable, I never get bored. Koyomi is one such case, and I just love him so much. (Speaking of Monogatari, I have yet to see Arakawa Under The Bridge and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Huh, so Kamiyan worked with Akiyuki Shinbou in three series, whereas he worked with Omori Takahiro in two - NatsuYuu and Durarara, one of which is still ongoing)

Well, seems like my top 5 still hasn’t changed (except for one) xD But really though, four of the five are indisputable, they probably won’t be dropping out of the list any time soon. It is funny how many of my favorite main characters were voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi. Whereas I usually associate a seiyuu with their popular characters, I never do so with Kamiyan. Somehow, he feels low-profile yet he manages to score big roles that end up being famous and/or iconic. His characters always feel so natural to me.  

Honorable Mentions

HM1: Kusuo Saiki - Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan

Don’t you just love when Kamiyan voices characters who talk a lot? I know I do, lol. There was Araragi, and then Saiki. I remember him talking in the DGS radio about when he got the role. He wasn’t actually too keen on it xD but hey I love him as Saiki lol

HM2: Levi Ackerman - Shingeki no Kyojin

To be honest, I’m not much of a fan of Kamiyan’s Levi. I love Levi, not a fan of his voice lol. But I still gotta put him on this list. Because, well, one of his most popular roles to date? Yeah, lol. I said how Kamiyan’s voice is usually recognizable. That’s not quite the case with Levi. I still can’t find any trace of his voice whenever I hear Levi speak that you’d wonder how is it possible that the man behind Levi is also the one behind characters like Natsume, Yato, Izaya lol. Sometimes it feels like he had to force his voice to go that deep. 

HM3: Choromatsu - Osomatsu-san

Yeah I don’t follow Osomatsu-san, even though I want to. All my favorite A-list casts, but the comedy is just not my cup of tea ^^;; Still, I do love seeing some episodes, and the series is quite the phenomenon, so I’m gonna put him on the list. 

HM4: Tieria Erde - Mobile Suits Gundam 00

Seriously, there are a lot of other characters I want to put here. Like Ao no Exorcist’s Mephisto Pheles (Kamiyan was awesome here) or BSD’s Edogawa Ranpo (minor, but eh, still a popular series), but neither (not the characters or the series) are a favorite, so I’m going with Tieria Erde from Gundam 00. I’m not a Gundam fan. Not in the sense that I watched all series. But I do love mecha and even though Gundam 00 is more of a spin-off from the bigger Gundam narrative, I loved it. Great casts, enjoyable story. I guess this was before Kamiyan grew famous? Still, I did love Tieria, especially in the second season. That deadpan character who occasionally show emotion. 

HM5: Machina Kunagiri - Final Fantasy Type-0

I never played the game, tbh, but I wanted to mention him in the list because, well, Final Fantasy (and I’ve always been fascinated with Type-0′s lore). I wish Square would cast him in a mainline game. Well, he was casted as a minor role in FFX, but seeing Square’s trend of casting A-list seiyuu’s as their main characters, one could dream, right? To be fair, 7R mainly used their original cast from back in the 2000s and the main XV cast was decided also in mid 2000 (back from when it was still Versus XIII, though they changed Gladiolus’s seiyuu). I do wish they’d cast Kamiyan as, even if not a main character, a major supporting character. He’s not even in XIV when XIV has a lot of famous seiyuus in it. 

well, that’s my list for now. I realize that many of my favorite Kamiyan roles are from recurring series. When I first made the list two years ago, I was surprised by how few roles I can list, because apparently all my favorites are from long ongoing series or ones that spawn many seasons. Look at NatsuYuu, Osomatsu, Monogatari, and SnK lol. No wonder it always feels like I hear Kamiyan every season xD

[reimahowaido]

I’ll get to those Magic Crafter Dragons I sweeeear But first, fun stuff from Discord. Dunno who made the original, it was just posted on a server, but yeet I did it anyway First of all, I don’t play a lot of games. I like games and the idea of them. I enjoy people playing stuff, I love watching others play. It’s that little sibling culture. But lemme toss a word or few about all of these. Though first of all, I only own 4 of the 8 games listed and even still I’ve only played 3 of them xD R.I.P. Pokemon Cafe Mix - The game is just Super Cute. Like oh my god Aesthetics! Adorable, every pokemon looks so nice and I just want to go to the cafe and taste everything and just chill. Please. It looks so cozy and relaxing. Gameplay is fairly simple too. Sometimes things seem a bit BS but in one way or another I’ll get through every stage etc. so it’s not too bad. Most of the time relaxing, can be addicting because of how simple things are. But really I love the game and I hope one day they’ll add more of the pokemon I like xD Buizel is my current favourite <3 It’d be nice seeing Mienshao or Mienfoo for one, maybe Glameow as it doesn’t get a lot of attention. We got Gogoat, but I wouldn’t mind a Sawsbuck or Deerling Pokemon Black 2 - To keep the Pokemon trend going, this is my fave out of the mainline games. I’ve been a fan ever since the first generation, I’m older than Gen 1 at that. But yeah, we did buy games but Nintendo stuff was too expensive and so I never really got to play those growing up. Black 2 was the first game I ever bought, for myself, with my own money. It was my first game and I loved it dearly. Still do and man I’d Love to replay it, but the curse of only 1 save file is cruel. I don’t want to restart my first ever save file. Currently I have no way of transferring anything over and I even have a Shiny Gothorita there (as underwhelming as it is, it was my first ever shiny). I love these games~~ Lots of different pokemon to choose from, great story, the fact that it’s a sequel is so freaking cool and unique I Love It So Much. Of course it’d be cool to have some extra things to do in it, like cleaning my badges, contests would be cool, I loved the mining stuff in Gen 4 when I got to try it on my friend’s Platinum save file as a kid. Speaking of, Gen 4 games would probably be my favourites, if I ever had the chance of owning and playing any fully. They have soooo much to do in them! Gen 5 is good and certainly up there in faves, but bruh, Gen 4 had all sorts of extra stuff, especially Platinum, and in HG/SS you had Pokemon following you like bruh that’s Crazy and I’d love to have that for a game I own, it’s like a dream Honorable mentions to Mystery Dungeon and Gen 6′s Pokemon Y for some grand memories. Firstly Pokemon Y, the second game I ever owned I think, great fun. I played that game for hooooooooours and it’s the only Pokemon Game that I’ve both played as a Nuzlocke and actually reset to play again. Also the first gen where I actually really got into competitive stuff, breeding for natures and stuff, and I’ve caught so many shinies in Y and Omega Ruby (mostly Y, OR has 1 shiny in Pidove, while Y has Ninetales, Pachirisu, Burmy, Gligar, and perhaps some other ones I caught/hatched myself). Mystery Dungeon games get a mention for having cool stories and I like the idea of the personality test and stuff. I’ve never played or owned any of these games, but I’ve watched Marriland play a handful of the games and currently am enjoying MDB playing through the first games in the series. Also a quick bloop on Colosseum being Cool as heck, and Battle Revolution gets a shoutout for looking so freaking good, having amazing music and making me search up videos with my favourite pokemon and just looking and watching hundreds of videos just because they looked so nice

Fire Emblem has to be the 2nd series of games I’ve gotten the most into. Although I’m a fairly new fan and my experiences and knowledge are limited, I do still enjoy the series and games - both old and new - a bunch. I only own Awakening, Conquest and 3 Houses, but I’ve again watched others play the past games a bunch, so I have some knowledge and memorable moments from those games too. Now I haven’t actually gotten myself to play 3 Houses yet, I’ve seen playthroughs of the game already and know the story etc. But yeh. Still, I’d say that I’ll probably like 3 Houses more than Awakening and Conquest. Awakening is nostalgia galore for me, but it does have its things with the story and characters and stuff. It’s nice, but I dunno, I just feel 3 Houses has an edge on it in some way. Maybe it’s just... Less controversial? Less Flame Wars? Maybe? Fates games, well, we all know the big glaring thing here. The story. And some of the characters suffer from this too. I kinda do wish that the Player had a biiiit more control in how the story went and played out, like I feel you definitely could have saved Scarlet in some way still, and all that. But eh, there’s enough stuff for me to go and prefer 3 Houses over it. And yes, I like choosing the members of my team and playing however I like, so giving me the ability to class my characters however I want is going to be a mistake as I’ll just make everyone a mounted unit and get destroyed but hey! Options :2 Variety :22 Great tiiiiimes~ Also it’s Blue Lions for me, Golden Deer Second Now for the games I don’t own. I chose Radiant Dawn because the Tellius games are just so good. I love the character in them, the story is pretty solid and the worldbuilding is cool too :2 I like both of the games, and while Path of Radiance is more coherent and doesn’t give split the characters up a bunch, Radiant Dawn has More of the great characters :2 Yes I know, not all of them are as fleshed out and thought out as the first game’s characters, but yo I still love them. I love a good continuation to a story. I love a ‘hey maybe it wasn’t as Black & White as we were made to believe’ twist. Also just hella good memories from watching BigKlingy play these games. The audience memed Aran to the final levels. We did it, he did so well, Aran deserved to be there xD Radiant Dawn also brings us Nailah, who is just. Yeah, you speak to me on so many levels, I’m easily readable. But also, woman, wolf, strong, yasss~~ Also I love the idea of the Jaegan character being a Thief/Assassin. That’s just so different and cool to me after all these Horse Units. And I’m the one guy who likes Levail and would love to see more of him. Give us more of Levail, the man who almost made it to being playable. Man. Levail is probably the one reason I’d pick Radiant Dawn over Path of Radiance xD The other game I’ve watched BigKlingy play through (and that’s my only experience on that game) is Sacred Stones. Pretty solid game all in all. Story, characters, but speaking of that story, if you really think about it, it’s Hella Dark, and that’s actually kinda cool in a way. I’m not that into dark stories, but here it worked. Also watched PhoenixMaster1′s playthrough on the Echoes game. I do like the game, if i find it one day I Might buy it but I’m not like in a hurry to get it. It was cool though, different for reasons but hey~ Also, Berkut, yes. I’m one of those people who like this angry man. But come on, he was really good xD Spyro I’ve already talked about in my lengthy little thing that I’ll get to continuing eventually xD But yes, I freaking love Spyro, my childhood, still very enjoyable experience full of great memories Metroid Fusion - Oh boy here come the nostalgia~ I’ve actually never played any Metroid games myself. I got introduced to the series in the early 2010s through youtube videos. I’m fairly sure it was me looking through dozens and dozens of Top 10 videos, several of which were on ‘the scariest bosses’, either unexpectedly scary or something else. But guess what, Nightmare from Fusion was in there, and I Think the person in the video said something on not wanting to even show the final forms of Nightmare’s face because it was that horrifying to them. And honestly? The fact that they didn’t show how bad it got, mixed with my morbid curiosity and woop, here I go~ Down the Metroid rabbithole where I watched a lot of videos on people fighting Nightmare and the other bosses in the game, eventually going into watching full run-throughs of the game and enjoying my time. Game looked pretty good, soundtrack was really nice too. And so I ended up on listening to a lot of the game series’ music and getting more familiar with the other games and the lore too. Learning to know that Samus was a lady was also hella badass. Fusion started it all for me, and while Super Metroid is cool, people also just play it a loooot, especially the Speedrunners, there’s also plenty of hacks based on that game and yeah I get it the game is Good, but that makes Fusion all the more special to me~ Devil May Cry 3 - Ok so again, I’ve not played any DMC games myself. This one again though is nostalgia ocean for me~ 2010 or such, I’m on some forum, said forum has a forum game based around songs or such and someone links one from this game. I Think it was the Doppelganger battle theme, or then I just found that one and listened to it for hours among the other battle themes these games have because they’re soooo gooood~~ DMC 4 was fairly new at that time, but I remember Gredo’s and Agnus’ themes being up there in songs I listened to a lot too. My experiences and stuff on this series was fully based on the songs, images on said songs, bits and pieces of the cutscenes of these games I saw and comments I read. I didn’t get too deep into DMC back then though, but I did have a bit of knowledge here and there, even if my idea of the stories in all the games was, well, I wouldn’t call it warped, but I definitely had imagined the story going differently to how things actually went xD Still, as a few years back I returned to DMC out of that feeling of nostalgia, and discovered DMC 5 had Just been released, boi, I was In. And I watched through cutscene compilations, playthoughs and what have you on all the games (Except for DmC, boot to you ReBoot), and it was quite the hype time~ I enjoy the chracters, the story that there is around them, and just how carefree and fun stuff can be. The party sure did get crazy~ Lost Dimension - The last game I have on the list there. This might be a weird one and I get that yeah. How many have even heard of this game? I sure wouldn’t have ever known of it without BigKlingy’s playthrough of it. But that playthrough was full of memories, I should really rewatch it one day~ I may not remember an awful lot about the game, but I do keep coming back to it in one way or another. I liked the character designs, the fact that all of them were unique and had their own abilities, there was a bit of story around all of them, the traitor system had you thinking & made each run a little different... That’s some Cool Stuff! The game might be a bit obscure and seriously not known at all, but for what it was, it was great and I enjoyed it a bunch! And now for stuff that wasn’t on the list but I kinda still want to mention. Because why not~ IB - This Almost made it onto the list, but I felt a little closer of a connection to the other games on it. But IB is one of those games from the early 2010s that I also got introduced to through the wonderful world of Youtube. I have forgotten the name of the person whose playthrough in the game I watched. But I watched a ton of people play this game. It was just. So cool. The puzzles in this game were nice and the fact I myself could solve and understand them too was pretty nice to me, and for some reason I just enjoyed watching other people react to the game and try solving stuff. It also had a couple different endings so watching and seeing what the other people got was also interesting. Great memories~ Witch’s House / Ao Oni / Mad Father - And all sorts of other horror games that kinda fall under this grouping and style and stuff. Yeah, IB kinda opened a bit of a thing for me as I realized I greatly enjoyed the horror games with puzzle elements to themselves + a bit of story here and there. There’s definitely much much more than these 3, I watched soooo many of these games being played by others. Ao Oni I may have discovered through my Hetalia phase though, HetaOni, if any of you still recognize that name. Daym. Although at first I didn’t want to watch HetaOni because of the portraits. Pfffff I thought the person who made them was being mean to some of the characters, but nah, I’d later learn that those were simply just mimicing the ones from the original game. But yeah, Ao Oni had a dozen variants and things inspired by it so those kept me busy for a whiiiiiile Hades - Now here’s a cool recent game! Again, haven’t played it, but it looks cool. The story is nice, character designs are God Like (hehe), soundtrack is super cool, aesthetics and oh my god everything is voice acted oh my gooood. This game is just. So cool. And the team who did it seems really cool too and are seemingly full of nice amazing people. This is definitely some great example work on how things should be done :2 Definitely something to look up to, I love everything about them~ The only reason Hades isn’t up there is because of its recentness and my brain not managing to think of it somehow even as I struggled to come up with stuff (I was mostly trying to think of stuff I had played, so that’s one thing. I even struggled to remember DMC because my current hyperfixations are elsewhere and that’s freaking Wild considering how much I enjoy DMC) But yeah, Hades is Super Freaking Cool Crash Bandicoot - These games I did play as a kid actually, the 1st one was way too hard and the 3rd one was my favourite. I like Crash, these games were nice too and I have plenty of good memories with the game, just not enough to make it up there on my list. Yeah it sounds stupid that I’d take out a game I actually played and replace it with stuff that I didn’t, but... Hey, my list Minecraft - Watched several videos on other people pllaying this game, I know of it, I respect it, but I’ve never played it myself and stuff. It’s cool but didn’t make it on the list Animal Crossing - Riiiiiight, these games seem adorable and I wouldn’t mind owning an AC game one day. I’d probably reset continuously though to get Skye in my town/village/island, she’s my favourite xD If the recent game had cost lest I might have gotten it. 60-70€ is just, a lot of money Persona - I guess I’ll mention these too. My experiences are through Bigklingy’s videos again. 3 is a fave, 4 seems cool, 5 I don’t know a lot about but it seems nice too. I probably wouldn’t be able to play these games myself, since some fights kinda need certain things and strategies and you can’t really just pick whatever and whom ever and roll through with brute strength. I mean, I Guess you could, but that might not be as fun in the long run? Who knows, but it’s not exactly like Pokemon or Fire Emblem in those regards you know The big conclusion is that I like all sorts of different aesthetic looks, mostly probably natural with some brighter colors in it. Stories are good, I love stories! Good characters with nice designs and backstories are really nice too. Things being thought out and built nicely is great you know? A little bit of strategy, fantasy here and there. Nothing too dark and gloomy or ‘hyper realistic’ or what have you. I guess no first person shooters either, though combat is fine. Games where I can pick and choose what to use and what kinds of ‘teams’ I build and the ‘members’ I use in them is nice. I do love watching others play, but with games like Pokemon & Fire Emblem I have that drive of choosing who to use and having my own unique experience kinda gets me to buy the games.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

My Top Five Video Game Franchises

I wasn't planning on sharing this but it turned out good so I decided I will!

5. SoulCalibur

I'm a big fighting video game fan! I'm nowhere near being a pro though I can beat most of my friends in many different fighters. SoulCalibur is one of the games I played with an old friend during summer while at the countryside when we were kids. His uncle would occasionally come over at his grandpatrents' house and bring his Dreamcast with him and he had SoulCalibur with it! I also had the PlayStation 2 demos of SoulCalibur II and III. When I still had a Wii and a PSP I got SoulCalibur Legends and Broken Destiny for each console respectively and while none were particularly spectacular games I had hours of fun playing both and I was happy knowing I finally own two SoulCalibur games! I couldn't afford a PlayStation 3 yet and by then PlayStation 2 games were really hard to find in Greece. My main character is Ivy. Ivy is infamous for being a very striking example of female video game characters who are grossly oversexualised and while it never had any effect on me whatsoever I realised while growing up why it is an issue. Despite that, I believe that you can enjoy and appreciate characters despite their portrayal but at the same time I can understand people who want a better representaion of female characters and I support them in that endeavour. I tend to always appreciate video game characters on a deeper level, or at least I try, while playing a game and I think that even fighting video game characters can have more substance than what meets the eye, and Ivy is no exception, especially considering how SoulCalibur has really deep background stories and lores for all its characters. My favourite game is SoulCalibur III. I love its character and stage design, music, everything. I really miss this game.

4. Dead or Alive

Another game I started playing as a kid during the summer at the countryside with my cousins, I think you'll come accross this concept in almost all of the games I'll be mentioning 'cause you basically can't do anything in Greece in the summer during noon because it's too hot to go outside until the sun starts to set so gaming was our favourite pasttime after returning from the beach and while waiting to go out later in the day. My cousins and a friend had DOA 2: Dead or Alive 2 for the PlayStation 2. Since me, my friend and my cousins were four people but didn't have that many controllers we each played story mode in turns trying to unlock more costumes for our favourite characters. My main is Helena Douglas. Again, the entire female cast is grossly oversexualised but a lot of them are close to my heart. The first game I owned was, for better or worse, Dead or Alive Xtreme Paradise for the PSP, one of the side games that features only the girls in a tropical island basically playing beah voleyball, and... being sexy... The game is a mess but the voleyball part is actually really fun and trying to collect all the swimsuits for all the girls was strangely addictive! The series came back from the grave back in 2012 and I finally got to play a mainline Dead or Alive game again as it had been an Xbox exclusive from 2001 to 2006 and there were no new main games after that. The second update to DOA5, Last Round in particular is really fun and I've spent hours upon hours playing. Definitely my favourite in the series and one of my favourite games overall.

3. Tekken

Again, a fighting series and yet again, one I played with my cousins and friends during summer at the countryside xD ! Tekken 5 was one of the games all of us owned and played the most so it's also my favourite and among my favourite games overall, definitely my favourite fighting game. My main is Nina Williams and along with Lara Croft I think they're my ultimate favourite female video game characters. They have a very similar demeanour and character design though Nina's costumes lean a lot more on the sexy side than Lara's ever did and she is a lot colder than Lara is but both were among the things that helped me realize how very gay I am. I think that any other fellow male Greek gamers or gamers from more conservative countries in general are very familiar with the concept that "playing with girls is gay", a sentiment I haven't really seen fly around in more open-minded societies. In any case, at some point I realised that I actually was gay all along so all these people were right and there was nothing wrong with it. So in that regard Lara and Nina are kinda my main heroines. I even got her own action-adventure spin-off game. The game itself is... mediocre, but I loved it because it was all about Nina! It kind of had a Tomb Raider meets James Bond feel to it. A friend of my dad's gave me a couple of games as a gift at some point and one of them was Tekken Tag Tournament that had all those classic characters that were either dead or a thousand years old in Tekken 5 featured while they were still in their prime so we also had a lot of fun with that game during summer. In 2009, I still couldn't afford a PS3 so I asked my mum for a PSP and Tekken 6 was included with it, spent countless hours with it and eventually got it again when I got a PS3 along with Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

2. Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is a series I absolutely hated until I somehow didn't anymore... I tried a Final Fantasy X demo as a kid and I was extremely put off by the turn-based combat system. It was something no other games had at the time, none of the games I had played anyway, and it felt really weird and unintresting to me. so I decided that I will hate it forever and ever... Until 2015. By then I had just started university and I was kind of depressed because I really hated what I was studying and felt very trapped. For some reason that still puzzles me until today I decided that I wanted to try out Final Fantasy again. I made a little internet search and found out Final Fanatsy XIII was the most recent entry (side note: I hadn't upgraded to PS4 yet). I rented it from the video store and spent a week staying home playing it instead of going to uni... I understand now that it wasn't the most sensible option but it was honestly a break I really needed in order to truly realize that I should seek out other options if I'm not happy with my studies, and I did. After XIII I got VII for the PS3 and last March my friends got me XV for my birthday. A couple months ago I went on a "shopping spree" and got VII, VIII, IX, XII and X / X-2 for the PS4 and I am currently waiting for my copy of the FFVII Remake to arrive. Final Fantasy is probably the series that has made me cry the most and also inspired me a lot. It's also the only one that has ever come close to replacing Tomb Raider as my favourite series. Lastly, Final Fantasy XIII along with Resident Evil 6 and Tomb Raider: Legend are my "holy trinity" of video games people love to hate but I personally adore xD I'm not sure I can pick a favourite as I've enjoyed all of the ones I've played but maybe X? Though I'm feeling the VII Remake might surpass it.

1. Tomb Raider

Again, the summer story, you know the drill. I remember first playing Legend's demo and then while I was staying at my cousins' at their home in a town which is near the countryside we usually spent our summers, our uncle would have us go pick up games to rent at the video store after returning from the beach. We kept on renting Legend and trying to beat it. We only ever got up to the waterwheel puzzle in Ghana... If you have no prior experience with Tomb Raider (and you're literally nine!) Legend can actually be very challenging! Next year I got Anniversary, which was the first Tomb Raider game I ever owned and then got Legend. At some point during one of our video store raids my cousin decided to rent Angel of Darkness instead of Legend so we also got to experience that. It's probably his favourite. On my playthrough I got up to the point where you see Kurtis running off with his bike and then I think I got stuck in the sewers and didn't really know what to do next! I haven't been able to get my hands on it ever since. After the summer I converted a bunch of my classmates into Tomb Raider fans. Two of them had a good PC and that was the first time I ever got to play Chronicles. I got Underworld in 2008 but it was just the crappy PS2 version. I own all main and Lara Croft games except AoD. Lara Croft has been my favourite video game character for about as long as I've been playing video games. She is very special to me for reasons I already explained with Nina and it's very very hard to imagine how my life would be without her. I'm truly thankful for her and Tomb Raider. Legend will forever be my favourite and possibly favourite game ever.

[burmecianblackmage]

Just for the sake of getting my thoughts out, I figured I’d make a list of potential muses I have considered  roleplaying, plus some pros and cons to them. Dunno if any of them will ever be made, but still fun to consider them sometimes. If you like any of them, feel free to say so!

Hurdy (FF Tactics Advance 2)

I have been considering the little moogle bard for a long time. He would certainly be quite fun to play, and I could let my love of music flow into his depiction in all its glory - a tempting thought. Plus, from what I see, there aren’t exactly many moogle muses around these days, so he could be a welcome change of pace for many interested partners. And other than Sceada, he would be generally perceived as cute!

As for cons, well, there is on one hand that he could quickly feel a bit one-dimensional, especially if I let my love of music run rampant with him. Of course, I could flesh him out more, but on what do I base it? There is not that much on him besides the usual stuff we see in most TA2 chars. Sticking with your friends, trusting them - and playing the Victory Fanfare. Could be cool, but could also run it’s course quickly if things don’t take off as hoped.

Noraxias Rhogar (DnD 5e Dragonborn Paladin)

Blame the sudden influx of DnD muses on my dash for this one. Rhogar is the white (because ice ice baby!) dragonborn I play in my DnD group, which sadly does not get to meet all that often. Thus he is not really all that fleshed out from the rp side, but maybe playing him here could help me with that?

A Lawful Good character could prove a challenge as I’m more used to ones willing to break a law if it can be justified, but at least he’s not a complete killjoy like other Paladins I’ve heard about. Seeing how he prays to Bahamut and swore the Oath of the Ancients he’s a bit more lenient in what he will allow his group to do - something my group btw tends to push to it’s limits quite often...

Tsuzurao/Ninetales (Okami)

I’ve long since been pondering an Okami muse and had many on my list: Waka, Issun, Oki... - all great choices, so who to pick? It’s difficult to name a muse out of these three, so I felt conflicted. Then I thought about Rao - and realized something:

If I played her, then I essentially got three muses for the price of one.

I can play her as the true Rao, the devoted, humble priestess, I can play her as the Rao we get to know, Tsuzurao with her sometimes unintentional sex appeal and sinister scheming, and I can play her as Ninetales, who was imo the most interesting of the bosses - Quite a nice package if I say so!

I’d probably need to get back deeper into the game again for that to work out though, and then there’s also the question whether I could do all three of them justice - I don’t exactly have a stellar rep sheet when it comes to female muses I’m afraid...

Louisoix Leveilleur (FF XIV)

I’ve always been fascinated by him and his wisdom, as well as his prophecies, and truth be told he is a big part of the reason I regret not having played in Legacy where we could really interact with him and learn about him. I feel he’s an interesting muse, even more so now following his fate after Carteneau, and I’m sure there’d be people interested in him.

But do I really know enough about him to play him well? Would I be able to amass that knowledge needed to fill his shoes? And how would he fit in with other XIV muses, given his status in the game’s current story? All questions I’d need to find answers to...

Ryudo (Grandia 2)

The sassy swordsman running from his past but with a heart of gold deep down somewhere is an interesting one. He could be fun to toss at muses who are a bit on the naive side, just as much as he could be fun to throw against the more fighty muses. And he certainly can hold his own in battle, no doubt.

At the same time, his fandom is small and all but forgotten. Tell me: How many of you even know who he is and what he looks like without looking him up? Grandia 2 was a big thing in 2000 but then got gradually forgotten - a pity, for it’s an interesting game. But yeah, might be hard to find people interested in him.

Master Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts series)

If there ever was a big bad with a convoluted plan, it’s him. And still, he manages to have so much style in his original incarnation! Maybe it’s Leonard Nimoy’s voice that sells him. Either way, he is an interesting character. Always a step ahead of the others, using them as puppets for his schemes... - would be quite the interesting change.

But would I even be able to play a bad guy like him? I mean, even as someone who played all parts multiple times I find it hard at times to follow his schemes, how am I supposed to be the one scheming them? And I have a feeling he might not be that popular a muse to interact with, simply because he’s an old grumpy evil mastermind...

Tamiyo (Magic: The Gathering)

I’ve been a fan of Magic for a long time. I have a deck from the first german printed run still, that my math teacher gifted me before I left her class for gymnasium, I like to follow the story and read up on what happened before I really got into it, and I am excited for the upcoming stuff. Amonkhet looks so sweet!

But the one plane that always stuck with me is councidntally also the first one I really got invested in: Kamigawa. I just loved the flavor of it, how it felt, the mythology it created - ah, I wish we would return there one day! And maybe get a Nazumi planeswalker? No? Aww... was worth the try.

Anyhow, Tamiyo as the Planeswalker from Kamigawa always fascinated me. As a scholar and researcher she fits in with what I am familiar with from Sceada, and the way her magic works is simply amazing. Using stories you collected as the catalysts for your spells? You just became the most amazing storyteller of the Multiverse, hands down.

Question is just, would I do her justice? And would a MTG muse even find people interested in her? Also, how’d I handle all these stories best?

Count Cidolfus Orlandeau (FF Tactics)

Again one that you can blame on the number of FFT muses suddenly on my dash, but really... Where have you all been? xD I always loved Tactics, and daresay it’s in my Top 5 FFs, and there were just so many impressive and interesting characters in it.

I’d probably go with Thunder God Cid should I pick a Tactics muse up, in part because I’m already used to playing badass swordsman that are practically unrivaled in their game (Hi Kamiizumi, how’ve you been?), so it seems fitting.

I’d definitely need to replay the game and read it’s lore though - Tactics can get quite complex after all. And opposed to us who learn things from Ramza’s perspective, I’d have to think about how much Cid could have known at any given point in the story... - but it’d definitely be interesting. I just hope I wouldn’t be perceived as being too overpowered...

Altenatively, I have also considered adding a One Piece verse to Sceada. He could easily be a rat mink who dresses a bit oddly, knows electro and is a capable physical fighter as opposed to a mage. And who knows? Maybe he could just stumble across the reborn Yuki-Yuki no Mi...

Question is just, if any One Piece muses would even be open to playing with him... Hrmmm...