#and there's also been no new game (that's not a mobile collab) announced for me to just go balls to the walls theorying on so 8U

[foreigndistance]

Jubilee, Rank #72 (a post-event reflection)

“Why would you post this on Nocturne’s 7th anniversary of its addition to Starlight Stage?” Because one, I like the song—especially the original duet. And two, screw it, we roll.

It has been a few weeks since the event ended, but I’ve been trying to write this reflection for weeks without trying to lose my mind over actually writing out several thoughts (both good and bad) over a collaboration event in a mobile rhythm/gacha game. Forgive me for the raw honest thoughts I’m about to say in there.

The Prologue

Hoshimachi Suisei is a virtual YouTuber (VTuber) affiliated with Hololive Production, one of the biggest virtual agencies for such talents. She is one of the earliest talents recruited by the agency, alongside other soloist VTubers like Tokino Sora, Roboco, Sakura Miko, and AZKi—together referred to as “Generation 0”. She is also someone striving to become an idol herself. Prior to becoming affiliated with her current agency, she had tried entering IRL idol agencies, to no avail. She tried joining Hololive Production, but got rejected. She got into INoNaKa Music, but would eventually get transferred into Hololive’s main JP branch in December 2019.

To briefly describe her activities: Suisei is a forever 18, multi-talented idol who has done (and sung) a lot of accomplishments over the years. She has interest in 2D idols as well, with her having interest in Ensemble Stars!! and THE IDOLM@STER, the latter of which being an inspiration that led her into her own idol journey. She would do covers alongside other Hololive talents with songs from those two series. “Honeycomb Summer”, “Melty♡Kitchen”, “Alive Factor”, “Hanamuke no Tori”… to name a few. There were also times where she would often be pulling in the respective games’ gacha, often spending a lot of money on them. Her favorite idols from Enstars!! and IM@S include Ritsu Sakuma, Natsume Sakasaki, Hayate Hisakawa, and Kaede Takagaki.

Six years after her debut, she would perform with her own tantou.

At Suisei’s 6th Anniversary 3D live, appropriately titled “SheenderellaDay”, a certain someone would perform with one of her fans.

The song? It was “Koi Kaze”.

Suisei shared the same stage with no one other than Kaede Takagaki, who was in her 1st SSR outfit. This was followed up by a small MC corner. Kaede switched into her 4th SSR outfit, and then a new song written by Suisei’s recurring composer, lyricist, and fellow Midnight Grand Orchestra member TAKU INOUE started playing on stage. As the concert was happening, I was merely saying “congrats” in my mind.

And thus, the grand “Jubilee” started.

The Event (and My Mixed Feelings)

It’s easy for me to say that among the people who wanted a Hololive collab with THE IDOLM@STER in-game, Suisei probably won the hardest. She got her own in-game event, original song, a commu, and even an SSR in the series she loves—ignoring the behind-the-scenes shenanigans we will probably never fully know about. There were previous Hololive collab events in other gacha games, with Tokyo 7th Sisters and Granblue Fantasy getting their collabs in the past few years, but when it came to Starlight Stage’s collaborations, this was the game’s most intense collab yet.

I… didn’t initially plan on running this event much. While I was initially excited by the intensity of the collab event upon its official announcement, there were lingering feelings of “what if this were to be my tantou idol’s last event” and a slight hint of disappointment. The “end” of Starlight Stage had become a recurring topic among English-speaking Ps ever since the so-called “content reduction” announcement was released before the end of 2023. The collaboration itself was teased in that same announcement, but I presumed that the things around the collab were already in production as the whole “content reduction” stuff was being decided. The thought of losing IM@S’ most profitable mobile game because of whatever Bandai Namco is up to is kinda scary. It’s a silly sentiment towards a live service mobile game that will shut down eventually, but the thought is also real.

Then, there’s Kaede herself. Her last token event (and unit from the original mobile game) in Deresute, “Pretty Liar”, was held back in 2018. There’s… things I could say about her content released after that, both things I liked, things I felt odd towards, and things I didn’t really like all that much. In a nutshell: I want to see Kaede as “herself” and not just as the “final boss” Cinderella Girl that she is. It’s complicated.

And yet, this event’s timing couldn’t have been even more perfect. Lately I’ve been finding March and April to have moments involving my tantous. The event’s duration overlapped with March 30 (one year since Cinderella FES Mizuki’s release and eventually sparking FES Kaede in that same banner) and April 2 (10th Anniversary Tour Final, aka the live that changed the trajectory of my producing life forever). And the whole thing took place during Holy Week break, no less. The only real issues I would’ve had were potential connection issues that may arise in a then-upcoming 3-day road trip.

Why did this event have to be 11 days long?

The Actual Grind

Day 1 of the event started with me messing around with all my early intense grinding. I managed to get around the top 20 within the first 30 minutes of the event. Trying to maintain a top 100 spot was hard during the first few days, but eventually things stabilized as the days went on.

For a short break during the first day, I pulled on the collab gacha. My Suisei gacha tickets didn’t give me too much and got me an off-rate SSR (Miyo1), so I resorted to using jewels. Here came Kaede’s collab limited SSR, fully animated. My jewel count went from 55k at the start of the event to 36k—which would eventually be thrown into event ranking hell instead of being saved for the Kaede7 reruns (which was its own story).

During day 2, I kept playing (actually sending my auto Grand team through EVERLASTING FORTE hell and back) while I was at a local convention for the whole afternoon. Not pictured: me showing fellow artists there that I was playing the event! I may have fallen out from my goal for a while, dammit, but I kept farming for tokens anyway.

In addition, I drank some coffee especially during the last few days, although sometimes I find myself feeling a bit sleepy…

Throughout days 6-8, I was stuck on the annual provincial road trip during Holy Week. I brought two phones through the whole thing: my main phone whose mobile data has been mostly spent on event grinding, and a side phone where I would often chat on Discord or play videos and music during the trip. During the second night, I did get to stay in the hotel room by myself (we had two hotel rooms) and took that opportunity to try staying awake.

On day 9, I hit the 99,999,999 money cap for the first time. Nothing too significant about it other than me having to spend a lot on stuff from the limited money shop. (That’s why gold bars exist in-game!)

The final two nights had me trying my damn best to stay up for as much as possible past 1 or 2 AM. If you really value your sleep and sanity over a dumb number for a popular idol’s event, I do not recommend this.

The last day of the event was quite a stressful trip. Within the final 24 hours, I wanted to try reaching the maximum amount of tokens you could hold (99,999 tokens) but I feared that there would not be enough time for me to reach the target. I ended up stopping the EVERLASTING FORTE grind as soon as I got to 90k.

I wanted to park at certain numbers related to my tantous (Ray Distance’s Mobamas debut date, the day CG 4th LIVE’s performance of Nocturne happened, etc.) but I wouldn’t have enough time and/nor tokens to actually reach those numbers. Near the end I tried getting 1,591,715 (Mizuki and Kaede’s respective heights) but in the end, I only managed to reach the 1.59 million point mark with the last tokens I grinded and spent.

The hardest part of the event was actually trying to keep that high amount of uptime, and it was more apparent when I would get knocked out as I was trying to stay awake. I have a terrible sleep schedule (or lack thereof) but my sleepy butt wouldn’t keep me awake for too long. The loop of pressing buttons every 2 minutes felt monotonous for 11 days straight, minus the part where I actually played the event song for either jewels or to get a high score.

My complicated feelings towards Kaede’s latest event song being a collab with a popular VTuber was stuck in my mind, and I first thought I would try to settle for Top 500 early on; but previous sentiments and “final event” anxiety, combined with some encouragement from friends and other Producers (who ranked with me) kept telling me to keep going.

I ultimately finished the event at rank #72, which is… certainly a number associated with ChihayaPs. With a total of 1,590,435 points. I saw the numbers on Haruka’s birthday (April 3), send help.

I also made it to SSS rankings for the first time. It’s something I never really cared for, usually, but apparently ranking very high in a token event would let you in the top 1000. I never saw my actual SSS rank at the end of March (since I was too busy grinding), but I probably made it in the top 500 in the 91st SSS ranking that month.

The Tantou Unit Revenge

There’s one last thing I want to talk about, something I’ve been preparing for almost a year by that point. Long story short: I wanted to tier for the units I produce, and for the idols that are closest to me. I wanted to do that with S.E.M (my first tantou unit), but over the last few years my chances kept fading with each SideM game that got killed. By the time Growing Stars leaked announced its shutdown, I ended up starting to ask for a Kaede and Mizuki event (as Ray Distance) for me to tier in for me to have some form of “revenge” and (hopefully) closure on that front.

Of course that dream event didn’t happen (yet), knowing how much Bandai Namco and Cygames likes putting that After20 duo (who also have some of the busiest VAs in the series) together sometimes.

Over 2023, I did get some top 2000s here and there, in both token and groove events. The last event with my actual tantous in it happened over a year ago (Heartboiled Wars with Tomoe). Every event I’ve tiered in has had an idol I like: Aki, Sanae, Airi, Kanade, and Koharu.

And yet, I didn’t tier in this event because I like Suisei… I tiered in this event because I like Kaede. So much that I ended up producing her.

As weird as I feel about the collaboration as a whole, giving up on this chance would’ve left me with intense regret for several reasons. Future me would be really disappointed if this is to be Kaede’s final Starlight Stage event. (So I hope she gets one more event after this…)

The possibility of me failing a chance of tiering one of my closest tantou’s events again scared me. I lost my chances more than once, and it would probably hurt if I give up that chance. It wasn’t the ideal event I wanted to try in, but the timing was too perfect not to ignore either. There were many thoughts swirling in my head throughout the whole thing, but then again… it’s a tantou event in the end.

I’m awaiting Mizuki’s next event (especially since she hasn’t gotten a new song for nearly 3 years now), but I need to recover first.

Despite everything…

In the end, I do not regret being Kaede’s producer.

The Stats

PLv: 347 → 501. The 2x fan campaign combined with a bit of the EXP Produce perk boosts may have helped a lot.

Jewel count: 55k (pre-gacha) → 36k (post-gacha) → 7k. Thank goodness I didn’t have to spark Kaede in that limited banner.

Idols made past 15 million fans: Uzuki, Takumi, Nanami, and Tomoe. Three of my tantous & an excessive use of Nanami’s FES SSR.

Idols made past 10 million fans: Seira, Yui, and Koharu. Sanae, Miku, Nana, Ranko, and Karen also got a significant boost in fans due to all of this.

SSS songs cleared: Gaze and Gaze. Been wanting to save getting that clear for a special event.

Stamina drinks spent: everything.

Total no of EVERLASTING FORTE plays at the end: 2,947.

SSRs obtained from collab gacha: 5 (two Kaedes, one Rin4, a Makino1 dupe, and a Miyo1.) I’d eventually gain another 2 SSRs after the event (neither of them were Suisei though. I had to resist pulling further because a Kaede7 rerun was coming…)

The Special Thanks

The KaigaiPs that ranked with me in the top 100 (Zhu and Shiina especially—those two are on a different league of their own) for helping me survive this tiresome first Deresute T100 attempt.

My fellow online friends from the various Discord servers and on Twitter, for supporting me. I’ve been keeping that whole thing under wraps from my main account out of embarrassment, but yeah.

The Hololive Fan Wiki, Virtual YouTuber Wiki, and the JP Hololive Unofficial Wiki for Suisei research.

As a final note… when’s Passion Jewelries? Or the next Kaede/Mizuki event?

[fudanshidaily]

I mean...

Free! ran its entire course and is over, plain and simple. (I know, not even news at this point. Still.)

Last year we got B-Project season 3 - if not completely out of the blue (I legit don't know), I think it's fair to say it was at least outta left field. I sure didn't expect that.

Also last year, HypMic also got a 2nd season, another thing I honestly had no real hope for (but was, ofc, happy as hell for it) - and now they're even releasing a second game (which, lbr, they're dropping the ball HARD with, not doing it in English as well, but I digress).

Outside of manga/anime, but also lastyear, and to me personally, still just as completely and absolutely incomprehensible, both BUCK-TICK's Sakurai Atsushi, and (just ten days later!) X JAPAN's HEATH passed away.

Haikyuu!! is ... well, at this point we're just waiting for its coffin lid to be nailed down with the last movie (pardon the morbid).

But - in May this year, we got news that a DAIYA sequel is in the works. (While Boukyaku BATTERY was doing a damn fine job of tiding us over.)

KnY is in its final stretch with a trilogy coming up ... er, well. Sometime. Fwiw, it's definite.

The BNHA anime just passed some major manga milestones.

Amidst all this, BLUE LOCK has absolutely taken the world by a storm, I'd say especially with the anime. Then the mobile game which also got an English (and quite actually global!) release, a second mobile game, the second season of the anime coming in October - and the sheer amount and range of various collabs and promotions is just bloody mindblowing - seriously, try following it on Twitter, you'll be overwhelmed in a week. (I'd also say it's breaking some new ground and pushing the envelope in terms of fanservice and attention to certain ... ahem, details, point being the thirst gets quenched more than adequately.)

--- SIGH ---

And then the BOUEIBU crew announces a NEW MOVIE for next year?! For the tenth anniversary - the HELL do you mean it's been a DECADE?! Like, holy shit, I'd felt old enough already, now I feel positively ancient. Just.... idk, sorry, I can't quite put the mindfuck of this (of all this) into words.

Meanwhile, the Twisted Wonderland anime seems to be ... well. It seems not to be. Even though the game, the English version at that, is just now celebrating it's 2.5th anniversary. (Wdym it's been 2.5 years??)

Still though... What's next? My beloved Dream Festival! awakens from its ... not-quite-death, seeing as they have been doing all sorts of limited merch runs and collabs and concerts and limited screenings ever since the franchise's complete emergency shutdown??? Hey, what with everything here, I'm almost willing to say: one can dream... and hope, right?

[pastel-tyranny]

Let me in!!! LET ME IN!!!

A small post on the current state of Idol Land Pripara (speculation post)

I can come up with a billion possible theories off the top of my head as to why these maintenance server errors are happening.

Most obviously would be fan anticipation and the influx of player interest at launch. Maybe they never expected the fan base to be so large, thus the server crashes. Possibly this was supposed to be a soft launch instead of a grandiose event. But the problem with that is the hype they themselves had built up hype with cafe collabs, merch drops, concerts, stage shows, and the ONA (the web series). They even put a video announcing it on their youtube page, with the VAs of Yui and Amari to promote and showcase the game.

It could also possibly be game dev crunch. After all, syn-sophia is still the developer of pripara. They would have to restructure the pripara, experience to mobile and that’s no easy task. They have to change the user interface, add new features, and maybe squash a few bugs. I think the team is stretched pretty thin. Keep in mind, they would possibly be working on their current projects Waccha Primagi and soon Fashion Dreamer at the same time. The rebuttal would be that the dev team behind Idol Land could be an entirely different team within the company.

But the biggest theory (and jumping the shark) is maybe Takara TOMY ARTS, the secondary collaborator of Pripara, saw how poorly Prichan did back then and wanted to make money back by reviving the previous series that did them well financially. By doing so they are pushing the devs to make a deadline they can’t reach, so delay after delay. It’s been almost 4 years since the initial teaser announcement from way back in December of 2020.

At this point I fear not of the game’s performance, nor the errors and hours of server maintenance. I worry for the dev team and the amount of pressure they’ve been under. I hope we all can enter Idol Land together without the system crashing beneath our feet. I will paitently wait, check back in every few hours, and cross my fingers as I press enter hoping I will not get an “ERROR 2” message in bright pink and magenta.

[freyayuki]

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos Banner

The banner for Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII just showed up in the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (FFBE) mobile game.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius x Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion Collab Event

Been looking forward to the Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (#ad) collab event ever since I first heard about it showing up in the Japanese version of FFBE.

After what feels like having to wait for forever, the aforementioned collab is finally here in the Global or English version of the game.

This event introduces a couple of new chars who are all from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (CCFF7R) and they are as follows:

Zack Fair

Angeal Hewley

Cissnei

Genesis Rhapsodos

I talk more about this collab in this post, but to be more precise, what I was really looking forward to about this event was Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos.

Ever since I started playing FFBE, I’ve been hoping for Genesis to be added to this game. That’s because Genesis Rhapsodos is currently my absolute, most fave Final Fantasy char.

Needless to say, was really happy when I heard the news that he’d finally been added to the Japanese version of FFBE thanks to the CCFF7R collab event.

As soon as I heard the news about Genesis, I started preparing for his eventual arrival in the Global version of FFBE.

Among other things, this includes not using my lapis to pull on banners. This also means having to skip multiple chars unless I happened to get lucky with tickets.

The last time I pulled on a banner using lapis was for Neo Vision Flaring Aether Rain, and the reason why I did that is because of his Leader Skill.

Rain’s Leader Skill is called Passionate Aether, and it has the following effect:

Boost ATK and MAG by 500% and boost DEF and SPR by 200% for fire or FFBE category units

There are a lot of fire and/or FFBE category units. And in the Global version of the game, most of our Global-exclusive or Global-first chars are all under the FFBE category.

In short, having even just 1 copy of Flaring Aether Rain will enable players to boost the stats of a lot of their chars.

But, more importantly, at least for me, is the fact that one of Genesis’s categories in this game is fire, which means that he can benefit from Flaring Aether Rain’s Leader Skill. As far as I’m aware, so far, Rain is the only char who can buff fire chars by 500%.

I want to buff and boost Genesis as much as I possibly can, so I made sure to get Rain even if it meant having to use my lapis to do so. I talk more about that in this post.

Anyway, right now, my Flaring Aether Rain is at Ex+ 2/3. Also have 2 dupes of him which is equivalent to 100 fragments. Gonna need 100 more fragments to get him to Ex+ 3/3.

I’m hoping to be lucky enough to be able to get more dupes of Rain while pulling for Genesis so that I can get him to Ex+ 3/3 sooner rather than later. Getting him to Ex+ 3/3 will also give me access to his Vision Card (VC) which I want to equip to Genesis.

Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos Information

When the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius first announced that Genesis was coming soon, they didn’t give any more details about him so was free to speculate on what kind of unit he’ll be in this game.

Of course, I really want him to be good. I’ll still pull regardless, but of course I want him to be great.

I also really want Genesis to have a CG LB and to have a brave shift form. Maybe he can have his wing out in his shift form. Maybe he can wear his Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 outfit in one form then he can wear his Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII outfit in the other form.

I was kinda expecting Genesis to be a physical fire DPS since that’s what he is in the Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) mobile game. Or maybe they could make him a hybrid char so he can deal both physical and magical damage or something, I suppose.

Anyway, soon enough, we finally got more details about NV Genesis:

He’s an SLB unit, no brave shift

He’s a fire mage

He doesn’t have a CG LB

Not gonna lie - was kinda really disappointed about this. Well, at least Genesis is finally a playable char in this game.

Still can’t wait for him to get to the Global version of FFBE and will still pull for him, of course. But there are a lot of things that I’m disappointed about. I wish that FFBE had put more effort into this.

I wish that they could have given Genesis a CG LB, even if it’s really short. I wish that he could have gotten a brave shift form.

It also sucks to know that he seems to be locked to the fire element. I get why he’s a mage but I’m kinda miffed about that too because mages aren’t that good in this game. Well, there are a few good mages but most of the best DPS are all physical.

Heck, even the best mages might as well be physical too because they deal magical-based damage that’s physical-type. This means that while they make use of the MAG stat, they require physical killers and, unlike actual mages who use MAG and need magical killers, they can be imbued with any element.

At least it looks like Genesis is actually good. He’s being compared to NVA (Neo Vision Awakenable) Black Mage Golbez (from Final Fantasy IV) for having a Meteor-like ability that makes use of his magic and MP to deal damage.

The problem is that this ability of Gen’s is locked to the fire element while Golbez’s Meteor is not. Meteor can be imbued with any element so Golbez can easily fit in any team.

I’m really hoping that when Genesis gets added to the Global version of FFBE, he’ll be updated to also have the Meteor ability. Maybe they’ll give him some other upgrades and such too.

I mean chars like Flaring Aether Rain and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII got upgraded so it’s not impossible. But I know that it’s not that likely either. Still, let me hope and dream, okay? LOL.

Anyway, in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion collab event started with banners for Zack Fair and Angeal Hewley. The Genesis banner showed up about a week later.

But in the Global version of FFBE, much to my surprise, the Genesis banner showed up first. Not complaining since I’ve been looking forward to Genesis for what feels like forever.

Maybe Zack and Angeal will show up next week but who knows? There could be more changes and such.

Anyway, like I said, I knew it was unlikely for Genesis to get any upgrades but was still really disappointed when that turned out to be the case. This is because he’s not “premium”, isn’t it? Sigh. Well, at least that means it will be easier to get him to NV Ex+ 3/3.

Update: wrote that line I just crossed out days before pulling on Genesis’s banner. I’d been able to save so much lapis that I had very high hopes of being able to 3/3 Genesis right away. Didn’t think that things would turn out to be this bad. Now I’m basically all out of lapis with nothing much to show for it. Eff this game.

Vision Cards Comparison

Apparently, one of, if not the, best VC for Genesis is the Dazzling Demoness Vision Card. So I’m really sad that I missed out on this card.

Dazzling Demoness gives +500 MP and +120 MAG. It also has the following effects:

Increase MP and MAG by 100%

Increase static MP and MAG by 500

Increase physical and magic damage against aquatics and insects by 100%

Decrease MP used by 50%

The above effects applies to all chars while the ones below will only apply to FFBE units:

Increase chain modifier cap by 100%

Increase equipment MAG by 200% and accuracy by 25% when single wielding any weapon

Dazzling Demoness must have shown up twice or so by now but each time it became available, I never bothered to try and get it. Because I didn’t think that I needed it seeing as the chars who I have built are all mostly physical DPS.

But, as it turns out, Genesis wants this card too. Argh! If only I’d known that while the banner that featured this card was still up. Sigh.

I keep hoping for this VC to show up again but so far that hasn’t happened at all, which really sucks.

So now I’m looking at other Vision Cards that could be good alternatives to Dazzling Demoness. At the moment, I’m eying the following:

1. Flaring Aether Rain’s Miasma Meets Aether Vision Card

ATK/MAG +170

Another Regalia: Increase ATK and MAG by 80%

Power Entrusted: Increase LB damage by 100%

Strike Burning with Aether: Increase static ATK and MAG by 500

The last 3 effects can only be used or activated by a fire category unit.

2. Dark Rain’s Dark Rain Descends Vision Card

MAG +130

An Assailant Appears: Increase MAG by 80%

A Man Called “Emperor”: Increase LB damage by 100%

Another Rain: Increase static MAG by 500

The last 2 effects can only be used or activated by a mage unit.

3. Blade of Vengeance Ibara’s Wish-Granting Demon Vision Card

ATK/MAG +170

Hallowed Tree: Increase LB damage by 50%

Prayer Answered: Increase static ATK/MAG by 300

The True Demon: Increase chain modifier cap by 100%

Flaring Aether Rain, Dark Rain, and Blade of Vengeance Ibara are all “premium” chars which, among other things, means that their Vision Cards can only be obtained once they’re at Ex+ 3/3.

In contrast to that, you can get the Vision Cards of non-premium chars, like Genesis, once they’re at Ex+ 1/3. You’ll even get another copy after getting them to Ex+ 3/3.

Ahh, I wish Genesis was “premium” too if only so that he’ll have a great Vision Card as well. He could have had a really good Leader Skill too instead of just +100% stats to all Final Fantasy VII chars.

Anyway, as aforementioned, I still need 100 more fragments in order to get my 2/3 Flaring Aether Rain to 3/3. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more copies of him while pulling for Genesis.

I have 1 copy of Dark Rain that’s at 1/3. Currently have 77 fragments for him so he’s a long way from being 3/3.

The state of my Blade of Vengeance Ibara is even worse. My copy of her is only at 0/3 and I only have 10 fragments for her. I’m debating whether to buy at least 40 of her fragments from the VIP Shop if only so I can get her to 1/3 and have access to her brave shift form.

But since she’s a premium char, her fragments will cost me a lot of VIP Coins. 5 of her fragments costs 300 VIP Coins. So even just buying 40 fragments will cost me 2400 VIP Coins.

In contrast to that, 5 of the fragments of non-premium chars will only cost 100 VIP Coins. So getting 50 of their fragments will only cost you a total of 1k VIP Coins.

Another reason why I’m reluctant to buy Ibara’s fragments is because I also want to buy Rain’s fragments. I’ll need 3k VIP Coins in order to get 50 of Rain’s fragments in the shop.

At the time I’m writing this part of this post, I only have 5525 VIP Coins. So if I try to get both Rain’s and Ibara’s fragments, I’ll basically be all out of VIP Coins.

I’m thinking it might be better to just skip Ibara’s fragments. Can’t really use her when she’s stuck at 1/3 anyway, and even getting 50 of her fragments won’t bring me closer to getting her to 2/3, much less 3/3.

I should just focus on getting Rain’s fragments since I’m kinda close to being able to 3/3 him already. But I’ll wait until after I pull on Genesis’s banner, just in case I get some more Rain dupes.

For now, will be equipping Genesis with his own Vision Card until I can get Flaring Aether Rain’s Miasma Meets Aether.

Genesis’s Vision Card is called The World Needs a New Hero. It has the following effects:

MAG +130

Battle Atop the Cannon: Boost MAG by 50%

Sephiroth’s Composure: Boost LB damage by 25%

The World Needs a New Hero: Boost MAG by 500 (only applies to FFVII units)

On a side note, ugh, what’s with the translation of this VC? No offense, but I hate it.

I looked up the Japanese version of this VC and its name is 俺も英雄になるんだ. According to Google Translate, the Romaji for that is “ore mo eiyuu ni narunda”, which translates to, “I too would like to be a hero”.

This is the exact same line that Genesis says in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII during that cut scene featuring him, Angeal Hewley, and Sephiroth. Here’s a video for reference:

I know that in the English version, he unfortunately says that blasted line instead, which really sucks.

I mean, “The world needs a new hero” is so different from “I too would like to be a hero”. Why’d they translate it like that? Needless to say, I prefer the Japanese version. I wish they had translated it accurately.

Anyway, I’ll talk more about that in another post, or we’ll be here all day. LOL. For now, let’s move on to the next line.

In the Japanese version of FFBE, Battle Atop the Cannon is called 砲塔上での戦い which translates to Battle on the Turret (according to Google Translate). So that sounds right enough. No problems with this one.

Sephiroth’s Composure is called セフィロスの余裕 which translates to Sephiroth’s Leeway (again, according to Google Translate).

Leeway means “the amount of freedom to move or act that is available” while composure means “the state or feeling of being calm and in control of oneself” (both according to Google).

So these 2 words are different too. But honestly though, what drew my attention when I first saw the English translation was the fact that Sephiroth was in the name when this isn’t even his Vision Card. Yeah, I know the animation for this Vision Card features him but still.

I actually thought the English version was just translating things their way again so was surprised when Sephiroth was also listed in the Japanese version.

Anyway, was also bothered by the last line because it was just a repetition of the title of the Vision Card. Like, seriously, why? And apparently, it’s like that in the Japanese version as well.

I looked up NV Legendary Hero Sephiroth’s Vision Card because this is one of the Final Fantasy VII Vision Cards that I have and, sure enough, all the names are different.

The Vision Card is called A Touching Reunion. The effects are called Tenacious Bond, Resurrecting Nightmare, and Experienced Swordsman.

You know, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7 is featured in Sephiroth’s VC but his name doesn’t even show up in any of the text on said VC.

Ugh, just annoyed now because it feels like they didn’t even put much effort into this. I mean, come on, we have Vision Cards like Sephiroth’s and Flaring Aether Rain’s who have nice names and then we have Genesis’s Vision Card which is sadly meh. Sigh. Anyway, let’s just move on, or we’ll be here all day.

Weapons for Genesis Rhapsodos

Genesis’s STMR or Super Trust Master Reward is called Genesis’s Sword. This is a 2-handed sword which comes with +140 ATK and +234 MAG as well as +50% accuracy and 1.25-1.75x variance or damage modifier. It also has the following effects:

Scarlet SOLDIER’s blade: increase physical and magic damage against humans and machinas by 75%

Blade clad in magic: increase static MAG by 500 (this only applies to Genesis)

On a side note, again, what’s with these names? Ugh. “Genesis’s Sword”, really? They couldn’t even give it an actual name. Isn’t his sword called Rapier?

Sadly, the Japanese version is basically the same, calling this weapon ジェネシスの剣 which translates to Sword of Genesis.

But on the other hand, in the Japanese version “scarlet SOLDIER’s blade” is called 紅きソルジャーの細剣. Its Romaji is akaki sorujā no saiken, which translates to “crimson SOLDIER’s rapier”. So why couldn’t they have put rapier as the name of Genesis’s STMR?

In the Japanese version, “blade clad in magic” is 魔力を纏う剣の力 which translates to “the power of a magical sword”.

Note that this and all other translations are all from Google Translate unless stated otherwise so maybe it’s not entirely accurate but still. What’s with these crappy and uninspired lines and names?

Sorry, but I think FFRK did it better. It feels like Final Fantasy Record Keeper was more creative when it came to giving weapon names and such. Here’s an example from this post.

Anyway, Genesis’s Sword is good for him but it looks like the Dark Visions 2-handed Abyss Dark weapon sword is better.

The Dark Visions 2-handed sword is known as Dark Walküre and it comes with +202 ATK, +405 MAG, +50% accuracy, and 1.25-1.75x variance.

As soon as I was able to acquire this sword, I ran it in the Steel Castle Melfikya or Item World, wanting to get the best passives for Genesis.

Genesis wants a lot of MP, especially since I don’t have Dazzling Demoness, so I was trying to get the perfect MP roll for this sword. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

After what feels like hundreds of tries, the best I’ve managed to get so far is the following: +20% MP, +10% MP, and +5% MP.

The rates here really need to be higher. Seriously, it’s so bad. There is so much crap in the abilities pool.

Don’t want to give up though. Gonna keep trying and trying until I can get the perfect roll for Genesis’s sword.

Much, much later - after what feels like forever, I finally managed to get the perfect roll for the DV sword. That would be +20% MP, +15% MP, and +10% MP. Hell, yes! And freaking finally! Super pleased to see this.

Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos Banner Information

There are 2 banners that feature Genesis. The first one is the Genesis Step-Up Summon banner that has 6 steps and is limited to 1 per player.

Step 1 costs 3k lapis and will give you 11 units, 1 Summon Coin, and 1 NV Exchange Ticket

Step 2 costs 4k lapis and will give you 11 units, 1 Summon Coin, 1 NV Exchange Ticket, and 25 STMR Tickets

Step 3 costs 5k lapis and will give you 11 units, 1 Summon Coin, 1 NV Exchange Ticket, 25 STMR Tickets, and 100 VIP Coins

Step 4 costs 5k lapis and will give you 10 units, 1 guaranteed NV, 1 Summon Coin, 1 NV Exchange Ticket, and 1 Transcension Pearl

Step 5 costs 5k lapis and will give you 10 units, 1 guaranteed NV, 1 Summon Coin, 1 NV Exchange Ticket, and 200 VIP Coins

Step 6 costs 6k lapis and will give you 10 units, 1 guaranteed NV, 1 Summon Coin, 1 NV Exchange Ticket, and 1 Exchange Ticket (Original Armory III)

Step 4 has a 2% rate for Genesis. Step 5 has a 2.5% rate for Genesis. Step 6 has a 5% rate for Genesis.

You can exchange 10 NV Exchange Tickets for 1 copy of NV Genesis. You can exchange 1 Exchange Ticket (Original Armory III) for 1 global original equipment that’s featured in the Original Armory III shop. You can exchange Summon Coins for various items, including fragments for Genesis, in the Exchange Shop (Genesis).

The second banner that features Genesis is called the Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon banner. This one has 4 steps and is limited to 7 per player.

Step 1 costs 1k lapis and will give you 4 units

Step 2 costs 3k lapis and will give you 8 units, 1 Summon Coin, and 1 NV Exchange Ticket

Step 3 costs 5k lapis and will give you 11 units, 1 Summon Coin, and 1 NV Exchange Ticket

Step 4 is free and will give you 6 units

Neo Vision Information and Fragments for Genesis Rhapsodos

Once you have 1 copy of a Neo Vision char or unit, you need 50 fragments or shards to get them to Ex+ 1/3. Then you need 100 fragments to get them to Ex+ 2/3. After that, you need 200 fragments to fully max them out to Ex+ 3/3.

One copy of a NV char can be converted to 50 of said char’s fragments.

So in order to get Genesis to NV Ex+ 3/3, I need at least 8 copies of him.

As part of the CCFF7R Epic Poet Login Bonus, we will get up to 30 of Genesis’s fragments just by logging on to the game daily for the duration of the campaign period. Day 1, day 4, and day 6 will give 10 Genesis fragments each for a total of 30 Genesis fragments.

After Genesis’s banner ends, 50 of his fragments will be available in the Fragment Shops under the VIP Shop (Unit Fragments/Brave Insignia) for 1k VIP Coins.

In the Fragment Shops, under the Lapis Exchange Shop, 30 of Genesis’s fragments will also be available for 3300 lapis.

There is also a bundle called Genesis Fragment Bundle that costs 5k lapis. This one contains 50 of Genesis’s fragments as well as 900 Trust Coins.

The Exchange Shop (Genesis) contains various items including 50 Genesis fragments. You need 5 Summon Coins to get all of these fragments.

And, as aforementioned, you can exchange 10 NV Exchange Tickets for 1 copy of NV Genesis. The NV Ticket Exchange Shop (Genesis) contains 2 copies of Genesis. So you need a total of 20 NV Exchange Tickets to get both copies of Genesis in the shop.

My goal is to get Genesis to Ex+ 3/3 on day 1 a.k.a the day that I pull on his banner so I’m just gonna ignore the fragments that I can’t get right away.

The fragments and/or copies of Genesis that I can access right away are as follows:

The 2 copies of Genesis in the NV Ticket Exchange Shop (Genesis) for 20 NV Exchange Tickets

50 Genesis fragments in the Exchange Shop (Genesis) for 5 Summon Coins

30 Genesis fragments in the Lapis Exchange Shop for 3300 lapis

50 Genesis fragments from the Genesis Fragment Bundle for 5k lapis

10 Genesis fragments from the Epic Poet Login Bonus campaign

Hmm. Okay, for now, I’ll just pull on the Genesis banner first and see how it goes.

For Genesis, I’m willing to go all the way to the pity. Heck, I’ll pity him twice if I have to and spend even more if necessary though of course, I’m hoping that things won’t turn out to be that bad.

I’ve been saving my lapis ever since I heard that Genesis had finally showed up in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. IIRC, the only time that I used my lapis to pull was when NV Flaring Aether Rain came, and that was only because I wanted access to his Leader Skill for Genesis.

I do readily use any and all tickets that I get basically as soon as I get them but it’s really rare to get anything good or useful from these.

It really sucks how bloated the unit pool in this game is already. There’s so much crap that it feels like it will take a miracle before you can get something good and useful from these pulls.

Anyway, I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to get a lot of copies of Genesis right away and without having to spend so much. Also hoping to be able to get some NVs that I don’t have yet or that I don’t have fully maxed out yet.

But considering how the results of my Flaring Aether Rain pulls were mostly crappy, I’m already bracing myself for something similar to happen on my Genesis banner pulls.

Genesis Step-Up Summon Banner Pulls Results

Currently, have 183,970 lapis on hand. Here are the results of my pulls on the Genesis Step-Up Summon banner:

Will only list any NV that I get since 5-stars and below aren’t really worth talking about. Heck, even some of the NVs aren’t worth talking about either. There are a lot of Neo Visions that are really old and outdated by now.

Step 1 - no NV. Meh.

Step 2 - no NV either. Ugh. Rate-up is a lie.

Step 3 - no NV again. Wow, eff this game.

Step 4 - finally, a NV crystal shows up. Please be my first copy of Genesis already, please.

No Genesis. But I did get 2 NVs. One was my first copy of Neo Vision Lion from Final Fantasy XI and the second was a dupe of Neo Vision Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.

Don’t know anything about Lion. IIRC, she only recently showed up in the game so she’s not that outdated maybe.

As for Cloud Strife - he’s one of the more recent “premium” chars in FFBE. He’s also pretty good so glad that I was able to get a dupe of him. Right now, I have 1 copy of him that’s at 1/3.

Been running him in the Fragment Dungeon so I currently have 32 fragments for him. This dupe that I just got gives me 50 more so I’m now closer to being able to get him to 2/3.

Step 5 - dupe NV Fina -The Return-. Ugh, so much for that so-called 2.5% featured rate for the NV unit. Sigh. Well, at least this is like the last dupe of Fina that I need in order to get my 2/3 copy to 3/3.

Step 6 - argh! Eff this game. Only got dupe Roca who I already have at 3/3. Damn it.

Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon Banner Pulls Results

Now down to 155,970 lapis on hand. Here are the results of my pulls on the Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon banner:

Step 1 - no NV. Genesis, doko da? Please come home already. Need multiple copies of you.

Step 2 - no NV again. Ugh, sometimes, I really hate this game.

Step 3 - no NV. Again.

Step 4 - still no NV because eff this game.

Step 1 -

Step 2 -

Step 3 -

Step 4 -

Not a single NV showed up in my second lap on this banner. Eff this banner and this game. Rate-up is a lie. Damn it. I really hate this. Didn’t think it would be this bad. But this is really terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Step 1 - still no NV. Is this some kind of joke or what? It’s not funny. So freaking pissed off. WTF is going on here? This banner is cursed.

Step 2 - argh! The one time I finally get a NV it turns out to be Mazurka who is old and useless and outdated. Damn it. Eff this game.

Step 3 - back to no NV because of-freaking-course.

Step 4 - no NV again. What else is new?

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion Banner Pulls Results

This banner also has Genesis on rate up. It costs 5k lapis for 11 summons. Decided to try my luck here since the other banner is clearly cursed. I tried the single summon for 250 lapis too but that one didn’t even give me a 5-star.

Now down to 128, 720 lapis on hand. Here are the results of my pulls on this banner:

Did 4 multi-draws and yet not a single NV showed up. WTF? What is going on here? How is this freaking fair? Eff this game. So mad. Don’t even know what to say anymore. Damn it. Damn this.

Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon Banner Pulls Results

Went back to this banner because why not? And does it even matter anymore? I guess I’m just going to keep on pulling until I run out of lapis. Sigh. Eff this game.

I’d been looking forward to this banner for forever. Was so happy that it was finally here. Now I’m just sad and depressed. Why’d this have to happen?

Step 1 -

Step 2 -

Step 3 -

Step 4 -

Step 1 -

Step 2 -

Step 3 -

Step 4 -

Genesis Banner Exchange Shop

Went to the Exchange Shop for the Genesis banners. By now I have 20 Summon Coins. Exchanged 5 Coins to get 50 of Genesis’s fragments.

Genesis NV Exchange Shop

Then I went to the Exchange Shop where I can exchange up to 2 copies of Genesis. Each copy costs 10 NV Exchange Tickets. By now I have 20 of those tickets.

Proceeded to exchange all of my tickets for the 2 copies of NV Genesis.

Now I have 2 copies of Genesis plus 60 of his fragments (50 from the shop and 10 from logging in).

Neo Vision Genesis Rhapsodos

I have him now but - don’t really feel happy. Still feel so frustrated and angry. My pulls on these banners were so bad. I have no words right now. Just - argh! Insert multiple curse words here because argh! Eff this game! Eff this banner! Eff these cursed rates!

Also WTF? How come there are only 2 copies of Genesis in the NV Exchange Shop? Why aren’t there more? What if I want more copies of him?

I want to get him to Ex+ 3/3 and now I’m wondering how I’m gonna be able to do that. I thought that I’d be able to get at least 1 or more copies of him from pulling on his banner. But couldn’t even get more than a couple of NVs from these pulls.

Ugh. Thinking about how crappy the results of my draws were just pisses me off. Really wish that things had turned out differently. Why’d things have to happen this way? Couldn’t even get at least 1 dupe of Rain to get him to 3/3. Sigh.

Anyway, let’s see. So right now, with what I have, I can get Genesis to 1/3 then I’ll have 1 dupe + 10 fragments, which is basically equivalent to 60 fragments.

If I buy the Genesis Fragment Bundle now for 5k lapis, I’ll get 50 fragments which, combined with the 60 fragments I already have, is more than enough to get him to 2/3 already.

I’ll have 10 leftover fragments if I do that. Then I’ll need 190 more fragments in order to get him to 3/3. I can get 30 more of Genesis’s fragments from the Lapis Exchange Shop for 3300 lapis.

If I wait a few more days, then I can get 20 more fragments from the login campaign thing. If I wait even more, 50 of Genesis’s fragments will eventually be available in the VIP Shop.

So that’s 30 fragments from the Lapis Exchange Shop + 10 leftover fragments + 20 from the login rewards + 50 from the VIP Shop = 110 fragments. Ugh. That means I’ll still need 90 more fragments even after all of that.

Argh! This can’t be. I just want to 3/3 Genesis, damn it. I need to pull copies of him.

I still have lapis but - ugh, pulling feels like a waste since I keep getting trash and I can’t pity him anymore because there are no more copies of him in the NV Exchange Shop so even if I keep on gettng those NV Exchange Tickets, they’ll just be useless now.

But if I want more copies of Genesis, I have no choice but to pull. There’s no guarantee anymore though. Now I can only hope that these banners will stop being so awful.

Please, can I get something good now, please? How could things be this bad? Damn it.

Okay, for now, I went to level up one of my copies of Genesis. Gave him all the stat boosts and maxed out everything that can be maxed. Then I went ahead and got him to Ex+ 1/3 already.

Here are some screenshots:

Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon Banner Pulls Results

Decided to pull again first before buying the rest of Genesis’s fragments that I can buy. Fingers crossed that things will be better this time. Please.

Step 1 - LOL, of course, there’s no NV again because eff this game.

Step 2 - NV? What NV? This banner really is cursed, isn’t it?

Step 3 - oh, look, a NV actually showed up. Surprise, surprise. Watch this be trash so it might as well not be a NV. To my surprise though, the Neo Vision that I just got turned out to be -

Genesis! Hell, yes! And freaking finally. I can’t believe he only showed up now. Rate up really is a lie, huh? I mean, come on, isn’t he supposed to be on rate up?

I’ve basically pitied him twice by now and am practically on my way to pitying him for the third time (not that it’s possible to do so even if I want to) and yet this is only the first time that I ever got a copy of him. Seriously? Sigh. Well, at least I got another dupe of him.

Step 4 - and we’re back to 0 NVs. Is there actually something wrong with this banner or what?

Anyway, before continuing to pull a.k.a waste my lapis and be even more disappointed and mad than I already am, I thought I’d better reassess the situation again.

Let’s see. My Genesis is now at Ex+ 1/3. I now have 2 dupes of him which is equivalent to 100 fragments so he’s basically 2/3 now. Then I have 10 more of his fragments.

If I buy all the currently available Genesis fragments with lapis, I’ll have a total of 90 fragments for him. I still need like 2, preferably 3 more copies of him, so I can get him to 3/3 now.

Okay, I guess I have to keep on pulling. Before that though, let me just buy the 50 Genesis Fragment Bundle for 5k lapis already. For now, I’ll hold off on getting the 30 fragments since that won’t get me anywhere right now anyway.

After buying the bundle, I turned one of my Genesis dupes into 50 fragments then awakened my 1/3 Genesis to 2/3.

Now it’s time to keep on pulling. Hopefully, I can get more dupes of Genesis as well as more NVs. Please. This time, can I actually get something good instead of crap and more crap?

Step 1 -

Step 2 -

Step 3 -

Step 4 -

Did I mention that I hate this game? Because I freaking hate this game. Eff this cursed banner. Eff these blasted and crappy rates. Damn it.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion Banner Pulls Results

Went back to this banner because I can’t pull on the Genesis NV Premium Step-Up Summon banner anymore. Now down to 68,520 lapis. Here are the results of my pulls on this banner:

1 - no NV again. What else is new?

2 - what a waste of lapis.

3 - hate this game and this banner.

4 - ugh, can’t I get even just one good NV, please?

5 - Genesis, doko da?

6 - can’t even get a single NV from one of these pulls. Eff this game.

7 - rate up is a lie. Also curse this banner.

8 - finally, a NV shows up. Just got Determined Dagger a.k.a Garnet Til Alexandros XVII from Final Fantasy IX.

At least she’s new and at least I finally got a NV after all this time but - argh! Please, just give me more Genesis dupes. Isn’t he supposed to be on rate up on this banner? Where the eff is he?

9 - too depressed to comment.

10 - running out of lapis.

11 - Genesis, please. Come home again, please.

12 - aren’t there any NVs on this banner?

13 - ugh, can’t even get a single dupe of Genesis. So much for being supposedly featured on this banner.

Wow, I really freaking hate this game right now. Down to 4,960 lapis so can’t pull anymore even if I want to. It really sucks that I barely got any NVs. Damn it.

Shouldn’t have bothered pulling on this banner anymore since not even a single copy of Genesis showed up. Basically just wasted 60k+ lapis. I regret that now since not only did I not get even a single copy of Genesis, the only other NV that I got was Garnet.

If I’d gotten more NVs, this wouldn’t have been so bad. As it is, this just felt like a complete and utter waste of lapis. Maybe I would have been better off just pulling on some other banner instead.

Heck, Flaring Aether Rain’s banner is still up. Maybe I could have pulled there to try and get 1 more copy of him so that I can 3/3 him already and equip his Vision Card to Genesis.

In retrospect, I should have stopped pulling right after I got my first copy of Genesis from one of his banners. If I’d done that, I would still have some lapis left instead of being basically down to 0 now. I now regret continuing to pull.

Like I said, if I’d gotten more NVs and if I’d gotten more copies of Genesis, then I wouldn’t have minded spending this much. But as it is, right now, just filled with so much frustration and anger and sadness. How could this happen? Why’d this happen? Sigh.

Got 17 more of those NV Exchange Tickets. If there were more copies of Genesis in the shop, I could have pitied him for the third time and then be on my way to pitying him for the fourth time.

Used all the tickets that I had on hand too but still no dice. I just wanted to be able to get Genesis to 3/3 on the day that I pull for him. Didn’t think that would be so impossible. He’s not even “premium”. And yet here we are.

Only ever got 1 copy of him from one of his banners. Eff this game. Wasn’t planning to run him in the Fragment Dungeon but looks like I’m gonna have to do that.

Also went ahead and bought all 30 of Genesis’s fragments for 3300 lapis. Down to 1660 lapis now.

But since I’m clearly not getting any more dupes of Genesis, gonna need all the fragments that I can get my hands on. Now I also need to wait for the rest of the login fragments plus the ones from the VIP Shop.

In short, there’s no way that I can get him to 3/3 now or anytime soon because eff this game. Sigh. So freaking sad and depressed right now :-(.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull for Genesis Rhapsodos? What do you think about this game and its banner rates? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Final Fantasy Brave Exvius game account and the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

[adaru32]

The Red Devil’s Chronicles: Sept to Nov 2022 DMC News Updates - Merch, Collabs, Etc.

Hey there, how's it going? Apologies for being silent for awhile. Got really distracted and busy. Here are all the Devil May Cry-related news updates I've conjured up from September to November:  1. Devil May Cry returns in Last Cloudia. 2. Someone by the name of PresssLee on Twitter is making a fan game based on Dante's and Vergil's childhood. 3. Prime1 Studio releasing a DT version of V. b) And more merch. c) Plus DMC3 Dante and Vergil, coming soon. 4. The English version of the DMCV art book is coming. 5. New Devil May Cry apparel at the CapCom store. 6. The Devil May Cry: Peak/Pinnacle of Combat mobile game gets more updates soon, which includes switching characters in real time, unlockable playable Nero, special move cutscenes, and more. 7. Devil May Cry V now reaches over 6 million copies sold. b) Not to mention it's currently one of CapCom's top selling games.  c) And Itsuno talks about his development adventures, with DMCV included in the discussion. d) And Itsuno also discusses his struggles with the PS3 and Xbox360 era. 8. Dante’s DMCV face model, Adam Cowie, dressed up as Dante for Halloween. 9. The creator of Fable admits to using some ideas from the Devil May Cry games. 10. Big decision I’ve made on my part. I used to run a DMC4-Screenshotz Photobucket page to store all of these screenshots I’ve taken of Devil May Cry 4 for the purpose of linking it onto my long, forgotten website. Due to drastic, unlikeable changes made on Photobucket’s part, and losing interest in maintaining the site due to its limitations in the free version, I’ve decided to completely remove that Photobucket account, and all of its screenshots with it. 

My Thoughts On These Updates:

1. Not a mobile game fan, but nice to see that some collab projects are making returns. 2. That’s awesome that we get a fan game. I remember when me and a few friends wanted to make our own when the reboot got announced back in the day due to us being unhappy about the direction CapCom was going in. But we had to scrap the idea due to being too busy. 3. Those DMC3 figures are looking pretty great so far. I understand they’re just computer generated, so they might not be the official final look. You never know. I do see some hints of Naru Omori’s style being implemented into these figures. And I love how Dante finally gets a slice of pizza as part of a collectible item. 4. I’d see Japanese fans help translate some of the stuff from the art book, but of course things end up being vague since they’re just concept images and nothing more. Plus certain kanji can be a bit hard to translate. 5. Those clothes are looking SSStylish. 6. I remember hearing rumours of Nero becoming an unlockable character, so it looks like it might actually be a thing. That’s cool how you can change characters in real time as well. And from what I’ve seen in the latest gameplay vids, it once again has gone through a lot of changes with the visuals and characters’ faces. Wonder what new updates there will be after these ones. 7. So happy for CapCom that Devil May Cry V is doing so great. Gives us fans hope about their future of game development and release choices. Fans are still discussing to this day on what DMC6 will offer.  I agree and imagine the PS3 and Xbox360 era being a bit of a difficult era to work with. Microtransactions, DLC, and all that tricky marketing stuff are what got introduced and changed the gaming business from then on. Even working with different equipment for better visuals and all of that. Devil May Cry 4 in my opinion wasn’t really up to its hype. Yes, it introduced some new and interesting things, and the cutscenes were very enjoyable to watch, and of course those that enjoyed the mechanics got a kick out of the whole Bloody Palace and SSStylish tournament-related stuff. But the way the game played out just got so boring, and definitely would’ve been as great as DMCV and/or DMC3 if they delayed the game further and implemented what they wanted to from the start. I feel they released DMC4 at a pretty bad time. 8. I was wondering when we were gonna see Adam dressed up as Dante again. 9. Of course, many struggling companies or businesses would want some “inspiration” from good titles. Fable was pretty good and amusing. Never thought they’d take ideas from Devil May Cry. I’m even still trying to wrap my head around where the elements of Devil May Cry are in it. 10.  It’s no biggie that I decided to remove my Photobucket account and all of its contents...I can always show my love of Devil May Cry another way.  11. There is one other thing I was gonna mention here which was about that drama involving Platinum Games and Bayo’s original voice actress Hellena Taylor. I’ve decided not to bring that up ‘cause it’s more about Bayonetta than Devil May Cry. In other words, a different topic. Yes, Bayo does have some very minor ties with DMC, and Hideki Kamiya from Platinum was the original director of DMC, but I’d rather keep it just exclusively Devil May Cry-related. If you want my thoughts on it, though, I don’t really have anything since I’m not much of a Bayonetta fan. At first, I heard that Kamiya left Twitter for good, but it turned out that he didn’t leave after all. And Hellena’s one sneaky, greedy, and pompous individual. Yes, I’ve heard of voice actors/actresses getting treated poorly, and yes we do see Kamiya act unprofessional and insane at times. But in Hellena’s case, she’s just seeking for attention to cause a stir, and mislead fans for her own gain. That’s all I’ve gotta say.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Didn’t want to post this but I just realized it was more than one tweet so eh (I only checked to see if it was deleted cause a tumblr reblog got deleted that I was replying to so fkldsajfljfd didn’t know if the the tumblr/twitter user were the same person, but considering it happened within 24 hrs of each other, but yeah I saw they made a few other tweets about it b4 the one I saw and I’m like “mmmmm I wanna set a few boundaries for future ppl that come on this blog”) And it was bothering me and I dunno if it was an accident on their part, but in case it wasn’t yeah....wanna set a few boundaries.

Listen if you don’t like my opinions it’s fine (I know I’m not exactly screaming into the void I now the void can scream back), and if you want to openly disagree and open a discussion that’s totally cool too! Or if you want to privately complain to your friends (aka I’m not following you or it’s a private message, or really just any way I won’t see it like even stumbling upon it) that’s neat too! 

But uh.......I never thought about it till now, but I don’t think I like ppl complaining about me in private (name cropped or not) and then tagging me so I can see their complaints. I dunno that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Like go ahead, tear my 3 am rants apart or bad mouth me, that’s fine, I don’t care. I don’t care cause it’s outta sight outta mind. But you do that and then tag me? So I can see it? Kinda makes me uncomfortable. Esp if it’s not to open a discussion. 

I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt that it was an accident (probably meant to do “@/” so as to not directly at me but forgot the “/”). But in case it’s on purpose and other people think of doing it, please don’t (this goes for Twitter and tumblr). Want me to see something? Want to ask me a question? Want my input? That’s ok! Want to rag on me/my opinions/something related to me, then at me, and leave it at that? No please don’t. 

I’m not mad, just uncomfortable (and paranoid in case it happens again). And I also don’t want a witch hunt, I just wanna set boundaries. 

Ah......also, again cause I’m paranoid (constantly paranoid about this tbh), I really hope that I don’t come across as hostile. I know I can get heated in my rants (never aimed at any anon or any person, just at P5 or whatever is angering me at that point.....usually P5), and I figured y’all are here for my long winded ness and my harumph harumph-ness or the fact it reads like a fever dream....it def feels like one when I type kelfjsadfja (when it comes to those kinds of posts at least), but even at my most salty I don’t want anyone feeling like “ah def don’t feel comfortable countering her or asking questions.” Obviously this isn’t a “positivity only~!” place, but I want it to at least feel like people feel respected. orz

[allykakamatsu]

Hypothetical P5A

Okay, gonna make this clear right up front, I wanted to make this post for a while but the main reason I decided to do it now is because the Atlus announcement thing is almost here, and also cause I saw a video on this topic by Thorgi’s Arcade (go watch it btw it’s good) and while I agree with a lot of what he said, there’s also some things I’d change, not just cause I disagree, but also cause I think it would be fun. Anyway enough beating around the bush, let’s do this

Gameplay

I’m a firm believer in the phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the Arena games are already really good so not much to change. That being said, I still wanna change some things. First off though, we are keeping this 1 vs 1, no tag team matches. The arena games already have a lot of Mechanics going on and trying to keep everything as well as some new stuff WHILE adding a tag team button, yeah no let’s not outside of maybe a bonus mode.

This means I can’t add Batton Pass in as a new mechanic to represent P5, but I have a solution, that being Technicals. Status ailments already exist in this game, so how about when you inflict one and do a specific combo you do more damage, also providing risk vs reward as the player with the status will have a better idea of what the opponent will do making them more predictable. Also as for Persona’s, mostly everyone’s will be fully evolved, minus Yu cause him getting a final boss persona normally is a tad to OP, meanwhile the P5 characters will have their starting Persona’s, but they will evolve for big moves, like awakened mode supers and instant kills

I’m also borrowing Thorgi’s Arcade idea of having supports giving a slight buff in battle, like if you pick Fuuka your meter can build faster for a bit, meanwhile if you pick Futaba you’ll get an attack and defence buff. It’s the fairest way to include them without having to make them playable. I know Rise is already playable but this roster is going to have to be small as it is, and being a support doesn’t mean you can’t be DLC later.

Also, we’re not bringing back the Shadow Characters, just, we are not dealing with the likes of Shadow Naoto again.

:readmore:

Story

I am about to cop out a bit here, but Thorgi’s Arcade video had a really good idea for the story so I’ll just link it here https://youtu.be/yyB5rEM9UVU

To summarise for people who don’t want to watch, Nyarlathotep, the main villain from the Persona 2 games, has been gaining strength from all the suffering humanity has gone through due to 3, 4 and 5, and has gained enough strength to create a new Joker to try finish what he started and destroy the world. Mitsuru might think the Phantom Thieves are behind it cause this is clearly persona related and the fact that the leader of the PT’s is also named Joker is public knowledge, Naoto gets largely the same idea, Katsuya and Maya decide to have their own investigation, meanwhile the Phantom Thieves are trying to prove their innocence and help save the world. Nice excuse to bring everyone together, but who will the everyone be?

Base Roster

Okay, I know the dream is getting everyone from Ultimax back plus the new P5 characters, but given Arc System’s standard for small base rosters, I’m not holding my breath. The ideal would be everyone plus who I’m about to say for P2 and P5, but I’m keeping it… somewhat realistic. Anyway onto the actual size, 16 seems fair enough. One more than the most recent Guilty Gear game for a series that had pretty big success so that sound fair enough. Let’s get the obvious out of the way though, all the base 8 Phantom Thieves besides Futaba are making the cut

Okay so that’s obvious but how will they play? Starting off with Ren/Joker, Smash Bros already laid a great foundation with him being very fast on the ground and in the air plus being great at combos, so I see no reason to change that. Also no need for him to be a Jack of all trades either cause spoilers, Yu is coming back and he already fills that role.

As for the others, Ryuji I can see being a slugger charge hybrid. Basically starting out he hits pretty hard but is a bit on the slow side to compensate, but just like any good athlete, give him a chance to warm up, ie do a charge input, and he becomes a lot faster and has better combo potential. Or we could make him a toned down version of Little Mac where he’s great on the ground but he’s in trouble the second aerial combat is involved. Then there’s Morgana who with his ability to turn into cars and the fact he introduces thief tools like smoke bombs, I can see him being a faster but frailer successor to Teddie.

Then there’s Ann who, no doubt, she’s a Zoner, and with her fire she’ll be Yukiko’s sort of successor. However instead of healing, I’d implement the fact that she learns concentrate and have it so the more she charges it up, the stronger her attacks get, but the Meter will gradually go down over the match. Yusuke, as tempting as it is to cop out and say ‘have him play like Vergil in Marvel vs Capcom’, I have a different idea. Namely, take advantage of the fact that Yusuke can learn counter by having him be the defensive specialist, set up ice traps to freeze the opponent, and if they get close, he can either counter or go for some combos.

Then there’s Makoto who would definitely be a grappler. I mean, she practices Aikido and is really strong, she can 100% pull it off. Finally Haru…… TANK! I mean come on, Haru wields an axe, has a grenade launcher, and Melady is literally a dancing tank in a pink dress, it just makes too much sense. I’d also give her a bit of armor cause if she’s slow she at least needs a chance to get her attacks in.

Okay so that’s 7 out of our 16 slots down, and given that one slot will have to be saved for the Evil Joker who would be the villain, we’re halfway done with 3 games to go, lord help me.

Okay, starting this off with P4, I’m gonna give them more than the others purely because they were the focus of the originals and there’s less realistic cuts I can make compared to 2 and 3. To make things simple, every returning character would play the same, and as for the ones I’d bring back for the base roster, we’ve got Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Naoto. Why them specifically? Well Yu is the main character, Naoto being a detective would basically mean she’d be the one getting everyone involved in the first place, Chie is currently training to be a cop as confirmed in P5 so her getting called in makes sense, and Yosuke is the best investigator after Yu and Naoto, he’s always up for a mystery and the second he learns Yu is involved he’s joining in. I just couldn’t cut him.

Now before the really painful cuts, Persona 2 is really easy. Out of Innocent Sin party members, by the end of the series Maya is the only one left with a Persona, and Katsuya is not only older brother of Innocent Sin’s protag Tatsuya, but he’s also pretty important and a detective so he’s definetly the one Maya’s dragging into this. As for how they play, they both use guns like Naoto, but how I’d mix them up is with Katsuya, I’d let him attack while moving (unlike Naoto who has so stay still to fire) at the cost of less combo potential, meanwhile Maya dual wields her guns so she’ll probably play like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue where she’d more or less just use the guns to get longer reach melee attacks instead of shooting.

Now, for the hard part. There’s only 2 slots left, one of them basically has to go to Mitsuru (not that I’m complaining I’d probably add her anyway) meaning now I have to choose between the rest of the Shadow Operatives/SEES for the last slot. I narrowed it down to the 3 that were in the original Arena cause they’re the most plot relevant, but that still meant I had to choose between Akihiko and Aigis. I ended up deciding on Aigis though cause A, with Labrys not making the base roster someone has to represent the robots of the series, and B, with Akihiko currently pulling a Ryu by travelling to get stronger, it makes more sense that Aigis would be closer and easier for Mitsuru to call up. Honestly I was tempted to bump the roster up to 17 so I could have both of them on the base roster, but this is ArcSystems, 16 is already kinda pushing it.

DLC

Given that this is a modern fighting game, DLC is inevitable. However since this DLC will likely be like Ultimax where the story acts to wrap up loose ends and have a new story, it’s going yo be big, especially since there’s going to be a fight with Nyaraloptep, so go big or go home in this case. Okay so first order of business, anyone who was in the previous arena games who wasn’t in the base roster is getting added back in, it’s only fair. That out of the way, the new faces I’d add are Futaba actually being playable now and the big 4 P5 characters I skipped, Akechi, Yoshizawa, and Sophie. Before anyone asks though, Sophie was added into a Dragalia Lost collab with Koei Techmo not being credited so she’s likely Atlus’s copyright so she's safe to add.

With that out of the way, how would they play? Starting with Futaba, I’d think she’d be the resident puppet fighter, sitting on top of Necinomicon and only occasionally adding in some of her own attacks like a projectile. Also she'd also probably act as a bit of a grappler cause her Persona has tentacles (no hentai jokes please) which have long reach so that'll be perfect for it. Next up is Akechi who I can see as semi being two characters in one. My basic idea is that at first Akechi will be fighting with Robin Hood and he'll be a solid jack of all trades with a slight focus on rush down. However once he goes into his awakened mode he'll gain Loki, which will increase his speed and attack strength, at the cost of his defence, turning him into a glass cannon.

Next is Yoshizawa, or 'Sumi as I like to call her, and her thing will be she's the mobility focused fighter, namely constantly moving around the stage and poking at her opponent while doing it, at the cost of being frail. Finally there’s Sophie who would be a combo focused zoner, as in her standard projectiles (the yo-yo’s) wouldn’t hurt that much on their own, but she can string them together into the fancy yo-yo tricks to potentially do big damage. As for how much this DLC would cost, it’s going to be very big, so €25 to €30 sounds fair

I think that more or less covers my thoughts. I could keep going on about this for a while, but I think this is a good place to stop. Hope you like my idea!

[goldstarnation]

NOVEMBER 2019 GOLD STAR MEDIA SCHEDULES & REVIEW

Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of December 7 KST:

A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).

A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.

Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.

These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.

Reminder: October schedule posts are due by the end of November 7 KST.

Overall Company

The behind the scenes of the company may have been messy lately, but that won’t stop CEO Bang Sunyoung from continuing her prosperous, multi-faceted career. Earlier in the year, Gold Star artists modeled for a lookbook for a fashion collab between Bang Sunyoung and an up and coming fashion line. The collaboration was a success and is opening a pop-up shop in Gangnam this month, which Gold Star artists are expected to attend the opening of to draw press coverage.

Important dates:

November 15: Pop-Up Shop opening in Seoul, South Korea.

Gold Star Soloist 1

The priority for her schedule is still fan meeting preparations, but at the beginning of the month, it will be confirmed Gold Star has her in their plans for a comeback with a mini-album in the first half of 2020, which is more confirmation than she had before. The songs aren’t fully decided yet, but the themes and concepts are beginning to be cemented through meetings. Meanwhile, in preparation for her fanmeeting, there are two open spots in the event’s performance set list for her to perform covers of her choice on top of the original songs she’s doing. These covers will be confirmed with management by the end of the month, but she has pretty free rein thanks to her seniority as long as her choices aren’t image-damaging. With comeback plans more internally sure than ever before, Gold Star plans to keep a steady stream of short video content to upload onto their Youtube channel before her comeback to create more fanbuzz. This month, that comes in the form of a support video for fans taking college entrance exams. At the end of the month, she’ll shoot the photos for her 2020 Season’s Greetings, themed after the four seasons.

Important dates:

November 1: Performance at Yonsei University Festival (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Gold Star Soloist 2, and Aria).

November 4: College Scholastic Ability Test support message video filming.

November 25: 2020 Season’s Greetings shoot.

Gold Star Soloist 2

The fifth of the month marks her first comeback in nearly three years after Gold Star had to reconsider their plans for her following her American debut not finding the desired success. They’ve opted for minimal promotion other than music shows, which may spell out trouble when she hasn’t been on the public’s mind in quite a while. The month begins with another festival performance, as has become a common schedule for her over the years. Her comeback comes two days after filming a Tipsy Live video of her best hits, and then music show promotions begin for the month.

Important dates:

November 1: Performance at Yonsei University Festival (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Gold Star Soloist 1, and Aria).

November 3: Tipsy Live filming.

November 5: Release of “Room Shaker & butterFLY album showcase, promotions continue until December 5. 

November 17: Guesting on Cultwo Show radio show.

Gold Star Soloist 3

During the first week of the month, he will be called into a meeting with management and it will be announced that they’re planning on pushing his Western promotions even further in 2020 and having him release his first ever all-English language album. Official preparation for it is not underway yet, though, as he has to finish off his Europe concert dates at the very end of the month.

Important dates:

November 28 : Self-titled tour concert at Melkweg Max in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

November 29: Self-titled tour concert at O2 Academy Islington in London, UK.

November 30: Self-titled tour concert at O2 Academy Islington in London, UK.

Silhouette

Promotions for this comeback have been amped up from the usual senior idol promotions, with a mix of radio guestings, online video content, and television performances. The goal is to make sure the comeback doesn’t go ignored now that there are fewer Gold Star artists coming back before the end of the year than initially planned. The members won’t have too much time off this month, but there don’t seem to be plans for them to attend many awards shows or Gayos, so it’s a trade-off.

Important dates:

November 5: Guesting on MBC FM4U radio show.

November 6: 1theK Gap Crush video filming.

November 7: M2 Relay Dance video filming.

November 14: KBS Open Concert filming (performing “ME&YOU” and “I Love You”, to air: November 16).

November 16: Guesting on Idol Radio radio show.

November 17: Guesting on Cultwo Show radio show.

November 23: Yoo Heeyeol’s Sketchbook filming (performing “ME&YOU”, “DDD/Hot Pink/Up & Down Medley”, and “We Are”, to air November 29)

November 30: End of music show promotions.

Aria

Now that they’ve successfully wrapped their Seoul concerts, they’re on to their concerts in Tokyo (please see September’s schedule for solo/duo special stages). They continue to nail down their performances for their comeback next month and will be doing the bulk of their remaining comeback preparations this month, including fittings, photoshoots, and filming for their music video for “Lost N Found”. Awards show season starts for them with the Melon Music Awards at the end of the month, where they’ll be giving a special performance of “I’m So Sick”.

Important dates:

November 1: Performance at Yonsei University Festival (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Gold Star Soloist 1, and Gold Star Soloist 2).

November 4: Comeback outfit fittings.

November 8: Comeback teaser photo shoot.

November 16: Pink Space concerts at Zepp Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan.

November 17: Pink Space concerts at Zepp Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan

November 25: “Lost N Found” MV filming.

November 30: Melon Music Awards at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea (also attending: Origin, more TBA).

Origin

They end their stadium tour this month with encore concerts in Seoul. They’re sure to be touring again next year after their next album drops, but for now, they’ve closed another chapter. Their public schedules are non-existent for the back half of the month as Gold Star pushes the release of the Origin World mobile game and OST, but that doesn’t mean a break. Instead, they’re working hard in the dance studio preparing for all of their awards show and Gayo stages.

Important dates:

November 16: Speak Yourself Stadium Tour concert at Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

November 17: Speak Yourself Stadium Tour concert at Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

November 19: Speak Yourself Stadium Tour concert at Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

November 27: Release of Origin World mobile game.

November 29: Release of Origin World OST.

November 30: Melon Music Awards at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea (also attending: Aria, Femme Fatale, more TBA).

Impulse

November brings a short Latin America tour and the beginning of their Japanese tour, which coincides with the release of their newest Japanese album. Besides their touring and an appearance at the Asia Artist Awards, things are pretty laidback for Impulse this month, though an opportunity has come for the leader and the maknae of the group, who will be recording an OST for the upcoming drama He Is Psychometric, something that may even be a signs of plans to come, not that the members know it yet.

Important dates:

November 9: Keep Spinning World Tour concert at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico.

November 12: Keep Spinning World Tour concert at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.

November 16: V Heartbeat Awards at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea (also attending: Alien).

November 19: Our Loop Japan Tour concert at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.

November 20: Release of Love Loop Japanese album.

November 21: Our Loop Japan Tour concert at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.

November 26: Performance and attendance at the Asia Artist Awards at Mỹ Đình National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam (also attending: BC Soloist 1, Decipher, CHARM, WISH, 7ROPHY, and Impulse).

November 29: Our Loop Japan Tour concert at World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan.

November 30: Our Loop Japan Tour concert at World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan.

Fuse

Teaser photo shooting and MV filming wrap up pre-comeback preparations and then Fuse will make their comeback mid-month. Management is embracing the mismatched concept to the season and Fuse will be hosting a “beach party” pre-release live stream the day before their album comes out, but the theme only runs as far as a beach-like indoor set for the VLive, where they’ll tease their album and discuss the comeback before it happens. Unfortunately, a plagiarism accusation regarding outfits worn in teasers and the MV hits the comeback as soon as it drops, throwing wrench into things. By the end of the month, the issue still isn’t resolved and leaves some non-fans hesitant to support the song until Gold Star releases a statement. Luckily, it’s an issue that reflects worse on the company and stylist than the members, and there are no issues going forward with a recording for an OST for the upcoming drama Hotel Del Luna.

Important dates:

November 1: Teaser photo shoot.

November 2: “Umpah Umpah” MV filming.

November 18: Fuse Festival: Day 2 pre-release “beach party” VLive.

November 19: Release of “Umpah Umpah & Fuse Festival: Day 2 album showcase, promotions continue until December 19.

November 26: Performance and attendance at the Asia Artist Awards at Mỹ Đình National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam (also attending: BC Soloist 1, Decipher, CHARM, WISH, 7ROPHY, and Impulse).

Element

Element is back on the touring grind for the next few months, beginning with the first date of their short Latin American tour at the end of the month, and when they don’t have new songs to add to the set list, that means new covers. For the month, they’ll be rehearsing new covers of “If I Can’t Have You”, “Thank U Next”, “Pesadão”, and “Taki Taki” that will be included in the concert, most of which will carry over into being performed at their North America tour stops in the new year, too.

Important dates:

November 29: 4lement in Latin America Tour concert at Escena in Monterrey, Mexico.

Femme Fatale

Their first Seoul concerts happen in the third week of the month (please see October’s schedule for their assigned solo stages) and the day after they’ve finished those, they’ll be called into a meeting to announce the news that Gold Star has finalized their deal for Femme Fatale to be co-represented by a large American record label for promotions outside of Asia, though it’s a different label than Gold Star already struck a distribution deal with for Origin. This promises more push outside of Asia with their next release, which Gold Star has confirmed to be planning, but hasn’t been locked down yet. After that news, the members have a Japanese album photo shoot and a brand event before they kick into full gear in the coming months.

Important dates:

November 16: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, South Korea.

November 17: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, South Korea. 

November 20: Femme Fatale In You Area Japanese album photo shoot.

November 27: Performance at Shopee Indonesia Birthday Sale Event in Indonesia.

November 30: Melon Music Awards at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea (also attending: Aria, Origin, more TBA).

[jira-chii]

Thoughts on the Shoumetsu Toshi Anime before it even airs

The Shoumetsu Toshi anime will air in April 2019, which fills me with both excitement and trepidation... 

Warning for long post. And a bit of language. I may have spoiled the bare minimum of the game in order to explain why it is awesome. There are no spoilers for the anime because it doesn't air until April 2019. 

NB: This whole post is my own personal opinion. I don’t claim to be an expert in anything anime or game related. In fact, I don't play many mobile games at all, and usually steer clear of anime adaptations of such games because I know how shit they can be. I sincerely hope Shoumetsu Toshi will be different because of the quality of the writing. Also yes I am very biased. And passionate. And this whole thing is written on the assumption the producers actually want to make this anime good and worthwhile, rather than just a quick money-grab. I just have a lot of feelings about this ok. 

During Shoumetsu Toshi’s fourth year anniversary, one of the projects announced was an anime! I'm sure everyone playing knew this was going to happen eventually. After all, the game has an all star cast of seiyuu, an amazing storyline, and has been marketing itself for quite a while now (collabs, live concerts, CDs, keychains and more). I have no doubt Shoumetsu Toshi has the potential to become an amazing anime if done correctly, but it will face many challenges on the path to adaptation. Here are some of them.

Too many tamashii

One of the game’s greatest strengths also becomes one of its greatest barriers to adaptation. Shoumetsu Toshi has done an amazing job at creating a huge community of characters (like, an actual city). We get to see their stories unfold and their characters develop bit by bit through various events and quest stages. Within the game, we meet characters that are strong and inspiring, characters with complex relationships, characters that are good-natured and goofy, characters with tragic pasts and so much more. There are characters with stories in this game that will tear your heart to shreds, stories with plot twists nobody saw coming until years later, and stories that were so impactful I had to write a 3000 word essay on it before I was satisfied.

Unfortunately, the anime cannot afford to invest the same amount of time and effort in its characters as the game does. Though we love them, including too many would be detrimental because 1. It wouldn’t fit the tone the anime is going for, 2. There's actually no point because the majority of these don't affect the main story whatsoever and 3. They won't be developed enough for first timers to become invested in them. Especially the ones with more serious stories.

The producers will need to carefully choose which characters to include: characters that are not only distinct and easy to invest in, but will actually contribute to the plot and make the time getting to know them worthwhile. Because one of the worst things an anime can do imo, is bring in a character nobody is invested in, who contributes nothing to the story, has zero character development (i.e. their character is based completely on cliches and tropes) but also gets about 200% more screen time than any other side character, because there is the assumption that they’ll be popular based on their character design alone. That is just lazy writing and is disrespectful not only to the audience, but also the character (I don’t care if they’re fictional, good characters deserve respect too).

I fear there is a very real danger SPR5 could become that. The in-game idol group got a real world debut, and, while I don’t mind seeing promotion in an anime (we live in a capitalist society after all), they shouldn’t contribute much to the overall story, and I will be very disappointed if the anime give them more screen time than they need purely for the sake of marketing.  

Complex storyline

If there is one thing I absolutely don't want this anime to get wrong, it’s the story. The Shoumetsu Toshi main storyline is frickin’ amazing. It is an epic quest that spans four worlds, involves characters literally jumping through space and time, and breaks the fourth wall in the creepiest way possible. The creativity that comes with that is my absolute favourite thing about the game, however I acknowledge some heavy changes would need to be made to make it fit the traditional anime format…

I have heard the anime will be an original story, however the PV suggests it will still retain key plot points from the game. Contrary to my general opinions regarding anime-original content, I think this is the right way to go. I think fans innately despise original stories in anime adaptations for one of two reasons: the story will either be too complex for non-fans to enjoy, ruining the reputation of the series, or the story will be too watered down in order to appeal to said non-fans and consequently lose much of what made the original actually great. Achieving harmony is an incredibly difficult balancing act, and part of this involves the series living up to its own greatness. Which very rarely happens. If Shoumetsu Toshi goes for a retelling of say, World 1, it is invariably going to be compared to the original. Also it becomes predictable for anyone far enough into the game. If the producers do want to go the extra mile and make it worthwhile for the OG fans (which is nice in theory but, admittedly, unlikely), they would need to add some meaningful original content that still retains the essence of what makes Shoumetsu Toshi, Shoumetsu Toshi. That is, it retains the same themes and atmosphere, conveys a similar message, keeps all the characters appropriately in character...basically anything that would not feel out of place if it were to be inserted into the original. Luckily for us, Shoumetsu Toshi writers have loads of experience with this. I am talking, of course, about the mountain of ranking quests, side stories and events.

I will admit not every single minor story in Shoumetsu Toshi is fantastic, particularly many of the ranking events, which usually only allow about three stages to tell a story focused on one character. However, what I think the game does do very well in respect to these short ranking stories (and many other events and side stories open to lower level players), is make them accommodating to both old and new players. This is usually achieved by including Easter eggs and hints to a greater plot for the former, while keeping the actual main story for that particular quest straightforward and accessible for the latter. This strategy avoids alienating newcomers and will be absolutely vital if the anime is aiming to appeal to a larger audience, namely the international one who are mostly not even aware of the game. Failure to adhere to this strategy is also partially why many anime adaptations of games have such a shitty track record. They try to pack in too much, usually by explaining multiple complex concepts without devoting enough time to see them properly work in action. The story might take a backburner in favour of the more technical stuff, leaving newcomers confused and bored. Then when it’s time for the climax, nobody actually understands what is happening on screen. “Just play the source material”, actual fans will say, but really, unless the premise or characters appealed to me, how likely am I to invest even more time into a game if I thought the anime was boring as hell?

I do not think Shoumetsu Toshi will be able to showcase its full potential in one anime season. But if the goal of the anime is just to promote the game, there is no need to. If the goal of the anime were to be an actual good anime though, I think the creators would need to take the same approach as the game does for its stories.

Shoumetsu Toshi’s most epic moments are its unpredictable and creative plot twists. The amazing thing is, they don’t just come out of nowhere. This game’s strongest stories are the long ones that build up gradually to spectacular and emotional climaxes, which are possible because characters are given ample time to establish their values and motivations. This helps us as an audience better understand important plot points without the story having to beat us over the head about it, allowing the game to weave a subtle yet sophisticated narrative that actually makes total sense by the end. This means the story needs to be planned out from the very beginning, and will need some time for setup. Which means it won’t truly shine until the metaphorical ‘late-game’.

Stories like these are at a disadvantage these days because, especially with the Internet giving us so much more choice, a lot of anime watchers now tend to drop a show if it fails to impress them from the very start. After about three episodes, the audience should have a good feel for the anime’s main characters, setting and a hint of the main plot. If by then, absolutely nothing about the series appeals to you, you would start to think there are better things you could be doing with your time. Unfortunately, sometimes a show just needs a long time to set up a good story (or sometimes producers dick around too much with filler episodes).  

On top of probably needing a slow start, the Shoumetsu Toshi anime is at another disadvantage in respect to one type of audience, because the game does not have an English version. Which means a lot of the Western anime audience will have had no prior interaction with it and don’t know what to expect. They have no idea who the characters are, what the story is, and why its fanbase considers it so much more than just another gacha game. We just have to hope the anime is compelling enough in the beginning to ‘hook’ these newcomers, and make them stay on board long enough to make their time worth it...

A good Shoumetsu Toshi story needs to take risks. I hope to God nobody at that studio makes the executive decision to ‘play it safe’, because the last thing any fan wants is a disappointing anime adaptation with a mundane story even a non-fan wouldn’t be able to enjoy.The writers need to be given complete autonomy and trust to fully realise their creative vision, because that is exactly what is needed if this adaptation wants to use Shoumetsu Toshi’s biggest drawcard to its full advantage.

Animating exposition

This is a pretty minor thing compared to the other two I mentioned previously, but the most iconic thing that sets an anime adaptation apart from the source material is, well, the animation. Visuals and animation are probably the biggest things influencing a new audience’s first impression. Unfortunately, the PV portrayed some pretty lacklustre animation for Madhouse standards and I don’t think people were that impressed.

Good animation is time-consuming and can actually take quite a lot of effort on the part of the director (not that I have that much experience to speak to). Where to place characters in the shot composition, when and how far to zoom in for a close-up, how to best direct movement for maximum impact, but also keeping the scene direction consistent enough that the audience can still understand what is happening on screen. Dynamic scenes are hard enough, but on the other end of the spectrum, how do you animate a static character reciting an information dump in an interesting way?

Shoumetsu Toshi has a lot of talking. It's just something that comes part and parcel with a game of this format. In the game it's alright because you can read at your own pace, and it's important information. Plus they usually keep you engaged by switching up characters’ facial expressions (Shoumetsu Toshi 0 does this in spades) or by distracting you with the stellar soundtrack. I expect the anime is also gonna have a heap of exposition. I mean, from the PV alone I already see at least three expositional characters: Geek, Eiji and Kikyou.

Personally I think expositions are the hardest things to animate. And I don't mean difficult to actually draw and turn into animation, but to actually direct something like that in a satisfying way takes brain power. There are an infinite number of ways to animate characters talking, ranging from the super boring still-image-with-moving-mouth-flap, to using dynamic camera angles to keep the composition interesting, or overlaying a montage of some sort to visually convey the message without having to look at a static character. The game provides only a generic idea of how the scene might play out when animated. While this opens the door to a heap of creative possibilities, I’m concerned that if it comes down to time and budget, or if someone gets lazy, it is very likely we could end up with one hella boring sequence of exposition. Which could be a serious problem if the action scenes aren’t able to impress.

Ahh, you guys have no idea how much I want this anime to do well. There's just so much potential there.

In my opinion, traditional anime can be seen as an incredibly limited medium that must, in the span of about 12 episodes, tell a good story to its audience, invest them in its characters, and keep them engaged for half an hour each episode through pretty visuals/cool animation. If they can’t do that the audience will probably drop the series because they a) get bored, b) don’t care, and/or c) fall asleep. This also means a good anime can’t afford to sacrifice story for character development or vice versa. They need to happen concurrently.

It is not easy to make a good anime, and even more difficult to make one that lives up to the hype of its very amazing source material. As a general rule of thumb, I keep my expectations of game adaptations low, and that is what I said to myself when the Shoumetsu Toshi anime was announced. But then one day I got linked a Shoumetsu Toshi drama CD, and I was blown away by how well they did it. The title is The Vanished Elephant, a literary reference to Murakami's short story of the same name. I'm trying not to spoil but basically, the CD fully utilised the fact we can't see the characters (but can hear them) to craft a mysterious original story with a wonderful plot twist. It works just as a stand alone story, but actual players who are familiar with the characters and motifs immediately get that sense of unease at the very beginning, which is finally paid off with the reveal at the end.

Thanks to that, I can't help but be excited for the anime. If they do fuck it up, I won't be surprised but I will be very, very, sad.

If you have read this far, thank you so much for your time. If you are unfamiliar with Shoumetsu Toshi, could I ask you to please give this anime a chance? And if after its run, it does turn out shit, by all means, complain to your heart’s content (because I will be doing the same).

[twilightvolt]

I kinda was saving this for when i had the time to type everything out in one go, so let’s just get this over with before Smash drags me back into the depths of hell. XD

So, like, things happened back in 2017. a lot of things. graduated highschool, felt the winds of freedom as i stepped into the world of adulting and.....fell into a deep abyss of crippling depression as my life took a rather....wild turn to say the least. these feelings would linger and continue to haunt me throughout the majority of 2018. if you’d like to hear them or just need a refresher, my 2017 summary WITH that in depth description is on my DA that i no longer use cuz all i can think of when i go there is that year as a whole.

That’s not to say the year was cruddy, though. it really looked up by the end and it’s been one of the better years of my life as an artist. i’m about to go into that, so sit tight if you wanna actually read everything.

January: Arcus ~Collab with KLou

Things got heated at grandma’s after the holidays and we left in a huff cuz yeah, big fight the night before. it wasn’t something i ever wanna remember, but i gotta acknowledge it happened. thus began the struggles of living life as a nomad basically. From this point on until May, i won’t say much about our situation cuz honestly, time grinded to a halt after hotel life began.

February: Let’s Save the World

Believe it or not, this was a mobile drawing. i still didn’t have my tablet or my computer, so i tried using my phone for awhile. this was, of course, after i got Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory for PS4, so this right here was my Dracomon babu Takumi, named after the former wearer of the goggles i equipped to him.

March: Let’s Kick It!

A brief moment of light as i fINALLY GOT MY TABLET BACK ONLINE! i felt like things were going to be different, we’d finally get somewhere and i felt like i could do anything again! this drawing, while super simple since it was just me around most of my current OCs at the time, was meant to represent me being back in business after around 4 or 5 months of being restricted to traditional work, a medium i, at the time, didn’t have much development in. (although, those months sure did help me learn how to draw that way in more than just sketching. so i’m actually kinda grateful i was stripped of the tools that i realize i may or may not have taken for granted.)

April: Spyro the Dragon

The Reignited Trilogy was announced and that’s why i drew that cuz literally everyone was doing Spyro fanart. i remember also doing a bunch of little doodles of other people’s characters in this same coloring style since some of the drawings i did before like the mobile drawing and my traditional work gave me inspiration on how to go about doing this new watercolor/marker like style that i started to experiment with throughout 2016 and ‘17.

May: Memories in Pieces

Remember how i said time grinded to a halt after hotel life began? yeah, this is where it reeeeaaally started to effect me. the days dragged on and blended together, we STILL could secure a home to house all of us and it just felt like my life was just....over. like, all the important stuff happened and now my story’s just done. it didn’t help that memories from the year before decided to come back and hang over me like an undying demon cloud. my anxiety and depression couldn’t have been higher. and yet i still managed to wake up. in fact, i woke up bright and early every day somehow. it felt like there wasn’t anything to believe in and yet....i still had hope that we could get through this. i knew deep down we weren’t gonna be completely out of luck.....but i still hurt at the same time.

I never uploaded this drawing anywhere, but this was, to put it simply, partly a new direction for a future project but also a vent art of sorts, representing the negative thoughts and regrets that never seemed to leave me alone no matter how much time has passed.

June: Digimon Atlas Adventures Ultima Vocal Collection

My second commission ever made since i opened that month. it was also the first time i really cel shaded along with made a logo since the year before. this day marked the turning point along with the end of my depression for the most part as the parents finally gave up and took...some of us down to Florida. a couple of siblings had jobs to keep up with, so they had to stay back in NY with.....eghh....grandma. to this day, i’m still hearing stories even if some of them eventually found their own place. i swear, the more i hear about what’s going on, the less i wanna go back to NY. >_>’

July: Drake ~Art Fight 2018

Oh yeah, we moved down to FL, but we were still in hotels IN FL, so there was change, but still pretty similar circumstances. we quickly found a place at some point, though. a cozy apartment complex that i’m happy to live in.

This is when Art Fight began....or rather when it was supposed to begin cuz they had technical difficulties for the first week or so. the day i revamped Drake for it was like i was saying hi to an old friend after parting ways years prior. it was a really fun experience that i’d gladly partake in again next year if i’ve got the time.

August: Gathers Under Night...

A very ambitious looking piece i did as an attack against a friend during Art Fight. it was my favorite attack i ever did and could quite easily be my favorite drawing from this year. after leaving hotel life behind me, i rarely, if ever, had war flashbacks or anxiety over the past. i felt like my life was finally getting somewhere again. for real this time. and that it did, thankfully.

September: Lost in Thought

A gift i made for a longtime friend and art senpai to try and cheer them up. i still look back at this and think “yeah....this is the style i’ve been longing to emulate. and i’ve finally achieved it.” granted, it took a lot from Kingdom Hearts II’s title screen, but where do you think i got my love of watercolor from?

At this point, i started to become a new person. i mean i already was considering the summer also involved me trying to become a little less total weeb at least in terms of music taste and also leaving my hoodie lifestyle for a good few months, but yeah. in fact, i think this was the month i buzzed off all my emo hair and really ended up resembling how i looked like back when i was little, anime cowlick and all.

October: The Lethal Protector

Oh yeah, Venom happened. i should’ve disliked that movie with all it’s flaws and unused potential, but instead i wholeheartedly stan it and i luv the portrayal of Eddie and Venom to the point where i forgive where it went wrong.

Yeah, i completely moved on from everything that tied me down at this point. i yeeted the past into the stratosphere and focused solely on what i wanted to do now. what my next move was. and i can thank these two losers for helping me stay focused on my craft. i also kept branching outside of Digimon. i wanted to be more than what i used to be.

November: My Favorite Ninja Frog

Didn’t do much this month, so all i had was a doodle of my starter partner for Pokemon Y. i never evolved him past Frogadier cuz i preferred him over Greninja. it was the tongue scarf, dude.

Why? ehh, it was most likely Warframe. i got into that game at some point cuz a friend persuaded me to do it. i don’t regret anything. i luv this game when i’m playing with friends.

December: Draw Your Roster Ultimate: The Winds of Reunion + Holiday Arcus

The Winds of Reunion cuz Wind Waker and the fact that everyone including Wolf, Young Link and even Pichu returned to Smash Bros. when Ultimate happened. this game cured my depression, cleared my skin and reignited my love for Starfox oddly enough since Starfox Zero AKA 64 with a new coat of paint and motion controls that weren’t as bad as you think didn’t exactly do it for me. i haven’t been so content with the way things are in a long time and i’m happy i finally got my hands on this treasure of a game. now, to wait for Kingdom Hearts III. ;w;

And now we finally get to the end of this long as heck recap. thank god Tumblr gives you unlimited characters, amirite? XD

Overall, this was a year of recovery and rebirth. it was a long and rough winding road, but in the end i think i’ve healed enough to finally get on with my life.

I’m not the same kid i used to be when i graduated highschool, and i’m definitely not the same kid i was when i was first starting out as an artist. my journey has been full of ups, downs and all arounds and it was all a much needed learning experience. even if i felt like i was suffering at times.

My future is mine to decide, and i’m not letting anything stand in my way again.

For the future i want to believe in.

[tamamatango]

Keroro fandom get ready to put on your speculation goggles (and maybe pee yourselves)

Sorry I just kinda disappeared for a few days, I am constantly tired and forget to update here. Anyway to make up for it how about some exciting news I'm surprised nobody's reported on yet?

@keroro_PR on Twitter is the official Keroro Gunso social media account based in Kadokawa's HQ in Tokyo. It tweets mostly about Keroro of course, but also about Kemono Friends, Gundam, and other assorted things Kadokawa is affiliated with. Last month, it tweeted this:

"It's Kirby's 25th anniversary, huh....Keroro's 20th anniversary is next year. (This is very important so we're mentioning it many times)"

Technically, KG has TWO anniversaries depending on how you look at it. Yoshizaki's original one-shot pilot manga was released in 1998, while the first volume of the KG manga as we know it today was released in 1999. It looks like they've officially decided to commemorate the release of the pilot manga as the true anniversary.

But that's not all I have for you, oh no. Here's an exchange between the PR account and another user in response to the above tweet:

"Do you have anything planned for the anniversary?"

"It's a secret~"

Now obviously they're gonna do SOMETHING; the last major anniversary was the 15th in 2013 and that's when they announced the Flash reboot. The question is what. Quite a few Japanese fans are speculating something to do with the anime—many think it's gonna be some kind of reboot/revival (8th season?) while I've seen a couple other suggestions such as the original anime getting ported to Blu-Ray.

I think if they're gonna do anything regarding anime, it's gonna be either related to the 2004 anime or a new series entirely. Though I think it'd be weird to have season 8 after a 7 year gap (the length of the entire show's running time!), so I think something like a new anime that takes place in the same universe as the original anime or picks up where it left off would make sense. I highly doubt they're going to return to the Flash anime or even do something similar; it seems to me like that didn't go quite as well as they wanted it to the first time, considering it ran for a big 6 months and dropped off on a cliffhanger. That doesn't mean we're never gonna see Shin Keroro and pals animated again—I have a gut feeling they'd just work the 2011 and on manga stuff into the original animeverse somehow. I can't see much notable non-anime stuff happening; the manga's still gonna run like normal anyway. I betcha there'll be something regarding Kemono Friends, though.

As for my personal wishes? Although I don't think an original anime revival is 100% realistic, but considering how long it's been since 2011 and the amount of fan clamor there's been, it's probably possible. If they don't go that route, I'd really like to see them release that 6th movie publicly so it gets to be seen by more than like 1,000 people. It's old now, but I'm sad that it's been lost to the vault for quite some time. I think the expectation that's actually most likely to happen is a crossover with Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni; Keroro mobile crossovers have been frequent, that game RAKES in money, and Keroro and Jibanyan have already been in a game together (the tennis one). Plus, Puni Puni has done manga/anime collabs before ("Shonen Sunday round 2" is happening as I type this!), so it's nothing mind-blowing. Although some things are definitely more realistic than others, nothing is impossible—even though Keroro's pretty much dead here in North America (apparently the manga is still going in Europe), the series has been quite active and popular in Japan long after episode 358. It's sort of ingrained into Japan's pop culture at this point, like Doraemon or Anpanman except those two haven't been airing 7 straight years of reruns. You know what I mean though.

Sorry for shitting out a massive text wall once again, just thought this was really worth talking about. What are your hopes/expectations? Are you full-on hyped, cautiously optimistic, or not expecting much? Please talk to me I'm lonel

[xtremedespair3d]

My Lukewarm History with Pixelbuster/Nitomatta

Yesterday, independent gaming journalist Pixelbuster, or Nitomatta, has been under controversy for taking advantage of small gaming news site Final Weapon for getting review copies of games and don’t review them all, basically getting the games he’s supposed to review for free. He’s been fired from Final Weapon and put his journalist career to an end.

This post is copied and pasted from a thread I made yesterday, so think of it as a complete and more accessible guide to my rant about Pixelbuster/Nitomatta with a few changes from the thread. This post isn't about what happened to Pixel and owning games for free, since people talked about him, I decided to take an opportunity to rant with my own perspective about why do I dislike the guy.

I never liked Pixel the moment we started talking a little bit more and even brought me to his server in 2018. There are times that he contradicted me on certain things and seeing his tweets really drove me insane a lot in 2019 to the point that I had to mute him. 

I also never understood why did Pixel make me a mod on his server. I mean, I appreciate it but at the same time I need to understand what am I worth to him. But then I kind of abuse the power of being a mod by deleting people's negative comments I don't like. Not to mention I seriously rant and vent A LOT in his server which almost nobody didn't really care about comforting me at all, but at the same time I always thought I might be getting everyone on their nerves. And speaking of his server (which is now deleted lol), that's one of the worst servers I've ever been, the people in there are so bland, talk shit on a couple of things a lot, and they share all kinds of porn I wasn't a huge fan of the Western art style of. To top it all off with sharing NSFW content on his server, he's absolutely okay with having people share furry porn but not loli/shota porn because it would make some people uncomfortable. Like, really? Come on. Sure, you don't really have to like loli/shota porn, but still, learn to have more balls on bearing that shit, especially if whether or not you're those "Fiction = Reality" purists (Which I hate these kinds of people). 

Lastly, at one time, I left his server because I was getting tired of it, then I came back for a little bit to take a quick peek to see what has changed after announcing I was leaving, and then I left again.

Then Pixelbuster DM'd me on Discord saying to please come back to the server, I was getting bored anyways so I decided to return (along to the RPG Site Discord server where we first met and the one server I despise to death). Now I regret returning to his bland ass server. After returning to his server, Pixel told me "Thank you, I promise you we will help you" probably about my problems I constantly talk about. Then I constantly rant and vent on his server a lot and he and his friends continued to do NOTHING to help me. I also felt sorry for talking ill of him and a bit of his server, but afterwards, I took back my apology as I still loathe him and his server.

The only thing I'll admire Pixel for is that some of his viral clips get retweeted by Japanese people, particularly artists and most recently, I saw a tweet of a RE3 mod video where he was retweeted by bkub, the creator of Pop Team Epic.

For a while I’ve always wanted to randomly tweet that Pixelbuster is a clown, he’s a total piece of shit, and with all this scandal, I finally took the opportunity to say it, but not because of what he did with Final Weapon, because I never liked him. I never liked Pixel at all, part of me feels like he deserves the hate he's getting, and I wish to completely disassociate with me for good. Also, he hates Yumi. He likes all Senran Kagura girls except Yumi. Like, seriously? Fuck Pixel.

The most baffling things he's ever said is that he would get better from his mental health issues and negativity. I'm really sorry but I seriously can't help but laugh so hard at it because he seriously can't help himself on the way he is. His behavior and his opinions are the major reasons why do I despise Pixel to death, he's just absolutely destructive on a lot of things media related. Sure, you could say that most of his opinions attacking large corporates like Disney and such are valid, but it's just the way he expresses them and everything are something I seriously couldn't take him seriously for. That's why I muted him on Twitter this year, I couldn't stand a word he said and it drove me insane a lot last year. I know I already said that but I must stress that out.

What are the things that he contradicted me? Well...

On the RPG Site Discord, the time we were watching the Sega panel from Tokyo Game Show and there was a segment that featured the mobile game called Kotodaman, which they were talking about a Kemono Friends collab. I randomly said that I recognized the game from watching VTuber Noja Loli Ojisan Nekomasu, and he said "I don't care." In retrospect, that sounded very forced. (The thing about the Kotodaman and the Kemono Friends collab was around the same time Tatsuki got fired by Kadokawa when Kemono Friends turned out so successful.)

The time he shared a later Captain Marvel trailer and said that he's finally sold on it, I told him most trailer are fine and he told me "No."

The time when the One Punch Man fighter game was announced, I simply said that it probably was to capitalize on season 2 and he said "No one gives a shit about season 2." I mean, sure but you didn't need to tell me that. Hell, you didn't even HAVE to force your opinions saying that you don't care, can't you just simply learn to ignore, you fucking idiot?

Let's not even get started on the time Pixel banned BlindedOtaku (Who I really despise because he's annoying) from his after some internal drama on his server on December 30th 2018. I wouldn't like to get into details because I can't remember what exactly happened nor I care. The last thing I remember about the drama is that I brought BlindedOtaku to the server after being kicked because he told me so and elaborate on his account on what happened. Then Pixel banned him for good and told me "You tried."

What's the point of this post? The point of this thread is just pretty much ranting about my history with Pixel as "friends," even though I've always had a distance with him and to show off that I wholeheartedly don't recommend you talking to him for the faint of heart, especially after this whole drama happened.

I would say that he can be a very difficult person to talk with, but he's not, the last time I had a relatively normal conversation with him is that if he gets the laggy cutscenes in the PC port of Persona 4 Golden, which he told me it only affects laptop users (Well shit).

Now, here comes the ultimate question: Should Pixelbuster be cancelled?

Well, I'm an edgy person so I would say yes, but at the same time, I don't condone cancel culture and he should own up to his mistakes, so absolutely not. I don't like Pixel for what he is regardless of the drama, I probably won't redeem myself on liking him more, but for the faint of heart, I don't want him to be cancelled. I heard that he's admitted his mistakes so it's something. Even if he were to own up to his mistakes and apologize, he’s now been fired from Final Weapon, if shit goes a little too far outside of Final Weapon, then his career as a journalist has indeed been ruined. To reiterate, no, Pixelbuster should not be cancelled. (At this point he’s probably indeed cancelled.)

I was feeling tempted to talk about Pixelbuster since he's still present on Discord, I would probably talk to him about the situation, but because I need to keep my word about why do I dislike him, I decided to block him on Discord once and for all. I doubt I'd want to talk to him ever again. I was genuinely feeling soft on wanting to comfort the guy and I feel absolutely disgusted and I want to drill my head to suck all the blood from my brain for thinking that.

My biggest gripe with Pixel is that once I become a successful creator, when I make some despicable stories or say some dumb shit, he'd put me on the vein of MatPat and Disney, that’s how despicable he is. I’m sorry if I may sound egotistical and biased because I hate people’s opinions and stuff, but he’s one of the many things that turned me into the kind of person I am right now, an egotistical dude who has a deep hatred for literally anyone’s opinions, criticims, everything else, even small complaints, because I’m easy to get my thoughts dictated and I always disagree and refuse to believe anyone by (occasionally) insult and fight back directly at them.

A few hours ago, he had returned to Twitter only to make a TwitLonger about his statement, I probably wouldn’t care to read the whole thing, but the most important parts is that he’s gone off the face of the internet for good and he’s getting a proper job now. I wish I could have tell him some final words for him, but I can’t even bother.

And there you go, that’s the end of my experience with Pixelbuster. Totally unrelated to the review copy drama, but I wanted to tell everyone how unlikeable he’s always been. And with that said, I’m finally free! I’m finally free from being associated with this scumbag (even though we probably hadn’t interacted much but I’ve always seen his activities that seriously drove me insane), he, his Discord server and the people on it, everything can go to hell with him.

P.S. What’s with the Nitocris thumbnail? Well, Nitocris was his waifu, he’s always had Nitocris images as his profile pictures, but recently he had a new icon of a commission of his OC. That makes me think his love for Nitocris has ceased.

Check out my Carrd.

[bthenoise]

ICYMI: Here Are Nine Newsworthy Items You May Have Missed Over The Holidays

Hello everybody and happy new year! While getting back into the swing of things here at the office, we noticed a handful of exciting things have been announced while we were off celebrating the holidays.

So, instead of pumping out article after article for you to comb through and catch up on, we thought we’d compile all the things you may have missed into one, easy-to-read post.

Let us begin:

Bring Me The Horizon, Dance Gavin Dance, Asking Alexandria and The Acacia Strain Drop Surprise Releases 

In case you weren’t paying attention to streaming services and social media sites over the holidays, four very well-known acts decided to end their 2019 with brand new releases -- those being Bring Me The Horizon, Dance Gavin Dance, Asking Alexandria and The Acacia Strain. 

Coming in all different types of records, Bring Me The Horizon dropped a spiritual and experimental EP aptly titled Music to listen to~dance to~blaze to~pray to~feed to~sleep to~talk to~grind to~trip to~breathe to~help to~hurt to~scroll to~roll to~love to~hate to~learn Too~plot to~play to~be to~feel to~breed to~sweat to~dream to~hide to~live to~die to~GO TO, Dance Gavin Dance released yet another impressive instrumental album -- this time for Downtown Battle Mountain -- Asking Alexandria shared a new deluxe version of their 2017 self-titled LP featuring demos, remixes and more, and lastly, deathcore champions The Acacia Strain debuted the first of two new releases with their bruising EP It Comes In Waves.

The Coachella 2020 Lineup Is Here Featuring Rage Against The Machine, PUP, Code Orange And More      

As many expected when they announced their long-awaited reunion, political rap-rock activists Rage Against The Machine will be one of the main headliners for this year’s Coachella festival. Along with the “Guerrilla Radio” penmen, the annual Southern California music and arts fest will also feature -- as far as our scene is concerned -- King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, IDLES, The Chats, PUP, the HU, The Regrettes, Beach Bunny, Snail Mail, Emo Nite LA, Mannequin Pussy, Yungblud, and most surprising of all, hardcore outfit Code Orange. This year’s festivities will take place April 10th - 12th and 17th - 19th. 

Silent Planet To Release New Re-Recorded Version Of The Night God Slept

Starting off what should be a busy 2020, metalcore maestros Silent Planet are planning to release a newly re-recorded version of their debut album The Night God Slept. The new re-tracked, remixed and re-mastered effort is due out January 24th via Solid State Records. Along with the exciting news, the band also released a sample of what’s to come sharing “XX (City Grave) Redux” and “Wasteland Redux.” To check out the re-worked tracks, be sure to see below. Afterward, make sure to pre-order The Night God Slept here.  

Ice Nine Kills Made A “Merry Axe-Mas” Video Game 

To help make everyone’s Christmas as fun and evil as possible, horror-obsessed outfit Ice Nine Kills debuted a new online video game based on their  music video for “Merry Axe-Mas.” The game, which can be played on a desktop computer or mobile phone, stars an evil Santa Claus delivering green skulls to unsuspecting children. To check out the free game, head here.    

Set It Off Share New Surprise Single “So Predictable”  

Just days before kicking off their tour with Sleeping With Sirens, Belmont and Point North, Set It Off shared their second new b-side taken from their recently released album After Midnight. Titled “So Predictable,” according to frontman Cody Carson, the new track comes from a place of total frustration. “We've all been there before — same argument, same issue, same nonsense, different day,” says Carson. “This is one of those songs written out of complete frustration of those kinds of moments — whether it be someone you love who you butt heads with or someone so irritating yet you can't avoid them. We had a blast making this song because of the overall attitude that surrounds it.” To check out the new track, see the video above. Afterward, make sure to grab tickets to see Set It Off out on tour here.

State Champs, Simple Plan and We The Kings Share New Music Video For “Where I Belong”

Hot on the heels of wrapping up their massive winter tour together, pop-punk acts State Champs, Simple Plan and We The Kings shared a brand new music video for their collaborative track “Where I Belong.” Featuring all three bands performing their infectious single together, the high energy video also showcases what it’s like to be on tour with the fun-loving musicians. To check out the video, see above. 

Watch Some Of Metal’s Best Come Together For “The Biggest Shred Collab Song In The World III”

Last week, acclaimed YouTuber and diehard metal fan Jared Dines returned with his annual “Biggest Shred Collab Song In World.” For 2019′s version, Dines enlisted help from some pretty big names like Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Polyphia’s Tim Henson, Megadeth’s Kiko Loureiro and more. To check out the nine-minute shred-fest, see above. Additionally, you may notice something off for Jason Richardson’s (All That Remains, ex-Chelsea Grin, ex-Born Of Osiris) solo. Dines commented on that below.   

“Hey guys! Unfortunately, I am a dumb dumb and put Jason Richardson’s part over the wrong backing in the final file for the big shred collab video this year. I know I know.. you’d think I’d have my act together by now…  WELL, here is what he actually intended for you all to hear haha merry Christmas everyone! (Tbh, Jason could play over dumpsters fucking and it would sound good). My deepest apology to you Jason, please don’t SLAPP me at namm.”

Attila Recap Ragefest 2019 With New “Toxic” Music Video

To help highlight just how much fun they had on last summer’s Ragefest, deathcore/metalcore party-starters Attila debuted a brand new music video for their Villain track “Toxic.” Mixing chaotic live footage with non-stop party antics, Attila’s new video shows just what it’s like to be on tour with Fronz and company.  

Danny Worsnop Shares Bluesy New Solo Track “Another You”

Finishing up his very busy year fronting Asking Alexandria and releasing a new solo album called Shades of Blue, the outgoing Danny Worsnop released a brand new solo track titled “Another You.” Talking about the bluesy new tune, Worsnop said, “Beyond excited to finally have this out. ‘Another You’ was the first song I recorded in my home studio when I finished building it. It might have even been before it was finished! But either way, it was a great sense of accomplishment, and it instantly became one of my favorite songs I’d ever written.” Worsnop is currently on tour now and tickets can be found here.

[adaru32]

The Red Devil’s Chronicles’ March & April 2023 DMC News Updates: PoC, Trend, Merch, And More

Hey, how’s it going? Here are some more Devil May Cry news updates I’ve collected in the past couple months: 1. The Peak of Combat mobile game has made progress. You can find all of their latest updates and announcements on their Youtube channel.

2. Megaman collabing with Devil May Cry V.

3. Capcom had a spotlight survey that went for 2 weeks, with Devil May Cry being on the list.

4. Prime1Studio making more Devil May Cry V merch. b) Including NabeHands making more Devil May Cry figures. c) And there’s now Devil May Cry Vinyl records.

5. Vergil and Nero trended on Twitter for a bit.

6. Lady's Devil May Cry 3 and 4 voice actress Kari Wahlgren won an award.

7. New CAPCOM artwork featuring Dante and Nero. 8. KFC Spain showed off a Vergil cosplayer ordering some KFC.

My Thoughts On These Updates:

1. It’s not just their Youtube channel you can check out the latest things happening with Peak of Combat, but there’s also their Twitter page which includes polls at times. I saw one poll that baffled me where they asked which gaming device they preferred us to slay demons on. SamSung phones won by a looooong shot compared to the other options which were iPhone, PC, and gaming console. I commented saying that I prefer both PC and gaming console, but chose gaming console since it’s what I grew up with.

2. So many Devil May Cry V collabs. It’s cool but it would be nice if the other Devil May Cry games can have turns collabing as well. I’m aware DMC4 and DMC1 had some collab events before, but DMCV seems to be the only thing that’s getting the most collabs.

3. It sucks that in order to take the survey you had to be a CAPCOM member...I know it’s free and keeps a record on how many fans are interested in their products, but it annoys me when you have to sign up for stuff in order to participate in something that you know you won’t often take part in and your profile just sits there. Not just CAPCOM but other companies as well.

4. It’s cool how Prime1Studio’s going strong and still coming out with new Devil May Cry V merch, 4 years after its release. Then again, Devil May Cry V is still expanding in popularity. I just had my cousin tell me recently that one of her friends is a huge Vergil fan but has never played any of the games, and this friend finally bought all the games and plans to play them whenever he gets the time. b) NabeHands has been doing an amazing job on the figures. Looking forward to more Devil May Cry figure projects from them. c) I wonder what the Devil May Cry tunes would sound like on a record player or jukebox (also huge congrats to the fan artist StelarPidgin for being a part of the project by making the artwork for the records). I’ve heard people argue that they prefer the sound of music on a record player or jukebox compared to a cassette tape or CD player (even speakers from a laptop or phone). I don’t have a jukebox and record player myself but I remember my one grandmother having a record player before it got really old and worn out, and I can kinda remember that the music was nice and clean with the right touch of bass compared to other music playing systems. 

5. Usually it would be just Dante, Devil May Cry, or DMC that would be trending on Twitter. It’s nice to see the other characters from the series taking the trending spotlight.

6. Big congrats to Kari Wahlgren for her award. She is a great voice actress. Speaking of her, I still need to find out why she didn’t get credited for voicing as Lady in DMC3 and 4.

7. With CAPCOM showing off more Devil May Cry in their advertising shows how popular of a series it is, and gives a bit more hope about more future titles coming sooner than later.

8. It’s really cool and interesting to see when restaurant chains recognize certain media and implement them into their advertising, promotions, etc. 

[hunterxhell]

addictive-hunter replied to your post “Which do you thing was the reason Killua decided to part ways with...”

There's actually some high chances about HxH coming back, some weeks ago they announced a SJ convention in July and HxH was plastered on the poster. (Also, there's a new mobile game and a Monster Hunter dlc with gon-san Skin)

hmmm, i’m still doubtful. the event in july is just a 50th anniversary exhibit for shounen jump. i wouldn’t be surprised if special announcements are made then, but i can’t think of why this event would force togashi to end a hiatus. there’s apparently going to be multiple exhibits like this in 2018, so i’m assuming it’s mostly going to be artwork from shonen jump on display and special goods to buy.

also i wouldn’t exactly say that hxh is “plastered” on this poster (unless there’s another one):

(if the blue text over gon is supposed to represent dialogue he’s essentially saying “it’s gonna be awesome!”)

the monster hunter dlc also doesn’t really prove anything to me, since video game collabs have been pretty regular with hxh since 2011 ended.

hxh is still incredibly popular and very much a money maker for shonen jump. they will definitely flaunt it, regardless of if it’s back from hiatus or not, so i’m going to be pessimistic and cautious here and say that we can’t come to any conclusions. the only time we can safely say “hxh is coming back” is when shonen jump makes an official announcement, everything else is just speculation.

hate to be a downer here -- just would rather not get people’s hopes up or accidentally contribute to the rumor mill.

[entergamingxp]

Everything We Know So Far On This Remake

July 27, 2020 11:06 PM EST

Fate/Extra Record will have voiced protagonists, a Slay The Spire inspired card deck battle system, and a lot of cool stuff we detailed here.

Type-Moon Studio BB held a special stream for the 10th anniversary of Fate/Extra on July 22, a few hours after the full remake Fate/Extra Record (tentative title) was announced. The stream was MC’ed by seiyuu (and Gundam EXVS top player) Kana Ueda, using the appearance of her Nasuverse character Rin Tohsaka. Type-Moon Studio BB Director Kazuya Niinou was also present, voice only. We learned many details on the remake including how the battle system works, with live gameplay. Here’s a summary of everything we learned on stream.

First off, Kana Ueda started reading fan comments from Twitter, with Director Niinou answering and commenting. He most notably confirmed the protagonist, Hakuno Kishinami, male and female versions, will be voiced in the remake. Players who feel like games are more immersive when the protagonist is silent will be able to turn off their voices in the options.

Niinou also said he wants to make the remake fully-voiced, but he’s not sure yet if it’ll be possible.

Judging from the stream as a whole, the remake is far from complete to do and the remake won’t be launching soon.

Niinou can’t comment on the remake’s platforms yet. But he reminded us he’s been saying for a while he wants to bring the game to as many people as possible. So he’s not ruling out a Steam release.

Next, we got the result of the poll that was held for a few hours before the stream started on Twitter. 57,318 votes were gathered:

アンケート実施中！ 「Fate/EXTRAをプレイしたことはありますか？」 最終結果は本日20時からの生放送にて発表します。 回答は7月22日 18時まで 回答お待ちしております。

『Fate/EXTRA』シリーズ10周年記念生放送　ご視聴はこちらhttps://t.co/zNaFm0RCm0#TMstudioBB

— TYPE-MOON studio BB (@TMBBOfficial) July 22, 2020

48.1% voters played the original, 17.2% only watched the anime adaptation, 29.7% only know the characters, and 5.0% never heard of Fate/Extra. Director Niinou said less people than he expected played the original, but he’s still happy overall. A lot of voters on Twitter mentioned they technically didn’t play Fate/Extra but did play its sequel Fate/Extra CCC.

After that, when quickly mentioning Fate/Extella and its sequel Fate/Extella Link, Director Niinou said it’s unlikely they’ll add some of the new characters appearing in these two action games to the Fate/Extra Record remake. Such as Charlemagne.

Starting the 32:40 mark, the stream started focusing specifically on Fate/Extra Record.

Kazuya Niinou explained Fate/Extra Record is based on three concepts, plus another concept. First off, it’s simply to answer the call of fans who wish to play the game again, and of those who didn’t have the chance to play it, only knowing the characters through FGO, etc.

The second concept: when they first talked about this remake, they had to decide between making a typical mobile game that’d reach a very large base of players, or a firm & traditional console game. They decided on the later. This remake is made to answer those who want a firm console Fate game. This will also allow them to do what they couldn’t with the original game, without changing the core of the game either.

Aruko Wada also made a brand new key visual for the remake, and it also reflects how it keeps the original’s core: Redsaber has a serious and cool expression on it, because she was originally that type of character. Even if nowadays her appearances makes her focus much more on comedy and cute. Her seiyuu Sakura Tange also said she’s used to voicing Redsaber in a cute way nowadays, so it feels weird voicing a serious version again.

The third concept behind the Fate/Extra Remake is to have a game that makes it easy for newcomers to get into the franchise with. Nowadays the Fate franchise is huge, so this remake will be the perfect place to start for those who don’t know about stuff like Servants, etc. (Personally, I’d simply suggest just watching/playing everything by release order. Most of the time this is the simplest and best answer when it comes to Japanese franchises).

The fourth concept behind Fate/Extra Record is to make Type-Moon Studio BB known to the world. Kazuya Niinou explained he left Square Enix for two reasons, the first one is to make this remake. The second one is to make a brand new game, which they’re also working on. As Studio Director, Niinou wants people to realize Studio BB is working hard, good, and get his team recognized.

Following up next, we got to see some live gameplay at the 39:33 mark till the 48:30 mark:

Kazuya Niinou wanted to show actual gameplay so people know the game exists. The trailer isn’t just some rendering they put together.

Players will be able to speak with most of the NPCs at school in the final game. We saw the novel parts are still in too. The game has day and night scenes too.

We got to see some of the debug menu and boot menu of the game too, something you’d usually never see. The boot menu allows the devs to boot to any important feature or location in the game basically. You have the title screen, the game over screen, a dungeon, a battle result screen, the church, etc.

When the dungeon part started, Niinou explained how now Servants walk in front of the Master, protecting them. We got an explanation of the battle system too.

The battle system of Fate/Extra Record is turn-based and deck of cards based, “like in many popular indie games nowadays” Niinou said. it’s like Slay The Spire, etc. Each turn, you get cards at random, offensive cards, defensive cards, etc. Different servants has different specific cards too, and for example Redsaber has guaranteed critical hits offensive cards. The game also tells you how much damage enemies will deal when they attack next.

We also saw how the game uses 3D animated portraits during dialogues. Nasu in a text message published during the stream, really praised these, saying Redsaber and all the chars are super expressive.

Once the battle ends, you can get new cards. The gameplay sequence ended with this.

Kazuya Niinou, later on the stream, commented in detail on the battle system. He stressed out how compared to the original game, this new battle system really feels like you are a Master fighting together with your Servant, and that the players are not the Servant themselves. That’s why he definitely didn’t want to change to an action battle system, as it would mean directly controlling the Servant. The cards deck based systems feels great, as if you’re giving orders to the Servant, and fits the Fate atmosphere.

Next up, we saw the original character designs drawn by Aruko Wada for Fate/Extra Record:

Redsaber looks more serious than the usual you’d see today. And Rin’s outfit colors were reversed from the usual. Aruko Wada, needless to say, kept the Zettai Ryouiki, but instead of doing it with thigh highs, she did it with needle high heel boots instead, because she really likes high heels like these. They also gave Rin some cool hacker-like glasses.

Next, we have Julius B. Harwey. His design changed a bit compared to the original game. We also have the new designs for the Ball and Golem monsters.

Following that, at the 52:09 mark, we got to see more in-development footage:

Taiga gets in the classroom and then trips horribly. She always trips like that, at that moment. This is a classic scene from the original game, and they’re recreating it. The text narration mentions she made a huge thud sound when falling, and the students got worried, thinking she passed out.

Kazuya Niinou jokingly explained they showed this scene to show all the iconic Showa era-like scenes from the original game are still there, and they won’t change things to fit Reiwa Era. Indeed, characters tripping is a very old anime trope at this point. Personally it still makes me laugh if done well. The characters are all Archers as placeholders.

Following up next was the announcements corner.

First off, an artbook tentatively titled Amor Vincit Omnia by Aruko Wada, dedicated to her work on the Fate series so far, will be published in 2021.  A message by Aruko Wada was published. She’s ultra happy the game is finally getting a remake, and hopes everyone will enjoy it, especially those who always wanted to try it but couldn’t. She’s super happy to be working on the remake’s new designs too.

Kazuya Niinou mentioned they’re done designing nearly all the characters, and are currently working on the facial expressions and key visuals.

Next up, Android iOS mobile ports of Fate/Extella and its sequel Fate/Extella Link were announced in Japan. They’re available now.

Following this, the Fate/Extella Celebration Box was announced. It contains copies of Fate/Extella, Fate/Extella Link, and a Ekusuteracchi: Tamagocchi but with Servants. This is an official collab with Tamagocchi and Fate/Extra, with 30 different servants you can raise. Buying this box is the only official way of getting an Ekusuteracchi.

A message from Fate/Extella Producer Kenichiro Tsukuda was also shared. He mentioned how he only started working on the series starting Fate/Extra CCC. He still remembers back when he joined, how new he was and all, and can’t believe it’s been ten years since the original Fate/Extra. He hopes everyone will keep supporting the series.

Lastly, the game DigDug BB was announced. It’s free, but it’ll only be accessible for a limited time on this page. it’s based on the 1982 game released by Namco, except with BB instead of the character from back then. Clearing it nets you a wallpaper.

Finally, when the stream ended, a slightly different version of the remake’s trailer was shown. Kazuya Niinou explained the visuals are identical, but the sound composition is different.

Fate/Extra Record First Trailer Another Version

As the stream ended, Kazuya Niinou said he was really nervous about the remake reveal and this stream at first, but all the comments and reactions have been really nice and positive, so he’s eager than ever to complete the game. Kana Ueda also said it was her first time speaking through a character like this so she was pretty nervous herself. Personally, I find it funny even such an iconic character as Rin is “reduced”, you could say, to being a VTuber. As that’s what everyone does nowadays, and is required to do so to stay relevant with younger audiences in Japan, since the boom with Kizuna Ai in 2016.

As a reminder,  Kazuya Niinou already confirmed Type-Moon Studio BB is working on two other projects. The second one isn’t a remake but a brand new game that could “take ten years”, Niinou jokingly said on stream.

Fate/Extra Record has no release date estimate for now.

July 27, 2020 11:06 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/everything-we-know-so-far-on-this-remake/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=everything-we-know-so-far-on-this-remake