#and would have LOVED the loz games/franchise/etc

[anadorablekiwi]

12 year old Kiwi would simultaneously be Very Very Disappointed and also Very Proud

[beamattack]

Hi! I wanted to ask you, how you began with your idea about your zelda au? You inspired me in doing a my own one and in a game-like-way, i love your contents in this your idea! (Idk if you already replied a similar question :,I)

What a nice message! I'm so happy when people ask about and enjoy my zelda stuff even when i haven't been able to draw for it for a while, since it's very close to my heart! :^D And i'm so happy to hear that it has inspired you!! Makes my heart worm 🪱 ❤️

As for how I began with it… I can't remember my exact thought process, but I've always found loz-games fascinating both gameplay-wise and story/worldbuilding-wise! I've always loved how different the games are even with their shared elements. The land of Hyrule itself and its creatures vary wildly from game to game and aren't bound by any certain rules, which just adds to its strange myth-like quality which i adore. So I think I just naturally started to play around and thought about what I would do if I made a LoZ game - it's like a giant playground to me! At first I just had vague ideas that I liked: I've always liked Vaati so he'd be the antagonist, I've always wanted to see more of the rarely seen darker fairies so I made one Link's companion, I like drawing fabric moving in the wind so Link got a scarf, I love drawing snow so that would be the main setting, etc.. You see my thought pattern, haha! I drew a couple of concept sketches to get it out of my head, and some years later I revisited it and added to it and formed into what it is today (Zelda, the village, the story, map & locations etc.).

Basically I wanted to create a LoZ idea that could possibly be played as an actual game in the franchise but with my own touches, and picking elements from canon that I really liked (some people have noticed that it feels like it could fit the “Hyrule's Decline” timeline, which is right - I'm super inspired by ALttP/ALBW's maps and Zelda 1 & 2's manuals and feel!). Same with the gameplay elements - so much of LoZ's identity lies in its gameplay, so for me it would be impossible to come up with a Zelda idea without thinking of it as a game, haha! So it's a mix between canon gameplay elements (dungeons, items, enemies & bosses) and just stuff that I personally think would be fun (Link as a stealthy scout, snowy environment hazards, status effects (I'm a JRPG nerd) etc).

Sorry for the long answer! This might be more than you asked for. But I'm glad you asked, thank you! :D I haven't been able to draw much lately because of my studies but here are a couple of sketches I can share! :)

(loz idea masterpost)

[giriduck]

Been processing the recent Nintendo Dream Web article some more. Hot takes under the cut.

Of course Ganondorf would be sexy—just about everyone on BotW and TotK is conventionally attractive. The stated sexiness goal for Ganondorf feels really bad though—not only only because he’s the villain / antagonist of the game who also an in-universe POC, which opens a whole can of worms around fetishization, racism etc. (that many others have written about far far better than I ever could)—but it’s also jarring to hear about a design goal of maximizing sexiness in a LoZ game at all. They literally said the quiet part out loud—and that feels so weird and gross.

Thought experiment: take the excerpt below, but imagine this was about BotW Zelda.

Doesn’t that feel odd framed in that way? An interpretation would be along the lines of, “As a real departure from prior titles, we gave Princess Zelda pants in this game! The pants of a person who really takes care with their appearance: tight-fitting, to show off her curves and figure, like a real princess, whom men and women could fall in love with!” Although they never said that, it has a ring of truth to it, given this new context.

Only Zelda in BotW got to be a character with enough screen time to have real depth, because it was a story that used her as a lens to understand both her life and the world, whereas Ganondorf in TotK was (once again) treated as a disappointingly generic villain. Ganondorf’s lack of narrative development was not only a miss with regard to him as a character, but as an opportunity for some interesting, central-to-the-story / universe, world building. Given this, the interview only makes it extra disappointing that a goal was to also make him appear heroic in his art design, but the final game (as far as I’ve played, anyway) never expanded on that very interesting concept beyond a quick line mentioned in passing.

Evil for the sake of evil and/or sexy for the sake of sexy ends up being disappointingly shallow and reductive. Add in the complexities of real-world racial inequality and trauma, and this can quickly become disrespectful to players. At the very least, if the game creators were inspired by or going to potentially code characters in a way that is evocative of cultures outside of Japan, please bring in a diverse focus group to look at the content and provide feedback. As a large and influential content creator, please do the work to catch (either conscious or unconscious) harmful and frustrating stereotypes before you commit them into your final product.

I actively avoided Breath of the Wild for five years because I was so irritated by the newer Gerudo character designs—specifically the nonsensical lack of clothes and the desert high heels. I was immediately put off by what felt like a fetishy objectification of “exotic” women.

So it is extremely irritating to realize that they consciously did the same thing with Ganondorf.

Personally, Ganondorf’s character design in all his appearances throughout the franchise has been interesting to me—particularly his clothing, jewelry, and everything mentioned in the interview that he presumably would choose to wear—because it’s precious little for us to work with with regard to building our versions of this character in our minds. Accessories and clothing are a window into a character’s preferences. But in my opinion, his art design is also the least of what makes him interesting as a character. Sure, we got glimpses of his pecs and biceps in TotK, but what about his motivation? Canonical insight for why he does the things he does? His perspective on the political / power dynamics of the ancient era? Unlike Zelda in BotW, we never “rode with Ganon” to understand this essential character to the game and franchise at all.

The biggest takeaway I am feeling from the interview is that I really wish that they had spent as much care giving him depth as they had done on his character design.

[blueskittlesart]

okay so feel free to delete this message for asking you about TP crimes. but I'm curious if you have any purely aesthetic thoughts about the Link + Zelda designs, as well as the Zora designs, in TP? like how do you feel about the designs on their own, even apart from your distaste for the general atmosphere + story. again feel free to ignore this for TP crimes and no harm done!

yeah ok. disclaimer for those who don't know. i don't like twilight princess and i think the art direction was almost as bad as the story. do not argue with me about this. let's get into it. link first

from a purely character-design standpoint I don't think this design is bad, but I don't think it's all that special either. it's very evocative of oot link, which I'm SURE was intentional based off everything else in the game. it does a decent job of complicating the outfit to the standards of tp's setting without going too overboard in terms of little details. the long hat looks stupid but i understand what they were going for. my biggest critique of the design itself is the desaturated color scheme, which I understand was present in the game at large but. I don't like it. I honestly do think that taking away the vibrance and colorfulness of loz takes a lot of the fun out of it. these games were originally for the NES. we're working off of 8-color pixel graphics. link's tunic should be eye-searingly green no matter how dark and brooding you want his story to be, because without that brightness and vibrance the games cease to feel like loz imo.

anyway. the real PROBLEM with this design, and with most of the art direction in tp, lies in how it was actually handled in-game. twilight princess was a game for the wii & gamecube, released in 2006. while advancements in graphics were GETTING THERE, the models were still relatively low-poly. The franchise had already seen a lot of success working with low-poly models in oot and ww, specifically because they leaned into the limitations of low-poly graphics and went for a more cartoonish, unrendered art style which made the blocky models seem purposefully stylized instead of limiting. twilight princess, however, did a complete 180 with the art direction and decided to attempt to HIDE the low-poly graphics behind over-rendered textures. this combined with the desaturated color palette of the character designs makes everything look very flat and lifeless.

in every close shot of link throughout this game i was constantly distracted by how awful the textures made the model look. the rendered folds of his tunic being slapped onto a flat surface, the rendering in his hair being an obvious coverup for the fact that it's one mass on the model with no physics, etc etc. the textures seldom rendered perfectly smoothly on the wii either, so the painted rendering would be strangely pixelated or blurry compared to the model's sharp edges. the game's lighting also seems to operate entirely in harsh black gradients, making the color and rendering choices on the model all the more obvious. Again, I understand that these are limitations of the medium the devs were working with, but i think that art direction that takes the medium into account and works WITH it instead of AGAINST it is almost always more successful than attempts to cover your ass after the fact, and i think that twilight princess could have been a more visually pleasing game if the art direction hadn't been so focused on covering the flatness of the models with hyper realistic textures.

onto zelda. again, we have a theme here of taking the oot design and overcomplicating it. i think the color choices are better here than they are with link, but i would have liked a brighter pink on her bodice. I also think that the dress's neckline was... pretty obviously a sexualization attempt. there's a reason men love this zelda. imo if they were going to keep oot zelda's shoulder armor they should also have kept the breastplate-ish piece in the middle and the high neckline from that dress. you cant say ooh look shes a swordfighter see she has armor!! and then leave her fucking jugular exposed. no wonder she got possessed by ganon immediately. other than my general complaints with the over-rendering i don't have much else to say about her tho. shes fine

the zora tho... this is where i start to get pissed off. HOW ARE YOU GONNA DESIGN A SPECIES OF FISH PEOPLE BASED ON TROPICAL FUCKING FISH AND THEN REFUSE TO PUT A SINGLE SATURATED COLOR INTO ANY OF THEIR DESIGNS. the way these designs could all be improved by about a hundred percent if you just TURNED UP THE GODDAMN SATURATION. GIVE ME A REAL RED. IM BEGGING. UGGHHHHHHHHHH. i also think the ugly rendering REALLY shows through on these guys because they don't have a lot of detail on them to cover it all up. someone needs to explain to these designers that you don't shade with black. like. god. the designs truly are not bad in terms of like creature design i dont think but they are so DESPERATELY in need of color that it's fucking distracting. color is not your enemy guys please

[blueberryfruitbat]

doing a thing to help do other things

So I wanna do some things but i wanna gauge the universal likes of the LoZ franchise, some games are left out because I

(1) have something already planned/made (2) its a known fact that the game is not widely played even for a series like Zelda some just don't get as big as the rest. (I'm sorry oracle games, minish cap, and toon DS games but you're not talked about very frequently ;-;) (3) I think it'd create some poll bias, this is mostly applying to just BotW and TotK since they are newer, and still very much in the current brain space of the fandom and that could sway votes. Don't take this too seriously, but its obvious these games are BIG rn and they've basically already solidified themselves into a high slot even without being in the poll. (4) Is not a mainline game, sorry Hyrule Warriors, I still love you...

I would like a sample size outside of my usual gang so if you could RB its appreciated, but not required.

[cloudninetonine]

Bc you’re the person I feel like I can run and go brainrot off to, can I offer twilight brainrot?

Twilight Princes was my first LoZ game. I never played it bc my Wii was busted and I didn’t own a GameCube. But it was the first game of the franchise that was introduced to me and the first play through I ever watched. So I’m projecting it onto Player for the sake of this.

Player, of course, knows Twilight is Wolfie. What do they do despite this? Act completely clueless. Let him tell them whenever he’s ready. It falls into Twilight knowing he can relax near them while he’s Wolfie and he takes advantage of it. They just talk and talk as they pet him. About the others, about their home, about stupid stories, maybe something they saw. About him.

And he’s always expecting a “but” whenever they go on about him. Something negative because I know he struggles with himself at times. And he’s always surprised when it never comes. It’s always “Twilight is pretty cool” or “I’m happy I’m desensitized to gore because if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have seen how hot Twilight looked while fighting that Wizzrobe.”

And he just… gets flustered. Every time. Bonus if we’re running with him having a country accent like how twilight-pup gives him. Because then it’s compliments and gushing on his accent.

At some point Player just hits Wolfie with the “I’d trust Twi with my drink” but I feel like he wouldn’t understand the full weight of that sentence. Until he asks.

“So… what exactly does ‘trust with my drink’ mean? Heard someone say it while we were in town ‘n stuff.”

“It means trust. At least, in my time it does,” Player shrugs as they rummage through their bag. “Like— Okay. I guess it’s real talk hour. In bars and clubs, people aren’t exactly trustworthy. If you go out with someone, you have to know you can trust them. There’s a whole thing when it comes to drinks. People always have an eye and hand on their drink. If we don’t, we buy another one.”

“Even if it’s ain’t finished?” Twilight raises a brow.

“Mhm. Because it’s common for someone to possibly get… drugged,” they seem to droop at that. Frustration and sadness building in them. “Girls and guys alike go missing. Giving someone your drink—“

“— means ya trust them enough not to hurt ya,” he finishes softly.

The whole weight of the meaning would just crash down on Twilight. You trust him enough not to bring you harm when you can’t trust others. In a place where you might get hurt. You trust him enough to leave an item with him without worry.

And it just builds this overwhelming feeling in him that he drops down beside you and just… leans against you in a way. For the whole night. Like he’s full on emotional from how much you trust him.

It probably leads with him admitting he’s Wolfie and Player snickering because they always knew. Just a giggle of “I know. I’ve been knew. Since like— I first got my hands on your journey. You’re a cutie both as a wolf and a hylian.”

ANYWAYS THAT’S MY BRAINROT. I JUST REALLY LIKE TWILIGHT. HE’S MY SKRUNKLY. MY LITTLE SCRIMBO. MY BLORBO

- 🪶

You are always welcome to brain rot- everyone is!

And I'm loving the Twilight brain rot! Especially after the newest update, gotta be thinking about my beautiful boy after all he's been through!

"You can hold me drink." The ultimate trust, honestly and that's definitely a great way to explain their process with trust- just thinking about Player naturally asking Twilight to hold their drink either to go toilet, dance, etc. etc. I feel it would only make Twilight feel even more special as they actively show their trust in him.

Player would also be sure to lowkey tease Twilight about knowing but still not actively saying anything- more because they think the rest of the group doesn't know.

[tnc-n3cl]

Project 47 for the WIP game!

Thanks for the ask! Oh that's a popular one. Gonna summarize what I said for @zeawesomebirdie here (and probably reveal some new stuff in the process).

So "Project 47" is the codename for a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid story that can be described in Hollywood "High Concept" terms as The Expanse meets Final Fantasy. I believe I've mentioned it to you before, but it is based on some ancient FF/LoZ crossover ideas that I had, which became purely FF ideas, then got spun off into an original universe. (I did salvage some ideas for "The Realm Walker from this old idea.)

So, you've got humans (in universe sapient species (also commonly refereed to as mortals/mortal-kind/etc.) names are always capitalized) living along side multiple non-human sapients on two Earth sized moons around a gas giant twice the size of Jupiter. I strove for as much scientific accuracy as I could so there was a LOT of research into all sorts of things, from astronomical stuff when designing to solar system, to taxonomy when I came up with the taxonomy for the various peoples. And while I love Star Trek, I wanted to avoid the rubber forehead alien trope so most of the non-humans aren't very humanoid. For example, the Avestrens are even more bird than the Rito, they can walk upright, but when going into a run adopt a stance more like a mockingbird or velociraptor.

The core of the story is that a nation on one moon (The Takara Alliance) builds an aerospace ship (basically a fantasy airship with rockets attached) to explore the other moon. They've known it was inhabited for a long time now and have been keeping an eye on it with telescopes and even have a network of satellites orbiting it.

They originally planed for a five year mission (cause Star Trek reference, possibly even in-universe as I'm certain in my musings on this there was an in-universe equivalent) to study the moon in person (like how the Federation disguises people to study pre-warp civilizations), but a probe they sent to the edge of the solar system captured images of a derelict aerospace ship.

Thanks to the alignment of the planets, they had a once in a hundred (or longer) years chance to investigate this thing in person. This results in the ground crew having to go it alone for eight years and stretches the crew on the ship to their limits. (For example, they've got hydroponics bays to grow plant based food, but the Avestrens are hypercarnivores, they can't really process plant based food very well. They've got something akin to a protein synthesizer but the goo it produces isn't very appetizing, so the ship's captain (an Avestren) grinds up strawberries in it (little nutritional value for him so kinda like junk food) to make it look a little more appetizing/taste like something.)

I had planed to post a series of oneshots more or less on DA to lead up to the main story but never got very far. The one thing I posted I took down cause I wasn't happy with it.

But lucky for you, I feel like reposting it! So here is "The Assignment", where a sapientologist (what Star Trek would call a xenoanthropologist, which would literally translate to "one who studies strange men" BTW) is recruited for the mission. (BBC America was rerunning X-Files a lot back when I was working on this, so the sapientologist (Dr. Zara Kaladi) ended up getting modeled after Dana Scully a little (visually at least, character wise you could make comparisons to Dr. Daniel Jackson from the Stargate franchise)). Gonna put it below the cut (disclaimer it's a little rough, and was the first thing I wrote in novel format since high school after years of writing in script format for my Trek and Stargate fics so perspective is a little wonky...)

An older Human woman with light skin, red hair, and blue eyes wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans sits at a table eating breakfast, a simple bowl of cereal.  She is reading something on tablet computer, a news report.�� On the screen the date is visible, Merzav 1, 350 AF.  The headline reads “Prototype aerospace ship Korus set to launch soon.”  Before she read more a doorbell rings. 

The woman stands up, and we can tell she is 1.6 m tall and roughly 47 kg.  She walks out of the room and into a living room.  In the corner we can see some half-unpacked suitcases then a large bookshelf.   The room is somewhat larger than your average living room.  The doorbell rings again. 

The woman finally reaches the door, a wider than average door that is at least 2.7 m tall, and activates a screen off to the side.  The screen displays a pair outside the house, a Human woman about 1.7 m tall and 49 kg in weight with light skin, brown eyes, and black hair dressed in a black business suit and a 2.1 m tall, 48 kg humanoid bird with an eagle-like head and beak, an Avestren. 

The white feathers on its throat and grey feathers on top of its head and running down towards its back are a clear sign that it is female.  She has green eyes and a stripe of dark blue feathers extending from behind her eyes and running down the sides of her neck.  Her clothing is similar to a housecoat but one side appears to be fastened with buttons and it has short sleeves.   This garment is white in color with what looks like military metals attached to it, there is also a name tag but we can’t read it on the screen.  Rank insignia are visible on the tops of the shoulders; they are an aqua color with two gold four-point stars on top, a silver lightning bolt, and three silver stripes.  She is also holding a briefcase, her hand and arm are covered in yellow scales.

The homeowner presses a button on the screen.  “What is it?” she asks. 

The woman outside presses another button and replies, “Dr. Kaladi, we’re sorry to disturb you so soon after returning from your sabbatical.   I’m Dr. Jiwoo Byon from the Alliance Space Administration and this is Commander Zunala (Zu-nala) from the Air Defense Force.  We’re here with an exciting research opportunity for you.  May we come in?” 

“An exciting research opportunity?” Dr. Kaladi thinks to herself, “I’m a sapieologist and archeologist, what could the ASA and ADF want with me?”.   Dr. Kaladi opens the door and asks, “What kind of opportunity?”. 

“The kind that comes once in a lifetime.” Dr. Byon replies. 

Dr. Kaladi raises an eyebrow in interest and after a moment responds “Come in.”  She holds the door open and the two enter the house.  She closes the door.

Dr. Kaladi walks over to the couch and lifts up the cushion revealing a horizontal bar underneath.  She motions to the couch and Dr. Byon sits on the other cushion while Comm. Zunala perches on the bar and sets the briefcase on the table.  “Can I get you anything?” she asks, being polite.

“No thanks.” Comm. Zunala replies, sounding, and looking, not unlike a parrot mimicking Human speech. 

Dr. Kaladi sits in a chair next to the couch.  “So what’s this once in a lifetime opportunity?” she asks. 

Dr. Byon responds “I assume by now you’ve heard of the new ship we’re building.” 

“Of course, I have, it’s been all over the news for the past month.” Dr. Kaladi thinks to herself before responding “The Korus right?” 

“Yes.  We’re looking for specialists for its first real mission.” Dr. Byon replies.

“Specialists?” Dr. Kaladi asks. 

Comm. Zunala responds, “Yes.  As you know the Korus is a joint venture between the ADF and the ASA.   While the ASA does have a number of scientists suited to missions the Korus can accomplish there are a few positions left unfulfilled on a mission of this nature.” 

Intrigued, Dr. Kaladi asks, “What is the nature of this mission?” 

“A long-term survey of Serov.” Dr. Byon responds. 

“We already have several…” Dr. Kaladi stops mid-sentence, her eyes widen as she realizes, “…You’re going to land a research team on Serov!” 

“Indeed.” Comm. Zunala responds as she opens the briefcase and pulls out a tablet. 

She hands it to Dr. Kaladi, who asks “What is this?”

Comm. Zunala responds “A standard issue NDA, which you will need to sign if you accept this assignment.” 

“Why do I need to sign an NDA?” Dr. Kaladi asks, obviously annoyed. 

Comm. Zunala responds “First, we’re not ready for the general public to learn about this mission yet.  Second and most importantly, the Korus is a military research vessel.  As such during your time aboard the ship and on the ground team you may learn military secrets, it is vital to national security that you do not reveal these secrets.” 

Dr. Kaladi reads over the NDA for some time, “Wait, the Intelligence Service is going to look over any papers I write about research conducted during the mission?” she asks, visibly upset.

 “Yes,” Comm. Zunala responds, “We must ensure your compliance with the NDA.” 

“They won’t censor your research.  They just want to make sure you don’t reveal any military secrets.” Dr. Byon adds. 

Dr. Kaladi looks annoyed, after a few moments of awkward silence Dr. Byon looks at Comm. Zunala and says, “Why don’t you give the two of us a moment?” 

Comm. Zunala cocks her head to the right in bird like fashion while looking at the woman and replies, “Alright.” 

Dr. Kaladi sets down the tablet, “Fine, let’s talk upstairs.” She tells Dr. Byon.  The two Humans head upstairs while Comm. Zunala waits in the living room.

In an upstairs hallway Drs. Kaladi and Byon talk.  “Look, I know your uneasy working with the military.  A lot of us over at the ASA are too, but they are the only ones with the resources and interest in building a ship like the Korus.”  She tells Dr. Kaladi. 

“Oh, the ASA can’t build a spacecraft?” Dr. Kaladi responds sarcastically. 

Dr. Byon replies, “Not one with the capabilities of the Korus, we just don’t have the resources.  We’re lucky the ADF agreed to work with us on it and that Tiryraku (Tiri-raku) insisted on the Korus being a research vessel.  There’s just so much we can do with the Korus, first hand observations of Serov are just the tip of the iceberg here.” 

Dr. Kaladi knows Dr. Byon is right; the chance to find out what happened in The Wastelands of Damrov or find out how that continent on the near side was frozen over and what is keeping it frozen over; this is too important of an opportunity to pass up, “Fine.” She says and they walk back downstairs. 

Comm. Zunala is standing over by the bookshelf looking at a figurine on a table.  It is of a Human male wearing full plate mail armor holding a long katana up towards the sky in his right hand.  The figurine is made of wood and though it looks as if it was made with primitive tools, it is intricately detailed, especially the strange symbols on the blade of the katana.  Drs. Kaladi and Byon emerge from upstairs and walk over to Comm. Zunala, who asks, “Is this from the Zanik Islands?” 

“Yes” Dr. Kaladi responds with a confused look on her face, “How did you know?”

 “My grandfather is from the Zanik Islands.” Comm. Zunala responds. 

“Really?” Dr. Kaladi asks, genuinely surprised, the Avestrens living in the Zanik Islands rarely make contact with outsiders. 

“Yes,” Comm. Zunala responds, “He was fishing and got caught in a storm and was rescued by an Alliance fishing vessel.  My grandmother saved his life and they fell in love and he moved here.  He made my mother a figurine just like this one.  How did you get this?” 

“I traded a gold necklace for it while I was doing my graduate work there.”  Dr. Kaladi responds. 

Dr. Byon inquires “Why would the Avestrens living there make a figurine of a Human warrior?” 

Comm. Zunala replies “It’s from an old legend.  They called him Kurakilas (Kura-key-laas), he was a senior warrior in the Drachegarde and lead a team that stopped a Gureri horde from invading the islands roughly 1,000 years ago.” 

“There’s a temple with giant stone statues of him and the rest of his team back on the islands.” Dr. Kaladi adds, “Seeing evidence of Drachegarde myths in such a distant and isolated place is what got me researching The Celestial War in the first place.” 

Dr. Byon asks, “Kurakilas?” 

Comm. Zunala looks at her “It loosely translates as Savior”. 

After a moment Dr. Byon breaks the silence “Well, should we get back to business.”  Dr. Kaladi and Comm. Zunala nod and move towards the couch.

Drs. Kaladi and Byon sit down in their original places.  Dr. Kaladi picks up the tablet, reads over it for a moment and signs it.  While setting down the tablet she queries, “So when does this mission start?” 

Dr. Byon responds, “The Korus launches on her maiden voyage in a few days, during that mission it will scout a camp site on Serov before returning home.  Right now, we’re aiming for a launch in the middle of Hirzav.  That will give you about two months of training for liftoff and reentry.” 

Dr. Kaladi asks, “How long is this mission?” 

Comm. Zunala replies, “We’re planning for three to five years, but we’re prepared to adjust that depending on how things go.” 

“Any more questions?” Dr. Byon asks. 

After a few moments Dr. Kaladi responds, “No.” 

Comm. Zunala takes the tablet and puts it in the briefcase and takes a folder out of the briefcase.  “This contains all that you’ll need to know before the mission starts.  We’ll get back with you when we’re ready to start your training.” 

Dr. Kaladi takes the folder and the three stand up and head towards the door.  Dr. Kaladi opens it and Dr. Byon and Comm. Zunala walk out.  After a moment she shuts the door and walks over to the couch.  She sets the folder on the table and lowers the couch cushion.  The folder’s cover is visible and says “KSSM-0147 Mission Briefing, Top Secret”.

---

Here's a link to my DA gallery for Project 47, which I also liked in the previous post that hopefully linked properly in this post... Contains lore articles as well as artwork (ships, weapons, crude maps, and alphabets!).

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Game Hiatuses?

I want to preface this enter post with the comment that I am absolutely not saying "Oh, if you're not enjoying SSO, you should just leave the community." That's a bad argument used against criticism that I do not promote. However, I am going to talk about how if you're not enjoying SSO, why you should take a pause from playing.

I'm going to generally credit @centeris2 on this topic, because while I'm not using direct quotes (because private convos aren't exactly the style I want to use for Can We Discuss), we had a long conversation about this topic and she made a lot of good points for this that I wanted to discuss. Some of these points are based on her opinions, a lot of out thoughts blurred together so it's hard to directly credit, and she gave me the ok to talk about it and use her thoughts.

In any case, let's start with the fact that it is perfectly normally to like something and still drop it for years at a time, or to not directly engage with it. For instance, I adore the Legend of Zelda franchise (were it not obvious from my recent to be rescheduled event), but I haven't personally picked up a LOZ game for a year-ish now when I replayed Minish Cap. That doesn't revoke my LOZ fan card, that's a perfectly normal thing to do. Most of you will have done this throughout your life, more and more recognizably as you get older.

This however can get blurred by fandom. It is very often that folks with hyperfixations on a thing, who may or may not engage with something more regularly than other media, will get involved in fandom and make a lot of content for that fandom. These people can produce loads of content on a piece of media and this can fuel a community, even if the rest of the community isn't actively engaging with that media. It also doesn't specifically mean that people with hyperfixations are constantly engaging with that media. Going back to that LOZ example, I wrote LOZ fanfic for years without actively playing more than one LOZ game maybe a year or two. Content can be queued, be entirely original outside of the media, and still last a long time and engage with the fandom at large.

The point is to say, even if you make content and enjoy a piece of media, you don't have to actually be playing/reading/listening/watching it constantly. In fact, normally modern fandom culture makes that pretty easy to do, though it can sometimes make us feel like we're still engaging directly with the media even if we're technically not. But it's good to take a step back and acknowledge that. A lot of younger fans in fandom have a hard time with this, which is why I'm taking the time to point it out. A lot of young fans will hyperengage in a fandom because they want to be involved in this fandom they love, only to burn themselves out and be turned away by their frustration. It's important then to acknowledge this scenario to encourage better, healthier involvement with fandom. Still, in this situation, you can easily bow out of a fandom if you need to take a break and then come back when something new happens in it, like a new release or update. This may feel like a fandom "dies" when a piece of media ends, but for active media, it's a normal and healthy thing to do.

SSO on the other hand does not encourage the ability for people to take a break, or at least it does it at the detriment of the player. Because of the weekly updates, players are constantly checking for the chance that there is something interesting coming out. This is somewhat addressed by the monthly roadmaps the team has been putting out, but that also just extends the period of time people are waiting for news and they're still staying in the release cycle for more clarification. For instance, we know Silverglade Village is getting an update at the end of the month, but knowing SSO's release cycle, are they going to tease some more of the changes? Are they going to reveal how wide the area of update is going to be? Will any NPCs get updates with it? This is still in the weekly cycle and it keeps players from building up actual suspense for updates if we know when content is coming out. It also takes away a lot of suspense when the content isn't main content, like new areas or story. While the suspense for the Fripp quests I would say were quite large, I wouldn't say that any of the other updates have shared the same attention. This is why most companies will release roadmaps for quarters or for a year.

And this isn't to say that SSE as a company shouldn't be releasing media content weekly, they should. That's good social media. But there are ways to engage with fans that don't drag out a reliance to engage weekly, things like community contests, highlighting fans, or promoting fanmade content. But when every update is super in the eyes of social media, fatigue and apathy are going to start to kill actual excitement unless it's something major.

I don't think it's a secret that I think the weekly updates aren't good for the game on the development side. I think it creates a pseudo-crunch culture on the developers so that they can't work on larger projects that players are asking for, like an engine overhaul (it took FFXIV two years to do theirs, when are the devs supposed to have time on SSO to switch now). But, I also don't think it's good for the players. Yes, there's something every week, but how are players actually engaging each week and how much time can we build up anticipation or get excited when each week that gets diffused by something that's not super exciting the majority of other weeks? Which doesn't mean that that content is bad, but it clearly builds frustration in the community to have "filler" content. When's the next story quests, when's the next map expansion, when's the next major mechanic being added, etc. We're constantly discussing the next big thing and then finding reasons to be excited in the meantime. This does not spark joy.

But in order to take a break, either you need to be on top of your Stable Care (likely to pull you back in), or just stop caring about your horses while you're away (unlikely considering the horse girl is strong in this community). The first requires Star Coins, which is arguably saying "You have to pay real money to take a break," and the second is actively punishing you mechanically for not being committed to playing. Neither of those allow the player to take healthy, normal breaks from the community to engage in other things. And that's an issue.

Yes, MMOs need regular engagement. Active servers and participation are a part of what makes them more marketable. But there are ways to do that without penalizing players. And I'm not suggesting that the care system needs to be entirely removed, but it does need to be entirely reworked so players can leave the game without coming back penalized. Things like the care system not affecting stats, but increasing your RNG for finding doubles of crafting items, or doubling your shilling rewards from dailies. WoW's inn system rewards players for taking breaks by double your exp gain longer depending on how long you were away. Others like Guild Wars 2 will give you log in rewards that build up to bigger prizes over time. There are ways to do this.

And I understand that a lot of folks like the current care system because it's realistic. But there has to be a line in game development where enjoyment in a game is prioritized over the realism of the game, not to mention the health of the player. Yes, the daily care system is more realistic, but if it is developing an obsessive habit of play to enjoy content that is, realistically, months to years down the line, that's not good for the player and should be changed so players can break from the game without coming back to punished controls. There are better systems that can still be realistic, things like crafting feed schedules to recover health boosts faster instead of having to see the vet, increasing how often the mood goes up so it doesn't take a whole week, changing it so when taking a horse for a ride the mood will increase every 10 or so minutes by engaging with a horse you like. Rewarding players for getting on and playing the game instead of making them dread missing when they should be coming back with excitement for the game.

All of that said, I want to encourage all of you to play more games where you can. I know there are system limitations, restricted budgets, and sometimes regional limits because of limited languages or just straight regionlocks. But in the same way reading makes you a better reader and writer, gaming makes you a better gamer (and developer/designer if you go that route). It helps you identify what you like in games and in the same way that reading other things makes coming back to your favorite all that much better, so does playing other games. I'm going to reblog this in a bit with some games I'd recommend with links to Steam and Epic and I'd encourage you all to do the same.

The takeaway I hope to give is that it's normal and healthy to take a break from games. You can still engage with media without directly engaging with it through fandom. SSE can do more to not penalize players for wanting to take a break, and should. And where you can, you should play more games and break for the health of your relationship with a piece of media you like.

[starship-squidlet]

Yo Ho, Hero! A Newsies Space Pirates AU

Summary: Think: Newsies characters, (grittier) Treasure Planet aesthetic, Star Wars planet-hopping, and an embarrassing amount of plot from the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything movie. Jack, Race, and Elmer are plucked out of their ordinary lives and thrust into a whole new world as unlikely heroes when Princess Katherine is captured by a wicked pirate. They join the crew of Prince Charlie and his mage Davey to rescue Katherine and defeat the evil Captain Metalbeard. (Rated T for sequences including violence, blood, fighting, etc.)

Moodboards: Jack, Race, Elmer, Davey, Crutchie/Charlie, Spot, JoJo, Romeo, Skittery, Specs, Finch, Aleesha

Yo Ho Hero Spotify Playlist

<<YouTube Playlist coming soon>>

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen (4/11/21)

Chapter Fifteen (4/17/21)

Chapter Sixteen (4/24/21)

Associated One-shots:

This one about JoJo and Sniper

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST FOR THIS STORY!!! LET ME KNOW VIA COMMENT OR MESSAGE—JUST INTERACTING WITH THIS POST IS NOT A CLEAR INDICATOR!!! Thank you for your cooperation!!!

(Feel free to reach out if you’d like more information about it before deciding if you want to be tagged! And thank you all so much for your support!!!)

What you need to know going into this story:

This fic is a Star Wars AU in that it is (to an extent) set in the Star Wars universe. This is just because I’m too lazy to world-build an entire universe for a single fic, but I already have a lot of energy put into creating my own pieces of Star Wars headcanons, OCs, and etc. that I’ve never gotten around to writing into anything, so I decided to adopt them for this fic. So while Yo Ho, Hero! takes place within the “universe” of Star Wars, it has little to nothing to do with the events of the films/shows/etc. I just wanted to use the planets/species/terminology/etc. of Star Wars instead of putting that much thought into it because I have enough else to do and all I want to do is write, not world-build, dammit.

Despite it sort-of-technically-kind-of-actually being a Star Wars AU, there are no Jedi. Just mages. No force, just good, old-fashioned magic.

In addition to planets/species/terminology/etc. from Star Wars, you may recognize some themes from other media. Yes, the “sailing ship in space” aesthetic is straight from Treasure Planet. It’s also likely that mentions of a planet called “Hyrule” will come up, along with Hylian and Rito species from it. Yes, this is a direct reference to Legend of Zelda, because at one point I was working on a LoZ/Star Wars crossover fic that never got written but did get absorbed into this story apparently. It’s also because I’m too lazy to come up with anything original.

There will be a few OCs who make minor appearances in this fic. Aleesha is one of my first-ever OCs (created when I was literally about 11-12) and has never found her way into an actual written story (despite me having PLANNED several stories about/concerning her) so I’m super excited to use her here!!! Jocasta is my D&D character who I love despite her being an actual disaster. I made a joke about how she should be in this fic cos she’s a pirate then had a galaxy brain moment and actually wrote her into it.

Pretty much any ship they encounter will be named after either a Legend of Zelda game or some other piece of popular media (my other primary source is Twilight book/movie names for some reason don’t @ me I’m unoriginal) so uhhh don’t be surprised by that. I am SO bad at coming up with names for places/things. People? Fine. I can do that. Places/ships/things/etc? Not a chance. (You may think I’m joking here, but you won’t think that when you read about a spaceship named Breath of the Wild or Midnight Sun, because those are both things that I’ve written and that may appear in this story.)

Read on FanFiction.Net | Read on Archive Of Our Own

Also including a cheat sheet of character species/races here because I don’t directly reference many of them by name in the fic. I’ll link references for some of them where I have them.

Jack Kelly: Near-human. May or may not have secret gills.

Race Higgins: “Canus”, AKA dog-based species. Think Dr. Delbert from Treasure Planet.

Elmer Kasprzak: Near-human. Appears human for all intents and purposes.

Davey Jacobs: Former human, current immortal. Basically a human frozen at 25.

Crutchie and Katherine: Humans!

Spot Conlon: “Canus”. Think Dr. Delbert from Treasure Planet.

JoJo: Onotoran (original alien race). Purple skin, deep blue eyes, and a rainbow array of feathers in place of hair on her head and running down her spine to the small of her back. Also feathers on the backs of her hands and running up her forearms to her elbows.

Romeo: half-Felis. Think Tabaxi from D&D but tall, or Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet, but more human cos he’s only half.

Specs: Literally just a Rito from Legend of Zelda (specifically Breath of the Wild).

Finch: half-Rito, half-Hylian. Closer to the look of the Rito in Wind Waker.

Skittery: Verpine (Star Wars: Legends)

Allie Raysh/Aleesha Shray: Human

Jocasta Mar’Soren: May have once been part Hylian but it doesn’t matter any more because she’s now an immortal, like Davey.

Albert Dasilva: Felis. Think Tabaxi from D&D but tall, or Captain Amelia from Treasure planet.

Buttons: he’s basically a cross between an Ood from Doctor Who and a Quarren from Star Wars.

Sarah Jacobs: human or near-human.

Les Jacobs: human or near-human.

Medda: Anatoran (original alien race). See description for JoJo, but with snow-white skin and black eyes and feathers.

Mush Meyers: Cosmoran (original alien race). See description for JoJo, but with coal-black skin and white eyes and feathers.

Elaine O’Dell: Hylian from Legend of Zelda.

Sniper: Togrutan (Star Wars)

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, Star Wars, Treasure Planet, the Legend of Zelda franchise, Twilight, or anything you recognize from any of those sources or any other form of published media. I do, however, own this story, Aleesha, the settlement of Haven, Jocasta, and anything else you don’t recognize from any form of published media.

Banner made in Procreate. All images found on Google. If they belong to you and you would like them removed/credited, please let me know!!!

[malo-mart]

I saw some of your tags in a previous post, did you not like BotW? (not trying to stir shit, genuinely curious because I didn't love it myself)

 so i’ve gotten a couple asks today like this one so I think it’s finally time to make a post about why i didnt love botw :~) this is like 2 years worth of internal critique that ive held in because i know its a really really popular game and arguably the most mainstream zelda game ever (possibly after oot) but i managed to write just my top 3 dislikes!!! woo!!!!

anyway so i just want to disclaim that botw is an amazing and incredible open world game with fantastic graphics and designs and just all round gorgeous! but it doesnt really hit the standard of a Zelda game to me....so here we go

music: forgettable ost  so we’ve all played Zelda games before and we’re all familiar with the music of the franchise. We all know the classics, like the overworld theme, and song of storms, dragon roost island, midnas lament etc. These are really, really iconic songs which we all know and love....So i want to ask how many memorable songs did we get from botw? i loved the trailer music, you know the song that plays when you unlock towers, but the best use of that song was seriously only done in the trailer. I know a big argument a lot of people use to defend the music in botw is “you’re supposed to feel empty and alone” but I don’t want to feel like im alone! I want to feel like i’m on an adventure to save Hyrule. just want to reiterate that botw outside of the zelda franchise is AMAZING but as a zelda game im not impressed. so for the music, in comparison to 30+ years of incredible soundtracks, botw didn’t leave a mark (for me) ((these are just personal opinions)) (((so keep hate to a minimum thabk u))) also i want to add that i shouldn’t like watching the trailer more than i actually like playing the game......you gotta admit the trailer was awesome 

plot: weak plot, boring, no flavour lol  plot.....what plot....lol....surely we can all agree that botw had a weak ass plot. i understand that nintendo was trying to break zelda conventions by allowing you to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted but what i dont understand is why that had to come at the cost of a good story....the fact that you could do a playthrough of botw without having to collect the memories really made the characters and the arc feel so insignificant when it could have been a really great story. one of my favourite zelda games is albw because i loved how they gave you the choice of where to go and what to do through Ravio! and then the plot right at the end....blew my tiny mind. i loved it! albw broke zelda conventions while also delivering an iconic story line. Finishing botw was not satisfying for me. The characters felt incomplete and there were entire plot points that were completely insignificant, like the Koroks. Even the Guardians were made to feel completely obsolete by the end of the game. They were never given a finishing story line. My girlfriend was telling me how botw would have had a greater impact if the final boss fight had involved the guardians, as in they returned to your side and helped you finish ganon or something like that, but instead they were just forgotten about. i feel like a lot of botw was just forgotten about...........but yeah. it was a weak plot, especially in comparison to other zelda games. i really feel like a good story is a key element to a good zelda game 

shrines: too easy, too short, underwhelming  ahhhh. shrines. 120 shrines, and all you get at the end are some clothes. i have a LOT to say about the shrines. they tried hard to switch it up here, replacing dungeons with shrines & divine beasts. i was really excited about this change at first but i felt they really under-delivered. Here are the zelda conventions they got rid of with the divine beasts: boss keys, dungeon specific items (bow, hookshot, boomerang etc), maps (kind of), compasses, mini boss. cool cool cool cool cool thats fine. i feel like they couldnt include any of these because the divine beasts were soooo short. i feel like i completed them in like 20 minutes. i’d say that they were underwhelming! it really made me miss getting stuck in the bloody forest temple in oot shooting an arrow at the walls trying to get the hallways to untwist for like 7 hours u know? as for the shrines, they were boring too lol. the music was all the same, there was barely any variety in the elements or challenges and they were pretty simple to complete. i thought they were booooorrriiiing. i think definitely my key word for this section is underwhelming. the only reason i would get excited about finding a shrine is because it actually gave me something to do instead of just frolicking around and foraging for like 15 hours straight  

but yeah anyway i did like botw but its not in my top 5 loz games barely even in my top 10 like maybe its tenth. and reiterating these are my personal opinions if u relate im starting a club we will have shirts that say ‘botw was okay’. if u thought this was completely wrong then i feel for ya i dont blame u for loving botw. its great! i have high hopes for the sequel!!! also if anyone read this far im surprised but i love u 

[frostedmoonflakes]

Oh boy!! I saw this ask going around wanted to answer these! It’s a great way to kill some boredom time anyhow. :) This got ridiculously long so I’ll put it under a cut.

Legend of Zelda Asks!

Favorite game in the series

Ocarina of Time! The amount of time I spent running around not passing the game because I suck at them Hyrule fields, just exploring the areas when I was a kid!! I love the feel of the environment. I have to put Majora’s Mask and A Link to the Past on here too for the same reason. I love these games, I love their lore, I love their characters, and I love their art.

Least favorite game in the series

This is really hard because I love them all??? Take Skyward Sword for example. I LOVE THE STORY. I LOVE FI SO MUCH. IMPA SOOOOO MUCH. ZELDA!!! But the gameplay itself is long af and pretty boring. But I love it too much to rank it anywhere in “least favorite of the series”. I guess I’ll say A Link Between Worlds because I couldn’t really get into it. 

Favorite character

Hyrule Warriors Impa is my main gal. Forever and always. Paya from Breath of the Wild. And the main bae has to be Twinrova in Ocarina of Time. Seriously the highlight of the OOT experience as a kid was getting to see Koume and Kotake and seeing them turn into Twinrova. Absolute faaaave! *___* 

Least favorite character

Kafei. Ugh. 

Favorite version of Link

Hyrule Warriors Link makes my heart go pitter patter~~~~ Did you know!! Link was actually one of my first crushes as a kid. And he just keeps getting hotter. 

Favorite version of Zelda

Breath of the Wild Zelda, hands down!! What a precious darling, I love her to pieces. She has so much personality.

Favorite female character

Twinrova! Impa! Paya! Fi! Zelda! Nabooru! Saria! I can’t just pick one.

Favorite male character

Link! Ganondorf! 

Favorite main character

Does Impa count as a main? Because if so, Impa.

Favorite side character

Twinrova and Paya!! 

Favorite area (from any game)

Gerudo Fortress in Ocarina of Time. As a kid, I used to waste hours sneaking in there with child Link, messing around the fortress trying not to get caught. For some reason that was really fun for me.

I’m also deeply passionate about Clock Town in Majora’s Mask because I loved the design so much that it made me want to live there.

Favorite villain

Twinrova!!! She’d def count. Koume and Kotake are the best.

When did you get into the series? How did you find out about it?

I think it was my stepdad who bought OOT and then gave me his copy of A Link to the Past when I was 10 or so. I think I may have had one of the other Zelda games for the Gameboy and since I didn’t understand how to play it (I couldn’t get far at all), I kind of just ignored my cartridge until OOT happened. I fell in love with the Kokiri forest right off the bat.

If you could develop the next Zelda game, what would it be like?

I’d go all out with the romance (LinkxZelda? GanonxZelda? ImpaxZelda? PayaxLink? LinkxMalon? AnjuxGanon? MiphaxLink? FixLink!!! GanonxImpa!!!) because we all know the series is lacking in it soooooo bad. I’d also give my favorites much bigger roles like Impa and Twinrova. And I’d answer the question of what happened to Navi. I’d give Fi a much more prominent role. Link would still be the main player, tho. But I’d made Zelda a playable option, too. I’d divide it in two arcs!!! One you can play as Link and one as Zelda and their interconnect. You’d have to pass both to unlock the last area of the game with the true ending.

What spin-off game would you like to see? (ex - Sports game, Party game, Racing game, etc.)

A Party game would be so cool!!! Depending on the roster of course but, I call dibs on Impa or Mipha!! 

What cross-over game would you like to see with Legend of Zelda? (ex Legend of Zelda + Mario)

I honestly don’t know, I’m not a big fan of crossovers. LOZ is magnificent by itself.

What character would you put in Hyrule Warriors that isn’t already in the game?

Mipha!!! She’d be amazing to play. -heart eyes-

If you could live in Hyrule, where would you live? What would you do for a living? (Be a little more imaginative than just “I wanna be the hero” or “I would be the princess of Hyrule”)

XD Well, I answered before that child me wanted to live in Clock Town from Majora’s Mask. And I’d say that still applies! But I would also love to live in Lon Lon Ranch (OOT version), it looks cozy. I’d be the new Happy Mask salesman. I always found those masks to be super neat. Alternatively I’ll settle for being the new Great Fairy so I can burst out of my fountains in my true naked glory every time the cute chosen hero needs to heal. 

We’ve sort of seen the beginnings of Hyrule - What do you think the endings would be?

I don’t know???? I can’t even predict how my weekend’s gonna go, how am I supposed to look so far as the “ends of Hyrule”??? 

If you only had 3 days to live in Termina, what would you do? Assume you are not playing the role of Link.

Go hang out at Koume and Kotake’s shop, help them out??

Which piece of the Triforce do you think best represents yourself?

Wisdom.

Draw yourself as a character from Hyrule (Don’t just put yourself in Link’s clothes, think about what the average citizens wear)

Maybe some other time, Blanche.

If you had the full Triforce, what would you do with it?

Let it float on its altar wherever that may be?

If you turned into a wolf or other form of beast/animal in the Twilight, what would you look like? Feel free to draw it.

I’d look like an otter with a coat that’s black with glowing light blue glyphy patterns.

What’s one thing that you want to see the most from the series? (ex - Remake of your favorite game, a new style of game, new TV show or comic, etc.)

I’d settle for a game that gave Impa a ton of spotlight! Alt just give me romaaaaaannnnce~~~~ Or, they’d have my heart if they brought back Koume and Kotake.

What DLC pack would you make for Hyrule Warriors that hasn’t already been done?

Full on story about Mipha. Though I understand they’re going to expand and focus on the Champions in the coming DLCs so that’s something that’s already being done. I’m mega curious about Mipha, Daruk, and Urbossa. Maybe a DLC that tosses you to old places from the old games to do zany quests.

What do you think a Legend of Hilda game would be like?

The same but more purple.

What character(s) or event would you like to see more backstory on?

These questions are so repetitive! Impa!!! Impa dammit always Impa! Mipha, too, she’s so amazing! 

What’s your favorite part of Legend of Zelda games? (ex - Getting all the collectibles, exploring, doing dungeons, fighting bosses, story, etc.)

The settings and environments, the character/world design, the colors, THE ART, I’m just a huge sucker for eye candy. The bits and pieces of lore we’ve managed to make out and put together through the years. The theories. Unfortunately I’m really bad at playing the games myself, I get stuck so early and so easily. But I love these games so much, I could watch people play them all day every day. For me it’s like watching my favorite movie. I love experiencing it.

If you could only play one Legend of Zelda game for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

I guess it’d have to be Ocarina of Time since that one was my kick into the franchise and I make mention of it the most. 

[daemonspiritum]

REPOST // DON’T REBLOG

NAME: Leigh, but I generally go by Cucco-mun GENDER: Cis-female EYE COLOR: Hazel/green HAIR COLOR: Black RELATIONSHIP STATUS: In a relationship ZODIAC: Taurus  FAVORITE COLOR: Purple, Green, Blue FAVORITE SEASON: Spring and Winter FAVORITE PLACE: My bedroom, outside under a tree with a book FAVORITE HOLIDAY: Halloween FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Legend of Zelda {Franchise}, Pokemon, Okami, Smash Bros, Dragon Age, Monster Hunter LAST SHOW YOU WATCHED: SNL, Supernatural, do anime count? If they do then I watched Himouto! Umaru Chan and finally finished it. WHAT’S YOUR HONEST OPINION ABOUT YOUR MUSE? My honest opinion about the muse? I love everything about Ghirahim. I was drawn back into LoZ after a few bad experiences with people who almost made me completely dislike the series. I’m glad that I followed @usurpxrregalis and gave it another chance. I went out and bought all the games, watched playthroughs for ones I don’t own, etc. I was attracted to Ghirahim first of all because he had a sadistic personality, and I usually quite enjoy villainous characters the most. All of the flamboyance and diamonds along with his style of speech is what reeled me in entirely though. He just strikes me as a very interesting character in all. WOULD YOU DATE YOUR MUSE?: I probably wouldn’t, but I’m not one to say no if the offer came up.  WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE KINDS OF THREADS?:  I love angst/psychological threads. With some muns and their muses @usurpxrregalis‘s Zant. I like to do fluff, crack, nsfw with them. It’s a huge vacation from the muses I used to do who were always so serious and analyzing, or just plain sadistic.  ARE YOU A SELECTIVE ROLEPLAYER?  I’m of the mind that I like to give everyone a chance, but at the end of the day I am selective at least with what threads I want to work on. I made my other blogs in the past a deadline steady blog, and I kind of forgot to have fun and communicate with muns. That doesn’t mean someone can’t ask me to work on a thread with them if I’m online, or nudge me to reply. I’m just forgetful at times. I’m always welcome to be reminded. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MUSE? I have a few; some are on hiatus until further notice, but let me list them: Demon Lord Ghirahim, Aita {Twili OC}, L Lawliet {Death Note}, Shion and Mion Sonozaki {Higurashi}, Dire Moonblood {Harry Potter OC}, Dean Winchester, Link {Legend of Zelda}, Jin {YYH}. These are of course ones I will still do through off site rp, but I’m just a shy cinnamon roll, and worry about bothering others. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO JOIN THE FANDOM? I joined the fandom because I needed a change, and I realized on my other muse I was kind of taken advantage of by a lot of muns. My SO was joining rp after we had failed interactions in my fandom, and they convinced me to either pick up Ghirahim, Link or Zelda. I picked up Ghirahim, but hope to do either SS verse Zelda or TP Zelda. I have a Link muse, but.. I lost his email when my old laptop crashed. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF STAYING WITH THE FANDOM FOR A LONG TIME? My last fandom I was in for over 4-5 years. I am loyal to a fault with a lot of things. Though I have to admit I see several series/games I wouldn’t mind trying out. I think I’ll stick with the idea of fleshing out a muse until much else can be done with them.

TAGGED BY: @airxn TAGGING: @usurpxrregalis @wrathfulmajora @thecrystalizeddemongirl @fateboundhero @ganondorfthedarklord @shadows-in-hyrule and anyone who wants to do this!

[lozshop]

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

New Post has been published on https://lozshop.com/review-loz-pokemon-pikachu/

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

This is the best replica of a Pikachu I’ve seen this month, especially when compared to its counterparts. The eyes, ears, mouth, tail, cheeks, etc. are all instantly recognizable and distinct, and it’s much cuter than anything other model featured before. So I’ve decided to make a very review for one of the best Loz’s products. 

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks for every single detail

The back even keeps the stripes and tail colors, as well as a tail that is the most accurately shaped as Pikachu’s tail.

Unfortunately, the size of the tail makes the figure a little backheavy, making it more frustrating that, as far as I can tell, there are no base plates made for these bricks…

And I just said that I’m impressed with how well they constructed Pikachu’s face, especially since they were working with more pieces than the other sets utilized, but with how they designed the face… We are working with high levels of “derp” here. Oh, that’s even better.

Not as good as it trying to find its nose though. Or its “punched in the stomach” face. I guess that looks normal. …Though we now have a very sarcastic-looking Pikachu. And now Pikachu’s just seen what Professor Oak does with all those Bulbasaur that starting trainers don’t take… Eh, heck with it… Let’s create a derp gif for future reviews so I don’t have to steal other peoples’.

And the mouth… …I don’t know why they bothered to make an actual mouth as opposed to a small smile or something… but thank you for making it as goofy and ill-fitting as possible. I want to say it reminds me of a really early computer-animated independent short I saw one time where the characters’ mouths moved in a diamond pattern, but it’s not coming to mind.

Actually, is anyone else getting a Far Side feel from this? Especially with the fat kid whose mouth turns into a trumpet when he’s excited? Like what Strong Sad dressed up as in that Homestar Runner cartoon? …No? …Just me?

The cheeks are nice, though, especially since they could afford to round these. Maybe they look a little big, but Pikachu are known for their large cheek patches that generate electricity, so I can’t fault the design for that.It even has a cute little button nose! …Which is offset somewhat by the close-up shot of the lifeless pupils staring at me…

They built the top of the head to give it a much more spherical and natural look, so we’re not dealing with the cube-heads of Nanoblocks or the creepy Ionix mask stolen from the Happy Mask Salesman.

Guess this Pikachu has avoided meeting with a terrible fate. …Still gotta save the world from the moon, though…

However, I’m strangely put off by the shape of the ears. On the one hand, I’m glad they matched the shape of the ears so well, since Pikachu does have rod-like ears, but on the other hand, since most of the figure is so blocky, they don’t quite match the design.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned with the design if they kept the cylindrical shape, but the little triangles on the top don’t match the smoothness of the rest of the ear. Why couldn’t they have used cones for the tips and kept it smooth all the way up? …Still, it’s a minor nitpick at best, one that only people with too much time on their hands would bother to point out and complain about. …Anyway…

I LOVE the design of the arms. They’re just the right shape and size and actually look like arms as opposed to claws or tiny brick mounds. I even love the little claw at the end, since that just perfectly represents how tiny Pikachu’s little fingers are and just makes it all the more cute.

Not as much detail was put into the feet, but they did make them look like feet and not little blocks or The Tramp’s comically oversized shoes. It would have been nice to have some semblance of toes, but they keep him standing, so can’t complain.

The tail is very nicely shaped, given what they had to work with. I would have liked it if they made the tail more slanted and lightning-shaped, but I don’t know how they would have pulled that off without using an excessive amount of bricks that probably would have made the design more fragile.

I especially love their use of headlight bricks to build a slant on the backside of the tail and make it look less “blocky.” …Though I’m wondering if those crevices left between the bricks can be filled in with something?

But the best part about this figure? The thing that causes it to excel far beyond anything else we’ve seen this month? It’s articulated! Yes, it actually has hinged arms and ears, allowing for roughly 90° of movement with the arms and 45° with the ears. Ok, it’s not minifigure-level, or possibly Wall-E level, but when you have a figure built out of standard building bricks, you take what you can get. And now you can reenact that Paffendorf meme that was briefly(and I mean BRIEFLY) popular a few years ago.

Even the tail has a wide angle of movement, so you can get it to adorably wag its tail. …It’s too bad the arms don’t pivot forwards, or we could get it to reenact Leek Spin in addition to Paffendorf. …My mind’s strangely centered on ancient memes today, isn’t it?

And now let’s look at the Pokéball that came with this figure. …Strange that a Pikachu would be paired with a Pokéball, as anyone who’s even slightly familiar with the show or game would know, but I guess if you’re illegally producing knock-offs of other franchises and you don’t know if you’ll get away with any more, it’s best to include as much as possible in your first release.

Besides that, the faux-round shape and how the red and white bricks don’t properly layer on the black middle makes it look mechanical and avant garde, more like paper cutout origami than a proper ball. …In fact, do you know what this design reminds me of?

Still, I guess it’s not terrible and it’s impressive they could make one with the limited amount of bricks they had. I guess we’ll just pretend Giant Pikachu is so powerful, it can rip the heads off Daleks and paint them red and white.

And that’s your LOZ Mini Blocks Pikachu set! A strange yet welcome addition to the new trend of creating figures out of regular building bricks. And since it’s not made out of Nanoblocks, I don’t have to superglue it together to keep it intact, nor spend 2 hours getting the first layer of bricks positioned. Heck, since there are more Mini Blocks in the range, I might just have to look at some more and see what this is compatible with.

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks in main factors

Quality: The quality is very high, even higher than their Nanoblock bricks since I couldn’t find any “problem” bricks that were melted or molded incorrectly. The plastic quality actually feels even higher than most other mainstream companies, since they’re made with that “Lego”-feeling plastic that franchises like Mega Bloks and K’Nex don’t even have. The colors are vibrant and the bricks molded quite nicely, with a uniformity not many obscure building brick companies have. There were a few bricks that felt loose or didn’t quite click together smoothly, as was expected with LOZ, but overall, the high quality for the relatively low price point of this item is extremely commendable.

Design: This is the best Pikachu model I’ve seen so far. It legitimately looks like what I’d imagine a Pikachu to look like if Lego ever decided to make a Pokémon figure in the same style as their Wall-E set. The proportions aren’t perfect and it looks quite blocky in some areas, especially around the torso, but I would probably expect this of any building brick company that decided to take a stab at this character. And the fact that they made it articulated and more than just a statuette REALLY helps up the fun factor to be had with this set. I guess my only legitimate complaints are with the derpy eyes and the undetailed feet, and maybe the diamond mouth, but since they made this with standard Lego brick shapes, I’m impressed with the amount of detail they were able to accomplish. If Lego DID make this, most of the detail would have probably been through stickers, and I’ve already made my opinion of stickers clear in my Lite Brix review… As for the Pokéball, it’s ok. It’s a very bulky, strangely cubist version that looks like if Pablo Picasso was hired to design a brick set, but it’s recognizable and sturdy and does fit the strangeness of the Pikachu design.

Creativity: As it’s a Pikachu most likely produced without a license from The Pokémon Company, there’s not much creativity in the idea of building a Pikachu or a Pokéball. However, the fact that they managed to build this out of standard brick shapes with no custom bricks is impressive, especially in areas where they flipped the bricks on their sides to give the design a bit of a slope. And again, the fact that they included articulation does make it feel like a legitimate toy and not just a model to assemble and stick on a shelf.

Readability: The instructions are done in the standard “single sheet” and “multiple steps in one” styles we’ve seen so far from Diamond Blocks and other Nanoblock companies. However, since these bricks are a bit bigger and there’s more of a variety with the shapes, it’s much easier to follow along with than regular Nanoblocks. I’m much more of a booklet-type of person, but I didn’t lose my place or start on another layer before I finished the first, so it also has that going for it over Nanoblock instructions. Overall, if it was just printed in a booklet, I would have no complaints.

Packaging: I LOVE this box. It gets the product information across without seeming too cluttered or overly detailed. It’s just the assembled product against a white background, but the small details they added did catch my eye and heightened my interest in the product. It’s obviously trying to trick you into thinking it has something to do with Lego Ideas with its “LOZ Ideas Classic Creator Series” declaration, but it backs it up with Pikachu sitting on a piece of paper covered in sketches, which really does give it the appearance of an ���indie” fan creation. And the small windows on the back featuring the figure’s articulation really help to sell this item. So even though it’s not the Engrishy type of box like the Jie Star boxes are, it’s professionally made and slightly humorous that they’re trying to pass this set off as legit.

Compatibility: It’s compatible with Lego Nanoblocks

Overall for my first review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks:

If it was compatible with other building brick lines, it would have been a 5/5. I LOVE this figure and the packaging that came with it. It’s fun, it’s stylish, it’s professional, and it perfectly represents the cartoony nature of Pokémon. If Lego or some other company was to include Pokémon in their line of figures built with standard bricks, LOZ has set a standard that might be tricky for them to match. If you can find this set, whether you’re a huge or passive fan of Pokémon, I highly recommend it. It’s truly the best building brick set featuring Pokémon I’ve ever seen…

#LozBlocks, #LozDiamondBlocks, #LozPokemonPikachu #Reviews/Unbox #loz #lozblocks #nanoblocks #diamondblocks #miniblocks #ministreet #blocks

[lozshop]

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

New Post has been published on https://lozshop.com/review-loz-pokemon-pikachu/

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

This is the best replica of a Pikachu I’ve seen this month, especially when compared to its counterparts. The eyes, ears, mouth, tail, cheeks, etc. are all instantly recognizable and distinct, and it’s much cuter than anything other model featured before. So I’ve decided to make a very review for one of the best Loz’s products. 

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks for every single detail

The back even keeps the stripes and tail colors, as well as a tail that is the most accurately shaped as Pikachu’s tail.

Unfortunately, the size of the tail makes the figure a little backheavy, making it more frustrating that, as far as I can tell, there are no base plates made for these bricks…

And I just said that I’m impressed with how well they constructed Pikachu’s face, especially since they were working with more pieces than the other sets utilized, but with how they designed the face… We are working with high levels of “derp” here. Oh, that’s even better.

Not as good as it trying to find its nose though. Or its “punched in the stomach” face. I guess that looks normal. …Though we now have a very sarcastic-looking Pikachu. And now Pikachu’s just seen what Professor Oak does with all those Bulbasaur that starting trainers don’t take… Eh, heck with it… Let’s create a derp gif for future reviews so I don’t have to steal other peoples’.

And the mouth… …I don’t know why they bothered to make an actual mouth as opposed to a small smile or something… but thank you for making it as goofy and ill-fitting as possible. I want to say it reminds me of a really early computer-animated independent short I saw one time where the characters’ mouths moved in a diamond pattern, but it’s not coming to mind.

Actually, is anyone else getting a Far Side feel from this? Especially with the fat kid whose mouth turns into a trumpet when he’s excited? Like what Strong Sad dressed up as in that Homestar Runner cartoon? …No? …Just me?

The cheeks are nice, though, especially since they could afford to round these. Maybe they look a little big, but Pikachu are known for their large cheek patches that generate electricity, so I can’t fault the design for that.It even has a cute little button nose! …Which is offset somewhat by the close-up shot of the lifeless pupils staring at me…

They built the top of the head to give it a much more spherical and natural look, so we’re not dealing with the cube-heads of Nanoblocks or the creepy Ionix mask stolen from the Happy Mask Salesman.

Guess this Pikachu has avoided meeting with a terrible fate. …Still gotta save the world from the moon, though…

However, I’m strangely put off by the shape of the ears. On the one hand, I’m glad they matched the shape of the ears so well, since Pikachu does have rod-like ears, but on the other hand, since most of the figure is so blocky, they don’t quite match the design.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned with the design if they kept the cylindrical shape, but the little triangles on the top don’t match the smoothness of the rest of the ear. Why couldn’t they have used cones for the tips and kept it smooth all the way up? …Still, it’s a minor nitpick at best, one that only people with too much time on their hands would bother to point out and complain about. …Anyway…

I LOVE the design of the arms. They’re just the right shape and size and actually look like arms as opposed to claws or tiny brick mounds. I even love the little claw at the end, since that just perfectly represents how tiny Pikachu’s little fingers are and just makes it all the more cute.

Not as much detail was put into the feet, but they did make them look like feet and not little blocks or The Tramp’s comically oversized shoes. It would have been nice to have some semblance of toes, but they keep him standing, so can’t complain.

The tail is very nicely shaped, given what they had to work with. I would have liked it if they made the tail more slanted and lightning-shaped, but I don’t know how they would have pulled that off without using an excessive amount of bricks that probably would have made the design more fragile.

I especially love their use of headlight bricks to build a slant on the backside of the tail and make it look less “blocky.” …Though I’m wondering if those crevices left between the bricks can be filled in with something?

But the best part about this figure? The thing that causes it to excel far beyond anything else we’ve seen this month? It’s articulated! Yes, it actually has hinged arms and ears, allowing for roughly 90° of movement with the arms and 45° with the ears. Ok, it’s not minifigure-level, or possibly Wall-E level, but when you have a figure built out of standard building bricks, you take what you can get. And now you can reenact that Paffendorf meme that was briefly(and I mean BRIEFLY) popular a few years ago.

Even the tail has a wide angle of movement, so you can get it to adorably wag its tail. …It’s too bad the arms don’t pivot forwards, or we could get it to reenact Leek Spin in addition to Paffendorf. …My mind’s strangely centered on ancient memes today, isn’t it?

And now let’s look at the Pokéball that came with this figure. …Strange that a Pikachu would be paired with a Pokéball, as anyone who’s even slightly familiar with the show or game would know, but I guess if you’re illegally producing knock-offs of other franchises and you don’t know if you’ll get away with any more, it’s best to include as much as possible in your first release.

Besides that, the faux-round shape and how the red and white bricks don’t properly layer on the black middle makes it look mechanical and avant garde, more like paper cutout origami than a proper ball. …In fact, do you know what this design reminds me of?

Still, I guess it’s not terrible and it’s impressive they could make one with the limited amount of bricks they had. I guess we’ll just pretend Giant Pikachu is so powerful, it can rip the heads off Daleks and paint them red and white.

And that’s your LOZ Mini Blocks Pikachu set! A strange yet welcome addition to the new trend of creating figures out of regular building bricks. And since it’s not made out of Nanoblocks, I don’t have to superglue it together to keep it intact, nor spend 2 hours getting the first layer of bricks positioned. Heck, since there are more Mini Blocks in the range, I might just have to look at some more and see what this is compatible with.

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks in main factors

Quality: The quality is very high, even higher than their Nanoblock bricks since I couldn’t find any “problem” bricks that were melted or molded incorrectly. The plastic quality actually feels even higher than most other mainstream companies, since they’re made with that “Lego”-feeling plastic that franchises like Mega Bloks and K’Nex don’t even have. The colors are vibrant and the bricks molded quite nicely, with a uniformity not many obscure building brick companies have. There were a few bricks that felt loose or didn’t quite click together smoothly, as was expected with LOZ, but overall, the high quality for the relatively low price point of this item is extremely commendable.

Design: This is the best Pikachu model I’ve seen so far. It legitimately looks like what I’d imagine a Pikachu to look like if Lego ever decided to make a Pokémon figure in the same style as their Wall-E set. The proportions aren’t perfect and it looks quite blocky in some areas, especially around the torso, but I would probably expect this of any building brick company that decided to take a stab at this character. And the fact that they made it articulated and more than just a statuette REALLY helps up the fun factor to be had with this set. I guess my only legitimate complaints are with the derpy eyes and the undetailed feet, and maybe the diamond mouth, but since they made this with standard Lego brick shapes, I’m impressed with the amount of detail they were able to accomplish. If Lego DID make this, most of the detail would have probably been through stickers, and I’ve already made my opinion of stickers clear in my Lite Brix review… As for the Pokéball, it’s ok. It’s a very bulky, strangely cubist version that looks like if Pablo Picasso was hired to design a brick set, but it’s recognizable and sturdy and does fit the strangeness of the Pikachu design.

Creativity: As it’s a Pikachu most likely produced without a license from The Pokémon Company, there’s not much creativity in the idea of building a Pikachu or a Pokéball. However, the fact that they managed to build this out of standard brick shapes with no custom bricks is impressive, especially in areas where they flipped the bricks on their sides to give the design a bit of a slope. And again, the fact that they included articulation does make it feel like a legitimate toy and not just a model to assemble and stick on a shelf.

Readability: The instructions are done in the standard “single sheet” and “multiple steps in one” styles we’ve seen so far from Diamond Blocks and other Nanoblock companies. However, since these bricks are a bit bigger and there’s more of a variety with the shapes, it’s much easier to follow along with than regular Nanoblocks. I’m much more of a booklet-type of person, but I didn’t lose my place or start on another layer before I finished the first, so it also has that going for it over Nanoblock instructions. Overall, if it was just printed in a booklet, I would have no complaints.

Packaging: I LOVE this box. It gets the product information across without seeming too cluttered or overly detailed. It’s just the assembled product against a white background, but the small details they added did catch my eye and heightened my interest in the product. It’s obviously trying to trick you into thinking it has something to do with Lego Ideas with its “LOZ Ideas Classic Creator Series” declaration, but it backs it up with Pikachu sitting on a piece of paper covered in sketches, which really does give it the appearance of an “indie” fan creation. And the small windows on the back featuring the figure’s articulation really help to sell this item. So even though it’s not the Engrishy type of box like the Jie Star boxes are, it’s professionally made and slightly humorous that they’re trying to pass this set off as legit.

Compatibility: It’s compatible with Lego Nanoblocks

Overall for my first review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks:

If it was compatible with other building brick lines, it would have been a 5/5. I LOVE this figure and the packaging that came with it. It’s fun, it’s stylish, it’s professional, and it perfectly represents the cartoony nature of Pokémon. If Lego or some other company was to include Pokémon in their line of figures built with standard bricks, LOZ has set a standard that might be tricky for them to match. If you can find this set, whether you’re a huge or passive fan of Pokémon, I highly recommend it. It’s truly the best building brick set featuring Pokémon I’ve ever seen…

#LozBlocks, #LozDiamondBlocks, #LozPokemonPikachu #Reviews/Unbox #loz #lozblocks #nanoblocks #diamondblocks #miniblocks #ministreet #blocks

[lozshop]

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

New Post has been published on https://lozshop.com/review-loz-pokemon-pikachu/

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond BlockS

This is the best replica of a Pikachu I’ve seen this month, especially when compared to its counterparts. The eyes, ears, mouth, tail, cheeks, etc. are all instantly recognizable and distinct, and it’s much cuter than anything other model featured before. So I’ve decided to make a very review for one of the best Loz’s products. 

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks for every single detail

The back even keeps the stripes and tail colors, as well as a tail that is the most accurately shaped as Pikachu’s tail.

Unfortunately, the size of the tail makes the figure a little backheavy, making it more frustrating that, as far as I can tell, there are no base plates made for these bricks…

And I just said that I’m impressed with how well they constructed Pikachu’s face, especially since they were working with more pieces than the other sets utilized, but with how they designed the face… We are working with high levels of “derp” here. Oh, that’s even better.

Not as good as it trying to find its nose though. Or its “punched in the stomach” face. I guess that looks normal. …Though we now have a very sarcastic-looking Pikachu. And now Pikachu’s just seen what Professor Oak does with all those Bulbasaur that starting trainers don’t take… Eh, heck with it… Let’s create a derp gif for future reviews so I don’t have to steal other peoples’.

And the mouth… …I don’t know why they bothered to make an actual mouth as opposed to a small smile or something… but thank you for making it as goofy and ill-fitting as possible. I want to say it reminds me of a really early computer-animated independent short I saw one time where the characters’ mouths moved in a diamond pattern, but it’s not coming to mind.

Actually, is anyone else getting a Far Side feel from this? Especially with the fat kid whose mouth turns into a trumpet when he’s excited? Like what Strong Sad dressed up as in that Homestar Runner cartoon? …No? …Just me?

The cheeks are nice, though, especially since they could afford to round these. Maybe they look a little big, but Pikachu are known for their large cheek patches that generate electricity, so I can’t fault the design for that.It even has a cute little button nose! …Which is offset somewhat by the close-up shot of the lifeless pupils staring at me…

They built the top of the head to give it a much more spherical and natural look, so we’re not dealing with the cube-heads of Nanoblocks or the creepy Ionix mask stolen from the Happy Mask Salesman.

Guess this Pikachu has avoided meeting with a terrible fate. …Still gotta save the world from the moon, though…

However, I’m strangely put off by the shape of the ears. On the one hand, I’m glad they matched the shape of the ears so well, since Pikachu does have rod-like ears, but on the other hand, since most of the figure is so blocky, they don’t quite match the design.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so concerned with the design if they kept the cylindrical shape, but the little triangles on the top don’t match the smoothness of the rest of the ear. Why couldn’t they have used cones for the tips and kept it smooth all the way up? …Still, it’s a minor nitpick at best, one that only people with too much time on their hands would bother to point out and complain about. …Anyway…

I LOVE the design of the arms. They’re just the right shape and size and actually look like arms as opposed to claws or tiny brick mounds. I even love the little claw at the end, since that just perfectly represents how tiny Pikachu’s little fingers are and just makes it all the more cute.

Not as much detail was put into the feet, but they did make them look like feet and not little blocks or The Tramp’s comically oversized shoes. It would have been nice to have some semblance of toes, but they keep him standing, so can’t complain.

The tail is very nicely shaped, given what they had to work with. I would have liked it if they made the tail more slanted and lightning-shaped, but I don’t know how they would have pulled that off without using an excessive amount of bricks that probably would have made the design more fragile.

I especially love their use of headlight bricks to build a slant on the backside of the tail and make it look less “blocky.” …Though I’m wondering if those crevices left between the bricks can be filled in with something?

But the best part about this figure? The thing that causes it to excel far beyond anything else we’ve seen this month? It’s articulated! Yes, it actually has hinged arms and ears, allowing for roughly 90° of movement with the arms and 45° with the ears. Ok, it’s not minifigure-level, or possibly Wall-E level, but when you have a figure built out of standard building bricks, you take what you can get. And now you can reenact that Paffendorf meme that was briefly(and I mean BRIEFLY) popular a few years ago.

Even the tail has a wide angle of movement, so you can get it to adorably wag its tail. …It’s too bad the arms don’t pivot forwards, or we could get it to reenact Leek Spin in addition to Paffendorf. …My mind’s strangely centered on ancient memes today, isn’t it?

And now let’s look at the Pokéball that came with this figure. …Strange that a Pikachu would be paired with a Pokéball, as anyone who’s even slightly familiar with the show or game would know, but I guess if you’re illegally producing knock-offs of other franchises and you don’t know if you’ll get away with any more, it’s best to include as much as possible in your first release.

Besides that, the faux-round shape and how the red and white bricks don’t properly layer on the black middle makes it look mechanical and avant garde, more like paper cutout origami than a proper ball. …In fact, do you know what this design reminds me of?

Still, I guess it’s not terrible and it’s impressive they could make one with the limited amount of bricks they had. I guess we’ll just pretend Giant Pikachu is so powerful, it can rip the heads off Daleks and paint them red and white.

And that’s your LOZ Mini Blocks Pikachu set! A strange yet welcome addition to the new trend of creating figures out of regular building bricks. And since it’s not made out of Nanoblocks, I don’t have to superglue it together to keep it intact, nor spend 2 hours getting the first layer of bricks positioned. Heck, since there are more Mini Blocks in the range, I might just have to look at some more and see what this is compatible with.

Review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks in main factors

Quality: The quality is very high, even higher than their Nanoblock bricks since I couldn’t find any “problem” bricks that were melted or molded incorrectly. The plastic quality actually feels even higher than most other mainstream companies, since they’re made with that “Lego”-feeling plastic that franchises like Mega Bloks and K’Nex don’t even have. The colors are vibrant and the bricks molded quite nicely, with a uniformity not many obscure building brick companies have. There were a few bricks that felt loose or didn’t quite click together smoothly, as was expected with LOZ, but overall, the high quality for the relatively low price point of this item is extremely commendable.

Design: This is the best Pikachu model I’ve seen so far. It legitimately looks like what I’d imagine a Pikachu to look like if Lego ever decided to make a Pokémon figure in the same style as their Wall-E set. The proportions aren’t perfect and it looks quite blocky in some areas, especially around the torso, but I would probably expect this of any building brick company that decided to take a stab at this character. And the fact that they made it articulated and more than just a statuette REALLY helps up the fun factor to be had with this set. I guess my only legitimate complaints are with the derpy eyes and the undetailed feet, and maybe the diamond mouth, but since they made this with standard Lego brick shapes, I’m impressed with the amount of detail they were able to accomplish. If Lego DID make this, most of the detail would have probably been through stickers, and I’ve already made my opinion of stickers clear in my Lite Brix review… As for the Pokéball, it’s ok. It’s a very bulky, strangely cubist version that looks like if Pablo Picasso was hired to design a brick set, but it’s recognizable and sturdy and does fit the strangeness of the Pikachu design.

Creativity: As it’s a Pikachu most likely produced without a license from The Pokémon Company, there’s not much creativity in the idea of building a Pikachu or a Pokéball. However, the fact that they managed to build this out of standard brick shapes with no custom bricks is impressive, especially in areas where they flipped the bricks on their sides to give the design a bit of a slope. And again, the fact that they included articulation does make it feel like a legitimate toy and not just a model to assemble and stick on a shelf.

Readability: The instructions are done in the standard “single sheet” and “multiple steps in one” styles we’ve seen so far from Diamond Blocks and other Nanoblock companies. However, since these bricks are a bit bigger and there’s more of a variety with the shapes, it’s much easier to follow along with than regular Nanoblocks. I’m much more of a booklet-type of person, but I didn’t lose my place or start on another layer before I finished the first, so it also has that going for it over Nanoblock instructions. Overall, if it was just printed in a booklet, I would have no complaints.

Packaging: I LOVE this box. It gets the product information across without seeming too cluttered or overly detailed. It’s just the assembled product against a white background, but the small details they added did catch my eye and heightened my interest in the product. It’s obviously trying to trick you into thinking it has something to do with Lego Ideas with its “LOZ Ideas Classic Creator Series” declaration, but it backs it up with Pikachu sitting on a piece of paper covered in sketches, which really does give it the appearance of an “indie” fan creation. And the small windows on the back featuring the figure’s articulation really help to sell this item. So even though it’s not the Engrishy type of box like the Jie Star boxes are, it’s professionally made and slightly humorous that they’re trying to pass this set off as legit.

Compatibility: It’s compatible with Lego Nanoblocks

Overall for my first review LOZ Pokemon Pikachu Diamond Blocks:

If it was compatible with other building brick lines, it would have been a 5/5. I LOVE this figure and the packaging that came with it. It’s fun, it’s stylish, it’s professional, and it perfectly represents the cartoony nature of Pokémon. If Lego or some other company was to include Pokémon in their line of figures built with standard bricks, LOZ has set a standard that might be tricky for them to match. If you can find this set, whether you’re a huge or passive fan of Pokémon, I highly recommend it. It’s truly the best building brick set featuring Pokémon I’ve ever seen…

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