#basically. it's VERY good but it's not a 3d game. keep that in mind

[blueskittlesart]

without dropping anything super specific what do you think of EoW's story? in particular i'm kinda worried over if they made Zelda basically replaceable with any other silent protag and i'm holding back on getting the game if that's the case...

I think they handled a playable zelda incredibly well actually! In particular I was impressed that although she is a silent protagonist, she is NOT link, and the game takes care to remind you of that in everything from dialog to physical gameplay. Though she does technically have the ability to wield link's sword, in practice it's almost always more practical to use echoes, her own unique form of gameplay, to get through combat instead, which is a good reminder to the player that this isn't link's story, and we're not going to be able to beat it link's way. You're required to be ZELDA and think like zelda, utilizing mechanics unique to her, in order to progress through the story, and those mechanics emphasize creative problem-solving in a way that clearly envokes her core trait of wisdom. so in that regard i'd say she's definitely a unique protagonist and I never felt like she could have been replaced with someone else! (mild spoilery note: in the final battle you do actually have link fighting alongside you, and because of that, your sword ability is removed entirely, meaning you HAVE to end the game on zelda's terms, with zelda's abilities, which I thought was a nice touch.)

In terms of actual story, it's honestly a fairly classic zelda formula, but the twists and turns were well-written and kept me VERY engaged throughout. The act of searching for link felt different not because chasing after a captured friend is uncommon in a loz game, but because HE was different. The things you learn about link and how he ended up in this story compel you to keep searching for him in a way that you almost... don't need when you're link chasing zelda, because OF COURSE the hero is going to go after the princess. but this game had to engineer a situation in which the PRINCESS wanted to go after the HERO, and a hero she'd never met before at that. and that to me is what made the story interesting.

I will say, don't go into this game expecting it to have the same amount of story as a 3d installment like botw or totk. this is a topdown classic-style game, and it treats itself like one. the story is good, but it's not pushing the boundaries of the genre or anything. eow is a game that knows what it is and what it wants to do, and it does it exceptionally well. I think where the game really shines is in the implied narrative of the worldbuilding--pieces of personal memorabilia in characters' houses, little hints of the past and references to previous games in map design and details that allow you as the player to theorize and put together the less overt pieces of the story on your own. this has always been one of the things that I personally really enjoy about zelda games, so I absolutely LOVE how much detail is left for the player to find in eow if they're paying attention.

[sunshine-jesse]

The Incest End is Not The Bad End, Part 3: The Only End I Know For Real

Alt title: We're roleplaying the endings, not choosing them.

I've focused a lot before on how sickly sweet the chemistry between Ashley and Andrew is and how unproblematic their relationship would actually be under different circumstances, mostly societal ones. I mostly did so to counter the idea that the incest end was primarily a bad end and bring up the assertion that it was the one with the most hope. In doing so, I basically interpreted all of the text within the game in a very positive light, giving off the impression that I think it'll be all sunshine and roses. The reality couldn't be further from the truth? While I think it's the end with the most hope, I ALSO think it'll be incredibly difficult for everyone involved.

As a matter of fact, I think the Questionable end will be the most difficult one to navigate through for Ashley herself.

"But wait," you say, alarm bells ringing in your head, "doesn't she literally fucking die in the Decay ending?"

And I don't think it's that obvious.

First off, why do I think the Questionable end will be difficult to navigate through? After all, Andrew is calm, collected, and Ashley is just a little bit nervous about how he's changing. She also has that ultimate leverage over him, knowing that he's sexually attracted to her and she can use it to keep him by her side. There's little for anyone to worry about, right? Well, no. Not really. As another analyst has pointed out, in the Questionable ending, Ashley has no OTHER leverage over Andrew.

The trinket? Shown to be only situationally useful to them. The future visions don't always show danger, sometimes the demon can just troll them. Sleep? No, he no longer needs Ashley for that. A scapegoat? Not even that. In the Burial ending, he starts to take responsibility for the violence he inflicts on others and has no need to pin the blame on Ashley.

Outside of sex, Ashley is more or less useless to him now, at least in her own mind. Truthfully, Ashley is still the most important person in the world to Andrew and doesn't seem to need a reason to keep her around anymore, but Ashley doesn't realize that; it's part of why she's so confused and uncertain. Their dynamic is changing, and she doesn't like it. But in the Questionable ending, all Andrew has to do is not have sex with Ashley (easier said than done if the fanbase [myself] is any indication) and she'll have nothing left. She'll likely have no other choice but to look inward at this point, especially if Andrew doesn't give off any of the usual red flags that make her think he'd leave her.

There's a good chance at this point that their dynamic will flip entirely. Ashley will be the one who needs comfort, and Andrew shows every indication of being emotionally stable enough to provide it. We'll see some Real Mental Illness instead of Possible To Infer But Maybe Problematic To Do So Mental Illness. Whether or not she changes for the better or worse will likely determine the ending we'll get.

…

Except probably not.

Sane vs Questionable can't be THAT different, or we'd be getting 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D instead of 3A and 3B. And, y'know what? Now I'm gonna start reaching really hard into theory territory rather than just analysis. So, hear me out here.

Both dreams are canon no matter the ending. The only difference is whether or not Andrew sleeps or not; if he does, the vision he gets is for HIM, and Ashley only incidentally sees it. It's much more important to him than to Ashley, because Ashley doesn't get a clear vision like she did in the motel. If them fucking was actually relevant to Ashley, she likely would've seen it no matter the ending. Her reactions reflect this; at first, she appears weirded out, maybe uncomfortable. Then she finds it hilarious. She considers it as a means of manipulation, sure, but the writing is on the wall: She won't NEED to do so no matter what.

Unfortunately, due to her not being able to open both doors, she won't be able to realize this. Oops!

At this point in time it's basically impossible to ascertain what her own personal vision means. I've given my interpretation before, but I ultimately have my doubts that the specific sequence of events is all to relevant. Most weird dream metaphors are clear parallels to past events, but the dream seems to be a metaphor for what the future will hold. The most relevant part is not the ghosts, but instead how Ashley reacts to what is clearly Andrew's soul. She jokes about trapping it in the bottle, but it being as a joke more than anything is a far cry from how desperate her attempts to keep him normally seem. So what gives? What does this mean?

I think, funnily enough, the Decay ending holds the answer.

My most-distanced-from-a-literal-or-metaphorical-reading-of-the-text-but-is-relatively-easy-to-accept theory is that the choices we are given in the game aren't asking us what we want to see from them, but rather, how we see the characters and their relationship. People are distracted by the idea of choice, but the reality is that we're being asked to roleplay (this is an RPG after all) as the siblings and do what we expect them to do. This isn't about choice. This is about BEING them and DOING WHAT WE THINK THEY'D DO.

Here's what I mean.

If we interpret Ashley as having trust in Andrew and his judgment, then it makes perfect sense she'd trust him with her parents. She might be a little worried, but it's pretty clear that her overwhelming desire to keep Andrew by her side is underscored by genuine love and trust. From there, if we interpret Andrew as having genuine love for his sister and a desire to take care of her, then it becomes everyone else's problem that they can't be together; not his. In killing their parents, he comes to terms with this and self-actualizes. He's willing to take responsibility for the violence he inflicts on others and has no discomfort with dismembering them.

But if you interpret Andrew as viewing Ashley as a burden and a problem, he can't bring himself to save their parents and have a better life because he views himself as too far gone. He hates himself as much as Ashley hates herself for being unable to break free from her influence. He still feels like she's his responsibility, but the love that exists there is greatly muted and overshadowed by his sense of responsibility and a carnal, physical desire for her. Knowing this is likely part of the reason he hates himself; part of the reason he can't let go.

He, crucially, also squanders Ashley's genuine display of trust. It's HIS fault that things break apart, which is why the skull appears over his head when you accept the mom's offer. Ashley genuinely, seriously loves Andrew and wants what's best for him. She's posessive, but her care is a lot less selfish than Andrew thinks, and he can't see that because he's too blinded by his hatred and (partially sexual) frustration to see who she really is.

On the other side of things, if you view Ashley as being a primarily toxic influence that views Andrew as more of an object than anything, she doesn't trust Andrew to deal with their parents and it's HER fault that things break apart, as the skull appears over her head. She sees him as an object, as a child or toy. She sees him as Andy, not Andrew, and can't process the fact that he can change. It's very overbearingly maternalistic, and I believe this specific choice is the only one where Ashley is actually more like their mother than Andrew, eye colors be damned.

In Burial, she wants to share the vision with Andrew, and he wants to share it with her, because their feelings are genuine and mutual and they want to share the experience (because they might get two visions from it, sure, but the principle isn't that much different) But in Decay, she keeps it to herself. She doesn't trust him or his input, either because she doesn't view his feelings as important or because he either almost squandered her trust (if she was listening in), or because he was generally hostile and disincentivized her from wanting to share.

There are other examples too, like when we're allowed to control Andrew to kill the hitman. If we view him as unprepared or unwilling to kill, we empty the whole clip because he's nervous and doesn't want to do this. If we view him as prepared, calm, and in control, he kills in one clean shot without much of an issue. Washing the [REDACTED] out of the shower drain? We basically get to see if Ashley is actually all that competent at housework or not, and if we don't know the right order, neither does she.

This comes to a head in both of the endings.

In the Questionable ending, we're shown that Andrew slept through the dream. We see what he really wants and the depths of his true feelings. He has very obvious romantic feelings for Ashley, and it's not just physical desire. Ashley's very obviously obsessed with Andrew still, but the fact that he can be present in every painting shows that she ACTUALLY views him that way. She's not just seeking validation; her feelings are real, and she knows it.

Remember, this dream is SHARED. We are seeing how BOTH of them feel.

In the Sane ending, Andrew isn't present, and Ashley is never given a chance to view their relationship as anything other than platonic. We don't know how Andrew feels, and we're arguably never given a view into Ashley's true feelings either, because that would-be revelation is cut off by a vision (indicated by eyes). We're just shown what she should do, needs to do, or will do.

Because we don't view their relationship as romantic, light is never shone on the reality of their dynamic. We never see how obsessed Ashley really is (if anything, we're being misdirected by being shown the opposite), and we never see that Andrew has romantic- if buried- feelings for Ashley that can't just be passed off as carnal physical desire. But since it's still the Burial ending, the dynamic still clearly exists; the endings would be too different otherwise. We CHOSE how we see their dynamic in the basement scene.

In other words…

Without love, the truth cannot be seen.

Reader who is in the know: "…hey wait a fuckin' minute" Me: "MOVING ON"

At some point- probably early on- the Sane and Questionable endings have to converge. Andrew and Ashley will have to have the nature of their dynamic laid out for them in a way they can't deny, and the likely only difference between Sane and Questionable will be whether or not Andrew is surprised/embarrassed, or just goes "I guess that dickhead demon wasn't just tricking us after all" and then the route will proceed as normal. Whether or not they have sex will likely be determined by your choices in Chapter 3 itself rather than Chapter 2 with this in mind. Either way, I think Ashley will go through most of the chapter confused and uncertain and will be forced to develop as a person, for better or worse.

In the Decay ending, as said, we're shown that Ashley doesn't even attempt to share a vision with Andrew, so we get to see a vision where Ashley's frame of mind isn't one driven by mutual affection. In this route, we see Ashley constantly running from -something,- and given dreams are metaphors, I think it's reasonable to assume that it's showing us that Ashley is primarily motivated by a fear of Andrew. Fear of what, exactly, isn't really clear; we know for a fact that she's afraid of losing him, but she's also afraid of the violence he can inflict upon her. Either way, she runs away, we can see the demon say "hmmm how interesting," and then we get a vision of the future.

But it's important to note, that vision is a metaphor, not a literal vision of the future. It takes place in the dream world- unlike any other vision, which takes place in the real world- and there are no out-of-frame eyes in the CGs like there are in the Questionable route. Also, (albeit less convincingly), all the eyes are in the background rather than on the map themselves, like they are when we see the hitman vision. The eyes only exist in the background in the Sane vision too, further adding to the idea that they're a metaphor.

So. If it's not a literal depiction of what will happen, then what exactly is it a metaphor for? Okay. Hear me out. This is my wildest fucking theory yet.

It's a metaphor for the Burial route. Or rather, the kind of event that happened in the Burial route.

What we are being shown in the metaphor is a reconciliation of their relationship, where their true feelings are laid bare. We are put in a situation where they are forced to decide how they feel for each other once and for all. If Andrew holds all the power in the relationship but has no control or awareness of his feelings- represented by whether he was composed enough or not to unload his entire clip-, he unceremoniously kills Ashley. Without that awareness, Ashley cannot even defend herself. She has no control because she isn't dealing with someone who has any either.

(Whether he actually kills Ashley or just some abstract representation of Leyley isn't clear, but it doesn't matter much for the purpose of analysis.)

But if Andrew does have that awareness of his feelings- represented by only shooting one bullet- they can negotiate. Because Andrew is in control, Ashley is also in control, and she can make one of two choices:

She can choose to save herself (and either maintain the status quo or just fucking kill Andrew depending on how literal the vision is). With this choice, she lets her fear overtake her and discards Andrew- the cause of her fear- like trash. He is an object that only exists for her sake, after all, and she can discard him just as easily as he seemed like her could discard her during the strangulation scene.

She can choose to trust and accept Andrew. And given a heart appears over her head, she can choose to love him, and overcome her fear, even at the cost of either her life or their prior dynamic (once more, depending on how literal it is).

Decay is asking us if we think Ashley is primarily motivated by selfish fear or genuine selfless love. But both exist either way, and their relationship must be understood and reconciled at some point; this route might honestly be their only hope for a platonic good ending, but it's going to be dismal and painful either way.

So with that in mind, why is the gun not relevant to the Burial route (yet) if it's such a strong metaphor?

Because the reconciling event WAS the basement scene.

We had to make that same choice there. Was Ashley too afraid of Andrew's interaction with her parents to let him handle it? Or did she love and trust him enough to make that choice? In choosing yes, the ball in Andrew's court. If he chooses to care for her needs, their relationship evolves. If he or Ashley refuse make that choice, that can is kicked down the road, and their relationship continues to deteriorate.

Or decay, as it may.

But in Burial, with that reconciling event having happened, the ball is in Ashley's court. With Andrew having come to terms with many of his feelings (minus his sexual desire), most of his arc is finished. There's probably still a lot of him to unpack on the Burial route, but in the Decay ending, as long as Ashley shows love for him, the final choice always falls on his shoulders. And with his final choice having been made in Burial, all that's left is Ashley's.

And what final choice will she have to make?

I don't know, I'm not a prophet.

But either way, she'll still have to make the choice of whether or not to be ruled by her fear of losing him, and desperately try to grasp for control she no longer needs, or cast aside that fear and allow for genuine, mutual love to flourish. Think about it this way: When you see a corpse, how do you react? If you don't care for the corpse or fear it, you stay away and let it decay. If the corpse belongs to someone you love, you tend to it and bury it.

And what do I think the best case scenario is? Well, I've made my opinion obvious, but I think there's one final thing I need to emphasize:

You don't claw at someone's back like a wild fucking animal if you're not really into it.

[chronicbeans]

Hey how about some cute welcome home headcanons of Wally and co. With a human s/o who found and brought them to their house and they see their s/o playing on video games (they have a ds lite, a 3ds, a ps3, a ps4, a Wii and a Switch and a newly brought gamer laptop with some games installed) and get curious about it and want to try too and their s/o teaches them?

YIPPEE!!! Game time!

Wally Darling and Co. with a Human Reader who plays Videogames:

TW: Brief Mention of Murder (in the context of videogame violence/mystery games)

🎮 They all would be so excited to try to play videogames. They have never seen anything like them before. Well, they have seen the very early videogames, but the ones you have are so much more... MORE!

🎮 So, they all begin asking you random questions about the games you play. Who is that guy? What's a Mario? Who's MegaMan? Then, the most important question of all: how do you play?

🎮 This begins the task of teaching all of these puppets how to play various videogames, all on different consoles. It can get difficult due to their hands being different from one another. Poppy has wings and feathers, Barnaby has large paws, and Howdy has so many hands he can't decide which ones he should use to hold the remote or DS.

🎮 However, once you teach everyone how to play whatever game it is, it gets pretty fun! Especially party games or competitive ones. Watching a group of puppets get overly invested in a game of Mario Kart, no matter which game in the series, is enjoyable to watch. To your surprise, Wally seems to be the most competitive out of the group, causing you to have to teach him the value in letting others win from time to time and how bragging can hurt people's feelings. He takes that lesson to heart, though, going on to be more calm while playing.

🎮 Frank usually sticks to his own games, enjoying puzzle games, like Tetris or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (he claims that these two games are COMPLETELY different due to the plot in Dr. Robotnik's). He is really good at them, too! Sometimes the others will watch him play it in awe, mesmerized by the pretty colors and music.

🎮 The final big surprise to you is how much Eddie loves mystery games. He can play any game based off of Sherlock Holmes or any other mystery novel for hours. He might not get exactly what is going on, especially in games that involve violent crimes like murder, but he gets the basic concept of "find the bad guy" and using clues to do so.

🎮 Most of the others stick to multiplayer, casual party games or racing games. Poppy does love baking games, though, including flash games revolving around baking. You kind of expected this, however, due to her preexisting love for baking. Sally likes any game with flashy style and drama. Barnaby likes to play Fibbage from time to time, of course, keeping the jokes clean (mostly because none of the puppets entirely understand or are aware of adult topics and humor being... Well... From a children's show). Sally likes Hello Kitty games because of the adorable aesthetic, and Howdy likes games about... managing things? He keeps finding these oddly specific games about running stores and such. Like, a VERY specific genre of tycoon games.

🎮 Home, whose puppet you found seems to be the size of a small cardboard box, can't really play games, but it seems to like to watch you play games. It shows extra happiness when you play home care/restoration/design games like House Flipper. It also enjoys watching you play The Sims, too, which you have made a household just for the Welcome Home crew.

🎮 Sometimes, due to little accidents, things break. Since controllers are designed with human hands in mind, felt or feathery puppet hands can drop things by accident. Over time, it becomes a little rule that they should try to keep their hands as close to the floor or whatever surface is closest to their hands as possible. That way, if they drop the controller, it will have less of a chance of breaking.

🎮 They probably ask you numerous questions about subjects discussed in the games they play. They can range from "why does the dog in Nintendogs act so different from Barnaby?" to "what is murder?" Needless to say, depending on the topic, you get some very strange whiplash due to puppets asking about dark, disturbing topics. You try your best to explain, though, because you know if you don't, they'll try to figure it out on their own. Might as well be you so they don't get any misinformation or stumble upon something horrific.

[notoneopinion]

10 Ways I Soothe Anxiety

Hello. I have anxiety.

I have anxiety, but I have also managed to somehow keep a pretty good life for myself through it all. Getting out of bed when you have a paralysing fear of the world is not an easy task, but there are a few things I have found that make it that little bit easier, life that little bit smoother. And because we certainly don't gatekeep here, I thought I'd share the ten main ways I soothe anxiety. Basically, ten things I do to switch off and remove myself from my brain.

1. Turn your phone off.

An obvious one, but probably one of the most important. It's insane how clogged a person's brain will get when they spend their day glued to a phone screen. For me, it's not even just social media that sets me off, though that is a massive trigger for me and many other people; it's the phone in general. I could be playing Angry Birds for twenty-four hours and still finish the day feeling gross and anxious and guilty. The screen itself just makes me feel groggy, which in turn leaves me feeling anxious by the time I'm getting into bed that night. There are some days I will wake up, and just turn my phone off completely - usually days when I know I'm going to be at home all day, but still. That extended break from screen time is a life saver.

2. Fidget toys.

Okay, so I may also have autism.

But!!!! Fidget toys are miracle workers for all kinds of mental illnesses and uncomfortable feelings, so don't think you can't invest in some just because you're not on the spectrum. Fidget toys are literally made to soothe anxiety, so get yourself some!! I have one called a Tangle that I keep on me at all times, and I just mess with it in my pocket when I'm in a social situation and I don't know what to do with my hands, or I start feeling a little overwhelmed. It brings my fight or flight right down. I don't know the science behind it, but I honestly don't even care. Give me fidget toys, or give me death.

3. Model making, eg Legos, 3D puzzles.

Legos and 3D puzzles are another thing that has changed the game for me when it comes to anxiety. Like fidget toys, they are the perfect way to keep your hands busy, but they have the added bonus of keeping your mind busy, too. These are, of course, more of a relaxation technique, something you come home to after a stressful day rather than something to eliminate anxiety on the spot, but we'll take what we can get. These also keep you relaxed and distracted for hours, because there is hours worth of work to be put into them. Plus, they're very addictive - once you start on a Lego set, or a puzzle, you don't want to stop until it's finished. I've sat for eleven hours straight doing a Lego set just because I wanted to see the finished product as soon as possible, and during those eleven hours, my anxiety was non-existent. I was just enjoying myself the entire time.

4. Have a nap.

Very self explanatory, and yet controversial???

But genuinely, just go to sleep??? If you're having a gruesome day, and your mind is bullying you, and you're exhausted, just lay down and go to sleep. Fuck what other people say. There is nothing wrong with clocking out from the horrors of the real world for a few hours. As long as you get back up, all refreshed and ready to tackle another day, who cares??

5. Talk to a loved one.

I am very blessed that I can put this on the list. I know this can be a very difficult coping mechanism for a lot of people - trust me, I know. Growing up, my anxiety was my own, and not once did it ever occur to me to share that problem with anyone else. However, after meeting the right people, and understanding that nobody is going to be annoyed about hearing my problems, talking to people became one of the best and most useful coping mechanisms I've got. It can be as simple as sending your best friend a text telling them how you're feeling, or you can go all out and sit your Mum down with a cup of tea and bawl your eyes out. Getting those feelings out will give you a physical relief as well as a mental relief; the weight you've been carrying, a weight you probably don't even notice any more, will be gone in a matter of minutes. I promise you.

6. Exercise.

I know. I was shocked too. All those scientists that told us exercise and moving your body is good for your mental health were right. Bastards.

Just go on a walk. That's what I mean when I say 'exercise.' If you want to go to the gym and lift weights, or run a marathon, you go right ahead. More power to you. But by 'exercise' I just mean. . . move your body. Take the dog on a walk! Walk to the shop instead of driving! Get a bike! The tiniest bit of movement in a day can do wonders, whether we want to admit it or not.

7. Blast happy, sing-in-the-car music.

There's a playlist of Spotify that I highly recommend when it comes to wanting to escape reality and just have a good time. It's literally called Songs to Sing in the Car, and it's one of those playlists Spotify make themselves, just full of songs that you can sing at the top of your lungs, or blast through your headphones, and just have a real good time for a little while. I know it's easy sometimes to just go straight to that playlist full of sad songs that you can relate to in that moment, but try and go for a different approach - go find old bangers that you used to jump around to as a kid. It's a breath of fresh air.

8. Do chores.

Two in one baby!

A good chunk of the time, our anxiety is stemming from our to-do list, even if we're not thinking about it. All around us is evidence of all the unfinished tasks we've got to do, and that can really stress you out. Personally, whenever I'm anxious, I become almost camotose; I will just sit on the sofa and stare at the wall, feeling everything all at once. However, I've found that using this time to do little tasks around the house actually makes me feel better. I'm not saying I go and do a full massive clean; I might push myself just a bit to wash one or two dishes, or the whole sink if I can manage it. I'll hoover the living room floor. I'll go upstairs and put my clothes away. Just tiny jobs, only as much as I can push myself to do. A lot of the time, one job turns into two, and then two turns to three, and soon my house is spotless, and you know what they say - clean space, clear mind!

9. Take up knitting/ crocheting.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I only discovered this as a coping mechanism when I was suffering from really bad insomnia and I couldn't sleep; I somehow found myself watching YouTube tutorials on knitting, and I was overcome with this intense urge to learn. It was literally one in the morning, and I drove to my Mum's house (dragged my fiance out of bed to come with me, too, sorry babe <3) and grabbed knitting needles and some yarn. I was up knitting for about an hour, and I felt so relaxed that I actually managed to go to sleep! For the first time in days! So not only can you make really cute clothes and nick-nacks and learn a new skill, you're also relaxing that anxious brain of yours for a little bit.

10. Have a good cry.

Yeah. Just this.

[sleepy-pigeonn]

A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

___

Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

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References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

___

Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

___

Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

___

Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

___

Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

___

Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

___

Random Facts ✨

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

[peachiecure]

Character introduction: Larissa/“Cure Jump”

~Basic info~

Name: Larissa Frausto

“Alter Ego”: Cure Jump

Age: 13

Birthday: September 22

Hair color: Brown (w/ red ombré as “Jump”)

Eye color: Brown (Blue as “Jump”)

Larissa is a girl from another world who happens to visit from time to time. She holds the ability to transform into a magical girl known as “Cure Jump”. She is a side character in Project: SFA.

Larissa is a very shy and awkward person. She often is seen to be either panicking, not able to put out words or trying her best to do what is asked of her. Coming from another world, her surroundings here seem to fascinate her in a way as if she has been observing from the outside for a long time. In her free time, she seems to like to draw and play video games.

Her “Alter Ego”, Cure Jump on the other hand is much different in personality. She is strong willed, brave, leader-like and overall a joy to be around… she fights with the power of fire, along with a few other new tricks up her sleeve that she learns from Mario as they protect the kingdom at times. Though… there seems to be something behind those blue eyes of hers.

For more information on Larissa & Cure Jump, including more details and voice claims, please visit the side blog @nintendoprecure for her intros there~

A Precure? What’s that?

For my non-precure fans here, it’s a magical girl franchise. If you’re familiar with the concepts Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura, it’s pretty similar. Hopefully you don’t need to know that much about the franchise to understand the concept. A lot of precure fans like to make OCs, and that is where Larissa is from. So yeah it’s another project of mine. Larissa transforms and fights for what’s good with the power of her transformation device! (Which is a 3DS aha) She pops into SFA every now and then. You don’t need to dive deep into my other project though to understand her role in SFA, so I hope she is still a fun character to SFA’s overall story and lore. Just know that she pops in every now and then, helping out the best she can!

~Relationships~

Mario: “O-oh— I need to talk about Mario? U-um— he… he talks much more than I imagined… I’m so used to hearing reused voice lin— I MEAN from what I’ve heard from others!! He’s very nice!! I’m… I’m not good at socializing… at all. He seems to care about me though… I-I just feel that I’m to… incompetent to be standing by his side. He always tells be how I do such a good job as Jump but… I’m n— I mean, yeah I’m… Jump… but— sigh, never mind.”

Peach: “I could cry. I gonna cry. I-I can’t just cry?… she’s everything to me… seeing her in front of me physically of course I’m going to cry!! SHE’S MY FAVORITTTEEEE…. MY QUEEN…. And she’s so nice to me too I’m crying. I-I’m sorry I’m crying. I can’t help it. Little kid me prayed for moments like this… oh my gosh—“ (the rest is incoherent, we cannot understand her through her sobbing)

Sweetheart: “Finding out that Peach and Mario were married was one thing… but finding out they have a child… was something else entirely. I didn’t know how to process that information— my ship— I mean I’m very happy for them!!! Sweetheart herself is a very sweet little girl… well… she’s currently 10 but her behavior is very pure. Sometimes I think she looks up to me like an older sister which… I-I am an older sister in my family but I— I don’t feel like one. I’m cowardly, but she somehow finds the good in me when I’m around and wants to do things with me… her parents have explained the… situation with her powers, so I do have to keep an eye on her just in case anything happens.”

Luigi: “… I like Luigi, he… he really understands me when I can’t really get words out of my mouth… or… or when Mario drags the two of us somewhere impulsively as we’re both worrying… it is also surreal seeing him talk in front of me… oh my good they’re real the Super Mario Bros. are real and they’re in front of my oh my god. I’m gonna explode….”

Daisy: “Daisy has so much energy that she really overwhelms me— but not in a bad way! I really like her I’m just… I-I just like to take things slower and stuff. She’s a wonderful princess! She really cares about her friends and she would definitely fistfight a god for them!…”

Rosalina: “Mario brought me to the Observatory once and… it felt very weird to be able to breathe in space— where I’m from you— you can’t do that you’ll die. I got to meet Rosalina and the Lumas, and I really had a nice time with her. She’s gentle and made sure I felt comfortable and safe in her home… even read me a few stories from her iconic storybook that surely the soundtrack— I mean the music that so happens to play around when she reads— has not made me cry! Not at all!—“

Flame: “Flame is a new face I met upon coming here. I’ve never heard of his Kingdom at all. He seems like a nice kid who just wants to have fun with his friends. He-he’s very panicky, like me, so I— I relate a lot with him. He seems to always fight with Aqua and… I can’t blame him on that. Aqua… is… something… I just find it a bit odd how he always does what Sweetheart says?… I-I hope he’s only doing that because he wants to be a good friend…”

Aqua: “… C-can I tell the truth?—I-I don’t currently like him. I hate sounding mean but— he reminds me of someone from school with his spoiled attitude and I just can’t stand how he constantly arguing with Flame… there’s still a-a lot I don’t know about him, so I am open to change my view on him. It just seems like he isn’t willing to tell anything besides what he wants us to hear… and I don’t want to pry… I won’t say it to his face though, that’s just mean… he hasn’t really DONE anything to hurt me yet so I wouldn’t talk back… not like I ever would in the first place… he’s royalty…”

Toadsworth: “Toadsworth started calling me Master Larissa after one battle and… I cannot get used to the title. I am no master at… anything. Unless it’s crying, I’m… very good at that… ahaha… ha….”

~Rumors~

“Yeah I’m… I’m not related to the Mario Bros… I-I don’t know why that’s such a popular rumor… I’m not even Italian… ahaha… w-wait who thinks I’m related to Mario—? Is it because of my brown hair?— o-or how I’m small?… I’m simply just learning alongside him… because of Ju— because I’m a magical girl!…”

And that’s it for Larissa’s intro! Next will be… well, a certain jester…

[legacydevice]

Do you know what old pc I should get for retro gaming?

Thanks for the question! Keep in mind that this is written from the assumption that you have no/very basic knowledge of older computers, so I apologize if this comes off a bit patronizing! Even if you know quite a bit, other people reading may not and I want to make sure people are knowledgeable before making a purchase!

If you dont care about hardware, and your current pc can handle it, I'd recommend setting up a VM with the operating system of your choice (windows xp would probably have the most flexibility). Look up a tutorial on how to set up a VM with VirtualBox, and you can easily find .iso files of your operating system of choice online. (Obviously be careful of what you download). This is also convenient because if you dont own physical copies of your games it's pretty easy to get the files from the internet archive and transfer them to the VM! If you need any more help with this, feel free to send me an ask and I can help you out!

If you're a hardware lover like me though, I definitely understand wanting to have the experience of the real thing! Please keep in mind im not totally educated about specs and technical stuff, so take my opinion with a grain of salt and look for others input as well (followers please add on / correct me)!

A lot of it depends on the kind of games you want to run, if you're fine with only 2d games you should be fine with most computers that have an appropriate cpu/ram for the year it was made! However, running 3d games will definitely need a good gpu. There are plenty of people on ebay who sell custom built computers geared towards retro gaming, I'd recommend looking into listings of those even if you do not want to buy on eBay just to get an idea of what you would like!

I personally use Facebook marketplace to look for old computers that I want to buy. A lot of times you can get pretty good deals on there! While not a gaming oriented computer, I got my micron millennia, including the crt monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers all for $80! It also runs pretty much any games I want to play on there, but I haven't tried any beefier 3d games yet so I'm not sure how it will do with those. You can also check local thrift stores around you as well, I've been able to find a Dell optiplex for $40 once before. I would recommend local shops rather than goodwills since most goodwills usually sell their good stuff online for auction, but it doesn't hurt to check if you're feeling lucky!

Keep in mind that buying locally very much depends on if you can drive/have access to a car, so I totally understand if this isn't an option for you. I also have only ever lived in the US so your buying options will probably be different if you are in another country. If you know of any local retro tech enthusiast groups, they could probably help you out specific to your location! Again, Facebook is a good resource to find local groups.

The other option is buying from eBay. It will be more expensive because of shipping but you can at least get something more geared to your specifics and it's more convenient if you do not have access to transportation. Searching up something like "custom retro gaming pc" or "vintage gaming pc" should help you out!

Also, if this is your first time buying an old computer, or you do not have any experience with technology repair, you may want to buy from someone who has that experience and has already refurbished the computer for you. Blown capacitors and shitty power supplies are no joke, they can be very dangerous! If you absolutely need a computer that is advertised as not working/not tested, take it to someone who knows what they're doing before plugging it in. Again, I apologize if this comes off as patronizing but I want to make sure everyone is safe and no one has any bad experiences that may turn away people from this hobby!

Another recommendation I'd give is to get something you like! I know this might be a bit obvious, but I really like windows 98 because of nostalgia reasons, and my roommate would often ask me why I didn't get a pc with windows XP. Personally all the games I want to play run fine on 98, and i'm willing to use a VM for games that need XP. Get something that makes you happy if it is within your budget and convenient for you!

I apologize if this is a bit rambly! I'm waiting for an oil change and im bored lol. Other people feel free to add on and im willing to answer more questions if needed :)

[leavemetoexist]

I finished all 4 Studio Investigraves games and I have opinions. (Spoilers to all the games by the way but you already know that)

I played them all backwards from the most recent to least recent by complete accident hence why I shall be reviewing them from least recent to most recent. I'll be judging them based off gameplay, characters and story. Of course don't take this too seriously it's my general opinion and I wouldn't mind hearing other people's personal tier list about which game was their favourite. My interpretation of the characters can of course vary from others opinions as well so keep that in mind.

4. Eloquent Countenance

Gameplay: the gameplay in this one wasn't actually bad, I quite liked doing the different tasks however with that being said, I also got lost multiple times about what I was supposed to do (I think i'm to blame for this once honestly because it was spelled out for me). Overall I still liked it but again I had issues. I did however adore the mix of 3d modelling and 2d models.

Story: The story isn't bad, if anything it leaves room for so many things. The explanation to the end did confuse me though because I couldn't tell if Forcas was talking to the woman trapped in the body or if he was talking to the angel that had taken over the body. And also why did us the angel decide that we did want to give the body back to her? Again a lot of questions that I think can be expanded on if they ever to second game. (I think this is mostly me wanting a second game so badly lol)

Characters: Our character Lisa is alright, I have no grievances with her, she's funny and sarcastic as hell and honestly my favourite. Forcas on the other hand... I like his shenanigans, but there is only so much fourth wall breaking one can take before it isn't very special, I guess? The way he speaks is like how I would write an overpowered annoying know-it-all character when I was 13. So yea not my favourite. I do love their characters designs though, absolutely gorgeous in my opinion.

3. Cold Front

Gameplay: I had no problem with the gameplay, except maybe when I was running from the monster, that was the only hard part. This was a shorter game so there wasn't too much gameplay and coming down to the end I was honestly a little annoyed that we'd basically ceased gameplay and had started basically just started reading out the rest of the story. I wish there was a boss fight to the end, a little something something to really close it off would've been nice.

Story: It was heartwarming (ironic). I can not express it enough that I really love how well done the story is, both endings really got me. One was a happy ending technically with only Augustine living and it was so dark that he was happy to finally feel seen again once Winnie was dead. Winnie had no idea that he was breaking a lot of Augustine's boundaries but at the same time, these two just needed some communication and they were fine in the end which was perfectly okay with me. They both reflected and became better people together.

Characters: No notes, they were good. I loved the fucked up anxiety version of Augustine and Winnie, it really shows how anxiety is and how overthinking and keeping everything in can really harm a friendship.

2. Dead Plate

Gameplay: There is so much that needs to be talked about with the gameplay. First of all, our character Rody, does not have a side and back angle so that you can tell which way you're facing, which messed me up a lot when I tried to serve tables. When I first booted up the game it took me way too long to figure out the what to do in the tutorial (This one might be on me tbh so I won't be too mean to the game about it). The various customers did not make any facial expressions as to help indicate to the players their level of annoyance going from good-> annoyed-> angry-> leaving. I really wished they had that, even if it weren't a face at least some sounds would've been nice.

Story: I adored the story, it's fucked up, it's nice and it's overall really good. Genuinely no notes, it's cut and dry, nothing overally complicated and I loved it.

Characters: I loved the characters. Rody is so deeply in love with his girlfriend (Marieanna) and loses his sense of self. He literally does not know who he is without her and instead of listening to her and improving himself and becoming his own person, he makes himself think that if he just had enough money, that she would take him back. Vince on the other hand, woah that motherfucker is a little mad in the head isn't he? I was expecting your usual obsessive yandere esc character but no. He becomes not really obsessed but more like testing a theory. He has never tasted food and wants so desperately to make food where you can taste the love in it so when he found out about Rody whiles dating Marieanne, well he just had to put this theory to the taste test right? I also live for the theory of him wanting to express his love to Rody by feeding him the thing that he loved most (I think this theory is actually pretty solid tbh and I'm not sure if it's a theory or confirmed within the game. I played this so long ago that I've kind of forgotten).

1. Elevator Hitch

Gameplay: This one might be obvious to most people who follow me but Elevator Hitch is literally my absolute favourite. The gameplay itself was quite fun, I enjoyed the puzzles and tasks that had to be done and the uniqueness of each floor. I had one problem where I didn't realise you could look around the elevator, I wished there were some arrows to indicate you could do that but overall the gameplay was solid.

Story: The story is simple, simple in a fun complicated way. It certainly didn't answer why the building is the way it is but that was alright with me. I enjoyed especially the small glimpses at protag's life before he got stuck in the elevator. I loved the ending, the fact that he had no real choice but to go back was *chef's kiss* Sad ending for Protag but that's okay, solid story.

Characters: One of my favourite head cannons about this game is that coworker is actually pretending to be stupid about the situation that we the player are experiencing and I can be more than be convinced about that. Our main character definitely has shit going on, as saw in the end he needed that job and well the fourth floor with his parents. I loved the dialogue options and the dynamic going on between the two of them. They're both silly and share one brain cell and I adore them for that.

[canmom]

to (specific person) - I can't reblog yr post about game accessibility and you won't see any replies since I'm shadowbanned, so I'm posting on main, hope you see this on your dash ^^'

re: this post

so.... I think AAA studios actually care a lot more than you might think about tutorialisation and getting non-gamers up to speed on the conventions of games. they're targeting a much broader audience than most indies after all, and they have more resources to dedicate to playtesting and writing tutorials, as well as implementing accessibility options in general (look at the examples of 'best practices' for many categories). over the last decade, games have gotten much much better at creating tutorials that feel less intrusive, and teach how to play more effectively.

of course, whether they do, and how they go about it, depends a lot on the genre of game and the company in question. but if anything, a very common complaint among gamers is that modern AAA games are 'too handholdy' and don't give you space to work out how to play on your own. that isn't necessarily the same as being accessible without existing 'game literacy', but I think it is a big concern for at least certain types of AAA game.

anyway, the real question - at this point the indie dev scene is so big and diverse that it's hard to generalise. a boomer shooter and a narrative Bitsy game are both 'indie games' but they're targeting completely different people and trying to communicate completely different things.

I think Jackie's comment is right that many genres of indie games tend to be aimed at a self-selecting target audience of people who are already fans of that genre, and therefore often dispense with trying to explain it. that said, there are some indie games that really do put a priority on getting a player up to speed with a genre.

fighting games are notoriously opaque to beginners, but Them's Fighting Herds has a really good interactive tutorial on relatively advanced fighting game concepts such as frame advantage, way better than a lot of big-studio fighting games with minimal tutorials. I have yet to play it, but Neon White is widely praised as a game that gradually eases you into speedrunning.

for me as a game dev at a small VR studio, we end up talking a lot about how to make the basic interactions understandable, because interacting with VR games is a lot less standardised than interacting with flat screen games. it's also a medium where a lot of players are kids or don't play a lot of games. this is something you really gotta keep in mind when making games, because game devs tend to get into the business because they're very passionate about games, which means we have no idea what is unintuitive to most people.

an experience that was quite eye-opening to me was watching my dad try to play Portal many years ago.

on the face of it, you might think Portal would be a great first game. Portal is a game that is around 50% tutorial described as puzzles - it gradually eases you into the mechanics of how portals work and how to use them. the first few levels teach you to carry boxes, walk through portals, then they give you the ability to place just one portal, they teach you how to fling, how to redirect energy balls, etc. after you solve a puzzle, GLaDOS will usually say something funny, and this may be used to reinforce the 'lesson' of the level. the first half of the game teaches you the palette of mechanics, then the second half of the game assembles them into challenges.

but what Portal doesn't teach you is how to navigate a 3D environment using an FPS character controller. it assumes you know that, and briefly flashing the controls on the screen is enough. and for many players who are used to FPSes, this is second nature. but for my dad, the puzzle mechanics weren't the problem - simply moving around was confusing to him. he never got very far with Portal for this reason. my dad is someone who's played a lot of strategy games and adventure games back in the day, but almost no 3D games.

the tricky thing is always working out how much to assume your audience knows, what should be explained outright, and what should be set up as a puzzle to solve. people tend to find 'unnecessary' tutorials patronising, unless they're wrapped in enough humour. the game design side of youtube definitely talks about tutorials and teaching game concepts now and again, for example Adam Millard attempting to categorise the different ways games can communicate information and their relative advantages. I think it's definitely something we could stand to talk more about though, and a lot of that depends on listening to people who want to get into games but run into barriers that are invisible from this side ^^

oddly, difficult games like Dark Souls can actually be... better than you'd expect for non-gamers, because the reason they're 'difficult' is that everyone had to learn how to play them. Dark Souls is a very obtuse game which explicitly explains very little and expects you to learn to play through trial and error. however, that means someone who has played very few action games can learn Dark Souls with a comparable amount of difficulty to someone who's played other games, but not necessarily Soulslike games.

you may be interested in youtuber Razbuten's 'gaming for a non-gamer' series in which he observes his wife play through various games and what she finds unintuitive. naturally she does learn quite a lot about how games work over the course of the series.

the comments about Dark Souls in the previous paragraph are inspired by the video where she plays Elden Ring (a later game by the same developer) and ends up getting a pretty solid handle on how Soulslike games work. although I'm sure 'male gamer gets his wife to play games for a Youtube video' probably sounds pretty... ehhh, he genuinely brings a pretty thoughtful analytic perspective on the 'language' of games and how it's communicated, and I could imagine that would be interesting to hear about ^^

for my own part, I used to be pretty hopeless at action games. and I got better by playing a bunch of action games of broadly increasing difficulty. the first time I played Dark Souls, I really struggled - the hard bosses would take me hours to beat. but I liked the genre so I played lots of others like Demon's Souls, DS2, Bloodborne, DS3, Sekiro, Elden Ring alongside its cousins like Hollow Knight, and without really noticing it, I got way better at this type of game. When I came back to Dark Souls again a few years later I could breeze through challenges that were overwhelming struggles the first time.

humans are very plastic and very good at adapting to things. the constantly advancing skill frontier is a complicated problem for games. there's a fascinating video by Folding Ideas on how the way people play World of Warcraft has evolved, with an interesting anecdote how when they released WoW Classic, bosses that had been brutally difficult were blasted through in days because the way people played the game had become so hyper-optimised in the intervening years...

one problem resulting from this is that this leaves new players in the dust, and makes the game increasingly inaccessible. this is particularly acute in PVP multiplayer games - try to play a modern competitive FPS and you'll have a miserable time where you constantly die without really knowing why.

even in single player - a game aimed at satisfying experienced players in a genre is going to be a brick wall to people who haven't climbed that ladder already. a game that's still accessible to new players could end up being trivial to experienced players, who will then trash the game. but by trying to challenge the experienced players, you can increasingly paint yourself into a corner. (see a lot of complaints about the design of Elden Ring bosses from experienced Soulslike players.)

some games do manage to thread the needle though! Final Fantasy XIV very gradually (almost painfully slowly) introduces its core mechanics over the course of the very long game, and its 'roulette' system provides decent incentives for experienced players to regularly return to old content, so it's possible to find groups for almost anything. endgame FFXIV raids are fascinatingly intricate dances requiring all sorts of esoteric knowledge, but there are many gradations on the way up to that which will get you comfortable and are satisfying to play on their own. there's no obligation to play at the highest level to experience the story, but the option is there for the people who want it.

as far as CrossCode - I'd be curious about what your experience has been, what's been a sticking point, maybe I can think of some games that are an easier introduction to that type of mechanic!

if I wanted to position it relative to other games, I'd probably call CrossCode a 'Zelda-like isometric action/puzzle game'. it's leaning on the aesthetic of the last generation of 2D isometric games, like Chrono Trigger or Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, but it plays a lot faster like a modern action game (I think it has an iframe dodge, but it's been a while). CrossCode as I recall has a reasonable tutorial on its controls (shooting discs and stuff like that) but I could imagine going from that to stringing up long combos and quickly moving between groups of enemies, or navigating the large multi-screen areas, could be quite a jump.

but yeah I wanna help haha. I do genuinely love games, and I want to make games that don't necessarily assume you're intimately familiar with the last 10+ years of the medium lol.

[neonbutchery]

Hi! Did you use any specific tutorials to learn how to mod bg3 heads? I was wondering if you shared/didn’t mind sharing

i did!

obligatory disclaimer that i already have years of experience doing 3d and working with blender, so there's probably a bigger learning curve if you also have to learn blender. if this is the case, this is the shortest tutorial i can link that covers how to navigate the program and basic interface for beginners. you don't really need to know a lot of blender to edit head meshes, just the basics.

you can extract all the head meshes using lslib, opening it, going to the PAK/LSV tools and choosing the Models.pak file from the Baldurs Gate 3/Data folder. head files are often found in Generated\Public\Shared\Assets\Characters\_Anims, and then classified by race and gender. Ex: Lae'zel's head mesh is located in Generated\Public\Shared (or SharedDev)\Assets\Characters\_Anims\Githyanki\_Female\Resources. head meshes are always named something like (RACE)_(GENDER)_NKD_Head_(character creator preset number or character name). the ones that end with a letter (Head_A, B, C, etc) are mostly character creator presets, whereas named characters with their own unique head meshes will have their names (Head_Laezel, Head_Karlach, etc). if you're just looking to edit a specific character, searching for their name on the file explorer is faster and easier than to go looking through files tbh.

you'll need this blender addon to be able to open .gr2 files (which is the main file bg3 uses for 3d meshes). there are installation instructions in the page itself, but if you need help feel free to reach out!

now, onto the head mesh editing itself: this is the only tutorial that has ever worked for me. it's easy to follow (provided you know how to use blender already), fast, and works for every head mesh from every body type.

a couple more tips that aren't in the video: in blender sculpting mode, click the "mask" brush and then paint the areas closer to the ears, eyes, and neck seams to avoid the final result looking wonky because of deformation. the mask basically keeps those areas from being deformed and shows up as gray spots on your mesh.

follow the rest of the tutorial linked above, and you're done!

i still have no clue of how to add modified heads as new standalone presets, so i honestly can't give you any advice on that. my skillset right now lies mainly on replacing already existing in-game meshes with modified ones. if i ever figure out how to or find a good tutorial i'll update this!

and i don't mind sharing my mod process at all! in fact, i myself am frustrated with how inaccessible the bg3 modding community can be sometimes to total beginners (tutorials tend to be very technical and specialized), so i hope i explained this well. if you have any further questions let me know or pm me and i can help with most stuff as long as it's within my skillset (editing textures and meshes and replacing them in-game.)

[munchbell45]

yahiko and yamato for the character ask game :D !!

I'm not good at the song association thing, so I will skip that one. Sorry. IDK, I tend to listen to instrumental stuff, and I don't always think "OMG, this is so Skleeby from Splungo's Adventure" when I listen to music.

I will say that i sometimes picture (in my mind) angsty AMVs or animations of Nagato and Konan (post-Yahiko's death) set to Anemoia by Oliver Buckland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0guReRtGWI&pp=ygUHYW5lbW9pYQ%3D%3D

Though that may be because the song was used in a really cool video game trailer.

Yahiko

Favourite thing about them?

I love his sincere desire to change the world for the better, as well as his love of others and hope for a better future. Of course, it's not just hope but also a DRIVE to make the world better. He just seems like such a sweet, hardworking dude, and if he was real I would love to know him.

Least favourite thing about them?

The fact that we don't get to see more of him. TBF, he died well before the start of Naruto, so we only see him through memories (and that one weird Infinite Tsukuyomi filler story, but I digress.) I want to see how he'd interact with MORE canon characters, I want to see MORE of the original Akatsuki, and I want to know MORE about the Hidden Rain Village.

I'd love a spin-off miniseries about the Hidden Rain Village.

Favourite line?

I'm not always the best at memorizing lines, but I'll go with this one, where he sets out to go on a mission to scout out an area.

"This land is crying, as usual. It continues to endure much pain. In the past, I hated this land that was crying all the time. But now... I want to save it... I truly feel that way. It's too much like the crybaby I used to be for me to leave it alone."

brOTP?

Obviously he is besties with Konan and Yahiko, they have a truly inseparable bond. I also imagine that he was close with each and every member of the original Akatsuki.

Sadly, there are only a few characters we see him interact with in canon, and many of them are minor.

In a happier timeline where nothing bad happened and the Hidden Leaf was magically not corrupt at all, I could see him being friends with Naruto.

OTP?

Nagato/Yahiko/Konan. They have a deep bond, forged through their collective efforts to endure many hardships. To me, it's as if they are destined to be together and to always develop a deep, intimate care and affection for each other. Even if they were to reincarnate, they'd find each other once more.

nOTP?

Yahiko/Obito, Jiraiya/Yahiko (IDK if anyone ships that, LOL,) Zetsu/Yahiko, Madara/Yahiko (Is that a thing?)

Random headcanon?

He learned how to do a lot of basic repairs, so that if the shack got beaten up, he could fix it. I could also see him loving children.

Unpopular opinion?

My man's underrated. I feel like most people tend to either forget about him or just think of him as the guy that became the Deva Path. I mean... I get why, but I wish he was more popular. How can you not love him?

Favourite picture of them?

Two options. I hope these load in.

A: This panel (I am typing this on my computer and GIMP is being a bitch, so no crop.)

B: (My PFP as of 2/5/2024)

Yamato

I am very neutral on him, so my apologies for some lame-ass answers. Also, i felt like I spent a lot of time writing my opinions on Yahiko.

Favourite thing about them?

His abilities were neat, as one of the few who could use Wood Style. i also respect how he tried his best to keep Team 7 in check and (later on) help rebuild the Hidden Leaf after Pain destroyed it.

Least favourite thing about them?

The fact that he was sidelined for most of the War Arc, serving little use outside of buffing up Zetsus. IDK, that was kind of disappointing.

Oh, I also feel weird about the fact that he's supposed to watch Orochimaru in Boruto. Like, if we treat the anime backstory as canon, dude should be traumatized by Orochimaru.

Favourite line?

That one where he threatens to use "draconic measures" on Team 7 when they keep arguing and fighting each other, I guess.

brOTP?

Kakashi once they are both adults. Sai after he is free from Dan's control, since they could relate to each other a lot (especially if you treat his anime backstory as canon.)

I could see maybe see him befriending Anko as well.

OTP?

KakaYama?

Maybe Yamato/Shizune. Yamato/Anko would either be cool or would suck.

nOTP?

Yamato/Orochimaru, Yamato/Kabuto

Random headcanon?

After the War Arc, he hangs out with Asuka, Kurenai, Guy, and Kakashi. They all reminisce about being teachers and vent to each other about weird crap that happens on the job.

Unpopular opinion?

Um... I thought the ANBU Kakashi filler arc (and Yamato's role in it) was overrated.

Dude needs more development, but that's probably the opposite of an unpopular opinion.

Favourite picture of them?

I hope this one loads in. I've been taking way too long writing this.

[melishade]

ok what about knockout somehow arriving on attack on titan earth the characters meeting a bad guy turned good

The thing is with TFP Knockout: He didn't turn good for the sake of knowing that the Decepticons were wrong in their endeavor and the Autobots were right. It was literally out of a necessity for survival. So Knockout didn't necessarily become a good guy, he was just trying to play it smart. And it worked, he wasn't given any prison time by the end of the series and the Autobots seem to be just fine with having him around. It's weird. It's like everyone's okay with the vain doctor.

That being said, if Knockout were there he would ABSOLUTELY HATE IT!

It more primitive that Earth! The titans are terrifying! The humans are gross! Hanji won't leave him alone! There are no car washes! And worst of all, his former boss is there!

Primus might as well just kill him now!

So Knockout would stay as close to Optimus as he possibly can the first couple of weeks because he's the only person that isn't out to get him. And Optimus just accepting it at this point.

The first human that he even starts to like is Levi, because is essentially a germaphobe and he would give Knockout a wash. Knockout's never felt this clean before in his life, that's how precise Levi is, and vows to keep him safe for this very reason.

Levi's annoyed and Hanji laughing her ass off.

Knockout would totally give Historia and Ymir relationship advice. He sees from a mile away that those two are soulmates and gives them tips on how to improve their relationship. Surprisingly they would work. Historia asks how Knockout would even know this, and Knockout briefly talks about Breakdown to her. Historia ends up giving him a comforting pat on the servo and offers her condolences. She ends up confiding in Knockout her fear of losing Ymir to the 13 year curse and how she was scared she wasn't going to be prepared when she's gone.

"You're not going to be," Knockout states bluntly, "It's going to hurt. It's going to be painful, because the person you spent every day adoring will be gone forever."

"That's...scary," Historia swallowed.

"At the very least...you have a good support group," Knockout reasoned, "Decepticons aren't known for being soft."

Historia and Ymir actually feels safest when talking to Knockout about relationship advice because same-sex relationships would definitely be more common on Cybertron and not frowned upon. It's unexpected. The Survey Corps and Optimus were not expecting this.

BTW Knockout and Breakdown relationship is the literally personification of "Be gay. Do crimes." and you can't change my mind.

Hanji ends up taking one look at Knockout prod and immediately wants to replicate it for 3D gear purposes. She starts pulling all nighters trying to get it right and continuously asks Knockout about it.

The Survey Corps do eventually see Knockout bring his a-game in a fight and immediately become terrified of him. Seeing Knockout ram his prod into the neck of Reiner's titan form with a grin on his face would haunt them for a good few weeks. Decepticons are just ruthless.

I think that Knockout would do his best to avoid Megatron, considering he did betray the Decepticons while Megatron was hijacked by Unicron. Besides, Knockout has both seen and dealt with Megatron's brutality. He doesn't want to be anywhere near that if he doesn't have too. He'll probably do a quick repair but that's it.

The only time that Knockout would even think to muster up the courage to confront Megatron would be about Breakdown. We know that Knockout and Breakdown have just become canon over the years since TFP, and they were most likely in a relationship in TFP. Based on what we've seen in show after Breakdown's death, Knockout was given no solace or comfort after the loss of Breakdown. He was basically told to suck it up and move on. The closest thing he got was torturing Cylas, but that was still the corpse of his former lover. That's messed up on so many levels.

Once the distrust would dissipate between the Autobots and him, I think the Autobots would give him solace and comfort him for his loss and the abuse he went through under the Decepticons, which is one of the things Knockout grows to like about the Autobots. He won't admit it out loud, but he appreciates that they give a damn.

So if Knockout were to confront Megatron about Breakdown, he would really just call Megatron out for his blatant hypocrisy. How he refused to save Breakdown from the hands of MECH, and that it was Bulkhead who went to go and save him. Not the Decepticons, Breakdown's most hated nemesis. How he constantly berated him after what happened with MECH. How Megatron refused to ignore the decrease in morale among vehicons after Breakdown died because Breakdown was the only one talking to them and treating them like more than drone. The biggest one, being the Cylas incident, and making the conclusion that if Cylas had succeeded, they would've kept him around. And if Megatron did, Knockout would've defected on the spot.

The Survey Corps would definitely get more insight to the Decepticon work environment and would just despise Megatron from then on out. The fear would turn to hatred.

Levi would add this to the increasing list of reasons they shouldn't trust Megatron.

(This was interesting. I didn't think I would have a lot to say about Knockout. Although I feel like I'm going to need to make a list of "What if this TFP character was in Attack on Prime" soon.)

[sincerely-sofie]

Check-in for October 25th, 2023

Welp, The Present is a Gift has officially broken 8,000 words and is rapidly approaching the 10k mark! Also, fun fact: according to the outline, I haven't even finished writing the first chapter. This terrifies me when I consider the later chapters which have way more plot packed into them.

Despite me writing out a very detailed plan for the project, it feels like I'm learning new things about the characters with every sentence I write. Twig is apparently a big fan of learning weird, obscure words and is sad that her old hobby of reading dictionaries has been dampened by her struggling to learn how to read footprint runes. You think you know a gal...

I spent most of today working on programming assignments and even got a nice comment on a past submission I sent in. In it, I mentioned single vs. double equals signs always tripping me up and causing bugs in my code--- turns out they used to baffle my instructor too! He's able to use them in their proper places without thinking now, which is encouraging. Regardless, I have never felt this audio more keenly than today:

I had planned on getting some practice with 3D modeling for low-poly V-tuber of my persona I've been jokingly working on, but that didn't work out as anticipated. I did spend a while admiring how I went from a giant gray cube to this, though:

Ahhh. Look at that beautiful skeleton. So few polygons. So few worries. If only I could figure out how make the pupils move or make a bow.

I also spent a while reminiscing about how Blender lit up in flames at one point and I didn't understand why it happened or how I got it to stop. That was a fun seven minutes of unadulterated terror.

I'm tempted to get back into Blockbench for its simple UI, but after learning the basics of Blender, I know it'd be unbearable to return to the rigidity of working in a program that's pretty much built for Minecraft modders. I just need to stick with Blender and find a few more tutorials to keep me going.

I will miss the fact that Blockbench automatically puts your model on a turntable and offers to pixelate it for you, though. It makes low poly modeling so cool so fast.

Just look at these things! They're so cool! I made them yet they look like something out of my fave childhood video games!

I tried to figure out Super Mario Paint this morning and ended up with my first finished song from that program. Tried importing a few soundfonts from other sources but had no luck getting them to work, and the song was definitely rough around the edges--- but I'm still really proud of myself for making a quick tune! It was a battle to figure out how to export the finished product, and I ended up just recording my desktop with OBS to get it to capture the sound and video together, then converted that video into an MP3 file. It was a very roundabout process, but still!!! I made a thing!

The Shy Guy and Boo instruments, as their flawless character designs may have you suspect, are vastly superior to everything else contained in the program. You can't change my mind.

Also, I was tinkering around with Chrome Extensions and found the most heartbreaking note in the description for one of them.

Tiny Sidebar developer, whoever you are, wherever you are--- I want to give you a hug and a slice of cake or two. Reading this activated my inner anime protagonist and I want you to know that there are so many good people out there, but they're quiet about their goodness. Bad people are just loud as heck and make scenes wherever they go.

With that sudden sappiness, I'm signing off on this check-in. Take a parting teaser for a future joke animatic as a palette cleanser. Depressed Friend will be Twig, Emotionally Stable Friend will be Celebi.

Sincerely, Sofie

[totemsp2blog]

2023 – Some Game of the Year

It occurs to me that a lot of games I played this year were in early access. Either way…

Sons of the forest (early access)

This is one of those games I wouldn’t have played otherwise, but now I have I don’t regret doing so.

What on the surface seems to be a horror survival game, seem to be more like a camping and off-grid living simulator, log homes, nature trekking, caving, and hiking included, now with wacky characters showing up and being uncomfortable to be around… that aren’t myself. Still, I’m they’re very fun to hit with implements.

The sequel to The Forest, now expanded with the ‘Sons of’ Prefix, my friends and I were playing the game during early access, with many plot details not complete. Not that I was paying much attention to that. Unlike my friends, I didn’t play The Forest, but from watching Mandalore’s video, I… know some things?

The plot of the game is not the point for me. Going camping in the woods, exploring the gorgeous forest, and the creepy caves to find cool new gadgets, like a zipline… or a shotgun, or a slightly better axe, working together to construct a log cabin on the lake, and then to construct a zipline system from said cabin, all the way to the top of the mountain, is absolutely the point for me. The game should be out of early access soon, so I’m looking forward to playing it again when it’s ‘feature complete’.

Pseudoregalia

If there’s one thing I was reminded of this year, is that I like 3D platformers. And there is many separate reasons why.

Enjoying the exploration of the wonderful little worlds these games take place in. Or enjoying the mechanics of scamping around a 3D space as effectively as possible.

Pseudoregalia firmly is in the latter category. It is firmly for the fans of movement and traversal.

The game is laid out in a ‘search action’ type of progression, where the items you find in the game add to your options for movement. Not long after you start the game and get past the ‘opening sequence’, and obtaining your slide, and slide jump, your options open up more than you realise at first, but once you know, you find out that sequence breaking using pure movement tech is a part of the game. You really wanna find out what you can get away with.

When I say that the game fits firmly in the ‘about traversal’ side of 3D platformers, it’s also because the exploration is kinda weak, as each area in the world is fairly simplistic and rather samey, while keeping to their theme. Getting lost is easy as there’s not a lot differentiating between most rooms, short of the odd monument. A map would be a small fix for this (and is in the works), but doesn’t solve the issue of the world design itself. Doesn’t make the world any less of a challenge to traverse, however. It’s ‘era-appropriate’ look is sort of grey-box design in a way.

There is combat, but it is easily the weakest part of the game. With how agile your character is, you’d think she’d be capable of brining the pain, but combat is basic, limited mainly to a 3 hit combo, with your other techniques usually used in solving puzzles in the environment. Not even your downward spike you use to high jump is viable, as you just take damage on impact. As a result, combat is infrequent and there’s only a couple of boss encounters.

What you have to understand is for what you get for about 5 bucks, it is actually impressive how much fun this is. I don’t mind getting lost as it means more time with the game. I would call this my top contender for favourite game this year, if only there was more. And all my criticism is because I care about more than most. I want it to do well, and thanks to the barrier of entry being so cheap, I think it has.

In short, this game’s pretty goat butt- sorry, pretty good, but it’s kind of short. Still, not bad for 5 bucks, for the one complete game on this list! And there is pants if you want, but why would you?

I’m of course not referring to the objectively superior professional outfit… yes, even better than nothing at all. So good it’ll give you Covid, yeag!

Volcanoids (early access)

This game’s premise is pretty ingenious, and technically impressive. It’s an open world survival crafting game, with a mobile base!

That said, you’re not there to live off the land and make your own, you’re there on a mission to retake the island from some robots gone wrong, that have been causing the volcano on the island to do a little trolling pretty regularly. So, its laser focused on getting you geared up to take on this threat, rather than living there.

To give you an idea of what kind of operation you’ll have in the late game, you’ll be automating not just processing of resources, but ammo, guns, health, armour, and repair equipment filling dispensers in your staging room, you’ll have mining drones going out to collect nearby ores, gun drones where you can use any of your weapons and deploy them in the field or anywhere on the map, and a really versatile support drone that has cover, health and armour regen, a tesla coil to shoot down projectiles, and a storage area you can put loot in to send back to the drill ship.

Ah yes, the drill ship. Your mobile base is mobile in the sense that you can set up in various locations. To do this, your mobile base can tunnel underground, and pop up in set locations, even into caves. You must do this to avoid the periodic eruptions of the island’s volcano. (Or if you’re out in the open, go hide in one of the many structures.) You can just sit there buried to do some basic prep, and fixes to the internals of your ship, but the modules you install into the slots of your ship require you to be deployed somewhere to function. So, there’s a difference between being safe and finding somewhere safe to get some work done… or having enough defences to protect yourself while you do.

All this comes together to make a technically, and mechanically impressive and fun game. I love pulling up next to an enemy drill ship, assaulting their position, getting inside, and stealing, and breaking everything. And all the tools given to you make taking on the robotic threat a blast!

But not for long. In its current state there is, I would say… about 12 hours of content total. But development is ongoing, and an embiggening of the island is coming in the future. Still, the 12 hours of content, is still plenty of fun, and I’ve certainly gotten multiple runs out of it. I’d call it, this year’s Signal from Tolva in that regard.

I will mention that playing with overseas friends, with all the lag that entails, makes it very hard to land shots… like, worse than I’ve experienced in most other games. But the recently added Tesla weapons do honestly remedy that. Hopefully that’ll improve over time.

Lethal company (early access)

Chances are you’ve played this one, and/or have seen enough to know what to make of it… or are not interested despite (or in spite of) the saturation.

So, I’ll forego the explanation for this one and get to my opinion.

It’s a funny game, that is very early in its days. As such, I feel after 20 hours I’ve gotten everything out of the game I can currently, and I’m not really interested in playing more until there’s a lot more to it.

Meanwhile, I’ve recently been playing Zeekerrs previous game The Upturned. Been finding it very enjoyable.

Void crew (early access)

Image source: Massively Overpowered, also how did I not take any screenshots??

Y’know, I ended last year playing a ship crewing game in PULSAR: the lost colony. Seems fitting I finish this year playing something similar.

However, this game is not as it seems on the surface. It’s not a game where a group of friends crew a ship and explore space. a game where a group of friends crew a ship, go out, do some missions, and come back and get rewards. It’s much more like Deep Rock Galactic in that sense. Each ‘pilgrimage’ has a set beginning and end.

The loop is lots of fun, crews will be all doing their own thing, and as an engineer, if I’m not helping shoot stuff, or being the only scavenger available, I can take time to wander around the ship (getting lost if we’re using the big ship), tending to the ship systems, moving items out of the scoop and into storage, or the recycler, which involves tossing them down the corridor a lot of the time.

One part of the loop I’m iffy about is at the end of every mission, in order to maximise our alloy bonus, we usually run around the ship, scuttling everything we built and collected, ship modules, ammo, upgrades, and other bits and pieces, sending it to the fabricator to get recycled one by one. I find this part of the loop to be pretty tedious and I feel like it should get a rework at some point, maybe taking account of your assets, and the value you would have if you had recycled everything. It’s not like you keep anything you find between missions. They made it easier recently with their rework of the void jump, allowing a ship to sit in ‘warp’, so that crews have time to prepare the next move, which at that stage is slowly chew through everything, and set the course for home.

Also, the loot in this game… It’s a random cosmetic lootbox system WITH DUPLICATES. At least it’s not monetized at the moment, I’m… weary, but still… just… no. And I cannot tell you how many crappy little visor gifs I’ve gotten… again, in duplicates of. Just let me purchase what I want with a form of in-game currency, and/or add items to progression.

But at any rate, this is still super technically impressive at this stage of development. After some bad habits are ironed out, I’m excited to see where this game goes.

Inkbound (early access)

I’m not normally a fan of turn based games. Inkbound sets out to take everything I dislike about turn based games, and effectively makes them fair. I suppose this makes the fight one sided in a certain way, but that doesn’t make it any less challenging.

To validate my feelings about turn based games, I have recently been playing through the Hylics series again, and I had my first game of D&D. The takeaway from all that being… preparation is key.

Inkbound allows you to prepare on the fly, as you’re making your move. While you’re doing everything you can, that your energy and availability of your abilities can permit, you know what the enemy is going to do, and you can either dodge, or get ready to take it, perhaps even influence them in some way.

One thing you cannot predict is how your adventure will go. If it plays like rouge, smells like rogue, it must be likewise… like rogue… a roguelike. ehem

The progression of your abilities, and the weird doodads you’ll find are randomised each run. You find yourself having to tend with multiple varieties of your ‘absolutely broken’ build. Oh but once you have one, it’s very funny to, say… do absurd numbers of damage concurrent to how tanky you are, like the harder you are to kill, the easier it is to kill others… which does make sense overall, but in this context… it couldn't be closer to the truth. Or how about the various ways to do DoT, and just watching the enemy die on their own. Or my personal favourite, outright removing the movement cap and literally running circles around the enemy… in a turn based game.

Also, it should be worth mentioning, in the antithesis of what Void Crew is doing, in more ways than one, the game started out having a premium currency to unlock cosmetics with, but they soon done way with that, and now you just earn the currency in game… as it should be. It’s unfortunate that it started that way, but I’m happy it’s where it’s at now. And they’re still offering paid Cosmetic DLC packages. Infinitely better than a random lootbox with dupes!

[bmpmp3]

I MENTIONED this before but I kind of want to start doing a bit of routine blogging about music! Just for fun, I'm gonna start with a weekly little thing highlighting some covers and remixes I really like.

In general, there will be a bit of vocal synth focus in these posts because 1) I am. unwell. about vocal synthesis rn it haunts my every waking moment i see parameter curves when i close my eyes BUT ALSO 2) the vocal synthesizer community has always been built on covers, remixes, parodies, etc. so its only natural. Songs will likely be originally sung by synths but vocal synth community adjacent songs are also fair game, and who knows I might get bored and talk about a completely unrelated song at some point LOL

BUT of course, the covers, etc. highlighted will not all be sung by synthesizers: anythings fair game here too -> human covers, synth covers, instrumental covers and arranges, remixes, anything! And of course, my dearest twenty still-active followers among the legion of abandoned accounts in our midst, if you have anything you'd like to add on feel free to reblog! I'm always searching. I'm always searching.

I'm not sure if I'll keep this up or how things will go but. well. it's my blog, so we will have a bit of fun! For now, I will call these posts..............Cover-Remix Weekend (I am very good at misjudging how well I can keep to schedule so I'm gonna give myself a two day window to do this LOL and maybe I might post 2......the future is a mystery) for now at least. Maybe someday I will think of a better name (I will probably not) <3

SO with all that out of the way, to begin our very first Cover-Remix Weekend, let's go with a real classic: Koi wa Sensou (恋は戦争) (en: Love is War) by Ryo of Supercell!

You know Ryo, the Melt guy, the World is Mine guy, the Black Rock Shooter guy, the... well, he only worked with Vocaloid specifically for a few years before moving onto other things - but like basically every Vocaloid song he put out ended up becoming a huge vocal synth classic so that's one hell of a legacy for the community.

Koi wa Sensou specifically is one of my favourites: using Miku on the vocals (likely her original Vocaloid 2 release since the song came out in 2008 and I don't think her appends came out until a couple years later), it's a moody, intensely late-00s rock song, brings to mind some of the Linkin Park albums I listened to so much growing up: maybe that's why for years in middle school this was my favourite Vocaloid song...

Really strong, I love a good rock-y tune but what I love most is when there's quiet bits to push up the louder parts, some of those background twinkly synth keyboard sounds (?) really amp it up for me, plus that second verse fuzzy radio effect on the vocals + the reverb. God I love reverb. You can never take reverb away from me. She's my wife. Anyway the song is a love triangle with the singer declaring "war" in her (likely futile) pursuits of her love's affection. Good stuff!

And of course we can't forget this 3D music video by kkkk! Genuinely still really cool looking in my opinion:

(Sorry if the NND links aren't accessible without an account, I forgot if it's still restricted or not. I'm sure it's available on streaming somewhere though, check it out!)

You know, the first Vocaloid song I ever heard was... Melt (like a lot of people at the time LOL) BUT the very first time I had ever heard an utaite (cover singers basically for those who aren't familiar) was with a cover of Koi wa Sensou! Specifically, I was, again, still in middle school, looking up Vocaloid songs on Youtube and stumbling across a half-mislabelled reupload of this cover:

The reupload was called "Love is War - Kaito" with no specification of the singer or credits or anything. It was the way the scene was on Youtube in '08 unfortunately <3

This cover is actually by Nodoame (のど飴), an utaite who was pretty popular in the early days! It seems he's not really active anymore, but his covers were really nice, he's got a solid medium tone with a lot of power and expression. A nice nasal tone + some great bits of distortion on his vocals - one thing you will learn about me through these posts is what my vocal tastes are, and one thing specifically is how much I LOVE screaming HJEKDSJHlkdsfdsfds but for real the "ore no aishaku wo" at the end of that first chorus is fantastic.

Now, the reason I said "half-mislabelled" is because as the video for Nodoame's cover implies, the version of Koi wa Sensou he's singing is not the same as the Hatsune Miku sung original: the lyrics were changed! "Ai wa Sensou" (愛は戦争):

PROBABLY so Kaito and in turn, Nodoame, wouldn't have to sing about their skirts fluttering in the wind. It was 2008 and gendered language changing sure was the thing LOL I don't see it very often anymore, in general music regardless of language nor in vocal synth music specifically: people tend to just keep pronouns and other gendered terms the same nowadays since it doesn't matter too much + you don't have to worry about cadence in changes and such. But it's interesting, a few older Vocaloid tunes I'll talk about will probably have something similar -> lyric-changed versions for different characters, etc.

Now for something a little bit newer (although still nearly a decade old...) The Mwk remix!

A fun wubby and bwaaaaaa-y remix with an upped pace. I like this remix but I'm not super huge into it by itself - but you know who was enamoured by it? The vocal synth cover community LOL I'm not totally sure why it got so popular, maybe because it was a popular remix already + someone released an UST? Sometimes that's all that's needed to get us going, some project files so we don't have to try to make a midi ourselves <3 but that's just me, there might be something else.

But back on topic, what I do love is the covers people make of this remix, people have so much fun and it always sounds SO good! A classic is this Defoko cover by kimchi-tan:

Some quick background for those who aren't familiar (a couple IRL friends follow me blog and I am thinking of them when I write these kind of messy explanations. Hewwo fwiends) Uta Utane also known as Defoko (defaultina........) is the default voice built into the free vocal synthesizer program UTAU.

Sidetrack explanation incoming: UTAU is unique in that it was one of the earliest (or maybe the earliest?) vocal synth software that lets anyone make their own voicebanks just by recording audio and writing a configuration file! There are many ways an UTAU vocal synth can be made, and it largely has to do with the way they are recorded and how those recordings play together. For Japanese specifically, two of the most popular recording methods is CV and VCV, consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant-vowel respectively. CV is the easiest and simplest recording method, it doesn't take too long and its a small list of recordings needed to make up Japanese words: each record is a single syllable with every vowel sound + every consonant attached to every vowel, maybe an AH あ sound and then an EE (い) sound, then a BAH (ば) sound and a BEE (び) sound, etc. While this is small, quick, and very solid, it can sound a little choppy since each syllable recording is just silence and then the consonant and vowel, all being stitched together by the program. This is where VCV comes in: instead of recording each syllable individual, you record a string of syllables transitioning together ("AaAhEeAhOohEhAh" type deal) so the program can place the tiniest transition sound between two notes, instead of, say, saying the word baby (I know I'm using english to explain a Japanese recording system shhhh) in CV it would be like. BEH. BEE. vs VCV it would be like BEH. yBEE. that little "y" being the transition sound as it fades one audio file to the next. Lot of recording work but it can sound fantastic, honestly there's plenty of VCV UTAU voicebanks I think sound more high quality and smoother than commercial synths even. Although don't get me wrong, I do love the robotic choppy sound of a CV bank a lot too!

ANYWAY explanation sidetrack over, back on topic: Defoko is interesting in that her recordings were not from a person directly recording for UTAU like most UTAU voicebanks are: they were from a text-to-speech software a la Microsoft Sam, MacinTalk, etc. She has a very unique voice because of this double-synthesis nature: first her voice (Josei 1 in AquesTalk) was synthesized to say basic syllables in a speaking voice, and then those audio files were put into UTAU and stretched and looped to be sung! Really neat. Also this is why I know so much about speech synthesis in general btw, once you get into vocal synths this is what happens to you LOL

Anyway Defoko is a CV bank, but sometimes people will take the original AquesTalk software to make their own VCV banks with the same voice. It's kind of a legal gray area from what I can tell, the guy who makes UTAU has permission from AquesTalk to distribute Defoko in his program if I remember correctly but no one else does - so you won't see any downloads for a Defoko VCV, you can make one yourself for personal use though and people don't really mind! Distribution rights are a big and sometimes messy thing in vocal synth.

BUT what I'm trying to get at is Defoko has a really unique, moody sound to her because of her unusual origins which already works great for this Koi wa Sensou remix, but combined with the smoother sound of the VCV recording method plus kimchi-tan's tuning, this cover sounds really expressive! I love the softer, breathy "baka da na" before the powerful "watashi" before the first chorus especially.

And another Mwk remix cover I like, this one this one by Andyfined - P featuring an early SynthV Editor (pre-SynthV Studio!) version of Genbu:

I'm assuming based off the description this may have been a beta version of Genbu specifically (I don't remember 2019 super well in regards to vocal synths so I forget his release trajectory orz) but I think he sounds really great here, Genbu's legacy versions have this really nice steadiness in his vocals that I do love.

ONE MORE THING one more thing I prommy I'm almost done. I'm almost done. For today *ominous horror movie music starts playing*

While looking around for title translations I found out that there was a remix project for Koi wa Sensou! It really was like one of the biggest vocaloid songs out there huh... Anyway, Eager Love Revenge is the name, released at Comiket 76, check it out if you have the chance and you just can't get enough of Koi wa Sensou. I haven't listened to it all yet but I'm really enjoying the NTMG Mix by baker (ARPK + Fluffoughts composer if you're familiar):

I like this producer's house-y style work a lot! The chorus sounds great especially.

AND that is all..........................................................for now. The thing is I really love covers, remixes, all that - I know we all always say we're addicted to music but for me I really am like. Insatiable. Sometimes you love a song so much you need it MORE, not music similar to it but just "MORE"... stuff like this really scratches that itch for me. It really is a way to get MORE of something that there is only one of. I've mentioned before that I'm greedy with music, gluttonous about it, but isn't that a nice thing to be greedy about... it's something so easily shared!

And so I take my leave, thank u and goodnight. (flutters my skirt the wrong way and falls off the radio tower to my doom never to be seen again)

[pansyboybloom]

im so sorry youre having troubles with double booking (the actual term for the 'i know this isnt real logically but it is real actually' jic you didnt know it) i feel like. thats one of the worst states to be in. id offer a hug but idk how much youd want one rn

are there any other games you play/enjoy in general other than legend of zelda? i cant remember you ever mentioning any, but i was curious if you're just a general gamer who just really enjoys one series, or if loz is an exception to not really enjoying video games or something. if you do enjoy any specific games, which ones and why? if not, is there a reason loz stands out among them all?

thanks so much. i got home after my lovely double booking (had no idea it was called that) and took my back up antipsychs and slept for like 4 hours before going to class. i really appreciate all of yall coming into my inbox and being so kind, it means so much <4 (<3 + 1)

im not much of a gamer at all. i grew up not being able to afford consoles, but my best friend had a gamecube and her favorite game was wind waker, so it was literally the only game i ever played for a very long time. but i loved the lore of windwaker, the fantasy and the princesses and gods, and i pretended link was secretly a girl the whole time and no one knew that he wasn't a 'real boy' (classic egg things), and i was into manga, so i begged my ma to get me one of the loz manga and fell in love with the series' lore even more. i still have my copy of minish cap's manga, the first manga i ever read!

i suck at gaming- I'll be the first to admit that im not very good at puzzle games, and even worse at combat, and now with my hand tremors i cant play most controllers. it takes me ages to finish games, and I've basically only finished ds/3ds ones bc it's easiest to steady my hands on those. that means that it's harder to get into new games since i rely on other people playing them. watching let's plays stresses me out, im constantly on edge for slurs and shitty remarks, so i tend not to watch those, and w the ADHD, silent playthroughs are a no-go. at least with zelda, i know every game forward and back in my sleep, so it's just easier to enjoy myself while failing to play them than if i start new games, ya know? still, i WILL finish skyward sword one day, tremors be damned!!!!

im honestly not sure why i latched so strongly onto loz. it's been a capital S special interest since i was at least 6 and I've never fallen out of it, ever, it's on my mind 25/7. it was the first fandom i wrote fic for before even knowing fic EXISTED, and I've devoted far too much time to it. it is a very problematic franchise-- Nintendo is a shit company, the main villain is racist, the gerudo on their own even more so, there's so much Orientalism, it's just. awful. but i keep coming back to it. i try to be very critical and not enjoy it blindly, but it really is one of the few things that kept me happy when i was suicidal and fucked up as a teen. as cheesy as it is to say, link saved my little egg life