#but i've seen it enough times for sprite reasons

[aparticularbandit]

i see this: i think this:

[relaxxattack]

okay because of the differing opinions on @calware's post i had to go and check for myself. after all, we've all heard info passed down the fanon grapevine over the years. so, here it is:

is dave strider right or left handed?

obviously, this being homestuck, character sprites flip like every half a second, so i'm trying to take that into account here. alright, let's plow through an entire comic's worth of dave panels.

in his very first appearance, dave uses a katana from his wall to slash through his name command left-handedly.

he proceeds to use his left hand for many actions he takes in his apartment, including typing.

he then uses his right hand to fistbump cal, open the attic, pick up a sword, and escape the puppet pile. his computer is also set up for his right hand.

so already we've got a lot of switching going on, as to be expected with homestuck. i'm going to just try and focus on "main" shots now and not minute sprite details, since those seem to switch constantly.

dave climbs the staircase after picking up the sword with his right hand. however, when beginning the strife with bro he switches it to his left.

during that fight his sprite (and dominant hand) flips many times. while he is laying on the floor beaten he texts john with his right. once he gets up, he resumes typing with his left. [EDIT: he pretty much always uses his left hand when texting; there are very few panels where this sprite is flipped.]

during the [s] enter, dave is famously seen drawing a sbahj panel with his mouse right-handedly. he does this again talking to tavros later. his computer setup seems pretty consistent in this way.

during [s] accelerate, dave flips his sword between hands multiple times both in sprite and hero mode.

then, for no apparent reason except for that he probably hates me and wants me to suffer, dave switches his main hand back and forth repeatedly for the entire rest of the comic.

he frequently carries his sword in his right hand, except for stray panels where, when actually using the sword, he favors his left (panels 5 and 8 above). however, this isn’t a case of him only carrying with his right and then using his left to actually wield— because as you can see in panel 9 above, he also uses it right-handedly.

he uses his left hand during the entire fight with jade and bec, but then, switches back to his right during cascade.

during meteorstuck he seems to use his right hand for most activities, including drawing and writing, except for the penis ouija scene, in which he uses his left.

he takes all his selfies with his right hand, then confronts jade with his left hand. his watch is also positioned on his left wrist, which is traditionally an indicator of right-handedness; and he holds his sword in his right again as he absconds.

during the dogfight he makes most of his attacks with his right hand, and switches to his left to parry bec. when he dies in game over, he's holding his sword in his left.

he's using his right hand in essentially all of the non-sprite shots in collide, except for this last big red one.

that's all i've got.

conclusion: ????

in all honesty, he seems to switch between either hand frequently enough that you could make an argument for almost anything. hooray, everyone's headcanons are valid!

though i will say that he definitely uses his right hand more frequently in panels. if you only count panels where he's actually using his sword, it's closer to an even split, but i'd still tentatively say that he favors right more often than not.

the widespread fanon concept that he canonically only uses his right hand while drawing and otherwise uses his left, is unfortunately mostly cheryypicked in terms on panels. but that's not to say it's necessarily wrong. there's too little consistency in the art to definitely call it false

considering he's been seen both writing and swordfighting with his left, you can headcanon whatever the fuck you want! (and let's be honest, he has leftie vibes).

that's all! hopefully this helps someone. this took way too long to do help

[thewebcomicsreview]

I'm hardly the first person to notice this, but good god webcomics are the least time-efficient possible way of telling a story, aren't they?

I've been trying to figure out a better method of telling a story so that I could finish it before I die of old age (or, perhaps more relevantly, before everyone loses interest). It seems like no one really wants to read prose on the internet, but also people don't really like a comic that takes a year to go anywhere.

The main bottleneck is dialogue. You can only get 2-3 lines in a standard comic panel, so even a short conversation of character texture can take several pages. It makes me wonder if the Single Panel With Text Beneath It style (like ForEach) isn't just the Objectively Correct™ way to tell a comic on the internet. It's very efficient on the art, you can include narration if that's your jam, and it's very easy to make it work on mobile. (Also the art being separate is a boon if you want to make marketing materials). But everyone will correctly call you a Homestuck rip off.

Though the other thing Homestuck did was make these sprites of the characters that could be used to crank out a bunch of panels for scenes where nothing visually interesting was happening. You don't really see that copied as much

Not openly, anyway. There's a stigma. I've thought about rebooting Legend of the Hare as a visual novel, where that kind of thing is arbitrarily more accepted, but it does start raising the question of why you're bothering with the visuals at all. I don't think the kind of person who makes webcomics is usually looking for an excuse to get out of drawing, even if it lets them increase their page output dramatically. Making sprites that don't look like absolute ass is also really hard. Homestuck sprites have a really specific janky charm to them that I've never really seen any other comic pull off.

And, yeah, you could always just use a simpler art style, like Order of the Stick does, but it's super hard to get anyone to read a webcomic with great art, let alone simple art designed to maintain a high page output. And, again, why are you making a comic if you don't want to draw, unless you just naturally happen to draw that way and be really fucking good at it like Rich Burlew is?

It seems like the only really good way to tell a story in a reasonable amount of time as a webcomic artist is to make enough money off it that you can work full time, and, um, that's not really feasible either.

I don't have an answer I like. I guess just kill yourself in the content mines working webcomics as a second job that doesn't pay you anything.

I don't have a conclusion, capitalism is a nightmare.

[eternal-auditor]

😡 I saw the mention of the WHB wiki situation and wanted to grumble about that 😡

First of all, the person who was building and contributing to the wiki were doing that all on their own and that's a very big of a deal, because filling up a wiki takes time and effort and assets extraction seems like a pain in the ass for me and now all of it is gone? But also no one knows what happened for sure? And their blog is down too?? Like are they okay???

Idk if PB themselves have anything to do with it, but if that's the case then I don't see what's the problem even. I've never seen any fandom wiki being dismantled like that for no reason, it's not like posting this content breaks any law or smth

Also as an artist this made me very frustrated, because there are barely any references to use in the open

PB don't even post full body sprites in their announcements and some just stay in the game where you can see only half of the body. How am I suppose to draw the rest then? Play the guessing game it seems which I'm gonna do with one of my wips

For certain details you'll need to grind the likability comics anyway, and if you need the loading screen comics you're gonna constantly reload them to find the specific one, not to mention they were all in good quality and now we don't have it

Also if you don't play from the start you won't have some of the event CGs in the album

I hope the situation will resolve somehow, but right now I feel confused and angry, because I'm very meticulous person, so I always try to draw fanart as close to the original design as I can and now I'm gonna have hard time doing that

I don't blame the contributor though, they must have had reasons to take images down, I'm just letting my frustration out on how sometimes there is not enough easily accessible material to use from the devs, but If someone has info on the situation or will get an update can you guys inform me?

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Fujitsumon

Debut: Digimon Pendulum 2.0 Deep Savers (kind of. It's a little complicated. But don't worry about that)

Fujitsumon is a darling little eyes-in-a-void barnacle! With their brown exteriors, they really do bring to mind Jawas, world-renowned eyes-in-a-void creature. This is a rare design choice for a barnacle, and a barnacle is a rare creature inspiration choice! Too rare! They are such incredible and fascinating animals, and should absolutely be represented as such, and not just background decorations!

Fujitsumon is essentially a Digimon by technicality, an accessory of a creature, and I'm fine with that. They're acknowledged as creatures, and that's enough for me! They're almost always seen attached to the surface of another creature, and that sure is barnacle of them!

This is their host, Octomon! Or Octmon, if you don't like the dub name, but I think Octomon sounds better. Octomon wears a clay pot on its head, and Fujitsumon live on top of that! This is a smart setup. If I lived underwater I would love to wear a hat that some barnacle friends of mine could live on! Fujitsumon and Octomon have a mutualistic relationship going on, where the barnacles will sense danger, and warn the octopus of it, getting the whole group out of danger!

The reason I wasn't so sure about Fujitsumon's debut is that in Deep Savers, Octomon's sprite looks like this, not nearly detailed enough to even depict some barnacles! However, it does seem like the official art was made around this time, so I might as well consider this Fujitsumon's debut too.

There isn't much to Fujitsumon, but I love it! It's cute, it's a barnacle, and it's almost a "secret" creature, and that makes it, dare I say, even more fun than if it was a standalone obtainable Digimon! A charming little oddity in the digital world.

That's what I thought until I found out this little barnacle has a whole dedicated ANIME EPISODE! YEEHAW! This is the best barnacle-related cartoon episode I've ever seen! Better than SpongeBob SquarePants episode 164a Barnacle Face! Why, even better than Benny the Barnacle (2022)! Can you believe it? Better than Benny the Barnacle? I can.

In this episode of Digimon Ghost Game, the human protagonist is tormented by premonitions of disasters occurring to everyone around him, revealed to be caused by a Fujitsumon settled on his head. A land mammal is no place for a barnacle! Wouldn't it be crazy if you could go to the beach and leave with a barnacle settled on your fingernail? What would you even do? I would probably feel obligated to dip my finger into the ocean regularly to let it filter-feed. If only we had air plankton!

This Fujitsumon, as well as others that are affecting other humans, come from one particular Octomon, who got so angry at his barnacles that they Left. These are no real-life, cemented-in-place-for-the-rest-of-their-lives barnacles! They can just get up and leave if they're bothered. I bet real barnacles wish they could do that! It would be so embarrassing to end up settled right next to a turtle's... hehe... I shan't say...!

Octomon's petty outburst was over his magic brain barnacles not using their clairvoyance to help him win at a mobile game. Now, because of his Gamer Moment, there are Fujitsumon stuck directly to peoples' heads, which can cause these heads to explode. Maybe he should have just played a good mobile game, like Pico Pets Puzzle! *high fives someone offscreen*

Don't worry! Everything's ok in the end, like it always is with invertebrate friends! Octomon apologizes, the lead Fujitsumon gathers the whole crusty crew, and everything is fine except for the physical damage that has already been done, but don't worry! The virtual invertebrates are all friends again! Squishy or chitinous, none of us have spines, and that's what matters!

If you know of any obscure barnacles in media, please let me know in the notes! And until the next high tide, remember to close your armored plates to prevent dessication!

[copwef]

Gaster has made a confirmed cannon appearance in Undertale. And I've barely seen people mention it.

While the fandom has universally excepted the mystery man sprite as gaster. In cannon we still are unsure. With entity's such as redacted still kinda being debated as gaster.

However the fandom for some reason has over looked something huge..

Gaster has made ONE cannon appearance in Undertale. One undebatable, confirmed, cannon appearance......at least a part of him has.

This gaster follower outright states the thing he is holding is a fragment of gaster from when he was shattered across time and space.

And would ya look at that...the Gaster fragment is smiling.....it's funny.... What other well known sprite related to Gaster is shown smiling....oh.. wait.

However I'm not convinced mystery man is gaster..at least not all of him...

Gaster was shattered across time and space... when you shatter something...not all the fragments are evenly shaped...some are small like that gaster fragment...some bigger like mystery man or possibly redacted...

Now what I think is that all of these parts of gaster...the Small peace, mystery man, redacted and possibly the man behind the tree in deltarune...

(who "might happy to see you" indicating a smile which ties him to gaster)

Those fragments alone aren't Gaster.... there fragments...not of his mind...but of his body...

It's similar it the amalgamates in Undertale...they aren't fully there...they act in instinct and vague recollection..some more than others...

(Example: mystery man only disappears/flees however tree man has enough recollection to give you a weird egg....for some reason...)

(it's similar to how endogeny acts more like a wild dog and doesn't talk then snowdrakes mother who has enough recollection to call out for snowy)

And I know your asking...if all these things are fragments of Gaster's body... then.... where's his mind/consciousness.... And is it fragmented to?

I believe the answer is no....and we know damn well where Gaster's consciousness/mind is....

In the survey program....and on Twitter(I refuse to call it X).....

If you have any evidence to prove or disprove this theory please comment or reblog as I love hearing different opinions and theory's.

[science-lings]

more info for each option below

1- I just think it's funny if everyone knew who Sherlock Holmes was (Phoenix's 'Sherlock Holmes 2 baby!' moment) and it's a popular belief that he wasn't real but he was, just under a better name.

2- I can't help but look at these guys and point at them. Kazuma's concept art where he has his hair back is so Phoenix-coded and one of his thinking sprites looks a lot like Phoenix's and I think that in the afterlife whenever Phoenix is kind of a bitch Ryunosuke looks over at Kazuma and blames him for it. I don't know which one is trans and neither do historians, it's knowledge that has been lost to time. Though it would be funny if Ryu just popped out of nowhere to go to university where no one knew him so no one would know anything about him. Did he forge government documents to do it? who knows he's just living his best life memorizing tongue twisters.

3- It would either be something badass like a snake winding around her arm or something symbolic like a fleur-de-lys which is the flower-based symbol in TGAA for European prosecutors. I also think it's funny bc it's apparently based on an Iris (or a lily), and the iris has the connotation that it 'prevents fire' which would be funny subtle anti-phoenix symbolism.

4- as much as the fan renditions of scruffy beanix absolutely fuck, this guy has the most pathetic facial hair I've ever seen, he's trying so hard to look like a homeless rundown stoner but can only manage a sprinkling of stubble. In addition, Miles can grow facial hair and he tried to grow a mustache for a week in Europe but it was a sensory nightmare and he will never do it again.

5- idk there's a reason his little mascot is a mouse, I just think it's funny if he just appears next to people and they have no idea how he got there. quiet little guy (unless he's thinking loud enough for it to leak out of his mouth). If he was a little more chaotic he would make an excellent thief/ pickpocket. The closest he gets is making snacks disappear from the 221b pantry.

6- All the animals as evidence and his first defendant in seven years being an Orca, he has that disney princess vibe. He was buds with Polly the parrot during the trial and even Money the monkey warmed up to him, especially in the anime where he just chills on Phoenix's shoulders during the court demonstration. I also think eventually Taka would also warm up to him due to his immaculate bird vibes. Trucy's doves and rabbits love him, he does not know how this happened. He regularly has pigeons following him around during investigations. He accidentally makes friends with a crow when throwing out popcorn kernels, it regularly gives him things now and more than once it has retrieved evidence for a case he's working on. He names it Kay and refers to Human Kay accordingly.

7- A little detail I noticed was that a lot of the information Mia got on Redd White was from conversing through the spiritual veil which seems to be her strong suit even as a spirit herself. She can talk to Phoenix without having to use a medium. I think it would be interesting to delve into all the nuances of the Fey's spiritual abilities outside of channeling. There's definitely a whole lot more to it than we're provided. How does that magatama work? how does Pearl charge it with 'spiritual power' and why is she the only one that can do it? I'm a hoe for magical worldbuilding so I would love to get my grubby fingers all over the Fey's.

8- Just two haters who can't have the job that they worked so hard for and are bitter about it. I like to think that Ema visited America at least once a year to visit Lana in prison and she stayed with Phoenix to save money on hotels. It just means something to me that it's her pin that's on his beanie and she gets included in the Wright family (+ Apollo) new years official art, and he keeps the investigative tools she gave him for nearly a decade. They aren't the best influence on each other but they understand each other more than nearly anyone else. They send each other pictures of Edgeworth whenever one of them is hanging out with him so the other doesn't feel left out. Also, they both think it's funny to catch him in the middle of talking or making a weird facial expression.

9- Some guy can't just change how trials are done for everyone without a lot of political bs, Phoenix is famous in law circles and even outside of law circles but he needs to convince a lot of important people (and expose a lot of corrupt important people) before it can go through. At some point, Edgeworth is going to pick him up and they're going on a private plane to talk to the president. It's important to me that he has trouble grasping how important he has become and is surprised every time he's invited to speak at some fancy event even though he's literally important enough to have statues made of him. He is the most iconic defense attorney, he solved the deaths of the two most notable defense attorneys before him in some of his first trials. He is going to be in history books and that is unimaginable to him.

10- Obviously since his canon ancestor is Japanese he's at least part Japanese but I mean like, in my mind, he's fully Japanese American who can speak the language and was raised by immigrants, but I also think that so many other hcs are fun. Is he latino with his black daughter? love that, inject some melanin in these attorneys please. I see the ensemble artwork and am blinded instantly.

[vaporluck]

Because nobody else has decided to do it, here is the Ultimate Mad Mew Mew Sprite Sheet:

You can download it here, including a transparent version of the sprite sheet, and all of the raw separated sprites straight from the files.

Now, you may ask why we need this especially after I've made it very clear that The Spriters Resource is extremely reliable. (Next part is very long)

Turns out, if you haven't seen gameplay of the switch version, or played it for yourself, chances are, you may have never actually seen her real overworld sprite(s). This is because, for some reason, many people use inaccurate sprites from Google Images instead of her actual sprite. So where can you find her actual sprite? The sprite sheet website, obviously. Today, however, I learned that for some odd reason, whoever uploaded the sprite sheet there, didn't use the original source for the sprites (the game files of the switch version). Either that or they edited some of the sprites for some ungodly reason. What's different? Those damn pixels on the pink dress sprite's legs. It's obviously inconsistent with her other dresses so for the longest time, I thought her sprite in-game had those pixels but turns out the entire time, they were missing. Now that doesn't mean you should keep using Google images for sprites because that sprite is still pretty inaccurate. So, is there something else wrong? The white dress. The colors were much more saturated on The Spriters Resource sprite sheet. You may also notice a few extremely light pink pixels on her legs, seen here:

These pixels were completely white on TSR sprite sheet. This was such an unknown mistake that for the longest time, a friend and I were completely unsure if the sprite with the light pink pixels was the real one or not. I got so fed up with these sprite inconsistencies that I ended up getting a dump of the Switch version and going through her sprites and finally finding out what her real sprites were like. This is what you're seeing now. Now you might know that old post I made that used the leg pixels as an example of inaccurate sprites. I had NO idea that those pixels were missing in the actual sprite. I know it's not that big of a deal but I'm really sorry to anyone that I told that I had the correct sprite, because I assumed TSR was completely reliable (they usually are). Regardless, I think all Mad Mew Mew fans deserve to have her official sprites for real this time. She's so obscure to the general fandom that nobody has cared enough for so long to even fact check if the sprites they were ripping were even accurate or not, and it's really unfortunate. I want to find a way to upload this sheet to TSR to replace the old one (the overworld one at least, the battle one was fine), so that might happen sometime soon if I can format it correctly for the website.

[stardestroyer81]

🥪 Introducing... Door2Door! 🥪

Door2Door stars twenty year old possum Gigi Dempster, who lives in a rather ramshackle, podunk town in Vermont called Bendersville. After sending numerous job applications all over town with no word back, she finally lands herself a delivery driver position at an unassuming locally-owned sandwich restaurant named Dine 'n Dash. With no prior experience in the art of crafting a mighty fine sandwich or running a delivery route, Gigi is strapped in to experience the whirlwind of a first time food service job firsthand, and in an unpredictable town like Bendersville, quite literally anything can happen.

(For more information on what Door2Door is— as well as a handful of progress images— please consider checking underneath the cut!)

At last, witness unveiling of my latest project I've spent the last month conceptualizing, Door2Door! What once came about as a silly idea of basing a project after an inner-city delivery driver inspired after a certain gameplay section in Spongebob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, it has since blossomed into one of my dearest passion projects yet!

Though, before I get into any further detail behind Door2Door and its creation, I must stress— none of the above five images hail from a lost late nineties/early 2000s Cartoon Network show, and if by chance any of them were enough to fool you into thinking they were, then that just means I achieved what I set out for! 💙✨

Now, about a month ago, I'd been watching a retrospective on the critically un-acclaimed Spongebob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, a game I had growing up. It's important for me to mention that I had seen and personally played the aforementioned gameplay section before, though for some reason seeing it again struck me with a brilliant project idea.

Anyone who's been following me for at least a year knows that I've designed a cavalcade of candied characters for my own arcade game concept, Rascal, and initially my idea for Door2Door— which I also called Project JJ (In reference to the sandwich chain Jimmy John's)— was to give it a plot simple enough to translate into an arcade game.

The idea was that you played as a plucky delivery driver who rides through the streets of a seedy city to deliver a food order to the... er, order-ee. But your progress would be impeded by a fiendish gang of mobster alley cats who are after your sandwiches, so there would have definitely been a large cartoony element to the gameplay loop.

I drew concept art for Door2Door's protagonist, then known as Marcy, though I really wasn't vibing with either drawing. For one, making the protagonist a cat seemed a bit overdone, and I already have a cat character who's name rhymes with Marcy, so that had to go. More so, I also couldn't settle on a good spriting style, which prompted me to rethink the whole project.

Well, there is a general aura of cartooniness to Door2Door, I thought, why not just embrace that vibe whole-heartedly and reshape the project into a long-lost late nineties cartoon?

I did like the idea of having an excuse to drawing more animation cels, though if I was going to make Door2Door into something resembling a cel-animated cartoon, I was prepared to go the full distance in nailing that aesthetic, in the form of how characters are designed and the way I go about drawing each screenshot.

For those unfamiliar with cel animation, essentially it can be described as a traditional form of animation and involves objects— usually characters— being hand-inked and painted on clear celluloid sheets and placed over painted backgrounds.

Above, I've provided a visual for what a standalone 'cel' from Door2Door would look like, coupled with a hand-painted background. When overlaid on top of one another...

... you would get this! This is exactly how cartoons were animated up until the era of digital inking and coloring... but that begs the question. How am I achieving a hand-drawn and painted aesthetic if everything I've shown so far has been drawn digitally?

I have my ways! It involves a lot of studying how individual cels of animation look, and taking note of recurring hallmarks; grainy textures, paint blemishes, drop shadows, etc. Above, I've assembled a small gif of my process in composing a screenshot for Door2Door, from lineart to final product!

So, that all should loosely explain it; Door2Door is what would happen if I were in charge of a late nineties Cartoon Network show, and what you've seen here is merely the beginning. Going forward, I will be posting art of Door2Door's main cast with some additional character information and concept art for each one, though for the time being, enjoy all five art pieces I've supplied for this post— they are perhaps the biggest works of mine yet this year! 💙🏳️‍⚧️✨

[natalieleif]

UPDATE: I finally got stuck and went on Youtube beat Undertale Yellow! All in all, I really liked it! It's infested that part of my brain where things go that are fun enough to invest time in, but also have enough scattered potential for some really good fanfic/art.

I do agree with a lot of the critiques, and I'm glad to see a lot of stuff added in Version 1.1 to make life easier (bug fixes, Easy Mode, recovery items, etc). I'm hoping there's a 1.2 version later that adds even more quality-of-life. That said, a lot of the critiques aren't... really... things that seem feasible for a patch update. ("Make the character art more monstrous!" You mean, redraw every sprite in the game!?!)

So with that in mind, here are some things I'd love to see in 1.2 that are maybe (hopefully!) easier for a freelance dev team. Spoilers below!

Adjusted mechanics/dialogue for bosses that have no reason to kill you. This is most obvious with Starlo and Martlet's Pacifist fights--both are friendly and reluctant towards murder, so their Pacifist fights ending in death or defeat feels... odd? Compare to Toriel or Papyrus: one will adjust her attacks to never hit if you take too much damage, and another will cut his battle entirely if you hit 1 hp. A similar form of 1-hp cutoff or "Oops, that was an accident!" Game Over dialogue would match their motivations a lot better.

Related to the above, offer a Skip option for any battle the player's lost 3+ times. This is a common video game handicap, and one I always support in story-heavy games like this. A lot of feedback I've seen is from people who want to love the story but struggled with Sir Slither's ACT pattern or Axis's breakout puzzle, so this is an easy way to get most people to finish the game.

Have Dalv gift you any items you missed in the Ruins as a "thank you" for Clover's support. This patch would solve two immediate concerns: that Dalv doesn't have a larger role, and that many players will miss items like the Golden Pear. Sure, Dalv sends a letter to Clover, but the incentive to go back to Snowdin at that point is low. Having some sort of item reward makes it an active part of an average game run and lets more players see Dalv post-Ruins.

Call the Sunnyside Farm a Ranch like it's called in the files. Okay, this one's just for me, but it being a Ranch makes way more thematic sense for the cowboy area.

Let Ace run the card game at least once in the Wild East. Seriously, it's kinda weird that he doesn't. I understand why he can't while he's napping, but the other times??

Edit Ceroba's post-Starlo Pacifist fight dialogue to make it more clear that she's taking you on the fastest shortcut to Asgore. The main critique with the third act to Pacifist route is that it very quickly becomes Ceroba's plot about finding Kanako. And because it's framed as a hunt for Kanako, the dialogue becomes a rush of info about who Kanako is and why this side-plot should matter to you, the player. But at this point we've already done a side-plot, and most players are antsy to get to the end game. Yet the Steamworks really is the only route to Hotland in that area! Having Ceroba guide the player through what they think is a spooky shortcut to the End Boss fits the story, braces the player for the finale, and lets the TALK dialogue with Ceroba build up naturally through the lab, so her betrayal about Kanako has more time to build up and hurts more as a final boss fight.

That's all I got! Thanks for reading, and feel free to reblog with your own wants for a 1.2 patch!

[marshmallowprotection]

Adoring Unknown's face but WHY???? the HELL??? is he drawn so chisled??? This man only consumes candy and elixir and otherwise starves and rots......what is this 😅 HE ISN'T BUFF JFC

A lot of people are guilty of drawing Saeran not like he actually is. I've seen it happen so often over the years that I've just accepted that the art of Saeran I might come across won't depict him as he actually is. I want to believe that the artist just made Saeran broad, and that's the reason why it looks off. It's kind of like GE Saeran's sprite in the RAE.

Saeran isn't strong. He doesn't have time to work out or take care of his body the way he should. He won't look like Saeyoung, who hasn't had a choice but to stay fit and active because the agency would kill him or his enemies would kill him if he wasn't strong enough to take them down. He's not healthy. But, even with Saeyoung, he's not quite as active as he used to be since he works at his desk most of the time now. I argue so hard to see Saeyoung with his little tummy instead of giving him washboard abs.

Strength, weight, health aren't indicative of skinniness, by the way. Sure, someone can be skinny and strong, but that's because strength comes in all sizes and shapes. There's no right or wrong way to be in this world. Just look up different Olympic athletes. I remember an image that used to float around Tumblr from Howard Schatz’s book Athletes, (I had to Google to find where it came from) that showed different heights and weights of people at the top of their game, and some people were surprised to see it.

Newsflash fatphobia supporters, strength and health are about way more than meeting some bullshit beauty standard.

His shoulders are drawn broader than they should be and that's why you feel thrown for a loop all the time. The more I stare at it, the more I think they just defined the titties a little more as an artistic choice... which, unfortunately, that happens a lot in "fanservice" artwork. May I unfortunately remind everyone of the beach artwork from a few years ago? I try to forget about it because the proportions are very off and Zen is so overly defined it's insane.

[yumedoca]

"Manga Kosuke" shows up in the anime more than once, including several episodes and at least one of the ovas, I think once he even got dialogue albeit in a crowd and not important dialogue.

Similarly curly haired stormtrooper shows up several times too, like once the Stormtroopers are throwing a party for Lum and he's just there with them and Ataru. Maybe it was the storyline where Lum left the earth and gave Ataru a doll of herself.

I also believe one Urusei Yatsura video game for the original Gameboy featured Perm and Kosuke; humorously they were an edit of the same base sprite!

Hai again, hope you're doing great!!

Since these were all sent by the same anon, I figured it was best to answer them all together..

Firstly, relating to the first two asks, I'm aware of Kosuke's cameos in the anime, the wiki has stated which all episodes it is and I very much know the most obvious cameo he made which would be in the 'Goat and Cheese' OVA, aka my favourite of the OVAs after 'Inaba the Dream maker'. I also do think I've seen Megane pop up sometimes in the manga, albeit it's very rarely and it's really hard to miss, but I do remember spotting him for at least one or two cameos (didn't know about Chibi though, I'll keep an eye out next time). The video game fact is really cool though!! Onto the next few asks...

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Megane was actually the one who got most of Kosuke's roles, funnily enough, in the last Kosuke ask I answered, @superamatista said this as well..

..one example being in electric jungle, the one who joined AtaMenShino in saving Lum was Kosuke in the manga but in the anime it was Megane. The main and obvious reason for this is because in the manga, Kosuke is Ataru's closest friend, but in the anime, Megane is given that role instead (while still having the antagonistic side to him), so naturally a lot of his dialogue is given to Megane instead. It's been a while since I've binged the original anime all together, but I've watched a bunch of UY episodes from the original series a while back after reading the manga chapters for them since I was curious how the anime would've adapted those chapters and literally most (like around 80-90%) of the lines and role belonged to Megane, even if he has added original bits. Now that I think about it properly, I think the other three stormtroopers mostly get their lines from Hokuto and the other nameless boys in the class, mainly Chibi and Kakugari (but there might be a rare chance where they do get Kosuke's lines I don't really remember though). Perm's lines are a combo of the nameless boys and a little bit of Kosuke, while Megane's is mostly Kosuke. Of course, they have added original lines which would suit their character added to the dialogues as well. I feel like the cases where they don't give Megane Kosuke's role and give it to Perm instead, is either when Megane already had a large original role or when the role doesn't fit Megane's character. The best example of the latter is the double date AtaLum went with Kosuke and his girlfriend, while in the anime it was Perm and his (not really) girlfriend because Megane WOULD NOT ever go a date with another girl, he's too dedicated to Lum and I think they even lampshade this.

And yes, I am aware Kosuke (and Hokuto) were in the first chapter, and then they disappeared for a while and reappeared permanently in chapter 26 I think. As to why I think Perm and Kosuke are different (and why I like Kosuke more) is mostly based on opinion really. And I'll be honest now, I've never really cared much about the stormtroopers (so sorry anon but it's true), I don't hate them but I don't really love them all that much either, Megane is the only one I like and it's mostly because of Shigeru Chiba's performance (great guy). The stormtroopers to me is just 'Megane and the others' because it's literally mostly Megane and to me at least, the others are just the one dimensional members of his gang. Since they show them off as 'mostly Megane' because favouritism, it's only natural that I don't pay much attention to the others. The only thing I remember Perm doing is going on the double date and that's it. But it isn't like that for Kosuke! To me, Kosuke has a sort of charisma that all of Rumiko's characters have, even the nameless students of class 2-4. I feel like the stormtroopers don't have this specific charisma since they are mainly Oshii's characters, not Rumiko's. I get Kosuke may not be the most noticeable character, but once you start paying attention to him, you'll get to see what a great guy he is. He's silly and a goofball and a very friendly guy, a good friend to Ataru and even though he does simp over Lum a bit, he isn't stormtrooper level obsessed, he only really is against Ataru when he does or thinks he'll do something wrong (unless he's a part of his scheme lol). He's decently popular with girls, he has a girlfriend (which even Mendo and somewhat Ataru don't have) and has got chocolate from a junior on Valentine's Day and he seemed to be getting along well with the girls at Asuka's school as well. His horny level is on average since he has been shown to read porn mags and such but he doesn't disrespect or grope women in real like like Ataru does. On his date with his girlfriend, they wore matching clothing and he seems forgiving of the fact that she's a huge eater and that she's a burden on his wallet, showing he does really love her (I distinctly remember Perm in the anime version stating he'll throw his girl off a cliff or something for Lum but I'm not sure if it's a real scene or not, I can't remember). Kosuke is one of the biggest menaces in the class with Ataru and Mendo, and teams up with Ataru and on rarer cases Mendo too to take Onsen down. And Kosuke just have a lot of moments I remember, the time where he was indirectly the cause for AtaLum to fall for the other (Megane did this in the anime), the time when he and Ataru and Mendo got drunk at school late at night, the time he got kidnapped by Mendo's giant octopus, all the times Kosuke and Ataru whack the shit out of Onsen and his little comedic remarks which feel much funnier in the manga than when said in the anime cuz the anime exaggerates the bigger jokes causing the smaller ones to fall flat (the jokes in the manga remain in a good balance and most of the jokes are around the same level of funny) Kosuke just has a lot to him which Perm doesn't have because only some of these things were either mostly reserved for Megane or split among the other stormtroopers or if you are talking about friendship, the stormtroopers together are much worse friends to Ataru than Kosuke. And like that, I disagree with the Perm is much more complex than Kosuke bit too. The manga omakes literally have an entire huge analysis on Kosuke (which makes me love him even more) and that's says a lot.

I think if I had paid more attention to Perm and the other two, maybe I can get more things to be interested about? But I feel like the average viewer would pay the most attention to Megane and just regard the others as extras. And I'm so sorry if any part made it sound as if I was insulting them cuz I didn't mean to and was only stating how they seemed to me personally. And it's cool if anon or anyone really, loves the stormtroopers or Perm over Kosuke, whatever it is, I know how it is to love small underrated characters and we're all different and have our own perspectives and that's what makes us unique, and in the end, we are fans of the same series.

Considering I've answered five asks at once, I am going to declare that this topic is closed (I'm sorry, I have other stuff to do). Microsoft Word says that this entire post is over a page long so do me a favor and reblog this if you love Kosuke :)

[cartoon-buffoon]

Okay I'm aware there's a branch of people who ship the WI versions of Oswald aka Euthenasia Rabbit with the weird version of Felix in the background from Leak Ma Balls.

Real quick, I've seen people call the bloody eyed Felix Hysteria Cat which uhh, idk if that's a fanon name or not and it's similar to Oswald where in the files that's the name of the sprite or something? Anyways I can understand the ship, these two exist within the same mod and are both original characters, Oswald actually has some lore behind him though. Now the dynamic of two equally insane wackjobs in love is pretty cute and funny to me, it's a bit less funny in this case though because Oswald's... Emotional baggage, to say the least. But may I present my own idea of who you could ship Euthenasia rabbit with?

нет! Originally a design used for a T-shirt that was stolen and placed in a Russian bootleg game, this cat has been haunting my mind with ship ideas for him and Ozzie. When I tell you this idea has been with me for awhile I mean it, ever since WI came out I been shipping these two because I'm a proud crackshipper, fuck logic embrace insanity. I ain't tired enough to explain it right now yet I came up with an entire backstory and lore for HET and Oswald and how their relationship and dynamic works. To sum up their dynamic: Oswald and Het both have a burning hatred for each other yet their both so alone (for different reasons) that they naturally love each other's companionship. Like they say they want each other dead, however at night they still be cuddling and they'd kill for each other (literally) but it's just layers of denial to the point they don't even realize they're a couple and get really aggressive when anybody points it out.

They're is a bit more layers of to their dynamic from me as well, for example my own lore/headcanons has HET as a toon/entity who loves to kill and take other people's faces and wear them as his own and Oswald's natural luck shields him from getting caught so the cat claims to only be around Ozzie for protection. While being around Ozzie for his own selfish gain he genuinely does start taking a liking to him and he refuses to acknowledge it and actively takes measures to get rid of these thoughts. But I'm not in the mood to ramble on about this idea, maybe some other time, but hay. This is just something to think about and a personal ship of mine that I wanna share.

[chubberdy]

Gonna ramble/rant a bit about game dev stuff in this community since I'm thinking about it now.

Obviously there's a lot of things that come down to preference when it comes to kink, doubly so for games. Even beyond the kink itself, there's always a weird balancing act of how "gamey" to make a game. Like yeah for regular games having more engaging gameplay is better but I've seen plenty of people say that having to pay too much attention to a game distracts them from enjoying the kink side of things.

Fair enough I guess, but honestly at some point you just gotta accept a game is a game, you know? Go play a VN or look at the myriad of non-game art that there's waaaay more of if you want that.

Kinda ties into how I feel about debug/cheat modes, at least for the stuff I make. Yeah I know there's a lot of good reasons for the average person to want them (save file broke, checking for missed content after beating the game, for spacethumper specifically testing out custom sprites). I still get that crappy feeling whenever someone asks for one that they just don't care about all the game design I put into the game. Which feels bad because I love game design and coding stuff! It's fun! I spend way more time on it than the art/animations both out of necessity and because I like it!

Like one of the things I think about for weight gain games specifically is how to get that feeling of weight and heft without making things a slog. Don't get me wrong, I go nuts for someone slowly huffing and panting their way across the room at a third their original speed as much as the next guy, but sluggish, unresponsive, tedious movement in a game can be... well sluggish, unresponsive, and tedious. Sometimes being out of control in a game is fun though! You just gotta set it up so the kink and the gameplay go hand in hand. That's probably why I'm so averse to bad ends, though that might just be them not being done well a lot of the time.

Oh also for the sake of all indie game devs out there:

Check for a description

Check for a read me

Check for a FAQ

If you're on a forum or anything like that check the last 5 or so posts

THEN ask the dev your question. And if the question is "when next update" just don't.

[ohthehypocrisy]

Marvel VS Capcom 4EVER - The Perfect Dream Game

(This is going to be something different from my blog's usual content. I don't just love pokemon, I'm also a really big fan of crossover fighters. My very first fandom was Super Smash Bros. and it was where I started writing fanfics. I may not be all that good at 2D traditional fighting games, but I enjoy the time I spend on them. As such, I will be talking about Marvel vs Capcom and what I would want the 4th game to look like)

-

The Marvel VS Capcom series is a franchise founded on hopes and dreams. When an unlikely collaboration spawns one of the most fantastical crossover events in history, well before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was conceived, you can imagine that it is fondly remembered and well regarded in its popularity and gameplay.

And yet, with such powerful Intellectual Properties populating the series, the games are rife with copyright power struggles and negotiations. So much so, that the game had been in limbo for as many years as it had been played competitively. The demand is there, the problem is that no one can decide how much money both sides should be making to allow for a character to be put into the game and to get punched in the face.

To put it into perspective, Marvel VS Capcom 2 came out in 2000, and it pulled a Masahiro Sakurai and included every character from the past games plus a little extra. The game was entirely 2D with mostly reused sprites, which is how it got away with a whopping 56 characters on the roster right out the gate. This also created some balancing issues as the top tier characters from previous games were also top tier here as well, though that topic of discussion is beyond my area of expertise. All you need to know is, there's a reason all the top level matches have the same 5 or so characters.

Now, as for Marvel VS Capcom 3, that title came out in 2011, a whole 10 years after the arcade experience was brought home. The hype was still there, but the series would run into some licensing issues in the background. It's how we got Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 less than a year later, and how Marvel VS Capcom Infinite came out the way it did. Though perhaps it would be best if you, the reader, looked into that yourself, as I'd rather talk about Marvel VS Capcom 4, or rather, what it could potentially be.

Since the Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection was announced, I have been ecstatic about finally owning these games that I would rarely see. I didn't go to arcades all that often, but I always liked going to look at all the cabinets and all the games I've never seen before. Remember, arcades were a big deal back in the day, and the internet wasn't, so this is where you would discover games you haven't heard about. This is how I learned about Marvel VS Capcom, and how I fell in love with crossover fighters in general. I was a 90's kid growing up, so these quarter consuming cabinets were like a vivid dream to experience. And being on the autism spectrum meant that a strong first impression would consume my waking thoughts for years on end. It's my hope that a rail shooter collection comes out soon so that I can reexperience 'The Ocean Hunter' in all its glory.

Back to the topic at hand, the rerelease of these games would imply that relations between Marvel and Capcom have mellowed enough that all the licensing headaches for this collection passed like a mild flu. It's a bit of wishful thinking, but the door might be open for a potential new iteration of Marvel VS Capcom. I mean, everyone has been talking about it lately, so I figured I'd put in my own two cents.

Before we begin, we do have to go over why MVC Infinite isn't being given the honorary title of number 4, and there are a few reasons. One of them being the confusing order of titles of the franchise. Marvel VS Capcom 2 is actually the 4th in the series, starting with X-Men VS Street Fighter, though it could also be the 6th of you started with X-Men: Children Of The Atom. So what would that make UMVC3? It was an updated rerelease sold less than a year after MVC3, so does it count or should it be a separate thing? MVC Infinite didn't use a number in their title, though if you tilted the ∞ sign you would get the number 8, which is the exact number of games in the series if you count UMVC3 as a hefty DLC bundle.

The other reason is because of all the executive meddling that poisoned the roster. What is a Marvel VS Capcom game without Wolverine or any of the X-Men? Well, you get MVC Infinite, that's what. On top of the squandered roster, there were loads of criticisms over the models looking the way they do. I'm not gonna dwell on this bit for too long, but don't be surprised when you hear people boldly claim that Infinite isn't a true MVC game.

So, what would a Marvel VS Capcom 4 look like? Everyone has their own ideas, but it seems that no one can decide on a concrete roster for Launch Day. I specify 'Launch Day' as it's to be expected that a big game like MVC4 will have DLC, it's how you keep a game like this alive for as long as there is work to be done. I mean, I've yet to hear anyone complain about DLC for this series, except for when UMVC3 was announced, but that is the exception that proves the rule. As long as it doesn't happen again, you can do no wrong.

Well, what do I think? After all, this is my post, my idea. As such, I'm proposing a base roster of the best of both worlds, the absolute pinnacle of popularity for the birth of the best beat 'em up game ever made. I'm talking the top picks like Cyclops, Ryu, Wolverine, Chun-Li, Captain America, Mega Man, Deadpool, Dante, all the fan favorites that would guarantee a Day 1 buy for everyone.

But I'm also proposing a massive DLC roadmap for the game's foreseeable future. With a plan of releasing new characters for the game as time wears on, the starting roster and number of characters don't really matter that much. Granted, there are some characters who are nonnegotiable for the starting roster, like Spider-Man and Morrigan, but as long as everyone understands that there will be loads of DLC characters coming down the line, you can guarantee that Launch Day sales will go through the roof.

Think of this potential game to function like Fortnite, or more specifically, like a live service. Now, I know that live service games have performed very poorly, but that's usually because of bone-headed executives making the decisions for the developers. There are live service games that do very well, like Splatoon for instance, or the aforementioned Fortnite. Since the plan is to gradually release new content, it'll pay to make everything accessible to the players by turning it into a live service.

Of course there's the issue of what the base price for the game will be or if new characters will be paywalled. You have to charge SOMETHING to make a profit, especially if you want to pay your team to make new characters. In a perfect world, the game and characters would be free and all the monetization would be made through cosmetics. But the fairest asking price would be between $60 and $70, with the promise that all characters released through DLC will be free. Of course, the developers and the company won't leave the money on the table, they'll probably whip up a battlepass or something to engage daily play. Again, as long as the characters are free and everything else is cosmetic, we can't complain too much...

In order to keep the game fresh, however, new character releases should be released in bundles. Even with the starting roster of about 30 or so characters, fans will always want something more out of the game. But the developers are only human, and crunch time is one of the worst things you can do your workers. As such, the DLC shall be 'seasonal' with each release period being named after a Marvel VS Capcom title. For instance, 3 months after the release of Marvel VS Capcom 4, the first seasonal DLC will be called 'X-Men VS Street Fighter' with 6 new characters from these Intellectual Properties, and more coming later down the line. The seasonal DLC will last until a sufficient number of X-Men and Street Fighter characters have been added to the roster. That might get stale quickly, though, so maybe the rest will come out later in between seasons.

Following this trend, after 'X-Men VS Street Fighter' we'll get the 'Marvel Super Heroes VS Darkstalkers' DLC pack. And then following that, we can get the 'Clash of Super Heroes' pack, which is the subtitle for Marvel VS Capcom (which is the fifth game). Then comes 'New Age of Heroes', followed by the 'Fate of Two Worlds' pack, then the 'Ultimate' Pack, and finally the 'Infinite' pack. The idea here is to cram this $70 game full of characters so that everyone who bought it will have their money's worth, and all the fans get all the characters they could ever want. Masahiro Sakurai, the Lead Developer of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, left the industry with one of the most ambitious crossover games of history. A dreamed up version of Marvel VS Capcom 4 has to meet and exceed this insurmountable expectation of crossover greatness. Even if I'm not all that familiar with either Marvel or Capcom properties, I would want nothing less than to make as many people happy as possible.

So that's the plan, but what about the gameplay? I mean, you can't just release Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 again with more characters and expect everyone to be happy, right? I mean, no, but the ironic thing is that a lot of people would love to have that. In fact, there's a massive mod scene behind UMVC3 right now and they're adding in loads of characters. If you're comfortable with tinkering around a bit in computer files, I highly recommend giving it a look. (It's also extra apparent at how apathetic people are about MVC: I, though that game is also getting its own mod update).

Anyway, as for gameplay, if we HAD to add something, I had the idea of throwing in something called the 4EVER Assist. It's why I titled the post the way I did, as this is how you add even more characters to the game. See, back in Marvel VS Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, there was a random assist feature that you could pick along with your two main characters. This is where a majority of the games new sprite work came from, aside from newcomers like Venom and Captain Commando. Basically, you technically had a team of three characters, though the assist varied in strength and usage. The weaker and less effective assists could be called more often, but the stronger and better assists had very limited calls.

This assist system had very little risk to the player, which is why each one was ratioed with different number of uses. In other installments, each chosen fighter could be called for an assist, but summoning them recklessly could leave them vulnerable to combos from the enemy. But if you got clipped along with the assist you called, well, expect the crowd to start singing 'Happy Birthday', if you know what I mean.

Anyway, for my idea of Marvel VS Capcom 4EVER, both assist systems are combined, turning what was traditionally a 3v3 fighting game into a 4v4. The 4th character cannot be controlled, but they offer some benefits over regular fighters. For one, the player will never be out of assists if they are brought down to their last character, making comebacks a lot more feasible. Secondly, all characters on the roster can be delegated as the 4EVER assist and allows them to use exclusive moves when called as an assist. And thirdly, since it is only one move, you can have new characters exclusive to the 4EVER assist list that otherwise wouldn't make the cut, like Nick Fury or Cut Man. Not to say that these characters can't be promoted to fully fledged fighters down the line, but it'd be nice to have them around otherwise.

I've also got the idea of adding something called the 4EVER Ability, a passive effect unique to each fighter. This is closer in execution to Pokemon Abilities but tailored to the team fighter combat system. Basically, each fighter offers a different boon that affects the whole team, and since you can choose three fighters and a 4EVER assist, you can have four passive abilities active at once. However, if a fighter gets KO'd, their 4EVER Ability is negated for the rest of the match, leading to a structural degradation of team synergy. Of course, the 4EVER assist cannot be KO'd, so a player can make a last stand with at least two active 4EVER Abilities in play.

Here's a short list of 4EVER Abilities that would be in the game and their function:

Cyclops - "Dreams don't die!" Super Meter Generation is increased by 1.5x (Hitting and getting hit generates Super Meter, which can be used for Super Attacks, so an ability to hasten that generation is useful.)

Ryu - "I walk the path of a true warrior!" All 🡳🡶🡺P attacks deal 2x more damage. (This boon is restricted to Punch attacks, but all attacks, Supers, and Assists that use this motion get the power boost.)

Wolverine - "I'm the best at what I do." Your combo is more resistant to Damage Decay. (The later installments of MVC have a Damage Decay system where the longer the combo drags on for, the less damage you'll deal overall. Other fighting games have this. Wolverine's ability caps the damage drop-off much earlier.)

Ken - "Here's to a good fight!" All 🡺🡳🡶P attacks deal 2x more damage. (Same as Ryu's ability, but for 'dragon punch' motion attacks.)

Spider-Man - "With great power, comes great responsibility." Damage increases by 2x for each bar of Super Meter you have. (With you being able to control 3 characters, the Super Meter maxes out to 5, meaning a potential 10x damage increase for your combo. The damage is instantly reduced when you spend some for a Super, however.)

Mega Man - "Mega Buster, Power UP!" Super Attacks deal 2.5x more damage. (Super Attacks cost Super Meter, but they hit very hard, can fill the screen with damage, or even be used to counter other attacks. However, Mega Man's ability is still susceptible to Damage Decay, which Super Attacks tend to generate quickly.)

Hulk - "Hulk is strongest there is!" Damage is increased the more HP you have. (This ability grants a massive power boost in the first minute of the fight, but it wavers later on. Tagging in other characters is also risky if they are brought in recklessly and lose some HP during their assist calls.)

Captain Commando - "Let's go, Commandos!" Assists deal more damage the more HP they have. (Because of how integral Assists are to making combos, dealing more damage through assists is a powerful asset. But it can only scale up with how healthy you keep your teammates.)

Captain America - "Freedom prevails!" Reduces damage taken while blocking. (This one is self-explanatory, given how strong Cap's adamantium shield is. It's also crucial in avoiding chip damage during critical moments, as most attacks will still whittle down your HP bar, even while blocking.)

Mike Haggar - "The Mayor of America!" Throws deal more damage and it is easier to Tech Throws. (In contrast, working around blocking means knowing how to throw your enemies. This boon also increases the damage dealt through command throws. When you get grabbed, you have a very short window of time to input a grab to negate the attack, this is called a Tech Throw. This ability widens the window by a few frames, but keep in mind that command throws cannot be Teched.)

Doctor Doom - "Defeat is beneath Doom!" Damage increases gradually the lower your team's HP is. (MVC3 and UMVC3 had a comeback mechanic called X Factor, where activating it increased your speed and power drastically. But the less teammates you had, the greater the boost, functioning as a divisive comeback mechanic. I'm not sure if MVC4 will have a similar mechanic, so I'm a little hesitant to put something similar as an ability.)

M. Bison - "This place will become your grave!" Damage dealt to the enemy increases the more Ichor they have. (In nearly all versions of MVC, there is an HP mechanic called red HP or something to that effect, I don't think it was ever officially named. Anyway, when you get hit, a portion of your HP lost turns into red HP, which you can recover later through healing specials or by tagging out and waiting. In MVC4, this will be called Ichor, meaning this ability deals gradually increasing damage to the enemy as the combo continues.)

Ghost Rider - "Feel the weight of your sins brand your soul." Counter Specials and Super Attacks deal 3.5x more damage. (In MVC, Counters in general are rare and rarely used due to how team supers function. As such, this ability grants a massive boost in damage to those specials if they land.)

Dante - "Now it's a party!" Attack and Speed increase a little bit during Installs. Also extends the duration of Installs by a little bit. (An 'Install' is traditionally a temporary transformation into a slightly different character, but they typically add in buffed stats and extra moves. You can call it a temporary self buff that may or may not cost Super Meter. It should be noted that Installs do not run out when the character is tagged out and is retained when the character is called back in for an assist, which this ability will continue to boost the damage of.)

I have more examples but I think that'll do for now. The idea of a 'passive ability' system in a tag team fighting game is a bit foreign but since this game will have loads of characters, it helps to give each one a bit of personality.

I'll leave it at this for now. The irony here is that, if a Marvel VS Capcom 4 were to be in the works right now, I wouldn't be able to play it, owning only a Nintendo Switch right now. Maybe if the Switch 2 is real and can run more graphically intensive games, and that MVC4 gets a Switch 2 port. But this is all a dream for me, so it's time to wake up.

Thank you for reading this far. And remember, only two things last forever, diamonds, and MAHVEL.

[the-starlight-writer]

Hyacinth Cafe Intro Post

(colloquially known as aroace butler cafe amongst my friends) I'm not sure how to write this as I've never written an intro post for a visual novel before but here we go:

What is it? The Hyacinth Cafe, Hy Cafe for short, is a visual novel with an aroace twist. The drawings and screenshots I've put on here under the tag "project: the hyacinth cafe" are directly related to it.

Who is the protagonist? Micah, last name currently not decided. Two steps at best from being a hikkiko-NEET / shut-in; programmer, the person who's bringing back the concept of nonbinary people just being some guy in sweatpants; has the one friend who adopted him in middle school and who he is terrified will one day realise that he isn't shit, pronouns are not anyone's problem because no one knows he exists (he. they. don't look at me.) Here's Micah:

Okay, nice to meet you Micah. What is the plot? Micah [lastname], two steps away from being a shut-in, gets dragged out by his best (and only friend) Laurie Goodman-Boakye to a local butler cafe after she wins their bi-annual lottery that gets her free access to the cafe's top six most popular butlers for an in-cafe chat and off-site date, nominating Micah in her place. "You're going to learn how to talk to people, and *men*, so help me God." Micah is aspec and arospec, doesn't care enough to figure it out, but more than that, he is so poorly socialised that he needs to interact with more people to figure it out. Laurie knows this and thrust him headfirst into the chance of a lifetime.

Oooooooo, who are the butlers??? If you've been on this blog long enough, you've seen most of them. There's Six (character: six tag on this blog), Yoh (same format), Avery, Lloyd and Jihoon. They all have very different styles and approaches to their job and interacting with each of them presents new challenges for our hissing cat of an MC.

What's the aroace twist? Well, each butler has their own route (and there's a secret 7th one) but each route has two potential endings of "trad romance" (none of them are straightforward trad romance, you know what i mean) or Something Else. Some of them will end up being friends. Some of them end up going back to being acquaintances. Some of them won't talk to you again for neutral reasons or positive reasons — not everyone deals with heartbreak the same way. That's the aroace twist here.

When will it be released? God knows. Just join me for the ride, G. I'm coding and drawing all the sprites (and hopefully CGs) myself. And I've got a plethora of things going on at all times. I don't know when this will be done anymore than you do.

What will it be available on when eventually released? On PC.

Thank you for your time, and welcome to the Hy Cafe.