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ops-on-loop · 3 years ago

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OP Review #2: Death Note

For my first solo review I wanted to review openings for another series very near and dear to my heart, Death Note. Death Note is my absolute favorite anime of all time (you can read my review where I gush about it here), so I’m very excited to dive into the openings!

Death Note has two openings for its anime, “the WORLD” for the first 19 episodes and “What’s up, people?!” for episodes 20 to 37. They’re very interesting openings, I’m excited to dive into my thoughts on each!

“the WORLD” (link to OP)

Category 1, Artstyle/Animation: The art and animation in this opening is incredible. Of course, it was made in the early 2000’s, so it isn’t as crisp and clean as the openings that we see now, but it’s still up there. The beautiful renaissance painting parodies across the opening, the detail to each character (even in moments where I’d imagine it’s REALLY hard to animate, like :08-:11 specifically), just the variety of shots in general is amazing. We never stay in the same environment for more than 3-4 seconds, the opening is always taking you to a different shot of a different character doing something that holds great symbolism to the story. It’s pretty great. They’re also able to pair the music REALLY well with the shots in the opening which is just… mwah. So good. 2/2

Category 2, Song: Bit of an unpopular opinion here… I’m not the biggest fan of the song by itself. I still love it paired with the opening, but when I hear people praise it as “a banger” in the same way that I’d applaud an opening song like “Sakura Kiss”, I just can’t agree. It’s a great song! I really like it! But I wouldn’t say it’s as god-tier as everyone makes it out to be. I rarely listen to it by itself, and I listen to a LOT of OPs when I’m driving/walking to classes so that’s saying a lot. One thing that’s pretty cool is that the song itself REALLY relates to the show. It’s in Japanese so even I missed it the first time around, but when looking up the lyrics some important/telling lines are “I won’t let anyone interfere with everything that will come about from now on”, “am I a broken Messiah? everyone wished for a finale”, and “someday, I’ll show you a shining sky”. If you’re familiar with the show… it feels like an opening song directly made for this anime. I can respect that. 1.5/2

Category 3, Relevance: This opening is filled with symbolism and references. There’s a lot of Christian symbolism, nods to events in the show, at some points the way that certain characters are LOOKING represents different views in the series, I LOVE openings that are packed full of references like this one. I’m not going to do a full-blown analysis on the opening as A) I’m probably gonna miss stuff and B) that’d take too long, but there’s plenty of “Death Note OP analysis” videos out there so feel free to check those out if you’re interested. I love openings that connect so much to the show it’s just… so good. 2/2

Category 4, Originality: Like I mentioned, it’s pretty PACKED, so even if it does a stereotypical anime opening thing (characters in a line/walking dramatically, etc.) it’s not for a very long time, and it’s surrounded by plenty of originality. The pseudo-renaissance art, different shots of Light in his god-like mindset above the city, all the great shots of Misa, it’s great. I wouldn’t say this is your typical anime opening, even if it does have some familiar elements. 1.5/2

Category 5, Bias: I really like and appreciate this opening, but I’d never call it one of my top favorites. Not to give away too much of the second half of this review, but I actually like OP2 better, so more of my bias points will go to that. To keep it at an even score I’ll give it a 1/2

Death Note’s first opening, “the WORLD” , scores an 8/10. I really like this opening, and even if it’s not one of my favorites I can respect how jam-packed it is with symbolism and references, which I always appreciate and like to see. Song is good too, not to the point that I listen to it by itself, but it’s a nice addition.

“Whats up, people?!” (link to OP)

Category 1, Artstyle/Animation: This opening upholds the same quality of animation as the first Death Note opening, if not even better. Shit gets crazy. I love the new effects and crazy backgrounds that this opening presents. Ryuk dancing with the apple, Misa on the bed sheets, Light in the MANY shots where he’s just losing his shit, and my absolute favorite shot with Light walking through his “ideal world”. This opening is so chaotic, which perfectly represents the latter half of Death Note… Light is losing his shit, everything is getting chaotic. 2/2

Category 2, Song: I might be in the minority here but I LOVE this opening song. It pairs with the opening so perfectly, and though I’m 100% not a heavy metal/screamo/whatever genre this is fan, I still absolutely rock out to this opening from time to time. My favorite part of the song also pairs with my favorite part of the opening, Light walking through his “ideal world”. The sudden calm pairs so perfectly with the scenery, and when it builds back up to the levels of madness it was at before it’s just gold. The lyrics… are interesting… lots of cursing and screaming and I can’t say it means a lot, it certainly sounds like what the inside of Light’s head probably sounds like by the end of the show. I love it. 2/2

Category 3, Relevance: While there aren’t as many symbolic shots as the first opening, a lot of it still relates to different characters in the show and how they’re portrayed. Misa, instead of being depressed and upset like she was in the first opening, is now simply doing her modeling biz, reflecting how she loses all of her memory of the Death Note in the latter half of the series. Light… we can all tell what the shots of Light are supposed to represent. He’s losing it. There’s a lot less L in the opening (for… sniff… obvious reasons), and all of the other important secondary main characters get pretty cool shots too. Going back again to my favorite scene in the opening (starting at :44), you can see Light walkling by all of the prominent figures in the second half of the series, with his view of each of them very clear based on where they are in comparison to him. In his ideal world, Mikami and Takeda are very prominent figures, with Mikami being closer to him than Takeda (shown by how he walks next to Mikami and away from/above Takeda (because… you know)). He also walks directly above Mello, who in his ideal world is living in the sewers, not much of a threat (which is pretty true for his role in the series). Finally we have Near, who lives in what would be darkness in Light’s ideal world, fighting against his idea of justice, perfectly representing how he views the figure “N” and how the series concludes. It’s just… I love it. While it doesn’t have meaning in every shot like the first opening, I still think that the second opening holds up with its madness and sprinkles of references thrown in. Also, seeing Light scream and thrash around is very therapeutic as he rarely loses his cool in the show. It’s nice… ( ￣ω￣) 2/2

Category 4, Originality: This opening is anything but ordinary. Not many shows go this crazy with their opening song choice and visuals, and I respect Death Note for changing it up a bit. It’s pretty cool and memorable, definitely sets it apart from a lot of the generic openings out there. 2/2

Category 5, Bias: While this opening isn’t on my “TOP 10 EPIC ANIME OPENINGS OF ALL TIME” list, it’s definitely up there around #11 or #12. I’ll always remember this opening as being a crazy cool viewing experience, I still listen to the song until this day, and for that I’ll give it a 2/2 bias points.

Yes, Death Note opening 2 scores a 10/10. Maybe I’m jumping the gun a little bit with this score but I really love this opening and think it deserves it! I’m probably in the minority with this opinion, hopefully not(?), but I have been confronted by a few friends going “?? how can you like the second opening better, the first is a classic” so please… don’t bully me. Death Note is my favorite anime, Light Yagami is probably my favorite anime character, clearly I already have pretty trash taste so don’t rely on me for the most “based” opinions~ (>ω^)

Death Note openings are pretty damn cool. They’re definitely made with a lot of care, they have a lot of relevance to the plot of the show, and they’re anything but typical and ordinary! Love this series and love the OPs just as much!

-zantids

#death note #the WORLD #whats up people?!#OPReview #op review #anime manga #animanga

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a-student-out-of-time · 4 years ago

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There's a good and a bad way to subvert expectations. Unfortunately what's been happening a lot lately is that many works go for twists for the sake of being twists, the Star Wars Sequels being a prime example of this. Or the later sessions of Game of Thrones. There is a fine balance between being able to surprise your audience and not being extremely predictable.

//I’ve absorbed more complaints and feelings from both those series through pop-culture osmosis than I have from watching them. I’m more of a casual observer, but I do have some feelings on both these points (which I will put under here if you’re interested.)

//tl;dr version: I think we should unbiasedly judge media on its own merits and look over what works internally within the story and what doesn’t, be willing to make our own judgements rather than jump on bandwagons and tell people what they should or shouldn’t like, and not treat opinions as straight facts.

//And also that I’m honestly tired of hearing about the sequels and GoT ^^;

//I disagree with a lot of people on the Star Wars sequels (aside from 9, fuck 9), but I’d rather not start a debate about it nor their quality overall. Only that I think people really overreacted to them and many others jumped on the hate bandwagon when emotions were running high.

//Frankly, many of the criticisms I saw about the films felt either wildly inconsistent about what they’re upset about or what they wanted it to be (7 was criticized for being too much like old Star Wars, 8 for not being enough like old Star Wars) and others felt like they came from bad faith and I can’t take them seriously.

//And yes, the last season of Game of Thrones is trash and wrecked everyone’s storylines for the sake of being shocking, but let’s also be real: GoT was never going to have a happy ending if it wanted to stick to its “realism.” Whoever got on the Iron Throne was inevitably going to have to purge all opposition to consolidate power. That’s just how real revolutions and coups work.

//To be clear, Daenerys’ turn to evil murderousness was stupidly executed, but it wasn’t necessarily unprecedented. What I frankly dislike about fantasy in general is its tendency toward the Divine Right of Kings. That only certain bloodlines have the right to rule and you just need to put the “rightful heir” on the throne. In other words, giving absolute power to a magically omnibenevolent person will fix everything. I may be an optimistic humanist, but I know that simply doesn’t happen.

//The entire point of GoT is that DRoK is stupid and royalty in general really kinda sucks. If you go back, you see most of the lords we follow, including “good king” Eddard Stark, are either totally indifferent to the masses or are completely sadistic and torture them for funsies since the legal system doesn’t protect peasants.

//The Starks are no better than the Lannisters simply by virtue of being overall “nicer” than them. Both sides start wars that get thousands of people killed. Also, everybody loved John Snow, but he also fucking hanged a kid and I’ve never heard anyone bring that up since.

//Most importantly, Daenerys was a likable character with a sympathetic backstory, but even before the last season, she was fully embracing being a Targaryen by blood and was openly murdering people who got in her way while she was conquering territory after territory.

//Yes, a lot of the people she killed were slaveholders, but let’s be real for a moment: not everyone who participates in an evil system is evil themselves. It’s easy for us as the audience to judge them for participating in a slavocracy, but living in one comes with being told slavery is okay. That doesn’t make them evil by nature, just subject to the biases of their culture.

//Also, slavery is evil but conquering people is fine? And burning people to death for opposing you is acceptable since you’re going to be better and free everyone, or because you had a sympathetic backstory? These are the kinds of things that get villains criticized for, but is treated as a necessary evil at worst for the protagonists.

//This is protagonist-centered morality. The show is framing it in a way where you��re being drawn in to see it that way, but also telling you not to see blatant hypocrisies for what they really are. Daenerys was even called as mad as her father by Tyrion. It wasn’t well-executed, but it was going to happen regardless of how much anyone liked her.

//Violence for a good cause is still violence. If you’re going to burn people for disagreeing with you, then say that other people shouldn’t and should listen to others, that’s full-on hypocrisy. That goes for most of the characters in the show, frankly, and the message is executed well for most of it.

//That being said, don’t think this means I think the last season of GoT is good, that the Star Wars sequels are perfect, or that I hate all fantasy books ever. That’s not what I’m saying. I try to enjoy what’s good about them and point out their flaws regardless.

//What I’m saying is it’s important to, when you want to be critical of media, put your feelings and biases aside and judge the media you’re criticizing on its own merits. In my opinion, the claims that the sequels only did things to subvert expectations is unfounded. They were going their own direction, which was admittedly controversial and not what many people wanted, but just because you don’t want it to happen doesn’t mean it’s a bad twist

//Just like how a character isn’t a Mary Sue just because they’re too OP or you don’t like them. That’s not what that term means and hearing people use it like that irritates me. While I do have my complaints about characters, people use that term as if it’s a form of literary criticism that has more use than is necessary.

//If a character is OP, they’re OP. If a character is flat, they’re flat. If a character is poorly written, they’re poorly written. If a character is at the center of the universe and literally everything else exists just to amplify them and their role in things, then they’re likely a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. It’s not a label to slap on a character you don’t like or to give a critique (or complaint) more weight.

//This is why I say DR3 Chiaki isn’t a Mary Sue, she’s just not a very well written character. All Mary Sues are poorly written characters, but not all poorly written characters are Mary Sues. She’s not terrible, but she’s not explored much and her only big roles are being the person who brings Class 77-B together and her death turns them to despair.

//While her death was tragic and brutal, we didn’t really get a good look at who she was as a person beyond just being nice and opening up to her friends. If they’d expanded on that a little more, maybe it would’ve been more effective, but the way she died felt...manipulative and shock baity in a lot of ways since it banked mostly on our familiarity with her despite it being a totally different person.

//DR3 honestly had a whole host of shocky and just plain gross scenes that I really don’t think needed to be there.

//But likewise, if a story has a plot twist that you don’t like, that doesn’t automatically make it purely shock bait or subverting expectations just for the sake of doing so. There’s a difference between “this character was evil all along and there were a lot of clues and we just didn’t want to believe it” and “this character was evil all along for reasons we’re dumping on you now.”

//Just so I don’t seem like a hypocrite, while I personally don’t like what happened with Mikan in chapter 3 of SDR2, it was an effective way of foreshadowing the truth of them being the remnants of despair. It was set up that every had lost their memories and this was a sign that getting them back wasn’t necessarily going to have a good outcome.

//And I’ll be real: I can’t take a lot of the complaints about the Sequels or GoT seriously because much of it carries overtones of racism, sexism and antisemitism. For those more into Star wars, I think you know what I mean already and that’s all I’ll say. As for GoT, I’ve seen reddit posts viscerally attacking the writers directly and even saying that we should’ve expected the ending to suck since it was “written by Jews.”

//Yeah, go figure I can’t read any of that. I know not all people who hated the show’s ending or the films are like that, but it’s impossible to deny that those attitudes are very real.

//In the end, if you want to be critical of media, the worst way to do that is to just watch a video of someone complaining about it for half an hour. Yes, those video essays can be fun, but the only way to be truly critical of media you enjoy is to examine it yourself and look closely at what’s in it and how it’s presented. That goes doubly for shows you like.

//I know not everyone will do that and all opinions are ultimately subjective, but don’t let someone else tell you that you should hate something or that something is bad just because they didn’t like how it ended. Watch or read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. Don’t just follow the crowd and also be respectful of people who don’t agree with you. You can learn a lot when you talk to someone with a different opinion.

#mod talks #mod rambles #a student out of time #just giving my thoughts #Anonymous #cw: racism #cw: sexism #cw: antisemitism

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vicar-dei · 4 years ago

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My Love-Hate Relationship with Bloodborne

I’ve made it a habit to always play a game from the company From Software, especially after being drawn in by the first Dark Souls game. So when Bloodborne came out for the PS4 as an exclusive, not only did I buy the game day 1, I even played around in the Bloodborne open beta. The beta itself was nice, I really enjoyed the combat and the new trick weapon system. In addition, the lack of shields forced me to think a bit differently about how I played. I was the type to play lighter, dodge-based characters already, but not having a shield to fall back on when I messed up a dodge really helped me refine my skills (or so I thought).

The official game drops, and I buy it. I go through the starting areas, breezing through it all with relative ease. The beta had trained me for this, I thought, I can do this! Then I hit my first pitfall, the Forbidden Woods. Now the area itself was fairly easy, if not a bit of a slog. No, the real trouble I had was with the Shadow of Yharnam, a set of three hooded figures each with their own unique moveset. On top of dealing with all three of these enemies at once, I also was severely under-leveled for the task. So I ran away, quickly clearing out Hemwick Charnel Lane. Somewhere along the way, I fumbled into Iosefka’s Clinic and acquired the Cainhurst Summons. This item is required to get access to Castle Cainhurst, probably one of the most beautiful locations in Bloodborne, in my opinion. Unfortunately, this locations’ beauty blinded me and left me defenseless for the ass-kicking I would soon receive.

Giant, bulging moquitos with woman’s faces. Large dining rooms and libraries filled with tanky ghosts. Deranged servants who pretended to be regular servants. Weird gargoyles with tons of i-frames (in Bloodborne this happens for alot of enemies, but it still doesn’t make it any less painful). Cainhurst tested me at literally every new turn I made, and I can safely say that my death toll in Cainhurst alone riveled my death toll for my entire playthrough up to that point. What awaited me at the end of my struggle? What’s my reward for me endlessly throwing my poor, innocent (no, his hundreds of beast kills don’t count, he was so pure) hunter to his death? Master Logarius, in all of his unsightly glory. Now I won’t lie, this boss broke me. He broke every single good feeling I had for Bloodborne, and all he left behind was pure, blind rage. Rage at the game, rage at the developers, rage at my own hunter. After my final encounter with Logarius, I quit out of the game, uninstalled it, and didn’t touch Bloodborne again for years.

Fast forward to 2020. I’m older now, a bit more experienced in Souls games. On top of playing Dark Souls 3 backwards and forwards, I’d also played games such as Code Vein and Mortal Shell, two more “souls-likes” that I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of. On top of this, I went back into the first Dark Souls with Dark Souls Remastered, reviving my old DEX/ INT rapier, crystal magic spamming character to dominate the PvP scene (spoiler alert: the meta had evolved, so I ate pavement). Anyways, as I was looking up cool build videos to try out, I came across a few guides for Bloodborne as well. The more I kept reading, the more confused I got. Chalice dungeons give you the best blood gems? Grinding chalice dungeons for levels? Chalice Glyphs to help with farming? Since I had come directly from Dark Souls to Bloodborne, I didn’t even remotely look into doing chalice dungeons. I had assumed it was all side content, or maybe the more co-op sections of the game. As mad as I still was at Bloodborne, I had wanted to see if things would change if I just grinded out chalice dungeons.

So I bottled up my contempt, and I re-downloaded Bloodborne. I didn’t have PS Plus during my first playthrough, so I ended up making a new character, but I didn’t mind much. Cleric Beast, Father Gascoigne, Blood-Starved Beast, chalice dungeons! I started out simple, selecting chalice glyphs for high damage gem farming and enemies that drop lots of blood echoes. After about 3 hours, I had went from level 30 to level 100, with cursed gems on all my weapons (really good stat buff, usually comes with a really big downside). Needless to say, the game was a cakewalk after that point. Shadows of Yharnam, Rom the spider, even Master Logarius were a complete snooze. Before I knew it, I was close to the final boss, and was ready to delve into the Old Hunters DLC (that experience is a story for another time).

After this emotional roller-coaster, what do I think of Bloodborne? While the game made me question my life choices originally, after “properly” playing through the game I actually got to properly compare it to the other games From Software had produced, something I had never even considered doing due to my initial rage-quit. I can honestly say that I put Bloodborne up in quality in line with Dark Souls 3, if not maybe even higher. The atmosphere, the lore of the world, the bosses, and so much more. In addition, completing this game made me compare it to a lot of the other games I’ve tried out in the souls-like genre, which makes me value it as an art piece even more. It’s one of those games that I’ll definitely keep playing, and talking about, in the future.

#bloodborne #rage #headache #acceptance

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mahou-queen · 4 years ago

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♡52 Weeks of Lolita Questionnaire♡

In a recent Lovely Lor video, Lor answered questions from Loliprompts’ questionnaire “52 weeks of lolita”. It seems like a fun list of questions and I thought I would answer them too~ ♡

1. What is your favorite brand, and why? What’s its history? ♡ I guess my favorite brand would have to be Angelic Pretty. I love a lot of other brands, but the majority of dresses in my wish list right now are Angelic Pretty. As for their history? I don’t really know haha, I guess I should research that a bit.

2. How would you describe lolita fashion to a curious person you met in passing? ♡ I always just say I am apart of a fashion club? People don’t generally require more than that but if they did I would probably tell them that it’s an alternative fashion based on Victorian fashion and we have a fashion club and we get dressed up and meet for tea and stuff.

3. What style do you think is the most underrated, and why? ♡ qi and wa lolita. I almost never see them, or see interest in them which is a shame because there are some really beautiful dresses out there that are suited for these styles.

4. What does the phrase “lolita lifestyle” mean to you, and do you, or would you like to, adhere to it? ♡ lolita lifestyle is when you try to bring lolita or lolita-esque aesthetics into every aspect of your life. Maybe wearing lolita every or most days, and having a very “loliable” home/room. I could never be a lifestyler because I have other fashion interests. Also lolita is not appropriate at my workplace.

5. What do you think constitutes lolita etiquette or good manners? ♡ I don’t believe there is any “lolita etiquette” I think you should just be yourself. Good manner are good manners, don’t be rude to your comm members, don’t dance on the tables at a tea party. But that’s just commonsense I don’t think there is a way to behave that is lolita.

6. Does your style change with the seasons, or do you dress the same and try to bear the cold/heat? ♡ I try, but admittedly I am awful at it. I try to keep berets in the cooler months, as well as long sleeves. BUT I’m a sucker for ankle socks and I wear them all year despite the cold and I do freeze my legs off at winter meets.

7. Do you have a fashion role-model? What do you admire most about them? ♡ I actually have several! I will list them and their instagrams here: sleepyriri - Her coords are so dreamy looking, very light floaty aesthetic which I love. She also has her own lolita brand! Le_verger_sucre - Her coords are so pink and princess-y. I find myself sharing her photos a lot. Fannyrosie - the classic lolita queen. Need I say more? Tokimeki.bunny - I love the cuteness of her coords. They always have a lot of extra elements and are so well balanced. She’s also really good at coordinating printed tights which I am awful at. Tsumikko - Lavender QUEEN! I love her use of aprons, layering, and color balancing. Very light, floaty vibes. Milkcircus - Print QUEEN. Her use of prints and patterns absolutely inspires me. Coords are always very multi-dimensional Cursed.Kaiser - They’re coords are honestly so cool, there’s a kind of drama in them that I really like. Darkxdelirium - She almost made me want honey cake with her impeccable coording skills.

8. What are the top 10 things you love most about lolita? Can you also compile a list of things you hate? ♡ I don’t think I can come up with 10 but I’ll do my best. ♡ Loves: The community aspect, the ability to reclaim my femininity through lolita, the creativity that goes into building coords, crafting to make one of a kind pieces, being able to feel beautiful without being “sexy”, having a hobby to focus on when I need something to escape to.

♡ Hates: Second-hand market price fluctuation, brands still releasing dresses with a max 96cm bust, buying petticoats, storing my stuff (especially purses), brands who charge astronomical prices for low quality materials (AP purses, Q-pot jewelry, etc).

9. How strict are you in applying the rules to yourself? To others? ♡ I am pretty strict on myself. For a long time I was terrified to be seen as ita. I was even afraid to wear bodyline for fear of being ”ita” even though my coord was good. These days I am less strict on myself and worry much less about these things, but I still struggle to get out of the strict mindset from time to time. others? I love experimentation even if I am afraid to do so so I am really not too strict on others, if it works, it works, and I am not going to criticize anyone.

10. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever incorporated into a coord, or the weirdest material you’ve ever worn? ♡ The weirdest thing I think I have ever worn in a coord were a pair of korilakkuma bell earrings. As you can imagine, bells on your ears? not great.

11. What’s the story behind your discovery of lolita fashion? ♡ When I was a senior in high school, a new girl started attending my school. She wore fairy kei and sweet lolita to school. We became friends through art class and eventually she ended up teaching me about the fashion. She sold me my first dress, and later my first brand piece. I am really glad to have met her and to have been exposed to lolita. You can follow her on instagram here

12. What is the one item that you’ve owned the longest? ♡ I still own my very first dress I got in 2012. Bodyline Squirrel Party. However, I am planning to sell it since I’ve worn it in everyway I can think of.

13. Do you think lolita is only about clothes, or does it also encompass a certain attitude or mindset? ♡ Lolita is about the fashion. All kinds of people are lolitas and they like it or wear it for different reasons.

14. Have you ever decorated a room or other space (car?) with lolita aesthetics in mind? ♡ My old bedroom used to be very “kawaii”. I love pink so my car stuff, my desk, as much as I can get away with, is pink.

15. Is it possible to be too obsessed with lolita? ♡ If lolita is interfering with your ability to pay your bills, or to be happy, or to focus on school or work or family then you should probably pull back. Some people do get very absorbed by things and in those cases it can become too much.

16. What are you favorite and least favorite trends? Do you think it’s important to follow them, or to do as you like regardless of them? ♡ My favorite trend ever is the chiffon half blouse. So comfortable, affordable, light, cute, and much more size inclusive. Least favorite trend? mis-matched shoes from the 2010 era. I like my shoes to get equal wear. I think these days more than ever, you can really just do whatever you want. Wear the fashion is right now is like anything goes which I think is great,

17. How do you define “lolita cosplay” and how do you feel about it? ♡ Lolita cosplay is stupid. sorry

18. Are there other fashions that you wear regularly, or are you an everyday lolita? ♡ I don't wear other street fashions anymore. I used to wear fairy kei and himekaji but these days I just dress regular outside of lolita.

19. Do you look for bargains to save as much money as possible, or are you willing to make sacrifices for high-quality products? ♡ I try to find the best prices when applicable but if I am in love with something I’ll do what I have to do.

20. When was the last time you wore lolita, and what did you do that day? If you wear it daily, when was the last time you went OTT or extra-fancy? ♡ The last time I wore lolita was in April lmao. For a virtual meet-up with my comm.

21. If you were to combine lolita fashion with an unrelated style or theme, what would your new creation be? ♡uhhhh I honestly have no idea at all.

22. What is your favorite accessory, and why is it your favorite? ♡ I have 2, 2-way bow clips from back when bodyline had a massive “sundries” section. They're no longer available and haven't been for a long time. I am really glad I got them, I wish I had bought more sundries when that section was still there.

23. What’s your favorite online lolita community or forum? Are there any that you avoid? ♡ I don’t have a favorite tbh. I have never been on 4chan and I never will be.

24. What is your favorite theme (e.g. school loli, pirate loli, nurse loli) or motif (e.g. deer, music notes, stars/constellations)? ♡ black and gold stars! Valentines day! fruits! gingham!

25. Is there any music that you associate with lolita? ♡ orange caramel lol

26. Will you ever be too old for lolita? ♡ never

27. Do you enjoy sewing? Why or why not? ♡ I don’t know how to sew :(

28. How does your location affect your involvement in the local lolita community? Would you like to move elsewhere to be closer, or perhaps farther away? ♡ I drive about 1.5 hours for meetups because that’s the closest active comm. I do not mind so much. I’d like to maybe be closer.

29. Does your sleepwear resemble lolita at all? ♡ not at all. I sleep in oversized t-shirts

30. Can you admit to any unpopular opinions regarding lolita? ♡ I hate peeking bloomers. I’m sorry :(

31. How do you feel about Visual kei or Jrock, and do you feel it’s related to lolita, or not? ♡ Love it, and absolutely. Visual Kei is like lolitas relative.

32. Whether or not you wear them (looking at you, Ouji), do you prefer the look of skirts, JSKs, and OPs with or without prints? ♡ I like both, but these days I am appreciating non-printed items more.

33. How has your style evolved over time? ♡ It hasn't really, just gotten more refined.

34. If applicable, what other communities do you belong to? What other identities do you adopt? ♡ I’m queer, so the LGBTQ community is important to me.

35. What are your favorite shoes to wear with your style, or what’s your dream pair? ♡ I love heels. I do not like flat shoes because I like to elongate my legs. I don’t have a dream pair.

36. Would you, or have you ever, dressed your pets in lolita? ♡ lol I’d try but I don't think it would work.

37. How do you feel about people who wear lolita for Halloween? Does it depend on whether that person is already a lolita? ♡ Wearing lolita for Halloween as a lolita is fine, but wearing it as a costume is kind of meh.

38. Excluding fashion shows, what’s the most amount of outfits you’ve ever worn in a day? ♡ just 1 haha

39. What’s your worst lolita horror story? ♡ I don’t really have any. I one time went with some of my college friends to a con and I left my dorm building in full sweet early in the morning. I was afraid my dormmates would see me cause I did not want to explain but luckily no one was awake and I made it to the van unscathed.

40. Do you like sweets? If so, what’s your favorite dessert? ♡ I love angel food cake

41. Do you have any beauty products, health routines, or special diet to keep you at your best? ♡ I take co-q-10 for my eczema, I like laneige lip sleeping mask, especially in the winter.

42. What were the best and worst meetups you’ve hosted? If you haven’t hosted, would you like to someday? ♡ I wanted to host a garden meet this summer but covid ruined that. Maybe next year.

43. Who is your favorite artist? If not famous for lolita art, do you think they have lolita appeal? ♡ I love a lot of artists, some of them I think are lolita-adjacent because their style is kawaii. I’ll list some here: jisaaaa! ubokhee MISOART_ meowwniz gojio_ hanavbara Fancy Surprise Arcade Healer Yurie Sekiya and many many more. Go stalk my following on instagram for lots of kawaii artists.

44. How do you feel about wigs? Do you wear any, or style your natural hair? ♡ I used to wear wigs, but my hair is too long now so I use my natural hair with fake bangs.

45. What’s your favorite animal motif? ♡ bears?

46. Have you ever visited a brand’s shop/boutique? If so, what was your reaction? If not, what shop would you most like to visit? ♡ I want to visit AP San Francisco

47. Do you think posting photos of your coord online is a crucial part of belonging to the community? ♡ YES, it’s how we all stay connected and inspired

48. How has the lolita community changed since you became a part of it? Where do you see lolita heading in the future in terms of community and networking? ♡ I think it’s become way more accepting and accessible. When I got into lolita there were virtually no legit resellers, the community was entirely on livejournal, buying second hand was a nightmare. Buying anything! was a nightmare. There was so much stress around looking “ita”, and the superiority of brand. These days its just not like that. So much amazing taobao brands have really helped even the field for lolita. We have so much more access to the clothes, the community, everything. It’s great. I only see it getting better as years go on.

49. What advice would you give someone who is nervous about starting lolita? Or do you think they should learn their own lessons? ♡ I think too many lolitas today rely on seasoned lolitas to tell them everything. I would say, go watch lovely lor, read @lolita-tips and look at other peoples coordinates. Lolita Tips tumblr taught me basically everything I know back in the day and it a wealth of info and concrit. Part of what makes the lolita journey so great is the research, the learning, the mistakes. You don’t wanna be like someone else, you wanna be you. So you really need to do the work yourself so you can put your personal flair into the fashion. That’s when it’s at its best.

50. What’s your dream dress/garment? Is it a faraway goal or have you obtained it? ♡ My dream dress was AP sweetie violet jsk in lavender. Which I got in 2019. My new dream dress is AP rose tea garden jsk in navy. It’ll probably be a while before I can afford to buy one.

51. How do you feel about the stereotype that lolitas are full of drama? What’s the worst drama you’ve ever witnessed or been involved in? ♡ I think any and all groups of people are bound to have drama. I don’t believe that’s specific to lolita at all. I personally have not been involved in any lolita drama.

52. Are you loyal to any particular makeup brands? ♡ I am very particular about my makeup because I do not like to use certain ingredients. I really like Pacifica. But I also like some Korean brands like The Saem, MISSHA, and TonyMoly.

This was super long but I had fun answering all the questions. Have you done this questionnaire? I’d love to see your answers~

#about me #lolita asks #loliprompts #52 weeks of lolita #lolita fashion #egl community #j fashion

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bifacialler · 5 years ago

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So I went to see Frozen 2 with the fam

And let me put it into context, I thought the first one was... massively overrated.

[Disclaimer: all of this is my personal opinion and you may not agree with it. There is a very high chance you will not agree with it. Also, I watched it with Russian dub, so maybe some finesse was lost on me.]

Like okaaay, it’s a sister-tale and it was okay in terms of story and engagement, and yeah, we all laughed about Elsa’s ghost braid and the one-face syndrome of the female cast, but the animation quality was good, and Hans plot twist WAS unexpected. It just didn’t blow me way narratively. Maybe because Snow Queen was important to me as a child and the old soviet cartoon will forever be my go-to reference.

So when I went to watch the Sequel, I a) had next to no idea what it was going to be about and b) seeing the trailer, I was sure the animation would have upgraded, and I hoped they would take on the misgivings of the first film and improve upon them.

Frozen 2 (as it turned out to be) was not the film I expected to see.

I’m going to make this (try to make this) a spoiler-free review. This is mostly for me to spill acid in the wake of Oscar Nominations that thought to include this sequel and fucking Live-Action Animation movie we are not going to name, and not KLAUS.

Which is the best animation made this year.

You can fight me outside if you don’t agree.

[Missing Link was okay, though not as emotionally thoughtful as any other Laika work. Toy Story 4 was alright-ish, but still underwhelming in comparison to TS3. The only film I have no questions about is HTTYD 3 - it was very good, but this is not what this post is about.]

So anyway, Frozen 2 is a total mess.

Visually it’s wonderful, and the sisters look different (slightly), and parents have some sort of personalities, which still makes their Else-related decision strange and shitty parenting. We all agreed it was after the first film, but I’m going to return to this pint later.

There are two major themes going to through the plot, the first one just bashing you head-first from the very beginning, while the other follows... two minutes later. The thing with these two themes is: the first one is the most foreseeable plot twist of all time, especially if you consider this film as a product of our current social climate, while the second one, while kinda the continuation of Elsa’s “Let it go” character arc, takes this arc to some very very far-fetched OP level, that at some point you really have to sit back and force yourself to suspend the disbelief of “Elsa, the most Magical Girl of them all”.

It’s honestly a shame. Because these core themes are not the worst. There are a lot of element to them that the film introduces that are good, and could work, EXCEPT the film either does nothing with them, or tries to underplay them as something mysterious and strange which... they kinda don’t feel like.

All of these problems stream from one massive misgiving the film has, and it’s that the film doesn’t clearly know who it is for. It tries to play the card of “kids who watched the first movie will come to see this one, so this film is for them”, but what was supposed to be a step forward, somehow became two steps back. The theme A will not engage adults, because adults will see through it in 5 seconds and the final outcome of it will be the only thing acceptable as an outcome (within the current cultural climate, as I mentioned before), while at the same time it will not work for kids, because they will, quite frankly, not give single fuck about it. They will giggle at Olaf and his questionable shenanigans, that will pop up at random times during the film, kinda stalling the plot - no, let me correct myself. Kids will engage with Olaf’s slap-stick, and... nothing else. I wish I could not say that, but I sat in the movie theatre packed with kids, and this is what I saw and heard. When the kid on the seat before me (6-7 yo) during one of the most emotional parts of the film replied to Anna’s “what am I going to do now?” with “nothing”, it dawned upon me that the message did not connect.

I personally had to pause myself several times during the showing, just to ask myself: What the actual hell am I watching?

And then we come to theme B. I heard in one of the reviews that this film would have been a much better, more engaging film if the creators made it Just Elsa’s Story. Both themes could have been included, but the emphasis wold have been solidly of theme B and Elsa, and how we, as audience, would experience this whole process with her, and I agree. Not that it would have been completely awesome for younger kids, because the concept of it flies a bit over their age group, but it would have been interesting for Elsa stans, and as a general themes of the movie.

But this universe is not just about Elsa. It has Anna as well. And this movie does Anna a huge disservice. I’m not even going to talk about Kristoff. That was just... sad. So very sad, and pointless, and every time their interactions came on screen I had to stuff down my second-hand embarassment and marvel at how this relationship is not ready for what the film wants it to be and how can you mess up the intriguing chemistry that they started to in the first film. (Also, if you actually like the whole Kristoff in the Woods music video, but somehow ever said anything bad about Strange Magic, you are on my problematic list. I’m not fucking around.) But Anna - she was a decent character, and humanly believable, and now she is... in this movie. This is Elsa Movie and Anna is... also in it. (Unlike Kristoff.) Wow.

But the strangest thing about this movie is that with both themes A and B combined, we encounter a dilemma that overruns both of them, and in many ways, renders them null. It came to my attention when some young dad behind me muttered half-way “Can you believe these two run a kingdom?”, and I had a revelation. They DO run a kingdom. And the narrative “call to action” is kingdom-related, except it’s not, because it’s Elsa related. And Theme B is kingdom-related, except it’s not, it’s past related. It’s a question of responsibility, except somehow all of this responsibility is not about the Now. The characters feel the need to fix what was done before them, to discover what was before them, while literally abandoning the present for the past. The one time when the stakes are actually raised, ONE TIME in the whole movie when you have to actually worry, I was seriously more concerned about how the whole of the kingdom is.... I can’t explain it without spoilers, but when the ruler has to chose between the mistakes of the past and the preservation of the current, I’m honestly fucking worried about the kingdom and the people living in it, and maybe Anna and Elsa should not be fucking rulers. I’m just saying.

But even that is, this one stake... is flushed down the drain. The resolution of the film feels rushed and jumbled, and most importantly, Nothing is Lost. I had to sit and watch in awe at how Zero Sacrifices were made. The characters make a right moral choice therefore there will be no bad consequences. What the actual fuck. For a film that makes us wonder about who we are and now we make major decisions, it offers no serious outcomes to these decisions. And this is why it’s two steps back.

First movie made it clear that Letting it Go is not just about your personal freedom, but also about stepping out of comfort zone to embrace who you are and what is important. It made it clear that personal relationships are not straight forward, and take time and work and communication.

And it feels like this sequel kinda spit in the face of all these ideas. The characters now do whatever they want, and in the way, especially in application to Anna and Elsa, repeat the very same mistakes their parents did, except it’s now somehow a good thing. Because everything works out in the end because magic.

Oh, fuck off.

#long post #tldr Frozen 2 is not very good #except for animation quality #it was very pretty #not much else

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vapormaison · 5 years ago

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2019 Best Japanese OST Press/Repress: Elfen Lied by Tiger Lab Records

Like many late millennials with artistic pretensions, I used to have an “Anituber” channel back in the wild west days of youtube. From 2010-2013 — roughly corresponding with my first three years in university — I reviewed DVD releases from ADV, Manga Entertainment, Central Park Media, and Geneon — all the big players in Western anime releases at the time, all dead and gone now with the rise of streaming. Everyone but Funimation — a sad irony and perhaps telling about the nature of the dubbing industry that the studio with a serial rape problem and established casting couch was the only one to survive.

In the interest of maintaining my personal ethics, posterity, and sanity I’ve long since deleted that channel. While there was definitely a “moment” on the platform for a nineteen year-old cokehead film student in front of a MacBook webcam doing his best Slavoj Zizek impression, that moment has long since passed. I’ve long since cooled on “substantive” media critique anyway. The world doesn’t need another Eisenstein-aligned Marxist analysis of Neon Genesis Evangelion — or, a 6-part series on using Lacanian techniques to develop a leftist praxis for Fate/Stay Night. Media exists in the present moment to be a salve for the postmodern hellscape we inhabit together.

As an interesting sidebar, the most popular video on that channel — raking in just north of 10k views over its lifetime from 2011-2015, was a twelve minute video essay on the 1995 anime Elfen Lied, where I asserted that it was the ultimate expression of contemporary Japanese anti-modern rage. While I don’t find myself particularly nostalgic for any of the content on that channel, I’m actually kind of proud of that one in particular.

While most of my analysis was fixated on the visuals, narrative, and recent oeuvre of its mangaka, Lynn Okamoto, and series director, Mamoru Kanbei, I did lay out a framework on why I consider it to be one of the most successful soundtracks ever produced for an anime. I did not heap this praise lightly, as that roughly fifteen year period of 1995-2010 was bookended by the OSTs of Evangelion and K-On! — and certainly proved to be one of the most sonically iconic periods that the medium has ever produced.

it was also one of the first soundtracks that spurred my own history of Japanese OST collection.

And, then, almost a decade later, I found out that Tiger Lab was releasing a vinyl of Elfen Lied.

In spite of this, when I originally the news, I felt a tinge of trepidation. This is not to throw shade at Tiger Lab, however — but at the reputation of previous releases of the Elfen Lied soundtrack in Japan. A quick adventure with google translate across the Japanese net for various Elfen Lied OST roleases — especially on CD — will reveal for you a lot of contempt from Otaku and anime-enthusiast audiophiles for any number of reasons. Most hinge on the quality of the physicals. This is often because Japanese physical media releases of anime soundtracks are often laden with fresh, exceptionally crisp and clean-sounding masters for CDs, and usually exclusive posters and other content geared toward the “collector” nature of many Otaku. This has usually not been the case with Elfen Lied.

A friend of mine in Kanagawa quipped “Sometimes it sounds better on the DVD” in regard to a number of OST releases of soundtracks from anime produced by Studio Arms with CD releases published by VAP. Admittedly, some of it must have been born in resentment, but I’ve always trusted the man’s opinion — as he’s invested a small family fortune into building a shrine of sorts to that studio’s output. He chalks up the poor release quality to the studio’s inability or lack of funds to master the content properly for a CD or HQ digital release, and VAP’s decline in release quality during the early 2000s roughly corresponding to a sale to another Zaibatsu. “Studio Arms made hentai for many years to stay solvent, maybe they could not send a good master to VAP [the publisher]” he told me. While I can’t know if it’s VAP, Arms or another studio handling the CD-master work, a cursory check of their oeuvre seems to confirm confirms that claim of his — but I acknowledge I’m wandering into uncharted waters here.

In spite of all that — I ordered the wax from Tiger Lab and was duly impressed. In lieu of reviewing each track as per my usual review format, in the following section I want to talk about my listening experience from the two formats I own the soundtrack in — the SA/VAP published CD from 2004 and Tiger Lab’s release. Once we finish going into the core differences — and why this vinyl is absolutely worth your purchase over competing physicals — I’ll go into the virtues of the listening experience on the whole.

Part 1: Comparisons of Select Tracks

I suppose the expectation is that I start off by taking about the most iconic recording from the series — the OP, Lilium. In the spirit of defying expectations, I’ll begin with what I consider a better litmus test.

My personal shit-test for a good master and press is how well it can handle a track that is sonically robust and diverse, crossing genre and form — requiring an intensive, sufficiently wide mix and refined master. You don’t get that on every OST album — but Elfen Lied offers one such potential track in particular, and that particular track happens to be my favorite composition on the entire album. Uso Sora, composed by Kayo Konishi and Yukio Kondo is a truly magnificent piece, and it’s used brilliantly in the series — for those familiar, I only need to quote one line: “M-m-mommy…?”.

It begins with lulling piano chords that gradually build in tempo and energy with the addition of percussion, and then it undergoes a full metamorphosis in its last minute or so to become an aggressive, frenetic techno piece with distorted lows and an angry drum kit. Mirroring the evolution of its subject in the show with understated aplomb, and functioning as a robust and enjoyable composition divorced from its source — it really deserve more recognition than it receives, but I do not doubt it will ever step forth from the massive shadow cast from the haunting chorals of Lilium, and the brilliantly directed visual intro that accompanied it.

Needless to say, Tiger Lab more than passed muster here, to the point where I’m almost blown away by just how good it sounds compared to the rest of my Elfen Lied related physicals. I experienced a definite brightness from the vinyl master over my stereo that I don't get from a lot of other Western label releases, like say Milano, which tends to cash in on a Westerner’s preference for warmth. Tiger Lab deserves credit for this approach, because it genuinely feels like a more authentically “Japanese” sound. In my experience, the Western labels that care the most about the dedicated audiophile adhere to this sonic profile, and Tiger Lab deserves all due credit here.

Finally, I might as well include my thoughts on Lilium. In short, it sounds fantastic. The mix here really brings out the most of the chorals, and provides crisp and clean sounds where you want them most. It’s also one of those tracks where you can just feel the dynamic range before you even hear it. I ended up listening to these on my Cambridges, and I’ve got to say that’s there’s something in the way they treat this particular profile of song — strongly vocal dominated, extremely muted piano, and supporting string inhabiting the negative space — absolutely incredibly. It put the KEFs to shame. I’ve always asserted that you’ve got to pair certain songs with certain speaker pairs. I’ve never been a huge devotional music guy, and I’m not entirely sure that the Cambridge or KEFs provide ideal profiles for the track. That said, Lilium sounds great anyway.

But I can envision these on a pair of high end Yamahas, or a pair of vintage Blaupunkt bookshelves sounding as stone-cold killer as Lucy when Kouta’s threatened.

I sent a rip to my friend Hiroshi, the StudioArms Shrine man, who immediately snapped up a copy after listening. I also learned that it was actually the first vinyl purchase he’s ever made after two decades of serious collecting. So perhaps that is a testament in and of itself!

Part 2: Physicality

I rarely devote an entire section to talking about the vinyl/OBI itself, but then again, Tiger Lab has put out a release certainly worthy of this. First off, the cover, which pairs perfectly with the overall aesthetic of both the series and previous soundtrack releases. I can imagine this being a release that has already attracted some attention by Japanese collectors, as the cover seems to tap into a certain sense of continuity that I know are a huge hit with that community. It certainly pairs well with my two releases from VAP, and a laserdisc set that I have. They all opt for that very iconic Klimt Vienna Secession style with appropriate creative flourishes — but I like Tiger Lab’s take on it the most. The side characters populating the back in a choral array reminiscent of the Beethoven Frieze is also a really nice touch for any enthusiast of the fin-de-siècle style.

I picked up the pink vinyl on release, one of the few pink vinyls that I’ve bought that at least feels thematically consistent with the release and not just a default “vaporwave” or “city pop” or “future funk” styling. Diclonii rock the pink hair, after all. That all said, I’m wishing now that I got the “metallic gold” edition, as its another color that feels both apropos and stunningly beautiful. With all that in mind, this is also one of the better waxes that I’ve felt in-hand, and manages to feel robust. I’ve yet to find specific info, but it certainly feels like a 180g.

In conclusion, I’ve got to give immense credit to Tiger Lab for handling this release with a class and vigor that few Japanese publishers have given it. It certainly bodes well for the future of anime releases on vinyl, and makes me eager to fill out an emergent collection.

#ost #elfen lied #bestof2019

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crystalized-dreams · 6 years ago

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So, I still have my full press conference thoughts coming soon, but I really want to break down my thoughts on ACNH separately because, well, I have a lot to say and think about. I know some people are upset that the game won’t be out until 2020, but ignoring my own personal reasons of relief from that date, I kind of expected it. There was nothing beyond a teaser until this point and with Pokemon also out this Holiday season along with Smash’s updates, I would’ve been very surprised to see Animal Crossing added to that. It being next Spring just works out a lot more in my opinion and helps it stand out.

I’m also VERY happy the game has a universal release date this time… I just need to… debate if I am crazy enough to try and buy it from Australia or something for an extra day of play despite my hate of downloading digitally.

Anyway, I’ll be talking a lot about the details of the trailer and the Treehouse segment currently happening so if you haven’t at least seen the trailer, be sure to watch it!!:

I love the little ticket look and the whole traveling by trip thing to this island. Considering we had the higher quality models from Animal Crossing Plaza and a bit from Pocket Camp as well, I’m hoping most, if not all, characters will make a return including new ones.

To start, the initial thing I’ve noticed is everything seems to have a bit of a rounder/softer touch–our character also seems a bit older/taller again:

While I may be looking to much into it and it could just be an atmospheric touch, I am wondering if the specification of it being “The Deserted Island Getaway Package” is that we’ll actually have other packages we can check out. Anywhere from being able to check out other islands to maybe things like “The City Getaway Package” where you can live it up in an apartment and/or some kind of exploration focus or traveling aspect. Maybe it could even be a DLC option.

I think that would also give a lot more to do. While I loved Desert Escape, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about an expanded game mode on that, even though it DOES seem like some usual Animal Crossing features will still be around. Essentially, we started living it up as Mayor and are now camping on an island.

And it really does bring in some new features from Desert Island such as collecting materials (though, twigs from trees is new) and some of the crafting aspects (which in the game prior, was only partially through Cyrus). #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

You can get twigs, lumber, rocks, clay… Definitely a lot to work with. On the bright side, if you’re not a big crafter like me, you also have the option to just buy more.

I will say axes being able to break is something I’ve never enjoyed so I’m not thrilled by an even more flimsy one 😛 Unfortunately, it looks like everything has a flimsy version: Which between this and the farming makes it feel even more like Animal Crossing crossed with Harvest Moon.

On the bright side, being able to place furniture anywhere on the island is really great and it’ll be fun to decorate the island as well as your tent.

On a side note pole vaulting is amazing:

And you can apparently just… dig up trees? Definitely makes moving them around easier if so. Also, I love seeing Olivia just sitting there and I’m hoping we’ll see a lot more from villagers too. I wonder how many villagers can be on the island with you. It’s also really nice to see the Villagers in different outfits?? Eunice has a jacket instead of just a scarf and Freya actually has sleeves!! AND FUCHSIA IS WEARING A DRESS: Also that red set with the white hearts for some of the accent is new and really cute. Maybe for Valentine’s Day??

There’s also more inventory space–up to 20 from 16 (and you’ll see the pole vault item there in the third slot): Unfortunately, still no designated tool section, but maybe that can change in the future.

We can even make natural paths:

And being able to play with 8 characters is so cool!! It also looks like the back items that were introduced in Pocket Camp a few months ago will be a feature in New Horizons as well. I’m also so excited about local couch co-op as well which means I can play with several members of my family who love this game–even all at once:

In the new footage on the Treehouse, they confirmed that we’d be able to move things in halves like Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer rather than full squares which is nice and offers a lot more decoration opportunities. They also confirmed the new flowers/weeds and one thing I find really cool, being able to see some of the special NPCs (like Nook and his nephews) walking around as well:

Moving onto the Nook Phone, seeing all the blank spaces makes me wonder if you can get more apps for it in the future:

Fishing has also been expanded with clams you can use to make fishing bait (I would guess there could be other baits you can make too). It seems you can get ideas for new DIY recipes which is really cool: Clams are indicated by these little shadows that spurt water which is really neat: I just hope it won’t be too convoluted and it won’t be like “YOU CAN’T GET THIS FISH WITHOUT THIS BAIT” because like. dealing with the weather and seasons is enough, Nintendo.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll end up adding more observations and thoughts as this goes. But honestly, I’m excited to play. It feels like it could almost be more relaxing in some ways and honestly, I could use that. I’m so looking forward to playing with so many people. I made so many great new friends with New Leaf and I look forward to playing with them again and making new friends as well.

For those who followed my New Leaf blog, I WILL be doing a similar blog series, just over here instead 🙂 And with videos and streams again too. I can’t wait.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons!! (Breaking things down & my thoughts) So, I still have my full press conference thoughts coming soon, but I really want to break down my thoughts on ACNH separately because, well, I have a lot to say and think about.

#ACNH #Animal Crossing #Animal Crossing: New Horizons #New Horizons

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freesphere · 5 years ago

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My Thoughts About; Florence.

Florence, is an interesting game because of many reasons, but what’s impressed me the most is that it has managed to reach the holy grail of game design - letting your game mechanics tell the story.

I first heard of Florence on the Games Industry dot biz podcast, on the show they were discussing how mobile games should be looking into narrative experiences more thoughtfully and discussing whether Florence, is even a video game at all. In my opinion, it is very much a video game, as it requires the player to input into the mobile device too progress the story, therefore it’s a game. We’re at the point now with so many different platforms we can afford to take risks to stand out, and Florence, very much does that.

The game itself is very short, in fact, I think I finished it in around 25 minutes but that doesn’t detract from the experience and I believe the price point is fair for an experience of this quality. When a game connects with you on an emotional level in my eyes it moves beyond the realms of being a game, it becomes an experience like The Last of Us or Spec Ops: The Line.

We meet Florence in a difficult period in her life, she is bored, craving adventure and bursting with suppressed creativity. The mechanics & pacing in the opening chapter translate this perfectly having you solve simple puzzles to show mundane her day job is, the awkward conversations with overzealous parents who always think they know what you need, when you need it and how you need it – sometimes they can be right, and always only want what’s best for you. I think I am suppressing some things here myself.

Naturally, Florence meets a man (Krish) who she falls head over heels for, this is the part that really got me. At first the conversation puzzles were longer and more drawn out to signify how awkward it is on a first date but as we grow into conversations and we let down our barriers once we know we like someone conversation just flows, the game shows us this by making the conversation puzzles easier, in turn, speeds up the conversation. It’s mechanical perfection.

We don’t know that this is Florence’s first time loving someone, but from the brief backstory we got in the first chapter, we can assume it is. I think it’s very rare in life that you stay with your first love forever, the game shows that as Florence’s relationship deteriorates by changing up the visuals and colours to indicate this.

One particular puzzle stands out that I actually had to have my wife do for me as I couldn’t find the patience to finish it, it was a picture of Florence & Krish arms wrapped around each other with expressions of anguish etched across their faces.

In this puzzle mechanically the game is testing you and your patience as when you place a picture piece in place it pulls apart. On a personal level, this really stuck with me after being in a 7-year relationship that ultimately went nowhere but we were both too scared to end as we still cared for each other. Maybe subconsciously I knew what was coming so I refused to partake in it OR I am just crap at puzzles!

Overall Florence is the perfect short form narratively driven mobile experience of which I hope to see lots more of in the future.

- Mark Gregory (@markgregory_)

#mobilegame #videogame #gamedev #indiedev #narrative #florence

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wasiandonuts · 7 years ago

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Get to know me - because I am bored

no need to read :)))

1. What is your full name? Alexis __________ ________.

2. What is your nickname? Ale

3. What is your zodiac sign? Capricorn

4. What is your favorite book series? I Am Number Four or Divergent

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? Yes

6. Who is your favorite author? Jane Villanueva, ahah but in reality, the writers behind Pittacus Lore, idk i haven’t really enjoyed a book in a while

7. What is your favorite radio station? 99.5 or Z100

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? My “go-to” flavor is green tea or piña colada

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? Amazing

10. What is your current favorite song? Say You Won’t Let Go

11. What is your favorite word? Right now, it is hoi polloi, it sounds cool

12. What was the last song you listened to? Bartier Cardi

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? JANE THE VIRGIN, it is coming back on Jan 26, and This Is Us

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? Lion King

15. Do you play video games? used to but nope

16. What is your biggest fear? failure and mediocrity

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? I am really hard working -- strive for perfection usually

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? I over-stress and anxiety woo! :(( because of that desire for perfection

19. Do you like cats or dogs better? Dogs, duh

20. What is your favorite season? Summer

21. Are you in a relationship? ......idk not really but everyone thinks so?

22. What is something you miss from your childhood? No one cared about how you looked or how you differed, everyone was just a kid

23. Who is/are your best friend(s)? @veryhealthyobsessions and @mypercabethotp

24. What is your eye color? Brown

25. What is your hair color? It changes bu as of right now, dark brown - blonde ish

26. Who is someone you love? My mother and father

27. Who is someone you trust? My friend S.F.

28. Who is someone you think about often? um sam (refer to question 21)

29. Are you currently excited about/for something? JAFAEL COMES BACK IN LIKE 3 DAYS

30. What is your biggest obsession? tumblr = twitter = Jafael

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? That’s So Raven

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? My dad

33. Are you superstitious? Yes

34. Do you have any unusual phobias? Yes, I am afraid of like claymation type movies and lil bugs

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Front? though I like both actually

36. What is your favorite hobby? Writing, I don’t do it much which is sad

37. What was the last book you read? 47 Ronin

38. What was the last movie you watched? hmm....Moana?

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? I can play the piano and the guitar

40. What is your favorite animal? I think white tigers are amazing creatures

41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow? @rafaelsolanoes, @mypercabethotp, @veryhealthyobsessions, @jafaeldaily and @jafaels

42. What superpower do you wish you had? The ability to levitate things and myself

43. When and where do you feel most at peace? I never feel peace but usually my bed at around 12:30 am

44. What makes you smile? Jafael and my friends

45. What sports do you play, if any? I do gymnastics and I run track

46. What is your favorite drink? Lemonade

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? Yesterday :)

48. Are you afraid of heights? nah

49. What is your biggest pet peeve? oooOOO i hate it when people brag about something way too much to the point where it sounds desperate or people who put their arm on my head, bc i am short

50. Have you ever been to a concert? Yes multiple!

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? Nah i love my meat

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a lawyer

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? not sure, maybe the world of PJO?

54. What is something you worry about? EVERY. DAMN. THING.

55. Are you scared of the dark? i currently am in the dark so no

56. Do you like to sing? Yes i luv it

57. Have you ever skipped school? ...maybe

58. What is your favorite place on the planet? I love the beach in Aruba or Cancun

59. Where would you like to live? California

60. Do you have any pets? Yes I have a poodle

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? Night owl though unlike most, I am not that cranky in mornings

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? Sunsets

63. Do you know how to drive? Yup

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? Headphones but I have glasses so it is uncomfortable

65. Have you ever had braces? Yes, for 3 years

66. What is your favorite genre of music? R&B or Rap or Latin Pop

67. Who is your hero? My mom/Wonder Woman

68. Do you read comic books? Nope

69. What makes you the most angry? People

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? I like real books better but I have to do a lot of electronic device reading

71. What is your favorite subject in school? Right now, it would have to be, suprisingly, math?

72. Do you have any siblings? nah

73. What was the last thing you bought? bubble tea yesterday

74. How tall are you? 4′11, I know I am a shortie

75. Can you cook? Not really

76. What are three things that you love? happiness, health, and a small group of people

77. What are three things that you hate? lying, rudeness, many people

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends?

79. What is your sexual orientation? straight

80. Where do you currently live? East Coast USA

81. Who was the last person you texted? um SF (same person from 27)

82. When was the last time you cried? I cry a lot so surprisingly, friday. I don’t really remember

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber? Liza

84. Do you like to take selfies? yeah

85. What is your favorite app? Twitter

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? They are my inspiration and I love them very much

87. What is your favorite foreign accent? Austrailian

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? Bora Bora

89. What is your favorite number? 1

90. Can you juggle? Nope

91. Are you religious? Yes, kinda. I grew up in Catholic school, so some of that is still there

92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting? outer space

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? Eh sometimes

94. Are you allergic to anything? Pollen, mold, school, sunscreen

95. Can you curl your tongue? Yep

96. Can you wiggle your ears? Nope

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? All the time

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? beach

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you? “Your family and friends are going to be there for you, not your wealth or your grades” - Mom

100. Are you a good liar? Yes I am

101. What is your Hogwarts House? Slytherin

102. Do you talk to yourself? Yes always

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Both, I am extroverted more probably

104. Do you keep a journal/diary? Tumblr is my diary

105. Do you believe in second chances? Yes, but depends on circumstance

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? See if it belongs to a family person, if so, just take a couple of bucks for a snack and see if I can return it

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? No

108. Are you ticklish? Yessss

109. Have you ever been on a plane? Yes

110. Do you have any piercings? Yup, just my earlobes

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? rafael solano

112. Do you have any tattoos? Nope

113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? Learning how to let go of things

114. Do you believe in karma? Yes

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Yup, both

116. Do you want children? Yup, gotta have a legacy

117. Who is the smartest person you know? @mypercabethotp

118. What is your most embarrassing memory? I don’t really have a very embarrassing memory but I fell on a coffee table 3 times within an hour

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? Yup, grind doesn’t stop

120. What color are most of you clothes? Brown and black

121. Do you like adventures? Yes I love adventures

122. Have you ever been on TV? yes, I was on the news once for my elementary school

123. How old are you? 16 young

124. What is your favorite quote? “Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid”

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? Savory

op: yougoghkiddo

#answered #im bored #so i did this #get to know me #alexis

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jasper-rolls · 7 years ago

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i talked about this a bit on twitter but i wanna elucidate on it here so here’s another fucking post about the fucking dream daddy shit because i cant stop myself from being annoyed by the back and forth and misrepresentation and vague posts trying to act like they’re just talking in general when its very obviously about this

strap in cause this is gonna be a long one

there are three points i want to make

1) criticism of media is important and needed, particularly in the realm of discussing representation and creator intent, since its overall purpose is to further discussion and foster overall improvement in future. criticism of a work isn’t always an attack on the people who like it

i mean, we’ve all been there. it sucks to read when someone’s talking down something you like a lot, especially if its something that’s very meaningful to you. it happens to me too - i can’t count the number of times i’ve read an article or essay ripping apart something i love and found it very difficult to disengage my personal feelings from it.

but unless the person making the criticism is specifically going out of their way to say “and all the people who LIKE this thing are fucking gibbering idiots who wouldn’t know good quality if it punched them in the face”, then the criticism isn’t an attack on you personally, and you have to find the place to disengage that emotional attachment and at least tolerate the criticism of the work. you may accept and agree with it or not, but understand that the critic is (probably) not directly attacking you

and raising potential problems on the representation side of the work is important, because it highlights potential problems for people interested in it that they might not have been aware of before, like creator’s personal views influencing development of the work, or unfortunate implications of plot beats within the work

there’s definitely legitimate cause for concern in game grumps involvement with dream daddy. in my personal experience, the grumps aren’t particularly forward thinking in a lot of respects - arin and danny are quick to lapse into bottom of the barrel racist accent humor (particularly with asian characters), or “hey, isn’t being gay kind of weird” straight guy nonsense. the understanding they’ve showcased of lgbt concepts and issues leaves a lot to be desired (last i remember, arin still considered “cisgender” to be a slur despite being told what it actually means)

and every time this is brought up, i see fans saying “oh but they’re better now, they’ve learned!” and i have to say, i still watch them fairly regularly and...they really haven’t! the “progress” is minimal at best, its like watching someone push a boulder up a hill. they haven’t really changed all that much in the last few years to be frank. so the concern with them being involved with, and putting their name on, a game where the focus is on mlm (and has transgender characters) has definite grounding, given how they’ve acted before.

and the cult ending naturally has unfortunate implications - the idea that every character in the game is being tricked into being forever single, their misery being used to fuel some sort of demon...i mean, given how gay people have been treated throughout history and in media, at the very least it’s pretty regressive. you can’t fault someone for reading the transcript and feeling a little sick

the raising and highlighting of these things isn’t a personal attack. it’s overall, to help people make an informed decision, and be aware of the things that aren’t so great - that might be a dealbreaker, on a personal level. criticism is valuable, and useful, and we should recognize it as such

-----------------------------

2) on the opposite hand, EVERYTHING we read, watch, or play is guaranteed to have a problematic element of some sort, and nothing you ever enjoy is perfect. expecting something to conform to a 100% ideologically pure standard is unreasonable and ultimately a fool’s game

my personal favourite game of all time, ever, is killer7. it’s the game that bought suda51 to prominence in the west. it’s a weird blend of first-person shooter, rail shooter, and rpg. the story is outright bizarre, with disorienting visuals and surreal events like a lucha wrestler headbutting a bullet out of midair, a ghostly man wrapped in bdsm gear popping up to give you advice, and giggling zombies that explode on contact

its also got quite a share of shitty moments - a rape scene, the female characters leave a lot to be desired, its got a frankly weird interpretation of a lot of psychological disorders, and a good chunk of the game is dedicated to character development of a pedophile

suffice to say it probably wouldn’t be a big hit with a lot of people here. but does this stuff mean its completely reprehensible, and not worth spending any time with? i did just tell you it’s my favourite game so you can probably guess how i’m going to respond to that rhetorical question. this post is long enough without me spending several more paragraphs explaining to you why i think killer7 is worth giving a shot, so i’m going to skip to the point that this example is illustrating - the things we love, our favourite things, are probably just as, or maybe even more problematic than the things we don’t.

i’m not going to cite any further examples since i don’t know what you, the reader, personally enjoys or loves, but like...i guarantee you, its probably done something pretty shitty with its running time. i’m fairly confident i’ve never read or enjoyed something that didn’t at some point play into some shitty trope about lgbt people, or people of colour, or women - and if didn’t somehow, chances are it’s because it never showed them in the first place, because its focus is on straight, white, cis men, which is, naturally a problem of its own

if you’re willing to shrug off shitty opinions of creators of things you love, or bad tropes and plot elements in things you love, then why is it so different for the things you dislike? to write off dream daddy entirely, because of the involvement of game grumps, and the existence of one bad ending with shitty implications, and ignoring its more positive elements while praising the things you love that have more than likely done shitty stuff too is...frankly ridiculous

it perhaps may not seem like much to you, but dream daddy getting the kind of coverage and attention it has is...kind of a big deal as far as i’m concerned! games with narrative tend to be pretty hostile towards gay men*, so for a game that presents an overall sincere and positive representation of gay men to see this much attention and get to no. 1 seller on steam a significant step forward, i think. it’s not revolutionary, but personally, as a gay man, it means a lot to me, and i know a few other gay men who would feel the same, and that surely counts for something

and as far as killer7 goes, well...waypoint explains it better than i could, but i would just like to say: that pedophile character i mentioned? that part of the game ends with you beating him in a duel so hard, he falls over and gets eviscerated by a machine designed to cut out organs. so it’s not all bad.

-----------------------------

3) (this is the big one) this site has a big fucking problem with virtue signalling

perhaps its bad of me to assume something of people, but i’m going to go out on a limb and say at least one person immediately closed the tab the moment they read that line, and i wouldn’t blame them, because the problem with saying something like “virtue signalling” is that the alt-right and gamergaters have tried their absolute hardest to make that phrase essentially mean nothing by throwing it at anyone who shares a dissenting opinion of any kind. but despite their efforts, virtue signalling is a phrase that does actually have a meaning, and its the meaning i’m using here

i’m going to take a quick excerpt from hbomberguy’s video on the subject (it’s worth watching, it’s only 10 minutes long and pretty funny) - “The term was originally coined[...]to decry people who say, ‘I don’t like this thing very much’, in order to feel good about themselves, and then just, vote Labour every few years or whatever and take no stake in actually making things better.”

tumblr (or at least, the part of tumblr i engage with) does this, a LOT. it’s in the smug, one line “uhhhh, yikes, lmao 💅” rebuttals to arguments against the thesis of a given post. it’s in the strawman cartoons and chat posts that cast opponents of the OP as self-contradicting fools. it’s in the “so jot that down” responses, the “i’m side-eyeing everyone who isn’t reblogging this”, etc. etc. everyone has done this. you have probably engaged with this. i definitely have - at least one of my popular posts, if not more is, basically me, doing this thing! to be fair i had no intention those posts being popular, but then one never does, do they?

in the case of dream daddy, it’s “me: y’all:” image edits snarkily demonstrating how they’re SWERVING “that dad dating shit”, chat posts casting defenders points as “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST NEVER CRITICIZE ANYTHING EVER”, posts smugly announcing they’re going to pirate the game just to take money from arin hanson, as if that’s how game development works, and i think it’s what’s led to a huge amount of misrepresentation about this game in particular

i’ve seen people acting like the game grumps are like, directing and writing the game, when, as far as i’m aware, all they did was provide funding and voice acting. and the big thing that really got my goat, was someone describing the cult ending, and listing the implications i’ve already gone over myself, and then saying that this was the game’s true ending

this...literally could not be further from the truth. for starters, no-one has actually gotten this ending from playing through the game naturally. the reason? because you CAN’T. it was found through data-mining - it isn’t accessible through regular play. it’s either content that was cut from the game late in development, or, as the theory goes, intended to be a non-canonical or fake ending added in as halloween DLC come october (given the tone of the whole thing it sounds reasonable to me) which has, unfortunately, now been ruined due to this whole debacle

to do this kind of thing, to describe this as “the true ending” borders on being an out and out lie for the purpose of making dream daddy look way, way worse than it actually is. there’s no justice here, there’s no attempt to inform accurately. it’s “hey, check out how shitty this thing is! i’m good for disliking it, aren’t i? ignore the context, or the fact that i’m literally lying about what this is”

look, okay, i’m getting a little vitriolic - people can make mistakes, misunderstand things, it happens. everyone does it. me too. but this posing, this “look how good and cool i am, for not liking this thing”, it helps nothing at best and actively harms at worse. misrepresenting positions, context, and events for the purpose of satisfying the ego of whoever is making the statement - it helps no-one, except that person, in the most minor and meaningless of ways

i want to be clear - this final bit is just as much a memo for myself as it is for everyone reading this

be critical. don’t take things at face value. read into issues, understand context. get as close to the source of the issue at hand as you can, and determine the truth from there. resist the urge to be smug, detached, and dismiss those who disagree with your position - resist the urge to laugh at them, they may just not know. try and engage them in honest debate. if they resist that, if they don’t want to meet you on an equal footing you are within your rights to disengage.

be strong. support the things you love, and remember where the line is

we can all be better

*i’m not saying that other groups aren’t treated with hostility in games and gaming - trans women certainly get it really, really bad. just personally saying, in my experience as a gay man, the gaming community, and subsequently games with a focus on narrative themselves, have a sort of...special hatred of mlm. not necessarily worse, just...uniquely hostile

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calibanfilesystem-blog · 6 years ago

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CALIBAN Design Inspirations

Here’s a meaty post on my thoughts on some inspirational game design mechanics and how they will relate to Caliban.

What am I suppos- oh I died...

My definition of a survival game is as follows: A sudden-death system which pits the user against an increasing set of challenges while slowly doling out the tools needed to survive and push further against them.

In a way, despite the savage “sudden death” nature of such games, the feeling of slowly pushing into what was initially an impenetrable system is an amazing motivator and I’ve found survival games to be the most rewarding. Same as learning to code, or learning piano, or slowly realizing the person you fancy isn’t out of your league after all. Or that the life you’ve always wanted but seemed impossible maybe isn’t so far fetched...

Another aspect I like about them is the desire to *see content*. You WANT to know what lies in the fog because I feel like, deep down, once you understand the basic rule-set, you want to *see which rules the game will break*. Personally, this has always been a huge motivator for me in games, and my favorite items you find usually have the most poetic usage descriptions and allow you to break an established rule you took for granted. I.e. (”Allows the user to fly.” “Can mind-swap with enemies.” “Allows user to eat coins.”)

The following are some games which I feel exemplify these qualities.

Forbidden Desert - A dead simple survival board game with such a tight rule-set, it lays bare the minimum you could need for an engrossing survival/exploration experience. I have ported the game to the computer in the past and I was very interested in the percentages and probabilities involved. I.e. a game on “Standard Mode” usually gives you a base ~45% success rate on any given action whereas “Hard Mode” puts you at ~25%.

7th Continent - This system has re-written the rules for what is possible in a board game. This game exemplifies the idea of introducing methods of interacting with the system you never considered before. I.e. using a magnifying glass to inspect a card’s artwork, solving visual puzzles with nothing but your brain and receiving cryptic clues that reward you with no special game mechanics, only the knowledge that they exist. I will certainly be taking a page from this book while thinking about Caliban.

Subnautica - Proves the efficacy of the powerful motivator behind simply wanting to see content. The entire purpose for your explorations deeper and deeper into the depth of an alien ocean is the drive to simply *see*. It is an almost objective fact that the deep sea is l33t, and the game scratches that itch so well. I want Caliban to have a similar drive to see what kinds of exotic and interesting species of softwares you’ll find out in the desert...

Seafall - This game exemplifies the idea of adding and changing the rules of the game at run-time. Playing through this board game with a group of committed friends was an absolutely exhilarating and unique experience. The game got major flak in mainstream reviews for not having rules that cover the edge cases you’d find yourself in (IRL undefined exceptions LOL) but if you look past that, this game was constantly re-inventing itself as you played. It shifted from competitive resource trading game, to war game, to exploration/puzzle game and towards the end it was a co-op survival game. Not to mention the reward mechanic of physically adding rules to the rule-book by way of stickers... also LOL the box said “batteries included” but you didn’t know what they would be used for until 66% through the game. Genius motivational mechanic.

What the fuck is this?

In my opinion, true puzzle games of quality are very hard to find. My definition of a “true” puzzle game is as follows: A cryptic system in which the tools to untangle it reside within the system itself and can be solved with no outside intervention. In other words, it’s what we lowkey wish the real world was. I do not consider games which rely on randomness, cultural trivia, or overly complex game mechanics to be true puzzle games. Those are excuses for poor game design. True puzzle games can and do exist with *one* game mechanic. True puzzle games are among the hardest in the gaming world. I admire that about them and have actively been seeking them out for years. These are some notable examples that I know of. I will be taking a lot of guidance for how they pace and implement real-world puzzles and look to them for structural guidance on how to implement the ideas that I have for the puzzles in Caliban.

You’ll probably see that certain games are missing that are supposed to be “good”. That’s for a reason and if you want to know why, then message me or just fuck off.

The Talos Principle - Yea, probably my all-time favorite video game. I could gush for pages. However I want to keep this focused on how this relates to Caliban. Specifically, how the puzzles and story relate to the digital nature of the game deeply inspires me. The story *is* the story of a digital consciousness, told through a pseudo-biblical filter. I am going to be taking some pointers from this when I am shaping the myth and story of Caliban.

Obduction - The latest game out of Cyan Studios (creator of you-know-what) truly couldn’t give any less of a shit about you or if you come anywhere close to beating it. Yes, to a fault. Its not as confrontational as Hackmud (below) but it certainly dangles a story-carrot in front of your face (which is as obtuse and unsolvable without a walkthrough as the notorious maze puzzle). Most unforgivably, the game is plagued by a fucking stupid walk speed and straight up tedious animations. If it takes more than 5 seconds to input a “code” into your “number lock” to test it, then fuck that and fuck you.

Hackmud - This game makes me LOL. I haven’t settled on how I feel about it and it is the last game I have been seriously into before starting this project. The gameplay here IS building a codebase. The game is a puzzle box you throw your code against and try to make progress. I am thinking about how I would like to integrate coding into Caliban, whether I will detect and forbid automation, hacking, coding etc.. or if I will embrace it. The downside to embracing it is that you alienate your non-coder audience and you start designing challenges under the assumption that your player base is code-savvy. What do you think about this? Sound off in the GIVE FEEDBACK section!

Harry’s Puzzle - I love, love love this game. You can play it in its entirety right here. What I love about this game is how it is always there, always lurking. You can resume your progress just by going to the right URL. You can take your time, maybe years, chipping away at the puzzle, and communities have spring up around it. Maybe, maybe Caliban can aspire to such fame? Such renown? Such infamy? LOL, not my intention, but the ruthlessness and difficulty of Harry’s puzzle is something to keep in mind.

So what’s in it for me?

So, some people just don’t get games. They just don’t. I completely understand that. I mean, at the end of the day, what do you get out of them? What’s the point? “Seems like a waste of time if you ask me...” And beating a game almost always leaves you with a unique feeling of... loss. You shut the game down after the credits and... then what? Did you just waste 10 hours? 10 days? 10 months? I mean, I’m of the opinion that its *cool* to beat a game. Its *cool* to be good at video games, but I completely respect differing opinions.

For Caliban, I want your progress and eventual completion to be tangibly rewarded. I want you to leave the game with pieces of software you could not have gotten from anywhere else. Whether its a nice music box program that plays some chip-tune, or a unique little desktop physics widget, or a piece of interactive poetry, or a desktop sculpture or anything. I want this game to have tangible takeaways, and finally a piece of totally epic trophyware for those who reach the journey’s end.

Here are two games that I feel genuinely reward you in completely unique and satisfying ways and which I will be drawing heavy inspiration from.

Samorost 3 - The carrot on the stick in this game is music. As your progress through the game, you are simply rewarded with a new instrument track you can then trigger in the special music menu. That’s it. Those are your prizes. Each achievement you get adds new capabilities to your music-making arsenal and if that isn't the most beautiful and wholesome reward system, I really don’t know what is. Check out this link to see it in action. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

The Return of the Obra Dinn - This game is a utter masterpiece. The reason why I have it way down here in the “rewards” section is because i don’t know why, fuck off. But anyways, the eventual reward for completing this game is finding out what the fuck happened on the Obra Dinn. You are presented with disparate chapters of a story, told mostly in reverse, with a crucial chapter missing. If you don’t complete the game in its entirety, you never get to see this missing chapter and the story remains with a gaping plot hole. This is genius, I mean I’m kind of a nautica-phile so this was enough for me to keep progressing but I just love the idea of holding the story as the final reward. It may seem a given, like “yea you beat the game you get to see the end to the story”, but something about Obra Dinn was different. It wasn’t about seeing the ending, (the ending is actually where you begin) but seeing the exact pivotal moment the story rotates around was an amazing motivator. Thinking about this while I write Caliban.

What are you trying to tell me?

So, something I am not going to do is post my story. The story is something I will not be revealing until I am comfortable with the final release to keep it a surprise. But here are some influences I am taking into account:

Scheherazade

It’s Such a Beautiful Day

The Tempest (Caliban) What, you thought the title was an accident? ;-)

Ok! So, here we are at the end. Woof. You still here? Wow. I love it. If you’re reading this, then welcome to The Inner Circle. Sound off in the GIVE FEEDBACK section and make yourself known. If you think I’m not going to reward “Day One fans” in-game then you’re CRAZY! You’ll be considered a VIP in the project and your constant feedback will help drive development forwards and who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself rewarded in more than one way :-)

Up next will be my roadmap on my first few steps on this journey and some milestones I will be trying to reach in the coming weeks.

Till next time - M

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gwydionae · 8 years ago

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Zelda: Breath of the Wild

(As I literally spent an entire month doing little more with my free time aside from playing this game, I want to get my thoughts out about it. While kind of my own little late and unwanted review, I also just want to ramble about some random things in this game. So here is my one master post of all my BotW thoughts - that way I’m not bombarding everyone with a bunch of things now that I’m back from the tumblr dead. XD

Only very vague spoilers included. ...also this is crazy long. ^_^;; )

Optional Intro:

I have never played a modern open world game outside of Minecraft. They looked like fun, but there was always something that made me go “ehhhh, maybe not...” like the cringy voice acting or the overall look of the game. I was super excited to hear that Zelda would be going back to this, however, since straying from it ever since the very first game. Not that I don’t like the typical Zelda formula - I actually really love it! But Skyward Sword, while it did have its good points, was too linear even for me, so I greatly anticipated them breaking away from that. I tried not to get too hyped, but I couldn’t help it. Luckily, this time the hype was not unwarranted.

End of Game Stats:

Hours Played: 220+ Shrines Found: 120 Korok Seeds Found: 262 Map Completion: 44.58% Side Quests Completed: 69 Main Quests Completed: All Times I’ve Stood Far Above Enemies and Rained Lots of Bombs on Their Heads and Slowly Whittled Down Their Health: too many to count lol

Overall Opinion:

I don’t think I have ever spent so much time playing a game that actually has an end objective! From the minute I got it, I could not put it down. My sleep schedule was ruined within a day, and I have been a living zombie for a month now, all because I kept saying, “I’m just gonna do this one thing, and then I’ll go to sle- OH WAIT WHAT’S THAT??” This game is addicting. There is SO much to see and do, and so many ways to do them. ...not to mention I am a huge wuss and would often run away a lot and waited to do the truly hard stuff until I was a bit OP. XD

That being said, it should come as no surprise that I really, really like this game. A lot. It’s super fun, beautiful, magical, humorous, and engaging. It is still not my favorite game ever nor even my favorite Zelda. But it doesn’t have to be, because what it is is amazing, and I would recommend it to literally anyone, Zelda fan or no. If you haven’t played it and you have the opportunity, take it. Because even just climbing to a tall location and looking around before jumping off and paragliding to a destination far away is one of the best things I have ever done in a video game period. It sounds silly, but it’s true - the scenery is gorgeous, and the climbing and paragliding mechanics are so, so satisfying.

It is not a perfect game, but it doesn’t have to be. The positive elements far and away make up for the negatives.

Criticisms:

Frame Rate Drops - I am not one to really care much about this sort of thing, but, yeah, it’s there. Most of the time there were no issues, but in some places it was consistently pretty low, like the Korok Forest. The only time it was an actual issue for me, though, was in Lockup - I was fighting a Moblin in a tight corner when suddenly the game completely freezes for about two seconds. I swear my heart skipped a beat! LOL Luckily that was the only time it actually was bothersome in all my 220+ hours of playing. Still deserves to be mentioned, though.

Voice Acting - (Note: I am extremely picky about voices, no matter the language - you have been warned!) I cannot WAIT to play this game in Japanese, because I am 100% sure I will enjoy the cutscenes more. It’s not that everyone in English is terrible, but man are some of the voices not good... Decent - Urbosa, Revali, Riju Bad - Mipha, Daruk, Yunobo Worst - Impa Best - Sidon Most Inconsistent - Zelda Urbosa, Riju, and Revali hammed it up a bit at times, but at least they didn’t sound flat, so I give them kudos for that. On top of that, I liked how their voices sounded, so bonus! Daruk and Yunobo, however, were both pretty flat, though at least the sound of Daruk’s fit. Mipha, on the other hand, was trying to act, but it really sounded like she was reaching pitch-wise (like in her final cut scene near the end of the game). On top of that, her accent kept coming and going randomly - if you can’t do it all the time, don’t do it at all. Impa, however, was far and away the worst offender, to the point I wanted to turn the sound off when she opened her mouth. For one, again, it was flat. But on top of that, she had the “younger woman trying to sound like an old lady” voice going on that grates on me like you wouldn’t believe. Some people can pull it off - she can’t. And, again, the coming and going accent. Sidon was the opposite, and the lone true bright point for me. I wish we had heard more of him as I liked his voice, he kept the accent in all his lines, and he sounded enthusiastic in his delivery. I heard him shortly after Impa, so it was quite the whiplash for me, lol. Now for Zelda... there are some points in which I really like her voice, but then there are other times I think she ruins the scene with a flat read. The 17th memory, for instance, is great - she does a wonderful job with it, and I honestly can watch that one many, many times over. The 16th, however, she completely ruins for me. She just does not sound as emotional as she should given the circumstances, and it really takes me out of it. She usually does a good job with the accent, but like Mipha and Impa, occasionally she slips out of it. Overall I am not displeased with her, though. I do wish we would have gotten more of 17th memory Zelda and none of 16th. As for the overall use of voice acting, I am glad it was limited. I, personally, do not care for voice acting in games as I usually find it to be more of a detriment than an enjoyable experience. If done well, yeah, I would have liked a little more - having the voiced characters always speak, for example. But since I was not thrilled with it, I couldn’t be happier that it was limited, and I don’t think my stance on this will change until companies are willing to pay a bit more to have quality work instead of going cheap and not paying it it’s due attention. (Although Link should never speak, in my opinion, and I seriously hope this never changes!)

Story/Characters - They weren’t bad so much as disappointing and underwhelming. Only one character got truly fleshed out, so it was hard to get attached to anyone. I think they did a good job of having a focused story despite the open world design of the game, but the problem was that there just wasn’t much story to be told, and the ending left me with a feeling of, “...that’s it?” Not the way you want to end such an otherwise great experience. I enjoyed what we did get, but I just wanted so much more! I guess this is the trade off for not wanting something as linear as Skyward Sword. SS had amazing characters and a great story while being a chore sometimes gameplay-wise. BotW, on the other hand, is always a delight to play and feels so free and magical, but the characters and story left me wanting more, like I was only getting a small glimpse of the large picture. In a game, I suppose I will take “fun to play, underwhelming story” to “good story, chore to play”, but it would be nice if in future Zeldas I could have my cake and eat it too, lol.

Dungeons/Bosses - Trying not to spoil too much, it’s not that I didn’t like playing them, it’s their designs. They are all designed to look similar. The dungeons are unique and fun from a solving them perspective, but from a visual perspective, I do miss the old “every dungeon has a different theme” from past Zelda titles. I can, however, see why they chose this route for the dungeons, so while it’s disappointing, I have a hard time knocking them for it. I DO have to point out a huge issue I did have, though - THOSE MAPS ARE NOT HELPFUL. Seriously, oh my gosh, I have never tried to use a more infuriating map! It never turned the way I wanted it to, and I could rarely see what I actually wanted to see. These, for me, were simply awful. I hated everything about them, and groaned every time one popped up on my screen signaling that my map would be mostly useless from that point until I was done with the area. The bosses, on the other hand, are a different story. There is no reason they all have to look and act so similar. True, they all have their own gimmick, but I still used basically the same fighting style for all of them. And why the near identical designs? Why not something more interesting? The outside of the dungeons are all interesting to look at, so why not make the big boss at the end reflect that instead? I can see what they were going for, but in this case I feel it doesn’t justify the end result. After boss designs like Stallord and Koloktos, it was very disappointing.

Music - I am going to start off by saying that I do NOT dislike the music - in fact I feel it suits this game very well. I can’t, however, talk about this game’s music without comparing it to previous Zelda games, and there is where it falls short. Whereas previous titles were filled with memorable tracks, BotW is not. It does have some enjoyable tunes here and there, but overall I didn’t really pay any attention to it and never came away with it stuck in my head. Does that work with this style of game which is all about getting sucked into the environment? Yes, absolutely! But if I wanted to listen to some Zelda music on its own, this game’s soundtrack would be one of the last ones I would choose. So what this comes down to is if I were to give the game a score, I would not knock it for the music as I feel it is quite fitting. But if I were giving the MUSIC a score, it wouldn’t be as high as past Zeldas. Underwhelming tracks - Nearly any city/town, the shrine battle music, the dungeons, the more atmospheric tracks with little actual music (in the fields, Temple of Time, in the cold, etc) Tracks I love - Molduga’s theme, the dragons, riding a horse at night, normal battles, just outside Hyrule Castle, memory 17 (I need this track, you hear me!!)

Praise:

Scenery - This game is so pretty, you guys. The designers did an amazing job laying everything out just perfectly, so there is nearly always an awesome view to be had. Pictures do more justice than words.

Character Design - Everyone looks so unique! Even the random NPCs have personality and quirks worked directly into their design, and honestly there are so many outfits I would love to cosplay from this game. XD Some of the characters do suffer from the “Wind Waker large head, gorilla arms, stumpy legs effect”, lol, but I can forgive everyone minus the Gerudo children on this one as most that fall prey to it are not human and do not have to stick as close to normal human anatomy. Still all very colorful and whimsical, and I adore the different styles of Zora! And all of Link’s armor? Pfft, oh man, it’s great. Some of it is hilarious, other stuff is really cool, and a few items are just plain weird. But they all look unique and interesting with a lot of thought put into them, and I always loved finding new stuff. ...I do have to say, though, that I laugh at the guy in the Japanese Zelda interview who said he was having trouble making the green hat/tunic outfit look cool and that’s why it’s not prominent in the game when there are outfits like the Firebreaker (below) or the Radiant gear. I mean, really now?? LOL

Color - Speaking of color, this really does deserve it’s own bullet point! Just... wow. I am so used to seeing games that are dull and gritty and grey and brown, but this one... this one makes me so happy, you guys. They get every color imaginable in here, and they make them all work together in harmony to not only create gorgeous visuals, but landscapes that truly do feel like they have life. “Breath of the Wild” is such an appropriate title, my goodness.

Gameplay - This game is super fun to play!! And this is coming from someone who is terrible at games and died a lot. XD I am far from the most creative individual to play this game - never used my balloons once.. I should go back and try that on more things, lol - but still it was obvious just how many different solutions there were to things, like puzzles or how to take out a large group of enemies. And the physics! I didn’t think this was something I would really care about, but wow! Doing literally anything feels satisfying as the end result is what you would expect it to be - chopping down a tree, rolling a rock down a cliff, watching the wind take a bomb to exactly the spot you thought it would land, etc.

Wildlife - SO MUCH AND SO DIVERSE. Ok, yeah, like, over a dozen different types of mushrooms, but every kind is different. So many birds, bugs, fish, horses, deer, moose, RHINOS, BEARS! Flowers, trees, grass, bushes, vegetables! This world is full, you guys, so full! But never overly so - there are patches with not really anything of note. But it’s never a bad thing. Every quiet patch is like a brief pause, letting you get all the more excited when something does appear. Perfect balance of a lot of things in some places and not so much in others.

Weapons System - Ok, so, maybe I’m an outlier on this, but ultimately I think the whole weapon breaking thing really works. At first I was not thrilled with it as you are given very little inventory space, and I don’t like passing up on cool looking things. But once I realized this could be upgraded, I changed my mind. Would I like to be able to keep all the cooling looking stuff and use them forever, or at least longer? Yeah, but I feel like that might actually take away from the experience. This game is about thinking situations through and using what you have however you want. With your weapons limited, it forces you to think more instead of just, say, spamming the Master Sword on everything. And the fact that you are given the opportunity to upgrade the inventory slots if you want to made me eager to explore more areas to do just that. This game is all about exploration and the experience; I think ultimately this system works to really further that objective.

Puzzles - WOW! The puzzle lover in me was very pleased! All but maybe three times out of 120 shrines and 4 dungeons did I get irritated because of what felt like poor puzzle design. The rest were all fantastic - even if they have a DLC pack where all it does is add more shrines, I’m in, lol. I loved finding these things because I loved solving them. I am a puzzle person at heart, so this made me very, very happy.

Animation - OH MY GOSH, ok, I know everyone knows about cold Link and when he cooks, but did you know that if you stand still after you run out of stamina he eventually does two little fist pumps and grunts like, “Ok! Now I’m ready - let’s go.” when it’s full again? Or how he will wave to people? Or his face when a Great Fairy is trying to kiss him? Or how if you stand still late at night for too long he will start doing the head nod thing where he’s trying to keep himself awake? Or how his body gradually flushes red when he’s chilly, even when simply equipping frost gear, and goes back to normal when he’s comfortable? Or when he eats? Or is hot? Or literally anything??? Because it’s great. I love it. The characters - especially Link - are all very expressive in this game thanks to the great animation.

Miscellaneous:

Favorite Creature: The dragons - I would stand in awe every time one was in the area, just taking in the music and how pretty and cool they were.

Favorite Character: Prince Sidon - I’m pretty sure every fangirl loves him, but, like, he’s so nice and friendly and seems genuinely cool?? lol Easily liked him the best.

Favorite Armor: The one you get when completing all the shrines, lol.

Best Throwback Music Usage: THE ORIGINAL DEATH MOUNTAIN THEME FOR DEATH MOUNTAIN HECK YEAH

Favorite Random Detail: They give an explanation for why Link is so quiet, and it’s a great one. Previous to finding this bit, I was a little torn on Link’s presentation in the cutscenes. I thought he was a bit bland, especially considering how animated he is in game. This changed my opinion completely.

Favorite Sign: “Rest Yer Bones” XD (also I’m pretty sure one says “poops”...)

Part That Made Me Laugh the Most: Risa in the Gerudo “Voe and You” class - I was not always completely cool with how they characterized some of the Gerudo, but my gosh, sitting in on that class and going through all the dialogue options was WORTH IT. XD

Things I Need to Do (More):

Ride a horse (I RARELY did this - I preferred running and climbing everywhere)

Customize a horse

Try to ride literally anything because you’d be shocked at what is ridable

LEARN TO FREAKING PARRY

Experiment more with food - once you know the best recipes, you stop trying new things

Actually use Stasis...

...not to mention Korok leaves

Completely translate the Shiekah and Hylian languages - I can read most every Hylian sign now, but I forgot to write down my Shiekah translations...

Try to translate Gerudo/Yiga (that... might be harder, lol)

Take more screenshots because did I mention how awesome it is that the Switch can do that??

Conclusion:

I’m sure there are things I meant to cover here that I forgot about as there really is just SO MUCH to this game, but this is quite long enough, and kudos if you bothered reading this long already, lol. But I really do love this game, and I had a ton of fun with it. Truth be told, it is not my favorite Zelda game, but it is ONE of my favorites, and honestly it deserves the praise it’s been getting. Is it perfect? No. Would I personally give it a 10/10? No. But do I think the people who are scoring it as such are completely wrong? No - a lot of things I personally had issues with, I know other people did not, and while I do like the general Zelda formula, I can appreciate that others are happy to see it gone. I do hope they fix up some things for future games - better voice acting, more interesting dungeons/bosses, etc - but more in the vein of Breath of the Wild would be fine by me. Because Nintendo created a world I could truly get lost in, and I would gladly lose another month of my life to a next installment, lol.

Thank you, Nintendo. I love this game. <3 And I’m glad so many others are loving it too!

#the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #zelda breath of the wild #zelda botw #loz botw #link #zelda

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red-queen-on-the-heathen-throne · 8 years ago

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This isn’t new, stop pretending that it is!

So someone recently posted an article in a GW2 Facebook group that discussed the results of a non-representative survey in a female-only gaming group about “what female gamers want from their games”. The results were a pretty average mix of general gaming things like “more impactful choices” and “more split-screen co-op”, and more specific stuff like “fewer damsels in distress” and “women depicted as more than sex symbols”.

No, I am not only going to rant about how both the article and the guy who posted it found those results “surprising”, when there was literally nothing surprising in there for anyone who ever touched an article about women in gaming in the past five or so years.

But that’s in there, too.

One person actually replied expressing how the answers given to the rather open question “What do you want from video games in the future?” were so “normal” it was “weird” - apparently because not every single one of the top ten answers was about sexist behaviour and unrealistic depictions of women, but - shocker, I know - general gaming stuff as well. Which really serves to illustrate how even female gamers themselves (as far as I can tell, the person saying this was a woman) internally divide gamers into “normal gamers” and “female gamers”, which is just so gross and weird and why would female gamers not be interested in general gaming things?

Someone else said the survey was “unscientific nonsense” because... I don’t know, they didn’t give much of a reason other than “it’s unscientific nonsense”, but no-one called it scientifc in the first place (how even, with roughly 650 answers?), and it was pretty obvious that it was mostly done out of curiosity for an article on a website, so... huh?

The most baffling reaction to the article, though?

“This survey is sexist because the question was aseed in a women-only Facebook group!”

Yep. The usual cries of “this thing aimed specifically at women is sexist because it’s not also aimed at men somehow” - coming from, apparently, women as well? Several of them? I don’t... does this make sense to anyone?

I will honestly never understand the thought process behind this because it doesn’t follow a shred of logic. The article said it was about what female gamers want from their games, why would you also ask that question to gamers who don’t identify as female?! oO

(The sad part is that the author also said that they asked a female-only gaming community, and that maybe this could hint at “a certain attitude” those women have. Because nothing screams “quality journalism” like insinuating that any and all women banding together in any way must be up to something, rather than grouping up around a mutual interest like literally any person joining a theme-specific community.)

But then that person also said that they liked the survey but not the answers, because they didn’t like the women in said Facebook group, and apparently, that makes the survey bad somehow?

Which echoed a little the comment the author made that the women he has asked directly in games totally didn’t give those answers, and that he expected something entirely different, and I should probably have told him that many of us tend to give non-confrontational answers when asked directly because we’re sick and tired of arguing about this shit while we’re just trying to have fun in a video game? Because I know from personal experience that when I voice such an “unpopular opinion” in-game or on Teamspeak, I get dismissive comments at best and belittling mansplanations why I’m wrong followed by sexist “jokes” at worst?

...can I also point out how I am not mad at all that the guy (because of course it was a guy) who wrote the article emphasised both right at the beginning and in his conclusion that the answers came from “real gamers” and not “gender institutes” or “feminist think tanks”, so were totally real and authentic? Because there is absolutely zero overlap between feminists, academics and gamers. Absolutely none. At all.

Which is really a roundabout way of me saying that this is why we still fucking need feminism and also why we fucking need to shout even louder to make ourselves heard in the gaming community because how is any of this news to anyone at this point T_T

(Link to the article here; it’s in German, though, so have fun with that.)

#rant #video games #sexism in gaming #feminism #SERIOUSLY HOW HAVE YOU NOT HEARD ABOUT ANY OF THIS BEFORE YOU SELF-PROCLAIMED LIFE-LONG GAMERS?!?!

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lilietsblog · 8 years ago

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Strike Witches episode 1: first impression

so im gonna try strike witches: the unknown anime i chose to not familiarize myself with the premise beyond 'something like fighter pilots i think?' that i picked up by osmosis

oh hey look a discarded doll. def war is hell vibes here

cant say im a fan of the visuals from the first several seconds, the color scheme and everything seems kinda bland? the only reason im making this observation is bc i had to pause to let it load tho

oh look Very Noticable CGI

(i have a headache and am vaguely nauseous and basically am Very Cranky as a result)

man, there aren't even characters yet. it's been almost two minuets and there still aren't people for me to relate too that's a crime by which i dont mean that literally but just 'this might not be the thing i want to watch right now'

oh hey monsters okay this is better than just straight up war is hell between humans omfg in 1939 subtle 'we wanna play with ww2 era toys but without bringing up the fact japan was on the side of nazi germany' i assume sure im onboard if thats the premise

magitech??? magitech!!!

that's. their legs. in those things. are they evoking Baba Yaga and her travels in a stupa bc thats okay panty shots i think imma quit at the end of this episode

oh i. just realized this is the movie that actually makes it a bit better and gives me more hope lets try the actual first episode first

ok the first shot is of the sky and not a discarded doll that's already better

holy shit whatever this video player is it allows to load external captions from pc or url. technology progresses at an incredible pace

i love that the fighter planes are clearly shown attacking the vortex first 9u9

opening has so many girls wearing shoes but no pants. im just. this entire device's entire point is clearly to fanservice that does not mean this is bad character-wise yet ofc. i watched and liked fucking rosario+vampire. this show has a chance yet. lets see what its got

the op song is nice its also very straightforward about aesthetic of this show being 'girls without pants in absolutely non-sexual situaitons' and i can respect that

and oh look it actually does start with characters interacting right after exposition that's what im talking about

okay so now might be a good time to mention that the first context i heard of strike witches was uh. misogynist porn. like the kind that doesnt go for 'look at these relatable characters being kinky' but for 'consider: what if powerful girls got hurt instead'. so thats the context in my brain and i want to fucking overwrite it

military uniforms+panties are definitely an aesthetic and im incredibly amused by it okay every single girl here doesnt wear pants sure that actually looks like a swimsuit rather than panties and thats nice

also they are characterizing the protagonist! like i know thats not much to ask for but im going into this straight off blogging about madoka and this is just such a relief! she is kind and brave and plucky and talks gently to a scared kitten and I love her also she Does Not Think Things Through shes like the typical shonen protagonist but a girl. im in

Yoshika her name is Yoshika

and her motivation is her dad but eh sure whatever I kind of like the touch of 'it was classified military information' not sure why

theres nothing about Yoshika that qualifies her other than her personality and magic powers huh

yep thats a swimsuit aww shes a healer!

I love that the military observers rush to help as soon as they see something is off theres work and then theres helping emergencies

oh!!!! her mom and grandma are around!!! and teaching her!!! im happy!!!

Yoshika why is all that a 'but' to 'you should learn to control your power' i dont think there was any subtext of 'you shouldnt even try' there? or was it? maybe i should just trust her for now

awww Yoshika actually doesn't want to go to war <3 but this woman thinks she will because she wants to help people and she'll help people the most there I I like this ;~; I'm so happy I like this I love Yoshika's 'fuck war' instinct I love her drive to help everyone and in fact the trope of magical healer almost killing themselves to help a patient (despite it being professionally inadvisable) is actually the thing i made my very first rp character sooo :> you know. stuff something is fishy about that letter. its no coincidence it was sent just now... I love Sakamoto and her A+ social skills HA HA HA HA HA also huh... she's not in on whatever's up with that letter

Yoshika so uh alright she'll take her without enlisting her huh interesting but uh what about school I guess military and witches can override all that and it kind of makes sense to me thematically

'Britannia' gee how familiar that name sounds and i dont mean geographically

so hm could Yoshika be a military doctor without actually enlisting? how do the formalities work there i like that Sakamoto doesnt question her dislike of all things military like its unexpected but mostly bc Sakamoto's got a one track mind that has a hard time expecting anything other than what she wants to happen and beyond that its like 'sure ok a conscientous objector got it' even though its weird how there would be conscientous objectors to fighting MONSTERS its not like theres an alternative to not fight I mean also clearly Yoshika is a kid and theres room left for that in other characters' treatment of her opinions and I love that they dont get Offended that she doesn't understand and Have Proper Respect well Sakamoto doesn't at least not sure about how other people will react

man that raccoon on the road sure was convenient though. like i first thought it was Sakamoto's deliberate tactic to gauge Yoshiko's powers. she was opening her eye to i guess do just that visually and then the raccoon appeared and it just felt very natural that one follows from the other? is this foreshadowing or are the writers of this anime just unfamiliar with the concept of 'subtle' i dont mind if its the latter tbh

(im writing a ton of reflection bc the episode broke after i tried to rewind a little and i decided to download it after all, and its doing that)

so far, this show seeems nicely straightforward and fast paced. like, really straightforward. yoshiko's introduction? saving a kitten. making a ww2 era anime without difficult shit? monsters attacked in 1939. motivations and revelations are handled with all the subtlety of a hammer to the face, from the raccoon to the letter. even fanservice has the same charming quality that makes me actually be okay with the entire point of their outfits being gratuitous panty shots. making sense and having pretense is for the weak. this anime knows what it wants to be and is going straight for that. i respect that approach

also its p clear that what it wants is to be character driven and its been Delivering on that since its only half episode one and i already Love two characters personally and also some supporting cast (Yoshiko's entire family)

and like you know that in some other show GASP MIGHT MY DAD BE STILL ALIVE would be a reveal saved for like. the halfway point. but here its literally the starting point spurring everything into action bc all other motivation was just too slow to get the character where she was supposed to go. good job yo

there's this trope where the main character doesn't want to go into the main conflict (Refusal of the Call)... and very often it's handled by either 1) letting them wallow until everything goes to shit showing how wrong they were or 2) immediately conveniently wrecking everything so they have no choice now I uh. am really glad this show went a different way if just joining the conflict isnt a good enough motivation GET A BETTER ONE and IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE ANGST (and it doesn't have to be romance, either!!! why are those two the only things writers seem to be able to think of jfc)

...okay I was more like two thirds through the episode rather than half but my points stand

okay so I think what just happened was Yoshiko realized the parallel between herself and her dad leaving and got scared and her response was to comfort other people and I love that <3

I love that Sakamoto doesn't have a doubt in her mind that Yoshiko isn't going to be useless and will definitely help and also comes to her to discuss this explicitly <3

man I love Sakamoto and her absolute lack of social graces and sense of when enough is enough

and the fact that Yoshiko is working chores now and seems to enjoy it too <3

and it's when it's established that she's part of the team that Sakamoto starts showing off <3 she clearly has a dedicated well thought out campaign of convincing Yoshiko going on and its borne out not of manipulation but of clear conviction that she is right and she just has to show the girl what she doesnt know yet <3

ahaha of course showing off worked <3

so I paused and imma make a bet with myself on whether Sakamoto is going to tell her 'if you liked that you can join' right now or leave that unsaid subtly my bet is that she is, bc subtlety is an entirely foreign concept to this wonderful human being, and if i lose im going to make my bed right now not even waiting for the end of the episode let's see

oh she starts with education huh, this is not widely known? i had no idea anyway lets see if she says the thing

I love that it's her dad and it's this kind thing of 'this is what he said he was going to do, and he did' <3

huh so that was slightly more subtlety than I expected, she offered her to try them rather than trying to recruit her directly so I lost the bet gotta go make the bed now

BAM DONE YAY GOOD SELF CARE

hey more main characters!!!! I love all of you already!!! you have personality and discuss things that make sense!!! including their outfits!!! I love them!!!! the parasol girl is my favorite but also the tiny girl and the red-haired girl they are all my favorites!!!

omfg a month of travel and half a day early Yoshiko gets impatient I love her

YOU ARE A NONCOMBATANT she said with the steely confidence of a commanding officer <3

I love so much that Sakamoto respects Yoshiko's boundaries re: fighting???

OMG THE ENDING SONG I LOVE IT

I love the upbeat and airy tone this show manages to have despite the premise??? like I had trepidations at the start bc I dislike doom&gloom-heaviness of 'war is hell' narratives and I'm not a WW2 affictionado. but instead of shiny boom boom toys and angst it's all character adorableness and so much sky??? even the lack of pants ends up feeling like freedom this is the anime we all deserve

#strike witches #anime #liliet watches strike witches

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