#but on her as an entity in the game and her nonexistent lore so far

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

What do you think of skirk and the sinners stuff?

contrary to what i guess some of you may believe i'm not a khaenri'ah lorehead hahah so like. i'd have to sit and think about it? but right now i feel like the sinners namedrop added next to nothing to the already minuscule skirk lore? and the sinners themselves were like. whatever in terms of how much to digest there was there. like how when skirk first namedroped her own master. like cool! ...what about it?

so uh- i guess my answer is that i have no thoughts on them, at least not yet. we just know so little

[valentinecult]

Guilty Gear -STRIVE- Story Review. (ugh finally)

Alright, the game has been out for more than a month now and I’m sure a lot of fans who’re dedicated to the story and lore have watched the story mode of Strive. 

If you haven’t watched the story mode, this review is going to have spoilers (no duh). I strongly advise you to not read this unless you’re okay with this. You’ve been warned.

Before we get into the review, I’m not going to complicate it and prefer to keep it simplistic to avoid going off track. It won’t be too long of a review, so to make it easier for myself, I’m going to do the pros and cons.

The Pros

The story mode really gave a more cinematic feeling to it unlike the XRD series. In SIGN and Revelator, the story was a mixture of anime and visual novel in terms of the mechanics. Here, the story was executed differently for the viewer. In all honesty, it felt like I’m watching a literal movie...you know, the ones you see in theaters like Marvel, G. I. Joe, etc. At the same time, it is more anime-esque due to not having the text boxes from the XRD series. 

Parts of the story mode reminded me of certains movie scenes I’ve watched before. For example, the part where Happy Chaos invaded the White House and forced the country leaders to disable the nuclear weapons reminded me of the scene from G.I. Joe 2 where Zartan, who was disguised as the President, made the world leaders disarm the nukes while using psychological warfare. 

Another thing I’d like to add is that the main story gave certain characters great closure and development, including Sol, I-No, and Axl Low. I-No’s ‘death’ was extremely sad and even sadder once you realize her true identity. The plot twist I did not expect to see coming was that I-No is actually Megumi, Axl’s girlfriend--or rather an alternate version of her from another timeline. It makes sense considering how I-No showed some sympathy toward Axl because they were both carrying a heavy burden with their powers to manipulate time. 

I’m happy that Sol didn’t share the same fate as Ragna from Blazblue where he ‘dies’ or is nonexistent from the world. After everything he’s been through, Sol literally deserved some peace and quiet for once in his life along with Jack-O (New Aria). 

Speaking of Aria, Jack-O’s development and internal struggle with her identity is very tragic. The poor girl acknowledges that she isn’t the real ‘Aria’ and felt that she is robbing another person’s life. The fact that she is having an identity crisis lead to the part where she feels that she’s a failure of a Valentine to Asuka and was willing to sacrifice herself to stop I-No, but Sol thankfully stopped her just in time to show her that his love for Jack-O is genuine. Despite her childish behavior in XRD, I really liked how they humanized Jack-O along with the other Valentines. They really helped making the Valentines feel more than just copies of Aria/Justice and become their own unique individuals. 

Lastly, I want to talk about the man of the hour....my hubby <3

Nagoriyuki. I’ll be frank with you, I was expecting him to play a role similar to Slayer. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case. Now, here is the thing, people find it sort of controversial on how they made it where Nagoriyiki is a ‘slave’ to Happy Chaos for obvious reasons that I’d rather not go into because I want to keep this review light-hearted. 

I loved how they humanized Nagoriyuki and made him a very sympathetic character. While he is insanely powerful and stronger than he truly lets on, he feels more ‘vulnerable’ than Slayer. Let me explain what I mean, you see...the difference between Slayer and Nagoriyuki in my opinion is that Slayer feels like a complete force of nature as a vampire and observer who experienced a lot of events that occurred in the Guilty Gear world. However, Nagoriyuki is far different from Slayer because you see that Nagoriyuki is internally conflicted and immensely guilty for his actions. If you play the Arcade Mode and do all routes to hear the dialogue, you see that Nagoriyuki deep down feels guilty for hurting many people, possibly when he first became a vampire. His own arcade story where he fights his darker self showed that the man is willing to stay true to his Bushido traditions and his humanity instead of drinking blood like all vampires do to remain at their peak. I was in a way right that he is no different from Sol in terms of their situation that they’re trying to remain human as possible and not become monsters. He feels more ‘human’. While it upsets me how Happy Chaos treated him and held him against his will, you can’t help but to grow attached to the poor man and seeing him in a vulernable position opens doors for character development.

His personality is likeable and endearing. I like that he showed concern for Sol’s wellbeing and warn him to run away if he is in no condition to fight during the White House invasion. It goes to show that Nagoriyuki is compassionate. While he isn’t as strong as Slayer, well in my opinion, I do admire his passionate spirit and willpower. The highlight scene for me that made me love Nagoriyuki a whole lot was when he regained control of his body and purposely lets himself lose to Sol. That showed the kind of person Nago is, he’s willing to lose and probably die as a free man than to spend of his life as Happy Chaos’ puppet hurting innocent people and tarnishing his Bushido ways. I must admit, that part kind of made cry a bit because I was unsure if Nagoriyuki survived one of Sol’s strongest attacks and it looked like he was burned to a crisp. That selfless attitude of his one of the few personality traits I adore about him. 

Same goes for when in his Arcade Story, Nagoriyuki told his darker self that he is willing to starve for eternity than to drink from humans or anyone in general. He says with certainty. To me, I like that he is willing to put others before his himself as a person. What I didn’t expect from Nago is that he has the ability to see weak points of his enemies and given how his sword screwed up Sol’s regeneration, I have to say...he is more deadly than I anticipated. I hope to see this man more in action one day. 

One more thing, I do like how Ramlethal and him had a heart-to-heart dialogue in her Arcade Story. When you think about it, Nagoriyuki is similar to Ramlethal for they both ‘work’ for powerful entities from the Backyard and are searching for a purpose as characters. Like Ramlethal, Nagoriyuki keeps denying himself for he is implied to be ashamed of his preivous actions, but Ramlethal wants him to accept himself and is willing to help him. Sadly, he just takes off. 

I’m really looking forward to seeing more of him in the future. This character has a lot of potential. 

The Cons

While I like the story, it isn’t without its flaws. 

The real flaw is that it leaves more questions than answers. 

Guilty Gear’s story and lore feels only 75% complete for me. Where is Happy Chaos? What happened to the Seeds? What happened to Faust? Where was Ramlethal and May? 

Most importantly....what is the Blood of Juno and how did Ky gain his own Dragon Install? 

The pacing of the story mode felt a tad bit rushed and doesn’t explain a whole lot of things. Heck, we never got enough decent information on Giovanna or Nagoriyuki.

There are too many loose ends and leaves me with unsatisfactory. 

However, at the same time....this makes me want to know more about Guilty Gear’s lore. With the new story mode coming this year, I’m eager to see what Daisuke has in store for us. The main story was heavily focused on concluding Sol’s story, but still...there are a lot of loose ends. 

I hope with the new story mode, we’ll be able get answers to many of the unanswered mysteries. 

I’m not convinced that Guilty Gear is ‘over’ until everything is explained!

[aboleth-eye]

What are some (non cliche) ways of doing Drow elves with good alignments?

Ah, the drow!  D&D’s most elegant “naturally evil” race and the gene pool for every Drizzt edgelord clone.  Seriously though, I’m not saying the later ideas for drow and their society aren’t interesting in of themselves but they could be so much more.  It’s perfectly fine to create a blanket antagonist race for specific stories, if you have the chops to write them well and if its exactly the story you want to tell.  But considering how nonexistent most of the other popular races’ lore can get, I think its high time for them to be given the same treatment.

None of the other elven subraces have even close to the alignment edginess that the Drow have been born with.  Yes, they are naturally a cut above most of the other elven people by their shadowy spellcasting/spell-like abilities and magic resistance; but trying to limit them with respectful level adjustments AND a hetero-tyrannical matriarchy of evil then we’ve got a problem.

First things first, MAKE YOUR OWN DROW SOCIETY!  Seriously, even if they’re an offshoot of the canon city of Menzoberranzan, give them your own spin.  Maybe their ancestors bonded with a different powerful entity that provided them their racial ability edge (one that isn’t a malicious spider queen who mutates her rebellious “failures”)?  Or perhaps they are the result of a magical oath or cause: originally a standard elven race, choosing to join something greater than themselves and bonding with shadow to protect their world from what lurks in the darkness?

I learned of a Pathfinder race this week that is quite interesting, the Shabti.  Basically, they’re human nobility that decided to avoid their afterlife judgement to come back as semi-outsiders.  Now this made me think, what if an elf wishes to serve their people when their time has inevitably come (or if they have “unfinished business” in their duty to their kind), and instead of passing on they are reborn as the Drow?  Their shadows could merge with their mortal bodies, repairing all damage and reforming their original personality to serve another lifetime.  Sounds interesting to me–they’d basically be an elven planetouched race that wasn’t just demon-babies.

In a campaign I wrote a while back I made two offshoots of drow, two separate societies that each left the Underdark for the surface and found a freeing non-evil purpose in their world.  One offshoot came through a portal into a city just a mile below the surface of the earth–a place of ancient demon worshippers who were consumed by their patrons.  The drow set up in their ancient ruins and began using their abilities to protect the surface from whatever demon army rejects still skulk the caverns below the earth.  This offshoot works with a similar human knighthood on the surface to protect the land, and it was written to show that drow have the potential to work well with anyone different from them (even if their methods and ideology weren’t perfectly similar).

The second offshoot came up in an area where dark-loving races were worked to exhaustion in mines (pretty much exploitation), until my campaign’s Eilistraee parallel chose them and led them across the land to reach an elven utopia within a fey swamp.  There, they were welcomed by the colorful variety of elven subraces and became the city’s brightest scholars of magic and astrology.  This utopian result was how I wanted the drow to peacefully integrate and coexist with a diverse, mainstream elven society (where merit and innovation were rewarded among all the roles of their society).

Make Your Drow Your Own!  If you’re playing a game and want to avoid the standard lore for the Drow, talk with your Dungeon Master before you start playing.  If you’re the Dungeon Master, DO WHATEVER YOU WISH?  No matter what the books “say” or the original authors “meant”, D&D supplies merely jumping-off points for you to create your own story.  The rule of thumb is Enjoyment First, Rules Second!

Hopefully this will inspire you to branch out with your Drow, or any other race that’s been pigeonholed into one lore for far too long! – Aboleth-Eye 3/6/19

[ravenpie52]

With Domicile’s Conclusion:

I’m writing a wrap-up of sorts here, explaining all the lore and background info for the series (and where it might go?) in a fully transparent manner. Don’t read this if you want to puzzle some of it out first after finishing the series. I’m posting the art assets I drew at the bottom too.

Prepare for a long one.

1. Series Lore

First off, the most important thing. Raven is not a true “Player.” I categorize Players as beings separate from mobs that sorta just, appear (though they all have their own backstories). They have a lot of power at their fingertips. They can manipulate the world drastically, travel between worlds, and set up worlds as “hubs” (servers) for others to gather in. The existence of a Player influences the world around them. Worlds are literally made for Players, and can barely exist without them. 

So what happens when a world lacks a Player? Well. Mob AI is fundamentally changed, for one. They do not aggro on beings that aren’t mobs unless provoked. Therefore, all hostile mobs ignore Raven’s existence because they are not recognized as anything worth paying attention to. Things also got messy and the world deferred a sort of “awakening” to those of the highest “power,” Evokers, in order to try and pick up the slack in a way. (Though the world doesn’t have thoughts, I’m just personifying it for ease of explanation.)

Evokers in Raven’s world have a higher “sense of self,” and in doing so took on a fraction of Player abilities (building/exploration/crafting skill and world manipulation). Many of them banded together into the Evoker Collective to try and figure out what’s going on with the world. There are legends of “Players” that all sapient mobs know, and yet....there is no trace of one...

Eventually, one such Evoker got the idea to try and MAKE a Player, or at least, create an entity that could try to fill the void. Enter our dear shapeshifter. Unfortunately, Raven either accidentally killed both their creator and work partner in their eldritchy infancy without realizing, or scared the two off for good. I’m leaving that for others to decide. Thankfully they started learning life lessons from passive mobs and ended up in a village in a form where they were mistaken for an actual Player and could learn about it.

Secondly, in a broken world, the connection between the dimensions is super fragile. This is why Raven didn’t get any dimension-related advancements. They don’t exist. All knowledge regarding the Nether and the mobs within was left vague or nonexistent and Evokers had to figure it out themselves. At most, villagers know of a far off place that is very warm and red. And they know of a hard, purple rock, that when made into an upright square...does something... Only Evokers actually ended up getting there.

When it comes to the End, that’s a complete mystery, though they did find a stronghold containing a portal. Unfortunately, they didn’t know enough about Endermen (named “Warpers” instead) to figure out the whole deal with the frame.

There is no Enderdragon. With no Player to defeat her, she does not exist, nor do her pillars, her crystals, or her egg. And with no dragon to defeat, there are no End Cities. The only thing that exists is the anchor point, the bedrock fountain.

IN COME CYAN AND GREEN: residents of The Liminal, the space between worlds and dimensions. You know that dirt screen you see whenever Minecraft is loading, showing an error message, looking through options, playing the credits, etc.? That’s a place. You can fully enter it only after hopping into the fountain the first time in a world. All those other times you’re kinda just a blip. 

It’s implied in my custom End Poem that it is possible to acclimate yourself to The Liminal better and eventually stay there without being pulled away. Furthermore, it is being said that Raven has the possibility to join the ranks of Cyan and Green since Raven’s also somewhat detached from the universe (due to being made from its own cracks). However, that will take, like, hundreds to thousands of years.

Cyan and Green gave Raven a boon after being impressed by their ability to be, well, a person. They gave them the knowledge and ability to world-hop, like Players, so Raven can now go to other worlds as well as servers and isn’t stuck in a broken one, hooray! All the other worlds they visit will be actually made for Non-mob Beings, so there’s proper mob aggro, regular dimension stuff, etc. There’s gonna be a violent few lessons Raven’s gonna have to learn fast. Good thing the other ability that Cyan and Green gave Raven was the ability to respawn in other worlds. Yep! Raven was unknowingly in hardcore mode this whole time and didn’t realize there was anything different!

Despite getting a slight power boost, Raven is still unable to shapeshift properly. They can only get forms slightly right. They worked really hard to maintain their zombie mimicry at this level of finesse (even if it isn’t perfect), so they’re unlikely to change shape unless it’s necessary or accidental. People are more receptive to Raven in this form, after all. This is my excuse for why Raven doesn’t shapeshift in-game at any time....there are no mods for this.

2. Out of Character Stuff

Here’s a previous OOC post I made regarding some of the filming stuff.

Domicile was always meant to be Raven’s backstory. It’s something I could point to when people might go: “What’s their story?” It was just for fun, but I put a lot of work into it, and it has felt very rewarding. For example, I’d been trying to figure out how to present the flashback of episode 6 and the custom End Poem for episode 7 for aaaages and getting those all settled has been great.

If you’re wondering why I have silent moments for montages in my videos and didn’t see the answer anywhere else, there were times where it just didn’t work out to use the webcam microphone I was borrowing, or said microphone messed up the audio (I’m FINALLY getting a replacement mic in a few weeks). At a certain point I decided it was a feature to have montages with only in-game sounds. Like, asmr or something.

None of the mods I installed changed generation. Everything that looks different from vanilla I made happen in creative mode. I made the mini-mansion in the roofed forest, the temple topper and stairs for the stronghold, fixed up Hometown to be nicer, and got rid of all the obsidian End pillars with creative mode punches. The pillars still stick out of the bottom of the island, I couldn’t be bothered to do that too. ( >3>)

One of my rules for the RP was to keep all knowledge in-universe. Raven had to only know things they could conceivably find out from villagers or their books. (And sometimes they just straight up forgot some of it.) After this, there’s gonna be a time skip where Raven learns a whole bunch of Minecraft basics from faceless Players. So in the future I won’t have to pay quite as much attention to what gets called its proper in-game name or not.

Also I had to hold back from singing any real life song lyrics to myself and I couldn’t give anything a name that alludes to our world. The orange tower is called Traffic Cone in my head but Raven can only call it a tower. That sort of thing I can be way more lenient with from now on.

I want to make future RP content with my character, but I have no friends who are fitting that particular niche to roleplay with me for a multiplayer series. I’m keeping an eye out for potential roleplay servers and such for outside of video RP. But at this point, I think that if I am to make a multiplayer video series, I’m gonna have to wait for someone to approach me with an offer. 

Though, I’m still gonna post art of the character here, no doubt.

By the way, since this is working as an archive of sorts, here’s the link for the written piece that started me on the track to making the series. I’m thinking of changing the canon time Raven spent wandering around the tundra thinking they were a mob to be a bit while longer than a day.

More stuff involving my Minesona can be found under the #Domicile tag, but later I’m just gonna tag all new stuff as just #minesona.

3. Art Assets

Here are the assets I made for the videos, excluding the blurry picture of the Evokers, that one’s kinda not worth much, lol. I’ve posted the first two elsewhere, but thought this would be a good archive.

The thumbnail:

The title card:

Raven falling from The Liminal, losing their form a bit after Green and Cyan’s influence and Raven’s emotional bewilderment:

(You can really tell that I loosely traced a reference photo of someone falling, lol. I have no shame, this pose rocks.)

For fun, here’s the skin I use! I didn’t make it, but I’ve used it for years, so it’s me now. >:) 

Here’s the Skindex link.

Once again, thank you all so much for anyone who watched the series. Every view means a lot to me. I’m so happy that people watched my stuff and liked it. Thanks for reading this! <3

[animebw]

Binge-Watching, Higurashi, Day 2, Episodes 2-7

My experiment continues as we get into the thick of Higurashi and our descent into madness truly begins! More and more questions are piled on, I come to love this show’s animation style, and a possible villain rears her ugly head. Spoilers after the cut.

Hoo boy, there’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s segment it up for clarity’s sake.

Time Loop Freakiness

As I previously mentioned, I know going in there was going to be some kind of time loop mechanic, and I was curious how it’d be implemented. How much would Keiichi remember each time? Would he remember everything? What purpose would he be trying to fulfill?

Well, the show pulled a fast one on me and went for the most disturbing option possible: treating it like a nonexistence. When episode 5 started and we were right back to goofy fun club times without any explanation, as if the whole show had started over, I almost didn’t believe it at first. It felt so jarring and shocking that it didn’t seem real.

But it was real, and I now have a sense of the show’s pattern: cold-open on whatever blood-spattered horror lies in wait at this loop’s end, begin with wacky game shenanigans, gradually re-introduce lore and puzzle pieces, then cameraman dies and the tone shifts, people start acting crazy, Keiichi tries to figure out what’s going on, resulting in him confronting a foe and climaxing in the death suggested by the cold open. I’m still not done the second loop, so I don’t know if it’ll match this pattern perfectly, but it seems likely.

What intrigues me now is: what is the purpose of these loops? Not just in terms of how they function in universe, but for us, the audience? What new information should we take away from each new iteration? What are we learning? What is changing? Which leads me to my next big question:

Who Knows What?

At first glance, it seems that Keiichi has no memories from the previous loop. But there are odd tidbits here, like him instantly knowing the second time around that one of the previous festival murder victims was family to his blond classmate, that suggest some of his consciousness has carried over, even if he isn’t aware of it. Will his awareness grow as the loops progress? We’ll see.

For now, though, the most interesting question is how much do his classmates know? We spend the entire show (so far, at least) in Keiichi’s head, so we have no idea what the four girls are thinking most of the time. This helps keep up the mystery as to how aware they are as to what’s going on, but there are definite hints that Mion is, if not the ringleader, at least actively involved in some way. As for the two little girls, they haven’t had enough screen time yet to really have a guess either way. I will say, however, that Rika seems to be the wisest of the four, and might know a lot more than she’s letting on. Her talk with Keiichi about the “cat” who got into the shrine is evidence of that, as well as being just a really nice character building moment.

But the character who intrigues me the most right now is Rena, which brings me to:

Demonic Possesion

Okay, this is still a half-baked theory at this point, but what’s the likelihood that Rena et al are under the influence of this demon guy everyone keeps going on about? I say this because Rena’s split personality, between her normal airheaded self and her sinister whisper-voice psychotic self, feels like two entirely different people. Whisper-voice talks tends to talk in a very distinct, halting voice, which wouldn’t be too odd by itself, were it not for the fact that Mion’s crazy whisper-voice is the exact same. This makes me think that there are moments where some other entity is forcing words out through their mouths. Not sure, but definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on.

An offshoot of this is that since we don’t know how involved they are, it’s really tricky getting a handle on how sympathetic we should feel towards these characters. But I mean that as a compliment: I completely understand why, for example, Keiichi gets pissed off at possible psycho Rena following him, but when she broke down in tears and talked about how he was reminding her of the previous student who “transferred”, it was genuinely upsetting. It’s a big bundle of complicated emotions, which always makes for good drama.

Effective Animation

On my last post, I said that Higurashi was a good example of how to do effective animation on a budget. Today, I amend that statement to say that low budget and all, Higurashi’s animation is genuinely excellent. There’s a lot of reasons why, so I’ll list them off real quick.

-It’s incredibly varied. The wacky wobbliness of the club scenes and the stark lines of terror-stricken faces really help sell how drastically the mood shifts over the course of a loop.

-It’s surprisingly fliud when it needs to be.

-The editing is straight-up fantastic. Which is good, because editing is what horror lives and dies on. If your editing sucks, you can’t set up scares or spooky atmosphere. Here, the use of quick, sharp cuts and abrupt changes in camera speed really sell the intensity not just of the big moments, but of the buildup to those moments. Combined with the sparse, empty music, and this show is really good at sending chills down my spine.

Odds and Ends

-Rena’s yandere voice is the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard, which makes the contrast with her emotional breakdowns so much more unnerving. The scene where she’s standing in the rain, repeating “I’m sorry” over and over, is tragic AND horrifying at the same time.

-I quite enjoy how each girl as a distinct speaking style. I’m not an expert on Japanese sentence structure and syntax, but I can tell there was a lot of thought put into how they all talk.

-Police Guy seems weirdly quick to bring a random boy in on such brutal cases. Does he know something about what’s really going on?

-I wonder what Rika supposedly messed up during her ritual dance the second time around, and I highly suspect it’s going to come into play soon enough.

-Blond girl’s (I’ll get her name eventually, I swear) ojou-sama laugh is a delight.

-Noooot a fan of how Shion was introduced (pervert scenes are the worst), but the reveal that she really was a twin sister had me chortling for quite some time.

-Death by slitting throat with own nails, huh? I wonder what that might mean.

Aaaaaaand that’s it for tonight! Thank you for joining me once again! Tomorrow’s post will probably be a lot shorter (lotta stuff going on), but I’ll still try to make it interesting. For now, we are left with the realization that Shion didn’t actually tell the village head what happened because she had vanished by then, that Mion is probably responsible for everyone’s disappearance so far, and at some point Rika’s going to stab her own guts own while Mion laughs maniacally. Good times!

[operationrainfall]

Title Virgo Versus the Zodiac Developer Moonana Publisher Degica Games Release Date Dec 12th, 2019 Genre RPG Platform PC, XBox One Official Website

One of the many pleasures of playing indie titles is seeing the sheer drive and willingness of budding developers to create a unique experience. To see how these developers go about defining themselves and their works through innovation, artistry, or by taking the traditional and turning it into the extraordinary. These are all part of the satisfaction of discovering a standout indie title. Virgo Versus the Zodiac impressed me. A game driven by that willingness to be unique, Virgo Versus the Zodiac is one that I found myself captivated by, more so than many others in recent memory and one I can genuinely call a hidden gem.

Virgo Versus the Zodiac tells the story of Virgo, one of the lords of the Zodiac realms that make up the lands across the Milky Way. The twelve Zodiacs were once governed by the Rulers during a time referred to as the Golden Age. After the end of the Rulers reign, the Zodiacs took direct control over their realms, ushering in the Zodiac Age. The Zodiacs conduct themselves as they see fit, many of whom have created disarray between each other, as well as within their own realms, subjecting their denizens to unfair, sometimes horrific practices. Virgo, a being of purest order and structure without sacrifice of justice, is determined to restore the version of peace and regulation of the previous Golden Age. And, she is willing to strike down all who oppose her, deeming them heretics to the former law.

What initially seems like a straightforward story, to restore Virgo’s ideal order, is actually a journey of decisions and revelation. Though this main plot point, this drive of Virgo’s to restore the Golden Age, is our vehicle to forward the story, there are several underlying mysteries and events that will shape Virgo’s narrative path and ultimately, what she decides is her true end goal. Many of these revelations are hidden behind decisions that must be made throughout play. Decision making, in visual novel style, won’t change the intermittent story much. However, it will have significant impact with the way the characters feel, behave, react, and especially how the game concludes.

The overall story, with its history, mysteries, and branching, is quite intriguing. I found it easy to immerse myself in Virgo’s quest and was further driven to continue with each new twist along the way. The decision making is fantastic, as each path will reveal something entirely unique, such as secrets the characters may be hiding or unveil the mysteries of the world around Virgo. And many decisions made will reshape Virgo’s own character as she continues her journey. There are three potential paths, with three unique endings, and, again, each has something new and intriguing to offer. The narrative is equally strong, with impressive writing that brings a vividness to story and characters. Virgo’s dialogue is always something to look forward to and her personality is poignantly conveyed. The two main side characters, Algol and Spica, are also well written with distinct voices and lively personalities. Even many of the lesser side characters possess personality and individual voice, which is a notable feat considering the number of side characters the game introduces.

However, despite the strengths of the narrative and story, I took issue with several decisions in its execution. There is a ton of extra, unnecessary text. Most of this is pure fluff or used for a quick bit of humor. It contributes nothing to the main story or the lore that is often referred to. The game can also drag due to gameplay and breaks in-between, so having to work through this needless, irrelevant text can be taxing. Sure, it can be skipped, either by holding the text skip button or by simply ignoring most NPCs, but you may end up missing out on a scarce but shocking hint or secret regarding character or backstory. So the decisions to sacrifice immersive backstory for needless, useless filler is unfortunate. And I find it such an egregious issue because it seems like much more backstory, side stories, and history was initially planned for the game, yet was either drastically edited down or cut completely. For example, the Rulers are hardly fleshed out at all, despite their major role in the game’s history. Another; towards the end of the game, an entity called the Viruses are introduced, but are just as soon dismissed, despite having a tie to Capricorn, a Zodiac you meet early in the game, yet is consistently brought up throughout. Speaking of the other Zodiacs, the backstories of many of them range from painfully vague to utterly nonexistent. And finally, fragments of main and side story that are mentioned are either never addressed again or are wrapped up far too quickly, further hinting that there was perhaps much more originally planned. It’s such a shame; I would have loved to have seen the original story developed to its fullest.

Story aside, the characters of Virgo Versus the Zodiac are the real stars with their diverse, engaging personalities. I love Virgo, as she’s a tsundere badass. She’s a brilliantly created character full of stubbornness and unrelenting force. She is strong, unyielding in her beliefs and her resolve to accomplish her ultimate goal. Her character endures through her ordeal and additional sides to her personality are revealed throughout her journey. The play on her opposing sides is equally impressive, as Virgo’s difficulty to express her softer, more loving attributes meshes well with the moments when she does finally open her heart, showing her genuine affection and care. I also appreciate her anti-heroine aspects, especially in her willingness to strike down all who oppose her. Although her actions may frequently cross moral lines and though her thinking can be described as one-track, immoral, and perhaps more selfish than she realizes, because of the depth and richness of her development, I can come to understand, even appreciate, her motivation and drive. I can root for her despite her committed atrocities and I can feel sympathetic towards her when her actions have unpredictable and tragic consequences. Virgo is a character that will stay with me, having stolen a place in my heart.

Many of the side characters also receive significant depth, which only helps with the immersion and care we end up placing in them. Algol is awesome, with her wit, snark, and casual demeanor. Her personality is the perfect contrast to Virgo’s and the banter between the two is fantastic. I also enjoyed Algol’s side story, with her history and her motives in joining Virgo’s campaign. I felt similar sympathy for her as I do for Virgo in what Algol had to endure. I also loved Pisces, with her charming and air-headed personality. She is the perfect catalyst for Virgo to open up about her feelings, so much so that those moments of the game are easily the most memorable. Equally impressive are the times Pisces reveals that she knows and understands far more than what her bubbly, simple-minded style may convey. She is every bit as captivating as Virgo.

Unfortunately though, for every one character that has real substance, there are too many that come off as unremarkable. Many of the Zodiacs and side characters never receive any substantial development once their initial identities are established. Spica is a well-spoken Virgo fanboy/whipping boy who never really grows beyond this. He’s used in your party for combat and for comedic relief, but that’s it. Scorpio is a yandere, Capricorn is the typical emotionless realist, Taurus is the sleepy, boring extra, Leo is the feisty, arrogant type, Aries is basically identical to Leo, and the list goes on. What’s worse, several of these Zodiac characters are only ever seen once. It’s beguiling, given the title, themes, and story of the game. I realize that establishing and developing a minimum of twelve characters is an arduous task, but I expected more than just the single appearances of several of the Zodiacs and I expected more development from the Zodiacs that do play significant roles in the unfolding of the main story.

Moving on to gameplay, Virgo Versus the Zodiac takes the traditional, turn-based RPG scheme and makes its extraordinary. Though the familiar elements, such as leveling up, equipment and the likes are there, developer Moonana reworks it to make it outstanding. The majority of gameplay is centered on combat, in which combatants take turns, called Phases, to act. During the player’s Purge (attack) Phase, you can attack or defend. Typically when you launch an attack, the enemy will immediately enter a Counter Phase and retaliate. After an enemy attacks during their own Purge Phase, you will immediately enter your own Counter Phase depending on your equipment. This is the standard flow of combat and so defense is perhaps the most vital aspect of combat. Tied directly to defense is Vitality, which is a kind of block/guard points. All characters have Hearts (health) and Vitality and the key is to protect your Hearts by building up your Vitality. To activate Vitality, combatants must defend, or use their shield item, during their Purge or Counter Phases to store it up. Vitality points are drained instead of hearts as enemy attacks are incurred. Vitality also drops after every turn automatically, so defending or using special weapons that recovers Vitality every few turns is absolutely key to surviving in this game.

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Another aspect to combat are the QTE events that occur when attacking and defending. Ranging from a single or multiple timed button presses, button smashes, or directional inputs, these QTE events will impact how much damage is dealt and blocked. Performing them perfectly will yield max damage and minimal damage taken. QTEs vary based on the equipped item, so mastering the archetypes is essential, especially for bosses and later in the game when difficulty rises.

This QTE is a simple single timed button press. Tapping A when the white timer reaches the blue will cause a Perfect attack for maximum damage.

Speaking of difficulty, Virgo Versus the Zodiac is tough, even on normal difficulty. Failing a QTE can easily turn the tides of combat against you and result in a quick game over. You must also be quick to recognize which of your party members is being targeted, as their actions are assigned to different buttons. Virgo is assigned to the A button, but if Algol is the main target, you’ll need to use B for the QTEs instead. The easiest way of finding out who is targeted is by looking out for whose Hearts/Vitality meter becomes visible. It also doesn’t help any that every action causes a text box to pop up. Get used to ignoring those quickly, as zero vital information is ever mentioned during combat. Finally, there is an affinity triangle that further impacts combat, and everything else really. Ambition (purple) is strong against Versatility (green), which is strong against Patience (red), and Patience is strong against Ambition. Enemies clothing are color coordinated, so you’ll recognize which affinity to attack with.

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The overall combat system is also not the easiest to master, as it takes practice to become accustomed to the flow of combat and, especially, the use of equipment. There are two sets of equipment, one for the Purge Phases and one for the Counter. Each allows four types of equipment, for a total of eight equipable pieces. Each piece will raise and lower different stats, for example, a Versatile (green) piece of armor will increase Versatility defense, but may also lower Ambitious (purple) or Fixed (red) defense too. Keeping in mind the penalties are as important as focusing on your defense in combat. Along with stat changes, most equipment also offers a secondary ability or disability. These can range from restoring Hearts, decreasing total Hearts, increasing Vitality gains, increasing attribute damage, decreasing user and/or enemy attribute defense, guaranteeing a critical hit on your next strike, poisoning, burning, stunning, and innumerably more. Half the fun is discovering these abilities and the assortment of advantages and kinds of damage they can yield. Even if certain weapons or armor fail to impress with their stat changes or disabilities, the abilities they can offer may just make them worth their use. Finally, many pieces of Purge and Counter equipment requires one or several Phases, like a recharge, to pass after its use, or is unavailable from your first turn, as it requires a Phase before its use. All of this will seem overwhelming at first, but once you start taking notice of how your equipment works and how they’re impacting stats, the brilliance of this system becomes apparent. It’s perfectly implemented, it becomes easier the more you practice with it, and the changes to play style it offers is ridiculously high. I struggled at first, and I would even recommend new players to try playing on the easiest difficulty first and raising difficultly later, but now that I’ve mastered it, I can’t help but praise it. It’s astonishing the work that went into this and I am blown away with how solid this gameplay system is.

This Counter equipment raises two types of DEF and lowers one. Although not shown, this also cannot be used on your first turn of combat. The decision is yours…

Completely random, yet a nice addition, as you journey to new lands, you have the choice of taking the dangerous route, which involves mini SHMUP levels. These can be skipped entirely, but if you choose to do them, you may be rewarded with crafting items and stars (currency). Not required, nor do they add anything to the story, they’re a nice extra bit of challenging fun and simple to dive into.

No penalties for skipping, failing, or quitting, play for items and stars at your leisure

One final comment in regards to affinity, this system is, in fact, tied to everything in the game, including story decisions and endings. It is truly the foundation of the entire game. The Mutable attribute is tied to Versatility (green), Cardinal to Ambition (purple), and Fixed to Patience (Red). The most crucial decisions are colored for this reason, so you can recognize which story path you wish to follow. The Zodiacs themselves are color coordinated too, so your actions against certain Zodiacs (colors) further dictate what path you take. Even your party members also follow this affinity system. Virgo is mostly Versatile (green), strong against Fixed enemies, and her actions and QTEs are initiated using the A button (which is green on the Xbox controller). Algol is Fixed (red) and her actions and QTEs use the B button (also red). Same for Spica (blue/purple, X button). It’s all amazingly connected, down to the smallest details.

Despite my praise for Virgo Versus the Zodiac’s gameplay, I do have a few complaints. I mentioned it earlier, but the pacing of the game can be slow. Combat is time consuming, sacrificing play pace for strategy. I have zero problems with the need for strategy in play, but I do wish battles were faster. I would attribute the break in pace due to the sheer number of times you will be defending and only getting your licks in on a counter phase. Especially with tougher enemies, battles can drag. This pacing issue is only compounded when you reach one of the many lengthy cutscenes the game possesses. In these times, I wish the writing was tighter or better spaced with the action. Another complaint, outside of combat, there isn’t really much to do as you explore new lands. Tons of NPCs to chat with, but no thank you. Sure, there are also hidden items and stars (currency) to hunt for, but really not much else. The motivation to explore, other than perhaps finding a nice weapon or piece of armor, is limited. In truth, other than the occasional drag and the resulting loss of attention or immersion, Virgo offers stellar gameplay, so much so that I’m already looking forward to when I can replay it.

Perhaps equally remarkable to its gameplay, Virgo Versus the Zodiac possesses some of the most unique aesthetics I’ve experienced in a long time. The most obvious aesthetic element of the game is its visuals. Virgo implements a fantastic old school, 8-bit style. Everything from characters to landscapes are pixelated and for the most part, it’s adorable and charming. To add to the charm this simplistic style begets, major characters receive detailed portrait art that displays during conversations. These are detailed and beautiful, adding much needed personality for many of the Zodiacs while bolstering the allure of the established characters. Virgo looks the tough battle-hardened maiden and Pisces looks as adorable as her personality conveys. All of the portrait work is charming and impressive and it leaves me wanting more.

Although Level ups are fairly balanced, characters have their clear strengths. Virgo is Versatile/ Mutable, and so her Versatility will increase more than most other stats.

I do have one complaint in regards to the visuals, however. Despite the beauty of character and land that is achieved within the game, there is also this ambiguous element to the visual style. Many NPCs, as well as map elements like buildings and furnishings, are creepy. Not cute creepy nor horrifying creepy that could add to the moods of the game. No, there are just handfuls of character and design elements that are creepy to the point of being unpleasant. I understand Moonana was explicitly trying for that ambiguous style, after all, her logo is a crescent moon with dripping fangs, but I just found it all off-putting. Maybe it’s just not my style, but for someone like myself that values aesthetic appeal, especially when it contributes to the overall experience, I did not appreciate this.

There is plenty of beauty to behold

As for the audio, not only do I have zero complaints, I think the soundtrack is a perfect complement to the game’s narrative and gameplay. This is a soundtrack that will impress, matching perfectly with events and narrative tones on screen. The electronic style and the variety of genres, from techno, rock, and classical to hints of punk and metal, are all incredible. Never once did I think a piece of music was dull nor did I ever feel indifferent with a single track. Each one is catchy, memorable, and a perfect fit for the game’s overall style. It’s amazing how well the soundtrack both stands out on its own and bolsters the experience without ever overshadowing it. Combined with the visuals, Virgo Versus the Zodiac has aesthetic appeal that will not only impress, but continue to awe with every playthrough.

Virgo Versus the Zodiac is an adorably charming rampage across the galaxy. A memorable main heroine worth making that emotional investment in, an impressive transformation of traditional game mechanics into the unique, and an aesthetic style all its own, Virgo Versus the Zodiac delivers an unforgettable experience. A single playthrough will take about 20 hours and provide plenty of reasons to replay well beyond. A hidden gem, this star yet shines dazzlingly bright.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review copy provided by the developer

  REVIEW: Virgo Versus the Zodiac Title Virgo Versus the Zodiac