#but there are other gatcha games with better stories!

[sevensins-stuff]

I miss the characters obey me used to have...

[cafeleningrad]

Way too long trainride ahead of me so I'm on a Black Lagoon reread.

Apart from Rei Hiroe being remarkable in story pacing, and gun action scenes, something I noticed is how he uses Ronapur/any major plot as stage. All the characters are by design but also by their own choices larger than life. They can imagine to be a more fantastic version, as how they wish to appear than rather who they really are because Ronapur is city in which everyone playcts it. Sometimes it's really funny, other times deeply sad. Hiroe sets up characters more like action figurines but beneath the surface there is a good reason why the characters are so comical.

A gun wielding maid? Looks like from a gatcha game, maid fetish anime girl. But in reality Roberta deliberately chose this profession and dress because she wants to put her identity former FARC-terrorist as far behind her as possible. Total new look, innocuous looking uniform, adapting to caring for a young boy, she chases a much kinder, quieted persona. Interestingly Fabiola working as a maid housekeeper is something Fabiola handles way better. She understands it as possibility to live a better life without denying that she comes from a favela.

Hot blonde Russian mob boss with her boys? Balalaika and her men are discarded left overs from an empire that crumbled. Disillusioned yet drilled, and mentally stuck in a war bound to fail, Balalaika's troops continue the war in their heads in civilian streets.

Rotten, the wizard? Cool guy, in cool coat, dual wielding gunslinger, hot haircut, and sunglasses. He even has cool one-liners. In every story he would be a cool action-seinen-protag who noir-narrates his own story (which he probably does, actually). But in a city full of mercenaries, and mobsters who may or may not be on varying grams of cocaine, he gets bodied every occassion possible.

Cute goth girl fighting with a chainsaw? Yeah, Sawyer is a goth girl. She's just on the way back home from her day job which includes dismembering corpses to clean up a crime scene. Her weapon is basically the first thing to grab from her toolkit.

The horror twin children? Probably the most horrifying trauma possible. The leftovers from a failed system, failed social care, and severe child abuse that left the children dissociated from themselves, reality, and any possibility to connect to other people.

A cute schoolgirl with a Yakuza tattoo? A yakuza family stumbling under the weight of their own self-dellusion. Any idea about how cool, or honourable they are gets undermined by the reality of harmful dynamic of organized crime. In the end the Russian mob crushes the Washimine family because they've no self-dellusions, and only take what they get. Also Yukio is painfully aware what it means for her being a female heir to a structure that is severely sexist, especially since she's just a highschooler.

Nuns with guns? The church is just a front for a CIA infiltration.

No surprise the Yellow Flag gets demolished all the time. Bao is the only sane person who tries to turn a new page after the Vietcong - in a town full of mobsters and mercenaries who might or might not be on varying grams of cocaine.

[crisiscutie]

I'm sorry, but as a big ff7 fan, rebirth didn't come close to being GOTY or deserve to win the best rpg. Persona blew it out of the water with its story alone. They did well with the music though.

That's perfectly valid and I actually somewhat agree. Mainly because I have yet to experience the game myself and I do have some reservations about some aspects of gameplay and the storyline from what I know about it.

One of the most glaring reasons why it didn't win GOTY in general is because it was both a PS5 exclusive and the second game in a trilogy. This, in itself, creates a situation where it excludes newer fans looking to get into FF7 and divides the veterans diving back in.

I'm hanging onto my opinion that 7R should've been a full on reboot or an actual remake. Not this complicated, multiverse KH-tier mess.

I hope I didn't sound like I wanted Rebirth to win, because that wasn't my intention. My issues with GOTY and some other categories Player's Voice are just some nominee choices. A freaking DLC is eligible for GOTY? And at least three gatchas nominees for player's voice, one of them being four years old? C'mon gaming community. Surely, there are better options worthy of nomination.

I'm a little salty about Silent Hill 2 getting snubbed. Really thought it deserved an award at the very least.

[gremoria411]

Alright, so GBO2 was kind enough to drop a Kämpfer High-Mobility type for me the other day, so I figured I’d use this as a springboard to talk about the design, and by extension my feelings towards UC Engage’s designs as a whole.

I already went over the Kämpfer and its variants previously, but being able to compare the models in GBO2 changes things a bit.

There’s actually a lot of subtle differences that I hadn’t caught the first time around that distinguishes the High-Mobility type. When compared to the original Kämpfer; the chest’s larger and rounder, the head is wider, the armour on the arms is different and the legs have a feminine design closer to the Gerbera Tetra. It’s very good, the increased mass implies a more powerful reactor and the masses of extra thrusters do make it feel like a High-Mobility unit. The head incorporates Vulcan guns, and the suit itself also incorporates a beam machinegun, again implying an improved reactor. The thruster pack is similar to the Gerbera-Tetra’s but it feels much more like prototype, with its larger fuel tanks and holes for multiple large thrusters, as opposed to the Gerbera Tetra’s more understated look. The design has a much more rounded feel for it, typical of space-use units. It’s just rather annoying, because I’d written it off as “Kämpfer with Gerbera Tetra Thrusters”, so coming back to it and finding all these deign flourishes is…… just sort of odd. Like, yeah maybe I should’ve looked a little closer, or maybe it should’ve been a little more attention-grabbing in the first place?

See, I generally don’t like officialised “kitbash” designs - I typically find that there’s too many familiar elements, so the design doesn’t really have much of an identity of itself. Yeah, battle damage or repair’s fine, but when a designs’ just bits from one suit slapped on another it just feels rather unimaginative to me.

But then again, shared equipment between mobile suits typically speaks of an elegance of design to me - these are machines that are outfitted for war, so standardisation is helpful in that respect. I’m typically a big fan of seeing the MMP-80 machine gun or 90mm bullpup machine gun on one year war units, because they’re so ubiquitous that I don’t think of them as being part of any single design.

I think what I’m getting at is; I don’t think I like the concept of the Kämpfer High-Mobility type (i.e. fuse the Kämpfer and Gerbera Tetra together due to their shared design philosophies), even if the execution’s much better than I gave it credit for previously.

I’ve been meaning to do a post on UC Engage’s designs for a while now, so I figured I’d package it with my thoughts on the Kämpfer High mobility type. I’m not going to go through every design in the game, I just figured I’d cherry-pick 8 designs I’ve got strong opinions on - what I think works, and what I think doesn’t.

Disclaimer: I’m going to be looking at the UC Engage in-game models for all of these, simply because either higher quality models don’t exist, or I’m not inclined to wait around for GBO2 to supply them to me so I can properly look at them (honestly I tend to use GBO2 as a design gallery more than anything else, but because it’s gatcha I really don’t have much influence over what I get). If I ever receive the higher-quality GBO2 Models, then I’ll note any changes of opinion then. I also don’t really care about the plot or story of UC Engage, but I’m given to understand that it’s explicitly non-canon to the rest of UC (since they put Peche and the Engage Zero in Kamille and Rosamia’s final confrontation during Gryps, and introduce a new Doga unit during Chars Counterattack as a counterpart to the Jagd Doga and Psycho Doga), so I’ll only really be considering the mobile suit designs.

Engage Zero

Okay, nine designs, because I should probably talk about the Protagonist’s suit. The RX-78MS00Z Engage Zero. So -assuming I’m reading this right- the Engage Zero was a prototype/competing design to the Gundam Development Project - the GP series seen during 0083: Stardust Memory, that were developed by Anaheim Electronics. The Engage Zero incorporated magnetic coating technology and a prototype movable frame, which would make it cutting-edge at the time of its release. It and its pilot, Peche Montague, would be passed between various groups and upgraded throughout, eventually concluding in the Neo Zeon designed Engage Zero Yonghwavin, a fully psycommu-equipped mobile suit. The general design of the Engage Zero is that it was developed as a Newtype-speciality machine amongst the rest of the Gundam Development Project.

Design-wise…. Eh. I can imagine it’s difficult to “fit in” another Gundam unit in UC canon at any rate (which is why there’s so many Gundam’s and gundam-a-likes running around in the One Year War, since it’s an easy fit), so tying it into the Gundam Development Project is a smart move, but there’s very little to tie it in design-wise. Yeah, there’s some similarity in the legs, but the chest resembles the G-Self more than anything to me. The arms are what I’d describe as inoffensive - there isn’t anything wrong, per se, there just isn’t anything distinct either. The waist seems to want to suggest a Gelgoog influence with the skirt, but it just looks wrong on a Gundam, and it overshoots and makes me think of the Qubeley. The head’s fine, no real opinion there. It’s overall a very feminine design, which I’m not against or anything, it just again feels odd. Like, it’s a feminine design because the pilot is female, but ….why? It just seems a bit odd tonally, especially since it retains the original gundam’s samurai influences, which are typically rather masculine. It’s a feminine design, but in doing so, it masculine-codes every other design. So it’s a feminine Gundam that causes you to question why every other female Gundam pilot has just had (for want of a better term) a non-feminine Gundam. I just find it incredibly odd from that perspective. I imagine that’s why it makes me think of the Qubeley so much, because that’s the most prominent other feminine design we see in UC.

Dijeh Assault Package

Is the fact that there’s actual art of this one cheating? Anyway, the MSK-008S/A Dijeh Assault Package was an upgraded version of the standard Dijeh, and was used in a bombardment role. It’s essentially a Dijeh with additional weapons, armour and, of course, missiles. I like this one, not necessarily because I think it’s an amazing design (the artwork’s doing a lot of heavy lifting), but because I think it fits so well with Karaba as an organisation. They’ve got a fairly limited number of mobile suit designs available, but a lot of them are very good, so it makes sense to manufacture variants to those units for different mission types. A high-spec bombardment unit that can fight well after the initial barrage is always going to be attractive to a Guerilla organisation, hence the Dijeh Assault Type. Even the reused equipment works really well, since Karaba isn’t known for being well-funded. All-in-all, it’s solid.

Roswell Jegan

I’ve used this one as a punchline a few times, so I’m sure my opinion shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I really just don’t like the Roswell Jegan. It’s basically a Jegan that was used to test fin funnel weaponry designed by Amuro, which would then be incorporated into the Nu Gundam. I’ve kinda got a lot of questions here - where did the psycho-frame come from? How’s the jegan got the reactor to mount all those fin funnels? How did they know it worked? Doesn’t the existence of the Silver Bullet (funnel test type) kinda invalidate this machine’s existence? Why Roswell?

And all that for a jegan with a little bit of additional armour and funnel rack backpack. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m no great Jegan fan, but I actually do like a lot of its other variants, so the Roswell Jegan just feels so plain and drab by comparison. A funnel-mounted or newtype-use jegan has potential, I just don’t think the Roswell is that.

Gelgoog Ls

Regrettably, this is the best image I have. The Gelgoog Ls was an upgraded form of the Gelgoog L, a Gelgoog variant designed for defending VIP’s, which was essentially a standard Gelgoog with a new backpack, large shield and heat lance. The only real difference with the two units is that the Gelgoog Ls incorporated more filigree and mounted Vulcan guns in its much larger head. It’s noted that Gelgoog L pilots were often young and barely-trained cadets, which wasn’t uncommon around the time of the Gelgoogs deployment. The Gelgoog Ls, meanwhile was apparently more geared towards the secret service.

The Gelgoog Ls is a bit of an odd one for me. I’m kind of a sucker for Lance units in general, and the Gelgoog seems to be an attempt to backdate guard units like the GAZ-L and GAZ-R into something that started with the principality. Only real issue is that there seems to be an awful lot of “Royal Guard” units running around. There’s the Gelgoog Ls, the Rick Dom, the Galbaldy Alpha, the Gyan Eos and so forth. That and that customising a mobile suit for the Secret Police seems overkill. What are they gonna be facing that requires that level of force, particularly a goddamn heat lance? (the Vulcans make sense, because they’re typically used against infantry or light vehicles, but the Lance is just overkill). The design itself is just…. Fine. Gelgoog with a shield and heat Lance probably didn’t *need* to be its own thing, but I like how the Vulcans are integrated. I am weirdly fascinated by what the backpack looks like, since I’m absolutely certain I’ve seen that design somewhere before, I’ve just no idea where. (I keep thinking it’s from the Gyan Marine from Gihren’s Greed, I know it’s not that)

Finally, I should note that the head appears to be based on contemporary police uniforms. My initial thought was of the “classic” Gendarmerie (the French police service), with the cylindrical hats, which spun out naturally to the Landespolizei (the German police service) and the Ordnungspolizei (the Nazi police service, which I was very happy to find no similarity to), but it seems to be based more on contemporary dress uniforms than anything else, which makes sense, considering the all of the filigree.

Gaza CZ

The Gaza CZ is a Gaza C that has been modified for use in an artillery role, it replaces the shoulder armour of the original Gaza C with missile pods, and the integrated Knuckle Buster with a belt-fed minigun. The Head and legs also appear to have been slightly remodelled - the head’s sleeker and more pointed, emphasising the monoeye (and likely its role in target acquisition), while the characteristic three-digit foot “claws” of the Gaza C have been reduced to a fairly standard looking foot, with the side thruster being enlarged.

The rationale of the Gaza CZ’s design is to up-arm the aging Gaza-C second-line units and use them as artillery support similar to the Zssa. I like this rationale, because it makes sense that Neo Zeon would want to make use of the massive amount of Gaza-C’s it had, and strapping some missile pods to it is a logical and practical approach to this. Even the Gatling gun is excellent, because it would enable more of the mobile suits generator to be directed to its improved thrusters and thus offset the weight of the heavier equipment, and as a second-line unit, it would typically be operating within easy reach of resupply. I just wish I could get a better look at the feet and see it transformed.

Gabthley B

As in “beta”. The original Gabthley is a design from Zeta I just love - it fits perfectly into my definition of a “mid/late-season weirdo”. So good. The Gabthley Beta was a redesigned and upgraded Gabthley used by the Titans. While the original Gabthley showed promise, the design was judged to be too complex and expensive for mass production, which led to the design of the Gabthley B. There’s only stated to be one produced but it really *feels* like a limited-production suit to me. The design’s just wonderful because it’s a just a hodgepodge of Titans mobile suits - there’s the Gabthley, obviously, but it incorporates the arm claws of Scirocco’s Messala, it looks to have a (single) wing binder from the Gaplant and the feyadeen rifle Mk-II is an upgraded form of the original used by the Gabthley and Hambrabi. The large arms and oddly-proportioned body even make this commenter think of some of the oddities of the Titans Test Team, such as the TR-6 Hyze’nthley and the TR-6 Kehaar II. I’d also like to note that the head’s been completely resdesigned - it’s this blend of the monoeye, visor, the original streamlined Gabthley head and it’s even got some Gundam-style protrusions near the collar. It’s a very commanding design, for a commander type unit, it what I’m getting at.

I do hope we see it in a better colour scheme at some point, however. I don’t typically dislike black-and-purple, it’s just that there’s quite a lot of obscure, bulky titans units with that colour scheme, and they tend to look rather similar (especially since it’s a rather busy design).

Nemo Bellator

The Nemo’s an interesting one, since it seems to have dodged the many, many variants of the GM and Jegan. It’s certainly got a fair few, but (with the noted exception of the Nemo III and the absolute superb MSA-003 Nemo Cannon from Aoz) none of them are really that exciting. A bit of armour plating here, a new backpack there, never necessarily setting the world on fire but being pretty solid “yeah, that’s a grunt mobile suit” throughout.

So the Nemo Bellator being just so boring is rather novel, in a way. A Nemo, with back binders and a mega launcher. No reworking of the body, no targeting equipment (like the Hyaku Shiki), no improvement to the generator. There’s just nothing going on here. And the name “Bellator” just sounds like the creator needed a name quickly so they could knock off for lunch.

Sliferail

The Sliferail was an upgraded Gundam Ground Type that was remodelled with the expectation of deploying in cover operations in forests and wetlands. It was apparently a custom job on behalf of the pilot, who specifically requested the addition of the beam javelin.

This is a design where I love the concept, but I’m ambivalent about the execution - we see a bunch of ace custom units in Gundam anyway, and there was a good amount of Gundam Ground Types around, making them an excellent opportunity for variant designs in different theatres. The Sliferail is essentially a counterpart to the Ez8, showing how another pilot adapted to the changing war situation. The design itself…. It’s not bad, I like the new fins on the legs, and the new head and chest are nice. The colour scheme’s nice, and it makes sense for a wetlands environment. To be honest, it’s probably that I’m quite fond of the “standard” Gundam ground type, and so the Sliferail just feels like a step away from that, and I feel if anything, it should have leant into the changes a bit more. Up-armour the shoulders, put a ghille cloak on there, maybe remodel the lower legs a little more to better distribute the weight or something.

Type 99 Assault

Last but not least, the Type 99 Assault. The Type 99 assault was an update to the Type 100 Hyaku shiki from the Gryps Conflict and was intended to be a competitor to the Formula Series. It was built around U.C. 123. Though it’s stated to be an upgraded to the hyaku shiki, the Delta Gundam Kai influences are obvious, what with the head and chest. Interestingly, the lineart appears to be drawing from Kazuhisa Kondo’s designs, with the larger wing binders and differently styled head (which reminds me of the rather obscure Hyaku Ichi Shiki), though the design seen in UC engage leans more Delta Kai.

I really like the rear arms and integrated leg thrusters on this one, it gives it a really unique feel. The Gatling gun and beam rifle are both nice touches, and it feels like a machine designed for extended operations. It’s a design I would really like to see more detailed illustrations of, since I’d like to look at it in more detail. The leg thrusters also suggest great agility and remind me of the Anksha from Unicorn, which is nice. I do rather like how Anaheim made the Delta Gundam, and just consistently failed to then take that any further. Like, yeah, it happens a lot with Gundam’s too, where they’re built and they perform well and then they’re just sorta never expanded on, but the way that the Delta line just keeps throwing all these great ideas at the wall with none of them sticking makes it fell like….. I dunno, the Sega Saturn of mobile suits?

Closing

And that’s the highlights for the U.C. Engage Design Series. This ended up being a lot more positive than I was expecting honestly, which is nice. Quick shoutouts to: the Giessen Doga for being so boring I don’t even want to talk about it, the Duffel Jegan for being another ace-use jegan to add to the pile, and the Delta Gundam Ans for not having any good images available.

[mysticstars02]

Youkai Watch AUs Collection Blog

Mystic's collection of the Youkai Watch AUs.

(All AUs are gonna be WIP forever bc i have a shit ton au lores/infos I need to put lol)

This main blog will serve shortcuts to the following information: bios of my OCs and AU version of youkais, the worlds, and ofc new species of youkais aka my fankais lol

I also want to point that yes Mega Youkais AND the Mythical Ancients will be in this as well haha. If you're really enjoy them, my project account is available for y'all! (Still WIP!!!)

(Click the AU title to learn more about it!)

Youkai Watch: Chronicles EVOLv

My 1st YW AU. Personally, this au is a great fresh start for anyone wanting to try getting into my yw aus stuff :>!

Youkai Story

My 2nd YW AU. I really enjoy working on this one yet this requires lore acknowledge from Chronicles EVOLv. This AU dives into the point-of-view...of youkais we know!

Youkai Watch: Universe~Gatcha

My 3rd YW AU. I bet anyone wanting to get those exclusive stories from the garbage yw mobile game collection cause of the title. Half true tbh (It's a bit difficult for me to set the basic up buut I think I've got)

Anyway! This interesting AU tells in different perspective of the 3 protagonists. Why is this AU interesting? I'd say: Give it a try!

(Note: You don't have to do it in order but if you want the better experience of my aus, I'm not stopping you lol. Universe~Gatcha is free to jump right in. The world and Chronicles EVOLv world are separated/not related to each other. That goes for the story!)

[creativeartgal]

Ok so Im just going to rant for a bit. Sorry if it not coherent.

Yo devs what the hell!!! Why didn't you give Asmo a bday event. If your going to stop doing events then couldn't you have waited till Lucifer's bday? Dude ain't even my favorite but I'm still annoyed at this shit. Also I really don't like that the URs are going to be in nightmare now. I loved that Obey me did full events for characters bithdays. It was nice to read through the events even when it wasn't my favorite character. I thought that they were really cute. The only other time a game I played had that was when Mystic Messenger did it for Zen and it was more just an April Fool's event that was also his bday. Idk. Just sucks dude. I mean if you were going to stop doing events then finish all the bdays first. It just seems like incomplete that the other brothers having 3 bday events while Asmo will only have 2. Granted same would be the case for the side characters also but I mean the bros are the main focus so whatever still sucks for them too. Also something I didn't notice till I saw on Twitter there's no ssr for Asmo. I'm hoping it will come later like what they did for his ssr in the past event but I'm not optimistic about it.

Going back to the cards I really don't like it being a gatcha thing. I liked that it was possible to get a ur relatively easy (for me at least) if I just made sure to save up for it before hand. For a while that was how I got most of my URs when I first started. Like I already got to deal with that in twist for their bdays. And I have the worst gatcha luck in twist the last time I got an ssr was because I summoned 100x in the normal gatcha. Granted I have better luck when it comes to obey me but that's not the point. Honestly I'm not really sure if I wanna try to get Asmos card or if I should just hold on to my DV for when it's Mammon bday since it's most likely how all bday will go so far. (Sorry I am a simp for that man)

Also what the hell is with the yoga ball in the wanderer whereabouts? I thought that it would cost karma. Probably a little more than normal. But you have to pay money for it!? Dude I haven't even gotten any of the items using karma and now you gonna ask for actual money for this thing? Idk ever since nb came out I feel like the devs have been more money hungry. Like you can only get 10 DV with ravens, you actually need multiple versions of a card to fully level it up and more to raise the level even more and over really seems like they want f2p players like me to spend money. I wish I could say that it would make stop playing but I really enjoy the main story and want to see where the story goes so I will still be playing so I guess will still have to put up with this. Hell I'm probably going to forget about it after posting this cause at the end of the day it's a company. They are going to do whatever they want that they think will give them more money. Sure we can bitch and moan all we want but they probably aren't going to do anything about it.

So yeah sorry for the long rant just needed to get this out.

[giulolosblackmail]

i wanna vent about orens which means i’m angry about hh so like to start off you have to understand that helix waltz is a refurbished and genre transported helix horizon which was a money grubbing jrpg themed fantasy gatcha cn rpg that happened to be headed by this one guy (Mingjing Yoshikawa) who thought having an actual story would make everything better, and he was right! to an extent! helix horizon did do well enough to get a sequel game, but god was the world building and premise covered up by so much horny fanservice that it was hard to take anything seriously

but how does that relate to orens? i’m so glad you asked! you see, orens were created in the world of helix horizon mostly to check off a bunch of older-than-they-look catgirl boxes to fill more niche kinks for the gatcha pool, and you can see this in other characters in HW too (florna hitting the weirdly prevalent busty blonde nun with glasses and anxiety template), which is why orens are largely stupid, child-like, cutesy characters with cutesy names and manner of speech that all have one defining characteristic, because that is the result of churning out gatcha characters, and while HW did a pretty good job patching over HH to make a functional character driven visual novel/dress up game, they never really took orens seriously enough to make them people

i know that orens do get their own political faction in s2 and there’s moves to give them full citizenship, but it is very much an “in spite of everything” kind of move, like the writers for the game are giving orens rights because it is bad to not take the side of characters they wrote as oppressed minorities, instead of because they’ve shown that orens are people that deserve rights

let me explain, in-game orens are described as humanoid orcs, so we can infer that orens are closer to a type of fantasy monster (not people) than fantasy race (people), but they look and act humanoid enough to coexist with other humanoid races like elves and demons, this means we should expect a lowered intelligence and animal-like instincts/characteristics (ie cat orens napping a lot and fox orens being crafty), but on top of that, orens are also glaringly child-like, which i assume is a holdover from the older-than-they-look-loli trope, the most egregious example of which is motiti

i want to like motiti, i really do, but she is literally the poster child for every negative oren stereotype and the story practically bends around her to allow her to exist in-universe, which is insane because she was created just for helix waltz, every other oren that we’ve met has been a fully grown adult regardless of their cutesy appearance, all of them have adult jobs and responsibilities and get mad about being infantilized by others, so we can assume motiti is an adult, she is never treated like a child by the other orens (not even brala - who immediately tried to take care of nyx (16ish teen) - treats motiti like a child), it’s just magda who does this (magda is canonically bigoted in that she treats all oren like they’re children even after helena called her out on making light of brala’s blatantly romantic/sexual crush on her because she never saw him as an adult), and we have no in-universe explanation for why she’s so fucking stupid, her one goal in life is to wear cute maid dresses. she doesn’t... she doesn’t even want to be a maid... I... she’s not even interested in maid dresses in general, just- she just wears them without knowing anything about fashion or quality or modeling or makeup just-

another great example of infantalizing orens is bacon day, bacon day is an oren holiday where pieces of bacon are tied to trees and roofs with long pieces of string so that they dangle around, enticing orens to pounce on them, in-game giulolo was the only oren that had a problem with this because she thought it was undignified, we later find out that she thought it was undignified for a very childish reason and participates in bacon day happily after replacing bacon on strings with books on strings, i think it really just pisses me off so much because they could have actually taken a stance on how orens perceive themselves and deal with the prejudice they face and how giulolo, who meets a lot of rich merchants and nobles through her job, might have taken issue with an oren tradition that feeds into the perception of orens being no better than dumb animals, it’s just this kind of pervasive attitude of the writers never allowing oren characters to actually be sapient enough to comment on their own circumstance that undermines the entire narrative of orens being oppressed peoples and not just animals who can talk, none of them have the capacity to talk about all the horrific murders committed in broad daylight by humans because orens have no protection under the law, this also happens to elves as well, none of the elf characters will give a solid answer on why they’re so ok with being enslaved to humans despite being intellectually, physically, and magically more developed, the two times an elf suggests that they’re unhappy with their situation get quickly resolved without actually changing anything, and i will forever be mad that nala wasn’t chosen when HH was turned into HW (nala was a bavlenka elf that raged against the prejudice she experienced by physically beating the shit out of anybody that said anything racist about elves in her vicinity, she is blatantly unhappy with the way things are and says so)

bUt It’S a DrEsS uP gAmE, why are you expecting nuanced social criticism from an app where you pay 25 dollars to get a pretty jpg that makes the plot progress, shhhhhhhh, i’m just in love with what could have been

[astra-adventures]

ToF is a similar style of game to Genshin but that doesn't make it a Genshin ripoff: a reminder.

The game community as a whole needs to remember that multiple games with similar playstyles are allowed to exist.

Its super funny when you find a character that's similar, but these are mostly popular anime/game looks and themes overall that you can find lots of places, and upon comparison I wouldn't call anything I've seen a ripoff of a Genshin character.

The two games' approach to their userbase is entirely different, with ToF being notably focused on making their content as f2p accessible as possible, which is why I personally prefer it as a broke person

Someone liking ToF or playing it does not mean they are betraying, slamming, or hating on Genshin and it's players.

Someone liking Genshin better is also fine! If you enjoy its chars, story, or vibes more, that's cool, have fun and I support u

There are probably gonna be more games of this style that come out, cause people like them! Don't waste ur energy every time a new gatcha-mmorpg comes out stressing over whether it's similar to previous ones. If no one is suing each other, it's probably F I N E

In summary, calm down bois, no one is ripping anyone off, no one is an off-brand anything, and just pick the game you like best and enjoy playing it. <3

Side note I'm intrigued by the upcoming game DragonSpire, which is another of this genre and looks pretty fun! I also like to play Food Fantasy because the art is v pretty.

[quirrelli]

playing a Pokemon game for the first time in 2023

TL;DR: mixed bag, some strong aspects but also one big fat fatal flaw.

Even though I'm a 90s kid, the whole Pokemon phenomenon somehow passed my childhood by. Now, that isn't to say I'd never heard of the franchise and thought a Pikachu was the sound of 3.14159 sneezing; I have picked up some basic things through cultural osmosis. Like that you get one of three little lads to start with and then you go out and with your lad catch more lads, use them to fight other, evil lad catchers and then, presumably, save the world.

Anyway, I decided to see what all the fuss has been about these past 25 odd years and picked more or less at random one of the games I already had on emulator, Pokemon not being famed as a franchise that evolves (hah) drastically from game to game. I ended up with Pokemon FireRed, which turned out to be a stroke of luck because it's a remake of the original Pokemon Red and since I do sort of kind of know the names of some of the Gen 1 lad roster, there was bit of familiarity there.

I picked Charmander (named him Chomp) and off we went. First off, catching new Pokemon never stopped being exciting. I suspect it's a similar effect as Gatcha machines, where you'll probably just encounter another goddamn Pidgey but there's also a small chance it could be something cool. Like, I was super hyped when I caught a Pikachu very early on because I assumed, being the mascot and all, it must be super strong, so I named him Thor. I was only whelmed by his performance in the end but fine.

I will say, up until maybe the second gym, the fights are quite well balanced and I felt challenged but not overpowered. This being a JRPG I had braced myself for a lot of grinding but I ended up needing to do very little, which is nice. Also nice is the manner by which I, as a new player, got eased into systems like type matching, items, etc. Sure, literal sign posts with "trainer tips" are a bit on the nose but overall I appreciated not having an encyclopedia chucked at my head first thing. There is in fact an encyclopedia in game but I rarely used it and had a lot of fun drawing my own little diagram with the types and their interactions as I figured them out.

Progressing onward, I would describe the game as monotonous yet absorbing, at least for a while.

Whoops, that loaded sentence needs unpacking. Right, so, while your lads are still levelling up frequently and you're still constantly encountering new species on the road, the travel and various battles are a way to pace out the excitement without ever allowing it to die away entierly. Cool, works for me. However, this stops being the case in later dungeons, when, in a spectacular display of misplaced confidence not seen since the Virtual Boy, the lvl12 Rattatas of the world still think it's a good idea to spit at my lvl32 Machoke's feet (named Chad obvs). Simple fix I can suggest there, weak ass baby pokemon should just automatically stop coming at you and not require a consumable item to avoid.

On a vaguely related note, in that even random encounters are unnecessarily drawn out, this game has too many text boxes. You can't scratch your ass in this game without 5 text boxes describing the smell of your butt sweat. It really needs turbo text rather than just fast text because every time I get into a fight or go into a pokecenter to heal my nigh expired Meowth (Marx, bc she redistributes capital by throwing it at ppl), after I once again forgot you're not supposed to use bite on Nidoran, I have to read through the nurse's unedited life story first. It's almost as thumbnumbingly tedious as navigating the PC and every other menu.

As a final criticism on the topic of monotony, I'd like to mention that the overworld trainer battles could have been handled better, fancied up a little, arranged with more care than the spoons in my cutlery drawer. How it usually works, is that they're copypasted in groups of 5-10 along a path and you just fight one after another. I feel like the same effect could have been achieved by just having, like, 3 unique trainers and they all just give you 3x as much XP.

XP distribution is of course an eternal sticking point in party-based RPGs but since you usually fight all of these trainers in a row you'll have the same team anyway. In general, the limited XP distribution means that to avoid grinding you pretty much have to limit yourself to one team (+ a couple of situational swap outs) that counters more or less every type, irrespective of whether they are your personal faves. On the other hand, this does help you get emotionally invested in those particular pokemon and their growth in an organic way, but then on the other other hand... well, we'll come back to that.

To be clear, none of these criticisms are dealbreakers, just quality of life issues and maybe signs of age, which I should hope have been adressed in the meantime. Do let me know.

Overall, I made my way through the game without too much trouble. The only gym I temporarily got stuck on was poison mcninjaman, which might have been because it was the one thing I did slightly out of order. I was generally surprised with how linear the game is but I really didn't mind that so much. It allows for more control in levelling and exploration. Speaking of which, one of my favorite features is how your lads can learn certain moves to make new areas accessible. It massages my metroidvania brain and is a neat way of letting the overworld and the "battling dimension" blend together a bit.

Finishing the elite four and absolutely trouncing my rival one last time was perfectly serviceable as finales go. Honestly though, it was the battles before that, on victory road, that were the most engaging because it contained some of the only trainers in the whole game that have diverse teams, not just four ambulatory flowers that fare against my pet flamethrower the way a white couch fares against a toddler with permanent marker.

Regardless, I got my title as lord high champion master trainer of all the strongest lads in the land and was actually excited to dive back in and fill out my Pokedex, fully explore Kanto and continue evolving my team (and maybe some of my benchwarmers). It was then, when I finally took to the internet to look up how to most efficiently turn Nosferatu, Haunter extraordinaire, into Nosferatu, Gengar spectacular, that I was delivered a gut punch which instantly obliterated any desire to keep playing or any recommendation for this game I might have made. See, you can't evolve some Pokemon (i.e. about half my team) into their final form without trading them with other players. Combined with the fact that you apparently can't get the other starters at all, you have no chance to even get remotely close to completing your Pokedex if, say, you're playing the game 20 years after it came out and it's on an emulator and thus not multiplayer compatible. This is a problem, to put it mildly.

I understand that nintendo wanted to encourage players to use the multiplayer features, but in a game that is still designed 99% around a singleplayer experience, it is just not ok to lock players who don't happen to have anyone to trade with out of crucial content like this. It clashes directly with the idea that you grow attached to your Pokemon through your adventures and that they will grow with you when eventually, no amount of rare candies, items or love you can bestow upon them will help. It's the much, much worse flipside of the limited XP problem, first forcing you to focus on a core team to the detriment of all the others and then putting a hard stop on that team's development. It would be possible grind XP if you really wanted that Alakazam but you can't magically conjure a friend (trust me on that). I could bear, like, one super special rare pokemon being exclusive to multiplayer but this is just bullying lonely kids and any astronauts who might be playing.

To summarize my overall opinion with a metaphor: Pokemon FireRed just about manages to squeeze into the crowded bus to Good Video Game town choking in Earthbound's musky armpit, only to be shoved out again on the second to last stop and faceplant into a concrete bench.

I would give Pokemon another chance if it didn't have that irredeemable anti-loner feature. Having said this, I've come to realize that, although I don't dislike the trainer battling, it was but the complementary bread rolls of this meal. I much preferred finding new Pokemon, figuring out how to best fight them without accidentally killing them/having them escape and exploring new areas. So I guess my ideal Pokemon game would be one where trainer duels are kept to a select few and instead the mechanics of finding and catching new lads as well as taking care of them are made more intricate (and less reliant on RNGesus).

Like Monster Hunter meets Nintendogs. Does that exist? Someone let me know if that exists.

[arttrampbelle]

Cw: vent

Vent time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mk11 doesn't have plotholes

IT HAVE PLOT CHASMS. PLOT ABYSSES.

Plots so huge,so confusing,so stupid. It makes the old sub zero mythologies,and special forces side games look like decent plots.

The only thing good about it is the og actor is back as shang but even then it's still painful.

9,story is garbage. But the gameplay is amazing.

10,gameplay is out of this world. Story is mid,horrible for some characters but solid main big boss. Online i heard is better than 11. But i hate online competitive gameplay. It kinda sucks the fun away. And not worth it. Plus the amount of guest characters because they killed half the roster. It's ridiculous. And unnecessary. So yeah.

11. *breathes in*. 11. Again they knew the story was crap,half baked. So they made a whole ass expansion to a lukewarm story nobody cared for. To retcon a retcon THEY MADE. And guess what? It's that "we are gonna take everything you love about this series and take a huge fat shit on it. For profit" if you like shang tsung,you may love 11. But even then it feels off. But again thats the best they can do. And you damn well we ain't gonna have this again. If there ever will be a 12. Because at this point im not so sure. And honestly i don't care if they dont make a 12.

It would be a shame. But honestly I'd rather take a non canon ACTUALLY GOOD MK GAME. no bullshit. No fillers. No guest characters. No micro transactions. Just a good ol fashioned mk game. Pick a character,pick an arena,and fight. No complicated over explained story. Simple and to the point. Let the audience and players make a story. Or at least,bring back the spirit of mk. Bring back the ACTUAL CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY part in mk,with more than 2 choices. More than "good" vs "evil" actually have real constructive morally grey areas. Like it's not that hard.

Like get better writers. Fr.

Wattpad has better writers than you NRS.

WATTPAD!

You had 30yrs to get it right. 30!

Almost as old as i am.

Fr. No excuses. You are a decent,multibillion company. Or at very least a professional one. Your servers should be always up to date. You should have things actually in a row. The basics at least.

Like there is no excuses on being sloppy.

This isn't just about mk. This is also from a business perspective.

If you know your story isnt solid. Get better writers. Or tell your writers to stop relying on dumb tropes. And have actual creativity.

You can make things modern without pandering.

You can have nods to nostalgia without pandering too.

Subtle is better.

Cheeky one liners you cant rely on.

If the motives aren't solid. Then things fall apart.

Like they knew that if they dont bring back shang tsung as a big bad boss. It would suck.

Because how can they top corrupt form shinnok. Let's be honest....that was badass.

Nothing was ever really changed. And its a waste of time.

We get nothing but absolute perfection from tagawa's performance. But other then him. Mk11 is weak af.

So again. You like cary hiroyuki tagawa? Good. You're in luck. You like shang tsung? He's the man of the hour.

If you like anything else,anybody else,NRS said fuck you.

Which sucks. Because as a shang tsimp. It pisses me off that that's all they relied on.

And they can't pull that shit again. Because people will know. They already probably do.

They rely on cheap gimmicks,to prey on non mk fans,new fans who haven't touched mk in their whole ass existence and are just getting into it,and y'all fall for it. Because people seem to have short attention spans and need their gatcha fix no matter how poor quality.

Like im sorry. Even if you are new. Have better standards in storytelling. This is a professional company. They shouldn't be worse then us fans telling fart jokes in a fanfic about silly fighting game characters in colorful jammies.

Im just saying.

Im done venting now.

[princesscolumbia]

This will sound like a non-sequitur, but I'm surprisingly good at resource collection games.

I've lately gotten very hooked on Star Trek: Fleet Command, and unless Star Trek: Infinite is exceptionally better in every way except the obvious eye candy, I'll probably stick with FC over I simply because I'm nearly to Ops lvl. 30 and that's when the game gets really interesting.

The premise from the pure gameplay perspective is simple; you start off with a space station that's pretty basic. You have one dock, one ship attached to the doc, one gun to defend your station, and an operations center. To progress, you must gather materials and defeat hostiles. Working with other players can net you bonuses, but isn't required. (The game does get progressively harder if you insist on going solo, if not the least because you leave yourself open to attack when you hit the PVP threshold of lvl. 15) As you acquire resources, you can build up your station, build more and bigger ships, etc. By the time you've invested a good amount of time in the game, you have a station that could probably whether the Dominion War without choosing a side.

There are, of course, story elements to it, but at a certain point those become almost secondary, and if you're progressing fast enough on the building of your station and ships, you outpace the story missions so fast you wonder if they're meant to be a challenge.

From the commercial perspective, it's basically a fancy gatcha game with extra steps. Sure, you can direct specific builds at specific times toward specific goals, but certain parts require that certain loot boxes deliver certain candy when you whack 'em with a stick, and the best way to get the best candy is to spend money to upgrade the loot boxes.

I won't say I don't spend money on this game, I certainly have. Part of it is supporting the devs and part of it is being the leader of an Alliance and needing specific resources and builds to help the players in my alliance. But I don't have to do so. If I were to play this game from the beginning all over again without spending money on it, I'd seek out an LGBTQ+-friendly alliance to join and focus on the story missions as I reached the appropriate level.

Either way, that I spend money on it is immaterial to my success. I've had to...counsel a gamer widow whose husband was spending thousands per year on the game and had been playing longer than me and was doing worse by every metric.

My 'secret'? Whatever resource I have, spend only 10% of it per day, sit on the rest. Yes, I have to keep my shields up and be VERY careful to never, ever let them laps (especially during PvP events), but I've managed to amass so much liquid wealth in so MANY resources that when there's some sort of 'spend' in-game to get something, I almost don't think about dropping the in-game currency for it.

That's pretty much it. Yes, I hit the dailies, but not every day. Sure, I'm likely to go for an event goal, but I'm not going out of my way to do so.

Thanks to spending just 10% and banking everything else, my resources are organically growing faster than I can spend them, even for special events or one-time purchases.

I've had the opportunity to sit in on conferences where the uber-wealthy gather and provide mentorship. You've got your "comfortably wealthy," the level where you still have to have a job for day-to-day but your retirement is taken care of and your children will likely get a nice fat inheritance when you die. You've got your "retire early" wealthy where you pretty much only work a job if you want to, and at that point you're probably starting your own businesses and spinning 'em off so you can chase passion projects, but you've got to keep turning the crank for a while before you can take your hand off the machinery because it runs itself.

The truly wealthy, however, never spend more than 10% of their income. Sure, they don't have to, and that's their real secret; they've got so much income that even if they bought all the Rich Person Toys they could want and threw money at all the subscription services that crossed their path, they'd never breach that 10% threshold. It requires they expend concerted effort to break through that spending barrier. This is why you hear about them buying whole companies just because they didn't want to wait in line at a place. (That scene in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne buys the restaurant just so he can take a dip in the lobster tank? That's not that far from what actually happens at this level.)

When the uber-wealthy pull one of these:

...it's because they genuinely have zero frame of reference for how the rest of us live. It's not something they do on purpose, they're genuinely ignorant of a world where you can barely bank 10% of your income if the stars align AND you don't have an emergency.

So poor people don’t deserve to have money?!

[silver-wield]

Maybe we should give other Clotis that were playing that stupid game and now deleted it an alternative? What are other games that are similar to EC but better? Because I know there must be other games that are 1000% better than that trash EC game. Let's try to give some other options for Clotis.

I play Love and Deepspace. The battles and storyline are way better already. The gatcha also feels less like you're being held upside down and shaken by your ankles till all your money falls out. At least it does for me. Depending on the month and events I spend about £30-50 on it and I'm happy doing it.

Ec always made me feel resentful. Especially since I preferred FS which had better battles and skins. If they'd given it some story it would've been perfect, but they were morons.

[otomes-world]

44.2 “You don’t have to pretend with me”

To be honest, Trey was not the most interesting character. He was a typical member of the group of `big brothers`. It felt like he was a third-rate compared to others, to the same first years or dorm heads. Undoubtedly, there were other characters who, despite the small amount of air time, caught players with their appearance or temper. Clover represented average qualities in these categories too.

He had fans, you just weren't one of them.

That was why, you failed to notice how only he consistently brings you daily rewards, as well as how often his cards began to drop to you. Especially when it wasn't in the gatcha you roll. Especially when you did not participate in his events at all, but his cards continued to appear in your collection steadily for inexplicable reasons. Now scrolling through all these minor details in your head, you realized that he was quite clear in his intentions.

“Name, I've been watching over you for a long time so I know when you're having a bad day. You don't have to pretend with me. On the contrary, it would be better if you share such details with me, because that’s what friends are for, right?”

You knew that Clover was no stranger to manipulation. Who would have thought that someday you would feel everything on yourself. To be honest, it was an unpleasant feeling.

"Do not pretend?" You looked at the character who was waiting for you as soon as you turned on the phone. You didn't even have to log into the game. On the screen he was looking to you and the gardens of Heartslabyul. "Shouldn't I be saying this? Get out of character sir dormitory vice-leader. It doesn't suit you."

At this, Trey continued to smile as if absolutely nothing had happened. Like you were just reading one of his stories and he didn't literally was in charge of your phone. Like you switched places and it was you who was being played with, not him. Like you were a kid who threw a tantrum when things didn't go the way he wanted them to.

"Is something wrong, Name?"

He even dared to ask.

"Don't take me for an idiot, Sir Clover," even if you were jarred by polite speech, you tried to build at least some kind of wall between you. Not tangible, but weighty enough to annoy the interlocutor. "Just know, I'll get rid of you at the first opportunity I get."

"If that thought comforts you, Name, you can cherish it. I won't mind," the smile on his face remained unchanged, although you could have sworn that his expression had changed slightly. You were able to hurt him. "However, you should know that when you will break rose-colored glasses, and you will, the one who will suffer in the first place will be you."

list of prompt

[fala-alfredo-pasta]

I'd like to hear the gamer Nagito spiel please and thank you

yesssssss im so happy someone asked cuz I had many THOUGHTS for talent swapped gamer!Nagito:

okay SO 👏

Nagito is a kid from a relatively well off family (maybe not millionaires since he didn't win the lottery) who got so attached to his games he ended up being home schooled so he could devote more time to gaming. His parents were chill with it as long as he kept his grades up. They were away most of the time on business so it was easier to keep track of their son's academics by simply texting the tutors.

It's only until he gets invited to Hope's Peak that Nagito has to actually physically go to school, and lets just say that he is VERY SOCIALLY IMPAIRED BECAUSE HE HAD LITERALLY LITTLE TO NO INTERACTION WITH OTHERS IRL, DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ANY ONLINE FRIENDS BECAUSE HE FOUND MOST OF THEM TO BE BORING, AND THE LONGEST CONVERSATION HE'S HAD WAS WHEN HIS TUTOR ASKED WHY HIS ESSAY WAS LATE AND NAGITO HAD TO EXPLAIN THE COST-TIME RATIO OF PULLING SOMETHING GOOD IN A GATCHA GAME.

God is he awkward. Not good at reading social cues. Says things that are concerning I guess?? People don’t joke like that in person apparently??? How was he suppose to know it makes people uncomfortable when you say "man today was kind of boring huh? Wish someone at school died"???

I mean the best games have murder and death–-high stakes that keep things interesting. Isn’t that what makes life worth playing too??

As such he still likes messing with fire and making bombs because he sees it as a sort of survival game. How much can you play around with these things and not die challenge. So when people ask him what his hobbies are BESIDES gaming they quickly come to the conclusion that they should not interact further with this weird creepy guy lol

He’s still inspired by hope but not as intensely as OG Nagi is since it isn’t fueled by his despair. Rather he finds the hope he sees through the characters on the screen to truly be a prime example of what to strive for. Nagito thinks it’s worth all the pain and suffering the characters had to go through to get their endings because it ultimately results in them becoming a better and stronger version of themselves–something that changes the whole story around them. Yknow. Or they die. Sometimes both.

Can’t this also be applied to people irl? Everyone has struggles they have to go through and the bigger the obstacle the bigger the pay off and the bigger the HOPE! They just have to try harder. Or yknow. Die. Maybe even both.

So when he meets this girl with this chaotic (un)lucky energy that follows her around and in no doubt causes her trouble on a daily basis–he can’t help but be drawn to her storyline to see how it ends. And maybe (unfortunately?) falls in love along the way.

[thedeconator]

my thoughts on prosekai as a rhythm game

project sekai is a very popular game, so popular that even ppl irl will ask me if i play!! as someone who has hundreds of hours on a wide variety of rhythm games i want to share my thoughts and ramble about something i like

i have been playing the game on EN near-daily on my iphone

is project sekai a good rhythm game?

my short answer is yes - but what what do i think makes it appealing? like any good rhythm game i think it is because it is easy to learn but difficult to master, in fact, compared to other rhythm games it has a good difficulty scale both overall and in individual songs (during the games lifespan so far more difficult songs have been added for the top players) each song has a good range of difficulties as well and i think it helps accommodate every skill level with 5 different difficulties for each song and it helps players practice on a good curve (most games i see have 3-4 difficulties for each song)

i believe that a rhythm game is only as good as its songs and prosekai has an excellent song list! i think the song list appeals to more long time vocal synth fans, but it has a good range and new players can find songs they like. the game has a good range in styles AND bpm as well as some classic vocaloid songs and popular songs that i doubt would ever be added into the more traditional project diva rhythm games (another rhythm game featuring the cryptonloids) new songs are added at a good pace and i think the size of the games song list is in a good space, not too massive and not too small

the gameplay itself is very solid for a touchscreen game - it isn't entirely innovative and i wouldn't call it a must play game for a rhythm game veteran purely for its gameplay. for being a downscrolling touch screen rhythm game, it is very clean compared to simular games (such as bandoori) and is very easy to look at. it tries to be different by having notes have different sizes, which makes for more visually striking and different beatmaps. a very small detail that i think makes a world of difference is the use of the iphones vibration with the tap of each note - it is a very subtle effect but it makes a world of difference for a soild feeling game on a phone and it helps me keep a feeling for the rhythm (it now feels uncomfortable playing music games without this feature and without it getting higher accuracy is much more difficult)

although the game is a gatcha game, it doesn't force you to pay anything extra or use the gatcha to experience the entirety of the rhythm game aspect of the game, which i respect. if you do participate in the gatcha you can build better teams for higher scores, as well as skills for life gain and accuracy (good if you are trying to complete songs slightly outside your skill level), but the game never downright punishes you for not spending money on it. the game's story is optional as well, although i would recommend reading the base story of each group to understand the worldbuilding and character dynamics.

the energy system does not force you to wait or pay for more energy to play a song (although the in-game rewards are diminshed), so if you just want to play a lot of songs or are trying to grind an individual song you won't have any trouble

i was personally surprised about how fun prosekai is - i have played a lot a game like it and was expecting to get bored of it after a month. i do think a lot of the appeal of the game is the characters and v-syth music but it take away from it at all.

i am super glad that the game commissions producers and artists to make content for the game and i think prosekai is reviving the vocaloid community yay!! (especially after hachi made sand planet about how the vocaloid community is dying lol look at it now!!)

[the-breloominati]

What is arknights

I've seen enough tumblr blorboposts to decide I want in

TL;DR: tower defense with furries (to varying degrees of furry); also a mobile gatcha (I think you can get it on desktop too though)

ok so. god where do I start.. how do I start…..

The player character is called Doctor, and they’re one of the heads (kinda) of this group/company Rhodes Island. Rhodes works to provide medical care for people with Oripathy, called Infected, and are also working to find a cure for Oripathy. Oripathy is a terminal disease (it can be stabilized though depending on how far someone’s infection has progressed) caused by exposure to Originium, which is a kind of rock. (It’s sorta like uranium I guess? In the sense of it can be used for a lot of things, but long-term exposure can lead to illness.) There are also events called Catastrophes, which are natural events that can expose large groups of people to large quantities of originium (which can kill a lot of people and infect many others). In order to avoid catastrophes, people made nomadic cities (don’t ask me how they work).

There’s also a bunch of different races; most of them are animal people (to varying degrees), but some of them, like the Sarkaz, are.. other things? The Sarkaz are based around demons and stuff I think. Vaguely. There’s also at least two guys that are just birds? Idk about all the lore but the wiki (the Wikia or whatever not the Gamepress one) has more info about all of em.

Anyways the main story (and some of the side/event stories) are pretty political? Cause that’s kind of the nature of Rhodes Island; in order to provide care and treatment for more people they have to work together with different governments. It’s not super heavy-handed or anything I don’t think, but you can like.. apply stuff from the real world to it to get a better idea of things? Kinda? Idk gkfbjabhbkdhah

Anyway anyway, it’s a gatcha game with furries (mostly kemonomimi-style characters, pretty sure you can count all the kemono operators (playable characters basically) on two hands). The gameplay is tower defense, which is cool. The story is written quite well, but sometimes each segment can be VERY long (especially with event stages), so feel free to skip it if you want — you can always go back to it later to read it.