#case of the golden idol art

[juliavisuals]

LAZARUS ART BECAUSE THIS GAME HAS LITERALLY SO LITTLE FANART??

[skridz]

ILOVE SPACEHEY

LOOK AT HOWGOOFY

[tsuzukerukoto]

Hey all! Hope everyone's been okay, I've been out and about enjoying the summer these past few days, getting out there and all that. I'll be back on here and on Discord soon (I've been cooking some IC replies when I can) but I'm feeling pretty recharged! Thanks for all the patience.

[blqgumi]

Making this video was hard. It somehow meshed all my WIPS and all the games I was playing. It was fun though, maybe one day I'll get to yap in more detail about Detective Horror Games.

[imperotenebre]

The Case of the Golden Idol PS5 gameplay 4K - prime impressioni

Finalmente anche su PlayStation

[powdermelonkeg]

Theory that solves(?) "founding of Hyrule" timeline inconsistencies:

Origin of Hyrule no. 1: Skyward Sword. Zelda, Link, and the Skylians settle the surface world at the game's conclusion. Notably, their dress looks nothing like the Zonai era.

Origin of Hyrule no. 2: Tears of the Kingdom. Rauru and Sonia are the king and queen who founded Hyrule. Notably, Zonai mechanisms and architecture greatly resemble the pre-Skyward-Sword-era Lanayru mining tech and symbolism, though Skyward Sword's art direction is more cartoony than TotK, so that has to be taken into account.

That's where it gets cyclical. If TotK's forgotten era came first, then:

Zonai influence should be ALL OVER Skyloft

The Gerudo should not exist, because they're (implied to be) descended from Groose, a Skylian; at the very least, there should have been a whole Gerudo culture in the Sky

Where did the Secret Stones go?

We should have seen Zeldra flying around in the sky, let alone Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra

But if Skyward Sword came before all things Zonai, then:

The Lanayru Mining Facility (assuming it to be Zonai in origin) should not exist

Hyrule should have already been founded by Rauru's time

Of the two, Skyward Sword being first on the wild surface makes more sense. But if that's the case, there are even more questions:

Where did the Secret Stones come from? Are we to believe that Hylia gave them to the Zonai, since the Golden Trio have already left the Triforce and departed?

What about the Zonai themselves? They supposedly descended from the heavens. Were they just up so high that the Skylians couldn't find them? Did Hylia cleave the ground twice? Did they spontaneously appear up there like mice in grain bins?

Why is there a whole Temple of Time with bells that Rauru, one of two of the LAST of his species, woke up and went to sleep to? In fact, why is there an entire kingdom's worth of structures already built before the Sky Reckoning?

My solution:

The Zonai did exist pre-Skyward Sword, and did descend down from the sky ages ago. They built the Lanayru Mining Facility, utilizing the power of Timeshift Stones in their work. This is not Rauru and Mineru's era.

The Zonai are among the people that stay behind to fight Demise alongside Hylia, while the Skylians were sent up to Skyloft. The people of the Surface are entrusted with the Secret Stones as weapons against Demise, with the caveat that they keep them hidden. That's why they're called Secret Stones despite being well-known to Ganondorf in TotK, it was PARAMOUNT that Demise not know he could get any stronger.

The war ends. Just about every civilization is obliterated by it. The Zonai retreat as far from Demise's seal as they can to lick their wounds. They take the sages' Secret Stones with them, so as to not be caught unawares and lose them to Demise when he eventually reemerges.

Skyward Sword.

The evil is defeated, the Skylians come down to the Surface. That's the signal that it's safe to return now. Shortly after the Skylians officially start to settle, the Zonai, who know how things work, help them build a proper civilization.

Time passes. The Surface is officially a bunch of scattered clans with varying degrees of territory. People are content, though nothing is particularly efficient. The Skylians take on Zonai fashion and building styles as generations pass. The Zonai themselves dwindle.

Rauru, married to the leader of the Hylians, looks to unite the scattered clans under one banner in the name of prosperity and shared resources, idolizing the pre-Skyward era where the gods walked the land. He and Sonia officially name the place Hyrule, and any clan that signs treaty with them is considered within its borders. Mineru, meanwhile, has made her first construct models based on the Lanayru Mine Robots of old, which add to the appeal of joining Hyrule as its subkingdom territories.

Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda's first 12 memories.

Between the Master Sword going back in time and Zeldra's ascent, Zelda and Mineru get to work with as many constructs as possible to protect the Sky Isles they plan to send upwards. They need a TON of Zonaite, and recycling is a priority, leading to the gachapon machines.

Zelda knows enough about her kingdom that she knows where the land is particularly rich is where the people of her time settled, and Zonaite is shown to enrich soil greatly. This is why all the old Zonaite mines are underneath the towns in modern Hyrule, despite changing geography through other eras, and Tarrey Town's new-ness.

Zelda ascends.

The secretive Sheikah clan, having seen the Blood Moon's rise when the Demon King took power, realize that Demise isn't, in fact, all gone. They decide this means that their job serving Hylia isn't truly done, and return to help the fledgling kingdom as best they can. They bring the knowledge of the Master Sword of Skyward Sword days with them.

Ganondorf first shakes the seal he's under without form, leading to the first Calamity and the initial rise of Calamity Ganon. This is 10k years before BotW. This is also the first documented use of the Master Sword to seal the Demon King away, recorded in the tapestry.

The Sheikah are forced to abandon their technology. The Yiga/Sheikah split happens.

Literally all the rest of Hyrulean History happens after this.

Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom.

[spicy-apple-pie]

Fuck it, here’s some video games I think the Wayne’s would like.

First up, Return of the Obra Dinn. A murder mystery that relies on environmental clues to discover who’s who and what happened. I think Tim eventually got Bruce into the game. Bruce doesn’t play games so it was really Tim controlling the player while Bruce instructs him where to go. Duke likes it too, he has a whole section in his notebook to keep track of his thoughts.

Kinda in that same realm, The Case of The Golden Idol. Again, murder mysteries with environmental clues. Bruce can play this one by himself since it’s just a point and click. Duke and Tim also really like the game.

Duke really likes the Rusty Lake series. It reminds him of the computer games he used to eat up as a kid. Jason likes some of the storytelling beats and the metaphors. Damian can’t stomach the game because of the mistreatment of Mr. Harvey.

Disco Elysium. Omg would Jason love Disco Elysium. The storytelling, the art, the shitting on rich people. Damian got into it for the art but then got really invested in it. I don’t think Bruce would play it but my god would he do everything in his power to adopt Cuno and Cunoesse. Steph plays it because she saw a few memes of it online and always chooses the worst option for shits and giggles.

Damian secretly loves cozy games. He has a Stardew play through and the first cow he got he named Batcow. Him and Jon have a game together for when they’re “studying” every Wednesday. His favourite NPC is Sam, because he reminds Damian of Jon, but he would never admit that. Yes, this is me pushing my; “Damian gets a farm and becomes a veterinarian and goes out as a vigilante some of the time” agenda.

[atthebell]

guys out of pure desperation here's a(n incomplete) list of games that have come out during cellbit's break or are upcoming releases that he'll possibly play/that i want for him to play once he's back, in no particular order and including games i think will be terrible but he'll play anyway:

cryptmaster

slay the princess (i think it still doesn't have an official portuguese translation but there is a fan translation that felps used for his playthrough)

fears to fathom: woodbury getaway

clock tower rewind

decadent

reanimal (looks very little nightmares)

no, i'm not human

zoochosis (he played the demo i'm pretty sure and it was kind of terrible but we'll see if he plays the full release)

hauntii

hollow body

machinika atlas

riven (unless it's only out on vr)

murders on the yangtze river (menace and i played a couple of the bits that were out in english and it's pretty good plus the full eng translation is out now)

escape memoirs: safe house

malware (no way he doesn't play this)

late homework

beyond shadowgate

phoenix springs (obra dinn vibes, extremely detective-y)

farewell north (dog)

asleep - ato 1 (brazilian indie horror game w/female protagonist & pixel art AND he already featured the trailer on the cellbit awards last year)

parallel experiment (cryptic killer sequel-- would love for him and roier to play this once it releases)

staffer case

until then

neva (devs who made gris which he ADORED)

edge of sanity

homicipher

rise of the golden idol (follow up to case of the golden idol, one of his fave games)

[thatpersonwhosaidtheywouldnt]

What do you think of these Absolute Flash previews?

Alright I'll got through them one by one.

The first image is gorgeous. I love the way the artist draws the Speed Force (I am assuming it is the Speed Force, admittedly). The typical lightning is not any different but the rectangles are what really make it for me. They drive the perspective of the piece and Wally's motion really well.

Now, getting into the actual pages that were revealed. It is interesting to me that he is in the desert. It makes me wonder if this Wally might not live in the Midwest. The image is giving New Mexico vibes to me but really, could be anywhere from California to Nevada to Utah to New Mexico. Of course this could be a reach. Maybe he ran really far with his new powers, considering the shock on his face, that is just as possible. Something that really interests me is how we keep seeing Wally drawn with the lightning. Not only does he have the lightning around him but also this secondary red image. Perhaps this is just a stylistic choice but to me, it reads as either him being in pain (which would be an interesting choice, hearkening back to the many times Wally has dealt with his powers causing him pain) or as another being grabbing at him. I am wondering if because of the nature of the Absolute Universe, the Speed Force is poisoned in some way. But I am getting into wild speculation territory so lets get to the next page.

The Rogues! Okay, man, do they have a different vibe. Seems pretty likely to me that these Rogues are working with the government. What would make sense to me is that they are perhaps made in particular to go after Wally, a bit of a twist on them developing their weapons in response to him to acts as thieves. Alternatively, they are already an existing government squad that goes after powered individuals. Now the Rogues themselves... it seems clear to me that we have Captain Cold, Golden Glider, and Captain Boomerang. I am unsure who they are going for with the guy in that back. My immediate guess is Trickster, but it could easily be a few people. As to who they are... They could easily be who they are in the main verse, but it is interesting to me that Cold so closely aligns with Rudy West's typical design. I think it isn't much of a stretch to say it could be him (and a number of people have been noting that as well). If he is Rudy, it makes it pretty likely to me that Golden Glider is Iris but that might be a stretch. I am excited to see them, though, and what direction Lemire goes.

Alright, the final page. This one is honestly the one that has me the most pumped. We are getting to see a lot into who Wally is and his family life. I think it is pretty safe to say that he is living with his grandfather, Ira West. His design is basically a one-for-one with his appearances in the mainverse, and he seems too old to be Rudy. Wally living with Ira is honestly a brilliant move, in the least suggesting Wally's parents have remained not the best people in this world. Ira has not been seen in so long, too, so I am excited for the potential. Is he still a scientist here? Maybe he is how Wally gets his powers? Honestly so many cool possibilities. Now as for Wally... Him be a musician is super cool to me. I am really enjoying the vibe we are seeing for him here. Teen Wally in mainverse was written sooo long ago and is obviously very dated and very much obsessed with the Flash. But this is a world without a Flash, so who is Wally without his idol? What is he into? Him playing the guitar with headphones on really reminds me of how teen Wally in the main universe was described as having his head in the clouds. It seems that is the case with this Wally too. I assume the posters and art around him are band posters but I hope we get more of an answer to that when the book comes out.

Overall... I am pumped, honestly. Most looks back at teen Wally we have gotten have been Teen Titans Wally, who fills a specific archetype. I am excited to get a take that is more nuanced. I really hope we have him meeting Linda and Piper and Chunk as a teenager. There is just so much potential for this and I have high hopes.

[ataleofcrowns]

What kind of game genre the RO's like to play?👀

I'm assuming in like a modern!au 🤔

D would be really into strategy games and management games. Think the Civ series for strategy, or Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld for management. R got them to try out the Sims one time and after spending 3 hours painstakingly creating their Sim family, D put them in a house, immediately got bored, set the house on fire to kill them all and closed the game.

They would also greatly enjoy puzzle/detective games that rely on logic and deduction, like Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol.

X would enjoy open world games that encourage you to fuck around as much you want. They'd mostly be familiar with GTA, Sleeping Dogs, Red Dead Redemption 2 - they're not into video games as much, so they stick with the most well known hits.

Also would enjoy competitive multiplayer games from time to time whenever they feel like dunking on someone (D), mainly with fighting games. Street Fighter is probably their fav.

A is undoubtedly a FromSoft stan first, a gamer second. Anything soulslike, either in aesthetics or mechanics, is also a quick hit; they especially have a soft spot for platformers like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous.

They also really enjoy roguelikes like Vampire Survivors, Enter the Gungeon and Dead Cells. X has described their taste in games as "masochistic" before to which A replied with "get good".

R has a preference for cool aesthetics, innovative design, and indie games in general. If the art is unique, if the story says something new, or if the mechanics are interesting they tend to be a fan of it.

Think Signalis, Journey, World of Horror, Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium, etc. These games have very little in common with each other in substance, but they are each very distinguished in style, mechanics or story.

[wallbeatjournal]

JIMIN MENTION. Riverdale characters as BTS members

unfortunately i did workshop this with the army gc and i think i have a proposal. it doesn't totally work because of gender dynamics and the way the universes of corporate-competitive art performance and riverdale aren't really quite aligned, but i think i got somewhere.

RIVERDALE MAINS AS BTS MEMBERS:

jughead = rm / kim namjoon. iconoclast. the lyricist-narrator of the whole deal. the link to the big corporate-bureaucratic metaplot in the sky. a typewriter kind of guy. there are so so so many of him and sometimes they interact. queerbait-complicit and yet sidestepping it.

reggie = jin / kim seokjin. the negotiator. the big-city boyfriend from the hallmark movie. the nation's son-in-law but DID flirt with your grandmother and your dad at the function. fed that mean old man from his bare hand. schemes and scams, less opportunistically than as a vocational calling. second place to karl marx and knows it.

betty = suga / min yoongi. she's resisting her idol image with her gratuitously-edgy secondary persona but she's still your poor little meow meow, your baby. she's alert! she's fractured! her amygdala is working sooo hard. her shadow grows and grows and she's avoiding it she's looking at it she's avoiding it she's looking. don't say tangerine.

veronica = j-hope / jung hoseok. idk it's about perfectionism. it's about how CRYING 👏 DOES 👏 NOT 👏 FIT 👏 WITH 👏 HER 👏 LIFE'S 👏 VIBE. it's about lean-in girlbossism. it's about success not creating psychological safety (but she wants more anyway bc what else is she here to do). she's nice but she's ruthless but she loves you!! and on several tragic levels iykyk: she da bus driver all of a sudden.

kevin = jimin. compulsive joiner. compulsive people-pleaser. compulsive flirt. compulsive. mapplethorpe fanboy. gender outlaw. a smoke-show, now. most likely to charm a late night talk show host. queerbaiter of the cruising-coded-crowd-scene variety. most likely to put it all on the line for a little cabaret ♥

cheryl = v / kim taehyung. questionable art appreciator. questionable painter. questionable self portrait accumulator. high-aesthetic curator of Scenes and Situations. president of gay fanservice (self-appointed). glamorous alien OR reclusive little freak. if the high-aesthetic, melodramatic-literary closet case lament fits.

archie = jungkook. golden boy all-rounder. beefcake-on-display. designated himbo. Wants To Help. will NOT contribute to a conversation so don't even try. gives kind of a sincere wounded baby animal quality at times. queerbait via lore-relevant chime card sponcon (this isn't jarchie but it does make you ask yourself "is charlie puth sort of jugheadcore, if jughead sucked (derogatory) instead of sucking (complimentary)?")

[radiation]

ok marco this is my moment. my partner and i played UNIVERSALLY CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED puzzle game THE RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN and by the end it pissed us the fuck off so bad not even cheating to the end of the “story” could save it. gameplay relies on increasingly obtuse visual clues that due to the low-res monochrome art style become an actual legitimate accessibility issue by the end. there are puzzles that are genuinely unsolvable using the deduction the game claims to emphasize and it forces the player to make brute-force guesses until they stumble upon the right answer which TO ME AND NO ONE ELSE, I GUESS, seems antithetical to what puzzle games are supposed to accomplish. and the story isn’t even good it’s a massive nothingburger of a resolution and the few actually interesting parts of the plot do not get elaborated on at all. case of the golden idol is infinitely better just play that love and light

.

[skridz]

Is this too fuckjkg weird guys

[c-liffy]

I Still Don't Like You

Ryujin x Violinist!Reader | Ryujin and Reader both attend Hanlim | Ryujin is one year older than Reader

(wc: 1084)

To say you and Ryujin were friends was putting it loosely.

Sure, you were in the same friend group, but Ryujin never could shake her small dislike towards you. You were a year her junior and yet you acted like you were still a child sometimes.

Those that went to Hanlim were the best of the best. It was supposed to be a place where only mature students nurtured their talent until, in many of the students' cases, they debuted. 

However, you weren't interested in debuting. Sure, you were an Applied Music Major, so you were friends with many of the soon-to-be idols, but you played the violin. Your parents started you on lessons when you were just four and had no idea that your hatred for constantly being urged to practice would blossom into unconditional love for the instrument.

And soon enough you were 15 and a golden ticket to a performing arts school was at your door.

Of course, you were a bit too oblivious to realize that the scholarships and tantalizing offers were only because Hanlim had a quota to meet. To be recognized as a "Performing Arts Institution'' they would need more than just the single vocal department they had. Though, this only gave you drive. Maybe it was an intended effect, maybe it was accidental, but you took it as a challenge. 

Unfortunately, such a renowned school also came with heaps of homework. Which only left you time to practice in the late hours of the night.

Which leads you to right now.

You weren't sure what time it was. Only that you'd entered the Performance Center at eleven; you could only guess how late it was now. 

The haziness from the night was getting to you and you wanted anything but to practice. Moments prior the wooden instrument was resting in your shaking hands and the only thing you could think was to drop it and watch it smash into splintered shards.

Many of your friends often expressed a kind of hopelessness that came with being in the crowd of Hanlim students with stars in their eyes and dreams of debuting in a popular group. You could only nod as they would slump against you; 

"You have no idea! I wish I wasn't in the dance department and just played an instrument like you!"

Usually some form of a backhanded compliment would follow but you just brushed it off. If only they knew how much you understood.

You sit at the edge of the stage; violin and bow set next to you. Your face is in your hands as you rub away the tears that brimmed your eyes and hopefully some of the frustration that came with. 

The misery sits swirling around you until the sound of one of the side-stage doors opening knocks you down from your thoughts,

"Ryujin?" 

Great, she thinks, the one person she really doesn't want to see is sitting before her. Ryujin’s sure you're soon going to come bounding up to her with glitter in your expression and rainbows across your head. And so she looks up, expecting you to be just as she thinks.

But you don't look cheerful or giggly; you just look tired.

Seldom, if ever, had she ever seen you this down. Perhaps after a test or some faint mocking of being sad, but your eyes look more of murky pitfalls than anything even close to rainbows,

"Ryujin? What are you doing here?" You repeat

"Oh... I was looking for a stage to rehearse something I have, but I didn't know this was occupied," She begins to retreat back into the hall

"It's not. I'm," You pause to frown at your discarded instrument, "I'm done here," Hopping off the stage, you wrap your fingers around the neck of your violin and pluck a few of the strings with your left hand

"Are you sure? Chaeryoung always says you don't come back to the dorms until she's awake for her classes," An awkward chuckle dies on her lips as she rubs over her nape

"Yeah. Maybe some sleep would help," You think outloud and shake your thoughts away before laying your violin in it's case and begin to untighten your bow.

Ryujin can't help but feel the stiff tension around you both. Usually you would crack a joke that would cause bubbling laughter to break up the pressure, but now the air just feels passè; stale,

"Wait!" You turn with a confused look back at her, "I wanna hear you play something?" God, what was she doing? She's not supposed to want you to feel better. She's not supposed to want to see you smile

"It's fine, Ryujin. I know you don't like me. You don't have to make me feel better," She freezes as you turn back to continue packing up. Ryujin isn't used to seeing this side of you; blunt and eerily unnerving.

She opens her mouth to excuse anything she can, but nothing comes out. With a lick of her lips, she shuts her mouth and folds her arms to her body. Ryujin's sure enough that she doesn't like you when you're loud squeals and bright sunshine, but now that you're quiet and dim she's not sure why she doesn't like you.

It can't be your personality.

It can't be your appearance.

It's definitely not your appearance. Even when she scowls at your childish antics she can't help but let her gaze linger on you. Your silky hair, your smooth skin, your style that somehow let you effortlessly fit every occasion and dresscode to a T. 

And it's envy, she thinks, that causes her eyes to deceive her.

But then the snap of your violin case being clasped shut throws her out of her reverie; and it hits her.

Shit.

Ryujin figures out why she seems to have such a disdain towards you. 

She gasps faintly at her realization. In the same breath, you begin towards the exit of the auditorium. 

She wants to chase after you but it’s almost as if her feet are sunken down into the stage; she can’t move

“Wait! Y/N!” Ryujin swears she sees you pause, just for a fraction of a second, but you open the door and leave the room anyway. The door swings shut with a thud and she nearly sinks to her knees then and there.

She reaches up and feels her cheeks are irritatingly warm. She liked you a lot more, Ryujin decides, when you annoyed her. 

[arbitrarygreay]

Symphogear attack names

@mimeparadox alerted me to the fact that Kirika's attack names are crimes against linguistics, so I started looking at all of the Gear users' attacks. Much thanks to the wiki, which helpfully compiles not only the attacks, but their title cards, the romanization, and the original text!

I'm only looking at anime attacks. From "least cringe" to "Kirika":

Miku: Two-character Chinese phrases. Short, sweet, dignified.

Hibiki: Cheating because she doesn't get attack name cards at all. See post-ranking paragraphs.

Mid-tier: Maria/Tsubasa/Kanade tie. These girls are chuuni, but are relatively self-aware enough to have some restraint. However, Tsubasa might actually be one tier up by a sliver. She's getting away with some shit by doing hers in foreign language calligraphy, but see the post-ranking paragraphs.

Chris: Name that rock band! Golden spot of delightful indulgence. I dare anyone to not smile whenever MEGADETH PARTY shows up like an old friend. Chris has one (1) genre on her music player, and she doesn't give a fuck.

Shirabe: [greek alphabet letter]-style: {[spinning reference] AND/OR [cutting thing/action reference] wrapper addition/s to make it chuuni}

Kirika: Aforementioned CRIMES AGAINST LINGUISTICS. Build a desired phrase. May or may not include kana-ized English referencing a western fictional character. Add chuuni Japanese as necessary. Find phonetic syllables in Japanese that can be represented by tortured kanji readings that fit desired meaning. Substitute other kana with English alphabet letters. Featuring such great hits as:

災輪・TぃN渦ぁBェル

愚焔・PぇtttE炉

断殺・邪刃ウォttKKK (did you know that you spell Jabberwock with "t"s? that's how Kirika rolls, death)

兇脚・Gぁ厘ィBアa

So, like, there are indications that these aren't relic-defined names, but things that the girls themselves came up with. The strongest evidence for this is Gungnir, which has three users across the length of the show. Not only does the show make it explicit that Hibiki is coming up with the attack names herself, as they are called "Hibiki Style", but even the two who are using Gungnir as intended, Kanade and Maria, have their attacks names tailored to them. Kanade's all involve the "∞" sign, which don't show up in Hibiki or Maria's attacks.

Maria and Chris also both present even stronger evidence, as the rare users who have performed attacks across two different relics, and their tailored quirks are present in both. With Gungnir and Airgetlam, Maria's attacks feature the "†" sign splitting capitalized English. With both Nehushtan and Ichaival, Chris features rock band references in Old English font.

And this isn't even getting into the NONSENSE when combo attacks enter the fray, as each girl's naming quirks get thrown into a blender. Not only do we have Shirabe and Kirika throwing their Greek-letter-tortured-kanji-random-romanized-letters shit together into the likes of "禁合β式・Zあ破刃惨無uうNN", but then you add Maria's cross-capitalized-English-chuuni, and get "禁結終Ω式・爍機†TRINITY".

Another canon case of an attack evidently being named by a person is S2CA, which is short for "Superb Song Combination Arts", despite the fact that it makes zero sense in Japanese, where "Superb Song" is "Zessho". Forced acronyms transcend the curse of Balal!

(Tsubasa sidebar: so if we're assuming that attacks are named by their users, then the likelihood that Tsubasa's attacks are actually more chuuni in the original Japanese goes way up. Tsubasa doesn't know what normal is! Her baseline standard is the Kazanari family, and her ninja idol manager! Not to mention that her main transformation song is already borderline self parody in S2. Japanese imagery, sword, sword, blade, sword, blade, blade, I am sword, sword is me, etc. Maria and Kanade's attack names are constrained by being only 1-2 English words. Tsubasa out here throwing out flowery whole scroll calligraphy. Every added character brings her closer to Shirabe and Kirika's level.)

You may notice that this ranking suspiciously seems to follow the level of lack of blood family and divorce from civilian life. Chris, Maria, Shirabe, and Kirika are all orphans who were coerced into exploitation. However, Maria still had Serena, who overtly shares her surname, which suggests blood ties (they still don't share Anastassia's surname).

One step further on this, though, is that Chris was yet still closer to Kanade's situation in that she did know who her civilian parents were before she lost them. The Yukine surname was never in question, which is not necessarily the case for the Receptor Children. It's possible that some of these kids may have chosen their surnames for themselves after being freed from captivity.

Which would explain why you can get a Gundam-ass name like "Maria Cadenzavna Eve", which makes little to no sense in terms of ethnic name origin. Maria is Greek+Latin via Hebrew, Eve is English via Latinized Hebrew, and then Cadenzavna is a nonsense mishmash of Italian and Eastern European.

"Kusanagi Motoko" from Ghost in the Shell is a pseudonym (admitted canonically in 2nd gig), which is something like "(plain) Jane Excalibur". It seems obvious to me that "Akatsuki Kirika" and "Tsukuyomi Shirabe" are similar. The music/sound-based given names apply across most all of the Gear users, but I can easily see these two goobers picking the edgiest surnames (with shared moon connotations!) for themselves. Which, per the first half of this post, is reinforced by how chuuni their self-defined attack names are. (Meanwhile, Maria loses her little sister called Serena, and then replaces her with two girls with moon-associated surnames, eh. Maria, the Eastern European who would have been more likely to watch a dub of an anime than the sub, and wore that odango hairstyle as a child...)

[blueeyedrat]

Steam Next Fest, winter 2024. Just when you're starting to get into a groove with a project, something new comes up to distract you. So it goes.

This one was all over the map — some games I really liked, a few that were kind of a letdown, and a few that were just sort of there. I think this is the first time a batch of demos has removed more items from my Steam wishlist than it's added. More detailed (though perhaps less organized) thoughts under the cut.

Okay so Balatro doesn't really count, I've been playing the demo for this game for months at this point, but I want to mention it anyway. It's a deckbuilder in the purest sense: you're given a plain deck of cards and tasked with scoring points via poker hands, accumulating a variety of buffs and modifiers to literally rig the deck in your favor. It is perhaps the most make number go up game I have played in a good while, and it's addicting as heck. I know some folks who will be playing the full version nonstop when it comes out later this month, and I might be one of 'em.

As far as city/settlement builders go, I don't think Synergy is jumping to the front of the queue when it has to compete with the likes of Laysara or The Wandering Village, but it does have some neat ideas. I do enjoy when I get to treat this sort of builder like a puzzle of sorts, fitting all of the pieces together, and the ways this demo asked me to do so on both small and large scale were just interesting enough to pique my curiosity. Might be worth a look in the future.

Now, a quick rundown of the demos that didn't land quite as well: Planetiles and Kamaeru had charming aesthetics, but the UI in both games felt a bit clunky and the gameplay left me wanting a bit more substance. Train Valley World moved away from the gameplay I enjoyed in the previous two entries in the series, in favor of something I'm not particularly interested in. There were a few other games I found while putting together my list this time around, but either bounced off of (Electrogical, Bounties of Babylon) or didn't get enough to pass judgement (Omnibullet, Overmorrow), so I may need to revisit them later.

Somewhere in the middle, I'd say, was Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom, a Monument Valley-esque puzzle game. It was… alright. I liked it, I just liked most of the other stuff I tried more. I need to sit down and play Monument Valley at some point.

There are two games on this list I'm torn on. Flock is a cute exploration game that reminds me of Sky: Children of the Light and charmed me in very similar ways. Customizing a character, flying around, and observing the game's colorful ecosystem was a lot of fun. Botany Manor is a puzzle game somewhere between The Witness and Return of the Obra Dinn, where you gather clues in your environment and use them to piece together answers to a central puzzle — in this case, figuring out how to make various plants grow. Some neat ideas to be had here.

I really liked both of these demos! But both of them ran into the same problem: I get motion-sick kind of easily, and there's a small subset of video games that make me dizzy if I play them for too long (and sometimes "too long" is, like, five minutes). To its credit, Botany Manor acknowledges this and has options to make it more accessible… but if there's a specific configuration of camera settings that doesn't give me a literal headache, I didn't find it. It's really frustrating that some of the games I enjoyed the most in this list are ones I'm not sure I can physically handle in the long term. I'll keep an eye on them, but… we'll see.

Moving on. Duck Detective is another "fill in the blanks" mystery in the vein of Case of the Golden Idol or the aforementioned Obra Dinn. It's a much more humorous and lighthearted take on the idea, and while the demo was pretty short, it gave a decent enough look at the gameplay and style that I'm interested in what lies beyond.

#BLUD immediately stands out for its hyper-cartoony art style, which it definitely leans into (it's got episode title cards, for crying out loud). It backs up that style with some charming writing and a decent Zelda-ish mix of exploration and dungeon crawling. I'm not sure the combat entirely clicked with me, especially early on before your character gets a proper weapon, but I still liked the demo well enough overall.

Crypt Custodian also took some time to grow on me, but when I did get into a groove I wound up having a pretty good time with it. It's a top-down 'vania — my closest comparison would be Hyper Light Drifter, with character progression and looser movement closer to something like Ori or Hollow Knight. It was a bit of a gauntlet at first, and didn't always give you a lot of direction (apparently that's an upgrade you need to unlock), but once I got a few more options for movement and combat it felt like I could handle most of what it was throwing at me. Seems fun.

For a more direct comparison to Ori, we close out with Tales of Kenzera. This was one of the other highlights of the bunch for me. The movement and combat felt good and offered a lot of options up front, and kept adding more throughout the demo — similar to Ori, it's not the tightest and prioritizes spectacle over precision, but the level and encounter design never asks for too much. The art, animation, and voice work are all excellent, and the story (drawing inspiration from Bantu folklore) shows a lot of promise. I'm interested to see where this one goes, for sure.