#ds!julius

[sufferu]

Interpretations of Subaru sneaking into the Royal Selection Ceremony, dueling Julius, and fighting with Emilia get WILD in Dogshow lmao.

Some highlights:

Anastasia: All of this was Emilia’s fault. Subaru was traumatized by the maids she failed to keep in line, conditioned to view her as his singular pillar of goodness and safety, allowed to run wild without any proper discipline despite working as her servant for at least a month — Subaru isn’t really BLAMELESS or anything, he’s still got issues, but a lot of those issues specifically stemmed from circumstances that she caused either directly or through her failure as his liege. Also Subaru — might actually have a mental disability, because holy shit he really wasn’t able to read the room AT ALL was he??

Julius: Torn between guilt at having beaten Subaru to a pulp when he apparently didn’t even really know what a duel was and horror at the realization that, had he not stepped in, there was a good chance that Subaru would have ended up in a death loop at the hands of his fellow knights. He hates this.

Emilia: She’s crying in the corner. She doesn’t even entirely disagree with him now that she understands what he was referencing during their fight. Her poor knight.

Garfiel: Nearly breaks Julius’ nose on the spot. If Otto hadn’t jumped in, Julius would have let him.

Otto: Horrified. Julius doing that legitimately saved Subaru’s life. He can’t stop thinking about what would have happened if Subaru had died for that slight. And then died again, and again, and again…

Ricardo: This isn’t nearly as funny or cute as he thought it was going to be. This is just…sad.

[geicommie]

From Dawn of Sorrow Game Manual

[nameless-headless]

Surprise babysitter

some doodles i did for @emmatheward, for the fun of it

[unalivedblogger]

My personal headcanons:

Creepypasta voice claims

Sally - Eri (mha)

Lulu - Ariel (MLM)

Lazari - Lilo (L&S)

Nathan - Takumi (nana)

Morivin - Sideshow bobs (the simpsons)

Lui woods - Mark Lee (NCT)

Toby - Zack fair (Rick gomez)

Julius- Cloud Strife (FF7) / Jim hawkins (treasure planet)

Killian - Muzan (DS)

Vine - Victor (Arcane)

Ben - Camilo (encanto) / Neil cicierega

Mask/Brian - Conner (became human)

X virus - Atreus (God of ragnarok)

Helen - Fantastic Mr. Fox

Drolsior - Lilac Cookie (cookie rum kingdom)

Jeff - Will Wood

Jane - mother gothel (tangled)

Nina - Anna (frozen)

Ej - Trent (daria)

Kagekao - L (deathnote)

Hobo heart - Shoya (a silent voice)

Hope (candypops half brother) - Milo (Atlantis)

Jason the toymaker - Langa (Sk8) / Robbie Turner (atonement)

Laughing Jack- Ed (lion king)

Night terrors - Venom

That's it for now.

[thecodeveronica]

Well I'm dying to talk about Castlevania or I'll explode so here's my tier list for the "modern" era, regular timeline (non-LoS) games (basically SotN and onward), in honor of me getting the Platinum trophy for Dominus Collection last night :)

Reasons under the cut:

S Tier

Portrait of Ruin - LOOOOOVE this one. It's been my fave since pretty much the very first time I played it back on the DS and still is after my recent replay with the collection. Jonathan and Charlotte are just such fun protagonists and stand out a lot in this series, and I think the story is actually pretty decent in this one. By CV standards lol. Soundtrack is AMAZING, please listen to "Gaze Up at the Darkness" because it RULES. PoR also has very fair boss fights and a fair level EXP gain rate, and good drops from enemies too. The paintings are super neat too, mixes up the usual "well, here's Dracula's castle" of most of the games.

Lament of Innocence - I actually think OoE is an objectively better game overall, but I have a lot of love for Lament and am one of its big defenders so I'll put it one slot above lol. Leon! My favorite Belmont! He goes through the wringer in this game, and it's a very interesting origin story for the Belmont fight against Dracula. The gameplay is fun, kind of DMC-lite but with a whip (and cool elemental versions you can get from some optional fights). The level design is a lot of long hallways, but it has good atmosphere, and the game doesn't overstay its welcome as it is pretty short. Another FANTASTIC soundtrack too btw.

Order of Ecclesia - a game I didn't like at all back on the DS but fell in love with after my Dominus replay. Once the gameplay clicks, it is so satisfying swapping glyph loadouts and hitting weaknesses on enemies. You have to play smarter in this game, and it was fun improving. Hype as hell when you finally get to the castle, too. Shanoa is a very cool protagonist and has some of the best lines in the series, and I'm unabashedly obsessed with Albus. GOD he was so asdjfk;ls sorry, but damn was he perfectly tailored to my tastes. Story was good in this one, actually made me a bit emotional ngl, which is something I don't expect from this series lol. I lose my mind over the songs "Sorrow's Distortion" and "Rituals" just so you know

A Tier

Aria of Sorrow - extremely good game where the handheld ones found their footing fully, with a very cool concept of "what if Dracula was gone, but maybe he isn't ;)" Soma is iconic for good reason, and the Soul System is fun with a lot of options, even if I'm not nuts enough to ever try for 100% soul completion lmao. The castle is a little small in this one and it feels oddly short for the Metroidvania-era games, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like the almost... soft?... look of the visuals in this one. Graham is also one of the villains I kinda like the most in this series, so that's cool.

Dawn of Sorrow - Pretty much Aria of Sorrow 2 lol. But I think it loses a little without the novelty of AoS's questions about Soma as the Dark Lord and all. Also, the villains in this game are fucking goobers lol, their character designs are godawful. Other than the castle being larger this time around, I think DoS doesn't really do anything different than AoS, and since I'm a freak who values story, I prefer Aria overall. That said, Julius Mode is pretty sick and I think Dawn's soundtrack is a little stronger overall.

B Tier

Symphony of the Night - I feel like it's blasphemy putting SotN this far down, but I honestly think it is a bit overrated. Good certainly and extremely important to the franchise, but also kinda jank to go back and play. I don't like the way equipment or items work in this game, and I'm not... super fond of the castle layout compared to the higher tier games. Inverted castle is also kinda meh, the only time I like that is when PoR did it with the paintings. However, I do love the original PS1 dub of this game. Absolutely iconic. The newer one sucks because it's so safe that it loses the charm. Like, come on. I think a series that has giant Frankenstein's Monster enemies shooting bullets out of its elbows can afford to have some cheesy lines and voice acting.

Harmony of Despair - a really fun multiplayer game! But it could use more maps (that it'll never get since it's long been abandoned 😭), and character balance is a little iffy. But I have a lot of fun with this one, even just with two players! It's functionally co-op Metroidvania, what's not to like? I think this game would do quite well with a revival on modern consoles and cross-play, and I dream of a world where that exists and they add new DLC. why the hell wasn't Albus in this game btw, like wtf he literally was playable in OoE and had sprites available

Harmony of Dissonance - ...this is confusing putting the two games with "Harmony" in their name right next to each other when they're not connected at all lol. Anyway, I like HoD, but it has some definite issues, the most of the games in this tier. The visuals are... hoo boy. The color palette is a bit much. And the music is uh... it's infamous in the series for a reason. The sad thing is that I think the actual compositions are solid, just hamstrung by the shitty Gameboy sound chip or whatever, and I'm someone who usually likes retro game music. Gameplay is solid, though! The A/B castle thing is kind of annoying because this game has some atrocious warp room locations IMO, but it's fun being able to dash and slide with reckless abandon as Juste. Wind+Bible is also a godly subweapon combo

Grimoire of Souls - damn you, Apple Arcade, for having this as an exclusive. I can't speak to the gameplay on this one for that reason, but I watched a whole 3.5 hour playthrough for the story, so I'm judging on that, mostly. A fun little plot that let characters from a lot of different time periods/games interact, which is cool. Lucy and Hermina were good original characters, too. Death in this game was kinda 👀 Lol I kid I kid, I only have eyes for Albus, who was not nearly as important in this game as I'd hoped but had an extremely nice scene with Shanoa, so it was worth. Jonathan and Charlotte were also very entertaining here, as always. I'll be real: those three were the whole reason I watched this tbh

C Tier

Circle of the Moon - this game is SO HARD. Like, I eventually got good in Order of Ecclesia to overcome the difficulty, but that moment of understanding just never hit me in this game. And there are no shops!! Oh my goooooooood, why??? If you could get potions more easily, it might be a little more reasonable, but I don't think the drop rates were even that good to make up for it. The boss fights were so tough, man... If I give this another try, I might have to do the DSS glitch, which I didn't know about at the time.

Curse of Darkness - Real talk, I don't remember this one very well at this point. I mostly just remember not liking the Innocent Devil system or the map design that much and thinking it was disappointing after I loved Lament so much. Maybe I'd like it better if I tried it again now, I dunno. Not much to say here.

D Tier

Judgment - Look, I have some good memories from this game. I used to play it against my sisters. I was super excited for it at the time. But it's just a super jank game. And the story mode is BAD (aside from a few characters). Like, I can handle anime cringe. But this is the BAD kind of anime cringe, the "boob envy"-kind of anime cringe. Maria's story is *gag sounds* Also not a fan of the roster choices here. CV3 in particular gets way too much rep, the GBA-DS era not enough (only Shanoa, and even then they murdered her design???). I can't believe Soma at least didn't make it in, a character with so many moveset options? Good for Cornell being in though, nice seeing the N64 characters actually acknowledged and he had one of the better story modes too. Speaking of characters, who thought it was a good idea to do a game that was functionally a big ol' celebration of the series with character designs that so drastically changed most characters into being unrecognizable? The Death Note expy jokes are played out, but they're so true nonetheless. The worst thing is still Maria's story mode and especially her interaction with Sypha, though. I cannot stress enough how bad it is. It makes me feel embarrassed just thinking about it lmfao

[ggswaywardgifrepository]

I’ve been playing Portrait of Ruin again and it’s just such an underrated game. I know it’s generally well liked, but I also feel like it gets ranked last among the DS titles because they’re all just so good.

But Jonathan is one of the best characters across all of the games. He’s initially shown to have a chip on his shoulder because of the burden of being entrusted with the Vampire Killer but not (yet) being able to use it to its full potential. He doesn’t do anything rash or stupid as a result of his insecurities, though.

He also handles the truth like a champ and that can’t have been easy. And before that, Jonathan has the awareness to realize when he’s taking out his frustration on others and apologizes for it.

He’s just one of the most endearing and well rounded and badass characters introduced and I really hope it was his old man self that handed the whip to Julius in 1999. Not because he didn’t have children, but because he knows what he went through by inheriting the responsibility of the whip without having all the details and would want to spare his kids that as long as he possibly could.

I 💯 think he’d be forthcoming with them but would also be reluctant to burden them unless he absolutely had to.

Anyway. Jonathan is great.

[rubberduckswriting]

Chapter two of Pixelated love (ocho x Tobias)

"we're here kids!" Ocho heard rocky call from the front of the bus, calling his attention away from his music. He got up along with everyone and left the bus. He sighed at the morning sun before walking into the building. He went to his locker and began putting his things away he let his thoughts wander as he sorted his things in his locker, but his train of thought was swiftly derailed by a voice behind him, causing him to jump "hey ocho" ocho almost punched the lockers door out of sheer surprise at the sudden voice. He turn around to face the voice only to find that it was gumball. "Jeez! Don't do that!" Ocho half yelled at the blue haired boy. "sorry! You good?" Gumball tilted his head at the very startled ocho in front of him. Ocho sighed, collecting himself before speaking "I'm fine" he slightly glared at gumball for scaring him. "Aaaaanyway do you want to meet my friend at lunch or in class?" Gumball crossed his arms, his ear twitching ever so slightly. "Lunch" ocho shrugged, turning his attention back to his locker "alrig-" gumball was cut off by the shrill ringing of the bell. "See ya man!" Gumball then ran off to Darwin. Ocho sighed, finishing with his locker and making it to class just before the tarty bell rang. He made his way to the back of class and sat down. He watched the other students around him. They were just so loud and colorful. He didn't know how they did it. He shook his head slightly and took out his DS from his pocket and discreetly began playing a game while Ms Simion started her lesson

______________________________________

the day went fast, too fast for ochos taste. It felt like only a few minutes ago he was in first period. Now it was lunch time. Ocho scrolled on his phone, eating some chips as he tried to tune out everything around him. He heard a faint voice that sounded like gumballs "you sure you wanna meet him? He can get pretty intense" he then heard a louder voice "hey ocho!" He glanced over and saw gumball, Darwin, and a jock with them. Ocho waved at the three, rolling his eyes. Great, a jock. Ocho had his fair share of jocks bullying him in his last school. Why would this school be any different? He turned his attention back to his phone as the three made his way towards him. "Hey! I'm Tobias! Your ocho right?" A voice came up from behind him, interrupting ochos music. "Yeah." Ocho deadpanned, glancing over at Tobias with no expression. Tobias gave a nervous laugh and sat by ocho, to which ocho scooted away, and gumball and Darwin sat across from them. Tobias glanced at Darwin for help since he was always good at making friends. He was even able to make friends with Julius. Darwin took this as a sign to speak "so ocho, whatcha looking at?" Darwin pointed to ochos phone. Ocho glanced at Darwin. "A happy wheels video." He then went back to his phone. "That's a game right? Do you like video games?" Tobias chimed into the conversation. "Mhm" ocho hummed a response, slowly getting annoyed by the amount of questions. Ocho looked at tobias, taking on his features. Even though he was just another annoying jock, he was kinda good looking in ochos opinion. He shook his head slightly to get away from those thoughts. Was it wierd to think another guy was good looking? Tobias grabbed a pen and a napkin before writing something on it and giving it to ocho. "Here's my number! Text me later if you want." Tobias smiled at ocho. Ocho just shrugged and nodded. He then grabbed a napkin to and wrote his number on it before throwing it at Tobias. "Here." He then rested his head on his hand.

RINGGGGGGG

Ocho jumped at the sudden ringing. "Aw man! See you later dude." Gumball and Darwin then left for class, Tobias soon followed. Ocho sighed before getting up. Meeting tobias wasn't horrible.

[bokumono-bachelorette-bracket]

Round 4: JULIUS (ToT, AP) vs CLIFF (MFoMT, DS Cute)

[beevean]

🔥 for Castlevania

Aside from the obvious "NFCV is a failure both as an adaptation and as its own work and no interpretation of the character can match the original (Dracula comes close but ehh)"...

PoR is the best DS game and probably my second favorite 2D Igavania. It's fun and cute and charming and well designed :D

CoTM is not a fun game, and its famed difficulty is mostly fake and frustrating. OoE did the "hard as balls Igavania" thing better.

Speaking of OoE, the linear levels were IMO not the best idea to shake up the formula. I far preferred Dracula's Castle to the entirety of the main game.

HoD is not nearly as bad as people say, not even in the presentation department. Yes, I like how THE COLORS FEELS SO RIGHT it looks, and I like how the environments make no sense - while SoTN's castle is iconic in how it feels like a real place, HoD's take on the "creature of Chaos" is also fascinating. Also I like most of the OST, precisely for how eerie it feels.

AoS has my least favorite OST, and it's mostly due to how muffled it sounds - no way this comes from a 2003 game, same as this! (also it has some tracks I really find unmemorable, which is shocking coming from Yamane-san)

I never got much into the Sorrow's story and characters. I like Soma well enough, but I feel AoS's plot is very boring and didn't do enough to make me like the characters. DoS is... a bit of a special case lol, you can tell they didn't quite know how to write a sequel to a very conclusive game like AoS. And yes, this means I find Julius lowkey overrated.

I never found SCIV that impressive, perhaps because it was my first or second CV game at all. The one thing I remember from it, aside from the huge graphical flexes lol, is how indecisive the difficulty is. Bloodlines is the superior title IMO.

Belmont's Revenge is legit one of the best Classicvanias and it deserves more love. Absolute slapper of an OST too.

CoD is superior to LoI in almost every way. The latter has absolutely the better art direction and environments, but it has so many odd gameplay choices like the lack of a leveling up system, the quick menu to pick up items, and the non-existent depth perception. A CoD remake that only touches up the graphics and the running speed would be nearly perfect to me, while a LoI remake would need a lot more to be on the same level IMO.

I don't know what counts as unpopular regarding C2 nowadays... it feels like it's getting more recognition now? My opinion is that, while the concept of racing against the clock to save Simon from a curse that is rotting him from the inside out is great and the final section is surprisingly chilling, no amount of ambition can redeem all the flaws that come from a Zelda 2-esque game made in an era where you were expected to buy Nintendo Power.

I think I covered nearly every game I played :P nothing unpopular to say about the others.

[richtercard]

points you. Opinions on the GBA/DS era of Castlevanias if you've played any of them.

circle of the moon - i put it down after 15 minutes of playtime and never touched it again because of that FUCKING WALK SPEED. it felt like i was walking through molasses with a 40lb backpack on or something. also the protagonist has the exact same name as my dad and that just makes me feel weird.

harmony of dissonance - i find it to be a kind of middling game but at the same time i think it's way overhated by some people. it's got its flaws, sure, but the castlevania series has put some real stinkers out there and to put it on the same level as, say, haunted castle or the gameboy games is a bit unfair. also i unironically love the soundtrack and can't be trusted with the aux cord because i WILL start blasting offense and defense.

aria of sorrow - it's a great game, what more is there to say? it's fun, the music and art direction are great, the characters are lovable, and i adore how the castlevania series now comes with a pre-built modern au (well, i guess it's more of a near future au since it takes place in 2035, but it definitely feels closer to modern)

dawn of sorrow - i have. complicated feelings about this game. dawn's version of the soul system focuses way more on the grinding aspect than aria, and the luck stat is fucking broken, meaning the only way to actually increase the drop rate of souls is to get the $300,000 soul eater ring, so either you're spending hours grinding souls or hours grinding money with no real in-between. also i don't like the story and feel like it took away a lot of the impact that the ending of the first game had. in aria, soma rejecting his role as the dark lord felt like it had weight, like he was effectively putting an end to the thousand-year cycle of death and violence that dracula started. but in dawn of sorrow, it turns out that no, the cycle didn't end, soma's actions just meant that someone else will become the dark lord. it's something that's always left a sour taste in my mouth. but at the same time.......... i think the game's kind of fun?? for all of my gripes, i had a blast playing it (especially julius mode) and i think it's really charming. i know everyone constantly gives this game and portrait of ruin shit for their budget anime art style, but i've always thought that at least the in-game sprites are pretty cute. idk. i hate dawn of sorrow but i love it but i hate it.

portrait of ruin - THEE best game of this era!!!!! it's SO fun and plays SO well i love the dual character system so fucking much. the music and overworld design are on POINT it's such a perfect jaunty vampire movie pastiche of a game. i've gotten 1000% completion in every bonus character mode (or at least the closest i can get) because it's just so fucking good and replayable. in terms of raw enjoyment it's probably my absolute favorite castlevania game of all time (in terms of true favorites it's only beaten out by symphony of the night, purely for emotional attachment reasons) it's the goat!!!!!!!! THE GOAT!!!!!!!!!!

order of ecclesia - UNDERRATED AF!!! i really really love the first half of the game and how it strikes a happy medium between linear progression and non-linear exploration, and i think it's nice to see other locations in a castlevania game beyond dracula's castle itself. also shanoa is hot.

[sufferu]

During Withdrawal Symptoms, the beginning of the story literally has Subaru grabbing Puck, using him as a stress ball, smashing him across the table and petting (squeezing) him without a care in the world.

Julius is going to end up like this even before Arc 3.

he did w h a t

…Julius ain’t surviving Arc 2.

Other things Subaru did pre-Arc 3 include:

Sitting down in the dining chair of the Lord of the manor he’s in before even bothering to meet his host

Calling the host of the manor a clown and comments about rich people hiring strange entertainment

Sitting right next to one of the five possible heirs to the kingdom without even questioning it first

Constantly annoying a Great Spirit to the point where she keeps on throwing him out the window

Trying to use magic for the first time and blowing himself up

Everything about how he talks to Ram specifically

Calling Roswaal Ros-chi

Dressing as a woman to go and join Emilia at a dinner party without telling ANYONE first

Filling one of the baths in the manor with mayonnaise. The second time was Rem’s fault but he was JUST as guilty the first time around

Running off to go and save the village children without telling Emilia what he was doing. And then running right back out there while she had exhausted herself to the point of passing out from bringing him back from the verge of death

Going to pet a strange puppy even after it had bitten him multiple times for doing exactly that

There are sooo many things that are gonna give him a heart attack oh no—

[tomyo]

Tomyo's Harvest Moon Marathon

So I have collected a ridiculous amount of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games lately that I have not actually playedl, 11 of which I bought within the last year in fact lolol. So I want to try and actaully get a decent session into each of them this year.

The Games (and Marriage Goals):

Harvest Moon (Eve)

Harvest Moon 64 (Karen/Elli)

GBC3 (As Sara/ No Marriage)

FoMT Replay(Karen/Elli)

MFoMT (Kai ig)

Save the Homeland (N/A)

A Wonderful Life SE (Not sure but want daughter)

Magical Melody Replay (Dia/Gia/Ellen)

DS Cute Replay (Skye)

Island of Happiness (Elliot/Lanna)

Tree of Traquility (Toby/Julius)

Animal Parade (Wizard)

My Little Shop (N/A)

Tale of Two Towns (Not Sure)

A New Beginning (Felicity/Yuri)

Trio of Towns (Woofio)

Hometown Story (Dexter)

PoOT Continuation (Bridget)

Of Course, I expect to be playing the AWL remake later this year as well (Nami is the only option) and at some point I'll Hopefully also pick up the FoMT one too! Debating how much I wanna try to finish my collection too lol. Personally just missing AnWL, Sunshine Islands, HoLV, Grand Bazaar, and SoS but I don't know how much I care given some current prices atm.

Anyway, this starts my playthrough journey! I'm actually starting with Harvest Moon SNES itself thought I don't intend to play these in order necessarily. Will probably play it cocurrently with the 3DS games. The list is a little overwhelming so I'm debating what I will start with.

[nameless-headless]

Him

[megafreak400]

2024 Media Thread - #42

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (10/23/24) -  Score - 9/10

Dawn of Sorrow is interesting to me in that it’s considered the best Castlevania by a lot of people I know. And don’t get me wrong, this game is very good. But it’s also just…Aria 2. That’s not a bad thing mind you but if you enjoyed Aria of Sorrow this game is that, just a bit more polished. Like I know it’s a sequel but Dawn doesn’t really introduce anything new, it just takes what Aria already laid out, and refines it. And that’s not a bad thing because Aria of Sorrow is amazing.  That said I don’t really have a lot to say about this game that wouldn’t feel like just talking to talk. It’s a fantastic time, it just doesn’t do anything all that fresh. Well beyond the DS mechanics like drawing a seal or building a staircase out of ice. Honestly I struggled with the seals a bit at first but not for the reason you think. If I was drawing them I would have no problems but I played this on the Dominus Collection, so the result was messing up button combos due to forgetting the button input. Remembering the shape would have been no issue. Besides that, it is really cool having the map on screen at all time, though on the original DS you had to switch between that and the enemy stat screen.

The game like Aria is an RPG too, so while there are some bosses that can be tricky, if you’re really stuck, some grinding or the right enemy power can help you overcome those few bosses that can kick your ass. There is also a mechanic I should mention where you can use extra souls now to craft new weapons, which is a very nice addition I enjoyed making use of to make the best spear.

The other thing I should note is there is a really cool take on julius mode in this game that lets you use multiple characters which I think is really cool. Has vibes of Castlevania 3, and it’s hilarious that they just rip the Alucard sprite from SOTN.

But yea, Dawn of Sorrow is a fantastic game, just not one I have much to say about. If you like this style of Castlevania this is one of the best and you should not miss out.

[eldraftsman]

Inktober, Day/Día 21(27) XX The Judgement After a NASTY headache, this is the second to last card. Después de un HORRENDO dolor de cabeza, esta es la penúltima carta Instagram:https://instagram.com/yasserjuall/ Twitter:https://twitter.com/Roski_Draftsman Deviantart: https://deviantart.com/roskidraftsman

[farmingdiaries]

I’m categorizing every single HM/SoS bachelor into their main character types

Haha sorry, but I just had to make this a category! Skye and Julius are the two bachelors who have continuously been mistaken as bachelorettes by people, my childhood self included! Nothing against these boys though, they know their stuff and can strut it with style, they’ve got a way better fashion sense than your farmer ever will