#fair warning it's a gacha game

[emo-bunny-1317]

i dont go there but i keep seeing you talk about an anime guy called mersault which is giving me whiplash because #literaryreference

EDDIE YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY AUTISM POWERS

Okay so he's from a game called Limbus Company and it's the third in the project moon trilogy and all of the main characters are based on different characters from literature! Like, we've got Faust, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, fucking Don Quixote, fucking Odysseus, fucking GREGOR SAMSA, it's great 10/10 I'm being up monsters with blorbo from my books

[daz4i]

just a warning if you get into enstars you WILL gain a mental illness multiplier of 1.3x. stay safe out there

that's okay i am prepared for that. however I'm not entirely sure what it is like, media form wise. ik it has an anime but i remember seeing smth abt a game too? how does one even get into it 🧐

[oddygaul]

Zenless Zone Zero

Well, I’ve been playing the shit out of this game, so fair warning, there will be significant brainrot ahead.

Overall, I really dig it. I’m a huge mark for character action games, and well-done life sims tend to suck me in; Zenless Zone Zero is nailing both those aspects pretty damn well. In fact, it’s nailing them well enough that… how do I put this… it starts to slip into the territory of being A Good Game Generally, rather than just a gacha. And while this is a big accomplishment for ZZZ, this also puts it into direct conversation with other full-price games, resulting in its gacha elements causing more friction than Honkai Star Rail’s ever did*.

*I’ll be comparing this to HSR a lot, because I play way too much of both and they’re made by the same developer. I recognize that it is pretty odd and potentially even problematic to A / B compare them when I could be looking at the game through the lens of, you know, Gaming At Large. But hey, that’s why this is a subjective journal and not a holistic review blog! It is what it is.

So, the aesthetic of this game fuckin rules - it’s like, late 90s to early 2000s VHS-core. The main characters run a Blockbuster, for Christ’s sake. Presentation-wise (and systems-wise, and, hell, music-wise), ZZZ is obviously borrowing a lot from the Persona series, but like… great? I’d love it if more things cribbed that style and made it their own, from the confidant hangouts, to the small but comfy explorable areas, to the dynamic menus with edgy character poses. The character design itself is all superb, all the way down to the crowd NPCs - some the shopkeepers here have cooler designs than the main characters of some other games. Even aside from the designs, ZZZ is doing a lot with lighting and color desaturation that really lends it its own unique vibe. They actually have a cohesive artstyle in here! wild.

The presentation of the story is also killer. Sure, a decent chunk of the conversations are just models lip-flapping at each other - although they at least emote and pose a bit here, unlike the Star Rail dialogue scenes with their demure princess waves. In the main story, though, we get not only a heap of fairly lengthy cutscenes, but also this really cool comic panel-style presentation.

I feel like there was a bit of a trend in the PS3/360 era of games to present a game’s story in this comic panel / storyboard style. I understood the motivation: games increasingly demanded a more involved, consistent storytelling approach, rather than the ‘One big rendered cutscene at the beginning and end’ they used to get away with, and the generation’s increased visual fidelity meant that doing even basic, in-engine cutscenes took a lot more resources to make something half-decent. In Spyro the Dragon on PS1 you could get away with a fun little 15-second gag with a barely animated polygonal yeti or whatever; in the PS3 era, you were going up against tryhards like Metal Gear Solid 4. Amidst this landscape, the pitch of having your illustrators pretty up some storyboards and put them in the game sounds like it’d save a lot of work - plus, consoles were finally outputting a high enough resolution that this sort of flat image wouldn’t be compressed to hell.

Thing is, I always kinda hated that approach. In some cases, I think that’s the popular opinion - I fuckin love Bayonetta, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend its weird slideshow cutscenes. Even in games where the execution is perfectly fine, though, it rubbed me the wrong way. I think of Infamous - objectively, the art’s solid and fits the tone of the game, and the motion graphics aim to capture some of the dynamism typical cutscenes would provide. Despite all that, it still feels cheap to me - all of the panning, effects, and graphic imagery feel like they’re trying to polish up something that inherently doesn’t fit.

In ZZZ, though, I’m loving every one I come across. It’s obviously still done for efficiency reasons - there’s already a handful of characters that exist only in these panel scenes, saving the team the effort of having to model and rig them. But the freedom this allows for staging and storytelling is huge; the characters are more expressive here than anywhere else in the game, and we’re able to see situations with huge crowds and new locales much more often than would be possible in typical cinematics. And the illustrations are genuinely good, too - full of character, cool poses and creative compositions/angles.

if everything actually had to be modeled, there's no way we would've gotten Legally Blonde Nicole

Plus, the cutscenes are constant, and boy do I love the animation here. It feels so rare nowadays for a high-budget game to do stylized 3D animation of this ilk. Your biggest budget games are all going for the cinematic look, and pushing realism as much as they can - and while I know an immense amount of work and craft goes into animating something like The Last of Us, boy, I just could not care less about something so lacking in flair*. Even bigger properties that use a stylized artstyle these days, like Breath of the Wild, still tend to lean towards fairly naturalistic animation. Zenless Zone Zero’s cutscenes, on the other hand, spin and stretch motherfuckers around like we’re back on the PS2, are filled with forced perspective, and I am absolutely living for it. It’s not even reserved only for bombastic action scenes, either - we get honest to god character acting-focused conversation cutscenes.

*Seriously, take me back to the Naughty Dog that animated Jak & Daxter. Jak’s hero animation is top tier to this day

Of course, the combat animation slaps too; each of the playable agents is absolutely dripping with character. Even characters whose designs initially left me cold won me over once I saw the amount of care put into their movement and combo strings. It’s honestly shocking to me that this is the same studio that made Genshin Impact, a game I dropped after about 2 hours because of how lifeless all the animation felt*. Unique run cycles for every character, actual non-human designs, the flourishes everyone has when stopping mid-combo to snap them back to idle, the absolute synergistic audiovisual bliss of the parry… it’s really impressive stuff from a young team.

*Same studio in name only, totally different team, I know, but still

Mechanically, I have some mixed feelings about the combat as a whole. Zenless Zone Zero is, without a doubt, aiming to present complexity and depth as a team battler - that is to say, it’s more about team synergy, tag combos, and knowing who to use when, rather than soloing as any particular character. Nonetheless, I really would’ve appreciated individual characters having a bit more depth to their movesets; a jump, a launcher, cancels, anything. As outstanding as all the animation work is, there’s some characters that only have a normal attack string on square and one special attack on triangle. Like, sub-Dynasty Warriors level of complexity here. It’s rough.

This is where ZZZ’s gacha nature gets a bit ugly: so far, more complex kits and skill expression are mostly locked behind rarity, which is kind of scummy. In Star Rail, for the most part, 4-star characters are defined as such due to their numbers: they still have mechanics and complexity, they just aren’t tuned as high as the limited characters. Hell, in some cases they have more complexity. Ruan Mei is an almost incomparably stronger unit than Asta, but Ruan Mei’s play pattern is fucking boring: you use skill every three turns when it runs out. Asta, meanwhile, basically has her own risk & reward minigame that demands more thoughtful SP management.

In ZZZ, on the other hand, the lower-rank characters straight up have less going on in their kits. Nicole has like… one tech, sorta. Anby has one single animation cancel to chain her normal into her special quicker. Lucy’s only skill expression is choosing whether to tap special or hold special. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan, a limited character, has a normal string that bounces between melee and ranged attacks, can be dodge-canceled at any point in the combo to branch into variations of the string, and a hold-normal attack string that’s completely different and has the same branching dodge-cancel tech.

It’s one thing to lock raw damage and meta viability behind a gacha, but locking the characters that are mechanically more interesting to play straight up sucks. If I hadn’t been lucky enough on the standard banner to pull exactly the two characters I find the most mechanically satisfying, I don’t know that I’d still be playing - and this is the point where ZZZ begs comparison to other, non-live service character action games. Sure, it’s probably not fair to compare a random A-rank’s moveset to Devil May Cry V’s iteration of Dante, a feature-creeped nightmare of a kit 3 console generations in the making. But what about Sengoku Basara Sumeragi, my personal character-action GOAT? By all accounts a mid-budget title, yet it offers 40 full characters chock-full of more unique mechanics and animation cancels than you can shake a stick at.

Fuck, can we please get a new Sengoku Basara? Please? I’m desperate out here. I’ll take anything, y’all.

There’s also the inherent issue that plagues every action RPG (usually deftly avoided by the character action genre), which is the delicate balance of player success depending on the numbers vs actual mechanical skill - a balancing act made even more noticeable due to the gacha genre-standard of characters taking weeks of grinding to level up. This is a topic for another day, but suffice to say, a big part of the reason Honkai Star Rail works for me as a very pretty version of Cookie Clicker is because of the Autoplay option. In Zenless Zone Zero, if you’re not willing to grind out the same mob fight for a week or two, you’re gonna hit an endgame roadblock of doing chip damage to a boss you’ve mechanically mastered because you’re underleveled, and boy, that never feels good.

For all those issues stemming from the gacha, I will say, it’s great that the story missions let you use the characters that are actually supposed to be present for those missions, even if you don’t own them. Aside from how nice it is to have an opportunity to put the whole roster through their paces, it goes a long way for actually getting invested in the story. Honkai Star Rail’s storytelling is a hot mess for many reasons, but it’s always particularly jarring rolling up to a sidequest at like, a local theater troupe with a wanted space criminal, the sitting president of a completely different planet, a ten year old child, and a shirtless cyborg cowboy, none of whom have canonically met each other; ZZZ’s approach sidesteps this issue. The proxy angle even provides a pretty valid diegetic explanation for why agents that don’t know each other might be working together.

Now that we’ve sort of meandered back to the story after talking about animation led us on a long detour - the story is surprisingly solid. In particular, I really appreciate how straightforward the writing is. I don’t know if the issue lies with the original text or the localization, but Star Rail’s dialogue, even in simple missions, tends to be incredibly meandering and overstuffed; ZZZ is a lot better about letting all its characters talk like actual humans. It also helps that the plot so far is a lot more grounded, and spends more time focusing on each faction’s group dynamics rather than the overarching plot. These games live and die by their characters, so leaning into those strengths is a smart move.

Zenless Zone Zero is, unfortunately, fully in line with Hoyo’s weird conservative politics - in particular, 1.0 and 1.1 are absolutely stuffed full of copaganda. With how many safety regulation jokes they made at the construction company, I initially hoped they’d lampoon the police faction a bit, or make a commentary on how comically heavily armed New Eridu’s police force are. In a vacuum, Zhu Yuan shouting combat lines like “Stop resisting!” or “Freeze, hands up!” while blasting someone with her gigantic, ‘JUSTICE’-emblazoned rocket launcher shotgun feels like it ought to be satire. Every time we talk to the officers, though, it’s just line after line about their solemn duty to protect the people of the city, how essential and important they are for the community, and so on and so on.

This wholehearted embrace of the world’s current power structure is something Zenless Zone Zero approaches in nearly the exact same way as Star Rail. In both games, your playable character is someone that’s sort of operating outside the law - in Star Rail, as the maverick organization that is the Astral Express, while in ZZZ you work as an illegal proxy. Despite this setup, any time the protagonists come into contact with a governing body, they are no less than thrilled to help them enforce the will of the law.

In Star Rail, you aid the local governments (one of which is an undemocratic monarchy) in committing massive cover-ups to hide their failures from the populace not once but twice. In ZZZ, you aid the police to an obsequious degree - playing along with them to not arouse suspicion is one thing, but helping them organize a fucking community day on Sixth Street? Fuck that. Hell, said community day is even shown to initially be DOA because none of the local residents trust the police - and you best believe we get two full scenes of the MCs changing the resident’s minds, resulting in them spouting shit about “Oh, it was our fault for judging the police too harshly - they really do have our best interests at heart!”

is it tho

There’s an argument to be made that the N.E.P.S. are a little different, given that they exist in a post-apocalyptic world with monsters popping up every day - and ZZZ’s copaganda is certainly a little less flagrant than something like Spider-Man helping the NYPD install civilian surveillance networks in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And, sure, perhaps this can help excuse why they post fully armored, rifle-wielding soldiers in the Lumina Square DMV, and provides some justification that their existence is more helpful than the real world’s civilian-murdering property guards.

Thing is, though, at every turn you’re hit with dialogue and situations which make it clear that, no, they’re the normal cops. Every other sidequest seems to involve calling the N.E.P.S. in on somebody or helping with an investigation, and for every time we see them handle ethereal activity, there’s two instances of them being called in for petty property theft or something similarly minor - even the playable character has heaps of dialogue choices threatening to call the police on someone*. Much like Star Rail’s reactionary politics were strangely at odds with the ‘blazing a new path’ ideals of the trailblaze, Zenless Zone Zero’s obsession with the police puts a damper on its underground, counterculture aesthetic.

*Including a case where both options threatened this, leaving me without a non-narc dialogue choice.

illustration by Lv01KOKUEN

And finally… I don’t know where to fit this in, so I guess it just goes in its own little section at the end here. Lots of people, myself included, have touched on the Persona inspirations - and they’re certainly significant. One thing I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention as a huge influence is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade Battlefront. From its sense of style to its worldbuilding, ZZZ damn near feels like fanfic to me. Hell, it’s right in the name - BBB? ZZZ? And this is on top of the dimensional crossover / big city vibe, the retro fashion, the different factions. Victoria Housekeeping might as well be Libra 2.0 - Von Lycaon is a damn near perfect 50/50 expy of Klaus and Stephen Starphase. And then Belle / Wise, who assist these powerful fighters in a noncombat role just like Leo, also turn out to have some sort of special magical eyes granted to them by untold powers from within the dimensional rift??

I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong - love Nightow. But that can’t be coincidence, right?

[derekscorner]

Fated Rantings: Where to start Fate

A scary question, believe me I know.

I asked my own self this question over a year ago now after finding myself lured into the series through lore videos like a child being led by candy. I even started FGO just because it was a free way to begin the series.

Would I recommend that for everyone? No. Fate Grand Order (FGO) is a gacha game after all. Unless you have the patience to grind or cheese your battles like me you'll give in fast and I’d never recommend someone giving money to a gacha game.

Although, if you're already into Fate or just genuinely curious about FGO then I can confirm that it has some of the best written stories I've ever seen. I won't claim every singularity (arc) as a banger but there are some that are legitimately good.

I'd also recommend you be wary if you think that watching the FGO anime is enough. That's more of a companion piece to the gacha than a true adaption.

Where to actually begin

So with my warnings of FGO aside where is the best place to begin the Fate series? Where does the story begin and what is the latest entry?

Fair questions but don't let many fans fool you. There is no one starting point to the Fate series. The reason for this is a simple one;

Every Fate story is on it's own timeline

Nasu Kinoko the writer who created the original 'Fate/Stay Night' stated as much.

Now this doesn't mean that some of his works are "not canon". It's actually the opposite, "everything is canon".

Nasu's company, Type-Moon, got off the ground with his visual novels 'Tsukihime', 'Fate/Stay Night', 'Kara no Kyoukai', and 'Mahoyo' among others. With each of these novels have multiple endings to them.

What confuses so many is them lacking the knowledge that these novels and their various endings share a universe. Some event in one could be mentioned in another. For example, "the church" from Tsukihime is very much present in Fate. The magecraft you see used in Mahoyo is the same magic system and society that pops up in Fate and Tsukihime.

In essence, Nasu's stories are sharing the same world but taking place at various points in that world.

Fate Specific

If you're curious about Mahoyo or Tsukihime then I'd recommend the remakes on Steam or Switch. If you're just genuinely curious what a visual novel is I'll leave you to discover them. I brought these things up because they're related.

For the Fate series in particular it was important that I explain them because this universe of multiple endings are all canon to a degree.

The reason many of you will find Fate hard to get into is because several Fate anime are based on these specific story routes from the visual novels.

The "Fate Route" was adapted as the Fate 2006 anime.

Unlimited Blade Works was adapted from the route of the same name.

Heaven's Feel is another route from the novel.

All three of these big anime names are routes from the same visual novel 'Fate/Stay Night'. Each route, and thus each anime, focuses on a heroine that the lead Shirou Emiya falls in love with.

So each show isn't some reboot or relaunch of a series, they're adaptions of a different timeline of events.

It does not stop at 'Fate/Stay Night' either

As I said earlier, some events are shared between them because these stories share a world and some things happened in each. The characters are citing world events from their perspective. For example;

In many version of Fate the 1st to 4th Holy Grail War happened.

In every version of Fate the "Age of Gods" came and went.

In most Fate stories there is a Rin Tohsaka or a Shirou Emiya somewhere in the world even if they do not appear in the narrative.

In every Type-Moon story the "Clocktower" exists.

Dead Apostles and vampires exist in most Type-Moon stories.

This may seem silly to some of you but I have pointed it out because there will be someone see something said in a Fate story and be confused because it doesn't quite line up with a Fate work they've previously seen.

Or they'll see things stated that makes them think two Fate stories are intrinsically linked when they aren't. If you still find that confusing then allow me to show you the famous Fate/Zero.

Fate/Zero

Many are told to "start here" because Fate/Zero is a prequel to 'Fate/Stay Night' which isn't entirely true.

Yes, Saber will reference the 4th Grail War and her hazy memories of it. She even remembers Shirou's adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya.

But don't be fooled, that's where Nasu's statement comes in. He did not consider Fate/Zero canon to his novel.

However, that does not mean Saber is lying either. What this means is that the 4th war that Saber remembers in Fate Stay Night is a different conflict than what you see in Fate/Zero.

This is the best example of shared events not being the same per work. The anime of Fate/Zero is it's own timeline while the 4th war Saber mentions in the novel or anime adaptions was different.

We do not know what the exact differences are between Fate/Zero and the 4th Grail War Saber mentions in Fate/Stay Night but we know they existed.

Then you have stories in which the timeline diverted far earlier

These stories are much easier to dive into since their timelines diverged more drastically. In Fate 2006 or Heaven's Feel the point of divergence is the choice in love interest but for these stories the timeline diverges much earlier. For example;

Fate Grand Order actually takes place in a timeline in which there was only one Holy Grail War.

Fate Extra takes place in a world where there's a super computer lodged in the Moon that's been recording Earth's history for nearly 4 billion years.

In Fate Apocrypha there was only three Holy Grail Wars before someone managed to steal the Greater Grail during World War II.

Despite these three in particular being entirely removed from 'Fate/Stay Night's various routes they still fall back on the same world history. They just happen to diverge much earlier for various reasons.

This is relevant because they too will reference similar things but they're much easier to start with because their settings are more unique.

Though, you'll still will see Rin Tohsaka in Fate Extra. Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero also appears in many stories as his older self.

Actual Sequels or Prequels

Now before you have a heart attack with that sub title let me explain. Yes, I do still fully mean that each Fate story is essentially it's own thing.

However, I would be doing you a disservice if I did not warn you that a few have true sequels. I do not know every sequel across Type-Moons gallery of novels but I can warn you about Fate/Hollow Ataraxia.

Ataraxia is a true sequel to the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel. You don't need to play it to enjoy the FSN novel or it's anime adaptions but do not mistake Ataraxia as a solo story. This is the one time I will give you that warning after my long post arguing otherwise.

Granted, I am not sure where'd you come across Hollow Ataraxia but just be warned. This visual novel is a true sequel to Fate/Stay Night.

As for the various anime that's been adapted over the years, as I've said, many are just adaptions of a particular story route from the novel.

That said, if you came to view the anime as it's own pocket universe I could see why. Heaven's Feel, the movies, will even flashback to Fate/Zero scenes.

The character Velvet Waver from Fate/Zero has his own novel series and animes based on those novels. What does this knowledge mean for you my dear reader?

Nothing. I can see why someone would think this way but that doesn't mean you need to heed it. If someone gives you an anime list to watch in a particular order then I'd argue it's fine to either take that advice or ignore it.

At best, watching Fate/Zero will help you appreciate the El Melloi series more but it's also not necessary.

What I am telling you is that it can confuse many but you can start with any anime you're able to get ahold of.

Conclusions

I'm afraid I may have confused many of you more than I helped but I bothered to explain all of that just to say one thing;

"you can start wherever"

And I truly mean that. No matter what some insistent person tells you any Fate work can be your first Fate story. Where you go from there will be up to you.

The only two warnings I will over is that Hollow/Ataraxia is a true sequel so definitely don't start there assuming you can even find it. Secondly, do not start the FGO anime because Babylonia does not adapt the full FGO story.

The FGO anime is worth watching but it won't supplement it's source.

Now then, hopefully I've convinced you to try something. I'd personally recommend you watch Fate/Zero or Apocrypha to feel out the series but you can't quite literally start near anywhere.

So enjoy and bye~

P.S. yes that last image is an official timeline. It's not actually needed but it's neat. :D

========================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

[texasthoughtsaboutnothing]

Weird Question.

What does a good Limbus Company Tier List look like?

[Warning: Long]

Gacha games are, at least in part, games about optimizing limited resources. There is a daily stamina limit, and weeklies and dailies that you need to feed that stamina into. In turn, you receive an amount of rewards that need to be spent to acquire and upgrade units. Limited rewards. And you need so many just to upgrade one unit. Decisions need to made, resources allocated. You only have so much, you want to get and use the right stuff without wasting anything on someone you find out is trash 90 levels in. Right?

This is an aspect of Gacha that is often missed in discourse about pngs of anime waifus: the emotional and intellectual labor of investing into a unit, the constant worrying about if you are making the most optimal choices, and the satisfaction of planning well. How a lot of attachment to a character can stem not from their design or personality but just because they're all you had that countered this boss node and lord almighty they clutched out the win with 0.1% HP after you dumped all you had into raising them. I could talk about it all day, it' super interesting to me. But to refocus, the major consequence of this kind of game design are tier lists.

Tier lists will tell you, at a glance, what units are worth investing in and what's worth avoiding. Good tier lists will provide comprehensive explanations and guides for each unit to contextualize their placement. Bad tier lists won't. They can be the combined knowledge of an entire community for a game, they can also be an edict laid down without compassion or transparency. Again, absolutely interesting. And again, to refocus, Limbus doesn't really have one.

Ok, there are Limbus tier lists. Esgoo has great tier lists on which IDs and EGO you should prioritize when considering Uptie 4. Obviously those are his opinion, all Tier Lists are at the end of the day, but he has a whole hour of discussion covering the why's and hows of each category. There is a Prydwen tier list for units, but its rarely shown to new players in any of the PM communities I'm in and is instead largely chastised to my knowledge. I've seen Sinner tier lists, meme tier lists, so on and so forth. None of these are the Tier List.

Maybe its just a sign of the times, but I remember when Gachas had the Tier List. Community vetted, moderator approved, above any all all others. Offered freely to newcomers and watched feverishly by veterans after a new unit is released. Nowadays I feel like I rarely see them.

Limbus doesn't have the tier list. You may wonder if it even needs one and I think you'd have a point. Boiling an entire ID's value to a letter grade might seem unnecessary, especially as Limbus is a bit different as a Gacha. IDs are easy to get, and though the level cap continues to raise (in a way many others find alarming and I'm inclined to agree) it's still less than a week's effort to max one out. I've played games where it took a month of currency to get a single Unit useable. THere just isn't as much drive to worry about leveling the wrong things, investing incorrectly because basically anything works.

However.

There still are obvious differences in the strengths of each character ID. True, most if not all are "useable", but you're probably better off leveling Pequod Yi Sang than Seven Yi Sang. You are definitely better off leveling Pequod Ishmael than Sloshing Ishmael. Its fair to want a quick cheat sheet to communicate those ideas at a glance, with explanations for those who want to delve a little deeper.

But I ask again, what would it even look like?

By what categories and traits do we subdivide these IDs? How can you convey that W Ryoshu is a self sufficient DPS monster tahat requires no synergy to be good while Maid Ryoshu has AoE built into her kit as well as strong poise gen that also does good damage at a glance? Put one in an AoE group and the other in DPS? Is that truly accurate when part of attack weight is that it's great against Abnormalities, the most common type of one-on-one encounter?

I ask the question "what would it look like" because I truly don't know. Limbus is a complicated, evolving game. I don't think that makes it special or standout in any particular way, but for an example it could be that Seven IDs are top tier next event because of temporary buffs and that throws a whole tier list on its head. I don't know of many Gacha that do stuff like that.

That's kinda the end of the thought. The best I can come up with is a list consisting of three tiers: "great, good with the right team comp, and don't. Further explanation available upon request." That's not very helpful, is it?

[borealiszero]

Want more information about Reverse 1999? Because I've been playing the game since around New Years

YESSSSSS LET ME HEAR IT

fair warning tho im not gonna play rev1990 cause another cowboy already sucked me into gacha game that i swore to never play. These gunslingers got me good

[killerwithknife]

idk much about gaming, what is wrong with genshin? is it like a pay grab or something? (u can rant btw i wanna know what u think)

(fair warning take this with a grain of salt because im a longtime tloz fan & i haven’t played genshin for nearly as long and don’t care about it as much as I care about zelda) but mainly it’s the fact that it capitalized on stealing good features from a good game without really improving on them at all. like I probably wouldn’t have given as much of a shit if they promoted its release with showing the things that actually make it it’s own game, but instead they focused on the botw like aspects. which is very cheap imo but sadly seems to be something that just Happens with media (not just games) nowadays. It’s also a sort of undercover gacha game which is its own thing, im personally not a fan of games like that but there’s always someone for everything.

[enchantingmirage]

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. 🎃🦇

I decided to put the illustrations in the order I got them.

My thoughts underneath:

The scenes with the crushes were really cute; I would've preferred them to be more friendship-adjacent. (Wasn't a fan of Jason's, now that I'm looking back at it, tbh. And I could've done with less fanservice in Roy's scene) The illustrations were amazing as always. I'd say Thomas was my favorite and also Amanda's...

The outfits were fun, though I did find the witch outfit too revealing for my taste. The Puppet outfit had a unique concept, it reminded me of the Coraline movie. The bank outfit was also stunning.

The bubble shooter game was fun; I felt very nostalgic as I played a lot of those games growing up.

Negatives: This event all in all is not fair for F2P players. It's pretty much impossible to finish a round with only 7 moves. (As fewer moves give you more tokens). The timer doesn't help either. It should at least be an hour in between each completion of the game. Of course, everyone is going to have a different gaming experience so please let me know if that was possible for you.

500 tokens is a lot for just one draw. This is essentially a gacha game. And given the limited time that this event it running, the only way you can be able to get everything is by paying, which really blows...

Why was there a jumpscare scene in Devon's route included but there was no warning prior? I know it's for Halloween, but a warning would've still been nice. Not everyone is going to be fond of those kinds of things...  😕

[sunder-the-gold]

Because of all your Arknights posting I decided to try it yesterday, despite my crappy internet. Literally in the middle of downloading, new version. Start over. For some unfathomable reason, progress rolls half the way back near the end. Third attempt, it finally downloads, not enough space on the phone, another rollback. Fourth attempt, installed at last.

Try to register: server maintenance.

And after all that, I was extremely unimpressed with the writing. Does it get better later?

The main story does get better in later chapters.

However, the main story of the game is notoriously beneath the standard of practically every side-story. When I think about the best writing that Arknights has to offer, I think of the side-stories.

I remember the main story of the game largely in terms of the central premise of Arknights, rather in terms of the events in the main story.

Also, fair warning: Chapter 5 "Necessary Solutions" and Chapter 6 "Partial Necrosis" will have you scratching your head from some truly bizarre, non-chronological arrangement of events.

More importantly, your Ask has finally kicked me in the pants to write a warning that I've been thinking of writing for a while.

ARKNIGHTS IS PREDATORY.

If you want to play, ignore its incentives. Do NOT try to optimize.

My second or third week of playing Arknights, I deleted it from all of my devices. Then "two weeks to slow the spread" happened, I was working from home, and I no longer had my cubicle neighbors to talk to, so I re-downloaded Arknights just to have something to do between tasks.

My problem wasn't the core gameplay or the story. I regretted leaving the core gameplay behind, and I fully intended on keeping up with the story. What I resented was all of the Skinner-Boxing chores.

I don't have any advice for how to play the game without managing the resource-producing "base" minigame. I've been optimizing that chore for close to six years.

But if you're not spending real money to acquire as many high-rarity operators as possible, and concentrate on building only the lower-rarity operators and your absolute favorite higher-rarity CHARACTERS, I think you can enjoy Arknights without jumping through all of its hoops.

Especially if you don't mind consulting "Low-Rarity Squad" guides on YouTube if you get stuck early in your account's life.

I have the strongest possible roster in the game, I'm missing only three non-limited operators I can eventually get easily, but I don't think it makes me any happier or more satisfied with the game.

Someone who picks one particular "faction", or "theme", or "meme-team" to collect, and saves all of their gacha-resources for them while ignoring everyone else... they probably have more fun because they're always playing with their favorite characters rather than with the optimally strongest ones.

Not trying to get and build all of the strongest operators will also mean you don't need to worry as much about optimizing your base or your "event farming" for upgrade materials.

Will you be less capable of clearing any of the various alternative game-modes that Hypergryph added into Arknights? Yes. Do those game-modes MATTER? Not really.

[fishareglorious]

If someone were to be deciding between either limbus company or reverse 1999, which would you recommend and why? What would you say are the pros and cons?

I enjoy both R1999's and Limbus' story and gameplay, and both its cast of characters remain pretty intriguing enough. But I will be upfront about the fact that I will a little more biased on R199 since its currently filling up the spaces between my neurons currently, and that I've dropped Limbus months ago due to the company's actions towards its workers. All in all, if you want to play Limbus, all I ask of you is to not give the game any real-life money.

I really do want to give both games a fair chance, so I would say my verdict would be for you to try both games and see if like one or even both?

A whole ass essay under the cut:

Anyhow, when it comes to recommending it, I.. would say to a general audience, R1999's more palatable? Limbus' contents (see: its giant trigger warnings screen when you start the game for the first time) aren't quite for everyone, so if any of these aren’t for you, please take care of yourself.

Limbus gameplay is something that plays in my head even if I haven’t touched it in months. The difficulty spike is infamously vertical, but if you enjoy a good challenge, figuring out battles is really gratifying. Probably is one of the things I really miss about the game, as much as it did frustrate me to the point of insanity.

For the characters, I did really like the fact all of the playable characters take inspiration from classic literature (ie, Ishmael is inspired from Ishmael from Moby Dick, Heathcliff is from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Faust from Goethe's Faust, Gregor as Gregor Samsa from Kafka's Metamorphosis, etc.), and the setting of the City as an ultra capitalist hell that has SCP-esque creatures wreaking havoc after the downfall of an eldritch horror energy company is a very fascinating and intriguing world.

One of the big things I can think people praise about Limbus is that almost all gacha content are actually obtainable with enough grinding; barring the pretty new Walpurgisnacht content, which I think is limited?

The game has utterly banger soundtracks including original songs from Mili is spectacularly weaved into the boss battles, sound design that is immaculately crunchy in a satisfying way (I. admit I sometimes open some character's attack audios. for fun at one point. let us ignore i am the guy obsessed with outis and I play her voicelines because she's. her.) and top-notch voice acting. While it doesn't have a english dub, but I think even if they had one I don't think they'll come quite close to the korean VA's performances.

I may not have touched the game in months but I do still carry a fondness for these gang of murderous morally gray-to-black bastards and their sad sopping wet amnesiac manager.

And let's get to R1999. It's been taking up space in my brain for a while now. The cast of characters are certainly interesting, and there is lore jam-packed into almost every bit of the story. The whole world and the ramifications and effects of the Storm pose an intriguing conflict and I'll surely be tuned in to how the main story will turn out. The events are also a joy to watch and play.

As for the gameplay, if the levels aren't kicking your ass and you're evenly matched with your enemies, I really do enjoy the process of strategizing how to defeat the enemies. Unlike Limbus flinging you out into the world and into the battle; the tutorial on how R1999's battle mechanic certainly eases you better into knowing the basics. My only complaint in here is that the end-game grind is horrific. Farming for stuff for your characters in the highest levels will have you ripping your hair out (at least, that was my experience), but at the last going through the main story content doesn't actually require you to be on a high level with your roster of characters.

I appreciate how it does look like a lot of things in R1999 take context from actual historical things that have happened, though unfortunately I'm not really that much of a history buff to fully get some references and appreciate it, which is a bit of a shame.

The game's soundtrack is simply chef's kiss. I admit I don't really have audio on when i play casually, but when I do have it on while playing through the story, the music really does deliver and drive in what the game wants you to really feel during scenes. The music in chapter 3's various chess scenes drive in Constantine's scheming and the buildup of dread as you see it all unfurl before your eyes. The solemnity of the music in the final scenes of chapter 2. A ping pong game being somehow incredibly intense. That one OST that plays whenever someone goes silly time. Green Lake's absolute bop of an OST can I just link it here man. R1999 composers giving y'all a big plate of your favorite food.

Anyways. I think this has like. gone on and on and I am not good with writing conclusions so. To say what I said at the very start, I think you should both games a fair chance, so I would say my verdict would be for you to try both games and see if like one or even both? Up to you.

Most of all have fun and don't give into the gacha addiction. That is all.

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm Gonna Play: Nu: Carnival

I've always seen mobile gacha games that depict lots of female characters. I don't see much of the same for male characters, despite some games showing huge success of having them (i.e. HoyoVerse games and Fate Grand Order). I stumbled across a mention of this on a post about gachas with a male majority cast. I checked to see if it's worth it.

**TW: This is an 18+ BL game containing sexual content to the point that it's not even on the App Stores, although a censored version will be released soon for the stores. I will not be detailing the naughty bits much regardless.**

I have to say, when the content warning popped up mentioning that a scene contains adult content and that I have the option to skip it, I thought it'd be something akin to softcore for some reason. Instead, there was an entire scene with everything shown in all its glory and descriptions. I did get a laugh out of being surprised.

But admiteddly, this game does not cut corners in presentation, at all. The art style is very appealing with a diverse amount of character designs that fit various tropes, and the animation is actually spendid, both in regular and explicit scenes. Although regular animations do tend to move around with a lot of exaggeration, so this can be a turn off for some players. Maybe it's because I don't play BL or adult games much so I'm not in the know for what's the latest or what's buzzing, but I'm getting the impression that this game is a lot more underrated than expected.

The story is not too bad. At least for once I'm paying a little attention to it in a gacha game. It basically acts as an isekai where you gain the role of being a successor to a sorcerer and sex somewhat acts as an energy source. Character dynamics are nice where present, but the best part for me personally is that I like that the relationships are depicted in a healthy manner, where it's more consensual. There are also side stories in the form of events which are fun to read through.

Gameplay is surprisingly fun! It's turn-based with a front view perspective. The UI is very animated which feels like it's giving me little dopamine hits lol. Your party consists of the characters in different tiers known as rarity, and they also have roles such as debuffers, healers, strikers, etc. so there is a fair share of strategy involved. Your party also needs to be leveled up via potions, as well as increase their ranks (kind of like ascensions in Genshin Impact), and also increase certain base stats known as Potential. However at some point it does get grindy as the requirements for getting to the next levels gets higher and higher in terms of your team's power level. This is a system I loathed in another gacha game (Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis), but it's more bearable here because the game offers you other things to do instead, such as events.

As for the gacha aspects, there is a way to get the rolls you want by using a guest account and then binding when you're satisfied, so it is generous in that sense. I'm also F2P so far and I've had decent rolls in the beginning, though lately it's been awful lol. I did think about spending a bit of money, but the prices for what they ask are ridiculously high, which is one aspect I dislike about the game. You can instead gain rewards through quests such as dailies, weeklies,etc., join a guild to do quests in order to collectively earn rewards, do explorations and craft things, or buy with other currencies that don't require payment.

In the end, I'm actually playing this game religiously , but I'm also quite relaxed with it. It's a nice game to drop by and do some stuff and then hop off while you go about with your day. I do hope that the censored version can bring in more users (the intended audience, that is).

[hazelplaysgames]

uuuuh since the SD card port went and just stopped, i really haven't felt like uploading clips. so. bleck. i think i can already chalk it up as a mixed year for me.

that said, i feel like i should make at least something now that the queue is unquestionably emptying, so. how about them phone games? i'll just make it one big one under a Keep Reading because, fair warning, they're all gacha games. on that front alone, i can't advocate for anyone getting in all willy nilly. keep in mind, i haven't spent anything on any of them. i got "luck" in my usual username for a reason.

let me start with the only one i've played since... ah, last august, actually, Blue Archive! it's going well, i just hit level 87, the level cap for the time being, a couple days ago.

i'm still having fun with that one, so. nine months of fun with that one, story that kicked me like a mule, definitely more out of my time with it than i thought i was gonna get. we're in the middle of new stories now, and to fill in the event void, we're getting this mini-event featuring a girl named Aoi, who basically just shows up for that event. been a while. as you might guess by me bringing her up unprompted: a minor character who doesn't show up often? she stole my heart. it's honestly kinda impressive. something about her voice, mainly.

also, good news from the JP servers: they're putting the twin catgirl gamers in maid outfits! well, i mean, that event is a repeat, those two already were, but we'll be able to take them home this time!

additionally, a few months back, they started this system that grants a 10 pull ticket that's good for a month.

it has been working out for me. didn't get any bunny girls for the collab after Cunifest, so i missed out on comedy, but i at least got the two collab girls in a pity pull's worth. the actual bunny event is coming up just after my birthday in June, and. well, i won't argue with bunnies for my birthday. probably post about that tuesday/thursday if it's REALLY good, or split it 100 pulls per those days?

nah, at most it's 20 screenshots, lets not drag that out. it can be done in 1 post.

next, i got into Nikke far more recently- a couple months is accurate- and like. i get a lot of sniper rifle users in that one. Frima was the first, Red Hood(who is widely considered by the userbase as one of if not THE strongest unit. i can believe it), Alice(who is still considered damn good with Red here. the loaned version makes me believe it), Trony, D: Killer Wife(i actually pulled D and her alt costume at the same time), Harran, Maxwell- why am i a sniper rifle magnet? is it 'cause i like to play Heavy? am i just an easy mark?

you know i just realized neither of those pages show the girls names. be amazed i got Kasumi and Hiyori in the BA ones, please please. at the very least, the numbers on the bottom left can tell you those were actually the first pulls of those two banners.

anyways. since it was after i got through the final chapter in BA, i kinda figured it'd have a good story as well, and, yeah, absolutely better than i first thought. but the story is gated behind levelling, and while this was a point against BA too, it's far more prominent here. like, i got through all of BA's plot once i hit the 60s back in like, January or so, the grind to get into the story is practically constant with Nikke. also, the main story is 30 chapters in, and they're now calling it the prologue. i don't really want to witness that unchecked growth.

that all said, the main reason i got into either in the first place was because of the music: lotta good stuff in these two. no one set style, no one set tone, sum of it all is great. it is hard to suggest a place to start.

uh, as for the only gun gacha game i dropped right now, Arknights. just never meshed even after a few months, and if i remember right, the story has a similar issue as Nikke in being levelling locked. that all said, Nikke is probably the one i'll drop once phone space gets scarce. i enjoy it, but for the fact it's still the largest of the lot, eh... sadly, the best choice.

oh, and speaking of bunny girls, looks like that's also gonna be the next event for Nikke. hilarious. Alice is finally gettin' a proper alt!

in any case, i don't wanna go ditchin' the two rhythm games! i'll talk about the two side by side, kinda, if you wanna call it that. the first of which, Bang Dream! Girls Band Party!, commonly just called Bandori, and the second, D4DJ Groovy Mix. they both got a good selection of songs, though i do have to admit that if Bandori didn't have Butterfly, the song from Digimon, i probably would not have got into it these two as much as i did. here's two pages for that one:

they recently made a push for 500 songs in it, so i'm only missing about 80. i feel quite proud for clearing all those Hard songs, i was barely kicking past medium when i first started in December. unfortunately for me, this kinda also stems the flow of free stars, i think i'll get at best, one or two more pity pulls within the year. for birthday banners. those are like, 1/3 of normal banners. it's a harsh star economy here. anyways, D4DJ:

it throws a lot more currency types around, and the story... it might be timing about the whole xross wars arc, but what it is now ain't hitting what i'm looking for. ain't saying bad, just that i was kinda expecting more mundane. the gems in this one are also fairly consistent, so unless i want a lot ASAP, i feel like i can get a good, healthy enough amount within the rest of the year, even if the pulls are pricier than Bandori. might be going a little harder than i need to for some birthday banners.

if i could give shorthand preferences, i'd say: i give D4DJ props for the gameplay and modes that can be played, as well as overall difficulty curve and even accessibility, while Bandori i'll give the characters and story. while i like Rika(the redhead in the bunny suit up there) and Rinku of D4, i can fill out several lines of characters i like from Bandori, so. most of them, actually.

above the rest, easily, Kokoro, the blond one up there, she's just so happy like a ray of sunshine, i adore her. whenever a Hello, Happy World! song demo starts playing, it's usually her on vocals, and like a moth to a flame, i wanna play it.

i feel like both have great song selections, but what they each encompass is a bit different: Bandori only has originals and cover songs, all lyrics, all the way, and i think most of them are good. meanwhile, D4DJ, while obviously having ori's and covers, also has some original songs from other artists, instrumentals, and game music straight from either the source or a remixer like Camellia, who made a few songs in Mad Rat Dead, and i really appreciate having those as well.

ok, i am underplaying Camellia's full efforts there, fella does a lot of good remixes and originals. i mean, a lot a lot. you can't go two rhythm games without seeing his name, and for good reason: he's that good.

also, i know both series have youtube channels with animated seasons to them, but i haven't given either a watch yet. i learned those channels existed like a week ago, never considered the possibility before.

also.

love these birthday banners! D4DJ even gives you a few free pulls once a day while the banner is up to celebrate, which i find nice.

i guess i did also try Love Live 2, but, by download size, that was actually bigger than Nikke, and it relied entirely on its original songs. it felt hard to get into, aaaand... it is shutting down in a couple days now. still, got Snow Halation in, Rin was cute, Nico Nico Ni, Nozomi Tojo, David Schwimmer, guest starring the "SKULLS" parasite unit. to explain the joke, Triple-Q's Friends Halation. i like most Snow Halation mashes.

all right, anything else i want to mention here and now... nah. i think that's good, i feel talked out.

[calithso]

Dumb question but who’s Whitney and what’s IF’s?

whitney's from the game degrees of lewdity. fair warning, it's kind of an extreme game and includes a ton of very sensitive content so please do be careful if you want to get into it ^^'

easiest way to explan IF's, short for interactive fiction. it's basically like those dating games but text-based instead, so literally just books but you have make choices. go through the story, date someone, create your MC, make choices, etc.

before i fully went gacha game artist mode, i used to make fanart for IFs which i still do read and will make more art in the future. some of my followers know this and have been here since then which surprises me and i will continue to appreciate (looking at you, that one blog who i thought was a bot that's been liking every single one of my posts)

but yeah, if it's not clear enough i'm sorry. i suck at explaining 😭

[alexcutecolly]

omg yes yes the teasing and rubbing at us would be so cute even if it was after the last fight! and more stories with him are always good! it makes me really happy to see someone else who sees him as more then just the villain cause he’s really lonely! I want to find him again too and you’re right if he has us deep in him he wont be alone anymore!

ps. I was looking at your first answer again and I lost to gi.ratina the first time i battled him so I guess i know where I’m going! ❤️

v.olo uwu

V.olo uwu anon! Hi again! 💕

It's super duper cute, yeah! 😭❤️ He'd poke and massage his belly with care still, regardless of context 🥺❤️

Warning: Major spoilers for P.okemon Legends: A.rceus below!

Though for our character such a change in story events would be actually quite frightening and stressful, since we'd be used to V.olo nomming us in a very endearing and protective way up until that moment, but now him devouring us after our defeat absolutely carries a more sinister and less willing meaning to it 🥺 I admit I wouldn't dislike it, but it'd definitely feel very different 😭

I imagine that he would eat us after the fight if we refuse to hand over the plates, or we turn down his offer to take A.rceus down together 🤔 and I mean, it's not like we could resist or something, being shrunken as we are in the scenario xD

I'll do my best to keep writing those wips tbh! I just tend to get stuck with making certain mechanics work in a believable way, like the whole shrinking-and-vore thing xD

Omg I know what you mean, it's always amazing to find other empathetic V.olo fans! Thankfully the majority of the people I know in the community feel the same way, and it's a relief ❤️

Personally I enjoy both sides of his personality tbh, but I despise those who ignore how he must have been feeling to come to the conclusion that the world he lives in is unsalvageable, and thus must be remade anew ;-; plus realizing that your own god decided you're not worthy enough of consideration must hurt a lot... ;-; ;-; ;-;

I think we might see him again in M.asters Ex since he's been teased a bit there, but I'm not downloading a gacha game to find out tbf x3 the V.olo community will definitely explode when it happens tho, so I'm just going to giggle, kick my legs in the air and see what it's all about ❤️ what do you think of all these teasers, dear anon?

And omg xD you might have lost on that first try, but you earned a swift trip to his tummy in exchange! He'd save you from world destruction, and in the meantime you fill his belly and keep him company! It's a fair deal to me xDD plus he could eat us again after resetting the world and creating another from scratch, depending on how we feel about the whole ordeal 🥺

Imo though V.olo wouldn't actually wish to erase from existence all those who live in H.isui (I'd be very fine with K.amado being gone tho. Asshole); I feel like he'd bring them back into the new world or something, only with their memories altered into believing he's their real god and not A.rceus or Almighty S.innoh 🤔 oh well, he wouldn't feel neither lonely nor alone anymore! x3

[gumi-megpoidd]

what is reverse 1999 about?

It's a game centered around Vertin, the Timekeeper, who is the only one not affected by The Storm, this mysterious phenomena that causes time to mostly unpredictably shift around from time to time, which first occurred on the last day of 1999. The current chapters (at least until chapter 3, where I'm at) all take place in the 1900s, though it seems like it reaches other times as well.

I will give a fair warning that it is a gacha game, so if that bothers you or you have issues with it, might be best to just watch others play it. The story is very good though, even if the english translation is a bit off at times.

All in all, highly recommended

[solaaresque]

hi hi reze i started playing arknights for u 🫶 i’m kinda obsessed with the gameplay bc its like one of those ads where you can’t let the enemy break your wall (?? i hope you know what i mean 😭). it would be so slay of you to give me ur friend tag 😚

also did not know it was a gacha so now it’s another game for me to suffer through 👍 though i did get two 6-stars on the beginner banner on my first ten pull but i have no idea what the rate is so yuh!

um i’m tired but i really need to turn in this assignment (on a movie i didn’t watch 😭 and i’m just procrastinating so hard rn) but make sure you don’t go to bed too late, drink water, and practice self-love 💗🫶😛 (that emoji is so weird but it’s funny to me)

hi hi lee !! oh my god i am so honoured <3 and yes yes the gameplay is sooo fun but it kinda sucks cause you have to think ?? about strats ?? (and yeah i get what you mean) AND YES YES OFC !! gimme a sec to find it on my phone and i'll add it here hehe :3

OH OH THAT'S GREAT which two did you get?? i also got two but it was a dupe so now i have pot1 hoshiguma lol (not that i'm complaining!!) the gacha rates for ak are kinda shitty though fair warning cause you aren't guaranteed until 300 pulls and only your first 10 pull on every banner guarantees you a 5* or higher which means every pull after your first 10 could literally just be all 3*-4*s :(

NOOO omg i hope you can finish your assignment on time !! and try not to stay up too late?? and ofc i will !! but same to you okay?? <3