#forward??? the characters have their own unique dynamics with eachother????

[starlingfawn]

through starless sky to blackest ground

[kursed-arcana]

Psycho Pass Providence Review

I saw it in theaters and it was even better then I imagined.

Turning Akane into a tragic heroine may have been the best choice for her character after all. Her self sacrifice elevated her character to another level in my eyes.

I have not yet watched season 3 or first Inspector due to patiently waiting for the dub, but knew akane's fate and how it resolves. I went into this movie hoping it would explain how Akane was imprisoned and fearing she would take the fall for Shindo based on the context the film provided, instead I was pleasantly surprised to see our heroine take her fate into her own hands and make a difficult choice. Her self sacrifice was flawless and I was nearly in tears when she broke down. There is even a fantastic parallel between her choice here and Kougami's at the end of one. They both leave each other letters and both call the other an idiot for their decision. I left the theater fully satisfied.

I really appreciate how Kougami and Akane are always on eachothers minds and how their past interactions motivate their present actions even when they're apart. I think they'd make an excellent couple and Kougami being such a stubborn baby and not apologizing to Akane and being shocked when she hung up on him was too funny. I feel like them understanding eachother so well is both a strength and a weakness. It could very well be what keeps a a clear canon paring for them from happening. But I feel like this ending for Akane opens a lot of doors for them going forward. In the eyes of sybil, they're now two of a kind. The power imbalance barrier from their different statuses is now gone! And from what I hear about season 3 and first Inspector, I believe we'll be able to get more content of the two of them working together again in the near future.

On to the rest of the movie and cast.

I can't help but enjoy Mika. I think her character arc in 2 was actually really interesting and a nice contrast to Akane. And seeing her devastation at Akane's actions after she had just tried to save her, really spoke to me. I feel like she's still very much that broken girl from season 1 and Akane's loss probably opened up those wounds again. Her character has a lot more potential than most fans acknowledge.

Gino also has a prominent supporting role in this movie. Whether interacting with Kougami, Akane and Frederica he really shines. He is clearly happy to be with Kougami again, but let's his pride get in the way. But at the end of the day, they are both incredibly loyal to Akane. While Gino protects her as a shield, Kougami fights for her like a sword. It offers a unique dynamic. They essentially have Akane on a pedestal, as does sybil itself, which makes her very public and on purpose fall from grace all the more interesting. What will these two men do now that Akane has made herself a martyr for the justice her ideals strive to protect? I think we all have an idea of where the story goes from here whether we've watched the next material in the timeline already or not.

Finally its worth noting that essentially the entire supporting cast gets a few moments to shine, whether from season 1 or 2, and of course some characters from 3. The cast from 3 may not be the focus this time but they are still present in the background and I believe this movie answers some questions about their pasts.

In closing some stray thoughts.

- I can't help but ship Frederica and Gino now. They had great chemistry and a moment of theirs mirrors and earlier Koihami x Akane ship baiting moment in the movie. Keep yours open for it!

-we lost a good man this go around. His death generally shocked me. Keeping it vague so I don't lessen the impact!

- the music for this movie is A+ however, there is no after credit scene if you dont want to listen to the ending

[purpeltomato]

So.... Thoughts on BAPC reboot? (Not couting lazy in space)

Personally... Kinda disappoiting, im ngl. Animation is very obviously GORGEOUS but like. It still felt... A little bland, something that i would NEVER say to the original. I dont really like comparing (tho lets be real the og IS MILESSSSSS BETTER) i guess ill just kinda try to criticize it on its own?

Is it watchable? Sure, its good if ur a first-comer actually, but. Idk. It just didnt feel like it was a show ABOUT Bee AND PUPPYCAT. its like he was just there, moving the plot forward and wasnt really a character. Seriously, there wasnt a single meaningful interaction he had with bee before her birthday, it was PAINFUL to watch.

Sorry, but that last moment where they chat about bee's favorite foods, colours, etc just... Didnt hit as hard! They BARELY KNOW EACHOTHER! or if they do, SHOW US THAT! they didnt exchange conversation at ALL besides some small talk, which was just SAD. Their dynamic was honestly SO GOOD!! THEY WERE BOTH 2 LAZY DOOFUSES WHO CARED ABOUT EACHOTHER, EVEN THOUGH THEY LOOK SO DIFFERENT!! THEY WERE PERFECT!! now Bee doesnt have a personality at all, and puppycat is just a sassy little bitch. I like sassy puppycat, but they forgor to give him any other features besides that💀💀💀

Thats probably what ruined it to me the most. Characters dont interact, we dont see them CARE FOR EACHOTHER, GROW A BOND TOGETHER, so how are we supposed to know they even ARE FRIENDS?

with bee and deckard its different cuz its stabilished they've already been friends but EVEN THEN, THEY ACTUALLY TALK TO EACHOTHER (tho not by that much either..) Bee and puppycat DO NOT INTERACT AS FRIENDS AT ALL. THEY ARE NOT FRIENDS HERE. WHICH JUST MAKES ME SO MADDDDDD OMG WHY DID YOU GUYS DO THIS!!! ALL FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING S1 SMALLER??? WHY!!!!!!!!!!

another thing is HOW FAST-PACED IT IS!! I enjoy me some fast paced shows but bap was literally the opposite of that!! Its supposed to be a relaxing, slow show! What happened with that? :( I wish i could say this doesnt affect the show BUT IT DOES. they really should've just reanimated it instead of rebooting it.

Now this is just me beijg a bitch but THEY TOOK OUT YHE MOST ICONIC LINES!!!!! THEY GAVE THE SHOW SUCH A CHARM YK??? THEY WERE SO FUNNY AND YK UNIQUE?? WHY DID THEY DO THAT?????😭😭😭😭

Not to say everything is bad tho, they didnt mess up Cardamon, he was pretty good. Kinda wish they'd shown him and sticky interacting just a bit more, and more of how hes dealing with the whole situation with his mother, but its fine, it was great. Also episode 3 is pretty good, but again, MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR MORE INTERACTIONS WITH PUPPYCAT!! THEY HAD TO SHOVE DECKARD IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR BONDING HUH.......

(not to say i dont like him I ADORE HIM but cmon puppycat needed a LOT more screentime with bee :( not deckards fault tho, his story was also handled pretty good.)

Should you watch it? YEAH GO AHEAD!! its still entertaining nonetheless and animation is gourgeous!! Please go support it and GIVE IT WATCHTIME!!

But do i think og is better? Yea. It also had a lot of flaws but they were kinda shaddowed by their rights. But they have different good things too, yk!

Reboot had a beautiful animation style, it explained WAY BETTER why bee was fired from Cat Café, while i liked the sudden hints og gave about bee being a robot/Cyborg and puppycat being the space outlaw, i think lore-wise was better explained here. It explained some plot holes the og had, and MORE TOAST!!!!!!! MORE CASS AND DECKARD INTERACTIONS!!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT!

Buuuttt, og had WAY more charm, personality, more interactions, better pacing, way funnier and felt more natural and "easy-going."

BUT THATS JUST MY OPINION!!!!!!!! IF U WATCHED IT PLS LET ME KNOW WHAT U THINK I WANNA HEAR ALL UR RAMBLES!!

[looney-mooney]

Insecure Intimacy

Chapter 1/3

Badgerclops and Mao Mao each have their insecurities. But with time, patience, and passion, they will learn to love these things about themselves and eachother that most others would find repulsive. An established relationship Badgermao fic, includes art nerd Badgerclops, Adorabat with a bit more of a sense of independence (which involves learning how to be a magical hero from Camille), and Mao Mao’s personal insecurities! And uhh, since we’re using the citrus system... Orange, I guess? Will eventually be Lemon.

AO3

Mao Mao and Badgerclops had been sorta-kinda dating for a few months at this point. Their home on the hilltop reflected these changes: Mao Mao and Badgerclops had moved out of the triple-bunk bed, getting themselves a full-sized bed and setting up a room for Adorabat in the basement. Despite her enthusiasm for her caretaker’s newfound romance, Adorabat had been resistant to certain changes, especially the one with the beds. But it wasn’t long before she realized she kinda liked having her own space, especially once her caretakers had put in some extra effort to convert a portion of the basement Garage into something more personalized to their unofficial daughter: She had always used that room as a sort of refuge, after all, and it was already her favorite colors. They had relocated the triple bunk bed from their old room to the basement garage, and though the top and middle bunks remained untouched, the bottom bunk that used to be Mao Mao’s had been converted into a drafting table for drawing, making up new weapons, and (occasionally) doing homework. And the basement meant she got to have her own TV, extra couch, and they all pitched in to add beanbag chairs and extra fun carpets to the space. Adorabat liked making the room her own, liked having a space to get away from time to time, and liked having loving caretakers who really, REALLY loved each other. 

And her caretakers didn’t mind having a bit more space to themselves, either. 

It was a Tuesday night. Things tended to die down a bit on Tuesdays, usually just neighborhood disputes and no real attacks from monsters or pirates or any villains of the sort. It frustrated the everliving hell outta Mao Mao, not getting much to do. And Adorabat was spending the night at the witches house, having been curious about the process behind the creation of magical weapons and eager to be a witch’s apprentice for a few days. (Mao Mao pretended to disapprove, but Badgerclops had caught him sneaking proud looks at the pictures Badgerclops had taken earlier with his instant camera and put up on the fridge of her in her new witch’s hat, proudly holding a wand in her little wing. She was going to make a fine hero one day, that much was for sure, and she was sure to learn something useful from this experience. It was kinda sad to watch her start to gain a sense of independence and branching out in her knowledge, but at the same time, it was so incredible to watch her grow into the wonderfully unique hero she was always meant to become.)

Maybe the fact that Adorabat was seeking knowledge from another source than her number one hero was bumming Mao out a bit, too: it might have contributed to his antsiness, aside from the long, arduous day of settling disputes instead of fighting monsters. 

Badgerclops decided that maybe it would be best to check up on him, just in case. 

He found his partner in the Dojo, taking his frustrations out on a defenseless punching bag. 

Badgerclops decided to watch his partner for a moment. He really was... Beautiful, once you decided to let yourself see it. His muscles were wiry, but strong, and his fur was so dark it almost absorbed light, like the night sky before its first stars peeked through. He was fast, flexible, moved in impossible ways, his fangs flashing white against the inky darkness of his fur, eyes almost glowing that impossibly pure emerald green, his cape fluttering behind him, framing his movements like a comic book character. 

Badgerclops decided to try drawing him. It’d be impossible to get down a detailed sketch when he was like this, but it’d still make good figure drawing practice, and he was just so incredibly beautiful, it made him wonder how he never really noticed it before. 

Badgerclops popped out his sketchpad, and started doodling his love, right there in the doorway, as he went to town on the punching bag. It was impossible to reallycapture his beauty, of course, but this didn’t have to be perfect - figure drawing was all about capturing the feeling of the movement, after all. And... it was kinda nice, just sitting there, doodling that beautiful black blur of action.

After a while, Mao Mao took a small break, leaning down to grab a water bottle and downing it with big, thirsty gulps. That was when he caught Badgerclops sitting in the door jam, sketchpad and pen in hand, studying him intensely. It made him choke almost on his water in surprise.

“Uh... Hey, Badgerclops. What are you doing there?”

Badgerclops blinked himself out of it - he must have gone into hyperfocus for a while there - And smiled. “Oh, nothing, just practicing my figure drawing.”

“Wha - on ME?”

Badgerclops rolled his eyes a little, though the fond smile remained. “Yes, on you, silly! Who else would I be drawing?”

Mao Mao shuffled his feet a bit, coughing into his fist with a small, adorable little blush - whether the cough was out of bashfulness or simply to dislodge some more of the water caught in his throat was undeterminable. Probably a little bit of both.

“I don’t know, yourself? I mean, I know I’m a dashing hero and all, but I’m... not exactly much of a looker, ya know?”

Badgerclops tilted his head. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I think you’re beautiful. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Shhhhut up."

“It’s true! I mean, look at you! You’re GORGEOUS. Here, look:” He turned his sketchpad around, revealing page after page of Mao Mao studies. “I mean, it’s hard to capture your real beauty with just some lines, but you’re kinda fun to draw anyway, you know?”

Mao Mao looked at the drawings, and really, REALLY looked at them. They looked like him, but like... He couldn’t be that... elegant, could he? That fierce, or that smooth, or... it looked more like one of his sisters, really; truly heroic, with a natural deadly grace. But then again, his sisters weren’t that cocky, quite that sly, or sexy, or... wait, what?

Did Badgerclops think he was... Sexy???

Mao Mao glanced up, to see Badgerclops looking at him, a smile on his features. It made Mao Mao swallow with unexpected emotions.

“Badgerclops, these are... these are incredible.”

“Awww, shucks...”

“No no, I really mean it. Are these like, pure ink sketches, or something?”

“Yeah, I like drawing you with my brush pens! It really shows off how fluid and dynamic you can be, and makes it easier to capture how dark your fur is. These are just figure drawings though, I was just seeing if I could draw you in motion. The way you move is kinda spectacular, Mao Mao.”

And there goes his face, sacrificed to the firey hot demons of passion. Fare thee well, we shall miss you, forever concealed behind a now eternal blush. God dammit, did his partner really have to be so genuine? He wasn’t even being smooth on purpose, the bastard . 

“Yeah, well - psh. Of course I’m - uh - sp-spectacular. How... How else would I, uh... become the greatest hero of all - of all time?”

“You are really spectacular, dude. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise, okay? Cuz you’re awesome. And you’re also mine. And nobody gets to insult my boyfriend but me, and I only insult you when I’m teasing or when you’re being a dingle, so that’s okay. And you get to insult me when I’m being a butt.”

“To be fair, you do have a very nice butt.”

“Oh, stop it! Your butt’s pretty awesome too, you know.”

“No it’s not, are you kidding me? It’s all gross back there, with a disfigured tail stump and everything. It’s a hideous butt, that’s why I wear a cape, ya butt.”

“Well, I don’t know man. I mean, once I got past the fact that you had gotten that badly hurt, I realize it’s not actually all that gross back there. It’s kinda awesome, really, how intricate the scarring is back there...”

Mao Mao gasped, feeling a wandering hand on his backside, carefully tracing one of the scars on his tailstump with a delicate claw. That thing was... REALLY sensitive. Holy SHIT . He shivered, hard, and wobbled on his feet, allowing his partner’s robot arm to steady him. He felt Badgerclops lean forward, his face Juuuust nextto his twitching ear.

“You know, Adorabat’s not gonna be home for a few days. ... Why don’t we take this to our room? Spend some... quality time  together ~ ”

Holy SHIT. “O... Okay.”

Badgerclops, the fiend , scooped him up in a bridal-style carry with impossible ease, and carried him over through the kitchen and into their shared bedroom. Besides the situation with the rearranged beds, nothing much had really changed about the room. Up until this point, they hadn’t really done much other than make out and grope, though there had been that one incident with the closet...

Up next: the Closet Incident

[ellib0t]

Hi! Nice blog. I love Elliot/Mr. Robot, both as a platonic or romantic/sexual relationship. It's so fascinating and unique, and Rami and Christian have amazing chemistry. When did you get into it, and what draws you to it?

Thank you! That means a lot. I wanted to make a space where people like you and myself could find content of these two no matter how they feel about them. I also like them as platonic and sexual/romantic. I want to read and write stories about them in all kinds of scenarios and dynamics.

I’ll put the rest of the answer under a read more because it’s long and gets kinda personal. Forgive me. I may delete it later.

I first started watching Mr Robot back when it aired in 2015 (though I had to torrent it back then;;) I watched the first couple of episodes and at the time I wasn’t in a very good place mentally and I found them very depressing. They didn’t really instill hope. I mostly started watching it because of Rami Malek who I had discovered through a video game called Until Dawn (he did voice and motion capture acting, or at least character rigging for a character called Josh who I related to quite a lot).

A few months later I tried to give season 1 another shot. And this time I found myself hooked. I binge watched it in a couple of days. I saw a lot of myself in Elliot. The childhood trauma and C-PTSD, the isolation and crushing loneliness, the identity issues and dissociation (all things I am currently in therapy for) as well as his journey from childhood to adulthood with technology. I was a very technical minded kid growing up (and I grew up in the 90s much like Elliot) so there were even some stories Elliot tells about coding growing up that I also used to do using our home PC on dial up internet (stealing source code from websites and making them my own for example).

Anyway, fast forward and it’s 2016. At this point I’ve moved out of my depressing and traumatic childhood home and into my own place and my long distance relationship with my boyfriend is now a close one. We move in together. We were sharing various TV shows with eachother and for a while I’d been trying to get us to watch Mr robot together. By the time we did, all of season 1 and 2 were on am@zon pr!me. So we started watching it together. And as we finished…season 3 got put on am@zon too. So we bought a DVD box set of all three to watch them in the best quality possible. The more I watched…the more and more I could relate to. In 2017 I had to leave my tech job due to health issues and I was heartbroken. To go from being on a programming and development team and making a difference to suddenly a nothing…a nobody…was horrible. I was having a relapse in mental health. I was hearing voices, I had terrible paranoia and I was having horrible nightmares and flashbacks to my childhood. Physical sensations and loss of time that I couldn’t explain. It was awful. It started to affect my ability to function with every day life. I was worried it would affect my relationship and so I decided to see help.

One thing that kept me tethered to reality in amongst all of that ironically was thinking about the tv show Mr Robot. Letting myself get lost in that world helped me a lot in reality. Even helped me understand that my condition and the things I was/am experiencing are there because its my body’s and brains way of coping with trauma.

When it comes to Ellibot, the thing I like most about their dynamic is how they work together and also against eachother. Mr Robot is very much the part that does all the dirty work. The stuff that needs doing for the sake of Elliot (the host). He is the confidence. The Ego. The social centre. The impulse control (and sometimes the lack thereof). And the mastermind is very much the loop program that runs until it reaches its goal, if you like. But he’s not without morals. He is all the things Elliot wishes to be. He wishes he didn’t care what people think. He wishes he could read people better. He wishes he had more control over all the bad things that happen, especially to the people he does care about the most. And I think to a degree we all wish we could have powers like that.

I like how red vs blue they are. Mr robot is very brash and doesn’t mind stepping on a few toes (and LOUDLY if he has to) and Mastermind is calculated. When he takes action, he doesn’t make mistakes. And Mr Robot is the little voice on his shoulder that says “you sure that’s right, kiddo? If this all blows up in your face don’t come crying to me! I’ll say I told you so” keeping mastermind on his toes and pushing ever harder towards their common goal. Mr Robot is the fuel to masterminds burning passion to “do the right thing”. Even though sometimes “the right thing” isn’t always the clearest. And in amongst all that fight and angst, they still find time to come together and sooth that part of Elliot that wants to believe that him and his father were best friends. That his father is his protector and never left him.

And yes there are problematics to a few angles of their relationship. A plethora of reasons why someone might not see eye to eye with us shipping these two every which way. But not only is that the beauty of fiction but Mr Robot and Mastermind are separate identities to Host Elliot. And knowing that someone as confident and protecting as Mr Robot and someone as determined as Mastermind could come from such a dark place, has helped me realize that I’m not alone. That I don’t have to be afraid. That I need to be more kind to myself and appreciate the people who have stuck by me in life through all the shit I’ve been through. Mr Robot gave me hope. It still does. And I hope it gives you hope too.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Shuumatsu nani Shitemasuka? 5 Review + Final Series Impressions

Author: Akira Kareno

Illustrator: Ue

Label: Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko

Release Date: 1 April 2016

A good end to a good series. Unfortunately, I don’t think the series told the story I wanted it to tell. I look forward to starting the sequel series.

English Release:

Yen-press is currently releasing this series in English as WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? so please pick it up if you’re interested.

Story:

The longest volume so far by far and definitely my personal favorite. It was pretty wild seeing all the threads come together in such a satisfying way. The stuff with Willem and Elq was definitely my favorite parts of the volume. They have such a surprisingly good dynamic that made every scene with them a delight. The story ended in a satisfying way but left enough of a hook for the sequel.

For me the biggest issue that this series had was too many complicated explanations that often didn’t feel very natural. The last volume in particular felt like it tried to introduce too many new things but didn’t give the reader much time to get used to them. The other issue is that the middle part of the volume often didn’t feel needed and were a drag to get through. For example, Phyr (from volume 2) does show up in this volume but her part is so small that I still don’t really understand why her sub-plot was needed, aside from minor development for Willem but that development could have happened in a different, more relevant way. On a personal note, I also really didn’t like that the series placed more of an emphasis on romantic relationships than platonic ones. It didn’t feel like the platonic ones were developed nearly enough but I acknowledge that has more to do with my personal taste. And I personally wasn’t invested in Willem’s personal story which ended up becoming the focus of the series. I also got annoyed when I realized just how many female characters were essentially fridged for the sake of Willem’s story so that put a sour taste in my mouth. I would have preferred more focus on those female characters but, again, that’s just a personal preference.

On the plus side, the story is interesting and has a lot of things about that make it somewhat unique in the light novel industry. And, if you are invested in Willem, his story is developed properly and with care. Even though there were those parts that I didn’t like, the series never really became boring. Each volume intrigued me and kept me guessing as to where the story would go. I don’t think that each volume works really well on it’s own but as a whole story, the thing comes together in a delightful way. Readers who enjoy more personal and small-scale stories over epic ones will definitely like this series.

Characters:

My own annoyance with the focus on Willem aside, he did get some good development and his character is interesting. I was pleasently surprised by just how much focus Ren got in the series. I really wasn’t expecting her to get much but she ended up being one of the most important characters. But I still didn’t think that she was developed enough. Same with Ctholly, really. I would have really enjoyed it if the series went in depth with her desire for adulthood but it never happened. The story decided to focus on her relationship with Willem instead and she came off rather flat as a result. I would have liked for Nopht to have gotten more but I’m satisfied with what the series did with Ran. I feel like Ithea should have gotten more but, at the same time, I’m satisfied with what she got so I feel that the series did a good job there. I also really liked what this volume did with Elq and I loved her interactions with Willem. Given how much I ended up liking Tiat, Collon, Lakhesh and Pannibal, I’m cautiously optimistic of what the sequel might do for them. I just hope the series will focus on them and their relationships with eachother instead of introducing another romantic plot.

Overall, this is a good series even if it didn’t quite do everything that I wanted it to do. I’ll be taking a break before starting Sukamoka and the next review will likely be Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 2

[hippomanblog]

My Fire Emblem Rankings

I’ve had a few questions about my legitimate Fire Emblem opinions and thoughts, so I figured I’d write this up while I’m waiting for some things to process. This is all just personal opinion, no shade is meant to be being thrown, and this probably won’t interest you too much.  But, hey, here it is.  I’ll list the Fire Emblems going from favorite to least favorite, and explain a little bit about why I feel that way. Note that I won’t be including 1-5.  I’m considering the remakes the “definitive” versions of 1/2/3, and I haven’t actually played the Jugdral games.  I’m also not counting Heroes because it’s kinda hard to “judge”, but I do like it a lot and play on a pretty regular basis. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EACH GAME!

#1. Awakening

Awakening is a game that gets a few things wrong but most things right.  What don’t I like about it?  I preferred the art style of the Tellius games.  The maps aren’t very creative.  Pair Up is a thematically cool mechanic that really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and trivializes many encounters.  The story is simple, with the exception of a couple twists, and Validar is a dull villain. I like pretty much everything else.  Awakening managed to be accessible to new fans and still provide a nice challenge for series veterans.  There’s a diverse selection of characters who are all pretty viable, meaning you can use your favorites.  Most characters have a lot of personality and depth to their lines, like with how they turned Frederick from a typical stoic Jagen-type into this goofy obsessive pyromaniac without making him a complete joke character.   The SpotPass characters are also a lovely addition if you adore the series like I do, and there’s just so much to do in this game, so it feels like a celebration of the franchise as a whole.  If I’m trying to get someone into Fire Emblem, I will tell them to play Awakening. Favorite Character: Gregor or Owain. Least Favorite Character: Yarne #2. New Mystery Of The Emblem

This is bias, yes, but I love New Mystery.  I was really excited for this game, because I was pretty new to the fanbase when it was announced, and couldn’t wait for an English release.  I waited, and waited, and waited, and... Once I finished playing my JP copy I just lamented that we didn’t get to play this game here.  I think that while Awakening reinvents Fire Emblem, New Mystery is sort of the pinnacle of “classic” FE.  The game is just fun, the maps are diverse and challenging, and the combination of reclass and the sheer amount of playable characters gives it immense replay value. The plot is nothing to really write home about, but after the vast wasteland of Shadow Dragon Plot, I really liked what was there.  It’s nothing that’ll blow your mind, but there are some nice moments.  I know a lot of people hate Kris, but I don’t mind them.  I won’t go to bat for them being any kind of great character or vital addition to the story, but as a sounding board to give other Archanea characters a little personality, and a way to customize your own unit and give them all sorts of terrible hats, they work just fine.  I also like the idea of Marth as a bit of a shell-shocked, reluctant king who relies on his friends to rise to greatness.  It prevents him from being “too perfect”, like RD Ike.  But I can see where people have problems with this. I wish this were a more accessible entry in the series, because I think it has a little bit of something for every Fire Emblem fan. Favorite Character: Honestly?  I like Caeda and Ogma, they’re cool people. Least Favorite Character: matthis is creepy and I hate him 3. Blazing Sword

Like a lot of people, Blazing Sword was my first exposure to the series (through an LP on Youtube for me), and it does a great job.  You could honestly probably swap these first three around in any order, to be frank. The balance in this one is a little wonky, and it goes on a little too long.  But I like what it does with its extra time.  You get some clever gaidens that mix up the formula, have room to use lots of units, and the sprite animations are just wonderful to watch.  The three lords all bring something to the table, even though you’re honestly probably just going to play Hector Mode once you’ve unlocked it.  Lyn has a story about claiming your birthright and using nobility to help people, Hector’s brash and boorish nature is offset as he learns how to be a better person on his journey (That scene with Matthew on the Dread Isle is great.), and Eliwood...exists. With maps ranging from cramped and objective based to sprawling battlefields, there’s a lot of variety in gameplay and room for different units to shine.  It’s also got some of the best supports in the series.  It’s a must-play for any Fire Emblem fan. Favorite: Hector is a good boy and a friend.  Legault is also a surprisingly involved side-character with some great lines and dialogue with almost every Morph in the final map! Least Favorite: Jaffar, because it’s hard to tell if I hate him more for killing Leila or ramming his face into the paladin in Battle Before Dawn and getting slaughtered so many times.

4. Path Of Radiance

I guess only the top 3 are getting thumbnails, sorry.  PoR sticks with me because it tries a lot of new things and most of them work out.  The bonus experience is a good system, I think this game does support unlocks better than any other, Laguz units are fun to use, and the conversion to pseudo-3D maps feels smooth and never gets in the way of gameplay. There are issues, though.  I’m not a fan of the way the full-body portraits look in the cutscenes of this game, biorhythm is silly, and that Bridge Map sure does Exist.  The reason this isn’t breaking Top 3, though, is that I just never really got attached to the cast.  Characters are a big part of Fire Emblem for me, and while there are some great ones in PoR, there are also several that feel very forgettable.  The plot is also a little...iffy, because it’s all FANTASY RACISM and it feels like it’s trying to punch above its pay grade sometimes.  Like, be honest, did you give a shit that you had to kill Jill’s dad?  That character who showed up maybe once?  The maps also tend to blend together, with a few notable exceptions (because they’re annoying, mostly).   In Minor Nitpick Town, the 3D cutscenes are hilariously goofy and the Trial characters have really awful unlock conditions. Still, PoR is a very solid entry and I’d give it a hearty recommendation. Favorite: Ranulf, probably. Least Favorite: makalov shouldn’t have been recruitable

5. Sacred Stones I balked a little at putting this one this low, like “Really?  This is FIFTH?”  But I guess that’s just a testament to how much I enjoy all these games.  Like with the top three, you could probably swap this with PoR. Sacred Stones gets a lot of shit for being “too easy”, and I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, but I also don’t think it’s that big a deal.  This game takes risks, but they’re good risks that frequently pay off.  This was the ideal game for the Trainee classes to come in, because you can actually feasibly use them!  The monsters add variation to the types of enemies you encounter!  Split promotions are interesting tactical decisions that give the player more control over their personal experience! There’s just...not a ton of substance to SS, though.  The monsters, at heart, aren’t really interesting to fight.  The game’s plot often feels like it’s on fast forward, and it ends before any real tension builds.  The villains are, with the exception of Lyon, who’s great, mostly just cardboard cutouts of bad guy stereotypes.  The postgame is mostly just grindy and once you’ve beaten the Tower or Ruins once, you’ll probably say “okay, I’m done!”  Well, you aren’t, not if you want 100%!  Get back in there and kill more Dracozombies to unlock your underleveled Druid! If you really crave that “challenge” as an essential part of your FE experience, although I think SS is often made out to be easier than it really is, you can probably skip it.  But for most fans, it’s not to be passed up. Favorite: L’Arachel, of course. Least Favorite: I usually forget Syrene is in the game until she appears. 6. Fates: Conquest Yes, I’m dividing Fates into three games.  Sue me.  Conquest feels like the best of the Fates routes, because it’s creative.  In... a lot of ways.  The maps are creative.  While some just amount to gimmicks, several are, in my opinion, series standouts.  Chapter 9 is a Defense map that actually feels like a Defense map.  You’ve got anti-siege weapons, you’re scrambling to keep the Hoshidans from flooding in, and when Takumi drains the water the whole dynamic of the map suddenly changes.  It rules.  To me, that map encompasses all the best parts of Conquest. It’s too bad it’s still in Fates, though.  Let’s get it out of the way: Plot Bad.  But, unique to Conquest, I think, is a plot so utterly ridiculous and convoluted that it actually becomes actively enjoyable.  This is a story where your cousin puts on a different colored costume to COMPLETELY FOOL your adoptive dad, who she reveals is actually a jelly monster, but cannot tell anyone else because of a terrible curse inflicted by the King Of The Jelly Monsters, so you organize an invasion of an entire country to unmask Jelly Dad by making him sit on the Super Special Chair that will reveal his gelatinous form.  I love it, to be honest. Otherwise my issues are mostly just the standard Fates Problems.  The game tries to take what worked in Awakening and amp it up to 11, which ruins most of it.  The child characters are unmemorable and the plot explanation is bafflingly nonsensical (BABY DIMENSIONS), the characters often feel like they’re just gimmicks that smash into eachother and then get married for some reason, and the game tries to be so many things at once that most of them feel half-assed or over-complicated. Jelly King Dad though. Favorite: Arthur cracks me up. Least Favorite: Peri Peri Peri peri peri p e r i   p  e  r  i 7. Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia

Confession time.  I still haven’t finished this one all the way.  I’ve seen the ending, though. Let’s get the problems out of the way first.  The gameplay is not very fun.  The map design delights in sticking you in poisonous swamps, slow and dreary deserts, or Nuibaba’s Abode, which I would personally say is the worst map in the series.  While some of Awakening and Birthright’s maps feel lazy, most maps in this game feel like they were designed either just to frustrate you or with a series of random dice rolls that somehow plant a single Cavalier at the ass-end of nowhere and extend the map for three turns with zero rhyme or reason.  Class balance is all over the place and you basically just want all the Dread Fighters possible, with a Cleric to summon more Dread Fighters.  The dungeon crawling doesn’t add much, most of the game mechanics go woefully underexplained, and the voiced supports feel minimalist and shallow. But when Echoes works?  It really, really works.  I don’t like playing it, but watching someone play Echoes is a treat.  The game is bursting with personality thanks to some phenomenal voice acting, which leaves the story with some unforgettable moments, both comic (the boey scream) and dramatic (Berkut Loses His Shit).  Even though the characters don’t have a lot of explicit backstory, their voices and conversations are so expressive that it’s easy to sort of form your own ideas about their personalities and lives.  The art is some of the best in the series, and each portrait is expressive and well done.  It’s clear that this remake had a lot of care put into it, and it produced some of the series best lords and a wonderful new villain in the sinister Berkut. 8. Radiant Dawn

A lot of good things from Path Of Radiance carry over to Radiant Dawn.  Namely, the stuff I mentioned earlier, I won’t go into it all again.  All of that is good, but the new additions and changes often don’t work. The multiple viewpoints has a few cool moments, like facing down Ike and friends in 3-13 (with the greatest faceless NPC of all time on your side), but often just contributes to making the game way too long and making the characters often appear outright stupid or contradictory for the sake of moving the plot along.  Remember when Micaiah, who spared one of the most vile people in FE history in Part 1, dumped flaming oil on a 13 year old girl and her guards in Part 3?  Remember when Ranulf just walks up and tells you who the Black Knight is, ending a mystery that had been developed since the previous game with the dialogue equivalent of showing you a spoiler on the internet?  Remember blood pacts? The massive split in characters also makes some of them completely worthless.  Never forget the sad case of Vika, who suddenly disappears and doesn’t return until almost the final chapter, still at her Part 1 level.  Yikes. I do enjoy the Finale maps a lot, however, and the final boss encounter is fairly memorable, though it does carry its own problem with Ike being basically hero worshipped by the entire cast, to the point where only he can strike down Ashera.  I like Ike, but RD kind of feels like it’s forcing him down your throat sometimes. Favorite: Out of the new characters, Nolan, probably? Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalov 9. Shadow Dragon I’m sure this is bottoming out a lot of people’s lists, but let me make my case. 1. Reclass is cool and they introduced it in this.

2. Hardin’s turban.

3. The Prologue, where IS got to make new stuff, is a lot of fun and has personality.

4.

Okay, so Shadow Dragon is disappointing.  It’s a remake that did not change enough, and if the FE games were yogurt flavors, Shadow Dragon would be the batch they just forgot to put flavoring in.  Everything, down to the graphics, is covered in this thin veneer of blandness, and it’s sort of a muddy march to the finale, so you can finally take down a villain who literally gets about four lines in the whole game. The Gaiden chapters also feel like a rude prank.  If you want to get at the fun maps with the interesting characters with good dialogue, you have to slaughter all of your friends on purpose!  At least it’s in Shadow Dragon so you probably won’t like most of them anyway! Favorite: The guy who calls Gordin “Gaggles”. Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalovmatthis 10. Binding Blade I admit that this is bizarre placement.  I just...don’t like Binding Blade.  It’s mostly due to stat distribution in gameplay, honestly.  The skill/luck formula in this one results in a lot of boss fights that are just two 40% characters whiffing on eachother for ages.  Several of the maps are giant slogs, especially 14, but I don’t remember any in particular that I really enjoyed.  The plot is okay, but not memorable.  Idunn is a bit of a letdown encounter.  Hector deserved better.  To summarize, I guess I just don’t think this is a game that does anything that Blazing Sword didn’t do better.  So I’m gonna play that one instead. Favorite: Bors because of a terrible stupid inside joke I have with a friend. Least Favorite: I don’t remember anyone I cared enough to dislike, really.  Let’s go with Cath for having the worst recruitment for a Worse Chad. 11. Fates: Birthright Remember all those cool things Conquest did?  What if they didn’t? Birthright! While the story is still bad, it’s not nearly as funny-bad, although I do have to give props to the scene where Flora sets herself on fire and Jakob spends about a solid minute screaming out how pointless this is, echoing the player’s thoughts perfectly.  The maps are mostly just stat-checks and open fields, and the answer to your problems often isn’t “make a better plan”, it’s “go grind a bit and then just roll through it”, especially on some late-game maps.  Iago’s comes to mind, with the whole Entrap into Berzerker combo?  Screw that. Favorite: Azama is a treasure.  On the NPC (in this route) side, Elise is a beacon of rationality and kindness.  I sure hope nothing happens to h-Oh. Least Favorite: I remember literally nothing about the personalities of Hana and Hinata so them, I guess.

12. Fates: Revelations Do you remember when I said Shadow Dragon was like unflavored yogurt?  What if all the flavorings got mixed into one batch?  And then you add chocolate and cherries and sprinkles and nuts and caramel and parsley and cinnamon and more cherries and shaved ice and spaghetti and then you tell it to explain the plot of Fates.  That’ll be 20 dollars. Revelations actively harms the other two routes of the game by being the obvious “true route”, where nobody has to get hurt (except the best characters, r.i.p. Scarlet and Izana) and everything turns out just fine, negating any sort of moral ambiguity present!  Anankos is a non-entity and a dull villain, and to add insult to injury, you don’t get to learn shit about him unless you buy the other DLC for this DLC that also decides to crib from Awakening and mess with some of the characters from that one.  Almost every map has a bizarre gimmick that’s just weirdly cumbersome, and the amount of plot twists the game shoves at you in an attempt to explain EVERYTHING is just exhausting.  You can play as any character in the Fates package (almost, double r.i.p. Izana) but the balance is tossed out the window to the point where once Niles and Odin come crawling in, they’re nigh-unusable in their joining chapter. It doesn’t feel like any part of it really comes together. Favorite: not this Least Favorite: Thinking about what else I could have bought with those 20 dollars. Well, that took about two hours, but this is my list.  If you have any questions, I’m open.  Sorry if I dissed your favorite, but if it helps, know that I can see why someone would enjoy any game in the series, even my least favorites.  Also, know that I’m an idiot on the internet and that my opinion doesn’t have to impact what you enjoy!  Just love the games you love, I’ll stick with mine, and we’re cool! I’m going to stop typing now.

[jamierenfrey]

Week 5a - Development: Unicorns Rage!

Objective

This week I set out a number of large tasks to bring this game into fruition and meet as close as possible to my overall vision. Being that the design sprint challenge 2 is based on asteroids, I really wanted to play on the style and twist the concept.

Goals

Now that I have developed a greater understanding of GDevelop and its events system, I set forth newer challenges in comparison to the last design challenge;

Mechanic: Particle Beam

Global Variables: Health, Mana, Level Timers, High Scores

Character Selections: Choice of coloured Unicorns

Scenes: Title, Character Select, Win/Lose, HighScore, 3 Levels

Mechanic: Rotations Without Gravity to Recharge Mana

Mechanic: Different Moves

Dynamic Screen: Destroyed Planet with Partices and Debris Loop

Sounds: Self Voiced Effects for Spawns, Attacks and Enemy

Mechanic: Random Enemy Spawner

Mechanic: Multi-Directional Player Movement

Challenges and Solutions

To establish a playtestable game I encountered an array of problems. Learning from my previous experiences with the last challenge, I didn’t move on to the next challenge until I had a solution for what I was presently working on. At the very minimum, almost every mechanic I introduced was solely playtested 20 times, some a lot more so.

Mechanic: Multi-Directional Player Movement

Challenge

The overall goal for this game was that the player would rotate in different directions around asteroids and attack enemies while spinning. Then as another asteroid would move closer by force, the player could jump to the other asteroid.

After at least 50 playtests and a multitude if different event condition structures I found that for every degree the player rotated around an asteroid, of any direction, the move which would be set at a certain point of a sprite, accross any animation or frame, would start 2 degrees behind the intended point and continue to start further behind for every additional degree the player rotated.

After countless hours of searching the internet and many feeble attempts to rectify this, changing points, conditions, instances, etc, I discovered that, unfortunately Gdevelop is limited in its point system and there wasn’t a solid way around this.

Solution

To have the moves with decent effect, I had to introduce multi directional movement of the player. However, I did not scrap the idea of rotating around the asteroids, I used it in a different and unique way.

I accomplished the multi directional movement by simply adding the multi directional movement behaviour to the player.

Mechanic: Particle Beam

Challenge

The challenge with this particular mechanic was directional. Initially, I created a rainbow object to fire only once while rotating around asteroids, as mentioned above, unfortunately it was not possible and a lot of time was lost to attempting to fix this.

Once I had decided to move forward with a different idea, it was easy enough to create a particle attack in any direction and angled correctly to player angle and direction.

The challenge that I faced later down the track was changing the particle colours to link to the player selected unicorn as I intended to have the particle effects match the colour of the player.

Solution

I created the basis of the moveset for one player and toward the end of production, duplicated the effects and scenes and linked the correct effects to player colour.

Global Variables: Health, Mana, Level Timers, High Scores

Challenge

I had only used variables based on objects prior to this design sprint. Global variablkes were easy enough to traverse, however, in my rush I duplicated instances but did not chage the string conditions correctly, resulting in health being affected for a mana altering instance for example.

Solution

I combed the events page for each scene intricately to double check each condition and instance aligned as intended. After many play through tests I had the system working as expected.

Character Selections: Choice of coloured Unicorns

Challenge

I left this particular inclusiomn until the very end of production. The reason being, I felt that by creating the game with the basic player first, I could replicate the scenes and change the player based on character.

Because I chose to have differing move colours, this resulted in having to comb through a long events page for my first character and ensuring I changed the events to meet the character of choice, ie collisions, particles, behind the scenes objects, forces, etc.

I also duplicated every scene and added the colour behind the name then playtested through each colour to ensure it all linked up correctly and so I could identify sections I missed.

A number of hours were spent editing the inital sprite to be a basic white, so that each following character frame was easier to paintbucket all with the desired hex colour. In total I edited 80 frames then duplicated in the root file path for each coloured player. Days were spent on this, shout out to the animaters yet again! hard hard work.

Solution

To save time, after doing one player colour, I thought “maybe I could do ctrl-F to find and replace each item”, to my surprise, this is a feature in Gdevelop, which shaved hours of my production! Once the first round of colours were done, I simply had to ctrl-F “pink” (example) and replace with “Blue” and every event updated instantly with no error. I still double checked for my own sanity!

Scenes: Title, Character Select, Win/Lose, HighScore, 3 Levels

Challenge

Creating multiple scenes to link the players selection.

Due to leaving the player choice to last, I sillyly did not consider how many scenes I would end up having to make. I believe final count was 37, drastically increasing the size of the game and making, in actuality, 6 individual games.

Solution

Rather than delete scenes and comnb back through all events at the end of production (for a tenth time each page, minimum), Ive noted that I should instead create the sprites, animations, points etc first, then upon level design use the built in “OR” condition for collisions such as “If Enemy is collision with, BlueMove or RedMove or YellowMove etc - do 10+ score, delete enemy, etc”.

Then upon beginning of the scene I could have used global variables to indicate which player colour was selected and created the correct player upon startup of each level based on the Global Variable.

This method could drastically reduce the amount of scenes and events required and I have definitely learnt my lesson.

Mechanic: Rotations Without Gravity to Recharge Mana

Challenge

Since scrapping the intial movement system, I wanted to keep the concept of the unicorn rotating around an asteroid as if caught by gravity and in certain directions I wanted to see the unicorn change its z order to give the effect the game is 3d, so moving in front and behind the asteroid upon rotation.

This was one of the hardest tasks for this design sprint. 

Gravity became an issue and upon removing it, it affected other asteroids, resulting in having to revisit all asteroids again.

Rotations, flipping the sprite became a series of issues for all other coding, resulting in again, revisiting all other completed areas to double check where I had created problems. I also struggled with having the unicorn perform a perfect circle around the asteroid, resulting in oval rotations.

Z Layering, finding a simple way to alter the layer, using variables and hidden sprites this was accomplished, but I had to move the objects out of screen as hidden objects still created their effect on the player even if they werent on the asteroid, so moving them out of screen and back each time the player was on a specific asteroid as to not collide during normal play.

Solution

Firstly, I created a perfect circle on screen, had the asteroid and circle move with eachother regardless of force, added a “Tip” point on the circle and had the circle rotate in a direction at a normal speed. I then used variables to determine when the player was on which asteroid, example being that if RShift was held down when at asteroid one, the player variable “Asteroid” changed its string to “One” when the variable “Asteroid” was set to “One” it then triggered the player to move to the CircleOne point “Tip” and rotate with the circle around the asteroid. This initially worked, though the player would circle the asteroid in an oval shape.

I revisited the player points for all animations and found the middle axis at the very base of each animation and moved the “Center” and “Origin” points to that location. I “showed” the circle at the start of screen and tested the player movement, it worked perfectly!

Some asteroids had to also trigger which animation, this way the player would be facing the correct direction the background circle was rotating in. Forces woud lag or glitch the player if they were going to fast round the circle, this was easily fixed by slowing down the rotation and asteroid forces.

Though this was a difficult feat, I managed to create four different asteroid rotations with player interactivity!

Mechanic: Different Moves

Challenge

The main challenge with the different moves was bringing my inital vision to life. Ie the colour scheme based on player and the “Bane of The Horn” move, which I wanted to explode from the player “Center” point outward in 360 degrees. I found this effect worked as intended but when enemies collided with the particles the collision events would not trigger. I later found that the reason being was that they needed to collided with the actual sprite object, not just the particles.

Solution

To combat the collision problem above, I decided to add another hidden rotating circle behind the player that moved as the player moved. Then creating the “Bane of The Horn” move at the player circle point “Tip” this created distance between the player and the object and it rotated swiftly around the player, meaning that collisions were extended around the player and hitting their mark.

Dynamic Screen: Destroyed Planet with Partices and Debris Loop

Challenge

Firstly, the planet image was a challenge to edit with piskel, this tooka  lot of time loading between edits, even when I attempted to use the paint all bucket to remove the white (I painted in a seperate program) as to limit the area I had to erase. Once that was surpassed I wanted to have the planet in the background getting smaller each level, but also displaying a fire effect, like it was burning from the core.

Lastly, I wanted to have a rotating loop of debris of sprites from my previous design sprint, as if to say the last game was on the same planet and the unicorn destroyed it. Though the setup of the debris loop took time, once filled with sprites I felt there were too many gaps between objects.

Solution

The debris loop took time, creating multiple points on a large circle and many object sprites, then the event conditions to move them to those points at the start of the scene. This worked, leaving gaps between these objects as they rotated around the circle and rotated themselves as they looped. My solution to this was to add a textured particle using the asteroid sprite and adding it to each point as well, this created an asteroid field like effect as the circle rotated.

Though the debris loop is a background element, Im really proud of how it turned out.

Sounds: Self Voiced Effects for Spawns, Attacks and Enemy

Challenge

I wanted to play with the idea of including sounds this time around as my last design challenge I didnt. 

I am not exactly equipped with a sound studio so my laptop microphone was the way to go. I took my grunts and typical frustration sounds while developing the game and hitting roadblocks and utilised them as enemy spawning sounds.

I also created little sounds for player attacks. Though these oddly when converted, became robotic on level 3.

Solution

I will need to revisit the robotic sounds and rerecord.

Mechanic: Random Enemy Spawner

Challenge

The sprites I opted to use for this game I acknowledge Craftpix.net and gamerart2d.com as my main sources.

There wasn’t really too much of a challenge establishing a random spawner for each individual enemy I incorporated into the game. The challenge ensued more in creating an enemy move while rotating and from a distance.

Solution

I tackled this obstacle by playtesting through many possibilities. I ended up settling on an “Elf” enemy move that deducts mana from the player when the elf is facing the player in its rotation and force, shooting a particle effect toward the player.

I added a hidden object in the center of each level so when enemies collided with the border, they were forced back toward that object and so on.

In Closing

This game brought a multitude of challenges, I eventually found solutions or new ways to incorporate my intial vision without sacrificing too much.

The game is not exactly perfect, but I am very proud of what I have produced. The above is only some of the many challenges and solutions I had with the development of Unicorns Rage, however the aforementioned is the bigger of the tasks and learnings during this design sprint!

Next, feedback and playtesting!

Sprite Acknowledgement

https://www.gameart2d.com/freebies.html

https://craftpix.net/freebies/

Unicorns Rage! Playtest Link

This link will take a while to load, once loaded it operates fine :)

https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-de5f335c-4ad8-4256-ad78-03999ce704c7/index.html