#i have made a bunch of ace attorney shorts based of me and my friend's arguements

[kaixserzz]

The idea of reader and dottore flirting but also bickering Infront of the fatui is just so humorous and interesting to me, I saw some ppl on fatuismooches's blog (I love their content go check them out ❤❤) and it just kinda rubbed my brain in the right way

Dottore doesn't know what to do with us, we're a wonder he's still figuring out, even after all these years! He's undoubtedly loyal to you and adores you whole heartedly <3

But that's not to say he'll bend over all the time for you,, you can be quite the handful at times.

The doctor will bring you to various meetings, most being for important affairs regarding the fatui, but he trusts you enough as his assistant and partner to not break his trust. This allows you to have access to much more of a perspective on situations dottore may be dealing with.

And with that being said, you would give him your personal opinion after things are finished being said and done. Dottore takes your thoughts in consideration, but that doesn't mean he entirely agrees with you. This leads to silly arguments insuing in his office, you not agreeing with something, and he acting out in a stubborn fashion. The fatuus that guard the area within the laboratories can hear you two talk, trying to ignore any possible information that may lead to issues for them, but also trying to understand what makes you feel as though you have an opinion on the matters of anything!

Hearing you talk to the doctor, the 2nd fatui harbinger, the madman known for the horrors created within the confines of the lab, being talked down to as if the two of you were equals.. 😓

I wonder how workers like mister krupp (manhwa readers 🤭) viewed you.

YESSS THIS i love for dottore and reader arguing!!

you're the only person who can argue with him equally because he values your opinions and perspective!! you're not like the assistants he had where they would just agree with everything he says because they're too scared to voice out their opinions. even then, their opinions are always "that's too inhumane" or something like that. you are bold, and absolutely holds no fear towards him. that just excites him! he loves riling you up, seeing your brows furrow or you roll your eyes at him.

arguments don't usually get too heated. its comparable to those arguements you and your classmates have trying to solve a problem a teacher presented to you. there could be snark remarks, shouting or very sarcastic gestures, but it's all light! you've been like this since the akademiya, arguing who's more right or wrong, teasing each other. ya'll argue like an old married couple and dottore would never have it any other way 🫶🫶

when your views clashes against his, ofc he's gonna wanna hear why you think of that while also defending himself!! its like always a debate whenever you argue!! always happens with experiments and scheming!!

thats why he made the segments anyway! perspective! yours just matters the most of course :3

i think most of the fatuis regard you with great respect. mostly because if they upset you, they will very much upset dottore as well. if you were nicer, then they would absolutely love to work for you. body guard? heaven sent job. but if you are just as mean and horrible as dottore? they'd wish they never got into the fatui :3

[mirorbdangamachine]

Games that I finished in 2024

One of my favorite things every year is when everyone posts their top ten favorite games that came out lists and the typical end-of-year awards discussions. It’s exciting watching everyone have these analytical talks and detailing why they’ve enjoyed what that year had to offer. Something I don’t see as commonly though are people reflecting on games they’ve played that hadn’t come out that year, which I think is an incredible disservice. There are tons of gems hidden away in yesteryear that are just waiting to be discovered, and I think they deserve the time to shine.

It will be January 31 when this post goes out, so I’m running out of time for this topic to still be relevant, but I wanted to go over every game I finished in 2024, be it on my own or with my friends. To clarify, this won’t be about every game that I played, else I would be here forever, but rather ones that I had completed the main stories of. This is going to be written mostly in the order of how I completed them, at least as best as I can remember. I’ll be keeping better track of that in 2025, but for now, let’s get this show on the road.

Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion

So this game will hold a special place in my heart as being the first game my now girlfriend and I played together after first speaking to each other two weeks prior. The Nancy Drew games were ones I hadn’t really played when I was younger, and so it was fun getting to experience some of them last year with him as he took me on a trip through memory lane. This one had a very good sense of atmosphere in its short runtime, feeling very genuinely spooky at times. The puzzles were all solid, we had a blast messing around in the maze segment, and aside from one touchy tile puzzle, the game held up pretty well. Out of all the Nancy Drews we played last year, this one is probably my favorite of the bunch. I even surprised my girlfriend with a tapestry of the poem in the game when we met, so it will be near and dear to me.

Famicom Detective: The Girl Who Stands Behind

I am almost ashamed as to how long it took me to actually finish this game. I’m fairly certain it took me… Two years, roughly. As a murder mystery lover, I always felt guilty about having never picked it back up again, but now that I have finished it, I am so glad I finally did. The reason I put it down the first time was because of the command prompt system that the game utilizes to do actions. It was simple enough, but there were some points in the early and mid game that made me frustrated due to not understanding the typical workings of this style of ADV gameplay which would require me to have to repeat options or do them in particular sequences to trigger. I was much more used to how the Ace Attorney games handle it where your options are more free flowing and clearly labeled on what you hadn’t done yet, so to go to a game where that wasn’t the case, I became frustrated and took time away from it. Once I finally let myself give it another chance, I remembered why I kept trying to throw myself at a wall to try and get through it in the first place, and that was because this game was a very solid mystery, but more importantly, had an excellent grasp on making you feel for the characters within it. With this being the prequel between the original two games, this one centered on the backstory of Ayumi, and I cannot express to you enough how seeing her try and do everything she can to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death made me feel so many things for her. I didn’t want to stop because I would have felt bad about not seeing her story through, and once we finally got to the end, it was all well worth it. This game doesn’t lean that far into the horror elements that you might think it would based on the premise of everyone thinking a ghost haunting the school killed a student, but when it does choose to go that route? Oh buddy, it hits. While I prefer The Missing Heir’s actual overarching mystery more, I think this one handles its character development better. If you have the chance to play this game, please do give it a shot, and don’t feel bad about having to pull up a guide at times if you feel lost.

Return to Mysterious Island

Another one of the old computer games that my girlfriend has shown me this year, I can confidently say that upon starting Return to Mysterious Island, I couldn't have have guessed where it was going to lead. I don’t want to elaborate because it is definitely best experienced going in blind. Exploring every nook and cranny of Mysterious Island was a joy, and it definitely puts your brain to the test in trying to think of ways to use your inventory. If you’re looking for a short and fun adventure game, this would be a good one to have a romp through with some friends.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel

Nancy Drew winds up at an amusement park to investigate a haunted carousel and somehow causes massive property damage along the way. Sounds like an average Tuesday for Nancy! When it comes to the Nancy Drew games, the actual gameplay is the same for all these ones that came out in the 2000s, so nothing is different there. I feel like this one didn’t hit the atmosphere quite like Message in a Haunted Mansion, though there’s were some fun set pieces to go throughout it. It was another cute one to play through with my girlfriend while we were with each other in person, so grab a friend or a loved one and just have a laugh at some Nancy shenanigans.

Murders on the Yangtze River

If you were to ask any of my friends how I was when I talked about this game, they would probably say I was extremely annoying because I constantly kept recommending it to them all every chance I had. Murders on the Yangtze River is easily in my top three games I finished last year, all of which I am still juggling as to where they sit in that said ranking. As previously mentioned, being an Ace Attorney fan, any game that has a similar feeling in its investigation system is probably going to get a thumbs up from me. Playing as the very well traveled detective Shen alongside his silly yet ingenious inventor sidekick Afu made every investigation a joy to experience. The two have very fun back and forths reminiscent of the Edgeworth and Kay from the Investigations games, with Shen being more socially adjusted than Edgeworth. When it comes to any mystery story that is from the perspective of a detective who is stated to be known in-universe as extremely competent and knowledgable, you always run the risk of not meeting those expectations due to trying to stop the player from trying to get ahead of the character’s current logic, and thus making the detective seem dumber than intended. Thankfully this is not the case here, as each chapter is handled with diligent care to ensure that the player feels right next to Shen each step of the way, with neither you nor him having their intelligence downplayed. All of the crimes were very well thought out, and the cast of characters in each were all thoroughly enjoyable form beginning to end. The game also has one of the most unique systems to solving one of the overarching mysteries near the end of the game that I have seen, and for that alone I think this game would be worth experiencing. There is only one part of the game that I could mark as a negative, that being a very small horror detour that we take in the latter third, but it is not big enough of a section to make me lose any overall enjoyment. Going throughout the story, you wouldn’t think the experience of each chapter could ramp up as much as it does when all of them are as solid as they are. And if you were curious, I’ll even say that this game doesn’t suffer from “Case 3 Syndrome”, so that’s all the more reason to play it. All in all, I absolutely think this is worth every penny, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did if you try it! There is going to be a DLC case released for it sometime this year, so when that drops, you will find me right there playing immediately.

Unicorn Overlord

Something very funny occurred as I was writing this out. Before I began on the entries, I had written down all the games in as close to chronological order as I could remember, so I could go about them in the same order and try and remember details of each one better. The only game I I had forgotten to put down was Unicorn Overlord. This was not because of it being a forgettable experience, far from it. In fact, this is another one of my top three games of the year as I had mentioned in the previous entry. The reason I hadn’t listed it is because I had somehow convinced myself that this was Fire Emblem Awakening, my favorite game of all time, which I had once again replayed this year as well. The reason I confused it for that game is not just because it features a blue haired swordsman as the protagonist in a medieval fantasy setting, but rather because just as I had done with Awakening, I 100% completed Unicorn Overlord. I played every level, I recruited every character, I saw all the endings, I had unlocked every single rapport conversation available between all units, and I had even gone and watched every Rite of the Covenant scene at the end of the game with every character on my save file. For those who have played this game, you know that there are over 60 playable characters to unlock, and all but roughly five of them have rapports to view (this game’s version of Fire Emblem’s supports). Once I had started this game, I had become obsessed with it, not putting it down until I saw literally everything that there was on offer. All of this is being said before I even have mentioned the gameplay! A lovable cast will get you very far in my books, but this game also backs it up with a modern version of the Ogre Battle team combat system mixed with real time strategy in the overworld. You get to comprise multiple units for your band of merrymen to go ride into combat together, and with a bevvy of classes that all have unique properties, there are seemingly infinite combinations you can make. Sure, there will be those layouts you can create that will just utterly run through the game, but if you are someone who loves experimentation, then you are going to fall in love with this combat system. The game incentives you to watch battles play out so you can make adjustments between each one on the map so you can better tackle it and try to retain your members. This game does does have varying degrees of difficulty available, all of which have since been fine tuned by the developers in patches to make it as fitting and fair as possible, and while there is no permadeath mode to begin with, you unlock one to play on after you finish your first playthrough of the game. There is so much to love about Unicorn Overlord that it even made me log into my old Tumblr to go reblog fanart of it and actually make posts in the subreddit for the game, which I have never done on Reddit before. If you are a strategy RPG fan of any sort, or you are wanting to try and jump into the genre, then I would say this is a wonderful game to do that with if you were wanting to look beyond the usual recommendations of the Fire Emblem series.

Death Come True

This is an FMV mystery game that was the first released project by Too Kyo Games, the studio that Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creators of Danganronpa and Zero Escape respectively, founded. Centered around our protagonist waking up in a strange hotel with an unconscious woman tied up in the bathroom with no memory of how he got there, this is a wonderful and short game that you can finish in a day. The portrayal of the main character by Kanata Hongo was the highlight of the game, he really made this story come to life. As it becomes evident that this is a timeloop story, he does a great job at showing off the growing agony of the perpetual infinity. Due to this game being so short, I don’t want to go much further beyond that so as to avoid spoilers. It is well worth checking out, and I am sure if you got some friends together to go through it, you all would have a fun time. The game also comes with behind the scenes commentary and interviews, so if seeing the production of an FMV game is something that interests you, it is all there to see as well.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Stray Gods was crafted in a basement by a Professor Plutonium-like figure who was searching for the best form of addiction possible to hook either queer folk who were theater kids in high school, Percy Jackson fans, or the most likely scenario: Both. As you can imagine, I fall into the “both” category. The songs all were wonderful, and the fact that they change depending on how you choose to behave leading up to that point makes for a great way to encourage replayability. I do think that maybe the games leaned a bit too hard into its dating sim aspects, but then again, it never really tried to act like it wasn’t going to also be that on top of the story being told. Surprise surprise that it is rooted in another murder mystery, so if the idea of using magic and fantasy elements in mysteries is something that excites you, I think you would have a fun time with this. The worldbuilding is very solid, the idea of the gods now living among us out of sight is one you can see being real and they take some fun liberties with the concept. The cast, while not feeling particularly faithful to their original mythological counterparts, is still fun to see go about the world they find themselves in. It goes on sale on Steam somewhat often, so if you find it for 20% off or more, then I would recommend getting ahold of it yourself to go through it. 

Famicom Detective: The Missing Heir

In the last Famicom Detective section I had mentioned that it was the prequel, so now we are onto the original title that spawned the series. You can definitely tell as much as this story is more focused on the protagonist rather than Ayumi, to the point that she barely features in it for the most part. You will be conducting an investigation into the Ayashiro family, whose matriarch has just passed away, though her butler seems to think that there was foul play afoot. As you look further into each member of the Ayashiros, you will come to find that all of these people are thoroughly unpleasant people to be around with the ownership of the family business at the core of the story. It is a very classic setup that finds ways to surprise the player, even if they have experienced something like this before. Like I said before, I enjoy the actual mystery that was occurring in The Missing Heir more than I did in The Girl Who Stands Behind, it is a good and meaty taler to read through with twists and turns you wouldn’t expect. If you are going to play these remakes, then I highly suggest to play them in the order of The Girl Who Stands Behind and then move into The Missing Heir, as it is going to provide some more characterization to the main character that makes this story more enjoyable to consume. I am very happy that I finally got through these, and I am currently in the middle of the new entry in the series that just came out last year, Emio: The Smiling Man. If this series continues beyond this third game, then I think these two games have established two very solid leads in the main character and Ayumi to guide us through.

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake

Fun fact, this is the only Nancy Drew game that I played a part of when I was a child. I didn’t finish it back then, and frankly after going through it last year, I am not surprised that I didn’t as there were some puzzles that even as an adult had me a bit stumped. You know when you and your friends have to bust out a guide for a Nancy Drew game that this game maybe was a bit above the mental capabilities of a five year old, hahaha. Nancy has once again found herself at the behest of a friend calling in a favor, this time investigating a seemingly haunted house on a park lake that gets attacked by - you guessed it - ghost dogs at night. Winding through the history of a gangster who once lived there and the untold riches left behind, it comes as no surprise that someone wants their grubby mitts on a piece of the pie. This was another fun adventure with Nancy, and it had a very unsettling atmosphere to it that had me freaked out as the night approached each day. I would recommend giving this one a shot, but do not feel bad by any means if you have to bust out a walkthrough.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved

This might be one of the most emotional two hours I have ever spent playing something. This is such a beautiful short story in game form that I truly think everyone should go and play. It is centered around unraveling the timeline surrounding a missing girl and her family to figure out what must have happened. The gameplay itself is relatively simple in connecting keywords across the bits of conversation with each family member to unlock new pieces of information, with the occasional question asking if you know enough to unlock a new answer. With that said, please, go take the time to experience this. 

Dokapon Kingdom Connect

Have you ever seen those videos talking about “the most rare/expensive Wii games”? If you have, then you have probably Dokapon Kingdom included in a few of those. Thankfully, the game has since been rereleased on Steam as Dokapon Kingdom Connect, meaning you and your friends can all… Suffer. Suffer, forever… Okay, that’s an exaggeration. The game is genuinely an extremely fun time, as if you made a Dungeons and Dragons campaign into a board game featuring rock-paper-scissors combat. The game is heavily luck based, to the point that even if you try and plan accordingly for maximum profit in gaining the most money and towns, you can still very lose everything at the drop of a hat. Over the five months it took us to play through this game, all four of us at various points were either vastly far ahead of the rest or way behind everybody on the weekly scoreboard, and then after one chapter event, everything would be scrambled. If you go into it with no expectations and just are wanting to have a good time, you will enjoy yourself. You can sabotage the other players and steal the lead from them, constantly threatening your friendship as if this was Mario Party cranked up to eleven. The problems arise however when you get to the final three chapters of the game, where the enemies become exceedingly difficult, and the game begins to cheat against all of you. This is not an exaggeration either, as the final four boss fighters of the game do actively read what inputs you are doing to try and counter them, and it caused my friends and I to have to grind seemingly forever to stand a chance, only to then still lose all of our progress. When we finally got to the end it was pure catharsis, however, I would never want to wish going through all that nonsense on my worst enemy. Thankfully, we have since discovered that you can just have a set umber of turns to play through, so you can have much more fun and take far less time to get through it all. For anyone wishing to go through a full campaign, I wish thee luck, and may you have either the greatest friends in the world, or not mind having a bunch of computers to just try and zip through it as fast as possible. 

Find Love or Die Trying

This was a tale of two halves if I have ever seen one. The first half of the game is akin to The Bachelor, where you take on the role of the lead love interest, except the twist here is if you aren’t entertaining enough and the show ratings go down, you get killed by the production crew. I thought that was a very unique premise as it is what the game is sold upon, and while it has its moments, the week that you play through is almost excruciatingly unbearable when it comes to cliche and over the top writing. The executive producer is comically evil to the point of annoyance, and outside of the outlandish date events you get, the only really interesting part is the underlying plot with the director after each day of filming. However, once you get through the week, that is when the real game truly begins, as you realize you have found yourself in a timeloop story, forced to repeat this cycle again. Normally I wouldn’t spoil that, though I found the first part of the game to potentially be painful enough for some people to put it down. Once the pretenses of the situation are dropped, the writing actually becomes very good as you and the girls you are taking go on a thriller adventure trying to uncover what is going on behind this show, all while trying to act like you are none the wiser. Beyond the first week, I thought the whole cast was really fleshed out and I found myself attached to each of them and wanting the best for them, and I am happy that I pushed myself to continue after that initial hurdle. I know everyone hates the whole “I promise it gets good after a certain amount of hours” argument, but thsi is a case where I think it is warranted. It also helps that the initial week isn’t that long to play through, perhaps two to three hours at most depending on how fast you read, so everything beyond that point is smoothing sailing.

Mindcop

By now you should expect this list to continue with the trend of mystery games. Adorably drawn and animated with a charming detective duo, Mindcop is what I would call the puzzler’s murder mystery. Combining match three and detective gameplay together worked much better than I really thought it would, with the mind surfing mechanic giving us detailed mental examinations of those we are interviewing. The set up has a Twin Peaks feeling to it, where an extremely small town faces its biggest challenge yet in one of their own having been murdered, just replace Twin Peaks with Merrilyn Crater Camp and Laura Palmer with Rebecca Goodman. Not to say that this story will eventually devolve into the paranormal, though it does share the idea of the further you, the titular Mindcop and your partner Linda, go, the more of the dark secrets of this town will be uncovered. Coupling this with the fact that the game features a time mechanic where each action takes a certain amount of time and you only have five days to catch the killer, I felt like I was racing against the clock all the way until the end to try and confirm whether my suspicions were correct. You can end the game whenever you like by arresting who you think the culprit is, but I think the fact that I got down to the final two in game hours left before I was able to make my decision with enough confidence to feel good about it is a testament to how well done this game handled its core mystery. The fact that this is a nonlinear investigation game as well greatly serves this purpose, so one playthrough is very unlikely to be like another. Even when I had finished my first run, I wanted to go back and explore so much more that I didn’t have a chance to before. Thankfully there was a free play mode after that gave me the chance to do so. While it isn’t in my top three games I played this year, I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of either match three or mystery games.

Loco Motive

Speaking of my top three, Loco Motive is the last of those titles. As someone who hadn’t ever played point and click adventure games growing up, this to me felt like I was watching a Hanna-Barbera cartoon play out on a Saturday morning, except it was based around a murder mystery on a train. Once again another very classical scenario to the mystery genre, you are playing as Arthur A. Ackerman, the estate attorney to Lady Unterwald, the head of a major railway company. With her not getting any younger, she keeps making adjustments to her will, but tonight, on the Reuss Express, she is going to finally announce who she will be granting the business to once she retires. Right when the moment of truth comes however, after passing through a dark tunnel, tragedy strikes, and Lady Unterwald is found dead! Now it is up to you and your extreme lack of qualifications to try and figure out who did it! With a very beautiful pixel art style and fully voiced dialogue, this game oozes with charm. To those who are more familiar with point and click games than me, I am sure you will find some similarities between it and popular ones of the genre like the Monkey Island series. For anyone who hasn’t experienced games like that and have wanted to try it out, then I say look no further than Loco Motive. I found myself laughing about the whole way through this title, and I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything. 

Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg

One of my friends who I had played through Dokapon with gifted this to me for Christmas and I decided to play it that evening after he had told me it was a good short game, to which he was correct! This falls into the “walking sim” genre, and is a very metaphysical expression of living as a gay man and trying to navigate how the world acts around you while you try to make the best of your situation. That is just one potential explanation of many, as the creators intentionally left it ambiguous as to what it was all supposed to mean. If you want a game where you walk through what looks like a synthwave music video and then eventually starts pulling out The End of Evangelion references, then this is a game for you. It is another game that can be done in just under two hours, so it a fun think piece to sit with.

The Case of the Golden Idol

This was the last game I had managed to squeeze in right before New Years as the player alongside my friends. Upon opening this game up, you have a very minimalistic tutorial given to you on how to open menus and then you are off to the races and have to piece together how to proceed on your own. Normally, I would say that is a horrendous approach to the beginning of a game, however, this time the developers made it work. The Case of the Golden Idol felt like what an advanced version of an ISpy book, where you are given a scene of a tragedy and from there you are meant to fill in the blanks as to what is actually happening. You get to examine the people and environment to add keywords to your bank, where from there you try to slot them into the spaces they are meant to go in and see whether or not you were right. This process with each scene was always very entertaining and felt like a good puzzle to try and solve each time. Watching the overarching narrative unfold all centered around the aforementioned golden idol was fascinating, and my friends and I always felt like we deserved pats on the back for being able to get through some levels with how minimal the information you are given is. There is a sequel to this called The Rise of the Golden Idol, alongside two DLC stories, and us three have already said that we will definitely be checking them out sometime this year. If you are looking for a fun puzzle game to play with friends, then this is definitely the one I would recommend to you!

Games that I have watched to completion

This is going to be a much smaller section, but I wanted to still shout out these games that I watched my friends play all the way through. Seeing as I wasn’t the one holding the controller I can’t really speak for how these feel to manuver, but still experienced the entire story.

First off is a slice of life visual novel called Twofold, but to call it just that would be doing the game a huge disservice. You play as Olive Penn, a college student on the verge of failing out, who is looking for a club to join in hopes of trying to get study partners before they get given the boot. They eventually find themselves stuck between the Literature Club and the Art Club, ran by our two main love interests in Millie and Caprice respectively. Depending on whose club you choose to join will determine which path you will be on, but the two are much more intertwined than just being a route split. Navigating through Olive’s life and seeing them try to connect with the various members of the club and seeing how they are all going through their own struggles, it is a game that really pulls at your heart strings. I very rarely cry when it comes to games, but learning more and more about both Millie and Caprice really did bring me to tears on numerous occasions. For a game to be able to do that to me makes it very special in my book, and I think this is a story that you should seek out and experience all the way through on both sides. I don’t want to say too much, so please go and play it yourself, or watch a playthrough of it. You can find my friend Don’s stream VODs of it on YouTube, linked here!

Next up is a game you have probably seen floating around by now due to the explosion of popularity it receieved in Mouthwashing. It is a psychological horror game that while being light on the jumpscares, makes up for it in rich storytelling and making you reconcile with everything that you are witnessing on screen. This is truthfully a game that I would not watch a content creator go through, as the topics within it are very serious, dark, and deserve to be treated with sincerity, rather than being played through with someone trying to be entertaining. My friends and I were aware of this when we went through and it was a harrowing experience, though one that I would say is more than worth experiencing. This is another game I would try to go into as spoiler-free as you can, though again with the popularity and level of fandom it has achieved, I understand that it can be hard to avoid. I normally am someone who is not a fan of horror games due to being easily scared and not finding the adrenaline rush enjoyable, but this is a game where you will not have to worry about that. There is a segment in it that does behave like a traditional horror game that I think overstays its welcome in the maze section, but beyond that, I think this is a fantastic game.

Finally, another horror game, albeit one that doesn’t quite feel like it due to its aesthetics: MiSide. I think the premise is a fun one, where the trope of the yandere girl is subverted in how Mita doesn’t actually care about you romantically, but rather she just wants to keep you trapped for her own amusement. Going through and meeting the various Mitas was a fun concept too, and you could feel the looming presence of Crazy Mita and how she has affected all of them. Perhaps calling this a horror game isn’t quite right, as it is more of a thriller with the occasional jumpscare and spooky setdressing. All in all, it was a fun thing to go through with friends, but it wasn’t something I would have personally found interesting had I been on my own. At the time of writing, the development team is still working on the “Peaceful Mode”, which I assume will just be the continuation of the romance slice of life activities at the beginning of the game. However, with the team currently leaning into the posts that go “Oh I can fix her”, I don’t foresee it coming out and being in the spirit of the rest of the game. Maybe I will be proven wrong, time will tell.

With that, those are all the games that I had experienced last year! Looking back on it, I really didn’t imagine that my top three games of the year would actually be from 2024, let alone the fact that I would say they all rank amongst my top ten favorite games of all time. Last year was a wonderful year of gaming for me, and I hope 2025 gets to be the same! I am going to be smart about this for next time and write these entries as I actually complete them instead of all at once. At the very least, I accomplished my goal of getting this out before February, though in the spirit of me, it was at the last minute. Hopefully this article will have given you some good suggestions for games to check out, and if you do, tell me what you thought of them!

[lyllyan-weiss]

LONG Character Survey: Lyllyan Weiss

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Lyllyan Aster Weiss

NICKNAME: Lyl, Lily, Lil' Lily.

AGE: 21

BIRTHDAY: 11th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon (November 10th)

ETHNIC GROUP: Auri|Xaela (In Eorzea)/ Human (Out of World)

NATIONALITY: Eorzean (In Eorzea)/American (Out of World)

LANGUAGES: Eorzean, Draconic, basically anything due to the echo.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: She is Bi. Swings both ways. She loves all.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Depending on the different routes on the story, she will be either single or taken.

CLASS: Jack-of-all-trades

•Knows everything and knows how to play everything.

• Favors caster classes above everything else.

HOMETOWN / AREA: N/A

CURRENT HOMETOWN / AREA: Shirogane is where her apartment is, but she sees Ishgard as her home that she spends her time in, and then the Crystarium had became home to her as well.

PROFESSION: Scion, Adventurer, Full time hero in both her world and Eorzea. In her world she is a waitress and an artist/animator.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Right now it is Brown with Light brown Highlights

EYES: Purple (Right), Green (Left)

NOSE: Small and Sharp

LIPS: Small and full

COMPLEXION: Pale but fair.

BLEMISHES: None.

SCARS: In Eorzea, her scars are battle scars that is more aligned on her back. They do not show up when she is in her world.

TATOOS: The Scion Tatoo on the part where the neck and back meet.

HEIGHT: 5'0

WEIGHT: 130lb (Eorzea)/ 150lb (Her World)

BUILD: Short, Thin and fit.

FEATURES: None really.

ALLERGIES: Rolanberries in Eorzea, Strawberries in her world.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: Long hair with a half braid in the back in Eorzea. In her world she has short hair that stops in the middle of her neck.

USUAL FACE LOOK: Warm color Eye shadow applied lightly to the eyes and a very nude color for lipstick in Eorzea. In her world, she hardly puts make up on, but usually has dark circles due to being tired all the time.

USUAL CLOTHING: Depending on her mood, she'll go very modest, or wearing a bikini with thigh boots. In her world, she is always modest with usually a t-shirt and sweats.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEARS: Bugs (Mainly Arachnids, spiders are the worst.) Antilions that hide in the sands. Losing her love ones. Becoming Sin Eater. Being alone. Falling.

ASPIRATIONS: Explore all of the worlds she could go to, but also to make animations that can change the world.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, happy go lucky, Compassionate, tries to take care of everyone, protective, loving, friendly, trusting.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn enough to push past her limits, usually getting her hurt. She so selfless that she tends to forget about taking care of herself. She can be too trusting of others that she often gets hurt in the end. She usually bottles her problems with the worry of being a burden to others. Very emotional driven (Just ask Ser Zephirin).

ZODIAC: Scorpio.

TEMPERAMENT: Artistic and Motherly

SOUL TYPE(S): The Priest, The Artisan, The Server.

ANIMALS: Cat

VICE HABIT(S): From the definition that I read, her faults are that she feels like anything bad that happens to her or her friends are her fault, and that she sometimes Envy others. But her hobbies that she enjoys are reading, triple triad, drawing, and writing.

FAITH: The Twelve. Even in her world she believes in the Twelve.

GHOSTS?: Definitely

AFTERLIFE?: I hope there is one.

REINCARNATION?: Well so far that we know, reincarnation is a thing, right?

ALIENS?: I doubt the world was made for one type of civilization, plus multiple worlds. Yes.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Uh...Alphinaud does politics for me.

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: Just trying to survive, man. Stable, I guess.

SOCIO POLITICAL POSITION: Uh... Alphinaud???

EDUCATION LEVEL: Lyllyan herself has had up to some college in her own world. In Eorzea, she has an understanding of Aether and well has learned all the classes, so being able to pick up something new, she can learn fairly quick.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Captain Carebear (Mykel Weiss)

MOTHER: She doesn't have the ability to go to Eorzea so her name is Lynn Weiss.

Siblings: Lucas Weiss(Rafien Dalarain(Deactivated)), Nathaniel Weiss(Random Guy (deactivated)), Olivia Weiss (Never been to Eorzea).

EXTENDED FAMILY: Grandmother(Nana)(Deceased), Granfather(Poppy), Fortemps Family (Rest in Peace Haucherfaunt).

NAME MEANING(S): Lyllyan is based off of the Lily flower. Aster is based off of the Aster flower, and then Weiss is a name given to those with white hair or pale complexion.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION: Um...Ascian? Amourotine?

FAVORITES.

BOOK: If its Manga, It's Rurouni Kenshin. Books would be the 'Septimus Heap' series by Angie Sage.

MOVIE/PLAY: Movie would be 'Wizard of Oz'. Favorite Play would be 'Hamilton'.

5 SONGS:

•'Seasonal Feathers' by Len and Rin Kagamine

•'Drakkar' by Distrion and Electro-Light

•'Light it Up' by Robin Hustin and TobiMorrow (feat. Jex)

•'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes

•'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran

DEITY: Thaliak

HOLIDAY: Valentione

MONTH: November/ 6th Astral Moon

SEASON: Spring

PLACE: Rak'Tika Greatwoods

WEATHER: Rain

SOUND: Ocean waves.

SCENT(S): Cherry Blossom, sweet.

TASTE(S): Favorite food is Bacon so....also likes sweet things.

FEEL(S): Fuzzy blankets, warm cloth, soft.

ANIMALS: She loves all animals! If she had to narrow it down, it would be Cats, Pandas, and Chocobos. Does Pokemon count?

NUMBER: 8 but screw Construct 8

COLORS: Purple, light green, light blue.

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Drawing.

BAD AT: Math. She used to bring her homework to Eorzea to have Alphinaud and Urianger help her.

TURN ONS: Oooo. Funny, kind, calm, generous, but also romantic.

TURN OFFS: Selfish, rude ass hoe, and killing my friends.

HOBBIES: Singing, Drawing, Reading, Exploring, Triple Triad.

TROPES: Mother Hen.

AESTHETIC TAGS: Chocolate and Caramel. Honey. Lavender and Leaves. I think that's how this works???

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): Scions of the Dawn. It consist of Dad and myself.

ALT FC(S): None.

OLDER FC(S): We did have an FC on Gilgamesh called Lionheart with the Tag FF8. It was one that we had started the game when we got out of beta, but moved to different server/data center.

YOUNGER FC(S): *Confused Au Ra noises*

VOICE CLAIM(S): ??????

GENDERBENT FC(S): *Even more confused Au Ra noises*

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: IF YOU COULD WRITE YOUR CHARACTER YOUR WAY IN THEIR OWN MOVIE, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED, WHAT STYLE WOULD IT BE FILMED IN, AND WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?

•So, I'm already making a comic that I want to make as an animation for the story of FFXIV with my character and her friends. This character was specifically built for FFXIV, but it has a twist. Kinda like a Sword Art Online ordeal, but instead of Millions of people playing are stuck in the world, it's just like 100, but they aren't stuck, in fact they are just chosen to go between their world and Eorzea. If they die, they don't actually die, but respawn, even in their own world, but they feel how they die and the only way for them to die in any shape or form is by natural cause like old age or sickness. This would be a 2D animation in the anime style and be a multi episode series with multiple seasons. I even though about branching out to go certain routes so that Lyllyan can end up with all my favorite characters. I would call it Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn.

Q2: WHAT WOULD THEIR SOUNDTRACK/SCORE SOUND LIKE?

•With it being a Final Fantasy story, it would have Final Fantasy Music.

Q3: WHY DID YOU START WRITING THIS CHARACTER?

•Lyllyan Weiss was made to represent me and she still does, but also inspires me to be more like my courageous heroic self. Because of this, I have been able to do things like crossing a bridge that's in bad shape to get to the other side without the fear of falling, just to get back to my mom who went to the other side on a trip we had.

Q4: WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?

•She is literally me.

Q5: DESCRIBE THE BIGGEST THING YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

•Just like me, she is stubborn and hard working, but there are times she pushes herself way too much. She hesitates to ask for help, not because she doesn't trust the people around her, but more of trying to not burden them. Others wish she would open up to them and also rest when she can. Raha has to literally force her to rest, and she nearly gets herself killed against the first battle with Rahjit because she kept getting back up to fight even when the others beg her to stop.

Q6: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN COMMON WITH YOUR MUSE?

•Almost everything. Major thing is that she doesn't look like me, but also I know when to quit.

Q7: HOW DOES YOUR MUSE FEEL ABOUT YOU?

• I feel like if Lyllyan and I were to meet in person, we'd get along just fine. We would play video games all day long if we could.

Q8: WHAT CHARACTERS DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE INTERESTING INTERACTIONS WITH?

•OH BOI HERE WE GOOO

- Leveilleur Twins: Alphinaud and Alisaie are very close to Lyllyan. Alphinaud used to pull Lyllyan out of class to have her hurry up and go through the story, now its chill and play ace attorney. Alphinaud, depending on what route is taken, is definitely in love with Lyllyan and is constantly teased about it by everyone. Alisaie is like a sister to Lyllyan. They have had many nights where the pulled 24 hours playing Sims. Alisaie is who Lyllyan tries to protect the most between the two. She's also the reason why Lyllyan is now Bi. Lyllyan absolutely adores her and if the route is taken, they end up being the cutest couple.

-Leon D'hart: An Alt character that I made that depending on the story and route, he is also Lyllyan's Lover. He is a character made by Square Enix to be the Warrior of Light replacement if Lyllyan did not succeed in preventing herself becoming a light warden. His story with her is a bunch of trial and tribulations, but in the end they do end up married.

-G'raha Tia/Crystal Exarch: The main story Lyllyan's Lover. Great friend to start out and tears were shed when he sealed himself into the tower. He really kept Lyllyan guessing when he was Exarch. When Emet-Selch kidnapped him, Lyllyan was hellbent on getting him back. Now she visits him at the first everyday bring stuff from Eorzea for him, and even occasionally stuff from her world. He is her world as she is to him.

-The Scions: Thancred and Lyllyan are like Big brother, Little sister. He protects her, and scolds her as such. They may act like they hate each other, but the moment either gets hurt, the other is at their sides. Though rumor has it that Thancred had feelings for Lyllyan. Y'shtola is close to Lyllyan, but is usually not around often. Shtola usually is often around to keep an eye on Lyllyan's aether since her amount is quite high compared to the others and her fellow Warriors of Light. Urianger is someone who used to hardly talk to Lyllyan, but started opening up more after the years. He had watched her grow from 15 moons to now 21 as the others, but they seem to be more special to him. Lyllyan swore to protect him if anything ever happened especially after he asked her her thoughts on his new attire. Tataru is a precious angel and if anyone was to hurt her, Lyllyan would kill everyone and then herself. Ryne, even though she is not a scion, she is a scion. Ryne worries about Lyllyan, but is often in awe of her. Lyllyan and Thancred adopted her, and she's ended up calling Lyllyan mom on many occasions.

-Ser Aymeric: Depending on the route, he would be Lyllyan's Lover and he tries to protect her when he can, be it politics or in war. He has a dream to journey with her, and though he can't do so with Lylyan Weiss the Au Ra, there is nothing saying he can't make a character and become a Warrior of Light himself and travel with Sakura Yue(Lyllyan's Alt).

-Zenos Yae Galvus: So this guy commits Seppuku and then shows up at Lyllyan's job as her new Bartender. They end up becoming friends through the job, and the fact that Zenos is bored out of his mind that he can't go kill people,but finding out later that he is back makes Square Enix themselves worried about this guy.

-Estinien: Lyllyan had adopted him as her Edgy Son. He hates it. He reminds her that he is older than him, and she retorts about beating him as a Lalafel. He usually starts brooding after that on a high building that usually takes Alphinaud and Ser Aymeric to get him down.

•I'm only stopping this cause there are so many more characters!!!

Q9:WHAT GIVES YOU INSPIRATION TO WRITE YOUR MUSE?

•Music and Playing Final Fantasy. Mainly XIV, but others do count too, but also reading all the other fanfiction and comics about final fantasy XIV.

Q10: HOW LONG DID THIS TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?

About...4 hours? Maybe more? My hands definitely hurt from all the typing! XD

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

Tagged by @amandafullmetal

Tagging @ladyramora @ranier-layarte @scholarlostintime @fabledtactician

[gottagobuycheese]

UPDATE/INTRO - Hello, friends!

So uhhhhh I’ve been gone a fair while, but it looks like in the mean time a bunch more of you made the flattering and questionable decision of following along with me through this chaotic mess of a website, so to all you new folks: hello and welcome! In light of that, here’s a quick intro thingy: 

Name: Cheese (like the Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends character)

Content: basically anything that catches my interest + occasional current events stuff, resource posts, and other miscellaneous things 

I think most of you newer folk came for the Good Omens stuff (which works out because I am still thoroughly obsessed), but some other stuff that I’ll always love that you will likely see include Avatar/LoK, Legend of Zelda stuff, Ace Attorney, Undertale/Deltarune, and art/writing resources and tips 

(On that note if anyone’s read The Rise of Kiyoshi and wants to scream about it please do scream about it here with me) 

Original content: I sometimes post my own art or writing, 99% fan-based content, but it’s very irregular (I am definitely not an Art/Writing Blog™) 

Tags: I tend to ramble in the tags a lot

Like a LOT a lot 

You will either find it entertaining or get sick of it really quickly in which case I sincerely apologize 

That being said I try to tag everything and if you have something you’d like me to tag just ask! 

Activity level varies widely: I’ll alternate between reblogging a lot and just not being around for weeks or months at a time

DO NOT WORRY IF YOU DON’T HEAR FROM ME FOR A LONG TIME WITH NO EXPLANATION: my life is quite busy atm and looks like it’ll only get busier, so any time I’m on here is probably time I shouldn’t be on here but also my brain needs a break sometime 

Personal posts: tagged “Cheese’s personal molasses”; I highly advise blacklisting it or skipping those posts unless you want to get to know me uncomfortably well 

Though honestly the amount I yammer on and on in the tags of random posts, if you’re a tag-reader you’ll probably get to know me uncomfortably well anyway XD  

Oh yeah most personal post talk will happen in the tags as well so I don’t clutter your dash...I hope 

Talking: I’m always down to talk about any of my interests or stuff I’ve made or whatever, so please don’t be afraid to approach me! I promise I am probably more afraid of you than you are of me, haha 

Also I’m apparently about as intimidating as a marshmallow so 

As is evident by the length of this post, which was going to be short and snappy, it takes me forever to get to the point and I am very sorry 

tl;dr: I’m Cheese, posting is irregular, original content is more irregular, I am pathologically unable to shut up, and I’m very pleased to meet you! 

[attract-mode-collective]

Not An April Fools Gag; That’s A Game Boy Advance With A GameCube Stick Affixed For Reals

What you're seeing is a modded GBA that I spotted on eBay. It's a real thing! Though it doesn't magically grant analogue control to all the digital input only games on the system, which is all of them for the record (sorry). Then again, it could be argued that the controls in WarioWare Twisted is technically analogue...

That aside aside, welcome to yet another recap of stuff posted over at the Attract Mode Twitter! Though this time it's gonna be a bit on the short side, relatively speaking; even I know covering two entire whole weeks has led to hard to handle Tumblr posts, so I'm going to try concentrating on just one week at a time/attempt weekly updates.

Let's see how well that goes...

Hey, it's SF2 IRL thanks to ARKit (via prostheticknowledge)...

At the time, when I first tweeted about it, there were only three left of Amanda Visell’s Player One Mario; no idea how many there are now...

When you can make a decision regarding lunch (via @Mechazawa)....

If you appreciate both the ease of slip-on sneakers and the taste of ghosts, then Games Glorious has something for you (via miki800.com)...

As a connoisseur of video games on the printed page, it is my goal to one day own a copy of Namco's newsletter that was distributed in game centers during the 80s & 90s, NG (via miki800)...

Remember that time Namco got someone from Yellow Magic Orchestra to hawk their wares (via namcomuseum)...

Both in print and on TV…

The YMO member in question, Haruomi Hosono, also did a Xevious remix album, which longtime readers of the blog will hopefully recall.

Sticking with Namco CMs, there’s a pair of longtime faves that I could have sworn I’ve already posted as well, yet cannot find. Though as noted, many times already, the search functionality here is broken.

So here’s a boy playing with his Famicom in the middle of the woods...

And here’s a girl playing with his Famicom in the middle of the woods...

Back to the subject of print, can’t seem to find any info on the Futabasha Fantasy Novel Series, which (I think) was a line of video game novelizations; this one appears to be written by the creator of Xevious himself (via shmups)...

The focus here is supposed to be the Lawson’s reward card with Kirby on it, but I am all about that Space Invaders whatever the heck it is (via miki800)...

Spent MANY hours at Japanese bookstores during my college years, flipping through Sega Saturn Magazine; seeing these VF Kids ads again makes me feel all warm & fuzzy (via thesegasource)...

This (what I believe to be a) farewell image of the face of the Saturn from the very first issue of Dreamcast Magazine, also gives me the feels (via oldgamemags)...

BTW, everyone knows the identity of Saturn's pitchman (Segata Sanshiro), but what about the Mega Drive's? (via yokosuka87)...

Back to the Saturn; I love how Sega want from Segata Sanshiro to Hidekazu Yukawa for the Dreamcast. This launch edition of the console, btw, was spotted at VideoGamesNewYork...

It's also where they Kira Kira Star Night DX for twice the asking price, as @gamespite)...

Speaking of music, to fully enjoy this animated gif of Eggman running…

… you need to have this song playing (via lunaticobscurity).

And to fully enjoy this image of Eggman on the sax…

... you need to have this song playing (via very-territorial-oak).

@ondoruragitan sez: "whoever designed that clown lady in ace attorney is probably the most horny artist to ever exist" (it's funny cuz it's true)...

So the big news these past few weeks, especially among video game folk my age, has been the end of the Toys R Us. Many have been sharing artifacts from the glory days, with my fave example being these old flyers, with the obvious highlight seeing all the original MSRP prices (via retrogamerblog)...

Oh, and don’t forget the gifs (via nintendroid)...

The following are more appropriate for my way, way overdue batch of game culture snapshots, but since we're on the subject of retail anyway; I recently stumbled across Nintendo's collab with Bloomingdale's that I had no idea even existed...

Took a bunch of pics, but unfortunately, due to the harsh lighting at the SoHo store, it was impossible to capture the women’s section, hence the abundance of men’s wear...

These women's sweatshirts are the best example of the line's overall design sensibilities, or lack thereof; it’s just a bunch of random Nintendo sprites on attire that is available at Bloomingdale's, period. That's all it aspires to be, nothing more...

... And that's a real shame, cuz aside from the quality of the clothing itself being high, some of the ho-hum looking designs could be really engaging with a few minor tweaks, like this b&w women's jacket with a very random assortment of b&w Super Mario World sprites...

In addition to clothing, you had accessories, like iPhone cases...

Plus sunglasses, which revealed Super Mario World playing on what appears to the naked eye to be a blank, white screen....

Speaking of Super Mario World, here's a hamster enjoying the game (via @kousuke_teppei)...

The lil guy also owns an original Famicom, and here we is playing Solomon's Key (thanks to @Topherocious for helping me to identify the game)...

Being that friend who is REALLY into video games means I'm asked a wide variety of questions from folks who are not, like why @beesmygod  is "freaking out" over a Sonic & Garfield two pack for the PC...

... I'll be honest, I don't really understand why either.

Here we have a mockup for an ad blocker that replaces banners with GBA screenshots, which I really want to see happen (via @tinycartridge)...

I also really want to see this happen too (via @truongasm)...

Back to Tiny Cart; that's where I found out that you no longer have to play emulated Tiger handheld games sans backgrounds...

Nothing beats a pic of a dimly lit arcade, especially when it's shot on ACTUAL film (via mendelpalace)...

As for this particular arcade show, @kappuru theorizes "it looks like cinestill film, or a filter designed to mimic it." (via parkerwoods)...

"WHO IS THIS NUN?! WHY DOES SHE LOOK SO SINISTER?" is a great KOF related question (via vice-s-assistant)...

And "BOWL BEFORE ME" is a great KOF related gag (via brondeef)...

"this is the best cosplay i’ve ever seen" is a a great costume play related observation made by lunaticobscurity...

"how to get away with playing super mario odyssey in class" is the caption given by retrogamerblog...

"Stardew Valley gave me 500 characters to use as my farm name, so I put down an entire 1-star amazon review for an Independence Day DVD" is the explanation given by @NoahHafford...

Hey, you never know, maybe one day a homebrew dev might make “Shinjuku-Nichome Gay District Serial Murders” a reality? (via mendelpalace)

When you’ve got one copy of Melee with two boxes, and one copy of Air Ride with zero boxes… just gotta improvise (via stellatuna)...

When you’ve got a killer Game Genie code but no paper to write it down on... and then you discover the code does something totally different (via theassortment)...

And when I asked what this 4koma featuring a Dreamcast VMU was all about, @JonahD was kind enough to explain: "VMUs are playing hide and seek, Black is seeking. One VMU thinks hiding in the controller would be good but it makes a bunch of noise and they’re found immediately" (via posthumanwanderings)...

Whereas I have yet to find out what all these Sonics are doing at a German airport (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

I normally don’t let the weather get to me, yet the constant cold weather in NYC over the past few weeks began taking its toll, to the point that I’m starting to resemble an upside down Super Famicom/European SNES (via sixteen-bit)...

I also really wish I could have checked out Sakura-Con, and not just cuz the weather is so much nicer in Seattle, but to pick up @alexisparade's Monster Factory zine...

I stared at gif illustrating the wacky perspective-related behavior of Super Mario 64’s trees for an entire day, no joke (via suppermariobroth)...

Here we have the rarely seen alternate angle of the internet famous "LAN party gamer duct-taped to the ceiling" photo (via reddit.com)...

Turning the clock back even further, here's yet another kind of party, one that doesn’t involve first person shooters but shoot ‘em ups; it’s the 1986 Hudson Caravan (via videogamesdensetsu)...

Recently, a modded NES Max controller showed up on Kotaku, in which the cycloid nub has been replaced with an analogue stick...

... Which actually appeared the day after I spotted that modded GBA at the very top of this page. I am also willing to admit the disappointment over my tweet not catching on as expected/hoped it would, hence why I'm sharing another pic...

At any rate, I was also reminded of my buddy Nick Santaniello's modded Jaguar controller, which allows for arcade perfect Tempest 2000 controls...

... Which in turned led to me republishing the post from which it hails from originally, my recap of Nick's Shmup Appreciation Night, for Medium (and also sharing additional pics on Twitter)...

BTW, for those wondering, based upon the last round of tweets; the kitchen isn’t just for playing old Mega Drive & PC Engine shmups… you can also play old Naomi fighting games (via internetflexin)...

Guess that's it for now? Sorry, but it finally feels like spring in NYC, and I feel the need to step away from the computer & enjoy weather! Just like Mega Man (via arcadequartermaster)...

[falcon6]

Turnabout Design: Shaping Up a Detective and a Child

Hello, and welcome back to Turnabout Design, a novice’s look at character design using the Ace Attorney series as a base. I am waiting about as long as you are for Gumshoe to pop up in Ace Attorney 7 or whatever, I’ll even take Dai Gyakuten Saiban where it’s revealed he’s a time-traveler, just. Anything......and let us begin. This time, I will NOT spoil much in terms of plotlines for cases or anything involving the two characters I talk about.

So previously, I jumped ahead into Justice for All and Franziska von Karma. While doing so, I failed to bring up a pretty big character from the first game. One of my favorites, in fact. The scruffy detective himself, Detective Dick Gumshoe.

It was at that time I was considering what I could discuss for each post that would be relevant to the actual subject at hand, instead of using half of the post to describe how much I love the design and character like some sort of fanboy. If you read my posts, you probably noticed how I did with that.

Eheh.

So I kind of put the detective off, much like he puts off a good meal of noodles in his cardboard home.

Still, I thought up a pretty decent subject matter to discuss, and I thought “Why not combine two characters into one post to get the point across?” So I had another character come along. The lovable semi-assistant to Wright and spirit medium prodigy, Pearl Fey.

Two fairly different characters, aside from a specific trait I’ll talk about later. However, they provide a fairly important example of character design that I can discuss at length. I knew I liked these characters for a reason!

Shapes

From our earliest development as human beings, we have been a shape. When we walk into our work or school location, we are surrounded by other people of various shapes, all carrying their own shapes. We eat shapes, drive shapes, walk on shapes, stare at shapes, yearn to ask shapes out but can’t gather the shape of courage...you’re reading this on a shape right now. Shapes are very crucial to both design and art in general.

Artists use shapes to construct the form of a piece. They look at forms and try to break them down into simple, geometric shapes so they can be easier to digest. It’s why you see a lot of artists start with very basic shapes for “blueprints”. It is a lot easier to piece together a drawing in form than it is to try and create the entire picture at once.

Character design, however, seeks to push those elements further. The shapes you use to form a character may very well define the character as well. 

Let’s take Detective Gumshoe.

Specifically, let’s look at how you can simplify his shape as a square.

Shapes, like colors as I mentioned before, can detail a lot about a character’s personality and can be dependent on the artist’s own point of view. Those can usually coincide with the viewer, but not always. As this series has always been opinion-based, I’ll discuss my thoughts on what I think square means.

A square, much like a rock, is dependable. It’s sturdy and a bit intimidating. A square implies weight. When a character is big and muscular, a round shape doesn’t really cut it for describing them. They almost seem like a wall.

For Gumshoe, we know he is reliable to a fault. He is steadfast in wanting to do the right thing and very rarely goes against the lead prosecutor of the case unless he truly believes that they are incorrect in their judgements. He’s an ally to Phoenix and Maya, but is still a loyal friend and confidant to Edgeworth. The working relationship with Edgeworth and Gumshoe is stable, regardless of how many pay cuts the poor detective gains. Even in times of great turmoil and potential harm to his person, he gives his all to try and secure the day, even if he outright fails doing it. He can do it when it counts, pal!

In contrast, let’s take a look at Pearl. Pearl, like most younger “cute” characters in anime, can usually be exemplified as a circle.

A circle, or oval or sphere, is usually described as a ball. A ball is bouncy, playful. A bit endearing. The lack of edges makes the shape feel more safe. Most of the characters people think of when “famous cartoon character” comes to mind are usually given that spherical shape as a base. One of the most famous examples, Mickey Mouse, is just three circles when simplified. It’s a safe bet, then, that circles are going to be very popular when it comes to character design.

With Pearl, we know she’s adorable. Her first appearance is as an innocent bystander and later on becomes a staple of the first trilogy for Phoenix and Maya to work with. Her design is endearing, making her a fan-favorite. She’s a warm presence in Phoenix’s life which strives to help him succeed in his job, either to help Maya in some way or trying to force the two to fall in love together. She’s a precious flower that keeps getting involved with murder somehow, so basically Phoenix and Maya are terrible guardians.

Can’t believe he has a kid...

Angular Tangent

Now, those aren’t the only shapes of course. The two I emphasized are simply the ones that made sense for Gumshoe and Pearl.

Another common shape that people like to use for design is a triangle. The angular lines usually imply a deviousness. Cunning. Threatening. Determination. They are also the more energetic of the shapes, usually because they imply direction and movement. Dynamic. These tend to pop up most in villainous characters, who are usually given more pointy features. 

Downward triangles are pretty common for devious characters.

A triangle doesn’t have to be shown in a sinister character only. It can be a good indicator on more fun, light-hearted characters, like Athena.

Triangles imply energy. Athena is a bundle of it.

So while triangles indicate caution, they also imply energy and optimism. Consider how a star, which is usually a symbol of hope, is a bunch of triangles.

And also consider how a star can also be used in a demonic summoning, and you understand that shapes are as varied as everyone else.

Innocence

So let’s talk about the characters real fast, since there’s one thing that defines them both that I think is a pretty good concept: an endearing childlike personality.

Gumshoe is not a child. He’s a bumbler and sometimes pretty stupid, but he’s as adult as all the others. He’ll focus his efforts on trying to help solve the case in whatever manner it takes. He’s a loyal companion to Edgeworth for years, and Edgeworth is not keeping him on because of his ineptitude. It’s because he knows, no matter where things may lead, Gumshoe will have his back. That’s the kind of working relationship you respect, and Edgeworth more than likely understands that positive influence in his life.

Gumshoe’s got a childlike loyalty for whomever he’s allgned with at that point, be it Edgeworth, Phoenix, or even Franny. It’s a sort of endearing trait that keeps him close to most fans’ hearts. It shows very well in how he’s able to get along with child characters like Pearl and Kay Faraday.

Pearl, of course, is an actual child, but her presence as a child helps ground Phoenix. Murder after murder makes the life of a defense attorney pretty grim, but Maya and Pearl are sort of like lights in his life that helps him keep moving forward. When Maya is in danger, Pearl is always able to put her feelings of the moment aside to help Phoenix in any way she can, be it as an assistant or by trying to summon Mia Fey to help them.

They promote ways to better their charges in any way they can, and that has helped them both in various ways that only the audience can really notice.

Conclusion

So what did I learn from making this post?

Shapes can be seen as different from a lot of people’s perspectives. Shapes are going to be key in differentiating a character.

I kind of went over this in my Phoenix post, but the shape of a character is actually a lot more than just its silhouette. It’s the actual feel of the character. The silhouette is good for making the design unique, but their character only begins once you assemble the design that was hiding beneath it. You can make a very unique blob of a character that you want to be scary, but if it’s just implied roundness, then it’ll look cuter than scarier. Meanwhile, 50 sharp angles on a baby’s face is going to make me very afraid to hold that baby.

Shapes are going to be a key to designing characters for me, especially as a graphic designer. Shapes are everywhere and can imply anything.

It’s just all about how you use those shapes.

Thank you for reading. This was a bit short considering how long it took for this post. I may end up making something faster for next time, but I’m not sure yet. It really depends on if the mood works.

Whenever I do, it’ll probably be a bit of a gushing-about-character post. Until then, it’s just a Distant Trace...