#i have obtained a new artstyle

[obscuritian]

i love cj!evelin they're so gender

[deskjockey16431]

omg hi desk jockey!!!!!!!! i like your style, you're very adorable!!!!!!!!

oh! thank you! :D

[usagifuyusummer]

Family Dinner Night!

Congrats Peri(winkle) for finally getting the Godparenting license!!! 🥳🥳🥳 - from your loving parents and godbrother 💖💖💖

More concept art and as usual my insane ramblings below.

I NEED TO GET THE CREATIVE URGES OUT OF MY HEAD!!! It has been bothering with my motivation to finish my gazillions of homeworks lmao. I have so many ideas I need to let out!!! It's suffocating. I hope this will satisfy my creative urges for a while... Or not I will yap about my FOP AU on a separate post (when I'm able).

I can't stop being sad thinking about this family lol. Timmy 😭😭😭

I am not kidding when I say that my head is just filled with so many things that I want to contribute in the FOP fanworks lol. There's a lot I want to do, but so little time...

For now, I've decided to practice my take on the FOP artstyle. I wanted to do something simple as drawing and coloring practice. That's why the coloring this time is flat with no shadings. I think the show doesn't focus on shaded colors too much (except on scenes where there's a heavy implication of day/night, for shock value, etc.).

Just wanted to draw something cute because I haven't been feeling so swell lately. Nothing too poetic or detailed this time.

Other than that, two of the outfits this time is actually inspired by @suki-na-kumo for Peri and an image I found floating around in Twitter/X (sorry I don't remember who shared it) for Timmy's design. Suki-na-kumo's FOP family redesigns are so cool and adorable! I like that they always include flowy attributes in Peri's outfits lol. It makes him look like a pampered brat (which he kinda is seeing how his family coddles him), an otherworldly prince and also a Twink TM (that is unavoidable lol). I kinda want to draw their other FOP redesigns, but I'll just go with Peri's first.

I am not sure where that 18 year old Timmy design is from, but it kinda can be his design for those who theorise him on becoming a lawyer as an adult. There's a lot of instances where Timmy is wearing a suit in the show, but this design is one of my favs due to the hairstyle change. My adult Timmy designs in the future will be influenced from this piece of official art. I wonder if there are more Timmy designs in the wild wild west out there that I haven't seen... It is certainly an interesting find (Teen AJ is also there, and his design also looks cool to me).

Cosmo and Wanda's oufits are something that I cooked up. I don't think the coloring looks good... I just did this on a whim, and for about 13 hours. Damn, I am procrastinating on my work lmao.

Still, the context this time is, that they've had a family dinner to celebrate on Peri's achievement on finally obtaining his godparenting license!!! Good for him!!!

This is an AU if Timmy somehow was able to find a loophole in the "losing your memories of your fairy godparents after you become an adult" rule. Because of that, he continued his life as normal (as Timmy's chaotic life can be), but this time he is able to keep in contact with his fairy family even if they're not contractually obligated to stick together. Timmy does live with the Fairywinkle Cosma's around his college to early work years, but he eventually was able to move out and live on his own at where he works as a lawyer after a while in his adulthood. (His birth parents eventually went on a lifetime vacation without him or just went away for too long that Timmy just lives on his own a lot after he is 18 and above...)

Despite living on his own nowadays (In a New Wish context), Timmy does keep in contact with his fairy family and visits them when he's not busy with his job. Cosmo and Wanda still took a long vacation in this AU, first due to, yeah, Timmy is no easy feat as a godchild lol, and second, they actually want to take their time to raise BOTH of their children (even if Timmy is no longer a child/godchild) and guide them until they're stable adults. Timmy during college years actually only stays with the Fairywinkle Cosma's on holidays, so when Timmy's busy with college, that is when Cosmo and Wanda take their time relaxing lmao.

Sometimes when they really want to have some time alone or when Peri wants to see his bro, they will send Peri to Timmy's college for a day or more. Timmy babysits Peri so much during his college years lol. They both had fun though! With a lot of Peri newfound nuclear fairy power shenanigans at Timmy's college lmao. Studying law and taking the bar exam has never been more chaotic with babysitting a nuclear powered fairy child.

There's a lot more on this AU that I've been thinking, but I'll stop here for now. I need to gather my AU ideas in one post sometime later.

Also, Peri and Timmy are both adults here, Peri's around his 20's here and Timmy is on his early 30's I think. Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri are in their human disguises here, because they want to learn more about human culture (A New Wish context) while also having the desire to be more in Timmy's life.

I headcannon Timmy to be kinda short in his adulthood. This is also a nod to that episode when his fairy family used imperfect human disguises, even Poof/Peri was taller than Timmy in his human baby disguise lol. And also hey, wearing braces during his teen years paid off! (his big teeth are visible only when he opens his mouth lol)

As usual, here's some concept art and a png lineart pic if you want to use it to color it better than I did lmao. (that was a long yapping session... thanks for reading)

[istadris]

Bend or Break

[ @akibouken you’re to blame for motivating me to finally write this plotbunny down with your cute Luigi petting art. Sorry about the angst, but know that I had your artstyle in mind while writing]

[EDIT] : now on AO3

[EDIT 2] now with a "sequel"

*

The human would not break.

Bowser knew it from his eyes. No matter how terrified, cowardly, vulnerable he was, trapped alone in a hostile land at the mercy of a powerful king, crushed in his grip, threatened of unending suffering, the human’s eyes still showed, buried beneath the fear and despair, a determination to not give anything about the other one. All Bowser had been able to obtain were accidental slips born from confusion and panic: that they knew each other, that they were brothers. Nothing else since.

He wouldn’t break.

So Bowser decided to switch tactics.

After leaving him to stew an appropriate amount of time in the jails, Bowser had the human brought again to the throne room.

This time his hands were free: what was the need to tie them up, when fear bound him more efficiently than shackles? It added another subtle layer of humiliation to the ordeal: to be considered so little a threat that restraining him would be useless. None of Bowser’s enemies would ever let him walk freely and unbound on their grounds if they had the opportunity.

Sitting on his throne, he took his time to observe his prisoner at the bottom of the stairs. He was cowering, darting nervous looks around him in a vain search for an escape. He had none of the defiance that some captives showed Bowser in the past: no glaring, no proud stature, no insolent spitting at his feet. Not even the courage to look at him.

“Come closer.”

The human didn’t move from his spot.

Bowser narrowed his eyes.

“I won’t ask again.”

The human relented, slowly climbing the steps toward the thrones, his hands clutched to his chest, his shoulders hunched, trembling more and more with each step, until he stopped on the last one, his eyes downcast and closed as if expecting to be torched on the spot if he breathed in the wrong direction.

Bowser huffed in amusement.

“Are you scared?”

“Y-y-you know the-the answer”, the human managed to stutter with a nervous laugh, “Of c-course I am.”

“More than usual?”

“Why-what do you m-mean?”

“That you’re a coward, and an easy target.” The human flinched at the harsh words but didn’t protest. “Everything about you screams that you’re used to being afraid. Easy to bully and push around, running and hiding at the first sign of danger, unable to defend yourself.”

It didn’t take a genius to guess any of that. He had met Toads braver than his man.

“Yet you stand up to me and refuse to yield. Why, I wonder…maybe because you’re also used to facing danger with someone by your side? Someone who protects you and keeps you safe.” From the way the human flinched as in caught red-handed, he got it spot on.

“You think he’ll come for you. Because he’s your brother.”

“M-Maybe. What would you know about f-family?” the human spat in the most aggressive tone Bowser had ever heard him use.

The prisoner didn’t know that in any other circumstances, Bowser would have torched him alive and ripped him apart limb from limb for such disrespect. Instead, he leaned forward with a low hum, not aggressive enough for a growl, but enough to make his prisoner yelp and cover his head in his arms.

Bowser let the silence weigh in the room for several seconds. After a moment, the human peeked out from behind his arms, and looked confusedly as Bowser sat back down in his throne.

“I have news about him. Your brother.”

It had the effect of a bob-omb on the captive: stunned, gaping, unwilling to believe it. It was enough to make him forget his fear for a moment, with something looking like relief daring to peek through.

“What-how…I thought-?”

“I have spies. Eyes and ears in every kingdom. Their reports take a bit of time to arrive though. I hoped you’d be faster to give me answers, but well.”

The human was burning to know more, he could see it, but afraid to ask. Afraid of what Bowser could ask in exchange, or of giving something away in his eagerness? It did not matter, as Bowser curled his claws to inspect them, as if disinterested by the matter, before talking again.

“They told me he is in the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“Mushroom …?”

“A quaint little place, far away from here. All green hills and mushroom fields, full of friendly faces, safe and soft. The kind of place you’re not in a hurry to leave. You’d love it.”

“How…” the human shut himself up, biting his lips for several seconds before finally asking in a quavering voice, “how …is he?”

Bowser held back from smirking as his prey took the bait.

“They told me he’s doing very well there, your brother. Has been there for…hm, about as long as you have been here. A month, by now? ”

“That long?!”

“He’s settled there quickly, from what I heard. He’s learning the local ways. Got himself a cosy place. Made friends all over the place, including the princess.”

“The…princess?”

“Who wouldn’t like her? She might be my enemy, but she's a delightful woman. Brave, clever, fascinating, beautiful to top it off...and from what I was told, she's sweet on him too. Not that he minds, on the contrary, he's always around her...I wonder when he'll finally come for you.”

He didn’t mention the reports of the red-clad human throwing himself from dawn to dusk over training courses to get stronger, no matter how many bones he would break in the process. Nor that the princess had to stop him by force from going alone in the wilds when he had grown desperate from impatience. He didn’t mention the rumours about the kind-hearted human obsessed with finding his missing brother to the point some worried about his sanity.

Instead, he took in the nervousness growing in his prisoner’s face; the growing questioning of what he had taken as granted. The shock of the realisation that help would not come. Because if his brother wasn’t held back, if he was free and in good health, why would he take so long? Bowser observed the expression of the man coming to the dreadful realisation that this time, he was truly alone.

“What…what if you’re lying? What says he’s even still…still okay?”

Bowser frowned outwardly at the accusation, but he was internally satisfied. His captive was now grasping at straws, clinging to a desperate hope that he had not been betrayed.

“Because if he was dead”, he stated calmly, “I wouldn’t need to concern myself about him anymore, and if I had captured him, I would brag about it for all to hear.” He narrowed his eyes, staring straight into the human’s gaze. “You might find it hard to believe, but everything I told you, since you first arrived in my walls, was the truth. Whether you like it or not.”

“I…I don’t believe you. He’s not like…like you said.”

The words would have been defiant if they weren’t said in such a small, wavering voice. He didn’t believe his own words.

Was there bad blood between the two humans right before their arrival? Or did he have doubts before, about the strength of their bond, but pushed down deep under denial and illusions? Had he feared to be abandoned before? This was a man who couldn’t bear to be alone, used as he was to a partner, a protector against the world’s fury.

He wanted, more than anything, to feel safe.

“Come closer.”

This time, the human obeyed right away, stepping forward as if in a daze, his haunted eyes fixed to the ground, until he was standing right in front of Bowser. One more step, and he would have stood between his legs.

“You asked me what I would know about family. More than you think, as I have one myself.”

The wide blue eyes looked up to him, surprise piercing through the anguish in them.

“…A family? You?”

“A son. My pride, my joy, my greatest treasure. I had to leave him in my capital for his safety during this conquest.” a melancholic smile escaped him as he thought of the last time he had seen Junior: his son had been so proud to show him his new spells and had insisted to come along with him. It had broken his heart to refuse, but he had been firm in his decision.

“If anyone” he raised his fist and clenched hard enough to break stone, “anything, dared to take him away from me, I would tear this world apart from earth to sky and burn it to the ground to find him. I would sunder entire kingdoms before allowing anyone to even slow me down."

He let the hidden question hang in the air. A simple, innocent question with an answer that terrified the human to his very core.

Would your brother even do the same?

Maybe he would have been certain of the answer before. But here, now, after what he had just heard? He couldn’t trust it anymore. He was lost, away from the stability of his life, with nothing solid to stand on.

His head held low, his eyes hidden by his hair, the human’s shoulders started shaking. A choked sob escaped him, then another, and he covered his face in his hands as he wept, gasping for air between his tears.

Bowser held out his hand and, gently, wrapped it around the human’s back before pulling him closer. The human flinched but didn’t try to move away as Bowser rubbed his hand up and down his back, shushing softly through the whole time. Comforting. Safe.

His fingers moved to the man’s head, combing through his hair with the utmost care. It seemed to help soothing the man, his shaking slowly growing fainter, as well as his sobs. Finally, with a final sniffle, he pulled away and wiped at his eyes, Bowser’s massive hand still curled around his tiny body.

For the first time, Bowser noticed the dark bags under the human’s eyes, his haggard features, the dirt and sweat and tears all over his skin and clothes. Bowser’s thumb, almost as big as his captive’s head, pressed against his cheek, stroking it slowly.

“You’re exhausted.”

The human leaned into the touch, eyes half closed, giving the smallest nod.

“Yes.” He breathed out, so softly Bowser could barely hear it.

“I’ll have you brought to a more comfortable cell.”

“Why would you even do that?” The human murmured, closing his eyes completely and letting out a long, weary sigh. “I’ll be dead soon, won’t I?”

“What makes you think so?”

“You kept me alive because you wanted info about my brother. Now your spies know probably more about him than I do. I’m past being useful.”

He sounded too calm about it. Exhausted, yes, but most of all resigned. Taking what little comfort he thought he had left before his end, as if his tears had washed away his will to live.

Bowser tilted his head. Carefully, his thumb pressed under the human’s chin, pushing it up until he was facing him, his eyes still closed. Waiting for the claw to sink into his throat.

“Look at me.”

He obeyed, opening empty, defeated eyes that stared blankly at the king.

“Why should your worth always be tied to your brother?”

The human blinked from the unexpected answer. Bowser only smiled softly and moved his fingers to the scalp of the captive, returning to a gentle stroking of the soft hair, which lulled the human into closing his eyes again, this time with a relaxed sigh.

“I can’t wait for you to meet my Junior. He’s a very bright lad, very curious. He’ll have so many questions about your kind.”

Then, with the most gentleness he was able to muster, Bowser finally pulled his hand away, and for a moment the human followed the movement, before opening his eyes suddenly and stopping himself, but not before the king noticed it.

“Now leave. Take some rest.”

This time, the human hesitated before moving.

He finally turned and descended the stairs. Slowly, almost reluctantly; a bone-tired exhaustion in his steps, but for the first time since his arrival, he had stopped shaking in fear.

Bowser rested his elbow on the throne and his head on his fist, following his prisoner’s movements with a satisfied smirk.

The human would not break, but soon he would bend.

[jamie101]

My Favourite Single Player Video Games I Played in 2023

(Inspired by @a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats' post)

Disclaimer: most of these games are relatively well-known/popular, and at least a few didn't come out this year, but these are all games I played this year that had a lasting impact on me.

In no particular order:

Dredge

I was interested in this from the initial trailer, and the final game definitely delivered. You play as the new fisherman of a tiny island town, making ends meet while uncovering uncanny secrets beneath the waves. The gameplay is fun and involved (a mixture of time and inventory management) but easy enough to master. The main elements that have stayed with me are the visual style and score/sound design, both of which really lift the game's atmosphere - it's almost relaxing at times, but never quiiiiite loses that edge of unease.

Book of Hours

I was (am) a big fan of Cultist Simulator, so Book of Hours was one of my most anticipated titles this year. The fantastic tone and writing of CS is still present, really putting these games in a league of their own. The gameplay is still faithful to the first game's style and mechanics, but also branches out in a lot of fun ways - the far more detailed and lively board of Hush House and the nearby village add a much more solid setting. One small issue I take is that the systems and learning curve for BoH are just as complex and involved as CS, but without as much ability to start over and apply new knowledge - BoH is designed to be a single longer playthrough rather than multiple "runs", which might mean you find yourself a good number of hours deep before realising you've been engaging with the mechanics wrong the entire time. This is partly why I'm still to complete the game; I do still look forward to doing so eventually, though.

Darkest Dungeon II

Darkest Dungeon is one of my favourite games of all time. I've played the sequel ever since it first entered early access in 2022, and while I understand why a significant number of DD1 fans seemingly weren't too fond of it (the overarching gameplay is fairly different from the first game, taking a much more roguelite form reminiscent of Slay the Spire) I got on with it well, even moreso since the game's full v1.0 release this year - the progress and updates made throughout early access were really encouraging to see, and the finished game is a very worthy sequel that also works as a standalone title. The transition from static 2D sprites to fully animated 3D models, while maintaining the iconic and unique artstyle of Darkest Dungeon, is also really impressive.

The Case of the Golden Idol

I've been aware of this game ever since watching a stream of the first couple chapters a year or so ago, but was inspired to pick it up myself after the announcement of a sequel at this year's Game Awards (maybe one of the few games announced there I'm genuinely excited for). I don't scratch my puzzle game itch enough, and Golden Idol has made me keen to seek out more - solving a series of interlinked "mysteries" via observation of the environment and participants to obtain words and clues which you then piece together on a separate screen. I got through the game and both DLCs in around 3-4 days, but consider that time very well spent based on the number of genuine "eureka" moments I experienced alone.

Other Games I Played and Enjoyed: Return of the Obra Dinn, Receiver, The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth/Afterbirth/Repentance)

Multiplayer Games I Enjoyed/Am Currently Enjoying: Lethal Company, Party Animals

If you've read this far, thanks very much! This is mostly a personal record to look back on, but please feel free to pass on any recommendations or let me know what your top games were this year.

And With That, the Game of the Year 2023 (and Every Year Hereafter) is: OUTER WILDS

[spinningbuster98]

Mega Man 7 Part 1

I don’t know about nowadays but years ago MM7 was ridiculed by fans. Either because of the relatively stiffer controls when compared to the 8 bit games, or the more cartoony artstyle (really?) and also for the simple act of not being an 8 bit Classic game, since for a time I remember fans having a bias against anything Classic related that wasn’t 8 bit, a byproduct I’m assuming for having made the jump to 16 bit so late, MM8 being underwhelming and MM9 being what it was.

Well I think MM7 is pretty damn underrated, even if it does have its flaws. I just can’t believe this game was rushed to hell in 3 months!

It’s actually really interesting to see all the influences this game takes from many games that were not part of the main lineup

You can immediately tell that this is a post X Megaman game since it starts with an opening stage that’s a ruined highway, Bass is an edgy character, the character artist is the same as the first 2 X games, you can switch between weapons with the shoulder buttons and the levels are a bit more explorative.

But MM7 also takes notes from the Gameboy games: you can only select from 4 stages to start with which....I’m not the biggest fan of as it limits player choice.

Even the shop originated from MM4 on Gameboy, only there it was run by Dr.Light and you used “P-Chips” instead of Bolts.

Also I’m playing a fan translation once again because MM7′s localisation is...interesting in some places, the international versions even eliminated the random scenes where either Roll or auto would have joke conversations about a new weapon Megaman had just obtained, leaving only those with Light

I kinda hate Burst Man’s stage ngl, mainly due to all the stop and go, and the boss himself is a bit of a mess

[monasatlantis]

Fields of Mistria - Frist impression Review

So on an impuls (as per usual XD) I bought the early access Version of Fields of Mistria and played it for like 13 hours and through almost two seasons and I am quite quick in my progression thanks to... uh... some... unorthodox ways to get through the freaking mine *achem* and thus I feel like I can already write a "First impression review" for this game in its early access phase. Bear in mind that there will be a full review out eventually after the game has entered its alpha stage and is mostly complete - which will likely not be before 2025.

OBVIOUSLY, there are SPOILERS for this game, so you have been warned!

The art style is a bit old-school-Anime and people my age will likely be reminded of the Anime "Nadia the secret of Blue Water" and might be reminded of some of the Animes characters when looking at the characters of those games. Which is by no means a bad thing. I think younger players or those who have never seen the anime will obviously not notice anyway. I just found it worth mentioning. (For my personally its fun, because while I love Nadia the Anime, I hate Nadia the character and there is a character in this game that looks somewhat like her and whenever I talk to her I am torn between thinking she is pretty and wanting to say "urg" every time I interact with her XD) Overall I do think the artstyle is likeable for everyone who does not mind the Anime-Character-Look. Animals are very cute by the way ♥ (BTW... its just a small thing but it looks like the characters change their outfits every season and I think its a nice detail.)

Music is okay for a cozy farming game. Obviously, there are no banger songs, but there is also no music that gets annoying after playing on a loop for a while, as far as I can say after spending hours in the mine or on my farm or exploring the map.

The game mechanics are similar to most cozy farming games. Which makes it easy to understand and makes it so that you don't take long to get into the game. You have tutorials for almost everything which you can actually skip if you want, which I found really nice. Something that surprised me but is actually nice for quality of live is that you do not have to refill your freaking watering can. I hated this so much in previous farming games. I get that it is realistic but so damn annoying. I prefer how Fields of Mistria does it and hope they will not change it in a future update OR will make it optional. Otherwise its the usual same old, same old. Plant crops, water crops, harvest crops, sell or cook crops. Same for fruit trees and most other stuff. Animals make babies by giving a male AND a female heart cookies when they have reached at least two hearts, this way apparently you can breed unique colors. I just got my first egg for breeding, so I can not tell you the details. But what I can tell you is that you can NOT buy the pink cow from the opening-screen, so it must be one you breed. I am still working on this at the moment. What is kind of "new" or is not available in all farming games is that you can give your Animals accessories AND toys. My cows play ball in a sandpit and my chickens are going up and down a... uh... what is it called in English? I forgot. But you get my point, right? Its really cute! I hope they will add more in later releases of the game. I would love to see my chicken on a swing or something XD They do feed from grass that is growing outside. You do not have to plant it yourself. But if you feel like your running low on it, you certainly can. Food for Animals CAN be bought or be randomly obtained by cutting grass. There are different feed for the different kind of Animals. Weed, grass, stones and trees randomly reappear on your farm, so you should not run out of materials. If you do... you find plenty of tries on the map that regrow almost immediately. And if you are short on stone, you find some laying around on the map but the easiest way to get plenty of them is by getting into the mine.

The map of this game is big, but not too big. You can easily spend a day running around gathering flowers, herbs, bugs and doing some digging for artifacts and the likes. Some random fruiet trees are standing around here and there too. Some areas are only accessible with stronger tools or after finishing story-missions tho. But the map looks very fitting to the games title. It looks like there are ruins of old castles and stuff like that standing everywhere and I hope most of them will be relevant to the story eventually or give you access to new places on the map. There are also occasional springs with healing water or statues or the likes of that, that give you something after some sort of sacrifice - no your not sacrificing your chickens, don't worry, you give away money or stone or stuff like that, so don't worry! XD - like there is a well that gives you recipes if you give it some money.

Speaking of which... there is no learning by doing it seems. You need recipes to cook. Some easy ones you will get for free tho, when shipping certain ingredients. AND what I really like is, while you do not have anything at the start on your farm to cook yourself, do woodwork or smithing yourself the game allows you to use the facilities in the city. So you an cook at the inn, smith at the smithies and do woodwork in 2 possible locations, including the carpenters house. Really neat. It helps you too not feel like rushing thing so you can buy that stuff for yourself and still makes it possible to get a copper axe and an iron hoe without having to buy them for a lack of any smithing-place at your farm. And YES you can actually create the stuff yourself. And its not even an upgrade and its also not limited. You can produce like 5 copper hoes and then seel 4 of them for a very good price while also selling your old hoe as it gets not replaced. I got a shitload of money when I replayed my copper tools with iron tools and then sold the copper tools. So if you like the mine, this might be your way to gain money. There is a catch to that tho, which is that processing anything (that includes making cheese out of milk) is taking a shitload of time and when you are finished your day will be mostly over. You can shorten that time by a bit -we get to that in a moment - but it still takes quite some time. ALSO if you want to build a barn or a coop, you will only buy the blueprints and you have to buy them again and again and again whenever you want to build a new one. After having the blueprints you place them on a free space on your farm and then you gather the material until you can finish the building. It has is good sides and its bad sides, I guess. Overall I don't mind it but I was surprised at first.

There is a magical aspect in the game. You will learn spells eventually and you will earn points by doing daily farmer-stuff that will allow you to "buy" perks like that smiting doesn't take as much time anymore, or crops randomly giving you seeds when watering them. Most of it is really helpful but if you like it a bit harder you do not have to use it. But I would seriously recommend it.

Now lets talk about the plot for a moment. Obviously there is some stuff still missing but let me tell you, you will be quite busy with it for the first months. There are multiple story requests that ask you for lets say preparing a bridge or selling crops for emergency rations. As the farmer, you got your land for free, but let me tell you that you will have to pay them back a lot while fulfilling the story missions. In money and materials. However, it makes it so that you almost always have a goal in sight. I would recommend tho making sure you prioritize the right thing. There is no rush with those main story missions. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the price, like with the update for the general store, but other times you could use the money and materials for other stuff that will help you gather more income which also will help you on the long run with the story-missions. A lot of stuff by the way happens in the mines and requires you to revisit the mines a few times to get what you need to explore them further so if you are like me and not a big fan of mines in ANY farming game, you might have to rethink if you want this game OR at least how you approached the mines. You can not just get yourself a sword but also armor that helps you with the monsters in the mine. Gathering the materials for it may take a while tho, so your progress will be slower. But this IS a cozy farming game. So there is no real rush. Go at your own pace and make the best out of it. HOWEVER if you want to advance the story avoiding the mines is literally impossible. So keep that in mind, if you ever want to buy the game.

Now to the NPCs and Loveinterests. The town isn't overly big, but is filled enough to not feel empty. All characters have their own character and quirks and interests and feel alive and interesting. The bachelors and bachelorette can not be married yet. So far, you can only get them to four hearts. You get an heart event every two hearts or so. Once again, its a wild mix of different characters and you can take your pic. For some people it might also be important to know that there are people of color in this game and among the bachelors and bachelorettes. And... somehow... you maybe... can... date a Dragon? ^^' I have no idea, but there is a dragon statue on your farm that talks to you and stuff and it actually has a heart. You can not give it gifts yet or anything but as they say there are still 2 more bachelors missing (we have 10 at the moment) there is a good chance he will be one of them. We will see eventually. As there is no real progress yet for the dating part of the game I wasn't paying much attention to it but I did "accidentally" (as in I was not planning to have a heart event with that guy, but he was the first one who had two hearts by only just talking...) triggered the first (two hearts) heart event for the merchant and I can not exactly tell you what I think about it. We barely interacted with him. So... uh... we will see I guess ^^'

Thats it for now.

First impression is good. So far 8 out of 10 points and I am looking forward to the Alpha release some day.

[virentdivision]

self review

these are all tags from one post here a couple months ago

#but i think what i've been trying to do is STOP fixing my art and just learn to make more drawings and move on

I have leant into this belief ✅ and it's good, though nuanced... as I don't want to start a lot of drawings, I like to take my time even on flawed artwork, ideally. I'm more leisurely. I try to avoid negative feelings, and if I truly feel a lack of interest, I will just erase it and start over. I try to build healthy attachments and relationships with my artworks.

#because everything i ever draw i dont post. i spend days on fixing it. ... I still do this but I have less of an issue about it due to me placing incentives that allow legroom while still putting a bit of pressure. Such as, "I have to queue up something for captaindark once every week..." It's subjective and easygoing enough, but is a tangible structure for me to take solace in. I'm not all or nothing incentives anymore. ... and i lose interest because i got new ideas during it... cycle repea#thats why i have 1000 wips / unposted art This is only an issue SOMETIMES! Since most days I am actually weaponizing this positively for my OC projects. The only time in recent times this happened negatively was when I was drawing in front of people and distracted myself. I can't tell if that's net negative or net positive, but I did still do stuff that I considered productive during it, and ultimately, all art has meaning. I just wouldn't want to go overboard and abandon the projects that have MORE meaning to me (and others) personally. #and i hope that i develop the artstyles i want#which is what i've been thinking about a lot lately ❌ No and Yes ?? ✅ ❌: I'm starting to not care about drawing to obtain style. When I start drawing things that make me think this way, I try to avoid this way of thinking and push past it into whatever style comes naturally in that moment. It actually takes a lot of mental effort to disengage with such perfectionist habitual thought, but I'm in a creative high so it's easier than before. As in, it's still hard, but I have more creative energy to spend instead of having to give up too soon. ✅: I've realized I have a style. I just might not like it, and honestly, the reasons for why I don't like it are kind of nebulous and stupid and based in perfectionist thought, so I'm active on uprooting that. Hopefully I see fruition of my efforts soon! I would love to see some abundant visible change on it, have wanted to for months or maybe years regarding my captaindark blog artworks specifically. #there will be no progress if i dont post. ❌ No, and I've learned this thanks to my OC projects giving me a tangible sense of progress even if I'm actively avoiding showing what I'm doing. And that mindset has crossed over to everything else I do. When I start working on those other things, I maintain my creative high outlook and realize "oh, so it's this way, here too" right? I kind of don't know yet since I haven't started a bunch of work in other stuff (which is a good thing right now) but that's what makes sense, and I'll probably purposely make the realization happen.

#i just don't want posting to feel forced...)

I have leant into this belief ✅ and it's good, though nuanced... Same with my art, I'm trying to "build healthy attachments and relationships" with my blogs. I don't like twt, so I'll just post there in a way that makes me forget about it. Even if there's value to posting there, I just don't feel like it, so I compromise and do what I want. That way, when I get nice reactions, it's a pleasant surprise that I don't have to dwell on about.

even if i don't have anyone looking#(that's mostly a faultdue to me being shy and not posting to where people will see it... I actually still think about my lack of audience sometimes, but it's such a mixed train of thought. Because... I like being reserved and "safe" ... but I want to build something for myself, too. Then I imagine, what if I release a game and pretty much no one bothers to play it? But I don't really believe that thought, since an artwork as well rounded and tangible as a game existing in my gallery is a building block to something that will attract attention eventually. Even if it's only the few people you care about and directly told them to play. Even if people don't understand the message or didn't like it that much. I think I would still overall feel pretty good about it, since I'm practical about gaining experience. We'll see.

[vampvexx]

WHY I HATE JUJUTSU KAISEN

(Disclaimer: I've only watched the first seven episodes of jjk and haven't read the manga because it was too boring, these are just my opinions based on what I've watched please don't doxx me)

It’s EVERYWHERE. I was casually reading a bungo stray dogs light novel on wattpad for research and then BOOM, JUJUTSU KAISEN GOJO AND GETO MATCHING BRACELETS AD. I DO NOT want gojo and geto weird ship stuff, I JUST WANNA READ THE LIGHT NOVEL AND GET ON WITH MY DAY.

______________________________________________________________

If I go shopping to an anime/manga centered store, Bungo Stray Dogs content? None. Death note content? Barely (with luck, a death note notebook and THAT’S IT.) Moriarty the patriot content? None. Death Parade content? None. But Jujutsu Kaisen?? EVERYWHERE. POSTERS, PLUSHIES, MANGAS, ACTION FIGURES, EVERYWHERE. The ACTUAL original mangas/animes with good stories and characters do not sell because they’re not as easily to understand or comprehend therefore they’re not as digestible as manga/animes with more simple themes.

______________________________________________________________

It’s straight up boring. Same boring cliche of normal boy who overnight obtains extremely dark and magic powers + joins extremely prestigious and dangerous school/organisation + is in a trio + curses and demons. There isn't much originality on the story in itself.

______________________________________________________________

The characters. Again, simple and boring cliches that can be seen repeated everywhere:

Goofy + kind of dumb main character who is insanely strong (from outside powers they got because of a strong sense of justice).

Always annoyed/moody side character who has more experience, dislikes main character.

“The girl of the group” (literally introduced as that), tragic past and such.

Mysterious and extremely powerful yet silly mentor, either acting extremely happy/laid back in front of main character(s), or really serious with other (of shared power) or when trying to “teach” main character.

______________________________________________________________

Everyone’s hair.

______________________________________________________________

Jujutsu Kaisen already has a confirmed third season even if the second one just came out in July, whilst Bungo Stray Dogs still has to catch up to the anime and make enough content to just have a sixth season (obviously it is because different studios animate them and because Jujutsu Kaisen sells much more but it still annoys me.)

The fact that Jujutsu Kaisen gets to be animated by MAPPA studios yet Bungo Stray Dogs has to be animated by Studio bones who washes down the artstyle, characters, and story.

______________________________________________________________

I think that Bungo Stray Dogs (and other mangas/animes)overall has a much more creative story and characters than Jujutsu Kaisen, yet the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom is much more privileged as the content they get is quicker and done in better quality, plus they get to see their favourite manga/anime get attention and is everywhere (merch, news, awards).

______________________________________________________________

It’s nominated to almost every category of the Crunchyroll anime awards whilst Bungo Stray Dogs has no nominations. And it’s for EVERYTHING. I haven’t researched yet the process of how they get nominated or if BSD doesn’t meet certain requirements to be nominated but there are definitely some categories in which it’s unfair Bungo Stray Dogs isn’t there, considering the popularity it got during July when the fifth season came out, and the amount of good things that the anime still has despite being animated by studio Bones.

______________________________________________________________

Most of this points also can be related to chainsaw man (only thing I like about it is Pochita).

[we-do-a-little-developing]

Voxel use in games and art

Voxelmade is a website dedicated to the sharing of voxel art and resources. It has pages for tutorials, software, artists and feautured art. What else do you want me to say

Sir Carma:

Sir Carma is a French digital artist and Art Director at the Brace Yourself Game Studio, the team [well, half the team now] behind Crypt Of The Necrodancer. I really like his work due to the warmer palettes and softer, cohesive tones in the first two images. This is something I'd like to [be able to at least] emulate in my work. He works in 3D sculpture as well as voxels [although predominantly in the former]. Whilst I'm not going to be able to work on anywhere near the same scale, I do intend to recreate certain aspects of his work in my game.

Crossy Road:

2014??????

Crossy road is a 2014 game from Aussie studio Hipster Whale, based on the 'Why did the chicken cross the road' joke. It has since become comically popular and profitable. Using voxels in all of its visuals, it has a very simplistic style with bright, block colours and no unnescessary detailing or shading. This works well for the game due to appealing to its younger target audience. Although Crossy Road is a good example of how a voxel game could look, the artstyle wouldn't work in a first-person game due to be environment being far closer to the camera and so feeling more empty due to the lack of detail. However, this could be countered by using a number of smaller objects to build up the environment and make it feel alive despite being block colours.

Minecraft:

oh come on, you saw this coming a mile away.

Minecraft is the most popular example of a voxel game by a colossal margin. Instead of producing a [coherent] story and direction, Minecraft allows the player to shape the world however they like, with the only constraints being how much time and social interaction they're willing to sacrifice. Due to a simple but entertaining gameplay loop of mining and building [god how did this game get so big], players are encouraged to keep playing to expand their world, obtain new and better items and so on. Although the textures in my game will be more detailed than those of Crossy Road, they will likely not be as textured as Minecraft as certain parts of the world need to stand out more than others to direct the player.

Teardown:

I really wanna play Teardown.

Teardown is a combination destruction sandbox and puzzle game - like Payday but without penalty for killing civilians - where you stuff up, tear stuff down, and steal stuff. Fun! Developed by the swedish Tuxedo Labs, it uses a combination of Ray Tracing [actually simulating rays such as light - hugely expensive on hardware but stunning if used intelligently] and destructible voxels to accurately simulate what happens when you ram a mid-sized Sedan through a brick wall at 60kph. As much as I [if you couldn't tell] love Teardown, I will in no way be able to use the combination of Ray Tracing and destructible voxels - it's miles beyond my understanding. Even if I could, it wouldn't be the main feature of the game so Ray Tracing would annihilate the frames per second for insufficient benefit.

Skies Of The Past:

y e s

SotP is a vast open-world game developed by Sebirit. Still in pre-alpha, the game's entire aesthetic is designed to be calming and relaxing with soft colours, piano music, and quiet rain and wind. It just looks amazing, I don't have much else to say*. Although I don't intend to use this sort of aesthetic for my project, I absolutely plan to recreate something similar - maybe with more pastel colours than neutral tones though.

*he did, in fact, end up having more to say

Fugl:

Fugl - Norwegian for 'Bird'

Fugl is an open-world exploration game where you play as a slowly morphing bird flying through stunning procedural generated environments. Developed by English/Norwegian studio Fugl Studios [at least they're straight to the point], the player is able to fly about an infinite world as their bird absorbs the characteristsics of whatever inhabitants it encounters or create their own custom level or bird. As genuinely cool as Fugl is, I'd be unable to program the procedural generation aspect or the shape-shifting bird, both of which are kinda important.

[heartfragment]

The long-awaited update to Book One is finally here!

A ton of new & high requested features are now available, including:

Art style selection between "style a" and "style b" for more consistency than the previous version

A male MC variation

Pronoun selection (she/her, he/him, and they/them)

Optional voice acting for Xani / the MC provided by Jessica Spencer (feminine voice) and Jerron Bacat (masculine voice)

Extra scenes & options to build romance prior to the endings

Art Updates:

The number one requested feature / update was more art style consistency. A lot of people found it off-putting that the style of the CGs was so different from the sprites. While Momoriin, the original sprite artist, was unavailable to work on CGs, the help of amazing artists Drulle and Saigogogo has allowed for a new version of CGs that match more seamlessly with the original sprites.

For those who already love the CG artstyle, you can select "style b" to see sprites & CGs both by the lovely artist who did the original scenes, Mintstea! You can also switch between the two styles at any time during gameplay, and both styles of any unlocked CG can be viewed from the gallery menu.

Main Character Variation:

As unlocked by our amazing Kickstarter backers, you can now play as a male/masculine version of the protagonist! It was highly requested that pronouns be interchangeable, and indeed they are. You can switch the protagonist's appearance, voice, etc at any time while you play the game.

This difference is not just cosmetic. A lot of scenes (especially in Clive's route and the upcoming Book Two release which includes Shannon's route) have dialogue and choice variations depending on which version of the protagonist you play as. And if you want to take it a step further, you can also turn on option MC voicing as well!

Upcoming Price Structure Change:

After the unfortunate incident that went on recently (detailed here), I've made the decision to change the price structure. But rest assured, anyone who got Book One prior to this change will still have access to the upcoming DLC for free. I'm in contact with Steam support to get this arranged, which will essentially mean anyone who has Book One right now will get access to a free DLC package, while anyone obtaining a copy after the change will get access to the paid DLC package. 

But the good news: that means anyone who hasn't yet picked up Book One because they couldn't afford a copy can get ahold of it for free! And if you like it, you can buy the future releases. <3

Book Two Progress Report:

First off, I want to offer a huge apology for the release delay. A lot has been happening, both in my personal life, general health, and my work life. As the sole writer of Heart Fragment aside from a few additional scenes provided by Nico H (developer of Entropic Float), any issues that I face directly impact the speed I can work at.

Book Two: Belief Fragments will still be available this summer (2022). Lana's route is finished aside from end programming + beta testing, and Shannon's is nearly finished being written and will then be moved into the programming stage as well. I really appreciate your patience with me!

Lastly, if anyone runs into any issues with the new update, please feel free to contact me any time, whether it is via the Heart Fragment discord server, by email (heartfragmentvn@hotmail.com), the Steam community page, or right here on tumblr.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

[colorful-horses]

💐 ?

💐 - who’s your favourite mlp blog?

I don't know if I have a Single favorite blogger, so heres a list of some of my absolute favorite pony bloggers:

🎨 MLP Art Blogs

@cassettepony - Such a unique art style. Cannot stress enough how unique her art style is! It's very stylistic and the colors are POPPIN- they're so saturated and pretty! Her art reminds me of jolly ranchers,, I also absolutely love the exaggerated expressions and how she draws EYES (when the corner of the mouth slightly clips over the bottom of the eye.........immaculate) + She does something really special that I never see any other pony artists doing, which is giving the ponies little chin hairs or 5 o'clock shadows (I. i don't know what it's called please forgive me). It is so special and cool to see, and it's so recognizable! I ADORE Cassettes art and I've always been too shy to say hi so uhhh. Hi! 👋

@msponies - ponies drawn in mspaint. HIGH QUALITY posts here. I am so inspired by their use of colors- the RANGE in some of these posts is crazy. Some of these drawings have such extremely unique color combos that you wouldn't think would work so well together, but msponies is just a master at using a color palette to its full potential its actually crazy! Their Trixie drawings are some of the best, and I cant help but admire how bold their backgrounds are (yea I know that kinda goes hand in hand with the whole color palette thing but i just really like their art); the bold colors and the dark outlines are so scrumptious

@celebrationcastle - They don't update extremely often, but when they do, you kno its gonna be a top tier post. They have a very flexible artstyle, and they post fanart for every generation. They were the ones who made that Valentines Pinkie Pie design that popped off a while ago, and for good reason; they are extremely good at drawing and designing. Like, they've completely mastered the artstyle of g3 and g4 (and probably every other gen. its nuts), and their g5 fanarts art probably my favorite I've ever seen (sunny starscout, my beloved). Everything they post is a banger. Their blog is just such a big inspiration to me :,)

📖 General MLP Blogs

@yodawgiheardyoulikeponies - absolute FAVORITE pony collecting blog. OP is SO sweet and her collection is AMAZING! I absolutely adore her photos and her posts, and her enthusiasm about collecting is so infectious. The positive energy on her blog is absolutely pure sugar, and I just really cannot stress enough how much effort she puts into her posts. She makes little pony photo shoots! And makes little stories out of them!!! It's so fun to just sit and read through. I always check her blog after new merch is released just because it's it's interesting to read about a Pony Veteran giving their input on modern toys. 1000/10 I love this blog

@ahorseofeverycolor - I only have notifications on for like. 5 or 6 blogs? And this is definitely one of them. They regularly post about ponies and horses (okay, they mostly focus on Breyers, but thats not a negative to me at all- I got my first Breyer the other day BECAUSE of this blog, lol), and their blog is just so clean and organized! They post about so many different kinds of ponies, whether it be comparing flat-footed release to concave foot releases, or custom ponies they made themselves, or just really cool pony finds that aren't necessarily obtainable (prototypes, special custom ponies commissioned by hasbro by professional artists, etc) but are really cool to look at!!! I really like this blog!!!

@mustcollecthorses - This is a blog that I have a super bad habit of opening and then scrolling through for like. 2 hours straight, lol. It's a mix of reblogs and original posts, so it's really my Ideal pony blog; usually when I hear about pony news, it's because he reblogged it! It's a very focused blog, so it's definitely a good one to follow if you need some more horses on your dash! He recently made an edit of Hitch from the new 5 pack to give him brushable hair, which I absolutely love (why did they gotta give him sculpted hair umu) I also like that OP leaves tags on the posts he reblogs! I don't know if it's just me, but I always like a blog more if they add tags with input about the toys and news and things like that. It adds some personality and a Vibe to the blog and I just really like it!!!

ok thats all! i of course follow a bunch of other pony themed blogs, but those are some of my top favorites, and ill limit it to 3 per category for the sake of simplicity. please consider following them! They're all so cool and talented!!!

--

send me pony themed asks

[radramblog]

Some longer thoughts on Pokemon BDSP

I think at this point the absolute vitriol-fest thrown at the upcoming Sinnoh Remakes has largely died down, people moving onto greater things like the upcoming New Pokemon Snap release (I’m probably not buying it) or…whatever it is the #mainstreamPokemonFandom does when they aren’t spewing outrage about trees and dexits. It might be a bit early for me to do this considering the games still don’t have a release date, but I figure with the hype dying down a bit I can afford a few of my own thoughts as to what these games should look like.

Of course, we’ve all been burned before, and I’m not expecting an awful lot. But hey, it’s just my two cents.

I think the first thing that made people immediately bounce off of the BDSP reveal is the artstyle. And, I get it- it’s certainly A Choice. The models look kinda awkward, almost hearkening back to Gen VI’s first attempts at full 3D overworld but with a more deliberate style. The short, round characters look awkward against the more detailed overworld. And the full sized models aren’t especially impressive either- all the previous remakes updated the original’s character designs somewhat, as did third versions Emerald and Platinum, but BDSP doesn’t seem to have made any changes outside of model-ifying them.

And the thing is, I don’t care?

On the one hand, aesthetic in a game obviously does matter, and having the protagonist you’re going to be staring at all game look like that is going to be an issue for people. On the other, I actually really like how the overworld looks. On the other, other hand, I’m really not convinced that the artstyle of this game should make or break it, as it certainly doesn’t for me. Pokemon’s graphics have been arguably behind the curve for like, 8 years now? I remember all the complaints about Sword and Shield’s graphics, and that obviously didn’t kill that game. And like, I don’t want to go for the throat of a game I haven’t played, but, people don’t seem to mind Colosseum and XD’s artstyle from what I’ve seen, and those games kinda look like shit. They do have those dynamic pokemon animations though, and I hope we get to see that in BDSP- those (and that of Battle Revolution) were a result of outsourcing, I believe, and this game is outsourced to another studio.

More importantly, in my eyes, is the gameplay. Doesn’t matter how good the game looks if it plays like garbage. And herein lies the biggest sticking point, and potential blunder, of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Diamond and Pearl are like, easily some of the worst games in the series from a playthrough standpoint.

The pacing is all over the place, with backtracking that seems to be trying to emulate RSE but not quite making it. The level curve is messy, with the Elite Four being such a massive spike that they had to tone it down 4-5 levels on each Pokemon in the intentionally harder third version, Platinum. The regional Pokedex is sorely lacking- while Elite Four Flint’s infamous 2/5 “Fire” team is eminently memeable, Electric Gym Leader Volkner is just as bad (2/4, though he could technically be running…Pachirisu…), and of the 28 new Pokemon related to previous games’ evolutionary lines, 17 cannot be obtained in a regular playthrough. HM use is especially egregious in this game, with 6 of them being mandatory to complete the game (Victory Road alone requires 5) and of the other two, the games’ sprawling map and frequent backtracking basically necessitate Fly while without Defog the foggy parts of the map are absolutely miserable both to navigate and fight through.

How BDSP handles these issues is kinda my make or break with the game. See, a lot of the issues were solved in Platinum, and Heartgold and Soulsilver (the best remakes the series has had) solved much of the issues in GS by taking notes from Crystal and tweaking things in the transition. The thing is, the last remakes we got, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, did not take Emerald’s tweaks in mind, making them substantially worse games than they could potentially have been, and I’m worried BDSP are going to do the same. A particular sticking point for me is the HMs, interestingly- outside of the aforementioned Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire sticking too closely to outdated design, Pokemon for the last 4 generations has had light to nonexistent HM requirements. Black and White only had one mandatory HM use period (Cut in the Dreamyard after Gym 1), B2W2 and XY both only require Surf off the top of my head, and Gens 7 and 8 remove them completely from the game. Because that’s kind of what they are, outdated game design- I think the Alola games handled it best, where the interesting level design these obstacles can lead to is still present but tackling them is less restrictive on your party and is based on progression through the story. That’s the kind of design that makes backtracking interesting, something Gen 8 really lacked in the long run.

The final thing I want to bring up is kinda a combo of two things- postgame and connectivity. One would argue that the Battle Frontier is also outdated design based on development priorities, but it’s removal in ORAS was kind of a kick in the taint to fans- it’s a beloved part of the game, and it not being in BDSP would be a terrible shame. The other thing is whether or not the games will have online connectivity with Sword and Shield as far as trading and battling goes. While I’ve heard quite a few people express doubts that BDSP will do so, I’d be shocked if, unlike every other main series title, competitive battling stayed a primary function of Sword and Shield and BDSP didn’t get it. I’d also be surprised if the games weren’t able to trade with each other, considering that’s been a core facet of the series since day 1- not being able to trade would make Dexit feel more permanent almost, considering many, many of the Sinnoh Dex mons aren’t available to play at the moment, even with the expanded DLC Pokedex in Sword and Shield. In fact, one thing I noticed that leads me to believe that trading between games is absolutely going to happen is related to said DLC dex- namely, that the Crown Tundra added every single Fossil Pokemon to the SwSh Pokedex- except the Sinnoh ones, Cranidos and Shieldon.

 At the end of the day, we’re just waiting for more information to come out for these games either way. I can tell you right now, though, that I’m not preordering them (last time I did that was Y, I think), and whether or not I get them is really going to base around many of these factors.

[ladala99]

More Thorough Thoughts on Mystery Dungeon Rescue DX Demo

Intro

When I was a kid, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series was peak hype. You could actually play as a Pokemon, going on adventures in randomly-changing environments so nothing is ever exactly the same. The story blew me away, surprising me with how emotional video games could be. And that was just the first game, as the second improved upon so many things.

Here we are again, remaking the first games. I’m really excited for people who never played Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue team to experience the story of the Ninetales curse for the first time. It’s a great story in a great game and it deserves to be seen by more people.

Graphics/Art Style

In addition, this game fixes something I never imagined would be fixed: the art style. When the Mystery Dungeon games transitioned to 3D, they lost the series’ original art style to be replaced with the generic cartoon art style every 3D cartoon game feels like it has. With these filters, it not only regains what the drawn graphics of the original imply, it recreates the concept art with its hatched shading and bold lines. Look at any screenshot of the game, and everything other than the Pokemon looks like a drawn picture, not a 3D environment. It is so pretty and it works so well.

Aside from the Pokemon, though. The filters make them fit in for the most part, but it is very clear that these 3D models (the same ones used in everything since Gen V - GameFreak, you taking notes?) are not made specifically for this game. It’s not bad that they stick out, since in a way, they should, but it does break the concept art look that everything else has.

It does keep Super’s walking animations, too, unfortunately. They animated four-legged Pokemon very generically and it doesn’t look great. The originals had unique animations for every Pokemon, mainly because every Pokemon had unique sprites. Now the uniqueness is largely gone. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but I miss Skitty’s pounces as it wanders around town.

Changes from the Originals

The personality quiz will sometimes suggest Pokemon from the opposite gender compared to the original. I haven’t tested it thoroughly, but when I took it, I chose girl and it gave me the Pokemon that used to be male-exclusive for that personality trait.

And now you can choose your starter regardless of the test results. I like the best-of-both-worlds approach here. You can also choose Partner Pokemon that used to be exclusively Heroes in the original, so that’s very neat.

Dungeon mechanics have been updated to be an evolution of Super’s mechanics. The demo ends too early in the game for me to form a full opinion on this. So far, I haven’t noticed it change the difficulty, as moves didn’t really have Base Power in the original as far as I noticed, so Tackle was just as good as Slam. Better even, as it has more PP. Now, you start with better moves, but it doesn’t seem to make it all that much easier. It was already easy.

I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of “press A and the game chooses the best move for you to use,” but if you use Super’s move button combo, you can choose a move yourself, anyways. And there is a “do nothing” button combo, so I’ll just have to get used to using that rather than pressing A when I want to do nothing.

Overall, though, moves are handled a lot better than they were in the originals, at least on the accessing them front. Some people are upset about the lack of a Basic Attack, but I made my farewells when Gates to Infinity came out and made them useless. It makes Max Elixirs less useless.

Story-wise nothing has changed so far other than Diglett being introduced slightly earlier, while also making you a shortcut to the Pelipper Post Office. Not sure if that means more story additions are on the way (I hope so!) or if it’s just a convenience thing with an in-universe explanation.

Really small thing that bothers me, though, is that wandering NPCs in town have zero weight to them. In the originals, NPCs had set ranges and you couldn’t move them. Now, you so much as brush up against them and they slide away from you. Even Gates and Super did it the original way. It feels wrong and cheap the new way; at least in most games that let you move NPCs, you need to exert some force. As it is here, I try to talk to them and push them away in the process.

Conclusion?

As far as I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty excited. But there’s still more to talk about that I will under the cut! It involves mild spoilers found out through the game’s Help Menus.

Pokemon Availability

Here’s something that’s neutral-to-negative: all signs point to these games consisting of only Gens I-III, evolutions/pre-evolutions(?) of Gen I-III Pokemon, Megas and Primals of Gen I-III Pokemon, and Lucario. More than the original? Yes. But in this day and age, it’s not very many. We criticized Sword and Shield for cutting the cast, and even before the DLC those games have more than this game does.

I understand it as an artistic choice. It’s the same reason Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee only have Kanto Pokemon. But when I get a new Pokemon game, especially Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, I want to use Pokemon I’ve never used before in that context. And I’ll be shocked if any of the newcomers are available before the post-game.

And not even Alolan Formes are in. The game’s TMs indicate that this game was developed to release during Gen VII, but they didn’t even do the obvious and make the Ninetales that lives on an icy mountain ice-type.

Shiny Pokemon Exist

That’s all we know, but that’s really cool. Apparently the Friend Bow helps recruit them.

Exp. All

Something that started in Gates to Infinity and continued into Super Mystery Dungeon is the fact that every recruited Pokemon gains experience along with you, regardless if they are on the adventure or not.

They changed the name of Friend Areas to Rescue Camps, and one of the Rare Quality descriptions seems to indicate that Pokemon in Rescue Camps gain experience with you.

Unlike with the main series, I don’t really mind it. I find the game more fun when I’m bulldozing my way through everything than I do when I’m struggling. But that’s just me.

I can see this being a disappointment for some. It’d be nice to be able to turn this on or off, especially since it would be funny considering the main series took away that option. But I’m just speculating now.

IQ Replaced

Instead we have Rare Qualities, which it seems some Pokemon come with, but others can be obtained through gummis. Gummis now only come in two varieties rather than the type-based ones, and thus are likely a lot rarer. Likely. I’ve got a job sitting in my Accepted Jobs list that rewards one so maybe they’re not all that rare.

Absolute Mover has an equivalent, so that’s all I really care about here. If I can have a Caterpie that crashes through walls, I’m happy.

Six Additional Story Beats?

The original Red/Blue Rescue Team had 12 total story portraits on the loading screen. DX has 18. This could mean one of two things:

One, it could have more actual events in the story. This I’m hoping for, but...

Two, more of the game’s story could have portraits. The original only showed the Legendaries you encountered, but there’s important events that happen that don’t involve Legendaries. Plus not all of the post-game events had portraits.

So, I want to be excited, but at the same time, I can’t get my hopes up.

Conclusion

I’m still excited, but it’s not exactly what I wanted from another Mystery Dungeon game. The gameplay’s still fun, of course, and I’m excited to see the rest of the game in this beautiful artstyle, but I have to temper my expectations. This isn’t Gen VII Mystery Dungeon where I can play as a Litten, nor Gen VIII Mystery Dungeon where I can have a Sobble partner.

This is Gen III+. It’s the original but prettier and with new mechanics. I’ll definitely love it, but it won’t be what I was hoping for.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: PMMM Rebellion - Part 1

Showtime! Tephi has seen Rebellion now, so I’ve got the all clear to watch it myself. For planning purposes, I’m keeping a list of break points q_3 suggested (14:30, 30:30, 41:30, 54:30, 1:07:30, 1:23:50, 1:33:30) as planned stopping points between posts, barring ragequits. I’ll be watching the DVD, but feel free to follow along on Netflix! Because apparently the movie is on Netflix, as I only recently discovered when I went there to rewatch some Madoka episodes in preparation for this. All right! Time to dive back into the world of Madoka Magica. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie - Rebellion

Main menu is split between Ribbon!Homura looking off to the left, and the cover art of Magical Girls on the right. Light flute music playing. Black background, a small but bright pink light growing larger in the screen “We are the ones who pray for hope, embrace curses and fight ever onward. We are Magical Girls.” I think this is Homura narrating. Light shows itself as a Soul Gem, as Homura talks about how in obtaining miracles Magical Girls take a “destiny of battle” upon their souls. And that the destiny ends with the “salvation of oblivion”. Off to a cheery start, here! But! “By disappearing from this world, we could escape our fate of despair.” That’d be the change Madoka made, taking MGs away before they Witchified. Now the Gem’s falling through water, to a window? “Someday, that final day will come. As we wait for the Law of the Cycle to lead us away, we continue our unending battle.” Um, is it just me or am I hearing voices in the background? Can’t make out what they’re saying. “In this irredeemable world, forever repeating its tragedies and hatred, I dreamt that I encountered that familiar smile once again.” Camera is now looking over a sprawling city (Mitakihara, right?) at night, lots of shining steel and glass structures. But a series of colorful lines snake through the air putting out lights, then the artstyle starts getting trippy. Silhouettes of ballerinas?

Uh, now there’s a 2D teddy bear/doll thing dancing? Which just spat out a couple of smaller teddy bears and SWEET MADOKA they just blew through a building! The heck? This is clearly a Witch, what with the Labyrinth and wanton destruction and all, but how? Weren’t Witches replaced by Wraiths in the new world? As is, Teddy Doll is now resting to the graceful classical music and looking at the ballerinas Wait is that Madoka!  It’s Madoka! Which… raises so, so many questions. But whatever, just look at her! So cute, shooting her bow into the air… and then frantically dodging the arrow storm. Hmmm, inexperienced Madoka? Teddy Doll runs from the barrage- and is followed by bubble-bouncing Sayaka? Ok, so this has to be an earlier timeline if they are here. Now Kyoko’s joined in the chase! Sayaka and Kyoko both attack Teddy Doll, lovely teamwork between these two, but it slips away from them into a building. Where it sits down at a dinner table? Wait, what’s going on now? There’s a French-style song with an accordion about “dreaming of the morning”, and Madoka just entered with a basket of bread. She’s feeding the Teddy Doll? And Sayaka and Kyoko just came in with more food?

Mami! Artillery Magical Girl is here, with some floating guns and And What the fuck is that thing doing here It’s Dessert Witch, the one that ate her head It’s right behind Mami What the hell Ok, what the hell just happened. Dessert Witch just sat down at the table, there was a huge burst of light as our girls just kept smiling. What is going on? Madoka wakes up? Ah, an odd dream. Wait, are you holding a giant orange Incubator plush? That’s INCUBATOR! GET OUT! That thing is lurking on Madoka’s shelf. Stop acting cute, you freak. I know what you’re capable of. Don’t say “Good morning” to it, Madoka! Cherry tomatoes getting cut? Ah, it’s like the first episode at Madoka’s house! Father gardening, Madoka getting her hungover Mother out of bed. There’s a change in the bathroom dialogue, instead of talking about Hitomi’s love letters it’s about how she’s dating Kyosuke. Well! Isn’t that convenient! Wait, no, this is the show that launched my Ship of Death. Nope nope not pursuing that.

Hey, looks like Madoka already has her Soul Gem in the form of her ring. Confirmation of earlier timeline. Also, Ms. Saotome’s talking about the end of the world in class? She's upset that her students are hooking up while she’s still single? New student transferring to class that day? Hmmm, a certain Mysterious Transfer Student, is it? “I wonder what they’ll be like? I hope we can become friends.” Oh, I have no doubt of that, Madoka. And then the Incubator ruins the mood by showing up. Bleh. Same sweet breakfast scene between the family, Madoka heads out while still chewing her slice of toast. The Incubator hitches a ride on her shoulder, and our Protagonist laughs. Ugh! Stop with the suspense, Urobuchi, looking at Happy Madoka just makes me more and more nervous. A light poppy song comes up, with credits? Intro sequence? Light gloved touches form a tree-shrouded pond, and MG!Madoka strides across the water. Now she’s seated at a carnival teacup ride, as Sayaka and Kyoko spin one of the cups. Daw, they’re on a daFRIENDLY CARNIVAL OUTING BETWEEN FELLOW STUDENTS. Ha, almost got me there, Urobuchi! Homura at the same park at night? Looks up at the sky which is raining white feathers. Madoka walks through a field of flowers next to the amusement park, then through the park hand-in-hand with Sayaka. Now it’s fall (Sayaka is in an adorable beanie and sweater) and they’re joined by Mami. Now it’s winter and Kyoko is chasing Sayaka for withheld food, she trips into Blue-Hair and they tumble to the ground entOH GEE HOPE THEY DIDN’T SCRAPE THEIR KNEES. Whew, too close. Spring again as the four walk up to a white-dress Homura? Homura’s surrounded by gears now, until a hipcheck from Madoka snaps her out of her doldrums and she’s dragged into the amusement park. More flashes of gears, then a carousel where Homura is kneeling and has muted colors, while the other four girls cheerfully dance. Showing how she’s separated from their time? Flashes back to the lake, Madoka extends a hand to help Homura up from her kneeling position. Homura reaches out- Madoka’s hand crumbles to sand? What? Homura’s now in what looks like a desert with stone pillars in the background. Cries? There’s a black earpiece-thing in the sand with a purple gem? And yeah, we end in the desert, the movie’s title coming up.

Well, ok then. I’m completely lost. What does all this mean? Back to the light peaceful music as we repeat the first episode, Madoka meets up with Sayaka- and Kyoko? So she’s going to school with them in this timeline? Quick zooms confirm that the girls have their rings as well, and Sayaka compliments her for her work last night. So they did fight the Teddy Doll? The girls walk into the school, and man the studio got even more animation money for this movie, didn’t they? Lost of students running around, the building looks even more ostentatious that before. Standard Magical Girl chatter about “Oh, I didn’t get the reading done/Meh, I didn’t bother doing the homework, can I copy yours?” Sayaka takes offense to Kyoko trying to copy off of Madoka, they squabble as Madoka tries to play peacekeeper. Even the Incubator pats her head in ‘sympathy’. In class, Teacher’s saying that just because the Mayans were wrong about Doomsday, doesn’t mean that they’re safe! Um. Ok then? Alright, maybe you should take your meds lady. It was bad enough when you wasted class time ranting about your exes, why don’t you do your job. “Well, to be honest… I think perhaps the ending of the world may not be such a bad thing.” Ok really now, you- “After all, I’ve had my fill of dealings with men and love and so forth. If I must carry on this way and have my age rounded up to 40 from now on, I’d rather everything just ended at once, in one fell swoop.” Ah, ok then. Teach’s just having a midlife crisis. Move along, nothing to see here.

Say hello to the Mysterious Transfer Stu- wait. Homura has her glasses and braids? Is this the first timeline, in fact? Even not being so Mysterious, the class all gives a gasp as she enters. And are those blushes I see on our characters' faces? Especially Maodka? Daw, that’s CUTE THAT SHE LIKES WHAT SHE SEES WAIT NO I MEAN IS HAPPY TO SEE A NEW FRIEND. HAH, DODGED THAT ONE. Huh, Homura’s cheerfully saying hi, no hesitation. So not the first one, then. Yup, brushing back her hair she flashes her Ring, our other MGs immediately recognize is for a Soul Gem. Right, this isn’t her first pass so she’s already got her powers. And maybe it’s still early enough she can be happy about the thought of saving Madoka? Now we’re on the roof, apparently Mami already knew about Homura, thought it’d be fun to surprise the other girls. Homura says she should have introduced herself last night, when they were fighting the- Nightmare? Translation change between the show and movie? Mami confirms that she was around last night, and that she has significant power as a Magical Girl. Homura protests that she is more of a support role that anything (still early enough she hasn’t been raiding armories for weapons). Sayaka welcomes the help, as does Kyoko “provided last night wasn’t a fluke”. Madoka grasps her hands, and welcomes her to the team.

All right! Now, what to say about the movie so far? AAAAAAHHHHHH THE DESSERT WITCH IS ALIVE IT IS FOLLOWING OUR GIRLS WHY WHY WHY WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?! Ahem. So, obviously Dessert Witch being around is a Big Deal. Question is, what does it mean? All the signs are pointing toward this being an earlyish run for Homura, not the second because she didn’t immediately spring to blurt out Madoka’s secret, but early enough that Looping Fatigue hasn’t set in yet, nor has she developed her full combat style. However, now that I think about it I’m not sure all the mentions of Nightmares instead of Witches are translation changes anymore. What we saw of Dessert Witch in the show was an entity that wasn’t that cunning, mostly just focused on eating or destruction like the other Witches. But maybe there was a change this timeline. Maybe this time the Witch is taking a more subtle approach, is tricking or brainwashing our Magical Girls to clear out other Witches under the guise of “hunting Nightmares”. Which brings up some rather stark concerns about where this movie will go. Homura knows the truth, knows what Dessert Witch is and can recognize that something is wrong. So it’s only a matter of time before she rebels (title relevance!) and tries to take it out. But I don’t think the manipulated girls are just going to stand by for that. Hmmm.

[tinypigeonlord]

Don’t mind me, just have had a lot of thoughts on the new Pokemon game so imma write them down. There’s been a lot of posts and videos on what people wanna see or don’t wanna see in the new game too and I wanna give my own two cents to no one in particular.

So first of all graphics. I hear a lot of shit on that. Personally I don’t really have all that many expectations? Like yeah it’s gonna be a Switch game, the quality could possibly be better than we’ve seen. But also did people look over that ‘game footage not final’? Things may still improve and be further optimized. More than that, I love the artstyle atleast? Everything looks so colorful and vibrant and alive and goooood ;w; It sure got my attention. I can’t wait to see all the new areas on my big tv <3

Pokemon popping up and roaming vs random encounters: On one hand I love how lively everything looks with pokemon showing up in the overworld, on the other hand I love the random encounters? I personally liked hunting down specific pokemon, not knowing what I would encounter. I feel like this is also more fun when you’re doing a Nuzlocke; You can’t ‘cheat’ and select a pokemon from those that are currently roaming with random encounters. Aside from that, people mentioned that the roaming aspect made areas look more vacant instead because a lot of open space is needed for bigger pokemon roaming. And finally, it makes the surprise way more fun if a shiny shows up in a random encounter, instead of roaming between the rest of the ‘mon?

Pokemon following you/walking with you: PLS PLS PLS bring this back and expand on it, for all pokemon. Also the option to select which partymember you want to walk with. That was one thing that bummed me out in HeartGold/SoulSilver. If I wanted to walk with my fave, I also needed to have it in the front of the party and throw it out in battle, even in areas where it was at a disadvantage due to type or level. And sometimes I had a pokemon in front for the sake of progression but I didnt necessarily want to walk with it, but there was no option to turn walking off in HG/SS. I believe they did add these options in Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, but I havent played these games so I don’t know for sure what the options are. I kinda also want to have the option to pick whether I will walk with a ride pokemon or actually ride it? Like, it was hella cool that you could ride arcanine, persian, haunter or snorlax, etc. But what if I wanted it to just follow me? :/ What I also want back is the national dex once you completed the main story. Let most of the pokemon which first appear be gen 8, and after you beat the main game, pokemon from other generations show up more and you can catch new pokemon that were previously unavailable. I hated how in SuMo, I couldnt see a pokemon’s national dex number, and couldnt get any data on it if it wasnt native to Alola. 

Also this is gonna sound surprising coming from a shiny hunter, but I want the shiny charm to be a reward for filling the entire national dex again (minus mythicals/events), and make the shiny rate 1/8192 again instead of 1/4091. As much as I love my shinies, I kinda feel like they’re becoming a really common thing and way too easy to obtain? I do like there being methods to find shinies easier, such as Masuda breeding, chain-fishing, SOS-chaining, etc, but make it atleast a little bit harder than it currently is, to make all that effort worth it.

Compatibility with pokebank/the 3DS titles!! I want to transfer all my precious bbies I caught over the years to come join me in the next adventure. That would make it even more awesome if walking pokemon also returns; I can walk with my faves then, not just the pokemon available in Sword/Shield. Also Cloud compatibility. I know Nintendo is afraid of people abusing Cloud to edit save files and I can see them not adding cloud for Pokemon to prevent peeps from somehow cloning or editing pokemons, but on the other hand... Right now, I have ALL my rare, valuable pokemon stored on a Ultra Sun cartridge. Every super rare shiny legendary I spent MONTHS on to encounter, every event pokemon from events that will never happen again, and every pokemon that has nostalgic value to me. If that game cartridge breaks, they’re all gone. If Cloud storage would be a thing for pokemon, I’d have a lot less anxiety about gathering all my babies on a single game with the risk of losing ALL OF THEM. Besides, I pay for online service and cloud, and thusfar havent been able to use the feature for my games :/

And definitely compatibility with pro controller. I really do not like the feel of the joycons, nor the pokeball plus, especially not after playing for a few hours, so I’m really hoping we’ll be able to use the pro controller. Considering we seem to be getting the old battle system back instead of Let’s Go’s, I don’t see why they shouldn’t add pro controller compatibility. Besides, I spent a lot of money on this thing, lemme use it >:v

Customization. The new trainers look absolutely adorable, but being able to make your trainer fit your style more is still great and makes things more personal. On one hand I’d love even more options for customization than in SuMo, on the other hand I fear I will never even get anywhere cause I’ll be spending hours mixing and matching outfits :’D I am not at all fashionable irl, but my characters in games have to look tip top. Most importantly, I want gender-neutral stuff!! As in, the option to wear clothes or hairstyles regardless of the gender you picked at the beginning. Give me a girl and the female pronouns, but the option to get the haircut that the boys get and that flannel he wears. For example.

Minigames! Not everyone is a fan of them, but personally I love things like Contests, PokeAthlon, the Underground, Missions in the Festival Plaza, etc. Especially multiplayer stuff. Give me other stuff to do besides battling. And on that note give me fun multiplayer features; besides trading and battling! The feature where you can call for another trainer in Let’s Go seemed fun to me. Being able to connect with other players and joining them in your game to do stuff together. Like how you can invite people to your town in Animal Crossing, go to the island and take on island challenges from Tortimer.

Story-wise, it would be great to have a big long story, also post-game, which doesn’t end too soon, but with the option to skip cutscenes if you so please, and more importantly, have the freedom to also explore. In Sun/Moon, you were constantly forced to go to a very specific location, everything else was blocked, and you had a cutscene every new area. Like, it was all very linear. I love the older games in that regard, where there is a story, but you figure out yourself how to progress without NPCs constantly telling you where to go and what to do. I always have this issue where after I’m done with the story, I’m kind of... lost on what to do next, so personally I love a long story to keep me busy. Give me a serious threat for the antagonists. Team Skull was lovely and I enjoyed their antics, but I want to feel like I’m saving the Galar region or even bigger, rather than just stomping on some bullies, PETA (Plasma) or fashion disasters (Flare). Also gimme an asshole rival. Lately we’ve had a bunch of precious bbies who must be protected, now bring back a rival who deserves an asswhooping and had it coming. :v As for the new gyms with gym masters instead of leaders, I have no opinion yet. I like the good ol’ themed gyms, I liked the trials. The arena thing looks pretty neat thusfar, but there’s not enough info yet for me to have much of an opinion now. I heard a rumor that this game will also have missions you can do to earn rewards & brownie points, and that would be really cool. I always really love missions in RPGs. I’m just hoping that there will be like, a combination of one-time missions AND daily missions so you don’t run out of things to do eventually after completing a whole list.

I’m also hoping that any potential mythical pokemon will come in the form of missions. The whole serial codes giveaways suck. Just entering a code for some random delivery man to appear in the pokemon center, just casually handing you a super rare mythical pokemon like it’s nothing is just bs. Give me new story, sidequests or missions DLC for a mythical pokemon instead. Like Celebi in Crystal + HG/SS, Mew in Emerald, Shaymin and Darkrai in Platinum, and then expand the missions even more. Pokemon Ranger actually did this really well; you had to go on a mission involving the pokemon before you got it.

Finally, maybe a difficulty setting. People always complain that the games are too easy and that you have to use self-imposed rules such as Nuzlockes to make it remotely challenging. Maybe add a normal or easy mode for young kids just getting into the games, including tutorials such as the trainer school so they can get used to how everything works. Make a harder setting for veterans who like the games to have some challenge but are still in it for the story, and a Very Hard/Ultimate mode for competitive players who know every in and out of the game and are looking for a challenge where you really have to balance your team out and know what you’re doing to progress, and for people who can’t care less about the story elements of the games.