#i have the psp version of 1 too

[quil12]

I just finished playing Persona 2 IS and my god, it's a good game

[atamascolily]

Given how tightly plotted previously installments have been, I have to admit I was caught off guard by the seeming introduction of new characters in the Walpurgis no Kaiten trailer. However, on reflection (heh), it makes sense if one of the themes of the movie is indeed opposites/doubling/mirroring. After all, if Homura has a double for a narrative foil, why shouldn't the rest of the main cast have one, too? Prior to the second trailer, I had assumed this role would be filled by the "new girl" in the first trailer, who appears to be a Homura/Mami/Madoka hybrid, but it seems that's just the tip of the iceberg.

That said, it's also clear to me from the second trailer that this mirroring, if that's what's really going on here, isn't going to always literal as it is with Homura. The girl paired with Nagisa in the ball pit in the second trailer doesn't look exactly the same as Nagisa, but it's clear from the framing that the two of them are being deliberately juxtaposed, and will likely serve as narrative foils to each other. My guess is that this girl is the humanized form of Nagisa's witch Charlotte, just like I think that the most likely candidate for Homura's double is her witch Homulilly, (because the metaphorical almost always becomes literal in this series, even though the movie may or may not name them directly as such), but my point stands regardless of their exact relationship to each other.

If that's the case, then who in the Holy Quintet is the counterpart for the other new character--the green-haired girl in the trailer?

The obvious answer is "Mami"--partly because of the tea party and general vibes, and partly because of the color scheme (green and yellow go well together and the girl has golden eyes like Mami's). This is especially true if fan theories are right and this girl is the humanized form of Gertrud the Rose Witch, whom Mami faces off against in episode 1-2 of the original series, and who serves as a deliberate counterpoint to Mami there.

Having a more human Gertrud as foil to Mami would make sense because unlike Homura and Nagisa, Mami never becomes a witch in the original series; while she does have a witch form in the PSP game and other spinoff media, I think we are unlikely to see it in this installment and thus her most likely counterpoint would then be Gertrud. Gertrud's familiars are also visible in Homura's new world at the end of Rebellion, suggesting she might turn up in some fashion in Walpurgis no Kaiten.

(This also raises the interesting question of whether Mami's VA would voice this character or not. Considering that Kaori Mizuhashi also voiced Walpurgisnacht and Tatsuya in the original series, it's not impossible than she and/or other voice actors might play one or more roles in this new installment. As a bonus, this would also mean that SHAFT could get away with not announcing the minor roles before the release, as they would probably have to if they were adding completely new voice actors to the cast. Until we get more news, I'm assuming that Chiwa Saito is voicing both Homuras, though everything else is more speculative.)

However, it occurred to me that based on her ponytail and her position in this shot, she could also be Kyouko's foil (red and green being opposing colors); this is less likely, but I figured I'd mention it as a possibility anyway, since the second trailer appears to be leaning heavily into Rebellion parallels. TBD. Like Mami, Kyouko doesn't have a witch form in the original series, so her most likely parallel is another established witch character, although nobody from the original series immediately leaps to mind.

(By the way, this would mean there are more new characters--or new versions of established characters--we haven't seen yet, so, uh, hold that thought.)

After that, it gets a little more complex and murky. Sayaka's most likely foil should be her witch Oktavia, but it's unclear to me from what we've seen so far how much that particular conflict manifests internally or externally. I think Sayaka is going to be extremely conflicted in Walpurgis no Kaiten, and it will be interesting to see how her arc develops. Based on the original series, however, I would say that the other logical witch counterpart for her is Elsa Maria the Shadow Witch, whose labyrinth mirrors Sayaka's black and white thinking during a particularly dark period for her, though I suppose H.N. Elly the Box Witch who attacks Madoka in Episode 4 is also a possibility.

Madoka also has a witch form, Kriemhild Gretchen, who is absorbed into the Law of Cycles, though I think her foil is most likely the Law of Cycles itself. We'll have to see.

You may have noticed that I am limiting myself solely to witches from the original series rather than spinoff media. The first reason is that I'm skeptical that SHAFT would bring in a witch that general audiences who have only followed the main series have never seen before (except for maybe a brief cameo). The second reason is that the Law of Cycles' motif in Rebellion explicitly shows only those witches from the original series, and we see only a select group of these witches and/or their familiars during the battle against Homulilly's familiars.

All these witches are potentially fair game to appear in WnK, making nine in all, though I doubt more than a handful would have more than a few lines, let alone a major role. Also this diagram does not appear to incorporate Walpurgisnacht unless she turns out to be the Law of Cycles after all.

Somehow, I can't imagine SHAFT pivoting in mid-stream to bring up something completely new or even a more obscure witch from another spinoff, especially when so much of the main series focused on reliving and re-experiencing the same events over and over again. Sorry, fans of the Madoka PSP and slot machine games, I think you're destined to be disappointed in your wish to see any of those game-only witches on the big screen, but I suppose we'll see.

This is all just speculation for now, but I'm excited and intrigued to see where this goes!

[madraynesims]

The Sims 2 PSP Cut Content: Part 2

This is a follow up to my first cut content post, mostly talking about the cut Kine Dairy content there.

Missing Division 47 Scientists

Catelyn Lancaster

Catelyn is one of four Division 47 research assistants that are in The Sims 2 PSP. The two research assistants that still show up are Red Sands and Cristian Allard. All four scientists originally spawned inside the Laboratory along with the Curious brothers. Red and Cristian were later moved outside the lab to roam with the guards, leaving the other two scientists behind. This was likely due to performance issues in the lab. The schedule file indicates that Catelyn Lancaster would have spawned in the Laboratory only during the night.

This screenshot shows Red Sands when he used to spawn inside Division 47's lab. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures showing Catelyn)

As mentioned in part 1: Gender: 0 = female, 1 = male. The eye color is only specified if they're not the default brown. (I'll be using the Sims 2 PC to recreate them, as it shares a lot of assets with the PSP version)

Catelyn Lancaster's Details

Bio: "A research assistant at Division 47." social = 15, intimidation = 3, personality = 1, Her social score is higher compared to other Division 47 locals, and her intimidation score is at the max of 3, which would have made her one of the difficult Sims to do social games with. She has the Air personality type and she uses the serious idle set of animations instead of neutral. Her topic sets (interests) are dresses, makeup, medicine2, school2, politics2, spacesuit, travel2, money1, and the solar system. A visual of these:

Catelyn Lancaster's Secrets

 (Personal): "Does all of the work at the lab and gets none of the credit."

 (Intimate): "You were her first kiss … and after that experience, probably her last."

 (Dark): "Persists in enumerating common domestic fowl prior to emergence from their pre-natal habitats."

Terri Tortuga

As said above, Terri is one of four Division 47 research assistants that are in the game. The schedule file indicates that Terri would have spawned in the Laboratory only during the day.

Terri Tortuga's Details

Bio: "A research assistant at Division 47." social = 13, intimidation = 2, personality = 0, Her social and intimidation scores are average for Division 47 locals, so social games aren't too bad. She has the Fire personality type and she uses the serious idle set of animations instead of neutral. Her topic sets (interests) are dresses, makeup, classical, school1, alien, aliens, and birdbee. A visual of these:

Terri Tortuga's Secrets

 (Personal): "Has a HUGE crush on Pollination Tech #9."

 (Intimate): "Sometimes turns the radio telescope towards the city and pretends it's a laser."

 (Dark): "Tests new chemicals on herself, just for kicks. Once grew a second head."

Since we're talking about Division 47, I can add one more thing about TA7 (go see p6tgel's post to learn more about who TA7 is) The devs left notes here and there in the files.

don't worry, he's just (sleeping :P)

Random fact time: When you collect Roberta Rossum's parts, you can check your inventory and read the descriptions for them, but I don't believe you get a chance to read the description of Roberta's head before you give it to Isaac Rossum? But here it is.

There's also a toy horse story item that I can't seem to find any other information for.

[eggbert9000-blog]

My Thoughts on Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSX)

I Think my introduction to the Persona series is quite unique compared to other people. Like many I heard about the series from the modern trilogy (3, 4, 5), The first Persona game I had tried was 4 when Golden was released on Steam, but I never completed it at the time.

(I since have completed 4 by the way, I thought it was fantastic!)

However for whatever reason Persona came back onto my radar around early this year right off the heels of me completing Final Fantasy VIII for the first time, gaining a new appreciation for underrated JRPG's. That's when I thought to myself "why does everyone talk about Persona's 3, 4 and 5, But not 1 or 2?" So I did a little digging and found that the Persona 2 Duology had developed a sort of "cult classic" feel to it and that it had one of the best stories in the whole Megaten franchise. (I can't attest to that as I have only delved into the Persona side of the series as of now, but the rest of the series is now on my list of things to complete). I also learnt that the PSP version of Innocent Sin botched the difficulty of the original PSX version, so that's why I decided to play through the PSX version as my first Persona game.

So what did I think?

Overall I thought it was fantastic! However I have some problems with it. So let's start with that.

Demon Negotiation

This was one of the things I was most excited about going into the game, and I think it does a good job at showcasing the characters personality. However the amount of options that the game gives you is overwhelming and makes you feel like you are just guessing when you are not using a guide for contacts, which is what I ended up doing because I got too frustrated with contacting.

(4 options per character, including pairing them up... oh man...)

However I found ways of working around it. If I ever wanted Tarot cards I would end up going to the Abandoned Factory, making a contract with a demon, and then farm Free Tarot from them to use them on whatever personas I wanted. I also ended up using the Prime and Ultimate personas often as they were pretty good while not requiring any fusing.

Overall Slowness

There were many times in the game when I thought that the game felt sluggish. One of them involves the encounter rate. Now listen, I'm a little crazy and I would say I love random encounters in JRPG's and I don't even care about high encounter rates, which this game notoriously has (even though I don't think its that bad), but in the PSX version there is this noticeable pause between getting the encounter and the game putting you into the transition, which threw me off a couple times, but I got used to it. What really bothered me was the lack of a minimap in the PSX version, which as a first time Megaten-er, gave me a sort of hard time. Very often I would have to pull up the map, which took a second or so, but it got annoying quick. What I find particularly confusing in hindsight was that the previous game, Revelations: Persona, had a minimap, so I think its a bit strange that they decided that they didn't need one for the sequel.

(This was also one of those things that was fixed in the PSP version, but I think the PSX version is still worth playing over it, but thats a discussion for another time).

There are also moments in the game that I felt dragged a little bit. Like around the middle of the game after Aoba Park where you go to defuse the bombs around Sumaru in places like Smile Hirasaka and GOLD that I didn't find super interesting. Or places like Xibalba where it just feels like its going on forever. It felt like I was just going through the motions.

Aaaand thats about all the problems I had with it.

"Wait that's all that you had problems with?"

Yup! I think this is one of my favorite RPG's that I have played in recent memory. It's time to talk about what I loved.

The Setting

This is something I think the original Persona trilogy does extremely well, These games have some of my favorite dungeons in any RPG i've ever played, especially the Persona 2 Duology. It reminds me a lot of the MOTHER series in the way that the dungeons are (mostly) grounded in reality with the obvious exceptions. Like one moment you are running around the club and the next you are trying to save kids in an Aerospace Museum. Then you are running up Mt. Katasumuri in the deep forest. Or you are exploring the aforementioned Abandoned Factory with some of the most kickass music ever heard in a video game. Sumaru City as a whole is one of my favorite settings in a videogame.

The Music and Tone

The music in this game is incredible, 'nuff said. Every dungeon I entered I was excited to hear what banger was about to come on and I was treated almost every single time. Sometimes the music is a jamfest like with the Abandoned Factory or Smile Hirasaka. Or sometimes is melancholic and sombre like Mt. Iwato or Aoba Park.

I think the music represents the tone/atmosphere of the game incredibly well. Dark, but with plenty of cool or humorous moments to not make it completely depressing.

Now I don't think that the story of Innocent Sin is the "darkest best story in the whole francise" as many try and sell it to be. But they would be correct in the fact that Innocent Sin definitely has Dark or Sad undertones that make it one of the most emotionally investing stories. Oh I should probably talk about what I thought of the story...

The Story

It's really good, like it was one of the main driving forces as to why I wanted to complete the game. I won't go into spoilers here but all I will say is that I loved the way the game balanced out the serious stuff with a lot of humorous things. The concept of rumors becoming real is such a cool idea and I think they knocked it out of the park, starting with relatively small stuff like "I heard this ramen shop sells weapons", and having it escalate to something being a whole threat to the world, made it really investing.

The characters too, are fantastic. They all feel like family and I couldn't help but care about each and every single one of them. They all have such great chemistry and I loved having them as the party.

One character I really fell in love with was Tatsuya himself, because unlike other silent protagonists like him, he feels like an actual persona and not someone you are just supposed to self-insert yourself into. He has his own personality and past, you learn throughout the story how much he cares about his friends and his determination to protect them all, evident through how he carries his zippo lighter everywhere, which I wont mention the lore significance of. And all of this is not even including his involment in Eternal Punishment where he really gets his time to shine, but this review isn't about Eternal Punishment so lets leave it at that.

Eikichi is a lovable guy and I love his personality (and his weapon is badass too), same with Lisa where I felt her whole romance with Tatsuya was done very well in that it dosen't get in the way of her main personality, I really liked her chemistry with Eikichi.

Maya is a person who I really ended up caring for and I love how she acted as the big sister or leader of the group often, Without going into too much detail, this group really loves Maya and that connection is something I really enjoyed and it made me care about Maya a lot as well.

I also want to use this opportunity to talk about something that I think the Original Persona Trilogy does that's cool in hindsight. They all feel really connected, it's really cool how Yukino from Persona 1 is just a party member again and you get to see how she grew, and just being able to see the P1 cast around Sumaru and how they are doing in life. It makes the world feel lived in, and like every game and the stories in them matter. And that world building is something that I feel like is sadly lacking in the later entries.

Overall this game is worth playing for the characters and story alone.

CUSTOMIZATION!!!!

This will be the last thing I talk about to keep things a little short but I'm just going to say that the customization in this game is some of the most fun things about it.

The fact that everybody can change their personas is MASSIVE and SO MUCH FUN.

I often found myself thinking "OH! If i fuse that guy I could do THAT fusion spell, or I could get THAT spell that would be really good"

And the fact that they can swap personas ON THE FLY gives me a customization rush that I haven't felt since playing with Final Fantasy VI's Espers or Final Fantasy V's Jobs.

I could swap a character from being a healer to damage dealer or debuffer and there was no limit to how I could do it. It was fantastic.

And Im gonna use this oppertunity to talk about the combat because in the PSX version I find that it's really smooth and fun to do once you get the hang of it.

And Fusion Spells are such a cool mechanic, it reminds me a lot of the Dual and Triple Tech's in Chrono Trigger and I was all for it!

And of course, shoutouts to Nova Kaiser being one of the coolest spells in and RPG, its so satisfying to use.

Conclusions

I love this game, and I couldn't think of a better way to be introduced to the series. After I beat Innocent Sin I immediatley went and beat Eternal Punishment, and then Persona 1 right after that.

The Original Trilogy is something that I think deserves to be remembered and praised, as they are magnificent games that I think unfortunatley are not as accessable to a general audience.

But I implore to whoever cared enough to read this to give it a shot.

I do think that the PSX version of Innocent Sin is the best because the PSP's botched difficulty is not the only problem I have with the port. The menus feel awful to go through, and I feel like Atlus knew that too and fixed it with Eternal Punishment PSP and made it more like the PSX menus. But at the end of the day IS PSP has a better translation, more quality of life, new bonus content and remastered music which is also pretty good, so whatever version you prefer is the best version.

So Please give Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the rest of the Original Trilogy a shot, you might find a gem and a new incredible JRPG that you never knew you would like just like I have.

[martinsaenz96us]

R.I.P. LittleBigPlanet

It's been a really sad year for "LittleBigPlanet". First the servers for LBP3 PS4 just shut down (servers for previous entries are also shut down), and not only the digital copy of LBP3 PS4 (digital copies of previous entries have already been delisted), but all the DLCs that's ever been released from LBP1 to LBP3 are being delisted from the PSN store. It really sucks that this once beloved franchise is being butchered to death in favor of bland realistic graphics cinematic games, live service games and catering to the so-called "Modern Audience" (*cough*cough "Concord" *cough*cough*). It's just not right how this franchise has been treated lately. The last game in the franchise "LittleBigPlanet 3" has been released about 10 years ago at this point. All the franchise has going for it now is just a spin-off named "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" released back in 2020, which is nothing like LBP (it's basically "Super Mario 3D World" but LBP themed). Sackboy, a worthy mascot for the "Playstation" brand in the PS3 Era is now gonna be known as Sackboy from "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" (a spin-off mind you) instead of Sackboy from "LittleBigPlanet" (where he's originated from). Sackboy has always been in a special place in my heart growing up, I even used to draw him (besides Sonic) in my journal a lot during high school. Back in junior high I was in special needs because of my autism (I even rode the bus and took field trips with special needs kids). I played a lot of video games and I was also a bad boy (I used to get in trouble a lot by giggling and misbehaving during class). My homeroom teacher had a Wii with "Wii Sports Resort" (great game) and even my all time favorite "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (better than Melee, change my mind). He would let us play when we were done with our assignments (we even got to stay after school to play and eat pizza in homeroom if we had good behavior). I never knew about LBP at the time and if you've been following me through the years, you know that I've been a big fan of "Sonic the Hedgehog" ever since kindergarten. So when I first heard LBP featured Sonic the Hedgehog costumes as DLC, I immediately wanted to buy the game for that sole reason (the same way I first got into Smash starting with Brawl). I was also into games that would let you create your own character or levels, that factor also drew me closer to wanting LBP and even "ModNation Racers" (rest in peace) too at the time. But I had a PSP instead, I got both LBP both and ModNation on it and I was a bit disappointed. LBP on PSP was my least favorite version, it felt so limited customizing Sackboy (not being able to place stickers on him too was a drawback for me), or customizing in general (ModNation on PSP is in the same bane too). Once I beat it 100% I wanted to start creating a level, and oh boy it all went downhill from there. The options were limited, the game kept crashing at any given time while creating. So needless to say I did not like LBP on PSP at all, and all it did is made me want a PS3 even more that I kept begging my mom to buy one for me. Around maybe my 8th grade year, I finally got a PS3 (I think it was a birthday gift, I can't remember). I became so happy that I immediately bought LBP at "GameStop" (I also bought both LBP2 and ModNation Racers at the same time). Upon booting LBP for the first time I immediately got so hooked. I wanted to beat it 100% but the only drawback was that I only had 1 controller, and there's sections in the game that require 2 to 4 players to get the prize bubbles. I felt kinda let down since I wasn't able to obtain those prize bubbles without multiple controllers, but I some how managed to get through a handful of 2 player sections using only 1 controller (like the "Construction Site"), which took dedication and dying a lot. I was so proud of myself for accomplishing sections that were only meant to be played with 2 people. The other 2 player sections however I wasn't so lucky, so I begged my mom to buy me more controllers, I didn't tell her why thinking she wouldn't agree with me. Then after beating LBP 100% I became obsessed with making costumes for Sackboy and showing them off while playing online, even in LBP2 I did the same thing. LBP2 is easily the best in the whole franchise. During the release of LBP2, the franchise hit it's all-time peak (I got a PS3 soon after the release of LBP2). LBP2 has also the best story mode. They were difficult at times (mostly ACEING all the levels, even in LBP1 it was difficult), but I still had a blast playing through it all. I also 100% the story mode and went on to complete all the level kit DLCs (which I did eventually). Fun Fact: At the time of LBP2's peak, "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" was also at it's all time peak (on the internet of all places). So while playing LBP2 I saw a bunch of levels related to MLP I got so annoyed by it. I played one of the levels I came across just for the sake of it, then I became intrigued and wanted to see what the whole fuss was about at the time. So one day I turned my TV to "The Hub" (R.I.P.) and the first episode I've ever watched was "Party of One" (you know, the one that featured Pinkamena who spawned a bunch of creepypastas). After watching the episode, I instantly fell in love with the show. The characters, the art style, everything about the show was so appealing to me. I've always been really really shy IRL, but then "Fluttershy" caught my eye since she's the one I can relate to, so she became my all time favorite pony to this day. I loved MLP so much I even drew ponies in my journals during my freshman year in high school (I was the quiet kid). And that is how I became a Brony. So back on-topic. I made so many memories with this game in particular that I will cherish forever. The community levels was a big step up from it's predecessor. Even when playing community levels online with random people made it so worth while (back when online play was FREE). All in all, LBP2 has become one of my most favorite games of all time. I loved the enjoyment of coming home from school to hop on straight into LBP2 (and also ModNation Racers) to play online with other people. Even one of my cousins enjoyed playing it, and would play together every time he'd come over. During my freshman year in high school, I heard about the PS VITA and I instantly wanted to buy it because LBP was on it. So eventually I got it with LBP (and because I love handheld gaming minus mobile gaming). I played it non stop, even between switching classes I would walk while playing. LBP on PS VITA was also great (not as good as LBP2, but way better than LBP PSP). I really liked it, and with the use of the touch screen and the back trackpad. The story mode was good, I liked how it had a slightly darker tone to it, compared to the previous entries. The characters were wacky and interesting (and some ugly tbh). And just like the previous entries, I 100% it all the way through. Online play was pretty cool too (but very laggy at times) and community levels were kinda good but a bit disappointing (not LBP2 good but it's passable). I also had fun making costumes everywhere I went (I even uploaded some on my DA page). LBP Karting however was OK (not up to LBP2 standards). I played through the story mode and 100% it too. The community levels were actually pretty interesting, there were even remakes of "Mario Kart" tracks that were spot on (but no custom music like LBP2). My biggest complaint however was the inability of customizing costumes like the previous entries (just changing outfits and placing stickers on doesn't cut it either), even the kart creation was barebones. Overall, the game just feels like a blatant rip-off of "ModNation Racers" (despite being made by the same developer "United Front Games" R.I.P.), which had better character and kart customization and you can even download custom made ones by other people and upload your own. LBP Karting does have better track customization however, but that's not saying much. And adding insult to injury, the fact that a full blown "ModNation Racers Sequel" got canceled in favor of LBP Karting is just a big punch in the face from Sony. A ModNation Racers sequel would've been miles better (pun intended) than LBP Karting in my honest opinion. Around probably Junior year, I got a PS4 with "LittleBigPlanet 3". From what I heard however it's been called the worst in the franchise, since the game was rushed to meet sales for Black Friday. So as a result, the game released with many bugs and glitches turning alot of people off from the game altogether (So I guess it's the "Sonic 06" of the LBP franchise). I bought it around maybe a month or 2 after it's release, and from what I played I really haven't experienced any bugs or glitches. In fact I really liked it, it felt more fleshed out and about as good as LBP2. Basically it's LBP2 but more expanded with new playable characters and creative additions such as expanded layers, new gadgets etc. I also liked how you had the ability to play every community levels ever made in both LBP1 & 2. I actually did play LBP3 on my PS3 first, but I then gave away my PS3 to my cousin to buy a PS4 (which I regret doing). What turned me off however wasn't the game itself, it was the fact Sony was charging for online pay (which killed online play for me) despite the fact it used to be free. At the time it costed $60 just for one year of online play, I could buy a full price game from retail then play & keep it for as long as I want. Paying for playing online is just a scam altogether. I did pay for one year just to play LBP3 online, then never payed again because what was the point. I did however registered my cousin's account to my PS4 to play online, so I played LBP3 online again then lost interest since the damage has already been done. Now I can't play it online anymore if I ever wanted to since the online servers recently got shutdown, and yet they still expect us to pay monthly/yearly for this (I did recently hear that Sony not only increased the price but added 3 tiers to pay for. The most expensive tier however is $120 a year, if that doesn't sound like a scam then I don't know what does). And recently I got myself a "Steam Deck" as a personal birthday gift about 2 years ago. Best decision I have ever made, and I would go as far as saying it's way better than the "PS5" (millions of games to play, it's a handheld, it's fully backwards compatible with everything via emulation, and best of all free online play). Lately I've been replaying LBP1 (and ModNation Racers) on a PS3 emulator and immediately fell in love with LBP all over again (although it's not perfect running on the Steam Deck with minor graphical issues and crashing every now and then). I've enjoyed every minute of it just like how I was when I first started played it back then, and now with a custom server is giving me the ability re-live those moments playing community levels and playing online without spending a single penny. Thank you "Media Molecule" for giving us a gem that will forever be in our hearts. Your love and passion that you created has brought joy to all of us around the world and will forever cherish the moments we spent playing your game. And lastly, thank you for giving us the power of playing, creating, and sharing our creations with the world. Rest in peace "LittleBigPlanet", you maybe gone now but will not be forgotten. Here's hoping for "LittleBigPlanet 4" in the near future (if Sony is willing to, and getting their act together) .

Posted using PostyBirb

[stoic--rose]

just finished persona 1, spoilers under the cut

alright now that we've weeded out all the JOKESTERS, i loved this game, i love the characters, story, surreal atmosphere and setting, all that jazz. that being said those last few dungeons, ESPECIALLY avidya world, gave me so much heartache and grief, since grinding wasnt a mindless task i could just zone out to, since some of the encounters have enemies that either null or reflect magic or guns, so you have to be conscious of what's going on in the battle, and it just drove me up the wall near the end. that being said, the 7 hours of endgame grinding really paid off when i got to absolutely stomp pandora into the pavement with heiroglyphein. one of the most liberating feelings ive ever gotten playing an rpg. also, i dont think i like persona's demon system. i wish that you got the actual demon itself like you do in normal smt, rather than these stupid cards, and im especially not a huge fan of the fact that theres persona rank, persona level, and the persona's level, it was mad confusing and it took me until literally the final dungeon of the game to fully understand it. i also feel like ranking up personas takes WAY too fucking long, and the encounter rates are pretty crazy in places like the overworld map.

next, specific comments on the psp version, i didnt jive with the alternate soundtrack at first but it definitely grew on me over time. and some songs like bloody destiny absolutely fuckin kick ass. still not used to the original names though, nanjo will always be nate to me. also wasn't a huge fan of the new world map at first, since i do prefer the janky ass 3D overworld map of the ps1 version aesthetically, but i think that the new 2D map is just a lot better from a gameplay standpoint, it's a lot easier to navigate and you don't get lost as easily. sorry cate, gonna have to give this point to the psp version........ i also do GREATLY appreciate the skip feature they put into the battles, i played up until about the end of the sebec building in the ps1 version before just giving the fuck up because of how damn slow the battles were, it drove me nuts. after seeing how much grinding i ended up doing at the end of the game in my playthrough, i know for a fact i would have just given up if i kept going with the ps1 version. that being said, i think i definitely want to give the ps1 version another shot at some point, i kinda love how shitty the localization is, stuff like that is always fascinating to me

final playtime was 147:18, which is probably the longest time ive ever spent on an rpg just beating the main story, not going for anything like 100%. played on normal mode, took the SEBEC route, brown was my chosen party member. overall, i really loved persona 1 and will definitely be playing it again. im especially excited to check out the other routes, although i might do my other playthroughs on easy mode just to save my sanity. i did my time, i beat this game with no save states or fast forward on an original psp, i earned this

[ecofinisher]

Ecofinisher's crediting list for the "Ecofinisher 2.0 Sims 4 Game File"

About two months ago I think, I was thinking about wanting to do another save file again on Sims 4, but I didn’t know when exactly. During a procrastination moment I got into with fanfic writing, I took a small break and did other things, got from a work friend a couple of notebooks since she knows I love to write and I wrote down something I dreamt once wondering if it could be turned into a plot…..then as it was actually something for Sims, I thought about writing it down as a family summary. Around that week, I gathered more ideas and noticed down, what I had in mind to do. From an instruction video, I read the many variations people used in their save files and I decided to use the content only from the gallery. Content made by other Simmers. There are a few families out there, that I still created or downloaded from my starter-times in the game, because it wasn’t enough or I didn’t have any family in mind to fit the plot.

Notes:

- This save file contains objects and clothings from the following pack: Get To Work, Cats and Dogs, Werewolves, My first pet (Free/UTB free) and Holiday Celebration (Free/UTB free).

-The following worlds were used in the save file: Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Newcrest, Magnolia Promenade, Brindelton Bay (1 new lot, the rest remains the same), Moonwood Hill. (1 new family is located there)

-The game should be free from any CC. There’s a possibility, that it could have something I have missed.

- I recently installed MasterController and some things I have fixed with it, rather than manually. *coughs* career.promote-cheats….you know, that way.

Moving on, here is the link, and it's packed inside a ZIP-file with a PDF file of all the buildings I screenshotted straight from the gallery with the original creator's name. The screenshots were too many for this single post only and it would be annoying to make more posts solely for that. The PDF file consists of 30 pages, but most of the sheets are just screenshots and the family that lives in it.

On the rest of this post, I have the crediting list for the households I downloaded from the Gallery. Go under the cut to check the screenshots out.

Link via Sims File Share

Click down here:

Households

The Alto family. The red-marked is the original one from the gallery from user gemz123. The one you'll find in my game has base-game content only. I only have the mentioned packs above and tried to stay closer to the original.

The Alvi-McIrish household. (McIrish are based on the mother-daughter duo from Ts3's Single Moms household and the Alvi are the ones with the single divorcee Dad from Sunset Valley) I had the Alvi's saved a long time ago in my gallery and I couldn't track back the right creator. I assume it was hestiah23. I only remember redesigning their clothes back then. McIrish as seen in the red square was made by gemz123.

From gemz123 I have gotten her parents. As far as I know, the user hasn't made its own version of Blair as far as I know. So my current favorite version of Blair is from this user mentioned in the image. (Oh I also took screenshots to facilitate for everyone, when looking for those versions on the gallery.

Taken from my other save file I shared back in 2023. Here you see hestiah23, the original creator and the clothing were put into owned games to prevent them from being "naked" (Oh and Judy's a scientist, lol I forgot about that)

The Goode and Bad household from Twinbrook. Ah from the last sales I bought Ambitions and played with them. (It was the only family I was familiar with 😂Wish I had got the game earlier)

Where are my former PSP gamers at? Do you all remember Annie Howell, the bar girl? I remembered her existence and had to add her in the game as well, knowing that she was a werewolf in the game and I had the pack as well! TengGong had made a great Sims 4-version of them. If you own said packs, you're definitely going to enjoy having them in your game. I had to go with what I had and follow somehow the PSP design.

I had a different plot for them, but changed at a later point. I was meant to focus on either Kaylynn or Parker, but ended up getting the idea to make Iliana "the main character" Iliana being the workaholic we know suddenly finding herself lost and needing to find her way back to reality. The Langeraks and Zelda are shared separatly, but were made by the same user. Also gemz123. The dog is from the user rnr1975 and is the house dog of Iliana and served as her therapy dog during her low days. I picked a Leonberger, which only exist in the gallery by other users as the game didn't own one in the breeds list.

The Jones-Brown family. Also from Twinbrook. They're not part of the plan, they are homeless. I thought about adding Jenni, because of the summary of the Goode and Bad household.

Yeah, I gave Mortimer parents in the game. They're also from the gallery, just one of the two happens to be dead now. - They also are dressed differently in the game. Very hideous, sadly :/ If you got the packs above, you'll get this look as DolphinSimmer13 made 😍

The Ritchi household. (In other names "The Megamind household)

They were both variations of them alone or together already. I preferred these two versions from two different users and set them together in the game. Roxanne doesn't need a lot of packs and Megamind is base game, so you wouldn't have a problem, when downloading them from the gallery.

The Sekemotos - OK, in the game they live separately. Yumi lives in a smaller house in Newcrest and Leighton is located in Oasis Springs with his toddler Sam. Everyone's favorite "legacy daddy" lives just like in the OG Sims 3 as a single Dad, just he might be interested in someone in this new town. If something is going to happen between them in the future.....it's up to you.

The Ursine household - Like girl, screw Jared Frio and everything, that happened in Sunset Valley. Take your daughter to a new place and raise her on you own. You have seen in life more men and women were doing the same with their kids and it's possible. Also from gemz123 - Simmers, seriously all his Sims 3-inspired Sims look so close to the original. This user so far has impressed me with how detailed the results were.

The Wainwrights - Owning the Get to Work park, they deserved to make an appearance somewhere in the game as well. "Eco, what idea did you even have for them? People barely know them?"

I stuck with the same plot as in Sims 3, just it progressed here 😂 I had read recently, that Oasis Springs is basically Strangetown, so....military, science freaks, weird shit.....why not?

Ok Ignore the name there, I had to remove their original kids from the save file and that was just my "emergency save name" - Just in case I save households during CAS, because you know.....freezes, crashes and mostly at the wrong moment. Luckily nothing has ever happened to me in the past weeks, but you never know. (As an avid fanfic writer I learned to press CTRL-S every 10 seconds to avoid trouble 😭)

They live separately in the game. Thornton had an affair with Jamie, while being married to Morgana. Both women figured it out and broke his heart and became friends. What happened next? Guess, who fulfilled Morgana's deepest desires? 😏

The Mysterious guys! People might look at the bio and wonder.....hmm they seem familiar, others would be.....some weird-ass looking Sims.....then you enter the game and notice one or two other Sims and realize......THOSE ARE FAMOUS SOCCER PLAYERS! I picked the ones, that went into my head first. (Of course, Messi and Ronaldo would be part of it xD Kinda obvious) They're also from different users, so I'm sharing all Sims separately and adding the RL picture of the players.

Yassine Bounou, created by Simmer Ruit43

Based on: Yassine Bounou a.k.a Bono - Morocco's goalkeeper

Erling Haaland, created by ENTjungferer

Based on: Erling Braut Håland - Norwegian Soccer Player

Kylian Mbappé, created by maudhuy

Based on: Kylian Mbappé - French Soccer player

Cristiano Ronaldo, created by maudhuy

Based on: Cristiano Ronaldo - Portuguese Soccer player

Lionel Messi, created by maudhuy

Based on Lionel Messi - An Argentinian Soccer player

Kasper Schmeichel, created by SafiyaStinker

Based on: Kasper Schmeichel - A Danish goalkeeper

[risette-blast]

PERSONA 2 INNOCENT SIN SPOILERS AHEAD! DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE REMOTELY INTERESTED IN PLAYING THE GAME AND HAVEN'T BEEN SPOILED ON IT!!

(oh there are also traitor spoilers for P5 in here, but I feel like anyone who has played P2 has also played P5 already lol)

so last night, I finished P2IS. the ending still hurts by the way lol. but i've had a bit of time since then to think about the game in retrospect. so i wrote up a thought dump with sort of my "initial" thoughts on the game on twitter. afterwards, i decided to repost it here but with more detail since i'm not constrained with a character limit the same way I am with twitter (it's still gonna be in bullet points bc I don't really want to structure this like an essay haha)

this game's ending really was brutal. this is the main thing I've commented on ever since finishing the game, but it truly is awful. Maya is stabbed and killed, Lisa can't even heal her with Dia no matter how much she tries. the Earth is destroyed by suddenly stopping its rotation, causing the resultant inertia to instantly kill everything. in the end, it just turns out to be a rigged game between Philemon and Nyarlathotep (god that name is hard to spell lol). and then the entire cast is forced to go back in time and forget their memories with each other and everything to prevent the world from ending again. it's truly a cruel fate for them, I really did want them to have a happy ending so it just really hurts. 😭

a lot of this game's moments hit hard due to how good the OST is. this has honestly gone up to being one of my favorite Persona OSTs, and given how strong its competition has been, that's a noteworthy feat.

the gameplay was ass lol. I can't pretend it was good, it's worse than P1 in some areas which is wild (still liked IS more overall though, 1 has some very questionable mechanics)

now apparently this is specific to the PSP version, but man the menus were so slow. thankfully I was playing on an emulator so I even had this option but I genuinely just sped up the game somewhat frequently just to get through the menus more quickly

it was also probably the easiest Persona game I've ever played. P5R is genuinely harder. i'm not even kidding. I've gone on and on about how easy P5R is (on twitter), but P2IS makes P5R look challenging in comparison.

the characters were great. i didn't think I'd care about them as much as I did. they all had wonderful bonds with each other. personally I felt like yukino was the "weak" link, and like she doesn't have the bonds the other do so it only makes sense. and even then? she has some great moments and is genuinely well written too. I had played P1 before this but yukino wasn't in my party so she essentially disappeared; it's nice to actually get to know her.

that said, I don't rly like how P1 and P2 both kinda hide extra character details behind very optional dialogue that's easy to miss. it's not nearly as bad in IS though bc they get more characterization in the main story, so a lot of the characters in IS resonated with me more on a first playthrough than 1's characters did.

I've heard some people say P2's shadow encounters are better than P4's. I'm not sure I agree with that at least just from IS, but I thought they were pretty competent. I did like that they built up to the shadow encounters throughout the game, it's an interesting approach.

...personally I still like the P4 shadow encounters more overall. I just also really like the way the IS shadow encounters were handled too especially in the context of the story.

the dialogue about personas and masks was really cool. I wish the new Persona games did acknowledge that everyone has multiple masks they put on. the only characters from P3-P5 who really explore this imo (as far as I can remember) are Rise and Akechi, and even then, it's not nearly as substantial as 1/2. Rise's arc is more about her accepting that she can have multiple selves that are all her, and with Akechi, while he has two different masks that represent both the facade he presents to society vs his true nature, it's just a case of facade vs true nature, whereas IS acknowledges that everyone has multiple masks they present to society that form a full self.

I personally wasn't too invested in the romance options, and the game clearly didn't consider them super important either seeing as they barely affect the story or interactions, but I really did like that Jun was presented as a genuine, serious option. also it's not like P3-5 where it's kinda subjective, I feel like Jun just fits the best especially in retrospect.

I now truly understand why newsona's mechanics (calendar, s.links, etc) wouldn't work at all. there's no room in the story for that.

I didn't think the pacing was the best tbh. it feels like not a lot happens at first, then they throw a ton of story at you halfway through the game, then a lot more near the end. it could've been distributed a little better. I hear EP is better with this though.

I do have a few issues with the way the plot was presented. tbh it was just a little absurd lol, and also revealing that the whole story was Philemon vs Nyarlathotep (again, tough name to spell lol) at the very end was kinda mid. maybe I'll like it more with the context of EP. but what really made the story for me was ultimately the characters and their development, not so much the actual events in the plot itself, if that makes sense.

I love the ending theme, kimi no tonari. when you realize that the sumaru city (and a lot of songs in the game) share the same general leitmotif it just makes you sad to hear them in retrospect 😔

[spinningbuster98]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night Part 3: Regional Differences

So...to go back for a second to the fact that I’m playing a translated Japanese version, let’s talk about cut content!

There are a couple of things that were cut from this game when it was released overseas, mostly minor objects that would have required some further localization which the team probably didn’t wanna be bothered with

For starters: there are 2 hidden familiars in the original version that are not present in western releases (PSP port notwithstanding)

In the hidden room where you’d otherwise find the Holy Sword you instead find the Nose Demon! He’s essentially a reskin of the normal Demon familiar you get later on, except he’s got a funny face and voice lines. Supposedly he’s based on a popular japanese comedian of the time, so I assume that the reason he was cut was because the joke would have flown over us westerners’ heads

In the room where you’d find the Sword familiar you instead find the Half-Fairy. She works exactly like the normal Fairy except she has different voice lines....and a very cool easter egg attatched to her: if you sit on a chair and don’t move for a couple of minutes she will sit on Alucard’s shoulder and there’s a chance (it’s random and she would not cooperate with me at first here) that she will then start singing this beautiful little melody which I’m going to show off next time :)

I’m going to assume that the reason this one was cut is because not only would they have to translate the song but also have someone sing it and given the quality of the english voice cast yeah forget it

There are other, minor differences, such as the ghostly priest in the Cathedral actually having a voice line where he does a little prayer while he’s totally mute in the international release

Speaking of the english voice cast I guess I’m sort of obligated to talk about them eh? Well let’s go over them!

Rober Belgrade as Alucard should not work for all intents and purposes, mainly because the actual tone of his voice is the literal opposite of his japanese va (same guy who voices Zero in Megaman X btw): Alucard is supposed to be an elegant, refined yet coldly stoic prince, so a soft voice that can still command respect fits him, while Belgrade is far too baritone. Yet despite this he still ends up sounding iconic because he’s pretty much the only person in this cast who genuinely tried to do his best. It’s a case where the voice itself shouldn’t fit but the delivery of the lines saves it

Dracula’s va (same guys who voiced the protagonist of Silent Hill 1 btw) sounds like he was convinced he was supposed to perform a parody of a Shakesperean play, he sounds so over the top he ends up sounding funny. The voice itself does not match the artwork nor the general idea of Dracula as this dark and intimidating figure

I don’t wanna harp on too much on Richter’s va (same va as Chris Redfield from RE1 btw) since the man died a bunch of years ago, but....yeah he was clearly reading his lines in the opening. He gets a little better in the rest of the game but that’s the extent of it

I’ve heard folks say that they can’t stand Maria’s younger sounding voice in the PSP port because she “doesn’t sound mature enough”, to which I ask: You do know she’s 17 here right? Granted I used to know girls in High School that had relatively deep voices, but Maria here straight up sounds like your average sultry sexy lady, much older than what she’s supposed to be, while she’s actually supposed to be a more mature version of her Rondo self: still pretty upbeat and cheerful but with more maturity on her

Lastly let’s talked about flimsy localization!

One of my biggest gripes against SOTN for the longest times was the number of secret moves and features the game does not tell you about

Some of these I’ve never minded because they’re minor and I can understand why they’d be secret, for example the secret moves that some weapons can perform? Just a cool little thing that you can accidentaly find out on your own while fumbling with the controls (which happened to me). The ability to use any spell without buying them at the shop by just knowing their commands? Well late game spells destroy the early game so of course it’d be a secret, plus again you can discover this accidentally on your own. The Shield Rod spells? Well those HAD to be secrets. The Wing Smash? That...I’m more salty about because Alucard’s flight is slow as sin without it but whatever

My real issue was always with the High Jump and the Skill of Wolf power ups, mainly because you had to find the correct relics for them...but then the game wouldn’t tell you how to actually use them (technically speaking you can still boost with the wolf after acquiring thePower of Wolf Relic, but no version of the game, not even the Japanese one, tells you how to do it with this Relic alone. Tbf it’s a very simple command, just double tap either left or right, but the Skill of Wolf Relic actually allows you to immediately run on a whim with no build up, thus allowing you to use the ability much more frequently)! Not only is this dumb because, while not strictly vital, these moves speed up exploration big time (especially in the Inverted Castle) but also because it made the feeling of discovering these relics pretty moot.

That is until I played the japanese version! Turns out that in this original version the in-game relic descriptions for these two actually DO contain the button inputs for how to use them. Just to be sure I even briefly played through an untranslated japanese rom and lo and behold!

I may not be able to read kanji, but I can recognize arrows meant to represent button inputs!

So thank you english localization for making me think for over 10 years that Sotn was more cryptic than it actually is :)

[negamekos]

Various games Himaruya has worked on: a small compilation

(Warning: 3/4 of them are horror games)

With my newest hyperfixation now being visual novels, I've recently turned my attention to some of the visual novel-style games Hima has made in the past. There's a few super short personal project ones like Noto-sama and Cleaning Prussia which he made in pre-anime adaptation times, but I just want to share the more notable/interesting ones I know about.

Gakuen Hetalia (2011-2012)

You've probably heard of this one. Given that it was released in the early seasons of the anime adaptation, it has that art style, for better or for worse. I honestly thought the existence of this game was a joke when I first heard of it but no it's a real game, developed by the one and only Otomate and released for the DS and PSP. It's an otome game with Seychelles as the protagonist, and is fully voiced. From what I've heard about this game, there's not much romance and has mostly platonic interactions. Also Gakuen AU.

Since this is pretty much a game adaptation of the anime, this is probably the one that Hima least had a hand in making, as compared to the ones I'm about to talk about. Still a neat game in its own right.

The Hetalian Horror Show (2015)

Another one you might have heard of if you browse Hetarchive, which has a partial translation for this game. This one's a fairly short free game set in the Gakuen AU (again) with Bulgaria as the protagonist. It's basically about a couple of the nations gathering to tell 'scary' stories (whether they're actually scary varies). Features highlights such as:

Robul moment

America casually revealing Classified Government Secrets

Bear Grylls

Iggy bullying

Low-key nsfw illustration of Bul butt-naked and tied up

And a twist ending you will not believe! (not clickbait)

Like the other free games he's made, Hetahorror is completely made by Hima (even the background images were taken by him). You can download the game here from his blog. And Hetarchive's partial translation is here.

Now here are the non-Hetalia ones (which I think are a little more interesting)

Apathy Midnight Collection: Volume 1 (2007)

See those characters in the top right? That's Hima's art. Yeah. This game is a horror anthology game released all the way back in 2007, with three different stories and each having different writers and artists. The first two stories are the longest (apparently they have over a hundred different endings combined), and if you look around I think you can find some posts about them, they're quite interesting. The one Hima did the illustrations (and direction) for is the final story, Hashira no Kizu (or Scratches on the Pillar), which is the one that I heard leans the hardest into the horror atmosphere, and is quite different overall from the other two stories.

If you're curious about this game, you can purchase it here on BOOTH, and you can find an English fan translation here.

By the way, this game is a retelling of sorts of a much older game (from the 90s!) called Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi (Scary Stories at School). Which leads me to this game...

Inaka no Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi (2014-2016)

Edit: I have since played this game and boy what a wild ride it was! Full overview here.

This is a full-length visual novel made by Hima's doujin group Shimaoka Kenkou Land, and it's a homage to the aforementioned Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi. It's pretty similar in setting to Hetahorror (in fact that game was probably inspired by that too), with students coming together to share their horror stories. It's very atmospheric, with a lot of ambient noises and background images which really drive home the 'inaka/countryside' part of the story. Hetahorror had shades of this too, so consider this a 'deluxe' version lol. Except unlike the Hetalia one I feel this game is actually pretty scary ngl...there's a lot of comedic moments, but also just as many genuinely gruesome scenes (I'm not kidding, some of the images are quite violent)

I only played the demo (which can be downloaded from the same page as the Hetalia game), and man the stories really range from 'I saw this lady walking her dog and holding a cute plush toy from afar so I asked if I could take a picture of it, but it turned out it wasn't a plush toy, it was a bag for dog droppings' to 'my friend and his entire family were mauled to death and it wasn't an animal that did it'.

The full game apparently has voice acting too, but this was a super-duper limited release (like it was sold in Animate stores for less than a year back in 2016) and I really liked the demo so I'm just considering getting it second-hand at this point. It's so obscure I can't find much info on the game in Japanese, much less English...

Just to show how atmospheric it felt, I have here a recording of part of the game which I can't stop replaying (sorry for no audio)

Anyway looking at the games he made really makes me wish he had the time to make one nowadays....he could probably make an amazing official Hetaoni horror game and I would pay real-life money to play it. This has been a PSA.

[bluebudgie]

also i put the ff2 pixel remaster on the steamdeck but in the meantime since i last played it square enix updated the game (?? what was there to update) and it BROKE THE UI EDIT MOD of my carefully frankenstein'd almost-ultimate version of ff2 that has 1) better sprites 2) menu portraits (psp) 3) a better looking UI (now broken and idk how to fix it) and 4) a few select songs replaced with their WSC counterpart (not re-installed bc admittedly it did sound a bit messy having NES and WSC songs mixed. i will survive without the battle themes and world map theme)

it's not too dramatic bc at some point i had to realize it's impossible to mod it to become the ultimate version bc as far as i'm aware noone knows how to give the non-party members portraits (like they did on PSP, rip to judgemental Hilda (i tried)) and also none of the different expressions. which means the psp version remains, in that regard, still superior (and inferior in almost all other aspects. ugly piece of shit)

yea that's all i just wanted to voice my dismay at square enix updating games

[euphausia]

🎶 💛!!!!!

^fav sng and fav dynamic^

asking for a singular favorite sng is kind of like pttng me through a meat grinder so i chose one frm each.. which was still rly hrd. i love the personer trcks :bandage p1 - saeko senseis theme p2is - kashihara (specifically the psp version) p2ep - the round sun (specifically the psx version) p3 - changing seasons reload p4 - pursuing my true self p5 - life will change

as for the fav dynamic. well sorry i cldnt choose. the p2is cast..... theyre childhood frnds its the sweetest. all of thm are close w each other separately. like eikichi and lisa constantly fighting but thn eikichi being the mst defensive of her... or tatsu and jun hvng personas based on their keepsakes frm each other... jun and eikichi going to the same school and jun cllng him michelle. all of thm looking up to maya and calling her big sis. and theyre even closer whn its all 5. whn 1 of thm vents all the others cry guhhh THEY LOVE EACH OTHER THEYRE BEST FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!! thm reuniting was so sweet and god thm hvng to prt again alkmoist made me die irl..doomed family. ughhhh p2is was sooo good at mkng thm actually feel like besties they make me feel ill. BUT ALSO.. yeah SEES persona 3. they wrnt close at frst and some of thm had beef w each other. like yukari and mitsuru or junpei and the protag for example. but they grw closer throughout the story and once again it jst seemed so real. comparing their dynamics at the strt vs at the end is jst crazy theyre so protective of each other they get each other theyre closer thn family i cnt typoe any mor ecuz im gttng dizzy jst thnkng abt it. the scene of thm all crying whn the protag comes bck after sealing nyx????? so good. and once againtheyre close separately too jfybtghjnmksdzdsbdwim gona thrw up I LOVE THEM HANGING OUT OFF SCREEN AND HAVING HISTORY INDEPENDENT OF THE PROTAGONIST!!!! AND I LOVE THEM STUDYIGN TOGETHER AND GOING ON WALKS AND TALKING ABOUT DUMB HIGH SCHOOL SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[g4yr4t]

@lokh tagged me to post ten songs! I'm gonna try to make them different from the ones I'm always posting, but no guarantees. the "rules" or whatever don't say to add commentary but I'm gonna!

"up the wolves" by the mountain goats - look I know I talk about this one a lot but I am ALWAYS referring to the version from come, come to the sunset tree, which is superior, and which is what I've linked here.

"gap year" by twin tooth - what is there more beautiful than a living thing in transformation?

"calling" from the world ends with you - this used to be my ringtone, back when ringtones were a thing people did

this NakamuriEmi song - forgive the spotify link; I can't copy-paste the name of the song from spotify and I can't read or type japanese so I can't find it. anyway, the horns kind of make me feel like things song could be in acnh lol

"far east disco" by weinners - makes me want to dance!!!

"bloody destiny" from the psp remake of persona 1 - this is another one I'm always talking about but whatever... SAVE ME FROM THAT BLOOOODY DESTINY

"namae no nai ao" by kami-sama, I have noticed - when I got to the end of the first episode of keep your hands off eizouken! I lost my mind bc I was like "I know that one!!!"

"heart ga sameru maeni" by glim spanky - I'm gonna be honest, I was looking for another song off this album but this one is better

"CRASH CRASH CRASH" by veltpunch - long-ish instrumental intro, really good chorus

"staring at the sun" by TV on the radio - I'm not leaving making a list without this one sorry

aaaand there it is! I put a lot of thought into this list so I hope someone actually listens to some of the songs. I'm gonna tag @orbees @coccolithophore @allcatsarebabies @squidmoon @talesofsymphonia2 and that's IT! no way I'm tagging ten people that's too many.

[yuseirra]

Ohhh!! Yuu, are you interested in playing either Persona 1 or 2? That one reliable leaker for ATLUS/SEGA (the one who leaked tactica) mentioned it'll most likely be ported, if such a thing were to happen, would you be more likely to play it, even tho its fairly from different to 3-5? (I'm rather eager to play P2 for a long time now actually, since i really like the themes for that game!)

Hey Lia! have you been doing well? I am actually partially aware of the rumor, and I'm interested in both games! I haven't played P1 and P2 but I've enjoyed a lot of the songs from the PSP version of P1 (Voice, Dream of Butterfly, A Lone Prayer, School Days etc!) and I know a little bit of P2's lore because my brother's played it and I asked him if it was good. He enjoyed it. So I have a good impression of both games!

My bro actually, he's the one that's introduced me to this series although he doesn't play it any more himself... P3 is his favorite game of all time and He says Shin Megami Tensei 4 is great too, making its place in second place (and he's played a lot of games so that's a lot coming from him!!) and these games stem from the same roots, don't they? Persona's started out as a spinoff of SMT.. from what I heard, P2 is still a lot like SMT(?) in terms of the vibe it gives? And I'm interested in SMT 4 and P2 after hearing what kinds of stories it offers from my bro. It seemed to have some interesting ideas!

Speaking of which, I tried playing P5X last night, and I somehow have a huge hunch that it not only has to do with P5, but P3(in terms of the water themes of the velvet rooms and the main objective-how people are acting really similar to how apathy syndrome works. *p3 spoilers but* I actually feel P3's protagonist COULD make it back in a world like this in theory because people are deprived of every desire, even that of death- but at what cost;) and P2.. I think it's got to do with P2 somehow. you know how 2 and 5 looks a lil similar when it's flipped? and X looks exactly the same upside down or sideways, P5X's world could might as well be P5's world but mirrored. OR/AND be P2's world after the aftermaths of P2's storyline(?) a fake reality made out of the P2 hero's desires or sth.. IDK I named my P5X's hero tatsuya because they look quite similar lol and wouldn't it be cool if he actually turned out to be related to him? This game then, could end up being a bridge between old and new persona games.

I'm going to publish this because who knows if I get this right? XD

Have you played P3 lia? I love that game! ;v; Oh gosh.. I can't bring myself to finish it though, I'm really going to miss it when I do. Tell me your thoughts about it when you do because I'm back deep in again and I really love the message of this story. There's a lot I find lovely and I'm sure it's a story that could lift a lot of people's heart and soul (the opening song is beautiful!)

sincerely, yuseirra

[laventory]

So a while back I remade the Game Over screens from the Danganronpa game triolgy (which I have up as Commission options on my ko-fi by the by)

Now while I was doing these, you may have noticed that I uh. I didn't use the official font. There's a reason, I assure. And the reason is that I uh. I really don't like the official font. So here's a fun fact about the GAME OVER screens in the official English releases of the first two Danganronpa games:

Click/Tap the "Keep reading" to learn more.

The font that NIS America used for the dialogue at the bottom is actually not scaled correctly compared to the rest of the animation. The original sprite based animations for Danganronpa and Super Danganronpa 2 were both animated at HALF the PSP resolution (240x136), this ensured them following a pixel grid in when scaled up by 2 for the PSP FMV's.

However, since the English versions of the Danganronpa games were made using the PSVita's resources, they didn't bother with that and just slapped in a font that's actually upscaled by 6 compared to the rest of the animation's 4x scale.

Ignore the screenshot being blurry, couldn't get a natively clean one like with the PSP version. So lets say they did portray the font with a 1:1 scale, how would that look?

MMMM Yeah so as you can see the thing is way too small at 1x scale

and at 2x it's way too big. this font fuckin' sucks. regardless here it is on the gif I created because I hate myself.

[aoi-424]

An Introduction to La Corda

I wrote this article almost 4 years ago - but I thought I might pick it up again to celebrate the 20th anniversary of La Corda series (which was 19th September, 2023 i.e. last year) and the upcoming birthday of Tsukimori Len (24th April).

(Article also available on Medium)

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I’m a computer scientist, but I have always craved to be a violinist/musician since I was young. Despite the fact that I’m untalented in playing musical instruments, watching anime that features classical music elements, stories that depict characters grappling with their inner struggles to pursue their music dream — they have always instilled me with the passion to practise my pieces too.

La Corda d’Oro (Kiniro no Corda, 金色のコルダ)

In the game La Corda d’Oro 2, all characters are playing as part of an ensemble together.

This was the first show that introduced me to the world of classical music in anime. The 11-year-old me was profoundly attracted by the selection of music in the anime. Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, Schubert’s Ave Maria, Liszt’s Liebestraum— they are mostly very famous pieces that you’ve heard of but never know the name. And this was definitely a good start.

Hino Kahoko, the protagonist of this show is a high-school girl studying at a music academy but has no knowledge in classical music at all (= the typical “ordinary school girl”). Under some unexpected circumstances, she has been selected to be a participant in the school’s music competition (in the anime this is mentioned as “コンクール”, which means “concour” in French). With the help of a fairy, she is granted a “magic violin” that allows her to play solely relying on her imagination. And the story mainly revolves around her interactions with other competition participants, as well as the self-discovery of her own passion in classical music.

As this is a reverse-harem (adaptation of the original visual novel), it certainly has some romantic clichés that might annoy people (though as a fan of the Shoujo genre I find them perfectly fine), but the overall plot and character development are pretty good and sensible. You’ll get to see characters each having different attitudes towards classical music — some hated music contests since the adjudicators could never judge participants fairly; some are prodigies who have decided on pursuing his soloist dream in Vienna at an early stage; some are talented in music but would choose to proceed on with a non-music career due to family pressure; and some are just purely enjoying the fun of playing a part in an orchestra. You’ll also get to listen to different musical instrument’s famous pieces (Yes, the participants don’t only play the violin/piano), including the trumpet, clarinet, flute and so on. Although the animation style might not be of high quality, since it’s a show from more than 10 years ago (I’m feeling old…), as a classical music fan, I’ll proudly say it’s still very enjoyable.

A screenshot of the game, showing that you could visit different places in the academy to meet the characters (and practise of course).

The original game (my favourite one is “La Corda d’Oro 2 encore” on PSP) is pretty nice too, you’ll be walking around the campus as Kahoko and choose to practise ensemble pieces with different characters. I really love the original soundtracks of the game, as they are all edited versions of classical music pieces, e.g. Beethoven — Symphony №6 (when you’re walking in the academy’s hall), Erik Satie — Gymnopédie №1 (the weekend music).

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I’ll write more about the game mechanics in La Corda in my next post and explain how the developer has intelligently gamified classical music.

Thanks for reading!