#i know it’s a Japanese story but this post cites a lot of plot elements present on the black whale

[3dchoujinbag]

I’m curious how hxh succession war will end, and if it will reflect this sentiment or not.

i think there is something to be said about the way a lot of popular western media (both within fiction and outside of it, now that i think about it) uses the pretense of nuance to obfuscate existing power dynamics.

the example i'm mulling over at the moment is netflix's Arcane, which depicts a pretty straightforward conflict between a brutally oppressive ruling class and an underclass that is out gunned, out manned, and lacks even the means to support its own population. despite this, the show takes a very even-handed "everybody's flawed" approach to how it portrays this conflict, one that seems to be increasingly popular in popular western media. this makes for a compelling story, the show takes the time to make sure we understand all the characters involved, their motivations, their flaws, their hopes, their dreams etc, but i think when people engage with that kind of narrative uncritically, they tend to miss the forest for the trees and get lost in pointless debates over which characters were more in the right or who's actions were more justified by their trauma etc. this kind of weightless, individualist approach seems to always lead to the same conclusion: that changing society is scary and traumatic and everybody is too flawed to be trusted with leading such a shift. how convenient that this always seems to benefit those already in power.

i'm thinking about this in regards to the reactions to the latest developments in the story of Arcane, which sees caitlyn supporting a military dictatorship, in part as a response to the trauma of losing her mother in jinx's terror attack. the reactions are pretty typical fandom discourse about whether or not her actions are understandable given what she's going through as a character, but what no one seems to be considering is that she's only about to undergo this change in the first place because of her class position, not just as a member of the wealthy elite of the overcity, but also as a respected member of the overcity's law enforcement. see, while the individual characters involved might be complex, the moral dimensions of the overall conflict really are not. one side has all the power and resources, as well as a vested interest in keeping the other side subjugated to maintain its dominant status quo. just because the dominant side is populated primarily with skinny attractive people a who're shown to be doing their best with the situation and the other are mostly grotesque caricatures of poverty stricken degenerates doesn't mean this is a difficult choice.

it remains to be seen how the actual show will play out, but i can't help but see it as continuing a trend of what i can only describe as a kind of smug liberal nihilism, crafting a brutal class conflict only to revel in the horrific spectacle of it all, basking in the complex moral greyness of its protagonists, uninterested in taking an actual stance. there's a point when nuance becomes a form of cowardice, imo

[k0gamis]

Hi! I wanted to ask if you think Kougami and Akane will end up canon at the end of Psycho-Pass? I loooved the scenes we got in season 3 and First Inspector and to me those scenes seem like hints that they're going to be canon? What do you think?

I'll admit I've been sitting on this ask for a while now, because this is a rather complicated question where my opinion depends on what you mean by "will they end up together?" but I do have some thoughts I want to share.

If by "will they end up together?" you mean will they be given screen time to show us the development/conclusion of their relationship, then my guess is no. There's definitely room to explore with them, and there are questions that we as the viewer don't have answers to that the writers could use as a basis for that exploration (such as what was Kogami apologizing for at the end of FI, were they able to meet up between Ko's return to Japan and Akane's imprisonment, etc), but I doubt we will ever get definitive answers to those questions at this point, at least not without an interview with the writers themselves.

The relationship between Akane and Ko is no longer the focal point of the series, as we're being introduced to different aspects of the PP universe, different characters in this world who have different parts to play, and elements of society that have contributions to Sibyl's control that we learn about as the series progresses and expands. Akane obviously no longer needs his mentorship or guidance, and Kogami found his way back home, back to some semblance of a life with a purpose where he doesn't need to look to her for reminders that he's still a human being with redeeming qualities. And as of FI, we saw them reunite as ordinary people, like Akane foresaw, bringing them full circle from where they started with such a complicated dynamic and interesting tension, bound by rules and jurisdictions outside of their control. In terms of writing and development, their arc was completed in that final scene when they exchanged pleasantries without tension, and with genuine smiles on their faces. There's nothing more that we, as the viewer, need to be shown to know their conflict is resolved. So in my opinion, I don't think it's likely that we will see their relationship develop further in future PP installments, as far as what will be written for them and shown on screen.

But if you mean "do you think they will end up together" as in it's implied they get together, then yes, I definitely see that as a possibility! Anyone who claims otherwise by citing the fact that Psycho-Pass is not a romance (as I've seen done unfortunately) inherently misunderstands genres or something, because you can still have a romance element in a story with a primary genre like horror or sci-fi or fantasy. In the simplest terms, a genre is dictated by what drives a story to be created, and the main message a writer wants told. Classifying something as a romance just means the main intent of the story is to tell a romance. Psycho-Pass is not a romance anime, but it's featured a canon sapphic couple ever since S1 and gave them further development in FI, it hinted at Mika's feelings for Yayoi, and it showed plenty of relationships in S3, with Kei and Mai, Irie's attraction to Kisaragi, and Kunikara too, like I mentioned. Romance in this world is not unheard of and clearly something the writers are willing to write if it's relevant to the story they want to tell.

Which, of course, is going to revolve around Akane at least to a degree, thanks to the FI post-credits scene the Japanese-speaking part of the fandom was kind of enough to leak screenshots for. I think it's more than likely she will get a lot more screen time in the next installment, and with that screen time comes free moments that don't have to be plot-centric, where the writers can stick in a joke or a note here or there hinting at Akane's personal life. She could receive a work-related emergency phone call that wakes her from in between some sheets with Shinya not-so-discreetly sleeping behind her. She could be shown meeting up with the SAD operative who came to the PSB to drive her back to their headquarters for assistance on one of their projects, and then she's met with some teasing from Shizuka or Arata (or both). Or it could be a simple question from Sho about how Kogami is doing that, of course Akane would know the answer to. There are all sorts of things the writers could do to imply their relationship has progressed, and I honestly don't think it's out of the question that they would. It would make sense for them to progress into a romantic relationship, at least to me, but I don't expect to actually see it happen, if that makes sense. If I had to make a definitive guess, as much as I absolutely adore them with all my heart, I would say no. I think it's very possible and I'd love to see it happen, but I don't think it's likely.

That being said, whether or not they will end up canon doesn't really matter to me. I'm satisfied with their conclusion from FI, and there's bound to be interaction between them in the next installment to look forward to regardless. But thank you for the question!!

[bunnyadvocate]

Visualising the VN Market

The Visual Novel medium encompasses an enormous range of diverse content. From stories about philosophy to murder mysteries, romance, comedy, and of course, porn. But to what extent do these categories and the fandoms that love them overlap? Using the vote data on VNDB, we visualised the VN medium by mapping out the fandom overlap, and in doing so, learned a few things about the VN fandom.

The Analysis Process

To get an overview of the Western VN fandom, we downloaded all the user-submitted VN ratings on VNDB (using this as a proxy for which VNs each user had read), and filtered out any VNs with fewer than 250 ratings (to keep the final result a manageable size), leaving us with 410 VNs. We then calculated the proportion of users who had rated both VNs to see how much of an overlap there was in the fandom between those two VNs.

To visualise the results, we modelled each VN like it was a beachball floating in a swimming pool. Each beachball has some elastic strings attached to it, where each string lead to another beachball (representing another VN), with the tension in the string determined by the fandom overlap between those VNs. So VNs with large fandom overlaps would be pulled strongly towards each other. However, to prevent the beachballs all clumping together in some horrifying beachball orgy, each beachball also caused ripples in the water as it bobbed up and down, pushing away anything that gets too close. We ran the simulation until the beachballs stopping moving, having found an equilibrium point between the pull of the strings and the push of the ripples.

You can see the early stages of this process in the test simulation below. Each beachball/VN is coloured to highlight the type of VN it is. Handheld console VNs are pink, EVNs are green, and the rest are blue. The elastic strings between beachballs/VNs are shown by faint red lines, with the strings that pull tighter shown as a brighter shade of red. The font size is proportional to how popular a VN is.

You can see that the VNs are randomly distributed at the start, but quickly form into clusters of similar content. The murder mystery focused VNs (Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, and Zero Escape) form a cluster on the right, while the strategy gameplay heavy Sengoku Rance and Kamidori Alchemy Meister cluster in the top left.

The VN Market Map

A full size version of this image is here.

When we run the algorithm, the results can be a bit intimidating. A huge jumbled mass of VNs. How do we interpret this? The first step in understanding this map is recognising the clusters that the VNs have grouped themselves into. If we use the VNDB tag and release data, we can begin to highlight similar types of VN and the clustering becomes more apparent.

The Plot Focused category is only approximate as it highlights only those VNs with certain tags: “Horror,” “Utsuge,” “Nakige,” “Mystery,” “Murder Mystery,” “Life and Death Drama,” or “Thriller.” You can detect my plot preference biases in that list...

Combining these categories, we can generate a much clearer map of the VN fandom.

A zoomable version of this map can be found here, and a high resolution image is here.

There are two major elements in interpreting what this map says about the VN fandom. The first is how dense each cluster is (how tightly packed it is). The density tells us how much fans tend to stick to VNs of that type, and how important that type of content is to them. The second is each cluster’s position relative to one another, which tells us how much the fandoms overlap and what they’re most similar to.

Analysing the map from the top, we see the porn cluster stands erect. Its somewhat fringe position indicates that the nukige fandom is a minority of the Western VN fandom, although it’s still pushing hard into the main VN mass which shows there’s a lot of overlap, especially with those who like more light hearted stories, comedies, moege etc.

The strategy gameplay VNs barely make it into a cluster at all as they’re quite widely spread out, indicating that people aren’t necessarily drawn to them for their gameplay content, but value other aspects of them (*cough* the porn).

Next, we have the core of the map, the plot focused VNs with emotionally heavy content. Katawa Shoujo takes pride of place in the centre of the fandom as it’s by far the most frequently cited first VN fans read. In the bottom left we find a particularily tight subgroup of those VNs that seem to be linked through their detective gameplay mechanics and release on handheld consoles.

Over on the right, we can see a couple of popular VN series that seem a little disconnected from the rest of the map. The Nekopara and Sakura series have large fanbases, but are off in the fringe, nearer nukige stuff than anything plot related. Their fringe position implies that their fans are coming more from the Steam gaming community than the rest of the VN fandom as people who read either of those series don’t go on to read many other VNs.

Further down, we see the untranslated VN cluster is quite tightly bound, indicating that those who can read untranslated VNs tend to stick to just untranslated content. They highly value a VN being untranslated when choosing a VN to read. Its position at the opposite end to the nukige cluster indicates those learning Japanese for VNs are primarily interested in them for their stories rather than the porn.

The Western VNs are less a cluster than a halo around the the main VN fandom. This shows that EVNs have yet to really integrate themselves with the VN fandom as a whole (outside of otomes), and that while VN fans might be happy to read a particular EVN they come across, they aren’t actively searching for more EVNs. Those most willing to try them seem to be those who enjoy plot focused or otome VNs.

Lastly, we have the otome and yaoi clusters off by themselves in the bottom left, with the two of them sharing some fans. The relatively tight clustering indicates a loyal fandom, but they don’t seem to read much outside of that. They’re almost an entirely separate fandom from the rest of the VN scene, although they seem much more willing to read EVNs than the majority of VN readers.

VN Recommendations

Using this map of the fandom’s tastes, could we generate VN recommendations for someone? If we highlight only those VNs they’d read we could see if it clustered in one area, and if it did then any unread VNs in that area would be a good suggestion for them. I made a web tool (see here) to do exactly this (it requires you to have had a VNDB account before Nov 18th). If you’ve got a VNDB account, give it a try and let me know if the nearby VNs fit your taste~

I hope you found the post interesting. If you liked it, please share it around. I had a lot of fun working on it, but it was only possible thanks to the invaluable help of /u/8cccc9 and Part-Time Storier.

Next week’s post will break down the map into more categories and analyse them in more detail, look at how the VN ratings differ per cluster, and investigate how the EVN fandom is split. I’d love to hear any feedback or suggestions for further analysis. If you want to get in touch, you can comment here, on my Twitter, or PM me via the Ren’py Discord Server.

[livvyplaysfinalfantasy]

Showing More Respect for Faerie Tales: What We Know Thus Far of Return to Ivalice

In honor of all of these new reveals for Return to Ivalice, I’ve decided to make a post compiling the basics for those who may have questions about what players can expect to find in Final Fantasy XIV 4.1′s new raid.

Please feel more than free to contact me with any questions concerning the specifics of Ivalice or XIV, or how one might tie into the other! I will, however, try to make this as accessible as possible to people who might be unfamiliar with Ivalice.

What is Ivalice, anyway, and what makes it so special?

The Ivalice Alliance is a subset of games in the Final Fantasy series, all of which take place in the world of Ivalice created by Yasumi Matsuno. Though a handful of Final Fantasy games are considered part of the Ivalice Alliance, the “main” three regarded most highly by fans are those that received some direction from Yasumi Matsuno: Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) / Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (2007), Vagrant Story (2000)*, and Final Fantasy XII (2006). Matsuno left Square Enix during XII’s development, citing stress and health concerns, leading many to believe he was pushed out of the project.

*Note that Vagrant Story originally wasn’t meant to take place in Ivalice; its setting, Valendia, was established as a continent in Ivalice through Final Fantasy XII’s lore. It also isn’t, technically speaking, a Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy Tactics is thought to take place roughly twelve hundred years after Final Fantasy XII; those who include Vagrant Story in Ivalice’s timeline put it at least four hundred years after Tactics. I’ve previously written out a prospective and highly theoretical timeline of Ivalice from the perspective of its religious organizations, which can be found here.

Apart from their shared setting, Ivalice titles distinguish themselves from other Final Fantasy games predominantly through their phenomenal writing: Matsuno’s works are known for their complex political dramas and hard-hitting dialogue, which are often translated into intricate English scripts by Alexander O. Smith. Ivalice Alliance titles tackle such themes as imperialism, class warfare, and intergenerational violence with a level of skill and subtlety that even few modern video games are capable of. Most Ivalice games also feature scores composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Why is Ivalice relevant to Final Fantasy XIV?

At Fan Fest Japan 2016, Final Fantasy XIV’s developers announced that the next expansion, Stormblood, would contain a twenty-four-man raid called Return to Ivalice, and that Yasumi Matsuno himself would be writing its storyline.

As with many Final Fantasies, elements from the stories of Ivalice games have appeared throughout Final Fantasy XIV purely as references. (This is by no means an exhaustive list.)

Final Fantasy XIV’s overarching story includes a number of villains called the Ascians. Most of the Ascians are named for Final Fantasy XII’s Scions of Light, a group of mythical beings that never appear directly in XII but who were created to oppose XII’s Espers in a Revelations-like battle between the divine and the damned. Each Ascian’s sigil is derived from half of its corresponding Esper’s glyph. (The dev team confirmed at Fan Fest Las Vegas 2014 that the names and glyphs are references only, meaning that the Ascians are not meant to be the same mythical beings as the ones from Ivalice.)

The Corpse Brigade, an Ala Mhigan criminal group in Southern Thanalan, drew heavy inspiration from the Corpse Brigade from Final Fantasy Tactics. Their leader, Milleuda the Slitter, was even designed to look like Milleuda Folles, a captain of Tactics’s Corpse Brigade.

Quite a few infamous lines of dialogue from Ivalice games - including “Blame yourself or God!” from Tactics, and “The reins of History back in the hands of Man!” from XII - have been said almost verbatim by some of XIV’s characters.

There have been a number of hints in recent years that the world of Ivalice may be connected in some way to the world of Hydaelyn. (It is possible that these could be no more than references, but given the ambiguity of the relationships between dimensions introduced through 4.X’s Omega storyline, they are nevertheless important to mention.)

The void is a recurring concept throughout the Final Fantasy series. During the Warring Triad quest The Fate of Stars (3.2), Unukalhai has this to say about Hydaelyn’s void: “...What I am about to divulge concerns the fate of another star entirely. On this other world, a magick was devised that allowed the realm's champions to use a stone known as ‘auracite’ to contain the power of primals. So armed, these heroic souls conquered god after god, oblivious to their weapon's fatal imperfection: its propensity to bleed primal energies. And with each victory, the heroes changed, transforming at last into fiends of endless appetite. Insatiable in their hunger for aether, they ultimately went to war over the star's ever-dwindling life force... ...And fought until there was nothing left.” Encyclopædia Eorzea confirms in its entry for Cuchulainn (p. 300), a being adapted from Tactics, that Cuchulainn was one of twelve auracite-bearers from this doomed world. This concept is highly similar to plot elements that appear in Final Fantasy Tactics: much of Tactics’s story is about its antagonists gathering pieces of auracite to summon the High Seraph Ultima.

Throughout XIV 3.X, much of the discussion between Elidibus and Urianger concerned a work known as The Gerun Oracles. Gerun is a character from XII, a king of his brethren who is obsessed with maintaining absolute control over the fate of mankind. For more analysis on the possible significance of Gerun being namedropped in a work of prophecy, click the above link.

Most importantly, however, we have received confirmation in the past that certain locations in Hydaelyn share the names of locations in Ivalice.

In Japanese only, one soldier claimed to hail from Rabanastre rather than Othard during the Ultima Weapon’s introduction.

In Japanese only, Lucia goe Junius refers to Dalmasca as part of her backstory when she removes her circlet in 3.0.

In an interview with Koji Fox in April 2016, he confirmed that Dalmasca and Rabanastre are places in Othard, close to a land bridge that’s part of Ilsabard. Dalmasca is a nation in Final Fantasy XII, of which Rabanastre is the capital.

What can we expect to see of Ivalice in XIV 4.1?

During the Final Fantasy XIV fourth anniversary livestream, the devs revealed  that XIV 4.1′s official concept art - the concept art for the entire patch, not just the raid - is of Ramza Beoulve and Delita Heiral, the two main characters of Final Fantasy Tactics.

The following has been listed on XIV’s official forums by Anonymoose in a summary of the information revealed during the fourteen-hour broadcast:

In the world of FFXIV, the Final Fantasy Tactics story is a well-known fairy tale known by anyone from Garlemald. Keeping the FFT story as a base, it also has an essence of FFXII. Return to Ivalice has been designed in such a way that those who do not know either of these can also enjoy it as well. Players will enter Rabanastre as the first part of their journey. (The patch art features Ramza and Delita, and was drawn by Akihiko Yoshida.)

Return to Ivalice, then, will delve into the story of Rabanastre as it exists in Othard, rather than what we currently know of Hydaelyn’s void.

Whether XIV’s Rabanastre and Dalmasca simply share the names and aesthetics of the locations from Ivalice or if they are the locations themselves has not yet been determined. Yet. Currently, however, all signs point to the former: that these locations are only representations of XII’s setting, and that Ivalice and Hydaelyn are not the same world.

The primary reasoning for this has to do with what we know of Ivalice’s and Hydaelyn’s maps: unless all of Ilsabard is revealed to be Ivalice, it isn’t likely that the three continents we see in XII - Ordallia, Kerwon, and Valendia - could fit on Hydaelyn’s map, especially since there’s an even bigger continent, Rozarria, immediately to the west of Dalmasca.

There’s also the fact that XIV’s timeline of events is “backwards” from Ivalice’s. In Garlemald, Dalmasca exists in the present day and the story of Final Fantasy Tactics is an old legend. In Ivalice, however, Dalmasca was likely destroyed twelve hundred years before the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics even begins.

It’s now almost guaranteed that we’ll be seeing Ramza and Delita in Final Fantasy XIV. When we do, it’s likely that they will appear in a manner similar to Krile Baldesion from Final Fantasy V and Matoya from the first Final Fantasy: nearly identical to their original counterparts, except for the fact that they and the settings they hail from happen to be located in Hydaelyn.

Anonymoose hints that the Tactics story is “a well-known fairy tale” to the people of Garlemald - but the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics is about uncovering the truth behind the War of the Lions (also known as the Zodiac Brave Story) after over four hundred years. A common thread of all Ivalice Alliance games is that history is never truly what it seems; as such, it seems likely that we’ll be uncovering similar truths during Return to Ivalice in XIV.

Could this mean that viera are going to be a playable race in XIV?

I have no idea.

What would be the best way to introduce myself to the Ivalice Alliance?

Final Fantasy XII was recently remastered to great success for PS4; if you have the means to play it, I would highly recommend that you do so. XII received a lot of flak when it was first released - some of it deserved, most of it not - but the remaster, subtitled The Zodiac Age, has improved on the original’s gameplay and brought the quality of its already masterful cutscenes to stunning high definition.

Tactics is harder to find a copy of, because you’re going to want to play Tactics: The War of the Lions. It’s the same game as the original Final Fantasy Tactics, only with a much better translation. You can play Tactics: The War of the Lions on your PSP if you still have one. There are also mobile ports for iOS and Android, but these tend not to be as enjoyable to play due to the game’s longer battles. If you’re new to Tactics, please keep in mind that the beginning battles are slow and unforgiving, even for experienced players; if you get through the first four or five story fights, though, you’re more than set for the rest of the game!

What’s with the joke about noses in your last post?

Most of the Ivalice games feature Akihiko Yoshida as the leading character designer. (Akihiko Yoshida has also contributed to XIV's concept art, especially for 1.X and 2.0.)

Yoshida's art style includes minimal detail to faces, including the definition of noses.

Here’s some concept art of Delita and Ramza from Final Fantasy Tactics (1997):

Here’s a screenshot from an in-game cutscene in War of the Lions (2007):

...And here’s them now.

(Another joke-but-not-really stemming from Akihiko Yoshida’s art design is gratuitous butts - a trait that Final Fantasy XIV’s developers have commented on in the past.)

What are your hopes for Return to Ivalice, Livvy?

Well, I stopped breathing for so long when Return to Ivalice was first announced that my free company thought I had died, so my bar is admittedly set pretty low. All they’ll have to do is drop that “show a little more respect for faerie tales” line to get me to start sobbing.

But I’d sell my soul to the High Seraph Ultima for a dungeon inspired by Vagrant Story’s Leá Monde in 4.3, so there’s that.