#i really like the battle system in this one | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jamesthedigidestined · 4 hours ago

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Something that pokes out to me in terms of the “Homeostasis messed with the Chosen” theory (which I love) is that, canonically, Homeostasis kept a close eye on every child at Hikarigaoka, and that Hikari’s exposure to the Digital World was also a key reason she stayed sick, right? Which also helped groom Taichi into a protective sibling. And for Yamato, while this is purely speculation, I can absolutely see Homeostasis introducing bugs into the Fuji TV systems, making Hiroaki (and possibly other Chosen Candidates’ parents) to work even harder and exacerbate his workaholic nature. Which, again, would create a protective older sibling dynamic for the two children Homeostasis knew would be most effective against Darkness, Hikari and Takeru.

Additionally, I’d just like to mention just how much each of the original DigiDestined has sacrificed:

Firstly, their Crests, which at this point is *a part of their very soul*. The original, physical Crests were destroyed by Apocalymon, and presumably lost. 01 and 02 especially state just how intense of a power source the Crests are, meaning they likely require a lot of energy to make as well. So, losing that would offset the balance further and is why they needed to sacrifice the Crests within themselves to help the Digital World heal. I REALLY fucking doubt giving up a fragment of your soul is healthy.

Secondly, basically everyone’s mental health is shot. Some worse than others (Ken and Takeru have weekly night terrors, no doubt), but particularly for the Crested DigiDestined (OG 8 + Ken) they suffer a TON more than the other Chosen, because emotions = power in the Digital World, and Homeostasis wants *both* Darkness and Light. Chosen Children suffering is literally just as important to Homeostasis as their happiness is. However, those with powerful Crests mean that more power is accessible, in both forms. It should be noted that Ken was not stopped early on: he had conquered a fair bit of the Digital World before DigiDestined were brought back to the picture. It wasn’t until the scales were tipped to favor Darkness that the suffering could end. If the suffering kept below that threshold it wouldn’t have been deemed a problem.

And, finally, and honestly most importantly, they’ve had to give up their Digimon at certain points, and once again this goes extra hard for the Crested Chosen. In a lot of ways, Daisuke, Iori, and Miyako have it easy. Iori probably has suffered the most out of them, but that was external to the Digital World. To these three, the Digital World was akin to a playground, while to the other nine it was a battleground that culminated in the loss of the one being keeping all of them company and helping them survive. For the original eight, (and to a lesser extent Ken) this was possibly for MONTHS, maybe even a YEAR, where they survived many deadly battles based off their bond with their Digimon, and then that was taken away. The only four we know to have contacted their Digimon pre-02 (that I can remember) is Taichi, Kou, Yamato, and Takeru in OWG. And that was solely for business (and due to a wish on Taichi’s part). For the rest, they didn’t see their partners again for YEARS, and that was for small bursts at a time.

What it means to be "chosen" - burden, fate, acceptance

This is not going to be a full analysis on the whereabouts of why and how "The Chosen One" trope is being executed in the Digimon Adventure series, because frankly... The lines have pretty much been blurred throughout the different iterations. Even the question of why some children in particular were chosen has been answered differently depending on which source material and which person you'll ask - and thus, there are different interpretations out there. Whether it's because of their potential (in regards to certain attributes, the subject of friendship or in general) shall not be discussed in full, but let's say... The very first Chosen Ones were chosen out of necessity, even if chance may have been involved.

If you ask me personally, the main premise one can and should take away from all of it actually boils down to a cheesy quote from the dub version of the first Pokémon movie: "I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are."

Replace "birth" and "life" with "Chosen Child status" and it fits again - regardless of what characters you apply it to. The only difference here is - that they may not refer to it as a "gift". Because this is something they all handle differently, depending on what version you look at, once more. So I wanted to make a little, very inoffical ranking on how the status is being perceived by all of them. Keep in mind that, by the end of 02, you could say that ALL of them have accepted it as a part of their lives, some more willingly than others, but the general tone is the same:

"Being chosen is nothing special and yet we all understand that there is a necessity, that we have a duty to fulfill."

After characters like Sora or Yamato had already questioned being chosen in Adventure, Ken was the first character that challenged the idea of it being a "burden created by chance".

"It could have been anyone but me, so why was I chosen, why did I have to suffer and get punished?"

This theme is being explored in similar yet different ways through the protagonists of the later movies - Meiko (and Maki), Menoa and Rui all represent tragic figures in a somewhat twisted "game of chance", used by higher forces. We know that the number of Chosen Children doubled each year - whether due to Homeostasis meddling mingled with Rui's wish shall not be subject of this post, but overall, we can say: They all received the "gift" of partnerships. However, neither of them were meant to last, due to different circumstances. Which includes Ken as well - because once corrupted or unable to fulfill a certain "duty" any longer, all these partnerships were (sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently) ripped apart.

Long story short, for the sake of the following ranking, I will include Tri onwards for completion sake - however, it's just a temporary state, because "Adventure Beyond" may fix some of these views.

Rejects it as a burden (temporarily): Sora

This one is, sadly, quite self-explanatory due to the current state of Sora being "out of the loop". She had been among those who initially (Adventure) fell into despair due to the burden of having to save the world - and while she temporarily accepted it (02), it all played into her trauma of not knowing who she was and how to define herself outside of "labels that were externally assigned to her". So yes, despite her clearly loving her partner... We shall wait and see how she will deal with this in the future.

Ambilvalent, had to get through several stages of contemplation, but overall knows it's part of who they are (still ongoing): Yamato & Taichi, Miyako & Iori

These two "groups" are here for different reasons. The entirety of the Adventure-verse spends a lot of time telling us how torn Taichi and Yamato are basically all the time - they're more than willing to save the world whenever it's required, but struggle with the "Chosen Child identity" and what it means for them as "normal people". Because as strongest fighters, they know they shoulder a lot of responsibility, for themselves, their friends and families, but also for the worlds out there. Fighting yet causing sacrifices when they themselves still have to deal with heavy childhood trauma not only causes them to clash, but also to (subconsciously) reject their duties, hence causing their partnerships to (temporarily) vanish. Which is very similar to the tragic figures talked above - which is also why they all suffer from depression, fear of abandonment and identity crises. They're perfectly aware of the duty and see it as a necessity they HAVE TOO choose for themselves in order to succeed. But the latter is a lesson they had to learn the hard way first - while also remembering how important their partners (and this kind of life) really are to them, because it's literally all there inside themselves. They just have to discover it again.

Miyako and Iori are a bit harder to decipher - they used to struggle strongly with the idea of having to make sacrifices due to their Chosen Child status and I would argue that this is still something that, if they think about it for too long, keeps them up at night. But I would still put them on the outer part of this scale - for the simple fact that they were able to integrate their partnerships into their daily lives. There may absolutely be times when they see it as a chore and annoying - but begrudgingly accept it due to the bond they share with their partners and friends.

Accepts it after coming to terms with it, transforms it positively: Hikari & Takeru, Jyou, Mimi & Ken

The viewer doesn't spend as much time with these two when it comes to how they define themselves. Hikari and Takeru, similarly to their brothers, can be assumed to be aware of their special status among the group. They're the enabling angels - and know that's why they could never quit. On the other hand, despite suffering from childhood and family-related trauma that causes them to fear darkness and separation, they seem to learn not to see it as a "burden" in itself. Unlike their siblings, they have an easier time integrating their partners into their daily lives - maybe because they hadn't been separated for as long, maybe it's because they perceive it differently due to their ages and being surrounded by people who also make it look easy. They are aware of the responsibility - and despite their strong opinions on injustice, they're still able to see the gift in it all.

Jyou, Mimi and Ken are purposefully separated from everyone, due to the fact that they were all at a point in their lives at least ONCE where they were about to quit it all for good - but eventually learned that it was something about themselves they couldn't change. Something they had to live with, if they wanted or not, even if they were ALL heavily affected by watching beloved people/mons die. Mimi loathed the idea of fighting and causing unnecessary death, Jyou repeatedly asked himself why he couldn't just live a normal life aside from outside expectations - but unlike Sora or Taichi, they actively embraced the idea that there were things only they were capable of that nobody else could. This seems to be in contrast to the idea that "being chosen is nothing special" - but these two were capable of making it work in a more casual, less spectacular way and, just like the likes of Miyako, Iori, Takeru and Hikari, were able to keep their partners as active parts of their private and/or career lives all around.

And so was Ken! Ken's journey is that of repentance, wanting to make up for what he did in the past, even if it meant sacrificing himself for that. He could easily have collapsed under that burden - if he hadn't had the right people to surround himself with, showing him that he was valuable despite his wrongdoings. And it feels like - Ken learned that lesson so thoroughly that, even though one can be sure that he still suffers from nightmares as an adult, he's also capable of helping others (just like Rui) to understand that message.

These three chose to embrace it eventually, even if there were temporary doubts.

Embraces it as part of their lives without question: Daisuke & Koushirou

I'm not saying that Daisuke WASN'T having temporary doubts of whether or not he was worthy enough to carry a digivice or even the goggles at first - but he also turned out to be the one who just "winged it" all eventually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. For him, having a partner, being chosen, meant just that - it didn't make him any more or less special than any other person on the planet with aspirations, goals or all the various life paths. Sure, he may have been flabbergasted and in awe at first, but in the end, meeting V-mon was nothing more than getting another brother AND having the ability to be badass and doing the best he could while saving the world. Despite his mask of self-importance, who knows him also knows that he's down to earth like that and just accepts it all how it is as a side gig to getting his Ramen business going.

Koushirou may be a little bit less casual about it, but for him, being chosen isn't a burden or fate or any magically connected miracle - it is a part of his identity. Yes, he may have been just as irritated by File Island and being surrounded by weird monsters as everyone else was - but he was basically the first one who just questioned it all because he simply wanted to figure it out, NOT because it was a chore. Yes, he may look exasperated at times after having helped to support saving the world(s) countless times, but for him, that is his life. He has committed himself to researching the whereabouts of the Digital World, his tech company is primarily aimed at creating gadgets to support his friends and that serve the initial cause - and his partner is basically with him 24/7 anyway.

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regina-del-cielo · 1 year ago

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Maybe it's a 'study finds water is wet' type of thought, but

considering it's an action movie whose overall plot is "immortal warriors Fuck Shit Up™️", I think it's significant that in The Old Guard the thing that makes Copley pull red strings through his Murder Conspiracy Board and say "[Merrick] doesn't care what [Andy]'s done with [her immortality]" is the people they save, not the ones they kill

Most of the Conspiracy Board is him circling random newspaper headlines and faces on old photographs to (more or less realistically) follow the immortals' treck through the world and big historical events. Which is, in-canon, not much different than putting portraits from different centuries next to a picture of Keanu Reeves and saying "they look the same, clearly Reeves is an immortal!"

But then there are the connections. A little girl holding Joe's hand in WW1 becoming the youngest (and first) woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine (suck it, Kozak). Or the grandchild of a family that Andy saved from [something] helping people escape from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.

They are warriors. They have fought and been in the midst of countless wars, major or minor, throughout history. They must have killed as many people as they saved... and yet.

It's not them taking out a random warlord or dictator or rabidly hateful politician that has tangible repercussions in history. It's the children and families they get out of war zones, save from accidents, protect from natural disasters. People to whom they give a second chance at life, and grow to change the world (or even just their own world), like a mysterious stranger once changed theirs just by holding out a hand or patching a wound.

I don't know I just think it's particularly neat

#my ponderings #the old guard #I know we all love to play the 'if you could go back in time and kill One Person who would it be' game #but I think a movie that makes it EXTREMELY SATISFYING to see the Bad Guys die -#- having 'actually the best and greatest changes happen when people help each other' as its underlying message...#it means something #I also think it connects to Andy feeling like nothing she does changes anything at the start of the movie #for 80% of her life you could Solve A Problem by Taking Out The Guy Causing The Problem #especially in battle! you kill the general and you win. if you win the Problem Is Solved #but then everything becomes More Complex. the Problems™️ are globalized and/or systemic.#and Winning a Battle means just killing people. it doesn't Stop The Problem (nor really end a war)#so it feels useless #and even when they save people... they can’t stay in people's lives for long because immortality #which means they can never know what happens to the people they save #they don't (and can't) have the full picture

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euthymiya · 1 month ago

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I change my vision depending on the selfship tbh

#riv rambles #I know some people have a set one but #I really do think depending on the selfship and the setting #the vision and the archon/message of said vision #would vary #like for example with alhaitham it’s electro because #I interpret electro vision wielders to be people of a specific ambition or goal #raiden and eternity or yae and freeing ei or dori and mora or kujo sara and being loyal to the shogun or cyno and upholding justice #there’s a hyper specific goal that all electro vision wielders are very centered and focused around that they are canonically vry ambitious #about achieving/maintaining #with alhaitham my selfship insert is very ambitious and dedicated to integration of desert children to the akademiya and just better #integration of the desert folks in the political system in general in sumeru #and with Wriothesley and Kinich it would be pyro because #I interpret pyro vision wielders to have one specific passion that they are very attached to #it’s not more so an ambition but more so a constant that they hold very dear and are passionate about #amber with the knights and klee with her explosives and lyney with magic and xiangling with cooking and yoimiya w fireworks + yanfei w law #bennett with adventuring and Hu Tao with business and xinyan with music and again the list goes on #anyway I think in the case of my selfship with wrio my insert is rather passionate about prison reform and in my selfship with Kinich it #centers around being passionate about the nation itself and natlan’s wellbeing/safety in an ongoing war with the abyss #and with ayato its cryo bc i think cryo vision wielders are people who have two sides of themselves constantly at battle #diona hates alcohol but makes fantastic drinks. kaeya conflicted with loyalty to his ancestry vs his nation atm. Eula conflicted with her #clan identity vs being a knight. Ayaka conflicted with duty vs living life as she pleases. shenhe and ganyu struggle between the adeptal #and human worlds since they’re involved with both #qiqi is alive but dead. freminet is loyal to the house of the hearth but wishes to also be free. and wrio ofc is in some ways a hero and #in some ways a criminal and those conflicting natures of his actions are at odds with each other very complexly so #ANYWAY #ofc again the list goes on but #for ayato I would consider my insert a cryo wielder because I think that being an arranged marriage #there’s conflict of duty vs personal choice and freedom but also not wanting to hold affection for him at first vs developing it anyway #labeling myself to one vision element for my insert all across the board I suppose leaves no room for the nuances of visions themselves

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skaruresonic · 12 days ago

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actually, yesterday I started playing Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask for the PS2.

it's a pretty good game! plays a bit like a pared-down FF7 without all the bells and whistles, but it's a fairly solid experience otherwise. Sango is best girl <3

#some segments are vn-esque in that you get to choose which of the cast to hang out with after each rest stop in a new town #the game definitely has that old rpg-style feel #where you walk five steps and have an enemy encounter #the battle system isn't quiiiiite as complex as ff7's but it's still fairly involved. your team is well-rounded #you play as a self-insert character whose gender you get to choose at the start of the game #I like them! kinda wish they'd been in the anime or the manga ;A;#one really sick thing I liked though was the fact that they made short animated sequences for each of the combined moves #that is to say you can deal a lot of damage at once if you pair two characters together in one turn and perform a combo attack #it's really cool to see especially since in the source material not all the characters got to spend much time together #seeing shippou and sango pull off a duo foxfire/chain attack was HYPE

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golden-stag · 6 months ago

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I miss my wife. I miss her a lot :(.

(3v3 battles in Guilty Gear)

#thats another thing I really like about xx! the 3v3 battle system!!#I think 3v3 has come to mean team battles but I specifically mean xx 3v3 #where you and your opponent choose 3 characters each to cycle through in a fight #when one of you loses you forfeit the right to use the character and move onto the next one #while whoever won keeps their character but also whatever their health was by the end of the round #... I don't know if I actually need to explain this-#but it's really fun! but I think its only in xx?#guilty gear #guilty gear xx

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dravidious · 1 year ago

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You're pretty damn cool

I have a ton of untouched games in my steam library, yet I'm currently playing through my old copy of Fossil Fighters Champions, and it's fucking bonkers. This game has the most ridiculous plot points. In one scene a digging robot is breaking through a rock, but it starts running out of battery, so the main character starts trying to help (to no effect), and the robot is like "You are attempting to assist me? Thank you sir or madam. I now know why it is that humans smile. Battery at 100%, diggingdiggingdiggingdigging-" and that's just A THING that happens with no explanation. That robot wasn't even hinted to be sapient at all until that moment, and no one is like "holy fuck the digging robot has emotions" or anything, it just happens. And those kinds of moments are all over the game. This game does the most absurd things ever, I love it so much.

#asks #i haven't felt this inspired since i replayed pmd gates to infinity and saw characters bursting into tears so often #that was what inspired me to write pmd stories #and now fossil fighters is doing stupid bullshit every 10 minutes and refusing to justify itself and i LOVE IT #this game's writing is ABSURD #i want to harness this energy #at one point you and a bunch of villains get swallowed by a whale #it has nothing to do with that section's plot it just happens #shit just HAPPENS #the gameplay is also solid #both the fossil cleaning and the really unique battle system #though i'm on new game+ so i have overleveled dinosaurs to wreck everything with #i'm gonna do a more toned-down playthrough after this with reasonable-strength dinos #if you have a ds (or an emulator but it needs touch screen controls sometimes so idk) i highly recommend fossil fighters champions #or just watch a playthrough or the cutscenes on youtube #my hacked 3ds is acting up but once i get it working properly again i'm pirating the other 2 games in the series #i really really hope this writing style is present throughout the series #i played fossil fighters 1 but it was over a decade ago so i don't remember what it was like

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iturbide · 2 years ago

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I'm curious, what would your ideal FE be?

And do you have any particular FE concepts in mind?

So, fun fact: I actually talked about this a while back.

...and by 'a while back,' I mean 'five years ago,' because time is soup.

So because that's a heck of a lot longer than I remember and a lot changes in that amount of time, let's come at this fresh and see what changes and what doesn't.

So I still really want to keep the lead character concept: dual sword/mage older sister and priest younger brother (with natural promotion to dual healer/mage) is a nice shift on the usual Fire Emblem formula, where we rarely see female Lords in the lead who are set to inherit the throne or male healers (and I can't recall the last time one was a prince, barring Brady with Chrom as his father and I guess Forrest though he's not in the immediate line of succession since he's Siegbert's cousin meaning Xander and Siegbert would need to be removed from the equation before he'd be in line for the throne but since Leo's a prince I think that technically akes him one too and now I'm just going down a rabbit hole of technicalities).

Intro/tutorial would be fairly run-of-the-mill, border skirmish type thing against a small incursion from a neighboring nation and going out to take care of it. But something I think would be fascinating is an expansion on the usual mid-battle recruitment and the option to spare foes that we saw at times in Three Houses: I want every main chapter enemy to have a name and unique portrait. I want there to be a frankly ridiculous number of characters who could theoretically be recruited depending on who approaches them, and I want every enemy to have an option to spare them even if they're not recruited.

Think of it: you go into battle and you see that every enemy is an individual. Every enemy is someone you can engage with. And you can approach any one of them with any of your units and talk to them. As you play, you start to get to know the different personalities of your units: someone may have a kind and gentle approach that's more likely to convince someone who's not exactly keen on fighting -- but that same approach might get steamrolled over by another person that's more set in their ways. Conversely, one of your units might be blunt and straightforward, and could butt heads in a constructive way with someone like that, but whose approach would scare off a more timid foe. Maybe approaching another unit with a character just recruited in the same battle can be helpful -- one of them bringing a friend or close ally over, because they don't want to hurt each other -- or maybe it can backfire spectacularly, with the enemy unit accusing your new ally of stabbing his comrades in the back, which shuts down all attempts at conversation.

It could be an interesting risk/reward system that encourages getting familiar with your various units beyond just their mechanical strengths and weaknesses: knowing their personalities and being able to employ them to take enemies off the field and bloodlessly thin the ranks could be a lot of fun -- plus, it's something that's not required. You don't have to try and bring them to your side -- you can breeze past those little dialogue snippets and just take them out if you want. And at the end of combat, if they weren't recruited, you have an option to spare them or kill them. If you spare them, you might see them again in another battle, and maybe they'll remember you: maybe you'll have another chance to recruit them, and more success the second time around because your actions challenged their preconceived notions about you. If you kill them, though, you might run into someone else later on -- a sibling, a relative, a friend -- who can't be reached at all because their quest is one of vengeance against the one that murdered someone they loved.

And then: what if that built into Supports. What if recruiting units off the battlefield had long-running effects based on how that unit was used? If someone was initially hesitant to join you, and then you bench them permanently, maybe they desert your force after a while because they felt isolated and lacked any kind of community since no work had been done building a new support network for them. Maybe someone else was a little too eager to join based on their impression of your army, and if you build out their Supports it becomes clear that their character has goals that are entirely at odds with the main characters' -- but because those Supports also gave them an understanding of the disconnect, they end up betraying you at some point to get what they want. Recruitment becomes a mechanic that needs to be considered, rather than just a 'collect them all' thing, because indiscriminate recruiting can backfire on you down the road.

With that many characters, of course, it would be completely insane to have all of them as combat units -- so what if some recruits unlock camp options. Maybe they're hesitant to fight against their own people directly, but they want to help and learn more about your force, so they offer non-combat skills: cooking, hunting, fishing, foraging, various sorts of combat/weaponry training, medical aid, merchant services. Similar to Three Houses monastery activities, you can pick a couple of combat units and send them to do different tasks that help keep your forces in fighting shape, building support bonds and learning things about the non-combat units in the process.

One thing I definitely want to see though is a reversal on the stereotypical Divine Dragon and Evil Dragon dichotomy. I want the main characters to talk about their Divine with absolute reverence, I want them to refer to their Divine as their protector and guardian, I want them to make their Divine out to be so kind and compassionate -- and then at some point deep in the game, I want it revealed that their Divine is the one that's seen as that world's Ultimate Evil. I want their Divine to look incredibly daunting, too, big and dark and toothy and terrifying -- but the main characters have nothing but respect for it, and it's eventually proven (maybe through calling it for aid against the threat of the neighboring nation's Divine) that their faith is not misplaced nor mistaken, and their Divine is everything they claim it is.

I still really like the split narrative concept, too, with the two siblings having different stories and different objectives: the kidnapped brother would likely have missions emphasizing escape or endurance (which takes advantage of his status as a healer), while the questing sister would have more objectives to rout an enemy or defeat a particular foe. Odds are that the narrative would begin with a single straightforward story, then split at the kidnapping, and only join together again at the very end before the closing chapters (so you could bring your favorites from both sides of the story to the final confrontation, but wouldn't get all the out of battle/camp stuff).

And above all: I wouldn't want it to be a story that ends with unification under a single banner. A lot of Fire Emblem games have this as their 'ideal' final state, and that's just never worked for me. I would want every nation to remain independent -- maybe with more connections, an openness to diplomatic discussion and free trade, possibly some leadership changes -- rather than having one country dissolved into another.

#answered #unsuspecting-person #extra fun fact: this has been in my inbox for weeks #because i was sure i'd talked about something like this before #i just couldn't remember when or where #it took me this long to find it #because again: five years is a really long time #because of the heavy emphasis on support building #the system for building support points would need tweaking #so that it's not a pain to achieve like it is in engage #pair up/adjutants and out of battle activities are a must #also the open recruitment/unique character stuff #would have to be main story only #skirmishes would be way too much to manage #maybe there would be one specific skirmish recruit #a merchant or something #but most skirmishes would be against puppets/constructs #for more incidental things: only one gen and no timeskip #the thing about character diversity and sensible armor stands #and way more support options #romantic platonic all kinds of rivalries from friendly to bitter #i want it all #this is way too complicated for a fire emblem #but it doesn't stop me from thinking about it a lot #i already have part of a character roster #because of course i do

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