#i really miss the DS era a lot

[miiversian]

[harksness]

Agatha Reader Insert Blurb (SFW)

Ok idk how many ppl are gonna read this but pls I would love for this to be a bit of a discussion for how people would apply this to themselves/their little pleasures.

Agatha is really good at staying up to date with things as the times change. She needs to make sure she fits in so she doesn't rouse any suspicion, right? So she has to, for survival. Fashion trends, politics, current events, and so on she's on top of.. But she's not good at staying up to date with music. She's horrible about it. You needed to explain everyone from Nirvana to Britney Spears to Billie Eilish to her.

When the 70s hit, she fell in love with that era and hasn't left it. The Cure, Elton John, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, (heavy on Fleetwood Mac), and she just hasn't really kept up since. She's listened to Rumors on repeat since it was released. (Just from vibes alone I feel like she'd love Dreams and probably crushed on Stevie Nicks.)

When you two start dating and you realize this, you think it's so cute. You listen to all of her favorite albums and songs, and love to listen to her stories from the concerts she's gone to. She ends up being a bit of a music dork, she loved going to concerts back in the day but as her favorite artists grew older and slowed down with touring she stopped going to shows.

So you introduce her to more music to bring that love back out of her. (Going off of my favorite musicians) she loves Weezer (Only in Dreams!!), Green Day (LAST NIGHT ON EARTH??), Bastille (Icarus, The Anchor, Warmth??) Chappell Roan, and unexpectedly, Britney Spears!! Also specifically Dragula by Rob Zombie. ("Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches" it should be her badass theme song lmao) (Feel free to add on in the comments w your favorite artists + songs you think she'd like!!)

She'll always go back to her old music taste, but you do notice her peppering in some songs you introduced to her and humming Pink Pony Club to herself.

You bought general admissions tickets to see your favorite artist and surprised her with them. And she's so excited, a wide smile on her face and eyes scrunched up in the cutest way. She looks up the set list to make sure she knows every song.

Because even though she's really good at staying up to date with most things, some stuff slips through the cracks. Or she doesn't have time for all of it. But it's easy for you to see just how much she enjoys discovering things she's missed out on, curiosity seeping through her voice as her wondering eyes light up with interest and it just really tugs on your heart. So you're always trying to find little things she doesn't know about yet.

Poptarts? She's like tf are those let me try them now. She loves the cookies and cream flavor but can only eat one because she thinks they're too sugary. You show her your old DS from when you were young? She gets addicted to Animal Crossing, Agnes is her favorite villager and she loves having you sit and watch her play. Tik Tok? She gets weirdly into Reddit stories. She tries to deny it and calls them stupid while she goes to find part two. Then continues to gossip about the story with you. Then points out everything that makes it obviously fake. (Add any more in the comments that relate to you or you'd just see from her!)

I just feel like Agatha has devoted over three hundred years to magic and big, huge things and adventures that she never gets to really indulge in the little pleasures in life. She has a lot of them to catch up on. While she tries to deny having any interest in it, she really does love when you show her the fun, pointless little things she's missed out on and just a sweet way the two of you really bond.

[cupcraft]

Ranboo rebrand stream important stuff in one single post!:

if anything i missed pls rb and add on!

chat etiquette! They are going to be more strict with this (but not for new chatters honest mistakes).

Ban 101 -> the number 1 rule:

racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, discrimination. Instant ban, no excuse. Even bigoted jokes! 0 tolerance! you will be banned from even viewing the streams. This even counts on doing it on other streamer's chats/platforms if found out!

More rules: be funny (please!) and chill and kind and use emotes (including BTTV), dont spam chat (will be fixed/enforced bc of past issues),

other tidbits/news:

the vtuber/stuff will evolve over time, there are different vtuber outfits/costumes planned (ex they have an mcc outfit already!), the room in the background will change, they will be reaching out to ppl for collabs (feel free to recommend people but do not spam their chats!), planning to do more irl streams (will be weird/experimental and they will go wild! They will be making weird stuff!), they also have plans that they are excited to tell and its been a long time coming (this may be the cake video but i couldnt tell in stream), ranboo bakes a cake 2 will be coming TOMORROW on youtube (23 mins and incredible! they laughed at themself), ranboo plans to do experimental stuff on youtube (they have gotten into film lately!), founder's cut of gen 1 of genloss will be coming out 2-3 months ?? date/end of year, the vtuber ranjacket will be a part of the merch drop prototype at vidcon (physical jacket!), will be doing competitive/events with people (like organized little thing) (content/what it is undetermined) and he wants it to be obscure and random, ranboowaslive will start to ramp up a bit (more clips/compilations to come esp if you dont enjoy long vod watching), ranboo will be eating a nintendo DS cartridge live on stream (a joke!), MORE SURPRISES KEPT AS A SECRET + tiny plans in the works, they are moving into the new place/still have boxes to unpack (vtuber lore), he may finish the last of us part 2, subathon (really like back to back fun streams/long streams/playthrough of long games like omori) in january probably, splatoon may return,

What does the new era mean/qna stuff?

talking about old content is fine as long as you recognize that it is the PAST and not the kind of content ranboo makes now. Do not "put them back in the box".

Vtuber: will not be used all the time. They will do facecam streams too. Depends on how he feels.

why the r800: the 8 looks like a b LMAO

this is just the start of rebrand. He will re-establish a lot, things will be easier to find/reorganized, slowly over the weeks things will be changing.

what will happen tothe alt twitter (ranaltboo)?: new pfp, same energy (see below my shitty sc). art creds to mochi!

not only just a rebrand for him and the look of the content. But also it is a rebrand of how they act around and view their own content. they may not be as in the community as he has been (liking fanart/in chat/etc.) out of recommendation from people! If ranboo needs to be aware of something THEY HAVE PEOPLE to make him aware of important issues/emergencies and they will be focusing more on themself and the content overall. they are thankful to be allowed to do this, as they dont want to keep seeing things they dont want to see/have that anxiety. Less scrolling = more content!

They will probably have longer streams again!

will move to more mature jokes/phrases and may have content labels on the streams. Overall, streams will be pg-13 mostly.

TITS stands for twitch integrated throwing system [insert ranboo's giggle here]

All proceeds donated to ranboo's channel only go to charity! Not to them at all! They have a list of charities that he supports and will be changed 1-3 months at a time like usual!

Please make stuff. This is how he gets ppl who edit and the emote makers/artists. Not forced. Just encouraging ppl who make stuff to make stuff and he appreciates it and loves it! Even if it is not about him just make it! AND SUPPORT ARTISTS BOOBERS!

[ghenry]

What do you think of GHMs more "Mainstream" titles such as LC, SoTD and NMH3 compared against their more underground works like Killer7, Silver Case and NMH1. I find the latter has a sense of mystique and weirdness that's missing from the former when the studio seemed pigeon-holed in a brand of "Sex, Violence and quirky"

I've been meaning to write about this here, so good question! I gave it a lot of thought after finding a JPN copy of Killer Is Dead and seeing this within the box;

Here's a quote of Suda reflecting on the production of said game;

Suda was not interested in eroticism when it came to his company's games. However, the more mainstream games GHM made (without his direction) were full of instances that were little more than eye candy. Sex appeal for the sake of it. And much of that was against Suda's will;

Paula running around in a thong (and even tits out a couple times if you played the NA version) throughout Shadows of the Damned also reminds me of Tim Rogers recalling his time working at Grasshopper as a designer in the late 2000s. He sat in a lot of meetings with Suda talking to EA and mentioned a time Suda talked about a save function idea he thought of while reflecting on Travis always using a toilet to save in the NMH games.

An early idea was Garcia going to bed with a woman every time he had to save. This was likely when the game was still going to be open world-ish and Garcia was single. From how Tim Rogers talked about this, it was pretty much the only idea Suda had that EA actually showed interest in. Obviously this idea never panned out, instead saving being delegated to a little demon that poops to signify a saved game. Funny that it connects to NMH's toilet save function in that way.

Something else worth bringing up would be the "gigolo missions" from Killer Is Dead. This also derived from a concept Suda had for Shadows of the Damned where Garcia was gonna take girls out on dates, bring flowers, and it'd actually be cute and romantic. At least, from how he described it.

(These screenshots are from Feel the Magic, a DS game where you played mini-games as you tried to win the heart of a girl throughout the story)

This idea was repurposed for Killer Is Dead, but, according to Suda, the sexual aspects of it were conjured up by Hideyuki Shin, the game's director. Therefore, it devolved into x-ray glasses, staring at boobs, and giving gifts to a robot that repeated animations. A cannibalization of the original concept.

Suda seemed afraid of Grasshopper's reputation being mutated into an identity he didn't consent to. Sex appeal is not something he really thinks about when it comes to making games. It's not his style;

The only times Suda has shown sexuality in the games he directed is when it's discomforting or deeply disturbing, almost never for eye candy.

I still appreciate games like Shadows of the Damned, Killer Is Dead, and Lollipop Chainsaw. As much as this era of GHM was railroaded to chasing some mainstream trends and trying too hard to be quirky, they still had unique aspects that help them stand out above other games of the same subgenre. But I can't help but notice a fissure between these games and the ones he actually directed. The nuance, mystery, and thought-provoking stories are most prominent when he's the one directing.

I'm not going to fault people for liking eroticism and such in video games. I've played plenty of horny games too, and there's obviously an appeal there. But anyone still expecting that from Suda is barking up the wrong tree. Looking at how he's been handling everything since 2018 makes it even sadder when you reflect how these publishers tried cramming Grasshopper Manufacture into this box they didn't want to be in.

One last thing I have to retort, though. I don't lump No More Heroes 3 with the quirky "mainstream" games the way you did in the question. Sure, NMH3 definitely went for a more mainstream marketing plan and the game got super silly at times, but it still has an interesting narrative with a ton of nuance. Way more than any GHM game between 2010-2016. Hence my 4+ hour long analysis of the game;

Many people even rejected this game outright because the eroticism and scantily-clad female cast was mostly absent. This was likely expectations they built after experiencing games like NMH2, SotD, LC, etc.

Speaking a bit more on the sense of eroticism, it's funny to think how that was admittedly present in NMH1, obnoxiously expanded upon in NMH2, and then mostly done away with in NMH3. Going as far as turning Naomi--and her balloon tits--into a goddamn tree!

However, I don't believe Suda turned Naomi into a tree for the sole purpose of removing her sex appeal. I believe this just further accentuates how that aspect is not something he's interested in or finds important for the game itself. He likely didn't even think of it that way, but instead "Hey, she should be a tree now."

And then there's Kimmy, whose death was not only a very harrowing moment in the game, it was also depicted in a sexual manner. Similar to Bad Girl's death in the original NMH. Note the motions and angles in her death scene.

Like I said, this rather disturbing sense of sexuality is more Suda's vibe. And I'm happy to see he hasn't lost that edge, so many years later. Anyway, thanks for the question! I had a lot of fun writing out this answer.

[boyslit]

just rambles and thoughts

i think having to wait 36 hours for my phone to dry out kicked some sort of clinginess to social media and just my phone in general. i mightve been extra clingy with the despair/disappointment/self-loathing from the no longer having a job thing

it also completely blew my mistplay streak which was over 430 days but like. also i dont really care? if we could actually get better points for long streaks that'd be one thing but it's literally only two points a day no matter what so there's no incentive for a streak.

hm. anyway i guess i mean i've not been on tumblr as much either, on average. partner and i are watching a playthrough of ghost trick by one of our favorite streamers and it's a delight. i miss the DS era, a lot

fingers crossed the snap approval comes in soon. im running out of gatorade powder and i would like for us to have some vegetables, soup and fruit that bf doesnt feel guilty eating -_- and i want some chcocolate...............

i think i've been betterish? recently at not eating so much processed sugar. trying to eat more vegetals. and fruit and granola in my yogurt. i do have to have something packaged next to my bed for waking up and taking meds tho. if i dont eat my stomach starts dragging a sharp knife very loudly along the lining of my stomach in a threatening manner

still need to improve vegetal intake tho. i dont like most things. carrots are hard to chew and i can only eat peppers and celery cooked. corn is blegh. i maybe eat too many green beans but like thats good for me ig

idk. gonna eat my yogurt. no more cascadia farms granola, i dont want rice krispies messing up my crunchy texture >:(

[onebizarrekai]

Hello, you used to do these things for ds characters a long time ago, like:

B A S I C S

full name:

gender:

sexuality:

pronouns:

And other-

Could you do this for Error or Cross(or both) please? I need it for my friend and his project-

sorry it's been like 100 years since I got this but anyway I feel like those characters have become so inconsistent it's tricky to narrow them down. if you ask modern me their names are ellie [last name missing] and victoria crow respectively, both are she/her, and none of the characters have articulated sexualities anymore besides Not Straight for imaginative ease. or if you're asked me from 4 years ago they're just error and cross and they probably are still trapped in the undertale dark ages of men who wish they were fashion disaster enough to fit in jojo's bizarre adventure.

do you mean like you want the WHOLE thing? like the whole whole thing? I just searched back and found the text base. dreamswap has plot holes and changed so much around its later era in it that it's difficult to articulate the details, but I can TRY.

ds ellie (to differentiate from the fatal flaws universe) was raised in an ambiguous institution (in other words, an orphanage) and has no mentioned relationship to her parents nor where she lives, barring the implication that she lives in an underground city. ds vick was born… somewhere in the spectrum of the multiverse, in a chunk of real estate owned by the ds version of big bad xgaster and it wasn't established who her familial relations were in this version. half the characters in ds are also conveniently unemployed and this includes the entire meme squad. ellie and vick's phobias have yet to be articulated because it was never that important to the plot. in other, less jokey words, I would say phobias are much more severe and neurological than bad memories or unpleasant situations. I don't really wanna say that ellie has a phobia of human connection or that vick is has a phobia of defeat or something. they have bad things that remind them of bad things and may even be debilitating, but I haven't had a chance to articulate them in writing or even figure out entirely how to do that or how they might relate to any given story. I never decided whether they had any irrational fears either. same thing for the next inquiry; what their guilty pleasures might be. all I can come up with is that vick likes fighting, and it's not always the wholesome kind.

morality alignment. uhhhh. it's complicated. people are complicated. the whole next list of character traits that split everyone into one half of the chart or the other feel like they're not accounting for any hypothetical specifics. like, I could say ellie is agreeable, but she's capable of doing things that make her disagreeable to many others. vick could be disagreeable to the people she picks fights with but she's capable of being agreeable to others. either one of them could be more optimistic depending on the circumstances. vick's carefree attitude could be read as optimism or nihilism. some of them are more cut and dry (for example, I'm sure both of them are anxious messes, which is common for their age), but I feel like saying it doesn't really say as much as just reading the material that exists of the characters… and said material is already only semi-reliable at best.

basically, I have this image in my head of the complex potential of each ds character, but none of them have really grown into it. you get what I mean? there's a lot of character details that aren't very clear simply because the characters were created, but not wholly written. not wholly developed. I'm not saying I have contempt for them or something, or wish I had done more. they just have something they COULD be one day. more complete versions of themselves. versions of them that I started out imagining back in 2018, but the directions I was going in with what I was making resulted in those versions of them not being fully realized. a character can only go so far with bouts of lore and minimal continuity.

I dunno if any of that even matters. it's probably more useful for me to just give yes or no answers, but I just kinda felt like talking about ds and its characters and how they've aged. maybe they'll end up in some medium one day that focuses more on who they could be rather than just their backstories and they'll be more fleshed out then.

[bryastar]

word salad #4

happy twilight Thursday!

today is a work day and something I'm thinking about right now is, yes just because this may be a daily blog doesn't necessarily mean I need to go into full detail about how every part of my days go. otherwise I'd be ranting about work for a vast majority of these entires.

so instead I wanna talk about... retro 3D platformers

a while back I came across a game called Cavern of Dreams. it claims itself to be inspired by retro 3D platformers. it features low poly graphics and textures with simple lighting effects, reminiscent of late N64 games. the gameplay feels very much like if Conker's Bad fur day was lighthearted and wholesome. what's also neat is camera controls are more reminiscent of later games, Mario sunshine and Zelda wind waker immediately come to mind for me. I've gotten through the first part of the game and really loving it so far, and the controls are probably the best I've seen in a long time.

but while thinking about this, I sorta made a bit of a realization... growing up, games like this were referred to as adventure games instead of 3d platformers. heck, I don't think I've seen the term "platformer" until around the mid 2000s. even Mario games I think we're more well known as action adventure games, or Zelda games being a puzzle adventure. PC adventure games tend to be point and click games, which is vastly different than what consoles typically offered. I personally think that NSMB for the DS may be in part why we now make this distinction as the 2D Mario games play vastly different than their 3D games, notably being easier to pick up and play.

but while on this thought train, I sorta began to wonder what sort of similarities that 3D platformers from this era had vs a point and click adventure game. what I ended up deciding on was: exploration. point and click games, you topically make progress by exploring the world around you and finding clues and solving puzzles by exploring the environment and talking to npcs. 3d platformers is... actually kinda the same, while typically focusing on item collecting, many similar elements show up such as exploring worlds and finding ways to progress by interacting with the levels and different characters.

while on that thought about collecting items...

a lot of late 90s and early 2000s platformers would feature collecting a long list of items. one prominent example is donkey Kong 64, which tends to be known as the game that killed collectathons. I have some thoughts on but I'll save for another entry, but I guess I will say that calling such games a collectathon very much misses the point of what the game is actually about. is it a game where you are sent out into a level and made to collect all the random items scattered on the ground, or is it a game where you're friends have been captured and your hoard of bananas have been stolen and you must rescue your friends and recover your bananas in order to progress while learning new moves and meeting interesting creatures who either help you or try to intervene. I dunno about most, but I like the latter premise better. (or maybe I out much more weight on a storyline for a game as opposed to the gameplay)

I hope this entry wasn't too hard or confusing to read, I guess I'm mostly rambling and jotting down bits and pieces of what's in my mind when I get a couple minutes of free time.

uhm..

pineapples (I need a better way to end these aa)

[katyspersonal]

Re: This post

First off, congrats on three years, girlie!! This is so cool, man. I love seeing Soulsborne games change people’s worlds and give them passion and inspiration for years afterwards <333

(Now hurry up and get to over ten years like me you scrub 😎😎)

Asfghajsdg but in all seriousness, I love that we both started getting active around the BB tumblr fandom around the same time, because even though I was a Soulsborne junkie, I had never found a stable group of lore-friends to enjoy it with, and throughout 2020-2021, I was just drifting aimlessly after watching my old fandom community collapse.

I had been only using tumblr for random shit on another account before this one, but one day I looked up something about the Doll and Gehrman, kinda wondering if the whole “Even the Doll” creep-theory had any other interpretations. I just didn’t like the idea that Miyazaki had written his main “sad old man” of Bloodborne to be a weirdo because it didn’t sound…right? Something felt really off lol. His “sad old men” types usually are dark because of their grave mistakes that led to the deaths of people they cared about/innocent people.

It’s always more tragic than it is gross, and Miyazaki is big on that type of story-telling. He likes his refinement. Sure enough, that gave me the hunch that the Doll wasn’t…ya know.

And voila! I stumble across your brilliant post! I think it was one of the things that made me finally create a Soulsborne blog because I wanted to reblog it. I’m not sure if that’s the exact timeline, but it was definitely part of what drew me over here.

And now here we are, going strong, trying to move on after going through fandom drama hell, and it’s been three years!

Honesty? You are kicking ass <3

Girl you say this, but at the almost same time, Fantomette also started scouting the fandom and figured she wanted to stick with me over that post :pensive: That post makes me extremely nostalgic! It was just... so chill, so nice, so leveled. 0% fatigue. Where did that nice version of me go and who is this angry unlikeable bitch typing this ask response now? xD

But yeah, overall, Soulsborne games are just written in such a way that it genuinely helps to know all of them on at least basic story level to understand each of them individually! The more I learned about reoccuring themes in other games in the series, the better my lore understanding became. You know I would not do shit on Research Hall and Deep Sea without DS3, or better grasp ER characters without entire DS trilogy! If you don't want to play, just learn their themes and story, I promise it helps a lot!

Anyways thank you for the nice words; I had not even noticed how fast the time went by! It feels like I have not done "enough" considering three years span, but maybe I am underestimating myself and focusing too much comparing amount of my drawings compared with faster and more talented artists. After all, fandomry is first about discussions and passion, and I've had nothing BUT that on the way x) So yeah, let's just give up and die watch fandom crash and burn. Because, you know what? THE very "system" that made it crash and burn to begin with will also, eventually, crash and burn, and something good will sprout from the ruins. And we won't miss it! Except, that good era will also crash and burn eventually. And then the thing that destroyed it will. And then what people build from THOSE ruins will. And then another thing... and another thing... and another thing.....

STILL I want you to be there for me through every turn of the downward spiral, you chicken <3 *stabs u affectionately*

[tomyo]

Sonic and The Black Knight

There is something depressingly stressful that I've managed to run through about half of my Sonic games while sort of making it through one of my HM games for this challenge I've set myself on. Maybe that's for the best considering any given Sonic game I could want usually doesn't cost more than $15 while most Harvest Moon games can hit the 40s (we're talking DS era ones). By their nature, they are two widely different gameplay styles but it really hits that the two Wii games I'm going through (Black Knight and Animal Parade) have a average play time difference of 3 1/2 hours to 60 hours.

Yes, a whole home console game is THAT short. I am not saying that isn't a common occurrence for Sonic games to be quick and finish able very fast but having gotten through over half the story in less than two hours, I'm surprised how light it is.

Sonic is summoned, he's given the lore through two stages, separates from Merlina to go to the black smith for another 4 levels, spends about 8 with Nimue alongside her secret second test, and by then it's revealed that he needs to collect all 3 swords from his opponents of Arthur's court (two of which you already got). I'm already down to the last ~3 of the story in which (spoilers for a 15 year old game) I fight Gawain, fight Arthur, and face Merlina who I guess just isn't here?¿? I think that's the most surprising given how prominent she felt. Really Caliburn is your guide character in this game and he really does trigger the Soul Eater comparison using Fool a little too frequently.

I'm still happy to have gotten the game for the sake of my little shipper heart. At the same time, I've been streaming Sonic Adventure daily for the sake of aesthetics and have had to struggle explaining my feelings on Amy's character and her relationship to Sonic. Yapping into the aether of my surprisingly active chat that I stand by Sonic and Amy are officially unofficial is HARD to do without hitting twenty other hot takes. Black Knight takes place at peak for the mini arc of their relationship; Sonic accepts a date with Amy in Unleashed and this games interrupts said date alongside the dubious canon of Dark Brotherhood and Amy's fake boyfriend arc. He even had bought food for the two of them in the opening cinematic only for all of that to be undone by Generations :').

Gameplay wise, I don't have much to say. It's one of the most waggle heavy games. My attempts to properly fight bosses was met with finding out aggressive waggle was the actual goal. The idea of the game play is fun but I'm less certain with the actual execution. But what I think best sells this game is the art; more beautiful and atmospheric cgs, a mixture of Gaelic knots in a frutegar style, cutscenes based on woodblocks, and gorgeous music for that dumb part of me still thinking it's special to say I'm Irish. The gallery is full of great bits to unlock especially since there are 3 fanart videos of submitted art. I feel a lot of things since this was around my entry point into the online fandom; shit I missed submitting stuff, of course the JP artists are higher quality drawings, and I think I recognize some of the USA art.

Sonic and the Black Knight is what I would call solid. It's compact but what's there is good. Because of this backlog adventure/sonic catch up challenge, I'm grateful for that. I only have so much time for games and short isn't always bad.

[ghastigiggles]

IM NOT NORMAL ABOUT OKAMI PLEASE ELABORATE

-🥯

OK so if you dont know what Okami is and why it getting a sequel almost 20 years after its initial release is such a big deal;

Okami was a game made by Clover Studios under Capcom's ownership that follows the story of the Goddess Amaterasu in wolf form restoring an edo-era Nippon with the power of art, companionship, and resolve, and it is a beautiful game that still makes me cry every time I play it (it's available on almost every platform. if you don't own this game SOMEWHERE you are missing out.)

Unfortunately Clover ended up shutting its doors and Capcom admin ended up fighting a lot with the game's director, Kamiya, alongside several other members of staff. While they had their own plans and thoughts for an Okami sequel, Capcom shut them down every time, and Okami became a cult classic for awhile. There was a spiritual successor by way of a DS game in OkamiDen, which follows Amaterasu's son, but it genuinely kinda kerfucked like All of the established canon and had (iirc) none of the original writing or directorial staff onboard. It was all the fandom really had and we still love it, but it's kind of wildly re-interpreted and rewritten to mesh a little better with the universe when possible.

Since the release of Okami HD on PC in 2017, there's been on and off whispers of a potential sequel, since Capcom seemed invested in porting the original release forward to keep it alive. Kamiya reportedly expressed interest, but little hope - until 2 years ago, when there was a video post with him and another writer (I'm so sorry I don't remember her name) saying that they had been in negotiations with Capcom to revive the series.

At that point a lot of the fandom didn't want to get our hopes up since the bad blood seemed to run deep.

Tonight at the Game Awards, it was announced that Kamiya is directing a hard-confirmed Okami Sequel.

I'm actively sobbing by the way so if the delivery here is fucked I'm so sorry I just. This game is THE game to me. It means everything. The fact that we actually will get new content for this thing that quite literally changed the trajectory of my fucking life is just. Oh my god

[glitch-in-the-code]

i had a wii u that i played the hell out of and it makes me really sad to hear people talk about it the way they do. like, sure, nintendo made a lot of bizarre decisions regarding it, but it also had so many good games despite that. it was an awkward console but i feel like neither gamers nor nintendo afforded it any grace and now because of it stuff like the miis are being phased out entirely because nintendo associates them with that awkward "failure" and wants to adopt professionalism. i miss the little game loading jingles and startup animations! i miss the miis! there was so much charm in the wii/ds and wii u/3ds era that's just gone now.

YES!!!! YOU UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY!!!!!

I miss booting it up and seeing the miis in the plaza!! I miss the fun miiverse posts, I miss the fun icons the games had!!

I played Minecraft on the Wii U for hours and apparently the game is considered rare on the console!

I honestly think the Wii U was a brilliant successor to the Wii and everyone was too blind to realize that

[probablygayattorneys]

While we're on the topic of the remake of Another Code

(⚠️ SPOILERS FOR THE WII SEQUEL PART OF THE GAME⚠️ I'm going to try to not get into it in too much detail but I'm still putting the warning up)

I personally never owned a Wii, and for the longest time I wasn't even aware there was a sequel, so I was very excited to experience it for the first time in the Switch remake. I played it completely with no prior knowledge at all and i thought it was nice! But after finishing the game and doing some research about the sequel, it turns out they especially changed a lot of stuff compared to the original Wii game. I think they changed more in the sequel than in the original DS game?

There were some changes that were pretty nice, like them adding a couple more characters of colour when previously, Ashely and her mom were the only non-white people in the whole cast. I also like some of the characters' redesigns way more than their original designs.

Some other changes were a bit understandable, I guess. Like the remake completely removing two extremely minor NPCs who only had like 2 or 3 lines. Sure, that's fine

The changes that surprised me the most though, was the game completely changing a major character's backstory. In the original game, the character is alive, but in the remake, they had them actually be dead the whole time. Their motivations are very different too. There's also a side story that got removed from the remake as well. I don't understand why they felt the need to drastically change so much

Again, as someone who never played the Wii sequel before, I thought the remake version was pretty good and I had fun with it! But after learning how much was changed, I do feel a teensy tiny bit disappointed since I was really looking forward to seeing what exactly I missed out on, but I can't really do that with the remake.

It's a good game, don't get me wrong!! But yeah if anyone wants to experience what the original story was like, it's best to play the DS and Wii versions or watch a playthrough on youtube. The Switch version is more of a retelling of the story

I actually haven't played the sequel yet (I was undergoing a treatment that severely affected my memory and starting a completely unknown puzzle game while in that state seemed like a great way to miss a Chekov's gun until it shot me in the face, and then during that time a new girl started at work and we were talking about our hobbies and I mentioned my love for DS-era puzzle games "like Ace Attorney or Trace Memory" and she lost her shit because she had played Trace Memory when she was younger but then forgotten it's name and had been trying to remember for ages, and then since I wasn't using my switch at the time, I lent it to her so she could play the remake and she still has it, so I'm just... logging hours in Sims while I wait for her to finish it) so this is helpful information to know! I definitely want my first experience with it to be actually playing it myself, so I'll wait until Karina is done (though I also told her she could play all the other puzzle games because so help me god I will BRUTE FORCE HER INTO MY INTERESTS) (though I think the one she wants to play the most next is Hotel Dusk since we literally work at a hotel, so we'll probably trade off DS for switch and I'll have the chance to play it then) and then look up a playthrough or something. That's interesting that they made so many changes and also makes me even more wary and protective of Hotel Dusk. I will Kill Anyone Who Touches It.

[melloggd]

Review: Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories

CiNG • Nintendo • 2009 • Wii Read it on Backloggd: (x)

Its now been three years since I first beat this game, lazily playing it together with my roommate after we'd both individually beaten the original Another Code, and I still have a lot of bubbling thoughts about it. Out of the five games CiNG released in their Nintendo-exclusive era, the two Kyle Hyde games are the obvious critical darlings. Strikingly unique artstyle and distinct identity by way of Hold-DS-Sideways, mature themes tackled by memorable and well written characters, et cetera. Needless to say that the Another Code duology, one a crusty-feeling, short "tech demo"-type game for what kind of puzzles the DS can do, and its sequel locked away from the US and stuck on a region-locked console, was always going to be swept aside in comparison.

And, looking at the games in direct comparison to Hotel Dusk and Last Window, its also kind of understandable why less people are drawn to them. They lack that hook of a mature, intricate story, that feeling that what you're playing is something truly unforgettable. Yet...Another Code R really has been unforgettable, in a way that's been hard to articulate. What it lacks in heavy storytelling and investment, I feel it makes up for with atmosphere and just general vibes, much like the quirky DS game its following up on. The painterly landscapes, the soothing music, the cute bond shared between main characters Ashley and Matthew, all taking you back to a very "human" story, focusing on mental health and who you hold dear in life.

Playing the game is like taking your mindset back to summer vacation, without thoughts on how to pay your fees or what errands to run, what assignments are due...it's a game about you, and a friend, and how you're doing. Talking to each other. Helping each other. As simple as that sounds, it really does do a great job discussing that simple topic. "Friendship" is a broad theme that applies to every heroic story under the sun, and my point is less that Another Code R pioneers it above every one of its contemporaries, but rather that it doesn't also try to focus on saving the world, or uncovering a conspiracy, or so on. Its a slow, meandering, uninteresting, simple game - and I want you to read all of those adjectives as positives, because they're key to the game's cozy, laid-back and warm feeling.

That's not to say there's not some actual game in here too, of course. While a little less puzzle-heavy than the other CiNG games, it uses the Wii remote to some truly fantastic extremes with puzzles I'm now confident in saying no other developer would've come up with. The only thing I can think of this game doesn't utilize about the Wiimote is sending you clues to the mailbox - everything else, and I do mean everything, is up for grabs.

While solving puzzles and reading dialogue, much like Professor Layton, is part of setting the comfy experience, just being able to freely walk around Lake Juliet in general also goes such a long way in making the game truly click. Would the game be more convenient, less slow paced, with a fast-travel system, taking you to every "important" part of the game faster and "wasting less of your time"? Absolutely. But then, in my eyes, you're missing the point of the game: The slow burn of taking in the world.

Thus, there's honestly little I can say this game doesn't do right, because it knows very well what its trying to be. It will never reach the highs of Last Window or Hotel Dusk, because its not trying to do so. And in that sense, the game is perfect. Another Code: R is atmospheric, serene, calming and warm. Like a blanket, the appeal of it is not the grand mystery to be found by digging deeper into it, but the comfort that simply being near it can provide.

[Playtime: 22 hours] [Key Word: Healing]

[amagicdoctor]

hey no problem, i've been enjoying my ride here as well as the doc strange content i got from marvel! you know having characters that sound like actual people and with interesting lore around them. like you, the ds and mk writers have been giving me just that and i just...! hhh i've missed it. didn't realize how much i did since putting xmen behind me.

with how the x-staff overly relies on exterminating mutants to keep readers coming, there hasn't been any interesting lore about them or good worldbuilding after hox/pox. that entire "mutant culture" they keep bragging was like what? resurrection? racial slurs towards humans? nationwide cult-like mentality? a mutant religion? those were the only things mutantkind has done that set itself apart from humanity... it's all we got after 4 years

i've missed actually rooting for characters in a story, i really like clea rn for example. i felt nothing towards any of the main mutants in any of the series that came out; nobody from legion of x, xmen red, immortal xmen, new mutants, ... crazy but they are all self-centred asses going around twirling their thumbs and shooting themselves in the foooooot all hours of the day everyday

Aw I'm really happy to hear you're enjoying yourself here, thank you for saying so!! Having a fandom blog like this kind of eases the insanity that is canon, and I'm glad people are able to follow along.

You're definitely not alone with any of your thoughts, but I'm honestly over the Krakoan horrors by now 😅. Last summer when I first started reading, all the shock and horror hit me then but I'm good now. It is what it is. Again, diverting to fandom blogs and having friends to talk it through makes it all worthwhile, even if it is just mocking the current state of things.

Definitely hope you can find some healing in other comics! And Marvel isn't going to get it right every single time. I know a lot of people are quitting, especially some of my own friends, but I'm a very optimistic person and I find joy in so many things. So I'm still looking forward to the Fall of X era which does start this month. And there are a couple other series outside of the X-Men I'm looking forward to too. The FF haven't failed me yet and I'm catching up with DC too.

[agentpaint]

So I was doing some research for something I’m planning, and I realized how much I miss the DS.

Like looking back on it, that thing was my rock. I took that thing everywhere. The GBA holds a special place in my heart for being my first gaming device, but the DS was on another level.

I don’t want to post pictures rn (maybe I’ll do that when I get my blog running on my neocites) but back when I was a kid I carried around a HUGE case that held all of my DS games.

Looking back on it, I was a fucking lunatic for that, someone could have easily stolen all of my DS games or I could’ve lost them all!

In fact, that did happen! But not to this case in specific. My original GBA and games was stolen and I lost a smaller bag of DS and games, miraculously the 2nd one was returned to me safely.

Anyways, I never went anywhere without my DS. I was basically an iPad kid with this thing, but the games were all physical.

I still have all if my games actually, but no convenient way to play them. My original DS won’t turn on anymore, and my attempts to buy them on ebay have went poorly with broken hinges.

I have a 3DS, but honestly I really, REALLY don’t like the Circle Pad. It’s worse than the D-Pad and the D-Pad is in awkward position to use for long periods of time.

But back on topic, while doing my research, I decided to look up DS games and I was hit with more nostalgia than I realized I had.

Pokemon, Mario, Cooking Mama, Nintendogs, Brain Age, Kirby, Starfy, Warioware DIY, Megaman Zero, Diddy Kong Racing, Bomberman, Clubhouse Games

A lot of these were games that I haven’t thought about in years but when I saw the box arts all of the memories came flooding back.

But what I also noticed when looking through this list was how many iconic games there were I didn’t play

Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick, Zelda, Animal Crossing, TWEWY, Rhythm Heaven, Sonic, Trauma Center, Style Savvy, Professor Layton, Scribblenauts,

Obviously I was a Nintendo kid with a strong Pokemon/Mario/Kirby bias, but it’s surprising at how many fantastic games went right under my nose.

I kinda have an itch to go back and play all of these games and maybe some licensed/shovelware games? Maybe even on stream?

But then the problem becomes that I’d have to emulate them to capture the game, unless I wanna break the bank on a 3DS capture card.

And here’s where my problem comes in: I don’t like DS emulation. It’s one of if not the most impossible experience to emulate. The dual screens, the touch screen, the clam shell design, all of it cannot be realistically emulated on a PC or a phone.

Playing a DS game this way is too much of a compromised experience for me, and I can’t see myself enjoying it, even when streaming.

And it really upsets me because what are you supposed to do about it? The 3DS is out of production, and unless the Switch’s successor is planned to have a dual screen then the legacy of the DS is impossible to preserve.

We’ve already seen this with ports of DS games coming to Switch and other consoles. They have to make do with a pop up picture in the corner or completely redesign the game for an arguably worse control scheme.

It really sucks because again, unless this form factor comes back DS ports will always have to be compromised in a way that harms their preservation.

And unfortunately the emulation device market haven’t tried out a dual screen device yet either, I guess it’s too niche or maybe the DS isn’t retro enough to consider it being worth it.

Maybe someday this niche demand will be recognized, I’m sure as we move further away from the 3DS era more will recognize this. Hopefully either Nintendo or an emulator device maker will see the demand and make something along the lines of a DS Mini like the NES/SNES Mini, but not mini because it’s already a handheld.

They did already try something similar with the Zelda Game and Watch, so I hope they try a Gameboy/Gameboy Advance someday, although that would still mean we’d have to wait longer for a DS. Maybe they could skip? I doubt it.

This is why I’m putting my hopes into the emulation device market. There’s a lot of issues with those devices, but it’s far more realistic to see one of them attempt a DS device than Nintendo right now.

Wow I talked for a while. Sorry for the long post!

[timbrrwolfe]

Currently having a minor existential crisis over the fact that I considered myself a gamer growing up while having had SO FEW GAMES for every console/handheld I had. Like, I knew I didn't have that many games. I had a handful of N64 games, a good amount of GBC and GBA games (I guess because my parents thought handhelds would make it more likely I'd go outside? Might've just been that they were cheaper, I have no idea). A decent number of GBA games I suppose. A few Wii games. etc. etc. The one that managed to short circuit my brain for a few minutes was DS.

I've been going through retro catalogs lately to see what I missed out on, what looks interesting, all that. I missed out on (S)NES entirely, and their era of games isn't particularly interesting to me in general. Some good and interesting games, but a lot of games that reviewers just dig into "this game was SO hard." GBC and GBA were systems I had...not a /lot/, but a fair amount of games for, and I was passingly familiar with a lot of the ones I didn't have.

DS though...there were a ton of games that I just fully missed out on. Which got me thinking about which games I /did/ have. I eventually landed on 7 that I could remember, only one of which I ever beat. Granted I think I was a little more into Gamecube and even started playing City of Heroes during the DS era. But it still blew my mind to realize how little familiarity I had with the DS library. Even the games I had heard of as good (some in retrospect) I never had. And the ones I did have? Not good. Pokemon Diamond, Wario: Master of Disguise, and whatever the DS Viewtiful Joe game was? All slow, or boring, or otherwise didn't hold my attention. Even now I have no desire to go back and give them another chance. Nintendogs was cute at first but that wore off fast.

Super Mario 64 DS I beat, and have fond memories of. YGO World Championship 2010 I sank time into since that was right around when I was being very casually competitive with YGO. And Pokemon White I probably would have beaten (and even had it be the first Pokemon game I did beat) had it not been stolen out of my DS somehow. I still need to take time to play through it in full honestly.

But I digress. For some reason it really threw me for a loop that even lists of "best DS games" I was getting pelted with titles that I had never even heard of, and do look like fun. Truly an era I missed out on. I think in my brain it's also tied to 3DS which I /know/ I missed out on gaming with friends during. I had a couple popular games, to be sure. Pokemon X, ORAS, Smash 3DS. But I had a few friends who were very into AC:New Leaf, or Tomodachi Life. Things like that, which I just fully missed out on. So I think that sort of missed opportunity nostalgia linked up with the realization that I missed out on a ton of DS games (especially since there were games those same friends talked about a ton. Conversations that I couldn't really take part in). That was an era of my life that I considered myself a gamer, but I had missed out on a /ton/ of borderline cultural touchstones. And I guess that's what's got me shaken about it.