#i tried something new here with making a 2d imagine into 3d

[boreal-sea]

So something I realized watching a few videos and reading a few articles is that most of us aren’t angry at the idea of AI in general. Many of us are excited to learn about AI systems that can identify cancer better than doctors, for instance.

What we’re angry about is generative AI being used to destroy the jobs of artists (and I mean all creatives here), who have already been dealing with their work being devalued by modern society.

And I’m not sure how to deal with it. I do remember learning that when photography became a thing, many painters were horrified and terrified of would erase the art of painting. It didn’t obviously, and in fact photography because a whole new art form.

I grew up during the birth of digital art. I distinctly remember the phase digital art went through where many people declared it to not be “real art” and that it was “cheating” etc. I’m sure other millennial artists also remember this transition. But graphic designers pretty quickly adopted digital tools, and websites like DeviantArt popped up, and I don’t think there are too many people nowadays who would say a digital painting isn’t “art”. Still, I do imagine there is a gulf between how some people would view the “artistic merit” of a 3 ft tall oil painting hanging next to a 3 ft tall print of a digital painting, even if the subject and styles were similar. So the worries that digital art would erase physical painting was also proven false. And for the record, I think digital art is 100% art. The merit of digital art is equal to that of physical art.

On the other hand, I can’t say these changes didn’t affect older forms of art. Like, photography did affect the world of painting. I don’t have statistics, but it seems like it probably affected the world of portraiture the most. And I wonder if many of the 20th century art movements were influenced by photography. None of my art history classes touched on that and it’s kinda weird to me. There is definitely something about a Dada or cubism or surrealist painting that transcends beyond what a traditional photo of a landscape or a portrait can do. There is no location in the real world with actual melting clocks or people whose faces show multiple angles at once.

And then there was the digital photograph that changed everything again! Film has become a niche art form.

There were specific kinds of jobs lost due to the digital transition, too. I’m thinking of things like murals being replaced by printed banners, or book covers often being done in photoshop. Oh, and that’s another tool that was faced with fear: Photoshop! There was a fear it would destroy the need for professional photographers because everyone could just fix their own photos. Turns out nope, and in fact people skilled in photography and photo editing are still in demand. And of course there’s the loss of 2D animation in favor of 3D animation, the loss of practical effects for digital, etc.

And you might argue that in some of those cases people can tell corners are being cut and that they won’t stand for it, but Marvel movies still make billions of dollars so…

So I don’t know what’s going to happen with AI art. I am NOT saying “all current artists are stupid and wrong, in the future history students will laugh at how stubborn they were to resist this idea”. AI art is not comparable to photography or digital painting.

With a photograph, you still need to compose the image in the frame, you need to position yourself in the real world, you need to know your equipment, whether you’re using film or digital. You also need to know how to process that photo either in the dark room or in Photoshop. These are skills the average person does not have. You cannot tell an AI “that shot was good but can you increase the contrast?” It’ll just produce a completely new image.

I read an article about an art director who was encountering difficulties as the department tried to incorporate AI. They got back first drafts of art ideas from the people employed to work with the AI, gave critique, and the second round was just completely new images that didn’t include the suggestions… because they couldn’t. AI does not understand color theory. It does not have the ability to take critique. It can’t slightly alter the layout of a design.

And all of that applies to painting too. AI (currently) can’t do what a trained art student can do. It doesn’t know that to create a sense of atmosphere you should make distant objects bluer. It doesn’t know how to use human physiology and psychology to draw a viewer’s eyes across a large painting to reveal a story.

AI also can’t replicate INTENTION - and intentionality is a HUGE part of art. WHY an artist chose those colors, that medium, that composition, those tools, why they chose to display it a certain way, why the composition is like this instead of that - all of that adds meaning to the painting that you can’t get with AI.

(Yes, there is an absolutely valid field of art critique that evaluates a piece of art on its standalone value and the message it conveys without the context of the artist’s intent, but that should be compared to the analysis that DOES include the artist’s intent! That comparison can bring about so much understanding!)

Anyway I’m going to end this post now because it has gotten WAY too long. I focused mostly on painting and photography in this post because those are my particular fields of speciality, but this applies to ALL ART. It applies to music and writing and scripting and acting and composing music and just. Everything. All art.

I don’t think there are any forms of art AI doesn’t threaten. Now granted, AI can’t currently pick up a paint brush. It can’t use a crochet needle. It can’t hold a camera. And maybe there will be some sort of return to physical media in response to AI produced digital art. Or maybe there will be a response in digital art to stylistically distinguish it from AI in a way AI can’t reproduce. I’m not sure what will happen. Maybe some proof the image was digitally painted by a real person, somehow. Or that it’s a real photo, or a real article. I saw someone mention there may end up being labels like “100% human made” like we do for organic food lol. Maybe work in progress videos or photo metadata will become more commonplace as evidence of authenticity.

Anyway, NOW I’m ending this post. Whew.

[lonelygamedev]

7DFPS

*I know it's been several months sense the last devlog. Let alone one on the main project. I'll try to get back to it soon. but back to the main subject matter So...I decided to join a Game Jam, the 7 Day FPS game jam specifically. I made a small package that contained a Finite state machine, some sight's and that's about it. Other then that, i'm on my own. I knew what I wanted to make, basically awhile ago I made a prototype that had a really nice movement system. And I wanted to create a little arena/wave system out of it Halfway through I sorta knew that it won't end up like how I wanted it too. I learnt that game jams aren't really about making what you hope for and more about learning new thing's from a quick prototype. So in the spirit of that, what did I learn? 1: A fact about scoping I've alway's had a issue with scope. But this game jam taught me something. While making a "big idea" may sometimes be the case(especially depending on the jam). But it goes a bit deeper. It isn't just what sounds big or if it as alot of deep mechanics. you really have to consider alot of core elements about it. I learnt this when I realized just how time consuming 3D is. Especially for the type of game i'm making. I Spend several hours on especially breakable movement for this game. When If i was making a 2D game I would have already done it in a hour or two. a 3D game takes everything difficult and rises it to the power of 3. Movement? well you gotta account many forms of rotation. types of movement along with gravity etc. Enemies? well now you gotta deal with advanced pathfinding and annoying broken physics along other aspects. Art takes far more time now especially if your making textures. Animation is harder now. etc etc etc I now really now what I should try to look for when considering scope. I'd imagine if I designed a 2d game first then added 3D. I would likely have time to add sound and art 2: Writing on paper works wonders It's quite nice being force to come up with a list and quickly come up ideas. In 2 days I manage to get 4 enemies and 6 weapons. which is quite nice if I say so myself 3: There's a difference between Coder art and No art Almost everything in this game is cubes, including all the enemies. It made alot of thing's hard to tell. especially if I hit a enemy. and if they're attacking. Hell if It would've been alot better if I just took a bit of time. Coded a stun system along with some simple animations just to make it slightly satisfying and easier to concentrate on what's going on 4: Test it alot more and make sure to purposely try and break it. The movement felt good at first. But eventually there came a point where the more I play the more I saw more issues and it became unstable. It became really annoying when I try to play the game and test the design. When the movement goes against me when there was little time. I should've purposely tried to break it so I got the core of the game alot better And I think that's about it. Overall i'm glad I got a game that have even the coding foundation for level progression. roster of weapons and guns. But alot of the potential is wasted due to time mismanagement. quite a miracle that I even finished it You can play it here. good luck getting pass level 2 lol https://lonelygamedev.itch.io/bad-fps-game

[mistress-light]

May you all know happiness forevermore.

[faunusrights]

Citrus Summers (GWS AU)

just had this idea nip into my head... i really wanna do more with menagerie and the scarlatina fam but for now have this lil snapshot of velvet growing up :)

great weiss shark au, weiss's pronouns are she/her, velvet's pronouns are she/they

###

"So, what was your hometown like?"

Velvet's used to Weiss's interest in her life; they come from two radically different ends of some bonkers spectrum of lifestyles, where one end (Velvet's) is radical self-acceptance, anti-cop sentiment, and a Scroll full to bursting with communist memes, whilst the other end (Weiss's) is... well, to be honest, Velvet doesn't like to think about what that end entails, exactly. All she knows is that it was exactly what a young shark Faunus without any clue as to her heritage didn't need. So, Velvet entertains her with stories of growing up in the deserts of Menagerie, of her time running along the trash-strewn beaches of Kuo Kuana, of her years shooting up like a weed under the relentless freckling kisses of the bright and vibrant sun.

Sometimes Velvet can tell she can't quite wrap her head around how different their lives are, yet have somehow ended up on such an intersection as to be able to call each other friends. Velvet just goes with the flow about it all.

"Well, we didn't have a hometown, really," Velvet starts, attention half-drawn to sets of plans scattered about her desk in her dorm. She's got big plans to improve Anesidora's projector and fix the information compression problems; drawing a flat 2D image into a 3D projection has always been a sticking point, but she's nearly got it down to the extent that her wireframe tests very nearly reveal the dents and dings and imperfections that it'd previously ironed out by mistake. Accuracy is key, and she crawls ever closer to a perfect 1-to-1 copy each and every day. It's just really boring work, is all. "We lived outside of the nearest town by a couple of miles, but we went there pretty regularly, so I guess you could call it that."

Weiss hums, letting herself fall back onto Velvet's unmade bed, the handwoven blankets of orange and black brought straight over from the homeland and still gritty with red dirt to prove it. "What's it called?"

"Desert Sands. Very original, I know."

"You know a lot of the people there?"

"Shit, they trade us meat and gas for potatoes and carrots and tomatoes, not to mention almost everyone there immigrated in a group with my grandparents. I know that town like my own family."

"What's your favourite thing there?"

That pulls Velvet up short, and she worries at her bottom lip as she stares as a variety of absolutely godawful equations. Thank the maidens Weiss has given her something meaty to say, because she can't bear the idea of redoing all this horrible maths. "Uh, probably the inn, as everyone else who lives there would say. Can't go wrong with a good old fashioned pint and a few rounds of pool."

"Even as a kid?" Weiss says, and Velvet can hear the raised brow even though she can't quite see it.

"Even as a kid," Velvet agrees. "My mam had a couple of pints and my da flirted with the guys and I'd go out with my siblings to meet our friends and raise a little hell. Not very often, but often enough."

Weiss goes sort of quiet, in a way that Velvet recognises as an intensive processing of what she's just heard. She wonders, briefly, if Weiss can even imagine that sort of freedom after a childhood spent locked in the same old rooms of the same old house--even when it's as big as the Schnee manor--and then pushes that thought away. If Weiss wants to ever get into all that, it'll be in her own time.

"Describe it to me?" Weiss asks in a very little voice after a few seconds, and Velvet nods. She can do that. She remembers those halcyon days like they were yesterday.

###

"Trench, I swear, if you don't repaint those window sills I'm gonna sneak down here and do it myself, asshole."

This was about as typical an entry as Taffeta Scarlatina could ever make, shouldering open the dark wood door into the Desert Sands Inn with a grin on her face and children in tow, Ash bringing up the rear and trying to pretend he couldn't see everyone turn in their seats to look to the new arrivals. It was one of those establishments with a big boxy interior and just a handful of rooms to the side, where the only three doors led into the toilets and the kitchens and the stairwell to the rooms above, and much like everything else on Menagerie, nothing ever matched; the doors had been collected from a variety of sources, the floorboards uneven and scratched and recut, the paint on the walls patchy with mismatched shades and covered with picture frames in some last-ditch attempt to hide it. No two stools matched, no three tables carved by the same hand, but that was the price of the community effort--everything you ever needed, maybe just not in the way you always expected.

"Taffeta," Trench greeted from behind the bar, turning to fetch a pair of glasses without prompting whilst making sure not to jostle the hanging bottles overhead with his great buffalo horns, split like a strange middle parting on the top of his head. "You're welcome to it, to be frank; Cinna doesn't have a clue where she's put the paint, last we saw it."

Taffeta rolled her eyes, letting go of Velvet's hand to pat her between her ears instead, the ten year old quick to laugh and duck away. "I'm sure. Not at all like I said I have some lying around the last three times I was here. You really that scared of scraping all that flaking paint off?"

"Well," Trench said after a moment, leaning under the bar for a second. "I did get some in my eyes last time, and boy, that hurted. You want your usual?"

"Pint of porter for me, and something weak for my pretty boy, lest he forget which way is up," Taffeta agreed, shooting a wink Ash's way and cackling when he blushed. "And some juice boxes for the kids?"

Trench didn't even pause, turning about to fish out a variety of colourful cartons adorned with a collection of cartoon characters, and Taffeta lifted Velvet up to plop her onto one of the few cushioned stools, Chiffon quick to use her older, longer limbs to scramble her own way up. Trench offered the drinks out freely, letting them decide between orange and passionfruit flavours, before noticing the new addition on Ash's hip. "Oh? This the newest Scarlatina?"

Satin--hardly a year old--was clinging to her da's loose shirt, dark eyes looking about in wonder, and Taffeta smiled before reaching over to brush her loose, light hair out of her eyeline. "Sure is. Gettin' real big already, so we thought it was high time to meet the folks around here. She won't be the last, though." At that, Taffeta leant across the bar, dropping her voice low. "Would you believe me if I said Ash is already askin' for the next one?"

"Slander," Ash shot back, face still pink. "I just said four is a rounder number than three."

Trench made a face, glancing pointedly away. "My girl woulda mounted my horns on the wall for that one. We had just the one and she swore off the rest before I could even consider it. Count yourself lucky."

"Cinnamon's a good kid," Ash offered, rearranging Satin to sit a little nicer in his lap. "I think that all worked out in the end."

Taffeta rolled her eyes, watching as Velvet picked the orange juice for herself, leaving the eldest to the passionfruit. "Doesn't that imply we have so many 'cause you don't think just one was good enough? Chiff's a darling, if a bit of a pain in my ass, huh, baby?"

Chiffon ignored them both to instead help Velvet punch the straw into the carton, and Ash grinned. "Just one was perfect, but you told me yourself that you don't think I know when to fold."

"You don't," Trench interjected, pouring out a pint of something dark and bitter enough to linger on the tongue. "When we played poker last year... phew. Thank the maidens it was a couple's night, else you woulda been walking home absolutely stark--"

"--drunk," Taffeta quickly interrupted, glancing towards the kids who stared back with wide eyes. "Been walking home absolutely stark... trashed. Wasted. Uh, Trench, what's on the menu today, whilst it's on my mind?"

As they discussed the menu (Taffeta eager to point out the contributions of the family crops, asking, overly sweetly, and who traded you those lovely chickens? they must have been very generous), Chiffon turned to Ash in her seat, legs swinging freely, bumping into the overly-varnished wood of the bar. "Da? Can me 'n Velv go out and play?"

"Sure can, kiddo," Ash said, though he was quick to grab Chiffon's arm before she could throw herself off the stool with the straw still in her mouth. "Woah, take that out first before you end up swallowing it. You remember the rules?"

Chiffon nodded, face cast all seriously. "Don't go outta town. Be back before dark. If someone tries to bully us, punch 'em in the nose."

"And?" Ash added, drawing his brows together.

Velvet chirped up. "Cops aren't friends!"

At that, Ash broke out into a grin, as bright as Velvet's and twice as toothy. "That's right. You go have fun, and don't eat too many snacks; we're having dinner here before we go home."

Chiffon slid free of her stool, turning about to help Velvet down too, and then the pair scampered towards the door with a harmonised yes da! before pulling it open to the main road outside, the sunlight blisteringly bright, the sky an endless, cloudless blue overhead. The paint on the windowsill peeled off and flecked away, and under their shoes, the ground crunched.

Everything tasted of oranges.

###

Weiss sits silently.

"Did you get back before dark?"

Velvet snorts, sitting back in her chair until it creaks dangerously below. "Just about, though my mam didn't look all that impressed. Still, can't do much about it; we didn't even have, like, landline calls back then, let alone Scrolls and shit."

Weiss laughs to herself, rolling over and tucking her legs up onto Velvet's bed until she's curled atop the blankets, running a thumb over the wool quietly, repetitively. Truth is, they still smell of Menagerie, of home; Velvet could wash it a thousand times, but the earthy scent of hot summers and prickling scrublands sticks like its own aura.

"I'm jealous," Weiss says simply, and then she draws the blankets up to partly cocoon herself, tight across the ribs, loose about the ankles. "Will I... would you show me it, sometime? If I went there?"

It's sweet. Velvet wishes she could travel through time and show it to Weiss from the start; she wishes she could have told her what she would have, in the future. Look, see? This is real. You can have this too. Happiness doesn't only exist for people far away; you get to feel this, too.

"Of course," Velvet says with a smile, instead. "Bold if you to think my parents don't demand they meet every single last one of my friends."

Weiss grins back, all shark-toothed and sharp, and Velvet likes how it looks on her face. It took her team months to eek it out of her more often than every couple of weeks, but now, it's practically daily. "I'm afraid the offer doesn't extend back to you."

"Thanks the maidens," Velvet says, very seriously. "Because if I ever meet your dad, I'm setting his car alight."

[vindrawins]

How Limitless is art right now?

The Lion King and Loney toons respectively, definitely, it's everyone's favorite. And if we see a new generation then we have Klaus and Spider-Man: Into the spider-verse, both won Oscar for only the animation style. In both movies creators exaggerated/stretched the imagination & creativity to such extend so that it directly touches the audience's heart. Entertainment has to be felt through the heart and not by using the brain, mostly. Sorry if I hurt live-action fans, I too love live-action movies and am also a die-heart fan of movies like

Transformers & Avatar (2009), it has its own level of fun but when it comes to exaggerating style then 2D animation work best with infinite possibilities whereas in 3D or live-action creators are limited to making it real. Yes, there are exceptions and they are many.

As a digital artist, I had observed that few artists make paintings so real that you can't find the difference so easily. I'm a fan of artists like RossDraws, SamDoesArt, WLOP, artofWarrenLouw, and many more like them, you will notice all these artists play amazingly become realism and imagination, it's semi-realism. Yeah, that's what makes it so amazing, you can really feel their artwork (especially male audience 🤦🏻‍♂️😳, you got it). And yes, my ultimate aim or goal is to create something which visually pleasing and more about telling stories through this medium. I'm still learning, somewhere between beginner and intermediate level of experience 😁.

Oh! I just forgot about this. You all had definitely watched the upcoming Spider-verse movie's first look, if not have a look here. I'm really excited about this because as I said earlier 'Spider-Man into the spider-verse' was really an exaggerated version of the animated movie I had ever watched recently and it will interesting to see how creators will show the new spider-verse world, are you interested? Let me know in the comments

I think writing is not really my thing 😅 but writing posts like these are putting something effort into writing which triggers the mind to think more elaborately 😬. See you soon with the new artwork. Thank you for reading 😊

[eldritch-elrics]

this summer, me and my brother watched four whole shows. at long last, here is my comprehensive review of all of them!

in the order we watched them, these shows were:

avatar the last airbender (ATLA)

mob psycho 100 (MP100)

demon slayer / kimetsu no yaiba (KNY)

fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood (FMAB)

they were all very very good!

i’m not going to try to rank them, but, as is probably obvious by the state of my blog, my favorite was FMAB :) if i had to pick a least favorite, then, it would probably be KNY—not by any fault of its own, but just because it didn’t appeal to me quite as much as the others. still a very good show!

i will review each show by:

giving a quick plot-based pitch discussing the show’s hook or appeal

discussing one element that i believe it does better than any other show on this list—in other words, a quality that i think it stands out for

discussing one element that didn’t appeal to me or that i had issues with—a criticism

putting forth my favorite character and favorite episode or arc, just for funsies

including various other commentary. mostly positive, as, again, i did really like all of these!

(i’ve tried to make this whole thing free of specific spoilers, but if you’re planning on watching any of these shows and want to go in more-or-less blind, it might be best not to read this.)

first of all, i’d just like to discuss all four of these shows as a whole! it was definitely interesting watching one after another and noting similarities between them.

all of them have siblings in them! which is, perhaps, fitting, as i watched them with my brother

two include a pair of siblings in which one has powers and one doesn’t (at least at first), and part of the narrative involves getting better at using those powers (ATLA, MP100)

two include a narrative centered around a pair of siblings and something tragic that happens to them, resulting in the older one being traumatized and forced to train to become a soldier, and the younger one turning into something (arguably) inhuman. the protagonist’s major goal is to return his younger sibling to the way they were before (KNY, FMAB)

ATLA and FMAB are both fantasy political dramas, which is rapidly becoming a favorite genre of mine

most of these are historical, or historically inspired in some way, which is interesting!

all of these shows are really really good at character building. all the main characters are interesting and complex, and the relationships between those characters are similarly nuanced and very well written. they make you really care about both the protagonists and the side characters!

avatar: the last airbender

pitch: as the ever-growing imperial force of the fire nation threatens the earth and water nations, a kid from the long-lost air nation turns up and it turns out he can control all four elements and he has to save the world and all that. sorry i tried to write this pitch like five times and realized that well at this point i think everyone reading this will know the plot of avatar

stands out for: avatar has possibly the best worldbuilding i have ever seen in a show—it takes the time to introduce us to so many places and aspects of its world, both explicitly and subtly. the main highlight of this is the magic system. by creating a magic system based in body movement, the process of using magic and learning to use/control it better becomes immediately obvious to the viewer. combine that with the philosophy behind each type of bending and the way that characters take bending inspiration from types different than their own, and you’ve got a system that is complex, flexible, believable, internally consistent, and just plain fun! it makes action sequences a blast. i especially liked the moments when bending was stretched to its limits in totally logical ways (metalbending, bloodbending). not to mention the way that bending is seamlessly integrated into the world of avatar! the example that comes to mind is the earthbending-powered transport system of omashu. a whole essay could be written on that topic alone!

criticism: i know this is a sentiment shared by many people, but the first season was kind of boring to me. some of the humor and the plots felt hit-or-miss. of course, it needed to take that time to establish the world, and it does a great job of doing that. it just didn’t hook me until the second season.

favorite character: i love toph she’s so much fun :) iroh is a close second! and zuko is great, too, of course

favorite arc: i loved ba sing se a ton, especially the episode when they get there and everything feels off. it felt so resonant with real life, in a very fun way. there’s a reason “there is no war in ba sing se” is a meme…

other commentary: what can i say? it’s a classic for a damn good reason. the plot is tight, and it does a great job raising tension and introducing new elements and twists. i also love the care put into the antagonists, especially azula, who has a fascinating arc.

mob psycho 100

pitch: a middle schooler and a charismatic con artist team up to smite ghosts using extrasensory powers. thing is, only the middle schooler actually has ESP, and it happens to be really, really powerful. can he navigate the difficult world of middle school while also getting a better grip on his powers—and his bottled-up emotions?

stands out for: the way that MP100 uses animation is excellent. it takes a little getting used to but it’s just so fun, combining all sorts of different techniques to create an experience rich with drama and emotion. it’s playfully exaggerated and self-parodying, adding to the show’s fantastic sense of humor as well as its truly emotional moments.

criticism: the way that ESP works makes suspension of disbelief tricky. it’s a great feat to introduce a character who is essentially all-powerful and still make them interesting (even in fight scenes), but at times (especially the second season finale) it felt like a magic system with too much breadth and too few limitations. this might just be my bias for hard magic systems talking, though.

favorite character: other than mob and reigen? probably teru. he’s loads of fun AND all the season 1 episodes he’s in slap hard

favorite episode: the one where the girl asks mob out on a date as a dare.. it’s super cute

other commentary: thank you mp100 for being the leftist propaganda we all deserve <3

in all seriousness though, this show is a blast!! it does a great job switching between silly and serious in the blink of an eye. i also really appreciate the way that it balances comically huge stakes with much smaller, more personal stories. for example, the conflict between mob and reigen in season 2 is especially well-done. in general the emotions just feel so real? characters whose emotions tie into their powers are an excellent trope, and mob is a wonderful protagonist who exemplifies this really well.

finally, on a more critical note—there are so many characters in this show! and it feels like only a handful are fleshed out? however, this may be due to the fact that it’s not an adaptation of the entire manga (which i haven’t read). there’s a lot more to go! more characters to dive into! so i probably shouldn’t try to critique it in the same way as a finished work.

demon slayer / kimetsu no yaiba

pitch: demons kill a boy’s family and turn his sister into a demon, so he decides to try and figure out a way to turn his sister back into a human. what follows is a demon-killing adventure that’s in equal parts harrowing, poignant, and hilarious.

stands out for: there’s not much i can say about this other than “please just take a look” but the art and design is phenomenal. it does a much better job of integrating 2D and 3D than a lot of other animated series, and overall it is just so so pretty! all the character designs are complex, memorable, and fit the characters perfectly. the color choices are interesting and satisfying. i also really like the sound design? not often that i notice that in a show. i’ve watched so many KNY amvs by now lol it’s just amazing animation

criticism: the narration style leans too heavily towards tell instead of show. this is mostly an issue with the first few episodes, but i got super annoyed by how much the show would narrate every single one of tanjirou’s thoughts instead of letting us infer those thoughts through his actions and reactions—the latter, i think, would have been more emotionally impactful. sometimes silence speaks louder than words! tanjirou was also not the world’s most compelling protagonist in my opinion, though i think that mostly has to do with my own tastes.

favorite character: *holds up zenitsu* I Just Think He’s Neat. i actually kind of lost it when he first used his powers, like… damn i love characters with weird relationships with their magic like that. i also think the narrative about how having a solid foundation is sometimes more important than knowing a ton of different moves was really powerful. and he’s just funny! pathetic boy i love him

favorite arc: really just the whole spider arc. fucked up man… i love it. they pulled off that last twist so well, and all the family stuff was so weird and complex and emotional…

other commentary: it’s just a really solid and very well-written show! the team of tanjirou, zenitsu, and inosuke is so much fun… bro bonding :) i also quite like the horror elements; it’s fucked up but in a good way. finally, this is very specific, but the demon that can alter buildings/rooms through drumbeats? appealed to me very much. it’s a cool and unique power!

fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood

pitch: two kids do some fucked up alchemy and end up getting parts of their body stolen by god. now they’re on a quest to get their bodies back, but find themselves wrapped up in crazy government conspiracies and alchemy more powerful than they ever could’ve imagined…

stands out for: plot. by this i mean less overall concept (though the overall concept is pretty great too), and more that the pacing and progression of the story is extraordinarily tight. for the most part (the first few episodes are a little weak but i’ll let it slide), it does an excellent job establishing its premise and building on it logically, adding layers and layers that extend naturally from what we already know. everything has a reason for happening; everything is revealed in good time and all the twists are super satisfying. there’s great balance between exciting moments and quiet moments. it’s just very good at being a story!

(fun fact: i’m reading the manga right now and so far it’s even better paced than the show, which is super interesting! it’s especially good at how it lays out pieces of the backstory and then fills everything in later in a really satisfying way.)

criticism: this is incredibly specific but it’s what comes to mind as something that bothered me: winry’s character arc was really disappointing. for most of the series she’s a pretty strong character, but in the end it feels like she gets pushed aside, defined only by her relationship with ed. what happened to her wanting to take action more? that was a specific desire she expressed—wanting to be less passive! since she’s such an important character, i wish she could have had more presence in the last season other than as a sounding board for the elric bros’ emotions. (even though her one scene in the last episode was really good and emotional…)

favorite character: other than the elric bros, absolutely ling. he fits into multiple of my favorite character archetypes (fun, silly, bastard, gets possessed…) and he’s just overall a delight. plus his relationship with greed is really really good. bro bonding at its peak!! (my other favorite is pride. i will not say why because spoilers. but if you know me.. you know)

favorite episode: this is really really hard to choose but i’m gonna go with envy’s death because. holy shit.

other commentary: i’m a really big fan of the complex and nuanced way in which FMAB breaks down militaristic, imperial regimes from the inside. many of the characters have done awful things, and the story forces them to grapple with that and accept that all they can do now is be better in the future. the moral complexity is just really good! characters with flaws—we love to see it!

finally, parts of this story seem so so catered to Me Specifically that it’s no wonder i got so into it. like just the entire premise? the way that so much of the conflict is built out of identity crisis and exploring the nature of consciousness and human vs inhuman? beautiful. i love ed and al so much

*

if you made it all the way to the end, thank you so much for reading!! glad to have finally gotten this done (3 months late…) and put all my thoughts down. i hope this inspires someone to try watching one of the shows i discussed!

[chonisbestmistake]

Missed opportunities and second chances [2]

[part 1]

Lisa x Female!Reader

Warnings: fluff, angst

Word count: 2,626

Summary: You broke up with Lisa almost three years ago. Then you met Jennie at the store and this is not something she expected. At all.

NOTE: It`s kind of a mid-part because I decided to split the 2d part in two and feed you all. All of your answers are gonna be answered in the 3d part. Soon.

It was a Saturday morning when you finally had the courage to text Jennie. You’ve been thinking about pros and cons of reaching out to her for a whole week, finally deciding it wouldn`t be so bad to have her back in your life again. The only thing still concerning you was that Jennie was Lisa`s friend, which means she`ll know about their little get-together in no time. Or she already knew. About you and Vanessa. Jennie wouldn`t hide it from her friends even if you asked her to, it was obvious. And that was indeed a problem. You weren`t ready to discuss anything with them, especially with Lisa. Thought you doubted she`d want to even look at you after all these years. Anyway, it was a matter of time before they knew everything, so you let your fears go and texted Jennie like a brave woman would do.

~

You: Hey, it`s Y/N.

Jennie: Finally! I thought you forgot about me.

You: Just been busy with work and stuff, you know. Do you still want to meet up?

Jennie: Hell yeah I do! Are you free today?

You: Yeah, I just need to pick Nessie up from her dance classes and I’ll be free. 

Jennie: Great! I wanna see this cutie again, can you take her too? Let`s meet at this cafe, I’ll send you the address.

You: Sure. See you! Nessie says hi by the way.

Jennie: Tell her hi too! Can`t wait to see you guys again.

~

“Are we here yet?” Vanessa was bouncing in her car seat, always ecstatic about going out and seeing new places. You were amazed at how energetic she was even after two hours of dancing and jumping around. Every time you picked her up she was blabbing non-stop with that high-pitched excited voice about new kids she met and new moves they learned and you honestly couldn`t feel happier.

“Almost.” You answered, pulling your car to the parking lot and smiling at your child. 

“What about now? Here?” Nessie tried to look out of the window, sighing happily when you stopped the vehicle. 

“Let me unbuckle you first, kiddo.” You got out of the car and put Vanessa down, stretching her outfit. Her pigtails were a little messed up from jumping, so you fixed them quickly, getting a small ‘thank you’ in return. “Let`s go now.” 

Taking Nessie`s hand, you made your way to the small cafe on the side of the street. A sweet scent of coffee enveloped you both when you came in and Vanessa instantly sighed at the sight of cookies and other desserts on the shelves. You chuckled slightly and pulled her further in, promising to buy some sweets and searching for the familiar eyes.

Jennie was sitting in the farthest corner, hidden by the curtains, with a cup of fresh latte and a phone in the other hand. She was chatting excitedly with a blonde girl by her side and when your eyes met - you immediately recognized her. Her eyes widened and you smiled shyly. Nessie let go of your hand and ran to meet Jennie while you were still staring at Rosé.

“Hey, sweetie pie! How have you been?” Jennie pulled Vanessa up on the couch and hugged her tightly. Nessie was ecstatic that her new friend greeted her so warmly and giggled loudly.

“Hi, aunty Jennie! I’ve been great, thank you!” She sent her a toothy smile, turning back to look at Rosé. You realized you zoned out and made your way to the coach, sending Rosé a smile. She stood up instantly and wrapped her arms around you in a tight hug.

“Chae.” You sighed, burring your nose in her neck and returning the embrace. 

“Y/N, I missed you so much!” She let go of you and you two sat down. Rosé turned to Vanessa with a beaming smile, who was examining her curiously.

“Hi! I’m Chaeyoung. But you can call me Rosie if you want.” She said sweetly and your daughter grinned, nodding.

“I`m Vanessa, nice to meet you! Are you mommy`s friend too?” She asked Chaeyoung and looked at you for approval.

“Yes, baby, we`ve known each other before you were even born, can you imagine?” You said in a playful tone and Vanessa gasped in surprise.

“Woah, that`s a whole lot!” Her eyes widened comically and she grinned at Rosé, holding her little fist up above the table. Chaeyoung paused for a moment and then chuckled in realization, fist-bumping her gently.

“You`re so cute, oh my God.” She whined, poking her cheeks and Vanessa giggled happily.

After a while, your nervousness faded completely and it started to feel like an old`s friend get-together. A waiter brought a set of cookies and some drinks to the table, Vanessa was enjoying her meal and the conversation was floating peacefully between the three of you. The girls talked about their love life, the comebacks, family matters and you were happy to hear they were finally getting their freedom after almost six years of being in a cage, as you used to call their company. Rosé was texting someone when Nessie called her attention suddenly.

“You look like a princess!” Nessie sighed in awe and you and Jennie shared a good laugh while Rosie`s face was turning crimson.

“Why do you think that?” She asked shyly and you answered before anyone could process the question.

“It`s the blonde hair. She has a thing for Rapunzel and we`ve seen it for a hundred times already.” You sighed dramatically, patting your child`s had.

“Yes, she`s my favorite!” Nessie giggled and bit another cookie like there was no tomorrow. 

“Aww, that`s nice to hear. I like her a lot too!  But don`t tell that to Lisa or Chu, she`s their favorite and they`re going to tickle me to death if they know.” Chaeyoung rolled her eyes playfully and your heart skipped a beat even though you were in the conversation with Jennie.

“Chu..?” Nessie tilted her head and Rosé hurried to explain.

“Jisoo and Lisa, our friends. Lisa actually has a strange hair color that I can’t really explain because it changes so quickly, but Jisoo`s a redhead. You`re going to love them though, they`re so funny!” Chaeyoung chuckled and Vanessa tried to smile with her mouth full, failing miserably.

“Chae, what are you talking about?” Jennie asked, concern written all over her face because she knew you wouldn`t be happy at the idea.

“Oh, Jichu texted me they were nearby and I told them where we are, so they decided to come and meet Vanessa as well. They`re so excited! Chu`s been dying to see you, Y/N.” She answered easily and you sighed, trying to organize your thoughts. Jisoo was one thing. But you were definitely not prepared to meet Lisa right now nor introduce her to Vanessa. “Y/N, I hope you don`t mind? I`m sorry I didn`t ask beforehand, but it`s been so long…”

“I`m not sure if it`s a good idea, Chae…” You desperately tried to think about any excuse to escape the situation and avoid meeting the girls but the doorbell already rang in the distance and you immediately heard their voices before you even saw them turning around the corner. Your hand unintentionally flew to Vanessa in a protective gesture which didn`t go unnoticed by Jennie. She frowned, probably trying to rationalize your actions but you didn`t give it a second thought because all of your attention was on the two women who were making their way to your table. They were wearing masks but their eyes were wide open, filled curiosity and excitement. Jisoo took off her mask, showing her pretty smile and Lisa followed her quickly, smiling shyly when they came closer.

“Y/N! My God, it`s been years.” You stood up, returning the hug, and realized you`ve been holding your breath this whole time. Vanessa was unusually quiet, sitting with Jennie, probably startled by the tension in the air. You looked at Lisa, who seemed lost and out of place, so you just smiled kindly and embraced her quickly, braking the ice like it was nothing.

“Hi, Lisa.” You whispered in her ear gently. Her sent was so familiar yet it felt like a distant memory. You zoned out for a moment but caught yourself quickly and let her go, owning a small shy ’Hi’ in return. It was obvious she didn’t know how to act around you yet and you felt just the same, desperately trying to look confident. Meeting an ex was never an easy task. 

The free of you sat down and Vanessa crawled to your lap, wrapping her hands around your neck and looking at two girls with suspicion and curiosity. She seemed to notice your discomfort and came to the rescue. It made your heart flutter and you smiled at how protective and sensitive she was already at such a young age. You loved your little girl so damn much.

“Aww, cutie.” Jisoo cooed at the view and you remembered that all eyes were on you now.

“It`s okay, baby. Don`t worry, I’m okay.” You whispered in her ear and she relaxed against your front. In the corner of your eye, you saw Lisa tilt her head curiously, like a puppy, and smile at your daughter.

“Hi, I`m Lisa!” She said in a cute voice and held her fist up. You saw Nessie`s eyes widen comically in excitement and everyone chuckled when she hurried to bump her fist in return, almost falling off your lap. Her little palm looked even smaller in comparison to Lisa`s and it made your heart ache.

“I`m Vanessa.” She grinned happily and you couldn`t help but smile brightly, admiring your child. Your nerves started to ease again, though it was still hard for you to look Lisa in the eyes, so you focused on your baby girl completely.

“I`m Jisoo, nice to meet you, Vanessa.” The older girl smiled and fist-bumped her too, noting the similarity between you and your daughter out loud. It made you blush and you felt pride warming your chest. Giving birth was really the best decision you`ve ever made.

“Chichu.” Nessie chuckled loudly and Jisoo glared at two other girls that were laughing hysterically. Lisa followed them shortly, adding a little 'You`re dead, guys.’ in between.

“It wasn`t me!” Jennie giggled while Chaeyoung hid her face in her hands, snickering and moving away from Jisoo`s grasp before she could catch her by the elbow.

“You`ll gonna pay for that, Chipmunk.” Jisoo shot her a death glare and everyone laughed again. You felt yourself relax in their company and you were thankful they made everything easier. They were just like that. And all of your concerns about meeting Lisa again faded into the background.

“So, Y/N, tell me everything! What have you been up to? How did you get this little nugget over here?”

“I`m not a nugget!!!”

You talked for about an hour and it felt like you never parted. Vanessa made everything seem so simple, carefree and bright, and by the end of the conversation, everyone was completely in love with her. You answered all of their questions, avoiding the topic of Nessie`s other parent like a plague. Jennie was paying close attention to you again, but you brushed it off, thinking she`s just missed you that much. Lisa was being unproblematic and you were thankful she didn`t mention anything about your horrible break up. To be honest, all of your previous fears were useless. It`s like she was the same Lisa you knew years ago - bright and funny, but now she was more mature and it seemed like she thought twice before saying anything. You were really enjoying their company and Vanessa seemed to like them just as much.

“Mommy!” She gasped suddenly in horror and you felt your heart speed up. “I forgot Nicky at the studio!”

“Oh my God, Nessie, you gave me a heart attack.” You sighed, closing your eyes and leaning back on the couch, and the girls chuckled. “We`ll get him back later, i promise. But please, don`t scare me like that ever again.” Vanessa nodded and returned to her noodles you ordered a while ago like she didn`t just nearly killed all of your nerve cells.

“A studio?” Rosie perked up and you snickered. Of course, she wouldn`t just skip something related to music in any sense.

“I dance!” Nessie answered happily and a noodle fell out of her mouth, making Jennie burst out laughing. You picked the food up and wiped her face gently.

“You like to dance?” Lisa asked excitedly and Jisoo rolled her eyes, grinning.

“Yes! It`s the best thing in the whole wooorld!” She nodded eagerly and Lisa high-fived her, asking Vanessa to show her some moves later.

“I wonder who she got it from…” Jennie muttered under her nose, but you heard it clearly. You frowned, catching her eyes with your own, but she didn`t look away, and you couldn`t help but tilt your head in question. She didn`t say anything, eyes falling to her phone quickly, so you changed the subject.

“Alright guys, we still have to go back to that studio and it`s someone`s nap time soon, so we better head out.” You said and Vanessa shook her head quickly with eyes full of concern.

“It`s not mine, mommy!” She looked tired already and was about to start getting fussy, but you still brushed her hair gently, took the money out of your purse and stood up.

“Yeah, it`s mine.” You smiled at her pouty lips and Chaeyoung cooed. “I so need a nap.” You said, showing how exhausted you were by rubbing your eyes softly.

“Okay then, mommy. I’ll stay with you when you get your beauty sleep, aright?” She nodded confidently and jumped off the couch in a second.

“Thank you, baby, you`re the best!” The girls stood up too to say goodbye and you smiled at them, still not believing everything went so good. 

“How are you so good with her?” Jisoo chuckled, hugging you and you grinned, returning the embrace. “I thought she was about to have a tantrum like any other kid would. You`re a magician!”

“Practice, duh. And, I’m the best.” 

“You sure are.” Jennie snickered, kissing your cheek.

“Don`t forget to say goodbye, Nessie.” You told your kid, who was hugging Rose tightly. 

“Bye-bye, aunty Jennie, bye-bye, aunty Rosie, bye-bye, aunty Jichu, bye-bye, aunty Lisa!” She lost her breath byt the time she said goodbye to everyone and the girls burst out laughing, melting completely. You hugged Jisoo and Lisa and took Nessie`s hand in yours.

“It was so good to see you guys!” You said on your way out while Vanessa was waving excitedly.

~

Lisa`s smile was still imprinted on your mind when you were putting Nessie to sleep that night and it felt so odd to think again about a woman you haven`t seen for so long yet who was related to you so much. She was still that Lisa you knew back then, but it seemed like she was completely a different person now and you couldn`t help but worry if this get-together with your ex would be a good thing for you or not. It got worse when Jennie texted you again that same night, wanting to meet up and promising that it would be just you and her this time. You were starting to get worried that she might be suspicious or if she knew something she didn`t need to, but you tried to reassure yourself that there was no way she would know. Right? You didn`t get much sleep that night, holding Nessie closer to your chest than usual, flashbacks of your past coming back to you till the sun rose in the morning and Vanessa opened her sparkly eyes again.

[socionicsdatabase]

Charles Lindbergh - SLI (ISTp)

Delta Quadra: The Quadra who fears “clipped wings” (Stratiyevskaya)

For Lindbergh, the sky was not the limit. As is typical of Delta Quadra, personal growth and development was a lifelong goal of his. He felt the most free when he could fly, and desired to live a quiet, peaceful life close to nature where he could develop his abilities and see and experience new adventures. He hated being part of crowds, hated fast-paced lifestyles. He wasn’t actively trying to change the world; he was simply pursuing what he loved and trying to maximize his own personal abilities, as is typical for Delta Quadra. He was happiest when he felt close to nature, with the freedom to pursue possibilities and develop his own potential. IP type: “IPs are both dynamic and irrational, so they see reality as in continuous, gradual, often imperceptible change.” (sociotype.com). Lindbergh was comfortable with abrupt changes. He was flexible, adaptive, and took things as they came. He saw the world as constantly being in a state of change, as can be easily seen from his writings.

Temperament: Melancholic - “These are sociotypes that are calm externally, but restless inside. Melancholics are introverts, so they hide their inner experiences under the guise of calm or, conversely, liveliness. The problem of any melancholy is the search for inner harmony, which is so easily destroyed by the rude influences of external factors.” (socionic.ru) Though Lindbergh appeared calm on the outside, it can be seen especially from his diary writings that he was internally restless, with a vast depth of inner experiences.

Lead function: Si (4D, Valued) Lindbergh’s love of aviation and flying stemmed from the physical experience it gave him. When describing his first experience jumping out of a parachute, he said, “It was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty.” He was captivated by natural beauty, and cherished the sensations and experiences his pursuits gave him. He loved being alone out in the wilderness, which he often says gave him an unparalleled freedom. He said, “In the wilderness I sense the miracle of life...” He also noted that “The human future depends on our ability to combine the knowledge of science with the wisdom of the wilderness.” Lindbergh was very aware of the environment around him, the harmony within it, and how it made him feel. “Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values...” He desired to preserve the natural beauty of the world. He had a deep love of nature, believing that modern cities were against the nature of man. “Real freedom lies in wilderness, not civilization”, he said. To Lindbergh, it was important to become united with the earth, to melt into it, and to fully experience the natural beauty it had to offer. He became a conservationist and promoter of environmental causes, once mentioning that he preferred birds to airplanes. Toward the end of his life, he planned his funeral and desired to have as natural a burial as possible.

Creative function: Te (3D, Valued) Lindbergh had natural skills as a mechanic. He went to school to study mechanical engineering and originally intended to pursue it as a career, but as can often happen with SLIs, he did not finish and dropped out to pursue flight school instead. However, he was always interested in engineering and performed all the mechanical work on his planes himself. Later on, in 1935, he helped to develop the world’s first “artificial heart”, a heart perfusion pump (valued Te-Ne). He was impressed by the high quality engineering that he saw in Germany (Te-Si-Ne) and their more advanced development of technology. While assisting with altitude tests at the Mayo Clinic, the new information he came up with at the end of his trials there was used by Henry Ford to modify the oxygen equipment of his airplanes and helped them become safer. He also taught young pilots how to best conserve plane fuel and resources so that they could fly for longer periods of time.

Role function: Ni (2D, Unvalued) Lindbergh was grounded in the world around him and was not very imaginative, but he was capable of occasionally turning his attention to the flow of time and long-term implications, and this seemed to be something he desired to do. This can be seen most easily in his writings. According to Model A, the role function is “seen as somewhat of an importance to the individual, but definitely not emphasized.” Model A also notes that “the role function is triggered situationally, when individuals are met with situations that oppose their base aspect of reality.” Lindbergh preferred experiencing things and was never a natural writer. This may be why use of Ni can be seen most easily in Lindbergh’s writings. He wrote that, “Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge...” And also said, “I hope my journals relating to World War II will help clarify issues of the past and thereby contribute to understanding the issues and conditions of the present and future.” He made some effort (especially after being encouraged by his wife) to document what he did, to serve as a reminder of the past for future generations, though this was not his primary motivation in life.

Vulnerable function: Fe (1D, Unvalued) It is well-known that Lindbergh hated large crowds and the attention that fame brought him. He was known to make extreme efforts to avoid people and recognition, such as disguising himself when going out in public. When a large crowd gathered to celebrate his landing, he would make efforts to avoid them. He didn’t like all the attention and disliked attempts to bring him into wider society. He rejected offers to be in movies and commercials. Instead, he strived to live a secluded, private life away from the public eye. Even while working on the development of the heart perfusion pump, he desired to be anonymous and keep his work quiet. He seemed to receive no joy out of the prevailing emotional atmosphere. Instead, he would seek to escape such atmospheres, and saw the attention of the public as “oppressive”, remarking that he “had enough publicity for 15 lives.” His avoidance of larger society and desire to do everything on his own in a self-sufficient way helped earn him the nickname ‘The Lone Eagle’. 

Suggestive function: Ne (1D, Valued) Lindbergh spent his whole life unconsciously seeking adventure. As a boy he spent a lot of his free time reading, especially adventure stories. The desire to have new experiences, to see new places, was one of the main motivators behind his aviation pursuits. He quit traditional school to pursue flight school, which he thought could lead him to greater adventure. He loved flying to new places and seeing new things. He also had a respect and love of science, discovery, and innovation. He helped the Aero Medical Unit for Research in Aviation Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. When describing the atomic age of war, Lindbergh expresses his sadness over the potential destruction of nature that the atomic bomb can produce. He says, “I worshipped science. I was awed by its knowledge...Now...I have seen the science I worshipped, and the aircraft I loved destroying the civilization I expected them to serve, and which I thought as permanent as the earth itself.” Here we can again see not only his valuing of Te and Ne, through his love of science and knowledge, but also his preference for Si over Se. He disliked the powerful force of the atomic bomb disrupting the harmony of civilization. He was open to new ideas and encouraged their growth and development. He became very interested in space travel and saw space as the new frontier. He supported the rocketry research of Goddard and Guggenheim and secured funding for their projects. Lindbergh also seemed to have an admiration for people with a wide variety of talents and abilities, and desired to develop his own abilities. For example, he admired his wife’s ability to write and speak different languages. She encouraged him to develop his own writing abilities, and this is something he appreciated and responded well to.    Mobilizing function: Fi (2D, Valued) The mobilizing function tends to manifest as something we appreciate and that has a strong influence over our actions (School of Associative Socionics, 2020). This can be seen throughout Lindbergh’s life. He stated that, “Power without moral force to guide it invariably ends in the destruction of the people who wield it. Power...must be backed by morality...” During his time as a civilian observer in the Pacific, he wrote about the cruelty and inhumane treatment of the Japanese that he witnessed, and the view among some of the soldiers that the enemy troops were merely “animals”. He said, “I am shocked at the attitude of our American troops. They have no respect for death, the courage of an enemy soldier, or many of the ordinary decencies of life.” He criticized the dehumanization of enemy troops and said he was concerned by the “lack of respect for even the admirable characteristics of our enemy.” He believed in the dignity of the human person, noting that “No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany.” Lindbergh was also known to be a private person who did not talk much of his feelings, and did not like it when others tried to get him to. According to Stratiyevskaya, “SLI dislikes it very much when intimate things are talked about directly - this is almost like a sacrilege to him.” His wife Anne notes that “he himself never felt the need to explain his feelings about where he stood and about past statements.” He disliked any attempts by others to analyze his soul. According to Grigory Reinin, SLIs “try to protect their emotional sphere from the intruding outsiders in every possible way.” He rejected books that were written about him and wanted the only information about him to be written by himself. He regularly kept a diary, but his Te style prevailed over personal Fi sentiments. Much of his diary writings were objective facts rather than personal emotional experiences. Interestingly, he also had a tendency to record the exact number of words on each page and wrote that number at the top, as a statistic. 

Ignoring function: Se (3D, Unvalued) Lindbergh was outspoken against war and preferred not to fight, though he understood it as sometimes necessary and showed respect for enemy troops (valued Fi also present). He said, “If I must fight, I'll fight; but I prefer not to spit at my enemy beforehand.” He understood the value of war and combat, but he did not like it to be used unless absolutely necessary. He did not think the US had a right to interfere in the affairs of other countries. He was publicly outspoken against the pro-war policies of President Franklin Roosevelt and it is known that the two of them did not think favorably of each other. He spoke of the misuse of power as being the greatest threat to mankind, and in 1945 said, “History is full of its misuse. There is no better example than Nazi Germany.” He preferred to appreciate and experience nature for what it was, rather than use force to try to conquer and shape it into something else. His wife Anne also noted that “he never wanted to be regarded as a hero or leader, and he never had political ambitions.” She noted that his speeches and statements were given out of his sincere belief of what was the best thing to do for the country and the world. Demonstrative function: Ti (4D, Unvalued) According to Grigory Reinin, for the SLI “knowing the world is its practical mastering.” We can see this with Lindbergh, who was more interested in experiencing life as it was, rather than trying to fit everything into a logical system. According to Wikisocion, SLIs “tend to feel that life is difficult to categorize and should simply be experienced for what it is.” However, this function is a strong, fundamental part of SLIs and could be seen playing a role in his love of science and his mechanical understanding of planes and gadgets. Though Ti is a strong function that is always working in the background, SLIs use it only situationally, to apply it to things they are interested in. Lindbergh had a strong understanding of how things fit together into a cohesive whole, but he chose not to focus on that and preferred experiencing things.

[aro-aizawa]

alright so i finished up playing all of pokemon shield including the post-game mini plot, so here’s a quick fire list of all the things i liked about it and disliked about it before i go on to explain it in more depth (also spoiler warning). here we go.

what i liked:

the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

what i didn’t like:

they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

wow this post is longer than i expected it to be already. but anyways, the rest is super long and under the cut further going into depth about the points i raised. 

to start with, i’ll talk about the good points because honestly?? i really wanted to love this game. i really really did. maybe it was just the fact that at first i didn’t like sun and moon because they changed the formula so much, but it turned out to become my favourite game in the series. or maybe it was just that i don’t like being hypercritical of things i spent fifty fucking pounds on. either way, i wanted to like the game, and overall i sort of did but i sort of didn’t. lots of mixed feelings. anyways. onto explaining the good stuff. (or you can skip to “now on w the bad junk” for the bad stuff)

1. the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

one of my favourite things about the pokemon series in recent times is seeing the process from 2d undetailed sprites to 3d incredibly detailed models. the most ambitious thing about gen 5 was the way the camera moved with your movements as you crossed the bridge, and now i just sometimes sit back and thing “wow 13 year old me would FLIP if she could see how good they got”. bc i kept just....admiring all the graphics and the quality of them. 

2. the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

definitely one of my favourite things about the game was seeing the new forms of pokemon we already knew and the alternate forms they’d take when dynamaxed. i love seeing pokemon with new types that completely flip the script, like darumaka becoming an ice type instead of a fire type. or the fact that they gave mr mime a galaran form and it actually doesn’t look bad. 

i really loved that some of the galaran forms had unique evolutions, such as linoone evolving into obstagoon. or meowth into perrserker. it makes sense and i’m always super happy to see new evolutions for old pokemon, it keeps things interesting when pokemon other than eevee get new evolutions.

(tho that being said, still disappointed there’s still not another eeveelution. still holding out hope for that ghost type.)

3. opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

i’m not super well versed in the pokemon universe besides from gen 1 and gen 5 onwards (if you couldn’t tell), but its really refreshing to have an old gym leader that’s visibly elderly rather that just grey haired maybe retiree man. her personality was also really fun, it sort of felt like she literally had the most personality of all the gym leaders, which kind of sucked but it made me really love her character. 

and bede i didn’t wholly expect to really like as much as i did? i mayhaps might have spoiled myself a little on their gym leader status by dipping into the swsh tag here on tumblr before i fully completed the game. but still, they seemed just generally really annoyingly stuck up? but something endeared me to the darl and i just think it mostly had to do w the fact that opal took one look at them and declared they was her grandchild now. 

4. bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

argue with me on this point all you like, but you can’t deny the fact that in CANON they literally did not use any pronouns to refer to bede until after the fourth gym. the only mention of pronouns before that was their trainer card, which i did not check because good character development should be shown not told through an impersonal medium such as character cards. 

5. gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

i’ve always loved the way the league is set up, because it makes sense. the pokemon formula works and its interesting, but in previous games most people only vaguely acknowledge it as something every kid tries but doesn’t really complete. it’s already set up people love pokemon battles, there just wasn’t a spectator sport about it unless in the anime or movies. they’re just a thing that happens that none of the npcs care about. 

finally its treated like the spectator sport that it should be. like,,, hell yeah,,, 

(also do you think that in the pokemon universe there’s various stories/tv shows about made up kids completing the league and becoming champions? because i definitely do.)

6. dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

i p much summed up most of my thoughts in this point well. but i love when pokemon are so visibly powerful. like these creatures have powers that we’d equate to actual gods like summoning whole storms, creating giant waves, create earthquakes and so much more. pokemon are so powerful and to see them become giant and have so much weight and power? its so satisfying controlling that and bringing down other giant pokemon. 

7. the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

i really appreciated the change that started in pokemon let’s go with some pokemon being visible and easy to encounter wandering through the grass. it makes it so much easier to search for the one pokemon that you don’t have in your pokedex yet, or if you’re looking for a specific pokemon to join your team.

i love how large and expansive the wild area is, and with the camping system you can just explore and fill out your pokedex without ever leaving if you’re fully stocked up on supplies. it makes you really believe the whole “yep this kid isn’t just blasting through the whole thing in one day”. kids sleep in tents on their journey with their pokemon and cook curry for them all. adds a nice level of immersion and convenience. 

.

jesus fuck this is so long and i haven’t even gotten to my criticisms yet, is anybody actually reading this chunk of text??? well rip to you my friend and thank you. but now on w the bad junk.

1. they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

they did a decent job considering it was in development for only two years w one only for the concept and the second actually making it. but they cut so many corners it doesn’t quite feel like a true installment into the pokemon universe. it feels like it was made by another dev studio rather than gamefreak. like how fallout new vegas and fallout 3 barely feel like the two installments in the same franchise. 

this point sort of leads into many different points that i raised, so i’ll explain those a little bit more in depth there. but to sum it up, the easiest way to see it is just how...flat things are. if you only pay attention to the things the game directs you to, then you will not miss a single thing. flavor text is less about adding depth to the world and more just...pointless. it adds. nothing.

and in the post game when sonia gets a new assistant, even though she plays a fairly important part in the post-game plot, she doesn’t get a name nor a unique character model. she get’s a generic doctor model yet it’s treated like we should feel betrayed that nameless npc 234 went behind sonia’s back and stole from her. 

OH! and i almost forgot!!!! but that one part where rose is trying to talk leon into something “mysterious”??? they straight up just used images!!!! like,,,, what???? you didn’t have time to program the minimal animations for that?? who’s fault is that for pushing the release!!! give your employees time to work at a decent pace and not crunch them to reach an impossible goal. game freak, you don’t have to release a game every november.

2. a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

also p much just explain this in the point. BUT it happened all. the. time. the only pokemon i know for sure was effected by the bug was gyarados, because instead of the roaring cry i heard the whooshing sound that was probably meant to be another pokemon’s cry. it sounds wack when im saying it rn bc im not 100% convinced i wasn’t making this up, but it was the sole reason i turned the pokemon cries to get drowned out by the music and sound effects.

3. the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

i touched on this previously in 1 but basically walking around a town and talking to npcs will not get you any interesting dialog. going into the houses/rooms, and you’ll only get one npc who’s all like “i’m brushing my hair!” and that’s about it. there aren’t any items tucked away in houses or corners of buildings for you to explore or battle people. when you acknowledge that there’s no flavor text from npcs all the towns feel practically empty whereas in the previous games it actually alive.

not to mention how little the diaglog changes? like it may just be my faulty memory at play but im pretty sure that the npcs in the previous games had more dynamic dialog in which they’d change what they said depending on your action in the town or for the plot. after a major event just happened, if you walked around and talked to everyone in that area they’d talk about it. but that happened like....once.

4. there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

one thing i loved about the series was the increasing freedom in customisation of trainers. fashion kept getting wider and with more variety, clothes that were still cute and i’d frequently have about 2k because i just kept buying them. by the end of my playthrough of swsh i had almost a million saved up because i didn’t like most of the clothing options. i found one outfit and hairstyle i liked a quarter of the way through the game and stuck with it until the end. they drastically cut down on the options, and that sucked. 

5. don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

again, already touched on this point but one example i know is this. when you go to the energy plant to battle rose, or go to the roof to battle eternus, i expected to go back to it when the event was over to see if something was left behind or because i’d been locked in a cutscene and unable to explore before, that meant there would be something now. but nope. don’t bother. even when you think you might be able to do something fun, don’t try until the game points you in that direction itself. if something interesting is going to happen in the game, i assure you they will point it out for you. 

6.  it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

hard games disinterest me. if a game is renowned for it’s difficulty, then i will avoid it. i don’t care if defeating dark souls is a badge of honor for your stubbornness or skill. i simply don’t enjoy playing a game that makes me want to quit in frustration because i am not good at video games. i appreciated how easy the games have been in recent years because it makes it a lot easier for me to actually complete them and enjoy them, it’s why i have trouble getting into the earlier gens of pokemon. 

but when it got to the point where after only about an hour or two of dynamax farming, by the time that i got round to the championships i was literally one shotting every single pokemon. even when i didn’t have super effective moves. i was almost 20 levels ahead of the competition, and blasted through the whole thing in a total of 10 minutes battle time and 30 minutes dialog and cutscene time, with a 20 minute pause for a phone call. 

i defeated leon with only very minimal struggle. i couldn’t one shot all his pokemon, i will admit. i two shotted them. i went into the championship fully stocked up on potions and revival items and left with all of them. none of my pokemon fainted or even sustained major damage. 

while satisfying feeling that you’re op enough to utterly annihilate your opponents, there comes a point where it’s just “why bother i know i’ll win” which kind of sucks. 

7. the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

sorry to charizard fans, but please acknowledge that it’s overrated. its design is basic, and already has multiple different forms. the fact that they passed over the opportunity for the creativity that dynamax venusaur or blastoise could give, for another basic dragon design is so annoying. 

not to even mention the fact that they didn’t even bother to keep the rest of the starter pokemon either. i vaguely remember one time some nintendo employee or big shot saying that the best thing about it is that every pokemon is at least one person’s favourite. the underused or underloved pokemon will always be ONE person’s favourite, and that’s why you can get the whole pokedex. but y’know fuck that philosophy in the name of getting the game out on time. when they could have very easily pushed the release date back. i’m lucky that most of my faves got included but i know that a fair amount did not. and i’m pissed. 

8. the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

9. i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

these two go so hand in hand, that i’m taking the time to address them together considering in every single previous game so far the team has had some HEAVY influence on the plot in one way or another. they’re always linked to the legendary pokemon of the game and they’re always included in the overarching plot, either by driving the player to act or subtly there. 

i kept seeing team yell show up and trying to work out how they were going to join the plot. were they a cult doing Science Shit in the background trying to revive the legendaries? was marnie the leader of this cult and going through the league to distract people from her totally devious going-ons? or would it turn out that marnie though the team harmless but really it was a front for her relative’s secret cult? 

nope!!! they were annoying roadblocks who added literally nothing to the plot. 

and when i realised that, it was the seventh gym battle and so far the only plot i’d glimpsed at was the mysterious explosions in hammerlocke city and the overarching tale of the sword and shield that had been obvious since literally the first time sonia started to talk about it. there had been no plot. there was literally no plot other than the gym battles which sonia and leon specifically called out to “leave this to the grownups, you two just focus on the gym challenge”. 

and when i got my eighth badge and was completing the equivalent of the elite four, i was still confused as FUCK because where the hell was the plot???? and then the whole weird ass “we have to save leon” from a meeting with.....a chairman? how about you wait just an hour jfc it’s not that bad? he’s not being held against his will? the chairman wasn’t doing anything obviously evil or even hinted at? 

the whole thing was vague and rose’s motivation was just ??????? i don’t know???? i still don’t exactly know what the whole deal was. it came out of nowhere and made. no. sense. it had completely lost me. along with the fact that they were suddenly introducing dynamax raids like we hadn’t already been doing that so many times in the wild area????

which leads me to my next point.....sigh. 

10. fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

first things first, is that i hate everything about these characters. from their names, to their designs, to their motivations, to how they’re handled in canon. it was shitty and while i had fun playing with the whole “this is what a champion does after they beat the previous one” thing, it was just in general really bad. 

like, i cannot get over how shitty their designs were. their hair was literally a sword and a shield. i kept thinking “wow swordward has a penis head that wiggles when he moves” and couldn’t take a single thing he said seriously. i literally wanted to weep at the horrible character design. 

not to mention the suddenness of their whole schtick. “yeah we’re royalty and we’re “”””CELEBRITIES”””” even if none of you have heard of us”. like what????? the fuck????

it just sort of pisses me off to an astronomical degree that this low quality shit was jammed into a pokemon game when they were getting so good at storytelling. it felt like game freak were hammering me with a club while singing “YOU PAID 50 WHOLE POUNDS FOR THIS IN PARTICULAR!!!” like,,,, thanks. thank you. thank you for waiting until after i’d finished the game to really hammer home that point. 

which somewhat leads me to my last point that really just sums up the majority of my thoughts on the whole game:

11. a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

if i knew what i knew about the game know, i wouldn’t pay fifty fucking pounds for it. it physically pains me to spend more than £30 in one sitting, that i actually winced while i was buying it even though i was being 100% optimistic that i was going to love it. at most i’d pay £30 for it, but only then. it’s a good game to really distract you and power through but other than that, i don’t see it as a game i’m going to come back to so i can complete the pokedex and i certainly am not going to buy the other game so i can play it again unlike how i’ve done in the past with my favourite installments. 

maybe i’m just picky, or i don’t buy games often enough, but i really would not classify this as a quality installment in the pokemon franchise. if you get a free copy, or just the opportunity to play it for a few hours then fine it’s a great game. but not quite something you should want to spend your money on. but don’t pirate it. that’s a fast way to get bugs.

to sum this whole mess of a post up: immediately after finishing the game i said to myself “now time to go play a REAL pokemon game” before booting up pokemon moon.

[atopearth]

Higurashi When They Cry Part 7 - Ch 7 Minagoroshi-hen

As I thought, Rika was trying her best to save every world that existed, she always tried her best and yet she could never succeed past the “curse” that would fall on whichever character. It must have been so tough for her to watch all this, to die all those times and to experience that failure to save everyone each time. I’m happy to say that I noticed all the rules for the worlds! Please praise me hahaha. I’m just sad that Rika’s mental life span after experiencing all this is shortening and she’s going to mix up stuff soon, I guess that’s why you can tell after each succeeding chapter that she is revealing more and more things for you to unravel what exactly is happening. Well, it seems like this is the last chance for them all to fix everything in two weeks! Seems like it might be the last chance for Hanyuu (Rika’s sister? Inner self?) to rewind everything with the rest of her powers~ How will it go, I wonder~

Hanyuu is SO CUTE! Honestly, it was so heartbreaking to see Rika so disappointed that Keiichi couldn’t remember what he did in the last world, she really wanted to believe in a miracle happening, yet they wouldn’t allow that. Rika still has hope, so I really don’t want those hopes of hers to be crushed. I want her to finally win against this cruel fate… Satoko has an incurable disease?! Why is the poor girl suffering so much?😭 How has Rika been doing the same thing over and over so many times? Sure, there’s variations, but it’s crazy to think that she has to react similarly to her first when it comes to stuff that has happened before. I guess it’s finally causing a toll on her… It couldn’t be helped that she didn’t react properly to Satoko… In a sense though, with how Rika’s mind is breaking from being unable to cope with death once again and living the same life again, and with the end coming sooner than usual, wouldn’t she be the “cursed” one this time around? The thing is, Rika is always talking about how it’s fate that they’ll play this game at the toy store with Mion and them, but she’s forgotten that she doesn’t have to go along with this fate. She’s become so numb to it that she’s forgotten that she’s Rika, she’s a person in this world as well, she’s not an overseer, she could have rejected playing that fish game, she could have asked to play another, there are so many choices for her but she’s forgotten that just as there are these “rules” that have forced her to live these 100 years endlessly, she is also in control of what she can do in this world. So, I’m really glad that even though Keiichi may not have the memories she wants him to have from the previous world, I’m glad he said that he wouldn’t go along with her “predictions of the future” and that he would change fate. Even if everything happens as she says it does and the owner would give them that specific game, Keiichi can reject it and get another for his group. I’m happy that Keiichi showed her that this world doesn’t have to repeat and be boring like she thinks it will be. So it was really nice to see Rika be inspired and want to change her fate again, without complaining that two weeks wasn’t enough to change it when Keiichi changed it so easily in 5 minutes. I liked her initiative in telling her group she didn’t want to play the fishing game. C'mon, you’re Rika! Of course they’ll go along with you on whatever game you want to play, they all love you hahaha. I’m not sure what the point was for the “choice” with Rika telling Keiichi to give the doll to Mion or hoping that he would, but I’m happy that either way, in this world, Keiichi knows who wants the doll the most and didn’t cave to embarrassment or anything, he literally gave the doll to Mion. I’m so happy for Mion. It’s such a simple thing but I’m sure Mion would be so happy. Is it true that Keiichi is growing as a person throughout the worlds without consciously knowing? I prefer the music and the result of when Rika doesn’t try to tell Keiichi though, because it surprises Rika and she thinks of it as a miracle, she just sounds more hopeful and I like that haha.

I would have loved to see Keiichi playing that pop up pirate game, it would have been awesome I bet! But, oh well, the idea that everyone wants him to be a part of the Watanagashi Planning Committee to host an auction for donated items sounds cool! It seems that Keiichi is starting to get mixed up with his previous memories unconsciously now… Was ohagi the food that made Keiichi doubt Mion and Rena in the first chapter? It probably was… The first chapter always saddens me… The sewing needle story must have been traumatising for him as a kid, no wonder why he overreacted in the first chapter, or maybe he was just so paranoid about them, he imagined the sewing needle in the ohagi huh? Regardless though, it was nice to see Keiichi have absolute confidence now that Mion would never do such a thing. It was so wonderful to hear that Rena and her Dad are redecorating their house with new furniture now that he’s got a new job! Everything seems to be going well with them now! I’m so happy that they’re moving forward together. I’m also so glad that Rena could actually tell them openly about her parents divorce, I think the fact that she did makes it sweet to see how much she has also learnt to trust her friends. I kinda believe that they all possess the memories of the previous worlds as well tbh. Ooh so Rena saw her previous world memories through a dream, I guess that means that subconsciously, they’re all changing because of what happened before, so really, Rika’s efforts weren’t for nothing! Things are changing for sure!! I never really thought about or realised that Tomitake and Takano were like a protection for Rika, and that the main reason why she can be killed later on is because she loses their protection after their deaths, so in order to save this world, she needs to save them. It was also saddening to hear that back then, she used to try her best to save her parents from death until the point she became apathetic towards it, I guess that’s why her mother thought of her as like a monster? If what’s causing Rika to die every time is someone’s strong will for her death, wouldn’t it be ironic if the one that’s killing her was herself/Hanyuu? The future is uncertain, but the cycles of life they repeat are certain and similar, what if there’s a part of her that actually is really scared of the future and actually would rather repeat all these worlds “safely” and repetitively, having fun with all her friends even if it’s momentary?

Lmao at Rika saying Takano should take photos inside the ritual storehouse if she paid her 10,000 yen and she really did hahaha. It’s also funny that Hanyuu was against it until she gave the money and could eat more desserts with it lol! Well, this Oyashiro-sama (i.e. Hanyuu apparently appears every couple of generations or something?) is very chill as long as there’s desserts! It’s kinda cute how Takano really would do anything just to see the storehouse, and it’s also kinda weird going into this storehouse with such “fun vibes” when it was so scary the last time Keiichi and them went inside… Does that mean the “stomping” they all heard in the other chapters was Hanyuu hearing Takano badmouth her and she got mad at that since she never wanted these torturing systems, it was all the people just using her name to conduct such atrocities? So…the curse of Oyashiro-sama really is a disease that causes hallucinating etc when it progresses to the higher levels, and Tomitake is involved with people in Tokyo that are giving Irie and Takano the budget to cure it? And they’ll protect Rika hopefully… But omg! Akasaka is here too?! And this time, he actually listened to Rika and went back to his wife in the middle of his work so his wife and child are still alive! I’m so happy for them! Rika really is working in a world where all her efforts are bearing fruit! I guess you really can’t blame Rika for giving up when Satoko’s uncle came back. She’s tried so many things before in these 100 years and they never worked out after all… It was just saddening to see Shion acting like Keiichi back then when he murdered the uncle… Everyone cares for Satoko…but murder won’t solve anything because Satoko will just continue to blame herself even more… Sigh…

I love how they’re slowly progressing on how to help Satoko and are gathering people to the child consultation centre to kinda have like a peaceful mass protest. It was hilarious when Keiichi tried to get Kameda (the friend from the baseball game), and he described Satoko’s charm as a tsundere but when flipped, will be deredere lolll, and then when he said Satoko is just like the first and last half of Higurashi’s plot itself hahahaha, he’s so right😆😆 I must admit, Keiichi’s passionate speech about 2D and 3D girls was great, it was so easy to change Kameda’s mind hahaha. I love their friendship lmao. HAHAHA, I loved it when they said they needed more people than just Kameda’s baseball team and then he just shouts out to his comrades in Angel Mort (the cafe) who all love moe and 2D of the like, everyone is so funny but united in such weird ways, but I love it hahaha. I like how friendly Ooishi and Keiichi are, they bond over such silly things, it was also nice of him to give his warning/advice about the Satoko situation and how the child consultation centre is viewing everything. I knew Keiichi wouldn’t back down regardless but it was nice to see his resolve like that. I’m also really happy to see that everyone in Hinamizawa can be so united in a good way rather than the intimidating way it always was in the previous chapters. Also glad that Rika has finally realised that although it’s true that they can’t help Satoko as much as they want to unless she requests for the help herself, Rika herself has not been cooperative either. She’s merely watched over what Keiichi and everyone has done like a bystander when really she should be in this story as well! She can’t change her world to be what she wants if she doesn’t take an active role as well. Just as Satoko needs to realise that she needs to seek help from the others, Rika also needs to understand that if she can’t do it, she must rely on the others as well.

Although I do feel like Keiichi’s talk with the oldies and Oryou (Mion’s grandmother) was rather “easy” and smooth considering how everyone was once so adamant on thinking the curse would kill them or whatever for doing anything like this, or maybe because Tomitake and Takano haven’t died yet so they’re a bit more chill? Nah, I dunno, but I did feel like it was rather smooth sailing, but I guess in a sense, everyone wanted to drop the negativity towards Satoko just because she was a Houjou, so they really just needed someone brave enough like Keiichi to say that out in the open and make them change their stubbornness on the surface, they all already knew that they didn’t want to continue isolating her, they just needed a push from someone else. I always love Rena in these situations though, I feel like she doesn’t say much but what she says is always critical and to the point, and that’s why I think she’s a great match for Keiichi. Also love and think that she was one of the only ones that could really tell that Oryou wasn’t angry at Keiichi at all when he confronted her, she just had to don that aggressively angry persona to keep up with appearances as the Sonozaki family head. Not surprised that the child consultation centre isn’t gonna yield just because there’s a lot of outside pressure though. But I do think it’s about time they bother doing something like a reassessment rather than try and check the power balances between the village heads etc, like can you focus on the children? I don’t blame the centre for being busy and overwhelmed with such cases, and that the things our main characters are doing are merely putting pressure on them rather than providing proper evidence, but at the same time I want to cheer for our main characters for doing so many things just because they want to help their friend, and hope for the centre to finally understand that if so many people are willing to take their time out to protest about something, they should really learn more about this supposed guardian of Satoko’s, especially with his dodgy background and everything and the fact that so many people are witnesses of his atrocities last year and right now. And after all, I really do like Hinamizawa’s motto where if one person is hurt or whatever then two people should rise up and protect them and if there’s too many, then the whole village should, I think that sense of unity in Hinamizawa is its charm and I like it.

I’m happy that Rika was finally able to get through to Satoko. She’s right, Satoko is still the same as she was last year, enduring abuse and waiting to be saved. If she truly wants her brother to acknowledge her and come back, she needs to stand up for herself, especially when so many others are offering their hands to her, so I’m glad that Satoko has finally decided to face what Satoshi faced in order to protect her. I’m soooo disappointed that it’s the festival and we didn’t even get to see Keiichi actually host the auction! I’m so sad😭😭 I’m so sad that they cut all those slice of life moments (with summaries), they’re what really make Higurashi what it is as well! So it feels really incomplete without it… *Super spoilers from here on* I’m not surprised Takano was the one who killed Tomitake by injecting that disease into him, and I’m not surprised she faked her own death. She’s crazy enough to want the curse to be true and continue on like this. I’m not sure what they want to achieve though…like destroy Hinamizawa with this disease? Does she think of herself as part of the Demons and needing to cleanse Hinamizawa by killing everyone? Does she want Hinamizawa to live as some kind of legend without physical presence? How did this disease even come to be, and why does no one in Hinamizawa know about it when it’s something most apparent in their village? Btw I feel sorry for Tomitake. I still don’t trust Hanyuu though, I still think she just wants to live happily here with Rika forever repeating this same life however many times rather than going past June. I feel that since there are circumstances where she can be heard e.g. the stomping, she definitely is suspicious! I’m sorry Hanyuu if I’m wrong hahahah.

I’m glad that Rika finally found the courage within her to tell Keiichi and them everything, especially when she knows that she’s gonna die that night. Just wondering though, if villagers who leave Hinamizawa get sick quickly after and this is proportional to the distance from the village, what about Rena’s mum? So if “Tokyo”, the organisation trying to use the Hinamizawa Syndrome like a military weapon is Takano and them, then does that mean the reason Hinamizawa kinda gets destroyed later on is because they experimented on Hinamizawa to see how much damage they could cause on a community? Not sure I really get Rika being the “queen” idea but it seems that maybe the village is always destroyed in the end because Rika is killed and when she’s dead, the disease somehow spreads rapidly and makes everyone have that persecution complex to kill each other? I wonder if it’s really wise for the Mountain Dogs (secret military unit that Takano is a part of and is a part of Tokyo) to just kill Ooishi and Kuma like that, they’re policemen, it’ll definitely be investigated properly if policemen are killed.

Anyway, I’m not surprised everything ended the way it did considering how ill prepared they were to take on Takano and them, but I agree with Rika, it’s sad that everything ended the way it did, but the amount of progress that happened in this world was unfathomable and definitely hope for next time to be better and to be possible for them all to survive. Although I wasn’t fond of all the fourth wall kinda stuff talking to the reader and how they could talk to each other even though they died, I did enjoy the fact that they finally could touch Hanyuu and make her believe that there is hope, and that she shouldn’t be so passive like a bystander anymore, just like Rika, she needs to be a part of this story for it all to work as well. I think that was nice. Honestly, it does feel rather ridiculous and rushed for them to so easily agree to killing so many people that probably will exert these “terminal symptoms” when they just found out about this disease itself and what destruction it can cause, no one has even really shown the effects of it after losing the “queen” yet. And they let the villagers bring their bank books and cash? They trying to rob them while they’re at it? I don’t see how after all this that the Sonozaki family that is in Okinomiya wouldn’t react suspiciously to this “gas leak” considering how many of them there are and how powerful they are too. And Takano is ruthless and crazy as usual but for some reason I can’t really feel for her craziness? Like, I don’t know if it’s because things ended so fast or because I just don’t find it interesting that it makes me feel like this?

Overall, I think for once, I’m actually disappointed in the chapter! Lol! I feel so bad that I feel like that because maybe it’s because of my high expectations and how long I had to wait for this chapter to come out rather than the issue of the story itself. I’ll still try and talk about what I feel though. Another reason I might be quite sad is that I kinda missed the formula of Higurashi in the previous chapters, like, I always enjoy the slice of life games before the actual story and not getting that in this chapter made me a bit sad. I also felt that a lot of Rika’s thoughts were repetitive, like too repetitive, it’s kinda like when I’m reading To Aru Majutsu no Index and a lot of the time, the author likes to reiterate a lot of things for effect but it’s a bit too overused and it felt like that with Rika and Hanyuu. We knew how they felt and how much despair they felt having to relive all this so many times, so I thought it was unnecessary to keep mentioning it with the same words, I think if the despair could have been put in more different words or in a different way to show her feelings, it would have hit me more than just the idea that Rika is devastated and can’t find it in herself to move on or give up entirely. I’m also not a fan of stories breaking the fourth wall really, so the beginning of the chapter where it kinda “talks” to the reader felt a bit surprisingly unconnected to me, it kinda made the story of Higurashi feel a bit more detached to me, and it made me feel like a true “outsider”. I always read the story and engaged with the mystery as like a part of it in a sense where like a lot of the staff room rolls, you would think alongside the characters on how the story would unfold, and yet that beginning made me feel pushed out of wanting to find out the mystery of everything with them all. I also didn’t like how a lot of things were explained and told to you such as the summaries of what happened and the origins of the disease, rather than being shown through the characters and their stories. I liked the extra exposition and background of it, but I think that could have been done as a tip rather than as a part of the story. I guess my biggest complaint is just that as Ryukishi07 wanted, this was really an answer to everything in the sense like it was an answer key. You flip to the last page and it gives you the answers but doesn’t really show it to you in a way where you discover it along the way kinda feel, it’s literally just an answer. I enjoyed the previous answer arcs because you kinda go step by step into being enlightened to more things that happened from another perspective and I guess I expected that instead. I guess I also wasn’t a fan of the motives and how everything played out with Takano and their organisation, this is mostly my problem though, I just didn’t enjoy it being what it was?

However, I did still enjoy the chapter. I thought it was really nice to see how everything could be resolved for Satoko’s situation. I didn’t agree with everything that happened and how it was done all the time, in terms of the story and the characters’ actions but I really did enjoy the sense of unity from everyone. It really felt like a culmination of all the hard work in the other chapters, it really felt like everything was done to achieve all this and make these miracles really happen. It made me believe in them strongly as well haha. Rika’s monologues were repetitive but it really reflected how much she had suffered and how apathetic she was forced to become, so it was nice to see Keiichi break all that. Basically, I guess I am satisfied and dissatisfied with everything at the same time hahaha. I hope the next chapter comes out soon though… I mean, however everything ends up being resolved, I’d still love Higurashi just as much though. I’ve always been a person who loves stories for the journey rather than the ending, and I always appreciate the journey much more no matter what, but yeah, I still hope I’ll like this last chapter of the main arc much more than this one haha.

[tamgerines]

KH3 First Impression and Complete Thoughts

BACKGROUND: i've played kh1, com, kh2, bbs, 2.8, and a bit of khux. i've watched coded and 3d on yt, so i know the story relatively well. this is an impression of my first playthrough. i did my run on standard mode and watched the secret ending on yt. i mostly did this for story, so this will have my initial impressions based on my run that will not cover extra content like the phone mini games and cooking.  my opinions are subjected to change if i ever do any later playthroughs. pls, feel free to disagree w/ me.

!!! WARNING: THERE WILL BE A LOT OF STORY SPOILERS!!!

AUDIO: 

Music: utada is queen!!! that opening song!!! also i kept noticing how lit the songs are in each world esp frozen???  and aqua's. worth a replay just for the soundtrack alone.

Voice Acting: everyone sounded great for the most part. sora’s va have certainly improved and sounds less strained. his vanitas voice has suffered significantly though lolololol. i think i read that someone called it a wannabe dark knight voice? the organization sounded incredible, w/ my fav being xemnas, marluxia, and larxene. the disney and pixar va’s are incredible w/ my fav probably being randall in monster’s inc. 

some ppl did not get vas like xaldin and laxeaus. and phil in hercules. which were all very disappointing bc in the scenes that they were in, they would just stand around woodenly, and it’s very noticeable. 

VISUALS: 

mostly a+. environments are beautiful. water and frost textures are amazing!!! you can really feel that waterga and blizzaga. fur textures in monster's inc. could use some work. little details like the sails moving in potc rly make the worlds come alive. this could be a me prob, but environments in certain worlds make it very hard to see map markers, treasure chests, and disney emblems (which are supposed to be hard to find, but still). mostly in tangled.

strangely enough, this is the only game where i prefer in game graphics to cgi. it's already highly expressive and there's something creepy and uncanny about the cgi esp in the final fight. and it's mostly bc sora's thin chapped lips throughout the entire game suddenly becomes full.

DESIGNS: 

i don't love everyone's outfit or sora's outfit changes in this game besides toy story. this is something i alrdy knew going in, but i've always felt like the outfits in kh1 and 2 rly suited each of the character's personalities. and this is not just destiny trio but even chars like roxas, the twilight town kids and the hollow bastion crew. the move towards a uniformed look makes no sense to me like is it to unify the key bearers as one force against the organization? i could understand why destiny trio was wearing plaid but why the twilight town kids also? by the end of the game, almost everyone was wearing black and it's just boring to me. like there's a right way to do uniform while retaining characters' individual looks, and that's the wayfinder trio in bbs. in this game, not so much.

an aside, but i'm sort of disappointed in the hud moving to 3d too. the 2d portraits have always been part of kh so it's kinda a bum to see it go away.

i don't love the lvl designs but it might also be due to a narrative and pacing issue that i'll expand on. any case, vertical maps are a challenge to figure out. i don't consider myself bad at directions but there are so many moments, esp in hercules and tangled where i would be like where the heck do i go next (and i have the map) only for me to look up and find a shotlock teleport point (and this isn't so much a thing that heightens the difficulty but a time waster).

lvls and bosses in previous kh games have always been known for their gimmicks and mechanics, but in this game particularly i found it to be more tedious? and this mostly applies to frozen: who the fuck designed frozen? who the fuck thought it's a good lvl design to have sora climb a mountain, get kick off it twice, and climb it again as good lvl design? who?

all the disney bosses started blending together for me bc they're literally all giant monsters and rly easy. i think the mistake here is the fact that the disney worlds are put back to back whereas in kh1/2/bbs you have the interruption of original worlds and an actually playable important parts to the main story, in this game all the important storyline in radiant garden are locked in cutscenes interspersed throughout the game between finishing disney worlds.

a lot of ppl might disagree w this, but i miss the cinematic reaction commands and limit attacks. we still have them but i find them to be on a much smaller scale in the form of drive finishers and situation commands, but i find them to be less imaginative in kh3 in order to be less """"disruptive""" to the gameplay. i've always found cinematics charming in previous games as a way to show sora interacting with his party members during combat. little things like beast putting a hand on sora's shoulder, aladdin leaning on him, or riku bumping his fist have a way of making the friendships he forms feel organic. outside of link commands/ summons, in this game, he........just throws a lot of ppl around or is thrown around?

GAMEPLAY:

already sort of went through parts of it in the previous section, but overall combat was smooth. i love how mobile sora is in this game. the improvement to his running speed and addition of all the mobile skills like dodge roll, super slide, flow motion, blizzard skating, etc. makes combat feel fast paced and juking so easy.

magic is super improved on ever since 2.8 and feels satisfying to use esp bc i feel like ur given a lot more mp now and with the ability to save the last of your mana for cure, it feels like you're not always budgeting your magic.

underwater combat was smoother than i expected.

it's a mistake putting almost all the commands on the triangle button. there's so much options you can do in combat and you'd mean to activate one thing, but then an attraction flow comes out and you just want to die. it gets a bit easier as i went on and got more used to the controls, but in general, i still think it's a mistake to not to have an ability or something to disable certain features like in kh2 fm.

gummy ships continue to be a thing. why. i don’t like how i have to turn the camera myself now ;;;. 

i'm not a speedrunner or anything, so i can't say too much else about fighting. the physical combos to me did feel like he was spinning a bit too much tho.

STORY: oh, fucking boy.

i'm not mad, i'm not disappointed, and i'm not even surprised. i already knew that post bbs, kh has already departed far from the franchise i loved as a kid and still today, at least story wise. but let's walk through it.

Disney Worlds: the disney worlds was literally a retelling of their movies. and unlike in kh2 and bbs, where visits to disney worlds were split into two parts, with the first part following the disney story and the second part being heavily tied to the main kh story and thus having original content, the disney worlds in kh3 only get one long visit. and the integration of kh into disney was just done so poorly. remember how kh villains used to kidnap princesses? remember how they used to actually conspire to take disney characters' hearts and turn them dark? remember, you know, when they were still evil and actually interfered with the worlds? in almost every world in kh3, an org member just comes says vague menacing things to sora, calls him stupid, and then leaves. yeah. and oh, maleficent and pete looks for a black box only to not find it, and leaves. AND THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

the pixar worlds + bh6 were the only ones with any actual new content and they feel so fresh. i esp loveeeeeeeed toy story omg. the script was so good, funny, and heartwarming. the pixar consultants should have helped kh all the way tbh.

like previous games, there's an attempt for each disney world to thematically tie into the main kh story. in this game, it was as heavy handed as ever, probably even more so. 

Original Worlds: onto the meat of kh, the main story was rushed up until the end. you have a slew of disney worlds, then bam, they slam you with all the human bosses and the important story stuff. 

the ‘awakening’ of roxas, xion, and ventus were very rushed. you literally have one moment they’re no there then two seconds of white screen and all of a sudden they’re there. 

there’s a shit ton of shoehorned character redemption arcs: vexen, demyx, saix, eraqus, xehanort, xemnas, ansem. all were done either offscreen or by some miracle, they reached an epiphany after sora beat his keyblade into their heads. 

the only death scene that i actually liked, that a lot of ppl complained about, was vanitas bc yes, although i thought his character had so much potential, it was at least a consistent and sympathetic death. bless him, born a villain die a villain. same with xemnas bc i loved his last speech. 

xehanort was a shitty villain through and through. no one understood his motivation; it’s like nomura took a page from thanos’ guide of how to write villains, gave him some stupid ass goal to have a keyblade war to restart the world, and then just have him...get everything he wanted? his estranged friend comes back in ghost form for whatever reason and is just like ok we’re cool man even tho u took my student and indirectly murdered me and then gets taken up to heart heaven, like O K. and like what’s the most frustrating is that it’s implied they’re keeping him as a villain??? bc fucking ymx is like ooohh imma just go back to my own time via time travel. it’s too late for u sora hurdur. 

and the younger members of the organization, the ones that we do know were in khux. we don’t get to know how they became nobodies and they don’t get a redemption??? really???  

you can tell they tried, TRIED, hard to give everyone closure. and they miserably failed to close plot points. they actually opened more. who the fuck is the unnamed girl in lea and isa’s storyline? why the fuck did you mention her if you were going to play the pronoun game and not name her??? what the fuck was in the black box??? why are they looking for it when no one know what’s in it??? why the fuck was repliku inside of riku the whole fucking time??? why have org members be norted if they can still have agency and choose to betray xehanort??? why the fuck was BOTH sora and riku in different worlds in the secret ending????? ? ? ? 

and tho i’m very glad that wayfinder and sea salt trios get their happy ending, the destiny trio had their characters assassinated. kairi was teased to become an independent character of her own and fight alongside sora, only to get shafted to become a damsel in distress, again, literally replaced by xion in one of the last battles, AND referred to as ‘motivation’ for sora by xehanort lol. sora, the guy who’s always going my friends are my power, ONLY grieves about losing kairi, accrediting all of his strength ONLY TO HER. riku, who spent the first game desperately trying to get kairi’s heart back, and who protected her from saix in the second, suddenly doesn’t give a shit about her and is just there as sora’s moral support. it’s so frustrating that nomura has the audacity to say that this series is primarily about friendship and then pull this shit lol. it’s transparent. 

CONCLUSION: 

i think for me, the quintessential kh trilogy has always been kh1, com, and kh2. as far as i’m concerned, the story should have ended there for destiny trio. and it’s like nomura said, how he feels more sympathetic towards villains now, i think nomura’s ideas have outgrown his main character. 

sora’s journey worked in 1, com, and 2 because he had an overarching goal to find kairi and riku and return home. not everyone has to understand heartless vs. nobodies or dark vs. light but at least, anyone can understand the desperation of saving your friends. when that framework is taken away, sora’s goals and motivations become unclear; he’s a kid and has little reason to be caught up in xehanort’s plans, the keyblade war, or the organization’s agendas. and his failure to grow with the increasing complexity of the plot, to investigate for himself the bigger picture or even come into a similar realization of his own darkness/ balance like riku, makes him unfit; he’s a reactionary character instead of an active one. that’s why this game, being experienced from his point of view, felt mostly like a catch up to speed for sora and a set up to nomura’s next big thing instead of a genuine ending.  i honestly don’t think nomura knows what to do with him and with kingdom hearts anymore. 

kh3 is a game wrapped in nostalgia and promised something bigger than it could fulfill. and aside from better graphics and improved gameplay, the story wasn’t worth the wait. 

[lechevaliermalfet]

Seasonally Appropriate, part II: A Long Look at the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Series

In the early to mid-2000s, there was an odd trend of Japanese game developers farming out high-profile intellectual properties to Western developers.  To the best of my knowledge, this began with Metroid Prime, though it really got going with the beginning of the first HD generation of consoles, and would go on to include DMC: Devil May Cry, Bionic Commando, Sonic Boom, Sonic Mania, every Silent Hill game from Origins onward, and probably a host of others I’m forgetting.  

The reasons for this are difficult to pinpoint, and probably vary considerably from developer to developer.  Some developers seemed to have been caught flat-footed by the sheer amount of personnel and time required to make a game in HD.  Konami is said to have, at one point or another, pulled basically every single human being capable of operating a keyboard to work on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  Others may have wanted to capture a larger audience (thanks to the increased expense of creating games in HD), and felt that their games looked and felt “too Japanese” to cater to a more international audience (a move that ironically would have angered many existing fans, and often did).  Still others may simply have wanted a breath of fresh air, to see what a different design sensibility brought to the table.  Yet others may have noticed the upswing in popularity enjoyed by Western games and developers, and thought the best way to ride that gravy train was simply to give their franchises to Westerners to handle.

At any rate, it was a thing that happened.

More below the cut.  There will be spoilers.

If Metroid Prime isn’t the first example of this, then it’s the first big, high-profile example.  Nintendo basically co-founded Retro Studios, along with some of the development staff that had made the Turok gmes, and said “Here’s a big pile of money.  Cancel all your ongoing projects and make us some Metroid games.  Try not to fuck it up.”  This looked completely insane on the surface of things.  Nintendo buying what was at that time a no-name studio and giving them one of their sacred cow franchises to develop seemed unthinkable at the time. But, as they often (though not always) do, Nintendo knew what they were doing, though their reasoning was opaque to outsiders.  

On the more recent side of this phenomenon, meanwhile, we have the Sonic games. If I had to guess, I’d say the decision to farm the series out to a Western developer was motivated by some of the same factors as Metroid Prime for Nintendo.  Like the Metroid series, Sonic has greater appeal for a Western audience at this point, I think, so Sega let that audience call the shots. This initially resulted in Sonic Boom, a multimedia blitz that consisted of a decent cartoon, a couple portable games of variable quality, and a WiiU title broadly derided as a buggy, broken shit-heap of a game.  

But this really just amounted to what was at the time the most recent manifestation of the so-called “Sonic Cycle”.  It seems to go something like this: Sega announces a new Sonic game → The fanbase collectively gets hyped for the game on the strength of some carefully vetted videos, screenshots, and assorted other promotional materials → The game comes out → Reviews and impressions come in, and the game is revealed to fall somewhere on a spectrum that goes from “okay, I guess” to “complete, total, utter, and absolute flaming garbage” → The fandom reminisces mournfully about the good old days of the 16-bit era → Sega announces a new Sonic game… The Sonic Cycle is basically the perpetual triumph of hope over experience.  

The exceptions tend to be of the rule-proving variety.  Miraculously, Sega’s next move was ultimately to farm the series out to yet another developer, who had the dangerous idea that perhaps the best thing to do – by process of elimination, since Sega seemed to have tried literally everything else by this point – was to give the fans precisely the thing they had been clamoring for since Sonic 3 & Knuckles (which, for those of you playing at home, was over two decades ago): A new 16-bit Sonic game.

Sonic Mania is great, by the way.  Incidentally, it’s also probably the most widely acclaimed game in the series since the 16-bit titles it so lovingly homages.  

There’s probably a whole thinkpiece to be written, right there: Contrasting Nintendo and Sega’s decision-making abilities.  But you really only have to look at where the companies have wound up over the years to get the essence of it.  Nintendo is still bravely, confidently, profitably soldiering along in the hardware business despite having been technologically outclassed on both the console and portable fronts since 2006.  Sega, meanwhile, ended the hardware side of their business with neither a bang nor a whimper, bur rather with a sort of resigned shrug, a sigh, and a muttered “Fuck it, we tried.” They have since managed to defy expectations by staying in business.  And they still keep churning out Sonic games, despite the Cycle, to an audience that seems to consist primarily of

Children whose grandparents bought them the games

Furries of a certain stripe

Deluded Sega fanatics who are probably still waiting for the promised day when Sega releases the Dreamcast 2 and we all go home to glory.

The rest of these Western-helmed sequels, reboots, and re-imaginings of popular franchises have had varying reactions from the fans.  The phenomenon seems to be over for the time being, the causative problem either having been solved or otherwise rendered irrelevant.  At any rate, I have gone far, far afield in a piece that’s supposed to be about the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series.

I brought up all of the foregoing to lend some context, and it went to its own weird place, but it entertained me, and fuck it, it’s not like I have an editor.  So…

Somewhere in the middle of all these Western-flavored farmings-out, we had Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. In terms of why it got farmed out to a Western developer, this one seems to descend from the House of Fuck If We Know What To Do With It; Let Someone Else Take a Crack At It.  Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness tried to make the series work in 3D on the N64, and failed.  There was a running joke for a while that Capcom had made 3D Castlevania work in the form of its Devil May Cry series, which must have incensed more than a few of the fine folks at Konami. Then Koji Igarashi, fresh off his successes with the Metroidvania games on the Playstation and the Gameboy Advance, was given a shot at it. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness were better games than the N64 efforts, but…  well, you could make the argument that a good trepanning might be a better experience than those games.  If anything, both were ultimately kind of shallow Devil May Cry imitators that lurked somewhere in the B tier of the PlayStation 2 library, far less than what the series deserved.

So, come the next generation, Konami decided to let Mercury Steam handle it, and assigned Hideo “Motherfucking” Kojima to keep an eye on the project from time to time.

It had been remarked by any number of industry wags that Capcom's Devil May Cry franchise was probably the closest we were going to get to a translation of Castlevania into three dimensions.  This mostly amounted to a snide, backhanded swipe at Konami's troubles bringing the franchise into 3D on the N64 more than anything else.  There are certainly some similarities at a surface level, such as the aesthetic.  Like Castlevania, Devil May Cry is a horror fantasy that leans far more heavily into the fantasy side of its heritage. The horror imagery is less for actual scares, but more to project an easy sense of danger and menace.  And like Castlevania had been in its 2D outings (Symphony of the Night aside), Devil May Cry was a pure balls-to-the-wall action game.  But this is mostly where the similarities ended.  Castlevania's pace, in the 2D games, was always more deliberate than many of its peers (contrasted against, say, Mega Man), though you still had to have nimble fingers and a keen sense of timing.  

But perhaps the greatest difference was in personality.  Devil May Cry's personality as a game was centered on its protagonist, Dante. Sarcastic, wise-cracking, brash, cocky, and irreverent, with his long red coat and his trademark giant sword and twin pistols, Dante was the epitome of badass.  And that's before we get into all the crazy antics in his moveset.  Castlevania, meanwhile, didn't as a general rule really have characters as vivid as Dante; in fact, the only real recurring character is its villain, Dracula.  Its heroes, members of the Belmont clan of vampire slayers, tended to come across as grimly determined, muscular, sort of generic warriors who tore down all their enemies with a combination of skill and raw force, with a few straying into leather-and-fur-clad barbarian territory.  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  But it does leave most of the characters lacking in personality.  But it’s to be expected.  The template for the series was created in the 8-bit days when any kind of personality was difficult to convey.

One of the most distinct features of the heroes of the classic Castlevania games (for reference going forward, "classic" is going to be shorthand for "the 8-bit and 16-bit games prior to Symphony of the Night") is the sense of pace and momentum.  There was a sense of weight and heaviness to the various members of the Belmont clan who served as player characters in those games.  Some of it came down to the way they moved.  None of them were especially fast on their feet, as video game characters went, and the series was unique for not letting you control the direction of your jump in mid-air the way so many other video games did.  It's realistic, of course, but was unusual for the time.  There was no course-correction possible if you jumped wrong, no mid-air take-backsies if you misjudged your timing.  If you got your timing wrong, then oh well.  Don’t fuck up next time.

And the Belmonts' weapon of choice, the Vampire Killer whip, was also a bit unique.  As a whip, it's got a bit of a wind-up to it.  Not a huge one, but enough that you have to be aware of it.  Your attacks don't land immediately with the press of a button.  Castlevania III was probably the best early demonstration of this, where even though it only takes three frames, swinging that whip for the attack and pelting the morning star forward is clearly animated as a full-body action.  It gives the attacks a deeply satisfying feeling of force, regardless of how much damage they do, but also means you have to pay attention to how you maneuver through the game, and have a keener sense for spacing and timing when facing an enemy.

This is another reason I feel like the assessment of Devil May Cry as the ideal for a 3D Castlevania is off.  Dante is a fun character to play as, but when it comes to maneuvering  him, he's constantly leaping, dodging, and rolling about.  He's lighter than air.  And that's fun, naturally.  But he also doesn't really feel like a Castlevania hero.

After the first disappointing venture into the third dimension with the N64 titles, Konami came out with a second set of 3D Castlevania titles for the PlayStation 2: Lament of Innocence, which aimed to tell the origins of the Belmont clan and their eternal war against Dracula and everything else that goes bump in the night; and Curse of Darkness, which was a sequel/side story to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. With Koji Igarashi at the helm, these fared somewhat better than the N64 entries, but still ultimately wound up climbing no higher than the upper end of the B tier of PlayStation 2 games.  Which is kind of sad, really. Castlevania deserved better than to play second fiddle to the top tier of hack-and-slash action games.  As a series that used to be a premier example of that kind of game back in the 2D days, it deserved to be on that top tier.

Really, you'd think all anyone had to do was just rip off Devil May Cry (which, given the accusations of Devil May Cry lifting liberally from Castlevania in the first place, would certainly seem justified if not terribly original), but the final products were ultimately lacking something, though it was difficult to say exactly what.  The response from critics and fans alike was generally positive, but ultimately with a feeling that something was missing.  The games were good, but didn't seem to quite live up to the legacy of their forebears.  And so the idea of creating a 3D Castlevania seems to have gotten shelved again for the time being.

As the first generation of HD consoles really came into its own, it became apparent that the old total dominance of Japanese developers in that arena, at least at the upper end of technical and technological prowess, was on the wane.  There are a number of different reasons for this, and the discussion frankly deserves its own write-up.  The bottom line is that Western developers were quickly becoming ascendant in console gaming, where previously they had made up a small minority of the notable output.  And so Konami got the idea to do with Castlevania what they had done with Silent Hill, what Capcom had done with Bionic Commando and what Nintendo had done with Metroid: give the franchise to a Western developer to handle.

MercurySteam was, in the beginning, basically a no-name outfit with nothing published under their own name.  Wikipedia indicates that MercurySteam was made primarily of personnel from an older development studio called Rebel Act.  They were notable apparently for just one game, and that had been back in 2001. What they did in the nine-ish years between that and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, if anything, is a mystery to me.  Why they got chosen to work on one of Konami's classic series is likewise a mystery.  But whatever; it happened.

Lords of Shadow was initially teased just by its subtitle, and first billed as a new intellectual property for Konami.  This was done in part to avoid trampling the hype Konami wanted to build for Castlevania Judgment, a Wii-exclusive fighting game featuring multiple characters from different points in the timeline.  This was almost universally dunked on and dumped on by critics and users alike, so it's questionable how much damage the announcement of Lords of Shadow could have done to it.

I can't pretend to know what the reaction was when Lords of Shadow was announced officially as a Castlevania game. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention until near its release, though I picked up a copy near launch.  I sometimes think that even without the impending release of Castlevania Judgment, Konami might still have teased Lords of Shadow without the Castlevania name for a while.  At that point, it may have been easier to build hype for an all-new IP than for a new Castlevania game on console, given the baggage the series carried.

I was curious to see what a Western-developed installment of the franchise might look like.  In terms of aesthetics, the classic 8- and 16-bit Castlevanias had always had more of a Western look to them, which made sense given the eastern European setting and backing history/mythology.  If anything, this was one of the franchises where handing it off to a Western developer made the most sense.

(As a side note, MercurySteam later went on to make Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS, which now makes them the only developer of Metroidvania games to have worked on both a Metroid and a 'vania.)

For inspiration, Lords of Shadow seems to have turned to the God of War series. From the burly, muscular hero, to the chain-based weapon that allows the player to operate at some distance from the enemy (though in fairness, the chain whip has been part of Castlevania since way before God of War was a thought in anyone’s head), to the brutal take-downs, to the regularly occurring puzzle-solving challenges, to the quick-time events used to finish off bosses and major enemies, there is a lot of God of War in this game.  But one of the first, biggest differences is in tone. The player character's brutality in Lords of Shadow is more utilitarian, more matter of fact and by the way, where God of War's Kratos explicitly relishes his violence.

Rather than a sequel, though, Lords of Shadow serves as a reboot of the series, which frustrated some.  There had been talk by various characters in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, which take place in 2035 and 2036, respectively, about a conflict in 1999 wherein Dracula was finally beaten and destroyed once and for all.  Fans had naturally been clamoring for the chance to play this epic final showdown pretty much since it was first hinted at, and had been repeatedly disapopinted when it failed to materialize.  The forecast for said showdown appearing seemed to go from "unlikely, but stay hopeful" to "nope" with the announcement that Lords of Shadow was going to be a reboot.  This kind of thing usually signals that the old continuity is done for good.  And it effectively is, though that's mainly because Konami seems to have gotten out of the video game business entirely at this point.

As a story, Lords of Shadow follows to some extent in the series tradition, which is to say, it's pretty ridiculous.

We start off with Gabriel Belmont, an original creation for this reboot series.  He belongs to the Brotherhood of Light, a group of holy warriors whose purpose is to eliminate supernatural enemies of humankind. Clad in their signature red outfit (probably a nod to the artwork for Simon Belmont in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest), he wields the Combat Cross, which is (or rather, will become over the course of the game) this continuity's take on the Vampire Killer whip.

It is medieval times, and Satan has cast a spell to seperate Heaven and the Earth, trapping the souls of the dead in the world of the living, and generally causing all sorts of supernatural shenanigans. Gabriel, at the behest of the Brotherhood, is after an ancient relic called the God Mask, which should enable its wearer to break Satan's spell.  However, it's been broken into three pieces, each one held by one of the titular Lords of Shadow.

Said Lords are revealed over the course of the game to have once been members of the Brotherhood of Light themselves, who achieved such a degree of holiness that their spirits ascended to Heaven.  However, they were so holy that they didn't even have to die for this to happen.  Their spirits just... ascended, and left their bodies behind.  Their fleshly, mortal bodies, which were now susceptible to all manner of vice and villainy and corruption, and lacking none of their former power. Thus were the Lords of Shadow born as dark reflections of their former holiness.

Along the way, Gabriel is occasionally assisted by another, older member of the Brotherhood, named Zobek.  In addition to his passive observation, advice, and occasional hands-on assistance in Gabriel's quest (all meant to subtly goad him in particular directions for reasons initially left unexplained), Zobek also narrates between chapters.  

Zobek is voiced by Patrick Stewart, but unfortunately, he just seems ever-so-slightly off in Lords of Shadow. He's not bad at all.  It's just that he seems to always be a little off from what I think of as the right tone for the character and his lines.  Robert Carlyle, who provides the voice of Gabriel, seems to be a bit more on-point.

Gabriel also has a dead wife to avenge, or ideally, to bring back to life, a feat he hopes to accomplish with the power of the God Mask.  He also has (without his knowledge) a son, whose gestation and birth occurred during one of his long absences on Brotherhood business, and whose existence goes unmentioned until later entries in the series. The secret of this child's birth was deliberately kept from him by the Brotherhood and his wife (who was sworn to secrecy by them) due to some unspecified danger they saw in his future.

His journey takes him through the wilderness of a version of Europe that never existed, and then into the ruins of the ancient fictional civilization of Agharta, and to worse places yet.  Background lore is dispensed by way of scrolls found on the bodies of fallen Brotherhood members that Gabriel encounters as he goes.  All of this, as well as information about the various creatures Gabriel faces, items he acquires, and moves he learns, is kept in a tome he brings with him, which the player can read at their leisure.  Most of it is stupidly, wonderfully overwrought.

Gabriel, we are eventually told, is God's chosen champion, empowered to confront Satan himself in order to undo his malevolent magic.  Slowly but surely, Gabriel confronts each of the Lords of Shadow and retrieves their piece of the God Mask.  This includes Zobek, we eventually discover, who is a necromancer of considerable power, and who is ultimately revealed to have escaped death despite his defeat.  

Through the course of Lords of Shadow, Gabriel does indeed successfully beat up Satan and restore the world to its normal order.  However, he is unable to resurrect his wife after all.  Then the DLC gives him a new foe to face, and in order to do this, he must give up his humanity and become a vampire.

This culminates in him becoming the evil Dracula who served as the villain for the vast majority of the original Castlevania series. 

Mirror of Fate, a spinoff released physically for the 3DS and digitally for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, occurs in the ensuing years and decades after Gabriel rises to become a vampiric overlord with ambitions of world domination.

We start off as Simon Belmont, who is unaware that Dracula was once a Belmont himself (in fact, Dracula is his grandfather).  Simon is a fur-clad, muscular barbarian with very little in the way of characterization, who is aided from time to time (sometimes without his knowledge) by a pale, black-clad stranger running around the castle, who turns out to be Alucard, the son of Dracula.  The two team up to stake Dracula, though as series fans already know, this isn’t going to be permanent.

Then the game shifts focus, and we get to play as Alucard.  Alucard likewise has very little character growth or development.  Then, when his section is finished, the game shifts focus again.  We end the game playing as Trevor Belmont, Gabriel's son, a generation or so before Simon's time, and find out just exactly how bad Trevor's own mission against Dracula went.

When we come to the opening of Lords of Shadow 2, we find that Gabriel-as-Dracula is still God's chosen one, despite all the murder and blood-drinking and oppression that's just du rigeur for being a vampiric overlord.  As such, he is immortal – virtually impossible to kill even by the standards of vampires.

But Lords of Shadow 2 proper begins in the modern era.  Zobek, now a wealthy and powerful businessman with his fingers in a variety of pies, approaches Dracula in the cathedral where he has recently reawakened. But the lord of vampires persists in a diminished state.  Weakened and desiccated, he looks like a walking corpse, a pale shadow of his former self, hating his eternal life but feeling compelled to go on with it in order to spite his enemies (Zobek, Satan, and God Himself). So he lingers.

Zobek offers him a way out.  Satan's minions are increasing in power, gearing up for their master's return to the human world.  As God's chosen one, Dracula alone is empowered to fight against him.  In exchange, Zobek promises he can finally put an end to Dracula's life once and for all, as he has reassembled the broken Vampire Killer whip once wielded by Gabriel himself.  And so, after a meal to freshen up (probably one of the most disturbing and problematic parts of the entire series), Dracula sets off through the city that now stands on the foundations of his ancient, massive castle from centuries ago.

Where the original Lords of Shadow was more plot-focused, Lords of Shadow 2 tries to be more character driven, focusing on Dracula's return to humanity – in spirit, if not physically.  Unfortunately, the focus on story, not just in Lords of Shadow 2 but in the entire reboot series, is where it most falls flat.

The whole thing is difficult to take seriously much of the time. Granted, Castlevania as a whole is ridiculous and over the top.  This has been true from the very first game, which was riddled with anachronisms (fighting Frankenstein's monster somewhere in the sixteenth or seventeenth century) and featuring Death himself as Dracula's right-hand man – well, right-hand personification of the abstract concept of the end of life – all throughout the series.  Seriously, it isn't a proper Castlevania game if there isn't a boss fight against Death somewhere near the end, preferably one tough as nails.  But that oddly makes a certain amount of sense.  As a being who routinely flouts death by coming back to life once a century just as a matter of course (not even getting into all the times people resurrect him just because), Dracula might be expected to be on some kind of terms with the Grim Reaper.  

But then the Lords of Shadow continuity introduces this whole Satan business, and I just...

No.

So the idea in the Lords of Shadow continuity is that Gabriel Belmont is for whatever reason God's champion, chosen to face down Satan and prevent him from taking over the world.  And for some reason, I just have a hard time buying it.  Having a character fight off lesser demons and mythological monsters?  Sure, no problem.  Having that character fighting off the servants of Satan in this world to prevent him from entering it, yeah, that's perfectly fine.  But having a knock-down, drag-out with the big man, the capital-D Devil himself?  Somehow, my brain draws a line there. Maybe it's because the game uses a generally Christian mythological framework, and Lords of Shadows' idea of Satan doesn't really mesh with that.  You don't just throw down with the Father of Lies.  I mean, yes, there are all sorts of folktales about conflicts between humankind and the devil, but none of them end in a brawl.  That's just not how it goes; that's not what he's there for.

Which is a goddamn shame, because there are hints of something more interesting going on.  Gabriel-as-Dracula in Lords of Shadow 2 has positioned himself as an enemy of God (he refers at least once to being a thorn in His side), mainly by going against God's stated purpose for him.  The game opens pretty memorably with him in a conflict against the Brotherhood of Light, displaying his immunity to the holy powers they try to call down on him, screaming at one paladin in particular that his reliance upon God is his undoing, because despite Gabriel's defiance, he is still God's chosen one.  There's also the idea that as Dracula, Gabriel is a necessary evil, that although he stands in opposition to God (over his anger at the fate God thrust upon him), he also stands as a bulwark against Satan, as well as Zobek, who has his own designs on the world.

And the games are gorgeous.  All of them lean hard into a sort of quasi-gothic horror-fantasy aesthetic that I really would love to see more of.  This is all quite apart from the technical capability on display, which is also top-notch.  I love just running around in them, looking at the scenery and beating the unholy hell out of the monsters that come crawling out of it.

But it ultimately falls apart for being too self-serious.  Castlevania has always had an odd silly streak.  As mentioned, the original games took a bunch of mythological creatures and classic horror movie monsters, mashed them all together, and played the whole thing completely straight.  They did this knowing how ridiculous it was, but doing it anyway because it was also completely fucking awesome. This is in the grand tradition of old-school video games, where the plot was less of a story that you got invested in and more of an excuse for all the things the game was going to have you do.

The problem is that this really works best when you do it in the style of those older games, when you don't draw too much attention to it or elaborate on it too much.  I mean, let's break down the series mythology from the original continuity:

-- Since the Middle Ages, Dracula the vampire has been terrorizing Europe, returning to life once every century to do it.  He summons to him all manner of creatures from myth and legend (and other fiction) in pursuit of this goal.

-- The Belmont clan, carriers of the Vampire Killer whip, are  uniquely empowered to smite him.  This they do, with as much reliability as Dracula's return, alongside a growing number of allies.

-- Sometimes there are cultists or other Bad People who resurrect Dracula for their own ends outside the usual once-per-century pattern, or other evil entities who borrow his power in some fashion.

And that's basically it.  And it worked.  It was simple, but it was effective, in the way that the stories of games like, say, Super Mario Bros. or the early Sonic the Hedgehog games were.  It wasn't built to handle a lot of lore and characterization, and in fact it kind of falls apart under the weight of those things. You start trying to give Castlevania a really deep, involving story, and that just exposes how ridiculous the whole thing actually is, how shaky the framework, how unsteady the foundation is to build lore upon.  You can hear its light, almost slapped-together framework creaking under the weight of all that load.

We see this happening in the original series.  Symphony of the Night, and the portable entries that followed in its footsteps, crammed in just about all the story that the games were really set up to handle.  Then we get to Lament of Innocence, which tries hard to justify Dracula's motives and tendency to return from death to fulfill them, the Belmont clan's struggle against  him, and all the rest.  And the real problem is that it's totally unnecessary, and the attempt to sell it as high drama with this inherent silliness in its premise just continually falls flat.

To a certain extent, I get the perceived need to do this.  We seem to have left behind the era when major, big-budget games can be just fun. They have to be these big, trampling, sober, serious things now, all high stakes and serious business.  Most of the games that revolve around being fun tend to find themselves in the vanishing B-tier of games, or else indie titles.  Or the exclusive province of Nintendo.  There doesn't seem to be room in the industry any more for big-budget games that don't take themselves entirely seriously.  

So what does Lords of Shadow, as a sub-series, get right?

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Despite its missteps with the story, the world looks gorgeous.  I'd love to see a remastered version that features the games running at 60 frames per second in 1080p, and maybe sharpens the textures up a bit, but honestly, it looks pretty much fine as it is.  The characters and environments are nicely detailed, and I love the overall sense of design.  Especially toward the middle of the first game, where the levels tend toward "Gothic, but totally over the top".  

The beginning of Lords of Shadow seems a little questionable, mainly because of the focus on purely fantasy creatures: goblins, trolls, etc.; things that don't really have much to do with the horror imagery Castlevania typically goes for.  It's not bad, it just doesn't quite fit right.

But as the game goes on, it dives more into horror territory, with werewolves, vampires, and more outlandish creatures still.  Boss battles are giant setpieces which are plenty challenging, and usually end with a series of quick-time events that work you through an ultimately brutal but satisfying take-down of the boss in question.  

The sense of substantiality, of heaviness, that I usually associate with the classic Castlevania heroes is present and accounted for.  With his broad shoulders and muscular physique, Gabriel evokes the deliberate movements of the heroes of the classic Castlevania games. And his attacks land with a satisfying impact, again hitting that feeling of "considered and deliberate" that I associate with the classic titles.  At the same time, he's actually quite light on his feet.  While that still makes him a little different from the Belmonts of old, it makes sense with the way the game's designed. Unlike those classic games, most of the enemies don't die in just one or two hits.  Like many hack-and-slash games, Gabriel's movement through the game's areas is very stop-and-go, stretches of travel and puzzle-solving punctuated by combat encounters with multiple enemies (or one major enemy), each of which takes some work to bring down.  Faster and more complex maneuvers are necessary to avoid being obliterated.

There are also a few callbacks here and there to the previous series. Although Gabriel is a completely original character to the series, his design is clearly meant to evoke the look of Simon Belmont as he appeared in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Structurally, Lords of Shadow borrows from the more linear structure old-school, classic style of Castlevania games. The first Lords of Shadow follows in the classic mold more than either of its sequels in the rebooted continuity.  Lords of Shadow 2 features a seamlessly interconnected environment, but in the end, the player is still directed through it in a mostly linear fashion, with the optional digressions being just that.  

Mirror of Fate, meanwhile, is the least classic-like of the three, instead hewing much closer to the Metroidvania style, but it's pretty shallow as Metroidvanias go.  It apes the style of Igarashi's 2D predecessors, but lacks much of the real substance.  It's not bad, but it's sort of a letdown.  It’s disappointing mainly in the way that it presents itself as a Metroidvania game, but then... isn't, really.  The whole thing is so on-rails that most of the major backtracking feels forced, and the backtracking that isn't is so minor that you can safely skip over it.  It's more of a straight-up action game dressed up like a Metroidvania, as if they did it because that's just what's expected of a 2D Castlevania these days.  Which is a shame, becasue MercurySteam can make a good Metroidvania – they went on to do it with Metroid: Samus Returns (though, admittedly, they were working from the template of a pre-existing game).

Interestingly, one of the classic series features that doesn't get touched on in Lords of Shadow is the music.  Over the years, the classic Castlevania titles have built up a variety of iconic pieces that people tend to expect to hear. "Vampire Killer", "Wicked Child", and "Bloody Tears" are just some of the more famous ones.  These often get worked into the various sequels and remakes in one form or another. Lords of Shadow mostly lacks these, barring a music-box rendition of "Vampire Killer" in an unlikely spot.  In fact, the soundtrack is mainly comprised of generic orchestral pieces which are nice – they swell and pound in all the right places to evoke the appropriate mood – but not really melodic or memorable.

A number of fans of the series were upset by the lack of classic tracks.  While I can understand the general complaints about the soundtrack on its own merits, I do find it somewhat overblown. It would've been nice, sure.  But plenty of other well-regarded games in the classic seriess, such as the particularly revered Symphony of the Night, did without the classic tunes from the series history, and nobody complained then.

Bits of original series lore also pop up here and there, recycled and repurposed to match the tone and style of the new continuity, as a wink and nod from the developer to the fans.  But in the end, it almost feels more frustrating than anything else.  These bits of the original series that poke up into view here and there seem to serve as reminders of the game that I wanted, bolted onto the game that we got.  I was looking for something dark and grim and gloriously over the top, borderline goofy in its melodrama.

And that, I think, is most of my problem with Lords of Shadow, as a continuity unto itself.  There are some great setpieces, and the combat is fine, and the games look about as good as it's possible for last-gen console hardware to get.  And the story is gloriously over the top.  It just...  It takes itself too seriously. It gets in its own way, falls over itself, and just generally doesn't land right.  It looks right, it just doesn't feel quite right.  The tone is off, and it dwells on itself too much.  Classic Castlevania would do something over the top and ridiculous and awesome, and then move on. Lords of Shadow dwells on it, lingers on it, and it’s neither deep enough nor solid enough to support that level of seriousness.  I think most times that it really should have been its own intellectual property.

It's better than the 3D Castlevania games to come before it.  But Castlevania still deserves better.

It's a shame that, with Konami being what they are now, we're probably never going to get it.

[cutegirlmayra]

Art Prompt Trade Event? Claim a prompt to create art for!

Once again, this is another ‘I need Preview Imagines for my Prompts!’ Event. Interested in getting your art out there? Then this is for you!

Deadline for this is the end of September. Rules are simple!

1. Contact me with the prompt you want to do! I’ll let you know if it’s available, and then I’ll cross it out on the post so everyone knows it’s taken. (You can ask to see the prompt for more ideas/details. :) )

2. Make sure the art is appropriate and fits the context of the prompt you chose. Send finished art to my submission box! (Please include which credit link or username you want for your art along with which prompt you drew for.) Be creative and have fun!

3. If you need more time, please let me know! We’ll work something out :)

Now! For the prompts!:

1. Sonic Boom

1A.TailsxZooey Ballroom Dance, Amy excitedly watches. 1B. Boom!Sonic voice acts (Similar characters/comedic abridgments of Roger Craig Smith’s characters.) 1C. Boom!Sonic finds out about Boom!Amy’s Sonic Doll. 1D. Boom!Sonic and Boom!Amy reminisce about Modern and Classic times, running after the other, how they’ve changed. 1E. Boom!Sonic trying to ‘pick up’ Boom!Amy in the Blue Force One. (Need a ride? flirty~) 1F. Boom!Amy in “Give Bees A Chance” does get to open up her feelings without interruptions. 1G. Boom!Sonamy coupley moment where Sonic tastes Amy’s food. 1H. Boom!Knuxouge, Boom!Rouge finds him adorable and teases him. 1I. Sonic Boom crew Beach ep. Sonic admiring Amy’s swimwear. (or noticing her? Keep it clean!) 1J. Boom!sonamy “Irresistible” and “What’d you first notice about me that you liked?” 1K. Sticks finds out Boom!Shadow is a literal Government Conspiracy! 1L. Boom!Sonamy where they trip, roll down a hill, and land on the other. (Accidental kiss? Lion king cliches are the best lol)

2. My Fanfiction

2A. Sonic Boom crew at SEGA (Sonic IRL) 2B. Amy never learns Sonic’s the werehog, but they still hang out cause Sonic likes the other side of her he’s seeing. Amy questions if she loves Sonic or this new Werehog friend. (Weresonamy) 2C. Amnesia Sonamy But Sonic forgets this time! (Rememory) 2D.  Older Sonamy, Sonic tries to get Amy to fall back in love with him. (Isn’t this just Timeless Game?)

3. Amy x (other than Sonic.)

3A. Metal Sonic x Modern Amy 3B.  Gamma x Amy. (He crushes but she’s doesn’t feel the same. Sonic cheers Gamma on just to be funny.) 3C. Shadamy, Shadow survives SA2 and goes back to Amy on ark. 3D. Sonic forces, Amy x Gadget (custom hero). 

4. Knuxouge

4A. Knuckles making Rouge extremely happy. (So the two laughing together? Up to you!)

5. Mephiles and Infinite (Think power struggle. Admiring the others power, but also insulting them.)

6. Sonamy

6A. Forces!Amy reacts to hearing Forces!Sonic’s voice after he’s escaped, or him imprisoned thinking of her. 6B. Forces!Sonic’s family (Sonic Underground) meet Forces!Amy after Forces. 6C. Older Sonamy, Sonic falls in love, confused, asks “Do you still like me?” (Comfortable around each other now.). 6D. Boom Sonic and Modern Sonic switch to be with the other’s Amy. 6E. Boom!Sonamy meets Classic!Sonamy. 6F. Amy the Hero and Sonic the Love Interest Sequel of Sonic chasing Amy (lighthearted and funny). 6G. MangaxModern merge, Nikki becomes Sonic, everyone thinks he ran away so Amy sadly moves on to Sonic, but something triggers Nikki to come back! Conflicted feelings ensue~

7. Sonic (General)

7A. Twinkle Park (The whole gang having fun after beating Eggman) 7B. Sonic Pirates AU! Sonic fighting pirates on flying ship. (Sonamy if you want?) 7C.  "Your Reality" from Doki Doki Literature Club, Amy’s feelings for Sonic. (prompt will be loosely based off song or a lyrical prompt.) 7D. Platonic Tails and Amy. 7E. Sonic tries Kamen Rider Gear, Tails makes it. (I’ll need to do research, so go wild with this one if you know about it) 7F. Sonic and Magic Kaito inspired story. (Sonic forced to steal for Eggman, Shadow and G.U.N chasing him, I’ll have to do research here too)

8. Other

8A. Plance (PidgexLance) VLD. (need to do research on this, so just a cute art piece is all :) ) 8B. Sonic Forces and Xenoblade 2 (Maybe the two fight Eggman? I’ll have to do research here too...)

Please participate! If I promised you I’d do a prompt for you that’s not up here, let me know! (livestream people)

[alexswak]

On Animation

These are mostly some personal views and experiences, you are welcome to read but don’t hold high expectations. In the last 2 years or so I didn’t watch as much anime as I used to, probably because I don’t find anime as entertaining as before. My interest in sakuga and Japanese animators was the first time I found value in animation itself, regardless of other aspects such as the story. The sheer expressive power of Ohira’s drawings, or Kanada’s unique timing, all brought me joy and still do.

Yet even this joy I find in sakuga won’t last forever, and I can say that rarely does any scene amaze me like my first contact with works from not only legendary animators such as Ohira and Kanada, but even Ebata and Tanaka. I didn’t lose my interest in commercial sakuga that’s for sure, most what I watched lately were obscure shows I wanted to see what X animator or X director did in them. It’s just that I’m looking for something new, and I knowingly didn’t experience basically anything the wide medium of animation has to offer.

I think the majority of anime fans, animation fans in general even, just watch animation because it’s “anime” or maybe “Disney”. If an anime with a somewhat good story and almost still good-drawn images was to be produced, I bet it would gain some following and popularity among non-japanese fans at least. I also bet such a thing already happened. This reminds of a funny phrase I heard from a friend: “people think that animation isn’t important in animation”.

But then, everyone is free to prefer whatever they want in my opinion. I just think that people who have this view don’t see the real merit of animation and its real beauty, to a big extent at least. Works with outstanding stories and fascinating themes such as Ghost in the Shell receive praise mostly due to that aspect only, the story and themes, with maybe mentioning “good and smooth” animation as a side point. But such works exhibit what really makes animation what it is and takes of advantage of the capabilities of this medium, just look at the Hollywood adaptation to compare(regardless of the fundamentally different execution).

Maybe the main approach of commercial animation takes most of the blame here. Ask any random person “what is special about animation?”, and probably the answer would be something along the lines of “unlimited imagination” or “fascinating imaginary worlds”, referring to Disney’s princesses or Ghibli's fantasy. Yet live-action movies are capable of creating such worlds thanks to modern and even kinda old technology(if we ignore the ongoing controversy regarding the definition of these works), while other more realistic animation works such as Satoshi Kon’s show animations’ features and perks, the features that are the reason why he famously prefered to use animation in all his movies despite being more of a live-action director in nature. What I’m trying to say is this: animation isn’t just a container with the sole purpose of conveying a story or a message, nor is the importance solely in the content conveyed, but in the way it’s conveyed. That’s why a lot of people who work in animation refuse the idea of mimicking live-action, for example.  

After sakuga my interested shifted towards independent and experimental animation especially the japanese ones, like Koji Nanke and Youji Kuri. The story of independent japanese animators is a long one, better covered here. Watching their works made me realize more and more how diverse animation is, and the different exciting ways to transmit an idea through animation. You may say that everything I said till now was just cretesizing commercial animation and praising independent/experimental animation because I love them, yet I didn’t deny that Ghibli and Disney(2D) movies, which are commercial for sure, are some of the best animation works from a technical and artistic standpoint. What I’m criticizing is the narrow outlook on animation, even among the commercial works. Animation isn’t only hand-drawn or 3D, you have collage and stop-motion and puppets and others. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the former Association of Japanese Animations(AJA) president, the late Kihachiro Kawamoto, never drew anything, he was but an amazing puppet animator. Before Kawamoto was Tezuka, a person who plainly hates commercial mainstream animation and whose experimental works probably outnumber his commercial ones. Kawamoto’s successor, the current president Taku Furukawa, is a renowned independent animator and one of Youji Kuri’s students. Movies such as Isle of Dogs getting a wide positive reception makes me happy.

A famous use of collage was in Madoka Magica’s labyrinths, which Gekidan Inu Curry duo handled. It consists of Shirashi Ayumi(former Gainax) and Anai Yosuke(former defunct studio named Tanto). Their participation in Madoka Magica and many other Shaft shows came probably due to their relation with the director Yukihiro Miyamoto. I went a bit off track, but all this was to say that I enjoy Kihachiro Kawamoto’s collage works especially such as The Trip(1973), although he is better known for his puppet works, that are great nonetheless. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy puppetry, Jiří Trnka amazes me- for example. I bet that his magnum opus, The Hand(1965), would astonish any animation fan not only in its visuals, but in the way it handles and presents its themes as well, which led to banning this movie that obviously opposes the communist occupation of Czech.

from right to lefr: Madoka Magica, The Trip, Kenju Giga.

Now that I mentioned Czech, it’s one of the richest countries when it comes to animation and animation history. Many other east-european countries as well. Trnka is enough on his own, but even with other animation arts it’s a region that has a rich and old history of experimentation and early works. Tezuka’s inspiration for his short Jumping(1984) came from none other than a hungarian short called The Fly(1980). The animator behind Jumping, Junji Kobayashi, reminds me always of a fun fact about Tezuka. Kobayashi himself has a deep passion for insects and wildlife in general. Alongside being a member of multiple insect societies and organisations, including The Japanese Association for Insects, he wrote a book on how to animate animals based on Mushi/Tezuka Pro's principles. But if there's a bigger insects nerd than him, it's Tezuka, who deliberately added the kanji for insect(虫) in his pen name(same reading to his original name). Tezuka also has some books on insects or animals, in a fictional or realistic depiction. The last book I want to mention, the most interesting probably, is Kobayashi's "Osamu Tezuka That No One Knows - The Mess of Mushi Pro", an interesting title especially when you consider that Kobayashi is one of the oldest Mushi Pro members, having spent about 23 years with Tezuka till his death. Kobayashi joining Mushi Pro in the first place may have been due to Tezuka sharing him his insects passion, as "Mushi" is the same "insect　虫" in Tezuka's pen name after all.

Anyway, what I was trying to say is this: If you are looking for something more than just "brainless fun", try watching different kinds of animation, the world of animation is vast and diverse. Some works that I like(not necessarily a good start for everyone):

Aru Machikado no Monogatari(1962, Mushi Pro)

The first project by Tezuka's Mushi Pro. He tried different styles in this movie, demonstrating his intentions from the beginning. Directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, whose start was in another experimental studio named Otogi Pro, with animators such as Gisaburo Sugii, it is one of the best works the studio produced. It contained a variety of interesting and beautiful styles, even limited animation was used although there is no economical constraint here, what makes me think that it was an experiment before going all limited with Astro Boy later. A great movie overall.

Jumping(1984, Tezuka Pro)

There is a nice interview about this short and experimental works in general with Osamu Tezuka here.

Machikado no Märchen(1984)

The Hand(1965, Jiří­ Trnka)

Tabi(1973, Kihachiro Kawamoto)

Kenju Giga(1970, Kihachiro Kawamoto)

The Fly(1980, Ferenc Rofusz)

[patrick-yates]

Forefront - The Prophet (2014)

I recently saw an animated film which I would describe as a revelation. It encompassed, for me, many of the exciting qualities of good, modern animated film: it used a combination of 3D and 2D to fun and interesting effect, pushing the possibilities of both forms forward; it showcased different forms of animation depending on the message and tone that it was trying to convey, all of exceptional quality; it engaged with music and poetry, two of my favourite artistic forms, to imagine new ways of presenting feeling through film; and it created a convincing narrative throughout which really stuck the landing, as it were. Produced by Salam Hayek and directed by Lion King head Roger Aller, the film is based on Kahlil Gibran’s famous 1923 book of the same name, yet while the book was only a collection of disparate musings, the film brings them together and gives them cogency within a wider context. Here is the trailer:

The film’s narrative segments - the 2D/3D synthesis - were animated by a studio in Canada called Bardel. While the style is lacking in some aspects and feels somewhat stilted at times, the visual style is striking and, for the most part, quite charming. The concept of synthesising these two forms excites me, partly because it could make traditional animation’s visual style more appealing to cost-aware clients who prefer 3D pipelines, and partly because it could represent a new vanguard for animation in general. The film’s other segments,  presented as short films within the broader narrative, were all taken on by animators from around the world. Again, the results are mixed, but for the most part visually gorgeous and captivating. Hayek describes them as ‘jewels’.

“The visual jewels are the poems,” Hayek observes. “Roger was very humble because the first thing he said is that the main story needs to be in neutral, earthy tones to make the poems stand out. Otherwise, it would just be too much information.” [1]

I’m a massive fan of how this film’s creators chose to portray their subject material, essentially converting timeless poetry into a modern masterpiece based on collaboration and collective vision. It’s a love story to the world of old from the internet age, and it’s really beautiful, and really inspiring. Unfortunately my favourite sequence from the film, the poem ‘On Work’, which is animated in acrylic paint, is protected by the distribution company and cannot be shared here, but I have managed to find ‘On Good and Evil’ on Vimeo:

I hope these clips and my explanation have demonstrated the thrilling nature of this film’s premise, and the inherent potential in the synthesis of these forms to create new cinematic (and spiritual) experiences. The way in which the sequences of this film handle emotion through the nuanced relationship between the visuals and the author’s words is very valuable to me - as a writer, I have been inspired many times to access emotion through the interplay of language, and now moving into animation it would be a shame to leave that at the door. I hope through engaging with dialogue and language in my own work I can achieve some of the good work that this film gets at. One of my first animated shorts, and one which helped me apply to this course, was an adaptation of a poem written by a friend of mine. It was a bridge of sorts between the two forms which had most captured my attention, and I have long thought that animation contains unlimited potential for a poetry of spectacle. Here is the piece:

While relatively unpolished in some areas, I felt that one of the strongest aspects of this piece was the commitment to a narrative parallel to the words, rather than following them directly. Both abstract poetry and abstract film are defined as much by what is not presented as what is - the spaces inbetween words or images. In this case, I tried to make a film that made no more or less sense than the poem, and yet in presenting them alongside one another could unfold an entirely new poetic space. For example, the image of the tongue as sunrise on a toothed skyline is one which projects so many disparate yet interlinked symbols, and one which may even link symbols them together unknowingly, that the viewer experiences something indelible and impossible to define, which is the great joy of good poetry. I feel that this is a conceptual conceit that many of the 'jewels’ in The Prophet emphasise, and often to great effect, which is why I level with it on a personal artistic level. But it also inspires me to remain in touch with this method, and offers ways of thinking about the ways in which literary and visual art may intertwine not just on the level of imagery, but of tone, texture, sound, colour, space... there are so many hidden associations conducted across the two forms and so many ways of exploring emotion which, with our current rhetoric, we are not even able to circumscribe.

Refrences

1. Hart, Hugh, ‘ How Salma Hayek And A Team Of Animators Brought Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” To Life’, from Fast Company, 18th July 2015. accessed 04/10/2018

[dailydosemiku]

So I just beat Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- 100%

I’m gonna write this as an in depth review I guess. So I got done just recently discussing it with an old friend, the very same friend who roughly a decade ago showed me the original game. We have pretty polar opposite opinions of the game and I’m seeing that seems to be the trend with people who have played it so far. This isn’t a call out post or “Your opinion is wrong and mine is right” bullshit. I just want to explain why I liked it and maybe help some people see the game from a different light.

First things first. I want to premise, if this even gets read, that nothing will ever top or match Yume Nikki the RPG maker game that has gained a cult following. Even Yume Nikki on a second playthrough, will never feel like Yume Nikki on a persons first playthrough in my opinion, granted that is if they enjoyed it. Before this re-imagining came out there were mostly 2 kinds of people and barely anyone in between. People who loved it for it’s entire concept and execution and people who thought it was the most boring chore in the world. There is barely anyone I know or have met that’s in between those who are just like “yeah it’s ok I guess” Just because this re-imagining came out does not mean the original is now bad or doesn’t exist and I will respect your opinion if you think one is better then the other, because it’s an opinion, and they aren’t the same.

Below this is the Steam Store page, I want anyone reading this to read it and read it again.

“Yume Nikki has been hailed as one of the greatest (and most controversial) games ever created with RPG Maker. The new YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY- is not a remake, but a full reimagining of the original―reconstructed and enhanced using elements and styles of modern indie games. “

If you read this and thought this meant that this is going to be the same game, you went in with your expectations to high. One of the biggest reasons Yume Nikki was so beloved and how most people go into it was, THEY KNEW NOTHING, hell I knew nothing, I got like 2 sentences and like a 5 minute gameplay video of the game and that sold me. Then these people were to learn after diving into this strange game that only told you things with visuals, the creator disappears. For years even. So to do both games right I want to break them down into some basically game design elements to the best of my ability. Gameplay, Soundtrack, Story, Visuals, and Atmosphere/Presentation. Of course I’m going to reference both games because that’s what everyone else is doing for each of these.

Gameplay, well there really wasn’t much of a game to play in Yume Nikki the RPG maker game. I’m sorry I love Yume Nikki, but there’s not a lot of interactivity. It’s more of an experience, a long giant question of How and Why did this game get to this point? If you were at all like me, you kept playing to answer these questions and ultimately you either didn’t get an answer and were happy with it or you found your own answer, which if you ask me is part of the magic of that first playthrough. But as a 2D free RPG Maker game with no admission to entry, it was an experience and just that AN EXPERIENCE. As for Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- the 3D platformer, there’s actually a game to be played which understandable makes it very different then the RPG maker original. But this is an re-imagining, it’s not fair to directly compare the 2. They are in completely different medians and special in their own ways. In it’s essence, whether you agree or not both games at their element are about exploring an experience. If one having gameplay elements, that if you ask me were fairly well tested but not perfect, makes it less of an experience and was frustrating, then I don’t think you remember some of the frustrating non-sense that the RPG maker version had, such as navigating NES World, Locating the Bike which for most of the playthrough you were guaranteed to use because the normal movement speed was slow as shit and that’s usually what stopped a bunch of people from getting farther into it. But I say this with pride, it was part of the experience, it was part of the fun and by all technicality, was it’s own form of rudimentary puzzles and gameplay. Now yes I hear some of you die hard fans cry but there’s not as many effects and not as many doors and worlds, not as many themes and they took out so much. I am sad to say some of the things they took out I will miss, that is if the original game was wiped off the face of the planet with this games release, but it wasn’t.The original is still there as it always was. Because it can’t be replaced. It won’t ever be replaced, people have tried. So onto the point, the gameplay of the 3D one. It’s a horror platformer with puzzle solving and a few jumpscares I guess. You are sitting here reading this, I hope, going wow it’s that easy to categorize? Well yeah sorry to say guys it’s 2018 not 2004, in the time between the first RPG maker classic which I love to death and this newer retake of the very concept of Yume Nikki in 2018 we have had 3 different presidents, saw the rise and fall of many platforms like Vine, went through not 1, not 2 but 3 generations of Video Game Consoles, got 10 versions of the IPhone, like 8 versions of Samsungs Phones and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, times change, information is easier to access and we have gotten older and more analytical when it comes to the things we do as hobbies or otherwise. If we are to just look at the word re-imagining at face value and by definition.

reinterpret (an event, work of art, etc.) imaginatively; rethink. 

Is the new Yume Nikki a reinterpretation of the RPG classic? Absolutely, it’s a different take on what the game was. Key word different, problem is in 2018 things are easier to find then 2004, communities are larger, people are older, and things in general are going to less surprising. So from a gameplay standpoint is the new Yume Nikki the 3D Platformer a well thought out game from a gameplay standpoint? Yes it is, it has it’s bugs which is unfortunate, but even games that got GAME OF THE YEAR were horrible buggy messes when they came out and those were backed by Triple A developers, COUGH COUGH FALLOUT 3 EVEN THOUGH I LOVE YOU YOU ARE A MESS COUGH COUGH. Moral of the story for the gameplay, it’s different yes but that doesn’t make it bad just not the same. If you can effectively get from beginning to end regardless how the journey goes, the game did what it needed to do. If you felt obligated to finish -Dream Diary- that was nostalgia and that almost need to feel the magic of the first playthrough of the RPG Maker classic, meaning you aren’t taking Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- as it’s own game, you are trying to take it as a replacement for a beloved classic.

Now that I’m done with that portion I guess, hopefully my point was more or less digestible and hopefully didn’t come off as if you disagree I hate you, cause that’s not my intent, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it, I just want to give a separate perspective. The Soundtrack. I think the Soundtrack in both games is just weird and beautiful and bizarre and conveys messages on a spectrum going from of uncomfortable to serene to almost intimidating. I’m no music expert or major or whatever but the music in Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- not only was very good and did what it meant to do in my opinion but was an incredible nod at the RPG Maker classic featuring a lot of remastered tracks from the original which I think portrayed similar emotions as I felt from the first game. I don’t have much else to say on the soundtrack, it’s timing and consistency felt as good as the original in it’s own special way but should not be interpreted as the same.

So the next thing I want to bring up is story. Now if you are a fan of the RPG Maker classic, you know as well as I do that the story is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, it’s almost entirely up to interpretation. The story was what you thought it was, you just get kind of a beginning and kind of a ending. People who wanted a classical game with a story with a beginning middle and end, would not really even touch this game. Cause it doesn’t hold your hand, but not in a “is this the dark souls of RPG Maker games?” kind of way. It’s entire conception, how it came to be, how the game played, how the game ends and how you get an ending to begin with and the mysterious creator and their disappearance are all ultimately part of Yume Nikkis’ Story in my opinion. The time the game came out, the so little information about the game that was known, the fact that Youtube was still young, fuck me I was using SKYPE when I played this game in like 2008, it was the perfect storm but only because of the games story outside of the game as well as inside. It was a mess, but it was such an amazing mess that was so hard to describe and time and time and time again the only thing people could really say is “you just have to play it, I can’t explain it without ruining it” That was also a part of the games story if you ask me. It was so strange and so meta but it always made people say the same thing. Now 14 years later, the developer is back, is older, sees his own mistakes better then any of us ever could, and I know if anyone reads this, some of you are artists or content creators or game designers and you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about being hyper critical of your own work. And now he has help now, a team of developers and even though he worked side by side with these people, of course there’s going to be a disconnect, something lost in translation, that’s exactly what fangames are, an interpretation of the original. So yes sadly there’s a bit more going on that’s coherent now but it’s 14 years later being lead by a guy who knows his own mistakes for a game he made alone, which is an achievement yes, but he has seen and allowed to be published in the very beginning of this new game a nod at where his last game left off. Meaning of course he acknowledges what he made and knows people adored it, but people also hated it. It was a judgement call, and you may not like the result but I assure you it was a decision in good faith, at least that the message I got from this game. Now enough beating around the bush, this games story? It does it;s job without telling you to much and honestly I still feel like in this games case like the last one, explaining what happens loses the impact, and some of the impact is because I played the game prior. So I think it does it’s job at re-imagining the story of Yume Nikki the RPG maker game well enough.

Next is visuals, now as an RPG Maker game you could argue it’s not good looking, till you think about it, that one guy, made all of that basically from scratch, it’s poetic, it’s awe-inspiring, that this one guy makes this strange game and it moved people so much and all you really do is just look at things. It’s a stunning game to the eyes because you want to know what this guy could have possibly created next and each environment is so different from the last, each effect so silly and cute or scary and gross all at the same time making you feel these mixed emotions of joy, excitement, nausea, tension all at the same time. It almost mesmerizes you into this feeling of wanting to do everything while simultaneously fearing when it’s all over and the dream ends both literally and metaphorically. It’s only because of this, in my opinion is why visually the RPG maker game is such a work of art. Now for Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- if you ask me I think the game is breathtaking, there’s so much care put into so many little details, yes there are clipping issues and the animations aren’t great but remember Yume Nikki the RPG Maker game wasn’t perfect either, we didn’t care though, we were young, we just wanted to take whatever it was in for what it was worth. From a technical standpoint I feel like this game is stunning in the visual department, but it’s not that complicated compared to games of it’s time, much like the older classic. The older classic came out the same year as Half Life 2, which was a technical marvel when it came out, now it’s kinda dated but regardless that didn’t make Yume Nikki in 2004 any less of an unique experience, and I feel like that same way of thinking should be applied to this new title as best as a person can. I’m going to steal a line from another reviewer loosely, Portal 2s biggest flaw is that it came out after Portal 1.  I must have heard those words 5 years ago or something and they still stick with me. If you look at Portal 2 it’s literally an evolved embodiment of Portal, but you already knew the concept of Portal cause it already came out so it’s shock value, it’s rare and raw punch is lessened because something did that already. It’s the same reasons fangames and Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- won’t feel the exact same. Cause it came out afterwards.

Lastly I wish to touch on a final point before closing this review I guess, more of an analysis. The presentation and atmosphere. Broken down as simply as I can both games share this. They are Surreal Horror Exploration games whose job is to seemingly immerse you in the strange world of a little Japanese girls dreams. That’s where the disconnect begins. Cause even though you wouldn’t think of the RPG Maker classic to be a horror game it has horror themes and the occasional jumpscare or visual for shock value. Now as a re-imagining does the new Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- fit the bill for an amazing strange atmosphere just like the first? Absolutely, it tells most of it’s story passively, no dialogue, nothing crazy, just you and a simple platformer. But alas, it’s a platformer with tension and parts with severely more interaction then the original causing you to feel urgency and demand to escape or jump the next hurdle or challenge, which is not the same as original. Which understandably is this games biggest flaw, if from the very beginning it said it was a remake and that the original is no longer an actual concept. If we were to look at Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- the same way as the original, where we had nothing to compare it too, it’s a lot better of a game and it’s creepy atmosphere is on point, the environments are great and the nods it makes to the older game make me happy.

All in all I think that even with it’s flaws on release that Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- is a stunning love letter to the original game, written by a team of people copying down the words of the creator, ultimately dedicated to those of us who gave Yume Nikki it’s following while simultaneously being something more accessible to wider audience so that by chance they may also play the original game to fully understand why this game exists and what purpose it serves. It’s a thank you letter, an attempt to redo in a different sense what we have tried ourselves many times to recreate and even though a lot of the fan games are great they don’t feel the exact same and neither does this, it’s fantastic but we should all know by now that it can’t be done again, that’s why it’s special. But the creator knew this and wanted to try again but with more knowledge this time and I respect him for it, I respect the team who worked on this game, flaws and all. Perfect or not they wanted us to feel that special feeling one more time, and maybe it wasn’t what you wanted but I don’t even know what I wanted.

-Katy