#i watched a playthrough of it years ago but for some reason never thought to play it

[zincbot]

okay west of loathing is so good

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Orion and the Dark

You know? I remember playing Pajama Sam 1 many moons ago and to this day I find it lovely to play. Great characters, incredible artwork, the differing routes each playthrough which I didn't even realize until then, and the ending which really stuck with me. That what was kept me anticipating Orion and the Dark, as I felt it was that spiritual successor I never knew I wanted. It sucks that Dreamworks dropped this onto streaming like it was nothing, not even on the site they own no less, but I genuinely looked forward to this and that's what matters. Now that it's out, let it be known I can't believe this will be the first Charlie Kaufman film for me. Just saying, any interest in his previous movies is gonna feel like whiplash.

Just imagining some kid loving Orion & is eventually in awe for a movie called I'm Thinking of Ending Things

To truly start this review, this might be the best kino non-Pixar Pixar movie Dreamsworks ever made. I didn't think of it having the whole "what if X had feelings" factor until now but I actually like that they take it not only in a reasonable direction, but twists the dynamic in a way Pixar honestly hasn't done since... Toy Story 4 I guess? No spoilers, but I enjoyed that Darkness and his entity friends have their insecurities, this is before they all met Orion, and they take that in a very great if offputting direction. Plus I love that they were able to personify these elements I didn't actually think about when it came to night time. They also present the biggest problem with the movie and that's the lack of real camaraderie with the entities and Orion. You enjoy the friendship between the boy and Darkness, but they streamline the bond Orion has with the others and that really makes the story hit or miss depending on if you grow to care about them. I brought up Pixar and yeah, while they have their great individual moments they don't have the same effectiveness dynamic wise as the emotions from Inside Out. Also small nitpick, but I didn't like that Dark's name is "Dark" and not "Darkness"; doesn't roll of the tongue, you know?

Plus we didn't get Orion and Dark playing Cheese & Crackers like missed opportunity of the year

Now again, this is my first Charlie Kaufman film, but I was familiar with his writing style and I gotta say I loved what he does with the structure of the story. It's a story within a story where as soon as the curtain is pulled, I was fully hooked. I love how Orion essentially helps himself overcome some of his fears both thanks to unexpected but welcomed help and developing his own confidence. It was clever how when you put a face on a fear, that fear slowly fades but the film shows that it's not something capable of a cure. Orion's neuroses dilate thanks to this adventure, he probably wouldn't have lived to tell it if otherwise, but it presents that growing up doesn't mean everything will work out perfectly or immediately. Does it do a lot to get to that point? Yes, but I felt the risks paid off in a way I don't think I've seen before in a story like this. I know as a kid I didn't have constant paralyzing premonitions regarding the worse outcomes imaginable like Orion, but on some level I remember what it's like and how it'll still fester your mind as you get older. This film, pun unintended, gets dark on a personal level and will probably stick with me long after watching it.

Can't say this scene broke me, but damn did it get close

Orion and the Dark impressed me as something thought-provoking, that does a lot more than being another adapted storybook. Is it an insanely masterful modern Dreamworks movie like Puss in Boots 2? No, even with its great subversions the movie doesn't juggle everything as well as I hoped. Then again, I highly appreciate that this was a risky movie Dreamworks was willing to release, that got both Kaufman and Werner Herzog of all people on board, as opposed to shelving it like some companies I know. A movie that doesn't spell everything out, that gets to be a family movie not constantly upbeat but colorful and optimistic in all the right ways. Orion deserves a chance where I think everyone will have interesting takeaways even if it won't be their favorite Dreamworks film in recent years. I'm overall glad I saw it and kinda want to see it again soon for missed details.

4 Out Of 5; The night truly shined with this one.

[melonthesprigatito]

A while ago I came to the realisation that I've never actually beaten Pokémon Emerald before. My go to Gen 3 game is Sapphire because I played Alpha Sapphire first so Sapphire is familiar, cosy territory for me. I've played Sapphire so many times over the years, it's the very first Pokémon game I've ever emulated.

Earlier this year I decided, you know the what, I'm gonna play Emerald. Why not? Sure, it's basically the same as Sapphire but with more stuff, right?

Im just gonna preface that I absolutely HATE grinding with a passion. I think it's the most tedious, unfun thing you can do in a Pokémon game. I sing my praises to the Lucky Egg, Audino, Blissey and the introduction of EXP Candies for taking the sting off of it. This becomes very relevant in a second.

So, I play through Emerald like I normally would play through Sapphire. Slight team difference, I picked Treecko to match Emerald when I normally pick Torchic. I get to Mauville City. I have an under levelled Plusle and I want to catch a Marill. Marill are Level 14, I need to grind it to Level 24 to match the rest of my team as well.

Normally in Sapphire, I immediately head to Route 117. It is THE prime grinding location. All because of Roselia. Roselia may not be Audino, but it does give out a lot of EXP. Approximately 300/400 exp compared to the rest of the Pokémon on that Route which give out maybe around 100.

I use it as my main grinding opponent for the entire Mauville to Fortree City part of the game where I can move on to the 1000 EXP Pokémon like Tropius. Roselia takes the sting off of grinding in Sapphire. It's just that reliable.

So I run back and forth in the grass to try find one. Nothing. I run back and forth in the grass to try find one. Nada. I spend maybe 15 minutes trying to find one, to the point it becomes obvious that Roselia isn't gonna show. So I thought "Huh, maybe Roselia just has a lower encounter rate in Emerald."

So I go to google it

I swear to god my heart dropped faster than a lead balloon.

Turns out ROSELIA ISN'T EVEN IN EMERALD AT ALL.

I'm sorry, but the second I found out that information my motivation to continue just plummeted. I just can't spend a large chunk of my playthrough getting miniscule EXP from grinding, it's just too much of a slog, I hate it.

"BUT MELON, YOU CAN REMATCH TRAINERS IN EMERALD! WHY NOT JUST USE THAT FOR EXP INSTEAD?!"

I have some very bad news, random hypothetical question asker.

This does not solve my problem at all. "After Norman" is when I move on to battling 1000 EXP Tropius. And Absol.

It's just not worth it, man. I just can't be stuck with no reliable EXP source between before Badge 3 and before Badge 6. And I ain't no impatient sucker either, look at what I got on my Team in Sapphire.

FEEBAS. Famously the second most tedious and hardest to catch and evolve Pokémon in the entire franchise behind Honey Tree Munchlax. Only available on six river tiles in the entire game. Needs a very specific blue berry (which takes anything from real life hours to DAYS to grow) to make a strong enough blue Pokéblock to evolve it.

Unless there's some other good Pokémon to focus grinding between Mauville and Fortree, I'm probably just gonna continue playing Sapphire and just watch the Rayquaza cutscene on YouTube. I've never been into competitive battles anyway so Sapphire not having the Battle Frontier is no big loss anyway. Oh yeah, I also hate that they replaced the Contest Buildings with more battle facilities….. That's another reason why I prefer Sapphire.

[inkedkoi]

Remaining Questions & Final Thoughts

Continuation of "Hold On To “What If”: Overanalyzing and Rewriting Sonic Prime" essay

[Once Again, spoilers for Sonic Prime, all media here belong to their respective creators.]

✨//🌻//✨

Remaining Questions

Here are all the remaining questions I have about the show! These are more up to debate, since it's most likely it wasn't fully fleshed out in the writer's room, but I did want to add them here anyway:

Can the Shards break into smaller pieces? Is it possible to drain all the energy from the Shards? And, if so, what would happen to the Shatterspaces?

Why was there 5 Eggman “look-alikes” in a single Shatterspace?

Transcript:

Mr. Doctor Eggman: “Five makes one. One makes five.”

[S1 EP1]

Did Eggman make clones of himself but at different ages? Did they exist just because it gave more motivation for the Rebellion and Nine to stand up for themselves when Boscage and No Place didn’t need it? Is this the ray of light allegory, when light shines through a prism and it scatters? Or could the Prism has been broken before cycle theory be true? Or, just like Sonic, Eggman being close to the Prism affect his "look-alikes"?

What did this frame even mean???

no, like seriously, was it for aesthetic reasons or what? That he's gay? (the answer is yes, yes he is. GET GAY BEAMED YOU HOT TOPIC WANNABE)

Final Thoughts

I've been watching Sonic Prime being created ever since Day 1. Of course, I haven't been able to see any leaks of it, they kinda ruin the fun of it all. But I've been hyped ever since the first trailers came out. The multiverse thing has been all the craze for movies and shows, this was no different.

As I said at the beginning of this essay, Sonic got a bit of my interest years ago but I never went further into it. That was until Prime and Frontiers caught it again. I've heard about how the Sonic fandom was toxic and such, but I know it doesn't apply to all of the fans, so I decided to give Sonic a chance. Besides, I've learned to not take things too seriously, after all it's just a speedy blue hedgehog going on adventures. You should've seen me a year ago, I binged through:

Snapcube fandubs

Fadel's (GamesCage) playthrough of Frontiers

IDW comics

sonadow (the OG red and blue couple)

every playthrough I was able to find, in 2x speed, in the background while I was doing college assignments

both Sonic movies

Sonic X

Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (I even made some art of it with Ace Attorney characters, Link)

Sonic Central and live streams

and I bought my first ever piece of Sonic merch (yes, it counts)

Hey, I was (and still am) a Ace Attorney girlie. So, entering into the Sonic fandom, it was kind of familiar in some ways. The two starve for some content, at times being years of waiting. Just as in any fandom, people may have arguments here and there but when it counts, people come together and enjoy the moment.

When it comes to Prime, I had a fun time. It’s the type of show that you just want to sit down and just be silly. There were times that got me hyped (like the references, Prismatic Sonic 2nd form, Shadow every single time he comes up on screen), and times that I really got me audibly going "aww" (like the Rose sisters, Sonic being silly lil' goof). Then there are all the times I was SCREAMING like a fangirl (...because of the sonadow moments).

listen, i can't help it if i see my boys on screen, okay? just look at them

You know, when I made this, I didn't expect it to be this long. After all, I planned to post my silly little theories before I went abroad for a few months. Instead, I went into maximum overdrive, explaining why Prime had so much potential and how most of it happened was because of the fans, both the viewers and the ones working within the show. There definitely unsung heroes that deserve so much recognition. I would like to personally thank Erik Wiese, one of the people who truly cared for the show. It's not just him though, so many workers on the show also happened to be Sonic fans.

💬 "The fans know how to do it better than the creators themselves..."

I think this applies to Prime. Again, I don't have anything against SEGA or anyone working in the Sonic franchise. But I think a great show in general is one where the crew is willing to give it their all for the fans. That it isn't just another show or cash-grab, but a passion project for the franchise. Something by fans, for the fans. As the song "Live & Learn" goes:

"(Live and learn!) Hanging on the edge of tomorrow; (Live and learn!) From the works of yesterday; (Live and learn!) If you beg or if you borrow; (Live and learn!) You may never find your way!"

So, TL;DR: I didn't think I would be more invested in writing a whole essay about Sonic Prime than in my college thesis but here we are! (holy shit-)

Thank you so much for bearing with me rambling about a silly blue hedgehog and his friends! Likes, Reblogs, and Comments are always appreciated. Again, let me know if you want me to rewrite all of Prime. As always, remember to:

drink water

get some food

stretch

take your meds

get some rest/a break

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to stare at my bedroom ceiling and think about how Shadow is giving me gender envy—

Take care, my dear fellows, and I'll see you all next time!

Previous Part || Masterpost

[raven]

what video games would u recommend. based on me seeing ur posts and thinking ur right even though i never know what youre talking about. also i have dogshit taste but i have good taste actually but its bad

OMG

hop on backloggd heres mine and heres my buddy rory's bc they make points too and are generally more serious than me so if you want to be serious u can go there. More under the cut bc i cant shut up 👍

otherwise my pretentious but #real and #true recs that i genuinely think everyone should play are disco elysium, pentiment, and kentucky route zero.

"theyre just good!" - who's lila?, the world ends with you, return of the obra dinn, hylics 2, portal 1&2, ghost trick, outer wilds (however outer wilds may be difficult for whatever reason- i recommend hollow_tones on twitch's streams although she has not streamed the dlc!)

series that have taken over my life for periods of time, for good or ill - dragon age (2 is my fav, all are worth playing, inquisition is dogshit storywise but has good gameplay, centrist liberal writers that make u want to bomb a church (for the record @ fbi this is a reference to the events of one of my favorite characters in the series, not real life. he was justified), ace attorney (1-3 are great with some questionable moments but apollo justice is the best overall game, 5&6 are some of the worst games ive played in my life, and the great ace attorney... exists), and persona (UGH). i can go more in depth about any of these, but i will go more in depth about persona because thats my current disorder and because theyre the most problematic, LOL. but dgmw da and aa are also problematic in many ways

persona - ive posted about it. im realizing i didnt talk about the misogyny in that post because i thought it was well known honestly but like. my god. the misogyny. especially persona 5 royal. dont play 4. or do, bc i need anyone to suffer as i have, but im serious. i feel like whatever people say, its worse. ive also posted about 4.

if you want to lose a week of your life in a "game for 16ish hours, sleep for 8ish hours, repeat" cycle play baldurs gate 3. its a fun game it takes up your time it has great mechanics! do not pay attention to character discourse baby.

if you like good gameplay, play dishonored 1&2

if you don't like good gameplay, play morrowind (this is kind of a joke in that i dont actually think morrowind has bad gameplay, but it still can be tedious.)

if you don't like good gameplay, play the persona 2 duology (this is not a joke, the gameplay in those games are actually bad.)

if you like gameplay, play any katamari game

also gonna plug one of my favorite genres, nonlinear visual novel adjacent games (lots of wordy, story-based segments but there are actual gameplay portions) these games also are not necessarily "good" but they are "fun": 999 (play on DS!!), ai the somnium files (note that this and 999 kind of require a... specific taste with the sexual humor) these games did have sequels but theyre all pretty bad for various reasons but check em out if you enjoyed the originals, paranormasight (one of the best ones in this genre imo), gnosia, 13 sentinels

also i have not hopped on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL) but i am about to hop on final fantasy 7 (ORIGINAL). and i am currently struggling against the current playing smt iii nocturne.

also, games that i have not played but interest me storywise and deserve honorable mentions are baroque (not really planning on playing but planning on watching stuff), pathologic classic (played a little and watched a full playthrough years ago, probably will get back to one day), pathologic 2 (never completed), fear and hunger (played for a few hours and decided to watch a playthrough instead), and fear and hunger 2 (not played but planning on playing bc ive heard its a little more user friendly than the original!)

so thats video games.

[kouhsuu]

hii hello who are you whats your lore!!

MY LORE okay that's a new one

*THIS IS GONNA BE LONG AND RAMBLY*

Who I am? 17 year old genderfluid digital and traditional artist 👍

For my lore as an artist: My dad is a painter so from a very young age i was surrounded by art materials literally taking up half our small living room because of the easles, giant canvas rolls, wood, cabinets full of paints and brushes, etc.

Essentially I was very encouraged by him to draw lol, and it also came out of me just finding art so much fun in general. I knew that if I got good enough at it I could draw almost anything I wanted if i pushed myself to learn.

I get verrry engrossed learning anything creative and visual, whether it be making my own website, sewing, sculpting, video editing, 3d modelling, painting, woodworking, etc it's all SO! MUCH! FUN!! I also have to specify visual creativity because oh boy can i not stand trying to make music as much as i want to.

In school I was very obviously the art kid and one of the weird kids, but luckily never got bullied because i was charismatic enough and generally there weren't major major assholes at my schools somehow. I usually was involved with the special programs in my schools because of my enthusiasm to learn and participate, so I got an opportunity to enroll into an early scholarship program for LaGuardia art school in middle school which... i ended up turning down because i thought it would be too much work being in a college like that... which honestly only kind of regret because honestly now i'd rather get into drafting and architecture.

Speaking of drafting and architecture! The reason my dad became a painter is because my grandma couldn't afford to send him to school to become an architect, so he pushed me to go into the field as well now that I have the opportunity. I didn't really feel like it but it seemed kind of interesting designing buildings because if i knew how buildings were made, i could more accurately put detail into my art xD Most decisions I make are to improve my own artwork because it's my life and soul, and luckily i ended up getting interested into working with more drafting.

My first social media i posted art on was google plus, then came deviantart, then came youtube, then twitter, and now tumblr (and cohost & itaku). I still use twitter but my main account (@/hamunako) is essentially inactive, I don't care enough to keep posting there nor do i have the motivation NOR do i want to have the anxiety to feel like I have to keep posting because uh oh people wont interact with me otherwise!!!!! Now I just use a private account with less than 25 followers and its the best. I made this Tumblr account though just in case twitter finally deleted itself off of the face of the planet, and also because i've always wanted to figure out how tumblr works & instagram confused me even more than tumblr...

As for why i've been drawing SOOOO much lonely wolf treat lately??? Short answer: ADHD (possible autism too?), Long answer: A long long time ago I watched manlybadasshero's playthrough of lonely wolf treat and loved it, then i forgot about it until i went on itch a while ago and saw that nami had posted mochi in frosting so I was like WOAH THERE'S STILL NEW CHAPTERS?! I got even more into it when it turned out one of my new friends ALSO had played lonely wolf treat so we drew the characters and it allllll spiraled from there.

Can't think of anything else interesting to share regarding my lore but yeah!!! Also I take commissions, just message me and i'll show what I can do and my prices! Don't have a formal post yet but i'll get to it at some point, i'm not very formal in the first place xP

[spinaroos-47]

Batdr is fine. When you take only the game itself into account but yeah its pretty much impossible to remove it from all the context of what went down with the studio. Buuuut Im not well versed on that and i want to talk about some stuff about the game in itself.

Batim used to be a spin some years ago, from before i even created this blog. So i kinda wanted to check it out, just out of curiosity

Gotta admit, i had a better time watching it than i thought id have. Though i literally just finished watching a playthrough a few hours ago so my opinions might change in the future, probably will be my only post of this game here

Out of the gate i have to say, i didn't really like the talking animations. Like, the gestures dont feel like gestures you do when you're talking with someone. Theyre too floaty and simmetrical. A good example of the floaty thing is in the intro where Audrey is tapping her fingers on the desk. Doesnt look super right.

The style took me a while to get used to. I was more fond of the style in the first game but it grew on me. They really expanded on the style, made it more detailed and really worked with the sepia and black in a way to give everything a lot of depth while still keeping it cartoony. Dont know how to feel about the addition of new colors.

The story was pretty interesting! I do like how they messed with the concept of the loop without outright conflicting with the canon Batim estabilished. It makes sense, its very interesting! I liked the flow of the story, but i did get a little ehhhh when it began showing that Audrey was trusting Wilson to do the right thing. Because like, the man fucking drowned you and trapped you in an inky hellscape. Even when you dont know his plans, why would you trust him? Yes, he's a familiar face but still doesnt make sense.

Joey making Audrey is something i really liked for some reason, its very interesting. Maybe because of the toh brainrot fjdndnf. Though it does contradict his line at the end of Batim where he says that Henry got a loving family and he only got a crooked empire. There was a lot of small things from the first game that they seemed to forget or just contradict, which is odd because there also was a lot that was consistent.

One thing that didn't sit well with me was how more at the end it seemed to go in a direction of showing how Joey changed for the better, but never really adressed all the workplace abuse and overall shittyness he brought onto his employees. Though what else could we expect from the kindlybeast?

For a while i was thinking they would pull the "oh the loop is better than the world Wilson has made" and while Wilson's whole dictatorship thing was very bad, i don't think the loop was good either. So i like that it was framed more as something that really couldnt be changed without being paused and put into stasis like Wilson did. Neither is good but one keeps the balance of that world, and Audrey is doing her best to make it more bearable.

Also Audrey basically managed to get Joey's wish from the first game, to bring the cartoon characters to life in a good way. But the credit scene with Gent taking the ink machine intrigues me. Because wouldn't she need it? She found another way to do that?

It suffered the same thing as Batim where some stuff was just brought up and not expanded as it kinda led you to believe. Actually it felt even more here, Batim felt more tightly packed in the story department. The father thing with Wilson felt kinda out of nowhere/underdeveloped. Like, if you dont pay much attention to it, it doesnt hurt much but it sure is weird.

Im not a really well versed guy on gameplay stuff, and i watched a playthrough instead of playing the game myself, but the problems in the first game seemed to be improved in this one. Definitely didn't get all solved some of them, but improved for sure, especially the combate.

When Audrey got the flow hability i realized they were sticking close to a formula like dishonored, with that and the way they did all the collectibles (the batteries, slugs, etc), which i think it might have been a good choice since dishonored is considered a pretty good game.

So, yeah, a fine game, though the enjoyment is tainted by the irl stuff that revolves around the game and the studio

[chronoxtreme]

The Cage: Chapters 2-5 Author's Notes

So, I'll be honest - one of the biggest weaknesses of this fic for me, personally, is that these 3 chapters don't really need to be here, but they do at the same time. They're important to Astarion actually getting to know Nanne, but at the same time they don't really move the story along in terms of the main thesis, i.e. "they met 10 years ago and now they're back together oopsies."

I've also been trying to break the habit of relying on canon dialogue/scenes to convey relationships. It's something that I notice I do a lot in my other fics that aren't AUs, so this fic is trying to get out of that niche.

As well, Nanne giving the tent to Astarion is something I kind of stumbled into and ended up loving. I think it's a nice way to establish Nanne's personality in context. That sort of generosity mixed with envy because you really want it for yourself but you know that it's the right thing to do to give it to this poor nobleman who's clearly never had a day of hardship in his life. The selflessness that isn't quite selfless because it's been engrained into you from a young age and is it really a choice? (Don't worry, we'll get into more of that later)

Some funny headcanons/canon events that I shoved into this fic:

Literally all of Astarion's camp gear is stolen from the crypt/the tiefling refugees/the druids at the grove. I refuse to believe that he obtained all of those trinkets by gainful means when it's repeatedly emphasized that this dude owned literally nothing under Cazador.

Astarion's burial shroud (inspired by the rags you can see in his various camp sites, especially in Last Light Inn). This is something that was almost 100% pulled out of my ass. I don't think the vampiric resting place rule applies to spawn, but I do like the thought of Astarion's sole possession being a reminder of his trauma. We'll do stuff with that later, don't worry.

Astarion thinks Wyll is hot because he's exactly his type of "innocent charming younger man who is selfless and slightly awkward but good at heart." Also Wyll is just hot.

Astarion making fun of Shadowheart's goth name is a thing that happens in game if you happen to recruit Astarion first before her and it's VERY funny

The sheer, utter frustration Astarion has watching everyone in camp target his seduction mark and try and pull the moves on them

I do also believe that Astarion's compatible with every single party member (except for Minsc and Jaheira for obv reasons), so while he does tick them off the list of "seduce for protection" candidates for various reasons, it's mainly because this is a Tav x Astarion story. Likewise, I love all the party members, no matter how much Astarion may shit on them lol

So, let's talk a little about Chapter 5 and what's going on here. A lot of the events are based on my second-first playthrough as Nanne (my first playthrough was on my old PC that died and the saves got corrupted, so I had to start over). Looking back, I do think it's pretty self indulgent to have everyone hit on my OC, but considering it happened in game just by playing a nice character who naturally wanted to get to know everyone and was a compulsive peacemaker, I can't say it's, like, over the top outrageous. (They literally ALL cockblocked Astarion's romance scene except for Wyll. Literally all of them)

If I were to go back and rewrite this section, though, I'd probably stretch out the timeline a lot more, moving Shadowheart's date later back, Gale's magic lessons, etc. One of the issues that I have with writing is the timeline, and nowhere has it been more obvious than with this fic, where I'll describe a week's worth of events happening in literally four days, then skip ahead two months and go "Hey guys, take my word for it that x time has passed." It's something I definitely need to work on lol. At the same time, this is very much a self indulgent fic for funsies.

Now SPOILERS FOR NANNE'S CHARACTER ARC: In case anyone's curious, no, Nanne had no clue that Shadowheart's little date was supposed to be a date. This is a person who has never been approached for anything romantic except from their sketchy employer. Astarion is exasperated that they didn't see the signs, but Nanne has no experience with "hooking up", dating, whatever you wanna call it.

They do feel bad about accidentally leading Shadowheart on, but honestly, they're torn because on the one hand, someone did find them attractive! Wowee! On the other hand, this is moving awfully fast and they're scared about being exposed. They have had it repeatedly bashed into their head that their body is disgusting, unnatural, a deviation that must be fixed, and so relationships are this thing that they can't ever have, but desperately crave. It is a deeply painful position to be in. They do a good job of hiding it and not coming across as clingy, but Nanne is a very lonely person who craves connection and intimacy (physical, sexual, emotional, any of it). At the same time, they can't risk being rejected again.

END SPOILERS

The boar scene is one of my favorite early on scenes because this is the moment when Nanne clocks that Astarion is actually a vampire. A lot of people make fun of the game for waiting like, five in game days before exposing the elephant in the room, but considering that everyone knows vampires can't stand in sunlight, it's reasonable to assume that Astarion's just an incredibly pampered noble who's got delicate skin and maybe some drow ancestry.

But then he starts acting VERY suspicious and guilty and, well, the boar is literally right there.

Nanne's comment of "You're protecting us from the vampire, aren't you?" is meant to be a very subtle way of thanking Astarion from not eating anyone yet, which considering what happens in the next chapter is, uh, lol. Lmao, even.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Itsa me, Emio!

Thought I had to make that joke whilst it's still relevant given we don't know what that surprising unusual for Nintendo teaser is about. My personal guess that I doubt is right but differs from everyone thinking it's a horror game is it's actually a new Famicom Detective game. Given an age rating from New Zealand mentions a fair few mature themes it's possible for it to be horror of course, but I equally feel like an argument could still be made for FDC, especially given the whole 'Who is Emio' thing. We'll have to wait and see. Anyway, beyond that the biggest news for this blog is THE MELEE ROSTER IS FINALLY COMPLETE! Yes over a year after I said I hoped to have it finished soon I've finally written Roy and Mr Game & Watch's entries. I have no idea how soon I'll either start on Meta Knight, perhaps do another Pokemon entry (for Gen 2) or maybe even try something totally new and start writing posts about stages, Assist Trophies or Background Characters.

When it comes to the list, I don't believe anyone out there actually checks it constantly but if you did you might notice oddly that there's a few games I've had in the 'completed' section for ages now at the top of the list. If you see which ones they are you also might have picked up on there having been ports/remakes of these games that have come out on Switch so yeah, I decided since these are often better versions with new content and I got them I might as well put them back on the list in order to play them, not to mention in a lot of cases they'll allow me to easily get screenshots I couldn't before (such as with Metroid Prime HD). Also if you remember my last off-topic post you might notice that Tales of Symphonia is still on the list, yes I didn't finish it yet, but I promise I've made a lot of progress. Without going into spoilers I feel confident in saying I've definitely reached the halfway point of the game. I had two big things which brought that playthrough to a halt, the first was I went away to another country for a few weeks and the second was Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door came out, and of all games as much as I love doing this whole thing, I wasn't going to overlook a remake of my joint second favourite game of all time, the same thing would be the case if I got the last few of my top 10 that aren't on Switch released, such as Punch-out Wii, Kid Icarus Uprising or possibly Pokemon Gen 2. I have been able to get new screenshots with Paper Mario Thousand Year Door so it wasn't completely unconnected to my list anyway.

There've also been some new additions to my list, I'm always coming up with really stupid reasons that barely count to add things to my list and I realised something a while ago that I hadn't really gone into, that being the codec and Palutena's Guidance easter eggs. Looking through these I really wasn't expecting much, mostly looking for an excuse to do something with one or two characters, but I realised one of the codecs very specifically had a character from Metal Gear Solid 2 referenced and perhaps the biggest thing, Palutena's Guidance for Ryu makes references to a lot of the Marvel vs Capcom series. I decided to add these games to my list although I realised they were going to be very difficult to do, so you can probably guess my surprise and joy with the latest Direct announcing a collection of the series coming to Switch (not to mention I was just really pleased to see it as I know the series has not had many rereleases at all including I believe one or two games that never left arcades) so that really worked out well. Speaking of the Direct there was a lot of really great looking stuff announced there. Of what was shown the only game I felt was for sure going on my list was the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. The reason is fairly simple for this, not that Zelda is playable as actually I don't think the Zelda in this game really matches any specifically from Smash Bros, but the ability to create Echoes of enemies is the closest to having Zelda enemies playable there's ever been, so that worked out pretty well. Oh and of course, Dragon Quest 1-3 HD is fantastic news for me, I've played through 3 before but the fact this version will actually have the characters appear in battle (no idea how many animations they'll have) is already huge news to me, also from what I've heard 1-2 really didn't age well so having updated versions of them is pretty exciting to me, they both interest me for different reasons (especially 1 being one of the very few RPGs where you don't have any other party members).

So what's next then? Well, when it comes to the games I've moved up my list to play again like Pikmin I think I'll most likely do some of them first, Pikmin is a pretty short game and I've been looking for something I can play whilst listening to other stuff so games I've already beaten would I think be a good choice. However, I want to get at least 3 Mii Costume games finally beaten this year, so I do plan on returning to Tales of Symphonia soon, after that would be Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, which I have a feeling would also be a long game although it's one where I believe there's a 'final story boss' so to speak outside of the many other Monsters you can hunt in the game etc, so it probably isn't as 'endless' as I feared. Following that would be Tower of Druaga which being an arcade game I believe is a case of it being short but very difficult, luckily also being an arcade game on consoles I believe I'll have unlimited continues so it probably won't take long. In the middle of this some of the other games I mentioned such as Zelda Echoes of Wisdom and Dragon Quest 3 will likely be out so I'm sure I'll play them pretty much on release, the same goes for others not on my list such as Mario & Luigi Brothership (Another huge reveal that I have no reason to put on my list but it's a series I love and thought was dead so I'll definitely be checking out). Between all this of course I have my actual life to live etc, but either way I hope to make more progress than last year, I believe looking at the list I've made of the games I've beaten each year I've already almost beaten 2023's amount so I'm sure I'll manage that. Anyway, here's looking forward to seeing who Emio is and hopefully a good year going forward.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

These last few days, I've been trying to think of what I want out of a Final Fantasy XVII. And I've definitely had some interesting thoughts there.

But one thing I definitely want--which I just know is a surprise to everyone, I say sarcastically--is a female protagonist... which I'm sure would go over really well with the people who hated Final Fantasy XIII. -shifty eyes- (However, people seemed excited about the idea of Agni's Philosophy, that would have no doubt had a female lead.)

However, enough time has passed since XIII, right? I'd like to try this idea again. Especially since, let's be honest, the real leads of Final Fantasy VII, X, and XII are Terra, Yuna, and Ashe respectively, even if you might not know it because you don't necessarily play as them... So obviously female Final Fantasy leads can be done and done well. Why, then, does suddenly making them the playable character make a difference? (I know it's just because people didn't like Lightning. So let's make a character that everyone likes, then.)

Although, if I'm being honest, I also mostly don't trust Square Enix when it comes to writing female characters anymore. Though I still don't want them to give up, of course. So who would I even want to attempt this?

Kazushige Nojima comes to mind, as he's penned a lot of our favorite Final Fantasy games, of course (and some of our favorite leading ladies in them, like in VII and X). So if he wasn't busy, he could surely be great for this... However, I'm also somewhat afraid of his work now, because of the Final Fantasy X-3 stuff, but hopefully that was the one time he really failed--and will ever fail--amidst all of his stellar work.

Yasumi Matsuno, who was responsible for Final Fantasy XII and Vagrant Story? I'll admit that I'm a terrible person who has never played Vagrant Story, though I did start watching a walkthrough for it years ago... and though I loved it, for whatever reason I never finished it. Back then I had started watching a million different playthroughs of games and couldn't commit to one (I think because I had a busy work schedule hen, and if I chose one, I wanted it to be worth it. Not that Vagrant Story wasn't. It most definitely was... I also was so overworked back then, I would sometimes fall asleep while watching the games, sadly, like with Final Fantasy VI--that had nothing to do with the games themselves, but how tired I was, which is why I inevitably gave up on this whole endeavor). But even so, I of course could tell how genius the game was, and I can definitely understand why so many people love it and are clamoring for a remake of it. As a whole, I feel both of these games are very well-done and greatly scripted. And, while I'll admit, that the Final Fantasy XII heroines don't grab me as much as some of the other ones in the series do, they're still extraordinary ones, nonetheless. And no one can argue how great Ashe was at directing the plot of XII. So if Matsuno wanted to direct a female led FFXVII, I would be all for it.

Naoki Yoshida. While I do think some of the stuff with Jill fell apart at the end of Final Fantasy XVI, I felt like she was a wonderful heroine for most of the game--and I like the girls in all of this installment--so I wouldn't mind giving him another chance. And another chance at the next FF installment in general, as there was so much about FFXVI that really hit the mark and that I loved: and I think that many people agree with that sentiment.

Yoko Taro. I'll admit that the only thing I know about Yoko Taro is the little bit of the first NieR I saw from a playthrough I watched (so I might not be the best person to talk about this). But he's always willing to bring crazy ideas to the table, it sounds like, and to experiment. So if he'd be up for trying such a thing, I'd most definitely let him try.

Motomu Toriyama. Yeah, this isn't going to happen with how much everyone hated his XIII trilogy. But all of his female characters in the XIII games were so great, imo (-shot-). And he's partly responsible for X and X-2, as well, and the ladies were wonderful there, as well (he's also helping out with the FFVIIR stuff, and we all love Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie). Oh well...

Akiko Ishibashi. She was a female writer on Neo TWEWY. And I loved how our ladies there were handled--and, of course, having a woman write other women (or to at least help out with that process) is most definitely a good thing--and now she's helping out with the Kingdom Hearts series... which is a godsend. And I don't really want to take her away from there, because Lord knows we need her when it comes to KH. But if she were to also help out a bit with FFXVI, I certainly wouldn't mind that.

[goshdangronpa]

DR Diary #4 (12/25/22): The Ultimate Gift

Watching and playing are different experiences. For example, my first DR experience was watching a full playthrough of THH. But I only entered the world of Danganronpa in earnest exactly a year ago today, after booting up Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair on my Switch.

If I have the story right, Danganronpa Decadence - the Switch collection of the three mainline games plus Danganronpa S - was a sudden gift. My partner initially got me WarioWare but thought, "Well, I'm at GameStop, and my partner has fun with that playthrough - why not?" It worked out nicely - WarioWare was fun, but this isn't a WarioWare blog for a reason.

I expect that I would've liked SDR2 more than THH anyway, for reasons I'd like to get into in another diary entry. Actually playing it, though, was so much more immersive. Instead of basically watching a 45-hour movie, I stepped in the shoes of the protagonist and went through the story myself. I explored new locations, investigated crime scenes, and fired truth bullets.

Best of all, unlike the THH playthrough I watched, I got to see Free Time Events. Instead of getting attached to characters, I felt like I was making friends. (Don't cringe, I was still in lockdown.) From my observations of the fandom, people seem most fond of this game's cast. I'm the same, but some of that is surely affected by these crazy kids being my first.

This isn't to besmirch people who stream games - a pastime I've never been interested in as either creator or audience, though I can see the appeal. Nor is this to deride those who make commentary-free playthroughs - a cause that, I can say from my own experience, is so vital for attracting newcomers and entertaining existing fans alike. In just saying that watching wasn't what got me hooked on DR. It was playing the game myself that made me fall in love.

Before we fell asleep on the night of Christmas Eve (really several hours into Christmas Day), my partner turned to me and declared that it was the anniversary of them ruining my life by getting me Danganronpa Decadence. Thanks, my love~ While we're being mushy on this mushiest of holidays, thanks to all of you for helping me get the worms out of my brain. I'm honestly amazed at the response some of my posts have gotten, and I'm grateful that everyone who's interacted has been both chill and cool. Now let's see what the next year brings!

[pit--rat]

As Halloween approaches, I have decided to post a review of SOMA, a game that came out seven years ago, and that I have never played (though I have watched the Scary Game Squad playthrough like six times).

I would like to preface this with the fact that, despite the Squad not rating the game too highly, I really enjoyed it on first watching it, and thought it was an interesting game. My opinion has changed over the years, however.

I would say it has A-tier concept and themes. I remember the game being super popular when it came out and, while I dont really hear people talking about it anymore, I do see why, to an extent. It had decent characters, though some dialogue frequently absurdly on the nose, but Simon and Catherine were more than bearable to follow, even if Catherine's hypocritical attitude and Simon's... stupidity were frustrating at times

The gameplay however, was borderline atrocious. Endless fetch quest loops (go to this place to get this thing so you can go to this place to get this thing, ad nauseum). The game is full of backstory, with tons of audio recordings and files to find and read/hear, and this in and of itself isn't bad. Learning about the vastly different world its presenting isn't bad. The problem is, the current narrative is so weak that it can't carry the weight of all that backstory. You have a companion with you for most of the game that could answer so much of the question that the game fills in with endless letters and emails and reports. The game had so much to work with, in terms of its premise, but the ultimate story it decided to tell - of what Simon and Catherine were doing - was not long or complex enough to justify the runtime of the game, which is why the gameplay ended up feeling so cyclical and tedious.

Another major issue with this game, I feel, is the lack of real choice. When a game asks you to continually ponder the meaning of life and what it means to be human, then give you multiple chances to save or end the "lives" of multiple humans and robots throughout the game, but then make zero difference when you choose to align yourself with one philosophy or the other... it just doesn't make sense. If you choose to align yourself with Catherine's view - that the robots don't matter (despite being a robot herself) - and choose to take the easy route by killing them, despite the very human minds inside, then that development should be reflected throughout the game. Similarly, if you decide the WAU's philosophy is correct - that human life in every conceivable form must be preserved - then the game should acknowledge that. WAU, and Akers should be less hostile towards you, while Ross is unforgiving, and Catherine is... I don't know? Unconcerned? Baffled? And if you choose a middle road, the game should acknowledge that too.

Speaking of WAU, that storyline was all over the place. Akers was discussed in such depth, then seemed to vanish without resolution. As far as I can tell, he got no dramatic death scene or anything of the like. And similarly, Ross, and the physical WAU itself, appeared right near the end of the game with limited build up and what is possibly the most disappointing non-choice of the entire game, with the decision to preserve or kill the WAU having absolutely zero consequences (Ross will effectively try to kill you either way, the loss of your hand does not meaningfully hinder you at all, and there is no way to see the effect of you killing the WAU). The choice only exists for you to see what you would do, not explore the reasons or consequences of making either choice. Overall, it leaves the entire game an incredibly interesting premise, but a hollow, empty production, vastly limited in its current format by a lack of gameplay, choices, and a solid story. It feels like it would have been far more effective as a short story instead, though I can't deny that the few horror moments the game had would likely be entirely lost in novel format, though if effectively done, it would've been replaced by the sort of existential dread this kind of story encourages.

[natvrefairy]

Friendship Anniversary (Red x Reader)

Requested: Nope, just thought I should give you all a taste of my writing first.

Reader Pronouns: She/her

Word Count: 1,390

A/N: So, I've recently started a new playthrough of Pokémon Blue, and I just love Red's character, so here we go. :)

C/W: Selective mutism, mainly fluff

Context: Set about six years after Pokémon Red and Blue. Red has been up on Mt. Silver for about three years, only coming down when necessary, or when (Y/N) has convinced him to fly down to her house with her (very rare). She visits him up there regularly to check on him and his team, and bring supplies. He's still got his selective mutism, but she learned sign language to communicate with him.

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Six years. It had been six years since (Y/N) had left her home in Pallet Town to set off on her Pokémon journey. Although it was so long ago, sometimes it felt like only yesterday.

She was never as competitive as her childhood friends, Red and Blue, but she did love Pokémon just as much as them. It was a bit disappointing when her dream ended at the Pokémon League, but she was happy for Red, and they moved on quickly.

Red. He hasn't been the same for a while. It's hard to pinpoint when exactly it started, but as time went on throughout their journey, he started talking less and less, before suddenly, he just never spoke again. (Y/N) never found out why, but then again, she didn't want to be rude by asking. Instead, she poured all her efforts into learning sign language, desperate to show support for her best friend in any way she could. It was sometimes weird not physically talking like they used to as young children, but they never needed to talk constantly before anyway. They always had other ways to communicate, so maybe it wasn't too different after all.

For Blue on the other hand, it drove him mad. He never understood how (Y/N) and Red could spend hours just spending time together without uttering a single word. For him, it was a lot harder to understand Red's sudden silence. (Y/N) could tell Blue was trying his best to be there for support, but it was draining him as well. He wanted to support his friend, but didn't know how. Blue was never good at showing real emotions anyway. And now, he's so busy as a gym leader, he barely ever gets the time to go up to Mt. Silver. He's just grateful for (Y/N) for sticking around.

They're all 17 now, and today marks the day when Red and (Y/N) first became friends. Twelve years, it's been. Time really does just fly by.

Humming a soft tune, (Y/N) walks around her house, making sure everything is in place for her to leave. Considering it's their friend anniversary, she was planning on going up to Mt. Silver to visit Red. She even bought him a little present. It wasn't anything big; just a book on Pokémon. She didn’t feel the need to get anything too big, because she knows it just makes him feel bad. But she wanted to get him something, and anything on Pokémon, he'd definitely appreciate.

She looks down in confusion as her pokéball shakes, her trusty Jolteon popping out on his own accord. Shaking her head, she gives him an amused smile.

"What's wrong Jolteon? I only just sent you back. It won't be for long; we're just going to fly to Mt. Silver."

Her Jolteon is very similar to Red's Pikachu, in that he hates his pokéball. Although he does still reluctantly go into his ball when told, (Y/N) prefers to keep him out. She doesn't like seeing him upset, but sometimes it's necessary for him to be in his ball. Like to keep him safe when they're flying.

Jolteon shakes his head, his fur pricking up like static as he runs to the door. Running after him, she hesitates before opening the door, curious as to what he can sense.

"Pika! Pikachu!"

'Hello.'

"Red, Pikachu, what are you guys doing here?" (Y/N) asks, clearly in shock as Pikachu jumps off Red's shoulder and runs inside to play with Jolteon.

'It's our friend anniversary. We wanted to see you.' Red signs, smiling softly.

(Y/N)'s face lights up at the sight of that smile; the one he only ever shows around her or his Pokémon. Stepping to the side to let him in, she closes the door, freezing as she suddenly remembers his present.

Grabbing the messily wrapped present, she hands it to him, her face flushed in embarrassment.

'I got you something. Sorry about the wrapping.' She apologises, averting her gaze awkwardly, before leading him to the couch to unwrap it.

There was something almost terrifying about watching him open it. She knew there was nothing to worry about; she knew him better than anyone, after all. Except Pickachu, obviously. She knows what Red likes, and she knows he'll appreciate the gift, but for some reason, she can't help being nervous.

Feeling his hand being placed on top of her own, (Y/N) jumps slightly, looking up to meet Red's warm gaze. Looking into those perfect ruby eyes of his let loose a swarm of Butterfree in her stomach. Her mouth goes dry, so she just smiles back at him, understanding his gesture of thanks.

Confused when he suddenly grabs his bag, her eyes widen as he pulls out a perfectly wrapped present, handing it to her.

"Red... You shouldn't have."

He just shakes his head, gesturing for the girl to open it. Carefully unwrapping it, hands shaking slightly, she furrows her eyebrows to see a black box. Lifting the lid, her jaw drops to see the beautiful ruby necklace she'd been wanting for months. Tears welling in her eyes, she looks at him in confusion. She never mentioned it to him.

"How did you...?"

Red's cheeks heat up slightly as he signs a response, 'I may have asked Blue if there was anything you had your eye on.'

Gently taking it from her, he clasps it around her neck, grinning happily at the beauty in front of him. (Y/N) shakes her head in disbelief, a small chuckle escaping her lips.

'You really went above and beyond,' She signs to him, gently kissing him on the cheek before getting up, 'tell you what, how about we just have a movie day?'

----

Hours had passed, and Red and (Y/N) were still snuggled up on the sofa-bed watching movies, a blanket draped over them. They had stopped earlier for dinner, and Pikachu and Jolteon had already fallen asleep, so there was nothing stopping them from watching movies for the rest of the night.

Except, unfortunately, the tiredness slowly creeping its way in to (Y/N)'s body. Her eyes keep drifting shut, until Red grabs the remote, switching the TV off.

"What did you do that for?" (Y/N) asks, glancing up at him with half-shut eyes, earning a soft glare in response. She knew that look all too well. "But I don't want to sleep yet."

Red places a finger against her lip, silencing her and shaking his head. Planting a soft kiss on her temple, he pulls her closer; a sign that he's not taking no for an answer.

Sighing, (Y/N) moves closer to him, reluctantly closing her eyes. She knows how stubborn he can get, and just decided to leave it at that.

She had almost drifted off to sleep, when she felt a soft pair of lips against her head, and a quiet, hoarse voice break the silence.

"I love you."

(Y/N) freezes, slowly opening her tired eyes to look up at him. Those were the first words he had spoken in five and a half years.

"Red, did you just-?"

"I love you," he whispers again. It looked like a bit of a struggle to speak, but his face showed nothing but pure love and adoration for the girl in his arms.

(Y/N) leans up, pressing her lips against his in a gentle kiss. They were both still very tired, so it didn't last long, but they still had enough time to pour show the love they had held back for years. In those few short moments, it was like a spark rushing through their bodies. All those years of loving each other, all that time they held back, finally expressing their feelings.

When they pull away, (Y/N) buries her head in Red's chest, too embarrassed and tired to actually look him in the eyes. But before she falls asleep, Red does hear her mumble a response.

"I love you too."

Those were the last words she spoke that night. As Red gazes down at the girl sleeping peacefully in his arms; the one he loves with all his heart; he can't help but think about how lucky he is to have her in his life.

(Y/N) is the best thing that ever happened to him, and now they can finally celebrate the start of a beautiful relationship.

[elyvorg]

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Cases 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 & 1-4

This is a transcript of a liveblog that I originally did on Discord, having played a fan translation of the first game years ago and knowing a spoiler for the second game. I do not recommend following along with this on your first playthrough!

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Interim thoughts

elyvorg

I have acquired Great Ace Attorney and have been replaying my way through the first game (which I'd already played/seen before as the fan translation). I've accumulated some wild conspiracy theories based on this and also a Spoiler I unfortunately probably know about the second game, soooo that seems like just the right excuse to start a liveblog thread.

Bench (@ask-team-searchlights)

Hope you're having fun!

elyvorg

again, warning for people poking their heads in: I (probably) know a Big Spoiler about the second game despite currently only being in the process of replaying the first, please exercise caution.

Bench

Alright!

elyvorg

So the spoiler I unfortunately have came from me following a platonic shipping blog on tumblr, who at one point was being very excited about a certain Thing that was going to happen soon in a fan translation of GAA2 they were watching. They were very careful not to give any specifics about this Thing, but given that I'd played GAA1, there was only one thing a platonic shipping blog could possibly be that excited about. Thus, I am like 95% sure Kazuma's not actually dead and there's going to be an adorable reunion with him and Ryunosuke halfway through game 2.

Kinda sad that I got spoiled for the surprise of this, but also if I didn't know this I would be only like half as excited to play GAA2, so perhaps it balances out. FRIENDS. I am very looking forward to more FRIENDS. (But also don't tell me anything about the hypothetical future friends-ness because I'm not supposed to know this and there's a small chance I'm wrong.)

So, knowing that, I've been replaying cases 1 and 2 of the first game (am currently halfway through 2) for rather obvious reasons. I considered hiding the fact that I'm probably spoiled for the thing, but that'd give a very limited impression of my thoughts while replaying, because like half of the thoughts I've been having in case 2 in particular have inevitably been me trying to figure out how this could be possible.

In fact, I've been coming up with some Great Deductions! ...Which is to say, wild theorising extrapolated from just a few vague facts, which may be anywhere from brilliantly correct to hilariously wrong. :D

Bench

I will not confirm nor deny anything.

elyvorg

~Topic 1~

The truth of Kazuma's death

- I guess he wasn't actually quite dead when they found him? they've been vague about the cause of death so far

- Hosonaga's gotta be in on it, he's the only Japan-aligned person on the ship who'd be able to hide this - he said he was here to be Kazuma's bodyguard and protect him from assassination attempts?

- (also possibly one of the things worrying Kazuma that he never told us was that he knew there was a chance he might be assassinated, and that's part of why he brought Ryunosuke along, so he could take his place in the event of that)

- I'd totally forgotten this mention of possible assassination until replaying the case, because it seemed to amount to nothing when it turned out the whole incident was a huge tragic accident

- I'm certain Nikolina's genuine and not in on some massive assassin conspiracy, give her hugs and safety, she has nothing to do with this

- so, neither an assassination nor a premeditated faking of Kazuma's death

- BUT, perhaps Hosonaga took this random stroke of luck, of Kazuma being apparently killed but actually not quite dead, and used it to fake his death, to protect him from any ACTUAL assassins who might be after him

- (how must Kazuma have felt waking up and being told "so hey, I'm faking your death to protect you, no you can't talk to Ryunosuke again, he's gonna think you're dead for, like, months")

~Conclusion~

Opportunistically faked by Hosonaga to prevent a real assassination

~Topic 2~

Overarching conspiracy

- I was also thinking about the mysterious list of names on the telegraph disc at the end of game 1, which included Kazuma and John Wilson

- we never learned Brett's motive for killing Wilson, she just... murdered her own professor, for some reason???

- then she got given diplomatic immunity or whatever and isn't going to be tried properly because ~politics~

- so maybe that was also some kind of assassination ordered by higher-ups, just like what apparently nearly happened to Kazuma

- maybe there's some kind of conspiracy to destabilise relations between Britain and Japan, and the people on the list are assassination targets for that purpose; would make sense for Kazuma and Wilson at least

- if an "A. Shin" turns up dead sometime in GAA2 I'm gonna feel very confident about this - also lol I guess Gregson better watch out? not sure why he matters, but

- (no I am also not sure if this makes sense timing-wise, in that I think the disc might have been made after at least two of these people were (supposedly) killed, but, shush, my memory of case 5 is still fuzzy)

~Conclusion~

Targeted assassinations to destabilise foreign relations

Bench

Interesting.

elyvorg

and yes, I freaking love Great Deductions, they are delightfully shamelessly hammy

Bench

They're fantastic.

Hope you have fun with your replaythrough!

elyvorg

I may or may not skip some bits. Currently not really intending to play case 4, because one way or another that's the one I ended up remembering most clearly, and I'm pretty sure it's mostly filler, but I think I want to replay 3 and 5 because they're likely to be more plot related and it'd be nice to be reminded of potentially-important details that have definitely slipped my mind (such as the whole mention-of-assassinations thing)

[[spoiler: I did not end up skipping any parts and did in fact replay all of case 4, lol]]

Bench

Sounds like a good plan.

elyvorg

I've also been seeing how the characters' names are different from the fan translation, which as far as I could tell translated them pretty directly from the Japanese. In short, it seems like most of the major characters keep the same names (except for the "what do you mean we're ripping off Arthur Conan Doyle no we're not" ones), while less important characters get their names completely changed to puns that work in English. There's been several times I've been like "I cannot at all recall what this character's name was in the fan translation but it definitely wasn't this, I'd remember that pun".

love Iyesa Nosa and his son, Aido Nosa. Peak Ace Attorney punny names.

Bench

Yeah, those were great AA names.

Where are you currently, if I may ask?

elyvorg

Halfway through Case 2. It's weird, I remembered everything up to this point somewhat well, but I have very little recollection of the second half of the case other than the tragic accidentalness of how the killing happened and the thing with the snake that was a red herring. I'm kinda wondering what else there is I forgot that fills up the rest of this half of the case.

I also had almost no memory at all of case 1's deductions, man. Practically playing blind except for vague feelings such as "wasn't poison involved somehow???" and "didn't the coin end up, like, in the steak for some reason?????"

Bench

Well, you get to have the fun of deducing everything again!

elyvorg

Yep! Back in the day I'd replay Ace Attorney games almost immediately and therefore would commit most of its details to memory so I never got to do that twice like I'm having now :D

Bench

Excited to hear your thoughts on the rest of case 2, case 3, and case 5!

elyvorg

I suppose I can also give a brief summary of my thoughts replaying case 1, which were, as predicted, AAAAA FRIENDS. Kazuma and Ryunosuke are a very elyvorgcore kind of friendship, I love them. Love how it's established very early on that they're both willing to risk sacrificing something important to them for the sake of the other, love how Ryunosuke looks up to Kazuma as The Coolest and yet Kazuma believes in Ryunosuke and feels he might actually be the more talented of the two despite his nerves. That kind of friendship dynamic is just exquisite.

also instant serotonin every time Kazuma called Ryunosuke "partner", I cannot believe I forgot he did that

Bench

Yeah, that was great!

elyvorg

also also, while Ryunosuke doesn't seem inclined to call Kazuma "partner" nearly as much in return, there's one time he did do so, after his death when he was regretting and apologising that he couldn't understand the dying message his friend supposedly left to try and tell him something, aaaaaa, my heart

Bench

Yeah. It was delightfully tragic.

Thanks for deciding to liveblog this! It's fun listening to your thoughts on all this!

elyvorg

<3

Live reactions: 1-2, second half

elyvorg

OH I just remembered another thought I had while playing case 2, though I don't recall if it comes up later in case 2 or if perhaps it could be an Overarching Thing. Ryunosuke says he remembers nothing about what happened last night after he had dinner. His dinner was chicken, which Kazuma doesn't eat. Did Kazuma... slip him sleeping drugs? for some reason???

and now there's an actual port-mortem report, hmmmmm

oh wait, Hosonaga also feels weird, I think this is a case 2-related thing and everyone was drugged that night, if they ate anything

oh lmao well that solves the locked room mystery. Gravity locked the door! shipmakers really oughta install better bolts

I have discovered something terrifying: there is unique dialogue for every single wrong answer you can give in a Great Deduction, and it's usually hilarious. My penalty bar is going to hate me.

"Yes, who could you have a more cosy relationship with... than a shiny teapot!"

Bench

Oh, huh! Didn't know that

elyvorg

love how this Russian sailor just has a big snek friend who hangs out on his face

Hosonaga seems to really want us to think it was all pure accident. Is he just being nice and protecting Nikolina, or.......?

I can't help but notice how Ryunosuke keeps calling Kazuma "Mr Asogi" when talking about the details of the case, like he's trying to distance himself from thinking about the fact that it's his best friend who's dead. :(

(this was a detail that could not be in the fan translation, because in that version they addressed each other by surname anyway)

Sholmes: "I took the liberty of investigating the victim's fist a short while ago." Sorry, how short a while ago? Since his body was removed from the cabin? because, uhhhhhhhh (I presume he really means while he was still investigating the body in the room, but that's some misleading phrasing.)

(also, dude, way to withhold vital evidence that obviously points to the culprit until now, geez)

Kazuma expected his nighttime visitor to be Hosonaga, huh.

fffffffff I completely forgot there was this other, sadder variant of Kazuma's theme, my feelings

(i better be right about this spoiler)

guhhhh. this whole tragic mess of why the murder happened and the fact that Kazuma was really trying to help Nina and not turn her in was one of the things I distinctly remembered about this case because it was so heartbreaking, and yeah, turns out it still is a second time even when I know it's coming ;o;

(also please protecc Nina, she does not deserve to go to prison for this)

"I wish there was something... I could say..." says Hosonaga to Ryunosuke and Susato as they're grieving. hmmmmmmm

"My duty was to see Asogi-san safely to Great Britain. But I failed. And caused his two closest friends great pain and suffering as a result." ...not actually specifically mentioning that he let Kazuma die, there.

Bench

Interesting.

elyvorg

interesting that Hosonaga was initially very against the idea of Ryunosuke taking Kazuma's place. hm.

I'm sorry, Kazuma's sword is called Karuma? I do not recall if that was the same in the fan translation, but, uhhhh, that's von Karma's Japanese name? i am not sure how to feel about this.

(I mean I otherwise do very much have Feelings about Ryunosuke keeping Kazuma's sword, but boy that name feels a bit awkward.)

Bench

Yeah. It's certainly interesting.

Interim thoughts

[[featuring a tangent in which I sell TGAA fans on the Ace Attorney/Layton crossover (in a spoiler-free way), please play that too if you haven’t it’s Very Good]]

Bench

What's your opinion on how ballistic markings, fingerprinting, and blood analysis and such aren't a thing here due to this being before it was all invented? Personally, I really like it! It allows for mysteries that aren't possible in modern Ace Attorney.

elyvorg

I've played some other games that lack those too, and yeah, it works fine! Makes for things that would be easily solved with a blood test or fingerprint analysis need to be proved some other way, which honestly probably gives the writers more flexibility.

Layton vs Wright also takes place in a setting where they don't have those kinds of forensic analyses, leading to a fun moment where Phoenix goes "We should test for fingerprints!" and everyone in court just sort of stares at him blankly because they've literally never heard of that.

Bench

Oooooooh.

That's going to be fun!

Yeah, for example, GAA1-1 would be over in minutes with ballistic markings investigating. The bullet in Wilson wouldn't match the gun Ryunosuke had, and that'd be it.

elyvorg

Haha, yeah.

also the absolutely wild concept of Hosonaga preserving evidence from the crime scene, good on him for doing that, what a bro, we'd be lost without him

Bench

Yeah.

I love the historical setting.

I learned quite a few things due to it.

I hope they do another historic Ace Attorney someday.

elyvorg

another fun tidbit about Layton vs Wright you might like: they're in a setting where magic is real, so the trials are witch trials. However, the magic in this world has specific rules governing how it works, so a lot of the logic in the cases is around proving whether or not the magic could have been done based on the rules of how it's supposed to work!

Bench

Ooooooooooh.

That sounds like SO much fun!

I'm hyped!

elyvorg

OH, they also don't have photographs at all, and instead you get sketches based on witness accounts, which can sometimes matter and lead to contradictions that wouldn't have happened with an actual photograph!

and while I'm here, may as well mention that the cross-examining multiple witnesses mechanic from GAA actually originated in PL vs PW, so there'll be more of that there if you enjoyed that.

Bench

OOOOOOOOOOOOH

I'm so excited!

It sounds like everything I love about Ace Attorney and Professor Layton in the same package!

elyvorg

It really is a great blending of the two. You get your Layton-style wandering around the mysterious town solving puzzles and learning about the mystery, in between AA-style courtroom segments with a fantasy medieval setting, with AA-level emotional stakes and Layton-level what-the-fuck-even-is-this-plot.

(but like, in a good way!)

Bench

:D

More interim thoughts

Bench

Want to discuss cases 1 and 2 some more?

elyvorg

I don't think anything more about them comes to mind that I can think of to say, but if you wanted to bring up anything, sure, feel free to do so!

Bench

Opinions on Jezeille Brett and the eternal Payne that is Auchi?

elyvorg

Brett sure has an entire swan on her head. (Love how Ryunosuke "I'm proud of my observation skills" Naruhodo saw that and was like "...there was a woman.") Don't have much of an opinion on her character (I'm usually pretty indifferent to villains), other than my theories on maybe this was an assassination???

Auchi sure was Payne. I liked the bit where Kazuma boasted that the Naruhodo clan would never lose to the Auchi clan... shame that doesn't work quite as well in the localisation where they have different names in modern day now, but still.

Bench

Neat!

elyvorg

It's kind of awkward how this is apparently Phoenix's ancestor and yet they don't share the same surname or nationality at all, however, I've headcanoned a fix for that: modern day localised Ace Attorney takes place in a California with a lot of Japanese cultural influence, so probably there were a lot of Japanese immigrants there. One of them could have been a descendant of Ryunosuke's! And either they changed their name to something more Western, or, hey, who says the line has to be purely patrilineal. So Phoenix has a small amount of Japanese blood in him, and so Ryunosuke can still be an ancestor of his.

[[apparently Janet Hsu has confirmed that this is indeed canon in the localisation!]]

Bench

Yeah, that's my headcanon as well.

elyvorg

Kind of a shame that Kazuma's goal of changing Japan's legal system doesn't work here, though, because whoops that's not the same country's legal system as we have in localised Ace Attorney.

Bench

Thoughts on Nikola and Strogenov?

elyvorg

I love Nikolina, she's so lost and scared and none of this is her fault, hugs for her and get her somewhere safe and absolutely do not prosecute her for anything, simply knowing she killed someone who was actually going to help her is more than punishment enough.

It's pretty cute how all the Russian sailors on the ship have basically adopted her and Will Protecc to the point of drugging the entire ship if they need to. I like Strogenov's snek friend. (And Nina's kitty friend! Shame we never saw her in-person, but animating cats to move like actual cats is tricky so I understand.)

Bench

Yeah! I really liked all that, too!

elyvorg

Case 2 miiight be my favourite in the first game, going by my vague memory of the others, because it gave me the highest concentration of Feelings, not only from Kazuma's death but also from everything with Nikolina's situation and the tragedy of it all.

Though I do also remember really loving Gina and having a lot of Feelings about her in case 5, which is one of the reasons I want to replay that one and also case 3, to re-experience her arc.

Bench

Gina is one of my favorite characters in the subseries. I have a lot of Feelings about her as well.

She's a great character.

elyvorg

She is!

Live reactions: 1-3, beginning

elyvorg

About to start case 3. My memory of the details are pretty fuzzy, but I do remember the major things:

- Our client is a scumbag who's guilty as sin, but this doesn't become apparent until after we get him acquitted.

- Gina was threatened by him into lying for him in court.

It'll be pretty interesting playing through the case again knowing these things.

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

okay, very interesting that there's this opening that appears to be describing this very case, sounding like it's being narrated by John Wilson... who's dead. Unless that's just Iris writing it up afterwards, pretending it involved her dad? I forget exactly how her biographing worked.

feels a little weird that Susato and Ryunosuke don't have any audible Japanese accent in their voice lines, but what can you do

[[uhh yes, apparently I thought this at the time, but later voiced lines from both of them do very much have a noticeable accent and I appreciate this a lot]]

ah yes, this Chief Justice guy, who definitely never gave off any kind of ominous, probably-going-to-be-evil vibes at all.

mr chief justice guy are you thinking about having Ryunosuke assassinated now that he's said he's going to do everything Kazuma would have, was it you who ordered the assassinations ¬.¬

(the assassinations that may not actually be a thing at all, but, shush)

so he's assigning us to this trial in which he probably knows that the defendant is actually super guilty, in the hope that we'll lose spectacularly and have to leave, right? seems that way.

Ryunosuke's being all "I can't have this man's life in my hands!", but wasn't he going to have no lawyer at all otherwise? You're better than nobody, Ryunosuke, come on.

they keep throwing the word "resolve" around, but that's the second game, not this one! ;P

neat how they make a big thing of how we're this poor defendant's only hope to survive! to make us instinctively want to save this guy and trust him. Pretty sure it worked like a treat on me the first time around.

Bench

Same here.

I was completely fooled the first time.

elyvorg

is there really nobody willing to go up against this big scary prosecutor who's never lost, even when the defendant's absolutely loaded? feel like there might be something else going on there.

agh, it's painful in hindsight how determined Ryunosuke is to not turn his back on this poor guy who's all alone

no wonder he's gonna get trust issues for case 4

(might have to play the investigation part of case 4, too, because I remember enjoying that little arc he had there)

(I hope you're watching over me, Kazuma...)

ghhhhhhhh Feelings

FRIENDS

huh, van Zieks hasn't prosecuted in five years and chooses now of all times to change that, that's got to be important somehow.

love how there's blood on McGilded's gloves because (so I assume, memory fuzzy) he literally did stab the guy, but in true Ace Attorney style we're used to our defendants looking this apparently-guilty in the beginning and so we don't even think anything of it

...the Phoenix Wright Omnibus? really? the fan translation wasn't that cheeky.

[[apparently the original Japanese did this, actually! Guess I just forgot.]]

love how Ryunosuke leans his hand on Kazuma's sword when he's feeling confident ^o^

also, as well as the classic Wright-style deskslam, he's picked up Kazuma's variant of the deskslam, too! Fun little details.

it's pretty silly how, when you make a juror go from "HE DEFINITELY DID IT" to "ehhh I'm still undecided?", they nonetheless have to put in an active vote for not guilty, rather than simply removing their guilty vote.

and how we have to do that four times to get the trial to continue, instead of just having anyone at all be no longer sure about it.

(obviously the reason is because it makes for more fun gameplay, but.)

I can't get over how polite Ryunosuke's Objection voice clip sounds

it's interesting how I almost didn't figure out a thing I was supposed to present, because I'm insistently running under the assumption of "okay, so he definitely did stab the guy, but let's get all the facts about it straight anyway"

haha, yes, Gina sure was taking a huge risk to even be at the trial, it's almost like she didn't actually have a choice in that matter

Judge: "You will tell the court exactly what happened in the omnibus on the night in question."

*Gina looks downwards for a moment, probably guiltily thinking, "no the heck I won't".*

:(

there was also a bit where she glanced at McGilded as if silently checking if he wanted her to speak at all

agh, this poor girl

Bench

Gina deserves hugs.

elyvorg

man, McGilded really has his whole story planned out to the T. And yet, it wouldn't have worked if Ryunosuke hadn't had the galaxy-brain take of "what if the victim fell through the skylight", which McGilded can't have counted on him necessarily doing. I'm getting the impression... McGilded didn't have a lawyer because he really was planning to defend himself and do all this on his own. And maybe justice guy assigning us to him was because he knew that and wanted us to do a worse job than McGilded would have done for himself...?

Bench

Oh yeah, forgot to ask, but what did you think of having the whole crime scene as evidence in case 3?

elyvorg

oh yeah, that was neat

as well as a clever way for the crime scene to be tampered with in the middle of a trial

Bench

Yeah. That was really cool!

Also served as karmic comeuppance for McGuilded. Burnt alive in the same omnibus he killed another in. Burning alive is a horrible way to go, but

elyvorg

yeah, that was pretty chilling

Live reactions: 1-4, beginning

[[I went through most of this case without commenting on much; for whatever reason this one ended up the one I remembered most details about from playing the fan translation years ago]]

elyvorg

"Because I'm employing an extremely advanced detection method called 'jumping to conclusions', you see!" - Ryunosuke in Great Deduction mode, when I accidentally present a photograph without examining what's in it. I love these failure dialogues, he's so confident about his utter nonsense

elyvorg

:3! Ryunosuke has the same thought of hoping Kazuma's watching over him that he did at the beginning of trial 3 (whoops I'm at the beginning of trial 4 now), but this time instead of the context being "because HELP I NEED IT", it's because he knows he can do this and is going to prove that Kazuma was right to believe in him! aaaaaaa, FRIENDS ^o^

Bench

Ryunosuke's character development is great!

Interim thoughts

Bench

Thoughts on van Zieks so far?

elyvorg

not much on his actual character; he's your usual Scary Prosecutor Guy, though he does seem to be legit in that he was trying really hard to get McGilded found guilty. The plot thing of how he apparently implicitly murders criminals he's not able to convict is an interesting hook; I wonder where they're gonna go with that.

Bench

Neat! Van Zieks is one of my favorite prosecutors in the franchise.

elyvorg

ooh, that's interesting to hear; sounds like there'll be more to him later, then. (Which is to be expected, because basically all the prosecutors turn out to be a lot more interesting than they might seem at first glance.)

Bench

Heh, yeah.

elyvorg

It's kind of weird being in this position of having been (somewhat, fuzzy memory permitting) familiar with the first GAA but not the second for a few years, when the first is a really incomplete story on its own. So there's things like van Zieks kinda just existing but not having had the chance to be really interesting yet, and I've had to wait years to get to seeing the second half of his story. Among many other things.

something else I'd completely forgotten about - there were these two very wacky-seeming dudes outside Soseki's house in a small scene during case 4's investigation, whom I completely forgot about because they never come up again in the first game? Presumably they'll show up in the second, but man, that really does go to show that these games were meant to be played together.

Bench

Ah, yeah. Those two. Yeah, the games are best together. It's like one ten-case game instead of two five-case games.

Albeit one really amazing ten-case game.

elyvorg

I hope I think so too! I remember my feelings on GAA1 when I finished it the first time those years ago being pretty lukewarm overall, but then, that's fair, when I'd only seen the first half of an incomplete story.

Releasing them both together on the Switch really was the right decision, so that people can experience them together like they're meant to be instead of having an awkward wait in between the two halves like the original Japanese audience must have had.

Bench

Yeah.

Great Ace Attorney 2 is my favorite game in the franchise (so far, Investigations 2 might change that if it's good enough). I really hope you like it!

elyvorg

:D

Live reactions: 1-4, trial

elyvorg

My brain is getting its wires crossed with this young couple in trial 4, some of the few characters whose fan translation names I remember, because their names were Pat and Rola... but the other way around.

Bench

Huh!

elyvorg

(meanwhile the official localisation went with Patricia, not knowing or caring that AAI2's fan translation already had a character called Patricia. For some reason Ace Attorney really likes making "patrol" pun names!)

Bench

Heh.

elyvorg

oh hey this sure is a case where everyone assumes the victim's dead at first glance but on closer inspection they're actually still alive and just in a coma, how about that

Bench

Yeah, very rare you see a case that's not a murder case!

elyvorg

It is nice, since this whole thing was just a ridiculous accident, that a person didn't actually die from it.

Bench

Yeah, it's nice.

elyvorg

oh hey, they're getting close to figuring out fingerprinting in this time period, apparently! Neat.

[majimemegoro]

just finished watching a playthrough of saejima's hunting storyline and i get why you like okudera so much now. he's a pretty minor character in the eyes of the game's main storyline but damn, he's genuinely really compelling, alongside the entire hunting storyline...i really fuckin like this dude now. anyways, i wanted to ask, do you know of a timeline or anything of his backstory? cause its. a little confusing for me to understand

WE CAUGHT ONE LADS

jokes aside I'm so glad you watched, so glad you liked it, and so glad you took the time to let me know. for anyone else who wants the chance to discover the joy of MR OKUDERA, whether or not you have a ps4 or steam, you can do that here.

as for the backstory timeline... buckle up, because it's convoluted as heck. We learn about the events of 9 years ago partially through the false story of the villagers and partially from okudera (whose tell-all story at the end is also, I think, a bit cagey and perhaps deliberately vague). these in-text obstacles to determining The Truth are exacerbated by the fact that the remastered version has at least one egregious translation error, and hence the possibility of other errors.

But I've spent a LOT of time trying to figure out the timeline. like a stupid amount of time. and while i still plan to do a serious methodical review of the story and determine the possibilities once and for all, I'll take this as an opportunity to lay out what I currently figure is probably the case.

disclaimers: y5 spoilers for the okudera/hunting storyline follow. i also havent systematically reviewed the evidence before posting, so it's possible that there will be errors. if anyone notices them, PLEASE point them out! meanwhile I will do my best to specify what is fact and what is interpretation: events I am 99-100% sure of, and are stated more or less explicitly in the text, will go in normal text, while I'll put my own filling-in-the-blanks and original notes in [square brackets]. I have some pretty detailed personal headcanons to do with these events, but I will NOT bring them up. Here I promise I will only bring up speculation that has a textual basis and is strictly necessary to fill in the gaps of the accounts given by mr okudera and the other vilalgers.

I will refer from now on to mr okduera as Sato, and to og okudera as okudera.

~10 years ago

the upcoming changes to hunting regulations are announced, and a hunting boom begins on the mountain [this could be more than 10 years ago]

sato breaks out of Abashiri, either crashes or abandons his snowmobile, and is saved by okudera

[Nishina recovers the snowmobile at some point]

okudera teaches sato how to hunt "as I (sato) was losing hope of living"

meanwhile the natural balance on the mountain is decaying due to overhunting, and bears are becoming vicious

~9 years ago, 6 months after sato's arrival in the village

yama-oroshi, the giant-size bear, is first spotted and starts causing trouble

~9 years ago

during a blizzard, okudera goes out after yama-oroshi. [the villagers give conflicting accounts of his intentions. i think sakurai says okudera wanted to help them, while nishina says he was after money. unclear whether sakurai is telling his honest opinion or a cover story]

sato goes around begging the villagers for food with "hat in hand" and is given some by mrs nishina [note that he apparently didn't have any, even though, if you accept this timeline, yama-oroshi hadn't yet attacked the village and destroyed its food stores. mrs nishina tells the story of okduera begging, and she doesnt specify when it happens, but i think it was probably here? not sure though.]

sato follows okudera into the mountain, intending to kill him

sato finds okudera; okudera reveals that he already knew sato was planning to kills him, and tells him that it's okay to carry out his mission

sato decides not to kill okudera

Okudera is attacked by Yama-oroshi. Sato passes out. [was he attacked???]

[okudera fights off yama-oroshi alone, defending the unconscious sato and succeeding in driving the bear away]

However okudera is grievously injured

Sato awakens on bloody snow. [presumably the site of the original attack, though its not for sure.] the dying okudera holds his hand and tells him to take his name and continue living in order to atone for both of their crimes.

[at some point here okudera presumably dies. it is possible that sato buries him at this time, but perhaps more likely that sato immediately follows yama-oroshi, who is headed towards the village, presumably having been driven in that direction during the fight against sato. saving the village from a demon bear would seem like a good way to begin atoning for a life of crime.]

Yama-oroshi attacks the village, ruining buildings and eating/destroying all of the food stored up for the winter, including the buried food

(still 9 years ago, but after this the order of events gets really fuzzy. the remaining events may shift slightly in order, depending on one's stance on the next bullet)

sato saves the village somehow [this bit is really vague. possibly this comment is referring to ways in which sato helped revitalize the matagi principles of conservation and mutual aid in the village. but I think it is more likely that he did something more concrete, namely, luring yama-oroshi away from the village. otherwise why did Yama-oroshi leave before killing anyone? someone did something, I think, and I think it was sato.]

[sato reports to the villagers that okudera ("sato") is missing - probably NOT that he is dead. the villagers then presumably report this to the police, since sato cannot be seen by the police, who would surely recognize and escapee from Abashiri.] [Note that sakurai tells saejima that sato (mr okduera) went into the mountain after og okudera BECAUSE og okudera was already missing, but I don't think this makes sense unless it's part of the fake cover story. it's also possible that sato told the villagers okudera was missing & he was following him for that reason, since he wouldnt have admitted he was planning to kill him...]

[some of] the villagers realize or suspect that sato/”okudera” is the escaped convict. [because they would know WHEN sato showed up, and when the escape occurred, and they would know that the bigger guy who disappeared had been with them for too long to be the escapee]

the villagers decide to protect sato (”okudera”) by secretly following him on the mountain, and by shunning him so that they have an excuse for not knowing him well and hence not reporting his identity to the police.

[it seems that Sato never admits to the villagers that he knew okudera died. OR the villagers pretend not to believe that okudera is dead?? which is weird since youd think after almost a decade, “went missing on the mountain during a blizzard” would entail “presumed dead”... but i digress]

the village spends the rest of the winter and perhaps longer on the “brink of starvation”

at some point the new hunting regulations go into effect.

and that's the events of 9-10 years ago, as near as I can figure them.

Thoughts? questions? me too !!! please speak up, and thanks for the ask, comrade.

here is a user badge for you:

[zirkkun]

I can't sleep so I'm gonna ramble for a minute here about. uh. 2020 i guess lol everyone else is so might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Be aware this is really really fucking long so it's a commitment to read it lmao sorry i just cannot sleep and i guess i had more on my mind about this year than i thought. I also did not proofread this at all. I just started writing and didn't look back lol

This year was... Weird for me. It started out with me feeling my best in January, comfortable and positive as I did my nth playthrough of DBH with friends and finally having enough alts of my boy Alfonse in FEH to have a team of Just him to fight with. (Priorities, right?) February hit, and things were still going good. I met Ray Chase and had him sign a print I did of Roy and Alfonse in some casual outfits for a scrapped au I wrote years ago. (And I gave him one 😊). Hell, like, covid was just coming around when me and my friends went to the con that weekend and a breakout of it hit the city just south of where the con was like a week before, but I was genuinely so excited for it that like I was like "Yeah, if i die, i die. Whatever happens happens." God, at this point, the Alfonse gc I was in was still alive and I still didn't talk to anyone in the group outside of that gc. Lowkey miss it tbh. But oh well. Things move on.

But that con was like... Stressful. I usually have fair amounts of stress at cons, being around so many people, I fear theft, unwanted contact, y'know, the standard; but my friend group was so filled with tension that it was absolutely painful. We'd been split most of the weekend, and if the two groups came together, it was hell, because it just caused unwanted arguments. I felt really bad cause I didn't want them to be upset, yknow? But i also wanted to hang out with my friends all at once. So i swapped between the groups a bit over the weekend. And blew WAY more money than I should have and lowkey it kind of fucked me over for the rest of the year cause I haven't had a job all year outside of, like, a local church job that pays at a rare max of $100 a month ;w;

I'd been struggling in school the previous semester already, about halfway through having just stopped going to classes altogether, yet still somehow managed to pass everything with B's and A's. The next semester rolled around, and I thought at first the distraction and inability to do anything was because of the con, and as it persisted after, I thought it was just post-con depression. But, as it turned out, no, it's just been my biggest relapse of depression since the end of high school, and frankly, it's only gotten worse since. I can't sleep rn because I'm between not wanting to do anything because I have a lack of emotions and motivation and not feeling deserving of sleep lol. I checked out of school on February 28th, however, I was convinced I was merely demotivated by my surroundings -- at this point, I was studying Japanese, and one of my friends at the time was a (although probably unintentionally) complete braggart about how much he was studying and how he was improving... not to mention he was textbook example of "This is an Actual Weeaboo, don't Fucking Do this." (One of many reasons i said friend at the time lol) it was just... So draining being around him, and I had to see him in class every day of the week. I barely scraped together assignments last-minute and never studied under the idea of "What does it matter if I'm not putting in my 100%?" So I checked out, with plans of transferring for the following semester.

Well, then March hit. Y'all know how March went down lmao.

I pretty much locked myself in my room at all times during March, going between Animal Crossing and BOTW (which actually racked up like 200ish hours i think according to the nintendo year in review i had lmao). I started making a bit closer online friends at this point, notably @levitumbling who decided to take me in as his channel designer for YouTube and I've been ever since! But. Of course. My first task? A Sans meme. My payment? One Switch copy of Undertale because he considered it a disgrace that I'd never played the game before.

Now, let me tell you. I was fuckin scared to play this game. I held onto it for weeks between the fear of "My friend bought me this and i should play this" and "I told myself I'd never touch this game with a 20 mile pole because of how much it's been shoved down my throat over the years." So, one day, I don't remember when, early April, I said, fuck it, I'll play it for a little bit, just enough to say "hey i played it for a bit!" and then never go back.

The only thing that stopped me from beating the whole thing in one sitting was it was the crack of dawn when I passed out, extremely tired and extremely frustrated by the fact I couldn't beat Muffet. Yes, I got that far in one sitting I intended to play for 15 minutes tops.

Now. Let me fuckin tell you. About my first playthrough of Undertale. I haven't gone into a game knowing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it like... I think ever. Usually I know what style of game it is, the genre, the main plot premise. I knew nothing other than the existence of Sans (and, as it turned out, I'd heard some of the soundtrack pieces before, notably Bonetrousle I heard this cover of it in a radio livestream a while back and never really looked it up, but was always excited when the radio looped back around to it being on; and I'd heard Dating Start! because that's Alpharad's go-to sponsorship ost lmao.) But anyway. I was completely in the dark. Do yall mind if i just go through some highlights of my favorite memories? This is supposed to be a summary of the year but I mean, I think this made a big enough impact on me to really like. Discuss it a bit.

I watched the whole opening cutscene, started a new game under my old screenname, "Yoru," since in naming the "Fallen Child," I assumed they were dead. Well, I was a little surprised to just be that child, alive, two seconds later, but whatever, I rolled with it.

I genuinely trusted Flowey right away. Like no shit. He told me run into the "friendliness pellets" and I didn't even fucking question it. And when Toriel came in? And she said to follow her? I straight up was like "Why the hell should I trust you?? That guy just tried to kill me what says you wont?" I followed only because the game made me but i was Wary the whole time. It took me a LONG time to warm up to Toriel.

Now. Let me tell you how stupid I am as well. The game says over and over right, "Don't fight. Spare. Have Mercy when names are Yellow." Well, I took this literally. I didn't understand the Act mechanic most of the time, and when something didn't work I just said, fuck it, and fought them. If their name didn't turn yellow, I just fought them. "They don't want Mercy if their name isn't yellow, right?" After a while, I'd started getting bored of fighting and would just run away, but like, I came to a point where I was like "I have a really low level, I'm really going to regret this later on if I don't grind for a while."

I don't know when I stopped but. I think I was only one or two kills away from a genocide run accidentally my first playthrough, based on how I think I was LV 3 and looking at genocide playthroughs, you're LV 3 or 4 when you fight Toriel. Like. Holy fuck. I can't imagine what I would have thought of this game if that happened lmao.

Speaking of Toriel, still didn't trust her, at all. When we got to Home, and after I did Every Single different phrase she says when you go downstairs before you talk to her reading about snails; I did not Hesitate to ask "cool uh when the fuck can I leave?" When we got to the Ruins exit I was like, ah, here it is. The betrayal from her I was expecting, where she tries to kill me. Well, nothing on the Act menu worked, right? So... I fought and killed her. I didn't really care, actually. I just kept going.

Then meeting Sans and Papyrus happened. I lost my fucking shit at this part, mostly when they were talking, because every time Sans made a pun it would zoom in on him and do a rimshot. The puns were not funny and I was definitely on Pap's side of "oh my GOD shut up." But that fucking zoom in and rimshot was just so fourth wall breaking and unexpected. Fuck, it still gets me. Anyway. Game continues. I again lose my shit at (insane spinning in random directions) "OH MY GOD! IS THAT A HUMAN?" "uh, i think that's a rock." "OH. WAIT! WHAT'S THAT IN FRONT OF THE ROCK?? (IS IT A HUMAN??)" "(yes.)" "OH MY GOD!!!" and still think these two moments in the game are Peak comedy. Oh, and let me tell you, I did not like either of these two at this point. Sans I was like, okay, hes kind of a dumbass in a funny way, but Papyrus is a dumbass in a way that just annoys me. Genuinely the archetype that misses social cues and therefore has miscommunication usually just annoys me to no end. (Mostly for the miscommunication. It's my least favorite trope and makes me unreasonably angry.) But yeah. Wasn't really a fan. But out of everyone so far? Definitely found Sans to be the most tolerable. But that's about all I thought of him lmao.

Getting to Snowdin, with the Papyrus battle, remember how I said I didn't like Papyrus? And yes, this was something I genuinely thought at one point, I genuinely hated Papyrus, imagine that. What a wild world that is. But anyway. You know how his Act menu has the "Flirt" option? I, for no reason, gunned it for the Flirt option, even though I did not want to. Then when he was like "WE'LL GO ON A DATE! LATER!!" i was like yea sure okay lmao. Again, couldn't figure out the Act menu to turn his name yellow, so I fought him, and he was one or two attacks from dying (miraculously) when he ended the battle. I spared him here cause, well, he spared me, it was only fair. Then this guy again is like "ILL BE AT MY HOUSE WHEN YOU WANT TO GO ON THAT DATE!" and i was like haha funny but still turned around to go on the date. Like why? I have no idea. I think I was more like "haha hes probably not gonna be there and its just cause i picked that option and lo and behold there was an actual fucking date. Oh my god. I have never in my life been on a video game date where one party was convinced I was infatuated with them and im here on the other side of the screen like "oh my god make this end i can't stand being around you.???" But still. The date was. Really fucking funny. I wish I could experience it for the first time again like holy shit. There are few playthroughs I did after this where I didn't go on the Pap date, even if I just spedrun through it.

So then you get to Waterfall and Sans is there like "hey wanna go to grillbys" and i was like sure why not so we go there and my choices were fries & ketchup (so i did not get the legendary scene where he chugged a bottle of ketchup, but i sure did my second playthrough, and let me tell you, i was disgusted). But like. This whole experience at grillby's like, the whoopee cushion, him using a comb on his bald ass skull, him just fuckin unapologetically scratching his ass for no reason?? Bro i was like "why the fuck is this guy part of the Tumblr Sexymen™ group ??? He's so ????? Gross???????" and like i still have this question tbh lmao. But like. Okay so he asks you "what do you think of my bro?" And my genuine answer was "uncool" and he was like "hey man sarcasm isnt funny" and can i just mention how like inheritly manipulative sans actually is like fuck he does things like this where he throws your answer the other way a few times and Every time it actually swayed me the other way. Because right here I went. "Oh. Maybe Papyrus is better than I thought." Like holy fuck maybe i should be more aware if something like that can sway my opinion so easily LMAO.

Anyway waterfall i genuinely was very bored of the whole time. I spent like a genuine 20 minutes figuring out the puzzle where you have to talk to a wall and I actually didn't realize you could move the telescope around. What helped me solve it is my friend's advice before I played it. "Inspect everything. Even talk to walls. Trust me." And literally thats how I solved it. But pretty much everything in Waterfall otherwise bored me. I did think it was pretty though, and did enjoy reading the lore, but when it started talking about monster biology my one fear had been realized: oh god, oh fuck. My original species for my own series also has physical Souls and die by turning to dust because they're made entirely of magic. God fuck. My luck, it has to be something popular, so now everyone's gonna think I'm a ripoff. But, at the same time, I do think it helped me understand monster biology (and it helped me come up with the ULR biology) better, because I've put in a lot of thought to existence of a species that exists only by magic and a Soul (which, mine only actually have half a Soul, as a full Soul makes a being immortal, which was also similar to the boss monsters in a way). It definitely made a lot more sense for like, the skeletons n stuff for me, because like my characters are wholly shapeshifters but usually take human form, and while they have "organs" in the places humans would have them, they don't operate. They're just placeholders, because they just live with their Soul. So I've always thought the same with UT monsters, since the skelebros can live without organs, that means so do the rest of the monsters, even if they have animal-like appearances.

Off topic lmao. Back to UT. So, the Undyne fight was kind of the turning point for me. She was pissing me off so much during this whole game and like I was like "if theres another fucking part where I have to run away from her im going to scream." Well, once again, her name wasn't yellow, so I wasn't going to spare her... and, actively, I made the decision to kill her, because I didn't want to deal with her still chasing me later on in the game. It took me a long time to beat her, and when I did, I texted my friend (@cheshiregrinnbuttoneyes ) in excitment like "YES I FINALLY KILLED UNDYNE" and she texted back like "YOU DID WHAT?????" and i was like "i.... Killed Undyne????" she replies, "YOU DONT HAVE TO OMFG WHY" and im like "I DIDN'T HAVE TO?? THERE'S OTHER OPTIONS?????" and shes like "YES OMFG THAT'S LITERALLY THE PREMISE OF THE GAME" and im "WHAT."

So then. I get that call from Papyrus like. "HEY! YOU ME AND UNDYNE SHOULD HANG OUT SOMETIME!"

oh my god the guilt i felt.

alphys on undernet being like "omfg i forgot to watch undyne fight the human. ah ill ask her about it later she never loses <3"

bro. i nearly fuckin cried. i was like. Not to mention I'd gotten the crush question right for Mettaton's quiz in answering Undyne (bc i was like "plz be gay plz be gay") so it fucking cut like a knife what I'd done.

I don't remember when I let myself get passed it. But I do know that the whole story arc between Alphys and Mettaton went way over my head. Like, i know im probs the minority on this, but I adore Alphys, I have since I first met her in game, and like, when Mettaton was like "ALPHYS HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU!" i just went "...nah."

Also, I didnt like mettaton at this point, cause I thought he was being really obnoxious, and then the turn around to betray Alphys really kinda pissed me off.

But like.

Oh my god.

Remember how I said I swapped my opinion on Pap earlier bc of Sans's comment? Yeah that was a pretty fast turnaround, but it still took me a few times.

But the second i saw mettaton ex

I was like

"HIM. HE. HE'S THE ONE I LOVE."

Like, full turnaround from Undyne, I actively refused to kill him. All times I thought he was an asshole? Forgotten. Me thinking he's a selfish prick? Gone. Nada. Nothing. Pure adoration. Suddenly every flaw he had was pushed aside purely from how hot I thought he was. Also, fuckin, im really glad i played this when no one in my house was awake, because I still didn't understand the Act mechanic here, and every time you attack mettaton he has this like moan he does and im like oh my god. stop. omfg.

At the end, too, when there was the calls and everything, when he had his big turnaround, I was just so happy for him I genuinely cried. Also, I had to do his battle probably the most out of everyone's in the game (not including genocide), so when it came around to his battle during the (glitchless) speedruns i did, i was more invested in how fast I could rack up points, cause you need 10k rating points to pass, and I actually did get that before he lost his legs, but apparently he needed to lose those too before you passed lol. Unfortunate.

Anyway after Alphys talked to you and everything, i genuinely went to see if Mettaton was still there, but he wasn't :( so i just went to New Home. I was very ill prepared for the fight against Asgore and the only reason I struggled with it so much was because my only healing items were like. Something that healed like 10 or 12 hp and the snowman piece. I was LV 9 when i finished the game, so like, my HP was pretty high, but i didnt have the G to buy items, so i was pretty much fucked. Yes. I had to eat the snowman to win.

Oh speaking of terrifying shit though. Photoshop flowey? My god. I haven't been afraid of a video game boss so much since I was a little kid. It was like 3 am and i was not prepared for him to just delete my save file and then kill me on repeat, glitching and breaking everything as he pleased. Bruh i was genuinely scared. Like, not even just, "oh yikes :(" or something. Like, crying scared. Lmao im an emotional bitch by nature.

I of course had to restart from the beginning again to get the True Pacifist ending. I was very careful to never touch the Fight button literally ever. And, it actually took me a while to reset, because I hate erasing my original save files, yknow? But, well, as it turned out? While technically New Game+ by naming, resetting doesn't erase everything you did. It wasn't a new file. I was a little confused at first to be honest. Toriel saying things were familiar, remembering things I said, Papyrus and Undyne both recognizing me, like. It was unnerving.

When I got to the end, i had to look up how to get Alphys's date (since my friend told me the way to unlock TP was to go on all the dates, but Alphys's was definitely designed in mind of you turning around from New Home and going back to talk to people rather than a new reset. So after unlocking it, getting through Alphys's date (i still remember being like, verbally, "omg alphys you look so nice??" When she came out with the dress on and then had a thought to myself like... since when do i care about what people look like? since when do i compliment people? At that point, while I didn't consider myself to be a rude person, I definitely wasn't exactly all that concerned about others for anything. Sure, I cared about others' lives, but I tended to be a bit more judgemental internally, and just. Didn't really give a fuck about what people did in the most negative sense possible, unless it involved me. Yet, it rolled off my tongue like it was something id say normally to anyone. I really wonder if this is the true turning point for me this year.)

Getting to the end, with everyone cheering me on. Hoo boy. This was the start of many tears to come. Papyrus's "DO WHAT I WOULD DO! BELIEVE IN YOU!!" sticks with me the most. I wasn't surprised by Flowey's actions, but what fucking threw me for a loop was like. When Flowey was revealed as Asriel, I was genuinely jaw-drop shocked. I was like. Holy fuck. I thought he was dead. What the hell. To this day, though, i still think Hopes and Dreams hits me the hardest out of all the boss battle themes. It doesn't super bother me, bc like, difference in opinion is whatever, but like. Whenever I see Megalovania at the top of someone's ost list for Undertale I'm just... Why? Maybe it's because I'd overheard it meme'd to much before I played the game, but like, i dunno, it's not a bad song, but it's not the most emotional provoking piece for me, so it's pretty far down my list. Hopes and Dreams will still remain my #1.

I really did feel determined during this battle. I really felt a lot of emotion. I felt excited. I felt frightened. I felt ambitious. Asriel's battle is probably still the hardest for me, and yes, I'm counting genocide this time. I can't grasp his magic patterns at all, and I more so played it as a "okay, how much damage can i take? Whats his next move?" As i healed every other turn. It took me a very long time to beat him (though no 11 hours like Sans, this was more like, 2 or 3 max) and when I got to the part with the Lost Souls, most of the characters just said their "we hate you" piece and i was like "nope you're controlled" right.

But then there's Sans's "just give up. i did."

I genuinely had to stop. I set down my controller and just sat for a minute. I'd mentioned before how much I've been struggling with depression for years now, and it's at the worst it's been since high school. Maybe you'd think when I saw that, I was like "sure, maybe I should give up." But... It's really the "i did." that hit me like a rock to the stomach. While I do know a couple other people with depression, the most discussion we have with it is "haha i wanna die" kinda jokes yknow? Nothing really serious. And, well, I've always been the type to lean to fictional characters for support more than real people, since I've just been so disconnected from a lot of friends growing up and was too scared to talk about anything with my family.

So seeing someone else say "just give up. i did." hit me so fucking hard that I just started crying. I had already been in a real sappy mood cause the whole scene was so emotional as it was, even if merely the cliche of friendship will save all, y'know what? Its a good ass fuckin trope and makes me emotional lmao.

So, naturally, I was more hyperaware of Sans's implied depression from here onward. The conversations with everyone post-battle left me crying. God, so did the hug with Asriel. I was just fucking bawling.

Oh god. I didn't even mention. "Despite everything, it's still you." Another line that just hit me and I had to pause.

So admist my crying mess, I was telling my friend I'd beat Undertale again. He asks me "so... you gonna play the genocide route?" And I already had from the beginning. I always want to play every available route in a game. I see no point in paying for something and then not playing it all. I'd consider myself a completionist who doesn't ever actually finish anything lmao.

I definitely put my emotions aside for genocide. The absolute hardest kill for me was Papyrus, though. And i was absolutely fucking heartbroken when he said he still believed me as his last words. But I forced it aside. I didn't want to reset. I wanted to beat it to have it under my belt that I had. I was pretty sure the Sans battle would be here, since I hadn't heard Megalovania in the game yet, and I was aware of how hard the battle was, despite never seeing it.

Undyne's battle I'm more emotional about in retrospect than I was at the time. At the time, I didn't care, didn't like the theme much, and the dings gave me a headache. Undyne isn't exactly my favorite character (though definitely not my least favorite, that role is given to Frisk with Toriel not close behind ahdhsb im sorry), so I really wasn't concerned about it. Not to mention, I don't know why, but all of the battles I struggled with EXCEPT Undyne's I ended up liking the character more as a result. Maybe it was the dinging lmao.

Bro you shoulda seen how prepared I was for Mettaton NEO's battle to be hard as fuck. I was like sitting upright, took deep breaths before hitting fight, then when he died in one shot i just kind of "wh...what." Still very disappointed lol but I guess that's kind of the point of the genocide route.

Then came the Sans fight. As I said, I spent 11 hours on this. I genuinely didn't pay attention to what he said after a while, but I do remember the first time I read it, I was fucking terrified. Usually, sarcasm, hatred, and sass is very hard to convey through pure text, especially when it's said in the same tone as his usual talking. But the absolute harshness, the coldness, and the lack of any fucks given Sans had at that point was so plainly transparent through everything he said that it fucking scared me. Toby Fox's writing here was fantastic. I can only dream of being able to write like that. Frankly, I love his writing in general. Actually, fuck it, I love all of the artistic takes of this game. This is gonna sound weird but... The "childishness" of it just is so good. Like, there's no rules. Every socially accepted rule of art, writing, character design, speech patterns, and even basic grammar are thrown aside. He didn't just think outside of the box, there literally was no box. I call it childish only because like, children also create with no rules. They have no rules to restrict their creativity. And seeing that embraced in Undertale in every form possible just blows me away.

Anyway. The battle. It. Was hard. Thats a given. I spent about two weeks playing it on and off, and it's probably the most healthily I've treated myself in recent memory, because when it became too much for me to handle, I set it down and took a break. I would retain what I memorized and use it for the next time I picked it up. Frankly, it came to a point where every time I opened up Undertale to play, it was more just cause I wanted to see him lmao. The guy hated my existence at this point and it's not like i disacknowledged that. But it just felt like every time i opened the game... Idk. I don't know what I felt. I can tell you for sure this isn't the time when Sans started slipping into my favorite character spot over Mettaton, that didn't come until the development of Act to Flirt's first demo, which was a month or so later lmao.

I was very excited when I beat Sans.

But then, after it was over, I felt very empty.

I didn't feel good about beating genocide. I still don't. I want to play the boss battles again, cause they were really fun, despite how hard they were, but I can't bring myself to.

When I got to Chara, and everything went to black, I just wiped my save and started fresh. I think this was the first time I used the name "Willo" for anything. I just picked a random name to use, and Willo was the first thing that came to mind.

I beat neutral again many times, trying to unlock as many secrets as I could. I accidentally spent like, way too long trying to get Sans's room, because I couldn't figure out how to do it... which is when I started speedrunning the game, because I was just so used to going through it all. I timed myself once, and I got somewhere around 1:20:00 ish, which puts me at the very bottom of the NG+ Glitchless runs by like 30 minutes, but hey, it's still not too bad all things considered.

I'd started working on Act to Flirt sometime in between the speedruns. I was playing Papyrus's date again, and I had this thought of. What if Undertale... but all boss fights are instead like Papyrus's date?? I pitched the idea to my friend who was like "thats definitely been done before lol" and immediately I almost shut down the idea. But then I still had that glimmer of hope that, maybe, since I haven't made it yet, people would like my game because it was by me. Besides, quarantine was getting to me. I needed some way to spend my time. So on May 6th to May 7th, I spent the whole 24 hour period making the first proof of concept for the game, which was UI setup and Flowey's tutorial date. I hadn't made any of the art yet, so it was a black background with Flowey's undertale sprite. I originally was going to make everything more visual novel like in the sense that, so like on Papyrus's date, you could make choices like "unwrap the present" "dont unwrap the present" or "you look great" "you look terrible" and getting the ending would involve pretty much just saying the right things at the right times. But this alone was... Yknow, already done before, and part of what makes Undertale so great is that it's, despite its many outside influences, very unique in its gameplay. So I decided to make the dates more like puzzle-solving RPG's, and frankly, since doing that, I dont know if I want to go back to making other visual novels lmao.

After making the first demo and releasing it, I hit a creative funk. I wanted to make the next demo right away, but I forced myself to stop (since i was working 16+ hour days to finish it in exactly a week. I didn't eat much and i slept very little during this time too. Dont do this lmao). I didn't know if the game would be received, and frankly, I'd had many failed projects in the past due to lack of support. I lost a lot of support in the past due to the dropped projects I kept starting and quitting because I had such a small audience, and that made me lose a lot of interest and motivation to work on them. So I posted the first demo and waited. I was very shocked to have a YouTuber with over a million subs play it that weekend. Dantekris I think was her channel name. She speaks Russian, and I never understood a word she said, but I've still watched her let's plays because I enjoy seeing her reactions. I hate that YouTube keeps deleting my responses on her videos, probably because they're long and in English so it's marked as spam on a comments section full of purely Russian comments yknow. But it makes me feel like such an ass ;w;

Mairusu is the next large YouTuber who played it and my god I love seeing when he uploads a new update for my game because I genuinely have no idea what to expect from him. I don't know what it is but he's just so absolutely funny to me. He also seems to be the most common breaker of my game though. Stop making your own bugs!! I try to testplay to find the bugs he gets and it's like.... what did you do.... how did you skip that whole date im so confused thats not supposed to happen..... He accidentally skipped all of Muffet's date because of this too and hers is supposed to be the hardest in the game right now so I'm very upset by it;; i dont know how it happened, it never happens for me.

But like. I was definitely struggling a bit with the direction I wanted to take AtF. I wanted there to be a core message, like with Undertale and many other of my favorite things. When there's a core theme to write about, it makes things a lot easier to compose than if you have a plot with no meaning to it. It ties it all together for a common purpose. But, as I started diving more into the fandom around this time, finding not only it being still alive but still enormous and filled with passion.

Passion. Hm. That's familiar. That's the trait I gave the player character, rather than determination. While it was intended for giggles "haha dating game u have passion wink wonk," it started becoming more than that. It started becoming a manifestation of what I really felt upon finally soaking myself into the deep end of this pool I'd once been too afraid to step into. Passion. Everyone here is so driven by their passion for this game, the characters, its story. Everyone is so inspired and creative. That's it. That's what I wanted Act to Flirt to be.

A game made for those who have already dived deep into Undertale. A game made for those who have the same level if passion I've wittnessed. A game that someone might stumble upon, merely wanting any Undertale content they can find, and a dating sim leaves them grasping at straws, only to find it's a game instead deeply rooted in how much they care about this world and its people. You have a Soul of Passion, because your passion for Undertale brought you to this game. That's what the core message is. Every ending is supposed to depict different kinds of empathy, and True Passion shows you truly cared the most you could for all of these characters. Sans is so blocked from it because, well, how can he really believe it? "if we're really friends, you won't come back," right? But here you are. Again and again.

And Heartbreak. Whose heart is really the one breaking here? Taking the Hopes and Dreams of every single character you've grown to care for and crushing it beneath your feet... who is the one suffering in the end?

I just... I'm very excited. I've written that game with the player as the main character. Not Willo. Not Frisk. Not anybody else. You, the player, are the main character. I've honestly done a lot of looking around in the DDLC code to make this game as 4th wall breaking as I can (without like. Disrupting it as a game experience like ddlc is, with monika deleting things and stuff). Just enough to leave the player unsettled and confused. Like. "Me? Are you talking to me?" Yes. You. Directly to you.

I started sketching out designs and ideas for ULR around July. I genuinely loved Underlust after finding out about it, even though it was posed to me as an insult about the contents of Act to Flirt. I was both like "uh... Act to Flirt is nothing like this. Maybe in reversed roles at best but..." and also "okay but this? This shit is good. Thank you." But finding out it was discontinued and wanting more, well, that's when I decided to make ULR. I presented the idea to my friends, who were like "please stop making aus," and then continued onward. I told myself I wasn't going to work on it though until after I finished Act to Flirt... Then after the next demo came out... Then it turned out I was working on it too much and it resulted in me rushing my release of the 3rd demo of AtF because I'd been so distracted I was going to miss my release deadline of the end of August, before school. I... Still kinda regret that a lot. It's still very buggy. Though I hope I got them all for the next demo...

But speaking of school .... ha... Remember when i said i was going to transfer to another school? Well, I did, and for the first few weeks it was fine! Then I started skipping assignments I didn't want to do. Then I started panicking about my low grades. Then I started getting behind on assignments. Then I stopped going to classes. Then I lost all motivation to work on anything at all. I just locked myself in my room and did next to nothing with the occasional drawing here and there, for weeks. It came to the point where I was like "I just have to get through this semester, then I'll drop out." But if I ever wanted to go back to school, having all F's on my last report card would not bode well for my acceptance. Which lead to more stress. I didn't want to fail, but I also didn't have any motivation to work. I would do one assignment here or there, feel good about myself, then realize I was still months behind on work and suddenly oh god oh fuck finals are next week. And my solution? I just. Fuckin dropped out. Oh my god. It was such a relief to just get that weight off my shoulders that I'd been carrying for months on end, preventing me to do anything I wanted to work on.

Well. Then my car tires died. So that's a thing. But good news! Between commissions and gifts, I have enough money to get them replaced! I don't think I've ever like... Been so excited about that before.

And, well. Now I'm here, pretty much. God, I just went through my entire year summary, and it feels like it was both forever long but also not long at all. I don't get it. 2021 still feels like a far off future, despite the fact I'm now 5 hours into it. Yes, I spent 4 hours writing this. Whoops. Oh well. I couldn't sleep anyway, so it's not that big of a deal.

All in all though... Despite being locked inside, away from my friends, unable to talk to anyone about the things i was enjoying, and living in fear of getting sick at all ever with anything, 2020 definitely fuckin changed me for the better. It was a hellhole of a year and I'd never do it again or wish it upon my worst enemy, but I came out a better person... I think. I hope.

It seems cliche to bring back but fuck it. Undertale? My friend insists its core message was that anyone can be a good person if they just try, which I mean, it definitely probably was intended that way. But that never was the message I felt while playing it.

What lesson I took from it was "things aren't always as they seem."

Flowey betrays you immediately, but then you find out he's just the remnants of a boy who died years ago and is still grieving over the loss of his best friend, whomst, despite how much he cares for them, recognizes they weren't good to him and he'd been manipulated and used by them.

Toriel is a kind and caring woman, a still grieving mother over the loss of her children, who seems to have kindness to no end, but is actually filled with such hatred and depression that she regularly gets drunk, swears, and still, without resilience, hates her ex husband.

Sans is a playful character who is full of puns, a gross atmosphere, and decided to break physics just because he can. He's the embodiment of a comic relief character. But at the same time, he's suffering, struggling, in constant pain and worry. He's lazy, but quick on his feet. He's harmless but will kill without hesitation if need be. He's both caring and the least caring of them all.

Papyrus is like... a self-centered asshole in a way, when you first meet him. He prides himself and everything he does. Yet still, he's actually quite open and accepting and loves everyone. He loves talking with and being with other people, even if maybe sometimes he has a different interpretation of social interaction from the "norm."

Undyne comes off as cruel and deadly, such even being emphasized in many points. But, deep down, she's extremely caring for those who are close to her, and her only cruelty is dealt to those who have wronged her in some way.

Alphys is a sweet and nervous wreck who comes off as helpful and lacking a filter due to her tendency to ramble. She seems to be merely anxious due to likely social anxiety... But you eventually find out that she's a liar who merely wants to create a world to be a better place, and by doing so, she pretends all the bads do not exist.

Mettaton comes off as an absolute self-centered asshole. Like. There's no way around that. He seemingly has no regard for other people with only full intentions of helping himself. But, deep down, he actually cares a lot for other people, especially his family and friends, and just tends to get caught up in things while he's in the moment.

Muffet seems to be greedy with how much money she begs people to give her for the spiders, but, as it turns out, she's flat broke and drops no G when you beat or kill her. She merely needs the money to help the spiders.

Asgore, too, is built up to be this ruthless killer throughout the whole game, and when you finally meet him, he's an incredibly sweet guy who's only filled with regret, and because of his past decisions, has decided to put aside his hopes for the sake of his people.

I...

Didn't see any of these characters for who they really were right away. Why would I? Few of these archetypes are explored much in a lot of fiction lately, or at least what I've been consuming; and is more focused around how someone can change their flaws into something positive... Not how to accept someone for who they are, despite the wrongs they may have committed or the lives they lead. Everyone's different. Everyone's grown up differently. Everyone has a reason for what they do.

And it took me playing this game to realize such a simple concept that I probably should have learned years ago.

That's why I really think 2020 changed me for the better. I made a realization that I should have had many years ago, and it's made me a lot more confident in expressing myself, accepting people for what they do, and seeing the brighter side to everything. I say that, sitting here filled with nothing and void of all emotion whatsoever... But it's a conscious thought i have. My emotions are so weird... They're either on full blast or I feel nothing at all. But yet I have... Thoughts of what i should feel? It's weird. Idk. This is why I'm getting therapy LMAO

But yea. 2020? Fuck you. But also thank you. But mostly fuck you and good riddance lmao