#i will admit i cheated a bit to level up my pokemon and get through a hard fight LISTEN. listen.

[spiderdotexe]

I HAVE BEAT POKEMON PLATINUM. its good game. i like it. i might do some postgame. i Started this save in 2020 so its ABOUT TIME I BEAT IT.

and of course my WONDERFUL TEAM i ADORE. BRAVE WARRIORS

I THINK this is in order of when i got them. WRATH is from my lovely friend @boringtrick who RIPPED SPACE AND TIME to give me a LARVITAR. and shoutout to that BIBAREL that i used for HMS and got me through CYRUS youre a REAL WARRIOR

[paragonrobits]

a friend asked me to give a shot at doing an entry in this tier list they linked me to, of the video games inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame since 2015, and I opted to give it a shot!

My rankings are generally biased towards games I personally enjoy playing, though I will give some commentary on their historic relevance:

S-Rank

Super Mario Bros: The game that repopularized video games in the US, that arguably began the entire platforming video game genre and all its imitators and spin-offs, that spawned a new generation of video games after the Atari Crash in the US, and still a DAMN FUN game in its own right! I simply had to put this at the top ranking. After the disillusionment caused by Atari’s failures, this game brought home consoles back in a big way to the US. 

World of Warcraft: Now, I’m not much for MMORPGs. Nevertheless, I’ve followed the lore and general information in the Warcraft setting for years now, and a couple years back, my brother asked me to play it with him. I had a ton of fun, honestly! Playing a goblin mage, I believe. WoW is notable for being THE MMORPG, and still going strong. Admittedly, nowadays many games do what it does better, and the time when it was dominant as THE single game to play is past, but it was still an enjoyable experience and I really have to like how sincere the game is about its aesthetics and campy vibe. Given that the entire setting is reputedly a reskin of a Warhammer Fantasy Battle video game that went south, it’s cheery and colorful, morally gray tone is... an interesting complication in its history. (Also, HORDE. I STAN THE HORDE VERY HARD.)

The Sims: A bit of history; I did not play this game as enthusiastically as a kid as my sister and mom did. We ALL spammed the hell out of the Rosebud cheat, though; not until recent times did I actually wind up playing the game properly, when the most recent iteration of the series was free for a while. My mom didn’t care to play the game, she just liked building houses. In any case, while my attention drifted from the game now and then, I always am fascinated by the actual gameplay of caring for your simulated humans, and the way you don’t actually control them directly. This sort of hands off experience is actually a bit similar to the ‘dungeon simulator’ genre, and while the game is notorious for enabling cruelty (something I never saw the appeal of!), it’s a surprisingly wholesome experience, and it can’t be understated how unique this gameplay was at the time.

Legend of Zelda: It’s actually rather interesting how different OG Zelda is from modern games. Not just the top down perspective (which DOES pop up, now and then); the game is non-linear and allows you to go to any dungeon at any point, completing the game at your leisure, and the story is extremely barebones compared to what we may be used to. It’s quite a far cry from the linear gameplay of gradually collecting tools and working through plots that the games are known for. Breath of the Wild is, in fact, a return to form rather than an upheaval of the formula. I’ll also admit that I have a lot of affection for the gameplay of this one, as well as Link To The Past.

Donkey Kong: When you’re talking old school, as far as what you might call the modern generation of games goes (which is to say, the games that resurged after the Atari Crash), it’s hard to go wrong with Donkey Kong. It’s certainly notable for being a weird stage in Mario’s character and something that is generally ignored; it’s just strange thinking that at one point he was supposed to be abusive towards a pet ape that went in an innocent, well-meaning rampage! Personally this one kind of breaks a mold for my S-class rankings because while I like this one fine, I don’t like it THAT much; i mostly played it in the DK 64 game, and found it very difficult and that’s stuck with me. Still, I place it here for its momentous position in placing Nintendo on the map, with the influence and revolutionary technologies and gaming mechanics they would introduce, to this very day.

Pokemon Red/Blue: Hoo boy. HOO BOY it is honestly something of an oversight that I didn't immediately shove this beauty straight to the front of the S-line because good god I love this game. It's been years and years, long since I was but a whee Johnny playing a strange new game for the first time just because there was a cool turtle creature on the cover (because I was super into turtles back then), and I still love this game. Even with the improvements made to the formula since then (getting rid of HMs, the fixes and new types introduced since) there's still something lovable about this game, even as something as basic as the official artwork that just tugs my heartstrings. This game is highly notable for being an RPG that popularized the monster collecting/befriending gameplay (so far as I know), and as an autistic person, i really appreciate knowing the whole thing grew out of an autistic man's bug collection hobby from when he was a child. Pokemon is an absolute juggernaut of a media influence, and THIS is where it all began. It's first stage evolution, you might say. And not like a Magikarp or anything. This one's more like one of the starters... appropriately enough. Final Fantasy 7: This is probably a bit of a controversial take, but FF7 was not actually one of my favorite Final Fantasy entries back in the day. I never played much more of it than the beginning missions, as my cousin owned the machine in question, and I moved out before i could play it much. Final Fantasy 3 (in the US; it's more generally referred to as 6 now) was my favorite for a long, long time, and that game pioneered many of the traits that would be associated with 7: the epic story, the complex ensemble cast, though 7 really expanded on that basic idea, and previous games were hardly shabby in that regard. 9 is my favorite of the pre-10 era, with its extreme shake ups to the mechanics of the game. No; what makes 7 stand out is that it was a shift towards making Final Fantasy a constantly shifting, unique franchise where every entry was its own thing; it introduced 3D graphics with a fun and cartoony style mixed with a story that wouldn't be out of place in a cyberpunk story, and heralds Squaresoft (as it was called at the time) splitting off from Nintendo, with its censorship policies, and doing its own thing with Sony, with a great deal more freedom to write as they pleased. The party design also stands out, which each character having their own unique function in the party while the Materia concept allows a degree of modular skills to be installed, customizing them in ways that, in my opinion, the best entries in the franchise (on a gameplay level) would revisit. Colossal Cave Adventure: I'll be honest; I never played this game, and I don't believe it's particularly familiar to me at all. However, I chose it for this vaunted spot in S-rank because games of this nature, of text-based prompt and responses, are some of the most interesting things imaginable! Games like AI Dungeon are similar in some respects, and its impressive to think just how dang old this game is, and yet it managed to pull off basically being it's own DM. It has an interesting history; created by a man who worked on the precursor to the Internet, the game was made to connect with his daughter and was inspired by recent entries into Dungeons And Dragons, and later expanded upon by other programmers. It's notable that while Zork is the sort of game that would probably involve more immediate recognition (I actually mistook it for Zork at first, from the screenshot), this game was the first of its kind, and that always deserve some recognition. Minecraft: I absolutely LOVE Minecraft, and it's rightfully one of the most popular games, if not THE most popular game, of the last couple of decades, and it's interesting to think just how unconventional it is; the game is, effectively, a LEGO simulator, and as someone who honestly always wanted tons of LEGO sets as a kid but could never afford them consistently, there's something genuinely very appealing about Minecraft's basic set up. It's open approach and lack of a goal, just gameplay mechanics that encourage you to build and do as you please, makes for a very relaxing and unusual mentality not often seen in games until this point; it doesn't even have a storyline, it simply gives you a world to play around in. Of note, Minecraft's entry seems to have relevance towards video games becoming a cultural touchstone; Minecraft's visual aesthetic leans towards both blocky LEGOs and retro graphics, and certainly proves that games don't need to strive for hyper realistic graphics to be appealing. ----- A RANK Doom: I genuinely like Doom, a lot! I still have memories of replaying this game frequently, long before Doom 2016 and Eternal were glimmers; it's just genuinely very fun to play. That said, I feel that there's other games that are a bit more historically notable and while i like this game, not quite as much as other entries. But it cant be understated that this was THE first person shooter, and more to the point, was fundamental towards game design as we know it. Of note, it pioneered the idea of a game engine, which has had tremendous impact down the road in terms of making a flexible baseline system that latergames were programmed around. Additionally, the first three episodes being free, with the additional ones being purchased as part of the full game, this was, I think, the first demonstration of a demo. Back then, we called this shareware; a game which was free but had full features locked off, but otherwise you could play it however much you wanted. There's a REASON Doom winds up on more systems than Skyrim! Ultimately, while it's not one of my favorite games, it's impact on the business of gaming and the functions of game design cannot be overstated. Pac-Man: This game, is THE game that made video games a phenomenon and its worth thinking about that and how video games as a modern institituion can be drawn, however broadly, from Pac-Man's commercial success. I should note that while I've played this game extensively, it's not something I'm particularly good at; there's a LOT going on here and its a bit much for me to handle. That's probably a strength; there's a reason people had to fake their accomplishments and falsified high scores. It's worth noting that Pac-Man is a unique thing in that it has been rereleased many times over, and every generation has found it enjoyable and fun, unlike other games that set trends only to be lost out in the end. (Goldeneye, for instance!) The Oregon Trail: Like many other people I assume, I first played this game as something available on school computers. Purportedly made as an educational game to teach students about history, this game may be notable for, among other things, being an entry point towards the idea of resource management in video games (as well as being hellishly difficult, by the standards then, but that DOES illustrate a point, does it not?). It's also the oldest, most continuously available game ever made, even now being ported to smartphones, or so I hear! It seems to be a very early example of edutainment games, and a genuinely great one at that. It probably helps that a selling point is that it doesn't really mince around with its subject matter; anyone who's played this game knows that total party kill is the default assumption, as it was in life. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: I place these two together as I feel that they form a duo of sorts, and defined fighting games of my childhood and modern gaming experience; name a fighting game, from Injustice to something as deliberately different as Smash Bros, and it has SOME relation to these games, even if its in terms of doing something completely different. These games set a mold for fighting games! Among other things, both games feature iconic characters as a selling point, and to this day fighting games make their mark based on how signature their characters are. Mortal Kombat is of course an incredibly violent game (though very tame, by modern standards), and its fatalities and depicitons of violence sparked thought and arguments on what video games ought to be allowed to depict, for better or for worse. It's not implausible to suggest that the overly strict restrictions on what video games could depict go back to Mortal Kombat's fatalities, specifically (since there's far worse games predating it, though too graphically primitive to be obvious). Street Fighter, conversely, strikes me as having more characterization and depth, especially as far as fighting systems go; I find it hard to be interested in many fighting games now, if they don't offer as much depth as the likes of Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter stands out for innovating multiplayer play, initially in the arcade, and its not implausible to say that the likes of Smash Bros is a descendant of sorts of the specific mentality Street Fighter brought to the table. Consider also that it is STILL a mainstay in the remaining arcades and cabinets in service today! Tomb Raider: This is a game i legit liked back in the day, and there's some part of me that's sad that the platforming, puzzle solving and focus on exploration has not really made it back into the modern Tomb Raider series, last I checked. There's probably something interesting in that Lara Croft represents a bit of an intermediate period between platforming mascots and modern Edgy Protagonists; you know the ones. Balding white dudes with vague dad vibes, but this is not a slight on Lara; she definitely has a ton of personality, even just at a cover glance. This game had a strong focus on exploration, and that's honestly something I really like. Super Mario Kart: I'm going to be controversial here; complaints about the Blue Shell are kinda overrated. It's not that different from, say, a red shell hitting you from behind when you're close to the finish line. But, jokes and old 90s memes aside, this game has some interesting status in that it started the idea of making spin-off games in dramatically different contexts; Crash Team Racing and Sonic Drift, for example, are listened as similar games. On a franchise level, this began the trend of Mario becoming a truly flexible character who could do pretty much whatever was required of him, not just the original platforming games, and its possible his imitators never quite learned the same lesson. Though one wonders what Miyamoto might have thought if he'd known how many thinkpieces he would spawn with 'why does mario go-karting with Bowser when they're enemies?'. For my part, I favor the idea that the other games are in-universe fictions they're actors on and this is their actual dynamic, or that Mario is a relaxed dude who doesn't mind playing kart games with his foe. (I mean, he's not Ridley. Bowser's easy enough to get along with.) Animal Crossing: Again, I have to emphasize that I've never actually played this game, at least on a consistent basis (and by that, I mean I MIGHT have played it on the Gamecube, once, in the early 2000s), and have to speak from what I've seen of what it sparked. And I really do like the way it really codified the sub-genre of relaxed, open-ended games where the player is free to do as they like, without much stress or fear, which is something I think more games could stand to do. On my personal list of features that my ideal video game would have, Animal Crossing would definitely offer a few ideas. I am reminded of farming simulators, such as Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley; while they are different beasts entirely, there's a familiar sense of non-combat relaxation that's pleasant to see. Spacewar!: This machine is GODDAMN old, and like an old fogey predating modern humans, it deserves our respect. It's so old, it predates Pong. Supposedly created as part of predictative Cold War models, with an emphasis on emulating sci fi dogfights, producing a game that soon proved popular, for over a decade remainign the most popular game on computer systems, and a clumsy foray into arcade gaming (that didn't pan out, unfortunately) led to the creation of Pong by its creator, which is another story all its own! And Pong is directly responsible for the idea of the video game itself; this game launched the entire video game industry as we understand it! No small feat, indeed. ----

B RANKED Sonic The Hedgehog: I must state that I DO like this game, though not as much as later entires like Sonic 3 and Knuckles, or the Sonic Adventure series; the fast paced action seems a bit hobbled by the traps and need to be careful of surroundings, which would seem to run counter towards the whole idea of GOTTA GO FAST, y'know? But the game presents an interesting viewpoint on the nature of mascot gaming; created specifically, so it is said, as a rival to Mario, Sonic was designed as a mascot with attitude, and inspired a host of imitators; he's probably the only one to escape the 90s more or less intact, and this may have something to say about his flexibility, star power, and also the fact that he's a pretty mild character, all things considered. This game certainly has its place in gaming history, giving an important place in the console wars of yesteryear. Believe me, I was a kid in the 90s, Sonic was a HUGE deal. Space Invaders: This game is noted to have catapulted games into prominence by making them household, something outside of arcades, and it shows! An interesting detail of note is that supposedly, the Space Invaders were meant to all move at high speed, but this was either too hard to play against, or too costly on the processor; it was found that by making them speed up as they were defeated, it created an interesting set of challenge. You have to appreciate game history like that. In general, its success prompted Japanese companies to join the market, which would eventually produce what I imagine was a thriving, competitive market that would eventually get us Nintendo and it's own gamechangers down the road. Grant Theft Auto 3: I'm going to be honest with you. I don't much care for this sort of game. The Saints Row series, with its fundamental wackiness, is the kind of game I really DO like if I'm going for something like this, and GTA sort of leaning towards the 'cruel for fun and profit' gameplay is really unappealing for me. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't address this game, and what seems to come up is two things: the game's sheer freedom in its open world (which certainly pushed the bar for games of that nature, and has made it a byword for gamers screwing around in a game just to see what ridiculous things they could or couldn't do) and the infamous reputation from the mature aspects of the game. Personally, I'm not much for this game's take on maturity (if I wanted to discuss a game of that nature, I'd suggest, say, Spec Ops: The Line) but I really do appreciate what this game and its series did for the open world genre, and the sheer possibilities presented for letting you do what you wanted. King's Quest: I've never played this game, but I am a HUGE fan of the point and click genre (also known generally as the adventure game genre) that it spawned; without this game, there's no Monkey Island, no Sam and Max, no The Dig or Full Throttle, or Gabriel Knight. This game was similar to previous text-based games, with a text parser to input commands, but with the distinction of a graphical interface to move their character around, which would be the seed of later games such as the SCUMM engine of Monkey Island and other Lucasarts games (which, to me, ARE Adventure Gaming). The puzzles, comedic sensibilities, and interface innovations originated with this game, and codified those later adventure games i love so much. Starcraft: This is another one those list of 'games I should have already played by now'. I'm not much of an RTS person, barring forays with games such as Impossible Creatures, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, and more strange entries such as Brutal Legend, and I contend that the combat aspects of 4X games like Civilization DO count on some level; the specifics of troop movement and unit strengths/weaknesses are a bit beyond me, when you get to more complex stuff. Starcraft, reading between the lines, really introduced the idea of multiplayer culture especially for RTS, pioneered the Battle(dot)net system (which I mostly recall from Diablo, if I'm being honest!) as well as the idea of relative strengths and powers for individual factions so that they became characters in their own right. It's still a very popular online game, and that says SOMETHING. Also, I tend to use zerg rushes, so I would probably play Zerg. Probably. (There is much speculation on whether or not, like Warcraft being a failed Warhammer Fantasy game, if the same holds true for Starcraft and Warhammer 40k. I lean on the side of 'probably not'; the differences are too notable. The Zerg and Tyranids have some similarties, but that's probably because they're based on the same broad hive mind evil insect aggressor trope, and they have enough differences from there to be very distinct from one another. It's not like how OG Warcraft's orcs were very obviously warhammer orcs with less football hooliganism.) Bejeweled: This is a firm case of a game that I don't play, but I really have to respect its influence on gaming as a whole. Apparently it started as a match three-type game with a simplistic formula that proved wildly popular (perhaps making a point that simpler can be more effective, in game mechanics), with a truly explosive record of downloads; over 500 million, it seems. Thus its fair to say that this game set the precedent for casual games, which have become THE market. Regardless of your feelings on that genre, this one was a real game changer. (Pun intended, absolutely.) ----

C RANK Pong: "By most measures of popular impact, Pong launched the video game industry." This line alone saws it all, I think. It wasn't the first video game, but it was one of the more early ones, and its the one that really made video games and consoles successful, gaining widespread attention from the mainstream audience, as well as getting Atari recognition (for better or for worse, but perhaps that was just a development of being on top, so to speak; maye the console wars at least kept the big three honest). It also started the arcade revolution of games, and this humble game is essentially responsible for the entire state of video games as a concept, as we know it today. Halo: No disrespect to Halo, but it's just a game series I've never quite been able to get into. Those games are very hit and miss for me; games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War and everything like that are just... hard for me to get into. It takes something specific like Borderlands or the Besthesda Fallout series, or something else, for me to get hooked, and Halo just doesn't do it for me! Nevertheless, I would be QUITE remiss if I simply dismissed it, and there's reasons for it to be inducted into the hall of fame barely three years into the hall of fame making inductees. Firstly, it was Microsoft's big entry into the console wars, and it must be said this was a MASSIVE upset and a completely unprecedented shift in the assumptions of the console wars back then; NO ONE expected microsoft to actually do this, let alone redefine gaming out of Sony and Nintendo's favor like that. At the time, PCs dominated FPS games, and Halo showed that consoles could do it just fine. It must also be said that it has a very intricate and complex system of lore, backstory and material that was quite distinctive for a new setting back in the day, and while I've seen people object to it's gameplay, I suspect that its with the benefit of hindsight; Halo offered an extremely unusual degree of freedom in achieving the goals set out for you. (Cortana also didn't deserve getting her name slapped onto that search assistant that eats up all your RAM.) Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego: Surprisignly enough, based on the article, this game was NOT an adaptation, but the source material of this character. This is where the fancy, mystery lady in the red coat started! Evidently this game was originally an edutainment game with a cops and robbers theme, and inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure from higher up on the list, and one must appreciate the effort that went into it. This one is ranked low, mostly because it didn't seem TOO notable to me. Honestly I'm surprised this is where Carmen Sandiego started. (And that she doesn't get enough credit as an iconic theatrical villain who won't go a step too far, but that's another rant.) -

D LIST

Here we are. The D LIST. The bottom of the sorting pile; the lowest of them all, the... well, the ones that I honestly don't necessarily dislike, but couldn't place higher for reasons of notability, personal interest, or perceived impact on the history of gaming. John Madden Football: Sports games, as a whole, really do NOT do it for me. I don't like real like sports at ALL (with, as a kid, a brief interest in boxing and that was just because they had gloves like Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog) so its hard for me to say that I find the history of this one all that compelling. Even so, there's some interesting elements in how this game was a sequel to a previous failed attempt, with a bold new attempt at a more arcade-style action game with a more dramatic take on the players, who would in turn be rated in different skill sets. The Madden series is STILL going so... it worked out pretty well, I'd say. (FUCKIN EA WAS BEHIND THIS ONE??? wow, EA is older than I thought.) Microsoft Flight Simulator: It's honestly a bit painful sorting this one so low, since I had many happy times as a wee Johnny playing this game back in the old days. I mean the OLD, old days. This was like, the days when Usenet was the preferred way for people to talk online. (Not me, though. I didn't talk to people, then. I was even less social than I am now, which is saying something!) All the same, I suppose that it was important to not crowd too many entries in a specific folder, and statistically, something had to keep getting knocked down, and in the end, I couldn't honestly say I still enjoyed this one enough to place it higher. Still, credit must be given where it is due; this game stands out for being an early foray into simulator gaming, showing a realistic depiction of actual flight. It has apparently been updated and rereleased many times since, which is impressive! Tetris: I like puzzles. So it might be surprising to hear this seminal game ranked so low; firstly, I like different KINDS of puzzles (like weird ones where you have to fling your sense of logic to the moon and back, or make use of gaming mechanics) and honestly this game is kind of stressful for me. You gotta keep an eye on a lot of different things flying around all at once, and constantly move things around, and that kind of attention and quick thinking does NOT come easily to me. All the same, I really have to admire how it was born from it's creator's pleasure in solving mathematical puzzles about sorting shapes into boxes, in a manner strangely remniscient of Satoshi's bug collecting that became Pokemon. Certainly the game's simplicity has proven a universally appealing thing, and may say something about the value of keeping it simple. Microsoft Solitaire: This game apparently became pay-to-get some time ago in recent computer generations, and let me tell, you, it was genuinely depressing to find that out. I remember younger decades, from the 90s and on, when this game was a regular and free feature in Windows computers fir MANY years. You got a computer, this game was on here. I was a kid, and i remember watching my mom play this game and makign the cards go WHOOP WHOPP all over the place and marveling, because I couldn't ever do the same thing. (A related note: I am terrible at this game. Go figure!) Of note, this game was massively widespread, and just EVERYWHERE, and I think everyone who ever played a computer back in those days instantly remembers it in some way. It was just... ubiquitous. Centipede: Oh, ol' Centipede. I don't mean to be mean to you. But between the likes of Pokemon and Super Mario Bros, even the arcade Donkey Kong, someone had to keep dropping down the leaderboard that is this tierlist, and unfortunately, there were other games that felt higher up than you. All the same, you're a very good game, and honestly, I like you more than some other games ranked higher for reasons of relevance to gaming history. Certainly more than anything else in D-listing. The colorful and appealing palette is noteworthy. That trackball controller! Amazing! (More games should use trackballs. They're fun and easy to use.) At the very least, Order of the Stick did a joke with you once, and that's better than anything I can do for you. All the same, you're a cool game.

[nighttimepixels]

Is it cheating to ask if the girls have long term plans whether the machine gets fixed or not? Like Serif/Vellum/Amber/Sapphire have an actual community & friends they miss. Blade & Twist are going back over Blade's dust. Glyph & Alpha don't have a home to go back to. What about the Fell sisters?

Not so much cheating as... semi-spoilers. Granted, I have said at some point here that Blade will literally never see her sister sent back to That Place, so there’s certainly that, you are absolutely right - and frankly, over Twist’s dust too, because anybody’d be sorely mistaken to think she’d stand by and let her sister go back there, either. She’s plenty protective, herself ✧( •̀ ▿•)ゞ

Though at the same time... hm. Without outright saying what they think, as that’s definitely part of the fic, I think if you read between the lines of all I’ve revealed about the ladies, you can probably start to guess at least some of their opinions. As for the why and how things develop... well, I think that’s part of the fun of the story >;D

@torrikor bless you and your Excellent Questions >:Dc she’s hardpressed to choose (there’s so many nowadays, after all!!) buuuut if she had to say... she’d probably have Pancham as her partner >:)c She... she really loves bears... and panda bears are so cute... Plus!

Pancham is a fighting type pokemon, with a super mischievous nature - it’s said in a lot of Pokedex entries that it’s not well-suited to inexperienced trainers, but she’s got that on lock. Her Pancham would look up to her like a ‘boss’ in a lil gang X)

Also, from the Pokemon Y entry on Pancham:

It does its level best to glare and pull a scary face, but it can't help grinning if anyone pats its head. 

Aaaand from the Ultra Moon entry:

It's desperate to intimidate its opponents. Be nice and pretend to be scared if you catch it glaring at you intensely.

She... she loves him very much and is totally the ‘big sister’ to this mischievous tough boi who keeps trying to impress her after she immediately won his loyalty with being a total badass XD

Oh, all of them! Naturally, there’s gonna be some exceptions based on... potential fallout in the infinite circumstances this may come about (eg, if you lead them on hardcore and then break their hearts that might not pan out well) but if it’s a pretty obvious situation where the feelings weren’t mutual they’d figure it out.

Some (like Crimson, Pepper, Vellum...) would probably need a bit of space for a while to get over the Feelings, but in the end if you’re that important to them, that won’t change in the long run just bc it was unrequited.

I’ll admit the wording on this has me lost a bit. Do you mean, if a friend was having a Bad DayTM, which of the ladies would be best to turn to to help get through it? Or do you mean... which of the ladies are better able to balance a person who tends to have high emotional runs?

If the former, then Serif, Sapphire, Amber, Scarlet (yes really), Cinnamon, and Twist! If the latter, then Vellum and Pepper (to an extent, there’s a few exceptions eg: if you’re incapable of handling a serious situation, she may not be good to turn to during the serious moment itself). ^^

@uneeded-worries-uwu ohoho, welcome to the club my friend, feel free to jump into the foam block pit of gay, or the pool of wlw, or bask in the hot springs of doki-doki sapphic feelings ;Dc

@aquatickandikitten all of them are extremely into it >:D monsters are so diverse in what they look like, they don’t really bat much of an eyelash to variations like that! They do however, all quite enjoy ‘ornamentation’ as monsters put it (piercings, tattoos, any other such body modification) so as long as you like it they’re super supportive (and then some, depending on the location, winkwinknudgenudge).

@heart8beatx ooo, excellent question!

Good at taking care of sick s/o: Serif, Amber, Cinnamon

Good at taking care of injured s/o (far more actionable in their eyes): Vellum, Sapphire, Crimson, Scarlet, Pepper, Blade

... bedside manner needs work, but they do wanna help, so please have mercy and just let them know what their squishy breakable human needs: Twist, Glyph, Alpha

[lybomb]

​̳𝚖​̳𝚘​̳𝚗​̳𝚜​̳𝚝​̳𝚛​̳𝚘​̳𝚜​̳𝚒​̳𝚝​̳𝚢​̳

𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐱, 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐞��𝐬𝐞,

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬: 𝟐.𝟏𝐤

𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞??? 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫��� 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐲𝐦. 🤤

Vocab

Dick= Onix

Pussy= Cloyster

Cum= Muk

Clit= Diglett

Tit= Jigglypuff

Squirt= Squirtler 

*read the  given Pokemon names backwards for them to make sense. 

You were walking around with your trusty Squirtle, Elohssa. It was a regular day just like any other. You were wanting to better your skills, so you decided to take a little journey to the next town’s gym. You already beat everyone at your gym, so you wanted some new competition. Walking in with Elohssa, you were greeted by someone you knew well.

“‘Sup, Fuckface!” It was Jaehyun, your rival. You two had a long history together. It all started when you moved into town when you were young, becoming next door neighbors to him. You both fell in love with catching Pokemon and battling each other. But it all changed when you both developed feelings for each other. You both were each other's first kiss. So why are you rivals now? You decided to embrace your feelings, wanting to become the cute Pokemon trainer couple, but Jaehyun was scared. He ran away from his feelings, pushing them deep down. He started to hate you, calling you names every time he saw you. Even though it’s been years since he told you he hated you, he still acts this way towards you. But you, you still had those feelings. You deal with names and teasing just to see his beautiful face.

“Hey, Jae,” You huff. You just wanted to be friends once again.

“I told you not to call me that. Only friends call me that, and we’re not friends.” You roll your eyes at him.

“Whatever.” You mumble. You look to see if anyone’s open for battling. Your eyes spot Chenle, the best trainer in the whole town. You get an idea, smiling forming on your face. “Hey,” You call to Jaehyun. He looks at you with a bored face.

“For the last time, I’m not battling you.”

“No, dumb fuck. See Chenle over there?” You point to the blonde boy who has a level 6 Charizard, boasting his last win to the lady trainers, trying to impress them.

“Yeah?”  

“If I beat him, you have to go on a date with me.” You smile. Jaehyun looks to Chenle and back to Elohssa, and laughs.

“You think that little thing can beat him? Ha, fine. If you win, we go on a date.” He rolls his eyes, scoffing at your silly idea. Smugly, you walk over to Chenle.

“Hey, Chenle,”

“Oh, hey!” He dolphin laughs. You both were good sports to each other, which was nice. You both respected each other.

“I was wondering if you could do a battle with me and Elohssa?”

“Yeah, of course! See you later, ladies.” He winks at them, getting no response. You both go to the arena, getting into stance. Jaehyun watched both of you, secretly rooting for you to win. But of course, he’d never say that out loud.

DU DU DU DU DU DU DU DU DU DU {Pokemon battle music}

It was your turn first, since Chenle always let women go first.

“Elohssa, Water Gun!” Elohssa listens to you, squirting a powerful gush of water at Chenle’s Charizard. He tries blocking the attack with Fire Wall but it doesn't work! It brings his health down by a fourth! Jaehyun and Chenle can’t believe it!

“How?!” Jaehyun yells. You smirk at him.

“You don’t have to evolve your Pokemon.” You say, waiting for Chenle.

“Uh, Daehtihs, Fire Breath!” Daehtihs huffs a line of fire at Elohssa but he blocks it with Water Wall! No damage dealt! Chenle is dumbfounded, can’t believe that your tiny Squirtle is this powerful.

“Elohssa, Water Tornado!” Elohssa breaths in a bunch of air and blows it out, creating a spinning vortex of water going straight for Daehtihs. He tries blocking, but fails. It’s a critical hit! Daehtihs is down to 25% health!

“No! This can’t be!” Jaehun yells. “Chenle, do something!”

“O-Okay,” Chenle is sweating. He knows he can’t do anything to defeat Elohssa, but he wants to win so that his friend doesn’t have to endure his worst nightmare-- a date with you.”Daehtihs, Fire Stomp!” This is his best move, the one that always hits, no matter what the defense. Daehtihs breaths in air, blowing it out and stomping the ground at the same time. It shoots fiery balls of ground at Elohssa. But Elohssa just jumps out of the way! Is that even allowed?!

“WHAT?! That can’t be allowed!” Jaehyun screams. But unfortunately for Jaehyun, it is allowed.

“Thanks for playing along, Chenle.” You smile at him, sending a wink to Jaehyun. He looks like his soul has left his body. “Elohssa, Water Attack!” Elohssa jumps in the air, squirting water at Daehtihs. He tries blocking with a Fire Wall, but the water penetrates through. It’s a critical hit! Daehtihs is out cold! Chenle looks to Jaehyun, defeated. You shake Chenle’s hand, thanking him again. He takes Daehtihs to Nurse Joy as you go to Jaehyun.

“You cheated.” He points to you. “I’m not going on this date because you cheated.”

“I didn’t actually. Elohssa is actually a level 26.”

“That’s not even a real level!”

“Yes, it is. Everything is real in this fanfiction.” You make Elohssa go back into his PokeBall.

“This what?”

“Never mind.” You roll your eyes. “Let’s go on this date.” You smile at him. He rolls his eyes as your drag him along by the wrist. You made your way to the nearest ice cream place, PokeCream. You order a Venusaur Vanilla and Jaehyun got a Metapod Mint.  You sit down at the bench, enjoying the warm, summer breeze. Jaehyun is pouting over his ice cream.

“So,” You start. “I have questions.”

“Oh God,” He rolls his eyes. You roll yours back.

“First off,” You take a bite of your ice cream. “Why do you hate me?” You say after swallowing.

“I-I don’t…” Jaehyun trails off.

“You don’t what?”

“I don’t hate you.” His face turns a beet red, looking anywhere but you.

“Then why do you act the way you do towards me?”

“Because it’s easy to hate you than admit that I’m deeply in love with you.” He looks you in the eyes with a straight face.

“Oh…”

“Yeah,” He looks away, flustered. “And now you act like you don’t even like me anymore.”

“I don’t like you?” You scoff. “Why do you think I made that bet? Because I still love you, Jae,” You watch his big, brown eyes look at you, trying to find any hint of lying. But he can’t find any.

“Really?”

“Yes, really, you big idiot.” He smiles a little bit.

“Then can we go somewhere?”

“Like where?”

“I was thinking my place…” He trails off, biting his lip.

“Why?” You smirk back.

“I want to show you all of my pent up love.” You laugh at him.

“Fine,” You smile. He smiles back, a genuine smile. You both finish your ice creams before heading back to his apartment, hand in hand. He opens the door for you, leading you inside. You drop your stuff down and look back to him. “So?”

“So…” He comes close to you. He gently cups your face, looking lovingly into your eyes. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now.”

“Me too,” You giggle. He leans in, soft lips touching yours. It takes you back to your childhood, where you shared your first kiss in the playground. But this time, it’s different. The air in the room changes as the kisses get faster and more needy. His hands go into your shirt, lifting it off your body. His eyes scan you, lapping up every detail.

“So beautiful,” He says as he kisses you. He grabs the back of your thighs, hoisting you up. He walks to his couch, but bumps into the side table with his leg. “Ow, fuck,” He cusses out.

“You okay?” You ask. He throws you onto the couch, climbing over you.

“Yeah, it happens a lot.” You both return to kissing, hands exploring each other’s bodies. Clothes are taken off, thrown somewhere in his apartment.

“Wow, look at your Jigglypuffs.” He breathes out. He grabs your Jigglypuff with one hand, massaging it. He takes the other in his mouth, leaving hickies. You moan out, grabbing his hair. He goes from each Jigglypuff, leaving a lot of red marks wherever his lips fall. You start grinding your hips against his clothed crotch, wanting to feel something else. “Needy, huh?”

“I’m impatient.” You smile. He chuckles at you. He slowly removes his boxers. His hard Onix springs out.

“Fuck, your Onix.” You bite your lip, thirsting over it.

“Thanks, babe.” He chuckles. He rubs his Onix against your wet folds, teasing you.

“Just put it in already.”

“You don’t want it to hurt, do you?”

“What if I do?” He looks at you with a smirk.

“Well, then I’ll make it hurt.” He lines himself up and slides into you. His big Onix stretches out your Cloyster. Just like he said, he makes it hurt by not letting you get adjusted to him. He starts thrusting in you, holding down your wrists against the couch.

“Ah, fuck, Jae,” You moan out as the pain changes to pleasure, his long Onix rocking your body. His hips slam into yours as your body is forced into the couch. You are being senselessly fucked and you love every second of it. You can’t do anything with your hands so you ball them into fists, rocking your hips to meet his.

“Shit,” He swears once you start meeting his hips halfway. You arch your back, eyes closed as moans fall from your mouth. He slams into you, hips hurting but Cloyster feeling so good.

“Ah, don’t stop!” You yell.

“You take me so good.” He moans out between thrusts. Sweat falls from his brow, his concentrated face turning to pleasure as he starts grunting and moaning your name. He buries his face into the crook of your neck, biting and sucking. He slides his hand in between your bodies, finding your Diglett and rubbing it. You moan out his name, feeling yourself coming along.

“Jae, make me Muk! I’m so close. Fuck, I’m gonna Squirtle!” You scream out. He doesn’t let up as he slams even harder into you. Your stomach tightens as your Cloyster closes around his Onix. Your body shakes from the intense pleasure, juices flowing onto his Onix. He doesn’t stop for you as he thrusts a couple of more times before cumming into you. He moans your name as bodily fluids mix together. He pulls out, looking at you. Your body glistening from sweat, red splotches on your skin, a mix of both of your cum spurting from your fucked-out Cloyster.

“That was really good.” He smiles. You smile back until you remember something important.

“I’m not on birth control.” You admit, panic rising in your body. You look at him wide eyed, scared.

“Hey, listen, calm down,” He caresses your cheek. “It’ll be fine. We’ll deal with it once we get there. I won’t leave you, I promise.” He gives you a sweet kiss to seal the deal.

And he actually kept his promise. He was there when you missed your period, being so happy when all the pregnancy tests came back positive. He dealt with your mood swings and cravings, thinking you looked so cute with your baby bump. He would rub your feet when you came home after work, making sure you were always comfortable. He worked extra time so that he could move you into his apartment with him and to get ready for the baby. He proposes to you one night over dinner, promising to never leave your side. He always knew he loved you and he always will. You had a cute little wedding with family and friends at his Pokemon gym, finally becoming the cute trainer couple you always wanted. That night, you went into labor.

“Push!” The doctors yells at you. You push as hard as you can, holding onto Jaehyun’s hand as tight as you can.

“You’re doing great, love. Just a little bit more.” Jaehyun kissed the side of your head. With his support, you were able to give on final push when you’re little baby popped out. The doctors cleaned your baby up and let it rest on your bare chest. You and Jaehyun start crying, staring at the little bundle of joy. Big, brown eyes stare back at you, yellow fur fluffing up.

“Congratulations, you have given birth to a healthy girl Pikachu.” The doctor tells you.

“A girl? You always wanted a girl, Jae.” You turn to Jaehyun with the biggest smile. He wipes the tears from his eyes, so happy his life is now complete.

“We need to name her still.” He reminds you.

“What about Tinmad?” You suggest. Jaehyun smiles and kisses your head.

“Tinmad, perfect.”     

[sfw-rfa-imagines]

Mystic Messenger Pokemon AU!

I’m so glad you guys seem interested in the Pokemon crossover! I’ve been sitting on it since last July and it’ll be nice to write it all down! Since the MC is a self insert, they're the only one without a team ^^

I’ll put it under the cut because it got to be a little long @.@

Saeyoung:

Seven is still a hacker in this AU. He has a special affinity for fire types for some reason, and Chimchar was both a gift from V and his starter. Instead of his father being Prime Minister, he was the champion. His mother used her Ghost and Psychic types to hide him and Saeran away, and his backstory parallels his regular one, with V getting him out and into the agency where he works. However, in this AU he works with Looker and Vanderwood, which makes for some interesting missions.

Along with his main team, he also has a rotom that lives in his cellphone and isn't normally used for battle. He's not above pulling out his secret 7th party member when needed. It may be “cheating” but he doesn’t really care.

Despite Emboar being his strongest Pokemon, he is rarely used bc he prefers to trick his way out of situations, and leave less of a trail back to himself. This is something Chimchar and Gliscor are pros at. All his pokemon are high energy like him except for emboar actually, he prefers to laze about and nap whenever possible.

Yoosung:

Both Shinx and Electrike have been with him since he was really really little! It’s part of the reason why he acts like such a puppy, haha. Electrike was a gift from Rika. He was a puppy from Rikas Maniktrike and, just like Yoosung, adores her. Duckett was also the offspring of Rikas Swanna, and Yoosung had to deliver her himself bc Rika was gone. When she got back, she was impressed and Rika let him keep her. 

That's when Yoosung decided to go to school to become a Nurse Joy! (bc he wants to be a vet in mm i thought it fit). Audino acts like a mom to Yoosung and keeps him on track. Bosley’s most used move is fake tears bc yoosung cries so often. Dewgong he actually caught on a whim. He’s very sweet, good natured, and surprisingly lazy.

Instead of LOLOL, Yoosung loves going to the game corner and gets caught up playing games there for hours.  

Zen:

Zens a contest coordinator and participates in pokemon musicals as well as regular musicals, like My Fair Ledian. Feebas was his starter bc his parents are horrible people and thought "an ugly boy should have an ugly pokemon!" 

Well he showed them!! He gave her all the love in the world and didn't even know she could evolve, but as soon as she did, he ran away with her to do musicals. Soon after, Absol was drawn to him bc Zen has the ability to see into the future (he keeps his ESP from the game, but it’s even more pronounced in this AU). Also his ninetails is shiny. He is basically a mini Zen. They share a spiritual connection, haha. Scizor likes to dance and Glade is a perfect gentlemen. 

All his Pokemon minus Alteria (whos acts nuts bc i thought it'd be funny) are amazingly well behaved but get a little too ruthless in battle (Since Zen was in a street gang when he was a kid in the actual game, I’m gonna say he was in team rocket for a while and his pokemon picked it up from there)

Jaehee:

Mienfoo was her starter pokemon whom she loves dearly. They're both very detail oriented and Mienfoo is very patient as well, as the two of them understand each other very well. Onix she has just because I just love the idea of Jaehee having an onix. Like, people see she has her Cinccino sitting in her shoulder and challenge her for easy cash. Then she just sighs, and has onix crush them bc she is a very busy women with many errands to run, thank you very much. 

Cinccino she has bc she gets stressed if there are messes. Cinccino was actually a gift from Jumin bc he's not as cold as he seems and feels guilty when his pokemon shed all over her house when he leaves them with her~~ Cinccino is very thoughtful and makes sure Jaehees work station and house is clean so she doesn't have to stress out about it. She caught alolan ninetails thinking it was a shiny (like Zens) and she was excited bc Zens her hero (its rly cute, she's still his biggest fan). When she found out it wasn't she was a little disappointed but kicked herself in the butt and took responsibility, and now ninetails is her most doting pokemon. She also is a big fan of Zen’s ninetails lol. 

Sawk she received as a sparring partner for her martial arts (Jaehee can and will murder you). He's very driven and stoic but also very mom like  (funny enough) and has told Jumin off more then once (not that Jumin understands or cares tho). She very recently obtained stufful bc she's been feeling lonely and she heard they were popular with single women. Her only regret is the increase in her weekly food budget.

Jumin:

So Empoleon was his starter pokemon and, like him, is very formal. His name is Sir Rupert Esquire, or just Sir Rupert. The two aren't very touchy feely but that's only bc Jumin has a steel wall up around him and whenever hes feeling extremely vulnerable he tends to stand extremely close to him, and Empoleon gets it.

Serperior is named Ribbons and he caught her when she was a Snivy on a business trip. He's very fond of her and likes to watch her lounge around in his penthouse. Scolipede just seemed right somehow? Idk, it just fit. Staraptor is another of his childhood pokemon. Sometimes Staraptor gets a little ruffled tho bc Jumin doesn't like letting him roam to far. Jumin is a clingy baby, at least with his pokemon bc he feels like no one else was ever there for him fully besides V and Rika, and with Rika’s "death" V has been distant. Jumin’s a mess man, he just doesn't want to admit it. 

V gives him Lilligant as a gift to make him feel better about V being gone so often. Jumin kinda projects onto her alot and tries his hardest to make sure she's safe and well cared for since he cant to the same for V. Lilligant loves him so much it's not even funny though. Jaehee can tell how he's feeling based on whether or not she can smell aroma therapy on him, as Lilligant tend to spam it to try and help when he's upset. 

The pokemon Jumin most dotes on is Elizabeth the 3rd (Persian) tho bc just like with Lilligant, he projects Rika onto her. Elizabeth was a gift from Rika afterall. Jumin feels the most connected with Elizabeth as well because she doesn't respect his boundaries like the rest of his team. She likes to coddle and groom him and all in all is a sweet, spoiled girl who loves her dad very much. Jumin's the son of his regions pokemon mart branch owner, making him super freaking rich.

V:

Okay, so I made V's team really cutise looking but I swear it has good reasoning. Okay, so his starter pokemon was Primarina and they are very close. He takes amazing care of her and she sings to him and gets him to open up a bit when he’s closing everyone out. She is very fond of Zen and mother’s him often bc motherly pokemon are #the best. Also V becomes a musician in one of his endings so I thought it was fitting. 

Solrock helps him with lighting for indoor photos and also on bad days for his depression, it likes to light up his room. Espeon is not only an empath who helps him through emotional stuff, but after he goes blind she helps him around and makes sure he doesnt hurt himself by tripping over things by letting him grab onto her tail. Vivallion he caught in a different pokemon (it’s a sun form but you know the team builder only has the generic art so shrug). V just thought he was pretty and photogenic. Chimecho was his mother's pokemon and after she died he took good care of her. And as for Maractus? V likes cacti and I just couldn't see him w a Cacturne.

Saeran:

Saeran built up his team to counter anything that could be thrown at him. Lucario, as a Riolu, was both his starter and a gift from Rika when she recruited him into Mint Eye. He is her most trusted admin, and can usually take out a threat before it has time to get serious. He’s intense in battle, but is also very doting on his pokemon and can’t stand it when they’re hurt. He also dotes on Rika’s pokemon when they let him. 

Porygon is meant to directly counter Seven’s Rotom, and Vileplume is fitted with multiple different powder moves for any situation. In this AU, Saeran’s mental breakdown in the secret ending is directly pareled by his attempt to use mega evolution with Lucario, who isn’t at a high enough level to keep himself under control while using it. Incineroar was another gift from Rika, and she likes to walk around outside her ball too keep an eye on her trainer. Everyone of his pokemon has cutesy nicknames that he only uses outside of battle.

Rika:

This is Rikas team. In this AU, she runs the Villain team, Mint Eye, like in the actual game. She had a Maneiktrike on her team till it died, which actually is what started her on her quest to catch the lake trio, which is Mint Eyes goal in this AU. She, like in the game, wants to get rid of all sadness in the world by getting rid of bad emotions and memories, as well as taking away will power that you could use to hurt other people. 

And until she can use the lake trio for that, she's using her trusty hypno and musharna to do it in their place. They’re a deadly duo. Swanna is pretty but also brutal so I thought it fit her well enough, plus it gave me a good reason to give Yoosung a duckett, haha. I gave her volcarona because it fit well, and also my own personal love for Volcarona. 

Sunflora is a pokemon that looks soft, but Rika’s has Leech Seed, Toxic, Worry Seed, and Attract. Rikas favorite is worry seed since she finds it easier to manipulate people after inducing an insomnia based paranoia. It helps with conversion. Alolan persian is her spoiled baby boy whom she loves. Imagine Garfield, but also with the alignment of John Arbuckle.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S1 Ep 42: Kaiba's Horrible Tanning Beds

Now that we’re done watching Yugi get completely distracted instead of youknow, resolving this season, now it’s time to see how the resolution of Kaiba’s timeline goes. I’m sure he won’t also get completely distracted.

The moment he said “virtual pod” it was as if the show itself snuck out the back of the room and I had to chase after it like Mokuba just trying to get his brother to fire some assholes (who aren’t in prison for some reason?)

OH OK, SHOW.

I guess we’re doing this now.

Let me just take a second to forget every magical piece of lore I spent the last 42 episodes learning.

We’re going to dive into a computer now.

(read more under the cut)

OH PS it will also totally blind you. Perfectly safe. Ready for mass production. Only uses 900 kWh. No big deal. Fits right into your decor.

Please note that Mokuba grabs everyone except for Bakura, because he’s the only one on this show with a sense of reason.

I would be absolutely fine if Kaiba’s virtual world was just this for the rest of this arc, but alas his world is hyper-realistic in a cartoon sense. The way it works is that instead of dueling, you have Pokemon Go encounters. I knew it was inevitable to go into Pokemon territory, I just didn’t think it would be nearly exactly Pokemon except you murder the monster instead of keeping it.

Kaiba basically just invented Nuzlocke Yugioh.

Kaiba’s downfall is just him trying so hard to get this dragon thing to work out when the rest of the world just...really hates his dragons. He spent his entire life just to make a place where he can duel without the worry of psychic interruption, cheating, and overall dragon poaching and what does he get within 2 seconds of stepping into it?

This series of events where a ninja jumps out of nowhere, traps a huge dragon in a small pot, and then throws a 50 ft fishing net on Seto as he just stands there and lets it happen was so bizarre and it happened in a heartbeat. Man, this show just loves dunking on Kaiba every moment it can.

And in case you thought that was enough punishment for one irascible human being, for some reason, he then gets SUPER electrocuted in real life. NICE.

Mokuba grabs a bunch of Kaiba’s cards and takes off through the nearest exit--a vent. He climbed about 40 ft to get to this vent. It’s impressive.

Also, is that who I think it is?

Oh man I hope Croquet makes it, too.

Anyway, Mokuba runs all the way in the rain and thunder to Yugi’s game shop, where I’m pretty sure Joey is secretly living.

Mokuba explains how his brother is trapped in an MMO of his own design and these kids don’t even question it. They took about 6 or 7 episodes to cope with Yugi having parasitic magic powers but Kaiba getting stuck in a computer seems to be something they were almost expecting to happen sooner or later.

Kaiba Corp should really start paying Seto’s classmates for how willing their are to save their ass. Albiet they didn’t do a perfect job of that--but they did manage to do it by the end. But they should at least give them a free pass to the company cafe (which I assume only serves chicken nuggets in the shapes of dragons).

Yugi is Grandpa’s ONLY Grandson, right? Like the only heir to the entire family? Like the only chance he has to leave a lasting mark on this world? He is so willing to let this kid just run off and die. Of course, I shouldn’t judge. Maybe Yugi’s hella annoying and Grandpa just needs some freakin peace and quiet.

They make it to Seto’s secret lab--which is super huge and not at all a secret and has a 60 ft dragon in front of it--where he has 3 pods. Who are the other pods for? Seto has no friends.

UNLESS he always secretly planned to put his classmates inside? I mean one is exactly Yugi-length.

They argue about who goes in which pods but it’s sort of moot because Mokuba’s hella bossy.

And so they leave everything to Tristan to keep them alive. Tristan who admittedly did defeat Bakura last arc so...not the worst choice? Better than putting Joey at the command center.

Youknow, if you entered a VR world that is unfinished, you’d be spending half your time glitching out and getting stuck in walls. Says a lot that Kaiba was able to get those collision boxes correct.

PS the colorist filled in one of Yugi’s bangs in black. I didn’t even catch that at first but he definitely has a wrong bang here. Imagine with me here--just imagine--what if he didn’t have the blonde streaks? Like what if he had the red tint ~and that was it~

But then again, blonde streaks in your bangs was the 00′s thing to do. We were...super into it. And you draped them all over your face. It was a special time.

Anyways, lets electrocute everyone like this is some sort of Tesla Tower.

Tea, isn’t that kinda hot? Like aren’t you being set on fire right now?

After admiring Yugi’s very peaceful zen state for a little bit, Tea and Tristan realize they have literally nothing else to do now.

Hey, so like...what if you have to pee while you’re in the pod?

Just saying, how long can you really stay in the pod? Why would Kaiba make a pod that you can’t like...get out of and go outside so you can find the restroom in?

Like there’s a bunch of these spooky VR stories running around and it’s something that always gets to me. What if you have to freakin pee? No one ever thinks about that.

PS, literally all of this is being recorded on camera.

Unfortunately, Kaiba’s brain thingy did not pick up that Yugi is two people and Pharaoh did not get his own avatar. He won’t even show up this episode. Probably too busy throwing more legos all over the floor of Yugis brain room.

These guys run into some dueling stuff that I won’t go over in this review and find a zelda fairy. I think. It’s probably a card or something.

It takes them to a city that is in an arid desert despite being about 10 feet from a forest and...whatever type of mountain that’s called.

This arid desert city is within throwing distance from a forest climate.

I think I figured out why there’s 5 more episodes to this season. At least we don’t have 5 more episodes of Rebecca. Instead it’s just these guys grinding levels in a game that doesn't exist about a game that does exist but is never played this way.

sorry about the blur but like...Yugi got in deep with the law while all Tristan did was get attacked by dogs.

Anyways, the desert makes them go back to where they started because, on top of being an MMO, this is also a Metroid Mania.

A chicken. Everyone knows that.

Why would this even kill them!?

Anyways, I’ll not think too hard about the logic behind that, because it’s time for Tristan and Tea to hang out. Two people who barely have a personality on this show. Lets see if they can manage two minutes on screen.

I really don’t know if he was flirting or just that proud of his beard. But if he was flirting, he really shouldn’t compete about who has the most hair when comparing himself to literally any of his other friends who have volume like real life chia pets.

Sorry I just thought of how Yugi would even style a beard and in my mind it was just his normal hair but on his chin. Kinda like:

Anyway, moving on: the mooks have arrived, and they’re making a hell ton of noise for trying to kill these kids.

arm and shin bandages have always kinda bothered me in concept art--although, I admit that I love Zelda and anime stuff and they have arm bandages all the time--but what purpose do they serve!? Has this ever been a thing in all of antiquity?

This is just a lot.

Next time, on Yugioh,

How long will it take them to realize this is Mai--3 episodes, I’m guessing? Will Kaiba be stuck in a literal net on the internet for the next 4 Episodes? Is anyone ever at all going to call the freakin police??

[onisionhurtspeople]

i’m 100% for lainey labeling their gender in whatever way feels right for them, dressing however feels right, and using whatever pronouns feel right. i’m not gonna doubt or question their identity or anyone else’s. what rubs me the wrong way is how they emulate and almost fetishize the “teen” aesthetic. when they’ve said they look like a 12 year old boy and implied that it was attractive/hot/a good thing, i was kinda creeped out. idk how to explain it but i think it sends a really bad message.

Ah, yeah, that’s another thing I’ve been considering writing about for a while: how much Lainey seems to fetishize adolescence. Get ready for another one of my pointless tl;drs that nobody ever reads or cares about, y’all!

If Lainey was removed from the context surrounding the reasons why we all spend so much time scrutinizing her behavior in the first place, I doubt most people would have a problem with the fact that she seems almost pathologically obsessed with portraying herself as a 15-year-old girl in both style and personality, rather than as the 23-year-old wife and mother of two that she is. 

But the issue, of course, is that Lainey’s preferences do not exist in a vacuum; they mean something, and that’s what we’re here to analyze. She is married to a man who fetishizes teenage girls himself, because they’re easier to control and manipulate. She indulges in, and relates to, a culture that heavily emphasizes youth and immaturity (referring to boyfriends as “daddy”, having a DDlg (Daddy Dom/little girl) fetish, being “taken care of” by men (and treated like a little princess in bed), constantly alluding to not knowing what they’re doing in life, assuming a guileless pose in selfies that reflect a certain youthful confusion and spontaneity, constantly referencing their childlike habits (”touch my butt and buy me pizza”, “I have no idea what I’m doing”, “im a crybaby” flavors of meme), dressing like a 12-year-old in overalls, children’s Pokemon panties, and pastel-colored hair and clothing with simplistic, childlike patterns, etc - not that I think there’s anything inherently wrong with any of these things, but all of these pieces of the puzzle fit together to paint the picture of a person who is unhealthily obsessed with living out their life as a teenager. You guys know the ~aesthetic~ that I’m trying to drive at here).

She indulges in cultural trends targeted towards children and young teens. Her entire personality revolves around sensitivity, helplessness, passivity; she exudes anxiety, uncertainty, and confusion; and openly discusses being so sensitive that she becomes completely overwhelmed by even the most simple of tasks that adults are expected to be able to do. And again, I’m not saying that these are inherently negative traits (although obviously when these qualities run your life, it can become problematic); but Lainey seems almost proud of these traits. She’s more than just open about it. She brags about them. She romanticizes them. She constructs elaborate internal fantasies around them. Her entire identity revolves around being a ~smol sensitive anxious space prince daddy~. 

On top of all these things, almost everybody that she hangs out with or considers to be her friend (from Sarah, who lives with her, all the way down to the girls who she interacts with on Discord) is a teenager. She does not speak to women her own age. It’s bizarre. I used to have a friend who was quite a bit younger than me, by three and a half years - the first time we met in real life was on her 16th birthday, and I was 19, almost 20; and despite the fact that we were best friends and that I had so many other friends my own age, there was a very obvious and noticeable difference in our maturity levels. I’m not saying that uneven friendships like this can’t work or are inherently inappropriate, but again, within the context of Lainey’s life, it’s an enormous red flag that she seems to be unable to relate with women her own age, and can only form friendships with teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 21. Even outside of the context of her marriage (because let’s not forget that she’s married to a man who openly admits to having a sexual preference for young women, because they’re at “peak fertility” according to him), the fact that she relates the most with teenage girls is a huge indication that Lainey herself is either a) extremely mature, b) purposely seeks to enter uneven friendships with younger girls because it balances the friendship in her favor, giving her more power and control (which wouldn’t surprise me if true, given that she’s married to Onision - she needs to be able to exercise control in SOME way), c) is emotionally stunted and frozen at the age of ~18 due to Onision’s influence on her psychological development, or d) a sexual predator who herself prefers teenage girls. I’m sure everybody has their own theory on why this is, but personally I think it’s probably a mixture of all four, with option c being the most prominent motivation. 

I think Lainey projects herself onto teenage girls because she feels very much unprepared for this world, threatened by it, and does not trust her own ability to navigate adulthood successfully. In this regard, I think Greg managed to find almost a perfect partner for himself - a girl who is trapped in her adolescence in perpetuity (largely by choice, but partly through direction by Onision), who purposely cuts herself off from growing and learning and emerging as a young adult because it’s less dangerous and challenging for her to remain within her psychological safe zone, being coddled like a baby and completely controlled and taken care of by Greg, who looks after all of the hard things in her life that she struggles with (doing taxes, making money, going outside to get groceries, paying bills, interacting with strangers, making appointments, earning a living wage) - all of the practical, adult things that Lainey is terrified of doing, because it’s so overwhelming to her. Greg, of course, loves this. Lainey is his ideal partner: a woman who needs to be with a man like him, who defines her entire identity for her. A man who directs her, tells her what to do, is domineering and aggressive, and who makes all of her decisions for her. Tells her what to do, who to be, what to feel, how to act. A man who has complete control over every aspect of her life. A narcissist (him) and an inverted narcissist, or codependent (her). 

And so this is why Lainey is so obsessed with portraying herself as a teenager. Teenagers hit that sweet spot in between childhood and adulthood that Lainey feels trapped by in perpetuity. On the one hand, she is not a child - she is a sexual being; she has kinks, and preferences, and desires to express herself and her sexual identity. On the other hand, though, neither is she an adult - she is immature, self-absorbed, has an unstable sense of self, doesn’t know who she is, hypersensitive, anxious, gets overwhelmed easily, indulges often in her learned helplessness, and makes no attempt to change any of this - she revels in her dysfunction; she romanticizes it. And there is no age that typifies this combination of traits better than a teenage girl does. She doesn’t just relate to teenagers; she wants to be a teenager, forever–and in some ways, she really is, because the interference of Greg on Lainey’s emotional, psychological, social, and sexual growth has had a catastrophic impact on her development. She is essentially a 16-year-old girl trapped within the body of a 23-year-old mother of two. And that’s exactly what she wants. 

I think what’s ultimately going to be what destroys Greg and Lainey’s marriage is that eventually, Lainey is going to be too old for Greg, and he’s going to feel compelled to pick up another 17-, 18-, and 19-year-old girl again from his existing pool of die-hard fans. Already it’s quite apparent that Greg is bored of Lainey (as evidenced by the fact that he is still actively trying to find women to cheat on her with, even after what happened with Billie); but once the cost of maintaining her becomes more expensive than the cost of replacing her with a new, hot, young, alternative, impressionable teenage girl, he will do what he tried to do once before with Billie, and eject Lainey in favor of a new wife to manipulate. And the whole process will start all over again, until the day that either Greg dies, or he becomes incapable of drawing in new women. And at that point, sadly, the fact that Lainey is still a teenager - but only on the inside - will end up becoming the most painful struggle of her life, when she is forced to take on all of the adult responsibilities that Greg currently carries for her, and realizes that she is dangerously under-qualified to live her life as an adult woman instead of a pampered, permanent 16-year-old girl. 

(Sadly - or maybe luckily - I think that Lainey is the type of woman who needs to be in a relationship with someone like Greg (an inverted narcissist; in other words, a codependent), so I guess here’s to hoping that when this inevitably happens, she will quickly find herself a new narcissist to date and define her entire identity for her, I suppose?)

Press F to pay respects for this ridiculously, unnecessarily long fucking essay that I just wrote that NOBODY is going to read. Praise the Noodle Lord. Amen. 

[autistickogaynewrites]

Tournament

AdriNath August Day 6 - Rivals

Summary: Adrien discovers that Nathaniel is better than him at every. single. game they try to play together. This of course leads to try to prove himself once and for all, with his very own copy of The Ultimate Chat Noir Trivia Game. Things do not go as planned.

Adrien yelled in frustration, launching the controller he held across the room as he turned to glare at the boy beside him.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” He glared, eyes narrowing further at the slight upward tilt on the other boy’s lips. “Mecha Strike 3, Mario Kart, Guitar Hero, Just Dance, and Pokemon! How are you better than me at literally every game we play?”

Nathaniel set his controller down with a shrug, glancing over at where Adrien’s controller had landed, in one piece thankfully.

“Is there a single game you’re not perfect at?” Adrien yelled, arms spread wide in disbelief as the TV continued to flash ‘Player 2 Wins’.

"Well, I only got 99% of the notes on ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ on expert so Guitar Hero 3 I guess."

Adrien paused, brain short circuiting as he tried to understand if he really had just heard what he thought he had.

“Nathaniel Liberty Prime Kurtzberg, are you kidding me?” Adrien yelled, hands thrown in the air as Nathaniel raised an eyebrow at him.

“That’s not even close to my middle name,” Nathaniel said, before his eyes narrowed and turned fully to the blond, who was now pacing in front of the TV. “And did you really just use the name of the Brotherhood of Steel’s giant robot as a substitute for my middle name? Because really, that guy was next to useless besides disabling the Enclave’s shields.”

“That’s not the point here Nath!” Adrien glared, watching as the boy nonchalantly leaned back against the couch, “And you leave Liberty Prime alone. Without him, Project Purity would’ve been a complete loss, and your father would have died in vain.”

Nathaniel rolled his eyes, reaching forwards to grab one of the croissants off of the plate on the coffee table.

“Honestly, New Vegas was better,” Nathaniel spoke, ignoring the way Adrien’s glare hardened, “but I don’t think this is really where you were wanting the conversation to go.”

Adrien seemed to think for a moment before his eyes were drawn to the flashing TV screen and he remembered.

“How are you so good at all these games? It seriously makes zero sense. I’m the one who’s lived in my room with the games for fifteen years, I should be able to wipe the floor with you.”

Nathaniel smirked, leaning to one side as his eyes lit up with what appeared to be sadistic glee, the sight making Adrien just a little nervous.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, smirk widening. “Jealous?”

Adrien sputtered, hands raised to defend himself as Nathaniel simply watched on, enjoying the sight of his poised model boyfriend tripping all over himself.

“No! No, of course not!” He yelled, hands now on his hips as he leaned forward, “It just doesn’t make any sense! How are you so good at this, and why didn’t you try out for the Mecha Strike 3 Tournament.”

Nathaniel seemed to consider the question for a moment before shrugging, grabbing another croissant as he did so.

“I would say I play a lot at home, but I really don’t. Guess I’m just a natural born expert,” He grinned, watching as Adrien’s seemed to flush with anger.

“Oh yeah?” Adrien smirked, jogging over and up the spiral staircase up to the second level, grabbing something off of one of the higher shelves, and running back down with it behind his back. “I bet even with your natural born expert powers, I bet there’s no way you could beat me at this, especially since this is the pre-release version, so there’s no way you could have played this before.”

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, smirking when Adrien whipped the DVD out.

“Really? The Ultimate Chat Noir Trivia Game? Alright blondie, you’re on.”

~~~

“Alright, how many holes are in the end of Chat Noir’s Tail?” Adrien asked, brow furrowing as he tried to think back and see if he’d ever counted.

Nathaniel hit the buzzer before he could think further, startling him out of his thoughts as the redhead smirked.

“Really? It’s seven, obviously.”

“There’s no way you know that,” Adrien glared, watching as Nathaniel clicked ‘7’ as the answer and got points for the correct answer, “Alright Nath, what the hell. How did you know that?”

"Well, I know how to count so it wasn't that hard to figure out from there."

Adrien���s glare hardened before he turned back to the screen, now even more determined to win.

“I refuse to believe that that was anything more than a lucky guess.”

“Alright, I guess we’ll see on the next question won’t we?”

“I guess we will,” Adrien hissed, turning back to the screen and clicking the button to bring up the next question. “Is Chat Noir’s sclera lighter or darker than his pupils?”

Adrien paused, frustrated when he realized he had never actually looked in a mirror to check exactly how much his appearance changed.

“Lighter. The sclera is like a more lime green color.” Nathaniel answered without a second of hesitation, getting another point for picking correctly.

“Best two out of three.” Adrien defended, sure that soon, he would be the one winning.

“Alright, but when I get this next one right, you’re going to have to admit that I’m the better gamer out of the two of us.”

Adrien scoffed, pulling up the next question without turning to the screen, leaving Nathaniel to read it out loud.

“Does Chat Noir’s tail loop over or under the piece at his waist?”

Adrien paused, turning to the TV and rereading the question to make sure it had actually been asked and he wasn’t just hearing things.

“Are you fucking kidding me.” He said, turning to glare at the wide grin that had overtaken Nathaniel’s features. “You know the answer, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Ready to admit defeat?”

“No way in hell. I refuse to believe anyone knows that answer until proven otherwise.”

Nathaniel just smirked, turning back to the TV and clicking ‘over’, again receiving the points for a correct answer.

“I give up!” Adrien yelled, tossing his controller aside so he could cross his arms over his chest, lip stuck out in a pout. “You’re some kind of supernatural video game wizard and you cheat at everything. I am never playing another video game with you ever again.”

Nathaniel chuckled, setting his controller aside so he could scoot forward into his boyfriend’s lap, setting his head on the blond’s shoulder and grinning when the boy moved his arms to wrap around him.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone you lost. Every. Single. Game.”

Adrien paused, shifting his head so he could look down at the grinning redhead.

“That seems a bit like blackmail material Nathaniel Kurtzberg.”

“Who knows? Maybe it is,” Nathaniel shrugged, closing his eyes as he tilted his head to leave a quick kiss against Adrien’s neck. “But for now, I just want to cuddle. I’ll blackmail you to take me on a super fancy date another time.”

Adrien simply laughed, shifting so they could both be more comfortable, one hand brushing through Nathaniel’s hair as the other rested against the small of his back. Once they were both settled, they drifted off, neither bothering to turn off the TV that continued to flash the proof of Nathaniel’s victory.

[roseandmae]

Dream Daddy a Dad Dating Simulator: Achievements and Endings

Let's just say I have become slightly addicted to this game since it was released and have been playing it multiple times so I can see all the endings. From what I've managed to tell there are seven endings in total including a secret one of Joseph's, which is basically just one for every dad minus Joseph who has two endings. Though the secret ending is easy to miss. And by easy I end you literally cannot unlock the ending without cheating the game by putting in the file for Level 18. As I didn't do this myself nor discover it on my own I will including a link to a video by the YouTuber HoodiePanda who did this ending.

*** Spoiler warning! If you do not want to see what each of the endings are, don't continue reading. But you could probably guess that by the title of this blog post. ***

Achievements

Before we get into the spoilers, let's go over the achievements you can get in this game. There are 19 achievements in total that you can unlock including some that are hidden.

Welcome to the Neighborhood: Automatically unlocks at the end of the opening chapter, right after the barbeque.

Knife Dad: Successfully complete all three of Robert’s dates.

Interview With the Vampire: Successfully complete all three of Damien’s dates.

Keg-Stand Champion: Successfully complete all three of Craig’s dates.

Margarita Zone: Successfully complete all three of Joseph’s dates.

King of Carrot Flowers: Successfully complete all three of Mat’s dates.

Asiago-getter: Successfully complete all three of Hugo’s dates.

Soft Boy: Successfully complete all three of Brian’s dates.

Dreamiest Daddy: Successfully complete all dad dates (21 in total).

World’s Best Dad: Finish a Dream Daddy game and see Amanda off to college to unlock Amanda’s good ending.

Yo Ho Ho Ho: Score 18 holes-in-one while playing Pirate Mini Golf. This mini game unlocks during Brian’s first date. Note you can save the game after the first 9 holes, and reload from the beginning, if you need to.

Catch of the Day: Score a total of 2000 in Match Fishing. This mini game occurs during Brian’s second date. Again, you can reload from the beginning if you need to.

Cannonball: This achievement can be unlocked during Craig’s third date. While jumping off the waterfall, you’ll want to keep jumping. You’ll eventually kill yourself from jumping, thus earning the Cannonball achievement.

Panic at the Disco: During Joseph’s second date, you’re tasked with picking from a series of dance moves. To unlock the Panic at the Disco achievement, you’ll want to choose the unrehearsed backflip move.

Save Ferris: This achievement can be earned during Brian’s third date. Once you’re at the ferris wheel section, you’ll want to choose the option to be an *******, thus prompting you to punch Brian. In doing so, the Save Ferris achievement will unlock.

Let Amanda Say [CENSORED]: This achievement can be unlocked before Robert’s third date. While you’re texting Robert, Amanda will say a curse word. This will give you an option prompt. You’ll want to pick the one that says, “I don’t give a **** anymore.” In doing so, Amanda will say the curse, and the Let Amanda Say [CENSORED] will unlock.

Bad Dad: This achievement can be unlocked right at the beginning of the game. Try to earn this after you’ve already unlocked the Knife Dad achievement for Robert, as pursuing Bad Dad will lock you out of other Robert-based achievements. To earn Bad Dad, head out and watch “the Game” with Robert at the bar. Choices don't matter, all that matters is you say “yes” when he asks you to come inside his place. This will prompt you to sleep with Robert, thus unlocking the Bad Dad achievement.

World's Okayest Dad: To unlock this achievement, you'll need to remain very negative and uncaring towards Amanda throughout your game. Including ignoring her when she's crying and giving heartless answers when she tries to vent her problems.

Escape from Margarita Zone: This is the achievement for Joesph's secret ending that cannot be achieved legitimately at this time. As it's possibly for a Halloween release or edition that they are planning in the future.

All Endings

Each ending can be unlocked with three successful dates with each of the dads, minus the secret one's of Joseph's as mentioned previously. But completing the third date ends the game, so before committing to a dad make sure to check out all the other dad's as you will really get to flush out Amanda's side plot/character. Then just reload your game each time to get each of the endings.

Now I'm not going to go into how to get successful dates with each of the dads as though I am giving away spoilers of the endings. I'm not going to ruin the entire game, so if you wanted to play the game yourself you should have the fun of exploring that aspect yourself. Each ending of the game comes with a special photograph when the credits finish rolling.

Craig Ending

The first date is you go to a softball game for his twins then go out for some pizza where Craig is hit on by some of the mom's on the team. Then on the second date you go jogging with River and Craig, where River ends up losing her favorite toy. After hours of searching you'll find out that Joseph's creepy twins were destroying the stuffed animal in the woods. And on the third date, you two end up going on a camping trip where you have no cell reception, skinny dip in a lake complete with jumping off cliffs, and share a sleeping bag together in the tent. Craig's dates do not include mini-games like some of the other dads' dates. On dates where River is present, she will make facial expressions about your flirting while Craig basically doesn't notice your advances at all.

Robert Ending

You need to make sure you do not sleep with Robert on the 1st day of the game either by refusing his offer to go into his house or taking his offer to end the evening before it gets any further. As it turns out from his daughter Val, that Robert has become a better father since he met your character and is no longer neglectful. There is also a touching moment between Val and Amanda, where Val agrees to help Amanda out with her photography internship. Robert gets emotional and opens up about his self-destructive tendencies and for your character setting him straight. However, Robert will tell you that he is not ready for a relationship as he needs to sort some things out.

Mat Ending

Ah the avid music enthusiast and passionate coffee drinker. On the first dates you end up at a small venue where you two enjoy a concert. You then have to dance around in a mini game called "Find That Dad" where you have to get through the crowd in order to find Mat amongst the crowd. The second date you go looking at records and talking about what type of milkshake you would be. Then you finish the night back at his place smoking on his couch. And on his third date, your character will volunteer filling in the last act at the coffee shop during their Open Mic event. In which your character will think to themselves, "Your unending thirst will be your ultimate downfall." This will lead to a mini game where you play the piano. Afterwards, you two will begin a relationship by sealing it with a kiss. And Mat states that he's going to get back into music/touring.

Hugo Ending

Oh Amanda's teacher, the book loving yet stern dad that you can date in the game. Which you would think would weird out Amanda but she's actually totally fine with it. The first date you go to an aquarium where Hugo is chaperoning middle schoolers and you play a mini game in which you have to keep pengiuns away from a middle schooler. The second date is at a nice restaurant where you play trivia. And on the final date you go to the stadium to watch some wrestling which Hugo is an massive fan of since he has a lot of figurines displayed in his house. At the end of the wrestling match, you run into a wrestler that Hugo is a huge fan of. Then Hugo takes you back to his place where he shows you he's really good at wrestling himself. And decides in the end with your help that he doesn't need to hide his love of wrestling.

Damien Ending

The romantic, vampire, gentlemen dad. During the beginning of your first date Damien types out a long message as he calls a letter. Then on the date you get to see the inside of his house and a tour of the garden, which ends with going to the school to pick up his son who got in trouble. So for the second, you actually write him a letter complete with a wax seal from Amanda. After wards, you go see a movie together in which that Damien admits that he is afraid of horror movies. And on the third date you can give him a speech to lift his spirits, that results in your character talking about sticking ten raisins up his nose. As well as Damien accepting both the modern world and his Victorian interests. Also not that it pretends to Damien other than he is a vet tech, Hugo and his son Ernest adopt a dog that broke into their house. Which is both hilarious and cute.

Joseph Ending

As mentioned previously, there are two endings for Joseph. The regular ending if you mentioned to get an S rank and the secret cult ending. See the YouTube video at the beginning of this post if you want to see the cult ending. Basically in which Joseph admits that he murdered all the mothers in the neighborhood which is why all the eligible and willing Dads live in one play. For this ending, Robert does warn you quite a bit about Joseph. And I'm not surprised by this secret ending considering how creepy his children are and that he's voiced by Arin Hanson from Game Grumps. As for the good ending if you want to call it that, it calls you out for going after a married man. Mary confronts you about going after her husband during Amanda's graduation. Later Joseph ends things saying that you made him realize that he still loves his wife. But you will always have Margarita Zone.

Brian Ending

Brian's levels are filled with mini-games from the Pokemon style game you get when you first meet him in the park with his corgi Maxwell and daughter named Daisy.  To on the first date with Brian, also a play date for Amanda and Daisy, in which you go putt putt golfing. Including where in an attempt to one-up each other, you need to get a hole-in-one on every hole. So here's where the mini game comes into play and you need to get them yourself. Have fun trying to line up each hole-in-one so you don't have to mow his lawn and buy drinks after the game of putt-putt concludes. The second date is fishing with the girls and Brian complete with a fishing mini game, and the third includes a goldfish and fishing mini game at a carnival. But you can die on the ferris wheel, or end up kissing him at the fireworks.

Which Daddy would you end your game with if you could only choose one? I would go with Craig myself.

[foolsiwillshowthemall]

Finished my Pokemon Sun run!  My Champion Team was:

Cinder the Incineroar, Male, Level 63 My starter, of course.  Less used towards the end of my run, but still useful when I need dark or fire type attacks.  I admit I wasn’t fond of the character design of the final evolution, the change from cute kitty to a big cat-themed wrestler dude is kind of jarring.  Petting him in Pokemon Refresh just feels wierd.  On the other hand, his Z-move Malicious Moonsault is hilarious, even if I didn't use it much it always brought a smile to my face when I did.

Mind Spike the Alolan Raichu, Male, Level 62 This little guy was one I had picked out as a must-have for my team even before I started playing.  I'm not normally a fan of Raichu, and even less of Pikachu, but the overall look and the strong type combination was one I wanted on my team.  I do tend to pick Psychic and Electric types as my favorites, so of course I'm going to grab the first and only Psychic/Electric Pokemon in the game.  I looked up where Pichu spawns, ground for encounters in the right patch of grass till I caught one, then went through the required steps - max happiness, finding the right Evolution Stone - to get my Raichu.  He's got some really strong attacks, especially if I use a Nasty Plot first to boost them.  Sadly, he's a bit frail for the later stages of the game, not really strong enough to take a few good hits while powering himself up.  I had to Revive him repeatedly going through the Elite Four.

Bouncee the Tsareena, Female, Level 69 This thing is a monster.  I'm usually not one to focus much attention on grass-types, but she's one of the strongest Pokemon I've ever used.  Got her through an in-game trade from a NPC, and even when not in her final evolution stage she solo'd the entire water trial.  I actually had to stop using her for a while in the mid-game as she leveled up to the point where she stopped obeying my orders.  Got control of her back for the end-game, and it really helped. There's not much of the usual fancy plant moves here, no sleep or drain moves, just Trop Kick and Magical Leaf one-shotting anything susceptible to grass moves.

Molasses the Mudsdale, Female, Level 64 This giant muddy horse is a freaking tank.  Huge pile of hit points with great defenses.  Some really strong moves too, Earthquake that can hit every enemy in a multi-Pokemon battle, steel and fighting moves too, and with the Z-move All-Out Pummeling it can one-shot a freaking Snorlax.  Most reliable and durable Pokemon on my team, she was my go-to when I was fighting something that I didn't know how to beat, or when I needed someone to wall the opponent while I threw healing potions at the rest of the team for a few turns.

Matriarch the Salazzle, Female, level 44. A late addition to my team.  I was lucky enough to catch a female Salandit early on, but threw her in the box and didn't use her for much of the game.  Late in the game I decided I needed a dedicated Poisoner, so I puller her out and set about leveling her up.  Didn't have the patience to get her to the level of everyone else, but even 20 levels below the rest of the team she's strong enough to last a few turns, poison the opponent and then let me swap out for someone stronger, granting me that extra advantage from severe poison effects.  If I had actually leveled her up all the way, she's be one of the strongest on my team.

Nebby the Solgaleo, level 60 On my team mostly for plot reasons.  I promised Lilly I'd bring it along on my quest to become the champion.  I didn't use it much, mostly pulling it out as an emergency mon in tough fights.  It does have legendary stats, of course, but atually using it in a fight felt a little bit like cheating.  It also didn't bring much unique in terms of type coverage, since I have Steel and Psychic moves elsewhere in the team.

Honorable mentions - Pokemon I didn't have on my final team, but that I did spend some time with during the game:

Sundog the Midday-form Lycanroc, Female, Level 57 My poor little puppy.  I caught him early on, gave him treats and pets, leveled him up to his Lycanroc form, and then mostly forgot he was on my team.  It's not that Lycanroc is a bad Pokemon, but I just found too few situations where his specific moveset would contribute.  Eventually decided to swap him out for someone more useful.

Pointy Bird the Toucannon, Male, Level 58 One of the first pokemon I caught, this thing was incredibly strong for most of the game.  Amazing flying-type attacks.  Unfortunately, it signature move Beak Blast is one of those moves that requires it to charge for a turn, giving the enemy a free hit, and it just doesn't have the bulk too take many hits.

Magnificent the Kommo-o, Female, Level 46 Caught very late in the game, one of the last areas where you can catch Pokemon before the Victory Road equivalent in this game.  I dropped everything to level her up and get her to her final evolution.  Then, just before heading to the Final Four, I took a hard look at my team composition and realized that a Dragon-type just wasn't adding anything to my team in terms of type coverage.  Wondeful Pokemon, just didn't have a place on my team for her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this.  Pokemon Sun was the first non-free main line Pokemon game I'd played legitimately.  I had previouly played games from the first three Pokemon generations on emulators, and I still play Pokemon Go occasionally but that hardly counts.  The jump from the early 8-bit 2D sprite games to the fully 3D graphics of the latest generation is huge, of course, but it's the same basic gameplay underneath.

I really liked all the little things they did to improve quality of life and just make things more convienent for the player.  Getting rid of move slaves with the Ride Pokemon feature, the ability to send captured pokemon either to my party or the computer as I wish, making all items available in all marts with the better items being globally unlocked as you level up, instead of having the better items available only in the later shops.  Lots of little things.  The only thing I really have to complain about are the excessive number of tutorials and cutscenes, especially at the start of the game.  Kind of makes me wish there was an option where I could tell it "I've already played a Pokemon game, no need to show me all this, thanks", but the story cutscenes were ok.

Still lots left to do - there's a ton of post-game content to do, lots of side quests still waiting and Zygarde cores to hunt down.  I don't think I'll bother getting into the online battling scene however - that's a level of committment and time investment I just don't have these days.

[sorayahigashikata]

Table of Contents

[symbianosgames]

What does it feel like to receive an award honoring a lifetime of achievement...before you're 50?

"I feel like maybe I'm an old fogey and should be shopping for a cane!" Epic chief Tim Sweeney tells Gamasutra, with a laugh.

This week he's being presented with the Lifetime Achievement award during the Game Developers Choice Awards at GDC, and he says it sounds like the "kind of thing you get when you're about to die."

"But I guess the game business, it's not an old enough industry to have octogenarians yet. So it's a real honor," Sweeney says. "It's cool to see that....you know, the story of Epic is just a bunch of smart, hardworking people starting a company together and learning as we went. And just making some cool things. There weren't investment bankers driving it, or people in suits. It was all completely organic."

Epic is probably best known among game developers these days for its Unreal Engine business, and with good reason: the company is at GDC this week to talk up what's new with Unreal Engine 4, and to showcase a new way the engine is being used to overlay computer graphics on camera footage of the real world in real-time.

But with a constant focus on what's coming next, it can be easy to forget that the Epic devs know now has gone through several significant changes in its 20+ year journey from shareware distributor to game engine heavyweight.

  "I would project that in six years or so, almost all of our designers will spend almost all of their time immersed in the VR editing environment."

"It's been a really interesting process. I started the company, built our first couple of games, then I stepped back for a while," Sweeney recalls. "I thought I'd never be a competitive programmer again, but got back into it to ship Unreal. I had to build the engine for it, which sort of set the stage for everything we're doing now. I've constantly kept in touch with programming, doing at least research and projects and...."

At this point Epic CTO Kim Libreri, who is seated nearby, jumps in. "On one of his windows earlier was some code!"

"Yeah," admits Sweeney. "I feel it's really important to keep up to date with all the latest trends in the industry. It's funny, I was never really a serious gamer -- I just played enough of these different games to understand what they did, reverse-engineer their techniques, and learn from them. It's been a great process, and we've brought in a vast number of people who are better than me in all their individual areas."

This is something Sweeney has talked about in the past -- his efforts to pull back from the game development work at Epic by hiring people who are more effective designers or programmers or producers. Looking back, he says that strategy has mostly been effective, but that there are still some things that he feels only he can do.

Slaying sacred cows

"You find there really are some things that only a founder of a company can do. Sacred cows that need to be addressed," says Sweeney. "You know, what is Epic really about and what is it we do. How do we make the tradeoffs between running a business that works and bringing in the revenue to pay the bills, while still being incredibly respectful of our customers' rights and their privacy and everything else. And being an industry advocate when it's necessary. It's cool."

Pressed for an example, Sweeney points to Epic's (relatively) recent decision to cut UnrealScript out of its engine and make Unreal Engine 4 strictly a C++ affair.

"One of the key moments in Unreal Engine 4's development was, we had a series of debates about UnrealScript -- the scripting language I'd built that we'd carried through three generations. And what we needed to do to make it competitive in the future," says Sweeney. "And we kept going through bigger and bigger feature lists of what we needed to do to upgrade it, and who could possibly do the work, and it was getting really, really unwieldy. And there was this massive meeting to try and sort it out, and try to cut things and decide what to keep, and plan and...there was this point where I looked at that and said 'you know, everything you're proposing to add to UnrealScript is already in C++. Why don't we just kill UnrealScript and move to pure C++? You know, maximum performance and maximum debuggability. It gives us all these advantages.'"

"And everybody's like 'oh, yeah. I guess...that could happen,'" Sweeney continued. "There are some things that people just don't want to think about, because it's too radical a change. Or opening the engine up to open-source! Giving out all our source code. We decided that we wanted to do that in 2004! And it took us literally ten years to strip out all the closed-source components we used, and remove all the legacy components that prevented that from happening. And over the course of that ten years we did all that, and in 2014 we unveiled it and people were like 'oh wow, that's really smart. When did you decide to do that?' And I was like....oh my god, you have no idea."

Now, Epic is restructuring its games division to focus more on nimble, "live" design (think: multiple betas with lots of community feedback) even as it continues to try and push the Unreal Engine into arenas beyond game design. Both are potentially of interest to UE4 devs, because the former describes how Epic's philosophy of game design is evolving (which in turn influences the evolution of UE) while the latter is a force for improving the engine's capabilities.

The next big step for Unreal Engine: Digital creations composited into real-world footage in real time

As an example, Epic this week brought a tech demonstration of UE4's real-time rendering capabilities that it produced in conjunction with creative firm The Mill and car company Chevrolet. It's a short film called "The Human Race" which showcases a car-like AR tracking vehicle (dubbed the "Mill Blackbird") being filmed driving in real time on a mountain road, then overlaid with Unreal Engine 4 renderings of (in turn) a Chevy Camaro and a Chevy concept car in real time to produce a mixed-reality car commercial.

  "As game developers, if we can't render a particular type of object well, we just put something else there instead, right. We can cheat. But these other industries cannot cheat. We have to solve all of the hard problems."

At first blush this short film might not be as immediately enticing to game developers as the VR editor Epic debuted during GDC last year, but if you pick apart how the tech demo works it suggests some intriguing potential for future augmented-reality game design. 

While computer-animated simulacrums of cars, scenes and characters have been common in film for decades, they're usually done in post-production. In Epic's tech demo, however, a machine running UE4 was fed live video feeds and positional data from the Blackbird's Arraiy tracking system; the engine was then used to render the virtual cars and integrate them directly into the shot in real-time, creating what Sweeney calls "final pixels" as the video is being produced.

"It's just become possible, this capability of rendering final-quality pixels in real-time, with a photo-realistic level of quality," says Sweeney. "Offline photo-real rendering has always been possible; its been done for more than 20 years now, in movies. And a lot of people have been using game engines for prototyping and preproduction in films and all these other uses where they rough something out in-engine, then recreate it in professional tools outside the engine. But now we're seeing it finally come together with Unreal producing final-quality photo-realistic pixels in real-time." 

He and Libreri went on to note they only recently learned that Lucasfilm experimented with using Unreal Engine 4 to produce real-time graphics effects in its 2016 Star Wars film Rogue One, and actually kept a few shots in the film -- specifically, in a sequence where the leads are moving through an Imperial base in disguise alongside robot companion K2SO.

"So final pixels rendered in the Star Wars movie, using the Unreal Engine, in real time. And it went into the movie! These are pixels you see in the movie! It's unbelievable," says Sweeney. "These real-world usage cases have pushed us much harder than before. Because as game developers, if we can't render a particular type of object well, we just put something else there instead, right. We can cheat. But these other industries cannot cheat. We have to solve all of the hard problems."

Footage of the Blackbird tracking vehicle, studded with sensors and trackers

Sweeney and Libreri that this work is in turn beneficial to game devs using UE4 because it opens up what they can do with the engine, potentially making it easier to build games that can capture video footage (from say, a smartphone camera) and overlay it with realistic computer-generated graphics in real time. 

"The actual component pieces of this demo, in terms of this technology, we'll be releasing between now and next GDC, so anybody will be able to do stuff like this with the off-the-shelf version of the engine," says Libreri. "Of course we have to clean up after ourselves a little bit; these demos are pretty hectic to put together. Some features will be available sooner, but we'll get it all there by the end of the year."

Rendered Chevy models overlaid on the Blackbird tracking vehicle in real time

And of course if we're talking about using UE4 to create augmented-reality games, we have to talk about the phenomenon that was Pokemon Go. Sweeney acknowledges it was "an awesome first game," but says its developers sidestepped lot of problems by using stylized graphics. It's a canny design choice, but one that Sweeney thinks is ultimately the wrong one.

"The worst problem with AR is making virtual objects fit into real-world scenes with proper lighting, shadows, camera effects, and all these other things," he says. "That's going to be an absolutely essential ingredient in these AR experiences, especially as you get towards the high end. And when you get to the point where there are competing AR games and some have cartoony graphics overlaid on your view of the real world and some have photoreal graphics that look like a complete, unified scene, those games with the beautiful graphics are going to win."

A live on-stage demo of the Blackbird during Epic's GDC 2017 presentation

Okay, but real talk -- how realistic is it for contemporary game devs to expect to be able to do photo-realistic graphics in a mobile AR game, in real time? Libreri hedges, but Sweeney stands firm: it's possible.

"To a limited fashion," says Libreri. You're still limited to what the GPUs can do on the mobile devices."

"Photo-real is possible on mobile devices now, you can do it," responds Sweeney, who has a habit of highlighting Korean mobile games like Blade II as an example of high-quality UE4-powered mobile graphics.

"Yeah, but image-based lighting of that caliber with 20 million polygon cars? You're not going to be doing that for a while," says Libreri. "But! there are hybrid models of these, as well. [...] I think we're going to see all sorts of hybrid graphics happening over the next few years as people sort of explore the potential."

Despite fresh focus on AR, Epic expects high-end VR to continue pulling the market forward for years to come

But while Sweeney is passionate about mobile AR and VR, he's confident that high-end PC VR headsets are going to be driving innovation in the market -- on both the design and technology fronts -- for years to come. 

"Almost all of the user time, and all of the user money, is being spent on PC VR and PSVR," Sweeney says. "So I think that's the area where developers should focus for now. Just because it's an early adopter market, people have high expectations of visual fidelity, and patience for imperfection. And it's better to reach a highly focused audience with these early apps than to reach everybody, and have general lack of pickup. Most people who have used mobile VR devices have used them a few times and never come back, and never spent a penny in them."

Sweeney estimates there are roughly 2 million PSVR or PC VR headsets in the market right now, and he says that's fine -- it's an acceptable market for Epic's current VR game projects, and one he sees as being more comparable to the dawn of personal computing than the arrival of smartphones.

"If you look back to the first year of the personal computer, Apple sold a grand total of 23,000 Apple IIs," says Sweeney, noting that VR is basically creating its own new market rather than usurping an old one the way smartphones did. "And that was the start of it! Look at it now."

As VR tech advances and becomes more commonplace, Sweeney says Epic staffers are becoming more comfortable using it in their day-to-day work. 

"We've been adopting the VR toolset more and more; you find VR headsets all over our offices," he says. Different people are using it in different amounts: Sweeney says Unreal Engine 4's VR editor is getting a bunch of use when it comes time to edit or tweak scenes, but that "it's not yet a tool that people are using from scratch to build their environments."

A live demonstration of the Unreal Engine 4 VR editor at GDC this week

This is due to a handful of limitations, some of which are personal hurdles and some of which are technological ones that Sweeney believes will be eliminated as VR tech improves.

"One thing is that the resolutions of the screen are very low, especially on an angular pixel density metric. So, text tends to be hard to read unless it's really big," admits Sweeney. "So a lot of the professional-level tools like the Unreal Editor are not yet at a level of perfection that you would want for a lot of your large-scale CAD use. One more generation of hardware, and we'll have 4K divided by two eyes and suddenly it will become much more widely adopted and we'll spend even more of our time in it."

"I would project that in six years or so, almost all of our designers will spend almost all of their time immersed in the VR editing environment," Sweeney continues. "That will rely on the evolution of maybe two more generations of headsets, improving the pixel quality and the tracking. Two more generations of controllers getting even more fine and precise motion controls, and even more tweaks to the software. But I feel like over the next decade, every piece of existing CAD software in the market will be completely reenvisioned around VR, and suddenly we'll have a much more approachable 3D content industry where anyone can go in and start building stuff."

  "Everybody who has the opportunity, when we are that fortunate with our lives, should participate in something they really believe in."

Of course, in some ways this vision of the future makes game development work a lot less approachable -- at least until we figure out how to get the attention of someone who's immersed in a VR headset without making them jump. But even as he forecasts a future where game devs work with their heads in a box, Sweeney speaks passionately about the value of being outdoors and exploring the natural world.

He recently picked up a bit of press attention for paying $15 million to earmark 7,000 acres of North Carolina as a "conservation easement", effectively preventing it from being developed or interfered with. But Sweeney has a long history of land conservation, something he is only recently beginning to talk about openly in the press.

"It was just personally important to me," Sweeney says, by way of explanation. "I grew up in this funny town outside of Washington D.C. called Potomac, Maryland. It was just a backwater farm area when I grew up there. And over the course of my lifetime I saw all of my old stomping grounds, you know, these beautiful forests and gold mines I used to explore, they were completely paved over to build mansions for congressmen and their lobbyists as Washington expanded. That sucked."

This is part of the reason Epic moved to North Carolina in 1998 -- to get away from the crowding and rising cost of living in that area. "We thought 'oh, phew, we got away from it,'" recalls Sweeney. "But you know, then you started to see the same thing happening. So I really felt that, when I had the financial ability to do so, that I really wanted to help set some land aside that could be saved from future development. And remain in its natural state. I love being out in the woods and hiking. So, I do that when I have the chance."

"I think that everybody who has the opportunity, when we are that fortunate with our lives, should participate in something they really believe in, and understand, and know about personally," Sweeney continues. "For me, that was land conservation. There are lots of great causes in the world that people can get involved in; that's just one of them. But you know, I think if you have the ability to do something then you should do it."