#i will never get over the protagonist bond with death

[eurylic]

finishing reload, restarting a new game, and then watching the last movie of persona 3 on youtube. i hate myself

[moonlightpeddler]

Hiatus

The game is on indefinite hiatus.

Demo

[Current word count without code: 11465 with two branches]

Life is unpredictable.

You have just been to your first party, with hope for a different, better, and more social future, but instead of waking up with a hangover, you wake up 13 months of coma later, severely ill and with no chance to build the life you wanted to live.

Confined at home, confined to the night by your medication, deprived of outside contact to keep stress away from you, and with food that tastes like iron, all you have is your loving family and the small village they have moved to during your long sleep.

The house is old, dilapidated, the neighbours unfriendly and distant, looking at you with strange eyes, whispering whenever you see them, treating you like your illness is contagious.

But why has your family never taken you to the hospital for a checkup? Since when do hospital doctors make frequent home visits, and only when their patient isn’t conscious?

What would happen if you open the curtains they tell you to keep closed?

The game is intended for a mature audience.

Blood

Violence

Self-harm (for a reason)

Murder

Assault

Brainwashing

Dysfunctional relationships

Co-dependency

Death

And many more.

Depending on the route you take, Cailean, your character, can not be said to be an innocent or good person, please make sure that you are okay with playing a non-human MC who might act accordingly.

Mending Yesterday pairs folk believes, old elements, and lore from different media, with Vampyr lifestyle to create a modern portrayal of vampires that retains the classic feel yet gives it a more down-to-earth presentation.

You take the place of an established character and turn the tale into your very own, form the adventure and how the protagonist faces his new reality.

Will you change Cailean’s behaviour over the course of the story, develop a new personality for your new life, or will you cling to your old self despite the consequences it could have?

Will you keep to yourself and your loved ones, build something new to spend your long life, or get involved in a struggle that isn’t yours? How will others see you, who are your friends and foes? Do you stick to those who are seemingly safe, or will you place your own judgement?

The game doesn’t give you an overpowered protagonist, you aren’t the chosen one, won’t save the world or change it in any meaningful way.

You are just a 19-year-old young man being in the wrong place at the wrong time, all you can do is live your own life that, in the grand scheme of eternity, is nothing but a fleeting picture.

Taking place in a fictional village in Ireland, the game takes a step away from the Urban-Vampire trope and focuses on dynamics commonly found in, very, rural places.

While I have abstained from using phonetics to make it easier for people not familiar with the country, selected sayings and use of words have been kept to preserve the feeling.

Mending Yesterday is most and foremost a horror-drama, character-driven and story-heavy, not a dating game. The only romantic candidate (male) is a central character and the relationship with him greatly influences the plot instead of being flavour or a sidenote; you can stay distant, friendly, close or even loving, all four options significantly shape your personal story.

Being a family-person, you will have to keep an eye on your parents and brother, how you react to the changes in your life, respond to situations, and how you treat them has a direct impact on how your adventure will go.

A character and relationship focused narrative requires you to think twice about how you interact with others, pay attention not only to yourself but those you meet, decide wisely about how to treat them and with whom you want to be close with.

There are relationship-stats you can and should check regularly, for they keep track not only of your bonds but could give you valuable information, yet they won’t ever tell you clearly what they mean.

Just like in real life, people aren’t open books.

Every choice you have to make is meaningful, it either changes or determines something important; you won’t be continuously prompted to make decisions. The game doesn’t bother with flavour.

Routes are roughly equally long, with several endings dedicated players can try to find.

Prologue

Cailean Morrison, whose place you take, is a 19-year-old geriatric-psychology freshman. Calm, quiet, and slightly distant, he was never good at making connections and even worse at maintaining them. He loves his family above all else, has a good heart, and is very fond of older folks.

James Morrison, Cailean’s father, 46 years old, family lawyer. He’s a sensible, somewhat emotional person, bad at dealing with negative experiences, and generally a kind soul.

Aileen Morrison, Cailean’s mother, 44 years old, elementary school teacher. While she loves her family and students, she can be very strict and vengeful, knows how to stay calm in difficult situations, and often keeps her emotions to herself.

Alfred Morrison, Cailean’s brother, 24 years old, investment banker. Although he was wild in his youth, he’s hardworking and cunning, and while usually perceived as friendly, he has well-hidden sharp edges and a ruthless nature.

Choices will determine which talent you are proficient in, while some increases might be obvious, others are hidden behind story-progression.

You can’t fail skill-checks, instead they will change the story depending either on which talent you are most versed in, or if you are generally lacking - and they might have an impact on how other characters feel about you.

The game is in active development. Planed additions include more visual elements, incidental music, and a compendium that tracks information the player has found (coming in the Chapter 1 update). As a solo dev who does everything by himself, music and visuals are not my priority and will be included only in major updates.

[cosmerelists]

Favorite Musicals of Each Order of the Knights Radiant

We’ve already considered their favorite boardgames. But what about when it’s time to go to a musical? Which musical is preferred by each order?

1. Skybreakers: Les Misérables

They think Javert is the protagonist.

Szeth: Is it not strange that the musical continues for so long after the death of the protagonist?

Nale: Ah, but it is only thus that we see the real tragedy.

Nale: As all of the lawbreakers go on living, without punishment, due the the lawman not being willing to fulfill his duty.

Joret: It’s so horrifying.

Cali: Yes, hence the title.

2. Bondsmiths: West Side Story

It’s about two warring gangs being brought together.

Dalinar: Although it is sad, it is nice that it ends with all of the previously estranged people bonding over their loss.

Navani: And it really is through music that two warring sides can be brought together--perhaps even feel love for each other.

Dalinar: Yes. 

Dalinar: Wait, what? 

3. Edgedancers: Little Shop of Horrors

Or at least, it’s Lift’s favorite.

Lift: I dunno why Wyndle doesn’t like it--it’s about a plant!

Lift: A hungry plant too, so it has something in common with both of us!

Wyndle: I--

Wyndle: Never--

Wyndle: That--

Wynde: IT WAS SO HORRIFYING, MISTRESS!!!

Lift: It’s kinda in the title, dude.

4. Stonewards: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

They were surprised at how invested they got.

Badali: It may not be warfare, yet the efforts of these children are so inspiring.

Zu: They truly do fight until there is only one standing.

5. Elsecallers: A Little Night Music

Jasnah just thinks it’s neat.

Jasnah: I have to respect the effort of composing each song in 3/4 time.

6. Lightweavers: Phantom of the Opera

It’s about art, tortured souls, disguises...

Gaz: I gotta feel bad for the Phantom.

Shallan: What, because his love for Christine is doomed?

Vathah: Because it would suck to live in a sewer?

Gaz: Well sure.

Gaz: But also that one-sided mask.

Gaz: He must always feel like there’s something there in the darkness, something just out of his sight.

Shallan: ...

Vathah: ...

Gaz: N-Not that I would know anything about that, ha ha!

7. Truthwatchers: Lion King

They went for the costumes and ended up being  blown away by the story.

Rlain: If Simba had just told the truth about his father’s death, all of that could have been avoided.

Stump: Yeah, well, kids are pretty stupid sometimes.

Renarin: Although by running away, Simba did get to be raised by two awesome gay dads, so that’s nice!

Stump: ...

Renarin: What?

8. Willshapers: Scarlet Pimpernel

It’s about rescuing innocent (?) aristocrats from being imprisoned and guillotined!  

Eshonai: It is truly inspiring to see a group of humans working so hard to free other humans before their unjustified deaths.

Venli: That Madame Guillotine song is really catchy though.

Eshonai: Yeah, you almost can almost understand the killing there.

9. Dustbringers: Wicked

They appreciate the overall message.

Malata: Yeah, there really are two sides to every story!

Ral-na: And just because a power is popularly deemed destructive, that does not mean it is so.

10. Windrunners: Also Wicked

Although their reasoning is...different.

Bridge Four, in their barracks: SO IF YOU CARE TO FIND ME / LOOK TO THE WESTERN SKY

Bridge Four: AS SOMEONE TOLD ME LATELY / EVERYONE DESERVES THE CHANCE TO FLY!

Bridge Four: AND IF I’M FLYING SOLO / AT LEAST I’M FLYING FREEEE

Bridge Four: TO THOSE WHO’D GROUND ME / TAKE A MESSAGE BACK FROM MEEEEE

Bridge Four: TELL THEM HOW I AM DEFYING GRAVITY / I’M FLYING HIGH, DEFYING GRAVITY!

Kaladin (wiping away a tear): It’s just such a good song.

[eastern-lights]

Ok so we all know how amazing Baldur's Gate 3 is. I could talk for hours about everything it did perfectly.

But rn, I want to talk about what I think Dragon Age Inquisition did better. And this is not to judge which game is better overall, but what still makes DAI so special to me despite its flaws.

1. Voiced protagonist

Yeah, starting off controversial. I know some people prefer silent protagonists, but I just find myself wishing we could have a fully voiced Tav, even at the cost of fewer dialogue options. I'm sorry, but Tav's silent indifferent face just always breaks the immersion for me, especially when contrasted with the award-worthy acting and animation of the characters they're speaking with. In DAI (and DA2, although to a lesser degree) your character could be heavily customized, but they were always an actual person who fit in with the rest of the universe and flowed seamlessly with the story.

2. Mystery and dread.

BG3 is full of heavy, scary, traumatizing stuff hidden all over the place (or in plain sight). But it can always be explained in some way. There are dreadful things in Faerûn, but we always know what they are (mostly due to most of them having to have precisely given stats as the result of being based on DnD). We know what happens after death and what we can do to bring people back from it. The closest you get to truly dread-inducing mystery in BG3 is "Do Illithids have souls" and "where do illithids come from" and (at least in Act 1) "who is the Absolute".

In Dragon Age, the whole world is made of existential dread. What happens when you die? Dunno. Is God real? No idea and if He does, He hates you. What is the Blight? Are all darkspawn capable of independent thought? What is lyrium singing about? What happened to the titans? What happens when all of the Old Gods die? And this is just the Big Questions. There's a myriad of small things, small mysteries you encounter that just have no answers. Stuff that reminds me of those creepy Goldshire children forming a pentagram in World of Warcraft. While having an explanation for everything makes for deeper worldbuilding, a world full of mysteries without answers makes for a much scarier and, in some ways, exciting experience.

3. Group dynamic and party banter

I enjoyed the party banter in BG3. Hell, it had some of the funniest lines in game. But it didn't do enough to make the group dynamic feel any less Tav/Durge-centric. You hear the companions exchange banter, but you never get beyond stuff like "Karlach and Shadowheart both enjoy wine" and "Gale enjoys Lae'zel telling him about the Astral plane". The protagonist forms amazingly written relationships with each of the companions, but they never seem to have such a bond with one another. The closest we come to what I'd like to see is Karlach and Wyll's friendship, but even that's kind of shallow, I feel. The companions do comment on the others' personal quest, but it's always one sentence reaction, before going right back to being mostly indifferent. DA2 had the same issue, if to a greater extent (srsly, the companions had the same attitude about one another over the span of 10 years)

The banter in DAI was superb. It told a story. It had arcs. You could watch in real time as Solas and Dorian became friends over their shared magical nerd-dom. You could even take part in it, such as when telling Blackwall to stfu about jousting for a moment, or telling Sera that what you and Solas do in private is none of her business. You could see Dorian and Bull fall in love. You could watch Varric slowly chip away at Solas' worldview until he arguably came closer to changing his plans than Lavellan ever did. The relationships grow over the course of the story and by the time of Solas' betrayal, you're not just sad because he betrayed you, you're sad because he betrayed Varric, Dorian, Bull, Cassandra and everyone else. Because you saw how they cared about him, each in their own way.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than Varric's "Chuckles, what have you done?"

In BG3, the relationships are mostly left to your imagination, which has its perks, but still, the group dynamic feels more like a wheel with Tav at the centre rather than a web.

4. Having limits on the romance options

Let me start by stating what I am not saying: I am not saying that bi and pan people shouldn't be represented. Far from it. But I don't think making the whole group pan is the way to go about it. I can't help but feeling it is, in a way, pandering to players, making every single companion interested in them as long as they have a sufficiently high approval.

Making some companions explicitly bi, pan, gay or straight made for a more real experience. Getting rejected by Sera on the grounds of "We have a lot in common - we both like women" felt disappointing, yes, but also real. This also allowed the writers to make the characters' sexual/romantic preferences a part of their, well, character. We got Dorian's personal quest, which I think is great. Limiting Solas' options to just Lavellan allowed the writers to make it about him realizing that his people are not mere shadows. It allowed them to write the Vallaslin scene. None of this could have been done if he were romanceable to all races.

When you have diversity in romantic attraction among the companions, suddenly the pan and bi characters (in Bull and Josie respectively) feel like their orientation is part of who they are, rather than a game mechanic to prevent players from missing out on content.

[wonkyradio]

It was a long drive, but I finally made it. Silent Hill. I was raised here. My father lived and died here. I died here before I had the chance to live at all.

Members of bread bank know him already, but I figured I should officially post him to Tumblr. Meet protagonist of my Silent Hill fan game concept, Last Wish! Will is resourceful but paranoid, and compassionate but cowardly. He's a guy with a lot of baggage, and his connection to Walter Sullivan leads him down a path he can't turn back from. You may see more of him here in the future!

Brief background under the cut:

Silent Hill: Last Wish

William 'Will' Dent had his dad (William Dent Sr. 'Bill') killed by the order for looking into and trying to free the children from the prison depicted in sh4, and was the man interviewed by Joseph in his article about 4S (found by Heather in sh3). He spent a short time in the wish house following his father's murder, as the Order had immediate influence over child services in Silent Hill.

He becomes the roommate of a young Walter Sullivan, a sensitive boy, who starts looking up to Will as an older brother after being rescued from bullies. The two bond during Will's short time there, and he became 'Wally's protector and mentor, despite only being a few years older. For him, it was an opportunity to respect his father's legacy, as he'd been taught from a young age that those with strength should always protect those without it.

His mother (Laura Dent) finds out and comes to retrieve him about two months later. His dad was a stay at home father who preferred to live off the grid, his mother often had to go on business trips. She was out of town when the order killed her husband and basically abducted her son. After weeks of searching for where her son was being kept, Laura finally is able to rescue him from the Wish House. Walter pleaded for the opportunity to go with them, but was punished and placed in the child prison by George Rosten for his betrayal of the holy mother. Will never got to say goodbye to him. The fact Will's mother came to retrieve him was used against Walter, motivating him even further to later perform the sacraments.

Laura and Will immediately moved out of Silent Hill and into the city where she worked - Will grows up, struggles with missing his father and the fact his murder was officially unsolved. There are times he thinks of young Wally, and wonders if the boy ever learned to stand up for himself. He kept a gift Walter made him, a small God's Eye, and carried it with him as a reminder to stand up for his ideals even when afraid.

As the years go on he becomes more and more reclusive and cowardly, fearing that one day The Order would come for him. This paranoia and unresolved trauma eventually led to a mental breakdown, landing him in an institution for a short time. Upon being released, the first thing he decided to do was to visit his father's grave in Silent Hill for the first time since his death nearly two decades prior.

He returns to Silent Hill initially only to visit his father's grave, but he gets drawn into town after seeing someone lingering just outside the cemetery. It was Walter Sullivan, shortly after killing one of his first victims. If he wanted to move on, there was one more thing he'd have to do before leaving: find out what happened to Wally, and solve his father's murder.

[princeasimdiya12]

Bucchigiri Utena Parallel-Wannabe Heroes and the Illusion of Fairy Tales

Apart from the NNL segments, I've also had some thoughts on the Bucchigiri storyline and it's parallels to the themes of Revolutionary Girl Utena. And this time my focus as been on Matakara, who has often been hailed as being the true protagonist and hero of the story because of his honorable, kind-hearted and proactive qualities. Much like Utena herself.

And like Utena, the two share a somber backstory where they held on to fairy tale beliefs to help them overcome their hardships and grow into the heroic figures they wish to be. But what they don't know is that they naively followed these tales without realizing the misinterpretations of those beliefs that have been passed down for generations and would soon become victims of the fairy tale figures that once inspired them.

But before I can delve into that story, we need to talk about this story.

Note: This post will contain MAJOR SPOILERS from the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime. If you still haven't watched it and want to be unspoiled, then please refrain from reading this until you've seen it. If that doesn't bother you, then go on ahead. Also, I would strongly recommend speaking with a friend or a reliable user about the dark and trigger-worthy content featured in Utena before watching. It's a great show but it does get DARK.

Also, there's another user who's planning on making an analysis post comparing Matakara and Anthy Himemiya so keep an eye out for that if you're interested in more Bucchigiri-Utena parallels.

Part 1: Origins of an Orphan

To start, Matakara's backstory and his idolization of Arajin has multiple similarities to Utena's backstory. For the purpose of this section, I'll be using the version that was shown to us in Episode 1 and not the true version.

"Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a little princess and she was very sad. For her mother and father have died."

The first piece of info that Utena gives us is that she was an orphan and was in despair because of her parents' deaths. Though Matakara's own parents haven't been brought up nor has it been explained what became of them, it's clear that he lost them at an early age. And while he did have his older brother and his presumed relatives to watch over him, this did very little in helping Matakara overcome his grief or escape the shadows that haunted him since he was little.

"Before the princess appeared a traveling prince riding upon a white horse. He had a regal bearing and a kind smile. The prince wrapped the princess in a rose-scented embrace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes."

While lacking the regal bearing and white horse, Arajin was the traveling prince who came into Matakara's life and inspired hope and light within him. As shown in their flashbacks, he was always a friendly and cheerful boy who radiated confidence and spirit. A true hero that Matakara could look up to and help him overcome his sorrow.

"Little one, he said, growing up alone in such deep sorrow, never lose that strength and nobility. Even when you are a young lady. I give you this to remember this day, we will meet again. This ring will lead you to me one day."

The crux of Matakara and Arajin's friendship was their desire to train and grow into becoming true Honki people. Warriors with strong hearts and did not flee from battle. Arajin genuinely saw that Matakara had that potential and encouraged him to train alongside him.

And what's more noteworthy is that the two are given a token to immortalize the moment. Utena is given a rose ring to remember the prince and her own nobility while Matakara is given a friendship stone to remember their bond as future Honki People. Even as their fated princes leave, the two heroes carry those precious tokens well into their adolescence years, never forgetting their mission of becoming the people they want to be.

It could also be argued that Mitsukuni, his older brother, could qualify as the prince in this scenario as he inspired him to stay strong in the face of adversity. Such as in Episode 8 where he explained the creed of the Honki and how he inspired his little brother to be brave like them. He even brings up their creed to Matakara just before he's hauled away to the big house.

"Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring. This was all well and good but so impressed was she by him that that the princess vowed to become a prince herself one day."

So the cherished prince rides off into the world leaving Utena alone, much like Arajin and even Mitsukuni would leave Matakara alone because of their respective issues. But rather then succumbing to despair, the two heroes resolved to maintain the noble spirit that those heroic figures saw in them. Utena went on to become a prince herself while Matakara would become someone worthy of being a Honki person. Though Matakara struggled more on his journey given how he threw himself into bloody battles while being alone, he would eventually be adopted into the Minato Kai Gang and become closer on his path to becoming a Honki person.

And just before we can go straight to Utena's story in the present, the fairy tale closes with a question to the viewer.

"But was that really such a good idea?"

For first time viewers, it's easy to interpret this question about Utena, a girl, becoming a prince since it defies traditional gender roles and what is expected in classic fairy tales. But as the RGU story progresses, we see that the concern comes not from a girl becoming a prince but more on the problems that come with being one.

Two in particular stand out. The first is that men who become princes usually use those roles for the sake of superiority and having control over women. They lack the nobility a true prince should have and relish in the title because of it's power and privileges. The second problem, and the one that this analysis post will focus on, is how princes who live up to those roles are exploited by the people they try to protect.

Part 2: The Truth That is Twisted by Time

All fairy tales, legends, myths and stories which have been passed from one generation to the next. And as the years go by, those stories are often subject to adaptations based on the preferences of the storyteller or how society uses those tales to explain their respective beliefs. A common criticism is how most fairy tales have more imaginative elements in play and avoid the grittier elements that the tale originally used (Ex. Cinderella got her dresses from a tree instead of a fairy godmother and her stepsisters chopped off parts of their feet to get the slipper to fit, Aladdin used African slaves as part of his prince con).

And we see those changes in adaptations in the fairy tales Utena showcased that omit or warp the truth to the ones who hear of them.

Such as in Utena's origins, we're told that it was only a prince who inspired her to become one so she can reunite with him one day. But the truth was that her decision was because she met Anthy who was suffering from the hatred of humanity. And the only way to rescue her was to turn into a prince whom she could believe in.

We also see a new adaptation in the backstory of Anthy and Akio which is now known to the world as The Tale of the Rose. The world remembers their story involving a powerful and perfect prince who was stolen from them by his sister who turned into a wicked witch out of jealousy. But the truth was that Anthy sealed him away not out of spite but out of love and concern as her brother was being exploited and over exhausted by a massive, unsatisfied world who overly-depended on him.

So as Utena demonstrates, the fairy tales we start out learning about aren't exactly as true as their origins demonstrate. They often omit or do away with the more tragic and gray aspects of the characters in those stories. This is all well and good, but what does that say about the Honki People?

Right in Episode 1, we're told that they're courageous and valiant fighters who train nonstop and pour their heart and soul into battle. Despite being brushed off as a simple old story in the present day, their legends and battles prove worthy enough of recognition. They have a temple in their honor, Arajin and Mataraka trained to become like them, and even the city is named after them. The narrative does a decent job in explaining the concept of the Honki People, but what about the people that inspired those legends?

As we see in Episode 9, we learn that Senya and Ichiya actually started out as ordinary humans who dedicated their lives to training and fighting one another, hoping to become a true Honki Person. It's stated that Ichiya was training himself to be a Honki Person so the legend was already around when the two of them were only boys growing up in a Middle Eastern town. And fitting the Aladdin parallels, Senya started out as a simple street rat with no family or home to call his own. And after meeting someone as cool, powerful and inspiring as Ichiya, he decided to spend his life alongside someone he could call his friend.

A rather somber element is that while the whole world grew up learning and embracing the Legend of the Honki, none of them actually knew who those Honki People were or what their past lives were like. Would it even matter to them how they started as humble street urchins with no family or home to call their own? They knew what they turned into, but they never stop to think about who these legends started out as or what their backstories or even their names are.

But what's more tragic is what became of Ichiya, the one who inspired Senya. Though we still don't know the exact details for what Senya did that tarnished their friendship, it ultimately impacted his best friend for the worst, corrupting his heart and letting him be filled with hatred and contempt. He no longer valued friendship like he did when he was human and views it as a weakness that must be purged. Perhaps becoming a true Honki Person wasn't all it's cracked up to be given how they're bound to pistols and made to serve whoever finds him for thousands of years.

It's akin to the Rose Prince who's powers were sealed away by Anthy in a desperate act of love leaving him unable to save the world like he used to. Only because of his powerless state did the Prince lose his heart and became a cruel, manipulative and spiteful monster who longed to reclaim what once belonged to him. He would even resort to inflicting every form of abuse imaginable onto his sister as "punishment" for what she did to him. (And yes I do mean every form so please keep that in mind if you haven't seen Utena yet!)

The hero who was glorified and admired in their respective tales loses their nobility in real life, allowing themselves to be corrupted and be filled with new desires of revenge and power. Transforming into the opposite of what they represented in the generations that told their stories. Simply put, they become a villain.

A villain who is...

Part 3: The Virtuous Victim Turned Vile Villain

Bucchigiri and Revolutionary Girl Utena are shows that share the themes of fairy tales while deconstructing and subverting tropes associated with them. One of which that the two share is playing on the idea of a heroic or fairy tale archetype (the genie and the prince) becoming the villain of their respective shows. It's even more ironic that the true heroes of those series would start out being inspired by adaptations of them that portrayed them in a positive light only for to fall prey to their schemes when they meet them in real life. Bucchigiri has Ichiya, a true Honki Person that Matakara heavily looked up to, and Utena has Akio, the Fallen Prince Dios who led the sad princess on the path to becoming a noble prince.

Each of them started out as the ideal fairy tale figure that helped the heroes when they were only children who confronted sadness and loneliness at a young age. But now that they're older and are meeting with them, they end up falling victims to the fairy tales they initially admired and tried to become. And neither of them realize that they're being used as it happens.

Ichiya's goal is ultimately to merge with Matakara to take over his body and exact his revenge on Senya. As to what Ichiya's motives are after taking his revenge aren't clear, but what is clear is that Matakara will lose himself after being completely possessed. And because Matakara is suffering through his feelings of loneliness and his childhood friend's true nature, he doesn't even notice how Ichiya is manipulating him to improve the merge rate.

Akio's goal has been to groom Utena into producing a noble heart that can help him reclaim his original powers, even leading her in an intimate relationship to further manipulate her. Should he succeed, then he'll discard Utena and move with his life as Prince Dios once again. If not, then he'll discard her and find another person to groom. And Utena doesn't realize this as she's led to believe that he's the prince who once saved her from despair and she'll get the happily ever after she believed will make her content.

The scary part about this, is that they're not the first victims to fall prey to their wicked schemes.

Though it hasn't been confirmed on Ichiya's side, it's heavily implied that he's bonded with other people who found his magic pistol before taking full possession of them. Given how he's lived for thousands of years and initially resided in a public Honki temple, there's no way he would have not been found by some unlucky sap. His common knowledge of possession would suggest he's done this before and has seen the unfortunate results of the person he takes control of, which he mentions to Akutaro.

As for Akio, he also has lived for thousands of years and organized constant Rose Duels in the vain hope of choosing one lucky winner to steal their heart so he can break. Using his sister as a prize to be one, there have been countless tournaments held with the hopes of finding the right target that can help him regain his powers from the Rose Gate.

Alas, neither villain was successful with their attempts given that they've turned their sights on the new generation of heroes to continue their cursed wishes that have lasted for centuries.

And speaking of wishes, remember how I brought up in Part 2 how fairy tales were much darker compared to the more enchanting stories we grew up with?

Well thanks to a peculiar finding by @mahoromouse, I came to realize something about Ichiya and possibly Honki people in general. They're not even genies, they're djinn.

Contrary to the Western media's adaptation of genies as whimsical, playful, wish granting spirits who are voiced by beloved comedians, djinn were actually neutral spirits who were born from fire and were able to wander the Earth like humans do. That said, there are some djinn who grow stronger when interacting with negative emotions found in a human being. It's even said that they can inspire greater levels of negative emotions in a human that they target. Much like how Ichiya is cultivating Mataraka's anger towards Arajin and his fears of the shadows that haunt him.

And how fitting it is that from the moment Senya was introduced to us, Arajin and the audience interpreted him as a genie. Especially given that Senya even offers him a wish while proclaiming that "Honki" can also be spelled to make "Majin" 魔ま人 which in Japanese means "demon person" or "magical person". But have we actually seen Senya grant Arajin's wish of losing his virginity? While he does help the boy in getting stronger and boosting his image as a man, that doesn't mean it's gotten him very close to losing his virginity (thank goodness). And it can be inferred that Ichiya never granted Akutaro's wish despite having stayed by his side during his reign as the NG Emperor.

Given how the Western's portrayal of genies have been popularized and glamorized for years, we have easily forgotten the true origins of genies or djinn and the grittier aspects associated with their backstories.

Conclusions

The theme that the two shows share is how a child who was in a dark moment in their life was inspired by a fairy tale to help them find the light. And so touched were they by the heroes in the stories that they decided to become just like them. But as their respective shows demonstrated, that wasn't a very good idea. The Prince and the Honki Person they once admired turned out to be monsters who resolved to exploit them and reclaim something that was lost to them many years ago. And because they grew up with the romanticized and ideal versions of their idols, they never realized the truth about them which was lost in time mixed with ongoing adaptations that omitted their pasts making them more acceptable to the world.

As for whether Matakara will be saved from Ichiya's corruption while still gaining a heart that does not flee, I cannot say. But as it stands, it looks like Arajin will need to be the one to come in and save the boy he once inspired and who still holds dearly in his heart. And just like I mentioned in my last NNL segment, maybe their friendship won't be the same anymore despite defeating Ichiya. Maybe Matakara will still harbor negative feelings to his friend for how he was mistreated and abandoned for so many years. But much like how Utena ended on a hopeful ending, I believe the same thing can happen in Bucchigiri.

And those are my thoughts on the matter. It's been a great while since I wrote an analysis post this big so thank you if you committed to reading all of this. So what do you think of these themes? If you agree or disagree with anything I've written, please feel free to reblog and/or comment with your own ideas. Thank you and may you have a great day/night!

[troius]

I just want to say a few things before you get to the end. First up, it's been a pleasure to read your thoughts on the series; like any fan, you have your own unique interpretations and it's always good to read how fans see certain scenes. It's also been fantastic to see fellow fans respond to your posts adding on to what you've written, again bringing your thoughts out more and generating discussion.

Also, seeing your thoughts has made me appreciate scenes and characters I never thought I would -- Yamamoto for instance, who would've thought?! They've also reminded me of why I fell in love with the series as much as I did, from the artwork to the themes to the incredible bonds between the characters. You've reminded me that BLEACH has it's flaws that can sometimes take you out of the story, but when it hits, it 100% HITS! It's a manga that's about the bonds we form, how they can help us overcome challenges and be a source of light in our lives. It's about the ways we overcome grief and the fear of death, whether it's literally fighting your way through it or slowly coming to a state of acceptance as time goes on. It's about the 'hearts' of people, about what they look like and how they're shared between those you choose. I could go on and on, but then this would become an essay and we'd be here all day.

All of this is to say, thank you for choosing to create a Tumblr account and deciding to read the series and give your thoughts along the way. I can't believe you've finally reached the end, it almost feels like I'm saying goodbye to the manga again!! I don't think I'm the only one here who sees you as a big and valued part of the community on here, so I hope you'll be sticking around! :)

Thank you so much Rays! Response under the cut because it went long.

This won't surprise you, but I too have grown in my appreciation for the series over the course of the uh three years that I've run this blog. Bleach has character concepts I've never seen elsewhere. It has moments of storytelling brilliance. It has truly, phenomenally astonishing art.

But more than anything else, I, like you, am impressed by the heart. For a story that's largely about the afterlife, Bleach is shockingly humanistic, locating virtue not in any system of belief, in any group or faction in the various conflicts that provide the setting for the manga, but in people. All people, whether they're our extremely relatable teenage protagonist and his friends, the occasionally sketchy adults in his life, or the various adversaries ranging from evil monsters to supernatural samurai to a regular-ass gang to a foreign apocalypse cult. Bleach never, not once, lets the viewer fall into the comfortable childish space of believing that there's good people and bad people in the world.

There's just people. Sometimes these people want to do bad things, like execute their sisters, or kidnap your girlfriend, or isolate you from your family, or destroy the entire world. Bleach doesn't flinch away from that either. But it (again, very humanistically) locates those bad actions not in the individual human beings, but in our relationships with one another through the systems and structures we've created to organize ourselves.

And yet in the face of the idea that humans do their worst work through other people, that's also where Bleach locates its greatest virtue. Alone, we're nothing. It's the bonds that we have with others that are what make life worth living, that are the source of everything good in this world. And navigating that dynamic, between spiritual bonds and structural shackles...that's really what adult life is all about, isn't it?

Anyhow, my adult life has been greatly enriched by all of you on here. But I'll take the chance to thank you specifically Rays, for being such a source of joy. Your positivity and passion are the sort of thing that makes a humble blogger want to come back for more, and I've deeply enjoyed hearing all of your thoughts, not just on my liveblog, but through your own posts and writing. I'll be sticking around for sure.

[fangirling-heart]

It's a first for me and quite honestly I am pretty nervous but...

I'm making a post about my OCs!!!

Yay!!! 🎉

And since I can't draw to save my life, I used this picrew to present them, one of them you might recognize since I have introduced him in a tag game. Anyway here they are:

Starting with the familiar one, the 17 year old Achilles. He's the protagonist of an original story I'm working on and simply put, he's not okay. He lives with an emotionally and physically abusive father and a neglectful mother who cares more about her husband and their image than her son, and they both put a lot of pressure on him to be perfect in every way and also make sure he doesn't ruin the family's image in any way (a big part of which is hiding the signs of his father's abuse). In terms of a support system, he doesn't really have one since breaking up with his girlfriend, Ange, who also happens to be/have been his best friend, and his one other friend is...not that great. His only solace comes from reading and photography (and poetry but he would never admit it), but when even that isn't enough, his mind ends up in a really dark place and he tries something drastic. But thanks to a certain someone's intervention, he doesn't go through with it and as much as he (claims he) doesn't want to, he has to learn how to live again... in more ways than one.

Birthday: March 5

Sign: Pisces

Sexuality: Biromantic asexual

Likes: Photography, poetry, reading, watching and commenting movies, playing video games, rain, junk food, heights, dancing, history, mystery novels, Linkin Park (Ange constantly teases him for it), comics, rom-coms (when they aren't too cliché), motorcycles

Dislikes: His parents (his father especially), school, most sports, heat, having his privacy violated, being made fun of for his interests, big crowds, expectations, loneliness

The special someone I mentioned before. This is Ephraim, the reason Achilles stays alive and the one person he cannot shut out (both much to his dismay). The reason for that and the reason he appears wearing the same clothes as Achilles is because, after the event that saved the latter's life, the two of them end up sharing a body. Simply put, Ephraim is a ghost that possesses him. He can get control of his body and speak in his thoughts, but his actual appearance is visible only in reflective surfaces and luckily for them both not all the time, just when Ephraim chooses to surface. He possesses Achilles, thinking the two would be able to trade places, but instead he basically just hitches a ride in his body and his life. As for the reason he wished to possess him in the first place, he did it because he wants a chance to live again but most of all to find out what happened to his boyfriend, Mario, from whom he got violently separated before he died. And while he sees Achilles as a means to his ends at first, the two form a genuine bond over time.

Birthday: August 1

Sign: Leo

Sexuality: Gay

Likes: Nature, sunny days, ice cream, driving, fire, rain, shadow puppetry, learning new things, music, dogs, hugs, Achilles' poetry and photos, messing with asshole authority figures, spicy food

Dislikes: Being confined, being bossed around, talking about his death, homophobes and assholes in general, people making fun of Achilles, having to wait, ghost stories (he finds the way ghosts are portrayed offensive and unimaginative), feeling helpless, cold

And last one (for now). Ange (short for Angelica) is Achilles' ex girlfriend and best friend since childhood. Growing up the two were always together (the fact that they lived in the same building and shared a love for cinema and cameras helped with that) and long before they got together it was clear to everyone there were sparks flying between them. They were a classic childhood friends to lovers story, but after 2 years of dating, when Ange realized they both wanted and needed very different things from a relationship, as much as it hurt them both, she broke up with Achilles and the two haven't really spoken since, due to it being too awkward and painful. Though her homelife isn't as bad as Achilles' and she has other friends besides him, since the two broke up she has also been feeling very lonely and missing him, but doesn't dare to approach him, because she hates herself for hurting him and thinks he hates her too. It isn't until Ephraim comes along that they start kinda talking again (due to him pretty much forcing Achilles to talk to her).

Birthday: March 22

Sign: Aries

Sexuality: Straight or bisexual, I'm still figuring this out

Likes: Watching and commenting on movies, photography, making videos, directing, cinematography, animation, cake, dark humor, amusement parks, sunsets, puzzles, baggy clothes, late night walks, strawberries

Dislikes: Fake people, being underestimated, being judged, loneliness, people making fun of her work, makeup, gossip, visiting her grandparents, puppets

[bitch-butter]

i've had it: a Web-focused analysis of episode 8

my babes, my babes, what can I say?

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of people saying that in “The Patrol” aka “The Last Patrol” Web is depicted as “trying to get himself taken off the patrol ”. Many long years I have rested, but now i have, in all essences, Had It with that take in light of my recent brush with death (not really, but it adds some gravitas right?).

It's Everybody's right to their own opinion, but I am here to host a Formal Rebuttal of this pervasive interpretation, because I never (even in my pre-webgott days) read That Scene as such, and I feel that this reading makes even Less sense within the full portrait of the episode. I will defend my stance with appropriate screengrabs, but unfortunately due to Max being made singularly of butts and capitalist dupes I am not able to screengrab anything that isn’t already grabbed or put on Youtube. I have much, but not Everything, so bear with me.

(This will not be a litigation of why the episode chooses to detract in myriad ways from the historical record, but suffice it to say that this episode makes a lot of choices re: who was on the patrol, why they were on the patrol, and who showed up when that are not Exactly accurate but does suit the story that they were endeavoring to tell. I’ll leave it at That.)

So, let’s get into it.

I. What is this episode about?

I spoke “briefly” but not that articulately about why episode 8 is my favorite episode on my good friend Sarah’s podcast last year, and I still stand by many of my reasons for doing so, but I’d like to highlight one element in particular. 

This episode is coming hot off of the heels of one of the most harrowing episodes we’ve seen up to this point, “The Breaking Point”, and in that episode we see not only exactly what it has cost our guys to be in the Bois Jacques for so long, but we also see how this has in many ways made their bonds with each other even closer. They leave that conflict feeling tired, overworked and underfed, and incredibly protective of one another, and because we the audience got to see that we in turn feel protective of them as well.

Which is why I find the choice for Web being the main protagonist of the episode so inspired. 

We are thrust immediately from this harrowing experience, as well as the lived-in dynamic with our main guys, into following a guy who disappeared from the show entirely in episode 5, which not only makes us suspicious of him but it runs up against our instincts to bond with our protagonist. We know immediately, even if we’re on a first or second watch, that Web was not in the Bois Jacques because of the visual language used to characterize him as well as his own opening narration, and as such we immediately don’t want anything to do with him because we too feel protective over our guys who were in the actual fight and we don’t want to waste our time with guys who don’t get it. 

Trust and belonging. Those are the core themes of the episode in my opinion, and we see it with several characters (Lt. Jones and Web are in much the same boat because they have no trust and they don’t belong and so they have to earn them both back; Vest is trusted but he doesn’t belong not only because he’s not a guy the audience is that familiar with but because his job in the context of the show removes him from being that close to our core group). The episode is as much about those things as it is also about combat weariness, how our main guys are acclimating to the idea of the end being near, as well as the ultimate brutality and inhumanity of war on a micro level (Web’s ending monologue is a great example of this, and read in conjunction with Sink’s decision to try and send the patrol out again is a pretty good indictment of the depersonalized and mechanic way war works for a lot of people). 

So, in essence, this episode is about getting the other guys, as well as the audience, to trust Web. 

II. Web is a Good Character (you guys are just Mean)

How do you get the audience to trust your character (even if they don’t like him)?

They manage to accomplish this at least in part by trying to show us that even if his plans are lackluster his intentions are good, such as his initial - albeit inappropriate - happiness at greeting everyone, his reveal of who was being initially selected for the patrol, and his successful attempt to get Malarkey taken off the patrol. We see a few times that his actions have consequences, but for the most part we are able to Understand the train of thought that informs the choice. He sees that the other guys are distrustful of him and no longer want him around due to his absence from the previous episodes, something that clearly throws him off balance, and so we can progress through episode 8 with his primary motivation being to get the core group to trust him again and as such regain his sense of belonging.

We see it right away in the episode, where he greets the other guys only to be quickly dismissed and chastised for assuming a familiarity that is no longer there, and again we can infer from Eion Bailey’s performance that he not only understands that he’s made a mistake but is already internalizing that his decision to remain at the hospital was most likely the incorrect decision. 

This goes directly into the motivation for telling his fellow platoon members that some of them have been selected for a patrol that most likely will be disastrous, which we can clearly see he doesn’t want to do but does in order to attempt to gain his footing back within their ranks. 

This isn’t entirely successful, as the other guys seem to read it more as Web being first annoying at not wanting to tell them and then secondly unreliable because he told them in the first place. And again, we can read in Bailey’s performance that he quickly realizes that regaining his standing is not going to be as simple as he thought that it would be. 

His next attempt at ingratiating himself is tied inextricably to the issue at hand. To reiterate, we the audience as well as our characters of interest have become protective over one another in the wake of the previous episode, and one of the characters who comes out of “The Breaking Point” particularly fragile is Malarkey. We have context for his emotional placement that bleeds out from the previous episode, and a lot of visual weight is given to the fact that Malarkey in particular is exhausted, depressed, and would benefit heavily from a brief respite from being on the front lines. Other characters express this sentiment In Webster’s Direction, and in search of another way to endear himself to the rest of the platoon he sets out to kill two birds with one stone by i. Getting Malarkey off the patrol ii. Getting Lt. Jones the experience he needs to hop up the ranks and go away. 

This attempt is successful, but backfires again when Martin is placed in charge of the patrol instead of Jones. It is possible Web should have anticipated that due to the other man’s inexperience they wouldn’t have let him lead it to begin with, but we the audience should ideally still be interpreting at least the initial intention of the decision to be a good one. He sees that the other guys want Malarkey off the patrol, so he gets Malarkey off the patrol.

This brings us to the moment in question.

III. Let’s Break it Down: Part Un

INTERIOR - A ROOM IN lol i’m joking but what if i did do it like that 

It is quickly revealed that Web’s plan has failed, at least in part. Martin has been appointed to lead the patrol, and is clearly no more eager to do it than anybody else is (except Lt. Jones), and Web clearly looks remorseful towards putting him in Malarkey’s place.

In an act of revenge he appoints Web to be translator, and Web is also not that jazzed about it but appears to accept it with a Tiny Little joke. 

The scene progresses to planning the attack, and we get a few visual cues to indicate that this is a no good very bad idea and everybody hates it before the meeting ends and we hear Liebgott make a jab at Web’s attempt at a joke re: his German capabilities, to which Web gives my favorite reaction in the whole episode where he clearly wants to look directly at the camera like he’s on The Office and clowns his way out of the room.

Hard cut to everybody leaving the building, with a few of our guys in the background as Web moves into the foreground away from them (he wants to be with the cool kids but he’s Not one of the cool kids). We hear but don’t entirely see Grant saying the line “Webster. Tries to get out of everything”, but it’s loud enough that we can assume Web himself also hears this, and he has a small moment of looking back at them in response before he advances to address the officers. 

He points out that both he and Liebgott speak German, and we the audience infer that having the two guys who speak German on the same patrol would be a bad idea because both of them could get taken out and then the company would be shit out of luck. Speirs is quick on his feet, and as Liebgott, Grant, and Jackson pass by he stops them and tells Liebgott he can sit this one out. Liebgott accepts, winks at Web, and gives him a joking thanks. 

Web gives him a tiny half-smile, thanks the officers, and walks away, clearly not loving the fact that he’s going but not appearing resentful.

FINIS

That’s the scene of the crime. So, with this narrative context, let’s get to our second suspect.

IV. The Liebgott of it All

In black and white terms, the principal Antagonist to our Protagonist in this episode is Liebgott, even if we can all agree he’s a king and Web is Himself. 

In Web’s intro to the episode he’s the character we see giving him the hardest time about being away from the company, when Web is gearing up to spill the beans about the patrol Liebgott is the one stirring the pot, and in the patrol meeting he’s the one making fun of Web for downplaying his German. Liebgott gets more weight in this episode than he has in any previous episode, and we are meant to extract from their numerous interactions that even if Liebgott is a guy that has been mostly on the fringes throughout the show up to this point he is going to be the one that makes the ultimate decision about whether or not Web will be accepted back into the group. 

We have an automatic trust for Liebgott because we’ve seen and known him from the very first episode, he’s had individual moments sprinkled throughout the show, and narratively we’ve mostly seen him displaying his competency, humor, and principles. These are all things that the audience is missing in a relationship with Web, so like the other guys we’ll trust Liebgott’s assessment of Web more than we’ll likely trust Web’s intentions at face value. This gets tricky, because Liebgott is not immune to his own pettiness, and even if he Was capable of reading Web’s actions in good faith he is still going to have reservations because up to this point we have no reason not to think that Web stayed out of the fight On Purpose. 

So, Liebgott gives Web a ton of shit throughout the episode, and the audience can take that as an indication that Web is not worthy of regaining his place in the group. Web also seems to realize this. If he wants to be back in the mix the person he’s really going to need to impress is Liebgott. As it goes on Liebgott’s exact intentions with Web are a little dubious, because at some points he does seem to internalize that he may be being too harsh or too resistant on Web. After Web gets outed as having told the other guys about the patrol Liebgott appears reserved, not taking pleasure in his embarrassment.

And after hearing Chuck’s pivotal line we can hear Liebgott brush it off with a “whatever” as he clearly looks towards Web in the foreground.

There are things at play in regards to how Liebgott is feeling about his own pettiness towards Web, but whatever reservations he has are not powerful enough up to this point that we take too much notice. 

This, Web’s knowledge of it, as well as the throwaway line from Chuck, all inform the decision to approach the officers after the patrol meeting.  

V. Let’s Break it Down: Part Deux (boogaloo électrique)

What We Know: Web is ostracized from the group and is trying to get back in, Liebgott in particular doesn’t want Web back in the group because he’s missed a formative event for the company and feels he doesn’t deserve it, and there’s a patrol that nobody wants to go on because They’re Tired looming in the distance. 

With what we know (above), what we know happens in the scene (see part III), who these characters are plus their narrative intentionality (parts II and IV), and what the episode is presumably supposed to be about (part I), gives us a pretty clear indication of what Web’s intentions are when he approaches the officers. Web wants to be back in the group, Liebgott is the one he has to convince, and to put a cherry on top he clearly hears Chuck talking smack by saying he tries to get out of everything. 

He prompts the officers by pointing out that Liebgott speaks German as well, and we Must assume he does this with the understanding that there’s no way they would take him off of the patrol over Liebgott. 

Though we’ve seen Web make plans and have them backfire we can’t infer that he’s that stupid just based on what the show has told us about Web thus far. Socially awkward? Yes. Stupid? Not really. 

There would be no way he’d think they would take him off and keep Liebgott on, and he already approaches with the knowledge that if he does earnestly try to remove himself from the patrol that would forever damage his standing in the company and he would never, ever be able to get back in with the core group. You know, that thing that’s motivating everything he does in the episode. 

It wouldn’t make sense in any measure for Web to be going up to them trying to get himself removed. It wouldn’t flow with his actions in the episode, his motivations, Liebgott’s mini-arc of excluding him, and it certainly would not serve the overarching themes of the episode which are Trust and Belonging. 

The perfect button to this conflict is the wink that Liebgott gives Web after being told he can stay behind. There’s a brief moment where he Just looks at Web, and there’s a definite understanding that moves between them that this isn’t the end of the road for Web’s attempts to get back in but that an Important Step has just been taken. 

Web gives him that half-smile, accepts that his work is not done, and they move to their separate corners. 

The culmination of these sort of swirling themes comes during the patrol, when we get a few different moments of Liebgott waiting across the river displaying clear alarm at what he’s seeing. 

Given our context for Liebgott in this episode, and his primary relationship within it being with Web, we can assume this is the moment his feelings about letting Web back into the fold turn. He sees Web took him off the patrol, is now in a precarious position, and as we’ve had a few flashes of his backtracking his own pettiness towards Web we can assume this is the final straw. 

He was fine holding out on Web up to this point, but he doesn’t actually want anything bad to happen to him just because he indirectly influenced Web into proving himself (even if Web was always going to be trying to prove himself). 

So with the completion of the patrol two big things have occurred: Web has weathered a harrowing experience that cost the life of a beloved member of the company and as such got a small, small taste of what the rest of the company experienced in the Bois Jacques, and Liebgott has come to accept that Web’s intentions are good and he can be trusted again.

After this occurrence we see that at least as far as the other guys in the group Web is - for the most part - accepted back. Martin defends him against Cobb, and in that we can assume that the heavy lifting portion of Web's attempts to rejoin Easy have been successful. But the main character that Web, as well as the audience, is interested in is Liebgott. He's presented the greatest barrier to acceptance, and a lot of weight has been placed on he and Web's dynamic in the episode, so we have to wait and see how he will react to Web's newfound acceptance.

That leads them both perfectly to the end of the episode, where our visual cue to this is given: Web approaches the transport, Liebgott offers him his hand, Web takes it. 

Poetic Cinema.

Web has regained trust, and once again he belongs.

VI. I've Had It

I own the fact that I’m feral about this episode and for the most part people don’t seem to like it that much, which is fine and I’m not here to convert anybody. Additionally, I own the fact that Web is my son and I think he’s hilarious and everybody else thinks he’s The Worst. However, I just don’t think that This particular criticism holds much water when we give it the actual reading that we’re meant to be giving it with the weight of the narrative, what we’re being told about individual characters, and the overall themes of the episode. 

The truth is the truth, and we can’t All be champs. 

Lol jk bc truly if you feel as strongly about this as i do (which seems doubtful lol) I am not anti-debate and I would welcome hearing why people seem so Deeply convinced of Web doing all of this just to try and get himself taken off the patrol. 

(Answers I will Not accept are the kind that use Web being annoying as a basis for a read on his character motivations because girls that’s Not It.)

And so it is ~

[blind-alchemists]

sorry, Zagreus, I've had your sister for five hours and I already like her more than you.

anyway! I did treat myself and bought the game early and. it's just very good!

in somewhat chronological order, my thoughts after yesterday's session

the music! the music is even more amazing than in the first game and if I'm done, I need to listen to the whole OST on loop

the art!! also even better than in the first game!!

Melinoë is a great protagonist

it's incredibly funny the first god we encounter is Apollo, because Apollo is the guy people modded into the first game years ago

... boy, I wonder what the speedrunning meta will look like for this game (I have very obscure knowledge about Hades I speedrunning meta)

I love the little backgrounds that pop out with the art

oh, right, I jumped into the Hades I EA late, so I never saw the place holder graphics in-game before

the environments!! beautiful.

I shouldn't have played the first game last week. It's fucking with me. where's my second dash??? Why do we start with 30 HP??? where are my death defiances??? weapon mechanics???

of course there's a fishing mechanic again.

I like Hecate's design.

saluting??? what's the lore behind that?

OH. this tone of the story isn't ... quite what I expected. A lot more serious. a lot more severe.

Melinoë doesn't remember her family??? Hello??? what the fuck???

and she keeps talking about her task with such a dutiful determination ... no, I'm not crying. But. That's such an interesting conflict.

NEMESIS!! She's holding her sword aspect!! her design!! her resentment!! her vengeance!! her rivalry with Mel. how Mel calls her Nem. please. tell me she's a romance option. PLEASE.

oh, hi odysseus.

hey, there's hypnos! ... why's he sleeping??? (funny thing is, I got the Charon dialogue that implies he's more useful this way lol)

I cannot. Take. Skelly serious. It's worse because Mel does.

I like Moros' design. The long hair going over the horns? Yeah, that's good.

Mel gets an AXE??? a heavy, double-bladed axe??? (I love women wielding heavy weapons, and as long as the rail doesn't make a return, I'm good with anything after enough time)

I like the new art sprites for reoccurring characters!

ahhh, the good old "we don't trust Olympus so we're not telling them everything" line. understandable, but I figure that's going to blow up sooner or later.

I love Mel's bond with Artemis and Selene and the implication that both helped raise her.

... and I like the predominantly female cast so far

Nemesis can show up in Erebus???

BABY MELINOË omg

why does every chthonic goddess / titaness sound like they have a thing for Persephone. Nyx already had a few lines like that in the first game. Why does Hecate also have these kinds of lines.

the Hecate fight frustrates me to no end, because I'm very used to more dashes, more health, and more death defiances, and very different weapons :( (I have bet her twice in total so far)

unrelated, but I didn't know I needed a sheep in the Hades art style but it's so damn cute and I want a large art print of it

Archane!! I love how her silks change Mel's avatar

Oceanus is beautiful

... except for the traps. Really not digging the traps. or the maps.

CHAOS??? why are you holding your old form's head??? and why is there an embryo coming out of it??? why do you have wings??? why do you wear a suit??? the new design unfortunately checks all the boxes but upon reflection that is because it fits into that very niche character design trope I've seen in manwha recently and I couldn't put a name on it if I tried

on that note, I also adore Aphrodite's new design!!

not quite sure what I think of the gathering / farming mechanic yet

I do like the incantations, magic, hexes, and arcana though!

HERMES! I also adore his design.

wait, what? Mel's going to Olympus? You're telling me one part of the game is descending into the House of Hades and the other is climbing to Mount Olympus?? (that's my speculation, at least.)

god, I hope the cast of the first game is alright/alive. :(

I hope we also get to see Athena, Ares, and Dionysus at some point :(

on that note, I can't wait for Mel to meet her brother and realize he's the opposite of her lol. I love siblings and mirrors.

[ammy246]

Just saw some Narusasu shippers shitting on Bakudeku, and as someone who's first gay ship and otp used to be Narusasu instead of Bakudeku, I have some thoughts.

I remember the heartbreak I felt the day Kishimoto ruined Narusasu by forcing them to be romantically involved with women without a single bit of relationship development. Naruto ended up with Hinata in a filler movie despite having ignored her even after her romantic confession to him, and Sasuke abandoned Sakura after having a child with her. This was not the ending any of us wanted. We wanted Naruto and Sasuke to peacefully resolve their rivalry, and find love in each other after all they've been through. But unfortunately, that's not what happened as Kishimoto had to force a next-gen onto us, and permanently friendzoned them. It's tragic and felt like a betrayal, but shounen had not been ready for queer relationships, so Narusasu being shafted was ultimately inevitable.

While I cannot say for 100% certain, I can say that Bakudeku has a much greater chance of becoming canon than Narusasu ever did. Horikoshi once stated that he will tell the story he wants to be told and not follow the stereotypical formula, contradicting Kishimoto who went with the shounen ending we've seen many times before of the protagonist accomplishing their goal and marrying a woman and having kids (even though they have no chemistry with said woman or a lack of feelings for them compared to their rival).

Horikoshi had the chance to make Izuocha canon. They could've confessed before the war, but they didn't. The two moved on with their lives, and have made no desire to talk about feelings for each other, but are rather focused on other peope (Bakugou and Toga) as that's where their hearts reside. Bakugou also has no other potential love interest aside from Midoriya as he is the one he is closest too in the entire world and knows the most which is different than Sasuke who had some moments with Sakura scattered throughout the series from the start.

Bakugou cares about Midoriya in a way that's beyond friendship. He means the word to him to the point he was willing to sacrifice himself and even die for him, and will make himself vulnerable around him and nobody else. Midoriya has hidden feelings for Bakugou as his thoughts regarding him are hidden, and his heart always spirals out of control because of Bakugou, but we have not yet been directly told why. Midoriya does not act like this around his other friends, and he has many.

Naruto and Sasuke resolved things right after their final fight, and their friendship returned stronger than ever before, but that was it. Yet even after Bakugou's apology, there are still unresolved issues even though Midoriya chose to forgive him, meaning something must still be said between the two. Midoriya did not want an apology; he wanted to deepen their bond beyond friendship, but was too afraid of rejection hence why he never confessed and hid his feelings instead.

This plotline is still unresolved as of chapter 405. Bakugou is now being honest about his feelings, yet we have still yet to see Midoriya's thoughts regarding Bakugou's death and revival only having been given face expressions. So if their friendship has returned and gotten stronger than ever before despite the series not yet being over, what else is there to develop aside from romantic feelings?

Narusasu shippers, I hate to say it, but we lost. We cannot change the past, but we can have hope for the future. Bakudeku has surpassed Narusasu long ago, and the two are closer to a love confession than ever before, which is something we never quite got close to with Narusasu. If Horikoshi is serious about not following the typical shounen formula, we might have a real chance here. We might not get a kiss or marriage, but if the two confess their feelings for each other and do not end up with women like nothing happened, then that would be a huge victory for the LGBT+ community, and hopefully open the gateway for more queer relationships in shounen jump for the future.

Both Bakudeku and Narusasu are amazing ships. I wish we could live in a reality where both became canon, but getting one would still be a major milestone. Do not attack each other over what could have been, but resolve your differences like Bakugou & Midoriya and Naruto & Sasuke did and look towards a brighter future where LGBT+ can be mainstream without us having to fight for it and fear losing.

[animaginaryartblog]

[Image ID: two versions of a digital painting of Blaze the Cat. They are based on a Trollhunters screenshot, but replacing Jim with an AU Blaze design.

Blaze wears armor similar to Percival's in Sonic and the Black Knight: small, rounded shoulder pauldrons, metal gloves with flared cuffs, and a metal chest plate on her torso with armor pieces hanging from the hips, resembling a tailcoat. Inset in the chest plate, above where her heart would be, is a gold amulet housing a shard of a red gem.

Along with the armor, Blaze wears her usual gold necklace and red bindi. Each gauntlet has a simple curling design on the top, with a red jewel inset in the center, matching her bindi. Under the armor she wears a white bodysuit, covering her legs and arms.

In the first version, Blaze is in her normal form, with lavender fur and yellow eyes. Her hair is not tied up but falling loose down her back, and violet bangs partly cover her bindi. Her armor is a silver-purple color.

In the second version, Blaze is in her Burning form. Her fur is pink, and her armor and blade are both gold rather than silver. A gold circlet pulls her hair back - not that it's needed, as both her hair and the tip of her tail have turned to scarlet flame. Her eyes, too, have the appearance of fire.

In both versions, Blaze stands against a stormy background, looming over the viewer. In her right hand she holds a flame. In her left, she holds her sword from Sonic and the Black Knight, pointed down at someone unseen. Lightning flashes behind her as she looks down at her opponent with an unreadable expression, eyes glowing gold. /end ID]

For the glory of Solaris, Sunlight is mine to command.

last Friday I had this all prepped and ready to post, wrote a whole long explanation of this AU's lore, and then the page reloaded and I lost the entire thing--or I thought I did, only for it to turn out the draft just saved to my main instead of here. so. see below for the referenced screenshot, an explanation of the AU, and some concept sketches.

[Image ID: a screenshot from the computer animated Trollhunters series. In the screenshot Jim, wearing his Trollhunter armor, stands against a stormy sky. He points his sword down towards something offscreen, his expression unreadable. Lightning flashes behind him. /end ID]

So a while back I got really into Tales of Arcadia with my brothers. it was brief, as my interests go, but during that time I, as is my wont, came up with a needlessly complicated Sonic AU starring Blaze the Cat. Because I never go about things halfway, I not only watched Trollhunters, 3Below, and Wizards, but I also went and read the original Trollhunters novel and some of the comics (and I would have read all the other novels too if they'd been available in our library and my interest had lasted longer).

Hence! The Sunhunter AU! It was originally called Shadowhunters, but I have too many AUs with "shadow" in the title anyway, and Sunhunter is more fitting anyway. Basic premise is that Blaze is the eponymous Sunhunter, and has been since she was a child, when she discovered the existence of the underworld and accidentally bonded with the amulet in a definitely-not-traumatic, totally-not-a-Disney-parent-death incident. Essentially, she fuses the roles of Jim from the show and Jack from the novel.

Blaze takes her duty extremely seriously and invests the bare minimum of time in her civilian identity. Who needs a childhood when there's an entire world to singlehandedly defend, amirite? Certainly not when the Black Arms are dangerously close to escaping and dooming the surface and the underworld both. But protagonists never get what they want.

With everything on her shoulders, it was only a matter of time until Blaze stumbled - and Marine was there to see it. Now she has to protect/put up with this young raccoon girl who refuses to leave her alone. This definitely will not lead to any burgeoning friendships, the development of a much needed support system, or discoveries about her enemies that she never would have made alone. No sir.

also it's Sonaze. because of course it is.

now for the concept sketches

that's right, we do speedpaints now! I mean, Procreate's always saved time lapses of my art, but now I'm actually going to try and share them! maybe! sometimes!

As you can see, I have a few different ideas for the exact mechanics of this AU. The first route would be to have humans still be, well, humans, and Mobians are either the equivalent of trolls, or a type of troll. This could be fun, but I doubt I'll go this route, since I like my silly little cartoon animals to stay silly little cartoon animals.

The other option is to have mobians living alongside humans, as in Sonic canon. From there I could either keep trolls the same as they are in Trollhunters canon, or replace them/supplement them with a Mobian equivalent. I do have the beginnings of some lore ideas for Mobians being split between the surface and the underground...

[battlekidx2]

Across the Spider Verse Thoughts

Across the spider verse was my most anticipated movie of 2023. I came in with sky high expectations and yet somehow the movie managed to surpass them.

By the end of the opening sequence across the spider verse had me sold that this was going to be one of my favorite spider-man movies and when the movie finished that belief held true. Spider-Man across the spider verse is easily one of my favorite superhero movie sequels of all time (I actually think it might be my favorite). The movie just came out and I’ve already seen it, what my brother has dubbed, “too many times” (Though I vehemently disagree with him on that point).

It’s a movie sold on its scope and love for all of spider-man and his lore and yet it never loses its heart in the spectacle. It manages to be a fantastic middle chapter to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite film series of all time.

There’s a lot I want to talk about so I’m just going to get right into it.

Miles is a great protagonist

Miles Morales is a character that I felt Into the Spider Verse really elevated. I had read all of the ultimate comics spider-man run that was his debut series and, while I liked Miles, he was never in the top tier of my favorite superheroes, but that quickly changed with Into the Spider Verse. They managed to explore his struggle and hesitance to accept the Spider-man mantle in a way that was far more compelling than his comic book counter part.

Across the Spider Verse takes the already really strong basis that Into the Spider Verse created for Miles and builds on it through a brilliant meta narrative on what it means to be spider-man and asking the question of whether or not Miles really is spider-man.

Trauma is so ingrained into the creation and growth of spider-man as a character. Ask anyone to list what the most iconic moments in spider-man comics are and you are bound to get answers that include uncle ben’s death, the death of gwen stacy, the death of Jean DeWolfe, Captain Stacy’s death, etc.

There are a lot of moments of loss within the spider-man mythos that define the character and these moments are carried over into a lot of spider-man media outside of the comics. Miles’ rejection of this narrative and the necessity of loss to make a hero in this movie is what truly makes him become spider-man.

The first movie had him accepting the mantle but this is where he truly grows into the role.

Outside of the mask Miles is a unique and three dimensional character as well.

Miles has a youthful charm and good heart that feels authentic to a high schooler that has yet to experience a lot of what life has to offer without falling into feeling like a middle schooler or a caricature of a teenager like MCU Peter Parker tends to do at certain points in his trilogy.

I think this is displayed really well in his relationship with Gwen. There’s an innocence and inexperience there that shows that this is his (an her) first attempt at a real relationship but it never feels surface level because the movie does a great job at selling their bond and how they are similar in key ways that makes it so the understanding they find in one another feels natural.

This elevates the betrayal he feels when it’s revealed that Gwen and Peter B Parker knew everything Miguel reveals to him the whole time and it makes his goodbye to Gwen all the more impactful.

Another relationship I want to shed light on is the one Miles has with his parents.

Miles’ bond with both his parents in this movie is phenomenal but the relationship that is really allowed to shine is the one between Miles and his mother, Rio.

I loved the expansion of Rio Morales’ role. In the first movie she was a memorable but underused character (understandably) and her relationship to Miles took a backseat to his relationship to his father. But here we get to see their unique bond and her attempts to understand him and learn to give him the space he needs to grow into his own person. It felt earned that she was the one he was going to reveal his identity to first before it was revealed that the Rio he told wasn’t from his universe.

As it stands Miles’ arc isn’t complete, but what is shown and the place he is left in make for a strong set up for the finale of this three part story. I have complete faith that this trilogy will stick the landing and provide satisfying conclusions to the arcs and relationships that have been set up. Miles has really become one of the best iterations of the spider-man character and one of my favorites to hold the mantle. I can’t wait to see what they do with him in the next movie.

Gwen’s increased role

One of my favorite changes from the first movie is the amount of emphasis put on Gwen and her arc.

I knew after Into the Spider Verse that if they were going to make a sequel Gwen would likely have a much bigger role considering the seeds they planted to have her connection to Miles grow and the fact that where she was on her journey as a spider-person had her in the perfect place to be a foil to him moving forward. It felt like a natural progression, but even knowing that and having read the Spider-Gwen comics, the way the movie utilized her was better than I ever could have hoped.

Across the Spider Verse took the potential for Gwen as a character and foil for Miles and ran with it by creating a duality in how their arcs compare to one another.

The opening sequence very purposefully made her a dark parallel to Miles, a cautionary tale of what could go wrong if he unmasks himself to his parents and an extreme case of the isolation he could experience throughout his journey. But also just like Miles she’s very early on in her journey as Spider-woman. She’s not even out of high school so many of her canon events haven’t happened yet and, like she learns later on in the film, her story isn’t set in stone.

She’s on that same journey of self discovery and forging your own path that Miles is and having this contrast between them elevates both their arcs.

She’s not just an amazing foil for Miles. She’s also an excellent vehicle for the movie’s themes.

Across the spider verse is centered around themes of isolation, fate, the weight of life, and making your own path and, while Miles is undoubtedly the protagonist of the feature, Gwen is the one the movie tells a complete arc with surrounding these themes.

Her loneliness was hinted at in the first movie but it’s put on full display here with the opening 20 minutes hammering home just how isolated she is in her world and how much the loss of Peter Parker and her role in his death has effected her.

Gwen lacks any sort of support system at the start of the movie. Even before the showdown with Vulture there’s a disconnect between her and her police captain father that stems from the fact that he’s leading the hunt for Spider-woman, her alter ego, because he believes she killed Peter. She struggles to open up to anyone else and make friends in her world because of her life as spider-woman and how intrinsically tied it is to her issues. And she’s lost the only people she feels could understand her with no way that she knows of to see them (particularly Miles) again.

The opening culminates with Gwen losing the last person she has left in her own world when her father tries to arrest her after she unmasks herself to him and she flees her world to join Miguel’s spider society.

This all sets up a very powerful arc dealing with her loneliness and struggles with doing the right thing in the face of her fear of rejection and loss where she finally really opens up to other people and “starts her own band” to stand against Miguel O’Hara through her connection with Miles and desire to help him as well as her reconciliation with her father.

This movie asks questions about whether or not trauma and loss are necessary to make you spider-man so it’s significant that it is instead through healing from parts of her trauma, reconnecting with her father, and making genuine connections that Gwen is able to grow as a hero. It says a lot about what this movie believes makes someone “spider-man”.

Another moment in Gwen’s arc that exemplifies what the movie believes makes a hero is actually Gwen’s reconciliation with her father where he reveals he quit the force. That moment proves that Miguel’s belief is wrong and that breaking the canon isn’t the end of the multiverse as they know it. This coupled with the fact that it’s Gwen’s speech about her desire to do what’s right and protect those she loves that gets her father to quit tells you everything this movie is trying to say about heroism. It’s not the loss and trauma that makes you spider-man but the character of the person behind the mask.

The opening also does a great job of establishing just how much Miles impacted Gwen in the first movie. He broke through this wall of isolation she put around herself and for the first time in a long while she found a genuine connection with someone who could understand and know all of her. It sells you immediately on how much this bond means to her and makes her conflict moving forward really compelling.

This relationship is a linchpin in the narrative of this film so if it didn’t work then the impact the movie’s story and themes would have been severely hampered.

If I’m being honest Gwen’s arc is where the movie hit me the hardest. I think everyone has dealt with loneliness and that feeling of isolation that can come from being different and/or grief. There’s always that underlying desire for understanding and community that many people fear they’ll never have and seeing that portrayed in Gwen hit for me.

It’s the kind of desire I know I feared I would never get, but when I left home and went out on my own I was finally able to find people who understood me and accepted my idiosyncrasies in a way no one ever had before. And I always get emotional when I see that same isolation I felt portrayed in such a raw way and when those characters I see it in finally find the connection they need.

It’s also this isolation that goes a long way to explain why so many spider-people would join Miguel’s task force and go along with his plans. There’s a sense of community where all these people who have lost so much can find other people who understand them. That understand their unique form of grief, loss, and isolation that they struggle to find anywhere else because of the path they chose to take with their life. And won’t reject the half of them they are usually forced to hide from those they care about. Without showing this through Gwen’s perspective the last act of the film could have felt forced.

Gwen is a strong character that really grew into her role as the deuteragonist of the film and the role of spider-woman and serves to strengthen the themes of the film. She’s a great character that has so much potential moving forward and I look forward to her role and eventual reunion with Miles in Beyond the Spider Verse.

The animation

It’s no secret that spider verse changed the animation industry after it came out. Before spider verse many animated movies had started to feel like they fell into a very similar style that focused on realism above all else and in many ways I felt didn’t fully capitalize on what animation could do as a medium (there were exceptions but a lot of studios were starting to lean on the Disney/Pixar animation style). But now there are shows and movies that are taking a page out of spider verse’s book and experimenting. Studios are less afraid to let their animators get creative and it’s been incredible to see.

Across the Spider Verse continues to push the envelope and goes beyond what they did with the first one to create one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen.

The way they experimented with the animation in different dimensions to bring comic book art styles to life (Gwen’s universe) and further accentuate the character and culture they are centered around (Hobie and Pavitr’s universes) really served to elevate the story, heighten the emotions of every scene, and make this truly feel like a multiversal epic.

One of my favorite visual flares in the movie is how color is used in Gwen’s universe. In the opening it really plays up the stark divide she feels between her and everyone else. She feels like she’s completely separate from the world around her through the very deliberate contrast in coloring and the way the background bleeds and morphs around her. She’s frequently portrayed in shades of blue while the world around her is full of vibrant pinks, oranges, and white.

I also love how the paint like aesthetic of her world’s backgrounds are used to heighten the emotions of scenes like the talks she has with her father. The background bleeds and the colors morph to reflect the emotions of the characters talking. When Gwen is desperately trying to reach out to her father in the beginning after she unmasks herself and at the end when she admits how powerless she feels to protect those she cares about the background starts to run and the colors bleed together and it captures how her world is falling apart and her path forward is no longer clear.

I also want to point out how the lighting is one of the major hints that Miles isn’t on earth-1610. The lighting of every scene from the moment Miles is sent to earth-42 is some shade of purple or green which immediately gives the world a different feel than Miles’. It’s not so noticeable at first that it gives away the twist but it’s enough that it gives you an uneasy feeling the first time through and it’s details like these that elevate the reveal on rewatch.

This level of care and attention to detail permeates every frame of the film. There isn’t a single second of this movie that is wasted and it really uses the medium of animation to its fullest potential.

I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in Beyond the Spider Verse. If it’s anything like this then it will be amazing.

conclusion

Spider-man is far and away my favorite hero. I’ve read many of his comic book runs, I own all his movies and video games, I’ve seen all his shows, etc. I’m the massive fan that probably understood way too many obscure references that this movie made and I loved every second of the movie I got to see.

I had so much fun with this movie and I hope everyone who watched the movie managed to get some enjoyment out of it. I can’t wait for Beyond the Spider Verse to come out and to finally get to see the conclusion to this animated trilogy.  

side note

Spider-man is a character that is able to speak to a wide range of people because of the struggles he faces. Having a movie that understands the diversity of the people who relate to the character and reflect that on screen through the many (canonical) spider-people portrayed is amazing.

I love that so many people will get to see someone like them being the hero they admire. Stan Lee himself said that anyone can wear the spider-man mask. He wanted people to be able to see themselves in the heroes he created which was the basis of spider-man (and the x-men but that’s another story). And that’s something that I will always love about the character.

[the-elevator-twins]

(i) > Your ears ring from the sudden slamming of the door to your apartment. You forgotten how loud your supposed twin can be when angry.

> "Did you have to slam the door on those two? Was that necessary?"

> "Can't they take a hint to piss off?"

(i) > Your twin makes a point. Tomorrows a work day, an you're not in the mood to get drinks with your coworker. You still need this job. Moving your hands from your head, you continue.

> "As much as I don't like him, what did the other one do?"

> "Nothing, like always. He's utterly and completely useless. Oh, we also got a notice on the door."

> "Notice? Let me see--"

(i) > An envelope is thrown your way. Fumbling to catch it, you shot a glare at your twin before reading the contents of the paper. All it says is one thing on a piece of paper.

(?) > "Open Inbox?"

×+×+×

Hi there! This is an Elevator Hitch AU blog! I realized late I should have put a little about me, but I got overslept with the initial blog release. (I am so sorry about that-)

This AU was designed and crafted by yours truly, myself. The destination arrival of floor 8 and its usual course of action is altered. This leaves the originals and doppelgangers to fight and cause some 'malfunction'. The two protagonists in the elevator fight, only for a loud snap to cease the brawling, and before it's too late, they plummet to their demise.

However, upon impact, both original and doppelganger come out unscathed. There is only darkness that leads to a large door, a fire exit in the basement level of the company. Before the two can fight to run through, in the blink of an eye, they are greeted in their new apartment complex.

Not only that, but a wash of familial bond washes over the two. A feeling they have no choice but to share. Because here at this corporation, we treat everyone as a family. Despite the comforts of home, we dive into their plans of escape, and seemingly, there is only one way out.

Into the arms of their "coworkers," who visit each night to go out drinking. Although the invitation is warm, their eyes are menacing and plotting evil intent.

A couple of rules!

I. I do allow lil magic anons / rp interactions / story liners to follow. Keeps me motivated!

ii. Common courtesy with interactions on my blog, you know what to ask and what to not ask. Suggestive is fine!

iii. I'm sure everyone is aware of Elevator Hitch when viewing my blog. Still, I will implore you that this blog has heavy themes such as gore, implied abuse, and, of course, death. This is the first and final warning.

iv. Obviously, I will try to mix in both canon and headcanon elements. Believe me, I'm not the best at it, but I try to stick to the main storyline as possible! Case in point: Protag and Antag have never learned of Normal Guy, sacrificing the rat, etc, beyond the room 8 puzzle.

v. Mun is an adult, I prefer to keep in my age group, on the rare occasion: engage with those 17-18. Nothing against minors, just keeping ya'll safe distance 👌 If you have questions about my AU, or would like to know a little more about me, my 'main' account is @justmandika. Sometimes I draw, or sometimes I bully good friends.

That's about it then! I hope you enjoy your stay here! Mod Mandika out!

×+×+×

[yuseirra]

Been playing episode Aigis lately, (about ten hours in) and here's my honest review on it:

There's a whole lot of grinding.. they really did keep to the original source material. It isn't bad, but the whole structure of this DLC is clear a dungeon->a little snippet of plot->more dungeon->story (on repeat) Oh, I do like how the "doors" have names that are related to Dante's Divine Comedy... it's the one work I always attempt on reading but never make it past Inferno...I'd like to complete reading it one day.

Reload did a pretty good job with adding some extra interactions, thus enhancing the characterization, that part of it isn't totally gone in this DLC either, but there is too little plot compared to the fights. I had fun fighting in Tartarus in the main game, but I find it to be a bit tiring on this one (bet that was even more stronger in the original FES)

The best part about this DLC is Metis for me, she's really pretty and I like her character. It's nice seeing Aigis having a cute sibling who cares about her well-being. The dungeon dialogues are pretty nice too, I think I like that second to Metis, it's good that it's there.

The rest are spoilers regarding the plot~

Another thing I felt about the story is that, it actually may be Akihiko who took the protagonist's loss the hardest besides Yukari and Aigis who are clearly suffering... he used to be very kind and understanding while being pretty righteous, but now he seems to be constantly on edge. I get that coming from him, because he keeps losing all the people he's wanted to protect, it's his third time now. The link ep in Reload really does add to his character if you think of it, I think he thought of the protagonist as his little brother and decided he wanted to watch over him, but that couldn't happen. Mitsuru and Junpei and Ken are seemingly taking it relatively better, I guess. Koro and Fuuka.. they're the quiet type so...There's no wonder why Yukari and Akihiko had the biggest conflict upon how they should handle the keys later in the DLC. They both hold very strong thoughts about how things must be resolved, and it's hard to find a middle ground.

I wish they added more to the story, there were some opportunities like adding a new third-tier persona, or the characters talking more about the protagonist and sharing some thoughts about him. I kind of feel a bit disappointed that they don't address him so much at all, after all those times they spent together.. I see how hard it'd be for them to bring him up, but as a player, you want you to be acknowledged.. We had a bond, guys...!! Moving on and forgetting, being a source of trauma.. that's sad! ;v;) talk about him more, he did so much for you guys!! (and that's where Yukari's whole, "Now everyone needs to realize their own feelings. Think about who he was, and what he meant to us."- comes in - it's there in the the trailer too- that line resonates with me. She does have a warm heart)

Yukari's like the only one who suggests, "We have to go back to save the protagonist from death if there's a chance to!" out of the entire SEES group;; If it weren't for her, I feel like the story would have ended at the spot with everyone agreeing to move on. Even if it's wrong, I feel like she's the one who brought a different perspective to things that's helped lead to a perfect ending. You need a thesis and an antithesis to form a better synthesis and that's what happened.

They seem to have taken out the part where she tries to grab Aigis's key out of desperation in Reload and I honestly didn't like that, because.. if someone's life you love is on the line and if it's your last chance to get them back, it doesn't matter if you're sweet or anything, it's natural to be desperate. I really liked that part of her in the original, she'd do ANYTHING to try and get him back alive. It was the only way to see him alive again, even if it were to be flawed...It felt real and alive. It was something pretty powerful and what's made her my favorite girl out of the series. I was really looking forward to seeing that scene happen again as I bought this DLC and I find it a bit of a bummer after having learned this... o<-<

but Reload Yukari seems to be a much more softer person... a lot less thorns in her, maybe that's what will make her more appeal to more people..she always had that caring side to her too, and it's a crucial trait, she's ultimately a loving person. It's love that makes her do things. If that part of it is intact, it's a bit of a shame on my end but I'll still care for her.

Override was a really good piece of work, it handles what could be episode Aigis if she's the one that's gotten together with the protagonist as well as the female protagonist being there in the story too, I'd like to take that as semi-canon in my head :) Um, I really would like to draw fanarts for it in the future, when I have time and some focus, right now I'm quite distracted with life and other works hehe

anyway, that's it for now! Changed the difficulty to "Peaceful" for this one..; overall, I don't regret having bought the DLC but it's been..tedious. That's my honest feelings towards it. There are some things I appreciate about it, but I think they could have done more with it.. but considering how reload was in the first place, I guess they went with preserving the experience and making minor adjustments overall. It's not a bad remake, it's very true to the original material, but certainly.. warmer and toned down. That can be both positive and negative, and considering the theme of the story, it can have many different effects. I guess it's its own thing on that regard.

[satoshi-mochida]

Metaphor: ReFantazio ‘ATLUS Exclusive’ introduces locations, traveling on the gauntlet runner, quest dungeons, and Eupha - Gematsu

Publisher ATLUS and developer Studio Zero have released the fifth “ATLUS Exclusive” showcase video for Metaphor: ReFantazio, which introduces several locations players will visit, traveling on the gauntlet runner, quest dungeons, and new party member Eupha.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on October 11.

Watch the footage below, including a full transcript.

Extended Travel Beyond Fantasy Trailer

English

Japanese

ATLUS Exclusive 5 Showcase

English

Japanese

Transcript:

■ Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Katsura Hashino, the director of Metaphor: ReFantazio. My representative works include Shin Megami Tensei III, Persona 3, 4, and 5.

In previous showcases, we’ve revealed the general flow of the game, as well as the combat and story elements. In this ATLUS-exclusive showcase, World Tour Edition, we will be going over the “journey” aspects, a wonderful hallmark of fantasy RPGs.

The journey gameplay is what uniquely sets this game apart from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series. I’m extremely excited to share the details with you all. For today’s Exclusive Showcase, World Tour Edition, I’ll be sharing brand new, never-before-seen content. For RPG fans as well as those who are first learning about Metaphor through this showcase, I hope you see the fun adventure you can experience through this game.

Without further ado, let us depart to the world of Metaphor: ReFantazio. I hope you stick with us until the very end.

■ The Start of the Journey

First, let us start by reviewing the beginning of the game: the story is set in the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The protagonist is on a mission with his fairy companion, Galica, to save his friend, the prince, from a curse. During his journey, he awakens an Archetype, The Seeker. In order to save the prince, he has to defeat the person who cast it. And not only did they curse the prince, the culprit also assassinated the king. The protagonist travels to the Royal Capital to take him down.

However, upon the king’s death, the king evoked royal magic, which began the Royal Tournament, where the people’s faith is the key to select the next king. As a result, the entire kingdom is thrown into chaos. In all the turmoil, the protagonist makes the decision to participate in the Royal Tournament for the throne, to catch the culprit, Louis. This is how they begin their battle—a journey that takes them all across the kingdom, traveling on a mechanical carriage called the Gauntlet Runner.

■ Old Castle Town Martira

This is a town out in the countryside that the party visits in the beginning of the story. While we designed the game to incrementally increase freedoms for the player, obtaining a Gauntlet Runner after the story prologue increases the player’s ability to travel around.

Let’s explore the town. At each destination are activities unique to that area. In this town, there’s a test of courage where you bungee jump up a cliff. You can also do things like milk cows. Through these activities, you can increase your virtues as a traveler. Increasing these virtues enables you to take on new requests.

It’s up to you, the player, on how you want to spend every single day of your journey before encountering your main quest. Leading up to your main quests, you can strengthen your forces by completing side quests, increase your bonds with your followers, or do activities that increase the protagonist’s virtues. You have the freedom to choose what you want to do each day, much like real life.

If you want to improve your fighting abilities, you can visit the recruitment center to accept side requests called bounties to exterminate monsters. We took on a request to exterminate a monster called Valmo. You get information on its whereabouts, but there’s no need to head out immediately if you’re not prepared for the fight.

This person standing outside looks like he has a request for us. We’ve been asked to buy something from a nearby town. There’s a stop on the way to the labyrinth where the Valmo is, for the extermination request we took on. There’s a lot of people in town that have information. There’s some who will talk to you about the main quest, but in this town, you can also ask about the town’s specialties. Among these people, the informant is particularly valuable for getting intel. They’re useful resources, as you can learn more about rumors as well as the habits of monsters that you might come across. But the information costs money. If you’re confident in your fighting abilities, you could choose to tackle enemies without buying the information beforehand.

Here’s someone who can tell us about how the Royal Tournament is going. The protagonist’s goal is to get closer to Louis, who also has the ability to become king himself because of the royal magic. Let’s see what our current standing is. Looks like we’re quite a ways from being in the public eye. This ranking changes through story development, but it also increases through completing quests.

As you can see, the player has a lot of options on how they want to spend each day of their journey. You can use the online feature, Traveler’s Voices, to see how other players spent that day. You can also use it to reference the party formations of other players who beat the quest you’re tackling. Each player will have their own day-to-day way of progressing through their journey as they move through the story, which is one of the true charms Metaphor offers.

Let’s move on and see how it’s like to travel on a Gauntlet Runner.

■ Traveling on the Gauntlet Runner

Expeditions on the Gauntlet Runner

When you open the map, your allies will give advice on destinations and tell you what the schedule will be. We have two requests to do in Komero, so let’s head there.

It’s dangerous outside of town, so traveling is done by Gauntlet Runner. While on the road, you can do things you might do in real life when on a camper van, such as reading or cooking. How you perform in battle can vary greatly depending on how you decide to prepare yourself while en route somewhere.

Passing Time in the Gauntlet Runner

Your allies have their own things they do while on the Gauntlet Runner. Let’s try talking to Strohl to see what he’s up to. He invited us to do weapon maintenance with him. It looks like maintaining your weapon hones your Courage. By improving your virtues like this, others’ perception of the protagonist changes. It’s particularly indispensable for gaining cooperation from your Followers, so we should do what we can to raise these virtues.

Players are free to choose how they spend their time while on the gauntlet runner. You can make special items in the kitchen, or even do laundry with your allies. Looks like we found an item from the laundry; someone must have been hiding it.

Like how you spend time in town, players can choose what to do and enjoy their journey at a smooth pace. You can also stop by a nearby village if there is one. We got something; let’s go hand it to our ally right away.

We’ve finished our request from Neuras, the gauntlet runner engineer. Thanks to that, we awakened the Gunner Archetype. Completing quests like this is an important factor for deepening your bonds with your followers.

Let’s go buy the eggs that someone requested we get for them. They’re also selling bath salts that you can’t find in town. You can buy valuable items like this on your travels, so you should try visiting as many places as you can.

■ Quest Dungeons

Looks like the gauntlet runner arrived at the labyrinth called “Man-Eater’s Grotto.” Let’s try channeling that Gunner Archetype we just got. The Gunner can attack quickly from afar in Fast Battle, so it’s relatively easy to get an advantage and move to a Squad Battle, even for those who aren’t that good with real-time action.

In Squad Battle, the Gunner shoots ranged physical attacks and also maintains its attack power from the back row. One of the benefits of improving your bonds with your followers is that you can obtain new Archetypes, which gives you more strategies to use in battle in addition to unlocking all kinds of useful abilities you can use in battle.

By the way, you can always return to your base town from the dungeon in an instant, so if you feel underleveled, you can always retreat. If you can’t complete a dungeon within a day, you can set up camp in front of the dungeon and go back to tackling it the next day. However, don’t get too distracted on tackling dungeons that you forget the time limit for your main mission.

In the Belly of the Worm

What we just looked at were dungeons for the mini side quests we have in store for you, but let’s take a look at another kind of dungeon as well. Here’s a first look at a main quest dungeon: it’s the belly of a giant worm, believe it or not! It’s a dungeon with a special time limit since you have to escape before you get digested and dissolve.

There are a lot of creative fantasy dungeons that await you on your journey in Metaphor. We’ve prepared a lot of dungeons, big and small, and we hope you look forward to them. Now then, let’s continue on with the main quest.

Now then, let’s continue on with our journey!

■ Port Brilehaven

Here’s a first look at the town, Port Brilehaven. It’s a lively port town where sailors come and go. First, let’s head towards the port itself. You can see a lot of street stalls lined up.

Let’s take a look at the armor shop. Thanks to one of my followers’ abilities, I can get a discount here. And after talking to the owner, it seems like there’ll be a sale soon.

Here’s the port area. There’s some strange balls of water. There are a lot of strange sights throughout the area of Brilehaven. There’s also a coliseum further inside the city. Can you tell how many things are in store for you to do?

Let’s keep walking. Now we’re in the area where the tavern is. There are a lot of inns, too. Business is booming from people coming in for the Royal Tournament for the throne.

Here is a seafood restaurant, which you might expect from an ocean town.

The more you progress through the story, the more there is for you to do. If you’re unsure about what to do, you can always press teh Ask Gallica button to ask your fairy companion for advice. She’ll always help show you around, like a concierge for your travels.

■ Travel Routines

Planning Your Travel Route

Your travel map will slowly get more and more complex. As you can see on this screen, there are multiple routes you can take to get to the same location. If you visit multiple places in one stretch, the number of days you use will decrease proportionally, but you may end up needing to tackle battle after battle, so you’ll need the power to match. Planning your travel route is another area of the game where you’ll have to strategize carefully.

Campsites

Despite how tough gauntlet runners are, it’s still dangerous to go around at night because of the monsters running free. So at night, the party pause their travels and rest up at a campsite. Here, you can take your pick of nighttime activities, such as having a relaxed conversation with your allies, or taking a bath.

Let’s try taking a soak in the cask tub at the back of the deck. While we’re at it, let’s use the bath salt that we bought at one of the villages before. It has a relaxing effect, which increased the protagonist’s stats. By the way, there are different kinds of bath salts available, which you can find as you travel throughout the land.

Encountering the Scenic Sights

Looks like we came across something. Another pleasure of traveling is coming across scenic sights you’d only see in another world. An ally will draw you a commemoration sketch. If you give it to one of your Followers, a young girl who’s awaiting your return in Grand Trad, will be happy.

■ The Uncharted Isle: Virga Island

Here’s another location reveal: a place called Virga Island. On this island, you can enjoy unique tracks themed after religious music composed by Shoji Meguro, who is well known for his work on the Persona series.

Here, the protagonist makes yet another new encounter. Her name is Eupha, a new ally that’s only now being revealed in this showcase. I wonder what role she plays in the protagonist’s journey. I hope you look forward to learning more about her in the future.

■ Review

So, what do you think? If you had to actually go on a long journey in real life, it wouldn’t be a simple endeavor. Taking that into account, we hope that you enjoy the journey of Metaphor, where you can travel as you please in the comfort of your own home.

Though we’ve largely focused on the profound fantasy elements Metaphor, simply, it is also a game filled with the joys of traveling from town to town, an element we hope for in fantasy RPGs.

Though this title is a rare attempt from us at the fantasy genre, we aim to make this a culmination of the efforts in our previous RPGs.

We hope everyone, including fans familiar with Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, as well as those who love fantasy RPGs, enjoys playing Metaphor.

We’ve shared information on Metaphor‘s world setting and story, battle system, and other aspects of the game in other Showcases. Please feel free to take a look at those if you haven’t already.

The next Exclusive Showcase coming out this fall will reveal exciting new information. Please look forward to it. In addition, Tokyo Game Show 2024 is taking place this fall, and we will be having a large exhibit where we’ll offer a hands-on game experience of Metaphor: ReFantazio. On top of being able to experience the journey gameplay like we introduced today, there will also be another special demo available to play at the event. We’ll release more details related to the event in the future. We look forward to seeing you at Tokyo Game Show.

Once again, Metaphor is scheduled for release this fall on October 11, 2024. Both the physical and digital editions are available for pre-orders, so please pre-order your copy or add it to your wishlist. Along with the standard edition, a Digital Deluxe Edition commemorating the 35th anniversary of the ATLUS brand is also available.

See you at the next ATLUS Exclusive Showcase. Thank you very much for your time today.