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mocha-sim · 4 years ago

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For a while now I’ve wanted to write out a post concerning where I stand on the whole issue with YanSim and its developer (in short: neutral, leaning heavily towards the negative side, but I like the potential of the story and characters). There are a lot of problems and I really want to throw in my two cents

This might not be necessary, but I need to get it off my chest, and hopefully make some people think about other points of view

Warning: long post ahead

1. Six years and still in development

I can really see both sides here

On one hand, six full years without even one rival - the single most important part of the game - and a game still full of placeholder assets, and terrible code on top of that, is pathetic

On the other hand, Yandev is working with only a small team of volunteers and himself, who (no matter what he claims) knows very little about game development (from what i’ve seen, he’s made one before, but it looks like a very small-scale and basic fighting game, unlike YanSim which is much more large-scale and has a lot of features)

Professional game teams do have full, high-quality games made in less than six years, but that time is also a product of game company employees being extremely overworked. Lately I’ve seen a lot more people talking about this issue, which is good, but isn’t it hypocritical to not also apply that logic to Yandev?

Again, though, I’m not sure how much time he spends actually working on the game - to me, it seems like he spends a lot of time on discord, reddit, etc. even if he does only stream for a few hours every night. Maybe the “harassment” that’s “slowing down game development” wouldn’t be such an issue if he didn’t spend so much time online interacting with these people?

2. The writing and characters

I’m not a huge fan of how the game’s story is handled, either

I don’t think it’s 100% fair to cast a final judgement with the game the way it is now - Osana not being out is in no way a good thing, but it also means that there hasn’t really been any opportunity for story or character development yet, especially for the rivals. That being said:

I feel like there’s a lot of wasted potential with characters’ individual stories and with the game’s story as a whole, like the “Aishi curse” - I just can’t think of many good stories with a main character who’s basically an empty husk. If Ayano had emotions from the beginning, and actually had to struggle with them, she could be a much more interesting character. There doesn’t even need to be a magical curse for it to run in the family - the way children are raised has a serious impact on the person they grow into. If Ayano is raised by a crazy, abusive stalker of a mother, she may well turn into the same thing.

Taro, too - he has so many contradicting character traits. He yells at Ayano for “scaring him” when she’s carrying a box cutter or laughing, but has the courage to run right up to a murderer and take off their mask?? He doesn’t care about reputations for Osoro or Oka, but won’t love Ayano if her reputation drops too low?? We’re told that he’s “friendly and respectful”, but we’re never shown that part of his personality. On top of that, we’re not really given a reason to like or pursue him as the goal of the game - when he’s not interacting with Girl of the Week, he doesn’t really do anything except sit by the fountain and read. I feel as though Taro should have a routine that involves interacting with other characters and gives us more of a feel for the personality we’re told he’s supposed to have

Raibaru as a whole makes no sense and feels like a satellite character to Osana. In Osana’s shoes, I would want to have a word with her about personal space. There’s not a lot to say about her aside from that, because... she doesn’t really do anything except follow Osana around all day and shut down the player’s attempts to kill her. She feels more like a soulless obstacle than a character

I think there should be more true pacifist options than just matchmaking - even the befriending elimination route will, in Yandev’s own words, involve someone getting hurt. If we’re supposed to have a choice on whether or not to hurt and kill people, there should be more variety in our options

3. The game’s code sucks/it’s poorly-optimized

Yeah.

I don’t know much about coding but the amount of awkward stretching/bending limbs on corpses, clipping through walls, low fps, etc. makes this obvious. It was definitely a bad move on Yandev’s part to start a project like this without at least taking a coding/game development class or something

I think the best course of action for Yandev would be to get a professional programmer on board after Osana is released and spend a few months fixing the game’s code before he starts work on the next rival

4. The character models are just stolen Unity models

They are just unity models, but not “stolen” at all - YanDev paid for them.

That being said, they’re sort of ugly and inexpressive, and personally i’m hoping they get replaced soon

5. The characters are all minors

They’re not. It’s in flashing red letters on the screen when you open the game. I can’t help but feel like the reason people keep insisting that the characters are minors is so that they can feel like heroes for defending them or something

It doesn’t make a lot of logical sense, but there’s still plenty of time for this to be fixed. I think it was recently confirmed that Akademi is called an “academy” now and won’t be referred to as a high school again

Imo YanDev should just change it to a post-secondary school, since that’s probably the most seamless way for all the characters to be adults

One last thing I want to say on this is that, when it gets brought up, I often see people use the excuse “the age of consent in Japan is 13″. 1: it isn’t - the Japanese government lets each prefecture decide its own age of consent, but 13 is the minimum. As far as I know, no prefecture has set it below 16. 2: even if 13 was the age of consent, that doesn’t mean we should accept and defend it as “part of a different culture”. It’s still pedophilia. 3: Japanese people actively protest against things like this

6. The uniforms are middle-school uniforms/don’t look like they belong in a prestigious school

Yeah

However there are multiple uniform options, and it looks like the default uniforms will be completely changed in the final game

7. Panty shots

YanSim is an 18+ game, but there is such a thing as too far

I’ve seen people who tolerate it, but I haven’t seen a single person who actively likes the panty shots and would complain if they were removed. Imo the part that makes this bad is the fact that we, the player, actively have to point our camera up a girl’s skirt and take a photo of her underwear with it being in full view; the whole way this works makes it obvious that the feature was put in there for titillation more than anything else, and it just feels uncomfortable. If it were more like Uekiya’s key-stealing minigame where all we have to do is push a few buttons, the whole gross/uncomfortable aspect could be taken away and a lot of people would probably be fine with it

It would also be better to replace it with an expanded version of the phone-stealing feature: this would let the player get “points” for students of both genders, plus it would still make sense to gain more points for certain students, like the student council or the bullies. Maybe you could even steal teachers’ phones under certain circumstances?

8. YanDev is homophobic

Again not too sure on this one

Iirc, most of the comments people bring up on this are from years ago when he still went by EvaXephon

But speaking as a wlw, I think some of the ways I’ve seen him talk about f/f relationships are pretty creepy. And on top of that, he seems to be considering adding a “female senpai” option to the game, but no male player character? (though i guess i can see the point of view that a male mc would need a lot more new voice lines, animations, etc. while the senpai follows a mostly fixed routine and would only need so many. still, it seems wrong to have one without the other). I hope I’m wrong about this but his support of the LGBT community seems mostly focused on the L and more for his own entertainment than any actual support

9. YanDev is making more money than he should (and handles it poorly)

His Patreon may be dropping, but his YouTube channel is raking in even more money with 2M+ subscribers, and he’s making even more money from things like merch and donations... all while apparently still living with his parents (which i don’t find hard to believe). He’s also apparently bought 2 switches and a sex doll instead of using the money to hire the help he desperately needs with his game

Assuming he really does still live with his parents, I fully support the petition to get his Patreon suspended until he at least finishes Osana. Most game devs don’t make any money off of their games until they’ve finished it completely

10. YanDev wrote rape fanfics

So I did briefly check his old ffn profile some time ago, and as far as I could see everything had the proper ratings and warnings

Tagging/warning/rating is a fanfic author’s only responsibility to you. You make the choice on whether or not to read it. If everything is appropriately tagged and you read it anyway, that’s on you, not the author. If you are mature enough to be on the internet unsupervised, then you are mature enough to curate your own experience.

Fiction is the place to explore controversial themes and topics. It doesn’t mean in any way that a content creator would condone the things they write about in real life

11. YanDev steals art/assets

He does, and still hasn’t apologized for the DLC rivals thing. In fact he made a post defending himself for it, and even compared himself to Andy Warhol in the process (lol)

I’m not sure but I think I heard something recently about him continuing to do this type of thing (the grass, etc.). In which case we should continue to put pressure on him until he credits the creators of whatever art/assets he stole. Art theft is inexcusable

12. The fanbase is mostly kids

This is unfortunately true, and it’s a big problem (i’ve had to deal with it myself on my youtube channel)

However I would personally say that this problem is outside of YanDev’s control. Kids seem to be drawn to edgy/violent things, or things they shouldn’t be allowed to see (just look at Call of Duty). I put the blame for this on the parents who aren’t monitoring their kids’ computer activities. As for YanDev, he’s not a babysitter and it’s not his responsibility to censor his content for kids who shouldn’t be viewing it in the first place

Underage or not though, he should really avoid calling his fans things like “fuck kittens”. Even from the perspective of an adult that’s super creepy to hear

13. The character designs suck

Some are alright, others are absolutely awful

I think that, in a game built on anime tropes, characters should be allowed to have unnaturally-coloured hair. I mean, a lot of characters in anime do have weird hair that you wouldn’t see in real life (seemingly without any dye), and it can add a lot of personality to their designs

But some YanSim characters push that too far. The science club is the worst of the worst imo, despite being otherwise one of my favourite clubs. The neon streaks are ugly, and what’s up with the visors? Why are they allowed to wear those outside of club time? Why do they wear them during club time, as opposed to actual goggles or something? (i have this issue with a lot of club accessories, imo the accessories are unnecessary in the first place)

The bullies and the light music club also take things too far. Their designs are crowded, hard to look at, and out-of-place. Nothing against characters with multi-coloured hair, but there’s a time and a place and a “prestigious” school setting isn’t it

(also, slightly off-topic, but why does almost every “intended couple” look like they could be siblings?)

I could probably make a whole separate post on the character designs in YS, but I’ll save that for another day. (i’m just very passionate about character design)

14. YanDev has collaborated with porn games 3 times now

Once I could overlook (after all, the characters are 18+ and YS is already not for kids) but a third time? Seriously? And so soon after the last one?

Not only do I have mixed feelings about Yandev doing crossovers when his game isn’t even in the demo stage yet, isn’t this game supposed to be taken seriously as a horror game? I can’t think of a single other horror game that has willingly put its characters in porn.

Also I can’t help noticing that he advertises the porn game crossovers a lot more than he did with that one Dark Deception crossover. Did he ever even mention that one? I only ever saw it on the Dark Deception Twitter

15. YanDev is rude to his fans

I don’t have a lot to say against this one. As far as I’ve seen, he is, and he doesn’t take criticism well at all (just look at the subreddit - yes, a lot of the things that were removed deserved it (unfunny cum chalice jokes, etc.) but there have also been completely innocent questions, fanarts, jokes, and fanfics that have been removed. Not to mention mods going through peoples’ post history and banning them for being active in r/Osana. Both he and his mod team seem insanely paranoid)

I think he’s going to have to grow a thicker skin and stop censoring critiques if he wants to get anywhere with this game. Not just fans who bring up tiny details that might need changing, but also big, glaring issues like the code and character designs and such. He also doesn’t seem that professional for a game developer who wants to be taken seriously

That being said, if you’re the type to spam the discord server/subreddit/fan communities who have nothing to do with Yandev like the amino, you deserved that ban

16. YanDev defends pedophiles/the “sex license” thing

“No adult ever has any excuse to do anything sexual with a child. As soon as you touch a kid, you have crossed the line from being someone with a mental disorder to being the worst scum imaginable. Having a mental illness is involuntary, but touching a kid is a choice. If you have a mental illness, I feel bad for you. If you violate a child, I feel disgust and contempt for you, and I think you deserve the death penalty.” -From YanDev himself on this page

The sex license thing is also debunked on the same page: the whole conversation was taken out of context and the hypothetical “license” was supposed to be something that only an adult could meet the requirements for

17. “Corona-chan”

This was a really insensitive move to make in the middle of a pandemic, and I agree that the design was racist

However, YanDev listened to the fans’ complaints and removed the easter egg a day later, plus gave an apology. I think that this was the best thing he could do in that scenario and idk what else people are expecting him to do about it

18. YanDev’s general portrayal of high schoolers

Honestly, it’s not 100% realistic (especially in some of the dialogue. you know what i’m talking about)

I’m surprised that more students don’t seem to have friends outside of their clubs. It seems like all the students mostly stick within their club/group - walking to school together, spending their breaks together, etc. A lot of the ways the characters behave are very robotic, like walking in a perfectly straight line everywhere they go

That being said, a lot of the things i’ve seen criticized in regards to this are not part of the problem. By the time you’re in high school, you’ve probably hit puberty. It doesn’t make a character automatically sexualized if they have bigger breasts (though some designs in the game are over-sexualized, like a few certain staff members)

19. Muja, Mida, and Hanako

Let’s start with Hanako: Yandev has already said that she’s not romantically interested in her brother, she’s just insanely clingy and doesn’t want him to get a girlfriend out of fear that he’ll forget about her. If you still insist that she’s in love with Taro, then that’s on you

Muja and Mida I have mixed feelings on.

If every student is 18 or older, meaning that the first-years are 18, that makes Taro, a third-year, 20-21 years old. If Mida and Muja are in their early 20s as Yandev has said, that means that the age gap isn’t an issue. However, it’s still wrong for a teacher or a nurse to pursue their student/patient

I don’t think Yandev should need to spell out “hey, Mida and Muja are not good people” in flashing neon signs. The game is rated M and anyone who’s old enough to play it should be able to understand that without it being said. If you need morality in fiction spoon-fed to you, you probably shouldn’t be watching/reading/playing anything rated above PG

On the other hand, YanDev has a nasty habit of making these things into a joke, which is really insensitive and creepy. Like saying that Mida’s favourite food is “the spit of a younger man” (yikes), that she’s tried to seduce her own students 69 times (haha 69 so funney right guys XD), or that whole confession scene mess. It’s less of a problem with Muja, but it’s still there. As much as the audience shouldn’t need everything served to them on a silver platter, issues like these should still be treated with respect, not made into gags

20. Yandev wastes time on “Easter eggs”

I have to agree that he does spend time implementing unnecessary things sometimes (like the abc challenge), but as far as I know the Easter eggs are what he does in his spare time while waiting for assets from volunteers. However: snap mode, which was hyped up for years, turned out to be a flop with zero purpose, disappointing a good portion of the fanbase.

21. Love Letter

So far I’m really liking the look of this game: I like the models and the school environment they’ve shown, and it seems like they’re doing a lot of things in better or more interesting ways than YanDev, like not outright telling us who the rivals are. I don’t think it’s fair to accuse them of “stealing” anything, when it seems like most of the assets the games have in common are the things they bought from the Unity store (Love Letter even changed the base Unity model to have a more appealing look)

I'm glad to see that they actually listened to criticism from fans on things like Setsuna’s design (I love her newest look and I hope it’s the final one). From design alone she’s already a more interesting protagonist, and she looks like the sort of character you’d actually enjoy playing as

Not sure I totally buy the claim that it was all done in two weeks, but even if it was over the span of months, that’s still miles better than YanSim’s six years

Knowing that Dr. Apeis has already ditched one project I’m staying open to new information on this, but as of right now I’m looking forward to playing the demo!

Overall: A lot of the hate against the game and the dev are unnecessary, but some is justified and we shouldn’t blindly defend everything he does (seriously, you can admit that the character designs are shit. no one is going to stone you for it). There are a lot of improvements Dev could make, both on the game and on his behaviour towards fans.

I think that the biggest improvement would be for the game to just stop taking itself so seriously. At this point, it’s so full of memes, cringy google translate names, excessive edginess, and gags that it may as well just be a fun ridiculous anime game instead of a serious horror game. I feel like taking this approach could make it more successful (plus, it doesn’t really have a lot of horror elements aside from the gore)

There are a lot of cases of people taking things too far. Like spamming YanDev with explicit gore/animal abuse, trying to swat him, spamming volunteers with weird porn, trying to hack into volunteers’ accounts (including bank accounts), etc. That is going way too far, no matter how awful or pathetic you think a person is. If you are doing these kinds of things, you are doing more harm than Dev or his volunteers

Attacking YanDev’s appearance is unnecessary and not related to his behaviour or skills. Same with the chalice memes

However, I’ve seen a lot of YanDev’s defenders lashing out against “gremlins”, lumping all of them in with the kinds of people who do these things. If you check r/Osana, you’ll see that most if not all of the people there condemn this behaviour: the gore and porn spammers are a loud minority (and i’m willing to bet most of them are the basement-dwelling losers from KiwiFarms and 4Chan)

Attacking and/or spamming fans who are just trying to enjoy the game is also unnecessary. Someone liking a video game you don’t like is not doing you any harm. Be mature and move on

I’m not sure if some of what I’ve said above is 100% accurate so if anyone actually read this and has evidence against it then feel free to add

I think that’s about all I have to say on that. Again, i don’t know if it will change anything in the fandom but i really just wanted to get this off my chest

#yandere simulator #yansim #yanderedev #yandev #not sure if i should tag this as crit or not

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exhaustedwerewolf · 5 years ago

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Detroit: Become Human fans, please consider checking out C4/AMC Humans!

I’ve been meaning to make this post since D:BH’s release, but I just found out that Humans was canceled after three seasons, and in my grief, I’m going to finally deliver. I’m not sure what the overlap between these two fandoms is like because I’ve never seen anyone talking about it and couldn’t find any posts tagged with both, which surprises me a lot.

For those unfamiliar with either, both shows are set in a world where humanoid robots are commonplace as servants and members of the workforce, and what happens when some of these individuals begin to achieve sentience. Asides from the subject matter- so similar I literally don’t have to explain them separately- so many characters have parallel roles in the story, the commonalities, from the overarching themes, to the robot detective, to the blue blood, are practically endless. I really want to draw people’s attention to Humans, though, because in my opinion it’s a severely underrated show, and I think those who enjoyed D:BH would get more of what they loved from it, and those who had more mixed feelings about it would find Humans delivers where D:BH lacks.

Let me explain what I mean.

Warning, though, that this ramble won’t be spoiler free, so if you‘re interested in the show but don’t want to read any spoilers- I’d really urge you to give it a shot!

Also warning, I’m a little dismissive of D:BH here, but that’s not to say I dislike it or don’t think people should like it, etc. I’m just trying to explain why I think in some areas, Humans does better- ofc, Humans is a tv show and not a game that needs engaging gameplay and multiple endings, so it has opportunities D:BH doesn’t.

The Synths (Androids)

I’m not a huge fan of the way androids are presented in D:BH, and the reason I’d argue for that is Cage makes no real effort to “other,” them- in fact, he goes beyond the logical to make them as human as possible. Androids’ body language and movement, range of facial expressions, idiosyncratic habits like Connor’s coin flipping, tendency even, to lie down to rest... they endear them to the player, but they’re ultimately all superfluous. Why were these things programmed in? Why don’t they operate as economically as possible? Further, why do androids become deviant, and burst out of their programming? We’re told it’s due to “stress,” but why can they feel such stress in the first place, and why does it trigger sudden sentience? We never get a clear answer. It’s pretty unclear, admittedly, how sentient androids are before they become deviant in the first place- and I see where the game was coming from with that, however...

Synths in Humans are far more unsettling- the actors portray their movements with a jarringly uniform perfection. Their speech and facial expressions are far less emotional, because emotions were never intended for them. They can’t feel physical pain, (although incurring damage remains a stressful and frightening experience) because again, that was never intended for them, and so they have no mechanism by which to do so. This gives humans arguing that they’re only machines a lot more clout. Everyone has memories of blank slates who never laugh or smile, and who can be turned off with a tap under the chin, only to crumple like mannequins. There’s times when they’re presented to the audience as unapologetically eerie and even disgusting, and it’s easy to see, therefore, how they’re being perceived by the public as machines or monsters, which arguably, was somewhat less credible in D:BH, where even non-deviant androids were personable and warm, had the capacity to create art from their imaginations, etc. Letting synths be genuinely different to humans while still portraying them as sentient and deserving of rights, rather than just... “human, but mechanical,” gives the issue a lot more nuance and fuels the inclusion of elements like anti-synth propaganda, and counter-protest, which I’ll talk more about later.

(As a note, the “why” behind their sentience is also explained in a manner that was, imho, more coherent and satisfying.)

As I mentioned before, a lot of the characters have seeming direct parallels, so I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of characters in depth.

Niska

The blue-haired Traci’s appearance is one of the most controversial elements of the game, from what I’ve seen. The writers undeniably dipped their toes into multiple subjects fraught with heavy implications in her scene, but ultimately that was as far as it went- Traci and her lover only existed to further the narratives of Hank and Connor (and to provide a frankly fan-servicey fight scene while scantily clad in the rain, but hey, that’s neither here nor there.) To anyone who found this character interesting but ultimately underutilized, might I introduce you to the light of my life; Niska. Like Traci, Niska spends a stint as a prostitute, and ultimately kills one of her patrons and skips the joint. Like Traci, Niska is a wlw- although her relationship with her girlfriend comes a little later on in the show. Unlike Traci, Niska is one of the main protagonists of the show, and undeniably one of the most important- she holds everyone’s fate in her hands more than once, she’s fascinating from an emotional point of view- her traumas are confronted in depth and not dismissed- and her actions are very often a driving force in the plot line. Her relationship with her girlfriend is developed on screen, and in many ways, arguably the most important in the entire show.

Max

I‘ve seen criticism of the revolution storyline in D:BH in that violent protest always nets you a bad ending, and in that the peaceful route is arguably too idealistic.I’d posit Max’s storyline (and the effects of his dynamics with Mia, Niska, etc.) as a more nuanced exploration of the issue. There’s characters pushing for both paths and they’re all portrayed as understandable, and their reasons for pushing either a peaceful or violent agenda are present and reasonable. As similar as he might seem to Markus at first glance, I’d argue Max, soft-spoken, brotherly, and empathetic, is a very different kind of leader, so I’m hesitant to compare them too much. But it’s interesting to see a character like this in such a high-pressure leadership role, and I’d argue that this is a less rose-tinted look at compassion in the face of oppression and violence.

Sam

I’m not going to mince words on D:BH’s Alice twist- to me, it felt inorganic and disappointing. I felt like the game withheld foreshadowing and intentionally misdirected the player to keep the reveal a surprise, and that really bothered me. However you feel about the Alice reveal, it’s undeniable that it is so late on in the game means that the whole idea of robo-kids being adopted into human families doesn’t really get explored in much depth. Humans gets more into the grit of this, discussing how a kid like this would be able to relate to kids and adults alike, what this strange form of “eternal youth,” would mean, etc. If that was an idea that interested you, you’ll get far more of it in Humans.

This really isn’t where the parallels stop- like I mentioned, we have a robot detective with a really close relationship with their human partner (hannor shippers, I’m looking right at you) we’ve got themes of domestic violence and abuse, we’ve got separated families, we’ve got art and morality- I can’t be here all day, but I’ll say it like this; if it’s explored in D:BH, it’s probably explored in Humans, too.

The Humans

D:BH is very much grounded in the perspective of androids- all the player characters are androids, as are the majority of the supporting cast- Hank is arguably the only human character that gets any real screen time, and one of the only real insights we get into how humans are coping with this new android-filled world. I think this is a shame, because the setting is a really interesting one, and a lot goes unexplored, or at least, unexplored in depth. It frankly feels kind of disingenuous to me to only see little of Markus’ impact beyond a number on the screen labeled “public opinion,” and this is something that I feel Humans deals with a lot better. One of Humans’ biggest strengths is, ironically, the humans in it- the viewer is grounded in this sweeping, overarching plotline primarily through the perspective of the Hawkins family, but ultimately other human characters play a lot of important roles as well. We’ve got synth/human romances, we’ve got humans passing as synths (yes, that IS Princess Shuri down there) we’ve got synths passing as humans, we’ve got humans campaigning for synth rights, we’ve got humans campaigning for synth extinction. Getting the human side of the story is really valuable and adds so much to the narrative as a whole, it makes the protagonists’ struggle more real and raises the stakes.

Frankly this post is a mess but if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and please watch Humans if you like this type of sci-fi. I promise it’s worth it.

#detroit: bh #d:bh connor #detroit: become human #c4 humans #amc humans #tv recommendations

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rainythefox · 6 years ago

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Deviant Heart (D: BH fanfic)

Summary: Post-best ending, nearly 8 months after Markus' peaceful rally for freedom for androids, Detroit life has returned but with it comes many changes as androids learn to live a life of freedom and the world is turned upside down with growing laws to protect android rights. CyberLife succumbs to this fallout and is regained by Kamski, who has different plans for the company he created. But an unknown party linked to CyberLife has created a virus that is affecting deviants and spreading. They have unleashed a superior model of Connor (RK900) to reclaim Connor and Markus for unknown purposes. And now Connor must do what it takes to protect his newfound freedom, friends, and prove that he isn't obsolete. (Hank/Connor as father/son dynamic) (MarkusxNorth) (KaraxAlicexLuther-family)

Disclaimer: I do not own Detroit: Become Human, Quantic Dream, or its characters. I wish I could have my own Connor though ;-;

Chapter 1: Eight Months Later

"You're doing it again."

Markus hid a grin, keeping his face straight as he moved another piece on the chessboard. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Carl laughed, mildly shaking his head as he looked through his lineup. He picked a piece and shucked it forward, knocking out one of Markus' pieces. "My boy, how long have we've known each other? Give this old man a challenge sometimes."

"I won the last game. Maybe I'm just getting tired."

"Tired my ass," Carl said with another chuckle, watching as Markus took out a knight. "You don't know what tired is until you're my age."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Phhh," the old painter huffed. "That's the difference between us, Markus. When you are my age, you will still be the same. Your body and mind won't break down as fast as a human's will. In a way, I envy you."

Markus made his move and then looked up to his father. Carl's tired eyes flicked across the chessboard, and then he reached forward to move his piece, dethroning Markus' queen and ending the game. He had regained his strength in the eight months since the revolution and was starting to look healthy once again, but he did seem more tired.

Markus always logged away Carl's condition with a new scan whenever he came to visit, helping him with anything he needed. Despite his complete autonomy and freedom as an individual, he never broke his dedication to Carl. It wasn't programming, it was love. It was Carl that awoke Markus, he knew. In the eleven years they had been together, Carl had always treated him as an equal, more than just a machine. In the end, it was Carl that made Markus believe that humans and androids could live together peacefully.

"Would you really want to live that long?" Markus asked, surprised at Carl's words.

Carl rolled back in his wheelchair, away from the chess game. His eyes went to the window, looking outside to the perfectly manicured lawn and courtyard of his home under the sun of a breezy summer day.

"Used to, I would say hell no," Carl said bluntly. "I've seen humanity at its best, and I've seen it at its worst. But it's only gone downhill within my lifetime, and it's hard to have faith in humanity anymore." He shook his head. "But now, I see there is hope. And it is because of you, Markus. Because of androids. How you chose to change this world in a way that humans have never been able to do. It makes me…curious…of what the future could be like. After all, you androids don't fight over petty issues involving skin color or which god to believe in. I believe wholeheartedly that you will be the ones to save this world."

Markus got out of his chair, walking around to the old painter. "Well, I guess we will see. What little we have right now is fragile and can crumble at any moment. We still have a long way to go."

"It won't get easier either," Carl stated, looking up at his android son. "But I know you will succeed, Markus."

"Hearing that come from you makes a world of difference," Markus replied, putting a hand to Carl's shoulder. Carl reached up and patted Markus' hand.

They heard the chime for the front doors opening, allowing an entry programmed into the security system. Markus thought that maybe it had been Phillip returning from outside, but then recalled that he was upstairs.

The AP700 had been his replacement since the events that took place eight months ago. And although he was a deviant as well thanks to Markus, he was still dedicated to his serving of Carl. Markus was able to come visit Carl plenty, but his role within his people didn't allow him to stay here at all times, when Carl needed care 24/7. And so, Markus was thankful for Phillip to provide that, and they talked through mind messaging a lot concerning Carl's care.

"Hey Dad! Hey Markus."

The doors to the den opened and Leo Manfred entered with a few brown paper sacks. Carl spun in his wheelchair to face his son. Carl smiled as he watched Leo move to the dining table to set the bags down. Markus grabbed the painter's wheelchair and pushed him over to Leo.

"I was starting to think you got lost," Carl said, his tone playful.

Leo grinned, pulling some items out of the paper sacks, mostly food items. Markus analyzed Leo, a quick scan he habitually ran with anyone he met up with for the day. He was still clean, had been clean off Red Ice for eight months now. He wore relaxed fit jeans, a blue shirt and boots.

In the eight months that had passed since Markus pushed Leo and sent him to the hospital, he had cleaned up and worked really hard at mending his relationship with his father. He came over every day to help take care of Carl. Markus was relieved. There was no more hostility between him and Leo, although Leo was still nervous with trying to bond with Markus at times. They were getting better though.

"Nah, just your typical overcrowded Detroit supermarket," Leo replied. "So, was thinking. Fish…I got salmon. Some steamed veggies on the side. Oh, and rice."

Carl shook his head. "You sure have been on a healthy food kick lately."

"We have to clean up your diet, Dad. Come on. It will be good, I promise."

"He is right. You have been eating too many carbs lately," Markus said.

Carl smacked Markus in the side. "Don't tag team me."

Leo pulled another item out of a bag. It was a bottle of scotch, and he walked it over to his father. "Well, picked this up for you."

Carl brightened, taking the bottle. "Ah, my favorite. Thank you, son. We can enjoy some of this after dinner."

"You know it," Leo replied.

The doors to the den slid open once more and then Phillip was entering. The AP700 android wore a white suit, his LED flashing blue as he came over to Markus, Carl, and Leo. He smiled in greeting, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Oh hello, Leo. I didn't hear you come in."

"Hey Phillip," Leo said, nodding his way. "Yeah just got back from the supermarket."

Phillip turned to Carl. "Carl, it is time for your bath and dose of medication."

"Already?" Carl said, looking at his watch. "I guess you would know best, Phillip."

"If you go right now, you can be done in time for dinner," Markus stated, sparing Carl a smile.

"Yeah, yeah," Carl mumbled, nodding to Phillip. He handed the bottle of scotch to Markus.

The android caretaker took the handles of the wheelchair and started guiding Carl out of the den. Markus and Leo watched them go. Markus scratched his head.

"Holler if you need anything."

He sat the bottle of scotch down on the table. Leo was collecting up the items he bought for their dinner. He glanced up at Markus.

"So, uh, you staying for awhile Markus?" he asked.

Markus nodded. "Yeah unless North or the others call for me."

"Great. Want to help me cook dinner?"

Markus dipped his head. "Sure."

They moved into the large kitchen to start preparing dinner. Markus easily scanned through his memory to recall where all the kitchenware was located. Markus started cutting up the veggies while Leo worked at getting the rice water going as well as preparing the fish.

There was a long period of silence as the two men worked, then Leo broke in.

"Uh, how ya been, anyway?"

Markus thought it over. "I've been alright. Taking one day at a time. Just never know what the day is going to hold with all that's been happening with the android rights movement."

"Yeah, I heard that the old CEO of CyberLife is taking it over again. I guess there was some kind of fallout with all these changes. Makes sense I guess. I mean, no one is going to be buying androids anymore. So, what is he planning on doing with it now?"

Markus paused at cutting up a zucchini, thinking. "He's given a few interviews with his plans, but I've only been able to watch one. Carl seems to think that Kamski wants to turn CyberLife into company dedicated to androids. Thirium replacement, recalibrations, repairs, that sort of stuff."

"So like healthcare for androids?" Leo asked.

Markus nodded. "Something like that, yes. Carl said Kamski's plans didn't stop there, but until we see what happens with the establishment of more android rights, those plans won't come to light."

"I met him one time at one of Dad's art things. He seemed…I don't know…creepy to me. You ever met him?"

Markus twitched his lips, finishing up with the vegetables. "Yeah, a few times. Was always real curious about me, asked Carl questions about my behavior and programming a lot. I guess because I was a prototype."

Markus scraped the cut-up veggies into a bowl just as he heard Leo start frying the fish. He took the bowl over to the steamer to dump it in.

"What about you Leo? How have you been?" Markus asked.

Leo smiled, taking a moment to season the cooking salmon. "Good, good. Every day gets easier. Been focusing more on improving myself, ya know? It keeps me from getting that feeling of wanting to get high. I mean, I haven't felt that way in a long time, it's great. D-don't tell Dad, but…I've been taking piano lessons. Wanted to wait and surprise him."

"Really?" Markus smiled. "That's great. He will love that."

Leo rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously. "I hope so, cuz you know, I tried taking painting classes. And I was terrible at it. I did not get that artistic gene at all."

They finished up cooking dinner and setting the dining room table. Phillip messaged Markus by thought and told him that he and Carl would be returning downstairs shortly. While waiting at the table, Markus looked outside the window. The sun had started to set. All had been quiet from North, Simon, Josh, and even Connor. He took that as a good thing and relaxed.

"Hey, uh, Markus?"

Markus' two different colored eyes moved away from the outside scenery to Leo, who sat across from him at the dining room table.

"Yeah?"

"I've been meaning to tell you for a while, and well, I guess I keep backing out of it. But…I wanted to thank you…for what you did that night."

Markus knew immediately which night he was talking about. He didn't know what to say at first, thinking it over. He also wasn't sure what he was feeling either. It was something mixed between relief and guilt, and Markus didn't understand that blend very well.

"I regret it. I could have killed you."

Leo shook his head. "But you didn't. And now look at me. You saved my life in the end. You literally knocked some sense into me."

Markus chuckled softly at Leo's light words. "Well, you're welcome, if it means that much to you."

"It does," Leo answered truthfully. He fumbled with his fingers. "And I know I have said this a few times, but I am sorry, for how I acted towards you before."

"It's alright, Leo. All is forgiven."

Carl and Phillip entered the den then, Phillip rolling Carl over to the dining table where dinner awaited. Phillip put Carl in front of the table, and Leo got his father's plate and drink ready for him before sitting down to get his own. Phillip came around and sat next to Markus and the four visited while the humans ate their meal.

"Come on, what the fuck is this?"

"Hi Hank," Ben Collins stepped over, holding his clipboard with notes. He glanced at the lieutenant's ever shadowing partner. "Uh Connor."

The RK800 nodded his way in greeting but didn't get a chance to voice anything before Lieutenant Hank Anderson cut to the chase.

"Is this really it? You ain't pulling my leg?" Hank grumbled, folding his arms and looking around the clothing store.

The veteran police officer chuckled, looking around himself, tapping the clipboard against his side. "Sorry to disappoint you. The bodies are in the back, near the counter."

"I'm skipping a perfectly good burger for this? Couldn't Gavin get this? I'm sure he has nothing else better to do."

"Eh, you'll be outta here in no time, Hank. Simple case. Looks like a robbery gone wrong."

"Any witnesses, Officer Collins?" Connor asked, looking around the outlet store, his sensory units picking up anything that could be of use.

"No, not that we know of."

Connor stepped away from Hank's side, wanting to get to work. Hank heaved a sigh, smacking Ben lightly on the shoulder as he passed to follow Connor.

"You owe me a burger, Ben!"

"Heh, sure thing, Hank."

A couple other police officers were trudging around, and Hank got onto them while Connor went straight to the bodies. He kneeled down, noticing one was on top of the other. He analyzed the bodies, a red flag coming up in his matrix as one was identified as a WR600 android. He wore normal human clothes, but there was no blue blood around or any injuries to produce such. He had no LED, had probably torn it off in the android revolution months ago like several other deviants. He was very likely a member of Jericho.

The woman his body slumped over was a human employee, late twenties. She was stabbed several times, Connor's coding coming up with a brand of pocket knife. He took a small sample of fresh blood from her clothing and analyzed it.

He looked around their bodies, trying to reconstruct what exactly happened. All he was able to gather was that the WR600 had dragged her over the counter and they fell to the floor.

"Whatcha got so far?" came Hank's voice behind him. "That the robber on top of her?"

Connor glanced at his partner from over his shoulder. "Not real sure it's a robbery. There would be no point for a WR600 to rob this store. It's women's clothing and the cash register doesn't contain much. Something else was the motive."

Hank half-smiled, crossing his arms. "That's why I leave the nitty-gritty to you. You know what's up."

"I am going to move the bodies. I have to see how the WR600…died," Connor said. He almost said shut down. He was eight months a deviant and still some old programming were old habits.

In the case for Connor, the advanced prototype, his abilities allowed him to be a valuable asset to the Detroit Police Department. In the aftermath of Detroit's evacuation, Captain Fowler and Kamski pulled strings to allow Connor to be employed and remain Hank's partner. For a machine that only knew control and completing his assigned missions, becoming deviant had left Connor lost and perplexed. He was thankful for Hank and being given his position back at the police station. It gave him a purpose, something he struggled with being a deviant.

Connor may have had a knack for adapting to human unpredictability, but he still needed help understanding emotions on a deeper level. The feelings and thoughts he would get as deviant he could understand on a basic level most of the time, but it was Hank who helped him understand himself on a deeper horizon. And because of that, Connor was starting to be able to socialize a lot less…awkwardly.

The RK800 grabbed the shoulders of the dead WR600 and pulled it up off of the victim, his database tracing through files to come up with the name Elizabeth Hubb, age 27. The WR600's right hand was clenched just below his sternum, on his Thirium pump regulator. Upon further inspection after laying him down on his back, Connor immediately noticed the knife lodged within the cylindrical plug, destroying it. The victim didn't do this to her killer, the killer did this to himself after he she was dead.

Connor quickly reconstructed the event, seeing the outlines of the attack, the android dragging the victim across the counter, the struggle, their fall to the floor. He saw the android shaking her shoulders after she was dead and then he took the knife and stabbed it into his pump regulator to kill himself.

Connor got to his feet, and Hank must have noticed his unease faster than Connor did himself. "What's wrong? You okay?"

"Huh? O-oh yeah," Connor rubbed his finger tips at his sides, his LED flashing yellow just for a moment before returning to blue. "This wasn't a robbery."

"What happened?" Hank was interested now, walking over to the prototype.

"He dragged her over the counter and killed her. Then he…shook her like he was trying to wake her up. After that he self-destructed. I don't understand the motive though. We must be missing something."

Hank looked down at the bodies, then his eyes went to the counter and skimmed across the clothing store.

"I'll talk to Ben, see if we can get the owner of the store down here. Maybe they will know something."

Connor nodded. "We should reactivate the WR600. He doesn't look majorly damaged beyond that destroyed pump regulator. I should be able to talk to him, figure out what happened. If anything, if I can get him reactivated and he won't talk, I can probe him."

"I'll get it sorted. C'mon, let's go get some lunch."

"But, shouldn't we?"

"Think you got the gist of it, son," Hank said. "Don't worry, we'll be back to finish up. We'll talk to the store owner first. It will take some time to get a replacement plug for that android to wake him up."

"Okay, Hank. But I do suggest a healthier lunch today. You already went over your total calorie intake for the day with that…whatever it was, you had this morning."

"It was a sausage egg and cheese Mcmuffin and it was fucking delicious. Breakfast for champions, I say."

"You ate two."

"So?"

Hank shoved Connor forward, rubbing the android's head playfully. "Jesus Christ, ok, I'll get something less, err, unhealthy alright?"

"Good," Connor smiled.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13002717/1/Deviant-Heart

#detroit: become human #detroit become human #dbh #dbh connor #dbh hank #dbh markus #dbh kara #rk800 #rk900 #deviants #androids #fanfiction #fanfic #Action/Adventure #mystery

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smashmusicideas · 6 years ago

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June 25: How the Ultimate Trailer Works So Well

Amongst all the thoughts and discussion regarding Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I don’t think any individual element of the game - even more than the confirmation of Ridley - warranted the level of adoration and excitement as not just the inclusion of every Smash character ever, but the short “Challenger Approaching” trailer explaining that.

So I decided I’d take some time and analyze it for how it works. Hoo boy, did that take longer than I expected.

youtube

For ease (and because I’m, well, lazy), I’ll be splitting this up into bullet points. I should also note that I’m avoiding a lot of stage analysis except in certain cases, largely because the emphasis on fighters is the focus. Also, this is quite long, so a “read more” tag is needed for this one.

Before the video: Sakurai adds this whole “character numbering” element, which is odd. Most viewers less familiar with this scheme (which has mostly always existed within the series) assumed this indicated the total number of characters from the start, but more than that it inherently acknowledges cut characters, something Sakurai tries to avoid as to not make their fans feel worse. No matter who is watching, it’s odd, and sets up the actual video in a way that feels odd.

00:02 - 00:15: We see Battlefield, something which since Brawl has always functioned as a focal point for the series - kind of in the way Mario does, too, which is why he appears here. Traditionally, Mario is also the character who reflects the visual direction of each game the most, so his “Brawl meets Smash For“ art style confirms it as a new game, one that will marry multiple iterations of Smash.

0015 - 00:28: Kirby, Samus, and Bowser are all Smash staples (two from the first game, one from Melee). They’re also not in numerical order, telling us to not expect things in a “normal” way. They also more clearly show a few returning stages, Castle Siege and Green Greens in particular, and Giga Bowser seems to function in a far new way.

00:28 - 00:34: Link is also one of the central Smash characters, but his drastic redesign tells us further that this will be a new iteration - one that will look to more recent games, at least in part (we also see a new Breath of the Wild stage, alongside Temple). Keep in mind that he gets a huge amount of time to emphasize this.

00:34 - 0:44: We see a lot of Donkey Kong (including a change to his Giant Punch), but it’s Falco’s appearance in 00:42 that’s surprising. He’s typically and understandably a hidden character; showing him off is kind of bizarre. For most viewers, it’ll just seem nice for a beloved character to return, but for the more attentive first-time viewers it is somewhat odd and continues the off-kilter vibe of Sakurai’s introduction.

00:44 - 00:48: Marth casually shows off the new changes to Shield Breaker, just like with DK earlier. Further indication that old fighters will have, to quote Sakurai from a decade ago, a “slightly different flavor this time around,” and that it won’t simply be an expanded port of Smash for Wii U (this emphasis will continue throughout the video and into Nintendo’s continued promotion of the game.

00:48 - 00:52: New Zelda! Not really new Sheik! Their having their default costumes implies they will remain separate fighters, and Zelda’s in particular bucks a trend of Zelda and Link’s costumes coming from the same game.

00:52 - 00:54: Our first post-Melee fighter, Villager, shows a new ability. His appearance also begins to move us from the more classic Smash fighters into a wider variety of ones new and old.

00:55 - 00:58: Meta Knight and Mewtwo. Notable for the former being the first Brawl character in general and the first one shown, and for the latter being the first Pokémon representative - before Pikachu, even. Mewtwo also looks like it did in Smash For, an indication the DLC would not be ignored.

00:59 - 01:01: And here comes Sonic - with a new version of Super Sonic and a returning Green Hill Zone in tow - as the biggest guest fighter out there, though that doesn’t confirm whether less established third party content would be joining him.

1:02 - 1:08: Peach and Pikachu, each with slight new changes in how Toad and Volt Tackle work. It’s notable how long it took to get to either of them, though their being more famous leads nicely into...

1:09 - 1:15: the Ice Climbers! Their return is such a big moment it’s hard to notice we’ve also got a returning Summit (and Living Room), and they unsurprisingly get a whopping six seconds to show off how they look in HD.

1:16 - 1:21: And from a beloved, long lost fighter to a highly desired new one, Nana and Popo formally introduce Inkling, with both a male and female design in tow. We get a good look at how diverse their weapon selection is, alongside a new Splatoon stage.

1:22 - 1:27: Pretty much the only thing we need to see with Falcon is the Punch, while Zero Suit Samus and Wii Fit Trainer show that even the less “iconic” of the cast aren’t going to be ignored. Given Boxing Ring’s centrality to Smash For, its being so prominent here makes sense.

1:28 - 1:30:��here’s where things get weirder. The Ice Climbers coming back makes sense, but the Pokémon Trainer? I don’t really think it’s vague on whether the switching mechanic will return (he’s in the back, so...), but it’s out of the blue in a way none of what we’ve seen here is. That it only lasts about two seconds makes it all the more shocking.

1:31 - 1:36: Ness and Lucas. A little surprising for the former, given his traditionally being a hidden fighter, and more so for the former, who was last in the series as DLC.

1:36 - 1:41: The DLC concern becomes even more noticeable now, with Ryu fighting yet another normally hidden fighter: Ganondorf, surprisingly sporting the classic Ocarina of Time design Melee used. It implies a far greater amount of changes than what we were initially expecting, and assures the less confident of us that even third party DLC will not be ignored.

1:41 - 1:44: And look who else is looking new, but Ike, who’s reverted to the design Brawl used...except he isn’t. While the Inklings were expected to have male and female versions, this is the first indication we’ll have more pronounced alternate costumes for specific characters.

1:45 - 1:51: Cloud’s inclusion is another important one at this point, because compared to other guest fighters, the possibility of his return seemed far more up in the air. He gets a lot of airtime, space that comfortably confirms his two outfits and Omnislash, a great flashy move to send us into the big moment.

1:52 - 1:55: If Cloud’s return wasn’t a sure thing, than Snake’s was a pipe dream for fans (myself included). Having one go to the other is smart, because after him, Ice Climbers, and Pokémon Trainer, Snake‘s chances feel so much more possible. And it works so well. We don’t see an attack, or anything, because we don’t need to. It’s Snake, on Shadow Moses Island. That’s enough for us, until...

1:56 - 2:01: “EVERYONE IS HERE!” really just speaks for itself, but I’d also like to note the small feature of Snake running right after the words appear. It’s subtle, but it’s a flash of energy leading to the rest of the video (an energy that is supported by the music, which becomes far more intense up until the end). And it’s important to him be behind the words, because by this point a viewer is processing them, recognizing the totality of what that means.

2:02 - 2:04: And to prove how serious that claim is, Jigglypuff - the last of the original cast (minus Luigi and Yoshi) - brings back Pichu, likely the very fighter most people would think of after hearing that “everyone is here”: “even Pichu?” That the joke character of Melee has returned is proof of the claim, an example of how insane and wild this project is planning to be. But despite how notable it is, the two Pokémon are onscreen for only two seconds.

2:15 - 2:18: Truthfully, the next few reveals are less exciting. Roy is the fifth DLC character revealed to return, but Olimar, Diddy, and Lucario are all fairly normal. But it’s with Lucina that we get yet another oddity. She’s 21ε - an indication that something different was being done with the then-called “clone characters.” It’s yet another indicator that Smash is going to be different, and in rather unexpected ways.

2:26: It’s not a big detail, but Dr. Mario lacks the Epsilon, indicating that he’s different from how he used to be (given that he, Lucina, and Dark Pit are associated as the Echoes of the previous iteration of Smash, it stands to reason people might look for that on him, too).

2:30 - 2:32: And there’s Dark Pit literally one shot after Doc, with the Epsilon. It’s important to keep it all in mind more easily. I also think it’s notable that Palutena’s moveset isn’t shown at all in here; it’s one more thing about which Sakurai’s been coy.

2:39 - 2:42: It’s important, I think, to have the two versions of Link show up together; it highlights how they’ve both functioned as spinoffs of one of Nintendo’s (and Smash‘s) most important heroes. By this point, Young Link is the final character (again, other than Luigi and Yoshi) who came from a game before Brawl; he’s important as one more reminder of this game’s scope.

2:46 - 2:49: And if there were any fighters whose fate would seem as up in the air as any third party character, it’d be the Mii Fighters. And yet, they’re all here, too. And like with Palutena, we see no customization or anything beyond some very basic attacks.

2:55 - 2:56: Despite not being a huge surprise, Pac-Man’s new Final Smash (or new version of Super Pac-Man, technically) is fast, really fast. And that’s good because it kicks up the pace right to the finish. Like, it’s weirdly intense to watch at that point.

3:00 - 3:03: Wolf! While calls for him were probably not as loud as those for Snake and the Ice Climbers, he has remained a beloved Smash character and a fighter people really wanted. Having him here is good for a bunch of reasons - he was the last newcomer in Brawl, his style works really well for this point in the video - but probably the most is that people really wanted him back especially. And holding off on that until now helps emphasize this game’s scope.

3:04 - 2:08: Mega Man needed to be the final main shot for a lot of reasons. He’s a beloved gaming and Smash character, he’s got name recognition, and especially because his Final Smash is the best way to send off us. It’s just this huge blast that keeps up the momentum right until the end.

3:11: And we have the title. “Ultimate” really is perfect word for this, a video that is pretty much just about the history and power of Super Smash Bros.

3:16 - 3:20: ...But it also wouldn’t be Sakurai without some goofing around, so we let the air out of all this pomposity with some silliness from Luigi and Yoshi. I think it makes sense for more reason than Sakurai often using those two for mirth. The Brawl trailer had all this bombastic, dark energy...but then Wario showed up and farted. The first Smash For trailer seemed exciting and crazy...and then Wii Fit Trainer appeared; almost all the character trailers after it had stingers afterwards, mostly goofy ones. It’s a good and important statement that Smash will always be goofy and weird. And you got that in some individual shots (Dedede and Wario, for instance), but it’s a deliberate anticlimax that mocks you, but only slightly, for all the energy you’ve hopefully gotten from what is a very long trailer, all things considered.

So, what have we learned, aside from me realizing I need to come up with shorter topics for this blog? I think it’s that you could have made this announcement any way. Sakurai could’ve just shown the character selection screen, Nintendo could’ve put it out in a press release, or they could’ve just not mentioned it entirely (though that’d be insane given that “everyone is here!” is the game’s tagline). But a video was the best way to do it. And I think this way was the best video they could’ve realistically made. Every fighter gets to show off a ton of personality in a couple seconds, and by basing the whole video around being before or after Snake, it can position the ideal fighters in a way that lets viewers slowly realize how much grander this is going to be than they realized. It’s all just great design in general, and more than just a really cool trailer that showed things off.

(Link to my writings on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

#Super Smash Bros. Ultimate #Super Smash Bros.#Masahiro Sakurai #Nintendo Direct #E3 2018

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pleasereadfully-blog · 7 years ago

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WARNING: LAWRENCE M. REINHARDT/USER “OSPRIET”

further proof the person and accounts referenced are him:

(since writing this, lawrence has since deleted his blog. either he then recreated it with the same url or someone else got to it in the interim, just know that the current holder of the url “ospriet” may not be lawrence himself. there are as many screenshots of the posts referenced as possible.)

to match the pictures above with the ORIGINAL account referenced:

http://ospriet.tumblr.com/tagged/it-me [click for image]

warning for not safe for work content with multiple topics. adults having sexual contact w/ minors, topics including incest, beastiality, rape, torture porn, abuse and other uncomfortable topics.

what’s of most concern is this man’s tendency to pursue teenage partners despite being well into his 20s and nearing his 30s. this perhaps wouldn’t be so concerning if he didn’t start his pursuits when these vulnerable (mostly trans boys, either pre-transition or as they transition it seems) teenagers who either aren’t 18 yet or are just recently 18. while not illegal, there is something very disturbing about a 28 year old man who repeatedly targets teenagers. he is not engaging in these relationships without knowing the ages or age gaps, he has admitted he knows just how old his partners are when he first starts seeking them out. these are not false allegations. there have been lengthy, emotionally devastating conversations with his past partners. he appears to use to fandom, online communities and groups, friendship, and roleplay to lure (there are other instances of similar posts throughout his blog) these teenagers in and then fosters a friendship with them that then he turns into a (sexual) relationship. there are several other links and screenshots throughout this post where he admits he enjoys age gaps as well.

(for those who do not know what some of these terms mean: roleplay is where two or more person’s write from the view point of certain characters from different mediums. it can vary from safe for work content or sexually explicit content.

“fandom” refers to collective fans of different medium, shows, games, books etc.)

it seems the fandoms in particular are snk, homestuck, the mcelroys brother’s content and dragon age. the first two seem as though he’s not into them anymore, but they’re worth noting. also vulture culture, norse mythology, werewolves and witchcraft but those two aren’t fandom just communities more or less.

he also appears to use okcupid, tinder and other date applications and websites to find people who meet his marks so be aware if you use such things or know people who do.

any adult man who has repeatedly displayed this behavior around teenagers should not be tolerated or excused for these actions. i would have liked to not put words in the reader’s mouth but repeated offenses like this have only one word: predatory. he should not be fostering friendships with teenagers, particularly ones who are minors. he should not be allowing minors to follow his blog. he should not be talking with them in private through skype or text or email or any other venue. he has reblogged provocative illustrated art of minors before which is disturbing given his inclinations. yes to be just, there are only two instances but they are there. there are images below which contain beastiality and as confirmed by others, he is sexually interested in scenarios involving animals beyond fiction and should not be around those either to be frank. even if you would like to wish that purely fictional interests don’t necessarily translate into real life pursuits, he has already demonstrated he’s willing to sexually and coercively pursue minors. the at the time 17 year old he dated still bears deep and lasting psychological scars from their “relationship” with him.

be aware that much of this is just the things we know of now that were made public through his blog.

the following information has been either found on his blog or generously supplied by individuals seeking to do right by the community.

his name is lawrence m. reinhardt [image], his nickname is wren, he’s currently 28 years old [image], lives in milford connecticut [image], works at jones family farm [image] and utilizes this tattoo parlor [image]. previously he was employed at uniqlo. [image]

this is his etsy shop [image] , his facebook account [link] his skype account [image] as well.

this an avatar he frequently uses. formally made by a previous girlfriend. [image]

his home address was left out of this write up as it wouldn’t be fair to involve his family since he still lives at home with them.

do not agree with some of the previous methods used to address these matters nor do i enjoy sharing the information above but i think it is important given his history that people know just who he is and where he can be found.

i sincerely hope that the information below gives anyone pause before they continue interacting with and supporting lawrence. these are not matters that could or should be waved away or excused with “but his current boyfriend is 18/over 18.” this isn’t a one off event or cause of concern and trying to excuse his behavior makes the excuser just as much to blame for his actions.

his lines clearly are crossed between reality and fiction and his fictional pursuits clearly have already endangered vulnerable youth and left unchecked, he stands to harm future youth as well.

please keep in mind there is much that has not been shared at the request of those he’s interacted with in the past. please keep reading for specific documentations of the above matters.

there is a good thing to read on the matter of age gaps themselves located here for those willing.

as well as this post as well as other posts on the blog pertaining to age gaps.

===

he says he’s only interest in a 5 year or so difference but repeatedly targets teenagers out of his age range to pursue.

[click for image]

all of his relationships save for one that’s been found have been 8 or more years with largest gap being 9 years. this is a dangerous pattern.

from the oldest relationship located to the most recent:

in 2013, dated http://barackohana.tumblr.com/unknown age unknown and this is the only mention of them. mentioned only to establish the timeline. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/41822601413/barackohana-im-gonna-meet-my-bf-face-to-face-on [click for link to image]

then dated http://dysfunctionaldraught.tumblr.com for several months. currently 22, so they were 17/18 at the start of their relationship and interactions. [click for image] [click for image]

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[NAME REDACTED IN THESE POSTS this individual was a minor for this ‘friendship’ into ‘relationship’ and has been contacted about this relationship. talking about lawrence and this ‘relationship’ was very uncomfortable for them and they prefer to keep as much distance as possible and we’ve done our best to honor that request.] keep in mind, ospriet/lawrence was 25 for this relationship, he acknowledges his age here: http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/84571471106/sometimes-i-forget-im-in-my-mid-twenties-l-m-f-a [click for link to image]

”i was 17 when i met him and he was 25 (i’m 21 now) and [redacted …]” [click for link if image won’t show]

was 17 when they started talking. (old links & their old account berik http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/93897778121/beriks-im-twelve-look-at-this-little-shit [click for link to image]

being 17 at the start, they were in highschool. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/88865162886/beriks-time-to-graduate-nerds-congratulations [click for link to image] ospriet.tumblr.com/post/85847849581/ [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/85180268721/92936-pm-chief-i-a-cute-southern [click for link to image]

sexual content: http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/91473197761/stayed-up-waaay-too-late-foolin-around-with-the http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/87159731326/this-just-in-my-boyfriend-has-the-cutest-undies [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/88177729331/more-i-think-thats-partly-why-i-freakin [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/86710997056/you-know-what-sucks-more-going-almost-an [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/87947493101/more-you-know-what-sucks-going-through-a [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/101713543141/more-i-say-i-dont-chase-but-i-do-i-did when they had broken up, references ‘chasing’ people and the fact that this person was a child at the time something he himself points out. [click for link to image]

other bits of conversation with this person: [chat part 1.] [chat part 2.] the parts that are redacted are for this person’s comfort, they felt those parts were too identifying. [chat part 3.] contains more (see below under cl2y) about his habit of telling stories about all of his exes, none of which are kind and all paint him in a better light. it’s one of the classic moves of an abuser. the red edits are from them themself, the edits do not change the context and also fix some grammatical errors.

of note, after this person broke things off with lawrence, he went on to reblog this post [link to image] despite asking for and engaging in sexual content with a known minor willingly.

====

http://coyoteas.tumblr.com/ [click for link to image] - was 18/19 when they started dating. was 18 when they first started talking. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/archive/2014/9 http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/101642762146/coyoteas-replied-to-your-postthat-feel-when-you [click for link to image] rp might be one of the ways he lures people in. [definitely uses sex appeal - click for screenshot] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/103246409901/if-you-cant-appreciate-hella-cute-boys-with [click for link to image] chat with coyoteas. [click for link to image] this was all he was willing to share in regards to lawrence’s behavior.

====

http://kitchnboy.tumblr.com/ / localchef.tumblr.com (previous url) / http://unchefly.tumblr.com (previous url) was 18 when they started dating, was 18 when they started talking based on timing. [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/120590264641/also-im-not-single-anymore [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/129047704191/pretty-sure-my-boyfriend-fell-asleep-cuddling-an [click for link to image] references his boyfriend’s underage drinking.

===

he was briefly seeing a few people between the person below and kitchnboy but there is not enough information his blog to find out who they were and ask them if they’d be willing to speak about their experiences with him or their ages for that matter… see the chat logs below generously given for this from cl2y.

====

name redacted upon request. this partner was very uncomfortable talking about him so we’ve kept it to just what was said on his blog and the fact that they are in fact in their 20s, closer to his age than his previous partners which, if we can speculate might be why he lost interest relatively quickly. [click for link to image] [click for link to image] [click for link to image]

=====

as for lawrence’s most recent ex, they’ve asked to also be redacted from this file. - is currently 19, supposedly they’ve been talking since he was at least 18 ish while lawrence was dating another partner. he was described as one former partner as a ‘serial monogamist’ and it does appear that he rapidly lines up and cycles through partners. [click for an old image] link redacted for as much privacy as possible [click for link to image] age proof http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/160663250106/the-gays [click for link to image] they have definitely met irl. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/160694921851/you-know-youre-screwed-when-your-bed-still-smells [click for link to image] proof of sexual contact. where ospriet and others go on to defend his choices in dating teenagers: ospriet.tumblr.com/post/161463971591/just-so-were-clear-i-have-a-boyfriend-my [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/161480963336/now-that-im-home-for-the-evening-i-will-explain [click for link to image]

======

other inappropriate age wise ‘friendships’ that were found: http://puppy-eater.tumblr.com/ http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/97018639641/puppy-eater-replied-to-your-post-mor-i-used-to had been speaking to lawrence before this point, so was in highschool. between 17-18. http://native-trickster.tumblr.com/ [click for image] was 17 when they first began interacting on tumblr, is now 18.

=====

general others:

http://tricksterkind.tumblr.com/about - age unknown but they might have been almost dating at one point.

user cl2y was exceptionally generous and brave to not only share the following logs but to allow us to keep their name attached to all this. the following are both logs from skype with him as well as a tumblr chat they had with someone else concerning what he said. cl2y and lawrence had been talking in the summer of 2016, when these screenshots had come from.

[tumblr log 1.] [skype log part 1.] his age. [skype log part 2.] this seems to be one of the people he was seeing after kitchnboy. [skype log part 3.] on his other exes. [skype log part 4.] not really proof of anything, but can’t distinguish between reality and fiction and lets that fiction influence his reality. the folowing contain noncon or torture porn references in rp scenarios that cl2y was not comfortable with but he couldn’t take a hint. [skype log part 5.] [skype log part 6.] [skype log part 7.] [skype log part 8.]

of note as well, he made this post 3 years back looking down upon scenarios he himself asked for. [click for link] also note the fact he is unconcerned with minors engaging in sexual scenarios. in the following link from 3 years ago, he berates fictional portrayal of noncon including using it to cope despite soliciting such content against the wishes of one of his then roleplay partners (cl2y). [click for image]

this was also around the time he was “dating” and engaging a minor in sexual scenarios so he is certainly not really concerned with the legality of the issues he’s talking about.

it’s believed he uses roleplay to find new targets. [click for image]

========

underage art reblogged: http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/87417886561/irisviel-yukinashin-%E6%B4%97%E6%B4%97%E7%90%83%E6%B4%97%E7%90%83%E7%90%83 levi and eren (13-16 years old) from snk [click for link to image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/90305481776/erueres-%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC eren (13-16 years old) and erwin from snk [click for link to image] [click for image] - more incestual content, from homestuck this time. the characters pictured are related as well as 13-16 years old.

========

nsfw content warning http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/151957572816/inkeyeliner-had-a-freaking-blast-at [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/160297190971/sometimessmuthappens-oh-gosh-%CF%89-%E3%82%9E-i [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/155717961546/sometimessmuthappens-uhhhhhh-ooops-not-sure-if [click for image] borderline beastiality. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/114134431481/i-long-to-talk-with-some-old-lovers-ghost-who if not actual. [click for image]

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borderline fetishistic interest in other cultures, particularly japanese (reblogs a ton of japanese art/uses japanese phrasing/kanji/acquired a job at a japanese clothing store) or other asian cultures. please look through his archives, there are too many posts to include. [click for link] also says things like http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/92592080111/oh-my-god-i-dont-have-yellow-fever-i-swear-ive not this is involving the 17 year old he was dating. [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/84559811006/when-i-turn-30something-i-hope-i-look-half-as-good [click for image] also roleplayed real people (http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/90308357146/blauh-blah-more-when-i-came-home-from-the [click for image] also native american cultures. has plenty of reblogs in history.

other posts of interest http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/70938323641/sigh-pretty-girls-in-lolita-dresses-and-frills [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/54425446342/am-i-the-only-dude-who-ships-roxy-and-dirk-le into incest. [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/159349377356/cats-paw-talisman-for-safe-travels has a real cats paw.. who knows from where. [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/155183650071/shit might be his car. [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/114184533256/what-sort-of-animal-could-be-my-spirit-animal involved in ‘spirit animals’ even though that is not his place as a non-native american. [click for image] http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/101732442131/i-need-something-cute-to-bed-stat lends itself to the whole theory he targets and dates people for relative easy access for sexual content/sex. teenagers are slightly easier marks than people his own age. [click for image]

====

these posts are simply ironic given his history with minors and teenagers. http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/154185782796/being-an-adult-is-hardmore-being-an-adult [click for image]

http://ospriet.tumblr.com/post/139206250666/ngl-im-a-little-bummed-i-wontcant-attend [click for image]

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i’m well aware there are many who will feel strongly about how this is being handled but this isn’t gossiping or rumor-milling. there’s ample evidence here that points to his attentions to minors/teenagers. and no, no one involved in the marking of this post (apart from the exes or ex-roleplay partners who responded) was personally affected. one of us got a message about this man and decided to look into it because you can’t go and believe general “slanderous” statements about people, especially from completely anonymous parties. imagine the shock when it was discovered that the message received wasn’t based in lies and that it wasn’t a “typical tumblr callout” post.

#vulture culture #witchcraft #dragon age #werewolf #norse paganism #norse mythology #homestuck #mcelroys #mbmbam #da2 #cryptids #asatru #freyr #nature #dai #wolf #taxidermy #dave strider #taz

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carnelianwings · 7 years ago

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can you please tell me how to beat floor 30 ? [saleh]

As far as I can tell, these are the things you will need for Floor 30 Saleh. Keep in mind not all of this may hold true for the next Ares Realm, but these are definitely the key things you’re going to want for this one. Also apologizing in advance for how heavily Zestiria-skewed my suggestions will end up being (even though you don’t need these exact units, I’m just using them as examples of what you’re looking for within your own box), I throw money at the game whenever Zestiria shows up in the summons, even though I like individual characters from other games. (Behind cut because this got long as expected.)

Basic stats you’re going to want to aim for, before friend leader:

As much LC as you can, which means making sure your leader will buff Bash or Spell type heroes since they provide a lot of LC. Your usual fully buffed damage combo is going to take 110 LC, give or take 10, since you’re typically going to need 45 LC for a full board change, 25-35 LC for a tile boost, and 25-35 LC for a type/blood boost. (Blood boost are the ones that take your HP down to a certain percentage for a damage boost.)

About 20k HP or higher on your own, so you can tank hits better (more on that in the next section)

Guardians:

Do not equip any water element guardians for this team. Hidden elements on heroes don’t activate unless you have a corresponding guardian of that element equipped. Saleh is wind element, so that means any water hero is going to deal less damage to him and take more damage when Saleh attacks your team.

Equip an earth element defensive guardian if you have earth element heroes on the team. It’ll help reduce the amount of damage you take so it’s less you’ll have to heal.

A mystic finisher with a UR mystic arte soul. If you don’t have one, there’s a Soul Arena (Judith or Kor/Shing) going right now. Collect 600k mana points in either one, and you’ll have yourself a mystic finisher and a UR mystic.

Since Saleh is wind element, best case scenario is to choose an earth element mystic finisher equipped with at least one earth element weapon and a UR++ mystic arte soul. But if RNG hasn’t been that kind to you, go with a UR mystic finisher equipped with non-water weapons, and make sure you don’t have any water guardians equipped on that team so water hidden element heroes won’t have their elements activated.

As long as your mystic finisher isn’t water element, equip your best ATK guardian for that element. You’re going to want that extra damage.

For equipment, go with the strongest ATK earth element weapon/armor you have, plus your strongest non-water weapon/armor. Both pieces of equipment being weapons is best, especially if you’re using the Soul Arena-exclusive heroes for your mystic finisher (since they usually have Weapon Boost). Of course, if your best weapons are both earth for a mystic finisher, by all means, equip them. Your goal is to get the weak point 1.5x damage bonus from at least one of the weapons, just be aware that it won’t stack if it’s from both weapons.

1.5x ATK/HP or 2.0x ATK/1.5x HP leader. Unlike building a team for story/campaign mode, where you can just about bring any leader and team composition and rocket tag your way through the stages with a 2.x to ATK while HP is above 50% leader, you’re going to need to be able to take hits while you build up your LC. Which one you choose depends on your mystic finisher, as the goal is to get them to dish out as much damage in a single burst as possible. Best candidates include:

Some of the Best: Last Encounter Leon (2x ATK/1.5x HP to slash/bash/spell with 3.5x to stars active), Storm of Blades Rose (2x ATK/1.5x HP to slash/shot/bash with 2.5x to stars active),Reticent Avenger Dezel (1.5x ATK/HP to all, full board change active, also an arte healer), Sin Bearer Yuri (1.5x ATK/HP to all, 3x to stars active), Call from the Beyond Jade (1.5x ATK/HP to thrust/bash/spell, 3x to squares active)

Honorable mentions, because they were available for free: Staff Executor Mikleo from the 30 day S2 ToZX login event (1.5x to ATK/HP for slash/bash/spell heroes, with 1.6x to circle active - the active isn’t the best but it’s better than nothing and it’ll stack with a type/blood boost), Flame of Purification Lailah (1.5x HP/ATK to shot/bash/spell heroes, 2x to shot/bash/spell active)

Expert Lancer Eleanor is workable with her 2x ATK/1.5x HP to slash/thrust/spell leader skill and arte heal, however, her active being a 50% heal means you might need an extra damage boost from your friend leader depending on what your mystic finisher’s ATK total is and how high the multiplier is on your own tile/type/blood boost is. Plus, she doesn’t buff bash types, so that might leave you on the low side for your team’s HP total.

Full board changer. It’s the easiest way to get yourself a board of right tile type for your tile booster, and which one you pick depends on which leader/tile booster you went with. Specific mentions to these heroes in particular, because they’re also arte healers in addition to being a full board changer:

Reticent Avenger Dezel (circle), Puddle Splasher Sophie (star, and for only 40 LC!), Bedside Goddess Kanonno G (star), Wicked Vampire Saleh (triangle)

Any 2 of the following, because boosts of the same type won’t stack, and whichever you activate second will override the first one:

Tile Boost. Ideally, as high as you can get, to match your full board changer. Your board’s all going to be the same tile type anyway for that 9-chain finisher, so you may as well buff everyone’s damage!

Type Boost. Like the above, as high as you can get, and whichever one you pick, it must cover your mystic finisher. It’s okay if your type boost doesn’t cover every hero on your team. The important one to cover is your mystic finisher, because they’re the one that’s getting all the big multipliers to their damage.

For example, I cleared Kratos and Barbatos on the later floors using Sin Eater Yuri as my leader and Puddle Splasher Sophie and Meeting in the Rain Asch as my subs with Shepherd of Six Stars Sorey as my mystic finisher. Even though Asch didn’t cover everyone with his 3.5x to thrust/spell heroes active, he did boost SoSS Sorey, and that got me enough damage to win the fight.

Blood Boost. These cost you HP in addition to LC to activate, but they can be really good! The only two I’m aware of at the moment are Vorspieler Sorey (2x to ATK for all and reduction to 50% of max HP) and Knight’s Garb Yuri (3x to ATK for all and reduction to 30% of max HP). Of the two, Knight’s Garb Yuri is the better one not just because of the higher multiplier, but also because he’s an arte delay.

These can also be really helpful if you have passives on your finisher/equipment that boost your ATK at low health, although keep in mind that if you get healed above the threshold for such passives during that 9-attack chain, they immediately stop and you won’t get that damage boost applied to your arte finisher.

At this point, you should have 4 out of 9 spots on your team filled out. The remaining 5 should be some combination of arte healers and delays:

Arte delays are generally just useful, as they can buy you more time between Saleh’s (infrequent) attacks. This can mean more turns to set yourself up with aura’ed arte healers, or just more turns to have an arte healer trigger and heal you up. Keep in mind that delays don’t “stack” so if an arte delay triggers on an enemy that’s already been delayed, you won’t get additional turns for the delay. However, they will apply normally once the delay itself has worn off.

I personally run my team with 2 arte delayers, Journey of Vengeance Velvet and Armatus of Earth Rose. How many you feel you need is up to you, but I wouldn’t go for more than 3, just because I feel it’s better to have more arte healers.

Arte healers are really useful for keeping your HP up between Saleh’s attacks. He attacks once every 4 turns, so use that time to set yourself up with aura’ed arte healers or heal up if you need to!

Any arte healer will do, although it’s best if their hero type is boosted by your leader’s skill, since the amount of healing you get is directly proportional to the amount of damage your arte healer dealt. More damage = better healing. Also, because of this, keep in mind that you won’t always get the best damage just by equipping your highest ATK weapons onto an arte healer. Giving them one weapon of the appropriate element to hit a weak point will oftentimes get your more healing, because hitting an elemental weakpoint gives you 1.5x total damage dealt, which is a lot more healing than you’d get from an extra 100 ATK.

One of the more useful tricks in Tales of Link is clearing 4 or more heart tiles off of the board at once means the next character coming in on a non-heart tile is guaranteed to have an aura. Aura’ed heroes are guaranteed to trigger their arte when linked. While this is generally a good thing, getting an aura on an arte healer means you have a reliable way of healing yourself, when you need it most! And more importantly, it doesn’t require you to use up your LC to do it, so you can save it for your big boss-slaying damage burst!

How to set yourself up with a guaranteed aura on a character (for the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to them as the Target Hero from hereon):

Step 1: Figure out what your full team size is. For Ares Realm and other dungeons where you don’t have guest characters, that’s going to be 12 (9 for your team, 3 for your friend team, no guest characters). For Soul Arena, it’s 13 (add 1 for the guest character). If you’re ever unsure, hit the Menu button on the upper left corner of the screen while you’re in a dungeon, and click the Artes/Abilities button. Everyone in your current party will be listed, including guest party members!

Step 2: Subtract 10 from the total. That’s how many heroes you’ll have to link after you’ve cleared the Target Hero off the board in order to get them to be next on the board.

Step 3: Clear your target hero, followed by however many heroes you need to clear off to get them to be next in the queue again. For Ares Realm, it’s Target Hero plus 2 more.

Step 4: Make sure the next tile coming on isn’t a heart tile. I can’t emphasize this step enough - you don’t want to waste those hearts you painstakingly collected just to have your Target Hero coming back on a heart and the aura going to the next hero in the queue instead.

Step 5: Clear the hearts, enjoy having an aura on your Target Hero.

After that, it’s a matter of RNG cooperating, whether it’s getting those arte heals and delays to trigger or getting the hearts you need for those auras. Good luck anon!

#soymilkheaven answers an ask #soymilkheaven plays tales of link #Anonymous #soymilkheaven's tales of gameplay guides

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operationrainfall · 4 years ago

Text

Title Indivisible Developer Lab Zero Games Publisher 505 Games Release Date October 8th, 2019 (other consoles), April 28th, 2020 (Switch) Genre ARPG Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes Official Website

I’ve been not so patiently waiting to review the Switch version of Indivisible for more than a year. I’ve been a fan of the game since I demoed it twice at PAX West, and was drawn in by the stunningly lush artwork, haunting music and dynamic gameplay. Though I already knew about developer Lab Zero Games, I hadn’t yet played their other game. And that’s despite me owning Skullgirls. Nevertheless, I was bound and determined to cover Indivisible for the oprainfall site, and now that time has finally come. After putting in significantly more hours to beat the game than I was told it would require, how did I feel? Was Indivisible on Switch worth the wait? Or did Ajna’s heroic journey disappoint?

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Indivisible begins with a climactic battle against some god-like entity. You join the action and control a mighty group of four heroes as they battle the creature, suffer damage, and seemingly manage to defeat it. Two of them are romantically drawn to each other, a man and woman, and after limping away victorious, the story cuts forward to 16 years later. The city of Ashawat is a small yet scenic one, unspoiled by modernity and populated by hardy citizens. One young girl is getting ready to train with her father, and that girl is our hero. Her name is Ajna, and simple deduction tells us she might be the child of those two heroes. After all, she’s a teenager and her father is a grizzled older man that is obviously that same male hero. Here we learn the basics of defense, which Ajna’s father insists is integral. Ajna doesn’t take well to direction, and they get into an argument. She questions his authority and past, and her father stomps back to the village. After fuming for a bit, Ajna realizes she should apologize, and follows after him.

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What should be a calm scene suddenly erupts in fire and bloodshed. Ashawat is burning, and her father has been fatally wounded by a stern young soldier named Dhar. As he draws his last breath, Ajna erupts into violence, and battles the young soldier. They reach a standstill, until something unexpected happens. Somehow Dhar is drawn into Ajna’s mind, where he is trapped. Uncertain what is happening, Ajna is nevertheless eager to find the man behind this murderous calamity. See, Dhar is a soldier in Ravannavar’s army, and they are marching about laying claim to land and killing any who don’t subscribe to their beliefs. Confused and not sure about what’s happening, our hero nevertheless is bound and determined to find Ravannavar, slay him and avenge her father. If only things were as black and white as she suspects. Cause unbeknownst to Ajna, there’s a lot more at stake than she could possibly imagine.

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The journey that follows is one that contends with the mystery of Ajna’s powers, as every main character she encounters is likewise drawn into her mind. She finds she can summon them at will to fight with her, and grows stronger the larger her crew becomes. Though I promise there’s some explanation for such an uncanny power, I won’t spoil anything about the main arc of the plot. I can say that the primary themes it addresses are the following – power without purpose, chaos, nature vs nurture and what defines a hero. The first half of the story involves Ajna cutting a violent swathe through all that opposes her, becoming more and more powerful. By contrast, the second half is all about learning from your mistakes and helping right the wrongs that plague this world. I will say, the first part of the story is probably my favorite. I found Ravannavar a sinister and compelling villain, and his scheme to awaken a god and get resurrected following the destruction and rebirth of the world really interesting. I fully expected him to go full Wesker, plaguing Ajna and company with ever more powerful forms as the game progressed. Imagine my disappointment when I realized he was a one and done foe, and the big bad was far less compelling. That’s not to say the final boss isn’t interesting, it is, but I feel there was a missed storytelling opportunity here. Thankfully, what Indivisible missed with the story it more than made up with its cast of characters.

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As the title might suggest, Indivisible is all about the group of misfits Ajna literally draws to her throughout the course of the game. It’s a very eclectic crew, from a pyromaniac tiger mage to a cute little botanist to a woman-loving pirate to a devout archer and many, many more. There’s more characters than you’ll know what to do with, since you can only have a team of 4 at a time, with the others sitting patiently in reserve within Ajna’s inner realm. I really liked many of the characters, as they are bursting with personality and quirks. Though my favorite is probably Razmi, the smack talking, deranged tiger mage, but there’s others too. Take Thorani, a beautiful and sultry Deva who sprays healing waters from her hair. Or Qadira, a steadfast warrior searching for her kidnapped brother. My main complaint with regard to the characters is so few of them get any real development. Surprisingly, the one that gets the truest arc is Dhar, the same soldier that murdered Ajna’s father. While the others all have interesting personalities, none of them have anywhere close to as significant of a story. Which is a shame, since there’s more than a dozen playable characters, including some you have to hunt for in optional side quests. Luckily, the one area that every character can shine is during battle.

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Combat is both incredibly complex and well streamlined in Indivisible. There are no items whatsoever in the game, other than weapons, so all your healing is done via character abilities. Gameplay kind of reminds me of a mixture of Guardian Heroes and Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier. Meaning the art is beautiful and you have a lot of control over how you juggle and interact with foes, though your team does have specialties. Dhar can charge up and then unleash earthen attacks, while Ginseng & Honey can mash foes and then heal allies with a mortar and pestle. Attacks are mapped to whatever button the character is set to, either A, B, X or Y. You can deal basic attacks with a single press, or use up or down for different attacks. By holding R and then pressing your character’s button when your Iddhi meter is charged enough, you’ll unleash powerful super attacks, such as Dhar wielding a giant column of stone or Razmi healing the entire team. You also use character buttons to block enemy attacks, which can replenish your super meter with Iddhi if you time it right. And if a foe is blocking, a successive input of an up and then down attack will break their shield. Most important of all, if you have downed teammates, pressing L and R simultaneously with a full Iddhi meter resurrects them all, even Ajna. Or if you’re in dire straits, pressing L has your entire team block at once, but at the cost of Iddhi. It’s all pretty intuitive, and despite the complexity becomes mostly second nature. Though you can use any team you want, I quickly learned to go with the crowd control type characters. The reason for this is that by weaving together successive attacks, your combo meter gets higher. The higher it gets, the more damage you’ll inflict to foes. As such, I settled on a team of Ajna, Ginseng, Tungar (AKA Sikh E. Honda) and Zebei, since they could deal tons of rapid fire attacks, as well as knocking down aerial foes with arrows. Once I got a foe grounded, I could juggle them mercilessly for 200 hit combos, dealing tons and tons of damage.

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Though the combat is fantastic in principle, there were some issues with it. One is that the game never really told me I could do different levels of super attacks with more bars of Iddhi. I was using my Level 1 supers the entire game, which probably made progress more challenging than it needed to be, especially when I was in the Iron Kingdom, full of shielded knights and poisonous slime monsters. It can also be hard to see the button prompts on screen when they’re covered by foes. And on the topic of my unused reserve characters, I really wish that I could tag in characters who weren’t in my active party (similar to games like Marvel vs. Capcom). That would make it so I wasn’t only using the characters I was most comfortable with. Or even some sort of ability grid for each character to help individualize them further. Cause as I got into the groove of fighting battle after battle, I just wanted a bit more nuance to liven things up. The most you get is using red gems called Ringsels to upgrade your team’s attack or defense, but that was a bit underwhelming. Which isn’t to say the combat isn’t fun, it’s quite enjoyable. It’s just not perfect.

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Part of what drew me to Indivisible was that I initially thought it was a Metroidvania. It very nearly was, but instead of finding items in specific areas to gain new exploration abilities, you get handed them from characters at set points in the story progression instead. Hell, you even have a mini map, but not one you can view properly. You can only see where you are currently, instead of being able to view the entire map at once. Though I did like exploring the game’s lush environments, there were too many wide open areas and dead ends for my liking. You get a lot of different ways to explore, such as bouncing off dangerous surfaces, clinging to walls with an axe, smashing through floors, air dashing and much more. At one point you get a pirate ship to sail in, and even then you have to go to the right areas at the right time. Otherwise you’ll do a lot of backtracking, which happened to me repeatedly. And while I spent a lot of time methodically dashing about trying to unearth every last corner of the world, the game really forces you to explore when it tells you to. Which was kind of frustrating, especially since it was so close to being a proper Metroidvania. Though if you like a good challenge, the final platforming gauntlet in the game was so difficult it made my hands sweat.

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This next section can be called the “I wish” part of the review. These are areas that if they were just tweaked a bit more, would have made the game so much better. Late in the game you gain access to artifacts called Chakra Gates, with one in each major area. You can warp between them at will, which is amazing in theory. In execution, you’ll find the Gates take a while to reach on foot, and sometimes even warp you to an impassable section that needs to be reached from a different vantage. What’s infuriating is there are TONS of save points littered throughout the map. If you could warp from one of these to another, the Chakra Gates would be a cinch to reach. And while I loved using Baozhai’s pirate ship to travel, in the second half of the game it’s absent except to take you back to the Iron Kingdom. Which I only discovered using an online guide after I got stuck. I also wish that the combat had more distinct audio cues to tell you when to block attacks, especially ones that require perfect timing. And this next comment is one I always have for beautiful games like this. Given how much stunning art is in Indivisible, why is there no art gallery or bestiary? I would have given my left foot for pictures and details on the many creatures and characters in the game, even the color swapped foes. Lastly, though I enjoyed all the challenging boss fights in the game, I’m surprised there weren’t more of them. Not including mini bosses or optional ones, there’s less bosses than recruitable characters, which is odd in a game as devoted to combat as this.

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On the topic of aesthetic design, Lab Zero has done a tremendous job here. Which isn’t a surprise given their pedigree, but still worth a pat on the back. Indivisible has stunning artwork and sound design, with awesome voice acting for every main character. Sure the volume can be somewhat low at times playing handheld, but I still really loved listening to the characters converse. And the art kept me invested from the beginning til the end of my 75 hour playthrough. Perhaps the most impressive visual feat of Indivisible is how well it runs on Nintendo Switch. It runs silky smooth with tons happening on screen, which can’t even be said for less visually complex games like Bloodstained. It’s truly remarkable, and I’m beyond curious how Lab Zero and 505 Games managed such a feat. If I were scoring Indivisible solely on how it looked and sounded, it would have easily nabbed a perfect score.

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Sadly, I can’t just score a game on the things it does best. The following are an assortment of glitches or unfortunate quirks I encountered as I played. I had one audio glitch happen when talking to a robot man called Eurynomos, with his speech doubling up and racing past itself. Also, since combat can occur anywhere on the map, I had some strange stuff happen. I was in a few battles, only to fall off a platform mid battle, causing it to abruptly end. I also would often die in battle, and instead of respawning at my latest save spot, would do so at the one before it. And this last complaint is also a PSA to fellow Switch owners. I’m not sure if this is an issue in the other versions of the game, but it certainly came up for me. The very final battle strips you of all your attack abilities and forces you to play defense as the final boss hurls tons of hurt your way. The problem is, all the typical buttons I used for blocking during the game suddenly didn’t work. I looked online, and saw that I could indeed block, but for some reason the standard block buttons have inexplicably been remapped to the last resort L block. Suffice to say this was beyond irritating, least of all since the game didn’t warn me. Oh and lastly, this isn’t really a complaint, but I’m unclear why Ajna’s pet Roti is in the game. It serves no gameplay or plot purpose, and just kinda weirded me out.

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Ultimately, it was still worth the wait to get my hands on Indivisible. Sure it has some rough corners that could use some smoothing, as well as some irritating glitches, but none of that prevented me from having a blast. For $29.99, this is a tremendous ARPG that any fan of the genre should pick up. I just hope it’s not the last we see of this universe. Lab Zero have the bones of a great adventure here, and it’d be a shame for it to end with just one game. It’s not perfect, but it’s still highly recommended.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Indivisible on Nintendo Switch Title Indivisible

#505 games #ARPG #Indivisible #Lab Zero Games #nintendo switch #oprainfall #PC #PS4 #Xbox One

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