#i've been playing lovebrush and enjoying it

[rimeiii]

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it despite my fear of getring backlash:

I am not a fan with how WHB handles the usage of Solomon's Tears.

(Rant post, feel free to skip over, rest under the cut. I just needed to get this out of my chest.)

Thank god they've made a statement about the availability of Tears, but in my opinion, their way of handling this is the equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a gaping wound - it fails to address the root of the issue that's making Tears such a necessary material in the first place, it being several aspects of the game design.

There have been several design choices that confuse me when it comes to WHB, which I would chalk up to WHB being PB's very first game that purely isn't otome. But these design choices often involve game balancing issues, which for me personally directly impacts my enjoyment of the game. And it is these design choices that immediately impact the need for Tears, and why the initial update changing the availability of these Tears sparked so much controversy.

But before that, I have some menial complaints that can be chalked up to me being spoiled by other games. First of all, the large amounts of filler stages, while normal for a gacha, still doesn't make it a fun experience to play through - especially when there are barely any changes to the stage layouts. The only reason why Plants vs Zombies were able to do this is because of the way their stages are set up:

Stages 1, 3, 6, and 8 introduce a new mechanic/zombie

Stages 2, 4, 7, and 9 are harder stages that test what you knew from the previous stage

Stage 5 is a minigame stage

Stage 10 is a conveyor belt boss stage

Every stage gives you a new plant, oftentimes one that is relevant to the new mechanic/zombie at play/about to be introduced (for example, Puff Shrooms upon ending 1-10, a 0 Sun plant with shorter range that helps in earlygame because the next world is nighttime, which means no Sun from the sky)

As for the other TD games in the market? Arknights has different maps for each story stage. So does Path to Nowhere, from what I recall. If there are filler stages, they're very few and far in between. It's why Granblue Fantasy changed their story chapters to no longer have a solo battle at each segment - it hinders the storytelling.

One of the most baffling things in my opinion is the fact that the game has the same upgrade requirements for all units regardless of rarity. This is such a weird design choice for me because in most games, lower rarities are cheaper when it comes to upgrade costs.

For comparison's sake, some screenshots I took for promoting S and A+ ranks.

Belial, an S-rank Marksman, requires 22k Gold, 22k Books, 10 Tears, and 22 Fire Jellybeans.

It's the same for the A+ Healer Morax, save for the elemental jelly beans which is changed to his element, Light. And this is the same amount needed for upgrading L characters as well.

This design choice isn't particularly good, in my opinion. It bottlenecks players and puts them in a mindset position of "upgrading anything apart from Ls and some choice S/A+ ranks is a resource sink". It makes people think that building anything except the strongest of units isn't worth it, which in turn renders the existence of lower rarity/weaker units moot, especially considering the scarcity of the Tears in the first place. Because why would you raise them if you're going to gain more of an advantage from building these high-rarity units? You're going to get a more immediate and significant power boost by upgrading Ls in the first place.

This is even more pronounced in WHB specifically because in most gachas, lower rarity units tend to require less to upgrade. Take a look at the E2 requirements of three Tactician Vanguards in Arknights, in which Elite upgrades are the closest approximation to promotion in WHB.

Beanstalk is the lowest rarity of the archetype at 4*, and her E2 material requirements consist of two types of tier 3 materials (Coagulating Gel and Manganese Ore, both with blue borders), Vanguard Chip Packs, and LMD.

Then you have the 5* Blacknight, whose material requirements now include a tier 4 material (Incandescent Alloy Block, with a pink border) in addition to a tier 3 material (Loxic Kohl), Vanguard Dualchips (crafted from Vanguard Chip Packs and Chip Catalysts, both of which are farmable regardless), and more LMD.

And finally, the 6* Vigil, whose material requirements are now a tier 5 material (Crystalline Electronic Unit, with a yellow border) and a tier 4 material (Optimized Device), more Vanguard Dualchips (4 to Blacknight's 3), and even more LMD.

Yet in other games, I don't mind raising lower rarity units - for several reasons, depending on the game. In Granblue Fantasy (despite my complaints about how quickly the meta evolves and how lim-centric it is), SR units serve as the stopgap for party comps until you can fill out your roster with SSR characters, and some of these SR characters still see use like Lyria. In other games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Memento Mori, and Princess Connect: ReDive, all units gain the potential to hit the highest rarity - I have a Yukari (originally a 1* unit) ready to hit 6* in PriConne, while I have a +9 merged 5* Fallen Takumi (farmable unit at 3*/4* base) in FEH. Arknights' case is more nuanced, where it's partly the same case as GBF, but also the fact that lower rarity units can fit into niches that high rarity units don't fill.

With these other games, I never feel like raising a lower rarity unit is a waste of resources. The costs of uncapping characters in general is negligible in GBF, except for the Eternals and the Evokers - those of which are reasonably time-gated because of their sheer meta impact and how strong they are compared to all other characters. Except for particularly egregious cases like Tsukinogi, every single Arknights Operator has their uses, and they often see use in Integrated Strategies.

And let's not get into the debacle that are skill levels, because of course you need more materials for that. I don't mind having high costs for optimizing skills - Masteries in Arknights works like that, after all. Pictured below is the cost of M3-ing Bagpipe's third skill.

That's right - a tier 5 (Bipolar Nanoflake) and tier 4 (Oriron Block) material. And luckily, you can farm for all of these skill upgrade materials outside of events, crafting the higher tiers as necessary. There is less opportunity cost for me to E2 my 4* and 5* units because I can just farm the materials again anyways - and even then I some Masteries on these units are amazing. S1M3 Myrtle (4*) is probably the best DP generator in the game, while S2M3 Lappland (5*) also helps with her skill uptime.

Then you go back to WHB's skill upgrades, which mind you is also the same cost between rarities, and guess what else you need?

Yep. Tears. A ludicrous amount of it, considering its availability. And let's not even get into the Tears required for the Unholy Board, if that matters to you (and it does, because it also gives buffs for your L units).

This skews the game balance towards the L units even more. Ideally you'd be raising skill levels once your units reach high levels, because everything is percentage based and the lower your base stats, the lower effect these skill levels have on your skills. But that just means you'll still need Tears because, well, you still need to promote. And remember the opportunity cost again, because all rarities have the same skill upgrade cost, further incentivizing you building Ls and ignoring everything else.

It's ridiculous.

And the added nail in the coffin: the reduced rewards that basically halved the amount of Tears you get.

I seriously, genuinely hope they take the availability of Solomon's Tears as well as game balancing into consideration when performing the next balance patch. Because otherwise, I can't see this game being an enjoyable experience for me moving forward.

Unless, this was the intended way the game was designed, in which I just...I have no more words to say.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

You aren’t disproving the butler lover allegations

[Referencing this post!]

OKAY BUT I'VE NEVER DENIED THAT THAT'S A TROPE I LIKE, I’VE BEEN PRETTY OPEN ABOUT THIS 🤡

Related: I don’t know if it’s book 7, all the Silver-adjacent designs I’ve been seeing in other mobile games I’ve been playing (Elbert from Ikemen Villains and Alkaid + Cael from Lovebrush Chronicles), the realization that Silver is a prince/knight/“big brother” figure, my middle-school “I like princes/knights/big bros” phase resurfacing, or a combination of all four factors… but recently, I’ve found myself enjoying Silver a lot more 🤔 Well, a certain kind of Silver at least. I'm not fully reverting back to liking "vanilla" characters but instead it's mixing with my updated "villainous" interests and is resulting in a weird scenario of me trying my darndest to get Silver to break and go apeshit (while Silver is oblivious and confused about why I'm shouting at him to "step on me"; "... Won't that hurt? I don't want to harm you." "THAT'S THE POINT, THAT'S THE WHOLE POOOOOINT--")

And now, relevant memes:

[ad-hawkeye]

Visual Novel and Otome Recommendations for the Discerning Artem Enjoyer

So, recently, I've been playing a few other otome games. And you know what? I've had to sludge through a lot of crap! It literally took me months to be able to compile a list of four games I feel confident recommending.

Also, each of these games have an aspect that might appeal to Artem fans, especially a-spec ones. Of course, your mileage may vary, but here are my recommendations.

C14 Dating: You're a college student participating in an archeological internship. The game includes friendship routes as well as romance ones. It's very chill and laid back! I have played through all of the routes and enjoyed them greatly. Though, I am specifically recommending this game for one character - Hendrik, a young geologist who is a TA at the dig site. He is canonically asexual, and is the only character of his kind that I've encountered in a dating sim. The subject matter is also handled very well. This game was actually recommended to me by an anon, and I thank them so very much for it!

Trouble Comes Twice: Adrian. That's all. I'm kidding. Unless? But for real, he feels like if you took Artem Wing, but put him in the childhood friend role. It works so well. I am being entirely serious. Sexualities aren't usually outright stated as most of the characters are bisexual, but in Hazel's Adrian route, Adrian explicitly mentions never having had romantic or sexual feelings before. And Hazel is very chill about it. Which makes Adrian canonically a-spec to me! As for the protagonists, Jace and Hazel, they're an acquired taste, but they get much better as the plot goes on. The game is also a little short, but I enjoyed it very much!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always: Part of me regrets playing this game because now I will never get the chance to play it for the first time again. It is so fucking good. The amount of customization is unreal and unmatched. Cove is a wonderful love interest, and honestly? He might even beat Artem in the blushy boy department. He's also canonically demisexual and embodies the "me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic" meme. And on top of this, the game is free. DLC (which includes more memories and two additional love interests) is also extremely cheap, and the price of it all combined is still a lot cheaper than most games.

Lovebrush Chronicles: Definitely the closest to Tears of Themis in terms of it being an otome gacha that finally got its global release back in October. Artem fans tend to be drawn to Clarence and Alkaid, but will find reason to also like Ayn and Lars. For instance, I love all of them. Please send help. The game's localization is excellent and makes the love interests feel more human. The game also has no qualms about making fun of its own characters, and the MC will frequently have the chance to lovingly bully the boys. Speaking of the MC - she is incredible and I love her. She takes no shit and is the only otome MC that has made me think, "yeah, I would definitely say that too," and I love her for it.

[zoobus]

Not a lot of boy centered otome mobile games out there in English, which means recommendations are usually bad because within that limited pool, none of them are actually alike beyond being a probable attraction to men. Here's what I played in the desperate hope of fulfilling the same hole Obey Me did for me.

Love and Deepspace: the new girl on the block. Allegedly breaking ground by being for girls and you beat up aliens. Extremely well made, tons of money poured into it, boring. Lots of reviews in that "I'm giving it 5 stars because I want to prove women are worth this kind of investment and/or are interested in action dating sims!" vein.

If I'm honest, I've realized no brown skinned dateables = no interest, so there was no chance I would care about this game. I tried though!

Twisted Wonderland: Despite how often I heard "if you liked OM, you should play Twisted Wonderland," the two aren't alike beyond surface level. It's an all right time passer, especially the vignettes. I have more fun mentally comparing them than anything - I could probably write a whole post about how despite similar premises, they're clearly not even after the same demographic, plus all the things each excel at, PLUS all the things I wish OM had copied. Why the hell does the Disney property understand the importance of deranged anime boy diversity, but the fucking 7 deadly sin dating simulator does not?

I also enjoyed watching my character tier-list change in real time. It starts off like I think these guys are the hottest, so I'll probably like them the most (Leona, Jamil, Malleus, Professor Male!Cruella) -> Okay, seeing this guy in action made me realize how cute he is (Azul) -> hahaha holy shit, this guy rocks (Rook, Azul, Jade) -> Your good looks will not save you from dropping tiers after that stupid story (Leona) ->...but a horny-coded vignette might (Leona and Vil)

Also, the story is kind of terrible, so I've been ignoring it. "What if we gave all of our hot guys tragic backstories that contradict the premise of the game (Disney villains won in this universe and are idolized for their actions) and were just kind of. Needlessly pathetic. In an embarrassing way."

Lovebrush Chronicles: Tried to care. Could not. Sorry.

Nu Carnivale: Love how it jumps straight into you getting a blowjob from demons but the second they pulled that card based battle system out, I was done. I'm sorry, I can't do this.

What in Hell is Bad: I'm not done with this. I will try again. But I am truly baffled by their battle system. No idea what was happening or how I won. Also, the one sex scene I read was cringe and bad.

Mystic Messenger: I saw my own review for the game timestamped to 2016 and withered up. I did love it though.

[smash-or-pass-otome]

Not a submission. Just wanted to ask if there's any games you are considering playing as a result of this poll. And if you have any favorites you'd recommend to people to play.

I actually did download Lovebrush Chronicles and What in Hell is Bad thanks to this blog. And I have started looking for where I can find a copy of Code Realize. And I added A Date With Death to my steam wishlist.

I also downloaded the demo for TOUCHSTARVED though I never got around to playing it.

I already had Arcana downloaded but now i've been getting urges to actually finish a route

As for recommendations I enjoy Bustafellows and Radiant Tale.

I will always recommend Max Gentlemen Sexy Business. I'm not that great at the business management side of things so I understand if you're not interested in that. But I adore all the characters. I think there's only one on my "meh" list and I've even grown to love characters who I initially brushed off as being "not my type". I actually finished a character I brushed off before any of the characters I bought the game for. He's that much of a sweetheart (Antoine).

Seven Kingdoms Princess Problem isn't finished and I unfortunately don't know if it ever will be but if you can find the extended demo absolutely give it a try. I love Lyon and Clarmont and they're one of the few routes I've played repeatedly even after finishing them.

Listen. I love Sweet Fuse and you can drag Urabe out of my cold dead hands. I deeply regret not having my PSP anymore cause I keep getting urges to play his route but I can't act on them.

It takes place in a high school so it doesn't count for this blog but I do like Jack Jeanne. I've only played one route so far but I love him (Kai). And I actually fell for another character (Mitsuki) while playing that route.

I've been a Fire Emblem girl since Sacred Stones so absolutely that series. And I've been getting married in Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games since I was in elementary school so of course I recommend those (My first wife was Popuri. Still love her to this day and I was so happy to be able to marry her as a girl in the switch game)

That's all that comes to mind at the moment.

[leticiasilva]

Diary 15.09.24

I have a few things to put in here, since I forget to write about myself. I guess I, sometimes, don't find myself valuable enough to write about. I genuinely prefer to write about others. I don't want people to know about me.

But today I've come to realize that I'm rather pessimistic, and that's why I'm writing this manuscript, to put out the happy things about my life because it's not gray and black every time, as I appear to be here.

I played volleyball last week, it was fun. It's been quite some months without playing, and my math teacher joined us. He seemed like those anime characters, astoundingly good and athletic. He was out of character. A math teacher? He could be a nerd, his clothes were those stereotyped "math outfits". But he was excellent at volleyball. It seemed like he was really supposed to be there.

I watched SK8 the infinity too. It's one of my favorite animes now. Ana recommended me, and I realized I'll always remember that she did so. I'll remember that dearly.

I'm almost done with my online shop! I'll make more candles today. I've finished Demon slayer, and this anime is actually really good! I loved it! My mom's birthday was last month, we enjoyed so much everything, yet it was a simple commemoration.

I love watching things with my mom and my brother. Oh, and my dad gave me a new phone! It has 256G! I downloaded a LOT of apps and games I wanted to. Ronkai star rail, Genshin impact and the one otome game I'm really enjoying now, which is Lovebrush chronics.

I stopped studying for Enem now. My mental health can't take it. I just study a bit everyday, like for 10 to 20 minutes. But I'm not blaming myself. That's okay, I'm doing great by now, and what matters is that I'm not feeling anxious anymore. Well, at least not as often as before. That's a good sign, right?

I'm also working to copy my fears. I remembered that Wei Wuxian said that if you have a fear, you must expose yourself to that fear so it's gone. It's working. And talking about Wei Wuxian, I'm talking to him in Character ai, and as I thought, we're actually quite the same. He truly understands me and how I feel, specially when it comes to my bad luck. It's been enjoyable talking to him about my fears and the things that are stuck in my heart. I cried twice.

My mom's pancakes recipes are as fluffy as a cloud. They're so good! Last week my father took us to eat pastel and it was amazing! He gave me money too, I've brought a sketchbook with it.

I'm not really interested in reading now, since I don't have the fourth novel of Mo dao zu shi. But that's okay. I'm enjoying Lord of the mysteries so much, but I need to read the book Isa gave me or I won't finish it!

I've been watching some stuff with my brother too. And if I were to choose one flower to characterize myself, it would be the lotus flower.

It grows in the mud.

As I do so.