#if the gameplay showed up in a movie as the background game

[lostdemifiend]

I don't think I've ever seen a AAA game look more like absolutely nothing than Hogwarts Legacy.

If it wasn't for the IP, nothing stands out at all. It's not bad. It's not good either.

It commits the sin of looking tedious.

[bashfulgnome]

Early Wreck-It Ralph Storyboards: Tamora and Hero's Duty

I haven't seen anyone address this, but it's a pretty big deal for character background! 

In the early Hero's Duty scenes from Jed Diffenderfer, we actually get some insight as to the relationship between Tamora and her soldiers, a hint at her life situation at this point, as well as an example of the type of authority she has over her troops outside of gameplay. 

When Ralph (disguised in Markowski's armor) has bumblefucked Moppet Girl's round of play in Hero's Duty, Tamora smells root beer on him and puts him under cabinet arrest/grounds him from leaving the game as punishment for presumably showing up drunk to a quarter alert (which is probably also where this animation test comes from). 

The fact that Tamora doesn't know whether the arcade has a Tapper cabinet — a game that everyone at Litwak's is familiar with — suggests that she must not have left her game in the week they'd been plugged in (or at least not explored Game Central Station). This isn't surprising as Hero's Duty is a very demanding game after all, especially as a lead character. But given that her soldiers have ventured out to enjoy themselves at the bar, it's likely that she was too busy throwing herself into her job as much as possible to avoid dwelling on her own feelings at this point. 

Afterwards, there's this exchange between Ralph and Jenkins, one of the soldiers:

For me at least, it's satisfying (and heartwarming!) to see it confirmed that Tamora's soldiers really do have her back and sympathize with her — hell, they've probably seen some nasty things in war too, and can relate to her. We can already kinda infer from the movie and Hero's Duty comic that she has a strong friendship with Kohut, but seeing that she has at least some indication of support from her troops (and that they're aware of what happened in her backstory) is a really important and consistent detail — it also supports how determined they are to watch her six and protect Felix at her wedding. 

From the start, she was never completely alone in her grief.

[jonquilyst]

Total Drama Sims: Season 2

That's right, baby! We're back. Is your teenaged sim bored and wanting something epic and awesome to do to spend their summer? Does your teenaged sim want a brush of fame and notoriety? Well, you've come to the right place. Total Drama Sims, the freshest, awesomest reality show on simblr, is back for a 2nd season, and I'm ready for you all to send 14 more teenagers to compete in crazy, wacky challenges (safety/lack of danger not guaranteed) in pursuit of the grand prize!

WHAT'S NEW THIS SEASON?

To keep things fresh, TDS2 will be set in a new location and will have new gameplay mechanics! TDS has claimed an abandoned film lot in Del Sol Valley because this season, our challenges will be based off of movie genres, just like the 2nd season of TDS's inspiration!

As for our new gameplay mechanics, TDS2 will be introducing a double elimination (two people are eliminated rather than one), a team swap elimination (someone is eliminated, but instead of leaving the game, the eliminated person joins the other team), and purge challenges (instead of a vote, the worst-performing contestant of a challenge is automatically eliminated) to mix things up and keep the game interesting!

I am primarily looking for people who did NOT participate last season, or their sim got out early. However, everyone may still participate! I just want as many people as possible to get a chance to have their sim play 💖 A lot of people were interested last time and unfortunately spots filled up so fast that some people weren't able to participate because of it (That being said, to promote transparency, I am now REQUIRING RESERVATIONS! That means if you want to participate, you MUST contact me before submitting your sim. You can do this by DM'ing me or sending an ask).

Read on for a refresher on what this competition is all about and UPDATED submission rules (so if you had a sim compete last season, make sure to read them again!)

THE GIST:

This competition is, obviously, based off of the Total Drama series (a show that’s near and dear to me), but you do not need any background knowledge of this show to participate! The show (and this competition) functions similarly to a Bachelor Challenge, where contestants will be routinely eliminated until there is a sole winner.

This competition will also focus on the contestants building relationships with each other (hence the drama part, which is bound to happen when you put 14 teenagers together!)

SUBMISSION RULES:

Reservations for spots are first-come-first-serve. If for any reason you'd like to give up your reservation, contact me ASAP so I can give that reservation to someone else!

Your sim must be a teen

If you had a sim compete last season, you may not resubmit that same sim. I'm looking for an all-new cast!

No occults; contestants must be human only (to prevent unfair advantages)

Contestants must not have high-level skills (they can have some level of skill but nothing above lvl 5; also to prevent unfair advantages)

Any amount and type of CC is fine, just make sure to include it when you send your sim over to me ^^

Only one outfit per category please

Must be okay with slight changes in sims' appearances (as I may use different mods/presets than you do)

Must be okay with me writing dialogue for your sims (for confessionals (example from last season here). I read all entries down to the word and will try my very best to keep everyone in their intended character)

Must be okay with the possibility of your sim entering romantic relationships with other sims (PLEASE SPECIFY THEIR SEXUALITY/ROMANTIC ORIENTATION. Sims with unspecified sexualities/romantic orientations will be assumed to be pan). Nothing NSFW will be shown or mentioned, as of course I'll be portraying minors, but please let me know if you don't want your sim to enter any romantic relationships!

Please give your sims a backstory. The more detailed the better. Describe what they're like, why they're competing on Total Drama Sims, etc.

Your sim can have any traits/aspirations

HERE IS HOW THE COMPETITION WILL WORK:

The 14 contestants will be split into 2 teams of 7

The 2 teams will compete in challenges in attempt to win invincibility (safety from being voted off). The losing team will have to vote someone off (the winning team will not be part of voting)

This process continues until 7 contestants remain. Afterwards the teams dissolve and everyone competes individually (this is known as merge). This means that only 1 contestant can win invincibility; everyone else will be at risk for elimination

When merge occurs, all eliminated contestants at that point will be eligible to rejoin the game through a special challenge. The winner of that challenge will rejoin the game (bringing the number of contestants back to 8)

This process again continues until 2 contestants remain. In the finale, all eliminated contestants will vote for a winner

Challenges will occur half the time. The other half of the competition will be socialization days, where contestants are free to socialize with each other as they please

The competition will start with a socialization day first to establish relationships before the first challenge

If the numbers between teams get too uneven, then a team swap will occur to one random contestant on the larger team

Voting will be determined by relationship dynamics and how everyone did in the challenge. Contestants who do poorly are more likely to get voted. Contestants who have a negative relationship with each other are also more likely to get voted. Conversely contestants who have a positive relationship with each other are less likely to get voted. The contestant with the most votes at the end is eliminated. All of this will be determined by a spinner (in case of a tie I will use a random number generator to determine who’s out). This will also determine who wins at the end of the competition.

REWARD FOR THE WINNER:

This competition is mostly for the funsies, but whoever wins this competition will personally receive an actual reward from me! You have a choice between the following options:

Discord Nitro for 1 month

A tumblr badge

NO DEADLINE! Submissions will close when all 14 spots are filled/reserved. Please provide your sim's tray files as soon as convenient! (Lmk if you need help with this. I will teach you if you don't know how!)

I will be updating the number of spots reserved periodically and will announce when all 14 spots are taken, but if you're ever unsure, don't be afraid to DM me/send an ask!

That should be it! Please comment, DM me, or send an ask if you have any questions, and feel free to reblog or share this with anyone who might be interested in participating!

[monoclesnapple]

Streamer!Chuuya

Bungo Stray Dogs Chuuya Nakahara X Gender Neutral Reader Beginning Note: The stream clips are taken from RussainBadger on YouTube, he's really entertaining. Hint of Rockstar!Chuuya. Word Count: 1096 (Fluff/Little crack)

Of course, he’s very popular by the time he’s 22. All those streams about the new and trending topics eventually led to his popularity. Also the fact that he’s a rockstar, so that helped.

But back when he was 15, he didn’t have that reputation of a singer, and he started his streaming first before moving to a new occupation, but still maintaining the previous one.

He had very few viewers, and he was kinda cringe. But at least you were there! 

(Background information now) You had befriended him in your freshman year of high school along with a guy named Dazai. The three of you had a lot of fun, the two guys always being chaotic and yelling at each other while you tried to calm them down.

Although you kinda got in trouble often, you still continued being stupid. You’ll grow out of it! (Debatable)

Chuuya had at some point expressed his goals of being a streamer or singer, so you and Dazai encouraged him to start with the former, so he did.

Initially, he did gameplays with commentary, but those games were first person shooters or anything online that included fighting in a team against another. Simply put, he raged a lot.

And now in the present, he still does, but it’s gotten a little more expressive since he doesn’t have anyone to scold him about what he’s saying aside from you.

He has a variety of content on his page now, like gameplays (still), just talking, random challenges, IRL streaming, etc. The different forms of entertainment really helps with maintaining his popularity.

Sometimes during streams, he would tell his viewers that he’s gonna do something for a minute until he returns. That minute is used to check on you.

“Are you hungry? We can order take out”, “You alright?”, “We can cuddle and watch a movie after I’m done”, all that is concluded with a kiss on your face.

You do like to mess with him sometimes. Sitting under his desk while he’s gaming and watching him (Just don’t screw his playthrough, he won’t talk to you for a while), going in his chat and sending a message (That shows up highlighted/on screen) about some chore he still has to do, and the like.

Anything harmless because you care about him and he appreciates that.

One time, you were making dinner and he suddenly started screaming loudly. You ensured the kitchen wouldn’t burn before knocking lightly on his door and asking if he was okay.

In response, he comes to the door and opens it a little. “Shit, sorry. Don’t worry, everything’s fine. I’ll make it up to you later,” and he takes your hand, placing a gentle kiss on it, then going back to his chair.

When he uploaded some clips of his stream to his channel on YouTube or the equivalent of the site, you saw that the reason for his scream was because he was arguing with a friend? And the microphone couldn’t capture the high volume so the yell came out quieter than it really was and the mic just cut off.

Another time, he was talking with his friends about something that had happened, and Dazai (who was playing with him, of course) just muted Chuuya’s mic midsentence. After that he went offline, ended the stream, and went to your shared bedroom to cuddle with you, pout on his face. He recounted what happened and you chuckled lightly, embracing him.

Eventually, his old streams from when he was in high school were found (He deleted the clips after saving them on a drive because they were precious memories) and uploaded.

The video included the time where he was playing a multiplayer game (Just Call of Duty, really) and there was an after death mic that allowed the dead player to say something for a second to their killer before respawning. The things he said included, “You’re so mean!”, “Hahah, pendejo!” (asshole in Spanish), “I don’t even wanna play anymore” (In a whiny voice. He said that to you and Dazai, but the mic was on.)

He barked at someone in the game results screen

At the discovery of his old streams, Chuuya panicked before laughing at them. Sure, they were embarrassing, but the comments loved it. He decided to upload the rest of his saved ones so everyone can enjoy them.

Akutagawa, his friend, sometimes play with Chuuya’s group, and when the former plays and does well, Chuuya just yells out “That’s my boy! THAT’S MY BOY! GAHDAM-” and he’s cut off. He’s a huge supporter for Aku and will cheer him on whenever he plays.

After his streams, Chuuya goes to spend time with you. It’s always wholesome and you both would never trade it for anything in the world. You scratch at his scalp while he buries his face in your chest, complaining about Dazai bullying him, or how he was getting dominated by the other players. He always has fun things to tell to you.

What you always love is that while on stream, he seems tough, loud, and in general very entertaining. But when he’s alone with you, no cameras or anything, he’s so soft and cute. Just your cute little boyfriend.

Although he can catch you off guard with his loudness, he always apologizes and makes you forget it. Despite the two of you sharing the fact that you’re both in a relationship, there’s still people prying into his life, wanting to know more. Chuuya did say that it may be uncomfortable, but you still have a large support system consisting of his fans.

A couple of his streams include you. Mainly the IRL ones, but you sometimes join him in his games. The viewers love seeing you two together and always request for more of you.

Sometimes, he practices with his guitar on stream, playing any requests from viewers, and you’re off to the side and out of the camera’s view. If there’s ever a romantic song, he dedicates it to you. A lot of love songs are asked for.

Going back to streams with Aku, he once had a coughing fit while on mic, and someone rigged it to have a voice effect. His coughs were so screwed up, it just sounded like a weird echo into the abyss.

Overall, he’s very fun to be with. You’re blessed to be the one he trusts to show his soft side to. Anyone who’s able to be his friend at least is lucky to have that title (at least in the present time).

End Note: Here are the clips used

(Edit, here's the Aku inspired one)

[mirukiamauri]

Some screenshots from the new AiPri switch game. As many sites announced it, it's basically a puzzle/party game with mini games for the AiPri anime enjoyers. The rhythm game part only has the anime performances videos rearranged to fit the switch gameplay (so far the only songs they announced are: P.O.P.P.Y, Secret Dream, Stand Get Up, Muteki DUO Energy, Hikari no Kotoba, We're the World, Never Give Up Lover, GIRA GIRA STAR, the opening), you can play this mode with up to 4 people. You can rewatch the lives with the "Movie Mode" without the rhythm game part. It doesn't seem like you can change dress to the characters before performances even tho they show an AiPri card section on the menu's screenshot. There are 8 mini games playable by up to 4 people again. There are 3 difficulties to choose from and, while the mini games aren't listed in the site, they say they are basically action games, quiz games and finding mistakes games based around the anime episodes.

In the game your goal is to rise your "AiPri Level" by playing lives and mini games. Find out about secrets and secret missions by collecting the "Secret Pieces" to complete the secrets written in the "Secret Diary". Once you complete a secret (aka the image of an anime screenshot) there will be a voice recording of the scene playing in the background.

[heartsbind]

❤️ + ✈️ + 🧶 !!

shannon yaps about themself time!

❤️ — what are some of your best qualities?

i see you making me be positive about myself -- DKJFSNKJSD 🥺 anyway okay so i would say... my sense of humor and i am good at making myself look physically calm under pressure and organized (at work) even though i never feel that way DKFDSFDSF like at my mother's wedding this weekend. like... ok story time DKJFNDSF so i have three sisters, all younger, the youngest two are twins and the one in the middle is the one who just had a baby. the older twin is engaged and the younger twin has a bf. so older twin's fiance was standing by my brother-in-law and the baby and when he saw us starting to file out for like the procession or whatever the walk to the altar is, he starts like gesticulating and pointing at the baby and giving a thumbs up, but my sister could not tell what he was doing and was like starting to get anxious and asking us like "what's he saying, what about the baby-" and i, who had just been in a 2 hour long car ride with him and just know what he's generally like, could calm her down bc i knew they were positive gestures like "hey i see your baby! she's all good!" and then at the exact same time my mom was getting nervous bc the youngest twin was singing and we'd rehearsed walking according to what verse she was on and like nobody in our lineup could hear her from the building we were coming from EXCEPT i guess another good quality is that i have good hearing (my husband also can't hear for shit so i'm always hearing shit for him me vc oh that car is playing seven nation army i can hear the bass / him vc WHAT are you talking about / ANYWAY--) bc i could be like "ok she's on first verse. ok she's on the chorus. ok second verse is coming up. ok time to go" so anyway i hadn't considered much about any of it until the hostess that was helping us run the event that night came up to me later and was like you did really great!!! and all that and i was like oh! i did nothing!

i am also very humble and yap a very normal amount ---

✈️ — ever traveled anywhere interesting?

ok i can keep this one short bc i haven't gone too many places! i cannot drive and am broke and rarely have the chance to take more than a few days off at once so i've never left the country nor traveled very far across the country. i've pretty much stayed on the east coast u.s. but!! i got lucky enough to go to savannah georgia for a couple days for my sister's bachelorette party a few years ago and that was really fun! they had this place where they did brunch and they would put rubber ducks in your drinks. i think i still have mine somewhere

🧶 — any non-writing hobbies/interests?

video gaming primarily! beyond the games that i have muses for i really like all kinds of different sims. all sorts of farming sims that i just keep collecting, i have like gas station sim and powerwashing sim, supermarket sim, house flipper, pool-cleaning, crime scene washing... i'm currently juggling two/three bg3 runs, early access fields of mistria, just completed the demo of metaphor re:fantazio last night (the gameplay was so fun and it looked so incredible oh my gosh!)

i am god awful at watching things, tv shows i'm the worst at and movies i'm hit or miss - i just have soooo many things i want to do that it's hard to pick what to do next haha! but i have a background in scriptwriting and media studies so i really enjoy watching movies when i have the time!

i used to play the alto saxophone for a symphonic band at a local college that was open to community members! i miss it, but the last place i moved to it was just too far of a drive to justify doing it, plus covid put them in limbo for a bit and i don't think i ever got an email when they started in-person up again, probably because i wasn't in a position to do online meetings with everyone and practice at the time. i'm hoping to move back into the city next year, and maybe i can try to go again!

anything else... i like doing puzzles with my husband, we love tabletop mystery games (we used to have a hunt a killer subscription), and i love collecting even though i am too broke to really do it DKFSDJFDSFS and have no space to put anything. oh and i did start to practice drawing but i haven't done that in a while DFJDSFDSF

[helix-enterprises117]

My Headcanon Star Wars Timeline

This might also double as a "Star Wars: A Beginner's Guide," so if you want, you can also use this as a reference for Star Wars stories you can pick up if you want to get into the franchise; but ultimately, this is not the main point of this post.

Pretty much all Pre-BBY Legends stories: How the Sith and Jedi came to be, how lightsabers were created, the first wars, how everything started out as a high-fantasy before it evolved into proper sci-fi, the fleshing out of the midi-chlorians as entities in Star Wars... it's all so damn fascinating.

KOTOR - KORTOR II: SITH LORDS - SWTOR: The Knights Of The Old Republic games, and it's unofficial third entry in the form of 'Star Wars: The Old Republic,' are stories that take place in an even LONGER time ago in the same galaxy that's far, far away. The first game talks about Revan, the second talks about 'The Exhile' and the third game has both characters be greater-scope forces in the background that influence the events of the game.

The Prequel Trilogy: I never had a problem with these movies. I grew up playing the LEGO games, so I guess it never registered to me that these were bad. But I love the prequels.

The Clone Wars 2003: Unpopular opinion, but this is way better than Clone Wars 2008; no offense to anyone who loves the 3D Show, but the 2003 cartoon is a flashy and high-octane series that NEVER stopped and it had an appealing art/animation style. More importantly, the characters here are far more faithful to their film counterparts than 2008!CW. Plus, Grieveous was a straight BADASS in this show.

Republic Commando (both the book & the game): The book is generally a good read, but the game is basically "What if Star Wars made a Halo game?"

Revenge Of The Sith - Junior Novelization: While RotS is a good movie, the book is... it's just so much better. It goes in-depth into Anakin's descent into complete madness, properly fleshing out his paranoia and his trust in Palpatine; it makes everything he's gone through in the film more believable.

Jedi Fallen Order, Force Unleashed, Force Unleashed II, Jedi Suvivor: These four games, all taking place in-between episodes III and IV, are two sides of the same coin. Both are epic hack-n'-slash games where you play as a lightsaber-wielding force-user. But that's where their similarities end, the Force Unleashed games are power-fantasy games where you are so unbelievably powerful that you can do just about anything; the Jedi games are a more traditional journey from zero-to-hero where you start out weak and the gameplay requires a bit of legitimate skill to properly master.

The Han Solo Books: The REAL origin story of Han Solo. Born of a family of thieves, Han joined the Imperial Navy because he wanted to fly. He meets Chewy and loses his job. Other goofy stuff ensues.

Rogue One: Didn't think a movie that was based ONE LINE IN THE OPENING SCRAWL OF THE FIRST MOVIE was gonna be as good as it was, but here we are.

The Radio-Drama version of the Original Trilogy: I love the movies, but I love the radio-drama adaptation WAY more; as it expands upon and fleshes out the things in the films that left me scratching my head, it has more context to a lot of it's scenes AND it has a bunch of other extra scenes that weren't in the movies that make listening to the radio-drama a fresh experience.

The Mandalorian (seasons 1 and 2): I haven't seen season 3 (I'm sure it slaps, though), but I think this is an awesome sequel show to the original trilogy.

The Courtship Of Princess Leia: I just— this book is so damn funny, I can't wrap my head around it. (Plus, I love Han and Leia as a couple).

The (original) Thrawn Trilogy & Dark Empire: While I'm well-aware that the Thrawn books are pretty much loved by many a Star Wars fan, Dark Empire (I've noticed) is a lot more contested... but I love the Dark Empire SO MUCH. I love the idea of the World-Devastators and Luke turning Dark is awesome.

All of the Post-BBY Books from the Legends continuity: Mara Jade, the Solo kids (Jacen, Jaina and Anakin) and Ben Skywalker are such cool characters that I'm actually depressed that they get de-canonized.

Star Wars Legacy: Cade Skywalker is a very interesting character, as he's a Skywalker who became a hedonistic criminal who doesn't want the burden of responsibility weighing on him by proxy of being a Skywalker, the Empire is actually kind of chill, and everything that we all thought we knew about Star Wars gets flipped on it's head. Legacy, in my mind at least, is an interesting way to end the story of Star Wars.

[docilepillow]

2024 January Media Post Thingy

i dont post on tumblr.com a whole lot i mostly just love to reblog but i wanna see if this novelty thing sticks because for like 2020-2022 i had like a text file i did that i stopped doing in 2023 or so for like video games in particular and i unno it was fun but i got distracted cus half that month i was doing retail anything special happen this year yet? not especially, but since soon ill be very busy with something that IS indeed special, and my bday, i may as well make a post now bc i feel like i will be preoccupied for the first good bit of febuary personally ( exciting life stuff ! ) last disclaimer is that at some point i would want to add movies and shows to this list when i get around to it , but for me december and january've kinda blended in that regard.. me and my friends watched Wonka recently and i was kinda so-so on that just cus' i think the original movies a certain way i guess. oops. i think there were other movies/ shows too and comics as well but once again, december-january blurr for me. Furthermore, any piece of media i pick out for this will also have a completely arbitrary doc-ism secondary title just because i feel like it. Enjoy! VIDEO GAMES! ! MARIO GALAXY 2 < SECOND ROUNDEST MARIO GAME >

I wanna say i spent from the first of january to the third on this game, but my Wii Menu calendar is a little fucked up....

Whoops! Regardless, i do have a bit of a background of not completely " gel-ing " with the original Mario Galaxy gameplay wise in my own friendgroup, to mostly dismayed reactions n junk. In short, i think artistically the game's merits are absolutely fantastic, but since i played it on the switch 3d mario collection some time after sunshine, i do think the control scheme is overall pretty limited, and that does apply to mario galaxy 2, i guess, but methodically, i think playing this game on a wiimote does make the limitation feel i guess more fair in terms of like camera control and deliberacy n stuff... the galaxy games and presentation are completely amazing works of art obviously and theres some good music here but i think between galaxy 1 and 2 i definitely prefer 2 mechanically. i enjoy the level scenarios more thats primarily it, i think. I'm so-and-so on how comets work and how many stars you need to get to get to the end ( I think how comets spawn is a little filler-ey and waiting for them to appear in a level i don't know it'll appear in was a little obtuse to figure out, even if i did eventually manage it and actually enjoy the challenges they offer. its mostly just really annoying comet spawning mechanics that were a drag. a very deliberately- controlling mario i guess and being more familiar with galaxy's control probably was why i was able to enjoy this one more ? Yay! I think i still enjoy 3d world more then this and most other 3D marios, though. It's a good video game and i liked the boss fights in it, theyre surprisingly cool and dynamic for what i'm used to from the mario series. I didn't do the special world, though. i wasn't compelled to go that far past the credits. ( You'd think this game's doc-ism title would come from it being the sequel to mario galaxy, and thus, second roundest, but honestly, i think in terms of the mario series scale, Mario Pinball Land has round mario in it, and galaxy 2's starship mario is definitely, i think, rounder then the comet observatory from galaxy one. That makes Mario Galaxy the third-roundest mario game! )

From around the 6th to the 13th, I ended up playing --- ACTRAISER RENAISSANCE < THE CEREAL-BOX GOD GAME >

actraiser is definitely a mixed video game for me, because i definitely see the merit in it. It's a very unconventional splicing of both sidescrolling and city-development game, a " remake " of a novel SNES/Famicom game with the same premise. You're like a big god of light guy who sends your soul into this little warrior guy who cleanses the land of monsters for around 6 different settlements to florish in with the assistance of a cute little angel friend and whatever area's flavor of local legend the game gives you after a story event or two to hold down the place from encroaching monster dens and such; and, apparently exclusive to this version, there's also little tower-defense segments that come in waves around four or five times per area, which in my opinion are kind of this game's weakest link, but not without like Some kind of merit. At the end of each town segment, there is also a big boss fight, usually tying into the story in some way.

( I think one of the things that genuinely pushed me to give the game a try was the cute angel design in it..... ) (I usually take an excessive number of screenshots whenever i'm playing on switch, just because doing so is very easy and i'm a sentimental freak ( For actraiser R, this is 148 screenshots ) ) ( If i continue doing this next month, i'll try to include the foresight to actually use my capture card for images, instead of taking pictures with my phone.. ) ( I think one of the things that genuinely pushed me to give the game a try was the cute angel design in it..... ) (I usually take an excessive number of screenshots whenever i'm playing on switch, just because doing so is very easy and i'm a sentimental freak ( For actraiser R, this is 148 screenshots ) ) ( If i continue doing this next month, i'll try to include the foresight to actually use my capture card for images, instead of taking pictures with my phone.. ) Some things i like that this game does, alot ---

i think it has a very very cool " world select " map. one very postive thing is that it updates in real time with your progress in the area, so you can watch it all expand from your little sky palace once you've done your buisness there. it's really satisfying and pretty... this game's got really good 2d art, i think. I've heard people be mixed on the sidescroller art in comparison, but i think it's got a charm to it. I think it's cute and while its probably more a budgetary limitation, i do like how everything kind of looks like one of those fantasy stills you can sometimes buy from arts and crafts stores. The framerate on them is like a bit lower then what you'd expect from a modern game but mechanically its still very responsive, which makes me feel like it's a stylistic choice to look more stop-motioney, i guess. Maybe im just a fan of ham, i unno.

In terms of the overhead segments, it's pretty basic and automated, which is fine by me, and perfectly workable for what it is, i think, conceptually ( they build out on your own but you do kind of " guide their hand " when it comes to where paths go, at least. It does lead to a weird meta thing being to zap your own people with holy lightning to destroy stuff you don't want though, which feels flavorfully odd for a benevolent god.... I guess it's fair enough

the main problem with the game is that the tower defense segments, the main major feature and addition of this remake, does kind of take the game's pacing and drop flat in the middle of it. They're usually decently long segments where you can only indirectly fight, and are kind of slow. They also usually need you to protect or have a certain number of buildings left by the end of it ( having all of your farms in tact by the end, defending the main temple, not having every house burned down ) which can be a bit more difficult then it sounds. i dont think the segments are bad or anything, there's just.... entirely too many of them??? like mechanically theyre fine they just happen every other second between story events and it feels kind of padded after like the second one in one area, and there's about 5 per area of increasing difficulty. i definitely think if anything could be reined back, it'd be that. I don't think the story is too special , either, the angel kind of just quips sassily about the story at you from time to time and your followers make requests of you at the temple, usually manifesting in the town segements as " have x number of y " or getting the population to a set threshold, or getting x number of resources. The structure of each area isn't shaken up too much, mostly just " new settlement, find a guy, guy isnt so sure about this lord of light guy but through fighting alongside u and some small character arch, they become a champion of yours or something and you meet the scary boss guy and kill them and weaken the big bad dark lords forces behind it all, but there were two segments i liked, both pretty late-game, with the ice wyvern and this guy named shemall whose only affront to you is having a more popular humanitarian ideology ( who actually becomes the dominant ideology in the segment leaving the church literally empty for a good portion of it , and is only tied into the status quo by the dark lord himself possessing the other temple and shit and starting a really really bad storm of eeevil , who i like a bit ) and a boss in the last area who was implied to once be a force of good but ultimately subservient to the bad guys will, which is basic but i tihnk neat. also they have cool designs. )

Shrug! I think it's neat but it has problems that bog it down! Waah! i dont regret playing it or anything but it's like a 7! ( It's kind of like a game you'd get in one of those cereal boxes, and it's a little cheap, but its endearing to me ? ) TOREE 3D < LEAST-CONSEQUENCIAL SPOILER AWARD >

finished this game the same day i finished actraiser, in one sitting. Ummm... i know this game's like a crowd favorite, and it's, like, solid, but i don't really have all that much to say about it ..... Like, it's an OK platformer, with like really great value for your dollar, but i don't really have all that much to say about it, endearment-wise. I think also that the VHS horror elements are largely unnecessary and are kind of whatever, but I know i'm not really the audience for it. That's the spoiler, i guess. Around the same time, in a date range I don't remember, I basically ended up completely reorganizing my room for Life Stuff, and ended up giving a really cool fan project a try, from a series i've always wanted to try more of, if not for the language barrier, in the form of -- STARFY ORIGINS ( Densetsu no Stafy ) < SPLASHABLE VIDEO GAME >

Waaaaaaaa ! i love starfy ( Stafy? ) You probably wouldn't have the background on it unless you knew me, but i'm a real DS head, and one of my earliest games on the system, one i have vivid memories with, was The Legendary Starfy, an " underwater platformer ", mostly known as being a kirby-like game in style, and being the last entry in a mostly untranslated series of platformers that're japanese-exclusive!

Essentially, what this means for me was that there was , for a very long portion of my kid-years, a bunch of video games out there that i knew i'd be instantly endeared by if ONLY i could play them ( since, even at the time, gba emulation for me was kind of mystical and out of my ability ) ; and , at least in my mind, that meant it'd have just as many lovable characters and such as the the starfy I got to play, anecdotaly meaning the only exposure i'd have to these games beforehand is ferverously looking up stuff on the starfy wiki and watching youtube videos of the final bosses and stuff; basically just lementing for years that " aww,, theres no translation. i guess it's just too obscure " with the rest of the starfy fans i've heard about online, until recently! I emulated this game on Vita and overall i'd just have to say its a cute, decently-novel-but-slightly-padded 2d sidescroller. I'd say it was like ok-levels of worth the wait, but im honestly just floored that a translation of the first game happened at all, and i think its awesome what's been done. It's selfish to want, but i'd really like to try the other DS starfy game sometime, whenever that's translated. It's honestly one of the few loose-end games i can even think of and mechanically that one's a whole lot more out there then this one, which, other then the novelty of playing this game i've only heard murmurs of for over a decade, is just kind of alright. kudos to the fan translators making this game work out!!! I wonder if the team that did this have plans for the others now that this game's been translated....

Wew, halfway down the list, i'm sick of typing, but i'll keep going with ---> DEATHSMILES < SCARY >

Cool bullethell shmup with really tight gameplay my friend endeared me to with a single screenshot and a slightly empassioned ramble i forget the exact context of

idk i think this green girl is neat and the arcade style bullethell gameplay's really fun on steam deck; i just think the girls should be like 7 years older each then what the game says because the loli aspects of this game are kind of uncomfortable and unavoidable and i don't like them at all... the gothic horror halloween aestetic the game has otherwise absolutely rocks and is just up my alley, though. i guess its just part of the style theyre going for, but it's a really unfortunate Japanese quirk you kind of have to just tolerate for the other Very Good aspects the game has gameplay and artisticly wise ( music and art direction is awesome )

the girl's dragon familiar is named booboo by the way. just thought that's important. LITTLE GOODY TWO SHOES < GAME **MOST** RESPONSIBLE FOR SINGLE-HANDEDLY HOME-WRECKING MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY THIS MONTH >

Another game my friend reccomended whicch is completely awwesome and my entire aestetic and i love it alot and i think its my game of the year unless something else comes around and im absolutely floored with it and i went into it completely endeared and its completely wrecked my vernacular and its so pretty and its so artistic and its so different and its so pretty and its so girl and its so gay and im Elise and im in the woods i like being in the woods this game has the best aestetic of any game ive played ever and it feels like no competition and ummmmmmmmmmm

idk just fucking look at it its so so so so good i love this games world so sooso osososoos s oso ososo o os so mcuh its so good it so nice its so charactered genuinely great little slice of life slash horror slash social sim game with admittedly some jank portions of it that piss me off a little bit but holy fucking shit this games aestetic is the best besy best best bersy tbest best thing ever made i think its really really good pelease watch this segment on youtube its so silly

im not gonna type anything else this game Is its narrative and i dont wanna spoil anything but its great its got a lovely dark fable aestetic and i think everyone should play it especially if you like rpg maker horror type games / are gay as hell / love fairytale aestetics like I do

i like ummmm Lebkuchen by the way. if u wanna know what my ending is. there is some fucked up shit that happens in this game though despite how absolutely adorable it looks. everything in this game points to it being one of my favorites of all time or at the very least it will definitely poison my brain forever at the expense of my friends who havent played it yet. Waaah..... no i dont think talking about a fanmade pokemon rom hack after arguably a massive artistic achievement is disrespectful thats just how the month flows POKEMON ROWE < I broke it, oops... >

really cool open-world emerald rom hack, similar to crystal clear and the like. I've technically played it already, but this is the first time i've completed it, though i completely broke the game really early into it that undermined it in a way i didnt realize for about 7 gyms, before i accidentally nuked the overworld with a massive bug that scrambled my player's gender and made the overworld color pallete fuck-ey, which, im not ggoing tto blame the developer on, i'm summing that up to a cosmic ray or something. i think with time and with more polish i could see myself liking this more then crystal clear, but time'll see. ( Team was as below )

MIGHTY GUNVOLT < tie in video game i've ever played >

typing this like an hour ins making me realize this docism thing might not stick but mighty gunvolt is neat i guess i never finished it when i first played gunvolt and obsessed over that when it was new ( Mighty gunvolt came as a free download if you bought the first game digitally, you see ) because of the first boss, but now as a more experienced gamer, that's really just because the fire boss is kind of just a weird difficulty spike at the start that the rest of the game difficulty wise doesnt really match up to. It's a cute, very short ( i beat all 3 character campaigns in two hours , liesurely ) platformer styled like megaman, and that's all it really needed to be at the time. i wouldnt go out of my way to play it these days if it wasnt for my own baggage with the gunvolt series in general, and if it wasnt for my much greater affection for its sequel, mighty gunvolt burst.... I'm just gonna say if this game interests you , you really should just play burst instead. Even if you've played the latter before, you're really not missing out on much more then a moderately ok side scroller. it sure is a tie in demake on the early 3ds ! 6180 THE MOON

Surprisingly, this game's on alot of platforms? I just kind of chose it on a whim 'cus it was on the top of the list of H-SHOP stuff and i was looking for something short to play, but it's pretty artsy.

It's a puzzle-platformer where the gimick is that the ball wraps around the screen when you fall down or up, which works really well with the 3ds in my opinion. with the compression and stuff on the 3ds and how the game was laid out, it affectionately reminds me of a flash game you'd find on coolmath or the such, and its very relaxed ( if a little wonky ) . i dont have anything bad to say on it or anything its just a small little game i played on a whim. it's very minimalistic, if you're into that aestetic, you might like this. That's the last of the wholy " new " stuff i finished this month, and id say overall its a solid start for me, and kind of out of season ( very octobery-feeling game lineup in retrospect..! But that month's always usually crowded with obligations and stuff, so i doubt i'd be in a mood for them even at that time of year.. )

Also, i gave a try to cavestory on wiiware, first time i've played the game in a few years now since the switch rerelease! I think its just as fun as i found it when i first discovered it on 3ds, and, while i have a friend who adamantly disagrees, i actually really do like the OST of this version. It's a cute mutation on the games ost that in my opinion enhances the kind of forelorn vibe the game originally had, and i really like the blown up art of this version of cave story, even if it does have nichalis's hands all up in the matter. since it's unlocked from the start, i played the game on Curly Story till the true ending. I still love this game alot. Sometime i'll trick a certain individual into finishing it, i hope.

That's all i have to say! this is the first time i've made such a big post on any kind of social media period, so, hopefully its not unreadably disjointed or self-absorbed. Whatever!

play little goody two shoes

[jelixpo]

Do you have like a list of things you wanna see in the Mario Movie sequel? Me personally I need to see the koopalings and Junior In the next movie or I’ll literally blow up and die, that and I wanna see the bros and Peach have unfathomable on sight beef with a bunch of 9 year olds-

more Luigi. For the love of god, more Luigi.

Peach made mention to the idea of a mario galaxy movie by bringing up that multiple galaxies are threatened if Bowser invades them. So that would be cool. Rosalina would be amazing to see on the big screen, especially how they incorporate her backstory into the movie without it stunting the flow of the movie. Since Rosalina's backstory was optional in the og game it made reading it stop all gameplay, so having it be integrated better with the plot on the big screen would be cool to see.

more explorations into Peach's background. The first movie kinda highlighted that we as an audience know shockingly little about Peach's canon backstory, so explaining that more in-depth would be cool to see.

And bring Lord Hater Squishmallow (aka King Boo) to the big screen. I'd love to watch him cause mayhem. Also it'd be interesting to see who they'd cast as a voice for him. I know it'd be a celebrity, based on the track record, but they'd have to edit the voice a LOT to get it to match the voice clips from the games.

And just more brotherly love in general. I wanna see the bros relationship withstand all odds. I know the trope is to break them up cause they get in a fight (i know the trope cause i do the trope lol) but i wanna see the filmmakers subvert that stereotype and show just how strong of a bond the brothers have. Through thick and thin, i wanna see them face it all together.

these are a lot of ideas for one movie tho lol. So maybe just for the first sequel focus on getting them in space and getting Rosalina on the screen

[anancient]

get to know the writer . . . hey there! —

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? i didn't know anything about final fantasy until a friend of mine who roleplayed in the fandom ( if you see this north... heeeey! ) recommended it to me. i didn't have a way to play the game myself at the time so i spent hours watching various gameplays on youtube and i wasn't surprised that my favorite character ended up being aerith. the majority of the muses i write on tumblr are characters who at their core are always full of hope despite all of the hardships they face. and that is the epitome of who aerith is. it's what she represents. i see a lot of myself in characters like that, and so, when introduced to aerith, i saw a version of me that i strive to be every single day. she's way cooler than me though. and i'm still not 100% sure that i write her well, but i enjoy doing it anyways.

is there anything you don't like to write? not trying to copy-cat ari here, but i've never written smut and probably never will. respect to those who can, but it's just not something i am comfortable with.

is there anything you really enjoy writing? i haven't written much on aerith but from what i have written... i really enjoy getting to delve into her past. aerith, although surprisingly outgoing, is pretty closed off when it comes to talking about what she's been through. when i write i have a tendency to tap into my muses internal monologue. i've never been good at world building, but i love the storytelling. getting to dive into aerith's past and seeing how she carries it with her in the present is always fun.

do you write in silence or do you play music? i write best with no distractions whatsoever. so, i usually don't have any music playing in the background. i can write with instrumentals playing, but if a song has words or is too loud, it can be extremely distracting for me. i can do both but i definitely prefer to write without.

do you plan your replies or wing them? i'm not used to plotting ( shy girl things lol ), so a lot of my threads start out as memes or come from starter calls. when i do replies i usually respond to threads that i have the most muse for first? and when i say the "most muse" i just mean the ones that i already have somewhat of a response in my head for. i don't force myself to write so i only write when i have the ability to do so.

do you enjoy shipping? yes! next question.

what's your alias/name? my alias is just the letter b and it's the first letter of my government name. some people know what it is and i really don't mind sharing it, but i just prefer going by b! i've gone by b for years now and it just feels weird to go by anything else lol.

age and birthday? twenty-four, may 9th 2000.

favorite food, color, and song? i am a sucker for hot wings!!! my favorite color is either a light/pale yellow or baby blue. i don't have a favorite song, but a song i've been listening to non-stop this week is history of men by maisie peters. annnnd favorite season would have to be spring/fall.

last movie and show you watched? my sister made me watch frequency (2000) and it was such a good film. even though it's been 2 years since my mom passed, we're still grieving. so movies like this are very healing for us lol. last show i watched was worst ex ever on netflix.

do you have a tumblr best friend? i consider myself close to everyone that i talk to on a daily basis. i don't like labeling friendships because all of the people i've met on here mean so much to me for different reasons! and i believe that i have many more friends to meet in the future. all of you are my besties. sorry not sorry.

tagged by: @onegil ( ty ari! ) tagging: @lightspeeds, @arachnidbit, @tragicale, @noblehcart, @controlsnature, @cloudvii

[lordfrezon]

Ok let’s do this one

Signalis

Gameplay: 7/10

Story: 10/10

Short review: This is a survival horror game.  I’m not the biggest fan of those.  I got through the gameplay, it’s passable and the puzzles make you feel clever.  If you like survival horror play it, it’s neat.

If you like stories with strong thematic elements, either play this game or watch a playthrough on youtube because it’s incredible.

Longer review:

You ever just see a book or a movie or something and think, “wow that thing has impeccable vibes”?  That’s Signalis for me.

I’ve struggled to write this review like 4 times now and keep running into the primary issue with reviewing this game in that it’s near impossible to get across why its good without you having experienced it.  I’ve put the title drop in a bunch of places already, but I don’t see a better way to get across what I’m trying to say than just showing this 2 minute video.

Right from go, you’ve got The King in Yellow, the three-note oddity, Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude, quotes from Lovecraft’s The Festival, a face being stripped of flesh, black text on red background, just... vibes, man.

But there’s just more, the game starts slow but eventually just throws question after question at you.  What would you be willing to do for someone you loved?  What’s the nature of life?  How do memories from the past affect the present, the future?  How much are you willing to sacrifice?  The game provides some answers but like a lot of great thematic works, there’s so much left to you, the experiencer, to figure out and interpret for yourself. 

Ok, so what do you actually DO in this game?  Signalis is an isometric 3rd person survival horror game.  You’re tasked with progressing deeper and deeper into a mining facility in search of “her”, a woman who haunts your dreams and whom you made some sort of promise to.  In your quest, you much do a bunch of puzzles to unlock doors, turn off security systems, and find keys.  There are two obstacles to this.  The first is the Rule of Six- you can only have six items in your inventory at a time (with the exception of a couple integrated thingies, also this can be made less stringent and even turned off).  The second is the horror part.  The former workers of the mine, androids like yourself, are not doing too great, and will try to murder your ass.  So you have to manage either sneaking around or popping caps in metal ass with limited ammo, then curbstomping them to make them lie still.  This allows you to progress without concern from the enemies, making progression much easi- wait, why is that one standing back up?

This is pretty much it.  The puzzles vary in difficulty from “type in a code into a safe” to “turn on a radio broadcast station and turn on your in-unit radio to open a box with a microphone in it”.  Like I said, the gameplay is fine. 

But what keeps getting me about this game is those thematic questions it asks.  There’s a lot of subtle decisions you can make that influence how the game ends, and unlike a lot of similar games there’s no “good ending”.  There’re just varying degrees of... stuff.  And without delving into spoilers, there’s not much I can say beyond “yeah game is good play it or watch a playthrough”.

And from the point of view of the developers, I don’t think that was unintentional.

[yngai]

SEPERATE WAYS (2023) INITIAL THOUGHTS - PART ONE :

while i think i set my expectations a little too high regarding this DLC & there are areas where i was left disappointed, aspects of the original story that begged for expansion which are either ignored or just as obtuse, i do enjoy the new additions & scenarios unique to her campaign ( resulting from it being given proper development time, when the original was always an afterthought, a quickfire rendition of the main scenario whose actual story is relegated to direct exposition from ada in between chapters + the attached guidebook offering context on her actions & allegiances ) . ada's characterization falls very much in line with how i've portrayed her . while capcom always delivers on engaging gameplay ( RE4R's combat is the franchise's best & ada's unique move-set sets this DLC apart ), characters & story can often take a backseat to the breakneck pacing of the action, to atmosphere & overall world, monster & sound design .

i wish this wasn't a consistent issue but having been a resident evil fan for at least half a decade now this is what i should've expected, there are some excellent moments hampered by wasted potential & while these are faults i am happy to see ada wong being given a chance to shine . separate ways was always setting up ada's own solo outing that was later backtracked & her narrative role reused for damnation, only somewhat realized with RE6 as ada's campaign carries the most story relevance as we learn the motivations & background of the game's villains, with ada confronting her own manufactured persona plastered onto another woman . this DLC feels like that promise fulfilled, ada unchained from her narrative dependance on leon as we relive the events of RE4R from her perspective . whereas for leon it's a horror, for ada it's just another day clocking in to work . everyone was left wanting for more & thinking ada robbed of her story relevance by luis, but even in the original her campaign is what cements her role in the narrative & it is the same here .

i don't tie my blog's canon exclusively to the remakes & as i've detailed here there will be a lot carried over from the original moving forward with my portrayal, especially in how resident evil 4 (2005) is a self-aware take on the american action movie, where ada plays & subverts the role of the femme fatale very plainly . this is something important to how i perceive & portray ada, because i think an issue regarding most analysis of her character is that despite her duplicitous, calculated nature, people take her & her words at face value . in this remake much like in her every appearance, there is a disconnect between her actions & the information she relies to other characters, it's what makes her interesting to me ( & why i've written her for as long as i've been a ressie fan ) . we've known since RE3 that ada wong is a cover, a mask worn by a woman that thrives on lies & deceit, & the weight of it, her existence in a world on the brink of self-destruction is what gives her life meaning .

separate ways (2023) doesn't truly pick up until after luis' death, sadly, i don't think her infection is given much proper development, but her relationship with luis going beyond one file & one cutscene is a welcome addition to her story & the interplay with luis' arc & theme of redemption adds a lot of context to ada's scenes in leon's campaign . the build up is a little middling but the payoff is worth it .

this isn't going to be an in-depth analysis post, i still need to gather my thoughts, think of this more as a rather long list of observations :

first off, i love that ada's introduction & approach to rescuing luis shows her undercover . this is the first time in the franchise we see ada, a spy, sneak into a situation not donning her signature raven black hair matching her usual red/black color scheme . while the leather gloves are a dead giveaway to eagle eyed viewers, it's a nice change of pace for a character we are told is a spy though we rarely see do proper espionage ( she is more akin to a gentleman thief ) . does make me wonder where she procured the outfit since the inhabitants of the castle are on high alert, & what she thinks of all the dead hitchhikers she walked past on her way down .

i also enjoy that ada humors luis by giving the chance to finish off his private dance number & that from her expression alone there's instant regret, an eye roll, placing a cigarette in his mouth to shut him up, later turning her head away to create distance as luis leans in, before her demeanor with him grows openly hostile as he continues testing her patience . i will say though, this scene does feel like it belongs later in the campaign, it makes little sense for ada's route throughout valdelobos to be castle -> village -> castle ( luis even mocks it, asking ada if she ever thought she'd come back to the castle later . seems like a cheeky nod from the developers hinting at the strangeness of the circling ), & it always felt like their cliffside chat was supposed to be their first meeting . in fact, this is hinted at by the code phrase used, one luis asks leon upon their introduction & later ada, stressed in the e-mails exchanged . which is absent here as i think originally the trouble luis got himself into that leon hears of in the prince charming radio call was getting recaptured . this is a writing decision made specifically for the DLC that, in my opinion, does conflict a little with the main scenario, but i can live with it .

i guess it's nice of ada to pick up a pack of cigarettes on the way to valdelobos, i just wish she smoked one or two in a cutscene, maybe they're not her brand .

some insights into ada's arms dealing background given from the descriptions of her springfield armory xd ( blacktail ac ), customed made for ada's personal use, she must know some excellent gunsmiths . interesting as well that her knife 'has meant the difference between life & death on more than a few missions', she is shown to be rather proficient with knives in later cutscenes too . really makes her expression when leon essentially mansplains the usefulness of knives in close quarters all the more understandable . she thinks it very funny, because she never initiated the fight with the intention to harm ( finger off the trigger, playful lilt to her voice, in the remake leon has openings ada doesn't exploit, leon is her distraction against los iluminados why would she harm him at all ) . in both renditions it's a part of her game to judge his training, how it has changed him & in the remake she does get caught off guard by how seriously leon takes the encounter, the build up of resentment of a six year old death & betrayal ( deserving, of course, a consequence for ada's actions in raccoon city that leaves little room for whatever lingering sentiment people misinterpret in their interactions ) only regaining her foothold when he tries to talk down to her . then she mocks what he's become .

after learning of ada's infection i first speculated it would coincide with her own capture by méndez's forces after rescuing leon at his home, sedated as in the original & injected with her own plaga instead of becoming a sacrifice . instead her infection happens first thing, resulting from a fairly surface level cut on her right arm that heals & vanishes ( along the damage to her sweater ) within minutes . while we are told that pesanta possess a unique form of plaga infection specific to her victims ( fitting with her name drawing from catalan folklore as a creature that causes breathing problems & nightmares by perching atop a person's chest ), plaga infections happen through the injection or forceful swallowing of a parasite into a host . in the remake the parasites survived incased in amber, preserved like the insects they are, in the original they became petrified & their spores infected miners hired by the salazar family, & now i guess an organic spike cutting someone slightly is enough for a parasite to start growing in your body . but hey, infection through a wound sustained on your forearm from a black-clad monster pursuing you throughout your mission, ada/jill parallels anyone ?

it's just a shame pesanta isn't a stalker enemy that irregularly pursues ada throughout the castle & village, an active threat that looms over the horizon . she is encountered three times, always alone ( sans illusions, which i suppose is a nice nod the hookman version of RE3.5 ) & the third time is the reimagined U3 boss fight, where ada is freed of her infection . this is told to us, & ada even comments on the usefulness of the information, in a file found in the display room, but it's almost kind of a copout as to end the infection plotline as soon as possible .

for leon it lingers until the very end, he goes to such great lengths to cure himself & ashley, ada vomits her parasite & brushes it off like it never happened, & it's such a shame because pesanta's ability to control her victims through waking nightmares would've been such a great chance to introduce some more horror to ada's journey, insight into her character by the nature her nightmares take, imagery & symbolism, maybe an even more overt series of hallucinations in the castle as a full on callback to RE3.5, something beyond her nightmares being a boss mechanic ( not asking for anything beyond a 5-10 minute sequence is a 3-4 hour long DLC ) . this is why i'm currently on the fence about retaining it as part of my canon, i guess until we see the story relevance of the blood sample wesker takes in their first encounter .

ada, to me, is a character that always struggles with her lingering humanity that gets in the way of her own selfish whims & her employers' desires . she finds herself getting invested & distracted by the people she comes across during her missions, by a moral line she is unwilling to cross no matter how beneficial it would be in the long run, which is bolstered here as she affirms luis' promise & need for redemption . while i won't bore you with the notion that her greatest flaw is that she cares too much or anything ( she doesn't ), it is an aspect of her character that makes her a more realized person but dampens her life of espionage . it's an operational failure, but not a personal one, something i would've loved to see reflected in her struggle against the plaga, her humanity succumbing to a power she can't truly comprehend . one that might be useful in her betrayal of wesker, a man who thinks himself as having surpassed humankind . a notion considered but ultimately discarded as she is self-assured enough to think she can stand against wesker on her own terms .

pleasantly surprised to see ada's glasses return in a superior form, one i'm definitely keeping, as the I.R.I.S. system is a gameplay feature & a fun little spy gadget that makes far too much sense as a tool in ada's arsenal . not just explaining her prowess with her grappling hook but scanning the environment for footprints & fingerprints, a gameplay feature i hope to see return in any prospective future instalment featuring ada . she is noted in a character blurb from the original RE2 to be an investigator, an information retrieval specialist, as both the g-virus & the dominant plaga are referred to as evidence that ada is tasked with collecting, rather than research material ( the former makes a lot more sense once you consider that ada's golgotha sample never resurfaces after RE2, while the g-virus itself does in dead aim, degeneration & RE6, it's always through other avenues, namely, HUNK's sample landing in the hands of umbrella europe's facilities in france, frederic downing escaping raccoon city with his own sample & carla radames extracting the lingering golgotha in sherry's system - the latter kept by ada for undisclosed purposes, the same file mentioning she has no desire being part of wesker's apocalyptic designs ) .

when i first played the demo for RE4R i immediately locked onto the game's present though underdeveloped stealth mechanics . i remember testing its limits seeing how far i could sneak into the village before initiating combat ( it wasn't very far ), & it set my mind ablaze with the possibility that separate ways would expand on its stealth system, making ada a more covert operative . while there's certainly opportunities for stealth, more than the base game, it would've been very neat to see the I.R.I.S. system implemented in such a way as to allow ada to scurry by undetected . enemy sightlines & alert levels, a ping system allowing you to see enemy movements behind walls, i'm just dreaming about an ada wong metal gear solid game .

does make me wonder though if this is just an ace in ada's deck that wesker is otherwise unaware of, as he could very easily tap into her eye to see her activities in real time, though i doubt it's in any way connected to any network ( los illuminados also has the facilities to interrupt any radio communication ) . ada keeps wesker updated to her progress via her radio & never removes the I.R.I.S. like she discards her sunglasses, i'm unsure yet if it is a contact lens or a permanent implant .

an incredibly goofy line but i think as ada's report unveils, ada isn't necessarily the most creative woman when it comes to word choice ( she leans too heavily on obvious metaphor & cliché even in her speech patterns ), i don't think this topples her equating umbrella's collapse with an umbrella folding & brining all of spencer's shadowy conspirators ( wesker included ) out into the light & their wretchedness into full view, their battle of light & darkness as they seek to erect a new umbrella, that's still my favorite ada wong-ism . i think her quips in this DLC make her out to be even more of a dweeb than ever before & believe me she thinks she is so clever .

very brief for an introductory monologue but i do like that RE4R's primary theme of change is carried over to ada's narrative through the lens of how raccoon city changed her, kind of been a long running aspect of my portrayal, the complete shift of the ada wong persona & the ideals of the woman underneath after a night that almost undid everything she was . this in tandem with the reputation garnered from her survival & the opportunities it presented her as a corporate spy is what molded ada into a much more efficient, smarter operative willing to reopen old wounds as to form scar tissue . her questioning wesker's designs with the amber here, as well as telling luis earlier she has yet to decide what to do with the amber, is also a very nice callback to death's door where ada's single thought following her discussion with wesker at the apple inn is the possibility of a g-virus outbreak on the scale of raccoon city ( 'if the t-virus did this, what would happen if the g-virus got out ?' ) .

she probably blessed whatever higher power she doesn't believe in that no such outbreak has ever occurred, a BSAA file on golgotha specifically states this fact & the disastrous consequences should one ever occur & as i've mentioned previously, her sample never amounted to much . this does tie into a point i will make once we reach the post credits scene, it's something that makes me very happy .

i don't think ada was ever fully prepared for raccoon city, even prior to the outbreak itself the darkness of the umbrella corporation was of an evil she had yet to encounter ( if you subscribe to her presence in arklay & stay in raccoon city up until the outbreak as i do, rather than being sent into RC on two separate occasions ) . while there was plenty of dread & deceit in her life, death & betrayal, petty crime & arms dealing that made her the perfect candidate to be a corporate spy on behalf of one of umbrella's rivals, the eugenics driven research into the t-virus which would eventually lead to the development of bioweapons for the us military was a revelation not easily stomached . she was in over her head with no out but to continue her mission until she found herself in a living nightmare with no real plan & no backup, a desperate woman donning lies trying & failing to manipulate her way to her mission's success . the desperation of her half-constructed lies that only a rookie like leon would believe ( & even he quickly formed doubts ) is what really cements RE2R as one of my favorite characterizations of ada, she lost control & paid for her failure with the life of her persona, only for that name to become her moniker once she managed to drag herself out of raccoon city's wreckage, one of the few survivors .

ada takes on a very cheeky matter-of-fact tone in this radio conversation, combined with the fact she must've already known about the kidnapping of ashley graham before going into valedobos, might be a hint towards ada herself having tipped off the us government towards ashley's location specifically to rile up the cult as a distraction ( 'couldn't have picked a worse time' ) . this does fall in line with a file from the original game, where the cult suggest a similar theory that i think ada's report on leon confirms outright, as she plans for his involvement in a starring role while she works in the background, mentioning how simple the structuring of the operation was prior to los iluminados capturing the us president's daughter . the kind of thing that tends to complicate matters, thanks krauser .

OH MY GOD HE SAID THE LINE !!!

[britishsass]

Death Game Stories: Part 2

I said I'd keep going, so let's keep this train going! My first post was about the PARTICIPANTS in the death game. (Please click that if you want to see part 1!) This part, therefore, will continue down my list of four parts of the death game: Gameplay!

[Image ID: The "Seek a Way Out!" screen from Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. There is dynamic typography, with a graphic of an exit sign on the right and a key at the bottom. End ID.]

This one is probably the hardest to really boil down into categories like I'd want to. Even so, there are multiple types I can say to start with.

1. Kill the other participants.

This one is self-explanatory. These games often end up with a "Last Man Standing" ending, with just the protagonists alive. It's also a rather common plotline, showing up in:

Judge (manga)

Hunger Games (books)

Battle Royale (movies)

Incite Mill (manga)

Danganronpa (video game)

Future Diary (manga)

Btooom! (manga)

This plotline often ends up with a lot of fight scenes, arguments, and dead bodies. It's often impossible for everyone to live, as well-- Although some people might try. (More on that in the next post.) The main aspect of this gameplay style is this: The participants are the ones to kill the others. There can be outside motivations, but the participants must be the ones to actually kill most often.

2. Win smaller games.

This one frequently will use demented versions of well-known games. I use "games" as a loose term, as well. It's more often in money-based stories, with some examples being these:

Death Bell (movie): Multiple small puzzles.

Zero Escape (video game series): Multiple escape rooms.

Squid Game (tv show): Multiple children's games.

As the Gods Will (manga): Multiple children's games.

Die Now (manga): Variety of games.

Choose or Die (movie): Multiple choices.

Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (anime): Multiple games.

Alice in Borderland (manga): Multiple games.

Gantz (manga): Multiple hunts.

There are so, SO many for this one. Doing multiple rounds, often with different games, is a very popular option. It's a good way to shake things up a lot, after all. However, it does take a lot of creativity to keep coming up with interesting options, so it can be difficult as well. In video games, though, this is a good way to build up the gameplay loop.

3. Survive longer than the others

There's some games where people keep getting picked off, but it's hard to say anything else about it. For some examples:

King's Game (manga)

Would You Rather (movie)

It's a bit hard to come up with more off the top of my head, but these ones are examples of where the goal is just to live a while longer.

4. Escape!

This one can be an aspect of other gameplay types as well, fun fact! In fact, it usually is. Here's a few of the ones where it shows up, and if it has another type as well.

Zero Escape (video game series) - Also a Type 2.

The Hunt (movie) - Nope.

Cube (movie) - Nope.

As the Gods Will (manga) - Also a Type 2.

Saw (movies) - Depends on the movie and the game.

Alice in Borderland (manga) - Also a Type 2.

It's a good one to include with hunters and prey, or to have a lot of traps throughout. As a general goal, though, escape makes a lot of sense, so it's frequently used as a background goal. And, as you can see... Type 2 works wonderfully with that.

~

This is just a basic list, of course! There are other ones. Sometimes, it's a single game (Ready or Not, Circle) and sometimes it's more complicated than that (Your Turn to Die). Even so, those are just some options that show up throughout pop culture to draw ideas from.

Next post: We discuss the responses of the participants. It'll be shorter than the others, but it's still an important part of the death game as a whole.

To see that, click here!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix Recap: Atlantica (Part of Your World)

Upon unlocking Magnet, you automatically unlock the next “episode” of Atlantica’s story.

You’ll see no immediate change upon disembarking to Atlantica’s only save point.

To begin the next chapter, you must speak to Flounder, and agree to try and move the statue again.

So begins “Chapter 2: Part of Your World”.

After the chapter title fades out, the camera pans down to Ariel, despondently drifting near the shipwreck while looking up at the surface.

“Ariel!” Sora calls out, before swimming up alongside Donald and Goofy.

“We’d like ya to come with us, Ariel,” Goofy invites.

“Have we got something to show you!” Sora entices.

We next see Ariel and Flounder swimming into Ariel’s grotto. The trident imprint that revealed the Keyhole in the first game is still there.

But more importantly, the statue of Prince Eric is now in the middle of the room.

“It’s a pretty cool statue, huh,” Sora remarks.

“It looks like some kinda Prince,” Donald adds.

“A prince!?” Ariel questions as she examines the statue.

Sebastian, meanwhile, is quietly stressing out in the background.

This song’s musical challenge is to score five or more Excellents in a row.

You get an Excellent by pressing the button prompt with near-perfect timing, when the timing gauge is in the yellow.

If you get a Good or a Bad, the combo will be broken.

“Part of Your World” does NOT reuse any of the audio from the original movie. It instead uses an entirely different instrumentation, though Ariel’s VA does a great job of reciting the lyrics. Don’t know if she also voiced Ariel in the movie or not, even if the Kingdom Hearts series has a pretty impressive track record with the (still living) original voice actors. Remember how the first game had Alice and Wendy’s VA reprise BOTH her roles?

Ahem, regardless, while the gameplay’s still pretty bad, this version of Part of Your World is still a good song to listen to, and the cutscene that accompanies it in the background is endearing.

“What do they call ‘em? Ah! Feet!” is now accompanied by Ariel grabbing onto Goofy’s flippers, for example.

But back to the gameplay once you’ve hit the target combo at least once, you don’t need to worry about any further misses, unless you want to reach the objectives recorded in Jiminy’s Journal for completion’s sake. Such as unlocking the Secret Ending.

There’s also still bubbles to pop, but they don’t function any differently than regular notes, and thus the only purpose they serve is to cause a hilarious animation hiccup in a later game. I’ll tell you about it when we get to Melody of Memory.

After successfully completing the song, Sora reminds Ariel that they’re here to help her out, although Sebastian urges the Junior Heroes to stay out of it.

“Look who’s talking,” Sora snarks.

“Yeah, you were gonna tell her dad about it!” Donald reminds him.

“Oh, what am I going to do?” Sebastian wonders as he grips his head.

Ariel continues to admire the statue.

Later, King Triton and Sebastian meet in the former’s throne room.

“You’re late Sebastian,” King Triton points out via text box, “Is something?”

“No. Nothing, Your Majesty,” Sebastian assures him, before swimming up to him.

“That’s good,” King Triton notes, “So tell me – how is the song for the musical coming along?”

“It is finished, Your Majesty!” Sebastian exclaims, before the camera cuts to an angle looking up at the ceiling from behind the throne, “And it celebrates all de wonderful things found here in de ocean. It will be my finest work!”

“Will it get Ariel’s mind off the human world?” King Triton asks.

“Er, yes… well… Probably… Possibly…”

King Triton glares at him.

“I-I mean, most definitely!” he corrects, “Excuse me, Your Majesty, but I must rehearse… you understand.”

Sebastian hurriedly swims off.

Back in the Undersea Courtyard, Ariel is still lost in thought as Sora, Donald, and Goofy look on.

“This is terrible!” Sora observes, “We’ve got to do something.”

“She can’t be in the musical like that,” Goofy points out.

“I’ll sing her part instead!” Donald offers.

“No way! Not a chance!” Sora shuts down, apparently sharing the fandom’s opinions on Donald’s singing voice in this game.

“What? Why not!?” Donald asks, either unaware or uncaring of the pain his singing voice causes in this game specifically. Seriously, what’s with that? Donald’s sung in PLENTY of other works, but it’s only THIS game where it sounds grating to me!

“Hey, it’s Sebastian,” Goofy points out.

The crustacean of the hour swims up with a scroll in one of his pinchers.

“Dis will never work…” Sebastian despairs.

Sora asks what’s up, and Sebastian reveals that he’s composed a perfect song for the musical.

But he thinks it’s gonna be too complicated for the Junior Heroes.

“Aw c’mon!” Sora replies, “How hard can it be?”

The camera fades to black.

When it fades back in, a completely befuddled Sora, Donald, and Goofy are struggling to make sense of the directions they’ve been given.

“Uh oh…” Donald helpfully remarks, before the screen fades to black.

Upon getting booted back to the Gummi Ship, you are alerted that you’ll need the Drive Gauge to be 5 or more before the Junior Heroes will be able to play their parts in the musical.

However, you can also return to Atlantica, swim past all the NPC’s in the Undersea Courtyard, and go through the Loading Zone to access King Triton’s Throne Room, where King Triton is swimming around, and there’s two Puzzle Pieces to collect, one above each of the “torch” things behind his Throne.

I’m only alerting you to this because you CANNOT access King Triton’s throne during story events, and thus I was always under the impression that the Undersea Courtyard was the ONLY visitable area in Atlantica.

With that, we’ve got one more Disney World to go before returning to Traverse Town.

All I can say is, you’d better Be Prepared.

-

So we’re still in the middle of the little mermaid story but other stories are more complete. Inch resting.

Also re: that last bit: Ohoho?

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Maybe it’s just me, but a minor gripe I kinda have is that because of RE2R a lot of fans are calling Ada a mercenary now because the US localization team used that instead of a Spy. When you play the game in Japanese, you don't even need to know the language to hear Anette clearly calling her a Spy. And Annette claims the virus is going to the highest bidder without actually knowing, but assuming they kept certain story beats the same, Ada was hired & got the sample on Weser's orders, she wasn't getting it to sell it to whoever would pay her the most. I'm thinking the localization team changed it because they thought it didn't sound as good, or they didn't think the western audience would take the term seriously? It's so funny to me that I’ve seen people will say in RE4 & RE4R Leon is like James Bond when it's actually Ada who's Capcom's James Bond, like the little end credit sequence you get after beating Assignment Ada, and the Jazz music she gets is so unsubtle about it too lol was glad that every time Ada showed up on screen in RE4R you could hear the slight Jazz music playing in the background, I wonder what they're going to deliver with her DLC and if she will still get that end movie sequence, since they cut out so much of her, I'm expecting a lot!

Also, with all the differences with the localization, I’m really curious to see an actual translation of the Japanese script, there was a random clip on YT that was recommended to me of a Japanese Vtuber that someone translated of them reacting to the bridge scene, and there were some minor differences, one being where when Ada is about to fall, they had Ada telling Leon to “live on” instead of “take care of yourself”, I can’t confirm this since I can’t read Japanese but even that makes me view the scene a but differently now.

yes actually thank you for pointing this out, because apparently the japanese script of re4r characterizes leon and ada (somewhat) completely differently. a lot of phrases are translated into harsher meanings in the english version whereas the japanese ones are interpreted much softer.

i understand the reason why the us localization team used mercenary as it's less "campy" as spy. but at the same time, i feel as though people took annette's words as truth even though she was just theorizing that that was what ada was doing. i think the fact that with re4r, they were PAINFULLY obvious about what ada was doing/saying was to help the audiences who don't pay attention to realize what her intentions are.

i agree though, ada is much more a spy than leon ever was. it's unfortunate that assignment ada was never canon, and it's probably not going to be remade. but i really want to enjoy all of what they give for separate ways honestly i think the best way is to just find a japanese version of the gameplay with proper translations into english that aren't just subtitles of the english script.

it really seems as though a lot of key changes were made in the script that does drastically change perspectives, especially with aeon. and specifically with leon calling ada "heartless" in the english version whereas he never said that in the japanese version. and i think i'm mostly praising the japanese version most as it's the first one.

all of the resident evil games are written with a japanese script and then changed into english afterwards. there are going to be lots of phrases and sayings that are lost because of it.

[sockenpuppe]

Does anyone else remember the first disastrous video game adaptation? It was released shortly after the 20th Anniversary Special Edition of the movie (which, by the way, left fans disappointed because it was the same as the 10th Anniversary Special Edition).

Originally set to release six months after the movie's rerelease, video game developer Hellsite was pressured to release four months earlier. And they were way in over their heads.

Never heard about Hellsite?

Well, Hellsite was a small unproven developer. No one quite knows how they managed to get the rights to develop the first video game adaptation of "Goncharov". It was their very first game!

And it was their last.

Looking back, it’s pretty obvious they had no idea what they were doing.

In order to avoid ending up like U.S. Gold's video game for Coppola's "The Godfather", a side-scrolling run and gun game that was panned by critics for its gameplay, this game was set to be a point-and-click adventure in the style of the classic LucasArts games. Well, the final result was indeed a point-and-click adventure. Other than that, it had nothing in common with the much better LucasArts games.

Graphically, the game’s backgrounds were a disaster. Instead of reminding of the beautifully shot movie, they were reminiscent of an intern’s first foray into pixel art.

The gameplay was also heavily criticised. It was very straight forward, following the movie’s plot without changing up too much. (Sorry, still no happy endings for everyone’s favourite characters.) Puzzles were way too easy.

Picking up a wine bottle in the game’s second level, opening a closet door in the fifth one, and worst of all talking to Sofia as Katya in the sixth level cause the game to crash.

Additionally, the game’s first print had to be recalled due to a mistake in its start sequence. Instead of the game’s copyright date, the original movie’s date was displayed.

The game never managed to recoup its development costs.

[Image ID: First image: Start screen of the first print of the video game adaptation of "Goncharov". The game's title and a picture of Goncharov himself fade in, stay for a moment, and then fade out. Followed by a screen, saying: Hellsite Ltd. presents GONCHAROV. TM and (C) 1973 DOMENICO PROCACCI. All rights reserved. GONCHAROV is a registered trademark of DOMENICO PROCACCI. Hellsite is an authorised user.

Second image: A gif of a fan modded version of the video game. The game’s original background was substituted. Now, it shows a street in Naples that looks way too modern. A picture of Goncharov's head appears on the left side. At the bottom, there is a typical menu for point-and-click games with the options "Give", "Pick up", "Use", "Open", "Look at",  "Push",  "Close", "Talk to", "Pull". Next to it, the sentence "I need to find the clock tower" appears.

Third image: One of the game’s original background images. A simple drawing of a grey-ish building. Three identical windows are fully pictured. At the top, the lower parts of three additional windows can be seen. At the bottom of the building, there are three shops. The names of the ones on the left side and on the right side can’t be read. The shop in the middle doesn’t even have a shop sign.

/. End ID]