#ignore this this is just me ranting but also ignore if you like atlus

[dobercorgis]

What the fuck

[mar-zom]

EMOTIONAL RYUJI RANT !!!

keep in mind that some of these statements are generalized and blanket statements. Everyone goes through recovery and trauma differently and this does not define the Recovery Experience. This comes from my own experience and why i can relate to Ryuji.

tw for alcoholism & abuse,

I feel like, along side Ann, Ryuji and his story is often forgotten — even to Atlus — and he just becomes the Comedic Relief, The MCs Best Friend, The Meathead and it’s super upsetting for me because his story is the one that stayed with me the most since my first play through of the game in 2018.

Ryuji is called “annoying” often because of his joking nature, it’s hard for him to have a moment of seriousness and when that seriousness is directed at him (i.e that argument in september that leads to Okumura’s palace) he gets defensive and angry, when he does he gets treated as a meathead with no scope of emotion.

Must i remind you that Ryuji is a survivor of abuse. His father was a raging alcoholic that beat both him and his mother and then eventually his father was no longer in the picture. The way he acts is all out of subconscious self preservation.

When living with an abusive parent or partner, any emotion from the victim is considered a threat to the abuser, any form of taking up space is disrespect, any mention that they have these emotions is considered an attack against the abuser and thus the victim will no longer bring up how they feel, they will become uncomfortable in serious situations out of fear that they will be harmed if it’s given attention. It’s only understandable that Ryuji gets defensive or brushes everything off as a joke — because that is the only way he can see himself surviving.

Ryuji’s story is a story of surviving abuse and learning how to live with your past while focusing on the future. Ryuji’s story is about trauma recovery.

I understand why Ryuji gets angry easily. Everyone recovers differently, but for me at least my recovery is often going through a lot of anger, anger that the people that were supposed to care for me didn’t, anger that no one noticed that these things are happening, anger that i never spoke up about it and asked for help until much later on. That anger can also manifest from a place of fear, which can also be seen in Ryuji; he’s afraid of being like his father, of turning to the things that his father did and ultimately continuing the cycle of abuse and possibly generational trauma. Anger is a large part of recovery and to say that his outbursts are annoying is ultimately ignoring that he is a survivor of parental abuse and that is disrespectful.

Ryuji deserved a better confidant arc and, in general, better writers. His story — other than his experience with Kamoshida — is barely mentioned and it feels as though Atlus is expecting its audience to understand every face of Ryuji’s personality through one small sprinkle of “my dad abused my mother and i” that is rarely spoken about again, which is not possible unless someone has lived through a similar situation.

Ryuji deserved better and i will forever live by that statement.

from,

offical ryuji kinnie

[kekisu]

hi hey hello what's your opinion on haru/goro (not necessarily platonic or even romantic just their relationship as two people who have gone through similar trauma and are coping with it Very differently)

oh i have so many thoughts. i actually went on a bit of a rant about it on twitter recently so i might just copy and paste what i said there here MGKDHNJJFBSHBHD SINCE ITS VERY WORDY. im gonna put everything under a read more

i wish people would stop treating goro and harus dynamic as strictly "oh haru hates him so much and wants to kill him and goros a piece of shit." like. its very obvious even in canon thats not how anything is between them, its a lot more complicated than that.

a lot of interesting relationships in persona get watered down to easy-to-digest tropes and its so stupid cause goro and harus whole deal is so much to think about

haru literally sympathizes with goro to an extent due to the fact he also struggles with having a manipulative and controlling father. she knows it was all out of his control and thats what troubles her because she doesnt know how to feel about him still being involved in her fathers death. and dont even get me started on how she wasnt even able to properly process her grief and mourn because the circumstances made it so she has to deal with suddenly being a ceo at the ripe age of 18 years old. like. haru has so many repressed and complex emotions on this

idk i have a lot to say but it gets on my nerves seeing people misinterpret them. i honestly think some people just project their weird hatred for goro onto haru in some fan work with them despite it being genuinely out of character for her

how i interpret them is like. theres awkward tension and neither of them really know how to approach the subject without it getting too personal/uncomfortable. i feel they have potential to get along sometimes because they have some shared interests but obviously itll take a long time for them to get to that point

i also feel a lot of this comes from people watering haru down to being the "Cute but PSYCHO" anime trope instead of being, like, the actually good character she is in the game. but thats just me (i mean she couldve been better if atlus didnt ignore her all the time but when has atlus done anything right)

as you can tell i have a lot of shit to say <3 FDGHKMGMFDFSNJJFNJNG THANK YOU FOR ASKING

[garnettfox]

Izanagi Challenge run part 1

Well here we are at the start, I’m starting a clean save and thinking over how I think this is going go.

My best guess is the start is going to be realitivally easy, not exsactly sure how far I’m gonna manage to get, my hopes is to at least beat Chie’s Shadow if not get about half way through the dungeon. She shouldn’t be too hard, but hopefully when I start getting Shuffletimes I get either a Dia card or if I’m lucky a Bufu to help with Yukiko’s Shadow in the future. Thinking about it I don’t see the early game being too hard especally Kanji’s Shadow but who knows what RNGesus has for me.

Middle game largely depends on the skillcards I can get but I can see it being a challege. and oh dear god I am not looking forward to the Amino-Sagiri fight that fight has been the bane of my existance in every other run and I expect no different now. Oddly enough I think I’ll be able to handle the last two bosses pretty ok long as I’m not stupid

I love the fact when you pick Very Hard difficulty the game warns you that you can’t change the difficulty, then immediately says ‘Relax and enjoy the game!’ No, No I’m here to suffer.

For the name I went with Yu Narukami for canon’s sake, I don’t normally use the canon name But might as well for this run.

I’m also not going to go over the story unless it’s somehow related to a dungeon, I find something intresting to comment on, or some way to make a joke. So your pretty much just gonna hear how the dungeon crawling’s doing and how much a boss is pissing me off. And I’ve also recently finished my NG+ Run of the game so Ya I’m gonna be fastforwarding and skipping a lot.

....I’m not the only one who wished in NG+ It was at least an option to ask Yosuke if he was ok when you see him crash right? As it is your a complete jerk to him by ignoring him when he’s in pain and distress twice before helping him out of the trashcan. AND BEST BOI DOESN’T DESERVE THAT SHIT!

Tutorial fight and huh, those shadows definately got a damage boost, ended up using a medicine before the boss...This can only mean good things.

At least Yosuke’s Shadow is an easy boss, weak to Zio meaning Izanagi can just zap him into submission, though he does use Winds of Oblivion which, is a wind skill which we’re weak to.

...I’mma just rant here for a second YOSUKE DESERVED HIS OWN DUNGEON!

Like I get why they did it on several levels, give you a party member before the first dungeon, teach you how boss fights are gonna work. I even get why they thematically did it with his Shadow appearing in Saki’s space.

The thing is though, it doesn’t work properly which sucks because they did it perfectly with Chie who also doesn’t get her own dungeon. Chie’s Shadow takes up residence in Yukiko’s Castle and it fits her issues *perfectly*.

Chie’s problem is her fagile ego, she thinks of Yukiko as being better then her so needs to keep Yukiko co-dependant on her to prop herself up. Which makes it thematically appropriate for Chie’s Shadow to be in Yukiko’s dungon. She views herself soo poorly and as being soo weak she can’t even form a dungeon and can only leech off of Yukiko’s, her ‘betters’ dungeon.

Yosuke....Ok...He...Tries to date Saki to deal with his boredom but...She isn’t the *core* of his boredom or resentment, that’s the town at large, if he saw Saki as a symbol for the town he’d hate her not want to date her. She was a means to an end and while Yosuke’s charicter arch does involve him working through his complicated feelings for her *their not why he formed a dunegon*

Just...I know we just got the Steam port but if Atlus ever does a remake of P4 In the updated P5 Engine, Yosuke deserves to have his own dungeon.

And my estimation of myself took a nose dive when not only did the Shadows of the tutorial fight deal way more damage then I thought, but Yosuke’s Shadow actually killed me...So much for him being an easy boss....

Second attempt I actually remember the tutorial Shadows are weak to Zio (I thought they where weak to phys hence why they got off enough attacks on me I ended up needing one of those medicines I needed for Yosuke’s fight) and Yosuke’s Shadow goes down since it has a pretty damn easy pattern along with it’s Zio weakness, just guard when it uses power charger and when it guards and you’ll be ok.

Anyway first team mate get and thanks to his boyfriend Privileges he will never leave the party.

...

For real though Yosuke is the only team mate who has wind skills other then Naoto who only has the single target spell (And you only get in October), has the best speed of all your team mates and is the most vercitle learning skills from pretty much every branch avaible to him, want him to be a healer he can heal, want him to be a magic power house he’s got you, wanna do physical he can do physical. His adaptiblity is really second only to the Protags with the Wildcard (Which we don’t have in this run) and I happily keep him at my side through the entire game.

Yosuke Social link go, Chie causing drama, basically filling time till you see Yukiko on the Midnight Channel then hijinks, getting supplys and heading to the castle.

I only got armour for myself and Yosuke and spent the rest on medicines since I...You know...Wanna live through the dungeon.

And I was right to do so as the first Shadow, a pises took out HALF MY HEALTH IN ONE HIT.

Also god damn it P4 Why do I have to manually switch Yosuke and the others to my control it’s soo goddamn annoying to have to do that the first time I use anyone.

First floor cleared and first skill card earned! It’s Tarukaja which...Not what I wanted and I just personally favor the automatic boost skills you can get. And the ones that offer a plus for using it like Yosuke’s Youthful Wind not only being a Sukaja but healing you for some of your health. Course he’s not going to get that skill till january. *Sigh*

About to face Chie’s Shadow and I deside to restore some of Yosk’s SP since he has Garu which she’s weak to and hope for the best, I really hope I’m not gonna have to grind the first floor for this...

First turn and she kills Yosuke. This is only going to go sooooo well.

It went ok...Till I got her into her low health animation and she killed me with a lucky Mabufu. Alright let’s try this again before I go back and....Attempt to grind.

And I got booted all the way back to the town....*Sigh* Least this means I get a reroll on that skill card...IF I get another one.

Which I don’t. *Sighs* and like a fucking IDIOT I forgot to restore Yosuke’s SP before the fight. At least since I resist Zio I could do a little the first turn and settle in for her attack loop.

This time I don’t even make it to her low health animation before she get’s a lucky crit and kills me with Bottomless envy. *Grumbles* Ok I’m starting to get frustrated so, Chie’s Shadow can be smug over her victory while I cool my head for today.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

wait whaddya mean by 'evidence' for why ya don't like MC/Goro? Isn't that more of a personal preference kinda thing rather than something that needs 'evidence'?

Haha...haha........he....orz Yeah..........you’d think........ But back when P5 came out, apparently I couldn’t say I disliked Makoto without a “reason” and apparently it didn’t matter how many reasons I needed to provide “evidence” that it happened. Like say “man I really don’t like Makoto, it was a bitch move to blame a literal victim for not helping her friend” (we’ll just ignore that Anne didn’t realize Shiho was being abused and thought Shiho was upset cause it was her placement on the team, I mean the game likes to ignore that literal fact when Makoto’s involved but yeah that’s what freaking happened so keep it in mind as to why Anne “didn’t help” cause the slander this game gives is bullshit >.>), when like: 1) the truth was out there and Anne shouldn’t have to defend herself (Kamo said he tricked her and Shiho, and he did this in front of the whole school you bet your ass everyone knows about his confession), 2) the victim was confronting Mako about the rumor and if it was true then why the hell didn’t she help them, 3) the rumor actually turning out to have truth to it so like WHAT THE HELL MAKOTO???? 4) WHERE DO YOU GET OFF MAKOTO-

*cough* Anyway, when I said I didn’t like how she blamed a victim I was told to elaborate, then when I elaborated above they said “that’s wrong provide evidence” and so I had to freaking provide “evidence” (on I site I found very inconvenient to freaking post images of)..... {Btw if you want the evidence it’s 1) Kamo confession scene, 2) Makoto kicking us off the roof (showcases she knows of Anne’s rumors, reeeeeegardless she should still know Kamo’s confessions, just think of this as a bonus scene), 3) Anne confronting Makoto, 4) Makoto (*cough*gaslightingly*cough*) “apologizing” after screwing us over with Kane. >3>}

*inhales* and because of that.............if I freaking state an opinion I now have the need to make sure I have all my facts straight (aka “I don’t like the thing because this happened and it either doesn’t make sense/sends a message/is contradictory/wft did I just witness, what have you that’s probably it) to justify/back up my feelings. Esp if it involves missable dialogue (cause while it’s there and I want to give credit for it, I also want to point out that if it’s key info and it’s missable then the freaking devs failed the player). 

Basically if I’m gonna state something I don’t want it to be me spreading misinformation about a char. Plus I’m sure Goro fans would prefer a detailed explanation than “I don’t like them cause it’s Goro” or “Ren belongs with *insert character* instead! >:(” Regardless if they’ll read it or not..... Anyway, I respect them, I think they respect me (that or they don’t notice me, either way y’all haven’t irrationally jumped down my throat like some Mako fans from the past have 8U and you sincerely answer my questions when I ask them....even if sometimes I never follow up kaslfjdajf orz). Plus I know they love Goro meta, and if I get around to making the post, it is gonna be kinda of a meta reading and deconstructing of the text. Not in favor of Goro (well really just ranting about Atlus’ writing of P5 for the millionth time, not really trashing Goro just me looking at Atlus while pointing at Goro being like “the hell kind of decision is this????”), but hey more meta regardless~! Don’t they’ll read it (don’t blame them) but it’ll be there.....if they want.

Tldr; Makoto fans scarred me early on and now I have a compulsive need to provide scenes to back up my preference/reasonings because that’s a thing now. XV orz

[dykeakechi]

thinking goro has to be "purely innocent" or even assuming fans must think that bc we want him to heal and not die says a lot about ppls fucked up beliefs about abuse. abuse is justified if you think the character is bad. ppl also say stuff that isn't true about goro and then call you apologist if you don't agree (like that he doesn't have remorse or he's a psychopath). even canon that proves he's not evil, like poj and pq2, just get ignored or they complain that it shouldn't have been made /1

/2 like goro even fits the profile for this hellsite’s idea of a fine antag to redeem, he’s a minor, he doesn’t kill animals, or assault women or commit genocide, yet ppl concern troll so much for just not liking an ending where an abused teen is killed the second he’s ready to leave his abusive father! im sorry but im tired of this fandom and im not making disclaimers anymore bc it isn’t bad to see that goro can be redeemed and to want him to live. it isn’t.

(tbh i think ppl are rly mad that proof of justice came out and ren is actually mourning for akc and likes him, and that in pq2 he gets along with the characters they wanted to hate him. its been so long ppl who hate him will never change their minds even if he had the best redemption arc in p5r)

—–

GO OFF ANON! unfortunately, goro is really one of those characters that fell victim to atlus’ bad writing, and specifically in his character arc and the way they ended up treating him (he’s actually a pretty well written character when you take the time to analyse and understand his actions. sadly, the game didn’t actually try to do anything with that). I also agree with you, and I do think so people are indeed made that proof of justice and pq2 came out and proved that the other characters do indeed care for him (even though they were already ready to give him a chance in the game but sure,, people like to forget that). People thought he’d have a rivalry with naoto but instead we see them respecting and encouraging each other in pq2 (WHICH MAKES ME VERY HAPPY hufSIDJ). he’s literally just an abused kid who got used by all the adults around him, AND a fucking supernatural being. sure, he might have made some bad choices and I think we all like, acknowledge that, but it’s hard to blame and demonize him for it considering the context. 

anyway didn’t mean to rant on top of your rent but all I have to say is: stay bitter! 

[linerwriter]

Primrose is useless (and here’s why)

*slight spoilers for Octopath Traveler and Persona 5*

In my 50 hour, several month long voyage through Octopath Traveler, I have learned a number of things about the game. I have learned that Alfyn, while sweet, has a vindictive street a mile wide. I have learned that Cyrus, though oblivious, is actually quite charming. And finally, I have learned that Primrose, as a fighter, is useless.

Now, before you come at me with flaming torches and pitchforks, shouting about You just don’t like her as a character!- her character has nothing to do with it. I like her story, in fact, I would say it’s one of the more unique stories in the game, which is saying something (besides Tressa’s. Hers is just... ugh). Wants to get revenge for her parent’s murders and her family’s fall from grace in the aristocracy? Sign me up. Her personality? Also a win. It’s sarcastic and flirty, just the type of thing to keep me going in a bar full of drunk men.

Her actual gameplay? Not so much.

I have a theory that when Square Enix was making the characters, Primrose’s story was one of the firsts. But then, when they got through everyone else, they were left with Primrose, and their creativity kinda ran out.

My protagonist (or the first person I played as) was Ophilia, and I slowly worked my way clockwise around our heroes. When I got to Primrose, I was thinking “This is the character that has knives and dark magic! That’ll be useful!” And then she didn’t end up that way.

See, Primrose, at first, is useful. She’s one of the few that starts out with a knife, and the only one that has dark magic naturally. Sounds pretty helpful, right? Well, uh, not quite. There’s another character who uses a knife- his name is Therion, and he is one of two Best Boys- and has a higher attack stat than her. Which, okay, that’s fine. Primrose seems to be more focused on magic, like Cyrus. Maybe her dark magic is powerful?

Wrong.

I don’t know what it is, but the elemental spells that only attack once are incredibly weak. Like ice is absolutely fine at dealing damage, but as soon as wind is played, it feels like you did 30 points of damage (dealt by a very high leveled character!) Dark magic, in particular, seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in that the spells just aren’t very powerful. Period. I’ll use them to break an enemy’s shield, and that’s pretty much it.

‘But if she uses such weak magic then why does she have such high SP?’ You may be asking. I’ll tell you, friend- it’s because she buffs others. Buffs, in itself, isn’t bad. In some cases, they can even be incredibly useful, like when you want to defeat an enemy quickly. But besides boss fights or impatience, I’ve never really used buff spells, and I rarely use them during boss fights

Finally, the big cherry on top- her ability. In case you don’t know, one of Octopath’s game mechanics is special talents the character uses during their story or regular gameplay. Such abilities include Olberic and H’annit’s challenge ability, Therion’s steal ability, and Ophilia and Primrose’s guide/seduce ability.

Abilities in Octopath are often used again, like with H’annit and Olberic. However, besides H’annit’s ability to challenge others to a duel, she can capture monsters to summon again later, differentiating herself from Olberic. Primrose doesn’t do that. Ophilia has the skill Guide, where she can talk to townspeople and summon them later in battle for help. Primrose’s skill, Allure, does the exact the same thing with no variation. See where I’m going with this?

With all four of these problems mixed together, my motivation to use this player is pretty low. If one of these things were by itself, it would’ve been fine. If she used knives but her dark magic was pretty good? Cool, I’ll use her. If she had the same ability as Ophilia but good at attack? Eh, I could ignore it. But it was the fact that everything she could do was done better by other characters was what really made me lose my incentive to use. To be honest, she kinda reminds me of Haru from Persona 5, with a few differences.

For one, I actually had a reason to use Haru. She’s the only one (besides Joker) that is able to use physic moves. For another, when I didn’t need to use her, she still earned EXP from battles. I wish Square Enix did what ATLUS did, where characters still earned EXP and leveled up even when they weren’t being used, but alas, they did not. Because of this fact, whenever I wasn’t using Primrose, the others’ levels would slowly creep higher and higher, up into the 40s, while poor, poor Primrose stayed at lvl. 20. 

The thing with Octopath is that, despite having to juggle through and play 8 different characters, you can only have four party members with you at a time. This can lead to some characters being forgotten until you reach their story, or having to grind for several hours until everyone is at an acceptable level. This cycle of continually being forced to grind, play, forget with Primrose led to my motivation and reasoning to use her to become nonexistent. After all, who wants to use a character with skills and abilities that were already done better?

In short, Primrose, as a playable character, was unneeded. With her forgettable and, quite frankly, lazy abilities, need for grinding every chapter, and overall lack of motivation to use her, it is with no surprise that I think she is unhelpful. 

I really want to use Primrose, honestly, I do! Her story seems really interesting (from the first two chapters I’ve played through) and her interactions with other characters during travel banter feel really genuine and fun. It’s just, with all of these things piling up against her, I can’t be bothered to use her as much as Cyrus or Therion. At the very least, I can say that she isn’t my least favorite character. That spot belongs to a certain merchant.

Thank you for listening to me rant about this. It’s been building up for a long time. It was kinda fun to write all this out, if I’m being honest. Maybe I should do it again for Tressa... welp, that’s something entirely different. See you next time if I do this again!

[roundpi]

Incoming rant/essay/tangent things: You can ignore the strikethroughs.

People aren’t saying the nicest things about Tatsumaya on Twitter. Tatsuya is free to love whoever he likes. Isn’t that the moral of the story?

From a Japanese society perspective (especially at that time), all three choices COULD be considered “controversial” or “taboo” in some way. Lisa, because she’s a foreigner. I don’t think I need to explain Jun or Maya’s reasons. I might be wrong, so PLEASE correct me if I am.

Considering Atlus right now, is it better to throw them a bone? Or is it better to get rid of all false hope and qu/eer-baiting? Usually, I’d say yes, but considering how Atlus is now… (How come the only other gay option is exclusive to non-canon-chan?)

Also, in the ending of IS, Lisa kissing Tatsuya and saying “I love you” should be hidden behind a dialog tree a la EP. Or have it be determined by that dialog option in the Taurus Shrine. I don’t hate her, I just don’t want her to be like that. It’s a broken heart waiting to happen. I can’t…

I’m a sucker for equality. (I laughed when I have the option to slap Maya. Ah… new age femi/nism.) But if you dare slap Jun, Tatsuya… Maya will whoop yo a**.

You can see why I only ship protagonist with each other. Or any ship that sinks the most ship because my chaotic neutral mind. Haha >:D Love is suffering. Since they are both equally important to the story, well, you can do the math.

Btw I used to be the same way several years ago; little me would definitely be one of them. So I sorta understand why people felt that way.

We have coping mechanisms and double standards for a reason, I guess.

“He” may be right, humans do contradict themselves, do they? It’s what it means to be human. But no human is perfect, and that’s okay.

[justpompadoit-blog]

RULES Name your top 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

1. Sailor Moon

I love all of them and wish I could list every senshi, but I gotta say 90s anime Usagi is just my darling. She’s immature, scared, a crybaby, and fucks up a lot, but she’s also so loving and does so much for people. I just love having that in a protagonist, and a superhero. I haven’t seen that in a main character that wasn’t a subversion since and it’s just so important to me and gives such a positive message to people who can be heroes even if they don’t feel heroic. 

2. Yu Yu Hakusho

Team Uremeshi is bamf, but I gotta stick with Kuwabara. Punks with a heart of gold is a cliche, but it is one I love to death. I’ve loved the guy since that really early episode where he threw everything he had into studying just to help his friend out of a jam. And he hasn’t stopped being a sweetie since. Plus he’s a goofball and I gotta love that. 

3. Chrno Crusade

Anyone remember that manga and/or anime? Because I do, and Rosette Christopher was the SHIT. She was spunky and energetic and took no names, but she never fell into the fem fatale trap either, clearly dealing with her own struggles, insecurities, and emotions. She was an excellent protagonist and grew, so, so much as a character. (Well, manga, anyway. The anime botched that to hell, but that’s a different rant.) Also, while there was definitely fanservice in the manga, and it didn’t avoid skeeziness, Rosette still stood on her own as a compelling character to follow and didn’t need to shove sex appeal in your face to get you to care about her. And like, ten years later after the manga concluded, we could damn well see some more female protags like her. 

4. Tales of the Abyss

I still cry about Luke fon Fabre. He just. Grew so much as a person, and suffered way more than he ever deserved. He was able to become his own person and not live in anyone else’s shadow, (and broke away from a REALLY toxic and manipulative relationship, and I’m so, so proud of him.) His ending was fucking heartbreaking, but hey, happy end epilogues, am I right? Just. Don’t ever mention Tower of Rem to me, plz. 

5. Princess Tutu

Duck??? B-but Rue. But also, Fakir. But then again, Duck... NO, RUE. Fuck, I mean Fakir. I MEAN.

No. 

FEMIO. 

6. Persona

There are too many characters that I love, but lets just go with Kanji Tatsumi. Punk with a heart of gold, but also struggles with his sexuality. He was really REALLY relateable, and even if ATLUS ended up botching his and other characters’ arcs with their homophobic tomfoolery, I’m always gonna love this big nerd. Also, his social link was the best. Period. 

7. The Promised Neverland

They’re all good kids, but I think I’m enjoying Ray’s arc the most so far. Just seeing him struggle on his own, and hardening himself to save those most precious to him, only to have Emma steamroll through those walls and demonstrate that NO, you can rely on others and still make it out ok. Just. Chef’s kiss. He’s held it all in for so long, and god, I can only imagine how much he must of been struggling, esp. with Isabella legit being his birth mother. 

Also, my favorite thing about making Ray icons is skimming through the manga and just slowly watch as most of his expressions go from stoic stares and angry sneers to more open smiles and excitement, and just seeing how gentle he can be with Emma and the other kids. gUH. I am dead, fam. 

8. Steven Universe

Insert generic I love them all statement here, but I really do. Especially the main Crystal Gems. I’m a sucker for characters struggling and growing from crippling self doubt and low self esteem, so it bounces between Pearl and Amethyst. Watching them in the latest episodes and seeing how far they’ve come has brought me great joy in this house. 

9. Berserk

Guts is the only lone wolf edgelord muscle man that I will accept. Tragic manpain backstories can be a pain, but his just so raw and. You can see how clearly it still effects him, and how he copes with feelings other than “RAUGH RAGE DEATH VENGEANCE”. People who whinge about the later chapters being too fluff and not dark enough can kiss my asscheek. Having Guts surrounded by people who are genuinely supportive and care for his well-being, is so satisfying. And ignoring her crush on him, his and Shierke’s relationship is just really important to me. She does so much to keep him grounded and with his companions, and just. You’re doing great, sweetie. Best witch award. 

10. Homestuck

Goodness, would you look at the time, it’s time for me to gush about Dave Strider! Not only is he a huge nerd, but he’s genuinely funny and provides the best dialogue, is responsible for the best comic sensation of our time, and has overcome so much from his background and just had become better for it. I love this fucker. I love him and his douchey, shitpost spewing, shades-wearing sweetness. He is a fandom fave for good reason. 

Also Vriska is a gremlin and I l o v e her. 

I was tagged by @jaganeyed

I tag: All of you. Go forth. Gush about your faves. It fills me with energy. 

[yeonchi]

Dub Logistics Part 15: The Existential Crisis of Game Localisation

“Japanese games were never meant to be localised for Western audiences in the first place.”

For this instalment, we’re briefly going back to the style of the Koei Warriors Rant Series. Warning, lots of pent-up frustration lies ahead.

Amongst all the dub fans, nationalists, SJWs, weeaboos and otakus, I forgot about two other groups of people who are part of Japanese gaming culture - Japanese people who can speak English and Westerners who are living in Japan. Their viewpoints are basically different to those of the dub-sub debate and they both interest and befuddle me. In my view, they don’t look like opinion-neutrals, who oppose English dubbing just for the sake of opposing it. Instead, we get a clearer reason of why some Japanese games are not dubbed in English on localisation. However, considering the background of some of those people, there quite a few generalisations were made.

For now, this is the closest thing we can get to an explanation from Koei Tecmo or any other Japanese gaming company, as one of the people I talk to works for one of them. I understand that posting this may backfire on me because of my views, but at least I’m actually doing something rather than not doing anything at all, and I think that’s the important bit.

So recently, I noticed a Facebook page called Gamers Against Greed. They are a group who want “value for money” in their games - meaning no unfinished games, no micro-transactions and better pre-order bonuses and DLC. Seeing as I posted about the levels of localisation and partial dubbing in the past, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce NoDubNoBuy to them. It turned out to be a mistake, but an indeedly worthwhile mistake.

Here’s a simplified version of what the page’s admin said:

Sales of Japanese titles in Western countries are very low

The target audience of the games are Japanese people - they were not intended to be localised in the first place, as with Western games being localised in Japan

Subtitling a game costs a lot of money and adding a voice actor to one role would cost over $4000

Okay, I don’t disagree with what he said there, but he missed the point at the second part - many Japanese games have quite a following outside of Japan. Are you implying that Japanese game companies only set up Western divisions and localise games to the West so that us Western gamers have to pick up after you? Well, no wonder people are saying that Japanese game companies don’t care about them. It’s like a dog controlling where its owner goes!

If the games were only intended for Japanese gamers, then why were they localised to the West? As much as I hate to be “that guy” (having seen many arguments between Chinese, Taiwanese and Hongkongers on Facebook, even though many people don’t actually care about them according to Quora), but if it weren’t for Japanese companies like Nintendo, Sega and Sony, the gaming industry wouldn’t be as developed as it is now.

Pretty soon, my post was flooded with comments from others. Quite a few of them were the same things, which were usually about money or the market for dubs. I found that some people who commented on my post were living in Japan, so that was quite a new perspective to learn about, even if their arguments are basically the same as any other argument I’ve ever encountered. Here are a few highlights:

A British YouTuber living in Japan stated that almost no Western games released in Japan are dubbed. Obviously, that wasn’t the point of my post, but still, it kind of fits. Most companies won’t add Japanese dubs to Western games because “it’s not effective for the expected revenue”.

A game developer/server provider, based in Vienna, works with some “big developers” (like Gearbox Software, Blizzard Entertainment, Bethesda and Bandai Namco) and states that Japanese gamers are “fine with subtitles” and that “they don’t like dubbing in general”.

I think the admin of the Viennese server provider insulted my page for having “no actual following”. He also stated that the developers would never see my page as it’s not in Japanese. At least there are people on my page who actually care, unlike you. I don’t expect the gaming companies themselves to notice my page, but their Western divisions could sure do with some harsh criticism. Even the Undub page complained to Atlus regarding the localisation of Persona 5, but they did it in English and not Japanese. Says a lot about Western fanbases, huh?

Here’s a long one. Another British YouTuber (who seems to be married to a Japanese woman and can speak Japanese) overthought the entire thing and mentioned about having to watch movies like Beautiful Life or Infernal Affairs with English dub. I said to him, “Live-action movies don’t have to be dubbed, but animated movies are a different thing.”

He then went on to analyse my post. By the time I got to his second comment, I started getting tired of replying to every comment in the thread. I didn’t want to bother with explaining the whole point of the new #NoDubNoBuy movement and so, I just stated the main points to him, essentially skipping over half of his comment (which he acknowledged right after).

He then went on to state that my points were all assumptions and that I have “no respect for actual evidence”. Dude, you know that I started getting tired, right? I do quite a bit of research for my rants, but sometimes, I don’t have the time to actually show you that research. Maybe you could have looked at the Koei Warriors Rant Series (which is linked on both my page and the NoDubNoBuy page) yourself instead of calling me ignorant for making a “half-arsed point”.

It was pretty surprising to hear from Western gamers who live and work in Japan. The people who compared English dubbing with Japanese dubbing actually missed the point (in my view), but I’ll let it pass. Instead, I’ll refer you to Part 50 of the Koei Warriors Rant Series. I agree that there are dub haters in Japanese-dubbed media, but the dub-sub preference ratio in Japan is at 50:50, like the West.

Unfortunately, while I was writing this instalment, Gamers Against Greed have blocked me from their page and deleted my post. That is why the link to the post actually links to an album of screenshots I took of the post before they deleted it. However, there was a reply they left on one of the comments before they blocked me. If I knew what they said in their reply, I would have waited a little while before I posted this. Now, it seems that I have no choice.

I thought that you would give me a good perspective on what game localisation looks like from the Japanese companies’ point of view, but it turns out that you’re no better than opinion-neutrals and dub haters. Shame on you.

So anyway, I may or may not have proved that Japanese companies care more about their Japanese fans than their Western fans. There were quite a few more details discussed in the thread that I didn’t want to write here. If you want to see them, they are in the album.

Because of this, it seems that we dub fans can only rely on ourselves if #NoDubNoBuy is to make any impact on the localisation of Japanese games. Our stance is simple - you are either with us or against us. There is no sitting on the fence about it.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

At this rate Shin will have a DLC for P3D before FeMC/Ryoji

And.....I ain’t gonna be mad at the little dude, I’ll pour one out for him he deserves it, and I mean PTS was a (now alternate universe not connected to the games as stated by Atlus after the release of P4/P3P as stated in the official artbook) sequel to the original/FES ver of P3 so like he wouldn’t be COMPLETELY out of nowhere for P3D (Laz-chan is tho tbh, they better explain where she was in P3/P....actually a remake for P3 she’d be an interesting bonus boss). I’m still gonna wanna light Atlus’ ass on fire for shunning FeMC and Ryoji tho. Just because they’re pushing it ;w; Goro is the Adachi of P5D, Shinji is not he’s just part of the main cast. At least put Ryoji, the Adachi of P3D in there. ;w;

(oh snap this turned into a rant under the cut, well rip 8U)

I’m not even mad Labrys and Sho got announced for DLC, mad they (or at least Sho) got announced FIRST/BEFORE FeMC/Ryoji, but not upset. They are integral to P3′s lore, and tbh Labby showed up in the drama CDs (which is the reason I’m fine with her being announced first before the FeMC, since Labby came out first, but I am mad she was announced before Ryoji cause he was first). And like not just lore, but Sho is also basically his own Strega and....it’s easier to just do one guy instead of 3. 8U Plus apparently he is popular 

Like fudging P1 OP and ED (and maybe P2 can’t remember) HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR P3/5D BEFORE THE FEMC OR RYOJI! Like brah I’m happy for P1/2 fans, but c’mooooooon man that’s not P3 related. ;w; Like if there are any fans who will feel and understand the pain of P1/2 fans feeling ignored it’s FeMC fans and PTS fans (I know you exist). The issue is while P1/2 can’t be used cause Tadashi bounced, and PTS can’t be used (but some stuff can be borrowed, similar to what happens to the FeMC all the gd time) cause it’s not “canon to the games, it’s an alt universe canon with it’s own canon” (hey it’s important they stated that cause the MegaTen canon is so fluid and people already get confused and yes the distinction is important to make), the FeMC has NONE of those restrictions.1) Hashino is still there and willing to let them use his characters without him directing. 2) It’s not even Hashino’s character tbh, Azuka Kido wrote her and most of P3P, if anything she’s the creator and she’s still working in the Persona department so like she’s not restricted like Tadashi characters even more 3) Atlus has stated if it happens in the game it’s canon, even if it’s an alt universe, it’s an alt universe within the game’s canon so it’s still canon, which is key to Persona’s lore (SMT If, all of P2, P3P, PQ, fudge every route for Arena/Ultimax too). All this means that there is NOTHING to hold her back like they do for P1/2/TS....but they do anyway! ;w;

I’m sorry this became a rant, but....it just hurts a lot of love this character. They’ll use her stuff, HER OWN STUFF EXCLUSIVE TO HER but they won’t give her the time of day....and there’s literally no reason to NOT give her the time of day. They use her songs for the 20th anniversary concert, but she’s shafted from the Soejima art (even tho there’s like an awkward space with all the MCs which makes me feel like she was meant to be there but was removed for some reason) as well as the merch. Her music is used in P3D but is nowhere to be seen. They took cues from her SL with Ryoji and used it for the P3 movies, THEY TOOK RIO AND SAORI AND PUT THEM IN THE MOVIES! THOSE TWO AREN’T EVEN ON THE MALE SIDE! Not even as NPCs you see in the beginning like with Kenji or Kaz are on the FeMC side! Rio/Saori literally don’t exist on the male side, they aren’t programed! ;w; 

I mean....I try to give Atlus the benefit of the doubt, I feel like the shoutouts (such as Akihiko’s pancake mention in PQ, and probably other stuff too), the music at the concerts and P3D, the Rio/Saori cameo and the Ryoji development in the movies....I feel like they’re thinking and trying to throw FeMC fans a bone and I think they think they’re doing a good job. “See we didn’t forget her, look at all the stuff from her route!” but.....it just kinda hurts, it feels more like they’re dangling a key in front of us, a key to a door she’s locked behind rather than throwing us a bone. 

I mean I get it, FeMC fans can be loud about wanting to see their fav, but just cause they wanna see her doesn’t mean we automatically hate Minato/Makoto or don’t want him. I know us being loud can be really annoying, but if you’re a P1/2 fan or a Goro fan I’m sure you can understand having your favs be shafted. Like her being excluded from 20th anniversary was a low blow, just her being with the other MCs would’ve held us over, just knowing they still acknowledged her. That’s literally all we want, not a whole game dedicated to her, just to be included in the artwork with other MCs.