#isat isekai

[sifs-right-eye]

More people than I expected ended up liking this post so I figured I might as well design someone for it. A vehicle for projection if you will. Some random bitch.

[meamiki]

some random reverse entry au [office + reverse isekai loop] drawings :thumbsup:

[mildly interested in this silly au? here is a link to scroll through for all the stuff i've made for it! i'll make a proper master post... someday.....]

[metanarrates]

thinking about it, it seems like me and a few of my mutuals have done some kind of Favorite Media gift exchange swap this month completely by accident

[torchstelechos]

You know what? You could make an isekai au of isat reeeeaalllly easily. Did I realize this because I was thinking about an svsss au? Yes. Does it still work? Yeaahhh.....

[jester-program]

Little update on them.

Like I said they’re from our world, they really want to go home. As in really really, as in the only reason they’re going with Mirabelle is because they want to beat the king specifically so they can hopefully go back home (their world)

Which can lead them into shenanigans like this;

I gotta stop making isat oc’s that are not originally from isat.

Anyone ever thought what’d happen if someone from our age and time got chucked into isat or is it just me?

[sploon-fic-fan]

au that puts the omori characters in the plot of isat

(not in an isekai way obvs they're just there)

honestly euphrasie!mari would be so slay tbh narrative-wise

[basilpaste]

Heyya Basil.

This isn't an anti-honesty game question (I am being sincer about this)

If a fanfiction about a Madoka x ISaT crossover where one party was dropped into the other's world, which do you think would be more intreging? The Quintent in Dormont, or the Saviors in Kamihama? Also, Sif and Homura are both aware of each others looping and fun times occur from that fact.

awawa like i mentioned i havent admittedly finished all of madoka. i fear. (i WILL get to it eventually. there is just a curse on my brain) but from what i remember i think. dropping the saviors of vaugarde into madokas world wold be REALLY REALLY interesting. in part because of how important colour symbolism is?? and. like if the saviors cant see colour how thatd intersect with things.

and also because i think reverse isekais are always fun. put that traveler from a world that doesnt have Computers into a significantly more modern setting im sure thatll be fine and good forever heart emoji.

and also... ough to homuras loops and siffrins loops happen simultaneously? does one loop back if the other does or is their flow of time different despite both mutually existing in and aware of looping time? because thats REALLY fun considering how much longer homuras loops are. but either way i always think the 'i know what you are' of two timeloopers interacting is a blast :}

[ohwormwood]

random thoughts i have while playing isat pt. 4

[woe, spoilers be upon ye!]

[tw: talking about siffrin's use of the dagger to loop!]

we have begun act 3. nothing is ok anymore

more Adventures in Stupid AUs with my friends who are watching me play- Loop Isekai

my roommate:

the same person who created the Twitter AU from last time :

me:

THEY TOOK SIFFRIN'S MAGICAL WHIMSY AWAY

sobbed my eyes out during the bonnie friend quest because dear lord i will never be able to get over just how well their character is written

mirabelle doing ALL OF THE QUEST TO SAVE VAUGARDE while OFF HER PRESCRIPTION ANXIETY MEDICATION is SO WILD, she really is the change god's strongest anxiety soldier

these sprites of siffrin n mira during her friend quest are so squishy and cute i wanna draw them

mentally prepping myself to do the Perfect Loop/Family Loop quest,,, i am not ready

i was gonna go and give loop a flower!!!!!! and then!!!!!! he hits me with the dagger dialogue option!!!!!! which i needed to do for a achievement!!!!! so then i had to sit there!!!! and sob my eyes out as loop got possessed!!! and then told me to leave!!!!

siffrin telling isa he can be a buff nerd and isabeau just goes. huh you think i'm buff??? and siFFRIN DOESNT ANSWER LMAO

IM GONNA DO IT. IM GONNA SAY THE TRUTH. ODILE IS THE #1 ISAFRIN SHIPPER AND I STAND BY THAT.

wailing

found out my art was apparently sitting at the top of the isat tag when it was trending and just. was so confused

more level grinding while listening to my isat playlist

[shattering-of-stardust]

Isat Self Insert real. She got isekaied into Vaugarde and is trying not to have a panic attack about it.

Flower clip

Ocarina around her neck

Mistaken for an islander sometimes

Compression gloves cause pianist hands hurt.

Bri'ish (like me, sorry :c)

-Keokeo

[felikatze]

Hi, this is your ticket to infodump about isat/fe aus.

whehe. wheh. wawawawa. (i start vibrating)

i dont know how much i've posted abt my thoughts vs how much i just monologued to various people on discord (hello and thank you to pix, alice, and lozy (i think i also monologued to riu once? hi riu)) but you can find all (most?) of the stuff tagged under "isat emblem" on my art blog

ANYWAY. SO. I'M NOW TALKING ABOUT THE UHH. fourth. isat/fe crossover i have, which is the "what if isat ran on FE lore" one, instead of any roleswap or isekai shenanigans.

i'm looking you straight in the eye. look at me. listen to me. the forgotten island is Valla. It's literally just Valla.

FULL GAME SPOILERSSSS riu don't look at this.

ok. listen

you cannot say its name. if you say its name, you fucking die

people from valla cannot share that they are from valla, making them simply foreigners from "somewhere else"

the disappearance of valla seems to be recent, yet nobody besides people from it have any memories of it

it still physically exists, but is generally impossible to access

associated with water-based enemies that attack anybody yet also represent the regrets of its people

IT'S JUST VALLA, YALL

THE VALLA ZOMBIES ARE IF SADNESSES WERE ACTUALLY DEAD PEOPLE.

so. you may have already seen my Manakete Siffrin, but it is needless to say, i took a FUCKTON of cues from corrin for this. this entire AU is generally very fates adjacent. with some engage in it, for flavor.

Manakete Siffrin is so tasty. Please also look at Pix's dragon sif AU because this is VERY MUCH the exact same flavor because me and Pix were just on the same brainwave i guess.

In this Au, Siffrin is a dragon (silent dragon or divine dragon, either works). And the dragons lived on the island, but the island disappeared. Because dragons were so deeply associated with this place, knowledge of dragons disappeared, as well, outside of perhaps the occasional myth. (Imagine Sif being told "Dragons aren't real, silly!" man.)

Siffrin is a dragon, and fucking forgot about it. All they know is that they are Different. But not how. Or why. Imagine.

Imagine, as the loops progress, Siffrin grows stronger not through training, but through learning how strong they already were. That there are claws beneath the gloves, that they can see in the dark, that if they focus just right, they can breathe fire.

Imagine, for me, Siffrin learning they are not human. They are Other. They are a Myth. And how this plays perfectly into Siffrin's increased alianation from the party, and Siffrin's growing belief that they are a monster, and that if this is ever discovered, his friends will leave him.

If you want to bring my wolfskin Isabeau into this. I already mentioned it briefly but. Isabeau is also not human but he is In Control of it. He makes it palatable. People know what beastfolk are, they're documented in Vaugarde, I'd imagine that there's one or two frozen around the House. They are a Known Quantity. Even compared to the nonhuman, Siffrin is Other, is a Beast, and he can feel his control slipping. Compared to Isabeau, he is a feral animal. (Or, at least, they believe they are.)

Augrh. Okay.

Also. Lizard Loop. Ok.

UM. SO. I mentioned Engage, so. EMBLEMS!! This Au actually has Emblems in it. See, on the island where the dragons lived, the Emblems lived as well. And people prayed to the Emblems, to the heroes from the countless stars, to the heroes sent by the universe to guide them. Only the dragons could summon Emblems, but they could grant favor to anyone. And if all Emblems came together, they could rewrite the Universe itself.

The Emblems knew this.

And thus, when the Emblems came togehter, they wished to be forgotten. The place where they dwelled, and the people that worshipped them... were casualties of an ill-fated wish, to seal away this catastrophic power.

Yup, I made Wish Craft emblem flavored!! Because man. It's literally "prayer incantation". Divine Dragons draw power from Emblems through Prayer, through belief, and Fell Dragons draw power from Emblems through Incantation, through ritual. And the most powerful of all is combining the two. IT'S WISH CRAFT RULES, YALL.

So so, the concept of Emblems also got forgotten, but the main wish just erased the Emblems as people. That's why Sif and Co could find out about Emblems as the story progresses, same way in canon they can find out about Wish Craft.

Because I love suffering, I'd say. Instead of a Silver Coin, Siffrin has a silver ring, instead. It's just a plain band that's been around their finger for forever. It's not special at all.

....or is it?

...sometimes, Siffrin manages to rememeber a friend. Only for brief moments. When Siffrin does Mirabelle's hair, he wonders how he knows to work with kinky hair. When they eat the fish head, they reminisce that someone else liked it..... and then they forget again.

In this AU, that friend was an Emblem. That was Siffrin's Marth. But they're gone. That ring is empty.

....or is it?

hihi.

About Loop.

I think this was Lozy's suggestion, but. Loop is an Emblem. Loop wasnt always an Emblem, but Engage shows how people can become Emblems, yeah. So, Loop is a spirit from another world, sent by the Universe to guide this one. Loop is bound to their own ring, though neither of them realize. When an Emblem is asked for power through incantation, they cannot refuse. Siffrin's wish causes the timeloop by calling upon the power of the dormant Emblem they carry, which is Loop.

(How did Loop cause their own loops? Well, it was still an Emblem, even before Loop was in it. Who was it? Well, I don't know, and that's the pain, isn't it?)

Also I think it'd be really cool if Big Sif isn't just, Sif fully transforms into a dragon (which is already cool as hell) but also like. Siffrin manages to Engage with their Emblem. And after that, the Emblem is well and truly gone, for good. It just said goodbye for the last time.

And ofc Act 6 when Loop disappears, Siffrin picks up the ring that houses them in the hopes Loop will awaken one day. Yeah.

UM. CHARACTERS BESIDES SIFFRIN!!

I've mentioned this in my FE6/ISAT parallels posting but Mirabelle is so lord-coded. Specifically the Roy-flavor of "just some guy" lord. She wasn't chosen for this she just happened to be here. SHE EVEN HAS A RAPIER!!! AND AN UNAVAILABLE MENTOR!!!

Listen to me she's so so so Roy-coded MIRABELLE IS A FIRE EMBLEM LORD.

Ok. Ok.

I think it'd be really funny if Odile was just straight up from Hoshido. It would work. I don't want to change Vaugarde to a FE country because the culture is just too unique for any straight equivalent, but the other countries with less detail work. (Puts Odile in Onmyoji because she's a magic class 100%)

Bonnie's class is actually Transporter. Lozy suggested "Aptitude Villager" but i feel we need to keep the spirit of "Do not Attack The Child". So Bonnie is the Elibe-exclusive Cannot Die Items Holder class. It even works with Bonnie's potshots that Merlinus (the only transporter in the whole entire FE series) gets daggers in Heroes, which is the debuff support weapon.

Bonnie chucking holy water from the back of a horse. Thank u. That is all.

Um yeah. So that's all (most?) of the FE-flavored ISAT thoughts I have. yeah. Um.

Thank u very much for asking this. I love talking.

[not-too-many-eyes]

I'm thinking about how like...ISAT is riffing on the idea of the party idea of the Five Man Band not really by changing much of the characters themselves (I'm at the Intermission so this might be subject to change) but by changing the focus of the Story + Mirabelle herself being The Hero. I'd talk about it more if I knew anything about Medieval European Fantasy (Which seems to be what her country specifically resembles?) but most of my experience is Horrible Horrible Isekai, and I generally do not like the setting (if someone who actually is actually more familiar with this kind of setting sees this and thus can actually weigh in more do tell.)

But...Odile, Isabeau, Bonnie, and even Siffrin are pretty familiar archetypes? This isn't a criticism. I think Siffrin especially is Delightful (since we get to be in their head, and thus I get the really interesting characterful writing that I...admittedly have not been getting too much from this game at the moment. One cannot live off of cute moments alone.) Just that there Familiar and makes me raise my eye when the game tells its story in acts and Siffrin has a stated interest in theater.

They better do something with this or I'll be Very Sad.

[sifs-right-eye]

Been rotating a self insert esque isekai story where the universe pulls someone from our world into isat to be the “help” that loop asked for post-game after complicated circumstances surrounding that persons death. Except they have no idea what’s going on bc that mf never communicates and are just fumbling around the entire time. Emotional support universe assigned random weirdo stranger who keeps talking about Netflix and TV’s.

[canmom]

Hello! I've just heard about the litrpg genre, and Ms Lethargyspecialist suggested you might be a good person to ask for an opinion. If you're interested, would you mind sharing your take?

hehehe freya is presuming i know more about it than i do! I think @javert​ might be a better person to ask.

to the best of my knowledge - as you’ve already presumably found out - litrpg is fiction which follows various genre conventions of computer RPGs, particularly the diegetic existence of game abstractions like experience points and levels, but it could instead be the existence of game-like settings such as dungeons even if the characters don’t explicitly follow game mechanics.

it overlaps heavily with the isekai genre, which was previously known in the west as portal fantasy, stories in which someone from our world ends up in a fantasy world. many early fantasy stories like Narnia, Chrestomanci or Three Hearts, Three Lions followed this mould, but for whatever reason it’s pretty much gone out of fashion in the west... while it’s had a big resurgence in Japan in the last few years.

a steotypical isekai story has a nerd from our world end up in a computer game world, where their familiarity with RPGs allows them to get a leg up and become comparatively superpowered. but that’s long since passed through all kinds of parody, so now it does seem like most isekai stories are at least somewhat self-aware responses to an established genre (the protagonist might even mention having read web novels).

for some reason, this has been by far the biggest genre of online serial, particularly in Japan but also to some extent in the west. there’s been a whole wave of recent anime which are adapted from light novels which began life as isekai web novels, which I think is partly riding on the success of Sword Art Online (probably the anime series i most regret watching lmao). this also seems to have spread to the west, I’m told that a lot of the work on sites like Royal Road falls in the litrpg genre. this seems to have become a kind of self-sustaining ecosystem: people get into litrpg, and write litrpg web novels primarily for the existing audience of litrpg fans.

recs?

as far as litRPG I actually like... I have a guilty pleasure in Kumo Desu Ga, Nani Ka? (So I’m a Spider, So What?), which is probably the most conventional litrpg isekai I’ve read. I unreservedly love Dungeon Meshi, which doesn’t have diegetic game mechanics (indeed going to great lengths to imagine plausible ecology for a magical dungeon) but clearly takes most of its setting inspiration from RPGs.

the Fate series is sprawling and mostly bad, and originally adapted from an eroge visual novel rather than an RPG, but it definitely follows the logic of an RPG in the way its whole magic tournament is set up, with each character having a special move and unique item and so on. (no wonder it was perfectly suited to gacha-isation). Fate Zero (written by good old Gen Urobuchi, of Madoka and Psycho-Pass fame) is probably the main thing worth extracting from that, and if you like that, Unlimited Blade Works is pretty good - I’m advised it’s the least objectionable retelling of the original game and the one which most directly follows the arc of Zero.

in terms of recent anime, I might recommend Deca-Dence - it’s much more along the lines of action + drama in the Gurren Lagann/Studio Trigger mould (albeit with more emphasis on characterisation than you tend to get from Imaishi, bless him), but it’s one which includes a sci-fi MMO-like game fairly prominently. the main characters aren’t actually playing the game, though, it’s more of an overt metaphor for captalism and the state, so it’s not really litrpg in any traditional sense!

considering these haphazard examples, you can have stories which are literally set in an imagined computer game, or stories set in a fantasy world which happens to work like a computer game. and you can take a diverse set of inspirations from games - mechanics, conventional settings, structure. i’m not sure if there’s like, a purist definition of litrpg which is more restrictive than what I’ve given.

anyway, this isn’t really my field, I have no idea what the actual web novel side of it is like, and I’m sure there’s great stuff out there I just haven’t read/watched!

I would also say that, as I understand the term, it is technically possible to have a litrpg computer game... which is when one game simulates another kind of game. the game I have in mind is CrossCode, which is a Zelda-like puzzle + top-down action game with a linear story... but diegetically it’s set in a high-tech future MMO. the characters talk about game systems, but they’re fictional game systems, and not the ones you’re playing with!

appeal?

as far as the appeal of conventional litrpg [and isekai] goes, a few speculations...

it has a very clear and satisfying (if pulled off well) structure. the protagonist starts out weak, but survives by learning about the game’s systems and outwitting her opponents; eventually we get the satisfaction of seeing her solve the systems and turning the tables on them (and then the plot can go somewhere else)

it’s got a nice ‘what if’ element: ‘wouldn’t this be a cool game if it was real’

it’s very appealing to the kind of reader who likes everything to be systematised, ‘magic’ as a kind of alternate physics. you can have your characters use a ‘magic system’ which could fit in an TTRPG sourcebook... or you could just stop kidding and straight-up have an RPG system underlie everything. or at least, the appearance of one!

when you play a computer RPG, the emphasis is usually on delivering a story... but there’s almost always a huge disconnect between the story the game is ostensibly telling, and your own experience of it as a game system. you’re constantly filling in the gaps and brushing over disconnects between the game and the story; if you’re in an MMO, you’re blanking out the other player characters, ignoring the janky unrealism of the combat system. so it’s a fun thought experiment to imagine if the characters in the story could perceive how things ‘actually’ work, and erase that divide.

it’s automatically a bit silly and self-aware which inspires a certain kind of attitude in the writing... or at least should do. (there’s some embarrassingly self-serious entries out there)

it definitely inspires a sort of ‘I could write one of these!’ attitude, much like fanfic

also much like fanfic, the ‘rpg world’ where people are questing and killing monsters provides a kind of familiar meta-setting that doesn’t need explanation - just as a fic can lean on your familiarity with the characters and setting of its source work.

all that said, I personally find the subsubgenre of litrpg set in a pseudo-european fantasy setting incredibly unappealing, and hope it goes out of fashion! but i do feel like using game mechanics in a story still has as much potential as any other fantasy device, and a lot of people seem to be having fun exploring it; heck i’ve been vaguely wondering how i’d go about it, what stones remain unturned.

so yeah, that’s my take on litrpg... as someone who doesn’t really read any litrpg :p

[meamiki]

ways to wear a coat ft a reverse entry au siffrin

(also i am referring to the modern office / reverse isekai loop au as the reverse entry au moving forward)

(it is a clever wordplay that encapsulates both ideas i promise)

bonus:

silly tiny bonus for those who click read more ADFSAFASAS

[meamiki]

a star being appeared in your apartment, wdyd?

(aka loop getting reverse isekaied into the modern office au)

also there are some scattered mumblings on loop in this AU under the cut actually in an rb now link right here if anyone's interested (spoilers for all of ISAT, including 2hats!)

[meamiki]

context: coffee pod holders kinda look like trees

favor tree = f(l)avor tree for the modern-based, reverse entry au

this was funnier in my head