#just to remind everyone: i love pokemon emerald

[twig---verginix]

did you guys know that there were unused sprites of may and brendan in the first pokemon ranger game??? what were they FOR

[dashawns-world]

Advance Guardian Heroes

Ah, here it is. Advance Guardian Heroes. Despite its numerous faults, this is in my top 3 GBA games, alongside Sonic Advance 2 and Pokemon Emerald. Seriously, this game had a massive impact on me. I’m talking about staying up all night trying to draw like this. To this day, I struggle to capture the magical essence of Tetsuhiko Kikuchi’s (aka HAN’s) art style, but a LOT of his design philosophies bled into my own growing up. And while I believe we’re in a beat-em-up game renaissance now, I remember this being the only “modern” one I f*cked with for a while. Thanks primarily in part to being made by the legendary game developers Treasure. Seriously, when it comes to making fun games, they don’t miss. I’m basically gonna spend my time gushing about it. I will also point out its very glaring flaws, haha. I started this blog to dive deep into why I like the things I like, after all. I’m hoping to have a better understanding by the end of this!

PRESENTATION

I’m really particular when it comes to art style. I’m not elitist about what others should like or dislike, but I have written things off because I dislike how they look. Everyone has their tastes; that’s not groundbreaking info. AGH is absolutely in the realm of what I love, though. The art direction has this late 80s/90s anime look that I really adore. I don’t draw like that at all, but when I look at it, it reminds me of when anime was an extremely new thing to me. Some faces skew toward that How-to-Draw-Manga territory, but I love it. It has… an identity.

The game itself translates this very well with the sprites. I think part of Treasure’s game’s strength wasn’t just in their mechanics but their animation and design sense. It’s one thing to have a heavy punch attack, but when the sprites accurately convey that, you really feel it, even through your little game boy.

The anticipation, line of action, OOF. It feels so good when you pull this off, and your enemy goes flying. 

This game had neat ideas, too. My favorite, FAVORITE one they have is the stage where debris is falling, and you get to fight while trying not to fall out of bounds. It could be a hassle, but the game has a mechanic where you air dash to get onto the nearest platform. You can get back to one, even if you’ve exhausted all your animations from attacking. It takes all the frustration/difficulty away from you and leaves you with a unique stage hazard.

I love a LOT of the stages in this game, and they all have such cool gimmicks for a beat-em-up. One stage starts with you riding a damn missile (you’re in control btw. You have to hop from missile to missile.) to get to the enemy airship you’re about to destroy. Another stage has you surfing on your ship down a river, where you fend off goblin riders and then an actual ninja. I’m telling you, if there’s a rule of cool, Treasure defined it. 

Only an ancient hero can make an entrance like that. Honestly, the game’s a treat for the eyes. In my opinion, it’s one of the best-looking games for the GBA. And you can trust me, I’ve played less than a quarter of the GBA library. 

GAMEPLAY

Here’s where we run into some of the game’s faults. I’ll start by saying the game isn’t broken. It’s functional where it counts. The problem is the immense slow-down when you’re playing. :( I’ll always be a little sad that this got stuck on a Gameboy and not, like, the Gamecube. The original Guardian Heroes was on the Sega Saturn, ran smooth, AND looked good. The little GBA struggled so hard with this gem. But otherwise, I really enjoy the mechanics. I still play the game to this day, and I believe it’s because they nailed the fighting. I’m not going to talk specifics about the gameplay because I’m not a game critic, but I will talk a little bit about how it feels.

This game scratched an itch I had at the time for a good DBZ beat-em-up. Your character can shoot out all types of magic attacks, has a hyper mode that flashes golden (super saiyan), and can even parry attacks if you’re good at timing your blocks. This helped the combat feel a lot more in-depth. They used a currency to level up your character’s stats in the single-player mode. Leftover points could be used for unlocking characters. And that’s another thing; From the nameless soldiers to the little goblins with clubs, to the giant robots with city-ending lasers, to every damn boss except the final one, They ALL can be selected. And not just in VS mode. (Yes, it had a vs mode. No, I never played it. Nobody but me owned this game.) But in STORY MODE as well (except for the city-ending robot, I think they said no to that one for obvious reasons.) That leads to a ridiculous amount of replayability for a kid with 3 GBA games. I love games that let you do this. My favorite character to play was Dylan, because he had the coolest moveset. 

This is the face of a guy that knows he’s the best character in the game.

There was also a mechanic I thought was interesting, even if it was kind of useless lol. If your character ever died, the devil (that’s what I called it, but it’s just the big bad) would ask you if you wanted to come back to life and fight. You’d only get six minutes of immunity before they’d take your soul, and you’d get an instant game over. It’s a neat idea but really impractical, haha. I wonder if it could be used better today with roguelike games…? If I were given this deal and thought I could complete a run in 6 minutes, that’d be cool. It would be even more cool if I got a different ending this way. I think in AGH, even if you did make it to the end within six minutes, the Big Bad would kill you on the spot. Fact-check me on that, tho.

STORY

Man… this is where the game really falls short. The biggest issue was the poor translation. The story continued where the original left off; was it the bad ending? 

Here’s what Wikipedia says (lol I'm sorry, It’s easier to paste than rewrite it.)

“The story follows the events of Guardian Heroes. After the Undead Hero was returned to his rest, the heroes were given the option of becoming the Sky Spirit's perfect warriors. The group was divided, with Nicole, Serena, and Valgar joining the Sky Spirit, and Han and Genjiro refusing. Randy escaped back to earth on his own, leaving Han and Genjiro to fight a losing battle against their former comrades.

Years later, Zur returns. He resurrects Kanon and uses the power of the Guardian Heroes to take over the world. The few remaining resistance forces call upon the power of the Undead Hero once again, with one young soldier giving up his body to serve as its vessel.

Throughout the game, the character fights the previous heroes and earns their power. Ultimately, it is revealed this is another attempt by the heavens to create the ultimate warrior. In the final battle against the ruler of the heavens, all heroes gather to defeat it and subsequently leave for the Other World.”

I don’t hate this!! But it’s told very poorly. We’re not given cutscenes to flesh out anything or anyone. Some characters are only portraits. For example, the player is the young soldier, but once their body gets taken by the hero, they don’t talk again. I didn’t know anything about them. We also don’t really see the resistance fighting Zur and Kanon. It’s basically just us, with some casual assists via dialogue boxes. Honestly, it’s not really worth talking about much more, haha. I always thought it had potential if it was fleshed out. That’s why I would make up my own story as I played. I would fill in the blanks and re-imagine the scenarios.

For example, the game starts with the young soldier getting into a fight before receiving the power of the undead hero. They show how weak you are, having you die in one hit by random goons before the princess pulls the undead hero’s soul into your lifeless body. (Like, wow, this soldier sucked. RIP tho.) If you choose Enn as your starting character, he gets recolored, and you’re strong enough to fight. Yipee! 

My made-up story was that something went wrong with the princess’ spell, and instead of being a fabulous, powered-up man, you turned into a goblin. (Because remember, you can play as almost every damn character in the game.) I imagined the princess’s bewilderment as a little chubby goblin said, “Hey! Undead hero, here! Let’s do this.” before single-handedly destroying the entire evil empire. It was funny to me!

And I think that’s ultimately what I got from reminiscing about this game’s poor plot. Games used to be a lot simpler. And translation wasn’t always top-notch like it is now. When I was younger, maybe out of necessity, I used my imagination to fill in the blanks. When I played Pokemon, I’d pretend I was truly on a journey with my little guys. And when I fought Red in Gold and Silver, I imagined how epic that was. I drew moments from Sonic games. Playing outside, I’d pretend I was Link on an adventure. My sister and I would play Super Bomberman 1P mode together, and since she was new to it, I’d call her rookie. That dynamic ultimately bled into my Brothers Boom comic. (This is a revelation I had pretty recently, and I’m surprised I buried it so deep into my mind.) Now, as an adult, where my imagination is a bit harder to conjure up because my head isn’t as empty, I reminisce about the times when everything inspired me. I’m not miserable, though, lol. Instead, I think fondly about those times. I really gotta hand it to Treasure because they live up to their namesake. Playing Advance Guardian Heroes was a significant source of inspiration for me, and I’m glad I found it.

Thanks for reading!

[bahamutgames]

Bahamutgreen’s Favorite Games of 2023!

IT'S TIME!! Time for a brand new Game of the Year list for 2023! I played a LOT of stuff this year, I'm genuinely kind of impressed with myself for playing so much. I had a lot to sift through, and went back and forth on different choices a lot. But ultimately I think you'll be unsurprised in where this list is headed.

Since in 2023 I've become very into using this blog, I've tried to fancy up this GOTY post with some new visuals and formatting. If you're interested, I wouldn't mind some feedback on it for next year. I'm not aiming for "high quality professional" but I wouldn't mind "cool and makes it easier to understand the list"

And just like last year, there's multiple lists. 2 categories are represented here : Games I played in 2023 BUT released prior to 2023. And games I played in 2023 that actually released in 2023. Each category has 5 winners and 5 runner-ups. The lists are also KIND of ordered, but ordering wasn't as important for runner-ups.

But without further ado, please enjoy reading what games I had the most fun with in 2023!

- 5 -

DIGIMON STORY : CYBER SLEUTH

Opening up strong! #5 is Digimon Cyber Sleuth! This was my first true experience in the wide world of Digimon, and I had an absolute BLAST with it! It's a fantastic monster tamer RPG that makes the genre more traditional and ultimately more palatable to someone like me. I loved learning about new Digimon, the visuals were nice, and even when the game was rough around the edges, it was typically very funny. Only reason I think this game can't be higher is because out of everything here, it really does just drag on until it sort of lost me towards the end. Groundramon is my new favorite Digimon, by the way!

- 4 -

ENCHANTED ARMS

I got this game a good few years ago, and was VERY happy I finally made the time to play it. It's a very unique and interesting RPG, and something you could really only get from the incredibly odd world of Xbox 360 JRPGs. The game has a fantastic soundtrack, interesting cross between turnbased and strategy RPG gameplays, and a story that really grew on me. It's certainly aged a lot and is not perfect. But while it pissed me off probably more than anything else on this list, I also feel like it left an impact on me larger than a lot of what I played this year. And I really think back on it fondly.

- 3 -

FIRE EMBLEM : THREE HOUSES

Even as a fan of Fire Emblem, I'll admit. This one came as a shock to me! I went in expecting this to be an incredibly tedious and boring game, but ultimately came out INCREDIBLY happy with it. Great characters, fantastic strategy gameplay, and an interesting story too smart for me to understand really pulled me in. Playing this reminded me how good a good strategy RPG can be, and I'm hoping to play some more in 2024 if I get the chance. While it's not my favorite of the 2 FE games I've played, and I have a lot of issues with its story and some characters, I cannot deny how much I absolutely adored this game.

- 2 -

RPG TIME! THE LEGEND of WRIGHT

I wanted to play this game basically the moment it was announced, but sadly it slipped under my radar for a minute. Thankfully I was finally able to make the time to play this as my first RPG of 2023! And even that far back, I cannot stop thinking about it. This game is absolutely FANTASTIC! It's funny, cute, creative, charming, fun, and so many other adjectives. It gets a little slow and boring at times, but I think that can be looked past. It's a shame more people did not play this as I truly think it's a game for everyone. RPG fans, RPG haters, people who don't care one way or another. It's amazing and if you only look into one game on this entire post, make it this one!

POKEMON : EMERALD VERSION

Personally, this one is also a shocker to me! Listen, I love Pokemon. I really do. But the main series games have always been a little touch and go for me when compared to any other Pokemon media. But, honestly, there was no question that this game would end up SOMEWHERE on my list! I just had a genuine blast playing through it. Part of it is nostalgia, Firered was a deeply important game to me as a kid and I adore the GBA. Part of it is a bit of bias as I just like gen 3. But also I seriously just came out of this game feeling really good. Currently in my project to play the whole main series for the first time, it's my favorite game so far! My only issue is that they don't live up to some game mechanics and the story is a little messed up compared to Ruby and Sapphire's take on the tale. Even still I'm going back and forth between this and RPG TIME for #1. But I think nostalgia, my love for GBA graphics and sounds, and my love for the Hoenn Dex, bump this one just over the edge!

- 5 - CUPHEAD

Another game that I got long long ago that just... sorta never got beaten and gathered dust in the old collection. Until, for some reason, suddenly, my brain chemicals told me I HAD to give it another go. And HEY, wouldn't you know it, it's good! I REALLY enjoyed this! Usually games that are super hard leave me feeling irritated when I win, but Cuphead actually made me feel good when i overcame it which is something I don't usually say. Genuinely cute visuals and music to boot, Cuphead is great!

- 4 - HATSUNE MIKU PROJECT DIVA F 2nd

I'm looking at it now and this whole post is filled with things I'm SHOCKED I enjoyed at all, let alone put onto my GOTY list. But while I'm more into rhythm games than I used to be, it's still not my favorite by any means. But I really had to give some props to this game. Genuinely playing this on the vita while in my bed pulled me out of a bad slump that almost gave me horrible gamer block. And I thank Miku so much for being there to bring me out of that funk. I had a blast playing through this!

- 3 - PIKMIN

For a long time, I've been interested in Pikmin. But I could not ever get myself to beat it. Until this year! I decided to give it another go and while it certainly was tough, frustrating, and even a big scary at times. I loved it! When I beat it I thought "thank GOD I'm done dealing with those stupid little Pikmin.... but damn... I wish I was playing more of it..." So I think it's safe to say I'll be returning to the series sooner rather than later. The graphics still hold up AMAZINGLY well, lovely music, great character design. Fun time all around. I get it now.

- 2 - METROID : ZERO MISSION

Metroidvanias... Not a fan of them, I'll admit. I've only been able to beat 2 in my life time. Those being Ori and TMNT Radical Rescue. UNTIL THIS YEAR! I decided I wanted to try beating my first Metroid game, and went with this cause I used to play it on my modded Xbox as a kid. And I'm shocked to say, I LOVED this! I'm still not super into Metroidvanias so idk how I'd do on a larger more complex map, but I loved exploring around. And the Zero Suit section was genuinely SO exhilarating and some of the most horrific, tense, and fun gameplay I've had with a game in a while. I mean it! This was such an unexpected treat!

- 1 - BAYONETTA

While I figured I was gonna enjoy this one, I can safely say I did NOT expect it to be an absolutely BRILLIANT game that was so crazy and incredible. This game is so stupid and over the top and crazy in all the ways I absolutely LOVE! I love the aesthetics, the themes of killing gods and angels, and I loved the spectacle, I liked the crazy story (even if I didn't fully grasp it lol), I LOVED how cool it was and how badass Bayo is. And I straight up loved how sexy it was! It's very goofy but the game totally knows the sex appeal is kinda funny, but also they do it good! Bayonetta absolutely rules and I was so impressed with this one! Call me a fan! I can't wait to try 2!

- 5 -

THE MURDER OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

I spent a long time splitting hairs over what should be included on the main list and what should be a runner up (I'm writing this part the next day, even!) But there were 2 games I had no intentions of taking off the list: Venba and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog! Murder of Sonic is a visual novel which isn't usually my type of thing, but this game is so funny and charming and such a wonderful love letter to Sonic it's hard not to be into it! Ultimately I think Murder of Sonic wins out over Venba just slightly because it had a final boss and a finale that got surprisingly emotional. And you know I'm a fiend for plots and bosses in games that don't need them lol. This game was incredibly charming, Shadow wasn't annoying in it, Rouge was hot in it, everyone had fun outfits, there was a Sonic Rivals reference, they made a new hot milf for it. I don't have much bad to say about it, and I think it may have been my favorite Sonic thing from this year!

- 4 -

SEA OF STARS

Sea of Stars... Oh how I wanted this game to be GOTY. I was so excited it, but ultimately, the way the finale of the game went just CRUSHED IT for me. I hated most of the tail end of this game, I won't lie, and that's why I can't really bring it higher. But MAN the 2/3 prior to the final fetch quest collectathon junk was SO good! And I can't just look past that. A love letter to the whole genre, Sea of Stars has AMAZING combat, AMAZING visuals, AMAZING music, AMAZING Garl and the rest of his friends too. There's a LOT to love here, I like the world and again I was particularly fond of the gameplay both in combat and the way you traverse with grappling hooks and wind and what not. I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy myself with it more, but I'm still VERY glad I spent the time with it I did. Maybe the DLC and sequels will improve on it!

- 3 -

SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

I fancy myself more of a 3D Platformer kinda person, but god DAMN do I love a good 2D Platformer from time to time. And Mario Wonder absolutely delivered on that front. As a fan of the NSMB games, this took everything good about them, took out everything bad about them, and made something new and truly incredible! A wonderful art style, finally embracing more of the expansive Mario cast, and being filled with TONS of genuinely fun new moves and genuinely fun new level gimmicks. Mario Wonder was such a treat that I loved until the very last drop! The only reason it isn't higher is because I personally think it's missing a special final kick to really push it over the edge. Personally, I think this might come from its lack of impactful boss fights. It's not perfect, but it sure is DAMN close!!

- 2 -

HI-FI RUSH

Can we talk about HI-FI Rush??? PLEASE I've been waiting all year to talk to your guys about HI-FI Rush! DUDE!! THIS GAME WAS SO GOOD! I'm not kidding, this game was AMAZING! I wasn't super interested in it, but wound up kinda just getting my hands onto it due to fortunate circumstances. And WOW, was I wrong to not be interested. This game is SO good! Fantastic visuals, genuinely HILARIOUS game, amazing aesthetic, super fun rhythm based action combat (maybe the first time I've TRULY really loved this type of combat) and some fantastic characters made HI-FI Rush such a highlight of the year for me. Seriously, this game was SO good! From the moment I beat it, I knew this was gonna be my game of the year, I'm not joking. I've been holding onto this basically since the start of 2023. I'm so sad this game didn't do well at ALL because it deserves so much love that so many other games got this year. This is another one that if you have to pick one game to try, please consider giving that honor to Hi-Fi Rush! It was only beaten out by one super obvious thing on my list!

But before we get to that super obvious thing. I think it'd be fun to spice things up a bit by doing the new games of 2023 runner ups FIRST! So lets go ahead and get through that!

- 5 - SUPER KIWI 64

Too many times has Siactro not been acknowledged on these GOTY lists. THAT HAS TO END! Super Kiwi 64 wasn't perfect by any means. But I would be lying if I told you it maybe wasn't one of, if not my favorite feeling game of 2023. The movement and moveset of Kiwi just felt SO good. And I genuinely hope this isn't the last we've seen of the character, I will pay good money to buy a bigger, longer sequel to this game! Just... please keep the scary stuff to a minimum!

- 4 - SLUDGE LIFE 2 // THE BIG MUD SESSIONS

This is another one that sadly, kind of underwhelmed me. Sludge Life 1 is one of my favorite indie games ever made, no joke. I adored it so much. But sadly, Sludge Life 2 just didn't click in the same way. I still enjoyed it a lot though! So I wanted to give it a shoutout, and I almost enjoyed Big Mud Sessions more. But since it's kind of a demo for 2, I decided to bundle them together in one. It's my list. Again, wasn't thrilled with SL2, but I'm hoping SL3 can really come out swinging and hook me all over again!

- 3 - PIZZA TOWER

I'm sure some of you know this, but I am a HUGE Wario Land fan. I LOVE that series. And not just land, but like, any Wario Platformer / Action game. I love Wario World too and I ADORE Master of Disguse. I just really like those games, and I'm seriously so happy to see more and more games try to take up the mantle that was left behind! Pizza Tower isn't perfect by any means and a lot of stuff has come out about the devs I have not fully looked into. But I did enjoy this game even in spite of some of its flaws. And also I'm just happy to see a fat hairy dude as the protagonist of a platformer again! I like seeing them be capable and go on adventures instead of just being gross assholes, it's genuinely nice.

- 2 - WARIO WARE : MOVE IT!!

Making it onto the list at the last possible moment, but I had to put it on there! Maybe it's just the honeymoon phase, but I REALLY liked this game! It felt like a true return to form for Warioware and REALLY REALLY impressed me with a lot of its minigames. It's not perfect, personally I think it's too short and ultimately that makes it slightly too underwhelming to be on the main list. But it is VERY good and I had a fantastic time playing through it!

- 1 - VENBA

The runner up for #5 on the main list, in a big battle with Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog! Ultimately while Sonic won out, but I still LOVED this game and there was no question in my mind it would be somewhere on the list! This game has a wonderful art style and music, I genuinely loved solving the puzzles, and even though it's short, it's really fun and the story made me genuinely emotional! I even tried Biryani because of this game and I LOVED it! (It was with Goat which is so good.) Venba is hot, and her game is really charming!

And last, but not least! It's time to reveal my Game of the Year 2023! It's... so obvious isn't it... Like, the fact I haven't mentioned it yet is just a dead give away isn't it? If you know you know, try to act surprised as you scroll down to reveal:

SUPER MARIO RPG

Can you blame me? Can you really blame me? This has been my favorite video game of all time since at least 2011-2012. I have a lot of thoughts about this remake I want to gush about when I get the energy. But for now I can tell you I absolutely LOVED this remake! It is an amazing redo of the original game. Genuinely, if you haven't had the pleasure of experiencing Super Mario RPG before, this is a WONDERFUL way to do it! However good you think the remake is, it's better! Fantastic upgrades to the visuals, music, gameplay, the whole thing feels FANTASTIC! If you'd never played it before or if you're looking to reexperience it, you have GOT to try Super Mario RPG Remake! The original has been such an important game to me for YEARS, genuinely influencing me and my art so much, and I never thought it would get any kind of follow up ever again. Let alone a remake with so much love poured into it. That's why I am proud to call it my Game of the Year 2023!

And that's that on that! Another year come and go! I played a lot of stuff in 2023, but even still it was hard to get my hands on enough new releases to do a 10 list. But thankfully I still ended up leaving off important games from both lists! Chained Echoes and Paradise Marsh were both indies I really enjoyed. And I'm still very impressed with Hello my name is Val and He Fucked the Girl Out of Me. It's genuinely nice that you can play SO much and still miss so much AND STILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT EVERYTHING ON 4 SEPERATE TOP 5 LISTS! I don't know everything coming out in 2024, but we have some things I'm SO stoked for like TTYD remake and Peach Showtime. And judging by the absolutely amazing surprises that ended 2023, I think we're in for a treat in 2024!

Like always, here's my list of games I bought and played all through 2023! Please be nice to me (x)

2023 was really tough. I won't mess around. Moving was exceptionally hard for me and I was out of commission for a while. 2024 is looking to be more of the same, I'm moving again and I feel like it'll be a really hard and potentially even harsher moving process. I'm scared to do it. I'm not looking forward to it. But it has to be done, I literally don't have a choice. So, we'll see what I can do.

Hopefully I don't get caught in the same trap I did this year. My health has deteriorated a lot from a little less exercise and a little more eating due to intense stress and depression (I think lol). I did so much work and burnt out so often, and still felt like I didn't do ANY work this year. But I won't let that impact how 2024 goes, it's a new year and a new refresh.

There's some exciting stuff on the way next year, things will get better. I hope 2023 was better for you than it was for me. And even if it wasn't, let's not let the first few days, weeks, or months, of the new year set the tone for the whole year. Let's make it an amazing new year, and let's do a lot of gaming in 2024! I love you all! Let's do this!

Joke images for twitter no longer work... RIP that great gag...

[purenguyening]

N A O L I C E + Q T

This one will definitely be long, eheh..

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Bellow mostly applies to Touhou Project:

More character analysis based on how they appear in the games. It doesn't happen often but I think talk centered round how Touhou characters express themselves through spell cards can add a lot of depth that doesn't come through in fanworks.

More fanworks that draw from their historical inspiration (this limits to a small cast of characters but I feel like Historical Touhou is very rare...I also understand why this doesn't happen much mostly due to high barrier of entry and in general requiring more work.)

Also a huge fan and will always welcome Touhou designs that pull from the artist's nationality. It's a fun twist and I'm always impressed when they incorporate design elements from the original outfit into the clothes.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Sakuro and Cleru during my Summon Knight: Swordcraft Story playthrough made me laugh a lot. Sakuro is a very, very silly Craftlord. They have a very similar dynamic to Steven and Brendan's relationship from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (though I feel like Emerlad is probably the better fit to their dynamic).

There's a few others but Giyuu/Tanjirou and Sabito/Tanjirou are on my mind because of [this fanart]

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Alright, I had to have Youtube randomly shuffle my Summer Recap but it pulled up Fifty Fifty's Cupid and it just reminds me of Devil Survivor as a whole for the sole reason I read all eight volumes while listening to this song on loop at 1.25x speed. It's really funny of all the songs I put on loop throughout the summer, it happened to pick one I actually have some association with a fandom....

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Major spoilers for Swordcraft Story: I really like Ureksa a lot as a character, he's portrayed in a pretty sympathetic manner and I think how he patches things up with Cleru/Pratty is really refreshing. While I don't love the suicide bait and switch, it really does feel clear to me even if he made some pretty bad decisions, I do think he's a kind person at heart. He's a very prickly person, but I think it makes sense from his design (a lot of spear specialists tend to not be very direct, which makes sense for their fighting style, the game specifically sets up spear users to fight at a range).

Now that I think about it, Matsuoka Rin (Free!), is also someone I warmed to eventually because I liked seeing him be a mentor to Aiichirou and Momotaro. I think that's part of his character design though...

As an aside, it is possible to send me this prompt multiple times since there's very few characters I actively hate and I always have something tucked away in the back of my mind. Most of the time is me wanting to comment their role in the story, but I think that can be read as me recognizing their purpose....

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Not tumblr, but on Twitter, I do think it's really easy to lose interest in fandom because it's very easy to fall into negative spirals. There is a general shift in fandom overall that made me feel the need to keep my interests separate with side blogs and I tend to be more active through a very closed off account on Twitter.

Maybe one day I'll be courageous and blog about my interests from my one main blog, but that's still an option off the table for now.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Toyosatomimi no Miko/Soga no Tojiko the popular fandom portrayal just gets on my nerves and I find it really annoying when sometimes posts still appear because the ship name is not mentioned anywhere in the tweet. I do have a specific portrayal but I'm hesitant to say if's romantic, but i do think their dynamic is interesting, I just can't bring myself to think of it as romantic.

This might be more closer to me complaining I wish I had post block on Twitter/Tumblr Mobile.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

I think a long time ago I made a joke about how the fanon portrayal of Shinichi drinking coffee is a subtle way for him to drive away people bugging him. (Caffiene is a natural insecticide, hence the word play). Truth be told I'm not 100% sure now if that was the inspiration for this post I made...

I think maybe you can still find it in the KaiShin discord, but I felt like there's a lot of innuendo to be had knowing Toichi and Yuusaku having a back and forth with just a question mark and exclamation point. (The symbol that combines both the question mark and exclamation point is called an interrobang and it looks like this: ‽)

I don't think either of them spawned too much in the fandom, but I realize my sort of humor needs like a short essay just to explain the context and this is probably why I don't really share my more cracky/insane interpretations....

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I think the only true fandom I've completely abandoned is Harry Potter? Aside from the obvious reasons, I've learned I still do really love the concept of magic, but I would rather have it manifest itself in different ways. I love fantasy and magic, but I think I end up preferring it to be a back drop or the setting rather than the primary focus. I guess it's more closer to, I like it more as an aesthetic, but dislike it when it becomes the center focus.

Even more controversial fandoms I never can quite fully bring myself to fully abandon (the one that mainly comes to mind is Hetalia). A lot of other fandoms that are less contentious I tend to just cast aside for a while but after a few years I end up picking it back up again for one reason or another.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

Listen, I know it's basically confirmed now that Futo killed Tojiko as of Strange Creators of Outer World, I still refuse to believe Futo actually did it. The closest thing I'll compromise on is Futo's definition of killing Tojiko is "she was not present to stop the murder." That's about it.

I'm basically a Futo apologist and I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

[vg-sanctuary]

Drill Dozer

Game Freak - Game Boy Advance - 2002

[images from mobygames & gamefabrique]

these days, Game Freak is synonymous with Pokemon. it's most of their catalog no matter how far back you look, and after the release of Pokemon Red and Blue it became nearly the only thing they make to the point that it's remarkable when they make anything else. everyone was dazzled when they heard Game Freak was making a different RPG called Little Town Hero and then disappointed when it wasn't great according to critics. "wasn't great according to critics" is a theme of their games in the past few years, Pokemon or not, and that's not at all how it used to be. in the year between Pokemon Emerald and Pokemon Diamond & Pearl, two of their most beloved Pokemon entries, Game Freak somehow gave the world Drill Dozer, a platformer that takes its simple drilling mechanic further than I could have imagined. it's often called one of the best games on the Game Boy Advance, and for good reason: it looks great, sounds great, and most importantly plays great, despite being made by a company that had made nothing but Pokemon for five years at that point. it was made with just as much heart and soul as any of those old Pokemon games, but like most of the things I write about, it seems like everyone forgot Drill Dozer.

when I heard Drill Dozer being acclaimed as one of the best games on the GBA, I knew I had to play it sometime, and I got lucky finding a cheap Japanese copy. I started to play and it seemed like there wasn't much to it -- which, seriously, there isn't, but I couldn't stop playing. in fact, I liked it enough to beat it, which isn't something I can say about many of the games I play, though it helped that Drill Dozer was short. I wondered what exactly it did that kept me playing to the end, and after some thought I think I have a good idea.

you control the titular drill dozer and its pilot Jill as they chase down a rival gang that stole some important macguffins. it has just enough depth not to be an excuse plot -- like Jill's dad is in the hospital over the course of the game and that's part of her motivation -- but I think the simplicity is part of the charm. sometimes it gets in the way of gameplay a little bit, but so do most plots. Jill and the drill dozer itself are cute, expressive and well animated in a way that conveys their personalities even though neither speak a word (except in the Japanese version where Jill has a little audio). all the sprites in this game are pretty and stylish and, despite being by the same artists, don't really remind me of Pokemon. the music, meanwhile, is more obviously Pokemon-ish because it uses a lot of the same instruments as the GBA Pokemon games. not that it's a bad thing! it sounds good, and I love GBA music even though it doesn't have a sound chip unlike most of the consoles that came before. I usually don't write this much about this kind of thing, but it's important to Drill Dozer's identity and definitely something I noticed while playing.

Drill Dozer has only slightly deeper gameplay than most platformers. I was surprised I liked it given how simple it is, but the elegance of the drill mechanic had me hooked. many platformers aren't especially deep, like in most Mario games you can usually walk, run, jump in a couple ways, use whatever powerups your exact Mario game has, and that's about it. in Drill Dozer, the mech can walk, jump, dash forward, and it can drill in four directions, spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on whether you press the L button or the R button. the depth comes in when you consider how many different ways you get to use that drill throughout the game. it's used to dig, swim, fly, travel through vents, and open vaults, among other things, and most levels in the game focus on two or three of those. it's that versatility that makes the drill mechanic so fun and interesting -- with a single action you can do so many different things. several of the levels also end in a boss that uses the drill for combat in a different way. there's a mostly smooth difficulty curve that culminates in some fun, fast time limit levels, which I again wouldn't usually mention, but I think it's important for platformers, especially if they have as few levels as Drill Dozer. and this is one of those platformers that did away with lives: if you run out of health, you can restart in the same room for some chips, the game's money. if it's still too hard, you can buy higher max health at the ingame shop.

over the course of each level, you'll have to hunt down two gearboxes that let the drill dozer gear up to break through more stuff, which you can do by pushing L or R again at the right time while you're already drilling. it's simple but still really satisfying to do, especially because of the rumble that kicks in any time you drill. (fun fact: this and Wario Ware Twisted are the only two GBA games to have rumble!) even the music changes when you get the powerful third gearbox, which lets you to plow through almost anything and keep the drill spinning as long as you hold the button. in the Japanese version, Jill will call out which gearbox you pick up during the fanfare.

the main game doesn't last too long, but I think that's on purpose. Drill Dozer gets roughly all the fun it can out of each way to use the drill over the course of the main game, and if you still want more, the ingame shop sells harder drills to break secret blocks in main game levels and maps that let you go to some bonus levels, either of which usually have loads of chips or a collectible treasure. there are some outfits for Jill that only show up on the main menu, an unlockable hard mode, and once you've got everything there is to get, you can start any level on the third gearbox, which isn't really a great reward for someone who already has everything, but a lot of games have bonuses with that pitfall.

as someone who doesn't usually like simple gameplay, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Drill Dozer. it's got a lot going for it and I totally understand why others call it one of the best GBA games. I'd even call it one of the best platformers in general: it's easy to understand, with a fun and elegant core mechanic and a lot of other great things going for it, even if it is a bit short. it's a great example of how to design a platformer with just the right depth and I'm surprised I haven't seen any of those game design folks on YouTube bring it up. take it for a spin yourself!

[atrainernamedradish]

Top 5 Favorite Rivals

Least Favorite list: https://atrainernamedradish.tumblr.com/post/190290513502/top-5-least-favorite-rivals

Top 5 Favorite Rivals:

5) Barry [Diamond & Pearl; Platinum]

I think people can agree with me when I say Barry either needs to lay off the sugar and caffeine, or needs some Adderall, because holy fuck he was so damned hyper it was unreal! And before someone gets mad at the joke let me remind you that there is some dialogue where he tries to count to ten, and proclaims he can’t even sit still to do so! Like sweet Lord Barry calm the fuck down lol!

Jokes aside, I thought Barry was a solid rival. He wasn’t mean-spirited about being so or always trying to act better than you about it. Sure, he was cocky, but he eventually learned that he had to put his ego aside to actually learn how to be that much of a better trainer. His teams were pretty solid too. He wasn’t the hardest person to face, but he wasn’t a pushover by any means. Sometimes his hyperness was a bit annoying, but nothing that bugged me for too long. He was a good rival to have when you’re trying to deal with the headache that is the other rival that is your boring opposite gender.

4) Marnie [Sword & Shield]

Marnie is an interesting character. When I first saw her in the reveals for Sword & Shield I thought she was going to be this arrogant punk (I blame the black leather and spikes :P), but when you actually meet her that isn’t the case. She’s actually someone who doesn’t have that much confidence in herself, at first though, but as you progress through the game she builds up to that. In fact, the only thing she was confident in was not taking over her brother’s gym and setting out to do her own thing. Besides believing how confident she was going to be, I was also expecting Marnie to have this annoying personality (but I feel like that was due to Team Yell being there more than anything), but once again she blew my expectations out of the water! Her personality was sweet and likeable and it was refreshing! Her team was actually a pretty powerful one and was actually fit her aesthetic! That’s actually rare for a rival in this series if I’m being honest… From her aesthetic that mixes hard and soft (which yay the girls will be getting her outfit which I adore and can’t wait to have on my alt character!), her sweet shy personality that eventually gets some quiet confidence behind it, and her battle prowess, I enjoyed her as a rival as opposed to the other two who either got shafted by the overdone formula, or the one rival trying to be the OG rival who we’ll never truly get back.

3) Blue (Green) [Pokemon Red & Blue (Green); Yellow (Pikachu Edition); FireRed & LeafGreen; Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee]

And speaking of the OG, here he is: Blue (or Green if your Japanese). Many Pokemon games after the originals have tried to replicate this character, and haven’t quite made one that is up to snuff. This character is a perfect blend of cocky asshole and a strong trainer. You almost liked how much smack he talked then enjoyed kicking his ass after the fact, and doing so wasn’t always an easy feat, even in the remakes (excluding the Let’s Go series since he isn’t your rival in that). He had almost the perfect team not only against your starter but to also counteract your team members that made up your team for said starter’s weaknesses. That’s why kicking his ass was all that much sweeter because he didn’t just hand it to you. He made you work for that victory. While I’m not necessarily someone who is looking for a rival that has to be an elite trainer or anything, it’s nice to not have a friendly rival who talks a big game but is always going to face defeat, and quite easily and quickly too, by your hands. There have been some other rivals that have been pretty tough to deal with, but not as challenging as Blue will ever be… There’s a reason you will find this asshole on almost every top rival list. He earned that spot. Because despite being that smack talking asshole that you have to work extra hard to beat… he is kind of charming. He’s the rival you love to beat.

2) Bianca [Pokemon Black & White; Black 2 & White 2]

I want to make this clear with about my opinions on characters in Pokemon: they don’t have to be the strongest to be my favorites or even liked for that matter, and Bianca is one of those characters as far as battling prowess is concerned. I like Bianca for her character arc as well as the character herself. I think this character gets a lot of hate for no reason other than her not being a strong trainer, or not automatically being this confident cool character that should be ready to adventure which is honestly sad…

For me, Bianca is a very relatable character who in my honest opinion is a very underrated character. She is a character who wanted to do something with her life, but wasn’t sure how to start or go about doing it. Her first attempt is by doing what all the other characters her age do and that’s to set off on her own Pokemon journey, even if she wasn’t exactly ready. As her story progresses she comes to realize that that isn’t for her, and honestly not every person in that world is going to go out there finding out that this is for them. Not to mention not everyone who sets out on their Pokemon journey is going to find themselves being these super powerful trainers who are always going to confidently beat everything in their path. Bianca getting picked on by Team Plasma was not all that farfetched. She was a brand new trainer experiencing new things making her an easy target for them. Your character could have easily been just as privy to Team Plasma. Generation V showed that anyone was susceptible to them. But anyway, I’m going a little off topic, Bianca did struggle, but her struggles eventually took her to her calling: being a professor’s aid. Which fits her and overall is a good story arc for her. She’s not your typical rival of going around trying to one-up you and getting on your nerves trying to do so. She’s a friend, a main character, and unlike the typical power hungry overused rival archetypes, she grew and I was happy for her.

Not to mention, Bianca is one of the first few characters in the series to actually really… notice that there is this big new world around you and it’s something to explore taking it in as opposed to rushing into filling the Pokedex or doing the Gym Challenge, and honestly that’s refreshing for a character! Because you cannot tell me that if you were to leave your home setting off on a journey traveling to many new places that you’d overlook everything? Probably not. You’d want to explore all the new sites. That’s the whole point of an RPG is to explore. I felt more immersed in Black & White than most Pokemon games because I had a character in my journey to make it feel like it was actual exploration instead of bare bones places with much to be had. Unova, as to other regions, had a lot more sightseeing options and a lot more to explore. Unova just felt big, kind of like Johto and Kanto for GSC/HGSS. Just, thanks Bianca for feeling like a real person, instead of one-dimension rival who either wants to kick my ass or is so boring that I wish they were annoying lol…

1) Wally [Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire; Emerald; Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire]

It’s like I stated with Bianca: a rival for me doesn’t have to have battle prowess to be liked by or be a favorite for me. Not gonna lie, I wish Wally had a better team, but unfortunately Wally falls under the earlier formulas of forcing trainers to use entirely new Pokemon instead only peppering their teams with a few new ones, but whatever… 

Wally has one of my favorite rival arcs. He is a sickly kid who wants so badly to be healthier and have a Pokemon of his own so he could one day to set on his very own Pokemon journey like the other kids who have probably left by now on it. Nicely enough your character is there to guide and watch over him as he finally catches his very own Pokemon, even if later you were there to kick his ass a bit later on… While I do like how ORAS gave more facial expressions for this character to make you more sympathetic to him in the story… I wish they hadn’t had him show up after your battle with your dad to keep that mysteriousness of him actually progressing along side you on your Gym Challenge (yes I know you could read the gym signs to see that he’s doing it, but no one thinks to read those, let’s be honest!) before running into him at the end of Victory Road, but oh well. Honestly I wish they had had him in the Champion spot, kind of like what RBY did with Blue, but instead of knowing your rival was one step ahead of you as always you had the sickly kid you thought you sent home after a crushing defeat there instead who actually overcame it and decided to meet you there to prove he did so.

Overall Wally was an underdog and I like characters like that. You don’t expect him to become much more powerful after Mauville. He takes his defeat and he does his best to make up for it by having it push him. He wants to be stronger to prove to everyone, but more importantly to you, the person who was there to witness his journey from the start, how capable he was. Yeah, you do inevitably beat him, which is the fate of the main player in Pokemon, but when you do it you don’t think “aw man I beat another weak rival” or “hah! I beat your smug ass again!” you think of how it was a fun battle and a great progression in a well developed character’s story. And even then, Wally doesn’t take the defeat as a loss, but more as a way to push himself even further. He sees losing as a way to overcome something as to trying to cover up his frustration or to go packing home, and that is an admirable trait. Plus the final battle with him on Victory Road was pretty epic with that new theme of his as well as made me a bit sad because I had to beat him and all he did was smile and thank me… Made me want to cry lol… But that’s why Wally is my favorite rival. He has a great character arc, personality, and he makes me feel so many emotions that I feel like other rivals or characters couldn’t give me… Good job Wally you will always be the rival. 

[mannatea]

Pokémon Shield: A Review

DISCLAIMER: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE!

First, my credentials/gaming history, so you can see if my opinion is valuable to you or not. I would like to make it clear from the start that I do not consider myself a ‘gamer’ by any stretch of the imagination. I’m a filthy casual at best.

I’ve been playing video games since I was maybe eight or nine years old. I’ve always enjoyed dabbling in a variety of genres, and have a great appreciation for the work that goes into creating each and every game, no matter the intended audience. Some of my all-time favorite titles include Tales of Symphonia, Fire Emblem (7), Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross, Tetris, Bust-a-Move, Project Gotham Racing, Ecco the Dolphin (PC,DC), Roller Coaster Tycoon, Harvest Moon (N64/PS1), World of Warcraft, and of course our beloved Pokemon!

I started with Pokemon Red, and enjoyed it immensely, but Silver stole my heart and my imagination. My brother and I used to sit at the kitchen table with guide books open and notebooks at the ready to craft and create new, extremely cool teams. I sank an unbelievable amount of hours into that game, and into Pokemon Stadium (1 & 2), Hey You! Pikachu, Pokemon Puzzle League, and even Pokemon Pinball. Unfortunately after Silver, my interest waned. I was an adult by the time Emerald debuted, and while I was initially charmed by it, found my interest waning quickly. I bought and played Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, SoulSilver, and Black & White, but didn’t beat any of them. I felt like the magic had…disappeared somehow.

But when X and Y released in 2013, I binged on Pokemon X, beat it, and for the first time since childhood started breeding a competitive team just for the heck of it. I also found myself really enjoying Pokemon Sun a couple of years later (though the post-game of breeding didn’t really do it for me this time).

They lost me with Ultra Sun/Moon. I wanted to like them, really, but it was too much of a rehash, and too much handholding (like the originals were, and I could only stand going through that once).

Now here we are with Pokemon Sword and Shield. They released just a few days ago (15 November, 2019) and the controversy has been wild. It seems to me that everyone has some kind of very strong opinion, and a lot of people are very angry.

Pokemon has always been one of my favorite franchises, but my history with the games is far from spotless so I like to think I can manage a mostly unbiased review, though of course everything in this post is my personal opinion.

Here’s what I’ve done in the game:

40 hours played.

200 pokemon in the pokedex.

Main story and post-game story completed.

I played with no specific self-imposed rules and was not spoiled for hardly anything before I started playing.

The Game’s Introductory Sequence [8/10]

As is standard for the franchise these days, the game flings you into the world with little fanfare regarding customization. Rather than the intro being a dialogue of sorts between your character and a professor, you are now instructed to choose what you look like (from a sparse few options) after typing in your name.

The first ‘cinematic’ is pretty boring, but I think the attempt at immersion is genuine enough (the idea being that your character is watching Leon’s broadcasted fight on your new smart phone). My character has a better house in-game than I do in real life. I’d kill for all that storage in the kitchen!

My biggest gripe with the introduction is that it reminded me too much of Sun & Moon’s introduction—in the worst of ways. I wouldn’t say it’s slow-paced, but the constant interruption by other characters is about enough to make a person rage-quit. Luckily I’ve been blessed with a lot of patience; it makes tedious content easy to bear (so long as it’s not difficult), but even I was feeling antsy before the first hour of the game was up, just because Hop and Leon never shut up and I was chomping at the bit to Explore.

Considering this is the first thing a player experiences…I really feel it could have been improved, especially the dialogue, but there were a few really positive things about it, too. The outdoor BBQ was a nice touch (considering everyone knew we’d be going off on Adventures in the morning and all), the game does let you avoid having to learn how to catch a pokemon (your mom slips a few pokeballs into your bag at one point without telling you and if you use them to catch pokemon, Leon will not teach you how to do it later), and I feel like as far as introductions go, this one was fairly short when compared to Sun and Moon’s introductory period.

While I’m being positive, the game plops you down into an idyllic little English countryside and not only do you get to enjoy that aesthetic, but the Slumbering Weald is probably one of the prettiest/most charming places in the game, and you get a peek at it early on!

 The Starter Pokemon [5/10]

I’ve experienced worse? I wasn’t spoiled for any of the starter pokemon’s evolutions starting out, and while I didn’t exactly hate any of them, I sure didn’t love ‘em, either. I named my Scorbunny “Chad” on the assumption that he was likely to turn into a chad, though I’m not sure that accurately describes the pokemon I ended up with. Clearly modeled after soccer players, my Chad is a cocky all-star jock. They went all out on his Pyroball animation but Double Kick can see itself out of my house. No love in this club.

I just really wish I found any of these starters or their evolved forms to be charming, but they’re not. Rillaboom is basically George of the Jungle but 3% less of a himbo, and Inteleon is Greninja’s younger brother in accounting.

 Gyms, Gym Challenges, & Game Balance [6/10]

This is probably one of, if not the, most debated topic over at Reddit. Is the game balanced? Are the gyms too easy? Are they making this game for 5-year-olds suddenly?

Eh. I do think the game is, perhaps, Too Easy, but a game being easy isn’t a shortcoming in and of itself. Check out my section on the story and characters for more on this topic, but I’ll post the short of it here, because it’s relevant: if the gameplay is going to be easy, we either need an option to make it more difficult, or the characters, story, and world have to carry the game in such a way that the easy gameplay still feels fun.

Shield had, uh, none of that going for it, unfortunately. The plot is lackluster (more about this later), and the gameplay wasn’t able to pick up the slack. In other words, the gameplay didn’t make the game feel Substantial in any way.

Which is kind of bad, considering Dynamaxing is a new feature!

The biggest issue for most people was the Experience Share. It’s turned on by default and there seems to be no way to turn it off. You get insane amounts of XP for defeating and catching pokemon, and your whole team seems to level pretty evenly even if you only occasionally use some pokemon in the party.

I personally played the game with the default battle option (where it asks if you want to switch out to a new pokemon when the enemy is going to send out a new one) because I barely remember half the pokemon in the game’s typing. Knowing the name of what’s coming next doesn’t always help me. (How’s that for an embarrassing truth?)

I personally liked the experience share, though I feel having the ability to toggle it on/off (or even on for certain pokemon and off for others) would have been ideal. The idea with having it on all the time is that your team will level fairly evenly so you’ll be able to switch in any of your six pokemon to battle without having to struggle through leveling some of the weaker ‘mons up individually. Additionally, it enables you to easily replace a pokemon on your team mid-game if you so desire. And I did (I replaced my shiny Orbeetle with regular cotton candy Rapidash).

My team at end-game was as follows:

Cinderace (Chad)

Greedent (Moriah)

Thievul (Penelope)

Liepard (My)

Corviknight (Octavia)

Rapidash (Calliope)

As you can see, I have no grass pokemon, no water pokemon, and no electric pokemon. I have two dark types. My move coverage mostly sucked throughout the game, because Thievul had 3 dark moves, and My had 3 normal moves. I’m an official idiot, thanks for coming to my TED talk. Usually I can struggle through no matter how garbage-tier my team is, and this game was…no exception.

I steamrolled the first few gyms and their challenges even though I wasn’t vastly overleveled for any of the content. After the ghost gym (which was easy for me with my dark types) I’d say the difficulty level went up slightly, mostly because my brain has refused to hold type advantages/weaknesses that came after Gen1. I feel like most original type weaknesses made some kind of sense to me and I was never able to incorporate dark and steel into that mix, let alone fairy.

At any rate, once you fight a pokemon once, the game will tell you if your moves are super effective against them or not. I remember people complaining about this feature when it was added (in Sun/Moon I think), but I like it. It doesn’t actually help a lot if you don’t know what the moves do/aren’t looking at move power/effects, but it’s useful for my sieve of a brain in a pinch.

Hop as a rival was almost never challenging. He always starts with the same pokemon, and his team is fairly easy to sweep. That might be kind of the point, but I wish you could have encouraged him to take the starter that’s strong against yours for a bit more of a challenge. Yeah, it’s not much, but it would have been something. Marnie is a better rival than Hop in the sense that she’s actually a better battler, but I swept her team pretty easily too, every single time we fought.

The only real challenges in the game were fighting Raihan (I only had one very weak fairy move and no ice to counter his dragons) and Leon (he definitely outleveled me). On Leon I had to use revives and potions!

The gym challenges started off as pretty cute (herding Wooloo, pipe puzzle maze) but quickly grew into lazy boring doldrums (basically gauntlet fighting of one kind or another). I guess I’d say ‘nice try’ for these and say I don’t really care if I see them again or not unless they’re going to actually give it a real go.

Overall, the story part of the game felt balanced enough for me personally but if I’m being completely unbiased: it was too easy to get levels. I could have wandered around less/caught fewer pokemon as I journeyed and enjoyed more of a challenge, but I just…gotta catch ‘em all, y’know? Most people do! GameFreak should have known this and designed accordingly.

The big issue with game balance feels like it comes…after the game, and I don’t mean the post-game so much as the Max Raid Battles that require other people, but the NPC trainers you can battle with are legit trash at what they do, which kind of forces you to find other trainers, but…

 Online Compatibility & Features [3/10]

So I think the rating speaks for itself, here. The interface is confusing, the stamps are annoying, and the ability to see other players but not interact with them in any meaningful way is rage-inducing (and not just because of the FPS drops).

X/Y had a better online system!

Sun and Moon was better!

I don’t know why we regressed. I’m glad they kept the “wonder trade” (renamed to random trade, I think), because I always did enjoy doing that, but the GTS was the best idea they ever had and they abandoned it for random trading? I don’t want to trade with randoms? If I wanted to do that, I’d just do a random trade in the first place!!! The inability to put what you’re looking for into the stamp that people see? Oversight. Or just bad design. Probably both!

I’ve never hated a pokemon online experience more than this. I’m just astounded by how bad it is. I tried to join max raid battles last night and kept being told the event was over, but the stamps just…didn’t refresh? For HOW LONG? I can’t even tell you because I don’t know, and I couldn’t find a way to manually force them to refresh. It’s like they update every 15 minutes instead of every 15-30 seconds (which they should if I’m browsing for trades to make or battles to join). There are ways around this (according to Reddit) but the interface should be intuitive and easy to use by default.

C’mon, guys, you can do better. This is legitimately embarrassing in the year 2019.

 Music [5/10]

There are some really magical tracks in this game, and there are some really terrible tracks. It doesn’t feel at all cohesive or thematic. I absolutely hated the gym battle remix; it was worse than the regular gym battle music. I feel like the gym battle theme would have really caught on if they didn’t have any other synth sounding tracks in the game, but they kind of do, so it blends in instead of sticking out as a bop.

Notable nice tracks were Hulbury, Glimwood Tangle, Slumbering Weald, and the desert route (which I can’t remember offhand). Some of the better music reminded me of the soundtrack for Tales of Symphonia, which is high praise coming from me. Unfortunately for every good track there were probably 3 forgettable ones.

There wasn’t anything particularly engaging when it comes to the music here, but it’s at least passable.

 Graphics, Design, and Animation [6/10]

I should clarify that this is 6/10 for a pokemon game, not in general. I don’t expect flashy realism in a pokemon game and neither should you. The graphics are adequate most of the time, but the animation leaves a lot to desire when you look away from the pokemon that feel like they were Chosen Ones (and received a lot more attention).

Rapidash, for example, is using the same base model and animations it’s been using since it’s been in 3D. I’m not going to claim since Stadium, but holy cow the animations are for sure the same as they’ve been since at least X/Y for all the older moves. I’m not impressed.

The characters all have dopey expressions on their faces always. The models just use one talking animation loop and it almost never changes. The main character still looks on like a smiley face emoji when turmoil occurs, and though this isn’t as bad as it was in Sun/Moon, it’s still…kind of jarring?

The Wild Area looks kind of bad sometimes, and some areas in the actual game were lackluster compared to what they should have been. Ballonlea is the town you step into after walking through the (honestly) magical Glimwood Tangle, and it’s this charming fairy wonderland…with two houses and a stadium the size of two billion football fields. Uh. Okay? You’re telling me they destroyed how much natural habitat to make this gym? It just doesn’t jive with the scenery/theme out there, especially considering Opal’s theatre is tiny. And it’s not just that I think the game is lacking thematically (though it clearly is), but there’s this…laziness to the design when it comes to places like Ballonlea. It could have been SUCH an enchanting town to explore, but it was two houses with nothing important in them and a sports arena that feels completely at odds with its surroundings. (In this town you do learn that an NPC you spoke to earlier was a ghost, but it’s not as if this is very important information/goes anywhere, really.)

Spikemuth, for all its flaws, was at least memorable. I can’t say the same for most of the towns in this game. I really enjoyed the music in Hulbury but you best bet I had to look it up to remember the name of the town! Time is partly to blame. We don’t spend a lot of time in each town, and we have no real reason to go back to them aside from visiting the nearest Pokemon Center to heal and rest up. But I would argue that, beyond that, the individual designs just…don’t feel memorable because they’re not memorable. The names are mostly meh (every time I see Ballonlea I think of Bologna for some reason), but without anything else to connect to the place as more than just a place…there’s no reason to remember any of it.

Like the music, these are all passable, graphics more than animation, animation more than design, but that’s all there is to it.

Camping and Cooking, Feathers and Fetch! [4/10]

I don’t actually have a lot to say about this. It’s a cute idea, and it’s fun maybe the first ten times that you do it, but then it’s just really boring. The game is terrible at explaining how to create different curry dishes, but it’s almost idiot-proof. I’ve yet to fail at it.

But I’m not sure I care about it, either?

You get like 1/100th of the amount of berries you need to cook while you journey along, so it feels disproportionate. I dunno. Just not a fan.

Playing with your pokemon is the only real joy that comes from camping, but its fun is limited. When you’ve tossed the ball a few times, or watched Liepard smack the feather toy a while, it has that, “Okay, I’ve seen it!” kind of feeling to it. That doing well at cooking can heal your party/cure status conditions is incentive to do it, but it’s faster to just fly to a pokemon center and run back on your bike most of the time than to pitch a tent with your ‘mons.

I feel like there should just be…more you can do when you’re camping together. I’m glad Pokemon Amie is dead (it was cringey), but it felt more personal than this.

I wish I had more to say about this feature, but it felt tacked on and lackluster after I camped a few times.

 Dynamaxing, Gigantamaxing, and Max Raid Battles [4/10]

The urge to give this a zero was high, but I am making an effort to be balanced.

That said, I hate dynamaxing. Gigantamaxing is almost the same thing, it’s just Worse Somehow. Until yesterday I thought they were basically the same thing (and that some pokemon just got extra cool dynamax forms). As it turns out, they’re not the same thing at all! Or rather, they are, but they’re also not?

Dynamaxing makes your pokemon grow large and gives it these generic MAX moves that it can use in combat (Max Knuckle, Max Flare, Max Strike). It lasts for three turns and then your pokemon reverts back to its regular ‘ol self.

Gigantamaxing is when your pokemon grows a little larger than large, gets a special Look, and gets the same generic MAX moves (but with special effects added to them). Oh, and better stats.

At least, that’s how I understand it.

Both are great for Max Raid Battles, where you team up with NPCs or other players and take down huge dynamaxed pokemon that are out in the wild.

Neither is a fun feature as part of the actual gameplay. I guess as a gimmick it works all right, but just like Z-moves it has a long annoying animation sequence, and like Mega Evolutions only some pokemon get to gigantamax (everyone else is just a pleb, I guess). I dunno. I just didn’t find the concept very engaging…maybe because it seems evil and wasteful in-universe, and this is more or less stated in the game itself, but what-the-hell-ever, we’re just going to keep doing it ‘cause it looks cool!

It’s just too goofy a concept for me. Maybe if Dynamaxing doubled or tripled their size, I’d find it more understandable and more aesthetically pleasing? I hate seeing my pokemon, or the opposing pokemon, grow 50+ feet tall and scream at three billion decibels.

(For the record I never liked Mega Evolutions or Z-moves as a concept, so it’s not like I’m nostalgic for a different gimmick. That said, at least I’d accepted Megas as a thing, and Z-moves were overall not too groundbreaking or gamebreaking.)

The design of dyna/gigamaxing is to connect it with specific places so that you can’t just max your pokemon in every battle and sweep every team you fight against, but it still feels like it gets used too much. I’m currently at a point where I find having to dynamax feels like a chore.

Considering this is what the game tried to sell itself on in the initial trailer…? Yikes? I don’t know. I think some people are more ‘okay’ with the concept of dyna/gigantimaxing than others, and I think I’d be fine with it if we only had dynamaxing. Introducing both just feels like overcomplicating things for no real reason, and maybe also poking a little hard at the hornets’ nest that is the competitive community.

Because now you have to go out and grind gigantamax pokemon to catch one, so it forces you to do the thing you might not like to get a pokemon that can do the thing you don’t like, because it’s objectively better in combat? But really, who knows? Maybe these overpowered phenomena will end up banned, anyway.

Despite my disdain for this release’s gimmick, I do think Max Raid Battles are pretty fun, at least…when I’m not getting my ass completely kicked while some NPC trainer’s Eevee is using Helping Hand… It’s actually pretty enjoyable when you can somehow find other people using the y-comm and take on a gigantamaxed pokemon with the help of actual human players. But y’know…good luck using that…lol.

Overall I think the biggest downfall of Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing is that it doesn’t really add anything of substance to the game. I don’t think it makes it more fun. It’s also not necessary for max raid battles (this could be a phenomena we don’t understand yet that randomly seems to affect wild pokemon, just like with the UBs—hell, Anabel and Looker could return and claim this is all related to that stuff and I’d probably find that believable enough). So what does it add? Flavor? Culture? Nah. It’s just kind of there.

 Post-Game: Is That All? [3/10]

Post-game in Sun and Moon was the Alola version of the Battle Maison, breeding, and a somewhat lengthy (for a post-game) story where you assist Interpol agents Anabel and Looker in hunting down and capturing Ultra Beasts. The plot was somewhat woven into not only Sun and Moon’s storyline (Lusamine’s shenanigans), but also borrowed from the Sapphire/Ruby reboots and X/Y. If you didn’t already know Looker from Ruby/Sapphire/X/Y, or Anabel from Pokemon Emerald, you’ll still probably find them somewhat compelling/interesting as characters. Also, they did a really good job in Sun of making circumstances seem dire—of showing instead of telling you how dangerous the UBs were and how important it was to protect the people of the towns and villages you’d visited throughout your adventure.

Shield has… Max raid battles, a battle tower, and…breeding. Oh, and a storyline about the legendary dogs that barely makes any sense and is plagued by really irritating new characters.

The terrible truth is that the post-game of Sword/Shield is embarrassingly bad. You’d think they’d want to outdo themselves with every release. Sun and Moon hit it out of the park with their post-game content. Most people enjoyed the hunt for UBs, or at least the characters of Anabel and Looker. Sword and Shield have…. Sordward and Shielbert. DID I STUTTER?

They’re terribly designed characters, and so insulting as to not really be any fun at all. The Pokeball Guy mascot is Actually Fun; these dudes aren’t. They’re barely even villains? It was an excuse to try and pull what Sun and Moon pulled, but it didn’t work. I never felt like anyone was in danger at any point, probably because magically everyone was evacuated before I even arrived on the scene to stop Sordward and Shielbert’s vile schemes. :U Oh, and because I felt little or no connection to any of the towns I visited along the way, let alone the gym leaders. Maybe if these guys had showed up partway through the game and we sort of knew who they were already, this wouldn’t seem so out-of-nowhere, but it was, and that made it even worse than it had to be.

When it’s all over, you get your legendary dog (I named mine Goodest Boy), but it wasn’t a fun storyline at all. Who are these guys? Why should I care about them? I cared about Looker and Anabel because they came onto the scene and showed that they cared about each other as people (and showed it, multiple times). These guys? They wreaked havoc and didn’t even go to jail. At least Rose went to jail!

I don’t think the post-game is terrible so much as I think it’s underwhelming, especially considering what it came on the heels of. I don’t expect More More More from every game, but I do expect improvements to be made. A decent post-game storyline is all I was asking for, and I didn’t even get that.

But there’s the tower and you can breed pokemon and train EVs and all that stuff more easily now, so…

 Characters, Story, and Worldbuilding [4/10]

Let me put this as delicately as I can: I’m not a fan.

I could easily rant about bad character writing, bad stories, and weak worldbuilding for hours, but I’ll limit myself because 1) this is a pokemon game, and 2) nobody really looks for exceptional characters here.

As I said earlier, I feel like Sun and Moon did it Better. Most of the main characters in Su/Mo were likable, interesting, had a fun design, or were amusing. Not so in Shield.

Hop has a terrible name (literally a million names to choose from and they picked this?), but the biggest crime he commits is that he doesn’t get a satisfying story arc at all. When he got down about himself I had hope there would be some cool development, but there wasn’t. He ended up getting his crap together and making a Team and Picked a Strategy (which still involves sending the sheep out first I guess). And then randomly in the post-game decided he was going to be a professor…lol.

I felt like 20 different people wrote that plot, because it was terribly cobbled together and didn’t flow at all. Natural progression would have been nice.

Marnie barely has a story and barely develops. Piers seems to kind of have more ‘meat’ to his character but not a lot is done with it.

The gym leaders are otherwise really meh. Okay, so Nessa and Sonia are pals. Gal pals. Pals that are gals. Gals that are pals. Great. I don’t think we ever see them talk so it doesn’t matter. Melony has a son…and it’s just a nod to the other game where her son is the gym leader instead? Boring.

Bede is an asshole with a sob story who doesn’t really get redeemed but gets the redemption option anyway. They could have REALLY done something amazing with this guy but chose not to. His backstory is actually pretty interesting! But they didn’t utilize it worth a damn. And also he was right about the mural soooo…

Sonia was maybe the best character in the game, and that’s just from a technical standpoint. She had development, she developed, she grew as a character. Emotionally, though, I felt detached from her. Maybe it was being called a child all the time that did that? I’m not sure. I get that the protag is a child but I’m living independently and doing well for myself so maybe have a little respect idk… Especially when the first 2/3 of the game you’re told the adults will handle things, and then randomly you’re interrupted every fifty seconds to take care of other people’s nonsense. :|

In fact, I felt emotionally disconnected from pretty much every character. I didn’t really like or feel for anyone. Hop came the closest (feeling guilty about losing a battle cause it might make his brother look bad), but the bad dialogue options and inability to actually cheer him up was frustrating more than anything.

There are zones that are breathtakingly lovely (Slumbering Weald! Ballonlea! Glimwood Tangle!) but all the rest are more or less forgettable. The characters are connected to the world…sorta, but there are times it feels like they force-connected them through dynamaxing and dialogue accents instead of trying to make characters who naturally fit into the world. Like I talked about before, Opal’s gym felt completely disconnected from the reality of her environment. She lives there for a reason. Doesn’t the stadium’s presence jar her? How many fairy pokemon lost their homes when that thing took away tens of acres of forest? What’s the story here? Or anywhere for that matter?

Spikemuth was a waste of space but at least it felt like an attempt to show us a poverty-stricken area… Unfortunately it all fell flat the second they used two models for Team Yell! Team Yell could have been really cool, especially if they’d had different models with their names (challenged by Team Yell Grunt Sierra/Troy/Nellie/whatever), and the same team yell outfit/clothes/paint on. Then we could see these are just regular guys and gals from this poor area who want to cheer on their hometown girl!!!

But that was a weakness throughout the game, because Team Yell were all gym trainers, and all shared models…just like all the other gyms. It felt lazy to me. The outfits can be the same, but way to go making all the models literal clones. That’s just laziness.

The villains are all meh. Rose? Of course he was a villain. The problem is that he’s not a villain for being a capitalist pig or anything. He’s a villain for wanting to fix a power issue that’s 1,000 years from happening. Meh motivation. If it was 50 years away then we have a compelling villain! But no, not 50. A thousand years from happening. And he can’t wait five fucking minutes.

Oleana was boring.

Leon was exactly the person he was the entire game…

The taxi service is a cute idea, and a nice gameplay addition, but it doesn’t really add anything to the world because they didn’t make the effort to integrate it.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough.

The short of it is this: I walked away from this game not really caring about the world or any of the characters. I don’t even have a favorite character. I can’t remember the last time that happened to me. YIKES.

The Wild Area [8/10]

I don’t want to cover this for too long, because I feel it’s been done to death, but the Wild Area is what the whole game should have been. Or at least, more of the game. I don’t expect we’ll ever get a fully open-world pokemon game EVER, but this foray into the true 3D tells me that it could be a lot of fun, actually, even in somewhat constrained environments. (Oh, and with a good map.)

I enjoy the idea of the Wild Area, but I think its usefulness is limited without the appeal of having more pokemon patched into the game later. Until I get sick of it, though, it’s a pretty neat concept, and it makes hunting for new pokemon to catch a little more fun than it usually is. I like that they kept the overworld pokemon in this area as well as on the routes you have to travel; it feels like more of an adventure to dodge a huge Steelix and scoot closer to see what that yellow thing is in the grass you can’t quite make out. :)

Basically: fun concept that is enjoyable for now but has limited enjoyment. As far as negativity goes, I don’t have much to complain about here that I didn’t complain about in the Online Compatibility section above.

The Pokemon Themselves [6/10]

I was challenged by @hijauindah to list my top five favorite new pokemon from the game, so here we go!

Nickit (cute design!)

Boltund (smooth, well designed—not too cluttered)

Ponyta/Rapidash (MY LITTLE PONY… I think Rapidash could look better, but I’m just glad they cared enough to try something new with them…)

Frosmoth (Super pretty pokemon design.)

Dragapult (Nifty design.)

Most of the new designs are just…okay. There are a lot I don’t actually care for. But I’m biased; I just want more creature-based pokemon that look like they could exist and function in the world they live in. Some of these designs they come up with look like they’d have died out ten thousand years ago due to being Poorly Evolved lol.

 Final Thoughts [6/10]

The worst part of the game for me personally was probably feeling like I was getting interrupted constantly by other characters. JUST LET ME PLAY. But the best part was definitely exploring the new areas, catching a shiny 2 hours into the game, and getting to the end more or less with the team I started with.

The individual scores don’t add up to a 6/10 (they actually add up to a 5.16/10) but I think it’s worth noting that I did have a fun time playing through the game, I intend to hop into the breeding stuff, and even though I don’t have to keep max raid battling and stuff, I probably will.

It’s far from the 9s that it was getting by certain people from certain places that won’t be named here, but it’s not as if it’s a dumpster fire game. I don’t regret the money I spent on it, and I hope to keep enjoying the game for a few more months (albeit more casually than I did over the weekend), but I hope GameFreak has learned from its follies and puts its best foot forward with the next game, because I will not manage to be this forgiving again.

[sad-goomy]

Lonashipping Week 2018 -     Day 6

Soulmate!AU

Head on over to @lonashippingweek to see some other great stuff with this prompt and others!

"Where's your mark?"

The question pierces her chest and leaves a trail of frost to bite at her in its wake. Moon freezes in place, the hand that was petting Silvally's neck now dropping uselessly to her side.

She knew it would come up eventually, but she never expected Gladion to be the one to notice.

Silvally cocks his head at the lack of attention, watching as she slowly turns to look across the office to where Gladion stands, leaning against his desk with his arms folded. Still, she can make out the black smudges that line his fingers – a common spot for marks. As they've grown closer over the past weeks, she's found herself checking his marks more and more frequently, and she can't quite explain why she's always relieved to find that they haven't transformed into bursts of color.

She stalls for time, crossing her arms as she chuckles half-heartedly. "Why? Looking to touch it and see what happens?"

His eyes widen for a fraction of a second and then he's looking down and away, bangs falling to cover the blush on his face. Something tells her that answer hit a little too close to the truth, and it feels like Jumpluff are trying to escape her stomach, crawling up her throat and making her mouth go dry. Moon's grown worryingly used to the feeling whenever she hangs around her not-quite-rival.

He clears his throat, playing off the moment of awkwardness with a shrug. "I've just been thinking about them more, ever since Lillie and Hau..."

Though it was nearly a month ago, the memory is still fresh in their minds. She had been training with Hau when Lillie and Gladion decided to visit Iki Town. With the sun beginning to set, the four decided to grab dinner, heading down a familiar path as they chatted. Lillie, not watching her step, managed to stumble, and in a flash Hau caught her, and Moon gasped, the first to notice the change.

The black smudges on Lillie's forearms and Hau's palms had bloomed into brilliant brushstrokes of pastels and jewel tones.

Lillie and Hau stayed behind, left to have an awkward conversation that ended in laughter and hugging and exciting realizations according to them both.

Gladion and Moon proceeded to have the world's most uncomfortable dinner, in which they both had to pretend they didn't just witness their sister or best friend find their soulmate.

Moon nods, biting her lip. "Yeah, hard not to." While she'd been overjoyed for both of them, the entire event still served as a bitter reminder to her.

She gets lost in her thoughts and lets silence settle over the office. Gladion shifts, not sure what she's thinking and feeling himself grow more anxious, wondering if she's finally seen right through him.

"Not that I'm even sure I buy into the concept," he argues with no one, watching Moon snap back to reality.

A ghost of a smile tugs at her lips. "No, you don't seem like the type who would." It's comforting to hear, knowing she isn't the only one who feels like an outsider about something that seems to define everyone else's life.

"I just...everything about our lives is so random. It's hard to believe that we're just destined to be with one person out of the thousands we'll meet – and then what about all the people we'll never meet?" She can't help but chuckle when his rant picks up steam, Gladion beginning to gesture with his hands and scowling. Hearing her laugh, his body immediately relaxes, and he can't help but smirk at his own seriousness. "Sorry, I don't mean to be so negative."

"All part of your charm," she assures him. Behind her, Silvally lays down, deciding that if he isn't going to get attention that he's instead going to take a nap.

Gladion rolls his eyes, not quite wanting to believe her (but liking the thought that she might be right about it). "I digress. Life just seems a little too unfair for soulmates to really work."

Unfair, huh? Moon takes a deep breath, realizing that though she hadn't pictured it happening this way, if there's anyone she's going to tell, it's going to be Gladion. Still, she's not entirely sure how he'll respond, since he's managed to surprise her plenty of times as they've gotten to know each other.

She bites the bullet.

"I don't have a mark."

He blinks, his eyes growing wider by the second as her words fall in the space between them. Moon holds her breath, waiting for his reaction.

"...oh."

She waits for him to continue, but he fidgets – comforting people isn't his strong suit, but he tries his best and so she can tell he's still trying to figure out the right thing to say. She quickly assures him, "It's not a big deal to me. At least anymore. I've heard about other people without marks, so it's not like I'm the only one."

"Still," he interrupts her, sensing the tension that she tries to hide underneath the surface. He takes a few steps forward, not sure what he's trying to do but feeling like he should be closer when he says, "I'm sure it doesn't help that everyone around us talks about it nonstop."

Moon shrugs, feeling the typical discomfort around the topic crawling up her neck. "I've gotten used to it."

The silence weighs heavy on their shoulders, and Gladion frowns when he sees her curling in on herself; she's meant to bloom, not wilt. "I think it's kind of cool, actually."

She raises a brow. "Really?" she chuckles, and he smiles because this so much better than her frowning at the floor.  

This is probably the most upset that he's seen her since they've started to get to know each other, and Gladion immediately dislikes it. Her laugh makes him straighten, and he keeps going, trying to get her back to the bright state that he knows and loves. "I'm serious, it adds to your mysterious air."

"Watch out, maybe I'll come for your bad boy image."

"I'd like to see you try."

The two begin exchanging quips at lightning pace, and don't notice that Silvally has grown restless behind Moon. The Pokemon stands, wanting attention and quickly realizing that he's not going to get it with the two trainers so wrapped up in each other. A gentle tap of his head against Moon's back only gets him a quick pat on the head, so he decides that it's time for desperate measures.

Moon squeaks when Silvally licks half of her head, giving her the world's worst cowlick.

Gladion tries not to laugh as he scolds his Pokémon, Moon giggling as she tries to fix her hair once more. Silvally looks pleased with his handiwork, retiring to his bed in the corner and allowing Gladion to turn back to Moon.

She stops fussing with her hair, and the second she lets her hands drop, half her hair sticks up straight in the air, causing Gladion to snort. "Here, let me help," he mumbles, stepping closer and carefully running his hands through her hair to put it back in place. Moon holds her breath when she catches his green eyes, wondering if he knows that there are brilliant flecks of gold scattered in the emerald.

His breath hitches and he withdraws his hands from her hair like it's a hot stove, staring with wide eyes.

Her brows furrow. "What are you -"

But then her eyes flicker to his fingers, and where once there were black smudges, now there's a blur of rainbow. She looks just past him to catch her reflection in the window and staring back at her is her face with a new head of rainbow hair.

They stare at each other for a long moment, the beat of their hearts nearly loud enough to break the silence.

Moon says the only thing that she can think of in this moment, when she's finally uncovered the mystery of her mark only to immediately learn that one of her best friends is deestined to be her soulmate.

"Well shit."

I’ll try to link the post if I find it but this is absolutely based on that one post that circulated about people having a black smudge where they’ll first touch their soulmate that turns into a rainbow.

[darkzorua100]

It is more then likely because I watched the two part season 3 finale of Shadowhunters last night and I’m still getting over my high of how that season ended (on that note, I really want to reread City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire now because Sebby’s back!) so going into episode 52, I was expecting something super big since we knew we were getting Takeru’s backstory, or least some of it, during this episode but it just felt like it fell flat. Again, I just came from something that was making me super hyped for what was to come so I feel like it is unfair to be judging the two but when it comes to 52, it doesn’t feel like we got anything new per say. And even the stuff that was new somehow found a way to piss me off for petty reasons but my brain is stupid like that. You all know this at this point.

So the episode begins with the Lost Children being rescued with Takeru, and my guess the rest of them even though we don’t see it, being taken to the hospital. We learn that he was six when this happened to him (so yeah, he is sixteen) and this is one thing I did like about the episode. We got to learn more about what happened to the children after they were rescued. I wish we did get to see Takeru when he was locked away like we did with Yusaku and Spectre, that might be shown later down the line though, but this here does make you think of what would have happened to these children if Ryoken didn’t save them when he did. I’m fairly certain they would have actually died from this.

Speaking of death, Takeru’s parents died while looking for him from another accident. What said accident was we don’t know but this is the second time now where a main character’s parents are dead from an accident. It might just be a stupid cop-out why of not having to write in any parents for the show but seriously, this is getting fishy now. Spectre and Go are orphans, Takeru, Aoi, and Akira’s parents were all killed in accidents, and god knows where Yusaku’s parents are. Really makes you think if SOL Tech really just killed every adult that had some connection to the Hanoi Project that they knew about. I mean, considering what they did to Kogami to keep his mouth shut, I wouldn’t be surprised. Doesn’t make it any less messed up though. 

Then we have this crazy bitch, Hayami, who is out right trying to kill Soulburner for Akira-senpai. And I mean full out “notice me-senpai!” crazy. And after she gets caught, she starts crying like a little baby like we are supposed to feel sorry for her and doesn’t even get in trouble for it. I really hope this isn’t going to be a reoccurring thing with her now because that is just irritating on so many levels to me. I’m not kidding, if she does this again during the Playmaker vs Blood Shepherd duel, Akira better do something or I’m going to lose it. I’m sorry but I really can’t stand this kind of childish behavior. 

So after that annoying interruption, Soulburner continues to hold up to his namesake by being as over the topic as he can with his fire theme as he reincarnation link summons Heatleo but still isn’t able to beat Go since his dinosaurs are really controlling when it comes to the battle phase. 

Go takes his turn and thinks to himself how if he was still being an entertainer he would have attacked Heatleo first but since he isn’t being Yuya anymore, he is going straight for the kill but just like Soulburner, he isn’t able to do so since Soulburner’s field spell saved him and now he is down to 1100 LPs.

After trading blows, Takeru gets more backstory to why he is here today. Like we already knew from last week’s episode, after seeing Playmaker, Blue Angel, and Go fight against the Knights, they inspired him to do the same. Again, I am very much looking forward to Takeru/Soulburner and Aoi/Blue Angel having some interactions now since we already saw how much he respects Yusaku/Playmaker and Go, I want to see how he interacts with Aoi/Blue Angel. Also it seems like he wasn’t so much of a delinquent as in he got into fights or did crime or anything like that, he just didn’t care about anything in that delinquent sense such as going to school. I mean, I don’t blame him. After going through that kind of trauma and losing your parents right after, I wouldn’t feel like doing anything either. We still don’t know how he actually met Flame yet or why he changed his look (I’m now fairly certain Flame had a role to play in Takeru’s appearance change (speaking of which, does he seem so much taller in his delinquent form or is that just me?) so I hope we end up getting that backstory as well in the future. 

On a random note, I really like Takeru’s old home and the ocean feel to it. Reminds me of Gateon Port from Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Also, it seems like Takeru has an admirer. Oh that’s cute. They are trying to make him straight XD However since this girl, Kiku, was in the cast list, mentioned by name, it does make me wonder if she is actually going to play a role later down the line. Watch as she turns out to be the Water Child lol.

So after using his Burning Draw skill....Soulburner activates a Ritual Spell...

Excuse me what now?

He’s not using Fusion?! 

I say this again, excuse me?!

Well okay then. Playmaker and Soulburner are both Ritual Users now. 

You know, I’m complaining about this now, since I was so convinced Soulburner was going to be using Fusion (still might, who knows) but considering that Ritual Summoning is getting the spotlight after FOREVER, I honestly should be throwing a party right now. I wanted Yu-Gi-Oh six to be Ritual based to begin with and now apparently it is.

Still wanted him to use Fusion though...

Anyway, Soulburner ritual summons Salamangreat Emerald Eagle (sounds like a Crystal Beast more then anything (again, reminding me so much of Johan, Takeru) and uses it to beat Go. Go takes his lose like a sore loser (love how Flames even calls him that) and leaves after telling Soulburner that no one can win forever and everyone will lose at some point but what you will do with that lose is what will really affect you in the long run.

Go does have a point though. Losing is what really helps you to grow more so then winning. Not that will actually happen though since as long as Playmaker and Soulburner have their Ignises, they honestly can’t lose because of plot armor. Seriously though, the day Playmaker actually does lose a duel, we are going to be throwing a five second party and then have to shut it down because we all are going to feel awful when Yusaku’s PTSD kicks in. 

And speaking of Yusaku, the episodes ends with Playmaker and Ai getting closer to Haru and Bohman’s lair only for them to get attacked by Blood Shepherd. Next week, Playmaker vs Blood Shepherd with the return of Ghost Girl and Blue Angel in action if the cast list is anything to go by. Nothing must else I have to say. Again, this episode was just meh to me for the most part.

[dykejutsu]

🐻🌟

since i know which one you actually meant i’ll answer these now lmao

🐹 what are some of your favourite Pokémon and why?

mud kip is my number 1 favorite pokemon. That little mud fish was my first ever starter in Emerald when I was a tiny child and he’s had a special place in my heart ever since. That whole evolutionary line owns my ass.

Before I started playing the games though Scyther was my fav. One of the earliest episodes I watched of the original anime was the one were the Scythers were like battling to be the leader of their group, the old leader lost and decided to go with Tracey. I thought Scyther was the cutest freaking thing. Still hold a place in my heart just not the top spot anymore

🌟 what do you like about yourself? (must choose at least 3 things!)

yikes

I like that I’m very chill and try to understand everyone’s point of views so I get a long with people very different from me easily. There are a good bunch of my friends who have very conflicting views with me but we reach some sort of common ground and agree to disagree. I’m too chill to hate people for silly reasons

I’m very sentimental. Like I keep the most random things bc it reminds me of people and places I love. This also makes me like really good at remembering small facts about my friends so I’m kickass at gift giving. Yeah remember that move we watched together that one time and we both laughed our asses off and had a great time? Well here’s merch from that move so you can always remember that fun time.

If you show me a picture of a gen 1 pokemon I will know it’s name without having to think. I can also almost name all of them from memory. I love pokemon, never doubt that!

[techouspeaks]

Four Animated Movies I love and Four I Hate

I decided rather than just do individual top lists of the favorite non Disney animated films I like and don’t like, I decided to do a different approach and just list the four that I love and four that I don’t like. They will be categorized by ghibli film, non ghibli anime film, CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film and favorite 2D animated non Disney film. I’m gonna keep it movies that gained a theatrical release so the Monster High movies won’t be on this list and of course, Disney movies don’t count. I already did a list of my favorite Disney films. Yes, Ghibli in English is part of Disney but it doesn’t count as their main category of movies. Disney just owns dubbing rights. 

So let’s get started with my favorite Ghibli Film and my non favorite (I think it’s impossible to hate a Ghibli film but have a least favorite)

Favorite Ghibli film.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

I had a hard time picking between this one and Spirited Away, but after much thought, I decided to pick this one. It’s just a peaceful movie that I can watch any time, no matter what mood I’m feeling. There’s no big action scenes or deep story. It’s just a story about a little witch in a town that let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to live in this town? It’s big but homey and classy, it’s by the sea and there’s so many neat things to see and do. Plus it’s about witches and has a cat with a dry sense of humor. Spirited Away is a great film but sometimes it gets too intense and at times, I started to fill ill during the moments of No Face puking it’s guts out and the dragon covered in blood.

Least Favorite Ghibli Film

Nausicaa 

I didn’t think it was a bad movie, it just didn’t catch my interest all that much. Compared to Ghibli’s later works, this was kinda meh. I like the cabbit thing though that was on her shoulder.

Favorite None Ghibli Anime Film

Sailor Moon S Movie

Yeah, yeah, I know a Sailor Moon movie. I don’t watch anime movies very often outside Ghibli and those that I do, are not bad but don’t warrant my favorite list either. Sailor Moon Super S movie does come close to topping this one, but I feel like the story and animation was especially up to par in S. Plus Luna looks so gorgeous as a human. I love her dress. She looks elegant without looking too plain. People may shoot me for this, but I honestly think Luna as a human looks prettier than Princess Serenity. I mean, I know people are going to shoot me for that but in my opinion, Serenity looks like a typical princess/damsel in distress wearing this plain white gown. Human Luna looks elegant, mature yet playful at the same time. Plus that long hair that is so shiny and wavy. It’s just hard to top that. She’s beautiful and interesting to look at, almost reminding me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Serenity is pretty but her outfit is just plain and I just hate how she looks like a typical damsel in distress in her gown. Even Disney Princesses up the anti with their princess gowns.

(Runners up with be Pokemon 2000, Pokemon Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction and Pokemon Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice.)

 Plot itself is well balanced with drama and enough lovey dovey stuff to just make you feel satisfied. It’s just a beautiful film. Super S movie is great too and I like the little fairy that falls for Chibi Usa. I almost prefer him falling for her since it seems more appropriate, but Helios is nice too. I just think S just balances out soft and sweet with drama better. I really want Toei to just hurry up, forget about Sailor Moon R movie and enhanced and re-release this movie and Super S in theaters! Speaking of which...

Hated Anime Film

Sailor Moon R Movie

I’ll say it now and I’ll say it again, I HATE season R of Sailor Moon. It was too overly dramatic, Chibi Usa was obnoxious, villains were either creepy or annoying or not as interesting, except for the sisters. They were good. Hate the drama between Usagi and Mamoru. Was done so much better in the manga and Crystal because it ended faster! Everyone praises this season, I don’t. It was a turn off for me and this movie is no exception. More Usagi crying because she didn’t have her man with her. Chibi Usa was kinda useful and kinda not because her friends could have motivated her better.

 Yeah, Chibi Usa was a damsel in distress in Super S movie but she was a lot more nicer and tolerable, plus she killed the villain with Usagi! Plus, the relationship between her and the fairy boy is just so sweet and while Usagi cried when Mamoru got hurt, it didn’t drag to me. Also kudos for Usagi getting the guts to jump into a portal of death for her child, like a good mother should, doesn’t fall for the villains trap like “F!@# you, I know my man doesn’t choose between me and my daughter!”, and when they do fall and are saved by the fairy boy, it’s done humorously, so it’s not dragging so long. 

In the R movie, Usagi gets beat up, rises up naked because of the Crystal, shows psycho plant boy with lazy design what happened and make him snap out of it, uses the Crystal to yes save everyone, that’s a plus side but she ends up dead, thus a damsel in distress for her prince to save her. It’s not that I don’t want her to show her weaknesses but when she’s crying for Mamoru or is “dead”, it just drags on too long. The movie just has everything I hate about the R season.  Period. Moving on.

Favorite CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

How To Train Your Dragon 1 and 2

I can’t really pick one I like better, so I’m gonna call it a draw because they’re part of the same franchise anyway. I like the first movie because it’s more simple and like the second because it apps up the action, develops the characters more and does everything right about that sequel should. Plus I love dragons. My room is full of dragon things. Favorite mythical creature.

Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 though comes extremely close to being my favorite, especially 2. It’s a great franchise that I didn’t expect to like. 

Hated CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

The Nut Job

Take everything that I hate in a kids cartoon including toilet humor and fart jokes, add stuff that would make the movie dated as Gangnam Style and rip off one of the most mediocre Dreamworks films (Over the Hedge) for the plot and Remy the Rat from Ratatouille and you got one of the most annoying and lazily done CG films to date.  I don’t get why people hated Legends of Oz (which came out the same year) so much but praised this film or say it’s not as bad. Least Legends of Oz had an original premise, it didn’t rip off other films with the exception of the Emerald City, there was no fart jokes and toilet humor and in my opinion, gave us the best design of Scarecrow ever.

There was just nothing in Nut Job for me. If you like it, fine but I just couldn’t. I HATED this movie.The runner up would be be the Shrek movies but there was at least some substance I could get out of those movies. Nut Job had zip!

Favorite Non Disney 2D film

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

It’s a movie about fairies, magic and nature with beautiful animation, a fruit bat played by the late and great Robin Willaims. What more can anyone ask for in a film? Yeah, it hammers “protect nature” thing but, honestly, I didn’t think it hammered it in as much as people said it did. I use to bench watch this movie as a kid that I’m shocked I never owned the cassette. Yeah, I didn’t get this movie until it was released with the second film on DVD. Which I did like the second film. Yeah, it’s dated but it’s still a cute movie, none the less.

The runner up for this spot is Secret of NIMH.

Hated Non Disney 2D Film

Thumbelina

Few words for this one especially for the songs and main character.

The runner up would be Troll in Central Park. The reason and ONLY reason why that is not on this spot, is because that movie is so obviously bad that it’d be cheating if I added it on here. There was NOTHING good in that movie besides the animation. Thumbelina, does has some qualities that I can see some folks maybe liking it. MAYBE. I’ve had people say like Thumbelina as a guilty pleasure, while NO ONE has said they like Troll in Central Park. I think even a brain dead monkey would not enjoy that film. It’s just that obviously bad.

So that concludes that! Hope you enjoyed this entry! More to come soon!

[sage-nebula]

Besides the black and white games which Pokemon games did you find to be the most well written.

HMMMM . . . I’m going to go ahead and rank them by region, with 1 being the best, and 7 being the worst.

Unova

Hoenn

Alola

Sinnoh

Johto / Kalos

Kalos / Johto

Kanto

Hoenn is a bit difficult to rank, because Emerald Version is vastly superior to either Ruby Version or Sapphire Version, which means that Hoenn should technically be broken up to show that Emerald comes before either Ruby or Sapphire. However, both AlphaSapphire and OmegaRuby also have elements---namely the Delta Episode and that amazing gift to the Pokémon games known as Zinnia, but also distinct personalities for the characters of Archie and Maxie---that Emerald didn’t. So in a way, the remakes kind of tie with Emerald, but Emerald is still superior in other respects (e.g. two antagonistic teams, a much better climax, et cetera). It’s kind of like how it’s impossible for me to decide whether Gen VI or Gen VII are better in terms of gameplay. They keep wrestling with each other for top spot because they both have glaring strengths and weaknesses.

With that said, though, although it’s difficult for me to decide whether Emerald or ORAS is my favorite Hoenn game (honestly, they could have solved this problem by giving us DeltaEmerald, but alas), I still think the Hoenn games are the second best written games in the series. Unova is first for obvious reasons. Alola could have been second (or even first!), but the more time I spend away from it, the more the issues become apparent to me, and I’m never going to be over how disgusting Lusamine’s “redemption” was in the end, particularly since it has led to the fandom woobie-fying and excusing her blatant, on-screen abuse of her children, in ways I’m sure they wouldn’t if she was a man. (I mean, the disgusting “alas, poor villain” the game gave her certainly contributes to it, but I’m positive the Unova games could have done the same for Ghetsis and people would still hate him, because female abusers always get less harsh treatment than male abusers do. As someone with a very abusive biological mother, this is the sort of thing that personally upsets me to no end.) Gladion and Lillie both deserved better than what they got, and so while the Alola games do have strengths in the narrative, ultimately the way the Aether Foundation part of the plot was handled drags them down.

I’m personally not a fan of the Sinnoh games, story-wise, but I do think they were still written well, and I think that perhaps my dislike of them stems from my dislike of Sinnoh as a region (and most of the Sinnoh ‘dex due to how many of them are pre-evolutions / new evolutions for existing pokémon). With that said, I haven’t played the Sinnoh games in years, and because I’m me I will buy the remakes when they’re announced (come on, we all know they’re going to be), so it’s possible that improvements will be made and my opinion will change then. Depending on how much I like the story this time around, the Sinnoh story might move up to spot three, particularly considering (again) the glaring flaws and weaknesses in the Alola narrative. Even if I don’t personally feel attachment to Sinnoh’s characters or story, this is a question of what is more well-written, and it’s entirely possible that Sinnoh has a stronger narrative than Alola. We’ll see.

Johto and Kalos are difficult for me to rank because Johto barely has a story (though it still has more of one than Kanto, but that’s not saying much), but the story it does have is good. I’m still salty that they weren’t willing to change enough in HGSS to flesh out the story more. I get why they didn’t---an in-game Game Freak NPC straight up says that they tried to change enough things to keep them fresh, while keeping enough the same to keep fans happy---but it still upsets me, because with the Johto games there is so much potential to make them more than they are, and yet that’s potential that is wasted. Still, what is there is good. All of the characters are likable, there’s good development (Johto Rival has some of the best development), the legends and lore are fascinating, et cetera.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot more to the Kalos games, but even though there’s more, I still dislike it and find it to be a mess. And keep in mind, I played both X and Y; it’s not as if I only played one of them and made a judgment. I played them both. The rivals were aggravating and shallow, Team Flare was written to be a “lighthearted, joke team” according to Game Freak and yet they wanted to commit mass genocide, and the fact that these two ideas---that they’re a comic relief team that wanted to commit genocide---existed in the same game led to not enough gravity being applied to the situation. LIke, for fucksake, in the Unova games all Team Plasma wanted to do was make it so that Ghetsis was the only person in Unova with pokémon, and everyone in the narrative flipped their fucking shit over the idea that they might not be allowed to train pokémon anymore. We had an entire showdown at N’s Castle with all of the Gym Leaders (minus the Striaton Trio) showing up at the end of the first game. Yet in Kalos, Lysandre makes a region-wide broadcast about wanting to commit genocide, and yet the only ones to do anything about it are the player, the rivals, and Sina and Dexio on Sycamore’s orders. And then there’s Sycamore’s speech about how he wanted Lysandre to “set his pride aside” which just . . . it seriously reminded me of Cho saying that Marietta was “a lovely person who made a mistake,” which, okay, that’s fine for Marietta “I Sold Out the DA” Edgecombe, but not so fine for Lysandre, who wanted to commit mass genocide, ugh. (And I’m not bashing Sycamore here so much as I’m criticizing the writing; while I felt angry at Sycamore for phrasing things like that while playing, in retrospect I’m more infuriated at Game Freak for actually writing this.) I felt like the same level of gravitas was given to Lysandre wanting to commit genocide as was given to Team Rocket’s shenanigans in the first two gens. Had the Kalos games been games from an earlier generation, it might have been more excusable; but they followed the Unova games, which were such well-written Pokémon games that really filled the player with a sense of urgency and appropriate drama and determination, and as such they were a complete letdown. 

So tl;dr on this: The Kalos games had a more fleshed out plot, and that should theoretically put them above the Johto games, which were pretty bare bones. However, the bare bones we had in the Johto games were better written than the flesh we had in the Kalos games (which were terribly written even though they could have been so much better, as the PokéAni proved by miles, god bless the PokéAni), and as such it’s hard for me to decide where they go.

Finally, the Kanto games barely have a plot (they have the least plot of them all), and what is there is . . . unimpressive, to say the least. I mean, it’s actually a little hilarious to me how Giovanni is taken so seriously in Pokémon fandom, because in all honesty he’s a complete joke. I think part of this is due to the PokéAni; Giovanni is far more powerful, strong, and intimidating in the PokéAni than he ever is in the games, and Team Rocket’s influence is far more wide-reaching as well. The TRio aside, the rest of Rocket’s agents and executives and scientists are actually frightening in the anime. But in the games? Giovanni loses a couple of battles to a child and then tries to disband his entire organization. They reform without him and he’s about to go help, but then he loses another battle and leaves once more to go continue sulking. It’s pathetic. Team Rocket may be my favorite villainous organization in Pokémon (could have been the Aether Foundation, but Game Freak fucked that one up), but the game!Giovanni is pathetic, and since the Kanto games don’t have a plot beyond “be the very best like no one ever was and I guess beat up Team Rocket sometimes,” they’re at the bottom of the pile as far as narrative quality goes.

[shiningspinda]

Now I rarely make actual blog posts on here but the thing I reblogged just reminded me of something that happened to me when I was 8 and I want to share this story with everyone who will listen so here I go. It’s story time.

When I was 8, I think, I had managed to just collect everything I possibly could without trading anything on my Pokemon Emerald cartridge. It was only recently that I had been introduced to the wonder that was an Action Replay, and let me tell you, I would abuse the hell out of that thing on my Fire Red cartridge, forcing Pokemon I’d never gotten a chance to see in my little life to appear in that game, letting me catch them, raise them, just have a generally good time with them.

It was actually through an Action Replay for GBA that I found my love for Chikorita, and because of an Action Replay for DS that I even HAVE a Shaymin or Darkrai at ALL, given they were one time events that someone who was age 10 couldn’t access very easily, because you’d need either public transit (I had no money), or your parents to drive you (they never wanted to take me to GameStop EVER because I’d always walk away with a new game).

Needless to say, I worshiped this tiny hunk of cheating plastic quite a bit. It was my best friend. I never used to play competitively, either, so what would be the harm of playing the way I wanted to a little bit? Making things go my way for once?

Oh, there was harm!

Because, one day, I thought to myself, “Hey, I can access any book of codes on this tiny thing regardless of the game I’ve got inserted. Why don’t I try getting the Pokemon I don’t have on Emerald from a book of FireRed codes?”

So I tried, and that was the biggest mistake of my life, because when I did that, and started my game, everything that could go wrong went wrong.

No music played in Verdanturf, where I had last saved. That was enough to spook me as a kid, until I started walking around and it made the poison sound and animation play.

I opened my menu to look at my Pokemon, and to my horror, my level 100 Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza had all been turned into Bad Eggs. Not only Bad Eggs, though, but Bad Eggs that all had Pokerus.

I was horrified. At the time, I had no idea what Pokerus is, but now that I do, I realize just how BAD that situation actually was, should that Pokerus had made my Bad Eggs hatch, which it would have, because a Bad Egg having Pokerus is the only way a Bad Egg can hatch.

I try to go to the Verdanturf Pokemon Center, but I had only just noticed that the game had literally created two grey stone walls in front of the doors to both the Pokemon Center and the Pokemart. There was absolutely no way to go in.

Now, I had no Pokemon that could use Fly, because my Rayquaza had caught the Bad Egg flu, so I knew I had two choices. Go to Mauville, or go to Rustboro. I chose Mauville.

I ended up healing my party and all the poison effects went away, but the eggs with Pokerus stayed. The walls stayed too. So in the end, I had to delete my file completely and start fresh.

Since then, I have never touched the GBA Action Replay again. That was the worst experience to ever happen to me in a Pokemon game and it sure taught me a lesson or two about cheating my way to the top.

I’ve long stopped using codes. I only ever used codes in Pearl because I really, really wanted Shaymin and Darkrai. But since then I’ve not touched a single code, and I’m kind of afraid of hacking my games now!

Anyway, that’s my real life creepypasta. If you read this, thanks for reading, and have a fun, great rest of your day. Also don’t damn cheat in Pokemon!! It will lock your game!

[luxenebrisarchive-blog]

RULES !!  Post a song that reminds you of your muse and then tag 6 people whose songs you want to see!

tagged by: @huxyou

Lost Girls - Lindsey Stirling, The Phoenix - Lindsey Stirling, The Arena - Lindsey Stirling

WHAT ARE YOUR MUSE’S AESTHETICS?

[ COLORS ]  red. brown. orange. yellow. green. blue. purple. pink. black. white. teal. silver. gold. grey. lilac. metallic. matte. royal blue. strawberry red. charcoal grey. forest green. apple red. navy blue. crimson. cream. mint green. grey green.

[ ELEMENTS ]   fire. ice. water. air. earth. rain. snow. wind. moon. stars. sun. heat. cold. steam. frost. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. dawn. dusk. twilight. midnight. sunrise. sunset. dewdrops.

[ BODY ] claws. long fingers. fangs. teeth. wings. tails. lips. bare feet. freckles. bruises. canine.scars (mental; physical). scratches. wounds. burns. spikes. feathers. webs. eyes.hands. sweat. tears. feline. chubby. curvy. short. tall. normal height. muscular. piercing.tattoos.

[ WEAPONS ]  fists. sword. dagger. spear. arrow. hammer. shield. whips. poison. guns. axes. throwing axes. whips. knives. throwing knives. pistol. pepper sprays. tasers. machine guns. slingshots. katanas. maces. staffs. wands. powers. magical items. magic. rocks. mud balls. words. bat.

[ MATERIALS ]   gold. silver. platinum. brass. copper. lead. diamonds. pearls. rubies. sapphires. emeralds. amethyst. metal. iron. rust. steel. glass. wood. porcelain. paper. wool. fur. lace. leather. silk. velvet. denim. linen. cotton. charcoal. clay. stone. asphalt. brick.marble. dust. glitter. blood. dirt. mud. smoke. ash. shadow. carbonate. rubber. synthetics.

[ NATURE ]    grass. leaves. trees. bark. roses. daisies. tulips. lavender. petals. thorns. seeds. hay. sand. rocks. roots. flowers. river. meadow. lake. forest. desert. tundra .savanna. rainforest. caves. underwater. coral reef. beach. waves. space. clouds. mountains.

[ ANIMALS ]   lions. wolves. eagles. owls. falcons. hawks. swans. snakes. turtles. ducks. bugs. spiders. birds. whales. dolphins. fish. sharks. horses. cats. dogs. bunnies. praying mantises. crows. mice. lizards. unicorns. pegasus. dragons. rats.

[ FOODS/DRINKS ]  sugar. salt. candy. bubblegum. bread. wine. champagne. hard liquor. beer. coffee. tea. spices. herbs. apple. orange. lemon. cherry. strawberry. watermelon. vegetables.fruits. meat. fish. pies. condensed milk. desserts. chocolate. cream. caramel. berries. nuts.cinnamon. burgers. burritos. pizza. rice. ambrosia. soup. stew. whiskey.

[ HOBBIES ]    music. art. watercolors. gardening. smithing. sculpting. painting.sketching. fighting. writing. composing. meditation. cooking. sewing. training. dancing. acting. singing. martial arts. self-defense. electronics. technology. cameras. video cameras. video games.computer. phone. movies. theater. libraries. books. magazines. cds. records. cassettes.piano. violin. guitar. electronic guitar. bass guitar. harmonica. harp. woodwinds. brass.bells. percussion. playing cards. poker chips. chess. dice. mahjong. motorcycle riding. eating. climbing. running.

[ STYLE ]   lingerie. armor. cape. dress. tunic. vest. shirt. boots. heels. leggings. trousers. jeans. skirt. jewelry. earrings. necklace. bracelet.rings. pendant. hat. ballcap. crown. circlet.helmet. scarf. brocade. cloaks. corsets. doublet. chest plate. robes. bracers. belt. sash. coat. jacket. hood. gloves. socks. masks. cowls. braces. watches. glasses. sunglasses. visor. eye contacts. makeup.

[ MISC ]    balloons. bubbles. cityscape. light. dark. candles. war. peace. money. power. clocks. photos. mirrors. pets. diary. fairy lights. madness. sanity. grief. happiness. optimism.realism. pessimism. legacy. loneliness. family. friends. assistants. co-workers. enemies.loyalty. smoking. drugs. kindness. love. hugs.

you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to. put your mp3 player, itunes,spotify, etc. on shuffle & list the first 10 songs & then tag 10 people, no skipping !

REPOST & DON’T REBLOG!

All the King's Horses - Karmina

Sleepwalking - Bring Me The Horizon

In The Dark - The Birthday Massacre

Bury Me Alive - We Are The Fallen

The Islander - Nightwish

Everybody's Fool - Evanescence 

Soap - Melanie Martinez

Meet Me on The Battlefield - SVRCINA

Mirrors - PVRIS

War of Hearts - Ruelle

CHARACTER STRENGTHS.

RULES:    bold  the  characteristics  that  apply  to  your  muse !  Tag  your  friends !

adaptable |  adventurous  |  affectionate |  ambitious  |  artistic  |  athletic  |  assertive  |  beautiful  | brave |  charming  |  clever  | compassionate |  confident  | considerate |  cooperative  |  courteous  |  creative  | curious  |  decisive  | dependable  | determined  |  diplomatic |  easy - going  | enthusiastic |  fair  |  fashionable  | forgiving  |  friendly  |  fun - loving  |  funny |  generous  |  gentle  | hard - working |  heroic |  honest  |  hopeful  |  humble  |  imaginative  |  incorruptible | intelligent  |  intuitive  |  inventive  |  jocular  |  leader  | lively  |  loving  |  loyal |  merciful  |  musical  |  observant  |  open - minded |  optimistic  |  organized  | outgoing  | passionate |  patient  |  playful  |  polite  | popular  | practical  |  resourceful  |  self - assured | selfless  |  sensible  |  sincere  |  strong  |  studious  |  thoughtful  |  tough  | versatile |  warm - hearted  | well - intentioned |  wise  |  witty

CHARACTER FLAWS. RULES:    bold  the  characteristics  that  apply  to  your  muse ! Tag  your  friends !

absent-minded  |  abusive  |  addict  |  aggressive  |  aimless  |  alcoholic  |  anxious  |  arrogant | audacious  |  bad liar |  bigmouth  |  bigot  | blindly obedient  |  blunt  | callous  |  childish  | chronic heroism |  clingy |  clumsy  |  cocky  |  competitive  |  corrupt  |  cowardly  | cruel | cynical  |  delinquent  |  delusional  |  dependent  |  depressed  |  deranged  |  disloyal  |  ditzy  | egotistical| envious  |  erratic  |  fickle  | finicky |  flaky  |  frail  | fraudulent  |  guilt complex | gloomy  |  gluttonous  |  gossiper  |  gruff  |  gullible  |  hedonistic  |  humorless  |  hypochondriac | hypocritical |  idealist  |  idiotic  |  ignorant  |  immature  | impatient |  incompetent  |indecisive | insecure | insensitive  |  lazy  |  lewd  |  liar  |  lustful  |  manipulative  |  masochistic | meddlesome  |  melodramatic  |  money-loving |  moody |  naive  |  nervous |  nosy  |  ornery  |overprotective  |  overly sensitive  | paranoid  | passive-aggressive | perfectionist | pessimist | petty |  power-hungry  |  proud |  pushover  | reckless  |  reclusive  | remorseless  | rigorous  | sadistic  |  sarcastic  |  senile  | selfish | self-martyr |  shallow  |  sociopathic |  sore loser  | spineless  |  spiteful  |  spoiled  | stubborn |  tactless  |  temperamental |  timid  |  tone-deaf  | traitorous  |  unathletic  |  ungracious  |  unlucky  |  unsophisticated  |  untrustworthy  | vain | withdrawn | workaholic

Repost! Don’t Reblog! Last Movie I Watched: Minions Last Song I Listened To: Mirrors - PVRIS. Last book I read: No idea. I usually read fanfiction. Last Thing I Ate: Bowtie pasta with grapes and albondigas soup.  If You Could Be Anywhere Right Now: Disney World or Japan. Fictional Character You Would Hang Out With For A Day: Princess Nike from World Is Still Beautiful, Misaki Ayuzawa from Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Ash Ketchum from Pokemon!, Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, Queen Clarisse from The Princess Diaries, Lady Tsunade from Naruto, Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach, and probably some others I just can't think of right now. Picking one is waaaaay to challenging.

Pick any of them and tag me! I love reading about your muses. tagging: Anyone and everyone who wants to do this! This is a great way to explore the minds of muses.

[ladykailolu]

Emerald Episode 7:

It’s time to take on the Rustboro City Gym for the first Hoenn Badge! Considering that it’s the same type as Brock’s Gym waaaaaay back in gen 1, we shouldn’t have a problem with this gym. I mean, I never had a problem with Roxanne considering that I started off with Mudkip. We have Treecko and a couple of other special attack enthusiasts, so this should be a cakewalk.

Let’s get right into this:

Hey~I’m an honors student too! Well, kinda. I’m not in school for the moment anymore so...We should have a nice battle of wits.

I...love this guy. He’s so motivational! I’m glad we got to see you again, friend!

A double-battle in a gym? I’m not too familiar with this happening. And isn’t the hiker Trainer missing in Ruby and Sapphire? He did kinda seem out of place. I mean, if Roxanne has strong ties to the Trainer’s School, she might invite the best students to train at her gym.

One small thing I really enjoyed about Emerald Version was that each of the gyms held a small emblem of the gym’s badge right behind the Gym Leader. It was a small touch, but one that really stood out to me for some reason. Maybe because it’s aesthetically pleasing and reminds me of the ever-present goal inside the gym?

...Right. Moving on:

And I’ll kindly demonstrate why it’s terribly risky to battle with a mono-type theme.

Our first gym battle! Well...in Hoenn, at least. Let’s start off on a good foot.

Take that! A Water Gun to the face!

...Oh you’re disgusting.

But wow, that didn’t knock you out? Maybe I’m underestimating the bulkiness of Geodude, but I don’t think it has the best Special Defense, and it’s 4x weak to a STAB water-type attack from a Marill. Or maybe I’m just overestimating the Special Attack stat of Marill in the first place. I mean, I mainly see Marill and its evolution, Azumarill, used as a somewhat bulky physically offensive attacker due to its Huge Power ability. So I don’t think it’s Special Attack would be the best here, but it’s not the best water-type either.

noooOOOOOOOOOOO WHY?!

Gods, ANOTHER Potion! Get ‘em, Molly! She’s a little bulkier than her brother.

Oooh gods, here we go. Everyone else in my party is about Level 10, so I’m wondering if that level gap will be just enough to give me defeat over victory.

So I paralyzed it in the hopes I could just out-stall it outright. It depends a bit on luck, but so does pretty much everything in Pokemon battles.

Also, I had noticed a slight green tint in the battling screen. Now, with the last screenshot, this is because of the move animation for Absorb. But outside of the animation, it just...looks like there’s some green layer present in the screen. Hmm, maybe that was added because this is the Emerald Version.

Okay...

That was a really long battle. As I thought, I was basically a stall war until Molly just drained every bit of strength out of that Nosepass and got us the win! Good job, Molly! And with that, we snagged our first Gym victory!

1 badge down; 7 more to go! ...I can’t tell you how much I really wanted to call it the Boulder Badge, but that’s from Brock’s Gym, haha. Even though I played ORAS recently, I can’t seem to remember the badges.

Thanks, man! I couldn’t do it without you!

My Team for this challenge was:

Scully the Wingull

Jimmy the Marill

Ethan the Treecko

Molly the Shroomish

Louis the Lotad

Hajime the Ralts

It turns out that this generation also include stat buffs from badges. I never really quite understood the mechanism behind them, but it’s a nice feature, I guess. With our first gym cleared, we’re free to explore the areas to the north and east of the bustling metropolis! Apparently, we can get to Verdanturf if we go through the nearby tunnel...

[internetdetectives]

11/20/18 - Chat with Moonman31

((More mild shitposting occurs in the Discord server))

moonman31 9:46 AM: but yeah

moonman31 9:46 AM: other than shitposting

moonman31 9:46 AM: ...

Jos 9:46 AM: Buenos dias, bueno amigo

Wolfcat 9:46 AM: mind if I ask you about a couple of other dudes you may know?

moonman31 9:47 AM: sure

Wolfcat 9:47 AM: do you know anything about Thomas? ryukaki's old friend?

moonman31 9:48 AM: I know jackshit about Thomas tbh

Wolfcat 9:49 AM: same with us

Wolfcat 9:49 AM: it sounded like he may have been in one of the two cults, but beyond that there's no information on the guy

moonman31 9:50 AM: nocta

moonman31 9:50 AM: he would know about thomas

Dense 9:50 AM: Oh good morning duds

moonman31 9:59 AM: my dyuuude

Wolfcat 10:05 AM: Alright, how about some kid named Hunter? I mean, there's probably a lot of kids named Hunter

Wolfcat 10:05 AM: but you know what I mean

Wolfcat 10:05 AM: he's another guy that seemed to just vanish from existence

moonman31 10:06 AM: Hunter Jarvis

moonman31 10:06 AM: ?

moonman31 10:06 AM: Wow you are bad at replying

moonman31 10:06 AM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWJNGNV5J9s

((Moonman posts a YouTube link of Sonic the Hedgehog saying "Come on, step it up!")) 

Dense 10:10 AM: Yes

Dense 10:10 AM: Hunter Jarvis

moonman31 10:11 AM: Anything I know about Hunter was from what Jarilo told me

Dense 10:11 AM: Oh shit

Dense 10:11 AM: :hidden: OH SHIT

Wolfcat 10:15 AM: sorro im actually at work rn lol

Wolfcat 10:15 AM: yeah the Jarvis kid

Wolfcat 10:15 AM: damn so you actually spoke to jeremy too?

moonman31 10:20 AM: Uh yeah a few years back

Wolfcat 10:22 AM: damn, so you had an account on the LC forums?'

Dense 10:23 AM: :hidden: or maybe irl

moonman31 10:24 AM: Nah

moonman31 10:24 AM: On skype

Dense 10:25 AM: Oh

moonman31 10:29 AM: Oh

Wolfcat 10:30 AM: Oh

Wolfcat 10:30 AM: It's magic

moonman31 10:32 AM: ok

Dense 10:34 AM: ok

Wolfcat 10:40 AM: the last we spoke to Jeremy was in 2016

Wolfcat 10:40 AM: well, actually extremely early 2017 to be precise

Wolfcat 10:40 AM: he was in a weird situation to say the least

Wolfcat 10:40 AM: we haven't seen him since, unfortunately

moonman31 10:42 AM: dead?

moonman31 10:42 AM: Yeah

Wolfcat 10:43 AM: yeah

Wolfcat 10:43 AM: rip, honestly, he was a nice old man

moonman31 10:49 AM: yeah

Jos 11:01 AM: Dead

Jos 11:01 AM: Yeah

Dense 11:02 AM: How you met Jeremy?

moonman31 11:09 AM: No

moonman31 11:09 AM: We spoke online

Dense 11:18 AM: Wait

Dense 11:18 AM: But

Dense 11:18 AM: Why you talked?

moonman31 11:39 AM: because

moonman31 11:39 AM: I was a 'detective'

moonman31 11:39 AM: back then

Jos 11:43 AM: are you Tyler?

moonman31 11:43 AM: No

Jos 11:43 AM: You just remind me to him speaking lol

moonman31 11:43 AM: lol

Jos 11:43 AM: lol

Jos 11:43 AM: ok ok

Jos 11:43 AM: sorro

Dense 11:44 AM: Lol

Wolfcat 12:01 PM: Alright, so since you probably are unable to answer directly, maybe you can answer this

Wolfcat 12:01 PM: Have you ever read this book?

((Wolfcat sends a picture of “Moon Magic”, the book Greth is seen reading in “never sleeping”))

moonman31 12:01 PM: Yes

moonman31 1:00 PM: Got all quiet after that

Dense 1:00 PM: Yeet

Dense 1:00 PM: Ey Moonman

Jos 1:00 PM: Nothing much to say

Dense 1:00 PM: Do u like pokémon

Jos 1:00 PM: tbh

Jos 1:00 PM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZKEhVaTrQE

((Jos posts a Simpsons clip))

moonman31 1:01 PM: Pokemon is cool

Dense 1:01 PM: Wich game is your fav?

Jos 1:01 PM: emerald is the best

moonman31 1:02 PM: Probably Silver tbh

Wolfcat 1:02 PM: monstermind

Dense 1:02 PM: Black 1 is the best

Jos 1:03 PM: black 1 is gay

moonman31 1:03 PM: Moon is also tight despite everyone ripping on the new games

moonman31 1:03 PM: I would probably say Silver, Moon, Sapphire

moonman31 1:03 PM: in that order

Dense 1:04 PM: Yeet

moonman31 1:04 PM: remakes included

moonman31 1:04 PM: Silver, Moon, Sapphire, Yellow actually

Dense 1:04 PM: SoulSilver is neat

moonman31 1:04 PM: maybe even Sapphire / Yellow as the same spot

Dense 1:04 PM: Also ORAS

Wolfcat 1:04 PM: what about lets go pikachu

Jos 1:04 PM: i love emerald because of the battle frontier

Jos 1:04 PM: ORAS is cool but GAY for not having battle frontier

moonman31 1:04 PM: idk havent played it

Wolfcat 1:04 PM: looks like bab gam

Dense 1:05 PM: But nigga

Dense 1:05 PM: Why anyone lines V gen

Wolfcat 1:20 PM: moonman

Wolfcat 1:20 PM: do you like to smonk ween and go zearching

moonman31 1:34 PM: that's literally what i'm doing rn

Dense 1:35 PM: Oh shit

Wolfcat 2:21 PM: What are the "Truth Seekers" on the AO forums? Is that like a little club, or just another fancy name for mods?

because I noticed Samuel was the leader of that user group, apparently

Jos 2:21 PM: and Nocta a member

moonman31 2:46 PM: Well uh\

moonman31 2:46 PM: idk? I think it's just a forum thing

Wolfcat 3:00 PM: I see

Wolfcat 3:00 PM: like a cool kids club

Wolfcat 3:00 PM: user group, i mean

moonman31 3:02 PM: I think it's just a non-owner admin usergroup

moonman31 3:02 PM: tbh friend

Wolfcat 3:05 PM: oh ok

Wolfcat 3:05 PM: no Illuminati then