#kanai cube

[holyknight3000]

Guided by Kanai - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III

http://fav.me/980263208

Guarded by Chief Elder Kanai - Later called the Next Immortal King & His Greatest Treasure. With help and knowledge from Zoltan Kulle - We Nephalem became worthy of the Cube. With Kanai's Blessing he gave us the Cube.

Updated a 3rd time with multiple dozen updates improvements and more than 20+ gigs in file size.

I dedicate this art piece to the late Kevin Kanai Griffith once again.

As a candle in the wind. As a blistering cube of barbarian fury. Sat atop a pedestal  Surrounded by the Fiery Runes With hellfire from below. And Kanai guiding us to the cube.

All the love to his family and friends

Friday September 1st 2023

Aaron Williams Holyknight3000 The Runeweaver

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Mobile - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - Mobile Ultrawide - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - Ultrawide ------------------- Desktop No Runes - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - No Runes Mobile No Runes - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - Mobile - No Runes Ultrawide No Runes - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - Ultrawide - No Runes ------------------- Desktop - 4K - Guided by Kanai: Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - 4K Desktop No Runes 4K - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - No Runes - 4K Ultrawide 4K - Kanai's Cube - A Tribute III - Ultrawide - 4K Ultrawide No Runes 4K - Kanai's Cube Tribute III: Ultrawide - No Rune - 4K

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Kanai's Cube - Art by the amazing Team 3 The Pedestal freehand 3d w/warp tool (CS3) - by Holyknight3000 Diablo 3 Rune by Team 3 The Fiery Runes by Holyknight3000 Kanai's Guiding hand Art by Holyknight3000 Ember - Stock used Smoke and embers by toxin360 The Lion-head I used was originally by Vitaliy Naymushin

[biggie-chcese]

Why I think Yomi Hellsmile should've died in Chapter 4

(this essay isnt what you think it is. spoilers for the whole game btw)

Alright so let me preface this by saying that this is not a Yomi Hellsmile hate essay. I like Yomi. He's my favorite peacekeeper. He's funny, he's entertaining, and he makes for a very effective antagonist. So why have him die? Well, for the same reason I wouldn't have Yakou live: I think it makes for a better story.

So here's the true title of my essay: A Critique of how Rain Code's Narrative Handles the Peacekeepers (and by Extension, Yomi) and their Downfall

Let's start with Yomi's downfall in canon. Yuma and Vivia find out his role in Huesca's murder and, ultimately, Yakou's death, and are angry beyond belief. But they're also helpless to do anything as they escape the labyrinth with vengeance on their minds. Of course, this gets shut down immediately, and then Makoto ex machina comes in with Martina in tow to arrest Yomi for his money laundering and bribery. And right then and there, in one fell swoop, the peacekeepers are completely eliminated as a threat in the story to be replaced by Makoto.

But okay... isn't that super underwhelming? The peacekeepers and Amaterasu corp have been the main driving force of the game's primary conflict, and yet somehow they are completely eliminated as a threat because Makoto grabbed a few files off screen. And also, this brings me to my first major issue I have with this ending:

Part 1: Why the fuck do they care?

No I'm serious. Why do the peacekeepers care? So what if Yomi bribed his way to the top? You mean to tell me that the cops who spent the entire game assaulting and antagonizing civilians give a shit? They're never shown to have any sort of problem with their corruption. They send people to be executed on whims and knowingly, regularly falsify evidence on murder cases. At best the peacekeepers are indifferent to the suffering they cause, and at worst they are gleefully complicit in it. So, again, why do they care about Yomi's money schemes? In fact, they only benefit from Yomi's rule because he gives them the power to freely instill fear in Kanai Ward's citizens. The game never, at any point, has an "are we the baddies?" moment from them nor does it ever even try to have at least one peacekeeper question Yomi's authority, even when he's throwing them under the bus. Throughout the whole game, they stand as a completely one-note, cartoonishly evil representation of police corruption.

So why the sudden heel turn? The resolution of chapter 4 feels so jarring to me because the game has zero buildup to it. This also applies to Martina's return. Actually let's also talk about her.

Part 2: So... Martina's return lowkey is kinda lame

Don't get me wrong, I was pretty hype when she came back. But also, the magic wore off pretty quickly for me because I didn't understand why she was suddenly a whole different character. I suppose her brush with death gave her some time to contemplate her actions, or perhaps she felt indebted to Makoto and asked him what she should do, or maybe Makoto held her life over her head and told her to change her act or he's letting her get cubed. Who knows? We get nothing expanding on this so it could be anything.

I feel like people kinda forget that Martina was just as corrupt as Yomi? Like, she is not his helpless victim. I'd even argue that their relationship isn't abusive. Martina is in it with her own interests in mind in addition to just being a massive sadomasochist. I cannot stress this enough: whatever tf she and Yomi had going on, she was completely into it. Even at the end of chapter 2, she was drooling over him and the idea of punishment... until Yomi crossed a line.

Y'see, Martina thought she was special. She thought that whatever punishment Yomi had for her Aetheria Academy blunder, she'd come out of it alive, because she's his beloved right hand. Yomi then showed her that she's just as disposable as the rest of his underlings by ordering her to be brutally executed. That is when she becomes a victim.

Anyway, I'm saying all this to make a point that Martina hasn't shown any interest in being an honest cop until chapter 4. It's completely out of nowhere, just like with the other peacekeepers.

"But Biggie," you may be thinking, "why would Yomi dying fix these issues?" Well I'm so glad you hypothetically asked!

Part 3: We love missed potential, baby!

Kodaka sometimes does this thing where he introduces an interesting concept that plays with the rules of the game... and then doesn't commit to it. Think like the double murder clause in Danganronpa V3 chapter 3, where they mention that if two separate murderers act in the same day then only one of those murders counts. Then they do nothing with this, and instead create a very weak chapter.

This is a similar problem I have with the tail end of chapter 4's mystery labyrinth, which is a really amazing labyrinth that introduces a really amazing concept: taking down a secret mastermind. After reaping the culprit's soul, they have this cool, brand new secret area that... does nothing. No, I'm serious. Nothing happens. All it does is piss Yuma and Vivia off and waste everyone's time. They find out Yomi's involvement in the case, but they still don't do anything with that. Sure it brings a whole new feeling of hopelessness, but doesn't that make Yomi's downfall literally five minutes later through the mundane actions of someone else off screen seem all the more underwhelming? From a gameplay and storytelling standpoint, I think this is just... a cop-out. I think it'd be cool if he was involved enough in Huesca's murder to count as an accomplice, then with Vivia and Shinigami at his side, Yuma reaps Yomi's soul. It's a decent payoff for the NDA and the player while supporting the game's message about the importance of finding the truth. And god does the game need support in that regard, because the Mystery Labyrinth almost never helps and Yuma instead gets saved by someone else (which would've been nice to expand on if we go this route bc there's something interesting about Yuma calling for the labyrinth to kill people for ultimately no reason, but they don't do anything with that and that is a WHOLE other essay lol).

But this is not my main reason that Yomi should've died here. I wouldn't feel so strongly if that was the case. No, my problem lies with a character that isn't Yomi, and what is part of the entire reason Rain Code's plot exists.

Part 4: Is Makoto fucking stupid?

"/lh" by the way. Makoto is my second favorite character in this game behind Yuma, and I adore him. His story, his motivations, his undying will to be a protector of a people that no one else will protect, by any means necessary... he is such an incredible character and antagonist and I genuinely adore him. But I have one eensy weensy, teeny weeny little issue with him:

Why did he need the detectives to oust Yomi?

Makoto claims in the ch 5 labyrinth that the reason the detectives were brought over was to oust Yomi, which leads me to believe the command for the detectives to come to Kanai Ward was his work, not Number One's, then Number One simply caught onto this and took advantage of the situation to sneak in. Though, that's just a guess on my part, mind you. So I suppose he was just desperately hoping at least one of them would take care of Yomi, but isn't that weird?

The detectives don't ever find the evidence of Yomi's money laundering and bribery. Makoto does. The detectives don't ever bring Yomi's corruption to light. Yomi... already does that without their help. Actually, why didn't he secretly team up with the Resistance for that? Too busy ignoring Dohya District's glaring issues, Makoto? Too busy turning a blind eye to your people's suffering?

Uh. Anyway, the only detective that actually does something beneficial for Makoto and kills Huesca is Yakou, who was already in Kanai Ward. And don't tell me that Makoto accounted for Fubuki and Desuhiko's fortes here because that part of the plan was all Yakou's idea. If Makoto could've predicted this, he would've just called the detectives necessary to this plan instead of luring in a bunch of them at once to get slaughtered.

Tons of detectives died coming to Kanai Ward to do... what? Distract Yomi? Could the World's Greatest Mind truly never come up with a better distraction for a guy who didn't even realize his Martina Cube™ order never came in? Yomi isn't shown to be some sort of hypervigilant supergenius nor is he nearly on Makoto's level. Could he truly not have outsmarted Yomi and led him astray long enough to grab a little binder of paper?

So, once again, you may be wondering how Yomi's death would fix this. Well, Yuma, a detective, is the one who kills Yomi.

Makoto is well aware of Yuma using the Book of Death at this point. So what better way to get rid of Yomi than to carefully manipulate the detective who has the Perfect Criminal Murder Tool™? Makoto can't just assassinate Yomi himself- that would make him the main suspect and he'd have to do a lot of PR maintenance to get the rest of Amaterasu Corp off his back. But Yomi mysteriously dying of a heart attack while Makoto isn't anywhere around... well, that's different.

"But wait," you may be thinking, "doesn't Makoto want to keep Yomi alive because he's a Kanai Ward citizen, and he loves Kanai Ward?"

Good point! But doesn't that also apply to Yakou, whom he also had a hand in manipulating into that crazy sui-homocide of Dr. Huesca? Or, what about Fink? Remember him? Makoto killed him for "knowing too much." I know that information is missable, but it's there. And don't tell me it's just because he's a hitman and has killed other Kanai Ward residents, because Yomi has sent many residents to their deaths without trial... not a huge difference. So a body count isn't really on Makoto's "should I kill them" conditions, it seems.

If Fink gets killed for "knowing too much," then Yomi shouldn't be exempt from this, especially when he was leaking homunculus information to the outside world. That goes far beyond "knowing too much." It just doesn't make sense.

But you know what does? Makoto actually using the detectives to wipe his hands clean of Yomi's mess. Yakou is used to take care of Huesca, Yuma is used to take care of Yomi, and Makoto gets to sit back, relax, and watch everything play out just as planned.

And later, in the next chapter, when Yuma learns about Makoto using him like this, he realizes that he's truly been had.

Part 5: How I think it should play out

I'm not being a hater. In fact, I deeply love this game and have a lot of respect for Kodaka and the writing team, so please don't take my little rant as some sort of effort to bash on my favorite video game because that's not what this is. I'm not gonna prop myself up as a better writer than anyone on the team because I'm not, but I'll still try my hand at rewriting this scene to fit my personal taste. So I would like for you to imagine with me, the end of chapter 4...

Yuma and Vivia find the secret area of the labyrinth and find out that Yomi has been masterminding Huesca's murder. Shinigami points out that, hey, that's why the labyrinth is falling so slowly: we haven't finished it off! Vivia stands by Yuma's side, and all of them, driven by their rage and desire to see justice be done, reap the soul of the true mastermind through one final strike of the solution blade. Labyrinth collapses, snap back to reality, oop there goes gravity, oop there goes Yomi, who collapses on the ground.

The peacekeepers are surprised and approach the body. They find that Yomi is dead. They're shocked, and as this is happening, Yuma isn't sure what to feel. Is he glad that he managed to avenge Yakou? Not quite, because Yakou is still gone, the hitman is still out there, and everything still hurts. But a part of him feels... vindicated. Vivia seems to have equally complicated feelings about this. For once, it was... kind of worth it to find the truth, even if a bit messy.

Well now the peacekeepers confirmed Yomi is dead, but now they're accusing the detectives of this. And they're honestly kinda right. Yuma and Vivia realize that they're in kind of deep shit, but the sound of Martina's voice comes from off screen asking what on earth is going on here, making everyone freeze.

Enter her, Makoto, and Seth (I'll say why he's here too in a moment). They're surprised at the sight before them, but Makoto only pretends to be. Then you see it... Martina and Seth go from visibly suprised... to relieved. And there's something oddly triumphant, yet a bit chilling about Makoto and the two people we've witnessed Yomi throw under the bus standing over his corpse. It feels thematic now, as if righteous judgement has come. And... it also solves the "what happened to Seth" question, lol.

Makoto shakes his head and sighs, stepping over the corpse and approaching Yuma and Vivia as he comes up with an excuse: "I always told him that those temper tantrums weren't good for his blood pressure. I guess his heart couldn't take it anymore."

He then nods to the others. Seth instructs the peacekeepers to clean up the body, as they rot quickly in this city. There's this foreboding feeling in the peacekeepers' obedience and efficiency, and Yuma begins to wonder if he did a good thing. Did his actions change the peacekeepers for the better, he asks himself, or did he simply shift the power over to someone worse? Shinigami tells him she doesn't know.

Makoto approaches them with good news: they found and arrested the hitman! Yuma, frightened, does not address that and instead asks him why the other high ranking peacekeepers are here. Makoto says that they... owe him a favor. Martina expresses her gratefulness for him stopping her execution order and asks if they can do anything else, to which Makoto replies telling her no, they're doing an excellent job. After some more conversation, Seth, Martina, and the peacekeepers then leave with Yomi's body to let Makoto talk privately to Yuma and Vivia. Makoto apologizes for their loss of Yakou and offers some faux sympathy. They're both... still conflicted about this conclusion, but Makoto tells them they're free to go, so they'll think about it later. Oh, but before they leave, he gives Yuma a little gift: a suspicious black box. Of course, Yuma can't open it just yet- it's a surprise!

Then the rest could play out pretty much normally (though an encounter with zombie Yomi chapter 5 seems inevitable and also awesome).

I think this alone would solve every issue I addressed before. The peacekeepers do not change out of nowhere. They simply reallocate power and there's still this feeling of them being a threat as they're now directly connected to the game's true antagonist. There's now a theme to Martina's return with Seth's presence as well. There's now a narrative purpose to that final section of the mystery labyrinth with proper payoff. And, most importantly, Makoto's motivations to use the detectives make more sense.

By the way, if any Yomi lovers think that he should stay alive for a potential return in the sequel... isn't it such a blessing that Yakou's DLC introduced this pretty neat little pill that could still make that possible? Just saying.

So yeah. Yuma, for the sake of narrative payoff and character writing consistency, please kill this clown. Thanks for reading <3

[shadow-laviko]

I saw your post and I'm gonna ask you about your favorite scenes in Rain Code (including the Prologue, Epilogue, opening movie and DLCs), you can rate them too.

/spoil

My favorite scene is the scene where Yuma uses his blade to block Makoto's attack (chapter 5). I really like action scenes so I rate it very highly haha

Next is the scene where the Shinigami hugs Yakou (chapter 4). I cried so much that flooded my floor for 2 hours before I felt normal again.

Annnnd scene Makoto moves after Yuma and the Shinigami enter the final mysterious labyrinth. He was quite terrifying to me; he certainly had no knowledge that time would freeze, but he chose his actions based on Yuma and the Shinigami's reactions to avoid suspicion as much as possible.

If it's in Mystery Labyrinth then I like the space scene in chapter 0, after chasing Zilch running out of the tunnel. I really like the big, sparkly ones.

As for the DLC, I like… all of Vivia's DLC, goddamn it, why is this man so cinematic

Before I answer, I want to say that I'm happy to hear what your favourite scenes are! Because I don't think I have seen anyone talk about their favourite Rain code scenes?

The Makoto scene was interesting indeed! I liked it, but not enough to be in my top 5 I think?

The Yakou one... Yeah, I totally get it! Maybe in my top 5, but not for the chapter

Ok, yeah, the second Makoto scene was amazing, I liked it a lot, it might be my favourite scene of chapter 5? I'll have to think more about it (However, I never found him terrifying, just funny and interesting)

Ohh, the running out of the tunnel scene was funny

As for the DLC, I apologise, I have not played nor seen the DLCs 😔

-----

Ok, now, about my opinion... Spoiler, most of them are about Yomi, because of course it would be about him. It's ALWAYS about him in my head...

Ok, so, for chapter 0... Hmmmm. Ok, the tunnel one is very fun, but I also really like the moment Yuma uses the fire extinguisher, because he hurts himself and leaves blood. Just that wouldn’t be interesting, but the fact he leaves blood at that instant, and it turns out to be a very useful information later on (not just for chapter 0, but also for chapter 5 (because we think the blood is pink in this game, but Yuma's red blood was proof something was off about Kanai's inhabitants)) is just so interesting. Like, I don't know how to explain it, it's just nice

The Opening... I am really not normal about that opening. I like EVERY🦆IN THING ABOUT THAT OPENING. And of course I really like the moment we get Yomi's intro, and the moment we get Makoto's intro. I don't have much to add, I like them a lot, their presentation is nice, I like it.

For chapter 1, of course I really like when Yomi and Martina arrive, and when Seth gets hit in the face, because- because I have no explaining for it. Everytime Yomi appears on screen, I basically turn into Fake Zilch, so...

No but, if I had to find an explanation... Well, the way Yomi and Martina arrived on the bike was really cool, and Yomi, being the prince that he is, waiting for Martina to open her umbrella and introduce him was fun. As for the Seth part... I guess I just really like Seth being hurt :')

I love that man, but get him away from me for his own safety :')

Oh, bonus point: Don't know if that counts, but when Shinigami posessed the priest was a funny scene, I really liked it

Chapter 2, of course I really like the submarine explosion/cube scene. Because maaan, we get to see how insane Yomi is, and I think that's when I was sold for his character (is that how you say it?). And, also, I HAVE to add : I think that his "What's... love?" might be my favourite line from him (with probably the sewing machine one), so that makes the scene even better! (Also, can we talk about the angst potential of that sentence???)

Other than Yomi... Hmmm, the end of the mystery labyrinth with the girls crying and explaining their action... Man, I cry everytime. Because, you know, you can't say they were wrong for wanting to avenge their friend, but you can't really justify it either. It's just tragic...

Aaand, I think we could count the drinking scene as well, because you can see Karen hesitating to drink. She probably knew what was going to happen to her but decided to go with it anyway, probably because she felt remorses. This chapter really was a tragedy.

Chapter 3... Do I even have to say it? I'm sure you know it without me having to write it down. Anyway, the Yomi walking/Makoto air balloon scene.

Why? BECAUSE I AM A SIMP AND HAVE YOU SEEN THAT MAN WALKING?? HAVE YOU?? HE WAS SO PRETTY DURING THAT SCENE, AND FOR NO DARN REASON, THAT MAN, I SWEAR-

Ijdhd9sgs8scsu ugh. Ok, I also mentionned Makoto. I liked that scene also because of Makoto unexpected and silly entrance. He could have come and drifted with his car, could have come appearing behind Yomi, out of nowhere. And yet, he decided that a 🦆in balloon would do?? I love that man.

Also, do you guys think he has an army of giant hot air balloon at the ready somewhere?? (Was it ever mentionned somewhere?)

Onto chapter 4: Ok, for this one, there are three (more?) that I really like.

I really liked when Yomi "arrested" Makoto

When Makoto had that file (or whatever it was) it gently knocked himself in the head with it, like "Hehe", I have no explanation for it, I just really liked it (am I the only one who thought that was a bit hot of him? Like, sir- sir, what are you- I really like you, funny man)

When Yomi whipped Vivia (I like Vivia, but hot dang, that was... Hm 👀👀)

When Yomi (how do you say that in proper English? I forgot) got the guns out. Like, that pose was soooo fine. Sir, please consider becoming a model, or even- (I swear, if that man was real (he'd probably get arrested right away and would be an awful human being. That aside...) I would support him on only fan... Although, Yomi being Yomi, I don't feel like he would have one). But also, sir, you can't aim with two guns... I mean, I doubt you would care anyway, but come on, that was silly

Ok, anyway...

Oh yeah, that short (was it?) when we could see him flee, that was so so funny to me

And lastly, as you mentionned, the scene where Yakou got his soul reaped... Man... I cried again. And I think I will cry everytime I'll watch it. It's just too heartbraking...

Chapter 5: Hmm... Hmmmmmmm.

🦆,that's a hard one (also, wtf, when you put only an emoji on the paragraph, it makes it big?? Big duckies??? Yay)

Hmmm, I really liked everything in chapter 5 (although I have a fear of zombies (the first time I saw them, I was like "Noooo, why did you put zombies in your amazing game? Now I'm scared ;-;" and when I played the game, I decided to play chapter 5 IN THE DARK. Let me tell you I did not move a single muscle until I was in the labyrinth 🫠)), but I can hardly find a scene I liked more than the others.

Hmm, maybe the doctor Huesca video? But I'm not sure that counts... Hmmmmmm

Oh wait, yeah, no, I liked when Makoto asked Yuma to lend him a hand, and, as you said, when Makoto moved after Yuma and Shinigami entered the labyrinth. I was like "YOOOOO", that was crazy

And the sword fight you talked about was also a nice scene! Hmm

Oh and, if that counts, everytime Makoto changed masks, especially when he switched to his very special mask (the one with the giant smile and long tongue). Because I reaaaally like masks, and he has so many, with so many significations... I liked it (speaking of the significations of his masks, has anyone made a post dedicated to it? If yes, cand you please share the link? I really want to see it if it exists)

Epilogue: Hmmm there's not much I have to say... I guess I liked when the four detectives thanked chief Yakou (Halara giving him their precious coin 🥺), when Vivia got out of his suitcase, because it was funny... And... I think the train scene with Kurumi was nice, and of course the one where we see Yuma in that desert city... That was interesting, I hope we'll get to have more Master Detective Archives in the future!

Overall favourite: Is it obvious? I don't know if it's obvious, it is in my mind. I really duckin love that chapter 3 scene waaaaaay too much. I could look at it for hours on end, I swear

Since I didn't play nor watch the DLCs, I think that's all? Hope that answered your question! And thanks a lot for telling me your favourite scenes and asking for mine!

I might reblog this and update it with the DLCs once I watch/play them 🤔

[tobiasdrake]

We're back in the lab. But this time, we have breathing room to look around.

Not sure how much there is to notice that we didn't before, but let's begin with Huesca's corpse.

Fink wanted to be thorough. He took Huesca from behind and stabbed him, then yanked the knife out and stabbed him again, then again for good measure.

This feels more emotional than professional. Fink's a legendary hitman. I'd expect a cleaner kill than this from a pro. He had total control, right? Huesca was trapped in a room with him, seemed to have no means by which to fight back, and was begging us on the monitor to come save him.

So. Like. Fink had complete autonomy to conduct this kill however he liked. Full control of the situation. He could, I don't know, slit Huesca's throat and walk away. He went for gratuitous repeated stabbings, drawing it out and making it hurt.

That tells me that either the client specified that they wanted Huesca to suffer or this was personal for Fink.

Wish we could turn him over and see what the front of the body looks like.

It also has an F engraved on it. Fink carries his own custom signature knives and I guess he leaves them at the scene every time he takes a life. He left one with Yakou too.

Oh, by all means. Please turn him over. I want to see if there are even more stab wounds on his front. That's a ton of blood pooling under his chest, after all, so it's possible Fink stabbed him even more times than what we can see here.

CHOKE ON YOUR TONGUE. I hope Yomi has you crushed into a cube. Fuckers obstructing my investigation.

"Hey, why don't we pilfer the crime scene and sell stuff on eBay?"

"HOW DARE YOU. I refuse to go along with that! Unless I get a cut of the profits. 50/50 bay-bee!"

Ladies, gentlemen, and everything inbetween: I present to you Kanai Ward's finest boys in blue.

Not much new evidence to be found at the doc's corpse. Which is unsurprising. Until we can see the front, the facts on display were plain at a glance.

Oh, look at that. Fink left a bootprint on Ama-Pal's head when he knocked it over. Gonna go out on a limb and say he probably jumped on its head.

Ama-Pal's built pretty sturdy. The ads over-hype it and say that it can withstand being stepped on by an elephant (!!!) but that's a marketing lie. Its load capacity is 100 kg of force. That's 220 lbs if you're using dirty American conversion units, or 338.5 Furbies.

Knocking Ama-Pal over implies that Fink managed to hit Ama-Pal with 338.5 Furbies of force. It's also interesting for another reason.

An elephant weighs upwards of 9,000 to 20,000 Furbies. If I'd just seen the ads saying "Ama-Pal can handle being stepped on by an elephant, NO PROBLEM!" I would not be confident in my ability to punt the thing. The only people who knew Ama-Pal could be knocked over like this are Amaterasu insiders.

Then again, given the placement of that bootprint, we don't know that Fink knew that. It's possible that he was trying to Mario Hop across Ama-Pal and into the Panel Room to conduct his disappearance. That he wound up knocking Ama-Pal over may have been a mistake.

Yet another vent, this time along the ceiling. But these vents, like the ones in the panel room, are inaccessible. Fink did not enter (loudly, boomingly) through the ducts.

That's what everyone else has been telling us too. Lot of people would want to stab him many, many times to draw it out and make it hurt.

Wait, the big project he was so mad about, which may or may not be related to homunculus research, was three years ago? That coincides with Makoto's arrival to Amaterasu and Kanai Ward, when Makoto wowed everyone with his big project and got fast-tracked to CEO in spite of Yomi being groomed for the position.

Also coincides with the arrival of the Forever Rain, which I suspect was Makoto's project. Makoto said there's rumors that Huesca was conspiring against him. Can't imagine why the old bastard might have held a grudge.

Oh shit, that's why he threw a fuss at Makoto about, "I'M NOT GONNA TALK TO SOME SHITSTAIN IN A MASK!" He can't interpret what you're saying if your mouth is concealed.

That seems super obvious in hindsight. I can't believer I missed that. I wrote it off as him just being an asshole, 'cause of how much of an asshole he is. That was terribly ableist of me.

This also has implications about when he suddenly reacted to his killer's presence. Fink could have been making all kinds of noise in this room and Huesca wouldn't have noticed. His attention was on us. He wouldn't realize there was someone in the room with him until Fink entered his peripheral vision.

Makes me wonder how the intercom buzzer works, though. Huesca can't stand the buzzer. Makoto demonstrated that after he hung up. By jamming the intercom buzzer over and over and over again, he was able to force Huesca to come back to the call.

I wonder what that looks like from this end. Does it have a flashing light or something attached to it?

That's not what Makoto thought he was planning. So Peacekeeper rumors say he wanted to run while Makoto thinks he was conspiring against him. Sounds like he was up to something but nobody's too sure of what.

After Bestie tried to honey-trap him with hilarious results, he said he wanted to step out for a supply run. He trusted us to keep him safe, but not Yomi's Peacekeepers. If he was conspiring to flee Kanai Ward, it makes sense why he wouldn't feel comfortable around those thugs.

Not sure how that's going to be relevant to our case, but we'll keep it in mind. The most unassuming of clues are often the most important.

Including a sketch of what appears to be sulfuric acid being chucked all over some poor schmuck. Well, we know the doc was bloodthirsty from how eager he was to see his trap chambers kill someone.

That was his big plan for escape. He was going to stroll out the door while carrying a big jug of sulfuric acid. Anyone who tried to stop him would get an acid to the face surprise!

When you're too much of a bastard for pocket sand, there is always pocket acid.

So, in theory, he did have a means of self-defense in here. It's unconventional but it would be possible. Of course, trying to uncork a bottle of sulfuric acid, presently in a fridge, while an assassin's stabbing you to death would be supremely difficult.

Man, it would suck if the Forever Rain turned into sulfuric acid. Don't know what made me think of that just now, but wow. Can you imagine how awful that would be?

For real, though, who did he want to acid-ball? Makoto? Slap him in the face with some pocket acid on the way out the door? Hm. This feels super important but I don't know what to do with it.

Curses! A screensaver! MY ONLY WEAKNESS!

For real, though. As someone who works in the financial industry? This is why banks make a huge fucking deal about manually locking your workstation whenever you leave it. One of my unofficial responsibilities when I used to work for a major financial lender was to use a handy-dandy desktop keyboard-shortcut I knew to flip people's screens upside-down if they didn't lock their workstation. Then they'd have to come to me and my boss to get it flipped back, and get grilled on why they didn't lock their workstation.

It's because of this. Exactly this. To keep confidential data secure from passing-by optic grazing. You don't even need to suspiciously sit down at someone's workstation if they left their screen up with confidential data on it.

There are hiding spots, but they're places that would only conceal you from certain angles. That said, Doc was deaf so there's some leeway on offer there.

But honestly, there isn't much reason to hide. It's an enclosed chamber. Just you, your victim, and the knife in your hand. No reason Fink wouldn't come right out and start stabbing as soon as he entered the room.

Why put off until twenty minutes from now what you can stab right now? Not like giving it some time will change the circumstances any, right?

...well, I was hoping those two chuckleheads would move the body by the time I finished the investigation but it looks like that's not happening. Really want to know if there are more stab wounds. I suppose it doesn't matter if there are; It would only corroborate what I already suspect. But I want that corroboration!

Next time I see Yomi, I'm filing a formal complaint.

[seth-burroughs]

Soldier anon back from the trenches and. Um. I was going to do a really deep dive into this but then I was sick + took psychic damage from the wiki so this is as far as I got 🙏🙏🙏

Hate crimes (Against detectives?)

Ethnic persecution (Of detectives?)

Mass murder (Chapter 0 detectives)

Attempted genocide (Against detectives?)

Abuse (Whatever he has going on with Electro)

Abuse of power, Slander, Corruption, Police Brutality (The Game)

Extortion (The church?)

Propaganda (Runs a dictatorship)

Bribery (Chapter 1, from the church)

Money laundering (?)

Sabotage (Submarine go boom)

Wrongful executions (Cube)

Torture (Cube)

Psychological abuse (Whatever he had going on with Electro)

Blackmail (Yakou wife, maybe?)

Child abuse (Treament of Kurumi when she's suspected of murder?)

Animal Cruelty (I guess he goes run a dictatorship? Peacekeepers have probably crueled animals under his name)

Coercion

Physical and psychological abuse (Whatever he has going on with Electro)

Defilement (???)

Incrimination (????)

Sexual harassment (Whatever he has going on with Electro)

Arson (The submarine?)

Murder (Chapter 0)

Psychological manipulation (Whatever he has going on with Electro)

Attempted murder

Unlawful imprisonment (He runs a dictatorship send tweet)

Stalking (The cameras he has? I guess?)

Assault (Clobbering Yakou with his Gucci doc martens)

Treason (Blows up property)

Terrorism (Blows up property, runs a dictatorship)

Slavery (??????)

Thank you for your bravery soldier anon here is me trying to make sense of these

Once again I can't believe detectivephobia is a canon form of bigotry in the Master Detective Archives: Rain Code universe but that's on me for being ignorant. I'm sorry detectives

I think the "attempted genocide" part refers to the earlier crackpot theory of Yomi actually wanting to nuke Kanai Ward all along and build cube factories over it's ashes, but could also refer to the killings of the detective nation.... if you think about it Yakou was at the moment literally the last of his kind at Kanai Ward before he got got with the gas which is so fucked up omg I can't believe Yomi would do this #yomiisoverparty #tw yomi hellsmile mention

Okay so this may get me burned on the stake like the witch I am, buuuuut I don't think his, uhh... *gestures* with the woman named Martina Electro also known as Swallow Electro, can really be considered 100% abuse. We only got a single scene of them together alone, in which he does kick her but she very visibly has zero problem with it I cannot overstate how much she did not give a fuck. I believe if we take into account him literally was sitting on her right beforehand, I'm pretty sure they were still doing their disgusting little kinky five shade roleplay up until he Got Weird With It (The Cube). Like I don't deny their wretched situationship was best comparable to a disastrous trainwreck that left 87654 injured and 2 survivors, but I swear some people are acting as if Martina was some helpless battered housewife that got waterboarded by Yomi every day and not the 3rd most powerful person in Kanai Ward after Yaoi and The Mask (by Dream). Like, strictly canonwise, their relationship was way more harmful to literally everybody else unfortunate enough to be in their vicinity, than any of them. Like was that comprehensible? Idk man I'm barely alive rn I ate a lot of khachapuri today

Extortion was Seth's and Seth's proud achievement only >:(((((( Why are you discrediting him..... In the end Yomi always ends up taking everything from him...... no joke Seth and detective are two of the most opressed species in Kanai Ward still

I think money laundering refers to him being stated (by Makoto) to..... wait no wait but wasn't that like, he got promotions by the, by bribing people around the world with the money- no but didn't he obtain the money like illegally no was that or that stated can't remember fuck I cannot think for shit rn aouuuughhh christ. I can relay most of what was going on from my canon/source/whatever the fuck yall call it, but concerning the game canon??? chapter 5 mystery labirynths like a not real to me anymore its been long before man. um anyway ignore this i fel like i havent said anything even

Treatment of Kurumi was actually, as far as I checked, 100% on Martina <3 Seth and women get discredited of their achievements so often omg

animal cruelty I have NO idea. but maybe this could refer to the scrapped lost media 6th DLC where Yomi launched 27 puppies with a catapult directly at Yakou's submarine. And the defilement section could refer to how I felt reading the

As far as I'm aware the sub was never really set on fire, so I believe the "arson" part might actually refer to when I bounced with m. No you know what nvm this is not worth it moving on

stalking I have no idea I guess the detectives felt very stalked it's so hard being a detective in modern kanai ward the people are so intolerant

The slavery bit......... Somebody else do that for me I cannot do this anymre my final message I'm going to the kitchen

[kaiwuzherenz]

I finally found Kanai's cube!!! AHAAH TAKE THAT I FOUND IT HEH :D

[martinas-hat]

Thank you so much for this!! I'm still in the process of processing the game (and so haven't become as accustomed to it as to be able to properly explore and built on it), and so having a lot of it laid out like this is very appreciated! This is super good!

(rambles similarly containing spoilers under cut)

I actually noticed that Yomi doesn't appear to check if the peacekeepers carried out the execution, because I was keeping my ears pricked for confirmations that Martina had been cubed, through some mention of him having... her on him. If the execution went through, he would have to know. I assumed his lack of concern over it was because he cared about her that little, but perhaps the trouble posed by the detectives drawing his mind away also had something to do with it.

One of my main things with Martina is that I love her evil, peacekeeper self all well and good, but I wasn't quite sure what could be done with her after that, once she's redeemed. I knew she had to atone for what she did as a peacekeeper, but thank you for reminding me that her relationship with Yomi was abusive and that is something she would have to process too.

Because yeah... when he kicks her to the floor at the end of chapter 2, she does not react at all, implying it's nothing new... and god only knows what 'toying around' with her to get out his frustration that Seth betrayed her means. But keep in mind that this is the guy who didn't hesitate to order to put a 66kg person in a press meant to crush a maximum of 50kg of material...

And the narrative of her pulling herself together to not only look her abuser in the eye again, but be better than him, is so good!!

I DID NOT NOTICE THE CHUBBY PEACEKEEPER WAS THERE IN THE SCENE WHERE SHE RETURNS ALIVE!! Great spot, didn't consider the stuff about how Makoto found out / how long exactly had passed. Good stuff!

Also yep. 100% agree that Martina would have been very traumatised right after being saved from the press. Her profile elaborates that she was saved moments before her execution (though whether this means moments before she was put into the press, or moments before the press started to function/actually crush her is ambiguous).

At first when playing through her 'revealed to be alive' scene, part of me wondered if her complete heel-turn was a little too sudden, but then I remembered... she's just been betrayed by someone she loved and thought loved her in turn, and then came very close to dying. That is definitely enough for someone to start reconsidering their whole life choices. And I didn't consider how Makoto would be comforting to her!! He loves the people of Kanai ward, after all.

"Makoto didn’t just want to stop Yomi’s reign in Kanai Ward, he wanted to give Martina a chance to bolster her coincidence and get closure from her abuser." 🥲❤️❤️❤️

"Martina decided the best way to make amends for her prior actions is to personally help Kanai Ward and the people recover." AUGH good stuff as well!!

Now, for some questions that can't be found in the text (I think), but I think would be interesting to explore:

When did Martina come to love Yomi? And how did she rationalise it against the abuse?

Is there anything in her backstory that would predispose her to getting entangled in such a horrible relationship? (Is there any info on her backstory at all?) (But the way she fixates on Yomi's love so much gives me the vibes of someone who was at least somewhat neglected growing up.)

Why did Yomi superficially reciprocate Martina's love when he didn't actually love her? Especially because he cares little for his underlings, only seeing them as 'tools' according to his profile?

Someone says something about her loving Yomi for 'budgetary reasons' or something according to a Kodaka tweet? So this bulletpoint is a note to self to check those out too, scrounge for any dropped crumbs

I'll probably get more of these as I go, and develop more answers to them as I think about her more, but that's all I got for now.

Fuck Yomi Hellsmile!!! rambling over

Having some Martina thoughts. Spoilers for the whole game below.

So, chapter 4 reveals that Martina was still alive, The execution that was supposed to kill her was stopped by Makoto and Martina no longer loves Yomi. But a lot must have happened in the background before this point, mainly when Makoto stopped the execution and what happened immediately after.

For starters, Yomi is very surprised to see that Martina is still alive, this gives me the impression that Yomi assumed his execution order was already carried out and Martina should be dead.

Why didn't he double check with any of his peacekeepers to confirm that the deed was done beforehand? Perhaps he was too distracted dealing with the master detectives in chapter 3-4, or maybe Yomi cared so little for Martina that he didn't feel a need to check if she did die. If you toss trash into a garbage bin, do you really need to see if it's actually in there? That was likely his mindset.

Yomi issued the order the night after the Aetheria Academy case. The next morning all of chapter 3 occurs than the day after that is chapter 4. So about two days have passed since he issued the order, and he was surprised to see Martina alive the night of the second day. So, Yomi expected her to be crushed in that presser machine as soon as possible.

With that in mind, when did Makoto stop the execution? Was it before meeting Yuma in Kanai Tower or after Yuma leaves Kanai Tower?

The amount of time that passed between the submarine exploding and Yuma waking up in Kanai Tower is unknown but since chapter 3 starts on the morning of the first day than we can assume a few hours have passed. During that time, a peacekeeper under Makoto's jurisdiction found Yuma floating along the riverbank, probably not too long after the explosion. He radioed the CEO about this found detective and Makoto ordered them to bring Yuma to Kanai Tower.

Makoto said Yuma was in "tatters" when found by the riverbank, so maybe Makoto stayed up those few hours taking care of Yuma so he would not die. Then, when Yuma is fully healed, Makoto waited until he woke up and walked outside the bedroom so the two can chat.

In other words, Makoto was preoccupied that whole night so he did not have any time to stop Martina's execution, that means he did it after Yuma left Kanai Tower.

But wait, how did Makoto know about Martina’s execution just in time to stop it? I don’t think Makoto has any secret cameras in Yomi’s office that recorded the conversation and Makoto stumbling upon this execution himself is unlikely. The only way is a peacekeeper that knew about the execution personally telling him about it. But what peacekeeper would notify Makoto? The peacekeepers respect both Yomi and Martina but since Yomi outranks Martina, they have no issue sending their second-in-command to death. Whoever this single peacekeeper is, they have to be more loyal to Martina than Yomi and have a personal liking to her that motivated them to report to a power above Yomi.

And I think I know who that guy is.

That’s right. The chubby peacekeeper who was very excited about getting punished by Martina was the one who told Makoto about her execution. News of Martina’s execution would spread among the peacekeepers and the Chubby Peacekeeper would likely hear of it at some point. Since he admires Martina so much, he didn’t want her to be killed, regardless of Yomi issuing the order, so he told someone higher up than Yomi that could stop it. A short time later after Yuma leaves Kanai Tower, Makoto hears about the execution from the Chubby Peacekeeper and swiftly heads over to the presser room and puts a stop to the process, saving Martina.

Supporting this, the Chubby Peacekeeper is there accompanying Makoto in the lab. Among the Peacekeepers that are loyal to Martina, him being there can’t just be a coincidence.

Maybe becuase he helped in saving Martina's life, she wanted him to be there when she confronted Yomi.

Now the last question. What happened immediately after Makoto stopped the execution order? Very simply, Makoto had a conversation with Martina, obviously in a different room away from the presser. Martina was no doubt traumatized and utterly terrified to almost be killed in an inhumanely cruel way and it be by someone she thought she loved. Makoto being a homunculus of the "world's greatest mind," therapy skills could be among his repertoire. Whatever they talked about together had major changes in Martina's behavior and relationship with Yomi.

Firstly, Martina has recognized that all the unlawful and brutal actions she committed as vice president of the peacekeepers were wrong. She feels guilty doing them and wants to resign from her position as atonement.

This is a decision she made herself. Makoto didn't suggest this and was ok with Martina still being vice president.

In addition, Martina is heard helping in the clean-up and reconstruction of Marunomon District after the flooding incident. Martina decided the best way to make amends for her prior actions is to personally help Kanai Ward and the people recover. Even in places that she wasn't involved in.

Secondly, Martina no longer loves Yomi. Makoto helped her come to terms that Yomi was abusive to her and he never truly loved her. Martina will probably still have lasting trauma from Yomi that can't be quickly undone after one therapy session, but Makoto did give Martina enough strength to face her abuser in the critical lab and shut him down.

Makoto realistically didn't need Martina here to get Yomi arrested. The file was enough, but Martina being here regardless speaks volumes. Two days ago, Martina was at her absolute lowest, completely alone and scared and knocking on death's door. And now she is face to face with her personal demon and confidently told him off and arrested him. Such a feat would not be possible without Makoto's support and being surrounded by people who actually care for her. She didn't even flinch when Yomi screamed at her.

Makoto didn't just want to stop Yomi's reign in Kanai Ward, he wanted to give Martina a chance to bolster her coincidence and get closure from her abuser.

Lastly, Martina wanted to show that she has grown from being Yomi's "right hand." She was able to arrest her abuser which is a powerful moment for sure, but that wasn't enough for Martina, she wanted to prove that she isn't just over him, she became better than him.

In the past chapters, the peacekeepers had an authoritarian rule over the citizens. They could arrest anyone over a crime when convenient and strike fear into the citizens to keep them from rebelling. A common phrase from the peacekeepers when arresting a person is:

Even Martina says this same line, and with an extra bit about begging for mercy to the corporation.

This type iron fist ruling is no doubt becuase of Yomi. He wants Kanai Ward to bow to him. He doesn't want any inconvenient truths get in the way of growing in power. He is willing to shoot people who so much as disagree with him publicly. He trains the entire peacekeeper branch to uphold this fear mongering dominance.

Martina had this similar mindset as Yomi, but once she talked to Makoto she wanted to remove this mindset from her person. That's why when Yomi is being arrested, Martina says this:

It's quite amazing that Martina is willing to treat Yomi far kinder and fairer than he did with her. This was a decision she made herself, I don't think Makoto required Martina to only arrest Yomi in a fair way. I believe Makoto would have approved of Martina shooting Yomi dead right then and there if she wanted. Remember, Makoto killed Fink the Slaughter Artist for "knowing too much" even though I doubt what he knew had anything to do with Homunculi. Makoto isn't above silencing people quickly. But Martina wanted to prove both Yomi and herself than she has become a better person than him. She has become her own person without any influence from her abuser.

In conclusion, I am so amazed and happy that Martina was given the chance to not only live but to heal from her abuser. Makoto coming in to save Martina wasn't done to help him take down Yomi, it was a selfless act to save a women who needed help and Makoto provided that help. All so Martina can have a future where she is happy and healthy.

Also fuck Yomi Hellsmile.

[dumbfinntales]

For the past month (almost) or so I've been on a real Diablo binge. I just randomly decided to get a cheap copy of Diablo 3 just to try it out and I actually quite liked it. It's flawed for sure, especially as an RPG, but it was fun to play. Right after I decided to give Diablo 4 a new chance and ended up beating the game, doing a ton of end game activity and even got to level 100.

Diablo is such an interesting franchise. If we got back to 2012 or so, I wouldn't even have dreamed of playing a Diablo game. Anything that was even remotely top down, or "diablo-like" was an instant turn off. I didn't have an interest for those types of games. So it's funny to think that now I've played all the Diablo games (not the first one though) and quite enjoyed them. So maybe I'll talk a little about both of the games I played in the past month.

First off: Diablo 3. A game I never believed I would play, let alone enjoy. But tastes can change over time, I suppose. I didn't mind D3's cartoony Warcraft like graphics at all, I thought they were fine. I do prefer the realistic grittier art style though of 2 and 4. Gameplay, sound effects and the feel of the combat were on point. I honestly didn't pay much attention to the story, it wasn't very interesting. I thought it was funny how comically evil all the antagonists were, and I'd delete them in a few seconds. Sometimes I got a little too powerful and had to up the difficulty.

I liked the legendary items and sets, especially those that modified your skills to behave in a new way. Although sets have the most power in this game. A full set is 100% of the time more powerful than anything else, because those benefits are crazy. But thanks to the cube of Kanai you can have some legendary effects on, even with a full set on. It's really powerful tbh.

Diablo 3 is very accessible and simplified. Your build can be anything at any time, so there's really no need to make multiple characters. If you make a barbarian, you can play every barbarian build on that one character. You'd only make a new one for a season or the like. There's no real skill point allocation either (except the paragon points after max level), you just unlock skills and runes as you level up. It doesn't feel very RPG-ish at all. Like some people have said, it feels like an action game masquerading as an RPG.

Diablo 3's best part is the end game and adventure mode. It's ridiculous how fast you can reach max level, making the leveling process almost an afterthought. But it certainly makes making new characters a breeze, I played as three classes: the necromancer, barbarian and crusader. They were all fun in their own ways. The adventure mode was a blessing as well, no need to replay the story. Just get straight to bounties and rifts, I loved that.

Then time for: Diablo 4. Diablo 4 was interesting. It has a lot of good, but also some really annoying quirks. I loved the change of themes back to the gritty, dark and edgy world of Diablo 2. The open world was gorgeous and dripping with atmosphere, and there was a lot to find. Even more than previously when I played. The combat once again felt on point. That's the thing about both Diablo 3 and 4. They just feel really good and fun to play. Everything has an oomph to it and killing hordes of demons is so much fun.

The story this time around was a lot more interesting. I was honestly really invested in the journey and I enjoyed all the characters I met on my way. Lilith was a really cool villain that sometimes made me think "is she really the villain here?". She did seem to want what was best for Sanctuary. Not counting her murderous followers, I guess. The villains also felt less cartoony and more "real" with realistic goals. I loved Elias' last words to Lorath mocking him and calling him a coward. Then getting graphically his throat cut, with the gurgles and all. What a way to go, the tree always collects.

Legendary items were less interesting in this game, because first of all they drop like candy, and they're just regular items with a "legendary aspect". They do interesting things, but kinda lose their charm for not having their own unique models. The unique items do fit this role though, and they're neat and pretty rare. Not too rare, but rare enough. Not counting the mythic uniques... Those are beyond rare and I didn't see a single one in my time of playing.

End game once again is pretty fun. I didn't care for the tree of whispers, but helltides, the council and the pits were pretty fun to grind. The council is a seasonal mechanic so it won't stay once the season changes, but still. I do enjoy the seasons in these games. A new start with some new mechanics, and loot possibly. The combat also helps to make these mechanics feel really fun, but there's always a limit. Once I got to level 100 I didn't really feel like grinding anymore to "perfect" my build so I can take on tormented bosses. Maybe some day.

I'm really glad that I essentially got Diablo 4 for free. I'm still annoyed by the battle pass system and the cash shop straight out of free to play mobile games. Some of the unique armors they offer there look really cool, and makes me question why isn't the in game stuff this cool? I mean there is some cool stuff in game, but the coolest of the cool are paid cosmetics. It's not as egregious as Path of Exile, but still annoying enough.

Diablo 4 is also full of annoying grindy fluff like the Lilith statues and maxing out your renown. You only have to do it once, but it's still annoying and imagine if you decide to change platform? You gotta do the grind all over again. It felt like a genuine chore to get those out of the way until I got to the end game activities. I can't even imagine doing all the sidequests and mini-dungeons. I didn't even bother, I'm not that much of a completionist. The side quests were mostly meh, some had more meat to them, but there was a lot of pointless ones. Find a box in the open world? Return it to some random NPC and you're done. Not to mention "go here and kill these guys" quests.

So that's really all I'm gonna write about these games. They're flawed, but they feel damn satisfying to play. I love slaying hordes of demons, it's mindless fun. I guess this can count as my "review", eh let's go with that. Holy wall of text, Batman.

[gorgin-gals-muses]

Shinigami walking around Kanai Ward, not a care in the world, strolling onto the crosswalk... when!

"OW! Hey- what?" She turns around to the car. The car that just ran into her. The car that bounced off the side of her hip like it hit a giant cube of jello.

"Hey, watch it! You're lucky I didn't get boom-killed!" She angrily walked off, still wobbling from the aftershock but completely unharmed.

[is1of1]

For some reason, Whispers in D4 are far less annoying than Bounties were in D3, even though they are essentially the same thing.

Farming bounties, especially solo, always felt like such a fuckin' chore but doing whispers for gold and mini-uber boss mats is like the kind of grinding I signed up for with D4.

Perhaps its because I have the freedom to choose which Whispers to complete, instead of having to do ALL 5 ACTS just to use Kanai's Cube in D3 for the stupid act-specific mats and items (Im looking at YOU Ring of Royal Grandeur)

Plus I'm still rolling a Blizzard/Ice Spike Sorcerer and I just love covering my entire screen with frosty ice spikes that murder everything.

Eternal Sorc screen shot for fun. He ugly but he wins

[chimerabytes]

got woken up from sleep so im playing more diablo 3 instead of going back to bed

i forgot how much damage my main wizard does. my only attacking skills are magic missile and hydra. the rest are all supportive or defensive buffs 💀

my skill list is:

x button: hydra - frost hydra

r2 button: magic missile - glacial spike

square button: energy armor - energy tap

triangle button: familiar - sparkflint

o button: teleport - wormhole

r1 button: magic weapon - force weapon

passives:

blur

glass cannon

cold-blooded

arcane dynamo

im considering removing energy armor and arcane dynamo, because i have molten wildebeest's gizzard as one of my legendary gems which gives me a shield and i find that i dont take a lot of damage anyway, but id rather be on the safe side.

as for arcane dynamo im firing off magic missile 90% of the time, hydra is just for when i teleport into a huge mob of enemies. i dont really need arcane dynamo but i dont really have any better skills!

as for my cubed gear and equipped items:

kanai's cube has fragment of destiny, shame of delsere, and convention of elements

the only notable items of my equipped legendaries is mirrorball. mirrorball makes magic missile fire 2 extra missiles and deal 402% increased damage. i also have depth diggers which makes primary skills deal 89% more damage. and, i have squirt's necklace, which makes me deal 100% increased damage if im not taking damage, and if i do take damage i take 50% more.

i just kill things too quickly to take damage, lol.

[holyknight3000]

The Cube is here…

http://fav.me/980071302

In it's final form...

🔥 🟧 🔥

[venkidu]

Amy Terasu's AmaArcade!

Summary: Yomi Hellsmile needs to find a way to rid Kanai Ward of the scourge known as the Nocturnal Detective Agency. He also needs to find a way to punish his idiot underlings for failing him so many times. The opportunity to kill two birds with one stone comes in the form of a closed-down arcade.

Rated T for language, humor and alcohol consumption

Cross-posted on Ao3

*EXTREMELY CANON-DIVERGENT FROM THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER FOUR* *Slight spoilers for every chapter through chapter 4*

Chapter 1: Wednesday, March 22: Yomi Hellsmile Had An Idea

Yomi Hellsmile has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month.

First, his brilliant plan to prevent the World Detective Organization from investigating Kanai Ward had failed. Sure, most of the detectives that had attempted to enter the city died, and those that did survive the multiple massacres seemed to be a few meat buns short of a baker’s dozen. But somehow, they were still constantly getting in his way and one-upping him at every opportunity.

Then, Makoto Kagutsuchi had randomly started showing up again after spending months locked away in his apartment.

Yomi hated everything about Makoto, from his weird, creepy mask and ugly purple suit to his annoying voice that always reeked of false cheerfulness.

And he was always doing things for Yomi too - holding doors open for him, having his usual coffee order waiting on his desk for him every morning (a venti salted caramel mocha frappucino with four pumps of caramel sauce, four pumps of caramel syrup, three pumps of toffee nut syrup, double blended with extra whipped cream), and once, he even had the nerve to ask what Yomi and Martina had planned for their anniversary!

Yomi felt as though Makoto thought he was an incompetent buffoon. Sure, some of the doors at Amaterasu Headquarters were heavy or looked like they were “pull” doors rather than “push” doors, and he once accidentally stumbled over his coffee order at Ama-Espresso and asked for “noffee tut syrup”, and he actually had totally forgotten about his anniversary, but was able to secure a reservation at the nicest restaurant in the city through a combination of clever negotiation skills and also running over the couple who had taken the reservation time he wanted with his car.

But Yomi Hellsmile was NOT incompetent.

He sighed. He missed Martina. He didn’t regret getting her compressed into a meat cube, but he did regret not paying for express shipping.

His lack of Meat-tina, however, reminded him of yet another source of annoyance in his life.

His underlings.

Every single one of them had disappointed him - Swank, Seth, Guillaume, Dominic, Zilch, even his precious Right Hand, Martina.

He can’t crush them all into meat cubes, he reasoned. Sure, they ultimately failed him, but they were still all leagues above the basic Peacekeeper grunts. Hell, even that sentient mountain that followed Guillaume around had more common sense than those gas-mask-wearing dolts.

But they still had to be punished.

Yomi still needed to wipe the Nocturnal Detective Agency off the map as well. Doing so literally with a torpedo didn’t work, so maybe he needed to work figuratively.

And while his attempt at using Yakou’s love for his wife came close to driving him to murder, that plan fell short too.

Yomi stomped over to the window to watch a group walking away from his vantage point. The moment the so-called Nocturnal Detective Agency reached the gate of Amaterasu Corporation’s headquarters, they all began to embrace one another. Yakou ruffled the small purple one’s hair. The ditzy girl with the blue hair was skipping in circles around the detective with the bright pink glasses, while the short, yellow-clad detective hopped alongside her. Even the anemic vampire-looking one seemed to have a little extra pep in his step.

Disgusting.

He was suddenly jolted from his thoughts by a knock on the doorframe.

“Director Yomi?”

“What is it?! What do you want?!”

One of the many nameless, faceless Peacekeepers stood in the doorway to his office, trembling.

“Well, sir, I just wanted to stop by and put in a time-off request. You see, sir, my son is graduating kindergarten on Friday, and I was really hoping I could-”

“Yeah, sure, fine, whatever,” the redhead snapped.

“Really, sir? You mean it?” the Peacekeeper gasped. He rushed into the room, vigorously shaking Yomi’s hand. “Oh, thank you, thank you so much! This means the world to me! Family is the most important thing, and I-”

A dull roar started to build in Yomi’s ears.

Family.

Disgusting.

Yomi hated his family. His push-over mother. His bossy old sister. He hated his father most of all, though.

His father represented the worst of his humanity in his eyes; lying, stealing, cheating, violence, hypocrisy.

In his younger years, Yomi often found himself working multiple retail jobs just to keep his family’s power on. The menial tasks, the stupid complaints about things he had zero control over, the low wages, all of the bullshit that accompanied his time in customer service almost pushed him into madness

And his family wasn’t even grateful.

Suddenly, the roaring stopped.

Cogs were turning instead.

He had just figured out how to hit Yakou Furio where it hurt the most, while punishing his captains. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

Or, in this case, ten birds with one stone.

“Get out,” Yomi snarled.

“Sir?”

“LEAVE. Enjoy your son’s cremation.”

“Graduation, sir. And once again, thank-”

“OUT!”

The Peacekeeper scampered towards the exit, almost getting his fingers smashed as the heavy metal door slammed shut behind him.

Yomi stomped back to his desk and kicked his computer’s power button.

He opened a program titled “Ama-Doc” and selected a font titled “Comic Sans”.

And he began to type.

[aroelsecaller]

Someone should tell Matt Mercer that there is no cow level

[tobiasdrake]

Well, that was tense. And if I have my way, it will continue to be. Yuma, did you grab the knife like I asked?

Oh, who am I kidding. He didn't.

Seemed like he hates your guts. But then, he seemed to adore Martina before he had her crushed into a cube so maybe him being a rude asshole to you is a sign of affection?

...so it is a sign of affection, then.

Yeah, that's how a fascist and capitalist villains always talk about the land they intend to cultivate, at great expense to the lives of the people living there. You are not winning yourself any favors, man. I'm about 80% convinced that we should get to stabbing.

But then you openly come out and say shit like, "Yeah, Amaterasu are the ones ruining this city via too much corporate expansion," and my confidence in the Guillotine Solution begins to waver.

I don't know. Maybe he's fine. But his wealth and personal relationship with Yomi skeeves me out.

Yep. Welcome to life in a company town. Notoriously corrupt through and through.

Capitalism is, by nature, corporate feudalism. Your own inter-department strife nearly erupting into civil war is not unlike the bickering of noble houses. The state of Kanai Ward is a classic military coup seizing power from the noble families in absence of a powerful governor that could keep them in check, but painted over in the language of commerce.

As a rule, whenever capitalists take control over governance, it becomes regular feudalism. For all that entails. Company towns are hell.

I mean. Yes.

Yes, they do hold more power than that. That's where the whole "military coup" bit comes in. But. Also, yes.

Okay, man. You've convinced me that you don't need to be stabbed. Yet. Just because you're anti-fascist, doesn't mean you're pro-good things. It's easy to look at bad people doing overtly bad things and go, "That's bad!" The true ideology of a person is not defined by what they're against, but by what they're for.

You and I are not Brothers Against Peacekeepers until I know what you actually want to happen instead.

To be honest, the WDO is shady as shit and I have a cosmic horror gnawing on my soul, so IDK. Maybe the WDO is the true hope for this city. Or maybe they need to fuck off right alongside Amaterasu.

So far, the people who've offered the most positive and romanticized opinions of detectives have all been outsiders. Doesn't feel like "The WDO is all fine and dandy" is the direction we're moving in.

[engekihaikyuu]

Kazuma, Takato, and Sonde attended a special party for the 20th anniversary of their talent agency, CUBE! 

(x)