#like earthbound and the Mario rpg

[akanemnon]

Do you like any other RPGs besides Undertale and Deltarune and do you think thar it's important to vary your game library?

I keep repeating myself, but Final Fantasy 9 is my favorite game of all time. I also enjoy the Mario & Luigi RPGs as well as some of the older Pokemon games (which are also RPGs). I grew up watching my brothers play FF7 and 8 (the soundtracks are ingrained into the deepest crevises of my brain). I also used to play an MMORPG named GuildWars 2, played a bit of Octopath Traveler and Digimon Cybersleuth but never finished them. I do wanna play Earthbound and Mother 3 especially in the future once I get my motivation back.

Other than that I watched plenty of Let's Plays of various RPGs.

I think that especially if you wanna write a story, having plenty of influences will only add to your product.

[ponett]

i’m certain you’ll post your thoughts on the thousand-year door remake, but god isn’t it still crazy that this even happened

It really is wild. I thought for sure we'd just get a GameCube ROM library on the Nintendo Online service before we'd ever get a full-blown remake, and then they went and made this. And only half a year after they did a full remake of ANOTHER famously weird beloved Mario RPG that we never thought would get a remake.

I'll admit I still wish they would put up a GameCube ROM library so that we could (officially) play GameCube games on Switch other than the ones that have been given $60 remakes, but like, I can't complain much when it's a good remake. The art direction is gorgeous. There are lots of nice little quality of life updates, which I don't necessarily think the game needed but are still nice to have. And, of course, yes, the localization finally got updated to acknowledge Vivian is trans. In general it's just a treat

The only thing that I don't completely vibe with is the remixed music. Like, in any other game, I'd say a soundtrack like this whips ass. Origami King's soundtrack sounded similar, and that was great! But I think it leans too hard into epic orchestral rock and recurring leitmotifs and whatnot in a way that the original TTYD soundtrack didn't, and that lessens the game's unique vibe. Lots of tracks have also been extended, presumably to cut down on repetition, but they tend to do this with meandering new bridge sections that just kinda feel like musical filler before getting back to the original tune

Like, listen to this new orchestral rock minor key version of the standard battle theme that plays in Hooktail Castle

On its own merits? Great track! Awesome! And I'm all for JRPGs having more than one standard battle theme. But this is a wildly different vibe from the original, which relied heavily on quirky selections of synths that set it apart from other JRPG soundtracks. It feels like this new mix is overselling how epic it is, and in the process becomes more generic. It's like if you swapped the EarthBound soundtrack out for Bravely Default's. It wouldn't fit! An incredibly rare instance where I'm like "no, the composers really for real did not have to go this hard here"

But also before leaving Rogueport you can buy a 0 BP badge that swaps everything except the wholly new tracks back to the original GameCube versions, so that solves that

[radioregine]

random showverse!btr gaming headcanons bc ive been back in my #gamergurl era lately 🎮

-the show lets us know theyre collectively into cod zombies type shooter/survival games, but i also think the guys are into sports games like madden, NHL, nba 2k, FIFA, forza etc

-individually tho i see:

logan being partial to turn-based rpgs (earthbound, fire emblem, pokemon, smt/persona, etc) and grand strategy games (like civ & brigandine etc)

kendall obsessing over simulation games like the sims, tycoon games, citybuilders etc. he's not much of an rpg guy but i can see a heavily-modded skyrim being his exception

carlos playing games like sonic, kart racers (not just mario kart but crash team racing and others) GTA (esp online) ... i think he'd be an early adopter of minecraft as well

james being the king of rhythm games (singstar, karaoke revolution, ddr, guitar hero, just dance, fuckin donkey konga you name it) and is also secretly very popular on 'girly' mmo places like IMVU, Second Life, etc

-they are all heavily into emulation and modding

-they all love arcades and debate about which ones are the best (carlos likes the hybrid arcade/bowling places, logan loves the big warehouse-style joints w hundreds of old school game cabinets, james just likes any place that's got a ddr machine, kendall likes any place that gets his friends to game in harmony + stop bickering)

-if they're at an arcade that gives out prizes, they rely on logan to figure out the payout/win rate for everything to maximize profits; anytime that doesn't work -- well, the old trusty strategy of 'you guys distract employees while i break into the ticket bay of this light gun game' never fails (another tried and true technique is 'you guys distract employees while i violently shake the token dispenser for free unlimited tokens')

-back in minnesota they had LAN parties with a bunch of their homies, they don't do that as often as they'd like at the palmwoods bc of logistics

[kdinjenzen]

if someone wanted to get into jrpgs what are some good games to go for that are readily available?

Here's a list of some "lesser" traveled classic turn-based JRPGs that I like, ymmv on classic availability or availability for re-releases:

Lunar: Silver Star Story Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure Arc the Lad Wild Arms Grandia Okage: Shadow King The Legend of Dragoon Thousand Arms Here's a list of readily available turn-based JRPGs that I think are still fun:

Earthbound/Mother Super Mario RPG Live A Live Golden Sun Breath of Fire Pokemon Chrono Trigger Mario & Luigi Atelier Undertale Deltarune This is not a comprehensive list, mind you. Just a good starting point.

[tmos-time]

Do you think Eridan and Sollux game together? If so what types of games? Co-op or competitive?

On that note it's probably my own brainrot, but I've been thinking Sollux probably enjoys bullet hell games from time to time, like Touhou titles and Savant Ascent for example. (The song Ism (Original Mix) by the artist Savant specifically makes me think of that wet ferret of a nerd.)

OHHH, this is a fun one >:)

so USUALLY when im thinking about them playing video games together, i think of them playing older games; it's typically sollux playing a game like earthbound, original super mario rpg, world of goo, psychonauts, whatever solluxcore game hes gotten his hands on recently, while eridan sits around to watch him play-- which then leads to eridan either wanting to try the game himself or the two swapping to multiplayer mode if the game has it. sometimes they reverse it and eridan picks the game, somehow convincing sollux to sit down to experience more atmospheric games like superliminal, the beginners guide, and the stanley parable (AND its ultra deluxe version AND the demo because eridan is simply deranged about the themes in that game <3)

and sometimes they just find a game with co-op that meshes decently enough with the both of them! they'd probably like portal 2 co-op; im sure rain world co-op would have something for the both of them, even if its biased to sollux lol; they might have fun with katamari damacy and we love katamari's co-op stuff? im sure they'd find more overall entertainment being complete dickheads to each other in we love katamari actually lol

as for sollux liking bullet hells; literally he's an everhood enjoyer to me of course he'd like bullet hells in general alongside rhythm games LMAO. he likes when a game can go fast!!

[brittle-biscuits]

You got me into Block Tales with your posts, and I can't thank you enough for it

It’s dope, man. Everyone needs to if you enjoy turn based RPG like Earthbound or Paper Mario.

[project-lumen]

YOU.

Could I pretty please have examples of the style/type of UI art you want? like canvas dimensions, style, inspo images, literally anything so I can get a grasp on what I need to prepare for example wise

ME :0

Thank you for the question again!

After very careful consideration, screen resolution for pixel sprites will be 400x240px (same as the 3DS's top screen, my beloved <3).

Style shall be pixel style :3/silly

For inspo, I'd recommend taking a look at RPG games! Pokémon (Gen 5 and earlier), Mario & Luigi, Undertale/Deltarune, OneShot, EarthBound, Final Fantasy and other RPG games of the SNES, Gameboy Advance, DS or 3DS eras, even arcade games, since they are the aesthetic I'd like to go for, very retro, very vibrant.

^Some examples or what I am talking about.

If you want to see how 2d visual elements are formatted for games, I cannot recommend the Spriters Resource more. It has lots of assets ripped straight out of many games from very many different consoles, included some games I mentioned earlier. You can browse around and hopefully that can help!

Hope that clears things up a lil bit more, but don't hesitate to ask for more info! o7

-Kori, slowly turning into a pixelated sprite

[serialexperimentsviolet]

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💜💜💜💜hi i'm violet. i'm 18, use she/they pronouns, i'm bi, and i'm a trans woman and non-binary.

i've had tumblr for a while and since instagram is run by a misogynist neo-nazi that looks like he's trying to cosplay as a 15 year old boy, twitter is run by an almost comically evil manchild, and tik tok just did a pr stunt for donald fucking trump, i want to try and distance myself from those apps so i'm gonna try and be active here more instead so it's introduction post time.

music is like my favorite thing ever. one of my hobbies is literally just laying in bed and listening to music. (partly because my adhd + insomniac ass sometimes doesn't have the energy to do anything else.) right now i'm totally obsessed with björk, and one of my most iconic character arcs was when i became extremely hyperfixated on kali uchis in october 2023 and she quickly became my most scrobbled artist on last.fm. (@VioletBlueAlbum if you want to follow me over there. 😳😳😳😳)

Some of my other favorites are beach house, slowdive, duster, sweet trip, charli xcx, my dead girlfriend, sophie, magdalena bay, ethel cain, the cure, parannoul, a tribe called quest, anri, marina, etc. etc. i'm always trying to discover new music so if you want totally feel free to send me recommendations.

i play violin and guitar and try to write and produce my own music, although i'm awful at committing enough to get anything anywhere near finished. if i ever do finish anything maybe i'll share it here.

another main hobby of mine is gaming. i've mainly played rpgs ever since i played undertale and earthbound when i was like 9-10 and they altered my brain chemistry. four years ago i played 13 sentinels aegis: rim and it's been my favorite game of all time ever since. (if you like it let's PLEASE be moots the fandom is so small i need to talk to more people that have played it. 🙏😭)

yet another iconic character arc of mine is falling in love with and being hyperfixated on final fantasy 7, leading me to spending the majority of the past year going through the entire compilation. i'm currently on rebirth and i adore it so far.

some other games/series i'm a fan of are megaten, splatoon, portal, dragon quest, insomniac's spider-man, animal crossing, guilty gear, hades, mario, celeste, (obviously 🏳️‍⚧️) portal, ultrakill, the last of us, the legend of zelda, cave story, omori, sonic, (the few that i've played) class of 09, and astrobot. and while most people have an annual two week minecraft phase, i have an annual two week fortnite phase.

i don't watch a ton of shows and movies but when i do it's usually anime. my favorite of all time is k-on, followed pretty closely by violet evergarden, which i connected to so much that i stole her name. jojo's bizarre adventure, and serial experiments lain have both been huge parts of my branding for years.

other favorites of mine are attack on titan, the disastorous life of saiki k, neon genesis evangelion, kaguya-sama: love is war, monogatari, fooly cooly, dr. stone, clannad, cyberpunk edgerunners, madoka magica, chainsaw man, and goodnight punpun. (i know the last two are manga but i don't read enough to make a whole seperate manga section.)

ok that's all, if you read through that whole snoozefest i really appreciate it i know it got really long. 💜💜💜💜

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[heartbeatbookclub]

What do you think the dokis favorite games are.

Personally, I genuinely think yuri would be into the fear and hunger games. The horror and lore in them just seem like they'd be right up her ally.

I think it's probably easier to assign them genres? I agree that Yuri would like Fear and Hunger tho.

I don't think Monika would be big into video games, and also she sucks at them. She strikes me as a big puzzle game fan. Tetris. She's a tetris wizard. Oh, and the Sims. One day she accidentally burns someone's house down and feels incredibly guilty...but grows progressively more cavalier in her demented actions towards her Sims. The other girls like to push Monika into different games, to varying effect. She's a real sucker for games like Undertale, though.

Sayori's favorite game is Minecraft. She'd probably like games that are slower paced and easy to understand. She's the type to abandon the tutorial and say "I wanna play a game, not read a book!" then shamefully trot back to the tutorial 10 minutes later after dying 30 times in a row. She also kinda sucks at games, but can be surprisingly competitive. She'll kick your ass at Mario Kart.

Yuri is big into RPGs. Every one of those quirky Earthbound inspired RPGs, she's played, and will gush about at length if you let her. She played through a bunch of old JRPGs too, but don't let Natsuki hear that...She gets into a game for its story, typically, and she also is kinda bad at anything more gameplay oriented (Like Hades) but she will keep trying to the point of heavy frustration because she wants more of that story content (Like Hades). She probably used one of those free trial versions of RPGmaker to try and make her own RPG (or one based on a book series).

Natsuki probably has the most varied tastes. She's big into shooters, probably plays a few battle royales and is somewhat toxic (typically as a joke). She's probably the biggest gamer and the most skilled out of the lot. And, consequently, the most competitive. She probably played a bunch of fucked up flash games as a kid. And, predictably, also a bunch of visual novels & JRPGs (don't tell anyone, but I think she mightve even played a few dating sims....)

Sayori gets them all into Minecraft. Natsuki thinks the idea's kinda dumb but gets really into building a cute little house. Monika dies like 12 times on the first night and hides in a hole. Afterwards Sayori helps her learn the ropes and they build a house together. She puts her bed next to Monika's. Monika is clueless. Yuri is quietly mining the entire time and occasionally types in chat rather than using VC.

Thanks for the ask, anon!

[slugdragoon]

RPG Role Analysis Series #15 - Mother 2/Earthbound

Mother 1 analysis here

Ness - Ness' stats are a little bit different than Ninten, opting instead of perfectly balanced stat growth to give him the stats of a secondary damage-dealer role as the character with the best Offense next to Poo, but also the best ability to get critical (SMAAASH!!) hits. That's actually the same as Ninten, but Ninten got it by default by having a base stat total so much higher than Ana and Lloyd that "balanced" was really strong. Ness also has a higher base stat total, but the gap is closer here and Ness's stats actually have an emphasis on critical physical hits, and if anything, is a bit slow compared to Ana and Poo, so it feels like more of a choice here.

However, when looking at Ness's PSI ability list, he's also a flavour of support PSI user, much like Ninten. Ness has HP-healing moves, both more of them and faster than Poo, but gets status-healing abilities later and can't guarantee revival of party members to full health (but has a 75% change to do it to half-health). Ness can also do single target shields. His signature offensive ability is a multi-target, no-element wave of PSI that might decrease enemies' resistance to PSI attacks. Ness is the only character to be able to put enemies to sleep or paralyze them, or use PK Flash which does a random detrimental effect (status and instant death among them). This is a major change from Ninten who gets no offensive PSI at all (but who could still hit really hard). I think Ness, even more than Ninten is an all-rounder. He really can do everything just a bit worse than the best. Maybe a little more luck-based, too, given his gamble on revival, gamble on PK Flash, gamble on criticals instead of consistent high damage like Poo. Effects like PK Flash, Hocus Pocus (Dragon Quest), and Metronome (Pokemon) always make me think of a wild mage, but Ness is deep into healing too. A wild cleric maybe?

Paula - So I realized my memory was faulty, because although Ness, Paula and Jeff are very clearly modeled after Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd, Paula isn't much like Ana mechanically at all. Paula has the same emphasis on being the party's PSI whiz kid with the highest IQ, like Ana, but notably uses it entirely for combat. She's fast too, but isn't using her Speed to go first as a healer and stabilize the party. Paula uses Fire, Freeze, and Thunder to attack her enemies, and she's kind of a glass canon with miserable defensive stats. She can also drain PSI from enemies, buff your Offense and Decrease enemies' Defense, all of which are pretty aggressive abilities. The support skill she does get is a PSI nullifying or reflecting shield, depending on the rank, like any good dueling wizard. No status effects though, which always makes me think more battlemage than black mage. The exception to her lack of healing and her inability to deal status effects are the random results of her Pray ability, which really can't be described in any other way than a wild magic effect that covers many scenarios, a small fraction of the time, randomly.

Jeff - Jeff get the exclusive ability to Spy, which give you information on the enemies' Offense and Defense, a PSI weakness, and any items they might drop, which allows you to take them after battle. I wouldn't say the looting ability suggests thief at all for Jeff, as you can't take the item and run, and I think that distinction makes the difference, but the other side of Spy is much like Goombario or Goombella from the Paper Mario series. In terms of using items to attack, Jeff is a lot like Lloyd from the first game, but with a larger set of items. Unlike Lloid, some of them have no chance to break after use, so become his defacto attacks, and he's less about inventory management, despite still using Bottle rockets. Jeff's tools also can drain HP and debuff and remove shield from everyone, including the party. That last one, plus the inherent HP-splitting effect of draining moved makes Jeff a character than levels the playing field, in theory. Reset buffs when they get out of hand, and in terms of HP, take from the rich to give to the poor. OK, so maybe he is a thief of a different kind, but I would overall call Jeff a tactical scholar/scout type who can read enemy weaknesses and choose the best moment to strike with, often limited use items, but in the meantime keeps the party from getting in a bad tactical position.

Poo - You would think Poo, a martial artist, would be a lot like the remaining character from Mother 1, Teddy who was a huge physical damage dealer, and Poo can hit the hardest of anyone in Earthbound, but he can also use PSI this time. Poo is the best at fixing status effects and reviving party members, though a bit slower at learning HP-healing abilities than Ness, and he gets multi-target PSI Shield while Ness can only apply it one party member at a time. The difference between the usefulness of this is even greater in a game with 4 party members instead of 3. Poo can also confuse enemies, guarantee fleeing from battle, and drain PP, and attack with PSI, but his damage output won't be as good as Paula's until he gets PK Starstorm. Poo has the Mirror ability to copy a move from an enemy for one turn. Honestly I don't think that one is very notable, but it's like a magical counter ability, fitting for a martial artist. I feel like it's common to see monks get status-healing in JRPGs, like Chakra in Final Fantasy, and everything else about Poo's design says monk, plus they sometimes get confusion as a physical ability like dazzling them with your fast strikes, and Poo is the fastest. However, mass-party shielding and full revival is so strong that he has strong protection cleric energy as well.

[spoon-kitchenware]

Some more info about what HIMESEN is about and why I decided to make this game! because I'm autistic and want to talk about my OCs tbh!!!!!!!

HIMESEN is an RPG inspired Visual Novel about Himesen, a mage with chronic pain who uses a wheelchair and lives with her caretaker. One day her caretaker goes missing and she decides to try and find out what happened to her, being helped by a party of heroes who are less than heroic.

I haven't been working on this project for super long, but I've made a lot of progress and I'm committed to completing this. A lot of inspirations for this game have been films and shows like Stardust, Frieren, Dungeon Meshi, and The Princess Bride, with the fantasy setting being more fairytale inspired than a classic RPG high fantasy setting like D&D. Since this is a visual novel, there won't be a lot of gameplay, but the gameplay that it will include is drawing from games like Deltarune, Mario Party, Earthbound, and Heaven for Death, which is a very niche Bocchi the Rock fangame afjkgldh. My approach with creating this game is that it's story first, and then the gameplay elements will be introduced to enhance the story, which is why despite how much gameplay I'm planning on adding, it's a visual novel at its core.

In terms of development, I've mostly been working on the story at the moment because the project is extremely early along the development stage. I'm planning on developing the game in RPG Maker MZ, but I need to save up to get the software first (I've messed around in RPG Maker XP tho). I've never developed a game before so I truly do not know what I am doing. By far the hardest part of developing this game is going to be getting assets since I have literally no artistic skill and no money either.

Himesen is a very cool and pawesome character who I'm very autistic about! She's a powerful mage who uses a wheelchair because of her chronic pain. She's very silly, and she loves reading yuri (and yaoi)! What more could you want out of a protagonist :3 She has long blue hair and a large summer hat, and wears a white dress. She's pretty shy but once you get her talking about something she's interested in (like any of the book series she's reading) she won't shut up. A lot of people have (rightfully) accused me of having based a lot of her mannerisms off of me, and that's because I'm writing her from the perspective of a lot of my own experiences.

I only have 1 piece of art to show of her, and it's something that my friend drew for me as a gift. This isn't key art but it's literally the only thing I have lol.

Anyway, that's it about the game for now. I'll post more in the future about the other characters in the story, but it'll be hard to avoid me spoiling things so I'll try to make sure that I only talk about things in the first major arc in the story. If you want to support me or my game then. honestly I don't know. then go to your mirror at the dead of night and chant the name Himesen in front of it 5 times illuminated only by a candle, and she will be summoned. Then once she is summoned you can give her a copy of her favourite lesbian smut series, Dogtor Pegger, and she in return will give you a kiss on the cheek and go back to the magical kingdom where she came from.

[transfemme-tennant]

i know that we might not be getting a smash 6 for some time, or even at all, but the launch of switch 2 has had me thinking about what i’d really like to see from a new roster. so here are my thoughts.

some guidelines: 1), this is a dream roster, i don’t expect any of this to actually be the case. and it’s all just personal opinion where i cut and where i add/don’t add. 2), i won’t be cutting any of the franchises from ultimate, but i may cut some of the characters. 3), to even things out, i will try to if possible give each franchise a protagonist fighter, an antagonist fighter, and a bonus fighter.

here’s the roster:

• mario: mario, bowser, peach/daisy

• donkey kong: donkey kong, king k. rool, pauline (bananza)

• the legend of zelda: link, ganon(dorf), zelda/shiek

• metroid: samus/zero suit, ridley, raven beak

• yoshi’s island: yoshi, baby bowser (or bowser jr), kamek

• kirby: kirby, king dedede, meta knight

• star fox: fox, wolf, slippy toad

• pokémon anime: pikachu, mega sceptile (X&Y), mewtwo (pokémon the movie)

• luigi’s mansion: luigi, egad, hellen gravely

• earthbound: ness, giygas, paula

• f-zero: captain falcon, samurai goroh

• pokémon games: jigglypuff, pokémon trainer, skeledurge (scarlet and violet)

• ice climbers: ice climbers

• fire emblem: alear (engage), zelgius (radiant dawn), marth

• game and watch: mr game and watch

• kid icarus: pit, viridi, medusa

• wario: wario, ashley (warioware), waluigi (sports)

• metal gear: snake, raiden (rising), senator armstrong (rising)

• mother 3: lucas, porky, claus

• sonic: sonic, eggman, shadow

• pikmin: olimar/louie/alph/brittany/charlie/pikmin 4 protag

• nintendo entertainment system: rob, duck hunt

• animal crossing: villager, isabelle, tom nook

• mega man: mega man, dr wily, zero

• wii: wii fit trainer, miis

• punch out: little mac, king hippo, super macho man

• pac man: pac man, blinky/pinky/inky/clyde

• xenoblade: shulk, pyra/mythra, noah (xenoblade 3)

• street fighter: ryu/ken, chun-li, bison

• ff7: cloud, sephiroth, tifa

• bayonetta: bayonetta

• splatoon: inkling/octoling, marina, big man

• castlevania: simon/richter, dracula, alucard

• persona: joker, yu narukami (persona 4), makoto yuki (persona 3)

• dragon quest: hero, alena, slime

• banjo kazooie: banjo and kazooie, gruntilda, mumbo

• fatal fury: terry/andy, mai, duck king

• arms: min-min, master mummy, ninjara

• minecraft: steve

• tekken: kazuya, heihachi, jun kazuma

• kingdom hearts: sora/roxas, riku, xehanort

that alone brings us to 109 characters, 20 more than ultimate. but there are a few more necessary new additions:

• geno (super mario rpg)

• isaac (golden sun)

• susie (deltarune)

• beat (jet set radio)

• vivi (final fantasy 9)

• crash (crash bandicoot)

• john halo/master chief (halo)

• bridget (guilty gear)

• scorpion (mortal combat)

• cyclops (marvel vs capcom)

that brings it to 120 characters. a complete pipe dream that’s not to everyone’s taste, but what do you think?

[megahorous]

Played Earthbound this time !

-- I dont get into RPGs much, but sometimes I feel like I'd like to try. I did get into this one; it was quite the adventure of course

-- I actually played through this one long ago, in college, via Alternate Means. So, this was my 2nd time completeing it. I learned about Ness from Super Smash Bros.

-- Pokey's kind of like...if the Rival from Pokemon Red/Blue became actually evil. Quite a regression....I used to think Pokey in a spider robot would've been a good villain to add to Smash Bros.

-- The ending was like Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door; I like endings like those. When Ness's Mother prayed for their safety, I thought-ah ! That's why it's called MOTHER...I mean, EARTHBOUND

-- May have to look into 1 and 3 someday, if I feel like it

-- Say "FUZZY PICKLES"

[andy-spurs]

I need some game recommendations. my favorite is night in the woods but I also like games like hyper light drifter, katana zero, smile for me, earthbound, the mario rpgs, nonary games, ace attorney, yttd, and eastward. the game I am most anticipating rn is knuckle sandwich. please help me please PLEASE

[gleepatrol]

would love any media recs!

Will do, pal! In fact, I'll make a nice little list of a few things I personally enjoy, things I've seen other Sparklecare fans enjoy even if I'm not a fan of them myself, and things I think would be similar to SCH even if I've never engaged with said media myself. I got a bit tired by the end, so I kind of dumped the things I like but barely relate to y'all there. Hope that's okay!

Happy Tree Friends (Webseries | What it has in common: brightly colored furries undergoing horrific torture. If you liked Sparklecare for the edgy cute things in horrific situations elements and don't mind the lack of anything deeper than that here, this one is for you. I've never watched it myself, but be warned, I know it is gory.)

The Amazing Digital Circus (Webseries | What it has in common: Seemingly inviting, colorful place ends up being a psychological nightmare for the characters. Not a lot of furries, but that's okay, the themes of horror and mental health are very much there with a found family of sorts cast. It's a fun show if you haven't seen it yet.)

Invader Zim (Western Animation | What it has in common: The de-facto pioneer of early 2000s lul so random dark comedies. It is kid friendly but melds horror and comedy elements that will make you go 'oh that's where they got it from' for so so so many things. Its influence cannot be understated.)

Bojack Horseman + Tuca and Bertie (Adult Animation | What it has in common: While these shows are deeper than Sparklecare from what I've heard, if you want nuanced discussions of darker adult topics with furries, these two are a good bet. Neither has horror elements but dip their toes into comedy occasionally.)

Psychonauts (Video Games | What it has in common: Imagine Invader Zim but they actually touch upon serious topics of mental health. Oh my goodness, almost every line of dialogue is hilariously quotable (btw this game is the source of "I am the Milkman; my milk is delicious" as an example.), it actually helped me through a dark blip in my life by just how dang relatable or comforting some of the characters are, and has a really surprising amount of diversity for an action platformer from 2005. Psychonauts 2 has you overlook a canon gay wedding! I could gush about this game forever let's move on to the next item before I keep you here all day...)

Dead End: Paranormal Park (Western Animation | Gay and spooky, this show has canon trans/nonbinary, gay, and autistic characters uncovering a darker than it seems theme park, mixing horror and comedy once again. I've seen people enjoy it.)

Gravity Falls (Western Animation | It's Gravity Falls, baby! You know this one! The one with Bill Cypher! Mostly funny but surprisingly emotional or dark at times. There's a reason it's considered an all time classic at this point. If you haven't seen Gravity Falls yet for whatever reason, please do. Or it's Western Animation contemporaries like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Steven Universe, The Owl House, or Adventure Time!)

Almost any Mascot Horror (Video Games | There's dying, furries, and a deeper lore you can choose to try to piece together. It's usually near impossble but hey you can try. The Mascot Horror genre covers stuff like FNAF or Dandy's World btw if you've never heard the genre term! )

BFDI/Inanimate Insanity (Webseries | I can't really tell them apart. People in the Sparklecare fandom seem to like them. I think they're reality show parodies? Ask other people about them, I never got into them.)

I'm also a big fan of Professor Layton, Ace Attorney, and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective but I will admit those puzzle/visual novel games aren't everyone's cup of tea. In terms of JRPGs, I also like the EarthBound/Mother series, Undertale/Deltarune, the Mario & Luigi/Paper Mario RPGs, and Chrono Trigger. Platforming games are one for the mainline Mario games, LittleBigPlanet, or Spyro the Dragon for me. And of course, there's the fandom all time classics like Pokemon, MLP, Sonic, Warrior Cats (though I'd recommend it's sister series Wings of Fire above it first), anything Nintendo really, or just the furry fandom in general! Dungeon Meshi is a good anime. And one more batch of suggestions with a rapidfire of indie games, Smile for Me/Great God Grove, In Stars and Time, Bugsnax, and probably a few more I might be forgetting, but yeah that's my list! Now go enjoy at least one of those things!!

[gaysheep]

now my experiences might not be universal but as far as im concerned you asked far fewer questions about video games when you were a kid. the first time you encountered waluigi in mario tennis or mario party or whatever other mario spinoff you encountered him in for the first time because they only put him in spinoffs you didnt say "who's this goofster stomping around like he's a member of the crew?" you said oh ok that's waluigi i guess.

super smash bros melee the crossover fighting game starring all your favorite nintendo characters (well pikachu was second party but thats pikachu everyone knows who pikachu is) had a whole three characters who nobody in north america knew who the fuck they were, two of which were from games that weren't localized at all and one of which was from a game that was enough of a commercial failure in the united states hardly anyone remembered it a little under a decade later. now to be fair ness was in the one on the n64 also but its not like he'd gotten another game. "oh earthbound's failure was overexaggerated" you say that but my brother lived the super nintendo era and not a single one of his gaggle of friends had even heard of earthbound it was not on anyone's radar come on. but no one said "hey these aren't iconic nintendo characters" we all went "well i guess they can be here too" and now we say "you cant main a smash character if you havent played their game" like we werent saying "thats marth i dont know who the fuck he is but hes like a brother to me" in 2001

youd just go into the store and look at a game's boxart and decide you wanted that one and yknow what it usually worked out for you. i did this longer than you'd expect too i was in 7th or 8th grade and thought to myself "yknow i havent really played any console rpgs lately" so i looked up "rpgs for the wii" and i saw a gamefaqs rec thread or some shit where a guy went "well xenoblade is coming out." and i looked up xenoblade and found virtually no information about it other than that it was coming out and thought to myself "yeah xenoblade... that looks like an rpg i could get into." and you know what i did? i preordered it this may very well have been the first game i ever preordered i thought "well they were talking about it on gamefaqs so it must be a big deal i wanna make sure i can play it day 1" but i didnt need to reserve a copy of fucking xenoblade chronicles the store probably could have given me every copy in stock for no profit loss when i walked in there with my gir t shirt and my little receipt because i was one of all three and a half people in north america who played this game counting the gamefaqs guy. and xenoblade chronicles knocked me flat on my ass it was one of the best games i'd ever experienced i'd played plenty of story heavy rpgs before but this one hooked me in a way none of them ever had.

fast forward around 4 years the 4th smash game comes out but this one was different. this was when we really started to go in on the crossover fighters, character slots were now real estate that potential entrants had to earn the right to occupy as if one game ago they didnt make a failed NES peripheral a playable fighter and give it an emotional subplot in subspace emissary. no longer was it "cool i guess this guy is here" it had become "who the hell is this and what do they think they're doing in smash bros?"

and thus came that fateful night when amidst crazy new character reveals like the fucking wii fit trainer they unveil a cinematic trailer and announce that shulk from xenoblade chronicles was joining the fight. to which the unilateral reaction was "who the fuck is shulk why was this trailer framed like we already have a rapport with shulk i dont know this man why does he say stuff like 'im really feeling it?'"

but i knew who shulk was.