#like the several animatronics and puppets utilized

[themeparkyaoi]

as a fan of both fnaf and hhn, a fnaf house wouldn’t work as well as some of you think. universal only has the rights to the movie adaptation and i’d like you to think about how you’d adapt the movie JUST the movie into a house effectively. it can be done but it’d be (in my opinion) rather lame. there’s very limited locations and cast to include in the house, and also the costumes for the animatronics, if done well, would be really expensive. making multiple of the same characters wouldn’t be a worthwhile investment because they can’t be reused like michael myers masks can for example. there is a sequel coming out for the movie and it’s a MUCH better idea to wait for that to come out and do a house combining the installments of the movie franchise. we’ve gotten previews of the models for toy bonnie and chica so different characters are on the way. yes they are missing fnafs anniversary year, but if they do a fnaf house over and over every year for each new installment then the fnaf property at hhn will become what walking dead or stranger things has become at the event- repetitive and more like an interactive museum exhibit than an actual scare attraction.

[gentlemanjester]

Game Review: Lies of P

Some of you may have heard of this game. Some of you may never have heard of this game. Most likely, the former of you will be enjoyers of FromSoftware's titles, most notably Bloodborne. Lies of P is a Soulslike game, extremely visually similar to Bloodborne in the Victorian aspect, but it also draws from the Souls games as well in gameplay. Developed by Neowiz Games and Round8 Studios, released in 2023, it serves as a dark retelling of the calssic fairy tale Pinnocchio.

You play as a puppet, created by the master craftsman Geppetto, in the once-great city of Krat. Krat was the city of the future, home to animatronic Puppets who did almost all the work in the city from hard labour to law enforcement to entertainment. These Puppets were created in the factory owned by the richest man in Krat, Lorenzini Venigni, who also instilled in them the Grand Covenant of four laws: Puppets must obey all commands of their creators; Puppets are never allowed to harm their creators; all Puppets must protect and serve humans and the city of Krat; a Puppet can never lie. Of course, the player character lies several times throughout the game, whether it be to avoid combat or to advance the story.

But of course, something went wrong: the Puppet Frenzy happened, and the Puppets went on a murderous rampage. Citizens of Krat were slaughtered and massacred, and the Stalkers were formed, humans who specialised in hunting Puppets and destroying them. This is where most of the characters from the story are portrayed, since Stalkers were known for their animal masks (The Mad Donkey, Black Cat, Red Fox, Robber Weasel, etcetera). As you explore the city of Krat, following various objectives to try and stop the Puppet Frenzy and later the Alchemists, you uncover more and more about Ergo. For example, Ergo comes from the souls of humanity, and can be harnessed to basically supercharge humans. However, it also forms Carcasses; maddened, twisted humans and animals.

In terms of gameplay, the speed is extremely similar to Bloodborne; very fast-paced and frantic at times. However, it does encourage defensive playstyles as well, similar to other Souls titles; you're encouraged to time your blocks perfectly to damage and eventually break your enemy's weapons. Additionally, some enemies will have an undodgable attack which will ignore any I-frames you get from dodging through the attack, like you're usually trained to do. The only way to avoid these attacks is to get out of range, or perform a perfect guard.

The weapon system is also similar to Bloodborne, although very different at the same time. Both games have a limited roster of weaponry, rather than having weapons that can be farmed like in other Souls titles. While BB weapons can be transformed to have two separate movesets, however, Lies divides all of the non-boss weapons into blades/heads and handles, allowing you to mix and match them for an insane amount of combinations.

This also brings us to Fable Arts. Fable Arts are special skills your weapon has, and you'll have two per weapon: one for the blade, one for the handle, which is another benefit to switching out your blade and handle combo. I'll use one of the starting weapons, the Wintry Blade, as an example. The blade's Fable Art is a quick series of high-damage thrusts, and the handle's Fable Art is a guard parry which, when timed right, will leave your enemy open to a follow-up attack.

Furthermore, the weapon scaling depends on the handle, while the weapon damage depends on the blade. And you can change the scaling on the handle. For example, you can really like the Fable Art of a handle, but it scales with Technique and you're making a Motivity build. Just use a crank and change the scaling to Motivity instead of Technique, sorted! It really lowers a lot of boundaries when it comes to making builds.

And of course, speaking of the gameplay, gotta mention the Legion Arm. This is basically a utility, similar to the Prosthetic from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which can be switched out to fulfil a bunch of functions. It can be a flamethrower, throw rope darts at enemies, shoot delayed bombs on enemies, lay landmines, act as a shield, loads of options. In a "normal" playthrough, it will play a relatively minimal role, like the gun in Bloodborne, but of course you can do a challenge run and beat the whole game with just throwable items and the Legion Arm. And people have already done so, obviously.

Regarding the story itself, it's kinda divided into two parts: first, you're hunting down the King of Puppets, assuming that it's responsible for the Puppet Frenzy. Killing the King of Puppets then changes your focus to Simon Manus, an Alchemist who's basically the big bad villain. There are also, of course, small NPC missions around the world, some of which are absoluitely similar to Bloodborne in their depressiveness. For example, Krat is beset by the Petrification Curse as well as the Puppet Frenzy, so most people in the world are stuck indoors, meaning you only see their silhouettes in the windows. One lady asks you to find her baby, since she's in quarantine and she just wants to see her baby before she dies. You find her baby, and it's... a puppet. You bring it back, Lie to her, and she doesn't see any difference; she believes the puppet is her child.

Also, Eugenie, the lass who upgrades your weaponry at the Hotel, you deserve so much more than Alidoro, girl, you are a QUEEN.

The game also has a lot of nice nods to other pieces of classical literature throughout the story. A boss who's basically a wrestling champion powered-up by Ergo is called Victor, and he's very obviously a nod to Victor Frankenstein. After defeating the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, you find a painting of a schoolboy who looks remarkabily similar to the player character and was painted by an artist called D. Gray, a reference to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The game has three endings: you find out that your father, Gepetto, created you in the image of his dead son, and basically wanted to bring his son back to life. At the end, he asks for your heart. If you give him your heart, you're treated to a cutscene of him stepping out of Hotel Krat, with you at his side... and all your friends dead, because Ergo feeds off human life and you need Ergo to survive. The middle ending, you fight the Nameless Puppet and because of your choices up to this point, Gepetto calls you a useless puppet with his dying breath, since you haven't been lying. However, if you continue to Lie and be compassionate through the game, you get small messages each time which change as you progress (starts as "Your springs are reacting," then becomes "The Ergo is whispering," and finally "You feel warmth" as you become more human). If you've gained enough humanity, Gepetto will instead call you his son as he dies, showing that he realises that you were more than a puppet all along, and that you were in fact alive.

Also, you have a little guide puppet buddy who chats to you throughout the game called Gemini, but it's pronounced Jem-In-nee as in Jiminy Cricket and I didn't get that until far too late.

So, this game is so much fun, and one I can see myself playing just as much as I did Bloodborne. It looks awesome, I love the setting, and the gameplay is just so rewarding and satisfying. My favourite boss fight so far is the optional White Lady fight, since she uses a rapier and I also use a rapier, it was very much like a duel between two master fencers. So much fun.

I give this game an 8.5/10.

Half a point was removed for the finicky-ness of backstabs. Humanoid enemies can be backstabbed, and the game does give you a prompt when you're in the right position, but it only really works maybe 7 times out of 10. At least when bosses are stunned, it also puts a circle on the ground for you to stand in.

And one point was removed for what I think is an overuse of jump-out enemies. These are enemies who are hidden around corners or behind walls which will jump out to surprise you or knock you off ledges. Obviously, this enemy placement is a hallmark of Soulslike games, but they need to be used sparingly. Lies of P puts these enemies around every other corner, it feels like, which kinda removes the surprise of it; I end up angling the camera around every single corner rather than being surprised by it.

[casliveblog]

Notes from Last Week's Sailor Moon Episodes I missed while at con:

Luna's finally starting to see through Jadeite's Team Rocket disguises even though she hasn't seen half of them and Usagi's seen all of them and just thinks the same guy keeps changing jobs or something.

Apparently the bad guys can just open dimensional rifts to another dimension the heroes can't escape from and they never utilize this power ever again.

Tuxedo Mask what the fuck are you doing here we're literally in another dimension when did you have time to tie three buses together, it's been like a week straight of some of those guys getting their energy drained surely some of them are dead.

Sailor Cristina Vee joined the party.

Rei actually kind of has an attitude in the original and I kinda like it, like Crystal just had them being endlessly supportive barbie dolls all the time, it's kinda a big shift but this is a nice growing pains episode to flesh out the new dynamic now that there's a bigger squad, really shows Rei is pretty sharp but can be as much of a girlfailure as Usagi when she lets her temper get the better of her.

*Insert FNAF joke about the Disney Park with animatronic animals*

Usagi finally claps back at Mamoru when he and Rei double team her for riding the kiddy train... while also riding the kiddy train. Like it's a very funny visual and kind of foreshadowing that Mamoru and Usagi like the same things even if they're butting heads right now but the main joke is Usagi's blatant hypocrisy and no one calls her on it.

Rei's known Mamoru for two seconds and immediately asks Usagi if he looks like Tuxedo Mask so it really isn't a Clark Kent thing where no body recognizes him with the mask, Usagi's just that stupid.

The evil lady is a really creepy puppet like geez she's one of the more effective villains so far.

This is like the fifth time Beryl's had to tell Jadeite "Bro stop fucking up seriously this is your last chance" and he's STILL not facing them himself despite if I remember correctly him being several times more powerful than all of them combined.

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

Idea 4: Vanny comes back

I'm gonna be honest, this one is my personal favorite, and I am quite surprised that it hasn't been done yet.* Think of the angst potential!

*This is no longer true

Imagine it's been a few weeks since the 3 star ending and the 3 goobers are getting more acclimated to living with each other. Gregory is getting used to the fact that he has 2 adult figures that actually care about him. Vanessa’s nightmares are starting to become less severe. Freddy’s head was reattached to his body, and he now remotely controls a child-size bear doll (like a Lonely Freddy but not evil) so he can still easily be with Gregory when he isn't at the pizzaplex.

The day would start like any other: everyone wakes up, goes through their morning routines, and eats some breakfast. Gregory finishes first and gets up to go and wash off his plate in the sink. That is when it happens, Vanessa starts to feel a little off, like she is moving slower than normal. At first, she brushes it off as her still waking up. Then she hears a voice… a voice she only hears in her worst nightmares… VANNYS voice. Vanessa would then discover that she could no longer move or speak. She could only watch as she felt herself get up from her chair, and pick up a knife from off of the counter. The reason that she still has any knives at all is for Gregory to use to spread various condiments on his school sandwiches when he makes them.

Meanwhile, Gregory and Freddy are near the sink, having a conversation about Freddy's obsession with dad jokes or something (You are the Morbest superstar!) They turn around, preparing to return to Gregory's room to get ready for school, and they see Vanessa, holding a knife. Gregory would feel a sharp twinge of betrayal before looking at Vanessa's face to see that her calm green eyes, ones that had reassured him after many a nightmare, were now glowing a sickly purple. Freddy and Gregory would realize that the person in front of them was no longer Vanessa, but Vanny.

Vanny raises her arm, Gregory is looking for a way out. He is also preparing for the possibility of being killed, and he doesn't want to give Vanny the satisfaction of being scared if that happens. Through all this, Vanessa is trying desperately to retake control, all the while Vanny mocks her efforts, making sure that Vanessa won't be able to mentally look away from her worst fear, the death of her savior by her own hands. Freddy is preparing to try and jump in front of Gregory at the last second to try and cushion the blow of the knife using his plush form.

Just before Vanny is able to deliver the killing blow, she disappears. No warning at all, like a true glitch, Freddy and Gregory watch as Vanessa's eyes flicker from purple back to green, drops the knife and collapses to the floor, hugs herself and sits in complete silence for a few seconds before bursting into hysterical tears.

That is where I will leave it, what happens next is for y'all to decide!

This is a very good idea(!) and would really tap into how Vanny really should have been utilized, or at least what Steel Wool was intending on before whatever executive meddling much have slipped in to shift the game's intended tone.

Especially the choice to remove the knife that was so prominent in the teasers and early merch, which is wierd but I guess because it's a kids game, we can't have stuff like that because reasons, especially when that knife is dripping unknown liquid off it and your protagonist is a 12 year old child, so I guess no knifey knife in games about dead serial killers who targeted kids and stuffed their remains in animatronics, huh? That's the line they weren't willing to cross..?

By the way, is it just me, or does the whole Vanessa and Vanny thing seem like a foil to Sun and Moon's situation as well? Like somehow, thier stories were meant to run tangent to each as a sort of lore builder or something? One side being a caretaker for children and the other being puppeted against thier will as a way to gather said children to presumably bring to Afton? Would explain why there was such a large emphasis on the Daycare Attendant during build up to the game and why there's a disproportionate focus on assets despite the minor role, maybe as a visual storytelling method a la Scott style to explain the deal with Vanessa and Vanny before the game plot got reworked...

I would say I'm seeing too much into simple patterns repeating, but Scott has always done specific minute details for a reason, right down to colors and sprite placement, so I can't help but feel like the DA is a key to figuring out the lore of Vanny and Vannesa.

But anyway, wow, this idea, I like this...