#love playing this game its such a fun puzzle to learn about

[bigkickguy]

[catmask]

genuine question – and i hope it doesn't come as weird – but how do get into...pokemon? </3

pokemon universe feels so big and there are so many games and i really like their designs – both for pokemons and trainers – making ocs in this setting would be so cool but i have no idea how to. begin!

could you give some advice?

ps leaving compliments for your comic and art in general!! i really like how your pieces are so colorful! gives the vibes of some small but cozy and fun town in a videogame..

no worries!! it seriously depends on what you are interested in - gamewise, region wise, and story wise.

heres what i can say. if you like typical top-down style pixel art rpg games where you solve tile puzzles and build a little team of monsters, any of the games before x and y is a good choice. platinum is a great introduction to the series because it doesn't baby you but is still decently difficult, heartgold/soulsilver are the 'coziest' games imo but may spoil you because of how much content there is, black/white and black/white 2 are the most story-driven of the games and bw2 is probably the longest play of all the games. emerald is also great, but its genuinely a hard game even as someone whos been a fan of the series for years. i would say to start with hgss because they're my favorites, but they're so good it might raise the bar too high for all the other games pixel-art games.

if you prefer 3D graphics, but still like the 'run around catching guys and solving tile puzzles', i think sun and moon are the best of the 3D games! the story is engaging and a little more modernized so that there are actual cut scenes, i think the pokemon available are cute and the region is really pretty. i thikn after that, x and y is pretty cute! the story is less strong in comparison to sun/moon. importantly; every game in the 3D era has a new type that was not present in the pixel art era - the fairy type, so if you want to learn the MODERN type chart and balances, the 3D games are where you'd need to start.

finally, if you're not a fan of the 'catch pokemon run around region' type games, pokemon has a LOT of really awesome spin off games. my favorites are as follows...

pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky. its the strongest story the pokemon company has ever written, and im a big fan of the mystery dungeon style gameplay.

pokemon ranger (any ranger game!) the story and graphics are cute, and it focuses on rescuing/rehabilitating pokemon more than capturing them. really lovely expansion of the pokemon universe.

pokemon go, because its free! so if you dont want to download a rom, or sink money into a new franchise, its an easy way to get into it.

pokemon snap - this was actually my very first pokemon game i ever played! (never owned it though heha) but there was just a remake for the switch, if you've got a switch that is. the game focuses on photographing pokemon in their natural habitat, and its really quite cute. slow paced and fun if you're not sure about battling yet.

finally... if you weren't looking to get into games at all, pokemon art + fan creations are personally my favorite things in the entire fandom! artists and writers and fangame devs are the people who hold this fandom up, engaging with their creations is a great and typically free way to involve yourself... im sorry this is so long, i hope this helps!! and ppl are free to add on to this hehe

[writers-wrongs]

Have you seen Arkham Knight VR? Riddler's self-aware in it! Could have some existential horror potential if you wrote headcanons or something for that version of him as a yandere >:-D (or just about self-aware Eddie from the mainline games...?)

as a ddlc fan, i love self aware game characters. and if anyone in arkham knight was gonna be sentient, itd be him. unfortunately, i havent seen AKVR, so this is just regular arkham knight

yandere!self aware!arkham!riddler x gn!reader

-edwards the most intelligent man in gotham, of course he noticed that his life was a game. and over time, he learned how to manipulate the game around him and "see" into the outside world

-the disc hes on was sold by the original owner, and now gets passed from person to person from secondhand game shops. the disc is always returned because somethings wrong with it. nobody puts two and two together and realizes they only start having game issues when they look up answers to the riddles

-then you buy the disc. edward is mildly interested in you, as he is with everyone who buys his game, but he assumes it wont last when you struggle with his riddles. whatever, at least he can enjoy messing around with your game

-but then you dont look anything up. he watches you intently, he even hacks onto your phone to check if youve been searching answers, and youre all clear. sure, you struggle at some of his puzzles (who doesnt?), but you never cave and look up how to solve it, no matter how long it takes you

-now that hes poking around on your phone, he sees that youre kind of a shut in. you dont have many contacts, and the one social media you have is tumblr. but it looks like you fixate on him a lot, almost to an unhealthy degree. its flattering- of course someone as excellent as him deserves sycophants! and he especially deserves one as devoted as you! youre smart, and determined, and oh lord, hes in love

-you have things to do during the day, you cant spend all your time with him on the disc, so he listens in on you from your phone. theres not much to do when youre not playing the game, so its his favorite way to pass the time. when you get home and start playing, he tries to interest you in his sidequest over everything else. he even keeps an eye on you as you sleep! he has to make sure youre safe, after all

-when youre not playing, he focuses on finding a way out to you (or bringing you in to him). he needs to be able to hold you, to keep you safe himself, and if he has to drag you kicking and screaming into the game with him, he will. not that he really knows how to do that, but he'll figure out something

-on your end, you dont notice anything at first. maybe his lines when you play are a little... flirtier? but other than that, the game is fun. you feel particularly drawn to the riddler sidequest, hes your favorite character after all. then, you notice that his lines are strangely specified to you, making references to your interests and personal life. maybe its just reading your console? yeah, a fun little meta thing!

-but then it gets concerning. he calls you by name. not the name on your console, your real name. hes talking like he knows you as a person. hes saying how much he needs you, how much he adores your dedication to his riddles, your dedication to him. you decide this is too weird, you have to return the game. so you go to take it out, and-

-you wake up in what looks like the abandoned orphanage from arkham knight. you try to move, but you feel arms squeeze you tight

-"there you are, my dear player. we're going to have so much fun together"

[somegirlontheinternet135]

Ok but, how cool would it be if there was a click & point adventure game and dating sim based around The Beasts

Like, imagine you, the player, woke up in a dark, unknown forest. You don't know how, or why, you got there, but one thing's for sure, you don't want to stay for long, who knows what kind of horrors could be lurking in the darkness. . ? Quickly you make use of the environment, gathering wood & making a fire (via a minigame) in hopes it'll alert some cookies to your location, and while it doesn't work at first, it does give a certain someone, or something, a beacon to your location. . .

As you sit before the fire you just built, you begin to notice something was off. . . the forest you were in, it was quiet, eerily quiet, normally at night, many forest would be bustling with some sort of life: the sounds of night beasts, owls in the night, maybe the occasional cricket, but there was nothing. What only adds to this uncanny wood were its lack of creatures, not once did you encounter any sort of beasts on your journey. . . both these factors alone made you question what was really happening, is this all a dream? were you going crazy? questions were racing through your head, till finally, something snaps you out of it. . .

"Ooooooh!~ What do we have here?~"

"Has a little cookie come by to give me a visit?~"

A voice from the darkness pulls you out of your thoughts, jolting you onto your feet. Hearing that so suddenly within such a vacant space, you could've sworn you were alone. . ! You frantically look around, desperately trying to find the source of the voice, but the thing only laughs at you. . .

"W-Who's there?! show yourself!!"

"*Ehehe he he he HE HE HE HE!*"

"Try looking up here, darling~"

Your attention was slowly drawn to a tree behind you. On one of the branches, two heterochrome eyes staired at your from below, taking you off-guard, was that. . . a cookie? The creature made zero attempts to hide themselves as he jumps off the tree branch, over your fire. Light from the flames revealed their figure, they appeared to be some sort of jester, its figure & face making them resemble that of a cat. They do a bow before finally introducing themselves

"Shadow Milk Cookie, the world's favorite trickster~"

"Pleasure to meet you!"

In this scenario, the player is given two options, each of course having a different outcome:

Run Away

Sprinting away in fear will, of course, cause Shadow Milk to chase, eventually getting caught, though this does increase his interest in you

"*heh he he HE HE HE!* where are you going you silly little thing?!~"

"That was so much fun!~ I think I'm starting to like you already!~"

Standing Your Ground & Ask Questions

Respectably, you don't anything regarding the fallen heroes, but asking more questions does leave Shadow Milk upset

"H-How could you not know who I am?!"

"Shadow Milk Cookie, actor, playwright, dictator, does that not right a bell?!"

This's basically how the story starts. The player is isekaied into this strange world and are quickly met with the Fallen Heroes, who all woo the player with their charm & status in an attempt to find out how they got in, so they can do the same to get out. . . whatever that means. But one thing leads to another, and they all fall in love with the player, fighting over them. As for the player, they transverse through the strange world, learning of it and its secrets via minigames, hidden secrets, and puzzles, all while learning about the fallen heroes and their backstories. . .

I picture the game itself being a mix between one of those disturbing click & point adventure games (i.e. Sally Face, Fran Bow, and Little Misfortune) and a dating sim (i.e. Obey Me) which by itself, would cause major emotional whiplash, cause imagine going from seeing the most messed up sh*t to smooching your jester bf. For reference, think of the game as "Little Goody Two Shoes" something you should play btw!

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: The face from Minesweeper

Debut: from Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a pretty cool game! I like it. I went through my entire life not knowing how to play it, and then a few months ago decided “I will learn how Minesweeper works” and now I like it well enough. But even before I liked it as a game, there was something about it that was always charming! Even as a silly baby, I felt positive energy radiating from this game with an honestly horrific premise, because this grid of squares and numbers was Smiling at me!

The Face From Minesweeper may register as an Emoji to you, but it actually predates them! This strange creature is a Smiley. More than a mere smiling face, a Smiley is like a sort of animal. Everyone loved Smiley! You can think of it on the level of other fan-favorite animal, Dog. Just like Dog, Smiley got all sorts of merchandise! Toys, decoration, even smiling French Fries! One day, however, the magic day finally came when world leaders agreed it was time to domesticate Smiley.

Though many would have loved to have a pet Smiley of their own, it was decided that they were unfit for such a lifestyle. Instead, they would become beasts of burden... they would be Used. The selective breeding began! Over time, they became smaller, cuter. They gained a wider range of readable facial expression. Most importantly, they were now hardy enough to be sent all over the world countless times per day. And that is how Emojis came to be! Linked gene shenanigans also led to some shaped like animals, plants, objects, even symbols! Don’t worry about it. But if you are interested, I think they released a documentary about this in 2017.

After this section in which I deliberately transitioned away from smileys and toward emojis, I would like to immediately return to smileys if that’s okay. Thank you. The face from Minesweeper is always watching... but not in a scary way! In a nice way. The face is your buddy. If it ever feels too hard, you can click the face, and its square will be pressed in, and the puzzle will be reset! No shame in that.

I wonder, where does the face end, and its platform begin? Is the face even the extent of the entity? Maybe the entire Minesweeper board is just a guy, and that’s where its face is! Minesweeper is a whole character!

In that case, then, it is even funnier that the face goes :O whenever you click a space. It COULD be that it is in suspense, since any wrong move can end in disaster, but maybe it’s just because you are poking its body! And that’s a little Weird. Evidence: it does this even if you click a cleared, safe square! It is reacting to touch, not anticipation! There we have it, Minesweeper is a creature. Also, I like to use the ease of activating this face like a little digital puppet! It is fun.

Like any creature, sadly, it can Die. However, it is at least functionally immortal and only ever in danger of explosions! Unfortunately, it contains land mines. I am becoming slightly convinced that Minesweeper (game) is, in fact, a bizarre sort of medical procedure where you help to isolate the explosives embedded in this grid-based life-form’s body. The only way to save it, sadly. And sadly, if you are not a professional, Minesweeper and its precious Face will die... but it’s okay. We have more! Just press the face and reset the game and don’t tell anyone!

If you win Minesweeper, then congratulations! You don’t get anything yourself, really. But that’s not what it’s all about. Minesweeper isn’t about YOU, the player. It’s about Minesweeper’s Face, the main character here! And after achieving victory, it is Cool. And you helped it get here! It turns out Minesweeper is all about helping another person become their best self, the story of an average schmuck who, with the help of a clever stranger, can become the coolest in town!

Lastly, I would like to show you Minesweeper as it appears as a character, in the Roblox game Databrawl! I don’t know anything else about this game! Don’t ask me about it please! I just think this design is really fun and cool!

[beneathsilverstars]

@seifrin replied:

the party's board game preferences?

really funny of you to ask this bc that's actually one of the very first things i posted about when i was just getting into isat fandom!! but it was kind of all over the place and i know the characters better now, so here's a tidy list :3

Siffrin

Siffrin likes games that are casual and easy to pick up, and don't require a ton of strategizing. Their favorite game is Set, which is a card game where you race to be the first to find sets of matching or unmatching cards in a spread.

It's about speed and (flat) observational skills, so he's pretty good at it! He also likes silly party games that are less about winning and more about being funny or working together, like Quiplash or Charades.

Mirabelle

Mirabelle thinks it's fun to get dramatically competitive, and doesn't mind playing for a couple hours straight. Her favorite game is Bunny Kingdom, which is a territory-claiming game, but with cards that provide a lot of different ways to get points.

The artwork is cute, and it's surprisingly easy to learn despite its complexity because many of the cards say what they do. She would have fun foiling other players' plans and seeing the dramatic twists in the final points reveal! She also loves games that are about interpersonal drama, like Shadow Hunters or Mafia, and she's down to try most games because she cares less about the game and more about having a nice time with her friends.

Isabeau

Isabeau likes games that are complicated and highly variable. His favorite game is Dominion, which is a deck-building game with tons of expansions that introduce unique mechanics, so you can mix and match cards to get a different experience each time you play.

Even after he's decided to stop hiding his nerdiness, he's reluctant to actually put his all into winning lest his friends get frustrated, so he's more likely to decide on strategies that seem the most fun rather than the most effective. He also likes games where you have to read/predict your opponent, like Poker or Shadow Hunters, and games that take hours to learn and more hours to play, like Terraforming Mars. (Don't ask me about that game I refuse to learn how to play it.)

Odile

Odile can do complex strategy, but rather than memorizing a bunch of rules she prefers games that are easy to play, hard to master. Her favorite game is Azul, which involves collecting the right amount of the right color tiles to fill up your board in the right order.

It's fairly short and straightforward, but still with plenty of decisions to make as you adapt your strategy depending on what tiles are available. She also likes classic puzzle-y games like Scrabble or Jenga or Mancala. And she complains about Isabeau's long complex games, but when she gets into them she gets really into them, and can give Isabeau a run for his money.

Bonnie

Bonnie likes epic excitement! Their favorite game is Shadow Hunters, where players are secretly assigned the role of Shadow, Hunter, or Neutral, and have to figure out who to attack or defend as they work towards their unique win conditions.

Bonnie's not actually particularly good at it, but the random teams and random dice/cards level the playing field a bit, and even when they lose track of who's on whose team, it's fun to attack random people and it's fun to lose dramatically! They also enjoy card games, like Egyptian War / Slap or Mao, and rambunctious games, like... Egyptian War / Slap or Mao.

Everyone Together!

The whole group loves a good bit, so of course they're on that party game shit: all sorts of Jackbox, Cards Against Humanity with curated/custom cards, that game where one person writes a sentence then the next person draws it and then the next person looks at just the drawing and describes that, etc.

Everyone will play Dominion with Isabeau, but Bonnie and Siffrin will only play if there's not any expansion packs in use (or at least not any weird expansion mechanics). Bonnie likes using attack cards, Siffrin likes building huge eclectic decks, Odile likes building small streamlined decks, Mirabelle likes playing several games in a row with the same set of cards so she can try different strategies, and Isabeau likes using strange cards and unique strategies.

Everyone enjoys Mao (though Odile claims she doesn't). I'm breaking the rules by explaining this to you, but it's a card game played with multiple decks, with a similar structure to Uno except with some bonus rules, plus whenever someone wins a round they get to make up a new rule, and if you break a rule you draw a card. Rules like no asking questions, no playing even cards on even cards, meow every time you play a diamond, etc. Generally Bonnie and Mirabelle make rules that affect behavior rather than gameplay, Odile makes complicated rules that make it harder to play, Siffrin makes simple rules that make it easier to play, and Isabeau makes rules that balance out the mechanics currently in use. Everyone loves making Odile say weird things, and sometimes she pulls out a super ridiculous rule herself. Siffrin is the worst at remembering all the rules, but he doesn't care that much because struggling to remember the rules isn't an obstacle, it's the whole point of the game.

Shadow Hunters has something for everyone, and it's convenient that 5 players is a neat 2 Shadow 2 Hunter 1 Neutral split. Bonnie is more likely to attack at random if they don't know who anyone is, to keep things exciting, and Siffrin is more likely to not attack at all, because they don't want to accidentally hurt an ally. He gets a little stressed out by the drama sometimes, but it helps that he's playing a specific character. Isabeau's the best at the game, except he and Mirabelle both get really into dramatically holding grudges and such, so Odile's practicality and perception make her actually the best at it.

Siffrin likes playing Azul with Odile because it's very visual and straightforward, the two of them could sit there quietly playing five rounds in a row. Odile and Bonnie play Mancala together, and Bonnie Isabeau and Siffrin play Egyptian War. Everyone's willing to play Set with Siffrin; Mirabelle is the next best at it. Isabeau enjoys Bunny Kingdom the most after Mirabelle, but everyone will play it — but Bonnie gets bored halfway through and it's four player anyway, so they'll often team up with Siffrin. Isabeau never gets to play Terraforming Mars because it's one of the only games Mirabelle won't give a second try, and while Odile doesn't hate it she'd rather play a weird Dominion expansion.

[modmamono]

Getting people into Puyo Puyo. A lesson in etiquette.

[Edit: The video adaptation with updated script:

]

(Some tips on how to get people into Puyo Puyo and where to get them to start.)

Introduction.

First and foremost. My Tumblr post here is (perhaps counter-productively) for people who may want to get their friends and newbies into Puyo Puyo and not for said friends and newbies themselves. (Though you’ll no doubt get something out of this too.)

I just wanna instill some etiquette into people. Because way too often in Discord servers I see a group of people shout at a newbie to play their favorite Puyo Puyo game instead of trying to actually considering what the best Puyo game to get started with is for that newbie.

My goal is to try and help you get people into this series you like.

This is by no means a guaranteed method and should not be seen as such.

What’s Puyo Puyo’s appeal?

Generally speaking these are the one people cite when I ask them:

The characters.

The Artstyle.

Stories/Lore.

A puzzle game with personality. Similar to those of fighting games.

It's funny and charming.

Simple-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay.

Keep these in mind.

Do you know the person?

This is very important.

- If it’s a friend that shows interest in the colorful cast and the wacky words they shout  as the jellies disappear on screen in a pleasing rhythm, then don’t be shy encouraging them to try a Puyo Puyo game out.

Not all friends have everything in common. But if you’re friends and know enough about each other, that alone should do a lot of heavy lifting.

- If it’s a stranger or someone online you barely know then its best to play it safe.

You can ask a few questions what they look for in a game and maybe consult the bottom of this blogpost what game to recommend to them.

- A tip for both: If they show no interest, then just accept it might not be their thing. It’s disheartening, not getting someone into the thing you love, but that’s just life sometimes. Doesn’t mean you have failed, it just means you’ve been pitching to the wrong people.

Dos & Don’ts.

- This is a series where you come for the story/gameplay and stay for the gameplay/story.

You can sell the game on both as well. But if the person is inclined toward one over the other then sell them on story, gameplay, or even the aestatics or the characters and chances are they’ll grow attached to all the other things. No need to rush things.

-  Reign in your passion a little.

I’m not saying to not be passionate. But it’s possible you can turn people off to Puyo Puyo because you never shut up about it and keep trying to sell it to them.

This goes for anything really. Sometimes people just get sick of hearing a thing, and instead of checking it out, they’ll disassociate and distance themselves from it.

- Don’t oversell how tough the gameplay is.

Unless the newbie like to be challenged don’t tell them Puyo is hard. That can be discouraging.

You won’t believe how many people I see trying to get someone into Puyo Puyo and do this. You want them to get them into this series, right?

Most Puyo Puyo games have difficulty settings in the options menu anyway. Tell them there’s no shame to adjust it to their liking and switch it to another setting when ready.

- Be supportive and encouraging.

If they struggle with the game. Be kind and offer them some advice. Teach them some basic stuff to get through if needed.

Beating WakuWaku is already a huge accomplishment, don’t make that victory invalidated by saying it doesn’t count because they didn’t do HaraHara if you know what I mean.

There’s no shame in lowering the difficulty. They’ll get better eventually.

- Don’t force them advanced tactics right away or funnel them into competitive.

Let. Them. Have. Fun. First.

Don’t breathe down a newbie’s neck for not using GTR or whatever else stacking method. Let them learn and experience the game however they want to. And if they wanna ask for help, then provide that. Try not to preemptively answer EVERYTHING if they didn’t even ask in the first place.

When they’re ready for GTR, competitive, and the like, then they are ready. But they gotta make that call on their own.

- When you play multi-player with your newbie friend(s) try not to do this:

You wanna invite them into the series, right? Why turn them off like that? You don’t wanna chance and encourage them to try again.  Losing to a player is way more demoralizing then losing to the game’s AI will ever be, they’re just two different things.

But if you do play with your less experienced friends the games have handicaps. If you’re good at the game put your board on Spicy, and let your friend choose whatever they want.

- Soooo, uh, about the lore...

Generally speaking, don’t entice a newbie in with that unless they’re a lore nut (and even then I have my reservations).

I know most Puyo fans love that Puyo Puyo has lore and that’s a big appeal to the series, but hear me out:

I think that’s a terrible way to entice a newbie. It’s fun lore for sure, and ideally, they get into it eventually. But have you ever thought about how much lore there actually is per game?

Puyo 1, Tsu, and Sun don’t have much of anything.

Puyo~n has Doppel and her intrigue and amazing vibe. But when you peel off the layer there is nothing but fanon.

Box and Minna have nothing much of note.

Fever 1 is a new world but otherwise is just another Puyo 1, Tsu, and Sun.

Fever 2 and 15th Anni are actually the exception to the rule. And I will go into why later.

And the rest while they do provide lore. It’s all contained within a single game for the most part.

Most of the interesting stuff are from Novels, Drama CDs, old dungeon crawling games. Which is cool and all. But, for now, you’re only just pitching the game(s) to the newbie. That’s quite a bit away.

I just don’t think it’s wise to hype up the lore when they’re barely ever gonna see any of it. I’ve been around too. A lot of the lore goes over a lot of people’s heads.

That and I think it’s just more rewarding to let newbies piece things together themselves. It releases a really nice feeling in the brain that SEGA’s run actually has a solid continuity.

I hope I’ve made my case? This is probably my most controversial stance here. But I think it’s for the best. Puyo Puyo is a series with lore, but it’s not a lore focused series. (I feel the same about Kirby.)

Entice newbies with surface level things first. Like the funny characters or the surface level stories. They’ll get to the deeper stuff eventually when they’re hooked. Trust me.

Unless you know they’re the type of person that likes lore for lore’s sake. But in that case do please let them know most games aren’t upfront about it and they have to put in the effort to dig. And digging for the obscure can be fun.

- Don’t push your favorite Puyo Puyo games onto a newbie without a good reason.

Sometimes your favorite game isn’t the best to start with. And while I believe you could give a newbie any game and if it clicks BOOM they’re a Puyo fan now. I do believe some games are better introductions to get someone into the games.

I’ll get into what I believe are the best options later on in this post.

- Don’t overload them on things to keep in mind.

Give them no more then 2 things to keep in mind. Things like “PPT1 will have a nasty difficulty spike, so be careful” and “I wonder what your thoughts are on a certain moment”.

If you give someone too many things to keep in mind they might get distracted from the game to remember everything you’ve told them.

And I believe that covers it all.

Which games should you recommend to newbies?

I’ll give you a bunch of options. But I’ll let you know which ones I think are the best for a newbie along with my reasoning.

Best:

Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 & 2

No contest. These are just the best ones to start off with. Either one of these will do.

You may disagree for whatever reason, but the fact it’s a crossover with Tetris is its biggest point in its favor. If they don’t like Puyo Puyo they will have Tetris as a safety net. By default that’s the best.

That and it’s been proven that it has been a surprisingly good entry. Over half of the current fanbase started of with PPT1. Like that guy who makes those Puyo Puyo in a Nutshell videos. You know, that guy.

Also you can buy PPT2 on all current consoles, most other games are only accessible through emulation if you want them in English. That’s important because some people are just against emulation or just plain don’t know how to emulate things.

And if they like either of these games maybe they’re willing to try emulation to play more Puyo Puyo.

Also who knows, if they use the Tetris as a safety net maybe they’ll bounce back and later enjoy Puyo Puyo after all.

Good options:

Puyo Puyo Tsu/Puyo Puyo 2 (Most versions)

Puyo Puyo Tsu introduced the standard ruleset most other rules are based off. And that’s the ONLY rule it has. Which I think works to its benefit for a newbie.

While the game lacks much in the way character interactions (maybe recommend them the Super Famicom translation patch which does have those) it does have a goal reaching the top of the tower and beating Satan.

I think the tower is an excellent motivator to get good at the game. If they can beat Satan at the top I’d say they’re ready for any Puyo Puyo game to come.

My preferred version is the Super Famicom version called “Super Puyo Puyo Tsu” but I don’t think you can’t really go wrong with any version besides the Neo Geo Pocket Color one.

For the emulator averse they can buy the game on SEGA 3D Classics Collection on 3DS or the SEGA AGES version on Nintendo Switch.

Super Puyo Puyo Tsu is also available on Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES app. So if you have the basic package, you already have that game at your disposal.

All versions except the NGPC one are in Japanese, but I don’t think that’s much of a hindrance with this game specifically. Any version without the cutscenes is sorta alingual. Sure there’s Japanese text in the game, but of all the games, I think you can enjoy this one the most without having to understand it.

Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary (DS) (Precise Museum patch)

(Note, a Wii patch with a revised script is on its way.)

I think this game is a good introduction to the current day cast and has a ton of modes. So if basic rules don’t do it a newbie may find a mode that slowly eases them into more basic rules.

If you wanna 100% the game you gotta win 200 story mode matches. That’s a lot of Puyo, and that’s plenty of time to learn.

Do refrain from telling newbies that though. 200 is big number. Playing 200 without realizing it is more palatable then telling them you have to do 200 to beat the game. One’s fun, the other sounds like a chore.

Direct their focus on the cast, there’s a lot to chew on this game.

I would recommend, but...:

Puyo Puyo Fever 2 & Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary

These are the actual lore games. These games practically give you lore as a reward at every turn. These two games are the exceptions to my rule that you shouldn’t sell the games with lore to a newbie. And soaking all that lore in is a great motivator to play these games.

But we have no patches yet beside some out-of-date ones from Puyo Nexus. Which is the main problem (for Fever 2 especially).

Also, while these two games are a bit holy grail, their praises are rightfully sung. I’m a bit apprehensive calling them great entry points.

Fever 2 relies on the Fever rule. Which not everyone’s a fan of. I’ve been around and not everyone enjoys that rule (and anecdotally it overstimulates me). The Fever Rule has a ton of rules to it. But a lot of people were introduced to Fever 1 and became life-long fans so I don’t know, take my claim with a grain of salt. I’ve been told it’s an easier game then Fever 1 at least. Fever 1 does not play nice.

And 15th’s story mode relies on a roulette. Which doesn’t have to be a negative, but it is a game with a with a ton of gimmick rules. And while 20th is that too it gives you more freedom in that regard, which I think might be more beneficial to a newbie.

But any of the games above here are good places to start. One dishonorable mention to recommend to a newbie:

Puyo Puyo Champions

I’ve historically been nice to this game. But I don’t recommend it to a newbie.

It’s just Puyo 2 and Fever Rules at an admittingly cheap price. Not much to it.

You could argue that I gave Puyo Puyo Tsu slack in that regard. But my counter argument would always be: “What is the goal of Champions?”

This game is so competitive focused it hurts. No charming animations, the characters count instead of escalating their spells. Only good single-player content is hidden behind too many boring tutorials, which is watered down from the Nazo Puyo games.

Puyo Puyo Tsu you scale a tower and get an ending. Reaching the top and beating Satan is the goal.

Champions has nothing to offer besides online rankings. And as I’ve said before, don’t funnel a newbie into being competitive. They’ll do it when they’re ready. Let them enjoy the jelly game on their own pace first. Let them enjoy the characters.

And that’s all I wanted to say.

[minas-linkverse]

Ngl I was going to ask about Breath of the Wild but I’d thought you’d get a million of those asks lol. I was also torn between asking about Wind Waker, so whichever one you want to answer more is chill!!

haha yea I thought I'd get a million asks too! Somehow even now this remains the only botw ask, I guess people just figured it must've been sent already 😅

Now to actually share my thoughts on botw... Man I hope people don't get mad at me.

I did not like it!. The first play through I had was mildly exciting simply due to there being a whole unknown world to see, but after a while that gimmick wore off. I knew that if I made my way to the cool looking mountain or interesting abandoned building I'd just find a bokoblin and/or a chest with a gem. Whats the point of a gorgeous expansive world when all I find is the same...! 😫

Oh wow! A town with a whole new atmosphere and culture I sure wonder what I'll get up to h- Ok they have the same shops with slightly different items. Ok cool. There's like a few small quests for more inventory filler I don't really need. Cool cool.

I understand that the game is really fun for some people, they'll do quests just to get to play more of the game. They want all that extra stuff to upgrade armour and really get into the nitty gritty mechanics of the game... But I did not. It was not for me.

Also ouugh the puzzles...! My favourite part of Zelda games is the puzzle solving, but these were in no way satisfying and often more fun to just break. Why would I bother even trying to get into the devs heads when A) I could just break it and B) I have too many options to consider! I can't possibly get a clean eureka moment when everything from monster guts to just climbing could be the solution...! Where's the engaging simplicity of knowing exactly what you have and following the devs' clues to reach the solution!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaa--

I also disliked the story, all the interesting bits in it happened a 100 years ago and I feel like I arrived late with a starbucks. I also will not get over the weird ending cutscene!! After countless fascinating memories of Zelda having very complex emotions at Link... What do you mean you're just going to have a vaguely romantic "Do you still remember me?" YEAH I DO, I thought u disliked me! Which is a fascinating story direction I would've loved continued but OK! I guess we're ignoring that! Women cant be angry that makes them less cute and marketable, I guess!!!!

I... Sorry this is so ranty, I've been holding it in a long time. I think there's a lot to love in botw and I wish I wasn't so sour about it. Other people's love and excitement for it is wonderful and I hope they keep making the art they love. If its your first game in the series and got you into it, that's nothing to be ashamed about. I'm just a grumpy old man waving at cloud /ref.

Honestly I think botw could've been wonderful if it was a new IP. It feels all the Zelda stuff was sort of glued onto a concept that wasn't prepared to carry that mantle. It would've been better off with a new exciting world and cast of characters. It still wouldn't be a game I much care for, but the freedom that could've granted the developers would've been a treat to see.

It's worth adding that even though I dislike botw, I want to treat the characters of that game with respect and care in my comic. I may not love them in game but I can see the passion others have and I am committed to make something worth their time. Your special guys are safe with me. I have 0 desire to dunk on them, and instead wish to honour the love you all have. In a way I'm learning to love them myself through that.

[journalsouppe]

Ever since I accidentally picked up and played DGS, I knew I needed to play PLVSPW. I decided to alternate playing ace attorney games with professor layton games until I finished the main trilogies for both and could finally play plvspw, and it was so worth the wait. I love this game so much it is everything I could have hoped and more, so so so much more. Highly recommend to honestly anyone!!!

All of the Professor Layton stickers are from jordydrawsmerch which can be found here and here. All of the Phoenix stickers are by Peachcott!! Every other sticker is from Daiso!

Writing typed below!

Rating: 9.7 Played: Fa 2023 Port: 3DS Favorite? Y Replayable? Y Recommend? Y

Comments

AA stickers by Peachcott, PL stickers by Jordydraws

THE MUSIC???

WITHCES??? TALOS???

HIS NAME IS NOT FUCKING CAR ACCIDENT

I like the UI esp with how the stylus interacts with the screen

Omg the yiga

Omg traveling is easier AND they give you coin and puzzle hints

OH IM JUST NOW IN CORT AFTER THAT INSANE SEQ

WHAT IS GOING ON

LOVE maya’s model

THE REUSED ASPECTS IN DGS OMG

THE CUNTY POSE AAAA

THE PIPE WHACK LMAO

WHITE PAYNE

Love the design of labyrinthia

Im curious if nick and maya will be bombarded with puzzles

I LOVE how the 3D and tech of the 3DS are used to make more dynamic puzzles

A LIVE EXECUTION?

Lmao B&W LSOH moment (Kira ate flowers which is smth that happened in the original non-musical little shop of horrors movie)

SOME GUY

WHAT DO YOU MEAN MAYA AND NICK HAVE BEEN HERE FOR 5 YEARS

Cinderellia lol

Omg the book roof

Labyrinthia at night music is sooo pretty

Kira is the killer… right?

I am so stressed about Luke and maya

Hershel to see the storyteller??

THE PRINCESS TUTU AND DROSSELMEYER VIBSE ARE OFF THE CHARTS

Luke is too small for the defense table T_T

THE STORYTELLERS DAUGHTER??

THE BELL TOWER??

Curse…

LUKE NOOO

WHAT IS GOING ON?? T-T

LMAO NOT ANOTHER PARROT WITNESS

BARNHAM NOO

Top of town so pretty

Major shrek 2 vibes

Is that a bust of cabanela

Layton said lets go somewhere more private LMFAO

I love the nick and Luke dynamic… but at what cost T_T

LAYTON’S ??? AND HIS THEME AHHH

HERSHEL NOOOO

Obsessed with rouge’s design and tattoo

THE WAY I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW HERSHEL AHHH

Love the assistant/mentor switch

MAYA EATING RAMEN AND HERSHEL DRINKING TEA IN THEIR PIXEL ART

^ Maya copies other idles! luke writes in his journal and nick reads his paper!

LOVE darklaws claws!

the vigilante witnesses....

is it really a layton game if there's no tower

GOD DAMN HERSHEL love his sword fighting

omg who is bezella

will layton act as the prosecutor??

the battle against the professor is so nerve wracking

just learned why its called pl VS pw

GO OFF KIRA

ESPELLA AND DARKLAW AS KIDS AWW T^T <333

ooo darklaw's laws have the eyes on them

the "magic" is so complicated

i feel like eve the cat is v important but overlooked

WHERE IS LUKE I MISS HIM T^T

love the belfry search

ooo this is like princess tutu x tunic

this took a sharp turn omg

THESE LADIES T~T

FORK LIFT CERTIFIED LUKE LMAO

BARNHAM!

love eve's black outfit

YURI LETS GO

PROF??

EDGEWORTH??

Summary

This game is everything I hoped it would be. yes it's a Professor Layton crossover, but it also has the charm of DGS x Princess tutu x tunic. The ending was very layton-esque, along with all the reveals. I truly had such an amazing time playing this game. I was initially introduced to this because I heard that DGS was inspired by it, so it was my mission to play both aa and pl's original trilogies before playing. And I am so glad I did bc the wait was so worth it. You can absolutely see the influence this game and professor layton had on Shu Takumi. There's so much passion and creativity between plvspw an dgs that makes playing them all the more enjoyable. I loved how all the main characters interacted with each other, I especially loved how hershel and phoenix swapped assistants. The new characters were also so fun. Espella, Barnham, Darklaw, the story-teller, they were all so unique and enjoyable to interact with. The animation was stellar. This 3D style really works for both PL and AA and im so glad both series took inspiration from it. The music and art was phenomenal, this game honestly should win awards if it hasn't already done so. I also love how any character pulled into an aa game will have their gay moments: phoenix x hershel and espella x eve especially. I can't wait to make art or even write for this game, I will definitely add scenes from this to my ballet au ^^! What a phenomenal game, what a fun premise with the most convoluted layton-esque ending. It was so perfectly I highly recommend!!

[hwaightme]

Your fan, Yunho (part 1)

(part 2) (your fan ml)

🎮pairing: yunho x game developer!reader 🎮genre: fluff, slice of life, opposites attract, serendipity, humour summary: a bulletpoint-style wordstream of what it would be like if yunho was stanning you 🎮wordcount: 2.6k 🎮warnings/tags: language, reader is a developer, coding and gaming is life, wooyoung knows, yunho as a gaming enthusiast, reader is a serious introvert, business friend playing wingwoman, flirting in chat, reader is oblivious, yunho wants to be noticed, possible gaming dates, ateez have potential as twitch streamers, let me know if anything else 🎮a/n: Hello everyone! This is a wave I had in relation to 'Your fan,___', now for Yunho! Thank you everyone for your likes, comments and reblogs <3

You were a game developer, who started out quite early with simple arcade style games, and progressed to more complex rpgs story-focused fps games, which had given you recognition and helped you rise to where you were today.

And where were you now? Well, you were your own boss, a developer self-started Cogent Studio, in the heart of Seoul, working with some of your closest friends.

When you had the time and energy, you would attend cons, do interviews here and there, or join your gamer friends' streams to either play together if the game was multiplayer, or merely enjoy a peaceful couple of hours together, talking about the greatest love of your life - games and computer science

Other than that, you never really chased the limelight, nor felt the need to. So long as you could keep on doing what you did, you were happy.

This was why you were grateful that one of your friends was terrifically social media savvy, and could start a trend out of nothing if they wanted to.

They were normally the ones do give you nudges as reminders that "it was time to do some publicity"

This was exactly how you had stumbled upon a livestream which ended up changing your life for even better

It was a couple days after the official release of your studio's latest, rather ambitious project, Aenigmata.

This fever dream had, from initial character sketches to final implementation and server testing and the sort had taken a grand total of five years, with you repeatedly reworking one part after another as your skills improved and you found other experts to mentor you along the way.

On top of this being a career challenge, you wanted to be extra evil and create countless riddles and adapting puzzles, making them the way to have the highest chances to succeed in the more "action-packed" parts of the game.

So bent on wanting to create the perfect intellectual challenge, in fact, that you had dabbled in the implementation of machine learning into the game, to make the World of Aenigmata feed on your mistakes and challenges (to a limit, of course)

This strategy/shooter/rpg crossed with a science experiment had already done some rounds among enthusiasts and critics, being very well received, and commended for its "disruptive nature" compared to the current market.

You were not too bothered by the sales, seeing as your less multifaceted projects were doing well enough (unlike your distributors), but they appeared to be as stable as a game of such a style would allow.

Your extra sleepless nights dedicated to ensuring there were both single player and small party multiplayer paid off too - Youtubers and Twitch streamers were starting to get in on the fun and publicise the game you had made with your very own hands.

And on this particular day there was one livestream in particular that had caught the attention of your friend and marketing guru.

A certain 'Jeong duo' from an idol group by the name of ATEEZ were live on YouTube, actually had been for almost an hour, and lo and behold, were playing your game.

"Can you imagine, Y/N? THE Wooyoung and Yunho from ATEEZ, playing Aenigmata. This is like, gold for us. Can you believe how many potential buyers we could be hitting right now? Come on, take a look here-"

"Do they like it?" You deadpanned, not wanting to take your eyes off the code you were currently debugging.

Your friend wiggled her phone right in front of your face. "Y/N, this is IMPORTANT!!! This could bring us the BIG FIGURES if we use it right!"

Back at it again with the business-speak... you were glad that this was not your task to take care of. So to satisfy your now pouting marketing chief, you switched attention and repositioned the phone to take a closer look.

Oh no, they were handsome. Here lied your rationality. No, Y/N, we must stay focused, brothers, we must stay focused.

You actually bit the inside of your cheek to remind yourself that it, in fact, was not simp o'clock, and you had hot two-dimensional characters to design. Okay that brought you back down a few notches. Now for the...

Wait, they were pretty good! You took note of what stage of the game they were at, and called out for your friend who was texting on her other phone (yes, she was that type of boss lady)

"You said they were idols, right?" After receiving an enthusiastic confirmation, you rubbed your chin, pensive. "Okay you know what they are cool, I respect them. And look at that set up sheesh flexing that alienware..."  you trailed of, seeing as your friend began to lose you after the first sentence.

"Then how about you say it?"

"Didn't I... just do that?"

Your friend pinched the bridge of her nose.

"No, you dufus. IN CHAT."

"Oh."

After a couple more minutes of pointless back and forth, you were convinced. One could even say you were excited. Normally you would only make appearances in streams of people who you knew personally (even in chat) so this was a first. Even though you were going to be sending a message through the studio's account, it felt personal.

Here went nothing.

<cogent_studio> Happy to see you enjoying Aenigmata! Thank you so much Wooyoung and Yunho, ATEEZ hwaiting!

At first everything was quiet - honestly you were a little disappointed.

Well, it turned out to be lag, because after giving it a few more seconds, chat exploded, @ing you and the two members, saying that this was the world's most ambitious crossover in history.

This fanbase was wonderful, you decided.

"Wait... wait... DID THE STUDIO WRITE TO US IN CHAT?" The louder of the two exclaimed.

"Let me check... Oh my, Woo, yes they did, HELLO!!!" the one who you now knew to be Yunho waved at the camera.

He was about to leap into the air and never come down. His fans knew that he was pretty good at certain games, though still often attributed the title of gaming king to Yeosang, but what they did not know was that your work was especially meaningful to him, and your drive and wit made him look beyond the products. He was your loyal fan, and was not ashamed to admit it.

Of course, it was the studio account that had written in chat, meaning it could be anyone with permissions (as far as he could remember you had entrusted three people with rights to spreading culturally significant memes) but he could not help but hope that of all the staff it was you who had noticed him. So he tried his best to be ever so gallant and attractive, much to Wooyoung's amusement. His friend was well aware of Yunho not so subtly being starstruck by you, but so far was not wrecking havoc.

Your friend looked particularly smug when she saw a grin spreading across your face. And not while you were amidst work... well kind of related, but still, much further away from the centrepoint of your comfort zone.

What sealed the deal for you and kicked you over the edge and into checking ATEEZ out was when Yunho, allowing Wooyoung to take over the gameplay for some time, decided to try directly interacting with you.

Patiently waiting for every message from you. Asking questions. Gushing about your other projects.

Finally, Yunho thought, it was his geek side's time to shine. The more challenging part was not keeping up the conversation that was getting progressively more technical, but to stop himself from over sharing.

And that was HARD when he had your mains in various games down pat, memorized the funniest moments from streams where you were hanging out with your friends and had read up on the theories and conspiracies attempting to connect the various games you had released over the years.

He had found out about you through a group of game connoisseurs back in high school, and had not looked back since then. Mingi knew the best about all the ins and outs of Yunho's stanning (though it spread rapidly enough - not that anyone minded, it was cute; besides, you had expert and exclusive knowledge on such a grand variety of things in the industry, that sometimes a member would even Yunho in watching bits of press or streams)

Being your fan was a way for him to keep himself grounded and and connected to other parts of life when he was a trainee, when he had events back to back and was sometimes struggling to function.

Just seeing you, of similar age to him, out there, going through your own battles and coming out on top, continuing to hone your craft whilst ignoring any hate spat in your direction... that had motivated Yunho to go on.

To put it simply, it was had for Yunho to contain his inner fanboy. So he switched it up and instead acted like a gentleman.

At one point your friend even half-whispered "is this... a date?" To which you countered

"How would it be anything except business? He is talking to the studio, and I am merely a rep."

"Uhhh.... what did he say just now?"

Yunho had suddenly grown quiet, stumbling over his words a couple times - some observant fans had pointed out that his ears were growing pink. Why was he so cute and bashful all of a sudden?

Your friend leaned into the screen peering at the two ATEEZ members and the chat like a scientist into a microscope - "What is happening, I lost the plot"

Luckily for you, Wooyoung had found Yunho's behaviour and inaudible question entertaining, so he paused the game and placing a hand on the taller man's shoulder, smirked right at his audience.

"Yunho, I think you might actually be Sherlock Holmes with your deductions. Let's try it out. Who do we have the pleasure of talking to, could it be the Y/N herself?"

Oh. So apparently the style of your responses was enough for Yunho to figure out it was YOU?

More than enough, actually. He had seen you chat enough times to know your style.

You wanted to run and hide. Or more specifically, to lie and say "unfortunately not, this is her friend. But at the studio we are pretty much a hivemind so you could say you are talking to Y/N!"

You were about to send those exact words when your friend SLAMMED the back space and literally hissed at you

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, YOU FOOL???????? CAN'T YOU SEE?????? THIS IS CRITICAL!!!!!!!!!"

"Okay bro chill"

<cogent_studio> yes, indeed it is! No wonder you are acing Aenigmata

After that, Yunho's behaviour had noticeably changed. So did his body language.

He had adjusted his posture to be somehow even more proper, you swore his voice got slightly deeper, and he got more... competitive? With his own team mate?

It was almost as though upon finding out that it was YOU he was talking to he felt it to be his mission to impress you with his skills... at playing your own game.

Wooyoung had an unreadable yet sly expression, giving Yunho the occasional jab on the shoulder or giggling to himself.

As a wise man once said "this is kinda sus"

And that was pretty much how the next two hours passed. You had transferred the stream to one of your monitors, and during intervals when the guys were in hardcore focus mode managed to finish your debugging duties. This sort of contact was not as bad as you thought.

Once the livestream ended, with Yunho shining like a thousand suns when he saw a final message from you thanking them and hoping to stay in touch, you deflated.

Who was this social person and what did they do to Y/N? You desperately needed to lock yourself in your gaming lair and play some mind-numbing simulator. Just as you were about to clock out you caught the devious winks from your business friend who started this whole thing.

"Hello hello, I see you are free again, how are you feeling, darling?"

"Drained, tired, overwhelmed, was about to go hermit mode for the rest of the day."

"Ah brilliant, then I caught you at the right time. You have a call with ATEEZ's management at two fifteen in the afternoon tomorrow, don't worry I'll be handling the details there you just have to look pretty and do your big brain things. But if all goes well there, you will be having a gaming session organised with ATEEZ to promote their activities and your game."

Oh what the hell did you get yourself into?

Surprise surprise, everything did go well and you were to have an official scheduled activity with a major idol group.

You did not want to admit it, but inside you were shaking. This live would have an astonishing number of people compared to what you were used to, or at least a totally different type of crowd. Maybe there would be some of your diehard supporters here and there, but without a doubt 99% would be ATINY.

On the day you had met two new additions to the gamer squad, in the form of Yeosang and Mingi, wit the former recognising the brand of your gaming chair and complimenting it. Needless to say, you had labelled him as a homie straight away.

Just because they were apparently famous did not mean you went easy on them, oh no, they were with a person who had deliberated going pro into esports at one point.

And your good-humoured and well-balanced competitiveness paired with a genuine passion for the craft and activity had resulted in a record number of views - two disparate fanbases coming together, confused but enjoying the show nonetheless.

One of the most popular highlights from the stream ended up being you and Yunho's genius sabotage in Among Us, where literally everyone was clueless of who was impostor until you got to steal the victory. And another, that had gained more likes upon being turned into an edit was one from the couple of Overwatch 2 rounds you had played. Specifically, it was after you had solo carried your team to victory after their elimination and got MVP.

The edit was simple, and all it really showed was the MVP reel and Yunho's face cam. The caption did all the work:

"Get you a man who looks at you the way Yunho looks at Y/N getting MVP"

You rewatched that edit an embarrassing number of times. Fooling yourself into thinking that it was because it was just that funny (no, fam, no)

A couple of days after and your routine had gone back to normal, aside from a considerable increase in sales of Aenigmata, as well as your older games, and being mutuals with ATEEZ on Twitter.

But one night, marking nearly a week since the scheduled gaming session, when you booted up Steam again to pick your way to unwind, someone sent you a chat. Like they had been waiting for the your little status icon to turn green, all this time.

When you opened up chat, you did a double take. The username was of none other than Yunho, asking if you were free to play.

And thus began your story as an unbeatable duo.

You had finally gotten yourself a new gaming companion, while Yunho started falling for you, far beyond what was previously just being a fan. Now, he was getting to know the real you, and you could not be more attractive.

[theskoomacat]

i want to plug Pacific Drive real quick. i had a free day yesterday so i spent it in its entirety glued to the screen. i'm not proud. check out this game!!!!!!

it's kind of like a mix between STALKER and Firewatch (by vibe. in my head). (the Impact of Roadside Picnic on our society!) idk the official genre tags on the game but at its base it is a survival game with looting and crafting.

but. you're doing all that to spoil your beautiful princess (your maybe sentient cat that maybe will kill you eventually). you spend 80% of the time in your car, it's your defense against the elements and the Zone. the gameplay loop is fairly simple - you drive, you listen to scientists bicker over the radio, you loot, you lose half your car, you HAUL ASS, you get home.

the game offers a HUGE variety of stuff to explore, from anomalies to weather conditions to biomes to the weird flora/fauna to lore. there's SO much lore, idk who decided to write a blurb for every type of paint. huge game for people who love to collect stuff. and collecting stuff is sometimes a puzzle on its own because you need different tools (which are often interchangeable, thankfully, with varying efficiency).

and driving is very fun. i have a special condition called "Played Skyrim in formative years", so the mountains are a challenge to me, not a barrier. i enjoy the fact that driving being the focal point reshapes the world significantly (from the gamedev pov), because it is built to accommodate driving instead of just running around. the roads are the main focus of all the anomalies due to that, so frankly running around would be easier than dodging the roadblocks, but also you would fucking die. it's actually funny that i regularly find the roads by the concentration of anomalies instead of like. the road itself.

the game is pretty. the GIANT walls/lab megastructures blow my mind, they're so fucking huge. BUT. one problem i have is that there are too many nights. i have already toggled "Shorter nights" on, and still it feels like 60% of rounds take place at night (maybe i'm doing something wrong idk). yes, it is a challenge, but also i wish i could see the game?

the world itself is pretty fun. i have already mentioned STALKER, which is a very fair comparison since you're in a Zone filled with Anomalies. except this time the Zone is not a strictly "natural" occurence, which mixes this genre with the "fucked up mid-20th cent american science->military complex" genre. it is really interesting to see many different opinions on what the Zone is doing in the lore. and you can draw your own conclusions from interacting with it. it is as likely to harm you as help you, and most of the time it just Fucks with you (LIM shield ilu).

what hasn't i mentioned yet? the characters are fun, an old jaded scientist lady who's entombed herself within her creation, her ex-colleague and his bf/husband who stayed in the Zone to hunt cryptids, all lovely. the music is mostly good, but unfortunately there aren't too many tracks, so some get old really quick (i WISH i got tired of DOCTOR JUICE). but do check the radio from time to time, there are cool transmissions you can catch there.

idr if there was a difficulty selector anywhere, but you can make the game easier at will in the settings - keep inventory, restore the car when back home, etc. i wish i had known about these settings when i "died" at the EXACT moment i moved to another zone, because i both lost half my inventory AND was forced to continue my run due to that lmao. the game is Not easy tbh. the first time i was in the city with a hole in the center i couldn't climb out of there because it was pitch dark and my car was so so broken, it actually made me super frustrated. but when you learn all that stuff and actually plan for it and outfit your car with it mind, it all becomes manageable and enjoyable. it is decidedly not a horror game, but it Is unsettling at times. dense fog+bigfoot weather conditions made me SO paranoid, although i didn't actually see anything lol

so yeah, i totally recommend the game if you enjoy survival games. here are also some tips for people trying the game out for the first time, aka what I wish I had known:

In the beginning doing more runs (=bringing in more anchors) will be more benefitial than turning over every rock in every zone because a lot of good stuff is locked behind upgrades. One exception - quest zones with Perpetual Stability, you can explore and loot there for an hour if you want

Shorten the nights. It's not fun to stumble around blindly, especially not in the beginning while you're still learning

Hold T to teleport your car out of sticky situations and use Y to sort inventories. idk why they don't tell you that

PLAN. Look at the resources in each location has before launching and bring extra instruments/raw materials in accordance

Invest into better batteries and renewable energy, it gets more and more important as you progress. You don't really need to upgrade the gas tank until you've upgraded the engine, unless you spend 50% of the time trying to crawl up a mountain with summer tires (off-road tires are the shit)

Skip the crowbar, the impact hammer and scrapper can do everything it does

Dying is not super scary aside from losing progress, you just lose your inventory and maybe some attachments, but you will get an opportunity to find the wreckage of your car on a different run (orange tombstone? icon) and to loot it

[iconicanemone]

Two things I wanna know! (feel free to ignore obviously ^^ )

What are your top 5 favorite characters and why are they your favorite? Could be current favorites, favorites over the years that you still like, favorites in general, etc. Also any media

And/or gimme 1-5 of your ocs - whether they're your favorite, most recent, the one you've been having fun with recently, etc. Tell me some fun facts about them, and why you picked them!

Hope you're having a great day/night - and remember to stay hydrated!

Okay let’s try to do this

Favorite Characters:

GoodTimesWithScar from Mcyt - A cartoon character in the best of ways. He’s a conman who can and will get you to hand your pants over, and will die 2 seconds later attempting to fly away. The artist behind Scar is also a big reason why I love him, with his artistry and determination in the face of hardness.

Papyrus from Undertale - A boisterous man with a love of puzzles and good puns, who is determined to make the best of his situation with the people around him. I’d say he was my first friendship crush that i thought was romantic before I realized I was aromantic.

Stan Pines from Gravity Falls - Another conman, an old geezer, with a heart of gold. He made many mistakes in his past, and tried for decades to fix them.

Bucky Barnes from the MCU - His life was torturous as the Winter Soldier. And while I love his life of recovery afterwards, I’m fascinated with the man before he fell from the train, and how he reacted to the war, and his first reprieve from Zola. I’m more in love with Bucky’s story tbh

Tobias from Animorphs - I’d say he was one of my first favorite characters. A boy trapped, but learned to make the most of it, even through extreme difficulty and strain. The way he learns of his heritage is one of my favorites. His books in the series are the ones I keep coming back and rereading. And he’s who I point to when people ask me about the characters I’m drawn to.

My Own Characters:

Annabelle - Set in the Pokémon world, Annabelle’s story is one about grief. She’s unambitious, but ends up on a gym challenge with her partner Jacob the Furret. On her path, Annabelle makes friends, both Pokémon and human, and learn more about herself, and of the land she lives in. No current publication of her story is out yet.

Eliza - Set in the world of Minecraft, Eliza’s story is about escaping. She, along with a large group of other Users, are under the watch of the Operators. The Operators set tasks for the Users to do, with rewards. But these tasks aren’t innocent, with some pointed at giving grief to other Users. Eliza played their games at first, but no more. Now she’s trying to escape, to hide herself from the Operators. This has a Story in the works

Murray - one of my oldest OCs, Murray is from the world of Wings of Fire. Son to an icewing and a seawing/nightwing, he is second youngest of 6, and twin to his sister Mil. Mil is an animus, and loves Murray very much. But they never had any boundaries growing up, so Mil had been enchanting both of them with no input from Murray. After an accident that crippled Murray, he had enough of Mil, and refused to let her heal him with her magic. They ended up being separated on Murray’s request, and he ended up thriving afterwards, finding his passion in the mechanicals. I really enjoy his design, especially his wheelchair aspect.

DragonSona Anemone - You ask me what my favorite animal is, I’ll reply with “Flamingos and Dragons.” This is the combination of the two. A pink feathery bird-like dragon, with chimes that hang from its horns. It loves to sing and dance, and I’m planning on making some sort of costume of it!

Jee - You ask me which of my oc I’d love trinkets of in real life, Id say my jerboa oc Jee. In fact, I do have a trinket! A plushie. I love its simple design, its color palette, and it’s cuteness!

Thanks so much for sending this ask!

[ghostoffuturespast]

hey ghostie i was gna get specific for the ask game but I wanna know *all* of it now, the acronyms, the full names, all of em! are they for cyberpunk or other fandoms? no matter how much there is to know, i wanna know! talking about an idea helps a lot, i speak from experience! thanks for the mention, ill get on the wip game soon, too! ❤️

WIP Game Here

Thank you for the ask! I appreciate it :) They are all Cyberpunk 2077 things lol. I’ve largely been a lurker in other fandoms until this one, and this is the first one that finally compelled me to make stuff and that I’ve had the bravery to share. Don’t have many snippets at the moment, all of what I have so far is already out there. Since you asked for all of them though, I shall dish and give you a bit of a peak behind the curtain on how all this got started…

(I’m sorry, this got very rambly.)

And def tag me when you do yours! I will come find you and your wips! 🧡

SIG - So It Goes

(The title is based off the radio song from the game that you can listen to on Morro Rock. Never officially released and credited to the fictional band Fingers and the Outlaws in the game. Officially sung by Ryan Kattner, the front singer of the band Man Man.)

SIG is my current V/River conspiracy theory long fic that I’m working on, and the project is coming up on its two year anniversary. It’s also my first fic. I’m hoping to wrap it up this spring so I can move on to other creative endeavors. There are a lot of art projects, fandom and non-fandom related, that I’ve held off on because of this and I miss those hobbies. I also feel like I’ve been missing out a lot in the writing corner of the fandom too because a lot of new writers have popped up on the scene since I started (back when there was still a monopoly on the tag, but that’s a different story) and everyone else seems to be having fun reading everyone else’s fics, except me… Reading’s complicated for me right now. Writing this had a lot of ups and downs, but overall I’ve loved telling this story, learned a lot, and I’m really proud of it!

I think most people get into fic writing for the ships, the romance, the smut, the processing of internalized trauma, a more satisfactory ending, weird niche interests… And don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of appeal with all that, and definitely those aspects in my own work. But this whole thing got started because of conspiracy theories. I fucking love mysteries and puzzles, so after playing the sun ending and then I spotting Mr. Blue Eyes on the balcony during the conclusion of Dream On, I just about lost my damn mind. I went down the rabbit hole, spent hours reading shards and messages in the game, combed reddit theory posts, and started picking up on all the hints and foreshadowing of something larger looming throughout the game.

I initially didn’t have any answers when I made the decision to start this fic (fuck, high probability I still don’t), it was largely me brainstorming and trying to figure out what kind of story I wanted to write. Seeing if I could even piece things together. But in the process of thinking all that through, I came up with this little theory. I thought it was pretty mind blowing at the time (still think it is) but it’s been my little secret since I got here and I’m very anxious to finally share it.

Most people probably would have just written a theory post and been done with it, but I decided to turn mine into a fan fic lol. Which may or not have been a mistake, we’ll see. This is either gonna be game changing or everyone is going to think it’s dumb and I’m gonna be wearing a dunce cap for the next fifty years.

River Ward. The other half of my reason for writing this fic. I actually wasn’t sure if I liked him at first, it took me a while to warm up to him. But the more I got to know him, the more I started to like him. The more he grew on me. He got hotter over time. Plus, I’ve got a fondness for detective characters and unusual coats, so I should’ve seen it coming.

River’s gotten a lot of flak from this fandom. People claim he’s boring. He’s a cop, so acab. Being unemployed and living in a trailer park with your sister, niece, and nephews isn’t a particularly redeeming quality. I don’t agree with most of those statements, but I do agree with the folks who do appreciate his character, that in terms of development, he absolutely got shafted in the game. This fic is also an attempt to rectify that.

For as underdeveloped as his story arc was, there’s a lot of nuance to his character that I think gets glossed over by the game and most people. We didn’t get much, but out of what we did get, it’s been interesting trying to piece a story together that’s in line with what we got. And I did mention earlier that I like puzzles.

I’ve noticed that a lot of folks tend to lean very hard into the cop aspect of his character, but as far as I’m concerned, River Ward doesn’t give a shit about the law. Conducting an off the record investigation, intimidating a confidential informant, illegally obtaining evidence, breaking into a restricted lab, committing arson for your ex so she can pass a medical exam, conducting another investigation after being suspended; those are not the actions of a man who holds the letter of the law above all else. Those are the actions of man who is determined to get to the bottom of things, and protect people, all while navigating a system that is anything but equitable or fair. They are the actions of a man who is willing to go above and beyond for the people he cares about, even to his own detriment. His own safety. For River Ward, it was never about the law, it’s about justice. And pursuing that sometimes involves breaking the rules.

River is also Pomo. Which is something that was only added in subsequent patches, heavily glossed over in the game, and is only disclosed if you choose to actually romance him. But he’s Indigenous. Native American. And yet he still made a conscious decision to join the NCPD. Given the historical participation by law enforcement and government institutions in North America, and around the world, in the cultural erasure and mass genocide of entire nations, tribes, and communities of people. And given the current state of issues regarding law and judicial enforcement on tribal lands, I think River's character is a rather poignant reflection. Of wanting to good, of wanting the world to be better, but being confined in systems that simply won't allow that. There's a billion other little details I could ramble on about, but his character had the capacity to walk a very fine line of complexities which the game never really did justice to.

Diversity and representation in media are important to me, and I want this fic to reflect that. Being bi-racial, I didn’t get very much of it growing up, so if I can provide representation, even in some small capacity, I think it’s better than nothing. And while I don’t know if I’m achieving that, well, shit if I’m not trying.

I wouldn’t say this story was really meant to be original, but rather to fill in the gaps on the story we got and for me to practice writing. Practice telling a story. CP2077 is a violent game set in a violent world. And I somehow managed to start writing a story that accidentally ended up being a love letter to aikido. (Much to my chagrin. It’s everywhere. In everything. I cannot escape it.) Aikido is a martial art that translates “to the way of peace” or “the path of harmony.” Yet again, another study in dichotomies. How can a martial art, an art form designed to inflict violence, be peaceful? Aikido is as much of a martial art as it is a philosophy. We train to practice and learn that philosophy.

One of the major themes I’m exploring in this fic series is the nature of violence. What it is, the forms it takes, how cyclical it is, that it is a relationship - violence requires your participation. So the question ends up being: how do you break cycles of violence when you live in a world where you are beholden to it? V and River are very much two characters that are caught up in cycles of violence. Will they find peace? I don’t know, but maybe they can find out together.

From The Top

(This one isn’t named after a song. I just decided to start from the beginning.)

From The Top is the VP project I started up last spring where I’ve been taking storyboard style photos of all the main missions. Plus whatever else I feel like. I take all of my photos on PS5 in vanilla photomode and randomly started snapping pictures just because. I did landscape photos, shared a few. Got a bit of nice feedback from people who cared to look and then started branching out. I eventually got to the point where I started a new playthrough for the sole purpose of snapping photos.

Taking VP is very different from writing for me. I don’t have to think about. I don’t agonize about making sure every tiny detail is just right, because for the most part I don’t have very much control It’s candid, intuitive, experimental, it’s straight up play. I simply wait for opportunities to present themselves and capture whatever I think looks or feels interesting to me. It’s easy for me to walk away from it if it doesn’t do well when I post. Unlike my writing, there’s no ego attached to it.

I’m getting to the tail end of this project, I still have a couple of the base game missions to get through, but I’d also like to do Phantom Liberty as well. Not sure what my VP career is going to look like after this, might go into soft retirement. But that’s okay.

NR - Night Running

(Named after Night Running by Cage the Elephant)

Is a sleeper wip that’s currently in the notes, brainstorming, and kitchen drawer phase. It’s part 2 of my Nothing Comes Before Night City series. So It Goes is part 1.

It takes a long time for me to mull over and ruminate on ideas, so this document is largely just a repository for notes and thoughts. Jamming the utensils in the drawer until I’m ready to organize them. I have a very broad idea of what I’d like to happen in this fic, key moments I’d like to hit, but there’s still a lot of refinement that needs to happen, and stories this involved require me outlining. I do already have a running set list of songs to draw from though.

Les Preludes

(Named after Les Preludes by Franz Liszt)

Another sleeper wip, also in the brainstorming phase. These are meant to be one-shots or short stories from the Nothing Comes Before Night City series. Moments I mentioned in the series, but can’t fit into the larger story. Character studies and background lore from V, River, Johnny, Jackie, a couple of OCs and whatever else I can think of.

I will probably start casually working on these after I finish SIG and while I’m outlining NR. I’d like the series to go in chronological order. Should be fun. And I think it’ll be good practice for being more concise. Unlike, this response...

If you stuck around for this TedTalk and made it all the way to the end, thank you! 👻

[ben10randomau]

Small bios for the aliens :]

Fourarms: full of (unhealthy) optimism! Tries his best to be a good leader and friend. Loves to paint and do puzzles in his free time and is like a fun older brother.

Heatblast: quiet mostly, very much one of the therapist friends. Loves to take his time to enjoy things. Loves to meditate with Diamondhead and relax.

XLR8: child at heart (mainly cause he's the youngest). Loves to ramble about random facts he knows, and is very hyper. Loves to watch movies and shows with Stinkfly and talk about how unrealistic things are.

Diamondhead: tries to keep everyone calm, another therapist friend. Not much of a fighter, talk first, fight if needed.

Cannonbolt: short circuit and gets upset easily. Doesn't like much hanging out with the others besides XLR8. Fight first questions later.

Overflow: very emotional, but he just cares alot. Worries for his friends and wants everyone to be safe. Is fascinated by earth and its wildlife.

Greymatter: very confident but not to the point of being mean. Acts more of a parent figure to the others. Doesn't mind helping the others with things. Like to play games (mostly chess) with XLR8.

Upgrade: stern and serious. Would rather be alone, working on tech. Mostly hangs out with Stinkfly and XLR8. Taught everyone to "fight better".

Wildvine: has no shame, loves to be out there. He can be chill when he needs to, loves the plants on earth and knows many things about them. Doesn't really know what personal space is but he's learning.

Stinkfly: the "mom" of the group. Takes care of everyone, therapist friend. Loves to fly and explore the world, tries his best to make everyone happy. Pushes himself to much but he's working on relaxing more.

[thetypedwriter]

The Brothers Hawthorne Book Review

The Brothers Hawthorne Book Review 

You know, this book is pretty good! You might be taken aback by my surprise, but Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ series about the wealthy Hawthorne family has been fun at best and poorly characterized at worst.

The entire series has been carried on its entertaining elements: from the puzzles, riddles, and enjoyable (albeit predictable) twists and turns, only the plot and its labyrinthine lines has made these books enjoyable at all. 

However, this book tones down the puzzles and focuses a little more on the characters, a recipe that works really well for me and what I’ve essentially been begging Barnes to do since the first title, The Inheritance Games. 

This novel, called The Brothers Hawthorne, is a misnomer. It’s only about two of the brothers, Jameson and Grayson, leaving Nash and Xander as one-dimensional as they’ve always been. But hey, I’ll take it. Two brothers getting some characterization is better than the zilch we’ve been getting in previous books. 

The book alternates POV’s between Jameson and Grayson, chronicling different plotlines of them trying to solve two very different mysteries.

Jameson’s story follows a rather thin chain of events where he gets entangled with a secret club called The Devil’s Mercy. The club boasts clients of only the rich and powerful variety, a club that Jameson can’t help but be tantalized by. 

Jameson’s chapters simply follow him trying to get into The Devil’s Mercy, gain the attention of the man in charge, the Proprietor, and then solving a puzzle put forth by the Proprietor against other competitors for Vantage, a Scottish castle that belongs to Jameson’s estranged father. 

The focus on Jameson, for lack of a better description, is boring and ridiculous. It’s in my opinion that Barnes couldn’t think of anything better for Jameson to do than finding more rich people who are also hungry and who also love to play games. I like the bits with Jameson and his father, but there weren’t enough scenes of them.

Unfortunately, only a handful are sporadically sprinkled throughout the book. If there had been more of Jameson coming to terms with his complicated relationship with his mysterious father, it would have been much more interesting than anything dealing with The Devil’s Mercy. 

Grayson’s plotline, on the other hand, is handled with much more care and consideration. Even though the stakes are much lower (no Scottish castles or jumping onto bell towers) it's a hundred times more intriguing because I actually learned about Grayson’s emotions, his ties to his family, and his flaws. With Jameson, you kind of do, but it’s shallow and not nearly as deep as Grayson’s begrudging affection for his half-sisters. 

Grayson’s story essentially revolves around keeping the true nature of Sheffield Grayson (his father) dead and buried and away from his sisters. He sabotages their efforts in learning what happened to Sheffiled Grayson with the mentality of protecting them. However, the more time he spends with them, the more his affection—and his guilt—grows. 

While not the most novel of plotlines to exist, the emotions feel real at the very least. It’s the first time in the entire series where Grayson and Jameson feel like different, distinct people to me and not just pretty archetypes for Avery to agonize over.

Grayson’s family dynamics fascinated me much much more than any cockamamie game Jameson was playing in England because he’s constantly hungry due to an inferiority complex stemming from childhood. 

The relationships Grayson builds with his sisters and their mother, in addition to coming to terms with the fact that he’s not perfect and certainly not okay, is a heavier reckoning than Jameson trusting Avery with a secret that’s not that deep and not that interesting. 

Speaking of Avery, her bits were so painful that it hurt. 

Every time Jameson or Grayson mention her I wanted to retch. Her and Jameson are just so perfect together. Perfect to the point that it’s unrealistic and fake. Every time Jameson solves a riddle, Avery is right there with him, equal in terms of logic and intelligence. 

I get that Barnes wants to portray Avery as smart, but the idea that they’re completely and utterly synchronized every single step of the way feels so paltry and disingenuous that it makes me actively dislike any part of the book that contains both of them.

Jameson on his own is tolerable. Jameson “burning” for Avery and “breathing” for Avery is absolutely stupid. Thank goodness she was just a side character in this and didn’t have her own POV. 

Other than the complaints about Avery, The Brothers Hawthorne is an enjoyable read. Could the characterization be more complex and sophisticated? Yes. Is the plot pretty foolish and duplicitous? Yes. Is it more enjoyable than the last few books of the same series? Also, yes. 

Will I read the next installment? Unfortunately, yes. 

While The Brothers Hawthorne is a step in the right direction, these books are still more candy cotton fun than true substance. You know what though? Sometimes that’s okay. Not every book you read has to have an intricate plotline with heavy elements and intense characters. 

Sometimes books can just be fun. 

Sometimes all you want is cotton candy. 

Recommendation: The Brothers Hawthorne is probably my favorite book in the series since The Inheritance Games. If you’re still on the Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ bandwagon, don’t jump off now. Read The Brothers Hawthorne and enjoy the morsels of characterization that get tossed your way. 

Score: 7/10

[astra-galaxie]

hello idk if ur still doing them but for the ask thing,, can i rq ★☆■♡♥♦☯▼ൠ with celine georges 🙏 super random character ik she is my absolute lifeline and seeing new takes of her is rlly fricking cool

I’m always open to coming up with some headcanons! That being said, let’s see what I have for Celine…

★ - sad headcanon

Celine was rejected from several universities when she was trying to pursue her education in science and inventing. She kept being denied because people didn’t believe a woman should be working in such a field and that she would be better suited staying home and supporting her husband. But Celine didn't want a husband or to become a housewife, so she continued applying to every university possible until she was eventually accepted. However, the anger she felt from the discrimination never left her, especially not when she continued to face it throughout her schooling.

☆ - happy headcanon

After defeating the Chessmaton, Isaac assisted Celine in developing a new program cylinder for it. While he might not understand the science behind the machine, he does understand chess and how to win. He played many games against Celine to help her adapt the program to create an unbeatable version. The two also enjoyed playing a few rounds for fun when not working on the Chessmaton.

■ - Bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon

Celine keeps her spaces relatively clean and organized. Of course, there are occasions when messes can pile up, but she always makes time to clean them up. When it comes to displaying her inventions, she takes pride in everything looking its best by ensuring her machines shine and don’t have a screw out of place!

♡ - romantic headcanon

Celine’s biggest regret was letting her jealousy over losing to Greta overshadow her love for the other woman. Of course, Celine was upset that she had lost the World Exhibition, but she was happy that Greta had won. Unfortunately, Celine’s jealousy took over after the winner was announced, and she regretted everything she said to Greta, ultimately destroying their friendship. Celine spent a long time trying to come up with the right words to apologize to Greta, but nothing ever felt right, and sadly, she never got the chance to make amends for her past mistakes and show Greta what she really meant to her.

♥ - family headcanon

She has older brothers, some of whom also became inventors. They used to leave their textbooks around the house, and Celine would read them. She loved learning about mechanics and science. Eventually, her brothers started letting her help them with some of their smaller projects, and Celine knew she wanted to become an inventor one day and show the world that women could do things just as well as (if not better than) men.

♦ - quirks/hobbies headcanon

Celine loves masking puzzle boxes. Some are simple enough for children to solve, while others could take adults hours. She enjoys challenging herself to make the next box more complex than the last. She also makes other brain-teasing puzzles, some of which no one has been able to solve.

☯ - likes/dislikes headcanon

Likes:

Greta

Mechanics

Chess

Coffee

Dislikes:

Discrimination

Heels, corsets, big dresses… Really, anything that’s uncomfortable for her to wear

Cheating

Stealing

▼ - childhood headcanon

Growing up, Celine was the biggest tomboy. She was never drawn to “girly” things like dresses, dolls, or tea parties. She’d much rather be outside playing in the dirt, riding her bike, and playing sports with other kids in her neighbourhood. Her mother always tried to get her to dress up and look pretty, but the efforts wouldn't last long, and more than one dress was ruined beyond repair. Eventually, her mother gave up trying to make Celine look like a princess and let her wear what she wanted.

ൠ - random headcanon

Oh! I’ve got the perfect answer for this one! Finally, I have a reason to tell it!

Charlie and Maddie’s son is named after her. I always wondered where the name “George” could have come from, and one day, when I was revisiting old MotP cases, I remembered Celine’s last name was “Georges.” This led me to make the headcanon that Charlie picked the name George for his son to honour his lost friend and fellow inventor, Celine.

It's fitting that this character was requested since I will soon start writing Century Mile in my story. I have always liked Celine’s character, and she was one of my favourite inventors at the World Exhibition. Thank you for the request, and I hope you enjoyed the headcanons!