#made this a page too from his stats if u ever want to reference it!

[guttersniper]

things your muse will notice about mine

what they look like. hard, sharp, and rough. mutt is small (4'7.5") and slightly underweight, but lean and sinewy from extensive travel, rough living, and exercise. despite his size, he’s a hard-worker, insisting on doing manual labor and other chores and tasks; has what could be referred to as farm kid strength. if you know, you know. his arms and legs are long and skinny, a little too skinny, but wiry muscles are built up along their lengths. once in a stable environment, his limbs, face, and stomach will gain a healthy weight, though he remains lean and flat. call it tough meat. narrow shoulders are oft curved inward, usually in a protective manner to make himself smaller and inconspicuous. he holds the most tension in his shoulders. he does tend to straighten up and broaden them, reminding you of a soldier’s posture. he typically stands with his hands in his pockets (jacket or pants) or by his sides.

his face is probably his most noticeable attribute. thin and narrow cheeks absent of any childish fat. his lips are chapped, both from weather exposure and from chewing at them when thoughtful or unsure. he usually has a good number of bruises around his face and body—whether these fights were initiated by him, or whether they came about through self-defence, varies. unruly eyebrows, could be described as almost bushy. dark, richly brown eyes framed by long lashes, with dark circles underneath them. the veins in his eyelids are increasingly pronounced if he’s been sleeping particularly badly. they look dark and smudged, appearing bruised. decently large, as well as usually being sharp and attentive, perceptive. he has an intelligent, yet angry and cagey, gaze. he always looks like he’s thinking, and can often be seen with a thoughtful pinch between his brows. they can sometimes look vacant, a soldier’s thousand yard stare. they’re not sunken into his face, but they don’t protrude noticeably, either.

his sharp facial features are accentuated through his thinness. resting expression is either a small frown, a flinty stare, fixed neutral, or something eerily unreadable. despite all this, you can still tell he’s young. due to these factors and with that in mind, he takes on an almost ageless appearance—some think he’s older than he is, some think he’s younger. his hair is dark brown, usually always messy. not quite bedhead-messy, but plainly unkempt. he gives himself his own haircuts, so the ends can be a little uneven. even in a stable environment, it will be rare catching him with entirely “nice” hair. typically right after he wakes up and wets it to comb into place will it be that way, and it will get mussed/wind-swept throughout the day.

regardless of the historical period, his fashion puts comfort, necessity, and ease-of-movement above all else. jeans (or any other past knee-length pants), dark/neutral colors, hoodies, sweaters, jackets (leather and denim), white tanks acting as undershirts, waffle thermals, henleys, belts, and flannels are staples. he doesn’t like standing out. always wearing a watch. layers everything; likes clothes that are a tad big on him. has he ever had clothes that fit him properly? who knows. his clothes are worn and thrifted/hand-me-down. he will have difficulty letting them go, if the time comes, and even refuses newer clothes to replace his new clothes if he thinks they still have some wear in them. he doesn’t like to wear shorts. not much skin is showing. this is both practicality and self-consciousness.

what they smell like. like outside. it really depends on the last time he was able to take a shower. typically, like a mix of dirt, stale cigarettes, sweat, unwashed clothes, and that smell that comes after handling old metal. sometimes, blood and gunpowder. tends to have lingering street smells on him, depending on how strong they were and how long he was exposed to them. sometimes those are good, sometimes those are bad. (if you want to be cute about it, tell him he smells like a wet dog. because he probably does. a little. though that probably comes from hanging around actual dogs.) if he’s in a more rural area, these smells will be slightly different. when washed, generic soaps, deodorants, and shampoos with plain, clean scents. his clothes should smell nicely freshly-laundered, then, too. being clean and staying that way for a while is a dream of his.

what they taste like. he’ll kill you.

what they sound like. naturally raspy and kinda low, but still distinctly prepubescent. firm, sharp, like a door closing. stern. very deadpan. little wiggle room in how you can read his tone as when he’s speaking. he likes being with others and listening to people talk and hearing their stories, he can and does make friends with anyone, but usually he is quiet and often doesn’t have someone to speak with. prone to short, clipped sentences and monosyllabism. sometimes he goes through periods where he doesn’t want to verbally speak. disuse adds to the hoarseness of his voice. if you can get him going about something, and he’s in the mood/interested, and he likes you (really isn’t hard to do, contrary to popular belief), you could have a nice conversation with him.

as a budding polyglot adapt at adopting different personas for survival reasons, mutt is naturally gifted at mimicking various voices, including their respective accents and dialects. that is, as long as he has had adequate exposure to them for the measure of infiltration necessary to whatever goal he has in mind, which is usually fitting in and avoiding unwanted questions. he has fine pitch control, understands the effects that rate of speech has quite instinctively, and also has finely tuned oral motor control that makes it almost easy for him to glide between strikingly different accents/languages without a hitch. too bad he can only do so much bass. if someone is perceptive enough, they will recognize their—and their social circle’s—body language, accent, and facial expressions being absorbed by him to better fit in. he mimics people as both an overall survival technique and a masking strategy. he won’t drop the façade unless he’s comfortable with you. far as you’re concerned, if you’re hearing him put on an accent/speak another language, he’s always sounded like that. some accents are easier than others, and you will be able to mark him as an outsider/foreigner, but it isn’t usually enough to raise any eyebrows.

what they feel like. his skin is dry and covered in callous and scarring, especially his hands—small with long, slim thief’s fingers, bulked slightly by said callous, though not in an obtrusive way. bony elbows and sharp edges. his feet are equally hard and calloused, and his heels are probably the driest place on his body. inclined to run cool, even in warmer weather, but tends to steady out once inside. collection of miscellaneous scars scattered around due to life on the streets. majority of them have turned pale with time. most noticeable one is on his left cheek. moles dot his body, particularly his arms, though none of them cluster, and they’re typically dark brown. his hair isn’t what you’d call healthy, another side effect of undernourishment, and—not by choice—generally unwashed for extended periods of time. obviously, with access to regular bathing facilities and proper, steady nutrition, this isn’t the case. then, it is soft and quite full.

[nsjskljfslkf-blog]

【 ⑆ PRINCESS CUT FROM MARBLE, SMOOTHER THAN A STORM: ELIZABETH. 】

hi petals! i’m rue and i’m gonna be completely late with this introduction, but just love me for i am just a smol bean. anyways now that’s over n done with, this is my precious english muffin child elizabeth, for whom i love very dearly and i am hoping you all will too! for plots, feel free to slide into my dms or even just thumb that like button and i shall come screaming at u instead. not to mention, i have also set up a wanted connections page here for some ideas! lastly, i made a traditional stats page for elizabeth here just in case you wanted more info!

ADELAIDE KANE - CIS FEMALE, 21 — have you met ELIZABETH JAMES yet? word is that she is GENUINE & CARING, though if you catch her on the wrong day, she can also be IMPULSIVE & NAIVE. i heard that she is a FULL-TIME STUDENT AND A PART-TIME VET ASSISTANT, but don’t take it from me. when she was moving in, i thought i heard THAT'S AMORE BY DEAN MARTIN playing from her apartment. pretty appropriate, right? 

Elizabeth Madeleine James was born in the early hours of Spring in Birmingham, England to Duchess Renee and Duke Thomas of Devonshire, as well as a sister for the young Alexander. Her arrival was much-anticipated and there were celebrations for days prior to her introduction to the world. With her childhood consisting nothing more than love and devotion from her parents, Elizabeth had nothing to complain about. Her parents loved their children dearly, especially Elizabeth, whose pure heart and open-mindedness they helped to cultivate: they encouraged Elizabeth’s belief in extraordinary things and hoped she had carried it throughout her life growing up. Her parents had always made her promise to have courage and be kind to others, for—as they explained to her—kindness has power, and that they would see her through all the trials that life could offer, in life and death. Her relationship with her brother, however, is a bit estranged. As much as she loves her elder brother and wishes they could see eye-to-eye, sometimes they have a tendency to butt heads often. Whether that might mean your typical sibling arguments or full-on blown out fights, they just can’t seem to see get along.

When she was only 2 week old, Elizabeth and her family moved back to their home in Devon, England where her father, who held a high position in nobility there, was a Duke: which, by all means gave her the title of Lady. Growing up, she never really minded being referred to as Lady Elizabeth, but sometimes because of her title, a lot of the children in her hometown would make fun of her for being a boring ‘wannabe royal’. And as time went on, she started to regret her father’s position and so, as she aged swore to herself that she would never introduced herself as anything other than Elizabeth and that was that.

Most people would describe Elizabeth as The Benevolent. Despite being in a world where there’s hatred and suffering, Elizabeth declares herself independent and strong-willed by remaining kind-hearted and self-loving, not allowing the bitterness surrounding her life to overtake her and morph her into someone as cruel as the world seems to be every day. She makes the most of her life by remaining optimistic of the possibilities of a brighter future. But besides that, she’s also witty and sarcastic. She is unafraid to stand up for herself when she feels she’s in the right–or at least, attempt to do so. And although she strives to contain her optimism aura, she can fall into fits of frustration and annoyance quite often.

At the tender age of 12, Elizabeth was destined to be married through an arranged marriage to the only son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gabriele Valisari, and the two were meant to wed at the age of 18. Gabriele and Elizabeth were both from nobility in their respective towns and had grown up together.  Throughout the years as they’ve aged, both had grown to care less and less about the titles that they might one day have to abide by. Instead, they had taken advantage of their semi-freedom and laughed about the big shots they hung out with and sometimes, they would have McDonalds “friend dates”. Other times, without permission, would  go thrift shopping and then considerably donate to charities because they just didn’t care about money as long as they had each other.

Elizabeth had grown to love Gabriele, and Gabriele had grown to love Elizabeth – which was all the better considering it was an arranged marriage and the two had fallen in love naturally. But it didn’t even matter whether it was an arranged marriage or not, because they were both lost in blissful ignorance and they made each other so happy. Everyone from a mile away could see it in their eyes how much they loved each other – and the happiness they shared was bestowed upon them by the other half. Things between the two were absolute bliss and they were somehow always caught flirting during fancy dinner parties, and then occasionally sneak away while everyone bores themselves with business talk and petty gossip to wander around on the beach wearing a tux and an evening gown.

To the two teens, their ever-growing, budding romance was almost like a fairytale come to life, but with reality, not everyone can have a happily ever after. Two years before they were meant to be married, tragedy struck the hearts of the Valisari household when their son had been in the crossfire of a terrible car accident on his way back to his home. The crash was so intense, Gabriele unfortunately died instantly. When news of what had happened came to light, everyone was in utter mourning. The death of Gabriele was hard on the citizens who had adored him in every aspect of his life, but moreover, his mother took it the hardest. Since the death of her son, she had begun drinking excessively to the point where she died from alcohol poisoning three months after. On the other hand, his father tried his hardest to be the leader he was for the sake of the people, but even he broke down a few times.

As for Elizabeth, she was absolutely heartbroken and devastated. Upon hearing the news of what seemed to be a nightmare, the young girl at the time, never looked at love the same way again. For a moment, she seemed to have lost hope of truly being happy, but as time went on, she realized that not living her best life isn’t something Gabriele or her parents would have wanted for her. She remembered time again that Gabriele wanted her to be happy and successful in her years to come. He told her that even if life throws a curve-ball, she has to be prepared to swing for a home run. So, of course, she took what she was told to heart and continued living life to the fullest.

When Elizabeth turned eighteen, she decided she wanted to continue her studies and go to university in America. Her life and responsibilities in England weren’t over, but knew she wanted to have change of scenery and start a fresh beginning.  She loved to travel and in her days traveling alongside her father for years, she wanted to expand her experiences more. Her parents, of course, were hesitant about allowing her to leave country, but as time went on, they couldn’t help but allow her to travel to America for her continued studies only, with one condition: she must travel with a bodyguard. This condition was something Elizabeth would abide by, but it also made her life difficult every time someone suspiciously asked who the creepy-looking guy following her around everywhere was. So, with that being said, she packed her bags and ended up going to the other side of the globe to San Francisco, California to study Early Education. She’s been there ever since and hasn’t looked back.

[operationrainfall]

​

Title Yakuza Kiwami Developer Sega Publisher Sega Release Date August 29, 2017 Genre Action-adventure Platform PS4 Age Rating Mature Official Website

With the success of Ryu ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho, or simply Yakuza 0 in the West, Sega went further in celebrating the 10th anniversary for the series by re-releasing Ryu ga Gotoku or Yakuza as almost like an expansion. This time, not as an HD Remaster like the one released prior on the PS3, but a full blown remake with the same engine used for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin and Yakuza 0. Bringing forth improved visuals texture and character models, frame rate, combat, and new added content which includes expanding portions of the story like the transformation of Kiryu’s sworn brother Nishiki from an ally into an antagonist. Since the HD Remaster never made it to Western shores and given how dated the first game can feel, it made perfect sense with 0 being a prequel and a new good starting point for those who wanted to dive into the franchise without dusting off their PS2s. With how well Yakuza 0 fared, how does the remake of such a classic stand up with these benefit of these new mechanics and added content?

Yakuza Kiwami begins 7 years after the events of Yakuza 0, with Kiryu now considered a rising star at this point who continued serving under the Dojima family banner. After doing the usual rounds of collecting debt money, Kiryu meets up with his old friends Nishiki and Yumi at Reina’s bar in celebration for his new future prospects. As the day goes by, Kiryu goes to visit the head of the Kazama family and his foster father, Shintaro Kazama, to catch up. Before they can go into details, Kiryu gets a call that Dojima kidnapped Yumi in his usual drunken haze and Nishiki was going after him. Knowing things would get bad, Kiryu rushes to Dojima’s office only to arrive too late with the sight of Dojima lying dead from Nishiki shooting him in self-defense. Knowing what fate his friend would face as a consequence of murdering one’s family head, Kiryu decides to take the fall and goes to jail in his place. Ten years pass and things have only gotten worse for the Tojo clan as the clan’s fortune has been stolen and the Third Chairman of the clan, Sera, turns up dead the day after it was discovered. If that was not enough, during the 10 years Kiryu found out that Yumi disappeared without a trace. After being released, Kazuma heads back to Kamurocho to help his foster father and locate his childhood friend and old flame Yumi, as well as protect a little girl named Haruka who shares a strange connection to Yumi.

For its time, the game’s plot was riveting and had just enough twists and turns to keep me interested with a well-rounded cast from all walks of life. Some of the twists haven’t aged that well, but some have been given a much-needed update to make them a little more believable. At the end of every chapter now, we get a glimpse of how Nishiki went from being a lowly officer to eventually becoming a villain. While I wished we had more to go on like his sister, I’m glad we got something as the original game presented us with friends with a long history but that was something we never got to experience until Yakuza 0. Even Yumi got some love with an entirely new section in the first chapter dealing with her birthday and Kiryu going out of the way to get a ring for her. It feels like padding but it was funny and emotional enough that I felt it was worth putting in. On the other hand, the additions to what they did for Majima I personally believe were not only unnecessary and hurt the narrative a bit but felt unwarranted. I won’t dwell on it, but they introduced a new game mechanic called the “Majima Everywhere” system that rears its head in the game’s plot. It is what it is, fan service and nothing but. It’s good to flesh out the beginning of the game with how he wants to test Kiryu’s convictions, but was it really necessary for him to get severely injured not once but twice just so you can justify his presence for this game mechanic, only for him to be taken out of commission just before the last story boss fight, when in the first game his early injury did just that? It’s superfluous and beyond stupid. Is it nice that they answered why Majima was obsessed with fighting Kiryu, something that the original game and the prequel Yakuza 0 skimmed over. Hell, not even the sequel Yakuza 2 ever explained it. But is it a good idea to shove this character in my face far more often even when it’s not necessary when it could have instead used that time for other characters? No.

When it comes to the Yakuza games, it’s the standard drill, a beat ’em up action game where you run around doing side stories with many random encounters to beat random punks to level your character with many little excursion possibilities sprinkled throughout the city in the form of mini-games, all the while continuing the plot at your own leisure. Speaking of mini-games, there are plenty though not too many new additions except the return of Pocket Racer with a few familiar faces now all grown up and the rock paper scissor style Cat Fights now with more depth and less frustration in the form of an arcade game called Mesu King; all the women now dressed up as insects and its pretty enjoyable and hilarious with all of its quirks. As for the meat of the game, the game is essentially Yakuza 1 with 0‘s skin, in both the game’s engine and combat system. Kiryu’s three styles from Yakuza 0 are back with of course the Dragon of Dojima style being available from the get go but with a unique twist. Since the bubble era is over, the game returns back to the old style of leveling mirroring the original game. You obtain experience through random fights, eating and finishing sub stories, with 78 in all, under 3 categories with the sphere grid system from Ishin and Yakuza 0 returning for Kiryu’s returning three styles. The aforementioned unique twist comes in the form the previously mentioned Majima Everywhere system, which is more negative than positive and holds the game back.

The fourth sphere grid doesn’t use any experience and instead, each orb has criteria to fulfill which unlocks the abilities for the fourth style, the Dragon of Dojima. When Kiryu left prison after 10 years, he has lost all of his abilities, which include his trademark style, so instead of just continuing on as normal at the beginning of chapter 2 like the original game, you instead bump into Majima who starts a fight and beats Kiryu easily. Not being happy with how weak Kiryu has become he offers to follow Kiryu around and pick a fight by any means. Hence the name “Majima Everywhere” he will literally be everywhere, in a trunk of a car, under a giant traffic cone, he will sneak behind you from an alley way, dress up as a cop to stop and frisk you etc. That’s not all, he will even go as far as to challenge you in several of the game’s minigames, like Pocket Racing, bowling, darts, you name it. I will admit, it at times was entertaining seeing Majma going out of his way to dress up even as a Hostess and the game just goes with it and you play the mini game like normal, dropping some references here and there from the multiple games and the ranking specific events were hilarious. However, to go up said ranks to unlock more abilities you need to fight him a lot and I mean a lot, specifically to obtain all the abilities from Majima’s side, with a few obtained from Komaki’s training, meaning you will have to fight Majima a whopping 50 times. That includes the fights in the story as well and others that are by pure accident as he will continue to hound you on the streets at any and all times. It’s repetitive, at times frustrating as his health grows exponentially and if he so sneaks up on you in his frequent hot spots, you must fight. So I hope you are willing to lay the smack down for another 5 to 10 minutes every time or just load up a save.

More Kiwami on Page 2 ->

Making a great remake isn’t easy, as this game proves that even with good intentions, sometimes added content can be detrimental and hurt the overall product, especially ones that are so tied to the game mechanics and in this rare case as well as the story. Majima Everywhere is when fan service goes too far and becomes more fan disservice — I honestly don’t want to fight Majima for a long time and I don’t expect seeing myself replaying this version of the first game all that often because of this. The first game is dated, yes there is no denying it, but what I loved about it and subsequent releases after was how well they were paced. I can play the story and do most of the sub stories with a mixture of random encounters and my Kiryu will get maxed stats and all abilities outside of training. While this thankfully applies to the other styles, the same can not be said of the style that Kiryu used for the entirety of the original game and subsequent later installments. It’s just not enjoyable having to grind boss battles and fight a character who gradually obtains more and more health bars thus making the grind even more painful unlike the side quests in Yakuza 0 which felt more natural and flowed better. Yes the developer’s are unapologetic and know they have a smaller budget to work with and reuse assets including the game’s engine and fans realize it and accept the games for what they are, as do I. This terrible decision though was self inflicted — they chose to put something this dull into the equation in the name of fan service and it boggles my mind. Another thing I noticed was the bosses now having been overhauled and now with entirely new move sets, which makes sense, but the problem is that they’re all mostly recycled from other bosses in the franchise. This isn’t entirely new, one instance of this was the moves and animations of one of the Yakuza 5 bosses Okita and reusing the majority of them again for Majima’s Dancer style; but that was it, a few instances, not an entire line up. It just screams laziness rather than being their usual efficient selves as a development team.

When Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan hit the scene, they added to the series a kind of boss exclusive QTE heat moves and Yakuza 3 followed up with “Feel the Heat” for boss context sensitive heat moves which were somewhat similar. I bring this up because now after so long they come back to an idea similar to those for this title with “Climax Heat” and it came with questionable results. There is nothing more frustrating or just plain annoying than seeing a boss regenerate health. Well in Kiwami each boss, ranging from mid-bosses to simply a strong opponent, has a chance to do just that, multiple times even. Usually, after taking down a health bar down or two from them, they will activate a color coded aura where they will begin to regenerate. To stop this you either use a weapon heat move or a Style Heat Move that corresponds with the color. The problem? Even on Normal the health regeneration can be very quick with them gaining almost an entire health bar back as you switch styles. If you don’t have enough Heat you’re pretty much going to have to either consume an item you carry on yourself that boosts your heat bar or pummel the enemy to gain enough heat, just to possibly get enough damage in so they didn’t regenerate too much health that you just scraped off. Sometimes the prompt just refused to show up and I had to position myself differently to activate it but that allowed them to gain even more health back. It’s a beyond god awful gimmick and it makes Hard difficulty and above unbearable at times.

When the game was released in Japan I heard complaints that the game suffered at times from frame rate dips, and while the game does stutter at times when exploring Kamurocho with a bit of screen tearing, the combat is silky smooth 60 fps with them implementing its updates upon its western release and I’m very thankful. When it came to cutscenes I noticed some updates not just for some new lines to fit the narrative, but even it even updated some of the voice acting which is nice; though the cutscenes themselves are a different story. Being faithful is one thing, but barely updating them shows a lack of effort, and it felt awkward as they just updated the textures and lip-syncing for the old cutscenes but the new ones have far better animation and pacing to them. When it comes to the music, the Ryu ga Gotoku franchise as a whole always delivered and went hand and hand with its gameplay to such a degree that it was ingrained into it and I cannot say the same for these remixes which I honestly felt either were too overproduced or in some fashion butchered them. The long time composer of the series, Hidenori Shoji was tasked in blending multiple musical genres with a modern feel for the game’s 2005 city setting. Doing so masterfully with mixing, hip hop, RNB, rap, rock, heavy metal and jazz to morph into some of the most contemporary and toe tapping music an action beat ’em up could ever have asked for and still feel like a video game soundtrack at its finest. The remix tracks replace real instruments what sounds like for synchronizers and dub step bulldozing what made the tracks not only fitting tone wise but thematically to the scenarios. It’s not all bad, some tracks like the remix for Unrest is fine and the remix for id was serviceable albeit being a departure, but the remixes for say the Funk Goes On and Intelligence For Violence are just terrible. On a side note, not surprising anyone, the licensed tracks are sadly gone, which include the main theme of the game Receive You which was done not in-house but collaborated with an actual famed band in Japan so it didn’t make the cut which I feel was a blow to the game, as it fit Kiryu and served as in introduction to the game perfectly.

Yakuza (2005)

Yakuza Kiwami (2017)

My complaints boil down to poorly thought out new gimmicks and the lack of effort; it’s apparent that this was a quick cash grab, not of the soulless corporate type but of what their general focus was on creative wise. Their development apparatus was clearly being more fully committed to Ryu ga Gotoku 6, or Yakuza 6, and its new engine then it was on for this remake. It’s not a terrible remake, no, but a disappointing one. Doesn’t help matters when one of the series usual strengths, its soundtrack, drops the ball and only makes the above issues I had just seem worse. New fans will likely be satisfied with the low price of $29.99, with this being their first experience of the first game that was chronologically released. As an old fan that played the original, I felt it accommodated me enough but wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been and needed more time to either fix the rough edges, add a bit more content or at least more effort to where the game needed. For the 60 hours I played, I got around 90% of the completion list done and still need to replay it on the hardest setting, so you are getting your bang for your buck. I can only hope that the recently announced remake for Yakuza 2, Ryu ga Gotoku Kiwami 2, will fare better as I hold the second entry in high esteem and near and dear to my heart.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Yakuza Kiwami ​ Title Yakuza Kiwami