#maybe a little actiony

[taintandviolent]

*chants* part three! Part three! Part three!

That was so good!!!!

YOU GUYS ARE SOOOOOOOO SWEEEEEEEEET! And yes.... yes, part three.

[villainanders]

So is Veilgaurd like… a good game? Where would you rank it so far? I’ve heard so many mixed things.

I don’t think I’ll have a firm opinion until I finish it but so far: I’m really enjoying it! Having a great time with the minute to minute gameplay. It’s my favorite combat system so far (but I prefer action combat so YMMV). The cringe allegations are real but no more so than any other DA game and I think people who think this game is cringier forget how goofy the other games are. Yes, Origins too. I would say it has a similar silly to serious ratio as most of the others

So far it definitely ranks above Inqusition (which I do like) for me, otherwise it’s a little more complicated. There’s definitely some DA2like elements (companion focus, city level design, more actiony combat) which are great to see really fleshed out but I do feel like some specific worldbuilding elements are weaker than the first two games so far (maybe even inq too actually tho not as much). It seems way less interested in exploring how societies work and different groups interact with each other in complicated ways if that makes sense? Which is really key to Dragon Age to me and it’s a shame to me that as we go higher and higher with the stakes we really start to lose that. So it’s kind of hard for me to rank it with DA2 at this point at least bc I just think one is picking up where the other one is falling short. DAO always has to rank top for me for being what made me fall in love with video games and the depth of roleplaying, even if it’s janky and I’m coming to accept that I’m just not that into most CRPG combat

So basically if you only like Origins and not the other sequels/are only really interested in CRPGs, then I wouldn’t recommend. If you like either of the two sequels and enjoy actiony games/don’t mind lighter RP elements, then I would recommend, I’m having a lot of fun!

[weewoo911]

Okay fun little BuckTommy question 🥰 let’s say they’re going to the movies - something that’s out, maybe an indie theater playing an old movie. What movie are Buck and Tommy seeing on their date?

I think Tommy also finds out about Buck not knowing movies and takes it upon himself to educate him on the Must-See films that he never watched growing up

Lots of people point out that Tommy likes Love Actually and I do think he’s a romcom guy but I think people forget that he also canonically likes monster trucks! He probably also likes a bit of silly action in his movies!

My gut is going he introduces Buck to the Indiana Jones movies, because they’re fun and actiony and a lil silly and Buck can now have a new appreciation for young Harrison Ford ✨

[clonerightsagenda]

Scavengers Reign thoughts after contemplating for a bit:

I enjoyed it! While the weird little guys were interesting to watch I admit I enjoyed it more as we started getting to interhuman conflict. However the weird little guys were fun. As was the amusing contrast between pastel colors/soothing soundtrack and The Horrors.

Given the emphasis on recognizing and understanding the environment around you, it makes sense that the crew ends up staying on Vesta. Hopefully since they're in one place and not passing through unfamiliar biomes, they will not all get eaten as quickly. They've shown an impressive ability to learn to work with the planet, especially Ursula.

Big fan of Ursula! She is thriving in this role. Still a little worried about the fungus incident though. I got pretty excited about Azi in the second half because she was doing cool actiony stuff but I really enjoyed Ursula's quiet observation as her souce of strength.

We don't see Levi interacting with the humans in the closing montage. (And I have no idea what's going on with the Levilings. Levilets?) I'm curious, are they and Azi still friendly? Are the other humans perturbed by one of their robot drones gaining sentience? Or considering what they woke up to are they just like 'this might as well happen'. Imagining one of the newly awoken colonists trying to give the robot orders like they're used to and Levi going lol no.

The space death cultists seemed a bit out of left field, but I'm choosing to interpret the lily as a decomposer that brings things into some kind of planetary mycelial network afterlife, with Levi as a spokesperson for it. (With a dead woman's voice, no less. I was kind of wondering if we'd see one of the flowers growing from Sam and then have Levi say something only Sam would know. The planet wanted to assimilate that man So Bad.) In that case having two different takes on centering death could be an interesting potential conflict.

Bold choice to leave the psychic baby (or Hollow, if I must)'s intentions super ambiguous. How much was an animal's natural behaviors getting distorted by new situations? How much was Kamen influencing it? How intelligent is it? To what extent did it understand what it was doing? How is it going to handle being brainblasted by the majesty of the universe? IDK

Also Kamen is just there I guess. Azi's hostile to him; Ursula seems friendly enough. I suppose a lot of the colonists were asleep when he did the redirect, and there weren't any other crew survivors, so maybe none of them know what they did. I don't think Azi's the type to spread it around, even if she's personally annoyed by him. Can he speak and he's choosing not to, or did everything he went through change him? What do you even do after being psychically controlled by a weird frog pretending to be your wife. Gardening I guess. If he'd stuck with gardening in the first place he wouldn't have ended up in this situation.

I know the show got cancelled on HBO Max and we'll see if it survives the Netflix curse (probably not. Netflix loves cancelling shit) but tbh I think it works pretty well as a standalone! Bask in the majesty of nature. Do not try too hard to understand what's going on. Cheer on Azi's forklift prowess. Admire Ursula

[anamelessfool]

I am enjoying inventing random OC Papas throughout time. This one I was like, dang I got to do more with him....maybe later though!

Bestiary (AO3 Link)

So if you meet me have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste... Use all your well-learned politness or I'll lay your soul to waste...

The adventures of the Nameless Ghouls throughout time. Each Chapter is a different Nameless Ghoul, some canon, some OC. Romantic, weird, smutty, sad, actiony, whatever tone I want. It was fun researching this one. Dancehalls sound interesting. This poster is a riff off of a Little Richard Tour Poster. The two songs at the bottom are real and in period.

2: 1945 [Dewdrop Ghoul]

Tags: Mystery, Adventure, Horror, Alternate History, Weird Astral Shenanigans

Dewdrop narrowed his eyes, kicked a rock. If he could spit on the ground, he would. This is what they get. He pouted, making sure everyone around him knew his displeasure, but inexplicably felt drawn look at the mountains in the distance, just like the rest of them.

Musical Inspiration, More Fun Facts about my Poster and Taglist below the Cut!

Cab Calloway would be the perfect historical Papa. And 99% of running a big band is pure charisma.

Papa Camino's Papal Visage was inspired by the 1946 film "The Crimson Ghost" which is the direct inspiration for the Misfits Skull Logo.

Also this fic is what happens when you listen to an 8 hour podcast. WATCH OUT.

Thanks @kabukiaku for all the digital art help

Tag List: @historian-crown @monkberryghouldelight @in-cardi-c-we-thrust @riptide-kid @thew0man Let me know if you want to be on my tag list

[anarchotolkienist]

What would be your ideal Tolkien-inspired game?

Since I assume we're talking about video games here (and not One Ring 2nd e, which I honestly think is pretty close to the platonic ideal of a Lord of the Rings TTRPG, or war of the ring, a really really good boardgame), what will mostly be needed is an understanding of the themes of the books and of Arda for any game that engages with the wprld in a fairly direct, non-abstracted way (think something like the old War in the North action-RPG, to pick an example that was Alright if you can stand action-RPGs, or to pick the sort of platonic ideal for the worst thing to do with Arda, those fucking mind control ghost ranger in Nûrnen games whatever they're called), which I honestly don't really trust games as a medium, as immature as the artform still is, to be able to handle. But I'd like to see more artful interpretations of little-known parts, and I think that some sort of minimalistic thing that doesn't care too much about being all actiony and game-y, that doesn't have a large budget and so doesn't need to appeal much to the film crowd and that focuses on existing in world and experiencing some part of it - something a bit like Year's Walk maybe, but set in Beleriand before the fall, or in the North of the Third Age, or before the Fall of Arnor (maybe during the reign of Arvedui) - somewhere we haven't really seen in other media but we still have enough information about to be able to recognise and to see the richness of, and that takes like five hours to complete.

The main thing I don't want is what has been happening, which is triple-A action games set in Middle Earth, they have been universally awful.

[gu6chan]

okay so while i still remember to ask it, genuine question can anyone in the loop explain to me how alice madness returns is seen as a survival horror? /gen Because like,,, it HAS spooky elements, nothing I'd say is overtly scary but that's not even the main thing because I feel like survival horror is more on item management and at times putting a HINT more emphasis on (quite literally) choosing your battles??? And both AMR and AMA feels a lot more 'actiony' than that I'm no expert on either genre so by technical definitions it VERY well could be though it's always registered to me as just "Action/dark-fantasy game maybe with horror elements at MOST" but I've been seeing a few people call it survival horror and im ???? 👀 i'm a little confused, am i late to the party or so? sdhjfgdfkjh

[catchyhuh]

if you cheat at mario kart one more time we're kicking you out of the polycule

this is so specific. why the fuck would their stance on video games mean anything? i wrote it down anyway

lupin: 

has fun with ‘em but doesn’t really play too much. he’s busy! got places to be! but he doesn’t often say no if offered, and probably knows the most pop culture about them compared to the others. like he knows who kiryu is. he knows cloud.

he loves puzzles. especially like space distribution related ones like tetris and sliding blocks and shit, but really he’ll play anything if someone’s sold him on it enough. he doesn’t really care a lot about adventure, actiony types cuz he can just. go outside and do that. unless it’s absolutely batshit insane enough like. idk bayonetta. can’t imagine lupin the third would have an ulterior motive for liking bayonetta!!

does he actually cheat at mario kart: Yes. enough said there but he still gets 2nd place somehow?

jigen:

“i’m too old for that” this guy had a ds lite in 2009 don’t listen to him. of course he mostly had the boring shit and it was really more of a novelty to him than anything but still. it was the silver one.

console games are not really his thing. he could have a little fun at an ARCADE though and i’m not just saying that because of the like. ghostbusters shoot ‘em up cabinets. the ticket incentive would get to him. he knows it’s just junk but let’s be honest the idea of him actually working to ��earn” some shit instead of just stealing it, and the earned bounty being a glow in the dark spider ring is priceless. and you know lupin LOVES to help with this

backseat gamer though. speaking of lupin, he fucking ALWAYS does this to him. “hey you missed that chest.” “that weapon is ass why didn’t you equip the one i told you too” “is this game that hard or are you just that friggin bad at this” until lupin snaps “OKAY DAMN! SHUT UP!” and puts in like wii music or whatever. he still insists he’s playing it wrong.

does he actually cheat at mario kart: usually sits out, so unless you call purposeful sabotage of “don’t fuck this up” talk directed at the ones actually playing REPEATEDLY through the lap cheating, nnnno. even when he does play he doesn’t really bother cheating. pretty content with 6th place and up. It's Just Not That Serious

fujiko:

depending on. whenever she was a kid/teenager since the timeline in this franchise gives me a headache, i’d bet solid money fujiko was bigger on them than you’d expect back in the day. definitely started that stupid fucking pokemon truck rumor in the day

now she’s kind of passive. it just doesn’t interest her like it used to, she’s got more intense passions than animal crossing can fulfill. she’s not like rolling her eyes and calling you a stupid child for offering to Game with her but she just kind of pauses. and shrugs. she might play in a group if it entertains her enough, but that’s more because of the human element than the game itself. she fucking LOVES competitive shit just because of the shit she can stir up with it. free comedy

does she actually cheat: fucking look me in the eyes and ask me that again. mains rosalina to look cute but also exploit the fact she’s the fastest heavyweight class. or was i think they nerfed her WHATEVER

goemon:

i know people are split on goemon’s actual level of technical ineptitude at times but i really think you could get this guy hooked on bejeweled or some shit. not candy crush. too gaudy.

have you ever (mostly directed at people with siblings) have you ever played a video game FOR someone else. like they tell you “let’s go in that cave” or “wait no choose this dialogue option” like it isn’t backseat gaming, it’s just them essentially using YOU as the controller? goemon does that.

you could maybe get him interested in a visual novel but he’d probably have an easier time just reading the damn thing

does he actually cheat: he’d get the hang of it easy, he can drive (ignoring that one gag and looking at like everything else HE CAN DRIVE) and it really is just like. pressing two buttons and turning the controller. he’s too focused in on the track to think about cheating, or even attempt to figure out HOW to cheat? he’s too invested in delfino square dude he can’t be fucked to save that bullet bill for when he’s in 3rd place.

zenigata:

he doesn’t insist he’s too OLD for it. but he doesn’t really have the patience for it exactly. and what’s REALLY lame about it is that he doesn’t even play like. the dull “serious type” games like windows 98 blackjack or whatever because, his reasoning, why wouldn’t he just. play it normally?? in real life?

definitely the kind of person who looks at you like you’ve grown a second head for explaining what a let’s player is, and even more so when you describe how insanely popular they are. because he really just does NOT understand why you wouldn’t just PLAY IT YOURSELF (the more you explain it the more stunned he is, just don't bother it'll only give you both a headache)

however. if you make ANYTHING a competition it’s a completely different story. freakishly high score in monkeyball. speedran through metal gear like it was nothing while still somewhat comprehending the plot. through the fire and flames on expert IT’S AMAZING WHAT THE RIGHT MOTIVATION CAN GET YOU WITH THIS GUY

does he actually cheat: he’ll deny for hours. it’s a semi-common lup gang truce, they’re at one of those bars that has a wii on the floor for some reason, and lupin is insisting, and you know EXACTLY who saves that bullet bill for when he’s somehow pushed his way to 1st place. arguments break out but he won so who cares! let’s gooooo team zeni!!!

wait should i have given all of them mario kart mains. speedrun for the others: peach (excuse to look at cute girl) or diddy kong (obvious joke), shy guy (specif black hood variant yes they bought the dlc), yoshi (inexplicably vibes with him) and uh. luigi? oh god i can’t think of zeni’s main. not bowser. easy “go karting with bowser” joke but no it's not bowser. MARIO. IT’S MARIO HE *WOULD* BE THAT GUY TO JUST FUCKING PICK MARIO

[spinningbuster98]

Metroid Other M Part 2: Permission to play, Adam?

So the most common criticism against Other M’s gameplay is that it’s not a true Metroid game, that it’s an action game disguised as one

But why is that?

Usually people tend to cite the fact that it’s so linear and restrictive, while also citing the more actiony take downs and generally “cooler” and more aggressive take on the combat

However I feel that leaving it at this is far too simple, after all: Fusion is also about as linear, yet people nowadays rarely have a problem viewing it as a Metroid game. Similarily the Mercurysteam games certainly up the action quite a bit, and there are certainly people who have criticized them in a similar vein as Other M....but I’ve never agreed, I’ve never viewed those games as action games first and foremost. It’s not until replaying Other M for this occasion that I think I’ve finally realized what the real differences between it and those other games are.

See when you look at it from a macro perspective the game’s structure really isn’t different from Fusion: you’re told where to go (and much more often too), you’re given no freedom of exploration, always needing to follow the story, the game will constantly prevent you from backtracking and the map will always look you back to earlier points whenever you need to backtrack, making it so that you’re always on tracks, much like Fusion. The Sectors are also completely seperate from each other, being connected only through an elevator, like Fusion...though unlike that game Other M will usually prevent you to even acess the other Sectors between mission objectives, so that’s certainly even more linear and forced

The main difference, I believe, is in the quality of the level design itself.

Metroid games are designed to be zig zaggy and labirinthyne, not just in terms of linearity in general, but in terms of how areas are structured: even in a game like Fusion, while you may be constantly led on a linear path, said path will have you go up down, left and right all the times, all the while mixing things up with a good dose of platforming.

Platforming in Metroid is not meant to be challenging most of the time, Metroid doesn’t have bottomless pits or instakill obstacles during normal play. Platforming is generally meant to break up the level design, you jump on floating platforms, swing on the Grapple Beam, wall jump, climb surfaces, grab onto ledges, slide under gaps etc. It’s there to add some variation and to prevent the player from just mindlessly going right all the time, never letting go of the forward direction

And that’s the issue with Other M, that’s what it often feels like: roughly 50% of its map design is composed of halls and corridors that only have you going forward with little else to do. Maybe sometimes you’ll have some minor platforming here and there, or some minor puzzles, but for the most time you really feel like you’re just pushing forward all the time. There are a couple of bigger, more uniquely designed rooms but they’re usually either designed more as combat arenas or are simply composed of mostly empty space. This feeling of constantly moving in one direction all the time only excentuates the linearity of the game, even though it’s not different than Fusion on a macro scale

Puzzle solving and Platforming are indeed present here, but they’re not organically impemented in the level design, they’re not something that you do all the time normally, you have the occasional platforming challenge and the occasional puzzle that break your pacing in between sessions of running in a straight line

To give credit where it’s due: I actually think that Other M’s puzzles are better than Fusion’s: that game would often lock you into a set of room and ask you to bomb the correct surface with no real indications, only rarely offering something more unique. Other M often has you look around (though in first person mode which is its own can of worms) searching for hidden switches or computers that turn off some holographic projections. It’s a tad bit more natural and inventive given the 3D nature of the game and there’s a little bit more variation as a result.

Platforming however is where we have problems: at best the game throws you some really basic “jump on these things” moments, which are fine, but more often than not the game will force on you segments that grind the pace to a halt because they’re really slow and there’s not way to speed them up. How about riding a couple of slow moving lifts that will take you to your destination? How about having to wade through water at the speed of enthropy (and boy does water absolutely blow in this game more than in the others, even the rate at which Samus shoots is slower!!) only for you to make your way back and THEN ride the slow-ass lift? Or how about having to grab onto a rotating ledge and having to wait until it slowly brings you to the next slowly rotating ledge? Other M’s platforming is often really slow and boring and does the exact opposite of what it does in the other games

Level design in Other M tends to be really inorganic: you have the puzzle moments, the platforming moments, the combat moments and the running in a straight line moments, but they rarely come together organically, so the weak points of each of them are not covered up by the others’ strengths

So Other M is a game whose world is just not very interesting to traverse (though I will spare my thoughts on actually finding secrets for another time). This alone makes for a good argument for it not being a very good adventure game, but what seals the deal I think is what the game actually puts most of its focus on

Over the years I’ve seen people accuse Samus Returns and Dread of being action games with no exploration, much like Other M...yet I have never been in agreement with this take. I’ve seen people claim that this is because they’re too linear...even though Fusion is even more linear than them, yet nowadays most people consider it an exploration game all the same. Those games are said to be too actiony, and yeah there’s definitely a greater focus, especially with the counter and the flashier cutscenes, all things that are most certainly borrowed or were influenced by Other M...but here’s the thing: outside of boss battles, which are action setpieces by their very nature no matter what game it is. When you’re actually traversing the world the way you fight enemies...really isn’t much different than how it’s been since the start of the series. Yeah you get more aggressive means of taking down foes, but at the end of the day you’re still dispatching them quickly, no enemy should take you more than 10 seconds max to dispatch. None of those games ever truly force you to defeat all the enemies in a room to proceed either, so in the end fighting enemies is not the central focus, that’s still navigating through an area, the focus is still simply reaching your next objective through an area, enemies are there to simply be obstructions in your way

Samus Returns is certainly quite flimsy in its execution due to its enemy placement being far too crowded and the enemies often being too tanky, leading to the often mentioned issue of overly relaying on the Melee Counter, but the fundemental focus of the game is still on going around the world looking for Metroids, which puts its focus on level traversal and exploration. Dread fixes that game’s issues through more sensible enemy placement and design, and by further improving Samus’ movement and Melee Counter. Basically, with the semi-exception of Samus Returns, in these games combat is not in opposition to exploration/level traversal, it’s something that simply happens naturally as you play without breaking the pace ( not too much in Samus Returns’ case and depending on your preference)

The same cannot be said about Other M: this game likes to lock you into rooms every minute, forcing you te beat all the enemies to proceed. Said enemies are also often not quickly defeated, requiring you to spend several minutes on them unless you’re really good. This alone indicates a shift in priorities to me: it’s no longer about traversing a well designed world (whether linearily or not) while fighting enemies along the way to your next power up that will allow you to progress further into the world, now it’s about going from one big enemy encounter to another, while the world mostly just serves to break up combat encounters. Its design philosophy is almost 1 to 1 that of character action games like Devil May Cry, God of War and the Ninja Gaiden reboot, which should not come as a surprise given that that’s where Team Ninja’s expertise lay.

But here’s the sad part: Other M...isn’t even that great as an action game either

It really couldn’t have been in any way I feel: Samus is a long ranged fighter, characters in this genre typically fight in close qurters with a wide variety of weapons, with long ranged ones typically serving as little more than combo extenders. Samus mainly fights with her Charge Beam, which is functional, even fun at first, but becomes samey quickly, it alone just cannot sustained a whole fighting system, and that’s without taking into account the game’s controls

For the record: I’m emulating for recording purposes, so some of the fuck ups in terms of controls that you’ll see will actually be my fault, howevere I’ve played the game on an actual Wii before so i can still criticize its controls

This game ignores the existence of the Nunchuck, instead using exclusively the Wiimote, usually in its horizontal position and controlling Samus with the D-pad

Moving Samus around a 3D world with a D-pad is actually not horrible, mainly due to the simplistic level design, but this creates a bunch of issues during fights

Jumping on top of enemies to perform an Overblast often feels like a luck of the draw because the controls prevent me from being as precise as I’d like. The Sense Move is a neat idea, having you dodge by timing button presses, except said button presses are if the D-pad, with said timing being as wide as an elephant, meaning that you can literally just mash the D-pad and automatically dodge, except for when stuff gets too hectic, in which case you may still get hit, but also because the game will so often just throw a bunch of stuff at you you will basically have little choice but to spam the D-pad because many enemy formations don’t have much in the way of actually recognizable patterns, at least not when they’re attacking you all at once. To be fair: the game will often ask you to go into first person mode in order to use missiles to hit weak points, meaning that you can’t always just stay on the defensive....

...but first person mode comes with its own slew of issues! Having to suddenly swing the Wiimote vertically and back in the middle of a fight is all kinds of awkward, switching between camera modes can be disorienting and you can’t move while in first person, with dodging being possible only by wagging the wiimote when the screen turns green. Once again: this wouldn’t have been as much of a problem if I could use a Nunchuck and the game used a button to switch between camera modes

I...actually don’t have big issues with Concentration, from an action game perspective it makes sense: you need to find the correct moment during the heat of battle to perform it, it puts your reflexes and overall awareness to the test, but having to once again do a particular motion to perform it feels off.

To be clear: Other M’s controls are nowhere near the same ball park as the likes of Sonic and The Secret Rings or other Wii games that were heavy on the motion controls, they’re just needlessly convoluted and awkward, they want to be more simple yet they end up feeling more complicated, and so much would have been fixed by simply using the Nunchack!

Finally, on that note: despite all that I’ve just said I...actually wouldn’t say that Other M is a complete trainwreck, it’s not awful. Storywise? Oh yeah, sure, it’s a goddamn dumpster fire, but as a game? It’s needlessly awkward, it’s not a good adventure game nor a particularily good action game...but it’s functional. You can get a small smidget of enjoyment out of it with the right mindset, though I will add that the reason why I can adapt to stuff like needing to use the D Pad in a 3D space and having to switch to first person to look around due to the lack of camera control is most likely due to me having experience with PS1 games...which Other M isn’t and has no real excuses for being like this

I know this is more faint praise than anything, but wham I’m trying to say is that there’s a big differene between a mediocre game and a truly awful one. This isn’t like Sonic 06 which is truly broken at the fundemental level and features a structure that is all kinds of meandering. It’s not like Mega Man X7 whose camera, controls and level design make Other M’s look like the Mona Lisa. It’s a helluva lot better than DMC2 I can tell you that much! Hell I’d say it’s also not as bad as the likes of Shadow the Hedgehog, whose structure is not only impossibly repetitive but also features missions that are just straight up bullshit on all fronts, or Mega Man X6, whose level and boss design might just be more punchable than Adam’s face, or, if we’re counting other Metroidvanias, Castlevania Circle of the Moon. Yes I know this last one will anger a lot of people but screw it, at least Other M’s controls don’t feel that sluggish, it doesn’t have scren crunch and I don’t feel the need to look up on the Internet which enemies I should grind just so I can gain those specific abilities and items that will allow me to survive the game’s bullshit

I think it says something that even the worst Metroid game is still somewhat competent unlike other franchises’ worst entries, I suppose it’s a testament to the series’ sheer quality, but just because Other M isn’t the worst thing level that does not mean it’s much good either, especially since this is one of those games that really wants to be a movie and makes it pretty much impossible to ignore its story which...

...well we’ll get to that in due time

[solcomfortssouls]

Anime watch list Summer 2023

✅️Taisho otome fairy tale: super cute show. Magnificent hurt/comfort, mature themes, doesn't shy away from some gross stuff, but it's all very pointed and beautiful. Great characters, conflict and MC girl that wins you over with her care.

Oshi no ko

My happy marrage (ongoing)

✅️Heavenly delusion - well-made, investive, interesting. A little too flat and unmemorable in the end though.

Kanojo ga Koushaku-tei ni Itta Riyuu

Skip to Loafer

Paripi Koumei

Heroines run the show

Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi

❌️Dangers in my heart: This one just didn't work for me. The animation is super disproportionate. Both of the main characters are weirdos. Nah, not for me.

Honorable mentions

Love after world domination

Bed and breakfast for spirits

Sacrificial princess and the king of beasts

Watched Spring 2023:

Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru: Very good. Best series of the season and one of my top three romance series this year. Thoughtful, adult student setting at University, heartwarming characters, great friendships, everyone looks out for everyone. There is strenght in kindness and independence in how the MC's niceness. A guy who is blunt but way too kind is a great conflict.

Hell's paradise: The visuals. The characters. This series manages to make you invested for everyone with the littlest screen time. Epic and different and actiony and with many philosophical musings and moral dilemmas along the way.

Mashle - Shameless Harry Potter rip off, but funny and twisty in its simple way. When you love that setting, you will enjoy this one.

Legendary hero is dead - This is funny and ironic and the MC is so unapologetic and terrible it even becomes funny and likeable.

Shikimori - older series with a killer posing as a student at an academy for gifted. A villianness that starts to question her mission. Great development. Original in its brutality and show of brainwashing.

No guns life - Great world, idea and setting, but it sure put me off after first 3 episodes for the deutragonist doing exactly what the villian just did to him. Brr.

Honey and clover - I really wanted to like this one. Students, love, relationships, fame, good rating...its slow and confusing and I give up.

Sacrificial princess and the king of beasts - interesting premise, fluffy, very shallow though. If you want something relaxing maybe

[chadhunkler]

Character Themes - Chad and Kasha

tagged by @archaiclumina aaaaaa thank you!

I have a few playlists for Chad and Kasha already, I'll try to grab a couple from each for them

Chad's got some varied emotions in her Workout and Relaxation playlists

Action - Dirty Little Animals by BONES UK

One of the songs I listened to while doing fight RP with Chad! I enjoyed the show, and only after watching it figured out that Chad's kinda similar to Vi lmao. GOOD SHOW GO WATCH ARCANE IF YOU HAVEN'T

More action - RISE by YMIR

Very metal, loud, Chad's favorite type of fighting. A more recent addition to the workout playlist, but YMIR's on there a bunch

Dejected - It's Beginning To Rain Again by Little North

Something to evoke the feelings she'd felt after losing a bunch, being accused of overworking, forced to rest. When nothing went right... Little North very good quiet jazz yyeyeyey

Chilling - Curicó by Kiltro

Love Kiltro, got to go to a concert of theirs recently! Very chill, acoustic, Chilean-inspired music. Definitely something Chad would listen to on a day off.

Lyyhia ♥♥♥ - The Water's Fine by The Family Crest

One of the songs played when they went out on a fishing trip in Yanxia, up in the Plum Springs, where Chad first confessed her love...

Kasha only has one playlist for now, maybe I'll split it later. Hers is very good too. It was very hard to pick songs... all of hers are so good...

Forest - Gilded Runner by HOYO-MiX

A blast to her past, before becoming an Onmyo Mage. Imagery of rushing through the jungle of her homeland, hunting for dinner, dodging the Garlean occupying forces.

Spooky - Through a Cloud, Darkly by Chris Christodoulou

Chris is something else he don't miss... Otherworldly, alien song with resonant bells, exactly the kind of vibe Kasha's trying to give off.

Spooky x2 - YESTERDAY'S PAIN by Lorn

Same as before, spooky, unnatural sounds... Noises to put fear in yokai.

Regal, Powerful - Yone, the Unforgotten by League of Legends

ok this one's on the nose but I had to, it fits Kasha too well. Actiony, Japanese-inspired music is perfect for her!

Eccentric - CLOSET by Yoh Kamiyama

I like the funk this song gives, and the lyrics kinda fit too

Thank you again for tagging me!

If they wanna, I'll tag @rasenkaikyo @shroudkeeper @the-littlest-kojin and @amurr-reha and anyone else who sees this, if you wanna do it, go ahead! (God im bad at tagging people aughe)

[sigmastolen]

oh btw ocean's echo was very good! i think it was a little more of a page-turner than winter's orbit, or at least, a little more actiony*, but it didn't destroy me emotionally as much -- mostly bc i didn't overidentify with anyone's trauma this time, so that's probably positive actually lol. and this both satisfied my itch for more worldbuilding re: the larger galactic situation while also leaving me feeling like i know nothing and wanting still more, there's some really wild stuff happening here and i loved it. and again, i just like tennal (despite everything about tennal) and surit so much, i could stay with them for more stories, but as before, they're ready for their lives to be lower-stakes and that's fine, the ending is not unresolved. overall, this book has made me even more eager for another angle on the universe maxwell is creating. maybe someday there'll be, like, a reunion special where we see all our heroes, all grown up and successful?

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Today in trying random stuff from my backlog before the Steam sale happens in a couple hours:

Frincess&Cnight (frog princess and cat knight) was pretty fun up until about the midpoint of it. The dialogue/translation is pretty questionable, but I was enjoying the pixel art and the mechanical interactions between the two characters you control. It's surprisingly satisfyingly crunchy for a puzzle platformer, and their abilities complement each other well. I kind of got sick of the increasingly tight timing on things and more actiony elements around the halfway point though, along with having to start the level over again for every mistake.

Ape Out seems ok, but I think I'm bad at it. We'll see how much that affects my enjoyment of it if I keep playing more. I'm not sure exactly what it reminds me of, but definitely at least a few things. Maybe the original 2D GTA games (minus the car) and Superhot (minus the time gimmick)? I don't even know.

Bomb Dolls, another thing Ada Rook was involved in, seems pretty dire. I have to imagine it's a lot more fun in co-op with actual people, but just by myself the extreme jank of the controls and lack of any explanation of what's going on combined with the general incompetence of the bots doesn't make for a very good time. At least with other people you could laugh about doing something stupid and try again together. One of my bots immediately died of loneliness because she was too dumb to try to get in the car on the side that had open seats, even after I repeatedly circled around so she was standing on that side.

And finally Her Name Was Fire mostly looks and feels like what if 20 Minutes Till Dawn was a little bit worse in every way. It's not bad or anything, but the overwhelming feeling I had the entire time through a few runs was "I wish I were playing 20 Minutes Till Dawn again instead", which isn't a good sign.

[theinsanecrayonbox]

it's new episode day and i still have d+ ^^

X-Men 97 episode 3:

the "previously on x-men" bit still gets me so happy idk why lol

ok that was a weird opening music sting. and yes the intro clips are unique to each opening.

why isn't Jean Doe in the infirmary?? i like that the Jeans have diff skin tones though...oh so lighter Jean is Maddie, so Maddie is still Cable's mom, cool. still makes Scott a big douche since he thought she was Jean, so it's not "Oh hey Jean is back, let me abandon my look-a-like wife and son" but "hey real Jean is back, i don't want the fake one that i've been with because clones aren't real people"

oh NOW you moved her into the infirmary

haha Maddie gets a magical girl transformation. that's amazing

oh yeah we should focus on Morph too since Sinister scrambled him too

and now we are in a Junji Ito horror. this is awesome. and they said "hell"! hahah great show, 10/10

Sinister is making baby soup...uh....O.o sure Essax, sure....

why is Morph older Illyana? she wasn't Majik in the original...she's like 12; she hasn't gone to Limbo to get powers and aged up yet

Maddie is amazing. and oh Jean has ponytail, Maddie!Jean was loose hair, ok

oh, the baby soup was the Legacy Virus. so Bishop's gonna take Nathan to Forge to get fixed, thus Cable, makes sense....not why Cable didn't know Bishop when they first met, but eh we can forgive that, it's just a minor retcon after all

and just like that Maddie is gone. shame they build things up then swipe them away so fast. but still, this is some of the best Maddie writing i've seen in a long time.

wait modern Forge???? flirting on Storm??? i know Forge goes cyborg, but in Bishop's time he didn't seem so...what??????

overall another great episode. it was terrifying, actiony, character driven, maybe a little too condensed but not harmingly so. so yes, good job team, another win.

[sheyshen]

i've got a couple art ideas on my mind and idk if i wanna attempt them or not atm....

so the one i mentioned last night (raya going wtf is this thing at lahabrea about the unknown bosses in anam)

something cool of hien because he's a samurai, i wanna draw something cool and actiony of him man

i've been doing the whelpling daycare on shey and i kinda wanna draw her taking the whelps flying, maybe on wrathion or sabellian's back? (but then i'd have to draw dragons >.>)

the battle couple, combat poses have been poking me more lately so might need to get some refs for those and add all these to the pile of wips and refs i got atm lol

I had had something in mind for kara this morning but it got shoved aside with dragon age thoughts while i was eating lunch so hopefully that idea will come back and i can write it down

also shaking the writers side of my brain to wake up i have stuff i wanna work on lol i blame the cold.

editting in cause i remembered a thought from last night, but towa leaning on urianger when he's buried in books for research reading her own thing. cute little late night couples research date >:3

[sharksa-shivers]

TW: Actiony shiz (idk how else i'd put a tw tbh but i feel like it probably needs one)

(So this is gonna be a bit jumbly maybe but i wanna write this soooo xd. Basic context is The Trio derps have found themselves in a Shadowtown (a town shadowcult members have completely taken over, there's only murderous demoncult members here…)The Trio have figured this out a bit ago but now are trying to fucking get the hell out…

So this is like a scene near the end of the ep where The Trio go to the mechanics to get their car back. Somebody slashed the tires andddd yeah, that's why it's there but ummmm yeah…Probably a bad fucking idea to stay there so fuck it at this point, they're going for it.) --- (We see The Trio rushing into the backend of the mechanics shop to try and find the garage. We see they're all frantic and we also see Kristy's bleeding now after being slashed by the mechanic who's after them and is trying to kill them. Kristy in self defense/mental instinct immediately retaliated against that attack by forcefield slamming him into the wall hard as fuck, giving Max a chance to hop over the counter for a moment then rush into the back while Sharky quickly grabs Kristy and hightails it behind Max as they try to get away from the murderous mechanic…They enter a small hallway with several doors and decide to run to the last one, finding it to be the garage.

Max hears the mechanics coming as Sharky's looking around and trying to find his keys with Kristy…Since his comrades are busy, Max quickly grabs a big wrench sitting on a table and wedges it into the door, trying to block it from being opened. He finds some jumper cables and tries to tie them around the handle also, making it harder. This is set offtrack though whenever the mechanic manages to open the door somewhat and is trying to swipe at Max.)

Mechanic:(pissed and bloodthirsty)You little shits!!!! Open this damn door!!!! Max:(asshole mode engaged, he quickly decides to kick the door shut as hard as he can, crushing his hand really fucking hard and making him retreat for a moment, assholey)Fuck you, eat and choke on shit!!!

Sharky:(ripping out drawers and shit, looking around rapidly for his keys frantic whenever Kristy gets his attention)Where the hell are they?!?

Kristy:(lifting up Sharky's keys, quickly)I found em!!! I found em!!!

Sharky:(Quick, frantic, darts over and grabs em from her, quickly rushing to the drivers seat and unlocking the doors)Fuck, thank youuuuuuu!!!!!

Kristy:(quickly, getting in as Max also gets into the back, frantic)Wait, are we really gonna drive out on flat tires?!?!

Sharky:(quickly starting the car, frantic as he also buckles up)I'm not thrilled about it either but we're literally going to be gutted alive if we stay here soooooooo i'm gonna fuck up the car, it's fine if we make it out. We can get to another town, hopefully one that's fucking normal and we'll get it fixed then but we gotta work on getting outta this first.(looks at Max)Max, is there literally any way you can open the door or…??? Max:(shakes his head, staring as he's catching his breath some)We literally do not have anymore fucking time to fuck around dude, fuck it, just drive through!!!

Sharky:(frantic, panicking)Are you sure???

(We suddenly hear the mechanic breaking down the door…It appears he's found an axe and is trying to break the entire door down.)

Kristy:(terrified)No we do not have time!!!! Just drive, please!!!!

Max:(quickly adding on, a bit amused despite the threat level as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out some cash)We can repair whatever damage is done later, i robbed this dumbfuck, just drive!!

Sharky:(stares at the cash a quick minute before shaking it off)I don't know how you managed to do that in like 10 seconds but whatever, fine!!! (Puts the car into drive, braces himself, hands on the wheel)Everybody hang on, this is gonna be notttt fun…

(We see Sharky hit the gas as soon as the mechanic manages to fucking break the door down and he immediately runs for the car, trying to smash the backwindow out with his axe buttttt he is unsuccessful as Sharky hits the gas hard enough to break the garage door down in one hit, all of The Trio derps bracing as Sharky then quickly swerves onto the road, going fast as fuck despite the flat tires and the new damage he just did to his car.) ------------ Yay lol, fun murderous cult demon time lol! .......Yeah, this the type of shit The Trio deal with on the regs oof, this type of stuff, yeah...

ALSO!!!! Just cuz i post these doesn't mean they will be in the final project...But it doesn't mean it won't make it in either lol so take it with a grain of salt. I needa share more stuff to get any sort of audience imo sooooooooo ima share these cuz these get the points across more then random artpieces in my mind so yeah lol...