#meaning that you'll have to go through that other game to get the pokemon you're looking for and then transfer it to your regular game

[iidsch]

It's crazy how there are sooo many things to do in a pokemon game and none of them are fun

[psychrodraws]

going insane thinking abt the entire main plot of PLA and this poor kid who was abused by everyone through it all.

warning for ramblings and unfiltered thoughts

Man, the whole plotline of this Pokemon game for children is just... heartbreaking, man. Put yourself in the player's shoes for a second and really think about this.

You land face first into the sand on the shores of some village, and you're instantly put into debt by them graciously deciding to not let an amnesiac 15 year old stumble into bear infested woods and die. Everyone is scared of you and you're beaten over the head with how you're a shady freak that no one likes or wants around unless you're useful to The Galaxy Corps. God, I can only imagine the tears the poor kid shed that first night.

You bust your ass and risk your life for the vague cause of "seeking out all Pokemon," because... a funny looking piece of glass told you to. It's literally all you have in this world besides the weird alien freak clothes your weird alien freak ass landed on that beach with. By the way never wear those freak clothes again, you'll wear our clothes, you're with us now- not one of us, god no, no one here likes you. But keep doing your job and we'll probably feed you.

"That hole in the sky you fell out of is making other Pokemon go insane and pose a threat to the natives of this land, so we're making it your job to help them. Yeah, they like, hate hate us, but we made sure to tell them you're connected to the weird sky hole making their lives worse, so they'll hate you most of all. :)"

You keep grinding away at these tasks, blinding chasing the mere chance that maybe, just maybe, you can learn SOMETHING about, about anything, if you just keep handling these frenzied Pokemon, keep researching Pokemon, you have to, it's all you have, it's all you've been told to do and it's all you know anymore. Every day you go out, help people with all your heart has to give, fight with all your body has to give, and every night you come back to the village where your boss desperately needs to remind you how much of an outsider you are, no matter what you do.

Well, at least that twink is nice to you. You do buy stuff from his guild, and he's a little autistic for the ruins you find yourself stumbling around. He even taught you a sick trick on how to surprise and capture Pokemon when they're at their most vulnerable! Waow!

Oh hey, a cute girl moved in next door. From the Diamond Clan you say? They're not the biggest fans of the Galaxy Corps, but she's being welcomed with open arms. She must be doing something vitally important to get such a warm welcome, I mean, everyone hates you and you research Pokemon for god's sake, what could she b- oh. hairdressing? okay cool.

Anyways, it's time to trek to the place in Hisui closest to the weird alien freak hole you fell out of. I wonder how you didn't die from that. Wouldn't that have been something if you had?

Oh hey, that guy also fell out of the freak hole! you're freak hole friends oh my god!!! Yeah man, you only remember your name too, and what a Pokemon is yeah! Yeah dude it sucks, but he must've had such a rough time, I mean you're just a kid and you've been put through the ringer, how's this guy even ALIVE in thi-

He... he was found by the Pearl Clan? and they... they let him stay because he was pretty good with Pokemon...?

...

You're pretty good with Pokemon... Wonder what it would've been like, if you had woken up that day, stuck in a snowbank or in the thick marshland reeds... and not that damn beach...

So, good job defusing the bomb, now go fight the literal, actual, genuine fucking living mountain. No that's not an exaggeration. It's really that big. Watch out for the death lasers kid!

But you've done it! You've proven yourself time and time and timeandtimeandtime again that you can, in fact, do things!!! You can quell frenzied lords, you can teach people about the true nature of the wonderful world they live in, you can be an asset! You're so useful! You're so, so useful, and now you can devote all that usefulness to the Pokedex! The native clans even like you, well, the leaders are at least! And that haircutter girl hasn't slit your throat while she worked on you, you never gave her a reason to but with the way things have been going it wouldn't surprise y- oh my god what was that sound.

Oh it's the end of the world.

"Not to worry bossman!! I'm on the case, this is nothing I can't hand- oh sorry what was that. Oh hi Adaman, hi Irida, what's good? Yeah end of the world, bossman wanted to talk to me. Uh-huh. Okay... Ah, okay. Ooooh, the fact you're not chaining me up is mercy, is it? I am Fifteen Years Old. :("

Okay, well, you're homeless. No worries, though! You've proven yourself to both clans of Hisui a collective... Kleavor, Wyrdeer... Basculegion... Electrode... Avalugg... 10 times now!!! They're sure to lend a hand in your time of absolute crisis, when you need help more than anything! Hi Lian, hey look, things are going to shit and- yeah man yeah, uh, yeah the, the rift. Yeah the rift you fell out of. Oh, no one trusts you? Not even he does?? He's the first person you helped and he immediately blames you??? Whatever man, you're gone. yeah, yeah, no one trusts you, you know dude, thanks for the goddamn reminder. He'd like to help you, but it'd put a "target" on the Pearl Clan...?!

Same story with Mai. The people you've been working for so relentlessly sure do seem to have more of a grip on this region than you anticipated. Well, at least she left you with some words of encouragement instead of a reminder that God hates.

It's over. You have no home, nothing but the Pokemon by your side and the moldy berries in your pocket, and no one wants to help you. Not even that cute hairdresser girl! You spent so much money getting your hair done and redone just to see her... Guess it's time to allow yourself to be eaten by that Alpha Rapidash... HUH?!

Twink!!!! Blonde twink, you're here to- to help?! Genuinely help?! That joke about his main priority being the fact you're his customer was really not fucking needed at this time man but

but oh it’s such a relief!

So this is the place you’re hiding out, huh? Hey Volo, who’s the older lady friend you exclusively call “Mistress” who looks nearly exactly like you? No time for that, Adaman and Irida are here! One of them’s gonna help you in secret, I guess so bossman doesn’t like, pillage their settlement and kill them or something??? Have they always been this afraid of the Galaxy Corps or… whatever, Adaman’s cuter so go with him!

Ah, gotta hunt down three lake guardians, huh. One reminds you that everything you do is pointless and frustrating, one directly asks you how being sent to die felt, and the last one… makes you do math! Messed up.

Anyhow, we’ve got the red chain, so whatever’s gonna come through that hole is gettin’ tied up! Oh, bossman is going up there to fight it himself?! He’s gonna, he’s gonna DIE if we don’t act fast?!?! …you think your Samurott ate some of your moldy berries he has a tummy ache can we let him rest :( no you need to stay and cuddle him it’s the only way he can sleep really :( 

Okay, okay, let’s go and deal with God or whatever. Hi bossman, oh you need to go through him, okay boom done now let you at God, you have some words for Him. Oh that’s not God just a god, okay let’s use the chain to- uh-oh, okay, old fashioned way! Catch that god of time in a wooden ball real nice, now if they’ll excuse you, there’s a lonely older woman in the woods who could use some- there’s another what coming out of the rift behind you?

Okay, no one died (sad!) and Irida somehow picked up the remains of the chain, despite being in the back of the group, good work??? Yes bossman, you agree, he was a giant stupid piece of-

"A dependable attitude indeed. Yes, let us move on. No need to speak any further about my rash actions. Not to mention my loss of composure..."

"It seems that having <player> about has been a good influence on all."

WOAHWOAHWOAHWOAH ARE WE REALLY NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT ANY OF THAT. DO THEY REALLY EXPECT YOU TO JUST GO BACK TO BEING A PART OF THE GALAXY CORPS SO EASILY?! TO OVERLOOK EVERYTHING THEY DID TO YOU, THE HORRIBLE WAY THEY TREATED YOU, THE THREATS THEY’VE MADE TO YOU AND THE PEOPLE AND POKEMON OF THIS LAND?!

Well the plot demands it, so, you will!!!!! Go drag out the last hour of this story to make a fancy ball, go catch the other guy at rift, peace at last.

Whatever, man. At least the blonde twink still has your back. He wants to go collect those plates you were incidentally coming into possession of! Sounds fun, let’s go! You need a nice, fun adventure with an actual friend, who wasn’t afraid to put himself at risk for you. Things are looking up!

…

…

…

…

…

Oh my god.

[sexhaver]

hey I have an ungraded Alpha Chaos Orb I got from a blind egg machine in the 90s. how do I get it graded and what's the best move for me with this thing? should I sell it, or is it going to continue to acquire value?

ohhhhh man that's a Spicy Meatball. first step would be getting ahold of a jeweler's loupe and doing some basic at-home checks for whether or not it's fake. the most common is the Green Dot Test where you look at the green dot on the back of the card:

there are also some other tests you can do but the efficacy of those can vary depending on the set the card is from (i.e. sometimes legit cards can still fail); r/mtgfinance is very helpful with walking you through the specifics of these

once you determine it's not an obvious fake, the next step would be getting it graded. the gold standards here are Beckett and PSA. picking which one to use is a subject of great debate; generally PSA is preferred by Pokemon collectors and stores in Japan, whereas Beckett is preferred by MTG whales (i.e. your target audience). PSA is more lenient on specifically the centering of the card though so it might be worth sending it into them depending on how that looks. also before sending the card in to any service, get multiple high-quality scans of the front and back in case a dispute arises. both Beckett and PSA are wayyyy more reputable than that card service i posted about a few days back that just declares their customers' cards fake and then steals them, but when dealing with something this expensive it pays to be cautious. i would also recommend insuring the package you mail it to them in

once you get a grade, you can decide how to proceed from there. Chaos Orb specifically is banned in basically everything so it really only has value as a collectable, which means you can probably just leave it in the plastic "slab" you'll get it back in. on the plus side, it has a LOT of value as a collectable. i don't have a finger on the pulse of alpha card prices but you're looking at multiple thousands of dollars minimum. however, you are going to run into some issues because 1. you're someone with no sale history selling a really rare and expensive card and 2. there are so few Alpha Chaos Orbs floating around that there aren't really enough sales to pin down a market price, but not so few sales that you want to go through an auction house. you definitely do not want to sell to a physical LGS (local game store) because they are not going to beat the best offer you can find online (they mostly have the edge when selling in bulk). your best bets here are probably either ebay or this facebook group, but bear in mind that ebay takes some percentage of the sale (i think 14%?) and tends to side with the buyer unconditionally if a dispute arises. if you take the facebook route, DO NOT ACCEPT OFFERS FROM PEOPLE SLIDING INTO YOUR DMS. THEY ARE LOWBALLING YOU.

im answering this one publicly so people can chime in if they have any other advice they want to share, but in any case, your first step here is to get your hands on a jeweler's loupe

[just-wrting]

Geek Out: Sleepiness

Title: Sleepiness

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Word Count: 2107

Master List

A/N: This is kind of a part 2 to Game Night, but sort of not really. It’s in the same universe with the same reader, but doesn’t really follow up on much in the first part. But I don’t see enough of a Geeky Reader, so I’ll write it I guess.

You fan out the packs in front of your face, inspecting each one. Part of the excitement is not knowing what you'll get until you open them, the other part is getting something you wanted or something rare. Right now, you're hoping for a rare card, you didn't see any that stood out when you looked at the list.

"Hey Doctor Spencer Reid, give me a little bit of that Vegas luck, will you?" you ask, waving the packs in front of him.

He reaches out and pulls a pack from your hands. "Vegas isn't even about luck, (Y/N). And neither are these."

Rolling your eyes, you poke the pack. "Then give it some Reid luck for me. Your luck has to be better than mine."

Reid shakes his head, but presses the foil between his palms. He presses his lips to where the hands connect and blows onto the pack. Reid is the nerdy one of the group, remembering everything has its perks in that regard. Lately, you've become the geek. Fascinated by seemingly random stuff, but knowing all you can about it. In this case, it's bringing Pokemon card packs to the FBI and opening them.

"Will that suffice?" he asks, handing back the pack. "Not that my luck is very good."

You nod. "Yeah good enough. Let's see what this has in store for me."

You tear into the pack, pulling the code out and tossing it to the side. Then you shuffle the cards around, making sure that the rare cards are now the very last cards. Flipping the cards over, you start to go through them. The first cards are nothing special of course. You're stilling holding out hope for something good.

Once you reach the final card, you're disappointed. It's valued at about two dollars, so you didn't even make your moneys worth. For a moment you think about scamming some idiot with it, but then realize that that's too mean even for you.

"Well, what are you two doing over here?" Derek asks, leaning against your desk.

"I'm opening trading cards. Reid is blessing the packs," you wave the other packs in his face. "Why? Do you think you give me more luck than Reid can?"

Derek gives a grin, plucking a pack from your fingers. "I'm sure I've got more luck than the kid, so sure."

He makes a show of placing the pack on his palm and covering it with his other hand. He gives it a little rub while making funny noises before opening his hands with a little 'ta-da'. He presents the pack to you, his grin unfaltering.

You take the pack and repeat the process. Open, discard the code, shuffle, and flip. There's once again nothing terribly interesting, including a duplicate of a cute fire type. This time, the rare card in the pack is worth about eighty cents.

"Morgan, you have worse luck than Reid. How am I supposed to get money back when the rarest card in here is eighty cents?"

You tuck the cards gently back into the open foil and set them to side. You do want one person to give you some luck, but you don't think he's here yet. If he is, he's not in his office. You are referring to your semisecret boyfriend and boss, Hotchner.

It started when you managed to confess at a game night you hosted, you've just been too busy to tell everyone. The only people who actually know are the two of you and his son Jack. You're sure other people know or have their suspicions, but no one has said anything yet.

"Are you going to ask everyone for their luck and see who can bless the cards the best?" Reid asks. "I don't think you have enough for that."

You toss the other two packs onto the desk. "Nah. I'll give them to Hotch for Jack. It would be nice if I could get Hotch to give me some of his luck, but I don't know where he is."

You haven't seen him since last night, and since you just came back from a case, you haven't gotten to kiss him or touch him in at least a week. You miss him even when he's next to you, that's just what happens when you have to keep it professional.

"He was just in his office, why don't you go up there," Morgan prods. "You are allowed to go talk to him."

You sigh. "I know, I just don't want to bother him."

"So it's better to just stare longingly at his window? What are you, some lovesick Victorian woman?"

"Of course not, it's just that personal things shouldn't happen on work time." You wave your hand dismissively. "But since you care so much about it, I'll go talk to him now."

You stand up and walk over to his door. It's just barely ajar, a sign that he's here already, even if he's not in his office. You push it a little bit more, and see him leaning back in his chair, eyes closed.

You make sure that the blinds are shut tight as you slip into the room. The door clicks as you shut it fully, and you wait for him to move. When he doesn't, you slowly walk around the desk and lean against it.

"Aaron, are you awake?" you ask softly. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?"

He makes a soft noise, but doesn't answer. He must have gotten here early if he's dozing off in his chair. That explains why you don't remember seeing him come in.

You reach forward and play with the hair on his forehead. It's grown out a bit, and he keeps talking about a hair cut. You think it's cute a little bit longer, but you think he's attractive all the time. Even with the light touches, he doesn't stir.

If it wasn't for the fact that you're sure the chair would break, you'd sit on his lap and nap with him. You know that you should wake him, but you decide to give him five more minutes. If he doesn't wake up in the next five minutes, you'll wake him properly. For now, you'll just let him sleep a little longer.

After a moment, his hand reaches up and grabs yours. Aaron presses a kiss to your palm, and you chuckle softly. You enjoy the soft and tender moments you can get with him. Even if it is sneaking around at work while he's half asleep and has forgotten that.

"You should've woken me up sooner. Do you know how long I was out?" he asks against your skin.

You use your free hand to play with his hair again. "I don't even know when you got here, Aaron. But I did think about giving you a kiss and hoping you'd wake up. You'd be my cursed prince that I need to wake up."

This time he opens his eyes, giving you a soft smile. "It only works if my curse is never ending paperwork."

"I don't think I can save you from the paperwork, Aaron. I can still give you a kiss if you want it though."

He leans forward and gives you a quick kiss. You're briefly surprised, but recover quickly. Before he can pull away too much, you make sure to press your lips to his cheek. The whole thing is over much too quick, and you give him a frown once he pulls away.

"Don't do that," he pleads, cupping your face. "You know that we need to be careful at work, but I'll make it up to you. I promise."

You press a kiss to his hand before you pull away. "I know, I know. I'm still allowed to want more than a quick kiss though. Maybe I was just single for far too long."

He chuckles. "We shouldn't be busy tonight, so I'll take you and Jack for dinner. How does that sound? And I'll do any one thing for you, free of asking or nagging."

You grin. "Don't promise that, you might regret it. I'll make you watch my favorite show with me."

Another quick kiss to your temple, before he stands. "I'd do anything for you, you know that. So don't waste it on something you can ask me for at any time."

You hum in thought. You'll have to think on his offer, but for now you should return to the bullpen. The longer you stay in his office with the door and windows closed, the more suspicious it looks.  Not that you particularly care.

—-

It's late at night as you stare at the screen. This may be one of the best episodes of your favorite show, but right now you can't bring yourself to pay attention. Maybe it's just the fact that they played this episode a week ago and you had finally reached it while rewatching the series, or maybe you've finally grown bored of it. You don't know, but all you can think about is not sitting down and watching TV.

You leave it on as you get up to get anything to do. Debating on if you should continue your game or actually read that book you said you would, you ignore the feeling that you’re forgetting something. It doesn’t help that you usually are forgetting something.

As you skim a few descriptions on books and games, you hear the door to your apartment open. The only person who has a key and is free right now is Aaron, so you aren’t surprised to him standing in the doorway.

“Did you forget that I was going to take you to dinner?” he asks, ushering Jack to sit on the couch.

You neatly tuck the book back in place. “No, it’s just earlier than we usually eat, right? What time is it?”

“It’s seven thirty.”

You rack your brain trying to remember anything after you got home, but nothing comes to mind. It certainly doesn’t feel like seven thirty.

“I’ll get changed real fast. We aren’t going anywhere fancy, are we?”

You start to walk to your room, but Aaron wraps his arms around you. He buries his head in your shoulder, pressing a soft kiss against it.

“It’s okay. We can just get pizza and stay in tonight. Jack said something about a rough day so I’m sure he’d prefer this.”

“If you say so. I’ve probably got some sort of coupons in the kitchen to use.”

He presses another kiss to your shoulder. “Shall I order while you set up a movie?”

“If that’s what you want. Do you want to spend the night?” you offer.

There’s a groan as he pulls away. “As much as I’d love that, Jack and I don’t have clothes. Unless you’ve magically got something that’ll fit us.”

You give him a wink. “I actually do. Plus that spare mattress I have had a frame and some sheets on it for Jack.”

You spin around to face him. He looks exhausted and relieved, pulling you into a kiss. Part of you wants to make him sleep now, but you hold off. He’ll need to make sure that both you and Jack eat before he sleeps.

Thankfully just that happens. As soon as Jack falls asleep on you, you stop the movie and scoop him up. He’s gotten heavier from the last time you put him to bed, but it doesn’t bother you. Aaron can’t move him, cause he’s asleep himself.

You tuck Jack in and give him a kiss. He’s just the cutest kid you’ve ever seen, and you’re glad that he likes having you around. Aaron would put Jack’s feelings above his own in a heartbeat.

Speaking of Aaron, he’s managed to wake up and shamble his way to the doorway. He’s got a sleepy smile on his face as he watches you make sure that everything in the room is perfect. You shoo him away, mouthing that Jack’s fine.

By the time you crawl into bed next to Aaron, he’s back asleep. You don’t mind. Even if there was time to talk, the only thing you’d say is that he needs to rest more. Right now he’s still got those bags under his eyes, and it takes so much effort to not smooth the lines on his forehead.

Instead, you curl up next to him with your head on his chest. Instinctively, he reaches his hand around to hold you. You don’t fight sleep when it hits you, relaxing into the bed as you drift off.

[bokujou-monogatari]

So about this series and localization;

Ok, to start this off let me say I do not work in localization. It's not my department. I -do- work in video game development, but in production management and quality. That said, I work -with- loc teams, know people outside of my workplace that do loc, and have mad respect for the localization profession within the industry.

And, this is all a personal perspective again! I mean no ill intent in what I'm about to say. It's merely observational, and I could have an incorrect understanding and I own up to that in the circumstances!

This is probably going to get a little long, and it's a bit of a nuanced conversation. I appreciate everyone who reads to the end though!

Well, where to begin?

The 90s and early 2000s produced media in which culturally relevant aspects were largely changed to suit the audience taking in the media....but in some cases, that didn't hit the mark at all.

Are you familiar with jelly donuts? A long time example in infamy, Brock Pokemon's Jelly Donuts were a product of a time when localization efforts in western media were wholly focused on providing a digestible media experience to a western - rather, American-focused - audience. (Another example that was shown on the big screen was the original Digimon Movie!)

"But wait! Isn't the point of localization to make things relatable to the target audience?!"

Yyyyes! But there's an asterisk here.

In this case, breaking it down:

Bad localization = "Jelly Donuts", and the art remains unchanged.

Good localization = "rice balls", and the art remains unchanged.

Good localization = "Jelly Donuts", and the post processing changes the art to jelly donuts.

Bad localization in this example strips the intent of the media by pigeonholing a westernized regurgitation without respect to the origin and attempting to call it by another name -- erasing the cultural significance that it provides. Let me explain; A food item that may be a staple in many American (specifically Asian-American) households for ages... Do those households call them jelly donuts? Of course not!

90s and early 2000s media was largely at fault of bad localization with a movement based around the idea that a western audience needed those westernized concepts for the audience to be able to fully relate and immerse themselves in what they were digesting.

In essence, it was easier at the time for someone depicted drinking ramune to actually be "drinking a Coke" in dialogue, because everyone knows coke is a soda/fizzy drink. (That's only an example, and I hope it's understandable!)

On the other hand, -Good- localization either provides an equally significant replacement (such as replacing the art with actual jelly donuts) or calling things what they are outright as they represent a culture portrayed.

To reiterate, good localization does justice to the original tone, atmosphere and intent by either substituting an audience society-based equivalent that makes sense contextually OR by telling the audience exactly what is going on in the media's world context using words that can explain it to the audience while preserving that cultural significance.

"OP I'm not seeing how this relates to Bokumono..."

Well, this series was created in 1996, and localization began in 1996-7. And unfortunately, California-based Natsume Inc. was not exempt from those weird "sanitize it for the American audience" views. In their attempt to "make everyone happy...", there were many things that contributed to a less than ideal localization per game from Natsume.

For a long time, Natsume localization was done largely in part through an outsource localization company called Pole to Win. If you're in the light novel and otome venn diagram of fandoms, you'll know that Pole to Win is pretty damn infamous for its bad loc, cheaper labor based on underpaid and over exploited workers (largely based in SEA), and the heavy usage of and reliance on Machine Translation. Some loc work on games leading up to 2012 was done in-house, but a large reason why we have so many Natsumeisms is due to lack of quality and care in the localization process.

Alongside poor localization efforts and the drive to sanitize content for an American audience, there was extra effort in making the content "family friendly" by removing anything that was "out of the norm" for the time. I don't think I need to explain what that means, but it's what led to things like the removal of the Best Friends system (girl x girl marriage) in DS Cute and Julius in Animal Parade being "a man of average height" in the English dialogue. This family friendly movement applied to other media as well in the same time period, but for the sake of being on topic it largely applied to Natsume's approach in localizing the series.

"So what was lost?"

Well, in addition to what I just said above...

Names which were meant to reflect specific cultures referenced in the games based off of existing world cultures were changed.

For example, a Chinese-based character in Sunshine Islands; English Players know her as Lily. Her true name is スイレン Suiren. (Suiren is the name of a famous Chinese hero of legend, as well as the name of a species of Water Lily!) The name was derived literally, instead of staying as Suiren to reflect her heritage; Lily was the "easier" and "more digestible" translation.

I recently posted translations of Grand Bazaar characters with their true names. Grand Bazaar is VERY largely Danish, with Nordic/Baltic influence from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and some bits of Mexico, Greece, Austria-Hungary, and France sprinkled in.

As a result, the names given to characters were from those particular regions. Ivan's true name is Juris (the J is Germanic, pronounced with a Y like You) for instance. The average American isn't going to meet someone called Juris often, however, so the name was changed to "fit".

I'm largely of the opinion that names are sacred and innate parts of the Character Core. A name was given to them for a reason, and it would be like going up to Sasuke from Naruto/Boruto and saying "hey man, I'm just going to call you Steve, ok? Cool."

Since we have changed Localization companies to XSEED, Marvelous' English subsidiary, the quality and care put into the localization has drastically improved.

Names are (usually!) 1:1 counterparts - as in romanized - or their very closest equivalents.

Examples being: Cam from Natsume's Tale of Two Towns loc, who is actually カミル and was localized properly in Story of Seasons 3DS with his true name as Kamill / Dudley from the Friends of Mineral Town remake - whose original name is ダッド (Dadd) and was Doug in the Natsume Loc.

Dialogue throughout the game now reflects original tones and intent with some embellished flair here in there, but never to remove - only to add!

I'm not going to get into a conversation about censors and ESRB ratings at this time (Blue Bar to Cafe type of example), but I'm so glad that we have reached a point where we no longer have totally misrepresented cultural aspects in the games.

[hamofjustice]

Julinemo Week, Day 3: Study Session

(This could probably be better but this week is an exercise in just posting without being a perfectionist and I wanna go to bed, so)

The late afternoon breeze streaming through Nemona's window kept her room smelling as fresh and alive as a new adventure, as she and her favorite guest did something quite a bit less exciting: reviewing their Battle Studies homework.

Nemona was on her bed, leaving just enough space for her napping Pawmot, while Juliana and her Gardevoir were down on the plush green rug she'd picked out for Nemona the previous week (which Nemona insisted on paying for). The Battle Frontier Channel was on the big TV as familiar background noise, though Gardevoir at least seemed more interested in looking up at that than the open books.

"Uhhh… question nine… 'Which kind of Terrain protects from ailments instead of powering up attacks?'" Juliana read out.

"Oh, um… Misty Terrain! I was just thinking about that one. It might help you remember that one's different 'cause it's not called Fairy Terrain."

"Oh yeah, huh. Good point."

"It's not teeechnically correct to say it's the only one that does that, 'cause, like, Electric Terrain keeps you awake, and Misty Terrain does power up Terrain Pulse and Misty Explosion, but… I think you can safely ignore those since there's no 'none of the above' options… right?"

"Uh… nope, there's not. Wow, Mona… you know more than these books do, huh? Hehehe…"

"Heh. Nah, they're probably just tryin' to keep it simple. I've never used Misty Explosion in my life!"

"Oh. Well, I appreciate trying to keep it simple, 'cause some of these things have so many arbitrary little details to remember…"

"I know, right? I guess it's not like anybody sat down and designed 'em all elegantly like a video game, though." Nemona pointed out, before starting to tap her pencil eraser to her chin and then her temple as she looked up at the ceiling. "I wonder if Misty Explosion might be decent BECAUSE no one expects it…"

"Maybe? Mmm, I dunno…"

"I've actually gotta figure that out soon. When you get into Advanced Battle Studies like me, you'll have to--"

"IF I get into Advan--"

"WHENNN you get in, 'cause you're smart and cool and attr-- attentive, and a Champion like me, and have me helping youuu…" Nemona insisted, briefly pointing her eraser down at Juliana as if it were a threat. Pawmot kept sleeping, fully accustomed to its Trainer's volume. "… You've gotta make theme teams for all these field conditions! It's kinda fun, but… I dunno how good some of these would be. They start ya off easy with Rain, but… hmm…"

"Oh, is that what you're working on up there?"

"Eh, sorta. I've got the Psychic Terrain one for this week figured out ahead of schedule, so I'm getting started on the Misty Terrain one now."

"So you could just… not be doing homework right now, if you wanted?" Juliana prodded.

"I mean… I guess, but then I'd probably just be bored and houndin' you to go out with me. Uh, f-for battles and stuff."

"Mmm. Yeah, probably. Well… thanks for matching my pace, then."

"Always."

"Hehe… "

They both smiled at each other for a bit before getting back to work. Each of them sighed happily and gave their partner Pokemon some petting. But eventually…

"Uh… I'll be right back. Gotta use the bathroom." Juliana quietly announced.

"Mmmkay. Be my guest."

Nemona looked up from the page and gazed off into space as Juliana stepped out, but then…

"Hey, Gardevoir." she whispered.

"Devoira…?" Juliana's companion answered sleepily, turning its head up to Nemona.

"Can you… show me how Juliana feels about me?"

"Garde." the Embrace Pokemon said with a nod. It rolled its neck a bit before scooting a bit closer and reaching out to Nemona with its green hand.

"Ooh, are we gonna do a mind meld? Heh…"

Almost as soon as she took its hand, Nemona's eyes shut and brows shot up like she'd once again misread a teaspoon of Spicy Herba Mystica as a tablespoon. After a few moments, however, she seemed to become accustomed to whatever had been put in front of her mind's eye. Her expression became one of curious awe, then wholesome warmth, then giddy delight as she wiggled her feet happily behind her. She opened her eyes back up as the emotional transmission ended, needing a moment to refocus on reality. "Oh… oh man… th-thanks bud. I, uh… huh…"

"De gara, devoira."

Juliana came back into the room to find Nemona blushing and giggling, and immediately looked down at herself to try and find a reason for it, to no avail.

"Hehehehe… Hey, I think I might be moving down to the floor with you, actually." Nemona decided, picking up her book.

[sarurun42]

hey sarurun

been a fan for a while and i was wondering if you could give advice on your pixel art journey

Hello!

First of all, thank you for following and supporting me! It means a lot!

Advice, hmm, I'm not really a good teacher or anything but I'll try to give you a sense of how I got to where I am now.

I grew up with old SNES-era games; think Yoshi's Island, Link to the Past, etc, and eventually got a DS where I mainly played Pokemon, and developed a fondness for the sprite-art, especially the animated ones featured in the fifth generation.

My first computer wasn't too powerful and I couldn't play too many games, so I settled for a few sprite-based flash games that had small communities online. After a while I saw others editing the sprites to 'customize' their characters further, and I gave a shot at it myself to try to trick my friends into thinking I had cool items that didn't actually exist in the game (it didn't work, but I found myself having fun doing it), but this was probably my first real experience with the medium.

After that I mainly focused on non-pixel art for a while, really trying to get better at anatomy and rendering.

In 2018 I realized I had to get serious with my art. I'm a really scattered person and bouncing between illustration, painting, 3d stuff and other mediums wasn't helping so I decided I have to choose one thing to really go all-in on, for some reason that was pixel art.

Though before then I didn't really look up any tutorials or actually read anything about pixel art, so I was somewhat new to all the concepts and techniques. I started with a free browser editor called Piskel and started to do mainly small avatars and sprites in it. It's a very limited program but was a good starting point to see if I really wanted to commit to it.

At some point I got sick of Piskel always crashing on me, caved and bought Aesprite, at that point there was no turning back and I decided to go a bit further and also buy a book called 'Pixel Logic' (there's a free preview of it here), I read through it and honestly learning about pixel art, and seeing examples of terms and such really helped me understand what makes pixel art... pixel art. (There's a bunch of free tutorials out there if the book isn't for you, and for Youtube tutorials I'd suggest Brandon James Greer and AdamCYounis )

From there it was really a lot of experimentation and trial and error of what worked and what didn't, and believe me there was a lot that didn't. (Pixel Daily prompts really helped me in keeping a somewhat consistent practice going).

If you're just starting out, don't be afraid to make mistakes and don't save cool concepts for 'when you'll get better'. That time will never come as, while you're getting better, you'll always want to get *even better* and the goalposts will just keep moving. Just do what you want now, have fun and experiment with it.

You don't need fancy programs or equipment to make pixel art either, as long as you've got a mouse, a basic image editor, paint, piskel, librepsrite, etc, and the will to go through with it, you can make it happen. It will just take time.

Good luck on your journey!

[shmowder]

What you said about Yulia makes so much sense!! "She'd act like the perfect Victorian era husband" I love it. Tbh at times I think I'm missing something essential about her by only knowing her P2 self because I've never gotten especially butch vibes from her; yeah maybe in comparison to many of the other women in town, but not as much as the fandom seemed to regard her as. I know that some people were dissatisfied with the redesign for that reason, so I know P1 will be another story. And you're right of course, it's important to consider what was "normal" for the time period too.

About the toxic relationship, my first reaction was Noooooo not the dishes 😱😱 But I think you're right about that too, unfortunately, haha.

-

I think I'm something of a P1 Haruspex Day 1 expert by now ;) Noo I'm joking, I bet there's a lot I'm still missing, but I've begun Day 1 three times now and maybe the third time's the charm. I just didn't use my time wisely the first time, and on the second I didn't do the Isidor's house side quest. At least Victor and Yulia's voice acting seems unobjectionable.

The wonkiness is starting to grow on me and the walking speed isn't as bad as I expected. It's more like a power walk sort of. I was just reminded of the old Pokemon games before the running shoes existed :o

As time goes on I wonder if I'll ultimately view P1 and P2 as two separate games or if I'll start blending them together, choosing what I like best from each one. 🤔

"Alexander Cuckburov for being a gaint tree branch wedged into my urethra" LOL that is. VIVID

-

Having a perfect vision of the end result and the struggle to get there and knowing it might be altogether impossible to produce what you've dreamed up in your head... I feel you big time on that :( I would hate for my request to be a source of stress for you, so if you want to post the snippets you have and do a bg3-style list for the remaining characters, I won't mind. Or I don't mind waiting longer if you want to pause on that request and pick it up again later. I'm sorry if I sound patronizing 😅 I don't mean to, I just want to say that I'm okay with whatever you're comfortable doing. You've given me so much already, and I'm grateful for all of your replies ♡

Here's a goofy little affirmation of the day: 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉

🐿️ anon

I get it, I totally didn't get her being described as butch at all while playing P2. You'll meet her in the bachelor P1 route, and it will click eventually. She dresses and behaves more similarly to Daniil than to other women, and it's that era's equivalent to butch.

I like her P2 design, I just wish they kept her pixie cut instead of giving her a bun.

-

Pfjwojfjs me and you are the world leading experts on restarting the Haruspex day one. It's really The loaded everything bagel out of all the other routes, oh and don't worry!

The days somehow get even shorter + more loaded the more you progress. No rest for the wicked... or Menkhus it seems.

At one point I was literally restarting a whole day because I was a few minutes off from midnight in some bullshit quests, you'll absolutely hate Oyun this time around. No more mister pathetic soggy old cat, he is a cunt through and through and will make you almost tear your hair out from the debilitating quests he has.

But I'm happy you're enjoying it!! It's so beautiful and very fun. About the trashcans, there are actually more than P2, but they aren't conventional places alongside the streets this time around.

They're scattered through the town. Sometimes, they're grey trashcans that blend in with the gravel streets. Sometimes, they're large bins that blend in with the throw up colored streets.

A lot of times, they're wedged in between buildings or thrown into corners. You have to go out of your way to check the bins.

-

Thank you for your sweet words <3 It feels nice knowing someone relates to the experience too. It's never a source of stress I promise, I experience this with my original work too.

[foccaccia]

Hello!! I want to say hi because I see you interact with Rads a lot, and he also told me you love Pokemon \ PMD :)

From your interactions that I noticed on Rads' page, you sound like a nice person to talk to in general, but also... as of late I've been slowly getting into Pokemon ^^"

I played Black last year (loved it, especially N lol), and now I'm finally getting into Mystery Dungeon too (I'm playing the DS version of EoS via homebrew). I wanted to try PMD for years, but it did not click for me until just a few days ago, so... When Rads told me you're talking to him a lot about it, I was like 'omg I could use some advice and just have fun hearing about the game!!'

so yeah, that's why I'm writing this. Have a nice day!!

hi, omg this is so sweet! i LOVE pmd2 eos and im always way too excited to talk about it. my sister and i played it together growing up - we'd do individual missions and grinding and stuff on our own but as soon as plot came we'd close the ds and wait till the other was around so we could both watch what happened. i've played it a billion times since then, i just think it's fun! it has a genuinely good story and smooth and fun, if routine, gameplay.

(i'm a fake pokemon fan though, i havent played a main pokemon game since x/y and i havent FINISHED a game since platinum. i obsess over the side games tho lol. the pmd games, the ranger games, and colosseum my beloveds)

advice-wise, i can give you a few tips without spoilers i think? if anyone wants to add more feel free though!

reviver seeds are your best friends. they are more important than any other item. hoard them. spend all your money on them. my sister always told me i was missing the 'spirit' of the game by going into dungeons with 12 reviver seeds, but when one of your missions is escorting a low-level pokemon through a dungeon and another is fighting a high-level bad guy, you will appreciate the reviver seeds then.

you will eventually encounter monster houses. always carry a petrify orb, foe-stun orb, or some other item that will affect an area of pokemon. you shouldn't get monster houses too early in the game but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

pmd2 is a kids game, and as such you won't need to heavily grind. still, depending on your comfort level, it can be really nice to have a few extra levels. pmd2 also is a game where plot events are scheduled - meaning if you go on a certain number of missions/otherwise use up a certain amount of in-game days, plot points will automatically occur. if you want more time to complete missions and otherwise level up/goof off, you often don't actually have to go on the plot mission, even if an npc says you do. just do your own thing anyway, it's fine. they'll keep reminding you but whatever, lol

to that last point, sometimes you'll be on longer missions and will be offered two paths to take from area to area. it will be obvious which is the correct one, as the incorrect one will always be labelled as 'foggy path' 'dark path' 'rocky path', etc, ending in 'path'. that one will just send you in a loop. you can take it as many times as you want to level grind. or you can skip them entirely if you want to get on with the game!

save, idk, 3-5 blue gummis in storage if you plan on finishing the game and doing post-game stuff. it isn't game-changing, it really isn't important, but it'll save you some minor time and annoyance.

there's no shame in looking up a guide for the personality test at the very beginning that determines which pokemon you play as. if you enjoy the surprise and/or actually want to align your personality/pokemon type, hell yeah! but there's a fun list of possible pokemon and it can be fun to pick which pokemon/type you like playing best as. personally, i love being riolu, learning focus punch, beefing it up with ginsengs, and destroying all in my path. i'm also weak to eevee, skitty, and shinx, because these four were the two my sister and i played most.

don't be afraid to use your normal (non-pp) attack, but also don't be afraid to use pp attacks. max elixirs aren't hard to come by, but not endless. however, you Will Not make it if you never use pp attacks. you'll find a balance!

you can control the moves your partner uses by switching them on/off in their move menu. if they have no moves selected, theyll default to the normal attack. im pretty sure they dont use normal attack if any pp moves are selected, though? you can also edit their "battle tactics" - eg, whether they follow u, seek out battles, run away, etc. this can be really useful as the only character you yourself fully control is the main character. make sure ur partner saves their low-pp high-attack moves for important situations, etc.

this isn't a NECESSITY but it helps if you and your partner are well-balanced or at least not exactly the same type-wise. it'll be just you two a lot, and you'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you picked a partner pokemon whose type balances out yours so you're not struggling through certain dungeons.

if you're using an emulator, save states are lovely, especially since dunegons are all randomly generated, but i know some people consider it cheating and don't like it. up to you!

there will be randomly encountered shopkeeper kecleons in dungeons. unless you can get to the stairs IMMEDIATELY, do not steal from them. jesus christ do not. or at least prepare to reload the game or give up on the dungeon.

if you can, take a bunch of missions at once in the same dungeon and just blast through them all in one trip.

play with the music up if you can! it has a deceptively incredible soundtrack.

i think that's enough to be dangerous with! there's more i could add, but honestly this game is pretty straightforward. if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask! this game means a lot to me, nostalgia-wise, and i genuinely love the story and the characters. just let yourself feel out what your favorite play style is. some people like bigger exploration teams and some don't, some people use every amenity in treasure town and some don't, everyone prefers different items and moves. but in the end, it's a kids game, and i know you'll do just fine!

[helenarlett-rex]

Working in a game store be like...

20 calls a day: "You got (insert name of game that just came out today.)

Me: We are a used game store. We only sell used games... Meaning someone has to bring in their copy of the game and sell it to us... That game just came out today. No one is selling us a brand new game the day they bought it.

"Do you know when you'll have it?"

Me: When someone gets tired of it and sells it to us...

"Yeah but, do you know when?"

---

"You got that new NC Double Madden?"

Me: Do you mean the new NCAA, or the new Madden? They are different games...

"The new football game."

Me: They are both football...

"The new one."

Me: They're both new...

---

"You got COD?"

Me: Which COD are you looking for?

*Sounding frustrated* "Black Ops."

Me: Which Black Ops?

*More frustrated.* "2."

Me: What system do you need it on?

*Starting to get angry.* "Xbox."

Me: Which Xbox?

*Screaming at me.* "The 360!"

---

"How much do you pay for an Xbox Series One S?"

Me: Do you mean an Xbox One S, or an Xbox Series S?

"Xbox One Series S."

Me: There is an Xbox One S and an Xbox Series S. They are two different things. Which one do you have?

"An Xbox S."

Me: That's not a thing...

---

"I need a power cord for an Xbox."

Me: What Xbox do you have?

"An Xbox SX."

Me: There's no such thing...

"That one!" *Points*

Me: That's an Xbox One S. You need this this power cord here.

"No, this is the wrong cord. I need the big one."

Me: This cord?

"Yeah, that's it."

Me: This is for an Xbox One. It won't fit to a One S. It goes to this... *Shows Xbox One.* Is this what you have?

"No, I have the other one!"

Me: Then you need this cord here...

"No I don't! I know what cord I need! You don't know what you're talking about!"

Me: You know what? Fine. If this is what you want...

*An hour later.*

"You sold me the wrong cord!"

Me: Yeah, I know... I told you that...

"I need a cord for an Xbox SX!"

Me: There's still no such thing... But this is the cord you need.

"No I told you that's not the cord!"

---

"Do you have any Mario games on the Xbox?"

Me: Mario is Nintendo only...

"Oh... What about PS5?"

---

"Hey I need a copy of Mario Kart for the N64."

Me: Yeah, that's like... the hardest one to find.

"So do you have it?"

Me: ... No...

---

"I got this copy of NCAA 14 from you a couple of months ago and I paid $145 for it. Can I still get my money back on that?"

Me: The new one came out. It's only worth $44 now...

"Yeah I know. That's why I want the $145 back."

Me: *Laughs.*

---

"How much can I get for an Xbox Series X?"

Me: *Tells him amount.*

"How much do you sell an Xbox One X for?"

Me: *Tells him an amount that is $20 more than the last amount.*

"So you're telling me that the older one is worth more than the newest one?!"

Me: No sir... We only pay 30% of what we sell it for.

"But if the One X cost (amount) and you're only going to pay me (other amount) for the Series X, that's more for the old one! You see what I'm saying?!"

Me: We only pay 30% of what we sell it for. I'll give you (amount) for the Series X, but I'm going to turn around and sell it for (higher amount.)

"What?! So you're making a profit off of me?!"

Me: How do you think a business works...?

---

Me: Okay I can give you $20 for this Funko Pop.

"What?! But it's worth $100!"

Me: Yes, we only pay 20% on Funko Pops.

"But it's worth $100! I should get $100 for it!"

Me: I'm going to sell it for $100. I can't buy it for the same amount I'm going to sell it for...

"Why not?"

Me: I don't make any money that way...

"If someone buys it you'll make $100."

Me: But I gave you $100 for it in the first place, so I'm right back where I started. I didn't make anything...

"I don't understand..."

Me: Clearly...

---

"Do you accept NFTs as payment?"

Me: *Laughs.*

---

Obvious Clueless Parent: "Hey my son wants these games." *Hands me a list of all first through third gen Pokemon games.*

Me: Oh you poor soul...

---

Obvious Idiot: "Uhh... the battery in this Pokemon game is dead."

Me: Oh I'm sorry. But yeah, that is a risk with those old games.

"Do you have another one?"

Me: No, those are getting pretty rare. We don't get them in very often. But you know, it's actually not that hard to swap out the battery.

"No, I want one with the original battery!"

Me: This is Pokemon Red... It's 26 years old. You're probably not going to find one with the original battery still working.

"Yes you can! They can last for 50 years! I've seen it!"

Me: You've seen a 26 year old game with a battery that lasted 50 years...?

"Yes!"

---

Me: Okay and I just need you to sign this receipt.

"I already signed on the pin pad."

Me: Oh, I'm sorry. The pin pad doesn't register signatures. It's written right there...

"Well that's stupid! I'm not going to read that! You should just take that sticker off because I'm never going to read anything! Whoever put that there was just wasting their time! They should be fired!"

---

"Do you buy Hot Wheels cars?"

Me: Yes but we don't pay collector's value on them. We only take them in at a bulk price.

"I've got a whole collection of really good ones. *Starts naming off a long list of cars and won't let me get a word in.* How much can you give me for those?

Me: $0.60 each...

"No, you don't understand. I've got- *Starts naming cars again.*

Me: No you don't understand. We don't pay collector's value on those. We buy them all at $0.60 each.

"But these are valuable ones! They're collectables!"

Me: We DON'T PAY VALUE on those. We only pay a bulk price.

"But I can't sell them for that low! They are worth more than that!"

Me: Then don't sell them to us...

"Fuck you!"

---

"I've got some really old comic books here. How much can you give me for them?"

Me: I'm sorry, we only pay a bulk price for comic books so I can only... Oh... These comics are missing their covers. I wouldn't even be able to take them at all...

"No, that's how they are supposed to be! That's what the old covers looked like!"

Me: No, that's not the cover at all. That's just the splash page.

"No no, that's what they look like! These are OLD ones... See, that's the title right there, and there's the copyright information..."

Me: Yes... That's what's printed on the splash page... All comics have that... They also have covers that come before the splash page. These are missing their covers.

"No you don't understand! You don't know what old comics look like!"

Me: Yes I do. I'm a comic book collector and actually the most knowledgeable person in this whole company when it comes to comics... Look... if that's the cover, then where's the issue number? What issue is this? Show me the issue number.

"Uhh..." *Looks at it for a minute.* "No, they didn't have issue numbers back then."

Me: Why am I arguing with you? We only pay $0.05 a piece on comic books.

"What?!"

Me: The company doesn't understand comic books... We sell them all for a dollar a piece. If you want to go dig through our boxes you can find some pretty valuable stuff in there for a buck. I do it all the time. I go resell them at an actual comic book shop.

"Oh... So can I get $0.05 a piece for these?"

Me: Sure. Fuck it... Here's a quarter.

[fishing-croagunk]

Game Clearing 2023: A Retrospective

Once again, it's time to look a back at everything I played.

As always, I will talk more about each one after the cut.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure : Jan 3 - Jan 5

I've played the original PS1 Crash games countless times, and I've always wondered how the GBA games compared (the platformer ones at least). And over all, I'd say they're pretty decent at recreating the gameplay. However, there's one big issue that does occur a couple times. Sometimes, you'll have to do a leap of faith and you just have to hope you fall properly. What's worse is that sometimes there's an enemy there, so I started mashing spin after every leap of faith. This still sucks for time trials. But at least there's an actual reward for getting relics, other than a gem. I also ended up cramping my left hand from constantly holding down the L button to dash, so that's something.

Shadows Over Loathing: Jan 6 - Jan 11

This was actually a gift from my good friend Mippy, although I would have bought it anyway. I've watched a playthrough of the previous game, West of Loathing, and I was really looking forward to this installment. I found the story very enjoyable, and chuckled quite a few times. I also really liked the combat and RPG mechanics. I did consider going for every Steam achievement, but not only would that require multiple playthroughs, but some things are very easy to lock yourself out of, requiring either a guide or another playthrough. This is also why I typically don't go for completing achievements.

Donkey Kong: Jan 13 - Jan 13

Last Christmas, I had purchased Mario Vs. Donkey Kong. But before I played that, I wanted to check out the game often thought as its prequel, Game Boy Donkey Kong. And honestly, it's a really good time. All the sideflips and handstand jumps make the movement in this game really fun. The varying worlds also keep you on your toes. It's also not too hard; you will die a couple times, but the bonus games means you're probably not gonna game over.

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: Jan 14 - Jan 27

This was one of two gifts I got from my Secret Santa last year. Thank you so much, Bilth. After playing Rayman 2, I knew I had to check out the follow-up. And, other than the AV cables for my PS2 dying, it was pretty fun. Generally, I would say the game is about as fun as Rayman 2, and I can see why people prefer that to this. I thought the new powers were pretty cool, and most of them played off of Rayman's base moves well. Now I can't wait for Rayman 4!

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Jan 14 - Jan 20

After really enjoying GB DK, I was excited to try out this game, and I was… mildly satifsied. I found the first couple worlds to be just as fun as the original game, but then the plus worlds came in. Instead of getting a key to a door and then saving Mini-Mario, you instead have a Mini-Mario with a key you need to escort to the door. The problem with this is that Mini-Mario will always try to get to you no matter what's in the way, except in some cases, but it's really hard to tell when he stops and when he'll throw himeself into spikes or lava. Leading to a lot deaths that don't feel like your fault. Still, it's kind of a shame that future Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games basically became Lemmings, instead of refining this platforming gameplay. Also, in case you're wondering about the Expert world, that would require me to go through most of the levels all over again for a high score, and I can't be bothered to do that.

Super Mario Bros: Peach's Adventure: Feb 4 - Feb 8

I've played a lot of Pokemon hacks, so it was only time till I tried out a Mario hack. And with Super Mario World alone having thousands, if not tens of thousands of hacks, I had a lot of choices, but I had heard good things about this hack, and I have to agree. The levels are great, the music is awesome, and the secrets were fun to find, especially that Special World. I would definitely recommending checking out this hack.

Pokemon Crystal Clear: Feb 8 - Feb 17

This has been regarded as one of the best Crystal hacks, and I can definitely see why. Imagine if you could start from anywhere, get any pokemon, and fight the Gym Leaders in any order; including Kanto. That is what Crystal Clear set out to do and really excels at. Honestly, if you're like me, and wanting to play Crystal again, but with some small tweaks to keep it interesting, I'd say to try this out right now. I'd even say it's worth more than one playthrough, to see what happens with a different order…

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced: Feb 24 - Mar 2

After healing my hand, I returned to try out the second Crash Bandicoot GBA game. And I do think it's a bit better than the first game, for the most part. It's a lot like Warped, where they added a lot of vehicle levels with Coco and Crunch, and some vehicle sections in Crash's levels. I do think the level design is overall better than Huge Adventure, with a lot less leaps of faith. Which sounds like it would make the time trials easier… except that gold is not good enough. If you want your save file to be 101%, you basically need all platinum relics. Which I did not do, cause as it turns out the relics don't get you anything. No new levels, no new gems, you don't even need them to fight N. Tropy, as you actually need the hidden color gem shards instead. Honestly, I would say to completely ignore the time trials if you want to play this game, unless you want to go platinum.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land: Mar 3 - Mar 10

With so many hours spent in Super Star Ultra, I'm surprised I've never played RtDL until now. And not long before I started playing, a remake has come out! Oh well. I still found this game to be very enjoyable. Generally breezy, but does have some challenge if you do decide to go for 100%. And the Extra Mode didn't feel repetitive either. Part of me wishes I could have played through this with a friend or two, but it's still great in singleplayer.

Pokemon Coral: Mar 12 - Mar 17

This is another hack that, since I first saw it, I knew I had to try it out. And, even though it's just a demo, it quickly became one of my favorites. I think what separates this from other Pokemon hacks is that is really does feel like a Pokemon game GameFreak could have back in the day. It was a fun romp, and the few secrets I did fine were very cool. I look forward to future demos and a full release whenever they come out! Also, if I had a nickle every time a little girl turned out to be very threatening, I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but it's funny it happened twice.

Viewtiful Joe 2: Mar 18 - Mar 31

With the first game setting up a sequel hook, I felt it appropriate to play through the sequel this year. And… it's alright. I would say it's on par with the first game. I did find Sylvia to be neat, although I did not play as her much except when a puzzle required her abilities, if only because I was more familiar with Joe. Honestly, the only real low point with the game would have to be same as the first game, which is the boss rematches. This is largely because of the bosses being such damage sponges that each one can take several minutes to beat. Aside from that, it was an enjoyable ride. It's a shame this game also ends on a cliff-hanger, and there wasn't a Joe 3. The closest would be Red Hot Rumble, which is more multiplayer-focused, and Double Trouble, which I have heard mixed things about.

Kirby's Dream Land 3: Apr 5 - Apr 6

This will be one of two most controversial takes in this list, but I really did not care for this game. Not that I think this game is bad. After playing so much Super Star, I have a hard time going back to games that have one-button abilities, even though this came out afterwards. The various Animal Friends you get to use are pretty cool though, and I found the Heart Stars to be neat little puzzles. Honestly, this is definitely a case of it's not the game, it's just me.

Yoshi's Island DS: Apr 7 - Apr 23

Ohhhh boyyyyy. I was warned that 100%ing this game would be a pain. And they were right! While the new babies are cool, the level design is cruel. A lot of times, there'd be hidden red coins or flowers, or a cloud of stars. Speaking of stars, they are a lot more rare in DS, and you're gonna need them more in this game, since it feels like the enemies respawn the second they go offscreen. And what's worse is that they're aren't any star items here either. While you might say that there is content locked behind going for 100%, those Extra levels are even worse. To a point where beating them is challenging enough. I honestly wish I didn't play on actual hardware cause then I could have used save states and rewind.

Pizza Tower: Apr 24 - May 11 & Aug 26 - Aug 31 & Oct 23 - Oct 24

And here is the game you were expecting to be here. Yeah, this game is fantastic. It literally caused this ordering to seem odd. I really like this game, its movement, its soundtrack, it's all so great. And I had originally planned to just get the S-Ranks and maybe get the P-Ranks next year. But then really felt like going for 101%. A feeling that I usually don't get. So I went back at it. Were some of those P-Ranks difficult? Yes, but man, did it feel good finally getting them. I then finished the game by doing a speedrun (something else I typically don't do) to get the John Suit. And the Halloween update dropped. I thought the new content was very fun and definitely tested my abilities. Now to wait for the Noise update.

Cult of the Lamb: May 11 - May 19

This is a game I played last year, but it got a pretty sizable update, adding a new QOL stuff and additional post-game content. I also really love the heavy attacks, making my favorite weapon, the axe, even better as a boomerang! The relics were also a cool way to change up crusades, and boss rematches were also good way to test all the new stuff. Overall, I enjoyed my return to the cult, and with more content coming next year, chances are I will be writing about this game again.

Antonball Deluxe: May 23 - May 25

As I wait for Antonblast, I decided to check out the game that came out before it, Antonball! And it was pretty solid arcade style game. I did go through both Antonball and Punchball, but I did not 1cc them, but I may do that at a future point. While I did originally like Punchball more than Antonball, I now think I like latter over the former.

We ♥ Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie: Jun 1 - Jun 9

Both PS2 Katamari games were my childhood, so I was excited to see a WLK remake. And honestly, it does a very good job at presenting katamari to a new generation. I would whole-heartedly recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played it on PS2. One small gripe I have is that the Royal Reverie is a really small part of the game, only being five stages, with them being remixes of previously existing stages. But still, Katamari Damacy is fun, no matter how the gaming landscape changes, which is just wonderful.

Hey! Pikmin: Jun 12 - Jun 17

As I waited for Pikmin 4, I decided to check out the fourth Pikmin game, Hey! Pikmin. And it's okay, I'd think. I feel like I don't hear a lot of people talk about it, which is a shame as I thought it was enjoyable. This game did a good job of taking the Pikmin formula and turning it into a puzzle-platformer. I was skeptical of the game being only touch controls and the Circle Pad, but it really works and it's pretty fun to use. While the game is on the easy side (and will offer to skip levels if you die too much), I didn't mind it. Although unlike any other game in the series, I don't see myself replaying this game anytime soon. Also, I did not do the amiibo stuff, because I have an old 3DS and would need to buy an adapter for it. Even if I did, I only 3 of the 9 amiibo I have would even be compatible for it.

Pac-Man World Re-Pac: Jun 19 - Jun 23

Despite playing Pac-Man World 2 and 3, I never played the PlayStation original. Until I tried out the remake, that is. And I really liked it! The levels were fun and I enjoyed the mazes. However, there was one small thing they changed that deterred me from getting true 100%. In the original game, in order to get 100%, you needed to also complete the Maze Marathon mode. However, instead of that, in order to get 100% in the remake, you need the Magic Key. Now, this Magic Key did exist in the original game, but it required an extremely high score and only counted as bragging rights. While the remake does lower score requirement, it still meant that since I sucked the slot machine game, I would need to play every stage all over again and just hope that I get a higher score, which I would rather not do.

Annalynn: Jul 2 - Jul 4

This little arcade style game is very cool. It's a maze-style game, with a couple worlds and three levels per world. After beating the Normal Mode, I was going to try to try to 1cc it, but then I spent a lot of time in Random Mode, until I realized it was an endless challenge. So, I decided I would use the Practice Mode, since perfecting levels there still counts for palettes. It was a real test of skill, but man did it feel great finally perfecting them all. I will definitely be coming back to 1cc this at a later date.

Frogger: Helmet Chaos: Jul 9 - Jul 19

After playing those two Frogger games, I decided to jump all the way to this title on the DS (and PSP). I've gotta say, this game has a lot more secrets to it then I originally thought. While there's obviously secret 1-ups and health extensions, this game also has a branching path system that's actually pretty complex. Depending on what actions or exits you take, you can either playthrough the game as just Frogger, or you could play as all three characters in one playthrough. And these other characters not only play differently, but also have entirely unique levels to them. It's honestly a shame that's there's not a lot of footage in this game of the multiple pathways, because they are definitely worth looking into. And in case you were wondering, I'm not playing any of the Frogger games I skipped.

Pikmin 4: Jul 22 - Jul 27

Ah yes, one of the games I was most looking forward to this year. Pikmin 4 does what sequel should do, it takes what worked and what's memorable about the previous entries, and combines it with some new stuff to make it feel like a homage to those that came before, while still standing on its own. Honestly, the reason I'm talking not too much about it, because I want to people to play it blind. Yes, even if you have never played a Pikmin game, I'd say to give it a shot!

Yoshi's Story: Aug 4 - Aug 6

Oh boy, this is the other controversial take, that I really did not care for this game. I thought going for all Melons and all Hearts would make things more interesting, and while it did do that, it did not make me appreciate the game more than just the fact this game has a harder challenge in it that most people wouldn't even know about. And the minigames to get the melons just kinda suck. I personally do think the game can be fun, but I do wish I could play the game as a set of stages and not have to do multiple playthroughs to play every stage.

Rayman Raving Rabbids: Aug 10 - Aug 11

Here we go. I recently acquired the Raving Rabbids Party Collection, which as you could probably guess is a collection of the first three Rabbids party games for the Wii. As someone who really likes Go Home and thought Travel in Time was okay, I've always been curious of these earlier games. And the first game is pretty rough honestly. Like, even without the context, it feels like the game was never meant to be this. The minigames too are just ok, with a lot of them just shake the Wiimote. No joke, I beat this game, after many attempts at one of the rhythm games, and woke up the next morning with sore arms. And I know there's also a Score Mode to do, but I don't like any minigames enough to replay them for high scores, and apparently you can't even beat the Score Mode on the Wii version due to a bug (and I doubt this collection patched it).

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: Aug 13 - Aug 13

This one will be quick. You can tell this was designed with multiplayer first, as there's not really a singleplayer campaign other than just playing the minigames by yourself. Again, I didn't feel like going for high scores, because for some games, getting a high score is less on your skill and more on the opponents not screwing you over. At least the rhythm games here didn't give me sore arms. Also, I'm gonna go on a tangent about how much I dislike how Rayman looks in this game. He looks fine in the menus, but in the minigames he moves very oddly, and looks off (which I would not have noticed if 1P mode didn't lock me into being Rayman). I get that they need everyone to share the same hitboxes and animations, but he feels like a mod in his own game. No wonder he was phased out starting with the next game.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party: Aug 17 - Aug 18

I can safely say that this was definitely my favorite out of the three. The minigames here were great. I feel like having groups of minigames with similar theming but still being unique was a good call. (for example, all the shooting games take place in a movie studio, but the movies are different). You can also play basically the prototype for Just Dance here, and honestly it was more fun that I would have thought! I was also worried that, since I no longer own a Balance Board, I would be locked out of playing certain minigames. Thankfully no, and while I can't say I played this with my butt as advertised, I did like them more then the past entries. This game makes me wish I could have played with at least another person, because I would have enjoyed that a lot. If were to choose one of these three games to go back and get a high score on, it would probably be this one.

Paper Mario TTYD64: Aug 18 - Aug 26

One last mod for the year, and it's a Paper Mario mod! I really love PM64, so this gave me a chance to play through it all over again. Except, it's different, because this mod adds in a lot of the mechanics from TTYD, as you might assume from the name. I did use the Danger strats, and with the new badges added, it did trivialize some parts of the game. Of course, the game also has multiple difficulties for you to choose, from the pathetically easy to the nearly impossible. And it even has two other modes with a built in randomizer and one where you only use Bow. I definitely need to check out those other modes, and can't recommend this mod enough!

Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World: Sep 2 - Sep 12

Even when I did have a Wii U, I never played Woolly World. So this port was the only way I could play it. And honestly, I liked it! This game's pretty chill compared to the other Yoshi games I played, even when going for 100%. I feel like the fact that you don't need to get everything in one visit really helped with that, alongside the Power Badges. Of course, the game still does some challenge, especially in the extra levels. I also really like the aesthetic, it's very cute and stands out among the other titles in a good way. There's also the Poochy Dash stages, which were a nice change of pace. I should mention the amiibo content, which I was unable to do, but thankfully all I was locked out of was additional Yoshi costumes and a time trial mode for the Poochy stages. Would definitely recommend this one.

Star Fox Assault: Oct 4 - Oct 7

After playing 64 3D, I wanted to try out the other game in the series that's most recommended: Assault. And… I like parts of it. It might be because I've never played Ratchet or Jak, but the on-foot gameplay just did not click with me. Even with the many times I had to use it, I just did not care for it. However, the vehicles and the on-rail sections were pretty fun. This game also has a multiplayer mode, which seems cool, but as I have no one to play with, I don't have much desire to play it. A bit of shame, as there's a lot of stuff you can unlock for it. Oh well. And, in case you're wonder if I'll play SNES Star Fox, Command, or Zero: Maybe, probably not, and definitely not.

Super Bomberman R2: Oct 8 - Oct 12

Super Bomberman R was one of the first games I got for my Switch, so when this was announced, I was pretty excited! And yeah, it's pretty good. The story mode had a bit of a more open world with exploration and puzzles. Honestly it kinda felt like a mix of the SNES Bomberman and 64 / Generations style of gameplay, which really worked. There's also the new Castle mode here, and it was not too great. Yes, I like the idea on paper, but for two out of the three worlds, the layout I created ended up being too much for the AI. No joke, I could put my controller down, and the enemy would never reach the base. So that was a bit of a letdown. The other parts of the Story Mode are good, and honestly I would recommend playing it even if you only care about the multiplayer, since beating it gets you so many coins you can spend on the shop. I am sad that 100%ing didn't unlock my main from R1, who had similar requirements there. Guess I'll just have to play Karaoke Bomber instead.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Oct 30 - Nov 1

My, it has been long since we've had a new Mario platformer, hasn't it? While I do like the New Soup games (as I remember getting New Soup with a DS as a Christmas present), I was thrilled when Wonder was announced. So much personalty and charm oozing out! And honestly, the best way to describe how it feels to play Wonder is that it takes right back when I was playing NSMB as a child. Just so much amazement, and dare I say wonder as I trekked through the levels and found all of their secrets. I would personally say to go for 100% as it's very fun and the Special World is a worthy challenge that feels like the right amount of difficulty. I really hope this game sets a precedent for not only good Mario games again, but also that giving the devs as much time as they need can make a truly fantastic game.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope: Nov 7 - Nov 25

This game was the other Secret Santa gift I got from Bilth, and honestly I wish I played it sooner. While I have never played an X-COM styled game, I really enjoyed this one! I really did enjoy strategizing against all of the enemies the game could throw at me. And I do have a set of heroes I used the most (Luigi, Peach, and Rabbid Mario), I felt like all of the heroes were not only equally useful, but had plenty of synergy with each other. I at first wasn't sure if I was gonna for 100%, but I was enjoying myself the whole way! You better believe I'm gonna be playing those DLCs next year, once I figure out if I need a Ubisoft account or not.

Plok!: Dec 5 - Dec 10

Out of all of the games I've played this year, Plok! is honestly a tricky one to recommend. And I've definitely had a lot of fun with it, but the difficulty can deter people from finishing it. Plok doesn't have enough invincibility frames and dies in fewer hits than you'd think, the way that continues work makes it very easily to lose progress, and no saving and no passwords means you gotta beat the game in one sitting. Of course, those last two don't really apply if you're not playing on official hardware, but it's still a valid complaint. Also yes, the soundtrack is very, very good.

And that's the games, as always, here is a tierlist of all the games.

[thatoneguy031]

I made some drawings on a whiteboard, featuring some other characters I conjured up in my free time. I'll provide some context for these guys as they're shown, but please mind my ramblings.

First, these guys. These lovely bastards.

For those who have a keen eye, this is formatted in the same way as TWEWY's Fusion Attacks, specifically from the DS.

These are the two main characters of a PMD plot I'm working on(Which I might write a pilot for, if y'all want that), and despite the group consisting of five Pokemon, these two are especially close, and have went on the most missions together out of everyone on the team.

Noibat(Top): Chris. He's the main main character, and he's a human sent here by Arceus, yada yada world-ending event, you get the idea. He has some killer leadership skills, and is typically the peace-keeper of the team. He's normally the one getting into problems with the villians when he doesn't need to(You guys know Izuku, Bakugo and Shoto from MHA? Basically them), and his team is almost always referred to as the "problem children".

Cubone(Bottom): Lucas. Think of him as Chris's "Second-in-command". He's the second opinion everyone needs when it comes to certain topics. His mother is(More like was, but I'll get to that when the time comes) a previous Rescue Ranger, so he has a natural knack for the whole business. He's admittedly a bit emotional, crying when even the smallest things go wrong, but he's still a solid addition to the team, and he'll be there when anyone needs it. He also might have a super-duper crush on Chris, but that's neither here nor there.

For what they're saying in the image:

Chris: "Rush 'em, Lucas-" Lucas: "I'm there!"

I have a whole system similar to the Stride Cross Battle mechanic from TWEWY, and it functions like the Alliances from Super Mystery Dungeon, but again, I'll get to that when I begin writing this thing.

Also, don't mind Chris's earpiece. He just uses it because he isn't quite used to being a Noibat just yet, at the time of this pic.

Speaking of TWEWY...

Say hi to Azure, I guess(Actually don't, he might wanna throw hands with you).

He's super antisocial, but unlike Neku, he's willing to fight anyone that does as little as breathe the wrong way in his direction.

And his getup? His entry fee for the Reapers Game is his uniqueness, obviously something he didn't know he respected about himself so much until it was taken away from him. Because of that, he dawns an outfit similar to that of our favorite legendary Player, of course with a few changes(And it also explains his amnesia. I just drew him as a dragon just because, which is a habit you'll see in a lot of my drawings from here on).

He's also treated as if he's Neku(Specifically, Neku from the events of Neo onwards); as if he's been through this before. As you can probably guess, he definitely has not. After a certain point, he fights nothing but Boss Noise and even Reapers themselves, leaving his partner very confused as to why this is happening to them. Azure himself has a hard time grasping the fact that he's dead, despite it being told to him about a dozen times, but it comes from a sense of denial. He doesn't want to believe he's dead, mostly because that's something he, like many other people, is scared of... death itself.

Don't mistake Azure's aggression for meanness, however. When the time comes, he does care for people's well-being, and will even risk his erasure for their safety, which is a large reason why he even participates in the Game during his third week instead of just becoming a Reaper, which he calls "The coward's way out".

Here's a fun game: See if y'all can guess which pins Azure's wearing! These are some of the most used pins I had during my playthrough of Final Remix(Which is still going on, if you're curious), and I just wanted to feature them in the picture, as these would be a lot of Azure's favorite pins to use as well.

Don't mind the background, I know I drew the 104 building wrong, okay?

[blazingmoltres]

Yeah!! It’s mainly in pokemas that we really see his love of teaching younger trainers and seeing the younger generations grow. Like, there’s so many moments where Blue seems to be proud of the younger generation, wanting to see them get stronger as he passes on his knowledge and lessons.

(Putting under a read more incase you don’t wanna read the quotes and my probably nonsensical rambling Lol)

Random conversation (Sygna Suit)

"You're another Trainer I'm focused on beating, <player>. Just like Red."

"I admit, I consider you a rival."

"It's a little scary to watch you get stronger and stronger, but it's also kind of exciting."

"More strong Trainers means more worthwhile battles—which is a plus, of course—but there's more to it than that."

"Maybe I'm just happy to watch you grow and mature as a person, too."

"I managed to find a new goal here, too."

"Y'know how we've met a lot of up-and-coming Trainers here on Pasio who all admire us?"

"I feel like it might be our duty to watch over them."

"Don't get me wrong, though. I'm still gonna get way stronger, too!"

Friendship story 1:

"C'mon, <player>! Don't tell me you're tired already!"

"You can't be the best if that's the best you can do!"

"Though...I gotta admit, it IS impressive that you finished this amount of practice."

"I always knew you had potential!"

"After all, you're the only one going through this much of my training!"

"Even my Trainers back at Viridian Gym couldn't handle this much, so you should be proud of yourself!"

(Praise him for being a good teacher.): "Heh. Of course I'm awesome!"

(Grin proudly.): "Hey, shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"Well... I say that, but I'm still learning how to be a better mentor."

"At the very least, I know I'm better at this stuff than Red is! He'd be too quiet!"

"That's why I'm glad you came to me, anyway!"

"Just you wait and see–I'm gonna beat Red someday. I've never given up on that."

"But y'know what?"

"If I teach a Trainer everything I know, and they end up beating Red..."

"I think I'd still be happy about that–almost as if I had done it myself!"

"I've started feeling that way as I watched how much you've grown here on Pasio

"Which is why... Uh..."

"I know I'm tough on you, but I hope you keep coming back to me for your training!"

"As rivals, let's see who can take down Red first!"

Friendship Story 2:

"Y'know, it's really amazing that you did so well in a battle against Red."

"But don't get too comfortable, or you'll start to fall behind."

"Trust me...I speak from experience."

"Remember, there's always something you can improve to get even stronger. That's really important."

"Honestly, though, I really am glad that you put up a good fight against Red."

"The fact that you battled toe-to-toe with him isn't just because I'm your mentor. That was all you!"

"You can't just take what you've been taught at face value. It's also important to find a way to use it that works for you!"

"So be proud of yourself! That's a mentality all the strongest Trainers have!"

(Blue lines like this make me sob loudly)

I can’t really see Blue as a professor, As he doesn’t seem to express an interest in things like pokemon biology, Blue’s a people person me thinks. One of the few lines I’ve seen him talk about the Pokemon Professor career is-

Chat After Completing Friendship Story 1:

"Gramps has a lot of experience teaching..."

"In fact, I hear he was a decent Trainer himself back in the day! I should ask him for a few pointers."

"Pokémon Professors are good at explaining stuff, so that's definitely a skill worth learning!"

He focuses on wanting to learn training  tis from Prof. Oak and learning the explaining skills that Professors have. So it just furthers my feeling that Blue would prefer something battle oriented to teach younger trainers battle skills. Most of his other quotes don’t include anything about pokemon research from what I know of. Even in the mainline games it seems like Blue was only completing the Dex to one up Red, atleast that’s how I saw it.

(I’m not saying Blue hates pokemon research, its just never seemed like a priority for him)

(I’m actually adding this after I wrote this whole thing, I finally figured out where the quote I was thinking of in my previous tags, Pokemon Evolutions: The Challanger.

Agatha: Since you’re the grandson of that old coot, I thought you’d be completing the Pokedex.

Blue: Don’t you compare me with that Old Man!

So my point still stands that I feel Blue would stray from a research oriented role, +Blue didn’t even complete the Pokedex and didn’t even seem to want to.)

Elite 4 Blue is a really good HC I haven’t considered before seeing your post, I think a lot of trainers look up to the Elite 4 if I’m not mistaken. So I think it would be a good fit. I personally also like Teacher Blue, but I will be rotating Elite 4 Blue in my brain.

Anyways, About Professor Red, While its probably more headcannon rather then based on anything, I just feel fits with his personality. It allows him to explore and catch more pokemon, two things that are part of the core values of the pokemon games, so I assume as a protagonist, he’d enjoy that. +being a professor doesn’t mean he has to give up battling. It’s just his main goal becomes learning more about Pokemon. Idk, I just think he’s an absolute nerd who loves pokemon.

Though, personally- I actually don’t think Red would be a good mentor. The Neo-champion event felt very situational as Red’s main thing was teaching them how to have fun in battles, even with a loss, I feel like his mentoring style would be limited (You can’t just beat up kids to solve every problem). And now that Blue learned what he did wrong, I think he’d be a more rounded mentor.

(Tbh I have my own gripes with NeoChamp Event but not gonna say anything)

Uhm yeah, if you read this- hopefully my rambling wasn't too nonsensical and just uhhh

I believe in Elite 4 Blue and Professor Red supremacy.

YES we see blue as a great teacher during that one event in pokemas but he teaches A LOT about battling and how its okay to lose and all of that, and in pokespe his title is trainer and hes very skilled at making them ready for battles so he’d be much better at. that

literally red is a huge nerd when it comes to pokemon, and we know that from pokemas hes an insanely good teacher, ending up with his trainers winning (i think?) well rounded trainers, and in pokespe hes seen to be very interested in filling out the pokedex for the sake of learning about them (again i think)

im very guilty of combining all of the verses tbh…

also idk how to tag the user so i hope this post finds them

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

ive had an account for a couple years and i use this site occasionally, but it just feels like a regular, non-personal stream of content. how do i use this site n get into it and meet people

This is an interesting question. Especially in light of the new Twitter migration. Despite it not having anything to do with this blog, I want to answer it.

Come to think of it, this is probably a very common point of confusion for people. Tumblr is very different from Twitter and Instagram and Tiktok - because it doesn't force new content into your dash. You only get what you signed up for, and nothing more (unless you ask for that option.)

So in a way, Tumblr is kind of like socializing as an adult!

Meaning you need to go look for stuff - and PEOPLE! - you enjoy seeing and interacting with!

Here's a couple of ideas to help with that:

1. Tag your posts, and browse other people's tags!

Tumblr's tagging system is....................something. But it's at least ACTIVE. Meaning that on any given post, you should be able to simply look at some tags, and click on them! And then you get all recent posts WITH THAT TAG!

Enjoy pokemon? Go to the pokemon tag! Want to see what everyone is posting about the new games? Go to the Pokemon scarlet and violet tags!

What's more, if you want to consistently see things from that tag.... you can! You can just follow it. In fact, the tag page itself will often recommend you EVEN MORE TAGS.

Hell, you can even follow more blogs from the tag.

And the more you tag your posts, the easier people can find YOU and perhaps follow you for whatever you post!

2. Interact with people, and look through their blogs!

I won't pretend to know what your background is, anon, but I know many people use Twitter primarily, and Twitter kind of favors quietly following and liking posts.

It's fine to do that here, too, but you'll probably make friends faster if you follow a bunch of people and then reblog/comment on their stuff. Tumblr even has handy suggestions for other blogs if you're lost on who to follow.

I would recommend maybe taking care with WHAT you say, though, because if you leave rude or odd comments, some people will block you pretty quickly. Just use common sense. :)

Hint: If you reblog art, feel free to tag it! Heck, if you don't want to say something to the artist but feel too shy to make it an ask or a DM or a comment.... just put your feelings in the tags!

Most artists will look through the tags on their posts, which means they'll likely see your comments and feel very heartened by them.

3. Use the Stuff In Your Orbit options tumblr DOES have!

Tumblr has options for letting you see other people's Likes and follows. If you click on the little person icon at the top, and then go to settings, you can fix your dashboard preferences.

Scroll down until you see this menu:

...and turn on the first three options! That will populate your dashboard with suggestions based on the people you already do follow. It's going to be random, but probably the easiest option if you're used to other algorithmic sites.

Anyway, hope that helps, and happy uhhhhhh tumbling.

[jasper-pagan-witch]

Jasper Thoughts: Lessons From Pop Culture

There's an interesting pattern in the pop culture sources I draw from. I'm going to ramble and highlight at random. I am going to separate this into chunks using dividers from both jasper-graphics (another of my blogs) and the blog of firefly-graphics (go support them).

In The Elder Scrolls, specifically Skyrim, you have to actually use spells from the class of your choosing in order to level up the skill and unlock more features that will make those spells easier, including perks that reduce the cost of the spells or boosts to your Magicka. You can't cast a spell that costs more Magicka than you have and you have to wait for the bar to refill to the correct amount before casting another spell. There are potions and magic items that can increase your amount of Magicka (temporarily for potions or as long as you're wearing them for magic items), potions to restore a certain amount of Magicka, magic items to increase your Magicka regeneration rate, and magic items to reduce the cost of certain classes of spells.

And while there are skill books to boost a skill by one whole rank instantly, there are only five books for each skill. That means, ignoring racial bonuses to skills from the get-go, the most you can get a skill to without training under teachers (either by paying them or by finishing quests for them) by reading books on the subject, you'd only get the skill to 20. Even with racial bonuses, that's either 25 or 30 max without training or using it.

So in short, in order to get better at magic (and other skills) in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, you have to actually...do magic. And study (under teachers or through books) can give you a boost, but you're not going to max out any skill just through that.

This is fascinating when you think of magic in our world. Everyone hounds the importance of study, and I don't disagree, but at some point, you have to actually do magic in order to learn about it. Striking the balance between study and practice is hard, but eventually you'll find the right balance for your magic.

In Magic: The Gathering's tabletop form, you play out Land cards from your hand - one Land per turn. These represent the energy that you use to cast spells that summon Creatures or Planeswalkers, make Sorceries and Instants happen, create Enchantments or Artifacts, and so on.

An important note here is that once you tap a Land (turn it sideways) to make a play and actually use that energy, you can't untap it (turn it back up) until the untap step of your next turn. You can tap on your opponent's turn to cast Instants or cards with the Flash mechanic, but otherwise, all of your spellcasting has to happen on your turn.

As you may have guessed, the key point here is that even if you know your energy limits (say, five Lands), you can't just use it all (tap it) and cast a whole lot more spells (...casting spells) than you have the energy for (how many you have access to). The energy may come back or refill (untap on your next turn), but you have to keep an eye on it (make sure you leave some untapped in case you need an Instant or Flash keyword).

Dungeons and Dragons! We're familiar with spell slots. Some people even use spell slots to describe their energy already.

They are, functionally, similar to Lands in Magic: The Gathering, so I won't cover these in-depth. But these function quite similarly: You only have so many spell slots per level, and they won't be restored unless you take a long rest (basically an 8 hour break).

And Pokemon. As our final example of limitations, let's discuss this in terms of what all someone can juggle at once.

In the games, a team of Pokemon can only have six members at once, and each of those Pokemon can only learn up to four moves. So even with the widest range of move types, a single Pokemon can only use up to four different types across its four attacks.

So while you can potentially cast any number of spells, I would like to gently put forward the fact that hey, we can only keep track of so many things at once. Don't overfill your plate - you can always go back for seconds.

[draftingteacups]

Do you think that after shopping for hours in Lumiose City (and maybe Laverre too bc Valerie lives there and she is canonly a fashion designer) Vil and Crewel would yell at whoever is in charge of the Pokemon Performances bc How dare they not let men perform as well ?

NOTE: This ask got longer than I expected because there's something cool about exploring another world that I like as a concept. As such, this will be considered non canon, but it'll still be a fun read regardless!

idk how they managed to connect the worlds, but the only one that I can remember in recent memory where the two worlds were connected in any way is through the Wish Upon a Star Event ask that I wrote a while back.

Although if the whole NRC crew is going to Kalos, it's going to be a wild ride. They'll go on a tourist-guided run through the city because, in the game, it's so hard to maneuver through the city without knowing where to go.

When the NRC crew and staff got the confirmation that they were going to Soni's world, even her home region of Kalos, there is no small way of saying there was excitement amongst them. Delicious cuisine, vast landscapes, and the world itself was a thing that they were very hyped for.

Of course, there were rules in place.

They couldn't share pictures of Kalos online because people would obviously ask where those pictures were taken. They can still take pictures, but no sharing them, which makes Cater a little sad but he concedes.

Another thing is that they had to be careful to not show their magic or use their magic abilities because magic doesn't exist in her world.

There's also the unwritten rule of looking trainers in the eye means that you'll fight them and everyone's wondering "wtf Soni, you didn't mention this". The thing is, Trainers do this with other Trainers, so in theory, the ones without them should be fine! The others with their Poke Buddies on the other hand... 😅

NRC crew and staff are told to bring minimal belongings like two days' worth of clothes because they were going to go shopping for stuff in her world to blend in better as well as a bag of sorts to carry things in.

Soni will work out the money, but if things like Nuggets, Star Dust, and Comet Shards can be sold to the Poke Mart without a blink of an eye, then those would be easier to deal with than Madols lol

I mean, it's an entirely different world's currency, so it'd be tough to explain that sort of thing. Just the idea of Malleus, Leona, and Kalim dropping a bunch of nuggets, gems, and more at Soni's door ☠️☠️

After getting the necessities, the arrangements for sleeping began and Soni was doing her best to be anonymous with it all, which is extremely difficult to do when you're the Champion and everyone's so damn curious about what the hell she's doing. Eventually, she managed to get everyone into a room accommodation with their respective years, or probably their dorms?

Granted, they were going to stay in Lumiose City for the trip for the most part. When Crewel and Vil got wind of how one of the Gym Leaders was a fashion designer and one that enjoys Soni's company whenever she visits, they demand to go there and see that it would take a good few hours to get there. They ask her to book a bus or figure out a way to do that, but Soni was not having that BS.

Because again, Soni's the Champion and everyone in Kalos is kinda nosey, but Soni uses her connections to the Pokeball Factory because of what happened and gets them a free trip there! Two in one stone!

The First Years often try to get info out of Soni as she's planning the trip, but she's very tired-looking and more pissed off than usual because Crowley foisted most of the stuff onto her and she had her own things on her end to deal with.

When the day finally arrived to go to Kalos, it was an overwhelming experience. Because this was a magicless world that ran with the help of Pokemon. Everywhere they could see, there were Pokemon. Little Skiddo on the sidewalks. People using taxis and motorcycles to move around, the latter interesting Deuce, Epel, and Ortho who managed to drag Idia into visiting as well. There were Pokemon Performances on the big screens, media of the latest news, and all sorts of things.

It was such a contrast to everything that they've ever known that they were stunned until Soni told them to keep moving. They all got onto a bus and they get their introduction to Lumiose City where they learn a whole lot about it.

Malleus is super into the whole thing and is pointing things out to Lilia as they pass by the older-looking buildings. Ace, Deuce, and Grim with Happiny are just looking out the window, asking Soni about certain places

Grim: "Henchman, what's that?"

Soni: "Lumiose Tower, it's the centerpiece to the city and is the home of the fifth Gym Leader. You'd be surprised that the Gym Leader's actually not that much older than me."

Crowley's on a leash as Crewel ensures that he isn't just going to blow their entire cover alkdsfkj

It's a damn good thing that Soni's there and she's lived there since birth because they would've gotten so lost so quickly ☠️☠️☠️ She has to dress down because when you're the Champion who's got a lot of complicated crap with a lot of people (fans, anti-fans, nobles with a penchant for revenge, etc.), you need to be more aware of a lot of things. That's why when they stopped by the Pokemon Labs, Soni was able to relax because the people at the labs would be way less willing to spill information.

Cue everyone roaming into the gardens and such with Professor Sycamore showing them around himself. The Professor has a lot of questions for Soni to answer, but Crowley interjects and says that he hired Miss Monet to show them around. You can see Soni rolling her eyes-

Anyways, the others are quite enthralled with hanging out in the gardens, although Azul gets jumpscared by the more mischievous Pokemon in the garden when he tries to take something from a tree for TWST. That's when Soni says that not all the Pokemon in the garden are hers and if they cause trouble, she wasn't going to bail them out of jail. She also adds that because she was back to her role in Kalos, she's technically obligated to hand over criminals to the police if something happens.

Needless to say, everyone somewhat forgot that oh yeah, Soni's role and stuff oops aldsfkjas ☠️☠️☠️ That doesn't stop general Pokemon hijinks from happening.

By the time they stopped to get dinner and go to their hotel, turns out that there was something weird going on and some jackass took up the room that the boys were supposed to share, namely Riddle, Ace, and Deuce. When Soni starts to leave, the mentioned three wonders where she's sleeping and she's heading back to her mom's condo. Ace bugs her to let them sleepover with Deuce and Riddle looking at him like "Bro, no-" and Soni's really contemplating trying to find a last-minute accommodation for them because like hell she wants her mom to meet them.

That doesn't happen. Needless to say, Soni is very much getting dinner from her mom's favorite place and telling her mom ahead of time that guests were staying over as well as the circumstances behind that.

Lemme just say this: Mama Monet is the best person in the entire world and that is my humble opinion. When Mama Monet comes home from a long day at the school, she's greeted by the sight of Soni hanging out with the three boys, telling them about the stuff on the TV and explaining things with dinner warmed up for her on the table.

The first thing that the boys think when they see Mama Monet is that Soni really looks like her, aside from a few key differences. Mainly the eyes and the personality. Ace greets her normally, Riddle is polite, and Deuce introduces himself as normal before introducing Happiny.

Deuce: "Happiny, this is Soni's mom. She's your Grandma."

Mama Monet understands what's happening immediately (she's handled the same thing from baby Pokemon before) and Happiny gains another grandma! Happiny gets so much love from Mama Monet and the woman never stops smiling aaaa-

When Mama Monet eats her dinner and chats with the boys, they are very curious about Soni when she was younger since the teen doesn't really talk about herself much. Mama Monet just gives them vague answers just like Soni because that was something that was Soni's to tell. When Mama Monet cleans up, Deuce helps out with dishes as does Riddle, she tries to shoo them away because they must've been tired from traveling around the city and the encounters they had throughout the day. Mama Monet lets Riddle dry the dishes while Ace and Deuce set up their sleeping arrangements with Soni supervising them.

I feel like Riddle at this point would just think about his words and the things that he said in the fic, which make him guilty. Mama Monet would catch that reaction and tell him that it was okay to tell adults about troubles. When Riddle tells her of his past behaviors, she's gentle with him and tells him that it was okay to make mistakes and that he needs to learn from them to become a better person. I just want Riddle to get the mom figure that he deserves okay lemme dream-

In the end, Soni gets time alone with her mom for the first time in forever and finally relaxes in her comfort. Just getting the hugs that Soni's missed and just utter softness-

The next day, the door to their condo is knocked on and Mama Monet goes to answer it.

Crowley: "Miss Monet! I've been calling your cellphone for a while now! Huh?"

Mama Monet has no idea how to deal with the random man that's wearing the bird mask, but she's polite: "Sir, who are you?"

Crowley: "Miss Monet, please stop joking around-"

Soni comes into the room and is like, "Oi, don't harass my mother."

Cue confused birdman noises.

Mama Monet makes a simple breakfast for everyone there before she's stopped by Soni who says she'll be eating at the hotel for breakfast and that Mama Monet shouldn't cook for the birdman at the door.

Cue offended birdman noises.

Even with that, Mama Monet gets to cooking a nice breakfast for them and Crowley is won over by Mama Monet's kindness. Of course, he's polite in his questions and Mama Monet mentions how she's a Preschool Teacher. Crowley, sensing that there was another responsible adult, asks Mama Monet to join them in their excursion as a chaperone, which Soni immediately declines because her mom was off for that day and like hell Soni is going to put her through the same BS Soni goes through.

Mama Monet is rather curious about the school that Soni is going to, which makes her take a day off to have some fun with her daughter. Soni makes all sorts of plans because she just knows that it'll be crazy today. She just knows it.

When Mama Monet is introduced as a guide, Soni looks like she's ascending into the sky and just hoping for someone to take pity on her. Amazingly, Mama Monet takes to dealing with the NRC Crew with ease because there isn't much of a difference in terms of handling Preschoolers and these magic-wielding teens.

The second day is them looking around the city and they talk about certain things, but the most predominant one are the Pokemon Performances or Contests. Luckily, there are some that are going on at the moment and they're treated to a show with the guards being told to keep Soni's group anonymous. Vil and Crewel are fascinated by the Contest/Performance while the Savanaclaw Crew, Epel, Ace, and Deuce are more focused on the battles. Depending on the contest type, that's a toss-up.

Crewel and Vil seethe at the fact that men can't join the Performances though.

Meanwhile, Mama Monet is enjoying her time with the others. Some of the people who enjoy her presence include Riddle, who gives her some sweets to take home, Rook who finds her very charming and homely, and Floyd loves Mama Monet because she knows how to handle the chaotic eel twin.

As the others get into all sorts of side missions within the city (basically a scavenger hunt to find stores), Crowley, and Crewel talk to Mama Monet about their time in the region so far. Mostly it's adults having the time to relax with the students handling themselves (for the most part).

Malleus was happy to find some ice cream shops and was in total bliss over it. Deuce was handling Happiny with the cooing from other people that were infatuated with the little bun. Kalim was busy petting the random Skiddo in the streets and was super happy when they were receptive to his pets.

Whoever put Soni, Azul, and Jamil on the same team needs to understand that they are willing to cause the apocalypse. Soni has to stop Azul from outright stealing the recipes from other cafes as he's sampling the famous cafes that they were assigned to visit. Jamil is watching this go down and is wondering if he could take some home to his sister, knowing that she'd complain about it. Grim is eating treats for Pokemon and he can't really talk in public, but he's just having a fun time.

The third day comes and it's a free day before they go back to Twisted Wonderland. They spend it shopping around the city and everyone carries bags of the stuff they want to bring back. Vil and Crewel made anyone who was able to carry their bags. Although, everyone got some new clothing items from the shops and the prices in some shops were just extremely expensive.

When the others went to the Pokeball Factory, they were amazed by the whole place, considering that it was tucked away in a somewhat remote area. Idia and Ortho were intrigued by the Pokeballs that were being made, but for the demonstration of that visit, they were all going to make the earlier forms of Pokeballs with Apricorns and Tumblestones as a fun activity.

Everyone's mostly satisfied with their chosen Apricorn and they are kept with them. Granted, they can be used as Pokeballs, but like normal ones today, Pokemon can break out of them.

When they arrive in Laverre City, Valerie treats Soni and co. to a whole fashion show. Vil and Crewel take to Valerie's insights and fashion like a kindred spirit. Just like the Fairy Gala Event, everyone's put through the wringer and brought to match their dorms aesthetics to the max. I'll leave that up to interpretation!

Soni is subjected to all their of their opinions and even Mama Monet gets to be dressed up. It's very hard for Soni to be annoyed in her mom's presence when she's so happy, so Soni grits her teeth and goes through it.

When all's said and done, the short time that they spend in Kalos comes to an end. Although the others are curious and want to try their hand at battling, they do a whole tournament with Pokemon Battling with rental Pokemon from a nearby establishment.