#proportions are probably a little off but the sprite i worked with was not what I was used to

[rustyvanburace]

Awhile ago, I found sprite rips of nearly the whole cast and NPCs in SMT IV (on Sprite Database). Since I had noticed that the sprites have different heights, and was so enamored by their attentive detail, I decided to make a little height chart for fun and for my own purposes. I even went a step further by slightly rotating bits so the sprites would be standing a little straighter and be slightly more accurate. This was what I had when I posted it (barring Flynn since he wasn't on the sprite sheet):

You'd think something like this would be pretty cut-and-dry. But at the time, I was messaged by someone who was actually bothered to see Jonathan taller than Walter. Their argument was that Jonathan's sprite has noticeably bigger proportions, as though appearing closer, and thus couldn't be an accurate representation of his height. And that since Walter is slouched, he would appear shorter than he really is (which I already did try to correct anyway).

Those are fair assessments and I noticed too that Jonathan's sprite is off compared to everyone else. I was told that I should downscale Jonathan a little to around Walter's shoulders, which I did. But to be perfectly honest -- and I mean this with respect to differing opinions and personal preference -- I wasn't too convinced by their argument and it actually bothered me being approached like that and told how the sprites should be. As though I had made the sprites. They're Atlus's own sprites.

And truthfully, that still bothers me even now. Everyone is of course entitled to their own personal preference and interpretations of characters -- I am hugely supportive of that. But it never sat well with me being told that Jonathan *has* to be shorter and that the game's own sprites were wrong, when I never even asked for their input. It actually left me feeling pressured to portray the characters a certain way in my work.

I don't believe that person actually meant any hostility and I'll ask to please don't bother anyone about this. However, as this did leave a negative impact on me, I would just like to break down my own observations and interpretations of the cast for my own sake.

First, I should add that the in-game sprites were probably not made from scratch, but are most likely downscaled versions of Masayuki Doi's artwork (with some minor edits to give them more natural poses). So of course, the first place to look would be Doi's own artwork.

A lot of this person's argument centered around the characters' proportions, particularly how even Doi's artwork has skewed proportions and are not accurate to scale. Their assertion was that Jonathan's artwork is disproportionately larger and that, when properly measured, he would actually be shorter than Walter.

So I looked into it myself. I took some incredibly high-res artwork of the Samurai -- these are likely press release assets and are the closest I can possibly get to having the unaltered originals. (You can find these on the Fandom MegaTen Wiki.) These are of equal resolution. I lined them up to compare:

(Pro tip: Paint.NET can open WebP files if you wanna compare these yourself. Or just use a site to convert them.)

I asked a couple other people to look at these with me. And we agreed: with all due respect to Doi as a professional artist, the proportions in the artwork ARE weird and (to my eyes at least) are not even equally proportionate to the characters themselves. Others have pointed out that Walter's upper half looks disproportionately smaller to his lower half, and I partly suspect that Jonathan's head is bigger than the rest of his body (even when considering the size of his hair).

Nonetheless, I tried my best to measure the artwork with the 8 heads rule. I even opted to measure a version where I tried to fix Walter's slouching. Granted, not perfectly.

I will fully admit that my attempts at measuring are far from perfect and have issues, as can be seen by the uneven feet measurements (though I partly suspect that may be on Doi). I've also tried measuring these with fixed proportions and found those were even more uneven. If anyone else could take a better shot at this, go right ahead.

But if my measurements can be trusted, then it would appear that they are approximately of equal height. Or at the very least, there wouldn't be a very big difference. Walter could be a bit taller if he straightened up, but I honestly do not think he is slouching too terribly where the difference would be huge if he wasn't.

But also to be frank, these are awful images to measure from lmao. The 8 heads rule really only works for figures that are front or side facing and standing perfectly straight, neither of which applies to these. The angles, poses, and even the uniforms make these very difficult to properly measure and gauge. I honestly don't believe that the artwork are reliable to work with. As I and others have observed, Doi's proportions vary and the artwork may not even have been drawn to scale. This is not at all indicative of Doi being a "bad artist", especially when the proportions seem more purposely stylized for visual effect. I am sure I would find the same thing in Kaneko's own work as well. But aside from this being a good exercise in general art study, my take away from all this is that the artwork just cannot be relied on for a conclusive scale.

All that said, I'm honestly not too bothered by the measurements not working out. Because, when looking at everything else, it's actually clear to me that Atlus had very deliberate intentions in the portrayals of their characters.

As I mentioned earlier, the sprites are doubtlessly shrunken down versions of Doi's artwork. And the sprites actually have some really diverse heights when you look at and compare them all, like Kaga being so small and Skins and Infernal Akira being incredibly tall. Now yes, all of these suffer from the same issues as the artwork in that their proportions vary or their poses would be hard to measure -- but that isn't even the point. The point is that the sprites' heights still vary next to each other and are not all exactly the same. That convinces me that Atlus did take careful consideration in scaling the sprites and had specific intentions for how the cast should be depicted. They're not perfect, but these are hardly what I'd call careless or sloppy.

Yes it can still be argued that Jonathan's sprite proportions are off, because they are. But that doesn't mean that there is no merit to his sprite or that it is inaccurate to what Atlus *intended* for him. The fact they made his sprite as tall as it is tells me that this is the height they intended for him, irrespective of his proportions.

What of Walter then? I do think Atlus actually did take his slouching into account when scaling his sprite (they did for Navarre's sidequest sprite). In that case then, if he straightened up, he would still just be about equal height to Jonathan.

And if so, that would actually align with the game's illustrated cutscenes:

Walter's slouching is a lot more noticeable in the second image, but as already mentioned, I still don't think he'd be much taller than Jonathan or even Flynn if he wasn't.

Since it may as well be brought up, there is also the official side-by-side promotional image as well. This one isn't as good since everyone is in a vaguely triangle-like formation, but this gets thrown around a lot too in debates, so may as well include it for what it's worth.

Now of course, it also needs to be said that Atlus aren't always consistent themselves and there's been instances of character heights varying in other media. Yet regardless, there is a recurring trend that can be observed in the sprites, the cutscenes, and the artwork if my measurements are at all accurate. As far as my own observations are concerned, Jonathan is either of equal height or just a little bit taller than Walter. And to be utterly frank -- I am much more inclined to believe the parent company's own portrayals over someone else's preference.

At the very end of all this, none of this really matters. Fans can portray a fictional character any way they want and there is nothing wrong with that. And -- unless Atlus were to release a book giving the cast's exact heights or were to make a full 3D remake that clearly shows this (both extremely unlikely) -- then who are we to really say what their heights truly are?

No, not even I. Despite my observations made here, I am not going to insist that any of this is true or canon, because I simply do not have the cast's exact canon heights in numbers lmao. This is not meant to tell people how they should portray Jonathan or Walter or anyone else, but merely my own observation. I am not going to tell people how they should portray, draw, or write them. Jonathan or Walter can be short, tall, or in the middle however anyone pleases in their own portrayal and headcanons. That is the beauty of fanworks and personal interpretation of a fictional work.

But just as much as I cannot tell someone they cannot have a short Jonathan, it is also equally not right for someone to tell me that I (or anyone else) cannot have a tall Jonathan. What bothered me about all this was not the person's own personal preference, which is theirs to own and I respect that. But the unsolicited insistence that Jonathan *must* be short, that this is canon, and positioning themselves as right while throwing shade on people who headcanon Jonathan as tall. I frankly found it all very arrogant.

Maybe I am no different by making this post though. But at least I have been able to express my *own* thoughts on the matter when I couldn't before, irrespective of what anyone thinks. Again I must stress to please don't go bother anyone about this. None of this really matters in the end and people are entitled to their own personal interpretation.

And if Atlus does come out and finally gives us canon heights for the cast, then I will happily accept that and be thrilled for new info about my favorite game. But until then or if ever, none of these characters have truly definitive heights and we simply cannot make that call. None of us are "right" or "wrong".

[farer-dreamer]

Entry 8

10/9/24 - 10/14/24 Logs

10/9/24 - I GUESS WE DOIN' ANIMATIONS NOW!

So initially during this work period I was attempting to do some coding to get this player and camera movement system DONE, but I've realized it's a bit hard for me to focus when working in-class and also missing my second screen makes working in unity and coding stuff a bit of a pain. Not impossible of course, I've done it before but it definitely slows down my workflow compared to when I'm at home and can focus better. So because I wanted to be productive this class period I decided to start getting a jump on Doc's player animations, as while it's still far off my internal due date for that is sometime next month.

(there's art in this one, hit read more!)

I knew I wanted them at a 3/4ths angle instead of having a front, back, and side sprite. I mean, they'll still have a front and back sprite technically but no left/right so that frees me from needing to animate the walk, jump, land, and whatever else for those. Making things easier animation-wise isn't the only reason I've opted for this of course, honestly the biggest reason why I'm doing this specific style is because I'm drawing inspiration from how the characters are displayed in the paper mario games and bugfables, the 2D characters in a 3D world (would they be 2.5D then…?). Stylistically I've always thought it was neat and so I want to try and replicate that myself in my own silly little project.

So here's our first problem: I don't really have a clear ref of Doc's new design at a 3/4ths angle. I had an idea in my brain as to what it looked like but nothing on paper yet, most of my struggle was positioning the eyes on their mask.

At first I tried to pull from the turnarounds I had done of their new design, which got the body's position and proportioning down but the eyes just seemed off to me. Not that this go was inherently "wrong" but I felt like the eyes could be positioned or stylized better. So I cracked open my sketch book (something I need to be doing way more) and tried to just draw their head from this angle over and over, and eventually I landed on one I liked.

Although because I am not the most steady artist, they were a bit slanted. Easy fix though, I just popped em into clip and edited the body so everything is posed where it should be and then made another sketch over that to make some more tweaks. This whole thing took a little over an hour but eventually I landed on a "sketch" I liked (it's a bit too clean to be a sketch honestly lol).

Then to animate the idle I just nudged some of the parts I thought would have some wiggle if the character had a slight bounce in their idle (so the ears, cape/clothes, hair) and I think I like this lower frame rate style. Again, drawing inspiration from paper mario 64 specifically.

Overall with this specifically I probably spent like, 3ish hours? I mostly worked during the latter half of class after trying to code wasn't working for me in the moment. Next, I plan on getting the motions down and hopefully roughing out the animations for the walkcycle and jump. I don't think it'll take me very long, maybe 3ish hours total if I run into trouble with figuring out Doc's motions, but that'll be for next session.

10/11/2024 - 10/12/2024

More animation yippee!! today I'm working on the walkcycle and jump if I can get to it. But first I realized I didn't make a back idle animation so I threw that together in like 20ish minutes

Anyways, I started by gathering some image references of animated walkcycles, as well as some sprite sheets from paper mario 64 and bugfables as I wanted to see how the walkcycles in those games were handled. I also pulled up an old walk spritesheet I had on hand from an older project that had a character with similar leg and body structure to Doc.

In my first go I decided to pretty much ignore my refs and try to see if I could get a decent looking "down" motion as Doc does technically have a bend in their legs, but this didn't really work out. Also I definitely overanimated the arms for a 4 frame cycle.

So on my (unfinished) second and third goes I more closely followed my refs and previous work. I realized that my contact should be where Doc goes down the lowest, not the pass. Its. been a minute since I've animated a walkcycle. Eventually I found something I liked so I'm calling this done for now. Both the front and back have some jank I gotta work out but I'll save that for when I'm doing cleanup.

Onto Jumping! this should be a lot easier since there's only really 3 key poses I need to do (wind up/land, jump up, and falling). I think in the future I might add some more motion but for now here's the roughs that took maybe about a little over an hour or so I wanna say.Again they're super rough but I anticipate they'll look a lot better when they're moving around in engine.

10/14/24 - Back to Coding

womp womp. I gotta get this done though. I actually spent some time yesterday on this as well, mostly researching, to no avail. I was getting closer though… and today I won. I finally beat the camera problems. and in the most stupid way because it was just ONE (1) line of code I had to add and then do a bit of cleanup in the camera manager but the cinemachine is FINALLY angling properly around the player character.

That took a stupidly long amount of time to figure out but all we need now is the scroll wheel zoom… which I actually anticipate not taking as much time! I have an idea as to how I'm handling it. I have the body controller set to 3rd person follow, so all I really need to do is figure out how to adjust the camera distance through code and tie that to my scroll wheel inputs.

And after some research I got the camera distance tied to my scroll wheel inputs. For the time being I just have the inputs tied to the min/max zoom in/out but when I work on this next I'll be smoothing that out and making my final adjustments to the camera for now. Overall I wanna say that I was researching/playing around with the camera stuff for 3-4 hours total today? It's hard to say. What I DO know is that with this I am back on schedule which is relieving to say the least.

[diantheia]

Doorstober day 13: Eyes! Fic category: Other (Eyes/A-90) Summary: Two monsters, symbiotic in nature, work together to secure a meal. Word count: 843 Note: Mild blood warning. This is based on a doors universe I made for my sona, but have literally posted nothing about because it a huge, unending wip (and mostly done for fun). So, this'll probably be one of the few times you ever hear about it. Anyway, in that universe Eyes was formerly a Rooms entity and has a relationship with A-90.

The lone wanderer was deeply regretting coming to a place like this; that hotel was a terrible, awful place, but this! This was something else entirely. 

“Should have just stuck to the path” They grumble under their breath. “Why the fuck did I go wandering off?” 

They thought that smoke beast or that weird green thing was fast… they hadn't truly seen speed until they narrowly escaped the little red sprite with a rocket up its arse. There were other usual creatures too: a humanoid one with weird body proportions, a mass of glowing eyeballs, that smiley thing that always looks straight at them…

Ah! The eyeballs are back. At least they are easy to avoid, all you have to do is look aw-

The humanoid one with weird body proportions suddenly entered the room; usually they only appear when the red sprite or smiley is around! The human knew they had to stop moving- to not even move an inch. But their eyes… their eyes could still see the many dimly glowing ones of the eyeball mass.

It only takes a couple of seconds before blood trickles out from behind the eyes, down the nostrils. A lifeless body collapses to the floor before the two entities. 

“How was that?” The humanoid asks, slowly stalking over to the mass of meat in the middle of the floor. Its larger arm feels around in front of it, shoving debris out the walk until it finally makes contact with the remains.

“Delicious” The eyeball mass responds. “We thank you for your help”

“There is no need” The humanoid one rips into the carcass and proceeds to feast. Flesh, bone, blood, all is consumed, nothing is spared, not until the humanoid monster has been satisfied with its meal.

The eyeball mass would disagree with that statement, though they would not say it. It is such a struggle to get prey to look at them in a place like this… It’s easier to find and horde food when you eat the meat of your prey, less so when you feed off brainwaves. It had long been starving before it joined with the humanoid… Because it turns out, if you can only see prey when they’re moving, forcing them to stop moving, it's very convenient for forcing them to look in a certain direction for long enough for one monster to feed on their brainwaves until they die, and have leftover meat for the other. A two for one deal. 

The eyeballs lingered by the side of their companion until it finished eating.

“If you have leftovers, we can store them away” The eyeballs state. 

“Mhm…” The humanoid agrees, slowly feeling over the remains; a meal for another day. It turns its head towards the eyeball mass. “And what of you? Are you still hungry?”

“No, we are not” The eyeball mass tells some truth; they are not hungry, they are starving. With so few prey around, and high competition for food, they do not get to eat as often as they need to. Unlike the humanoid, who can loot carrion they find on the floor if they get desperate, the eyeball mass needs to find its prey alive.

“Hmph,” There’s an air of disbelief from its partner as it gets to its feet, having bundled the remaining meat and bone into a carriable shape the best it could. “Inform me when you do get hungry, and we’ll go hunting again” It proceeds to walk out the room, in the direction of their nest.

“We shall,” The eyeball mass says, trailing along behind it. “But we regret imposing on you so much”

“Don’t” It says, tilting its head a little in the eyeball mass’ direction. “It’s better this way. For you, for us” The eyeball mass can’t disagree with that.

“Stay with me, and neither of us shall go hungry again”

.

..

…

….

…..

“Ah!” Eyes murmurs to itself, having lost itself to its own thoughts. Not a good thing, especially when there is prey to be had.

The human who just opened the door only looked at Eyes for a split second, before averting their eyes in pain. 

“Fuck!” The human exclaims as they shuffle their way through the room, looking for the exit.

In that split second, Eyes was able to feed on the crumbs of their mind; it felt their confusion, their pain, their fear… it was so addicting. 

But that was all that it was: crumbs. Not enough to sustain an entity such as itself, not enough to make the pain of hunger leave its body. Eyes can barely remember the last time its body felt no hunger…

The human left the room, and so too did Eyes. They’d have to find a new location to set up in, and hope whoever came next was stupid enough to stare at them long enough to feed deeply from. 

‘Sometimes… I wish I never left that place…’ It thinks solemnly to itself, lamenting the things it lost in exchange for being a step closer to freedom.

[asktheartpone]

“I’m telling ya! Something’s off with ‘em!”

More Katsumi that nobody asked for but is getting anyhow~ <3

[onebizarrekai]

v3′s art is comically terrible for a professionally distributed game in a series: a compilation

in this not-essay I will list all of the mistakes and problems I have spotted in v3′s art. don’t worry, it’s entirely for fun and I’m doing this on a whim, so please feel free to not take this seriously but also it’s hilarious and embarrassing how ridiculous this is like what happened did they speedrun the whole production or what

see, there are some things you can take as meta like “they made it bad on purpose to allude to the downfall of tv shows that have been on air for much too long” but I have a very strong feeling this is not the case due to the nature of some of these errors

disclaimer, the more I study this art, the more I fear that the artists were underpaid and underslept, so if this is in fact the case, I am so sorry to all of them but also I’m going to make fun of the art anyway

anyway let’s get started!

if you study this image for longer than 5 seconds, you will see that kaede is the only one fully shaded and keebo is literally just his normal sprite pasted into the image. every other character is just an ordinary ref, hence most of them facing the exact same direction with neutral expressions on their faces. it looks like a bad edit, and is probably one of the worst pieces of art in the game. it kind of gets better from here on, but my roasting will not.

with that out of the way, here’s the problem that officially bothers me the most and clarifies my viewpoint of “this is not meta and an actual lack of company communication”

this freaking cg, which seems normal at a glance, but some wiseass was like “oh, kaede is a girl, so obviously she’s going to be shorter than the Male Protagonist™” ah, that’s funny. because if you look at the character bios, kaede is, in fact, one inch taller than shuichi and not like 6 inches shorter as she is shown here.

also shuichi’s shoulder is disproportionate and horrendous and he looks vaguely like a jojo character, but I wasn’t even thinking about that until right now.

thanks guys, 50% of the fandom who has never bothered to check these bios thinks that kaede is like 5′3 (did the developers really put so little thought into her to the point where drawing her correctly in the game didn’t even matter??)

also I would like to point out that, even though this isn’t related to the art itself, yes, a character kaede’s size being only 117 lbs is unfeasible, but this applies to literally every character in danganronpa ever and it’s not new news that it’s unrealistic

update: someone in the tags informed me that in versions of the game that use centimeters, like the japanese version, kaede is actually shorter than shuichi, which just adds another thing to the list of weird decisions the localization team made for no reason. that said, after confirming this, kaede is 167 cm in the original, while shuichi is 171 cm, which are approximately 5′6 and 5′7 respectively, but one inch is still nowhere near as drastic as it is depicted above. (in spite of this, I would rather depict kaede as slightly taller, so I’m probably going to keep doing that.)

the journey continues!

bro if you want kaede to have shoulder length hair then stick to it to begin with

you can pretend this is at an angle all you want but they definitely committed the shorter kaede sin a second time

wait a goddamn second.

DO YOU SEE THIS

no………… it wasn’t kaede who shrank. it was shuichi who got taller

speaking of which, can we talk about how shady the perspective is in this elevator pic? look at shuichi and kokichi in comparison to kaede. kokichi, who is canonically 7 inches (edit: or 5, if you’re loyal to the original) shorter than kaede, looks taller than kaede. he’s growing too. what steroids are these gays taking

running into the room, electric boogaloo: I don’t think tsumugi is supposed to be the same height as kokichi

gonta… gonta you’re lookin a bit like a jojo character there

I love how kaito’s head looks kind of like it was pasted onto his body. why is he the same size as shuichi? shouldn’t he be high school bully size or something? his torso is teensy

ah yes, white angie.

I love this cg but why is shuichi’s right hand so much bigger than his left hand

I also love how this cg looks like they literally took pictures of trees and pasted them into the background, especially on the left. the shadows are so weird, especially closer to the ceiling, it’s difficult for me to believe they didn’t do exactly that.

return of Enlarged shuichi

puberty update: kokichi is now taller than shuichi in spite of shuichi never missing leg day. what crimes will he commit

I have to mention it, guys. this has to be one of the worst danganronpa cgs. kokichi’s facial proportions look atrocious. look at the way his face sticks out like his jaw is in the wrong place. his scarf is a pasted texture. that’s it. this moment was so iconic but the cg just looks so��� so… off. like something is terribly wrong, but you can’t put your finger on it.

you know what? let’s get into that ‘pasted texture’ thing.

let’s imagine you’re an artist working on a professional game. you’re assigned to draw cgs of kokichi ouma, who has a checkered scarf from hell. sure, it will be terrible to draw, but you only have to draw it once at a time! plus, perspective is pretty important, right? can you be bothered? nah, actually. let’s just copy paste a checkered pattern into the cg, because I’m sure nobody will notice. it’ll blend right in with the other cgs that someone actually put effort into drawing his scarf in, right?

no. the answer is no and I very much noticed. this genuinely looks terrible and I would understand taking a shortcut like that in fanart or even an indie game but this is a full price pc and console distributed game

(an addition: look at kokichi’s TINY HANDS in that last one)

meanwhile, they straight up forgot to color in kokichi’s scarf in this cg.

dude. I forgot about whatever the hell this cg was. anyway look at keebo please just look at him

lovin kaito’s baby arms

real talk, maybe you could argue that he’s missing muscle because he’s deathly sick, but most of his cgs don’t line up with this, and his arms just look disproportionate to his torso size (granted this is a consistent problem across all danganronpa games and a lot of characters have this weird problem, like hajime, but also kaito is bigger than hajime so I kind of have higher expectations of him) maybe it’s his stupid goatee and the way he reminds me of yasuhiro?? it creates this illusion that he’s older than he is and so I keep expecting him to look more like an adult

oh, also rantaro is missing some of his accessories in that video he made–you know the one–but I don’t wanna go back and screenshot it

also you may have noticed that I’m skipping all of the monokub cgs because I literally do not care about them and I’m not even bothering to check and see if they have artistic mistakes in them

JIMMY NEUTRON???

hey um uh kaito you seem to be missing your neck

hey guys do you like my pregame fanart

so, that done, the sprites are also pretty terrible at times. they’re not as interesting to go through, however, and downloading the full sprite sets for every character and studying every single one of them will drive me insane, so I’ll just sum some of the ones I noticed up. I made things for kaede and shuichi before deciding I wasn’t going to get into it, so here are these.

that said, other mistakes include kokichi missing his purple highlights in all of the sprites encompassing a specific pose, stray pixels all over the place on everyone, and everyone also has heavily inconsistent shading, but literally all I think about is how pregame shuichi is unshaded and two of kaede’s pregame sprites have glaring outfit change mistakes in them

anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculous ramble. in all seriousness, there’s this looming presence of some lack of communication in the development team, like with all the art and design inconsistencies, pieces and sprites that look rushed, stray pixels, and missing basic proportional stuff. these are the kinds of things that you supposedly have to pretty much have in the bag in order to get jobs in professional businesses, so it’s really weird to me that this game suffers from so many of these problems. it’s like they tried to make the art so much more crisp than the other games, but it fell on its face as they realized it was going to take longer to draw everything and they started to rush. it’s weird, because the coloring itself looks normal–it’s just sloppily drawn, and the proportions are a mess once put into the context of perspective. many of the cgs look like they were drawn by different people, and I’m still not over the fact that half of kokichi’s cgs have his scarf pasted in as a texture.

the moral of the story is that if you’re selling a game at full price that also happens to be in a series that has had 3 very good games in it already the stakes should probably be higher than this. v3 has been out for more than 3 years and it’s still $40 (did it cost more than that before? I sure hope not), and the overarching quality of the game is just not as high as the other games. I’m not saying that the other games don’t have any problems with their art at all, they’re just not as glaringly obvious and every artistic choice in those games feels intentional.

regardless, I had a blast roasting the art at 2am, so maybe you got a kick out of all this chaos.

[pop-goes-the-sneasel]

Can't have a blog called pop goes the sneasel without reviewing sneasel!

SNEASEL!!!!!!!!!!!!

SNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASEL!!!!!!!!!!!

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God okay I just. I just. I love Sneasel so much okay. Sneasel’s a premium edgelord, and one of Gen II’s original Dark-types. I feel Sneasel actually represents the type’s overall vibes best out of all of them, being a nasty little cat thing with an expression that tells you it just REVELS in being an asshole. It’s great!!!!! It’s also got a fantastic colour scheme (inconsistently portrayed across gens, admittedly) of dark grey and pink, subtly unique proportions with tiny legs and long arms that emphasise its scratching ability, and the eyelashes and asymmetry of the feather ear makes it instantly iconic. It’s just rad in every possible way.

Beyond the clear black cat vibes, it’s also notably another youkai-based pokemon, being partly based on kamaitachi: weasels with sickles on their legs purported to cause whirlwinds that inflict sharp, painless wounds. Ironically Sneasel doesn’t learn Razor Wind, but this aspect seems to be the only explanation for Sneasel’s secondary Ice-typing (beyond the fact it lives in cold regions): kamaitachi are frequently associated with frigid wind. We don’t actually see Sneasel do much with the theme (beyond learning Icy Wind), but it doesn’t really need to. Its skill at just cuttin’ things is dope as is.

Sneasel also notably has some special history in the TCG, being the first ever card to get banned! Its second attack – Beat Up – was obscenely strong for the time period, averaging 80 damage with a full bench (boosted by a passive damage bonus from Darkness energy) at a time when even dealing 30-40 damage for that same energy investment was very respectable. Thanks to a brokenly mistranslated Slowking card rendering it almost impossible to counter, on top a lack of weakness or retreat cost, Sneasel reigned supreme. It’s iconic enough that this specific card would get continually reprinted and referenced throughout the lifetime of the TCG, though power creep has obviously ensured it’s no longer a threat.

Beat Up also represents one of Sneasel’s core strategies: cooperating with teammates to gang up on an opponent. Deeply unfair, but very thematic! Cooperation is a recurring motif with Sneasel, in particular working together with others to steal eggs from other pokemon. Its egg-stealing is actually so pervasive that it's regarded as a scourge by breeders who even seek to “eradicate” it. Just let them do crimes, guys!!!

Sneasel also has a very interesting development history, from what we’ve seen of beta GS sprites. It started out as a simple, cute weasel – almost entirely unremarkable. Then it lost its tail and got its bastard personality added on, seen in this particular iteration, and also it was blue I guess? It later got a Sonic-looking iteration before eventually landing on the Sneasel that we know. Even its colour scheme was finalised rather late; you can see traces of this sprite’s colour scheme in Sneasel’s GS sprite, being brown and blue before getting its colours updated to their final look in Crystal.

Speaking of colours, look at that shiny! Pink, yellow, and blue is a beautiful combo, though honestly, it doesn’t really fit Sneasel’s vibes at all. Not that I mind; shinies that do fun off-tone things are always superior to shinies that just shift the shading a bit, and it’s certainly a striking look.

Sneasel is an absolutely phenomenal pokemon, one that I feel doesn’t get anywhere near enough appreciation. Given I named this blog after it, that’s probably not terribly surprising! It’s not quite my favourite pokemon – we’ll get to that one eventually, I’m sure – but it’s easily in my top three. It feels like every time I look at it I gain just a little bit more adoration for it. My one objection is the fact that female Sneasel has such a small feather. Why you gotta do that, Game Freak :(

Nastiest crime boy/10.

[mysticmistral]

I just beat Pokemon Sword, haven't started the DLC yet. Have some memes about one of my favorite characters.

Totally not based off of real life events.

Just my thoughts and opinions on the game below....

Bede deserves to have a good life not under Chairman Rose, make is own goals and not think about appeasing someone who forgot his name even though apparently Rose took him in. He probably sees Rose as a father figure after loosing his parents and is trying to get the chairman to acknowledge his achievements for once and not focus on the champion Leon. It must suck to lose your chance at proving yourself to someone endorsed by the very being you want to defeat just to get your father figures attention.

I felt bad for beating Hop. Not as bad as I did defeating Wally back in ORAS but still. Hop gives off the feeling of someone who was always in his brothers shadow, who's just known for being the champions little brother. I feel like his family didn't help much at all with now much Hop is obsessed; he breaths to become the champion to just feel equal. Maybe he wants his family to notice him for once, no longer neglected. He loves his brother clearly, but he's a bit over obsessed. I like that he becomes a Professor Assistant for Sonia and doesn't focus on trying to be Leon, but to be himself.

Leon is an okay champion, I kinda got tired of everyone being 'undefeated' this and 'undefeated' that. If I was at the legal age to buy alcohol and swore to start a drinking challenge, I would be dead. It was his only trait, and a trait shouldn't be your accomplishments. His little gimmick of getting lost is fine, it was mildly amusing at times. He seems to treat Hop like another Galar citizen, not his little brother. Like another person who idolizes him. I don't know if he was just never around, but I would think an older sibling would try to tell the younger to follow their own path and make their own goals, not allow an unhealthy about of idolization (is that a word?) He got the champion title at the age of ten, so what did he do for the years after? Never see his family?

Sonia is okay, but she's more of a book than a character, that and a Revive giver. I think we as players should be the one discovering the lore of Galar, not her. She got an arc more than the player and she did literally nothing but point out The Darkest Day, something I feel like the player could've done and it would've added a bit more accomplishment for the player in figuring out.

I miss petting Pokemon. That's kinda weird, but it added a bit more bonding to the whole thing, not just swinging around a toy or throwing a ball. Why would some Pokemon even find that amusing?

Chairman Rose is eh. I liked how he wasn't all 'take over the world evil' like others, he had good reasonings but nevertheless, he is a businessman and political figure who the people look up to. They know how to cut corners, but Oleana is there for that. He's too busy and focused on work, like how he doesn't care about the champions words or spend time with Bede, as he forgot the kids name at one point. He's so passionate about this future like Lysandre was in Kalos, and yet he just gives up after you defeat him? Never to be seen again? Lysandre died after standing his ground for his beliefs (cool motive, still murder), no matter how flawed they were. I mean, Rose is a bit more... Mature I guess, to accept the Jail time, but I think one last conversation would have been great. Oleana is just boring, her theme is great along with Rose's but we don't know anything more than she's the party pooper assistant who does the more extreme stuff to make sure Rose's goals are achieved. One Marcos Cosmos (Is that the groups correct name?) guy asks if he have dang LIFE INSURANCE. As in, you die and your loved ones get money. Sure the after conversation is he had some other kind, but Oleana would definitely kill people. The company would do something about it.

Ghost Girl Paula. Rest in Peace. Kid in Frank's house.. Who da HECK you talking to?

There's no Absol in the game, I refused to get the game until I could get my hands on one. Once I get through Crown Tundra I'm getting an And I with Super Luck, get some eggs from them, put them in Pokemon Home, get them out and use an Absol for my journey when I restart.

The animations are... Ehhhh. I love that you can't see the pixels and stuff like the 3Ds. I wish the game had a flying animation for the Flying Taxi, not gonna lie. But Hop's animations are just Hau's from Sun and Moon. But the Pokemon still are stiff and just hop??? There's no turning animation??? The Pokemon can't follow you even though there sprites are in the game? The SCALING! A TREEVANT IS NOT SMALLER OR EQUAL HEIGHT THAN A LUCARIO! Everything is so dang out of proportion! Treevant looks like the size of a kid!

I personally would've liked to see some familiar faces. I liked how Looker appeared in all of the 3Ds games and had a major role in XY and Sun and Moon. Or maybe that was Ultra S/M, I can't remember. I want to see Lillie as a fully fledged Trainer, or Lusamine back in the good light, or Emma from XY who was left to look after Looker Bureau or AZ, or fricken Zinnia from Oras who left! I've been wanting to see Zinnia for so long! Those after story characters who grew on you, unlike those annoying Sworbert and Shielbert guys. I wanted to kill those guys. The only -bert I care for is Siegburt.

And I wish they had color wheels for skin tone, hair and eyes.

That is all I have to say about it. It's a good game, just not one that sticks out. Kinda sad about Megas being gone but I guess Dynamax and Gigantimax is fine too...

[nikibogwater]

(Long post incoming. You have been warned)

Reasons Niki is Excited for the Diamond/Pearl Remakes:

Diamond was Baby Niki’s first Pokémon game and I don’t think I could even begin to express the impact that game had on me. My gaming life was practically dominated by Pokémon from age 10 to 18, and it all began in the Sinnoh region. So yes, Nostalgia is a big factor in this.

I have wanted a 3D Sinnoh remake ever since I played Pokémon X for the first time. Being able to see the Pokémon actually move and emote brought so much immersion to the Pokémon experience for me, and pairing that with the deep, expansive lore that the Sinnoh games offered is the perfect union of my two favorite elements from the series. 

Like a lot of people, I was initially put off by the oddly-proportioned chibi overworld sprites, but it is already beginning to grow on me. I think the idea was to capture the look and feel of the original DS games as much as possible, and to that effect, I think this art style does really well. Everything else about the game looks very crisp and nice to me. The environments are lovely, the backgrounds are interesting, and most importantly, the Pokémon are heckin’ cute. 

I didn’t have access to the wireless functions in the original game as a kid. I didn’t get to experience connecting with others online until X and Y. And with the confirmation that the Underground will be returning in the remakes, I am so excited to finally be able to have the full D/P experience that I missed as a kid.

I’ve been really disenchanted with the mainline Pokémon games for the past few years. I think Sun/Moon is where I began to feel disconnected from the series, like it wasn’t bringing me the sense of childlike wonder and excitement that it used to. I initially chalked this up to my simply becoming an adult, but then I played Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee, and found myself sucked into that little game almost as much as the games of my childhood. Looking back on it now, I think maybe it was an issue of immersion for me. With the demands of both fans and whoever is forcing Game Freak to produce a new main series title every flipping year, a lot of immersion had to be sacrificed for the sake of getting the game out on time. Because Pokémon Let’s Go was a comparatively smaller game that only featured 152 Pokémon, the developers were able to spend more time making the environments and the Pokémon feel more alive. We got Pokémon following you, Shinies appearing in the overworld, Pokémon you could ride, dynamic backgrounds for battles, clean lines and lag-free rendering...none of which were carried over into Sword/Shield, because that game was simply way too big for the amount of time they gave themselves to make it. For me, if you simply cannot give yourself the amount of time needed to make a massive game feel polished and immersive, you should stick to creating a smaller game with less content, and more polish. I’ve always been a Quality over Quantity person, I guess, and Pokémon main series games were not delivering on that front for me anymore. 

BUT with the D/P remakes, I am already beginning to see that a great deal of the Quality I want is going to be delivered; Pleasant scenery with clean lines and nice colors (instead of the strangely blurry mess that was Sword/Shield’s environments), a significantly high chance that there will be far fewer lag/rendering issues, and a faithful adaptation of one of the few Pokémon main series games with a story and world that I can legitimately lose myself in. (Oh I dearly hope they’ve kept the Legendaries as terrifying as they were in the originals...). 

I guess for me, I do not need a Pokémon game to blow me away with something new. Simply having them improve on what has already worked in the past is enough of a reason for me to come back and buy the newer titles. I wouldn’t mind having the series go in a completely new direction, create something that we’ve never seen before, give us the ultimate Pokémon experience with insanely good graphics and mind-blowing story--but given how much they struggled with Sword/Shield, I’m beginning to think that that is just too much to ask for when Game Freak absolutely refuses to let a year pass without cranking out a new title (this is why I’m still a little skeptical about Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and am withholding any excitement over that one until we have more information). Big games take time to be made well, and since Game Freak has made it clear they do not want to give themselves that time, I’m more interested in seeing them use what time they do give themselves in the most efficient and beneficial way possible. 

In keeping with the above point, the trailer explicitly said that the only Pokémon available in the D/P remakes will be the ones that were present in the original games. Again, I think this is a smart move on their part, because it means they can devote more time to making the Pokémon they do have feel more alive and full of personality, rather than having to pour all their time into programming in the literal 1,000+ Pokémon there are now. I know this kind of thing will upset a lot of people, but again, I’m more about the Quality over the Quantity.  But we'll see if Game Freak was able to deliver on that front like I’m hoping.

THE MUSIC. ‘Nuff said. 

While the trailer made it clear that they are trying to stick as close to the original games as possible, I am holding on to the hope that they will have made the necessary quality of life changes: the return of the optional Exp Share that lets all the Pokémon in your party gain xp from a battle, the elimination of HM moves that take up a battle slot, and an easier way to customize Pokémon EVs, such as candies or the Super Training feature from Gen VI (seriously why did they take that out in Gen VII???). Game Freak has slowly been inching forward with the series these last few years, introducing small changes that greatly improve the gameplay as a whole, and I think there’s good enough reason to hope that they will be smart enough to incorporate those changes into D/P remakes. 

I’m a little mystified that the general response to the remake announcements is already so overwhelmingly apathetic and even negative. I can understand not liking the art style, but for me, art direction is only one small component to a game, and even if it isn’t done perfectly, it can still be made up for in other areas. The fandom has been pestering for Sinnoh remakes for years, and now that Game Freak is trying to give us what we want, I would have thought more of us would be making a more positive fuss about it. Then again, the original game is 15 years old now. Most of us who played it have probably already moved on from the franchise as a whole. But for me, I know I’m going to buy this remake and enjoy it, even if it has imperfections. Because really, that’s all I want from a Pokémon game--to feel like a kid again and have a good time. Maybe it’s simplistic and naïve, but that’s just Niki in a nutshell for you. ✨

[striderification]

How I make my Homestuck troll horns - Molding

Now, onto the first real step: molding! 

Basically the one guideline I’ll be giving through the whole process is to take your time! Seriously! The molding process should take hours. It is, I think, the most touchy step of making horns, and thus more imperative that you be diligent in handling them! Fair warning: this is going to be very thorough. I apologize in advance for my near-Rose-level explication. 

To begin, I equally bisected the package of model magic. Depending on which horns you’re trying to make, the entire package will probably be way too much. Though for this tutorial, I was making Megido horns, so the whole package was the perfect amount. Before you begin shaping anything, I think it’s helpful to get a sketch of your desired shape down. Of course, always keep up a photo reference of the character, but it helps to have an understanding of a 3-D model of the horns if they’re more complex in shape (like Aradia’s)! 

You should shape both horns at the same time to make sure that they’re as symmetrical as possible. The usual process I use is to roll out the two segments into cones, that you could then use to curl (for Aradia) or bend (for Kanaya, Vriska, etc.) before adding the other segments like hooks. Of course, this doesn’t really work for horns like Karkat’s, which aren’t conical, and likely Tavros’ because of their size. 

Make sure that the bases have a tilt so that they can naturally rest on your head without a gap, or poor placement.

Next, I got into shaping these cones into the general shape of the troll’s horn. This will take the bulk of the molding time, and it’s really important to pay close attention to how the horns are portrayed in proportion to the character’s face in canon! A common error I see is making horns too large for the cosplayer’s head. For example, Kanaya, Vriska, and Feferi horns are at most the length of your face. Karkat and Terezi horns should both be quite small, and Terezi’s shouldn’t be very long! Don’t just take my word for it, compare not just with the basic sprites, but with the talksprites, hero mode, and other canon depictions. (Pesterquest may help but considering that they’re more of a fan depiction... I don’t consider their appearances as entirely canon. But their detail can help if you’re stuck!)

Another common error I see is not taking enough of the horn’s curve into account, and making the horns too straight, or at the wrong angle off the head.

So take your time, as Model Magic is very delicate and it’s really frustrating at times when the smallest touches leave unsightly indents that change the whole shape :/. But the good news is that smaller indents like these can be buffed out in the sanding process. 

Then, when it comes to more dynamic horn shapes, you may need an object to prop it “open” to let it dry somewhat in that shape before removing it when it solidifies over the next few days. 

This isn’t shown in this tutorial given the horn type I picked, but when it comes to horns like Vriska and Kanaya’s, in my experience it’s best to make the base cone shape, form the curve, then add the extra shapes from there (instead of bending at the top or something) and do your best to smooth over the “seam” (sanding helps here a lot!). These little segments can be rather delicate and hard to nail the exact shape of (I hate it) (I believe in you <3). 

It’s going to leave some marks, but don’t worry too much about it, especially if they aren’t in a visible location. The good thing about Model Magic is that it takes days to dry! This means that after the first day (the most crucial time for modeling), the clay dries enough to hold shape, but is still malleable enough to be adjusted and smoothed.

After you feel that you’ve gotten the best shape you can, you can replace the first item to prop with another, maybe softer item like wax paper (pictured, lol), or tissues. 

This is where my tutorial demonstration differs from the usual horn construction; In most cases, the horns will need to be routinely flipped and smoothed/rounded to avoid one side getting too flat. This wasn’t a possibility for Aradia horns because of their shape. This also isn’t necessary for Karkat, Nepeta, or Terezi horns, because they can stand on their own on their bases. I have no experience with Eridan, Gamzee, or Tavros horns either, though I’d apply the same logic there as well. In this instance, I picked up the horns often to smooth them over before setting them back down. In most cases, it’s best to leave them as is for a while (usually I model them at night and smooth over in the morning) to let them solidify some to avoid damaging what progress you’ve already made. 

Flat back >:(

After you feel that the horns are solid enough to pick up and check out (this may be overnight, or it could be a full day or couple days), make sure to compare their size and fit to your head. 

Checking that the angle of viewing (pretty much the front) is desirable and the horns are the right size for my head.

It gets less daunting from here on out for the rest of the molding process. From now on, you’ll just have to check in every few hours (flipping, smoothing as you can) for the first couple days, then spacing it out further and further as time goes on. You can make slight curve adjustments as well, because remember that Model Magic is always relatively soft! 

There isn’t much to delineate from here, but make sure that once the horns are quite solid, to prop them up onto another surface/object so that all sides can get air and it’ll expedite the (usually week-long for me) drying process somewhat and prevent flattening. 

And now, onto sanding! 

[avaantares]

FFVII:REMAKE - A Review

So I beat the game two weeks ago and started writing down my thoughts while they were fresh in my mind, but I didn’t post anything then because my one IRL friend who is also playing it hadn’t finished it yet and I didn’t want to risk posting anything spoiler-y. But the extra time has allowed me to play through the game again on Hard difficulty, which has allowed me to reconsider and elaborate on some of my thoughts. And frankly at this point I just need to dump my Very Big Opinions somewhere, so... here ya go.

I discuss visuals, gameplay, character and story below. I’ve tried to keep spoilers minimal up front, though obviously if you want to go into the game totally cold, don’t read this. All major spoilers are clearly tagged. All of it is below a cut to spare your dash.

Also, there are pretty pictures, because why not?

First, my background with this franchise: I played through the original FFVII multiple times; I’ve watched and rewatched Advent Children and Last Order, played Crisis Core, gave up on Dirge of Cerberus despite my deep love for Vincent Valentine (sorry, VV, but your game was just a mess), and lamented that Before Crisis wasn’t available in my country. I even played (and own!) Ehrgeiz, the obscure fighting game that featured the main cast. (Still bitter that they didn’t keep Miki Shinichirou as the voice of Sephiroth. He’s one of my faves.)

^ Ehrgeiz, a mediocre fighting game that forever endeared itself to me by including Turks!Vincent Valentine as a playable character. 💖

In short, I’ve been waiting for this game for DECADES.

So. Here we go. My thoughts on Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE.

The good:

The character models are very pretty. With individual pores, threads and scuffs visible, they’re so detailed that it’s almost impossible to reconcile them with the mouthless sprites from the original game – even more so than Advent Children (and dear goodness, that was over a decade ago now, wasn’t it?). Still, they’ve kept the costume details and absurd proportions largely intact (Barret’s fists are literally larger than Tifa’s entire head, yet somehow it works visually), so it’s not too much of a departure from the familiar.

They’ve kept the aesthetic. I was afraid the game would try to update the iconic world of Midgar, but by and large, it’s full of visually-arresting designs that preserve the gritty-industrial look and feel of the original.

Japanese version is included. BLESS YOU, Square Enix, for including the Japanese voices and character animations. Not only is it impossible for me to hear Cloud in anything other than Sakurai Takahiro’s voice, but the Japanese script is a bit nicer to the characters. I’m not really keen on the English dub… but more on that below.

They fixed the spelling of Aerith’s name. This may seem like a minor point, but considering it’s been 20 years and I’m still bitter that Devil May Cry still hasn’t corrected “Nelo Angelo,” it’s a small victory.

Improved combat. Admittedly, I wasn’t sold on the new combat system at first, but after playing through the game twice, I’ve come to really like it. It has a few rough edges and can get chaotic in some battles, but it does a decent job of blending the feel of an action game with turn-based strategy. The fact that you can switch to a more traditional turn-based system if you prefer is also nice. (I haven’t tried Classic mode yet, though.)

Weapon customization. The Skill Points system allows you to upgrade your loadout instead of acquiring new gear. The tutorial was somewhat lacking (I didn’t quite figure out the multiple-core-unlock thing right away), but I appreciated the ability to add materia slots or stat buffs rather than just cycling through a dozen swords that Cloud apparently keeps in his back pocket.

Background dialogue management. On the whole, the conversations as you run through town enhance the story without slogging down the gameplay; you don’t have to stop and talk to every single resident, because snatches of their conversation reach you (and your on-screen chatlog) as you pass. You can stop and listen for more detail if you want, or you can just keep moving. The extra worldbuilding is really nice.

The music. The orchestrated versions of the original themes are excellent (and some of those music cues gave me goosebumps… Did I spend way too many hours immersed in the original game? Probably). I can take or leave some of the collectible jukebox tunes, but the background music in general is good. (But did I earn that Disc Jockey trophy? Yes, yes I did.)

Supporting character development. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge actually have characters! And personalities! Clichéd ones, admittedly, but it’s an improvement over the original game killing them all off within the first few minutes. The game also does justice to the Turks, and actually surprised me with how much depth of character it gave Reno and Rude in particular (perhaps setting them up for a mini redemption arc so players forgive them for dropping a plate on tens of thousands of slum residents?). Their moments of concern for each other and (brief) crises of conscience made them more than the stock villains they were in the original game, more in line with their temporarily good-aligned characters in Advent Children. Tseng, likewise, was on point. However, I do have to qualify all this with one irate question: Where the heck is Elena?! Seems like the female characters are always getting left out… /sigh/

Improved plot devices. REMAKE cleans up some of the more questionable and outdated content from the original. As you likely already know from the demo, the new game somewhat exonerates the protagonists by having Shinra blow up their own mako reactor to turn public opinion against AVALANCHE (possibly because someone finally realized that it’s hard to sympathize with characters who are willing to melt down an entire reactor and kill a bunch of innocent civilians). AVALANCHE are still eco-terrorists, but they’re… terrorists with a conscience? I dunno, at least they feel bad when people die now… Likewise, the weird and uncomfortable Honey Bee Inn segment of the original game has been reborn as an amazing dance extravaganza. Less voyeurism/prostitution, more Vegas floor show (complete with minigame choreography) and makeover. The whole Don Corneo scenario is still hella creepy, but frankly, there’s nothing that can fix that.

Series references. Fans of the original will appreciate all the inside jokes and direct references to the original game and other franchise entries: One-off comments about Chocobo racing; a broken console in Wall Market that shoots at you; a framed picture of the original 32-bit Seventh Heaven; ads for Banora apple juice; side mentions of characters and plot devices from spinoff games; PHS communication… The game definitely pays tribute to its history. They even recreate the original loading screen and several of Cloud’s iconic poses/animations throughout the game:

The neutral:

Recycled gags. Look, I know Advent Children was the ultimate evolution of FFVII for a while, and admittedly, it did some things very well. The running gag with Rude’s sunglasses and the victory fanfare being used as a ringtone are some of the best moments in the film, in part because they were so unexpected. But as much as I enjoyed the repeated nods to AC in this game, they felt a little desperate, like there were no new jokes to insert so they had to double down on the ones they’d used the last time this franchise had a renaissance. (See Rude’s broken sunglasses, below.) And fitting into the series as a whole, it feels a little weird. Why is Rude’s ringtone the same as the clones’ from Advent Children? Does Barret really need to sing the victory fanfare over and over when he defeats an enemy? Is there supposed to be some history behind that song that was left out of the worldbuilding? It just feels too meta.

Arbitrary localization of names. I don’t really grasp why it was necessary to rename so many items and characters for the English market. Some changes make sense for localization (e.g. Whack-a-Box certainly works better for an American audience than Crash Box), but others seem arbitrary, like changing Aniyan Kunyan to Andrea Rhodea or Mugi to Oates (a play on the meaning of his name in Japanese, but... does it matter?). And then… well, I don’t want to spoil A Major Plot Element, but there’s another thing that changes names from one English word (in the Japanese track) to a different English word. Why? No idea. It doesn’t affect gameplay, and it’s not really a problem, but listening to the Japanese track, I found it jarring to have the subtitles contradict what I was hearing.

Underutilized characters. While the whole gamut of original FFVII characters make appearances, several of them aren’t used to full effect, or aren’t used at all to advance the story. Rufus Shinra’s bossfight is a decent challenge, but while his character was vital to both the original FFVII and Advent Children, his presence in this game is little more than a cameo. His fight could be cut or swapped out with any other boss, and it would have zero effect on the plot. Similarly, while Hojo is a key player in the full story (which this game doesn’t cover, since it’s only a fraction of the original timeline), he’s largely wasted here, except as a means of extending play time by making you wander through corridors and fight a bunch of monsters for “research.” (I have no idea what his motivation is; you’d think he’d be more interested in recapturing Aerith or Cloud, but instead he just... opens an elevator and lets them leave? after they beat up some midbosses.) Reeve Tuesti actually has a solid presence in this game, but since he’s ONLY ever active as himself, there’s no explanation for the random Cait Sith cameo in one scene (players new to the franchise probably have no idea why a random cartoon cat showed up for a few seconds and was never mentioned again). Obviously the plot arcs have to change when the game is covering only a few days’ time in a much longer story, and the major players need to be introduced at some point if they’re going to feature in later games in the series, but from a narrative standpoint, there are an awful lot of superfluous characters doing things for no reason in this installment.

The bad:

THE PADDING. Dear goodness, there is so much padding to make this a standalone game instead of just the first chapter of a longer adventure. I got really, really sick of running literally from one end of the map to the other on side quests – and that’s me, an avowed trophy hunter who spends hours scouring dark corners for collectible items in other games, saying that. So much of this game felt like time fill that didn’t really advance the story. It’s also full of unnecessary new characters with improbable Squeenix hair, like Roche the super-annoying motorcycle SOLDIER (below), or Leslie, Don Corneo’s doorman who somehow merits his own backstory and side quest. (Though in fairness, every FFVII sequel has added superfluous characters, with Crisis Core possibly being the worst offender.) But it just felt really drawn-out and bloated for a game of this generation. If this game had been as compact and tightly-written as the other games I typically play, it probably only would have taken me 15 hours to beat instead of 50. (I don’t actually know how many hours I spent on it the first time through, as I didn’t check the play clock before restarting on Hard difficulty. I do know it took me over 110 hours total to complete the game on both modes, though much of the second run was spent dying repeatedly on a handful of nasty fights. Hard mode removes items and MP replenishment, and if you run out of MP at any point during a chapter, you’re going to die. A lot.)

The pacing. Related to the above... the Midgar portion of the original game was just the setup for a larger story. It wasn’t meant to have its own complete dramatic arc so much as to introduce you to the world and the major players. Consequently, there are some really odd beats in this story, as well as a total lack of urgency in your mission. There are no natural places to slot in the side quests and minigames, so they’re shoehorned awkwardly between plot sequences. “Quick, our friend is in mortal peril and needs our help!” "Okay, cool, we’ll go rescue her after we spend ten hours running around town doing random errands for townspeople and playing games with the local kids.” Uh... what?

The graphics just aren’t as good as they should be. While the character models are gorgeous, there are a lot of low-res background textures and weird polygons that don’t quite match up with other components. Most egregious are the Shinra logos, which frequently get close-ups as part of the fixed camera work and, frankly, look like lossy JPEGs. (See image below, screencapped from a PS4 Pro. Those jagged edges on the logo are present throughout the entire game.) There are weird clipping errors and artifacted images and reflective surfaces that don’t reflect, making the game look more like something from the PS3 era than a 4K late-gen PS4 game. (And it’s not that we don’t have the technology: Uncharted 4 was released back in 2016, and the rendering of its vast world was twice as pretty. Devil May Cry 5, released in early 2019, has far more realistic textures and object interaction. Granted, those are different types of games with fewer NPCs to render, but I feel like there’s no excuse for a game this big to look this mediocre.)

The HUD could be better. The lower-corners concept is okay, though it took me a while to train my eyes to travel between both sides of the screen and track the fight action. But for a long time, I didn’t even notice the commands in the upper left corner of the screen, and after playing through the game twice I still have no idea what they say because I couldn’t focus on the tiny text long enough to read them while trying not to die in combat. (I just looked it up; apparently they’re combat control shortcuts? Huh, that would have been useful to know.) It wasn’t until my second time through that I realized there even WERE separate controls on screen during the motorcycle minigames; I had resorted to panicked button mashing to figure it out the first time through because there was no tutorial (you’re just dropped into the action) and, having ignored the small text for the previous hundred combats, I had no reason to look for on-screen instructions there. Not that it would have helped, since on many backgrounds the text in the upper left is really difficult to read (see below). It’s worth noting that I have better than 20/20 vision and played this game on a large TV screen and still had trouble reading some things; on a smaller TV, or for someone with less acute vision (like my sister, who is blind in one eye), I think even the basic menu controls would be difficult to see. While you can resize the font for subtitles, my cursory glance through the menu did not uncover an option to increase the size of the HUD. 

Inter-fight menu mechanics. Specifically, the inability to save (or save loadout settings) between fights in a multi-part sequence. There are several back-to-back fights in which it is necessary to switch characters or change gear between bosses. The game treats them as one continuous fight, though it does allows you to access the equipment menu by holding square during key cutscenes. Which is good, if you only have one of a particular materia or accessory that you need to switch between characters, and in most cases when you die the game lets you restart just before your current fight instead of restarting the whole sequence -- also good, since some multi-stage bosses can easily take 20-30 minutes to beat, and if several of those are strung together in sequence, you’re in for a long play session to get past them. But since it’s treated as one fight, you can’t save between bosses (more than once, I had to leave my PS4 running in Rest Mode overnight and just hoped we didn’t have a power glitch), and if you happen to get killed and need to restart the fight, your loadouts reset. Which means if you’re, say, fighting the end boss on Hard difficulty and get killed in the first two minutes -- which happened to me a lot -- by the time you restart the fight, sit through the unskippable cutscene, access the menu and rearrange all the materia and accessories you need, you’re spending five or six minutes gearing up for two minutes of play, and then doing that over and over again every time you die. It gets really old.

The English dub script. *deep breath* Okay, look, I know I can be a bit elitist about translations, but I really do not like the English adaptation of this game. It makes Cloud come across as less socially-awkward and far more of a deliberate jerk, Aerith is mouthy and even swears (which is not accurate to her original character), and it downplays some of the symbolism that’s more obvious in the Japanese script. One quick example: When Aerith gives Cloud a flower, she says (in Japanese), “In the language of flowers, this means ‘reunion.’” It’s subbed/dubbed in English, “Lovers used to give these when they were reunited.” That’s a subtle difference, but since the concept of “reunion” is a freakin’ huge part of the FFVII plot, and since Sephiroth was on screen literally seconds before that line is delivered, my brain automatically went, “OMG REUNION!!!” while I’m guessing people listening in English only picked up on the romantic subtext. It’s a pretty minor thing, and of course translation is always a complex balancing act between literal meaning and local market understanding, but the English version just seemed to me to have a different vibe overall. (Unfortunately, the English subtitles are the same as the dub, so unless you can understand the Japanese audio you’re kind of stuck with that dialogue.)

-

-

[WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT]

-

- …And my #1 complaint about Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE is…

…it’s not actually a remake.

Sure, the game starts out the same way and covers a lot of the same events, but fundamentally, it’s a sequel, not a retelling. It’s evident from Cloud’s future-oriented visions throughout the game that something else is going on, and the ending MAKES NO SENSE if you don’t already know the story. Heck, even the rest of the game doesn’t really make sense if you don’t know the story -- Sephiroth’s presence is never explained; Zack isn’t even introduced, just shows up randomly at the end; Cloud’s flashbacks of Tifa and her dead father in Nibelheim are left as a complete mystery (and since she evidently remembers the burning of her town, judging by her dialogue outside Aerith’s house, why doesn’t she even react when Sephiroth shows up?).

The core elements of the plot – the Feelers (Whispers) preserving a specific fate; the three entities from the future (whose weapon types just happen to correspond to certain named characters) defending their timeline; the return of post-Advent Children Sephiroth (the only time we’ve seen him in human form with one black wing), who has inhabited the Lifestream since his death and promised that he would never truly disappear, who in the end appeals to Cloud directly for an alliance rather than attempting to control him, because he knows now that Cloud is strong enough to defy the Reunion instinct; the change in the outcome of story events in which Biggs (and, unconfirmed as to which timeline he’s actually in, but quite possibly Zack) now survives his intended death -- all point toward Sephiroth trying to manipulate destiny into an alternate outcome in which he is victorious, and using this naive version of Cloud to facilitate it. That means this game is taking place in an alternate or splinter universe, created at some point after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, and possibly even after the events of Advent Children.

All of that is fine from an overall continuing-story perspective – it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, like the fact that Aerith might survive now that Cloud has seen prescient flashes of her death (among other events), and there are opportunities for more story twists and changes from what players might expect. But touting this as a remake of the original game has the potential to confuse players who are new to the franchise. FFVII was groundbreaking back in 1997, and it defined JRPGs for an entire generation of Western gamers. But that was more than two decades ago, and a lot of current gamers weren’t even born then, so while they’ve probably heard of the classic game, they aren’t necessarily steeped in its lore. FFVII:R relies heavily on prior knowledge of the series to carry its twist ending, so it largely fails as a standalone game.

Also, speaking as a longtime fan of the franchise… I honestly found the ending rather lackluster. It was a twist, of sorts, but not the sort of shocking, mind-bending revelation that made the first game so iconic. Granted, it’s hard to follow an act like revealing that your protagonist’s entire identity is a lie, not to mention killing off one of your main characters a third of the way into the story! But when the surprise ending is just, Surprise! We’re going to change things up a bit this time around so you aren’t entirely sure what’s coming! Also, here’s a gratuitous Sephiroth fight because everyone expects that, even though it doesn’t serve the main story at all nor resolve any conflicts previously established within this game! it smacks of Different for the sake of Being Different, not for the sake of a really amazing storyline they’re hiding up their sleeve. It’s a bit of a let-down, and I find that I... just... don’t really care that much. Which, for someone who’s been a fan of the series for nearly a quarter of a century, means there’s a Big Freaking Problem somewhere. If you’re not keeping the attention of your die-hard fans, how do you hope to build a fanbase of players new to the franchise?

Given the pacing and story issues inherent in this game, I’m not convinced that the following game(s) in the franchise are going to be structured any better. Considering the amount of pure side-quest padding they did in Midgar, I have no idea how they’ll maintain that same tone on something the scale of the World Map portion of the original game, unless they just completely eliminate things like Fort Condor and the submarine and the spaceship side quests. I have a feeling the Gold Saucer is going to be reduced to a Jessie flashback, a Chocobo race (probably to win a key item), and a battle arena run like the coliseum in Wall Market in this game. If they include all the story elements and side characters from the original, this series is going to be a dozen games long.

Still, on the whole this game was enjoyable, and I’m glad I played it. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but they haven’t completely killed off my interest, so I’ll probably continue with the series whenever the next game comes out. Though I’m not really sure if the higher-priced edition I pre-ordered was worth the extra money, so I may wait and see how the next game is shaping up before deciding which version to get...

But if they don’t give me a really pretty (playable) Vincent Valentine in the next installment, I may riot. I do have priorities.

[aqvarius]

For the A-Z headvanon thing, C/J/X for the HLITF guys?

for some reason answering X is really mortifying for me hahahah sorry if my descriptions aren’t that good, i don’t wanna keep it to just descriptions of penises

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Goto:

C: he likes to cum in you and then stay in you and cuddle for a while cause it feels so cute and ~intimate~ he helps clean you up afterwards with a towel/tissue even though you find it so embarrassing

J: he doesn’t masturbate that often cause he’s busy and also has self control lol but one time you got rained on and then borrowed his blue jumper to wear and it was so big on you it covered your skirt and he had to do something about it when you went home 

X: lmao imagine i answered this with a picture. goto definitely has really nice legs, muscular but toned, and really long and straight. quite a pretty penis which is nicely proportioned and fairly straight but he doesn’t bother with grooming or anything

Kaga:

C: likes to fuck you right until he’s about to cum and then swap to your mouth and cum down your throat. he doesn’t cum in you that often even if you’re on birth control cause he doesn’t think it’s right for you to get pregnant when you’re so fresh in your career and also he’s probably at least a little bit worried that he’ll be like his father

J: literally hasn’t jacked off since he was pretty young. if he needs to get off, he’ll just call you and you’ll be with him in half an hour at the very latest 

X: surprisingly cares about grooming. tends to wear black boxer briefs. he’s got a pretty thicc dick that’s got a pleasant curve to it lol? don’t let his topless sprite fool you, his legs are like 70% of his body. a nice skeleton if you really went for the xray even though some of his bones have had fractures/breaks 

Ishigami:

C: his cum always tastes good? no idea why. he’s very careful and responsible about protection and always wraps that tip even if you’re on birth control. too respectful to cum on your body

J: doesn’t masturbate because he has discipline lolol

X: pretty long and straight dick that tends to fall towards his right thigh so that’s where it is in his pants lol. you can feel it if you press up against him. wears grey boxer briefs that are actually the same brand and fit as kaga’s but in a different colour. it infuriates both of them but they both like the fit and comfort of that particular brand and style so they both refuse to change

Soma:

C: he always asks you where and how you want him to cum, much to your embarrassment. he’ll tease you afterwards if you say something that’s different from usual

J: will occasionally do if it’s he’s really pent up and hasn’t seen you in a while. tends to start off with long, slow strokes and really takes his time to fantasise about you

X: keeps himself really well groomed. the curtains match the drapes, somehow. how does he naturally have that hair colour??? no one knows. has a certain curve in his dick that hits you in all the right spots 

Shinonome: 

C: does calculations in his head when he wants to stop himself from cumming too quickly haha what a nerd

J: dude he’s fucking pent up man. i can’t count the number of times he’s jacked off to thoughts of you cause he literally held off for 2 whole years. sometimes he takes his time but more often than not he’ll be super horny because of something really sexy you did without knowing and he’ll have to spend the whole day at work thinking about it so when he gets home he just has to get off asap

X: wears the same underwear as his beloved hyogo-san lol. he has to tuck his boner into his waistband if he gets random erections thinking about you at work. has really, really nice toned legs (that he probably exfoliates…) with long muscular calves and looks really good in shorts

Namba: 

C: his cum tastes kind of bitter from coffee and cigarettes. he always kisses you after you swallow 

J: used to do it more often when he was young but not so much anymore. he prefers your company

X: has a monster cock. it’s basically unreal. could probably go into porn with that thing

Kurosawa:

C: likes seeing you painted in his cum. he’ll help you clean it off with tissues but he likes to take a step back and admire his handiwork

J: he’ll do it pretty regularly when you’re not around. he’s surprisingly serious when he does it, he’ll really get in the zone

X: kinda has skinny legs? basically needs to stop skipping leg day lol. he looks really good in like kpop idol style skinny jeans and/or cigarette pants tho. has a pretty proportional dick and basically only bothers with grooming when he’s gonna get some

[randomoranges]

no - i was not convinced yet again that it was the 7th.

luckily i still have an antiquarian post-it with the date written on it.

also, no, i dont still have holiday fics to write.

Happy Birthday

Étienne stared at his laptop screen and let out a frustrated sigh. This was absolutely and utterly ridiculous. He felt like a right old fool and couldn’t believe it had all come down to this. Here he was, sitting in front of his laptop, staring at his screen, completely and unable to hit the “send” button. Letters, he decided, were much easier to write. At least with letters, he could write it, send it off, then forget about it, and not fret over the recipient’s reaction. At least he wouldn’t sit in front of his laptop waiting to see if his friend had seen his message or responded to it (and how he had responded to it.)

But – this was the Right Thing to Do – or whatever. God, and he’d even waited to make sure it was at least January 9th in Edward’s time zone before composing his very short, and very stock standard message to his friend. This was how ridiculous the whole thing was – it had come down to that. And all because he was trying to mend broken bridges – or whatever the expression was. He was trying to do the right thing and put fear aside and be the Bigger Man – or whatever. Whatever! This was dumb!

The great thing about the twenty-first century was that it was oh so convenient to stay in touch with friends who lived far away – the terrible thing about the twenty-first century was that it was oh so convenient to see how Great everyone else’s lives were. Case in point, he now knew for a fact that Edward had gone out with Calvin (woo-fucking-hoo) and that Emma had spent the weekend at the spa with – with Lucas (of all fucking people – he was going to gag). And he had spent a rather lovely (lonely) weekend at home watching television and Not Feeling Sorry for himself. (He was trying to be a Better Person and less of a sad sack – it was a work in progress. He’d actually wanted to stay in and relax – his therapist would be So Proud.)

Anyways.

The point of the matter was that it was Edward’s birthday and he could be a Good Friend and send him a very plain message wishing him a Happy Birthday and move on with his life. He wasn’t even writing anything heartfelt and deep – just a simple “Happy birthday!” – that was it. No emojis – no funny old pictures. Nothing. Hell, he’d even written it in English (because French seemed too loaded for them at this point – English was safe.) All he had to do was hit send and then try to get some sleep (it was 2h30AM – his sleep schedule was still a work of wonder (sadness) and at this point in his life, he was convinced it would never change).

But he didn’t want to seem too … desperate. And logically, he knew he could write out the message later, or at the very least, send it later, but he was afraid he would chicken out later and just – never get it done. And then he’d forget and he’d feel bad and then another day would go by and then Edward would think he had purposely not sent him a birthday message and then it would just – blow out of proportions and where would that even leave him? Letters could only get lost. Much easier to explain.

It was a complicated matter, really.

It’s why he preferred letters. No one would ever know when he’d written the letter or when he’d sent it out.

The thing was – the real issue was that his relationship with Edward had … fizzled out spectacularly – to put it lightly – and well, New Year, new him, or whatever, but he was actually and legitimately trying to mend things, even if he wasn’t sure Edward wanted to and even if he wasn’t sure where he stood with Edward anymore. (That was an entire other complicated matter all to itself. God. Over the past twenty years he could count on one hand the number of times he and Edward had actually had some sort of Actual Conversation and he absolutely fucking hated the thought that one of his oldest friendships could just – be over. It was why he was trying. It was why he had to remind himself that that Edward had sat with him at lunch a while back – that they were talking. That Edward often said hello to him when they ran into each other at meetings (Étienne was still sending Élyse in his place. He hated meetings.))

Hence, the proper thing to do when it was your friend’s birthday was to send them a regular, plain old, happy birthday message on Facebook and just – call it a day. People received dozens of such messages on their birthdays. If he really wanted to go for a more personal approach he would have sent a text message (but he didn’t have Edward’s cell number – so there), or he would have called him (he knew for a fact Edward had the same home number – Edward had told him – when he said he could send him a letter - had reminded him he hadn’t moved) – and he could have sent an e-mail, but that seemed too fastidious for just “Happy Birthday.” (Too much empty blank space where thoughts could spin into words better left unspoken - unwritten.)

But he didn’t want more personal he just wanted to wish his friend a happy birthday and hope that even though Edward had moved on from whatever it was they were back then that they could at least be friends. (Because Étienne realised that he didn’t care if Edward and he never turned into an item again – that  Edward could be with dozens of other men, that he could be married and have children for all he cared, and live the white picket fence dream and it would be fine – so long as they could be friends again. Real friends. Like before, when they could spend time together, laugh at stupid things, and enjoy each other’s company without things being weird between them. That’s what he really missed – the easiness of their friendship. The comfort he had found in Edward.)

And sure – he still had feelings for Edward – and sure, he still thought of his friend every January 9th, but he too had moved on for a while and had explored other venues. If Edward was happy, then he was happy for him– but it didn’t mean that because Edward was seeing someone seriously that he couldn’t spend time with his friends (and if that was the case then Calvin could seriously fuck off.)

Étienne was ready to chuck his laptop out the window. Really, he was. He would throw it out and then go off to live in the forest with the mountain sprites, or something. He was too old for this nonsense. Too old. Too tired. Too afraid – and wasn’t that what was really at play here? He was afraid he would get flushed away. That he would be shelved for good. (Remember, a voice in his head said, Edward was there for your last big birthday. He peeled you an orange. He still speaks to you.)

What if he was wrong?

What if he was right?

Logically, he knew he could send the message, go to bed (or at the very least, close his laptop and do absolutely anything else), and move on. Plus, the chances of Edward even seeing his message at this time were slim. The man had better things to do than sit in front of his phone, or laptop, or tablet, and wait for the birthday messages to pour in. He was probably with Calvin. They might even already be celebrating. Even if it was Thursday. (But Edward had a new life now – so who knew?)

But maybe, by sending the message now, it would get lost in the hoard of messages and then Étienne could live with the satisfaction that he’d actually sent his message instead of being a coward, but he would never know whether or not Edward had seen it. Maybe that was fine. Just sending the message would already be that.

Maybe he should just forget about it. Edward wouldn’t even notice his message. He’d get others. He wouldn’t even notice that he hadn’t sent one. Again. Maybe it was best if he didn’t break the new status-quo.

But he wanted things to change. Étienne was tired with this going around in circles. It had been twenty goddamned years. He wanted a clear answer. He wanted to know. And maybe this message could be the cataclysm to something. Maybe he just had to be a little brave.

So he finally was. (After close to another hour. Details.)

He took a deep breath. Placed the cursor over the “send” button. Held his breath. Closed his eyes. And clicked the button.

It was done.

It was done and it was out of his hands and now Edward could do whatever. He could do whatever. And whatever was to get up, go for a smoke and then maybe a vigorous walk (until he remembered that it was winter and it was cold outside, but frankly, the walk still sounded better – if anything it would give his mind something else to think about. There was too much nervous energy coursing through him. He felt like he was vibrating out of his skin. Good God he was so fucking restless.)

Therefore, he got up and he was about to do everything he had just thought of doing, when he saw he had a little red notification.

Edward a attribué la mention “j’adore” à votre publication.

Maybe – maybe there was hope after all.

[katreal-fic]

Day 7 — for #fictober 10/10/19

Prompt: “No, and that’s final.”

Fandom: Homestuck

Warnings: Cursing, 2nd Person POV

Part of a series. Please start from the beginning!

Characters: Dirk Strider & ARquiusprite; ARquiusprite & Davepeta

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ARquiusprite is ignoring you.

That’s fine. That’s cool. Two can play at this game. You came despite having to deal with him. Not because of him. This works out for the both of you. If he wants to completely ignore your presence all throughout breakfast, not even so much as a sarcastic, “Long time no see” except in many more words and probably more than a little insultingly, that suits you just fine. You get enough of that shit seeping into your thoughts you don’t need it from an external source too.

Dirk > Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

You trail a little behind Roxy, her housemate–? You’re not exactly sure what relationship is going on here, but it feels a bit more than housemate–and an exuberant squared sprite as they wind their way through what amounts for a Carapace-targeted market. There’s a lot of…things… you would never have considered food items, being haggled over by chessmen (or women) of both the prospitian and dersite variety. You wonder if New Derse and New Prospit are as segregated as the names implied, or if they are merely historical relics at this point. It’s been several thousand years since y'all seeded civilizations and then completed your big time skip. You don’t see any obvious tension in the mingling of the two types here; and there’s even a few other races either meandering around window shopping or actually manning the shops.

It’s definitely an…interesting set of wares, as the three actual shoppers on this venture stop at a clothing shop. You keep half an ear on the others, Roxy and Davepeta’s chatter loud enough to track even over the odd clicking sounding dialect of the other patrons. A lot of different styles and colors of drapery, from things as simple as something you recognize as bed-sheets, exquisitely tailored little petticoats fitted for the unique cylindrical proportions of the caraparians. 

“Dirkleton! Stop being a stinker and get over here! It’s time for ice-cream!” Roxy quite literally drags you out of your head, latching onto your arm. You aren’t sure how long you’ve been gone, stoically looking out over the crowd with a tension that reminds you of the early days of the game, when you still were still hopped up on adrenaline from your dramatic entry into the session and the bone deep knowledge that your charge was in danger and there’s nothing you could do about it. Nothing you should do about it. Because baby bird need to stretch his wings and fly and it would doom them to coddle them. 

Ice-cream is an…event. True to Roxy’s word ARquiusprite is the one to pay for everyone’s sweet treats. Except yours. But you don’t want one. You hang back while Roxy and Davepeta put their heads together to decide on a good flavor for the cherub, who is wringing her (their? You didn't ask.) claws, a lime green blush staining Calliope's skull-like face.

You don’t notice the drift until you find yourself next to the red sprite that still towards a head above you, despite you finishing off your growthspurt in the intervening years. Not that the contest is really all that fair, what with the floating and the ghostly tail. At this point you’re fuckin’ committed, you guess. He’s still wearing that off-white tank with the weird arrow-shades on it that he had when he was prototyped, which lends credence to your wondering about the staticity of their appearance. The advantage of a tank-top, you note, is that you can see all his those freakishly big muscles. Bulging as he unconsciously shifts and flexes. You can almost see the tension running off his skin. So can the poor bastard pawn behind the register, who is sweating bullets glancing between you two.

Like Davepeta, ARquius’s shades are completely opaque. You can’t read anything, except for the perpetual frown hiding broken teeth. Black cracks running through the constructed shades stirring up the guilt in your gut. (Cracks. A pressure. Your life in his hands. You can do nothing but talk. Stall. Try to buy your right to live with logic and cajoling and guilt)

“How do you even plan to pay for this shit? I don’t see anywhere to keep a wallet.”

“Small-talk still isn’t your STRONG suit is it, Dirk?” ARquiusprite’s voice is a strange rumble, straight red hair shifting as he turns to regard you (you assume) out of the corner of his eye. It’s not like you can see it. 

“Can’t say it’s yours either, bro.” You shot back, before gritting your teeth, “You’ve barely said a word.”

“To you, maybe. To those DESERVING of my brilliance I am one loquacious motherf*****. I have a f****** degree in small talk, dude. Graduated from the sh**** auto responder school of horsesh*** and improvisation. I’m afraid being your entertainment is rather low on my priorities right now.” 

That’s more like it.

“They made you promise to behave, didn’t they?”

He twitches. Your lips curl into a smirk. “Dude, don’t hold yourself back on my account. I’m the interloper here”

“I’m not doing it for you.” He bites back, broken teeth peeking out behind a stifled growl, “I’m doing it because my moirail asked me a f****** favor. If it were up to me you wouldn’t even be crashing this party.”

“Roxy invited me.”

“It was an invitation for the future not right this f****** second. You knew full well she had guests and you decided to crash anyway. There’s no other word for that but inconsiderate as hell.”

He’s right. The fuckin’ arrow straight to the heart causes you to clam up, shut down. The protection of your shades and stoicism is nothing before a being that was once closer to you than anyone in the fuckin’ world every could be.

(you’d thought about it once; trying to create life. Looking at the result, you’re glad you kept to dumb as rocks chat-bots instead)

“You wouldn’t understand, Dirk.” It’s quiet. Nothing more than a rumble in his chest, “At least everyone else cared when they came back. I know you better than anyone–no one f****** matters when you get your head stuck up your own a**.”

Everyone came. Except you.

Before you can respond–how the fuck do you respond?–Davepeta bounds up with what looks like, and probably is, strawberry flavored ice-cream, Calliope with some hot pink flavor, and Roxy with cone full of mint chocolate chip. She turns that smile on you as ARquiusprite goes back to ignoring you (much to the relief of the poor chess dude behind the counter.) You watch as he reaches into Davepeta’s coat to withdraw a wallet from the currently mostly-green garment. Smart. Maybe ARquius didn’t have any pockets in his skin-tight sweat-soaked tank, but Davepeta lucked out into a much more versatile clothing selection.

“You sure you don’t want anythin’ Dirk? I saw they had orange sherbert in there. I kno you’d love that.”

You shake your head, not looking away from the way Davepeta flings themselves into ARq’s arms in excited gratitude. At the way ARquiusprite’s glow seems to intensify, curling his tail around them. You swear there’s a red blush staining his off-white semi-corporeal face.

“Yo, earth-c to Dirk, do you copy?”

You don’t understand?

Maybe you don’t.

ARquiusprite was one of the few voices you don’t have popping up in your head.

You wouldn’t understand, Dirk.

You have a feeling that’s gonna change.

“No, Rox,” You purposefully shake yourself out of your own head again, “No, I’m good.”

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[asktheartpone]

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#alister - 12 posts

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#proportions are probably a little off but the sprite i worked with was not what i was used to

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

So good news! I'm heading to Florida for a vacation October 23-30!

Bad news! I'm broke and I need to prepare for the trip.

I've prepared a list of things I'm looking to get for the trip (carrying case for my laptop cause I'll need it for school, new earbuds cause my wireless headphones are on their last legs, etc).

Commissions are opened up (even though they already were to begin with lol), so please help me if you can! ;w;

35 notes • Posted 2021-08-11 01:39:23 GMT

#4

So this took a little longer than I would've liked, but I finally got all the asks I got compiled into this! Thank you everyone that wished me a happy birthday! :) Sure it was like...12 days ago? But still!

Featuring appearances by: @anideterm3, @ask-three-baldimores, @keirastarlightdraconequus (and her two kids Ruse and Mirage), @ask-the-out-buck-pony, @ask-twizilla, @mystimod, and @peppermint-pattie-replies!

I know the picture might not be clear, so if you were featured and want the picture of your OC on their own, please message me and I'll send it. Thank you all again for your patience and kind words. :) <3

38 notes • Posted 2021-11-22 03:39:27 GMT

#3

A̸̞̞͍̺̖̰̒̀̓͒͛̀̔̕m̶̹̗̟͓̬̹̻̄͂͋̈́̿̈̾̚ͅ ̴̼̭̳͙̉̅͒̍̓͋͋I̶̛̳͕̗̖͙͖̲̾ ̵̱͍́̇̂̈́s̶̨̛̫̙͔̱̥̉͗̒͘ţ̵̭͓̿̑̒̊͋͂̚͠ȉ̶͎̖͚̯l̷̝̜̜̮̥̥̣͛̌̍̀̀l̴̛̤͚̗̹̲̘̮̞̂̽̄͝ ̸̛͇̑̔b̶̳̌̎̓̕e̴̳̦͔̦͓͉̝͔̒̌͛̎̑a̴͍̳̥̅̌̒̈́͝͝ṳ̵̰͔̘̂͆̕͜ẗ̴̫̻̰͐͋̒i̴͎̫͈̮͖̺̔͋̾̄͐͛̈̓f̸͌͋̂̒̿͌ͅű̸̳̣̱̱̏̃̾̈̇̔͝l̸͙̣͕̉͗̂̅̓͂́ ̶̘͙͐̑̓̅͜ͅẗ̴́̌̐͆̊̒̔͜ö̵̞̟́̿̏̚ ̴̱̬͋͘͝y̵̡̛͍̱̟̍ͅô̷̢̧̳̻̹̳̂ṵ̷̰͖͍̩̜̀̆̆̿ͅ,̶̗̞͇̱̖̦̃̈̏͛̕ ̶̙͐̅̅͗̍͛̚S̷͈͍̹͈̣̈͒́̋o̶̡̟̞͋̾͊́p̴̦̺̮͂͒h̴͎͕̘̣̜̹͈͔͐͊̿̂͊̐͘͝i̷̻͓͇̹͍͗͗̑̄̂è̵̡̫͖̖͎̬͍͜?̷̦̅̐͐̈͑̈́

46 notes • Posted 2021-07-20 04:53:12 GMT

#2

You know, I’m not sure this counts as pin up, but it’s definitely more seductive than most of my art. XD

Oh, look! And just in time for Valentine’s Day! :3

Suggested by @thelunararmy

48 notes • Posted 2021-02-14 03:12:38 GMT

#1

So I had a dream where there was a pink Sandshrew plush that I stole. So I had to draw a pink Sandshrew, which I think was my dream version of a shiny?

66 notes • Posted 2021-09-12 18:41:22 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[elven-ariaera]

Welcome all!

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’re familiar with my work as either an artist, cosplayer, writer or any of the other creative things I do. Recently, I had been asked about some of the work that I do, and I thought a fun way to just that was to fill out a few questionnaires. Here I talk about some of the high and low points of doing what I do, what inspires me, and my process of creativity.

For those who are only interested in certain segments, I’ve broken the article into the following sections for you to easily maneuver your way throughout the piece: Art, cosplay, writing, and questions asked by you.

I know I’m no professional and compared to a lot of others I don’t have as outstanding an amount of followers, but if this article can help inspire at least one artist to try something new or learn something they didn’t know, well, that’s good enough for me! I hope you enjoy!

Art

When did you get into art?

I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember, but I do recall middle school in particular being the time that I really started pursuing art. I had to choose between volleyball and art club after school, and guess which one I picked. It wasn’t just academics either. My notebooks were full of fan art of mostly Link and Zelda, but you could find some Kirby, Pokémon, and Naruto scattered in there as well.

Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

Yeah. It’s… Something.

What defines your artistic style?

I think the faces of the characters I draw distinguish my art. I always have a certain way of drawing the eyes, ears, and other features. I always give my females more prominent eyelashes than males as well. Certain clothing as well — The way I draw capes and hoods are distinct. Not to mention when designing my own clothes, I tend to use similar patterns.

Do you practice other styles/have you tried other styles in the past?

I occasionally dabble outside my comfort zone. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of the “Cal-Arts” style, but I’ve tried it every now and then, especially when creating fan art for shows like Steven Universe, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Amphibia. I don’t really do it too often, but I’ve made a piece for my portfolio mimicking several art styles from a variety of different shows just to demonstrate that I can do it if I’d like to.

What levels of artistic education have you had?

Honestly, just high school. I thought I was going to college for digital illustrations but it turned out communication/graphic design was totally different. I actually got into that because I could draw when not many other people in that field could. Of course, I’m always interested in learning outside of school. I learn through watching other artists on social media, seeing how they create their work. Just watching a speed draw can help so much! The way I learn the most, however, is just by doing. Practice, practice, practice! 

Show us at least one picture you drew or sketched recently that you did not put on a public site.

I’ve been doing a lot of Fire Emblem doodles for my new sticker line, so here’s Setsuna. Honestly, I just like drawing bust portraits like this.

What is your favorite piece that you have done?

I can’t just pick one! I’ve drawn over 900 things since I first joined DeviantArt (and I’ve been drawing even before then), you want me to pick just one? Haha, I’ll narrow it down to three of my favorites (in no particular order):

I love this one because it was like the first cute drawing of Ivysaur I’ve ever done. Ivysaur was always a tricky pokémon for me to draw, but this was the first time I feel like I nailed it. Ivysaur also happens to be one of my absolute favorites, so that’s a plus.

This is Minerva, a Guardian from my fantasy stories. Every time I drew her prior, I could never quite get the look I wanted. This was the one that I really liked and so I colored it and am very happy with how it turned out.

I don’t know why I just love this drawing I did of Dimitri from Three Houses. I think its the eyes and hair. And the color contrast — especially in the original ink sketch (that I hung up over my craft table.) I just love it.

What is your least favorite piece that you have done?

Again, you want just one? Haha, too many failures. I’ll be fair, though, and post three of those as well.

Here’s one from my early days. I was trying so hard to get the hair all detailed like and instead it came out looking like gross looking veins. Not to mention how atrocious the proportions were. Oh man, I’m sorry past me, I know you tried.

Here’s one I was so proud of: I copied the official art for Twilight Princess and thought it came out amazing. So amazing I titled the piece “Awesomeful Link.” Yeah. Um. Nope.

Here’s a more recent one that I’m not too pleased with. I was so excited about the latest batch of Steven Universe episodes (which I would later learn were a big bunch of filler episodes and that didn’t make anything better) I drew Pearl reciting her ‘big line’ of the trailer. I tried to mix styles and I tried something different with the eyes and all in all it just came out… Meh.

What do you like most about your art?

I like the faces that I draw. They’re always the most fun and I think they come out the best. I especially love the eyes, I go into so much detail on them (even though they’re usually so small when I print them.) I’ve had issues in the past where I made all of my characters look like they had the same face, but I feel I’ve been doing a lot better at individualizing the face of each character and that makes it all the more fun as well.

What do you like least about your art?

The hands. Sometimes I draw them well, but I still struggle hard and sometimes it really shows. For chibi drawings, I don’t really care as much, but on my more “serious” art, I get a little bummed when I’ve got a wonky hand hanging off their wrists. Feet also sometimes give me a bit of trouble, but usually only when I do poses that involve more movement, which is why I sometimes make my art stiffer and I don’t like doing that either.

Have you ever considered taking commissions?

I do take commissions. In fact, I’d love to take more if it were possible.

Are you looking to pursue a career in art?

I do it part-time right now. I’m satisfied doing commissions and artist tables at local conventions. I think I’d like to pursue writing more than art, but I do love art just as well, so part-time is perfect for me.

What do you like drawing the most?

As I mentioned before, faces. I love drawing facial expressions, I feel like it’s the very core of a character. It’s the first thing I notice when I look at anyone’s art, so I always go all out on my own. I also like drawing hair and wrinkles in clothing. I used to be really obsessed with wrinkles and it would always look like my characters didn’t iron their laundry, but I’ve definitely toned it down since then, haha.

All in all, I like drawing human characters the best — or humanoid. Elves, fairies, merfolk; I love them the most. I like drawing animals too, but not as much as people. 

What do you like drawing the least?

Once again my answer is hands. They are still as difficult to draw as the day I started.

Backgrounds are also not enjoyable for me to draw. It’s an important part of a piece, but I get so bored drawing anything that’s not a character — which is why you’ll probably notice in a lot of my art that I do a lot of very minimal backgrounds. I’ve been trying very hard not to just take stock photos anymore (with the exception of my Mythical Month art as they’re meant to be stickers,) and I’ve been using games like Skyrim and Breath of the Wild as inspiration with their gorgeous scenery. 

Do you draw more fanart or original art? If fanart, what fandom do you draw the most of?

I post a lot more fan art than original — at least I used to, but I also think I have expanded in sharing my original art more and more with my Mythical Months/Mondays. I guess maybe I’d say about half and half.

What medium/program do you use the most in your art?

Digitally I always use Photoshop. Always. As for traditional art, I’ve been using Copic knock-offs (I’m still learning, so I’d rather not waste the money) and the Sakura Micron pens for my ink sketches. I’ve really been enjoying them, actually, it’s very therapeutic. However, no matter digitally or traditionally, I always, ALWAYS start with a pencil. I like mechanical pencils, I don’t like traditional #2 pencils anymore. The thin lead helps me keep control better.

How would you rank your art? (poor, mediocre, good, etc.)

I always say I think my art is “above average.” I know it’s not bad, but I think it could always use improvement. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a place where I think my art is phenomenal, but I’m content with it, it makes me happy, and that’s all that matters.

List at least one of your “artspirations.”

My art style was greatly inspired by Naruto, Fire Emblem, and Zelda. I always liked more proper body proportions with that hint of anime inspiration. I like bigger eyes on my characters because they help convey emotion so much better, but I also don’t like the oversized baby eyes outside of the occasional chibi style. Avatar: The Last Airbender was also a great influence since the creators did exactly what I like to do and execute it wonderfully.

What do you think you could stand to improve on?

I feel like I can always improve on everything that I do in my art. There are things I’m good at, but I don’t feel like I’ve mastered anything in particular. Then there’s hands and feet again which I definitely need to work on. Lastly, motion. I want to be able to draw more fluid character motions. I’ve been working on it with my original art that I don’t post online, but hopefully I’ll start incorporating it into all my work.

Do you have a shameful art past? (recolor sprite comics, tracing art, etc.?)

Ugh, yes, YES! I admit I was so bad at first, but I also think that’s just how we learn. I used to do a lot of tracing. I started first just full-on tracing images off my computer — That’s right, I’d put the paper up to the computer and trace it like that. Then I started using bases, which was better because at least I had to draw all the details like hair and clothing by myself. Then I finally worked up the courage to stop using them completely. I’d use references, but I would force myself to figure it out by eye rather than copy it straight from the source. I’m happy to say I haven’t been tracing since my late middle school- early high school years.

Cosplay

How many years have you cosplayed?

My first cosplay was when I was fourteen, and I’m twenty-five at the time of writing this article, so eleven years now. Wow.

How did you get into cosplaying?

I honestly don’t know. I was invited to a convention where I heard people dressed up and was like “hey, I want to try that!” I guess it was because I didn’t really do Halloween as a kid and I was so deathly terrified of costumed characters as a toddler that I never took an interest until high school.

How many cosplays have you done?

That’s funny, you want me to remember how many cosplays I’ve ever done. A lot. According to my photo collection, I’ve done about 60 different cosplays (59 exactly if I’m counting correctly.)

What was your first cosplay and why did you choose it?

My first cosplay was Osaka from Azumanga Daioh in her blue summer uniform. Azumanga Daioh was my second ever manga series and my cousin and I were so obsessed with it. She even went as Yukari with me to the convention (though only, like, two people knew who we were.) Tomo is probably my favorite character, but I related personally more to Osaka, being the air-head that I am. I also didn’t have to really style my hair (because that was an era before I used wigs.)

What is your favorite cosplay you’ve done so far?

It’s a tie between my Trainee Link (Hyrule Warriors) costume and my Royal Guard Link (Zelda: Breath of the Wild) costume. Both are alternative costumes for one of my all-time favorite characters that I hand made all the really detailed pieces all from scratch. Link has always been a special character for me to cosplay, but these two are my favorites.

What is your least favorite you’ve cosplayed?

Rapunzel (Tangled). I was obsessed with her at the time which is why I wanted to cosplay her originally, but my dress was not the best and I didn’t look good as her. At least I think so. It was the only costume that made me feel insecure.

What cosplay is the most uncomfortable or troublesome?

Okay, I love this costume and character to pieces, but my gosh the struggles I go through for Pearl (Steven Universe). Blue Diamond (Steven Universe) is the worst in terms of how long it takes me to put my makeup on, but Pearl is right behind her at about 2 hours being my best time. However, the thing that makes Pearl more troublesome to wear is one thing and one thing alone: armsocks.

They look great and prevent you from having to dab makeup all over your body, but I literally couldn’t even hit the home button on my cellphone and it’s not like I could just take them off like gloves. They’re attached at your middle and putting them on is a hassle on its own. Getting your fingers into each tiny socket is so time-consuming. Now imagine this while also being coated in body paint. Plus, having white be the color of the stockings, you have to be conscious of everything you touch because it will stain and show. Because of all this, I refuse to use the restroom dressed as Pearl, and while that is “in character,” it is not healthy and totally NOT recommended you do that.

What is your most comfortable cosplay?

During the winter, Ravio (Zelda: A Link Between Worlds) for sure. It’s like wearing a giant snuggie. However, in summer, it does get hot very quickly (which is why I literally only wear biker shorts and a tank underneath if I ever do take it out on a hot day), so I only wear it in summer if I know there will be AC. Heatstroke is a real thing. Miss Frizzle (Magic School Bus) is probably the best all-year cosplay in terms of comfort. It’s just a dress, stockings, and a wig really.

But in all honesty, most of my cosplays are relatively comfortable. There’s really nothing that I’ve been so uncomfortable that it’s made my physically ill or scarred me physically. My health is important to me, and should safety should always come first.

How do you research the cosplay before you make it?

I look up lots of reference images. I need an image of the front and back, though if it’s not available, I just improvise based on the images I do have on hand. After that, I kind of just wing it.

Do you sew your cosplays yourself?

A good majority of them, yes. There are a few exceptions to this, though: My Disney princesses are all bought since I use them in performances and want them to be durable if children come and tug on the outfit. Pearl, also being a performance cosplay, I did buy as well. For her second reformation outfit (the sleeveless with the ribbon) I got specially commissioned to look and fit me just right whereas her movie/future appearance (jacket and mom-jeans) I literally found at a thrift store. I also love to find costume pieces at thrift stores. Whether I use them as is or make alterations, they make life so much easier when you make a good find for a cheap price. Leni Loud (Loud House) is probably my favorite thrift/sew hybrid. I found a base dress, altered the top and added strap sleeves, put lace around the edges, found a blingy pair of sunglasses, bought earrings and painted them, and made bows for sandals I already had. The most expensive part of that cosplay was the wig I bought from Arda (and it’s always worth it to buy from them in my opinion.)

When I make a costume completely from scratch (like Ravio, Thranduil, any of my Link cosplays) are when I really love the costume and character and want to take on a challenge and bring it to life myself. They also tend to have pieces that can’t be altered from your everyday clothing, but that just makes me work harder and learn more!

How did you learn to sew?

My grandmother taught me how. Osaka was my first cosplay, but my mom altered it from a tee shirt we found at a thrift store and a lucky skirt find. Kabuto Yakushi (Naruto) was the first cosplay I made from scratch (and I won best novice at the convention I wore it to — even with my terrible wig, haha.) She showed me how to use patterns when we made that and my Ayame Sohma cosplay, but after that, I scrapped using patterns and I basically just eyeball everything now. It’s totally not recommended, but I’m a little weirdo and just prefer to do things the way I do. Still, I wouldn’t be able to use a sewing machine if it weren’t for her. Thanks, Nanny!

Do you make your own props?

Most of them. I don’t really use props too often as I find them cumbersome to lug around a convention (which is how I thought of the Fire Emblem, Gravity Falls, and Skyrim book boxes to store your stuff and add some extra flair to a costume.) The few props I have made include Link’s sword, his trainee shield, his original shield from Zelda 1, and Soren’s Wind Tome (which I used for Laurent (Fire Emblem: Awakening) because I didn’t finish Soren (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) yet…) Then there’s my prized cosplay prop; Victreebel for James (Pokémon). That was all thanks to my fleece hat business in high school that taught me the skills to build that thing.

I actually think the only prop I store-bought was my Hylian Shield because it was so lightweight and easy to carry, plus I was dreading doing all those details at the time. Maybe one day I’ll make it from scratch, but for now, I’m content with my store-bought.

Do you style your own wigs?

Yes. I have been improving my styling skills a lot more since I first started. It was always a more difficult task for me, but I’ve been practicing more and more. The first one that I attempted on my own was my short-haired Rapunzel. That was basically just giving it a haircut, though. My first real styling challenge was Breath of the Wild Link. It took a long time, but I actually had fun figuring out his hair.

For most of my costumes, it’s really just the bangs that need that extra pop, to which I use Got2B gel and spray. Does the trick every time and keeps everything in place. For those who are wondering, though: No, I did not style Pearl’s wig. I am not ready for that kind of gravity-defying styling. That was all E-Bay.

What skill has been most useful for making your cosplay?

Well, sewing mostly, but other skills that have come in handy for me personally have been painting, crafting, makeup, styling, and overall decorating. Probably other stuff too, just nothing more I can think of off the top of my head.

What is the hardest thing when making a cosplay?

Probably figuring out how things connect. This is the main reason I’m timid when it comes to armor. I’ve been getting better, but I’m still having trouble figuring out how everything attaches and how to put on these kinds of costumes, which is why my Skyrim Elven Armor has been put on hold.

What was the biggest screw up you’ve had making a cosplay?

I’m not sure if I had any major crisis’ when it comes to making cosplays, but I’ve certainly had my fair share of irritating mishaps and mistakes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally sewn the sleeves on a costume inside out about 4 times before I finally got it right.

I’ve cut holes in my clothing, I’ve sewn sleeves on too tight, and I’ve even completed a hat that took hours just for it to wind up being too small when I put a wig on. I guess most of the major issues I’ve had with sewing are measurement issues, so my advice to you is to always measure and try on your costume as you go. Don’t wait until the day of the con to try out your new cosplay.

How often do you injure yourself while making a cosplay?

Not too often, I occasionally prick my finger with my sewing needles, but I haven’t had too many serious injuries. I think the worst was when I slashed my thumb with the exacto-knife when making my first shield for Link. Needless to say, there was a lot of blood.

Do you try to stay cheap or do you splurge on materials?

I am a frugal soul; if I can save, I will. That’s why I thrift so much. However, on a costume I’m really passionate about, I will spend more to ensure the quality. For example, I spent a little more going to a more shimmery material for Royal Guard Link. It cost about $50 for the blue and red material, which to me, is a lot (and that was with coupons). However, the results were 100% worth it. PS, Michaels and Joann’s ALWAYS have coupons. I totally recommend downloading both apps.

I also stand by that with wigs and contacts. I love Arda, their quality is great, but they are more expensive than Amazon. Contacts I don’t mind spending more for as well since the quality is VERY important in this case; they are going on your eyes, after all.

However, as I said, I am absolutely not opposed to going cheap. If you can make it work, make it work. My Nyo!Austria (Hetalia) cosplay came out very cute and it was literally made from bedsheets. From using mostly thrifted and recycled materials, a lot of my cosplays came to around an overall price of around $30. Some of these costumes include Mega Gardevoir (Pokemon), Tomoyo Sakagami (Clannad), Spyro (Spyro the Dragon), and Luan Loud (Loud House.)

Cosplay can be totally affordable, you just have to be creative and think a little outside the box sometimes to make it work.

Have you ever cosplayed with a partner or group?

Yes, a few times. I’d love to do more group cosplays, but we all have to think of something we all like. Luckily, two of my very good friends decided they would dress up as Steven Universe and Amethyst to go with my Pearl this year for Comic-Con and it was such a great experience! I’m trying to convince them to do others as well, such as The Loud House and The Magic School Bus with me as well, haha.

Do you try to act in character?

Always: but I don’t always succeed. It really depends on the character. Pearl I could roleplay for days. It’s probably because I connect so much with her and performing as her doesn’t hurt either. Dee Dee Magno Hall says her favorite lines to say are peoples names, and after giving it a shot myself, I totally see why. I even practiced Garnets “Stronger than you” monologue in Pearl’s voice and tone (in case no one volunteered to sing during our karaoke event) and it always makes my friends laugh.

The characters that stump me a little more are the more serious characters I choose to portray; Link, Laurent, Thranduil (the Hobbit), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), just to name a few. I’m kind of a goofball/airhead so those characters clash with my personality a little bit, but I am getting better. Blue Diamond is surprisingly the easiest of these types to stay in character for.

That being said, I love being the outgoing, oddball characters. Like I said, Pearl is second nature to me, as well as Anna from Frozen. Back in my Hetalia days, Austria and America were my go-to guys. I could act as them forever, and my friends and I literally lived as them for a while with how much we role-played. Most of the Disney Princesses it’s pretty easy for me to stay in character, especially (like I said before) Anna, Sofia the First, and Merida.

How do you react to cosplayers dressed as a character from the same anime/game/etc?

If there are some good character opportunities, I will role-play on the spot, but more often than not I will ask if we could all get a picture together. There were so many fun interactions with other Steven Universe cosplayers when my friends and I did our little group, but one of my favorite interactions was probably when I was dressed as Laurent and I stumbled across a Miriel cosplayer and I just shouted out “MOM! I FINALLY FOUND YOU!”

Do you try to duplicate your character’s expressions, walk, movements, etc?

I can talk the talk (mostly), but I have more trouble walking the walk. I’ve been trying to replicate movements better, but facial expressions I have trouble with (ironic as it’s my favorite part of drawing.) I’m not as photogenic as I’d like to be, as you could probably tell by most of my pictures being the same face, but I definitely am striving to improve on that.

What was your funniest experience of acting in character?

Okay, there’s a lot that I could share, and eventually, I want to do an article solely on cosplay “in-character” experiences, but the one I HAVE to share right now is a recent experience when I was dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

I was performing at the family day event my church helps out at my pastor’s air force base as Ariel, and after my sing-a-long, my makeup was a little smudged. I asked a volunteer where the restroom was so I could touch up before I headed back out to the crowds. I thought he’d take me to a private restroom, but he brought me to the public one where there were families waiting outside. They noticed and the dad joked “See? Even princesses have to go.” to which I laughed and gave my best Ariel shrug to play along. I went inside, fixed my makeup, and went back outside.

It wasn’t long, so the family was still outside the men’s room. As I walked by, the man’s son shouted out “Ariel, congratulations on going pee-pee!” to which I bursted out laughing. Everyone was. I mean, if you gotta congratulate a princess on using the bathroom, you picked the right one! After that, I did explain that I was just putting on makeup but I appreciated his enthusiasm and thanked him for it.

Do you compete in cosplay contests?

All the time. I love them. Whether I win or lose, I always get something out of it. I learn tips from other cosplayers, get to meet so many interesting people, and those times I do win I get prizes which is always nice as well. Most importantly, though, the memories that are made there are the very best part.

Have you won anything?

I have won quite a few. I have three trophies, a medal, a few certificates, and have won a cash prize as well. My first win was my second convention as Kabuto where I won the best novice trophy. My most recent win was for Ravio in August of 2019 with best in show. It’s amazing, I never thought I would get this far, but I’m so grateful for everything I’ve been a part of.

Again, it’s totally not about winning, but I’ll admit that it does feel really nice to have my hard work appreciated. Just as drawing, I still feel like I have a lot of room for improvement in my cosplay, so winning a few contests here and there definitely helps my low self-esteem.

Do you prefer skits or walk-ons?

I’ve only ever done walk-ons. I’ve never had anyone to do a skit with and I don’t think I could pull one off on my own. I’d love to do one eventually, but for now, our panels are good enough.

How many friends have you made because of cosplay?

Quite a lot. My Instagram is full of cosplayers I’ve met at conventions and I love seeing their cosplays and drawings, it’s all so inspiring!

Do you attend photoshoots and meet-ups outside of conventions?

Occasionally. I’ve never done a professional photoshoot (though one day I’d like to,) but I have attended a few meetups. I’ve done one for Steven Universe, Once Upon a Time, Disney, and I actually accidentally walked into a Fire Emblem: Awakening one dressed as Laurent, so that worked out.

What is the funniest reaction you’ve gotten cosplaying from people outside of the community?

The best one was when I was dressed as Link and my friend and I were on the subway. There was a mom and her kid sitting across from us and she pointed to me and said to her child, “Look, an elf! You see? Santa’s got his helpers out all year round, so you have to be good!”

I also had another wonderful experience outside of a con dressed as Link, though it’s not as funny but more just a sweet memory. It’s quite a bit, but luckily I’ve already written about it for Zelda Universe so I’ll just link it here for anyone who’s interested. 

Name a few cosplays you’re planning to do next:

I’ve got to get Soren (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) done soon. I’ve been wanting to do this cosplay forever and I did start it, but I need to finally finish it. Dimitri (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) is also on my list to do next. Not sure about who else I want to do for sure, but some ideas that have floated around in my head have been Tilly Green (Big City Greens), Anna with her Frozen 2 look, Princess Peach (Super Mario), and a Thalmor Mage (Skyrim.)

What is your dream cosplay?

Princess Zelda from Twilight Princess. I’m still too scared to try to cosplay her. I bought a cheap starter costume that I was going to build off of and it wasn’t turning out the way I wanted, so I put it off again. One day I’ll feel confident enough to make her costume, but until then I’m totally satisfied with my Link cosplays.

What do you take into consideration when picking a character to cosplay?

Honestly, I just have to love them as a character and the costume itself has to seem do-able. I mean, I’m totally not opposed to buying cosplays if I really want to be a particular character, but like I said, making it means all the more to me. It’s my display of affection towards that character, the creators behind them, and the series as a whole.

Is cosplay serious business for you?

Yes and no. No because I don’t do it for money, likes, or internet fame. I do it because it’s fun and what I like to do. Yes because I go all out when I cosplay. I do everything I can to get the look the way I want it and I put my blood, sweat, and tears into it when I make them by hand. 

What is your favorite thing about cosplay?

Everything: Dressing up as a character I love, roleplaying them, taking photos, just everything! I would do it more often if I could!

How do you want to grow as a cosplayer?

I want to learn how to make more. I want to build armor, I want to learn new makeup and hairstyling techniques, and so much more. I’m happy where I am, but I know I can be better. I will watch others and learn from them and push myself to try new things!

Are you willing to answer questions and help other cosplayers?

Absolutely! I may not be a top dog of cosplaying, but if I can help someone with something I’ve learned along the way, I’m more than happy to help!

Writing

When did you start writing?

I started in middle school as well, I used to write a Nintendo fan fiction called “The Kirby Show,” where Kirby and his friends would get into wacky sitcom scenarios. They were really just knock-offs of the television shows I used to watch back in the day, but hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere.

As for my original writing, I started that more in high school. I still wrote a lot of fan fiction at that point, but I was starting to develop my own characters as well. I thought it about time to think of my own creations, and I did. I remember I was in my Godmother’s car when I thought of the main three characters and since then the cast has expanded so much, their stories are much better developed, and the lore is much more solid.

When you were a beginning writer, what did you write primarily? What do you write now, primarily?  (i.e. romance, fan-fiction, poetry)

As mentioned before, I started out writing stories about characters that were not my own. Now I do all original writing — well, aside from my work at Zelda Universe. There I get to write about all the unique aspects of one of my favorite game series of all time, so there’s that as well. Writing there has helped me start writing little fandom topical posts for my own blog, such as top 10’s, reviews, and other things along those lines. 

How often do you write?

I make it a habit to try and write at least a half-hour a day. If I’m really on a roll, I could write up to a few hours a day before I get burnt out. Even though I’m not always writing, I’m always developing the stories in my head. 

When is your favorite time of the day to write?

I always write a half hour before I go to bed. The later it is, the more ideas keep rolling in. With my early hours for work now it’s harder to stay up late, but that doesn’t stop the ideas. I just gotta push myself a little harder to start earlier to have more time before I need to go to bed. 

Do you have a writing muse? If so, who/what?

Not in particular. I always just write about what I like and incorporate different aspects of my life into it. I guess I’m my own muse in that sense? I don’t know. I just write what I do know. 

What is your most popular lit piece?

Out of all my public pieces, I’d say either my “Animal Crossing Diaries” series or my “Endless Ocean” screenplay. “Vagabond” gets some decent attention as well, which is nice, but honestly, I’d be happy if there was just one person enjoying my work, so I really can’t complain. 

What is the piece you are currently writing?

Out of my public blog works, “Vagabond,” from my Zelda Universe collection I’m working on a character piece on Colin from Twilight Princess. 

What is the piece you most recently finished?

On my blog that would be my “Top 10 Favorite Fire Emblem Characters” list. For Zelda Universe, it’s actually a piece about Fire Emblem as well — It was DS week, I could write about whatever DS game I wanted to, of course I have to sneak in some Fire Emblem.

What piece are you most proud of?

While “Vagabond” definitely needs some more work, out of all the pieces I’ve posted publicly, that one is the one I am the proudest of. If anything just for Kurt and Maerwynn. They are two of my favorite characters to play around with and I’m so happy that somehow I was allowed to think these two up.

In my more private works, my fantasy story is my pride and joy. I feel so blessed to have been able to come up with these characters, and I do hope that someday I will be able to share them, whether on a television screen as I’ve always dreamed of in a novel of some sort. One day, maybe. 

What piece are you most disappointed in?

It’s not so much disappointment, but rather I’ve grown so much in my work, it’s very hard for me to look back at my first romance story. It’s a little cheesy and the dialogue is a bit clunky, some of the actions that my characters had performed totally go against what their characters have become now after spending a lot more time with them. It’s something I would love to revisit and maybe even go public with, but it’s going to take a lot of work. 

From all of your stories, who is/are your favorite character(s) and why? (try to limit it to 3)

Since I only published “Vagabond” online, I’ll stick to characters from this story in particular.

Maerwynn is definitely a favorite because she’s got a lot of qualities that I wish I was bold enough to enact myself. She speaks her mind without a care of what anyone else will think, even if it’s blatantly rude. She goes for her goals, even if they may seem ridiculous, and she pursues them with great passion and ferocity. Even with this rough and tough exterior, she’s still got a softer side that she’s just discovering in her new life at the palace. Now, I wouldn’t ever recommend being like Maerwynn ALL the time, but there’s definitely is a time and place where we could all be a little bit more like her, I think. Her confidence is the thing I admire most about her.

Kurt I connect with as well. Again, he says all the things that we all wish we could get away with at one point or another, but he knows he can because he’s royalty. However, he’s got so much going on underneath the surface as well with the complications of his past. He’s learning to open up, connect with others, and understand his feelings. Despite feeling restricted by the laws of his kingdom and the traditions of the royal family, he finds his own way to feel free and be himself. 

What is the best compliment you ever got on your writing?

My best friend who I’ve been sharing these stories with for as long as we’ve known each other told me the nicest thing not to long ago. I always laugh at myself for going so crazy in-depth with the lore and characters of my fantasy world, but she told me how she’s admired that and the love and care I put into each little thing was what made it so great. It really meant the world to me to hear that and I can’t thank her enough for all the love and support throughout the years! 

What is your main goal in writing?

I don’t know if there’s one main goal in particular, but I suppose if I had to pick just one, it would be to show good through the works of my characters and hope and pray that it inspires others to be like them. Kindness is growing scarce in the world, and if I can just inspire a little bit of it in someone, I suppose that’s all I can ask for. 

Have you ever been published?

No, but I am aiming for it. Once I complete Vagabond, give it another revise myself, and hopefully find an editor to give it another look over, I’d love to find someone to publish my book or even self publish on a platform like Amazon. Just something to get my work out there.

Questions asked by you

Who is an artist that you look up to? There are a few artists online that I follow who I just adore their work. Three that come to mind in particular are Bianca Roman-Stumpff, Bellhenge, and TheStarfishFace. Their art is so different from mine, but I think that’s probably why I love it so much (if that makes sense?)  They each have such a unique style and great subject material, I highly recommend giving them a look!

What did you think of “Frozen 2”?

I loved it. No secret that I’m a huge Frozen fan, so I was bound to like it. I was actually really nervous about how it was going to end, but I can say (without spoilers) that I am 100% satisfied with how it concluded. Also, Kristoff finally gets the spotlight that he deserves, thank you, Disney.

However, as much as I did love it, I do totally admit I do see flaws in it that could have been improved on. That being said, there was that in the first movie too and I stilled loved it. The characters have enough charm to keep the film entertaining throughout and I just adore them!

What does your family think of your art?

My parents have always encouraged me about my art and I know my grandmother loves it; I gave her a sweater with the art she liked of mine last Christmas and my mom says she wears it all the time. The rest of my family knows and supports my art as well, I  never really had any issue with my small art business and the family.

Any memorable cosplay experiences at a con?

So many. I’ve shared a few before, but I think I’d like to make a whole article on the great cosplay experiences I’ve had! There are so many to talk about and stories to share.

Is there a type of art that you would like to get into? I’ve seen a lot of people doing wood carving and burning, but that looks insanely difficult.

I’ve actually been considering wood burning, haha! It does look difficult, that’s why I’ve been hesitant, but maybe in the future I’d give it a shot. I think they’d make my Skyrim wood pieces look legit.

I’m really up for trying anything. If money wasn’t a thing, I’d have tried a lot more by now. In the future, I’d love to try needlepoint as well! 

Recently, I had been asked about some of the work that I do, and I thought a fun way to just that was to fill out a few questionnaires. Here I talk about some of the high and low points of doing what I do, what inspires me, and my process of creativity. Welcome all! If you're reading this, I'm assuming you're familiar with my work as either an artist, cosplayer, writer or any of the other creative things I do.

[pinkandgreenarepurpleandyellow]

OH THOSE HALLOWEEN PROMPTS ARE GOOD!! I LOVE HALLOWEEN TOO. Okay sorry, how about “Look, I dressed up as you.” with shin shin kai nonsense? Honestly all of them would be great shin shin kai nonsense prompts.

Yeeeess!!!! If you couldn’t tell already, I’m one of those people who LOVES best friend squads, so Shinshinkai nonsense is the best thing to write.

Pre-writing note: this is a universe where Halloween is celebrated in Japan, just go along with it

Warnings for: slight references to past fights/violence, swearing, vulgarity/rudeness, and teens acting like teens/20-somehting year olds acting like 20-something year olds

———–

10 years ago

———-

“Hey Katou, do you wanna go trick-or-treating?” Katsumi had just managed to make Katou freeze with this question.

“Wha?”

“Dad’s busy, and he said that I can only go if someone takes me, and I know you like candy, and there’s a street with a ton of returned-from-America-and-loved-Halloween people who have some of the biggest KitKats you’ve ever seen.” Katsumi can see the gears turning in Katou’s head, the fifteen year-old’s love of candy and junk food outweighing whatever it is that makes him hesitate on the opportunity of a night of free candy of mischief….

“Can you get Suedo in on this?” ….And that’s what Katsumi’s been waiting for.

“Yeah, no problem!” he practically shouts as he runs off to find Suedo.

Katou huffs a small laugh out. Here he was, hoping to work a double shift that day and there was good old Katsumi messing up all his plans. He moves the shifts around in his head, figuring out how to work this. If he works double on the weekend, he’ll make up what he’s gonna miss on Friday, as long as he calls in missing on time. Might as well do it today rather than be a dick and just not show up in three days. This probably also means he needs a costume.

-3 days later- 

It’s 6 pm, right on the dot, and Katou’s waiting for Suedo and Katsumi to meet him at the corner like they said they would. He even dressed up for today, impersonating a mad scientist with a lab coat, goggles, neon yellow gloves, and beaker full of food-coloring and Sprite. Katou gets his phone out to check the time again, and then scrolls through the news.

“Oi, dumbass!” snaps him out of his thoughts, and Suedo jogs up to him, a slightly out-of-breath Katsumi jogging up behind him, and-

“What the hell are you wearing?”  Suedo glances down and then strikes a pose.

“What, you don’t like my costume? Look, I dressed up as you. Sweet costume by the way.”

“Thanks, and you’re wearing a skeleton costume??”

“Yes.”

“Is this your way of saying i’m a dead man, or that you think I need to eat more?”

“Katou, we have been friends since we were old enough to remember, we live next door to one another, trust me when i say that I know how often you do and do not eat, and you already know my personal opinions on that, but moving on, check out Katusmi’s costume!”

“….Frankenstein?”

Katsumi finally jumps into the conversation, nodding enthusiastically as he spins around to show off his costume.

“Thoughts?”

“’Ts nice, man. Now let’s go, I gotta go back before it’s too late, we’re celebrating Día de Muertos from tonight to the 2nd.”

“Okay, okay, come on!” And off the three go, passing by bright Halloween decorations that light up the streets in almost-dark.

They all manage to score full bags of candy that night, and it’s totally worth every minute. They all agree that this is the best part of the ‘treat’ in ‘trick-or-treat’.

———–

Present day

———–

“Hey guys, wanna do something stupid for Halloween?” Katsumi asks as Suedo and Katou walk in. They look at each other, nod, and then face him.

“Yeah, whatcha got?” Suedo is the first to ask, he’s always been a little more willing to do this type of stupid shit than Katou.

“So, you know how we joke about dressing up like each other?”

“…Yeah?”

“So, hear me out, what we do is..” Katsumi whispers the plan to the 25 year-olds in front of him, and both of them grin wide at hearing it.

“That’s fuckign hilarious!”

“Hell yeah, I’m in!”

“Suedo, you’re gonna help me and Katou with convincing them, aight?”

“Aight!” “Aight!”

-The next day-

Doppo enters the dojo with Retsu, and notices two things.

The first is the amount of Halloween costumes and decorations.

The second is that each and every single student is looking at the two of them and snickering, whether muffled or not.

What’s going on? is a questing that both he and Retsu ask themselves silently before they walk inside……………and see the class being taught by a tall, bald, muscular man with an eyepatch.

“Alright, now you try it,” and his voice sounds like a fairly good imitation of Doppo Orochi’s.

“Who are you?” Retsu asks the man as the he walks up to him.

“He’s Doppo Orochi, God of War, founder of the Shinshinkai, Retsu, can’t you tell?” The unexpected reply comes from Suedo, who, by the look on his face, is in on the joke, and also trying hard to not laugh, along with everyone else. The ‘look-alike’ continues teaching as though Doppo and Retsu are not there.

“Alright, so half of you practice this move, and half of you go with Retsu in the other room to learn the block.”

And sure enough, peeking into the other room shows someone pretty tall and with a long braid teaching the students how to fight bare-handed against someone with a staff or sword. Retsu sneaks up behind the guy, or tries to. The imposter does a flip over him with the aid of the staff, lands on his feet in front of Retsu, and it’s now obviously Katou, wearing an outfit similar to Retsu’s everyday clothes, with his hair in a braid, his scar covered up by makeup, and his eyebrows drawn bigger to ridiculous proportions.

“Before you say anything, I want it on record I was dragged into this by the other two,” and wow, his voice is actually an almost perfect imitation of Retsu’s.

Retsu face palms and asks, “Who are the other two?” knowing the answer before it comes out of katou’s mouth.

“Katsumi and Suedo.”

Retsu runs back into the first room, grabs the fake “God of War” and drags him in front of the real deal

And then Doppo sees the grin in his eyes, the almost rectangular eyebrows, and recognizes his son in the costume.

“Katsumi?”

“Yes?”

Doppo turns on his heel and motions for Retsu to follow. They walk into the office, followed by the snickers and outright laughter of some of the other students.

But Katou, Katusmi, and Suedo all look at each other with the slightest nervousness. Did they go too far this time?

Their question is answered almost an hour later, when the doors of the office open again, and everyone pauses the drill and breaks into laughter as they see Doppo walk in with a ridiculous wig and a sticker in the shape of an eye stuck onto where his eyepatch would normally be. The laughter swells again when everyone sees Retsu sporting a hoodie, sweatpants, hair out of it’s braid for the first time in known history, and a fake scar made of who-knows-what criss-crossing his face. The two walk up to where Katsumi is standing, and both bow.

“Ossu!” “Ossu!”

—

End

—

Post-Script: For the rest of the day the four trade roles. Shockingly enough Katou and Katsumi are excellent teachers, and both Doppo and Retsu appreciate the few hours off. On the other side, the trio all exchange high-fives. This is the kind of stuff that Halloween is supposed to be about to them, this was the good version of the ‘trick’ in ‘trick-or-treat’.