#saw his gameplay and kit

[erabu-san]

Sethos <<<3

[euclydya]

what's so funny is it wasn't even Kim forming that got us into DE even though kit formed before we properly got into the game. no. no it was fuckin inland forming of course ajakakdkaksxkskdkdm

[your-local-simp-writers]

The Heartbeat of Nekoma

Word Count: 809

Warnings: None

Headcanons: Nekoma x Fem! Manager ︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

The gymnasium of Nekoma High was alive with the sound of volleyballs thumping against the floor, the sharp whistle of the coach, and the occasional cheer or groan from the team. In the midst of this controlled chaos was Y/N, the team’s manager and the only girl among these lions. She moved with a purpose, her clipboard clutched in one hand and a first aid kit swinging from the other.

Kenma Kozume, usually lost in his own world, often found himself watching Y/N. Her ability to anticipate the team’s needs before they even voiced them was something he admired silently. He didn’t say much, but when he did, she always listened, her nods and thoughtful hums encouraging him to share more than he usually would. She knew exactly when to offer a silent nod of encouragement or a gentle nudge to join the team’s activities. Her notes on his gameplay were always precise, helping him refine his strategies without a word wasted.

Tetsurou Kuroo, with his wild hair and wilder schemes, relied on Y/N to keep him grounded. She had a knack for cutting through his antics with a sharp word or a pointed look, bringing him back to the task at hand. Yet, she was always there to share a laugh or a moment of triumph, her presence a steady beat in the rhythm of the team.

Lev Haiba, his enthusiasm often got the better of him, leading to more than his fair share of scrapes and bruises. Y/N was always there, her first aid kit at the ready, her gentle chiding mingling with Lev’s sheepish apologies. “You’re like a guardian angel,” he’d say, and she’d roll her eyes but smile all the same while she patched up another scrape. Her gentle scolding about being careful was something he secretly looked forward to.

Morisuke Yaku, the team’s rock, appreciated Y/N’s quiet strength. Her meticulous records helped him track his progress, and her motivational words before matches always seemed to strike the right chord, pushing him to dive deeper and reach further.

Taketora Yamamoto, would often find himself pouring out his heart to Y/N, her easy manner inviting confidences. She listened with an open heart, her advice always practical yet kind. She reminded him that fire needed air to burn bright, a lesson he took to heart both on and off the court.

Nobuyuki Kai, the vice-captain, saw Y/N as the glue that held the team together. Her organizational skills ensured that every practice ran smoothly, and her ability to juggle responsibilities was nothing short of miraculous.

Shouhei Fukunaga, ever the quiet observer, found a kindred spirit in Y/N. Their conversations were often just shared glances and knowing smiles, but the understanding between them ran deep. He enjoyed the quiet moments he shared with her, often helping her collect the volleyballs after practice. Her soft-spoken advice resonated with him, teaching him that strength didn’t always have to be loud.

Sō Inuoka, loved Y/N’s encouraging pep talks. Her pep talks were the fuel to his fire, her words igniting a passion for the game that he channeled into every leap and dive. 

Coach Yasufumi Nekomata, saw Y/N as a rare gem, her dedication to the team’s well-being reminding him of the true spirit of the sport. Their discussions on strategy and player development were highlights of his day, her insights often illuminating paths he hadn’t considered. 

Despite her involvement in other clubs and her tendency to stretch herself thin, Y/N never let it show. The team knew, though. They saw the exhaustion hidden behind her smile and the way her eyes would sometimes flutter shut during long strategy meetings.

It was during one such after school practice that Y/N’s head began to nod, her pen slipping from her fingers. Kenma was the first to notice, gently propping her up with a cushion. Kuroo signaling for a break, Lev draping a jacket over her like a blanket. Yaku adjusted the air conditioning to ensure she was comfortable, and Yamamoto stood guard, ensuring no one disturbed her rest. As Y/N slept, the team exchanged looks of silent agreement. They would finish practice early today. It was their turn to take care of the person who always took care of them.

When Y/N awoke, she found herself surrounded by her team, their practice finished, each face wearing a soft smile. “We’ve got it from here,” Kuroo said, handing her a bottle of water. “You’ve done enough for today.” Her heart swelled with affection for these boys, her team.  Kai  “You take care of us; now let us take care of you.” They were more than just players she managed; they were her family. And as they walked out of the gym together, she knew that together, they were unstoppable.

[theangrycomet-art]

Hi! I saw your posts about Monty and Chica getting their own kids. Would you do one for the Daycare Attendant/Sun and Moon?

Glamrock Kids: Neil and Tay

I have some rough designs for both actually, though I'm still figuring out the details of each kid as well as ironing out both of their timelines.

Becky Neil-> Bonnie Tay -> Sun/Moon

TLDR: We'd get an explantion for Bonnie's whereabouts, some vengeance on his behalf, and/or some character exploration on the DCA (and potentially Eclipse).

Neil has two settings, the Prequel Route (probably better suited to a DLC/flashback/minigame) and his Present-Day Route.

The Prequel Route would take place a few years before the events of the game when when Neil (at that point known as Becky) is roughly 8 years old at an overnight party in the daycare. This route would finally explain exactly what happened to Bonnie and how Neil barely escaped Vanny's clutches.

The Present-Day Route would be where Neil (13) is investigating the Pizzaplex to try and find where Bonnie went and repair him while defeating the other hacked animatronics. Depending on his choices, he can take either spare parts from the shattered animatronics or find the hidden spare parts scattered across the Pizzaplex. Different endings would result in who he decides to reboot or shatter.

Tay (13 as well) is stuck in the Pizzaplex due to leaving their only blood sugar reader kit behind. They end up searching in the Daycare where Sun bursts in on them with his usually... exuberant hello.

Together (read Sun) finds the kit in the ballpit (having probably been thrown in there via the slide by some bully). The DCA then initially tries to rush the kid out so they can exit the building in time, but after scanning the kid, notes the insanely LOW blood sugar levels as well as several cuts (from their earlier frantic searching).

The delayed exit at the insistence of firstaid treatment and Sun's strange indecisiveness of actually leaving the daycare himself forces Tay to miss the deadline, trapping them for the rest of the night.

Gameplay wise, I feel like it would be fun for Tay's route to sort of be a bonus route you get after completing the others that allows you to explore the pizzaplex in its entiretly without having to deal with as much security so that the player can unlock ALL of the secrets as well as any additional bonus content.

But on the other hand, Tay's route could be an extra hard mode with having NO safeway to walk around the Pizzplex, having to be aware of food intake, having limited or 0 access to cameras, AND having to escape his only ally attempting to kill him every hour.

Plus the thought of Sun constantly panicking about the kid/s safety and Moon trying so hard to fight the glitch to keep this kid (who is one of the few humans to treat both of them the same way) safe at all costs is far more entertaining.

There is also the potential angst of Tay "fixing" the DCA by rebooting him into Eclipse as seen in the Ruin DLC and Eclipse not remembering them.

[ni-kol-koru]

Hayama news dropped, you know what that means? I am back to posting (with an essay) 🧡⚡️

I remember the day when KuroBasu official Twitter account posted an announcment of a new mobile game and openned another Twitter account that they called Street Rivals. I was sooo excited to see what the game would be about and I thought I finally had a chance to play a KnB game! The trailers looked so good and the game looked so promising and I just couldn't wait for it to drop! I was so excited to make different team combinations and try out my favorite characters and, well, just have some fun! ⭐️

Then the game dropped. JAPANESE SERVERS ONLY. I was so disappointed because playing Street Rivals was something I was really looking forward to. I quickly saw that a lot of people were unhappy with the Japan only servers and that they were sending requests for the game to drop globally. I figured and hoped that maybe the developers would listen to the fans and that they would give all of us who live outside of Japan a chance to play the game. I still have hope thay I will be able to play it one day, but I was praying that the day would come before Hayama comes out in the game (because I, very obviously, want him). HE IS DROPPING SOON AND THE GAME IS STILL NOT AVAILABLE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN. Even if it dropped outside of Japan today, I would have no time to get ready to obtain Hayama, because he will be a high rank character and I would need a lot of materials to get him...

Even though it made me kinda sad, it also made my day better because hey, at the end of the day, Hayama will get some appreciation! He will get a cool splash art, he will get rendered again and he already got a really cool trailer! I really hope that people who get him will enjoy having him on the team, that he will be fun to play and that they wony regret obtaining him! ⭐️🧡

Anyways, here is his trailer, in case you didn't see it (apologies for the bad quality):

I can't wait for his gameplay tutorials to drop, I am really curious to see just what they have in store for him! How fast will he be? Will he have all 3 levels of Lightning Dribble as a part of his kit? Will he come with the Double Clutch? There are so many things that he could do! I also can't wait to see his splash art! I just really want to see him in the Street Rivals style, it's so new and polished, it is pretty detailed and cool, too! 🧡💫

[deduction-substitute]

I have this weirdly specific au where everyone escapes the manor, except those with "unfinished business," whatever it may be

...i just made the people with unfinished business. My favs 💔 sorry

Freddy remains in the manor, no longer titled the "Lawyer," but rather THE "Veteran" due to being the only one of Game 4 who remained. I dont know how it works gameplay-wise, but he's able to use the rest of Game 4's items, becoming a weird mix of assist and contain

Orpheus remains, but his memories are REALLY wonky. He gets his old kit back ❤️ I picture him in his "Orfeo" outfit

Joker does as well, but he doesn't have an identity switch anymore. Ganji becomes a hunter bc I saw art and it changed my brain chemistry forever 🫶

And of course Lucky remains, with an identity switch! Because this au is highly self-indulgent, her hunter identity just looks like her "Paranormal Researcher" outfit, except i give her a long skirt ❤️ Fog surrounds him, and his shadow moves

He's able to obscure a survivor's vision through creating a fog, and he can attack survs with their own shadows

Freddy is NOT happy to be here 😭😭 But because of Lucky getting a hunter identity, she's a bit. Out of it. Freddy has to take over Lucky's job as the "guide" basically to new survivors. Lucky guides the new hunters instead

Orpheus cant remember how he got in the manor, but he knows that the others getting stuck here is partly his fault. He's a bit awkward now/lh

Lucky has more matches as a hunter than survivor now. It gets to her, and she rarely visits the survivors manor now unless one of the og survs are there, which is usually Freddy or Orpheus

The new survs and hunters that arrive start from Evelyn and the Goatman. The more that arrive, the more that the escaped survs and hunters from outside start to realize that they havent seen the others escape with them

HIGHLY SELF INDULGENT DONT HIT ME WITH ROCKS 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[lost-technology]

Dear My Brain, I do NOT need to do another massive Trigun AU right now. However, just to make you happy, I'll toss out my ideas here for "maybe someday." Okay, I'm on a Fallout-kick lately. Good show for my games, yes? A rare pretty decent live action adaptation of a set of video games. Definitely nods to fans / players there. Also been doing a little playing of Fallout 4. (Fallout 3 is the only game of the series I've played all the way through main quest sadly (maybe I'll download the classics from Steam...) Anyway, I've played with this notion for Trigun before - but only in the "if they were players." I made perks / gameplay styles for the main characters. So, what are you doing, brain? Why are you starting to come up with ideas for an actual story for me to write as a crossover?!!! Especially when I do not know if there are enough people who like both properties AND read fanfiction to be interested in a crossover AU / fusion fic - then again, I tend to write things primarily for my own delight, anyway. I was telling myself "no, these two things are already too similar, there's really no need," but then came the idea that "no, there are some things unique enough to the Fallout setting that you could really have fun with the Trigun characters wandering a post nuclear North America rather than Planet Gunsmoke / No Man's Land." I could even interchangeably refer to the Wasteland as No Man's Land... Okay, Brain, so you're telling me that in this fusion universe, Vault-Tec had a subsidiary that worked closely with the budding U.S. space program, which if I am not mistaken, is canon (that satellite-dish quest in Fallout 3 and that experimental for space-colonisation front Vault concealing the real experiment in the Nuka-World expansion for 4). SEEDS was sort of its own separate thing, more benevolent than the Vaults and free from their wild secret experiments. Their mission was open: Developing a new, yet profitable, source of power for the cooperate overlords to profit from, being a failsafe for re-terraforming the Earth in the event of a nuclear war, and being a study for close-quarter scientist-living for potential space colonies. SEEDS Vault 05 (as distinct from Vault 5, SEEDS gets a different class) saw the successful bioengineering of life forms they called Plants. They were actually developed shortly before the war of 2077, but were not considered perfected. After the bombs dropped and the doors sealed, further study showed the Plants' potential as essentially living G.E.C.Ks (Garden of Eden Creation Kits). A living answer to the G.E.C.K, water-chips, cold-fusion... Even a potential way to divest from the atomic energy that America had been depending on since the end of WWII. (Fallout, for non-players, is an AU of reality diverging at WWII's end). And then Independents are born. Rem Saverem, a rogue scientist who rebels against Vault-Tec's lack of ethics managed to smuggle out the first Independent. Poor Tesla, being a little girl she had to send out, but the Hell of the Wastes were literally a better shot for her survival than for her to stay in the SEEDS-Vault. Sometime later, a pair of twin boys are born and Rem manages to convince the crew not to make them into test subjects. Until she can't. Cue big escape scene where she gets Vash and Nai out of the vault and dies in a hail of bullets right before them as guards cut her down and come after them... And so starts the journey of pair of living McGuffins who can either save the world or destroy it in search of their lost sister. Nai eventually becomes Millions Knives, a brutal Wasteland warlord bent on the destruction of humankind. Vash is on the run with bounties upon bounties upon him. He meets a ghoul named Wolfwood, dependant upon a certain kind of Chem to heal his wounds and to keep him from going feral and a couple of reporter-ladies from one of the larger settlement-cities intent upon uncovering Wasteland mysteries.

[asmallorb]

PIZZA TOWER the Towers & Toppins AU: Character Creation P1

 (Updated 24/03/23)

D&D5e meets Pizza Tower, that’s it. That’s the bit. 

Starting a fun, zero pressured side venture to satiate my current interests and have something to do as I chip away at animating/rendering for my latest freelance gig. I have thoughts and ideas, and I shall be updating the post with anything else I think of as I go along as well as ideas contributed by others, should anyone have any (That and correcting any inevitable typos). All this may even culminate in a playable character sheet.

It should be noted that I am not going to minmaxing builds that have the perfect combination of races, classes and feats. I’m going for what I think is the most fitting/entertaining/creative. 

Peppino Spaghetti:

Race: Variant Human

There is a temptation to make Peppino a half-orc to maximise his tankiness and get access to those sweet sweet racial traits, but Peppino’s appeal is that he is just a guy! A very anxiety riddled, angry, violent middle aged, funny guy. I think human fits him perfectly. Make him a variant human to let us choose an additional proficiency in artisan's tools, specifically cook's utensils, and a feat which I will address later. 

Class(es): Barbarian/ Monk 

Peppino’s build needs to reflect his gameplay - able to take hits, has the tool kit to perform incredible acrobatic feats and speed to overcome just about any terrain or obstacle and has the capacity to deliver an absolute beating on any poor creature standing in his way. You can’t get much better than a Barbarian/Monk multiclass for that.  On the Barbarian side you have an Extra Attack, Fast Movement and  Reckless Attack which as per the description: “you can throw aside all concern for defence to attack with fierce desperation.” On the monk side you’ve got Step of the Wind for dashing around, extra speed if you’re unarmoured (which plays nicely into the Barbarian abilities) and Martial Arts for unarmed strikes with is very much Peppi’s style. And of course, Patient Defense at the start and Evasion later on  which are the perfect taunt equivalents. 

Then there’s the two key abilities of each class that instantly came to mind when I thought of Peppino in the context of D&D. 1) Barbarian Rage. 2) The Monk’s Flurry of Blows.

Look at him go. 

Subclass(es): Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Guardian and Way of the Ascendant Dragon.

I know Path of the Berserker is right there and ticks every box, but hear me out. The class alone is enough to supply the rage that Peppino is well known for, and the Berserker is a very standard option from the PHB. This is a fantasy version of Peppino, not go for something a little more flavourful with our pizza pounding paisano?

Lets give him the barbarian path of the ancestral guardian. Peppino mother-fucking Spaghetti has pasta sauce flowing through his veins. I fully believe that his pizzas are made from a recipe handed down from generation to generation. Authentic, immaculate and impossible to imitate. Peppino’s power comes from the spiritual might of his hot-blooded Italian ancestors and you cannot convince me otherwise. Watch him summon ghostly nonnas wielding rolling pins to battle and tell me that’s not the most fitting and badass thing you ever saw. 

As to what his Monk subclass could be, it took a lot of comparing the published subclasses, and less figuring out what was the most relevant but filtering the completely irrelevant and looking at what was left.  You’ve got subclasses like Way of the Open Palm, Way of Astral Self and the Way of Mercy. And all of these have themes of peace, tranquillity and healing and um...

There’s no way that Peppino fits into those boxes. So what COULD fit? Well we have a theme of cooking going on. Cooking already has this theme of harnessing nature, commanding fire, water and ingredients harvested from the natural world. Could the Way of the Four Elements work? Problem is with that subclass is that it’s sort of not a fun experience unless you heavily house rule it or tweak it through homebrew. Look up the subclass online and most of the chatter around it is focused on fixing it. Additionally, there’s a lot of pausing from doing monk related stuff to fiddle around with spellcasting and that’s not really Peppi’s rush in and hit hard style.  So what did I finally land on? After a lot of thinking I went with Way of the Ascendant Dragon. Dragon’s are iconic monsters and are intrinsically linked with themes of fire, wrath and the natural elements. Plus, dragons in D&D aren’t just mindless monsters, they live for centuries and some even spend years honing magic and mortal crafts. Some we could potentially weave a story here of Peppi’s ancestors somehow being inspired by dragons or being directly granted knowledge of fire and cookery from a dragon in the distant past. OR it was Peppino himself that came into contact with something draconic, there’s a few great flavour options from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (the source of this monk path), and any one of them could be used. One of them being quote: “You found a scroll written in Draconic that contained inspiring new techniques.“, an old recipe book or scrap of paper for a damn good tomato sauce recipe maybe? 

The abilities of the path also grant monks fit quite nicely from a mechanical standpoint. Draconic Presence helps with intimidation checks, and once Peppi gets going with his dash or snaps the enemies and bosses find him frightening. Plus at 3rd level you get Breath of the Dragon, which can be flavoured to Peppino consuming a devil’s choice spicy pepper. That and the thought of Peppino belching fire in-between mashing foes into paste is very amusing.  !ADDENDUM! I have discovered there’s a 3rd party Barbarian subclass from the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting called the Path of the Juggernaut. So far I’ve been leaning towards official WotC material, but if you wanted to stat Peppino in such a way that’s more game accurate and focuses purely on his physicality, Juggernaut is a good choice.  Feats: Tavern Brawler. 

Turns absolutely anything you pick up into an improvised weapon, living or material, enemy or friend. He literally uses Gustavo as a thrown projectile at one point. This is the feat for him. 

[alchemicaldesignquery]

Playing the Hero vs Playing the Role

Something I've noticed in the stretch of conversations that pop up around 6v6 / 5v5 (Overwatch 1 vs. Overwatch 2) is the specific way folks (don't) talk about Tank.

Those players who enjoy(ed) it can get dismissed by large portions of the playerbase, because at some point it was decided that

No one wants to play the role

and you'd be forgiven for believing that? Because Queue times are almost always brought up. They were touted (developer's said as much) as the reason for why the game shifted to a 5v5 format for the sequel. Which...also kinda explains why the design and balance decisions feel a lot like throwing wet paper at a wall to see what sticks. Experimentation and all.

I'd argue though, that Tank, unlike the other Roles in the game, has not had very good decisions made at the design level. I would even go as far as to say, that, after the original cast, there has not been a well designed Tank released into either the original Overwatch 1 or Overwatch 2.

Which isn't to say the heroes released who happen to be Tanks are all bad? But there's a firm demarcation between-

A well designed Hero; engaging, fun, interactive and encouraging of any player willing to give them a try.

and

A well designed Tank: a Role/Job within the game with a certain responsibilities that caters to specific players with particular wants.

There's evidence of this demarcation found in other Roles. The Support Role, for instance, has seen a drastic uptick in "DPS"centric heroes throughout the last few years of Overwatch.

Illari, Kiriko, and, Baptiste all saw very swiftly delivered, widely useful, and borderline, automated mechanics introduced with their kits that performed their Support duties for them, while their Damage outputs and options became the core elements of engagement and interaction.

The devs have gone on to suggest this was done to entice more DPS players into the Role and Supports, for the last year, did enjoy a very promising and popular (read: broken) status.

The question of whether this is a good philosophy, let alone a fair one, is another discussion.

The argument I'd make is that these might be well designed Heroes? But the veracity of them being well designed Supports, is pretty loose and unstable.

Switching over to the Tank Role, the demarcation becomes even more stark; Tanks with heavy DPS influence (Mauga, Junkerqueen, Rammattra, Roadhog) tend to deliver a minimal Tank experience in favour of an oversimplified

Lots of Health + Sustain with unique Damage applications.

which, again, brings up the value of the design and how it heavily leans toward the Hero aspect while leaving the Role, largely unconsidered, if not outright minimized.

And this goes back further than the newer releases/re-works, into Overwatch 1. Of all the Tanks that have been released, after the original cast, how many can actually be considered well designed?

Sigma's kit remains a bloated 'omni-answer' with no weaknesses and little variability.

Orisa's kit went from a delay-bot with little agency, to a "Press 1-button every 5s" playstyle between the two games.

Doomfist's Tank expression oscillates between delivering every known type of CC available in such short intervals that few options exist for responding

to

Interrupting his interesting movement for a poorly disguised "window of opportunity" that sees him standstill and let the enemy waste time/resources on a ridiculous damage reduction %, that neither side can garner any satisfaction from.

Zarya's bubbles are now unlocked and, most often, executed purely on a selfish level, especially when combined with the singular Tank format that demands maximum survival when playing the front line. A minimal change of her design that has drastically increased the pendulum of her gameplay, swinging from extreme to extreme depending on the numbers.

Only Wrecking Ball, seems to provide a semblance of unique Tank Design that demands particular skillsets and learning, but even then, how much of that is the Uniqueness of the Hero and how much is that he is an effective Tank?

The argument that Tank is an unpopular role has been carried around from original to sequel for quite some time and is a very well-recognized refrain within the community.

Where it comes into deep question, is just how the design has gone from Winstons, Dvas, Reinhardts, and (old) Zaryas to a dumbed down philosophy on what makes a Tank and what sort of interest there is to be found with designs that are only really just...more health, more damage, and less thought?

And many of the older designs have become not just outdated, but difficult to execute against newer models who carry all their power in their stats and high-value, minimal execution mechanics.

Who wants to play a Role that hasn't had any creativity since the Devs thought about putting a Hamster in a Ball, into the game?

[immortals-delight]

Okay so thoughts on Ratio, I didn't (still don't lol) get the hype from his drip marketing, the only thing I felt was "oh another imaginary man for me to collect."

One big issue w hsr for me is how fast they pumped characters out, genshin characters appealed to me cuz I saw them in archon quests leading up to their banner, you get the time & resource to grow fond of a character. In hsr half of the characters are release alongside their trailblaze mission, it almost feels like they're trying to convince you to like them. (I get why this is the case, hsr is still new & they need to add characters w different kit for gameplay).

Ratio in the trailblaze mission is okay? I get the appeal & his mannerism is so serious it's silly for me. I liked him, but not enough to pull for lc or e1. But I did build him.

Gameplay wise he also took a bit of convincing for me to like him. He felt mid in the trials, but I chalked that up to mihoyo not knowing how to build him. I got around to testing him as soon as he's out, on 4pc wastelander & on 2pc grand duke + 2pc wastelander. I tested him in hall 12 1st half, with Yukong, Luocha & Silver Wolf.

His dmg on 4pc was underwhelmed for me, someone who has a well built max trace Welt, but that was because of how thin he spreads his dmg across skill, follow up & burst, they all add up to good dmg but when viewed separately it's understandably underwhelming.

His 2+2pc beat me to it, I focused on his follow up atk, and while his skill dmg is low, his follow up atks improved a lot a lot, he can hit 73k when his 4pc build is only 50k max. And I took him for a test run in su w elation path, he's cracked in that, he can hit 110k consistently, his highest can go up to 240k.

I'll probably just leave his build as it is unless his new set in 2.0 is dummy good. I like him but he's probably joining Imbibitor Lunae in the benched imaginary men club until I need a hunt character. 7/10

[mammonprotectionsquad]

You know what's getting real annoying real fast? The fact people keep on complaining and whining about character kits when they're not even out yet. Last time I saw it happen with Alhaitham. Everyone was crying about how bad he'd be because he got nerfed etc etc. And he's not bad? As with every character you just have to get used to his playstyle and find a real comp/build that works for YOU. Now I see a similar thing happening with Dehya and honestly? Can't people just wait until the trial run and then judge? And honestly, if she's not for you, don't pull for her. Easy! Or if you still like her but not enough to pull on the next banner for her? Skip it, save the wishes, you'll eventually get her since she's getting added to the standard characters. But fucking hell am I tired of constantly seeing all this kids whining and complaining when the only things they know are either from leaks or the character gameplay preview. Just stfu and wait will you... Also just because YOU don't like it doesn't automatically make something bad. Jeeesus...

[anantaru]

AAAA HI ME AGAIN I THOUGHT I WOULD SEND U THE ALHAITHAM GAMEPLAY LEAK I SAW IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT (FEEL FREE TO DELETE THIS IF U WANNA !!)

link to twitter

OMG I JUST SAW THAT !!! 🌸 did you see his splash art too ?? and omg what do you think of his kit? he does look pretty similar to keqing but that won‘t stop me from pulling 😤😤😤😤😤

[pinchraccoon]

Pinch Reviews: Pizza Tower

It's been a hot minute since I reviewed a game here, my apologies, other projects have had, and still have, my utmost attention at the moment.

From March 26th to Marth 31st, I played Pizza Tower, an indie platformer heavily focused on level exploration, speed, and tight controls, that's heavily influenced by games like Earthworm Jim, and more apparently, Wario Land.

From the very moment I first saw the game I knew that it would be fun, as was evident in its unique and infectious art style that absolutely reeks of late 90s-early 2000s "crude" cartoons, like Ren and Stimpy or Ed Edd n Eddy. This game's art style hits REALLY hard, and serves to not only provide this game with significant visual intrigue, but the way that characters squash and stretch in such an exaggerated manner contributes significantly to allowing the player to understand enemies movements, as well as those of the main playable character, Peppino Spaghetti.

Speaking of, this game consists of a cast of varied, and memorable characters, many of whom follow a specific theme or reference. For example, the two major main characters Peppino and Gustavo are obvious caricatures of Italian-American pizza chefs, Peppino taking on a fearful demeanor the majority of the game, while Gustavo is combative, cute, or pensive most of the time.

Pizza Tower's character design strength doesn't end there, however, as just about every enemy, boss, or otherwise is EXTREMELY lovable in their own way, assisted by PT's incredibly focused art style, and tongue in cheek delivery of just about everything it does. I would be remiss, however, to not mention my absolute favorite thing about this entire game, bar none. Behold: BRICK

Otherwise known as Stupid Rat, this big guy is my single favorite thing about Pizza Tower. Genuinely. Something about his little hands, his chubby body, and those stupid eyes facing in two different directions makes me absolutely adore these little guys. I smile every single time I see one in a level.

But I digress, Pizza Tower's gameplay is *also* fun beyond fun. Pizza Tower consists of about a dozen and a half levels and 5 boss fights. Each of the levels consist of a goal to collect as many "toppins," which are little pizza topping characters with eyes and legs that need to be freed from cages, to earn money to purchase the boss gate, allowing Peppino to travel further up the titular Pizza Tower. Every level in PT has a unique theme, complete with a unique powerup or gimmick that helps to differentiate the gameplay loop, as well as provide the player with new tools and challenges the entire runtime of the game. I really love this approach to level design, all too many platformers don't feel the need to provide the player with either new challenges or kit options, or, better yet, challenges to use new kit options on, that allow the player to really get creative or technical in the ways that they solve the problem, which, in Pizza Tower's case, is how to route through the level as quickly as possible.

Regarding kit options, Peppino, and Gustavo but slightly less so, have a genuinely intimidating amount of tech to work with built into them intentionally, that the player is encouraged to use to master levels, so as to run through them as quickly as possible. Pizza Tower has a ranking system, ranking from D to P with Pizza Face Medal. Players earn better and better ranks as they complete the levels with increasing points, gained from performing specific actions and defeating enemies while in combos. After reaching the "end" of a level, the player destroys a specific enemy that triggers "Pizza Time," a period where the player has to reach the beginning of the level, with slight variations opening up throughout, in order to escape the level with what they earned. There is only one way to truly "fail" a level in Pizza Tower, and that's to let the Pizza Time timer run out, and for Pizza Face, the invincible enemy spawned by the timer running out, to catch you, ending your run. However, players cannot achieve the highest ranks, P and P w/ Pizza Face Medal, by *just* doing the run back once, no, players have to do it twice, without dropping a combo, and collecting every collectible, in order to P rank a level. Three laps if players want the P rank with Pizza Face. In order to reach this end, players have to become intimately aware with the level in order to construct a route that will work, as well as exactly what inputs to perform when in order to defeat scattered enemies, avoid traps, and collect everything they need, all while travelling BLISTERINGLY fast. Attempting to P Rank any level in Pizza Tower is no joke, but has also been some of the most fun I've had in a platformer this year.

Bosses consist of fights in which Peppino has to use the boss's attack patterns against them in some way, similar to playing Kirby without a copy ability. There are less of these, but despite the lower quantity, each of them are interesting, fun, themed fights that each play extremely different from one another. One floor you'll fight a pepper who's an artist, who fights like a typical platformer boss, the next you'll fight a blob of cheese with a gun, while you also have a gun and can shoot back. It's very silly, and is an excellent capstone to the equally silly floors of this game.

Finally, I want to loop back around to thematics to discuss level themes to tie everything together. I adore most all of the levels in this game. I don't think this game has a level that is downright unenjoyable to be in, from a forest of gnomes, to a FNAF inspired level, to a city filled with Pigs, to a level where you just play golf using the elderly as balls, I rarely feel that Pizza Tower has no ideas. It is crude, stupid, and reveling in it for the entire runtime of the game. This attitude and stylistic consistency allows players to feel eased into continuing their persistence against the myriad challenges, and the effort made to keep the game fresh level to level provides significant replay value, as leaning into thematics allowed Pizza Tower to explore the player's kit even further, incentivizing players to master not just the Peppino, but each individual level.

I would easily recommend Pizza Tower. Might be the best game of the year, honestly. It's wild that it came out fully in January too. I've noticed that this year has been pretty excellent for releases, both indie and, in some cases, corporate. I certainly think that Pizza Tower's landmark quality early this year set the tone for this year, and it's commitment to originality and extreme fun will inspire developers and creatives to do their own thing and make the game they want to play more than anything else.

Also listen to the soundtrack, it bangs!

[ticklystuff]

Hewwwwwooooo! I was thinking of pulling Childe but then I saw Ayato is coming next and was wondering how you think Childe is compared to Ayato? I see a lot of people say Ayato is better and that Childe is hard to play because of his cooldown. I think I like Childe more but Ayato seems easier to use 😅 sorry if you don’t have Ayato to compare

oh hewwo! i see those comments about them that you've mentioned a lot lol but i do have ayato too! it really depends on what you're looking for or trying to do

you should pull for the one you like more (childe in this case) i've pulled characters that i don't particularly care for and never end up using them despite how good they are *cough*raiden*cough*

if you're looking for ease of gameplay, then ayato! he's very easy to play and this seems to be a big selling point for mobile players. he's also good enough to do whatever you need in the overworld or abyss if you're doing that

if you're looking for team versatility, then ayato! he fits in a lot of teams and is much easier to play then childe. it's not that childe can't do these same teams but he is harder to play only to reach similar/worse performance compared to ayato

childe's biggest selling point is that he gives you access to arguably the best team in the game for the abyss:

childe's best team > any ayato team > other childe teams

childe's best team is one of the few teams that does well in both single and multi-target scenarios, is very f2p friendly (c0 childe, sucrose, c4 xiangling, c1 benny), and is the closest that f2p players can get to speedrunning the abyss. it's very strong and can compete with other teams that have c6 five stars. the downsides are that it has a steeper learning curve and is expensive to build (high investment for childe and xiangling are required). this point is also moot if you don't do abyss lol

other than that, i personally find childe to be really fun to play. the complexity of his kit does make things more difficult, but there are also a lot of cool tricks that come with it that you can learn

anyway hope that helps and good luck on your rolls!

[hematomes]

Mavuika aside ,what do you think of the other characters, I'm fascinated by Citlali in a I can't really tell where this is going way, and I like Lan Yan's design (although it was really a surprise when I saw her cuz she really did come out of nowhere) , Pyro traveler seems better than Hydro traveler and that's honestly enough for me (better in that thier kit seems like it at least has some cohesion,I know the best thing Pyro traveler has to look forward to is being used on teams that need a little pyro + cinder city holder for people that didn't get or didn't want to get Mavuika.

i havent looked at pyro traveler's kit yet but better than hydro is... something i guess

overall im pretty disappointed in natlan's characters. mualani has the worst gameplay to me i can't stand it, kinich is mildly fun but burn is a boring mechanic and kind of lackluster without emily, kachina is cute but not that fun to play, xilonen is perfect i love her mwah mwah mwah scissors, chasca... i will not speak on her design but i also hate her gameplay tho i love how she whistles. also deeply disappointed bc she's supposed to have been raised by literal beasts but ypu don't see any of that in her kit, animations or overall character so.. and finally love love love ororon as a character, HATE his gameplay

as for the ones in beta, mavuika is gorgeous but a boring dps yet again and i have arlecchino e0s1 so.. idk, will probably pull anyway, unless xianyun spooks me in 5.3. citlali's animations are cute, but im not really sold? idk what they're doing with her. same for lanyan, very cute and im wondering if she'll enable mono anemo xiao with faruzan/xianyun...... hopefully she's on the banner i pull, but i won't explode if she isn't

anyway. v5 characters mostly feel like an afterthought, terribly disappointing mechanics so far. but at least they made exploration super fun

[frappes-random-reblogs]

Hi nobody is going to read this so I'm gonna rant about how TikTok DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO NOT SPOILER THINGS

I usually avoid TikTok when a new version of a game I like comes out, I play Hoyo games, mostly, so since a lot of people play the games, there's gonna be people who Speedrun the story. I spent 8 hours straight playing the story yesterday so I could not get spoilered

I knew spaces I was safe in, that is Tumblr and Discord

Unfortunately for me I opened TikTok because I was bored and I needed some short form content (I genuinely cannot find long form content that entertains me. I've been watching Markipliers playthroughs of things that aren't horror games atp. I'm on inscryption currently) and everything was fine! I saw a lot of people making content about the sandpit! I was really happy seeing that content because I wasn't in the sandpit for long due to wanting to continue story. But I made the mistake of going into search...

Now Tumblr and TikTok have biiiiiig differences. But one thing they have in common is A SHITTY FUCKING SEARCH SYSTEM ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

I don't know how well you know TikToks search system but to explain it simply: you cannot search for slideshows, you will get content you don't want, and if you're in search for long enough you'll see family guy clips next to slime.

I'm pretty sure the search system also doesn't have an algorithm.

Let me give an example on how shit TikTok search is: you will search for princess peach and eventually you'll end up on pregnant women. You will search Nine (from that one Sonic movie) and eventually end up on videos calling knuckles... Sigma... (I just wanted nine content because he seemed cool and got hit by that. Never recovered...)

Now the people who play hoyo on TikTok have this thing where they do not realize that everyone watches content within their own time. If you do not follow that games gameplay leaks, kit leaks and story leaks, you WILL get spoilered. So if you don't follow leaks and don't want to, Hoyo TikTok is your worst enemy.

So I get spoilered SOOOOO MUCH it's insane... I've mostly learned to just not open TikTok but I was stupid m'kay. And I got spoilered FOR THE BIG TWIST OF THE FUCKING STORY. THE CREATOR PIT OM THE VIDEO "2.1 SPOILERS" BUT DECIDED TO PUT SPOILERS IN THE CAPTION.

Now that's partially my fault for reading the caption, but I do that instinctively at this point, it's the first thing I read. So I blame instincts.

Anyway, TikTok is shit, people on it are shit (I can say this because I am one of them), and people need to know to NOT SPOIL STUFF FOR EVERYONE ELSE

Thank you.

Now I have some free time, I'm going to continue the story, and hope for dear god that even though I got spoilered, I still enjoy it