#she's staying in your world and she'll be your NPC by the end of this bullshit

[kenhowler2004]

WE SAVED THE BOYO BUT HOLY FUCK WAS LAST SESSION AN EMOTIONAL TRAINWRECK

[purplehanfu]

Self Indulgent Birthday Post: 2023

notes: Spoilers!, probably. Yay, it's my birthday again! Enjoy some of my finest unfinished work!

Oh? You have both my interest and attention!

Booooo.... (this disappointment brought to you by The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure, which happens to be the prequel to Blood of Youth)

Recap Recycle Bin

So many dramas and never enough time to write a full review. Read on! 

Dominator of Martial Gods

tl:dr for this drama

Each episode is 35 minutes long, feels like 3,500 minutes, and delivers maybe 10 minutes worth of story. Impressive! 

We waste a great deal of time in the first few episodes watching Qin Chen and the bootlicking alchemist refine a needle that will allow our hero to activate his bloodline. Intriguing, because you often hear dramas refer to treasures being refined into weapons, but you never see the process. There's a reason for this- it does not make for compelling viewing. But that does not stop us from standing around arguing about the specs and adding things to the oven. This process was more fun when Chu Wanning just takes you up to the lake. On a technical note, I am enamored of the way the ever present green screened background makes no attempt to be in scale with the human actors.

My Deepest Dream

Ooh, a plot with a time loop, evil birds, superpowers, getting sucked into the Marianas Trench when you just wanted to go on a scuba diving excursion and JIN HAN!!! But, as always, there's a glitch in the matrix.

Our heroine realizes she has lost a year of her life and no one has noticed. No one except the astrophysics PhD candidate turned car mechanic Wu Yu (JIN HAN!!!). Wu Yu divulges that he can read a phone screen at 10 kilometers. But mostly he uses his special eyes to keep an elaborate dossier on the comings and goings of the FL, who lives across the street from the garage he works at. Is that creepy or romantic?

don’t be silly, if it were a Marvel movie we’d be having an interminable CGI sky battle 

Till the End of the Moon

Meet Tantai Jin. As you may have noticed from his costume design, he's totally evil.

He's a goal-oriented CEO who's turned the Devil Sect into a high reliability organization that generates impactful customer experiences (annihilation). I bet he's evil enough to use six sigma. But where Tantai Jin truly shines is personal branding. You may not be buying what he's selling, but product recognition is through the roof.

Tantai Jin seen here working out of his travel office: a flaming, flying boudoir with melting skull detail. This is why CEOs should never make more than 10x what the average worker does.

Circle of Love

I can see why the Republican period was relatively short. Everybody setting fire to each other's estates, staying out late ballroom dancing, getting uniforms tailored, making sure there are enough manacles to chain the female lead to a bed... it doesn't really leave a lot of time for governance.

We start out, as we generally do, with a clean sweep of the FL's family, in this case via a big ol' raging house fire. Where is everyone? Or even anyone? Even Maid's Revenge scraped up some extras to be dead family members.

My Kung Fu Girlfriend

Slow your roll, it ain't GL.

You know what they say- it's not whether you win or lose the MMORPG, it's how you min max all your stats and then act like an ass in chat about it.

Meet Huang Xiao Yu. She clearly did not pay to win because she is the low XP real life martial sister of a kung fu champion. In this drama, she'll level up in love and life with the help of an OP MMO NPC who escapes her game and shows up uninvited in the real world.

The Antarctic Octopus

Not to be confused with the 2020 film Big Octopus. I guess that's the great thing about having an audience of over a billion people- even the most niche interest has plenty of content.

This is how you dress when you visit your Uncle Pete in Antarctica.

In this movie: monsters, explosions, a supercharged ice jalopy and a dedicated ignorance of the laws of physics usually only seen in a Fast and Furious film. But credit where it's due: The Antarctic Octopus delivers. Only 12 seconds in and we get our first tentacle!

available free on youtube although how bravely they were fighting is up for debate

Bonus Content: Superlatives

In the Day We Flipped

My post of the year!

Getting over 500 likes on a review? Unexpected.

Forgetting to add a link back to my other recaps? Priceless.

Bloody Romance

still my favorite drama

when your grandma’s a zombie and she was left in a cave to guard a tiny box with one (1) restorative pill in it and she’s suspended by her hair but her hair is also like tentacles that can kill people and she thinks you’re your mom but she still loves you. 💚💚💚 But then she starts screaming and tries to strangle you with her hair.

Heroes

2nd favorite drama

you know something’s good when you have a file called ‘sappy su mengzhen yang wuxie edits.txt’

go get your man, Wuxie!

pinboard full of recaps!

[gameideas-111]

Soulslike Cyberpunk setting

This is admittedly an idea I've been letting rattle around in my head for a while. It's not fully thought out, but I have thought about how it work for a while.

Basic Idea

My idea is to combine the concepts of blood born with cyberpunk ethics. With some inspiration from Overkill. You wake up in a cyber city overwhelmed by a medical power source called "Spark" by the company who discovered it, Steven Cyberware. Your very existence is considered an affront to company policy and an unwanted factor the corporation doesn't want to understand or use (Think of it similar to Far Zenith from Zero Dawn). So they send a clean-up crew to destroy the isolated island lab you're on. You likely die (And rise out of a light blue sea of geometry onto an island with a lighthouse observatory known as Shoreline) or run away (you'll be invited to the Shorline, a cyberspace isolated and hidden in the network where people like you may hide). In Shoreline, a chip and jovial person known as "S.k.I.E." will meet you. A friendly and acts as a shrine made of the game. You'll also find other NPCs here who you can meet in the real world as well. Other NPCs who've come here for one reason or another.

The shoreline is a hub world, With it largely being where docs amongst the small coastline with small huts and shops. on the boats With the centerpiece of S.k.I.E.'s Lighthouse and observatory. Where she can use concentrated Spark and data you get from enemies to upgrade your stats. Further on in the game, This place will slowly change. The Sea will start to show faces and limbs of glitching complexions of grey, boats trying to prepare to depart. At the end game, the sea will be red as the sky sparks and sputters. Boats in the distance or at the docks wrecked or sinking. The place is now marked and surrounded by beings wanting to feed. S.k.I.E. Now showing some worry, as she tries to hide their fear behind a smile. Trying not to think about what could happen to her. (Here, you could possibly catch her crying, to which she'll stop and say she's fine if asked. If you can listen to her out of sight though, you could hear her talk to herself in private. trying to focus on anything but the fear of oblivion she might be subjected to, or worse, she stays conscious as she's torn apart by eldrich things. You may even see her mind degenerating as bits of it go away. eaten by uncaring gods. Her anger and sadness at not being able to remember the faces of people they care for. She's terrified and trying to hide it so you may complete her mission of helping you, the thing she was made to do. But she also doesn't want to die).

The Save system is made up of transition nodes. Massive cell towers that many have plugged into so they can escape the nightmare inflicted upon them by corporations and spark. With Ancient beings coming from another realm to feast upon spark. Some plugging in and never coming back. You need to activate these nodes to fully create systems online (Kinda like how you need to unlock towers to fast travel in breath of the wilds). Around the area, there are fabricator Nodes. Acting as the primary save points. Where some will actively be around these Nodes to top up on spark. A vital resource to survive outside the Corporations and the City Council. With Many enemies are robots or cybernetically enhanced guards and creatures from one of those two factions, or gangs. Later on, spark creatures will emerge. Often around unoccupied Spark nodes.

The goal of the game is to either destroy all five Spark capacitors, or your original mission of getting to the top of Marigold Tower, a luxury tower for the high society in the past, now a fortified fortress where the companies keep the portal open and keep harvesting Spark from the grey world. The High society doing nothing but maintaining their lifestyle and power. To them, they'd rather rule the world, even if it's nothing but ashes than ever lose power. They'll die eventually, so what about the consequences. They also want you and others like you gone. To them, you're spit in their face by someone who defied them, and an unknown variable. Some smarter ones will try and use you for their own ends (connected to one of the endings). But in the end, they will prioritize their power and pride over others.

Lastly (For now), there would be "The Spark Beings". Those Eldrich gods mentioned earlier. These are otherworldly beings who consume Spark. Alongside having some intelligence and motives you don't get to fully know. They do want to eat though. Which can collapse the entirety of society and everyone who has spark even remotely near them (Everyone who still lives). This is actually something your creator is interested in. I should explain your Creator.

Your creator and by extension creator of the shoreline is named Alisa Burg and her persona is "Hustin Hills". A former tech billionaire who helped build up the corporate society and its reliance on spark. However, she was kicked out of high society and forced out of the oppressive corporation she helped found. Alongside being forbidden to continue her research which was deemed company property. However, as soon as the eldrich beings where dicovered, she started drafting up plans. Eventually becoming one of the most wanted people in the city as a result of body snatching from the morg, illeagal experimentation with trademarked technology, and other such crimes. One of which was you. (With your purpose not being to save the world, but to instead assign yourself or your creature into one of these eldrich gods).

Combat

Combat focuses on dodging and striking. With All enemies holding the resource known as "Spark". A resource that acts as your health. You can even recover health by bathing in the Spark that spews out of enemies. The most spark is gotten either by striking an enemy during an attack where you can get a slight healing, or striking a death blow that gives you some Hp and refills a charge of your Spark Charg (Estice flask equivalent). You can also recharge weapon abilities with these. With quick weapon changes and modifications also being key.

Cybernetics act as special talismans or charms that can help certain things happen. With Chips acting like spells, your caricature can be used for spells. With Extra spark being restored by either attacking an enemy right after they make an attack. landing a death blow, or by getting a reacharge.

it'll largely be melee-based, with range weapons tacking sparks. With most everything ranged needing it to power up, or use as ammunition.

[kichimiangra]

I feel like I'm complaining a lot about my mom this week but it's been a specific breed of week that makes interacting with her difficult...

That said I kinda wanna make a Stardew Valley mod called "Stardew Valley but you live with MY Mom"

Functionally it would just be an npc of my mom living in your house and if you talk to her she drains 15 energy off of you. But if you DON'T talk to her everyday then each day the energy drain is double. If you don't talk to her and let it hit 100 then you'll wake up the next day and she'll be blocking your door so you can't leave the house unless you speak to her, but this triggers an unskippable event where you have to listen to her tell her whole life story and why it's the worst life possible and why she hates her life and there's so much dialogue that if you button spam it'll still take like 6-10 minutes irl to get past all the text. When the event ends you'll be outside your house, it's 1:00am, you lost 100 energy, and you have 1 hour to try and salvage watering your plants and harvesting anything and tending your animals. This event has a Higher chance to just trigger anyway if it's a holiday/festival day (forcing you to miss the festival if you don't reset the day) or if it's the birthday of someone in town (making it harder to give them a gift). The next day though she'll give you an amazingly helpful mod-custom breakfast item even if you don't have a kitchen. The food item may or may not mean the difference between a world record speed run or not.

As well as the above, if you have 5+ hearts with any NPCs, her daily complaint dialogue might be about them and if it is, along with draining the energy points you lose points with that person, because it's hard to stay friends with someone when the person you live with never stops talking negatively about them. (+10 friend points for hanging out, -15 for everytime you have to hear mom complain about them, that kinda mood)

When you add a new animal to the farm she will go out and tend/pet all of your animals (dog/cat included) for 2 days after, so you can theoretically keep her distracted for 2 days at a time, but selling an animal triggers an event that greatly lowers moms exp/hearts. (Her dialogue will change to always be complaining about what you named the most recent animal). In this state interacting only loses 5 points daily.

Mom only has 3 heart events. The first one she tries to join the aerobics class that's held at Caroline and Pierre's house. You catch her leaving the shop and tells you how badly it went, she tells you all the negative opinions everyone has about her as if she can read their minds and throws in her own negative opinions of everyone else before going home saying she will not be coming back. This is the only time you ever see her off your farm property. Caroline exits and asks where mom ran off to, having only nice things to say and how the others found her stories interesting, that she's a very talented woman and would love for her to come back next week.

The Second event happens as your mom is sick for the day. It's mostly similar to the event if she catches you at the door where she hates her life on the farm and wishes she never left the city and how you had a great job in you Joja cubicle. You do get a potential dialogue option to tell her that she used to say she hated the city and your Joja job and wanted to move to the country onto a farm, but if you choose that option she has an adverse reaction it it guarantees 100% that she will meet you at the door the next day, so you can only silently nod and agree to avoid that. Moving her to stardew valley, and her unhappiness, is officially your fault now.

The third event has you head into town and encounter Harvey, who mentions he was talking a walk near your farm and happened to meet your mom at the mailbox having scared her with his unexpected presence. They had gotten to talking and he mentions her odd behavior for how long you've lived in the town. You have 3 dialogue choices where you can confide in Harvey

-Mom had a stroke a few years back, but refuses to acknowledge the side effects.

-Mom was diagnosed with depression she refuses to acknowledge.

-Mom is suspected to possibly be bipolar but refuses to acknowledge it.

No matter what you choose Harvey will sympathize that it must both be hard to live with mom, but also very hard to BE my mom and says if you or Mom ever want to talk to any medical professionals to just call his clinic and he will get you hooked up.

There is never a follow up to this event and life continues on unchanged.

It's not all bad and toxic tho. If you talk to Mom anytime aside from her events and the initial daily drain she has lots of nice things to say, and seemingly is happy sometimes, bringing up ideas for crafting and hobbies she's like to pursue. She can be given gifts and even ones she hates she will accept politely. Inside she's a kind caring considerate person who thinks of others first... but you have to go out of your way to find that dialogue.

I think that would be a very balanced mod that, although adds more negatives than positives would give a rough idea of my day to day living on a hobby farm (something that's been my childhood goal) with my mom sort of making it more mentally taxing than it has to be...

[sharkface-daydreams]

i don’t know dragon age so give me. either your favorite or most niche dragon age ship

🥺🥹💜 ask dragon age for me.... 💜💜💜💜

well my favorite of all time is a pc/canon ship but not a canon romance but i did think of a niche npc/npc ship that has recently made me feel like eating glass lmao so i did two

i attempted to give some context but not completely infodump >< idk if that was achieved lol

My Grey Warden who has to go save the world after being recruited from a no-caste nothing on the underbelly of dwarven society fell for a guy you can't romance bc his culture is the Qun, which dictates basically your role and existence since you're born. They don't do like romance or marriage or whatever bc genetics are dictated by people who manage that. (Although some people do escape and live outside of that) His name is his job title. But he's a good man, a good soldier and a good friend and Torani Brosca respects the shit out of him so she keeps her feelings to herself. But yes she'll fight by his side and find his missing sword and stay as close as she can 🥺 and she never ever thinks of herself and her wants bc everything went towards her sister's chances of getting the family married up out of poverty so she really doesn't examine the feelings either it's just. I want to be close to you. Always. 😭

Uuuuunfortunately in my canon playthrough she takes the final hit in the last boss fight to kill the big bad and dies :( Beforehand she asked Sten to return her sword to her sister in Orzammar so Rica could have something to remember her by. She technically could have lived but that involves a mage party member fucking someone so she could have a baby and uh. suck the undying soul of the Arch demon into the unborn vessel instead of requiring a Warden to essentially cancel it out by killing it and... i don't actually remember the specific mechanics but a Warden specifically has to die in order for the big bad to STAY dead bc they have a like. half vaccinated version of the blight that kills them extremely slowly. But dorfs have such a low reproduction rate and the only way for them to get out of castelessness was for Rica to have a nobles baby and marry up... so Tor was like no i am not forcing anyone into that I'll just take the hit. 😔 so there's glass snack #1.

glass snack #2 is from the Dragon Age Inquisition DLC The Descent so this'll be spoilery lol but omg Renn and Valta

Ok. Dwarves live underground, are immune to magic and the magic ore only they can dig up bc it kills anyone else. There's a group called Legion of the Dead who are socially dead, they literally have a funeral for them when they leave, and they go into the old deep roads and protect the city from the Dark spawn until they die out there with their boots on. This is what Renn does. Valta is an archivist who's been essentially put on bitch work bc she pissed off a higher-up by not erasing something really trivial from their records. And we're down there helping them figure out why the earthquakes are suddenly nuts. It seems like they've been working side by side for years and Renn either has a specific task or personal obligation to defend her while she's in the dangerous tunnels and old roads, I'm not sure which. But while they bicker a LOT there's soooooo much fondness underneath all that and they care about each other so fiercely and honestly we don't get a whole lot of conversation and banter even but what we do get is just fucking LOADED with meaning and I'm just *eats drywall* about it

ough and when he dies defending us from some threat we've never faced before she's even more determined to figure this out so he hasn't died in vain auuuurghh god so many things ending in tragedy but in the meanwhile.... the meanwhile is so good 😩 and that dichotomy of already being 'dead' but still having reason to live, to fight for and protect someone. ough...

[saltylittlecreature]

NPC ideas

A Tabaxi NPC that wants to explore the world, and map out areas unexplored, giving extra rewards for describing new creatures and NPCs. Their ultimate goal is to travel to the world's edge and push the sunset off its edge.

A goblin bounty hunter who's constantly looking for bounties. He'll be nice to the party and players if they're nice to him. If he's after the Party or one of its members, he'll probably start with stalking and gathering information. Then, brig or threaten people into giving the party poisoned potions, give them faulty equipment, and possibly set them to a fake monster lair for good money. Making sure it ends up in the player's hand. There, he'll make traps and let a small caged monster stay in there. Waiting before attacking the player with stealth and if possible, some hired muscles.

A middle-aged woman in a dirty white cloak and a white bag decorated with green, pink, and yellow triangles decorating its rim. encounterable if the party is traveling in a group. If they meet and have pleasant conversations. She may ask the players to buy something for cheap. A possible trinket of lesser magical power, a simple blessing, or a telling of your fate. This person is in truth, a warlock of an eldritch being of white and light. Represented by flowers and mushrooms. If one for some reason slashes at her enough to draw blood, they'll see mushrooms and small white pushing themselves out of the wounds (She's immune to the bleeding effect because of it). If one were to listen to her sleep, they'd hear her mutters of gardens and fearful tones of wanting to slip below the roots. If they die, they'll collapse into a pile of flowers and flesh. If left that way, they'll reanimate as an undead with some druidic powers. Hiding and stalking the party. If seen, she'll step out from the shadows and ask "Are you a fan of the gardens in the sky?" Then combat will begin.

[abronzeagegod]

My OC's as fromsoft style bosses

(and we're mostly doing bloodborne because it's the best fromsoft game)

Synthia, The Last of the Collection:

"I see, you are to be my opponent. Best of luck to you. I don't die easily."

She's definitely the late game/DLC boss. Synthia is the honorable but fallen boss, she doesn't want to fight and kill you as she's killed many before, but that doesn't mean that she won't give her all.

Synthia is also very much specced to be a player character but just way more powerful. Like you could build her in the character creator and play with her through the game, if you were high enough level and skilled enough.

The first phase is her toying with you, dodging and not really staying in melee range. She'll occasionally stealth away and set up for a long range sniper shots that do huge damage if you don't rush her and engage her again. Second phase she gets more aggressive and will fight hard in melee, she'll stealth away for sniper shots more regularly, and even use her invisibility to counter-attack and sneak attack in melee. Third phase she looses the coat and gets faster and much more aggressive with her cybernetics starting to burn. She no longer snipers players, but she starts using her guns in melee for constantly laying on the pressure, but she does have to slow down to cool off which gives players a chance to counter attack.

When she's defeated she thanks you for the good fight, and looks forward to her final rest. Synthia drops a rare long rifle that has medium high damage potential but one of the highest critical modifiers.

"I can't believe I lost. Do you know what comes next? What is waiting for me?"

Aeth, The Lone Hopeful Priest:

"Hey there, I'm glad someone else survived the night. Tell me how I can help."

Aeth doesn't want to fight. They just want to hang out in a relatively safe space. But if you want to fight them then they wind up being really scrappy and hard to fight with a bunch of random magic attacks that never quite seem to have the effect that you think they will do.

If you don't fight Aeth they are in the safe areas just offering support and trying to be helpful even as the world is falling apart around them. They offer their summon sign for you to use whenever you get into danger.

If you fight them and kill them, Aeth will drop a magic catalyst ring that allows you to cast spells and has a secret modifier that allows for higher damage thresholds with more rescued NPC's. Too bad you've just killed one and now cannot reach that max damage.

"If you wish for violence I will defend who I can. I hope you have made your peace, whatever it is."

If you join the co-op covenant and reach the highest threshold, Aeth will give you a powerful healing spell the operates in a large area, very helpful for late game co-op fights. They also give you their catalyst ring as mentioned above, but it is a much longer route to get this item than just fighting them.

"We all need some help sometimes, it's nice to see someone else helping out where they can."

However, much like Iosefka in Bloodborne (spoilers ahead) there is an imposter out there trying to become and replace Aeth. You have to be careful because they will kill Aeth if you're not careful and will start killing the other helpful NPC's you've saved.

"I've been thinking. That old maid went off to look for somewhere else to hide. Shame she couldn't be with us longer. She left you these as way of a gift. I hope you enjoy it. Hehe."

Not-Aeth is a bit more manic and strange even in this strange world, and every time they consume another NPC they'll give you some helpful upgrade materials, but they will end all NPC quests given enough time.

If you find and kill the imposter you are in for a tough battle, and will only be rewarded with a broken version of Aeth's catalyst.

"How did you know I wasn't the real one? I was so... perfect."

Lyta, Sword of Cold Rage:

"You came here to do evil, I am here to stop you."

Lyta is one of those sneaky bosses. She's an optional boss, in an optional area. She is the defender of the keep of a hidden sect within the game that has been trying to help out and solve the world's problems, but they haven't been very successful so they were exiled and all but collapsed under their inability to do their jobs.

Lyta's first phase is a standard fight. She is very similar to a player character, similar move sets and weapons. However, she does appear to be unarmored. It's tough but fair, and she's quick.

"You leave me no choice but to unshackle my magic."

Lyta's second phase replaces her sword with a spear, and now she summons a shield and armor made of fractal wildfires and frozen ash. Attacking her is riskier because you run the risk of both freezing yourself and losing precious stamina, and burning yourself and taking continuous damage. She also has a spear now so her already fast attacks come with increased range.

"How dare you! You are not welcome here and I shall escort you to death itself!"

Lyta's third phase comes when she is very close to being defeated, as she summons a great blizzard that fills the entire arena. This massive attack does little damage but does slow you down the longer you are trapped within it. Your only option is to attack hard and fast and try to break her out of it. If you do enough damage you can end the blizzard and break Lyta's armor, leaving her stunned and vulnerable. The risk is high though, so go fast and hit hard. Hopefully you saved enough healing.

"I can't believe that this is what you wanted... you monster..."

[a-girl-called-bob]

started playing this super nintendo RPG last night called 'Eternal Filena' (Eien no Filena; the game was never officially translated, but a pretty solid fan patch exists here). The game plays very much like Final Fantasy 5 - it's a turn-based RPG that uses an ATB meter affected both by the speed of a character and the weight of their equipment.

So get this: In a world with radical technological disparity, the Empire has conquered every nation around it. You play as Filena, a girl from a subjugated race raised as a boy for her own protection - though, that's a bit complicated. See, girls of your race are treated poorly, sure - most work in either service or service - but guys of your race aren't treated that much better, as most of them are forced into gladiatorial combat training from a young age, as that gladiator combat is the most popular form of mass entertainment for the Imperial populace. Still, due to reasons that come up fairly early in the game, maintaining the disguise is crucial.

Now, very early on (like, 'before the first real fight' early), you're put into a situation where you're expected to sleep with a woman, Lila. She naturally discovers that you're in disguise, but she's willing to keep your secret - after all, she can't exactly leave without staying the night, or she'll likely be arrested or killed. Lila ends up posing as (?) Filena's wife, and this persists despite them all leaving the gladiatorial combat environment fairly soon.

You also meet Nest, the guy who essentially writes the booking of the gladiator battles in order to create interesting 'stories' - like Kayfabe, if the fights were actually to the death. You basically start attracting interest around town, initially, because you were the obvious jobber for the first matchup and you pull off a surprising victory.

After a few fights, your reputation changes and the town opens up a bit, but after you're forced to fight your mentor in the arena, the plot really gets started. As he lays, dying from your spear, he hands you a token of your heritage and tells you to break into the information office and use their machines to decode it. This is where the game picks up, and where I'll stop summarizing.

This game is apparently an adaptation of a light novel series from the 1990s, and also got an anime that was apparently not that good.

Eternal Filena isn't technically impressive, and it has a couple of annoying parts where grinding is necessary (though, one point - which is very funny, because it's supposed to be an escape sequence - has a room with a full-heal machine that also has random encounters that drop way more experience than you've had from random encounters to that point, so it's a perfect place to grind despite 'Get the Fuck Out' klaxons going; it's also a necessary place to grind, because there's a super overleveled boss at the end of that area), but it's a really solid turn-based RPG on its mechanical merits nonetheless.

While the story is certainly not new, and it's been done more effectively since, a lot of the story elements that are here are really quite good. The translation patch does a good job of capturing the intended weight of most scenes (at least in the early-game, I'm only 3 hours in at this point and the world looks pretty big from here). There are some fairly obvious gender-feelings around (Lila's increasing insistence that she's her wife becomes both funnier and more subtext-laden as the game continues, especially as more and more people discover Filena's secret), and the setting raises some interesting questions that I hope will be touched on in some throwaway NPC dialogue.

In all, Eternal Filena is a solid RPG that deserves a second look. I'd just recommend making sure your fast-forward and turbo-A/B keybinds are set on your emulator, because some sections (especially the aforementioned grinding) can be made much quicker and less annoying that way.

In order to prevent copyright strike issues, please DM me for questions about how to get specific ROMs. Most games are available on Archive.org if you search 'no-intro' and limit it to software, though you'll need a free account.