#so again matter of taste

[dreamsy990]

TELEMACHUS AND ANTINOUS. FINALLY

[blueskittlesart]

pleeease give a review for infinity nikki ive been thinking about downloading it but i dont know if i have the space and if its worth it to clear some up for it !!!

as someone who spent HOURS on flash-based dollmakers as a kid, i absolutely love it. the gameplay hits somewhere between dressup game and open-world RPG, in that there's a large botw-like open map to explore, but the express purpose of exploring it is to unlock new clothes for your character. The exploration itself feels very calm and cozy most of the time, with the emphasis being on small collection tasks like fishing, bug-catching, and foraging. again, all of this is specifically to craft new outfits for nikki which you can both coordinate with no limitations to wear in the open world and use in scored styling contests with npcs, some of which reward you with game currency and some of which help you progress the story quests. the only place where i feel the gameplay truly suffers is in combat. you have one attack, and it's a ranged shooter, but there's no aim-assist whatsoever, and the mobile joystick isn't NEARLY sensitive enough to justify this. aiming in combat is one of the most difficult parts of the game, and nikki can only take 5 hits before she dies and has to respawn, making combat decently frustrating. However, there are very few places where combat is strictly necessary in-game, and both of the boss battles i've done so far had hitboxes large enough that it wasn't an issue; it's really in the open world against hordes of smaller enemies that the lack of targeting becomes really frustrating. other than that, though, the controls are fairly well-designed and intuitive, especially if you've played similar games before.

The clothes themselves are the star of the show, of course. I've yet to see a single clothing item in the game that I don't want. there's a good mix of fancy intricate outfit pieces and basics to obtain early-on, and without even touching the gacha you can coordinate some really cute outfits via in-universe boutiques and quests that reward you with clothes. Even the very obviously themed ability outfit sets that you craft early on almost always have a few pieces that are easy to mix and match with, so there's a TON of styling potential even for free players! As for the gacha, it's actually one of the more generous games i've played in terms of rewards and pity systems. My one complaint so far is that the 5-star gacha outfits especially seem to be very accessory-heavy, meaning it's possible to pull shoes, multiple necklaces, gloves, socks, and hairpieces before ever pulling the dress they're very obviously designed around. there is a pity mechanic to prevent this, but it requires you to pull a few too many times before your guarantee imo.

The story is ridiculous in a good way. It kind of reads like a 2000s-era barbie movie to me right now, in the best way possible. there's an amazingly predictable sexy villain, cute little flying creatures that follow you around, and every conflict is, of course, solved via clothes in one way or another. My absolute favorite thing about the writing, though, is how blatantly earnest it all is. at no point does the game poke fun at its own wacky concept or even attempt to make some self-aware joke about it to the player--it plays everything completely straight, and in this aspect it almost feels MORE self-aware. it knows that the kind of person who wants to play a dressup rpg is also the kind of person who does not, under any circumstances whatsoever, want to be questioned or made fun of for their love of fashion or their engagement with that game. It very much feels like the devs know that they're working with primarily girls and young women and a subject matter that those girls and young women are often looked down upon or made fun of for seriously engaging with, and so it promises to engage EXTRA-seriously to make up for that. (side note: there's one point in a story quest where, when asked to make a wish, nikki wishes that all girls never get cramps again. that was when i knew this was a game that knew its audience.) If I wanted to nitpick, i might say that every quest so far has sort of felt like an increasingly ridiculous trading sequence--you learn what you need to do very early on, but you'll always spend several hours of gameplay encountering obstacles and doing other smaller tasks to circumvent those obstacles so you can reach your original goal. this might annoy me more if the game was trying to market itself as a serious RPG, but it seems very self-aware to me, and despite how i'm describing it none of the quests ive played have actually FELT tedious. I think the fact that it's such a wild concept to begin with gives the writers a bit of leeway in how they handle the story quests, and because I as the player am aware i'm playing a dressup game I don't really expect quests to immediately get to the point and let me fight something. I will say that there are certain things that aren't super intuitive especially if you aren't a seasoned gacha rpg player, particularly the features relating to advancing your skills and the styling points of your clothing. though the game does technically explain what you need to do, it doesn't explain the RELEVANCE of the feature, just that it exists, so I had to lose multiple styling contests before I realized i could upgrade my clothing to get higher scores.

The final thing I'll talk about is performance. I'm playing the game on my iphone 13, and the performance is.... not great, i'm ngl. Off the bat, if you play the game on a mobile device, you're going to be getting a HEAVILY scaled-down version of the terrain graphics. all of those screenshots you see online of beautiful terrain full of flowers and particle effects are from ps5s or custom pcs. truthfully, the mobile app looks like a game from 2012 and it will still turn your phone into an incinerator. I've also encountered multiple graphics bugs, some during pivotal scenes, and I get consistent lags when playing for longer than a few hours, likely due to the strain on my phone's hardware. it's also an INSANE battery drain, so i only play when my phone is plugged in. All that being said, the game has been out for less than a week, so visual bugs are inevitable, and the developers have stated that mobile optimization is a priority, so hopefully we'll at the very least no longer have to overheat our devices to play it soon. Also worth noting, from what I've seen the rendering of the CLOTHING doesn't suffer AT ALL on mobile devices. presumably they sacrificed terrain rendering to allow for such beautiful texturing on the clothing itself, which, given that the clothing is the main focus of the game, I can't fault them for. Basically, if you're going to try to run an unreal engine game on your iphone, be aware that it will run like an unreal engine game on an iphone. and prepare yourself to have to let your device cool down every few hours.

tldr: i love the game so far. i'm really excited to keep playing and see where the story goes, and I think they should make more games for girls <3

[scribz-ag24]

love the way you characterise hero to be a total hater in regards to whatever it is that dusknoir has with grovyle/celebi because on one hand they have all the reasons to given the circumstances and what had happened and on the other hand dusknoir is a complete goddamm loser and if no one is gonna rightfully call him that then it may as well be the kid he tried to be buddy-buddy with

what's the point of drawing duskvyle if you don't draw at least one person hating dusknoir with all their might. he is silly and embarrassing and way too proud of his strenght for someone who has let grovyle escape like 4 times and we WILL make fun of him for it xDD

tbh, while hero is basically a blank slate cause theyre the main self insert, i think partner would be more forgiving than them, but i think that's the more reason why partner hating on dusknoir would be even funnier somehow.

[wardensantoineandevka]

the real problem with the Veilguard score is not that it's bad (because it isn't) it's that they didn't put all of the stuff on the soundtrack

[starry-sophrosyne]

me realizing i havent ever posted my initial designs for tox and leo/ive stopped talked about ttos as a whole:

[musicalmoritz]

Nene’s Music Taste

I was trying to learn more about Nene’s canon taste in music, which she describes as “enka songs about cursing your ex-lover.” Most fans seem to think she’d either enjoy pop or goth music and, while she could certainly enjoy more than one genre, I wanted to figure out what songs she would realistically be listening to. Here is what I learned (Nene enjoyers, get your pens out)

Enka is a Japanese music genre that dates back to the 1950s. It somewhat existed before that in violin music and later with guitar, but the 50s was when the style really came into its own. It maintains elements from traditional Japanese music and is often used in karaoke. The themes are similar to American blues music, lots of talk about heartache and the struggles of life. Alcohol, love, death, and the weather are frequent subjects of enka songs. It declined a bit around the 90s due to younger audiences not being able to relate to the lyrics but it had a revival in the early 2000s (which is the period I suspect Nene would enjoy, as that is the music she would’ve likely heard growing up). Music artists tend to get creative with this genre, there are many enka songs that involve rap as well as elements of tango and jazz

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find many sources that gave lyrics translations for the songs recommendations I found, due to the genre not being popular in America (I hate us😒) but I did find an article that had a goldmine of song recs!! “Japan’s Top 50 Bestselling Enka Songs” by Daniel Morales, if anyone wants to check it out

I was trying to find some songs to add to my Aoinene playlist but sadly I didn’t have a lot of luck. If there happen to be any enka music fans reading this who also like Aoinene I would love your recommendations. Here’s what I did find though (all of these are from the list cited above):

“Tearful Love” by Yashiro Aki. Yes, I did mostly pick this one because of the name but it is an angsty love song, very much Nene levels of dramatics

“Crimson Karma” by Segawa Eiko. A star-crossed lovers song, Aoinene certified levels of angst

“But It Would Be Nice If You Came Near” by Toshi Itō and Happy and Blue. The singer in the song blames themself for their bad luck in love, more Nene vibes

“Solo Journey to Michinoku” by Yamamoto Jōji. A song about a person wishing they could’ve died with their deceased lover. Could be Aoinene in the Ghost Hotel au or during the Severance arc. Orrrrr by the end of the manga if Nene doesn’t survive

I would also recommend Saburo Kitajima, I can’t remember if he made it onto the article or not (I found his name through Wikipedia, along with the history and qualities of enka music I described before), but I listened to one of his songs on Spotify and ya’ll…my ears have been blessed. Will definitely be checking out more of this genre

[vaguely-concerned]

it really is hilarious how little objective quality has to do with how much I'll love an RPG. larian makes games that are objectively very good, but don't really resonate with me personally when I play them, for whatever reason. bioware makes games of wildly erratic levels of quality that cause my soul to vibrate at pitches heard only by dolphins and god.

[corellianhounds]

Most of the time there aren’t a whole lot of ship pairs that really grab me, but I definitely like the ones where it’s a case of “If only there was time or our stations or the circumstances were different.”

The one that comes to mind is the very lowkey Riyo Chuchi / post-TBB Echo idea. Both of them noticing, noticing the other noticing, but both bound by duty to their people, serving the greater good taking precedence over their personal feelings.

The ways they do grow closer together on missions where they have justification to spend time with the other person. The respect of their individuality and intelligence, knowing the other person is a valuable part of what they’re building together, waiting and hoping for the chance of each other after the end of the war. Seeking out their opinion and advice, elevating it in group discussions. The bodyguard/politician tropes. The worry that occupies their thoughts when the other is away on a mission or verifiably in danger. Needing to keep their cool specifically because that is what’s needed to help the other person, and because there are so many other people relying on them to keep a level head and issue orders. They can’t afford to be distracted while they do the work, especially when the other person is relying on them.

The reassurance in finding the other’s eyes across the room, what goes unspoken between them. How they move and work around and accommodate each other. How safe she feels at having him at her back. The assurance he feels at seeing her skill navigating the privileges she’s been afforded in being able to speak up. Knowing they can rely on one another. The sincerity and cooperation that fuels their conjoined efforts, no miscommunications or jealous feelings or emotional immaturity causing undue conflict. The things that keep them apart are genuine conflicts, and the work they’re doing to solve them, together.

The Pride and Prejudice (2005) hand grazes™ that keep them awake at night. Do u see my vision

[the-leyline-directory]

[Important Updates; at least to me!]

Made two additional sideblogs for sorting!;

@idle-muses > For a collection of other characters I want to write but don't want to make an entire full blog for due to various reasons for each. (still being set up in some capacity cause I'm doing house furniture things for a bit!)

but most importantly [at least to me!] @novel-redacted \o/ Where I'm gonna be putting my novel work as it goes! It's posted on a 'chapter by chapter' basis, as that's evidently my way of telling my brain 'stop picking at it, move on' like when I used to write fanfics.

For novel things, It's not required reading in anyway, and the aspect of it having a blog is more for me specifically - as I genuinely have a great fear of sharing it! Last time I tried sharing my work a few years ago anons weren't too kind. [which just fed into my phobias]. So I'll be trying again! And worst case it continues to be 'just for me' \o/ and no one reads it! And that's okay!! (This is said fully positively! That's a good worst case scenario!)

Rambling a bit but the novel, called [REDACTED], is very important to me, as is the main character of it; probably more important than any other media creation I've ever made. I look forward to sharing it as I do \o/ Or, just to have it for myself!

[moe-broey]

Realization.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I have a big google doc thing where I keep track of media and stuff (putting everything in loosely ranked categories), which is mostly just for my own reference so I know what tv shows I've already seen before, etc. and I never really look back through it, typically just a quick "okay, watched two movie in the past 8 months, need to quickly slap them somewhere in the lists. okay. done. save document. exit". But today I was actually reading through some of the old notes and there are like... MULTIPLE places where my comment is basically "It would have been good if it were about elves" or "I wish there was a fantasy show made in this same style" or "It's well made, but I just keep thinking about how I would like it more if everyone was an elf or was in old 1700s costumes" or etc like...... lol.... Most biased media ranking system on earth blatantly made by someone with an extremely hyperspecific range of narrow interests. It'd be like if a food reviewer only had 5 foods they actually liked, so they'd just go to a pizza place and be like "eh, the pizza was okay, but I just think it would be better if it was cereal instead. :/ ...2 out of 10"

[stormyoceans]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why is pizza with pineapple a nightmare for an Italian? It's quite tasty🫣

it's because in ancient times the ten commandments of italian food were inscribed by the finger of god on two tablets of stone and revealed to all italian grandmas to pass down from generation to generation

such commandments are:

coffee is the lord your god; you shall not have strange coffees before espresso;

you shall not mix up the order of your meal courses;

remember to keep holy the carbonara’s recipe (guanciale, pecorino, egg yolk, and black pepper);

honor the extra virgin olive oil and the parmigiano reggiano;

you shall not have a savory breakfast;

you shall not have cappuccino after 11 am;

you shall not break the spaghetti;

you shall not add cheese to seafood pasta;

you shall not put ketchup on pasta;

you shall not put pineapple on pizza.

the punishment an italian faces for disobeying them is spiritual death and eternal damnation (when i die you will find me in hell because i constantly disobey nr. 6)

(jk, sorry ;;;;;;;; honestly i don’t really have an answer for you, italians in general are very traditionalist, especially when it comes to food. this isn’t to say we don’t experiment or try new things, but we are very.. culturally defined, if that makes sense. so it’s not like that it can’t be done, or it doesn’t taste nice, it’s just that there are some unwritten rules that we feel like should be respected to preserve the texture, the flavours, and the quality of the ingredients and the dish as a whole. also, we're all just extremely dramatic people ;;;;;;;)

[lesbianstarlightglimmer]

Wow the way I just want to run into traffic rn is insaaaane :D

[thedevotionaltour]

even for period typical ableism it still drives me nuts for karen to go oh poor matt how can he deal and get around as if he hasn't been blind most of his life at this point and living on his own by himself as an adult for his entire adult life after college and has also lived in the city his whole life like girl use your damn brain he can get around by himself just fine. good god. like take five seconds to use your brain. literally adult man who lives by himself if nothing else that should tell you he is fine and when he needs assistance has the knowledge and ability to go get it you act as if he can't even walk on the sidewalk by himself. he literally shows up to work by himself. it drives me up the wall sometimes how she sees proof of him functioning fine independently literally witnesses it on the daily and still thinks these things. like again foggy isn't great either bc again the period typical ableism (and just general ableism in the world outside of this period as this is a common attitude of viewing disabled people as helpless and unable to function even if they are people who do live independently (and im not touching on people who do need extra support and caretaking in this context. as this post is about these characters in the context of a story. so im talking about what we see there instead of any truly meaningful nuanced way) but the writing here is like. Particularly this way due to the time) he has a modicum more of understanding that matt is literally a capable grown adult man. literally told karen matt is a big boy who can handle himself and then karen went b-b-but you forget he's blind as if foggy hasn't known him for years of his life and is his best friend like PLEASE SEE HIM AS AN ADULT. I AM GOING TO GO INSANE. PLEASE RESPECT HIM IF YOU LOVE HIM SO DEARLY. AND EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T. JUST RESPECT HIM AS A PERSON!!!!!!