#so im familiar with the formula and have a lot of fun in all three

[stat-strikes-back]

is holocure actually harder than other games like it or am i just really godawful at it for some reason

[myloveforhergoeson]

ash's july 2024 reading round up

find all the books and fics i read this month under the cut with a link to the synopsis and my reviews/ratings attached :)

this is just for fun! i'm not a professional, i just like to read <3

booklist:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood (18+!)

• aside from the fact that the main character's name is misery, i well and truly enjoyed this book!! i'm such a sucker for any type of vampire-related story, and i absolutely loved what ali hazelwood did in terms of worldbuilding! the implications of human-werewolf-vampyre politics were so interesting, yet easy to understand, and unlike that of any other story i've read. it tied in well to the reasons for vampyre misery's marriage of convenience to the alpha were lowe and had major implications for the overall plot of the story as well. i loved the mystery element and the romance felt so natural and unforced. in reading almost all of hazelwood's other books, i did have a small idea of the formula her stories usually follow, so i was able to clue into some of the twists a bit early, but even then, the mystery just kept unraveling and unraveling and it still kept me hooked until the very end! even with my correct guesses, there was even more i didn't clue into until the very end and i looooved it so much! so unexpected! misery and serena were such a cute and accurate description of best friends. each word of the use "bleech" (bitch + leech - vampyre name calling) was just so funny to me for whatever reason. misery's character development over the course of the story was fascinating, watching her come from a cold and uncaring vampyre society into the interconnected pack mentality of the were's was incredible. all of her actions with lowe's little sister anna melted my heart and exemplified the changes misery was going through to be the person she wanted to be! and of course, her and lowe were so electric and steamy, despite coming from two different worlds and their dedication to each other and their goals was staggering. such a wonderful read, could not recommend enough! i was super worried the supernatural and otherworldly elements would fall flat because hazelwood has thus far written contemporary romance, but i really can't emphasize enough the intricacies and care she put into this one; it really shines through :)

• rating: 5/5 jars of peanut butter

fic list:

first, one i forgot on my list from last month - sorry!

Music of the Spheres, or, Reading is FUNdamental by ItsyRoyal

• SUCH A CUTE JAMES/LOGAN (jagan? lomes? talk about rarepair) fic about learning and music and love and ugh i read it like three times over im just obsessed. highly, highly recommend this lovely story

2. A Million Little Things by @btr-rewatch

• god these boys... the most adorable story about the boys pre-canon highlighting the importance of their friendship <3 kendall gets into a fight defending the other boys from a bully and they rally together to take care of him 😭 some of the best characterization of the boys ever and the displays of care are so them but so tender and ugh. i said this in the comment i left but i feel like btrtv loses a lot of importance on their friendship when the shenanigans come out to play; it was sweet to read here <3

3. Assorted works of @selangkir <333

• Continuation of their Jo/Lucy fic!

• katie & gustavo blurb!

the way you write these familiar characters with your own personal flare never ceases to amaze me. i always think you capture them perfectly and the stories you share always emotionally impact me so deeply. the jo/lucy fic has me kicking my feet and giggling and god i love them so much and i can't wait to read more. the katie & gustavo fic was so funny and heartwarming. the way you see them is so unique and we are lucky you want to share <3

4. Assorted works of @ceruleanmusings :)))

• Big Time Girlfriends - Carlos & Sammi

• No Idea; 1: Miscalculation

• .8

• .9

• Blood Diamond Prologue + Year One

• you had me at pie - mickames

• in sickness and in health - mickames

friend... what can i say that i haven't already? Impeccable storytelling every single time you open your preferred writing platform; i always feel like im right there in the scene with the characters. sensory description is like your bread and butter and i'm just in awe every time you share something. bt girlfriends was so cute - i don't know much about your version of carlos or much about sammi, but the scene at the carnival with the two of them was just adorable. they're such good friends and i love how they're able to help each other out :) miscalculation is gutwrenching, but james and mrs. knight sitting down to have that conversation was necessary and so well navigated. your take on brooke had me screaming into my pillow btw... blood diamond was an incredible read - love baby james <3 and the two mickames stories... god they get me every time. the way you combine the romantic elements with points of mickey and james' pasts and emotions just kills me. truly some of the best writing in the world and i'm not just saying that because i love them so much! the thought you put into your work is always evident and i hope one day i can tell my own stories even half as good as you <3

5. Assorted works of @partiallypearl

• wake up, sunshine

• may you always know you have my hand to hold

• btr girls blurb

• life's what you make it (so let's make it rock)

• hey, hot stuff

pearl!!! ahh!!!!!! the way you were able to take random and simple one-word prompts and turn them into literal works of art is just astounding to me!!! the small three blurb collection was so sweet and showed off the characters personalities so well in such few words. coming from someone literally incapable of writing anything short that just amazes me. i also couldn't get enough of the carlos & logan story gah the boys get me every time... it goes back to what i said in point two lol, the display of their friendship is so uplifting to see and you've just mastered it. and the lucy/logan fic... lots to consider here... i just can't get enough of you and your work!! <3

6. Assorted works of @icegirl2772

• Brontide + Sphallolalia blurb

i know you are busy living your life and working and everything so i will sit and wait patiently for more kaelyn and james content until the end of forever. happy to accept the tiniest of blurbs about them and this one was just too cute! ty for indulging me hehe <3

7. Assorted works of @cant-get-enough-btr-forever

• Big Time Amnesia

!!!! i love your stories so much !!!!! top tier characterization, hilarious dialogue, character-driven stories... god you've got it all up in there. while i'm not typically a fan of the amnesia trope, the way you worked it into the story just had me hooked; poor carlos and his new British ways... and the end had me laughing out loud tbh i know how you feel about logan and his southern accent so the personal touch there made it all the better! tysm for sharing yet another incredible story <3

8. A Field of Blooming Tulips by @bunnyfern

admittedly i was a bit worried the first time i read this story, but after the rework i'm enjoying the story you're developing so much! all the bits and pieces you throw in about crowe have me dying to know more about her and her past, her likes and her dislikes, and seeing her grow and change to fit into her new environment is very well done! she and james 👀 though quite different already have a little spark of chemistry and i'm excited to see where the story takes them!!!

9. MY OWN DAMN STORY

unfortunately i've been reading my own story more than i've been writing my story. rames fan #1 isn't producing rames content fast enough to keep up with her own demand... help!!!!!

[eclysia]

Hi!! You reblogged my pokemon fan games post and I would love to hear your full rec list 👀👀 I’ve been interested in pokemon rejuvenation and thinking about trying it out once I finish playing pokemon insurgence!

oh i have lots! im going to throw some rom hacks in the bundle as well. ill sort them by rom hacks and fangames.

here we go!

ROM HACKS:

Emerald Rogue is the way to go if you want a roguelike experience like TBOI or Hades! There's virtually no story, but it's quite a lot of fun to play and has lots of replay value, fit with sidequests and challenges with intriguing rewards.

Recommended if you want to jump right in and get to battling, testing your skill!

Unbound is a ROM hack that truly has it all; fit with an original story and region, postgame, difficulty options, and the CFRU engine that has added a myriad of QOL features to Fire Red hacks, it is undoubtedly one of the very best hacks of all time! It also has an original soundtrack!

Recommended if you want to play a story-driven game with countless quality-of-life features!

Gaia is a more grounded ROM hack that could very easily fool me for a mainline game; this is a compliment, as it's wonderfully done! It has a plot centralizing around the legendary golems, an original region and characters, and flavor that just feels homey. (This also maaayy be getting an update in the future, so keep that in mind.)

Recommended if you're looking for a casual but intriguing experience!

Onto the fangames- I have an extensive list, but I'm going to keep it at three games each since this post is getting quite lengthy.

I won't go in depth on these two since you've played one and are going to play another, but Reborn and Rejuvenation are musts for me! With that out of the way,

Tectonic is a fangame that turns the entire Pokemon experience on its head. Rather than EVs, Style Points can be freely distributed and taken away. Every Pokemon has been reworked from the ground up, and there are even new status effects like Dizziness and Numbness. The plot revolves around the Avatar Phenomenon, ghostly apparitions of Pokemon wreaking havoc across the region, and racing your brother for the title of Champion to gain the approval of your cold-shouldered mother.

There's quite a steep learning curve, but I think it's worth it; this is one of my favorite plots in a fangame thus far.

Recommended if you want to shake up the original Pokemon formula!

Desolation is the third major 'Rebornian' game along with Reborn itself and Rejuvenation. It plays similarly to the other two, with a cohesive, dark plot and field effects, difficulty, and choices that have consequences. It also features gorgeous art and a lovely soundtrack!

What is it your dream? Is it to be a hero..?

Recommended if you enjoyed pretty much anything about Reborn!

Flux is the final fangame I will be recommending today. It's quite incomplete, with one chapter of three being finished, but it more than makes up for it with the story content, gameplay, and gorgeous art. It's also the only fangame in this list that consists almost entirely of Fakemon; some may even seem familiar!

The same people who created Uranium (also do recommend) are currently working on Flux, and some designs have been remastered and carried over into the new game.

Recommended if.. you're breathing. This fangame is amazing. I love it!

If that's not enough, some people over on the Reborn Discord have compiled a list of virtually every ROM hack and fangame out there, with the means to filter to your tastes. I hope it suits you well!

[capybaraonabicycle]

ohh i have a question for you, bc i am dumb and had to review shit i'd done a While ago so when it comes to trig functions, what the heck does sine cosine and tangent MEAN? like, i remember being taught how to do it, just not why and i feel like that was smth i needed to learn cause im like. 90% sure i failed trig lol

Okay, I love this, this is MY question. Because I was very lost on sine & Co in school, but now they feel like brothers to me. I had a very good teaching assistant telling us 4 ways to define them and then he said to pick the one that felt most natural to us. And that really helped.

None of the ways are super simple, but I think they are all very useful under different circumstances and reviewing all together helps getting a feeling for the functions. The fourth definition will probably be most familiar to you and hence the easiest, so wait for it if you get lost before <3 This is also why I will keep the other three definitions rather short. Please ask if you'd like to know more!

And like, on the why, before we start : some definitions have different obvious nifty uses (will always highlight them in blue in the end) but generally, we just define these functions because we can? Like that's what math is to me. You look at some object/concept/whatever and go 'my, isn't that pretty, let's see what else it can do'. So here we will define four times some functions with properties we want because that's just your good old mathematical fun :) (this is not scientific talk, this is how I understand maths - I feel like I should put that as disclaimer on every 2nd sentence tbh 😅)

Also, easiest things first:

Tangent is just sine divided by cosine. That's literally the definition, that's all it is. Tangent's definition isn't magic, tangent's definition is super simple and loves you :)

tan(x) := sin(x) /cos(x)

(also a disclaimer: I am being VERY lenient with definitions of functions here. It is not mathematically exact everywhere, just like you might find it in a class in school tbh, but I decided I didn't want to confuse you further and again, not so sure how familiar with functions you are)

So, without further ado, let's see how many definitions of the trigonometric functions I remember correctly:

(I am pretty sure Nr 1 is the one my teacher started with but you might want to completely skip that one - you'll see why.)

Cosine is the first/easiest function that fulfills the differential equation:

y+y''=0, y(π/2)=0 and y(x) ≠0 for all x on [0,π/2)

So this means we look for a function y that solves the demands

The second derivative of y is the negative of the function y.

π/2 is the 'first' root of y. That is if we plug π/2 into y we get 0 and we don't have any smaller positive number which gives us 0.

The differential equation is solved by multiple versions of sine and cosine, but the simplest that also has π/2 as smallest root is cosine itself. Sine then is just the negative derivative of cosine.

WHY (do we want this definition/the functions that solve this) : Differential equations are extremely important especially in physics. And y+y"=0 is basically as simple as it gets with differential equations, it'd be great to have a nice name for plus understanding of the functions that solve it

2. The Taylor expansion / sum formula

The sine and cosine functions can be written via sequences (infinite sums) *(footnote 1)* as:

sin(x) := Σ_(n=0)^(infinity) [((-1)^n)/((2n+1)!) * x^(2n+1)] = x - x^3/3 + x^5/5 - x^7/7± cos(x) := Σ_(n=0)^(infinity) [((-1)^n)/((2n)!) * x^(2n)] = 1 - x^2/2 + x^4/4 - x^6/6 ±

Hang on, Wikipedia does that more prettily:

So in a way, you could interpret the trigonometric functions as 'infinite polynomials'. This name is mathematically wrong/ugly - they are NOT polynomials - but if it helps feeling closer to them: go for it.

This is actually why we can approximate the trigonometric functions by polynomials this well, something that is used a lot in numerics (I think) and engineering (I know). You might have seen physicists (or similar) say cosine is 'almost 1' for small x or sine is 'almost linear' for small x. The sum formula is why.

WHY: polynomials and converging sequences rule basically, not sure whether there is a better explanation for this one

3. The Euler approach

Sine and cosine are defined by the behaviour of the Euler number e. Do you know it? It is a constant, real number approximately equal to

e≈2.71828.

It has the property that the function e^x is its own derivative, that is that the slope of e^x is always exactly the same as the value 🤯 I know, awesome.

If we now consider the function

e^(ix)

with i the imaginary unit and x in the real numbers, we have the identity

e^(ix)=cos(x) +i*sin(x).

So cosine and sine are in a way parts of the Euler function.

(this is actually linked to the second point bc we can get the sum expansions from the sum expansion of e. And it is linked to the first point bc it tells us the thing about sin(x)"=-sine(x) and accordingly for cosine.)

Okay, so I get how this might not seem very helpful either if you aren't familiar with the Euler number or complex numbers. But as above, most other definitions follow from this one so once you get some understanding of both, this is actually THE definition that gives you the most security :)

WHY: to get the other definitions easily from this. Also, as you can see if you know a little bit about complex numbers, the trigonometric functions give us the real and imaginary part of the Euler function. Which is awesome to have as humans prefer to thing in real numbers to complex ones

4. Angles aka the definition they should teach in a good school

So, this one is easiest to understand, I think, at least if you're a visual learner. So definitely the hardest for me to explain with words 😅

The sine function and cosine function are defined as giving the (oriented) lengths of the sides of a right-angle triangle whose hypotenuse is the radius of the unit circle.

Like this:

So you might remember from school - and I've kinda been using it above in secret before - that sine and cosine take an angle as their argument. That is the angle between the x-axis and the hypotenuse (black line that ends at orange dot) in the above picture. It is marked by a dotted arc. As the angle grows bigger (takes any value between 1 and 2π *(footnote 2)* ) the triangle will change.

The sine function will always give us the (oriented) length of the dotted line down from the orange dot to the x-axis; that is the y-value of the orange dot.

The cosine function will always give us the (oriented) length of the remaining side of the triangle (on the x-axis); that is the x-value of the orange dot.

How do we use this in school? You might have heard the

sin(α) = opposite/hypothenuse cos(α) = adjacent/hypothenuse

story. Well, this is simple to understand: What I have (kinda) told you is

sin(α) = opposite cos(α) = adjacent

(check this :) ), but in this definition, the length of the hypotenuse is 1! So it simply cancels in the above equation. And if we have a different size triangle with hypotenuse ≠1, we only need to scale by that factor to get to the definition, hence the formula from school!

WHY: The formula from school, basically. Easy way to calculate angles and side lengths of a right-angled triangle. Very useful in basic engineering

Footnote 1 on sums:

If you're unfamiliar with sums and the Σ (sigma), ask me again, I can explain. (Also, I actually did explain this in the post I wrote for Pine's art project already. I think I sent you that one?) Or read here (at Notation/Capital Sigma Notation), I think it is simple-ish to understand. Then again, I have been using the Σ on the daily for years.

Footnote 2 on angles and numbers:

In their 'natural' state, the trigonometric functions are defined on the real numbers, so any number in the interval (-infinity, infinity). They are 2π-periodic, which corresponds to going once around a circle.

2π is just some real number, in fact it is the circumference of the unit circle (radius=1), so it makes sense to understand a circle as 'being 2π', and any angle some fraction of the circumference (exactly the length we cut off with the hypotenuse to get that angle).

In school, we often learn of a circle being 360°. I honestly don't know why and by now that way of thinking is alien to me. But it might feel more natural to you.

Sine and cosine - to my knowledge - are not defined for degrees! They are defined for real numbers. So to use them with degrees on a circle, you always have to calculate back and forth.

A good calculator can do that for you - you should be able to switch sine and cosine between degrees (DEG) and radiant(RAD) in the settings. But it isn't too difficult to do by hand either. Just start with

360° '=' 2π or 180° '=' π

and go from there.

In a nutshell: sine and cosine are super useful for maths and science for several reasons and it's not just about triangles! They have at least four equivalent definitions and any one can be used at any given moment, whatever suits your needs best :) If you want to go into higher maths or engineering or physics, they will be your best friends

Funfact that you probably know already: I mentioned that these functions are periodic, yet that isn't even (outrightly) asked for in the definitions. Still, it is one of their most useful qualities, making them the perfect functions to describe waves with - which we need for anything to do with fluids or light -> super useful for physics, engineering and medicine (just think about heartrates and brainwaves)

I hope this was helpful in some way? Feel free to ask whatever :)

[motherforthefamicom]

okay i know nothing about object shows but im willing to learn so if youre up for another infodump im all ears

STARES AT THIS ASK. okay uhrnmhm thisll be under a cut becuz its long <//3 just gonna talk abt General Osc Things since you said you dont know much… okay👍

okay so object shows are just like.. silly funny web-series things with little object guys. they tend to have faces and little stick figure limbs but of course there are always characters that will break typical design conventions. general name for Eveythjng is the object show community (osc for short. theres so many acronyms hopefully that isnt too confusing..)

first ever object show is bfdi (battle for dream island) it was made in 2010 by these two guys, the huang twins, youve probably seen Something theyvemade before they make a lotta cool things, it started in 2010 and is still going on today! its a competition based show inspired by total drama, and the main premise is 20 contestants who are little silly objects are competing for the titular ‘dream island’ throughout multiple challenges, and characters get voted out each episode by the viewers! bfdi is mostly silly jokes and slapstick type stuff, but still has certain bits where they get more ‘serious’ and has its fair share of lore and character arcs. practically every object show is based off of/inspired by this since it was the first and set up the general formula most other shows follow =)

generally speaking its agreed on that inanimate insanity (ii for short) is the second show to be made, and this one takes even more total drama/survivor inspirations. it started in 2011, and is also still going on, generally the second most popular show and REALLY popular on the tumblr side of the osc, probably due to its more ‘serious’ tone compared to other shows. season 1 is pretty… aged.. you can tell it was made by a bunch of teens in the early 2010s, but season 2 as it goes on gets more and more focus on story, character arcs and development, all that jazz. theres a ton of shows from around the time that later season 2 episodes where releasing that take a lot more inspirtation from it in tone and stuff!

something im not entirely sure how to fit into the main bits is that these are like. largely made by kids/teens. bfdi was first created when they were in like middle school n stuff, same with ii, in more recent years as people who have been the community for a while n stuff are getting older theres a lot more adults of course but its still mainly younger people… not enough people seem to take that into consideration when talking abt the community at large/certain shows n stuff so i figured id make sure to point it out 👍

actually speaking of that. a lot and i mean a LOT of shows end up being kind of… obviosuly made by kids. a lot of people find this annoying but i personally couldnt care less its pretty endearing to me (probably cuz me and my friends were all like that lolz) although i can understand where people are coming from with shit where its just like.. offensive. thats not too common tho in my expierence. okay so generic and ‘poorly’ made shows are super common. the response to this there was a massive surge in joke shows which are their whole own beast. im not too familiar with them so im not the best person to come for for that stuff, they generally just joke about how generic and oversaturated object shows were getting to be around the time . all that shit. gimmick shows are also pretty common nowadays, i havent seen any of these so i have nothing to really say i just dont know much aside from they have Gimmicks and thats the whole premise ?

a show thats become like, massive, considered one of ‘the big three’ up there with bfdi and ii, is ONE by cheesy hfj (sometimes also called hfjone or one hfj) its this sort of meta show that uses object shows as a framing device (and its predecessor was this show called battle for circle which is a joke show poking fun at how low quality and samey everything is blah blah blah) and its. a whole thing . i dont even know how to really explain it in a quick summary its like… the undertale of object shows if that makes sense.

theres just. so much i genuienly dont know how or where to end this off becuz the community is SO big and has been around for over a decade and im only really familar with tiny sections of it…

yeah. general takeaway for me when it comes to Everything as a whole is just like.. object shows. the osc. whatever. is just this big community made of passionate people who like to make things and want to share that and its!! cool and fun and despite it having all the typical fandom issues im really grateful that i discovered this stuff becuz it genuinelyhas changed my life and i dont know if i would be as into making art or if i would have this kinda attitude on art that i have now if it werent for the osc. a lot of shows are really silly and all of it looks. kinda stupid if youre not familar with them but they gneuinely hold this special place in my heart cuz… well im not entirely sure how to put it into words if im bring honest. they just feel very.. genuine to me. everyone in the community is so passionate and it just makes me really happy seeing people making things they love and enjoy regardless of how ‘stupid’ or ‘cringe’ or whatever the fuck it might seem if that makes sense =)

[biomic]

First Sentai, Rider and Ultra; and how do you feel about them now?

the first sentai question's always tricky for me bc toqger is what got me into the whole thing, but go-busters is the first one i actually watched in full while toq was still early in its run. i guess i'll go with gobus bc i think my feelings on toq are well-documented

go-busters - this is one i really need to go back to, but i loved it then and im still really fond of it now. power rangers was my only frame of reference at the time and go-busters just blew me away because it was unlike anything i was used to. im foggy on a lot of the details but im so so glad i picked it as my (sort of) first sentai

kamen rider fourze - it was a masterpiece when i first watched it and it's still a masterpiece today. just a perfect cast of characters in a fun high school setting with the clean formula of early phase 2 heisei, AKA the best plot structure rider's ever had. i watched it all the way through a second time just two or three months after i finished it bc it was so just so damn good. it doesn't seem to have a huge reputation in japan but to me it's one of the giants of tokusatsu, and a show i think EVERYONE should watch

ultraman max - max isn't the best ultra's ever been, it's not super ambitious, and i suppose i can see why some people write it off as a filler season between nexus and mebius, but i adore this show and im so glad it was my introduction to the franchise. what i didn't realize at the time is it's essentially a perfect modern ("modern" as of 2005) rendition of showa ultra. very episodic, simple characters, classic scifi concepts mixed in with a handful of wildly trippy, experimental episodes, so as an introduction to ultra it was basically a sampling of everything the series had been up to that point. that was more something the creators were forced to do, bc max was rushed into production after nexus bombed and they needed to get something out fast, but i think it worked out really well. someone who's already pretty familiar with ultraman might find it a bit middling, but for me, who was brand new to the show and watching it pre-new gen on crunchyroll, it was perfect, and i'd love to go back to it

[shruggingcutely]

Random thoughts on 7th Dragon - the economy sucks

I assume nobody follows me for my video game opinions, but hey, I recently found out all the 7th Dragon games that weren’t released in the West (i.e. three out of four) had complete English fan translations, so I decided to go on a journey through the series. I’m about a third into the original 7th Dragon right now.

7th Dragon, if you don’t know, which isn’t too unlikely, is a series of RPGs that started on the NDS when the creator of Etrian Odyssey set out to take his modern take on Wizardry and apply it to the formula of Dragon Quest (which, incidentally, was also inspired by Wizardry – it was, as they say, big in Japan). The dragon apocalypse hits your fantasy world with adorable character designs by Mota, followed by two sequels on the PSP where you fight contemporary/sci-fi dragons not by Mota, and finally the last part of the series, on 3DS, gives you both settings and wraps up the whole thing and somehow was the only part that made it to the West.

The parallels to EO are immediately obvious, as you create a guild and a party of four, complete with front and back row, out of classes that seem a little familiar. The fighter has similar moves as EO’s landsknecht, same for the knight and EO’s protector, etc. Ailments are similar, but binds didn’t make it here. You quickly feel at home, even as it changes up the structure of the game and adds some new combat mechanics.

Fighting dragons is about as fun as you’d expect coming from EO… which is to say a lot, if you enjoyed EO at all. The game gives you so many tools to reduce incoming damage, heal damage, dish out damage, and one I find particularly interesting is the reactive skills. First off, there’s simple parry-style attacks. If your samurai uses the skill corresponding to the right kind of attack the enemy does, they will avoid all damage and retaliate. Then there are skills that trigger counter attacks for several rounds: let your mage put a shock veil on your knight and the enemy will eat lighting every time they dare attack them. Finally, the game’s React skills give you an additional turn when certain requirements are met in the next five rounds. Your healer gets a free turn when a party member dies? Yup. Your rogue gets one on successful counters? Yes. Your princess gets one if a party member gets a turn from their own React skill? Heck yeah. You can do some stuff that is both very gimmicky and very powerful with this, and supposedly the sequels explore these kinds of skills more, so I’m excited.

The game’s structure, however, introduces some problems, some of which are… odd. To accept a quest you have to find an NPC who has one, then accept it at the guild house’s quest board, talk to the NPC again to find out what they want, do the quest, talk to them again, and finally collect your reward at the quest board. These unnecessary steps seem just a little tedious at first, until you get to parts of the game where an NPC in a village without guild house requires your services and you get to go on a long trek to the next big city. And talking to the NPC is the only way to find out what they want, so you better not forget.

One of the game’s big conceits is its dragon counter. There are 666 dragons for you to kill, who, like EO’s infamous FOEs, are powerful enemies that walk around dungeons and join nearby battles, and they are bullies who spread deadly flowers all over the world. These flowers hurt your party as you walk over them and, to make matters worse, increase prices in stores significantly as they presumably cut off trade routes and endanger foragers. Add to this the high random encounter rate that interrupts you every couple of steps and slaying dragons to save humanity feels less like an adventure and more like a job. You do have to pitch your services to several governments. Even in your fantasy RPG, the gig economy.

As Aevee Bee says in her piece on pacing and level design in Bravely Default and Etrian Odyssey about the latter, “And you’re not bored yet, because you run out of resources before you can be, so you really, really want to take that step, explore more, see how much you can push yourself, even though maybe you shouldn’t…see how powerful it is to tempt players into making the wrong choice?” 7th Dragon likes you running out of resources very much. Every map of a dungeon contains 5+ dragons, who, unlike FOEs, aren’t always avoidable and often come in groups that will gang up on you. This means even if you immediately and successfully escape every single one of the numerous random encounters, you can’t take much more than a handful of dragons before you need to heal. Where do you heal? Towns, usually. And thus you make five trips in a row from the city to the dungeon to get rid of as many dragons as you can while getting interrupted by random encounters constantly. This is the first time in an RPG like this where I fled all the time and only fought the dragons I absolutely had to so I could progress. When your level is high enough they barely give any XP, either, which turns it into a high risk, low reward situation, so I kept them around for leveling weaker characters. It’s not like they’re bothering anyone like this anyway.

My starting party didn’t exactly help matters, though. I quickly decided to go with the princess and knight combo, because I love the princess’ role as a buffer with ailments and heals. This is the class I take in every EO game. The knight not only reduces damage to the party a lot, they also deal good damage and have a hard synergy combo with the princess: the skill that declares an enemy wanted does nothing at all, unless you have a knight with the skill that attacks wanted enemies for high damage. The princess’ downside as main healer is twofold: she has no skills to remove ailments from the party and as every EO player knows ailments are very deadly, and she has no revive. Both of these can be compensated for with items, but because these aren’t available early on, I decided to pick a healer as well, which let me focus less on making either of them a pure healer. Result: ehhh, they often end up with turns where they can do nothing of consequence, so I decided to train up either a samurai or a fighter to switch in. With my fourth party member being a mage with three elements, this party suddenly has very good damage. I still haven’t found revive items in shops, though, so my… fighter, most likely, still has some dragons to eat before that. We’ll see how that goes.

By the way, changing your party? Only possible in a single one of the towns. Hope you enjoy traveling.

[marioclash]

my favorite games that of 2017 in no particular order (i will count ports of older games as well)

zelda botw, crash n sane trilogy(technically 3 games but who cares), mario odyssey, mario kart 8 deluxe, sonic mania, hat in time, snipperclips, puyo puyo tetris (switch), shovel knight treasure trove (again, technically 3 games but who cares)

 couldnt play a lot of huge releases because MONEY but these are some of my favorites

more about my picks under the cut

botw: i absolutely adored this game, it was incredibly refreshing to see zelda go in this open world direction. this was what sold the switch for me. i have over 250 hours in this game and i havent even finished the second dlc

n sane trilogy: a huge surprise! i honestly thought it was gonna be a little finicky in certain areas, but it is crash through in through. it has welcome additions as well as tweaks to each of the three games that are incredibly welcome

mario odyssey: wow. just wow... this is the best mario game ever. no contest about it. it took what made every mario game great and multiplied it tenfold. cappy is incredibly well implemented and marios control has been tweaked to what i consider absolute perfection. seriously. an amazing game.

mario kart 8 deluxe: the first port on this list! despite not caring about battle mode in general when it comes to mario kart, this is a fantastic port that runs amazing on the switch. i owned the wii u version with all the dlc, but i do believe the 60 dollar price tag is worth it for what is definitely the best mario kart game ever

sonic mania: another huge surprise for me! im bad at sonic games... like really really bad. and usually when it comes to sonic games ill get frustrated and put the game down and pick it back up months later, but with mania, if i ever got frustrated with some stupid section, it was so good that i didnt feel like throwing a fit whenever i messed up. the drop dash is a very nice mechanic, and its easier to gain speed than ever before. loved it.

hat in time: i didnt back this game, i didnt even hear about it until like a year ago. however when i first played this, i felt that childlike wonder that i felt when i first played mario 64 as a little kid. its cute as HELL, the graphics are nice and colorful, and its very fun to just run around. its pretty easy for the entire game, but thats not always a bad thing. its a fun game to just kick back and relax and play

snipperclips: ...huh. didnt even think id like this one. i played it completely single player, and despite it being more difficult, i thought it was still fun! the mechanics are very new and fresh and its so damn cute

puyo puyo tetris: im a tetris guy. ill say that right here. i dont play puyo puyo. however, this game made me love puyo puyo. the tetris part of the game is absolutely the definitive version of the game, and with the story mode, it will ease you into playing whatever you might not be familiar with. a delightful, intense romp all the way through. FUCK puyo players online though

shovel knight treasure trove: GOD i love this game... or games. my favorite of the three being specter of torment, it lends itself to the old platform games on the nes with nice twists on the standard formula to keep you on your toes. a bit difficult at parts, but nothing TOO bad. a great package of three great games.

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2017 Day 7: Weird things are weird

And for the grand finale, we pick up a few stragglers.

Previously:

• Part 1: Maximum Something

• Part 2: The snooze cruise

• Part 3: Fooled again

• Part 4: Screenshots don’t lie

• Part 5: Rather problematic

• Part 6: We’re bringing it back.

Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Shobitch na Ken (My Girlfriend is Shobitch a Faithful Virgin Bitch)

Shobitch is about a highschooler who somehow lucks into a Rei-like girlfriend that is very serious about sex, so she talks about it a lot. There’s a bunch of other girls too, who also like to talk about sex a lot. Spoilers: None of these people are about to have actual sex any time soon, so this seems mostly just one of those “voice actress talks dirty to you” CDs. Since the VA in question is Aoi Yuuki, that may indeed appeal to a certain kind of viewer. There’s also technically some visuals on top, but that’s not a priority. Shobitch is hella cheap even in episode 1; not on the level of a disaster like Dynamic Chord, but certainly on the level of a lower-mid tier TV anime by episode 8. The camera also has a bizarre obsession with skirts – not even butts, or panties, or zettai ryouiki, just skirts for some reason. On the content side, it adheres to the same broad formula as Imouto Iraeba: First some shocking lewdness, then some circular slice of life shenanigans (with more lewdness), and finally some sentimental bullshit so the viewer is left under the impression there’s some merit to it all. The main difference is that impressive title aside, this is based on a manga and not a light novel. That has clear benefits: It has to try for writing constructs that broadly qualify as “jokes” and doesn’t spend the majority of the time with end- and pojntless nerd conversations – even if the jokes are, of course, all the same and quite terrible besides. Just keep in mind that the key visual is still funnier than anything that’s actually in the show. So it doesn’t challenge Imouto Iraeba for worst of the season (and consequently earns a real screencap), but the distinction is academic because like hell I’m going to watch more of either of them.

Evil or Live

Oh Haoliners, what are we going to do with you. It’s nice that you’re not doing unfunny comedy or boring action for once, but whatever this is, it’s not a winner either. Evil or Live appears to be a brutally grim prison drama about a kid that gets sent to Internet Addiction Reeducation Camp (somehow I don’t think this is going on air in China any time soon, unless the values behind it are not what they appear – which is a slim but not completely insignificant chance) and learns the value of hard work and friendship. j/k, he just gets beat up a lot and contemplates suicide. So this is all very serious indeed, apart from the bit where everyone is cartoonishly evil and the obligatory gay joke in the middle of it all, because he ends up as the prison bitch of some local hotshot. This would be eye-rolling under any circumstance, but in the middle of this dour tragedy it sticks out like an inconvenient erection. Even without that, Evil or Live would not be a pick simply because it’s so astoundingly grim and ugly (both content- and visualswise) that it ends up being unwatchable, and absolutely not in a good way. I’ll add “inept drama” to the list of Haoliners’ achievements and move on.

Inuyashiki Last Hero

Ichiro Inuyashiki is having a bad day. Not only is he a late-50s dead-end salaryman that looks a good decade older than that, he also has a family of such astounding indifference that they won’t take his call when he gets diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and told that he has three months to live. And that’s not even the bad part, later he gets killed in a freak hit-and-run accident involving passing aliens. Those aliens don’t want to wait for the police to show up so they give him a military-grade cyborg body and flee the scene. Then he witnesses some scumbag kids trying to kill a homeless man and after knocking them out with homing lasers, he decides that he’s going to be a Hero of Justice™ from now on because this is the first time anyone has given a shit about him in years. You know, noitaminA is always a toss-up these days, because you never know whether you’ll get Serious Anime for Serious People or just a battle harem LN with an above-average budget out of it. I’m happy to report that of nothing else, Inuyashiki is... different. Not that “sad loser gets superpowers” is very original, but this time it’s a loser so sad that no high school kid, no matter how sad, can begin to compare. And there’s just something incredibly weird about it all, with how it starts as an atmospheric portrait of this poor old man and then suddenly ALIENS, how the action is shot extra not-exciting and set to bizarre music (not that a bunch of punks with baseballs bats going up against the Terminator would result in a fight), how the show constantly leans on not-quite-good-enough-CG a little too much, and how the opening is both visually sumptuous and set to a song by Shibuya’s own rap-rock phenomenon Man on a Mission (of LIVIN IN DE DETUHBES fame). That song is no joke called “My Hero”, has incredibly on-the-nose lyrics and is both Kid Rock levels of stupid and incredibly catchy, epic (they have strings now) and just plain fun. Well, the source manga is by the author of Gantz, which may or may not explain things (I think it at least explains how inexplicable everything is). In any case, Inuyashiki is not super great right away, but it is intriguing and there’s a lot of even more interesting ways it can go. I’ll at least keep watching it until it confirms that it is not picking any of those.

Onyankopon

Speaking of weird, here’s an absurd 3-minute CG comedy short. It is a very familiar kind of weirdness. If you’ve seen gdgd fairies and the like, you’ll know it: If it’s not voice actresses adlibbing non-sequitur jokes, it does a good job imitating that. It looks like shit. There’s also a musical number with subversive lyrics. Laugh at this stuff or don’t, it’s not like I care.

That would be it for the season then, it seems weaker than last one for sure. A week in, there’s been a few second episodes of note: Dies Irae (which I’ve been suckered into watching more of by a bunch of fools) is still terrible. Just Because couldn’t keep up the production values and veered off into very familiar romantic territory too, which makes me withdraw a lot of the praise I’ve given it. Kino no Tabi followed up its “meh” first episode with a second one that was just straight-up bad, so it’s not looking well for that either. Positive surprises were iM@S Side M, which managed to be fun even when not about Jupiter, and Net-Juu, which is just cute and might end up being legit if it sticks to the more serious undertones all the way. I think I’ll call it here since there’s nothing really noteworthy down the line; thanks for reading, and see you in three months (unless I actually manage to review a few shows from the last season, that is).