#so in short no i dont have anything to say about what asriel will be like

[hellspawnmotel]

Two questions:

1: Thoughts on Deltarune Toriel and her relationship with Kris alongside what her ultimate in the story will be like? Personally, I think we may get a lot of development with her if she joins us in the chapter 3 Dark World, but that’s just me.

2: Thoughts on also what Asriel’ stole in DR will be like? Considering how much of a fan-favourite he is and how Toby’s definitely aware of that, it feels we might good some subversion thrown out with him, whatever that may be like. Love to hear your thoughts on this as well.

um..... honestly I don't have that many thoughts on either of them as characters in deltarune, haha. as I've said before, I'm not really into making theories for its own sake and most of what I do is just speculating on really vague stuff, based on dialogue and themes- okay so maybe I do make theories LOL I just like doing analysis better, but I really don't have anything new to say about toriel or asriel, that hasn't been said before......

..........except, I'm not totally convinced that asriel actually exists? in deltarune?? like he exists in the lives and memories of the characters obviously, but on a meta level I don't know if he has like. a character file, a sprite, etc, if that makes sense. I dunno, I sort of suspect that might be why kris can't reach him- nothing actually exists outside of hometown and the dark world, because that's all that needs to exist to make the setting of this video game. I kinda hope that's not true because it would make me pretty sad and I'd love to meet an adult asriel, but I can also totally see it happening! on the other hand, that idea has been done before in so many other settings that involve a metanarrative or "fake"/artificial location (I can think of at least three off the top of my head) and I'm sure toby also knows that so he might not go for that angle, or do a different kind of twist on it. after all dess also "doesnt exist" within the game proper outside of other characters referencing her, same as asriel, but she's clearly a physical entity in the code. it might be that rather than not existing at all, asriel just hasn't been "built" yet because it's not time for him to appear, if he's going to. so like- he exists within the story of deltarune and he's just off having fun at college, but outside in the next layer that sits in between the game world and our world, where gaster is doing whatever, he doesnt. gaster (if we're to assume it IS him behind everything) hasn't made him yet. yknow. or hasn't acquired him. toby still has custody. I hope that makes sense

[anewarise]

HDM final episode (8) commentary + things I love.

Spoilers from series and book ahead. Doing because I need to share my crazy emotions.

• HERE WE ARE, ITS THE END OF THE SEASON AND IM IN PAINFULL HYPE! :D

• That's a Gun. Uh.

• Stelmaria please, don't spoil things for the non-readers.

• Little Lyra...that smile so sweet. My Lyra, deserves better.

• "You don't want me here?" It sounds so little. As little as she is. As she feel. Lyra's relationship with Asriel is one of fear respect and...

• Proud ok they just say it.

• Oh Asriel be careful feels are dangerous uhuh. Really Asriel and Marisa were a couple for Strong Reasons. He's thinkkng about what could have been. He's not there. He has a mission and don't includes Lyra.

• ITS SILVERTONGUE

• OH MY HEARTH LYRA. "I didn't call myself a father?" YOU ASHOOLE you should have think first in that instead of getting someone PREGNANT. REALLY. UGH. *more angry noises*

• *angry noises as Marisa's daemon*

• Oh. She's scared of Asriel, the encounter, the highs?

• Low strike míster but he got her there. And defences are activated. Yes, look at that woman OWNS everyone.

• Fray Pavel you poor thing. Really? Not even a thank you? Dammit Boreal.

• THE enemy...Asriel, I still don't know how you reach that idea in the first place. You don't just...uuuff this men is so frjstrating sometimes (ALL THE TIME)

• Roger you beutiful being. You're the best. I love you. You are Smart and brillant. And lovely. And so good to Lyra...

• Boreal ohhhh snap.

• AY LORD. THEY'RE LAUGHING. NO...MY HEARTH SO CUTE...

• Omg Roger... "because we change each others lifes"

• And Im crying. Is oficial now. GREAT.

• Oh, NOW you want to talk.

• Oh....I remember Lyra's clases in Lyra's Jordan episode. Beutiful paraller.

• Asriel is surprised by Marisa caring. Well there is a long ride for that one surprise.

• He is so nervous talking to her. That's why he keep talking about dust. You don't fool me. Comfortable zone isn't it.

• "Nobody comes from nothing" Good one. You tried at best. Well done.

• Will is running on stress and anxiety. Run boy run.

• RUN GIRL RUN.

• IM CRYING AGAIN ROGEEEEER

• This family dont stop lying do they????!

• SHE HAS A GUN DON'T BELIEVE HER

• Marisa you're feels are showing again.

• But I have to say it: Marisa Coulter has become one of the best characters even. I love her a lot now. She has own the show from start to end.

• I KNOW WHERE WILL IS GOING. I have never...I don't know how I recognised a place I have just imagined from book but I did.

• Roger you kn- WHERES THE SURPRISE FOR LYRA?????!!!! OMFG OMG ASRIEL YOU AKJDKAJXIWKDK

• Marisa personal army.

• IOREK TAKE LYRA OUT THERE C'AMON

• Nooo NOOOO LEAVE HIM BE NOOO

• The music is killing me.

• The Ice bridge. A goodbye. Nothing will be the same.

• This imagery always makes me shivers. And the music and silence fit. Is perfect. Once she has cross it. There's no going back. For anything.

• AY THE SCREAMS. NO.

• NononoNO Ay NO!

I blaked out throught the rest of the episode but I express my thoughts:

• Marisa and Asriel scene is still surrealist for me. It has just the same dream feel as in the books. A child just died. Roger just died. But what do they care about that? They're adults. In a mission who they think is more important than one's little boy's life.....the most important and special boy in Lyra's life.

• Lyra deserves to watch that encounter but somehow I think is better this way. She is already traumatized and she doesn,t even know.

• Roger mourning somehow reveals how little Lyra really is. She doesn't know what to do. Where to go. Somehow, even if Pan is right about dust, the truth is that she is going to follow that path, lost and with fear, because she is so in shock that the better lie or the most surprising turnos of events sounds more rational that what just happen before her. She will catch the dream just formed and use it has a rock. Because she doesn't have anywhere to turn.

• Will coming throught the window was expected for me. Good paraller.

Anddddd thats it! There are so many many things I would like to say, but it's almost 3 a.m. and need my mund cleary for it.

This journey has been...short somehow, bit totally worth it. It hasn't been perfect but you know? It has been good, and good enough for me. I think it have been treted carefull and made with love for the readers and love for the characters even! Im satisfied in a general scheme and I LOVE the actors and the characters management. I am really happy to have this unexpected gift that HDM is and to have share it with a lot of people who is around here, even if Im more the quite silent person who reblogs everything.

I can see the love everybody has, the emotions almost all share. Its wonderful. Its beutiful. Now its time to make it last just a little more ;)

[groundramon]

This trend of games trying to be self-aware is really interesting to me tbh

I have minimal to zero knowledge of the technical mumbo jumbo and coding that goes into video games, but I played RPG Maker a LOT as a kid and I have a pretty solid knowledge of what you can and cant do with a game.  RPG Maker wouldnt allow you to replicate something like DDLC or even Undertale due to its limitations, but its enough to tell me this - “infinite generation” is finite

The scene where you and Monika are sitting alone in a room in DDLC is supposed to seem like Monika has an infinite number of things to say - like she truly is a computer program that has achieved sentience and is having a conversation with you.  And while I actually think the dialogue written for this part - ironically, the only dialogue that a lot of people aren’t going to stick around and read - is some of the best in the entire game, it’s still...a computer program.  Ironically, the scene that’s supposed to convince you that she’s real is the most limited by the restraints of technology and human ability.  She flips through 53 dialogue options before she starts repeating herself - that is an insane number of dialogue options.  But it’s still finite.

A game creating files in your computer seems terrifying, but programs - including games - do this all the time on your machines.  Where do you think your minecraft data goes after you create a new world?  Into the void?  No, it creates a new file in your computer.  It’s programmed to save a specific file in a certain way so that it can be extracted by the game later.  All games like DDLC do is take that technology and add “irrelevant” files that aren’t relevant to the inner workings of the game.

I’m not saying DDLC is a bad game or anything, I’m just saying that the things the game does are actually extremely easy to do.  Hell, I could probably replicate it with Gamemaker - not RPG Maker, but Gamemaker definitely.

Which brings me to the other game I mentioned in this - Undertale.  Undertale is weird because unlike DDLC, where it explains to you how and some of the workings of the meta of the game, it doesn’t explain if Asriel knows that you’re a player or if your character is just a fucking god in their universe.  It seems more like Asriel thinks you’re just your character, not a player, even though he’s aware that you’re both in a game.  There’s still a meta to the game though obviously.

But besides that, Undertale was always described to me before i played it as a game where you can pick your own direction in the game.  An RPG with multiple distinct routes.  It’s like an RPG, but with the flexibility of an open world game.  What’s not to love about that?

Except...its really not.  At best, the game has two distinct routes; the Neutral/Pacifist route and the Genocide route.  The Neutral and Pacifist route are different and cause different effects, sure, but you have to play through the Neutral route to get the Pacifist ending and the Pacifist ending just builds on the route, so close enough.  But even the Genocide route is just largely the same game, just with different dialogue switched in and a different ending (Sans fight instead of Flowey/Asriel fight)  I dont blame Toby for that, but it was still a little bit of a letdown considering all the hype around the game.  The game is also short enough that even if we counted the Genocide route as a separate route entirely, if we combined the lengths of the pacifist route and the genocide route, the game is STILL shorter than most games (if I remember correctly - at the very least, it’d be about the same length)

Ever since playing Undertale, I started thinking about what it’d take to make an RPG where every playthrough truly does feel like a different game.  Not necessarily an RPG that is self aware like Undertale or DDLC (not that DDLC is an rpg lmao), but just one where there are so many randomly generated possibilities for a story that could be pieced together that each playthrough feels different from the other.

I actually have a name for that project - Branching Paths.  Unfortunately its on an indefinite hiatus because I’m lazy, busy, and the only game making program I know how to use is RPG Maker and even then I only know how to barely.  So this isn’t a plug for the game or anything, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what you could make vary and how you could make it vary.  With enough time and the right resources, believe me when I say you could make something with 10x more variety than Undertale.