#tasuku lkyt

[demi-pixellated]

Who’s that smile for?

[supranatra]

LIFE IS VERY BEAUTIFUL!!!! LIVE!!!!

"Au" yap below :D !! (And some colorin)

/funnily enough I know for sure Yael wouldn't have such a blow up about it, i bet he'd sigh like he always does and tell him he needs to grow up for real now and smile.

I think Tasuku would be so damn nervous he would be torn between being at Yael's cabin and being home with his family. He'd probably also blow up Towa's line constantly for reassurance that eventually Towa is like "okay just bring him up the shrine man I'll look at him."

He'd eventually tell his mother who would get angry because they aren't even married (and she wasn't aware of their intimacy), AND that Yael is out in the sticks alone. Fuka would be confused then happy.

Special wedding maybe? I like to also imagine that this is after the Underworld visit and if the coup didn't happen. Lol. But I think it would still piss off Gengan even more!!

I don't think they'd get married or anything (ofc technically they are due to the bond) because Yael would think it's a hassle and also mention they're bonded already. Tasuku and his family would really like to do it but also weighed how it would be seen versus their own feelings. So it might be a very, very private endeavor if they did it at all. Towa, ofc, would be present :)

And then finally, i think Yael would prefer staying at his cabin with the kid (i feel like they'd have a daughter lol) and once again, Tasuku and family would like them to move in. Again it's a hassle and he likes his own space, so he says no. Tasuku can't really square it with others about why there's a baby at their house, so he agrees to coming over to visit often (not too often bc it'll get annoying, though I like to image Yael quietly enjoys feeling crowded in with his family...)

Eventually of course, Tasuku will move in with Yael. This would be seen as him truly growing up and all that. They have just the one child because Yael doesn't want to feel like a breeding sow. But you know things happen. They may end up with another one :D//

OKAY OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH JGGJF i could literally talk about mpreg, babies, and family headcanons all damn day if you let me. Please let me. If you're if you're also off the mind khdjdnd i just think it's all so cute (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

[materpater]

Hehe more of my special brand of brainrot called: drawing hypothetical fix-it mpreg fanart for random media. Featuring. One more time: lkyt

[valkavavaart]

[michiruze]

Lkyt. - Thoughts

In times of despair, we seek light. But when the light exposes the rotten core of destiny, where does your heart go?

After a year of "I bought the game, and left it there", I finally gave the much-anticipated Lkyt. (2020) a go. I went into this game knowing nearly nothing except the fact that I shouldn't expect another No, Thank You!!! (2013)

And it worked. This game is nothing like I've expected, and I was left with the feeling of both fullness and emptiness. The kind of feelings that comes from witnessing a profound piece of fiction that tells so much.

And so much it tells. Lkyt. (2020) ended up piercing my heart, going straight to the jugular and consumes it.

This is not a story of heroic warriors. This is a story of betrayal by nature.

What happens when you are born in a rotten world, destined to be hollowed out?

(Music to listen to while reading)

The concept of a story that focuses on letting the audience experience what living in a war-torn reality feels like isn't new. In a sense, there's nothing new about Lkyt. (2020). What this game brings to the table, however, is the characters, and how the setting interacts with the horrors plaguing it.

The first thing you see in the game is that it's set in a fictional medieval Japanese setting with a twist --- there's a cosmic horror thing as their common (and only) enemy. And this thing unites the people, mobilizing themselves to face it, with willingness to die for the safety of others. You are seeing the story of unity against a force of death. 'Till death do they part.

This gives the game an opportunity to explore the values of 'heroism' and 'warriors' without overstuffing it with real-world signifiers, and without the risk of turning into a soapbox for the game's writer(s) to be 'right' about their opinions on serious topics. Not only there are cosmic horrors inbound, there's a lot of political intrigue in the story that is guaranteed to keep the audience glued and frustrated over how relevant all of it is.

The setting also allows the game to explore certain topics such as grief, nihilism, loyalty through the eyes of war-torn people.

It certainly reminds me of 28 Days Later (2002) and Annihilation (2018) where the science fiction setting allows the movie to explore themes of familial bond, survival, love, and the dark side of militarism through the eyes of survivors of dark times.

The gist of this is that the setting allows the themes to emerge by itself and let the readers draw their conclusions.

And it's certainly stuffed with interesting topics to think about. Betrayed by history, belief, and destiny. Betrayed by the nation.

When all you know is "war" and "the enemy" and nothing else....what happens when both are gone, and defeated? Do we stay in unity?

When the values of the world you live in was built by darkness, what happens when light shines through it?

Lkyt. (2020) in a sense, is about the fragility of our reality. Through the horrifying reality that the characters live in, it exposes fragilities that we face in real life.

Having the game written around this dark fantasy setting also gives the game the chance to actually provoke powerful messages of hope as well. Darkness can be overcome, it's how we decide to shine the light that matters.

Lkyt. (2020) tells said tragedy in heartbreaking ways. It is not an exaggeration that this is one of the heaviest BL games to ever come out.

But this being an utsuge obviously means that it's not all rainbows and sunshine. What happens when you decide to shine a light in a world overrun by darkness to the core? Lkyt. (2020) also tells the tragedy of what happens when innate darkness resists light. In this case, the determination to end suffering, in a world where the concept of 'light' seemingly does not exist. What if the darkness has penetrated the world so deeply that an attempt to end suffering is seen as a disgrace to the existing values and beliefs built by fear, violence, and hatred against darkness? What if light suddenly penetrates darkness? What if people who had never seen what 'hope' is, suddenly sees it?

All that this world knows is violence, fear, and darkness. And light becomes a force of threat as a result.

Make no mistake, it's not only heartbreaking, but also depressing and disturbing. This game is written by Tatsuya Kurashiki, who wrote chunks of NTY!!!.....but before he wrote Lkyt. (2020), he also wrote the infamously gory and extremely disturbing Maggot Baits (2015). In fact, this game shared the same writing team as the latter.

You can tell that there are remnants of Maggot Baits (2015) left in his writing for Lkyt. (2020), and several parts (especially the goriest parts of the game) seems to be a callback to his time writing it. (You can turn off gory CGs but NOT gory texts)

However, the hopelessness and darkness is not without reason, nor it's done as shock value. They have a concrete reason to be written that way, and it's ultimately not for nothing. The game's title (it's an acronym for an English sentence!) even supports this.

It's not all darkness, though. Of course, there are obligatory comedic elements you'd find in parade titles, as well as horny jokes and light-hearted lines referring to having gay relationships for diplomatic reasons. That alone makes me want to recommend this game to everyone. That said, let's talk about the characters.

Tasuku is markedly different from previous parade protagonists. For a horny top, he is a purely selfless human being with devotion to his belief to protect the powerless. The game obviously puts him into situations where his views gets challenged and rejected, and part of the 'fun' of Lkyt. (2020) comes from how Tasuku overcomes it. By the third part of the story you really want him to prevail, survive, and win.

Tasuku's selflessness gets complemented real well with the assortment of love interests who has their own beliefs and are challenged by Tasuku's selflessness. Takeru's unconditional loyalty, Yael's numbing nihilism, Ango's despair, and Towa's extreme responsibilities in shouldering pain....all of them complements their bond with Tasuku, where their bond becomes the beacon of light.

One thing to know about their bonds is that it is not 'romantic' in a traditional sense. Their bonds, while sexual and leads to loving bonds, are more of 'necessary bonds in order to survive the apocalypse'. The kind of bonds you form to accept the apocalypse.

There's a persistent feeling of "the end is near and all I want to experience intimacy before we all die" in each route, with these bonds forming a resistance against darkness.

That's all I can say about the game's substance. On the 'style' front, Lkyt. (2020) is absolutely made with love, even when you can spot signs of small budget (reminding everybody that parade is CLOCKUP --- not known for big budget story games!)

The art by CLOCKUP's Norizane is the biggest winner of the game. She draws characters in a way that lets their features shine and be different. Her character designs are very memorable and you can tell that she's giving something for everyone from how each love interest's bodies are drawn (skinny bishies, burly men, hot priest). I hope she continues to make art for parade's games.

The game's color palette, whilst limited to greys, reds, and browns to give it a barren, desolate feel, does not feel 'bland' at all through the integration of the memorable character designs to the background details, like a movie with a cinematography that elevates the 'bland' setting. At times it feels reminiscent of director Alex Garland's work, especially Annihilation (2018).

One thing I have to praise this game for is the option to turn off gore. It's very helpful even though there are only 4 gory CGs (but BY GOD they're GORY as fuck!). The completion status feature also rules, as does the game listing all scenes and completion indicators, allowing readers to find out parts they have not read yet!

While the music feels pretty okay (especially if you've played parade's other games --- even moreso if you played CLOCKUP games too) since the budget probably only allows few songs, the opening theme is absolutely amazing, sets the tone properly for the game and is appropriately emotional.

However, the small budget attributed to this game makes it that there's simply not enough CGs for the story (possibly due to Norizane's commitments to couple of CLOCKUP titles at the same time of Lkyt's development). Some parts of the game feels that it needed CGs to explain things, and for readers who finds overly descriptive texts confusing, it could make them feel lost.

Seeing the liner notes reveals that the game could've benefitted from having a longer development time for story and character writing and I agree. Some parts of the routes felt repetitive and the decision to cram the love interests' backstories near the end feels like a rushed attempt to wrap up stuff.

So, how's this game, overall? For people expecting another No, Thank You!!! (2013), this game isn't it. It's a completely different experience, a story-heavy experience much closer to Nitro+Chiral than anything else, that can be attributed to the fact that it's written by Tatsuya Kurashiki, a writer cut from the same mold as Takashi Masada, whose CV consists of mostly long, story-heavy chuuni games

Lkyt. (2020) is great, but in the end, it's an acquired taste thing. It's certainly not for everyone. It's heavy, touching, disturbing, and depressing. You really need to be in the right mood to engage.

Though, Lkyt. (2020) is a very profound experience full of meaning and journeys through the darkness to find light. If you go the might....please do experience it!

As a small P.S, describing Lkyt. (2020) as "Sekiro if it was made by Alex Garland" means that I had to watch Civil War (2024) right as I had finished the game to write my thoughts clearer and.....Lkyt. (2020) is what this film tried to be, so there's that.

Lkyt. (2020) certainly is the movie that Alex Garland desperately tried to make. The "story where it's about how war feels like" thing that he wanted to make.

[warriorfujoshi]

t-tasuyae…

[sapphire-theseainequator]

Nobody talks about ango's route and that's saying something.

Also holy shit, if this was pre-porn ban tumblr, I would see more ango posting because man that gore would send some of those gore artist to heaven.

Man, wonder what happen to them.

Still need to finish his route though, but also, compared to takeru's route his route feels rushed and mid. It could be better. But I do think it is the same problem I have with takeru's route conclussion

[demi-pixellated]

Yael..........🥺💞

[moksh4]

almost finishing yaels route is not as romantic as tasuku's it was nice over all i think. its probably because i think hes handsome LOL

[tempural]

This scene from Lkyt has been haunting me. Tasuku asks Yael if he likes baths, while they're taking a bath. But I drew it with Scout and Spy cuz it's almost the same dynamic… Scout and Spy travel to 16th century Japan I guess.

[maou-lucie]

Tasuku from #lkyt I love cute protags!!! (extra bonus points/especially if they're a top)

[bunycube]

i needddd to draw mroe lkyt tasuku is do precious to me n no ine even knows..unacceptsble

[local-gay-weeb]

One thing I’m really enjoying about LKYT so far is that Yael’s and Takeru’s routes are very complimentary towards each other, but they’re different enough characters that the stories feels very distinct! And both routes have been really fun and charming in their own ways.

Yael is funny! I enjoyed the process of Tasuku trying to get closer to him, but always being a step behind or not being seen as an equal by Yael. I’d think a route with a character that indifferent wouldn’t be that interesting to me, but Yael was a legitimately intriguing character to get to know. Nothing ever felt particularly romantic between them, and I was surprised by how much I didn’t mind that.

Takeru, on the other hand, is much more similar to Tasuku. He sees him as a proper rival from the beginning, but also more of a friend and equal. And while he seems cold and indifferent at the start, he’s actually so open and fun to build Tasuku’s relationship with. I feel more of a genuine bond from them, and more excitement around the time that they spend together. I’m also finding him to be surprisingly cute!

I saw a lot of people recommend playing Takeru >> Yael for the plot building, but I’m really happy I went with Yael >> Takeru. I love romance, and so after Yael I was like “oh okay, it’s not going to be a super relationship-centric game, but I’m still enjoying the story enough that I don’t mind.” But Takeru’s route has been such a pleasant surprise because of that order for me.

I love both characters, but I enjoyed the mystery of Yael, and I enjoy Takeru’s dynamic with Tasuku. I’m excited to see where things go with Takeru, but so far I’m just so happy with how much I’m enjoying the two routes for their different qualities. Also I am scared for how it might end (I have no clue rn). But I’m enjoying the journey along the way!!

[glissandodisaster]

lkyt spoilers lol

[remembers how the traitor tried to kill the hollows with fire] ah, surely they're gonna try to burn the core, right--

tasuku the absolute madman:

[dirkxcaliborn]

The biggest crime in Lkyt is that Tasuku doesn't have a blushing sprite. It's an actual crime honestly

[warriorfujoshi]

yael san …