#tencent

[jadeazora]

The public test server for Pokemon UNITE (Hong Kong-based) will add Tinkaton and Galarian Rapidash starting Nov21. They'll be the next playable characters added to the game.

Also, the NSO has a new wave of icons and frames for SV and The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. New items will be added weekly until Jan7. Wave 1 is available until Nov25.

[clanslist]

I have not posted about the Tencent animation concepts on this account due to the company using AI for them.

It a huge slap to the face of all of the wonderfully talented artists and animators that have made the community what it is. Without such a strong fandom, they would not have the show to begin with. There is no excuse for greed.

Instead, I will push you to revisit either your favorite Warriors content (AMVs, MAPs, PMVs, etc) or maybe give a new creator some love! Fanartists have built this community to what it is and we will continue to expand. Say no to AI!

[yanyuegege]

Sweet Games EP12

[saintseiya-zone]

DC Capricorn Shura

Saint Seiya Awakening official skin (2024) artwork

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Evan’s Facetime Call: Jealousy [吃醋] Translation

*Light and Night Masterlist | Evan’s Personal Masterlist *Click “keep reading” to access video on website (works fine on mobile) *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Evan’s tag will be #For Night, For Revolution

❖☆————— ⊹ For Night, For Revolution⊹ —————★❖

Evan: (Y/n), are you not home yet?

Evan: No, I just had a couple of drinks at a social event.

Evan: Is my face very red? It might have something to do with my constitution.

Evan: Did something interesting happen for you to be beaming like that?

Evan: A class reunion, huh.

Evan: Saw your old friends, did you?

Evan: That stands to reason. No wonder I saw someone coming to pick you up after work.

Evan: A tall, skinny guy. He called out your name all so familiarly.

Evan: Is he also one of your good friends?

Evan: I do mind, slightly.

Evan: “I'll send you home since it's along the way.” Do I not use the same line on you all the time as well? 

Evan: Of course, you're the only one I've ever said that too.

Evan: And more often than not, I actually had to go out of the way to do so.

Evan: But I simply wanted to talk to you more.

Evan: I knew it. You've only just realized it now, haven't you?

Evan: You're truly… Don't you think you're a little too blind when it comes to everything but work?

Evan: You're going to make someone misunderstand if you're not careful.

Evan: They may misunderstand, and think they still have a chance to take advantage of the opportunity.

Evan: Am I the same too? …Now, what do you think?

Evan: Well, I won't keep you from catching up with your classmates any longer. Just remember not to drink too much.

Evan: And, let me know about these things next time. I'll drive you there.

Evan: It's a plan then.

[govinni13]

In reference to the topic of ENG subtitles for #TheOn1yOne , I would like to discuss the matter further

Please note the variations in subtitles for this particular scene in Episode 7 of "The On1y One," where Sheng Wang awakens in Jiang Tian's room.

1. VIKI

Am I doing the walk of shame?

What walk of shame?!

This is different.

2. TENCENT (WeTV)

Am I sneaking away after sleeping ?

What nonsense Am I thinking?

Sneaking away..(!)

3. iQIYI

Am I running away after sleeping with him?

Sleeping with him?!!

What are you thinking!!?!!

4. Netflix

Am I running away after sleeping ?

What ?

What's all this nonsense?!!

If an accurate translation of the character's intended message is not achieved, its effectiveness may be compromised. 🤷‍♀️

In this particular scene, I believe iQIYI's subtitles effectively capture and convey the sense of awkwardness experienced by Sheng Wang.

#TheOnlyOne #LiuDongQin

#Viki #iQIYI #WeTV #Netflix #BL #Taiwanese

[sheepytina]

So people are talking about the artwork in Metal Slug games again

There's been a few posts going around talking about how weird the Metal Slug characters look in the mobile games, particularly female characters like Eri and especially fan favourite Fio.

This conversation comes up again every so often, but it's been reignited on Tumblr again this week with three new Metal Slug games coming onto the scene:

The recent re-reveal of the indie title Metal Slug Tactics from Dotemu, which was originally announced in 2021, during Summer Game Fest 2024,

The June 2024 Nintendo Direct shadow-drop of a revamped version of the former mobile game Metal Slug Attack as Metal Slug Attack Reloaded, and

The impending global launch of the Chinese mobile game Metal Slug: Awakening from Tencent Games next month (July 2024), which originally released in China and SEA in 2023.

Remember these three names, because this is what this post is going to primarily centre around.

However there's one version of this type of post going around that just posts artwork from Metal Slug 3 and MS: Awakening and doesn't adequately explain what the artwork actually comes from and why it looks the way it does, resulting in the confusion and bewilderment of many people who are less familiar with the Metal Slug series.

And so I decided I really need to throw my hat into the ring and see if I can dissect this and bring some actual facts to the conversation.

Look, it's not great. Basically, the stuff people are saying is indeed mostly true, but there's a lot of half-truths and even a few straight up lies being mixed into it. Such as how what the original Metal Slug games looked like is actually more complicated than people think, for starters.

Furthermore, one of the three games I mentioned actually looks really good, and oddly it seems to be the one with the least attention on it right now.

Now, because I'm me, this blog post ended up really long, long enough to have chapter markers, so please bear with me and stick around to the end if you can. — And if you don't care about the historical context, I'm happy for you just to look at the pictures too.

Part 1: The original NEOGEO Metal Slug games

So the main point of this conversation is that the classic Metal Slug games let the characters look weird and cartoony. That's a big part of Metal Slug's core identity, and this is lost in the recent mobile games.

(Of course I had to get a real CRT photo in here at some point.)

To define "classic Metal Slug" you can assume most people are referring Metal Slug 1 through to 3, i.e. the ones that SNK created before their bankruptcy in the year 2000. And most of all, that iconic character select screen from Metal Slug 2, X and 3.

As you can see, there's definitely a shift that took place here.

But hold on, Fio also looks pretty different on the arcade flyers, especially in her original debut in Metal Slug 2. So it's not exactly as clear cut at the cherrypicked images would suggest, but all the same there is still a distinct, extremely late '90s style to everything.

Metal Slug 4 and 5 also released for the NEOGEO system and are similarly loved by many, but were developed in the 2000s under the newly formed Playmore, aka SNK Playmore. I definitely agree with this sentiment that the "original identity" of Metal Slug was strongest in the early titles, and the artwork is the most noticeable reflection of that.

However, although it has little bearing on the conversation, I think it's important to clarify that this change to a contemporary anime style actually began in the early 2000s during the Playmore era of SNK. Like would happen with other SNK game series like The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown, things got weird for Metal Slug once SNK was reborn as Playmore, eventually becoming SNK Playmore.

Still, all the mainline Metal Slug games through to Metal Slug 7 and Metal Slug XX are still considered classics by fans. The problem for a lot of fans would be SNK's push into new markets such as pachislot and mobile gaming.

Which brings us to…

Part 2: The Metal Slug smart device games, and the Chinese mobile game market

Mobile games would prove a highly lucrative market for SNK Playmore, with hundreds of titles published for Japanese phones during the '00s. A few of these also made their way to more conventional J2ME devices in China. Eventually the mobile gaming market would move to smartphones, with SNK bringing games such as Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack to market in the 2010s.

This is the first mention of China in this post and it won't be the last. SNK's arcade titles had traditionally been extremely popular in the Chinese market, and with the mobile game market rapidly growing and a hunger for bigger games from beloved SNK series, a lot of interest had grown for SNK titles in this market.

This would result in a huge investment from Chinese companies, with a new joint venture acquiring a 81% stake in the company in 2016, leading SNK Playmore to announce a new shift in their strategy, and with that came a rebrand, once again to simply SNK.

This new identity signified a new era for SNK. This newly reignited SNK would move away from non-videogame markets such as pachislot, and focus more on console games and character licensing. This is the SNK that gave us The King of Fighters XIV and a new Samurai Shodown game.

But this is also the SNK that really doubled down on the Chinese and South-east Asian mobile markets.

This is where this conversation stems from. Games such as the tower defence mobile game Metal Slug Attack and many other mobile games in series such as The King of Fighters would be massive money-makers for SNK. Even the new Samurai Shodown game on consoles/PC would centre Chinese audiences with its first DLC crossover characters pulling from Ubisoft's For Honor and Tencent's Honor of Kings.

But when it comes to centering the tastes of the mobile game market, the big one that bugs people is Metal Slug: Awakening, a mobile game developed and published under license by Tencent Games, which entered beta testing in 2021 and released in China and South-east Asia in 2023.

Now this game actually doesn't have all that much to do with SNK besides the license. However it would be disingenuous of me to say that means it's insignificant to the series. We didn't get to this point out of nowhere out of all. Plus this game is set for a global release in 2024, so this game is for all of us to enjoy.

Although, is it really for all of us? The game certainly seems to plays like a real Metal Slug game, retaining the series' famous run 'n gun gameplay, which is more than you can say for most Metal Slug mobile games. But it certainly doesn't look like a Metal Slug game. The in-game graphics are a strange 3D interpretation of the original pixel art, and all the game's promotional artwork and splash screens look like this. Fio in particular straight up looks like a different character in these pictures.

It's not great. I'm not about to try and defend this. It's just that I really need to stress that it's really not a game targeted towards us.

To make matters more confusing for a lot of people not super plugged-into Metal Slug is that it's not even the only Metal Slug game in the news recently. Metal Slug Tactics had been missing in action since 2021, and all of a sudden it gets re-revealed by Dotemu in June 2024 but overshadowed by many other announcements during the Summer Game Fest period.

But also, SNK themselves would, during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, reveal and immediately shadow-drop a revamped offline version of the Metal Slug Attack game called Metal Slug Attack Reloaded.

I actually saw a lot of people confused by this. People who remembered the initial 2021 reveal of Metal Slug Tactics and thought this was the same game. It might seem obvious to some of us, but if this is you, then I assure you, it's not the same game.

Although SNK seems to be downplaying this for some reason, Metal Slug Attack is a pretty old mobile game that went defunct last year, and this is a revamped version of it for consoles and PC that can be played offline without microtransactions. (An increasing trend I want to see more of!) The game is still very much a mobile game to its core though and you can tell.

But, look, don't worry, there's hope for us yet, in the form of a new game that many western Metal Slug fans have been excited for for many years. I've already mentioned it, it's…

Part 3: Metal Slug Tactics, a new tactical Metal Slug game from Dotemu and French developer Leikir Studio

I'm going to preface this section with a clarification of my stance on this. As a strategy game this doesn't exactly scream classic Metal Slug. However, a few people have been lumping this in with the mobile games and I think that's pretty unfair.

For starters, this game is oozing with personality and really looks like it's developed by people who truly understand Metal Slug.

Second, the artwork in this game is clearly a very different beast from what can be seen in Metal Slug: Awakening.

Obviously this isn't the same as the funny looking characters you remember from the in-game graphics of the NEOGEO titles. I still however feel like this captures the spirit of these beloved characters better than any of the mobile games have. This is definitely along the lines of Sonic Mania or TMNT: Shredder's Revenge in terms of attention to detail, and that's especially reflected by how the actual game looks and moves in action.

This is really my true agenda if I'm perfectly honest. Please don't sleep on this game. Even if you don't like tactics games, this is the one you want to keep an eye on if you want a true return to form for Metal Slug.

[dorameiraxp]

Thousands of Years of Love

[yibo-best]

Yibo with the Most Popular Movie Actor 2023 award from Tencent

[leagueoflasagnas]

Caitvi content from the 2021 Tencent panel (the quality is 🫥 but I couldn't find better pictures)

[jadeazora]

Even the mobile games got caught up in the Teraleak. ElChicoEevee posted a ton of pics. We can also see that they had some different Pokemon planned to be added from the start like Golduck, Golisopod, Froslass, and Polteageist.

[cdramaaaaa]

The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus | Main Four

Yu Shuxin (Ling Miao Miao), Ding Yuxi (Mu Sheng), Zhu Xu Dan (Mu Yao), Yang Shi Ze (Liu Fuyi)

[yanyuegege]

Sweet Games EP18 

[saintseiya-zone]

Capricorn ElCid

Saint Seiya Awakening official skin artwork

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Melody of Return Letter Translation

*Light and Night Masterlist *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *This will go under everyone’s personal tag *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut

❖ Osborn:

My Little Naughty (Y/n),

Finally willing to come back, huh? The long-term contract we signed has yet to be fulfilled, so I'm not letting you escape all so easily. ‘Sides, I don't believe that you don't miss me at all, seeing how I'm always at your disposal, all day, any day. Milkie has become friends with the others at home, and Xiaoragon loves it. But I know that Xiaoragon loves you best. Ye Chuan asked about your recent situation, saying how he wouldn't be able to have peace of mind until he saw you for himself again. Let's go visit him when we have time.

—Osborn

❖ Evan:

My Little Rabbit, (Y/n),

That spider plant is flourishing. It helps put me at ease whenever I place it in its daily spot of sunlight. However, I do think sometimes that it shouldn’t be trapped in a small flower pot indoors, relying on regular and controlled amounts of watering to sustain its own life. Perhaps the life it wants is being able to take root in the soil and grow freely. Let’s transplant it to the yard together once we’re free, and we can watch the ending of the movie we first watched together after.

—Evan

❖ Sariel:

My dumb bird, (Y/n),

Qi She said that I wasn’t smiling as much during the time you were gone. I thought about it, and maybe I do smile around you a lot. Maybe that was what gave Qi She that misconception. But you’ve always done well; your growth as a designer is steadily improving, and you’ve never been a dumb bird. In short, you don’t have to go away for such a long period to further your studies next time. You can just come to me. I’ve brought back a couple of trinkets that I think you’d like. I’ll deliver it all to you later.

—Sariel

❖ Charlie:

My Dear Fiancée (Y/n),

The joy of publishing ten papers cannot even come close to the joy of seeing you. So, if you want to come see me more often, I can reciprocate as well by coming to visit you instead. However, I am not like the golden bachelor you read about in novels, who wants to confine their Fiancée like a canary in a cage. I fully support your decision to go further outland to further your studies, but don’t forget to contact me more no matter where you are. Texting would be good, phone calls are better, and of course, bringing me along would be the best.

—Your ever-waiting Fiancé, Charlie

❖ Jesse:

My Dear Lady, (Y/n),

You’ve finally returned! I’ve lost weight waiting for you, and the costume you [personally designed and made before you left doesn’t fit as well anymore. So, when are you gonna come by and help me make some alterations, Milady? Also, you once pinky swore with me that you’d always stand by me and that you’d never leave. I won’t let you go back on that promise, so you’d best be prepared~

—Milady’s One & Only Knight, Jesse

[grimoireroseart]

Decided to sketch something of Merphistophelin, no idea how the thing flies but it can fly and definitely deserving of black dragon classification