#the artstyle was fun and the characters were actually so good!

[shy-sapphic-ace]

I JUST FINISHED CARDCAPTOR SAKURA WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH NY LIFE NOW 😭💕

[koeal]

I accidentally deleted an ask where someone asked for some art tips (whoever you were anon, I'm so sorry)

But I made this post still

All I ever posted here was fanart, so I will mostly focus on characters

1. Work on anatomy!

And from experience I know how hard it is to actually find out how to learn it, so here is little example

While knowing these few fun facts, you can experiment a lot!

For example, while people's eyes grow untill early 20's (around 8 milimeters since they are born), noses and ears never really stop growing. So while drawing babies - you can draw their eyes bigger; and while drawing elders - the bigger would be their ears and noses

1.2. Look for shapes!

Another example, because I don't know how to explain it

If it looks hard to you, don't worry, there are many tutorials online that will guide you!

2. Always have a reference!

And if you can't find a good one, I recommend taking picture of yourself! No one is going to see it besides you, right?

I also recommend tracing the reference first in shapes, boxes, as a stick man or whatever you prefer and then trying to recreate that sketch on a clear canvas

3. Follow many artists!

Just visit their page every so often, what is it that caught your attention? The way they color, the way they render? Maybe amazing backgrounds, awesome perspective? Some little details they put on every piece of art they make?

Maybe try using few of these on your art as well!

Also, it's pretty convenient in other ways as well - on platforms like Tumblr they can reblog art they like, and it's more likely for you to see more artstyles and techniques; on places like YouTube they often post speedpaints and tutorials you can take a look at!

Well, these are the main ones, but I will write some other things I can think of:

↳ While rendering, lower opacity of your brush

↳ Sometimes you can try to challenge yourself to use 1. As many brushes as you can or 2. As little brushes as you can (If you are new to art, it can help you find your favorites!:D)

↳ It's good to study a bit of everything - hands, neck, shoulders, back, feet, arms.. You get what I mean!

But it's nice to work on some other things from time to time as well! Try drawing a strawberry, a bunny, some flowers!

↳ If you can't understand how something works, try looking at human skeleton and muscles!

↳ While shading, color of your shadow will be on the opposite side of color wheel from the light (that means if your light is yellow, your shadow will be purple)

↳ Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone! Try new things, experiment!

I wasn't sure what type of tips you were asking for but I hope I helped at least a little<33

[solunstell]

List of bsd headcanons

Dazai:

Has bpd. A lot of his traits remind me of my friends with it

He some kind of trans. Nonbinary. Transfem. Transmasc. Idk he's megender lmao

He's described as appearing very youthful in the first two light novels. I imagine that once the events of the main timeline start picking up though, with all the time stopping or slowing abilities that *dont affect him*, he actually ages faster than the other characters. I draw current dazai with small wrinkles, which also hints at stress and stuff

Also, I imagine current dazai getting tanner as he works in the light, as well as getting more prominent freckles.

Round/doe eyes because that is part of his appearance in my opinion. Seeming unsuspecting and innocent, especially during his mafia days

Bad eyesight in his right eye from being under the bandages for so long. Saw this headcanon and loved it

Similarly, beastzai has bad vision in general

I always call No Longer Human an anti-ability in my head, fun fact

He loves to touch other people. Not a fan of being touched by others unless asked

I draw him with red eyes in color, and usually black eyes in ink (inconsistent artstyle my beloved)

Aroace spectrum

heavy sleeper. Very

Chuuya

FRECKLES and tan from sheep days

He likes to be close to other people more than actually touching. Presence over contact

That shade of eyes that changes colors in the light (but I use a grey base lol)

Also some sort of trans, but in a different way than dazai

Brownish red hair. Not blazing, not just brown

That man is AUTISTIC

One time instinctively kicked a friend with his ability active, expecting them to dodge cuz he's used to dazai easily dodging. They did, but they were SO CLOSE to getting hit. Imagine a confused face like wtf why you try to kick me

Light sleeper, but every now and then sleeps like he just learned how to close his eyes

A lot of his jokes go over people's heads because they expect him to be serious and his voice just doesn't change between serious and not serious

Ranpo

Autism plus adhd ftw

Aroace spectrum

Poe

He/they vibes

Anxiety

Gay af

I can 100% see him being into knitting. Imagine the guide plus ranpo all in matching sweaters

Loves baking. Sooooo bad at it

Lucy

Bi (with a lean towards girlies) she/it

VERY good at baking

But she won't share :(

Atsushi

Anxiety, so much anxiety

Aroace spectrum vibes

Very easily idolizes people and then gets surprised when they actually like being around him

Akutagawa

Aroace spectrum

Autism cuz he is so mecore sometimes

Very trans vibes from me

(I like to imagine him having tourettes cuz I have tourettes and I am Not projecting)

Atsushi (special kitty hearing) and jouno being the only ones who can hear some of his tics. He will be horrified that anyone notices them

Wait no actually I'm gonna incorporate that into my belief system. That's canon now

Mori

Genuinely cares about a lot of his workers, but not all of them

He gives great bonuses for birthdays

He absolutely loves vtubers if bsd were in a modern setting. Rip mori. He'd have also loved vocaloid lmao

Ozaki

Masc energy. Fem energy. Ooh I can see ozaki with any pronouns and identity

Kinda person to accidently either overpack or underpack. Always has painkillers, never has a pen

Ridiculous memory. Incredible gift giver. Would get someone something months or years after overhearing them say they wanted something once

"Whyd you get me a hairdryer?"

"You said you needed one. I saw it and thought of you."

"...that was months ago. I got a hairdryer already."

"..." *takes hairdryer back* "sorry wrong person. I don't have my contacts in my bad"

She has perfect vision

Kunikida

Trans vibes. In any and every direction

Adhd af

Will always conveniently have room in his schedule when Aya wants to go do something and needs someone to go with her. No, he's TOTALLY not frantically writing and erasing things, get your glasses updated

You can usually count on him to continue the bit cuz he won't realize there is a bit occurring

[iridescentis]

tumblr headcanons for my girls <3

Constance

Fandom girlie FOR SURE

Her blog is so cute and coordinated

Doesn’t use her real name, probably goes by a cute nickname

Absolute fandom sweetheart the people love her

Probably a writer and super self-critical about it

Also could be a fanartist with an adorable artstyle

Her askbox is CONSTANTLY full

Survived many shipping wars and is always getting into heated arguments (which she secretly enjoys)

actually super popular like a big blog in the fandoms she’s in

I think she went through ALL the fandom phases. superwholock, rise of the brave frozen tangled dragons, the whole thing. multifandom queen <3

her url is probably the name of one of her fav characters + like a cute word or something

Penny

Obviously has a seven up fan blog

I think she has a main blog that’s just all kinds of posts about them and a side blog for like. daily seven up gifs or something

She DEFINITELY wrote imagines

HATED shipping like no johnny moon is gonna marry her not one of the other boys DUH

her url has to be something like penny-moon

fought SO HARD when the fandom started to die and people were mocking it she came out SWINGING

then proceeded to write SEETHING posts about JK-47 and verbally beat the shit out of the new fandom

Deactivated when people realised who she was when a video of her attacking JK-47 gets leaked and she gets spammed with asks and dms

starts a new blog like a girlblog type of thing with aesthetic pinterest pictures and lesbian yearning (she 100% writes imagine style pining posts about tammy)

stops with fandoms and it just becomes like her public personal diary

has a small circle of good friends that are constantly spamming the dash with ridiculously long reblog chains

if ricky has tumblr at all they’re probably mutuals and don’t even know

goes by a different name, maybe a noun or something from mythology

Talia

if you don’t believe that she was the most tumblr girl to ever tumblr girl YOU ARE LYING

1000% posts selfies with song lyric captions

can and will fight everyone on any subject, she starts fights on a random tuesday just for fun

electra heart girl through and through radioactive is her song and she is a primadonna girl she will not be told otherwise

loves her soundcloud ass rappers <3

brags about dating a famous rapper and will argue with ANYONE who says shit to mischa

uploads videos of herself singing

she definitely was part of several heritage posts

either the closest you could get to being tumblr famous or just acted like she was despite having like 10 followers

absolute icon <3

[project-sekai-facts]

Hey there! Thanks for all your hard work. I wanted to send something that would hopefully be fun and a break from the asks. What are your fave cards for each character (and why if you want to explain)? :D

no problem :) and thank you for the break haha

this is kinda long bc of the amount of images so i'll put it under a readmore. note that my reasoning kinda ranges from "it's pretty" to <ramble about art>.

Before Thinking About It (Live with memories)

This set is really pretty but Ichika definitely has the best card in it. I love the stars and the little fish things swimming about.

Rainy Distance (First Star After the Rain)

No I do not care that this was her first 4*. How can people say the old sets are bad like have you SEEN the Stella set? It's absolutely beautiful.

Because You're Our Dear Friend (Unwavering Feelings, Now Put Into Words)

This set is so pretty!! It’s one of my favorite perm sets. Honami's is definitely my favorite though because the twinkly stars really take it up a level.

The Right Path for Me (Colorful Festival)

Shiho looks really cool in this one and I love the artstyle. I like the sign that just says "sign".

For "Your" Sake (Let's Deliver! Hopeful Stage)

Another really good Year One set! I love the angel theming with Minori and giving her actual wings was such a cool idea. Faito faito Minorin!

Perfect Premonition (Connecting Painful Hope)

I vividly remember when this leaked it was a big day for MMJ fans. She looks really cool in this card and I like the sort of rockstar aesthetic it has. Easily my favorite card for her

To You Who Wants To Be An Idol (Colorful Festival)

One of my favorite cards in the game! The aesthetic is really cute and reminds me of pop art. I love the details on the eyes as well

With the Feeling of Shooting a Thousand Arrows (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

I still can’t believe that this set is perm it’s absolutely stunning. Easily Shizuku’s best card, she looks so ethereal here

Kaleidoscope of Footprints (Colorful Festival)

I love the colors and the art on this one. It’s really unique and definitely one of my favorite fes cards. Again I love how her eyes are drawn and colored.

Past Excitement (Colorful Festival)

This is An’s most recent 4* with neon lighting i just want them back. Also the Nagi-inspired hairstyle ueueueueue

The Reason Behind the Words I Was Told (Find A Way Out)

I love the emotion on this one like it carries really well. Honestly it’s not the prettiest or most interesting card ever but it resonates ygm. You can really feel his joy and passion in this one.

Feelings That Were Buried (Colorful Festival)

Ough his fes is so good. The symbolism as well like music is really important to Toya and it’s a huge part of his life but he's keeping this specific part behind a curtain for now. The fact it’s in the part of his fragment sekai that isn’t as derelict as the rest- it hurts.

Receiving Your Inspiration (A Sorrowful Farewell at the Curtain Call)

It was really close between this and Torpe but ultimately I chose this one. It’s really bright and warm compared to Rui's dark and cold and Nene's in-between and I think that's why it sticks out to me.

An Irreplaceable Smile (Smile of Dreamer)

Yumekawa sets are always some of my favorites and this set especially. Imo this is also the most “Emu” card so far like it’s so fun and colorful and imaginative

Dazzling Dream Stage (Colorful Festival)

Mary poppins nene!! Like I said with Emu this is probably one of the most “Nene” cards to me, she needs more stuff that has that classic musical theatre kinda vibe.

The Right Words to Throw (At This Festival Colored By Twilight)

I think this whole set was really pretty but this one is probably my favorite from it. I like the references to previous wandasho events and looking at this after Curtain Call just hits different yk

Flowerbed of Memories (Carnation Recollection)

Like I said with Akito this one is about the emotion. I think it captures the event story really well like if you have background context you can see all the connections to the Yoisaki family and Kanade reminiscing about that warmth.

The Silence That Only You Know (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

I had a really hard time picking my favorite but I think I’m gonna go for her archery card as well. I already said it but this set is great and I love the details in the background of this card as well.

Through Pain and Misery (On This Blank Canvas, I Paint)

I remember really well when this one leaked because it was around the time I started actively playing the game and I’m still in awe about it. It looks so good for a permanent card and we have never gotten another card like this.

Making Chocolates With Children (The Gentleman Thief's Thrilling White Day!?)

Not the most impressive choice but white day sets go hard. I love medieval/fantasy AU and this card is really cool. Also convinced that the artist does not know how heavy flagpoles are.

At Least, to Me (2nd Colorful Festival)

I love the victorian mad scientist look she’s bringing to the table. Also I like lore.

Sending My Singing Voice (On This Blank Canvas, I Paint)

Another emotion card. Rin being the one connected most to Ena and the way she’s embracing the art is so !!! It’s such a warm card as well you can really feel the way Ena feels about her craft.

Cheering For You (Colorful Festival)

The artists went all out for Kagamine fes the art looks so good. I don’t really have much to say about this one lol

Chalkboard Cherry Blossoms In Bloom (Sakura Across SEKAI, Interconnecting Our Feelings)

I love the colors on this one it looks so pretty; pink and purple palettes look so nice. Also leo/need with stars always a plus.

Reassuring Warmth (Get Over It.)

Probably my second favorite perm set after archery. I love space/sci-fi themed things and this is probably my favorite from that set. The colors are really nice and I like the lore implications of her solar system model

What Arrangement Would Be Good? (Draw Your Bow in This White World)

Shocker I picked archery again. What can I say, this set fucks.

[oddygaul]

Zenless Zone Zero

Well, I’ve been playing the shit out of this game, so fair warning, there will be significant brainrot ahead.

Overall, I really dig it. I’m a huge mark for character action games, and well-done life sims tend to suck me in; Zenless Zone Zero is nailing both those aspects pretty damn well. In fact, it’s nailing them well enough that… how do I put this… it starts to slip into the territory of being A Good Game Generally, rather than just a gacha. And while this is a big accomplishment for ZZZ, this also puts it into direct conversation with other full-price games, resulting in its gacha elements causing more friction than Honkai Star Rail’s ever did*.

*I’ll be comparing this to HSR a lot, because I play way too much of both and they’re made by the same developer. I recognize that it is pretty odd and potentially even problematic to A / B compare them when I could be looking at the game through the lens of, you know, Gaming At Large. But hey, that’s why this is a subjective journal and not a holistic review blog! It is what it is.

So, the aesthetic of this game fuckin rules - it’s like, late 90s to early 2000s VHS-core. The main characters run a Blockbuster, for Christ’s sake. Presentation-wise (and systems-wise, and, hell, music-wise), ZZZ is obviously borrowing a lot from the Persona series, but like… great? I’d love it if more things cribbed that style and made it their own, from the confidant hangouts, to the small but comfy explorable areas, to the dynamic menus with edgy character poses. The character design itself is all superb, all the way down to the crowd NPCs - some the shopkeepers here have cooler designs than the main characters of some other games. Even aside from the designs, ZZZ is doing a lot with lighting and color desaturation that really lends it its own unique vibe. They actually have a cohesive artstyle in here! wild.

The presentation of the story is also killer. Sure, a decent chunk of the conversations are just models lip-flapping at each other - although they at least emote and pose a bit here, unlike the Star Rail dialogue scenes with their demure princess waves. In the main story, though, we get not only a heap of fairly lengthy cutscenes, but also this really cool comic panel-style presentation.

I feel like there was a bit of a trend in the PS3/360 era of games to present a game’s story in this comic panel / storyboard style. I understood the motivation: games increasingly demanded a more involved, consistent storytelling approach, rather than the ‘One big rendered cutscene at the beginning and end’ they used to get away with, and the generation’s increased visual fidelity meant that doing even basic, in-engine cutscenes took a lot more resources to make something half-decent. In Spyro the Dragon on PS1 you could get away with a fun little 15-second gag with a barely animated polygonal yeti or whatever; in the PS3 era, you were going up against tryhards like Metal Gear Solid 4. Amidst this landscape, the pitch of having your illustrators pretty up some storyboards and put them in the game sounds like it’d save a lot of work - plus, consoles were finally outputting a high enough resolution that this sort of flat image wouldn’t be compressed to hell.

Thing is, I always kinda hated that approach. In some cases, I think that’s the popular opinion - I fuckin love Bayonetta, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend its weird slideshow cutscenes. Even in games where the execution is perfectly fine, though, it rubbed me the wrong way. I think of Infamous - objectively, the art’s solid and fits the tone of the game, and the motion graphics aim to capture some of the dynamism typical cutscenes would provide. Despite all that, it still feels cheap to me - all of the panning, effects, and graphic imagery feel like they’re trying to polish up something that inherently doesn’t fit.

In ZZZ, though, I’m loving every one I come across. It’s obviously still done for efficiency reasons - there’s already a handful of characters that exist only in these panel scenes, saving the team the effort of having to model and rig them. But the freedom this allows for staging and storytelling is huge; the characters are more expressive here than anywhere else in the game, and we’re able to see situations with huge crowds and new locales much more often than would be possible in typical cinematics. And the illustrations are genuinely good, too - full of character, cool poses and creative compositions/angles.

if everything actually had to be modeled, there's no way we would've gotten Legally Blonde Nicole

Plus, the cutscenes are constant, and boy do I love the animation here. It feels so rare nowadays for a high-budget game to do stylized 3D animation of this ilk. Your biggest budget games are all going for the cinematic look, and pushing realism as much as they can - and while I know an immense amount of work and craft goes into animating something like The Last of Us, boy, I just could not care less about something so lacking in flair*. Even bigger properties that use a stylized artstyle these days, like Breath of the Wild, still tend to lean towards fairly naturalistic animation. Zenless Zone Zero’s cutscenes, on the other hand, spin and stretch motherfuckers around like we’re back on the PS2, are filled with forced perspective, and I am absolutely living for it. It’s not even reserved only for bombastic action scenes, either - we get honest to god character acting-focused conversation cutscenes.

*Seriously, take me back to the Naughty Dog that animated Jak & Daxter. Jak’s hero animation is top tier to this day

Of course, the combat animation slaps too; each of the playable agents is absolutely dripping with character. Even characters whose designs initially left me cold won me over once I saw the amount of care put into their movement and combo strings. It’s honestly shocking to me that this is the same studio that made Genshin Impact, a game I dropped after about 2 hours because of how lifeless all the animation felt*. Unique run cycles for every character, actual non-human designs, the flourishes everyone has when stopping mid-combo to snap them back to idle, the absolute synergistic audiovisual bliss of the parry… it’s really impressive stuff from a young team.

*Same studio in name only, totally different team, I know, but still

Mechanically, I have some mixed feelings about the combat as a whole. Zenless Zone Zero is, without a doubt, aiming to present complexity and depth as a team battler - that is to say, it’s more about team synergy, tag combos, and knowing who to use when, rather than soloing as any particular character. Nonetheless, I really would’ve appreciated individual characters having a bit more depth to their movesets; a jump, a launcher, cancels, anything. As outstanding as all the animation work is, there’s some characters that only have a normal attack string on square and one special attack on triangle. Like, sub-Dynasty Warriors level of complexity here. It’s rough.

This is where ZZZ’s gacha nature gets a bit ugly: so far, more complex kits and skill expression are mostly locked behind rarity, which is kind of scummy. In Star Rail, for the most part, 4-star characters are defined as such due to their numbers: they still have mechanics and complexity, they just aren’t tuned as high as the limited characters. Hell, in some cases they have more complexity. Ruan Mei is an almost incomparably stronger unit than Asta, but Ruan Mei’s play pattern is fucking boring: you use skill every three turns when it runs out. Asta, meanwhile, basically has her own risk & reward minigame that demands more thoughtful SP management.

In ZZZ, on the other hand, the lower-rank characters straight up have less going on in their kits. Nicole has like… one tech, sorta. Anby has one single animation cancel to chain her normal into her special quicker. Lucy’s only skill expression is choosing whether to tap special or hold special. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan, a limited character, has a normal string that bounces between melee and ranged attacks, can be dodge-canceled at any point in the combo to branch into variations of the string, and a hold-normal attack string that’s completely different and has the same branching dodge-cancel tech.

It’s one thing to lock raw damage and meta viability behind a gacha, but locking the characters that are mechanically more interesting to play straight up sucks. If I hadn’t been lucky enough on the standard banner to pull exactly the two characters I find the most mechanically satisfying, I don’t know that I’d still be playing - and this is the point where ZZZ begs comparison to other, non-live service character action games. Sure, it’s probably not fair to compare a random A-rank’s moveset to Devil May Cry V’s iteration of Dante, a feature-creeped nightmare of a kit 3 console generations in the making. But what about Sengoku Basara Sumeragi, my personal character-action GOAT? By all accounts a mid-budget title, yet it offers 40 full characters chock-full of more unique mechanics and animation cancels than you can shake a stick at.

Fuck, can we please get a new Sengoku Basara? Please? I’m desperate out here. I’ll take anything, y’all.

There’s also the inherent issue that plagues every action RPG (usually deftly avoided by the character action genre), which is the delicate balance of player success depending on the numbers vs actual mechanical skill - a balancing act made even more noticeable due to the gacha genre-standard of characters taking weeks of grinding to level up. This is a topic for another day, but suffice to say, a big part of the reason Honkai Star Rail works for me as a very pretty version of Cookie Clicker is because of the Autoplay option. In Zenless Zone Zero, if you’re not willing to grind out the same mob fight for a week or two, you’re gonna hit an endgame roadblock of doing chip damage to a boss you’ve mechanically mastered because you’re underleveled, and boy, that never feels good.

For all those issues stemming from the gacha, I will say, it’s great that the story missions let you use the characters that are actually supposed to be present for those missions, even if you don’t own them. Aside from how nice it is to have an opportunity to put the whole roster through their paces, it goes a long way for actually getting invested in the story. Honkai Star Rail’s storytelling is a hot mess for many reasons, but it’s always particularly jarring rolling up to a sidequest at like, a local theater troupe with a wanted space criminal, the sitting president of a completely different planet, a ten year old child, and a shirtless cyborg cowboy, none of whom have canonically met each other; ZZZ’s approach sidesteps this issue. The proxy angle even provides a pretty valid diegetic explanation for why agents that don’t know each other might be working together.

Now that we’ve sort of meandered back to the story after talking about animation led us on a long detour - the story is surprisingly solid. In particular, I really appreciate how straightforward the writing is. I don’t know if the issue lies with the original text or the localization, but Star Rail’s dialogue, even in simple missions, tends to be incredibly meandering and overstuffed; ZZZ is a lot better about letting all its characters talk like actual humans. It also helps that the plot so far is a lot more grounded, and spends more time focusing on each faction’s group dynamics rather than the overarching plot. These games live and die by their characters, so leaning into those strengths is a smart move.

Zenless Zone Zero is, unfortunately, fully in line with Hoyo’s weird conservative politics - in particular, 1.0 and 1.1 are absolutely stuffed full of copaganda. With how many safety regulation jokes they made at the construction company, I initially hoped they’d lampoon the police faction a bit, or make a commentary on how comically heavily armed New Eridu’s police force are. In a vacuum, Zhu Yuan shouting combat lines like “Stop resisting!” or “Freeze, hands up!” while blasting someone with her gigantic, ‘JUSTICE’-emblazoned rocket launcher shotgun feels like it ought to be satire. Every time we talk to the officers, though, it’s just line after line about their solemn duty to protect the people of the city, how essential and important they are for the community, and so on and so on.

This wholehearted embrace of the world’s current power structure is something Zenless Zone Zero approaches in nearly the exact same way as Star Rail. In both games, your playable character is someone that’s sort of operating outside the law - in Star Rail, as the maverick organization that is the Astral Express, while in ZZZ you work as an illegal proxy. Despite this setup, any time the protagonists come into contact with a governing body, they are no less than thrilled to help them enforce the will of the law.

In Star Rail, you aid the local governments (one of which is an undemocratic monarchy) in committing massive cover-ups to hide their failures from the populace not once but twice. In ZZZ, you aid the police to an obsequious degree - playing along with them to not arouse suspicion is one thing, but helping them organize a fucking community day on Sixth Street? Fuck that. Hell, said community day is even shown to initially be DOA because none of the local residents trust the police - and you best believe we get two full scenes of the MCs changing the resident’s minds, resulting in them spouting shit about “Oh, it was our fault for judging the police too harshly - they really do have our best interests at heart!”

is it tho

There’s an argument to be made that the N.E.P.S. are a little different, given that they exist in a post-apocalyptic world with monsters popping up every day - and ZZZ’s copaganda is certainly a little less flagrant than something like Spider-Man helping the NYPD install civilian surveillance networks in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And, sure, perhaps this can help excuse why they post fully armored, rifle-wielding soldiers in the Lumina Square DMV, and provides some justification that their existence is more helpful than the real world’s civilian-murdering property guards.

Thing is, though, at every turn you’re hit with dialogue and situations which make it clear that, no, they’re the normal cops. Every other sidequest seems to involve calling the N.E.P.S. in on somebody or helping with an investigation, and for every time we see them handle ethereal activity, there’s two instances of them being called in for petty property theft or something similarly minor - even the playable character has heaps of dialogue choices threatening to call the police on someone*. Much like Star Rail’s reactionary politics were strangely at odds with the ‘blazing a new path’ ideals of the trailblaze, Zenless Zone Zero’s obsession with the police puts a damper on its underground, counterculture aesthetic.

*Including a case where both options threatened this, leaving me without a non-narc dialogue choice.

illustration by Lv01KOKUEN

And finally… I don’t know where to fit this in, so I guess it just goes in its own little section at the end here. Lots of people, myself included, have touched on the Persona inspirations - and they’re certainly significant. One thing I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention as a huge influence is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade Battlefront. From its sense of style to its worldbuilding, ZZZ damn near feels like fanfic to me. Hell, it’s right in the name - BBB? ZZZ? And this is on top of the dimensional crossover / big city vibe, the retro fashion, the different factions. Victoria Housekeeping might as well be Libra 2.0 - Von Lycaon is a damn near perfect 50/50 expy of Klaus and Stephen Starphase. And then Belle / Wise, who assist these powerful fighters in a noncombat role just like Leo, also turn out to have some sort of special magical eyes granted to them by untold powers from within the dimensional rift??

I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong - love Nightow. But that can’t be coincidence, right?

[1000sunnygo]

(1.6.2024) Mugiwara space vol. 17 feat. Kazuya Nakai and Kamiya Hiroshi highlights! I don't promise accuracy

Source (give it a listen if you have time! it has teasers to the new opening and ending)

-

Kazuya Nakai - Zoro || Kamiya Hiroshi - Law

-It's Kamiya's second time in Twitter Space, previously he was with Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy). He says that last time he babbled a lot thanks to Mayumi san's presence, even though he forgot most of it by now (hmm how convenient that you forgot this, kamiya san 🤨)

-Anytime One Piece (the 24/7 YouTube broadcast of the episodes) has 150M views and already in its 4th lap having completed broadcasting all episodes 3 times.

-The entire Space focused on the two voice actors reading out a heap of letters from the animation staffs about the Zoro vs King and Kid-Law vs Big Mom episodes.

-Kamiya jokes about being slightly younger than Nakai and calling him "Nakai-kun" instead of "Nakai san". Funny that Kamiya's career as a voice actor is actually longer than Nakai's.

-The Zoro vs King finale had 20000 frames in the episode which set a record. The movements were a lot more fluid and film-level. After all, often it's considered overwork if it crosses 5000 frames in a TV episode.

- The animators themselves tried out new things. It seems in one of the shots, Wado ichimonji's direction was reversed from the manga's direction as a realistic correction. Cue jokes about Zoro (and King's) long (long) attack names. Also, anticipation for legendary Mihawk vs Zoro to match the quality.

- Cutting to Kid-Law vs BM, Kamiya commented that it was scary that the fluidity of movements was so good that it made him wonder if that level of effort was necessary at all (he said it's like a Disney movie).

(in case you didn't know, this scene was indeed animated by an animator who worked in Disney.)

- Kamiya says it was both fortunate and unfortunate that Mami Koyama (Big Mom) wasn't there with them in the booth (she recorded her part separately). Both Kamiya and Nakai agreed that they'd give up immediately if they were to confront against Mami Koyama somehow.

- Kamiya also noted that Big Mom used "ore" to call herself in the final scene ("I am Big Mom") - exerting dominance 💪 her falling scene was intentionally animated beautifully.

- 1066 was animated by people all over the world, so the time adjustments and language barrier was a challenge. Episode director Henry thurlow balanced it well. In his letter, Henry credited the animation director for adjusting a variety of art styles from all participating animators. It was his first time directing a One piece episode, in fact it's the first time a foreigner has directed an anime episode. He thinks the episode was successful.

- Kamiya was calling Kidd "the extra budget man" for having his complicated-to-animate attacks costing extra budget 💸

-In the final scene vs Misery, Kamiya was asked to ad-lib breathing sound for Law. Kamiya immediately said "sure, got it". Regarding this, Kamiya said he loves doing ad-libs, it adds a little more life to the characters.

- Finally, announcement for the upcoming Egghead arc debut in anime (Nakai was exhausted of reading letters so Kamiya took over to read director Nagamine's final letter lol)

- The Egghead arc would appear in a new artstyle. Unlike the serious WCI and Wano, there's a more relaxed, "fun adventure" vibe for the future adventure island. And the animators are finally free from the torture of drawing Kaido's scales (and the kimono design patterns) so they're in a relaxed mood having escaped wano 🌞 and entering "the cool future where zoro has long legs and wears dove shoes" 👢✨

-(letter cont.) "..Also, about a certain change in Law! What will happen to his voice? It's an interesting future!"

Kamiya: Well, I just finished recording that. My voice is still cracking 😎 *nonchalantly continues reading*

Nakai: is it okay to spoil like that??

(fr Kamiya would not share Law's role with ANYONE even if he turns into a woman huh)

And that's it for the highlight!

[peculiar-potato]

Among Us animated series trailer analysis post!

(+ a theory on who dies first and who the impostor might be!)

here’s the trailer if you want to watch it yourself :)

This is going to be pretty long, whoops.

~~~~

Firstly, overall impressions on the tone/artstyle!

I mentioned a lot about the art style and everything in my first analysis post, but I just want to reiterate that it’s fun and I like it, and I like seeing how they take details of the game and translate them into the show.

From what I can tell the tone seems pretty lighthearted, well, as lighthearted as a murder mystery can be. It’s a little silly but in a charming way- but with a slight hint of dread. Kinda what I expected.

I think there’s still probably a little way to go before the show is ready considering there were no voice lines in the trailer, and it seemed more like “these are the characters look how fun they are” then actual plot/scenes, but that’s okay I actually really like that we’re not really seeing any glimpses of the plot or voice acting yet!

Anyways, now to the actual trailer!

So opening shot here is The Skeld. We already kinda knew it was going to be set there, but confirmation! At the moment I don’t think the planet/moon/asteroid thing behind them is important, it’s probably just to fill up the background, but who knows, it could be something!

Maybe impostor(s) come from there or something… or maybe it’s just a rock in space.

(My theories get better I promise)

With this image, we finally have an answer to my question from last time- what kind of pizza do the beans eat?

I noticed immediately that there was prosciutto and arugula (a specific kind of bitter lettuce) on the pizza, and with a little googling and a few subsequent suggested searches, I managed to find recipes for fig and prosciutto pizza with, you guessed it, arugula and cheese. (There were multiple kinds of cheese it could be- goat, gorgonzola, mozzarella to name a few)

So those round things are figs. Who would have thought?

Next up we see our first glance of the additional room they added to the Skeld for the show- the kitchen! And the first glance at a depiction of an impostor!

Yellow and Brown seem like good buddies. I wonder how long that friendship will last when impostor stuff starts happening.

My guess is the depiction of the impostor here is a bit more figurative- Nobody really notices them (expect one bean, but we’ll get to that later), and they just kinda seem to be lurking around being scary. Feels more like, idk the idea of an impostor than the actual impostor? I don’t know if I’m explaining that super well.

Maybe this is like the impostor checking out the crew before they start actually impostoring. Idk.

Also, seems like one shadow (although who knows honestly). Maybe it’s a sign of there just being one among the crew? …or maybe I’ve flipped the other way and am interpreting this too literally now.

Regardless, the impostor(s) do/does certainly seem very alieny.

(Alternate impostor conspiracy theories- impostor switches between crewmates/they’re all impostors (which would kinda defeat the purpose tho) or everyone’s just paranoid and there is no impostor (I feel like people would get disappointed by that though so they wouldn’t do it)).

After that we head to navigation.

Here, Red is slacking off playing video games (oddly enough with a human in them- as someone pointed out in the Innersloth discord server, which has some interesting implications. To expand on that myself, it seems like a kind of ancient-civilization human, which is interesting. I tried to figure out what game this is with a reverse image search but I couldn’t, I wonder if it’s a real game or something one of the devs made or something else.)

Anyways Red receives a call from a shadowy figure, presumably a boss of some sort, and scrambles to look like they’re doing what they’re supposed to. The image looks kinda similar to how they’re animating the impostor, but this could be an intentional red herring or just how they’re showing an unrevealed character or an “everyman” type being. Regardless, vaguely ominous.

As for navigation itself, I like the vibes honestly. I want to go there. I love the little headslug bobble head and a lot of the details in the background. Can’t assign everything there directly to a task, but it does have the three consoles and the chair. Also I noticed the bright yellow sticky note- like the “dum” visor cosmetic! I wonder what those papers on the floor say.

Next we’re in the cafeteria. (You can tell by the coloring of the wall, this is probably the vent near weapons)

A couple things I noticed here!

First of all, everyone’s very nonchalant about Lime venting. That seems to mean it’s established that Lime is an engineer like the role in the game (honestly I’m a little surprised a new role was included here!) and that the crew knows this and doesn’t think Lime traveling though vents is a big deal. Will this extend to other crewmembers? Will this put suspicion on Lime as things progress? Who knows!

Also, small thing here, but Cyan signs Orange’s waiver (on the clipboard they seem to carry with them everywhere) simply as “Cyan”. I assumed they would just be going by colors the whole time and not have names or anything, but this kinda confirms that.

(By extension, maybe colors aren’t even codenames or anything for them lore-wise, maybe their names are literally their colors. Also makes me think there may be just one of each color in the entire series if they sign simply as a color. Then again, here I am over analyzing small details again.)

We follow Lime through a vent and into the reactor, which is being watched on the cameras by Purple.

I don’t have a ton to say about Purple, they just seem to be doing their job here. I do find it interesting that the shadow blocks out the reactor camera and then makes it malfunction (is something going to happen in there?) but it may just be a kind of moving the trailer forward type thing.

Also, side note, what’s Lime’s deal with the reactor? They run up to it and snuggle it with hearts floating above them. Engineer really loves their engine I guess haha. I know people have to have already been meming this.

Next is a scene in the medbay.

They do seem to have the medical scanner in the background there, so I wonder if that visual task will ever come into play.

Also I see the MIRA logo on a poster in the background, so my guess is they are somehow under/related to the MIRA corporation.

Green is blushing as Blue checks their reflexes. I remember Blue’s character being described as very attractive, so it could be possible that everyone gets that way around them, or it could just be Green. Idk I’m not here to navigate the minefield that is shipping beans.

White is busy swirling around wine(?) until of course, the impostor shadow thing creeps in as with all the other scenes.

This time, however, someone notices. White.

My guess is White is going to die, and they’re going to die pretty early on.

I was already kinda suspecting White was going to die first simply because of how their character is described. Rich, here because they won some kind of contest, seems to be a bit of a jerk. Feels like the kind of person who would die first idk, just a vibe I’ve had for a while.

Also, I was thinking that 11 is kind of an interesting number, especially considering there were 12 original colors. (Side note, my guess is they’re waiting to include Pink alongside Coral and Rose as “the pinks” or something if they add the new colors in a later season). I feel like maybe they wanted a main crew of ten (because that is what the original lobby size is and thus what a lot of people associate with the game), but needed someone to die early to set up the plot so they needed up with 11.

Now, White being the first and only one to notice the shadow creeping around, and to immediately look terrified and be overtaken by it on screen? My guess is they’re the first to go.

One could also argue that this is an indication of them being an impostor, but idk that feels too obvious of a way to reveal that. (Also I have a different theory as to who it could be). My guess is we won’t know who the impostor is as the audience for a while.

Finally we have this image. I have quite a bit to say about this one!

First of all, I just love this image in general. Makes me so happy to see all the beans!

Anyways, the impostor shadow thing comes in and covers the “not” in “we’re not dead” and I love that I think that’s fun. Also, again, love the falling apart blinds (why are there blinds on a spaceship?) and the balloons duct taped to the window.

We also see them eating the aforementioned fig and prosciutto pizza. There are also a lot of red spheres on the table, which I haven’t quite figured out yet. Fruits of some kind? Or decorations perhaps? Maybe all red gumballs? Whatever they are, Orange is holding one. There’s bologna or summer sausage or something near Brown, and a gray disk in front of it. Not sure about that either, looks kinda like a giant coin, or one of those round lights you tap to turn on and off. Red’s reading what seems to be a rule book (they really don’t seem prepared aha), and there’s also an image of a crewmate on the other side. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be Pink or Tan.

Blue has a piece of paper with a skull on it which looks pretty ominous, and Brown is holding a knife, but I think those are just red herrings related to their professions. Blue’s a doctor and Brown’s a chef, and Yellow is also holding a cooking implement.

Also, once again, no sign of an emergency meeting button. (Unless the weird gray circle is related somehow?)

With that I was almost ready to wrap up the analysis…

but then I noticed something.

Idk if it’s just me but this image is giving the vibe of the Leonardo Da Vinci painting The Last Supper. I don’t know where my mind pulled this from, but I just kinda looked at it was like… wait this looks familiar. At first I thought it was just my brain making connections, but when you look at the two images right beside each other, it seems like a pretty deliberate parallel.

If it is intentional… Orange is in almost the exact same position that Judas (the betrayer) was in in the painting.

Just saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe the red gumball thing made them an impostor /s

Also, just spitballing here, not really part of the theory, if Orange is working against the crew (either as an impostor or an accomplice), and they’re apparently affiliated with HR… what kind of implications could this have for the lore as a whole? Red’s probably just talking to their boss or something, but it feels ominous- what if MIRA (assuming that’s who’s in charge here) is in on the whole impostor thing?

But again, this is also kind of obvious of a hint, so I’m slightly skeptical of it.

Anyways, lots to think about with this, as you can tell I’m pretty excited.

[desultory-novice]

So, I recently played Kirby's Star Stacker on NSO, and...

Well, I now understand why this version never released in North America (I want to send the screenshot soooooooo badly!) 😂

Ah, yes! Sorry about having media asks turned off! After some of the horror stories I've heard, I just didn't consider it worth the risk.

But yes!

I love this image so much! Actually, I love so much about the adorable little cutscenes in Star Stacker! Meta Knight without his mask (...and gloves! You can see his little orb hands!) doing his darndest to still look like a cool tough warrior as he stands on the tallest possible hill (not that tall) and says "We shall meet again!!"

...Meta Knight... Oh Meta Knight... /positive

Now, then I assume there were probably many factors involved in Star Stacker not coming over to the west. It was released quite late into the SNES's lifespan for one, a year before the console was discontinued in NA. And it was a "remake" of a game that may not even have sold all that well the first time...

I hate to say it (especially as someone who values story and characters in video games) but an added "story mode" was almost certainly not considered a "selling point" to make it worth anyone's investment. Unfortunately, video games were still sold on their edginess to the teenage boy market in those days and a pastel-themed block matching game isn't getting any backing...

Grr...

Sorry. Just remembering how many good games my generation missed out on for stupid reasons. Games that I consider the best the system had to offer: Live a Live... Secret Treasure of the Rudras... Trials of Mana... Tales of Phantasia...

Ahem...

BUT the fact that Kirby and friends canonically go drinking at a bar if you lose probably didn't win it any points on its localizability and would have almost certainly caught the eyes of the VERY fierce, VERY determined censors of those days!

Of course, the funny thing about this is the bottle Kine is drinking from actually reads "Ocean Water" and is NOT alcohol! NoA wouldn't even have had to censor it, just translate it and you're clear!

...Although I'm sure if they had, rumors would have persisted for years that in "the original" Kine was actually drinking booze!

Maybe it wouldn't have mattered though, because Coo certainly looks ready to hit the hard liquor lined up on that shelf. ^_-

Actually, looking closely at the image, all the triangle motifs, I wonder if this is some kind of Dedede-themed Bar & Karaoke establishment? Seems they didn't bother rebuilding it after Kirby's infamously destructive singing voice wrecked the place!

...Man, there is something so utterly charming about the SNES era of Kirby! Star Stacker plays right into DL3's watercolor pencil artstyle and I love it and miss it, on occasion.

Unpopular opinion, perhaps, but I hope that our next Kirby game is not a big expansive mainline title but another "full-bodied" spinoff. Not a contentless fluff spinoff, like Dream Buffet or the 15 minute mini-games of the 3DS entries but something a little more comfy and fun, like Epic Yarn or Rainbow Curse! Something where you can have a bunch of characters reunite to do something silly and ridiculous like play competitive puzzle-matching or bubble-wrap popping (...or Air-Riding...) and pretend like it is serious business(tm)!

[hiraunia]

With the final chapter of TCWKTM by @crinklytinfoil upcoming I have decided to celebrate with more doodles. YAY!

(Did I say upcoming, I meant release. Apperently I posted this 3 minutes after the last chapter updated)

I don't know why I have decided that Shrike always wears those night vision goggles(?) now but they look cool at least(GOD I LOVE THEM).

I think I've finally gotten a hang of Dani's hairstyle for my design which is a blessing because in order from the easiest to hardest hair texture to draw is Coily>Straight>Locs>Wavy>Braids>Curly with a jump of times 4 from braids to curly(My hubris for giving Cyan short curly hair has and will continue to keep biting me in the ass).

Speaking of Cyan, I've also updated him. He always has eye bags now cause he feels tired now, more so than the start of the fic at least. Since, unless I've missed something, he's still wearing Black's suit I felt I should make it a part of his outfit. One of the issues I was having when I drew him though was that we still call him Cyan but he wasn't wearing cyan anymore which is an issue when I read the story but when I drew him it just felt odd. My solution to that hangup of mine was to keep the suit and belt black’s but give him the gloves and boots so there's at least some cyan still on him since I don't think it was ever stated that Johnny cut those off, there wouldn't be a reason to and they would fit him better than Johnny's anyways. He also isn’t wearing his backpack thing or helmet(not that I ever drew anyone with theirs anyways) since I figured they probably lost it or some shit. In this pic no one is wearing theirs but that’s just because I wanted them to look like they were chilling, Cyan straight up doesn’t have his.

Funnily enough this is the one that took the least amount of time to make, I started it yesterday and finished it like now though I do attribute that to a stroke of sudden inspiration that I was able to draw in my sketchbook so honestly most of the work was the coloring.

Drawing these guys just kinda being silly is so fun it's unfair, especially Purple. This man has done so much bullshit, I should shoot him on sight but the moment I pick up my pen he appears, the motherfucker! A pretty fun aspect of these purple are, as you can see, he's using Grey's skin. While I'm pretty sure in the story he looks the exact same I figured it would be more fun for drawing purposes to mix the two of them together to create some distinction rather than just drawing Grey with a purple suit.

My design for Grey had him as average height but more stout(at least comparatively for my artstyle) while Purple was a little more scrawny and tall which worked well for what I wanted to do. His bangs are center parted when Grey's bangs are gathered in the center. Also I drew their expressions differently, when it's Purple I draw his more bitter/sour, I decided that most of his expressions are squinty and tend to furrow the brows while Grey's are more, I'm not sure how to put it, genuine?

As you can probably tell I really enjoy trying to come up with the character's designs myself but I know when to throw in the towel and admit someone did better than me. I tried to come up with a design for Olive/Finch myself but I just could not come up with one I liked even equally let alone more than @krysmcscience 's design. They really captured their energy well so I’m just using theirs.

Ayy, I drew my take on good old Johnny boy. I think I did a pretty good job making him look older without him becoming a mass of wrinkles.

Drawing Flayer's ship was pretty fun, I've been trying to draw backgrounds and objects more so it was good practice. We obviously don't know what it actually looks like yet other than it is made of flesh and metal so I definitely had to just make shit up. For these bitches sake I hope it's bigger than what I designed because it is going to suck otherwise. Just as I'm typing this I kinda already wanna redesign it though.

I went for something more simple based of the premise that ships are complicated and difficult to make; the whole thing is kinda supposed to look like the flesh is doing a lot of the work to keep it together to compensate for a lack of technical knowledge and skill but just now I remembered that Flayer was the head of the mechanics so she almost certainly has more than enough knowledge and experience to make a good ship on her own even without the flesh. Oh well, I can redesign it when we learn more. I'm keeping its face though, the face was a completely but incredibly happy accident.

Also, I find it interesting that the Imposter’s missions are usually about them destroying biomechanical technology but one of Flayer's named imposter abilities is to use her genetic material to create machinery that fuses artificial and organic material.

Bounus Doodles!

I'm pretty sure these were all drawn sometime before the new year but they were all I had and I didn't want to post one image of doodles so enjoy them now.

While I am still proud of Brown and Devon making out I think my favorite doodle here is Cyan and his judgmental ass face. Why is he staring at Finch like, he is not in any position to but judging like that.

I also borrowed Kry's designs for Red and Umber, I couldn't help myself for Umber, it was just too perfect!

Not sure how I feel about my take on Skeld!White(Finnegan I CANT-). I'm not sure if it's just I'm so used to seeing Kry's design that anything else feels weird or just that I made him too baby faced and princessy. I tend to draw men that are very pretty and feminine so I think I went overboard when I tried my hand since he was usually described similar to how I would normally design a man.

[agent-calivide]

🎙️ and ✈️ for the ask game!!

✈️ Give a shout out to a fan artist / fic writer / etc. in the fandom that you appreciate!

Oh boy, get ready for a list.

@/lunacornfan2k24 has their AMAZING Celebrity Crush series that actually kicked off fanfic writing for the IEYTD fandom as a whole and holds up as one of my favorite fanfics I've ever read! All of the OC's are so fun, so real, and feel like they'd just be IEYTD characters in game!

@/rojaceartandgaming is the creator of Jackson "Agent Phoenix" Winters and has such a fun story going with his Out of the Ashes and Into the Flames fics! He's got such a strong personality and his rivalry with Juniper because they're both actors is such a fun twist! And that's not even touching on his other OC's, I Want To Punt Them! /pos

@/lavalampstealer has a super unique, silhouette style that I absolutely live for! They were a major art inspiration of mine and I get so excited whenever they're back in the fandom! I may or may not have stolen their idea of Kinesium making the agents glow (if I recall right?) and all around Cyan showing up on my dash always delights me!

@/neurotonic has such a strong artstyle with sharp shapes and bright colors and HOW ARE YOU SO CREATIVE??? Every art piece that comes from her is so neat, the body language, the expressions, I could ramble forever about how cool his art alone is, and then the OC's??? God tier, wanna be friends Black Mamba but I know they'd probs kill me.

@/an-asexual-idiot is another really cool artist that I'm always excited to see from! She's making the jump from Insta to Tumblr, so her blog's a bit empty, but her work is always so polished and detailed and I love seeing Gibson getting the attention he deserves. I am amazed by her backgrounds and would commit crimes to draw Juniper half as well as she does.

@/definitelyunhingedagentphoenix has hilarious incorrect quotes compilations that are always just the right amount of feral and is always feeding back into the fandom whenever I see their posts! It's a delight to see a string of them RPing out Phoenix getting into a problem or needing a loving family based on one meme post!

@/wyvchard is an awesome writer who does some pretty fun, pretty painful works! I'm living for their interpretation of Radio Host Phoenix, and their angst just hits different ngl- I've also gotten some of my favorite comments on Ao3 from them, they always put so much thought into them and make my work feel so appreciated in such a genuine way!

@/purplebehittindifferent AGH her COMICS. They're so pretty, they always melt my heart, and I am just thrilled to see them on my dash! The found family, the gremlin-y Phoenix, mom and dad Prism and Crane, the hurt comfort I LOVE them!!! They're so pretty and silly and sad and it's always neat seeing her work!

I could go on, this whole fandom is so gaddamn talented and we'd be here all night-

🎙️ What’s your favourite (used or unused) voice line in the games?

That's a hard one- honestly there's a few.

Again, obvious answer is obvious, "Oh, don't get any ideas, you're not going anywhere. As a matter of faaact~, you and I are gonna have a little chat" Is beautiful work from both voice actors and still gives me chills to this day!

But I also really like basically all of Zor's dialogue in KBOOM. "Ah, the creator and her creation working together..." "So you fooled Prism into believing in you... Well, even the great Phoenix will one day burn out..." "A bit late for that. And it seems Prism didn't die in the explosion at her factory either..."

Zor just scares me and I love them for it. The slightly patronizing edge, the condescension, the amusement. Zor feels so in control the whole time, and when they lose that control their mask only ever so slightly slips.

"Believe me when I say there's nothing worth saving at the agency... I would know.

IT'S SO GOOD

[chase-omega]

Ever since I got into Dragon Quest, I've sorta preferred it over other similar RPGs like Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy always wants to have some gimmick, force unrelated mini-games on the player instead of just letting you play, and constantly change up the battle and leveling systems to the point to where the games are barely even similar anymore. For some people, that's a positive. Not everyone wants the same game every time, I get it.

But Dragon Quest sticks to a formula that works, and only really makes changes when something genuinely needs improvement. For that reason, there's not really any bad mainline Dragon Quest games, except for MAYBE 2 depending on whether or not the game's second half bothered you.

Dragon Quest games also just focus on being a fun RPG to play and don't force minigames on you unless it's related to what you were already doing in the main game.

They don't really need gimmicks, they just focus on making the new worlds, characters and storylines of each game really good. The rare times these games actually have gimmicks is always just small stuff like "your wife and kids are your party members" and "explore 2 alternate worlds" or "you can recruit enemy monsters to join you" (and this was before Pokémon).

And this really might just be a me thing, I'm gonna show my bias a little bit, but I like Toriyama's artstyle, how each game can stick more faithfully to a fantasy setting without getting stale, and how the storylines can have an overall wholesome, light-hearted tone while still knowing how and when to bring the feels.

I've always loved RPGs, but ever since I got into Dragon Quest, I just can't put the genre down.

It's really such a shame this series isn't that popular in the west. I think it deserves so much more attention. I'm not gonna lie. I might just be a teeny weeny bit jealous of Final Fantasy's success here in the states… I'm not saying Final Fantasy doesn't deserve it, because it does. I just think Dragon Quest also deserves just as much recognition. I mean c'mon, it basically invented almost every single modern RPG trope and mechanic we know today. Without Dragon Quest, the only people playing RPGs today would be hyper computer geeks. I'm not underplaying any games here, but without Dragon Quest there'd be no Final Fantasy, there'd be no Pokémon, there'd be no Xenoblade, there'd be no Earthbound, and there'd be no Undertale.

Please, I'm begging you, give this series a chance.

[cbedfordart]

Hey! Question from one wannabe game design graduate who is also an artist and wants to make their own (very simple) little game one day - how is it like working on a game set to release one day? Did u feel discouraged learning a new skill (?) after already being a pro artist? Was the game a random idea or have you guys been planning this since a long time? Btw super excited for Sorry We're Closed and I'm obsessed with the retro look and artstyle <33

Firstly THAnk you so much for being into Sorry We're Closed - it's my lil bby pride and joy so I'm glad someone out there in the wider world is looking forward to it! I'll try and answer your questions in order and not ramble too much! I'm a little older now, and gotten to that point where deadlines aren't so scary anymore. There's a point in which you learn to live with what you can make, rather than trying to make something that's not what's within your ability (which is why we always want more time to get better while we work). But after a while you just realise its better for the idea to be out there in the world where other people can see what you were trying to do! Admittedly i will do a lot of hours sometimes if i REALLY want something to be a certain level or if I'm particularly stuck on something , but a deadline keeps me realistic. It allows for the thing to be good and exist, rather than perfect and existing only in my mind. Learning a new skill was actually extremely exciting. I wanted to absorb everything like a sponge. I hadn't done any 3d modelling before 2020 seriously (i tried zbrush once in like 2015 and i kept crashing my computer lol). I just wanted to keep going because it was so fun seeing my creations come to life! I always dreamed of designing game characters and it was literally happening before my eyes. Also, the indiedev community is extremely kind, helpful and resourceful. There's lots of free knowledge out there, and people who are willing to talk to you and help you figure things out! Being trained as an artist honestly only helped the modelling endeavour. Having an understanding of anatomy helped my understand how I wanted to approach the form of my models - what needed to be shaped and what I could get away with painting on.

So my knight is about 934 verts/1,861 tris (sort of like a ps2 character) but painting can give some fun depth. I've found this method to be really tricky though as it's highly prone to unflattering angles - but thats partly cause I'm still learning and relying too much on my skills as a 2d artist I guess. This model I made a bit later on, the Sorry We're Closed models I made were far earlier before i really knew what i was doing so they rely even more on my painting skills

but I felt it was okay since we were going for a nostalgic game feel which means some funny deformities like this

but it's whatever, i think it's kind of cute lol. We started planning the game in 2020 as well, literally after I saw my partner Tom make a character model move around in Unity (it looked pretty terrible) so i said I'll make models and he would code. Then I came up with a story, and from there we came up with how the game itself would play. Game design itself is something we were both lacking and real experience in so that has been the biggest wall to climb so far but its been a really fun and rewarding journey so far. Anyway sorry for the ramble!! I really hope you get a shot at working on a project you really love and want to pour everything into!

[mqole]

hbjhkgvhj ok here are uh. some character designs i did abt a year ago

these are all based on the incredible @kayzero's fic zero win game, which is a rewrite of ztd with akane as the protagonist, and it has possibly THE BEST characterization of akane ive ever read- listen just. just go read it you will be enriched i promise.

im not putting an image description bc i dont know where to start (sorry!!) BUT ill put a bunch of character design notes below the cut for people who are insane like me <3333

ok first of all. i know when i sent these to kay the other day they said there were some details canon to zwg that i missed (akane's lil hoodie pocket, aoi wearing white to contrast junpei's black (which is SO inspired btw.)) so just. PRETEND those are there bc i forgor <3

i spent the most time on sigma, phi, akane, junpei and aoi just because they've had multiple iterations of designs. it was fun to take bits and pieces from each version of them, so thats why they get a feature page

you can see a lot of my little pink notes with criticisms of the ztd designs there. in general, i really dont like the ztd designs, they all feel unnaturally bland to me (although thats probably also the artstyle).

most people whove looked into the colour symbolism in zero escape are probably familiar with the whole red/blue thing: that is, theyre colours representing the morphogenetic field. akane and aoi are the most obvious examples of this. 'aka' means red, and 'ao' means blue. in the first nonary game, akane and clover wear red - the colour for transmitters - and aoi and light wear blue, the colour for recievers. in 999 proper, akane wears purple, to symbolise how she can recieve AND transmit, while junpei wears red and blue by themselves. you can do a whole analysis of these colours and i will not put it here thats a whole SEPERATE post

anyway! the actual designs!! i'll start with sigma. i wanted to reconcile his vlr design with zero ii's design, and initially i planned on giving him a coat, but it didnt really have a nice silhouette, so i ditched that idea. instead, i turned his jumpsuit from vlr into a polo shirt - much like what he has in ztd - and gave him some zero-y accessories: the white turtleneck, the belt and the gloves all come from zero's design. once id included the white turtleneck, making the pants white felt really logical. in character design, its generally best to limit the palette of colours as much as you can, so it was a good excuse to reuse a colour while also paying homage to his ztd design. i also cut his hair bc hes a scientist and he'd do that.

phi's design is a lot more like her vlr one than her ztd design. the blue coat was her hallmark accessory, and im shocked that they ditched it for ztd, so i gave it back - along with her boots and hair accessory. i kept her pants and glasses from ztd, as well as the way the bottom of her shirt is tucked into her pants. they just have a much nicer silhouette to me. between my first pass of colours and my second pass, phi's colours changed the most - i realised i had too many blue guys in the lineup, and wanted to make the colours stand out individually. so i leaned into phi's orange-ness. giving her hair accessory, pants and boots an orange hue instead of a blue one, as well as shifting her coat to a more teal colour really helped make those colours pop.

AKANE MY BESTIE!!!! her design was probably the one i had the most fun with. i basically just took her ztd design and purpled it. I did want to include some more details though - her neck scarf was in both her 999 AND vlr design, so it felt wrong not to include it. i also added some gold highlights to her design, just to complement the purple - her boots are also toned yellow, so it felt fitting. the cut of her sleeves, as well as her hair, felt really natural: i gave her the side ponytail from ztd, while letting more of her hair fall to the side to retain her silhouette from 999. i stole the sleeves wholesale from vlr akane, but can you blame me. look at that robe. its so pretty.

overall i have mixed feelings on ztd junpei as a character, but i think his darker turn is at the very least a fun direction to take him. I do like the jacket he has in his concept art. IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF THE MODEL ALSO HAD A JACKET. his design went relatively unchanged overall, i basically just retoned his hair, gave him a button-up instead of a t-shirt, and puffered his jacket. the red and blue from his vest in 999 is reused here, but in darker, more muted tones. you can see in the corner of the drawing i played around with swapping the red and blue, but the red focus felt too edgy for junpei. the blue also pops really nicely against his dark clothes, so i kept it.

anyone who has spoken to me for more than ten seconds will know how insane i am about aoi kurashiki i mean come on my name is santa. i think a lot about his two designs: that of the first nonary game and in 999. in the first nonary game he wears a blue scarf, harkening to his role as a reciever, but in 999 he wears monochrome. my personal interpretation of this is that his 999 fit was him purposefully disguising his connection to the morphogenetic field. so post-999, since he doesnt have to worry about that, i gave him his blue back!!! his general fit is the same- his pants and shoes are artistry so obviously i kept those, and i ended up making the rest of his look black to contrast his 999 design. if i were to redesign him now wearing white, id probably go a different direction altogether. that third little drawing ive included has some test outfits for him, carlos, and maria, but i never really went anywhere with them. also i gave him dark roots to show his relation to akane a bit more. and also because i like projecting my roots always grow back SO fast

that brings us to the 4 characters introduced after vlr: carlos, mira, diana, and... maria??? yeah like i said go read zero win game. do it. maria is such a fun character. she was, coincidentally, ALSO the only character where i had to design someone from scratch. you can see i fiddled a little with colour palettes, trying to figure out how to give every character a unique look. diana and carlos' designs actually go almost unchanged here- i think dianas design in particular is actually pretty great, and works as a nice foil to luna in vlr. carlos is just kind of normal. he can have his silly polo shirt.

miras ztd design is. ugh ok look its FINE but i hate the boobie designs in zero escape because they always feel like they were designed seperately from the character. mira in zwg is still a sussy baka, but she's a lot more cordial- i enjoyed seeing her more as a snake lying in the grass. I ended up giving her green because its a fun colour to give characters who youre meant to distrust. SO MANY TIMES reading zwg i was like "oh maybe mira's chill - oh wait maybe shes not - oh wait maybe shes chill again" and i love her for that honestly. she still gets boobies because i love women but i gave her a fun little long sleeved corset top. the amount of skin she shows directly correlates to the amount you should trust her (i am only half joking.)

i wont talk about diana because honestly the only change i made was giving her a little blue strip at the bottom of her skirt, but i'll talk about maria and carlos together. carlos i kept as a little pink boy because i love him and i love pink and listen its my character design ill do what i want. maria in ztd AND in zwg experiences reverie syndrome, which is connected to the morphogenetic field. her and carlos' designs both incorporate red and blue again- (just realised diana also has red and blue. pretend that was intentional) -to show their connection to the field. yes yes i know its pink but listen its red enough. like aoi, i gave maria and carlos both different iterations of their designs. i'm less sold on carlos', but i did actually like the baggier, heavy designs for maria. with those ones she looks more depressed than she does wearing overalls, so im calling that a win. maria's was the design i was least satisfied with overall, but hey i did these like a year and a half ago and ive gotten much better since then soo.

if youve read this far this is once again a reminder to read zero win game by kayzero on ao3

[rainofbrasspetal]

Grappler Baki: The Stitchy Review

Started Grappler Baki June 17 2024.

Finished Grappler Baki July 6 2024.

Stitchy's Score: 9/10

I, like many others, have seen those infamous clips and "WTF is Baki even about" memes. I finally decided to take a look at the source for myself. WTF is Baki? Well, it's peak, I'm afraid.

I was once a hater of Itagaki Sensei's artstyle, I thought Baki was so ugly. "How can people stand to look at it?" I would ask myself. I am extremely happy to report, however, that I now have no choice but to stan my king and Baki's art. I think Baki has fantastic and engaging art. Baki's girlfriend, his landlady, his mother, ect, they all look like regular people. Only the guys that fight and have dedicated themselves to being "the strongest" have these horrificly muscular bodies. It makes a lot of sense to me and makes everything else pretty easy to swallow.

Each character is also pretty destinct which is also fantastic. I happened to really fall in love with the cast. I brought up my character designer friend in my Mashle review, but I was discussing Baki with her earlier today. She correctly noted that hight difference is also really important and Baki has it in spades. Yujiro Hanma is like the strongest dude ever to exist and there are actually a few characters taller than or almost as tall as he is. Baki himself is also pretty short, which is great. It makes everyone stand out more and helps the silhouette of the characters. Baki also looks like he really is a 17 year old boy! Another plus in a world where I am supposed to believe that Kiyomaro Takamine (Zatch/Gash Bell) is a middle schooler! He also has a great personality, a fun protagonist that almost seems out of place in such a violent story.

Grappler Baki is the most "normal" of the series, from what I can tell. All the big memes aren't going to be found here, unfortunately. That being said, this manga is still absolute nonsense. There's biting and ripping and breaking and just incredibly unbelievable violence. Baki characters feel like cockroaches! Baki himself takes a ridiculous amount of damage and just is fine at the end of the day sometimes. It really reminds me of the old brutal Mortal Kombat 9 x-ray moves, like Sub-Zero freezing your stomach and crushing it, before just continuing the fight like that didn't happen to you. The fights are so brutal and engaging to watch. Even when the side characters were going to fight, I often found myself excited to see how it went. It's just a good old time.

If you've never read or watched Baki, I don't want to give too much away from the plot (MAKE SURE YOU DO SOME RESEARCH! It really took me a minute to figure out what order best to consume the story as a whole. There's like 5 or 6 Baki mangas and two of them have the same name). I will say that I was really locked in the whole time, though! UNFORTUNATELY, this also has the bit where it loses that perfect 10/10 score. I will tell you that Grappler Baki has maybe four important female characters and unfortunately they are pretty lacking. They really don't get to do too much, Baki's girlfriend especially doesn't do much.

Most of our story revolves around a tournament, which is also a big plus. What arcs does everyone love? Naruto's Chunin Exams, Yu Yu Hakusho's Dark Tournament and, Dragon Ball's Tenka'ichi Budōkai, Yu-Gi-Oh's Battle City! The people love tournament arcs! We yearn for the tournament! Even Oda stuck one in One Piece during Dressrosa! A main plot that revolves around a tournament, what more could we ask of Grappler Baki?

Another thing I believe Grappler Baki handles well is what I'm going to call, "The Vegeta Problem." I call it The Vegeta Problem because he is always the first character I'll think of in the context. I define it as: introducing a character that is supposed to be so strong and intimidating but usually gets whipped before the main character gets to take his turn and beat the bad guy. Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu. Since Baki's villain is Yujiro Hanma, and he's said to be untouchable and just a ridiculously impossible standard, it never feels like someone is weak when they lose to him. Even people who lose often put up decent fights. Baki is very good at making fights really edge of your seat, which is refreshing!

In conclusion, Grappler Baki is a fantastic read. It has everything someone would want from a manga mainly about fighting. A ridiculous ride that grabs you and makes you really want to see where the twists and turns take the story!

[saph-y]

Tagged by @dingoat♥ A while ago BUT today I have trouble getting to work grading some students so thank you for the procrastination instead xD

3 ships (did the first that came into my mind !)

Siv(my oc)/Archibald(selkys's oc) : Truly The Ship, at the core of the story I'm rp-ing with Selkys. They fought the plot AND tons of shit in-universe to be together. How to sumarize them... ha, picture an evil genius Sith Lord suddenly switching his whole reason of living from revenge to absolute devotion toward his fiery sunshine smol wife and you get and idea !

Hazel(OC)/Sycamore (Pokemon) : Basically started because I wanted to explore a ship with Sycamore and Hazel was my only Pokemon OC at the time - I didn't even knew much about him except I liked his design and vibes immensely. I actually managed to write a deliciously complicated story around them and I really hope to explore more♥

Willow(OC)/Grimsley(Pokemon) : Willow is my pokemas protag and in a game were you basically meet all pokemon trainers, I do have many ships with her and that is originally why she was created, just a character to be indulgent and explore different stuff. But Grimsley is my fav pairing for her because I imagined such a """fun""" (for me 8D) dynamic between them ! Two word : trust issues.

First Ship

I can't really remember my first FIRST ship, but growing up I wasn't too much into romance stories I think. But I do vividly remember my first "holy shit you can do THAT??" when playing Mass Effect 2 for the first time and discovering you could romance Garrus. Thus, my first "active" ship was born (meaning I was actively searching/producing works around it) Guess I was a monsterfucker all along Thank you Bioware for expanding my imagination 🫶

Last Song

At this very moment I'm listening to Wild Child by The Black Keys (love vibing to this band.)

Currently Reading

Just started Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett and I'm delighted to be finally reunited with the idiots of the city watch♥ I waited for MONTHS to get to a proper library that had it...

Last Film

...Not sure ? A silly spy film I forgot the title I think ? ...If I can offer a serie instead, I'm currently watching Lupin the Third part 4 and 5 ! It's funny how every Lupin thing I watch feels like meeting with long time dear friends even tho it's not a universe I've been aware of for that long... is that weird ? xD But given how fanartists for this fandom influenced my artstyle for years before I even saw a single film (yep, do you understand some stuff about it now ? :p) it might be the reason !

Currently Craving

Hum... idk ? ...Maybe another coffee xD But that would not be a good idea and thus I must resist u_u