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chessere · 1 year ago

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Ethan Winters. Simon Jarrett. Existential Horror. Something. It's 3 AM Man.

First of all I have to say that I've never played SOMA myself before. When I say I'm horrible with horror I really mean it, but the core theme of the game and how it deals with humanity has been a huge source of inspiration for me for a while. The best part is you don't even have to play the game yourself. Just listening to video essays is enough to make you think for hours if you're not careful lol

Obviously spoilers for both SOMA and RE8, but like, the games are out for years now...

The point is, I feel like understanding Simon Jarrett would help with understanding Ethan Winters a lot better, and why just excepting that he's molded might not work for him. I feel like they have some similarities in terms of their existential horror but SOMA showed it better as it was the whole point about the game, while RE8 is left to be just an underlying thoughts as it was more action-focused... If you can't explain it properly using one game, then use another game baby!!!

Now, I don't think Capcom thought that far ahead, but hey, nothing wrong with trying to humanize your favorite character, right? That's my dad, y'know? So in that way it's pretty much a personal interpretation rather than an actual analysis. Again. It is also 3 AM right now. Hot damn.

Pretty early on in SOMA, you encounter a robot, or a Mockingbird, to be exact, who still thought of himself as a human. He fully believed himself to be an injured human and asked the protagonist to help him. Telling him that he was a robot would anger him, and he'd tell you he still had arms and legs... Or after that, another brain scan that shut himself down from stress once he realized something was wrong and had to be convinced that the simulation was real for him to give up. And then there's Simon himself, too. Initially, Simon also saw himself as a human, flesh and all. Only when he looked into the mirror did he become aware of his true appearance. Do you see what I'm getting at here. The brain does weird things to keep itself together is another thing that was also presented in SOMA.

Not only that, but Simon was also repeatedly explained about the process of brain scanning and how it works, how they'd always be left behind while it was their copies that would live on, but he simply couldn't comprehend it, or rather he wouldn't listen. Repressed, in denial, whatever. It was, after all, an awful truth. Anyways, the last thing Simon knew he was a normal guy with a brain injury, and then he wasn't anymore, but he didn't know that and kept thinking he was normal up until a certain point, sounds familiar?

The point is, you could probably apply the same thought process to Ethan, too, although less extreme as he didn't suddenly wake up a robot. I see a lot of people questioning why Ethan thought he could just reattach his hand and not realize that there was something wrong with him. Personally I think that what if, on a certain level, he did know that he wasn't normal anymore, hence immediately coming to the conclusion that he could just reattach his limbs, but he never questioned it or dig deeper because his brain shut it out to keep itself together. He died, literally. Foot to the head right after his wife chainsawed his arm off. That HAD to be one hell of a trauma. And by the time he finally realized he died, Ethan was angry and had a one-track mind. He did freak out for a bit when Eveline broke it to him ("Then what am I?") but he didn't have time to have a crisis. He had to pull himself together ("Family? F-Family? No! Rose! I have to...save...my daughter!") and save Rose. Then he died before he had a chance to fully comprehend the real horror that lies beyond his superficial humanity.

(I also think he's dubiously human as hell. Best case scenario is the mold revived him and he retained his consciousness. Worst case is the real Ethan died right there and the Ethan that lived on was an archived consciousness, or the mold integrated with him so well it inherited his memories and thought it was Ethan Winters. You can pick whichever you like. A little existential dread is fun once in a while-)

There's not much to talk about here but there's also a pretty interesting parallel at the end where the brain scan of Simon got launched into the ark, and as for Ethan, an archive of his consciousness lives on in the realm of consciousness.

That's probably enough for today I think. I really need to sleep instead of rambling about a fictional man's potential existential dread jfjdjfjjdjfj

#ethan winters #resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #SOMA #simon jarrett #i'm sanecore normalpilled about ethan yeah #rambles

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lucilleandherrobots · 2 years ago

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Okay. I wrote this as a response to an earlier post by @jasmineofthecommonwealth, but I really want it to be seen by others. Not that people can't just read the notes on there, but I really wanted to see what people think which means I'm making my own post about it.

Fun fact- I don't think Nick can technically die unless they damage whatever runs his personality and stores his memories. So even if he were theoretically uploaded or put into a Securitron, Assaultron, or Sentry bot, or another Synth, in some way he'd still be Nick and he'd still be very VERY much alive so long as his memories and personality subroutines stayed intact.

In fact if his entire drive could be cloned you'd have a way of making multiple Nick Valentines. Don't think it would end well. They might start trying to fight each other in a self destructive fit of existential crisis and confusion. Then there's that whole theory of if a person's memories and personality were cloned, would their consciousness ALSO transfer into the clone body or stay in the original and all that.

Which leads me into another theory of how deadly the mind scan was and whether or not the original Nick's consciousness won the proverbial coin toss after all.

In a way we do have to ask ourselves here- what exactly IS Nick? What part of him makes Nick... ALIVE?! And in the same vein we could apply what makes a human alive, kind of- once that part of your brain that holds all of your memories goes, you kind of stop... Living. You are EFFECTIVELY brain dead, meaning that even though everything else is still working like normal to some degree, you, or at least the part that makes you "YOU" is dead. You are lost at that juncture.

But Nick is a computer. If you rigged it right you could transfer EVERYTHING to a NEW synth body so long as it's compatible. Therefore he cannot actually die if his entire personality remains intact in long run.

Of course, there's the whole issue of the coin toss- the transfer of consciousness to the new body vs the old. Usually in most scenarios this whole situation plays out, there's a 50/50 chance the original wins out and transfers over to the new body. Whichever body the consciousness of the individual doesn't choose kind of exists as a separate entity from the one that retains- it's kind of shown as a sudden shift of perspective if it's transferred at all.

At what point here could original Nick (the synth) be considered dead if a copy of him is killed? Is the consciousness of him a signifier of Valentine's life? His very soul even? Does the copy count as a new life if he develops some form of sentience and consciousness of his own? Do I even understand what I'm talking about?

And if it does count as the original Nick (the synth) being "Alive," what does that say about the cop who lived back before the war? Is he "Alive" then, too? Did he lose the coin toss? Or perhaps, he won it and now has convinced himself he's a copy of a long dead detective from before the war.

I often wonder if Nick the cop survived the CIT scan at all. I wonder if he lived his own life after the procedure- miserable and grief stricken. Or worse, beyond the reaches of the current Nick's memories, did something... that's best left forgotten. Or did the scan fry his brain in the process, making it mout whether or not he won the bloody coin toss or not. Who knows?

Tldr: As long as the original copy of Nick's personality and memories persists to exist, even turned off/damaged and unresponsive, Nick cannot actually die.

#fallout 4 #fo4 #nick valentine #i had a LOT of thoughts on this okay?#Nick's whole situation is kind of fascinating on a psychological and philosophy sense to me #especially since I work on computers and have replaced harddrives meaning i had to clone the OS.#and that whole theory about consciousness #the horror game SOMA really did something with this #i don't know the EXACT theory this is based around but this is how it goes every time it's used in media

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the-eldritch-it-gay · 3 years ago

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nobody asked but anyways here’s my review of Frictional Games I’ve played

Penumbra Overture: 1/10

Forgettable. I had a lot of time struggling to progress as it was unclear sometimes what the next step was. I kept waiting for there to be some conclusion to the plot, but it never came. It just felt like set up to the next game. The only bit of plot that was interesting I suppose was Red.

Penumbra Black Plague: 2/10

There was actual plot in this one. Unfortunately I didn’t really care for it. Its centrally about some organization trying to find an Inuit spirit, which when they find it, it starts infecting and killing them as a parasitic virus. White people being cursed or fucking with indigenous stuff is my least favorite trope. The spirit literally asks the protag to destroy the research and let it rest in peace but white people continue to just fuck everything up.

Penumbra Requium: 1/10

This one is basically just puzzles and I hated it and never finished it. Or if I did I forgot that I did so.

Amnesia the Dark Descent: 9/10

While I hate the plot of the protag having found some Supernatural Ethnic Artifact while on an expedition to Africa, that part of the story is actually pretty minimal to the plot imo. In the sense that you could replace the destination of the expedition to like, any place, and the story is functionally the same. The expedition, mentioned in letters, serves as the inciting incident but the game itself is focused on all the events after that.

The story had me interested, the puzzles weren’t unreasonably difficult, the progression of the story and game is clear so there’s no chance of getting lost. The sanity meter and the darkness were interesting mechanics. There are multiple endings. Overall an enjoyable game.

Amnesia a Machine for Pigs: 0/10

Where the previous installment had the Ethnic Artifact as something not central to the story, the Spooky Ethnic People part of this protags backstory is central to the story. Finding a mysterious artifact at an aztec temple is the inciting incident, and human sacrifice and the visual of aztec temples are a major recurring part of the plot. (not only is the protag engaging in human sacrifice based on what he saw at an aztec temple, but he’s fucking industrializing it)

I was immediately disappointed in how little you could interact with the environment and the lack of puzzles. It felt more like an first person visual novel than anything, it didn’t feel like I was doing anything meaningful. There was no inventory, no health bar or sanity meter. Overall felt lackluster and disappointing. I didn’t have any feelings for the protag, let alone sympathy. I was also disappointed in the story-telling, it felt way more telling than showing. In the previous installment, you had flashbacks and found so many notes and diaries where you could piece together the story yourself. In this installment, most of the backstory comes from essentially the protagonist literally explaining shit out loud to himself. Really the only thing going for it is a steampunk-esque aesthetic and that’s it.

SOMA: 10/10

SOMA was genuinely a fun game to play, and the only horror game I’ve ever played multiple times. The setting and visuals of the game are beautiful, the theme of the game looking at consciousness and humanity is intriguing even if the protag is fucking stupid. Very rich story. Horror, sci-fi, apocalyptic, set underwater. The monsters are such cool designs, just the whole thing has a lovely aesthetic. If you’re going to play one of these games, I would recommend SOMA. It’s not puzzle focused, unlike Penumbra or Amnesia.

A nice feature as well is a “safe” mode, in which you cannot be killed by the monsters which is great for people who want to focus on the game or anyone like me who struggles with controls and stealth.

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lunarimpact · 3 years ago

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I don’t usually have final thoughts posts for any fics which are commissioned. I tend to keep those feelings to my self, and whatever thoughts I might have. But I am having DanAya feelings and I need to just talk about @panyum‘s comm.

The first thing that hit me after completing it was the fear that so much would be missed. That small details like the truth behind the figure in the painting and why the room isn’t described from the get go, why the destruction is handwaved. That the existential dread which is supposed to creep in along side the anxiety wouldn’t be picked up.

But I think, I think it shows itself well on an additional read through.

I was writing about Schrodinger’s Ayako. The room, her paint room, is the box. And if you open the door, what will you find? Will you find a girl dead or alive.

I wanted to portray that this Ayako, who is not supposed to be alive, but is alive, is part of a Möbius strip that is falling apart. Dantes has invented a terrible loop for her, where she is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a girl who is DEAD. And because this loop is folding in on itself indefinitely, there may be a space where the veil between the “living” Ayako and the alternative Ayako’s may cross paths.

What better way than to pull some Lovecraftian shit for such a moment?

I wanted Ayako to experience not just the overwhelming anxiety of living, but also having perceived an Ayako she shouldn’t even know about. The Lovecraftian horror. The Foreigner. I wanted to draw back to how perceiving an Outter God would usually drive someone to madness, or suicide. So I wanted this portrait to be a focal point to Ayako’s slowly building anxiety. That’s why there’s this implication of the being in the portrait being alive.

Of course, I didn’t want to forget that the reason she has no outlet to deal with this dread and anxiety is because she did something stupid in battle, and got her arm mangled. That was, after all, the plot of the whole comm. It was about Ayako having a mental breakdown because she couldn’t paint anymore. She had lost her only outlet, her only way to unwind when everything was just too much. The events, the nightmares, existing.

But with the room, specifically, I wanted the reader to envision a blank room with only a portrait on an easel and Ayako. A claustrophobic moment where there’s nothing but them. And over time things would just manifest in the room. Other paintings, objects, etc. And when it came to Ayako destroying things, I wanted the focus of the destruction to be the picture. To have Ayako kill the other Ayako, metaphorically speaking.

And the trigger had to be something ridiculous, and mundane. To trigger her mental breakdown, her lashing out. To make you feel the same disassociation from all the fucking destruction. So it was just knocking over the mason jar. The paintbrushes. A fumble.

It was also very, very important for me to use the line: “I’m not recovering”. It could be referencing anything, her physical or mental health, her fragmented soul. That she can’t just bounce back from a breakdown at the drop of a hat. The fact that she is starting to, maybe, pick up on how wrong her existence is. That she’s not supposed to be alive. And I wanted Dantes to not really respond to that sentiment, because if he were honest, he would tell her that the reason she can’t recover is because she’s already dead in a sense. The real Ayako, the OG Ayako is dead. And all he’s been doing is prolonging her soul from it’s actual respite.

My inspirations for this fic were Soma, an amazing video game, Lovecraftian horror in general, Perfect Blue, Schrodinger’s Cat, and just an exploration of Ayako’s amazing lore. There’s a little bit of PMMM as well, dealing with the existence of Homura and Madoka.

And I really, really liked Pan’s simple prompt... I just took it and ran with it. Like really, really ran with it. Obviously you can just take the fic at face value and totally ignore this, but like I just needed to ramble so badly.

#please I love DanAya and all the fucking angst that comes with it #there is just so damn much i wanted to fit into a 2k comm that didn't even have to be there #i will sometimes take a prompt and fucking run with it

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the-insomniac-emporium · 3 years ago

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When did you join the resident evil fandom?

I guess that depends on whether you specifically mean, like, interacting with other fans + writing for the characters, or just enjoying the series in general?

My brother picked up RE7 a bit after it came out, despite not having much past interest in horror games, because it piqued his interest. I sat in with him while he played most of it (as in he finished the game, I just wasn't there for 100% of it), half paying attention. Ended up entertained enough that I also got interested when the demo for the RE2 remake came out. My brother and I both played through the demo, and enjoyed it.

When the full game came out, I sat through 100% of it while my brother played. Real quick, lemme just say that this is a common thing for my bro and I to do, and is something we've done since we were kids. We both really love games, and frequently have in depth discussions about all aspects of the ones we like (gameplay, design, social/community stuff, etc). My brother specifically wanted to hangout while doing the RE games because he never really plays horror games (the only other one I know he's finished is Soma), and they're way less scary when you have company. Not that the games ended up being terribly scary, lmao

Anyway, I didn't end up playing RE2 on my own, because some of the gameplay aspects don't vibe great with my ADHD (limited resources/ammo management, constantly forgetting which puzzle I'm trying to solve at any given time, that sort of stuff), but I did end up getting hyped for the RE3 remake, and sat through that with my bro as well.

But it wasn't until Village came out that I could no longer ignore my growing interest, and despite the depressing lack of accessibility options (let me make the subtitles bigger, Capcom!!!!!!!!!) I ended up playing it myself. My first experience with it was still watching my brother play, though, and we went through the whole game together.

It wasn't too long after the game came out (a few days, I think???) that I started writing fanfic for Village, because I'm very gay and the Dimitrescu family stole my heart<3

I do plan on going back and playing RE7 myself at some point, and I'm considering doing 2+3, but idk if the difference in gameplay/presentation will make it better or worse for me.

#j says things #asks #anonymous

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sethofthewind · 3 years ago

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I'm trying to think of other games to talk about.. But fromsoft games are the only games I have really been playing a lot recently.

I guess I'm really excited for Elden Ring. January is gonna be an awesome month next year!

(Also lucky you Seth. You could visit their head quarters for like a tour or something. They're in Tokyo.)

Anyways I uhh, like the resident evil series. I've only played like 4 and 7 though. I really want 8. I've also played the borderlands series.

Have you tried Code Vein? It's not Fromsoft I don't think but I really enjoyed it. It's a lot like dark souls but it seems generally nicer to the player. Not to say that it isn't challenging, it's still got plenty of hard spots and if you choose to go with an ai teammate it adds a new dimension to combat trying to keep them alive and working well.

Also one of the cool things is that your stats for equipping stuff are tied to blood codes instead of levels so if you want to experiment with a new playstyle you can do it pretty much whenever you want.

I actually just started the Resident Evil 1 remake last night! I thought I'd be stuck with tank controls but it has an option that gives you the full range of motion you'd expect from anything made after the 90's.

Just need to remember that killing everything isn't a good decision...

As for Borderlands, I've played through the first one around when it came out and really liked it. Then a bit after the second one dropped I got it but I never finished it.

If you want I can drop some game recommendations. I tend to be distant from the more main stream stuff so I might be able to surprise you with things you haven't heard of.

If you want a good Mystery/VN game AI: The Somnium files is pretty good. It's getting a sequel now and it's made by the guy who did 999(another good one I'd recommend). He also did work on Danganronpa if memory serves.

Metroidvania's seem to be coming back and it's kind of old but Shadow Complex was a fun one. I actually 100% completed it on my first run because I enjoyed it so much.

SOMA is a good walking sim/horror game by the people who did Amnesia. One of my personal favorites and I've played through it a few times.

The ocean is scary man...

And just to keep this brief I'll give out one last recommendation.

If you've got Steam I'd recommend Black Mesa. It's a complete remake of the first Half Life game that is fan made and Valve liked it so much they let them sell it on their store. It's really well done and it's worth a look if you like FPS games.

#Seth Recommends 1000 games #I also have a tendency to just start and binge random series #So I'm always open to suggestions too #tokyo afterschool summoners #housamo

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years ago

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watched the end of some guy’s amnesia: rebirth playthrough and i have some boring thoughts @halloweenhavoc have u finished the game i feel like you have more of a grasp on all this stuff than i do lmfao what with having actually played it and also probably remembering machine for pigs better

i really did not like fully piece together either the lore of the Main Story of the game nor the broader Amnesia Universe Lore lmfao but i was interested in the latter especially, but re: the former, i did like having all these other Known People associated with the protag whose fates we could all find out and shit

i’m like, sort of underwhelmed, but that’s b/c even though i was like “okay so just b/c this is a frictional-produced amnesia sequel a decade later doesn’t mean you need to hype it up like it’s gonna blow your mind just coz atdd was That big a deal” doesn’t mean i still wasn’t partially like oh but what if it is like mindblowing horror game tho......it felt a lot more like soma than atdd which isn’t in itself bad b/c soma rules but when i’m expecting it to be more like atdd it just makes things kinda bemusing and hard to recalibrate.....it was a good game though lol just like the whole time trying to figure out what the experience is gonna be i guess

anyways so like in the direction frictional’s games have gone it def feels like they’re more into Game Environments (those ruled in this game....) and being very like Thematic Story-Centric.....atdd was very stripped down and they sure got creative with that and it was as effective as it was but yeah it feels like now that they have the clout from that and the game production experience and presumably more resources and stuff that they’re progressing in This Direction which is not as atdd-esque lmao like good for them if this is the creative vision, follow those dreams and stuff

did not feel at all invested in any of this baby lore lmfaooo like it was very abstract and also i don’t care. but 10/10 for breastfeeding gameplay

i did like the Other World lore like. this is where alexander is from, Maybe?? i remember he’s mentioned as an apostate from [somewhere else] but like, is that somewhere else in another dimension or just another Region in this world lmao i don’t know. out here Inventing the amnesia potion vitae harvesting strategy, and then it’s Something Else he does that is considered heinous and they just banish him to earth lmfaooo like our problem now......and who is alexander’s wife lmfao. in atdd bad ending, when alexander portals back, does he get to come back to the shitty place where nothing’s going on but eternal vitae harvest i guess? sucks. in atdd sorta-neutral-ending, when you toss agrippa’s head through the portal and then agrippa asks [someone, i forget who....the student? weyer? or whoever??] to Help Daniel, does everyone get to go to this crappy world or are there other better dimensions lmao....also i forget how this The Other World got so shitty in the first place. something something they flew too close to the sun with their technology and it got fucked up, i forget what The Gate even is........i do like this origin story for what the fuck is up with the shadow lmfao. that like, it’s just some other alchemical Invention expressly to fuck up the vitae system?? which is sort of counter to the idea that it’s simply a Guardian of any orbs.....but then also, there was some sort of note or memory that seemed to imply that having fucked up whatever Gate they fucked up created something that sounded like maybe it was the shadow?? or was it just something Else fucked up and b/c it was like “uh oh something shitty is happening here now” i just Assumed it was the shadow.....idfk. but idk maybe since Orbs are Other World Tech For Portals the shadow is just like, Other World Tech Ruiner and if you handle one improperly the shadow will like, sense orb-jostling Lol and be On It....i don’t knowwww

i gotta admit i did love the lore tying to atdd lmfao like maybe this game would’ve been better off not really being tied to atdd but i’m still like oh yep i’m a sucker for cameos / lore about these atdd people places and things.....herbert, alexander, daniel, brennenburg, and someone else i forget who was like “i’m the first human to get to this place but i don’t have A Traveller’s Whatever so i have to die here,” rip to him.....kinda funny that vitae-harvesting is like, so Industrialized in the other world with this factory and mass-produced as it were, which is Fucked Up, and alexander got shot to earth for some mysterious terrible thing and had to invite some rando with an orb to his castle and then get his help torturing other randos with medieval instruments like. banging rocks together over there. also i don’t get what the harvesters job was? they were sure Harvesting but if the vitae is just getting Sucked thru tubes why are these guys going around breathing it in also. just like, stray air-vitae filtering system?? idk

also what was going on time-wise with this weird accelerated pregnancy. i don’t think i get Why tasi got amnesia in the first place. coincidence i guess??? and why...did she end up back in the plane wreckage. was that just where she got dropped off after they were all like. taken from Our World into the Other World and then....back into our world?? i guess??? i’m just not clear on the Timeline Of Events and how everyone got split up with some people dying and shit....was everyone getting attacked by ghuls i guess. there was a crapload of them in that one place, wasn’t there.....i also forget Where things happened lmfaooo like shit was this in Earth or The Other World.....i guess the latter it was always like, “high tech” with that art deco design shit and green light and stuff.....god i don’t know. like i already forget why richard was like, held captive and tortured. just on evil principle??? augh lmfao

also it was certainly Interesting that people turn into monsters around here with some like, magic + corruption deal going on......felt like the Lore in atdd was sort of vague but that it could Maybe tie into that sort of idea....frictional games sure will like, Metaphorically have the Self and the Non-Self But Which Is Tied To Your Self in all its stories, atdd, soma, rebirth......daniel having this past self he’s now detached from but re-learning of his past exploits.......soma copy/pasting consciousnesses.......uhhh also when it was talking about the ideal Vitae Collecting Cycle being fear, amnesia, and then Hope, and about who was the best candidates for that, i was really thinking that like, we’d learn tasi was being put through a [Hope] sequence, basically

also (rachel if ur reading this lmfao) i remember this pre-release Audio Tape that wasn’t in the gameplay that i think was like, the doctor doing an experiment on a Monster to confirm it had regenerative properties?? i thought we were gonna get a whole fucked up subplot dealing with that guy lmfao but nah just at the end......i guess soma’s promotional stuff was similar, they had all these Files and Videos and stuff which was relevant to the Lore / story but which wasn’t like, flatout in the game......i guess at some point the doctor must’ve been like, experimenting on a crew member who was sort of in the process of Turning or w/e. hank or someone i guess.....UHHH i did like “talking” to so many monsters lmfaooo like leon and crap. wild, tragic, etc.......

RIGHT and i think frictional is really creative in its like, Game Mechanics, like how relatively recently we learned that that whole thing about being told that Low Sanity makes you easier to detect in atdd, but that wasn’t true and was just put in the game to put the player more on edge? i mean, daniel keeling over for a moment if sanity gets too low is probably unhelpful in a chase but. and like, here the “sanity” thing was neat, i liked the Sound lol, i liked the flashing images and how that was like, Relevant, but also it seems like you can’t ever die in this game?? basically, ish?? which i think is neat. like, you don’t really Need to.....said it last time how it feels like the player just is still going to react as Urgently if they’re being chased by the monster lmfaooo

idk there was something other neat / creative element i think i wanted to point out as Cool but i forget (HAHA...manesima.....) i dunno the 0.0001% chance any of you are Coincidentally into amnesia at all and know what all is being talked about here and have thoughts....feel free to send me an ask or whatever.......would be inchrested in hearing other takes on it etc

OH and it didn’t feel like machine for pigs was involved at all lmfao which makes sense since it wasn’t actually produced by frictional but now i’m really struggling to remember the Lore there and if it could Conceivably tie in with descent/rebirth-verse.......oswald’s soul got actually split with Evil Orb-Corrupted Self (which!!!! i forgot there’s even the implication that maybe orb-proximity fucks you up. didn’t seem that relevant here. here magic empress fountain water fucks you up) and Amnesia’d Good (Normal-er) Self and there’s the giant machine which is gonna.....consume the world to protect it from self-destructing in another way......or, that was the reason given to oswald anyways, i remember he like sacrifices his kids to it to save them from [his visions of ww1 being an impending thing] and he doesn’t find that out till the end......his evil self tricked his good self into firing up the machine......i forget where the pig men come from or what their point is, and the machine is like, another Factory Line Vitae Harvesting thing, right?? what’s the vitae For in this case....i sure don’t fuckin know. i forget what oswald does at the end as well to like, fix things, i remember feeling sad about it even though he was a horny weirdo.....i really forget what the full picture was there or what the Orb Involvement was. anyways. idk

would be fun to see more frictional games but it seems like they’re not too interested in doing something as atdd-esque again lol, soma seems more like What Frictional Really Wants To Do, which isn’t a bad thing cuz soma rules and like. objectively i guess soma is the better game, i’m not at all mad at anyone arguing soma is better lmfao, i just sure cherish atdd and it sure is the one that made the whole [subsequent horror game defining] splash lmfao. OH YEAH and i liked they threw in another moment where someone’s been alive for ages and you unplug them and it’s like what the fuck. and i guess you do that but even Harder in the one Rebirth ending where you shadow-infect everything and all the people in the vitae-pods die......which like, it Was def creepy having all those vitae pods lmfao. conceptually fucked up.....uh yeah that’s it i guess. was a sucker for the atdd-lore-fanservice stuff lol. thought it was good but wasn’t like atdd 2.0 which is both Totally Fine and also A Bit Disappointing Of Course lol. now i’m thinking about soma some more though which is Worthy cuz that game rules and i love its story / concepts so much. and i love that you keep fisting sphincters to Save until you have to fist your forearm off. we’ve all been there. and i love the “we have the better view. :)” audio log from someone on the surface. and how the gradual reveal of the [lady you talk to throughout the game who guides you along]’s story. and the Ending. and the gradual reveal of Just What Is Going On Around Here

anyways yeah atdd rules soma rules i thought this game was good too but def is like okay you’d rather make soma than atdd and that is valid

thots????????????????

#amnesia

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zerachielamora · 4 years ago

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Wanna throw out that I beat Rebirth yesterday, at around 10 hours. My overall rating for the game is a 7/10, maybe a 8/10.

The visuals are spectacular, that much is for sure. You’ll see some really cool environments and want to explore it as much as you can. But as much as the game encourages you in the opening text to explore and immerse yourself, the sanity meter actively discourages this. It wouldn’t be so bad if you were given more access to matches and oil (even though near the end of the game you lose the lantern and yet the game keeps giving you oil? What?), but the supplies offered to you are very limited, and I found myself running out of them constantly. Also it’s bizarre that you can only carry a finite amount of each kind of item (only can carry 10 matches, because they take up so much room). So because you run out of light items a lot, you’ll end up running through the dark areas just so Tasi won’t freak out.

Some of the monster designs in the game are pretty cool, but monster encounters are brief, because even if they seem like you have to sneak by them, you can’t hide in the dark for too long or you’ll have the jumpscare freakouts Tasi is prone to have. So you’ll end up just running past enemies or speed-crouch-walking past them to the best of your ability, instead of waiting for the danger to pass and then going out.

One kind of monster that kept appearing near the end of the game is complete and utter cheapness, though. Those that have played probably know which one I’m talking about.

Now as for the lore - it’s a bit confusing, but I appreciate all the callbacks to the Dark Descent, and putting things in perspective. It raises a few more questions that sadly go unanswered, but I think there’s enough to help fill in some gaps which I do appreciate a lot. I’m just sad I missed a few notes that had a number of further calls backs to TDD, I would have been so happy to see those in-game heheh.

Tasi as a protagonist isn’t so bad. It’s definitely much harder to blame her for the bad things happening than the other Amnesia protags once you know what happened. Brief Spoilers here though - her story just amounted to ‘couldn’t give her baby up, then shit went bad.’ That’s basically it in a nutshell.

The game does have high tension and scares throughout as you do dread going into the dark, so that was very well done.

However, Rebirth wears out its welcome about 4-5 hours in. I know it’s meant to be a slow burn kind of horror, but that’s what SOMA was and it never felt like a drag like the latter half of this game. Here it just seems like the game wants to keep going and going when a lot of the scares and novelty start to wear off and turn into frustration. TDD, AMFP, SOMA - they never felt like they were longer than they needed to be. They had just enough for the story and scares to remain at a high point. Here it definitely starts to affect enjoyment of everything, and even the lore content takes a nosedive in the 2nd half.

I didn’t mind the constant cutscenes and dialogue like a lot of people did - it’s an Amnesia game, I’m here for the story! It was nice to have backstory for Tasi and her family (something I desperately wish Oswald would have had), even if it felt a bit repetitive at times.

It was a little surprising to learn that the endings aren’t affected by how well you look after the baby or watch your sanity meter, not even for a particular choice to ‘help’ the baby in the latter half. I suppose this is good in the sense that it doesn’t punish players for how they play, but then that means you can basically have Tasi constantly “dying” and her condition worsening, but that doesn’t affect the story at all.

All in all, Rebirth is not a bad game, and I’m not mad at it. Just disappointed. It’s a bit of a clunky mess. I didn’t go in which super high expectations, but I expected more from Frictional of all companies. I had thought that after they exceeded the genre with their previous titles that they would know the pitfalls to avoid, but instead they went with a lot of cheap tactics and stretched it far too long over an overly-simplistic story.

#long post #rant #spoilers?#very mild ones

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izupie · 4 years ago

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1, 30, and 46.

Thanks so much for the questions from this ask game~

1. who are your biggest inspirations? would you link your favorite(s) of their work?

Biggest inspirations... well, there’s a whole bunch from a variety of different fandoms. But usually the slowburns tend to stay with me the longest and impact me the most. I always strive to try and get to that kind of level of storytelling, which is funny because I’ve never had the patience to actually WRITE a slowburn myself. Ah well. Inspirational in any case.

These are all pretty old, but I think they really shaped my writing style and how I try to write myself. They impacted me enough to remember them even after all this time.

Interstellar Transmissions by LovelyThings, ricca_riot (Star Wars - Reylo)

Dirty Laundry by Gibslythe (VLD - Klance)

Lost to the Sands by Giga Bowser NS (My Little Pony - No Ships)

Between the Lines by Metalmark (Resident Evil - Steve/Claire)

Now the Light Falls by Lunar_Resonance (Soul Eater - Soma)

Oh and the very story that inspired me to write in the first place... behold! A Neopets story from the early 2000s because I can’t find it’s official publish date! This thing was the first time I had ever read a story by someone online. I was sat at like my dad’s huge windows 95 desktop computer, barely knowing how to use it properly, but I was obsessed with neopets and that fact that someone had just written this because they wanted to just Unlocked something in my head. I realised I could do that too. I was like 10 or something though so I ended up emulating this a whole bunch and writing loads of self inserts - I even wrote something kind of similar to this because 10 year olds do that when they find something they enjoy in that way ahaha.

All the Colours by hot_pink_lizard (even the username is so early 2000s) (Neopets)

A true relic. I had to HUNT this thing down using only what I could vaguely remember about it.

30. which character do you find the easiest/hardest to write?

I find Ochako the easiest character to write ever I swear. I barely even need to really think about her dialogue and actions, because they come so naturally. I channel a lot of her energy when I write her, so she’s just easyyy. I think that’s probably why I ended up writing so much Izuocha to be honest, like, I love the ship, don’t get me wrong, but it was nice to be able to just slip into writing something so easy and natural that it was always fun. But the flipside of that is that it no longer becomes very challenging and I wasn’t pushing myself as a writer much ;;

Hardest to write is Richie Tozier. Because I am NOT witty. At all. Give me like three hours after the fact and I’ll probably then come up with some kind of witty retort I could have said, but at the time? I usually just laugh and let other people do the witty banter thing. How do you write a character who’s supposed to be naturally funny without being funny yourself??? It’s tough.

46. how did you get into your fandom(s)?

My Hero Academia was something I’d seen online a whole lot, especially on tumblr. I think I followed someone who shipped Kacchako, and they posted some gifs of their sports festival fight and I was like huh, that looks interesting. So I youtubed it and watched the clip. Then I watched some more clips. And then I realised I was going to have to watch the show to get context to all of this stuff. And then I was Hooked. But I already knew some pretty random spoilers walking into it lmao. Curse my curiosity!

IT was really random because I enjoy watching some of the Nostalgia Critic videos (don’t boo me!) and I hadn’t been interested in the IT review, because I actually hate horror films, but I was about to wash some dishes and I just wanted to put something funny on my phone to distract me. What really intrigued me was when he said that Richie felt like a character from a different movie, because of how funny and obnoxious he was. So I decided to watch a recommended clip of like Richie Tozier being chaotic for however many minutes straight or something, and I was Hooked. Decided to watch more clips. Got hooked on fanfiction before I’d even seen the film. Needed context. Watched the movie. Loved it.

I’m like that with a lot of stuff apparently???

#izu replies #thanks for sending those in!

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eskewcity · 4 years ago

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is the new amnesia game good? :0

i’m only about 2.5 hours in rn but i can give you my initial impressions w/out actual spoilers under the cut since I actually just discussed this on discord w my stream buds today. so get ready for a extremely long and winding spew of my thoughts that you did not ask for.

first off, I do enjoy the core story itself especially with tasi as the lead. she’s much more sympathetic than Daniel was in dark descent and the relationships you learn about her with those she knew are incredibly well done. frictional games has proven themselves as people capable of good writing before, I mean they did create soma, arguably my favorite game of all time. rebirth is able to invoke emotions from the player without it feeling forced which is great! especially since I’m probably not even a fourth of the way through. the game itself also looks gorgeous and certainly is an improvement from its predecessor (which one should expect given it’s been ten years). I also don’t even think I need to get into the music because Mikko Tarmia is just absolutely brilliant and I didn’t even expect anything different. also I Love the way the connections to the first game are brought up as they arent thrown in your face but rather name drops that make you go AH!

however, with that being said, let’s go into my biggest gripe so far and what I was talking in the discord about. the main issue in which I found in the game so far is the pacing. there are many moments where the character is pulled from one scene to another without enough of a satisfying transition to make it feel organic. in itself, it feels jarring to be thrown into one moment into a completely different one without much of an explanation. there’s a lot of exposition being thrown at you as the player at once and it feels like your consistently being hit with more and more information. obviously the game has to be set up someway to convey what the main plot is but it just feels very hamfisted and could have used some polish. also minor spoiler but this game now implements pop up jumpscares if you are in the dark for too long and it honestly feels... very cheap, for a lack of a better word. amnesia is known to be the scariest about not knowing if something is actually there and still fearing the possibility there is, hence it being a psychological horror. many times streaming the darkness descent a few months ago, I was the most scared at the points where there wasn't even a monster, i just tricked my brain into thinking there was. even frictional’s very first series, penumbra, despite it’s hiccups was able to achieve this same effect by having philip stumble his way through the dark hoping he doesn't accidentally come face to face with one of the infected. by implementing something like a pop up screamer, it lessens that experiences that one comes to expect from a frictional game. soma arguably had some Not Great stealth even if I love it story wise and even it didn't use jumpscares that often. they are not necessary and it devalues what made people appear to love about the horror of amnesia in the first place

With that all being said, I don’t want to discourage anyone from buying the game because again I am not that far. however as someone that streams games now I feel it’s good to be able to critique what I’m playing and convey to other people that would be interesting in purchasing game even if at the end of the day it’s only my friends who are the ones watching. the game certainly has many bright spots and i certainly wouldnt want to make someone think they shouldnt play just based off my basically worthless opinion and hey! maybe the game will prove me wrong in my upcoming streams and prove all my points moot who knows! this is just what I’ve noted so far as I got through for the first time. so is it good? Who’s to say? the question in itself if subjective and I feel there’s too many nuances to really give a definitive yes or no, especially where I am now. I’ll just have to wait and see how the overall experience goes. also always feel free to pop by when I stream on Mondays and maybe we can explore that question together. have a good night <3

#asks #anon

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craftmanatee · 4 years ago

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Dread X Collection 3 Games Review

Once again, my friend and I have played through a new Dread X collection and I would like to make a short concise review for each game including the Hub area. We each played 1 game resulting in 6 each. The order of games reviewed is not the recommended order to play as we went on a very simple roundabout on the graveyard, and the games have a strong sense of quality unlike Dread X Collection 2 which had many great quality games and many low quality games.

Lets go!

Game X: The Castle (A bit unremarkable)

Scare Type: Cute

Player: My friend

The castle in some way is a step back from the awesomeness of the house. As it proceeds with forced dialogue cutscenes with your character and a ghost character that possesses in you. The puzzles and areas are also larger and more spread out and easier than the house. The Dialogue cutscene itself even give the idea to not compare the two, which is understandable. But let me tell YOU that I enjoyed the house more than I did the Castle (Even if it was not I who was doing the Castle Bit), so even if they are different, one was in my opinion better than the other.

The forced Dialogue cutscenes weren't to bad. The Voice Acting was not bad. Its rather the script and subjecting the player to sit through it. Its not the most fun to sit through and could have been handled better. In the house, a dialogue still happened but you were still free to move around while listening to the pre-recorded message. The ghost possessing you could have done the same with you, but instead this YOU is a character that must go into a dialogue and stop your gameplay.

The STYLE of the castle is where I think it wins the best. The very cute spooky aesthetic is great, and hold a lot of details we noticed near the end of the game. Like the paintings being famous paintings, replacing the characters of the paintings to goofy ghosts. Time passing between each game is also a great detail, making the castle ever so slightly different all the way to night time. I love the castle for this.

We quickly figured out that the theme for this Dread X collection was not just Cute and spooky, but also the inevitability of death.

Nate Berens – SATO WONDERLAND (Ok)

Scare Type: Surprising!

Player: My Buddy

This game was alright, nothing too amazing as pulling different topics to make a new dialogue box appear was tedious and a bit annoying. But the story itself was pretty cool, resulting in a surprise ending. Each game have different endings which we did not try to explore, but for this I think we managed to get the best ending. Not much to say about this one.

Blood Machine – Soul Waste (Eh...)

Scare Type: ...None?

Player: Me

Soul Waste is a 3D action platformer about this... post apocalyptical world, and you happen to be the “Saviour”. We got Ending C for this as we felt the tedium of the collectables and we weren't going to sit around collecting them all in this weird to navigate map. The enemies did not make much of a challenge making the game bit boring. The end boss was the only thing that gave me some ounce of real fun. There was a lot to explore, but my patience wore thin due to not being that interesting of a platformer. Although it did look good for what it did. There is some to explore which we did not, but I simply noticed that there was some things here and there that we did miss. We just did not feel the need to go back.

Bryce Bucher – Disparity of the Dead (Great!)

Scare Type: Horror that sticks around even after the game.

Player: My pal

This game I think pulls off the themes of Dread X Collection 3 very, very well! Perhaps the best thematic one? Nevertheless, this is a 3D platformer that lets you talk to fun characters collecting collectables and piece together a mystery. The topics that which the game introduces to you are all very good and sad in many ways. It also had a lingering effect on me personally. This lingering horror reminded me of SOMA by Frictional Games. Anyways, the game in general is not horrifying until you get to a certain point. Then when the actual ending plays, it all gets sad. We do not know if there are different endings, but the ending we did get was a sad one in my opinion and was great.

Amon Twentysix – Bete Grise (Cool!)

Scare Type: Uneasy, then relief!

Player: Me

I really liked the aesthetics of this game, reminded me a lot of some obscure old-school games. The gameplay is mostly of you going floor to floor doing cleaning and... repairing? Anyways, there are a few hints here and there that foreshadow the great revelation at the end. I saw some of them and felt very uneasy when going through the process as it all felt like a facade. But once the revelation hit, the game turned into something more funny, stylish and well, just felt good. Its rare for a horror game to kinda blue ball you into satisfaction.

DIRIGO GAMES – REACTOR (Disappointing)

Scare Type: Betrayal

Player: My Homie

This is a game I spoiled myself with, which is why I had my friend play it instead. The game is mostly a walking simulator in which it feels like you shouldnt be there in the bad/useless way as there is a robot buddy who keeps you company and doing everything for you. When the time comes, you are then obviously, chased to the ending of the game. Its not scary, sad. Its just a simple experience. The aesthetics of the game is great, by being a gradient of blacks and whites as well as minimal uses of colour. Other than that, this is disappointing.

Moya Horror/Amos – Nice Screams at Funfair (humorously frustrating)

Scare Type: Dont fail

Player: Me

This is a very short game that was short enough for us to also explore a different ending. There is no real inherent horror here. Its mostly thematic to being like Halloween. The game has you serving icecream to people, the challenge is to serve them the ice cream that they want, and take the money into your tip jar or cash register. The real challenge is the controls, as throwing ice cream into the ice cream cones often fails for no reason, and clicking on to activate anything just sometimes did not work. Resulting in funny scenarious. We got 2 different endings for this, one that made sense, and another that we didnt understand. The game looked great, the intro did not have to be as long as it did but it was a fun little ride.

Basalt Tower – Matter OVER Mind (Woah!)

Scare Type: Loosing progress...

Player: My Amigo

Matter over mind absolutely felt like an old-school platformer, it was also unique, colourful and funny/cute! Crawling around as a little parasitical monster and possessing scientists in order to escape the labs just looked great. Like many of these games, it had a collectible that meant... NOTHING. And if you died collecting them, you will loose them all. Prompting you to reset the entire game. Nevertheless, it was an impressive game that felt great.

Corpsepile – Submission (Fuck yeah!)

Scare Type: Scary, but also funny

Player: Me

This game had so many unique and cool twists and ideas. Maybe one of the best games in this collection. It was absolutely creative, funny... everything! It was also scary at times, referencing P.T. Its puzzles were great and fun, so much good about this one! The gameplay switches often, the horror amps up... Man... Submission was super good! Cant really say much other than that.

Torple Dook – Chip’s Tips (Funny!)

Scare Type: Friendly?

Player: My guy

Super creative point and click adventure game, hamming it up to 101%. It is also so patronizingly friendly that it becomes funny. Probably the most unique game on this list. And you can pet the dog in this game. I absolutely love the aesthetics of the unhinged masked textures, as well characters being flat cutouts. What is sad is this game feels like the end to Torple Dook’s streak of being in Dread X Collection games as it references his previous 2 games as well as more.

Breogan Hackett – Bubbo: Adventure on Geralds Island (Woah! x2)

Scare Type: JUMP

Player: Me

A very well done 3D platformer, with some challenge. The game is not scary, although it does come to a point. The platforming was very good albeit a tiny bit weird when turning in a specific way. It also features hidden collectibles that we unfortunately did not find all and left it at that. It sounded and felt good, looked good and was fun to get to the end with. There are different endings, we (me) only got to see 1. I jumped at the right time and made my way out!

Modus Interactive – EDEN: Garden of the Faultless (Chaos?)

Scare type: None, just weird.

Player: My hombre

This is literally a game akin to raising your Chaos in Sonic Adventure games. Just that you raise your little Evangelion. This game I think, has the best Ps1 look than the other games. It has a very weird control scheme, as well as being weird in its own right. And it nails the aesthetics very well. Too bad the game is finicky or boring, sporting long paths and lots of waiting. I guess you could have some fun minmaxing your wittle angel. I guess you always need at least one super unorthodox entry in a collection.

Adam Pype & Viktor Kraus – SPOOKWARE @ The Video Store (Quintessential)

Scare Type: brief moments of panic

Player: Both of us

This game... is actually really fun. Spookware is literally Wario ware but with horror movie themed events. The style, game and everything is perfect. Although very short, I would honestly buy a game like this if it was fully complete. I also think this is the most fitting game for the theme of the collection. Although, not much is done about the “inevitability of death” theme here, but everything else about it carries the collection thematicly. Such a fun and quirky little game.

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Conclusions

And so, the best games in the collection In my opinion were...

#1 Submission AND Spookware

#2 Chips Tips

#3 Disparity of the Dead

The collection was not at all as scary as the first or the second collection. Although, that is understandable as it had a more Fun and goofy vibe to it. I love seeing these collections and it introduces me to people ive never heard of before. Like Viktor Kraus who made the music, like in the trailer for the collection. Thats a great one. I wish to keep seing them make these and I hope that it is profitable for them in the end as well.

#dread x collection #Dread X Collection 3 #horror #Halloween #Spooky #Scary #video games #realtalk #review #torple dook

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 4 years ago

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Deca-Dence 5

“…cannon won’t ignite in time!” The subbers spell cannon as “canon” later as well.

Off to the cliffside, where Kaburagi goes to die…

Deca-Dence 6

“Maybe someone intervened.” – I think Minato did, somehow.

This Death Dive reminds me of Wipeout.

Moriarty 3

I once made up a quote that goes, “When life detests you, fight back.” I think it’s also roughly along the lines of advice Albert needs.

I remembered an odd line from Macbeth: “Brother, he has killed me!” Seriously, Moriarty is scarier than some actual horror anime, I swear…Update: It’s actually “he has killed me, Mother!”, but same impact.

I had my hands over my mouth from the moment the fire began. That’s how intense this is.

This ED…doesn’t sound like an ED. It sounds like the OP for a different anime, like Joker Game or something. Also, having Saito Soma as Gentaro and Moriarty…is a bit unsettling because they have a lot of overlap but one’s basically the evil twin of the other.

Yashahime 4

“…was raised here…”

“…we can…”

I felt a heart twinge when I saw Towa tear up…man, it’s been years since I last dealt with Inuyasha properly.

“…nights where I can’t fall asleep.” – So…you’ll play it a lot then, Setsuna.

Oh, so Kirara is a nekomata? I never knew until now.

Kikyo!

According to the mythology, the kirin rules over the middle…so why is Kirinmaru the monster in the east?

Is “s***” unwarranted here? I didn’t have the volume on, so I don’t know…Going back, I think Moroha said “kuso”, but it’s still kinda weird to have a swear word in a mostly family-friendly series in a slot near Detective Conan. (Then again, Detective Conan is where I learnt “kuso” from…so my standards are probably not as up-to-scratch as they should be.)

Rin! People keep saying Rin is the mother of the girls and it’s basically the only conclusion that could be done, considering the relationship the two had…but it’s still kind of squick…(Says a person who has no problem with SGRS s2’s ending.)

Update: Someone on ANN said the teacher’s name (Osamu Kirin) being similar to Kirinmaru is sketchy and I agree.

Maou-jou 4

There’s no pun for Rocket Turtle…that’s kinda startling, actually.

I’m not going to translate the eyecatches anymore. Seems they were actually translated in the manga and someone just copies them over or something.

I’ve seen some characters use wa when they really aren’t that feminine. However, the voice Suwabe uses for the Sorceror leads me to believe this guy really is trying to be feminine, even if in just a vocal capacity.

…aw, no puns here too.

Oh no, the seal…!

…hmm? The Scissors Sorceror’s info is…we’re not allowed to look at it. That’s what the red text says.

…my brain exploded for a second when I suddenly heard jazz music. It’s a Detective Conan parody! *screams*

Iina! doesn’t really mean “Lucky!” It means more like “cool!” or “It’s good, isn’t it?”

I7 s2 5

I missed these boys!

I like the Kinako transition. It’s cute.

I don’t really like it when Tenn looks at the screen…it gives me 1st person cam vibes.

Why is Tsunashi being called “this”, anyway?

Oh yeah…mensore = youkoso = welcome.

Uh oh…is Yuki actually evil???

Riku (earth) vs. Tenn (heaven). Hmm.

I still can’t believe they don’t believe Gaku is the soba guy. It’s so obvious!

Chikuzen-ni.

Someone on staff ships Gaku and Tsumugi together…hmm…

Oh! So this is DESTINY, huh? I’ve probably heard it on Spotify before, but I don’t recognise it by sheer sound like I do HypMic. (Then again, the half-year off the airwaves probably really hurt I7, man…)

Akudama 4

Say what you will about how bad Funi translations can get…they’re definitely entertaining!

Geesh, Doctor gets all the sexy shots, but Brawler gets all the ab shots. Can I get a sexy Courier shot…?

“…she’s right.” – There’s a lot of dialogue here, so…uh, who’s “she” in this case?

What’s a “bro fro”?

Wow, Brawler, talk about being punched into next Tuesday…(partially joking)

Swindler’s face, LOL. (I know she’s an ordinary gal, but calling her “Swindler” is shorter to type.)

I remember reading around and people agree Swindler works at the Seal Centre.

The shark and bunny’s shirts say things like “Kanto/Kansai”, “earth, air/water” and “pollution/clean” during their montage.

“feminist” – Uh, ex-squeeze me?! Feminism does not equal “ladies first” or “going easy on ladies”. Update: I went and listenend to it and although one of my ears is mysteriously almost constantly plugged these days, I’m fairly sure Doctor did not say “feminist” (in katakana). Update 2: Then I listened to it again and…I’m not sure anymore.

LOL, Hoodlum hit the in-series camera. With his face.

Oh, vault = garage or storage. Right, how did I not know that?

Cat, nooooooooooooooooo! Don’t die!

HypMic 5

After the two “darker” divisions, it seems almost strange to not have a “dark” introduction about the seedy underbelly of alt. future Japan…

Oh, my gosh. That’s Ichijiku on the phone.

The studio has the word “drops” on it.

Lemme guess: Neither hand!...Yup.

The only spoiler I know for this ep. is it’s a Halloween episode, and “Ramuda ruins Halloween”. That quote is way too subjective to mean anything, though…

…hmm, Gentaro doesn’t say “shousei” in that sentence involving “this humble bard” (not that I heard, but one of my ears is mysteriously plugged after I stayed up late browsing Twitter on my phone – don’t tell anyone that, though! They’re not meant to know!). Gentaro is not a humble bard (although that would translate “shousei” quite correctly in the Shakespearean), he’s an author.

LOL, that “ding!”

Gentaro actually says “ghostbusters” in katakana, LOL.

I almost thought this Shinjuku man was Doppo…but no, this Aoyama Cemetery exists. It has nice cherry blossoms.

The “dun dun dun” soundtrack is great. It really sets the atmosphere.

Gentaro really is an idiots’ minder, just as I used to characterise him. (Then the FP and M manga and developments regarding Ramuda being evil changed my mind.)

I-Is this just gonna be an episode of FP being scared and Ramuda yelling? It’s fun for a bit, but when you’re stopping to analyse every few seconds, Ramuda’s voice is gonna get annoying eventually…

Kurosu seems to be a cross between Jyushi and Doppo.

This ep…makes FP look money-crazy. Dice is only money-crazy when he’s broke…because of course you would be…but the others aren’t.

That rock track that plays when FP hand out flyers is cool!

Are they…eating squid?...Welp, squid jerky. I’d say I’m correct.

Oh, so they’re all street photographers? Not just Tom?

I was wondering…how would the “tie to a different division” occur in episode 5, considering episode 6 is where the plot really kicks in? Turns out…they tie back to BB, which is not a thing I was expecting at all.

BB have a BB tablet…makes sense, because I think Hypster have iPhone cases for each division.

Oh, they’re planting the seeds of Ramuda’s ability here, so to speak. By knowing what Hypnosis Mics are capable of doing, you can see the building blocks of Rap Abilities as well.

Okonbanwa! The extra O is meant to make things formal, but only in front of nouns (sometimes it’s “go”, e.g. goshujin), so it’s Ramuda being overly formal to be cutesy and unconventional.

*lightbulb goes off in head* It makes sense that the group affiliated with illusions and randomness does the Halloween episode, actually.

…Yargh! Of course all these onee-sans are FP stans!...*lightly touches temple, as if to get rid of a headache* I should’ve known.

The new song is “Shibuya Ghost Night” by Tokyo Health Club, Yuki “T-Groove” Takahashi and Yuma Hara.

*stops video before the darn airhorn sounds* Thank goodness…hey, isn’t this quote from Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka…?

This episode is very seasonal, but doesn’t really make sense outside of airing on Halloween. C’mon, couldn’t you have given us a Sasara appearance instead of having Ramuda yell down the house…? I knew the FP episode was going to be either lighthearted with a dark undercurrent, like the BB ep (considering we haven’t gotten to Ramuda dying yet), or full-on lighthearted, but…I somehow wonder if the staff had an empty spot labelled “Fling Posse episode” due to COVID and went, “Okay, it airs on Halloween this year, let’s make it Halloween-inspired”…or something. Also, I feel Gentaro got the short end of the stick here.

Update: As for yakuwarigo, Ramuda trends towards the feminine side, which is not something I noticed until my groupwork partner pointed it out to me. The message in this episode has a “yone”, which proves that point even further. “Dayo~n” is a variant of the gender-neutral “yo” ending. Meanwhile, I have game samples that prove Dice uses “ze” like BB/MTC, while Gentaro uses “yo” and desu/masu like Jakurai, so it was really Ramuda anyone wanted to pay attention to since his speech patterns are the most feminine-leaning, possibly due to his extensive hanging out with ladies. (I once read a Tofugu post on how non-binary people deal with language that said if you hang out with ladies a lot, you take on feminine yakuwarigo and if you hang out with guys a lot, you do the same in that direction, but I clearly remember Ramuda using “sa”, which is a slightly male-leaning ending.)

Taiso Samurai 4

There’s something in the background which stops me from listening to it and one of my ears is blocked, but I gotta find out what Tackey was saying about the NHK Cup (the joke, I mean). Update: So I think it’s ninja/nukihara/kekkou, but I may have heard that wrong due to my blocked ear…I should get someone to clean it out properly.

Here’s the YoI monologue about competitions again. <- (neutral on it) Also, NHK is in English letters/romaji in the term “NHK Cup”, but the “Cup” isn’t (it’s in kanji).

Sekigahara had a huge historical battle.

Huh? This episode’s called “Samurai Musume (daughter)”, so…where did “Battling Samurai” come from? That’s one of the previous episodes, right?

Selfies, before they were cool.

I was wondering if Leo actually calls Rei “Rachel” like he calls Jotaro “Joe”…and he does. I just haven’t paid much attention to the audio, that’s all.

The Battle of Chibi? Never heard of it until now, but the Battle of Red Cliffs is the same thing.

Leo Naruto runs…LOL.

If Rei was in 4th grade in 2002…are we going to see the characters in the present in the end? She would be 28 in 2020.

I guess I should’ve guessed from “hat trick”, but a Bergkamp trap is related to soccer.

There’s a random Japanese-sounding track in the background…didn’t expect that.

A cemetery…on the day after Halloween.

“Grandma’s place” = the bar…Ohhhhhhhhhh. I was wondering, didn’t the grandma and Rei live together? Then it all came together.

Jim Beeam (sic), LOL.

I wonder, are Tackey and Ayu dating like he asks?

Gotta love a man in a suit! *chef’s kiss*

Yashahime 5

Who’s this Tokotsu guy again…? Also, the “ja” in Jakotsumaru means “young”.

Oh, Myoga. It’s been a while.

Can there be 4 Perils when there’s only 3 of them…?

Well, it makes sense that a dog demon would have demon fleas…in a sense.

Why is “trying to swallow up this world and turn it into a degenerate age” (or whatever Kirinmaru’s aim is) so vague? You could say the present is already an age of mass degeneracy…

Maybe the Dream Butterfly took Moroha’s memories…?

Wait, why is Myoga only allowed to drink Moroha’s blood when she puts on the rouge?

So this is an arhat. Also, aren’t morals an Anglophone ideal imported into Japan and the rest of Asia? That’s what separates Towa from Setsuna.

Akudama 5

This drone definitely won’t come in handy at all…(sarcastic)

There’s an Evangelion feel to these “masks”…

That box is like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! It’s great!

I like how the kids jump to the potential fact (?) this is a Swindler trick.

You can see Courier’s bike in the background when the bunny says “…and I mean everything.”

*Knights of Sidonia music starts playing* Search! And! Destroy! *record scratch as music stops*

I think this little discussion between Courier and Swindler will go down in Akudama Drive history as one of my favourite moments because it’s the little conversations that count. Also…does Courier have a mechanical hand, or is that just me thinking weird things…? Is that a glove?

Ooh, scars. Sexy. (On the Executioner Master, at least.)…Now I get why the guy wears that mouth covering.

HypMic 6

Halfway through the season already…? Yikes, how time flies. By the way, my assignment’s come and gone so I don’t need to focus on it anymore.

Hmm? Why did the subbers put “Prime Minister” when Ichijiku merely says “yes”…?

Wait, 1st question: how does one sign up for a rap battle? I don’t think that’s ever been answered. 2nd question (well, not a question): Dice is paying attention to Otome now…

I’m fairly sure that red brick warehouse was just that…as in the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama, which was also featured in Bungou Stray Dogs. Update: Oh, it’s (partially) a shopping mall…? I didn’t know that until now.

See, I told you they’re (Tom, Iris and Rex) probably foreigners…

That one shot of Jakurai? *chef’s kiss* Beautiful. Give me a million of ‘em. (Okay, I’m kidding to some degree, but I can’t help staring at it. Jakurai’s just too pretty…)

“Tweet-like lyrics”? Eh? When was Twitter a collective pessimist?

Oh, that’s basically the scene from the drama track. Where the heck is Jakurai fishing though…? I always imagined it to be at a river or a pier, not some concrete complex. Update: According to a user on Twitter, the fishing place is called “Ichigaya Fishing Centre”. It is, as you would expect, found in Shinjuku. Apparently, even Osomatsu-san featured the place...which would explain why it looks vaguely familiar to me.

Wow, I can’t believe how upfront they’re being about Ramuda breaking up TDD.

Ramuda thought in his deep voice…I almost didn’t recognise it for a second. It doesn’t even sound like Shirai. It sounds more like…Hayami, in fact.

“F*** yeah!” - …and they’re still going with the F bomb. Keep being you, subbers, keep being you.

That shot of Saburo in a dimly-lit room almost looks like the SR card in ARB, except in that one he has his headphones on (and might be outside, to my memory).

Oh, so the round thing really is Ichiro’s ring. It’s got an “I” on it too, i.e. the Roman numeral for one.

*Ichiro explains what happened to TDD from his and Samatoki’s side* - I don’t think we’ve ever seen the story from Ichiro’s or Samatoki’s perspective enough to know either thought this (or this way).

“Jiro! Saburo! Let’s go!” - …and Tom’s just taking photos as they leave, LOL.

I didn’t expect the TsudaKen guy to be back again, really.

Well, if this Google route is to be believed, “Sadamezuka’s soul” only lasts about 30 minutes by car crossing from one point to the other, hence Jiro’s remark.

Googling “Toyotama” and “Toyotama Line” gets you…Ghost of Tsushima links…?

…hmm. I’m not listening to it on a hugely loud volume, so I can’t quite tell what the pun is, but I think the word for “monk” in this case is “bouzu”. Then what’s the word for “electric dynamo”…? Update: The pun, according to Takahisa Maeyama, is Erekiteruteru Bouzu.

That ticking thing was really effective in terms of the song…but sasuga HypMic. Things went ka-blammo again.

So we’re probably going to see BB’s first DRB round next ep…or Matenrou doing another takedown similar to ep. 3. Or both. Both is good. (Or it could be the FP/M side of things, much like we got the BB/MTC side of things here.)

...Uh, shouldn’t that be “dawn”? The anime’s generally been very good about this (aside from the obvious typo in the BB logo), but…welp, they’ve done it now.

Update: The LOVE you see Hifumi and Doppo near is this one.

Update 2: As for the yakuwarigo, it…turns out, to no one’s surprise, it stays oddly consistent across all media, although individual treatment of the characters can differ depending on the author.

HGPC 4

Ooh, is this Element of Light?

Fate/Stay PreCure! Here we come!

Moriarty 4

Why is the “to” capitalised? (Is that even capitalised?)

Quinine.

I kind of knew the grapefruit and the heart condition and/or quinine would be relevant somehow…and boy howdy, was I right! I just didn’t really know what it was going to do, that’s all.

I thought the ED didn’t match very well, but looking at the translated lyrics…now it kind of makes sense.

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deltaengineering · 5 years ago

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Fall Anime 2019 Part 4: also, he has a gun for a head

Beastars

So here’s the CG anime that everyone for some reason decided way in advance would be the best show of the season, more or less by default. I was very skeptical of this for a multitude of reasons. First of all, that is a bad name for a show and you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s actually even worse because you’re supposed to write it in all caps, but I refuse. Second, it has a terribly on the nose conceit in which all sorts of animals live together in a high school setting and it’s all metaphorical ‘n shit. The main character is a wolf but get this, he’s actually all sensitive and quiet! Yeah, this is definitely rated D for Deep. And finally it’s by Orange, the CG studio that got an inordinate amount of acclaim for making Houseki no Kuni, the show that everyone thinks looks great and finally made CG anime worthwhile (actual real fact: HnK does not look great most of the time and CG anime was worthwhile well before it).

But enough about my preconceptions since Beastars is... pretty good, actually. If you ignore the setting, which is indeed terribly on the nose. And there’s not much else to say about the story so far besides it. However, it looks significantly better than Houseki no Kuni because it actually has really good character animation throughout instead of a one-minute action scene with flashy spinny camera tricks every other episode. The directing’s strong too, even if the show conspicuously mainly consists of obvious manga panels. I’m still not too hot on the animal stuff but the general writing seems to be sufficiently competent it would work simply on a character level. So I don’t love it, but it seems solid enough to see if it goes somewhere with its “Zootopia but also Beverly Hills 90210 but also they eat each other sometimes″ plot.

Rifle is Beautiful

Remember the whole “anime about some assorted anime girls joining a club doing an oddly specific activity” thing? This is another one of those, and now it’s about air rifle sports shooting. Except it’s not about air rifle sports shooting because that’s apparently way too violent, so they use rifles that look like exactly like air rifles but are actually based on lasers or really bright flashlights (they can’t keep their bullshit straight between scenes, sorry) instead. I just don’t think “girls doing activities” anime should blatantly misrepresent their subject matter like that, you know? With the possible exception of idol anime that is, ain’t nobody who wants to hear about that shit. Apart from that it’s nothing special, so if you are really into air rifles and wish to watch an anime that’s not about those, knock yourself out. It goes through a whole “club needs 5 members” arc in the first half of the first episode, so I really can’t say where it goes next. Nowhere much, I would guess.

Oh right, there’s one more thing: They frequently render the bodies in CG and the heads in traditional drawings, and they do it every time when they’d actually have to draw a rifle otherwise. It’s a weird effect that I think I haven’t seen anywhere else before, and it’s not great but also not terrible. And it’s the most interesting thing about the entire show.

Kabukicho Sherlock

“Let’s take a bunch of public domain characters and put them into a hip modern setting” seems to be its own genre at the moment, and not only because the BBC did that with S. Holmes, Esq. already. Obviously this show is influenced by that (besides other public domain namedroppers like Bungou Stray Dogs), mostly in Watson and his relationship with Sherlock, but Sherlock-san is rather different here; he’s neither the classic Victorian bohemian nor the abrasive sociopath of the BBC version, and tends more towards a bumbling 90s pop culture version of autism and/or general wackiness here. These two are surrounded by a bunch of campy transvestites for some reason, and I’m not quite sure whether I’m supposed to find this particular stereotype offensive or empowering this week, but it sure is annoying. And it has the same character designer as Joker Game, so if you like chiseled, angular anime men, you’re in for a treat here - even if they tend to wear a lot of makeup and dresses sometimes. I don’t know man, it seems sort of okay-ish for the most part but it’s neither as funny as they think, nor as weird as they think, nor is the murder of the week intriguing at all. Oh yeah, he’s hunting noted public domain character Jack the Ripper. Because of course he is.

Shin Chuuka Ichiban!

I am told this is the sequel to episode 19 of a 52-episode anime TV show from 1997. Okay. I am also told to not dare watch this without the important setup therein, which makes me think I should pay less attention to what I’m told because understanding Shin Chuuka Ichiban and its backstory is not hard at all. Kid is superawesome cooking champion in ancient China and goes around clowning on lesser cooks, got it. It’s not a complicated setup and it’s not a complicated genre either: This seems to be mostly about sick shounen cooking duels. Besides the setting, the main difference between this and Shokugeki no Soma seems to be that SnS goes for ridiculous and Chuuka Ichiban goes for epic - which is to say that it fancies itself emotional as well. Apart from that it’s what you’d expect from a cooking shounen, big moves, big reactions, huge twists and so on. One notable thing is that this show looks really, really nice. Production I.G seems to be establishing a sideline in taking stuff from the 90s and updating it with smoother animation and shinier lighting, while keeping the overall look intact; They did it for Mahoujin Guru Guru, and this looks much the same. Still, I’m just fundamentally not really interested in what appears to be a very straightforward cooking shounen from the 90s.

Assassins Pride

Straight from the Department of Chuuni, we have this light novel masterpiece about a cool as fuck teenage assassin who teleports behind u and nothin personells fools all day. He then meets a princess he’s supposed to off but just kinda decides not to, probably because she seems to be smitten by his m’lady act. Now he has to use his sick skillz to keep them both alive. It’s awful and terrible and no good and also kind of adorable. This truly is the most 13 AND A HALF MOM years old anime in a while, and it’s not even isekai! The writing’s just so amateurish and corny you can’t help but smile when princesses exposit their backstory for no reason while being accosted by pumpkin monsters (without knowing that Awessassin McCooldude happens to be listening in, which is certainly convenient). Or when the episode ends with the man just reading the synopsis of the show out again, in case you were too fascinated by this plot to pay attention to what it’s about. Yeah I’m not going to watch this in a thousand years, but it sure made me chuckle. Your mileage may vary.

Mugen no Juunin - Immortal

Speaking of 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢, another anime adaptation of Blade of the Immortal appeared! You know, the manga for the cultured and historically minded guro fan. The first episode of Blade of the Immortal runs with this and is an arthouse production that someone most definitely directed the shit out of. I don’t think I’ve seen this much directing since, well, Sarazanmai, but “Ikuhara amounts of directing” is pretty much the idea here. And most of the time it even works! The quickly edited, disorienting style gives episode 1 a feeling closer to horror than to a cool swordmen action show, and that really brings out the best in the material, which is grotesque splatter bordering on the comical - It’s somehow a better Junji Ito anime than the actual Junji Ito anime. I think it tries too hard in a few places, but at least it does try.

But then I watched the second episode and that one’s a fairly conventional splatter-comedy swordin’ anime. I am not at all pleased with this development. The third episode was better again and seemed to split the difference between 1 and 2, even if it mostly uses the tricky editing to save on effort in the action – I would much prefer actually readable fights and the wacky mannerisms in the more psychological stuff, thank you very much. Based on episode 1 I thought we might have something special here, but as of episode 3 I’d already merely call it pretty decent. I guess I’ll still stick with it but man, that’s a real bummer.

No Guns Life

No Guns Life is a neo-noir thriller about a guy who has a gun for a head. That’s fuckin rad and exactly the kind of silliness I am totally down for. He also has a gun for a hand, and there’s also some battle nun’s who carry revolvers with two cylinders, so in short I think the title is false advertising. This sounds very wacky (and it is), but it also takes its noir very seriously, down to details more wannabe neo-noirs tend to neglect (like being set right after a big war). The look and feel is pretty excellent, with sharp design and high-contrast artwork, and the music goes all in on the moody saxophone as you’d expect. And there’s some really adorable “look mom, I’m writing” stuff about how Man With Gun For A Head really “needs someone to pull his trigger” and so on (which is, as the astute reader might remember, at the back of his head). It feels like a throwback but then I can’t really think of many 80s/90s shows like this, so it’s actually more like the sort of faux-retro idea Trigger/Imaishi would come up with on a lark. Trigger/Imaishi would, of course, make a far worse anime out of it, so it’s all good. Well, it has some pacing problems and as always it’s a fine line between amusingly camp and not so amusingly camp anymore, but No Guns Life seems to have enough real qualities that it can probably stand on its own even when its conceptual gimmick eventually doesn’t suffice anymore. I give it a two gun’s up.

Hoshiai no Sora / Stars Align

And finally, here’s an anime about middle schooler softboys playing a tennis just as soft as themselves, while being henpecked by the elites on the girl’s team. This is not an “actual” sports anime though: for starters, it’s not based on some shounen manga and is an anime original with quite some staff pedigree instead. It’s also more of a character drama that already goes to some surprisingly real places by the end of episode 1, reminiscent of the recent and quite good Run with the Wind. Furthermore, it looks delicious, with minimalist but distinctive and varied character designs and animation that’s both extremely detailed for a TV anime and also not trying to shove that fact into your face with flashy stunt cuts. In short, this show seems very simple at first glance but every aspect of it just oozes quality. If nothing else, it’s already worth watching just for the excellent ending sequence where the characters show off their “best” dance moves and the chunky student council president dunks on everyone. This one caught me by surprise and it’s an easy pick for most promising show of the season.

#anime #impressions #Beastars #Rifle is Beautiful #Kabukicho Sherlock #Shin Chuuka Ichiban!#Assassins Pride #Mugen no Juunin - Immortal #No Guns Life #Hoshiai no Sora #stars align

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