#the reason is i'd like to make a playthrough of one of these (or two in the case of misao and mad father. they're a set) for halloween

[prokopetz]

why do you think indie metroidvanias specifically take so long to make, and is there a solution that you'd like to see them go for? (i know that would likely mean a compromise of some kind, but like, you know)

The reason why is fairly obvious: the classic metroidvania formula makes it very easy to fall prey to unintentional scope creep and is a positive nightmare to QA.

Non-linear progression gating based on precision platforming challenges where the player's basic moveset is constantly changing means every little thing needs to be rigorously tested in every part of the gameworld, carefully checking every room with every combination of abilities the player could conceivably possess for a wide range of failure states.

Is there some combination of abilities that allows the player to get into this room, but not out of it afterwards? Is there some combination of abilities that allows the player to do things in an order you didn't expect? Does that variation in sequencing in turn create situations where the player can end up somewhere without an ability you had assumed was required to get there? And so forth.

Even once you've got everything tested, it's not over. Every tiny change during development, even as small as adding or subtracting a couple of percentage points from the player character's jumping height or walking speed, can potentially have a domino effect that introduces a whole new set of failure states. It's not a pretty picture!

As for solutions, the one most solo or small-team metroidvanias end up adopting is to put a damper on the exponential QA explosion by linearising progression. If you haven't flipped the right switch or visited the right room, the door simply doesn't open, the progression-critical cutscene simply doesn't trigger, and so forth. Even big-name metroidvanias often make judicious use of this one: for example, Super Metroid has certain doors in the early game that just arbitrarily will not open until you've collected a couple of specific items from the game's combat-free introductory area.

The trouble with this approach is that if you use it to the extent that's necessary to keep your QA responsibilities at a manageable level for a small team or solo developer, you functionally end up with a linear, level-based platformer that makes you walk from one level to the next. Whether this disqualifies a given title from the "metroidvania" label is a demarcation problem I'm not interested in litigating, but folks who expected a more open world experience are quite understandably going to be disappointed.

The approach I'd prefer more indie metroidvanias take is to keep things under control by limiting their scope. Not ever damn thing needs to be the next Hollow Knight; many classics of the genre can be completed in well under an hour with good routing even without employing modern speedrun tech. Similarly, some of the best indie metroidvanias are those with the smallest maps; Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists, probably the best example of open-world map design of any metroidvania published in 2024, has a map that's scarcely twenty by twenty screens, and its routing is downright fiendish.

(One of my perennial probably-never-gonna-happen projects is to design a full-featured metroidvania targeting a two to three hour casual playthrough whose entire map can fit on a single screen while remaining at a vaguely playable zoom level, in the style of titles like 1 Screen Platformer.)

[lunnefisk]

everything wrong with elon musk's dogshit elden ring build

elon musk recently bought a blatantly boosted poe2 account and started trying to pretend he knew what he was talking about with it. while you could definitely in part put this down to... his general... everything... i think this was influenced by his elden ring build getting roasted a while back.

@luciferhimshelf has prompted me to go through his build and pick apart everything i see wrong, because while i think people get the general idea it's horrendous, i really want to go through it ALL

ALRIGHT. some of these are excusable first playthrough mistakes, and some of them are fucking baffling

he's in the mountaintops of the giants with 1009 hp. this is WAY less than you should have by this point. for anyone curious, i used a build calculator to check and he hasn't kept the debuff from hugging fia, which is a shame because it would have been very funny

he has 31 vigor, which governs your health. the general agreed end point for your build is 60 vigor, which bring you to 1900 hp. he also has a talisman equipped that gives you +5 vigor, endurance, strength and dex, MEANING HIS ACTUAL STAT IS 26 VIGOR. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE 26 VIGOR AT THIS POINT

the spirit summons are... strange. having three equipped at all times is a really odd decision. two of them, Skeletal Militia (1) and Banished Knight Oleg (3) are reasonable choices, though by this point you really could have replaced them with something better - especially skeletal militia. the middle one, Marionette Soldiers (2), is more odd, but it's not a shit-tier choice. the odd thing here really is that he has three summons in his hotbar and no healing flasks - which i assume are in the quick access. i'd love to see his split of hp and fp heals too, because of the next one...

38 mind is a really strangely high amount to have. you don't need this much, ever. the only reason you might need this much is if your only spellcasting staff is lusat's glintstone staff (which is the one he is using), because it makes all your spells more expensive in exchange for dealing more damage. this should not be the only staff he is using.

and i know it's the only one he uses because for some reason he seems to be equipping all his weapons at once. i actually did this on my first playthrough of a souls game so i can't trash talk this one that much but it is still really fucking strange, ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS HEAVY ROLLING IN THIS IMAGE. WHY IS HE HEAVY ROLLING WITH THE +5 ENDURANCE TALISMAN EQUIPPED

the more things i point out, the more inevitable i feel my descent into madness will become

why does he have two shields

i can understand multiple weapons. i don't like it but i understand it. two shields makes no sense. you should never have two shields

"oh but lunne maybe he has two shields because one parries" both of his shields are uninfused, and their base ash of war is weapon skill.

there is no reason to have two shields equipped.

i'm going to try and push past the fact he has two shields equipped, and move onto the weapons and spells

the weapons themselves are reasonable choices - rogier's rapier is a free weapon pre upgraded with a nice ash of war, and moonveil is a very powerful weapon and he has an intelligence build. this makes sense.

however, i would be an idiot if i did not point out that the reason elon musk is running an intelligence build, is absolutely 100% without a doubt because he thinks he is intelligent.

68 (62+6 from the helmet) is an odd choice - there is a spell that requires this amount, however i am not convinced he was smart enough to find it. if i had to guess, i would say he is probably just working toward 99

with this in mind, i looked at his spell choices. i can make out that he is running zamor ice storm, night comet, magic glintblade, comet, and loretta's greatbow. (i found out there is a wider crop of the image after scrutinising it, and it turns out i was right anyway)

these are extremely odd choices for your five spell slots.

the fact he has five spell slots really is the piece de resistance here. the funniest thing about this whole image. i'm sorry i put it off, but i really had to savour this.

you get two spell slots at the start of the game. one is bought at the roundtable hold. one drops from the red wolf of radagon, a mandatory boss on a casual playthrough taking on every legacy dungeon they find. a fifth one drops from demi-human queen maggie, in mt gelmir near where he would have been doing a quest to get that staff.

all the other memory stones are acquired through puzzles.

he is running an intelligence build because he thinks he's smart, but he could not solve a single puzzle.

he also took a photo of the screen instead of a screenshot.

[darqx]

Another BP/HH/Gen answer dump as usual starting with BP and then moving into the other two \o/

All demons age about the same rate as humans (although with earlier milestones as babies) UNTIL they hit their 30s-40s after which aging slows down drastically 🙂‍↕️

Izm chasing you down to get .D back like

🤔 You guys sometimes really make me think about things I don't often have to think about LOL. I'm just gonna do the gang this time so off the top of my head:

Izm and .D are often eating sushi in my drawings and since I'm pretty sure Izm is mainly the one buying, sushi is his fave. He'll eat any type but he prefers the raw fish ones.

Whilst .D also likes sushi, it's not his fave dish. His fave dish is pasta in a red sauce (like Sugo or Arrabiata) for some reason. Nostalgia maybe?

Zeke is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so, a nice juicy sirloin with mushroom sauce and a side of roast potatoes and veggies. (BP!Zeke is similar but he really likes pork/bacon particularly, so a pork roast for him probably).

Wei Ren's comfort foods are chicken congee, and seafood steamboat/hot pot.

Marcus' fave is his mom's chicken casserole.

Oh I'm glad (and thank you very much)! I hope you get lots of inspiration and can create a lot of things :D

Hm, that's a good question! I think, for doodling purposes, my fave is Rire mainly because Rire always looks more or less completed in black and white. My other two faves are .D and Izm - .D is a good exercise in subtle expressions whereas Izm is the complete opposite (esp with BP!Izm with that mouth).

Yes. I mean, I'd prefer you be at least 15 for those two things only cos if i had to age rate them they could be considered M or MA15+.

Hullo! The short answer is that there are also "not normal" skin tones, it depends on the demon species :)

The rest of society is pretty standard so yes there are charlatans in the world of BP lol. HOWEVER, no one would pretend to be a BP for three distinct reasons:

You need to be sanctioned to be a BP (ie they have abilities that normal people do not, like being able to perform exorcisms.)

There is no profit to be had as BPs generally don't get paid (all their living expenses are generally covered by their religion's HQ).

It's dangerous work. You'd have better luck being a bank robber.

Desmond is def a club music kind of guy XD EDMs, techno, trance, hardstyle, house, whatever - the kind of stuff you jump energetically up and down to at a club/concert/rave, he'll listen to it.

Not yet for BP (soon...🙏🏻). HH wasn't really a comic series so much as a bunch of somewhat random one shots I did for fun lol.

^ you guys :d

I don't put my pronouns anywhere partly because it is lowkey amusing for me to see how people perceive me online. It doesn't really matter to me, so go with your best guess lol.

You would be surprised at how much time those two hobbies can take up outside of work |D; I also like doing puzzle games (like Quordle etc), coding, going for walks/bike riding, making slightly odd food combos in normal recipes and freaking out my friends on Discord with them, and watching horror/disaster films and playthroughs of horror games.

Maybe one day I would, but not at this particular time, sorry!

Thanks for asking as this is a bit of a grey type area! Personally, I think that as long as this is purely for your own use and you aren't going to on-sell it in any way...then it should be ok. I'm going to categorise something like this as somewhat similar to say...people printing out my art to stick to their wall type thing. Of course, if you ended up buying a bunch and then thought oh i have so many extra I'll sell them to whoever wants them - that would be a no no.

In what capacity lol if there's something I've learned from real life it's never agree or disagree to anything without knowing specifics. Eg if you would like to use my art as a PFP on tumblr then you can if you credit it, but if you want to use my art as a face claim for your own charac then i would have to say no, etc.

That makes two of us as i am not familiar with the twisted wonderland universe :P

.D: Diasomnia

Izm: Pomefiore

Wei Ren: Ignihyde

Zeke: Savanaclaw

Marcus: Diasomnia

I never really specified one so my friends and I have been calling it the fictional city of Hedone lol.

I haven't given up on HH, i just dont draw it nearly as much since i'm focussing on developing BP :) Anyway HH wasn't seriously planned to be a comic or anything (though technically...it does have a very loose storyline that I've alluded to in some drawings |D ) so it's something I can just jump back into and doodle whenever i feel like.

This was from a while back

It's pretty straightforward HH is a slice of life 'verse where my main characs are in an all boy's boarding school and Rire is the headmaster. It focuses on the boys shenanigans though so if you specifically like Rire you will be disappointed as he's barely in it.

I cut off this post cos I dont think the stuff in it should be shared with other random people even though anon is on anon. If this is you anon i hope you are doing well and i would genuinely encourage you to talk to someone about certain things (like a therapist maybe).

[galedekarios]

gale & his mother, morena dekarios

i thought it'd be nice to have a place to compile everything i could find about gale's mother, morena dekarios.

the first time you as the player get a vague mention about gale's parents is after saving mirkon, when gale brings up a story about his parents denying him a kitten when he was still a child:

Gale: One time my parents denied me akitten, so I summoned myself a tressym.

if you play a gale origin playthrough, you get a mention of her much earlier from tara, after she joins the camp.

this is a camp dialogue with its variants from act i:

Tara the Tressym: Well, if it isn't my favourite fellow himself. Player: How are things back in Waterdeep? Tara the Tressym: More or less the same - though news of some mad faction calling themselves 'Absolutists' is starting to trickle in. Tara the Tressym: I told your mother not to worry. That if they were anything to worry about, Baldur's Gate would handle things quick-sharp. Keep them from spreading their tendrils north. She still wants to know when she'll see you again, sir. I avoid giving any answers. But she misses you. Player: I miss her too. Tara the Tressym: I'll tell her. With my Cat Flap of Displacement, I can afford the occasional visit. I'd bring you along, if I could. Perhaps some day. - Player: I can't risk putting her in danger. Tara the Tressym: I know that, but she doesn't. She'd keel over if she knew just how you'd tried to manipulate the Weave. Or maybe she'd just say something like, 'My Gale always was one to make the impossible possible.' Oh, but she adores you. - Player: No more guilt trips, Tara. Please. Tara the Tressym: But then whatever will we talk about? Anyhow - I'm keeping my senses pricked for any sign of another item that might be of use to you. Hopefully something will turn up soon.

it's clear from the dialogue that gale's mother worries about him and loves him - adores him, really.

it also becomes clear that she doesn't know what happened to gale and that he nor tara has not told her.

another mention from act i, again from tara:

Tara the Tressym: Please tell me you've at least made inroads when it comes to finding someone to settle down with. Myself and Mrs Dekarios are starting to think you intend to die alone. Player: You've been visiting my mother? Tara the Tressym: Naturally. After you abandoned her, there was only me left to keep her company. She's very good company, though. Ah, the stories we've traded over toast and tea. You're a highly entertaining source of speculation. But speculation only goes so far! Tell me, Mr Dekarios - how have you been?

tara and morena are implied to have tea together regularly enough to trade stories about gale. tara is implied to be a sort of messenger between the two of them, likely after gale's isolation and subsequent abduction by the nautiloid, keeping morena informed, yet without revealing gale's secret and shame.

the devnotes also state that tara loves morena - high praise since other devnotes states that tara hates everyone except gale - and that she talks of her in an affectionate tone.

this is a dialogue in act ii after mystra has tasked gale to use the orb the moment he finds the heart of the absolute:

Tara the Tressym: Promise me, Gale. Promise me you'll find another way. Promise me you'll return home, when this is all over. Player: I can't make that promise, Tara. Tara the Tressym: You're going to kill me. And your mother. And then there'll be no one to mourn you when you've wasted yourself for no good reason at all.

i find it very interesting here in terms of other relationships that tara explicitly says that there will be no one to mourn gale except morena and her should he heed mystra's instructions and sacrifice himself. it speaks of the bond between tara, morena and gale - but also even more of gale's isolation and loneliness. we know from tara that she considers herself to be gale's only old friend and gale echoes as much. we also know that gale describes the dekarios family as the dekarios clan, that is "scattered" far and wide.

at the same time, the loud silence about gale's father becomes really apparent again. a while ago, i speculated about gale's father and i truly do still think that he abandoned morena and gale.

another snippet from an act ii convo, before gale reveals the details of elminster's letter to tara (or chosing to keep it to himself):

Tara the Tressym: I'm not one to pry. I'd rather make up all the juicy details myself over tea with your mother.

which again ties in with a similar line from act i, further cementing the fact that this is a regular thing between tara and morena.

still in act ii, tara says this if gale asks her if she'll still love him if he is a mindflayer:

Player: Will you love me when I'm a mind flayer? Tara the Tressym: Depends. Are mind flayers warm-blooded? If so, my prize napping spot on your lap won't be compromised. In which case, I suppose we could find an accord. And, of course, your mother would still think you a prince, no matter how many tentacles you had. And with a nautiloid, you may even manage to visit her more often.

again, gale's mother truly adores him. tara is utterly convinced she'd love him even if he'd turn into a mind flayer. at the same time, the dialogue again hammers home the fact that gale's been keeping his distance from his mother after he has acquired the orb.

the following lines are a compilation of some of tara's lines from act iii, all once again stating that she is a messenger between gale and morena, keeping morena informed about gale's well-being, while also looking after morena in gale's absence from waterdeep:

Tara the Tressym: You're almost at the end of this, Gale. You're nearly there. And not a moment too soon. Myself, I must away to Waterdeep. Your mother will be worried silly not to have heard from either of us - and now I can bring her the good news. When this is all over I'll be waiting for you, with a crackling fire and good book at the ready. Good luck, darling. - Tara the Tressym: I'm well past due to return to Waterdeep. I'm going to tell your mother that you'll be home soon. Don't make a liar of me, darling. - Tara the Tressym: I'll have to make up some good news for your dear mother, then. I'm going home, Gale. To look after Mrs Dekarios, and to remind you that there are people waiting for you in Waterdeep.

going back to companion gale, the next mention of gale's mother after saving mirkon, is from gale in an ambient with karlach:

Gale: I don't suppose you've any clue where we are in relation to Waterdeep? Karlach: From this distance between Elturel and Baldur's Gate, I'd say... a long way away.devnote Gale: Ah. That will make getting word to my mother rather tricky. No matter - what she doesn't know can't hurt her. Not at this distance, anyway.

it echoes the lines of dialogue that origin gale has, believing he endangers his mother with his condition and thus keeping his distance.

gale mentions his mother in an act iii dialogue after meeting tara on the rooftop of the open hand temple:

Gale: My tower in Waterdeep boasts an excellent kitchen and a wine cellar to rival Ondal himself. Not to mention a larder stocked with my homemade hundur sauce. Player: Hundur sauce? Gale: A Waterdhavian delicacy, spiced to leave exactly the right amount of heat lingering on the tongue, and served with that most sharp-toothed of aquarian residents, the quipper fish. I make it to my mother's recipe. It packs quite a wallop. As does she.

we know that gale's the designated camp cook from a conversation with wyll, and i think the conversation makes it fair to assume that gale's mother taught him how to cook.

still, maybe it's because i'm not a native english speaker and i might be missing some cultural context here, but the line "it packs quite a wallop. as does she." stuck out to me:

wallop. to hit something / someone hard.

this could mean that gale's seen her hit someone and packing quite a punch behind it. with what's been described of morena so far, i doubt it's because gale's ever been on the receiving end of that.

or perhaps it's less literal and more in relation to her seemingly larger than life personality that gale also hints at later, describing his mother as "intimitable" and "sometimes unavoidable". this description is from the following conversation that is currently sadly still bugged:

Player: So your last name is Dekarios? Gale: It is. Courtesy of my mother, the inimitable, dare I say it sometimes unavoidable, Morena Dekarios. It's been so long since I've used it. 'Gale Dekarios' cut a poor figure next to the wizard prowess of 'Gale of Waterdeep'. Player: Gale Dekarios... I think I like him more. Gale: You like to many things about me I'd have sooner discarded... Your generosity is quite wonderful. Gale Dekarios likes you too. Very, very much. Though let's keep his exitence between ourselves for now. - Player: Doesn't your matter mind? Gale: Oh, she's happy if I'm happy. Morena couldn't care one jot what I call myself. Tara's the real stickler for using it. Has done since I summoned her. I'd prefer you not follow her exmaple, if that's all the same to you. 'Gale' is more than sufficient. - Player: You're right. Just 'Gale is better. Gale: I agree. And on the plus side, if I get myself into any truly cataclystic straits during the remainder of our journey, my family name will go untarnished.

i love this banter so much and it makes me very sad that larian still hasn't fixed the issue of it not triggering. there's so much lore to explore here:

from gale dropping 'dekarios' in favour of 'of waterdeep', at first, to appear perhaps more grandiose, more suited to the ambitions he held when he was younger, to morena, apparently, not minding it, yet tara clinging to 'dekarios' (perhaps to keep gale's feet on solid ground as much as she could), to finally finding out that the reason that the gale we meet now is not using 'dekarios' still is because he doesn't wish to tarnish his family name should he indeed fall victim to the orb.

the last mention gale makes of his mother is during his act iii post final battle dialogue, in which he proposes to the player:

Gale: That being said, I wondered if you might consider accompanying me back to Waterdeep as a new member of the Dekarios clan? Player: Are you asking me to marry you? Gale: I suppose I am. Tara would be delighted. Not to mention my mother. But I'd be just as happy without such ceremony, so long as we're together.

this again mirrors what tara has been saying in her dialogue with an origin gale in act i: that morena and her were hoping he would find someone to find happiness with.

i think overall, even with only the very few bits and pieces we learn of morena, it's easy to tell that she truly loves and adores and cares her son, and that that love and care is clearly echoed back from gale to morena.

still, or perhaps more likely because of that love, gale keeps his secrets and his distance to morena because of the orb and the shame he feels he brought to his family.

it's all too easy to imagine that he wishes her to be proud of him and that he feels he has disappointed her and given her little reason to be proud of him in the same vein that he feels he has done with tara:

Gale: She'd [Tara] be most impressed by our efforts saving these tieflings. Proud, even. And I've given her little to be proud of recently.

anyhow, i hope i caught all mentions and that this was helpful to someone. 🖤

[eemamminy-art]

If you're willing, would you share some of your thoughts about zenos? I just met him in my playthrough and I'm already obsessed and curious about how people misinterpret him

I have many thoughts on Zenos ahaha you can find a lot of my long-winded rambles about him in my tag for him! There will definitely be spoilers in this for both stormblood and endwalker, so if you're just going through stormblood for the first time I'd advise saving this to read later!

But in reference to the thing I was talking about with my partner yesterday was mainly like, how there's this idea people have of Zenos that he enjoys killing when it's simply not the case. Now don't misunderstand-- he doesn't hate it either. He's not remorseful. He's not even trying to justify the action. It's just totally meaningless to him.

When he's urging on the wol to be more violent and to let themselves loose against him, it's not for the sake of simply sowing more destruction. He wants to bring the wol down to his own level in order to debase himself. The reason he wants to encourage the wol to hurt him is because being challenged by them is the only thing making him feel alive. The destruction is something of just a natural consequence of that, of showing the wol that Zenos sees them as two sides of the same coin. Zenos is the emperor's attack dog more than his son, the wol is in turn the alliance's attack dog more than their ally (or so he thinks!).

When he talks about "the hunt" it's less this whimsical mass murder that people point it out to be, and really him seeking purpose, meaning, and happiness in the only messed up way he knows how. As a child he was only given praise and attention for causing harm, so he seeks an opponent that can harm him in return so he can feel something, anything. When he's collecting weapons from fallen warriors, they're not trophies or spoils of war, he's specifically interested in the history of the weapons.

I think it's maybe easy to forget, I mean stormblood was so long ago now and while the characterization is still there in endwalker, it's colored by the perception of others. Isse and the other Domans choosing freedom over fear, no matter how hopeless things are.

Jullus wanting to know why he would betray his countrymen and pleading to his empathy, when Zenos was shaped into a weapon by that empire and holds no love for his nation. Alisaie telling him that while he may have found a spark of joy in fighting with the wol, without empathy for others he will find himself alone and bereft of the one thing that makes him happy.

Zero trying to wrap her head around the way Zenos discarded lives as though they were nothing, while bearing some undefinable emotion toward the wol (obsession, competitiveness, devotion, fondness-- she's not able to define it and I think it's meant to be vague for the player's sake). All these characters in their words with and about Zenos do lay it out clear that he is someone who is devoid of emotions except for the relationship he has to the wol, but I think because they are rightly condemning him for the lives he has taken and destroyed, people misconstrue that to mean he likes killing. There's a sort of malice attributed to his actions when it's really just nihilism.

Now, I'm not saying that because he didn't like it, it means it's fine or something. I know people like to interpret it that way when you like a villain in anything lol. All this to say, this idea of Zenos being a psychopath gleefully murdering people is so far from the truth. He's a very broken man with deep traumas and depression, finding happiness only in wanting to be hurt and killed by the wol.

Maybe at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether he likes it or doesn't-- I find to most people it makes no difference, so it's easy for them to conflate the two things. But I think Zenos' very existence challenges how the player views their own actions. In the same way that Elidibus in the ShB 5.3 quest Faded Memories reflected back at them all the death and destruction that the wol has caused-- intentional or not-- I think Zenos serves a similar purpose narratively. He questions why, he questions what are good or evil really, and asserts that there's no point in trying to find a justification for death and murder.

I can see why it makes people uncomfortable! He's reminding the wol that they have killed just as much as he did, and questioning the "justice" behind the wol's actions. It's an uncomfortable thing to think about. I think it would be fun to have a wol that comes out of endwalker as a pacifist tbqh!

(Not to get on a tangent, but I totally thought post-HW and especially with the DRG 70 quest, that Estinien was going down that road. I was really sold on the idea just by my own interpretation of his actions and words, only for him to be not only just fine with fighting still but to be actually kind of into it for the sport, just with more humility and empathy now. Total missed opportunity imo! But this is not a post about Estinien!! 😤)

Going back to Zenos though, I think it's easier for people to not grant him a shred of empathy and to write off all his actions as those of a madman. He does after all say he wants the world to burn, for the selfish reason of having the wol all to himself. I get it's uncomfortable for the player character to be the one at the center of his attention. I get it!! But gosh there is a much more interesting character in there than just "guy who gets off on killing", if you just open your eyes and ears for a moment.

I do think that, given the themes in ffxiv's story overall, that granting empathy and forgiveness to even the worst of people is kind of the driving force behind a lot of characters' motivations. Raubahn recognizes Ilberd did all he did for the sake of their shared nation's freedom and future; Estinien recognizes Nidhogg was grieving and in pain as much as he was, leading to vengeance; Hien recognizes the cruelty of her family and others in Doma failed Yotsuyu every moment of her life, shaping her into a tyrant; Lyse recognizes the unrest in Ala Mhigo failed Fordola, pushing her into the false hope the Empire offered; all the scions and the wol recognize how the unsundered ascians bore the responsibility of their entire people on their shoulders and did the unthinkable to try to save their own; Wuk Lamat recognizes Sphene acts out of love and preservation for her people, no matter what it takes. On and on and on.

So I find it odd that Zenos never gets that sort of grace! It's easier to just make an enemy out of him than to see things from his perspective, even while most of the other antagonists are given some degree of empathy while still acknowledging they were wrong and had to be stopped.

He's really neat. I'd put him under a microscope and study him if his ass wasn't too big to fit on the slide.

[lumilasi]

Hi, PenWoman from AO3.

I have a few questions where did you get these amazing ideas for your Zaundads stories? What is your inspiration? If you could change one thing in the Arcane series, what would it be? And do you accept story ideas from other people?

Hi there! Sorry for the late response, when I saw this it was past midnight where I live so I figured I wait till morning before responding as it'd be easier from laptop!

Since you had a few questions I suppose I'll go down the list in order! (also I realized this is gonna be kinda long wall of text, so I'll break it up with some of the art I've done with each fic):

Ideas/inspiration?

A lot of places pretty much, just like with any and all fandom/non fandom art and writing I do. If you want to know more specifically though, I can somewhat point to a few sources for each fic:

Wraiths of Zaun is basically me pondering a "What if" scenario, where they got a warning beforehand about how things were going to go wrong, and how they'd deal with that (+ wanting to connect it into bit of a multiverse thing, this'll make sense MUCH later in the fic lol)

(Now, I do feel like in hindsight I probably should've done Connol & Feli's deaths more akin to canon, as RN we haven't had a moment where Vander can consciously choose to do better. ATM he hasn't really needed to make that choice. (the incident with Pow-Pow and Vi doesn't count, as neither died) I DO have a way to still have this kind of narrative point, but that'd then happen much closer to the end of the fic.)

The Lightkeeper was a mixture of me seeing a really cool merSilco fanart (that I can't find anymore :C), me loving spooky settings and stories, and having watched Dredge playthrough recently. Also "Vander raised Viktor" concept is always fun.

As for why I chose to have Silco be the younger version, the current dynamic in the fic wouldn't have worked with old Silco as well & when I was debating which way to go, more people suggested young Silco.

(This fic has my favorite setting, given it allows me to do more worldbuilding, whereas the other 2 are canon divergence stories. It currently has the most art for that reason as well, bc Fishco is fun to draw! Though it is only my second favorite out of these fics, as.....)

........This one....THIS one. This one's my baby, my magnum opus, my absolute FAVORITE fic of all time. (slight exaggeration, but I REALLY love it rn lol)

Riftside Angel is largely inspired by my love for horror/thrillers/ mystery, my older original story writing, and one of my favorite horror game villains, that the antagonist of this fic is loosely inspired by. It's also special because usually I don't utilize horror as a theme for fanfics, but this particular idea was too good to pass up on.

(To reiterate as I feel people see "horror" and might assume its a bad ending - understandably mind you - the boys will be fine by the end, traumatized for life ofc, but that's basically just canon isn't it?)

(It was also slightly helped by two other fics on AO3 that I've listed at the beginning of the fic of course, though the inspo from them was for more specific details rather than the overarching story, which is more reworking of an ollld OG tale with setting changed from island to a mine, and with magic rather than sci fi themes.)

2. Arcane changes

I'm not really someone who's going to think of stuff like this unless the canon story REALLY drops the ball somehow. Arcane, while flawed by the end somewhat, did NOT fuck up for me that bad. (Basically I personally find the issues small enough that its on that "nothing's ever gonna be perfect" category)

.......Especially when comparing to the travesty of my previous fandom, where the ending was SO AWFUL it retroactively destroyed the entire story, basically making it feel like as if none of it mattered, might as well just erase the whole story from existence. That's how bad it was. Even if Arcane was worse, I'd still probably give it more grace because HOLY SHIT WAS THAT BADDDDD

3. Story ideas

Typically no majority of the time. I always feel like if I accept ideas from someone else, there's pressure to get them to match what that person might've wanted it to be, even if they give me free reign. At most I tend to just ask for opinions on some small story element choices (like with Silco's age in Lightkeeper) if I'm really stuck with it.

If I ever did accept those, I'd be more likely to do that with Jayvik because I find myself struggling coming up with ideas for that ship. Largely because its so popular and already has so much stories, I feel like I can't come up with something unique and different feeling enough that I'd want to write it.

............Even Then though, given I am averse to a LOT of common fanfic tropes, suggesting me ideas might prove kind of useless; I'd probably end up not accepting many of them due to me not caring for majority of the common tropes people would likely suggest lol

Anyway, glad you have been enjoying my fics, and hope this rambly answer satisfied your curiosity! Just like with my fics always ending up long, I'm bad at giving short answers lmaooo

[alkalinebatteriess]

Question for the class: Do you think, from a lore perspective, that the Dragonborn should encourage Serena to cure her vampirism? I'm sure this has been discussed before but idc. I've thought about it but can't come to a conclusion, I've even cured her on a playthrough or two, but I regretted it each time.

On one hand, she says this when you ask her about a cure in the middle of the dlc

Do you ever think about curing yourself? "A cure? Why even think of it that way? I can't think of any reason I'd want to lose my gift. Especially after what I did to get it. It may have driven my family apart, but I'm still here, and I'm alive. I won't give this up."

But after she actually cures herself she says

You're not a Vampire anymore? "All clean. I feel like I can breathe again for the first time since I was turned. The world is alive, and so am I, for once."

I mean, fuck Molag Bal, but I watched this video (would recommend his channel, its really good shit) about the DLC and the guy says at some point that he's glad she's non-romanceable because otherwise the arc would be about "fixing her", and I agree. I wouldn't want to take away her agency, and the writing isn't thorough enough to make me feel justified in initiating the dialogue. I think it could be earned if the dialogue tree was more elaborate in this instance.

[steamberrystudio]

Hello!! I am a brand new fan, (only about 75% of my way through my first Changeling playthrough) but I'm enjoying your writing SO much that I want to buy your other games ASAP! I had a few questions though, which I hope you won't mind answering! I tried to find the answers myself so as not to bother you, but I kept running into spoilers posted by other fans, so I thought I'd ask you directly!

1. I want to avoid s3x scenes -- kisses are fine, but I'm uncomfortable with anything nsfw. Do I need to avoid certain games entirely or toggle certain modes on or off or perhaps skip certain parts? Can you give me any insight as to what to expect?

2a. Which is the best platform to purchase your games on? Steam? Itch.io? I would want to make sure you receive the money!!

2b. If Steam is okay, then does it deprive you of any money if I purchase on a Steam sale? (Forgive me if this is a silly question: I don't really know how this stuff works!)

I've read a few of your devlogs talking about your process and the work you put into your games and I just want you to know that even though I'm still very new to your work, I'm amazed at your work and the quality of it!! It's extremely inspirational to me, and I hope someday I can do something cool during my life like you have with your games. Thank you for sharing your storytelling with the world!!

Hello! Thanks for reaching out!

Gilded Shadows and When Stars Collide both have love scenes that can be toggled to "fade to black" in the menu. Essentially it will cut the scene after some kissing and skip to after things have concluded and the characters are snuggling.

If you look at the content guide spreadsheets (for instance, here is Ari's list) you can find an explanation of exactly when and how the "fade" is handled.

All the content guides for each route in GS has an explanation for exactly where and how the fade happens.

When Stars Collide hasn't released the chapter with the NSFW scenes yet but I intend to set up the guide in a similar way. That said, the fades are handled much the same way.

2. Feel free to purchase on Steam or Itch.io - whichever you prefer. Ultimately the two platforms have different pros and cons to them so I prefer to encourage players to make purchases where they are most comfortable.

3. You should take advantage of sales when they're available. Games only go on sale when I want them to do so and with the discount I personally decide on. That means it's something I've chosen to offer to interested players. You should not feel bad for buying the game on sale! They're there to make the games more accessible to people who cannot or don't wish to pay full price!

Finally - when it comes to hoping to do cool things. I can't give a lot of advice and you didn't ask for advice anyway. But I do want to say that if there's ever something you feel inspired to do or that you just want to try - don't sit on that idea. Just try it.

I got into making visual novels because I played one and thought 'That seems interesting. I bet I could do it. I want to try." And that was it. I published Changeling less than four years later.

That was it. That was my whole reason behind starting to make VNs. "I want to try that" followed by "I want to make a really long indie otome game!" ╰(*°▽°*)╯

So if you ever want to try something, just try it.

It's a way to explore, to create and to reach through the cosmos somehow and connect with people you'd never have interacted with otherwise - just like us in this post right now! OwO

[lordgeneralsix]

ok... so I have finally finished veilguard after about 90 painful hours (two playthroughs). im not gonna write an actual review about all of my detailed thoughts bc it'll actually take days, this is just to at least get my general thoughts out and see if anyone else feels the same or if ive actually lost it.

overall it is the weakest dragon age game story-wise, and I'd give it a nice lukewarm 4/10.

(i wrote this post right after I finished the game on the weekend so maybe I sound a bit harsh, I tried to edit it to be more reasonable lol but I didn't really want to delete this since I do still stand by a lot of this)

I really tried to go in with an open mind, bc I always want to experience media in full before making any kind of judgement, but about a few hours in I had this horrible feeling that once again this was another soulless, rushed game, and I still don't feel any different after finishing the game.

what stuck out to me was that there's no sense of urgency despite what the plot is, serious topics are not treated with care as the writing overall is shallow, and the gods as well as any other enemy you encounter are just cartoon villains (and apparently the lore retconning, but I'm not well-versed enough to dissect that so I won't).

I can't take this plot seriously when it feels so disjointed and forced and lazy. and I see no point in caring about anything when choices literally don't matter. no say in who you recruit, no say in the relationships with them and they have almost no awareness of rook, definitely doesn't matter if you have allies or not bc they show up anyway, and only four companions are locked into unavoidable decisions where one of them bites the dust no matter what (which is strange bc why are harding and davrin forced to die no matter if they're at hero status while bellara and neve can literally survive blight if they're at hero status), so it's impossible to try to strategize for better (or worse) outcomes with all the people you've gathered when there's only one right answer that the game pretty much tells you instead of letting you think for yourself (and side note this game does an incredible amount of hand holding). the game actively tries to trick you into thinking your choices matter with the onscreen notifications, but nothing matters bc the devs clearly had only one story in mind and for some reason lied that it had "complex choices".

also rook in general wasn't interesting as a protagonist bc they were written to be perfect. they always know what to say and are so supportive of everyone. they never struggle with anything. not even with leadership beyond "man leading a team is hard :/" but it doesn't actually show how hard it is by having actual volatile conflict between the companions* or showing how their plans sometimes fail. which, if we actually had choices that mattered, would have helped develop that struggle. also? what's with everyone being so friendly? I'm not gonna get into that but everyone is so eerily nice and it's been said a lot but yeah, the world is extremely sanitized and devoid of any real conflict aside from the gods I guess.

*(like off the top of my head cassandra fighting with varric and accusing him of not being on their side or how the inquisitor can literally punch dorian and solas if approval is low enough or fenris and anders bordering on killing each other is not the same as lucanis and davrin distrusting each other or people being uncomfortable with emmrich's necromancy. it just scratches the surface of conflict and never goes anywhere)

and let me say real quick again, there's nothing wrong if they wanted to make a more rigid story about being a hero. it's been done a million times and it can be executed well, but if you do that you need to make sure you 1) don't lie to people and 2) actually flesh out your (especially main) characters and plot to give people a reason to care. look at dragon age 2. hawke is a fixed protagonist with their own life front and center. they ultimately only have two choices (siding with mages or templars), but it works bc the game took time to build up the conflict straight from act 1 so by the time chaos happens in act 2 and 3 you understand why bc it's Been brewing the whole time. it just makes sense. the villains as well have sound reasons and feel real instead of being evil just bc. the story is more grounded, yet you have choices. you decide if hawke ends up alone or not. you decide how they approach situations with force or diplomacy. there's none of that in veilguard. a game that supposedly took 10 years to make. when dragon age 2 took almost 16 months (yes I know da2 also has problems like the fact that the templars are always proven right but this isn't the place to dissect that).

I want to be fair though and I do want to restate what I enjoyed about the game. the cc (though would it kill them to have more variety in face textures like age and body types beyond average.. also no colour wheel... especially since they claimed their cc was so good), the map progression/visuals/exploration (how certain places become more blighted overtime), the factions (though I feel there should have been more content for your faction, and helping them or not should have mattered more), the combat (did not feel like a slog, pretty fun and mindless), the companions (bellara, davrin, emmrich, harding, and lucanis had solid personalities and stories despite my complaints. neve was not memorable and I just feel sad for taash's bad writing), certain parts of the story were good, the intro and the point of no return sequences were solid, and the ending didn't feel rushed or boring compared to inquisition. and yes, I do appreciate that rook can be trans, I just think a little more subtly and care would've been nice.

another thing I did like and predicted was that varric died at the beginning of veilguard, and for a second I actually enjoyed that because i thought we were finally (a bit too late tho) getting some depth to rook and their own struggles of accepting his death and carrying this weight without him. and while I do think maybe they should've taken more time to establish the mentor/mentee relationship so we really feel rooks regret, I still think it was at least the right direction where in their grief they still see him, giving advice and narrating their journey.....but then it turned out to just be solas manipulating them the whole time, immediately destroying any emotional weight this reveal had.

whenever bioware has good ideas they shoot themselves in the foot and make it about solas. it's like nothing in the world exists without solas being involved somehow, and that is just incredibly boring and uninspired to me. not to mention solas just being an insufferable ass the whole time, which is fine, but it's not even in a compelling way like he used to be. he became so ugly by the end and the fact that the devs consider redeeming him the "good ending" and not giving him what he deserves is very telling and once again shows their own bias is king over good storytelling (solas' feelings should not come into play here, whether you/your companions live or die should determine good/bad ending since solas is trapped no matter what, only difference is who is trapped with him. idk but I personally think different endings actually means different outcomes). i will not go into the bs of the secret post credit scene, bc frankly I'm fed up with bioware's shitty writing and I won't be playing their next world ending space aliens game (unless they miraculously pull a good story out of their ass but lbr).

overall the bad outweighs the good for me. it's fun to play as a game, it's a decent fantasy game, but the story just doesn't do anything for me. sometimes I wonder if dreadwolf was a completely different game and was scrapped for veilguard last minute. maybe this was yet another inevitable industry fuck up and maybe there was a good story planned at one point. idk. all I know is bioware lied. respect and credit to the poor devs and writers who actually cared and to those who were kicked from the project, but in the end bioware promised too much and delivered too little.

[foxbread-whyisthisnametaken]

Hi! I just wanted to ask:What about Spectre makes you love her so much? I'm a fellow Spectre fan as well, so I'm just curious what YOU think.

Ooh now that's a question... my answer will either be pretty long or incredibly long, we'll see lol. I've written out various thoughts I've had about her across various sites over the last year and a half, but I'll try to keep this at least somewhat concise.

When I first saw a playthrough of the game before getting it for myself, she stood out to me as one of the few genuinely amicable characters in the game. The more routes I played and watched, the more I liked her and she quickly became my fave character from the game. Before I knew it, I realised I'd developed my first crush (kinda wild it took until I was ~18 for that to happen).

To start off simple, I just really love her general demeanor; she can be very kind, caring, and compassionate, but also has a good bit of sass and can throw out the occasional cheeky little jumpscare. I like how she starts off with a pretty neutral attitude towards you, and reserves judgment until after the two of you have actually talked, and she either warms up to you or becomes harsher depending on how you treat her. The ways in which her behaviour changes feels much more realistic compared to the Chapter I Princess for example, who's attitude can change on a dime based on what you say. This isn't a slight towards the game, it makes sense based on what the Princess is, but it makes Spectre feel more reasonable, and in a way, real to me. Her anger and frustration toward you feels completely justified, while similarly her kindness and empathy feel earned. The pretty subtle difference of how she's either blunt and commanding or encouraging and understanding during the possession based on how you acted towards her showcases this perfectly. Something I also really appreciate and even try to emulate is the way she seemingly always wants to see the good in people, giving you the benefit of the doubt and a chance to explain yourself before resorting to violence, and even hoping The Narrator doesn't really hate her if you prove to be reasonable. Another thing I love about her is that even though she is very forgiving and understanding, she only gives you that one 2nd chance and doesn't tolerate your bs if you turn out to be a coldblooded murderer and isn't afraid to rip your heart out, even if she is regretful it had to come to that. Her Chapter being a sort of role reversal of Thorn's is also pretty interesting to me, since in Spectre's case the princess is the one putting her trust in you in order to break the cycle of violence, whereas in Thorn you're the one trying to do that instead. I also just find her to be incredibly pretty :3

There's also a kind of silly and maybe even cringey aspect that I came to realise later. I'm fairly sure I'm asexual, at least nudity and sex repulsed, so Spectre's possession feels like an intimate act of trust that doesn't make feel revolted at the thought of it. After all, what could be more intimate than two souls sharing a body?

Lastly, I don't want to get too into the details, but a month or two after StP released I was going through a pretty rough patch in life, worrying for a friend's safety and very nearly getting burnout thanks to college. In those days, Spectre was an important comfort character for me and I feel like she played an important part in helping me get through that period. That kind of solidified my fondness for her. I'm no longer as deeply in love with her as I was a year ago, but I think that's only healthy and she still holds a special place in my heart.

This answer ended up being just pretty long, which I'm happy with. I probably forgot something that I'll later remember and regret not saying here but oh well. Hope this was worth the time it took to read!

[retphienix]

Well heck yeah :)

I finally beat a game I loved as a kid :)

So I'll say a few things on the whole run instead of just the ending :P

Surprise surprise, Kirby isn't really a hard game series at base line, but I DEFINITELY see where the hang ups were as a kid- 64 has a few more challenging moments (comparatively) that's for sure!

Some instant death crushing that kid me DEFINITELY despised for one, and those final two bosses for Shiver and Ripple aren't kidding around by asking the player to care more than not at all about their positioning when attacking (yes, basic stuff, but they got me!).

I FULLY get why kid me couldn't beat Shiver's robot boss and just kept loading the 100% save to play on, he killed me a few times here too!

He isn't like "CHALLENGE challenging" (not that he would be better or worse if he was, heck actually maybe he'd be worse because that doesn't fit the adventure in the slightest) but both him and the final bosses first form ask you to just. Not run into them when you attack them (Robot's slamming hands and the die eye's body after he transitions back to it) and something about that goes against my Kirby 64 instinct to "PRESS THE ATTACK BUTTON WHILE JUMPING TOWARDS ENEMY" lol

Basically, kid and adult me both treat this game as if pressing the attack button makes me invincible forever because 99% of enemies react that way, but bosses and a few enemies don't, so despite my brain screaming "Just Position Yourself Next To Them And Attack" I kept leaping into them and taking damage for no reason lol

Not sure why adult me continued that trend when I.... recognized it, but hey, Robot only killed me like once (or maybe twice?) before I corrected myself and the Die....

Well the Die killed me like 10 times because you can 'basically' leap into him for 2 of the 3 hits each form takes (because he'd either avoid hitting you by accident or the specific power kind of bounced you off) and something about that destroyed my brain's ability to process "But the 3rd hit he'll revert to the Die and you'll take damage so don't do that!" and I'd just keep doing that.

Lemming.

Anyways anyways, the main game of Kirby 64 fuckin' rules. Always has. It's chill like the entire time and playing with the abilities is a blast every time.

Like I want to go on and on about that but like, what do I say? This is the Kirby game where you can slap together 7 base abilities (which are great just on their own) into 49 combos, which + the 7 is 56 different abilities.

It rules!

You have powerful ones, referential ones, silly ones, just plain bad ones, it's awesome!

The game having such an incredibly Full toybox like this is why it was one of my favorite games to just turn on and jiggle the sticks as a kid. I never needed to progress because the best part was just seeing what 2 powers became and then using it for a while against a few levels :)

But yeah, beyond that my childhood memory was around collecting the enemy info cards (I got a ton on this run) because I loved having a little collectible to go after, and the AWESOME multiplayer mini-games.

This was the era of nintendo games often having tacked on completely "pointless" (the point is fun with friends!!!) multiplayer modes and I LOVED it.

The best will always be the block one because my sister and I would just play this against each other for like an hour at a time, just tossing in a stray run of catching fruits or jumping to break it up, but always returning to the fun as heck block drop.

Anyways this was a lot of fun to return to :)

I suppose there's a boss rush, and finishing my enemy dex, if I ever get the itch again- and I might :) Or when I get that itch I'll just take a couple hours out of my day to 100% the game again because despite taking a few days on the blog- that was with pacing myself and taking the time to record segments for gifs- the game is a delightful breeze of a playthrough all things considered- very digestible if beating it is your intent :P

Good time, this was a joy to cross off my list :)

Oh and I included the gif of the rock bomb specifically because I don't remember the hard hat at all- I think kid me never knew about it! I was using the move going "Jeez, I forgot this thing hurt you so much for no reason" and then I found it lol So either I forgot the hat and didn't take damage as a kid, or I never knew about the hat, either way I'm forgetful.

And I double checked the list of powers and can say this replay/first complete playthrough lead me to using every single power at least a little bit EXCEPT I never combined ice and rock for the curling puck lol

Funny that without even trying to specifically explore them this time, I tried nearly every power anyway :)

[missholoska]

❄️ about:

heyo, I'm Holoska/Snoey! I'm a SFW artist who likes making cozy illustrations, character designs, cute ship art and silly comics ✨

I mostly draw Undertale fanart, and you'll see a lot of my Underswap take and Undertale post-pacifist future - you can find more info on those in the links below! I also frequently draw Soriel and take part in Soriel Week every year, and occasionally draw Deltarune fanart too.

please note that I'm autistic and a very quiet and anxious person, so I'm not the best at socialising. I do appreciate receiving asks, but if I take a while to respond or don't reply, please don't take it personally! I'm also a pretty slow artist so periods of inactivity will occur from time to time.

thanks for visiting!

❄️ projects

Underswap MH (new overview post coming soon)

Undertale Pacifist Family (new overview post coming soon)

❄️ links:

@holoska - main blog

twitter

bluesky

deviantart

sheezyart

❄️ tags:

#holoskart (all art)

#undertale fanart

#deltarune fanart

#sorielweek

#pixels

#holoskart rambles (text posts)

#holoskart asks

❄️ FAQ:

What do you use for your art?

I use paint tool SAI for all of my art, an old copy of photoshop CS6 for text, graphic design stuff and some effects, easy gif animator for pixel animations, and an XP-pen artist pro tablet (previously a wacom cintiq).

Do you take requests?

nope, I'm busy enough with my own art plans and irl responsibilities.

you're welcome to offer suggestions relevant to the usual things I draw, but I make no guarantees about when or if I choose to do them.

Can I repost your art elsewhere?

if it's a site I'm not on (see my links above for the sites I am on) and as long as you credit me with a link to my blog/original post, sure! I'm aware my art has been reposted to reddit a couple times and have no issues with that.

I also don't mind my art being reposted on twitter or bluesky as a means of showing someone my projects, but quoting my original tweets/posts is preferred when possible.

Can I use your art?

for casual uses like profile pictures/banners or video edits, those are totally fine if credit is given! I don't mind minimal edits such as flipping or adding colourful filters, but I do not want my art to be heavily modified, copied or traced. for a different purpose, please ask me first!

do not use or edit my art or sprites for your own projects.

Can I dub your art/comics?

yes and please let me know if you do, I'd like to see it!

side note, I do not want my works in video compilations that also include Frans. I'm not comfortable with my art/name being associated with that ship.

What UTDR ships do you like?

I'm sure you can tell Soriel is my Big Favourite, but I also love Alphyne, Suselle and Asgorudy!

there are one or two other ships out there I don't actively ship for one reason or another but think are cute, but everything else I prefer as a platonic friendship ✨

What UTDR ships do you dislike?

I despise every adult x child and incest ship the fandom has come up with, and will block people who ship them for my own boundaries.

those aside, I strongly dislike Asgoriel, Sansby, every variation of Sanscest, and Krusie. these aren't ships I'll block people for, but I really don't enjoy seeing them.

Have you played [insert Undertale fangame here]?

nope. nothing but respect for the amount of work that goes making them, but playing fangames just isn't an interest of mine or how I engage with fandom, like how there are people who never read fanfics even for a series they love.

I have watched a few playthroughs of Undertale Yellow but had no lasting attachment to the story or its characters (though I do love some of its music; Guns Blazing my beloved), and I know little to nothing about any other fangame.

Will you help me with an Undertale fangame/project?

I'm really flattered to have been asked this multiple times, but I don't have the time available to contribute to other people's projects, sorry! I also wouldn't be an ideal team member due to being a hermit who struggles with regular communication ahah

How do you pronounce Holoska?

I pronounce it 'hol-oss-ka', but you can say it however you like; Holoska is the name of the icy continent in Sonic Unleashed, and as far as I know the name's never been spoken aloud in the series, so there's no official pronunciation.

if you're curious why I use it as my name, 'Miss Holoska' was a nickname I was given due to its similarity to my previous username and my love for winter and Sonic Unleashed. I may not be in the Sonic fandom anymore but this name still makes me happy ❄️

(last updated: 2nd may 2025)

[inkameswetrust]

What’s ur opinion on the btr wii game ?

𝐁𝐓𝐑: 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘/𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇

This response to your ask is an honest review of both Dance Party and Backstage Pass. I know you only asked for my opinion on Dance Party, but I do not own a copy of that game. I do, however, own a copy of Backstage Pass. There's significantly less information about it online in comparison to Dance Party which is why I've watched Dance Party playthroughs in lieu of not owning a physical copy of the game. Hope you enjoy my yapology!

I've never played, but I've seen playthroughs of it on YouTube. I have the DS version and the 8-bit audio of them announcing the song titles in the song selection cracks me up every time. I actually had to bust out the game and play it again to make this review because I'd only played it once ever. I imagine it'd be somewhat more entertaining and easier to play on the Wii considering I don't have a DS stylus.

Neither game is particularly visually appealing or complex because...

Just look at them. 💀 Absolute dogshit graphics.

AND LOOK AT HOW WHITEWASHED CARLOS IS IN DANCE PARTY. HE'S THE WHITEST ONE OF THEM ALL. Despite having far less to offer in terms of gameplay, level difficulty, rendering/display, and song selection, I'd say Backstage Rush looks significantly more visually appealing in comparison.

They probably would've entertained me at least a smidge if I had them as a kid, but I bought Backstage Rush on Amazon two years ago for under $20. Though I have seen listings of Dance Party AND Backstage Rush on some sites for under $10. I've read on Reddit that some people have purchased Backstage Rush in person at bookstores, thrift shops, and other small business for $5. Can't say I necessarily blame people for that.

There are only five or six moves max in Dance Party and they're not even on beat a lot of the time, so the most difficult aspect of the game (in my opinion) is matching the game's rhythm over the actual rhythm of the song because they are NOT in sync. The tempos of the songs don't even differ from one another all that much. Backstage Rush, while not having any moves to execute because it's more of a rhythm game than a dance game, isn't in sync with the original music either, but there are no varying levels of difficulty. Each song has their own level of difficulty varying from 1-4 bars of difficulty.

Big Time Rush: Dance Party/Backstage Rush clearly did not take a lot of time to make. The Family Feud Wii game looks significantly better than this and has far more entertaining gameplay. In fact, the BTR games seem like games Poofesure would play for shits and giggles. Also, Big Time Rush: Dance Party only has 17 tracks and Big Time Rush: Backstage has only 4, so you could likely complete either game in under a day.

Game Mill Entertainment games are objectively laughable though because it's obvious that they were made solely for the sake of being cash grabs because of the popular characters/figures involved rather than the actual substance or gameplay. And let me tell ya, it fucking worked because I was one of the suckers who bought it. Why did I buy it? Literally only because it was affiliated with Big Time Rush. That was the only reason. The only reason I still have it is purely for the novelty.

In conclusion, I think both games are utter shit. But the audio and graphics crack me up, so I still choose to indulge every now and again. Hope this answered your question!

[ramonag-if]

I have just played through all of Crown of Exile and Salyra is now my mortal enemy it is now my life goal to make her feel as bad as my MC feels and Danzor while not as bad shall not leave unscathed either I was completely prepared to fold on my anger if it wasn't for the fact that she seems as if she doesn't fully understand what she did wrong or at least doesn't fully care Danzor would get a pass but like the anger about Rana is partially being transferred to him and I just don't like him so he can join her now (Also I absolutely love Irus especially picking the shy flirting options this man has my heart)

Thank you for playing 🩷 Feel free to be as cruel and aggressive as you want with Salyra 😅 Danzor will also be upset if you are aggressive with Salyra, so it's really two birds with one stone.

I'd say she's more at the denial phase of not wanting to deal with what she did actually hurt the MC and the rest of the family, but depending on how you play your relationship, it will probably be different for everyone. There's more than one reason which can be possible for why Salyra is the way she is so feel free to choose a reason that fits your playthrough 😊

In later chapters, you'll see Danzor becoming more or less protective of Rana depending on how well you get along with Salyra and Rana, so if he comes off as an annoying idiot, it's likely because you upset his wife or daughter.

One day, I'll write just a romance game and we can all just have Irus-type love affairs with everyone 😆

[justali-anne]

Thought Week: Asgore

Ooh, boy! Asgore, huh? It's really telling that a character with so little screen time compared to the others is much more popular than some of them. Well, better get into it.

(I'm sure you know the drill by now! If you have anything to say about Asgore, please reblog and write it down! I'd love to read them!)

First Impressions

The first time I think I heard of Asgore was in an Undertale playthrough? I can't exactly remember, but I definitely didn't see him in comic dubs because back then THERE WERE BARELY ANY WITH HIM IN IT! Jeebus! At least he's getting some focus now, but good gracious!

At first, I just saw him as a tragedy, but there wasn't really much for him to me. I guess I was busy hyperfixating on Papyrus because my early memories in the fandom with Asgore are just very blurry. He just wasn't really that interesting to me, I suppose. At least now, I figured it out, and now I'm like, "Oh, crap." He's just slightly more interesting to me now. Eh.

My Impressions Now

This poor man, honestly. He just wants his life back. His life got ruined by one stupid plan and one stupid decision that he made in a fit of rage over humans killing his kids. Which is honestly decently reasonable. Obviously, he wasn't reasonable in that moment, but if he could go back and do things differently, he would in a heartbeat. He's a kindhearted softie who put himself in a precarious position because of his grief. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Asgore's woes!

How about Toriel? This guy lost his only support system besides Gerson and when he finally sees her again, he just gets outright rejected, like DUDE! I'll cover my thoughts on her on Sunday, so I won't go into it right now, but poor Asgore, man! Having his wife around and helping each other through their grief would've been VERY beneficial to them! Could you imagine two vilomahs helping each other out and working together on human policies that could have benefitted everyone and helped them accept their loss? But then again, if it weren't for that, parts of the Undertale story wouldn't have happened, so I guess we're stuck with this timeline! Sorry, Flowey! You couldn't reset this one.

Oh, and it just keeps going! Remember Rudy? Asgore's "best friend" from a long time ago? I'm not talking about the Deltarune version, I'm talking about the Undertale version of Rudy that sadly passed away. At least from what I could tell, he lived a long and happy life, but it still hurts. Imagine being a boss monster. An IMMORTAL boss monster that stays the same age until you have a child. So for all that time Asgore didn't have a child, he had to watch as his "best friend" grew old and fell down.

GODDAMN IT, TOBY, COULD YOU GIVE THIS POOR MAN A BREAK??? Thank you.

The thing is, Asgore is by far the strongest monster in the Underground... besides Toriel (she was holding back). He's killed six humans and we all know how strong they are compared to monsters. Like no human soul was ever taken in the war, and he singlehandedly killed SIX of them. And we don't even know if all of them were actually kids or not, or if they were fighting back, or... Wait, the WAR!!! He was in the intro, wasn't he?!

Look, there he is! Unless that's his dad or something, which isn't actually a bad theory when you think about it.

GIVE. THIS MAN. A BREAK.

He can't even keep a marriage in Deltarune. Just make something go right for him, please.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! The strongest monster in the underground! And by the time he fights you, he's spent. He doesn't want to go through with the war. That's why he's hiding. That's why he's holding back. I think we all know that by now. Dude was just waiting to take himself out of the picture, so to speak. It's understandable to be depressed when your life is nothing but tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. But let's move on to his actual personality.

Because Asgore... is a dork. He's just as dorky as the rest of the cast, and it's adorable! This big guy stumbles through life with the charming unawareness of modern things, like anime, ("What is an... anime?") and he's so clumsy he fell in a fishing hole during a game of ice hockey!

(Here is the original video)

He gives you tight hugs. He's a botany nerd. He dresses up as Santa for the locals. He is the QUINTESSENTIAL Gentle Giant. He just deserves better, that's all.

A King, Not A Deity

Conclusion

It's intriguing to me how literally the entirety of monsterkind treats him like he's gonna bring salvation to them like some god. As if it was a guarantee. Well, apart from Toriel, of course, but she knew him on a very deep level, so of course she's not gonna see him as some sort of "chosen one." And that's not even covering her disdain for him.

I get that Asgore is the monsters' only hope, though. That's a huge contributing factor in their deitification of him. And in turn, it just pressures Asgore to kill the humans even more, which sends him into an even bigger depression, but also, he doesn't want to call off the war so the monsters could still have hope. It's a vicious cycle!

No hate towards him, but I wish Asgore would grow a backbone sometimes. Just saying. You're the KING, man! Not a god! A KING. And the monsters are expecting you to become their god, but you don't want to! And... Gah, monster politics are complicated!

The Narrative

Despite his very little screen time, Asgore is one of the most important characters in the story. A kind king driven to despair after losing the thing he loves the most - his family. The reason the policy exists. The monster you're gonna have to kill in order to escape the underground.

It sort of sucks that he dies in every route besides the best one. Like, I get why that has to happen, but come on, man. He deserves better.

Honestly, Asgore? He's not the most remarkable character in the game to me. I wish he got more screen time, at least. The poor guy needs a freaking break from everything. It doesn't make him a bad character, in fact, he's a really well-written, intriguing one. He's just not my favourite.

But if there's anyone out there whose favourite character IS Asgore, please give a shout in the notes and tell me what you think of him! Is there anything I missed?