#the swordcraft story one

[kenchann]

What is your pfp?

a drawing i did of loki/reki from summon night 2 (*´▽｀*)

[daisukoth]

i keep seeing people say this about swordcraft story. which isnt true at all. The girl MC is very much the intended choice for the protagonist, they even make her the protagonist in the novel of the game. There ARE line differences in the game, and im pretty sure one of the character's arc even has a different ending depending on which gender you choose

[antihibikase-archive]

Okay I've been posting about Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 a lot the past few days and I do recommend it a lot even if the game is highly questionable at times.

Its one of the best games in the GBA. That said, its one of those games where you might need a walkthrough if you want to 100% everything, since the main game takes the span of ten days.

That being said, I know it might not be for everyone, so I've compiled a list of its gameplay elements, the things I liked about it, as well as some stuff that might irk other people out from trying it.

Basic plot summary; you are a craftknight's apprentice, someone who makes weapons such as swords, axes, spears, knuckles, and drills. You're also specifically the last remaining descendant of the Coltheart clan, a clan of summoners, people who summon creatures from other worlds (machine world Loreilal, Yokai world Silturn, spirit world Sapureth, beast world Maetropa)- these creatures are called as summon creatures.

Plot spoiler happens, and you basically have to seal a certain evil away from rampaging and destroying your village. At the very start, you encounter a stray summon creature- what you answer during this part will result in a different guardian beast to partner with you.

Some gameplay stuff;

The partner you chose at the start of the game cannot be changed. They have different skillsets and priorities from each other; the fire oni Loki focuses on attack and using flames, while the wind beast Arno focuses on agility and utilizing the wind. They all have the ability to enchant your weapon with the others' elements, but they can't learn each other's special moves.

The partner at the start also has different interactions with the player and the world around them; machine guardian beast Ex-e-LD is factual and logical, angel-devil guardian beast Dinah is abrasive and sarcastic, oni guardian beast Loki is hotheaded and reckless, and half-beast Arno is airheaded and peculiar.

Despite the title (and the first game being more centered around swords), you can choose to opt for other weapons. You start with a sword, and only two story elements require a sword; otherwise, you can shift to using the other four weapons in the game.

Weapons are highly customizeable; besides their appearance, you can alter their attacks and passive skills utilizing different ingredients.

The game is an RPG, with its overworld being similar to the likes of Pokemon, but the battle system isn't time based- its real-time combat. Additionally, there are random encounters outside the town and forts.

The world is small; there's no other civilizations explored outside your own town. There's a large forest, the caves, and the four forts it holds, plus some four areas you can instantly transport to, and the final dungeon. The four areas and the dungeon get bonus floors post-game, but that's about it.

Besides weapons, you can create accessories (not reflected on the character, sorry) for stat boosts, medicines, and other items, like a diary that lets you save anywhere, and an amulet that helps you repel encounters.

A fishing minigame is there so you can buy additional shapestones for weapons, as well as buy ingredients you could normally only obtain through story-bosses.

Sidequests that span over the course of ten days; there's quite a few, but the main ones I recall are talking to the merchant and his friends daily for rare ingredients, finding a lady's lost cat, and finding a child's missing items. There's also an NPC that trades you rare ingredients for medals you can find in the overworld.

After the end of every day, you get to spend time with one NPC; your guardian beast, or any of the characters you've met so far. Who you spend time with the most determines the ending you get.

Things I liked;

Fun gameplay! I liked exploring the world, gathering ingredients, and crafting all sorts of weapons. When the gameplay gets shaken up a bit, its also a fun time.

A lot of dialogue is honestly very fun, particularly between the player and their guardian beast; though a lot of characters' interactions with them are also nice.

Unlike the first game, areas can be revisited, and ingredients and materials can be gathered at any time, instead of being permanently missable content if you happen to break your weapon or misuse an item.

Depending on the guardian beast you pick and the weapon you choose to specialize with, the game either becomes very easy or difficult, so each run is at least a little different.

The main characters aren't silent, so they get to interact a lot with the cast. Additionally, Aera and Edgar (canon names of the MCs) are vastly different in terms of personality and interactions with their respective beasts, their family, and their friends, so they don't feel like the same character.

A lot of the things in game are actually progressive and handled decently; Arno is nonbinary (not explicitly stated, and though Arno uses he/him pronouns, he's not a boy or a girl- something he says himself), and Aera and Edgar's interactions with certain characters don't change even if they can be perceived in a romantic context.

There's no direct romance in the game regarding your character, so you can just.. imagine if its romantic, platonic, familial, etc. Qpr rep in my head. <3

Things to look out for;

Even though I just praised it, the game's handling of Aera's interactions with women (particularly the childhood friend's sister, Lynn) are.. less than stellar. Its the whole "but we're both girls" thing in some cases, but in other cases, its completely fine??? I haven't played as Edgar yet, so I'm not entirely sure if its the same case with his scenes with men..

A lot of very sexualized characters, dialogues, and scenes. Dinah in particular (her opening scene is her in a compromising pose) if you pick her as a guardian beast. Nina too, but she doesn't really get sexualized; she's just naked due to being a ghost, but is surrounded by bubbles. Lots and lots of suggestive scenes/dialogues spoken by Lynn to the player are. Yeah.

Unskippable fish plot which includes the last part. Without spoilers, some fish summon creature wants to be seduced. You can thankfully choose to refuse (though your guardian beast, regardless of who it is, tries it out for your honor). Again, sexualization of Lynn in particular in this scene.

Strange dialogue?? Not sure if its because of the localization, but there are strange.. dialogue choices. Or things said by the npcs. Just things that are so out of pocket and strange.

Depending on how you take it; the endings. Though the endings are not explicitly romantic, they end like a dating sim visual novel where the character you spent most time with is given a bust-shot of them smiling at the player. This includes the player's siblings, Orin and Tatiana.

Not really a big deal, but the beginning part of the game (before you get your guardian beast) just has rushed exposition and pacing and it seems jarring at first, trying to fit in the player's relationship with Ryoga, the childhood friend, how they were taken in by their master Blaire after their father's death, what your job entails, etc.

[thepenguinhbo]

@sunlian replied to your post “ooo! 3, 4 and 16 for frankie from intimate asks?...”:

plsssss i adore them

​they are very normal about each other while being fake married on a maggia espionage mission

[loopingpyre]

'Everyone' posts about Summon Night Swordcraft Story's lesbians, having no idea that the story is actually pretty good.

The main story is a tournament arc, with the main character wanting to win so they can join ranks with the 'craftlords', a respected blacksmith (with political power? don't worry about it), after their disappeared father, one of the last craftlords vanished. All of the competitors have their own summon creature to help them smith cool. Your summon creature is your father's, and you should also just sort of reset until you get Sugar.

You dive into a labyrinth below the city to search for materials to make weapons with, and fight the monsters, summon creatures (just like your partner), in a 2d action game system.

The town itself however is in crisis. The water levels are rising, and the labyrinth is really just lower levels of the city that have been flooded because everything is built on top.

This is part of another little story arc, where the history of the city and labyrinth tie into some political shenanigans, between the main kids fighting and make friends in a tournament.

[dirtreally]

playing through every fuckinggg vvideo game with gay bitches in it to try and salvage the last 2 weeks of my break. effortpost incoming

potionomics:

kind of insane how high effort the presentation is. the past ten years have been leading up to a kind of cultural dominance of Matte 3D (spiderverse, borderlands, arcane, and every work trying to cop the vibe of any of these three things) so even though this is literally the thing that Matte 3D was supposed to be a break from it still feels refreshing to see an incredibly high effort well-arted-out Shiny 3D thing that splits the difference between "looks like anime" and "looks like a western thingy tryna be anime" really well. of course with shit like The Super Dope And Viral Digital Circus becoming skibidi level popular i can only assume that we're gonna get ten years of Shiny 3D coming up and the ouroboros devours its own tail but right now it still feels fresh in the moment

that being said mannnnnnnnnnn fuck all the stupid ass characters in this game. the writing in this game has the unenviable task of like. trying to sound Whoalsome (cuz it has to market itself that way) while being not as annoying as like when cartoons and games and shit do le quirky dialogue (cuz if you do that now people yell at you on twitter) and for the most part it succeeds but it kind of doesnt matter when every single fuckinggggggg social link conversation is about like your adventurer friend telling you how they feel imposter syndrome about being in a fantasy rpg guild before asking you Okay But Really Though How Can I Contribute To Woke Capitalism While Prompting Reform As A Budding Small Business Owner In Dragontown❓ Awful. you can be gay and have one of several epic girlfriends in this but even after all that they only talk about how they are choosing to work with small clients with their marketing firm (not a joke) fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc kkkkkk. they dont even show up when you win the fucking potionomics tournament so who cares.

half the steam reviews are bitching about the day limit thing which is fucking insane to me. the game is extremely generous with your time and the day limit at least sets your ass on fire a little bit which is the only uncomplicated positive emotion thsi game gave me. you might fuck up the first 10-day cycle once or twice but if you can clear that you can do the whole game. i maxed out all the social links and ccleared everything and It Was Fine. also there's a really scary egyptian stereotype character.

summon night swordcraft story:

i played this shit because i saw hazel talk about it being surprisingly gay ina video then i play it and if you do the personality quiz at the start of the game good your summonable creature is just straight up a woman who wants to fuck you. so then i watch the hazel video again and she didnt even get or mention that character. crazy.

anyway the summonable woman thing is kind of fucking epic especially with how played straight it is b ut also really funny to think about. every single other character summons like a cute stage 1 digimon type creature to help them out in battle and the creatures all fuck off when they're not fighting but your thing is a human woman with her tits out who just walks around with you all the time who wants you to fuck her (ESPECIALLY IF YOURE A WOMAN!!!!!!) all the time. i want to imagine that all the other ccharacters are like either incredibly mad or uncomfortable about this but just choose not to say anything about it.

i played this shit on a gba emulator on my phone while chilling on my bed and straight up if i got a steam deck and could play video games on my bed or while lying down it would bef ucking over for me. i would never get up. i think at this point its kind of essential for me that video games require the suck ass task of sitting on an ikea chair to be able to be played. either way its incredibly mechanically and textually light so its kind of perefect to be played while dicking around On Da Phone. the story is extremely standard jrpg but it is a little sweet that for the protagonist, becoming stronger is directly conflated with becoming kinder to other people and learning more about her world. again not the craziest thing in the world but its sweet

apparently da sequel is also gay but i kind of cannot be bothered to wwant to play it because the protag isn't as sauced up as this fucking girl. complete perfect harmony of artstyle and character design and the gba making all the art crunchy

ITS FUCKING PRATTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i usually do the thing of naming every rpg protag with my name whenever i play these things b ut this bitch has so much personality just thru her portrait and vibes alone that i stuck w the default name. idk i am extremely charmed by her shapes

crymachina

this shit looks soooo fucking good what the fuckkkkkk. i posted before about how it looks like the renders they used to have on the boxes of graphics cards but it really is Like That. most of it is still filtered through the lens of extremely NIS-america/JAST japanese enthusiast B-game jank but still. the prerendered cutscenes in this are straight up my favourite part of the game they are straight up gorgeous. god tier anime girl 3d artism

the aesthetic and story are both kind of insane hi-concept sci-fi bullshit to the point where i kind of have to salute it no matter what just for swinging that hard and high. extremely weird pacing and it feels like it got truncated at some point and a bunch of the stuff that was meant to be in the game got put inside some of the stupid ass nier-weapon-story-type things this game has. for the record i hate when any video game does thiis cuz eevery single weapon story is like. okay i spent 10 minutes looking for it but there's a meme with a nier weapon story screen and its like

Weapon story 1:

Girl:I am having heart surgery

Boy: I know... I love you

Weapon story 2:

After surgery when the girl woke up, with only her father next to her

Weapon Story 3:

Girl: Where is he???

Weapon story 4:

Father: who do you think gave you the heart?????

it's completely fucking insane to me that people will make fun of fallout skeletons and skyrim journals and shit like that as if this isn't on the exact same level

anyway its pretty good and like. blatantly about being a gay bitch on e very thematic level its kind of crazy. really fun game to think about. i don't like one of the artistic decisions made regarding one of the late-game twists but whatever. The way you unlock the final ending is one of the most fun ways to do it ive ever seen and i was incredibly pleased when i figured it out. the gameplay in every other aspect is extremely perfunctory but the way you unlock the final ending is kidn of just incredibly pog-worthy in a way that you can't really feel if you just watch a video or read a description of it, especially if you figure it out yourself.

THATTTTTTTTTTT BEING SAIDDDDDDDDDDDDD i think the ending is just Fine. I think i have a built in brain immunity or something to like. specifically sci fi video games cuz i saw this had the same thing as nier automata where a lot of people were going on about Auuuuuuu Fuckkkk I Cried At The Endddd So Crazyyyy but when i hit the final end i was just like Hruh That's It??? and spent like 10 minutes making sure if that was the final final for realsies ending. idunno man.

but also overall i still really liked this game and i still think it is extremely bold for what it does so if youve read this far and have 60-ish dollars to throw around you should absolutely buy it at its stupid ass japanesegameonsteam price cuz i wanna see more crap in the Cry_____ vein (crymachina was made after crystar which like. shares loose Vibe Associations but as far as i can tell is otherwise completely unrelated) and just more games that make as many crazy ass aesthetic decisions as this one. either way im definitely gonna keep an eye on what furyu puts out after this

ok thats it. im gonna try mary skelter 2 now hopefully i dont die

[characteroulette]

This has been sitting in my drafts and I want it out.

Video game music recc list part 1 (because too many good games too many good osts)

//

Summon Night Swordcraft Story --

Sword & Water Capital

Let's Make It!

Dark Cloud (the whole ost actually but these ones in particular) --

Main Theme

The Ceremony

Owl Forest

Queens

A Sinking Ship

Duel

Departure

Ocean and Moon

The Corridor of Time

Dark Cloud 2 / Dark Chronicle --

Carnival Night

Moonlight Tango

Palm Brinks

Veniccio

Gundor Volcano Grotto

Gundorada Workshop

Spiral of Dreams

Professor Layton series --

Layton's Theme

Puzzle Battle (Unwound / Lost Future)

The Unwound / Lost Future

The Spectre's Flute Theme

Rumble! (Last Spectre)

Puzzles 6 ~ Deduction (Last Spectre)

Town of Mist ~ Misthallery Night (Last Spectre)

Night in the Woods --

Astral Train

Astral Coal Town

Die Anywhere Else

Weird Autumn

Pumpkin Head Guy

Astral Fish

Rainy Day

Space Dragon

Just take the whole Lufia: The Legend Returns ost. Good Game Boy beep boops.

Actually take the whole Secret of Mana ost as well. Absolutely stacked ost.

(As a note, all of these games have great full osts, I just picked out a few of my faves where I could!)

[midnightclover]

what's summon night swordcraft story? :o

love how everyone wants to learn more about swordcraft story once they learn its hella gay. i mean. same. thats why i played it

summon night: swordcraft story is an rpg (not turnbased) series for the gba and a spinoff of summon night. though i know jack shit about summon night lol.

swordcraft story (1) is about being a Craftknight, basically a blacksmith that fights with weapons they've forged. you compete in a tournament to become a Craftlord (basically an extra cool Craftknight) and explore labyrinths and fight monsters for materials.

you also get a summon creature to act as your Guardian Beast, basically theyll help you with forging and do magic stuff in battle! and one of them just so happens to be super gay if you pick the female protag. like its so blatent. she literally kisses the protag. the protag does a bit of no homo stuff but its still very gay, and she warms up to her. she (the protag) even just randomly calls some other girls pretty.

the story, characters, and writing are all pretty good too! though i dont want to say too much about them for like spoilers. especially dont want to spoil the jokes, theyre fantastic.

the combat's pretty fun too! kinda like kh chain of memories if you removed the card shit? also you can equip 3 different weapons in combat to switch between at will, so you can have something to take down whatever enemy's in your way, as well as calling in your guardian beast for spells n shit. btw there are only like 5 main weapon types, but theyre so different and the individual weapons can be kinda different so its still pretty nice. you can even make some fancy enchanted weapons

uhh so yeah. games pretty damn good! its got a couple flaws but it was so fun i couldnt stop playing it (and was thinking about replaying it the whole time. its that damn good)

[aokozaki]

The protagonist of Summon Knight: Swordcraft Story has a different default name depending on if you pick the male or female protagonist, and because they also keep a lot of the romantic subtext between the protagonist and several female characters, Pratty ends up coming across as a very poorly closeted lesbian.

Like beyond the stuff with Sugar (one of four possible partner characters you can get) Pratty at one point tries to show off in front of her main rival character (a girl) by claiming that, pffft, yeah, of course she's kissed girls before, plenty of times.

It's transparently a lie, but girl, why are you trying to tell that lie in particular? 🤨🏳️‍🌈?

[clownkiwi]

ok you guys get one day to vote for this. which game should i play next since i finished chrono trigger

[scottapez]

ok so apparently i like hallucinated or drempt this or something but i vividly remember seeing a figure of

HER. pratty from summon night swordcraft story. i was about to give into the demons and see how much she was online BUT I CANT FIND IT ANYWHERE? like even pictures of it? i think her pose was literally one of these ^poses of official art too. am i crazy or something or does anyone else recognize what im talking about

[satoshi-mochida]

Some thoughts and details on my last Gamefly rental, Maglam Lord(Switch Version).

The Bladelord Killrizark(whose gender can be chosen at the start) is attacked and severely weakened by a union of Gods and Demons uniting together against them, branding them a Hazardes, a threat to the whole world. They aren’t killed, however, and are saved and eventually revived by Balga, the Demon Lord of Iron, and his grandkid Satyus. They’ve been out of commission for some time, however, and their power has been greatly weakened, as well as losing their memory.

Soon after, a member of the Administration, Mamie, arrives, and informs Killrizark that they’re the last of the Demon Lords, and considered an Endangered Species. 

Going into town, Killrizark meets a young girl named Lryica who isn’t scared of them at all, and is excited to meet the last Demon Lord, even giving them some food. Soon after, however, monsters called Mutabeasts attack the town, Killrizark deciding to fight them off after seeing Lryica is in danger. They find that they gain some of their power back from absorbing the defeated Mutabeasts.

Killrizark finds out however that using their own power also drains what they have left, so Satyus gets the idea to hire people from the Administration to wield them as a Maglam weapon. The ones sent, however, are two Heroes, Charme and her brother Darius, instigating conflict in the group(mostly from Darius), though they eventually reach a truce.

Satyus’ home serves as the group’s base of sorts. Here, you select everything there is to do in the game, though not everything is available right away.

Each character has Skills they can learn. Some are attack Skills used with X, and others are passive. I think you get Skill Points from leveling up.

You can equip 3 ‘Maglam’ weapons at once, which are all Swords, Axes and Spears, and are made from using materials to forge them at the Maglam Forge. You can also put decorations on them to raise stats and give them effects such as causing status effects and doing or doing more/taking less damage. Sometimes when forging a Maglam, a Partner will jump in and help, which raises the Rank of it. Higher Affection is what probably affects this.

The game’s shop is mostly like other RPGs, but a unique part of it is the ‘Happiness Tax’ section, where you trade in materials for items/equipment. Getting items this way makes Mamie’s like you more. I think I get why the name is what it is, but that may be a spoiler.

Requests are the main way of getting money, materials and progressing the story. Most can be repeated for grinding/farming, though story ones and ones related to events with other characters aren’t. With a couple later exceptions, they are all either ‘Collect X amount of Y’ or ‘Defeat X amount of Y’, which can get repetitive/monotonous, though some have an optional bonus condition of beating a stronger enemy somewhere for an extra reward(usually a lot of money).

The fields are in 3D, with enemies wandering around and items to be picked up(shown as a white sparkle), with exits to new sections indicated by green markers. Some sections will have a red Safe Zone portal that you can heal, save, change Partners, use the Maglam Forge and shop at.

Battles are done in 2D(think like the much older Tales of or the Summon Night: Swordcraft Story games), with the player able to move left and right until hitting the end of the screen(running against the corners will let you run away). Items dropped by enemies are automatically picked up.

Actions on the field/in battle are:

Attacks are done with Y. Attacking repeatedly and using different directions does combos/different attacks, respectively, both on ground and in the air, and you can hold then release Y for a charged attack. You can attack enemies on the field before fights as well, and hitting them in the back gives you an advantage(possibly; it seems a bit finicky). Your strike range is very short, though.

Pressing the Right Stick when the meter is full has Killrizark take control in a powered up form until the meter runs back out.

Switch Maglam weapons with Left/Right on the D-Pad

Jumping is B(in battles, you can double jump)

Guard is L(battle only)

Dashing is R(ground only; hold to run faster outside of battle)

X is a character’s Skills. Holding X stops the action and brings up a list of the available Skills you can set and use.

ZL is a Skill unique to each Partner. Using this button on the Field will bring up a prompt asking if you want to abandon the current Request(if possible)

A is to use Items. Holding A stops the action and brings up a list of the useable items you can set to use. If you stand idle for a few seconds, Killrizark will pop out and you can use A to talk to them.

Interact with items on the field with Y(make sure to remember that and not assume it’s A, aside from the one situation above, making you waste a bunch of items by accident like I did). 

- Button brings up the map and + Button brings up the menu/pauses the game(out and in battle, respectively).

A bit into the game, Killrizark meets ‘Love Guru ‘G.G.’ who tells him about love and dating. Once Partners start joining, Killrizark will decide to try and date one of them(plus Mamie) since they need an heir as the last Demon Lord. How this system works is that each Partner has an Affection meter that can be seen when visiting the Love Guru, shown by the amount of Hearts next to their name(any Partner can be dated by Killrizark regardless of gender),and once it gets high enough, you can go on dates with them. The Date events have Killrizark and whoever you pick going to, or rather being teleported to, various date locations for them, and having you pick dialogue choices. 

A good number of these are full events with voice acting, but some in-between those are very short events that are just ‘pick location->they liked or didn’t like it->certain amount of Affection is gained’. You’ll be able to pick all of those locations if you keep raising Affection and doing the Dates, though.

There are six characters to date, though only 5 are playable:

Darius

Charme

M.O.A.V.

Julette

Acklao

Mamie(not playable)

The ways to raise Affection aside from the Dates are:

Take your Partners into battle

Use certain healing food items that show a character’s face on them while out on a Request(each character has their own favorite foods, even KIllizark, who likes sweet stuff)

Pick dialogue options that favor them/show their face next to it.

Buy Items from the ‘Happiness Tax’ part of the shop(only way to raise Mamie’s aside from Dates with her)

The deciding moment on who KIllizark will get an ending with is near the very end of the game at the Request ‘The Big Date’. Also, if you want, during this, you can pick to just ‘have a strong bond’ with whoever you selected instead of it being romantic. Or pick no one at all. The character’s ending will be shown after the credits. For Mamie’s ending, though, there’ll be a choice before the final boss that only appears if you did all of her Dates and maxed out her Affection, which will also override whoever you picked previously.

Though you can’t get an ending with them, there seems to be an event with Satyus you can miss easily. I think you need to pick choices that favor them to see it, though I’m not 100% sure, myself; their event might have been the last of the CGs I missed.

Also like in the Tales of games, the playable characters can earn Titles. They’ll have different effects such as raising stats, doing more damage to specific enemy types, and more.

There are other Endangered Species you can find in the Field stages(seems they can’t be missed, so they can be found while repeating Requests). Finding them gives you more items you can buy or new Requests. They’re indicated by a flashing red light on the Fields, but they’re still hidden pretty well, so I had to use a guide to find them. The main characters, aside from Mamie, are considered Endangered Species, too, for different reasons, so they’re listed there, too.

Of the characters, I liked pretty much everyone, with them all getting some nice development, though Julette’s voice could unfortunately get crating at times. 

The game is, in a way, a spiritual successor to the Summon Night games, with the Dating and weapon crafting aspects, as well as staff from them, and the battle gameplay done similarly to the same style as the Swordcraft Story spinoff games.

If you want to see more background lore for the game’s world, you can look at Satyus’ Notes under ‘Teach Me, Satyus!’ in the base menu. There’s a lot here, and more gets added as the game goes on. The best time to read through it would be before the final battle.

While there is a NG+, sort of, nothing actually carries over, unfortunately. You do get some bonuses, such as more starting money and Affection rising faster, but that’s about it. Not even already seen CGs.

The game’s character artist, lack, is on here, if you want to check out their work.

An amusing text error I saw a few times was the words ‘café’ and ‘naïve’ being shown as ‘caf?/na?ve’. I guess it can’t figure out how to properly show accented letters? ^^;

I was a bit lukewarm towards the game at first, but it grew on me more as it went on, met more of the characters, and got better at the game. The story was good and the characters got well done character development. I think it’s probably best worth getting when it goes on a sale.

Next game being sent is: Super Mario Odyssey.

[purenguyening]

N A O L I C E + Q T

This one will definitely be long, eheh..

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Bellow mostly applies to Touhou Project:

More character analysis based on how they appear in the games. It doesn't happen often but I think talk centered round how Touhou characters express themselves through spell cards can add a lot of depth that doesn't come through in fanworks.

More fanworks that draw from their historical inspiration (this limits to a small cast of characters but I feel like Historical Touhou is very rare...I also understand why this doesn't happen much mostly due to high barrier of entry and in general requiring more work.)

Also a huge fan and will always welcome Touhou designs that pull from the artist's nationality. It's a fun twist and I'm always impressed when they incorporate design elements from the original outfit into the clothes.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Sakuro and Cleru during my Summon Knight: Swordcraft Story playthrough made me laugh a lot. Sakuro is a very, very silly Craftlord. They have a very similar dynamic to Steven and Brendan's relationship from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (though I feel like Emerlad is probably the better fit to their dynamic).

There's a few others but Giyuu/Tanjirou and Sabito/Tanjirou are on my mind because of [this fanart]

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Alright, I had to have Youtube randomly shuffle my Summer Recap but it pulled up Fifty Fifty's Cupid and it just reminds me of Devil Survivor as a whole for the sole reason I read all eight volumes while listening to this song on loop at 1.25x speed. It's really funny of all the songs I put on loop throughout the summer, it happened to pick one I actually have some association with a fandom....

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Major spoilers for Swordcraft Story: I really like Ureksa a lot as a character, he's portrayed in a pretty sympathetic manner and I think how he patches things up with Cleru/Pratty is really refreshing. While I don't love the suicide bait and switch, it really does feel clear to me even if he made some pretty bad decisions, I do think he's a kind person at heart. He's a very prickly person, but I think it makes sense from his design (a lot of spear specialists tend to not be very direct, which makes sense for their fighting style, the game specifically sets up spear users to fight at a range).

Now that I think about it, Matsuoka Rin (Free!), is also someone I warmed to eventually because I liked seeing him be a mentor to Aiichirou and Momotaro. I think that's part of his character design though...

As an aside, it is possible to send me this prompt multiple times since there's very few characters I actively hate and I always have something tucked away in the back of my mind. Most of the time is me wanting to comment their role in the story, but I think that can be read as me recognizing their purpose....

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Not tumblr, but on Twitter, I do think it's really easy to lose interest in fandom because it's very easy to fall into negative spirals. There is a general shift in fandom overall that made me feel the need to keep my interests separate with side blogs and I tend to be more active through a very closed off account on Twitter.

Maybe one day I'll be courageous and blog about my interests from my one main blog, but that's still an option off the table for now.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Toyosatomimi no Miko/Soga no Tojiko the popular fandom portrayal just gets on my nerves and I find it really annoying when sometimes posts still appear because the ship name is not mentioned anywhere in the tweet. I do have a specific portrayal but I'm hesitant to say if's romantic, but i do think their dynamic is interesting, I just can't bring myself to think of it as romantic.

This might be more closer to me complaining I wish I had post block on Twitter/Tumblr Mobile.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

I think a long time ago I made a joke about how the fanon portrayal of Shinichi drinking coffee is a subtle way for him to drive away people bugging him. (Caffiene is a natural insecticide, hence the word play). Truth be told I'm not 100% sure now if that was the inspiration for this post I made...

I think maybe you can still find it in the KaiShin discord, but I felt like there's a lot of innuendo to be had knowing Toichi and Yuusaku having a back and forth with just a question mark and exclamation point. (The symbol that combines both the question mark and exclamation point is called an interrobang and it looks like this: ‽)

I don't think either of them spawned too much in the fandom, but I realize my sort of humor needs like a short essay just to explain the context and this is probably why I don't really share my more cracky/insane interpretations....

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I think the only true fandom I've completely abandoned is Harry Potter? Aside from the obvious reasons, I've learned I still do really love the concept of magic, but I would rather have it manifest itself in different ways. I love fantasy and magic, but I think I end up preferring it to be a back drop or the setting rather than the primary focus. I guess it's more closer to, I like it more as an aesthetic, but dislike it when it becomes the center focus.

Even more controversial fandoms I never can quite fully bring myself to fully abandon (the one that mainly comes to mind is Hetalia). A lot of other fandoms that are less contentious I tend to just cast aside for a while but after a few years I end up picking it back up again for one reason or another.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

Listen, I know it's basically confirmed now that Futo killed Tojiko as of Strange Creators of Outer World, I still refuse to believe Futo actually did it. The closest thing I'll compromise on is Futo's definition of killing Tojiko is "she was not present to stop the murder." That's about it.

I'm basically a Futo apologist and I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

[owlixx]

GBA Wishlist

Okay so I’m thinking about picking up a GBA so I can play those games on a real console instead of emulated. I had a silver and then a blue GBA SP as a kid. I’m torn between a modded original GBA or an SP, especially the triforce design. Anyways, I wanted to list some games I’d actually play on a GBA and figured I might as well post it online to look back on later, not sure if the notes will even make sense to anyone but me. Feel free to add recommendations. Also I had so much fun making this list that I’m thinking about going through and doing a similar list for the DS, 3DS, GameCube (on my WiiU), Wii (on my Wii U), Wii U, PS3, PS1 (on my PS3 or Vita), Vita, PSP (on my Vita) since those are the consoles I can currently play on original (or close enough) hardware.

Big hitters:

* Advance wars - 1 and 2, never really tucked into them past the tutorial before and having a real GBA would really force me to take them nice and slow.

* Fire emblem - multiple, I could even grab a fan tran of FE6

* Drill dozer - doubt I’d have rumble on a flash cart but this would have a lot more charm on a physical gba

* Pokémon mystery dungeon - again, I think I’d have more patience with this slow game on a real gba

* Chain of memories - been meaning to play this anyways

* FF5-6 patched - fan patched because of the audio, but I think these have exclusive content on a GBA vs snes/ps1 and I wanna play these games on a non-modern screen

* FF Tactics Advance - again, just feels more charming on a small screen

* MM battle network - been meaning to play these anyways

* NES Classics - not the best way to play these games, but kind of a novelty

* Super Mario advance 1-4 - would be so funny to play the Wii U rom of SMA4, but also I grew up with that game

* Kuru Kuru Kururin - always one I use to test a new emulator setup, easy fun

* Tony Hawk - had a recent Tony Hawk phase, these ones are supposed to be good

* Doom - novelty

* Game and watch gallery 4 - great for testing/pick up and play

* F zero/Mario kart - again, very pick up and play

* Mario golf advance tour - loved the gba Mario tennis and I should play this one too

* Wario Land 4 - had a wario land phase recently and stopped mid-3

* Golden Sun - I did actually do the first hour or so on Wii U but this game belongs on handheld

* Warioware - the definition of pick up and play

* Minish Cap - I feel like this game is good enough to be worth playing removed from the original console so it’s doubly worth playing on a real one

* Mother 3 - Cmon, this one is a gimme. Playing the fan Tran on a real GBA would be such an own on Nintendo

Lesser:

* Swordcraft Story - started this on vita, pretty cute

* Banjo Kazooie/Pilot - because I played nuts and bolts as a kid

* Bit generations - don’t have the ROM’s currently but I love a simple game

* Boktai - patched for the sensor but cmon it’s Hideo

* Bomberman - they made so many of these for GBA

* Bookworm - I’m a simple man

* Car battler joe - I always see this mentioned

* Starfy - fan trans

* Various SNES ports (DKC) - I had DKC as a kid but also there’s sooo many snes ports

* Dr Mario & Puzzle League - pick up and play

* Yugioh - I had one as a kid and got into these recently

* GTA - I think this one is a GTA3 prequel?

* Various fighting games (MK, GG, Tekken, SF) - novelty

* Jet grind radio - even if just for the music

* Finding Nemo - had as kid

* Lady Sia - seen on lists

* Sabrewulf - rare! And seen on lists

* That one xcom game (rebelstar) - I mean, I do like xcom

* LttP - never played it, I should look up version differences first

* Lego Star Wars - had as kid

* Return of the king - seen on lists, seems better than it should be

* Magical vacation - fan Tran, from Hazel’s video

* Pac-Man - various here, pick up and play

* Polarium - polarium DS is cute

* Puyo - pick up and play

* Zone of the Enders - I’ve been meaning to play this and the 2 main games

* Denki blocks - cute puzzle game

* Gunstar super heroes - kind of a shmup, I stan treasure honestly

* Sword of mana - I think this is a remake of the first game? So it’s safe to start here?

* Sigma star saga - read about this in Nintendo power as a kid, seems like a shmup rpg hybrid

* Hamtaro - nobody will shut up about how good this game is for some reason

* Pinball of the dead - seen this one praised a few times

* Chu chu rocket - I wasn’t convinced until I saw that it had 2500 user created levels

* Tactics Ogre - surprised to see this so high on metacritic when I didn’t know it existed before

* Ninja Five O - no one will shut up about this game

* Various racing games

* Asterisk and obelisk XL - impressively 3D

* Harvest moon - maybe the tiny screen will finally convince me to have the patience to farm

* Activision Anthology - again, just for the novelty

Replay:

* 3 Castlevanias - only actually beat Aria

* Mega Man Zero - hard, maybe too hard

* Sonic Advance 1-3 - had 3 as kid, love these

* Kirby - didn’t beat amazing mirror, wouldn’t mind trying to 100% nightmare

* Metroid Zero Mission/Fusion - classics. Perfection.

* Pokémon RSE/FRLG - always due for a replay

* Pokémon pinball - my go to testing game

* Mario tennis power tour - never did beat hard mode. And it’s been a while

* Mario Vs donkey kong - played as kid

* Klonoa - very pick up and play

[epicfranb]

[for the ask gameee] 9 , 26 , 29 maybe o3o??

9 i already answered but here's proof of how boring i am

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

i don't know if there's something like that? (ﾟωﾟ；) i looked through all my drawings and the one thing is maybe my origins ranboo comics which got really popular and might've gotten misinterpreted at some point ^^;

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

mmm the only things i draw are the ones im obsessed about but i do watch and play and read other stuff! im playing summon night: swordcraft story rn and i started drawing the main character buuut i kind of don't wanna finish it ,, i just feel like the original style is waaaaay too cute and i can't give it justice ^^; i also really love hunter x hunter but i haven't drawn anything about it even once :'3

[loopingpyre]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 has a bunch of QoL features in the vein of an improved combat system, more interesting forging mechanics, FISHING MINIGAME but it falls flat on how it presents it's narrative thus far.

The first game revolved around a tournament arc to decide the next 'craftlord', with this featuring as a backburner plot whilst you met different rivals and another plot unrolled itself out behind the scenes. This also meant the cast always felt like they were doing something.

2's cast is far less interesting thus far, as each character just exists. Lynn could be interesting, Osin was given a fun moment in a duel, Blaine is a fun character, but they're all so minor as new members join the scene.

The most damning evidence is I played both of these games to 100% completion as a kid and I could tell you everything about the first one as I played it.

And I forgot everything sbout the sequel. Just entirely.