#theres also a different mobile game i havent played!

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

So, life update:

(a casual one no worries)

My best friend has been into Ni No Kuni for a long time and I was supportive obviously cuz it looked great. Well, I finally had an opportunity to properly give the series a try when i discovered the mobile name Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds and… I love it!

So I’m playing this game and I love it, right? Well, it’s an MMORPG meaning maintenance occurs frequently. It’s the morning after the day i discovered and played the game for like 16 hours and BAM it’s an entire day of maintence on my server.

So I’m all bummed about it but willing to find other things to do. Then, I realize maybe the game- since its mobile -is available on my switch, too! It’s still account based so I couldn’t play, but at least I’d own it there too, right? GUESS WHAT I FIND‽

For the price of 30$ plus tax I can own both Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch and Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant’s Kingdom which typically sell for the price of 110$ plus tax. ONE HUNDRED TEN DOLLARS DOWN TO THIRTY. Obviously, I coordinate with my dad (holder of my money, voluntary) and I get both.

Now I’ve been playing through ALL THREE games and I love them! The world, the stories, the characters, and gameplay all keep me so entertained and make me happy. I finally know some of what my best friend feels when she’s fixated on it now. I’m so grateful.

[hellspawnmotel]

What’s going on in project sekai. You make it looks so interesting!

oh uhhhh well. before you get your hopes up some of the stuff i drew is just edgy aus i made with a friend theres no blood or magical girl stuff its mostly just teenager drama. but anyway heres the deal

(disclaimer it is a mobile gacha game and those are predatory and addictive etc so yknow uh. use caution. imo though its extremely playable without having to pay any extra money)

project sekai/colorful stage is a vocaloid rhythm game where you unlock visual novel style stories about five different teen music groups who work through various problems and issues.... and also hatsune miku and her friends are there to mentor them. its got tons of vocaloid songs to play through, most with covers by the voice actors of the cast if you so choose, as well as a lot of songs made for the game, and even if you dont read the story stuff its just a really fun rhythm game. i play it basically every day lol

the groups are as follows:

-leo/need is four estranged childhood friends who desperately want to be together again but have to work through their highschool drama first, through starting a rock band

-(i havent actually read through more more jump or vivid bad squad so i cant give a good summary but theyre an idol group and street musicians respectively)

-wonderlandsxshowtime is a ragtag little group of clowns attempting to revive an old themepark stage and become famous as a theater troupe, with lots of goofs and hijinks

(suicide tw incoming)

-nightcord at 25:00 is my favorite group and the one ive done the most art for, theyre the only ones who are already an established band at the beginning of their story and theyre actually doing pretty well in terms of making music and gaining popularity, the issue is theyre all suicidal and have massive psychological problems. the main story focuses mostly on when one of the girls decides to, yknow, "disappear", and the others have to come together to try and save her. as you can probably tell theyre the group with the darkest story by far but also the best in my opinion. theyre so fucked up and i love them. also one of the members is (canonically) transfem nb so thats cool

so if any of that sounds interesting, give it a shot i guess?? i feel weird encouraging my follower base to play a gacha game lol so just be mindful. i started playing it just bc its a vocaloid rhythm game and im not good at project diva and i didnt really expect to get invested in the new characters but here i am. its also introduced me to a lot of voca songs i didnt know before which is always a plus!

[dnp-dreams]

DnP rhythm mobile game!!!? 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 this is gonna be long and detailed.

if anyone is familiar, it was similar to those kpop rhythm games where you can gacha the idols from different eras + japanese idol games UI.

PHACHA: the gacha for the cards + PHUDIO items. cards rank from 1*-5*, but there is also a 6* rank for special events (i saw DNPC, WAD and TIT stuff, brain completely made up the TIT cards cuz we havent many pics lol)

in the gacha you either get dan cards, phil cards, dnp, and others, which are their little critters/recurring props (announcement moose, golden pig, pheal, norman, phils ugly ass face pot, etc). i think in my dream i pulled a 4* phil card from one of the vacation pics.

PHALLERY: where your gacha cards are stored. it had real pictures of the two, screenshots from their vids of items, some chibi artwork, and queenusagi's art. you can view your cards in HD, level them up, read their stories, and there are little descriptions for each of em.

PHORE (store): exchange real currencies into the game currencies. theres a money system called DnPCoins or smth (sounds like a bitcoin...), and also some sort of gems. to level up your cards, you "feed" them with food items. the items have a ranking system too: huge xp are heavy/special foods like mukbang pizzas and slut toast, mid xp is like normal toast or cereal, and small xp are treats like marshmallows and cola gummies. YOU CANNOT FEED ANY PHIL CARDS CHEESE OR DAN CARDS LICORICE! they will lose xp!

PHORE (lore): dan and phil "lore", but a bit dumbed down because... duh. unfortunately i didn't get to explore this one thay much but its just stories of them, real and made up, in the style of a visual novel with phanart as sprites!

PHUDIO (studio): a feature where chibi DnP "create" their music in a room you can customize with items you collect from playing the game/gacha (i made mine look like their gaming set up with a butt chair and like 5 huge pheals in the bg). the chibis also move around and would interract with the items/eachother.

PHLAY: it had all of their tour music, the little songs theyve made (like i think the tutorial song was the ladders song), and the main catalogue was dnpbeats. it had a huge banner in the home screen that announced there was a summer event going on and any songs you play from the summer DnPB album gives you double xp.

PHRIENDS: this tab was locked for me, no idea what this was. im guessing its to become friends with other players.

also yes, it did say PHLAY, PHORE (store), PHRIENDS, PHORE (lore, very confusing why they didnt just say PHORY), PHACHA, PHUDIO etc lmao. i may have been gaming a bit too much while having dnp in the background....

-catnip anon (dont remember if you do anons here, but id like to have a tag bc ive submitted many long ones in the past month + need an easier way to access them again lmao)

this is so detailed i love it

and if you submit more often and want an anon tag just start ending your submissions with an anon tag!

[sockiestupidity]

random ahh questions i have about call of duty bc theyve been rotting in my brain

like im so confused bc ive seen gameplay where u kill other players but then theres also a story line???? and npcs (and ofc the whole thing with graves and stff)???? are there like... options??? or like are there different versions of the game?? bc i hear all this talk of the cod lobby and whatnot but i have yet to see it??? ive only seen like...the storyline version. is cod mobile the version where u play with other ppl????

i feel like watching cod gameplay (w/o commentary bc i havent found a good cod channel thats entertaining and funny) has sorta helped a bit but im still confused

none of this makes sense but thats bc my brain is just built diff😞

[planetamarte]

(anon who talked about dragonball from a couple days ago) yoo i didnt expect someone w a sonic background would resonate so much with early dragonball..!! but admittedly i dont know much about sonic, outside of like . snapscube, wayneradio, general common knowledge, etc. i couldnt find if someone asked this before erm but do you have any recommendations or favorites in the sonic franchise? i have always wanted to get into it + its like cultural exchange :) lmao

YEAHHH im liking it so far! if u dont know about it yet then once you learn the lore about the chaos emeralds specifically you'll see what i mean by the amount of inspiration sonic takes from dragonball LOLLL

my #1 recs for sonic will always be the games - for the majority of the series, sonic isnt really the type of thing where you absolutely Have to start from the beginning to understand its stories so u can just start anywhere! my personal favorites are both of the adventure games (especially 2), frontiers, generations and unleashed. the adventure series were the first 3d sonic games and where story started being more upfront. frontiers is the most recent and its story actually builds up on the chaos emerald lore in a way they hadnt done in decades. (this one has 2 prologues! the knuckles animation, divergence, and the comic tie-in, convergence.) generations is the one getting a remaster + new story content with shadow this october BUT the original game's story is very light and it's basically just a real nice glorified collection of levels from past games. i havent actually played unleashed since i was a kid (i might again soon) but this is the one with werehog sonic. its story is one of my favorites :)

im not much of a classic/2d player but i had fun with mania! origins is a collection of the classics that i havent played but ive heard it's pretty good and has a mechanic that makes losing lives less punishing than the originals. sonic 1, 2 and cd also have free mobile ports. the murder of sonic the hedgehog is also free on steam, it's a cute and casual little murder mystery visual novel and a real nice introduction to the cast of secondary characters!

(honorary mention goes to fangame dr. robotnik's ring racers, it's a pretty hard kart racer with a bunch of mechanics to memorize but is real fun once you get the hang of it and the tutorial has real cute interactions between eggman and tails. modding characters into this game is pretty easy and ive been working on putting in an oc of mine lol. this game is a sequel to sonic robo blast 2 kart, which is a mod for 1998(!) fangame sonic robo blast 2. another one i like is sonic and the fallen star, a 2d/classic style fangame with a cute artstyle and i know it has a sequel in the works!)

outside of games theres the idw comics! these take place after forces (the game before frontiers) but i think they establish an understanding of prior events pretty well that, again, u wouldn't Need to know everything before reading them. the archie comics are a beast i havent personally touched much of, they ran from 1993-2017 so theres a lot to them LOL

out of all the sonic shows and movies, sonic boom, the sonic ova (also known as the OG sonic movie) and sonic x are my favorites. all of these have super different takes on the world sonic lives in - boom is a silly little sitcom series w really funny meta humor, the ova is a 1996 pilot for an anime series that never happened, and sonic x is an anime series that DID happen where sonic is actually from a different world and gets isekaied to earth. (i recommend jp with subs for this one)

I THINK THATS IT...... i could keep going and be here all day but i will leave it here. theres way more stuff u naturally find getting into the series! the thing i like most about sonic is that i personally think theres something in the franchise for everyone. i hope all this info isnt too intimidating cause truly u can take this series at ur own pace. i hope u have fun anon ^__^

[mushroom-winners-proof]

seeing people reblog my posts and then put every last one of my tags in their rb’s tags is very quickly becoming a lesson in me needing to shut the fuck up sometimes

[glamoplasm]

hii your kingdom hearts posting is getting to me is kingdom hearts any good?? idk anything abt it other than theres disney characters, keyblades, theres a lot of games and you play them in a weird order, and my friend cloud strife is there. the disney characters are really throwing me off bc everything i see abt the original kh characters looks good and also i love my friend cloud but is it worth getting into? or is it one of those things thats good bc youre already into it and u love it? i ❤️ piracy and have a hacked 3ds so the price of so many games is not an issue. u do not have to answer this ofc! but i thought it was worth asking nc the art u are reblogging is intriguing to me

smile :)

my short answer is, i think its good! definition of good here being it was really fun to get into. i havent personally actually played any of the games if you're planning to play them tho- all of them are action rpgs, the first has like a certain amount of platforming and also bad camera controls that are just kind of a given considering its age. if you enjoy those types of games tho, its still very fun! holds up well. most of them are first and foremost playstation games except for 358/2 Days, which was a ds game (it hasnt had a remake like some of the other games, which is sad bc it has some of the best story and the cutscenes by themselves miss A Lot, but the gameplay itself is uh. Rough)

first, look up "kingdom hearts 1 opening"

if you think that looks sick as hell, i would honestly try out the first game and see how you feel about it afterwards! watching someone play that was what got me interested in digging into the entire thing and it is the first game so its a naturally good introduction with none of the weight of all the stuff that gets added over the years to the Lore. if you like 1 you can either play them in release order or chronological order and both would work probably. except the mobile game kh union x stuff i wouldnt touch that until you go through everything prior to kh3 even if its chronologically the first

(more details under the cut since this is getting long lol)

extremely basic summary: a young boy, sora, lives on a group of islands called destiny islands with his best friends, riku and kairi, and they dream of exploring outside their small home. sora and all his friends are taken from the island and their world by the forces of darkness and are swept into a grand battle of light and dark. he teams up with donald and goofy from Disney(tm) and they fight monsters born from the darkness in people's hearts. sora has a blade that's a key bc he unlocks doors between worlds and hearts and stuff. rinse and repeat with a new iteration on the enemies you're facing and the worlds you visit

asides from the disney, the basic plot there is very normal jrpg fare! whats special about it to me is in the specifics, its visuals (i think despite not liking disney as a company the existence of these differing tones and visual styles is what Makes kh what it is), the non disney world and monster designs, the weirdness of a lot of the scenes and writing, and its complete sincerity in statements that are inherently very corny. while the themes shift and compound, the primary theme is connections between people and how those make up who you are and your heart.

you may have heard the story is confusing. honestly, i think this is mostly hyperbole and it makes as much sense as it really needs to. there are bits of lore that are definitely confusing but the games explain everything in such a way that the concepts arent confusing, they just sound weird when taken out of context. not that a lot of it isnt really silly and weird LMAO just that its easy enough to follow and grasp what its going for

re: the disney sections (like the actual worlds): theyre at best like. inoffensive filler i guess LOL. you can really see disney not giving a shit about their part in kingdom hearts the later it goes, with the kh3 disney worlds being like. sure lets put the entirety of frozen's "let it go" in who gives a fuck. however this was after pixar was bought out by disney, and the people working on the pixar stuff that was subsequently added to kh3 definitely put more thought into them as far as tying it in thematically to the rest. still not majorly important tho asides from a couple plot relevant scenes.

you will never escape the Big disney characters tho lol. mickey mouse will Always be there after kh1, as well as donald and goofy who are literally the main character's party members. against my better judgement i do enjoy donald and goofy in kh, and find them generally fun characters despite having limited personal nostalgia about them! they're fine to have around.

if u want to see cloud strife our friend, i will say he isnt there a lot and he's in full sulky guy mode, tho a Lot of final fantasy characters are included until kh3 where i guess they decided they were going to stop putting ff characters in for whatever reason. sephiroth is a major secret boss fight in both 1 and 2. yuffie, aerith, cid, and leon are there immediately. tifa is in 2. barret has never shown up despite all the other ff7 main characters which is a little. raises eyebrow. but whatever

[tillman]

what should i read 4 arthurian legend idk where to start

ok hold on lemme find one of my other answers to this ask for u :-) im too tired to write out the whole thing rn

yunder the cut . rip mobile users LOL

i think the best two starting options involve the same strategy of “pick a knight you like the most and consume all the content you can find on them until you get bored/think of another knight and repeat” and its as simple as “do you want to start with sir gawain or do you not know who you want to start with.”

sir gawain i think is the best starting knight if you wanna go the route of reading as much as u can about one and moving on, since theres a LOT of varied content and hes just in a lot. hes important! anyways the first recommendation i have to start with is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. its a wonderful piece of poetry about a homoerotic beheading game, getting a movie this summer! its fucking gorgeous and a really good introduction if youve never read this old of texts before. i have a few different links so you can take your pick of what you prefer :-)

heres it in the original middle english, its beautiful and if you get the beat down sounds fucking gorgeous but i understand how hard it is to get through if youve never read through it before.

lou recomends Raffels translation above all others which i kinda have to agree with. heres part one and heres part two of that.

and the other link i have directly on hand atm is tolkiens translation which ive skimmed before and it seems really solid.

if you dont want to start with a short and tender christmas party, consider another text most arthuriana fans will consider a must read. its a bit more intimidating than sgatgks poetry but like. hey. its Sir Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur.

this is more on the level of most of the story things youll find for arthuriana and a good starting point to get an overview of a lot of major plot points and characters that show up time and time again in the legends, all of the major knights are covered through malory’s own spin on them and he tries to cover a lot of older tales in his weird fanfiction.

the text can be weird ESPECIALLY if you arent used to middle english since he …. used some weird as fuck words? even for the time. but thats malory.

I highly recommend, if you can get a copy, Kieth Baines modern retelling of Le Morte, it rewords things to make more sense to those used to a more modern prose and while it takes out some of the nuance of some scenes, its way easier to pick up and read. were working on a full scan of it atm actually but the book of arthur is up in our shared drive :-) ill shove a link down here for u

heres the first bit of baines rendition. honestly if u can find a copy for cheap grab it is a fun time

heres the pdf i use for the full text, warning for how weird its structured? its long paragraphs with no quotes around text but if you have no problems with that go for it. heres book one and heres book two.

from there, theres a ton of different options you can follow, but again i think the least overwhelming way to go about it is pick a knight you like and read whatever seems fun that has them in it !

best choices include gawain again, the marriage of sir gawain and dame ragnelle is fun, l’atre perilleux is so fucking wild and just a fun time, the turke and sir gawain has gawain playing tennis? like what more do you need

lancelot has a decent collection of old stories including the entire vulgate cycle (my favorite piece of arthurian lit, im working on scanning the entire english translation ;-)), lancelot and the hart with the white foot, though i havent been able to find a FULL translation, is wonderful and with that the lancelot collection of old stories is a lot of fun the dutch loved him, if you have like 10 bucks to spare, Lancelot and the lord of the distant isles is on amazon for cheap and retells the book of galehaut section of the vulgate and its . so good. please care about galehaut.

tristan as wild as he is is also a really good choice for how popular the Tristan and Isolde legend was in europe. you can find a ton of versions of it, though i prefer the german one by gottfried von strassburg, another amazing one is the povest o’tryschane which is a slavic take on the legend that weirdly throws sections of the vulgate and some italian romances in? i adore it either way.

uhmmm some more off the cuff recommendations include Troyes four romances and also Perceval. as much as i bully troyes knight of the cart, knight of the lion, and knight of the grail are some of my favorite words. skip cliges if youre doing that though it sucks so bad. troyes hated his version of tristan and isolde so much he wrote cliges. that alone should keep you from it. eric and enide is ok but eric sucks SO HARD. i hate that bitch.

more modern but tennysons Idylls of the king? fucking stellar. i recently got a copy and its really gorgeous poetry. kinda like le morte in having a good overview of key events in the texts and some notable characters so this works as a good jumping off point

and finally one i cant really speak on much due to my preference of the romances, but i have many good friends who say the welsh sources are REALLY REALLY good and worth checking out :-) the mabinogion mainly, but a lot of the scattered poetry is really fun!

for finding pdfs for some of the ones i just named, u can check out my doc of whatever sources i have on hand. im missing quiet a few but i got most of the ones i recommend at least io3hewt. heres the link to that. ill post a link to the vulgate when i can finish up scanning the prose merlin !

anyways mwah feel free to msg me if u have questions im insane and like researching this stuff for hours and am willing to find out any information 

[mechecolomar-archive]

i replayed tlou a bit ago so im gonna share my thoughts about this 7 year old game :) it’ll be mostly criticisms (bc i clearly like the game and havent really said what i dont like about it) and what i hope nd will improve for tlou2. i’ll kinda reference footage thats already been released for tlou2, but i wont mention any spoilers

so my biggest complaint is the gameplay, controls, and maybe the layout of the weapons. 

A big thing during fights that doesnt feel as good as it should be is the movement. I really dont like the forced jog throughout the entire game. I understand it when joel is hurt or the game wants to to focus on a certain thing in the environment, but other-wise it makes it really hard to explore the map naturally. Another thing when youre actively in a fight with numerous enemies surrounding u, theres almost no way to get out of it unless you shoot the enemy, theres no dodge and the L1 to sprint out of combat usually doesnt work well. This was especially frustrating with ellie who normally dies from one hit. In TLOU2 theyre adding the ability to dodge so thats something im looking forward to and hopefully crouching as a way to dodge works better bc in tlou it felt very slow and was normally used for slow stealth in tlou. 

The ai of npcs often broke the immersion by outright running in front of enemies all the time, no matter what character it was. Nd didnt punish the player by having other enemies detect them, which im thankful for, but hopefully joel, jessie, dina, and lev are a bit better in TLOU2. Before Ellie became able to help me fight she often got outright stuck in the middle of me and an enemy. Ellie was unable to be harmed, but it led to these almost comical scenes where me and some hunter were just swinging pipes at each other but entirely missing due to ellie running in place between us and taking no damage from either of us.

The collectibles were very frustrating (due to the mobility i mentioned earlier) and the map at some points were annoying to deal with. A lot of nd’s games seem to put the hidden items in areas behind where you start, or places that are hard to get to and its really annoying when you have to jog to backtrack or even walk at some times. The underwater parts were also irritating bc of joel’s movement too. The map was usually ok, but the part where you can ride a horse was the start of naughty dog trying open world levels (for some reason??) and the first time was really annoying, especially due to ellie not having the horse follow you while you walk and you having to jog back to her. I honestly can’t see this being too much better based on what we’ve been shown. Ellie will ride a horse for at least 2 times, be in a boat, and potentially be in a car. ND also boasted that tlou2 will feature their largest area yet filled with things and thats not very comforting to me. The only thing i could see them doing to make it better is like at least having your horse follow you or letting you full on sprint, but i feel like they gave you the horse so you can traverse the area without running :/. I think nadine does follow chloe eventually in the western ghats part of tll, so it could be better in tlou2 but we’ll see.

The bricks and bottles really felt useless unless it was for a distraction. I also didnt like how they were considered as two separate items so it constantly looked like you could hold more, when it was just the opposite. I dont think you could run and throw bottles/bricks either in tlou, but i know that changes in 2. Hopefully whatever items u can throw are considered one item and it could be more than bottles/bricks.

sometimes interactions were in an area that were around enemies, so they would get ruined and i personally didnt like that. i felt like areas where you choose to sit and have a convo should be a clear indication the player is safe, this usually was the case but i had a moment ruined because some enemy heard me. you could argue that could be more natural, but i think having a clear establishment or whats going to happen where makes more sense.

I also had an issue with the detection by enemies in the game. I played on easy so its definitely the most lenient it could have been, but the detection sound seemed too short imo. I really wish the game had like a little meter like in most games? Also the detection sound seemed to blend into certain soundtracks played and was sometimes hard to discern between the two. I personally dont understand why they dont have a detection meter considering theres other hud elements on the screen but idk. Tlou2 doesnt seem to have included that and its kinda disappointing imo

The subtitles sometimes didnt show or they were different from what was actually said but this happened rarely and it wasnt that frustrating, it was just something i noticed. This goes along with the ruined interactions. Also the few times the game had a recorder instead of notes for collectibles, it would have been nice if there was a transcript of it. I’m just lazy, not deaf, but i know some people prefer text over sound.

I personally didnt like the controls on ps4, having to constantly hold L1 to move faster than a walk was annoying to me. I also wish there were more control layouts than the one provided, or that you could change it yourself. I wish just toggling/holding L3 would let you move faster, reloading could be square, R3 should be crouching, and circle should be dodging or whatever. 

I also didnt like the photomode but apparently all new ps4 games had that type of photomode? Idk if its nd that likes that version, but it’d be neat if tlou2 had one similar to hzd/gow/hellblade. I think the lost legacy had the same type so it might just be the same :/

This is nitpicking, and isnt quit dealing with the base game, but i wish the unlockable skins were a bit more diverse instead of being 5 diff colored plaid shirts for joel and references to nd or their old games for ellie. The goggles seem to be the only unique item and its still a easter egg. Idk, i just think it’d be a bit cooler if they were more unique? I dont know if the outfits would work like in uncharted 4, with skins extending to other characters like dina or abby, but it’d be cool if they were more diverse.

Its late and this is all the criticism i can think of and hopefully they improve in tlou2, but yeah everything else is good. 

[kaedeichinose]

hi janelle, do i remember right that you like otome games? please help me out i have an abundance of free time and im feeling so lonely i just need fictional characters to say they love me. what are the best ones you'd recommend?

hell yeah i do. ok so as a general rule, if you’re taking a chance go for something thats out on a real console (psp, vita, ps3/4) basically because theres a lot more random garbage on the mobile and steam fronts, and it’s not like there arent good ones but obviously the rate of trash to good is higher 

so heres a few of my most highly recommended:

Hakuoki: this is the most popular otome franchise in the west by far (even the non otome spinoff action game got localized. imagine) the most recent edition of the games in on vita (maybe steam? i havent checked) and its the combo of kyoto winds and edo blossoms. the reason theres two of them is because the game has SO MUCH CONTENT there was no way they could localize it as it was and possibly make a profit, so they ended up splitting it. Some people dislike the protag bc shes a little too yamato nadeshiko for their tastes but it never bugged me. it’s got a lot of action, historical intrigue, theres like? 13? romance candidates as of kw/eb so you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck. plus, since so many version of hakuoki got localized the older versions tend to go on sale whenever aksys’ stuff is on sale so you can get one of the older version for real cheap if you wanna dip your toes.

Code Realize: this is probably my favorite otome game and one of my favorite vns in general. the art is gorgeous, the characters are so fleshed out and well developed (even the side characters), all the narratives whirl together with intrigue and drama and the protagonist has a lot of personality. Theres not a single character i dislike here. i think the ps4 version comes in a dual pack with future blessings, which is a direct sequel focusing on lovey-dovey marriage stuff with some more serious stories too. 

norn9: norn9 is really unique because it has three entirely different protags to play as, and each one has three different boys to pursue. this affords for them to have a lot of love interests while still keeping the MC’s arcs feeling fresh. theres one route i dont like but 8/9 aint bad! nice art, good writing, intriguing world building. fully recommend. 

anniversary no kuni no alice: so this ones pretty different in that its a doujin game that was never officially localized (ok, there was a mobile port that got released in the west but calling that a translation...... is generous) but the fantranslation finally got finished like? last year? recentlyish. despite its humble routes it made a huge splash in japan and is definitely genre defining. it also isnt as tender and sweet as some of the other games i listed, it fully embodies the charm of alice in wonderland where nearly everyone is an oddball whackjob/asshole (and dont worry, the protagonist can throw a punch) and has an old fashioned affection point and date system which make it feel really old school. its not an eroge but these characters absolutely fuck, which is nice if you want some self indulgent steamy stuff. that said i fully recommend opening up the debug menu and just slapping max affection on your chosen boy bc the low budget, slightly dated mechanics can be kind of a slog. theres also like a shit load of secret events that you need to monitor flags for so you might as well just save yourself the trouble and fudge the numbers a bit. and since the company that made it is fucking dead its 100% free! rad.

collarxmalice: this one is a bit weird bc im more recommending it for the story bc the romance elements didnt really do it for me? like full disclaimer this is a me problem, and even though the romance elements didnt click with me the routes are all still very well written (except.... for one.... who i was expecting to like the most..... aaaaaaaaaaaaa) . the heroine is a cop so shes very action focused and the game even forces you to do your own crime solving, and its easy but its still more immersive than a lot of other games try to be. it has a very strong story and aesthetic and even though it bounced off me im still looking forward to the fandisc releasing on switch so i still really enjoyed it. it was met with rave reviews and was even an office favorite of the translators working on it.

if youre still unsure i suggest just checking out which game has a cast you find appealing, theyre the main reason your here afterall 

[leaflens]

What the h*ck is an enstars it looks cute but I don't know what it's about 😳

its a little late here so forgive the basic description lolol 

ensemble stars is abt a cast of idol trainee students! in the mobile game you play as anzu, their producer, and you have to help train them 8^] they all form different units/groups and have pretty diverse dynamics w/ each other.. theres a lot of drama and angst but also fun times! im ryuseitai-p heheh

it has an ongoing anime! i havent watched it but im sure itll do better at explaining than me! it also has a manga and novel and stage plays

theres also a rhythm game coming out this year!! im gonna jump on tht but the current mobile game is tough for me to keep up w/

enstars only has apps in japanese and mandarin (i think) so non-jp fans rely on fan translations of their stories, events, etc. its kind of a grind to play if you dont know what youre doing. it helped me practise my jp but i dont study it anymore ww

heres a doodle of my fave club i made just now

[iobottle]

atissi

replied to your post

“it kinda makes me sad when artists giving out tutorials on character...”

oh could you talk more about this? :o

ABSOLUTELY thank u for enabling me to go off about designs i love this shit this may get a bit long so its going under a readmore (sorry if ur on mobile i hope it works)

gonna start this off with im no expert Nor have i taken any sort of official art class this is me just analyzing characters from what i found that makes them memorable to ppl (most of these examples are going to be from games sorry i got them on my mind)

ok so basically making a memorable revolves around personality and appearance now theres different ways to go about showing these things and i think from consuming media you like will help narrow down how you wanna go about it, basically thinking about your character inside and out!

SO shapes and hyperstylization is a good way to get a fun appearance across in a cartoon esp media and is often what a lot of artists stress on an example of using shapes and a good silhouette to make a memorable character is sonic!(specifically comic sonic)

(had to google idw sonic for a non...u know image)

but not only do they use lots of triangles for this hedgehog they also made him blue! you’d be more likely to remember a blue headgehog over a realistically colored one!(also almost all of the sonic characters have a combination of fun shape + unusual color to help you remember them! the designs werent afraid to use color to make a bold statement)(he’s also segas mascot so of course they put a lot of work in his design)

now sonics appearance is not the only reason why people like him or remember him so much he’s also got personality! he’s cocky, fast, always getting into trouble, “you’re too slow!”, accompanied by shitty butt rock and a cool guy persona ie he’s got personality! and they weren’t afraid to give him some weird interests(see the butt rock) and he’s not perfect( see arrogance) if youve ever played a sonic game you have almost always remembered the crush 40 theme that went with it

all in all to go with his unusual appearance he’s got some unusual traits! it helps make him believable! admittedly he’s not the most embarrassing of the sonic crew (see knuckles or shadow) but he’s definitely rounded and not boring from an objective standpoint(you can not like sonic or his games i dont care)

(another example of something that requires good shapes is pokemon altho they arent really like very depthy since there are 600+ and some only have like a pokedex entry worth of info but still they have good and memorable designs)

NOW something that doesnt have the most “good shapes” design off the top of my head is link

now in the most recent zelda game his most memoriable physical attribute is that he’s on the androgynous side w his longer hair and smaller build but in his older designs he looked something like this

(art for a loz:link to the past)

not really that much of a striking silhouette, but what do we look at and kinda leaves an impression on us? his hair and hat! its very silly to see someone in such a big green hat with that big of bangs/mullet, the hat at least became so ridiculous of a look that in botw nintendo didnt include his hat in links main outfit bc it was too hard to make look good, its silly! thats good! its fine to have a normal human looking characters because sometimes stories are about humans, but if you want us to remember them include something that will strike us as strange for them

also probably a good thing to note is the noises link makes when he swings his sword, jumps, pushes something, ie any action they have always been something that has stuck with me

(another example similar to this is in mgs solid snake in mgs is this cool super spy but is rocking a full on mullet which is considered a joke hairstyle. this leaves an impression on us. a spy with a mullet! how ridiculous! another example is raiden who was specifically made bc a woman wrote that she didnt want to play as an “old man” so the protagonist of the super spy game is a longer haired pretty boy (with a huge ass))

now ive explained a little on a character with good shapes and personality and a character with a more “boring” shape design that makes up for it with almost quirky design choices but i feel like theres another series thats what originally got me thinking about how even a memorable silhouette doesnt need hyperstylization

ace attorney! (which is out on switch now if u havent played it i would def recommend it)

if you dont know the protagonist is the guy in the blue suit(phoenix), which well he looks like just a guy...with ridiculously spikey hair enough so that in his silhouette you can recognize him but also his posture (the pointing) makes for a sticking recognizable image bc if you’ve played the games you can practically hear objection just from looking at phoenix’s silhouette

which is another thing id like to talk about! not only are a good shape a way to have a good silhouette but posture is also important! how the character holds themselves can say alot about them just from a glance! such as meekness, arrogance, confidence, sadness, anger, happiness its a very important too especially when you arent relying on stylization

now onto the characters of ace attorney ive gone over phoenix's design a bit but theres a few others id like to look at with some Weird style choices that make us remember them(just going to glance over them since this post is so long)

now, this woman, franziska von karma, she dresses kind of strange for a prosecutor but her outfit is not too out there and her silhouette is not striking

but you see that whip? remember how i said she was a prosecutor? yeah she will strike people in court for getting off topic and will even hit phoenix when he starts breaking down her witnesses testimonies, which what literally strikes up about her

another prosecutor, godot, now his hair could provide a somewhat memorable shape but what we first notice is the strange mask on his face which is weird, but not the Same weird as franziska bringing a whip to court thus having both of these prosecutors being Weirdly memorable for different things (another note is his liking of coffee that he does not give up even in court ha ha)

now onto the other protag for the aa games

apollo! who also has weirdly spikey hair, but even if you put a silhouette of him next to phoenix you could tell there some was a difference between the two! its showing a pattern with the protags while also keeping them distinct enough to be able to tell who is who! although you cant say the pointy haired guy from ace attorney and not get just One answer unlike saying the prosecutor who has a whip but still they are distinct to people who have little experience with the series

sorry i dont have any sort of conclusion on this this was just sort of me rambling on about character design, but my main point is if you are discouraged bc all your characters dont have wildly different silhouettes thats ok! there are other ways to establish a good memorable character! dont be afraid to make them a little weird! give your character pink hair in a medieval setting, have them be ridiculously in love with tigers they have a striped shirt and pants, let them love childrens tv shows and have them never miss an episode, give them wacky hair or an extreme love of gum, show us some personality!! but dont forget about how they act and their values and dont forget that posture can go a long way for establishing a first impression

there are also many other methods to making a good character! like colors and dress!

silly is the way to go! have fun with it!!

there isnt just one way to make a good character!! theres plenty of more series that have good character design that i didnt mention pay attention to why you like the characters you like! also watch this video bc its really good

[mikiruma]

okay i'm snapping what the hell is saints row about. who's the dude with the giant titties you keep thirsting over and who's the mcdonalds emo. i need some answers bc i don't know shit.

ill edit this w a readmore bc it got Very wordy and im on mobile but i promise you. this series is a mess, i live for it, i could go ON abt it for days but this response was long enough fhwkfhejhfnd

1) so basically the premise in most of the games is like. you are a member (leader as of sr2) of a street gang (the third street saints!) and though the story is tweaked slightly for each installment, the overall goal is the same- control different neighborhoods in your city, squash the other gangs, be badass. i *call* it a grand theft auto clone but tbh i havent played gta, the gameplay's similar enough though. the first two games are more uhh... grounded? than the later 3? the plotlines are darker, deaths & events are more fucked up in a heavier/moral sense, etc etc. but the last 3 are way more silly i think. the entire series is kinda packed with crude/sexual humour and essentially responding to a punch with a flamethrower, but it goes over the top in the newer games which is.. why i always liked em lol.

but its just funny in general to think of the plot progression. oh i witness a gang war so im recruited in a gang whose current leader... wants to end gang violence. oh that leader tried to kill me and arrested/killed everyone else so i am going to go apeshit on this city until i find him and kill him back. oh somehow we are international celebrities and do crime as publicity stunts, i am gonna ask mayor burt reynolds to help us with this zombie invasion. oh now i am president of the united states, time to get the earth blown up by an alien warlord and do it with whats left of my gang every survivor plus an ai in a ball.

ive seen Some Shit abt the general timeline but tbh ive always tried to piece it together like. ok these games take place in/around whatever year they were released. besides sr4 which would be... 2019 if my math is correct? i just felt like mentioning that bc i am not touching any canon timeline

OH ALSO the main reason i even got into the series. i literally bought sr3 because of the character customization. the body mods could.... use a lot of work imo but what you can do for your protags face is BANANAS... and changing voice pitch in sr4 was fun too bc male 1 was ok for my boss but having it just a teensy bit higher REALLY made it

tldr; i cant help you there i am just along for this ride

2) im assuming you mean johnny gat not bc theres any competition but like. theres so many dudes like that in this game

his role is actually pretty consistent in that he stays a lieutenant, and hes one of the rare characters (besides. the protag i think?) who's been in every single game. he's the designated badass of the saints and is really good at coming up with plans that involve lots of guns or blowing stuff up. if i typed everything i liked abt him right now this post would be a mile long but trust me he is an excellent man, even tho he might be the scariest motherfucker ever and i probably would be afraid of him irl, he fully deserves that. hes loyal to the saints and his boss which i absolutely respect. still bitter abt sr3 "killing" him bc cmon. he cannot die. does that count in the spoiler? its the literal first mission after u customize your character so i dont think so// whatever ive been posting untagged spoilers for the other games bc theyve been out for a decade

3) IM STILL LOSING MY MIND OVER THAT SJSDHADDHSI mcdonalds emo.... thats his legal name now....

but seriously matt miller is like. one of my fav characters from sr3. he's the leader of one of the rival gangs, the deckers, and they specialize in hacking & money laundering and stuff like that. matt specifically is 16 in his debut game which is really funny to learn bc imagine being a ballsy ass kid repeatedly nae naeing the us government because you can.

anyway i like him bc instead of killing the other gang leaders like usual, u just fight him in a vr world and ur both sick ass dragons and he decides "actually i dont wanna go brain dead. ill give u either weapons or car discounts" then he fucks off back to england. then it lets him come back for sr4 and yall are friends now :D yes yall tried to kill each other but whats past is past. i would be his friend irl honestly hes great. also im still firm on the autistic matt train bc of how often he shares his love for nyte blayde & im WEAK over the boss eventually getting into it as well

[orlamccools]

I NEED TO VENT BUT IM ALSO ON MOBILE SO IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ ABT ME TALKING ABT MY TRAUMA OR ABT LIKE SUICIDE AND RELIGION AND IDENTITY CRISES AND SUCH THEN PLS JUST SCROLL PAST THIS

/////

I've realized that i spent a lot of time in my early teens decrying and ignoring and ridding myself of things i used to love in my childhood bc after Jack I no longer viewed myself as a child.

And honestly i think taylor swift is the perfect example of this. I was talking to a friend tonight abt how when i was like 7? 8? I was a HUGE taylor fan. Like she was the first real artist i ever cared for, her concert was the first real concert i ever went to

But after Jack I stopped listening to her, and now im starting to again and its been a rush of emotion, bc i had been a fan of her so long ago, but the Maddie who was an og taylor fan isnt the Maddie that exists now. The Maddie who was an og taylor fan is so far from who i am today and like I KNOW if Jack hadnt died i might have stayed a fan throughout the years

Another example i think thats relevant is the hunger games series. Ljke before his death i loved the shit out of those books, read the series multiple times over, was so excited for the movies, and then he died and i just. Stopped. I havent read the book since i was 12, I've never seen catching fire or mockingjay, and by the time we moved to illinois i stopped caring with the series all together

Obiously thg had a different relationship to me after his death because Jack was the one who introduced me to the series, but the point still stands!!!

And i think this is why i cling so hard to things like The Mysterious Benedict Society and Gravity Falls, bc those were things that made it out unscathed. My love for tmbs is the same as it was when id first read the book, and Gravity Falls became a lifeline, bc it started airing the summer after his death and was one thing i could connect to my child hood nd in some aspects new mexico

And this all ties in with my whole aversion to catholicism/religion thing, because like the main reason I stopped believing in God was because of Jacks death. At his wake and stuff people told me that it was all parts of gods plan, and younger me was so confused over the fact that

a. A benevolent God would let a 12 year old kill himself

b. A benevolent God would let an 11 year old girl be so completely and utterly destroyed to the point where she was unrecognizable to herself for literal years (ie why did this happen to me what did i do to deserve this pain) and

c. The hypocrisy of it all, bc according to the bible suicides are sent to hell but if God was all loving how could he let a kid burn for eternity when he was dealing w undiagnosed and unsupported mental illness

Those three facts absolutely destroyed me and were the three big reasons why i was turned off of organized religion and christianity in general. And dont get me wrong now im not a believer of any religion for a multitude of reasons but like that was the start of the path for that journey, and Jacks death was the reason why i lost my faith

And so by the time we moved i had lost everything that i had cared abt, both somewhat purposefully and somewhat unwillingly and i wa sjust. broken. Thats the best way to describe it. I was a shell of a child who was trying ti heal but was failing miserably bc i didnt have any sort of tools or coping mechanisms in place and i was working thru family stuff too so i never felt like i could turn towards them and yeah.

I know ive talked abt this before but theres this one taylor swift song for the hunger games movie (and the irony isnt lost on me) and it has a line like "we were just kids, playing soldiers and pretending, dreaming dreams with happy endings/ in backyards winning battles with our wooden swords/ but now we've stepped into a cruel world where everyone stands and keeps score" nd when i heard it the first time it scalped me and hearing it again just hits right in the core bc that was me!!!!! I was a kid and then jack died and i Wasnt anymore and now that im older i have a better sense of self and grasp on my identity but 11 year old me was so young and lost she didnt she just felt abandoned and like a stranger in a whole new and scary world

Anyways this is long and rambly please ignore this and dont reblog i just needed to get my feeling out in some way

[morinokunikara]

how do i get into ace attorney it seems cool....

Okay id start with the first three games. The trilogy recent got an hd release on. Literally everything. For 30 bucks, but you could also emulate them on a ds emulator or find them used (though i think that may end up being just as much, if not more than, the hd port)

Apollo justice is next in the series. It has an hd mobile port and is on ds. I forget how much the mobile port is but its probably about the same as buying it used.

Then there dual destinies, its on 3ds and has a mobile port

Spirit of justice is on 3ds

The miles edgeworth spinoff game is on ds, it takes place in between the first two games iirc but is a VERY different game so i plan on playing it after i finish the main series games. Up to you how you do it though

Phoenix wright vs professor layton is a spinoff on 3ds. Mixes the lawyerly stuff with puzzles i think? I have it but ive never played it

Theres also 3 games that remain untranslated: the second miles edgeworth game has a fan translated rom, and the two great ace attorney game have translated playthroughs on YouTube.

And thats it for the games!! Theres also the manga (which features characters and cases not in the games), the anthologies (mostly silly 4komas), the movie (centered around the first game, minus the third case, and primarily the final case. Its good for the most part, but i wouldnt recommend it if you havent played the first game), and the anime (which follows the plot of the games, so if you cant manage/afford/play the games you can always watch it. It follows the plot of the game REALLY well).

[tumblunni]

For the kingdom hearts asks: choose your top 4 questions. 😆

1. Where would have been your home world?

Maybe Halloween Town? Or one of the final fatasy crossover places.

2. What would be your starting keyblade?

I like Fenrir, I think it pulls off the ‘looks like a car key’ thing better than riku’s new keyblade in 3. Like its not just straight up a regular car key with no additional decorations, like how the regular keyblade isnt a regular key with no decorations. Just having some weird patterns and bandages on the thing makes it neater! Also kinda resembles the key to the temple of the ancients from orignal ff7.

Tho if i had to choose between only ones that were already starting keyblades in other games, I’d say i like Aqua’s one the best. Its neat with that weird lazery hollow key shape effect

3. How many allies would you have with you as you travel?

aALL OF THE FREMSDS

4. If in a party, what would be your main role (e.g. tank, healer, synthesizer, etc.)

combination tank/damage dealer. Runs into the front lines with zero strategy except smacking stuff and Protect Friemds

5. What would be your command list if you were a D-Link? Limit to 5 commands!

Oh man I actually dont really know how D-Links work cos BBS is one the games i never finished. But uhh probably defense and counterattack stuff?

6. What would be your fighting style?

oh uhh ok better to explain it here! I’d like to be a tanky punchyness, someone who maybe isnt exactly the strongest but they can just keep attacking and annoying the fuck out of the enemy forever. In a party i’d be based around drawing aggro and protecting my friends from attacks but also maybe have some trickstery counter atatcks that give me potential to deal some damage if i get lucky.

7. What would you prioritize? Power, Magic, or Speed?

LOL i always thought it was weird that the mobile game picked those as the three elements when the main trio of the game is clearly power, magic and DEFENSE. and theres loads of enemies who are defense specialists too! i’d be that!! I wanna just be like the annoying Large Body enemy. Big cuddly person who protect they friends to the point its gamebreaking, lol!

8. What would be your ability as a support medal? BONUS, state if it's a single-target or all-target attack, and your SP cost!

Oh man im not very good at the mobile game lol XD I might say a buff defense or lower enemy attack thing cos just those are most necessary to not die in that damn hard game. or if i could have anything even stuff that isnt already possible in the game, then i’d like to be a counterattack! something like if the enemy has buffed themselves you reverse it into debuffs, or you reflect their whole attack. but itd have to have an element of chance to it so maybe it only works if you sacrifice something else, or just on a random flip a coin thing?

9. If you could be partners with one character in the series, who would it be?

URSULA IS MY FAVOURITE DIDNEY

or from the original characters I WANT VEXEN TO BE MY NEW DAD

10. What KHX/KHUX union would you belong to?

in the game i picked the snake one cos i like snake

ive been playing for ages and i still know nothing about what the damn difference is or what the personalites are of any of the bosses

11. What is your favorite magic spell?

its been ages since i played the original games but i recall that i used thunder a lot cos i am bad at aiming, lol

12. Doublejump or glide?

GLIIIIIIIIIIDE

13. Cure or esuna?

cure lol! status effects dont happen often enough to make esuna a mainstay

14. What would be your dodging move?

the goofy kabuki theater dodge pose Quina does in ff9

15. What would you have forgotten in Castle Oblivion?

Probably some sort of dark shit like “your wish is granted to forget your childhood abuse but youre left not knowing who you are because that stuff shaped you from such a young age that its become an unremoveable part of your identity”

16. Would your nobody be just another creature? Or would they belong to the Organization?

*SLAMS FIST ON THE TABLE* WHY NOT BOTH

seriously im still SO mad that all the sentient nobodies look like boring people instead of cool creatures

CREATURE CREATURE CREATURE

17. What would your costume look like in Halloween Town?

oh does anyone remember that time i drew myself a ghostsona? yeah like that! fancy top hat and coattails spoopy~!

18. What sea-creature would you be in Atlantica?

Maybe that ‘sea bunny’ underwater slug species?

19. If you could have one dream eater with you in  your travels, what would it be?

aaaa i havent played KHDDD yet but all of them look so cute and im excited to meet them and find out my favourites!

20. Would you want to travel with a heartless/nobody/unversed with you as a buddy?

YES. YES. YES.

seriously 90% of all my thoughts and posts on this series are just IMMA LOVV THE DARKNESS I WOULD GIVE MYSELF TO THE DARKNESS INSTANTLY TO HUG THESE BABS

21. What would you do if you had free time in a world and didn't have to fight?

HUG THE HEARTLESS

PLAY MINIGAMES

DRESS UP IN WEIRD KINGDOM HEARTS FASHION

SING KARAOKE WITH URSULA

22. In battle, do you prioritize speed or accuracy?

i have no depth perception lol, no accuracy in this house

23. What would be your command style? (2 max!)

i aint play BBS! i aint know! *le shrug*

24. What would be your keyblade transformation?

I aint play kh3 either!

25. What drive form would you use?

ANTI FORM cos i wanna be a COOL CREATURE seriously man FUCK THE LIGHT GIMME THE DARKNESS THE DARKNESS HAS LIL CUTE EYES

26. What would you mainly use flowmotion for?

I aint play KHDDD and also with my bad accuracy i would primarily use it for falling off buildings

27. Would you rely on cure magic, or items for healing?

when i played i was always more of a magicker healer. i feel like itd be the only spell that my khsona has on a mostly physical attack set

28. What would be your break time move?

*breakdancing softly* i aint play BBS dude, i dont kno dis shit

29. What are you better at? Ice cream beat, rumble racing, or fruitball?

it is amazing how much BBS i have not played

30. Would you know how to pilot a gummi ship?

NO i cant even ride a bike IRL lol

31. Would you use the darkness as a weapon?

YES but also NO i would use the darkness as a hugs i would just befriend a bunch of heartless like the dream eaters and cuddle them til they stop being evil

32. WILDCARD, ask me anything!

UHHHH go ahead guys!