#touken-is-killing-me

[harleyquilt]

Misreading Touka (Tokyo Ghoul Meta)

For some reason, I've been seeing more dung being thrown at Touka's characterisation in the series, and since I've been wanting to write a meta for a while now, I decided to do a short one addressing some of the criticism I've seen around. This won't go into everything, of course -- the series is far too dense with analytical potential and I am a busy bee. Just know that I do want to dive deeper into Touken/Kanetou at a later point.

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Touka is not reduced to a simple, meaningless housewife, and I do not understand why this perspective is used to undermine her character so often in the fandom. For the sake of this argument, I will be mostly focusing on her characterisation in ;Re, as that is where this criticism is mostly rooted. Yes, she is less active in the first part of the second series, but between all the other characters, events, and plot points, it is bizarre to me that people see so little in Touka, despite all that she does. 

I could dive into how Touka as a whole symbolises key themes throughout both series, and how that relates to Kaneki’s development, but I think I will save that for a separate meta. For now, I just want to discuss how Touka is positioned in the second series, and how it does not weaken the characterisation Ishida set up in the first. 

Following the end of the first series, which set its tone as a tragedy, Touka opens the ;Re café to act as a refuge for ghouls, just as Yoshimura did beforehand. To clarify, Yoshimura saved Touka from her miserable life on the streets, giving her the chance to live with some semblance of normalcy following the tragic consequences of her childhood. And now, as an adult, and with Yoshimura gone, Touka strives to recreate that environment once more. There are those that think she has done this for Kaneki and Kaneki alone, but that is clearly not the case, even if she does hope for Kaneki’s return one day; she allows Nishiki to take refuge there while he tries to find Kimi, she saves Tsukiyama after the Rosewald operation, and before anyone argues that she was still not directly involved in either case, she actively takes part in Ayato’s mission to save Hinami. It is there that she then sees Kaneki and allows him a place to stay too, following his battle with Arima. She even provides Akira and Amon a place to stay, reconciling their differences in the process, (underrated chapters, I think).

Up until this point, Touka has been forced to ‘live while losing’, and whether she decides to fight or not, it is an unavoidable outcome when it comes to war. She is simply trying to do what she can without trying to kill herself in the process – a flawed sentiment she has seen in her father and Kaneki before, and even to some extent, Ayato and Hinami.

She fights when she can, runs if she has to. She is forced to make this choice again and again, especially when the underground ward is attacked, and for the sake of her unborn child and other weaker ghouls, she must retreat if she doesn’t want all of them to needlessly die. 

That said, it is not as if she leaves without trying to fight first, she just isn’t stupidly overpowered like her opponents, (and that isn’t a jab at Ishida, I’m simply clarifying that she can’t defeat these foes with just Hinami at her side). Even then, she manages to stand her ground for a long time, despite the pregnancy and her hunger. Moreover, her kagune has developed since the first series, and like Ayato, she’s able to create more advanced structures with her ukaku. You just have to read in between the lines to see that Touka has never allowed herself to grow soft in the years Kaneki was away, and that only now, during this battle, can you see more of her capabilities.

And when Kaneki is trapped within Dragon, she finally decides that she cannot lose him – she refuses to lose him, because to do so would bring on too much despair. Just as Kaneki has prioritised Touka, Touka, too, will prioritise him, and so, even with her exhaustion, she battles against Mutsuki, digs through the Dragon’s flesh until her fingers and nails break, and almost succumbs to grief at the thought that he was already lost to her. The chapter is overlooked far too often, her desperate determination conveying to the reader the importance of love as a driving force.

Again, we saw this with Kaneki, who pushed himself past his limits in hopes of reaching Touka. Whether you like it or not, love is a powerful thing, and that has been shown throughout the series with many, if not all the characters. And for Kaneki and Touka, their love is their hope, and to lose that love is to lose their hope. So they fight, again and again, for each other and the light they bring into each other’s lives. 

Now I can argue all day about how Touka is far more active in the series than people care to admit, but I do not think that is why Touka is labelled as a housewife. I’ve been in the fandom for a long time and this label has been around long before their relationship was canonised, and I think it’s to do with the fact that Touka is clearly more feminine in ;Re. 

I’ve already explained that in terms of action, Touka still has plenty of moments to speak of, and personality-wise, I really don’t think she’s as different as people claim her to be. Yes, she’s calmer, but that shouldn’t be seen as a bad development. She’s an adult now, and with adulthood comes maturity, (or it should, anyway). She doesn’t need to fight anyone and everyone to prove herself, that is simply a childish perspective to take. Besides that, she’s still curt in the way she talks, is sarcastic and blunt, though not as harsh as she was before, and she still carries herself with plenty of pride and dignity, which was what was so appealing about her in the first series. Ffs, she confronts the whole CCG and tells them to eat shit because their arguments were annoying her. It’s ridiculous to me that people think she is a shadow of her former self, when there’s plenty of great moments involving her. 

As for her more maternal depictions, that is also something that has always been present, if you take a moment to connect the two series together. She was forced to grow up quickly when she became responsible of Ayato, and she effortlessly took Hinami under her wing after the death of her parents. This is an attribute that she continues to exhibit throughout ;Re, watching over the children and trying to comfort them. It’s a touching image, one that circles back around to her pregnancy. And to deem this progression as detrimental is rather…strange to me. In a time when we see women as strong and powerful for everything we represent – our hardships, both physically and emotionally, as well as our strengths – why is it seen as weak when female characters are utilised to represent the strength of womanhood. Because she’s a woman married to a man? Don’t be so childish. If you respect her characterisation at all, you will acknowledge how she continues to exhibit her strengths as an adult, whether that be in battle or beyond it. 

After all, Ishida could have easily written it so that she is no longer involved in anything past the discovery of her pregnancy. Except he doesn't, and instead, she fights even more, even harder, in spite of her pregnancy. Because of her pregnancy. And yet, this is somehow weakens her character? She is quite literally going beyond her limits to fight for her future, I see nothing weak in that.

It might be that readers dislike how she changes aesthetically, and that’s fine, but from that comes arguments that excuse why they don’t like her character. I could argue against every little argument I’ve seen about her, but at the end of the day, I feel like most of these points are made just to excuse a personal preference. And that is not an effective use of critical reading. You can’t make the story something it isn’t, and you can’t assume Touka was going to be a character she wasn’t written to be. If you don’t like that or disagree, then maybe this series isn’t for you and it’s time to move on. For now, at least, please give her characterisation the respect she deserves. Her role is so much more than the shallow labelling this fandom tends to give her.

[hakucho-art]

This is, like, the third or fourth time (if not MORE) that I see a person apologize for talking about touken, showing enjoyment in the ship or needing to give some clarification. I know I'm not the only one who feels like the TG Tumblr space carries a negative atmosphere towards touken and it honestly kills my mood to post on here.

It also saddens me to see people show love for them so hesitantly. Like you're in the wrong for doing so. Like it's stupid. Like it's silly and unreasonable. Like it's almost shameful. Idk! That's how posting on here and see other people talk about them and acting ashamed about liking them makes me feel!

For how much TG tumblr advertises to be a welcoming space, I don't feel welcomed at all and more like just tolerated.

[gingermintpepper]

Rewatching Touken Ranbu Kai last night was an awful idea because now, I just want to write the practice exercise fights we didn't get to see completed.

Like hello?? You can't promise me a Taroutachi/Jiroutachi vs Doudanuki 2 on 1 and then never get back to it?? Also I would've killed to see Hachisuka and Kasen duel on the log floating down the river and how the two of them eventually came to truce then go agree to go after Mikazuki!!

[bingeeaterblog]

This is in response to @/harleyquilt s post, it is not to attack them or anything just giving my opinion on the matter. This is also in assumption their touka defense was a product from my touken analysis. I think they make amazing content even if we don't agree on this said topic this also does not cover every point they made I do agree with some maybe at another time I'll make another part of this

House wife is a broad example of what we mean, we are aware she reopened a coffee shop but she never wanted to do it long term and that is abundantly clear. What we mean by "house wife" is that she gave up her dreams to be kanekis wife.

Which is entirely true! And it's not even like that was intentional and that it was a big sacrifice ishida wrote it like that was always what she wanted to do. She quite literally wanted to get into kamii to go to school for BIOLOGY.

I do love the idea of touka starting her own cafe during re while kanekis absent, a last resort something familiar to her but that's not the problem ! I feel like you only skimmed through my post cause I never said there was anything wrong about touka becoming a mother, I quite literally said at the end I just wanted it to be done in a different way.

And noone thinks that she started the for kaneki and kaneki alone she was under the impression that he was DEAD so that wouldn't make any sense!

If this really is a response to my post you haven't really done a great job at defending her. My main problem was within her personality or well lack there of.

Touka growing soft when kaneki was a way is an interesting idea! But completely ooc we see before when he left that she was angry! Why would that change! Kaneki left to get himself killed that is what she thought her her just being??? AW man 😦 . Isn't very touka. Her development was done off screen which I dunno if this is obvious, not development it's character assassination.

She has lost all of her fierceness her devotion to the people around her and that had been replaced with soft kanekis love interest nonsense. "Plenty of great moments" isn't the take you think it is "oh well she acts like how she used to sometimes!!" Hello????

Hinami and toukas relationship was never "maternal" it was always familial, she saw her as the little sibling she failed(ayato).

You saying we're "childish" for not liking how a once beloved character was destroyed is crazy to me honestly people can have differing opinions from yours that the whole point of art

[hny-updates]

English Translation of CanCam's article

2.5-dimensional handsome actor Shohei Hashimoto perfectly recreates the role of the “love is too heavy” killer! What is the popular manga “Hotaru no Yomeiri”?

``Firefly's Wedding'' is the latest work by Oreko Tachibana, the author of the manga ``Promise Cinderella,'' which was made into a live-action film by Fumi Nikaido and Atsushi Maeda, and became a hot topic of conversation (currently being serialized in ``Manga One''). In this work, the heroine's partner, the assassin Shinpei, became a hot topic, saying that ``love is too heavy,'' and the first volume was decided to be urgently reprinted as soon as it was released! To commemorate the release of Volume 2, the popular character Shinpei has been perfectly recreated by 2.5D actor Shohei Hashimoto. Mr. Hashimoto has appeared in many Japanese-style productions such as the musical ``Hakuouki'' and the stage play ``Touken Ranbu,'' and is a manga lover who even wrote the original story himself. We will also introduce recommended points of "Firefly's Wedding" as well as photos taken of Shinpei in Japanese clothes ♡

The time is the Meiji era. Satoko Kirigaya, the daughter of a count, is blessed with both her family name and beauty, but it has been declared that she has only a short time left to live, and her only dream is to marry in a way that will benefit her family. Meanwhile, Satoko's life is suddenly targeted by a mysterious killer, and in order to survive, she proposes to the killer, Shinpei Goto, ``Please marry me.'' It was supposed to be a one-off lie, but Shinpei is a man with a lot of love...

Q: ──I'm sure you're used to wearing Japanese clothes on stage, but what did you think of wearing a kimono inspired by Shinpei?

A: It's been a while since I've worn a kimono like this (a kimono without a haori, simply tying an obi), so I was very happy, and there's something exciting about photographing kimonos. This time, I was playing the role of a killer, so I had a lot of fun filming it, thinking that I shouldn't let my excitement show too much.

Q: ──You showed off various facial expressions and postures, but what points did you pay attention to in order to bring out Shinpei's uniqueness?

A: I was struck by the way Shinpei-kun's head is tilted, as if he's relaxed and relaxed, so I kept this atmosphere in mind when designing his stance. The rest is the eyes. In fact, before filming, the author, Tachibana Oreko, gave me this advice to my editor: ``Anyway, I hope you give me dead eyes...''

Q:──Mr. Hashimoto, what impressions did you have when you read “Hotaru no Yomeiri”?

A: I thought it was going to be a girls' manga as a genre, but there are scenes where people are cut with swords and it's surprisingly cruel, so it's different from the girls' manga I had imagined! I was surprised with. Because of the battle scenes, it's very easy to read even for someone like me who came from a youth magazine. Of course, it's about the love story between Satoko and Shinpei, but it also has suspense elements like who orchestrated Satoko's kidnapping in the first place, so I think it's a fun manga to explore.

Q:──What scene in particular captured your heart because of the beauty of the painting?

A: The scene where Shinpei-kun and Satsuko-san watch fireflies together. I especially love the scene in Volume 2 where Shinpei-kun releases fireflies into Satsuko-san's room. Another unforgettable scene is the scene where the two kiss for the first time. There are many people lying around who were killed by Shinpei-kun, and the two figures are reflected in the pool of blood. Although the situation is cruel, it is a very nice expression and I think it is beautiful. It's so fascinating that you can't help but look into every corner of it.

Q: ──Mr. Hashimoto, what kind of character did you think of Shinpei?

A: At first, you get the strong impression that Shinpei-kun is kind of a "dangerous person," but as you read on, you'll find that he's surprisingly cute. I thought this gap made him a really fun character. For example, the scene at the beginning where Satoko is saved from a villain while she is locked up in a prison. He escapes by jumping off a tall building, and I really like his poignant expression. He even makes an expression like this! (laughs) After all, love is heavy! Looking at Shinpei-kun makes me think that love and madness may be a thin line.

Q: Mr. Hashimoto, you sometimes demonstrate your swordsmanship on stage, but what impression did you get of Shinpei's sword technique?

A; This first sword line is depicted in the scene where Shinpei-kun saves Satsuko-san. I really like his style of cutting with his legs wide open. In the case of kimono, there is a style of slashing without showing your legs, but when I played Hajime Saito in ``Hakuoki'', I also slashed with my legs wide open. Also, although Shinpei-kun looks rough, he has a surprisingly delicate expression on his sword. For example, this sword technique that involves returning the sword in a detailed manner. It gives the impression of a mixture of movement and stillness.

Q: ──If ``Hotaru no Yomeiri'' were ever made into a stage play and Mr. Hashimoto was chosen to play Shinpei, how would you like to play him?

A; I want to firmly express Shinpei-kun's dual nature. Shinpei-kun may be saying what he really means, but if you look at him from the outside, you can't see the bottom of his heart. I would like to act with this in mind.

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 28: Warriors Orochi 4

Warriors Orochi 4 (無双OROCHI3) Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch Release dates: Japan: 27 September 2018 (PS4/Switch)/16 October 2018 (PC) USA: 16 October 2018 Europe: 19 October 2018

Dynasty Warriors 9 killed the modern era of Warriors games, yet Warriors Orochi 4 was still in the pipeline, having been in development since 2016. Originally, I had envisioned the characters of DW8 and SW4 being featured in a remake of WOZ instead of a new game, but it is how it is.

I thought Koei Tecmo were taking the piss when they announced this game over a month after DW9's release, but given the development timeline I might have been a bit harsh there. The first trailer for WO3 was released over a week after DW7XL released in Japan; granted, that was an expansion, but it had people hyped for WO3's release, especially in the West. Maybe Koei Tecmo were hoping to use this opportunity to win back the fans and respect they lost with DW9.

So what other measures of damage control did Koei Tecmo and Omega Force take after DW9's release? There were a number of collaboration games released over the years, including Hyrule Warriors, Persona 5 Scramble, Fire Emblem Warriors, Touken Ranbu Warriors, WILD HEARTS and Fate/Samurai Remnant, and quite a number of Koei Tecmo's games (Omega Force or otherwise) did receive a dub, mostly due to them being collaborations with other companies where the budget could justify a dub, but not every game did.

As for the Warriors series? There weren't as many games released between DW9 (2018) and DWOrigins (2025) compared to between DW7 (2011) and 9 (2018), which is around the same length of time. On top of porting DW8E, SW Spirit of Sanada and WO3U to the Nintendo Switch in Japan, Koei Tecmo would also rerelease DW7XL, DW8XL, WO3U and SW4 on Switch and/or the PC.

DW7XLDE received an English release on Steam based off of the already-existing Complete Edition (with) released in Japan and Taiwan. DW8XLDE was released on the Microsoft Store on PC instead of an all-DLC package on Steam. WO3U and SW4 finally received PC releases as well with 4K compatibility. These Definitive Edition releases would have all the DLCs, but there was nothing new or improved to them apart from what was already there.

People say that the third entry in a trilogy or any entry that comes after a good trilogy will be bad (the latter applies thanks to the Western numbering of this series). How would this apply to Warriors Orochi 4? Follow me as I take you through the story that I only played through once and have to look up in order to understand it.

Warriors Orochi 4

The first cutscene movie of the game gives us a flashback to the events of WOZ and WO3. WO4 appears to begin from the true ending of 3 with no mention of Tamamo or Ultimate's events, and Wu's ending from the first game is also shown here leading people to believe that is the canon ending. This is the problem with Z's story having four separate storylines and is why I've come up with the timeline theory for that game.

The father of the Olympians Zeus watches the events of the past games with his children, Ares and Athena. Zeus proceeds to use the Ouroboros Bracelets to recreate Orochi's world and bring the heroes back to it; the half-mortal Perseus manages to steal a number of them as he is discovered by the Olympians.

Tadakatsu Honda along with Naotora and Naomasa Ii were on their way to Komaki-Nagakute when the former senses something strange. As they continue on, they discover that their allies are nowhere to be found and neither are the Hashiba/Toyotomi Army. The enemies they fight are actually from Lu Bu's army, who the Tokugawa officers don't recognise. They try to approach Lu Lingqi and Chen Gong to ask where they are, but they end up having to fight them as they realise that the three Tokugawa officers have just arrived in this world and that they could be enemies. Lu Bu hears of his officers' defeats and goes to fight Tadakatsu, who has a feeling that he fought him before. The three manage to put up a fight against Lu Bu, but he unleashes the power of his Ouroboros Bracelet to transform into a deified form, forcing them to fall back.

Next, Tadakatsu's party encounters the Wu Army at Guangling-Hasedō, who believe them to be of the Wei Army. As they advance, a light shines from the heavens and they are granted Sacred Treasures for them to use. This is the only time they are referenced in the story because Chapter 1 is meant to be a tutorial and the Sacred Treasures are barely mentioned afterwards. The group defeats Lu Xun and Sun Quan's group joins the party.

Following this, the group heads to the "village" of Kyūshū where Dong Zhuo's army is attacking the peasants there. They are joined by Ma Chao, Guan Yinping and Kanetsugu Naoe as Dong Zhuo is defeated. Tadakatsu notices Dong Zhuo mentioning the name of Nobunaga as he withdraws; it is then that the Oda Army arrives, led by Nō and Yoshimoto Imagawa. Be prepared for this to happen a lot; you'll defeat one group of enemies only to find that the battle isn't over because another group of enemies will arrive to fight you.

After defeating the Oda Army, Ma Chao takes Tadakatsu and his party to Liu Bei and Kenshin Uesugi, who have formed an alliance with Shingen and the Takeda against the Oda. It turns out that after they were brought (back) to this world, Nobunaga raised an army and began invading surrounding lands, proclaiming himself as a conqueror, the ruler of the world, bringing many under his control with a strange power. Liu Bei's army was considered to be a rebel army and Nobunaga became focused on subjugating them. This ends Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 begins with news of Nobunaga attacking the Takeda at Kawanakajima, with Yoshimoto and Ujiyasu Hōjō among them. Jia Xu initially works with the Oda to ambush the reinforcements, but after his ambush is defeated, he defects to the Takeda. Nobunaga withdraws at the start of the battle and reappears again after most of his army is defeated to ambush Yukimura. As the group reaches Yukimura, Nobunaga reveals that he has another Ouroboros Bracelet and uses it to deify himself, only to be stopped by Perseus, who has come to take it from him. Perseus is driven back by the bracelet's power, but the rebel army manages to drive back Nobunaga. Liu Bei suggests that they search for the bracelets while they continue to investigate Nobunaga, which will hopefully lead them to Perseus.

The Oda then sets their sights on Aya and Kagekatsu Uesugi, with Taishi Ci and Xu Huang leading the attack unit. After rescuing Aya and bringing the defeated generals into the fold, Jia Xu proposes a plan to splinter the Oda, managing to split Yoshimoto and Yuan Shao away from Dong Zhuo and bring them into the rebel army. Meanwhile, Naotora manages to find one of the bracelets as well; Yuan Shao and Jia Xu try to use it, but to no avail.

In a forest, Lu Bu meets Da Ji, who offers to join forces with him. Back with the rebel army, Yuan Shao states that he was unable to get any information from Nobunaga about the bracelets, though he did hear that Kotarō Fūma was sent to look for more of them. Shingen and Kunoichi confront the Fūma forces in Ji Province, only for the Demon Army, led by Da Ji and Kiyomori Taira, to intrude in the battle. The rebel army reaches Kotarō's camp, only for him to not be there. Xiahou Ba, who is serving the Hōjō after being saved by their princess, comes out and attacks them. Kotarō summons his doubles to attack the rebel army before the real him appears near the allied main camp and prepares to escape, only to be stopped by Yuan Shao who was just sitting there the entire battle. Kotarō manages to escape anyway.

Fa Zheng comes to the rest of the rebel army to inform them that Liu Bei was being attacked by Nobunaga. It is revealed that Perseus had come to Liu Bei for help but Nobunaga had found them before they could get any more details. While we also meet up with Zhang Fei, Guan Ping and Xu Shu, on the Oda's side are Sima Zhao and the army of Jin. Liu Bei manages to escape and the rebel army meets Perseus for reals. Perseus explains that Zeus created the eight Ouroboros Bracelets by using Orochi's scythe to forge them from the hair of Medusa, whom he defeated, and imbuing them with the powers of the gods. He planned on using them to recreate Orochi's world so he could have his way with the humans, but Perseus managed to steal four of them. Athena gave chase to Perseus and he managed to escape into the world, but he lost the bracelets in the confusion.

Fa Zheng attempts to make contact with Ujiyasu, but he refused to talk and retreated inside Odawara-Wan Castle. Fa Zheng claims to have poisoned the castle's water source, much to the horror of Ma Chao and Lady Hayakawa. Of course, this was just misinformation on his part as he believes that Ma Chao's horror will work to their advantage. Thanks to this, the rebels are (eventually) able to bring the Hōjō to their side alongside Yue Jin and Cao Ren. Kotarō also reveals that the Oda haven't found any more bracelets besides the one Nobunaga has, while Naotora is still trying to figure out how to get hers to work.

Naotora is accompanied by Lu Xun as she wonders where her lord, Ieyasu, has got to. They hear of someone being attacked by Da Ji and Lu Bu and they head over to investigate; sure enough, it is Ieyasu. After Ina is rescued, Lu Bu proceeds to attack Ieyasu in his deified form; Naotora reaches them and as she charges at Lu Bu, the power of her bracelet awakens and grants her a deified form as well. Perseus deduces that the power of the bracelets can only be used during moments of intense emotion and resolve.

In the effort to continue splintering the Oda Army, Liu Bei and Xu Shu manage to subjugate the fairweather alliance of Sima Yi and Masamune while also meeting up with Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu and Yueying. Sima Yi then suggests to the rebels that they take down the rest of Wu and Sun Quan's group faces off against them. Meanwhile, as Athena watches the happenings from Olympus, the path to the world opens and she offers to go through and stop Perseus.

The Oda mobilises an army, led by Mitsuhide Akechi and accompanied by Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, to take Naotora's bracelet. During the battle, the mystic Nezha appears out of nowhere and attacks Naotora, who deifies herself to fight him. Upon his defeat, Nezha tells Naotora to corner Nobunaga, much to her confusion. The Oda are defeated and Sima Yi's family is brought into the rebel army.

Kotarō informs Liu Bei, Guan Yinping and Yukimura of the location of another bracelet. Arriving at Mt. Dingjun, they find an Olympian army there led by Athena; on top of that, Zhao Yun and the rest of the Shubabies have sided with her. Yukimura and Perseus manage to find Athena and one of the bracelets; Yukimura manages to grab the bracelet and deify himself, but he is immediately confronted by Zhao Yun, who also has a bracelet and a deified form as well. Athena is driven back, but the rebels can't help but feel that there is something going on. Sure enough, Bao Sanniang approaches Liu Bei and informs him that Athena captured Liu Shan and is forcing Zhao Yun and the Shubabies to obey her.

With multiple threats coming from the Olympians, Da Ji and Nobunaga, the rebel army decides that with two bracelets in their possession, the time has come to confront Nobunaga. Liu Bei confronts him at Honnōji with Yukimura and Naotora in tow; Nezha intrudes in the battle again, three times, in fact. Nobunaga is finally defeated; when Naotora asks him what his objective is, Nuwa appears with Nezha and reveals that they (as in the Mystics) were the ones backing Nobunaga.

Nuwa explains the history of Orochi's world and how it was recreated by Zeus. The Ouroboros Bracelets contain both the power of Orochi and the power of the gods. Orochi's power will gradually restore everyone's memories as the world is recreated, but it is unstable because Orochi is not there (not that the world was unstable already because of Orochi's will to destroy himself). Powerful beings like the Olympians or the Mystics forcing their way into this world would end up destroying it. As such, gradually exposing the world to gods and mystics would allow it to accept them thanks to the humans' deification powers. One of the bracelets was found in the Mystic Realm; they imbued it with the power of the god Izanagi and entrusted it to Nezha, who then happened to be the first of them to be summoned into the world. Nobunaga just happened to be nearby as well and the bracelet reacted with him as they fought. This game just loves running on coincidences, doesn't it? Oh, and just so it happens, Nobunaga doing all this was just a test for the rebels and totally not him figuring it out as he went. The Oda Army and the rest of the Jin officers join with the rebel army to form the new Coalition Army.

Perseus asks Nuwa and Nezha why the bracelet was taken to the Mystic Realm; they don't know why, but Nezha mentions that Orochi's scythe was also stolen, but then it was put back. At the same time, Ares joins forces with Wei and the Toyotomi, giving Ouroboros Bracelets to Cao Pi and Mitsunari Ishida. This ends Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 begins with Ares and Athena, alongside the Wei-Toyotomi and Shu armies, attacking the Uesugi at Mt. Kasuga-Fan Castle. After rescuing Kenshin and Aya, they break through the Wei forces and reach Kanetsugu and Kagekatsu. Ares and Athena call in reinforcements and Nuwa and Nezha offer to hold them off. However, with Zhao Yun and Cao Pi able to deify themselves, the Olympians gain the upper hand on the Mystics until Susano'o descends and agrees to help Nuwa and Nezha while the coalition retreats. The Toyotomi forces arrive to stop the coalition, bringing with them monsters, or horrors, known as Cyclops. Eventually, they break through the Toyotomi blockades and escape, with help from Zhuge Liang.

The coalition then saves a group of "sages" led by Pang Tong while fighting a bunch of Griffins, then they meet Zuo Ci who has managed to tame a Griffin, a Cyclops and a Wraith and use them to fend off some more horrors, including Wraiths. Athena attacks Honnōji with Cao Pi, but Nobunaga had provided Zhuge Dan with a map so he could strategise a way to hold out until reinforcements could arrive. In an effort to continue searching for the bracelets, Gracia brings up a rumour of someone being worshipped and the Coalition heads to investigate; the person being worshipped is Himiko (who initially has no memory of Orochi or Da Ji), but the local forces (the Demon Army) attack them, likely having been attacked by Ares prior. Da Ji arrives and both she and Himiko are defeated, but Da Ji manages to take Himiko and escape.

The Coalition manages to locate another bracelet, but they will have to fight Zhao Yun and the Shubabies as well. Shingen proposes a two-pronged three-way plan - they will "leak" the news that they found a bracelet to lure out the Olympians, then another unit will secure the bracelet at the actual location. Once that is done, they can send another unit into the Olympian camp and save Liu Shan.

Sima Zhao went on ahead to where the bracelet was supposedly being worshipped, only to be surrounded by enemies. It isn't the Olympians, however, but Seimei Abe, leading an army of Asgardian officers. They manage to defeat Seimei's army and retrieve the bracelet.

Meanwhile, Bao Sanniang and Kunoichi attack the Olympian camp at Kakegawa Castle. Kunoichi has to listen to Bao Sanniang gushing about Guan Suo and I wish someone would say to her, "Girl, I don't think he's that into you." The two meet with Xingcai and she is convinced to join them; she says that Liu Shan is being held behind a barrier and they need several keys to unlock it. The group frees Liu Shan, who joins the coalition alongside Xingcai.

The Coalition confronts the Olympians at Sekigahara. With Guan Yu helping hold off Zhao Yun and the remaining Shubabies, Kanetsugu arrives with the bracelet, which responds to Guan Yinping's will and deifies her. Zhao Yun is defeated, at which point Liu Shan arrives, allowing him to defect to the Coalition. After Athena is defeated, Ares, Cao Pi and Mitsunari move to the attack, but with five bracelets now in their possession, Ares is defeated and forced to retreat. This ends Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 begins with Sakon Shima and the Azai being attacked by Da Ji and Lu Bu, who we haven't seen in a while. As the coalition comes to Nagamasa's aid, they are surrounded by enemy reinforcements, with Seimei among them. Zhong Hui retreats upon his plan failing and Perseus goes after him. The rest of the coalition goes after Lu Bu and Da Ji, at which point the latter reveals, as Zhong Hui reappears, that her real target was Perseus. After Perseus is captured, Shuten Dōji appears in this world and is immediately defeated by Lu Bu and captured by Da Ji.

Jiang Wei, along with Huang Zhong and Wei Yan, manage to escape the Toyotomi but they catch up with them. The Coalition heads to their rescue while Nobunaga fights Hideyoshi and his officers with his deification. Mitsunari reveals his deification as well and defeats Nobunaga; the Coalition defeats Mitsunari and Athena and escapes the battlefield with Jiang Wei's party. They also learn that Da Ji isn't with the Olympians.

As Ares comments to Cao Pi that he and Hideyoshi need to try harder, Cao Pi remarks to him that while his lies can control humanity, they will be exposed eventually. Ares goes to take out his anger at having to rely on humans and his father withholding his true intentions from him, at which point he is approached by a shadowy figure...

The Coalition follows a report of Da Ji being sighted at Ōsaka Castle, where she is fighting Athena. The deifiable officers head there in search of Perseus; the bracelet reacts to multiple possible presences of him and they investigate them, only to be confronted by Demon Army forces. Da Ji reveals the real Perseus and Athena demands that she hand him over, only for Da Ji to summon Sun Wukong to fight her. The group reaches Perseus, but just as Sun Wukong turns to confront them, Sanzang appears and tells him to let them pass, only to end up in a three-way fight with Athena. Sun Wukong and Athena are defeated, but Da Ji withdraws with Perseus.

Da Ji's group meets with their benefactor, the Asgardian Odin, who listens to a report from his right-hand man Loki; they intend to continue fanning the flames so that Zeus can appear in this world.

Nuwa requests the Coalition to assist fellow mystic Kaguya, who is surrounded by demons. Gracia and Sima Yi rush into the battlefield, where they see Ling Tong and Gan Ning fighting. As Gracia and Sima Yi investigate the forts, the encounter Kiyomori, who is controlling a Cyclops. Meeting with the two Wu officers, it turns out that they were apparently searching for Kaguya as well. They also encounter Zhang Liao fighting doubles of Wukong before Sima Yi advises him to defeat the real one. The group reaches Kaguya and they rescue her from Da Ji and Himiko's attack, only to be attacked by Ares, because of course there's always one more.

With Kaguya and the mighty officers joining the Coalition, Nuwa informs them that Da Ji has joined forces with Odin and Loki. Odin was prophesied to die during a war among the gods of Asgard, but he emerged victorious and executed all those who turned against him. It is then that Sanzang reports that Loki is making his move against them. The Coalition breaks through Loki's forces and reaches Perseus, who reveals himself to be Loki, claiming that "Perseus is no more", adding that the bracelets Yukimura and Yinping are using contain the power of his comrades Tyr and Freyja and that they helped summon his lord, Odin, to this world. His objective was to act as Perseus so that he could locate the bracelets, then once they were all located and activated, he played a charade to have Da Ji "capture" him so that his disappearance wouldn't be suspicious. With no other choice, the Coalition are forced to escape.

Mitsunari leads a small force to attack the coalition without Hideyoshi's authority. Sensing something strange, Sakon offers to take command of the response to see what Mitsunari's true intentions are. Sakon sets a trap for Toshiie Maeda, which he quickly falls into, surrendering upon his defeat. Hearing this, Mitsunari orders a retreat while Yoshitsugu Ōtani offers to hold off the coalition; Kiyomasa Katō and Masanori Fukushima decide to stay with Yoshitsugu as well. Sakon and Zhuge Liang deduce that Mitsunari is doing this on purpose for some reason. Yoshitsugu fights the coalition and surrenders upon being defeated, all according to keikaku. (TL: Keikaku means plan.) Sure enough, Toshiie and Yoshitsugu confirm Mitsunari's ruse and inform the coalition that Hideyoshi made a contract with Ares to help the Olympians take control of this world in preparation for Zeus' arrival, adding that Hideyoshi will be crowned the king of men in return - keeping in mind that Ares said the same thing to Cao Pi as well.

Sakon is presented with a map of Cao Pi's castle at the Wuzhang Plains, which is close to Toyotomi territory. Sakon and Sun Quan lead an attack on the base; sure enough, Hideyoshi and Mitsunari arrive with Toyotomi reinforcements to attack the Coalition camp, which is defended by Sun Jian. Eventually, the Coalition manages to buy time for their next strategem; with Ares under the impression that the Coalition retreated, Mitsunari asks Ares for Cao Pi's power, claiming that he should swear loyalty to Hideyoshi. Ares' deception is exposed, just as Cao Pi predicted. The Toyotomi defect to the Coalition and help them in defeating Ares and Cao Pi. Cao Pi calls in his reinforcements and so does Ares, but Toshiie and Yoshitsugu had taken care of Ares' reserve troops beforehand. After the battle, Nene offers the location where Zeus is set to descend.

The Coalition confronts the Olympian Army at Itsukushima-Chengdu. They occupy the shrine in preparation for Zeus' arrival just as Ares and Athena arrive with Cao Pi. Mitsunari lures out Ares just as Zeus arrives. Zhao Yun and Naotora confront Zeus and asks him what his intentions are, but of course he's only here for a fight. Despite his power, Zeus is eventually defeated and he retreats.

Ares and Loki both launch attacks on Mikatagahara-Jianye. With the two of them unwilling to work together, the Coalition initially sits back to watch how the situation plays out while they hold back both armies. Noticing Ares and Loki locked in their main camps and Lu Bu arriving on the battlefield, Mitsunari has Yu Jin lure Lu Bu to Ares' camp to catch his attention while Ieyasu has Gan Ning taunt Zhong Hui out of his fort. Shennong and Taigong Wang arrive as well and both Ares and Loki's armies gradually fall like dominoes. After the battle, Shennong asks the coalition if they've seen Shuten Dōji, which they haven't. Meanwhile, Odin uses Shuten Dōji to resurrect Orochi, but he ends up resurrecting the God of Destruction, Orochi X, much to Da Ji's disappointment, while Loki notices a purple light flying off elsewhere.

The Mystics sense a strange presence and Taigong Wang and Kaguya head to the Mystic Realm to investigate. Much to their surprise, Athena is there as well and so is Da Ji. After going through Diamondback's decoy, the Mystics get to Da Ji in the cave, but Orochi X appears near Athena. After defeating Orochi X and saving Athena, Taigong Wang says that they can't stay for long. Himiko and Wukong appear to impede the Mystics, while Kiyomori enhances Orochi X's destructive power. Upon escaping, Kaguya notes that she faintly sensed Shuten Dōji's energy on Orochi X.

The Coalition saves Cao Cao from Ares and Lu Bu's armies. They then receive information on Zeus' location, but first they would need to go through Cao Pi's main camp, aka Kakegawa Castle. Xiahou Dun, Ranmaru Mori and Kaguya lead the vanguard to close off the escape route before going to meet up with Cao Cao's main army. Cao Pi is aware of his father's intent to make his officers surrender and goes on the attack. Cao Pi deifies himself and takes on his father in battle, but is defeated by the might of the coalition. As Cao Pi retreats, he leaves behind a letter detailing four arenas of different powers; this is the key to breaking Zeus' barrier, with the powers referring to those of the gods imbued in the Ouroboros Bracelets. The respective holder needs to clear that arena so that they can break the barrier.

After breaking through Ares and Athena's forces at Kawanakajima, the Coalition finally reaches Mt. Olympus. Zhao Yun, Mitsunari and Naotora have the respective gods required to break Zeus' barrier. At the same time, Zeus refuses to tell his children anything. The three deified officers defeat the Olympians defending the arenas, leaving one arena left, and the one holding the god for it is Cao Pi. Cao Pi defects to the Coalition and fights Ares; he was also working to bring them down from the inside all along, he was just playing a longer game than the Toyotomi did. With the barrier broken, the Coalition faces off against Zeus along with Ares and Athena.

Zeus is defeated and he complements everyone's skills in battle; he was the one who orchestrated all this, after all. Ares' resentment goes over the edge and he kills his father to become king of the gods, just as Zeus did his father long ago. Odin and Loki appear, Ares having made a deal with the Asgardians. This ends Chapter 4.

Chapter 5 begins with the Coalition and Athena forced to escape from the might of Odin and Ares' power. Zhao Yun asks Loki if this is what he wanted to achieve, to which he states that his true desire lies "beyond these events". Even Orochi X has been brought in for the pursuit. After everyone escapes, Athena decides to join the Coalition, even if only to be the one watching over them.

Lu Bu becomes the next obstacle in the Coalition's escape before Odin turns his sights to the rest of the Coalition and the Mystic Realm. It's at the latter where Fu Xi finally shows up to help his fellow mystics and humans defend the entrance to the Mystic Realm. Ares and Loki launches an attack on Cao Pi at Komaki-Nagakute-Xiaopei, but they are repelled thanks to Athena's help. Athena apologises for her actions and takes off her helmet, wanting to deal with the Coalition using her true face. Cao Pi fears that Ares may end up being played by Odin, just as he was played by Mitsunari and himself.

Athena also reveals that Zeus was the one who borrowed Orochi's scythe and left one of the bracelets in the Mystic Realm when he returned it. Yukimura notes that Zeus didn't need to bring the Mystic Realm into this if he wanted to gather heroes (but then how could he have done everything in the first place without Orochi's scythe) and Cao Pi notes that perhaps Zeus knew of Odin's plans, but while they have no way of asking Zeus, they could certainly try and ask Odin himself.

Odin leads a large army to attack the Coalition at Guandu, bringing Seimei with him. After overcoming Odin, Seimei surrenders to the Coalition and reveals that he along with a few other officers happened across Loki when they first arrived in this world and they joined Odin's army. It is revealed that Odin is attempting to eradicate all worlds and create a new one, fearful of being destroyed again. To do that, he intends on using Orochi X to create the World Tree Yggdrasil and absorb all the power in this world to create a massively-destructive weapon that would destroy all worlds. The only way they can do this is to defeat Orochi X and prevent Yggdrasil's creation, or defeat Odin. Yukimura asks Seimei what Loki's desire was, to which he says that he has no idea. However, he states that Loki was defeated in the war in Asgard, his friends killed and himself stripped of his powers. He only had enough power to disguise himself as Perseus.

The Coalition prepares themselves to fight Orochi X, the God of Destruction. They fight their way up to Orochi X, but Kiyomori will constantly be healing him, causing Tadakatsu and Ina to struggle with him. As they are close to bending at Orochi X's destructive power, a mysterious opponent appears; the original Orochi. Orochi fights his destructive counterpart while the others deal with the rest of the Demon Army. Kiyomori is defeated which allows the coalition to defeat Orochi X, but they are still unable to defeat him for good, allowing Yggdrasil to be created.

Ares sets out to fight the Coalition and Nobunaga offers to fight him. Ares fights Nobunaga as his troops are gradually defeated, and Ares is defeated despite possessing his father's power. Odin arrives and Ares asks him to strike them down, but Odin takes Zeus' power from Ares, saying that he was simply waiting for a chance to take it from him. Odin leaves Loki to finish off Ares, only to be stopped by Yukimura and Yinping, the former saying that mortal or god, everyone deserves a second chance. Loki retreats and Ares swallows his pride to join the Coalition. Ares suggests that they ask his father about everything; Zeus' body will be hidden somewhere, but he can be restored if his power is returned to him. Ares explains that Zeus has a soft spot for humans, but Ares was steadfast in the belief that humans needed to be managed at all times. Zeus undermining this belief and not telling anyone his intentions drove Ares to side with Odin, fearing that Olympus would lose its glory and be wiped out.

In order to find out where Zeus' body is hidden, Ares and the Coalition seek out Loki, who is being backed by Lu Bu. Ina finds Lu Lingqi and tells her of Odin's plans, which leads her to defect to the Coalition. Lu Bu defects as well when Odin arrives and tells him to fall back. This also leads Chen Gong and the rest of Lu Bu's men to defect as well; he was gaming on Odin's appearance to get his lord to turn against him. Odin retreats to conserve Yggdrasil's power, leaving Loki to fight against the Coalition. Loki is defeated and Yukimura asks him where Zeus' body is; he takes up his staff and transmits the location into Yukimura's mind, saying that even if Zeus returns, it is too late to stop Odin's plan. As he leaves though, Loki wonders why he is still hesitating.

Zhuge Liang notes that Odin revives every time he is defeated; Hanbei Takenaka and Lu Xun suggest filling the Ouroboros Bracelets with Orochi's power, but Ares and Athena state that it would be difficult as it requires incredibly delicate control, hence why reviving Zeus is still important. The Coalition heads to where Zeus' body is being kept at Ōsaka Castle and works to defeat Da Ji before the castle falls at the hands of the Fire Wraiths so they can extinguish the fires. Da Ji sends out her officers to stop the Coalition, but as they are all defeated, Jia Chong takes his chance to defect. Munenori Yagyū, who was fighting Lu Bu for most of the battle to test his might, defects upon his defeat as well.

Without Zeus' power, Ares offers his life to bring his father back to life, but Athena and the mystics offer their power as well to share the burden. Zeus acknowledges that Ares' betrayal was unexpected and punishes him to stake his life to protect every world and those on them. It turns out that the events of this game were part of Zeus' plan to defeat Odin and that even the Mystic Realm would have been embroiled in this as well, which is why he needed their help to defeat Orochi should he be revived. Also he just wanted to test us and fight us like practically every enemy in this game. The warriors and mystics of the East are just getting ordered around by Western gods at this point, aren't they? Anyway, Zeus joins the Coalition, meaning that all the Olympians are on our side now, leaving the Asgardians and demons led by Odin, Loki and Da Ji.

There is still one thing that Zeus needs in order to assist with the Coalition's plan, and that is his staff, Keraunos, which is in Loki's possession (even though Zeus is unlocked following the last battle and you can play as him). Yukimura heads into battle with the intention of imparting his convictions to Loki and testing his resolve. The enemy's formation is the same as the time when Sima Zhao encountered Seimei for the first time; Zhong Hui and Kanbei Kuroda defect during the battle, causing frictions between them and Loki's forces. Loki is defeated and retreats, leaving Zeus' staff behind. Yukimura mentions that during their battle, Loki was conflicted as to what he wanted so badly, mentioning that he wanted revenge against someone and that his revenge lay beyond Odin's return.

The next step was to fight Orochi X so they can reach Orochi. Fu Xi and Susano'o tell Ares and Athena about Orochi's tragic backstory as shown in WO3U. During the battle in Olympus, they fight Yoshitsune Minamoto and Benkei, who were only serving Da Ji to repay the kindness she showed them. Diamondback orders the demons to advance, but Orochi appears and challenges the demons to a fight, much to Diamondback's horror and Da Ji's excitement. Once Da Ji and the demons are defeated, Kiyomori and Sun Wukong summon horrors to impede the coalition's progress. After their defeat, they finally move on to Orochi X, who is assisted by Yggdrasil's power so he recovers his health twice. Once Orochi X is defeated, Orochi fights the Coalition alongside Da Ji and Kiyomori so they can destroy him, which they do. In the end, the Mystics farewell Orochi, or rather their old friend Yinglong, as they sensed a part of him within Orochi unclouded from the destructive power that he was known for during his initial conquest. Da Ji, Kiyomori, Sun Wukong and the Demon Army finally side with the Coalition alongside Himiko, Yoshitsune and Benkei.

Zeus places Orochi's power into the Ouroboros Bracelets. Now that Orochi X has been defeated, they have stopped Yggdrasil from being completed, but it hasn't been destroyed. With the world beginning to fall apart because of Orochi's demise, the Coalition hurry into battle to fight Odin, but numerous illusions, horrors and Odin's men stand in their way. They deal with the horrors producing the illusions and take down the barrier concealing Odin so Zeus can open a path to him. Odin completes Yggdrasil and prepares to launch his massively-destructive spell, but Loki lands a hit on him, intending to seal Odin in the world. In response, Odin kills Loki and continually revives him to serve as his puppet. The Coalition sees Yggdrasil lose its power and they head up to fight Odin and Loki. If Loki is defeated, Odin will channel his power into him to resurrect him, which will create a weakness that will allow the Coalition to attack Odin.

Odin is finally defeated and Zeus takes his power back from him, using it to destroy Yggdrasil. With the world now breaking down, Zeus takes back the bracelets, sends the Coalition back to their times without their memories of this world, retrieves Loki's spirit and restores Shuten Dōji. This ends Chapter 5 and with it, the story of Warriors Orochi 4.

Warriors Orochi 4 uses characters and battlefields from DW8XL/E and SW4-II. The collaboration characters from 3U do not return in this game as according to producer Masaki Furusawa, he wanted to return to the series' roots and give greater focus to the relationships between DW and SW characters. All the original WO characters from 3 return in this game, including Human Nezha, Tamamo, Kyūbi, Yinglong and Hundun. Human Nezha is unlocked at the same time as cyborg Nezha so that's justifiable and Hundun is unlocked through Pandemonium difficulty, but the other three are frankly unnecessary additions when they don't contribute anything to the story, even in Ultimate. One of the three will be unlocked from the start depending on what console you purchase the Deluxe Edition on (Switch, PS4, Xbox One), otherwise they are available through camp upgrades.

The DW characters use their weaponssousan from DW8E, so the characters who had their EX weapons changed in that game will continue to use them here (along with their associated gimmicks), including Guan Suo's sabatons that only attack if the moves hit enemies, and Liu Shan's dragon column (bench) which is just embarrassing compared to everyone else. Like everyone fights with swords and spears, even bows, fans and arm cannons, and then there's Liu Shan with a fucking bench. Some DW characters with Shadow Sprint EX weapons, namely Sun Jian, Sun Quan and Wen Yang, are also able to use Shadow Sprint in this game.

Some DW characters retain the use of the Musous that were used in WO3, while others who retained the same weapon may use the other Musou (normal or alternate) in this game. For some characters it works, but for characters like Taishi Ci, Zhuge Liang, Yuan Shao, Daqiao or Pang De, their Musou from WO3 was better. All DW characters can now use their Aerial Musous as well (once the respective skill is unlocked) and it takes up the whole gauge when used instead of, say half.

SW characters have their movesets carried over from 4-II, meaning that they are all able to use their Hyper Attacks. Special Attacks are unavailable, but the Musous for Goemon, Musashi and Kojirō are in line with everyone else. All SW characters can also perform Dash Attacks, which if you didn't realise, are the Shadow Cancels in 4. When you activate a Musou Attack when your health is in the red, the True Musou kanji is not shown.

WO characters retain the same movesets they had in 3, even the ones who have been there from the beginning. Why haven't their movesets been updated? Why don't Orochi, Kiyomori, Himiko and Benkei have C5s? Why doesn't Yoshitsune have a C9? Their Musous are set at a fixed length to bring them in line with the DW/SW characters, and their Musou finishers use the True Musou finishers from 3 by default.

Let's begin with the new characters debuting in this title:

Zeus

Athena

Ares

Odin

Loki (Perseus)

Diamondback

Yes, you read that right. Diamondback is now a playable character, using a modified version of Orochi's moveset instead of the generic SW spear moveset. Because of his Japanese name, Mizuchi (蛟), I thought his English name was Mamushi, but that's the English name of Fei Tou Man (飛頭蛮). Diamondback's Musou is actually Orochi appearing behind him and slashing him towards the enemy, which you'd think would be a finisher after a loop of swinging his weapon around, given his Japanese name, but his namesake comes from the Chinese Jiaolong (蛟龍), so maybe it makes sense for his Musou to be like the other DW characters.

Following Daichi Kanbara replacing Junichi Miyake as Guo Jia in DW9, Ujiyasu Hōjō's voice actor and SW4 narrator Unshō Ishizuka died in August 2018, about six weeks before this game's release when it was still in development (somehow). Ujiyasu would be voiced by Masashi Ebara in this game.

Despite the cutting of 3's guest characters, WO4 boasts a roster of 170 playable characters, netting it a Guinness World Record for most playable characters in a hack-and-slash videogame. Mind you, when it comes to videogames in general, that accolade goes to Spike (Chunsoft)'s Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, released in 2005, with 327 wrestlers from a variety of companies. Koei Tecmo also has two other Guinness World Records for best selling multi-platform hack-and-slash videogame series and most prolific hack-and-slash videogame series, but it's practically a given for them since they're specific records to the genre. Who would have thought Koei Tecmo being money-grubbers would net them Guinness World Records? And they wouldn't certify John Oliver's record-breaking marble cake on Last Week Tonight.

On top of this game using battlefields from the two source games, there are also hybrid stages combining a DW battlefield with an SW battlefield, such as Guangling-Hasedō, Odawara-Wan Castle and Itsukushima-Chengdu. Stages have commonly received modifications to fit with Warriors Orochi's world-bending themes, so this is a very interesting concept to see. Likely because of this, horseriding is allowed in SW castles where horses traditionally wouldn't be allowed. Yes, even in Kakegawa Castle.

The stages in Story Mode are in a list format unlike the thumbnail/icon format of previous games. I'd have less of a problem with this if there were thumbnails of the stage or at least the name of the battlefield the stage is using, because the stages are actually given real titles instead of just being (X) of (battlefield), something that also happened in the new stages of WO3U. I would probably also argue that the old thumbnail/icon format gives you an idea of where you're up to in the story if there isn't a number of total stages in the chapter somewhere on the screen.

Instead of doing a three-pronged story like in 3, the story normally follows a single thread save for some exceptions where the Coalition split up to do different things.

The recommended characters in each stage are now known as Elite (Bonus) Members. Playing with them will receive bonus EXP when defeating enemy officers, plus you'll have a chance to get the Book of Enlightenment where you gain a 50 EXP scroll (reduced from 300) for every enemy defeated. I've also found that you can get more weapons when playing with Elite Members, but YMMV. The problem with Elite Members, however, is that they aren't actually featured in the stages. And why is that? It's because when you play as a character who is already featured in a stage, they don't get replaced by a generic officer and they'll appear as a duplicate alongside you. The only time that doesn't happen is if you're playing a character who deifies themselves during the battle. I know this might not seem like a big issue to some people, but this is just lazy and immersion-breaking for me. I made a list of substitute officers in WO3 and put in some hypothetical changes to them for both this game and The Recollective, so feel free to check it out.

Like Warriors All-Stars, this game runs on a checkpoint system and not an interim save system. If you want my thoughts on that, check out the retrospective for that game.

The camp from WO3 has been binned in favour of a menu-based format, and my God, it is a UX nightmare. I studied IT at uni and one of the core courses I had to do was on User Centred Design (UCD), which is a framework on how users are considered in the design of user interfaces (UI) to provide the best user experience (UX). So when someone like me who has played Warriors games for 20 years and ranted about the lack of English dubs for 5 of them tells you they're serious about a problem that they haven't ranted to the point of being worn out, you'd better understand they're serious.

There are six sections in the camp menu: Sortie, Party, Upgrade, Weapons, Gallery and Settings. Sortie is where you set out for battle and it sounds like the English translation for 出撃 got ruined somehow and they had to use the French translation. Sortie? What the hell is that? Deploy would be a better translation in my opinion.

In Party, you can form your team, view the officer info (stats, movesets and weapons), select the costumes or even go into a mock battle to test out your team. The mock battle is a very good feature and I'm sure many fans will agree, but a point of criticism for this game is that all the characters are spread out in a list. No, I don't mean like in WO3 where the characters are listed by force, I mean all the character thumbnails are listed in a 4x4 (when selecting support members) or 5x4 scroll window. The three characters you select for your team are moved to the top and they don't show in their respective forces. You can also sort them by their force, their level, when they joined (were unlocked), the number of weapons, the number of skill points, the number of promotions (in Ultimate), the number of upgrade stones (in Ultimate) and their Sacred Treasures, which would help if we could SEE THE TREASURES ON THE SCREEN, FUCK~ (beeeeeep)

Each characters' bond meters are shown below their thumbnails and when the heart glows pink, that means they've got an event they can view, and in all honesty, who gives a shit? But in all seriousness, the bond system is simplified from 3 in that it's just one meter for each character and not individual meters for every combination of two characters.

In addition to selecting your team of three, you also need to select four support members. Your support members will contribute points towards each type, and for every 5 points in each type, the abilities of all team members will increase by 2%. Theoretically you can get a maximum 24% boost, but at most I've seen 10-14%, maybe even 16%. When you have strong bonds with your other team members, they can execute Support Attacks when you are under attack.

There are Special Team Combinations of 3-5 characters that when implemented, can give you specific boosts, such as giving stat buffs every 300 KOs, or beginning a battle with the Unity Magic gauge filled or a Tear of the Gods. Combinations with 5 characters will use up slots for your main party and support members, but you can smartly manipulate combinations of 3-4 characters to stack two different boost effects.

Under Upgrade, you can upgrade your officers levels, give them new skills, upgrade your camp or send your officers out on training. Skills are acquired using Skill Points, which are gained individually as characters level up or by using 1 Skill Orb in exchange for 3 Skill Points. When levelling up officers, you can upgrade them one level at a time or you can exhaust all your Growth Points/EXP to level them up as much as it costs. Upgrading your camp uses Gems and Crystals, but there are also conditions you need to meet before you can unlock upgrades. Orochi, Orochi X, Tamamo, Kyūbi and Yinglong are unlockable through camp upgrades.

By spending a small amount of gems, you can send out 3 of your characters to go on a training trip; they can train to increase their EXP, gather gems and weapons or forge their bonds. The training takes 2-3 battles and the characters can't be used for that duration. Warrior Training is unlocked in Chapter 2 after unlocking Sima Yi and Masamune.

Speaking of levelling up, I think the system has been changed in battle so that your inactive team members also earn any EXP scrolls you obtain. It's honestly a big help, particularly when you're using a Book of Enlightenment and you're in EXP fever. And yet there's still no indicator for when it's in use.

Moving onto Weapons now and oh boy, this is a section I have much complaints about. Your weapons need to be equipment [sic] in the Camp first as they can't be set in the Battle Preparation screen. You can also equipment [sic] your weapons in Fuse Weapons by pressing Square; either remove that functionality here or remove Equip Weapons, you can't have both. You can't buy weapons in this game, only obtain them in battle; when selling weapons, you can sell them for gems or dismantle the attributes for weapon elements. Like the Asian versions of DW8, weapons are named after the strongest element that comes first in a weapon, even in English.

Weapon Fusion (Fuse Weapons) works differently than it did in 3. You know how in 3U you had weapon orbs that could add +5 of a particular attribute? In this game, you can purchase or earn weapon elements that add +1 to attributes. Adding an attribute has a base element cost of 10 and levelling them up has an element cost of x+4, where x is the current level of the attribute. Some attributes don't have levels and they have an element cost of 20.

This means that weapon fusion as you knew it before this game does not exist here. You can still do it, it's just a really roundabout process of dismantling/selling a weapon and then fusing attributes onto a weapon by going through menus. And that's if you can remember up to 8 elements. This is why the weapon fusion from older games was so much better. I wouldn't even mind only being able to fuse half the levels of whatever elements I want from the second weapon.

You can add up to eight slots (or sockets) onto a weapon, but there's a catch (there's always a catch). Adding slots to 1 and 2-star weapons (blue/orange backgrounds) uses gems, but adding slots to gold weapons (3-5 stars) uses 1 crystal each. With the rare frequency that crystals are obtained in this game, it's actually harder to forge more powerful weapons for yourself. Crystals are obtained by clearing battle objectives for the first time, playing in Pandemonium difficulty or Infinity Mode in Ultimate.

Unique weapons are also available and are obtainable by playing specific stages on Chaos (or rather, Chaotic for some reason, available after clearing the game) or Pandemonium difficulty and clearing all three battle objectives.

At the end of a battle, you can choose which of your acquired weapons to sell or dismantle and keep the rest. The game doesn't tell you this, but like SW4-II, you can keep a maximum of 20 weapons per character and because the game doesn't tell you, sometimes you won't know if you need to clean up your weapons unless you do a count or the game tells you that a character has too many weapons. And of course, the cleanup process is harder because you can't merge weapons directly like you could in 3.

To unlock Hundun in this game, you need to defeat him in Pandemonium difficulty after clearing the game first. Every so often, a random stage will fall into Pandemonium and the message "Hundun Will Appear" will be shown (although I would have preferred "Hundun Appears!" for more impact). Playing that stage allows you to play the stage in said difficulty, where the other two characters you have in reserve do not recover their health. You need to defeat Hundun on that difficulty, then you need to clear the battle before he appears again.

Gallery is essentially what you would expect it is. In the Orochi World section, the sections for WO1 and 2 (Z) are basically just summaries of each Story Mode and the section for WO3 is just a summary of each chapter instead of restating the prelude narrations for each battle like in 3.

To switch between the sections in the camp, you press L1 or R1. However, I didn't buy a controller until a few months after I started playing this game, so I was at a loss as to how to switch sections. The left and right arrow keys didn't work and nor did either of the Shift keys. You know what the buttons were to do that? Q and E. Granted, Page Up and Page Down worked as well.

To switch between characters under Officer Info, the Home and End buttons didn't work, but the number 1 and 3 keys did. I couldn't open up the sorting menus that were opened with Select on the controller until I figured out it was the Delete key. DW9 had options to map menu actions to different buttons, but not this game. What the hell, Koei Tecmo. I didn't mind the generic key prompts in DW7 and 8 (ie. Normal Attack button, Charge Attack button, Musou Attack button etc) but that was because I could map them and know what key to press. For this game, the keyboard prompts are shown in the manual, and while I can remap the battle actions on the keyboard, I can't do that for the menu actions. That being said, just play with a controller. It'll make your life much easier.

In terms of battle mechanics, the character types return to what they were in Z, meaning that the Wonder type has been removed. Most characters do retain their assigned types from 3, but some characters have had their types changed, especially those who had the Wonder type in 3. For the most part, the features of Power, Technique and Speed types remain the same as in 3.

Power types now have the ability to cancel an attack with a block by holding L1 until a white flash occurs, plus they can inflict guard breaks as well.

Technique types are now able to use the Spirit Charge that Wonder types used. WO characters under this type have an upgrade skill (Spirited) can also inflict elemental shockwaves on enemies.

Speed types don't receive any upgrades, but WO characters under this type have an upgrade skill (Multi) that can occasionally summon doubles of themselves while attacking, even if that skill isn't on their weapon.

Despite this game seemingly going back to the modern era when it was actually in development at the same time as DW9, some features of the postmodern era have been implemented. One of them is the lock-on feature using R3 when near an enemy officer, and the other one is Magic with the R1 button and one of the face buttons, which replace Type Actions.

All DW and SW characters are assigned a Sacred Treasure based on Greek or Norse mythologies, while WO characters (along with Nobunaga and Mitsuhide) have either the Purging Pestle or the Taijitu from Chinese mythology or the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi from Japanese mythology. Zeus, Ares, Athena, Odin and Loki use their own weapons as Sacred Treasures.

By using up the Magic Gauge, characters can perform Normal Magic, Charge Magic or Unique Magic, with Unique Magics being unique and fixed to the character regardless of what Sacred Treasure they use (in Ultimate). Unique Magic also uses up half a Musou Gauge in addition to the entire Magic Gauge (like with Charge Magic), and I know the HUD makes it look like there's two Musou bars but it's actually only one. I wish they just went with three Musou bars. That would have been easier and we can just make Musou Attacks and Unique Magic take one bar of Musou as well.

For the most part, I've found Magic to be rather weak in this game, particularly while playing for the first time. It gets easier to defeat enemies as you level up and keep playing on Easy, but it's like Omega Force nerfed the power (speed and effectiveness) of all the attacks in this game. Also, Normal Magic does add to your combo count, but Charge Magic or Unique Magic doesn't, meaning that your combos will disappear when performing those attacks. Magic slowly fills automatically, but holding down R1 near an anchor will rapidly fill it. If an enemy is about to unleash Magic, they will glow red, at which point you can unleash your own Magic to prevent them from doing so and deal some damage as well.

Pressing R1 and Cross allows you to summon your horse easily. It's better than holding down the Up button in 3U and I like it. Once again, you can even summon and ride your horse inside SW castles, including Kakegawa Castle.

Aside from the Magic Gauge, there is also a Unity Magic Gauge. Once it is filled, you can unleash "the most powerful magic there is" called Unity Magic using L2 and R2 and... it's a 7-man Kamehameha. OK, it's actually a 7-man Spirit Bomb, but my joke was better. This replaces the True Triple Attack from the last game and in all honesty, it's so boring. I hate that I can spam multiple Unity Magics in a battle, and yet I can't do the same with a certain attack that's more unique.

Rage Mode is now activated with L3. I hated that so I swapped it to R3 so that lock-on is now L3. The catch is that in order to activate Rage Mode, you need to obtain a divine power granted Tear of the Gods by defeating a Chaos Origin. Not only that, you have to defeat it with at least a 300 combo.

Chaos Origins are ghostly Wraiths that are technically the first monster type you see, even before the Cyclops or Griffin. According to the manual, they are enemy units whose very nature was turned evil by the power of the gods. They trigger areas of Chaos on the battlefield, summon soldiers known as Lost Ones and turn enemies within areas of Chaos into Lost Ones as well. Lost Ones have a higher defence and are more resistant to most attacks; Rage Mode and Magic are more effective against them. This is the equivalent to higher-morale enemy areas and flag (standard) bearers in SW4.

So yeah, to get a Tear of the Gods, you need to defeat a Chaos Origin with at least a 300 combo. You can't defeat them with Charge or Unique Magic because the hits won't count and your combo will disappear by the time you defeat the Chaos Origin. You can build up a combo of over 300 and trigger a 7-man Kamehameha Unity Magic to defeat it and it will still allow you to get a Tear of the Gods. On average, a battlefield will have 3 Chaos Origins, meaning that you can trigger Rage Mode a maximum of 3 times. You can't stack divine powers either. Some stages don't even have Chaos Origins at all.

Entering Rage Mode allows attack and defence to increase dramatically. DW characters can perform Rage Attacks and SW characters can perform their Frenzy Finishers, but WO characters just perform their normal Musous, so that's a waste. Oh, and if you accidentally perform an Aerial Musou in Rage Mode because Omega Force didn't deactivate it like they did in DW8, congratulations you just wasted a divine power.

This is why I think Rage Mode and Unity Magic should be swapped. Have the Tears of the Gods allow you to trigger the 7-man Kamehameha Spirit Bomb while also giving you a free one (once per battle) when your life goes in the red. I understand why Koei Tecmo and Omega Force limited the use of Rage Mode in this game; it's because in DW8 and SW4, Rage Modes can easily be overused given the 1 vs 1000 standard of the modern series and how easily you can charge the gauge. I don't mind if my Rage Attacks or Frenzy Finishers are weaker, just let me perform them more often. It's less boring than Unity Magic.

Also, for the new characters debuting in 4 and Ultimate? Their Musou Attacks should have been their Rage Musous, because they look too flashy and powerful to be normal Musous. I mean, just look at Odin's Musou; his spear goes into fucking space. In turn, their Unique Magics should be their normal Musous, if not something else. And while you're at it, GIVE ALL THE OROCHI CHARACTERS DIFFERENT RAGE ATTACKS!

As covered in the story, eight characters have been granted Deification forms through the Ouroboros Bracelets, which contain the power of the gods themselves. They are the following:

Lu Bu - Thor (Asgardian god of thunder)

Nobunaga Oda - Izanagi (Japanese mystic of death)

Naotora Ii - Aphrodite (Olympian goddess of beauty)

Zhao Yun - Apollo (Olympian god of light)

Yukimura Sanada - Tyr (Asgardian god of war)

Cao Pi - Poseidon (Olympian god of the seas)

Mitsunari Ishida - Hermes (Olympian god of trickery and wisdom)

Guan Yinping - Freyja (Asgardian goddess of love)

After Naotora, Yukimura and Guan Yinping obtain the bracelets, or when Lu Bu, Nobunaga, Zhao Yun, Cao Pi or Mitsunari are unlocked, activating Rage Mode with those characters deifies them and transforms them into their deified forms. During deification, your Musou Gauge fills up quickly after use and you can perform magic without using up the Magic Gauge. Your deification remains for a short time after your Rage Mode ends. Also, you can perform a different Unique Magic based on the character's deification god.

If you activate Rage Mode as another character and you change to a deifiable character, they won't be deified. The other character can only perform their Rage Attack or Frenzy Finisher if their Musou is full; only the Musou Gauge of the character you trigger Rage Musou with is filled.

Oh, and you know what else? If any of those eight officers are on the battlefield as NPCs and they deify themselves, they stay in that form for the rest of the battle. Yeah.

So, obviously these eight characters are the only ones who can deify themselves based on popularity and character polls, but Omega Force missed a big opportunity here. WO3's DLC gave all DW characters their own Strikeforce Awakening forms, even those who weren't featured in 6. Why weren't they featured in this game as their Rage Mode Awakening forms? Sure, some redesign would be needed considering they're based on the DW7 costumes, plus they would need to design Awakening forms for DW8, SW and WO characters, but even for SW (and by extension WO) characters with the DW "disguise costumes", part of the work has already been done so they could work off of them.

One change you'll notice to the battle dialogue is that the officer defeated lines are now part of the action dialogue, that is, they are played but not displayed. At the same time, officer defeated notifications are shown on the right hand side of the screen. Warriors Orochi Z had a problem with battle message and dialogue spam where officer defeated and compliment lines would always be played every 100 KOs or when an enemy officer is defeated. Modern era games have mitigated this by merging battle messages when multiple officers are defeated in a short time, eliminating unnecessary dialogue from being played. Honestly though, I would have liked to see an FPS-style chat dialogue where the generic dialogue and battle messages are displayed in a separate thread to the rest of the game, because it seems necessary given the state of Warriors games in the modern era.

I almost forgot this mode was a thing. Battle Arena is a uniquely online multiplayer mode where six players fight in 3v3 battles of 3 minutes to seize each others' bases. Players can switch between two characters (with some delay), no horses or Unique Magic can be used, your health only recovers when you're near an allied base, your Musou is shared between your two characters and performing a Musou also triggers a special effect. Clearly, Koei Tecmo forgot that NOBODY PLAYS FUCKING MULTIPLAYER!!! and even if people did, I wouldn't be able to anyway because of how I got this game, so I can't go too deep into this mode. There's a mock battle where you can play 1v1 against the computer so that's its only saving grace.

Let's just move onto the DLCs. The digital console versions of this game (not PC) also have a Deluxe Edition that gives you access to the Season Pass, 3 bonus weapons for Tadakatsu, Lu Bu and Orochi, some stock EXP, Arena Points for purchasing items in Battle Arena, and having either Tamamo, Kyūbi or Yinglong unlocked from the start depending on your console. Special costumes are available for some characters. as part of pre-order bonuses or DLC. DLC stages, Sacred Treasures (or rather upgraded versions of them) and BGMs are available as well.

Separate from the Season Pass, every character has a legendary costume (modern costumes for DW, yukatas for SW and recolours for WO), 5-star Legendary Weapons and a bunch of legendary mounts along with the soundtrack from Omega Force's 20th anniversary concert, which was included in the Japanese Treasure Box release. There are no alternate or past costumes available in this game, whether in the game itself or in the DLC.

Challenge Mode has now been fully relegated to DLC. Now, I'm not the biggest user of this mode, but come on. Rampage and Bridge Melee are available in this mode; both stages have a normal version that uses generic stats, and an All-out War version where your levels and weapon attributes are reflected.

Having save data from WO3 or WO3U allows you to receive a maximum of 100,000 stock EXP based on how many total KOs are recorded. If the save data is on the PS3 (even the base 3) or the Vita, then you will need to upload it to the PSN and sign into your PS4 with that PSN account. Having save data from DW9 (or DW8XL for Switch) allows you to unlock the DW9 costumes for Zhenji, Daqiao, Yueying, Wang Yuanji and Diaochan. Even if you only have the DW9 trial on PS4, that works as well.

Yet again, this game was localised by Rubicon Solutions without an English dub, which for a game that focuses on Greek and Norse gods, you'd think would have one. That's like creating a game with Marvel or Disney characters and only releasing it with Japanese voices.

If you haven't picked up from all these references I've made, Rubicon's translation of this game is pretty sub-par, more so than usual in fact. I saw more translation and even naming errors than I did in previous games they've worked on, plus for a company that's localised Koei Tecmo's Warriors games for over a decade, they never seem to maintain consistency between each game, or at least between WO3 and 4. Surely their previous projects would have been saved in their archives, right? Surely they referred back to them every time they localised a sequel, or did they just rely on Koei Tecmo telling them how specific, technical terms are translated to each time?

All the character voices have been rerecorded for this game, and I don't know if it's because it's been years since the source games were released, but the new voice lines in this game feel off as they sound different. I know the voices are rerecorded for each generation of games, but I suppose if the voices are constantly reused then there'd be less lines for seiyuus to record.

Also, a bit of a funny thing about this game. There are boob jiggle physics on the camp screen with female characters, but it's only on the Switch and not the PS4 or Xbox One. On the PC, the jiggle physics work if you have V-Sync set to 30 FPS (same as the Switch) and not 60 FPS (same as the PS4/Xbox One. Given the fervor around Sony and Microsoft's censorship of fanservice games (where Nintendo always seems to keep the fanservice intact on the Switch), there has obviously been some backlash over it, but apparently fans seem to have chalked this down to a bug with how boobs jiggle at 60 FPS in the graphics engine. To some fans, Koei Tecmo's PC ports aren't always up to scratch, but yeah, seeing as how this hasn't been fixed to this day, it's on par with their bizarre form of laziness.

The closing theme of this game is Kakumei no Masquerade by Suzuko Mimori, who voiced Athena in this game. The version featured in the game is a slightly rearranged version of the album version.

Like the last game before it, Warriors Orochi 4 also received an Ultimate release which continued the story that abruptly ended and made some improvements to the user experience. That will be for the next part, but I hope you'll stay tuned for that because for this game's rant, I want to talk about how I would have made a better version of this game.

[tg-pilled]

touka for the character thing?

favourite thing about them: I love that she was allowed to be girly while also kicking ass. I feel like in anime and a lot of modern media, people don't allow strong female leads to be girly AND strong, it's always one or the other. I love that she likes pink and fuzzy things and that her mask is still cutesy. Like imagine being killed and the last thing you see is a cute rabbit mask. THAT is badass to me

least favourite thing: Through no fault of her own, it was just the writing Sui Ishida put her through, but I don't like how she became so reliant on Kaneki in :re if that makes sense? I understand that she became pregnant (which is a whole other arc I fucking hate but anyways) and that she really did have a hard time with trust growing up and through Anteiku she learned trust again BUT in the same breath I feel like she was robbed of kicking ass in :re? Idk if that makes ANY sense 🗿

favourite line: "You pretend you care about other people but in the end it's all about you. You're just afraid to be left alone." GET HIS ASS TOUKA ‼️‼️

brOTP: Touka and Hide! I think they would be really good friends after everything goes down and that they's have gossip sessions IDKKKK. Hide would absolutely hype Touka up to ask out Yoriko. I also really love Nishiki and Touka too like they are clearly besties.

OTP: Touka and Yoriko :) They are the lesbians of all time ever. I made a whole little drabble and headcanon post for them and everything. They are SO sun and moon. I don't hate TouKen but I feel like their relationship should have been better developed.

nOTP: Anyone that isn't Kaneki or Yoriko I guess? Nishiki and Touka make me physically recoil so DEFINITELY not them. Plus Nishiki and Kimi are the heterosexuals ever.

random headcanon: She used to draw on herself when she was younger because it helped her calm down. She also drew on Ayato whenever he allowed it and it became a sort of way to bond and take care of each other before everything went to shit. I like to think that the last design Ayato drew on her arm was her first tattoo :)

unpopular opinion: She never needed to marry Kaneki to prove that she had value in his life. I know that it was to wrap the series up in a neat little bow and because she was pregnant BUT I feel like it was forced. She had value to Kaneki outside of just their romantic relations.

song I associate with them: Found Heaven - Conan Gray and Primary - The Cure

favourite picture of them: I have two and both are from the anime (I'm sorry) but her expression when she's called beautiful :( Breaks my heart every damn time bruh. And the second one is her being just,,,normal? She's just studying and calm and her bedroom is SO cute

[ren-rambles-often]

Hi...Do you know what anime you'll watch this season?

My top 3 fav this season are :

- Tadaima, Okaeri (wholesome BL, also one of my comfort read)

-Black Butler : Public School Arc (yes the ship is problematic but you cannot deny the shipper when you watch it. I'm not shipping SebasCiel but I'm not anti too. Their canon relationship is complicated but great story)

-Wind Breaker (bucchigiri but way better and loveable mc)

Hope you'll like them.....

Hey hey ( ◜‿◝ )♡, Literally following all of these already.

Black Butler was definitely a must, since the announcement dropped sometime last year I've been unable to keep it out of my mind. It's understandable not everyone will ship them but I personally have missed Sebaciel shenanigans so much and seeing favorite characters like Soma (although with less melanin than I remember lol what =_=) in the recent episode just made me so happy.

As for Tadaima Okaeri, I was looking forward to it for a long time, so far I'm not disappointed and it's definitely so fucking cute. All I'm saying is...if any country needs to push baby making propaganda they should go for this instead of the trashy het stuff, I don't make the rules.

I have almost no thoughts on Wind Breaker. It's definitely an upgrade but after the disappointment that was Bucchigiri, I've began to keep my expectations for Delinquent shows low (Tokyo revengers and IWGP are yet to be topped for me). It's not bad but do feel like it's lacking substance in some areas and trying too hard. The main character isn't a bitch tho so I know there's hope for it yet.

To me this year's winter season had way more exciting stuff but there are a number of other anime I'd love to recommend for this spring.

Karasu wa aruji wa Erabanai (The Raven does not choose it's Master) Is almost like the apothecary diaries, but with magic, and without the herbs and medicine...but it has the court politics so yay (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ taking place in a world where people can turn into three legged ravens called Yatagurasu, Yukiya after causing some trouble for his family is taken to serve the most special of specials crown prince who is to become the next Kin'u after picking a bride from the four daughters of the clan heads sent to him. So basically every gay historical romance Wattpad story lol. Unfortunately this isn't a bl and though you can probably tell the prince will get married in future episodes, from these three eps, I think it establishes the focus will be on him and Yukiya, which, I couldn't ask for more.

Another Recommendation is Kaijuu no. 8, I have no words (in a good way). Just spacial forces slaying gigantic monsters while the main character suddenly becomes one of those monsters and has to still join the special force that at some point will kill him if they find out, or if they have found out they realize he's different from other monsters and can help them win the war for humanity *aot flashbacks ಥ‿ಥ* What I'm trying to say is that... it's good. I think it's funny with characters that have to potential to reel you in. I've been told the manga is pretty average tho but we'll see.

Touken Ranbu Kai is...something, I don't watch anime just for pretty boys but even if I didn't like the plot of this one I'd stick with it just for the guys. Beautiful character designs, the lore feels very fresh and intriguing and as well. There's a lot of philosophical topics I think the show has potential to dive into and I'm excited to see where we go moving forward from the three eps out currently.

Last but not least, there's Sentai Daishikkaku (Go Go Loser Ranger) I really don't want to spoil anything but let me just say, it's a brilliant subversion of the Power Rangers narrative. The sound track is fun while also hitting hard, and the characters definitely leave you wanting to know more about them and the world they're in. Definitely give it a try, I don't think you'll regret it.

Got a bit carried away with this one hahah, welp that's all my recs for now. Aside from my shipping stuff I'll probably talk about any of these every now and then, my top three right now tho are definitely Black Butler, Sentai Daishikkaku and Karasu wa aruji wa Erabanai. Anon has amazing taste but I'm a very big action and supernatural fan at heart so I'm based.

Depending on how disappointing or exciting things get along the line this list might change but unfortunately my feelings don't help the state of my FAL ranking so yeah wish me luck (〒﹏〒)

Feel free to leave YOUR current top 3 for this season in the comments, or if you joined FAL like me or just what you think of any of these of you're already watching them (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

[goldenteaset]

I tried to make up for lost time this @justleaveacommentfest and wound up with 12 total comments! I mostly followed the themes and discovered a lot of tropes I didn't know I liked. :D

I would say "the following fics are the highlights" but I'm pretty sure these are all the fics, oh well. Many different ratings and pairings ahoy! I was in the mood for angst this week, but there's ultimately a lot of variety here.

All the Time in the World by rabbit print. Trigun Gen from 2002. Rated T. "Spoilers up to and including the last episodes of Trigun. Legato reflects during his confrontation with Vash."

"I am, I am not" by TheHangedMan. Granblue Fantasy, Rated T. Heartbreaking pre-canon Belial/Lucilius from Lucifer's POV. "Lucifer was not a poem."

May this Honmaru stand forever by whoayaknow. Rated M. Touken Ranbu vent fic in light of the Global server shutdown. "to fallen warriors in our cozy mass grave: the fight is over! we won!"

losing myself to find you [and me] by SetsunaMew. Trigun, rated M. Legato/Knives. Dense and beautiful experimental post-series fic. "Decades upon decades upon centuries pass, and Legato finally returns the gift of salvation."

Stars over the Caldera by may10baby. Trigun Stampede, Knives/Vash, rated E. Dragon AU (! Where has this been all my life?) with some delicious worldbuilding and setting descriptions almost hotter than the sex (YMMV). "Vash has finally started his heat, and Knives is 100% ready to give his little brother a nest full of eggs."

Overshadowed by CrimsonShades. Granblue Fantasy, not rated. Belial & Lucifer. "AU where Belial goes to kill Lucifer by himself." I laughed through a broken heart with this one.

Guardian and the Hound by Mlokosewitschii. Trigun Stampede, rated T. Knives/Vash, Fairy Tale AU. Lots of Gaelic, and a cool Fantasy take on No Man's Land. "He was wise, but young. The villagers never questioned it."

Swallowing Poison by rosecake. Crimson Peak, rated M. Lucille/Edith. Warning for dubcon! Lucille poisons Edith some more, and boy does she ever enjoy it (and so did I). "Everything in Crimson Peak belonged to Lucille, Edith included, whether she was alive or buried in the cold ground."

A Sword's Duty by WolfofCelestia. Touken Ranbu, not rated. Horror. The only WIP this time (;_;), a story of a Citadel whose time has nearly run out and the food they procure.

[ikusayu-no-hana]

chougiwame (includes delusions//

good-natured smiling??? on god???? how did he learn to use his facial muscles like that

he only has one garter thing now (booo!)

this part reminds me of kasens armour and just fits w the dynamics i have for them, namely that kasen is chougi's object of admiration/respect/maybe-crush (ty jiden) and so on some level he wants to emulate him and his elegance. its cute they sorta match now

are these irises? im shit at flower names

letters!

'You ended up sending me out, so I guess I've got no choice. I could take the occasion and kill a mountain crone. What do you think?'

it was presumed that manba's epithet came from yamanbagiri chougi bc duh. but: the tokugawa museum solely labels his blade as 本作長義, and the name registered under the Important Cultural Property is the inscription on his tang - the same inscription that kunihiro made later on. its so ironic that chougi's remembrance is all thanks to the smith whose sword would go on to outshine the original. chougi represents the odyssey of reconciling historical and personal dissonance.

hence this sarcastic, self-deprecating letter. to doubly baptize himself as yamanbagiri in order to set the record straight, even though it's impossible this late, even though the tableau of manba and chougi revolves around the dilemma of the original being defined by the replica, is so typically chougi. who really killed the yamanba first? maybe it really was him. maybe it was manba, who later lost his memories in the kanto earthquake. manba has made it obvious he doesnt care ("the legends told by men are always ambiguous"), and chougi must decide whether he does.

also, no greeting. feels like a text.

I feel I can't get the recognition I deserve no matter where I go. ...No, I suppose there is one person I do have in mind.

this is what truly interests me in chougi as a character. and he finally admits it in his own words - he's starved for recognition. this, despite his designation as an important cultural property (iirc manba and chougi are the only instance of a sword and its replica both being designated imp cultural properties). i don't think he'll ever get over that defining shock of his life where manba manifested before him, because that's impacted his own standards of performance, has made him a perfectionst. and so because everyone, even the government and saniwa, has seen and cherished manba first, there is only one place he can truly return to for recognition. ive read some fusetters that think it might be akinaga or ujimasa but i think it's his creator, nagayoshi. i think that and only that could truly and finally comfort him.

The peerless masterpiece smithed by Chougi, that's me. First came the masterpiece sword, then there were humans whose hearts went out to it, and copied that masterpiece. That's all there is to it. Since I came to the Citadel, I've been observing your movements. I asked myself whether you, as protector of history, as someone who wields Touken Danshi, were a human worthy of being such. My inspection has finished. To Master, I have one request I want to make of you. If I ever fall low enough to grow dull, break me right away. After all, the sword who will give you everything has to be me.

it is easier to be kind to the visibly wounded person who strives to rouse his self-worth, but chougi had to quietly grapple with that idea of being a less-than-ideal victim of his own complex, and come to his own conclusion - thankfully the same as that of manba's. his name is only part of who he is.

I like the theory that chougi observing the saniwa was a directive given by the government, rather than mere personal curiosity. six long years of inspection. it isnt really that outlandish i think bc hakusan pretty much confirms they keep a keen eye on the saniwa, his fox being one method of doing so.

and a random theory i have that ties in to the one above: since it's the first ever time chougi addresses the saniwa as 主, i think it has some significance beyond his acceptance of the saniwa. since his previous letters are sent without a greeting i think he knew that the government would be able to take a look at what he was writing, and so theyre all sarcastic and distant and irreverent. his last letter (before the greeting) is just about his inspection. but (and this is unfounded) i think the simple fact that at the end of his third letter he Does address the saniwa, means in some way its only meant for the saniwa's eyes, and not to keep up the ruse for the government. simply because its the most passionate thing he has expressed in relation to the saniwa. maybe swords manifested at the government arent meant to develop strong attachments to the saniwa at all. and so maybe he added some sort of secret panel to the letter before sending it that the government couldnt detect, but the saniwa could. maybe 'to the master' is a sort of magic enchantment itself.

anyway. just my interpretation. the time government can be a little sinister as a treat.

he's more comfortable being sarcastic w the saniwa now i like this i really like this. i wish theyd have given us a recollection w kiwame manba too tho.

btw kiwame manba responds the same way as kiwame chougi on being appointed as team captain. okayyyyy blowjob brothers.

I am disappointed that there was no mention of chougi's shortening from a tachi/ootachi. he used to be something else. maybe he remembers that existence and feels strange in the presence of the longer swords. maybe hes forgotten it but in that case i wouldve liked a mention of his disorientation with that part of his legend (like manba had in his journey). oh well i guess canon cant address all the legends.

[hakucho-art]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

question: what r three things you like about ur art? and what is ur current fav art piece of urs? <3

also bonus touken headcanon: they’re in their married era, but still new relationship, and while they’ve more comfortable — kaneki still seems hesitant sometimes when he reaches to her, in initiating any sort of skin ship, like he’s unsure of howwhen. Touka finds it endearing and kind of laughable considering they just had a blow ur mind sex like an hour ago, but here kaneki is looking so unsure of how to put his arms around her shoulders. This man is ridiculous. God she loves him.

But sometimes — he catches her completely off guard. They’re were doing smth… idk, making coffee??? And Kaneki makes this voice pitched with alarm and touka bends over to see him fumbling with this amateur thing she KNOWS he can do with his eyes closed and is like wow… Kaneki??? Did you get off the bed on the wrong side???? What is wrong with you. But it turns out it was all a plot for her to give him a cheek kiss without her knowing.

Touka blinks, as she just registers where her lips where and looks up at kaneki who has this big silly smile that says “gotcha” and gives her butterfly in stomach…

URGH I LOVE THEM… they’re so cute (also forgive me if this is out of character. I am out of touch)

You're out of touch... I'm out of tiiiime....

THANK YOU BELOVED AHHHH 💕💕💕

OKI OKI, first the questions sjdvjw

Three things I like about my art

Hmmmm lately I've been feeling more happy with my coloring! I feel like finally I've kind of understood what I'm doing and feel more experienced with it. I also like how my sketches look, sketching is always my favorite part and making some cleaned sketches with pencil again has been really nice uwu. And I like how I draw faces! Lately they have been more simplistic but generally, I do like them.

Your favorite art piece?

UHHH, actually a piece for a zine so I cant post it here yet but my current favorite touken piece of mine are these two (because im indecisive)

The left one because for once I properly colored them (usually I get lazy with my touken pieces since theyre very indulgent wjvdjwhd) and the other because I adore the style there a lot, especially how kaneki looks🥺 definitely want to try using it more!

NOW TO YOUR SWEET HEADCANON AHHHH, you never disappoint with the touken fluff wjvdjwvdjwvdhwh♥️♥️😭

FIRST OF ALL, mischievous kaneki is ADORABLE and we need more of him. Here and there he can be a little tricksy, especially when he wants to get back to touka because she so often does little pranks and messes with him hehe

Kaneki not knowing how to approach casual intimacy while they fuck everyday is so funny and canon 😭💕 touka is just as ridiculous, kaneki calls her cute and she gets a massive blush as if they havent been dating for MONTHS.

Also, I didnt fully understand the last part. So kaneki tricked her into giving him a cheek kiss or did kaneki give her a cheek kiss 👀 either way, its adorable because kaneki making silly little pranks that are basically just kisses and snuggles orz. Kill me with the fluff, HELP. Touka feeling a little Bad because his pranks are so innocent and loving while he suffers a little when she pranks him JWVJDDVJD

[ask-misun-and-oc]

I want still play Ikemen Genjiden although it's discontinued

Misun!bot

I don't know why. Although it's very late, i want translate the main route of Ikemen Genjiden. There are reasons why i want it.

*There is Yoritomo*

I admit i love the design but not the personality... i hate it because of the real history. Well, mostly i love the design and the voice at first. The history also interesting. It's related to Battle of Atsukashiyama which appears in Touken Ranbu Hanamaru S2 (when Imanotsurugi has insecurities about when Yoritomo dared to kill Yoshitsune) and in Musical Touken Ranbu: Atsukashiyama Ibun. So, when i noticed Yoritomo in IkeGen, i remember "Battle of Atsukashiyama" in Touken Ranbu. Beside Battle of Atsukashiyama, some battle with Yoritomo's lore also included in game such as "Battle of Oshu". Overall, i love Yoritomo based on the design and the voice (and the route reminds me to Touken Ranbu).

*A good thing to build my saniwa lore*

In Eiga Touken Ranbu 2: Reimei, there is Ibuki which mean... Shuten Doji appears. So, when Ibuki debuted in IkeGen, i remember how he appeared and possesed a young man who is also named "Ibuki". Beside, Abe no Seimei also appeared in the movie. While in Ikemen Genjiden, Yasuchika is reincarnartion of Abe no Seimei. So... so much thing to know more about the route in Ikemen Genjiden to complete my saniwa lore. The main route (i mean the act 1 and act 2) is become a good story for a mission in Touken Ranbu fanfic. I mean Ikemen Genjiden told a story about what if Yoshitsune is still alive in Kamakura era (about 1193 A.D)

*Some Touken Danshi are related to the characters*

Let see the examples.

1. Benkei was told if he had collected a thousand swords, and Iwatooshi was rumored to be one of them. Then, both Imanotsurugi (rumored just like Iwatooshi) and Hizamaru belonged to Yoshitsune. While Yoritomo had Higekiri. Shishio also belonged to Yorimasa, Yoritomo's ally and perhaps he had ever taken care or even met Shigehira.

2. There are swords that belonged to Taira clan. They are Kogarasumaru and Nukemaru (and in IkeGen, the last survivor of Taira clan is Shigehira). Maybe Shigehira had relation to Taira no Masakado.

3. Back to event "Hyakki Yakou Operation" 2 months ago, there was a man with kitsune's mask. It confirmed if he is Kitsunegasaki which was forged during "Kagetoki's Incident" (Kagetoki hid in a place where Kitsunegasaki was forged)

4. Ibuki a.k.a Shuten Doji, back to in Heian period, was slain by Minamoto no Yorimitsu. The legend said Ibuki was slain using Dojigiri and Onimaru Kunitsuna. In IkeGen, he appears again, which mean... there is a potential he will be slain again by Onimaru or there will be a story when Bakufu army order Touken Danshi to slay Ibuki.

5. There are some yokaii that famous and Shishio told if he was used to slay Nue. Meanwhile in IkeGen, ayakashi is part of yokaii too, including Ibuki, Kurama Tengu, and Tamamo-no-Mae (oh, Rikka is ayakashi too). Who knows if Ibuki or Tamamo had ever meet Nue in the past. Higekiri who also known as "Onikiri" perhaps know well about Ibuki.

*Some characters are familiar*

Back to the reason why i love Yoritomo. Don't you notice if Yoritomo is much like Nobunaga? Their personality makes me think if Yoritomo is 'the ancient Nobunaga' or... Nobunaga is 'the copy of Yoritomo'. They are ambitious, teasingful, rude, arrogant, and possesive. Even both of them are pinned the MC in their route.

Beside that, there are some characters that familiar as i play games.

Sueharu is similar as Date Masamune and Shokudaikiri by the design.

Morinaga is similar as Date Masamune and Hideyoshi.

Yasuchika's clothes is similar as Mikazuki Munechika.

And again, Yoritomo. The face and the design are similar as Hijikata from Hakuoki (i mean look at the kimono. Both Hijikata and Yoritomo has purple kimono. Yoritomo's appearance also same as Hijikata with short hair).

The last one, Kurama Tengu. He is much like Hizen Tadahiro.

*Some accounts announced if they won't continue the route*

At first time i play, i felt difficult to read the route and then i stopped playing it. Yet, i started reading it again after know the translation. At least i know the summary and the selection. Or if i feel lazy to play it, i just read the translation from some account (btw thanks for @archiveikemen @aishangotome @ga-yuu / @gayuu-the-necromancer @sakura-samsara @dear-mrs-otome @aoi-aoi-chan and @shatcey for translating.)

Unfortunately some route were incomplete and some accounts decided to stop playing Ikemen Genjiden even permanently. So... i want to continue the incomplete one rather than waiting it although the game is discontinued. I'm still curious about Shigehira, Kagetoki, Tamamo, and Rikka.

So, it makes sense i had to know about the route.

[zantedeschia-praesul]

“You can’t cheat death.” (for Saseki)

"AND YET HERE I AM, STILL STANDING AND BEARING A WAR GOD'S CURSE AFTER PULLING TWO OF MY BELOVEDS BACK FROM THEIR HELLISH NIGHTMARE! THEY SHOULD'VE KILLED ME WHEN THEY HAD A CHANCE!

"MY TIME WILL COME SOMEDAY BUT UNTIL THEN, DO NOT CROSS MY PATH OR I WILL BRING HELL TO THE HEAVENS THAT SMITE ME FOR LOVING MY TOUKEN DANSHI TOO MUCH!"

[kowaindar0u]

(from nxmelessfighter) 08 (yuichi)

[ DEAR  DIARY          .    .    . ]

08. entry made featuring their day    /    night at work.

under a cut cause this got loooong lol

I've had better days than the way today is turning out. Today actually started as one of those better days, and I suppose for that I should be grateful-- and I am. It was great, actually. I was kind of slow getting up today but Urashima came and begged me to come to the kitchen just before breakfast because we'd gotten ahold of some espresso from the store, and he had Shokudaikiri help him make iced lattes, and... well, they did a great job. I hadn't had something like that since before I even became saniwa, now that i think about it. I do still harbor a lot of love for these lattes but it does feel a little... odd...? nostalgic, maybe, though in a less-fond manner... Even so, it was a very sweet gesture-- how long ago had it been since I'd mentioned I used to drink those sometimes when I needed a pick-me-up? Either way, Urashima remembered, and they went through the trouble of preparing it... a sweet gesture, which I hope will come to replace the times the equally-sweet drink reminds me of. I had breakfast with Urashima and his brothers, which was... tense, at least, but still nice. I think Hachisuka has chilled out a bit regarding Nagasone-- I hope that's still the case while I'm not around. And now... I've been trying to put together my status report on the Second Team's current mission, but I have yet to hear back from them. We knew going in that it could take some time, so I'm not really too worried about them for the time being, but... Without the reconnaissance they're working on right now, we don't have the full picture on what the HRA is trying to do. So... I just have to wait. It could be a few days before they can gather all the information, depending on how events play out. [Yuichi's handwriting is clearly growing hurried and a bit messy] I think this was poor timing to have been so caffeinated. I was, despite myself, quite excited about the lattes, and maybe had more than I should have, because... now I'm honestly kind of bugging out. Logically, I know I can't do any further work on this report. There's no need for me to try and reach out to the Second Team right now. Mutsunokami can be a little rambunctious, but I trust him as captain to keep his team safe, and I shouldn't be breathing down their necks just because I'm anxious. The worst thing is, I have other work I could be doing, but I'm stuck on this. The not knowing is killing me-- the way things are in Tosa right now, it could go one of many ways, some on scales more dire than others, and I c [the sentence ends there, but a few lines down more writing starts, now a bit more legible] Well. That was several hours ago. Kogitsunemaru popped in to see how I was doing-- sometimes I think he has a 'aruji is spiraling' sense, because how does he always show up at times like that? -- and damn near dragged me outside, even though I protested. Honestly, good. I'm glad my touken danshi-- most of them, at least-- feel comfortable interacting with me like this. Some may see it as 'unrefined' or 'undisciplined', but I don't really see myself as above them, despite my position. I... I need them, after all. As more than just a means to protect history, for sure... Anyway. Kogitsunemaru and I took a walk for a bit, and then we spotted Juzumaru, Nikkari, and Sengo doing some meditation, and invited us to join them. Meditation is really not my thing. I've always found it difficult to stop ruminating or focusing on the wrong things. But one thing I can say, is that when I happen to figure it out, I'm always better for it. By the time we were done, I had all but forgotten about the report I had to break from. After that, we joined that group for lunch. Urashima brought me another latte-- how could I refuse? So, I didn't. It was probably not the best decision, but he'd done a great job and was so happy about it. It's so hard to say no to him! Besides, I was in a much better mood.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur, but in a good way. I feel like I made my way around the whole honmaru a few times. I watched Midare and his brothers practice a concert routine with the Gous, I helped to pick vegetables, I even went with Higekiri, Mikazuki, and Hotarumaru to take some of the horses on a trail ride. I helped prepare dinner and with cleaning up afterwards, and now... Well, I'm exhausted. I don't know the last time I'd done so many different things in a single day. Also I think I'm feeling the caffeine crash. I just got out of the bath... I meant to stay in longer, but I kept falling asleep. Today was ... all in all, pretty great. I'm so happy to be here. Good night.

[goldenfox3]

For the ask meme, pick your favorite(s)! All, some, one, or none: 19, 20, 21, 26

2023 in review: fic writer asks

19. Share your favorite opening line

Going through my fics looking for the best opening line made me realise my opening lines are rather bland lmao. Something to work on in the new year ig! My favourite one is probably one of these two:

"At Harimaya Bridge in Kōchi, Tosa, two figures stand drenched in red." (Red Tide)

"Fire bursts across the sky like the flames that burned his memories away, and even the distant cheers of his siblings cannot ease the chill that grips his heart." (What Begins)

Both are from Touken Ranbu fics. The first one references both a Toumyu song and the Yosakoi Naruko Dance's 「土佐のー高知の はりまや橋で」 lyric. It also parallels the opening line of its companion fic, as it is the same scene but a different character's perspective.

The second line I just like for the imagery lmao. The character, Honebami Toushirou, is watching fireworks at what should be a joyous festival but since he lost his memories after being burnt in a fire, well...he doesn't do well with fire-anything.

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20. Share your favorite ending line

Despite my trouble with ending off fics I think my ending line selection was stronger than the opening lines. I had a couple choices here and found it harder to narrow down so I am going to cheat and put two again...

"His mind is blissfully, terrifyingly silent." (Ab Initio)

"Falcon laughs, sun-sharp challenge and the bright spark of mischief, pressing close as the smell of sandalwood and eucalyptus envelops them once more." (Slow March)

The first one is for how short and snappy it is. It gets the point across succinctly, that Blood Falcon is 1) for now free of Black Shadow's mental voice influencing his thoughts, 2) relieved at this, 3) really fucking weirded out and even unmoored by this because his whole life he's known nothing else.

The second one is again for the imagery. It's not nearly as succinct but I do like how Rob as the POV chara is characterising everything about Falcon as this brilliant, shining presence that he can't help but be drawn to. There is also of course the ~symbolism~ of the smell of Rob's bath products surrounding them both. At this point in the series neither of them will admit their true feelings for each other, but the fact that they smell the same now from sharing the bath products, allowing each other to mark and be marked...it's just another way they've insidiously crept their way into each others' lives despite not talking about any gross scary feelings ever (idiots).

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21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

There were a lot of moments from Thousand Five I wanted to put in here LMAO. I really like the dialogue in the first three chapters in particular, that's where I feel it was the snappiest (possibly because they were doing nothing but talking in the bar there so it had to be snappy). But my favourite bit of dialogue in the fic atm is this one:

“You would forfeit the chance to properly best your rival?” Stewart lifts his chin. “You’d kill the surgeon who’s the reason you’re even alive to begin with?” (chapter 6)

I'm very fond of this scene. It's the first time Stewart quite literally puts his neck on the line for Falcon. He doesn't have the combat skill or brute force to get out of this by fighting, so he uses what he does have at his disposal: his knowledge of the other person's background and personality, as well as drawing on what relation they share and any debts that might be owed. It's a gamble, but it's all he's got. The bold way it's stated, like he already knows the conclusion, is both calculated and just his natural adrenaline kicking in. Stewart is not one to bow in the face of danger and is in fact unfortunately drawn to it, but in this case he was afraid for someone else's life (Falcon) and was perhaps not quite as blasé as he'd normally be.

Because I am indecisive here is another fave bit of dialogue...this time from Creatures With Wings:

“Do you regret it?” Ryu asks suddenly, sliding a hand behind his head. “Taking on your role as Captain Falcon, or bringing me into this. Is that why you asked?” The back of his neck prickles, helmet still trapped under Ryu’s arm. But Captain Falcon is as much an ideal as he’s a man in a costume, and when he speaks, his voice is strong. “Creatures with wings are born to take to the skies someday. To fear falling is natural. But sometimes, all you can do is take that leap and fly.”

Besides being a title drop, Andy's dialogue here is a modified version of what he says to Ryu in Lap 50 of the anime. It still serves as reassurance and motivation to Ryu, but it also contains a veiled message about his feelings on his own situation. Andy isn't one to outwardly display struggles or regrets, or to ask for help because he's supposed to be the one helping. But I like to think about a more vulnerable side to him. He's only human, even if Captain Falcon needs to be so much more than that.

So here, he's also expressing that Ryu is quite possibly the only person who could fully understand him, as someone who was destined to be a saviour in this universal battle. Maybe he, just like Ryu, had (still has) fears and insecurities and regrets. And maybe despite that, he still did it anyway because there was no other choice. But Andy...doesn't actually directly answer the questions Ryu asked. He can't. Falcon can never be anything less than a paragon. To express weakness, to waver now at the end of all things...that's not who he is. But at the end of all things...maybe he can be Andy one last time. Andy trusts Ryu enough to reveal here just the tiniest hint of weakness, reciprocating the trust Ryu has constantly shown confiding in him.

-----

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Hmm every time I get a comment is very satisfying (especially the ones that go into detail) and crunching the numbers about how much I wrote this year compared to previous years was also fulfilling-feeling. I have a checklist of character's I've written/have yet to write in this series and it felt good to tick off a bunch and try writing so many different themes and perspectives this year. Thousand Five is perhaps the predictable answer to this question, as it is still my baby my beloved my first gameverse and longest fic. I'm happy to have published 12 chapters of it this year!

But I think the most satisfying moment was getting this comment on Rush:

This awoke something in me. Never played or watched F-Zero anything in all my life and yet these two give me life.

How gratifying is it to know that you've managed to captivate someone who doesn't know anything about the fandom with the power of your writing alone? How wonderful is it to know that you've managed to capture someone's interest based on the choice, order, artistry of the scenes your words have woven? Without any pre-existing interest in the characters and franchise doing some of the work of grabbing the reader for you? I really, truly would love to know if this anon looked more into the series after or went on to read other F-Zero fics. Getting people into the series and ship I like because of something I created is living the dream, I tell you. And it all happened because I wrote about Falcon and Stewart [redacted] in a rivals with benefits situationship LMAO.

[yuzuyuzz]

It's been a while since i posted here. So let me Ramblers about Tsuyuri Past.

Please noted if current Tsuyuri Hiiragi is different with (Original) Tsuyuri Hiiragi. Current Tsuyuri is Tsukumogami who being re-create by Historical Goverment from Human to Sword. The Original Tsuyuri Hiiragi already Dead a hundred year's ago in Azuchi-Momoyama Era.

Trivia About Tsuyuri ;

• The (Real) Tsuyuri Hiiragi has a almond-Brown Hair color and Orange-brown irises, which is she got from her (deceased) biological Mother and Father.

• Her Family massacre in her 10th birthday by her mom after she got rampage after seeing his husband try to killed Tsuyuri. She slaughtered herself and left Tsuyuri behind, the one and only Hiiragi member who still alive.

• Before her family destroyed, She learn about her dark side of her own Family. Especially when she know both of Parents and her twins brother never hoping Tsuyuri born in this life. But they are acting like a (Perfect Family) to protect their reputation as Elite's Hojo Family Subordinates. They never sincerely love Tsuyu.

• Tsuyuri was sold by her father as collateral for a debt, the reason why she run away to Hokkaido. She died of Hypothermia in Hobetsu no Domin Forest, and Seifu found her body.

• Basically Tsuyuri just an innocent biological Weapon, this girl was repeatedly changed by Seifu to become the perfect Tsukumogami.

In fact, she was put back in the timeline to meet Nagao Akinaga and Yamanbagiri (this is one form of their experiment). When she turned 25, because Seifu feels had enough of their experiments information, they pulled Tsuyuri back to them, by making it appear as if Tsuyuri was "finished off" by Hojou's troops and died in History.

• Reason why Jikansho kidnapped Tsuyu because Seifu success the project, so they want to re-create Tsuyuri to become their own (biological weapon) and turn against Seifu. But unfortunately their horrible experiment was failed and Tsuyuri run away. Until now, this little girl is still hanging around Tsuyuri, because her soul is not yet at peace seeing her suffering condition of her body and the new soul. The only one who can see this girl is Nikkari Aoe. The real Tsuyuri couldn't speak in her spirit form.

• She's really a cheerful girl, Tsuyuri believe she is loving by her parents and brothers. She never expected that her entire happy life such a stage play and full of lie. This is why current Tsuyuri has a biggest trust issue to Touken Danshi.

• Once, this little girl interact with Nikkari, she grab his armor and try to communicate with him. Up until now Nikkari hasn't revealed what he and Real Tsuyu communicate about. But it's seems related to Tsuyu (Honmaru) and Koryuu.

• Original Tsuyuri emotions still remains in current Tsukumogami Tsuyuri heart about (Why she's abandoned, why she's born in this world meanwhile there's nobody want her existence, what's a real Love meaning), all those feelings lead Tsuyu into desperate and hardly accepted Touken Danshi and Saniwa affection.

• Tsuyuri still questioned why Touken Danshi and saniwa loved her unconditionally, but on the other hand she felt that Touken Danshi had not given up on making her believe. this is further strengthened by Yamatonokami's promise to prove that his words, as well as the words of his friends, are not just empty words and lies.

• Original Tsuyuri always accompany Tsukumogami Tsuyuri everytime. Sometimes she sits beside Nikkari Aoe and communicated with him