#very unique and clever game

[thegoldencontracts]

How Can You Fluster Them?

Characters: Heartslabyul, Savannaclaw, Octavinelle

Ace Trappola:

- Pretty easily, actually.

- As smug and teasing as he can be, there are quite a few things that get him flustered.

- Bring up how sweet he's acting or how sentimental he seems to watch him sputter furiously in denial; show him direct affection and kindness to watch him blue screen for a second before embarrassedly scoffing about how lame you're being.

- You can fluster him even further by teasing him about how smug he was a second ago. That really gets him.

Deuce Spade:

- While you could tease him about being 'stupid', yes, that is a bit hurtful, and it isn't really the best way.

- Just the opposite. Genuinely complimenting his intelligence, his strengths? That's what catches him off-guard. He doesn't quite know how to acknowledge it when someone truly, genuinely tells him he's not dumb, and him not being an effortless scholar doesn't mean he is.

- There are other ways, of course, like sudden acts of affection, pranks, or even dodging his kisses.

- He gets all red, and a tad defensive. It's the funniest sight.

Riddle Rosehearts:

- Most affection flusters him.

- Seriously. He's never really received it, considering his upbringing, so even things like hugs or kisses on the cheek leave him red. You're not quite certain whether it's more cute or sad.

- He'll get rather huffy if you point it out. It's rather comedic, but you might want to refrain from laughing too much, lest he ends up chastising you.

Trey Clover:

- Pointing out his true brilliance.

- That's the main method. Although he's used to affection, to being told he's a good baker, a nice guy, and whatnot, he's not quite used to having his true potential acknowledged.

- He'll look away with a flush, denying his true intelligence, the true strength of his Unique Magic, or whatever it is you've opted to praise him for.

Cater Diamond:

- Allowing him to be genuine.

- It will take a while, frankly. With most people, Cater dons the personable mask of Cay-Cay the friendly senior, but with time... And patience, he may warm up to you enough to be himself. Be moody, the ultimate hater of sweets, and whatnot.

- He can't help but feel oddly flustered, caught off-guard, really, when you let him complain about the way Riddle was before his overblot, when you make him something salty for a dessert of sorts.

Leona Kingscholar:

- There are quite a few ways.

- If you two are together, he might tease you quite a bit. Reciprocating said teasing is certain to get him huffy and flustered. Teasing in general, really. Dodging his kisses? Headpats? Photoshopping him in cat ears? If you're close enough to him, they'll all work wonderfully.

- And... Genuine understanding flusters him as well. Prioritizing him in small ways, like taking a break from your gaming to talk to him, or allowing him to vent to you.

Ruggie Bucchi:

- Caring for him.

- Ruggie is used to having to act incredibly mature for his age, yes. He's cunning, clever, and responsible, important traits to make up for his disadvantages in life.

- So, when you (jokingly, I would hope) babytalk him, pat him on the head, or ask if he'd like to be the little spoon, it gets him terribly huffy. What's that supposed to mean, huh?

- It's even worse when you genuinely care for him, making him meals, or offering him a massage. It's hard for him to accept help. He's not a kid! He doesn't need the babying! It's worth nothing that he has a very broad interpretation of what counts as "babying". However, he will accept after a while, and be very, very flustered about it.

Jack Howl:

- Teasing him.

- He's always in denial about his softer side, no matter how apparent it becomes that he truly admires or cares for something or someone. He gets terribly flustered at his own sentiment.

- Teasing him about it just makes things worse. Dramatically exclaim how cruel he is because he said he "wasn't concerned for you or anything". Play dumb when he tries to ask for a kiss in a roundabout manner. The result is hilarious.

Azul Ashengrotto:

- There are so many ways to do this.

- Teasing him about his affections, for one. This is the same man who couldn't even admit to caring for his business, who claimed that love made one exploitable. He's already terribly mortified by his own so-called exploitability. Asking if he likes you gets him rather pouty before you're dating.

- Genuine, continued kindness is also rather flustering for him. You- care for him? Wish to see him succeed? You accept his flaws? You don't view him as pathetic for his tears? It's all territory he's terribly unused to.

Jade Leech:

- Standing up for him when he's insulted, for one. Telling the stranger that, no, his mushrooms aren't creepy, they're impressive, they just need to get a hobby. That leaves him shocked for a bit.

- There's also things like being the one to tease him, caring for him, listening to his rambles about mushrooms.

- Those leave him red-faced for a good few seconds. Calling out his flustered state garnets a pointed "Let us move on".

Floyd Leech:

- Initiating affection.

- Really, although he seems lackadaisical most of the time, impossible to fluster, it isn't quite that hard. He isn't used to being kissed, or hugged, or even praised without a certain business-oriented touch.

- So, when you suddenly kiss him, or offer to be the big spoon, or whatnot, he freezes up.

- If you point it out, he gets comedically defensive. Someone needs to tell him how terrible "I-I'm not blushing or whatever, that'd be laaame, so shut up!" Works as a method of denial.

[dedalvs]

Top 3 Games That Don't Exist Anymore

LEMMINGS (1991)

Absolutely incredible puzzle game (based on the great lemming myth) where you attempt to guide a horde of lemmings to their home. Obstacles get in their path, so you have to give them jobs (building staicases, bashing through walls, digging, through the floor, stopping other lemmings from moving) to help them get home. It was cute, simple to understand, and INCREDIBLY difficult—especially once you got to the difficulty level "taxing".

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

Folks just forgot about it and it kind of bounced around, never getting picked up when things like the Wii online store came out. After some remixed variants it never got a proper release.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

Aside from emulators, there's a free (with purchases) iOS/Android version of Lemmings now. The functionality is similar, and it's definitely cute, but it's not exactly the same in terms of gameplay, sound (the music!), and the levels are different. I'd love to be able to play the original levels again.

BOOKWORM ADVENTURES (2006)

Utterly incredible spelling game. You play a cute little bookworm who has to travel through time and literature to battle beasties by spelling words. The longer the word you spell (and the more value the letters have as in Scrabble) the more damage you do. It's cute, it's educational, it's fun, it's competitive (there are records for biggest word, most damage, etc. so you can compete with friends); it's a nearly perfect game. And there was a sequel, too!

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

EA purchased PopCap games and then, one day, for apparently no reason, removed it from their online store. And that's it. It's gone. Forever.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

You can pirate it, but otherwise, the closest I've found is a mobile game called Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey by Bacon Bandits. The core functionality is there, but it's not really as clever or as cute or as fun. There's an Easter egg for fans of Bookworm, and bless them for creating a very similar game, but it is just not the same.

UNIRACERS (1994)

Also called Unirally, this was am awesome concept that was perfectly executed. You're unicycles that race really fast and do crazy tricks. All the stunts have names, you get points for them, there's track obstacles. It's simple, pure, unadulterated fun.

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

This absolutely drives me up a wall. Pixar sued the makers of Uniracers because they said their unicycles looked like the unicycle in their short film Red's Dream from 1987. Like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Thematically, the two things aren't similar at all, and, as the creator of the game said, "[t]here's not a lot of ways you can bring life to a unicycle without looking like the one Pixar did". Like...duh. The judge who made this ruling did irreparable damage to video games.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

There's no legal way to play this game, and, thanks to Pixar, there likely never will be. I've never encountered anything similar. It was such a unique play experience.

[paper-mario-wiki]

Shangri-La Frontier mid-season review

This is by far the best fake video game I've ever seen written in fiction.

Most MMO-centric isekai stories have trouble with providing accurate and realistic depictions of the complexities and minutia that give MMOs the allure they have. I've seen so much handwavey bullshit tacked onto fake-games that introduce unrealistically overlooked mechanics for reasons like giving the protag immense power just because they're the protag and the story is about them. A good example of this is another MMO Isekai airing this season, "A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life", wherein the main character becomes extremely rich, powerful, and famous by episode 2 because he stumbled into a stealth archer playstyle, a build which apparently no human in that universe had ever conceived of before, and then making a fortune by selling basic potions to everyone after NPCs stopped selling them (another thing he was uniquely able to do because not a single other player had the forethought to spec into alchemy). These lesser, dime-a-dozen isekai add up to be boring fantasy strories with gaming elements clumsily put in so that the author can demonstrate how powerful the world's inhabitants are by showing their stat allocation screen instead of, say, explaining anything about what they do that's so uniquely powerful and how they figured it out. Ya know, stuff you'd hope to hear about from any competent story.

Shangri-La Frontier is a breath of fresh air for anyone who, like me, is sick of authors ignoring the things that actually make video games compelling in service of creating a stock-standard narratives in fantasy worlds because it allows them to get away with bullshit. I've always found it very convenient that many isekai narratives indulge in things like chattel slavery, because it's societally normal enough for the protag to purchase a beautiful, vulnerable girl to add to his harem (dont worry, she is always inexplicably in love with him no matter what because he's SUCH a kind master). And it never really seems to go anywhere. Because the Video Game Isekai, while an interesting premise in theory, is more often than not used exclusively as a means to simplify the structure of a world's power scaling to abide by an arbitrary set of omnipresent universal rules (e.g. what people who have never cared to look into game development think of video games). This anime, by comparison, is VERY clearly authored by someone who plays a LOT of games.

Every piece of logic used to drive the plot forward, so far, is congruent to a real-world example of video game conventions, and I'm not just talking about levelling up and selling monster parts. Story elements that I've rarely (if ever) seen explored in other isekai are ever-present and genuinely clever and amusingly introduced. My favorite example of this so far has been the way the protagonist has been able to go head to head with so many overlevelled foes in the first 9 episodes. The story of course makes note of how good of a gamer Sanraku (our hero) is, but much like in real life games, being super duper good at dodging attacks doesn't really make up for a 70 level gap in items and learned skills. For that reason, he gets his ass whooped more often than he actually outsmarts others (so far he hasn't beaten a single player in pvp). So how is he getting out of these situations without dying so frequently? Simple: he got access to a later area too early relative to his level (sequence break) and got access to a high level follower NPC that's been carrying him. This is something he acknowledges directly several times, specifically using words like "Emul has been hard-carrying me for a while." This, to me, is extraordinarily meaningful. That's something you can exploit in Skyrim, man. That's REALISTIC CHEESE STRATS. The excitement and wonder I find in this show doesn't come from watching the protag do something unexpected, but by watching him do something that I would think to do.

This knowledge the author has demonstrated regarding modern gaming culture extends further into the actual realistic nature of game design and community. The story exists in a reality where full-dive VRMMOs are the be-all-end-all of gaming, and given the prohibitively expensive nature of developing and designing expansive, immersive worlds, most games are pretty shit. It's been hinted at so far that this is due to a monopolistic megacorp which is one of the only entities rich and powerful enough to make a good game (the game in question being the one that shares the title of the anime), but so far the strife of the characters have been pretty centralized to the happenings of the game world and its politics. By the way, lets talk about the game world's player base politics, which I'm also quite pleased with. It exists in the form of guilds and clans who struggle for power not by participating in seemingly random pvp with other powerful players to see who is the most epic and badass warrior (again, like many contemporary isekai typically opt for), but by gaining actual realistic support from a fictional playerbase with realistic desires and playstyles. Some guilds are interested in lore, some gather for alliance and boss raids, some for things like animal husbandry, and (naturally) at least one is dedicated to trolling and PKing. Each of these factions, through the very little that we've seen of them so far, communicate on forums and only know as much as is reasonable for them to know. The only reason they give a shit about the protagonist at all is because he gained access to a high-level unique scenario quest that they want information on how to access, and the only reason word of that got out in the first place was because someone posted a screenshot of him with a unique NPC onto a forum, asking about it as "where can i find this pet summon, its super cute!" That's real. That's video games, baby.

I like this show a lot so far. I like that it cares about video games, but I also like its writing. I like the main character and how hes less of an ultra badass super cool guy, and more of an earnest challenge-run lets player. Like, a lot of his dialogue straight up sounds strikingly similar to Japanese youtubers. And he's naturally always quick to point out inconsistencies in the game world's logic. I ALSO really like his community of pals from a janky old fighting game, and I ADORE the girl from his school who has a crush on him and also just so happens to be an exceptionally high level player from a top clan, and how she had to spend 9 episodes working up the courage to send him a friend request. I love that so, so much, dude.

I highly recommend this show if you're into a single thing I've mentioned. The animation is great. The world is beautiful. The character design is immaculate. And I'm looking forward to watching it continue.

[ravenbloodshot]

How Enhypen's Manager (Yuki) View the Members

Heesung

Positive traits: artistic, creative, passionate about his career, stylish, handsome and attractive, let's go of things that's not serving him, communicative, takes care of himself well, fun and loving

Negative traits: cowardly, doesn't stand up for himself, has a problem setting up boundaries, follower, doesn't think for himself, overworks, bad family situation, hardheaded, up in lala land alot

Sunoo

Positive traits: cute, sociable, creative, extroverted, receptive, melts when he's complimented, mood maker, good at showing his pleasant side, charming, talkative

Negative traits: (I don't think Yuki likes him very much) sneaky, conniving, has a hidden dark side, easily influenced, follower, constantly in toxic relationships, stubborn, pretends to be happy, overthinks, set in his ways

Sunghoon

Positive traits: manly, assertive, has firm boundaries, stands up for himself, stubborn, go getter, protective (like papa bear energy from the story goldilocks), open minded, perceptive, loving and attentive, good communicator (Yuki likes him)

Negative traits: stubborn, set in his ways, prideful, big ego, argumentative, intimidating, dismissive and aloof, always thinks he's right, too serious, pushy, self sabotage, overthinks, unsure of his future, keeps up appearances for the camera/fans (to the detriment of himself)

Jake

Positive traits: does what he wants, active at night, wanderer, Yuki trusts that Jake can take care of himself, looks like a cinnamon roll but can actually kill you, firm boundaries, cut off game strong, committed to his goals, not needy (self reliant), fun and playful

Negative traits: aggressive, too passionate, wants what he wants when he wants it, inconsiderate, leaves ppl behind (ghosts), too competitive, hypocrite, sneaky, manipulative with his charm

Jay

Positive traits: resourceful, works smarter not harder, clever, patient and calm, doesn't speak out of turn (seems like Yuki just thinks he has good manners), cultured, open minded, committed to his goals, lovey dovey, good communicator, says things everyone else is afraid to say

Negative traits: watches porn or scrolls through thirst traps a lot, aggressive, quick to fight/argue, prideful, lazy, too much of a loverboy, too perceptive, unsure of his future, finds it hard to put himself in others shoes, uncomfortable with change, doesn't like to get out of his comfort zone

Niki

Positive traits: passionate, his excitement is contagious, go getter, gives good advice, practical, popular, charming, attractive, introvert, good at keeping secrets, doesn't gossip, mysterious, lives a healthy life, competitive, sarcastic, takes good photos, nostalgic

Negative traits: defensive, doesn't speak when he needs to, bad communicator, holds grudges, too introverted, easily disappointed/saddened, keeps his opinions/ideas to himself, misunderstands others, jumps to conclusions, moody, everybody likes him but he doesn't see that (takes for granted the love he recieves)

Jungwon

Positive traits: smart, creative, grooms himself well, nice body, intuitive, perceptive, unique, asks good/deep questions, says things everyone else is afraid to say, stable, flirtatious, sweet talker, adapts to change well

Negative traits: aggressive, too traditional and conservative, has a temper, stubborn, petty, not able to admit when he's wrong, complains a lot, moody, not openminded when it comes to love, impatient, too prideful

[jangmi-latte]

this is to add up from @lovee-infected's analysis back in 2020 about leona being in the lion guard (read it here) but i randomly binged-watched the lion king series and realized scar was part of the lion guard before and has a tattoo which signifies his position. was also gifted "the roar (roar of the elders)" as his weapon but he must use it wisely or else he'll lose both his position and power (to which he eventually did).

the roar is booming, thunderous, and powerful. leona's roar is loud...really loud and it's not just his roar, it's his voice in general. AND HIS UNIQUE MAGIC IS "KING'S ROAR" and he seems well-educated in his country's defense mechanism. here's the difference between "king's roar" and "roar of the elders" take note of the bolded words

ROAR OF THE ELDERS/THE ROAR (The Lion Guard)

The Roar is strong enough to blast downward-falling water upward, scatter a pile of boulders, or force someone else backward, sometimes sending them flying miles away. However, if the Roar is used in anger, regardless of the intent, it can cause mass destruction and there is a risk of it rebounding like an echo, which can cause natural disasters such as earthquakes. When used in anger, the clouds will be dark and stormy...before Kion uses the Roar, he always tells everyone to get behind him...So he [Scar] tried to employ the rest of his Lion Guard to help him overthrow Mufasa, but when they refused, he destroyed them (Roar of the Elders from The Lion Guard Wiki).

KING'S ROAR (Leona Kingscholar)

In Leona's dorm uniform card, we see him confronting his dorm mates after they mobbed on Jack. His dorm mates threatened him [Leona], questioned his position as their boss and why does he have the right to order them around. He told Jack to "stand back" while he handles them himself. To deflect them and show them his power he used "King's Roar" which resulted in his dormmates and Jack saying:

"My foothold is trembling." "The terrain is rapidly shifting." "The ground is splitting?!" (Jack)

During his overblot, the skies and the clouds turned dark (as it commonly does during overblots). It showed that it can harm a person (such as Ruggie) by turning them into dust/sand. Ruggie also mentioned how he doesn't want to get involved in a blast from Leona's unique magic's full potential. Here's to say that turning something into sand ISN'T the only thing his unique magic can do.

ruggie also mentioned during his magishift club wear card that leona's voice is loud and that they can hear him very well despite the spectators being noisy (translation credits go to @mysteryshoptls):

We can hear Leona’s voice pretty good even when we got noisy spectators durin’ a game. Guess lions just got a healthier roar to ‘em.

if the roar of the elders is used for good and must be used for good, then king's roar is the twisted version of the roar of the elders since it is seen as something dangerous instead of something that can be used for good. seeing as the leona's unique magic was feared upon by his people in the palace, the roar of the elders, on the other hand, was seen as something admirable and worthy for a person to have.

heck the roar of the elders is confiscated if they're used for bad and evil as it musn't be used for ill-intentions. meanwhile, leona's unique magic is implied to be used for ill-intentions because "anything he touches turns into sand" and what good can it bring, right?

i see what you did there twst...very clever.

[rebelliousstories]

Bounty

Relationship: Cooper “The Ghoul” Howard x Reader

Fandom: Fallout

Request: Yes by @silverose365

Warnings: Fluff, Strong Language, Mentions of Death and Killing

Word Count: 1,386

Main Masterlist: Here

Fallout Masterlist: Here

Summary: When a bounty comes in, Cooper is intent on cashing in. The caps they were offering were worth it. How in the hell does she stay a head of him?

The bounty that came in a little over an hour ago peaked The Ghoul’s interest. A very basic description of a female, but with a unique name; Kitten. Her real name was not known, or just not given. Although if it was known, that would have helped in finding her so maybe people just really did not know.

He waited around her last known location and watched the people move by. Cooper did not see anything out of the ordinary, but people were quick to offer up information to The Ghoul. Kitten was last seen heading west, towards Filly. He set out towards the city and kept an eye out for his target. Checking in different abandoned buildings for a clue, he found nothing.

The day trek to Filly meant he was getting there right as the sun set on the horizon and the lights lit up the city. Howard let his eyes rake over the crowd while people moved out of his way. Ducking into a shop was the hair of a familiar person. His target. The woman stayed in that shop for who knows how long, but Cooper was patient. He just waited for her to return, but when a second hour went by and she had yet to come out, he was starting to lose that patience.

“Hey, Ghoul!” The shopkeeper yelled, stepping out from the safety of his doors. Howard poked his head up and felt it was almost comical how people stopped at the call.

“Have a package for you.” Cooper made his way into the shop, with his spurs clinking, and ducked into where he found the girl he was hunting. A small box laid on the counter, and he examined it while the keeper eyes him wearily. Inside, there was a dozen vials of chems waiting for him. And a note that read;

~Must be a huge bounty to get you involved, Ghoulie. Enjoy your present.

He chuckled as he slipped the note and chems into his saddle bag and went to go leave through the back. There, Howard found her footprints and tracked them through the night. But eventually, sleep did call to him. So he tucked his hat over his eyes and laid down against a boulder he found alongside of the trail.

By month two, even Cooper was questioning his sanity. He had been tracking the target for a solid sixty days and was starting to purposefully hold himself back from capturing her. In the past eight weeks, The Ghoul had taken out two other people that wanted to collect on her bounty, only to be met with the big iron on his hip. And each time, the next day, he found a stash of chems along with a note.

~Thanks for keeping me safe Ghoulie.

~Love knowing I’ve got my own guardian ghoul watching over me from above.

Each time he tucked the notes in close to his chems as a reminder of what he was doing. A couple of times he got to catch a glimpse of her. Very few times though, as she somehow managed to stay a step ahead. Overtime, he thought of this less and less like an unruly and clever contract, but rather like a clever and interesting game to keep him sharp. More little gifts were left for him whenever he got close, or just because he “did not” catch up to her in town. In all honesty, this was the most fun he had in the last few years.

But the small time bounties were drying up, and hers just ket getting bigger and bigger. It was time to close this off, as much as that made Cooper upset to think about. It was just the next day, day sixty-one when he caught a definitive sight of her. Unlatching his rope, and tying a knot, he twirled it round and round before casting the lasso out. It landed snugly around her shoulders and yanked her to the ground. Dragging her in closer, Cooper was puzzled by her lack of fighting the rope off. once she was close enough, he stood over her, with her body in between his feet and her looking at him upside down.

“Damn cowpoke. You just don’t know when to quit.” She giggled, resting her hands against her chest in a leisurely pose.

“You are a real pain in the ass, you know?” Neither one made a move to leave where they were or to do anything about it. That alone made The Ghoul cautious about what she had up her sleeve.

“That’s a kinda mean thing to say when I’ve been leaving you presents and thank you chems along the way.” Sitting up, Cooper scooted away as if she was a wild animal. She slipped the rope up and over her head, before holding a hand out so that Howard could help her up. Ever the gentleman, he reached his own hand down and dragged her up to stand in front of him. She dusted herself off, but made no move to run or hurt him.

“Well, I do appreciate the hospitality darlin’. Although I do have to wonder, since you know who I am, and what I’m here to do. Why you let yourself get caught?” Cooper questioned, eyebrow bridge raising as he quirked one of them up.

“Oh ya know. Just bored.” She replied, looking around. Before Howard could reply, she took off to a house that was no longer occupied.

“You comin’ Ghoul?” Turning around, she only stared at him for a second before going back to the house. It was then that Cooper realized that the sun was setting on the horizon, and he would have to take shelter anyways for the coming night. He followed after her, grumbling the whole way through. It was not too much longer that they were sitting around a campfire sharing some meat skewers that she had snagged from the previous town about half a days walk from where they were.

“What did you do to get such a high bounty, Kitten?” Cooper asked, teeth dragging the meat off of the stick.

“Stole a bunch of caps from some rich bastards that were taxing their people to hell and back. Seventy-five percent of what they made they had to pay to these men. So I just took their money and gave it back to them. They didn’t take too kindly to that,” came her explanation. She was also enjoying the meat. After being on the run for so long, it was the most time she had taken for herself in well over two months.

“Like some sort of damn Robin Hood.” He chuckled, stopping only when she had a confused look on her face.

“Who’s Robin Hood?” Her question made Cooper take a moment before responding.

“Ain’t that some shit,” he grumbled, “Robin Hood was a theif for the people. He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Always on the run from the law and the king from which he stole.” Now it was Cooper’s time for an explanation. He watched how her eyes lit up at his mini story. They sat in silence after that for a while; the only sounds being the noises of the desert night and their eating.

“Hey,” she piped up, “what about us traveling together?”

“What the hell makes you think that’s a good idea, Kitten?” Cooper paused in between his pieces of meat to shoot her a ridiculous look.

“Well, you’ve been protecting me this whole time. And I can get you chems and RadAway faster and cheaper than you probably can cause I’m not a ghoul. It’d be perfect.” Now, she was excitedly staring at him over the fire.

“You drive a hard bargain there, sweetheart. What’s the catch?” He replied, finishing off his skewer.

“Forget about the bounty?” She asked hopefully, face scrunching together and voice going higher. Silence once more, but this time it was in thought. Howard thought through the pros and cons of each option; keeping her or turning her in.

“Alright, Kitten. We’ll stick together.” He concluded, watching her face light up in the warm orange light. As they dug in to more skewers, he was certain that he had made the right choice about this bounty.

[wildfey]

Thoughts on the new investigations official art as I suddenly realised I had some (also I really like it! I actually think it's one of the best of the big AA group portraits and clearly a lot of thought went into where each character is in relation to their role in the plot and to each other.)

Images are all terrible phone screenshots sorry but I'm on my lunch break at work

1.

This is one of my fave official gumshoe images of all time. Up there with giving pearl a piggyback and fishing with Maggey. Look at them. I love them. Gumshoe and his lil puppy. Also a real cute missile. But also this is Edgeworth's game and Gumshoe is Edgeworth's friend (one of Edgeworth's closest friends - and we get to see the origins of that in aai) so it fits that we get to see the loveable gumshoe that Edgeworth sees here, right behind him, with his dog. It's adorable.

2)

AHH my faves. First of all I just love seeing Shih-na looking very cool and mysterious whereas Lang looks cool at first glance and then you look closer and realise that his pose is actually really stupid. It's very them. And they are obviously next to each other as always - Lang in front but pushed out to the side, whereas Shih-na is behind him and slightly hidden but she's actually closer to the centre which is a nice little metaphor for their positions in the plot. She's also next to Kay which is a clever nod to what we learn in aai.

(Also maggey and lotta in the background are cute too).

No notes really just nice to see new art of team Interpol.

3)

Okay so this is the bit I really do have thoughts on because positioning! Obviously Miles in the middle, it's his game after all. But having Gregworth and MVK in the background is just a fun choice - after all, they are literally his background! They are facing away from each other, going in opposite ways and Miles is in-between them! Just a nice bit of visual metaphor considering how much a theme of the games is his background and upbringing, and how Miles has to choose between these two opposing influences in his life and find a path between them (and both appear more in the investigations games then they do anywhere else so their size and influence is really significant here).

4)

And finally, Fran! Only her 13 year old design is on this poster, despite the fact that she actually appears as an adult in the game more but that makes sense, this is advertising and this is a unique design for aai. But I like how she's also in the background, she's a figure from Edgeworth's past, but in a much more active pose than MVK or Gregworth are - she remains an active player in his story, unlike them. Also she's placed next to Edgeworth and MVK, which makes sense considering their relationship.

Also I genuinely do just like this design for Fran - I think one place where aai really works is its character designs which are almost universally really well done and nice to look at visually. I like that she's a horse girl and you can tell. I like that it references her trilogy outfit but with a far less adult silhouette. It's just good.

[heian-era-housewife]

This fic is part of the Monster Mash collaborative event hosted by @nanamiscocksleeve ♡

Synopsis | Things get a little monstrous when you end up swapping bodies with the very curse you were sent to destroy.

Content | mdni 18+, f!reader x CurseMonster!Sukuna, slight dubcon, body swap, sex (piv), oral (f receiving), dp, biting, mention of blood, swearing, sukuna is ooc, you *literally* fuck yourself, it gets weird.

Word Count | 2.7 k

A/N | Idea credit to the ever-creative @noodle-is-unstable . Click HERE to see the SMAU that inspired this story and be sure to check out Noodle's other works!

"Come now, you mustn't stop trying!" The monster's voice rang out into the night.

Your lungs burned with each ragged breath as you drew in the cool evening air. You'd been sparring for what felt like hours. Aloft on a Tokyo highrise rooftop, you and the beast you'd been hunting for weeks had finally come to clash.

A wayward smile curled your lips. "Don't you worry, Sukuna. I'm just getting started."

"It seems he's looking for a vessel." Yaga had informed you when the monster curse first appeared.

"A vessel?"

"Someone he can posses. Someone with strength and powers to match, to maximize his abilities. That's why we're sending you." He counceled.

"Why me?" You asked, thinking of at least a dozen more qualified sorcerers. You weren't even special grade.

"Because you are the only one Ryomen Sukuna can't control."

It's true, your ability was unique. Rather than a cursed technique, you had what could only be described as "curse resistance". While you weren't the strongest fighter, cursed energy rolled off your back like droplets of water. And while not entirely immune, you could take a hit like no other. In the odd case of bodily posession, you were a stone fortress.

In the weeks since your dispatch, you'd spent your time tracking the four-armed monster. Learning his methods, his motives, the sound of his voice- and he was well aware. He left you red herrings, had you chasing down bootless errands, and generally toyed with you like his own personal plaything. But your game of cat-and-mouse was coming to a head and there was just one thing neither of you had counted on.

Fatal attraction.

Impervious to his flame, you walked toward him through the raging inferno like something out of an action thriller. The warmth of his curse lapping at your skin as you sauntered through. The air between you thick with heat and excitement.

"You're stronger than I imagined." He praised. "I'm impressed." A rare acknowledgement from the monster of all curses.

"And you're not nearly as hideous as they claim." You teased. "Almost a pity I have to kill you." A dreadful smile curled his lips as you dodged another glancing blow. He was fast and clever, spurred on by your fighting spirit and already privy to your curse resistance, or so you believed. Somehow, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and with every volley of witty banter you were finding yourself feeling the same.

"Such an odd technique you have." He called over the roar of flame and the whiff of mislaid punches. While he realised early on the only real way to take you out would be with his own bare hands, the flames acted as a blind for his pursuit of an ambush, the close proximity of the rooftop forcing you both into a violent waltz. "There's just one thing I haven't been able to work out." He continued.

"What's that?" You panted.

"How is it you're generating these feelings of arousal?"

You stopped, stunned. Did he say "arousal?"

In your moment of distraction, he managed to land a kick, swiping your legs from beneath you and sending you tumbling to the ground. Your back hit the roof with enough force to knock the air from your lungs. And there was the face of the monster, mere inches from yours. His intricate markings stretching handsomely over his wry smile. His sharp teeth bared in a predatory sneer. Two of his hands had you pinned at the wrists, stretched back above your head. The other two bore down on your hips as he knelt above you, caging you in. You froze, certain your luck had run out. All four eyes peered down at you, the smallest glimmer of sadness in his crimson gaze, perhaps at the thought of his fun being over. But in his furrowed brow still lingered a questioning look.

"Speak." He said simply.

Surely he hadn't been serious?

"Answer me, brat!" He urged, warm breath fanning your face.

"I don't 'generate' arousal." You almost laughed. Such a ridiculous situation you were in, pinned beneath the monster you'd been sent to kill, the one you'd started falling for, as he unwittingly confessed his mutual attraction.

Slowly, he lowered his body onto yours, careful not to crush you under his towering weight. Bringing his lips to your ear, he purred his next question.

"Then how do you explain this?"

With a roll of his hips you felt it, the warmth of not one but two massive bulges pressing hungrily between your thighs. Even clothed you could feel them twitch upon contact. Your eyes widened.

"S-Sukuna!" You gasped.

"Surely it's you who's doing this." His graveled voice just barely above a whisper. "No mortal being has ever made me feel such a way." His words sent heat rushing straight to your core, and creeping wantonly up your neck. When you spoke, your voice was thick with need.

"Sukuna, I don't have a cursed technique... I have curse resis-"

"Shhh." He hushed, breathing deeply against your neck. "You will make a most worthy vessel."

"Sukuna!" You urged, squirming slightly under his hold. "Listen, would you let that go? Besides, I'm resistant to curse-"

"All I need is a bit of your blood." He cooed as if to a lover. Your head was spinning. So desperate for his touch, and yet you needed stop him. Who knew if your resistance would hold up to his sheer force of will. It was taking all that you had just to try and think clearly. But the two of you were growing ever more desperate. Your hips bucking up in sheer agony against the firmness of his cocks, still pressing into you.

He rutted against you, half whimpering half growling as he dragged his teeth deep against your pulse. The heat, the longing for his sex, and whatever energy he was using all began to overwhelm you. Darkness flooded the corners of your vision as droplets of warm blood beaded on your neck where his sharp canines were carving their mark. A distant voice yelled out in a sultry mix of pleasure and pain. Your voice.

The weight of his cocks and his name in your throat were the last things you felt before going under.

When you awoke moments later it was to the taste of metal on your tongue, the smell of something provocatively sweet, and an ache like you'd never felt between your legs. Your eyes rolled in their sockets as you forced them back open, your vision was doubled, unfocused. But as you went to rub your eyes, you nearly fell over, shocked to discover that you now had four. Staring down at your trembling hands you realized those, too, had doubled.

"What is this?" Came a voice that was hauntingly familiar. Glancing down, you looked upon the woman pinned beneath you, blood running cold as your were met with your own steely gaze. "What the hell is this?!" She spat, writhing under your hulking form.

"S-Sukuna?" You ventured, your words deep and graveled. Your own cold eyes glaring up at you, and a scent so alluring you thought you may just lose yourself.

"Brat?" There was a moment of pause. A deep seated silence while reality settled in.

"Well..." You said in a voice far different from your own.

"Fuck." Sukuna finished.

"I told you it wasn't going to work!" You moaned, following the curse as he paced along the rooftop. Your stride now twice that of his, you had to be careful not to trip over your own feet.

"I wasn't listening, I was too distracted by that technique of yours!"

"It's not a technique!" You snapped. "You're attracted to me! I can't help it if I turn you on! And, by the way, the feeling is mutual. Annoyingly so!" You said, gesturing to the obvious and very painful predicament between your legs. "How do you even walk like this?"

"Carefully." Said Sukuna with a smirk.

"Be serious!"

"As I told you I've never dealt with anything like this before. I've never experienced anything so trivial as 'attraction'." He turned to look at you. "And for what it's worth, your situation isn't much better." He leered, reaching a hand down to the growing stain between his thighs.

There was that smell again. Your own pheromones were betraying you. Even the great mouth on your stomach had started to pant in shameless desire. Flecks of drool dripped down your front.

What a mess this had become. If the other sorcerers could see you now, they'd have your head for sure. Your mission had gone belly-up, you'd almost become a vessel for the monster you'd been entrusted to extinguish, and here you were drooling and pining over the very creature you were meant to kill while trapped inside his body. At least, in some small, strange way, you weren't entirely alone.

When you looked up from your stomach's lolling tongue, you saw Sukuna, almost feeble-looking in your comparatively small frame, sitting quietly on the darkened rooftop. Human, monster. Suddenly the difference didn't seem so vast...

"Look," you began,"I'm going out on a limb here, but if I had to guess I'd imagine this will wear off after a little while. On the rare occasion I have been affected by cursed energy, it always wears off within a few hours."

"And what do you propose we do until then? You don't expect us to just sit here?"

No, you didn't. Not that either of you had much choice in the matter. You weren't about to fight your own body, nor were you inclined to return to the streets as a four-armed beast with a bounty on your head. Bringing a hand to your neck you called back the feeling of Sukuna's lips against your skin, his sultry voice within your ear.

You couldn't believe what you were about to say.

"Th-there is one thing...we could do."

The air was cold against your skin, but Sukuna was colder, trembling, naked, on the rooftop after you'd helped him remove your clothes. Yours had been easy. A pair of loose-fitting pants was all that kept your dual lengths from springing back against your stomach. The great mouth sputtered.

"Woah..." You marveled- a moment of genuine fascination amidst the bizarre scene. Each shaft was long and heavily veined, one laying atop the other in equal length and proportion. They bounced under their own impressive weight, and each bore a handsome black ring toward its base.

"You done staring?" He asked, arms wrapped around himself as he shivered where he stood.

"Sorry." You chirped. Before he could protest, you scooped him effortlessly in your arms, laying him down atop the pile of discarded clothes, shielding him under your warmth. Slowly, just as he had done before, you lowered your hips, rutting them against his own, the lower of your two cocks gliding over the slick between his thighs.

In one large hand, you gathered his wrists, holding them once again above his head. In the others, you worshipped his body- your body - in exactly the way you knew how. Two large thumbs rubbed circles on your hips, while a thick and calloused finger found your clit with pinpoint precision pulling gasps and moans from a quickly fraying Sukuna. In spite of his efforts, each little sound sent a rush of heat straight to the pit of your stomach, and that gave you an idea.

You laughed something a bit maniacle before spreading his legs and lowering yourself just enough to lay your head down on his breasts.

It was hard to control, the strange anatomy seemed to have somewhat of a mind of its own. You grunted in concentration.

"What the hell are you doing, brat?" Sukuna craned his neck to look at you. You were focused- determined. And then...

"Ohh fuuuuck!" Sukuna said for the second time that night, only this time it was downright sinful. His moans were sweet music to your ears, your cocks twitching in tandem against Sukuna's silky thigh.

With a great deal of effort, you commanded the mouth on your stomach, using its tongue to lap at those sopping folds. Once it had a taste, the rest came naturally. The great maw working itself eagerly between Sukuna's thighs, nipping and sucking as if that were its very purpose. You nuzzled into those pillowy breasts, strong hands pawing at them with surprising tenderness. Sukuna was all but gone, twisting and writhing against the steady rythm of the massive tongue, now fucking up into him as it dipped in and out of his entrance, the taste so sweet your cocks were weeping at the sensation.

Before you knew it, you were flipping him onto his knees, two hands digging bruises into his hips, the others holding him tight against your chest. In truth, you weren't certain your body could handle a cock this size, but you'd be damned if you didn't try. Leaning into his ear, you offered him a hand, your words sending a ripple of chills over his skin. "You just bite down if you need to." You said in a lustful growl before sliding your thick fingers past his lips and over his tongue.

With a careful thrust, you slid your upper cock into his squelching cunt, white stars behind your eyes as you experienced, for the first time, the delicious grip of those velvety walls. You were hooked in an instant.

Desperate cries for "more! More! MORE!" spilled out around your fingers as Sukuna arched his back, keening with every thrust. He rutted back into your frenzied sex like a dog in heat, drooling cunt raining tears of pleasure on the rooftop below. He was milking you so well you nearly missed his desperate plea.

"B-both." He choked around your fingers.

"What?" You asked breathlessly, removing your hand from his mouth.

"BOTH!" He demanded, voice cracking in his need.

Obediently, you reeled your hips back, aligning yourself with each hole, but before you could plunge yourself deeply back inside, Sukuna reached a hand back, adjusting your cocks so they were both lined up with the same hole. Your chest grew tighter.

"Y-you sure?"

A stoic nod was his only reply, knuckles tightening over clenched fists before rutting back into you.

You were in heaven. Ragged groans being ripped from your chest as you railed your hips into your own throbbing pussy. Both cocks pressed together in painful ecstacy as you chased your unholy high. Fat tears rolled down Sukuna's cheeks and you did your best to wipe them away to the tune of his pleasured cries. Your own lashes were wet with sweat that poured from your wild pink hair.

Everything about this was wrong, and yet nothing had ever felt so right.

With a strangled cry, Sukuna's walls closed in on you in the same, unrelenting nature with which he fought- powerful and overwhelming. With the same biting rapture that pulled air from your lungs and stars from your eyes. Forget being a vessel. He came with such conviction you would've given him your soul, had he asked.

"Fuck!" He cried out, and with that you were a goner. His voice sending you spilling your cum in velvety ropes. Both cocks pulsing their load in violent waves that wrought your body and rattled your brain. Your vision swam as you pumped your body full of Sukuna's thick seed. And as you bit into the flesh of the tender nape before you, the world became an inky shade of black.

"Brat."

You blinked your eyes against the darkness.

"Hey! Brat!"

The monster's voice floated to you from the depths of your hazy mind. Slowly you turned to him. His naked form towering over you on shakey hands and knees, his panting breath fanning you in its musky warmth. Chest still heaving in the wake of his orgasm.

"You're stronger than I imagined." He praised. "I'm impressed."

"And you're not nearly as hideous as they claim." You teased once again. "Almost a pity I have to kill you."

"All this, and you still wish to kill me?" He gave you a dubious look.

"Come now, you mustn't stop trying." Your voice rang out into the night.

A wayward smile curled his lips. "Don't you worry, brat. I'm just getting started."

MDNI Banner by @cafekitsune

Tag List | @queentoji @yuujispinkhair

[carlyraejepsans]

The number of Deltarune fans who shoot down theories about the audience's role in the game because it would make them uncomfortable (and therefore "bad writing") is driving me insane.

videogames' ability to directly engage with their own audience in a midway point between traditional predetermined storytelling and the collaborative element of theater is one of its most unique and innovative characteristics as a storytelling medium

unfortunately, a lot of gamers are not very clever

[mask131]

Many people have talked about the Japanese influence of the Little Nightmares game - more precisely how the games offered themselves as a nightmarish and twisted Ghibli movie, what Miyazaki would have created for a Silent Hill game.

But I don't see many people talk about the French style and influence of the games...

Yes, I said French. It might surprise you, but one of the main sources for the aesthetic and tone of the games is a set of French works. The creators of Little Nightmares have been pretty clear in interviews that the movies of Jean-Pierre Jeunet were a big design and concept influence for the game. Now, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is most famous for his slightly absurd romance-comedy Amélie Poulain... But it was his two other most famous movies that inspired the Little Nightmares world.

On one side: Delicatessen

In a post-apocalyptic world, a building stands alone in the middle of the ruins of a city... A block of flats, each one hosting weird and excentric people: a tenant lives in water-filled rooms infested with snails and frogs, another keeps trying to kill herself with incredibly complex and extravagant suicide plans, others are dedicated creators of moo boxes... But all of them live under the domination and tyrany of the butcher whose shop is located at the base of the building: he is the one who provides the meat for all those who live above him, and thus has full authority over them, and nobody asks where it comes from...

One day, a new janitor arrives. A naive former circus clown, a gentle but farcical man who soon falls in love with the shy and secluded musician-daughter of the butcher. Unfortunately, it proves to be an actual fairytale as the janitor didn't just fell in love with a princess high up in her tower... but with the daughter of the ogre, for all the janitors before our protagonist mysteriously disappeared right with every new "meat supplies" delivery... The sweet and touching budding romance of these two youths in a no man's land soon turns into horror as the shadow of the butcher's cleaver falls upon them, and as the madness of the buildings' tenants keep increasing to absurd levels.

And what seems to be the couple's only hope? A secret network of sewer-dwelling, vegetarian terrorists that the butcher's daughter contacts in secret...

On the other side: La cité des enfants perdus

While Delicatessen was a dark comedy (or an humoristic horror, depending on which side you take it), The City of Lost Children is much harder to categorize as Jeunet (and Marc Caro, who also co-created Delicatessen) fully delve into the urban nightmare, the obscure poetry, the dark fairytale, the disturbing children story.

La Cité des Enfants perdus is the story of a mad scientist who lives in a derelict oil platform at sea, surrounded by various "failed" experiments (idiotic clones, a dwarf-wife, a brain in a jar). Unable to dream, he decides to capture the children of the nearest portuary town, in order to steal their dreams for himself - and he performs these crimes with the help of a strange cult of one eyed men referred to as the "cyclops".

One day, the scientist kidnaps the little brother of a simple-minded former circus strongman called "One". Determined to find him back, One teams up with miette (Crumb), a clever and cynical street-urchin girl ; however, their quest to find the secret of the Cyclops is made even more complicated by the presence of the Pieuvre (Octopus), cruel and greedy conjoined twins who are the boss of the children-thief network Miette belonged to, and hatch nefarious plans in light of the recent events...

In a way you could say that Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a sort of French Terry Gilliam. He has a very unique and distinctive style when it comes to his movies, something halway between a realistic Guillermo del Toro and a dirty Wes Anderson. His movies are still to this day a weir, but cult, part of French cinema.

And... Little Nightmares borrowed heavily from them. The large One and the little girl Crumb teaming up to save a child from a sea-dwelling villain becomes Six fighting for her life in the sea-faring Maw against the Lady. The butchering cannibalism of Delicatessen can be found back ; the water-infested flat of the elderly frog-raiser can evoke the Granny's quarters, while the strange suicide plans of the depressed tenant evoke the various "puzzles" of the game. The school run by the Octopus (stern school-teachers by day, vicious crime-lords at night) brings back to mind the school of Little Nightmares 2, and so forth and so on. Plus, of course, the strange technology: these two movies thrive on weird contraptions and strange buildings and never-ending pipes and other bizarre soul-sucking machinery, all elements that were very determinant in the visuals of the Little Nightmares universe.

If you ever wondered what a Little Nightmares movie would feel like... These movies could be of some help. Do yourself a marathon of Ghibli movies and Terry Gilliam ones intercut with Jeunet's pieces, and you could recreate yourself a strange Little Nightmares-flavored experience.

[yuurei20]

So in the second novel, after Leona's overblot does it go into his past or is it just the speech afterwards?

Hello hello! We see a brief interaction between Leona and his brother that is similar to how things played out in the game.

Some places are identical but other places are only in the game, other places are only in the novel, and other places are similar in both but slightly different, so I put the pieces from each together into a puzzle--I hope this helps!

(The EN translation is great but I am posting screenshots from both servers for just in case anyone is curious)

"From the moment I was born, there’s been a boulder on top of me that’s too heavy to move.

From the very instant I came into this world—no, long before that. This weight has always been here.

Once, when I was too young to understand anything, I asked about it like a fool, and the butler looked genuinely troubled.

Not once, throughout all his long years spent serving the royal family, had he ever worn such a perplexed expression. In that moment I realized that I had no right to desire the throne.

Not to boast, but I was a clever, intelligent child. But even so, someone should have been able to understand me, sooner or later.

I will have my chance, too. Someday, someone will see me for who I am. I was so certain, and I worked so hard.

Until I realized it was all for nothing.

'Come on, let's finish up quickly before Leona-sama returns.' 

The servants are whispering as they clean.

‘I can't deal with such a moody child.' 

I can hear them through the door. 

‘He’s probably out there asking twisted questions, troubling his tutor. Crown Prince Falena-sama is so bright and cheerful, so why is his younger brother Leona-sama so sullen?’

‘It’s so troublesome. And to think a member of our own royal family possesses magic that turns everything to sand...'

‘Both of you, will you stop with that! What will happen if someone overhears you.’

Nothing. That’s how I want to respond, with a laugh. If I were to open this door, step inside, and show them this ‘terrifying power,’ I wonder what their faces would look like.

Of course, I would never do that. 

I used to have them reprimanded, indiscriminately, for being so ill-mannered, but by this point I had stopped. Because I had realized that it will never end.

Unique magic that is inherited at birth has nothing to do with the person’s will, but humans wrapped up in their own superstitions are ignorant to common sense.

Or maybe they think this is a power that I desired, and fought to obtain. Either way, they are not worth dealing with. I dislike hassles. And I hate doing things that have no point.

And yet, I still find myself thinking.

I bet that if I were the Crown Prince, this is what everyone would have said: ‘A promising mage with strong magical power? He is so thoughtful, composed, and completely different from his carefree younger brother.’

I knew thinking about it was pointless, but I couldn't stop. And I started to hate myself for it.

The hope I had been clinging to finally disappeared with the birth of my brother's son.

'Leona! Why weren’t you at today’s ceremony?'

My older brother was so polite as to confront me directly with reality.

‘Ceremony? Ah, you mean the party you threw to parade your child around in front of the nation? Yeah, sorry about that. I ended up going back to sleep.’

‘Such a lazy…the presentation of a future king to the citizens is an important day.’

‘Certainly. An important, joyous day. Since it’s the same day that the despised second prince’s only chance to inherit the throne disappears. Everyone in town and throughout the palace must be undoubtedly relieved.’

Even if both my father and my brother were to die, I cannot become king. The throne is a hopeless prospect. And he knows. He knows that I have longed for the day I would succeed to the throne since I was a child.

And still he believes that it is only natural that I would celebrate the birth of his son.

I cannot bear the kindness of someone so stupid.

‘Do not say it like that!’ 

If you can make such a pained expression as you speak, why don’t you hand over the throne? That glory that you’ve had since you were born without struggling a day in your life.

‘Being born first must be nice. You spend every day singing and lazing around, and become king.’

He furrows his brows, looking sad, as if preparing to counsel me.

‘Leona…you may never be king, but you are still wise. There is so much you could do for this country.’

For this country. What a cruel, detestable thing to say.

‘And? You’re telling me that, for this country, I should serve you obediently? You have some nerve, saying something like that while trying to be all chummy!’

‘That’s not what I mean! You cannot let that power of yours rot away, unused.’

‘And maybe if this country selected its kings on the basis of intelligence, I’d be motivated to do something with it.’

If I have to talk to this naiive man any longer I might go insane. Just before I left the library I turned to him, and smiled.

‘Congratulations, Falena-sama. I sincerely rejoice in the birth of a new sun…surely the future of the kingdom of Sunset Savanna is incredibly bright.’

Without waiting for a response, I slammed the door shut.

No matter how hard I study, no matter how powerful the magic I become capable of commanding, it will never be acknowledged that I am superior to my brother, and I will never become king. Why do I have to endure such thoughts, just because I was born a few years too late? 

Simply because I was born in the wrong order, everything I do is dismissed; nothing is even acknowledged.

Why did I have to be born second? Why will I never get to be first? Why. Why. Why. 

—Life truly is unfair."

(This connects directly to here!)

[cattimeswithjellie]

I do like the fact that in a session where there were three permadeaths, they were all so very different.

There was the useless, senseless accident that was Jimmy's death. Jimmy's death was unique because it was both preordained and fiercely denied. After three series with Jimmy the first permadeath, it's almost a game in itself to make it not happen again. People were willing to die to keep Jimmy from going out first. Bdubs, who was barely Jimmy's ally, literally begged Jimmy to kill him when Jimmy's timer ran into the single minutes. Scott jumped off a bridge to give Jimmy just a bit more time to live. Grian and Joel were on deck, ready to spoonfeed more life into Jimmy with their own deaths if they needed to, just to keep that canary chirping a little longer. But none of it mattered in the end, because Jimmy's foot slipped in a moment of excitement and he was too startled to pearl or bucket clutch or do anything to save himself. Gone in an instant for no reason and no chance to say goodbye.

There was Joel's death, a helpless, hopeless race against time and an implacable enemy. Joel made some serious tactical mistakes in his final episode. His gleeful killing alienated him from his allies, antagonizing the Clockers by killing Cleo, annoying the Nosy Neighbors by killing BigB. He griefed Scott's base with TNT twice, once tactically and once just because he wanted to blow stuff up. By the time he was down to the wire, there were lots of people who wanted him dead and barely anybody who wanted him alive. Even Grian, his Day One ally, eventually realized that trying to keep Joel alive was a losing proposition when Scott and Scar and Martyn and Cleo could siphon away Joel's time much faster than Grian could ever donate it. But even knowing that it was hopeless, even knowing that a _best case scenario_ would barely carry him into the next session, Joel fought desperately til his last second ticked away.

And then there was Skizz's death, premeditated and proud, carried out at the hands of a friend. Skizz had been dying from the very first day of the server. His Session One was absolutely atrocious, losing four hours right off the bat to back-to-back Bogey kills. No matter how well he played after that, no matter how many kills he got or plans he came up with, Skizz was never seriously in contention to win the game. And he knew that. He came up with alternate win conditions for himself. He set a goal to affirm every person on the server and he did. He set a goal to make the team he led a force to be reckoned with, and he did. And most importantly, he set a goal that somebody from TIES make it to the end of the game. By Session Seven, it was clear that Skizz wasn't going to be around to bring that goal to fruition himself. Time was not on his side, and his skill was just not there. Skizz is a clever redstoner and a good entertainer, but he's no PVPer and his bow skills are mediocre. Every time he tried to get a kill, he wound up losing more time. So when it came down to the wire, he didn't beg for his life or fight for more time, despite knowing his friends would give it to him. He called his team together and he gave them his new strategy. Someone from TIES needed to make it to the end, and it couldn't be him. But they could take his resources and his time forward with them, so long as he gave them up willingly. By sacrificing himself for his team, Skizz lost his last 20 minutes of life, but he put his team one step closer to that final goal.

There's probably only one session left, which means it's going to be choked with permadeaths that don't get focused or remarked on very much. Each one will be different though, each one will have its own flavor. In a series like Limited Life, the end is never in question, but the ending is unique to each player.

[andreabandrea]

The AndreaBandrea UTY post

I need some place to put my Undertale Yellow (UTY for short) thoughts & criticism, and this is my blog, so I might as well put them here. If you don't want to see constructive criticism about Undertale Yellow, don't click below the readmore!

Pretty much everyone I talk to really likes this game, and honestly, I'm really sad that I don't like it more. I like some parts of it quite a bit! But I have mixed feelings about other parts-- I think the writing and characterization could have been a little more impactful than they were, and I’ll be discussing that here. I don’t want to just rag on this game without expressing suggestions and parts that I do like in more detail, so those will be covered as well. 

I also want to add a disclaimer that I don't have negative feelings towards the development team or fans of this game in the slightest. I have nothing but respect for the creators of Undertale Yellow. This project was obviously a massive undertaking with a lot of love behind it, and I'm glad to see that it's found success and a community of people who do enjoy it. 

The reason I’m writing this post is that, again, I liked parts of this game and wish I enjoyed it more. If I didn’t like it at all, I just wouldn’t engage with it at all anymore. I also haven’t really seen any other people expressing constructive criticism on the game’s writing, so it’s felt more important for me to express these thoughts, be heard, and see if others feel the same way. 

The Good

I'll start off with the things I like. The art, the animation, and the music are all fantastic. I was very impressed by the battle backgrounds and the little touches, like the way Clover runs. Clover doing things like reaching for other’s hands, giving fistbumps, drawing their weapon, changing their expression at times-- they feel very dynamic and fun to play as.

The music is really catchy and fun. I love the iterations on the battle theme-- Snowdin’s battle theme having bells, for example. 

I also had fun with most of the fights in the game! I liked the unique mechanics that came into play (e.g. the lasso in North Star's battle). I think that changing the way Clover attacks compared to Frisk feels organic and fun. 

I also love the mail system. Ever since you could deliver and receive letters in Paper Mario 64, I’ve been hooked on mail as a storytelling system in video games. I think the letters you receive are interesting and clever, and it’s a great way to keep past characters relevant in lieu of a cell phone. 

I’m going to be discussing criticism of the characters later, so I’m going to take a moment to talk a little about things I liked about them. I really like Martlet’s optimism and belief in humans. Starlo made me laugh quite a few times and the Feisty Five have a great dynamic with each other. A lot of the background characters in the game are fun-- I like the one who serves you at the Honeydew Resort. The fact that you can go back to these vendors later on and get four new topics to talk about is fantastic and makes the world feel a lot more alive. 

The Slightly Less-Good (and more disclaimers)

The writing is where the game falls short for me-- and it’s sad for me, because the writing is the heart of Undertale. I don’t think that the writing is bad by any means! I like the characters and story well enough, but- again- I just wish that I liked them more. I’ll try to incorporate suggestions so this isn’t just a total downer post without anything backing it up. 

I want to express something about the ‘suggestions’ that I’ll be offering after the criticism. I know that Undertale Yellow  is now out, and the team isn’t going to go back and change it now, and that’s totally fine. I don’t want to make it sound as if the team should change Undertale Yellow just because I have some reservations about it. I’m just one fan out of many. In the very off chance that a member of the Undertale Yellow development team is reading this--

First of all, hi! 

Second of all, I know that changing major parts of Undertale Yellow at this point is very unrealistic, and I wouldn’t want you to. If anything, I’m honored you’re reading my ramblings at all. I’d be touched if you’d be willing to take some of my words to heart as you move onto your next creative projects.

The reason I’m including suggestions, therefore, isn’t because I think that the team should or must make these changes, but because I don’t want to just sound excessively negative about this game without offering a little feedback. 

I don’t presume that my criticism and suggestions are objectively correct or better than what the Undertale Yellow team created. This is my personal blog, and these are my personal rambly thoughts about Undertale Yellow. The reason I’m including so many disclaimers is because I’ve gotten into discourse before due to poorly thought-out posts about Undertale, and I hope to avoid that this time. I don’t want to just not post something on my own blog, though, because I’m afraid it could be misconstrued or possibly upset somebody. So, I’m trying to discuss this as carefully as I can. 

As one final disclaimer, I'll say that I know that it was more likely than not that I'd be at least a little disappointed by Undertale Yellow. The original Undertale was a very important game for me, and very little could reach that standard. (I think this is one reason why Toby decided to do Deltarune, a sort of AU/spinoff rather than a full-on "Undertale 2", and I respect that decision.) 

I also think that quite a bit of my criticism is subjective-- several of the characters didn't fully click with me and several of the jokes just didn't land for me, personally. More people than you might think just didn’t connect with the regular Undertale, either. I’ll be talking a little about my subjective opinion on characters, but I’ll try to explain why I feel the way I do rather than just say, “XYZ character sucks because they’re lame, moving on.” 

With that said, the post. I’ll be addressing my criticisms from smallest to largest. To begin, I’ll recap the plot of UTY to better analyze aspects that I do and don’t quite like. Spoilers abound.

Undertale Yellow Plot Recap!!!!

The central story of UTY, to my memory and understanding, is as follows:

In the past, a fallen human being went on a rampage in Snowdin and hurt Kanako, the daughter of Chujin, a former royal scientist and monster who happens to be a boss monster. Dalv, an unrelated monster, was also hurt in this incident and sealed himself away in the Ruins in a self-imposed isolation. Chujin’s family (presumably him or Kanako, but not Ceroba, as she doesn’t recognize Dalv) felt bad about this and left him corn from Starlo’s farm as a gift. But, when Chujin died, the corn gifts stopped coming. 

Stepping back a bit, after the incident, Chujin developed a deep hatred for humanity. He invented a security robot called Axis and told it to go kill the human. Axis did this (and we will return to this later). Chujin kept the soul (at least, for a time) to experiment on.

At some point in this, Axis failed to impress Asgore and Chujin was fired as the royal scientist. At some point as well, he began to teach Martlet how to build puzzles. Martlet got a job in the royal guard and Chujin disapproved because humans are very dangerous.  

Due to experimenting on his own boss monster soul in an attempt to find a way to turn regular monsters into boss monsters so that monsterkind could potentially stand up to the threat of humanity, Chujin wound up very ill and then passed away. He left video tapes to his wife, Ceroba, asking her to finish his research. However, he asked her to leave Kanako out of this so she could live a normal life. 

Ceroba agreed to finish this research, but Kanako found out about it and asked to be experimented on because she, like her father, has the power of a boss monster. Ceroba agreed to experiment on her, which injured Kanako and caused her to ‘fall down’. Ceroba sent the near-death Kanako to Dr. Alphys, the new royal scientist, who was collecting ‘fallen down’ monsters for her own experiments with determination. 

Plot summary over. I’ll take a closer look at some of these aspects going forward.

UTY Plot Criticism

I don’t feel like this is a bad story, necessarily. With that said, it doesn’t feel quite as tied together as Undertale’s story does, and I think certain aspects don’t land. 

First, I feel that the majority of the plot elements about Chujin & Kanako get dumped on you at the last minute. You might be thinking that the story about Chara & Asriel is also dumped on you at the last minute-- and to an extent, this is true. You do get a massive amount of information regarding their story near the end of the game, in the True Lab.

However, Chara & Asriel's story is a massive part of the narrative from the very beginning. You meet 'Asriel' (Flowey) in the very beginning of the game. Toriel is in the Ruins due to the fallout of Chara & Asriel's deaths. Asgore and the monsters are trying to kill Frisk and steal their soul because of this, and the royal guard has taken it up as their mission. Sans is aware of an anomaly that will end everything (implied to be the player), and he would have 'killed Frisk where they stand' had he not made a promise to Toriel. And so on.

I’ll be reviewing criticism of the game’s plot in sections themed around each major character. I will be discussing suggestions about each character in their respective section here, as I discuss things I didn’t quite like about each character, my suggestions are intrinsically tied to why I didn’t quite like them. 

Dalv

The connections between characters and the Chujin & Kanako plot feel a bit tenuous to me. Similarly to Toriel, Dalv is in a self-imposed isolation in the Ruins due to a major incident in his past. He fears humans due to the attack he suffered in Snowdin, and he suffers loneliness  after losing his friend (who left him corn). When he sees Clover, he wonders if this is “some sort of haunting” (implying he knows that the human who attacked him was killed). 

In the pacifist route, Clover can prove to Dalv that not all humans are evil and Dalv can move out and learn how to trust people again. This becomes a recurring theme-- Clover, pure of heart, proving to monsters that humanity isn’t that bad after all. 

However, Dalv then disappears from the story. His motivation is to basically be left alone, but once you prove to him that humanity isn’t so bad, his role in the story is essentially complete.

I feel that, by comparison, Toriel’s motivation is more active-- to protect humans who fall down from Asgore. It’s this motivation that drives her to return at the end of the true pacifist route and ultimately make the true ending of Undertale possible.

Dalv’s passiveness makes him a weaker character to me. Now that you’ve proven that you’re his friend and humanity isn’t so bad, I would have liked to have seen him take an active motivation to protect his friend or help them in some way. We don’t have to copy Undertale beat for beat and have him dramatically save Clover from Asgore or anything, but it would have been nice to see him vouch for Clover in some way at some point. 

Now, for the final time, I know that UTY is released and major changes aren’t likely. Some of my suggestions are “I would have liked to see this, but this change would require redoing the entire game,” which I don’t think should or could be done at this stage. This is just daydreaming and- if I’m praising myself highly- potential considerations for the devs’ future works (and the works of any other creatives who are reading this). 

With this proposed major change to Dalv’s character out of the way, I’ll suggest instead the most minimal possible change that I would like to see, so my suggestions don’t feel entirely like just daydreaming. 

I really like how Dalv sends Clover a letter about his moving out to Snowdin. This is active of him in terms of motivation-- Clover is his friend and he wants to keep in touch with his friend. I’d be absolutely thrilled to see a little bit of extra dialogue for him in an update. After you go back to Snowdin and see him, I think the dialogue he already has is totally fine! But, I’d be really happy if he’d take initiative and tell Clover a little more about his experience with the past human, or invite them to rely on him, too. 

Martlet

Martlet felt… a bit restrained in terms of her writing, to me. I think that one aspect of Undertale’s writing is that it’s not afraid to go over the top. Papyrus isn’t just silly, he wears a costume every day and cartoon eyes pop out of his head when he’s surprised. Undyne isn’t just determined, she aspires to be a badass anime heroine. I like Martlet just fine, but she never had a moment where she really stood out to me in this way. 

Martlet’s defining traits are that she likes puzzles, she loves reading and abiding by the rules of the royal guard, and she believes in humanity and wants to help Clover. As I said before, I really like this optimism and belief. I’d like to see more of it. 

Near the end of the true pacifist route, Martlet says that she was taught in the royal guard that humans are scary, but Clover proved to her that humans are kind. This felt very abrupt to me at the time-- we know that Chujin disapproved of her joining the royal guard due to his own trauma, but Martlet had no personal involvement in the last human’s violent actions. 

Martlet doesn’t seem to have any reason to dislike humans more than any other monster. We learn in her diary that she essentially joined the royal guard out of a desire to help people and build puzzles, and also because she needed a job. 

If she’s just supposed to be a representative of the average monster and their feelings toward humanity, and her growing to like Clover is meant to represent how all of monsterkind could grow to like humankind, that would be one thing-- but I think that she specifically is meant to represent a person who wholeheartedly believes that humans can be good and that humans and monsters can live in harmony. In the no mercy route, she repeatedly pleads to Clover to do better, that they don’t have to act this way, that she wants to help them. That’s not the response of the average monster, who fights Clover or tries to flee from them. 

I believe the intention is that Chujin & Martlet represent either end of an ideology axis (no pun intended). Chujin believes all humans are evil no matter what, but Martlet believes that humans can choose to be good. But why does she choose to believe in humans other than a sense of personal optimism? 

I would have liked to have seen some defining event that made Martlet choose to believe in the goodness of humanity. I would have liked to have her being kind and optimistic to a fault be more of a defining trait-- to have that go over the top in an Undertale-style way. A lot of her interactions with other characters just personally weren’t very memorable to me. 

Martlet spends a lot of the game sidelined. She loses you in the Mines. She gets thrown in jail in the Wild East. She has to go back to Snowdin once you're freed. Yes, she's there for you in the true pacifist route, but she's otherwise pretty absent through the neutral/true pacifist routes.

I recognize that the main characters in Undertale can be absent after you leave their respective sections of the game. However, you're able to call Papyrus & Undyne as much as you want, and you get a major hang-out (or “date”) with each of them and Alphys which gives time to expand on their backstory and character arc. Martlet doesn't get that. We even get a little bit of time to hang out with Dalv after we become his friend, but Martlet shoves us on a boat and hurries us to the next area as soon as we beat her. And sure, we get to talk to her on the boat, but it’s just a bit of silly dialogue-- it doesn’t really expand on her character. It feels like a missed opportunity. 

So, yes, my major suggestion on her would be to zoom in more on her belief in you and let her be a liiiiitle sillier and more over the top, and give more opportunity for Clover to hang out with her. 

At this stage, however? In this proposed minor ‘dialogue update’, I’d be really excited to see a little something more from her. Maybe a letter? She does send you one, but only in the neutral route to tell you to meet her on top of the apartments. It would be a good opportunity to either let her be silly or explain a bit about when she came to want to believe in humans-- or both, ideally. 

Starlo

I honestly have very little to say on Starlo. He seems to be the fan favorite, and I did find his section fun! Ultimately, though, he's just kind of… there? I mean, he's on the periphery of Ceroba's (and Chujin and Kanako’s) story because he's her childhood friend (and his family grew the corn that Chujin gives to Dalv), and yes, he later on reminds her that she can still choose to be a better person because he also almost killed Clover! However, every monster in the game almost killed Clover.

There’s nothing wrong with having a silly character who wears a costume and isn’t a major player in the plot. I feel like Starlo is similar to Papyrus in this way. But Papyrus isn’t just a goofball, he’s the monster in Undertale who believes unerringly in Frisk & the player’s ability to do better because he firmly believes that you can make anything happen if you just try. This belief helps elevate Papyrus from comic relief to an actual rounded character. 

I don’t feel like Starlo has any sort of strong conviction like that. We do learn that he wants to bring hope to the Underground by roleplaying as a sheriff in the Wild East town, giving them a slice of (supposed) surface life. I think this is fine, but I’d like to see a bit more of it. In the no mercy route, he does bravely stand against you because he’s a sheriff and it’s his job to bring justice to murderers like Clover. 

My expectation when I first met him, a fellow cowboy (gender-neutral), was that he’d have his own ideas about justice. I expected that he would clash with Clover about these ideals, and neither of them would be quite right or wrong-- and this would prove that justice can’t be measured mathematically, and one outcome can’t be applied to all situations. 

But, he’s not at all bad the way he is. He has a lot of fans, after all. The minor change I’d suggest now that the game is out is that I’d be interested in learning why the cowboy aesthetic specifically appealed to him. Maybe a diary in his room explaining that Westerns are the epitome of ‘justice’ to him? I’d like to see a peek into the motivation that transformed an ordinary farm boy into someone who could bravely stand against a murderous human. 

Ceroba

I’ll be honest. I want to like Ceroba, but I don’t.

I understand that there's an attempt to mirror Asgore in that the war against humanity, in general, has taken Ceroba's partner and her child from her-- and ultimately, Clover forgives her and helps her learn how to move on. It's about letting go, just like Undertale. I get that. But Ceroba’s story doesn't land for me, personally. In order to talk about Ceroba, I need to talk about her husband, Chujin, because Ceroba spends so much of the story acting out Chujin's will. 

Whereas monsters in Undertale do attempt to kill Frisk and steal their soul, and Asgore has killed other children before, it's framed in a very 'video game' violence sort of way (again, Undertale has these meta elements). Ultimately, in the True Pacifist route, none of Frisk's deaths have stuck, and Asgore's actions- while reprehensible- allowed for Asriel to break the barrier once and for all.

Chujin, in the video tapes he leaves for Ceroba, implies that Axis’s murder of the human- presumably a child, like Clover and Frisk- was very violent and bloody. It feels a tiny step beyond the 'video game violence' aspect, for me. While it’s shown that Chujin regrets this, it still doesn’t change the way that this violence is expressed in the game. 

Instead of giving the human’s soul right to Asgore to bring monsterkind closer to freedom, Chujin- who has already been fired by Asgore, I should add- chooses to keep the soul and experiment with it.

This is very selfish, even though he has good intentions. He’s told nobody else about his experiments with his soul at this point- not even his wife- and Asgore has told him to cease all activities as the royal scientist. 

While monsters do want Frisk's soul for their own selfish reasons, they notably do not butcher them violently, succeed in this, and still try to get painted with the same quirky and fun brush that the other characters get. 

After Chujin dies, he leaves detailed instructions for his wife to continue his work-- and although he says "don't involve Kanako", he leaves her all the tools she would need to experiment on Kanako, and notably, no other way to finish his work except to experiment on Kanako.

As I said, Kanako finds out about this and asks to be experimented on. And while she does give consent, she is a child. I cannot stress this enough-- she is a child who just lost her father and is still wracked by grief. Kanako is a child who cannot possibly know what she is consenting to. 

Ceroba chooses to experiment on Kanako and more or less kills her. And then she chooses to send her 'fallen down' daughter to Alphys's experiment, despite the fact that Kanako presumably has some sort of trace of human soul/determination left in her-- which could have compromised Alphys's work as well.

Let's return to how I said that Ceroba is a mirror for Asgore. She's made so many mistakes and it's cost her her family and she can't stop now or it will all be for nothing. She's done horrible things, just like Asgore.

But the difference is that Asgore is the king of monsterkind. Asgore has no desire to kill human beings. He declared war on humanity in a fit of anger and grief, but the Underground had lost hope due to the loss of Chara & Asriel. Believing that Asgore could gather seven human souls and free them all brought hope back to the Underground.

His actions, while wrong, are selfless-- and much less explicitly violent and more 'cartoon violence'-like. Chujin & Ceroba have the well-being of monsterkind as their own pure intentions, but their actions are far more selfish and violent. Axis, Chujin’s creation, massacred a human being. Yet we're still expected to find them silly and fun and relatable-- it just feels unusual.

I’m not someone who hates nuance or morally gray characters. One reason I’m so sad that I don’t quite like Ceroba is that I love morally gray women. It’s just that we’re not allowed to really dislike Chujin or Ceroba for what they’ve done, and instead we’re supposed to see Ceroba- and Axis- as silly and relatable like the rest of the characters. 

Immediately after Ceroba’s boss battle, instead of processing what just happened to a greater extent, Clover chooses to sacrifice their soul for monsterkind. 

I understand that the intention is that Ceroba's grief and Chujin's desperation to protect monsters from humanity contributed to Clover's decision to sacrifice their soul. However, the idea is- to me- abrupt. Ultimately, too, Clover's decision is just as much about how much they love their friends (and how it's impossible for them to hide out in the Underground forever) as it is about Ceroba and her family.

Chara & Asriel’s deaths, Asgore’s war on humanity, the war of humans and monsters-- these elements impact every part of Frisk’s journey. But Chujin and Ceroba’s actions, while impactful on Martlet and Dalv to varying extents, are only part of Clover’s journey. And Chujin and Ceroba did awful things for this comparatively minor impact on the plot. 

EDIT: Further analysis about how Ceroba doesn't have a lot of agency and spends a lot of the plot just acting out Chujin's will, as well as the inconsistency in her characterization (and feelings about sacrificing Clover and the well-being of Kanako), with input from @carlyraejepsans. Thank you!

I would have liked to have seen a bit more from Ceroba without any influence from Chujin- maybe an interaction explaining her relationship with Martlet and an additional conversation about Martlet’s nearly unwavering belief in humans vs Ceroba’s inherited grudge against humanity- but I don’t know where this would fit in. Adding more time for Clover to process Ceroba’s boss fight before sacrificing their soul might throw off the pacing. 

In general, though, Ceroba's boss fight- while flashy and fun- ultimately feels pointless with how little she learns from it and how quickly she changes her stance on using Clover's soul for the benefit of monsterkind, and what will happen to monsters after they break the barrier. To quote @carlyraejepsans in the ask linked above:

In addition, it's like the writing didn't want to commit to her delusions and little character development. She feels that her daughter is alive and thinks she can save her—wait no that was a lie—wait it wasn't. The moment she's defeated she goes "Agh, what was I thinking!" out loud (which is already a questionable writing choice imo but i digress), and recognizes that sacrificing Clover for her plans is horrible... and then 5 seconds later Clover chooses to sacrifice themself to break the barrier and whoops nevermind she's suddenly the one getting the others onboard with the idea... wait. didn't she say she was making the serum because the humans would've only slaughtered them again if they broke the barrier? oh wait wasn't that also chujin again? whoops.

I would have felt better if there were more room to view Chujin and Ceroba in a critical light (and time to view Ceroba outside of just being a mom and wife). I can’t think of any ‘minor’ suggestion that wouldn’t require a lot of editing. 

Axis…

And... okay. Let's talk about Axis real quick.

I want to give the dev team the benefit of the doubt, but I need to point out that this security robot's name is "Axis 014." If you don't know what I mean by pointing this out, I'll just say that both of these terms are nazi dog whistles and allow you to look up the specifics.

I recognize that, by this point, it’s too late to change his name. I’d at least be grateful if the team would acknowledge this and confirm that they aren’t nazis. 

Axis’s name makes his actions far worse in retrospect. He, as a security robot wants to kill a child, but he isn't able to anymore because his programming has changed. So, as a legal loophole, he forces them to hold 'a weapon' (a trash can lid) so he can justifiably kill them. This is the same robot that brutalized and murdered a human being in the past at Chujin's behest.

It feels tone deaf and ultimately the one thing I’d just outright call bad about UTY. I don’t think it was intentionally done this way, but I don't like that we're supposed to find this nazi-aesthetic police brutality robot "quirky and relatable" like the Undertale cast. In the true pacifist ending, he falls in love with a robot made out of a trash can and his eyes turn into cartoon hearts and etc. It’s even more jarring than viewing Chujin & Ceroba in a fun/relatable way. 

In the no mercy route, Axis will defend himself and claim that his programming forced him to kill the human and he didn't want to. This "just following orders" defense feels weak to me as well, personally. Axis clearly delights in harming humans, going out of his way to try to kill Clover. But also, Axis spends a significant amount of the game displaying a very similar amount of free will to the other characters. He’s not just a janitor robot that sweeps back and forth. 

He’s a nearly sentient being-- and the fact that there are these nearly sentient robots makes Alphys’s accomplishment of creating “a robot with a soul” (at least, so she claims-- Mettaton is only the ghost in a machine) much less impactful to me, personally. Yes, Asgore thinks that Chujin failed in creating a sentient robot, and so it’s impressive that Alphys supposedly did it. But I don’t know why Asgore wouldn’t be more skeptical of Alphys’s accomplishment after Chujin failed more than eight times and set fire to his flowers. 

I think that Axis is ultimately a missed opportunity to make a really villainous character. This concept that he disobeys his programming- used as sort of a parallel for law, as a security robot- to attack Clover could have been explored to further the ‘justice’ theme. He doesn’t write his programming (the laws), he just carries it out (violently enforces the laws). 

The ‘minor’ suggestion I’d make, though, is to just acknowledge the name. 

Undertale & Meta Elements

Now, we’ll be addressing my largest criticisms-- the omission of meta elements and the way Flowey is written.

Undertale Yellow never quite stopped feeling like a fan game to me. And it is, of course-- but I think that it feels as if it tries so hard to be Undertale (in the writing style, the humor, etc) that it fails to forge an identity of its own, and that holds it back from being just a fangame to a fangame that succeeds in expanding on the original creative work. 

At the same time, although UTY tries to feel like Undertale, I don’t think it captures certain elements that make Undertale be Undertale. 

Whereas Undertale was ultimately about video games as a medium and the normalization of violence in them, UTY doesn’t have this level of metatextual commentary. UTY does have a running theme of 'justice'-- and I don’t think this is bad! After all, if Undertale already said all there was to say about video games and violence, why retread that path? I respect that UTY knows its limits and simply focuses on justice as a concept instead.

At the same time, Undertale isn’t just an RPG about mercy-- it’s an RPG about RPGs. The fact that you can talk to and spare enemies isn’t just a quirk of the game, it’s what the game is about. This is one thing that makes Undertale great that UTY doesn’t focus on.  

UTY doesn’t completely ignore these elements, of course. Flowey takes over resetting for you, and you do have three distinct paths based on whether or not you kill enemies-- the ‘true pacifist’ path, the ‘neutral’ path, and the ‘no mercy’ path (I will not be calling it the ‘genocide’ route, especially in light of recent world events). Through whether or not you choose to kill enemies, the theme of ‘justice’ is explored-- who is Clover seeking justice for? In the true pacifist route, Clover seeks justice for the monsters, while in the no mercy route, Clover seeks justice for the fallen humans before them. 

However, Flowey taking over the mechanics of saving and resetting for you makes concept of ‘the player’ obsolete. I recognize that not everyone in the Undertale/Deltarune fandom quite enjoys the concept of 'the player' and the meta elements of these games due to the fact that there can be implications that playing Deltarune (as an example, which ups the meta elements quite a bit) can actively hurt Kris and make their world a worse place. However, Deltarune isn’t a complete work and we don’t know this for certain. Additionally, I feel as if at least acknowledging Toby's intentions are important to analyzing the work, no matter what one's personal feelings are about them.

The Importance of the Player

The presence of you, the player, is important in Undertale. Frisk is a subversion of the 'blank slate protagonist' trope. You think that you're able to name them and control them, but in the True Pacifist route, Frisk begins to act on their own (they walk slowly in some parts of the True Lab because they're presumably afraid, etc). In the end, you realize that Frisk is their own person with their own name, and you as the player have to let go-- when Frisk & the monsters go to the surface, Flowey (a mirror of the player themselves) urges you to let them go. Don't treat this as a game anymore-- don't replay and wring out any last drops of content you can. You enjoyed it, now move on.

But many players want to see the No Mercy route because it’s the last thing they haven’t done in the game, and they don’t want to let go. And that's where the role of you, the player, becomes undeniable in the game's story. What is the No Mercy route except playing a 'typical' RPG in the way it's meant to be played? You grind to become stronger, killing every enemy that stands in your way. And when you've killed all the monsters and become as strong as you can be, you've won.

Many players didn't do this because they hate the characters in Undertale and want to hurt them-- if they hate them, they likely just wouldn't play the game. Many players did it because they like the characters in Undertale, and wanted to see what would happen. They couldn't stop playing. And this is exactly what Sans means in his dialogue during his boss battle-- to paraphrase, "you think that because you can, that means you have to."

This is one of the ways that Flowey is a mirror of the player. Flowey didn't start killing out of malicious intent, but because he had become so bored and isolated that he just "had to see what happens".

Chara's role at the very end of the No Mercy route is to call you out directly for this. They tell you that their power was yours. Their words were very misconstrued by fans for a long time, and they themselves wound up as a scapegoat for the No Mercy route-- but ultimately, there's no reason for Chara or Frisk to kill every monster in the Underground. The only reason is because of you, personally. You want to see what would happen. You want to grind and play it like a typical RPG.

They call you out for this if you don't want to delete the game world at the end. Why go back to that world that you've already destroyed? Why play nice with the monsters that you just massacred because you can?

Why am I talking about this at such length? Because I believe that ‘the player’ and how they interact with the world of Undertale is important. Characters lampshade the UI and battle mechanics often-- Flowey talking about the world as a game and ‘saving’ and ‘loading’, Papyrus telling you to “press C to open the dating HUD”, Sans explaining ‘LV’ and ‘EXP’, and so on.

This is my personal opinion, and I recognize this is very nitpicky, but I feel that not acknowledging this or adding to these meta elements in some way makes UTY weaker for me. 

Flowey’s Role in UTY

Flowey essentially saves and resets for you because he's bored, and he wants to use Clover as a tool to access Asgore’s five stored human souls. His role as a mirror for the player becomes him essentially just acting as a stand-in for the player. While this in itself can invite self-reflection, I think that the execution of his role is a little awkward. 

We learn at the end of the neutral route that Flowey has already reset the timeline hundreds of times by the time we first start playing the game. According to him, Clover always ends up at a dead end (they choose to stay in the Underground for the rest of their life) or they die (and they can’t reset of their own power). Thus, Flowey chose to set Clover on an alternate path by sabotaging a lever in the Ruins, which made them fall into the Dark Ruins and meet Dalv.

Flowey then tries to kill Clover and absorb their soul because they, again, hit a dead end. Yet he gives up on it after a while because Clover won’t stop fighting back, and he thinks he can just reset and try again anyway. 

At the end of the true pacifist route, Clover instead opts to sacrifice their soul willingly to Asgore & monsterkind. Flowey comments that he could just reset (and you still can, if you want to play again), but Clover “earned their rest” and he calls them a friend. 

This progression from “Clover is a tool that Flowey is using to access the 5 human souls” to “Clover is a friend and Flowey willingly lets them die and stay dead” feels undeserved and underdeveloped to me. 

"But, Andrea," you might say, "Flowey went from trying to kill Frisk as Omega/Photoshop Flowey to hugging Frisk as Asriel really quickly too!"

Yes, but in that short time, Frisk and Flowey/Asriel had a Whole Thing where Frisk 'saved' him like everyone else and he learned he needs to let go, too. It was a short time, but it was a poignant time. By contrast, Flowey is pretty much absent throughout most of UTY's true pacifist route. Sure, you could easily say that he just got bored of Clover and gave up-- but that, too, doesn’t feel quite right to me. 

I really hate to say this, but I feel that Flowey’s writing in UTY cheapens the original Undertale for me, which is why this is one of my major criticisms of the game. 

Flowey's entire character arc in Undertale is about how he was stuck with the same places and same people for an endless amount of resets. In my opinion, the limited amount of places and characters for him to interact with in Undertale only adds to how trapped he is (and the Underground being so small really strengthens the concept of "there's overpopulation and the monsters are running out of time to find a solution/earn their freedom" that we see in the game, but I digress).

So when something finally changes and he meets Frisk, it's deeply impactful to him. Finally, someone new to play with! Finally, potential for change! Even though Flowey admits that, even if Chara came back, there's a great chance that he couldn't really love them due to his lack of soul, just experiencing something new for the first time in ages is as close to love as he can possibly get. So Flowey:

Starts to believe that Frisk is Chara, this person he ‘loves’ or wants to love, or some manifestation of Chara. 

Refuses to let Frisk go, even if that means- when Asriel has the power of seven human souls- just resetting the Undertale timeline over and over instead of going to the surface or doing anything else.

For Flowey to have gone through everything that he does in UTY- all these new places, all these new people, Clover included- weakens this, in my opinion. And sure, there's very heavily implied to be lots of places that Frisk doesn't explore and people they don't meet-- 99% of New Home and its residents, for instance. But Clover themselves is the real problem for me.

No matter how many times Flowey reset with Clover, I really struggle to believe that he would get bored of a human being that easily. He even said that Clover's actions and choices would sometimes change from reset to reset, and he only recently learned how dramatically he could alter their path by sabotaging that lever in the Ruins. Clover isn't a static being-- and even if they were, they're at least a new static being.

And although we learn in the neutral route that Flowey can't really absorb Clover's soul because they fight back too much, I can't believe that would stop Flowey so easily. What about at the end of the pacifist route, where Clover has given it up willingly and it's being transported in a little jar? Clover’s body is separated from the soul, now-- could Clover still fight back?

Or, what about if Flowey tried to kill them as soon as they entered the Ruins? Or, what if Flowey played nice the entire route and then at the end tried to convince Clover that if they sacrificed their soul, he would take it to Asgore for them? With access to full control of the timeline, I don't think Flowey would give up on this. We learn in Undertale how painful it is for him to be soulless and how desperate he is to access power so that things will change.

For Flowey to acknowledge Clover as a 'friend'- maybe even a true person, not just a compilation of dialogue- suggests character growth. It suggests remorse for his resets that he isn't capable of having and doesn't have until the events of Undertale. I just don't feel like it’s earned. 

Flowey is, of course, an unreliable narrator. 

At the end of the no mercy route of UTY, Flowey expresses that he never saw Clover as a friend-- he only enjoyed watching them die over and over again. It should be noted that this was said while under extreme duress (Clover is LV 20 by this point and has killed everyone save for Asgore), and this route isn’t canon in the way that the neutral and pacifist routes are. 

With that said, if we agree that Flowey can’t feel love as a soulless being, then I could argue that this is about as much of a ‘friend’ as anyone could be. This is how he wanted to keep Frisk (“Chara”, in his mind) for eternity when he had the six human souls + the entirety of monsterkinds’ souls-- just watch them try over and over again, for eternity. 

Why am I contradicting myself? Because, let’s suppose that Flowey doesn’t mean Clover is a ‘friend’ in the traditional sense- that they earned his respect and he cares for them in some way- but Clover is a new toy that he got bored with and gave up on. I feel like this, too, makes Undertale a little weaker. 

If Flowey did have some type of positive regard for Clover, but was willing to let them go, then it feels- to me- like Frisk’s role in his story isn’t that significant. Frisk helped him learn how to let go and move on, but Flowey has already demonstrated being capable of this. The circumstances are different- if Flowey gives up at the end of Undertale’s true pacifist route, it’s over for real, whereas if he gives up at the end of UTY, he can just wait for another human to fall- but I feel like the core feeling is the same. Flowey, by the start of Undertale, doesn’t strike me as someone who’s capable of letting go. 

So, how would I have changed this?

I recognize that- again- Undertale already made these points about video games and violence, and Flowey has his entire character arc in that game. For Flowey to have more of an arc in this game would potentially make this game no longer line up with canon Undertale or weaken Undertale further. And why retread old ground that Undertale already talked about?

I respect the decision to tell a self-contained story, but the meta commentary about video games in Undertale is so significant for me that I personally would have liked to see a bit more of it in Undertale Yellow. I also recognize how much of my criticism of Flowey’s writing in UTY is subjective. It feels unrealistic for me, his arc feels abrupt for me, it makes Undertale less poignant for me. 

A lot of people love his inclusion in this game, and it’s very novel to see Flowey as a friend throughout most of UTY and hear his snarky commentary on demand rather than having him as an enemy who’s absent through most of the game, as he is in Undertale. 

The Flowey Suggestions

First, I’ll be honest. I know this is not and has never been possible, but my easiest solution to the dilemma of Flowey’s lack of a character arc- and the lack of an ability to give him a character arc- would have been to just remove him from UTY. 

I think that Flowey’s inclusion in the story of the yellow soul human and his role saving and loading could have been interesting. It goes against certain story elements implied in Undertale, and popular fan theories-- and I don’t mind that, if something meaningful is done with it. But, I feel as if Flowey’s relationship to Clover isn’t impactful enough to justify including him. 

To clarify on ‘implied story elements’ and ‘popular fan theories’: 

While I might be misremembering, I thought that it was implied in Undertale that Flowey came into being after Asgore had already collected six human souls, and that a significant amount of time had passed since the last human had fallen down. 

I won’t go into it at length because this post is long enough and I, again, am not an Undertale expert. With that said, it’s also implied that all human souls are capable of saving/loading/resetting in the Underground. If you make Frisk tell Asgore that he killed them before, he just nods as if he’s used to it-- and he’s the one character who we know has killed humans before.

Now, how did Asgore successfully kill beings that can just reset the game whenever they die? Well, Sans faces the same dilemma in Undertale’s no mercy route. There’s no way that he can permanently defeat you, the player, who is a real being. Therefore, the way he ‘wins’ is by infuriating you enough with his difficult boss fight until you give up and stop playing Undertale (or, at least, reset and make better choices). 

Think about all the times you’ve played a game, got stuck on a hard boss, and never played it again. While it’s not ‘canon’ to the story- giving up on your copy of Mario doesn’t mean Bowser really wins- functionally, giving up on a game means that the story ends for you. This is how I believe Asgore captured the six human souls, even if they were also capable of resetting like Frisk is-- he fought them until they gave up.

Humans all are said to have great amounts of ‘determination’, not just red soul bearers. We don’t even know what trait the red soul exemplifies. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s determination itself. 

The bottom line is that I don’t think it would be unrealistic for Clover to be able to save/load/reset on their own, or for Flowey to not exist yet during the time they fell down. 

But, I get it, Flowey was in UTY’s demo that has been out for seven years. He’s in the trailers. He couldn’t be removed at any part of development, and he sure as hell can’t be removed now. 

My second suggestion would have been to zoom in on him, instead. While the prequel is about Clover, the yellow soul human, I would have liked to see it be about Flowey in a significant way. I kept hoping for Clover to have an opportunity to ask Flowey at some point, “why are you helping me, anyway?”.

This is my personal interpretation, but I’ve come to believe that Flowey thinks that the reason he’s stuck as a flower is that it’s a punishment. Because he, as Asriel, refused to fight back, he failed Chara, and now they’re dead. Now he’s stuck as a rinky-dink flower with no soul, he can’t love his former family, and he can’t stop playing this game. 

In the no mercy route of Undertale, Flowey feels very much like he’s trying to appeal to Frisk- the person he believes is Chara- in a way like a younger sibling trying to impress an older sibling. He says he’s impressed by how you killed everyone. He helps solves puzzles so you won’t have to slow down. He brags to you about how he’s also a heartless killer. 

Notably, he talks about his past. He tells ‘Chara’ that he was afraid to start killing, at first. He said he wouldn’t enjoy it, but he just had to know what would happen.

Then, Flowey laughs and says that you (Chara) know how liberating it is to be this way-- to kill people and shape their fates. He ‘recognizes’ Frisk as being actually Chara because of how they killed everyone in the Ruins. 

But we have no indication that Chara was a violent or evil person in their life. I believe that Flowey is partially projecting and partially recognizes Chara because, in the last moments of their life, they were telling him to kill. He always knew that Chara hated humanity and wanted power to better the position of monsterkind. This is why Flowey brags about how he has a plan to get the human souls, and once they do so, they can go to the surface and “finish what [they] started.” 

To Flowey, in my opinion, killing people isn’t just about seeing what happens. It’s about trying to understand and appease Chara and doing what he thinks he should have done all that time ago, as Asriel. 

I bring this up because I think that I would have liked to have seen this be explored in Undertale Yellow. Flowey is still a very misunderstood character today due to being an unreliable narrator. I believe that a lot of Flowey misinterpretations are due to taking him at face value-- hearing him say that he’s an unfeeling, manipulative, patient killer and agreeing with him.

But Flowey contradicts himself at several points. He gives up his “catch these friendliness pellets” trick after you dodging just a few times. These aren’t the makings of a perfect manipulative killer, but an impatient child. That’s who Flowey is at his core-- a child. 

I recognize that, again, if Flowey told all of his tragic backstory to Clover and they became true friends, this wouldn’t fit with canon Undertale and his actions in that game. Flowey and Asriel distance themselves from each other, and it wouldn’t make sense for Flowey to tell this to Clover-- especially if he just views them as a tool to use and play with. 

I think, however, it wouldn’t have been impossible for Clover to have learned this information about Flowey in a way that could still be canon compliant with Undertale itself. Hypothetically, maybe the “hopes and dreams” statue in the UG Apartments near the Core could have sparked intrigue in Flowey. 

Maybe analysis of Flowey could have come up during his neutral route boss fight-- after all, Clover appears to peek into the minds of Ceroba and Martlet during the true pacifist and no mercy run boss fights, respectively. We already get a little of this- Clover has to run through a hallway of flowers in Flowey’s boss fight, and we hear sad and scared dialogue that’s presumably from a past version of Flowey himself. However, it’s not necessarily new and doesn’t quite add to Flowey’s character in my personal opinion.

I feel that including Flowey’s story more in some way would justify having Flowey in the game, and knowing the history of Asriel & Chara could factor into Clover’s decision to give up their soul for the sake of monsterkind. Chara, too, sacrificed themselves willingly, after all. 

I don’t have a ‘realistic suggestion’ that could be implemented with a dialogue update because these suggestions are so vast-- and, ultimately, very personal and subjective. I have very strong feelings about Flowey.

Meta Elements of Undertale 

In Undertale, you’re asked when you should or shouldn’t fight. As a pacifist, you can get through the Ruins without killing anyone. Flowey will then ask you what you would do if you met a relentless killer. Would you betray your morals and fight? Or would you give up and let yourself die?

Undertale is the friendly RPG where nobody has to die. While you have to kill Asgore at least once to do the neutral route, and you do have to fight back against Omega/Photoshop Flowey to end his battle, the game ultimately posits that there never is a good time to fight. You don’t beat Omega Flowey by being stronger than him, you do it by appealing to the souls and allowing them to rebel. You don’t beat God of Hyperdeath Asriel Dreemurr by beating him up, you do it by saving your friends- him included. The game, again, is about an inversion of the necessity of violence in video games to me.

I would have been interested in seeing an exploration of when it is necessary to fight, and this could be done through the lens of ‘justice’. Would Clover fight if it brought them closer to justice (on a pacifist route)? Is it morally correct to kill one person if it saves thousands? 

Sparing someone is always the correct option in Undertale. In that way, the true route is quite linear-- there’s one solution that works for everyone. What if there were situations in UTY in which there is no single correct option that works for everyone? What if Clover were placed in situations in which they had to act as arbiter and decide between two outcomes and what is right? It could have been like how they get forced to solve the trolley problem in the Wild East, but with consequences. 

Adding to putting a ‘twist’ on the elements that Undertale introduces with its combat system-- what if sparing someone ultimately enabled them to keep hurting others? What if fighting to weaken someone was the correct solution for once? These inversions could have built on the meta elements of Undertale, and I think that it would make Clover’s decision to sacrifice themselves to bring justice to monsterkind more poignant to me.

Again, I have no ‘realistic’ suggestion for this in the full release of UTY. I think that the plot about justice alone isn’t bad, but I would have been happy to see it tie into the gameplay a little more. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, I think that UTY tries too hard to be Undertale without iterating on the aspects that made Undertale memorable. The characters feel like they fail to pop or relate to the game’s story in meaningful ways, and to me, the main story isn’t executed as well as it could have been (and far darker than the main Undertale in ways that don’t feel as if they’re handled sensitively). 

I will say, again, that this project is very impressive in scope, and I applaud the dev team for finishing it and releasing it. I recognize that a lot of my distaste is subjective, and creating another Undertale is a fool's errand considering the acclaim that Undertale got. I recognize one final time that my suggestions are just daydreaming, and this game has already found a lot of success-- which I think it deserves.

I tend to criticize a lot of media I like, which might sound contradictory to some, but it makes perfect sense to me. If I don’t like something, I won’t engage with it. I think that the original Undertale has its flaws, too. At the end of the day, I like UTY, but no media is perfect. This is how I think it could have been better, and I hope that I think other creatives who want to make Undertale fanworks (or any creative works, for that matter) will take these thoughts into consideration.

Thanks for reading.

[paper-mario-wiki]

what's ur favorite erb?

i dont have "favorite" as much as i have "the ones i watch every now and again".

"Blackbeard vs Al Capone" i might just like the way EpicLloyd speaks as Capone, but i also cant help but be utterly entranced by a shouting match between to middle aged men who want the other one to be scared. Favorite verse: Capone 1 (of 2)

"Wonder Woman vs Stevie Wonder" although this one still has the signature simple and cheesy bar structure that ERB is known for, this is PEAK in terms of performers. nicepeter and epiclloyd (the main guys) are great, but after the first 30 videos it became very easy to detect their individual deliveries and cadences. t-pain is pretty iconic in his performance of stevie wonder. Favorite verse: Stevie 2 (of 3)

"Stephen King vs Edgar Allan Poe" watzky was unfortunately cursed by god to forever look like a little twerp, but he works with it really well and it fits very well for the real-life twerp that was Edgar Allan Poe. and zach sherwin is always a charismatic force to be reckoned with, his uniquely clever writing style and flow shining. Favorite verse: Stephen King 2 (of 2)

"Steven Spielberg vs Alfred Hitchcock" this one's just good fun. its a little battle royale among a bunch of really famous pop directors. i know that the character-appropriate cgi background is a staple of post-season-one ERB, but i really appreciate these ones specifically for some reason. Favorite verse: Alfred Hitchcock

"Kryptonite" this isnt an ERB and is in fact a completely unrelated normal rap song but i was listening to this one today. my oldest brother listened to a lot of rap when i was young and this one was one of his favorites. i remember listening to it all the time when he would drive me to blockbuster to rent gamecube games. i didnt listen to it for a few decades, but i looked it up on youtube a few weeks ago on a whim and i really liked it a lot. it's all about smoking weed which i love doing, and the chorus is really catchy, plus the instrumental is one of my favorites. Favorite verse: Big Boi 1 (verse 3)

"The Joker vs Pennwise" both rappers somehow look like different versions of matpat in heavy makeup, and joker works in a natural "we live in a society" which i like. i think that's all i got for this one. Favorite verse: Joker 3 (of 3, because this is the one with the we live in a society bar, but all of his bars were actually really solid)

"Tony Hawk vs Wayne Gretzky" another one for the "zach sherwin is one of the best thing ERB has" pile. he delivers in a quaint (if a bit cartoonish) canadian accent a scathing comparison between the actual real-life achievements and significance and skill between the two actual athletes. which i think is very spiritually fulfilling considering the name of the series. Favorite verse: Wayne Gretzky 2 (of 2)

"James Bond vs Austin Powers" might unfortunate austin only gets 1 verse because it's far and away the best part of this one. aside from a clever pussy eating joke near the end between the two feuding bonds. Favorite verse: Austin Powers

"Nice Peter vs EpicLLOYD 2" this is an actual real-life catharsis event between the main two artists behind ERB who seemingly put very real and deep-seated creative and personal frustrations they have with each other into their verses, plus a very real burnout over this series that they put all their money on being The Big One, creating a legitimately tense feeling in watching their performances. for reference, Peter rips on how Lloyd is an alcoholic and is unwilling to let the channel grow or change, and Lloyd talks about how Peter is obsessive and manipulative, referencing a real life issue involving a friend they fucked over in the separate video he appeared in. Favorite verse: Lloyd 1 (of ??? this one is almost a duet at times really)

"Babe Ruth vs Lance Armstrong" this one is specifically here because babe's second verse goes extremely hard in an almost uncharacteristic way for a series with very middling raps in general. Favorite verse: Babe Ruth 2 (of 2)

i could keep going i think but i just scrolled to the top of the list and my face flushed with embarrassment at how long its getting so im gonna end it there. you get the idea.

[joannerowling]

Anyways to complete the Le Guin vs Rowling debate, i think "imaginative" is an overrated quality for a writer. There's very little humanity hasn't already imagined anyways. It's far more important and much harder to achieve a unique and recognisable voice.

It also tickles me that JKR's work could have been called "mean-spirited". Yes HP is "mean-spirited", of course it is, it's satirical. In my (albeit very personal) opinion satire is a much more noble pursuit than fantasy, much harder to nail than coming up with cool monsters, something humanity has been doing on its own since cavemen learned to talk. The highest form of fantasy is folklore and fairy tales, where the "world building" is stripped to its bare necessities - a cursed kingdom, a noble prince, a wicked witch, mysterious woods. "Modern" fantasy is a fake genre anyways because you measure how good a fantasy book is by basically anything *but* the fantasy elements. For exemple, Game of Thrones is good because of its original political element and soap-operaish intrigues. The Golden Compass etc. are good because they're a manifesto against organised religion. And the HP books are good because they're a clever study of British culture mixed with excellent mystery plots and a spiritual core.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

thinking about the fe games w/ routes (fates and three houses specifically but probably others idfk)

i think there needs to be more tragedy there. or opportunities for it i guess? or that fire emblem has to make unique death quotes for characters in general man

death in fire emblem feels so blah for me. more of an inconvenience than in other media. like when im playing DnD and an npc i love dies it isnt "man that sucks. anyway" but even w characters i love in fire emblem its just "man do i wanna reset the chapter for this that was so lame"

make death and especially betrayal related deaths Hurt More.

lets say youre byleth. youre teaching the black eagles, yay! but you have a b support with claude. you and claude are good buddies, maybe you just like claude as a character or its accidental because of x y z does Not matter. either way you are one of claudes closest friends. then the war starts, and you choose to side with a woman claude sees as a future tyrant (or at the very least a driven warmonger who might crush the alliance underneath her boot). imagine the hurt. the absolute fucking agony for claude.

and for byleth! byleth wakes up and their friend is gone. on another side, unreachable, 5 years of emotional distance *yawning* in front of them.

and then they reunite in the midst of battle, weapons drawn. theyve both come so far and have goals they *have* to achieve.

"I don't want this."

too bad. if you roll over, you get a game over because you fuckin failed the route. or you have to make someone else kill claude because sumn sumn mechanically you have a 0% hit rate bc of that b support. you cant do it.

too bad. claude cant run away, hes the last line of defense for a place hes responsible for. if he leaves what is he? a coward? a turncoat? would he have to believe in edelgard's future? would he have to slay his own allies, friends, the people who relied on him?

he cant. you cant.

he begs you to reconsider. you cant.

as he falls he reaches out a hand. you kneel beside him as he says a few things. calls this whole battle a clever gambit, praises your cunning in using effective weaponry, etc etc. but his voice is weaker. theres no option to spare him, you couldnt spare any *other* unit, could you? couldn't spare hilda. cant spare claude.

he mentions sometimes dreaming of the monastery. the food was good, right? hope the foods good in the future you build with edelgard. hope you name a town after him, thatd be fun. dont get stupid, teach, dont join him too soon. maybe he'll even wait for ya. keep a seat warm.

(fire emblem unit death sound)

then also: units in your own army.

lets say youre playing black eagles. its nearish endgame but not too close so i dont say any spoilers, but regardless bernadetta and yuri have an A support. they might get hitched postgame man, you havent done the A support of anyone else w those two. its a rough battle, your healer is severely low on psychic uses, you sold all your fucking vulneraries because you thought dorothea was more of a beast than she is. its dire.

unexpected sniper crit. yuri is on 0 hp.

bernadetta is within 5 tiles and instead of yuri's canned death quote, bernie interjects with one of the most well voiced anguished screams youve ever fucking heard. on the next turn, bernie gets +50 hit *and* crit on that enemy, and if she kills it the rest of the scene plays.

bernie is holding yuri, one of her few friends in her hellish fucking life. hes not gonna make it, she knows that, but shes still gonna try. shes wailing and begging him to stay like she wished she had all those fucking years ago, shes babbling about all the things he'll miss if he goes, all the things shes planned for them to do now that shes brave enough to leave her bedroom. he cuts her off to laugh. now is when she gets brave and honest with her feelings? when hes dying? oh bernie come on. he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her in for a hug, kissing her temple like an old boyfriend and not a quiet yearning crush. he murmurs that hes glad she left her bedroom. that hes glad she can see the world beyond what abuse happened to her behind closed doors. that she'll find some other person to hold in his stead, one who wont so rudely get his blood on her battle leathers. one who wont leave her time and time again like he has. she wails into his shoulder as she drops the scraps of cloth she had been trying to use to stop his bleeding and just holds her dying friend.

(fire emblem unit death sound)

if death felt like An Event and not An Inconvenience i'd play with permadeath more man. make me sad fire emblem youre so shit at it

.