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sinterhinde · 1 year ago

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Glory on the artist: Vita Sleigh

I make drawings which combine detail with mixed-media texture; most often I use a combination of watercolours, coloured and graphite pencils, sometimes combining digital elements. I have an interdisciplinary practice which spans illustration, writing, activism and research. I am interested in what can be told of the outside through coming to know the shape of the inside: my work explores interior worlds, often visiting themes of gender, queerness and queer relating, human-nonhuman interactions and experiences of injustice. I also come back to enduring inspirations such as folklore, psychoanalytic theory, and the sea. I am currently studying an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture at Birkbeck University. Illustration commissioners have included The History Press, Popshot and Firewords poetry journals, and Unbound. Publishers of my written work include Animals and Society Institute, Vegan Feminist Network and Dark Mountain Project. (vitasleigh.com)

I found Vita Sleigh's work through a conversation between Tom White from Fruit Journal and Maria Sledmere and Colin Herd.

Sleigh's essay Making Oddkin: Relationships in the Cracks is a brilliant piece that can be found on their website and in the Spring '22 issue of the Dark Mountain Project (theme: confluence).

The essay investigates fluid sociality, non-monagamy, and is book-ended by reflections on the binaries that starve us of knowing each other and the world. They weave together a beautiful range of poetic, politics, and portraits of their own relationships - I pray a book is in the works I would buy several copies.

They also have a linktree that includes a page of polyamory and anarchic relationship resources. I haven't check them out yet but appreciate the signpost a lot.

As a side note to myself, I need to make Glory on Donna Haraway and Bayo Akomolafe also. I've been tired a lot at the moment and am absorbing more than excreting (...)

Sleigh's essay on non-human pain Nonhuman Consent: On Touching Other Animals provoked me to reflect on my own relationship to my ex-vegetarianism/veganism and consent around the cats and dogs in my life:

Recently, to better understand the experience of the animals I interact with, I have been trying to imagine what it’s like to do what they do, and how they experience it. For example, I watched dogs in a busy street being stroked by passers by – what are they experiencing? Pleasure? Shock and surprise? Irritation? Violation, even? Certainly, this will be different for each individual and probably at different times, too. (veganfeministnetwork.com)

Sleigh's methodology of imagination as tool for understanding also reminded me of the conversation around Feminist Philosophy of Mind, 2022, ed. Keya Maitra and Jennifer McWeeny.

I'm thinking specifically of Amy Kind and Janine Jones' comments on the limits of imagination as empathy in particular power structures: Kind's essay in the anthology examines the gender bias in the Turing Test and Jones' examines the failings of white empathy. Kind also made a reference to Sam Liao's exploration on the right not to be imagined - although I haven't read this work so can't comment but am very intrigued to see how it would apply to human-animal empathy methodologies. Linked below:

Feminist Philosophy of Mind is not yet available to b u y online, but I'm linking the discussion below:

youtube

Sleigh's visual art is just fucking gorgeous. They are organic and fluid forms that really embody the artist's ethos as a being. Each subject seems celebrated individually in their stylised world - I particularly resonate with their hybrid jellyfish figures and they remind me of my utopic visual 'interruptions' of figures born from whale hearts.

Sleigh's drawings can be found on their website and @ their IG: vitasleigh

#vita sleigh #british painting #british poetry #british writing #donna haraway #Bayo Akomolafe #polyamory resource #art resource #philosophy resource #contemporary painting #2020s #feminist philosophy of mind #Youtube #sam liao #shen-yi liao

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localvoidcat · 2 years ago

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oh i forgot. here's the humanoid forms of the fmr gods - for this planet at least (to an extent, picrew isn't good for designs but i dont want to draw)

Vita (she/her), the God of Life. Mortem (it/its), the God of Death.

Terra (they/them), the god of Earth.

#fmr tag #btw vita doesnt have eyes! the butterfly spots just look like it #vita is a combination of a lot of different animals #butterfly buffalo birds. her teeth are extremely sharp and she probably has teeth motifs in her clothing #mortem doesnt have a mouth #it also has the halos the massive wings the cloak. all that. eye motifs everywhere #the actual god forms are. brain melting. josh gets the misfortune of seeing it </3 sad!

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retsuunohana · 4 years ago

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hey zero escape looks kinda neat where do i start (its cool if u dont have time for this LOL)

hey!! so zero escape is a trilogy starting with “9 persons 9 hours 9 doors” for the nintendo ds, the sequel “virtue’s last reward” for nintendo ds, and then “zero time dilemma” for nintendo ds/ps vita!

there is a version that came out for ps4 called the “the nonary games” that combine 999 and VLR and features voice acting, though i don’t recommend playing this version as it unfortunately ends up omitting a lot of plot-important game UI functions that were quite clever in the original 999 game.

even if you dont wish to do a full undertaking of the entire trilogy, i think 999 is an excellent self contained story on its own! VLR takes concepts introduced in 999 and applies them to a broader space, though it does unfortunately lean into a bit more ... anime-y tropes wrt its characterization of sigma being a creep towards the female characters, in addition to the questionable outfits clover and alice wear in particular (though even 999 does this w/ lotus so ehhh). ZTD is a fun game imo that introduces some great characters, but also full disclosure its graphics are rushed quality and the story has some pretty cliched or just straight goofy plot elements that contradict each other and established canon as well --it comes off more as a visual novel than a game, per se-- but still includes the puzzle functions and sense of urgency as its predecessors. i think that while its a fun game like i said, it is definitely the weakest in terms of story in the entire series. that said, the series obv isnt without fault, but i enjoy all of the games for vastly different reasons and the story in its entirety despite what gripes i have. id highly recommend 999 regardless though, its one of my favorite games of all time!

lemme know if u have other questions or whatever too! :)

#Anonymous

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sebastianshaw · 4 years ago

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@sammysdewysensitiveeyes - And finally, Shinobi for World of Darkness, three different versions/games! Under cut because like always, it’s long!

For a vampire, he’d be a Toreador. They’re the type who will turn someone just because they’re pretty, then get tired of them within the week, and that’s how their ranks get flooded with dilettantes who don’t posses any artistic talent, like Shinobi. Toreador are famous for being the most emotional and passionate and in touch with humanity, but in truth, many are emotionally hollow, chasing fleeting highs of false feelings that are shallow and brief despite their deceptive intensity. This leads them to become callow and callous, trying forever to breath life into themselves through new experiences that become banal all too soon, leaving a trail of broken mortal hearts and lives behind them, to say nothing of fledglings that, like, Shinobi, are pulled into this world they’re not ready for and typically destroyed by soon enough. While many people deride them as romance novel vampires, I think they’re actually a very clever subversion of that, and in their own way as horrifying as more famously frightening ones. Shinobi, bitter and wounded over being rejected and abandoned by his sire, has become exactly that kind of Toreador himself. He also strives to be as seductive and glamorous as other members of the clan, and he has the image down, but it falls apart quickly when others question or reject him. He’s also a very young and weak vampire, so he has no political strings to pull, and since he has no art, is looked down by his clanmates as a poseur. All this just makes him more pathologically driven to prove himself and gather allies who will love and respect him, even as he fails at it every night. Also, the Tories are often called divas and “Degenerates” is literally a nickname for the whole clan, it’s perf. I also think he’d make a good Ghoul. When someone---be it a human, animal, even a fellow vampire---drinks the blood of a vampire three times, they become Blood Bound to them. In the case of animals and humans, this makes them the vampire’s ghoul, and the vampire their domitor or regnant. The blood bond is one of the most powerful tools of vampirekind, as the victim is completely enthralled to them, forced to obey. The ghoul is obsessed with them, usually in love, and will do anything asked of them. Continual drinks reinforce it, and the ghouls WANT this, for vitae---vampire blood--is addictive. And the longer they serve a vampire, the more they’ll need it not just out of addiction, but to survive. Ghouling a human (or animal) will freeze them at their current age, just like a vampire, and even grant them some vampiric powers...but when the blood stops coming, all those years catch up with them...all at once. It’s not pretty. Some ghouls who manage to escape their masters---usually by the latter’s death--become vampire hunters in order to get their vitae fix, drinking from different ones in order to avoid the “three strikes and you’re out” Blood Bond. As for what vampires get from this, ghouls have any number of uses, from daytime bodyguards to managers of mortal affairs, messengers, servants, it goes on. The sad, cursed existence of a Ghoul is in many ways worse than that of a vampire, and with none of the benefits. I could see him either as a group ghoul, perhaps, serving a coterie (small group) of powerful female vampires...but I feel like that’s more his fantasy than anything. The reality is probably that he went looking for his birth father, tracked him down successfully, and got a lot more than he bargained for...but hasn’t aged a day since either. Much like Ghouls serve vampires, Kinfolk serve werebeasts, and out of a very different sense of being bound by blood. Kinfolk are the human and animal relations of a werewolf or other werecreature, and breeding with them yields a higher chance of a Garou offspring (since, remember, the offspring of two Garou is a sterile, deformed metis) A Garou birth will still be rare, and most or all of their children will just be Kinfolk, but maybe the next gen will have a Garou, or the next. Because of this, the Garou (or Bastet, or whatever they may be) maintain close ties with their Kinfolk, watching them like shepherds over their flocks. There’s a dark side though. Their primary role ultimately is breeding stock, and many tribes treat them exactly like that. They’re automatically seen as part of the Garou tribe to which they’re related (or worse, its property) and are thus beholden to its regulations, owing them their loyalty, but get none of the respect and glory that the Garou do in return. They’re "valuable second class citizens" at best. Besides breeding, other roles they take includes childcare (since the werewolves are off battling the Wyrm), financing, politicking, and bureaucratic maneuvering on behalf of the Garou, directly or in their interests, are all examples, but there are dozens more things an individual Kinfolk might to do serve their family. Sebastian would definitely be a Shadow Lord werewolf as described in Fabian’s section, and Shinobi his unfortunate Kinfolk pup. A disappointment twice over, firstly for not being Garou, secondly for not even being the USEFUL kind of Kinfolk. All the tribes have an individual approach to their kin beyond the general basics I just described, and Shadow Lords tend towards the abusive. To quote the canon, “[Shadow Lord] Kinfolk don't receive much coddling, however. Weaklings and victims don't deserve to breed.” So not only is Shinobi not supposed to be sticking his dick in anything that can get pregnant, he’s supposed to purely serve his father’s interests while also growing up a society where he will NEVER be good enough. Which...look it’s horrible, but you can’t deny it FITS! (Also: While Sebastian def would be a Shadow Lord himself as a werewolf, he also could easily just be a human "target" of one as a mate. To quote canon: "Female Shadow Lords are sometimes drawn away from the flock toward men with power. A ruthless businessman, a brilliant crime lord or even a military dictator may find himself overpowered by a stalking suitor.") Since Shinobi is half-Japanese, he could be a kuei-jin if he was born/raised/died in Japan or a place with a strong Japanese (or other Asian) culture. Now, the kuei-jin are very problematic, White Wolf (the game company that does all this) mashed together a bunch of different Asian cultures together (even “kuei-jin” is a combination of Japanese and Chinese) and appropriated a bunch of terms they used incorrectly (ex: dharma) but I really like them and I’d like it if one day they could go back and fix them like they have with other creations they made that were really problematic at their conception (most all of this shit was made up by white nerds in the 90s) So, kuei-jin are vampires of a sort, but an entirely different sort than the Kindred are, despite some calling them ‘the Kindred of the East’. Firstly, their range has more to do with culture than geography. They populate Asia, but have begun emerging in the West in places like Chinatowns where Asian cultures are prevalent. Which brings us to the second difference---they are not Embraced like Western vampires, they rise from the grave on their own. Something drove them so hard that their souls clawed their way out of Yomi World and back into their bodies...well, usually their bodies, there have been cases where they came back in a DIFFERENT body. The goal of the kuei-jin is to remember what this something was, for they believe it is their purpose, and they must then accomplish it. In order to discover their purpose and fulfill it, they will choose different paths that they think will be best for this. These paths, called Dharmas, are liked clans, but, as I said, can be chosen, and even changed. Shinobi’s Dharma would be the The Dance of the Thrashing Dragon, also known as the Laughing Rainbows. Yes, they all have names like that. Again, white nerds in the 90s. The Thrashing Dragons are the Yang-Aspected paths, they seek to defy their undead state through frenzied revelry and acts meant to celebrate life (in all its beauty and bloodcurdling savagery both). These Kuei-jin are as alive as the undead can be, believing creation is a rainbow – illusory, but too colourful to ignore-- and their ideal is to experience each of those colours as vividly as possible. As a result, Laughing Rainbows shun society's restrictions, are often messy and vulgar, indulging themselves with wild feasts and drunken orgies - celebrations that usually feature living "entertainment," too. In their calmer moments, a Thrashing Dragon can be gentle and compassionate, nurturing life even though they consume it---the kuei-jin are still a type of vampires, and they feed on chi. They can get it from flesh and blood, but, as they get older and more powerful, can suck the pure chi out of the air from a person. But the Thrashing Dragons like to eat their prey raw, and often alive. They’re violent and combative, in addition to shameless, impulsive, lusty, and having a tendency towards nudity. What’s interesting is that in life, many Thrashing Dragons denied the flesh, and believe they came back due to their repression during life. Some ferociously carnal people do return to finish what they started in life, but most Laughing Rainbows learned to laugh only after they died. So perhaps Shinobi had a sad life that ended prematurely (COUGH DAD COUGH) and now that he’s come back, he’s “living” large at last. Or perhaps he’s one of the ones that was ALWAYS a hedonistic idiot and he was actually brought back as a lesson to live a better life, but he hasn’t learned it yet. Kuei-jin have two souls, the Hun and P’o, and they struggle against the latter. The Hun is higher, rational half of the soul, akin to morality, conscience, honor and devotion to duty. The P’o is the evil bestial half of the soul, akin to “the Beast” that Western vampires struggle against. Each person’s P’o takes one of several archetypes, based on which is most likely to tempt a kuei-jin off their path, and Shinobi’s would be The Monkey. The Monkey is a creature of the moment, its each new pleasure or distraction being the most important thing in the world. The Monkey is capable of concocting elaborate plans to achieve small or momentary goals, but it’s in no way concerned with any overarching mission that the Kuei-jin might have. Indeed, the Monkey seeks, at every turn, to waylay Shinobi from his appointed goal, to divert all of the his attention and energy to lesser, transitory things. So basically it tempts him to be HIMSELF. (As a note, I think the Adversary would translate REALLY well as a P’o for a kuei-jin Haven; India is part of Asia too!) Finally...I might be typecasting him too much by race, but there’s also the kitsune. The kitsune, as one would expect, are the werefoxes of East Asia, mostly found in Japan and China. They are the youngest of the Changing Breeds, and the story goes that when a fox named Bai Mianxi was brought before Gaia (who created all the werecreatures) by Luna (the moon) for playing tricks that created havoc in the world, Gaia’s punishment was that Bai Mianxi be given a duty. Bai Mianxi tried to trick her way out of it, claiming that Gaia's other children were all adequate enough in their duties and she was not needed. Gaia's wrath at Bai Mianxi's impudence shook her residence, but after soothing words from Luna, Gaia promised the fox that in return for their service, the fox-people would one day become the BEST at something, better than all the other werecreatures were at it, whatever it is. Like all other were-types, the kitsune are born in animal or human form, and the offspring of two Kitsune will be born in hybrid form and be stuck that way until their First Change. Unlike the Western metis of the Garou and many other fera though, these “shinju” as they are called, are NOT sterile or deformed, nor are they looked down upon by other kitsune. But all kitsune, no matter what form they were born in, carry a curse, and that is that when a kitstune is born, at least one of its parents will die. Usually, it is the non-kitsune parent, and there is also a one-in-ten chance that the Kitsune parent may die, either instead of, or along with, their mate. So my thinking is kitsune Shinobi was born in human form in Japan to a kitsune mother, but has a human white dad in America (Sebastian obvy) who despite the great distance still passed away mysteriously at the moment Shinobi drew his first breath. And so Shinobi grew up raised by his mother and her Kinfolk, and he never saw his father and he grew up feeling loved and wanted, and now he is a happy healthy adult werefox who will indeed be the best at something one day! You can see why I wanted this for him ^^

#world of darkness #vampire the masquerade #werewolf the apocalypse #kindred of the east #out of shirt

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simpingforthisonedeer · 4 years ago

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Chapter 2: The War Room

Summary: You'll learn more abt Aika and Julius gets some time in the spotlight and shows off his military genius :)))

Notes: Like in BC canon, everyone's like omggg hes such an amazing wizard king who brings us so many victories!!! but we never actually see any of his ideas and plans? So i've decided to showcase that in this fic

A week later, Aika hummed a playful tune as she planted a few wisteria trees around the Magic Knights Headquarters. Lord Raymond, the current Wizard King, was planning a stressful military campaign against another imminent invasion from the Diamond Kingdom so Aika planted a few trees for him to enjoy whenever he relaxed in the gardens to get away from work.

Aika had helped Lord Raymond with foreign matters over the years and had grown to become good friends with the older man. It was only by accident that they found that his dead younger brother was Aika’s father.

Years ago, she was selling paintings her father had painted before he died and in curiosity, Raymond came to the pseudo-art show. When he noticed the artist’s name and signature, he knew it was his brother. Needless to say, Aika was ecstatic. She had lost her entire family at sixteen and finding family again nearly two decades later was like a dream come true.

Though she was his niece, her experience and information from other kingdoms was something Lord Raymond highly valued and since Aika needed a cover for her work. So she worked as an unofficial consultant to him. She would rather not be paid by her own family.

She stood up as she dusted the dirt from her knees. Aika curled her toes to grip and grass and tightly clasped the plant stone in her right palm. She took a deep breath in, spread her arms out towards the little grove and pushed her magic into the seeds and willed them to grow.

She couldn’t grow plants quickly with Time Magic alone because she would have to accelerate the day-night cycle and provide the plants with constant water and nutrition, theoretically speaking. But Plant Magic, on the other hand, doesn’t have such limitations and plants could grow just with magic alone with extra magical properties. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

Aika had noted that Time and Plant magic shared similar properties because during her studies, she had found that magic wasn’t a catalyst in some Plant Mages cases but actually accelerated time while providing all that the plant needed to grow. In other Plant mages’ cases, most notably the ones who grew plants slower, the magic only acts as an accelerant with no time magic in play.

Aika dodged as a clump of hard dirt nearly hit her in the face when the trees sprouted and rose rapidly. She watched with a small smile as the vine-like branches grew and sprouted wisteria flowers that shone in the afternoon sun. She had no doubt that they would glow in the night as well.

“Miss Aika!” her guard’s voice yelled out.

“I’m fine!” she yelled back as she adjusted her sun hat.

“No, Miss Aika,” he ran to her side. “The Wizard King wants you in the Captain’s Conference room immediately.”

“Oh? Did he say what for, Evan?” Aika adjusted her plaid skirt.

“He said it’s time you were brought in,” Evan gave her a knowing look. Aika sighed. Today was going to be a long day. At least this meant that she didn’t have to wear that god-awful amulet that made people forget her.

“Alright, thank you. Take the rest of the day off. I’m sorry I can’t join you, Ellie and Jayce tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am and it’s alright. The trees look really beautiful by the way.”

“Thank you, Evan.”

She turned and looked up at the Headquarters Tower with a squint.

It’s time, huh? Is it really that serious, Uncle Ray? Aika thought as she slipped into her heels.

She slid her backpack on and waved ‘bye’ to her guard as she flew to the arched, slightly open, clover windows of the conference room. She hid her mana and flew a little to the side of the windows and peeked in.

Her Uncle had his back to her as he faced seven captains. By the way he was gesticulating at Lord Silva, the Silver Eagles Captain, Aika could tell he was getting impatient for some reason. The walls and tables were strewn with papers blotted with inks of various colors. The rest of the Captains were in deep discussion in varying states of distress, no doubt about the upcoming confrontation with the Diamond kingdom.

She looked around at the Captains for one particular one. Her eyes met Julius’ and she grinned openly. She gave him a hesitant wave at the confused tilt of his head. Maybe he forgot her? A few Captains looked her way along with Julius, suspicious of the woman by the window.

Aika quickly sobered as she lightly touched the window. She wasn’t here for him. Maybe she’ll talk to him after whatever her Uncle needed her to do. He had been plaguing her mind for days , like who gave him permission to do that? Maybe another sit down with him will reveal something about him that will annoy her nitpicking self and she will completely stop idealizing him. Yeah, that’s a good idea.

She slipped between the windows and into the room, as quiet as a breeze. All the captains except Julius and Captain Vermillion stood and moved to attack but Lord Raymond whipped his head around and motioned the Captains to stop.

“Why use the window when there is a perfectly serviceable door, Aika?” her Uncle asked in a bored voice.

“Why use the door when there is a perfectly serviceable window, sir?” She retorted as she took off her hat with a flourish. He shook his head with a scoff.

“Enough with the cheek.”

“Yes, sir.”

Aika clasped her hands and clicked her heels together as she turned to the conference table where all the standing Captains sat down slowly, all eyes on her. They all might’ve seen her around the Magic Knights Headquarters, sitting on the floor in the hallways or in the gardens with a bunch of books and papers scattered haphazardly around her or running around with maids and guards but they would’ve all forgotten about her, thanks to her amulet. And she hasn’t been in the Clover Kingdom in a couple years so she doesn’t expect anyone except Captain Vermilion to remember her.

She had always worked behind the scenes on this continent, running her businesses, private clandestine services, professional development, etc, so she had to stay lowkey to protect her identity and her work. But when she needed to continue her work without arousing suspicion and provide information to the next Wizard King, she needed to step up into the spotlight once again, at least until some trust was established. A spy network was incredibly valuable to her Uncle and his agenda to clean up the criminal underworld from the worst of its traits like slavery, forced prostitution, anti-monarchist movements, and apocalyptic cults.

But Aika herself had personal value for her strategies, diplomacy, connections, and experience in foreign warfare. And so, here she was, her position and identity exposed along with her physique too coincidentally, in the tight, black sweater and thigh length skirt she wore.

The price I pay for trying to feel sexy today.

She was pleased to note Julius’ eyes roving over her with a small smile. She winked when his eyes met hers. He looked away with a small blush. Aika wouldn’t mind working with such delicious eye candy.

“This is Aika Tolliver,” Raymond began as he faced the Captains. “She will help us pinpoint which General will be attacking us this time and where.”

“Who is she, exactly?” The Purple Orcas’ captain asked as she leaned forward, her gray eyes scrutinizing her.

“Her curriculum vitae is irrelevant,” Raymond sat down in his chair with a heavy sigh. “What she knows and what she can do for us is the only thing we’re going to discuss today.”

“Gosh, is he like this all the time?” Aika asked jokingly as she leaned on the table and crossed her arms. While she won’t outright tell them that she was his niece, if he was going to bring her in front of the captains, she was definitely going to have a lot of fun implicating all sorts of things that will leave the captains confused about who she is to the Wizard King.

“Aika, not the time.”

“Alright, alright,” she set her hat down on his desk with an amused smile and took out a leather-bound notebook and a fountain pen. She looked up at the captains with a mild look.

“Long story short, I’m an off-the-record tactical strategist who helps Lord Raymond every now and then,” Aika looked down and flipped through the pages of her notebook as she continued. “I didn’t want my name to be known for my own privacy and the safety of my assets. That’s why I was never brought in but I assume the situation is dire if Master Raymond wanted to bring me in front of the captains.”

Said captains stayed silent as they processed the vague information. Aika looked apologetically at Julius. For all Julius knew, she lied to him but he shrugged and shook his head with a small smile.

“So what is the issue here?” She quickly skimmed the papers next to her. There were several different combinations of squads that could be dispatched but it was all useless if they didn’t know which general or generals they would be facing. In her opinion, they should bring down the hammer and send out all the squads and end this mess once and for all. “I’ve already told Master Raymond what generals and where and I’ve given him the maps of the location of the fortress their brigades have relocated to. I've also said when. They are going to execute their plan next Saturday.”

“Captain Silva here doesn’t believe me,” Raymond crossed his arms and glared at the silver-haired man.

“Well, now it’s even worse,” Silva slammed his fist on the table. “because your information comes from a dubious source we have never heard of!” he barked, spittle flying as he pointed an accusing finger at Aika. Raymond was about to retort but Aika only hummed thoughtfully at his outraged face.

She knew Captain Silva and Uncle Raymond had a fierce rivalry because they both had Water Magic, but it should’ve ended when her Uncle became the Magic Emperor. But Captain Silva still seemed to hold a grudge and Aika also knew that he had become severely depressed and irritable after Lady Acier’s death and the stress of this war was really getting to him so she bit back a reflexively cutting remark. She took the diplomatic route instead.

“I definitely understand where you’re coming from but I can assure you that this information is from our spies in the Diamond Kingdom.”

“Lies! We don’t have any spies in the Diamond Kingdom!”

Julius quickly moved to interject when he noticed Aika’s cheek twiched in annoyance. A verbal smackdown like the one he got that night wouldn’t be received well by the proud captain. He saw how easily she shrugged off the pressure he put on her, so he wasn’t taking any chances with an actual confrontation.

“Well, let’s not get hasty,” he addressed the captains gently. He turned to Aika and quickly masked a smile when her face lit up. “Even if we did have spies, the information they’ve given us is wrong. We destroyed the South Fortress last month and Lord Raymond told us that two brigades have relocated to the South Fortress which I assume is the information from our ‘spies.’”

“You assumed correctly, Julius.” His lips twitched up at being addressed so familiarly in front of everyone. “And forgive Master Raymond for not clarifying, he’s just a little sleep-deprived,” she pursed her lips when the captains threw her confused looks at that causal comment. “They’ve moved their operations in the former South Fortress to a black site previously used for human experimentation and other R&D.”

Silence fell over them. Human experiments. While the captains were aware, being reminded of what they had read in the reports of said experiments sickened them.

Aika quietly flipped through her notebook.

“Here it says that Generals Hennequin and Allard have mobilized their forces into the black site, now called the South Fortress.”

“And how can we know for sure,” Julius began mutely. “That what you are saying is true?”

“I’ve been working for the Wizard King for years, providing him with information regarding foreign matters—”

“And don’t forget about unsolicited advice on domestic ones,” Her Uncle’s muffled voice quipped, unaffected by the mention of human experiments. She threw a mocking glare at his head which was now buried in his arms.

“And most of the information I was given was accurate and useful. We take very good care of our assets so malicious betrayal and misinformation is incredibly rare. I can assure you that this information is accurate.”

Julius and the other briefly scrutinized her for any tells that she was lying and were satisfied that they didn’t find any. While they believed her, they were still wary. Aika sighed.

“Now, if we’re done discussing whether facts are actually facts, let’s get back to the planning. We can’t agree on what squads to send,” Raymond groused as he pushed maps of movements that a trio of squads will follow towards Aika. Each map was a different combination of 3 squads and movements and attack sequences. It was all on the surface. But Aika left her Uncle notes in his folder last night about new intel. The two Diamond generals purchased rights to build exclusive tunnels to the Main Channels from the black site which was underground, the Main Channels that lead directly into the Common Realm in the Clover Kingdom.

Aika suppressed the fear that struck her heart and turned to glare at her Uncle for real this time. He didn’t look at the notes she had left and now he was making completely wrong moves. The wrong moves that would cost many civilian lives.

“Master Raymond,” she nearly growled. “I assume you haven’t looked at the new intel and notes I left last night?”

He glared back.

“What new intel?”

“New intel saying that the Diamond Generals bought rights to tunnel into the Main Channels from the black site.”

“What?!”

She sifted through his papers and found the thin folder and showed him the notes and explained the situation.

“So there would most likely be a fight on the surface for a distraction while they invade us through the tunnels, meaning more than two brigades will attack us.”

Aika nodded gravely.

“I’m sorry, what are these tunnels and channels you’re talking about?” The captain of the Praying Mantis, Marcus, asked. A few others nodded, confused as well.

Captain Vermillion cleared his throat to draw attention to him. He sat up straight and his deep voice rang clearly through the room,

“They are talking about The Innkeeper’s Tunnels. The Innkeeper is a neutral, underground organization that provides safe houses indiscriminately. And in order to get to the safe houses, the Innkeeper had built a tunnel system. This tunnel system was built centuries ago and today it’s also used for underground travel, trade, and the black market, across the continent. It is the only way we trade for magic gems with the Diamond Kingdom because of the current hostilities,” He turned to Aika. “I don’t believe The Innkeeper would allow them to send brigades through the tunnels.”

Aika masked her surprise that he even addressed her. He had completely and deliberately cut her off after she broke up with one of his children and now he was talking to her all of a sudden?

Despite his surprising behavior, Aika agreed with his explanation. She remembered when she tailed him on his frequent missions to the criminal underworld so he knew what he was talking about.

“I agree, The Innkeeper wouldn’t allow them, but they have no real means to stop them. They don’t have a private army and the magical barriers won’t hold against two whole brigades.”

“Then they will call in a favor.”

“From who?”

Captain Vermillion leveled his gaze at her.

“From you.”

“No,” Aika said with absolute finality. He raised an eyebrow as she bristled.

“‘No, they won’t ask,’ or ‘No, you won’t do it?’” He knew she wouldn’t and did he really need to bring up her past here?

“No to both, Leonardo,” Raymond cut in with a scowl and changed the topic. “We need to be ready to face them under and over, and that means all squads need to roll out.”

“Actually,” Julius interjected. “We should leak the information that we know,” he suggested. The captains turned to Julius, not surprised by his unorthodox idea. He may be the youngest of the captains at the table at nearly thirty-six years old, but he was also the smartest and the strongest. His unexpectedly brilliant ideas and the strategic way he built his squad left no doubt that he would be a great military leader as The Magic Emperor.

“Why would we do that?” Captain Silva asked as he pressed his fingers to his temples, knowing full well that there was a good explanation coming.

“Because this plan to use the underground tunnels would only work if we are unaware. If they know that we know, and that we would come prepared to the tunnels, they will change their plans. They will think that their element of surprise and lack of resistance is gone, so their chances of winning decreased. And since they don’t know that we leaked it, they would think that we put our squads underground for their ‘attack.’ So they will put their troops on land or air to take us on.”

“But instead,” Aika began quietly as his idea became clear. “we will be prepared to attack with the full weight of our army above ground and overwhelm them completely, giving us a chance to negotiate a ceasefire.”

“No,” Julius laced his fingers together with a cool expression. “We demand a surrender.”

Notes: Julius is lowkey scary in canon and i plan to show more of that in this fic. The end was just a lil taste, but in battle? oooooh I can't wait to write ruthless Julius ;))))

oh and yall should read the hashtags in the posts. There’s info abt next chap in them:)

#julius novachrono #julius novachrono x oc #julius novachrono x reader #can yall believe i did a thorough character study and researched realistic behaviors??#sighh #sorry this was lil plot heavy #the next chapter focuses more on the two lovebirds #so don't worry ;)))#we get to meet Aikas friends and help Julius with his lil liver problem :)

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shiningliive · 5 years ago

Photo

7th Stage Set List Speculation

Tumblr hates tall images so please click to see in higher quality!

I put way too much time and effort into thinking up a possible set list for 7th stage, and I’m sure it’ll be way off, but I’m curious how close I can get. Some clarifications, other ideas, and explanations below the read more. Be warned, it’s very long.

*This is not an official set Utapri 7th Stage list, just speculation.

Basic Layout:

1. This is all assuming they want something similar-ish to Maji Love Kingdom, plus solos and other recent songs. I didnt want to just copy the Maji Love Kingdom set list and whack some solos in there

2. Another order I considered was similar to the 5th stage layout where they did ‘character 1 solo, character 2 solo, character 3 solo, song they did together.’ I do think this is definitely possible for 7th stage, and if they do do this, it could be, for example, Tokiya solo, Cecil solo, Yamato solo, Colourfully Spark. I mainly didnt use this for my primary example because I figured it might be odd if they arent doing Quartet Night Solos.

3. Not very notable, but I also placed the solos in the order the boys are usually in (Otoya, Masato, Natsuki, Tokiya, Ren, Syo, Cecil) with the matching Heavens order.

4. I did my best to not have too much focus on one group to the point where you dont see another at all until the second half or later. This happened with 6th stage with Heavens not even being introduced until an hour and 45 minutes in. There is a bit of a gap without Quartet Night as Heavens and Starish do their solos, but I feel like this is a bit unnavoidable, and tried to counterbalance it by having the shining masterpiece songs (no heavens) before the solos.

5. Of this speculative set list, I consider Setsugetsuka-Michibiki Hikari to be the first half, and Up Down Up-Welcome to Utapri Kingdom (just realised I wrote welcome to utapri world in the graphic but you get me) to be the second half. This doesnt matter too much, but it could be split this way across discs or have an interlude inbetween. There are less songs in the ‘second half’ but it does end up being around the same length when you consider we usually get about 2 20 minute talks at the end.

Explanations:

1. I didnt include Quartet Night songs for a few reasons. Mainly because they dont have any new ones released lately and there have already been two QN only lives with qnlf being the most recent main live since 6th stage. It’s certainly possible that they might include some repeats of older QN solos, but this set list is already at the same length and amount of songs as 6th stage, so it would add enough extra time to make 7th stage too long.

2. Obviously I didnt include a Nagi solo because Wingu isn’t able to attend 7th stage. I assumed this would not affect other song selections and that they will likely have other members fill in for his parts in group songs.

3. I was unable to figure out which new set of solos for Heavens and Starish they would use. I didn’t decide the ones used for any particular reason, so I wouldn’t at all be surprised if different solos than I wrote are used.

4. I used Setsugetsuka as the opener song, because I thought it would not only allow for special outfits to be worn by Starish and Quartet Night that could be chanegd after their introductions, but it also saved time (instead of having one starish song and one QN song, theyre combined). It’s not quite an exciting booming start to the live, but it is a very well loved song by the fandom that hasnt been performed yet, and the first few notes are very recognisable. I can also imagine it fading nicely into a Heavens group song I’m not sure about this choice, but I couldnt quite shake the idea, so I kept it. Wouldn’t be surprised if they started with the same three group songs as Maji Love Kingdom though.

5. In general, I tried to consider things like outfit changes, the time of each song, having a first and second half that can be split onto two discs for dvd/bluray release, and most importantly perhaps, not having the same seiyuu perform too many times in a row to avoid them getting too exhausted.

6. I found it very hard to place Encore. Unlike a lot of the other Mamo songs, it isnt exactly a hype, exciting song to start off a live (after the initial group songs) but it also doesnt really work in the middle after the solos, or towards the end. Having the song be called ‘encore’ and being played during the credits of Maji Love Kingdom really give that vibe that it should be an encore song.

7. I don’t think they would want 4 Quartet Night+Starish joint songs without Heavens (as it would cause a bit of an imbalance) so I figure they might do either the Shining CD 2 songs or the upcoming Black/White songs that are released shortly before the live. For now I’ve gone with Wonder Rondo and Dancing Over Night because we dont know the length of the Black/White songs.

“Things that would be cool but probably won’t happen”:

1. I placed Encore towards the start of my set list, but theres something that I would love to see, no matter where its placed. If the song starts with Mamo singing, as expected, until about 30 seconds in when slowly all other seiyuu would walk on stage and join in. This would allow the song to be used as an encore with all seiyuu, or just help build variety and excitement to an otherwise (albeit intense) but slower more emotional song. It also lines up well with the songs build itself as well as the MV that slowly includes more and more people.

2. More special outfits for Setsugetsuka and the Shining Masterpiece songs and more special outfits/performances in general. I think this is the reason why previous performances like Koizakura and other Shining Theatre songs are so memorable.

3. Pretty sure this one is almost 100% not happening, but, I want Sawashiro Miyuki as a guest to sing Maigo no Kokoro, Haru’s solo song from the first season of the anime. It’s so often forgotten, but its a beautiful song. This would also serve as a nice interlude for the boys to have an outfit change or change staging etc.

4. I feel like there should maybe be a third encore song, but I couldnt choose a good one. It feels odd to not have 1000% or 2000%, so a version of them with all three groups is possible. If they are going to have a new version of an older song, I feel like a Mirai Chizu would be a great choice. Not only does it suit an encore (emotionally and lyrically speaking), but they haven’t performed it since 1st stage, and I feel like it could work really well with all groups together. Or it could be some kind of new medley or song entirely.

5. Of course, there are 3 big things we’d all like to see announced at 7th stage. These being: a 5th season of the anime or some kind of sequel, Dolce Vita news, and a large scale update to shining live (eg, adding Heavens.)

Stats of my set list:

1. The total song time of my set list is 2 hours and 20 minutes with an hour and a half of extra time including a shining dancers or other interlude, introduction video, talks, about 5-10 seconds inbetween songs, audience encore call, and goodbyes.

2. The final time of this set list would be about 3 hours and 48 minutes.

3. For the performance on the 18th for example, doors open at 2pm, and 7th stage begins at 4:30. With this set list, it seems like it would end at about 8:15-8:30pm which allows for enough time to exit the dome before 9:00pm.

4. There are 33 songs in this set list (one talk is incorrectly labeled as an extra song in the graphic) which is the same as 6th stage.

For anyone who’s gotten this far, thank you. This is literally essay length and I wrote it in 50 minutes. It was a lot of fun thinking up this set list, so I’m excited to see if im at all accurate, or 100% wrong. Either way I’m so excited to see the actual set list.

#not shining live #utapri #uta no prince-sama #utapri 7th stage #7th stage

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myzoowiktoriaizydorczyk · 4 years ago

Text

Amnesia The Game Trilogy

Amnesia is a Trilogy of Games, the first one being “Amnesia: The Dark Descent”(2010), then “Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs”(2013) and the last one “Amnesia: Rebirth” (2020)

“Frictional Games” is the studio that developed the first and the third game in the Amnesia series. They started out in 2007 as a virtual company of 25 employees around Europe, later on they set up an office in Malmö,Sweden which consists of half of these employees and interns.

“The Chinese Room” is the studio that developed “The Dark Descent”, the company originated as a mod team for Half Life 2 based in University of Portsmouth in 2007, in 2018 they became a subsidiary of Sumo Digital.

About

All of the Amnesia games are first person perspective survival horror adventures, all of the protagonists are amnesiacs that explore mysterious and dangerous locations while solving puzzles, maintaining sanity and avoiding monsters. Even though this is a horror game, there are only few jump scares - the game relies on music and atmosphere to manipulate the players mind into making the games scarier than they actually are.

The player has to avoid and run away from enemies since there is no way of fighting back. The locations are usually dark so you are forced to carry around a lantern and light up torches you find, if you do not do that then the character’s sanity will decrease and eventually lead to death.

Each of the games is taking place in a different locations and at a different point in time, there is also a different protagonist in all of the games. The main protagonist wakes up in a abandoned location, with no clue of what they are doing there. They explore the are and find their own items, notes and diary entries of his own dairy. As they collects those items he starts to remember what happened.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Story

The protagonist - Daniel -goes on an expedition to Africa in 1832 to find an Orb which has supernatural powers and has influenced history of Britan. During the expedition he finds it, however the floor collapses and he is later on rescued by Arab Diggers. He is forced to come back to England, however his team suddenly disappears, Daniel then realises that everyone he comes in contact with dies soon after his visit. Paranoid that he is next, he manages to find help from Alexander of Brennenburg.

Turns out that Alexander is torturing animals and humans to extract an essence (”vitae”) which is used to activate the orb, he manipulates Daniel into helping him to kidnap and torture people as doing this will free him of the “Shadow” that is killing everyone around him, but in turn he can use the orb for his own purposes.

Daniel get’s filled with guilt as he realises what he is doing, he decides that he wants to start anew without those horrible images so he drinks a poison that causes amnesia - only leaving him self a not with his name, his willingness to forget, and resolve to kill Alexander for what he has done. This is where the game begins.

Then he is on a quest of escaping form the “Shadow” and trying to prevent Alexander from completing his ritual but most importantly to kill him.

Trailer

I like how the trailer started zooming in on a colapsed tunnel, they tried to build tension but It would have worked better if they had music building up there. Instead they bump up the music when they show the character wandering around the castle, even though there is nothing there the tension builds up but it’s ruined they cut between two different locations, the music just stops and changes to a different one.

After the character jumps into a hole it blacks out after a while to show a chase scene - it would have made more sense if it switched instantly mid jump.

Then again after an intense scene the character just walks infront of an enemy and crouches there staring at him - which makes no sense. This trailer would have made more sense if they decided not to show the enemies which would have created a intrigued people and made them want to buy the game.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

Story

In 1899, the protagonist Oswald Mandus returned from a disastrous expedition to Mexico, he was hit by fever and has returned home. He falls asleep for months, he dreams of a dark machine until he wakes up - when he does he hears his children calling for him.

During his search Mandus hears a machine, then a phone calls him to tell him that if he wishes to save his children he needs to repair the machine. When he manages to do so, he realises that he has been betrayed as he has killed his children before falling asleep and the voice was his other half of his soul that is combined with the machine.

The machine unleashes an army of pigment into London, Oswald then goes and destroys the machine learning that he killed his children after seeing a vision of their death in WW1. He then destroys the machine, dying along with it.

Trailer

This trailer starts off with a child talking which is always a scary feature to add to a trailer, aspecially if like in this cas, there is a demonic muffled voice talking along with them. They use those high pitched sounds and build the tension from the very start, which is absolutely great, then they do a montage of locations that switches in the rythm of the music.

One of these scenes I find hilarious as they show that the protagonist is starting to pull a lever, but then they suddenly stops - this is because in Amnesia games a lot of people struggle with interacting with things such as doors, levers etc. as the mechanic of that seems a little broken: they could have easily redone that moment and they would only waste 5 seconds.

After the exploration of the locations, they do a well executed transition from calm to sneaking around in absolute since with no music but horrifying sounds of the pigman. Unlike in the previous trailer, this time they don’t show the monster which is amazing as they make the player scared just using the noise and saving the suprise of seeing it for themself.

Amnesia: Rebirth

Story

This game is set in 1937, Anastasie “Tasi” Trianon wakes up in a crashed plane in an Algerian dessert. She searches for her missing companions, as she travels she finds notes that give her back the memories. She discovers that she has a relic that can make her jump into other realities and then she remembers that she is pregnant.

She ends up at an abandoned French fort, the military killed for unknown reason. She remembers they were here before, she manages to find a radio and contacts one of the survivors who tells her to go to a village nearby. However the building crumbles and she falls deeper into the ruins, she has to avoid ghouls which try to attack and kill her. She finds her self in the alien world, where she learns that the ghouls are there hunting her since they want to capture them and create “vitae” to extend their lives. But the world was destroyed and “Shadows” have emerged, these shadows decided to chase after Tasi as she had to use an Orb to return to her reality.

After returning her pregnancy developed few months, she discovers the remains of an expedition from the first game. As she is about to rift to the village, the shadows cause her to go to the alienworld where she discovers that her child is really sick, a spirit tells her that vitae can cure her child ( players choice), she also discovers that the spirit was the ruler of that land but an uprising stood against her which destroyed the other world.

She finally finds the village but her pregnancy developed once more and everyone there is dead, she enters a tower where one of her companions is turning into a ghoul - the ghoul dies by the hand of her other companion and Tasi gives birth in a nearby cave but they steal her relic and her child.

She runs into the other world, she remembers that the spirit offered to save the group after the crash in exchange for the baby. When Tasi denied, the spirit tricked them into drinking a fountain that infected them and started causing them to turn into ghouls - hence why taxi’s companion stole the child, to bargain for a cure.

Tasi kills her companion and is faced with a choice weather or not to give up her child to the spirit or not. Leaving her would mean that the child would live, however taking her means that she would eventually die.

Trailer

This trailer shifts from the crashed plane and the protagonist exploring the mysterious ruins around her. As the man in the radio get’s more desperate, the protagonists starts panting and runnining for her life the music builds up until it suddenly stops when she gets trapped.

After a few seconds with no music, we are blasted with it, there is so much of different sounds that you cannot wrap your head around them - this represents how the protagonists must feel as she is once again fighting for sutvival

sources:

https://amnesia.fandom.com/wiki/Amnesia:_The_Dark_Descent

https://amnesia.fandom.com/wiki/Amnesia:_A_Machine_for_Pigs

https://amnesia.fandom.com/wiki/Amnesia:_Rebirth

https://frictionalgames.com/about-frictional/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chinese_Room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1nY_5-UrY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZV6Fwx_Sf4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NiQAlGUw_o

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jd-arts319 · 5 years ago

Text

Emberblade official bio

Designation: Emberblade

Former name: ashblade(past-formerly),Cinderblade(present-formerly)

Nickname:emby,berry,Em,Emy,Cindy/indy

Age: late 20’s

Gender: (Mech, Femme)

Status: (Single, Taken)single-taken

Appearance:

- Dark purple & blue with teal & yellow truck

2nd:

-dark blue/navy blue & pale gold truck

Size: 7’0 ft

Alt Mode: customize petro-built truck & jet(windblades jet alt-mode)

Armor colors:

Primary:purple(formerly),dark/Navy blue(currently)

Secondary:blue(formerly),pale gold(currently)

Accents:teal & blue

Speed Limits:

- 145

Weapon(s):

- scythes,saber swords,Spears,bare servos,

Universe: (G1, Animated, Prime, RID,Beast wars, Beast Machines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Bayverse,TF machinimas/combiner wars,power of the primes,war of Cybertron,IDW,Cyberverse)

-G1,animated,Prime-RID,TF machinimas/combiner wars,war of Cybertron,power of the primes,movieverse,cyberverse,IDW,

Sparkmate:Optimus prime

Sexuality:BI

Faction: (Autobot, Deceptcion, Neutral, Own creation)

-Autobot neutral

Role:

Movieverse:espionage-leader,animated:scientist & inventor,Prime-RID:leader,scientist,inventor,POTP:chosen/ascendant of solus prime,IDW:vigilante leader & a cityspeaking oracle from Caminus,TF CV:(same as prime-RID),G1:Scientist,inventor & medic

Primary Class Function: scientist & inventor,leader

Secondary Class Function: espionage,medic

Subroutine Function: scout

Personality:

- crazy,perky,playful,kind,cunning,empathetic,intelligent,mild-tempered(don't test her),protective,mature,stern yet gentle,calm & patient(also never test it...)

Background story:

she was once died as a science experiment from another timeline & reborn in Cybertron,she tries not to let herself be centered of attention & try to live like the rest of Cybertronian normally,however it was an avoidable as she ends up meeting alpha Trion then Orion pax,she became orion’s crazy amica endura.

{becoming orion’s amica endura}

-She was only known as Ashblades & stayed at iacon,she lives in a apartment when she was given a place to stay,skyfire was a jet who had let her stay on his complex for. While,she starts exploring iacon, she got interested when she saw they also had arts-based as well & she always had Fond of arts,so she decided to get herself a supply & digital art pads,for days she had done this,until she crossed path with Orion by accident,there where their friendship blossoms.

{meeting megatronus in kaon}

-She met him when she goes to one of his matches,after the match is over,she goes to get his autograph for Orion,but she ends up running into some mech’s(2) who ends up flirting & harassing her,Megatronus heard noise,he thought she was in trouble but he ends seeing her beat down the last mech with her pedes,she grumbles until she sees him,both end up feeling awkward but she did get the autograph however it ends with her,being invited by him to his matches,leading up to her with Orion being friends with megatronus.

{Orion becoming a prime & the start of the war}

-She had gone with megatronus & Orion to the council about megatronus ideal prospect to be heard,unfortunately it turns out he plans anarchy against them,however Orion had given his own ideals leading to the council being moved by his words,chosen as a prime & had megatronus start the war,both she & orion-now as Optimus-are in trouble.

{meeting Optimus & the humans}

-When the evacuation of Cybertron happens,she got evacuate earlier than before by accident,that Optimus thought she was dead since he can't feel her bond,fast forward years later,they met again when she saved the humans(jack,Miko,& Raf) from some vehicons,the three only know her as neutral Cybertronian,none had told the autobots about her until she revealed herself when she saved Miko from her reckless behavior again,she & Optimus had a lot of catching up to do.

Strengths:

- her friends & family,her confidence,her mind

Weakness:

- her spark,herself her past,her nightmares,being hated,being ignored for too long,her self-esteem.

Abilities:

-telepathy,precognition & recognition,telekinesis, weapon summoning, Enhanced strength & speed,combat skills,teleportation,Telekinesis,weapon & soul manipulation,Enhanced intelligent.

Fighting style:

-Panzer kunst,Krav Maga,aikido,Brazilian jiu Jitsu,jeet kune do

Strength-10

Intelligence-9

Speed-10

Endurance-9

Rank-8

Courage-9

Firepower-10

Skill-10

Teamwork-9

Cooperation-9

Armor-9

Charisma-9

Dexterity-10

Stamina-10

Constitution-9

Wisdom-10

Family:

- Vita(creator),unknown parents(deceased)

Sparklings:

-Orpheus,Orion,bluewing

Friends:

- Orion pax/Optimus prime(amica/conjunx),ratchet(close friend),Skyfire,megatron,Dion pax/Ultra magnus, hot rod/rodimus prime,drift & wing(amica endura),eris,nightingale,pyra magna,elita-1,chromia & windblade, starscream,bumblebee(close friends),arcee,bulkhead,jazz(friends)

Enemies:

Tfp

-megatron,arachnid,M.E.C.H/silas,nemesis prime (formerly)

Bayverse

-Sentinel prime(formerly),KSI(formerly),astinger & savoy(currently/deceased),lockdown(deceased),Quintessons & Quintessa(unknown),nemesis prime(formerly)

Tfa

-Sentinel minor(refuse to acknowledge as a prime),council

Tf G1

-Quintessons,

Favorite Quotes to says:

-“it doesn't matter if you are in different Factions,I choose to help them because friend or foe,we are still Cybertronians,children of primus Themsleves”

2nd bio:bayverse

Transformers

{before TF1,meeting bumblebee}

-she first met him when he came down to earth,she was already hiding there & seeing his signal was an accident,she wants to avoid meeting him,but she did end up meeting him in the end,afterwards she decided to join bumblebee on finding the glasses,she became close friends with him for a long time,until she met Sam,mikaela & the rest of the Autobots.

Aftermath of TF1

-after the battle,she took the piece of the all spark from megatron’s chest,she kept it hidden & she was offered by Optimus to join to come with them,not only she protected Sam but she also saved jazz life,not long after she asked to join,she became an Autobot neutral,she now stayed at the N.E.S.T base with the Autobots & start a new life there,it took time but she grew closer with them,especially the leader himself.

ROTF

-when she & the others found out about the fallen,they decided to deal with it,leaving into more surprising aspects,when Optimus died,it broke her but she kept it in & decided to help Sam & the others get the matrix to Optimus,she protected Sam from megatron’s blast by shielding him but both end up getting hurt,only for Sam to meet the primes,after he gone back from passing out,he manage to revive Optimus,despite her major wounds she still ends up fighting along side with the others,then after the battle she pass out.

Aftermath of ROFT

-she woke up on the medbay with bumblebee,Sam & Optimus,she understood bumblebee & Sam,but surprised to see Optimus as well,the 4 end up talked about what happened,with Optimus thanking her & sam’s help,she was surprised & asked why? She understood Sam,but why her?,it turns out because of her protecting sam despite he passed out,suffered minor injuries,he was able to get to revive Optimus thanks to her,she brushed it off & said that is ok,she still didn't do much anyway,afterwards things gone off nicely but she & Sam grew closer,along with the certain leader as well.

DOTM

-after what happened,they rescued sentinel prime,they found out her made deal with megaton,but thanks to the orcale pendant,they manage to upper hand him before he can hurt anyone else,leaving Ironhide alive,they put him on stasis cuffs to make sure he will not escape,but Shockwave manage got to him & took the information by brutal force,leaving sentinel sacred,he ends up joining their sides,with the help thanks to ratchet,Optimus,& herself,they were able to defeat megatron.

Aftermath DOTM

-after the battle they stayed a few weeks before leaving,William found out that the pendant had warned them about Autobots & Decepticons no-all Cybertronians destruction,when the day the world broke their alliagance with them,before the government could even announce this,they already had left & gone into hiding.

AOE

-when they found out drift,crosshair & Hound are out there,she,Optimus,& bumblebee decided to go,leaving Sentinel & ratchet in charge of their hideout,they send a message that they will be gone a few months,inches months they too had gone into hiding as well,they end up meeting casualties,Optimus still end up meeting the Yeager family,everything had gone the same except the KSI,had most Decepticons & minimum of Autobots,while the others remain alive & are in the hiding,Optimus still end up leaving but left the leadership role to Emberblade & Bumblebee.

Aftermath of AOE

-after he left,Emberblade told bumblebee to call the others while she asked crosshair & drift to help her bring the Dinobot back to their hiding place,metroplex,a hidden city for all Cybertronians-a like,once they brought them back,she replayed the message that Optimus told her to the others & help them with the dinobots while she & other two left.

TF the last knight

-After a year.Optimus was gone,she & the others take refuge on a scrap yard with cade & his new companions Isabela & sqeeks,they end up meeting new Cybertronians,however they had a ran in with the TRF,ending with meeting sir Edmundo,hot rod,Cogman & Viviane,finding out about quintessa arrival on earth with Cybertron,the Knights of Cybertron & fighting nemesis prime & megatron-who now resurfaced once more,with the help of the others,they won the battle but.Something surrounds a mystery of earth itself.

Aftermath of TF the last knight

-all of them had gone back to metroplex,they decided to stay longer before departing back to Cybertron,but among those years,a surprising twist shocked them finding out that Ember & Optimus are gonna have a 2nd sparkling,it turns out they start courting each other after the Egypt incident,& sparkbonded after the Chicago incident,they had their 1st sparkling back in metroplex,before they met Hound, drift, & crosshair

Other: (other things about the character)

-she is my main TFverse oc

-She was an old oc who is shipped with Optimus prime

-A cyber Esper,also came from the colony planet Caminus,

-Same past as my main oc,Reine but goes differently

-this is TF(all media) X undertale crossover

________________________________________

She belongs to me-

All Transformers media belongs to Hasbro's & the aligned continuities

#original & stableverse #oc #inspiration #transformers #tfverse #chronoverse #archiveverse #ships #lmao

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benichi · 6 years ago

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Games with romance elements: Simulation

The first part of my “Games with romance elements” series.

For the first two posts of this series I’ll be focusing on games that let you play as a heroine. The last part will be about games that have romantic relationships in general.

The focus of this part are games that would mainly be categorized among the simulation genre. I’m only going to cover those that I’ve played and liked myself, so if there are other games that I should check out feel free to leave a comment!

Harvest Moon (SNES onward)

[GxB, BxG]

This franchise has been around for a long time and there are a whole lot of entires by now. Initially HM was only a farming simulator, over the years more and more mechanics have been added. From being able to play as a girl to more a more extensive farming experience and eventually dating/marriage. Back in the day it was more commen that the games would be released seperately as a “boy” and “girl” version, however in time they’ve simply implemented the choice of who you want to play as at the beginning. Every HM game has you taking care of a farm, though the circumstances and gameplay mechanics vary each time. I've been a fan of this series since I played Harvest Moon GB (which was released in Europe 1999) and I find all of the entries enjoyable. Though my absolute favorites that I’d like to recommend are:

Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life (Gamecube). This is still my favorite HM title because it has a very extensive system for your child’s growth. I also liked the feel of the game since I found it very realistic, and that unlike most entries in the series it actually has an ending.

Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (Wii). Another favorite of mine due to similar reasons as Another Wonderful Life. They put a lot of emphasis on the life after marriage with events, rival marriages and so on. This game had a lot of very progressive features in my opinion, and I never really understood why they didn’t carry at least some of them over into the following titles.

You pretty much can’t go wrong with Harvest Moon if you enjoy the simulation genre. However as of the last few years you have to be careful when purchasing HM games. The series called Bokujō Monogatari in Japan has undergone some localization changes. While it still retains it’s original name in Japan, that’s not the case overseas. Harvest Moon is the name that the initial publisher Natsume used. Now that the Bokujō Monogatari series has a new publisher, Xseed, the series localization name has been changed to “Story of Seasons” since Natsume did not want to give up the name they invented. Natsume has started publishing their own produced HM games now, however these titles are subpar at best. The last Harvest Moon title they localized that's part of the orignal Bokujō Monogatari series produces in Japan is called Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning for 3DS.

Story of Seasons (3DS)

[GxB, BxG, the games give you the option to dress up as the opposite gender, there are no officially gay characters though]

As stated above Story of Seasons refers to the Bokujō Monogatari series made in Japan, not Natsume’s self made versions of “Harvest Moon”. So far the two latest titles (”Story of Seasons” and “Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns”) have been released for the 3DS, there are rumors that the new entry will be released for the Switch though.

Stardew Valley (PC / PS4 / XBOX ONE / Switch / Vita)

[GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB]

Another farming simulator with it’s own twists and ideas for the genre. In my opinion a more mature version of HM due to it’s themes and characters. A very charming and fun experience, if you’ve enjoyed Harvest Moon you’ll definitely love Stardew Valley as well.

Rune Factory 4 (3DS / Coming to Switch later this year)

[GxB, BxG]

This series is usually described as fantasy Harvest Moon. It combines the farming, taking care of animals etc. mechanics with RPG elements. As you can tell this is the fourth entry. I’ve decided to focus on this title since it’s the first one that allows you to play as a female from the start. Two previous games let you play as a female eventually (RF2 and RF: Oceans) while the other entries have a male protagonist only. In some aspects I even like RF a little more than HM since the farming etc. eventually becomes a little boring for me. So if you love RPG’s and simulation games then this one’s a must-buy!

My Time at Portia (PC / Coming to consoles this Spring)

[GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB]

This game started out as a Kickstarter project and was available as early access for the last few months, it’s fully launched on PC since January though. The game was marketed as inspired by Animal Crossing, Dark Cloud 2, Harvest Moon, and the works of Miyazaki. The end product certainly does have that feel to it. You take on the role of a builder with your own Worshop that was initially run by your father in Portia. While there are elements similar to HM (farming, animal care, mining, ...) the biggest focus lies on crafting and building. My Time at Portia also has it’s own relationship system, you can ask all the citizens (not only the love interests) on dates and eventually they’ll ask you out as well. There are also different interactions that change depending on your relationship (from playing rock-paper-scissors to hugging/kissing etc.). I’ve been addicted to this game for the last few weeks so I can definitely recommend to give it a shot!

#harvest moon #story of seasons #rune factory 4 #stardew valley #my time at portia #Games with romance elements #part 1 #recommended post

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madeoutofcode · 4 years ago

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Bioshock

⭐️⭐️⭐️

⚠️Might contain Spoilers⚠️ Yesterday I completely finished the first game of Bioshock. It is a surreal game that takes place in an underwater utopia that’s somewhat futuristic to be thought in the 60’s, which makes it amazing in my opinion. The whole creepy aesthetic mixed with music, dialogues and pictures that imply Rapture started between the 30’s and 40’s creates a beautiful environment that makes the player be alert all the time but also enjoy the different levels in peace. Hard combination but very well done.

One concept that I really loved about the game was the Little Sisters/Big Daddies one. The fact that the boss characters of the game don’t directly attack you unless you do and protect the one character that doesn’t have any fighting will or ability, and how they have this loving bond is overall adorable. Also the amount of metaphors well hidden in this game fill my poet heart. The challenge rooms were also very well made and enjoyable, they’re short and can be played as many times as one wishes.

Now the game scenarios and the story completely got me and are beautiful but there is one thing that breaks it for me. The combat. Regardless of the difficulty you’re playing in it takes the player a lot of time to find the amo, EVE and health. In part it’s pretty cool cause you have to be strategic with the money you find, there’s a Circus of Value and several machines in every level but in a fight you can run out of amo pretty quickly and then spend a while without any more weapons than your plasmids (if you didn’t run out) and the wrench. For Splicers it’s nothing more than annoying but for the other enemies it really can make it a difficulty. Now I understand how the reload animation adds to the whole “getting you into the experience” part but in the middle of a combat it can be uncomfortable, since it doesn’t matter if you already reloaded when you want to use your weapons you will reload again by pressing the firing controls.

Another annoying part of the combat are the Vita-Chambers. They are designed to revive you in case you die, and once resurrected you will be given a 3/4 full health and EVE. Now that’s a good thing. The bad thing is how far away they are from each other. Yes, they are supposed to be strategically placed so you don’t have to walk much from the chamber to where you were, but some levels are so big that you have to actually walk a lot sometimes for a whole 2 minutes. It might not seem much but it is definitely noticeable. It’s a good thing that the character walks pretty fast.

As a conclusion I would say that if you like challenges and games with a dark thematic, then Bioshock is for you. I personally really enjoyed playing it and I had a few moments of fangirling and joy (specially with the music ). I hope you can enjoy it as much and since everyone’s experience is different you’re all free to leave yours in the comments. Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite will be coming soon. Lots of love and Happy gaming! ~By: Wonder Girl 🧜🏻‍♀️🧝🏻‍♀️🧚🏻‍♀️ 🎮: “Bioshock” (August 21st 2007) Available in: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, XBOX 360, PS3 and Windows and Mac PC’s. Played in: PS4

#Bioshock #nintendo switch #PS4 #playstation #Xbox one #xbox 360 #PS3 #Windows #Mac #PC #gaming #games #gamer #review

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letterboxd · 5 years ago

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How I Letterboxd #3: Dave Vis

If you are one of the thousands of Letterboxd completists attempting to log every film on our official top 250, you have Dave Vis to thank for keeping that list current. He tells us why he adopted ownership of the list, how he felt when Parasite “dethroned” The Godfather, the curious case of A Dog’s Will, and several Dutch filmmakers worthy of discovery.

You wear your tenure proudly on your profile (“Member since 12/11/2011”). How did you come across Letterboxd way back then? I joined in the beta days when I got an invitation in November 2011 from a good friend who knew I was into film. Up to this date, I have no idea how she got a beta invitation for a movie geek website from New Zealand, but I’m happy she did!

Here’s the $49 question: How do you Letterboxd? I joined because I found it useful to keep track of everything I watched. At that point, I was probably still ticking off films from IMDb’s Top 250, and Letterboxd was a cool way to make other lists and see how I was progressing. When I started using the site more often, I also got to follow more users and enjoyed reading their takes on films. I don’t follow a lot of people, just a few that I know in real life and some other early adopters of the site whose opinions of film I got to value.

Talk us through your profile favorites. What spoke to you about these four films? The pragmatic reason for these four is that they were the last films I watched that got full marks from me. So the four favorites on my profile keep changing as I come across more films that I think deserve five stars. About the current ones: Jaws, of course, is an absolute classic, maybe even Spielberg’s greatest. How he creates that much tension with minimal exposition is masterful. Blade Runner 2049 baffled me, especially on an aesthetic level. I love how the story slowly unravels in probably one of the best world-building efforts of the last couple of years. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring doesn’t need much explanation, I think. Peter Jackson did what was generally thought impossible and in a way that had me walking out of the cinema in awe of the spectacle and production design. Last but not least, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I’m a huge fan of the Studio Ghibli films and this one, [as well as] being the studio’s unofficial first, is probably my favorite. You can just tell that they worked years to get Hayao Miyazaki’s life’s work to the big screen.

Let’s get down to brass tacks: for the past six and a half years, you’ve been running the Official Letterboxd Top 250, one of our most popular and important lists. What prompted you to start the list? Did you think you’d be keeping it going this long? At least part of the credit goes to someone else on Letterboxd, because even my list is a cloned one! A great deal of thanks goes to a member called The Caker Baker, who sadly isn’t part of the community anymore, for having the idea of doing this list even before me. On the exact day Letterboxd introduced a sorting option by average rating on the Films page, he created the first top 250 list.

I decided to clone that list [Dave has archived it here], because I wanted to filter out the documentaries, shorts and miniseries. As long as I am interested in film and won’t have completed the list, I do see myself keeping it. I feel the overall quality of the list is outstanding and for my taste and film-watching experience it’s probably the best combination of blockbuster hits, timeless Hollywood classics, non-English spoken gems, and some pretty obscure entries.

What’s involved in keeping the top 250 up-to-date? What’s the hardest thing about it? Have you ever found the responsibility a burden—your ankle chained to Letterboxd each week? (We’re grateful!) These days it isn’t much of a bother at all, actually. I’m still so grateful for you guys introducing the ability to sort lists by average rating when editing them a while back. That was a huge relief, I can tell you! And apart from the odd comment when I’m a bit late on my weekly update or when I’m on a well-deserved holiday (yes, even the ankle chain comes off once in a while), I don’t feel like it’s a burden at all.

Let’s unpack it a bit. What are the best films you’ve discovered because of the list? Shoutout to my choices: A Special Day, Harakiri and The Man Who Sleeps. Harakiri is an excellent choice! If it wasn’t for Letterboxd’s top list, I would probably not even know about it today, although it also cracked IMDb’s top 250 last year. What a beautiful film. If I have to name two other, one would be The Cranes Are Flying. I’ve rarely seen a film about war being depicted so beautifully. The other is It’s Such a Beautiful Day, the animation by Don Hertzfeldt about a stick figure you get to care deeply about in a time span of just over an hour. Very different films that, without Letterboxd, the chances are next to zero that I would have checked either of them out. Joining a Kickstarter to finance my own Blu-ray edition of the latter was special too.

Béla Tarr’s 1994 masterpiece ‘Sátántangó’.

So, what’s your percentage-seen of the top 250? Which films rank highest on your list of shame? Are there any that you don’t think you’ll ever watch? At this moment I’m at 175 of 250, so 70 percent. I rarely consider films as being on a ‘list of shame’, but as I scroll through the unseen ones, there are a few that stand out. La Dolce Vita and Sátántangó [Editor’s note: recently re-released in 4K, nudge nudge] are ones that I feel I should have watched by now. Both are magnum opuses from legendary foreign filmmakers. Don’t really know why I haven’t though, but all in good time. Any that I think I’ll never watch? There’s not much I wouldn’t watch, but some are just so daunting in their runtime, that I’m not sure if I will ever feel up to the task (yes, La Flor, I’m looking at you). Probably also the reason I never popped Sátántangó in.

Has the way Letterboxd’s membership has changed and grown affected what’s in the top 250 in any interesting or unexpected ways? That’s not a very easy question to answer, because different people will be surprised about different things. However, you do see a trend—surprising or not—of traditional western cinema classics giving way to more non-English language films doing well on the list. Asian and Brazilian films have skyrocketed to great heights, often at the expense of western classics. Films that are traditionally doing great at IMDb, such as Pulp Fiction or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, were in Letterboxd’s top ten for a long time, but have both dropped out of the top twenty. Beloved classics among film critics such as Citizen Kane, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Casablanca aren’t even in the top 100 anymore.

We now have a top ten with three Japanese films, one Taiwanese, one Russian, one Brazilian and a South Korean film at the very top. The only English spoken films left there are the two Godfathers and 12 Angry Men. I do tend to suspect that the growing community causes more diversity while also fuelling the more traditional moviegoers to broaden their interests. I personally think that’s a great development.

How did you feel when Parasite overtook The Godfather to become Letterboxd’s highest-rated film of all time? Do you think it’ll ever sink at this point? To say I was surprised is quite the understatement. For something to even come close to The Godfather’s record borders on sacrilege, let alone dethroning it. What you usually see is that new movies with overly positive reviews enter the list’s higher ranks with a bang, but when they are introduced to a bigger crowd, they slowly descend. For example, fellow acclaimed Best Picture nominees 12 Years A Slave, Her, Call Me By Your Name and Roma all peaked in the top twenty and only Call Me By Your Name is still in the list, at number 232 for now.

In these days of ready availability it is extremely hard to create something that has such a large following. That’s why this takeover by Parasite is so extraordinary. Seeing it rise day-by-day—even after the masses took it in—was something I didn’t think possible. I, for one, am very slow to watch new films, so when I got to watch it, it was already in first position. Safe to say my expectation level was through the roof, which probably wasn’t really fair. While I thought it was an excellent film, I personally wouldn’t rank it among my favorites. However, it’s not only the highest-ranked film on Letterboxd, but also the most popular one [a measure of the amount of activity for a film, regardless of rating]! So don’t expect to see it sink lower any time soon.

The top 250 is home to the largest comment section on the platform. Congrats! What’s monitoring that mammoth thread like? Thank you! Although that’s hardly an achievement on my part. I have to be honest, I don’t read everything in the comments section anymore. I try to keep up as much as possible, in order to respond to people who have an actual question. However, when I sign in in the morning and see dozens of new notifications, most probably about A Dog’s Will being in the top ten or about recency bias or about objective quality versus subjective quality, I let it pass me by every so often.

What is your take on A Dog’s Will’s rise to Letterboxd stardom? (At the time of writing, the 2000 Brazilian film from director Guel Arraes holds the number eight spot in the top 250.) Ah, there it is: the elephant in the room… My honest answer is a politically correct one, but also the truth: I haven’t seen it yet, so it’s impossible to pass judgment. However, from the comments section on the top 250, it seems clear that there are two camps: the Brazilians, who adore the film and continually claim the importance it in their cultural heritage. And there’s the other group, mostly non-Brazilians of course, who think it’s a fine film at best, but in their opinion not deserving of a top-ten spot. I’m quite impartial: if the statistics say that it is one of the best-rated films of the Letterboxd community, why would it not deserve to be there? I am curious though if more non-Brazilians will see it and if so, if that will have a significant effect on its rating. We can only wait and see.

Are there any films you’re surprised to have stayed in the list for so long? Conversely, what are some films that we’ll be surprised to hear have never made the list? If I have to name one film that I’m surprised about, it’s one I haven’t seen yet: Paddington 2. Every time I scroll past it, I find myself asking: “wow, this one still in?” It’s probably because I haven’t seen it, but it always strikes me as an odd one. I really have to seek it out some time. Some films that might shock people never having made it… Well, if you look at IMDb’s list for reference, you could say it’s shocking that a film like Forrest Gump never made it onto the list, but that might not be as much of a shock to Letterboxd members. Other popular crowd pleasers that never made it include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Gladiator, all of Disney’s non-Pixar animated classics, and one of the films that also sparked my interest in movies, The Usual Suspects.

Dave has not seen ‘Paddington 2’.

I’ve actually been working hard on completing the list during quarantine and I finished it yesterday. Has anyone else gotten to 100 percent yet or am I the first? I have no idea, to be honest! There will probably be others who have, but I wouldn’t be able to name one. I suspect Jakk might have reached 100 percent at some point.

My completist streak will need a new avenue. What are your next most essential top lists? If you ever feel up for a challenge, I recommend Top10er’s 1001 Greatest Movies of All Time. He combined the average ratings of critics and users from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and Letterboxd, and then weighted and tweaked the results with general film data from several services. I have no idea how, but it’s a terrific list. Also, the directors’ favorites lists that are on Letterboxd are awesome. Edgar Wright’s 1,000 favorites and Guillermo del Toro’s recommendations are especially worth your while.

The top 250 list is the tip of the iceberg for the lists on your account. What is it you enjoy about keeping ranked lists? It’s a compulsion. I just really enjoy making lists, ranking films by certain directors, franchises or studios. Not really useful, mostly just fun to do! And I’m not the only one, it seems. Although, of course, lists like the Letterboxd Top 250 will always be an inspiration for finding well-rated films I haven’t seen yet.

Which films got you hooked on cinema? I do have a few titles that were important in terms of my film-watching development. Films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park came out when I was an early teenager and those were the ones luring me to the cinema to see and experience things you just couldn’t in the real world, both with groundbreaking special effects—I’m a sucker for those. Not much later, titles like The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction were popular and that’s probably around the time that IMDb’s list got my attention. That top 250 gets a lot of criticism, but the overall quality is fine and for me it was the perfect step in broadening my film-watching.

So, for a long time I watched a lot of films on that list and went to the cinema for your usual blockbusters, probably until Letterboxd arrived. That’s when I started watching the artsier stuff and foreign cinema of which, of course, all classics eluded me up till then. It was films like Seven Samurai, Persona and Werckmeister Harmonies that sparked that particular period. Now I just watch everything that comes my way that seems interesting or entertaining, from the new Marvel instalment to classic Godard.

Tell us about the one and only movie you’ve given a half-star. Ha, that’s an odd one… Once there was a challenge on the site that you could ask a fellow member to pick the next ten films for them to watch. I participated once and, of course, there would be underseen gems or personal favorites on that list, but also one or two that would be almost unwatchable. In my list that was Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. If that title alone doesn’t give away how bad it was, watching the first five minutes will.

In your opinion, what’s the most underrated film according to Letterboxd average ratings? One that comes to mind, which was in the top 250 once, but has dropped substantially in the last few years, is Gravity. I also have a list where I collect all the films that were once in Letterboxd’s top 250 and it’s at the very bottom there. For me, seeing that film in a theater is what cinema is all about—finding new ways to immerse your audience into a movie experience they have never had before. Oh, did I mention I’m a sucker for special effects?

Dave is a sucker for special effects, including those in Alfonso Cuarón‘s ‘Gravity’ (2013).

As a Dutchman, please educate us: what are the greatest Dutch films people should see? The Netherlands doesn’t really have a thriving movie industry that brings its films across borders. If I have to give the essential tip, it would be Spoorloos, which was remade starring Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock and was not half as good. Other than that I would recommend Paul Verhoeven’s early work, such as Soldaat van Oranje and Turks Fruit, and the two Dutch films that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 1986’s De Aanslag and 1997’s Karakter. And to top it off, I want to mention two Dutch filmmakers worth your time, Alex van Warmerdam, director of De Noorderlingen, and Martin Koolhoven, director of Oorlogswinter.

What comfort movies are you watching whilst in quarantine? Are you working on any viewing projects? I actually am in a viewing project at the moment. One of mine and my wife’s guilty pleasures is superhero movies! So currently we are, again, on a Marvel Cinematic Universe rewatch streak. They just provide a wonderful form of escapism and are definitely deserving of the term comfort movies. Some are better than others of course, but the perspective of rewatching The Avengers, Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy after a while still tends to fill me with excitement. In a way, there’s still a bit of the twelve-year-old in me that was so thrilled to see T2 or Jurassic Park.

How do you plan on inducting your kids into the cinephile life? Well, most important is that they just enjoy going to the movies like I did when I was young. Let’s hope we will be able to do so again in the near future. They are still young, but their access to screen time with Netflix, Disney+ and (mind-numbingly stupid clips on) YouTube is so different than the days when we were young. So having them watch some Ghibli classics is already quite a step. And then I think the rest should come naturally. If not, so be it.

Which, for you, are the most useful features on Letterboxd? Did you know they have a list with the 250 best rated narrative feature films? That’s basically all you need to know… All kidding aside, just reading reviews once in a while by fellow members whose opinions I value is still the heart of the service to me. That and the statistics pages. And browsing other lists.

Does anyone in your real life know that your list is kind of a Letterboxd big deal? Not really! Mostly because I don’t exactly feel that way about it. I mean: my wife knows, but other than that it’s pretty much still my pet project. To me, it’s still just a film enthusiast’s list that so happened to become the site’s official top 250. I do have to say that it is humbling to see the numbers of new followers every day—especially when Letterboxd mentions the list on her social accounts—and to realize that apparently almost 23,000 people around the globe have taken a liking to it.

Please name three other members you recommend we follow. Fellow countryman and longtime member DirkH. He is not as active as he was before, but writes beautifully personal reviews, always with his trademark witty humor or sometimes cheeky sarcasm, not always to the liking of everyone. You all got to know Lise in the first How I Letterboxd, but I’d definitely also recommend following her other half Jonathan White. His reviews are great, he knows so much about film and is always willing to share his thoughts or answer questions. And damn, that man can rhyme. Then there’s Mook, if only for his franchise lists. Check out his MCU list, it’s my go-to place when I want to read up on anything Marvel.

Related content

Official Top 100 Documentary Feature Films

Official Top 100 Narrative Features by Women Directors

Letterboxd’s ‘Official’ Top 50 of 2020

Several of the films mentioned in this interview—Sátántangó, La Flor—are (at the time of writing) available for virtual screenings. The details are in our Art House Online list.

#letterboxd #how i letterboxd #top 250 films #letterboxd top 250 #dave vis #cinephile #film lover #letterboxd members #letterboxd community

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supericonblog · 5 years ago

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Super Icon - The Long Slow Death of an Indie Studio

Our History So Far…

I began developing games back in the late nineties; Xtreme Racing on Amiga was my first game, and ever since then I have only ever worked at my own development studios.

Starting with Graphic State; initially a sub-contract artwork studio, later moving into handheld game development on the Gameboy systems. This then evolved into Icon Games; focusing on small-ish console games on PlayStation and Wii.

You can view a full list of all the ‘Icon Games’ releases here:

· IconGames_Catalogue

And ‘Graphic State’ releases here:

· GraphicState_Catalogue

I founded Super Icon in 2012; an ‘evolution’ of Icon Games; like the transition from NES to SuperNES! At Super Icon the focus was on creating the games that we wanted to make, rather than trying to ride the coattails of current popular games or casual games. The focus was always trying to make great games, as good as we possibly could – games that people enjoy playing.

Our first proper release was Life of Pixel on PlayStation Mobile. We released a second PSM title around that time too, called MegaBlast.

Back in 2016, after the release of Life of Pixel on Steam and our Battlezone type shooter Vektor Wars, we decided that it would probably be best to partner with a publisher going forward. Our sales numbers were low, and we failed quite badly at building any sort of interest in the games. They didn’t completely tank, but the numbers were poor, and not enough to sustain a business.

At the time we lived in London, and during that period (we were there for about 4-years), we had tough times. I say this as possibly the world’s greatest understatement!

I attempted to document that period a couple of times in the past couple of years, and in the interest of completion I have finally released an account of our time there, which you can read here:

· RHW_MentalHealth

In addition to the financial difficulties, it covers mental health issues and was very difficult to write.

Following the above period, we moved to Cornwall – which is where we are today. Just after the move we ran a Kickstarter for another game; Best Buds vs Bad Guys. It was successful, and we managed to get funds to help complete the development. During the Kickstarter I started chatting to a great bunch of guys at a studio called Whitemoon Dreams.

The upshot was I explained we were not having much success at selling/promoting our games, and they agreed to act as a publisher on Life of Pixel and Best Buds going forward, to take them over onto PlayStation and Switch.

We worked together with them, releasing Super Life of Pixel onto PlayStation 4 and Vita in December 2018. Also, during the development phase, we pitched another title we were making, called Platform Maker. After a fair few rejections, we finally found a publisher in pQube. We renamed the game to PLATAGO, and it was released onto Steam Early Access in 2018, with a full Steam and Switch release in June 2019.

Current Development Phase – 2017 to 2019

Unfortunately, despite most players seeming to enjoy Super Life of Pixel, the sales have been poor. So bad, in fact, that Whitemoon decided they were unable to continue publishing for the time-being. As such, in the first quarter of 2019, we saw our income pretty much completely grind to a halt.

I haven’t been given any PLATAGO figures, but I suspect they are poor – it probably didn’t help that we released a couple of weeks before Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch!

We also developed Vektor Wars for Switch and PS4. Switch is out, but sales were low – since July just under 300 units. PS4 is complete and in Sony QA.

Again, my family and I faced a spell of homelessness this summer, our landlord decided to sell – and we were given 8-weeks to move out. We came closer than ever to not having a home this time, as it coincided with us also earning no revenue at Super Icon. We got lucky in the end and found a small place that we have for one year (the owners are selling early 2020), but it was scary. Added to that we have no savings or fall-back money; it was a tough time. I’m 46 this year, with three great kids who are now that much older, and it is tough for them. I think being a penniless indie develop is a younger person’s game!

Speculative development

I did have a plan though, and it seemed a good one…

In addition to the games we released above, I developed a game called They Came from Beyond (TCFB), which off and on took about 18-months (it is pre-Alpha currently). I pitched to a few publishers, and while there was interest, I didn’t manage to secure a deal. I worked on this while Steve handled code on our other projects.

Hand-on-heart, I thought it was a strong concept, and the best game we have created so far. I was certain I would secure a publishing deal to fund the completion and release, and perhaps finally have a popular game out there. The plan seemed solid – ongoing releases generating income, with a new deal secured in the later stages for our biggest project so far.

I still f#&king love TCFB too, I really do. I KNOW there are bits I need to revisit, and it needs plenty more love and content before it is ready to release, but it appears my faith was entirely misplaced.

You can read an overview document of TCFB here:

· TheyCamefromBeyond_Overview

I pitched TCFB to a lot of publishers, several of whom replied that they really liked the game and the concept, but it wasn’t a good fit for them. I would say the most common comment was that many of the publishers told me that they are shifting away from smaller indie releases like TCFB to larger scale, bigger budget projects – those with budgets up to about half a million dollars. More ‘AA’ than indie really.

So, the lower than expected sales, in combination with failing to secure a deal on TCFB has really proved to be a terminal blow.

I have also developed another title over the last 6-months, called Gates of Hell; which is a sort of follow-up FPS to Vektor Wars. Arcade action, short bursts of high score chasing.

You can read a brief overview here:

· GatesofHell_Summary

Even now, I am still developing; working on a new 2D game. A NES plus visual style shooter; with several game types in there – top down, zoomed out top down, platform run and gun. I had planned to call it ‘The Lost Carts’, but everyone I asked says that name is a bit shit!

The concept is as follows:

Some experimental NES carts have been found, which were created using a custom ‘SuperPowerFX’ chip – which allowed a 1000% increase in enemies, effects, bullets and mayhem. Unfortunately, because of the sheer numbers of enemies and arcade action these games put out, the chips used to overheat, and production had to be cancelled. Only now have the carts been unearthed, and machines are now just powerful enough to handle the gameplay without melting! I had a small series of a few games in mind.

And… one failed concept

Not long after we moved to Cornwall, I also spent about a year (off and on) on another speculative game, called ‘The Tower’.

I pitched to various publishers, and it was a no. I stopped work on The Tower, as without funding it was just too ambitious. There is a blog for it (updated until I stopped working on the project):

https://thetower-game.tumblr.com/

And you can read the pitch doc here:

· TheTower_PitchDoc

Studio Limitations

One of our key strengths as a studio is a proven track record of creating and completing games, often with very minimal budgets. In an ideal world, we would love to expand our resources so we could fully realise the vision we have for our games.

Personally speaking, I love creating games. I love the whole process; from the initial research and prototyping phase, through to making the various ideas a reality, adding little touches and cool ideas, putting it all together and trying to make it all as good as I can.

Continual restriction on resources limits what we can achieve. The result is that we make good games, but not quite great games, and unless you are very lucky, a game needs to be great to really stand out.

It also means that certain elements take longer than I would like, such as graphics and level design. These are typically the bulk of project time, and I create most of them myself, which has several drawbacks:

Quality – I am good at some things, less good at others, and I know I can find others out there who can produce far better-quality graphics than I can alone. When I do commission art, I usually have to request the minimum amount of animation and number of enemy designs. Reviewers and game players notice this instinctively they notice the quality dips, the sometimes overly generic art and lack of animation.

Limiting Factors – often our games are good fun to play, but lack that something to make them stand-out. Throughout development, there are so many ideas for cool visual & gameplay elements – bosses, new enemies, set-piece background art, cut-scenes and story artwork – that we don’t do because we can’t afford to commission artwork.

Level Design – I also handle the level design for every game we do; 2D and 3D. This way of working is probably the single most limiting factor, as you are getting ideas from just one person, and when you play the game, it shows. Most games are the product of a combination of ideas, usually from a range of different people with different tastes and experiences. Without that combination of thoughts and suggestions, a game can lack that special something to make it stand out.

Why did we not try and expand?

Both Steve and I have gone without income at times, to fund development, and when we do take income it is minimal to allow us to fund development as far as we can.

I didn’t believe we had a strong enough track record to secure financing to expand, so I didn’t pursue that option. As a studio we have developed and released more games than most; they haven’t really been successful enough financially. Also, I am on the Autistic spectrum, and this does play quite a pivotal role; I have amazing drive and focus, determination and resilience but saying I lack people skills is an understatement! I mention this because it has been the cause of without doubt the studio’s single biggest downfall; promotion.

I seem to have a complete inability to successfully promote our games, to create compelling game presentations/store pages/social media posts. I have tried many times, and never seem to get anywhere with it. Additionally, when I pitch proposals to third parties, I don’t do justice to the game and vision. As a person, I am very honest, down-to-earth, quiet and reserved – almost the opposite of someone who achieves great things through self-promotion and building a strong network of contacts.

In the past, I have sought advice from several people in the industry, showed them our proposals, asked for feedback – I have tried to improve this aspect. Most recently, when I pitched, They Came from Beyond, I managed to confuse many of the publishers who had no idea what the game was about from the proposal! I revised and adapted based on their feedback, but usually, you only get that initial chance to show the game, publishers don’t tend to revisit once they have said no.

That said, I have pitched quite a few games over the years, and secured several publishing deals – but usually for smaller amounts that are just about enough to get a game completed.

The End of an Era

From day-one, Super Icon has been a rough ride.

As covered above, our biggest issue was always been getting our games noticed and finding an audience. The actual development process is always smooth, and our game reviews are usually reasonably good. In general, everything works quite well, especially given the lack of resources we’ve always battled with.

However, we are not making money, and it has now got to the point where we need to make an urgent decision about our future.

I considered quietly closing the studio down, but I thought I’d see if there was any possibility I could sell or perhaps find a partner/investor. We don’t have much debt, a few hundred, and everything is in good order. We have accounts for each year since incorporation, prepared by our accountants EXCEED based in Surrey.

I spent the last few days reaching out to some contacts of LinkedIn; some amazing, talented and successful people – kind of a last attempt to salvage the studio as it is.

I put together a couple of docs which covered the various aspects of Super Icon, the way the studio has worked, the whole development process. You can read them here:

a. Studio profile doc: LINK

b. Overview of our development process: LINK

This morning though, I have reached the conclusion that we are done. The feedback has been that our games/studio is essentially pretty much worthless. I expected this, but there is always a small glimmer of hope – perhaps that has always been my biggest failing?

Years of fighting tooth and nail just to survive, just to live. Messing up my family’s stability and security, mentally breaking down, and so often treated like shit by landlords, accountants, etc.

I have tried so very hard to make it work, and I always had that hope I could one day do it. Unfortunately, I am now middle-aged with zero pension, no savings or home and a very uncertain future. Time has a way of creeping up on you, one day you think – I still have a long time to turn things around - then suddenly you think, shit, I’m nearly fifty now; an Autistic games industry fuck up with terrible people skills, crippling self-hate and an on-going mental health battle.

I have made A LOT of games that aren’t worth shit, I have an impressive inability to self-promote and perhaps I am now rather out of touch with the industry as a whole?

The main practicality though is that we just can’t afford to continue. Super Icon can’t afford to get the accounts done or pay the monthly studio bills. I don’t really earn much beyond a few hundred here and there, and every week we are running out of money to even buy groceries and essentials for the home.

We just notified the company accountant that we were unable to do the accounts, and this was their typically hugely helpful response:

“My colleague will issue the P45 for Richard and will close off the payroll. As the accounts will not be submitted, there will be some penalties and we also believe Companies House will strike off the company at some point (you may apply for strike off but not sure whether they will allow you to do so and also depends on possible buyer you are looking for). In the given situation, unfortunately we have to terminate our services till this has been resolved.

If you manage to find a suitable buyer and manage to pay the debts, we will be more than happy to reinstate our services.”

So, whatever the future holds, I think Super Icon has run its course. I feel a lot of different emotions, but ultimately, there isn’t much more I can do.

A huge thanks to everyone who bought and/or played our games over the years, and to the other indie developers and indie peeps who have helped us over the years.

Special big thanks to: Jay Koottarappallil, Christian Phillips, Matt Spencer, Rusty Buchert, Jack Littlejohn, Harry Holmwood, Jools Watsham, Garry Williams and probably several others that my currently frazzled brain has forgotten!

Richard Hill-Whittall

Email: [email protected]

September 14th, 2019.

END

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 5 years ago

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so apparently P5R just usurped P4G and is now the best selling Persona remake/remaster/whatever; how do ya feel?

Dunno why I didn’t see this, phone’s not giving me updates it seems. ;w; Anyway.... Short Answer: Meh, I really don’t care, I’m more interested in Scramble/Strikers numbers. Long answer tho....(gonna be long, not a rant just I’ve had A LOT of thoughts about sales numbers since P3/5D’s and PQ2′s releases).

I’m not surprised, I mean it’s a remake on a mainline console, combined the fact that it was popular too (I’ll come back to this when I talk about the other Persona games but for now put a pin in that). But there are two things I’m more interested in, 1) P5R’s lifetime sales, and 2) Scramble/Striker’s numbers.

1) Will possibly show how many newcomers we’ve retained. And I’m interested in that because....P5 sold a few million right? If Atlus can retain that that’d be amazing! We won’t know till the Western releases tho. But if it doesn’t, and sells say.....as much as P4G’s life time sales, then....all P5 did was retain the hardcore original audience, it didn’t win over as many new people as we thought it did. Which isn’t a failure, but it’s.....a crude way to say it (sorry I just woke up words are hard), it’s that P5 isn’t as really as hot shit as we all thought it was (and it probably just sold well due to timing and crazy marketing).

2) What I REALLY want to know is P5S’ sales tho, even more than P5R’s. Since I think that might indicate P5′s standing if it’s as much as a fan favorite as P5 vanilla′s sales show. And it might be the first time we have a clearish answer without any other possibility being the reason for sales numbers. Lemme explain, P5R might do well because is a mainline game instead of a spinoff (but it could do meh compared to P3P and P4G in terms of lifetime sales due to the new comers not wanting to rebuy the game for whatever reason: Same console [which is a double edge sword, PS4 is popular but also people might not want to buy the same game for the same console twice], not worth the price, not enough new changes in their eyes). P5D did poorly, but is it because it was just bad, was it cause of the shitty DLC practices, was it because it didn’t have a lot of content (aka no real plot like P4D)? We don’t know. PQ2? Was it cause it was bad, was it cause it was released on a dying console (as opposed to PQ1 being released at the peak popularity of that console), was it on a console that P5 was it released on, was it cause it featured P3/4 cast and it was aimed at P5 audiences who have no idea who those people are? We don’t really know (this one is probably the dying console tho, which means could it have done well/better if released on the Switch instead?). Did both do bad cause they weren’t really sequels (both technically take place during P5 so yeah)? But P5S? It’s releasing on two very popular consoles, and it’s set as a sequel, so far doesn’t look like there’s a lot of scummy practices going on, actually looks like it has content (so if there are some scummy DLC practices, at least that’s not the ONLY thing you can think about, like with P3/5D). It has A LOT going for it in terms of a spinoff, that even non hardcore/new fans can get into. And I want to know what kind of impact P5 left on the fanbase as a whole and so far it’s not doing so hot spinoff wise (maybe anime too, when the anime was still in the middle of it’s run it wasn’t doing as hot as P4′s first anime or P3′s movies....at least sales wise I found, but that was in the middle maybe it got better), merch sales are probably doing fine tho (since they keep announcing new things). So to me P5′s......all over the gd place.

tldr; I think P5S will show us a decent idea on how P5 as a series is doing compared to P3/4, it started off strong with it’s main game but has struggled with it’s spinoffs which might be because of other reasons than people just being “meh” on it. P5R will be a good chance to see how many people stayed.

Now let’s look at the other games. You should know, considering hurdles P5 didn’t have (except maybe P3P, but on the other hand it probs could’ve excelled more on a home console), the modern day Persona games (Tadashi/Old games got screwed and I’ll explain but it’s probably for the same reason as PQ2, or at least for P2EP) did well despite these hurdles, well both original and remakes but I’mma focus on the remakes (all you need to know about P3 Vanilla and FES and P4 vanilla is that they were both released post PS3 and/or towards the end PS2′s life cycle and still did great).

Now P3P probably had the easiest, released during a very popular time for the PSP, and it ended up selling better than EITHER of it’s two PS2 counterparts Life to date (now if you cheated and combined Vanilla and FES, then yeah P3P sold 80,000 less than those two/all their versions, but that’s 2V1 and it’s still amazing how well it did).There was def an uptick in sales, maybe it was all newcomers or maybe it was half old and half new people, but it still resulted in more people buying it than it’s original (which is why I still wanted to talk about it despite it not having the same hurdles as P4G).

P4G however, that’s where the biggest hurdle comes in (and why I really bring this up). The Vita. A console that sold peanuts compared to the PSP, PS2, PS3, and PS4. No, less than peanuts. 10/15 Million compared to the 80-150 million the other 4 ranged from. I mean yeah a million is a lot, but now you need to market to those million, no, you need to get people to BUY this console first (it was released roughly when the Vita dropped). You need to convince people to ditch their PSP, for a console that isn’t backwards compatible, for this semi-obscure Japanese title. But god damn it did, it almost got all it’s sales from the PS2 back. Hell it exceeded it’s original run L-t-D if you don’t count “The Best” re-releases (Vanilla’s cheaper re-release sold more than P4G’s cheaper re-release). I don’t know if these are also new people, or all hardcore fans, but it did really damn well! It got people hyped and it got people to buy this game AND console! (tho I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at the sacrifice of poor P2:EP, may you rest in peace ;w;). And that was a BIG hurdle for it to overcome!

Like P3P and P4G really make me wonder how well they’d do with a real remake on the PS4/PS5. Like a port would probs do well, but imagine if they actually improved the graphics and changed/added new things, I think it’d sell about as well as P5 vanilla.

P5R’s biggest hurdle is justifying itself as a full price game remake on the same console. But like FES could do that (so I think P5R’s outlook is fine, no real hurdles like P4G had to go through)....and just for fun cause I hate myself (jk I dunno I just wanna see if I can take a guess at JPN’s possible sales based off of numbers of past re-releases). And FES’ first week compared to it’s vanilla is 10% higher than Royal, but Royal has more units sold obvie, FES sold about 80% the total the vanilla did, Royal did 70%, L-t-D for FES was 78% not counting cheaper-re-releases, 82% counting re-releases...but I think that’s because P3 Vanilla didn’t have a re-release cause of FES. If I use that as a base.......P5R’s numbers (going off of the graphs from Personacentral like this one and of course the P5R one, which I think are all Japanese sales). If P5R follows a similar patter to FES’ sales %.... I’ll give P5R 72%-82% of Vanilla’s sales (including the cheaper re-release), and we’re looking at maybe L-t-D sales of Royal ranging from about 334,955 to 381,476 units sold.

If Royal follows a similar pattern to P4G however (cause P5R is more similar to FES and P4G, I’ll do P4G’s too for fun, but I won’t do P3P’s). So there are two life to date numbers, one before factoring in P4/P4G’s re-releases and one after. Before P4G sold about 111% more than vanilla, after re-releases it sold about 96% of Vanilla’s total units. So a low ball and high ball of Royal with P4G’s % would be.....446,606 to 516,389 units sold.

So combining those two together, I predict (aka this is a theory that I wanted to do for fun for WHATEVER reason, made by someone that JUST woke up and trying to get my math out as quickly as possible, maybe if I have time next week I’ll go back and check my work....I’m very busy this week sadly ;w;) P5R’s L-t-D (pre- cheaper re-release)sales to be somewhere to be 334,955 to 516,389 for Japan.

But that’s Japan, Japan it feels like they’re more willing to re-buy games on the same console, the West might not be as inclined tho (if we re-buy something, it’s because it’s on a different console). So while P5R could sell about as well as Vanilla did in Japan, I dunno so much about the west.

tldr; P5R did about as well as I thought in Japan, but not sure about the West. Some number predictions for P5R. If P5R does poorly in the West it could be because it’s was released on the PS4 instead of a different system. P5S I think will give us a better idea on how P5 is doing as a franchise compared to P4.

(also I should note, I prefer vanilla P4 over P4G, there’s some good stuff in P4G, but 1) I prefer Tracey Rooney as Chie, I prefer her down to earth approach more, and 2) there’s some things in P4G that ruins my enjoyment and outweighs the new positive stuff. I like all the remakes barring the guy who directed P4G/P5R, I haven’t finalized my thoughts on P5R yet tho. I do like Kasumi more than Marie tho just on a personality level, still thinking over how they handled her tho. I will say P5R has a lot of gameplay improvements that fixed a lot of gameplay gripes I had so like that’s all I feel like saying/can say about P5R, gameplays better!).

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bitchfacetokiya-archived · 6 years ago

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Thank you so much for all you have done for utapri! Btw, how did you get into Ren x Toki?

Thank you, I appreciate your kind words!!! I’m very happy that I can help people, it’s why I stay involved in the community ^^Ah, you’ve asked the “Why RenToki?” question...be prepared for a long post after the cut...

I’m not really a textbook “fujoshi”--that’s to say, whenever I get into a new series, shipping two characters is way in the back of my mind (if I even think of it at all). That includes UtaPri; I was more invested in the idol-protagonist relationships rather than possible romantic relationships between the idols.I started reading UtaPri doujinshi when my friend introduced me to a work by LEGO!, who is well known in the UtaPri doujin circle in Japan for her amazing art and depiction of Tokiya x Otoya. This sounds like BS, but I really did start reading her comics not for the sex but for the artwork, haha. Eventually I started trying out different pairings, mainly based on whether I liked an artist’s cover art, sometimes to just experiment. I think I decided that I was really intrigued by Ren x Tokiya when I was chatting with a friend a few years ago and we were discussing how such a relationship would work, and she mentioned that not a lot of doujin with Ren x Toki pairings existed.I hadn’t really thought about it much after that until I heard their quotes about each other for the Heart Links in Shining Live (which are really adorable), and then this promo illustration was released around the time of the PS Vita remake of Amazing Aria & Sweet Serenade:

When I noticed that Tokiya and Ren were looking at each other, I don’t think I felt more excited about seeing them together and actually smiling at each other!

I became so obsessed with this image that I made an itabag:

And shortly after that I started collection doujin with them together:

Not all of these are illustrated, some of them are novels! And not all of them are R18 either; I really did want to see how other fans depicted their relationship even if it wasn’t sexual or romantic. Some of them are very lighthearted, others deep and even dark (I won’t openly discuss which one it is and how it’s dark).This might seem like a large collection, but if you’ve ever seen the UtaPri section at a shop that sells doujin, this pales in comparison to how much doujin exists for Ren and Masa or Otoya and Tokiya. I’ve literally had to HUNT for these at multiple shops (and bless the many Ren x Toki artists/writers that showed up to Tokiya’s birthday event this year, I spent a ton of money buying all of their stuff XD)

Unsurprisingly, I think my interest in Ren and Tokiya together also comes from how attractive I find them to be, but since I’m usually uncomfortable with seeing Haruka in a R18 doujin (she’s such a sweet and innocent girl They’re definitely not the most uncommon combination, but I feel like Ren x Tokiya is a pairing that was probably popular a few years back, around the first or second season of the anime, and then slowly fizzled. Most of my doujin are at least three years old and UtaPri doujin in general isn’t as popular as it used to be. So although it’s not a very popular, it makes me happy to see my two favorite characters interacting with each other. :)

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satoshi-mochida · 6 years ago

Link

Kadokawa Games is a more familiar brand in Japan than it is in the west, but recently the company has been working tirelessly to bring their popular titles over to the western audience. NIS America was kind enough to give us the opportunity to sit down with Yasuda-san (president of Kadokawa Games and writer for GOD WARS Future Past), Miyaoka-san (director of Metal Max Xeno), and Kouno-san (the very cool and laid back producer for Metal Max Xeno). We hope that all of you will enjoy this interview and feel encouraged to go out and try both GOD WARS Future Past and Metal Max Xeno! Let’s jump in!

GOD WARS The Complete Legend - Launch Trailer (Nintendo Switch)

youtube

Interview Session - KADOKAWA Games

Metal Max Xeno - Launch Trailer | PS4

youtube

Honey-Chan [Miyaoka-san]: Where did the name Metal Max Xeno come from, and what inspired you to create the franchise?

Miyaoka-san: When you look up the letter X in the dictionary, there’s only about a page of words that start with X. That’s pretty much it! *laughs* As far as inspiration, a lot of it came from movies like Mad Max and really trying to recreate that world in a gaming format.

Honey-Chan: [Yasuda-san] What inspired the GOD WARS franchise?

Yasuda-san: I grew up in an area of Japan called Shimane-ken, which is much older than that of Kyoto and has a very rich history. This location dates back to the origins of Japan! After traveling around the world and experiencing other cultures, I realized just how fascinating Japanese culture really was, and so, I wanted to explore more of the thousands of years of history and tell that story through my work.

Honey-Chan [Miyaoka-san]: What made you choose tanks as the main travel option in the game? Why not a car or a plane?

Miyaoka-san/Kouno-san: Tanks are just very fearsome and have a lot of firepower. Machine guns are cool but the really big cannons are interesting. Tanks are also man-made and so they’re versatile in their movement, and because you’re doing a lot of monster hunting in the game we came to the conclusion that tanks are the strongest to destroy the monsters.

Honey-Chan [Yasuda-san]: The GOD WARS series is well known for its turn-based tactical approach and in the west, a lot of players are more accustomed to real-time action oriented titles. What was your reason behind choosing that style of gameplay?

Yasuda-san: Historically, there’s been a pretty huge gap ever since the release of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, and I wanted to sort of fill that gap by creating a new tactics-based game and continue the legacy of the tactical series. I also really love tactical games and wanted to ensure that gamers of this generation could enjoy the genre as much as I do, adding in the more notable gameplay mechanics that current players are familiar with (buffs, debuffs, etc). My long term goal is to continue polishing and refining the game to help it evolve to the next level and make it a better game overall. In fact, my big dream is to make a RTS tactics RPG and really create a unique experience using various elements!

Honey-Chan [Miyaoka-san]: The customization feature within Metal Max Xeno was very well made, allowing you to really fine tune your tank to look colorful and stand out. The character customization section was also polished as well. What was the creative process behind adding the feature into the game?

Miyaoka-san: As a hardcore gamer, I really enjoy a lot of games, and so I wanted to add elements into Metal Max Xeno that I liked the most. Whatever elements I enjoyed I took them and tried to make them better for our game. I started out playing Wizardry and from there moved onto other titles gradually, so it’s more or less a combination of all genres that helped to inspire me. I really love Fallout 3! When I played Everquest I thought of it as a more realistic version of Wizardry, but I do sometimes go back to play Wizardry because it means a lot to me.

Honey-Chan [Yasuda-san]: Earlier you talked about coming from a very historical period. A lot of players in the west may not be too familiar with the Japanese cultural references in the game. What was your approach in delivering this content over to the west, knowing the culture differences?

Yasuda-san: Without going into too much detail, ‘Kojiki’ was sort of the motif for the first game since it’s one of Japan’s oldest historical written pieces. One of the biggest hurdles was trying to express the uniqueness of the culture without damaging its cultural significance. Other titles like Shin Megami Tensei have also used the motif for their titles, but I really wanted to emphasize its richness so that everyone can enjoy it whether or not they truly understood it completely. If players could approach it from the perspective of the game being fun and interactive, sort of like how children enjoy anime, they can become more indulged in Japanese culture without feeling too lost.

Honey-Chan [Kouno-san]: The art style in Metal Max Xeno has certainly changed when compared to previous titles in the series, and it looks great. The cel-shaded approach really gave the game more life. Was there any reason why you chose this particular style?

Kouno-san: The biggest reason for the change was due to the hardware upgrade from Nintendo to PlayStation. The series isn’t really known for being high end but we still wanted to create something appealing and stylish for the new platform, since our game overall is quite unique and we want to retain that uniqueness. When I had the chance to work closely with Miyaoko-san I was totally moved by its unique approach, similar to Ken to Mahou’s unique style, and at that moment I knew creating a new style would surely work for Metal Max. Ultimately, that led to the outline style that you see in the game.

One of our character designers, Atsuji Yamamoto, stated that having an outline for the characters really added more appeal and attractiveness in a visual sense. The art style feels very familiar to the Japanese audience and hits the spot.

Honey-Chan [Yasuda-san]: Which platform do you prefer to work on more? Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4? And second, will we see a sequel for the game?

Yasuda-san: For GOD WARS Future Past we initially thought that the Vita was the main platform and because of that, there were limitations that didn’t allow characters to really have the freedom to move around. As a result it created long loading times and so I had to reconsider the game from a different perspective in terms of gameplay, graphics, and tone it down to work on the Vita platform. With the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 I was able to really fulfil what I truly wanted to do for the game, and so I’m happy with both.

As for the sequel, I’ve already started writing up the next story! This is the first time I’ve mentioned this to the western audience by the way!

Honey-Chan: Lucky! *laughter*

Honey-Chan [Miyaoka-san]: Will we see a sequel in the Metal Max franchise? Will it be Xeno 2? An entirely new name?

Miyaoka-san: Actually, Kouno-san has asked me to start writing up a new scenario for the sequel and it hasn’t been passed onto Yasuda-san yet, so to be quite honest! *laughs* Regarding the name, we’re still not sure what it will turn out to be, so you’ll have to wait and see!

Honey-Chan [Everyone]: Any final words for fans of Kadokawa Games?

Kouno-san: Metal Max Xeno is releasing this month and I’d love to keep working alongside Miyaoka-san to ensure the game improves! Any feedback that fans have I’d love to hear them, so that way we can incorporate it into future titles. I really want fans to experience the new elements and mechanics that Metal Max Xeno has to offer!

[We provided a bit of feedback on the character customization, to which Kouno-san replied, “it’s quite difficult to implement such detail! We really would love to but yeah, it’s very challenging”. “I got, I got it”, said Miyaoka-san] *laughs*

Miyaoka-san: Happy Hunting!

Honey-Chan: Really, that’s it?!

Miyaoka-san: *laughter* With Metal Max Xeno we’ve made a lot of changes to make the gameplay more interesting, so you can simply go on and ignore the story and just, you know, go full blast into… happy hunting! *huge laughter*

Yasuda-san: So GOD WARS is actually made up of three storylines, with the last section bringing the total to 160 hours of gameplay. If you’re able to complete that last portion of the game and see the cutscene, there’s actually a hint to the next sequel! I hope that people will play it to the very end to find out!

Final Thoughts

We’d like to say a huge thank you once again to NIS America and Kadokawa Games, for giving us this wonderful opportunity to sit down and enjoy a wonderful interview and discussion with Kouno-san, Miyaoka-san, and Yasuda-san. We hope to have the same pleasure again in the near future, and to discuss more about new titles coming from Kadokawa Games! Yoroshiku! Be sure to also check out our reviews for both titles!

#NIS America #Kadokawa Games #God Wars #Metal Max Xeno #Metal Max #Honey's Anime #Never used this site before.#long post #The screenshot from Metal Max Xeno is from when you rescue Toni.

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