#we got to do warfare mechanics it was fun

[silverskye13]

Last session Ash got to lead a cavalry charge against a bunch of ghouls, which means I got the rare chance to use their paladin mount in context.

Ignore the fact that they ride a flame-antlered stag into battle. They're not an evil character pinky promise!

[shxwmaster]

// remember when the legion epilogue came out and revealed azerite and shaw gave the azerite piece to anduin, who inexplicably had no gloves on and when it touched his bare hands he reacted so viscerally everyone thought theorized that the azerite was going to corrupt everyone and then that absolutely wasn't the case at all

[ask-nurse-curly]

as stated in the updated pinned post, we are diverging from the canon roleswap timeline starting nnnnnnnow :) ask boxes are open again!

[ Transcript under the cut ]

Hey Curly, I just wanted to check in with you. Things have been a little weird recently with this nearby satellite..

Are you doing okay?

Hey Captain!

Funny business, isn't it? I don't think we've ever had anything like this happen before.

It's okay, though. Sometimes I kind of want to follow Daisuke's example, but most people are nice.

What about you, everything alright on your end?

Me too, there's just so much going on at all times, haha.

Everything is mostly alright. I've got nice people, but some of them.. They're just getting under my skin. I should probably put the phone down.

How bad is it? My worst has been spam messages, mostly. Did you know the Halcyon colonies are reopening admission?

Makes you wonder why they need new people so soon after launch.

Oh yeah! I don't think I'm going to take their offer, I'm pretty content with Earth.

As for the messages.. I don't know. Some of them are just.. Mean, I guess. I don't want you to worry about it, I can handle it, it's just frustrating.

Have you gotten any fun messages though? I got one not that long ago asking about how I felt being a pilot, it was a nice question.

'Mean'? I'm sure you know that sounds worrisome. Are you okay?

Ah, I can't even remember all of them! There is this Martian scientist who gave me the scoop of planetary warfare amongst their kind, someone who is very intent on educating me about possums, and I even reconnected with someone from my med school years, that was pretty wild. Also someone from an actual gunship patched into our frequency, apparently their surname is the same as yours? Do you know a Hideo?

I'm really fine, if I couldn't handle a few weirdos, I wouldn't be on this ship lol

But.. That's very interesting. I don't know if I have any familiar faces on my end, so consider me jealous of you. I can't say that I know a Hideo? Should I?

Now who are you calling a weirdo? :-)

I don't know if you should! If it's a coincidence then certainly an amusing one, guess Musumes are just made to be captains. :-)

Maybe so.. I'll have to start a club then, Captain Musume club.

And I would NEVER call you a weirdo, Nurse Curly, never ever......

Uh huh. I believe you.

:-)

What is weird is just...how much some of these people seem to know. I wonder if our phones were hacked into somehow? Do you think I should be worried about my Meeboo subscription at this rate?

I feel like I should be more shocked but with how much of our data gets sold off and leaked on a daily basis, I can't find myself to be horrified.

You should definitely worry about your Meeboo subscription though.

...Fair point.

Well, if my streaming services are what takes the brunt of exposure, I suppose I could live with that.

Do you think that's how they found out about your nurses calendar? If that's even a real thing.. Did you ever model for a nursing calendar? Lol

Haha!

No, god no. I could never. Can you imagine me in a pin-up calendar? That would be bonkers.

No, I was just joking. I guess the very nature of their, uh, request was too much for my English sensibilities, so I turned to my trusty defence mechanism honed by generations of haughty stuck-ups.

...How did you know about that?

Well we certainly love a modest king..

I was told about it by one of the messages I got, I didn't know if it was true or not but I guess my curiosity was piqued. Sorry, it was inappropriate to ask.

Oh god, are they still harassing you about me? I'm so sorry.

They are strangely...invested.

I hope it's not too much of a bother. And I doubly hope they cease soon.

I don't mind too terribly, I just feel bad talking about you when you're unaware. I certainly try to keep my answers vague so that I can maintain your privacy.

Truly, I don't know if I should be offended or relieved they ask me more about you than they do myself, haha!

I'd go for relieved! Or perhaps even flattered. They seem to think highly of your captaining skills. :-)

They do! I'm not sure how they know about THAT information, but I'll take what I can get!

I can't say i blame them, it's pretty obvious!

I mean

Crew ratings should be public access, right? Based on delivery reviews and stuff. Or could be if they weren't and got leaked too.

I definitely don't doubt that...

I don't know, they seem fairly invested in my love life as well. Which goes beyond the scope of simple work appraisal. I've been asked if I'm single, who my type is. I felt like I was filling out a dating application lol

Haha, funny that

You could lean into that too, if you wanted to, let them do all the legwork. It's worse than the Wild West on those apps sometimes.

I'm not trying to find someone through texting strangers, besides, it seems they already have my ideal love interest picked out for me. They're trying to cause trouble is what they're doing.

And how do you even know what those apps are like? Isn't that like.. Cheating for you?

Oh shoot. Er

It would be! It totally would be if. If I were still in a relationship.

Which I'm not. For the record.

In any case, not that I prowl those apps much, it's not really uh, worth it for me.

What? Since when are you not??

You were just talking about Marie before we took off. Unless.. Did you break up when we got service...?

Yeah, haha, turns out it's not always great when familiar faces text you, right?

But yeah, she... It's not easy, I guess, dating someone who isn't there for half a year at a time at least, you know?

It was kind of a long time coming, so. She just was the braver one out of the two of us to cut the cord.

Sorry, didn't mean to be a downer. It really is okay though. We're good, and. I think I've kind of went through the stages of grief back when we were still earthside.

So. Not a big deal.

I'm so sorry, Curly :( I wish you would've told me. I'm still here if you need to talk, okay? Breaking up sucks, even if you see it coming.

Oh no, I promise it's okay! It really, really is

I'm okay, it's not a big deal.

I mean, it would be, it

But it's not like

I didn't really

She maybe...didn't really...exist?

Curly what are you saying right now

I am a fool is what I'm saying :-(

I'm so sorry.

Any chance we could pretend I never said anything?

How are we supposed to do that? I don't even know what to say.

Why would you lie about that?

...Could we talk?

I mean, in person.

I'll explain everything, just

I'm afraid of how much of this might get exposed.

Please.

Yeah

Are you in the medbay? I'm on my way.

Yes.

Thank you.

[moxpunk]

So, my tabletop group just wrapped up our multi-year Zelda: Reclaim the Wild campaign, and I just wanted to write about it for y'all. This is going to be long and rambling.

To start things off, I made my gal Forota a Gerudo princess (who was also a twin) that transed her gender and abdicated the throne so their non-binary sibling could rule because she just didn't ruling over people. Were they originally named after Kotake and Koume? Absolutely. Were they both destined to be the new-age Ganondorfs because they're both AMAB? Also yes. It's the other reason my gal left her position: she was terrified that because she had a penchant for fighting and strategy and commanding groups meant that she would take on Ganondorf's brutalistic traits.

Because she had a history of being royalty, it was very easy for Forota to find an adventuring position with Queen Zelda (Zelda was finally a queen in our game). The task was to help settle Old Hyrule, which Forota didn't really agree with, but figured she could do a better job than the entire Hylian Army in helping rediscover things. Along the way, she met with a whole party of other adventurers who explored Old Hyrule by her side.

Through all the adventures, a big theme our game took was defying the powers that be and unique relationships with destiny. Personal destiny, the ordained destiny of a culture, the destiny of The Princess, The Warrior, and The Demon.

Turns out, the whole adventuring party had been deigned by Hylia to all collectively take on the soul of the Courage part of the Triforce. We, uh... found a dead Link in the Spirit Temple, where we grabbed the Master Sword and had a fun mechanic where each party-member could only make a single strike with it before it had to be passed to someone else until the whole party got a swing. The Spirit Temple was a huge turning point for a lot of our characters. Cerra, Forota's girlfriend, a Sheikah gravetender, denied her destiny to die in the Spirit Temple. Forota found a new destiny to help raise the Gerudo (who have been splintered into three separate kingdoms in Old Hyrule) from their scorned position of living in the desert. It was... really cool, all said.

Along the way, we met with a whole bunch of different cultures and fun characters. The Deku scrubs were all hyper-capitalists because an evil fairy was demanding all of their rupees. The Zora were all fed into a demon-machine, leaving only children on a single island. The Tokay were absolute trade-gremlins that raised hell with both the Zora and the Deku. The Sheikah knew the dark secrets of the kingdom, and were happy to murder anyone that stumbled on those secrets (that "anyone" also included the party!). The Gerudo were split into a warring kingdom, a political-usurping kingdom, and a fucked-up mushroom-fairy kingdom and they were the coolest motherfuckers. The Rito wished for flight and sought to do so through warfare. The Gorons were subjugated by the Rito, and we helped break their chains.

As we ventured more and more, we began to run into Hylia herself on occasion, and she was the biggest bitch. She demanded perfect subjugation beneath her, and nearly killed Forota when she spoke out against her. As time went on, we realized that maybe Ganondorf had the right idea trying to defy Hylia and the Hyrulean Kingdom.

It all culminated when Ganondorf showed up when we obtained the final shard of the Triforce, and Forota just finally walked up to him and went "I disagree in how you've done your work, but I'll fight by your side to take down Hylia." She had accepted both parts of her destiny, realizing that fighting alongside Ganondorf and using his forces of monsters for good against an unjust Hylia would be how she could redeem the Gerudo's past. He helped repair an ancient crown gifted to her in the Shadow Temple, and allowed her to command 1/10th of his monster army in the final assault against the Sky Islands (an idea our DM came up with long before the first Tears of the Kingdom was ever shown, he took it from Skyward Sword).

Our Zora caster, Hretha, was stolen by Hylia and kidnapped to the sky, and tonight in our final session we helped save her and finally take down Hylia. We gathered the Triforce and the Reversed Triforce that Ganondorf had gathered, and wished upon the Resversed Triforce to strip her of her goddesshood and upon the Triforce to break the cycle of Link, Zelda, and Ganon reincarnation. Now, Hylia gets to sit-in on diplomatic meetings while people essentially child-glove speak to her like "You don't imprison someone in the Golden Realm forever if you disagree, you talk it out like a normal person."

Forota got a lovely send-off. She got married to Cerra with a big wedding officiated by both Zelda and Ganondorf in a huge show of peace. Then, when celebrations had subsided, Ganondorf pulled Forota aside and told her that his tie to the cycle may have been broken, but his immortality remains intact. To find his humanity, he needs a general by his side to travel to the Underworld to kill six-billion demons. Forota, overjoyed that she gets to fight alongside the man she dreaded she might have become, happily accepted. She comes to the surface on occasion to hang out with her wife who is now Zelda's right-hand woman.

I plan on doing a follow-up campaign set about 10 or 20 years after this one, where all of our characters can make cute little cameo appearances. Also, it'll be a fun way to bring in some of the Zonai stuff and other mechanics the Reclaim the Wild devs are cooking up in their Discord.

I know this was long, but it was a long adventure! Thank you guys for reading my fun little ramblings, feel free to send me some asks if you have questions you'd like me to write about!

[garlicboyart]

buncha oc things !!! from my ancient passion worldbuilding project. its a collab with my bestie @sawtheyellowsign ! shoutout

details for my fellers under the readmore (long and rambly warning because i am so normal)

the guy with red hair in mostly green is my main guy! his name is haidan (no last name bc. i dont know yet) i guess you could say he's the protagonist, but there's not really a set story so he's just kind of the one i've thought the most about lmao. he's something like a beastkin... human with animal features! in his case he's mammalian, specifically a squirrel or pine marten. he's got magic too, which is a bit rare for where he's from, and his especially is explosive and hot, which does not mix well with his temper. his main struggle is controlling it, which he is not good at doing, even with guidance from his mentor- who teaches him bad coping mechanisms and makes him worse. fun

shveknja or nja (pronounced NEEa or nya) is one of haidan's closest friends! she's the one in the first two pictures. she's known him since he was seven and moved to her village to escape the war. her family is from the north, but she was born in a southern village and has lived there all her life. she has the reputation of the crazy bird lady because of her love for avian things, especially the mistrusted species of vulture known to be wards of a particularly dangerous spirit/goddess. she befriended one and named it rhannik. i love her a lot!! shes pookie

last but not least we have mirko, the fur-collar-coat guy. hes pretty terrible.. and yet. he's also from the north, born and raised, and came down to fight in the war. he has a past of warfare knowledge and did a lot of hijacking shipping lines and ambushing infantry groups. he met haidan and saw a lot of potential in his residual anger and explosiveness (literally) and offered to teach him what he already knew from experience. essentially, he brought strategy and calculated fighting to someone who was throwing himself into fighting with no direction other than anger. this helped and hurt on many different levels! 

the world itself is a complicated one, but for minor context/vibes it’s in a sort of medieval-smashed-with-steampunk era on a not-earth set of continents. the year is somewhere in the 500s last i checked. i might go into it more in some other post but this is mostly about my main 3 characters!! thank you for reading<3 

[crownedinmarigolds]

12, 19, and 17 for Noa and Xandy if not already answered?

*Gasp!* Thank you for asking ahhH! 12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

17. Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

Noa: 12. I would say the most difficult part about creating art for Noa is having to really restrain myself! Noa is incredibly repressed and has SUPER staunch beliefs and a code she really sticks to, so I feel weird if I just do certain things with her with wild abandon even if I really really want to. Like if I want to fun crack!ship her with anyone, then I overthink like "well she wouldn't do that," or etc... making her probably the most socially "inept" out of all of my OCs! Like, Nono is not a meme'r. 17. I'm usually very flexible with character stuff, I don't keep things I feel are actively detrimental to the stories I want to tell with them! If they have something going on with them, I put it there purposefully and with good reason. I will say I regretted certain things at her initial conception when I was playing her on a live VTM server. I had made her a Instagram starlet with a cute big butt. I had just added the butt thing as a dumb little "hee hee I got a bubble butt" but a LOT of people really ran with it? It made me actively uncomfortable how people took the "has a big butt" thing and made her to be a very very sexual character. It was this attitude towards Noa that actually had me hard reverse her into being sexually repulsed and also being small and flat as a board. Of course... people still sexualized her even with these traits as well in our next server we played her on. It could just be the way I type making people feel nice, but it's still very annoying to try and play a serious game or write out a serious conversation and people just won't stop writing about how their drooling over her body. So I regret making Noa curvaceous in the beginning of her play, but I'm VERY happy with Noa as she is now. I use the sexualization from these people to fuel a very important part of her motivations! 19. I love lots of stuff about Nono, but I think I love her having a good father despite being a Giovanni? Now her father wasn't good to her brother of course, but so many people go nuts with the more unsavory parts of the Giovanni lore in VTM, so I just feel satisfied with Noa having a good relationship with her Dad while he's alive.

Xandy: 12. Xandy is a bit difficult to write for because I have very specific situations in mind that involve her that are hard to make interesting in a written format? If that makes sense. She's very action oriented, swift, silent. If I could animate I think she'd be a blast to draw - I imagine her operating like Faith from Mirror's Edge - lots of parkour and smooth disarming motions. However writing action isn't my biggest strong suit. One of her coping mechanisms is to try and see herself as a tool for her Master to use, and while writing her breakdowns is very thrilling, I also can't have her upset ALL the time. She fills a great role in the canon but otherwise a little difficult to make the main character. ALSO - a lot of her stuff is history based, and that's a TON of research to fall down the rabbit hole for! 17. Xandy was one of my first REAL OCs... I had a few before her but she's probably the one I've had and kept the longest. [I had a ATLA one for a little bit and a Naruto OC that lasted a while but none stuck like Xandy!] I have changed her a lot over the fifteen years I've had her! There's not much I regret really, she was my Call of Duty Modern Warfare OC, so she was a military woman - which COULD be regretful but nah. It suited what I liked at the time and she's changed for the better I think! I suppose one regret is that she's silent and distant, which makes writing fun interactions hard, but it's still an important part of her character! 19. My favorite fact about her is.... commitment issues? I think I love it because I'm such a hardcore Ride or Die, and so are practically all of my characters. So it's kind of fun to have someone who is like "BAIL" the second someone really shows genuine adoration and interest in her beyond a one night stand or a passing curiosity! She's not against-against commitment... she just knows the life she lives and how "it just can't work."

THANK YOU GORGEOUS FOR ASKING!!!!!

[scimitar-and-longsword]

Lolo plays Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) for the first time, part 6!

(I'm playing an fps, so all the warnings for violence, war, etc. dead dove etc etc.)

Mission 10: The Wolf's Den

Oohhh team up moment. Love that hero shot of Alex, Price, Gaz, and Farah!

The night vision levels have both been slow building clearing missions, they're very tense. My heart is beating so fast!

Oh my God Farah????? Ah!!

Ok. We're fine. She's fine.

"we're cut off, it's just us." "Just like old times" listen I'm just saying I can see why people ship Farah and Alex...

"show your face and die!" Jesus Farah... I mean I get it, but damn.

Oop- I died

Try 2: and again almost immediately...

Try 3: oh god I fell down a hole.... Farah? Farah? I don't know what I'm doing lol

Ok Farah saved me 🩷🥰

Oh bomb defusal!!

I died... But I think that was Farah's fault! "Cut exactly when I say! 3-2-1-" me:*cuts* "cut" *we explode*

I feel like maybe we could have established that this was a "3-2-1-go" situation lol

Try 4: whew... We defused it... 😰😰😰

Mission 11: Captive

Alex and Gaz little bro moment. Love it.

Alex: I'm staying with my new girlfriend 😌

Price... My gosh... 😳

I love how Farah and Price have this history of trust.

Barkov can eat shit. I hate this man.

Me just walking around this cell block with a chair and no idea what to do with it: 😊😊😊

Oh man I got so far before dying!

Try 2: this slide mechanic is fun- and I died.

Try 3: this damn sniper!!

Oh my God Price saving me 😳🥰

Ahahaha beardless Piece 😂

Stopping here for now.

[slaket-and-sprash]

Ok but we deserve a reboot to angry birds that is mechanically complex, whether it be a 3d platformer, a 3rd person shooter, a GTA style open world game whatever.

Because ultimately the classic angry birds games are fun mobile games with great charecters but they've been doing the same physics based puzzle games for the last 10 years. And not that there's anything wrong with that just it's gotten kinda stale. And I think that in order to be relevant we need an angry birds reboot that's like a full blown game.

Like look at donkey Kong, pacman, and frogger. All classic arcade games. But what truly defines those franchises is their platformer reboots. While yes they were great games they were just simple and in order to evolve we got bangin platformers. The reason why I'm still a fan of those franchises is bc of donkey Kong country, pac man world/ghostly adventures, and the frogger legends games (not you frogger the great quest your gross) these reboots defined these franchises instead of being relagated to simple arcade games.

Or hell look at plants vs zombies garden warfare. PvZ was simalarly a simple mobile game but it got a full blown 3rd person shooter.

Or hell the FNAF series started out relatively simple with the first 3 games and became more complex with sister location. I don't think FNAF would still have fans if it stuck to the style of the first 3 games.

I have nothing against simplistic arcadey pick up and play games I just think for a simplistic game to truly evolve it needs to become more mechanically complex.

It just sucks bc one of my first major obsessions was angry birds and I kinda fell off when I realized the games are just essentially level packs to the original angry birds. There is nothing wrong with that I just wish that there was a 3d platformer with these charecters or an over the top 3rd person shooter like Splatoon or ratchet and clank, or a kid friendly GTA clone where you build cars out of wood and sticks and drive around an open world.

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2007 | Gaming Has Matured

This project has been a lot of fun. I didn't realize it, but I've been subconsciously making these lists for years. When looking at year-by-year groups of games, these top 10s have been jumping out at me. So, 2007 is already here and it's without a doubt the best list so far.

Remember, (I say as if anyone is reading) this post will be written as if it were published in Dec. of 2007, so all critiques will be from that perspective. LFG!

#10 - Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Ratchet games have always been some of the best games in its respective genre. Tools of Destruction is no exception. It builds on the chaotic nature of its predecessors, brings the Lombax into HD, and adds a much-welcomed cinemax spin to the story. A surprisingly serious Ratchet & Clank was not a thing I saw coming, but in the end, it was more than welcomed.

#9 - Halo 3

This year we "finished the fight" and despite its low spot on this list, Halo 3 was a triumph. Being #9 on a list of absolute bangers, says much more about the overall quality of the list than it does about Halo's appeal. Halo 3 is the best in the series so far, it's bigger and better than the first two in every way and is further proof that Xbox Live is the hottest thing in gaming right now.

#8 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

The developers of Jak & Daxter traded in their cartoony platformer card for an Indiana Jones/Lara Croft-inspired adventure game named Uncharted. The story is cinematic and over-the-top, it's one of the most beautiful console games ever made and it just might be the PS3's first must-own title. It's got some technical hiccups here and there, but nothing is stopping it from being the belle of the Playstation 3's ball this year.

#7 - Rock Band

Harmonix has done it again. The makers of Guitar Hero have leveled up the experience and built a full-band rhythm game. Quality control issues aside, the Rock Band instruments are the best the genre has seen thus far. That means no more loud clicky guitars. The drumming experience they've built is the most pick-up-and-play thing I've seen since last year's Wii Sports. They even allow you to sing the songs on its fantastic songlist. A list that can grow with purchasable songs in the DLC library. I played A LOT of Rock Band this year and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

#6 - Assassin's Creed

Ubisoft Montreal's spiritual successor to Prince of Persia is the sleek and captivating Assassin's Creed. Using deep world-building, high-concept sci-fi, and a charming historical context, Assassin's Creed pushes gaming forward in both narrative and technical ways. Like Uncharted, gameplay can get clunky from time to time and Altiar's climbing mechanics sometimes feel broken. Assassin's Creed may not be perfect, but it seems important and that's even more than Ubisoft was even asking for.

#5 - God of War II

As the PS2's last hurrah, GOW2 only had to be better than its predecessor. The game ended up being much more than that. God of War 2 is the full realization of what Sony Santa Monica was trying to do the first time around. It's fast-paced, sharp, stressful, and rewarding. Kratos' story is more compelling, and his murder spree is more bloody. The combos are tight, and boss fights are epic. The opening scene is a level-long battle with the Colossus of Rhodes and that experience will stick with me for years.

#4 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Activision has rewritten the rules for what a war video game can be. Modern Warfare is visceral, unsettling, and fascinating. By taking a Tom Clancy-esq approach to modern warfare, and sprinkling in a pinch of sci-fi, Infinity Ward paints the possibility of the world ending with such a clear picture that it is hard to not be emotionally affected, especially at the game's notorious climax. On top of that, the perks system introduced in multi-player has revolutionized the way players experience FPS deathmatches. Just when you thought war games were getting stagnant, COD4 blows the box wide open.

#3 - Super Mario Galaxy

Coming off the odd Gamecube title Super Mario Sunshine, the 3D Mario games needed a serious boost both conceptually and qualitatively. Super Mario Galaxy is a nearly perfect game. It has boundless whimsy, surprisingly intuitive controls, a stunning presentation, and the cleanest gimmick in gaming today. Running around planets and jumping from one to another with gravity physics makes Super Mario Galaxy feel like a new genre. It threads the needle of feeling welcomingly familiar, while still feeling like a new idea. Galaxy is the only Wii game on my list this year and it's far and away the best Wii game of 2007.

#2 - Portal

Speaking of important video games, Portal is transformative in ways I don't think we're even aware of yet. As a puzzle game, a first-person narrative showpiece, and an atmospheric comedy, Portal is unlike anything we've ever seen in the mainstream game space. Valve is having a moment right now and I don't think any other developer could have given us this tightly crafted, and weirdly quirky Portal game. They could have gotten away with a straightforward portal-based puzzle game that simply invents a game mechanic and then exploits it for 4 hours. Instead, the devs weave a hyper-charming world into the fabric of that mechanic and make a truly unforgettable experience. The cake may be a lie, but the brilliance of Portal is not.

#1 - Bioshock

"Gaming Has Matured" is the name of this list and Bioshock is the strongest proof of that. Movies can transport you into a world you've never seen before and Music can spark your imagination in beautiful ways, gaming creates experiences. Bioshock is an experience. Never has a digital world felt so well-realized as Bioshock's Rapture. The underwater terror den littered with deadly splicers and the brutal and unrelenting Big Daddies set a mood that MUST be experienced. On top of that, the mythology of Rapture's rise and fall is unrivaled. Philosophy, the folly of man's hubris, techno-art-deco, every aspect of Bioshock is carefully crafted to make the story as compelling and believable as possible. The 3rd act plot twist is nothing short of spectacular. Bioshock is a masterpiece and creates a brand-new benchmark for narratively driven first-person shooters.

Notable Omissions

Crysis - Crysis got a lot of attention this year for its top-tier graphics and even toppier tierer technical requirements. I played it and other than its visual prowess, it's a pretty basic FPS. Not bad, but not list worthy.

The Orange Box - This might be the best bundle package in gaming history, but putting it on this list is like saying a band's greatest hits is their best album. That's cheating. Spotlighting the most impressive part of the package (Portal) is the right way to go.

Mass Effect - I'm not an RPG guy. I hear it's good, and maybe I'll play it eventually, but RPGs aren't my bag.

Ok! 2007 was one of the best years in gaming ... ever. I can't wait to talk about the next one.

Cheers

[legendaryvermin]

Who the **** Is Legendary Vermin?

Greetings internet wanderer! You can call me Vermin/Elvie and I'm a game designer, actual play streamer, and ttrpg cretin lurking around twitter, twitch, youtube and now tumblr!

I have work on itch.io that has everything from medium weight tactical RPGs, to lyric games, to goofy erotic larps. Most stuff is either free or pay what you can, and anything that has a set price point also has a barrel of Community Copies that refill whenever someone buys the game outright. https://legendary-vermin.itch.io/

I'm also an AP streamer who shows up predominantly on Neon Lights Roleplay! I've been in everything from high-fantasy games, to Resident Evil style horror games, and you can find VODs of my work here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUYBnjyXT3Cp4KTnM1gqrVI4S9-k1FUhL A couple of highlights:

Games Stuff

Alley-Oop!

Alley-Oop! is a game I wrote with my wife in 2019 that is based on the WNBA's trip into the Wubble, a recreation center that was closed to the public, allowing the players to play in relative safety in spite of the dangerous early days of the pandemic. It was also inspired by the rise of Blaseball and Marbula One, and the idea that we as humans are really good at taking totally random noise and creating exciting stories by giving otherwise meaningless objects their own personalities.

As such, the game isn't about simulating basketball as much as it is about commentating it, and then deciding who these players are based on how the dice fall. Oh, and those dice? They are your players! Yeah! The pink d4 is Ollie Orion, and she's in the running for rookie of the year! But it's been hard for her to concentrate because she recently had a break up with that orange d10 on the other team. Maybe after this round of basketball, you and your friends will RP a scene between the two of them, where they have to shoot a commercial together. Maybe their love will be reignited?????

Alley-Oop! is also one of only a couple of games I wrote that got a print run, and the book is Gorgeous!!

Æthernet

Far and away one of my most popular games, Æthernet asks the question "What if, in the far future when humanity travels the stars and the internet is immersive VR, someone accidentally opened a rift to another dimension in the internet, and turned the internet into a literal digital hellscape?" and follows that question up with "What if we had to do dungeon crawls there as part of the gig economy?" Inspired by Doom (duh) and dozens of stories about the intersection of Magic and Technology, Æthernet is a small version of a game I want to make Very Large one day.

No Amount Of Armor: Ashcan Edition

I will probably talk about this game a ton here, but No Amount of Armor is my diet-tactics story-driven mecha RPG that takes you to the razor's edge of warfare. Mechanically, it sits between heavy tactical games like Lancer and fully story driven games like Firebrands, giving players the tools to embody characters that feel like they have a stake in the world, and build mechs that feel like they can throw a punch to level a building.

Right now, this game is still in development, and you are invited to give feedback and help shape the game's final form!

Actual Play Highlights

You can watch any of the shows I've been in on the youtube playlist above, but here are some finished Series that are digestible and fun!

Resident Evil: Catalyst

A game of The Company made for The Top Shelf in three parts! It follows a group of engineers, scientists and soldiers in the wake of an early break out of a combination of a G-Virus and Las Plagas. It ends in tragedy in one of the highest stakes conversations I've ever had the pleasure to participate in in TRPG.

Under Twilit Skies

Under Twilit Skies came together as a charity stream, and became so much more than that. At its core is the very real pain of living under state violence, and the need to fight back.

5 talented pilots fight against the empire that colonized, brutalized, killed and created them. 4 episodes of high octane, high drama mecha action in Armour Astir: Advent.

[francostrider]

Prince Marth and the Multiverse of Gacha

Fire Emblem is a series that had grown on me rather late in its existence. When the first western released game came out, I didn’t really appreciate it for what it was, not really into turn based gameplay. Then Awakening came along and I couldn’t put it down. I even went back to the rest of the western released games, and I fell in love with most of the series. Even Shadow Dragon, when stripped down to its fundamentals, was a lot of fun, if only to finally explain who that strange man was in Super Smash Bros. Melee. So, when there’s an announcement trailer, you can bet your falchion that I will rush to it as soon as physically possible.

Today, Nintendo released the trailer for Fire Emblem Engage, to be released in 2023. By the end of it, I decided that I was going to skip this one. Oh, I’m sure it will be a competent game (this is Nintendo we’re talking about), and maybe even fun here and there. But the gawdy presentation did nothing to make me overlook tropes that I have only felt more and more antipathy for.

I guess we can talk about the lead character, as it didn’t take long for photoshop experts to have fun with them. They look like the worst aspects of anime character design, with its bizarre use of colors and over stylization. I already got sick of this with Fates, one of the worst games I have ever played.

Now, I try to be fairer handed about calling games bad or good. Most of this is subjective and not fact. My (or anyone else’s) opinion is not the final word. But Fates was bad. It was a money sink product, costing $100 dollars (or $120 if you skipped a deal) to see the three paths and the “whole” story, and the way it was written made only one of those paths valid. And that was before we get into the DLC. It copied mechanics exclusive to Awakening where it didn’t make sense. That’s all before my opinion, that the story is poorly written, and the characters are ill-conceived piles of anime mush. And it also makes the utterly irresponsible notion that your army is somehow not killing anyone on the other side, despite generations of animosity. That last detail, to me, destroys the relatively grounded nature of the series.

Yet, the very worst part of both Fates and Engage is a trend that Marvel has helped get going: Multiverses. Now, maybe I’m in the minority, but I feel that multiverses tend to suck the stakes out of the ground like a tornado. I get the appeal: Your isekais, your “what if X met y”. Yet, in practice, they end up taking more than adding to a work. I did not enjoy No Way Home. The MCU was fine on its own and it made me decide that Endgame was the true end to the whole series. And what I did like from the previous Spiderman movies felt like hollow imitations in No Way Home.

And this hollowness looms over Engage. While it’s never been 100%, Fire Emblem has given us some great characters and even subtle writing. Eliwood, Lyn and Hector are very human, very relatable. And they didn’t do this with usual anime kookiness. Blazing Sword is a well written story that transcended beyond usual, tired tropes. Genealogy of the Holy War is a brutal deconstruction of the series up to that point (back on the Super Famicom). Sigurd is a tragic figure with flaws, dying because he was stabbed in the back at the end of his journey. Path of Radiance stars a mercenary who must climb his way to leadership, and it deals with subjects like genocide. All these characters have homes, have futures they are fighting for, have friends waiting for them. They are very much a part of their own world.

And despite what little on screen blood there is, I believe these characters bleed. They feel pain, they are horrified, and they are vulnerable. This is all due to the fact that they take war seriously. When characters go down in battle, hero or villain, they die. There are exceptions, but it is lamp shaded when that happens. It makes you feel the danger of open war. And the overarching stories make no delusions over the cost of warfare.

When you start to “collect” them like a bunch of pokemon cards, all of their identity, all that vulnerability is gone. And all the multiverse stuff does is render their own world, their own lives insignificant. To summon Sigurd to as this paragon of combat for an assist just blows over his tragic story. They cease to be characters and become a bunch of action figures thrown at each other.

Am I the only one sick of this? I don’t want multiverses with “all my favorite characters”. I want my characters in their proper context. I don’t want the growth of these characters traded away for a mass-produced sticker. They’re great because of the other characters they work off of. They’re great for how they exist in their own worlds. Marth is not going to travel across dimensions to fight evil like a badly written superhero comic. He’s going to remain king and try to restore a world ravaged by two long bloody wars.

Between the multiverses and the horrible trend of gacha games, I feel the damage it’s doing needs to be called out. I thought Nintendo learned its lesson. I loved Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses fixed a lot of the narrative and cost problems that Fates suffered from. But here we are with what seems like a console version of a cheap mobile game, and it’s not a trend worth prolonging.

And will you please release a translation Sword of Seals already!?

[nekropsii]

Sov characters you wouldn't mind being your roommate vs sov characters you could not be paid to share a room with

Oh, this is a fun question!! I’ll divide these up by their respective casts, just to make things a little easier, both for me, and you, the reader! I’ll even include reasons why!

Content Warning: Long.

(NOTE: I’m not going to include everyone, because there’s some people I’m a little on the fence about, or have more neutral opinions on.)

PLAYERS

WOULDN’T MIND BEING MY ROOMMATE:

CYNTIN: He would make me gayer somehow.

TEJURI: Though she’d probably be expensive as hell to live with due to her Voidrot, and the menagerie of ways in which it manifests, she’s genuinely peak Nerdy Southern Best Friend. I can’t help but think I’d get along just so well with her. She’s not even Friend-Shaped. She’s Best Friend-Shaped.

RETRIS: Despite his everything, he’s pretty chill! We’d probably get along! Also he makes, like, so much fucking money, so it’d definitely be a comfortable arrangement. He’s a very, very good friend, too, and very caring.

AJAX: Cool dude, seems genuinely fun to be around. Movie nights will be a blast. I will have to force him to pay for the holes he punches in the walls at random, though.

PLEOME: He can be a little overbearing, even if he means well, but is otherwise just some regular guy. I’d go positively bonkers watching him do tech restoration.

COULDN’T PAY ME TO SHARE A SPACE WITH THEM:

DYNAMA: I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry. I love them so much, but… They’d proselytize at me and I’d just start swinging. They mean well, but they’re severely Christian, and very much so grew up in a tiny town. I could be friends with them, but I could never commit to living with them.

PRESAE: She would call my oven a “weird mechanical kangaroo” and then disassemble it for parts.

EMERIC: She has turned the kitchen into a meth lab. I’m becoming asthmatic from the fumes just thinking about it.

ANNOMI: I would not be able to stand a single iota of his personality. I love writing him, I personally find him fascinating because of the fucked up focus on the psychological, but I would not be able to deal with him in a physical space OR online. If he got some kind of obsession with me, I’d just kill him or something. I don’t know, dude.

PATRONS:

WOULDN’T MIND BEING MY ROOMMATE:

DAMARA: Surprised at this entry? Perhaps you’re forgetting Damara is actually very nice! The only reason she’s as mean and disconcerting as she is is because during most of what we see of her in canon, she’s talking to the Alpha Trolls, of whom most of which she has a massive grudge against. I’d be functionally immune to her penchant for Psychological Warfare. Also, she’s cool, and I’m supporting her journey into therapy.

RUFIOH: He would watch TikToks out loud and maybe have a few annoying opinions but otherwise would be a pretty ok roommate. Hard to keep settled down though, which isn’t an issue for me. He would barely ever be home.

PORRIM: Genuinely a very accepting person, but knows when and how to put her foot down, and get shit in order. Very good person. She’s incredibly offline to the point where it’s both hilarious and soul-healing. Ultimate grass-toucher. We love her. She knows Queer History + Theory that you couldn’t even imagine. She’d teach me Knitting. But most importantly, she’d have a Driver’s License.

ARANEA: We would be so fucking annoying if we shared a living space. We’d just fuel each other’s Stage 4 Autism. The essays would be severe in length, niche as hell, and possibly unhinged. She’s very well read, too, and knows what she’s talking about, so I trust her thoughts and opinions on things. It’d be exactly what she needs, and exactly what I need.

MEENAH: She is such a recluse that I would probably barely notice her being there. Pays her rent by leaving an envelope on the counter with a wine glass on top so I can’t miss it. It’s got “RENT, BITCH.” written on it in cursive with a hot pink glitter gel pen. Sometimes she barges into my room and starts bitching loudly about some random bullshit I’ve never heard of. She is so fun and charismatic that I would not mind. And also I love being nosy and hearing drama so I’m entertained regardless. 10/10.

COULDN’T PAY ME TO SHARE A SPACE WITH THEM:

KANKRI: No. (I love him, and he’s a very complex person who I’d love to discuss religion with, but I can’t tolerate his level and flavor of being terminally online. I’ve encountered people like him before. It is… Not pleasant. Granted, you can work him out of his behaviors, but it takes a very specific kind of person to have the patience and tolerance to do so, and I’m not one of them.)

CRONUS: Fuck no. (I would become even more mentally ill. His toxic behaviors are very much so fueled by specific things that are somewhat understandable and interesting, but that doesn’t mean anyone is obligated to tolerate him. I’m even more susceptible to his specific methods of abuse just because of things like Paranoia and Memory Loss, I don’t need to deal with that.)

KURLOZ:

KURLOZ: Kurloz.

NPCS:

WOULDN’T MIND BEING MY ROOMMATE:

OCHOSI: Very much so a case of an Extrovert adopting an Introvert. He might take me zip-lining or something like that, which isn’t at all my taste, but it’s fun and healthy to fill your life with new experiences, even if they’re not totally your thing. It’s enrichment. Also, I am a weak man sometimes, and Ochosi is kind of attractive. Sorry.

ATRISA: She is an extrovert and knows where all the gay bars are and this would make me normal.

COULDN’T PAY ME TO SHARE A SPACE WITH THEM:

MESERI: I would die.

KHANDA: I would die and he would think it’s funny that I died.

ARSINE: I would die.

DULVYX: He would die.

[whumpster-fire]

Physics of Fantasy: Shooting Flying Monsters For Dummies

Today I was thinking about fantasy settings with dragons and griffons and pegasi and various winged humanoids, and how frequently their role in warfare creates something very similar to modern-era battles where they’re always under threat not only from other flyers but from “Anti-Air” attacks from ranged weaponry like archers and slingers and of course catapults.

And that got me thinking: how effective are these attacks really in terms of range? How high up would a flying creature need to be to be effectively safe from all these forms of attack?

The Math

If a projectile is fired vertically, straight up into the air, with an initial speed of V, how high will it go? Ignoring air resistance (because if you include air resistance the answer becomes “Fuck You get a computer or have fun with numeric integration”). It’s moving upward, but accelerating downward at a rate of g, and after a time of v/g it stops rising and starts falling. And blah blah blah I’m not covering all of kinematics you can integrate the velocity to get the displacement or look up the formula, long story short the maximum height is V^2 / (2 * g).

if you fire at an angle a above the horizon, what matters is the vertical component of the projectile’s velocity, which is V * sin(a) and the maximum height is V^2 * sin^2 (a) / (2*g). This looks complicated, but we can simplify it by only using an angle of 45 degrees or 60 degrees, because the square of sin(45) is 1/2, and the square of sin (60) is 3/4. So if you shoot something into the air at a 45-degree angle (which would give you maximum horizontal distance), it would reach a maximum height of exactly half the height it would go if you shot it straight up, and if you shot it at a 60-degree angle it would go exactly 3/4 of that height.

How High Can Muscles and Springs Shoot?

Here’s approximately how high various “pre-gunpowder” (I mean, bows and crossbows did coexist with gunpowder weapons on the battlefield, but I mean weapons whose only source of energy is the users’ muscle power, possibly briefly stored by springs during operation) weapons could shoot.

Bows: Modern compound bows made of high strength-to-weight materials and with pulley systems giving them extra mechanical advantage can shoot arrows at very high speeds, with some shooting at over 300 feet per second (fps). Historical bows... cannot do this. Archer Joe Gibbs has tested the speed of arrows from very powerful bows include English longbows and  (source 1, source 2, source 3), and the results were clustered around 180-210 fps. It might be possible to get a little higher speed using a lighter arrow, but the gain would be minimal because the energy would start going into the bow itself, a lighter arrow would lose more speed to aerodynamic drag, and an excessively light arrow might damage the bow.

At 210 fps an arrow could reach a theoretical maximum height of about 680 feet if shot straight up, but I’m not sure that’s actually possible, because such heavy bows are hard to draw back and it requires a certain posture, so I don’t know if someone could actually hold one at full draw and point it straight up. At a 60-degree angle it could reach up to about 500 feet, and at 45 degrees it could reach up to 340 feet.

Crossbows: Crossbows might be a better anti-air weapon than bows, because once one is drawn you can aim it at a super high angle more easily. Tod Cutler has done tests of various medieval crossbows, including this one that shows that they could get speeds in the same range as the heavy bows, but they could also shoot significantly slower depending on the crossbow and depending on the weight of the bolts. At 180 fps a crossbow would only be able to shoot up to 500 ft in the air, at 160 fps only 400 ft, and at 140 fps only 300 ft.

It’s also worth noting that these tests were with crossbows that have very high draw weights and need cumbersome systems to draw them back, so a group of crossbowmen would not be able to reload as rapidly as a group of skilled archers.

Slings: Slings can apparently shoot pretty fast. This man managed to hit a melon three times with speeds ranging from 172 kph (almost 160 fps) to 196 kph (almost 180 fps), so a slinger could theoretically put a rock several hundred feet in the air. However, this video also demonstrated a skilled slinger taking several attempts to hit a stationary watermelon from about 80 ft away on level ground. Hitting a moving target hundreds of feet away would be very difficult. A massed unit of slingers would have a chance of hitting something by virtue of numbers, but would probably get a lot fewer shots on target than a mass of archers or crossbowmen.

Thrown Weapons: According to this abstract of a paywalled article, a 32.3 m/s javelin throw (105 fps) was one of the fastest ever recorded. This is an elite athlete with a javelin designed to be thrown very long distances. If someone could throw a javelin straight up at that speed, it could reach a height of up to 170 ft, but I really don’t think someone could throw nearly that fast at very high angles of release because your arm could physically not rotate as far. Does anyone know, like, the highest it’s possible for a human being to throw an object? Based on this I’m guessing that above a hundred feet or so and possibly lower than that a creature would be impossible to hit with thrown weapons.

Catapults: First of all, a trebuchet is a TERRIBLE anti-air weapon because the release angle, and even the aim of the whole system, can’t be rapidly adjusted. You’re not going to hit anything with that.

Ballistae or other catapults that propel a missile in a straight line, on the other hand, are terrifying. This man managed to get a ballista (albeit one which seems to have been built with modern materials) to shoot bolts weighing over a pound at a little over 300 fps, and lighter ones weighing a bit over half a pound at 360 fps. That could put a bolt over a thousand feet in the air without much trouble. Those heavy bolts would also retain a lot more energy, and while an arrow or crossbow bolt would be able to shoot down a creature with no natural armor even after losing a lot of its speed to drag and gravity... if my math is right an 18 oz bolt starting at 300 fps would still be going 200 fps at about 700 feet high (ignoring aerodynamic effects, which such a big projectile is less susceptible to), so the same speed as a bow or crossbow at point-blank range, but with a projectile many times heavier.

Yikes. That would make even a dragon think twice about getting within range of it.

However, drawbacks of siege weaponry include: they’re very big, they’re much less mobile than personal weapons, you can field a lot less of them because they need a crew, they couldn’t shoot very fast, torsion springs are really finnicky about weather, and I’m not sure how well a crew could track a fast-moving target. This is also shooting just one bolt, and punching a couple small holes in a dragon’s wings won’t be fatal. Ammunition designed to bring a flying target down would be heavy, high-drag, and have a much shorter effective range. A force with, say, ten ballistae might be reluctant to take shots at an enemy from outside an archer’s range because wasting ammunition and tiring their crews - or worse, allowing an enemy to catch all the catapults while they were almost all reloading and swoop into to counterattack - could end up hurting the force using them.

What Does This Mean For Warfare?

All of this has several implications for fantasy warfare.

1: A pre-gunpowder army without air power or very long-ranged magic can do nothing about aerial reconnaissance. Even at 2,000 feet above the ground a flier is untouchable by ground-based weaponry, and this altitude is not that difficult to reach unless there are problems like low clouds preventing it.

2: A fortified location with siege catapults specifically set up as anti-air weapons could do something to deter flyers from actually attacking. You can hit the ground with an arrow or flechette or large rock from a thousand feet, or two thousand feet, or whatever, but actually hitting the enemy would be challenging, and you’d probably be limited to taking potshots at a massed formation and hoping to hit someone. However, this could still be pretty effective just by virtue of the morale impact of being able to hit the enemy without being hit back. Explosives would, obviously, be effective, but the technology to make those leads to the technology to make much better anti-air weaponry pretty quickly (i.e. early-modern era cannons full of grapeshot). But incendiary weapons are much older, and a medieval air force firebombing a city with pots of burning oil is a scary concept.

3: An army without siege weapons is limited to a few hundred feet of altitude they can defend at all, which gives a flying attacker a significantly easier time hitting them. Those take time to set up and probably require the crews to stop (an AA catapult on a wagon would be very heavy and cumbersome). An ambush from the sky could make a massive nuisance of itself. Archers on flying mounts can shoot from out of range of ground troops, but it’s still a pretty long range, and there would be a definite tradeoff to swooping down into the range of archers but also getting closer to the enemy. A good strategy for airborne forces would probably be to attack en masse from multiple directions at once, and/or force the enemy to shoot into the sun, and/or attack from a direction that makes any arrows that miss them likely to rain down on the archers’ friends.

4: Flying monsters that don’t have a long ranged attack, which includes most dragons, have to get within a range where they can be peppered with arrows to do serious damage. However, if the enemy fails to effectively use combined arms i.e. ever makes the mistake of having a bunch of guys with spears and lances on their own without archers covering them, it’s BBQ time. Also, a dragon hanging out a high altitude can engage at a time and place of its choosing, and can just ignore a grounded army entirely and attack somewhere where you’ve decided not to concentrate your highly trained and valuable archers, such as the baggage train. Or, if you don’t want that to happen, then the mere existence of powerful flying monsters on the other side forces you to divide your forces with projectile weapons, which still leaves fewer of them wherever you end up needing them.

[dzamie-oc]

03 - Steampunk

I’ll admit, this is a bit reductionist for a punk story, but gimme a break, I wrote this in only a few hours :P

Length: 2200 words Rating: T (mild description of blood and death) Summary: A factory worker makes a dragon. They grow up together and eventually enact a little bit of class warfare and a little bit of revenge.

-----

Finn’s desk was half covered in a pile of assorted junk - gears, pipes,twisted bits of scrap metal, keys for long-dead springs, and so much more, almost all tarnished, covered in coal soot, or both. However, his attention was focused on the other half, a carefully cleared space with only a few mechanical pieces strewn about, all polished to perfection. Most importantly, in the middle, sat a small, mechanical device of his own creation. Its body was unfinished, exposing much of its inner workings to the naked eye - and the elements, if he let it get that far. A head like a mix of a lizard and a dog, a long, flexible neck, a body that one might mistake for a large, metallic rat’s, and a slender tail which ended in a thin, metal cone. The young teen, with a degree of care unusual to someone with such a rat’s nest of hair, delicately positioned his creation to lay on its back, curled its legs in, and gently inserted a brass key into a particular, well-shaped hole in its chest. Once, twice... three times he turned, for luck.

Through the background din of machinery, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps and froze. Reflexively, his free hand flew to the ignored pile of scraps, then slowly dragged one over, taking just long enough for him to listen to the footsteps pass by and once more out of earshot. Finn let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, furtively glanced left and right, just in case, and removed the wound key.

Gears and wheels began to spin with a soft whirr, and a look of wonderment spread across Finn’s face as the mechanical legs twitched, then cycled in the air. Its head lifted, letting him stare into its dark eyes, no longer as lifeless as they’d always seemed to be.

“Hey, little guy,” the boy said, “welcome to the world. I’m Finn. I almost hate to dump this on you, but... look, in case I can’t, keep wound, and keep hidden. I wish I could show everyone how cool you clearly are, but-”

Suddenly, more footsteps. Footsteps he recognized, and recognized well. Finn hissed an apology to the dragon and quickly covered it with the nearby metal bowl he’d kept its parts in, then grabbed a part from the pile and set about rubbing it with a rag nearly as filthy as the part. A valve, he realized after his first pass of rubbing - after so many years, his hands knew how to move without thinking, or even realizing what was in them. The footsteps grew louder, closer, and Finn scrubbed at the metal. With a sigh, he wondered if he’d just gotten it dirtier. He went to pass it ahead into a bucket of valves, when-

“Finnegan Shine!” came the shrill voice of a woman who thought herself far more cultured than she knew she could even aspire to. “Just what are you doing with that thing?”

Finn’s “good afternoon, Ms. Springwarden” was cut off by her question, so he looked at the metal in his hand. “I’m... putting it with the other valves after cleaning it?”

Ms. Springwarden harrumphed. “Cleaning it! Just what HAS that first-shift supervisor been teaching you?” She looked at the valve - and at Finn - with a sneer. Finn always thought that, if disdain was an Olympic sport, Ms. Springwarden would have enough gold to live somewhere nice and stop tormenting him - although, he had to admit, perhaps she would still torment him for the fun of it. “Why, I can barely tell it apart from that filthy pile!”

The boy put on a puzzled expression. “Really? But I’ve been going at it with my cleanest rag for a solid minute,” he lied. Of all the people in Alma Vera, she was the last person he ever wanted to even consider the existence of his hidden project. Still, he held up three more well-used cloths, to show her that at least part of his claim had been true.

Another harrumph. “And not once did you think that, just maybe, you ought to trade them for washed cleaning equipment?”

“But Ms. Springwarden, I thought I wasn’t allowed to leave my chair during my shift?”

“Foolish child,” the woman replied, and brought her hand towards his forehead, finger primed to flick. At the last second, however, Finn saw a look of disgust, and she withdrew so as not to touch his, charitably, under-washed face. “Rise and follow me. But don’t let me catch you out of your seat without my permission!”

“Yes, Ms. Springwarden!” Finn said, and stood. The four dirty rags were exchanged for four clean ones, or at least as clean as would pass at his work. Thus equipped, Finn was returned to his seat - the bowl still overturned, to his relief.

Ms. Springwarden crossed her arms and said, “who knows how many valuable components you’ve ruined with your folly. You do remember our motto, do you not?”

Finn nodded. “Quality and quantity, Ms. Springwarden.”

The woman harrumphed yet again, and picked up two of the buckets he had sorted parts into, and dumped them into the assorted pile. “Well, let us now remedy your mistake. You will have to clean each of these now befouled pieces once again, and be quick about it!” She glared at him. “Your work ends when your pile is gone, and not a second, nor a part, sooner.”

“Yes, Ms. Springwarden.”

Finn returned to his task, and after a few seconds, he heard one last derisive snort, and then footsteps trailing away. The boy dramatically picked up his pace once she was gone, and before long, he had undone the damage to his progress she had inflicted on him. Another look left and right, and he placed his hands on the bowl, praying that the dragon truly was still there.

“Hey, it’s me,” he whispered, so the dragon wouldn’t try to hide. When he revealed the metallic creature, it had its forepaw in its chest, twisting the mechanism inside. Once finished, it looked up at him and swished its tail, accompanied by the soft, metallic whirring of gears. “That was Ms. Springwarden. They say that, somewhere out there, at least three people are unable to make that ‘hmph’ sound, because she’s using all of theirs.” The dragon leaned its head down, opened its jaws, and picked up a twisted bit of scrap metal, then shook it around a bit, which got a chuckle out of Finn. “It’s too bad you’re not as big as the dragons I’ve heard the people who live on airships have. You could just eat her, then. Although, I wouldn’t have been able to hide you while I built you.”

The clockwork creature flicked its head and sent the scrap flying through the air, to land in the discard bucket. “Fast learner,” Finn remarked. “So, you need a name. I think... Eve.” He paused. “It’s not weird to name you after an elementary school crush, is it?”

Eve responded by tossing another bit of scrap into the bucket, then wiping her mouth on his hand.

-----

Finn prowled through the dense pipework of the underground, eyes peeled for the rats he was supposed to exterminate. In one hand, he held a bag full of rodent corpses - his proof for payment. The other hand gripped what might charitably be called a tiny harpoon launcher. It looked similar to a certain toy gun, popular among the children of wealthy families, and that was no accident - although he would have the kid he stole it from think otherwise. With a bit of tinkering, a wire to save on ammunition, and a much better spring, Finn considered himself the second best at this sort of job, something that led people to avoid asking too much about the improvised tool.

A squeak cut short, then rapid metal-on-metal clanking heralded the arrival of the first best at this sort of job. Eve trotted up to him, two dead rats in her mechanical jaws. Over the past five years or so, Finn had found or fashioned bigger replacement parts for his dragon until she stood nearly at his waist. Long since unable to hide her under a bowl, of course, the story now was that she was a defective mechanical dog he had scored for a pittance. Regardless, Eve stood attentively next to him, waiting for him to open the bag for her. When he did, one rat fell into the pile of its brethren, and as for the other...

Eve tossed and flicked her head until the rodent’s body aligned with her jaws. A new whirring noise kicked in as sets of wheels dragged it down her metal throat, and then a sickening grinding sound bounced around the pipes and fixtures. The dragon opened her mouth again and wiped it on his pants leg, to his mild dismay.

“You’re gonna have to drop that habit, or I’ll put you back on winding-only.”

Eve went still for a few seconds, but the gentle whirring of her insides picked up. When she moved again, she brought one upturned forepaw in front of the other, then cycled them around each other, and finally tapped her throat.

“Break a habit for a voice?” Finn asked. “Eve, voices are hard to come by. You know I would’ve gotten you one by now if I could.”

The sound of a much smaller creature skittering along the metal ground caught both of their attentions. Finn spun, aimed, and pulled the trigger, and a barbed, pointed pole flew from the tip of his weapon, with metal wire following shortly after. The rat screamed a squeaky scream, then fell quiet, and Finn reeled in his shot and prize.

Eve pressed her paw against his leg for his attention. She pointed her muzzle at the gun, then curled back at her own chest, and then she once again tapped her paw to her neck with an insistent clank-clank-clank. Finn furrowed his brow. “I’m pretty sure voice boxes are in a league of their own...” he started, then smiled broadly at her. “Then again, so am I. Mind giving up more than half your rats from now on, so we can go shopping for anything we can’t find?”

The dragon’s metal plating rattled against itself as she wiggled in anticipation, then bounded off to massacre more vermin.

-----

It was a glorious ceremony. Everyone sported their most elaborate suits and dresses, all in a modest brown. Some of the more adventurous gentlemen had constantly-turning gears on the hats they politely kept in their laps, but no longer were they nor their headwear the center of attention. Ms. Springwarden, soon to lose that name, stood in a beautiful, ornate, white dress, and stared adoringly at the man standing in front of her, who-

BOOM!

A shout rose up from the crowd as what used to be a wall was replaced by a hole and a dragon. The elaborate mechanical creature’s outer plating was a mismatch of bronze, iron, and steel, as though it had been dressed in a junkyard. And perched on its back was a man with a daring grin, who Ms. Springwarden found strangely familiar...

“Well! Ms. Springwarden, aren’t you moving up! The big boss himself, I wonder if you’ll outlast  his last four wives!” Finn shouted as he dismounted the dragon, landing with a roll and ending up right next to the bride-to-be.

Without opening her mouth, Eve spoke. “I am confident he will be her husband for the rest of his life,” she said. Her voice was unnatural, amateurish, and it sounded like it belonged in some sterile, form-over-function research lab, rather than a well-tuned dragon. Before anyone could react, she opened her jaws and snapped up the stunned man, soon feeding him to the wheels hidden behind her neck plating.

“Aw! Eve! I had planned this whole quip about how his factories have a great quantity of people and I’m about to increase the average quality!”

“So lie in your memoir.”

Many of the guests had fled the scene, with only a few hiding behind the benches, and Ms. Springwarden herself remained frozen to the spot. “Wh- who...?”

Finn swept into a deep bow, mockingly low. “Finnegan Shine, Ms. Springwarden. My friends call me Finn, but of course you never did. You may not remember me, and I sorely wish I could say the same. But now then...” He stepped backwards towards Eve, who lowered her head and opened her jaws. Finn leaned against her neck, feeling the whirr of the wheels making up her throat thrumming through her metal body. “They say marriage is for better or worse, right? What say you join your hubby in the ‘worse?’”

Eve’s distorted voice joined in once more, saying, “I remember you. That he is offering you a refusal is far more than I would have.”

The woman - having found a worse fate than being left at the altar - took a step back, shaking her head. “No... no. Please, no.”

To everyone’s surprise, the dragon snapped her mouth shut with a loud crash of metal, and Finn clambered back up onto her back. “Then it’s a damn lucky thing I’m not you, miss,” the man said, before the pair of them escaped through the dragon-sized hole in the wall.

Finn hugged Eve’s neck tight. One down, an unfortunate number to go. He just hoped his friends were having as much fun as he was.

[skyemisc]

Silver Ceremonial Robes Translation

My translation may not be 100% accurate but it should give the general gist ;;;;

Under the cut!

EP1:

“I want to return their kindness”

Courtyard

Idia: Ahh~ I don’t wanna. Why does the magical shift tournament have to be on TV?

Idia: They show my face in some pretty shameful replays. I’d like to avoid that…

Idia: Right now is 7:00PM… The school store should just barely be open.

Idia: I’ll buy a welding mask, then tomorrow I can hide my face the entire day…!

(rustle rustle)

Idia: Hii!! S-S-Something moved--!

Silver: You there! State your name at once!

Idia: Hii?! I-I-I-I’m no one! Ah, Ahhhh, I’m not anyone suspicious…!

Idia: I-I-I-I’m Ignihyde’s I-Idia Shroud!!

Idia: So, please, put down that baton in your hand…!

Silver: Ahh… Idia-senpai. That would imply you are not anyone suspicious then.

Idia: (whisper) I-I think the one popping out of nowhere brandishing a baton is a lot more suspicious though…

Silver: Anyway, what are you doing wandering around here at this hour? Usually, you’re at your dorm eating dinner at this time right?

Idia: I-I was on my way to go buy a welding mask…

Silver: Do you need it for a mechanical engineering-related experiment?

Idia: Urgh… Well what about you, w-w-w-why are you walking around in ceremonial robes…!

Silver: These clothes are most suitable for slipping around during the twilight.

Silver: It inhibits my mobility, but due to certain circumstances I don’t have my dormitory clothes available.

Idia: Eh….Eh? Like a stealth move?

Idia: S-Silver, are you actually some sort of ninja?

Silver: Hmm…. What’s a ninja?

Idia: They’re rumored to come from a far East country. They are people who conduct covert actions, intelligence assessment, and other dirty work.

Idia: Have you never heard of shuriken or fire jutsus before?

Idia: It’s a popular theme for anime and in games their jobs are on-par with that of samurai!

Silver: Idia-senpai… You’re suddenly talkative.

Idia: Ah… Sorry ‘bout my otaku rambling…

Silver: I understand you explanation… But unfortunately I’m not this ‘ninja’ you speak of.

Idia: Seeing you deny that with such a straight face kinda makes me embarrassed on my part though…

Idia: Wait… Silver, what are you aiming at, wondering the courtyard at night…?

Silver: Tomorrow is the Magical Shift Tournament. The school will be open, and immoral people will be among the crowd of normal people from different countries.

Silver: Undoubtedly, assassins will take advantage of the crowds to slip in and look for any possible openings.

Silver: The safety of Malleus-sama is of the utmost priority.

Idia: That’s overreacting! Besides, Malleus has a strong high rank cheat, isn’t that overprotecting him?

Silver: I serve Malleus-sama, who will someday become king of the fairies and rule over the Valley of Thorns.

Silver: Before coming to this school, if he took one step out of the castle, he had guards with him.

Idia: Hmmmm…

Silver: If by any chance something happened to Malleus-sama, there would be diplomatic discourse

Silver: This is in no way overprotection.

Idia: W-W-What’s with this heavy scaled topic…

Idia: I’ve only heard about assassins and diplomatic discourse in games though…?

Silver: This is no game. This is our reality.

Idia: W-W-W-W-Wow…! There’s always, always been lines I wanted to try reciting  during these times…!

Silver: …? If you want to say it, why not go ahead?

Idia: Nah, if you were to say it it’d probably fit but if I tried I’d probably look like some sort of wannabe.

Silver: I see… I don’t quite understand it all, but I apologize.

Silver: Well then, I will return to my station. Be careful not to get mistaken as anyone suspicious.

Silver: Currently, I, along with Sebek and Lilia-senpai are patrolling the school after all.

Idia: R-Roger… I’ll follow your example and use my stealth mode where I can. L-Later.

Silver: Yes, see you.

Silver: …I should meet with Sebek and Lilia-senpai and let them know about Idia-senpai wandering around the courtyard area.

Silver: It’ll be a huge commotion around the area if he runs into Sebek.

EP2:

Courtyard

Idia: *sigh*… Finally class is over. Really, today’s weather is too nice… It’s rough for a shut-in like me…

Idia: On days like these, I’ll quickly confine myself and return to my room and complete my daily quests.

???: ……

Idia: …Hm? Someone there?

Idia: S-S-S-S-Silver?! Why’s he collapsed in the courtyard?!

(leans in…)

Idia: Oh… maybe he’s just sleeping…? Sheesh, I was so surprised I took damage…

Idia: …Though, he’s got some good features. No doubt he’d be popular~

Idia: His face when he’s sleeping looks like that of a prince, so dazzling. There’s even small animals around him…

Idia: He seems so different now compared to the day before the Magical Shift Tournament

Idia: I was scared of getting hit with that baton too…

Idia: Now seeing him like this, I wouldn’t believe he would be the type who likes to get involved with anything.

Silver: Hm… Nn…

Idia: Hii! I-I-Is he w-waking up?!

Silver: *yawn*… I thought I sensed someone. It was you, Idia-senpai…

Idia: Y-Y-Y-Y-You got it all wrong! I wasn’t at all staring at you while you slept!

Silver: ? Please settle down a bit before you speak. Everytime we’ve met you lurch in surprise.

Idia: That reaction was more due to my anti-socialness…

Idia: B-B-B-Before you were brandishing that baton. Anyone would be shocked from that.

Silver: Now that I hear it aloud that sounds only natural… I apologize for my actions last night before the Magical Shift Tournament.

Idia: Urgh… I feel bad seeing you sit there and apologize so sincerely…

Idia: S-Silver, you’re a bit of a strange one… To have such students who are so straightforward and loyal…

Silver: …Is that so?

Idia: Y-Yeah. To go to such an extent to go on night watch for their dorm leader, the students at Ignihyde would not ever do that.  

Idia: …Hwah! M-M-M-Maybe The Dorm leader Malleus at Diasomnia dorm is one to rule with an iron fist?

Idia: I-If that’s the case, I can understand. Are you forced to do stuff like the night watches?

Silver: Such acts of reign of terror is not necessary at Diasomnia dorm. Just as the other night, the night watches of are our own volitions.

Silver: I’m not sure what all goes on with the students at Ignihyde dorm but, I will do what I can for the one I’ve sworn my loyalty to.

Silver: Right now, the reason I am alive today is all because of my father and Malleus-sama.

Silver: I want to someday return their kindness towards me.

Idia: Ohhh… The expression on your face was so cool, and for an otaku like me, I could feel the passion from your tone.

Idia: I can kinda sympathize.

Silver: In addition, I prefer to avoid any trouble for Malleus if any conflict were to arise between the human land and Valley of Thorns.

Silver: My power is nothing fancy, but I want to do what I can.

Silver: I was told many times by my father to avoid any warfare growing up…

Idia: Ohh… Such profound words.

Idia: That ‘father’, he must be a strong man with a steel-like body and mind.

Silver: Yes. My father was a guard who served as a lord of the Valley of Thorns.

Silver: I’ve heard he earned the queen’s favor due to his ability to fight in battle.

Silver: At this time he is retired, but he was a warrior who has been rewarded medals due to his actions of throwing himself into battle multiple times.

Silver: I’m sure I cannot begin to imagine the harsh experiences he had…

Idia: W-What is this. This is starting to sound like an open world RPG…

Silver: Open world?

Idia: I-Internet thing. Sorry, it’s something you commoners wouldn’t understand.

Silver: No, I know about online games. My father often stays up late to play such games.

Idia: Hm?! Your father just suddenly turned degenerate?!

Silver: My father has always liked those sort of trends. Recently he’s been getting into MagiCam it seems.

Idia: E-Ehhh?! He just went from a retired strong Royal guard to crumble down from there…!

Lilia: Heeey Silver. What are you doing sauntering around there?  

Lilia: You promised to accompany me after school for an uber difficult quest.

Silver: Fath… Lilia-senpai. Sorry. I’ll be there right away.

Lilia: Hm…? I was wondering who it was there, and it happens to be Idia. You two are a rare combination.

Idia: Ah, ah… L-L-L-Lilia, this is, uh…

Silver: I had dozed off here earlier and met him by chance.

Silver: Idia-senpai, see you around.

Idia: Y-yeah, see you…

Idia: …Talking with Silver about his dad was interesting.

Idia: Even though he was an honored warrior from the Valley of thorns he’s a heavy internet user and uses MagiCam lolol

Idia: If someone like him really does exist, even me, who hates people, would wanna see him with my own eyes…

Diasomnia Dorm – Hallway

Lilia: I’ve gathered materials to implement my new items. Next week is this season’s event. I’ll be so busy~

Silver: You really seem like you’re having fun when talking about those games.

Lilia: When I was a youngin we didn’t have these online games.

Lilia: Dwellers from all around the globe can cross borders for entertainment. It has become quite peaceful times.

Silver: That’s true. For you to live in a peaceful time where you can enjoy games…

Silver: We definitely must protect it.

Lilia: …Look at you talk so cheekily

Lilia: Now then, let’s ride on that sentiment there Silver and dive into my games to my heart’s content. They’ll be no sleeping tonight~

Silver: P-Please give me a break, father…

[astro-break]

Quick first thoughts on the first ep of the Hypmic Anime. Spoilers beware (and im writing this as I watch so :p)

Otome’s speech is.... questionable from a persuasive point of view. Manga did a great job of introducing her (which you can read here) but they really cut out the more terrifying parts of her speech and how she uses force to show people that she's not to be messed with

Its cool seeing everyone in their respective environments though. thats cool. Though they could have added Sasara and Kuuko (shhh i know why they didn’t let me dream)

I love how poppy the typography is. Its amazing how the visuals just leap out at you. The OP does a great job of this. The first few seconds before the title really gives me Persona 4 OG OP vibes with the influx of information given. The rest is a clear concise and streamlined way that still gives character. Animation is sparse but still carries across a general idea of each character and shows off each character object. Rendering is really nice and pays a bit of homage to the posing artwork thats done for the MVs. They also do their division hand signals and thats cute

Love how the OP has blatant HifuDoppo and DRB matchup foreshadowing

so far I really like what theyre going for. BB is about brotherly familial bonds and they show the goods and the bads. Jiro and Saburo bickering right out the gate really cements the fact that they get along like cats and dogs but you can still see that they love each other, working together when the situation calls for it

Now the 3d models. Theyre... not great but usable if you don’t look too hard. They serve their purpose and don’t actively detract from the viewing experience.

Visual typography in the rap itself are fun and poppy but they dont.... speak to me? like theyre there yes and I appreciate them but the only ones that got me excited were from Ichiro’s rap

I take my words back the group portion was kickass and I apologize

I love how they interpret the Hypnosis Speakers though. Esp. Saburo’s organs. That was super creative and I love it! If there was one thing that I felt was missing from the franchise was a deeper exploration of the speakers but the anime puts a new and fresh spin on it! Love it, especially with their attack patterns!

If the production team ever feels inclined to, Id love to see those info sheets on Otome’s desk released. There seems to be very interesting info and stats written out about each member (like capabilities, personal status etc.) They all seem unique too so I really really really hope they release images of those sheets

OOOOOOOOKAY MTC. I have such a big biased for them so Im very torn to see what unfolds

Rio striking out on his own is interesting. Out of everyone in MTC hes the biggest team player yet here he trusts his teammates to go ahead. This either displays Rio’s willingness to trust his teammates or it becomes very OOC if the anime wants to set him up as a lone wolf like character

I love how they specify its a drug deal. It means that Jyuto surely will show up and it also shows that Samatoki knows Jyuto’s motives and willingly gives black market info that he knows aligns with Jyuto’s goal. Thats A+ detail writing there and a great establishing characteristic for both of them

OOohhhhhhhhhhhhh man Asunama-san’s voice acting is god tier his work as Samatoki is phenomenal. He pulls of Samatoki’s threatening voice so well with those almost calm words before his voice becomes loud and confrontational. Those rolling syllables in contrast to Komada-san’s almost lyrical and airy speech and Kamio-san’s strict and enunciated words is such a delight to hear. It just speaks to how amazing and great these Seiyuu’s are in order to pull of such amazing work

Im so biased but MTC has such a better rap than BB im so sorry. Just by watching Samatoki’s part, the imagery is amazing. Even the arrival of his Hypnosis Speaker was awesome and sent a shiver down my spine. using the lyrics to form blades and blood was such a great thing to do. Theres so much more variety that just him standing there and shots of his hypnosis speaker. The old fashioned vignette shots, the four panel spread, the nods to old Kurosawa era films are great and I love these small details. Even the typography looks better.

Again, the interpretations with the speakers is fresh and new. Its great and I love the different imagery and attack patterns. Each one is so unique but carries across each different style of rap.

The 3d modles aren’t any better tho lol

(Hi this is Astro who is reading over their assessment again and making a note. Yeah I’m a bit harsh on BB’s rap. I’m not going to change it since I still stand by it and this post is supposed to be a documentation of my first impressions. I think one of the reasons why I’m so harsh on BB is because of their dynamic as a trio of brothers. They Have to have a more uniform approach than the other divisions. Which in of itself isn’t a terrible thing, it just doesn’t catch my eye as much as MTC did. Thats all! I definitely don’t hate BB, they’re maybe my 3rd favorite division out of the current lineup [not including TDD era teams like Kujaku Posse, MCD, and Naughty Busters] its just that their rap was pretty meh)

Samatoki crouching like a real gangstar and the cigarette kiss killed me

sadjkhfjkasdghsadjkcsdjhsdfsjhf im dying i love these trio of dumbasses so uch oh y fod someone save me aaaaaaaa (Astro note here! yeah i died when the jyuto and samatoki’s stomach growled im weak please. Samatoki’s face is just so precious and funny I might set it as a profile pic somewhere)

But also my initial assessment of Rio possibly being characterized as a lone wolf is very much jossed and im very thankful for that. It seems that Rio was simply trusting his teammates to carry out their part of the plan while he carried out his own. I like that, it really shows how much of a team these three are and that they genuinely trust each other. He’s also comfortable enough around them to invite them to dinners after work casually and not just for special occasions.

I really love MTC guys

Oooh! we get Ramuda on his design process which is really cute. the inside of his studio is super cute and retro and i love it. the poppy old music you would hear in a cafe or 90′s resturaunt is also really cute (astro note: yeah i know that in ARB you see the interior of Ramuda’s office but its kinda different seeing it animated)

the translation i have has gentaro speaking in early modern english (Shakespearian english for those who aren’t english nerds like me) but from what I can hear, he doesn’t speak in a particularly old fashioned way? Its more formal than old? and hes speaking without any of his character persona lying thing that he likes to do (as he refers to himself as “Shousei” throughout the segment where hes in Ramuda’s office which is kind of his default pronoun of choice). so its kinda odd for the translation to go in that direction but im not complaining

Gendice banter is gold but it feels... flat? a little? it doesn’t have the same impact as in the drama cds or in the manga? i feel? Also Ramuda using gratuitous english is??? idk how to feel about that

kjshf thats against the rules Ramuda omgggg,,,,,,,, (astro note again: while watching i was under the assumption that using your hypmic for monetary gain such a as buskering [which is what FP is doing] is against the rules. May not be the case but whatever)

FP’s rap might be my favorite in terms of tune and lyrics though. It’s a nice laid back bop and really gives of chill vibes. the integration of 3d and 2d is really nice and i love how they play off each other in the rap. The wordplay is so fun with little nods here and there and the beat is poppy too so it really energizes me.

Ramuda’s rap concerns me slightly since he makes very subtle and small nods towards his past (being created in a laboratory, warfare, and his overall very unpleasant life experiences) but spins it into something cutesy. It could be a coping mechanism, it could be me overthinking it. But it does make me worry a bit. Gentaro and Dice’s rap really play off each other with Gentaro sticking to stories and Dice taking up the baton by carrying on that same imagery but putting his own spin on it.

the self awareness of how scattered they are as a team is interesting though. It doesn’t seem like something you’d speak about in a rap? but i guess since its not really a do or die situation they can afford to be looser on things like this.

Right off the bat, i don’t like how they handled Hifumi and Doppo in relation to Hifumi’s fear of women. Slug made a post once talking about this and I echo many of his sentiments. Hypmic has never been very tactful about tackling this particular issue and while I didn’t have high hopes that the anime would be any better it hurts to see Doppo take away the one thing that allows Hifumi to function within society.

Doppo’s breakdown mirrors a lot of my own mental state when I spiral though its shown a lot quicker than what happens to me oof. that hits close to home. though Jakurai’s advice is. Questionable. Its not the best advice to give to someone but we have no idea what kind of doctor Jakurai is so ill let it slide

Jakurai’s pose looks like hes going to do a mahou shoujou transformation lmao

I don’t have many thoughts about the rap though again. How they visualize the rap is interesting. the different imagery is quite interesting for each of them and the typography is nice a distinct but im still on the fence about the visuals here

The sound is in the same boat. The sound effects either drown out the rap or are too quet but some parts are nice at least. When they talk about Tokyo’s beating heart, the heartbeat sound is a but distracting especially since its only played once. But the imagery is at least nice

I wonder if for the eds they’re going to take a similar approach to what Enstars did and have a four different endings, one for each division. I love the blend of styles here and it really accentuates that although they’re different they mesh well together.

Ramuda’s silhouette though is hilarious. Love it.

:p and thats it. Uh not bad for a first episode. Established all 12 characters really nicely and their dynamics. I had some problems with it but then again nothing is perfect. I look forward to what they show us next week