#where they just copied the aesthetics of undertale
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I played through about an hour of OMORI today, and I'm sorry but I just really didn't like it lol.
The combat is easily the weakest part; it simplifies too many elements of turn-based RPG battles and becomes boring. There's a reason why RPGs have things like individual, personalized stats for each character, and status ailments. The story is somehow both very metaphorical, and incredibly hamfisted. The art is fine, but I don't think it's anything special. The pixel art reminds me of something I'd see on Instagram or a Tumblr aesthetic blog, and it clashes with the pencil and paper drawings, making them feel low resolution and blurry.
I know this game means a lot to a lot of people, but I don't see the appeal. Does the combat ever evolve? Does the story focus, and find a clear message besides "depression is bad?" Because if not I'm like three clicks away from getting a refund and replaying Undertale.
#omori#it feels like someone tried to make a video game#but the only video game they had played was undertale#so its this like xerox of a xerox#where they just copied the aesthetics of undertale#without understanding how the gameplay and narrative was influenced and made in response to other games#like how the ruins are a parody of hand-holding tutorials in most video games#meanwhile OMORI just literally has a super hand-holdy tutorial lol#sorry joan!
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On the subject of Just Shapes and Beats: in Spider Dance, there's a brief moment where a spider holding a "sign" appears in the bottom right, and that sign contains a heart. This heart is a one-to-one copy of the sprite of the soul from Undertale/Deltarune. It's very clearly not just a picture, as it moves and bounces around the sign of its own volition, without the spider holding the sign moving at all. Could this count as an appearance of Frisk? Or does the soul count as a character? (1/3)
So as for the SOUL in Just Shapes & Beats, there's a couple of uncharitable reads I could make. First, as a reference to the spiders in Muffet's encounter, the SOUL is pretty clearly in a sign, which even with the movement doesn't draw favorable comparisons to the posters and photos that aren't eligible, but the bouncing up and down near the end does imply some agency, and arguably it's not all that different from the normal context the SOUL is in for all of Undertale, anyway.
Second, SOULs are almost entirely distinguished by their color, and that color of SOUL doesn't correlate with any known one, but that's obviously just to bring it in line with the game's aesthetic, and the mere context of the song pretty strongly implies that it's the protagonist's red SOUL.
As for the SOUL's status as a character in and of itself, they do at least seem capable of acting by themselves in Photoshop Flowey's battle, so that's probably fine. As to whether the SOUL is also Frisk?
I'm gonna sidestep that with Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party's help.
So while I don't think it scans well enough to give the Just Shapes & Beats cast(?) definite Ryu Numbers, yeah, sure, it'll work as a possible route.
Thank you for the correction!
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what were your thoughts on isat, if you’d like to talk about it? it’s one of my favorite timeloop games so i love hearing others talk about it :)
AH YES lemme copy and paste some of my thoughts from discord
that was quite good i liked it! definitely up there with undertale and oneshot as a Real Good Meta Game. i think i *just* miss the target audience who really REALLY enjoyed it (i have a couple friends who loved it too) where the types of characters siffrin and the gang are just remind me of ocs that maybe some friends of mine would have but not me. but i say that very fondly.
likes:
- combat system! both simple and engaging
- art/character design! like i said, they feel more like ocs of a friend than true blorbos but i loved the aesthetics of the sadnesses. my favourite character design is odile!
- looping game mechanics! everything that was purposely designed to be tedious felt tedious in the exact “oh god i’m stuck in a time loop” way. i enjoyed how all the things you needed to get were scattered through different bits of time so eventually, every last bit of new stuff was squeezed away from me. it was neat. i remember doing odile’s companion quest too early and my heart sank as i realized i would have to do it *again* at some point. the act 5 stuff especially was neat because i saw my own mid-grinding thoughts being reflected in siffrin’s own dialogue and monologue towards our “friends” (who were exp-losing obstacles at that point!)
dislikes/neutral:
- this is my only real actual *game design* gripe, but i felt like some of the puzzles in act 3-early act 4 were a bit obtuse. a lot of them required talking to loop at a specific moment, or warping back and forth between the king. but the issue is that loop’s required text is often still greyed out! and also, they give you a “call loop for convenience” button but you can’t use it for the IMPORTANT conversations? idk. it was a little frustrating.
- some of the games dialogue/moments didn’t land for me quite as impactfully as i know it would for some others (namely just some stuff about the group dynamic, the way they interact, how they deal with the de-escalation at the end) but again like i said i think that’s just another side effect of the game catering to a niche of people that i’m very close with, sometimes even belonging to, but i’m also a “little to the left” of. i thought siffrin’s family was sweet, even if i’m not exactly like “i would die for them” so i think it does its job well despite siffrin the character clearly caring for these people way more than i do
- i was originally a bit confused and miffed that there were SO many unanswered questions about siffrin and the king’s country, about colours, about LOOP, and when act 6 ended i was like “wait hold on. WAIT COME BACK I HAVE QUESTIONS.” evidently, some of my friends let me know you do get answers WRT loop if you do secret stuff, so i know about Them now, and as i sit with the game more i do understand that it’s very much a “does it really matter what happened?” thing. but i want to know :( (also i thought the twist was gonna be that the king was another version of siffrin. uh oops that one was my bad.)
overall though it was very fun. i liked the story!
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I think I'm just gonna say it because when i made my tags i blissfully lived in a world where people do not gatekeep emojis.
if i EVER. Use an emoji combo. Its either:
A kin thing
An IRL / DA thing
Therian
System thing
Comfort character or F/O
Or something else really. Innocent and benign. I have amnesia due to my system hood , meaning i forget shit all the time. If i want to use a rainbow and a strawberry emoji i literally can just do that. No one OWNS emoji combos ( from any discourse ever ). Its so silly.
Imagine gatekeeping over headmate emojis. "your sans undertale cant use a ketchup and bone combo because MY sans undertale uses a ketchup and bone combo and NO you cannot reverse the order you copy cat".
🙄 i hate discourse period. If i use an emoji or a combo its for Aesthetic, not for a "secret code". The only "secret code" is my system emojis, which i also dont gatekeep.
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Devlog 1 (1/25/24): Why This Is Pointless
In my intro post, I mentioned how it would be much easier to map the 12 chromatic notes of Western music to the 3 action buttons and 8 directions of Undertale, and how I won't be doing that for purely aesthetic reasons. I also want to mention why everything I'm doing to my violin is completely stupid.
If you want to follow in my footsteps, you shouldn't do it the way I'm doing it. You probably can't.
My violin is a Yamaha EV-205 five-string electric from the late aughts/early 10's. I recently learned that this violin is no longer in production, so there's no way your standard Joe Schmoe can pick up this tutorial, nor would they want to if they were in the market for an electric violin, because they already sell electric violins that are MIDI controller enabled. You should buy that and follow the software specs of CZR drums and their MIDI-to-controller software partner/whatever. I simply do not want to spend more money on an electric violin when I already have one with the right hardware (individual pickups for each of the five strings). So I will be voiding the warranty that likely no longer exists and busting open my violin to see what I can patch together.
When I busted this component (pictured above) open I immediately found a not-so-complex PCB where I could locate each of the individual string inputs. I have yet to see whether those ports will give me the inputs I need - golly, I have yet to learn how to solder enough to access those ports!! - but the visibility gives me hope. it doesn't look hard, especially for someone who has been low-key interested in soldering for like 15 years (since my Pokemon Gold copy's battery died and I learned the ways to replace it) but I can't say I know exactly what data flows through that part of the circuit and how easy it would be to extract and manipulate.
I've done a lot of research into what I would need to take analog audio signal(s) and transform them into MIDI or some other binary/digital data. The first thing I found was an Arduino library, so I knew this wouldn't be hard. I only have one Arduino (knock-off) and I didn't like the idea of buying four more (one for each string) to get the MIDI values when I would probably be connected to a computer the whole time no matter what.
This led me to where I'm sitting pretty right now, at a Python library (Python being my favorite language) that uses its GitHub .md file to explain why Markov chains are important. Reader, do you know how much I love Markov chains? Did you know that in my sophomore year of college I created a musical AI by programming Markov chains in Python??? How is it that all of my interests loop in upon each other in the same way that my first and only job out of college involved natural language processing in Python just like my senior project where I did language analysis on okcupid profiles???? Is time in fact a flat circle? I don't have time to think about this because I want to program violin to play undertale pleas
Where I'll be starting is with this library and with monophonic input (one note at a time rather than interpreting multiple notes at once e.g. multiple strings played simultaneously) to make a controller of any kind work. But I have a lot of reading to do to see how Markov chains are involved. With it being both Python and linear algebra, I have the capacity to adjust the code to do whatever I want it to do. Given this insane opportunity I can't not do all the research possible to finetune things to my precise desires. If I were satisfied with "good enough", I would be playing monophonic input the whole way through. Let's go insane, boys.
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You know how most powers in NSR are based off of some kind of aesthetic or something? What if some people can ONLY do that while others get more flexibility.
Like Mama can only do plant based magic or DJSS only being able to create space magic? While Eve's powers, though based on the mind, are a lot more flexible. She could possible do plant or space magic, but it would be connected to the mind. But Mama and DJSS would most likely never be able to do mind magic.
That makes me think of how flexible the magic system in NSR really is and I wonder what non-specific magics there are. Stuff that is more general and could be more useful in everyday situations compared to highly specific magic that can only be used in certain situations or environments.
I like to think that anyone can use pure magic (pure as in unfiltered or raw, not pure as in purity culture). Like Yinu creating magic notes to shoot at people, or B2J's powers ranging from shields to missiles. None of those are really all that super specific when it comes to themes. At least with B2J they can switch the general theme up depending on who they are fighting/what magic they want to produce.
However, with both of those examples, they need a tool to produce/control that raw magic, which is music. Not everyone needs assistance when using their magic, like Eve can probably use her mind magic without music, and so could Tataiana with her fire and time magic.
Although, those are still specific magics and not general/raw magic. They can't really go outside of those themes without music to help them. Same with B2J and Yinu not being able to go outside their own themes or use raw magic without the help of an amplifier such as music/works of passion.
All this to say, I was thinking about Neon J and what his magic could have been before turning into a cyborg. And what if his magic was literally just RAW magic. Having general use of magic. Or something related to endurance. Making him harder to kill, more easily able to adapt to his environment, and able to pick up things quicker.
I like to think his magic changes him as he goes depending on what he needs done. He is physically stronger than most people of his size/stature (when he was fully human, since now the cybernetics just make him naturally stronger than the average human) and could replicate other people's magic if he put enough passion and effort into copying them, which would come in handy during fights or something.
I like to think of it kinda like Determination from Undertale, or just magic in general where your intent is what determines the kind of power behind your magic. Except in this instance Determination would be passion or hope or something. I guess they are basically the same thing overall.
Anyway, the whole reason for me even talking about this is because I wanted a reason as to why Neon was able to survive so much bullshit in his life. Stuff that most humans could literally not be able to survive. Like he would probably be able to hold his breath for a LOT longer than the average human, and stay in colder water long too.
He just has a shit ton of endurance and is capable of going toe-to-toe with full elementals who would usually squash non-elemental humans with ease. It's why when I see a young Neon and Tatiana fighting, they are so evenly matched, even though Neon punching Tatiana would be like punching a brick wall, and getting punched by her is like getting hit in the head with a brick.
I don't know. His magic is so hard to think of, so him being super moldable just really makes sense to me. He's a jack of all trades, master of none (which is better than being a master of one lol).
So yeah, Neon just having the ability to mold his magic to the situation and create raw magic attacks without an amplifier/tool assist is something I am going to stick with.
#rambling#nsr#eritalks#noart#i have a short comic idea in my head#of neon and his brother#and this is the basis of that#their family is just really powerful#when it comes to raw magic#which i can see mayday as also having#and is why her and neon would be so good at powering the qwasa#because they literally exude magical power
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Why is there such a focus on graphics in video games?
I’ve made a couple of posts recently complaining about an update to The Witcher 3 made it impossible to play on my computer because my machine just wasn’t high spec enough to handle the graphics requirements. I’ve seen a bunch of posts and articles and forum discussions about how it’s terrible and broken and unplayable, giving people instructions on how to go back to the previous version. But among those, there are discussions on places like the Steam forums where people who have got super high end machines talk about the new update and the general theme seems to be, “It looks great.”
Now, in fairness, it could be that I was just looking at the posts too soon after the release for there to be in depth discussion of new storylines or bug fixes or gameplay improvements, and people were just reacting to what was most readily apparent. But still, it felt like the people who were speaking the praises of the new update were focused purely on the aesthetics.
And I don’t particularly care about graphics.
I guess it’s nice if a game is pretty or has nice scenery, but it’s not what makes the game FUN.
A while ago, I was talking about Factorio and someone suggested that if I liked that, I should try Satisfactory, which is a game with a similar concept of building machines to do stuff. As a game, Factorio is amazing and managed to completely suck me in to the point that I could play for hours and not notice time passing. Satisfactory just didn’t grab be in the same way. It wasn’t as fun or engaging. But you know what it was? Really, really pretty. The graphics were beautiful. Stunning. The alien worlds looked gorgeous.
But I went back to playing Factorio because something being prettier doesn’t make it a better game.
A short while ago, I replayed Stonekeep, which is a game from the nineties that was released on a CD. The graphics in that are terrible. All the monsters of a particular type are the same sprite endlessly repeated. The walls are made up of identical, repeated panels that make it very easy to get lost because every corridor in a level looks the same. The resolution is awful. But it’s a really engaging game with a lot of humour.
Undertale became a massive hit with pixel art.
Stardew Valley got big with its simplistic art style a million miles away from realism.
Amazing, hyper-realistic graphics don’t make something a good game. They just make it take more computing power and newer graphics cards to run. It’s perfectly possible for games to be created that do commercially well by being fun and without pixel-perfect rendering of every hair and blade of grass, yet people still hype up graphics in games reviews as though it’s a vital aspect to the game. I know the answer is probably because it’s an easy thing to wow people with in trailers and it’s something that early reviewers can talk about quickly, so it helps sell more copies, while having an intricate and well-thought out story or engrossing gameplay is something that takes longer to get the message out there about.
It’s still annoying.
Is it fun? And can I get it to run on my computer? That’s what matters to me in a game. The first one is largely disconnected to the graphics, and the second one is actively at odds with hyper-realism.
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Welp, here I go! :Dc
Little Big Planet 2—my friends and I would play together on my console all the time! I loved getting to make and copy costumes, and also play through RPG house levels, as well as that one Jeff the Killer one where he would appear in different parts of the level. If you tried, you could get all four of his appearances (they all spawn separately and one doesn’t disappear after one comes) after you! I also still adore LBP Karting. (And I’m so, SO angry that hackers got the servers on LBP2 shut down. D:<)
Undertale—it introduced me to alternate universes, helped my OCs occupy my brain, and also had an AWESOME soundtrack. It definitely helped shape my taste in music—which is pretty much all video game soundtracks. XD
Bendy and the Ink Machine—my cousin and I both loved it for the aesthetic, but neither of us could actually play the game at the time. I loved getting to see it get popular slowly, back when their merch was beginning to hit stores like Hot Topic and GameStop. And then I finally was able to get it for myself! Chapter 3 is still my favorite one, and DA Games’ playthrough of it never gets old.
Five Nights at Freddy’s—BOY, was I scared of the animatronics. One time, me and one of my other cousins (she’s older) were playing FNAF 2, and Foxy jumpscared us—we ran out of the room SO FAST it wasn’t even funny. She kept tryna make me go back in the room first (as if Foxy could jump out of the screen lmao). And another time, the cousin that liked BATIM as well and I were watching Weimtime’s FNAF 2 “It’s Been So Long” piano video, and we got jumpscared by the Marionette at the end of the video. My cousin had to watch Nerdy Nummies’ watermelon cake pops to cope. And I had a nightmare about the Marionette that night. Funnily enough, FNAF 4 wasn’t even out yet.
Aaand finally, Pokémon Moon! It was my first ever Pokémon game, and I loved every minute of it. Everything about it was just so good. This one time, I met another kid my age in a nail salon (my mom was doing hers), and seeing that I was playing Moon, I think he was the one that came over to me—we both kinda kept looking over at each other before that because we didn’t know whether or not to strike up a conversation. XD He suggested I name my Vaporeon “Ribbon”, and so I did. They’re still named that to this day. I hope I get to see that guy again.
Honorable mentions are Ace Attorney (as well as TGAA), and Hollow Knight. I didn’t name ‘em since I’m still super into them, and they’re less so memories to me than things that I’ll still be really into in the near future. Meaning like uhhh a week from now. XD
Ace Attorney has been my brainrot since around 2019-2020, and I love it so, so much. And, Hollow Knight is an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING game that I’m so glad I picked up in a GameStop on a whim, just because I thought the font and box art were super cool. I can’t wait for Silksong! <3
#little big planet#little big planet 2#undertale#bendy and the ink machine#batim#fnaf#five nights at freddy's#pokemon moon#pokemon#ace attorney#gyakuten saiban#dai gyakuten saiban#the great ace attorney#hollow knight#THANK YOU VIDEOGAMES FOR EXISTING!!
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Maybe i should do another Rentry post for these but just in case.
1:
Honestly, if Crowbcat wanted to be even more /v/, he could've not bothered with those videos about Halo (Which even Martin O'Donnell liked) and instead gone full "Babby's first FPS that ruined the genre".
He even made a positive video about Doom 2016, for a guy that is essentially "/v/ outside of /v/".
Like he could've technically been worse, since /v/ even had threads shitting on RE4.
2:
Love Death and Robots seems at first to be a spiritual successor to Heavy Metal in terms of being a showcase of different sci-fi stories.
The problem is that Heavy Metal had a particular appeal that isn't really present in LDR, mostly the "nerd into 80/90's heavy metal/sci-fi" stuff while LDR has typical modern elements.
But this might also be partially why the Heavy Metal comics brand is dead, because they dropped that appeal/focus years ago.
If people look at the 2 animated movies or those illustrations by Simon Bisley, they'll get disappointed knowing HM stopped showing tits at some point.
Though someone i follow that is a bigger comics expert points out that Heavy Metal was more about the art while 2000AD was more about the stories and also had better variety so it wasn't just "cool characters nerds like".
3:
The thing with Lois Lane in the new Superman cartoon is that she looks like a generic tomboy but to some people, she was just a white office lady.
I guess it's like how Marian from Double Dragons wans't really a visually iconic looking character, so nobody cares that River City Girls turned her into Dorohedoro Noi.
But it also might be a difference from Harley Quinn where if these characters like superheroes or villains have interesting designs, then the likes of Batman's butler Alfred or Spiderman's Aunt May exist to look normal and not have actual designs.
So to some it isn't a loss because she never had a "design" as they think.
4:
SiivaGunner was a fun gimmick at first but i think what made the channel kinda boring is how many memes they started to incorporate and even make it part of a "lore".
Like Grandad and Snow Halation are "part of it" but then there's all these various attempts at referencing specific e-celebs and memes.
It's specifically lame when they reference Keemstar or Logan/Jake Paul like those are human beings worth liking.
Also makes the "wholesome" aesthetic weird.
"Awww look at Kirby and Frisk from Undertale, videogames are so cute... anyway, here's the shittiest memes you've already been tired of seeing on Youtube mixed along".
People already give Triple Q some shit for being irony poisoned or meme centered, even if he hasn't reached the level of Grandayy.
Probably the same deal with Tumblr people going "NO MORE IRONY, I WANT SINCERITY" but still showing hints of the meme/irony culture they grew around, when they could either develop real life experiences or interact with actual good media.
5:
Maybe a problem with nerd portrayals in pop culture is that the idea of them being outcast and all is there but Star Wars was always popular, so pop culture was "partially correct".
Like replace Star Wars and Star Trek with Heavy Metal comics or something less talked about and all those caricatures in tv shows could've been more accurate.
6:
When it comes to fiction copying/taking stuff from its own fields, comedy is probably the worst case of this because you'll realize certain caricatures or "types" come from someone's observations and then later comedies take it and it becomes autopilot in a way.
Maybe it's the case with media leading to stereotypes or biased views on real people but moreso something that makes characters feel less sincere.
I dunno, making another generic fantasy setting with orcs and dragons is less evil in comparison to a sitcom copying the same character traits.
7:
Seeing people go "you're not a real fighting game fan unless you're part of the FGC" is funny because it's obviously a response to people mad at the censorship in Skullgirls.
But also because it's a way to make any game less beloved than it is because of how exploitable it is.
"You're not a real Mario fan unless you're a SM64 speedrunner".
When Doom Eternal came out, even guys with "hot takes about JRPG's" and those that mock Redditors talked about the Isabelle crossovers and did basic Doom memes.
Most of them might as well be fake fans because they're not too invested in wads and browse Doomworld.
See how that sounds?
8:
I think i already said in Rentry posts that Sseth became either safe or too reliant on current memes.
Emptyhero however still makes risky jokes and is still funny.
If i finish my game, i wouldn't care if he shat on it as long as he made a review of it funny.
9:
If you think about it, Zoomers grew up with Smosh and ERBOH, so they watch breadtubers and essay video makers to overcompensate.
It's the closest they get to "intellectualism" to make it up for watching shit that other online groups would put it beneath 9gag.
10:
I wonder if there's a correlation between people complaining about "edgy animation" (As in, when Spongebob has better animation/is animated by actual animators than SU) and people that hate AAA games with "photorealistic" graphics.
Because there is an arguement for "corporate" art styles still requiring effort but then they'd realize that applies more to 3D "CalArts" animation that even the Mario movie has than Spongebob.
Even with videogames, developers "scaling down graphics" won't just be the end of Naughty Dog but even fantasy or sci-fi designs people like.
Not even "343 overdesigned sci-fi" or "DarkSiders copycat autopilot fantasy" but there's character designs people won't admit have a lot of detail.
Unless that "i want shorter games with worse graphics" image is less about scale and more about quality as in "the Metal Slug series is soulless because it having good pixel art means it took slavework while my shitty indie game is REAL SOUL because the art style being bad is a good thing".
Maybe it's a clique thing where people just advertise the "right kind" of games.
And again, corporations LOVE stiff animation and hate effort taking animation from passionate animators.
11:
I think the reason why people have some interest in people taking shit seriously is because of what comes next: When they "betray" that investment.
Like Zoomers still taking screenshots of art they deem illegal/immoral to mock someone or taking "Proshippers DNI" off profiles to not get blocked by artists.
Or people treating "groomer" as a slur when they could easily use it against the other side when they find their actual examples of groomers.
Something where the issue is not "taking shit seriously" but more "doing a terrible job at it", because when you take something like culture wars or fandom shit seriously, your brain might as well have some connection like your life somehow depends on it.
You can see this with germophobes who wash their hands too many times, then they make food for someone and don't wash their hands: Are they outgrowing their habits? Or are they revealing they only care for their safety, even if the food isn't contaminated by a real threat?
Maybe it's a sign of people only acting a certain way to fit in a group.
Because it can also come off as a sign of a weak character if you fuck up even something you're supposed to base yourself around.
12:
The idea of a Barbie moving having politics is funny because the "outside" of Barbie has all these feminists thinking girls are forced to play with it or that the character is a terrible representation of women.
In a way, politics in media could be about the "outside" and not what's coming from the setting or story.
Same deal with Doom: Why bring up the UAC argent energy plot when you have John Carmack making the games moddable out of a "hacker respector" way and Romero getting the sack by ZeniMax when wanting to share some assets related to the games?
13:
The occasional overlaps between SA and Tumblr are funny because they seem opposite at first until you realize their opposites explain the overlaps.
One thing is troll's remorse, another is nerds that were always easy to mock still trying to be the bullies.
Knowing the history behind Dril and even Homestuck can reveal some lore between a site where nerds wasted money on a forum while telling other nerds to die and another that acted as a hugbox for freaks to feel "heckin valid".
14:
I think a reason why OG Lara Craft is more liked than the boring new Lara is because she's clearly a comic book/action figure type character and the other is a generic "realistic" character that might as well be an NPC.
Part of why you can't put Solid Snake/Big Boss in the same field as actual generic "white guy protagonists" because of stuff related to their designs, backgrounds, personalities, gameplay etc.
Also explains why some Resident Evil fans (Even if a small minority) aren't much into the remakes or 7/8.
And a problem with both Doom movies and the cancelled Doom 4 having generic SWAT soldiers when Doom always had a particular "sci-fi security guard" aesthetic while the new games have the Sentinel stuff.
15:
The reason to make fun of shit like boomers complaining about woke stuff is if they do it in a situation where it's not the case or they exaggerate something, but you can tell some people mock these even in situations where it's not unreasonable.
Otherwise, the people mocking these boomers would still mock shit like ResetEra freaking out over cute girls in a JRPG.
Like you see people claim Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album art is "appropriating LGBT culture" because of the rainbow and instead, it's the boomers talking about that group of people that get to be mocked.
Being stupid isn't exclusive to one side.
It's why people think it's more convinient to be left wing and then get surprised when there's grifters or shit like that.
16:
A lot of "media literacy" boils down to adding modern politics to a movie that otherwise had a very different message.
Meanwhile, Fritz the Cat had political themes that could apply to modern times but "media literacy" types and animation fans ignore it because it's not coming from their desired background/area.
17:
One of the worst images i saw was a Soyjak making fun of people that prefer to ignore Twitter.
Years of guys on /v/ being told to "go to Twitter" everytime they complain about censorship and now when some anons say "stop posting Twitter screencaps on /v/", they're told "um you should care what Twitter people say".
The mere fact that Twittier is essentially "the center of the web" is a bad thing and destroying the site would be one of the few good things Elon Musk ever did in his life.
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Important.
So. I wanted to make this post, and my brother, and girlfriend have supported me. My brother knows this entire situation, but i wanted to come out about it because it has dealt alot of mental toll on me, and im scared of this creator. No, i dont want to interact or start drama. No, dont mention me to him. No, i dont want his apology. No, i dont want any pity. I just want to tell my story because it happened before, happened to me, and just because he has a "soft gay boy nice boy" attitude does NOT mean it wont happen again. What ill go over in this post roughly/you will get the impression of is;
Why i hate comparison
Why im fast to jump at conclusions/be defensive
and Why i mention my trauma with the UTMV community, specially under posts regarding art, art style, characters or character design.
And no, im not even posting this to try and tell people im some snowflake who cant handle criticism or compression, this is targeted to the people who have ill intent with those and go as far as to label things others do as copying or ripping off.
Yes, im okay. Yes, im going to continue what i do. No, im not wanting to send anyone after him. Please, just read what i have and understand that the way i am is because of something i have kept to myself and only 2-4 other people for the past 5 years.
Introduction.
To get it started, ill be calling this creator, he/him, by his publicly known name. However, ill also possibly switch from his name, to part of his username/nickname.
This creator in question, is the content creator named Lizherubones, also known as TwistedBones, thebastardbutcher ( here on tumblr, too. ) , ButcherZone, and his oldest username, Zippy3006. He sounds familiar because he was one of the bigger creators in the UTMV, back in the dark ages of fontcest being the normal. However, i will call him William, as that is his name, and its public information. He also goes by Will, so im sorry if i call him any variation of those names/usernames.
Other things you may read about in this is an old discontinued app called DoodleClub, a OC of mine named Ezher who is the reason why im making this post, as i wanted to draw and post him again, but the timeline will be abit scattered as trauma and blocked out memories happened because of this, however another important person, despite being lightly mentioned is another victim who i will simply call Az as of right now.
Ill try to keep this as short as i can within reason, there will be time gaps, there will be references to previous things mentioned, and if it gets rough i may even stumble on how i type and mention things too soon or later on, im very sorry.
The Start.
During the time of 2015-2016, i had first found Undertale. During it, i joined a app called DoodleClub, its where i met my brother, Glitchy. During this time, i had also joined Tumblr. With the rise and popularity of Undertale, i had seen alot of artists, some other popular names you may recognize is NSFWshamecave, BlogTheGreatRouge, and a few others whom aren't important to the story other then to get the gist of it, Lizherubones was one of the artists i had encountered, and grew attached to. I adored his style. To me, it was a perfect mesh of cartoony and pleasing aesthetics and anatomy that i just.. Well i loved it. This is when i got stupid. On DoodleClub, i would post artwork of either 100% traced or partly traced artwork of his, along with my own where i weakly attempted to mimic his style. Soon tho, i got too comfortable. Sometimes i sent him asks on or off anon, i drew him fanart, and on DoodleClub i even changed my username to "Twisted Bones", because i really liked that name. However, sometime a user, who i will just call Nutty for right now since its what i remember them by, they found out. Slowly, a few others did, and Nutty ended up reporting me to William. Now during this i never got screenshots, one screenshot i remember Nutty posting was one of William saying i was a loser for tracing, or something similar but equally short.
This ended fast, as people were on my side. But it didnt end there. Same day Nutty reported me, and word got out, i decided to confront William myself. I explained that i was sorry, i wouldnt do it again, and i saw him as a idol and wanted forgiveness. I was terrified and at my grandmothers trying to hide me talking to a almost 30 year old man about traced work. The first trauma tick with him, was when he threatened legal action against me, saying and i quote, 'Your parents will have to pay alot of money'.
May i tell you a few things;
I was a CHILD at the time. 11-12 years old, not even classified as a Teen yet. I couldnt legally be sued.
He lives in Chile Brazil, i live in Michigan USA. After about a year, and also after a third situation that happened that caused me to do alot of at the time feeling smart teen research, he couldnt have even attempted a law suit because of the fact i wasnt making money off the traced work, and that the laws are different in both states and countries regarding copyrighted content. Not just that but.. He was too far, and would have to come to me. Which again, different locations = different laws, and so on.
As stated above, i made 0 money or even thought to off his traced content. In my mind at the time, i just traced to learn the style, and ill even say it that from what i remember, i didnt trace enough to have it be my main thing.
After this, he commanded me to delete all my work, and to never return to the internet. Which i did.
Return of the Deja Vu (Instagram Arch).
Skipping to 2017, my slow return to the internet. I had gotten Instagram and decided i still wanted to draw. However, like a cow being branded, his style still stayed in my mind. Though, this time it was just muscle memory.
During both this interaction and the previous, both times William had stated his art , characters, and even worse the colors used on them were copyrighted.
In the end of this, because the more important one comes next, is people kept tagging him in my work. Saying it was familiar, asking if it was his characters, ect. Which lead to him messaging me on my now forgotten account, once again threatening the law to me. This time, however, i just told him to leave me alone as i wasnt doing anything. He had also made comments and remarks on my artwork like, "This just looks like a human version i did", or "Looks like a draw i made." ect, ect. I had made a very old, possibly lost Reddit account talking about this, which was made just within the same week of him telling me these. This situation ended fast, mainly because i went inactive on this account. If the name Zure/Zhure sounds familiar, that was apart of my user at the time.
The Big Blowout (Twitter Arch).
This is where my links and pictures come in. All are screenshotted from Twitter. This is also where i can provide more proof of things. I will mostly gloss over everything, as its foggy for me. The timeline is roughly 2019. On twitter, i still was ignorant and blind to this all. Rose tinted glasses. I wanted to just be seen by someone i looked up to and just get a small sorry if he even felt any pity. On Twitter, i began posting. I began to also like his art, but never followed. Just to try and gain his attention. This ended badly, however. After i first not only made a suggestive Human Swap Sans, at the time not realizing at this point what i was doing was taking inspiration from him rather then trying to copy, but i had also made a OC named Ezher.
Ezher was the main breaking point.
This is Ezher;
As you can clearly see, yes, he looks alot like William's own OC, Rheiz. , However, i remember clearly the source of what i liked most about Rheiz was the marks in his hair and the dark to light hoodie he wore. Something extremely important, but when i made Ezher, William was a faint memory to me at the time. So when i say source pf his OC, it was a distant memory and i didnt think much when i created him. Off topic note, but turns out that while talking to someone William considers a close friend, all i did was make Ezher half red, half blue and that made Ezher original. Who knew a color tied his fate. Sound familiar? Thats because mentioned earlier, William told me previously that he had characters that were copyrighted. He also mentioned that using the same colors as his characters was wrong, too.
Ezher will be getting a update and will be coming back. When Will found out about this, is when shit hit the fan. I got many, many @'s like this;
^ Mind you in the last screenshot, i was trying. I really was. A user named SnoweyBones also made a message on their Twitter, telling people to report me. This got my acc taken down. This is only a small part of what i personally could find. I roughly remember screenshotting the DMs + others, but they are either lost to time or something else.
If you couldnt tell, the gist of it was, William had made a post about me somewhere which in return led to a mob.
This scared me off the internet for abit, and i went into hiding for awhile until my brother started to give me more confidence, and i realized that everything that happened,
was all because someone was egotistical about a artstyle and monochromatic color scheme.
^ That was my old account. Very easy to find however, so it is what it is.
Things i found, Things you should know.
To once again clarify, im not seeking pity nor revenge. Im wanting to shed light and say my story about this artist, because this isnt the first time he has done this, let alone something terrible.
William has attacked another creator, this same creator he is following on Twitter and acting like nothing happened.
There was a situation creepily similar to mine that occurred not too long before my own. Similar insults and similar situations.
v link
William has a history of attacking other creators. His reasoning is that his own trauma is the cause of his actions. I have trauma with him, and the furthest i ever went was when someone used my characters (in my eyes) unique name for themselves and created a sexual variant of my OC without my consent and proceeded to openly complain, insult, and suicide bait members around them because i rightfully called them out for doing something with something of mine i didnt like, didnt let them do, nor would have ever consented to.
To sum it up.
Im not doing this as revenge. Im not doing this as pity. Because again, a close friend of his helped me and made me feel better during his final attack on me and helped me still connect to a OC of mine.
Im doing this because its for me a traumatic experience and a reason why i tend to act the way i do. Im scared to post certain characters, art, or ect without the fear of him coming around or others comparing me to him.
Again, my OC Ezher was the starting point of this. I want to draw him and love him again, but im scared of William.
Even if i have a whole redesign in mind, even if he doesnt remember me or even bother with me, even if no one cares or even if the community now isnt so butthole tight about stupid things like similar color schemes or aesthetics, its still something that affects me and has affected how enjoy the fandom.
Repeating this, but im not even posting this to try and tell people im some snowflake who cant handle criticism or compression, this is targeted to the people who have ill intent with those and go as far as to label things others do as copying or ripping off.
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Name: Everyman
Debut: Undertale
Undertale and Deltarune are full of mysteries, mysteries out the wazoo! You can’t walk two feet before tripping over and drowning in some extremely weird guys. And my favorite of these weird and mysterious guys is Everyman!
Everyone who knows Undertale knows about Gaster, even if just conceptually. He is like, the mascot of Undertale’s and Deltarune’s mysteries. The thing is, though, we kind of know a lot about him! We know his backstory and his fate, and we have a pretty good idea of what is going on with him currently, as far as we can tell. This isn’t much compared to most actual characters, but it IS a lot compared to Everyman!
Everyman’s most prominent appearance is in the attack patterns of the amalgamate Reaper Bird, where he stands motionlessly and Emotionlessly, until butterflies begin swarming his face and driving him to his knees in agony. The next attack has these butterflies target the player from his face-swarm, and finally, a butterfliy-less Everyman will stoically send spinning copies of his own head as projectiles, before the attack pattern loops.
Even among Amalgamates, this is really weird stuff! Even the Amalgamates have generally followed the standard idea of monsters’ bullet pattern attacks having thematically-fitting appearances, at least until now. Everyman is a totally new entity, with, as far as we know, NO relation to Reaper Bird, who is composed of Final Froggit, Whimsalot, and Astigmatism. The only link present is the butterflies, and while butterflies are present in Whimsalot’s attacks, Everyman’s actually use unique sprites made just for him!
Outside of this battle, Everyman makes small, mysterious cameos, his only other Undertale appearance being some plush toys that SORTA look like him, but may not actually be him. In Deltarune, while he is not seen, his cameos increase! He can randomly appear in certain enemies’ bullet patterns, replacing heads that would normally appear, and this can sometimes be purely aesthetic, but in a certain attack, an Everyman head will appear silent among faces that otherwise emit harmful words...
My favorite of these cameos is this pop-up window in Poppup’s “block” command, where the player is instructed to rapidly close every window that pops up. Most of these seem to be spam and advertisements and viruses... but there he is, our friend! Our friend in the computer! What would happen if you were to click on this?!
His last notable appearance at the time of writing is his only one in Deltarune’s Light World, as graffiti in the alley in town. Who drew this? We have no idea! But this indicates that in this world, at least SOMEONE is aware of Everyman, who is otherwise never actually talked about whatsoever!
Now let’s talk about his design! For all the mystery and eeriness surrounding him, Everyman is so very cute. He is so simple, and so soft-looking, so utterly non-threatening. He is just a sort of dumpy little guy, with maybe a nose, maybe a beak. And yet, the simplicity actively enhances his eeriness! All he needs to do is Appear...
There are many theories about the identity of Everyman, and I think the one I most believe, at least at the moment, is that he is a sort of in-universe character. This is going by the fact that his only “real-world” appearances are as a plush or as graffiti, and yet he is never seen, like everyone is aware of him, but he is not quite real. He could maybe be a distinct character, explaining how he has a name, or a more basal, conceptual one, like the monster equivalent of a stick figure, which fits with his simple appearance and his name!
With this in mind, consider the design of the Dummy found in the ruins. A typical dummy for monsters would be designed to resemble a basic, generic monster, and the “nose” of the dummy certainly brings Everyman to mind!
Of course, we really have not the slightest idea. Everyman is a character who only exists through small, strange cameos, preventing us from ever truly learning anything about him, and I love it so much! In the official Undertale art book, he is described as “Just a good guy who shows up on occasion.” It’s true! He is good, and he shows up on occasion!
There is certainly more to Everyman than we know about, far more, that will be seen in future chapters of Deltarune. I very much look forward to seeing more of him! Maybe we will learn more about him, and he will have a shocking significance, but... maybe we will NEVER learn more about him. Maybe he will continue to appear sparingly and unexpectedly, without any acknowledgment. Maybe we will never truly know about Everyman!
And I think that would be okay.
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Adrien’s Room and Memorabilia: A Sequel Post
Well, I hinted at a similar arc for Adrien in this post, so let’s brainstorm.
CW: mentions of harassment
The major difference between Adrien and Marinette in this instance is that Mari’s room is about her working through her social anxieties and developing meaningful relationships. Adrien’s focus is on his lonely nature, as well as discovering and cultivating hobbies that he really enjoys, and aren’t just forced upon him by his father.
His room starts off with very few photos of his loved ones, namely his parents, Chloe and Felix. These photos are professional in nature, clean, crisp and very much lacking in color. Even Chloe and Felix are behaving for the sake of the photos. Notably, their photos show them when they are much younger, to indicate that Adrien hasn’t spent time with them lately.
There’s a large emphasis placed on the amount of stuff that Adrien has in his room. The video games, the TV, the climbing wall, etc. Everything is completely clean and dust free, because he spends a lot of time in his room, but he doesn’t have anything he’s particularly drawn toward, so whenever he’s done with something, he puts it away and grabs something else. His room is also likely clean due to his strict father demanding he keep up appearances.
The only exception to this are video games, but they are very specific ones: simulators. Particularly, ones that focus on dating and romance. Life simulators, farming simulators, RPGs that offer a romance subplot, etc. Even if the sim only offers the option to make friends, Adrien is fine with that. Stuff like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (the ones made by Marvelous), The Sims, Undertale and so forth are right up his valley. And again, lots of dating sims.
Following his mother’s “passing,” and at the start of the show, Adrien keeps a corner of his room dedicated to her. As more time goes by and Adrien gets closer to his new friends, this will shrink down to a photo of the two of them, and most of her memorabilia will be stored away. This will show that he’s open to the possibility of his father dating someone else, as was shown in “Felix”.
He will often turn to photos of his mother when he wants deeper, more worrying thoughts that he wants to voice and get off his chest, or if he needs advice about something and he doesn’t know who to turn to. S1 would focus more on friendship advice, because in this version, he would need to put in more time and care to make friends (Nino and him would still stay buds, Mari is still crushing on him but is hesitant to approach, and Alya is kind but cautious, with the rest of the class being wary because of his friendship with Chloe). Later on, he’s more likely to ask about plot-relevant stuff, his feelings for Ladybug and Kagami (and romance in general), his growing resentment towards his father, his meet-ups with his friends, and his discomfort with Chloe and Lila’s touchiness. Coupled with Felix’s harassment in “Felix,” this causes Adrien to realize his boundaries are being violated, and to also wonder if he has adopted similar behaviors. He goes to speak with either Sabine, Tomoe or Nino’s mom about the matter (maybe all three to get a variety of perspectives), and then with Ladybug. I would set this conversation sometime after “Frozer,” with him mentioning how he acted there, and apologizing for leaving her in the middle of battle (if the episode isn’t rewritten to include that there).
Overtime, he would start to depend less on talking to Emilie’s photo, and instead talk to whoever he asked for advice. Instead, he would talk to her prior to a larger battle or facing a bigger threat and had something he wanted to get off his chest.
At the beginning of their superhero career, Adrien is into collecting Ladybug merch - he’s likely to even have one of those “Do it for her” boards set up. He has some Chat Noir stuff as well, but it’s not as prominent. When other heroes arrive on the scene, he’ll have stuff of them too. He would even go so far as to recreate the heroes in his games (mostly in what Sims knock-off this universe would have), and roleplay scenarios with Ladybug. He doesn’t fully get rid of his merch over time, but he does likely downsize as he spends more time getting to know Ladybug and the team.
There’s also the obligatory Ladrien scene that I hinted at in Marinette’s post. To recap, Chat Noir, during an emotional moment with Marinette, mentions that he has Ladybug memorabilia in his room, and that he ought to downsize. Sometime later, Ladybug comes to check up on Adrien for plot-related reasons, and discovers that he “too” collects Ladybug merch. Adrien is notably embarrassed by this, but Ladybug replies by saying that she’s a fan of his as well. This will allow two sides of the ship to feel closer to each other and open up about certain things.
Similar to Marinette, Adrien will start picking up little things as mementos from previous episodes to decorate his room with (a class photo from “Reflekta,” a copy of the movie from “Horrificator,” his autographed Jagged Stone CD from “Guitar Villain,” etc). I also imagine him holding onto clothing items such as Nino’s hat or Kagami’s jacket, that get left behind after hanging out. Over time, he is eventually gifted a mannequin to display these items.
I remember seeing a post that called into question whether Adrien’s activities were something he genuinely enjoyed or if they were just foisted upon him by his father. I like the idea of a laid out arc that explores what Adrien might like to do in the future, by having him go through various hobbies (sort of like Daphne in “Be Cool, Scooby Doo”).
One hobby I’d give him from the start is tricking. (For those not familiar, tricking combines moves from martial arts and gymnastics, usually flips and kicks, and can be used to create super cool combos, yes I am biased about this). We often see him showing off stunts in battle and would fit Chat’s tendencies to be flashy. I could also see this becoming a hobby he shares with Nino and Kagami later on, maybe with the three of them sneaking out to meet other trickers at gatherings.
(For those who need visual reference.)
However, I also want to give Adrien a more traditionally feminine hobby. There’s a couple of ideas I had for this, including, again ones that he cycles through as he explores himself a bit more. After meeting Luka and noticing that he paints his nails, Adrien might tiptoe in nail art. I could also see Adrien getting really into writing romance, starting off as a fanfic writer and eventually writing his own novel or comic. Alternatively, he becomes a poet. Maybe he spends an episode learning to sew with Marinette so he can make his own cosplays. Or he starts a cottagecore aesthetic blog, and additionally starts taking care of some plants to give his room some needed greenery.
I think for the sake of irony, it would be interesting to see Adrien eventually take up baking as a hobby. I know there’s a couple of AUs involving this concept already (I forget who it was, though I’m tempted to say @lenoreofraven but correct me if I’m wrong), but I like this idea because it would give him something extra he and Marinette could bond over in the future, especially since he doesn’t want to do modelling long-term. It would also give him a good excuse to visit the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and grow closer to Sabine and Tom. Perhaps they take him up as an apprentice, or give him a delivery boy job alongside Luka (giving that relationship a chance to grow as well, as well as a Delivery Boy shenanigans episode).
When he’s either in between hobbies, in a tumultuous state, or growing distant from his father, his room will appear far messier. In the latter case, it may be an attempt to rebel against Gabriel, saying “it’s my room, I can do what I want!” If he’s not comfortable immediately speaking out against his father, he may rebel in more passive aggressive ways. I could also see him roleplaying scenarios in which he tells his father off or planning escape routes for hero patrol or tricking gatherings. I think he would also have padded mats stored somewhere in he case he can’t leave, and wants to practice, or have his own tricking gathering in the house.
As he collects more mementos, they start filling up the empty spaces in his room, so when his father prevents him from leaving the house, he doesn’t feel as lonely. He starts finding ways where, from the comfort of his room, he can hang out with friends (like in “Anansi” where he uses the facecam to see what everyone is up to). More friendly, casual photos give the room some life. These mementos may also cause him to start downsizing on the Ladybug and Friends merch.
He will only attempt to remove them altogether if his identity is revealed to Marinette, and she doesn’t seem to process it well (at least at first). Anything pertaining to her, as Ladybug or Marinette, he may attempt to remove, until he realizes just how present she is in his life. He would then consult his mother’s photo about what to do.
And similarly to Marinette at the end, when they start dating, he would start to incorporate couple’s photos. I think both of them would have those photo booth strips, but I could also see Adrien commissioning posters of his OTP, LadyNoir, and bringing back some of his merch (in a teasing, well-meaning way).
#ml salt#ml rewrite#ml plot bunny#i'm going to tentatively tag this as#adrien salt#bc i bring up an issue with adrien's character that i have#that i know as of late many people are debating over#however i also attempted to address this issue within this post#so i will also tentatively tag this as#adrien sugar
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SAGE 2020: Fan Games
I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.
Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.
Sonic Pinball Panic!
Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.
Mega Man: Perfect Blue
There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.
Sonic and the Mayhem Master
There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.
Sonic and the Dreamcatcher
This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.
Sonic Galactic
Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.
Sonic Robo-Blast!
Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.
Super Mario Flashback
This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.
Sonic Advance 4 Advanced
This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.
Sonic 2 SMS Remake
Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.
Rayman Redemption
I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.
Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.
#sage#sonic amateur games expo#writing#review slew#rayman redemption#sonic pinball panic#mega man#perfect blue#mayhem master#dreamcatcher#sonic galactic#sonic robo-blast#super mario flashback#sonic advance 4#sms remake#sonic the hedgehog#sega#sonic team#review
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You're called Future Smash memes-- can you see into the future of my universe? We just had 6 more character slots announced for our game, meaning there are 6 we dont know who they'll be! Do you have any insight? Or at least a prediction o'wise one?
Hmm. You know, I’ve been told that your timeline is the “main” one, and therefore is very tricky to predict and deal with. It may not be much, but I guess I’ll give my two cents on who I think the final six DLC slots for this timeline will be.
First of all, it’s important to remember that these choices were made by Nintendo, not Sakurai. I think that’s the reason why we got Sans and Cuphead miis in this timeline rather than full on fighters: for one reason or another, Nintendo didn’t want them (or at least, didn’t want them as much as the chosen fighters). Sakurai has said that he’s an avid fan of Undertale and Cuphead, so this makes sense. Then again, he’s also an avid Persona fan and I still don’t get why Nintendo would’ve chosen it of all franchises. Don’t get me wrong, Persona looks great and all (never played it myself), but it’s not very…Nintendo, y’know?
With that in mind, I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be getting an indie rep. Nintendo currently doesn’t seem to be very open to the idea of full on indie reps, so that means that characters like Hat Kid probably won’t get in (maybe as a mii costume, though aHiT isn’t as well known for its music as undertale and cuphead are, so I don’t think it would be a deluxe costume). Really, the only indie reps I see getting in are either Reimu or (as much as I hate to say it) Steve. Touhou is the poster child for popular indie projects, even if it isn’t as big over here as it is in Japan. ZUN is also open to the idea of Reimu in smash. The main things that go against Reimu is the fact that she isn’t very well known outside of Japan (and those who do know her often associate her with loli culture, which might be a problem) and because the way the franchise is set up, legalities with Touhou would either be really easy or really, really hard. Steve, on the other hand, has sort of transcended being an indie character. Minecraft recently overtook Tetris as the best selling game of all time, and has become a household name around the world. Maybe I’m just projecting (I’m probably the only person from my generation that doesn’t like Minecraft), but I don’t think Steve is getting in either. First of all, legality with Microsoft would probably be an issue as they would certainly demand more money for Steve than Banjo, who, while a treasured character worthy of his spot, comes from a dead IP who wasn’t had a new game since 2008. Also, similar to former best seller Tetris, I just don’t think that Minecraft’s blocky, pixelated art style and rigid player animations would be a good fit for smash. Again, totally me projecting, but that’s just what I think. I do expect to get Steve over mii swordfighter, though. That makes sense.
Now with my little indie rant out of the way, I’ll do a bullet-point list for characters that I’ve posted memes about on the blog before and what I think of their chances of getting in:
First of all, I think it’s obvious that Raz isn’t going to be one of the DLC characters. Yes, Psychonauts 2 is coming out later this year and the first game is one of my favorite video games of all time and he would fit in perfectly, but let’s be real. The franchise is a cult classic that has never been released on a Nintendo system in any way and probably sold horribly in Japan. Double Fine was also recently bought out by Microsoft which really killed any small chance he had of making it in. Sir Daniel is in a similar position
First/second party characters like Bandana Dee and Impa I think are deconfirmed because most of them are represented by Spirits, and I don’t think that they would “double dip.” And because of the scope of spirits mode, I think it’s unlikely that we’ll get any older characters from prexisting franchises (I say older so people won’t hound me with “WELL BYLETH GOT IN SO”).
We are not getting another FE rep lol. Rip red head merchant waifu.
Shooter characters are in a really weird spot since these games tend to not be made for kids (it’s easy to forget in all the hype and speculation that smash is first and foremost meant for kids), yet have made such a big cultural impact on the gaming scene that it’s hard to deny their “worthiness” to be in smash. Master Chief in particular is tricky to place since I definitely think he has much more character than most other shooter reps (cough cough Doomguy) and could have a more varied moveset than just “gun.” But that being said, he’s once again a character owned by Microsoft and comes from a franchise that up until very recently was Xbox exclusive and (as far as I’m aware, has never been released on a Nintendo system). It’s also important to remember that the original Xbox sold miserably in Japan, so I doubt that he’s getting in either.
On a similar note, I’ve seen people throw around ideas for a TF2 rep. This makes a lot more sense to me than Halo or Doom; the playable characters have much more personality and the cartoony aesthetic of the game fits in way better than most other shooters (cough cough Doom). I don’t know which character would be chosen though. Heavy probably? I think their main problem is that Valve would probably be picky about licensing and whatnot (I don’t think we’d be getting Gordon Freeman or Chell for the same reason). Additionally, I struggle to imagine TF2 without it’s signature dark humor which would most likely be cut for smash
Due to recent events, I do not think we will be getting an Overwatch or any other Blizzard rep.
If there’s one character I’d be willing to bet money on getting in, it’s Crash. While he’s never really been all that popular in Japan, it just feels right to me. He fits in perfectly, he has some history with Nintendo (even if he is more synonymous with PlayStation), and I mean…he just feels right. I know that sounds shitty after having just denied a bunch of other characters in an articulate manner, but I don’t know what else to say. I’m not even that big of a Crash fan. The only thing I can see hurting his chances is Activision potentially asking for money than Nintendo is willing to give (this is why he didn’t get into Pl’ystation Allst’rs)
Similarly, I think Spyro has a good chance of getting into smash, but not as well as Crash. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I always thought that Crash just had more of a cultural impact than Spyro did. I do think Spyro has a good chance of getting in though. Maybe some Skylanders/amiibo crosspromotion? Probably not.
Given how stingy they were with Hero (when compared to other DLC reps) and _especially _Cloud, I don’t think we’re getting another Square Enix rep, be it Sephiroth, a Black Mage, or Geno. That being said, it could’ve all been a long con and the FF7 remake will release alongside Sephiroth DLC with the actual fucking spirit battles that we should’ve gotten. Probably not though.
Dante I think has a pretty good chance at getting in. I think that he stands at a similar position to Bayonetta when it comes to censorship, so I think he could work. God knows that he would be broken if he did get in though.
I’ve been a big advocate for a Puyo Puyo rep in smash, and if we were to get one I think it would be Arle (maybe with other characters on her alts like Koopalings/Heroes). People have already theorized how her moveset could work, and I agree with that speculation wholeheartedly. Puyo Puyo unfortunately isn’t very well known outside of Japan since in the past it was usually released under a different brand (Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Kirby Avalanche, etc). I do think that we absolutely need more puzzle reps than fucking Doctor Mario though, and Puyo Puyo seems perfect.
Professor Layton has unfortunately not had a new game in a long time (at least not one where he has a staring role), and outside of his swordsmanship, which is seen very rarely throughout the series, I don’t think that there’s much of a moveset to be made for him.
I love Ace Attorney, but I don’t think that Phoenix Wright is getting in. I don’t think that Sakurai would realistically just copy and paste his MvC3 moveset to smash and I don’t know what else you could do with him. Also, we haven’t gotten a new international release for Ace Attorney since 2016.
I know next to nothing about No More Heroes but I know a couple of people who will have a fit if I don’t mention Travis. I know there’s a sequel on the horizon but similar to Psychonauts, I don’t see it really happening. It feels to much like a cult classic to me. Once again, I know next to nothing about No More Heroes, so take that with a grain of salt.
I don’t think that any assist trophy characters will be “promoted” to playable through DLC.
And that’s about it. I know that sounded really pessimistic, but that’s honestly because I haven’t the foggiest idea about who’s going to get in. Everyone I want in in this timeline is either an assist trophy/spirit or a niche western/indie pick that I doubt has a chance. That sucks, but it’s just life. As long as we don’t get Goku or Fortnite though, I’ll be happy with whoever.
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Hi! Asking for a friend! What's your drawing process like? How do you get such cute drawings? What software and hardware do you use?
This is quite a big question, so I will try my best to answer in a…. Helpful way?
First I’ll start by staying that as far as tools are concerned, I made a post about my traditional weaponry here. But as far as digital tools are concerned I use…
Tablet - a Huion WH1409 Wireless tablet. It’s a BIG tablet, with a drawing space about the size of an A3 sheet of paper. As tablets go, it’s affordable and has great functionalities, and is the most reliable tablet I’ve ever had (and I used to use a wacom.)
Software - These days I use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, for Mac. It has some neat brushes and tools and an easy interface. I use Photoshop for more graphics-based stuff, such as logos and promotional materials for myself and other creatives that have commissioned me. In a perfect world, for drawing, I would use Easy Paint Tool SAI; some of my best work was produced in that program over the years, with really painterly brushes and blending and an intuitive interface, but it isn’t compatible with Mac, so I’ve had to make do elsewhere. Nothing has come close to how good that program is, though, for digital painting.
“How do you get such cute drawings?”
The “cuteness” of my work is largely to do with personal aesthetic. I’ve loved cartoons for as long as I can remember, and have always had the impulse to recreate said cartoons in drawings, which means I have absorbed a lot of qualities from a lot of cartoons over the years. Off the top of my head, here’s a little mood board of stuff I can confirm had an influence on the traits of my art style
Teeth, mouths, eyes, big, expressive, rounded hands are things I put across in my art that you can probably spot in this collection of influences, if you look closely. These influences shaped how I draw now, but also play a part in how I interpret new things, with my art. I want to draw special attention to Grim, from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, in the bottom right corner, because he is very relevant to all the Undertale work I’ve been doing recently.
Maybe it’s the nature of the vast diversity of characters within the game, but if you ask me…. Undertale doesn’t have a style. Sans and Papyrus are brothers and yet the only consistency, design wise, between them is that they both just happen to be skeletons. Toriel and Asgore look more biologically related, than they do. And because of this diverse style within Undertale, all of the characters are up for unique interpretation from artist to artist.
So when I was ironing how I personally wanted to interpret and present Papyrus, I looked at, you guessed it, this guy
Grim is a delightfully expressive, fluid and campy character - other than Papyrus, he’s probably my favourite skeleton character from anything ever. His design is fun and funny, and most of that just comes from the diversity of his facial expressions. So that’s something that I really wanted to put forward in my interpretation of Papyrus, who is also an expressive, fluid and campy character. You see a lot of Papyrus having a straight, stiff set of tombstone teeth, which I love! It’s great to see expression come through from a character with such limited features. But for me personally, I am all about big, elasticated expressions
And the thing I get the most comments on with my work are the expressions, which probably has a lot to do with the “cuteness”.
“What’s your drawing process like?”
Honestly? This is where I have to give you very limited information because…….. It just kind of happens. I don’t use guidelines, I don’t tend to reference my poses… Everything I draw is just product of practise, practise, practise that is very unique to me. I can’t really give any advice unless it’s a very specific detail about something someone is showing me, because my method has always been to just absorb, recreate and then take what I’ve learnt from that on to the next thing, and my drawing technique depends solely on all the years that I have just kept drawing. I have leap-frogged from picture to picture my whole life, getting a little faster, a little smarter and a little better every single time, and that’s just because I kept doing it.
What I can say about my art is that I start from the head and work downwards. The expression is the core of the figure, so starting at the head and getting that expression in really shapes how the rest of the pose is going to come out. Plus, for some reason, my proportions have always just been better, by drawing on that path.
I made a little gif to kind of emphasise how…. free-game my drawing technique is. This is literally how i draw………….
I don’t know how much this will have helped. All I can really say, it terms of drawing tips, is to just keep practising. Refer to other artists, refer to your influences, copy stuff and learn from the process of copying, and then go and apply that information to something new. That’s my secret. Enjoy stuff into oblivion and get creative with what you enjoy, and you will learn a lot.
Like what I do? Buy me a coffee, won’t you?
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My Interpretation of Daganronpa V3′s ending (plus extra goodies)
Hey everyone! Long time no see, but I think I may finally have time to do things regularly now. I’m gonna try and split this blog across Writblr/Fic, Danganronpa, and Edits so we’ll see how this goes, lol. I’ll have a new intro out sooooon!
Anyways onto what you clicked for:
This is a compilation theory of my interpretation of DRV3’s ending. I can justify why I think anything I say here if you want me to, but if I wrote down evidence for everything here it’d literally be 100 pages long so if you wanna discuss just ask me! Some of these things are just straight up indulgent but that’s the fun of interpretations!
1 | The Beginning of Team Danganronpa
After the events of DR3, and I mean LONG after the events of DR3--like at least a century--Hope’s Peak Academy has been diluted into a small and insignificant government program, totally out of the way of society. Talent isn’t as much of a big deal anymore and everyone’s chill now. The concepts of hope and despair, Junko and company are reduced to stories and paragraphs in history text-books.
Eventually, and slowly, the stories of the killing games entered into the world of fiction. The idea of the ultimate clash between Hope and Despair was quite enticing, and so Team Danganronpa was created to make these ideas come to life on the screen.. Reenactments, roleplays, museums, you name it and Team Danganronpa had a part in it. The hardships of the past lead to inspiration for the people of the present. Hope and despair became little aesthetics and concepts for people to attach themselves too, like coping mechanisms.
However, as society grew to appreciate this, it grew more and more perverse. The reenactments became more and more realistic, and the people consuming it cared less and less about the specifics. All they cared for was the mindless and constant clash between Hope and Despair. Good or bad. It wasn’t even despair that society was experiencing, more like a perverted sense of sentimentality. If it sounds like I copied that I did, that quote was from Undertale.
2 | The New Killing Game
Anyways, at the rate things were going, it was inevitable that Team Danganronpa would eventually start recreating killing games using actual students, probably a combination of scouted out individuals and volunteers with actual murders. Remember that this is a society that bounced back from a near-end of the world decision, they’re all recovering, even the kids that were raised by the survivors.
And please note that when I’m talking about the society in the Danganronpa world I don’t think that it applies to the fandom AT AL. In fact I think the society in DR is the exact opposite of the fandom, but let’s keep going.
3 | Rantaro’s Plan
We really don’t know the amount of ‘Seasons’ there’s been, but we’ll just call this one ‘Season 52’. Season 52 stares a whole new story continuing from the ‘fictional’ stories of Hope’s Peak. The only two members of this group that we know are Rantaro Amami...and Kaede Akamatsu, the two that chose to sacrifice themselves at the end of the 52nd killing game. Rantaro and Kaede both get survivor perks for their troubles, and the other two survivors are allowed to have their memories replaced so they can return to society with their sanity. Rantaro and Kaede can leave to the real world too, but they will be brought back for the next season, which is planned to be a sequel featuring them as the fan favorites.
Luckily for Rantaro, this is the perfect situation for his plan to destroy Team Danganronpa for good. Everyone else in the world is generally repulsed by Team DR’s actions, but their reliance on them is too great for them to break away or do much of anything.
He starts out by getting in contact with Kaede’s twin sister, we’ll just call her Haru as a temporary name. Rantaro needs to pitch a good plot for the next season, since it’s a sequel he’ll have the advantage in knowing where everything is, including the one weakness of the seasons mastermind. Because Kaede, being positive and bright, and Maru, being cynical and rude, are polar opposites, a twin vs. twin plot seems like the perfect thing to pitch to Team Danganronpa.
In addition Rantaro also adds Shuichi Saihara and Tsumugi Shirogane to his little squad. Shuichi’s mind is analytical, but he lacks confidence. Rantaro knows Team DR enough to predict what they’ll do with him, so he becomes Rantaro’s backup. He adds Tsumugi only because she and Kaede were dating-A and he thinks she’ll make a good first victim, letting Rantaro get a bit more time to find the mastermind and convince the world to fight against Team DR.
4 | Scouting of the other members
Before any of this, back when he was recording his Survivor Perk, he made sure to structure it in a way that would motivate a Rantaro in a killing game to get out and survive another game so he could try again. He really wanted to cover all of his bases, he was dealing with a huge corporation by now after all.
In another sect, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa, who are both dating, join in with Rantaro’s idea. And, somewhere entirely different, a prince by the name of Kokichi Oma, and his personal maid, Kirumi Tojo, are both scouted and kidnapped by Team Danganronpa for the next killing game. A shy but sweet mechanic whose father is friends with the Queen of the kingdom, Miu Iruma, decides to volunteer.
After much planning from Rantaro’s group, they strategically get everyone in the 53rd killing game, lying on their audition tapes...well-everyone except for Maru. Team DR accepts the whole twin vs. twin plot, and they start modification of the sets, making them seem dilapidated and old to show a passage of time. Right on the cusp of the plans success, Kaede succumbs to her guilt. After seeing the horrors of the killing game her spirit is broken, and soon before the game’s beginning, she commits suicide. The final note she leaves to her sister asks her to end the killing games, despite their differences.
Without a twin to complete the plot, Team DR is forced to improvise. They bring out a beta for a project they were planning, a robot named K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo’s purpose was to be the audience's eyes, something suggested by Miu to give her friends an advantage in ending the game.
5 | The Start of Season 53
Finally, the killing game starts.
The 16 students are brought to Team DR one way or another. Maru is especially shocked, as she’s never participated in a killing game before, but is treated like she did. Everyone’s memory is replaced, save for Rantaro who’s allowed to keep a set few memories that would’ve worked well for the sequel plan. Everyone wakes up in the lockers, with Maru waking up next to Shuichi, now forced to take the identity of Kaede. She tries to get the hang of her sister’s personality, as we see in pregame, but eventually her entire identity is replaced with a Flashback light when she receives her talent. You could also describe it as an Ultimate Revival if you wanted to. Maru becomes Kaede Akamatsu, now able to fulfill the role that her sister is now unable to.
After the events of the prologue (Which is called Ultimate Revival by the way, I don’t want you to miss that wordplay) Tsumugi wakes up in a locker, right next to Keebo. Something not even Rantaro accounted for happened, Tsumugi was chosen to be the mastermind. Not Kokichi or even himself like he was expecting. However, Team DR saw Tsumugi as a perfect candidate for a mastermind, as her obsession with fiction was seen as relatable. She was a perfect reflection of what society had become.
Tsumugi’s mind was barely touched by the Flashback lights, but all of her relationships with her friends and girlfriend were replaced. Upon waking up and seeing Keebo, he explains to her that they’re currently in a spaceship that was supposed to take off ages ago and the outside world is inhospitable. Panicking, she sets K1-B0 into it’s ‘friendly’ mode and lets him go off and talk with the others, entirely forgetting about his set role as a future traitor, as well as the Flashback Light machine.
However, K1-B0 was set to teach the mastermind how to do their job, and now without that information in their memory, Tsumugi doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. All she knows right now is that she has some involvement with the mastermind. As a result, the Monokubs, another set of helpers, also have no idea what they’re doing and have to rely on Monokuma, an AI the mastermind can’t control, for instruction.
6 | Tsumugi as the Mastermind
Tsumugi ends up wandering around, stopping and staring at an odd dragon statue. That’s when Shuichi and Kaede find her in-game. Tsumugi can’t explain why, but Kaede touching her cheeks made her feel all fluttery inside. After their ‘first’ interaction together, Tsumugi takes note of the big round ball in the dragon’s hand.
The first motive, The First Blood Perk, comes around, along with the time limit soon after. The pressure of this definitely scares Tsumugi, but she wants to see Kaede get out okay, especially since she feels inspired by her.
At some point Tsumugi goes to the bathroom and discovers the hidden room entirely by accident. Once into the room with Motherkuma, she asks about the whereabouts of Kaede, and Motherkuma gives her details about her and Shuichi’s plan. Wanting to help out, but not wanting to seem suspicious, she gets about the bathroom a.s.a.p and goes back to blending in. She’s planning to get Kaede out as soon as she can, but she doesn’t know if she can do it.
Time goes on, and eventually that really loud music starts playing. Tsumugi knows Kaede’s gonna make a move, so she rushes to the hidden room in the library again and starts her own little plan. After stealing a shot put ball from the warehouse, something she did out of inspiration from the dragon, Tsumugi opens up the hidden door in the library to see Rantaro lying crumpled on the floor by the bookshelf.
Without thinking, she smashed the ball into Rantaro’s head and finished him off. She initially thought him to be the mastermind, but after checking his survivor perk she realizes that there’s a lot more to Rantaro, and this game, than she realizes. Desperate for more time to solve the mystery, she rushed back with everyone else to get on with the investigation.
7 | The First Trial
As the investigation rolled around, she started panicking. She formed a quick alibi in the form of her cospox, but planned to explain herself more in the class trial. She wasn’t quite ready to face reality yet. She knew Monokuma was supposed to punish her, so she let herself act like she was innocent until the time came.
Once the class trial DID come around, she realized what Kaede was doing. Once Monokuma declared the voting right, she was confused, but took it as an opportunity to defeat the Mastermind. Her death made her distraught, but she bit her tongue and promised to solve it for Kaede’s sake.
The night of the Class Trial, she went back into her secret room when she was greeted by a Flashback Light. This one, on top of the one everyone else received, was built to make her be a more efficient mastermind.
8 | The Trials After…
Trials 2-4 were largely the same. Just after each Class Trial, Tsumugi was given a different special Flashback Light to get her to question everything around her more, specifically targeting the idea that everything Danganronpa, including Hope’s Peak, isn’t actually real. Monokuma had been no help, fully content holding the truth over her and making her dance around to find it. I don’t have any idea what those Flashback Lights could’ve been, but I DO know that one of the ones meant for Tsumugi was nabbed by Angie in chapter 3. Tsumugi planned for her to find it, but didn’t expect her to destroy it.
By Chapter 4, Tsumugi asked Monokuma to show the “outside world” for the first time, confirming what Keebo said. During this time, she fully believed the scene outside to be real, mostly because she had no other evidence to disprove it. After this, Tsumugi decided to start a plan of her own that she’d enact by herself.
9 | Tsumugi’s Plan
Before getting a look at the Neo World Program in Chapter 4, Tsumugi used a Flashback light on herself to replace the memory of her seeing the outside world with her doing something else. This was because she needed a fresh reaction to seeing the outside world, but also because she needed to avoid Kokichi, who was definitely the closest to being able to figure her out and expose her.The other one she needed to keep an eye on was Shuichi, who could also figure her out if he ever caught his suspicions. In her desperation she never noticed the secret of the Flashback Lights, which lead to her replacing memories instead of erasing them like she was excepting.
The next step of her plan involved her overhearing Kokichi and Miu’s plan to create the Electro hammers. She knew they’d be used to escape the ship at some point, and with a fresh reaction everything would be in place for the next step, which was getting Oma killed to give herself time to figure everything else out so she could finally come clean. Of course, since she really believed the world outside was destroyed, she really just wanted to trick everyone into not committing any murders. That just happened to mean getting rid of Kokichi.
With all of this in mind, she wrote down her plan and used the Flashback light on herself. After having her memories erased, she went through the game as normal until trial 4 passed. Luckily for her, it gave her just the motivation she needed to want to kill Kokichi. She wasn’t quite able to see through Kokichi’s mask, she was blinded by a mix of power, confusion, and rage by then.
Immediately after trial 4, she was hit with her usual mastermind Flashback Light, however this one made her remember something extra important, the script of season 53.
Tsumugi actually wrote herself a fake set of plans as part of her plans. That was the whole ‘script’ thing she was talking about in chapter 6. She set the plans up so that way she truly believed she was the mastermind. She was taking the risk of Kokichi finding her, but she figured the confusion would throw off any secretive actions she could’ve done. The reason why she did this was to give herself confidence. If she made herself think that everything in her plan was already set to happen, she’d believe in herself enough to make it so.
Going into Chapter 5 now, after seeing the outside world for the ‘first time’ she blended in with everyone else, but she did know that Kokichi wasn’t actually the Mastermind as she read the script she made for herself. Tsumugi didn’t plan for this, but it did help her out because it got everyone to go again Kokichi.
After trial 5, and his sacrifice, Tsumugi was hit with her final flashback light. This one made her ‘remember’ her time as a part of Team Danganronpa. This didn’t mess with her plan too much, as she already knew that something would happen to her head before she made herself forget the secret of the outside world. However, after all of those lights..her head couldn’t take much more. There was too much stuff going on in her head, too many confusing contradictions for her to process. She ignored this originally because she thought that the Flashback Lights erased and created memories instead of replacing them, but it was too late. Keebo started destroying the academy, something she DEFINITELY didn’t plan for.
10 | The Final Trial
Without any way of solving the mystery of Team DR, she scrambled around and put together a class trial of her own, leaving the shot-put ball Kaede used in the trash for Shuichi to find later. All of her attempts came crashing down, but she was able to convince Monokuma to shamble together something to make season 53 end with a ‘good climax’.
Trial 6 starts, and after Tsumugi’s found out as the mastermind, she uses a series of Nanokumas to help her cosplay. By now she believes that the stories of Hope’s Peak are fiction, so she’s able to cosplay them...and only them...all she wants. She doesn’t know anything about Team DR’s history, so she makes it all up, including the titles of the seasons, which she shambles together from her favorite fandoms. Monokuma plays along, and even adds in a huge audience set to make it look like everyone’s watching. In fact he’s so wrapped up in how good everything’s doing that he doesn’t realize Tsumugi’s baiting Shuichi into helping her.
During trial 6, she even brings up the motive that no one had a chance to see in chapter 5, the Pre-Game tapes they did when they were together ages ago.
By presenting herself as an ultimate evil, Tsumugi took Shuichi’s will to find the truth and twisted it so that he’d end up finding what she wanted him to. She wanted Shuichi to discover the truth, that fiction can change the world.
At the end of it all, Tsumugi allowed herself to be killed, succumbing to the after effects of the Flashback Lights and letting herself be consumed by the lies. Believing herself now to be some kind of replacement to Junko Enoshima, and thus a ‘cosplay-cat killer’, she allows herself to be killed and finally rest. She wanted to admit what she did more carefully, to say a final goodbye or at least hint to the fact that she meant to help them, but she couldn’t.
Shuchi, Maki, and Himiko all survive, finally able to leave Danganronpa together. Team DR allows it, as it feels satisfying, but they do look forwards to seeing the 3 of them try to truly end Danganronpa for good. Tsumugi doesn’t know what’s on the other side of the End-Wall, but she trusts in her friends to face that truth.
11 | Conclusion
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this read/arrangement of evidence for what I think happened behind the scenes of Danganronpa V3! This took sooo much thinking it’s not even funny. Seriously I spent at least 4 full school periods doing nothing but thinking and taking notes. A lot of this is indulgent, specifically the parts with Kokichi being a prince and the whole Kaede + Kaede Twin Sister switch, I just thought those were neat.
I didn’t say it there but I think that The Ultimate Talent Development Plan was actually two things. The first was a board game released alongside Season 53 featuring all the characters, and the second was actually a real program, sorta like the Izuru project. I don’t really wanna consider the implications of what this could do to my interpretation though, lol.
But yeah, V3’s ending is really important to me. It upsets me wayy more than it should when people consider it to be stupid or lazy or insulting to the audience of the games. I think what they were trying to do with the ending was both stupid ambitious and super cool. Killing Harmony is like...my 2nd favorite piece of media ever. It’s so important to me, and as a storyteller I totally respect them for what they did with the ending. The idea of using the enjoyment of the franchise against the player was so brutal and effective for me. Danganronpa helped me grow as a person, and being undermined and told the emotional connection I had with everyone was all just bullshit hurt. Buuuut then Tsumugi and Shuichi helped me realize that even if it is just a bunch of silly bullshit, the emotional response that it gave me...and all the happiness I got from it, that’s all real. Ain’t no black and white bear taking that from me.
So yeah, thanks for reading.
Thanks for everything, Danganronpa.
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