#yes i based him off of various JRPG protags

[tsuutarr]

As just imagined then everything as a game and the hero as seeing like a freak by all the people and the reader as the only good and nice npc then treat him well and even give him free item even if our store is not very we still give him a apologize about the others (npcs) being rude with him and the hero being so delusinal the fall over us lol

so, because i have absolutely NO self control, I made another story <3

Yandere! RPG Protagonist x Reader

Gallius isn’t entirely sure when he gained sentience. Maybe it was when he’d have insistent feelings of déjà vu. Maybe it was when he would want to go somewhere or do something, but an external force prevented him from doing so. Maybe it was when the people he talked to would say the same things over and over and over again.

Regardless, one day, he realized that he doesn’t actually exist – at least, not in a way that matters. He’s just a piece of code, a bunch of pixels moving across the screen, trapped in a video game.

The worst part is that everyone around him – and he means everyone – lacks sentience. It’s gotten to the point that he’s memorized everything. Every dialogue, every story path – everything.

It’s a fruitless life, really, especially since he’s forced to obey his code. He’s forced to go along with whatever the person controlling him wants. He’s forced to be the happy-go-lucky protagonist. He can’t be anything but that.

Gods, he’s going to go insane.

And he’s tried to talk to people, really.

“Hey, so, I think we’re in a game.”

“Beer is fifty percent off, young man.”

Gallius never thought the tavern’s owner could look so lifeless. “So, you know, I guess you really don’t have sentience.”

“Man, can you believe the monster outbreak?”

“Don’t you wish there was a way you could… I don’t know, break free? Talk beyond your code?”

“Beer is fifty percent off, young man.”

Gallius holds back a sigh. The tavern owner says three things exactly. “Beer is fifty percent off, young man”, “Man, can you believe the monster outbreak?”, and “I don’t know if I prefer a full tavern or an empty one!” are the exact phrases the tavern owner recycles. It isn’t just the tavern owner, either. It’s everyone else in town. The blacksmith, the carpenter, the seamstress – all of them.

It kind of drives him insane. Maybe that’s why he tries to find solace in anything he can, like you.

“Gods, I hate being the only one who sees that we’re a pile of code,” he tells you. You’re a cute shopkeep – whoever designed you must be a genius – that he likes to see from time to time. If anything, you’re easy on the eyes, at least.

“Yes, it does appear that you’re having quite the rough time,” you say. He knows you’re just saying one of your coded phrases, he does, but he can’t help but latch on to that piece of support you give.

“Yeah, you get it.” He laughs dryly. “But what can I do? I have to keep going. It’s not like I have a choice.”

“You’re doing well. I’m proud of you.”

Gods, he can’t hide his grin. Yes, you’re just saying one of your phrases, but the comfort your words bring – it’s unreal. It’ll probably be even more unreal if he could actually talk to you. If you both had sentience, if you both could go against your code. The thought makes him fall silent.

“...Hey, I’m gonna leave for a bit. Maybe a long time,” he says finally, determined to help you break away from your code. He doesn’t really care too much about the other NPCs, but you? Oh, he wants you.He wants to talk to you, to be with you in a way that matters.

“Have a safe journey,” you say, automated. You hand him a potion, a freebie from your shop with a smile. “On the house.”

Gallius smiles, taking the potion from you. Yeah, he’ll find a way to give you sentience like him. That way, you guys can truly be together forever.

[lethesomething]

Yakuza and coping mechanisms

Yakuza has been my on and off hyperfocus for years now but also in particular the past month, so let's talk about it. And particularly, how many friggin coping mechanisms are in this game.

Disclaimer: I do literary analysis, not psycho analysis, don't come for me.

For all its silliness about fighting roomba's and disco minigames, the world that the Yakuza games is set in, is fucking brutal. They are, at their very core, crime drama's. People get murdered a lot, lives are ruined in various ways, a good third of protags spend large amounts of time in jail, usually for a crime they didn't commit. Most politicians and police are corrupt, racism is blatant and if you don't have a place in the very strict hierarchy of society, it's hard to get back on your feet (hence all the crime). I tend to read a lot of indictments of Japanese society in these games, partly because they are so clearly based on old school yakuza crime drama's.

This means that the characters go through some shit. And what's fascinating, is how they deal with this.

Spoiler warning for, uhh, almost all yakuza games except Song Of Life (since i never played that)

Pretending it's not real

Kasuga Ichiban

The direct reason I'm even making this blog post because he's the most blatant about it. Kasuga is Peak Himbo in that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he manages to take being beaten down Repeatedly and overcomes that with a sense of genuine good nature and optimism that is… honestly kind of hard to believe. The way he deals with any of this, is that he's a nerd who pretends to be in a video game. It's the whole premise of Yakuza Like a Dragon.

And to be fair, Kasuga suffers from an amount of mistreatment that makes me Very Angry in his stead. He has every right to be upset! He is literally homeless in the beginning of the game. If he requires the escapism of going around pretending to be in a jrpg to survive, more power to him. Especially since it works. Dude goes around helping people and making friends. Which is a good thing, because there's no way he'd make it out of Yokohama alive if he didn't have some back-up.

Side note: something similar happens to at the very least Majima, i think, in the admittedly non-canonical events of Yakuza Dead Souls. (yes i played it solely for Majima, no i do not recommend it, the game is garbage and you get more Majima in Zero anyway). In Dead Souls, Kamurocho is overrun by zombies. As a lover of all things Horror, Majima decides he may as well have a good time mowing them down like he's in an FPS while he trudges through the wreckage of society.

Self sacrifice

Mostly Kazuma Kiryu and  Saejima Taiga

If you hate yourself, at least try to be of use to someone. Let's be honest, a lot of the plot of Yakuza games is driven by self sacrifice or at least following some code of honor to its ludicrous ends.

Kiryu is the main example here. The game kinda glosses over this a lot, but he is, at least in Zero, a criminal. He goes around extorting money from businesses. He consistently solves problems through violence. It's kinda the point of the games. But he's also borderline a saint and 80% of the shit he gets into is because of his need to throw himself to the wolves for any person he cares about. He voluntarily does hard time for Nishikiyama, for one. He picks up a stray kid that he will now protect with his life. And it just goes on from there. See, Kiryu may be the famous Dragon of Dojima and the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan and all that, but he would very much prefer not to be? Dude wants to live a quiet life and raise some kids, it's just that he's the protag of a game series about how hard it is to say goodbye to the yakuza life. So the plot keeps finding ways to bring him back, usually as a reluctant warrior to save the Tojo clan or Haruka  or whatever. If he was a little less honorable, he could still be chilling as a taxi driver with an unreasonably hot girlfriend, I'm just saying.

Saejima is very similar, but somehow even worse? Much as I love the guy, he's an idiot. He suffers from the same loyalty and selflessness as Kiryu, but he doesn't even get a cute daughter out of it. He spends Twenty Five years in prison for a crime he (we later find out) didn't commit. He escapes months before his parole to solve the convoluted plot of Y4. Then Goes Back to Jail to atone for (again) a crime he only thought he'd committed, only to escape (again) when he thinks Majima, his sworn brother, got murdered in Y5. As far as i can tell he goes back to jail one last time to finish his actual sentence, and to like, protect the name of the Tojo clan or some shit. My dude. My friend. Come on.

As a side note, acts of selflessness are kind of a big deal in the Yakuza games and one of the main ways to tell if someone is a good criminal or a villain. Kasuga and his crew are pretty big on the whole 'acts of selfless kindness' thing. It also seems to be one of the traits of Daigo Dojima, whose whole being screams 'I don't want to be here but who else is gonna fucking do it'. But in the case of Kiryu and Saejima it's very much verging on reckless self-endangerment.

Fabricated identities

Majima Goro, baby!

The Yakuza games really love this one, but I'll start with the big guy, everyone's favourite character: Majima. This dude has seen some shit. We see him throughout several flashbacks and the span of the games, but most tellingly we see him in Zero, at his rock bottom hero stage. And he's intriguingly unlike the other times he shows up. This is a Majima that's recovering from torture and backstabbing, and forced to do some dude's bidding for scraps. He's a chained dog (pun very much intended) and he's about to lose it.

What's fun about Majima is that he has So Many of the traits in this list. He has a lot of the reckless endangerment and self sacrifice that his buddies Kiryu and Saejima have. He gave himself up a few times for Haruka, he keeps trundling back to save Tojo and Dojima, but there's also a whole other layer of … Flamboyance to him.

And while Majima probably started out as comic relief, the games make clear that it's not all he is, and we get several glimpses of 'old Majima' throughout the series. He'll be in the middle of a self inflicted fight and drop some wisdom, for instance. He acts erratically, he is blunt, violent, exuberant in his dressing up. When given a task his first thought seems to be 'how can i make this Extra', but that doesn't mean the guy is unstable. You don't become a successful businessman with a building company, or a patriarch of your own family, without being smart and strategic. A lot of classic Majima behaviour, i feel, is a case of a mask he constructed to hide the severe depression, that became more of a second nature to him. Majima is one of the clearest examples of 'do what you need to do'. He's a survivor, through and through. Somewhere in there is a decent human being, but Majima will kill people to survive in a harsh world. It just seems like he constructed an extra layer to shield himself from all that.

Joon-gi Han (Like a Dragon): This is more a case of stolen (inherited??) identity, but again, if you don't want to be you, just be someone else. In this case someone he admires. Again: super tragic backstory, questionable life choices. As an aside, Joon-gi is fun because he is both a deadly assassin with someone else's name and face, but also  a Knight stereotype who would do everything for his queen and I think that's neat.

Zhao Tianyou (Like a Dragon): Somewhat more subtle, but Zhao is also a dude that was at one point confronted with a Situation, namely 'oh shit my dad died and now I'm in charge of a violent gang'. And to deal with that he decided to construct a persona that gives exactly zero fucks. He is very joking and very avoidant but we do learn that a fair amount of his laid back attitude is just veneer. Dude in fact gives several fucks. You don't decide to give up the throne and become a homeless sidekick to Himbo Supreme because you don't care. You do it to stop him from getting ultra-murdered by the parade of heavily armored gangsters he keeps storming into.

Akiyama Shun (Yakuza 4-5): I debated putting him here, because part of me believes Akiyama is just kind of a dick. A dick I love as a character, but still, ya know. At least some of the dickish persona is a front, though. Akiyama is another one that just saw his life's work destroyed at some point, and decided that emotional detachment was the way to go. Akiyama is different because he was never actually a proper criminal. He was homeless for a bit, and then came into some money (through Extremely Convoluted Plot Means) and now he's a moneylender. And like Zhao, he mostly pretends to be completely devoid of feelings, while having a fair amount of feelings. Enough to get into like�� fist fights. With actual gangsters. Who have guns.

Vice

Sex, drugs and everything in between

The preferred way for noir drama's to show someone is Going Through It, is by giving them a classic addiction and Yakuza isn't any different. It's why several characters are shown mournfully smoking, in particular Kiryu and Majima. Yes I know it's because it looks cool and harks back to old crime movie atmosphere. That doesn't make it a healthy coping mechanism.

Another obvious one, considering the setting of the games in several red lights districts, is erotica. Both Adachi, the ex-cop from Like a Dragon and Shinada, the ex-baseball player from Y5 and also my least fave protag ever, are both in various stages of obsession about porn, sex work and the likes.

Tanimura, the cop from Y4 has a pretty severe gambling problem in the actual canon, though gambling games and casino's are a general mainstay of the Yakuza series. It's just that when Kiryu interrupts his busy day of solving the convoluted intrigue du jour to gamble in an illegal underground casino, it's not a character flaw.

Also: almost everyone drinks ludicrous amounts of heavy alcohol in these games. Both in canon and as part of the gameplay. 100% ing the games usually involves drinking tons of whiskey, but the whole Ichiban crew, sans I think Eri, is shown drowning their troubles at various times.

Violence: I mean, that's kind of the game, but an unhealthy amount of characters consider fist fights to be a good way to resolve conflict, bond with people and generally reinvigorate themselves. Particularly Majima is shown to get a real kick out of doing damage and being beaten up. There's just a lot of reckless behaviour, which is what makes the games good.

Karaoke: fake it till you make it, man.

Extra note:

You'll notice there's no women on this list, and that's because honestly the game is kinda sexist. So while there's already Very Few women in the game, the ones that are present don't exactly have super complex characters.

Mukoda Saeko, the hostess from Like a Dragon, drinks like a fish but that's about her main flaw.

Other notable female characters are Kiryu's kid Haruka, Kiryu's love interest Sawamura Yumi (Kiwami) and Kamataki Eri, the business lady from Like a Dragon. They're all stereotypical Good Girls who have no flaws apart from indecisiveness and an unhealthy tendency for selflessness.

Saejima Yasuko is ever so slightly more complex: her main trait is self sacrifice. The story promptly fridges her for it.

[thewolfisawake]

The Tales series if you haven't gotten it already

Favorite character:

Undeniably goes to Yuri and Velvet. What can I say? I’m into the dark-haired protagonists that ‘aren’t like the others.’ I can get onboard with why they come to the conclusions they do even if I don’t think it’s write. With Yuri, I admire the ability to do when others cannot. And can’t deny, he made me laugh the most with his sense of sarcasm and panache. Plus that voice...Troy Baker, they did you dirty. Meanwhile with Velvet I was like ‘yes, let’s be married in this quaint little town together’ in the beginning. She was just cute. Then it became attraction of ‘I don’t give a damn what happens to this world so long as I get what I want’ and ferocity. 

Least Favorite character:

Emeraude. Like what the fuck is your problem lady? You’re getting jealous of a child. Your feelings towards someone should be directed towards that person, not abusing some third-party that doesn’t even understand what you two have going on. 

Cumore. Fuck him too. For a side character that you don’t even really fight, he’s a real ass that his death was catharsis. Pure catharsis. There was no a single moment that he showed any redemption. He was a cruel bastard that held no regard for human life. He was willing to make excuses for anyone under him to get in trouble. He lied to people to enslave them and work them to death. He dragged people into the desert to look for an impossible item and left them without resources to die. Fuck him so much. He might’ve been cartoonishly evil compared to some not nice guys but those actions translate to atrocities. 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Selfish Coexistence (Basically the Berseria Party) - Their relationships seem so hard to define to me as they all use each other for various reasons. They also seem to develop care through their selfishness and all of the either are like *shrug* guess we’re doing this now or ‘what is this I’m feeling?’ ‘emotions?’ ‘disgusting.’ There’s an understood protection amongst all of them and then a fierce rationalization for their action rather than saying ‘because I like you okay!’ They’re very smart yet they’re all dumbasses and I love them all.

Ludju - You know what’s better than one adorkable dumbass? Two adorkable dumbasses. I like Ludger and Jude’s relation better than any I have unlocked during the story. Jude by nature is very caring but it just is different with Ludger? Main thing I can note is that Jude touches Ludger a lot. Like a firm, ‘I’m right here’ shoulder touch. A nudge in the arm. Catching when about to faint. And I just don’t see Jude do the same with anyone in his party in either game.  I just find their interactions from the extra scenes are really cute.

 Velvet/Niko - “If you were a boy, I think I’d be in love.” Gurl she don’t have to be a boy to kiss fall in love. Shipping a Main Character with an NPC? Is it madness? Absolutely. But I had feelings about that from the very beginning. Like this could’ve been so fucking sweet. Could’ve had it all. And then the Advent happened. 

Alvin/Presa - Oh man. Ooooh man. This was just a curiosity on the way of Tale’s of Xillia’s path. Like it was a lady that lent to Alvin’s skeevy or ladykiller vibe he gave off. And it was like was she just a jilted one-time or something else? And the answer seemed like ‘something else’ but didn’t know what. It was a little ‘wonder how that went...’ Then you do Tales of Xillia 2 and I thought I was wrecked. Because it reframes so much of their interaction to a really sad relationship that fell apart because Alvin was a coward. 

Flynn/Yuri/Judith - Haha! Didn’t expect the end part of this one did you? I think everyone knew I liked Fluri. Like their dynamics are so interesting. But I really do enjoy Judy being involved. I’m really sad that Judy and Flynn don’t get much interaction even in the PS3 version but I don’t find it hard for them to get along. But I do usually see that more times it’s Flynn and Judy dating Yuri and their relationship changes over time.  They can scrap together, they can travel together, and not needing as much talking to get what anyone means. I find it hard to describe this one but I feel it. 

Character I find most attractive:

Yuri and Velvet are like the reflexive thoughts. But I actually really also like Jude and Judy. I mean look at this cute little nerd, he’s adorable! And then there’s hot elf lady that she could kick me in the face and I’d thank her. In general you can probably guess my type from those four.

Character I would marry:

Probably Yuri. I’m sorry that this is my answer to so many but he is like my type to a T and it’s just ruined so many standards for me. Like a funny guy that is good at cooking (and has a sweet tooth!) and can go venturing with? What else is there? I mean yeah there’s the hair and voice but that’s like given. But yeah, I’m a basic bitch with that.

Character I would be best friends with:

Eizen, if that’s a bit surprising. Sure he’s a bit of an edgelord but I feel like I’ve never left it so he’s already doing better than I. But I like the idea of sailing on the ship with him there, probably not gonna be able to let me struggle for that long. He’s funny with a dry sense of humor to me and also he’s a low-key nerd that knows a lot of things and likes finding new and interesting things. So yeah. 

And as much as I give shit about him, I actually think I would be friends with Sorey. He’s the kind of excitable that makes others excited and that’s kind of what I do. So we’d kind of excite each other. And so long as it’s not spelunking, I’m down for going exploring. 

a random thought:

What defenses occur with the end of blastia? Barriers were what repelled monsters from most of the inhabited areas in Terca Lumireis. Dahngrest and Zaphias look to have fortresses that can hold back most land beasts. But there are other places. What stops the monsters now? Will they go towards more mana based works? 

Also, someone also mentioned, does ANYONE know how to do medical work? Like actually patching up injuries? How to care for someone in sickness? Healing artes were what were used! They can’t use blastia anymore! What happens now?

Can there be a history of how things changed from Berseria to Zestiria? Mainly the shifting of how malevolence works from turning people to reflect their sinister nature to straight up monsters with no sense? How the Shepherd thing went to include the malak as much as it does. The change from malak to seraphim. Just...how did we geeeetttttt heeeerrreeeeee.

An unpopular opinion:

I fucking hate that I had to be told from other friends that actually could find the material or read the fucking wiki to understand the dynamics of the Kresnik family. Ludger has a LOT of fucking baggage that we don’t even get to hear anything about! Partially because he’s silent and partially because ‘oh he was young so he conveniently forgot?’ And a lot of it was important to the last half of the story! That’s bullshit! And even further bullshit is that there was no reason they couldn’t have found time to put it in the game but they chose not to. 

Tales can’t make a fun last level to save their lives. I haven’t enjoyed a single final level in any of the games I’ve played. I don’t mind doing puzzles for it but straight up spiraling branches full of dead ends is frustrating. ESPECIALLY FUCK XILLIA 2′s! Randomly generated based off those in the party and then you can’t even see when a path is not truly there so you can follow the path and then all of suddenly blank ground, meaning dead end you have back up and retrace another path. And then like Berseria’s made me feel nauseous from the ‘ethereal’ look it was going for. And just made it hard as fuck to see. And more of this awful tower climbing. I just...mmmmmmm, I will probably always enjoy the game until the final level exists. I swear.

My Canon OTP:

Uuuuuuhhhhhh I don’t think I have one. 

My Non-canon OTP:

Most protags x happiness?

Most Badass Character:

Don Whitehorse. He was like definition of like ‘stubborn old man’ but man was he cool. He was staunch in the honor of the guilds under his control and was proud of what he and other had built up with their own hands. Also you don’t often see a man willing to sacrifice his life to right a wrong done by his own. 

Most Epic Villain:

Gaius. Like me and my friend were like ‘what the fuck’ when we were co-oping Xillia together. Like this was a king that meant business! Mhm. .

Pairing I am not a fan of:

Most of the pairings are fine to me. 

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

Sorey. I’m sure I’ve gone on this so many times but I really hated that they kept alluding to him having to make hard decisions but whenever one was brought to him, someone else took it for him. Like if his job is that important and it’s expected to make these choices, THEN LET HIM MAKE THEM. I was so angry over that. I spent the entire game waiting for when they’d do a major point where Sorey had no choice but to step up. 

Favourite Friendship:

Alvin & Elize - I really like how much they have both grown from each other. And how when Alvin broke her trust that he had to live with her mistrust and work to earn it back. Their friendship had uneasiness that seemed hopeful at the end of the first game and turned to just banter and teasing by the second. Growth baby, it’s wonderful.

Character I most identify with:

Mmmmm, probably Ludger. Look at all that debt. Can’t do nothing but cry over it.

Character I wish I could be:

Yeah, no. JRPG rules means everyone has some fucked up shit in their past or coming for them. I’m fine over here.