#yoshida: VAGUE VAGUE VAGUE

[smilemuse]

NO FRIENDS ARE HIS PREFERENCE, BUT HE DOESN'T EXPECT THE CURIOSITY FROM DENJI. the two of them were having a small conversation, so he can divulge some details. yoshida is particular about the narrative surrounding him & the appeal that he gives off within the school. to a degree, yes he cares about his reputation but only in the sense that he would rather appear like an octopus. he's ready to retreat when the situation is out of his own control or when he knows he's met his match. he's aware of denji's teenage desires considering he wants the typical experience that involves getting a girlfriend. he has no concern for that, in fact he finds it to be too distracting.

there's a shake of his head considering he wouldn't hide the fact either. ❛ i'm rich. most people at school kind of talk about it. mostly my fan club. it doesn't matter to me, but in a way, i do have a sheltered life. ❜ this time he takes the moment to scratch his head as he leads denji towards the right. he listens in on denji's family situation, it was interesting & a lovely gesture knowing that someone was giving orphans a home. ❛ there's no rush to figuring these things out, but i'd like to help you graduate. a personal want of mine.❜ he feels the implications of denji's last phrase, almost like he's taken a bite of bitter chocolate himself.

❛ aki-senpai could never get sick of you. he's doing all of this to ensure you get your highschool education. i'm sure think highly of you despite everything. what older brother wouldn't want their younger brother to suceed?❜ there's the softer indication of a smile, a genuine smile on yoshida's face. he knows he might have overstepped his boundary between tutor & student, but it didn't sit right to see denji bring himself down like that. it was something to bookmark considering their conversation about his current way of learning things.

there's a part of yoshida that goes rigid considering his parents are more of a sore subject for him. the dark haired male makes no mention of them except they often travel leaving him alone in a larger home than most people don't know what to do with. ❛ i have a step-mother and a father. they are usually busy people since they travel a lot. they're business people.❜ it should suffice for an answer & hopefully denji doesn't decide to dig deeper than what he's already provided. the truth is, yoshida has a vague understanding of what having parents are like. to him they were just the title of two people who come & go like a revolving door. ❛ turn the next corner and we'll be there.❜

each new fact denji acquires about yoshida makes him wonder why he's most often spotted by his lonesome outside of the student council or when his fanclub isn't crowding his space. it would take a blind person to be unaware of who he is; yoshida remained a person who wanted to be purposefully untouched despite his popularity. denji wonders why; if he looked half as good as yoshida did, maybe he could get some dates and he would never reject half the letters he gotten from the female population of the school. he would have a new girl on his arm every week, grades be damned. it makes denji a little envious to say the least, but he keeps that tucked deep, deep down within himself.

his brows quirk curiously, “ya jus' got money ta blow like that on eatin' out?” he wasn't that curious, but since their school discourages kids from having real jobs, denji finds himself doing odd bits for scraps of coin and cash to spend on the gacha machines outside of shops. to his next question, denji's head shakes. “we have a little sister we adopted recently too. 'er name's nayuta,” he replies, a bit of a smile on his face. he felt close to both aki and power of course, but there's something about his connection with nayuta that is a little bit more special. the way she looks up to him means everything to him, somehow.

yoshida's words spark a bit of something in him, but not enough to ignite anything serious. he doesn't consider school to be his path at all, not wanting to struggle with it for another four or so years for a degree. he doesn't have any passion in the area. as for doing anything good, well... he has no leads there either. yoshida seems to have life all planned out, making denji pout a little bit. “must be nice to know what ya wanna do in life. i dunno what i'mma do once i'm really an adult, coz i don't wanna bother aki forever. i think he might get sick o' me,” he laughs a little bitterly.

an absent nod meets the sentence at first, “parents, eh? that sounds nice too. i've only lived with aki 'n powy for six 'n five years after i was adopted by ms. makima. howzit like havin' parents,” denji asks, gaze curious. he's not ashamed to speak of where he came from, although his time in the foster system and before is muddled with memories his brain doesn't want to remember.

[astrofiish]

TWEWY/Persona 5 Sprite redraws! I love the Primary Color trio (IDK if they have a fandom name but that's what I've been calling them so they're the primary color trio now)

Individual sprites are below!

These were really fun! I did draft up some for the rest of the phantom thieves, but they weren't as dynamically fun as these ones were. Maybe ill finish them at some point?

I also have gone through and matched the Persona 5 characters up with NEOTWEWY/TWEWY characters and I want to draw them in their related sprites! (Cause its fun!)

Phantom Thieves:

Joker - Neku Ryuki- Beat/Fret Fused into a singular being Futaba- Nagi (obviously) Ann- Uzuki Yusuke- Kariya (vaguely) Sumire- Shiki Morgana- Rhyme???????? Haru- Tsugumi Makoto- Shoka (mostly based on aesthetics) Akechi - Josh (However, prefacing quickly that Joshneku in this situation would be a weird swap form of Shuake) Caroline and Justine is Coco No idea who Mr Minami could be tho. Maybe Igor?????????

"Reapers":

Sae- technically she wouldnt be a reaper but Ayano Shido- Shiba?????????????????? Also maybe Haz? Idk. Maruki- Hishima??????????????????????????? (minus the "old" men yaoi ofc) Mishima- technically hes not a reaper but Kaie

Confidants (I missed a lot of Confidants in my playthrough of p5 so I could be really off with these)

Sojiro- Hanekoma Chihaya- ? Did not get to know her Iwai- Ryoji Takemi- Kanon Kawakami- No freaking idea Ohya - Motoi???????? Oda- that Tin Pin Slammer Kid from TWEWY Hifumi- MKN Yoshida- Ken Doi

Im just kinda brainstorming about all this at this point but I think the AU idea is fun!!!

[thebrightsilverlining]

Kawakami’s Confidant Route Analysis (Time Management, Character Parallels, & What Kawakami’s Confidant Says About The Protagonist’s Parents)

Kawakami’s confidant route is one of my favorites in Persona 5. Mainly because of how tightly it is written.

TLDR: The protagonist is designed to be incredibly similar to Kawakami’s former student, Taiki Takase, in order for his words to emotionally resonate with Kawakami. This allows one to make inferences regarding the protagonist’s parents based on the Takases.

The entire route centers around the theme of time management. While some confidant routes will have the theming or focus only apply to the confidant themselves (and not the protagonist or other characters) this route goes the extra mile. Having all three central characters (Kawakami, The Protagonist, and the late Taiki Takase) have issues with time management. The route explores each of their struggles to get things done while not stretching themselves too thin as well as how their problems interconnect. On top of that, they even manage to work the skills into the theme, having all of Kawakami’s skills center around time management and making the most of your time.

While other routes, like Yoshida’s, change/have a different impact depending on how the player chooses to interpret the protagonist (whether the protagonist was interested in politics the entire time, got into politics over the course of the route thanks to Yoshida, or was simply humoring Yoshida in order to get better at negotiations), everything that makes Kawakami’s confidant work is built into the protagonist from the start. His issues with time management as well as the way he parallels Takase all create a reasonable justification for why the protagonist specifically is the one who is able to get through to her and strengthens their bond. In comparison to some other routes which simply gesture to some vague qualities of the protagonist that make him someone others are willing to open up to.

But there’s one part of her route that always caught my eye. Particularly, that parallel to Taiki Takase.

See, Taiki Takase was a former student of Kawakami’s and is a major player in the route despite being dead. He was a delinquent student put into Kawakami’s class that she was essentially told to let fail. After getting to know him, however, she realized that he wasn’t actually a delinquent like everyone claimed. Instead, he simply had a variety of extenuating circumstances that made school a bit difficult for him. Mainly, he had a problem with time management, working multiple jobs on top of school, which often resulted in him missing class and not having time to study. Learning about this, Kawakami decided to use the skills at her disposal to help Taiki and make things easier for him (sound familiar?). In this case, it was mainly offering to help him study or review at unconventional hours. Adapting her schedule to his, rather than the other way around.

Ultimately, the school chastised Kawakami for helping Taiki after hours and forced her to stop. Taiki said he didn’t blame her, but that same day he got into a car accident and died, resulting in Kawakami harboring a great deal of guilt regarding his death. A guilt that is only exacerbated by his guardians hounding her for money as recompense, resulting in her having to take on the maid job to make ends meet.

This all leads to where Kawakami is at the beginning of the game. A jaded and exhausted teacher too tired to care and too jaded to try. That is, until she meets the protagonist.

The protagonist. Who, just like Taiki, is a delinquent student put into Kawakami’s class that she is essentially told to let fail. Who, after getting to know him (despite her best efforts not to), Kawakami realizes isn’t actually a delinquent like everyone claims. Instead, he too simply has a variety of extenuating circumstances that make things a bit difficult for him. His record, sure, but also a problem with time management, as he works multiple jobs on top of school (Flower shop, beef bowl shop, Crossroads, Leblanc, etc on TOP of Phantom Thieving), which often results in him struggling to balance his mess of a schedule.

The protagonist is Taiki. At least, in Kawakami’s eyes. A mirror of the student she failed. Who she let die to save her own skin. Only, this time? Kawakami refuses to let him die.

So she helps him, just like she helped Taiki, using the skills she has at her disposal. Except, this time, it’s not study sessions at midnight after getting out of work. It’s doing the laundry while the protagonist rushes off to do something else. Because sometimes, when you’re tired and stressed and have ten different things on your plate, you just need someone to do the laundry for you. Or make dinner. Or make you a coffee as a pick me up.

Just like how Taiki just needed someone who was willing to meet him where he was. To work with his schedule rather than against it. To understand his situation and be willing to help him catch up on what he missed rather than berate him for not being in class.

It’s this parallel that gets the protagonist’s words to resonate with Kawakmi. Because, when he tells her that it’s not her fault that Taiki died and that she shouldn’t be working herself to the point of hospitalization to atone for something she didn’t do, it feels like Taiki’s saying it. It reminds her of how Taiki insisted he didn’t blame her when she told him she’d no longer be able to help. How likely the last thing he ever told her was that it wasn’t her fault.

And here the protagonist is. So much like Taiki in every way. Insisting that it wasn’t her fault too. How could she not listen to him?

The parallel between Taiki Takase and the protagonist ultimately exists in order for the protagonist to reach Kawakami. That parallel is what fuels their bond and pushes the route forward, but it also lends to some interesting analysis of the protagonist. After all, Taiki and the protagonist are supposed to be functionally the same. Meaning that we can look to Taiki for information about the protagonist. Mainly, regarding his parents.

Everyone has their own headcanons on what the protagonist’s parents are like. But I base my interpretations on more than assumptions and minor lines in the beginning of the game. I base mine on NARRATIVE PARALLELS!

Bear with me here, I’m gonna go on a bit of a tangent.

In Persona 4, the protagonist (who I’ll be referring to as Yu for the sake of not getting him mixed up with P5 protag) is sent to Inaba to live with his Uncle Dojima and cousin Nanako. And, in P4, the relationship between Dojima and Nanako is supposed to directly parallel the relationship between Yu and his parents.

See, the tension in Dojima and Nanako’s relationship comes from Dojima’s work habits. Lately, he’s become more and more busy with work. Spending less time with his daughter and more time absorbed into case files. Their relationship mends when Dojima finally steps back from his work and decides to put more effort into being home. Realizing that his relationship with his daughter would continue to deteriorate unless he actively worked to spend more time with her.

In that same vein, why was Yu sent out to Inaba? Right! Because his parents were busy with work. Specifically, his parents are working abroad for an entire year. And, rather than taking him with them, they’re shipping him off to stay with his Uncle.

Yu’s relationship with his parents is supposed to parallel Dojima and Nanako. To be an example of what would have happened had Dojima not fixed his relationship with his daughter. If he continued to bury himself in his work. Where a few late nights turn into multiple weeks apart which turn into full years away from his daughter. Getting to the point where the protagonist is. Where his parents spend so little time with him that they’ll send him off for an entire year to focus on their own work.

You never meet Yu’s parents. They’re barely mentioned. But, through narrative parallels, you can understand what they are like without the story ever having to show them. This too, can be said of P5.

The protagonist of P5 parallels Taiki Takase. For the sake of Kawakami’s confidant route, they are supposed to be functionally the same. Meaning, we can reasonably assume that the Takases (Taiki’s guardians) are similar to the protagonist’s parents. And, considering the fact that the Takases are Mementos targets, that pretty much confirms that they’re horrible people.

But wait! I hear you say! The Takases aren’t Taiki’s biological parents, they’re his guardians (aunt and uncle)! Just like the protagonist, Taiki isn’t staying with his parents when Kawakami meets him, but with a guardian instead (furthering their similarities). Wouldn’t it be more accurate to compare the Takases with Sojiro?

Good point! However I don’t believe that to be the case. Why? Well, to put it simply, because Sojiro is a good person.

See, remember my P4 tangent? In that, there is a difference between the relationship between Yu and his parents and the relationship between Nanako and Dojima. Mainly, that Dojima fixes his relationship with his kid while Yu’s parents don’t.

That difference is there for a reason. It isn’t a pointless change, it’s an intentional one. Done to show what could’ve been if Dojima didn’t fix his relationship with his daughter.

Say Sojiro is meant to be compared to the Takases. If that was the case, one would assume that the protagonist’s situation differs in some way from Taiki’s due to the fact that he has a kinder guardian that actually cares about him. Showing how the protagonist was able to better handle his difficult situation with Sojiro’s help.

Except, that isn’t the case. Sojiro has little to no impact on the protagonist’s problems when it comes to Kawakami’s route. The protagonist struggles just as much as Taiki does, with only Kawakami being the one to make an impact on either of them (when it comes to the issues Kawakami’s route focuses on). The difference instead coming from the fact that she refused to stop helping the protagonist when she had previously caved and stopped helping Taiki.

Because of this, I can’t believe that Sojiro is supposed to parallel the Takases. Instead, it has to be the protagonist’s parents. Which implies that the protagonist’s parents are garbage and a source of a great many problems for the protagonist (just as the Takases contributed to many of Taiki’s problems). That, just like the Takases, they intentionally put him down in order to feel better about themselves. That they’re the kind of people who, if the protagonist had died only to be proven innocent, would’ve happily accepted the sympathy and recompense despite never actually caring for their child.

So yeah! That’s why I adore Kawakami’s confidant route. Honestly, I expected it to be a trainwreck from its premise alone. But, instead, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s one of the most polished confidant routes in the game and I honestly wish more routes followed in its footsteps.

Particularly Chihaya’s, which had the opportunity to take advantage of certain narrative parallels in order to delve deeper into the protagonist’s past (as well as his relationship with Ryuji), but instead ignores this in favor of the ADP. It’s still a good route, with a frankly fantastic start, but I still wish they did more with her.

But, hey! That’s a discussion for another time. With that said, I hope you enjoyed the analysis!

[faultychips]

Old and New; The Moon, and 24 Killers

MOON. A classic “anti-rpg”, Influencing some of the most popular video game artwork of recent history, from Toby Fox, who said he... didn’t play it, but “(the game's) concept was an inspiration for UNDERTALE”, to Tony Domenico of Petscop, who doesn't know anything about it but notes perhaps he “saw a screenshot of that "catch" text somewhere and forgot about it”.

…In all seriousness, it’s really fascinating how even the vague idea of moon, in screenshots and summaries, has changed the landscape of video games. It’s hard to tell exactly how much it’s responsible for when the influence of its initial Japanese-only release in 1997 was of course very concentrated in Japan, and I wasn’t around to experience that era of video games myself… but there’s just so many novel ideas in moon that you can’t help but feel a spark of inspiration light up in your brain the more you know about it. The good news is that in 2020, they translated the game to English, and many people who only knew of the game from forum posts and anecdotes can now play the actual thing for themselves. So, let me tell you about my experience playing "moon" for my own self.

In moon: Remix RPG Adventure, you play as a young boy who gets sucked into his television and transported into the world of the stereotypical RPG videogame he was just playing. You don't have a proper body in this universe, but an old lady tells you that she is your "Gramby", and she happily welcomes you "back" into her home and gives you clothes to wear, allowing you to interact with the world around you. Now is when the game introduces it's main gameplay mechanic - a ticking clock, with both a daily and weekly schedule that advances whenever you're not in a dialogue or cutscene. There's a little arrow on this clock, and when the ticking hand reaches it, you will pass out and be given a GAME OVER. As a little bird Yoshida tells you in the town square: "If you ain't got love, you'll stop breathing and pass the heck out." If you want to be able to move around for longer before having to rest in a bed, you'll need to interact with the citizens of "Love-De-Gard" and catch the souls of the animals slain by the HERO to gain love and grow stronger.

The time limit is pretty harsh when you haven't gained any love yet, but thankfully there are a few easy ways to get around it and raise your level. Gramby gives you a task you can complete for love right away, and she will also give you a cookie every day. Eating food will move your time limit forward, giving you more time to move around, so you don't want to miss your opportunities to stock up here in the early game. There's also plenty of animals around to catch, though you'll have to follow the HERO around for a little bit first. Don't worry too much about the weekly schedule - it's really only important for getting all of the NPC related love, and you'll probably need an external guide for those anyway.

Speaking of guides, it should be noted that moon is pretty much impossible to play without one. You can go for a pretty nice long time without any help (I think I lasted about 5-10 hours on my own?) but inevitably you run out of answers, and to be honest, the game doesn't provide a way to get all of information you need to complete events or progress the story, so I don't think you should bother trying to struggle through figuring out everything on your own. That being said, I would go as long as you can without one, since lots of the things you can do in the early game aren't too complicated to figure out by yourself. When you do need one, I personally found this generally spoiler-free guide very helpful, and when I needed to understand how to progress the story (the Mushroom Forest in particular gave me some trouble) this speedrun worked nicely. There's a translated version of the official manual, too, which you can read before you start playing since it's good for a simple introduction.

One thing I appreciate about moon is that while it has some frustrating elements, the game sets itself apart from other obtuse titles from the same era in that it never absolutely requires you to do anything besides the main plot line. Once you reach the end of the main quest and reach love level 22, you are free to go straight to the ending, and there is no "true" ending to be gotten from catching all the animals' souls or doing everything the game has to offer. Still, I figured this was the case and rescued all 51 animals anyway, and stopped just a few hearts short of the max love level. Barring some few particularly annoying sidequests, moon is compelling enough that you want to experience and enjoy as much of it as you can. (...With a guide, of course.)

If there's one ultimate negative about moon's daily/weekly schedule mechanic, which causes certain events to happen only at certain times of day or even certain days of the week, it's that you will often be sitting around around waiting for something to happen, potentially for multiple in-game days...especially if you miss your cue and have to wait for the event to occur all over again. Thankfully moon has a really delightful way of making waiting pleasant: your character has a portable "MD" (Moon Disc) player, which you can get songs for and make a tracklist to listen to while you walk or sit around. I wish I had access to more MDs sooner, but save for two random discs, you can't get the majority of them until you get past the Rainbow Rocks area, so I recommend exploring that area as soon as possible and solving its puzzles so you can advance forward. You'll be able to get most of the obtainable tracks at an MD store afterwards, and thankfully, all the songs on my tracklist of favorites are sold there. You should give all of the tracks a try eventually –you'll have plenty of time to do so, trust me– but I think these are some nice, reliable ones to get you started. There were many times that the forced waiting, laying back while the music plays, was actually really enjoyable...it can be nice to slow down and pause sometimes, and not many video games take the initiative to actually abate tediousness like this. It should definitely let you use the MD player in more areas, though, since too many of them disable it completely, and still others allow it to play but have distracting background noises.

...Of course, you can only stand so much waiting before getting bored of even your favorite tracks, so when you start checking your phone during these musical breaks, it may be time to start wrapping up. When you are satisfied with your time in moon, you can probably go right ahead and see the main quest through to the ending. I had more than enough love to meet the endgame requirement when I was ready, so I went straight in, not looking at any guide for the final section. That...may have been a mistake. In "anti-RPG" fashion, the game throws a bit of a curveball at you in this part, giving you a choice to make after about 20 minutes of (unskippable) cutscenes. I chose effectively the wrong option, and the game ended abruptly. My first conclusion was that the last 20 minutes of dialogue was actually telling me that I had to 100% the game first before I could get a satisfying "true" ending, so I spent about a half hour in deep frustration thinking about all the things I bounced hard off of that I would have to return to, before checking an 100% playthrough and realizing that the game ends exactly the same there as it did in mine, and the ending depends entirely on that final choice from earlier regardless of your completion percentage. Ahhhhhhh. After going through the final cutscenes again, the true answer is a bit more obvious, but if you want to skip doing this ending twice, maybe check the guide before you lock in your answer. Regardless, the cinematic buildup is really well done here, both endings are fitting for the game, and on a broad level I like them both.

...So having played it, what is moon, and why does even just the idea of it inspire? It's a game about subverting the tropes of typical RPGs with knights in shining armor, calling into question the "inherent goodness" of an almighty, violent hero and the "inherent badness" of scary looking creatures. At the same time, it clearly loves the RPG genre; the world of moon is brimming with life, full of silly animals and goofy characters, all playing out their role in the narrative of the RPG, and it wants you to love and care for everything in it. I think I do love a lot of what moon is. You can feel its dated-ness in many, many ways, but there is –if you'll excuse me for this– a lot of love for videogames in its heart, and it offers new ways to think about and experience those games.

With this in mind, it's not at all surprising that moon was so influential - and clearly I'm not the only one who felt a spark of imagination light when they played it. Here’s a game that came out just last year that is truly, concretely inspired by moon, while being unique and quite modern; let’s take a look…

24 Killers initially caught my eye because, as the game's Steam page explains, it was inspired by moon. Since I was in the middle of playing moon when I heard about it, it seemed like a great followup title. And while 24 Killers implements some solid game mechanics and style from moon, like the daily energy allowance that refills with food, and progression centered around helping funky monsters, I found that the game's vibes and aesthetics also remind me a lot of something like Earthbound; it's a vibrant and whimsical world where anything can happen, and you're just settled in for the ride. There's almost a toy-like feel to how everything looks and sounds; it's got this upbeat "fun" energy at its core that's extremely charming. I have to admit I've never fully completed any of the Mother titles due to the grinding and the external guidance necessary, but 24 Killers offers up the same energy without either of those barriers.

In fact, one of my favorite things about 24 Killers is that I didn't have to look at a single guide to figure out any of the puzzles for my entire 11-hour initial playthrough. Everything in the game is pretty self-evident and figured out quickly through some decent thought and trial-and-error. moon offers a good point of comparison: for many puzzles there, you would have to open your inventory, select the specific item necessary, and then use it while standing close enough to an NPC to get them to react, requiring the player to guess at what item they would need to use to progress...assuming they had the item they needed in the first place, or that using an item is what they needed to do at all! In 24 Killers, you simply can't offer items randomly like this; if you talk to someone and you have the item they need, the game will ask you if you want to give the item. If you don't have the item, the game won't prompt you. Usually if characters need an item from you they'll also make it very clear when you talk to them. This, among other adjustments to old formulas, cuts out a lot of potential fumbling and blind guesswork, and I much prefer it above checking the guide for moon over and over. In this way and many others, the game feels very anti-esoteric, meeting the player on their level and making sure that even the grand exposition and lore doesn't go over your head. Even in the dialogue the characters regard you pretty plainly; "Bro please ferry me to the afterlife" is probably my favorite line from the whole game.

In moon, you would appease or disturb a monster, and then catch its soul so it can be revived and rescued. It's delightful to discover all these different creatures in that game, but you don't interact with them much besides grabbin' at 'em. In 24 Killers every monster is its own sentient person--and every one has something they'd love to yap to you about. You'll run laps, bounce balls, play games, and drive cars around with these guys, and I found that to be another much welcome deviation from moon's formula. moon frames its monsters as adjacent to wild animals, but the monsters of 24 Killers are just genuinely guys hanging out, and if you engage them, they can be your chill buds.

But why are you befriending the monsters? Because you are HOME, a cursed spirit doomed to wander in limbo until they are dragged into the corpse of a soldier and given a chance at escaping their affliction--as they befriend the monsters inhabiting the remote island of the game's setting, they lose the resentful bitterness that caused their curse to develop in the first place and can slowly heal themself. Basically, HOME is a lonely bro, and could use some good friends. We've all been there, you know how it is. Honestly, HOME is probably my favorite character of the whole game; their dual mixture of sarcastic attitude that can flip to genuine goofy dramatics and flair, based on essentially "if it would be funny, do it", was great and really made my time with the game; their personality a worthy selling point in its own right.

Now, I should mention the two small hiccups I encountered with this game. Somehow I made an extremely similar mistake to the one I made with moon - I assumed that "completion" of the game required a lot of extra steps and took a break, when in fact I was right at the finish line and just needed to step over it. To explain with relatively few spoilers: you need to collect three "Echoes" to reach the end credits. I collected two Echoes, which gave a cutscene with almost identical dialogue each time. I assumed that the repetition meant that you would be required to gather a lot more echoes to finish (maybe 24 echoes in line with the games namesake...?) but it takes a long time to get just one Echo, so I stopped playing that save file in order to check out the others. Whoops. Don't make my mistake; you just need three.

A quick explanation is also necessary for the save file gimmick; this is where the 24 in 24 Killers is actually relevant. You start the game with four save files, each offering a "blessing" that you obtain once you "meet the Husbandman" (i.e. progress to a certain point) on that file. Then, you can use that blessing from the start of your next fresh save file. For instance, I chose the file C-4 which has the "fast-forward" blessing; once I met the Husbandman in that playthrough I was able to start new games with that benefit, where it caused cutscenes and general animations to play much faster. If you get all the way to the credits on a save file, you then unlock another save file slot, with a limit of 24 available save files - 24 parallel universes with 24 "Killers", hence the title.

Once you know how to beat the game, you can get far enough in each save to get its blessing in about 3-4 hours each. I did this a couple times to see if there was anything new in these save files; aside from a few minor changes, the save files are identical to each other. I think the idea of having multiple different save files is fun, and the concept of creating a new "universe" (extra save file) every time you beat a session, which you can then also beat and then create another universe and repeat the cycle, is delightful fiction. However, I feel like it's mostly only substantial for the storytelling of the game; I can't really recommend playing the game over and over unless you genuinely just want more of the same experience you already had. Which is a legitimate draw of this title! I enjoyed playing around in 24 Killer's world quite a lot, enough to just go straight to replaying the game a couple times without extra fuss or worry that I was doing something wrong or right. I'm disappointed there wasn't much new to find outside of a few extra blessing-related lines of dialogue, but I don't regret the sidetracking; 24 Killers is just nice to play. Not necessarily “24 times over for 90+ hours” nice, but “extra time besides what's absolutely required” nice. ...Oh, and the other hiccup is that there's a little too many constant flashing lights in the game! Thankfully there's a "photosensitivity mode" option in the settings that works perfectly. Just worth mentioning because I think just about anybody would get bothered by the constant blinking lights in the UI.

Altogether, in its directness, (good) simplicity, and general vibrance and whimsy, 24 Killers is a genuinely "casual" game. It's a lot more appealing than many games I've seen that have grappled for the "cozy" brand; I hesitate to apply the same label to 24 Killers because it's usually reductive and honestly not that fitting here, but instead I found 24 Killers to be another game, like moon, that you can really enjoy just being in. If I had any extra criticism, I wish some dialogue and cutscenes played out a little slower, giving time to soak everything in just a little longer. I never really had this experience (my consoles growing up were all just Nintendo handhelds) but I can imagine it being the kind of game you could have purchased for your PlayStation back in the day, and you'd come home after school and plop down in front of the TV to mess around in it for a while to blow off steam. I hope that sounds like high praise, because it is, at least in my eyes. It definitely helps that the game picks up on the good bits of its predecessors, while making much desired quality of life changes to the old bits that needed work.

It can be a little hard to recommend moon for how old and hard-to-follow it can be; you might be better off watching a long-play online. I have no such issue with 24 Killers, and I encourage anyone who's remotely interested in the things I've mentioned here to check out the game on Itchio. (It's on Steam too of course, but the Itchio download comes with a Steam key anyway...!) Also as a final note, if you've got a switch and/or steam deck, both of these games are great candidates for handheld gaming; being able to pick these up whenever compliments their gameplay styles nicely.

moon: Remix RPG Adventure is available for $18.99 on: Steam, Nintendo Switch

24 Killers is available for $19.99 on: Itchio, Steam

[greatwyrmgold]

Um. I'm pretty sure "protecting" Denji like this is Yoshida's job. Whatever the shippers say, he didn't tie Denji up because he's into BDSM.

yoshida leave him alone and get a job!!!

[konjaku]

花桃[Hanamomo] Prunus persica

This is a normal Hanamomo, which, unlike 照手桃[Terutemomo], extends branches in other directions than vertically.

かれは壞されてしまつた古い墓や、雜草に掩はれた無緣塚のあたりを見まはした。そこには數年前の大暴風雨の夜、湖の岸に流されて來た、何處の者とも知れぬ母子の屍を埋めた墓の痕もあつた。嬰兒を抱き締めたまゝ死んでゐた若い女の死骸が、彼の頭に、ぼんやりと映つて來た。 白い桃の花が、その墓の痕らしいあたりに低く咲󠄃󠄃いてゐた。

[Kare wa kowasarete shimatta furui haka ya, zassō ni oowareta muenzuka no atari wo mimawashita. Soko niwa sū nen mae no dai bōfū'u no yoru, mizuumi no kishi ni nagasarete kita, doko no mono tomo shirenu boshi no shikabane wo umeta haka no ato mo atta. Eiji wo dakishimeta mama shinde ita wakai onna no shigai ga, kare no atama ni, bon'yari to utsutte kita. Shiroi momo no hana ga, sono haka no ato rashii atari ni hikuku saite ita.]

He looked around at old graves that had been destroyed and weed covered tombs of the dead with no relatives to mourn them. There was also a trace of the grave where the corpses of a mother and her child whose identities and whereabouts were unknown, washed up on the shore of the lake on a terrible stormy night a few years ago, were buried. In his mind's eye, the corpse of the young woman who had died while holding the baby in her arms came vaguely to mind. White flowers of Momo were blooming low near what appeared to be the trace of that grave. From 無限[Mugen](Infinity) by 吉田 絃二郎[Yoshida Genjirō] Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/963048/1/68 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1127967/

[sunskate]

WTT FD

Piper and Paul just skate more, and more beautifully than C/B - they're showing off control over their blades and going into the ice. gliding and flow are a major feature of their program. for me, this was the best performance of their FD. C/B were beautiful in their statement elements - that ChSp, the last lift- but they had little moments that didn't go as intended, little mistimings - which they're very good at covering. the camera angle showed how much their spin traveled, but the score didn't really reflect the ways they weren't as polished as they are at their best

G/F had a slightly wonky last twizzle which maybe cost them 4-5 points, but even so, they're being told they're not even in striking distance of 2nd. their lifts require an unbelievable amount of core strength from her, but they're getting +3, even +2 where C/B and G/P are getting +4, +5. difficulty doesn't always get rewarded if it doesn't hit the judges aesthetically or emotionally

Yoshida/Morita maybe showing their relative lack of experience? they always look like they give 100%, but they (he?) lost focus at the last moment and lost balance - touching the ice for that counted as a double fall. it's the end of a long season that they spent training on 2 continents. maybe it's mental stamina running out, maybe it's emotionally getting ahead of themselves. this program is really lovely - i hope they work with IAMO again for the Olympic season

Davis/Smolkin - idk, i just can't get on board when until 2/3 of the way through at the ChSt they never look like they're on the music. they pointed on the beat once. the look that a team has when they're swimming through the program like the music is a vague suggestion - it takes me completely out of it. and i feel torn, because i know she has hearing loss - i think it's amazing that she is doing this and doing it so well. and at the same time, when the PCS they've been getting for composition and presentation are the same as a team like Green/Parsons who are extremely musical, that doesn't feel right either

L/B - they skated well, didn't get all their levels today. but it also feels like since Euros, the judging for them has taken a downward trajectory - did something happen in French skating since then? 💀😬 it's too bad they had the mistake at Worlds, but it's weird to watch the support for them maybe evaporate for a team that doesn't yet exist in the competitive arena. usually scores rise in the 2nd half of the season, but L/B's have not. there were 4 judges who not only had D/S above L/B, they had them above G/F too - Georgia, Switzerland, Japan, and Lithuania 👀

this event felt fun yesterday, but the trends from today make me uneasy

[comradekarin]

I'm @ work atm when I had remembered an interaction we had, which reminded me of you and I went "Oh!! I remember you had made a post about Fumiko. Wonder if you've caught up to recent manga events" so I checked. And.

I KNEWWWW THIS WAS GONNA HAPPENNN I saw the og post and snickered a lil. On a different yet similar note, have been enjoying your posts as you read through csm 🙏🏽 very abrupt ending but my break is almost over aye 🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♀️

HI GIRLIE OMGGGG I’m so glad people love my csm reading tag. I love making reading and watching tags for new shows and books I’m into, so it’s nice to know I’m not talking to a brick wall ijbol and my spring break actually starts next week, so I will be seated for spy x family and fujimoto’s other work, fire punch. and I’ll start a tag for them too 🤫😏

bro I screenshotted that panel because I’m like finally fujimoto, you’ve done it. denji needs someone to tell him he’s proud of HIM and love HIS efforts, not just chainsaw man/pochita. time and time again, we’ve seen people use denji to either get to chainsaw man or to just hurt him. so when fumiko told him “im a denji senpai fan, not a chainsaw man”- fujimoto gagged me bad. now, like I said in the tags, I wasn’t going to be too caught up in fumiko’s intentions because fujimoto was keeping her motives and personality extremely vague. I just wanted a good denji panel to ss. then girlie pulled all that bullshit (and honestly fucking yoshida too)…. I will never trust fujimoto again when it comes to my son denji. I don’t know what to make of her or yoshida at the moment but chile- let me get my ass BACK to ao3 for comfort fics bc fujimoto……….

[wandringaesthetic]

Regarding Fantasian (Neo Dimension), the first game I beat in 2025

For anyone who doesn't already know, this is a JRPG notable mostly for two things:

1) Using high res photographs of physical dioramas to depict its locations, similar to the way prerendered backgrounds were used in the PlayStation 1 era

2) During development and up until a few weeks ago, this was going to be the last game Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy) directed before retiring. (He has since said "humans are greedy creatures, aren't they?" and is planning on doing yet one more.) As this was also going to be the last game for his studio Mistwalker, it was presumably also composer Nobuo Uematsu's last full game soundtrack.

The game was originally released in two parts in April and August 2021 .... Exclusively on Apple Arcade. Bizarre decision. I can only assume Apple bankrolled a large part of it.

I have played more JRPGs than I really want to talk about. I could be described as having a Final Fantasy problem. When Lost Odyssey came out I bought an Xbox 360 in order to play it. I am the core demographic for this game. Even a game so made for me, just for me, was not worth switching computer or phone operating systems for or buying an AppleTV for. No single game would be.

I imagine a lot of people felt the same way, because Fantasian released without much fanfare. I vaguely remember thinking "oh is that out now?" and seeking out reviews for it, which painted the game as mediocre. My decision not to chase it was correct, it seemed, but I still hoped it would eventually be available to me via a port. Or piracy.

I finally got my wish late last year, when it was ported to other platforms. (By none other than Square Enix, allegedly at the urging of my personal friend Naoki Yoshida, whom I have a chat with in Final Fantasy XIV every year. I could write a ton of commentary on this alleged conversation by itself but I'm trying to talk about the actual game)

For the first several hours Fantasian was charming, but there wasn't much else positive I had to say about it. The characters were endearing, as were those diorama backdrops, but there wasn't a lot to recommend about it terms of either story or gameplay. The battles had some potentially interesting positional mechanics that weren't used to much effect. Beyond that it was pretty bog standard. It was making me sad, actually. This was Sakaguchi and Uematsu's last game and I wanted it to be more. I wanted to love it. Instead, it made me meditate on when linearity is annoying and when it's not. I felt like the game kept interrupting me while I was trying to explore it. I decided that it's okay to be on a closed course, even a pretty small circuit, but the player should be the one in the driver's seat.

I stuck with it in part because my child seemed entranced by it, mostly by the flashbacks, which are presented via short stories accompanied by music and a few illustrations. This will seem familiar to anyone who has played Lost Odyssey. It's a low budget but maybe ingenious way to depict the fuzziness of a memory.

And then....

You fight what would have been the final boss of part 1 of the Apple release, the first really difficult boss of the game, and then... something happens. Several somethings. Suddenly, you get a skill tree, the boss fights become more difficult and strategic, with the positional mechanics and elemental weaknesses finally becoming important. You get limit breaks, with accompanying cool animations. Your party gets separated, and the plot of the second half chiefly concerns getting the gang back together. You have free reign of the world map. Each area has recommended levels, but you can tackle them in whatever order you'd like. Much of it is optional, though highly recommended if you want to actually beat the game. The central plot of worlds being caught between the conflict of gods gains some interesting philosophical observations and the game's quirky sense of humor takes center.

What I'm saying is, about thirty hours into the game, it goes from being okay I guess to being kind of sublime. It takes the structure of the latter half of Final Fantasy VI, the strategic turn based battles of Final Fantasy X, and the humor and adventure vibes of Final Fantasy IX, throws in a few of its own beautiful pieces and makes a lovely collage with them. For a while it is frustratingly good. Frustrating because it's tailor made for people who have played dozens of games in this genre but was released on a platform that almost none of them were going to play it on. Even if they did play it, the first installment was so mid that they might not have bothered to show up for the second. If new and casual players did by chance pick up the first installment of the game and enjoy it they might be turned off by the second half because it's so much more challenging and non linear. The normal mode on Neo Dimension is already pretty difficult and from what I understand the Hard Mode of Neo Dimension was the sole difficulty setting on the Apple release. What were they thinking? Who was it for??

Also, look at the cover:

It's so generic! If you had vaguely remembered something about the game with the beautiful dioramas would you think that this was it? you barely see that under what looks like pretty generic anime designs.

(they're imo a little more distinct in game, where they have a slight doll-like quality)

The lustre doesn't quite last til the end. The difficulty continues to increase, and because enemies of a lower level than your characters give very little experience and because by the last few areas of the game the only monsters with higher levels than your characters will be optional superbosses, level grinding either involves facing those optional superbosses or taking waaaaay too long grinding. (I did a mix.) This means a lot of the sidequests and optional content for unlocking abilities and weapons is not really optional.

Still, my experience with the middle of the game was positive enough that I would recommend it highly despite the lackluster beginning and the tedious end. It sucks that I've seen so few people talking about it. But gosh, it's not like I can't understand why. It's so uneven.

[euphreana]

[vague Chainsaw Man ch 174 spoilers]

Okay I'll bite. Why is everyone saying Yoshida is dead?

If the title of the next chapter is indeed a full spoiler and not a red herring (which would be peak Fujimoto), Yoshida just loses his powers. ... Right?

[smilemuse]

THE BLUSH DOESN'T GO UNNOTICED ON AN IMMORTAL GAZE. he doesn't say anything but the temptation to take off the mask himself and lather him in affection is calling him. he resists as they aren't acquainted, or at least he's certain the other doesn't remember him from long ago. however, he knows that his features are rather unusual considering he is a fox deity. ❛ they are, ❜ he shrugs as it should be taken as a matter of fact statement. ❛ you can touch them if you like. ❜ he makes the offer so that he can validate that his fox ears are real. the color is a stark contrast to the dark clothes he's sporting, but being an inari the color of his ears & white were pure snow.

denji's reaction to his proposal despite how outlandish it amuses yoshida to no end. the way the other boy's face reddens at the thought of being yoshida's, or even the fact that yoshida himself wants his first kiss as a currency. yoshida truly desires to make denji his, of course he wants the other to fall in love with him naturally. he could handle the stages, however slow they may be. for him, time is nothing but a unit of measurement that changes like the color of trees. yoshida would wait for denji & that much he's certain of.

❛ what issue would i possibly have with you? i'm serious about you.❜ not that being serious meant suddenly popping out of thin air, but he knows it took awhile for him to reveal himself. yoshida had wanted to get to this status within his lineage before coming back to the blonde. yoshida wants the free reigns to do what he likes while also training his next-in-line. ❛ i'm sure you've heard tales of a fox bride, i'm just sticking to those traditions. some can be humans, it's not of unheard of. man or not. ❜ not that yoshida would make his preferences known although the declaration itself should be more telling than what it is.

a smile still graces his hidden lips at denji's statements. ❛ i'll wait until you get out and i'm more than willing to allow you to get to know me. like, i said i want you to fall in love with me.❜ there's a hum from his lips as he reaches out for denji to allow him to know that divinity can exist between flesh & bone. ❛ you can take my mask off, i don't mind revealing myself to you.❜ there's a gentleness to this act, a breeze of cool air that soothes anyone on a hot day. his thumb rubs small circles along the back of denji's hand.

truth be told, yoshida doesn't know a thing about love either.. however, he does know his crush on the other has blossomed into a quiet devotion & the favoritism he's always willing to show within the shrine. aside from denji, the only person he's shown a good side to is aki himself. there is nothing but respect from someone who governs the people of this shrine to making homages to him.

denji's face falls subtly, blush dusting his cheeks as disbelief also settles on his features. he's not used to someone being so bold with him; even at school he doesn't get this much attention unless it's other guys complaining to him about their girlfriends using him as a seat and starting fights. his eyes are wide, searching for something hidden behind the mask beyond the playful lilt the voice behind it seems to give. denji is unsure what to think when he's almost sure he'd never met the other before.

“haah — there's no way those things are actually real,” denji mutters with a tilt of his head, and for once, steps towards the other man to get a closer look. it's embarrassing now, denji notices, how much taller the other man is compared to him. it's the first time he's ever felt small; it definitely doesn't help the blush on his face too, but he can pretend it's not there so as long as it's not acknowledged.

denji is quiet for a moment, taking a generous moment to consider everything. this guy is seriously insane, he concludes. he doesn't know if he should ask for some kind of proof beyond the ears and tail. as for what kind of feats their god should be able to perform, he wouldn't know of either. he's about a good second from telling the guy off for impersonating a god when the name makes him stop. the name yoshida isn't forgotten, but scarce few would refer to the current god by that name. only the priest himself and the caretakers of the shrine know him by this name, or rather the lineage from which the inari come from. denji knew little about the hierarchy, but from what he does know is no one would call him by the family name so casually. maybe there is some proof to his claim.

however all thoughts cease altogether when the big question is answered. denji stares at yoshida for a moment unblinking, face contorting into mortified bewilderment; flustered at the proposition of marriage and having his first kiss stolen away. his face is a furious shade of red, and he can't see anything, but he's pretty damn sure that behind that stupid fucking mask, the bastard has some kind of shit eating grin. “w-what the hell, dude; what's yer issue,” denji hisses, fighting his voice down from his surprised heightened pitch down to normal. “ y-your what? bride????? dude, i'm a man, in case yer dumb mask doesn't make you see well. besides, i'm in school; i can't get married to anyone, and i'm not gunna marry someone i don't even know. i don't even know what your face looks like.”

[alpaca-clouds]

(The concept of) Canon is like an Onion

It has layers.

Okay, I just gotta be the fandom elder here, because there is a thing that is kinda bugging me. And that is the tendency of especially younger fans of stuff to point at all sorts of suplementary material (artbooks, interviews with creators/actors, articles in magazines and what not) and go: "See, my interpretation of this and that is totally canon!"

And the thing is that... it is a bit more complicated than that. Because what is and isn't canon... Well, it is something people argue about a lot. But the general thing is, basically this. Canonicity can have multiple levels - and the top level of it is basically just the text itself.

Like, older fans of the Star Wars Fandom might still remember Lucas' five (or was it even six?) levels of canon. And those were just based on actual stories. It had become a necessity back then just based on the fact that a lot of the extended universe stuff was at times contradictory - even with the stuff that Lucas himself had done. So according to Lucas, the main canon was just the stuff he had been a part of creating. And then there were levels of things going from "most canon" to "least canon" basically.

But yeah, generally speaking: Canon is the information given within a story itself. You can argue about additional story material maybe being canon (like tie in novels to a movie, for example), but generally even those are not... necessarily canon to the main-thing itself.

I know that these days there is this big thing happening of creators just being very, very accessible to fans. So, the temptation is big to tweet or mail or comment on a twitch of your favorite media's creator/your favorite character's actor/whatever and be like: "I have this theory/analysis. Am I right?" Which is... fine. But you also have to keep in mind that stuff that people privately say is not necessarily authoritatively.

As some of the followers of this blog might know: My OG fandom is Digimon. And boy howdy, can I tell you stories about Digimon's "Word of God". Because... look people, if it is not a book, there is not a singular creator. And the people who were in charge of Digimon, had at times very, very differing ideas from each other.

With Digimon Adventure/02 I interviewed several of the writers. And guess what: I at times got opposing opinions from them. And those opinions were also differing from what the producer and the director said in official interviews and sublementary materials (like artbooks or the novelization).

Two examples are Sora's age and Hikari's crest. Sora is shown to have her birthday in movie 2, which is set in March. Given how Japanese school law works, this would make her 10 during the events of Digimon Adventure and 13 during DIgimon Adventure 02 (because the cut-off date is April 1st). According to Reiko Yoshida, who wrote that movie, this is true. According to the producer, however, no actually the movie is set in April, she is 11 during the events of the first season. And the other fun one: What does Hikari's crest of "light" actually mean. We asked five different people involved and got five different answers.

And the big thing is, that you cannot assume that someone, who is engaging with media, does also engage with ALL THE INTERVIEWS and FOLLOW EVERYONE INVOLVED ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Because most people don't.

I see this happening a lot especially in regards to people interpreting the canonicity of ships - and character sexuality.

Let me use an example where I totally agree with the person in question: Isaac from Castlevania. According to his voice actor Isaac is queer. I totally absolutely read the character this way, no question. But... technically it is never confirmed in the text. So if you come away from it not reading him this way, yeah, that is totally understandable. You do not need to know everything every voice actor said.

And if stuff within the actually story itself is kept vague, you cannot just go and say: "Person XY who also was involved in creating media X said this, so this is the only correct opinion." Because if the text does not confirm it, it is not necessarily "canon" and either interpretation is valid.

And if there is multiple entries as source material, also try to think of what people will usually think of, when you say "Fandom X".

Like, to get back at my own fandoms: Yeah, no, most people will not know about the novelization of Digimon Adventure. Most people will also not have played the Wonderswan games (that also at times outright contradict the primary text in form of the anime). Or with Pirates of the Caribbean: Most fans have never read any of the tie-in novels. Heck, most people do not even know they exist. Meanwhile, also a ton of people do not consider movies 4 and 5 canonical to the Gore Verbinski trilogy, given that again those movies outright contradict some of the stuff stated in the trilogy.

What I am trying to say: Canonicity is, if anything, a spectrum, not a binary. So for the love of all the gods, please stop the entire: "Well, the guy who did the storyboards for three of the scenes in this show agrees with me, so I am right," stuff. I know it is tempting (believe me, I KNOW). But... If it is not in the text, other interpretations are valid.

Also, headcanons are always valid. Always.

[sorenblr]

thoughts on Akihiko Yoshida? hes done several greatest game of all time contenders but I still don't know how 2 feel about him tbh

I would rank him highly, although I do think his best work belongs to a bygone era. I've always had a lot of affection for Yoshida as the Square-affiliated artist most likely to describe form with profuse hatching. The original Tactics Ogre cover is one of my favorite pieces of game art:

I think he produced his most compelling work around this period, in collaboration with Hiroshi Minagawa, and more generally prior to the onset of HD development. I don't know how deeply involved he was with the process (Minagawa is credited as supervisor in both cases), but between Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII, his designs have been treated to the most compelling applications of texture mapping in the medium.

I also love the lush storybook style he adopted for Four Heroes of Light, and I wish that quality had carried more cleanly into Bravely Default.

His contributions to FFXIV are obviously accomplished but they don't really stand out in my mind due to their proximity to so many other artists on that project working in a style that roughly approximates his own. I think that's something that has muddled my impression of his work over the past decade, the glut of designers seemingly trained in his style, or the new prominence of those who simply came up in the industry working in a comparable idiom, usually in the Ivalice games. The deliberately abstracted faces contrasted with baroque or luxuriously rendered dress, the almost exclusive use of earth tones etc. It's evident everywhere from certain of Kazuya Takahashi's key art in FFXVI to Naoki Ikushima's entire corpus of Yoshida-lite emulations, even Hideo Minaba's work on Granblue Fantasy.

At one point this was a perfect triangular complement to the sectors defined by Amano and Nomura, but as we recede further and further from any remaining stylistic imprint of the former and all the appealing extravagance is bled from the latter, a sort of repetitious sameness sets in. It's no fault of Yoshida's, and I think his own work still consistently outshines his "imitators", but it probably accounts for my cooler feelings of late.

As an aside, the guy has definitely indulged his predilections to a greater degree as time goes on. He's settled on an anatomical template for his female characters that I find vaguely disquieting, as evinced in this Tomb Raider illustration. That one has especially chitinous proportions, but most of it is basically just, like... hippy zettai ryoiki shit. A fetish so mild that it's one step removed from being really 'into' big titties. Guys with active accounts across multiple booru image boards will be cranking their shit to 2B for long and silent aeons, when even the memory of man is only a shadow over the wine-dark sea.

I would still like another game where he's allowed a fuller reign over design responsibilities. Like Nomura, he's reached a position of seniority that precludes him from designing anything beyond a few core characters and some key art, leaving the heft of the work to younger artists or middle-talents like Roberto Ferrari. Hopefully he'll be on tap for something other than Nier Automota phone games or FFXIV package illustrations or whatever the fuck Little Noah: Scion of Paradise is supposed to be. Damn, videogames are rough! This shit is not cooking!

[thebrokenpaintbox]

An illustration vaguely inspired by the shin-hanga of Yoshida Hiroshi.

I tried my best to research what onsen are actually like for this drawing, since I’ve never been. However, I found a million little details I got wrong only after drawing this, so please take this rendition with a grain of salt!

[batbeato]

so I started playing persona 5 tactica the other day. at the moment I'm finishing up the first kingdom (Marie). I thought I might share my thoughts. I promise I am having a blast playing tactica but I am also a little hater who latches onto what I don't like and must exposit about it for hours before I return to the fun parts.

With that said. I cannot stand Toshiro.

As far as design goes, he's pretty much forgettable. He looks like the standard politician/businessman. He could be in the background of an anime, in one of those scenes where the politicians are reacting to the main cast, and all of the politicians look the same.

As far as character, I have been slightly spoiled, I'm vaguely aware he goes apeshit at some point. However, how he generally acts is... boring. It feels like a recycled, worse version of Zenkichi (they have him being shocked about the Metaverse, they have him being less physically able than the Phantom Thieves) in some areas, but while Zenkichi's personality is compelling, Toshiro's is not.

Zenkichi, from the very beginning, is a character with divided loyalties. He makes himself interesting because he is an adult who believes in the Phantom Thieves' innocence when it comes to what's happening in Strikers, but he is also loyal to his boss. Over the course of the story, we learn more about his history, his struggles as a father, and his struggles with the corruption of the system.

Toshiro starts out as a man with amnesia as to why he's even relevant to the plot. The Phantom Thieves compare him to past corrupt politicians (Shido) that they've stopped, but they are also so willing to trust him and his strategies (which should be entirely unneeded, as Makoto is already the designated strategist of the group) that they appoint him as the bridge between the Rebel Corps and the Phantom Thieves.

Toshiro's gags are about how he's very skilled at negotiating and running away. They come off as flat and get on my nerves constantly.

Rather than a character that fits in well with the Phantom Thieves as a fellow outcast, he's a man with power for whom his easy inclusion in the group - which has had issues with politicians and authority from the beginning - seems ridiculous.

As his backstory with Marie was unveiled, I also found the connection made between him and Haru to be similarly ridiculous. Haru is a young woman, still in high school. She does not have the ability to tell her father 'no' due to her age and gender (as well as years of less than ideal parenting, I'm sure). However, Toshiro is an adult. In Japan, you must be at least 25 to be a member of the lower house (and 30 to be a member of the upper house). He is an adult, a man, and should have been more than capable of telling his father that he would prefer a different spouse for a financial backing.

Marie does seem to be very abusive, and I'm not discounting that, but from how the story is presented, it seems that Toshiro was aware of this from the start. He had the ability to say no. He did not exercise it. The story frames it as Toshiro being forced into an arranged marriage. He is a grown adult. It is infuriating.

Not to mention the fact that while Persona 5 had its first villain be a man abusing his power to torment male students and sexually abuse female students, now Persona 5 Strikers and Persona 5 Tactica have both had their first villains be a woman abusing her power to torment/abuse men. I sincerely wonder why this decision was made.

I'm sure Toshiro has more interesting qualities to offer to the story as I keep playing, but these initial attempts to endear him to me are awful, and I can't help but feel that, if they did want another adult character in the story, they could have reused characters from Persona 5 (Sojiro, Iwai, Yoshida) or even reused Zenkichi from Strikers. Toshiro, as a politician, is a member of the very system that the Phantom Thieves are often fighting against, as it is a system filled with corruption and abuse of power.

Anyway, besides Toshiro, every day I am haunted by the fact that Elle was localized as Erina for no reason except to make me suffer. The Persona localization team is... interesting, and often makes decisions I disagree with that wildly change the meaning of lines.

Otherwise, Elle is a serviceable character who's very fun, and has little charm points like her hilarious names for battle plans. I'm still very aware that she exists to be cute and sell the game, and to ship Joker with (for men who self insert as Joker), but she's cute. I also like that she's voiced by Mash's VA (since they both have purple hair, I think it's cute). I'm going to enjoy learning more about her as the game progresses (unlike Toshiro where I have already mentally checked out of any emotional investment and will need to be enticed back).

The gameplay is really fun. I'm playing on Normal and if I do a NG+, I'll probably play on Hard. The new artstyle also works for the game, since it's cuter but can still look serious when the mood calls for it. I like getting to see the main cast again, even if I already feel like Strikers is the more well-written spinoff.

[possiblylando]

So like the horsemen are fiends, right?

Tumblr is being a shitter with images right now so it'll get them scarce.

Yoru is the first horsemen we see actually take human form in the series. Yoru is absolutely a fiend or some kind of special freak but still within the range of a fiend (I'll talk about Yoru a bit later). This of course raised a question in my mind; Why are the horsemen humans? Well theres no good answer except them being fiends. We know fiends are only really identifiable by having weird traits on their heads. They don't even really have to be huge traits because we see with power it's just her eyes and horns. What do all the horsemen have? Weird eyes. We see in Yoru's bird from she has the same eyes as she does in human form. That's the fiend trait they all take, they're apart of the same 'group' so the idea that their fiend trait would overlap isn't that weird. Additionally Yoru still has the scar relating to how Asa died. It's possible the others have similar scars (or it only stuck on Yoru because it was on Asa's head so the fiend trait carried that over) This also supports one of the weirdest things from part 1.

Nayuta shows up rather quickly after Makima dies. Makima is probably only dead for a few days (maybe weeks) before Nayuta shows up. The control devil reincarnated into a human body in that time obviously. Yet Nayuta is like 6+ years old during the end of part 1. It may be morbid to say but the idea of a kid dying and being turned into a fiend isn't unlikely. Fami just randomly shows up yet she's able to stay in school, infact it doesn't seem like anyone knew she was the famine devil until Yoshida showed up to talk to her about it. Especially because nobody seems to be after he nor care about the fact their classmate is a fiend. A school girl being killed by a devil and then being fiend-ified continues to align with this.

Okay heres the Yoru part. This is a theory I've been conflicted on for a while, I've mentioned it in other posts but I'll talk about it here. Asa isn't real. Yoru is a fiend who constructed an alternate personality on instinct using the memories left in asa's corpse's brain. We know fiends have some level of connection to the body they're in since the violence fiend still had memories from it's past life. As the War Devil conflict is apart of Yoru's nature, so creating a personality to be at odds with herself aligns with that purpose. Additionally having that second personality allows Yoru to create stronger weapons because of the sentimentally strengthening that her weapons undergo. Fiends seem to lose some of their devil memories (its vague so they might not but evidence seems to support their devil memories being hazy) so it's possible the War Devil did it on purpose but then forgot she did it entirely.