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hummingbird-games · 4 months

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2023 In Review (Indie Games)

Last year's! | 2021

I apologize in advance for how long this might be. As a reminder, I don't bash games here so even if I hated something with every fiber of my being...I ain't sharing. As a second reminder, my more in depth reviews and live blogging has moved to Gem's Game Gems so I don't clutter the HBG's main blog. Okay. ON WITH THE REVIEW!!

DEMOS

Diffraction (Demo)- A rainy day otome indeed. I love the quiet gentleness of this game, the two romance options, and the fact that our MC is a photographer and struggling with her art and stack of life "failures" (because...SAME!!)

Alaris - I was asleep and now I am awake: I came late for the advertised fae and dragon lore, stayed seated and waiting for Fenir zjgjdf. Oh, and I guess the mystery surrounding our MC's abilities LOL.

The Summit Library - When I say I was maaaaaad when I realized I blew through chapter 1 and would have to go back to waiting for more content??? LOL, I was very miffed. Anyhoo, check out this title for the gorgeous art, another intriguing mystery (like what is *up* with the magic in the poor library?? who or what is to blame?? 👀) and of course the lovely characters we've been introduced to thus far.

Of Sense and Soul - I'm a regency romance girl. Like after you strip away the other stuff, I am but a poor woman with simple needs: a good ass love story 🤧💛 It's about the yearning and the slow burn and the will they/won't they/PLEASEEE they...I've never been so charmed by a demo, and the full game is going to be amazing I just know it!

Made Marion - This project is a game I've been keeping tabs on for a hot minute but hadn't taken the time to sit and properly enjoy the demo. I'M SO GLAD I DID!!! It's in early access now, so I'm hoping eventually I'll be able to carve out some time to play, but guysss Velvet Cupcake is doing the Thing?!? No idea which love interest I'll go for first, but I had a fun time meeting the Nottingham peeps in the demo.

Herotome (Super Demo) - Oh gosh. Oh gosh oh gosh oh my GOSHHH. Where do I even began?? (Really the question is where the hell do I end because this is one of those projects I talk about a lot/think about a lot and surprisingly haven't run out of things to say zkjfksjd). Another game I've been following for a while, it 100% lives up to the superhero genre in its aesthetic, the characters you interact with, the music and sound design, and of course the slowly unfurling story. Jade and Mia had come out as my top faves, Warden is still there, like hovering in the backgroud, shhhh but I have a special place in my heart for Griffin too (that conversation we have with her?? I have so many screenshots just so I can go back and reread and sear the words in my brain. Like a weirdo. Yup.)

Celestial Crowns - Stats building, celestial royalty, dating sim where you fuck around and find out your choices directly affect your MC's personality?? I'm sat. I supported the Kickstarter and now I try to practice patience for the full game's release siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighh.

OTOME/JOSEI JAM

Please note this is a SUPER abridged list for my sanity and I fell a little more in love with these 2 jams with each entry I played...

Intertwine - As embarrassing as it sounds, I've never given much thought to the "red string" thing, and I consume more than enough romance media LOL!! But Van is suuuuuch a beautiful man, the UI for this game is so interactive and lovely, the music is ALSO lovely, just lovely-love all the way around teehee. (Also this game encourages replayabillity so like, do with that info what you will.)

Spring Boy [Demo] - I believe this game is going through a complete rehaul, so my thoughts and feelings refer to the original jam entry I played. The art is bright and cute and it's a super super short demo, but I was intrigued by the other student we meet on our mission to plead with our professor about our bombed exam lol!

Assignment Due: Project Blue - IRl group projects??? Suck absolute ass. Group projects with a guy name Asher?? Suddenly it's my new favorite thing in the world 😁

Cryptid Campaign Manager [DEMO] - Remember the last time I looked over a cryptid dating sim??? Remember how I was SUCH a fool?? Good thing I didn't make that mistake again!! The prologue is such a tease but you get an idea of what the full game is gonna be like, and I'm excited to see where my career involving love (and politics) goes!

Heart Cage [Demo] - Yoooooo I stay my ass far far far away from yanderes (could never get into the trope or the character type). WELP. Guess I just needed to keep searching because I really downloaded this off a whim--well, the whim being one of my fellow dev peers playing and rating-- and proceeded to get sucked in 🤧I thought being a detective would be the highlight, but I guuuueeesssss I was more into the romance options than I thought. Oops.

Evernight - I tried to explain what this game meant to me on the side blog, but words failed me. I still don't know what to say other than I loved it?? Which is like ummm I say I love everything, and yeah I'm easy to please BUT Y'ALLLLLL if you play no other game, play this one. Please. Date a werewolf. Or a vampire. Or a fae. Plz. Also figuring out the mystery of your MC's abilities and past is just delightful, ugh.

Bright Oak (demo) - Anotha one I wrote about on the side blog!!! Play this one!!! The writing is lush and atmospheric and the characters are all delightful and it's another game with a mystery to untangle!

The Faithfulness of the Universe- This one gets the award for most unique all around entry that I played. Theeeeee prettiest pixel art to bless my eyeballs, and this tasty mystery concerning Fate and witch Faustina's future (or lack thereof 👀) and what it all means. As a player I very much want to know what it all means!

A Cup For All Seasons - Another game that needs its flowers y'all. It's short but super healing and super cozy and the voice acting and music really tie the gaming experience together???

The Working Woman's Guide to Burning Bridges - DEMO - It's the way I played the demo twice and I've been thinking about it ever since 😭😭😭🙃 obviously life happens and things come up, plus this was a demo. But. BUT!!! I am on my hands and knees prayinnggg the team gets together again to finish the game. I love playing as a stressed, lowkey bitter hot mess who doesn't have her life together 😂somehow the fictional version is soooo much more entertaining!!!

Keyframes (Spring Demo) - After the game College Craze, this is legit THE college, slice of life visual novel of my dreams. I cannot wait for the updated demo next year, and the Kickstarter whenever that rolls around. And now that the developer is on Tumblr, I've definitely been stalking the account and reading each new post like it's my day/night/weekend job 🤧

Hello Counsel 💋 - Okay I take it back, Evernight is like a 20/10 but Hello Counsel is like an 100/10 👁️👄👁️ This game is necessary for my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, alright? The banter ✅ the character designs ✅ the music ✅ the sizzling chemistry between Poise and Salem ✅ I wish this game had more buzz because IT'S SO GOOD!!! (also the dev, Miseri, is who I wanna be when I grow up. I've made it through almost their whole backlog of games and there are no misses and EVERY game is different from the rest and it makes it hard for a toodler dev--ME--to cope LOL)

Candied Hearts - Isekaied into a candy themed game?? Sign me TF UP!!! (Peppermint I love you dearly, you must understand.)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

The Knight's Dilemma - I don't even know how I originally stumbled upon this??? I just know it had been in my backlog for a hot minute and I was intrigued enough to save it way back when. Y'ALL WHY DIDN'T I PLAY SOONER SKJFHFJFH! There's a couple different endings, I loved the voice direction, AND it's such a simple concept of a game that was just executed beautifully.

Trouble Comes Twice - If I had to make a top 5 list of romance VNs, guess who makes the list?? Guess. Guess guess guess. Have you guessed yet??? LOL! I have been in love with TCT since it's development days and with each passing month, waiting in anticipation, playing the Pateron beta builds, screaming on the main blog about every single thought I had about Jace and Hazel (shoutout to Jace for helping me figure out *me*) Lol if you're curious about said thoughts, those posts are on this blog and not the side blog.

Aelfric the Wondrous - 10/10 would love to forget my first play through JUST to have that experience fresh again 😭😭💛Cute and funny and a wonderful parody type game all around.

A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986 - Goodness, there's no excuse for why this took me years to finish but anyhoo, I finished, I loved it, I recommend it! It's romantic and achingly authentic and the art is soooo gorgeous I literally can't stand it 😭

The Things You Do For Love - Unhinged yandere manages to entertain and garner sympathy and laughter from Gemini. And that poly ending is chef's kiss too????

Band Camp Boyfriend - There are a handful of games I found and loved before I began my game development journey, and this is one of them. BCB is so dear to me, because of the story and characters but also because of the Dynamic Duo creators and their team behind the scenes. I was never a band kid I was a chorus kid but just as the band geeks loved this game to pieces, us normal folks do too!! Even the boys who I didn't like I STILL managed to find joy in playing their routes (still have a few more to finish at the time of this posting lol, GOTTA GET THE FINAL ROUTE YO). Anyway, this game more than delivered for me and I hope more people keep discovering it!!

Belle Automata: Chronicle I [RELEASED] - While only Chronicle 1 is out at the time of this posting, I already know that the 2nd and 3rd parts are going to be just as amazing???? I wrote about this one on the side blog, so here's my copypaste that still rings true:

I love TNP (The Nightmare Prince) but Victor’s route hit the sweet spot for me. Maybe it’s the slow(er) burn nature of this route, maybe it’s the reserved nature of Victor and watching him slowly start to care (AND NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE FEELINGS TEEHEE) for me.

A Date with Death - I wrote about this on the side blog--again--. The demo. And then right after finishing a route. And then again where I was fully awake and still managed to sound deranged. No copypaste for that, I shall be nice. But yeah!! Another game where I was screaming at the sky about how much I love it and how I'll never know peace as long as I live.

Our Life: Baxter DLC - I need to offer an official apology to both Cove and Derek because falling head over heels, down the stairs, crashing into the parking lot, falling again but down a manhole for Baxter's infuriating ass was NOT on my 2023 bingo board??? HELLO???? I bought his DLC just to complete my OL collection. Was not expecting to love it this much. Was not expecting to be called to write fanfic and abandon all responsibilities to do this. WHILE DOWN WITH COVID TOO. Allow me to play the song of my people. *Send in the Clowns plays*

Our Cinderella - (this is so funny I'm taking about a side game before the main game LOLOLOLOL) Guys. Guysss. You guyyyysss 🥹if you're looking for a cozy, hilarious, equally oddly and wonderfully sweet short game, this is the one!! You may have your personal favorite Iggy ship (like me) but all the pairings are so amazing and just make sense lol!

Wylde Flowers - This is the only non visual novel game on here but it gets the spotlight because I did NOT spend 90+ hours on this game to gatekeep this beauty. No. It the coziest, the funniest, the funnest, the most addictive Switch game (after Teacup) I've ever played.

Fully Released (& still on 1st playthrough)

Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin - Life kicked my butt and then sat on me SO while I finally got my grubby hands on the full copy, I still have only played the entirety of the demo. But. We will return to this in 2024 and hopefully I'll have a full review for the next wrap up!

Our Wonderland - I looked back at the side blog and I can't believe it was only THIS year that I started OW??? Because I'd known of the game and the dev for longer than that??? So basically what I'm saying is that I was chicken shit for longer than I've been in love with this world that Developer Carrot has created kjzhhshggj. But OMG to get me, who is scared oh so easily to get hella invested in this clearly labeled horror game??????????????? And even with shit gets super absurd and hella disturbing, I cannot stop playing. At the time of this post, I'm only in Act 4, hence the category above, but it's only because I play each act in a sitting and lose track of space and time and myself. That's a compliment btw.

...

Okie!! That's 2023 in a nutshell! I played a looooot of really good games this year and while I would have liked to talk about them all, I think this list provides a nice overview.

Let me know if we share any favorites!

- Gemini 💛

#gaming year in review #gamedev rambles #yeah no I cannot keep creating more work for me #2024 I am GOING to make a shorter list 😭🤧#hmmmm fun drinking game:#take a shot every time the word 'mystery' is used ☠️

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misc-obeyme · 2 months

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your post about the human au with beel as a farmer has me giggling and kicking my feet!! and now i can't stop imagining the brothers on their own little farm (writing this even though i know nothing about farming)

lucifer and satan mainly handle the finances, making sure they have the best equipment and techniques to produce good crops. the goats and sheep seem to take a liking to lucifer, especially the baby ones, who love chewing on his clothes. satan stays away from them bc they keep thinking his blond hair is food, choosing instead to coo over the farm cats

mammon and levi are the unofficial handlers and bully victims of the birds. mammon gets pecked by the chickens as he goes to collect their eggs, and he says one day, he'll cook them all up as revenge!! (everyone knows he's lying). levi spends more time with the ducks, where they quack at him on the farm and when he's fishing at the local ponds. (one time, a group of baby ducks imprinted on him and followed him home. it took forever for him to get them back to their mama)

asmo does a lot of advertising for the farm, with both his social media and charming personality at the farmers' market. he designs the cutest packaging and sews any holes that end up in his brothers' clothes with lovely little patches. his favorite animals on the farm (a couple piglets and bunnies) are marked with pink bows, but you could tell by how he squeals whenever he sees them

you already went over beel, but i imagine him still having his super strength and can easily carry adult sheep with ease. he also has gained a lot of (kissable) freckles from being in the sun all the time

belphie is a straight up cow whisperer, which may be caused by his habit of cuddling with the cows on their pasture to skip out on chores. but he's great at milking and can instantly tell if something's wrong with the cows, to the point that other farmers go to him in need of help. he's a lazybones hero!

aaaaaa the sillies - 🎠

Honestly, I'm surprised that little post of mine got so much attention lol! I was definitely thinking about it more in terms of what I think the boys would do if they were humans, rather than how it would be if they all worked on the same farm. But I saw a couple tags suggesting a Stardew Valley crossover, which could be all of them on the same farm or all of them with separate farms. I haven't played Stardew in a long time, but I am so obsessed with farming sims it's ridiculous. My favorite is Story of Seasons Trio of Towns, I've played it so many times and I still replay it from time to time because I loved it so much lol.

ANYWAY that's all to say that my farming experience comes almost entirely from video games. I took a class about plants and agriculture in high school, but otherwise it's all vibes and cozy gaming!

But I think you've nailed it with these. I keep seeing Satan falling asleep in a pile of hay, just completely covered in barn cats. Cute lil Asmo all decked out like a farmer but only for the aesthetic 'cause he's running that farmer's market booth like nobody's business. Cow whisperer Belphie, please I love it so much.

Also freckled, sun-kissed Beel... human!Beel would have so many freckles if he spent any time outside at all. I love this because I'm extremely freckled myself and it'd be really cute if MC had freckles to match his.

Though I actually hadn't even thought about MC's role in a human au. Since they're already human. Would it be reversed? MC is the demon in this scenario? Or just MC is their same human self but they meet the others in a different way? I think both options could be interesting. I was initially going with the idea of there being no magic and no realms though.

I was trying to think of what the characters would do with their lives based on their interests and Beel just screamed farmer to me. Like yeah he probably still works out a bunch, but he really loves food. So I thought it would be interesting to consider that as his primary motivation for wanting to become a farmer. He just wants to feed everybody.

Anyway, I love this, I'm thoroughly enjoying imagining the boys on their farm. Though Mammon threatening to cook the chickens is hilarious. Like I can just hear him saying that to a bunch of indifferent hens, too. It reminds me of a story my mom used to tell me about my great-grandmother getting so annoyed at my uncle's pet rooster for getting his beak tangled in her yarn that she straight up made soup out of him. I dunno how true that story is, but it's one my mom & her siblings have told me numerous times lol.

#has there been a farmer event?#if not there should be #give us farmer Beel card art please #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me brothers #🎠 anon #misc answers

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genopaint · 3 days

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Week 16 of the Daily Dragon Challenge is here! Apologies on the delay for posting this... I was lazy. BUT!! We're finally in the 100's!!

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #105 - Garchomp

Figured it'd be the perfect time to draw this fella since I just beat Platinum for the first time yesterday! Sadly I didn't end up getting one on my team but they're SUCH a cool dragon all the same

Daily Dragon #106 - Rex

One of the cutest Mario dragons! There's just something so charming about this little guy

+ 2 variants

While drawing this it really dawned on me how interesting this enemy is. It's one of the many Mario enemies that only appeared in 1 main series entry, but unlike a lot of other similar enemies it just will randomly appear in spinoff content a lot. Not even just as cameos, but like actual tangible enemy appearances. It's been an enemy in 3 games post SMW, 4 if you count the Minecraft Mario thing. That actually puts it over a LOT of random Mario enemies, but it still doesn't appear enough to be a Mario staple enemy. idk just kind of interesting to me lol

Daily Dragon #107 - Shelly Draws

A kobold with a passion (and a horde) for Trading Cards! She loves trying out new ones, and dreams of one day making her very own. Her favorite food are hamburgers.

This is a redesign of an old kobold girl from a Monster Girl design challenge thing I did back in 2016! Sadly I don't remember her name, but I do remember that I gave her a passion for trading cards. Which is more important than a name anyway, so I gave her a new card-pun name

Daily Dragon #108 - Koibito

My friend Sox's super cool Piranha Dragon! This design is super cool and I love Dragon hybrids of any kind! Thank you for letting me include them in this challenge!!

Daily Dragon #109 - Neonagon

Strange 2D creatures that appear on walls in cities. Be careful when using regular weapons on them, because their appearance doesn't make the walls any more malleable!

Another redraw! This was from a prompt request I made in 2020! I think it's a neat concept and it was a simple to do and I kinda didn't have huge drawing energy today lol

Daily Dragon #110 - Field Dragon

These incredibly tiny dragons are just slightly larger than berries. They use their spikes to collect various pieces of food while out and about, as well as breaking open seeds and nuts to eat!

Daily Dragon #111 - Fumedradon

Odd fume spewing dragons that are always found laughing and moving oddly as their nests are filled with the strange smoke the billow out. If you're going to deal with one, wear a gas mask

is... is this the first holiday dragon so far??? of course i ended up only doing that on THIS holiday and not any other.... Also 4/20 landed on day 111 isn't that neat :)

#dragon #dragons #character design #creature design #kobold #scalie #anthro #pokemon #garchomp #super mario world #fanart #my stuff #oc

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iamamythologicalcreature · 21 days

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An Ask Game for Writers to Procrastinate Working on Your WIP(s)

(Not like I need the assistance, but I'm so thrilled to be thought of as a writer that I'm totally doing this.)

Thank you so much for the invites @aristocratic-otter, @bookish-bogwitch, @shrekgogurt, @ic3-que3n, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @drowninginships, @best--dress, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @monbons, @thewholelemon, @whatevertheweather, and @youarenevertooold! (I think I might be the last one in the 'verse doing this, but that won't stop me from tagging more people at the end.) I've loved reading everyone's answers!

Okay. Here we go. I am absolutely using my flimsy claim to authorhood to answer these. >.>

1. 🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s):

The Haunting of Simon Snow

2. 🍄Describe your WIP/one of your WIP(s) in the format of “___ + ___ =___”

Construction Worker!Simon + haunted manor house = a most interesting summer job

3. 🌍What tags or warnings will your / one of your WIP(s) need if you intend to share it?

Well, it's a ghost story. You can draw some conclusions from that.

4. 🧭An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?

A Victorian's Gothic

5. ⚠️Which WIP your most likely to finish or update next?

It sure as hell better be Haunting. I mean, my goodness, it's looped around my brain like a too-patient boa constrictor, just sloooowly squeezing.

6. 💾What is your document of your WIP/ a WIP called? (not the stories actual title but what you’ve saved it as)

snowbaz.scriv is my catch-all Scrivener file for all ficcy things

7. 🖍Post Any sentence(s) from your WIP.

There’s a person that I used to be. Magic I used to hold, magic that held me. I have done everything I can to forget that feeling, because it was never supposed to be mine. I was never magic. He’s magic. He’s magic, and I can almost touch him. He’s magic, and he can almost hold me. I live on the edge of almost all the time, so that’s enough. (It’s never enough.)

8. ♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP.

This was originally planned as a story written in letters. (Doing that with something else, now, and it works way better in a different story.)

9. 🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

I'm going to stick to snowbaz fanfic for this, because if I broaden it any further, this list will instantly become quite long. (I have a lot of original story ideas.) For snowbaz, though? Well, there's the one I'm planning for COTTA. There are a couple AU's that I've written way too many notes on. And then a Fangirl crossover fic that I sincerely hope to someday write. (Technically I started it, but only a few hundred words at this point.)

10. 🤡How many WIPS are you actively working on?

Actively? One. Maybe two. Kinda thinking two, but the second one is new and more of a game at this point, so we'll see. (Not quite so actively I also have my Baz fic, my "Silence" fic where Baz successfully steals Simon's voice. It's roughly (super roughly) outlined, and I've written several scenes, but it's on the back-burner for Haunting. And COTTA. No more new fics after that, though! I really want to tell that story!)

11. 🛠Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?

That's funny. What a question. XD YES. Yes, there are scenes. I'm designing Pitch Manor to get through this damned scene LOL

12. ❤️Not a question, just a second Kudos to send.

Thankee kindly!

On the off chance there are any fic writers left out there who haven't yet done this... Tags! @mooncello, @cutestkilla, @blackberrysummerblog, @hushed-chorus, @fatalfangirl, @onepintobean, @j-nipper-95, @facewithoutheart, @angelsfalling16, @noblecorgi, @alexalexinii, anyone else who wants to. Cheers!

#ask game #get to know me #tumblr tag game #tag game #snowbaz #snowbaz fanfic #works in progress #fandom friends

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heart-of-the-morningstar · 6 months

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I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE FNAF MOVIE AND I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS

✨ Non-spoiler section ✨

I had such a fun time with this movie! There were a ton of Easter eggs I caught and I’m sure there’s a few that I missed! My best advice for anyone wanting to see this movie is don’t take it super seriously, you’ll enjoy it more! The makers of this film weren’t lying when they said that they made this movie for the fans, I do feel like fans will enjoy this movie way more than a general audience and that’s perfectly fine! It’s campy at some parts and funnier than I thought it would be, but that’s what made it so fun! Now for the nitty-gritty…

❌ SPOILERS BELOW ❌

What I liked…

• First off, Matthew Patrick is a fucking LIAR! He does have a cameo in the movie, he says his iconic “That’s just a theory” line which was great! He’s a waiter at a diner, which leads me to my next point

• The diner was named “Sparky’s”, which I feel like only OG fans will get the reference. But for those of you who don’t know, back when FNAF 1 came out, there was a rumor of a secret/rare animatronic in the game called Sparky the Dog. There was a fake image floating around showing him standing in the door to parts and service. This was later confirmed to be fake. BUT! In the movie they also have a dog-looking animatronic in the parts and service room which absolutely took me out lol

• Acting was great! Everyone was fun to watch, Josh Hutcherson was a great lead as Mike and Piper Rubio was so sweet as Abby but I gotta give my props to Matthew Lillard towards the end of the movie, he looked like he was having so much fun being this unhinged monster! Speaking of…

• There is a spring lock scene!! It is real!! And God was it cathartic to watch! Obviously being PG-13, they couldn’t do blood and guts galore, but I think they managed to pull it off pretty well! Afton’s scene was definitely my favorite in the film hands down! And yes, he gets his “I always come back” line which put 5 years back on my life if I’m being honest lmao

• There is blood in this movie! Not a gratuitous amount, but it was enough for what they were going for I think! The kills of the people breaking to Freddy’s were more entertaining to watch than I thought! Especially Freddy’s kill…that caught me completely off guard lmao

• There aren’t too many jumpscares but that was fine with me! They do this repeat jumpscare with a little figurine of Balloon Boy like 3 times and I thought it was funny every time! They do a really good job with tension in this movie!

• The animatronics!!!! LOVED THEM!!!! They were so detailed and well designed, they were so fun to watch!! The Jim Henson company did an absolutely stellar job with the designs, I want to hug them 🥺

• So the story…I thought it was fine! They do stray from canon by making Vanessa Afton’s daughter in the movie instead of Mike being his son. They do confirm Afton was the one who kidnapped and killed Mike’s brother Garrett. The story is kind of left open ended as if they could continue the story (which I hope they do), but I think it leaves a more or less satisfying ending!

• There’s a minor mid-credit scene with Cory Kenshin and a secret message at the very end of the credits. I couldn’t hear it well but it’s spelled-out letters exactly like the ones from the death minigames in FNAF 2

• Yes, The Living Tombstone’s FNAF song is in the end credits, I felt my soul leave my body 😭

Minor Negatives…

• The story is slow at the beginning, it takes a little bit for anything super interesting to take place

• There are some plot points that don’t get explained or resolved (which is par for the course for FNAF) but that leads me to believe that they want to make sequels which I am all here for

• The Aunt Jane character wasn’t super important, she was fine, but she was there just to serve as an antagonist to Mike for a whole 5 minutes of the movie, if that

• I wanted so much more Afton/Spring Bonnie time, it was too short for me but I am happy with what I got. Also, he didn’t wear any purple in the movie which I think is a crime 😂

• Kind of wish there was an R rated version of this movie even though FNAF isn’t known for being bloody and gory, but some parts felt a little tame

• Also please correct me if I’m wrong but, they didn’t use the Toreador March music at all?? If I missed it, please tell me but I was waiting to hear it and it never came from what I remember

Speculation…

• So the biggest plot issue for me was that they never explained Afton’s intentions for killing. I think fans of the games know why he’s killing, but the general audience won’t. I’m sure it has something to do with the saw blade machine that tries to stuff your head into Freddy’s head. But it wasn’t clear. Vanessa never gave us a straight answer either even though she was in on it from the beginning.

• Towards the beginning of the movie, Abby is shown to be talking to her “invisible friend”, this is before Mike is hired as Freddy’s security guard. Turns out that friend is the ghost kid who possess Golden Freddy/Fredbear (again, isn’t clear lol). I wanna know why that kid showed up before Mike and Abby even went to the location??

• I may be reading too much into this, but when Mike goes in to get a new job after being fired from his mall security guard job, he’s talking to “Steve” and Steve does something interesting. He’s berating him for his inability to hold down a job, the he looks at his name on the file and just goes “…Mike S…” and just, doesn’t finish saying his name. He looks at Mike really weird like he’s trying to find something, and then just completely changes the subject. IDK, I’ll probably have to watch it again, and I think it would be a stretch to go the “Mike Afton” route especially since they established Vanessa was his kid. But ya never know with FNAF 😂

• Also the secret message that was spelled out at the end of the credits. If any of y’all know what they spelled, please tell me because I could not figure it out! I would love to know what it said!

Conclusion…

I just had a blast with this movie! I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie but I think Blumhouse and everyone who worked on this movie did an amazing job, you can tell they put so much heart and soul into this! I will patiently be awaiting the announcement of the next movie until then!

Rating - 8.5/10

#fnaf #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddy’s movie #fnaf spoilers #fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy’s movie spoilers #five nights at freddy’s spoilers #spoilers #fnaf movie review

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multi-fandomsfreak · 4 months

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MX x Reader Prompt

Hey, it’s me again! I hope you had a great a Christmas (If you do celebrate.) and an even better new years also did you like Mario’s Madness V2? Also what are your favorite song(s) from the mod. Personally I liked Last Course and Starman Slaughter the most.

Anyways I’m getting off track… 👀 😅

So, imagine this.. Boyfriend, Reader and Girlfriend are all dating (Or they can be friends if you don’t like poly relationships.) but when we they get the cartridge for the cursed Mario game. (Mario’s Madness..) They go through mostly everyone but then they get to MX’s stage. MX is looking to kill the group but he takes interest in Reader and tries to take them away from Boyfriend and Girlfriend and claim them as his own but Boyfriend and Girlfriend ain’t having none of that so they try their best to keep reader away from MX.

You can decide how the ending goes.. (Please use She/They pronouns..)

Anyways that’s it.. I hope you’re doing okay and please remember to take care of yourself. 🫶🏽🫶🏽

MX Taking An Interest In Reader

Hey there thanks for the ask!

I did have a great Christmas and New Years (besides my injury of course). Honestly I really loved Mario’s Madness V2. It’s one of the best mods out there. My favourite songs from the mod is MX’s 2nd song Demise (totally not bias or anything lol) but I also like Paranoia and Dark Forest.

Also I did friendship for this ask hope you don’t mind. Don’t have anything against poly relationships I just thought it would be best for this scenario. ~J/Blaze

Pronouns: She/They

Warning: ⚠️Kidnapping + Harm Done To Reader + Mentions Of Murdering⚠️

Requested: Yes/No

Characters: MX + BF + GF

Proofread: ❌

Credits: Art by Deadtos on DeviantArt + Banner by Kaileyfln on Pinterest

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- Honestly, how the fuck did you get yourself in this situation? Well I’ll tell you how. You see your friends BF and GF invited you over to hang out and how could you resist saying no to the lovely couple so you immediately headed over. At first it was a bit silent due to the three of you not knowing what to do, then eventually one of you brought up playing a game. So you decided to order a random Mario game and just like that it immediately arrived. Being full of excitement, BF immediately opened it only for the three of you to find a cartridge which had some substance on it and had the word 'MARIO' in all capitals.

+ All three of you gave each other a confused look wondering what was up with the cartridge “Maybe it’s some new design?” You spoke up although it was a weird reasoning it was the only thing you can think of “yeah I guess so?” BF said in response to which GF shrugged her shoulders “Let’s just get this shit over with” she sighed as went back to sit on the couch with you joining her while BF went to set up the console and honestly that’s all you remember. The next few seconds happened so fast. First you saw BF next to you then he was gone then the same happened to GF then eventually you felt a hand roughly grabbing onto your shirt and dragging you into the TV to which you managed to find both of your friends there.

- That’s how you got dragged into this mess, meeting a range of disturbing people based on the classic super hero Mario and his friends. Luckily thanks to BF and his rapping skills he managed to get all three of you out of the situation however something worse was about to happen.

- The three of you had recently beaten the previous EXE and were on your way to go face the next one you were faced with a Mario look-alike and with everything that has happened so far the three of you knew what was going to go down. You were already facing another one however something felt different. Obviously you could tell he had insane bloodlust for all of you but you started to notice something. You couldn’t tell if it was your eyes playing with you but you could swear that whoever this was, he was staring at you. Like he was curious about you. Eventually both BF and GF had started to notice this thing being oddly creepy around you. Obviously they were both worried because they didn’t know what may or may not happen to you.

- Eventually shit hit the fan as the being then revealed his true self as MX and to say you were overwhelmed with fear was an understatement. Like sure the others had something that set off some fear in you, you didn’t know why but you felt like this is different. Maybe because for some reason he had an eye on you but you trust BF and he managed to get all three of you this far so you paid no attention to it. MX on the other hand you’ve caught his eye. The only thing that is going through his head is “I’m taking them”. He doesn’t know why but that doesn’t matter to him.

- Even though he knew you were on GF and BF’s side so obviously you were up to something but at the same time he had a feeling you didn’t have anything special going on, just someone who just so happened to get roped into their business and had to suffer the consequences of it. For some strange reason he liked that. He figured he could use you as some sort of bait for the two of them, maybe using this to get to know other things about you and keep you forever bringing despair onto the couple over being responsible for losing a friend of theirs. So with quick thinking and reflexes he managed to quickly snatch you before the rest of you could react.

+ You couldn’t help letting out a slight noise as you felt MX’S tight grip around you, holding you like a doll before bringing you close to his face. That damn sadistic smile on his face as he eyed you up and down causing shivers being sent down your spine “…well aren’t you a fascinating human” he eventually spoke up paying no attention to BF and GF who now started talking to him demanding that he let you go “Hey, leave her alone she’s not the one your fighting here!” BF stood in front like he was going to physically fight him despite the massive size compared to him and MX “Yeah you heard him let [Name] go” GF preparing herself to save you not caring about what might happen to her “[Name]…so that’s what your called” MX chuckled to himself “I’ve got to say it definitely suits someone like you” You feel yourself physically getting disgusted at the way he was talking to you as finger dragged itself from your face down to your chin forcing you to look at him. Eventually he had enough of being in BF & GF trying to give you back so he took you to a place, planning on keeping you away till he gets rid of the two himself.

- You confused as fuck as to why the hell he wanted you well besides getting rid of the couple but besides that you honestly don’t know why. Should you feel glad that you’ve been chosen? Well to him you should but honestly you didn’t feel it. But you were just glad that he wasn’t trying anything with you, not yet at least. You did try your best to escape from his grip however it felt impossible due to his death like grip on your body, you could feel it almost crushing your body. You couldn’t tell if he actually was trying to kill you or not despite showing some interest in you.

- But surprisingly he actually didn’t try to kill you but it didn’t really change the fact that you didn’t really want to be around him. But luckily for you after a while you couldn’t really tell how long due not being able to tell the time. Eventually both GF and BF managed to find you much to his dismay. He desperately wanted to murder the two of them but at last he finally managed to go along with the gang's little game of rap battle offering you as a sacrifice to him if they lose. However, just like how it went in the game and with the earlier exe’s BF manages to defeat him not only once but twice, getting you back and escaping with some help from GF only to face more exe’s but honestly they didn’t care they were just happy to have you back.

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silvermoon424 · 2 years

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How would you rank the various PMMM spinoffs?

For the purposes of this list, I'm just counting the manga. Obviously this is just my personal opinion, but I'd put them in this order. I have enjoyed every spinoff I've read!

The Different Story: Pretty much flawless imo, and an absolute must-read for all fans of the original anime. It gives so much additional depth and development to the Holy Quintet, especially Kyoko and Mami.

Tart Magica: Another stellar manga that's pretty much tied for first place. Easily the best of the independent spinoff manga imo. The characters are really likable, and even if you're not normally into historical fiction (like me) it's cool to read about the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc's life (as the mangaka includes a lot of notes). Seeing magical girls in a historical setting is also super interesting.

Magia Record (manga): The game and anime are their own things, but I love the game a lot and feel like the manga has been a great adaptation so far. The anime ended up being a big disappointment (at least to me) so I'm hopeful the manga will eventually be a way for people to access the story of Magia Record. Knock on wood it doesn't get axed before they finish the story of Arc 1!

Oriko Magica: Another solid entry, although I think you should be required to read Sadness Prayer after you read the original Oriko Magica manga. Sadness Prayer greatly fleshes out the characters and story of the original manga (it takes place a little before and during the events of Oriko Magica, showing things we didn't see or explaining things better). Not to mention the art very much improved by Sadness Prayer too; I know a lot of people who won't even touch Oriko Magica because of how wonky the art is, lol. Despite the art being off-putting sometimes, I would still recommend the Oriko Magica series because Oriko and Kirika are such great characters.

The Wraith Arc: I'm a bit more lukewarm on this entry. I do like it, but I think it could have benefitted from another volume or two to flesh out the story some more. Which is a shame, because this is pretty much the only look we have so far at Madokami's new universe where Witches no longer exist (Rebellion takes place in Homulilly's barrier, and Magia Record takes place in a unique timeline where Madokami does exist but she can't interfere in this one universe). I still think it's worth a read and as always, Hanokage's art is gorgeous.

Suzune Magica: Great concept, not so great execution. I love the idea of a magical girl serial killer who kills other magical girls to "save" them from the fate of becoming a Witch, but the story feels so rushed. Especially the last volume, which really could have benefitted from another volume or two to flesh out the motivations and actions of the surprise antagonist. I do like the characters in this manga, though. Worth a read, but I'd put it low on the priority list.

Kazumi Magica: Imo the worst spinoff. It was drawn by a hentai artist, so the magical girl designs and some scenes can be... uncomfortable, lol (not, like, explicit but definitely ecchi). The story itself is kind of a disjointed mess, and even with 5 volumes it feels like the there wasn’t enough time for the writer to flesh out all the different plot elements. I think it's worth noting that Kazumi Magica was published when the anime was initially airing, so it's entirely possible the writer didn't know all the intricacies of the PMMM universe and had to go back and contradict himself/come up with alternate explanations. It definitely gives a sense of "early installment weirdness" that the other spinoffs don't have (even Oriko Magica, which was published at the same time as Kazumi Magica). I'm a sucker for all things PMMM so I enjoyed it anyway, lol.

#pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #tart magica #kazumi magica #suzune magica #oriko magica #the different story #the wraith arc

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systemrestart · 2 months

Text

Took me a while, but I've finally finished writing my thoughts on all 22 Touhou games I've played!!!

I tried to keep it brief but uhhhhhhh it ended up being insanely long anyways ;; Whoops. Maybe someday I'll be able to make full-on video reviews for each of them, there was a Lot I glazed over and a lot that's hard to describe without footage.

But regardless, here it is, my thoughts on Touhou 1-19, plus 9.5, 12.5, and 18.5! (Warning that this may be incomprehensible to a non-bullet hell player 😅)

[TOUHOU 1: HIGHLY RESPONSIVE TO PRAYERS]

The obvious black sheep of the family, HRtP isn't a bullet hell shooter, it's an arkanoid-style breakout game. But even so, I LOVE it. HRtP is very precious to me. It's definitely Hard, VERY hard, and the stage layouts can be a little unfair in places lol, but the controls are tight and responsive, and it's incredibly satisfying to improve.

Or even just to play purely for fun! For a decade, I honestly didn't expect to ever 1cc it, I just enjoyed playing casually, and HRtP is very friendly to that approach, with infinite continues, the ability to max out your starting lives, and a shorter time to complete than the other games. It's almost 30 years old now, but if you like breakout style games or old arcade, I still think it's worth a try! Maybe someone else out there will come to love it as much as I do

[TOUHOU 2: STORY OF EASTERN WONDERLAND]

Touhou's first proper shmup/bullet hell, and it is unquestionably the roughest in the series ;; That's not to say it's bad, just that it's aged a little poorly.

I try not to hold future QoL stuff against the older games, but man, not having a focus option, or health bars for the bosses, is Painful. This game also has some of the worst visibility issues in the series (like, bullets being the same color as the background, with no outline), and also an awful glitch that hurts gameplay (dying SHIFTS YOUR HITBOX. considering that knowing where your hitbox is is VITAL to survival……. yikes), so yeah, I understand why it's not fondly remembered.

But it has its charms!! There's the infamous (gay) conversation in Stage 2, this is the only game in which Genji (Reimu's pet turtle who helps her fly in the PC-98 games) speaks, I think the low cap on lives+easy score 1-ups is an interesting combo, AND this game introduced Marisa!!! Even if her design is very different now

I don't play this one much. If I were to rank all the games this one would probably be second lowest. But it's an okay time and you can still get some tense battles!!

[TOUHOU 3: PHANTASMAGORIA OF DIMENSIONAL DREAM]

The first VS shooter of the series!

Basically the idea is that you clear waves of enemies to both send bullets/attacks at your enemy, and charge your gauge to send even more powerful attacks, or even a boss. First to lose all their health loses the round.

The VS shooters are very chaotic, and the enemy AI can absolutely be unfair ;; But the high energy back-and-forth of a match is extremely thrilling!! I also really adore the final boss of this game, Yumemi Okazaki……. a human college professor from the real world, who came to Gensokyo to try and capture someone to prove magic is real to her school…… and she fights with, science? I find her super charming and fun, one of my favorite final boss characters

Now that I've played other VS shooters, including the game that apparently inspired this one, I can say that PoDD is very rudimentary. But sometimes you don't need a lot of fancy bells and whistles to have fun! Now if only it didn't require button mashing, I would play it more often……..

[TOUHOU 4: LOTUS LAND STORY]

LLS was my favorite Touhou game for a long, long, long time.

A big reason it was a favorite is because it's one of the most beginner friendly games by far. No cap on lives (plus 1-ups are granted by score, one of the easier systems), a free bomb after every stage, you can increase your starting lives significantly, there's a "slowmode" option to help you train, most of the patterns are either exploitable or designed around having no visible hitbox…… etc. It was first game I beat on Hard, way back when I was a teenager and could normally only play Easy mode. That's still a precious memory.

LLS also has one of the best overall soundtracks in the entire series. The fun, dream-like Lotus Love, into the tense and foreboding Sleeping Terror, into the calm anticipation of Dream Land, into an explosive heartpounding finale with Faint Dream ~ Inanimate Dream………. absolutely killer.

LLS has aged a little, it doesn't have much of the "flashy", colorful danmaku Touhou is known for. And despite being GENERALLY pretty easy there are a couple insanely difficult patterns that aren't balanced well. Aside from that, it's a little Too easy for me now (at least on Hard and below), but, I still play it regularly just for fun, and will always have a very special place in my heart for it.

(plus, side note, LLS was the introduction of the Stage 4 gimmick, where something is unique about the 4th Stage, boss, or both. I love Stage 4 gimmicks and miss them dearly in the newer games,,)

[TOUHOU 5: MYSTIC SQUARE]

God I love MS. I love MS so much. Probably my second favorite in the series at time of writing.

MS truly is the Greatest Hits of the PC-98 era. Mima and Yuuka come back as playable characters, the danmaku patterns are fun and unique (so much so that ZUN reused a few of them in future games!!!), it has most of the QoL features LLS had besides the free bombs, it introduced one of my favorite characters (Alice), and this is one of the few games where I actually find the faster characters easier/more fun to play as!! Both due to the bullet patterns themselves and because the 1-up system (point item collection) is especially suited for fast characters.

MS is much harder than LLS, but a lot easier than some of the later Touhou games, so it's a great middle ground in terms of difficulty. I only have 2 major critisicms; 1) while the 1-up system and patterns make fast characters more rewarding, there isn't good balance for the other options, so if you wanna play Yuuka you're kind of screwed. And 2) Stage 4. I actually love the Stage 4 gimmick (dual boss that's followed by a solo fight after you take one of them down), but Lord. Stage 4 has two awful glitches that can happen to you, and bullets that are the exact same color as the background. ZUN why

Besides that though, I think MS just naturally caters to my preferred playstyle (chaotically weaving and dancing through bullet spam), so it's a top tier entry for me :)

[TOUHOU 6: EMBODIMENT OF SCARLET DEVIL]

If MS isn't my 2nd favorite in the series, this one is.

I will say this. EoSD has Aged. Imo, it's aged more than MS has. Being ZUN's first Windows game it's a little rough around the edges; muddy graphics, rough soundfonts, heavier reliance on RNG and bullet spam over intricate patterns, and it's missing certain QoL features that it Feels like it should have (like, the PC-98 games were missing stuff, but those games felt like they were built around the limitations, EoSD has a lot of areas where it FEELS like it was designed with future QoL in mind, but it's just….. missing). It also sucks that EoSD is one of only 2 games that locks you out of the final stage if you play on Easy (LLS is the other one),,

But. EoSD is still beloved for a reason. One of the most solid soundtracks in the series, a fun Stage 4 gimmick (different spellcards for different shot types), score-based 1-up system, the introduction of the Point of Collection line, some Iconic boss battles, etc. AND, one of those weaknesses is actually kind of a Strength for me, because again, my preferred play style is well suited to bullet spam!! Stages 5 and 6 are SO fun for me, even though they're commonly cited as things people DISLIKE about EoSD.

EoSD is definitely unpolished, but it's still one of my top favorites, both for its general strengths and for how it caters well to me personally lol.

[TOUHOU 7: PERFECT CHERRY BLOSSOM]

PCB is my current favorite!!

Of all Touhou games, I feel PCB strikes a perfect balance between being accessible, but also still having challenges for those that want it. The patterns are really a step up from EoSD; with the introduction of a visible hitbox, ZUN could make them both more dense and more complex/unique, but they're designed to still be easily understandable. Other QoL features were added that also help a lot (like the enemy tracker, spellcard indicators on the healthbar, success/fail counters, you can save practice mode replays, etc). There's also good variety in the playable characters, each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and one of the best shot types in the entire series is here (SakuyaA lol).

I feel like just saying that doesn't express my love though, there's truly nothing like weaving through a dense maze of beautiful bullets, and PCB is one of THE best for that feeling. I also love this game's 'special feature'; the cherry borders. Not only are they fantastic for survival and training (the border acting as a shield allows you to try new things and take risks where you otherwise wouldn't/couldn't), you can also utilize them in various way; break them on purpose at optimal points to maximize score, keep them as long as possible to milk graze points, use them to clear difficult patterns and stage sections……. it's just a great system that adds depth without overwhelming the player!!

And of course, I must mention something unique to this game; the Phantasm stage! PCB is the only game that has this. It's basically just a 'hard mode' version of the Extra stage, but, the patterns are both exciting to face and gorgeous to look at, the boss herself is genuinely Iconic, and her theme may be even more so.

PCB is pretty much the full package, and is also my recommendation to new players starting out, 100%.

[TOUHOU 8: IMPERISHABLE NIGHT]

This is the last of Touhou's "holy trio", so to speak, alongside EoSD and PCB. There's not much I can point to that's "wrong" with it, or "worse" than the other two, but idk, I don't feel as positively towards IN. I do still really enjoy it though!

There's a lot of great things about IN; the introduction of Spell Practice, there's two different final stages/bosses, the really cool concept for the playable characters/shot-types (character fight in teams, and once you beat both Finals with all teams you can play as each character individually, for a total of 12(!!!) shot-types), the Stage 4 gimmick is a callback to LLS (you fight Reimu or Marisa depending on your character!!), and of course there's some great bullet patterns in there (Keine and Marisa are standouts to me).

There's a LOT of content, more than most Touhou games, which is great!! But there's definitely some aspects that don't feel well polished, which brings it down a bit. The 'special feature' of this game, the Youkai gauge, is not only insanely confusing and complicated, and it's also not fun OR worthwhile to engage with,,, Maybe if I was a hardcore scorer I'd find some value in it, but…… eh. At least it's not obtrusive or anything. Then there's the solo shot-types….. while it's cool they're there, I don't know if ZUN playtested the solo Humans ;; They are very clearly not designed with solo play in mind and if you like to clear ALL shot-types like I do, this can make it an arduous experience to get through all 12

I think it's mostly these things, plus me feeling kind of neutral on the soundtrack and cast, that make IN not stand out, despite all the content. Still a great game, I play it a lot, just not as often as some other entries.

[TOUHOU 9: PHANTASMAGORIA OF FLOWER VIEW]

The 2nd VS shooter in the series!

Mostly the same exciting, chaotic gameplay as the first one PoDD, though with a few key difference. You can now use Focus, which also ties into a new mechanic, the 'scope', which allows you to freeze falling spirits (helps with setting up combos and crowd control) when they touch it. And, using your spell/special attack gauge causes a 'wave' to ripple out and clear bullets around you. I think overall these are excellent addition and that add fun strategy to gameplay.

However, I'm not great at keeping track of combos or purposefully placing spirits during the constant barrage of bullets,,, And some of the character's scopes are……. not fun to utilize. There's also the same problem I had with PoDD, how rapidly pressing the shoot button hurts my hand over time, and while PoFV actually has an alternate control scheme, that alternative FORCES you into focus mode as you shoot. I want to be able to not think super hard about when and where I shoot, so I can focus on dodging, but this just makes the problem Worse because it hampers my movement ;;

I do like the bullet clearing wave though! Plus, this game introduced one of my favorite characters, Aya, AND brought back Yuuka from the PC-98 era!! It's not a bad game and I've had fun with it. I'm just not crazy about the Touhou VS shooters overall. If I wanna play a VS shooter I'd rather pick something like Twinkle Star Sprites.

[TOUHOU 9.5: SHOOT THE BULLET]

This is the first of the 'photo' games, and I have a soft spot for this one. It can be extremely rewarding to clear a difficult scene, and the whole photography thing is a SUPER interesting take on bullet hell. The one thing that sucks is that there's little incentive to go back to scenes once you've managed to clear them. But I guess that's not the point, it's to slowly conquer the challenges each level throws at you and clear as many as you can.

Very solid game, something you can chip away at over time, if you like bullet hell and like interesting challenges give it a try!!

[TOUHOU 10: MOUTAIN OF FAITH]

MoF is the start of a new era. It's pretty stripped back in terms of gameplay because ZUN wanted to focus on making a basic, polished shmup, and he certainly achieved that. The new engine feel smooth as butter, the graphics and sound are crisp, and the bullet patterns and stages are solid. Some of the core gameplay mechanics have been changed though, and it's a little mixed.

For instance, the bombs have been changed in 2 key ways; there are no longer unique bombs for each shot-type, and using a bomb costs you some of your Power instead of an item. Not having unique bombs takes away an element in picking your shot-type, but I don't mind the bomb itself since it's both effective and powerful. Losing Power can be frustrating, and you can end up in a horrible loop if you lose too much at once, but, MOST of the time I find MoF is very generous with Power, and that combined with not being restricted to bomb items can actually be a really sweet deal.

Most of the other changes are similarly mixed, but ultimately I think they work well together! There's only 1 thing I have major critism of, and that's the removal of practice and accessibility features. There's no more extra starting lives from here on out, which I understand, but it does make me sad, as extra lives allows new players to see more of the game (and allows old players to relax on just-for-fun runs). He also removed Spell Practice, which sucks :( But, by far the most egregious change, is that using a continue starts you over from the beginning of a stage….. and just seeing a stage is NOT enough to unlock it in Practice Mode. This is a HUGE hit to the game's accessibility for new or unskilled players, not even allowing them to practice the stage they're stuck on, or prepare for anything beyond it. If you die on a stage so much you have to continue, what the hell made ZUN think starting the whole stage over with almost no lives would help??

Thankfully, I don't need that accessibility much anymore, and there IS a fanmade practice patch out there. MoF is definitely among my top favorite games of the series, it's just a great basic shmup and great start to the new era. Also shoutout to my favorite final boss theme, Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field. Loved it so much as a kid that I would mod it into other games LMAO

[TOUHOU 11: SUBTERRANEAN ANIMISM]

SA is considered the 2nd hardest game in the series, and there is good reason for that. Beyond the patterns and stages just generally being pretty difficult, the lives, bombs, and continues system are very punishing in this entry.

The continue system is exactly the same as MoF, which is to say, brutal and unforgiving. Bombs are also tied to power like in MoF, but unlike MoF, Power only goes up to 4.00 instead of 5.00 (with MarisaA as an exception) meaning less bombs overall and leading to the same issues there were in MoF. And, you don't earn full lives, you need 5 life pieces to gain a full extra life, and the one and ONLY way to earn life pieces? Is through clearing boss attacks without bombing or getting hit. There is not even a SINGLE free live in the entire game, you must earn every single one with flawless performance.

This leads to a scenrio where, high skilled players are rewarded with lives they don't need, and less experienced players are basically walled from even practicing. All this, combined with two other factors (some of the weirdest/most difficult to utilize shot-types in the series, and the fact that the actual bombs either suck ass or are also difficult to utilize well), makes SA one of the most "unfriendly" games in all of Touhou project. If not THE most unfriendly.

I have a lot of criticisms of this, and even now I can't say I feel "comfortable" playing through SA. But, (most of) the unique shot-types CAN be rewarding, once you learn how to wield them, and this game has some of the most exciting and challenging bosses. So many fun spellcards……… Satori and Okuu are standouts. Satori's gimmick is also really cool, where her spellcards change based off your shot-type, nearly all of them being alternate version of past spellcards in the series. And of course, this game's cast is absolutely iconic, pairing well with one of the best overall soundtracks in the entire series.

SA is one of those games where I have a lot of fun with it and think it's stellar in terms of music, cast, and bullet patterns, but certain systems and mechanics prevent me from recommending it whole-heartedly to others. There's just a lot of frustrations with it. But it's still fairly high up in my rankings, and there's some value to having a game focused on Skill and skill alone, rather than other gimmicks or resources management or whatnot.

[TOUHOU 12: UNDEFINED FANTASTIC OBJECT]

UFO was the first Touhou game I got to see the release for. It's one of my happiest memories, so my feelings towards UFO may be very biased. Just a warning lol

UFO's "gimmick", the UFOs, is how you engage with basically any other system in the game; you MUST engage with the UFOs if you're going for anything other than a NMNB clear. And ho boy is the UFO system contentious. Not without reason, either. Mid-Bosses and Bosses destroy summoned UFOs which is frustrating, it's super easy to make a mistake with gathering the small UFOs and ruin your combo, if there's small UFOs you don't want on screen they basically act as bouncing projectiles you need to dodge ON TOP of the actual bullets……. etc.

However, while I share a few of those frustrations (damn UFO destroying bosses…..), I find the UFO system to lead to a good combination of routing and room for improvisation. You can memorize when and where certain colored UFOs will drop and plan ahead for them, and if you miss what you need or make a mistake you can still think on the fly and re-route mid playthrough. It's also fun that you can specialize your routing and gameplay towards a specific goal, like stocking tons of bombs to skip difficult stage sections/spellcards, or optimzing for score, or stockpiling lives.

The overall difficulty of the stages and patterns is decently high in UFO (this game is often ranked 3rd hardest in the series), but it can be somewhat mitigated with good planning and resource management. And I personally find a lot of these stages and bosses a Blast to play! Helped again by, of course, having one of the best overall sountracks in the series…. imo at least. The UFO cast is also my personal favorite, AND they get some of ZUN's cutest sprites/artwork :)

The only other real criticism I have is that it shares it's Continue system with MoF and SA. Thank god this is the last game that forces you backwards for continuing ;;;;

While the UFO system has it's downsides, UFO is just a really fantastic entry into the series and a personal favorite of mine. We'll see how I feel once I start tackling the higher difficulties seriously though…… lol.

[TOUHOU 12.5: DOUBLE SPOILER]

Basically the sequel to Shoot the Bullet. There is very little difference, just a new set of characters and cards to face. I personally find this one a LOT harder than StB, and I don't enjoy it quite as much, but it's still a solid game I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed StB.

(EDIT TO ADD: Sometime after I wrote this part, I found an old blog entry from when I was 13, and apparently ZUN explicitly stated DS was meant to be much harder than StB. So, there ya go?)

[TOUHOU 13: TEN DESIRES]

The key phrase for this game overall, imo, is RESOURCE STRANGLEHOLD.

TD is far and beyond the most punishing game in the series, both in terms of resources and the Spirit Gauge/Trance mechanic. The requirement for the amount of pink spirits you need in order to earn an extra Life is brutal right from the start, at 8, and every time you earn a new life this requirement goes up. This doesn't reset when you die, or even when you CONTINUE. That would be brutal enough, but even with OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE, literally no mistakes and perfect utilization of Trance, you earn less lives in this game than in any other. Speaking of pulling of a perfect performance, good fucking luck, because the spirits you need to gather stay right where you killed the enemy, disappearing Quickly, so you have to either have your Trance meter full and ready, or you need to risk your precious few lives to dash up to the top of the screen, in the middle of an absolute clusterfuck of bullets, just for a FRACTION of an extra life.

And of course, there's the real kicker; getting hit causes your entire Trance meter to be used up, and it takes a quite a bit to refill it, especially because again, spirits Do Not Fall the way items do, you have to seriously risk your life for them.

Basically, TD is a very, VERY routing-heavy game, and if you make even ONE mistake it can cause your entire playthrough to unravel. It's super frustrating. There are only 2 saving graces here….. 1) you at least get to keep any extra bombs you had in stock after you die, and 2) TD has some of the easiest boss fights in Touhou. I actually find the spellcards super fun, so by sort of-kind of routing the stages and doing well against the bosses, I was able to find some joy in TD. But that is obviously in spite of the mechanics, not because of them ;;

I will say, though, that it's interesting to have a game designed to make you "boss graze", ie stay dangerously close to the boss and move around them to catch spirits. Interesting concept and it helps train you on a high-level skill.

TD was my least favorite Touhou game for a long, long time. I've softened on it a bit, fun bullet patterns are fun no matter what, but goddamn. This one's ROUGH. And sadly, the OST is pretty middling for me, though it DOES have a few standouts (Desire Drive, Youkai Shrine Back Road, Small Desire's Starry Night Sky)!!

[TOUHOU 14: DOUBLE DEALING CHARACTER]

Ah. DDC. My nemesis.

I actually don't mind this game's special mechanic; using the point of collection line to earn life and bomb pieces. I actually think it's fun and rewarding, though that could just be because I already go to the PoC line as much as possible anyways lol. No, my problem is not with the mechanic, or the life and bomb pieces. This game commits the most fatal of all sins in bullet hell; the bullet patterns are Not Fun.

So many of the patterns in the this game have 'gimmicky' movements, sometimes bordering on Random, and this is often used in combination with one of my greatest weaknesses, bullets coming at you from both above and below, at the same time. This makes them an absolute nightmare to read. There's also a ton of a bullets that are either oddly shaped with confusing hitboxes, or made huge which also makes their hitboxes confusing. And unfortunately, the stages and bosses that don't suffer from this generally have pretty bland forgettable patterns. I can't think of a single attack in DDC I would describe as "fun", and that's unheard of in the rest of the series.

Worse yet, the shot-types themselves……. half of them are 'gimmicky', kind of like SA shot-types were, but the SA shot-types had special extra mechanics that could be mastered and were rewarding to utilize, if uncomfortable to get used to. These shot-types are just plain Uncomfortable, or are underwhleming ;; MarisaB has a bomb that makes it possible to milk life and bomb pieces like crazy and basically cheese the whole game, but that's not fun either :( I wanna be able to PLAY the game and enjoy it…… but I can't.

And the final nail in the coffin…… DDC also happens to have my least favorite soundtrack and, imo, a very bland and unmemorable cast. I feel so sad saying that because I think there's some unique youkai here, but MOST OF their designs don't stick out/are pretty plain, and they feel very disconnected from Gensokyo at large. Maybe if I saw them in print materials I'd feel different, but as it stands…… :/

I want to say some nice things though, so here's what I've got. Wakasagihime has a great design (it's just…. y'know, she's a Stage 1 boss, so there's not much of her. Super sad considering I desperately wanted a mermaid Youkai). Raiko also has a cool design, AND she has the best theme in the game. Uhh…… the PoC line mechanic giving you an extra life piece instead of a bomb if you collect enough point items is a good feature that rewards smart planning and risk management. The Stage 2 boss has lasers you can avoid by staying completely still which is hilarious.

I…. think that's it. Let me say for the record, I'm open to changing my mind!! I softened on TD as I got better, found things I could enjoy in it despite my issues, so that could happen someday with DDC. It's just right now, nearly everything about DDC bounces me right off it, so it's the only Touhou I genuinely don't enjoy playing,, Hopefully someday that will change……

[TOUHOU 15: LEGACY OF LUNATIC KINGDOM]

LoLK is a bit of an odd ball, for sure. While you can play it like a regular Touhou game (using "Legacy" mode), the main mode of LoLK is "PointDevice", which plays very differently. It's focused on "perfection", and very precise movement and dodging, making you retry to same sections and attacks over and over again til you do them right.

You also earn Life pieces (Legacy) and Bomb pieces (PointDevice) via grazing, which requires you to risk your life getting super close to the bullets. All that, in combination with very dense and overwhleming bullet patterns, makes LoLK the hardest Touhou game by a long shot. Especially in Legacy mode, where you can't just retry over and over.

I honestly don't care for PointDevice much, especially because if there's a section/attack you CANNOT pass no matter how hard you try, and you've already used all your bombs, you're kind of fucked and Have to restart the entire thing ;; But, I still find Legacy mode fun, and as someone who loves to graze when I can, being rewarded for it feels good, AND allows for some really creative and interesting patterns/routing. On the higher difficulties, there's way more bullets to milk for graze, too. On one hand it's a little frustrating that it's HARDER to earn resources on Easy and Normal, but on the other hand you can argue that the extra resources help balance the insane pattern difficulty of Hard and Lunatic.

I'm not good enough to beat LoLK on Normal yet (it's the last one left for me), but I still think it's a pretty solid game overall, and I like to replay certain stages (2, 3, 5, and 6) on Easy just for fun.

[TOUHOU 16: HIDDEN STAR IN FOUR SEASONS]

Wasn't a huge fan of this one at first, but I've warmed up to it! Mostly

While this is not the first game with bullet erasers, it is the first to feature them so prominently, aside from maybe PoFV. It comes in the form of the Release system, which basically allows you to massively power down your shot type in exchange for clearing bullets (how much you power down and how many bullets are erased/for how long depends on your sub weapon choice). I think the way it can be utilized both for survival and for scoring is pretty cool. It can also be really broken if you know exactly where to use them, adding another element to routing and memorization. But it can also be handy during my casual play…… if you remember it exists. lol. I admit that I struggle to use any C key function properly ;; But that's a personal issue

The shot types are definitely interesting in this game. Instead of the standard fare, you pick a character (who always has the same shot) and then pick a "sub weapon" based on one of the other character's shots (or you can pick your own to make it stronger). This results in there being a whopping SIXTEEN COMBINATIONS, each with slightly varying properties. Lord. While I think I prefer having a smaller pool of unique and optimized shot types, this is a neat concept, if a bit overwhelming if you're like me and want to clear EVERY combination ;; But still, it allows you to sort of customize to what you're most comfortable with, or what will help you the most (for example, the Cirno/Summer sub weapon gives you short releases you can use repeatedly, but the weapon itself sucks ass as a tradeoff. So pairing it with a faster/more powerful character balances things a bit!), which is pretty cool.

My major complaints about this game are the 2 difficulty spikes; the Stage 5 bosses, and Okina's final spellcard(s). The Stage 5 bosses use the dreaded "random and erratic" bullet behaviour I hated so much in DDC, though thankfully only for SOME attacks. They're still a big spike compared to the rest of the game, even compared to Okina's fight……. until the end. Okina's final cards are super cool in concept, stripping you of your sub weapon and forcing you to just Dodge Or Die…….. but in practice it is PAINFUL, especially since it's the last obstacle before victory. She even has a bomb shield………. wtf. Brutal. All 4 variants are bad, but the Summer version is by far the worst, in my opinion one of the hardest final spellcards in the entire series.

There's also the extra stage, which is mostly spent dodging stuff coming from behind you (my nightmare), but that's more of a skill issue on my part ;; Overall, while the cast is very disconnected and don't leave a strong impression, the music is pretty damn good, the stages are fun, and the mechanics are interesting, even if they're a bit shakey and abusable. Not a top favorite but I like HSiFS :)

[TOUHOU 17: WILY BEAST AND WEAKEST CREATURE]

This game has a similar special mechanic to UFO, but I think it's a little better implemented here.

There are no "shot types" as it were; your choices are whether to power up your unfocused attacks, your focused attacks, or your bombs. This kinda makes it hard to have a preference, as each attack is better at different points in the game, so it's really up to you what's more important. I kind of like this, even though I still prefer variety, it means I can use other characters more freely.

I also like this version of the 'collect stuff on screen' mechanic, there's more leeway for mistakes (you can still activate "Roaring/Hyper" mode without having a perfect collection of matching spirits) AND the benefits are better (it protects you from hits while active, just like the cherry borders in PCB!! and you get either a massive boost to damage or a bullet eraser)! Like with UFO though, there is risk with chasing the Spirits all over the field, and it can lead to some frustrating deaths and distractions. But that's just part of what you have to manage, I think it's a fun system overall :)

What is Not Fun is an issue that actually started back in TD, but I haven't mentioned it yet, because WBaWC has it the Absolute Worst; VISIBILITY ISSUES. Your own shot, ESPECIALLY in Roaring/Hyper mode, can become so dense and flashy that it is near impossible to read the bullet patterns. Or see the bullets At All. Which is, yknow, a problem in a bullet hell game. On top of that, the whole game is tinted red, and full of red bullets, which is sick as hell on paper, but in practice makes a huge portion of the game become slurry to the eyes. And the Enemy tracker, which had its text removed back in TD, is more a problem in this game than in any other because the color of the tracker matches the color of the window border, so you may as well not even have it.

There's also a major problem in the Stage 5 boss (and in one final boss spellcard), with the stupid statues that are summoned……. I already don't like these kinds of "familiars", they''re always a pain no matter what, but WBaWC takes it to another level, as they soak up so much damage that very few of the shot types can kill them before you get body slammed or completely overwhelmed.

WBaWC is really fun and cool and has some great music and designs, but it feels…… almost like ZUN didn't fully playtest it before release. An issue that is going to persist into the final entries………. but it's still enjoyable overall, at least.

[TOUHOU 18: UNCONNECTED MARKETEERS]

I have a lot of fondness for it, but MAN is this game unbalanced lol

There's the obvious, which is the card system. I think the card system is a cool idea and can be fun to play around with, it's exciting when you get exactly the card you wanted, but there are certain cards/combinations that can kind of break the game, and it can be BRUTAL if you get nothing but trash cards on your run, and there are a Lot of 'trash cards'. And once you figure out your favorite card combo it's likely you'll never mess with anything else. Not strictly a bad thing, just a thing.

But then there's the real kicker…… Marisa. People are 100% right when they say this game is "anti-Marisa". I've tried not to mention the shot types I dislike (like most Youmu and Sakuyas), because that's a very personal/skill based issue, but here, the way this game is designed feels actively Hostile towards Marisa. It's hard to describe, but both bosses and stages are set up to have you fly all over the screen, or move off the sides a lot, and her range is EXTREMELY narrow………. AND both the shots and her bombs have been massively nerfed??? She's no longer the most powerful character, so there isn't even a trade off for picking the harder option. Seriously why the hell did ZUN nerf her AND make almost the entire game hostile to straight-forward shots?????

Well, whatever the reason, it makes her PAINFUL to play as. But, if you play as one of the fun shot types……. this game is pretty fun!! The first half a Little plain with it's boss patterns but the second half is a blast!!! If MAYBE a bit unfair (Megumu…….) ;; And the OST is fantastic all the way through. Plus, I just love the characters that were introduced, especially the 'masterminds', Megumu, Tsukasa, and Chimata. Very fun additions to the world of Gensokyo, I really hope we get to learn more about Megumu as the Crow Tengu chief.

If you're looking consistent play, look elsewhere, but for a fun time with light luck based elements this is a great game (if you don't play Marisa. Or Sakuya. lol)

[TOUHOU 18.5: 100TH BLACK MARKET]

Now this is an unique one! You go through stages that are split into semi-randomized sections, and along the way you gather money to buy cards. Bullet money buys cards during a run, and regular money lets you buy cards out of a shop so you can equip them from the start. So it's like….. a rouge-like shooter? Kinda?

I personally had fun with this. It's a little simple, and it can get repetitive, but it was nice because if I didn't have much time but wanted to mess around with bullet hell, I could boot this up and play a couple rounds to gather money for cards!!

Once you buy all the cards and earn all the achievements there's no reason to ever come back, which is sad, but idk, I had a good time milking bullets for money and slowly filling my collections. It shares some of the randomness issues with UM and is a little half-baked but I would still recommend giving it a shot, especially because it gives Marisa her time to shine after getting shafted in UM!

[TOUHOU 19: UNFINISHED DREAM OF ALL LIVING GHOSTS]

The final one so far!! I'll be honest, I've beaten it 21 times now I STILL don't understand how most of the mechanics work. Things just Happen and I either dodge or die. But what I can speak on is the downright bizarre balancing issues and the plethora of missing features.

The difficulty and balancing is wack. The vast majority of the characters feel underpowered already, and to top that off, only a small number of characters have bullet-clearing abilities, which is an absolutely MASSIVE advantage in this game, meaning that some characters are just objectively better than others. The story routes each character takes can also vary wildly in difficulty, making some paths a breeze and others nearly impossible even for the best players in the world.

But the most concerning thing for me is the missing features. No score? No "clear" achievement or signifier for different difficulty levels?? NO REPLAYS????? I can deal with the lack of score since I'm not a score player (yet), but having no indication or reward for 1ccing, and having no way to save or share your run without recording every single play session………. god. Idk, maybe it's silly, but that stuff is VERY important to me :( I'm still so sad about it, and it makes anything you achieve in the game feel….. hallow.

That being said, it's not all bad!! I love the new characters and their designs, there's some really interesting experimentation going on in the OST, I think the 'shield' mechanic adds a fun layer to gameplay (trying to make sure you're ready to restore the shield if it breaks while also trying to send over attacks and dodge)…… and I mean, dodging bullets is dodging bullets, so it's gonna be fun at least some of the time!!

Honestly, I just wish ZUN has balanced it more carefully, gave other characters more power or bullet-erasers, had more people play test it………. and of course, I wish it had replays and a way to track 1cc's :(((

And that's it! If you read any of that, thank you, I know it was long ;;;;; But I had fun, I'm glad I got to talk a lot about my favorite game series :^)

#ask #varjojentuomio #remi plays touhou #idk if i wanna put this absolute behemoth in the actual touhou tag LOL #also if theres any weird grammar/spelling....... IM SORRY I TRIED MY BEST

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cafalla · 3 months

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Starlog Magazine (December 1995, Issue #221) Scans

It's been a while since I posted about a scanning project. The most recent magazine I scanned was this Starlog Magazine from December 1995!

Starlog originally started out as a Star Trek magazine, but evolved to include all things sci-fi, fantasy, and nichely nerdy. I don't think nichely is a word, but hey, this is my blog and I say and do what I want lol.

Here are some scans I like from the magazine! There is also a link to the full magazine at the end of the post if you're interested in seeing the whole thing!

Let's start off with this subscription form for the magazine.

This takes me back. The thought of filling out a form and mailing it in to purchase a magazine subscription feels so alien now (haha).

I also wanted to point out Robocop, one of my boyfriend's (and my dad's) favs! I actually only recently saw the movie for the first time with my boyfriend, and it was so fun and surprisingly gorey! I wasn't expecting it at all. For some reason I thought the movie was silly and campy? And I mean it was, but the blatant gore and body horror that would come out of nowhere was so shocking to me!

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Speaking of filling out mail-in forms to make purchases, this magazine is full of them! Mainly they're for merch and memorabilia. Here are a few of my favorites.

This selection doesn't even include all of the things available to buy from the magazine. I think my favorite are the audio cassettes/CDs and the Star Trek face t-shirts. The pin collector in me also admires the page of Star Trek pins.

The signed movie and tv photos page is SO interesting, too. I wonder how they decided the prices for each celebrity? Part of me can't imagine these are real, but if I was a celeb...I certainly would take 1 second to sign a photo if it was being sold for $40 and I got some kickback lol.

If you could have one of the singed photos from a celebrity on that list, who would it be?

I'd have to pick Gary Sinise!

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There are actually quite a few story articles in this magazine. Each have around a 3-6 page spread full of pictures - they're quite fun to look at! Here are some of my favorite pages from the various articles.

I really enjoy how they all have drastically different color backgrounds.

The cover article about how Toy Story was created/animated is cool! I picked this page because I love watching how animators work, especially when they use themselves as reference (like in the above pic).

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Lastly, just a couple of random parts from the magazine that interested me.

One was this article about a fantasy fiction author.

The article included many different covers of her books. I wish these could've been in color! I've never read older fantasy adventure novels, but these all looked super appealing to me. I'll have to keep an eye out for some of her books while thrifting.

During the scanning process, I spend a lot of time looking at the front and back covers of the books/magazines I'm scanning. I found myself absolutely enthralled with the back cover of this magazine.

Something about the colors, art, and design just piqued my interest while scanning. I've never heard of this game, much less played it, but I do want to know more about it! I'll probably see if there's a let's play online.

Gosh this is such a cool looking ad for this game. I'm sure the game itself is probably nothing great, but this ad sure is great to look at.

As always, you can view the full magazine for yourself over on my Internet Archive account.

Thanks for stopping by!

#txt #scans #my scans #nostalgia #vintage #magazine #magazines #1995 #starlog #starlog magazine #star trek #x files #the dig #toy story #robocop #the tomorrow people #cybertech pd #90s

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desudog · 3 months

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@fuumusu

i just ended up taking pics of /most/ of my plush collection, LPS included, but this isnt all of them its just whos on my shelves

mtn dew for scale ref. what am i, bad dragon? well anyways.

heres my LPS. super small collection, im mad bc a raise in interest in "2000s aesthetics" made the market for these go up so theres like no more 20 dollars for 5 lots on ebay LOL...

BAB Tempest Shadow (one of my fave ponyyyyyysss)

all 3 of my Dotties. one of my fave BBs ever. sadly, the backpack fits jack shit and is built for a kids frame...

closeup of mini.. hm, whats that? the leo in the bg?

yup, those are my promotional 2015 FEF keychains. # swag. idk why theyre sideways.

i bought these yoohoo keychains when they were still first in claires. i remember i was at the mall with my grandparents. its one of those things youre kinda self conscious of looking back on, ive always loved stuffed animals so i would beg to go to girls outlets and didnt really get why i had to fight so hard to lol. the gloomy is from like 2 or 3 years ago hes just from ebay

disney world Duchess plush which i THINK i got while it was still brand new release. ive ALWAYS been obsessed with this damn movie and my uncle lives in florida and got it for me before i can even remember. she went in a bit too hot water so her long fur is all wooly but shes mostly perfect besides 1 stain. i didnt take her a lot of places so she didnt get messed up. apparently goes for 50+ dollars these days even if conditions not great.

for ref, heres a mint condition one.

and YES, all the other duchess's are dreammmmm owns of mine. shes uhmmmm <3

not all of my webkinz. prob a 3rd. i have the opposum and black dragon (?) somewhere too, and i THINK i still have the orange tabby. ive lost my blufadoodle years ago tho and was HEARTBROKEN. hes somewhere around here i just dont know where. the wolf is worth $$$$ but i got him as a freebie at a church sale :]

new and old torchics XD one of my fave starters

CoCo Surprise cats. I hate Luna the cat her arms are so weird. I just gave the leopard a bath last night tho and she looks great ^^. her arms are super long in front front so she sits good on flat surfaces (not: my bed)

i also just gave Lady a bath and restuffing! shes perfect fr. got from a sal. army

Pound Puppy and Pound Puuuurries. (what, no pussies?) (bad perspective shots, mb its hard to take pics cus theyre so long and i try not to touch them bc autism badtexture. these i found downstairs with sega genisis games so you can guess theyre probably not from a secondhand)

(lol)

Cody's black jaguar plush. very cute and high quality and big andwas just 20 dollars. has weighted paws. the only stufie he'll cuddle lol i guess its hardcore enough

Lucky's Simba and retriever (who is like SOOOO well stuffed, sadly no weights tho.)

a mint condition blue gellart i found at GOODWILL? and a dancing/marching bear lucky got at a dead& co concert.

my beanie boos. im mad about the quality fail on the one to the left, whos eyes are all weirdly close. -_- the lemur is part of a growing collection of lemur plushes lol

and my P. Lushes!

for some reason my Bianca has what i ASSUME is a design error that causes her to have wayyyy too short front legs so she leans forward and cant sit. ._. (sorry for no camera focus idk why it didnt focus)

and a extra older BB + a similar one who was painted to be scary as fuck by an alter for whatever reason and has sense made us ban painting any plushes

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chartcarr · 6 months

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Hi, I LOVE your song called HEAVEN SAYS, so I was wondering what it was like making this song

Hello,

I wrote the original HEAVEN SAYS around a year ago as a Deltarune fan song because I had just played Chapter 2 and was thinking about other darkworlds and where they could take place in the town and I thought one in Toriel's classroom would be fun.

A little bit after that original version I made the remake that most people know because I wanted to try to make something simple to try out some new samples I found.

[HEAVEN SAYS. Remake project file]

As for making the song itself, I always wanted to use samples from a Speak and Spell in a song because I thought it had a really interesting sound and so I'm glad to have finally done it. I mainly just used FL Studio and a bunch of free soundfonts you can get online. Looking back at it now I think the song is a little simple and the melody really is almost non-existent, I'm not really sure if I even like this song anymore lol. But it has a vibe to it I guess and people seem to like it.

The lyrics really don't mean anything and I picked them almost at random with the limited words the speak and spell had. I also would have removed the direct Deltarune/Undertale reference in the lyrics had I known how popular it would be with people outside of that community.

The response to the song has really been overwhelming, which I mean it's not like a super popular song or anything but for me it has been a lot. I didn't want to write music because of the amount of attention it was getting it kinda spooked me. But I think it's good that people have been enjoying it (I mean mainly enjoying Gameplayah's cover lol). I've enjoyed seeing all the edits and covers people have made. I've also made some good friends through it like my friend Yuki who helped make some character designs for the song although we never really ended up finishing them... I still want to use something similar to these characters in a game I want to make but I don't know if I'll be able to finish it.

[Early concept art for characters to be the secret boss attached to HEAVEN SAYS by Yuki]

...But that's all I've got to say I guess. Thanks for your question!

#music #heaven says

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zelda-photography · 11 months

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Tears of the Kingdom - Plot Ending Thoughts

Alright, I've officially finished the main story line of Tears of the Kingdom. I still have a lot to do in the game so I'll still be playing for a while, but I can finally focus on other things (yay!) and I can finally talk about what I thought of it!

My general and non-spoilery thoughts are: I think it was okay, the ending battle in particular felt very grand. What bugs me most about the story is not necessary what it did but more what it didn't do.

EDIT: Now with the Ganondorf Problem

The Fifth Sage

I go back and fourth about Mineru and what I think. Some of you probably saw my post where I was PRAYING for a plot twist and all of my hopes were hanging on her for my plot twist. Instead, she's not the sage of shadow, but the sage of spirit. I'm really glad that the sages got brought back, especially because you ended up with a team that can help you fight. They also changed some of the names to better fit the abilities of the sages which... I'm not super psyched about it. I mean, They got rid of shadow altogether!

Mineru is an okay character. I think she has a pretty good design, she has the whole 'trying to atone for what happened thing' but I feel like it could've been presented a little stronger. I'm not huge on the construct that goes places with you, it feels so weird compared to all the spirits you have hanging around you. It does fit in well with the constructs you've been seeing around, I guess. I'm also really surprised that the sheikah don't come up at all, considering they have an eye motif and the Zonai have a strong eye motif.

(Quickly back to Mineru, I love Zelink but I feel like there was at least a little moment between Mineru and Zelda lol)

I also find it a little strange that there are more or less five sages. I know there's technically seven, and Link does have all seven if you could the time power from Zelda and the arm from Rauru, but it still feels weird to me.

Like I said before, my biggest problem with the story is what is not done. I realize this is somewhat a 'me' problem, Nintendo can't anticipate the expectations of a single person.

Which lead to my tangent for the Fifth Sage section:

Fifth Sage Twists I Would've Liked Better

Mineru ended up betraying Rauru, at least in the past. It would've been a better set up I think for why she was so insistent on redeeming herself for making up for past transgressions

Mineru passes on the secret stone to someone else

Paya ends up being the fifth sage - get some Sheikah rep in there, and she also doesn't ahve much to do in this story at all

Tauro ends up being the fifth sage - I think he's Lurien, which are somewhat associated with the Zonai, and also I think he's interesting enough it would've been fun to have a new character

Before I close out this section, I will say that I am very happy there was a fifth sage at all. It looked like there would be, but also, considering only the four areas were highlighted, I wouldn't have been surprised if it ended at the four, other than the fact that it left Link without a ring on his middle finger.

Finding Zelda

I really liked that throughout the game, the search for Zelda is ongoing and constant. Not only do you get the feeling that Link is concerned, you understand that everyone is very concerned.

I figured out the twist to who Zelda was about 3/4 of the way through the tears, but it was still SO good to be rewarded by being right, the final tear made me cry especially when you wake up from it surrounded by the silent princesses. It also meant that I could visit her whenever I wanted <3 It does feel a little silly at times after that when people are still going 'where's zelda?' but you know the whole time, and Link himself clearly knows as well, but I also get it.

Yiga

I don't have much to say here. The Yiga are fine. I like that Kohga was in the Depths because he fell down the big hole. Tracking them down in the depths isn't that big of a deal, and I did all of it before I actually hit the point in the game where they explicitly tell you to go there. I've had most fun with the Yiga side quest where you get the uniform and go do their base.

Final Boss Ganondorf

I made it down to the final boss chamber pretty early on in the game, after Rito village, because I wanted to get past the bombable walls you see in the beginning. I teleported out of there as soon as it became clear this was the final boss area.

I love that at one point, you get deep enough below Hyrule Castle that the sages stop showing up and you're on your own; it sets the atmosphere greatly and makes it so perfectly spooky. I think the enemy rush is great, though it probably would've gone better if I was better at utilizing the sages powers. Having you get separated from them because they have to fight the other bosses on their own was also okay by me as a reason to get them away from you.

The battle with Ganondorf was good! It was a struggle, and for a while I thought I wasn't going to make it and would need to regroup and come back with better supplies. And then he eats the secret stone and also becomes a dragon and you're caught in his teeth?!?!

The final fight against Dragon Ganondorf is so good!!! I think his design is great, he's so BIG, and it's not htat hard of a fight, but for a third phase of a final boss, I think that's fine. it's not about being hard at that point, in my opinion, it's about feeling really awesome as you're flying through the air, climbing on dragons, and beating up the weak points. Zelda coming to help you out, even as a dragon, was perfect. It felt like we were really working together to do this.

And then, when you're falling, and you finally catch her this time, just like you failed to do before?!?! The ending is SO SO GOOD!!!

My only problem is I wish that Link's arm was gone, still Rauru-ified, or at the very least scarred from what happened to him.

The Ganondorf Problem

This seems like as good a place of any to talk about my thoughts on Ganondorf. For years, fans have been begging for a nuanced Ganondorf, like Wind Waker but better! This... is not that. This Ganondorf is evil looking, almost comically evil in the memory cutscenes, and I'll be honest, it was pretty disappointing. Without changing up the plot entirely, there are two ways I think they could've made this Ganondorf at least a little bit better of a character.

They make him charismatic. Ganondorf as a man who knows how to manipulate people in order to get what he wanted. You can at least see or buy Ganondorf as someone that people may trust, or who can trick people.

He's doing it for his people. See yourself as Ganondorf, first Gerudo Male in a hundred years, already burdened with great purpose, and now the Kingdom of Hyrule exists with god-like power and is growing fast. So you do what you can to get that power so you can save your people, and then maybe he got lost in the lust for power along the way.

Ending Cutscene

The ending cutscene seemed to be mostly a big send off for Mineru, which felt weird. Again I don't have a huge problem with her, and I'm glad she got to pass on, but I don't think it really warranted such a big part of the scene?

Again, here I thought Mineru would pass on her secret stone to Purah, but she didn't.

I liked all the sages swearing their loyalty to Hyrule and Zelda, that was nice, but I don't know. It just felt like it was missing a little something to me. What? Hard to say.

Last Thoughts

These last thoughts are going to be mostly problems I had, so I want to start it by saying that I loved this game! There's so much to do, it's so distinct from Breath of the Wild while also still being a sequel. Having played Breath of the Wild, I was able to explore Hyrule again, and I loved going back to places that I had been before and seeing what had changed about them. I'll be playing this game for a while :D

The Zonai were... hm, well I liked them over all... I think? I liked their designs, but I wished we got to learn more about them or see more than just Rauru and Mineru.

There's a lot of talk about the imprisoning war and people coming from the sky, so I thought there's be more connection to Skyward Sword, but there was hardly any, and I'll admit I was a little disappointed. We come to the whole 'zelda timeline theory' 'problem' here, which is that this worked more like a parallel to the events of skyward sword than a reference. Ultimately, I view the Zelda Timeline as a lense through which to view Zelda, not canonical but also something that still holds weight to how you consume Zelda. That being said, I was really REALLY hoping for Skyward Sword stuff to be prominent.

I wish there was a stronger second act or some kind of plot twist. You visit each region only once really, and it would've been much better if you ended up having to visit all of them again for some reason or other.

The names for the secret stones sucked and I think there should've been a different name for them.

The game focused a lot on Rauru. This is another thing that I can't decide whether it bothers me or not. It takes a step away from the the triforce and the goddesses. Considering the focus on Hylia Breath of the Wild had, this is probably a good thing. Still, at times it felt like the Rauru game instead of the Zelda game. However, Rauru is an interesting character and i liked learning more about him.

Again, over all, I like the game! It feels weird to say this a week after the game came out, but it makes me excited for future Zelda games and where they'll go from there. Really hoping for a 2D Zelda between now and the next one :)

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on the game!

#loz #legend of zelda #totk #tears of the kingdom #mod speaks #not photgraphy #totk spoilers

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