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runefactorysecretsanta · 4 years

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Rune Factory Secret Santa 2020!

Hello again everyone! This year has been tough for everyone in a lot of different ways, but I hope everyone has stayed safe and healthy so far. I’m Merry, and I hope we can all come together to spread more happiness and cheer than ever this year, and let’s hope Santa will bring us more Rune Factory 5 news soon, too!

I’ve had to slightly revise a few rules, so please read everything carefully!

This event has a PG-13 and below rating, meaning absolutely no nsfw. If you think what you made is questionable, it’s probably best not to post it.

Please make sure you are able to finish your gift! If you sign up and cannot complete it for any reason, contact me asap so that I can find a backup Santa.

Have your submit box or IMs open, please! This is the best way for me to send you all of the information you need to know once you are assigned someone. If I cannot contact you, you may be disqualified. (if you signed up last year and dropped out with no warning, I may not accept your application, so please message me first!)

If you sign up and then change your username and do not notify me, I will try to track you down once. If I cannot find you, then you may be disqualified from the event. Please be sure to keep me updated on any username changes!

Please, do your very best to give your giftee what their heart desires! Do your best to make their wish come true!

This shouldn’t need to be said, but if I find out you’ve used stolen art in your gift or put anything nsfw in the tag, you will be banned from participating in the future. Please make original gifts!

Sign-ups will remain open until November 20th! You will receive your match-up shortly after.

Once you receive your match-up, you will have about a month to get your gift completed! You are allowed to give them your gift any time between December 20th and New Year’s Eve. I will message everyone throughout the month (especially as it gets closer to the deadline) with reminders to get their gifts done.

All of that being said, the best way to give your giftee their gift is to post it publicly, and tag it under “RFSS2020″. I will reblog it here. If you do not wish for your gift to be public, then please submit it to me so that I may send it to them privately. It’s preferred that you do not send it to them directly, mainly so I will know that you completed your gift and don’t assign a back-up, but if you MUST send it to them directly, please let me know once you do so.

~*~FAQ~*~

Are crossovers allowed? What about OCs? Crossovers within the Rune Factory and/or the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons universe are allowed as well as Rune Factory-based OCs.

-What forms of media are accepted for this event? Because I had some issues in the past with a few people, I have no choice but to narrow down the criteria to fanart and fanfiction. HOWEVER, that does not mean edits and videos are no longer allowed! You can still submit them so long as they have some sort of original aspect (like a video of a fanmade in-game scene, incorrect quote-styled edits, etc.), I will accept those into the “fanfiction” category. All that being said, if you’ve participated in the past with different forms of media than listed above, please contact me and we can work something out! (please message me if you have any questions about this)

Please put as much effort into this as possible. Your giftee would probably be disappointed with a blurry drawing on notebook paper taken with a camera, so I will not be accepting something like that as a final gift.

-I’m a fanfic writer, how long should my story be? I would recommend 1000 words minimum. There’s no word cap, but please keep it reasonable. Additionally, please put fanfics under a read-more, as they can consume the tag easily, especially for mobile users.

-Can I send my giftee an anonymous ask if I need more details about their gift? Yes, absolutely! If they do not have anonymous enabled, feel free to send me a message and I’ll ask for you.

-I want to participate but I don’t have a tumblr. Thankfully you don’t need one to participate, all you need to provide is a form of contact!

-I got assigned the same person as I have before! This is a small fandom, so that may happen with an event with many of the same people signing up year after year. I’m only one person, and I cannot remember who has been assigned to who before, so if this happens and you’d like someone else, please feel free to let me know!

-I got assigned something that I’m not familiar with! I use a random number generator to assign matchups and I do try to fix matchups that are incompatible, but sometimes I may miss something. If you are an artist, I may have to end up assigning you something RF1 based when you have only played RF4 based on how many signups there are, but when it comes to writers, I try my hardest to make sure they are familiar with the source material. Still, if you are assigned something or someone you are not comfortable with, please let me know ASAP and I will work on getting you switched.

-Rune Factory 5 is not out yet, can I still ask for something RF5 related? You can! You are more than welcome to request any of the characters we’ve seen from RF5 so far.

Feel free to ask any additional questions, and they will be answered as soon as possible! Happy gifting! ~*~*~[SIGN UPS ARE HERE]~*~*~

#rune factory #rune factory 5 #rune factory 4 #rune factory 3 #rune factory 2 #rune factory frontier #rune factory tides of destiny #rune factory oceans #rf #rf2 #rf3 #rf4 #rf5 #rff #rftod

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benisasoftboi · 4 years

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Unorganised Thoughts on Cindered Shadows:

Spoilers! All the spoilers!

Yeah it took me a week to finish it, as always, I’ve been busy

It’s possible that someone will remember that I’ve made a few of these, and that I said I’d be doing Crimson Flower next, but haven’t. I have finished that route. I wrote something up. It ended up being over 8000 words long. I decided no one would want to read 8000 words of me complaining about fantasy politics, and did not post it

If anyone is interested in knowing in detail what I think about any or all of the following: Edelgard (short version: good in concept, but severely let down by the writing), Fodlan’s politics (surprisingly complex! Which is why the main characters’ having such simple and naive politics is so frustrating!), Rhea and the church (she creeps me out), general opinions on minor things (most controversial: I actually like F!Byleth’s outfit) or various shipping opinions/headcanons (I like pretty much any pairing except Dimitri/Anyone, and Linhardt and Caspar with anybody but each other), give me a shout and let me know. I won’t be holding my breath, but like... if you want me to ramble I wouldn’t say no

Anyway! Cindered Shadows!

New characters ranked by how much I like them as characters, most to least: Yuri, Hapi, Constance, Balthus

Reasoning: I love pretty boys because I am, emotionally, still 12, stoic-type girls are also great and I love her design, she annoyed me a little at first but I thought the sunlight thing was interesting and she eventually grew on me, and I don’t dislike him at all, he’s just the least interesting to me

New characters ranked by how much I like them as units: Balthus, Yuri, Constance, Hapi (ugh, I really like her but she was total deadweight for me)

I’ve always really, really loved the concept of both underground cities and groups of people who have nothing in common aside from being outsiders, bound together by that one shared trait - so I. Love. Abyss. I wish the whole game was set there, it’s so cool

Some really good maps! Actually, let’s review each level:

1: Good intro to the Wolves. Aside from the ‘secret fourth house’ line, which is bad and makes what is otherwise a great concept sound really dumb. But the map itself makes for a very good demonstration of each of the Wolves’s deals. Bit messed up that you kill a bunch of Abyssians and no one really addresses that again, though

2: Even the game comments on the fact that releasing four waves of enemies in a circle gets tiresome. Least favourite

3: Wish the game had been a little clearer of the exact requirements for finishing the map. Also, enough reinforcements to almost be too annoying, but it managed to just avoid that, for me at least

4: This fucking level. I love an escape map in concept, but that goddamn doll at the start. I don’t know how I would have beat it if I hadn’t realised Edelgard can be reclassed out of her armor for better movement (speaking of deadweight units... was the same on Crimson Flower, Lord ranking in terms of actual usefulness in battle is Claude > Dimitri >>> Edelgard, and I say this as someone who normally loves defense-based units in video games). Anyway, despite the fact that it took me like six tries, this was my favourite of the lot - partly because it was so satisfying to finally beat, and partly because, like I say, I just love the concept

5: Breather level, thankfully. Cool to see Metodey again. But... why is he there??? I made Edelgard kill defeat him

6: Starts out really hard and gets easier. Biggest problem for me was the Bolting mages. I found that the trick was to use Ashe’s battalion gambit on Byleth and counter from afar with the Sword of the Creator. Map’s a cinche after they’re gone

7: A really, really cool final boss fight, and really great to just get to fight a big monster without having to slog through hundreds of other enemies as well (two per turn is fine, gives characters like Ashe who are too weak to fight the boss something to do). And there’s no way I could find to cheap it like on Crimson Flower (something I had to do then because of Cyril and his goddamn Murder Axe). Only wish it wasn’t the case that half of the Wolves can basically never touch the boss without being insta-killed. Hapi and Constance should have been able to do more than Phantom Aelfric Clean-Up

It was really nice getting to have all the Lords work together. I had Edelgard and Dimitri do a Gambit Boost and it was weirdly emotional

Am upset that no supports were available. Primarily because this would have been a great opportunity to add some side-story exclusive supports between the Lords. I get why they couldn’t do that in the main game, but I think the lack of any connection between them (besides the mostly one-sided Dimitri->Edelgard) is one of the game’s biggest downfalls, and this could have at least compensated a little

At least we got a few conversations in Abyss

Oh I wonder who the traitor could be, who is it, of the five characters we’ve met it couldn’t possibly be the really generic looking old guy who wasn’t in the trailer oh my god I’m so shocked it WAS him this is an unprecedented twist the likes of which we will never be graced with again

Liked getting some back story and an actual name for Byleth’s mother

I want to know how ‘Noa Fruit’ became a thing. Linhardt alludes to it, but I want that lore. Give me the Fruit Lore, Intsys

Also give me Mysterious Woman lore

I’ve said this before, but Gatekeeper x Abysskeeper OTP

Why can’t Yuri and Linhardt support I want them to bond over being smart bisexual pretty boys with grappler best friends (I have a very long mental list of characters who should have had supports together but don’t)

Yuri’s make-up is gorgeous. Love that design choice

The ‘Nabatean Chalice’ reminded me - I’ve kind of always wondered if Nabatea is meant to be a call back to Nabata from the Elibe games, or if it’s just coincidence that they sound similar

Will we ever find out anything about the Crest of Ernest or nah? (Fiver says if ever, it’ll be randomly explained in a Forging Bonds in FEH like three years from now. Wouldn’t put it past them)

So Byleth’s nickname was the ‘Ashen Demon’. And these guys are the ‘Ashen Wolves’. I kind of figured that would come up? Was it a translation thing?

I love how the reasons for each of the Wolves being in Abyss were “I barely escaped execution by the Church for the crime of murder”, “I was experimented on and now have dangerous magical powers”, “I’m the last surviving member of a collapsed noble family” and “I’m in like, so much debt, lol”. Kind of makes me wonder if Leonie ends up down there in some of her endings

Although I hear that there’s actually a little more to Balthus, as revealed by supports. I haven’t seen all of them yet, the only one I’ve looked up was Dimitri and Hapi because those two interacting intrigued me and... I know what I said above, but this might actually be a Dimitri pairing I don’t dislike? What is this???

I’ll watch the rest at some point, but won’t be starting a new 3H playthrough. Rune Factory 4 Special finally comes out next week and the moment my pre-ordered Archival Edition shows up at my door, it’ll be Fire Emblem who? The only dragon I know is Ventuswill, and the only empire I’m worried about is the unfortunately named ‘Sechs Empire’

Although, the fact that Kiel and Caspar have the exact same voice might end up being... hmmm

Eh, I got over Doug and Yosuke Hanamura. It’ll be fine :)

#fire emblem #fe #three houses #fe3h #cindered shadows #cindered shadows spoilers

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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Nintendo Direct Feb 2019 BREAKDOWN

So, that direct was pretty okay right? If you missed it or even if you didn’t, I’m gonna be taking a look at everything announced and giving it a vague excitement rating! Enjoy!

Super Mario Maker 2

This was a pretty great way to kick off this direct. With the promise of a host of new features coming in this entry to build upon the first, including the introduction of slopes (finally) and a new texture pack based on Mario 3D World, I reckon this is definitely one to mark in the calendar. Mario Maker 2 is slated for a, gratefully soon, June 2019 release.

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

The long awaited third entry in the MUA series, to the surprise of many, is in fact a Switch exclusive. For those who don’t know, this is a hack-and-slash fighting game, of course tied heavily to Marvel comics. This entry seems to be riding in off the back of Infinity War, with Thanos and the Black Order showcased as central villains. Honestly, this game looks like it could be fun, especially with friends, though I don’t think it’ll turn out to be anything special.

ER: Sure, why not!

BOX BOY! + BOX GIRL!

This adorable little puzzle platformer is making its debut on Switch this spring, with the promise of local multiplayer and more levels than ever before. Looks to be a goodun for fans of cute, minimalist art design and box-based puzzles and the like.

ER: Cool! Those boxes can move!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Ver. 3.0

Nintendo sort of slapped us in the face with a lovely, welcome announcement of a new Smash update! Oh boy! New features! And then they turn around and say they aren’t gonna tell us what they are.

Oh.

Kind of makes me question the point of putting this in the direct a little, but I’m sure whatever they’ll add will be cool! On top of that, a tentative release window for Joker was given (before the end of April this year) and we got a cheeky look at some of the new spicy amiibos, being Snake, Simon and the Pokemon Trainer lot.

ER: Yay?

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker Updates

Here’s one that definitely caught me offguard, but I’m more than happy with it considering I just picked up the game. Part of the new Captain Toad content is free, adding in proper 2 player co-op where you can both play as Toad. The paid ‘special episode’ stuff struck me as a little odd, considering this game was already a Wii U port that’s now getting even more paid DLC. Regardless, it’s not too pricey and you can even pick up the first DLC course now, with the rest coming March 14.

ER: That’s cool!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

This not-quite-Castlevania game could easily be mistaken for a knock off of that franchise, but seems to have some defining elements of its own. The art style is bold enough to make it unique and the game seems to have an interesting variety of puzzles and side quests to make this more than just a run of the mill 2D platformer. An obvious choice for those with a Castlevania shaped hole in their hearts.

ER: You go bouncy vampire lady

Dragon Quest Builders 2

What is basically just Dragon Quest Minecraft with a story mode apparently, this oddly charming sandbox game was seemingly popular enough to warrant a sequel. And I won’t lie to you, it got me a little excited. As a fan of Dragon Quest its art style and general building-ness, I think I might have to pick this one up. And it’s got a cool retro map!

ER: I’m not excited, you are

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition

In case you hadn’t guessed, I literally adore Dragon Quest. The bright colours, the developed characters, the expansive world, awesome monster designs, great soundtrack and lame sense of humour, it all just gets me. It just sort of sucks I already own this on the PS4, where I can’t access all this new content. Oof. But yeah, pick this up if you can. You won’t regret it if you’re a JRPG fan.

ER: More like echoes of an exclusive age amirite

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival

Oh.

I won’t lie to you right now, nothing screams ‘soulless’ to me more than small Disney plushes with all the personality taken from them being stuck into totally random minigames. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney (mostly through Kingdom Hearts but that’s besides the point) but I don’t think this elicited much excitement in anyone.

ER: I guess this exists, huh?

Starlink: Battle for Atlas - Spring Update

This was another one that surprised me. Considering how mind meltingly badly Starlink bombed, partly down to its odd reliance on the whole ‘toys to life’ craze that died out in 2013, I really didn’t think there’d be any further support for the game and they’d just sort of slip it under the rug. But nope, we’ve got some more Switch exclusive missions involving some more Star Fox characters, as well as the introduction of Wolf’s buddies. Honestly, I think Nintendo needs to do themselves a favour and just release a new Star Fox game.

ER: Great, if for some reason you bought this!

Rune Factory 4 Special & Rune Factory 5

Here’s a series I’d literally never heard of until last Wednesday, but the only way I can describe it from what I’ve seen is it looks to be a cross between Animal Crossing and kind of also Dragon Quest. You cook stuff, you farm stuff, you fight things and you can get married if you want, so definitely cool if you’re a fan of the series. But also cool if you’re someone who wished Animal Crossing was a bit more JRPG. Alongside the announcement of a remastered Rune Factory 4 later this year, as well as confirmation of Rune Factory 5 sometime in the future.

ER: Cool! Plants and stuff!

Oninaki

An action RPG with an intriguing premise and a rich, dark colour scheme, Oninaki seems very eager to set itself apart from other JRPGs on the market and still manages to stand out just a bit, even in a direct that’s basically been packed with JRPGs. Oninaki explores themes of reincarnation and grief, following the story of one grey-haired dude saving lost souls from a place called the Upside Down the Beyond to stop them from turning into monsters. Another one to add to the list if you like edgy RPGs!

ER: Edgy and cool

Yoshi’s Crafted World

Another update for this adorably cardboard entry into the long running Yoshi series, we’re finally getting close to actually being able to play it. Nintendo showcased some of the more interesting variants of gameplay, with the use of rafts, cars and planes definitely making this seem that there’s some substance here to go with the style. Alongside this, a demo released on the eshop so go play that if you haven’t already and decide if it’s for you!

ER: Wow, this game has a Labo costume! I’ll definitely grind for that!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Finally some more info about Nintendo’s latest instalment in their anime Game of Thrones series Fire Emblem, we got a big ol infodump about some of the stuff to do with the game. While the video itself will explain everything better than I can, this time players will be able to interact with three kingdoms and three main protagonists, all of this centralising around one academy the game is set within. Overall, this game certainly looks interesting to play, but one I’m not quite sure I’ll be picking up just yet. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with the games but love a tactical RPG, this one is a no brainer.

ER: Edelgard’s design is pretty cool. If one of them has to get into Smash, I hope it’s her.

Tetris 99

The game many have been calling Tetris Battle Royale, this is the very first Nintendo Switch Online exclusive offering and it’s totally free if you’re a member. It’s Tetris and you have to win against 98 other people, also playing Tetris. Nice!

ER: Tetris block for Smash

Dead by Daylight

As a game I got for free through Playstation Plus, it should be fairly obvious that this port isn’t one that excites me greatly, especially after seeing the quality of the graphics in the trailer the direct showed us. While the concept of an online match with several survivors and one killer sounds good on paper, it seems as if the quality of this port may leave a lot to be desired. But still, this could still only be early development footage and we really have no idea how it’ll look by the end.

ER: Tentative

Deltarune

Undertale is one of my favourite games of all time, so of course it excited me to find out I’d finally be able to play the sort of sequel, Deltarune, which Toby Fox has taken in the interesting direction of splitting the game into chapters. The first of these chapters will be free (yay I like free) and it certainly seems like the same abstract sense of humour and charm present in Undertale has been carried over to this sequel. Definitely one to watch.

ER: Always excited about cartoon doggo

Daemon X Machina

This mech-fighter has been floating around in various Nintendo directs for a fair while now and it’s encouraging to see the game come close to release. In a commendable move, the producer of the game has offered a free demo of the game allowing you to pilot your own custom mech and experience a boss battle in the demo known as ‘Prototype Missions’. The aim of this to gain feedback from potential players in order to make the game as good as it can be, which is amazing! It’s honestly a bit of a dream world where every game developer and publisher is as open and transparent as these guys, so kudos to them. As well as this, the game looks pretty heckin’ fun so it’s definitely worth picking up the demo off the eshop and giving these guys your feedback!

ER: Big ol’ robots hell yeah

GRID Autosport

As of yet, the Switch has lacked a realistic racing game. Enter Grid Autosport, which seems to be packed with a variety of cars, tracks and game modes, including all DLC from the original release of the game. Not one for me, but I’m sure there’s plenty of Switch owners out there whose racing fix isn’t quite satisfied by Mario Kart.

ER: V big if ur a car person

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This game was notably created in collaboration with neurologists and those who experience psychosis in order to properly portray the main character and her mental health struggles. Following the quest of Senua as she fights to save the soul of her dead lover, this game created a huge wave through the industry when it first launched and won major awards for its artistic design and performance. While this isn’t one I’ve had the chance to try yet, it certainly looks as if it provides a brilliant, emotional experience from beginning to end.

ER: A lot

Mortal Kombat 11

This was one everyone basically already knew about, but this direct gave us a reminder of the release date and various features such as custom characters. For fans of this long running, brutal fighting game, get April 23 in ur brains.

ER: Cool

Unravel Two

This adorable puzzle platformer sees you and, optionally, a friend take control of two little creatures made of yarn as they navigate a colourful world and help each other pass various obstacles. For those fans of platformers like the Yoshi series, Unravel is definitely one to consider.

ER: Cool

Assassin’s Creed III Remastered

This is the iconic stealth fighting series Assassin’s Creed’s first outing on Switch, but if this footage is anything to go by, it’s not looking brilliant. While this once again could be put down to unfinished development, the first look at a game is often the most important, and a slow frame rate shown during the direct could mean this game isn’t what fans want it to be.

ER: Tentative

Final Fantasy Release Dates

For fans of the legendary and slightly intimidating JRPG series, several games in the series both new and old will be coming to the Switch in 2019:

Final Fantasy VII on March 26th

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY! on March 20th

Final Fantasy IX is out now!

ER: Cloud is my favourite twink

Astral Chain

Admittedly, at a first glance, this title in a brand new franchise didn’t particularly excite me. But after having another look, I can definitely see where all the hype is coming from. This looks to be a hack-and-slash sort of action RPG with all the edgy story elements and setpieces of that ever so popular steampunk genre that players seem to love these days. With all these mechs, explosions and edgy voiceovers, it makes me think that Xenoblade Chronicles and Deus Ex had some kind of torrid love affair. On top of this, with a dev team that has Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101 and NieR: Automata under their belt, this is a game that will almost certainly impress when it finally comes out on August 30. Platinum Games might just have another winner here.

ER: Big yes

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

oKAY, let’s be real, this is the one that really knocked it out of the park. At least for me it did. As the final reveal, this made me scream a little tiny bit. I think we’d all heard the rumours of a 2D Zelda coming to Switch, but I was highly skeptical to say the least. But a wonderfully charming and artistically bloody P E R F EC T remake of Link’s Awakening?? HHHHHH. They even kept all the Mario enemies for some reason! Oh boy, whenever they release this in 2019 apparently really can’t come soon enough.

ER: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

That was all for this direct! I hope you enjoyed my silly, unplanned breakdown of all the cool things that happened. Til the next direct!

Oh and if you’ve got a craving for more game news, be sure to check back on my blog March 1st for the second ‘issue’ (lol) of my monthly viddy game mag!

Stay hydrated my dudes.

#nintendo #nintendo switch #Nintendo Direct #zelda #the legend of zelda #mario #super smash bros #super mario #astral chain #Final Fantasy #dragon quest #deltarune #eggoreviews #gaming

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growingstrongorsomething · 5 years

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5. A Mute Spellweaver

Original Prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/bpxp37/wp_magicians_have_to_say_the_name_of_the_spell/ The man is moving his hands furiously.The shopkeeper is looking at the hands. His eyes are bulging from trying to get the signs.

“Yes, seven kuais. You think it’s five, well, it’s because the sale was going on. No, no, we are not lying.”

The man pops the knuckles in his fingers before continuing.

“I give you six kuais. It is already too close to our cost, and we can’t do sales every day. Yes, thank you, may Capitalist Ceaser profit you too.”

The man is checking out the new handwand. It is like the short version of katar sword, but made of wood, and slender. He puts it on and aims to a pair of shoes thrown to an electrical wire.Zzap! The shoe received the magic quanta. But the shoe isn’t falling down.

A boy is puzzled by the man. He tugged the man’s shirt. The man looked at him.

“Brother, brother, you want the shoe to fall?”

The man nodded. He signalled for help.

“Sorry, brother, I can’t read Hand Tongue.”

The man mouthed the word for help. The boy points to the shoe. “Jatuh!”

The shoestrings unravelled from the wire. It plopped on the cobbled road. The boy fetches the shoes and hand it over to the man.The man lifted a metaphorical hat from his head.

The boy smiled. “You’re welcome, Mr...?”

The man mouthed his name. Dawai.

“Mr. Dawai, you’re welcome. Bye!”

The boy enters a shop where his mother is already waiting for him at the door.The man tries to signal the boy for his name, but the boy is already gone. Dawai sighs.

Dawai walks to the magic field gym. Many people are playing there. One is throwing a boomerang and keeps the flight on with his wanded magic, his mouth muttering all the time. A few strong young men and women are throwing and kicking rubber balls at each other. They wear thick cotton armour. The crowd keeps the ball in field with their wall magic, taking turns muttering the incantations.

He keeps walking to a section of the field. The section is bordered with a tall fence. Balls, discs, and sticks hit the fence from both sides. Dawai looks at the door of fence, with the sign ‘Disabled Magicians Only’. A guard on a wheelchair smiles at Dawai as he shows his disability card.

The guard smiles brightly and opens the door. “Come in, come in! New wand I see?” Dawai nods.“Come with me! They have installed new disc brands to shoot at. Try it out!”

Dawai tries to knock the disc. Took him three tries. A man shouts at the top of his lungs, and manages to knock a line of twenty discs. Well, when his aim is true. Most of the time, it just flies away, flinging an unlucky person or bird once in a while.

His assistant gives pointers to aim without eyesight. The blind man knocks more discs over time.The blind man sniffs the air. “Dawai is that you? Clap once for yes, two for no!”

Dawai clapped once.The blind man hugs Dawai. “Well, am I glad to see your silhouette? How’s life?”

Dawai taps on a magical tablet. The words shine and the tablet speaks. “Fine, James. I just got a new wand.”

“Now, isn’t that awesome? May I look?” Dawai moves the wand very close to James’ face. He squints very hard. He takes some time enjoying every crafted runes and decorations on it.

“From what I see, very pretty.” James raises his head from his crooning position. “Well, I have to go now. Exercises do have a way to make you tired. Bye!”James laugh at his own joke as his assistant leads him away.

Dawai keeps shooting at the discs.

The next day is work day, and Dawai is in one line. Some workers practice their stances. Some mouthed their spells. Others stretch their bodies, while more are squatting or sitting cross-legged on the floor. There are two other lines of workers, flanking both sides of the loom. Gari waves at Dawai, he is assigned to the left flank today.

The horn sounded. The factory manager marches to the front of the line, placing himself directly in the middle.

“Line, ready!”

Everyone stands up straight.“Ready wands!”

They point their wands to the loom.

“Drummers, play!”

A troupe of drummers knock their drumsticks to the side of the drum, giving a wooden sound. A few seconds later, they start beating the drum skin. The music starts and the drummers play by perfect beat.

The manager takes a stance. “Workers, by my lead!”

The line forms the same stance.The manager starts dancing, and the line joins in almost perfect choreography. Quantas of magic fly in a volley to the machine’s receptors. The loom starts to weave the threads slowly, gaining speed as the give of the thread increase, slackening the spool.

The dancing line sings as well. The first song of strengthening, to make cotton as strong as steel. The cotton may still be cut in this stage, but after making the main cloth, more spells will be added to strengthen it to the final form.

Dawai doesn’t listen to the music. He feels the song through his bones. A, a, a, TA! A, a, a, TA! The dancing line throws quantas every fourth beat, gaining a bit of sweat on their brows. Their hands remain pointing at the loom, as the loom starts forming a sheet of fine cotton cloth, magic literally weaved into its formation.The dance takes an hour before the electricity takes over.

Dawai is already panting at thirty minutes. At forty five minutes, he is losing step. When the hour horn blows, everyone stands still. Except Dawai who is already on the floor. The thump makes everyone look at the fallen spellweaver.

The manager jumps to check Dawai’s breathing and pulse. “Someone get the medic!”

Dawai is awake in a hospital bed.An old man looks at Dawai, his face saagging from age and concern.

“You feeling alright?”

Dawai makes a flurry of sign. Well, as much of a flurry an exhausted man could.

“Mom is worried about you. Yes, you want to be independent. But, you should go home once in a while.”

Dawai can only nod.

“Remember, we always love you.”

Dawai makes more signs. The doctor comes in to check on Dawai.

“Yes, see you this weekend.”

The old man kisses Dawai’s forehead again before leaving.

The doctor’s diagnosis is that Dawai is magically exhausted. But the prescription isn’t the usual lemongrass, sireh, and kelulut honey tea. Instead Dawai is referred to a magical teacher.

Dawai is signing furiously. The doctor shrugs. “I can’t read you. Slow down.”

Dawai repeats himself, slower but the fury is punctuated by each time his hands clap each other.

“You have been using too much magical energy to do what normal people do with less. This doctor, called Teacher Hashim, knows a way to strengthen your magical focus. It’s controversial, but in your case, you may benefit a lot from it.”

Dawai signs about money.“Not too expensive. You have applied for insurance?” Dawai nods.

“Disability benefits?” Dawai shakes his head.

“Well, it will be a bit more expensive. Usually he asks for two hundred kuais, but now he is having a promotion. New classes begin next week. For now, rest.”

The streets are not busy with traffic, but the buildings are filled with people. Dawai scratches his head as he tried to understand the directions. Some are helpful, but others are rude.

“Why don’t you just use the map board?”

Dawai makes mouth movements, telling that he is ill and can’t use a lot of magic yet.

“Your problem, not mine!”

Dawai finally gave up, and use a half-kuai to buy a magic pellet. He presses the pellet on the map board, types the address. A direction is given... to the next city. Dawai sighs.

The doctor laughs until hoarse. “Ahahahahahah! Oh gods, you really fell for that!”This is not a good time to incur extra medical costs, but Dawai could not help but make himself have hypertension from that laugh.

He stands up, huffs, and prepares to leave.

The doctor stands up from his cross-legged position. “No, no, no, no, you really ARE in the right place! I am sorry for laughing at you.”

Dawai is brought back to where he sat. The doctor pours more tea for Dawai. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but there are two cities named Flew, and our government haven’t agreed officially on how to rename both of them. That city you were lost in, it’s called Flew of the Birds. This city, it’s called Flew of the Concords.”

Dawai drinks the tea, still fuming.The doctor lets a few laughters out of his system. “Alright! As an apology, I will give you further 10% discount. So, your discount will be 20%. That should come to 160 kuais. You agree?”

Dawai considers a bit. He nods.

“Excellent. Finish your tea, then I give you an overview.”

They go to the side of a low cliff, facing a forest. The doctor looks over the scenery. It is filled with trees and shrubs, and a creek flows across the field. Save for a few craters, the scenery is majestic.

“Now, observe. Usually, when we throw quantas of magic around, we use words. For example,” the doctor points at a crater then swings as if throwing a rock, “Tumbuh nan sebatang.”A tree sprout slowly. A few minutes later, they are both drinking more tea.

“Well, the demonstration shows that speaking magic words lets you throw magic quanta. Now, if you do this,” Teacher Hisham points to the crater. He contorts his body as if to throw a javelin, then inhales a full lung of air. After a second of delay, he shouts, “TUMBUH NAN SEBATANG!”

The crater receives the quanta and a large tree sprouts. The earth around the tree cracks to accommodate the mighty roots.Dawai instinctively clap. The teacher makes a slight bow.

“But, that wasn’t my point. Now, observe as I do the same thing with one difference.”The teacher points to the crater. He contorts his body as if to throw a javelin, then inhales a full lung of air. After a second of delay, he exhales as if he is shouting. No voice came out however.

But the quanta of magic flies as strong as before. Another tree appears and the crater ceases to be one as the tree roots ploughed the soil and break the crater’s rim. “You see, Dawai, you don’t need to utter the words to throw magic quantas efficiently. You need,” Teacher Hashim draws and then exhales breath, “to breathe.”

Dawai and Hisham is jogging the early next morning.“Keep up, Dawai, you already paid for this course!”They jogged for an hour. After that, they immediately start the meditation class. It is hard to keep his breath calm and controlled when he has to learn to blow it out of his mouth.

“You need primer on meditating too? Just remember your studies back in middle school. Only this time feel the air in your throat.”

Dawai studied keenly under Teacher Hashim for a week. On the eighth day after jogging, Dawai is instead brought to the cliff the other day. “So, Dawai, you’ve learnt a lot. Shoot my tree.”

Dawai aims at the tree. He swings the wand. In the same tempo of launching the quanta, Dawai exhales his breath with force. The quanta falls only a few dozen feet away. “You’re holding back. Exhale like you’re shouting.”

Dawai repeats the stance and this time, he shouts. Of course, his voice cord being damaged, there’s no sound. The quanta zooms through the air and slams the tree, exploding part of the crown to shards of wood and leaves.

“Good, good. But remove the wand, I want to see your power without it.”Dawai repeats the spell without the wand. The magic quanta instead falls short a few hundred feet from the tree.

“Needs a few weeks of practice. Remember what I taught you. Spend the rest of the day calibrating your output. Don’t want to destroy your workplace now, don’t you?”

After three more days of sick leave, Dawai is back at the cloth factory. He joins the dance, with not much of sweat or heavy breathing like he usually had.

After the dance, Gari touches his shoulder. Dawai makes a hello sign.Gari replies in sign too. Dawai is amused, and asked where he learnt.

“Just starting. I learnt from my nephew’s Orb 2. Such a rich kid, managed to buy his own horse last year.”

Dawai and Gari talks in sign language when suddenly the loom makes a sound it’s not supposed to.

“Is the loom breaking?”

Spools are flung away by the springs. The threads tighten and break. The loom machinery begins to fall apart, with the wires snapping wildly with electrical charges. Emergency personnels move quickly to shut off power and reduce damage.

But the frame holding the loom breaks with a sickening twang and the loom falls. Dawai’s right hand reaches for his wand as everyone runs away. He aims at the loom and exhales with a heave.

He manages to whisper out a very hoarse word. “Angkat”

The loom bounces up with a great force. A dozen magicians throw quantas to the loom to stop it from reaching the roof. It merely scrape the roof before it falls. The magicians moves to stop the loom from crushing the ground at force.

Dawai walks to a safer part of the factory. Gari points at the loom. “Dawai, you managed to lift it! How could you do that?”

Dawai tried to make a sign, but his throat feels a great pain. He coughs a spittle of blood. His face can only show panic.

Gari is waiting outside the hospital. Dawai comes out with a mask on his face.“What did the doctor say?”

Dawai makes signs.

“Too fast, I can’t read you.”

Dawai makes the sign slower. Gari says what Dawai is signing.

“You can’t follow Hisham’s technique too much. You can get your throat hurt. Learn to throat speak, but after two months. What does it mean?”

Dawai brings out the tablet and scribbles. It says: “I need to take two more weeks of sick leave. I can’t make magic as powerful as this morning, or my lungs can explode. I am lucky it’s only a slight injury on my throat.”

Gari nods. “So how do you eat? Your throat is hurt.”

Dawai unravels a pipe from within the mask. He sets one end on a jutting pipe on the base of his neck, and the other on the rice and chicken Gari brought. Dawai slurps it in and the food magically pass through the pipe smoothly.

“Huh, the wonders of medicine.”

If you like my story, please support me here: https://www.patreon.com/storyforger

#redditprompt fantasy magic

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toasttz · 5 years

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How to make games: RPGs

Hey! You like RPGs, right? If you don't I have to wonder how the hell you found FAN, given our two most-active subboards being vidya and tabletop RPGs, but, whatever! Let's, for the sake of argument, assume you like RPGs. If you don't, fuck off, Greg! ... I don't know anyone named Greg, I just wanted to see if I could screw with people named Greg. Anyways, RPGs, like the houses in Harry Potter, come in four distinct flavors: traditionalist, gonzo/comedy, h-game, and "Inspired by EarthBound/The Mother Trilogy". And much akin to Harry Potter, only two of these houses actually fucking matter and the other two are just hangers-on of different genres and ages. If you're going to waste the player's time by making your H-game an RPG, you are going about it entirely wrong. Please stop dumping this unabashed garbage-fire of a subgenre on Steam, the market is beyond saturation point and requires arm floaties to compensate. And for those of you who played/know of EarthBound and want to make a "spiritual successor"... just stop. Please for the love of God, stop. There never really was a demand for this kind of thing and EarthBound was not a commercial success, so just stop if you have any humanity left in you. I don't think I can stomach anymore fucking quirkiness after the last installment - anymore stuffed down my gullet and I'm gonna shit out a My Hero Academia OC next time my bowels move. So, in truth, you have two flavors of RPG: the traditionalist and the comedian routes and both can be equally terrible. Traditionalist RPGs range from the swords-n-sorcery setting found in Ultima, Dragon Quest, and good Final Fantasy installments to the sci-fi, cyberpunk, steampunk, and emo shit found in bad Final Fantasy installments - it's a wide gauntlet. The only prereq is that you take your own storytelling relatively seriously, with some level of gravity involved in the overall major story beats. Since traditionalist RPGs are made by people with crippling insecurities about change, and the game will largely succeed or fail on the quality of its characters, I'll go ahead and make your cast for you. I'll avoid giving them names so you can customize them: I mean, some people like their fantasy heroes to be named something like "Bulk McUlraeoth Sword Arm of Jupiter" and some people like their fantasy protags to be named "Jim". Who am I to judge your self-insert fanfiction? Sword McHero Man - The guy with short brown or black hair and a generic face done by a B-list manga-ka and, depending on if you want to make him a chillaxed everyman or an edgy edgelord, you can add or subtract belts, zippers, pouches, and black clothing items according to need. He'll almost always use a generic one-handed sword and have fairly short hair. If your game strongly favors an element system, he'll be either fire or light-affinity, but not have any actual strong convictions beyond the fact that he hates 'bad guys' and probably gets his head dunked in toilets by at least 3 NPCs in the starting town. Anything else about him is ultimately superfluous and interchangeable with the next Sword McHero Man over. Childhood McBestfriend - Oftentimes a female foil to the above, but not required by law to be so. Sometimes this doubles as Sword McHero Man's Suave Cool McLancer. They will usually fill a supplementary combat role in the party, either the thief or the healbot as the story requires. If they are the love interest, they are required to be Worst Waifu(TM) by law and be replaced as soon as a competent party member fills out the roster. Typically wind or water elemented in nature, they'll either help calm the hero-man down if he is the hotblooded sort, or cheer him up if he's currently got his head dunked in a toilet. Suave Cool McLancer - Either a rival or thematic foil of the hero and maybe a rival for Childhood McBestfriend's affections, depending on story necessity. He will be a more specialized unit, either the rogue, the heavy-armor knight, or the attack mage. If male, this character will be Best Hasbando and be incredibly pretty or horrifically scarred and/or disfigured with no potential in-betweens. If female, uncommon but not unheard-of, she'll be the team's big sis figure and likely the most powerful, physically speaking. Potential for Best Waifu(TM) is high, but can also potentially double as Back McStabberton. Back McStabberton - The dark, angsty, clearly-untrustworthy one who the player will see their betrayal coming from a mile off, but will completely blindside the naive heroes. Usually they'll have stats inconsistent with the party (being either over or under-powered depending on context) and clash with their bright, anime-esque color scheme by wearing blacks or dark purples. Either a thief or attack mage of some flavor. Almost universally a male or a "devilish handsome rogue" if they get redeemed at some point. If female, they will always be DOUBLE AGENTS acting with the hero's own good in mind and will promptly be forgiven. Usually dies before the game is out. Grandpa McTeacherperson - Some plot-pivotal character who exists to either give the party a special tool, weapon, or ability they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, or elsewise transfer their own talents to the party in some fashion. Virtually irrelevant as characters since these exist exclusively as jaded props to die off to make the villains' actions more personal. Please stop using this archetype or at least TRY to subvert it into something interesting, you talentless lazy fucks. Sexy McFaceTurn - Invariably one of the bad guy's hot ladies will see a boyish charm in the hero, even if the hero is supposed to be projected upon and therefore would actually have the social skills of a duck - or worse, me. What? I did that joke already? Fuck you, this joke's still more inspired than the Tales games RPGs. Anyways, upon getting wet for the hero, she will abandon her post and all its luxuries and join the party, clad in tight, black leather and probably using either knives or whips and will be your prereq dark-affinity character. She will be the sex appeal your game sells on, so be sure to slap her on all your promo materials even though she doesn't join until the mid-late game. Male versions of this idea die. I can't explain it - it's some straight-up Mr. Poofers dark magic, they just die. Annoying McMascot - Your game needs something bizarre to round the party out with. A talking dog is common. A fantasy creature with bright neon colors is also acceptable. Just make sure that players hate it with every fiber of their being. If the design alone isn't enough, give it an annoying speech habit - like a verbal tic or a lisp - and have it talk a lot and repeat the obvious a lot. It is by law that this must be implemented. However, unlike any of the above, this, coupled with the hero, cannot be killed off. And that should more or less do ya, unless you're the type who wanted to pour dozens upon dozens of dudes into your game. In which case, congrats, you understand that doing the absolute base minimum to be called a "game" isn't the bar you should be shooting for and therefore are already on your way to being better than Squeenix. Next, you need to get to codin'! So go on Steam and buy the latest RPG Maker software when it goes on sale. You won't need to wait long, between the Summer and Winter sales. Once you have that, you already have built-in art, music, and character makers. Fuck it - creativity is hard, so let the software tend to that itself. Make some characters and name some locations, jot up a map with some landmarks and treasure, then make a bad guy. Bad guy making is easy, they all wear black or dark reds and purples and tend to always call themselves "The [Whatever] Empire". You don't even need to be arsed to make a motivation for their evil schemes. Have you seen how much Fire Emblem Fates raked in just on the goodwill left over from Awakening? I'm surprised JRPGs aren't made by fucking algorithm these days! Anyways, that just about does it for the traditional RPG. Comedy RPGs aren't quite as bound to the above and are, in fact, encouraged to break the mold. If you need some ideas to get the creative juices flowin', there's a game you can try out, you might have heard about it since I haven't stopped fellating the damn thing since I did the LP back in 2013: Hourai High. Your plot doesn't need to make sense and is better off if any causality is merely coincidental. Your characters shouldn't really be trying to 'save the world', per se, but should do so by side-effect of their selfishness and/or incompetence. Your team should have robots, aliens, fucking CheetahMen, I don't fucking know, but take everything I said above this paragraph and throw it into a shredder, make it confetti, and wail on established convention! Sweet fucking mother - BE CREATIVE. I'm gonna temporarily break facade here for just a second and say this: you know how you bitched about Final Fantasy 15? How it's a fucking boyband music video with a fucking car commercial crammed in it?! How you hated the hallway simulator of FF13? How no one bought Bravely Second? How Dragon Quest keeps getting away with remaking the same fucking game?! Here's your chance. Flaunt on the establishment. Fuck what is "popular". Make something new. Don't try to be Shigesato Itoi. Do your own thing. Break the conditioning. Get out there and make a fucking game. Make it so when people say "RPG Maker Title" on Steam, they aren't saying it like it's a four-letter word. Put some God-damn soul into it, people! And now, off the soap box. Bonus points if you add a dating sim. Just saying. Rune Factory 5 just got announced. Now, get to work. Congrats. You now know how to be the most fucking boring milquetoast thing on the planet and how to avoid that ass-cancer and do something that actually expresses your individuality and possible talent. This is the one time I'm allowing these rants to be somewhat uplifting. You're welcome.

#satire #comedy #RPG #video games #games

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xseedgames · 6 years

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2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #5

It’s time for our last Q&A blog of the year. It’s been a fun time answering all these questions--you guys had some seriously good ones!--but now it is time for us to chill out and celebrate 2018. Hopefully we can give you guys good reasons to celebrate 2018, too!

For our final Q&A blog, we have answers from:

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Ryan Graff, Localization Lead Liz Rita, QA Tester Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Does working on a game affect your enjoyment of it in any way? Do you anticipate playing the full package after it is done or do you play through it beforehand anyway? Have you ever been spoiled on a game through work and if yes how severe was it? - @MizuUnNamed

Brittany: It definitely does. It's like the difference between babysitting a kid over the summer vs. giving birth to that kid and raising them till they leave the house. Even the most frustrating things about a game will somehow become something you love in a weird way, because it’s your kid and it's your responsibility to raise it right. When you're localizing a game, you're choosing every single word, and every single decision you make for that game will shape the experience for the thousands of people who play it. Characters I'd normally hate as a player become characters I love because figuring out their dialogue is a joy, and stuff I never thought about in localization are now very particular to me because I want my kid to go out into the world looking its best.

I will always play the games I work on. Sometimes I play them in Japanese beforehand, but there are days where I edit a file while playing line-by-line just so I can look at a character's expression and match the line written to the face. Then I replay it a few time as the English builds come in, tweaking it bit by bit, because it feels different to see the English on a sheet compared to seeing it in-game. It takes a ton of time, but I'd rather have a final product I can be proud of than to give up because something requires extra work.

Liz: When I started working here the first thing I tested was Corpse Party PC. I played it for like 200 hours and that game is much shorter than that haha. I loved every second of it, and recently got to test it again for the Linux + SteamOS release. Oh boy, that was a treat <3 I also got to work on Cold Steel II and at the time I didn't have the consoles the first released for, so I just watched playthroughs online... bless Cold Steel PC! I don't think I've ever been spoiled on a game through work before.... except maybe for Book of Shadows? But I don't even remember that spoiler so does it really count?

Nick: This is going to vary widely from person to person. For me...admittedly yes, working on a game does impact the enjoyment I’m able to derive from that game as a finished product. I understand, going in, that simply by virtue of working on a game, I will know its plot from beginning to end, see all the character development (including optional stuff that you might not even be able to view in a single playthrough), and in general become a subject matter expert on its world and lore. I’ll have knowledge of all the optional events and the items it’s possible to get – and sometimes, even a few that exist but were never implemented.

Working on a game is usually a months-long endeavor, during which we often end up playing the game in various stages of beta (or even alpha) readiness. We experience bugs we hope you never will; all the times text isn’t displaying correctly, voice or music isn’t playing right, or the battle system is falling over foaming at the mouth. By the time a game is ready to be sold, we’ve spent more time with it than would probably be considered healthy from a consumer perspective.

Outside of post-launch support/tweaking I’ve done for games like Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, I’ve never picked up a game I’ve worked on here after it launched. They’re good games, and I’ve been proud of each project I’ve worked on so far – it’s just that I’m someone with a low tolerance for repetition. You know – the sort who would get sick of even my favorite movies if I watched them every day for a week straight. As cool a game as Trails of Cold Steel might be, I’m in no hurry to sink 80 hours into an RPG that I focused all my attention on for the better part of an entire year.

While it IS perhaps a bit regrettable that I “ruin” my ability to enjoy a game in a normal-player context by working on them, I feel it’s a small price to pay if I can help deliver something that players will really enjoy their time with.

Question: When you brought over Rune Factory 4 to Europe, what difficulties did you encounter? How was the process? - @Marower

Brittany: Hey! This is perfect for me! We really wanted to bring RF4 to Europe, but with the developer now shut down, it wasn't possible. We spent ages looking for a programming team who would be willing to help us that also had Marvelous Japan’s blessing, and then it became my little pet project. I had zero experience with the process, so it was a lot of learning and guidance from my boss, Ken. We were able to update the text a bit to fix typos, but because we would never be as familiar with it as the original team, we wanted to touch the game's code as little as possible since we didn't want to risk breaking the game.

I tried to reproduce this one rare bug that causes the game to crash at the end of arc 2 (this is present in the Japanese, too, so it wasn't introduced in English), but it was impossible. I started the EU version from scratch and went up to that point. There were rumors that soft resetting the game caused the issue since it really wasn't programmed to handle soft resets too much, so I did that as often as I could. Nothing. Oh, man... I wish I could've found the pattern that caused such a weird crash. It's rare, but no one wants a crash in their game.

NA only has one rating, but Europe requires several different ratings, so that's an interesting process. The store pages all require various languages, too, depending on the region. I learned that because you could palette-swap character models to simulate gay marriage that the game had to be 18+ in Russia. 18+! For a Rune Factory game! All of the processes take a bit longer, but it was mostly a lot of communication, paperwork, confirmations and such. All worth it to finally get that game out there!

Question: What process leads to additional content in localized releases? Things like additional voices for Trails of Cold Steel on PC. How do you decide which titles get "a little bit extra"? - @Baust528

Brittany:

Me (messaging programmer on Skype: hey are you up Sara (programmer): Yeah. What's up? Me: lmao wouldn't it be awesome if we could put x in the game Sara (ten minutes later): It's in the game.

That happens a lot. As a more serious answer, since we try to localize games we're personally passionate about, it's easy for us to see what we'd want as a fan, too. So we'll sit around and go, "Wouldn't this feature be nice?", and we'll see if it's doable. If it is, we'll do it.

The extra voice acting in Cold Steel PC came about because we wanted to do it for PS3/Vita, but it wasn't possible. I asked if we could put the games on PC one day, the boss worked out the numbers, and we realized that avenue was perfectly possible. We thought adding new voices would be great, because the English cast was very well received in English. Turbo Mode and ultra widescreen were both Durante, though. Those were awesome.

Generally, if our programmers have an idea they'd like to add to the game, we allow it. They're programmers! They know if it's possible, and if it makes the game better, who are we to say no? That's how the Sky games have gotten so many improvements over the years, too. We're incredibly fortunate to have Sara as a programmer, because she takes each project very personally and still finds ways to improve them years after launch.

Tom: There are a lot of factors that go into things like this, but one that's come up a couple times now has definitely been our inability to license the Japanese voices. We figured, if we can't offer dual voice to players, why not use whatever budget we may have set aside for that to give them something a little extra? It may not be exactly what they want, but it's at least something we can offer them to show that we truly did put our best foot forward with this release

Nick: As weird as it may sound, it starts with just someone asking, “Hey, could we do this?” Sometimes, what we’ll want to do is evident due to what’s perceived as a shortcoming in a game. Trails of Cold Steel had a lot of voice acting, but weirdly left protagonist Rean silent in a number of scenes where all the other characters were voiced. That was the initial impetus for us wanting to get back into the studio for the PC release and record all the voicework we couldn’t for the PS3 release (in which we could only supply voices for lines that were voiced in the Japanese version).

Similarly, when I was planning out the recording for Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, I thought, “We’re having people in to record these battle voices and we’re gonna pay them a minimum session fee anyway, so...why not add some story scenes onto that?” So in the end, we managed to include a solid amount of voice acting in there for a game that, in its original version, had very little.

Question: Have you ever considered localizing otome games? It would be nice if you can bring us some handsome boys. （*＾＾*) - @NymphNayade

Brittany: Hmm.

Question: Can you comment on the difficulty in trying to get Japanese developers to support same-sex couples/marriage in games like Story of Season or Rune Factory? - @atelier_michi

Brittany: XSEED's always been very openly supportive of adding that. I don't know what difficulties there would be in Japan, but I try to think of how much progress we've made to be able to openly ask for same-sex couples/marriage in games. It wasn't long ago that the idea was ludicrous. I remember when Ellen DeGeneres came out in the '90s and it affected me very strongly, especially since my parents would actively tell me, “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” So even if it's not in the current SoS games, I'll ask for the feature every time I visit Japan, because I think being open about it is an important factor to making progress on that front. Nothing will happen if you don’t fight for it.

I'd really like a whole variety of relationships in the SoS. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, or even a unique relationship outside of sexuality like dating a single parent or supporting your partner as they transition. It's that sort of variety that makes life interesting and great, and I think introducing these concepts in a series as darling as SoS normalizes them and helps children to perceive them as innocently as heterosexual relationships and concepts. It's very educational. Normalizing it more would teach people to ask more questions, too, instead of rejecting any type of orientation or relationship that seems foreign to them.

I remember for the first SoS game we published, Hashimoto-san said he had animals die in the game because he wanted children to be introduced to the natural process of life and death. It wasn't meant to be a bad thing, but something we should be comfortable with because that's part of what it means to be alive. Something to that, lol. Anyway, I'd like for just as much heart to be taken to represent more kinds of people in life, too.

Question: A rumor is going around that you guys are avoiding publishing fanservicey games outside of Senran Kagura. This came in wake of you guys seemingly passing on Valkyrie Drive. Is there any validity to this rumor, and if so, why? - @WaywardChili11

Brittany: did people forget we did a game with literal strawberries and a banana as a costume

That's a weird rumor. It’s also dumb. We've done fanservice games in the past, and we'll decide on whether or not to do them on a game-by-game basis. We're not necessarily passing on them because of fanservice, but I also don't think fanservice is core to the XSEED brand, so it shouldn't be a given for us to do fanservice titles just because we’ve done them in the past. Many of us enjoyed Onechanbara and we have some SENRAN KAGURA fans in the office, so we published those because we originally liked them as games that happened to contain fanservice.

We’re also not big on censoring games, so I’d rather pass on a game than work on it after it’s been censored. If I were to localize a title and actually choose to censor it, I’d piss of people who don’t like the fanservice content, I’d piss off the people who want that content, and then I’d be pissed off because if I felt something was so horrible that it needed to be censored, then I probably didn’t want to work on the game.

That doesn’t mean every fanservice game is off the table for me, but I would need to evaluate it to see if the game is for me, as I would any other genre. Like, Lord of Magna is overall a super-cute game, but it also has an out-of-nowhere hot springs scene. I felt that scene detracted from the game because the rest of the game was adorable and innocent. That said, I didn’t remove the scene, and I still loved working the game. It’s a game with fanservice I would still happily play again.

Meanwhile, SENRAN KAGURA sells on fanservice, but the gameplay is pretty good. I admit that I prefer the older titles for DS/3DS which were more ridiculous titillation with a good story than the more overt modern titles, but again, that just means the series is no longer for me, and that’s fine. We still have SK fans in the office, and they enjoy working on the series.

Another factor is gaming trends and our overall rep as a company. Fanservice games weren’t always as hot as they are now, and XSEED started off with a variety of genres, with our niche eventually falling to RPGs and such. Every trend has a rise and fall, and if we pick up every fanservice game regardless of quality just because it’s hot now, we’re alienating the audiences that love us for action, RPGs, and so on. We may even alienate retailers or future marketing opportunities for the games we license outside of that genre. We’ll have shot ourselves in the foot if the fanservice trend falls when we made it our bread and butter. I like having a job.

Tom: We certainly don't have any problems with fanservice, as I think we've proven quite thoroughly at this point. But we also don't ever back a game simply BECAUSE of its fanservice. When we release a game, we do so because (1) we like it, and/or (2) we see some really good potential in it. If it happens to have fanservice, great! If not, also great.

On the flipside, we also turn down games for a variety of reasons. Maybe we hated the story. Maybe we hated the gameplay. Maybe we felt it took its themes a bit too far, or that it had a lot of wasted potential that it never quite lived up to. Maybe we put in an offer on it but were outbid, or the developer appended unusual terms to the license that we weren't willing or able to accept. Maybe the developer simply didn't want to work with us for some reason, or we didn't want to work with them. Maybe we didn't have time to work on that title, or maybe we simply felt someone else would be able to do a better job with it. Tl;dr version, there are a LOT of factors that go into licensing decisions!

Our reasons for turning down a game aren't really something we can ever outright tell you guys, due to the NDAs we all signed when we got hired. But suffice it to say, it's never simply because of fanservice. Fanservice may potentially contribute to a larger tapestry of reasons for passing on a title in extreme cases (though they'd have to be pretty extreme!), but rest assured, we'll never say no to a game simply because it shows a lot of skin. Good games are more than skin deep, after all!

Nick: Here’s the Nick take: Most of us here don’t mind fanservice. It’s fun, it’s saucy, and folks can have a good time with it. If you look at our lineup, you can see we don’t shy away from games that have fanservice (Oneechanbara!), and games that push the boundaries, as Senran Kagura sometimes does, certainly aren’t out of the realm of consideration. A boob, a bulge; it’s all fair game here.

But here’s the thing. The games a company releases become part of their oeuvre. We have a reputation for quirky Japanese games because we’ve released enough of them that it’s a noticeable trend. The same would happen if we opened our gates to every fanservice-laden game that came knocking. Speaking personally, I don’t want us to have a reputation as a publisher whose stock in trade is mainly cheesecakey fanservice or smutty games. That kind of pigeonholing doesn’t help us as a company, and at worst, might even preclude some future licensing opportunities.

I think a lot of people get the impression that we turn down fanservice-laden games for some sort of censorious or moral reason, but that’s not especially true. There ARE cases where we might think, “If we licensed this, the ESRB wouldn’t let it through without forcing us to censor enough that the primary audience we were licensing it for in the first place would be upset,” and there are times when a game might simply be in bad taste and we decide we don’t like how it handles sexuality.

Sometimes, iffy material gets through in spite of all that. The SENRAN KAGURA series has done well for us, so we continue to publish those games even though a number of us in the office have concerns about how each new game seems to push the boundaries further and further in terms of what’s allowable (either by the ESRB or by common decency). We keep a close watch on that, and we’ve communicated our feelings to Takaki-san and his team. We strongly dislike having to alter content in this way, so if a game is so stridently sexual that we think we’d probably be forced to do so by the ESRB (as was a going concern with Valkyrie Drive, iirc), that factors into our decision-making process.

More often, the mundane truth is that we’ll turn down a game of this type because our evaluation play-tests show it to not be very fun to play. It’s not uncommon for games in this vein to just focus on piquing prurient interests or trading in tawdry titillation while the actual game underneath feels janky to play, or has no depth once you get past ogling your favorite waifu. That’s something that can’t be conveyed through a screenshot or even game video, which leaves hopeful players confusedly thinking we passed on a game for reasons more related to its content.

There’s a solid balance to be struck between acknowledging and publishing content for a mature audience and turning down projects that don’t jive with us, and I want you guys to know that we DO put a lot of thought into keeping this balance healthy.

Ken: When we first published SENRAN KAGURA Burst in late 2013, it was a much stricter retail environment so we had to approach the title with caution. We needed to see if there was a market for the series in the West, and even if there was the absolute worst thing that could happen would be to start manufacturing only to hear that retailers suddenly don't want them or want to return their units because of a complaint they got. Due to the success of the digital-only release of SENRAN KAGURA Burst we were able to release the next few games in the series physically at retail (so the "no physical no buy" people really need to thank their digital-buying colleagues), but that doesn't mean that we get a free pass to release anything in the future. As each new iteration seems to push the envelope further and further, we need to be careful exactly how far we push - at some point if we push too far and the whole levee breaks, it could have repercussions for games that have already previously been released.

Question: Who is best girl and boy? - @MizuUnNamed

Brittany: Can I get Crow Armbrust and Crow Armbrust for $500?

Tom: Narcia and Pietro, of course. But only for each other.

Liz: Rottytops and Ludus! What did we do to deserve them?

That’s all, folks! It’s been a wild ride, but hopefully we answered your questions well enough.

#XSEED #Q&A #Localization

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thesffcorner · 6 years

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Dishonored Retrospective Part 5: DLC Changes and the Knife of Dunwall

The first four parts of this retrospective covered the base game. Part 5 will look at the DLC, specifically its changes in the first installment, the Knife of Dunwall.

Dishonored got two story expansions: The Knife of Dunwall was the first, followed by the Brigmore Witches. Both are set in Dunwall, and in both you play as the assassin Daud.

The expansion starts a lot of trends and improvements that become staples of the latter games, like the villains, the inclusion of some sort of gang conflict, the introduction of corrupt/black bonecharms and favours/contracts.

The first and most notable one is that we no longer have a silent protagonist. I like this change a lot, not least because it would have been incredibly weird to have Daud voiced in the original and not in the expansion. Michael Madsen reprises his role and he’s even better in this DLC; he gets more lines and more time to shine and develop Daud’s voice and character.

There is a lot of debate surrounding voiced vs silent protagonists, but personally I prefer the latter. It helps cement the character’s personality, and actually allows for dialogue and real interaction. Instead of pressing 1 of two prompts in response to someone just standing in front of you and talking at you, you can have an actual ‘scene’ with dialogue and personality and ‘gasp’ character development.

The change from Corvo to Daud marks another improvement. While you technically can still play as Corvo in Dishonored 2, it’s clear that Emily is the intended protagonist, which makes each instalment have a different lead through which we experience the world and story.

Speaking of, let’s quickly go over that!

Story:

The Knife of Dunwall (KoD) takes place right after Jessamine’s murder. Daud is already having second thoughts, not helped by a visit from the Outsider who mentions the name Delilah. He starts trying to figure out who or what Delilah is, and this quest takes him from the bowels of the ports to the glittering streets of the Financial District.

Brigmore Witches (BW) takes place directly after and sees Daud go on the offensive, for his final confrontation with Delilah, now that he knows who and what she is.

Unlike the original, the story here is more of a mystery rather than a revenge, which I really like. Daud has already done the deed; not only has he killed Jessamine, he has had an entire lifetime of killing that he can’t easily (or at all) make up for. So figuring out who Delilah is and how she ties in with Hiram Burrows and Jessamine isn’t just for the player’s convenience of having a plot; it also literary is about saving Daud’s soul, whether you chose to play a redemptive or destructive path.

Gameplay:

The chaos system is the same from the previous game, but the extremes have slightly changed. In the original, doing a non-lethal playthrough earned you an achievement called Clean Hands, whereas here it’s Cleaner Hands. It’s fitting, both because Daud is after all, as assassin, but also because from what I know you can’t do an entirely non-lethal playthorugh.

On the flip-side, high chaos still allows you to destroy everyone and anything, and gives you a different ending. I don’t know how different the ending is, since I’ve never played on high chaos, but I do know that the ending is already hard on low chaos so I don’t need or want an extra challenge.

In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of small changes that I found really improved the experience. First off, Daud has more weapons that are non-lethal. He has his chokedust, and his electric bolts, and his shock mines, which are ironically, more options than what Corvo had. Additionally he doesn’t have a crossbow; he has an Assassin’s Creed style launcher in his sleeve.

Daud, like Corvo is marked, but his abilities are slightly different. His Void Gaze combines Corvo’s Dark Vision and the heart, highlighting both enemies and runes; Blink teleports Daud in a slightly different way, by slowing time; and Summon Assassins which again, similarly to an ability in Assassin’s Creed summons Assassin helpers.

Like Corvo, Daud also can upgrade his abilities with runes and bonecharms, except this is the first time the developers include corrupt and black bonecharms. These give advantages but also have downsides, like wasting more mana or depleting health or generally having some downside that the player has to balance out. I personally don’t find bonecharms that useful outside of a collector standpoint, so I’ve never had an issue with the balancing, but I do think it’s a neat addition, especially on higher difficulties.

As for the enemies, there are quite a few new ones. For starters KoD doesn’t have any Wheepers, but instead there are Overseers, City Watch and most importantly a new gang called the Hatters. We’ll talk more about both of these when we get to characters.

In BW, Wheepers make a return, along with more Overseers and City Watch, as well as two new group which I absolutely adore, because as I said in my Dishonored post, this is the first time we get female enemies! The two groups are the Hatters’ rival gang the Dead Eels, and Delilah’s coven of Witches.

Characters:

Daud is our protagonist, and he is a more interesting presence than Corvo, if only because he actually talks. He makes quite a few jokes too; my favorite is him telling two of his assassins who want to betray him to the Officers that he’ll come quietly.

Daud’s main conflict that follows him through both expansions, is his misgivings on killing Jessamine. He starts questioning the life he has lead and wondering how much of what he has done has been his own choice and how much has been subtly guided by the Outsider. There is a lot of debate about whether his decision to go after Delilah and stopping her from taking over Emily is really altruistic or motivated by a selfish, shallow need to ‘redeem himself’, and either way you land, the fact that there is this much discussion in the first place speaks of good writing. While there is some question of how ‘good’ Corvo is, you can actually play him entirely non-lethally and it’s easier to get on board with a wrongfully accused character than a man who has spent a good 30 years of his life killing. But I like that a lot about Daud, and the questions that he himself raises about faith and responsibility and regret are all fascinating themes that are way more interesting than anything raised in the base game.

Other important characters are: Delilah, Billie Lurk, Lizzy Stride, Barister Timsh, Thalia Timsh, Burndry Rothwild, Nurse Trimble, and the Old Geezer.

Level Breakdown:

The Knife of Dunwall has three levels, while the Brigmore Witches has four. Like before, we have a mix of city levels and single location levels, and some of these, like the first level of KoD and the third level in BW are on par with Flooded District in length.

The game starts with a short cut-scene and a visit to the Void. The Outsider is not happy with Daud; it’s clear whatever affection or relationship the two have had has long since ended, and it’s especially funny as the Outsider is about to mark Corvo to essentially replace Daud.

There is no Hound Pits Pub-like area where Daud can relax and shop, so you start each level with an upgrade screen. This is where we are introduced to Favors, a concept that gets even further developed with the Black Markets and Contracts in the sequel.

Favors are small things that Daud can pay for to make the game slightly easier or open up different paths of playing, such as purchasing extra tanks of whale oil to be put in a specific location or having a bonecharm hidden somewhere in the level. They are useful and can sometimes be done without, but sometimes, especially on medium chaos they make the job a lot easier.

A Captain of Industry:

The first level sees Daud breaking into the Rothwild Processing Plant and Refinery. The man who owns it, Rothwild is a ruthless businessman who is in the process of rather brutally crushing a workers strike in his factory. What Daud needs from Rothwild is actually information about his boat called Delilah.

The roofs outside the factory is where we first meet Billie Lurk, hands down the best character in this entire series. Billie is one of Daud’s assassins and point-woman, the best and smartest of all his Whalers. She is a snarky, no-nonsense person who will question Daud and banter with him during and in between missions.

For now, she informs Daud that punch cards are revoked because of the strike, making it difficult to get inside.

This is a good time to talk about the new enemy of this area: the Butchers. They are an imposing, lumbering yet fast gigantic enemies who kill you in a really gruesome way by burring their circular saws in your flesh. These enemies were horrifying the first time I played this level; their design is genuinely great, and makes for a fun contrast with Rothwild once you actually get to see him. The game sets you up to think he will likewise be a gigantic butcher, but instead is a skinny man who looks less intimidating than Piero.

Entering the Slaughterhouse isn’t easy and required you to acquire a punch card. This also potentially lets you see the prison where those who dared go on strike are held; again some rather gruesome imagery which at this point is par for the course for this world.

The Whale Butchers are like the regular Butcher’s jacked up cousin. They have a gigantic saw in the front and the engine of a tallboy in the back and are one hell of a monstrosity to fight. Best to avoid or bolt them. The Slaughterhouse itself is huge and contains a lot of interlocking rooms; it’s a perfect example of a single location level done right.

There are several side-quests to be completed here, one of them being putting a whale out of its misery in the Refining Room where he is being slowly electrocuted and leaking oil and bodily liquids on the floor. This space is incredible and grim as hell; the Butchers, the sounds the whale makes, the enormity of the room, it’s all a brilliant piece of world building. It’s probably my favorite area in the whole DLC.

The rest of this level involves Daud exploring the Slaughterhouse and finding Rothwild involved in an argument with Abigail. Abigail is a union representative, sent to deliberately start the fire that was the strike to undermine Bundry. Her involvement in this level gives you a ton of options as to how you want to deal with anyone. It also presents you with an interesting choice.

If you decide to play non-lethally, you will be met with scorn and resistance from everyone you encounter, especially, at the start Billie. Here, Abigail mocks you for the decision not to do what she asks, which is essentially, not just killing Bundry, but also blowing up the Refinery along with every single Butcher that’s still trapped inside. Talk about overkill lady!

In return she offers to tell you about Delilah, but there is another way. You can knock her out and then take Rothwild to the very chair he has been using to abuse his workers and shock him until he talks. Then you can put him in a crate sent to the western part of the Isles and be on your marry way.

Well… sort of. Additional enemies appear as you exit, and if you avoid them, you get to experience Overseer’s music box. This was a weapon that appeared in the base game but wasn’t utilized much (other than the first level). Here it appears quite a lot; it dulls the assassins’ senses and makes it impossible for Daud to use his powers. A chokedust grenade will be enough of a distraction to let Billie escape the Overseers who have her trapped.

Eminent Domain:

With the information Daud got from either Rothwild or Abigail, you now know that the boat used to belong to Barister Timsh, a friend of Hiram Burrows who was Delilah’s lover. However recently he has been trying to get rid of the boat and a lot of other things, and learning that you are suddenly interested in Delilah, prompts his niece, Thalia to seek you out.

The level starts with you and Billie taking out some guards. Thalia is waiting for you on the other side of the wall of light, so you have to make your way there.

SHUT IT OFF. That’s the main advice I’ll give you, because if you don’t, there is no way to get back to the Waterfront, and you will essentially break the game. Do it and save yourself the frustration.

Thalia is waiting for you in a small square, harassed by a Hatter. This is where using Void Gaze really helps, because if you take out the Hatter immediately, you will be ambushed by two more who, if you’re not careful, will start a gang war.

Disposing of the Hatters lets you talk to Thalia. She will tell you that Timsh was so obsessed with Delilah, he rewrote his will to leave his entire estate to her. She wants you to kill him and replace the will which is maybe a problem if you’re playing Cleaner Hands.

Before you can worry about that though, there is the slight issue of getting into the Financial District. You need a key, and the key has been promptly stolen from the City Watch by the Hatters. This brings you into Hatter territory, where stealing the key from Chauncy is a lot harder than it sounds. Depending on your chaos level Chauncy will change location and getting to him can be tricky. Once you do manage it, you can enter the Financial District.

Since the assassins have been planning a hit on Timsh for a while, you have a scope location already set up where you can talk to Billie and stock up on weapons and gear. Before you do that, it’s good to save one of Timsh’ former ‘friends’ from some City Watch, since he gives you an alternative to killing Timsh. Essentially Timsh seized the friend’s property unlawfully, and he wants to repay the favour, using some forged documents and a bag of dead rats.

This is also the place where you can talk to the Outsider. Billie will make some snarky comments about your face while talking to, as Daud calls him “the black eyed bastard”, and now you can really go after Timsh.

Let’s talk about the way I did it. Blinking from the apartments across to Timsh’s fourth floor will land you right in front of the room with Delilah’s statue. Because Timsh wanders the house, there is a good chance he might be on this floor too. Knock him and the guards out, steal his key and replace his immunity document with a forgery. Use Delilah’s statue to talk to her; this is your first interaction and she’s pretty great at self-aggrandizing.

Now all you have to do is take the will and dump the rats in the air duct in the basement. You can watch General Turnbull hilariously arrest Timsh and you are done my friend. Return to the sewers (though beware the Butchers who will appear as revenge for what you did to the Slaughterhouse).

I love this level. It’s a lot of weaving from building to building, carefully knocking out or avoiding enemies and some very entertaining scenes between Delilah and the Outsider. I like city levels the most because they are best at showing the world, and seeing the rich part of Dunwall was immensely entertaining. It adds another level to the world building we got in the base game. While I did love it there, most of the city levels were set at night and crawling with City Watch; it’s nice to see that Dunwall was still a functioning city while Corvo was out killing people.

The Surge:

And now, we get to the third and final level of the KoD. I won’t lie, the first time I played this level, I hated it. It’s very hard and it combines a lot of my least favorite things. It’s a single location level, that reuses a location (the Flooded District) and it’s a level full of enemies. For playing Cleaner Hands, this was a nightmare.

However, the plot here is good and it’s probably the best-known beat of the whole series, and it informs so much of what happens in the BW and the sequel games. So let’s start.

Billie Lurk informs you that the Overseers have taken over the Flooded District; someone has betrayed you and your base, and Daud’s first priority will be to find out who. You climb out of the chain and follow Corvo’s footsteps and get to see the massive number of Overseers. There are two main goals of this level; getting to Overseer Hume and freeing as many of the captured assassins as you can.

How you deal with the Overseers is a personal choice that I won’t even attempt to influence; I started out painstakingly taking them out one by one, until I figured out chokedust works really well to disorient groups and then either shoot or choke the Overseers while they are distracted. This goes double for Overseers who carry the music box, because they can only be attacked from the back.

You locate the assault plans in the house next to the makeshift platform and find out that Hume was tipped straight to your hideout. To take Hume out, it’s best to use the three story building directly opposite the hideout and use the open window. Once you take the letter he carries you can return to the roof and order your assassins to either kill or knock out the remaining Overseers.

And now we get to the moment. Billie reappears and informs Daud that the Overseer Hume moved too early; more Overseers should be on their way, but with Hume defeated it’s too late. Daud asks again how the Overseers knew where to find them and Billie admits to betraying you.

I love this moment. That Billie betrays Daud was unfortunately something that was spoiled for me, but I still thought it was a great beat. Billie has been your point woman the entire time, bouncing off ideas and plans in every level. To find out that she and Delilah wanted to kill you all this time is a big blow, especially because Billie doesn’t seem sorry to have done it. She explains that she thought Daud’s refusal to kill has made him weak and she was going to take his place. But seeing the change and his defeat of the Overseers convinces her that he isn’t and deserves better.

Delilah bamfs out, with a ridiculously over the top warning that she will “crush your cold heart and walk into your skin” and you get a choice; spare Billie’s life or kill her.

I said before that I didn’t like the DLC’s ending choice, and that’s in great part because of this one. There is a different weight to deciding Billie faith when you are Daud; she directly betrayed you, and if you died a lot in this level like I did then you have a lot of personal reasons to be angry with her. It’s a better motivated choice, and the weight of what decision you make, will really inform the way you interpret Daud’s character. Either he really is starting to change, and is sick of killing, or he is still just the same vindictive man he was before.

Another big debate is what type of relationship Daud has with Billie. The game leaves this open to interpretation, and honestly, I think it’s for the best. While I do lean a lot towards the fatherly, there is a case to be made that their attachment is romantic, but at the end of the day I think it’s irrelevant. They cared for each other, and being betrayed by someone like that will be a heavy blow, no matter how you interpret this attachment.

With KoD over we can go over to part 6 and the Brigmore Witches.

part 4 < > part 6

#dishonored #knife of dunwall #moni talks #dishonored retrospective

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canvaswolfdoll · 7 years

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CanvasPlays: Harvest Moon 64

I have often expressed my nostalgic love for the Harvest Moon series of old, and made mention of Harvest Moon 64 as my White Whale of the series and of video games in general.

So, imagine my surprise when, nearing the end of a rough week wherein I apparently made an accidental blood sacrifice via rotary cutter and a root canal and a half,[1] a port of Harvest Moon 64 arrived on the Wii U Virtual Console.

That same day, I went out, bought a $20 Nintendo Eshop card,[2] paid the ten dollar purchase price, and downloaded the game before I left for work.

Eager to come back to finally dip my toes into the game.

Now, I started with Friends of Mineral Town, which pretty much nailed the series perfectly, becoming the definitive version that modern installments are but pale imitations of. So I didn’t know how the older N64 edition would compare.

Still, I cannot ignore past experiences, so HM64 must be compared to its successors. I will endeavour to be fair, considering its era.

One thing I believe is a fair criticism, even for 1999, is how brown the textures are. The house you live in is composed almost entirely of the same brown wood panelling, furniture decipherable only by their edges, and the sheets for the bed.

It’s a dark, mud brown, too.

The rest of the world is composed mostly of the brown dirt texture. Some grass, sometimes. But dirt prevails.

The limited texture palette makes Flower Bud Village a little drab, at least compared to the vibrant Mineral Town, which made the wise choice of making dirt a tannish yellow color, brightening up the world. Luckily, the creators did learn, and such drabness never returns.

The mechanics, from what I have found, are also much more restrictive than I’m used to. In a bizarre reversal of my mockery of the modern Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons games’ excessive hand-holding, HM64 gives very little instruction.

Even in the game manual.[3]

For one, there seems to be no way to cycle the items, a mainstay from at least FoMT, wherein holding down a shoulder button and tapping the corresponding button lets you cycle tools or items from the rucksack[4] to your hand. HM64 requires the player to open the pause menu, move the item to hand, then exit the pause menu. And the pause menu is a little sluggish to close.

Also, you can’t hop over single grid items. Or run, for that matter.

At least, I haven’t found controls to do such things.

And time moves fast in HM64. Unmanageably fast! At least time’s still frozen in buildings.

Actually, the biggest weakness of HM64 is the clock. I don’t really know what the real world time to game time conversion is, but it’s clearly faster than FoMT’s one real second to one game minute rate. As the clock is kept on the pause menu, the player can’t easily monitor the time, and so it’s very easy to lose a lot of time.

The worst example of this biting me was on the day of the spring horse race, when I watered three patches of crops (24 squares total), talked to my own horse, then made my way to the event square, talked to some attendees, then had the event end abruptly before I reached the mayor to actually participate in the day’s events. I got so little done, and yet the day was already gone, my opportunity missed.

I can understand not being able to fit everything in a single day; that’s par the course with Harvest Moon and Rune Factory time management. Only so much time to talk to townspeople and do whatever tasks are available; but having to decide between completing farm chores and attending the town festival is unreasonable.

Luckily, later installments have instituted a time freeze when you’re in an event screen.

Just the time it takes to water a couple plants and talk to a horse can take nearly the whole day, and I haven’t even gotten any animals to care for yet! Or even fully explored the mountain. I think there’s supposed to be a mine and cave there somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find them. Because by the time I can get to the mountain, it’s evening, then swiftly dark.

One thing I do appreciate is that tools just automatically improve and level up as you use them, so you don’t need to hire the blacksmith for upgrades and be unable to complete certain tasks as the smith works. I don’t mind the upgrade mechanics of the other games, but I also like the idea of equipment improving as you use it more.

The townspeople are charming, as is to be expected, and most of them avoid the usual pattern of only having two things to say on a given day. Sometimes they have three or more! Really livens things up. However, I haven’t the time to get invested any of them within the terms of the game, instead of through memories of Mineral Town and an old issue of Nintendo Power.[6] With luck, I’ll master the game well enough to become a minor socialite, maybe woo one of the girls.

Obviously, I’m only about halfway through the first spring, so maybe things will pick up as I keep going (because I intend to keep going…),[7] and it does invoke my nostalgia for older Harvest Moon, and it is interesting to see what improvements are still yet to be made. Despite my complaints about brown-ness, it does look really good for its era, and I’m excited to see how the pallet changes with the seasons. The cast of the old classics are nice to see again, shuffled into both different and familiar roles, and the events mentioned by the wiki look to be fun. Still, I doubt I’ll be able to complete the album, since time is not on my side for this game.

So… if you play only one Harvest Moon game, play Friends of Mineral Town which is also on the WiiU eShop. If you're a fan of earlier Harvest Moons, or even the entire series, and like analyzing how series grow, it’s worth its price.

Feel free to message me or whatever, and consider supporting me on Patreon. Who knows, if I actually start raising money, I might be able to afford to stream console games. Then I can do a series on Farming Simulators or something. I don’t know. Power’s in your hands.

Kataal kataal.

[1] I went into a root canal appointment that got downgraded as the dentist worked. [2] Also slowly saving up to buy a Fire Emblem Fates path. [3] Though, admittedly, I still haven’t put much time into the ‘How to Play’ option on the main menu. So… this might be self inflicted. [4] I still love the word ‘Rucksack’. Been wanting a HM-style Rucksack for most of my life. I have one now![5] [5] Still don’t have digimon gogglehead styled goggles, though. Dang. [6] I wonder if that’s at my parents place somewhere. [7] Until I get bored and pick up FoMT again.

#CanvasPlays #Harvest Moon #CanvasReviews

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