#go play katana zero it's really fucking good
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No thoughts, only meow meows.
#katana zero#zero#zero kz#zero katana zero#fifteen#fifteen kz#fifteen katana zero#my art#to those who might have been wondering where i've been#the answer is i got hit with a new hyperfixation#i'd say i'm sorry to my limbus followers but i'm not#go play katana zero it's really fucking good
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2, 3, 7, 8, 12 for Mr Katana Zero
2. Favorite canon thing about this character?
Idk there's lots to love... I played the game again recently so you'd think I'd have a better answer for this but rn I'm just going to say the small and subtle reactions in his sprite art that he has throughout the game. They make him so full of life
3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?
His living space but especially his fridge. I understand it but also. Horrifying
7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?
I honestly think a lot of the portrayals of him during teenagehood/the war are good... also the dedication to making him look really cool in terms of action in fanart. Full Confession drawings always fuck so hard
8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?
Ship him with Fifteen in a way that completely strips both of their personalities away from each other. It happens frequently and it's always disappointing. Another thing would be when people use him as a self-insert for their power fantasies. You Are Not Katana Zero lmao
12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?
Ah I think that his voice is kind of hoarse because he speaks so little... he's not a silent protagonist as you know but it feels like the events of the game were a sudden and wild increase in terms of social interaction
#asks#AHHH SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I FORGOR BECAUSE I GOT STUCK#thank you for sending this though :)
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do you have any game recs btw 👀 i feel like you generally have good taste and im looking for a next game to play. as you know i rly like lobcorp and disco elysium but tbh id be open to just about anything; i just beat outer wilds and thought that was p good
sorry for the wait I saw this just before work kajsndkjas. I tried to categorize them in some way. Also some of these I dont know/remember if you have played already or not sooo.
SO I HAD A WHOLE LONG ASS POST WITH IMAGES AND EVERYTHING IT WAS SOOO GOOD AND SHIT AND THEN IT ALL GOT DELETED???? ANYWAY i will make it short... er. I'm,,, im tired
games where you manage things (?):
Dwarf fortress (colony simulator): complicated, might have to look up things like, 'how to make a well without flooding your entire fort?' or 'how to make cheese?'. I love this game and my idiot dwarfs
Beholder (bitch ass simulator): got this one for less that a dolar on a sale lol. you are a landlord (cringe) who lives in a shit 1984 nation. Since you are already a bastard the pigs tell you to spy on your tenants. You make desisions, you tell people to fuck off, you can help other people escape the country, or try to escape with your family yourself, or try to make some change on this shit world. Extremely stressful, but good overall.
games where you read a lot:
Your Turn to Die (good death game simulator): Ever wondered what would Danganronpa be like if it was good? If it didnt suck ass? If the characters were not like that? Well here comes yttd with the steel chair and free of charge. dont read the manga tho, it doesn't exist.
games that i like but dont go in either category:
Rain World (little creachur simulator): 2D survivor with a really good art style and lore that still has me on a grip. The AI on these beasts is fascinating and the world feels so fucking alive and you are just another animal trying to survive. It's one of those "unfair" games where they just tell you the basics and after that you are left to your devices. This might be one of my favorite games ever, but I'm insane so maybe dont listen to me.
Katana Zero (PTSD simulator): fast-paced action platformer. The story is really good, the art style is also really good, the soundtrack is also also really good, i dont know what else to say. It's peak 👍
im tired these are others i really like and i dont want to make this be much longer:
Hollow Knight (metroidvania)
Cat in the Box (RPG maker horror)
Hyper light drifter (action RPG??)
#answered#sunieepo#long post#honestly if you go 'Im not reading all that' I wouldnt blame you#i just like talking about games i like#might add more if i remember another one
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tagged
by @radellama (god, this took too long. and then my draft was eaten. so I'm writing this again. wahh)
1 - Are you named after anyone?
No! And thank fuck! My dad was going to name after his late grandma and I hate, loathe that name. It is really only meant for grandmas. Apparently it means 'divinely beautiful' or some shit, which is really ironic, because it sure doesn't sound beautiful lol
2 - When was the last time you cried?
Ten days ago or around that time, I really don't want to remember exactly, because it was awful (but you helped me through it, bro, god bless). The world bad!! Uni bad!!
3 - Do you have kids?
No, not even OCs. I mean, I have ideas for some and then I proceed to think about the blorbo of the season (in this case, any Zero of your choice... crode about them both fr 💮💿) instead.
4 - Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Yes, because if I don't joke around, I will die >:)
5 - What sports do you play/have played?
youtube
I like swimming though :)
6 - What's the first thing you notice about people?
The fact that they exist, lol. I space out a lot, especially the last couple years... I just don't want to look at the world around me properly sometimes, I'd rather daydream about blorbo, or plan my writing for RC, or think about how hard Katana ZERO hard mode is kicking my ass, etc
7 - Eye colour?
Brown and proud about it :) in the right lighting, they look almost black
8 - Scary movies or happy endings?
Just going to leave what Rads said here:
Both? Whatever feels most appropriate for the narrative. This doesn't really feel like an evenly balanced choice...
because this is so true. The best kind of stories have a bit of both, anyway...
9 - Any special talents?
Being bad at Katana ZERO and then getting better at Katana ZERO
The serious answer is that my talent is being bilingual and annoying about it. I love writing of almost all kinds, even if I have trouble committing to big stories, I just love words and language and I think it gives me power :)
I'm also learning gif editing at my own pace just for fun 👍 and I like how tech\internet literate I am
10 - Where were you born?
11 - What are your hobbies?
gaming (I mean, you know all about my niche ass :) )
more specifically, I love learning about stuff like emulation, homebrew\hacking, etc. it's FASCINATING
writing (specifically discord roleplay (RC ily 🖤) and short fanfic, but the general idea of writing too)
reading (very occasionally lol)
gif editing as said previously :)
also coding, I guess? good lird, i'm bad at handing code though.
12 - Do you have any pets?
used to :( I miss my cat, you guys...
13 - How tall are you?
~145cm I think. I'm tinie
14 - Favourite subject in school?
ENGLISH!!! DUH
15 - Dream job?
Translator, ideally game localizer </3 even more inspired to try and chase this goal through the few means available after witnessing the KZ localization crash and burn 👍
#zero.txt#if you see this consider yourself tagged i can't be assed remembering the @s of my mutuals rn
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MUSIC 5 MONDAY (Week 1)
Totally didn't forget on Friday so I'm going to overcompensate to assure myself I won't forget (because how embarrassing would that be) so gonna start on Mondays and post some grooves using the tag #Music 5 Monday
youtube
Pretty good game that wants to talk big words about complicated subjects, and unlike it's sister game YIIK (as this game has a fucking YIIK event in it, which is somehow as badly made as YIIK itself) it mostly succeeds.
Also, it's the best game soundtrack to fuck to, trust me
Speaking of sexy things, what a MUSTACHE...oh also, they filmed this video in actual factual space
IDK the mustache is more important tbh
youtube
LISTEN, Black Bullet is awful, absolutely dreadful, partially because of interference from the company making the products which drove the artist mad as they turned his Cyberpunk dystopia into an anime about Loli's doing kung-fu, and partially because the Soundtrack is done by THE MAN Shirō Sagisu, who has done many many amazing soundtracks including most famously Evangelion.
Black Bullet was butchered so brutally that the creator quit his job after the sixth book mid-series and opened a restaurant.
If anyone's curious, feel free to ask me about this as I've suffered through the full LN, Manga and Anime and have a lot of very angry things to say about capitalism and Japan being the fucking worst sometimes
youtube
I'm a big fan of the Mash-Up genre, because when done well it can create an entirely new sound that I really appreciate. There's actually a fascinating connection between it and "A.I" (It's not A.I) Art, because this is a process that requires a delicate touch as someone makes specific choices that requires a mixture of taste and skill to really appreciate how to make each element work, and """"A.I""" art just blenders everyone's work together and tries to find the average
Tech Bro's hate the blender comparison
Katana Zero - Hit The Floor
If you've not played Katana Zero, you've been living a pale imitation of life. Amazing game, fantastic music, probably my favorite game of that year and easily in the top 50 Indie games. I know that sounds like a lot, but I've played a lot of fucking indie games
Y'know, cause fuck capitalist art
youtube
If you've not heard this bonus track, it really brings together the best of the Shovel Knight campaigns. Mona is best girl
#Music 5 Monday#Is that a good name? Fuck you is the answer#Seriously though you've been a great crowd feel free to throw some suggestions my way after the performance and remember to drink your wate#music#Jake Kaufman#Lobsterdust#Nelly#Bee Gees#va 11 hall a#I'm not tagging this Black Bullet#I don't think I want to interact with anyone whose looking at the Black Bullet tag tbh
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Last Boss/Takatora Samura HCs
Author’s Notes: Your local simp (me) has a lot of thoughts about Last Boss. I’m going to put it all in one list. Some of these are inspired by other creators’ content!
SFW:
183 cm tall, 60 kg in weight. Takatora was malnourished before he came in the Borderlands, eating mostly instant food. He gains wiry muscles due to his participation in games and the Beach’s good food, but he’s still underweight for his height.
Gets cold easily due to his skinny frame. Cold hands. Sometimes his palms get sweaty, especially when he’s excited or angry.
Carries a lot of tension in his neck and shoulders due to his bad posture back when the only world he knew was his computer screen.
Has more tattoos hiding under his clothes. One is a tiger tattoo on his chest and it stretches all the way to his abdomen. He also has tattoos that resemble tiger stripes on his back. They’re all drawn with black ink due to the lack of resources in the Borderlands, though.
Before coming to the Borderlands, he didn’t smell pleasant. Due to his living conditions and lack of personal hygiene, he smells like body odor, stale food, and moldy laundry.
In the Borderlands, he starts taking care of himself better. This is mostly due to his tattoo artist telling him that his tattoos would get infected if he doesn’t stay clean.
He smells like sweat and smoke from time to time, especially when coming back from a physically demanding game, but it’s considerably better. If you manage to catch him outside a game, he smells like clove oil and mint; the clove smell coming from the oil he uses to maintain his katana, and the mint coming from the moisturizer he uses on his tattoos.
Takatora is a prolific writer, and actually did well in school, but the rigid society he grew up in discouraged him from reaching his potential.
Speaking of which, he’s severely depressed and shows signs that he’s on the spectrum, but the stigma that surrounds mental health in Japan hindered him from getting the help he needs.
He’s also not good with social interactions and didn’t care much for group dynamics/harmony, which added further to his alienation and isolation.
Introspective and well-read. However, in the Borderland, since he finally gets to live in his own terms, he gets out of his head and actually lives.
That’s not to say that he won’t engage in reading or writing in the Borderland anymore. He’d occasionally sketch, too. The games and his responsibilities in the Beach just comes first.
Has Scorpio, Pisces, and Aquarius placements in his natal chart.
Likes cats. Takatora has a soft spot for them due to their independence. He never took care of one though; he can barely take care of himself.
Niragi is the person who recruits him to the Beach. They met in a Spade game and Takatora was considering killing him, but Niragi manages to convince him to join up when he tells him about the lack of rules in the Beach.
Niragi is also the person who gave him the “Last Boss” nickname due to his background in game development. It stuck. He didn’t mind it and even embraced it, because it added to his terrifying reputation in the Beach.
NSFW:
Zero sexual experience due to his isolation from other people. Never even kissed anyone. That might change with you.
Sloppy kisser and uses a lot of tongue. His S/O might need to tell him to tone it down if it’s not their cup of tea.
He didn’t really have much of a sex drive before meeting his S/O, even with all the sex that’s happening on the Beach. Niragi tried to hook him up with someone once, and they just ran away from him.
6.5 inches long, 5 inches in girth; long and slender like the rest of him. Uncut, has a slight curve upwards, and has a narrow base with a larger head. Prominent veins.
Last Boss is very sensitive. Don’t expect him to hold out for long the first few times. Refractory period is short though, and his stamina is A+. He can last a few rounds once he gets the hang of it.
A fast learner and would try anything once. Just tell him what to do.
It takes some time for him to be comfortable with intimacy. Once he gets used to his S/O, he gets so fascinated with touching them and being touched by them. Tracing his tattoos and complimenting them would make him melt under your touch.
Big on giving and receiving oral. Sloppy at giving it, though. You’d end up with so much spit dripping down your legs. If you let him, he’ll fuck your mouth.
He’s a quiet person, but behind closed doors, he becomes more vocal. Be prepared to hear him grunt and groan in your ear, he’ll let you hear that he’s having a good time. The neighbors might hear it too.
Possessive as hell. Loves giving and receiving hickeys, bruises, and scratches. It reminds other people who his S/O belongs to, and to whom he belongs.
A switch with a mild preference for being dominant. Can be a little rough, and he’ll go harder if his S/O permits him. Kinks would include: biting (giving and receiving), knife play (giving), breath play (giving and receiving), overstimulation (giving), body worship (giving and receiving), cum play.
After sex, he’ll cuddle and hold his S/O. He might take a bath with them if they get particularly messy. Anything other than that, like snacks and massages, is something he can’t be bothered with. Aftercare isn’t his forte.
#alice in borderland#Imawa no Kuni no Alice#aib#aib headcanons#last boss#takatora samura#headcanons#headcanon
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Custom Toonami Block Week 77 Rundown!
Code Geass: So since Shirley’s dead, Lelouch has a similar thought to Cornelia and blames the power of Geass itself instead of her actual murderer. So instead of using the Geass Order like he planned he decides to say fuck it and burn it all to the ground, completing his Darth Vader transformation by not only killing the men, but the women AND THE CHILDREN AND THE SCIENTISTS (Science is the fourth gender, look it up, it’s in Dr. Stone). But yeah half of this episode is just murdering scientist who granted were making child supersoldiers but also don’t have any weapons, like they have zero security no wonder Cornelia was able to walk right up to V.V. And the Black Knights are pissed about killing civilians but I feel like once the horde of children starts making them shoot each other they should get the picture. Rolo murders all his friends, C.C. murders all her former supports, Dietard puts a ninja hit out on Ohgi and Viletta also wants to kill Ohgi, poor Ohgi the dude has like nothing going for him and just ended up in this fucked up chess game and he’s just some dude that fell in love when he saw Viletta naked (didn’t we all) but anyway V.V. pilots Jeremiah’s Pumpkin Battleship and before Lelouch can make Rolo kamikaze himself for killing Shirley, Cornelia wipes him out anyway in probably her most badass moment in the series, using the Pumpkin Battleship’s Byakugan Blindspot to bring it down. V.V. is dead like five times over but Charles comes out to drag Lelouch into the Spear of Longinus so he can do Human Instrumentality or whatever.
Inuyasha: Naraku’s kidnapped Rin so Sesshomaru will kill Inuyasha for him and Sesshomaru hates two things more than anything: being implied he likes humans, and being told what to do, so he tells Naraku to fuck off and goes to fuck him up. This being one of Naraku’s plans of course Sesshomaru doesn’t actually have a choice in this and the battle is a farce so he can spread bits of himself all over and absorb Sesshomaru like Super Buu did to Mystic Gohan. However Inuyasha’s new powerup lets him throw a wrench in that by breaking his barrier and Kagura has to pretend to fight him even though she just wants the doggy brothers to fuck Naraku up. Also Kohaku and Rin have a cute little interaction while he’s holding her captive and Kohaku sees Sango again which triggers his selective amnesia shit. Like you get the feeling Kagura probably would’ve been a better guard for Rin but Naraku only has so many named demons and Kanna isn’t allowed to do anything so might as well throw Kohaku in there to get bonus mental damage to Sango which only works out if you know they’re going to split up like that. But again, this is one of Naraku’s plans so it’s like 50% torture, 50% just trolling people to fuck with their heads.
Yu Yu Hakusho: Younger Toguro faked his death and ambushes Yusuke’s date with Keiko because the plot just doesn’t want this relationship to happen. Toguro pulls up on a motorcycle which is just kind of weird to see and he takes Yusuke somewhere, idk if they walked or if Yusuke got on the back of the motorcycle but Toguro either tossing his motorcycle away to go walk to a car park with Yusuke or Yusuke holding onto Toguro’s waist while they ride are equally hilarious images. Anyway Toguro demolishes the parking garage while still breaking all the rocks that are about to crush Yusuke just to literally flex on him how much stronger he was than when they fought. It’s weird because Toguro seems to kinda be mad about having to fake a loss but also respect Yusuke as a fighter which is strange since Kuwabara was the one that put in the effort for that fake win. That doesn’t matter though cause it’s DARK TOURNAMENT TIME BABY! One of the most iconic anime arcs ever is about to begin and it’s kinda funny they yadda yadda over a two month training arc like there’s like three minutes of Kuwabara training with Hiei and Kurama (where Kurama is the bad cop ironically enough) and Yusuke training with Genkai again before it’s like “Okay let’s just get to the tournament” like I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anime where they announce the tournament and then go sign up for it in the same episode, usually they milk that shit to really sell the preparation but they go with “Here’s a few scene and Yusuke’s a lot stronger now, take our word for it” which is a funny way to start one of the most epic tournament arcs ever.
Fate Zero: This is an episode I’ve heard a lot about, Iskandar, Saber and Gilgamesh fuck around drinking, the whole thing kinda reads like a fanfiction or a Ghost in the Shell episode since 75% of it is just talking. Gilgamesh is basically like “Yo, see that shit? All that shit is my shit, even if I don’t know what it is, it’s mine, so fuck off.” Iskandar’s like “What could the man who once conquered the whole world want? To conquer the whole world TWICE!” and Saber’s like “Hey my whole country got destroyed cause I was thrown into a role I was grossly underqualified for so, maybe not that?” and this pisses Iskandar off because her regret and martyrdom isolates and enfeebles her, he sees the downfall of nations as inevitable and leadership as something to form a community that emulates their leader, not to isolate the ruler as some lone pillar. Also Kirei’s Assassins jump them and Iskandar uses Unlimited Dude Works to stomp them all. Basically it’s the whole Ling/Bradley discussion from FMA but with more nuance, rulers have to benefit their people but they can’t be so dragged down by it that it destroys everyone involved once that pillar collapses. So Iskandar’s like “Yeah you have a really toxic way of looking at things Saber, I’m out. Stop beating yourself up about what’s already happened.” And Gilgamesh is like “No, let her keep beating herself up, this fun, I’m having fun.” So Saber has the admiration of the villain and the disdain of the hero which is an odd situation to be in.
Konosuba: So this one is an OVA or something I think so we don’t get closure on the whole “Kazuma is going to jail for horny and non-horny crimes alike” subplot but we do get a cute little story about Kazuma slowly getting murdered while basically doing the Higurashi Punishment Games on everyone. Ironically he’s not pervy enough for Darkness or Aqua because he’s just a voyeur for Darkness and Aqua he apparently has no sexual attraction to whatsoever. It’s kind of interesting because a few times one or two of them heavily imply they’d just straight up take his virginity if it’d help and he doesn’t go for it, I don’t know if that’s better or worse than what he actually does but once again the ‘principled scumbag’ archetype comes into play and it’s always fun to see what Kazuma will or won’t do, it tends to be just enough that we’re willing to see him punished but not enough to make us hate him, it’s a surprisingly good balance. Anyway, Darkness is boobs, Kazuma may be a lolicon for Megumin, Yunyun and Wiz are also boobs, Aqua is boner repellant and Kazuma dies anyway because the real wish was the friends we made along the way but real friends are the ones that murder you when you’re a scumbag… or something. On to Season 2 next week!
Sailor Moon Crystal: I’m kind of loving the Evil Tuxedo Mask aesthetic, like the bishie face with the red eyes and the suit is really cool-looking. Anyway Tuxedo Mask is evil now and seduces Usagi all over again with the power of evil and video games. There’s probably a message here about girls falling for toxic boys but that’s the subtext over a lot of Sailor Moon that there’s lots of bullshit out to get teen girls and they shouldn’t waste their energy on it. Usagi’s kind of having an existential crisis over evil Tuxedo Mask and Luna’s feeling bad about calling him evil before and now that he actually is evil she doesn’t know what to do. Anyway he finds Zordon’s Tower by hypnotizing Makoto and we do the full transformation scene and speech for four of the scouts so you really know they were stretching the plot with this one. Usagi gets over herself but it’s too late, Evil Mask has the crystal and summons Queen Beryl by… flapping his cape, guess calling her was that easy, man you’d think they coulda just stomped these guys a long time ago but oh well.
Durarara!!: We leave off where Shizuo just crushed someone with a car door, good times. Celty takes the knife they had, believing it to be Saika but is so superstitious about it she doesn’t even see it’s a crappy Pampered Chef knife that’s like two years old max. Then Haruna, the reporter’s daughter reveals not only did she have a weird relationship with the teacher hitting on Anri but she’s also controlling all the Saika zombies around the city because to swords cutting people is loving them like how sharks bite things to see what they are. She sics her army on Anri and Shizuo separately and goes after her teacher who was just coming to sexually harass Anri again so… yay? Anyway Shizuo says fuck you to being in a polyamorous relationship with hundreds of sword zombies and Anri reveals that Haruna’s Saika isn’t the real Saika because HER Saika is the real Saika, we got katana school girls here folks, it really is an anime after all.
#ooc#Toonami#Custom Toonami Block#Code Geass#Inuyasha#Yu Yu Hakusho#Fate Zero#Konosuba#Sailor Moon Crystal#Durarara!!
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Chapter 11 - Sports Festival Part 1
In order to participate, everybody put in their individual efforts to train.
The two weeks flew by in the blink of an eye.
"TODAY IS THE DAY OF THE GRAND EVENT!"
Both Hitoshi and y/n looked at the weird girl in their class that was jumping around and yelling in the waiting room.
"Everyone is so nervous..." y/n looked around to see their classmates, they all wanted to win.
-
"So... can you tell me why, now that we are about to go beat some ass?" Hitoshi gas sitting on the floor with his back to the wall
"Why what?" She tilted her head looking at him again, she also was sitting on the floor besides him.
"Why did you hide your wings those last weeks? And why do you still hide it? Didn't you said that the principal forbid you from doing this?" His hands on his pockets, they were talking low in comparison to the rest of the class.
"Actually the Support team made me this cool gadgets, so I could participate without my parents recognizing me! So they are healthily tucked in!"
"But how are you going to compete?" He was obviously worried about her not being able to get in.
She giggled "Heroes can do more than one trick!" She smiled brightly and got up "everyone is getting out! Let's go!" She ran to the door and waited for him "come on! We got a festival to win!" She jumped and fist bumped the air.
He chuckled and got up walking next to her "yeah..."
They were getting out of the tunnel she could hear Mic screaming out loud.
"THE U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL!! WHERE THE HERO WORLD'S INCHOATE LITTLE EGGS AND AIM FOR EACH OTHER'S THROATS--- AND THE TOP! OUR GRAND YEARLY MELEE!! AND LET ME GUESS ALL YOU MISCREANTS CAME TO SEE THEM RIGHT??"
The stadium was packed with people and everyone was excited to see what's gonna happen this year.
"THE FRESHLY FORMED MIRACLE STARS THAT SHRUGGED OFF A MASS VILLAIN ASSAULT WITH WILLS OF STEEL! THE DEPARTMENT OF HEROICS FRESHMAN CLASS!!!"
Class 1-A were the first to come out from the tunnel.
"YOU'RE HERE FOR CLASS 1-A, RIGHT!!?"
The other classes came right behind them.
"AND FOLLOWING CLASS B, HERE COME CLASSES C, D, AND E FROM THE DEPT. OF GENERAL EDUCATION...!!"
They all walked out of the tunnel.
"AND NOW HERE ARE CLASSES F, G AND H OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPPORT! NOW FOR THE APARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT'S..."
People from y/n class started to talk quite loudly.
"Man, they're treating us like we're just their foils or something." Said the rich boy.
"What a loud..." the class beauty answered.
But she was interrupted by a loud snap of a wip, held by no one other than the beautiful R-rated hero Midnight.
"NOW NOW, FAIR PLAY!"
The students started to chitchat getting distracted by the R-rated heroine.
"SILENCE!" she wiped her wip again. "MY TENURE HERE IS PERFECTLY ON THE LEVEL!! NOW PLAYER REP!!"
"BAKUGOU KATSUKI OF 1-A!!"
Hitoshi didn't even bat an eye to the ash blond porcupine and Y/n giggled "This gonna be fun!" Hitoshi was behind Y/n and heard her clearly, he looked at her confused for her sudden interest in the angry porcupine.
"Yeah, the heroic exam." Said the beauty again.
Bakugou got to the podium next to the heroine and started.
"Sensei. I'm gonna place first" he said that very calm
Y/n giggled as she heard everyone going berserk booing him.
"AH MAN, I KNEW HE WAS GONNA...!!" Y/n stopped her giggles and looked at the class 1-a and spotted her friends panicking, she got back to giggling and keep looking around until her e/c meet, gray and blue eyes, it was the gorgeous boy from the other day.
Y/n blushed hard but gave him an embarrassed smile and waved at him, he lightly tilted his head but gave her the cold shoulder and got back to looking forward.
"You'll all make fantastic stepping stones. I'm sure."
Her attention was back to the ash blond hedgehog, she thought his angry face and his attitude were hilarious.
He calmly walked back to his place as everyone shouted at him.
Everyone's attention got back to Midnight as she started to explain.
"All right, with that we can move directly onto our first event!"
An gigantic screen appeared as Midnight was talking.
"Onto the "preliminaries," as they're called! Lots of the folk end up choking on their tears here every year!!"
In the screen some names were shuffled.
"And this year's first round of destiny is... THIS!!!"
The screen showed in big words "Obstacle race"
"Hey toshi... be sure to keep yourself from 40th up, I have a bad feeling about this..." she looked back at him worried
He chuckled and petted her head "you too, don't stay too close or I'm gonna get distracted"
She nodded "See you in the finish line!"
They went their separated ways to the start line, she decided to stay in the middle.
'Big bro... let me be your shadow!' She smiled determined to win.
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"STAAAAAAAAAAAART!!"
Y/n didn't even start to try passing through the others when she saw the ice coming from the half n half boy that was in the front she jumped on someone's shoulder evading the ice that now covered the floor and got some people stuck.
'This is... the first filter!' She keeps stepping on people's shoulders and heads. "Sorry!" She got out off the confusion and started ice skating right behind the gorgeous boy.
"WHAAAAAT SOMEONE THAT ISN'T FROM THE HERO COURSE IS ALREADY OUT OF THE ICE TRAP AND IS ACTUALLY USING IT TO THEIR ADVANTAGE!!!"
'Mic I really liked you before this'
"STOP DRAWING ATTENTION TO ME!" She screamed while keeping a good distance from the boy just to be sure that it was safe.
BOOM!
A gigantic explosion came from behind, she didn't look back, but she could still hear the voices complaining about the pretty boy.
The h/c haired girl started going slower to keep her energy for later, making others being able to surpass her she saw the exact moment that the boy with grapes on his head was punched by a gigantic robot in front of her.
'I remember when Toshi, Kiri and Toko told me about them... they really are gigantic....' she gulped but didn't stop running, everything in her body was telling her to run but... 'I have to do it! For big brother... I can do it!'
Two long feathers came to her s/c hands and turned into a sharp katana like sword, the feather was black in the base and golden by the tip.
In the front a few people were closer to the robots when you heard Mic's voice.
"HERE COME TGE OBSTACLES, AND SO SUDDENLY!! AND FROM THE VERY OUTSET, TGE FIRST BARRIER WILL BE A ROBOT INFERNO!!"
'THEY ARE SO HUGE!' She was so fucking frightened, but stood a brave face, she knew he would watch it later.
The e/c eyed girl saw everyone stop before arriving at the front of the 0 pointers, but she didn't, her feet got speed, and she used the pretty boy as leverage to jump with both sword one in each hand.
Her foot stepped on his shoulders, she used so much force to jump that he got launched back, while she cut her way through the chest of the zero pointer.
She fell on the ground kinda clumsy but didn't fell so it was still a win, not even looking back she got back to running at good pace.
The pretty boy had fallen on his butt, but recovered fast letting the robots fall in the others way, he for back to running determined to get the first place back.
After running a little he could catch up to her surprisingly easy.
With a sword in each hand she looked at him and smiled "Hi again!"
"You aren't gonna win this, I'm going to win no matter what" he didn't spare her a single glance.
"Okay but... why are you so sad?"
He tripped on nothing but recovered quickly "what are you talking about?" He looked at her curiously.
"I never saw someone be so sad and so angry at the same time... you can surpass me if you want, I don't want the first place I just want to pass to the next trial"
He looked surprised at her. "Why?"
"I don't really care for the first place... but you do so go on! I will encounter you at the finish line!" She got behind him and gave him a little push.
That was enough to get his head in the track, and he run for it while she happily stood back.
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1487 words
Love y all.❤
#shoto todoroki x reader#todoroki shoto x reader#todoroki x reader#todoroki shouto#x reader#bnha hawks#bnha x reader#bnha x y/n#bnha#mha x y/n#mha x you#mha x reader#mha#reader#shinso hitoshi#hitoshi#xreader
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Oh heey heres me ranking the top 10 hardest tracks it took to S rank (hardcore), but it makes no sense
10. Core
wtf? Core was hard? It's actually pretty easy now
a good Zef song chiptune crunchy
listen to Ground Zero & Blackout by Zef
9. Tokyo Skies
when I sat down to S rank it I did it first try sooooo
why is there only one checkpoint hhrgg
SHORYUKEN
8. Paper Dolls
was know for being hard.. where'd all that go
I know how to play it without dashing :)
I still vow to save all shapes who crash on this track
7. Fox
the last track I S ranked on Normal, so it means alot to me
now if I didn't pour my soul out everytime I played it, I'd say it very scary
WHY IS THE TRACK SO PRETTY BRUH
6. First Crush
no
I do not like this track, it is ugly and the patterns make me uncomfy
it's only hard cause I never put enough effort to try
5. Katana Blaster
was Going Through It at a cousin's house when I completed this
that experience might've made me think this is harder then it is
all my clips of this track make me look like I have noclip on
4. Deadlocked
The inner samurai virgin jedi warrior has been RELEASED, from his greasy basement. And he is here to fulfill the DEEDS of the geometry dash grease overlord to take the virginities of simple-minded nerds, and to be able to gain the shear anxiety needed to beat such a level as Deadlocked- ok let's do this /cp
every S rank is fueled by the Geometry Dash Deadlocked
I can't do the middle part anymore, because I'm dumb and use the dpad there
3. Granite
I am ceo of Granite
a very hard level, that through sheer will power, became easy
I'm just powerful like that I don't know why
2. Annihilate
*maniacal laughter*
like I know it's hard, but it makes me very excited at times, I FEEL LIKE A GODDAMN GOD
guaranteed my thumbs afterwards will be destroid ;) but seriously they really hurt
1. Mortal Kombat
1/10 too mean
I know a person who considers this a "warmup track" and I've wanted to strangle them at times
this track is a big "fuck you" to everyone, stop choosing this track in challenge run, I disregard all morals here, I WILL let you die
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Katana Zero Thoughts/Review
Almost two weeks ago I had the pleasure of playing through Katana Zero while conked out on my second shot.
I waited before writing this post to fully digest what I actually thought of the game. It’s definitely a stylish game, and fits in quite well with other games published by Devolver, but I think it was likely held back a bit by its’ own ambition.
For those who don’t know, Katana Zero is an action game where you play as a time controlling samurai who has to kill every enemy in an area before proceeding to the next room. Enemies die in one hit, but so do. The gameplay is twitchy and the concept is kind of anime as fuck, and when it works it works.
There’s also a cool cyberpunk story, and for an indie it’s actually pretty well written. There’s a narrative system that allows you to pursue different dialogue paths, but you can also “get to the point” by spam pressing all the initial “rude” prompts. You can also choose to wait out a timer and reply with silence.
Generally speaking though, even though I liked the story I felt like its’ focus was ultimately a detriment to the final game. The whole game is only a few hours long, and you probably spend at least half of that time navigating through dialogue. Tons of resources went into the writing and the cutscenes, many of which are lovingly animated, that I think might have been better served by being poured into the core gameplay loop.
There’s a bit of a myth in gaming that games are the sum of their parts. For example, if you clone a game but improve the story, the game is objectively better.
I believe that to be false. Take a Mario game, for example. Taking the quick “princess is kidnapped” story and replacing it with something epic- maybe from a JRPG or from something more western like Horizon Zero Dawn, wouldn’t result in a better game.
And the reason is simple- the core gameplay of a Mario game is about the platforming. That’s the most fun part of the game. Even if you improve the story, so long as that story takes up more time you’ll find that your players will be having less fun on average simply because the story isn’t as good as the platforming segment, and now you’ve blown it out and made it more important.
There’s a reason why these Nintendo games have such basic stories. Nintendo has no problems writing funny Mario RPG’s as any fan of Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario will tell you. They’re choosing not to so they can focus their energy on the most fun part of the game.
Narrative and RPG games have a lot more room to play with long story segments, because story is part of the core value proposition for these genres. But that’s not true of all game types.
So let’s loop back to Katana Zero. There are now half of your game sections that are about the narrative... but the narrative is short, raises more questions than answers, incomplete, and doesn’t give you time to get attached to most of the characters. And let me be clear- this isn’t because I think the devs did a bad job.
But indie games are stretched thin, so creating content, especially cutscene and effects heavy narrative content that can’t be reused, is super time consuming. And at some point you just have to ask- are we going to be able to tell a story that’s as gripping and exciting as our gameplay? Does the story enhance the gameplay, like in a narrative or RPG game? Is the enhancement worth the time?
I’d argue that it isn’t. Not that there isn’t a good story there, but that the story is way too big to fit comfortably in an indie package and get really attached to. Not without a genre shift, resource injection, or cutscene de-escelation. There’s a reason most RPG cutscenes look so donkus, even today.
So in the end, you have a game where you spend half your playtime as a kickass time bending samurai, and the other half navigating dialogue trees that don’t result in alternate endings or secret levels or anything all that gameplay related, but tell the prologue to a story that may never have an ending. There’s a mismatch between your most fun thing, and the rest of the game, and the gap is big. Not because the story sucks, because the core gameplay is fun.
Let’s talk more about the core gameplay though. Story isn’t the only place where I feel that ambition may have caused some problems. There’s a point in the game where you can play a single stage as a second character. Just the one. Why implement a character just for one stage? Why not bring them into more of the game? As an unlockable character choice to increase replayability, perhaps? There could be some level design constraints around that, but I don’t think it’d have been an issue with the alternate character that existed as it was.
Finally, I feel like the level design starts to break down in the last third of the game or so.As you approach the last act, you lose freedom to express yourself in your approach and become more constrained by enemy reaction times and numbers. This isn’t necessarily a huge issue, but it also starts to force you to rub against the bits of randomness in the game. You might kick open a door only to get immediately shotgunned by the police officer across the hall, unable to deflect the bullets because the spread is random and two of them are too far apart to hit in one swing but close enough together to kill you during your attack’s cooldown. Maybe it’s not one shotgun blast but three or four pistol rounds, shot by enemies without friendly fire. Maybe they’re guarding a laser cannon with that will blast you unless you descend precisely from above. Maybe you retry a prior tactic, but it doesn’t work because when a level resets it doesn’t move enemies to a fixed position- and their different placements results in different AI behavior even when executing the exact same moves.
Whatever the case, the game becomes significantly more punishing and less predictable. You may have to idle and wait for enemies to move into a good position again before retrying a tactic simply because it just won’t work in the current spawn position, which slows down the pacing of an otherwise fast game. Most importantly, the games difficulty increase has nothing to do with mechanics being harder- it’s just repeating the prior challenges but generally less forgiving.
Increased mastery is good to aim for, however there’s a couple things you want to avoid. The first is shrinking the play space too much. If your increased mastery comes at the price of player freedom and flexibility, what will happen is levels devolve into rote memorization and the game loses replayability. It also starts to feel like farming, or a chore, even if it’s the first time you’re playing it.
The second is you want to make sure that you maintain predictability- which is lost with the shotgun shell randomness and the variation in enemy starting placements.
The game ends up feeling stale towards the end of its runtime, which is odd given how short it is. I think an extra mechanic or two to play with for the core gameplay could have taken it farther and let it keep its’ shine.
The game was good, and is definitely a fun ride for an afternoon or so, but I can’t see myself wanting to go back to it- even with a DLC update. Generally speaking, I recommend it- but maybe on sale.
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MysMe Characters in a Zombie Apocalypse Headcanons
Here I go again. I like zombie moves/shows and mysme so I figured I wanna combine them.
All the headcanons under the cut because this became long!
Yoosung
Scared boy ™
Yet shows strength when he has to protect you
Cries as he runs away from zombies
Also cries and/or gags when he sees the gory stuff
Builds contraptions to keep zombies out of your camp / hide-out
Which never rly work... but it’s the thought that counts
Always compares every situation to video games he played
And can sometimes even come up with useful plans due to his experience with post apocalypse setting video games
But whines a lot about how “this is way harder than it looked like in xx game”
Ready to die for you and thus ends up doing unnecessary dangerous stuff, so the group has to often stop him to do the dumb thing.
“I’m not a child anymore I WANT to protect MC TOO!”
Weapon of choice: a sword like his favorite video game character even if he’s clumsy in using it. So he ends up reaching for a simple gun when he finds himself in a dire situation.
Knows recipes of post apocalypse type foods and cooks for the group.
If you’re bitten by a zombie he falls into complete denial and firmly believes you won’t turn because he can’t accept you leaving him like that.
Jaehee
You didn’t expect it but she suddenly turns into a very capable apocalypse warrior
When she doesn’t kick ass, she researches about the outbreak and comes up with theories to potentially one day find a cure
Keeps the group organized even in chaotic times
Always able to come up with plans when the group finds itself in dangerous situations
Call herself your sidekick but it feels more like you’re her sidekick
Doesn’t trust any new people at all, if someone wants to join your group they have to get through Jaehee first (and most times don’t manage to do that.)
Scavengers from outside groups always underestimate her and then end up getting their ass kicked.
Keeps an organized list of how many zombies and how many people (in self defense) she has killed. She feels guilty for the people side of the list, even if it was in self defense every time.
Makes you feel the most safe when you are on errand runs together.
She sees and hears EVERYTHING so no zombies or people can approach you unnoticed. She’s just always really alert.
Weapon of choice: her own martial arts skills and if necessary uses a machete to assist her.
Always tired, yet always on top of her game when the situation requires it.
If you’re bitten she wants to make the last moments for you as comfortable as humanly possible, while she closely stays by your side. She’ll act tough to not show her own pain and will not show you her tears because she wants you to see her strong in your last moments to make you feel at peace with leaving her behind.
Jumin
Leader of the group even though he never signed up for this
The group just suddenly decided he would be the most level headed for that position and for Jumin it would be too much trouble to decline
Negotiates with other groups you meet on the road and often gets some good trades for supplies done
Surprisingly is a good fighter when he has to put down a zombie or two
Really knows how to shoot a gun and land a head shot after the other for some reason ( he probably had private shooting classes before the apocalypse for fun)
Sighs yet composed when blood gets on his fresh white shirt
Where does he get all these clean white shirts from?
Way too clean for someone who lives in a world that ended.
If he has to kill other people who seem to be a danger to your group he will do so without hesitation and zero regret, they had it coming.
Weapon of choice: a simple yet powerful handgun
Sometimes makes questionable choices and tries to control the group too much to keep track of everyone.
He means it well for everyone’s safety but it can be too much.
But when you tell him he does things wrong he gets soft and is willing to listen to you when you advice him on doing things differently.
This is making you somewhat of the right hand of the leader.
If you’re bitten he gets too emotional about it to asses the situation and you end up being the one comforting him because he loses his fucking mind.
Zen
Looks bomb even after 5 days on the road without a shower
Still somehow manages to hold a somewhat proper meal plan
And gets enough sleep cos “his skin needs it”
Protects you always! And never lets you out of sight if he can avoid it.
Gets way too comfortable with shady strangers you meet on the road
But if someone of these strangers becomes a danger to you, doesn’t think twice before cutting their throat
On supply runs he brings back shampoo, beer and magazines instead of things like canned food and water
He avoids fighting whenever he can to keep his hands clean, but if he has to do it, he’s very capable and smooth
Weapon of choice: a katana
Looks like a beautiful warrior when he fights
His long hair gets in the way sometimes and can cause zombies grabbing at it but he WON’T cut it EVER. Sacrifices are to be made in the name of beauty.
The members of your group all somehow rely on Zen for emotional support in rough times because he knows just the things to say to make everyone feel better and never stops being positive even after the world was literally ending.
Nothing seen of this positivity however, when it’s about Jumin.
Yes, he is not okay with Jumin being the leader but also doesn’t do anything about it, even if it causes him to nag sometimes.
If you’re bitten he will blame himself forever for not protecting you better and go on a rampage to kill every zombie within a 10 mile radius to let out his frustration. One of them hurt you, so all of them must die.
Seven
Runner of the group, meaning he does most of the supply runs, goes out to clear roads and check locations and safety thereof
Somehow became always that guy of the group everyone looks at when they discuss about needing a member to do something that’s ridiculously reckless. Because “its Seven, he’ll manage.”
And will do everything the group asks from him, because what does he have to lose?
Most reckless of the bunch but also luckiest of the bunch, always gets away completely unharmed no matter what dumb risky thing he does.
Still you worry about him a lot for his lack of self-preservation, but don’t tell him you do or he’ll get mad at you.
Boy knows all the little secret pathways, hideouts and escape routes.
Also comes up with clever inventions he can make out of random junk he finds. It really helps out the group
Zombie puns all day everyday “ Zombodie had to do it.” “That’s a no-brainer” “You undead all your good work” “Don’t outbreak my heart.”
Tries to avoid killing or fighting off zombies to save his energy for other things. He’s more into being stealthy when he has to get shit done.
But when he has to, he will be pretty good in getting rid of a handful zombies.. :
Weapon of choice: a wooden baseball bat with nails sticking out of it.
He likes it, it makes him look badass
Tries hard to avoid getting emotionally attached to you or anyone in the group because you all could die at any moment and there’s no point.
But slips into caring too much about you and the group anyway
If you’re bitten he will have an emotional break first but then quickly start to think of ways to save you, no matter how. And if he has to chop off the infected body part to see if it works he will do so.
Saeran [ Unknown ]
Not part of your group but always knows where you all are and what you are doing.
Instead belongs to this other surviving group that ordered him to keep an eye on yours.
Comes out of nowhere when you’re in a situation where you can’t defend yourself from a group of zombies to save your ass.
But will be gone again before you can even thank him. He only did it because he needs you alive anyway.
At least that’s what he tells himself. Although he starts caring for you for some reason.
And really wants to bring you back to join his own group instead of sticking with the RFA.
You get very interested in this masked stranger but your questions remain unanswered because he keeps his distance to continue to watch from afar.
Casually uses zombie blood, skin and guts to camouflage himself when he has to walk through herds of them.
He is a skilled assassin who was trained to get the job done.
Weapon of choice: a simple hand knife in close range and a full-on automatic rifle for when it’s about killing many zombies at once.
Will use either of the weapons not only on zombies but on other humans, with the same lack of hesitation, if they piss him off.
Biggest kill count of them all.
If you’re bitten he won’t even think twice before grabbing a sharp tool to chop off your infected body part if it’s in a location that can be removed. If it’s not he might wait for you to turn and keep you as a zombie pet.
V
The original leader of the group who mysteriously vanished about 10 days into the outbreak.
It’s because he’s been infiltrating the other mysterious group to gain information on them just to find out his ex is the leader of this other group.
Thus is stuck between two groups and because of that became a solo-surviver without really a group to belong to.
Elegant fighter. Will knock down 5 zombies gracefully without a single drop of sweat.
Sometimes picks up helpless stranded survivors on the streets and allows them to travel with him and protect them until he finds them a save community to join.
Weapon of choice: a makeshift wooden spear with a blunt end for humans and a pointy end for zombies.
Pacifist who will never kill another human, even if they tried to kill him first.
But never hesitates even a second before killing a zombie.
Probably saved your ass from the distance a few times without you knowing.
Leaves water and food on your hideout doorstep in secret when he knows your group is low on supplies because he never stops taking care of all of you from the shadows.
If you’re bitten he will be by your side and do everything in his power to make your last moments comfortable. Unable to end your pain while you’re still alive and yourself, he will wait for you to turn before he can eventually kill you.
Rika
Leader of this other group and still goes by the name savior.
Her group has a questionable pyramid scheme: They are basically a apocalyptic cult who believes that this end of the world is a sign for them to build their new society.
Somehow mastered to build the most powerful survival group in a safe locations with strong walls.
Is interested to bring in people of your group if they are useful to her.
Especially interested in Seven, since he got the brains she could need to further build up her own little society behind her walls.
And will sacrifice everything for her cause, especially the lives of people working for her.
Uses force to make people stay and work for her. Will kill her own “believers” and turn them into zombies if they astray from the beliefs she forced onto them, then have them in cages within their walls to show them off to the other members her community as an example of what happens when you go against the grain.
Especially uses Saeran as her most active tool in whatever mission she plans.
Weapon of choice: Her charm and manipulation tactics.
Legit thinks life after the outbreak is better than before and the apocalypse is somehow a gateway to paradise.
If you get bitten she locks you up to see the process of a human turning as a sort of experiment.
#mysme#mystic messenger#jumin han#saeyoung choi#saeran choi#jaehee kang#v#yoosung kim#i just found this in my drafts#i wrote this like a year ago and never posted it uhm#this is heavily inspired by twd#idk is this on bad taste to post about apocalypses now wth everything... e-e#headcanon#i kinda wanna get back into just writing stupid headcanons again#hc
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Over Analysis ‘The Gawas will be the Death of Me’ Stage 2: The Ark Fight(s)
… What do to when home sick from work (I’m okay, I think I know what it is).
Do the other half of your Zero-One over analysis. Slowly.
So. Skipping over some stuff, where Aruto becomes president of Hiden again, and we have MBJR just… Mooning around, including a shot of Horobi’s hand that makes me think the camera crew is reading my conversations… Anyway. Jin chills in the tunnel for a bit until he seems to resolve something and gets up, while Raiden hangs out in the usual part of the base, and Naki and Horobi go for walks. While I disagree w/ certain choices made in this sequence, it’s interesting that Horobi’s apparently aimless wandering leads him to… A daycare centre.
There he is, the prettiest gargoyle ever. I mean, I have Feelings about things in this part… But this isn’t about that! This is about how Horobi stands around and stares at the kids and the two HumaGear playing w/ them. My theory, which has yet to be at all disproven by anything, remains that Horobi originally got ‘Ark’d bc in the past, maybe partially bc of Soreo’s data, he grew to want to create his own child and tried to build Jin pre-Ark, maybe not even that he wanted to raise Jin instead, but just wanted to raise Jin alongside the other children, but as a child, not programming him to serve a purpose for humans. But the humans around him reacted badly to the concept, and immediately tried to put a stop to it, and the Ark promptly preyed on a father’s desperation to protect his son. Going by that interpretation… Horobi’s trance-like state just… Staring at the two HumaGear having fun w/ the kids is heartbreaking. Is he only looking at his past? Or is he seeing something he and Jin should have had, that was taken from them.
To continue ignoring my Feelings, we have Horobi promptly attempting to erase the source (?) of his uncertainty in the only way he knows how at this point. Interesting that he’d end up targeting some random kids, but couldn’t follow through attacking Jin. More deflection/projection? He can’t attack his own son, but maybe if he ‘proves’ he can overcome his instincts here, he thinks he’ll find peace? But Horobi’s never been good at following through w/ attacking children, not even when they attack him first. Especially not when there’s a father on hand.
But before Horobi can even pull back the… Arrow? He’s getting hit w/ flashbacks. Jin looking dejected. Himself lowering his weapon rather than follow through w/ what the Ark would want. All while Aruto’s challenge about wanting to protect Jin rings in his head.
… And he can’t do it.
Also please note he lowers the bow before Jin shows up. I saw something that said ‘Horobi almost kills some kids before Jin stops him.’ And… No. Horobi stops himself. He may have trouble comprehending why, but he does. He finds himself thinking about his own son, and can’t follow through w/ it. He never even gets so far as pulling back the arrow (?).
Then Jin shows up.
Jin’s wobbly as he approaches and holds onto the… Thing. Like he’s still injured and limping. Instead of seeking out Raiden or Naki, who seemed much more open to the idea of leaving the Ark, he specifically goes after Horobi. And says something that makes me kind of wonder if Jin is actually falling into something parallel/perpendicular to what I think Horobi is doing next ep. Now that he seems to be shaken out of whatever had him thinking that That was a good plan, or necessary (I do have to admit, I like the concept of Jin, whether by manipulation or otherwise, having come to the conclusion that there was no way to save Horobi and that at best his father would always end up dying, and that the only thing he could do was try and save him from a more drawn out, painful death or some worse fate, but they would have needed to imply that earlier for it to really land), he kinda feels like he’s… Chasing what was taken from them? Like, I mentioned my theory earlier, and I haven’t thought much about the implications of if Jin knows or doesn’t know, but him trying to use that incident to prompt something in Horobi kinda feels like, along w/ his pleading looks before and the fact that he came after Horobi… Like he wants to try and reclaim the chance/right to be a family that got stolen from them. Like he wants to try again. Meanwhile, the impression I get from Horobi’s behaviour, as I see it, next week, is that Horobi has just accepted that they can never really recover that, and has decided the only thing he can do is make sure the future is better for Jin and other HumaGear, no matter the cost. I feel like that’d be a lovely, tragic angle to the whole thing.
Anyway.
… Horobi is, once again, bewildered by the concept of wanting something for himself? This is why I feel like, even if his motivations next week are what I hope, we may not hear it from him unless it’s a dying or emergency confession. Horobi has been conditioned for years, since he was created, to never think or want for himself, and my theory is that the first time he tried, he suffered for it. He’s been under the Ark’s control for so long that it’s… Easier. Less painful to just let the Ark be in charge. And gods know we see very clearly that the Ark will get aggressive when he doesn’t.
Horobi’s second emotional outburst, and it’s… Again about rejecting the concept of freedom and choosing for himself. On the one had, he can’t imagine doing that, on the other… He’s quite possibly traumatised by the concept.
No, wait, Ark, let him finish, I want to know what he thought he was doing. Additionally, this is the second time the Ark has apparently reacted to Horobi having an emotional reaction.
We get this little… Uncertain sort of lip bite before he turns to face the Ark. The Ark’s influence trying to squash the doubt/emotions that Jin prompts in him?
Oh, honey.
… Oh, typo.
Jin’s reacting to multiple things here, the Ark jumping in, and the fact that she’s announced she’s going to destroy HumaGear. I appreciate that we don’t get any ‘smug about being right’ or anything, and that he also seems to be upset about the fact that he was getting somewhere again, only for the Ark to jump back in. There’s also the fact that the Ark is using Horobi to say this, and Jin has shown he’s aware (in this ep, at least) that Horobi actually is doing this for HumaGear. To Horobi, this was always about HumaGear. Hearing those words out of his father’s mouth must be… Really jarring.
Anyway, the Ark promptly starts attacking.
Jin stays on the defensive the entire time during this fight, seems to just be trying to restrain Horobi, and doesn’t try to henshin once. This is Toku, the franchise that essentially invented the ‘transforming is a free action’ trope (okay, maybe that was technically magical girl anime), so if he really wanted to, he could. The Ark makes no move to transform, either—but that makes sense, we’ve seen her fight just fine untransformed, the whole magic grey goo thing. But if the ark remains untransformed and Jin transforms… Is he afraid he’d end up actually hurting Horobi? This is one of the things that convinces me that Jin really does understand what he did wrong and that he fucked up, and now he’s trying to make up for it/regrets it. He knows this is partially his fault, and it’s coming right on the heels of Horobi making something like progress bc Jin actually bothered trying. That’s gotta be another sucker punch, understanding that if he actually had bothered rather than… I don’t know, trying to take the easy way out? Then again… Looking at how his own death played out… Maybe he was taught by experience.
Anyway.
… I’m saying that a great deal in this one, aren’t I?
Anyway, the ark predictably gets the upper hand, sends Jin flying only to
So. Let’s talk about Jin’s hands again.
Namely… I don’t think that’s how you get a foot off your chest.
In the previous stage/section, I was talking about Jin’s hand twitching upward when Horobi lowered the bow, and here… I guess, in theory, he could be trying to… Pry it off or something, but his hands aren’t going through the motions of that, they’re not really tense or straining to pull the foot upward. He’s just… Hanging on.
The Ark holds that position for an unnecessarily long time, just, staring down at Jin, like she’s trying to force him to face how much control she has over Horobi, and maybe take the time to enforce to Horobi that he’s merely her pawn.
… I’m absolutely sure that is not how you get a foot off your chest.
It’s hard to show w/ still images, but Jin’s motions do not seem like he’s trying to escape his situation. His hands aren’t gripping or pulling, they aren’t tense. He’s not squirming or yelling or anything. His behaviour feels less like ‘get off me, Ark!’ and more like… Well, more like he’s trying to reach out/hold onto Horobi, like he’s given up on ‘fighting’ and is just desperately hoping contact will do it. More like ‘it’s me, Horobi, look, please, it’s me.’ Like when a character is knocked unconscious and someone who cares about them rushes to their side and is grabbing and touching their shoulder, maybe their face, like ‘look at me, please look at me.’
At last, the Ark raises the katana w/ similar pointed slowness—it really, really feels like she’s trying to drag this out as much as possible.
There’s so much to this reaction. For one thing, I mean there’s a sword bearing down on him, so obviously he’d be frightened. But it’s also not just a sword, it’s his father holding it, his father who is possessed by a homicidal satellite that sees him as nothing more than a puppet, and he’s possessed bc Jin raised the bloody thing and planned to sacrifice him to kill it (would that even have worked, though? Or would the Ark have just jumped to another host?). What’s more, earlier, Horobi stopped and couldn’t follow through when Jin asked if killing him was what Horobi wanted, and we already know he remembers Horobi rushing to protect him. He’s at least reasonably sure about the fact that Horobi himself doesn’t want to hurt him, and at least some idea that he’s able to get through to Horobi is he tries (I don’t know if he actually knows he’s Horobi’s singularity Point… my gut says no). There’s not only the fear of death, but probably the sense that if this happens, it will be the final nail on the coffin of any chance Horobi had of breaking free of the Ark. It’ll be the end for both of them, honestly.
Despite Aruto yelling, the Ark brings the sword down, and, understandably, Jin looks away…
… Only to, very noticeably, you know, not die. So he looks back up and…
This look is already… So much emotion. But don’t y’all just wanna hear me talk about hands again? Right? Right?
Well, too bad. Bc Jin’s reaction kills me every time. Literally. I keep going back just to watch this moment. Bc when he looks back up and takes in what happened, w/out looking, w/out saying anything, completely instinctively…
… He reaches for Horobi.
This seems like… A whole combination of things. A kid reaching for his father for comfort, but also at the same time… Like he’s trying to comfort Horobi, reach out to him. Bc he knows this has to be Horobi. The Ark wants to kill him double, has announced she’s going to destroy HumaGear. She wouldn’t stop. But Horobi would. Horobi’s instinct was to protect him before, he couldn’t kill him even when he had the chance, couldn’t kill the kids. Someone else pointed out that, normally, given the chance, someone would be frantically getting away from someone who tired to stab them, but Jin’s reaction is to reach for his father, despite the whole ‘possessed and holding a sword over his head’ thing. Again, not ‘get off me’ but more like ‘it’s you, it’s okay, I’m here, it’s going to be okay, you can do it.’
The camera pulls back to show a scene that is very clearly from a different take (but, I mean, why would you not use the one where Jin reaches out like that?), then closes in on Horobi again. The Ark is clearly struggling—I like the way it sounds like she’s putting all her effort into trying to push the sword down, but Horobi refuses to budge.
Then the flashbacks start. Bits of Horobi’s memory while his own voice echoes behind them.
The first one is obvious—the first time he moved completely w/out the Ark’s command, possibly the first action that was totally of his own volition in over a decade. Which was, notably, and action that is the complete opposite of what the Ark is now trying to force him to do.
The Ark reacts like she’s getting a headache, clearly baffled by Horobi having any resistance to her will.
Then we get interesting.
ForceRisering Jin. Notably, Horobi’s initial flashback was to the time he reacted on his own, as if he’s finally realising what he truly wants, to protect Jin… But then he flashes back to this moment, which was… The time he did the opposite, according to the will of the Ark. We know, via Project Thouser, that Horobi was extra manipulated into this by Gai via Naki suggesting it would benefit ‘their’ (read: the Ark’s, none of this was ever Horobi or Naki’s plan, though it was half Gai’s) plans. So he goes from a moment where he acted like the father he wants to be (that was a signal of him nearing singularity, that wanting to be Jin’s father is his dream) to a time when the Ark’s influence caused him to be the opposite. For me, this is really fuel for my theory about Horobi’s behaviour next ep—that he believes that he and Jin can never get back what was taken from them by the Ark and therefore humans, and that the only thing he can do is try to make a safer, better future for his son, no matter the cost, even if he dies in the attempt. This also makes my other theory all the more heartbreaking, that Horobi originally got into this to protect Jin, and then the Ark’s control warped and twisted him, and now he’s starting to remember himself and seeing that and ends up convincing himself he can’t go back.
But. Anyway (again).
The next one is from the hospital arc. This was the incident where we first heard Horobi’s ‘we are not the slaves of humanity’ sentiment, and also the first time he and Jin henshined together. He’s thinking back to the times when his son was w/ him, when he believed they were fighting for freedom for their kind. I’m not entirely sure about any implications regarding this scene following the other one, other than chronology. Is Horobi regretting having involved Jin in the fighting? Is he veering between things that he regrets and things he doesn’t? Guilt and remorse for hurting his son, but also the fact that he enjoyed being w/ Jin and fighting together w/ him? Given that he doesn’t seem to be involving Jin in his actions next ep, perhaps, while he cherishes this memory for certain aspects, he may also conclude that he needs to keep Jin out of things for his safety. Perhaps he sees involving Jin in the fight as a failure on his part, too.
Next is the moment when he confronted Aruto for Ikazuchi’s data… Which lead to him kidnapping Midori, encountering the father and son, and the exchange on the bridge, and his first choice in over a decade. I’m not as sure about what I think this one might be about, but like I said, it did lead to the conversation w/ Midori, and more questions about what he really wants, brought up his relationship w/ Jin (and then belittled it). Is he thinking about everything that lead to this? Thinking about wanting to reunite his family? About what was sacrificed to raise the Ark? Or does this have to do w/ Jin’s admittedly plan?
The last memory is of the moment when Jin was making graves for Ansatsu-chan and Ikazuchi. On the one hand, we have HumaGear who died for the Ark’s plan, and Horobi was directed to not care, but Jin was also highly effected by those deaths, and Horobi snapped at him for grieving for them. Additionally, Jin expressed a desire to get revenge on the humans responsible for their deaths. Horobi may also be carrying something like resentment and a desire for revenge on the humans who were ultimately responsible for everything he and Jin went through, everything the Ark caused him to put Jin through. And they’ve been through a lot.
But first…
MY MAN.
I feel like it’s significant that Horobi starts this question facing away (but this post is already so picture heavy), kinda hunched and looking down—the way the scene cuts makes it comes across as Horobi just being ‘transported’ into the Ark’s space like how Aruto and Izu do into Zea’s, while the Ark stands a distance behind him, back turned. It really does give the impression of Horobi being forced to watch while the Ark just casually uses his body w/out even really ‘looking.’ Horobi is the one the situation is in front of, while the Ark is indifferently facing away. Horobi turns toward the Ark to ask why, probably his first question in twelve years. And it’s bc of Jin. Not only is the Ark trying to force him to destroy HumaGear, she wants him to start w/ the one person who means the most to him. The one person Horobi himself doesn’t want to hurt.
The Ark… Doesn’t take it well.
Horobi gets swarmed by the floating words, and it sounds painful, enough that he’s brought to his knees. One question, just asking why, in twelve years, and he gets this. And he’s just asking why. The Ark doesn’t even bother faking a reason, just responds by torturing him, trying to force him back into compliance. W/ a method that has perhaps worked before.
Except this time, Jin’s life is actually on the line.
I love the way he brings his hand up to his face. I don’t know why, I just do. Anyway, Horobi fights through the pain, his hand curling into a fist.
… And…
THAT’S MY MAN.
Hey, that setup looks familiar, I think we’re just missing a sunset (come at me w/ comparing Horobi to Gai now, you… Jerk faces!).
You know what, I think I’m gonna break this into parts to prevent anymore mishaps.
Please hold.
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Movie Review — Birds of Prey
Commits the sin of being boring.
Sure the action is bad, that’s fairly standard for superhero movies, but also there’s basically no good banter; which is what these movies live and die on for me. This is movie full of asshole loner characters who have no chemistry with each other and so everyone suffers from having no one to play off of. It’s actually worse than Suicide Squad in that respect, because even in that mess I thought that Margo Robbie and Will Smith has good chemistry, here there was nothing for me to hold onto.
Look, it’s more competent than Suicide Squad. It’s not a movie cobbled together from a different movie; the editing isn’t completely off the rails. But because it’s still bad that actually made it worse for me because it makes this movie less interesting. There’s less to dissect.
It’s a movie with a lot of bad ideas. Trying to cram the Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn into the same movie is an awkward fit. Making all the characters asshole loners who don’t know how to behave around people makes everything awkward. There’s just so much exposition, and narration.
There’s zero economy of storytelling. Again, in Suicide Squad you can laugh at how crammed in the exposition about Katana is, but it’s quick and gets to the point. Dragging that out over flashbacks and getting it spelled out multiple times is much worse. This movies spends way to much time stuck in first gear. Hell it’s stuck in neutral a lot of the time because of how bad the dialogue scenes are.
The movie avoids the more recent pitfalls for ending a superhero movie: there is no swirling vortex of doom, no army of robots, not villain with the same powers as the hero fight scene. No we go back to an older problem of this movie taking for fucking ever to get its characters together. There is no team until the fight at the end, so we’ve got over an hour of buildup and backstory. The plot is slow moving roundabout and meandering.
The thing that really gets me is that in theory this movie is adapting some of my absolute favorite stuff. The interconnected world of heroes and villains in Gotham is my favorite thing about Batman comics. That’s the space this movie is playing in, and it made my favorite thing incredibly boring to watch.
The best part of the movie is it’s version of Cassandra Cain (who has literally nothing to do with the comic book version of the character but so it goes) played by Ella Jay Basco because she is the most like able and gets the closest to having any actual chemistry with another character. I also feel like I could have liked Huntress if she had had anyone to play off of.
It’s not a train wreck, it’s not a disaster it’s not awful. It’s just mediocre, bland and dull. I think it’s bad, but I also have specific opinions of these characters and I know how much more could be done with them and how much better they deserve, so I was disappointed and annoyed. A worse movie would have at least provided me with some schadenfreude. This one’s already leaving my brain.
At least they didn’t make Renee Montoya straight?
Thank You For Your Time.
#birds of prey#bop#comic book#movie#review#movie review#suicide squad#margo robbie#ella jay basco#and the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn#harley quinn#joker#renee montoya#huntress#dc#dc comics#detective comics comics
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Zero One 01: A JUMP TO THE SKY TURNS TO A RIDER KICK
Okay, I’m gonna start liveblogging from the start of a show this time! Because oh wow, just watching this live was a trip… and now I get to properly understand it. >:3
––––
So, it appears that the shot of a HumaGear in the shadows in the trailer was not, in fact, in the satellite, like the trailer implied. Instead, he’s from the Hiden Intelligence sizzle reel.
Said sizzle reel also includes a shot of the “HumaGear Skin Fitting Gate System”. That’s the part of the manufacturing process that gives them their human-like appearance, as opposed to the base robot form.
Interestingly, each of the newly-humanized HumaGear has a rectangular tattoo, with some sort of hexagonal design in it. The male one has it on the left side of his chest, and the lady we see up close has it dead center a little below her collarbone.
The support HumaGear that they show next all have it on the side of their necks. And isn’t that a handy way to tell who’s a HumaGear, if they ever elect to make the ‘ears’ smaller?
Actually, I think the lower part of it has the Hiden Intelligence logo, and the top is the hexagon glyph. Still can’t get a good look at it, though.
Also, it’s probably a very bad idea to have all of your HumaGear managed via a single broadcast satellite. I’m just saying, with tech this advanced and ubiquitous, having some backups might be to your benefit.
–
So, Hiden Korenosuke, Aruto’s grandfather, was 75 when he died. Additionally, he wasn’t just the CEO of Hiden Intelligence – he was the founder.
The news spot about his funeral is being played on a giant hovercraft, via holographic screens.
I really do love how we’re clearly going all-in from the start on ‘this is not the mainline World of Riders.’
Meanwhile, Aruto shows us his dumb puppy nature right off the bat, being late for work despite having set five alarms.
We zoom out on the city, seeing the hovercraft in better detail than the grounds-eye view from before. We also see that the Hiden Intelligence headquarters absolutely dwarves the surroundings.
The logo appears on screen. When it zooms in for the transition, the black of the ‘01’ becomes a tightly layered pattern of binary.
–
There’s no opening credits today, since it’s the first episode and all. Opening Credits on the first day is not how Takashi Yuya-san rolls, as we saw during Ex-Aid.
The sponsor segment, however, does exist. It shows Zero One and his bike – which doesn’t have an individual name yet that I can find, just the term for the phone that has as a primary form. It’s a really cool shot, too. They’re under a blacklight. I’d thought they were glow-in-the-dark when I watched the raw, but seeing this in better quality shows that the blue and red accents are reacting, too.
That is so cool.
–
Aruto nyooms to the amusement park on his bike, because he’s super late. Turns out he’s a comedian in a stage show, with a truly hideous blue sequened suit and oversized red bowtie. His act is supposed to be a Manzai show… excpet for how he’s absolutely terrible.
Like, to the point where his straightman is his phone.
There are exactly two people in the audience… and it’s an older couple, who aren’t even watching. They’re having lunch.
This kills the Aruto.
–
And so does the fact that he’s fired. As his manager says, the era’s more suited to HumaGear entertainers.
Aruto disagrees – how could an AI understand a person’s sense of humor?
And then Ab-cruncher Taro, a HumaGear comedian, comes on stage for his act… and the audience loves it. Including the older couple from Arutos act.
I mean, this might be in part that nobody in World of Zero One likes manzai anymore, too, but also Aruto’s just terrible, and this guy did have a pretty decent pun on ad-libbing… as he exploded his abs off.
The manager points out that everyone is laughing, that having such a lively theme park is his dream. Aruto feels the same – he just wants to make people laugh, that’s all.
…Except that his now-former manager is already walking off. He already has someone who can make the crowd laugh, and Aruto really should find a new dream.
–
A car pulls up to Hiden Intelligence HQ, with Fukuzoe Jun and his HumaGear assistant, Shesta. I really like her red-and-grey outfit, not gonna lie.
Anyway, he’s the vice president of HI, and, admittedly rather justifiably, assumes that he’s the new CEO. He’s got quite an ego on him, apparently, because the funeral was today. He’s already got his portrait commissioned, made, and ready to be lowered over the portrait of the late CEO. And it’s larger, dwarfing the old one.
Dude.
Maybe you should have waited a bit on getting the portrait. Like, at least until after the funeral.
Just saying.
–
We switch to somewhere called ‘Daybreak Town.’
…It’s surrounded by massive, high-tech security fences. And is a bit of a crater. A flooded one.
Entering a run-down, semi-abandoned room, we meet Horobi and Jin. Admittedly, we don’t hear their names, but that’s who they are. Horobi is stoic and calm, and Jin… well, he’s basically an even more hyper Parad.
Horobi says that now that CEO Hiden is dead, they can start the Magear Plan.
…Jin, what was that you were messing around with on that stand?
Jin’s probable attention issues aside, Horobi goes to explain a bit further, while unplugging a pseudo-driver from a cable, probably where it was being programmed. They’re going to use the HumaGear singularity – that is, the hypothetical point when Artificial Intelligences become more intelligent than humans, often including sentience. Bascially, they plan to use that to surpass humanity… somehow. As he’s saying this, he takes a Progrise Key out of a holder, and we get a few shots of the room.
The MetsuboJinrai.NET emblem is on the wall, and we see some of the assorted items. Including a katana, for some reason. And, on a platform with the same pattern as where Jin was messing around earlier? That is a gun right there. Yay!
Horobi hands the driver and key to Jin, while saying that it’s time to annihilate humanity… just like this city was, long ago.
Zoom out from his face, where he stands under a beam of light… that is coming in from a hold in a ceiling. That is to day, the hole in a roof, of a former apartment building.
Zoom out further to see that it’s one of the handful of buildings around the perimeter of the flooded crater.
At the very center of said crater? Underwater?
That sure looks an awful lot like the satellite that controls the HumaGear.
This is why you have redundant backup systems, folks.
–
So, at this point, Aruto’s got Shotaro’s meme faces, Emu’s pratfall humor (although thankfully toned down a bit), and Sento’s phone. Now we’ve also got Kabuto’s Shibuya disaster 2.0.
This is fine.
–
At Hiden Intelligence, we see a room labeled ‘Three Dimensional Printing System’. Like, it actually says that in English, same as the gate earlier. An Ai starts speaking, saying that it’s receiving orders from BS-ZA – the broadcast satellite. What does the ZA stand for? Who knows! The sizzle reel didn’t actually tell us that.
I can not understate how incredibly concerned about the ‘we have a single point of control for all of this technology’ thing that’s going on.
Anyway, a holographic pattern gets displayed inside the printing… room, I guess, and two manufacturing robot arms emerge and start. Uh.
Okay, so. That’s not how 3D printing usually works. You can’t really makes something solid out of beams of light. That’s not how it should have worked with the HumaGear skins earlier, and it’s not how it should work now.
Unless, like, it’s not light? It could somehow be a sort of plasma version of the materials needed? But it was able to make, like, the hair and eyes and such for the HumaGear earlier, so… ugh. I’m putting too much thought into it.
My hangups about how things work aside, they’re making the driver.
Outside of this room, in an office, a female HumaGear in white and teal is sitting, inactive, until she receives orders from the satellite. She gets up, and goes to fulfill her task.
Hi Izu! I didn’t notice that you had little teal highlights in your hair before! There’s just these little streaks hidden in there. It’s cute.
–
A dejected Aruto walks his bike away from the amusement park, lamenting his inability to get the crowd to laugh. Sorry bud, but you’re just not funny.
A car pulls up, Izu stepping out. She identifies her ‘target’ via the object recognition analysis that CEO described in the sizzle reel earlier. I didn’t notice before, but even though they still says peoples names in the ‘family name first’ order, the HUD shows them with given name first. Interesting.
She describes him as a ‘self described’ comedian, who is unknown. We see her face during this, before she blinks and looks downward.
Aruto’s on the ground. He’s collapsed.
Izu has known him for all of less than a minute, has no real personality of her own (yet), and is already roasting him.
When he asks who she is, she tells him that her name is Izu, and she’s the President’s secretary. Please note that she does not say which president, which probably only furthers Aruto’s confusion.
–
Back at the comedy stage, we’ve got… a human manzai duo, who are getting a laugh out of the crowd. So, it’s just that Aruto’s terrible, not that they don’t do manzai anymore.
Backstage, Taro sits, presumably waiting for his next set. He’s playing back the crowd as they laugh at his joke, and oh nooo he’s smiling so widely. He’s so proud that he was able to make them laugh! Taro is a good guy and I feel really bad for what’s coming.
Not!Parad Jin ominously comes up from behind. He doesn’t say anything more than that he’s found him, before taking the imitation driver and slapping it onto Taro’s waist.
I like absolutely NONE of the hacking process! Not the red circle of light around the buckle as the driver activates. Not the fact that the ‘belt’ starts off as fuck-off huge cable strips with ‘connector pins’ on them. Of course, since said cables are basically as wide as an arm, this means the connecter pins are more like giant spikes.
Not the fact that they jam into poor Taro, and he immediately starts seizing up with red sparks everywhere.
Not him dropping to his knees, making pained sounds.
Not Jin saying ‘You’re my friend now, so go wreak havoc on this place!”
Not the fact that he says that with a smile.
–
Elsewhere, a belt has just finished being printed, and is now being assembled and given a spiffy new coat of paint.
–
Taro is trying to not do the thing, because his job is making people laugh.
Jin chuckles. Not anymore. Now his job is destroying humans.
We switch to Taro’s perspective, and see a download progress bar fill and complete. It has ‘metsubojinrai.net’ written underneath it. When it completes, the display is replaced with their logo.
Taro cries in pain, and his memory of the crowd turns greyscale. He reopens his eyes, and instead of the cool blue light they were lit with before, they’re glowing red.
Tonelessly, he says that he is connected to metsubojinrai.net, and the ‘connecting’ lights on his earpieces glitch from blue to red.
Jin hands him the Progrize key from earlier.
–
The driver’s done.
–
We switch to the Hiden Intelligence boardroom. Jun had called a board meeting earlier, and for some reason, Izu received instructions to bring Aruto there.
Nearly everyone in the room has a HumaGear secretary standing behind them. Shesta’s tattoo is on her left wrist, and Izu’s is on the back of her left hand.
The meeting was called to read the CEO’s will. Apparently, nobody even knew he had a grandson, much less one like Aruto. According to Izu, because he is, in fact, related to the CEO, and the CEO had requested he be there, there won’t be problems regarding the legality of all of this with Aruto here. She slides the will in front of him, and walks out of the room.
Jun tells him to hurry up and read it, he’s got to get to work taking over as CEO.
Aruto opens the envelope, and starts reading – forgetting to read out loud, because he’s just a confused puppy. (He’s 22, he’s legally an adult, but that does not stop him from being a dumb puppy.) He looks incredibly distressed over what’s in the will.
It’s ominously shown with a red static overlay, is hand-written, and segments of it are appearing on top to highlight themselves.
And I have no idea why some of the overlaid words are highlighted in red, because I don’t know Japanese.
Jun, frustrated with Aruto’s distress and lack of reading out loud, grabs the paper away from him.
“In the near future, our company will face a serious crisis.” Jun’s brow furrows, and the rest of the room starts muttering, wondering what crisis that could be. “The HumaGears that our company was making will be misused and will attack humanity.” This shot goes from Jun reading to a generic HumaGear, his eyes turning red, and zooming out to show that it’s a crowd of them, in a ruined city. They all crouch down and start. Freaking. Swarming, on all fours. It’s absolutely terrifying, especially when one leaps up at the viewpoint, shrieking. (It’s the same ‘vocal’ sound effect from the bugster unions, by the way.)
Back in reality, the boardroom is starting to panic a bit. Izu comes back through the door, carrying a briefcase. Jun resumes reading. “There is only one counter measure: the Zero One driver and Progrise Key.” Izu opens the briefcase, revealing the items in question. “Built into it is the new era’s security system, in order for human hands to take control of the HumaGear.” Aruto looks at the case and driver, his expression blank.
Jun continues, with us scrolling down the will. “Only the company’s President is authorized to use it.” He can’t restrain his grin. “And my successor whom-” his face falls “I entrust this to is my grandson, Hiden Aruto?!”
Nobody expected this, least of all Aruto.
“I want him to become a part of staff, and overcome the company’s crisis. That is all.”
Jun is not okay with this, and neither is the rest of the board. He’s treating this like a family business, that’s absurd! I mean, never mind that he was the founder.
All of them start protesting over one another, before Aruto yells at them all to calm down. He then says that there’s no way he can be a president. He just wants to make people laugh. Without another word, he picks up his duffle bag and walks out.
Izu tilts her head, blinking confusedly.
–
As Aruto, somber, rides the elevator down, he thinks back to when he was a little kid.
A tiny little Aruto is trying to practice a routine with someone who seems to be his father, who laughs a little. Babby Aruto insists on trying again, because he wasn’t laughing from the heart.
The man says that the result will always be the same. His headphones are white and blue – namely, with blue lights, the same color as a HumaGear’s earpeices.
Aruto swears that he’s going to make his dad laugh – oh no, this is his dad.
An explosion goes off, and blue fire fills the screen.
Little Aruto wakes up, on the ground, his father next to him.
His father, with sections of his skin blasted off, revealing a mechanical, HumaGear face underneath, bleeding blue and dying. “Aruto… head towards your dreams… jump to them…”
The shot zooms out, with elementary schooler Hiden Aruto crouched over his HumaGear father, surrounded by rubble and flames.
–
In the present, Aruto watches as Jun’s portrait is lowered off the wall. He apologizes to his grandfather.
–
At the comedy stage, the manzai act is still going on. Everyone applauds as they finish, the manager included. It looks like Aruto is about to go ask for his job back, but he hesitates, thinking back to what the manager had said. It looks like he’s trying not to cry as he turns back around to leave.
As he turns, someone shouts to be let go.
The hijacked Taro is holding another HumaGear, probably one of the staff, by the collar as he walks on stage, before tossing him to the side. “My job is to make people laugh…” Taro’s viewpoint is shown, red static overlaying the glitching sight of the crowd as they start to back away. “…and to annihilate them.”
He activates the key, and inserts it into his driver. Red ‘wires’ extend from the buckle, breaking into and through the key.
I am not okay with any of this transformation sequence!
Not with the fire burning away his human appearance.
Not with how his normal HumaGear face withdraws and reveals what is basically a robot skull.
Not with how his jaw opens wide, and green… I dunno. Green pipes come out of his mouth, and start surrounding him in what is basically the Mad Rogue transformation.
Not with the orange dna spiral that lights up around him, and turns purple before the whole thing – spiral and pipes alike – burst out of existence, leaving Taro as the Berotha Magear.
As per Rider Wiki: The name Berotha is from Kujiberotha teruyukii, an extinct insect that lived in the Cretaceous period. It’s a recently named type of thorny lacewing, which are closely related to mantises. Aka, the species that Berotha takes his appearance from.
Two HumaGear staffers go to try and stop him, but he tosses both of them to the side, and proceeds to use whip-like extenstions to attack them… and overwrite their programming, shredding their human appearances and causing their original faces to retract. they’re left with the skull appearance briefly, before full faceplates slide down, creating the anonymous mooks of the season. They run off stage to attack.
The manager watches all of this, stunned. Aruto watches, before running at Berotha and tackling him around the middle, trying to stop him. He gets thrown into a sign for his attempt.
–
In another section of… oh lord. In another section of ‘Giggle Dreamland’, we see that there are a lot more than two mooks now. A van pulls up, the body-armored grunts of AIMS grabbing machine guns as they rush out and get in formation.
Yaiba Yua, who will eventually be Kamen Rider Valkyrie, steps out as well, saying that they are to collect data on the rampaging HumaGear and that they need to- she’s cut off by machine gun fire. Fuwa Isamu, who will eventually be Kamen Rider Vulcan, gives the order to destroy all of them.
As Yua says, at least let her finish before you start going all gun-happy!
–
Aruto, now distinctly missing his jacket and bag, gets to his feet, seeing the destruction all around him. MaGear mooks are attacking people, and ohhh nooo I think they’re repeating some of their stock ‘amusement park employee’ phrases as they do it, and that’s just tragic.
The whole area is a shambles, and the manager is on his knees in despair. Aruto remembers how the manager had said that making people laugh with joy was his dream, before Berotha comes up to the manager, extending his arm blade. Aruto tries to tackle him away, but it’s no use – he gets tossed away again. Izu runs onto the scene, carrying the breifcase. Berotha grabs the frozen manager by the collar, saying that a future where humans have dreams will never come, and starts laughing maniaclly.
Theres the sound of a heartbeat as Aruto flashes back to his father’s death.
“Don’t you laugh!” He pushes himself to his feet. “Don’t you dare laugh at someone’s dream, when you know nothing about it!”
“I do know.” Berotha starts rattling off a dictionary description of ‘dream,’ his earpieces lighting up as they connect to the web, before Aruto cuts him off.
Aruto is all but shouting. “A person’s dream isn’t so simple that you can just look it up!”
Izu looks slightly aside, averting her gaze.
“Hey! With that driver, I can do something about this, right?!” We only see Aruto’s lower face as he asks this, same as when he told Berotha not to laugh.
Izu says that yes, though it is available only to the companies president-
Aruto cuts her off, desperation written on his face as he tells her to just give it to him.
“Very well, Aruto-sama.”
She walks up, and hands him the driver and key. (In the distance, we can see that Berotha is charging energy to his mantis sickles.)
“Equip the driver to your waist.”
Glaring furiously at Berotha, Aruto places it at his waist…
There’s the sound of a heartbeat, as blue ones and zeroes glow around Aruto, and…
His soul, glowing that same bright blue, straight up leaves his body, and transports into the satellite.
(Me, a Double fan: YOOOOOOO!)
The similarities to how Philip enters the Gaia Library only increase in his visualization of the BS-ZA’s ‘cerebro’, which is a white void with occasional columns of binary scrolling upward. And written in the same font as the logo, at that.
Izu appears in there, in much the same manner – they’re both in their usual appearances again, though. Whereever they step, the binary ripples out beneath their feet. It’s a nice touch to give a sense of where the ground is, since otherwise it’s all just pure white.
She tells him that his brain is remotely accessing the satellite. He… doesn’t quite take this well.
Also, now that I have a proper back view of Izu, I can see that the earpieces have a headband behind them, so they’re basically behind the head headphones. Except, you know, most likely mounted.
Anyway, she continues. Right now, he has the same thought processing speed as an AI.
Their surroundings change, to have the void show where they are in the real world, while they appear as data projections. Just to drive the point home, she walks through the real-world Aruto.
Who is very much unconscious, standing upright with his head dropped down. Berotha’s still charging his attack, rearing back to fire.
“Left like this, in five seconds, you will die.”
Only an AI could deliver this line so casually. Aruto is not okay with this. He’s not okay with any of this.
The surroundings change again, this time to a grey and purple tinted void with hexagons in the background.
“Until then, you can learn from the manual.”
So. They’re just actually having him read the manual, in virtual form, while his real body is very, very vulnerable, so that he can learn how to use his driver.
Now This Is Kamen Rider.
‘Opening Tutorial Mode’
–
Meanwhile, over with the Zectroopers – I MEAN – AIMS troops, the machine guns do absolutely jack all against the Magear mooks. They can knock them down, sure, sending them sparking to the ground, but they just get right back up again.
Isamu, frustrated with the fact that his bullets do nothing, climbs back into the van and punches his way to grabbing what will eventually be his driver.
It seems that Yua is supposed to be his boss, because she tells him to wait, that he doesn’t have her permission – he ignores her and shoots the gun in her direction.
For a brief moment, the audience assumes he’s shooting her, but he’s aiming right over her shoulder, the ‘bullet’ sending her hair waving, and hitting a Magear mook right in the eye.
It doesn’t get back up.
Also, the top of its foot has a skeletal… well. Foot. Zero One’s going all in on the robot skeleton theme they’ve got going here, then.
Looks like Isamu’s whole attitude is ‘when in doubt, apply a bigger gun.’
–
Aruto snaps awake. “Learning complete.”
As he activates his Progrise key, Berotha launches the energy scythes.
A yellow light beams down from the satellite. It was either rapid-fire 3d printing, or it was actually teleporting, but either way. A silver grasshopper with neon-yellow lines lands in front of Aruto, blocking the attack.
Interestingly, along with the impact dustcloud, there’s yellow and blue circuitry patterns radiating away along the ground.
Hot damn I like this background music. I’d ask when we’re getting the OST, but I know the answer is ‘after the season ends,’ so instead I will just mourn my lack of soundtrack.
The grasshopper starts bouncing around Aruto as he prepares to properly transform, a holographic screen projecting from the driver in front of him. Said giant robot grasshopper is making even more of a mess of the area, and said projection is slightly 3D – the images have depth to them… and are made, of course, of closely-placed zeroes and ones.
The owner of the park is watching all of this, by the way.
“Henshin!”
We actually get to sort of see the driver reading the data on the key – kind of like when we used to see the action inside the Build Driver.
The base Zero One suit is black, with glowing red lines and a disconcerting face plate. We don’t have to see that for long though, because the grasshopper quickly dissassembles itself and turns into his armor.
In a very interesting detail, you can see it breaking down into wires and metal, and the lights that pull it towards Zero One are DNA spirals.
A JUMP TO THE SKY TURNS TO A RIDER KICK
…Hey, didn’t Aruto’s father say he should jump towards his dreams? Just saying. ;)
The grasshopper didn’t just become his armor – it also seems to have turned one of its limbs into the Attache Calibre, which makes its way to Aruto’s hand as the transformation ends.
“Who are you?!”
“Zero One! That’s my name!”
He immediately launches into an attack against Berotha, punching and kicking to great effect. Berotha tries to slash right at his feet – if he can just stop him from moving, he can annihilate him. Except Zero One leaps over the blades.
And by leap, I mean that our good grasshopper boy is now on top of the rollercoaster. Aruto is, justifiably, super impressed by his new leg power.
(I’m just saying… Aruto got the Pink Cure’s ‘WOW I can jump really high now!’ moment for this year, because Cure Star didn’t get it. She had her first fight in space, so it was already a given for her.)
Berotha is decidedly less impressed, and fires an eye beam at him. The eye laser does nothing, as despite it being almost as wide as he is tall, Zero One just tanks it as he jumps back down. As the light breaks apart around him, there seems to be a faint helix pattern there, too.
Aruto’s about to go after Berotha some more, but then he sees the owner getting attacked by a pair of mooks. Mooks who used to be his staff, and can just barely be heard stuttering around their rote phrases, repeating them without context or intellect. He goes to block them, and yells at his former boss to get out of there.
As Aruto redirects the mooks elsewhere, Izu comes running up, carrying the attache weapon that had been abandoned. She calls out to him, and throws him the case…
And it whacks him upside the head.
The mooks just watch as she apologizes, and he, rubbing his head, says he’s okay.
An honest-to-gaim insert song kicks in as they start fighting again. Like, this isn’t the OP. I’ve heard the OP. This isn’t it. This is an insert song. In episode one. It’s only a short part of it, yes, but it’s still an insert.
This is going to be a good season for music, especially since you can actually hear said insert. Not quite clearly, and it’s too brief to really get anything from aside from the tone. But that tone is awesome and I can’t wait oh god it’s going to be a long wait for this soundtrack.
Also, at some point the mooks acquired guns.
–
The insert ends when we see Not!Parad Jin bouncing in joy as he watches all of this happen from a nearby roof. “Yeah! Come on! Get ‘em! This is so fun!”
A damaged mook gets up, stuttering. “A-a-a-attention! A-a-a-a lost child has been reported!” This confirms that the mooks are, in fact, still saying their lines. It tries to attack him, because that’s what they do. He’s human, after all. (Right?)
Still giggling, Jin grabs the mooks arm as it goes to stab him, and in one smooth motion and without looking, twists it behind said mooks back, holds it around the neck, pulls out an honest-to-god gun, and shoots it in the head.
Everything goes silent for a second as the gun fires.
He doesn’t stop giggling wildly the whole time, nor does he even spare the mook a glance.
The mook falls to the ground, broken and unmoving, as he continues laughing.
It’s a normal gun. That is straight up a normal gun. Not a fancy sci-fi one, just a normal gun with normal bullets and a normal bullet casing that ejects in front of him as he laughs.
…Can we go back to our hero, please?!
–
Oh, good, we’re going back to Zero One versus Berotha. Thanks!
And thank you even more for the OP kicking in as Berotha fires a volley of energy blades. These are powerful enough to slice through cars and set off explosions wherever they hit. But they don’t even graze Aruto, not the way he jumps and rolls in mid air to dodge them.
His fighting is super graceful and deliberate, so much unlike how he moves as himself. The intro beats to the song transition into the song proper as he leaps, angled yellow lines of light trailing behind him as he uses the flying cars as jumping points, bouncing from one to the other, dodging blades all the way, before the actual bus that’s in the air comes up toward him.
He just barrels through it, still dodging the blades, using the support bars to flip and spin around and over. He manages to tap the ‘stop request’ button with his foot as he rebounds at one point, which is a hilarious little detail that they didn’t need to put in. But that lets the bus announcement of ‘stop requested’ play as he comes through the rear window right before it hits the ground.
MAN, the attention to DETAIL in this episode. I know that it’s mostly Episode One Budget in action, but damn is this promising.
Those yellow lines start following him again as he resumes his beatdown on Berotha, giving a pre-asskicking one liner. “There’s only one person who can stop you: me!” He activates his finisher.
RISING IMPACT!
A brief projection of the robo-grasshoppers foot appears over his own as he braces himself to start moving. Neat. And move he does, going faster than the camera can follow, slowing down only long enough to deliver a few punches and kicks, tossing Berotha into the air. Zero One follows suit, leaping far higher, and diving down with his Rider Kick.
He goes through the MaGear, shattering it to pieces. Gears, wires, and dark blue hydraulic fluid go everywhere, as the eyes on his helmet have a line go from front to back along the facets. Huh.
A special projection of ‘rising impact’ appears on screen as Zero Ones kick approaches the viewer, and since holo-tech is a thing here, may or may not actually be there. The key that had been used to hack Taro into Berotha, definitely cracked, also flies at the screen.
Zero One lands, digging a gouge into the path, and when he comes to a stop… Aruto twists his ankle, winds up rolling bodily into one of the buildings, and gets covered in rubble. He pulls himself up a bit using some of the debris, saying “Aaaand here’s my stop.” He collapses backward.
–
The AIMS troops seem to be wrapping up their defeat of the mooks, but as Yua says, they’ve still got a lot to do.
Isamu’s stomps on the chest of one of the downed mooks, who isn’t quite as done as he’d looked. It grabs his ankle, before he apparently shoots and shatters it, going by the sound effect.
He glares, hands trembling in apparent rage, saying that history is repeating itself.
–
Jin hands Horobi the damaged key. When Horobi ‘questions’ the damage, he just ‘asks’ “Zero One?”
Implying that there was a previous Zero One.
This implication is only furthered with Jin’s comment, as he pulls down his hood. “Seems like the previous president didn’t simply die, huh?”
We still can’t see his ears under all that hair.
The suspicion that these two aren’t human only grows. Why would Horobi want to turn humans into an endangered species if they, themselves, are human?
The ‘eye’ on the sunken satellite glows red.
–
As they exit the amusement park, Aruto’s going on to Izu about how cool he was. She says she’ll be escorting him home, calling him ‘Mister President.’
“Wait, what?!”
Turns out he completely blanked on the fact that only the president of Hiden Intelligence is allowed to be Zero One, and he accepted the position by putting on the driver.
Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen. He’s just a big ol’ puppy.
He’s protesting this fact – the president thing, not the puppy thing – to Izu when he hears a child asking the parks owner if he’s going to be closing the park.
“Not at all. A mysterious yellow hero protected it. So we’re going to keep on giving smiles to our guests!”
Aruto looks absolutely touched by his former bosses words, just by the refusal to close, and the ‘mysterious yellow hero’ part. …He has no idea that his boss knows exactly who that hero was.
Not until said boss turns to him, and winks.
Izu lifts one hand. “I have detected many smiling expressions that Master Aruto is responsible for.”
He laughs, just a little, a light chuckle at himself. “There’s more than one way to make people smile, huh…?”
He bounces the driver a little in his hands, and gets into the car.
As he buckles in, and Izu doesn’t – sweetie, I know you’re an android, and thus can’t technically die in the way most people would see death as, you should still use your seat belt and model good behavior for the kiddos watching at home – she hands him ‘the presidents’ Rise Phone. It looks like it’s just an upgraded version of his phone from earlier, or they upgraded that phone itself.
He tries to make a terrible pun about the hassle the board of directors gave earlier… which Izu, now putting on her seat belt, thank you so very much, starts explaining. Aruto cries that she shouldn’t be trying to explain the joke as the car drives away.
The episode title finally appears.
––––
Aaand that’s Kamen Rider Zero One, episode one! This is sure gonna be something, and I’m super hyped!
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All the TOP 10 OF THE DECADE posts made me want to make one of my own, so here’s my 10 fave games this decade:
Yakuza 0
Shovel Knight
Nier Automata
Metal Gear Rising
Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger IX
Final Fantasy XV
Scott pilgrim vs the world the game
Undertale
Persona 5
Doom
Danganronpa 2, New Vegas, Touhou Luna Nights, Katana Zero and Mario Odyssey all only barely missed out, and it was a tough decision not to include them. I loved the shit out of those games but thinking it through I decided they were just slightly less loved by me than the above.
Below the cut are some extended thoughts (of varying length) on the games included:
Just CTRL F if you wanna find a specific one
Yakuza 0
Every Yakuza game is delightful and this is definitely the best one, in my opinion. The Yakuza games appeal to me for a lot of reasons: the combat, the story, the variety of activities, the look of it all and the music. I feel like its a very unique game experience with its blend of weird in-depth side activities, serious crime drama, manly man masculine combat friendship melodrama, metal gear-esque convoluted conspiracies and a surprisingly compassionate view of the world it takes place in.
The combat is what drew me in initially because it just feels good, the feedback of stomping on a dudes face in yakuza is delivered perfectly, and the attacks are brutal, hard and flashy. Its a very solid and satisfying combat system and in 0 its the best it has ever been. The ability to switch between 3 different and equally fun fighting styles on the fly really lets you mix things up and adapt your approach, every style feels fun and useful. If i had to pick a favorite it would be slugger, but its a tough choice, and they are all very viable and FUN.
Yakuza 0 also gets big points for having the best story in the series. The protagonists feel much more interesting in this era, the fights feel more earned in this game than others, the relationships are incredibly touching (I’m almost mad majima didnt stay with makoto) and the substories (and some parts of the main story) are the funniest they’ve ever been. Stuff like the quasi-stealth mission where you have to make sure women don’t see you buying a porn magazine for a child, and the extended scene of kiryu trying to guess the right business manners for a meeting had me laughing so much i was i was almost in physical pain.
The extensive business and host club substories get you tons of extra game content and are good enough to almost be there own game. The other games in the series have extended side activites of varying quality, but i think 0 had a rare case of all of these being, basically, perfect. The team obviously agrees since host club management came back repeatedly, but never as good as it was here.
Being set in the 80s elevates almost everything in the game because of the outfits, money flying out of every enemy you attack, the classic sega games you can play at the arcade (Outrun is so much fun and I’d have never have given it a proper go otherwise) and the disco minigame everyones made a meme out of (that music is so catchy).
As a final note this game has the best boss fights and music in the series, which is a very high standard to surpass when you look at the rest of the series. The dual final boss fights, the recurring boss for kiryu and almost every majima fight are highlights of the entire series for me.
0 is going to end up being one of the few games I’ll never sell my copy of because i want it available for me to play forever, its a complete delight.
Shovel Knight
This game has been analysed to hell and back, so i wont have much original to say i suppose. Admittedly i did enjoy the first campaign but it didnt completely win me over, plague knights campaign and beyond was what really made this an all time greats for me. It’s one of very few games that gets the NES+SNES platforming appeal 100% right and essentially surpasses most games of the day, with almost perfect pacing, challenge and level design. IT helps that the whole world and story and look is charming as all hell. It’s an easy game to love and the more you play it the more that feels justified. Being PACKED with great content is also a plus. If you liked the first campaign you can just keep going through a set of campaigns about as good that only really rehash some level assets. I would say its one of the best 2D platformers ever for me, if not quite my true number 1.
ALSO JAKE KAUFMAN KNOCKS IT OUT THE PARK WITH THIS SOUNDTRACK
Since i have little else to add to the shovel knight discussion, here’s my ranking/thoughts on each campaign
Plague of shadows. BEST storyline, great levels with a really cool gameplay gimmick, the characters are all cute and the ending really makes me feel for him. both sorry for him at first and then a very real AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW for LOVE
King of cards. king knight is just fun as hell to play as, he doesnt have that many tools but his movement is just crazy fun and i love the flair in all his animations. also has that rad final boss. joustus is ok i guess.
Shovel of hope. uuuuuuh what can i even say about this. its good, and the melancholy dream bits add a lot to the mood of the story. we’ve already analysed this campaign within an inch of its life i dont think i can say anything new. wish we could fight the battletoads on pc.
Specter of torment. still fun and i appreciate the tone change, but i didnt care as much for the characters and the mega man-esque level select doesnt suit shovel knight imo. specter knight has a lot of fun movement options though. mainly i just love GRINDING and the diagonal slash. i dont give a fuck about reize
Nier Automata
I feel a tiny bit ashamed i have so little to say about this considering it is one of the most emotional experiences i have ever had with a story. If i lsten to the final version of weight of the world i still cry just from remembering this game and how it made me feel. i think its one of the greatest narratives of the century but i can barely get across the appeal to anyone who hasnt already played it. its a story about hope, despair and the nature of the human race that never feels like its preachy or pretensious or taking on more than it can handle. it made me feel all kinds of emotions deeply and intensely, it genuinely made me burst into tears about 10 times, maybe more. even putting aside the ggrand narrative, theres so many cool character moments and bits of world building and visual eements and tragic little side stories that you would need a whole book to talk about them all while doing any real justice to them. i loved it so much that im paying £70 to see an orchestra do the soundtrack live. I want to hug and kiss 2b and 9s better. i just love it deeply and i find it hard to explain why it makes me feel that way, but its a dark beautiful and hopeful story where every moment feels earned. the despair of the story giving way to genuine hope with the rest of the world helping you fight for it is such an intensely emotional moment that you could never replicate outside of this kind of story and medium. how the fuck do i explain that to anyone that doesnt already get it. I’m glad this game exists
Metal Gear Rising
Well, complete tone shift here. Platinum made a lot of great action games in the last decade that all dig into that same itch for DODGE SLOW MOTION BANG BANG BANG alongside great soundtracks, visuals and awesome set piece moments. Just intense, flashy, awesome combat. Picking a favorite of the decade was the hard part, because a platinum game had to be one of my faves of the decade. The closest was transformers, but mgr has a couple of things about it that put it above the rest of the platinum catalog for me.
The story actually works very well at still being metal gear while in the platinum formula, its about the cycle of violence and FINDING YOUR OWN PURPOSE and it works weirdly well. The strangest part is that it feels like a legitimate sequel to metal gear 4 tonally while still being the crazy action game it is
Raiden is just super fun to play as, while I’ll always miss the DODGE SLOWMO in a platinum game parry and zandatsu give a great flow to fights and there’s real exhilaration to parrying a hard chain of attacks and tearing out a bunch of enemies spines at once every time
raiden is also just a fun protag, it truly allows me to embrace that kind of stereotypical edgy cool anime swordsman he embodies
BEST PLATINUM SOUNDTRACK DO NOT @ ME
Bosses just rule
one of the best final bosses ever, in my opinion? maybe that’s controversial, but armstrong gets an insane amount of characterization and pure PRESENCE out of such a small amount of screen time and the fact he feels like such a perfect rival to raiden so quickly is kind of nuts to me. within about half an hour you are ready for the ultimate final showdown with everything at stake, and then the gameplay 100% delivers on that with a fight that is challenging as hell and just feels climatic and intimidating. its a little thing, but having this dude just smack you around with his hands and almost no fighting skill after a game filled with crazy flippy cyborg ninjas makes him feel TOUGH and the way you finish him off? it just rocks, plain and simple. I don’t think i need to justify slices a massive dudes chest open and ripping out his giant still beating robot heart as the music climaxes and our cool edgy protag literally says WE’RE DONE HERE. truly, it has to be this way.
Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger IX
For fast twitchy 2d platformers this barely beat out Katana Zero and Touhou Luna Nights, but i think its just a little better. The skill ceiling on this game is high as hell and once you really get to grips with it, its an experience you cant find anywhere else. its just satisfying as hell to be able to get through the point where you can ZOOM through these levels by making use of copen’s dash and lock-on and weapons well enough. once you get good enough to get through a hole level without touching the ground, you just cant go back. I liked this enough to get an S rank on almost every level. this game just rules, man.
story, art and music are all great as well. but they pale in importance next to zippy jetpack zoom zoom fun time.
also great for having a cool twist that i genuinely did not see coming at all
Final Fantasy XV
For context, my experience of FFXV was not the base game so i cannot personally address the concerns of the version at launch, which i hear from others was a total mess! The game has been updated and changed so much that it is probably almost unrecognizable aside from the absolute base aspects of it. The version i am talking about is, as far as we know, the “final” version released right before Episode Ardyn. There was of course an update after this, but it only added DLC compatibility and a few items, so it means very little in the grand scheme. I also played all of the dlc and watched all the periphery material to get the full, messy disjointed experience. it is also worth noting that the only other FF game i have played is the classic title Mario Hoops 3 on 3 Basketball. I feel it important to tell you this before getting into things so that you can have a full idea of the perspective i come at the game from.
This was chosen over Mario Odyssey and someone will probably kill me for that. I just think its a great emotional story that does a fantastic job of making you care for all the characters, and the world feels massive and full of cool stuff to see. It’s my favorite open world game and i love The Boys. its not the kind of thing i usually play but i think it genuinely had a great story and its a very fun game to just explore and spend time in. ffxv truly understands the emotional bond between The Lads and it is fun to kill big monsters with your party
(they kinda ruin the last cutscene in english, in japanese he says I LOVE YOU GUYS and it makes me cry but in english he goes U GUYS ARE THE BEST which just isnt the same. a small nitpick though. a lot of this game made me cry regardless, its just great at creating an emotional bond)
I admire the insane level of ambition in the visuals and scope, and i bought every dlc for it because it was just that good. the ifrit boss fight and all the giant monsters are just amazingly epic in scale. the “found a cool rock” post is what i truly admire about this game summed up.
all the ancillary material for the game is great and worth getting into, with the exception of the Comrades multiplayer expansion. Everything else adds depth to the story and the world without being entirely necessary for you to get through the story. the anime and the dlc all really feel worth getting into without being something you have to see to get The Full Experience
the giant monsters are cool
Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
Being from 2010 this game only just makes it in, but it was my favorite beat em up this decade and a source of great nostalgia for me. It had a pretty big impact on music and art tastes in regards to games, and in retrospect this games existence was very much a dream team scenario. Paul Robertson is a great sprite artist who does a lot of good work, Anamanaguchi have gone on to become one of my favorite bands (another winter is still one of their best tracks imo) and at the time this came out i was obsessed with scott pilgrim. That plus the beat em up gameplay makes this kind of a perfect blending of a lot of my specific tastes. Playing this brings me back to the time in my school life that i played it very distinctly, a more comfortable time in my life for sure, and i think the game still stands up excellently. I hope that someday it will get a rerelease so others can enjoy it. I give this another play through every year or so, but i wish id gotten the dlc while it was still available
Doom
ITS VIOLENT
ITS FAST
ITS FUN
ITS METAL
i like this game because of the intense adrenaline rush and violent catharsis it gives me, essentially a constant dopamine rush
fun game good
Undertale
I’m glad i got to this before the massive wave of spoilers and popularity came about. It’s a great story with some fun gameplay, and i think SANS UNDERTALE was one of the best boss fights this decade. Its a shame that for so many new players this experience is going to be ruined by spoilers
Persona 5
Danganronpa 2 and fallout new vegas were close contenders for this last spot. I actually made a post about my thoughts on this game before https://journaloftomfooleryandjapery.tumblr.com/post/184341270554/nue-is-great-love-his-goofy-design-when-life-will but essentially
Essentially, its got a great cast of characters, a cool slick look, great monster designs, a fun gameplay loop of collecting monsters and grinding stats while waiting for the next big event, and a surprisingly good story
No idea if royal is any good, but its on a pretty small list of games that i might actually take the time to replay
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Games of the Year by me
Bored, so im deciding to list my favorite games this year under the break.
ULTIMATE FISHING SIULATOR
I dont think it came out this year, but i’ve had a great time playing it both alone and with friends. A nice relaxing game to catch fish and chat with friends in, and oddly satisfying gameplay grind.
DEMON CRAWL
A great minesweeper rougelite. i just really fuckin like minesweeper, makes me feel smart. It feels so great to get through a level without any guesswork and without having to use any items, though the items help to alleviate the annoying 50/50 guesses you’ll get sometimes in minesweeper.
ESCAPE FROM TARKOV
Also doesnt really count because it’s still in early access, but the 0.12 update wipe dropped this year and I’ve been having a ton of fun, especially in the new military base map. The new hideout is great for a nice feeling of progression, and the new weapons are a ton of fun including the FN-Fiveseven and the P90. Most fun and demoralizing game I’ve played.
KATANA ZERO
A very engrossing story game with very fun moment to moment gameplay, only feels bad because it’s only the first part of the story, just want to play the next part when it comes out.
SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE
Honestly probably my favorite Fromsoft game I’ve played. Incredibly satisfying and difficult combat, incredible boss design, beautiful world, fantastic soundtrack, and probably the best final boss of any game I’ve played. Very rare where i find the money spent on a AAA game being well worth it. Go play Sekiro, it is incredible.
GAME OF THE YEAR, BABA IS YOU
HELL YEAH fuckin BABA IS YOU so GOOD best gamei’ve played all YEAR god i LOVE this game SO fuckin good makes me SMART baba is YOU and WIN i WIN baba is YOU so fucking GOOD puzzle game TRY IT its GOOD deserves game of the YEAR
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