#good job nintendo now please learn from this
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So I’ve beaten the new gen of Pokemon (Scarlet and Violet). Spoilers under the cut.
I want to start off with the things I didn’t like. First and most glaring, the graphics. The game is not pretty. Textures are flat, there’s pixel-y static around the edges of everything, treetops are just made up of bunches of 2D green blobs...it’s not good. There are PS2 games with better graphics (FFXII leaps to mind). The pokemon themselves look great, but that just makes the environment look even worse.
And despite this, the game chugs pretty often. I don’t know if it’s lack of power from the Switch, or poor optimization from the game, but there’s frame drops and slowdown everywhere. There was one section of the game that ran at like half speed during pokemon battles unless I pointed the camera straight at the ground.
Also, the environment is pretty sparse most of the time. Cities are the same 15-20 buildings copy/pasted over and over, with the same 15-20 NPCs walking around. Outside of cities, areas tend to be empty grassland dotted by a few trees, empty desert dotted by a few boulders, or empty snowfields dotted by a few trees. Not everything is that way, but a sizeable chunk of the game is.
These three issues are all very common in open-world games, though. They’re the hallmark of a company’s first attempt at an open-world game, and I would expect improvements if they decide to keep making open-world Pokemon.
However, there’s some things that can’t be explained that way. For one, the gyms are all the same boring grey office building. Literally copy/pasted 8 times. You go in to a lobby, talk to the receptionist, then leave to do your gym trial. You don’t even fight the gym leader in the gym, you fight them in a tennis court arena outside. Why bother having a gym building if you’re not even gonna be doing anything in it? It strikes me as a placeholder that they ran out of time to replace.
The Team Star camps suffer from the same problem; there is no visual difference between any of them. Just plain white tents everywhere, and a stage (why is there a stage? You don’t even fight the leader there). I would have liked to at least see red tents for the fire camp, purple tents for the poison, etc.
The music is very hit or miss in the game for me, with the worst offender being the elite four theme. This is supposed to be the culmination of your journey as a trainer, and the theme feels like the kind of music you get before the boss fight starts. Its like the part of a song before the drop, except it never drops. Just repeats the same 20-30 second loop. It’s anticipation music, not fighting music. Once again, it feels like a placeholder, and they ran out of time.
“For crying out loud, Flaire, you’re just complaining about everything! Was there anything you did like about the game?”
Why, yes. I did like something about the game.
Everything else.
The gameplay, mechanics, characters, and story of this game are amazing. Open-world is exactly the kind of game Pokemon needs to be, and if they give up on open-world Pokemon after this game, I will be devastated. Just like with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, running around and seeing pokemon in the environment, choosing to initiate battles or dodging them and running away, it’s just so much fun. I am sad that you can’t catch pokemon without starting a battle, but tbh that would be a pretty huge change from standard pokemon, and is a bit too big of a leap for the core series games right now. Maybe we’ll see it if they make another Legends game and it’s successful.
I love the designs of a lot of the new pokemon. Orthworm, Tinkaton, and Glimmora are some of my favorites. I loved the alternate environment versions of Diglett and Tentacool, I thought they were clever and well done (though I don’t understand why they weren’t regional variants). I didn’t like Koraidon (I played Scarlet) at first, but I warmed up to it as I played; they just gave it so much personality that I couldn’t help loving it.
Speaking of, the characters in the game are fantastic. Nemona is probably my favorite rival ever, I thought Clavell was great comic relief (and was touched by how much he wanted to do right by Team Star), all of Team Star was great. The whole Team Star storyline, culminating in a battle against Penny I didn’t really want to win but knew i had to, was just amazing. I didn’t like Arven, but that’s not because he was badly written; it’s because they did a good job writing an immature, cocky jerk. You’re supposed to warm up to him as the game goes on, but every time he called me “little buddy” I wanted to knock him over and leave.
My favorite part was when the player, Nemona, Penny, and Arven journey to the bottom of Area Zero together. I loved seeing them run around along with me, occasionally conversing. I desperately want to have companions like that as an option in future pokemon games, especially if it lets me do double battles. Those were sorely lacking in this game; I think the only double battle was against MC Ryme? Anyway, the crater section was my favorite part, and I honestly didn’t want it to end. Also I greatly enjoyed the entire sequence with the AI Professor, how they wanted to stop the machine bringing in the paradox pokemon, but were literally programmed to stop anyone who tried to turn it off. And as much as I dislike Arven, I was still glad to see him finally get some parental affection, even if it was from an AI instead of the original. They were a copy of the professor, and that means they shared the professor’s love for Arven too.
I mentioned the music was hit or miss for me, and that’s true, but the hits were very good. I think Penny’s battle theme might be my favorite battle theme of any pokemon game ever, and the Professor battle theme was pretty damn good too. Nemona’s theme is very appropriate, it’s happy and fun, because that’s how she views battling. Man, it was always so much fun to battle her. Such a breath of fresh air after Sword and Shield, where I just felt more and more guilty every time I beat Hop. Nemona wants you to win, she wants you to beat her, so that she’ll finally have someone to compete with (and who won’t forfeit any challenge immediately).
All in all, fantastic game, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. If you’ve never played a pokemon game before, this is a good one to try. If you’re a longtime fan of pokemon, I think you’ll enjoy it too.
#there's a lot I didn't touch on#but overall thumbs up#good job nintendo now please learn from this#and don't regress#also give your employees more time#I would have happily waited another year if it meant fixing some of those problems
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I FINALLY BEAT THE BOSS OF THE SECOND DUNGEON IN OOA (which means i got past that room i was stuck on, thank u @pacicidal and @elegantcollectionkoala)
since i'm playing virtual console, i used a lot of save states to warp back to right before the fight to save time on retries and i've never used save states like this before so i had this really weird time loop sense like those fics where a character is trying something over and over again (of course, i would never write something like that) and it was interesting to see what conditions i set for myself to warrant a reset and experiencing the feeling of jumping back into the fight right after the start of the death animation played with new knowledge about how the fight would go down, but refreshed health and bombs, while the boss has no idea who i am and is seeing me for the first time. it just. it's giving me thoughts and feelings about time loops but this time with legend sklfjghsdfgkjsdf squido don't do it don't you dare
anyway i also beat twilight princess!!! (finally) i LOVE LOVE LOVE when you power up the master sword with the sol's in the twilight realm BECAUSE THE GLOW IS SO PRETTY DUDE THE LIGHTING ON THIS GAAAAAME but also i feel like coming back to this game, especially after screwing around in botw, it really hits me how they do a really great job of making the master sword feel like a total light saber and i am HERE for it!! you just feel so strong and powerful, and after having been so weak at the beginning of the game, having to smack things with your wooden stick and it taking forever to kill bokoblins with the ordon sword, just plowing through baddies is SO satisfying.
BUT THEN ALSO IT'S NOT JUST PLOWING THROUGH BADDIES BECAUSE THE COMBAT IS SO GOOD instead of just mashing Y, you're doing back slices and shield bashes and helm splitters and it's so much more fun and engaging and you feel SO COOL pulling it all off and aaaaah i love this game and how STRONG it makes you feel after working so hard to build up all these heart containers and learn all these skills and get and strengthen the master sword. what an adventure.
AND THE PUZZLES DUDE I DIDN'T WANT THE HYRULE CASTLE DUNGEON TO END it was just a playground of puzzles with all my items and shooting the paintings off the walls? clawshotting to the grates on lamps and chandeliers? i feel like this game perfected the art of observation-based puzzles. i feel like so many of the puzzles in this game amount to looking around, looking around differently (as a wolf, from different angles, with different items in mind, reexamining your surroundings and looking for new ways to interact with them) and i LOVE it!! i feel so clever when i finally spot The Thing that i was looking for and i usually endure zelda dungeons to get to the bosses and the story, but this is definitely the most fun i've ever had in zelda dungeons outside of link between worlds. i honestly believe the reason nintendo has deviated from their standard dungeons/items formula and has no intention of returning to it is that twilight princess PERFECTED IT in 3D so they have to try something else now (this is also why i think we haven't gotten a new traditional 2D zelda game in so long—albw perfected 2D zelda dungeon design).
BUT YEAH THEN THE ENDING OF COURSE RIPPED MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST BECAUSE WHY WOULDN'T IT AND I WILL BE THINKING NONSTOP ABOUT HOW LINK RIDES OFF ON EPONA AND THEN STOPS YES I KNOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY A MISTAKE BUT THEY KEPT IT IN THE HD VERSION SO IT'S CANON NOW, BABY
anyway i love zelda games and I HAVEN'T PLAYED TOTK YET SO DON'T MENTION IT IN YOUR TAGS PLEASE CUZ I DO READ THEM ALL but yeah i'm getting totk soon and also just got minish cap and also i still have oos to play so yaaaaay i am once again feral for zelda games ALSO I CAN FINALLY PLAY ONE OF FOUR'S GAMES AND NOT SUBSIST SOLELY OFF WIKI ENTRIES WHEN WRITING HIM THANK GOODNESS
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ADHD reward system? Please tell me your secret!
My therapist has been helping me find a reward system that works for me, and as it turns out, gold star stickers are really helpful for making me feel like a tangible goal was met, and helps give me that sweet, sweet dopamine release that comes with completing a task, something which us ADHD’ers really struggle to achieve and are already coming at from a disadvantage with our brains regularly not producing enough “happy” hormones as it is.
It was supposed to be “a sticker for every time you finish a chapter”, but after some revision, my therapist said that was too tall of a goal, and that I should pick something smaller. So instead I now get a star every time I finish a 500-word milestone, placing the sticker in my writing calendar/journal thing that I use to keep track of my writing, and ironically, I have started to produce more work than when I was stiving for one chapter a day.
To give you an idea of how staggeringly effective this has been for me, I’ve written over 30k of original fiction in the last week. (75k total if you include my social media and blog stuff, which I currently do not but likely should.)
So this is what it looked like when I was attempting to do a chapter of edits and revisions a day during the month of December 2019 (note: I was supposed to start this in Nov, so you can see how well that worked out for me lol):
ID: A calendar showing days of the month with a shiny star sticker showing a completed task.
And this is what my writing journal looks like now that I’m doing a star for every 500 words:
ID: an image of a handwritten journal with the dates mapped out, followed by a shiny star sticker for every completed 500-word milestone. There are 65 stars in total for the month of January 2020. It’s also tinged by a green light cause I’m doing a chronic pain experiment, so far with positive results!
So as of today, January 8th, with ever star = 500 words, then 65*500 = 32500 words totalled in 7 days. This does not include, like I said, my social media output where I am far more productive, this is just my fiction and some editing work for friends.
(Which side note: this is not to flex, or to say that others should be able to achieve this level of output. I am a professional writer, this is my main job and only source of income. And also, I was forged in the fires of understaffed editing hell where we would be expected to churn out 100k+ a week in edits and revisions to keep on track. I have the time and a learned skillset I have spent years amassing to be able to do this and am working towards a rigid deadline. I simply have not been healthy enough in a long time to manage it, and am finally working my way back up to speed after years of illness. Don’t look at this and think, “I’m not achieving enough”, every victory no matter how small is worth celebrating. And I say that with the utmost sincerity, as someone who spent most of the last 2-3 years unable to get out of bed.)
I’ve also started using it to help keep track of bills and chores around the home. So every time something gets done/done on time, whoever completed the task gets a star on the calendar. This includes Oppy the Not-A-Roomba, who does a very good job of taking care of the house on a daily basis:
ID: an image of a chore calendar denoting various tasks that have been marked off with a holographic silver star sticker, including our robot vacuum who does an excellent job and deserves all the stars. (Our names got blurred out cause ETD doesn’t want his real name out there in the world, so that’s what is blurry.)
This system is useful for several reasons, the primary one being a sense of achievement and continued motivation, and the second, to allow you to review each month to see where you are doing well, and where you might otherwise be struggling.
For example, if I have a bad day for writing or decide to take a day off, I write that down in the calendar rather than leaving it blank, so that I have a record of what went wrong (or right, if I am electing to self care that day and take a day off) and how my overall progress is doing.
In terms of house stuff, this has been especially useful for ETD and myself, as it shows us where we are managing to do a good job with the house, and where our executive dysnfunction issues really trip us up and where we need to make improvements. And I don’t just mean in an “I should try harder way”, I mean you have to actively sit down and be like “hey! What is preventing me from completing this thing” and trying to figure out effective ways to either get around it or resolve a larger issue at hand.
So for us, the biggest thing we tend to miss is doing dishes after dinner, meaning we get left with a pile-up of dishes to deal with first thing in the morning, and my ADHD can’t handle that. It won’t let me eat until I’ve cleared all the mess, but I usually don’t have the energy to clean up if I haven’t eaten, so it’s this awful cycle of ineptitude. We’re doing better with the star reward system, cause it’s showing us our progress loud and clear on the fridge door, but we are both usually so fatigued and exhausted by the end of dinner that doing dishes is just one thing too many for our mutual disorders. So, the solution for this would, of course, be a dishwasher, cause if we had one of those, we could load stuff in, turn it on, and let those dishes get done while we go to bed then put them away in the morning. We can’t afford to do that right now, and we have other appliances we need to buy/replace before we can do that (still don’t have a tumble dryer, or a washer I can access, rip) but it does give us a tangible goal to work toward, and also, the motivation to keep on top of things because it goes from “an endless task with no end in sight” to “there’s a solution for this, we can manage a while longer.”
Now you could be saying, but Joy, I’m an adult! Surely I shouldn’t expect rewards for completing every day tasks that I should be able to do?!
To which I say, neurotypical people get rewards all the time and get an unconscious dose of dopamine/serotonin from their brains every time they complete a task. They’re playing the game of life on easy mode, the gold star is your achievement for completing it daily on Nintendo 99 hard mode. IF THE STICKER WORKS, TAKE THE STICKER
YOU’VE EARNED IT.
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Update and Upcoming Projects~
Hello, hello~! It’s been so long since I last made an update, haven’t I? O: Anyways, I just wanna say that it’s now been 1 month since I've been living in Texas and so far, there have been a few ups and downs. First off, I’m living off the countryside, so you can guess what creatures I’d been running into lately. XP Secondly, I still wanna say that I am very sorry if I've been acting slow or been inactive lately. Lots of work to do in and around the house.
As for artwork and other projects, I just wanna say that as always, I am taking my time doing them as much as possible. Thankfully since my BF now has a new job working Mondays-Fridays, I’ll have all the free time to take care of myself. :) Speaking of taking care of myself, I had to back away from a few areas that were making me out to be a toxic and shitty person. ^^; One of them unfortunately being the Miraculous Ladybug fandom. More on that later.
All in all, while yes I may still be slow, I will be also working on a few projects here and there. My goal this spring/summer is to actually get back on track and be more active on every social media I have. Even if it’s something pretentious like Twitter, but that’s where I share my art, so what’s the damage there besides politics? =P I’d often been meaning to focus more on original content instead of fanmade stuff since I wanna learn to expand myself a little out there with my own creativity and see what I can bring to the table.
And now onto Miraculous Ladybug…
I figured that now is the time I go on an indefinite hiatus from it. I’m really sorry to anyone who has followed or watched me only for Miraculous-related content, but as of now, I don’t know how much longer I can take from it. The fandom has caused more harm than good with rabid Love Square shippers, character bashing, and not to mention,
an actual fucking su**de!
Yeah as you can say, it really did fuck a lot of people, including me. Once I get down to finishing S4, that’s when I will call it quits for now.
“But wait, what about your @pro-bee-sisters blogs and your AUs and fics?”
Those will not be canceled thankfully, but they will either be also on hiatus or still be a WIP. It honestly depends how my schedule and my day goes. In fact, I still plan on doing fanwork for the show since I have a lot of ideas for it, but for now, I’m gonna have to take a break from the show until the fandom either A; learns to chill the fuck down (Highly doubtful, but still) or B; begins to die down slowly as possible
I do, however, have three posts I wanna post ASAP. Two of this blog and one on Bee Sisters.
Upcoming Miraculous AUs/Fanfics
A Character Analysis on Zoe and Why She Doesn’t Work
My Real Thoughts on Chloe and Zoe
Also, I've realized that I now have 9 unread asks in my inbox and I do wanna say I am so sorry if you submitted a question and that I did not answer it. I’d been real careful attempting to answer what I think of them and how I respond to it. I will get to those ASAP, but before I do, I just wanna make one thing clear:
DO NOT ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS THAT INVOLVE MY PERSONAL LIFE!
As I said before in my old post, something asked me a very personal question regarding me on Discord and it was extremely shitty of them to do. I’m not usually one to call out people online unless they’re a dangerous threat (i.e. PAAITB is a good example), but what this person did to me was absolutely unacceptable and rude as fuck; and I will not tolerate it.
Therefore, that is gonna be my only rule for now on. If anyone else breaks that rule, I will permanently close all asks.
And lastly, please remember that I AM NOT exclusively Miraculous related! I have other fandoms too~ My other ones include:
Disney
Dolls (MH, Barbie, Bratz, RH, MyScene, EAH)
Nintendo
Mortal Kombat
Total Drama
Studio Ghibli
YOU ARE ALWAYS FREE TO ASK ME QUESTIONS ABOUT THOSE FANDOMS AS WELL! I WILL HAPPILY ACCEPT THEM!
Please also follow me on all my other social medias:
AO3
Art Blog
DeviantART
Fanfiction
FurAffinity (HEAVILY NSFW! MINORS DNI!)
Instagram
Newgrounds (HEAVILY NSFW! MINORS DNI!)
Twitter (HEAVILY NSFW! MINORS DNI!)
Wattpad
Have an awesome day everyone~
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hey uh i think everyone should check out the sigmund corp franchise please this fandom consists of like 3 people
when i say “sigmund corp”, i’m referring to an ongoing series of HEAVILY UNDERRATED interactive-story rpg maker games by the canadian indie company; freebird games! the 2 main games currently out are “to the moon” and “finding paradise”, and a third installment titled “imposter factory” is scheduled to come out this year. you may have at least heard of the first game, but even if you haven’t, YOU SHOULD PLAY THEM ALL AND I’M GONNA EXPLAIN WHY (without spoilers of course)
setting:
the games take place in the modern world as we know it (but implied to be a bit further into the future), and each game chronologically expands on the story. there are 2 main characters who you control and follow throughout all the games; eva rosalene and neil watts, a pair of scientists from a company known as the sigmund corporation.
their job is to visit people on their deathbeds- specifically old people who were unhappy with their lives/regret that they never accomplished their goals- and use technology to travel through their patients’ memories. by going backwards from their latest to earliest known memories, they can channel their current wish/desire as far back as possible, to try and motivate them to reach their goal in the future. but ONLY in their heads. this allows the patient to die satisfied and happy, belivieving they’ve lived the best life they could imagine!
chapter 1 - to the moon:
eva and neil’s patient this time is an introverted man named johnny, living only with his caretaker and her kids out in a secluded forest, after his wife; river, passed away. his dying wish is to become an astronaut and go to the moon, only problem is that he could never explain why. as the scientists go through his mind and watch his life in reverse, they learn more about his tragic past, and even uncover his most repressed memories, while trying to piece everything together and figure out how to fulfill his dream.
this is the first game in the series, and it NAILS everything it wants to accomplish! the story is gorgeous, sad and amazingly executed, and every character just grows on you.
ya like autism representation?? this game has not one but TWO major characters who are on the autism spectrum, in their very own ways, and it’s MUCH more than just a small detail. it’s an essential part of their roles in the story and it’s PERFECT.
there’s a platypus! and rabbits! LOTS AND LOTS OF RABBITS. trust me all of this is totally plot-relevant.
you can play whack-a-mole!
you can fight a squirrel in classic jrpg style! (KINDA)
you can play plants vs zombies! (LITERALLY)
you can ride a horse!
you can do a sick hadouken! (KINDA)
you will cry.
chapter 2: finding paradise
some time after the first game, eva and neil now have to deal with colin, whose request is even more complicated than johnny’s: all he wants is a happier and more fulfilling life, but with as little change as possible, especially when it comes to his family. colin seems to have had a great relationship with his wife and son, so when a mysterious childhood friend name faye comes into the picture, everything gets more and more confusing. and it doesn’t help that the scientists’ machine keeps jumping back and forth between his childhood and later years.
this game is a follow-up to a smaller, much shorter prequel game by freebird games; “a bird story”, that serves as an introduction to colin when he was a kid. the prequel is NOT required to understand this game, but it’s worth checking out too!!
“finding paradise” uses everything the first game established, and either takes it even further, or twists it around completely. it’s sure to defy your expectations.
there’s BRAND NEW CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION! (NOT EXACTLY)
there’s birds!!!!!!!!
you can become a wizard and levitate a table!
you can fly a plane!
you can turn off gravity!
you can pull the entire solar system towards you with a hookshot!
you can play a jrpg (again), a shoot-em-up, AND a fighting game!
you will cry.
more reasons to play these games, in general:
eva and neil are both very lovable, and their dynamic is the best thing ever. i ADORE their constant friendly jabs at each other. eva pretends to be super professional, but she’s really a massive dork with a massive heart. neil is pretty much the personification of the word “goofy”, but he’s a lot smarter than he appears to be, and secretly has a lot of issues of his own bottled up.
THE GRAPHICS? THE MUSIC? *CHEF’S KISS* GORGEOUS
the stories tend to throw A LOT of questions at you from the get-go, but trust me; everything will make sense eventually, and in that moment you’ll feel SOOOOOOO MINDBLOWN IN THE BEST SATISFYING WAY.
outside of cutscenes, you spend most of the game walking around and interacting with the environment freely. while there ARE some hidden easter eggs, the game always makes sure you know where to go, with a pretty linear layout and helpful notes in the menu. you most likely won’t feel lost or stuck at any point.
these games excel at having just the right balance between intense moments, sad moments, and goddamn hilarious moments! the writing is so good.
they’re pretty cheap indie games!
you will cry.
steam links:
TO THE MOON | FINDING PARADISE | A BIRD STORY
the first game is also available on nintendo switch, and the second one has been announced for it too!
thanks for reading, have fun!!!
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Game Review — Neo: The World Ends With You
In 2008 I played a JRPG unlike any other I had played before, or have played since. It was a self-contained story and for the most part I was okay for it to stay that way, though I was always curious what more could be done in the world, and hated how Square-Enix kept teasing us with the promise of a sequel that it seemed would never come. But now, 13 years later, that sequel has finally arrived.
Overall Score: 9/10
My personal feelings on the story and characters aside, overall Neo: The World Ends With You lives up to its predecessor in terms of gameplay, writing, music, and presentation. Unlike other sequels which fall woefully short of their predecessors, Neo does a fantastic job of staying true to the spirit of the original so that older fans can enjoy it just as much as new fans do. For more detailed thoughts, head under the cut (and onto my blog for formatting purposes).
The Pros:
The writing, for the most part, is excellent. Again, I have more personal takes on the story and character beats that I’ll delve into on a different post, but in terms of how the dialogue and flavor text are written throughout the game, Neo has shown that the writing staff hasn’t forgotten what makes The World Ends With You spectacular despite it being 13 years. The humor is on point, the character of the fictionalized version of Shibuya that was created is on point. Even just playing the demo I could tell that the charm was still there despite this being written over a decade later and I couldn’t be happier with that fact.
The music is, of course, phenomenal. There are remixes of tracks from the original game that are great, because I’ll never say no to a version of “Transformation” or “The One Star” or “Someday”. But there are also original tracks that are just absolutely beyond fantastic, such as “Kill the Itch” or “Last Call” or “Bird in the Hand”. One of the things that sets The World Ends With You apart from other JRPGs is its music, and how it’s composed to be music comparable with what you could hear on a radio versus being very identifiable as video game music, and Neo delivered on that front yet again with both the remixes and the original tracks.
The gameplay is another area in which Neo shines. It would be impossible to replicate the battle system of the original game, something Square-Enix showed time and time again with their numerous ports and remasters of it. The original game was meant to be played on the Nintendo DS, and specifically the Nintendo DS, in that it was created with the dual screens in mind. As a result, the two partner system just didn’t work on the numerous ports and re-releases, and it wouldn’t be able to work in Neo either due to the fact that none of the platforms it’s releasing on have dual screens. As a result, Neo’s battle system is very different, but also very, very good. The battles are still real time, and you still control all of the characters at once (I don’t think there’s a way to let the AI take over like with the partner in the original game, but I could be wrong on that), but this time they’re all in the same plane of existence and you juggle up to six of them at a time. Instead of passing a light puck to power up a sync fusion, you’re instead bouncing combos in order to work up a Groove, which in turn lets you Beat Drop in what is essentially a version of the sync fusions, albeit not nearly as specific to the characters as the sync fusions were. There were times while playing that having to balance so many characters at once got a bit much, especially when trying out new pins with different reboot times, but overall the battle experience is incredibly smooth and is a perfect rendition of what TWEWY battling should be like on a single screen.
Battles aside, there are numerous other areas in which the gameplay shined as well. Starting in Week 2 you gain the ability to move around the map more quickly in a way which integrates the BGM as well (which is important given how much thematic importance is given to music in these games), and in Week 3 you get an even faster method of travel via telewarping around the map. Pins are back, and with a story explanation given for why the characters can use any pins they please, you get different pins to use and elemental affinities to consider when picking out your decks. A new Social Network feature not only gives you additional information on various characters, but also grants you new abilities and can help you keep track of who is who, as well as who has a relation to whom. Little features like this definitely add to the experience of the game and make playing it feel fun, which is always of paramount importance when it comes to video games.
There is a ton of content, which again, is pretty important when you consider that this is a $60 game. Like the original game, there are three weeks of seven days apiece for the main story. In a way, this can make it seem like the game goes by too fast (especially if you binge play it like I did), but also like the original game, there is plenty of post-game content to do as well. For one, we once again get a light-hearted parody bonus chapter in the form of “Another Day”. For another, there are Secret Reports unlocked by completing special missions in each chapter that provide extra background information, as well as an unlockable secret ending as well. So although the main story can go by fast (especially if, again, you just can’t put it down), there is still plenty to do once the main campaign is completed and that’s always the mark of a brilliant game as well.
Speaking of, the game really is difficult to put down. Five hours passed by in a blink for me while I was playing, not only because the gameplay was fun, but because I just had to know what was going to happen next. There were times when I figured I would just start the next day and then put it down, but the next day began with something crazy happening and I had to follow up on it. For a heavily story-based game, this is yet another necessary strength and the developers pulled it off fabulously.
For the most part, the characters were all fantastic as well, newcomers and returning vets alike. The original game shined in how unique it made its characters, and Neo does this as well. The returning cast is (again for the most part) IC but with notable growth in their personalities and demeanors, and the new cast is equally as lovable (or detestable for those that are meant to be detested). Again, since this is a story-based game, having strong characters is a necessary requirement and Neo pulls that off just as splendidly as the original did, with few exceptions.
The game is also beautiful to look at, much like (at risk of sounding like a broken record) the original. The comic book art style has always been incredibly unique and charming, and they integrated the 3D graphics seamlessly with the art style to create a truly beautiful marvel to look at while playing. The character design is also worthy of a chef’s kiss, especially when wise decisions were made behind the scenes to swap the designs of certain characters (namely, Ayano and Kanon originally had each other’s appearance, before a smart decision was made to swap how they looked). All in all, this is a game you never get tired of looking at.
The Neutrals:
Despite there being a wide variety of pins to use (especially since any character can use any pin), there actually isn’t that much of a variety in terms of what the pins actually do. This is partially due to hardware restrictions; in the original game they could have sound based pins because the DS had a microphone, and the touch screen also allowed for different types of inputs as well. But current consoles don’t offer as much in terms of gameplay ingenuity, and as a result you get a lot of pins that are basically just clones of each other, which is a little bit disappointing when you compare it to the original (especially since I haven’t discovered many iconic sets yet, a la Darklit Planets or Brainy Cat etc).
While there are a ton of characters in this game, there is much, much less emphasis put on the citizens of Shibuya who aren’t involved in the Game, which in turn makes it feel like there are less memorable side characters than the last game. For the most part, the citizens of Shibuya are basically relegated to just being possessed by Noise, and that’s it. Whereas we saw their lives carry out over three weeks in the last game (such as Makoto’s evolution in both his social and professional life), here we don’t really get to see that, which is a bit disappointing as well.
The battle gameplay, while very fun and smooth, does feel a little less deep at times than it did in the original game. While in the original you had to learn to balance Neku’s pins with his partner’s psychs, here you’re basically button mashing in a rhythm in order to get the gauge up, which can get a bit tiring if you do a bunch of battles in a row. The fact that the Beat Drops aren’t unique to the characters like the Fusions were is another thing that, while not a huge detriment, still feels a little less special than the Fusions did in the original game.
Neo is a lot more plot-focused than the original, which was more character-driven. Don’t get me wrong, the original definitely had a plot as well, and Neo does care about its characters. But while the deeper aspects of the plot were discovered post-game through the Secret Reports in the original, here the plot intricacies are front and center. And while the first game spent way more time developing its characters and focusing on their inner struggles, here the character issues are mostly pushed to late game in order to focus on the plot. It’s not bad, but it is noticeably different.
You still don’t get to actually see the characters in the clothes you dress them in. While this makes sense (it would be way too much to program in), it’s still a bit of a letdown.
The fashion brands don’t really feature into the plot or world at all, with the exception of Gatto Nero because of who created it. Again, it’s not a huge deal, but I enjoyed how you could see which brands were most popular in different areas of Shibuya in the original, and how you sometimes had to boost the popularity of the brands via doing battle with those pins or clothes equipped in the original in order to clear missions. It made the brands you were wearing actually matter, versus just being fun flavor text.
The Cons:
The time travel mechanic, Replay, is probably the biggest con this game has to offer. While it does have consequences that I won’t spoil here in the very final act of the game, for the most part it completely negated the stakes for the vast majority of the game, because you knew that even if something terrible happened, Rindo would be able to go back in time and fix it. I was never worried about what the characters would encounter as a result of this, except for in a few instances where something bad happened after Rindo had already used his power for the day. This is a noticeable downgrade from the original game, where there were no Do Overs and Neku and the others had to live with whatever consequences the Game had in store for them, which made everything feel that much more dire.
In addition to lowering the stakes, though, Replay also loses points for the fact that having to do the same events with slight changes over and over felt like padding. In particular, in the endgame there is a segment you have to go through about six different times, and it felt maddening. While I do feel like Replay was a homage to the Zero Escape games in that it works remarkably similar to Sigma and Phi’s SHIFTing ability (and Fret even calls the Game “the escape room from hell” which again calls to Zero Escape), for some reason it felt far more like a chore here than it did there, possibly because you couldn’t Jump at will here like you can in Virtue’s Last Reward.
I’m personally not wild about the adult/teen romances that were implied in the game, even though thankfully neither of them seemed reciprocated. Namely, Kanon viewed Fret as a kid given that she’s an adult and he’s a teenager, and Shoka never really thought about her relationship with Ayano that deeply even though Ayano seemed pretty in love with Shoka. But even though these relationships weren’t reciprocated, the fact that they were present at all is still something that I’m really just not wild about, and made me feel a bit uncomfortable while playing. (And yes, I know that Ayano and Shoka are said to be sisters in “Another Day”, but the subtext surrounding Ayano’s feelings in specific in the main story is so blatant it’s essentially overt text. I don’t want to get into it here since that delves more into spoiler territory, but I really just was not wild about it at all, especially since that’s the most blatant lesbian rep this series has given us thus far, which is disappointing to me, a lesbian.)
I don’t want to dive too much into this here because of spoilers, but: Neku. From his English voice acting to his writing, he was disrespected up and down in this game. Truly a massive disappointment in every sense of the word, and so he deserves a Con point all to himself.
There is a noticeable lack of minigames in Neo, as well as a lack of variety in the wall missions. We only had one instance of Reaper Review (that I encountered at least). There was no Reaper Creeper, nor was there Tin Pin Slammer, though both were mentioned. As someone who loved Tin Pin Slammer, I was so sad to see it not present at all in this game, and there wasn’t even a suitable replacement for it that we could play on the side, either. As mentioned above, the battles can get a bit boring after a while, so the fact that there weren’t minigames to help break them up truly feels like a detriment to what is otherwise a very fun game to play.
Fret’s Remind ability was a chore every time I had to use it. You had to hold the joysticks at certain positions and if you couldn’t solve it fast enough, you had to reposition them all over again. Maybe it’s just the Switch version that was having the issue, I don’t know, but I found it incredibly finicky and hard to control, which made me dislike every time I had to do it despite loving the little drawings that Fret conjured up when he used his ability.
In cases where Noise could interrupt your entire party at once, I found that I was unable to use pins a second or two before the interruption came. This was most notable with the elephant noise (fuck those elephants, me and all my homies hate those elephants, there were TOO MANY ELEPHANTS in this game) and the final final boss. Again, this could be a bug exclusive to the Switch version, I’m not sure, but it was annoying as heck regardless.
All in all, whatever complaints I may have, this game is extraordinarily fun and a wonderful sequel to an even more wonderful game. I’m incredibly happy with it and I’m glad that it lived up to expectations, particularly considering how long it took to arrive. Now we just need to wait 13 years for a third game. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready.
#neo: the world ends with you#neo twewy#neo the world ends with you#2021 game reviews#minor spoilers contained within though I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible
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How do you think the brothers would react if they found out that MC was apart of the circus?
Heya!!!! I hope you’ve been keeping well!
(Special thanks to @lani-danae, @erpprincess, @sirenserene for helping with some ideas! 🤟💕)
I took a little bit of a different approach from the original ask! If you want me to change it, don’t hesitate to let me know. ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)
Warnings: The only thing is a slight event spoiler in Beels section.
Demon brothers react to an MC that’s apart of the circus and Diavolo overhears (ﾟωﾟ;)
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During your time in the devildom, the brothers have made it their mission to learn everything about you. They wuv their MC! An aspect of your life that they obsess over is your career choice. I mean, how often do you meet someone who’s apart of the circus? Luci and Satan asked intellectual questions about the logistics and training involved. Beel wanted to know about the types of food they had. Belphie : 😴. (He’s a sleepy boyo) Asmo fawning on about what roles could be enhanced by his beauty. Levi booked it to Anidaemon to buy every circus themed anime/games/manga he could find and drags you into his room to watch/play/read them all. Mammon started trying to plot a way he could profit from it.
Their fatal mistake was talking about it at RAD, not realizing Diavolo was within earshot. DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!!
Prince Himbo (I love him lol): “MC! I had no idea you had such a fascinating career!”
Luci: “No......”
Prince Himbo: “This gives me a fantastic idea!”
Luci: “Please no....”
PH: “The student council shall put on RAD’s first circus!”
Lu: *Screams internally, dies a little inside*
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Lucifer: *Lion Tamer*
This particular lion is of the Devildom variety so he has his work cut out for him. Is so annoyed he’s even in this situation, he briefly contemplates turning the lion on Diavolo. He ultimately decides against it because of the amount of paper work that would be involved.
Good thing he’s skilled with that whip...
Mammon: *Clown*
Hes just such a wonderful, loud, boisterous derp! It’s like the role was made for him! Lucifer even threatened talked him into driving around in the little clown car. He almost made it through the whole show! bbbbuuuttt ended up crashing into the sea monsters tank, effectively causing a now very angy sea snek to go on a rampage.
🤡 🌊
Leviathan: *Sea Monster aka Angy Sea Snek*
At first he literally got on his knees and begged Lucifer not too make him do this. Too much attention for our sweet otaku bb. Came around to the idea though when he found out all he had to do was swim around a bit in a costume. Secretly had Satan enchant his Nintendo Switch so it worked under water, ultimately chillin’ at the bottom of the tank playing animal crossing. That was until a certain clown came barreling through the side of the tank, wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that his switch was destroyed in the process “MMMAAAMMMOOON !!!”
Lotan was subsequently summoned and flooded out the entire colosseum.
Made for a pretty great finale though
Satan: *Knife Thrower*
He’d originally intended to put on a magic show of sorts. Changed his mind after finding out one of his extremely rare probably cursed, ancient tomes was sold on an auction site. We all know he’s got good aim with those books he throws when he’s pissed, how different could knives be?
“Stay still brother, wouldn’t want anything.....unfortunate to happen, now would we?” ( ��‿⋂’) 🔪
“Gahhhhhh!!!!” ━(◯Δ◯∥)━ン
Asmodeus: *Trapeze*
If Asmo cared any less about the performance, he’d be dead. Originally Mammon was considereding this role. Mams is agile and has that eye catching swagger. Then Asmo saw the costumes trapeze artists wear in all their glitzy glory, and after sobbing dramatically for three days now has the job! There were so many sequins and rhinestones on his leotard that when the light would reflect off it, audience members were covering their eyes and ducking.
“Ahaha! You’re all just so blinded by my perfect beauty!”
Beelzebub: *The Lion*
Someone Solomon thought it would be a unique touch to breakout that celestial realm serum to turn Beel back into a Lion. Started to go feral from the smell of funnel cake nearby and charged at the crowd. Amid the screams and panic came Lucifer. With his whip in one hand and a hellfire cheesecake in the other he was finally able to wrangle his brother back in before anyone got devoured.
“Rawrrrrr, rawr, ra-rawr, purr” he’s still a lion, that’s the best ya get.
Belphegor: *Cannonball*
Oh sweet, sweet sleepy grump. He did try, really he did. After attempting a dozen different acts and falling a sleep through all of them, including a cringing mishap while tight rope walking......he became the cannonball!! Not particularly thrilled by this but thought at least he would get to sleep while he waited. Was awoken to the sound of more gun powder being loaded into the canon
“Woah there! I thought it was just a small shot to the net what are doing?”
All Belphie saw out the front of the cannon was the very top of a poofy white hat and heard the words
“THIS IS YOUR DAY OF RECKONING DEMON!”
Then BLAM!!!!
Belphie got to briefly remember the sensation of flying while being launched over the wall of the colosseum.
Lucifer found him in the top of a tree where Belph-a-bean was tangled muttering “That sneaky ass little chihuahua....”
Luci pulled him out but not before taking a few pictures for posterity.
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A very special thank you to @thekingoffrogs for the awesome ask! I always have so much fun with these! ❤️
Also! Thank you so much if you take the time to read my posts! I genuinely appreciate it! 🤗
Take care dears and keep well! 💕💕💕
#obey me#obey me shall we date#obey me lucifer#obey me mammon#obey me leviathan#obey me Satan#obey me asmodeus#obey me Beelzebub#obey me belphegor#obey me diavolo#obey me MC#obey me Luke
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The First Day of School
It was a dewy morning. Not too hot, not too cold, far too humid. It was the usual for Hyakkou High School, where students came to learn and excel in their studies while maintaining good social relationships. The school was usually filled with many different students. Any stereotype you could think of, Hyakkou had it.
The students usually had fun. The Principal was quite lax when it came to certain things. All he asked of the students was to respect each other and respect the building. And to keep their grades up of course. They would be failing as a school if the students weren’t receiving the proper education!
And this is where their story begins.
“Ack. Hey! Mary!” Ryota called out from behind the blonde, who was currently looking down on her phone. The boy ran up to his best friend, hooking his arm around the back of her neck to bring her into a headlock. “Hey! Don’t mess up my hair you dork!” Mary growled, trying to wrestle her way out of Ryota’s lock.
The two continued their conundrum until they reached the gates of the school, where Mary finally got a good grip and threw her friend over her shoulder, thus leading to him falling on his backpack. “Ow…,” he muttered, smiling like an idiot.
Mary Saotome and Ryota Suzui had been friends since childhood. They were even neighbors, and she often came over to his house to play on his Wii with him. Their friendship had blossomed into a relationship.
Until they realized they were better off as best friends. In fact, after they had broken up and continued to be platonic, it seemed as though their friendship grew stronger.
“Hi guys!” The two heard a familiar voice, registering it as their other best friend, Yumeko Jabami. Yumeko had met them all in middle school, when she had moved here with her sister. The ravenette was one to take risks, and found pleasure in dangerous things. Of course, only in moderation. In reality, the only things she had taken much risk for was a move in a fighting game. Or a board game.
Her bubbly exterior was often in place of her mellow interior. She tended to keep to herself truly, unless with her friends.
“Yumeko!” Ryota yelled happily, jogging over and scooping the girl in a tight hug. Much to his delight, Yumeko returned the hug tenfold.
“ShiT, I can’t breaTHE-,” he barely managed, his face turning purple. He should have known, the girl was a strong hugger. “Oi, calm down you two, before I separate you guys for 10 minutes straight, and I know that will be a pain since you usually do homework together in the mornings,” Mary stated, crossing her arms. Yumeko finally relented, giving Ryota’s respiratory system some reprieve. Yumeko looked quite meek, but she could give hugs like no other.
“Mary!” Yumeko giggled, giving the blonde another one of her bone crushing hugs. “Sup, dumbass,” Mary replied, smiling softly at her friend’s gestures of affection. “Are you all ready for your first days of school!?”
It was the start of junior year for the three, and boy were their classes packed. Ryota was taking a few classes on science and health, as well as a gym class to exercise and get fit. He wanted to be a firefighter, and such education was necessary to ensure he was a good candidate for the job.
“I have… Anatomy first period. Woohoo,” Mary sighed. She was actually quite excited, but decided not to show it in order to keep her cool exterior. The path she had chosen was Emergency Medical Services, and taking anatomy was the first step in her opinion.
“Oh? That’s so wonderful! I have Calculus for my first period. I wonder if Sayaka is going to be in that class!” Yumeko said eagerly. Sayaka was one of the other kids attending this school. The girl mainly kept to herself, but she had recently started acquainting herself with the ravenette.
“Gah! Sorry I’m late guys! I kinda missed my bus…” A ginger voice panted, revealed to be none other than Itsuki Sumeragi. The strawberry blonde had met the three last year when she was a sophomore. After transferring from a private school to Hyakkou, the tight-knit group had taken her in, welcoming her as one of their own. “Hey! I heard there’s gonna be a pair of new students! I hear they’re seniors,” Itsuki gossiped, taking out her Nintendo Switch and turning it on.
“Ooh, Smash? Let’s do this!” Ryota declared, taking his controller and setting it to his button map.
“So what about these new students? Do they seem weird or anything?” Mary inquired, picking her character, King K. Rool, and setting her button map. “Oh come on, why do you ALWAYS play heavies!?” Ryota complained, picking Marth as his character. “Because heavies are fucking goated, why else?” the blonde snarked back, a sly smirk on her face.
“I don’t know. But I heard they’re twins!” Itsuki giggled, sitting down to watch them play.
“Heya guys,” a shrill voice came out of nowhere. “You playin’ Smash? I’ll join!” it giggled. Runa had seemingly appeared out of nowhere in her oversized jacket. “Oh no…,” The entire group groaned.
“Runa, you’re cool and all, but whenever we play with you, you find a way to resize our assholes every match in different ways. I really don’t want to get 0-to-deathed consecutively while you stay on three stocks. Seriously, how the fuck do you even do it!?” Mary spoke, seemingly for the entire group. “I dunno, just practice TBH,” was all Runa said, picking up a controller. “And fuck you, I’m playing anyway.”
The sound of groans could be heard around the courtyard after that statement.
Sayaka Igarashi, resident Valedictorian-to-be, had come over to the table with Midari Ikishima, who was dragging along a seemingly sleepy senior. “C’mon Yuriko. I know you have senioritis but our friends are here!” Midari grumbled, literally dragging Yuriko. Yuriko Nishinotounin had gotten a severe case of Senioritis, especially since most of her classes were a breeze this year.
“Would you both calm down please!? They’re playing a game, and I’m trying to read!” Sayaka chided, mentally swearing at the rebel. “Chill out, Sayaka, Yuriko is already falling asleep on me and it’s not even 7:30!” Midari grumbled.
“I can’t wait for senior year to be over,” Yuriko yawned, sitting on the table everyone was at basically falling asleep.
“What the fu- NO!” Mary yelled, distracted by Yuriko long enough for Runa to get a move on her, resulting in her virtual demise. “Fuuuuck!” she sighed, hitting her head against the wooden table. “FUCK!” she repeated, after feeling the pain that came along with it. Ryota had already fallen out of the competition.
Please nerf Lucas.
Yumeko hummed happily to herself, reading some random tabloid article on her phone. As the bell rang, they all dispersed into their classes.
“See you guys later!” Ryota called, jogging over to the weight room for his first period.
The three girls had made their way over to the Portables, then separating into their classrooms.
Sayaka practically dragged her two friends to their classes and then her own, all while keeping to the schedule. Anatomy was her first period, and she sat next to Mary.
It wouldn’t be too bad of a year. Mary was a good student and wasn’t too hard to talk to. She just mostly liked to keep to herself.
“Good morning class! Welcome to Anatomy! You guys are obviously gonna be learning about the body, it’s functions, what is where and what goes where and woop dee dah, all the good stuff! Hopefully I can make learning about how food passes through the body actually entertaining for y’all, but first we have two new students with us today! They’ve recently transferred over, so let’s give ‘em a warm welcome to Hyakkou!” The teacher, Mrs. Murray, announced. She looked a bit older, with a tall figure and ginger hair in her face. Her glasses looked odd, but it added to her look.
People like Mrs. Murray because she was actually a good teacher. She cared about her students and actually helped them if they needed it.
“Ladies, if you would please introduce yourselves!”
The entire class looked at the two, and for a moment they thought they saw double.
“Hello. My name is Kirari Momobami. I’m a senior here, and it’s a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we can get along,” The girl, now known as Kirari, had stated.
It seemed her sister’s turn was up next.
“Er.. I’m Ririka Momobami. We’re twins. I hope we can… have a good time!” Ririka muttered, almost too quietly for the class to hear.
Mrs. Murray smiled and beckoned them to take their seats.
Their seats were in front of both Sayaka and Mary, who seemed to be in a state of both ‘gay’ and ‘panic’.
The two twins looked vastly different, with Kirari’s hair done in twin loop braids and dressed in a rather classy manner, while Ririka’s hair was free to fall.
Wait.
Did Ririka have a sweatshirt that had the Poggers Man on it?
Mary internally laughed at that. It was adorable.
When class had dispersed to work in groups, Mary and Sayaka had picked each other on instinct, then looking for two more partners to start their work on.
“Sayaka!” Mary whisper-yelled, a small blush on her face. She then gestured to her phone to text the girl.
Mary S: HOLY SHIT IM GAY
Sayaka I: I am too. Which one are you gay for?
Mary S: Ririka.
Sayaka I: Oh. I like her too.
Mary glared at Sayaka for a moment.
Mary S: The one with the adorable hair and clothing?
The blonde mentally facepalmed, of course Sayaka would think that. No matter the twin.
Sayaka I: Yes. I love how her hair is done. Plus her shirt looks nice.
Mary S: Oh. So the one with the weird braids?
Sayaka I: Don’t call them weird.
Mary S: ok but dont worry cause im crushing on the other twin. I swear her sweatshirt is adorable.
Sayaka I: .
Sayaka I: poggers
Mary S: LMAO HOLD UP IM SCREENSHOTTING THIS ONE
Sayaka I: Be my guest.
The two had reluctantly come up to the twins.
“Hello! I am Sayaka Igarashi, and this is Mary Saotome. It seems you both don’t have another pair, so if you’d like, we can work with you,” Sayaka stated, trying to sound as polite as possible. Nothing could hide the blush on her face though.
“Sure, I would love to work with you both,” Kirari replied, a small smirk forming on her face.
Ririka just nodded with a small smile.
It was going to be a long year.
#au tag#kakegurui#kirari momobami#meariri#kirasaya#sayaka igarashi#mary saotome#yumeko jamabi#ryota suzui#runa yomozuki#itsuki sumeragi#ririka momobami
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Pond Diving - Supernatural-Jackles
Welcome to today’s Pond Diving Spotlight! We hope that you enjoy this little insight to our members and perhaps even find some useful tips for your own writing. Happy reading!
Want to volunteer, send us an ask! We’re looking forward to learning more about all of you! Not sure what PD is, you can learn more here.
“Don’t Be Koi About It” - All About You
Name: Jen
Age: 24
Location: Ontario, Canada
URL: @supernatural-jackles
Why did you choose your URL: I wanted a Supernatural theme for my blog when I started watching it and Jensen Ackles just happens to be my favourite on there so it became that.
What inspired you to become a writer: I’ve always enjoyed stories. I’ve loved the aspect of taking your mind to a whole other world and living in it. As I grew up and continued reading, my love for stories became stronger and stronger. I fell in love with characters and places. I wanted to always have a way to go back to those places and take other people to those places. I wanted to create stories for others to fall in love with the way I fell in love with them.
How long have you been writing: I have been writing since I was 8 or 9.
What do you do when you are not writing i.e. Job/Hobbies etc? Right now, my Nintendo switch is a good friend of mine. Due to the virus, I spend a lot of my time inside when I’m not at work. I’m either writing, working, sleeping or playing switch.
How long have you been in the SPN Fandom? Since 2012
Are you in any other fandoms and do you write for them? I am in the Harry Potter fandom, and Marvel. I don’t write for them though. I don’t feel the same way about the characters as I do with the SPN Fandom.
Do you do any writing outside of fanfiction? If so, tell us about it? I have been working on my novel for the last two years on and off. I just find a lot more joy in writing Supernatural fanfiction at the moment, so my soul focus has stayed on that.
Favorite published author: Margaret Atwood or John Green
Have you ever read a book that made an impact on your life? Which one and why?: There was this one book I read. I was about 18 at the time I believe. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. A very triggering book, just so you know. I remember sitting there reading it and wondering why I’m putting myself through something so draining and daunting. The book was very upsetting and I found it didn’t tackle the issues at hand in a very tasteful and realistic way. As someone who writes fanfiction about mental health, it influenced me to be open and honest about the way reality is, but in a way that would shine more positively towards mental health struggles. I never wanted to be that person who ruined every mental health book for someone else like that author did for me. It was a negative impact, but I think it had some positive results.
Favorite genre of fanfic (smut, angst, fluff, crack, rpf, etc): I enjoy all genres to be honest. It really all depends on the mood I’m in that day. It’s fun to switch it up every once in a while and enjoy the mixed emotions you get when you read or write said genre.
Favorite piece of your own writing: One and One Make Three or Just Want to Be Loved.
Most underrated fic you have written: I might have to say More Than a Fling. It was the sequel to Summer Fling and everyone was interested in a second series. It soon went on permanent hiatus due to lack of interest.
Story of yours that you’d most like to see turned into a movie/tv show: Owe You One
Favorite Tumblr Writer(s): @luci-in-trenchcoats, @kaz-2y5imagines, @jawritter @mariekoukie6661, @torn-and-frayed
Favorite fic from another writer: Breathe by @luci-in-trenchcoats
Favorite character to write: Dean/Jensen
Favorite Pairing to write: Undecided. I love reader inserts and I haven’t done many pairings other than that. I have toyed with Jensen/Reader/Danneel before and I enjoy writing them.
Least favorite character to write (and why): Castiel. We only see so much of Cas and there aren’t as many complex layers of him so he’s harder for me to explore.
Do you have anyone you consider a mentor? @luci-in-trenchcoats
Do you have any aspirations involving your writing? Finish everything I start, and be proud of every piece I create.
How many work-in-progress stories do you have: Ummm probably upwards to the mid 60’s I want to say.
What are you currently working on? I am in the very early stages of writing a Jensen x Reader Bodyguard AU series. Twisty and turny and very different from what I usually write, but still very me.
“Pond Diving” - All About The Writing
What/who has had the biggest influence on your writing? I have the biggest influence on my writing for the most part. I always stick with what I want to write and what I’d love to read. That’s what gets me started on most pieces. My dear best friend who shall remain anonymous, has an influence on me as well. She mostly inspires me to write what I want to write and reminds me on a constant basis that I am doing good and to keep going with my ideas.
Best writing advice you've been given: Don’t be afraid to get a little out of your comfort zone.
Biggest obstacle you’ve faced in your writing: Time management mostly. Deadlines are not my best friend, that’s for sure. I am often filled with a lot of self-doubt when it comes to getting things done on time. Then I wonder if it’s good enough for publishing or if I should wait.
What aspects of writing do you find difficult when you write fanfiction? The research process for certain fics can be daunting. Especially if you don’t know where you need to start looking. Then fact checking, and making sure it works in the story. I have to remind myself that it will be worth it in the end.
Is there anything you want to write but are afraid to (and why): I am pretty open with writing most of the things I want to. Getting out of my comfort zone is something I regularly do. It’s always fun to challenge yourself into writing something you’d never think of doing. I certainly have enjoyed the things I was scared to try and it was worth it in the end.
What inspires/motivates you to write: Any selfie/picture posted by Jensen. My best friend and the lovely people around me. @luci-in-trenchcoats is a big influence on me and she always keeps me going!
How do you deal with self doubt: I constantly have to remind myself to get out of that headspace unless I am writing about being in that headspace. It’s a hard cycle to break. Reminding myself that what I am doing is making me happy. I’m making the rules. I’m writing this for me. I have to please myself first and that’s what matters the most. I know myself and the way I write, and that is enough. That’s what I keep on repeat in my head.
How do you deal with writer's block: Cry profusely? I’m kidding. Writer’s block for me, usually comes from something I don’t like that I have written. If it���s minor, I go back to the point where I was happy with where the story was going and delete everything after that. Give it a fresh new start and prospective. If the block is more severe, I take a break. Watch a movie and don’t stress myself about it. I get ideas anywhere, and it will come back eventually. Sometimes it’s just your brain's way of saying “hey, you need to take a break. Do that.”
Do you plan/outline your story before you start: Generally yes. I like to know where my story is going. Most of the time my outlines are more extensive rough drafts. It’s a way of processing my thoughts and writing them down so I don’t forget later. It’s a lot more fun for me to build on stories.
Do you have any weird writing habits: I either have to sit in a silent room, or I have to listen to music. Lately it’s been more silent. It depends on the subject.
Have you ever received hateful comments on your fic and how do you deal with it? I’ve received my share of hateful comments. Each one sucks, I’m not going to lie. Knowing that there is someone out there that hates the way you wrote something so much that they had to tell you isn’t nice. It kind of comes back to the self doubt thing. You have to remind yourself that this is one person’s not so kind opinion. You are the writer, you are in control of this story. This is you and you’re proud of this.
Conversely: what’s been some of your favorite feedback on your fanfic? Any feedback is my favourite feedback. Every heart, every “I love this”. Every “You’re my favourite.” I can’t pick a favourite. If someone can take the time out to say they’ve loved something I have written and that it meant a lot to them, then that's the best reward I can get.
If you could give one piece of advice to a new and/or struggling writer, what would it be? Keep writing everyday! You don’t see it now but the more you write, the better you get.
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How to grow an audience as an artist (by your own means)!
There’s been a lot of discourse lately in the art community and I’ve seen a lot of small artists bicker with big artists regarding followers and commission prices. Well, I’m not having any of it. I made a nifty tip-list on twitter on how to grow an audience and I think it needs to be said here too for those who need to hear it.
This thread is for you, me, and everyone who wants to grow an audience & find business opportunities. I've compiled a list of helpful ways to have your art seen (from my own experience) and i'll be breaking them down step by step in this thread. Let's start with 1.
1) You should not only be posting on twitter (the search engine is very poor here). You should post your art to instagram, tumblr, deviantart, Youtube, ANY media platform where images and videos are easy to digest. It's a chore, but also a worthy sacrifice to get more eyes on you
2) If you post in a EU timezone but your audience is mostly american, well, then you missed your optimal posting window. Know where most of your audience is located (you can put up a poll!) And schedule posting during/around a time where people are likely to be free + awake.
3) Supporting other creators isn't annoying! Your engagement doesn't only help boost the artist you love in the algorithm, but it also makes you easier to find if someone clicks on their art to read the comments! It's a win-win for both of you!
4) If you want to make sure your work is seen, use tags on all the art you post! On twitter it looks ugly (that's why i don't do it often if at all) but on sites like instagram and tumblr it's easy to hide tags for aesthetic. Know what tags are most active and tag accordingly.
5) If you draw something really popular, keep in mind that the content pool for said popular thing/ship is INFLATED. Try to bring something new to the conversation. Something that makes people go "i NEED to follow this person bc they're the only one that GETS IT".
6) Twitter and tumblr (with the right extension) has a function that can "turn off retweets/reblogs" To make sure others are guaranteed to see your art, you can post it again as a new post to make sure it doesn't get blocked by the RT/RB feature. Repost old art for new followers!
7) Collaborating with others helps build both your audience and your friends/mutual's audience! If your interests align (like fandom or even ships) people from both your sides are more likely to go follow you/your friend based on what they see! Give your best in collabs!
8) Not everyone can host streams because of cpu limitations, but what you CAN do is make step-by-step gifs/imgs with online tools to then post it online. Make sure you host streams when people are free and not at work! It's a good chance to engage in chat live, too.
9) If you have commitment and time, join zines, fan projects, weeks, and events hosted by your fandom. This way, you're making content of something you love and you have an audience already willing to watch what you make!
10) You can host your own digital zine to avoid merch/shipping cost and put it up in an online store for download! You can also host weeks/events yourself to get others on board. Only make physical zines/prints if you know what you're doing and have resources to spend!
11) character bdays, game updates, and game release dates happen once a year, but they happen once a year for PLENTY of things. This way, if you draw for things you love and post on the day it's most relevant, more people will be likely to search/share and see it!
12) We all know when the next nintendo direct drops, we see artists RUN with excitement to draw for it RIGHT AWAY. This is both bc we're excited and because we know we have a small window of oppertunity to hit the PEAK of online activity. Your art is more likely to be seen NOW.
13) You have to make content to be seen. Sometimes, being seen doesn't mean your art is good as much as it means you're posting consistently and giving people reason to come back to you/enjoy having you on their feed. The more you post, the more likely you can be seen/rtd.
14) Sketches, doodles, wips, unfinished things! None of these things matter as much to your followers as it does to you! Most of them enjoy seeing you post art, no matter what kind. Post sketches, doodles, comparisons, etc! Let them see/share more of your work!
15) Don't be afraid to interact with your followers or even people who approach you with questions! Being social is difficult, but know that followers love when you reply to them (speaking for myself bc i love when other artists or reply to my comments )! Engage!
16) You'll learn this from personal experience. There are (with attitude) definitely bad clients and bad artists. But all you need to consider is being respetful and mindful and take your clients consideration to heart. If you can't offer something, be honest! They'll understand.
17) You can grow a lot in a year, but you know what will impress people? If you take that 1 drawing you did when you were 14 of tokyo mew mew and redrew it in your new style! Success stories are worth following. Hard work is always valued and appreciated- flaunt it!
18) Tutorials or step-by-steps are easy ways to get more artists to notice you because we're all trying to do our best to learn and grow. By posting studies or tutorials, you're not only inviting others to share your experience, but you're inspiring them to try new things!
19) Have your art/business email EVERYWHERE. In your twitter bio, on your instagram, tumblr, youtube, etc. Anywhere where you might need it. This way, no matter WHAT platform people find you on, they can ALWAYS count on reaching you via email if your dms are closed!
20) There are several free websites (weebly for one) that offer a lot of freedom and customization. My best tip for making a site is: make it organized, easily readable, un-cluttered, to-the-point, and aesthetically pleasing. No complicated navigation; focus on accessability.
21) Sometimes, drawing 1 popular thing ONCE is not enough. This is bc unless you have something unique or mainstream, people will go where they can get more of said popular content. If you've already been drawing for a fandom, yr more likely to get followers from that fandom.
22) The most important point. Never equate your audience to your worth, and never equate your followers to a progress bar. It's insulting to both you and your followers who are rooting for you. You're worth much more than you get, but it's your job to make others see it. BE LOUD!
Addendum: I didn't put "luck" here bc it isn't something you yourself can control outside of what I've already shared. But keep in mind a lot of the time, it really is about A LOT of luck. Keep your head up, and do your best. 10 followers or 10k followers idc, IM rooting for you.
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2020 October Update
So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...
This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.
VISIT STEAM LINK
...
So what didn't go so well?
1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.
2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.
3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(
Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.
Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.
There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.
Some good things did happen...
We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.
The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.
So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted.
But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.
I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!
The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Fan Support
While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!
Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.
Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.
A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!
Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!
A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.
Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here...
A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!
POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?
A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O
The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.
And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D
A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.
UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.
Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!
Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!
And it wasn't only artists bearing the banner. I'd like to give a big shoutout to everyone in all the game's little communities (from the reddit to the discords to this tumblr). I've seen this community help newcomers with gameplay and walkthrough advice, discussions, updating the wiki, and so on. It does bring a smile to my face. Thank you everyone!
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Amphibia Reviews: The First Temple or Bessie and Joe: The New OTP
Hello all you happy people! Amphibia season 2 moves right a long and it’s time for some video game shenanigans as we enter The First Temple! Family drama, snail on bird action, and outhouses await you under the cut with a recap/review with full spoilers.
So we open with the Plantars having chocopillbug pancakes. Ironically my mom offered me chocolate chip pancakes after this and thank god for that. This is a rare treat to the point Anne didn’t even know they had choclate, and is suprisingly not strangling Hop Pop over this. Unsuprisingly he broke out the good stuff to try and make up for hiding the box and things are still VERY awkward between the two, with Hop Pop walking on Egghshells around Anne and Anne doing the same when he brings it up with both desperatley trying to avoid the subject and Sprig not helping by bringing it up a bunch.
I like this a lot and didn’t really think about the series continuting any tension over his decision.. but should have. Partly because this is a modern animated show and most of this wonderful new wave of shows have a LOT of emotional nuance. ANd partly because this show dosen’t forget things even most nuanced shows forget: the fact the characters cause chaos and learn life lesons is outright RECOGNZIED by the show as a pattern and brought up quite often, as are the patterns that lead to it, like mostly being sprig and anne, anne’s impulsivness that sort of thing. It’s the kind of thing you just gloss over in most shows but this one lampshades to hell and back for funsies so when something THIS important happens, you’d better belivie it’s not just going to disappear.
The tensions thankfully broken by a new arrival, as a massive sparrow shows up in the yard. “It’s a giant bird with.. books on it’s back.. what. “ Great delivery from bill there. Naturally it’s Marcy!
I missed this little goober. Such a joy to be around, and she of course marvels over the Plantar’s house before getting back on track: She’s found the first temple.. even though she sent a letter saying that and it’s not commented on that she did. It set off the whole previous episode Marcy... you okay Mar-Mar?
That aside though it’s time for the first temple and Marcy asks for the Box, with Sprig trying to make a joke about how good thing she didn’t ask for it a week ago.
Polly rightly punches him in the ribs... do frogs have ribs? Hold on.. okay here we go
Huh.. so they do not You learn something new every day. Well lack of ribs or no our heroes are ready.. while Marcy’s sparrow Joe is also ready TO GET IT ON. Yes really, he does a mating dance for Bessie, complete with an intersumental version of “Sylvia” from last season. God damn that bird’s got game. The only time i’ve seen more game is THIS.
Marcy tells him to knock it off. Look marcy your a pet owner now and as a pet owner, it’s your responsiblity.. to let your giant bird do horrifying things with a slightly smaller but still giant snail. it’s what nature intended. Nature was doing a lot of cocaine that day but we still honor her wishes.
But anyways Marcy’s figure out something intresting about the box.. by winding it just right the gems pop out, which allows her to take one, we later find out it’s the green one, to use in the temple. So off we go with Marcy and the rest of the kids up top and Hop Pop.. screaming in Joe Sparrows claws. He’s fine.
So while they get ready, Anne worries about the amount of puzzles and hazzards Marcy’s hyping for this but Marcy shurgs it off and gives her own big boast about how may RTS she’s beaten.. suspciously like Yuaan as one post on here pointed out. Not a huge suprise though, to Marcy she’d just be the grand hero out of one of her rpg’s and not think of how many people she probably killed or who she’s working for.. though you’d THNK given all the RPG’s both tapetop and on her switch she’s played, that Marcy would see that “the benevolent king turns out to be the big bad” trope coming.
But Anne’s worry is not on the big bad of the show but on Marcy who has a tendency to get so in the zone she ignores the world around her, which goes from focusing on her game while helping anne get softserve leading to a mess, not letting Anne down in a play and.. Anne catching Marcy on tv as all the snakes escape from the zoo.
Regardless our heroes arrive and while the awkwardness between anne and hop pop continues, they find a majestic temple.. and what appears to be an outhouse. Hey we all gotta poop sometimes, even people making a majestic temple. If you don’t it comes out like this.
So they head in and we get our first puzzle, a mysterious cube that lifts you into the air and allows you to tilt the thing around.
Those of you wondering why I have such a strong reaction have ever never played breath of the wild or played it with a pro controller, i.e. NOT having to tilt the very thing your screen is on because Nintendo has failed to grasp that MAYBE people don’t like that, that it takes you out of the experince and that it’s really hard to focus on your screen while having to move the fucking system about. And the plantar’s getting horribly jostled around as she moves it is EXACTLY how it feels to play a puzzle requring that shit.
Next is a color based tile dungeon leftover from Link’s Awakening DX. As marcy figures out the reds do fire and the blues do crushing... but she reads the language (And as she put earlier “Guess who learned an entire dead language?” God she’s precious. ) and finds a green with envy pun (Which Hop Pop takes offense to.. several of his friends are green.). Which is curious as given several citzens of amphibia are green.. why would they make a green pun? So she gets on one tile and Hop Pop plans to take the risk of getting on the other green tile, but Anne does it instead.. and things get heated between the two as Anne reveals she no longe feels like family since he did what he did for polly and sprig and hop pop takes offense as she IS. Even if he screwed up with her. But Anne’s near death experince activates the tile.
The final challnge switches us from Zelda.. to Harry Freaking Potter.
Now I used to love Harry Potter, with all of my heart. Then JK Rowling turned out to be a transphobic piece of shit who thinks she’s an ally, but is really a bigot who wants to “accept” trans people without giving them any rights. So yeah while I still love the starkid musicals, ore more accuratley the music from them, and own a copy of lego harry potter I got as a gift recently as both parties had no idea she was a monster when this stuff was made. Still a sore subject though, but if I didn’t bring up the similiarties I wouldn’t be doing my job as a critic and this was likely thought up long before JK outed herself as well...
No no the great mighty poo respects all peoples.. and wants to take their heads and ram it up his butt. He’s an equal opportunity butt rammer.
Anyways this is the frog equivlent of chess flipfrog, and just like with Wizard chess, our heroes end up as the pieces minus marcy.. and in a nice twist on that scene, Anne ends up on the other side. Marcy is a grandmaster at it though so after an hour or so of play she almost wins.. only for the king equilvent to refuse to be taken and the automatic board she’s up against to send Anne against hop pop, and with our heroes magically restrained and given stone weapons, this can’t end well. Eventually though Anne’s forced to hit HOp Pop multiple times and while he says “well isn’t this what you wanted”, she says no.. she didn’t want to phsyically hurt him it’s just complicated. So we get one heck of an emotioinal scene as Hop Pop just wants to help and wants this to stop and dosen’t knoow how to fix this which as someone who desperatlyt ries to fix most emotional situations right away this hit very hard.. and her response of needing time hit harder. The two while not reconciled, ar ecloser to it and Marcy realizes what she’s done getting so obessed with winning and forfits for thier benifit. Our heroes leave, seemingly having lost.. only to find glowing arrows to the crap hole, which turns out to be the pedistal. The temple wasn’t just an intellegence test but empathy.. and the temples are clearly built to specifically test each of the chosen three, our heroines, specifically. Marcy’s tested her intellegence.. but also her willingness to let go of cold clyincal thought to do the right thing. That earns her her gem recharged and a flash in her eyes and her gem starts pointing to the next. She needs time to triangulate and hop pop and anne are back on workable footing... though our heroes offer to take a break instead of going to the next temple.
Back in Newtopia, Yuaan reports on the toads gathering.. but dosen’t get to mentioning sasha before Marcy’s letter interrupts and Andridas oddly and aburbly dimisses her.. and goes to talk to a watcher with a thousand eyes, his “master” who has plans to undo the prophcey and get their revenge.
Final Thoughts:
This was a damn fine episode that gave Marcy some much needed character development, and gave the reveals of last episode some more emotiional fallout. It also had some really great jokes as always. Top notch stuf.
Next Time: Marcy tries to win everyone over through science and we FINALLY get an episode with the Frog Robot apparently. Horay
Next on this Blog: We go into final space yo! It’s unexpected births, ho yay, and horrifying zombie gary’s galore!
Until then if you liked this review, follow me for more, join my patreon, comission a review if you please and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. Play us out jeff... and I haven’t done THAT bit in a while but eh. This song was too perfect.
youtube
#amphibia#anne boonchuy#marcy wu#the first temple#hopidah plantar#sprig plantar#polly planntar#king andrias#the watcher with a thousand eyes
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POV: Jeff the killer kidnapped you and is venting to you about his internalized homophobia
I COULDN’T THINK OF AN ACTUAL TITLE SO I WENT WITH THAT
Anyway hi this is a jeffxben fic told from jeff’s POV. a little bit angsty but mostly just cuddles and comfort. and one-liners. lots of one-liners. The ending is a lil messy and idk man I didn’t know how to finish the fic so- ignore that
Based on one of these story starters.
Word count: 1907
There are three things you need to know before you read this.
One; hi, I'm Jeff. Nice to meet ya.
Two; I killed my parents three and a half years ago. I know that's a lot to dump on you immediately but it'll be important later.
And three….I'm...gay. There. I said it. I like guys. I'm attracted to men. I want to kiss guys. Or specifically- one guy.
He has blonde hair, dark skin and bright blue eyes. And also pointed ears. He's a ghost, specifically one that's latched onto a Nintendo 3DS and a cartridge of Majora's Mask 3D. He looks like Link- but I'm not attracted to Link. Link is a twink and that's not my style.
His name is Ben and Ben? Ben is a bro. He's my bro. He's everyone's bro- he has that natural charisma that makes everyone like him. He's friendly, polite, funny and laid-back. He's always down to hang out with you or invite you into his room to play videogames. Everyone likes Ben. But me? I love Ben. As in- love love him. I want to kiss his goofy face. His lips probably taste like cheetos and beef jerky. Gross. I hate how much I think about how his lips would taste.
So now you're probably thinking "hey Jeff, why are you just vomiting your gay thoughts on me? Go tell him you love him."
But
There's
A
Problem.
My parents- the dead ones- were really homophobic. Being gay just wasn't something you did. And it still feels wrong to me- which is weird considering the fact that my new adoptive parents are two gay men and my foster siblings are mostly homosexuals. But it still feels wrong. No matter how much I'm exposed to it I still feel that slight guilt whenever I catch myself admiring Ben while he trash talks someone, and I want to punch myself whenever I wake up from a dream about cuddling him.
So that brings me to this situation.
Picture this, okay? I'm sitting on his bed with a controller in my hand. We're playing smash bros and having a great time. I'm having...not a good day. You remember the dead parents thing? The trauma I mentioned? Yeah that's been haunting me all fucking day and I'm not feeling good. At all. And of course I'm not gonna tell anybody about it, because that means I have to address the problem. And I never, ever, address problems. Ever. They'll fester in me till the day I die. Like maggots.
That's gross I apologise.
But- yeah. I'm not feeling good and I'm hiding this fact from Ben because he cheers me up way better when he doesn't know I'm sad.
"Hah! Gotcha!"
"Shit-!" I swear as my character (king k rool, in case you wondering) flies off the stage. Ben laughs and woops beside me in victory. I shoot him a glare.
"Man you suck at this game." He laughs.
"I don't suck." I spit back. "You're just really good."
"Suuure you are." The smug look he gives me makes me wanna punch him. My hand curls into a fist in my lap. I grunt at him in response. He laughs and nudges me. "Hey it's alright Jeffy," I hate that nickname with the burning passion of a thousand suns. "You'll learn how to play soon enough."
"Lay off, man." I mutter back. I drop the controller and he snickers.
"Aww c'mon don't tell me you're rage quitting on me."
"Shut up dude just-" I shoot him an agitated look. "Just shut your stupid mouth okay?"
His smile drops. "Hey, you okay man?" Shit. He sounds worried.
"I'm fine." I grunt back. He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it. "Get off."
The hand withdraws. I hear him shift on the bed next to me. "Hey, dude-" he frowns. "Are you feeling alright today? Do you- need to talk or chill or…?"
I glare at Ben. He's being nothing but supportive and kind and what am I doing? Being an ass. "No I don't need to fucking chill." I growl at him. "I'm fine, alright? Just fine."
"Alright…" it's quiet for a bit while Ben turns off the game. Eventually he speaks again. "You wanna watch a movie or something? I'm tired so…"
This is a trick. He's tricking me into taking care of my mental health. Fuck you Ben, I'll be as mentally ill as I want.
‘’I’m gonna go to my room.’’ I stand up and immediately get YANKED back onto the bed by my hood. Ben’s noodle arms wrap around my waist and hold me tight. ‘’Dude-!’’ this is getting a little tOO HOMO-EROTIC, BENNY BOY.
‘’Stay.’’ he murmurs. ‘’I wanna keep an eye on you.’’
‘’Why?’’ I snarl. ‘’Because I’m a stupid kid that can’t look after himself?! Huh?!’’
Ben flinches. ‘’Jeff-’’ he murmurs. ‘’It’s not that I don’t trust you it’s because I know that you need the company right now.’’ he frowns. ‘’Just- lemme keep an eye on you, alright…?’’
Fuck.
Fuck.
fuuuuUUUUUCK.
Why does he CARE SO MUCH. I HATE IT. I’m gonna slam my head into a wall. Gimme a minute.
…
Okay wall slamming accomplished. Back to my predicament.
‘’Fine.’’ I grunt. He (unfortunately) lets go of me. It’s silent. And uncomfortable. I pick at my fingers. He tilts his head at me.
‘’So- anything you wanna do?’’
I wanna hug you and kiss you and tell you I love you please Ben I’m gay and homophobic at the same time. ‘’Not really.’’
Ben puts a hand on my shoulder and scoots closer. He rests his hand on my other shoulder and...oh god I can fucking smell his hair from here- that’s creepy. Why am I creepy. Actually don’t answer that one. He looks up at me, bright blue eyes shining with kindness. ‘’You wanna talk about it…?’’ he asks gently. Normally I wouldn’t talk about my problems. Ever. But Ben is giving me puppy dog eyes.
‘’...I’m just thinking about mom and dad.’’ I mumble. He nods. ‘’They- treated me like shit. And I keep thinking about the shit they’d say to me-’’ I look down at him. He nods encouragingly. ‘’It’s like...they fucking hated me for all the shit I did- and now I’m here and people are understanding? And Slender- is actually trying to learn why I’m like this? Like- diagnosing me and shit to try and help…’’ I frown. ‘’And I’m just thinking like- if they’d sent me to a therapist would it be different? If I’d just gotten diagnosed or something-’’ I shake my head. ‘’I dunno man…’’
He sits up a bit. He hugs me, pulling me against him. My face goes fucking red. ‘’Maybe things would’ve…’’ he murmurs. ‘’But we can’t change the past...there’s no magic ocarina to take us back in time unfortunately.’’ of course he made a zelda reference. Of course. ‘’We just gotta accept what we got now,’’ he smiles. ‘’And we got each other, right? That’s something to be happy about, isn’t it?’’
Oh god Jeff don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry. Not here. Not in front of the man you love.
…
And you’re crying. Good job Jeff.
I’m not a loud crier. But I am a gross crier. I get all snotty and stuttery and can’t get my voice out properly. Tears prick at the corners of my eyes and silently roll down my gross scarred face. Ben reaches over and brushes them off with cold fingers. He feels cold as he hugs me but I don’t care. I wrap an arm around him and tug him closer. I can feel his breath on my neck as he gently shushes me. He sounds so caring, so...loving. Like a parent should treat their mentally ill kid.
‘’B-ben-’’ I stammer out. He’s rubbing circles in my back. ‘’I lo-’’ wait what am I saying. ‘’I l-love-’’ WAIT HOLD ON- ‘’I love you…’’
SHIT
FUCK
NO
WAIT-
He hugs me tight and I shiver in the coldness of his body. ‘’I love you too…’’ his voice is soft and gentle. I believe him. I believe that he loves me. Genuinely- like I actually matter to him. He’d miss me if I was gone. And that- that’s a lot. I’ve spent my whole life feeling like it wouldn’t matter if I disappeared off the face of the earth. You wouldn’t care, my parents wouldn’t have cared. But Ben? Ben cares…
Which is why I proceed to squeeze the life (or lack thereof) out of him and sob into his shoulder. He holds me tight until I’ve (kinda) calmed down. He pulls away and tilts my head up to look at him. As gentle and as loving as I’d dreamed him, he wipes tears out of my eyes. I sob horsley and stare at him. He cups my face in his cold hands and smiles down at me.
‘’There you go…’’ he murmurs. ‘’See? I knew you just needed to get it out.’’ he smiles at me. I just- told him I love him. And he’s not making a big deal of it. That’s good, right?? That means he accepts me- right?
Right...yeah. Yeah, Ben accepts me. Ben doesn’t judge.
‘’Yeah…’’ I gulp and look away from him awkwardly. ‘’Hey uh- do you wanna-’’ I fiddle with my hands again. ‘’Do you wanna...watch a movie or something? Together.’’
He nods and smiles. ‘’I’d love to.’’
And so- we end up watching not one, not two, but three movies, late into the night. And the entire time he’s curled up in my lap, comfy as can be. As the credits on our last movie roll, he looks up at me.
‘’Hey Jeff?’’
‘’Yeah?’’
‘’I love you.’’
My face goes bright fucking red. I don’t need to see it, I can feel it. I bury my face in my hands out of embarrassment. I hear him laugh at me like the bastard he is. I shoot him a glare from in between my fingers. I want to say it. I really do. I want to tell him I love him back but- it’s- it’s hard. He reaches up and pulls one of my hands away, letting him see me.
‘’You don’t have to say it back. It’s okay. I know.’’ He hugs my waist and rests his head against my chest. ‘’I can wait...until you’re ready.’’
It’s at this point I start crying. Again.
Ben shushes me gently and runs his hand through my hair. And...as I looked down at him- it finally clicked. I don’t have to put the shield up- not around him. Ben is different. Ben...Ben is good.
Yeah.
Ben is good.
I guess...the reason why I’m telling you this- well...not telling, I guess- writing. The reason why I’m writing this is because...I feel like it’s something important. I need to remember it because...it’s a step. A step in me learning to accept myself. It sounds corny yeah but- fuck off okay? I’m full of trauma and insecurities. I’m allowed be a little sappy.
I don’t know who’ll end up reading this- I mean I’m literally scribbling it into a notebook I found in his drawer. There’s only two people who I really want this to be seen by. Ben, because he deserves to know how much he’s affected and helped me, and two...my brother. Though I doubt he’d ever find this- heh-
I...love Ben. And that’s okay. At least- to me, I think it is.
#creepypasta#creepypasta fanfiction#creepypasta fanfic#jeff the killer#jeffery woods#ben drowned#jeffdrowned#jeffxben#jeffben#writing
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I have a another question about localization since you say all of the FE localizations are good but then there's the localization I hear about of FE fates a localize game that I hear so many Nintendo and FE fans say really bad things about it such as a lot of Mistranslations, Big Script changes, Memes being add in, etc also there was some censorship that got some of them really mad and with some of them saying that it's the wrost localize game of all time is it really that bad as they say?
Whew, this ask has been sitting in my inbox for actual months! Sorry for taking so long to respond! It’s probably unsurprising, but there’s so much to unpack here, and just deciding what to write had me going in circles for a long time.
I’m not entirely satisfied with this answer, but if I tried to discuss everything I have in mind about the Fates localization at once, I’d never be done. So I stuck to 5 topics to give a basic summary. If anyone wants to follow up on one particular issue for more info, or know more about something I didn’t discuss here, please do! I’d love to round out my argument.
First off - a little history just to get our minds situated into the history of localization. Bad localization has always existed, in fact that’s pretty much all we had in the 80’s and somewhat into the 90’s until it became clear that video games were going to become very complex in story and text going forward. Even a surface look into old localizations like this one tells a very long story. We have to remember that “bad” localization is everywhere, and it’s just always going to exist, even now that we have professional teams dedicated to localization, so long as humans aren’t perfect, time crunch is standard in the gaming industry, and we all have our own definition of “good”.
Next, here’s the short answer to the question:
When I say “overall” good, I do stress that pretty heavily, because of course there are plenty of changes that each individual player of the game will have their own take on. The Fire Emblem games simply have so much text in them that even a hundred small mistranslations or changes are just a drop in the bucket.
But I do agree that Fates is one of the worst of the FE localizations, if your terms are in number of changes from the Japanese. Awakening’s is up there too.
Yeah, Awakening’s localization has a lot of questionable moments too. I know this take isn’t a surprise to all fans. But ever since Fates came out, I’ve seen people praising Awakening’s localization, and saying that 8-4 (an outside studio often hired by Nintendo, they localized Awakening) is an amazing localization team and Treehouse (Nintendo’s own team, did Fates) is garbage. TBH… They both did a job that has huge ups and downs. Are people really doomed to always forget the flaws that the previous installment in a series had as soon as something new comes out? Ha ha.
I think it’s common knowledge at this point that localizations are not made for the people who want a more direct-to-the-Japanese version. And that sucks, and the feelings of anger, disappointment, etc. in those who wanted a more direct translation are perfectly valid and entirely understandable.
But we really, really need to understand and accept that localizations are made for the target audience/culture as a whole, and to sell to the most people possible. By getting angry and rejecting the entire game’s script as “total changes,” “butchering,” “changing the games to fit the localization team’s motives,” and all sorts of other toxic nonsense, we miss out on all of the nuance that actually exists. We rob ourselves of the fun that could be had analyzing whether or not the localizers did their job of adapting the game to the target audience, and how they might have done it better. And we can’t notice and appreciate all of the times the team did do a great or good job.
In the vast majority of cases, localizers only want those who play their games and read their scripts to have fun! To imply anything else is just wrong.
What I feel I can do here, to define if “the localization is as bad as they say,” is debunk these “all or nothing” arguments, and show that the changes aren’t usually anywhere near as drastic or simple as people make them sound.
Now let’s goooooo!
I read these two articles to prepare myself to write this, link here, and link here, which I got off a quick Google search. They are from the time of Fates’ release, and report on how a lot of people generally felt back then, so I found them to be good references to put myself back in time with the thoughts people had then.
Character Changes
These often tend to be the biggest topics of conversation. Hisame will be my topic of more detailed discussion today, but I’ll bring other characters up for a hot second too.
I can never stress this enough, but Hisame made pickles in the Japanese. He was always talking about them in the Japanese, too. (Fates loves supports revolving around food in general, really.) I think people generally know this to be true? But I did read some comments saying that the pickle love was totally made up in the localization, you can see the proof above, so I had to point it out.
I don’t think a lot of people who have talked about his character picked up on this - admittedly, I didn’t until someone close to me explained it - but the main gag of Hisame’s character is that he’s young, but already acting like an old man. He lectures his own father on how to behave, etc., and makes pickles. And the “acting like an old man” is not totally lost in translation, with him still acting serious and lecturing his father. But the making pickles trait… I’d never pin that as an “old man” stereotype as a US American. Well, now I would, because I know Japanese culture well enough… but anyway.
And this is where the cultural differences come in. The number of people farming and making traditional foods from scratch is dwindling fast in Japan. In just five years there, I watched countless rice paddies and other small produce fields be turned into houses or apartment buildings. The elderly farmers are becoming too old to care for their crops, and their kids choose to pursue other careers, so the family sells off the farmland. Following along this trend is traditional pickle making. You can just buy them ready to eat in the supermarket, so why make your own? Most people don’t even have the space to be making them if they wanted to. And so, pickle making has come to be seen as something old people do. It fits in with Hisame’s “old man” character perfectly.
But again, as an American, I never would have figured that out without knowledge about Japan. Of course you could argue that the localizers didn’t need to change anything about him. The making pickles was quirky and unique, and would give you a chuckle as is. But there was space to make him funnier, so they did. That is, after all, was what the Japanese intended, for it to be funny. It’s not funny in the same way… but sometimes it’s impossible to be.
And that is what is most important in localization between two wildly different languages like Japanese and English - not retaining the same words, but the same intention or mood. The same words can convey a totally different meaning or mood, or make no sense, because of cultural differences. So localizers need to achieve the same mood, not the same words. I have come to see people understand this much better as the years go on, and the general gaming population becomes more learned about what localization is.
Of course, that’s a pretty simplified way of looking at it. But that’s how I summarize localization as a whole, in an easy way to understand. You might not agree with exactly how the localizers did what they did, but I think we might all be able to agree that they were trying to do their job and had no malicious intent to butcher the Japanese original or something absurd like that.
One more thing that’s relevant to this - Japanese people don’t care about repetition so much. The same character tropes are repeated over and over, the same lines are repeated over and over… In the US, we don’t like that! It’s boring and dull! This cultural difference is a constant struggle in localization. A lot of the people who think they want a direct translation don’t realize that it will be boring to them… So localizations alter and add details and lines here and there to give some more variation. This also helps to explain Hisame’s changes to talk even more about pickles.
And I’ve seen many a comment from people saying they liked Hisame in the localization. They found his exaggerated pickle lines fun, and enjoyed many good laughs. How can we call his new characterization outright bad when it worked for some? When they like it more than a straight Japanese translation? He’s still essentially the same guy… just some of the things he says are different. That’s not much of a change at all.
...And back to that original screenshot I showed. Isn’t Hisame still serious in the localization? His lines are funny, but I’m under the impression that he himself is still dead serious. ...Anyway. That’s about all I have to say about Hisame.
Many characters have changed lines. There’s no disputing that. But something to always question is how far do these changes go? Did the localizers completely change the intent or tone of the original? Or are they playing up certain character traits the characters always had in the Japanese? Or is something else going on?
This is also a prime example of how shallow some articles or “analysis” into the Fates localization are. You can’t look at one line change and make a sweeping conclusion about an entire character. Always be suspect of stuff like this. Kana ALWAYS acted like a little kid. That’s their entire schtick. They are your cute little mama/papa loving kid. That one line may have changed that scene significantly, but Kana’s whole character? No, not at all.
Even Kana’s S support changes aren’t as simple as it seems. They aren’t all changed. The 2nd gen characters that Kana is close in age to retain their romantic endings, such as Midori. Only those considerably older than Kana turned platonic.
And Effie, another character commonly cited as changed? She wasn’t radically changed from some deep character to a one-note workout buff. If only a conclusion could be that easy to reach. Overall, on this specific aspect of Effie, the localization simply added in extra strength or workout jokes when the opportunity arose. Some workout jokes were in the Japanese! She was always an extremely devoted retainer who was always working out and training to get stronger so she could better fulfill her duties.
What is MUCH more interesting in my opinion is the issue of her femininity. In the Japanese, her speech nearly always trailed off with ellipses, and she had feminine voice acting. Whereas in the English, all of that femininity is stripped away with a deep voice, and virtually no ellipses. How refreshing it would have felt in English for Effie to have retained that femininity! Women can bench press trees and be feminine! It would be unique to see a female character like that. ...Or so a US American might think.
But from what I understand, strong female characters in Japanese entertainment are nearly always very feminine. They send a clear message: “You can be whatever you want in private, so long as you still fit the girly-girl mold in public and fulfill society's expectations for you!!” In the Japanese, Effie is fitting their stereotype.
So in one way of looking at it, Effie wasn’t really changed, because in both Japanese and English, she paints a stereotypical and the most socially accepted image of a physically powerful female in each culture. ...That’s an interpretation of mine, anyway. I’m not sure how many people would agree with it.
...See what I mean, that the answer of “changed or unchanged” really isn’t as straightforward as “are the lines translated directly?”
Looking into the deeper details creates a much more interesting picture! You come to paint a picture in your mind, without even thinking about it, of what the localizers intended to do, and you can at least understand what they were thinking. This forms a much more accurate conclusion on whether or not the team achieved a good localization, and whether or not that sacrificed the intent of the original.
So as you can see, few issues are as bad as they’ve been blown up to be. None of the characters are completely different from their Japanese counterparts, or anything so extreme. They were just localized. Whether or not they were localized well, is up to each person’s opinion.
...I do want to write about Soleil, as an example of someone who I think could have been localized better, but I’ll save that for another day. It’s gonna get long. If anyone is interested in seeing this post, just remind me every couple of months or so until I find the time and write it, thanks in advance.
Memes
Since I mentioned Kana’s dragon speak in the last section, this is a perfect time to transition into my feelings about memes, aka context-specific humor. I agree with the most commonly shared opinion: memes don’t belong in localization. Though it’s not just because of a simple “change from the Japanese is bad!!!!” approach. In my opinion, the best localizations will be as timeless as possible. I want my future self and everyone else who will play the game in the years to come to enjoy the game as much as possible.
Memes come in and out of fashion so quickly that they’re almost guaranteed to be out of date by the time they release. And only the most popular of popular stories will be widely-known enough for most everyone to get the reference. Of course, it’s pretty difficult to know what expressions and such people will remember and use 10, 20, or 30 years down the line. Some language you think will be timeless will fall out of style. But using memes and references that are not likely to appeal to as many people as possible… that’s one of the few things I can almost universally call “bad localization.”
Unless, of course, the game was intended in the Japanese to be a product of its time, and used a lot of references. That’s a whole different ball game.
Accurate translation, much less full localization, requires creative thinking to recreate the tone and intent of the original.
Here’s another example that showcases another couple of things I find really important to localization.
Number 1: The writer of the article said “The American localization … gives her silly lines that aren’t in the original.” But does it really “give” her anything new at all? I’d argue not. Tottemo is commonly translated as ‘really’ or something like that… but doesn’t ‘super-dupity’ convey the same meaning as ‘really’? Just because an English word isn’t given as a common definition for a Japanese word, doesn’t mean it can’t be a definition. Sometimes… a word we don’t commonly think of as a translation for the Japanese, can still be a perfectly valid translation. This is not an addition. Just an uncommon translation of the Japanese word.
Number 2: Japanese has a wide range of “I” and “you” pronouns, sentence endings, and other little things that define character age, personality, gender, and more, that simply don’t exist in English. To not use similar features of English when localizers find opportunities to do so, would just take away that sense of nuance the Japanese had in utilizing their language’s own unique features.
Of course it’s one possibility that Sophie uses kiddy words. She’s not a little kid, but she’s still pretty young! To have everyone use the same word choice, because that’s how the words translate into English, is not only inaccurate to how real people talk, but also inaccurate to how the original Japanese was used. Since many equivalents for Japanese word and grammar choice that define personality do not exist in English, the localizers have to use what does exist in English in new places. I think that makes sense, and creates a much closer script to the Japanese than just translating the words.
Again, it’s all about how we look at the lines!
I see a lot of people define “translation” as “one-to-one recreation of the Japanese words.” To reinforce what I said in the first section, I do not think this is true. To me, translating is recreating the same tone, mood, meaning, and message of the original. You CANNOT achieve that just by translating the words and grammar alone.
Different words conveying the same overall meaning.
This section is really just a continuation of the previous one. But reinforcing central arguments over and over again is the core of good essay writing.
So this is one of my strategies for deciding whether or not a script is a good or bad translation/localization: “Does the script convey the same basic meaning?” (or tone, etc.)
Changes, adding detail to what the Japanese said, and “playing-up,” are all wildly different things.
So first, I break down the bit of dialogue into as few words as possible.
-Nohr royals inherit dragon blood.
-So they have superhuman power.
...And then I look to see if the localization conveyed that same basic meaning. Which, in this case, I think it did. Your mileage may vary, but I think I’ve made my point at least.
I wanted this scene to be one of the five I addressed because I think it exemplifies yet another of the fascinating differences between Japanese and English. Japanese is a language that likes to be vague, and leave out context that is already established. Speech can seem super boring as few characters say anything unique. (At least… that’s how us English speakers see it! Japanese people think they are just being normal, and not vague or boring at all!) ...English, not so much. So much as leaving out the subject of the sentence is chastised as incorrect grammar. And we like unique dialogue and prose more than most other languages.
I saw one person in the comments of the article I got this visual from argue that the tone is totally different, that the Japanese was more of a history lesson, but the localization is trying to pump Corrin and Leo up for battle, but… eh, I just don’t see it. The English also just feels like he is describing the powers of their bloodline to me. Again, that’s why this is so complex and fascinating, because everyone has their own viewpoints they are coming from.
The “direct translation” and “localization” reach the same message. This isn’t a big change in my opinion at all.
Sometimes mistakes happen...
These interpretations of Saizo and Beruka’s C Support have always boggled my mind. Coming up with all these explanations as to why the omission was done on purpose to completely erase the support when… it just seems… obvious to me… that the localization team never wrote or programmed a translation and shipped the game with the placeholder?
After all, if the localization team felt they had to remove or change content that might be questionable for the target audience, wouldn’t they alter or rewrite the conversation, like they have with Soleil’s supports, for example? This very game has multiple examples of proof that the localizers will rewrite entire chunks of script if they feel it makes the scene better fit what the target audience be more comfortable with.
Mistakes happen. That’s all I think Saizo and Beruka’s C Support is. We probably never got an update just because Nintendo doesn’t have a track record of being the best with those.
Of course, I may be wrong. Nintendo and Treehouse keep pretty much all of their processes a secret. But I never, ever would have imagined on my own that Saizo and Beruka’s support was omitted on purpose. Citing this as a reason why we need to be up in arms about bad localization is so absurd to me.
Mistakes happen. It’s not like the Japanese creators didn’t have embarrassing moments with underdeveloped content in this game either… they didn’t even name the continent in this game!
Sometimes, “bad” localization is just human error. It’s something we can’t eliminate entirely, and will just have to accept.
Final thoughts:
I realize that this analysis, for as long as it is, is very short, and still leaves out so much that could be talked about.
But what I hope that it did was not really help convince readers that the Fates localization is actually good, exactly… but helped to create some more balance in how we look at the Fates localization and localizations as a whole. All localization changes have a reason and nuance to how they ended up happening, and it’s important to be thinking from that perspective when we discuss them!
Since I know I may have created more questions than answers, again, feel free to keep the conversation going through more asks! I’ll answer them in time!
#fire emblem#fe#fe14#fates#fe fates#nintendo#2ds#3ds#nintendo 2ds#nintendo 3ds#japan#japanese#translation#localization
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Rating: T
Summary: Home is where the heart is. And sometimes, home is a room Cataclysmed out of the sewers beneath Paris. At least it has a stocked fridge, a pretty comfy couch, and Chat Noir's Nintendo Switch. Oh, and some pretty good company, too. (Or, the one where the heroes from season 2 essentially move into a homemade apartment.)
Word Count: 1797 | Chapter 1/?
Notes: for @landturtlealyce, one of the @mlbforblm giveaway winners! The drive is now over, but it’s still always a good time to check out colorofchange.org! More notes on this AU are on AO3, but the tldr is everyone’s 20 in this and no one knows each others’ identities.
XXX
“Aaaaaah! This is so sick!” Rena Rouge clapped her palms to her cheeks as she took in the underground hideout.
Marinette knew it wasn’t much—practically just a boxlike room Cataclysmed out of the Paris sewers—but it was off the grid, a place Hawkmoth wouldn’t think to look for them. And thanks to a few rounds of her Lucky Charm, the room had furniture that wouldn’t have fit through the small door otherwise. A red-and-black spotted sofa took up most of the space in the middle, but a small refrigerator was crammed behind a stone counter that served as the division between “living room” and “kitchen.” A tall lamp cast a warm glow across the stone walls.
Extension cords hidden against the walls allowed them to borrow the sewer’s electricity. Was that stealing? Maybe, but even heroes of Paris had to keep their food cold somehow.
“Dude, you have a Switch? Please tell me you have Just Dance 2023.”
Carapace was already flipping through the games Chat Noir had brought. Marinette had tried to insist that they didn’t have time to play video games, but Chat said it would be good practice in case Hawkmoth ever akumatized Gamer 4.0. She couldn’t argue with that. (Especially since it was too much fun to crush him at Ultimate Mecha Strike V.)
“I do, but the Wii versions are way better,” Chat pointed to the other console he’d already set up. “We should play 2015. That one’s got Holding Out for a Hero.”
“We’re not here to play games, kitty,” Marinette reminded him. They’d have time for that later, but she didn’t want Rena Rouge and Carapace to think they were too casual about their jobs.
“But if we are, I’d mop the floor with you all.” Rena crossed her arms.
“Psh, have you seen my dance moves, fox lady?”
“I don’t need to. The only one who’s ever managed to reach my score is my boyfriend.”
“Well, the only one who’s ever managed to top my score is my girlfriend.”
Chat Noir sighed from his spot leaning against the rough-hewn wall. “I wish I had a girlfriend to kick my butt at video games.”
He turned and fluttered his golden lashes at her.
“Maybe you’d be better off practicing a dating simulator.” She smirked.
“Ah, but none of them could ever turn me down as cleverly as you.”
Rena strode between them and put her hands on her hips. “Alright, alright, enough flirting. We can play games after Ladybug tells us why she brought us here.”
“Hey, I brought you guys here too,” Chat pouted.
“Sorry, why you both brought us here.”
“Alright.” Marinette nodded towards the couch. “You guys can have a seat. Chat and I will take the bean bags.” Those weren’t created by her superpowers, so they were the soft pink of her old bedroom.
“Aww, you don’t want to cuddle on the sofa with me? I make a great lap cat, you know.” He winked.
She rolled her eyes. He’d gotten bolder ever since they’d started working on this hideout together. She didn’t really mind, though—it had actually kept him more focused during akuma battles, since he didn’t have to cram in fighting and flirting all at once.
“So you and Chat Noir still aren’t dating?” Rena asked, crossing her legs as she sat on the couch. Carapace lounged next to her, his arms over the back. “I thought, with the secret hideout…”
“And since there’s only one couch…” Carapace wiggled his eyebrows beneath his hood.
Marinette nearly faceplanted on her way to the fridge. That probably would’ve been less embarrassing than facing Carapace’s question.
“First of all, no.” She pulled out the gallon of milk and slammed it on the counter. “Second of all, this is a strictly professional hideout. For team bonding, meetings, and recharging kwamis.”
“I for one would still like to professionally cuddle.” Chat raised his hand from his spot on the bean bag.
Marinette gulped her milk straight from the jug. She didn’t have the energy to grab a cup after dealing with all this. (Plus, she’d forgotten to bring the cups here.)
“Guys, leave Ladybug alone,” Rena said. “She didn’t have to invite us to her ultra secret base.”
“Thank you,” she breathed in exasperation.
Chat pointed to her face. “You’ve got a little, uh…”
She felt the milk drip off her chin. Right.
She wiped her mouth on the back of her wrist, put up the milk, and plopped down on the other beanbag.
“Anyway.” She glared at each of the heroes, who each sat up straighter. “I really need us all to get serious for a moment. I’m sure you guys have noticed that things have changed. Mayura has become more active. We’ve faced sentimonsters as often as akumas, and more often both at once.”
Just thinking about it made her exhausted. She’d never been more glad to have help from her team than in these last few months. There was no way she could pass her second-year classes if she and Chat Noir were the only active heroes.
So the news she was about to give Rena and Carapace was long in coming.
“If you’re up to it, I’d like you to keep your miraculouses full time now.”
Carapace’s jaw dropped. Rena Rouge grinned, her faux ears quivering.
“No way! I mean, yes! Of course I’m up for it!”
“Me too, but… what about the Master dude?” Carapace frowned. “Wayzz is his kwami too, isn’t he? Won’t they miss each other?”
Marinette shared a look with Chat Noir. They’d discussed what they’d tell their partners before inviting them here, but this topic hadn’t come up. It wasn’t like Rena or Carapace knew Master Fu personally; the kwamis flew their miraculouses to them each time they were needed. But Wayzz must have shared enough stories for Carapace to care about him.
“If we’re going to be a team, we need to be honest with each other,” Chat said with uncharacteristic seriousness. “The Master is gone.”
“Gone?” Rena gaped.
“Gone, like… dead?” Carapace whispered.
“No, no!” Chat said, he and Marinette both waving their arms.
“His memory has been fading for a long time now,” she admitted. “He’s still able function, but he doesn’t want to risk making any mistakes with the miraculouses. He deserves the rest, anyway. Last week was his 192nd birthday.”
Carapace whistled, sinking further into the couch.
“Is he okay, though?” Rena’s eyebrows drew together.
“He’s all good, don’t worry,” Chat Noir assured in his own comforting way. “His friend is taking care of him. They’re heading back to China, so he’ll be safe from Hawkmoth, too.”
“Wayzz didn’t tell me that when he came today. I hope the little dude’s taking it alright.”
“It’s going to be hard on all of the kwamis. The Master has been their only friend for years.” Marinette stood, moving to open a cabinet at the top of the entertainment center. “That’s another reason I’ve invited you here. Protecting the kwamis is a greater responsibility than I can handle on my own.”
Rena, Carapace, and even Chat leaned forward as she gently set down the Miracle Box. Well, box was a loose term—it looked more like a giant polka-dotted egg ever since Master Fu had passed it on to her. She was still studying the grimoire to learn how to disguise it again. Until then, the Miracle Box was safer in this hideout than in the apartment she shared with three other girls.
“We won’t let you down, Ladybug.” Rena Rogue nodded with determination.
“Yeah, we’re with you, lady bro.” Carapace smiled. “Though I’ve gotta ask—are you showing this off to all us temp heroes? You don’t know who we are. If Hawkmoth got ahold of us...”
“It’s a risk we’re willing to take now.”
Only Chat knew how long it had taken for her to reach that decision. He’d been the one to suggest it, actually. Hawkmoth and Mayura clearly worked together in a unified offense. The only way the heroes could stand against them would be by relying on each other.
“Does that mean we’re revealing our identities too?” Rena Rouge asked.
“As much as I’d like to blind you with my beauty,” Chat Noir flipped his hair, “it’s still not safe enough for that.”
“Aw.” Rena’s ears drooped.
“You won’t need to stay transformed the whole time you’re here, though. I’ve made masks for each of you, in case your kwamis need to rest.” Since they were adults, they wouldn’t automatically detransform after using their powers, but it would take a toll on their kwamis eventually. Besides, they might want to hang out with their friends in the Miracle Box.
Marinette replaced the box, then pointed out the four hooks near the door. “Carapace, yours comes with a hood. I wasn’t sure how to make it resemble your suit otherwise.”
Rena sprung up and ran to grab hers. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting it to be so soft. Once we’re done kicking Hawkmoth’s butt, you could go into costume design.”
Marinette laughed nervously. “Oh, it was nothing! Just a little something I threw together.”
“Don’t be so modest, bugaboo. You’re amazing at anything you put your mind to.” Chat rested his elbow on her shoulder. She rolled her eyes, but didn’t push him away.
“There’s only four masks,” Carapace said, stepping up behind them. “What about Queenie, and Ryuuko, and the others? Are they not getting the VIP tour?”
“I told you they’d ask.” Chat’s voice betrayed the smirk Marinette couldn’t see.
“And I told you, I still don’t trust Queen Bee. And the others are too inexperienced. We can phase them in later, but I want them to prove they can keep their own identities secret before we trust them with our hideout.”
Ryuuko, Viperion, Pegasus, and King Monkey had technically been heroes for about three years, but they were called in so infrequently that the experience hardly counted. Plus, there was the fact that the secret base was simply too small to fit all nine heroes.
Rena nodded. “Can’t blame you there. Queenie reminds me of this spoiled brat I knew back in lycée.”
“Same, actually,” Marinette mumbled. If it wasn’t for the fact that Chloé Bourgeois would never lift a manicured fingernail to help someone else, Marinette would almost think she was Queen Bee. Maybe she had a slightly-less-obnoxious cousin?
“Hey, let’s be nice to our teammate. Pollen must have picked her for a reason,” Chat said. “...Even if none of us has a clue what that reason is.”
“We’ll still work with her, dude. I’m just happy we don’t have to share the party house.” Carapace grinned. “And speaking of partying… can we play Just Dance 2023?”
#miraculous ladybug#ml#ladybug#chat noir#rena rouge#carapace#hero fam#fic tag#tali writes#mlbforblm#home base
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We had our family get together today but with less people as compared to the previous reunions. Video calls from family who cannot join placated the absence. Hopefully, the next holidays brings back families together.
We hosted lunch which was served family-style. We had the usual: ham, chicken wings, pasta carbonara, caldereta and pancit malabon. plus the dessert table offered cakes, biko, ube and other treats that can thicken your blood from all that sugar.
The fare was actually tempered. We were austere, matter of fact. No lechon or steaks served in deference with the oldies present; and to remember those who have nothing to eat. I was even happy to see my nephews and nieces serve themselves food with just enough servings. Everything was in moderation except for the alcohol, coffee and chocolates served after the meal.
Post lunch, we exchanged gifts. the cousin who got my name from the draw, gifted me with a Harry Potter and Voldermort action figures. In return, I gfited another cousin with several Uniqlo walking shorts which he likes.
My elder brother gave me a “guita-lele” which got me all excited, except that I have to learn a whole new set of chords as it is far different from your usual guitar. Nonetheless, thank you kuya. It made me so happy!
another cousin gifted me with a Nintendo Lite console and the accessories to go along with it. There’s a story behind it. I got myself a Nintendo Switch but found it was too big for small hands like mine. Besides, I should have bought the Lite which fits my hands, perfect. Going back, this cousin who is very dear to me was somewhat getting into depression from the lack of diversion brought about by the pandemic. Now, I have known this guy’s love for games, so it made sense that I give him the unit as an early Christmas present - little did I know he will return the favor and got me a Lite. Thank you, pinsan. I love you but please remove the price tag from the box lol
Then there was the unending gifts of shirts, towels (which I suspect are recycled gifts - but thank you still) chocolates and red envelopes containing token money are being passed around.
The house staff and drivers on the other hand, were smug about the shirts (madami na kami nyan) but went crazy with the money envelopes and other prizes from the bingo game facilitated by Jay.
I myself won Sodexho gift certificates but Mark took home one of the prized items which was the air fryer everyone was trying to covet.
It was really a fun afternoon but I excused myself as the antihistamine was kicking in and I badly needed a nap. After handing out the rest of the pamasko to the pamangkins and the children of the staff, I went to my room only to be awaken for dinner after three hours.
And surprise, the people who ate lunch here, stayed beyond for more chismisan.
As usual, dinner fare were reheats from lunch. Ayaw ni Pope Francis ng “throw away” culture, so preaches my step-mom as she herself heats the viands from the stove. The staff at this time are all relaxing with some tagalog movies at the garage - (they skipped the videoke, thanfully)
The last of the cousins left around 9:30 bearing containers with leftover food. And speaking of containers, now I know why ang mom does not throw those transparent boxes. It is for this purpose, that of which is sharing food para di mapanis sa ref. Good job, mom.
So that is how my day 1 of 2021 came to be.
I hope you guys are happy, healthy and safe. And I pray that your dearest wishes do come true this year. Hugs to all.
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