#its not just the touch screen these games wanted you to use everything the ds was capable of including thw mic and closing the screen
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Oh, how I want a Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks remake in the Wind Waker style so bad, but I know it's never going to happen
#spirit tracks#phantom hourglass#wind waker#the legend of zelda#Mostly just want more people to play these games because theyre underrated ESPECIALLY spirit tracks#well and also i love ww#man theres some areas in spirit tracks you can tell would look so pretty if it werent for the crusty ds graphics#like the areas with the lokomos#but i know remakes for these games wont happen because of poor reception and how the games are built#its not just the touch screen these games wanted you to use everything the ds was capable of including thw mic and closing the screen#oh and the duel screens for their final bosses#there would have to be a lot of reimagining for the gameplay#linebeck and st zelda i miss u
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
We have a frightening tale for you today... reader be scare, you're in to beware! Please, come in. Sit in the Chilling Chair at our Terrible Table in our Devious Dining Room. Now, I hope you're hungry, because we've made plenty of PETRIFYING PASTA! Fufufu... let's begin.
It was looking to be a very special Halloween. This particular year, the holiday had fallen on Friday the 13th! Spooktacular! Alas, nobody could go trick or treating, for there was a blood moon that day, and nobody wanted to be outside where their costumes would be stained with all the blood. Sigh... what a boring, uneventful day it was shaping up to be!
But then... a sound right outside. The sound of the mailbox opening and closing. Mail? On this federal holiday? How strange! And a bit disconcerting... who would dare to venture out with the town moist with blood? Maybe a vampire... eep! I opened the door, shivering, worried I may accidentally invite the hypothetical vampire inside, only to find...
Nobody there. No body at all. Just a severed, green hand clinging to the mailbox. So that's what the sound was! And here I was, worried it would be something scary. I shooed the little critter away, and as it scuttled off on its fingers, I saw that it had left something in the mailbox! Something familiar.
Why, it was a copy of Super Mario 64 DS! How generous, a Halloween miracle! I had been wanting to play this lately, but my childhood game card had stopped working. This was shaping up to be a nice Halloween after all! It was a used copy, and it still had the price sticker on it, having been resold at $6.66. Upon seeing this number, I immediately screamed. Someone had gotten an incredible deal on this game!
So, I opened the box. Everything was in great condition! Even the manual was included! I don't remember the manual looking like a torn piece of paper with "I SEE YOU" written on it with blood, but it's been a long time. I know I still have my original manual around somewhere, so no need to flip through this one. I got right to playing the game!
What a rush of nostalgia! There was my friend Mario's funny face on the touch screen, ready to be tapped! And tap I did! Rather than the game drawing the lineart of Mario's face, though, it drew something else. A tombstone with my full name, date of birth, and another, later date written on it. Weird! Must be a weird coincidental thing drawn by the previous owner? I played around with the squiggly lines and spun it around. It was fun :)
I got right into the game, and everything was just as I remembered it! I was visited by Lakitu, went into the castle, and jumped into the first painting, like I had so many times before. But something definitely was strange here. I was reasonably certain that the first mission of Bob-omb Battlefield was not called "Kill The Big Bob-omb Dead" in any version of the game! Nevertheless, I continued on.
That was when I saw it. Where I would expect a Bob-omb Buddy to stand was the most terrifying character design I had ever seen. Against my better judgement, I approached and interacted with it.
"Hi! I'm Bob-omb...
BLOODY!!!"
EEK! I could not believe my eyes! I would expect such material in an "adults only"-rated game, but in MARIO?! I had no idea what to do. I continued playing for some foolish reason, running off toward the Big Bob-omb the way I always would, hoping to find comfort in the familiar. The game felt normal again, aside from how Big Bob-omb left a large splatter of realistic blood on the ground when defeated, and I was mercifully brought back to the safety of Peach's Castle.
And yet... I felt a morbid curiosity. An urge to continue playing. Maybe it was just a glitch? Maybe the second mission would be back to normal, and I would get to see my friend Koopa the Quick? That would be nice. I selected the second mission, and...
It was normal. It was safe. The Bob-ombs, Buddies. Maybe none of that was even real. Maybe I was still shaken up about the knock at the door earlier? Whatever it was, it wasn't important anymore. I could finally play my funny Mario game and have fun! I walked on over to my friend the Koopa and interacted with him.
"Excuse me? Can I help you? Who are you?"
I was confused. Wasn't he supposed to ask for Mario? Wasn't this Koopa the Quick?
And then, as if he heard me, he turned his head. He wasn't looking at Yoshi. He was looking straight through the screen at me, and his eyes were more realistic than ever.
"I'm not Koopa the Quick.
I'm Koopa the TRICK!"
AIIIIIEEEEE!!!
Of course, none of this has been real! Just some Halloween Hijinxs! There is no such thing as a realistic turtle!
...Or is there?
That's for you to find out... heehee! Happy Halloween!
#mario#super mario 64 ds#bob omb buddy#koopa the quick#halloween#creepypasta#unreality#long post#mod chikako
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Some thoughts about... Theatrhythm Final Bar Line... The Demo
I'm not bothering to spell-check "Theatrhythm". Any time I put the title down on paper and all associated typos are in the gods' hands.
Theatrhythm is one of the top 3 rhythm games and one of the best games on the 3DS, so I was very excited to hear about a new one. It just had one of the best progressions and meta gameplay systems in a game that totally changes how you play without ever changing the rules or core gameplay.
The new one... is pretty much this series again. And that's good! It adds a kind of "story mode" with the Series Quests. You go through a mostly linear progression of songs from a particular title and each song has a goal associated with it. The boss may also change stats or add special conditions to the fight. It's pretty basic stuff and doesn't drastically change how you play since most of the goals are just a variation on "play well", but they can force you to change up your team if the enemies inside have a resistance to the elements or attack types of your favored characters. There is also an "Auto optimize" button that purports to just pick the best team from what you have available, but it seems to only change your Summon and what skills the already equipped team uses. I thought it would match up a magic user with a magic stage and all that, so the current implementation leaves much to be desired.
Man though, there is a ton of content in the demo. It has multiple titles with multiple songs in each, you can get about a third of the way through the quests in the title, and there are at least 4, and usually more, characters unlocked for each title. Characters have a pretty generous level cap so it mainly just caps your "money" gained and prevents one type of item from dropping (the profile cards). It took me two days to get through the demo (and even then there are a few quests I couldn't complete with the current level caps) and the counter said I'd be at 4% quest completion if I transfer everything over to the full game.
The bad stuff. I'm totally not sold on the new multi-note system where you have to hit multiple lanes at the same time, even having to do multiple flicks at the same time. Thankfully, you can turn it off, but the UI in-stage doesn't change, so it can look a bit confusing. However, turning off the multi-notes also gets rid of all the flick triggers. I don't want to overly simplify it, I just want to get rid of the one bad thing. So easy is too easy and normal has the bad stuff. Ugh.
Also, the game really feels different without a stylus/touch screen. The physical movement of tapping, holding, tracing, and flicking was a part of the experience and just tapping a button on a controller is a poor substitute. Without the stylus, I really thought this franchise would be dead with the passing of the 3DS. And you're losing out on Street Passes. I was lucky enough to live in a populated area when the first game came out, so it was so fun getting those on the subway to/from work. Having it on a portable system was also nice because you could just flip it open, play a few songs, and then close it and get back to work, versus having to load up the console version. And no, I don't consider the Switch "portable" thanks to its size, battery life, lousy controllers, and cost compared to the DS.
There's a lot of content here, but also a crazy price point for the game. $50 for the basic game and $100 for the complete game with a nonsense system of DLC packs and exclusive songs. And of course, no one DLC pack is filled with great songs. Each one has a couple of good ones and then the rest are cruft. Just use the original's DLC implementation where you bought each song separately. I paid $10-20 for Theaterhythm, bought some DLC, AND bought Theatrhythm Curtain Call all for cheaper than just the basic version of this game.
I'm still looking forward to getting the full game and the demo did a fantastic job of assuaging fears about the new systems, but between the new systems and having to play it on a controller, the game feels noticeably worse to play and experience. There's nothing that can really be done about that given the original system the franchise was made for is dead now and the team did a fine job porting it to a controller, but it's just not the same. It takes Theatrhythm from a must buy to a wait for a sale, especially for all the DLC nonsense to get worked out.
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Crossover you say 👀
OKAY SO. SONIC COLOURS/MEGA MAN CROSSOVER
i don't have much in mind story wise, but i'm thinking it takes place under the same conditions as worlds collide, which i insist on believing also happened nearly identically offscreen in the game timeline because nobody can tell me otherwise. fairly basic setup of eggman and wily teaming up to cause problems on purpose and sonic and rock working together to stop them, and now there's wisps in the mix >:O i'm sure i could think up a fun excuse plot for why sonic colours happens twice and also mega man is here now, but mostly this was just an excuse to put the special interest in the hyperfixation and come up with some fun weapons for rock based on my first and favourite sonic game
each robot master is based on a wisp from either version of the original colours, which causes a little confusion given that you end up with two burst men and drill men but these ones have different EWN-XXX serial numbers and are entirely unrelated to their canon mega man counterparts. i haven't actually drawn the robot masters yet or thought up designs or personalities, just come up with their weapons and what stage they'd inhabit, but maybe i'll do that sometime. the robot masters are something like this
EWN-010 BURST MAN - weak to drill dash, gives bursting blaze, sweet mountain stage
EWN-011 ROCKET MAN - weak to cubic satellite, gives rocket jump, terminal velocity stage
EWN-012 DRILL MAN - weak to spike spin, gives drill dash, tropical resort stage
EWN-013 HOVER MAN - weak to rocket jump, gives hovering shockwave, starlight carnival stage
EWN-014 LASER MAN - weak to frenetic void, gives prism laser, aquarium park stage
EWN-015 CUBE MAN - weak to prism laser, gives cubic satellite, wii game land stage
EWN-016 VOID MAN - weak to bursting blaze, gives frenetic void, asteroid coaster stage
EWN-017 SPIKE MAN - weak to hovering shockwave, gives spike spin, planet wisp stage
i wrote up some really detailed information on how all the weapons work but i'll put that under a cut to prevent this post from getting too long! if you don't feel like reading massive paragraphs of game design ideas, here's the microsoft paint scribblings i did of all of them [sonic is there too]
BURSTING BLAZE
a chargeable attack that blasts out a sphere of fire to deal damage. charging it longer sends the fire out further and increases its damage output, but costs more weapon energy. without any charging it's a pretty standard low-range attack, but at maximum charge it functions as a screen nuke on par with the likes of rain flush, tornado blow, or astro crush. if rock takes damage while charging bursting blaze, he'll automatically release it at whatever charge level it was at when he got hit. in addition to the obvious usefulness of a fucking screen nuke, a less- or uncharged bursting blaze can be a handy way to quickly get some personal space in a tight situation.
cost: 1 unit when uncharged, 7 when fully charged [28 uses uncharged or 4 fully charged from a full gauge]. has five in-between charge levels costing 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 units from least to most powerful.
i came up with this name first because i wanted it to have blaze in it because i fucking love blaze the cat.
ROCKET JUMP
an explosion that launches rock much higher than a normal jump would take him, about the height of one screen. in addition to the explosion at the bottom dealing damage, rock's body deals contact damage until his upward momentum stops, which tears through enemies with low health or a weakness to rocket jump but doesn't protect him against bulkier foes or stage hazards. while he can still move left or right while rocketing upwards, the only way for rock to stop moving upwards is to either naturally run out of momentum, hit a ceiling, or take damage.
some platforms can only be reached by using rocket jump.
cost: 3 units per use [10 uses from a full gauge]
obviously a joke based on the rocket jump technique in a lot of video games, lmao. rock blows himself up and ragdolls so hard he clips out of the interstellar amusement park and sonic watches as he falls past every kill plane and into infinity forever
DRILL DASH
a dash attack slightly faster than the slide going straight down, sideways, or diagonally down-left or down-right, similar to the pile driver but shorter and without upwards reach. has fairly low attack power, equivalent to two mega buster shots, but pushes surviving enemies back, allowing them to be hit again and again with a chain of drill dashes. underwater, it moves significantly faster and further, and can be fired up as well as down, unlocking eight-directional dashing.
if rock hits a solid wall he'll bounce off of it, but if he hits certain types of dirt-like walls he'll drill into them, which can uncover helpful items like health and weapon refills and occasionally 1-ups or e-tanks [probably in scripted locations].
cost: 2 units per use [14 uses from a full gauge]
i've never played mighty no. 9 but i've seen footage of like the dash thingy he can do? because it probably looks kinda like that.
HOVERING SHOCKWAVE
fires a shockwave that doesn't hurt any more than a standard mega buster shot [unless the enemy in question is weak to it], but stuns most enemies and has a fairly decent range. if you fire it in midair and then hold down the attack button, rock's falling speed will decrease dramatically, and he'll continue to float until either he hits the ground, the attack button is released, or he takes damage. hovering will cost additional energy, and if hovering shockwave is used in midair it can't be used again until rock hits the ground at least once.
cost: 1.5 units per use [19 uses from a full gauge], plus an extra 3 units per second of hovering, for a total of a little under 9 seconds of hovering taking the initial shot into account.
this one's pretty directly lifted from the hover wispon in sonic forces.
PRISM LASER
a laser projectile that either bounces off or goes through anything it hits a set number of times, maybe three to five. if it destroys an enemy its movement is unchanged; if it hits a wall or an enemy that doesn't immediately die to it then it bounces instead. can be fired in all eight directions, but once fired its trajectory is out of the player's hands. basically imagine gemini laser, then imagine it being obscenely better in every conceivable way. best used in enclosed rooms where it can bounce around a lot and doesn't have much opportunity to get lost offscreen.
some rooms have prisms in them like the ones in colours that automatically redirect prism laser, guiding them to destroy enemies blocking paths and the like.
cost: 6 units per use [5 uses from a full gauge]
cyan laser was my favourite colour power when i was a little baby because haha bright colour funny sound go wheeee. prism laser is probably overpowered because of this bias lmao.
CUBIC SATELLITE
summons four [?] orbiting cubes that shield rock from one hit each. they deal damage to enemies they touch unless said enemy is immune to the power. standard shield weapon, blue cube is a lame overly situational gimmick and i couldn't think of anything better. rock can still fire and charge his mega buster while shielded, but obviously can't use any special weapons. every time a cube is destroyed, the remaining ones spin faster, looking something like the tubinaut badnik from sonic mania. that's just a visual effect i don't know what else to write here it's a shield weapon.
cost: 3.5 units per use [8 units from a full gauge]
i think i'd like shield weapons more if i knew how to use the attacking ones to actually attack. i used leaf shield about 3 times in mega man 2 and every time i flung it in the wrong direction and got hit anyway.
FRENETIC VOID
sucks in any enemies that rock is facing for as long as the attack button is held down, drawing them to a point just in front of him. when released, the blasters on his arms [which in this form morph to look like the purple frenzy mouth] crunch down in front of him, dealing slightly more damage than a charged mega buster shot to anything that's been pulled in close enough and knocking back anything that isn't destroyed. rock can't move while using frenetic void, and if anything hits him while he's vaccuuming he drops the move without the finishing bite or knockback. this move can also draw in most types of bullets, which are absorbed and disappear if they reach the void, or continue in whatever direction they were pulled in if the move ends before they get there.
cost: 3 units per use [10 units from a full gauge]
i thought it'd be cool to combine purple frenzy and violet void somehow. i used void for the robot master name because i believe in sonic colours ds port supremacy, but the decision was ultimately pretty arbitrary.
SPIKE SPIN
what top spin wishes it was. a close-range attack where spikes emerge from rock's body as he does a speen, giving him a somewhat bigger hitbox. when he hits an enemy, he bounces off of it in a manner similar to the way sonic bounces off of everything he hits. the move lasts as long as the attack button is held down, draining weapon energy over time, and rock can still walk and jump while speening. some projectiles will bounce off of spike spin [generally small bullets like those from mets or sniper joes will bounce off while anything stronger will still hurt], and holding the move makes rock immune to spikes, allowing him to walk over them safely until his weapon energy depletes.
some items may be tucked away in places that are difficult or impossible to reach without walking over spikes, requiring the use of spike spin to reach them.
cost: 4 units per second, for a total of 7 seconds of spinning from a full gauge. the first unit is depleted the moment the button is pressed so the move can't be scummed into lasting longer.
honestly now that i'm thinking about this i might change spike spin to act a little more like how pink spike spindashes, but i was overcome by a desire for justice for top man.
i don't know how to end this post lmao but i've been thinking about this crossover for days on end. i know damn well it's a pipe dream but right now i'm in just the right mode of hyperfixation that if sega and capcom announced a sonic/mega man crossover in a video game that isn't smash lmao i would ASCEND
#i had so much fun drawing those shitty microsoft paint mega men lmao#just fucking whatever#mega man#sonic the hedgehog#sonic colours#mega colours#that's what the .txt file i'm writing this all down in is called so that's what i'm tagging this crossover as in case i post about it again#i have a whole bunch of other miscellaneous ideas for how this'd go but the main thing was coming up with funni weapons#i could apologise for making such a long post but i am not going to i think. i used a readmore i have no excuse to feel bad about dash clog#can't wait for all the speedrunners to go for drill man first and spam drill dash for the entire game#sonic forces me to answer questions#aprofessionallurker
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seven minutes in heaven with noya, bokuto, kenma and kuroo?
a/n: yes! more haikyuu!! i’m trying to get my requests done, i apologize if your requests don’t get written, i’ve been working a lot and i’m going to be opening up requests soon!
headcanon: 7 minutes in heaven
key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (h/c) - hair color / (e/c) - eye color
warnings: swearing, fluff, cliches bc im a /sucker/ for that shit
»»————- ★ ————-««
yu nishinoya
»»————- ★ ————-««
The game’s idea was totally Tanaka and Nishinoya’s idea. 110%.
However, Tanaka had rigged the game for his friend, knowing just how much he liked you and wanted to get put in that closet with you.
So when your name was called right after Nishinoya’s, he was so happy, he was dragging you into that closet and when the door shut, it was on.
You liked Nishinoya too, for the record you always have, but you felt like out of every girl he’d fawned over, you were the least likely to be chosen, but boy oh boy were you wrong.
“So, seven minutes in heaven.” You break the silence by whispering, not knowing who’s ears are listening from outside.
“It’s a relief it’s with you. I’m pretty sure Kiyoko would’ve refused.” Nishinoya’s chipper tone was music to your ears.
“Do you like her?” You asked, biting your lip in worry.
“She’s pretty, but I like someone else.” Noya smiled in the dim lighting peeking in from the cracks in the door frame.
“Oh.” You mumbled. Deciding that this seven minutes in heaven was just going to be sitting in the dark, you got comfortable.
“What are you doing?” Noya questioned, scooting closer to you, his face a few inches away from yours.
“W-what are you doing?” You repeat his question, worried this girl he likes is going to find out he’s messing around with you.
“I’m about to kiss you duh.” Noya smiles and closes his eyes. Your face is hot and it feels like your heart is about to beat right out of your chest.
When his lips press to yours, it’s like a dream come true. It feels so right, but you can’t help but feel like it’s all wrong at the same time. Why was he kissing you? What about this other girl- unless...
Not wanting to think of anything other than Noya’s lips on your own, you move your arms to rest on his shoulders, pulling him into you.
He’s a great kisser surprisingly.
When he pulls away, you can’t see the big grin on his lips. He’s so ecstatic.
“Why did you kiss me, what about that girl-”
“It’s you!” Noya tackles you with a hug, shaking your shoulders as you realize what he’s said.
You smile and kiss him this time, pulling him into you as you begin to makeout with each other.
Your makeout is disrupted by the door opening. It doesn’t even feel like seven minutes had gone by. But Tanaka’s proud expression says it all.
»»————- ★ ————-««
kotaro bokuto
»»————- ★ ————-««
Akaashi is not super on board with the idea, but since he’s there, he’s gonna support Bokuto.
Speaking of which, Bokuto is super excited.
He really wants to go with you, but when the bottle lands on the girl beside you, the two of you look super bummed out.
Akaashi is quick to notice this, and so, being the good friend he is, he walks over and taps on the girl’s shoulder.
He makes up some story that causes her to speed out of there, leaving the bottle pointing ever so slightly in your direction.
“Next player I guess?” Bokuto smiles as he looks at you. You nod and stand, walking with him to the closet.
It’s quiet for the first thirty seconds but Bokuto is quick to put an end to that.
“Guess things turned out alright for us in the end!” Bokuto laughed quietly, his hand reaching out to feel for you.
“That’s your shoulder right-”
“Yeah.” You laugh, your cheeks burning as he pulls you closer to him. You inch his way and feel your heart beginning to beat faster the closer you get to him.
“Nothing really happened that made that girl leave, did it?” You ask innocently.
“It was whatever Akaashi made up.” Bokuto’s arms pull you into his lap. It’s a little uncomfortable until you get situated against him, resting into him.
“Is this the part where we kiss?” Bokuto asks cheekily. You feel your breath hitch in your throat at his question.
“I’m not opposed to it.” You whisper, turning your head to look at him.
His lips press to yours, and it’s history from there on out. He doesn’t stop kissing you until that door opens again.
He’s hugging you close and kissing you where ever he can, your lips, your cheeks, your neck and jawline, he’s peppering them everywhere.
Akaashi stares at the two of you when the door opens, light flooding over the two of you on the floor, lazily making out.
“Times up.” Akaashi states, shutting the door to hide you two kissing. Deep down Akaashi is happy for the two of you, it’s about damn time Bokuto made a move.
»»————- ★ ————-««
kenma kozume
»»————- ★ ————-««
Kenma’s not really a party games type of guy unless we’re talking Mario Party for the Nintendo DS.
So he’s not super thrilled at the idea of seven minutes in heaven, but when it comes to it, he’s trudging away into the closet before the bottle even stops spinning.
The element of surprise of who walks in next determines if he stays or not.
Which, there’s only one person on the list of people sitting where the bottle spins.
You, of course.
“Looks like it’s me.” You say softly, standing and walking over to the closet. Kuroo is smiling evilly, like he’d set it up just for you to win.
And as soon as that door opens and you take a half a step inside, its shut behind you, forcing you forward, tripping over Kenma who’s sitting on the ground.
“Sorry!” You whisper-yell, colliding with the ground, thankful for the soft carpet in the closet.
“Are you alright?” Kenma’s voice is quiet, but his face is concerned, and illuminated by the light of his handheld console.
“Yeah, I’m alright.” You smile, sitting up. You’re awkwardly lying in Kenma’s lap, but he allows you to sit up and get comfortable.
There’s not much space so you’re only seat besides standing is in Kenma’s lap.
“Is this okay?” You question, resting in his lap as your eyes peek onto his screen, watching him play a game.
“Yeah.” Kenma replies coolly, his eyes flicking from the screen to your lips.
Moving his console, he connects his lips to yours in a burst of confidence, kissing you gently, savoring every second.
Pulling away, he returns to holding his console in front of him.
“W-why you do that?” You stutter, confused.
“I wanted to. I can do it again too.” Kenma replies, defeating an enemy in his game.
“I’d like that.” You blush, forgetting he can see your face from the light of his screen.
“You’re cute.” Kenma states, leaning over and giving you another kiss.
Kuroo expected to see you and Kenma making out, but when the door was pulled back, it was quite the opposite. You were watching him play a game.
Kenma was going to kiss you more, but he wasn’t going to let Kuroo catch him.
»»————- ★ ————-««
tetsuro kuroo
»»————- ★ ————-««
This fool.
This absolute buffoon.
He’s smirking while the bottle spins, his eyes are glued onto you. It’s so obvious, it hurts.
You don’t care, you’re betting everything you have that he has practiced the perfect momentum and effort needed for this bottle to land perfectly on you.
And it does.
Kenma watched him spin a bottle for five hours the day before.
When Kuroo pulls you into the closet, he’s pulling you into him, sitting down across from you, with your legs pulled up and touching one another.
It’s a little uncomfortable, but it’s not the thing on your mind.
“So here we are, in this closet, all alone.” Kuroo starts, his hands resting over your knees.
“Here we are.” You repeat, a smile on your lips.
“What ever are we going to do in here, for seven minutes?” Kuroo teases. He’s touching you, not trying to do anything dirty, but his touches are definitely teasing you.
Oh and the growing tension as his breath fans ever so lightly over you lips as your head rests over your arms, resting over your knees. Kuroo’s hands have moved by then and he’s playing with your hair.
His face inches closer to your own, and just when you feel like it’ll never happen, his lips plaster onto yours.
It’s hot, and sweet at the same time. He’s gentle, but cheeky as fuck and biting on your bottom lip, almost begging you for more.
But when he pulls away, the door opens.
He’d timed it all, wasting all the time he had for one hot and steamy kiss.
You better believe Kenma catches the two of you making out behind some corner, up against the wall, confirming your new relationship.
Kuroo’s plan of teasing you until the last second had worked.
»»————- ★ ————-««
masterlist
#nishinoya#bokuto#kenma#kuroo#yu nishinoya#kotaro bokuto#kenma kozume#tetsuro kuroo#nishinoya x reader#yu nishinoya x reader#bokuto x reader#kotaro bokuto x reader#kenma x reader#kenma kozume x reader#kuroo x reader#tetsuro kuroo x reader#haikyuu#haikyuu!!#haikyuu x reader#haikyuu!! x reader
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Neo: The World Ends With You
I'm invested in the original game and its characters, I'm invested in this game and its characters. I've had a lot of time for the original game to marinate and I can say that I enjoy pretty much every character and their arc and while I don't exactly feel the same with this one, that's not disappointing to me and this was my most anticipated game of 2021 so I mean that. This is a sequel, I expected as much and it didn't let me down, it's even better than I thought.
This is a NONSPOILER review because I think it's best experienced by actually experiencing it so I'll keep a lot of character, story, and even gameplay details out other than how the very VERY beginning of the game starts out with Rindo and Fret.
Let me give credit where credit is due, Rindo is voiced by Paul Castro Jr. who is a new voice actor and I was honestly impressed by his voice more than anyone else in the game, I love his voice and while Rindo has some pretty big shoes to fill as the main, I think he does it. Rindo seems to act pretty accordingly to the situation he's put in. He's not as edgy as Neku but he has enough push to him to where he would be considered the "negative" of the group but I would rather call it "rational" because he brings up some valid points, stuff that I myself was asking. Putting yourself in his shoes, that seems pretty accurate.
Fret on the other hand is a bit of the opposite, an optimist if you will. He's not really a "bad" character, just in comparison to the others, he's not my favorite. I think that there needs to be someone in his position who tries to uplift the team, but he's just a little annoying about it sometimes. Also get ready to hear "Galaxy Brain, ACTIVATE!!" literally hundreds of times, as much as he talks, you'd think he'd add more variety.
IMPROVEMENTS:
I'm not going to complain about certain gameplay elements or limitations that carried over from the last game except one. The camera. It's fixed to where you have no control over it in the city areas and therefore can't get a proper look at everything, whether that works in its favor, I'm not sure because you get used to it but it's just a small peeve you start out with.
The combat is pretty loyal to the first game which is surprising. I personally didn't like the original gameplay because it was so limited on the DS, a lot of room for error, but having it on console expands the system and lets you use buttons rather than mashing a touch screen, improving on almost, if not all, gameplay fronts. However, because it's based on a game from 2007, the system may seem a little outdated to some, it's really up to you, it made a fan out of me, making it more fun.
I played the original in bites, not because of lack of enjoyment but because I felt like it was a game I could only get into for so long at a time but with this game it's the complete opposite. Maybe it was the DS hardware that hampered the original but I say it's a decent success on this game's part. I also felt that Persona 5 seemed a bit formulaic in its story context and gameplay layout with each castle but this game, while having patterns, it changes before you get the chance to really catch on. I could predict P5 but I couldn't predict this, each day was a mystery, I knew you'd fight people but I didn't always know who or when which is crazy considering that P5 had all the choices!
A small improvement that I'll suggest for combat is having short rhythm based moves or even QTEs, like how in the original Shiki had the directional pad moves which were annoying but still varied from the rest of the gameplay. There are definitely new things that you can do, but there are a few aspects worth complaining about. You can unlock certain abilities and once you enable them, you can't disable them. The only one that it personally applies with is the ability to enable individual health bars for enemies, rather than an overall one. Which sounds good but-
I personally don't like that it's always floating above their heads, if it was on the side screen, that'd be one thing but constantly above their heads? No deal. I actually had to go back and load up an old save to get rid of it. But with unlocking certain abilities comes with quality of life aspects so if you're not in love with the gameplay at first, give it a little bit because you might be able to unlock whatever piece you're missing.
There's also "soundsurfing" that adds to your groove meter that you can use when running around and it said that you press (in my case "X" on PS4) to the beat of the song which is a cool concept but it really isn't clear how to use it because I try matching the beat and I get nothing and have more success just button mashing. The groove meter can drop when it's not supposed to, like when you literally can't attack during the buffering of a special or switching between battles in a chain (The "Get Ready" screen) And if you're in a proper boss battle, you HAVE to fight, it's like a trainer battle in Pokémon which is especially annoying when you accidentally press "retry". It has no reason to be there when I already know that I'm not prepared for the boss and can't back out.
Do the trailers spoil it?
Originally, I only saw the first and or second trailer and knew I wanted it so there was no reason to see any more but it was kind of overwhelming with all the characters they were showing off in just a single trailer. I don't think they needed to go that far but I understand why they did. I understand why they showed a lot of things that they did but I think it's a bit easier to SWALLOW when it's introduced in-game. I even found myself doing all the side-quests and being engaged in the side-stuff in-game. But I knew about people pointing out spoilers so after I finished it, I went back and looked at the other trailers and OH BOY. The final trailer shows some stuff and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it. They straight up show some out of context death scenes as well as different alliances and betrayals, not to mention parts of the freaking ending. The launch trailer is no better, it's just like that trailer but cut down. You may not have context but you can draw some hefty conclusions and that alone makes me question, why? I'm not sure if there are many reveals that they DIDN'T tease, it's like they went out of their way to hit every single one. Whether it's Square or Nintendo, they need to figure out how to cut a trailer, heck, hire me, I at least have the editing skills and know what's interesting enough to show and what's too spoilery not to show, come on!
Is it newcomer friendly?
I heard a lot of things like "it drops you in without mercy so pay very close attention" (in terms of story, that is) so only people who played the original game will be able to get it. But I beg to differ, I think it does a pretty good job of filling you in while putting you in the shoes of a new player (both in the game and out) AND keeping the mystery of whatever happened since the last game coming in small pieces. Most of the dialogue text boxes are voice acted so it's not really a slog to read. To prove my point further, the premise starts out very similar so it should be easy to clue in what exactly happened in the last game. Of course you're going to get more enjoyment out of it if you played the original but I don't think you'd be totally lost if you started with this one and played to right before the ending because then it kinda has to do stuff without preface, so you're going to be confused by much of the emotional weight that it carries. But it still gives you plenty of time to catch up on the original, whether through the game, videos, or lore, this game has you ask the questions, so fill in the blank. It has a nice length to it so you'll have until the ending to figure it out. Also, Final Remix teased stuff that this game makes clarity on but I wouldn't call FR mandatory. (Except maybe no numbers on the hand? Maybe even I missed something there.)
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Getting Psyched - A The World Ends With You Retro Review
Genre: Adventure
Subgenre: JRPG
Developer: Square Enix, Jupiter
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform(s): DS
Release Date: July 27th, 2007
Hours Played: 42 hours this playthrough
You’ve almost certainly heard of this game, especially if you’re into JRPGs. When a game advertises itself as being “from the team that made Kingdom Hearts,” I was sold instantly as a kid. One look at the game’s box art confirms that Tetsuya Nomura had a hand at this game with his distinctive bold art style. But the game itself was something that nobody at the time had predicted. The game has an urban fantasy story unlike much that had been told at the time. Furthermore, the game was made to push the DS to its limits and create a battle system that could only work on the DS’s two screens. Does this cult classic live up to the hype, or is it just a janky mess? Let’s find out.
Story
TWEWY opens by introducing our protagonist, an antisocial teen named Neku Sakuraba. Neku unexpectedly awakens in the iconic scramble crossing of Shibuya, Tokyo. To his surprise, the crowds seem to walk right through him, and a strange pin appears in his hand that allows him to read the thoughts of passersby. Neku quickly learns that he has been thrust into the Reapers’ Game, a seven-day death game where the Players are the recently deceased that must partner up to fight the Noise, hostile part-animal-part-tribal-graffiti creatures that seek to erase the Players. What’s more, each day Players must complete missions given to them by the Reapers within strict time limits while avoiding the reapers themselves. If they can make it to the end of the week, they might just be able to return to life.
Along the way, Neku will meet a chaotic cast of characters including Shiki, the headstrong seamstress who is eventually able to get Neku out of his angsty shell, Beat and Rhyme, a pair of street-smart siblings with heavy 2000’s skater vibes, Joshua, an abrasive, sarcastic, literal Christ figure who’s somehow a good guy? Or maybe he’s a bad guy? Or… maybe he’s a good guy again? On top of that, the Reapers themselves vary wildly from the contrasting duo of the laid-back Kariya and the high-strung Uzuki to the lone radical Minamimoto. The game does a good job of having a full roster of characters without overloading the player. Furthermore, while most characters seem wacky at first, they all have motivations and layers behind them that become clearer as you progress through the story.
Without spoiling anything, nothing is as it seems in the Reaper’s game, and multiple parties are vying for control for different reasons, meaning the whole thing feels like one big political intrigue story on top of an urban JRPG. Even on my most recent replay after having played the game countless times over the years, I was hungry to put the pieces together. While the main storyline mostly follows Neku’s perspective and doesn’t explain a lot of the behind-the-scenes interactions and motivations of the secondary characters, the game fortunately has a Secret Reports feature, which are written by a certain character who seems to know way more than they let on. These Secret Reports are near essential to understanding the game’s true story, and reveal whole layers to the plot and world that the main story doesn’t even touch on.
Needless to say, I loved the story of TWEWY. Everything feels perfectly crafted, leaving no loose ends, while still leaving the player wanting more. If anything I wanted to see more of Neku and his friends after the game’s conclusion just hanging out in real life.
Gameplay
TWEWY is a JRPG, but in the loosest sense possible. In the overworld, the player controls Neku, guiding him around the various streets of Shibuya on the touch screen or with the face buttons. Unlike in traditional RPGs, outside of story events the player must deliberately initiate combat with the Noise. By scanning their environment they can read the surface thoughts of passersby, but also reveal noise symbols in the environment. By tapping on these symbols, the player can queue up battles with the noise, and can even chain multiple battles together for back-to-back fights that multiply your drop rate.
In battle, Neku and his partner are sent to separate Zones, with Neku on the touch screen and his partner on the top screen. Neku fights the noise by activating the abilities of pins he has equipped, called Psychs. Each psych has its own activation method, from swiping on an enemy to tapping empty space, to scratching on the screen, to shouting into the microphone, and more. It’s up to the player to equip Neku with the best pins, though pins level up as they are used, becoming more powerful and sometimes evolving into even stronger pins.
On the top screen, Neku’s partner fights the noise by using the DS’s face buttons to move through a combo map and select certain finishers. By selecting the right finishers, you can charge your Sync gauge to perform a powerful special attack. Both characters share an HP gauge, damage to each character subtracting from each side. If you’re following along, that means the game expects you to control both Neku and his partner at the same time. This can be tricky for new players, but you quickly get used to it. Additionally, you can have your partner auto-fight with a customizable delay, meaning you technically don’t have to control your partner at all. However, if you really want to deal major damage and wipe the floor with the Noise on higher difficulties, you’ll want to master battling with both characters at once. When I first played the game in 2007, I found the parner battling to be too difficult to keep up with, but now that I’m older and more experienced, I find the combat to be incredibly deep and rewarding. Additionally, the game rewards back-and-forth control of Neku and his partner with the Light Puck mechanic. Essentially, when one character performs a combo finisher, the light puck is passed to the other character, and passed back when that character does a finisher. In this way, you can build up a damage multiplier based on how quickly you rally the light puck. This creates a natural back-and-forth flow of using Neku until his psychs discharge, then getting a few hits in with his partner, and so on.
My only complaint about battles is that in later fights on higher difficulty the Noise will attack so frequently on the partner’s zone that it’s difficult to get attacks off with them at all. Your partner has a limited block/dodge, but it only does so much and there’s often tons of Noise attacking at once. It’s not insurmountable, but it can be frustrating at times.
Outside of battle, the player must constantly keep up with a few things, food, swag, and difficulty. Both Neku and his partner can eat food and wear clothing purchased from many shops around Shibuya. Food offers an up-front bonus as well as a permanent stat increase once the food is digested by completing battles. However, you can only digest so many times per real-time day, meaning you have to prioritize high-calorie foods before smaller snacks. I found the digestion limit to be a bit too limiting. It can be removed in the post-game, but it still makes food hard to deal with for someone that is effectively bingeing the game.
Swag are articles of clothing that offer flat stat increases, but also have abilities that are unlocked by showing it to the right store clerk. Each clerk can unlock the abilities of specific clothing, and you can unlock more by buying enough stuff from them to fill up their Friendship Gauge. I thought it was fun to slowly make friends with each store clerk, and I felt bad that I couldn’t hang out with them or reciprocate some of their obvious advances, though I’m sure it’s assumed that Neku cherishes his friendships with them after the game’s conclusion. However, you can’t just equip any old piece of clothing to any character. Neku can’t just pull off a dress and cargo shorts right off the bat. Each piece of clothing has a Bravery rating, with characters whose bravery is below that rating being unable to wear the clothing. Fortunately, bravery increases as you level up, and can also be increased by eating food. By the end of the game, you’ll be able to have Neku and company wearing whatever clothing you want.
Lastly there’s Difficulty. The game has four main difficulty levels, being Easy, Normal, Hard, and Ultimate. You begin the game in Normal, but once you unlock a difficulty, you can change it on the fly from the pause menu. On easier difficulty enemies have less HP and deal less damage, but you get fewer XP and worse pins. The reverse is true on higher difficulties, with some of the best pins in the game being available exclusively as drops on Ultimate difficulty. To aid you in this, you can also change your level at any time. Unlike in a standard RPG where your level is immutable to the player aside from leveling up, in TWEWY you can freely choose your level from one to the highest level you have achieved. For each level below your max that you set your level, you get a multiplier for drops. This can be combined with the battle chaining multiplier to get ultra rare drops, some of which have less than 1% and even less than 0.1% drop chances normally. This gives the player an incentive to level up aside from just stat bonuses, and rewards players who go out of their way to engage in battles. As above, battles are largely optional, but it heavily behooves the player to battle as much as they can, not only because you get drops and experience, but increasing your level gives you more wiggle room for harder fights such as bosses.
There are tons more smaller features, but these are the main ones. I thoroughly enjoyed the vast depths of the game’s mechanics and found the difficulty settings to be really engaging and a novel approach to RPG player advancement while still affording accessibility. I was enthralled for multiple hours as I struggled to get the best gear, feed my team the best food, and equip the best pins to get as strong as possible. Until the very end of the postgame, it never felt like mindless grinding, as you can just breeze through the story on Easy if you really want to, but where would be the fun in that?
Presentation
TWEWY is probably best known for its vibrant and bold incredibly urban street-art-themed style, which shows in not only the art, but the UI, music, and writing. The character art is that hard-outlined and overdressed Nomura art style that fans of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts have come to love, and the backgrounds are all vibrant and stylized to fit. The pixel art of the character sprites and Noise are all incredibly expressive, with Neku’s idle animation as he jams out to tunes on his headphones being one of my favorites.
The game’s music is unabashedly lyrical, covering a vast array of genres including JPop, Punk, and Hip-Hop, with many different styles of each. I loved almost every song in the game, though I found one of the overworld themes to be a bit grating at times. Other than that, the music is pretty great, and what’s even better is you can buy CDs of each of the game’s songs in the game to have your own personal sound test right from the menu, even going as far as to allow you to set the background music on the menu itself.
The game even has voice acting, though it’s limited mostly to battle quips and wordless expressions for cutscenes. I actually really enjoyed the voice acting and thought they nailed each character. I was honestly surprised at the audio quality the developers were able to pack into this game. The music was a very slight bit tinny through the DS’s audio chip as is to be expected, but barring that the vocals and voice overs were super clear and the instrumentation of the songs were well mixed.
Overall, the game’s presentation is about as good as it gets on the DS, giving even home console games a huge run for their money.
Conclusion
Honestly it’s hard to say anything bad at all about TWEWY. The game was a bit hard to approach at the time, but it’s aged magnificently. These days, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it’s the best (at least non-Pokémon) game on the DS. Honestly though some might be turned off by the game’s quirks, I think TWEWY is a masterpiece that everyone with a DS should pick up and play. I can’t wait to see how the newly-released sequel stands up, but honestly the original is a tough act to follow.
Score: 10 / 10
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i like pokemon games even when they’re mediocre, also i have heavy nostalgia for gen 4 since diamond was the first pokemon game i ever played, so even though i know there’s no way it’ll capture the Magic of the Original for me, i’m definitely gonna get the diamond and pearl remake if that rumor’s true. anyway here’s me speculating
i’m hoping that since they’ve had some experience working for the switch now, it’ll be a little more polished than sword and shield- it’ll be interesting to see how they adapt the unique features of those games for the switch though, since they were almost all designed around the DS’ touch screen. there’s good and bad ways it could go, but i’m mostly just hoping that they’re not gonna go the route of ‘leaving shit out completely’
here’s my speculation of how contests will be adapted: the rhythm game and appeal round aren’t really a problem (at least i hope), but instead of a dress up round, it’ll be like a ‘headshots’ thing, so you take a photo of your pokemon and then decorate it with stickers- that way they don’t have to worry about the fact that they’re not working off of flat sprites anymore. i’d obviously prefer if they came up with a system where 3D modeled accessories can snap onto specific spots on each monster model’s body, but i’m gonna set my expectations a little more realistic
hopefully poffin making doesn’t get its minigame removed the way that the pokeblock minigame was missing from ORAS- maybe its similar enough to the curry making that they can repurpose that? i wouldn’t mind if they did berries similar to ORAS though, where they’re mostly the same but there’s a specific garden area that makes it easier to keep track of where you’ve planted them (i think my favorite method for berry growing was the HGSS berry pots, but i mostly just want a way to cultivate berries and not just rely on daily random drops)
guessing the underground will be online now? hopefully??
also i’m a little concerned about the fact that these are remakes of games that had the entire dex up until their release programmed into the games (and a HUGE amount of them obtainable in game), so like... are we going to lose some of those in favor of including new pokemon, or... ??? its definitely not like i don’t want to see newer pokemon in sinnoh, i’m just wondering how that will work.
definitely want sinnoh regional variants but who knows if that will happen... i just love regional variants. also would love a more robust following pokemon mechanic and a return of a way to pet your pokemon, but these also feel like kind of a reach so i’m not gonna count on them
anyway even if the game sucks ass and is worse than the originals in basically every way, i WILL cry when i see the trailer, i love sinnoh
OH GOD: hopefully they won’t make the ORAS mistake again of not letting you customize the trainer’s skintone. bare minimum shit, even if we can’t dress up in different outfits there’s no excuse for not giving people darker skintone options for their trainer. but if they do give us customization i will be so thrilled to finally give dawn some pants, if i have to see her trudge through waist high snow in a miniskirt in 3D i will die
closing thoughts: will it be on a grid or will they adapt it more loosely... i hope if its looser it retains the feeling of finding secret areas and solving puzzles. free camera would be sick and its clearly an idea they were considering with SWSH, but then they’d have to model and texture everything to be seen from every angle so... guessing that’ll have to wait for the next generation. do you think they’ll bring back badge polishing? seals?????? have the giratina/distortion world stuff from platinum expanded for like, a DLC release or a delta episode style thing?? god imagine if they brought back that lost online lobby space and its minigames from platinum, i remember playing in there a ton as a kid and being so excited when i got the secret mew themed room
anyway, to jump the gun completely, i’m gonna pick turtwig again because i apparently can’t not pick turtwig, but maybe i’ll get pearl this time now that i’m not a kid who insists they don’t like pink. but also... dialga.... i like that guy
#pokemon#this is a long post with no structure which is why this is all under a cut. i love diamond and pearl#i need a text post tag
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The World Ends with You
Jupiter - DS - 2008
[screenshots from Nintendo Life, jack-reviews.com, and LPArchive; please excuse the low res, I couldn’t find better ones]
TWEWY is an RPG with modern (circa 2008) style and character designs by Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Kingdom Hearts. I meant to write about it the day its sequel NEO: TWEWY came out but missed that by a few days. anyway, I think it's reasonable to call this game the epitome of the Nintendo DS. it has every feature to be expected of any game on the wildly unique handheld: a touch-based minigame with wireless multiplayer and little bearing on the main game, a sleep mode puzzle, touch controls, forced use of both screens, and gameplay and plot designed to be enjoyed in short bursts. it's loaded with cool ideas, some of which are more than questionable, even barring the crazy DS features, hence the remakes. (savvy readers will notice I left out the iOS and Switch platforms and, while there are remakes of the game for both platforms that have extra content and a more elegant combat system, they don't hit quite like the DS original.)
I don't fancy myself an RPG fan for the most part. the usual high fantasy themes and turn based combat are boring to me. usually, if an RPG has either one I'm not interested, and this has neither of those. I decided to try TWEWY while collecting DS games, and the plot and combat had grabbed me within two hours. I haven't mentioned the awesome music and visuals, both wonderfully stylish and unique in the same way Persona's UI is stylish and unique, only this game uses the style on its game world and characters instead of menus.
the premise is the antisocial protagonist, Neku, wakes up in a killing game wherein each day has a mission that he and his partner either complete or face erasure. after a week of these missions he'll be free. I can’t tell you the massive general plot spoiler that makes the whole thing so compelling as it goes on, so this section of the post is sadly pretty short. there is an anime that goes over the main events, but it's only four hours long compared to the game's 20, character development is sometimes lacking in detail or totally inaccurate, and it generally doesn't include the hardships you would go through as a player e.g. having to try a boss five times.
almost everything about TWEWY's gameplay is intriguing, so I'll try to be concise. combat is a strange beast that comes from developer Jupiter's need to use both screens to the fullest. by the way, don't let this wall of text scare you away from the game; it introduces these mechanics much slower and it's easier to understand and use. the bottom screen is gesture-based ARPG combat where, for example, short swipes over an enemy makes Neku use a sword attack or touching somewhere on the screen makes him fire a bullet. the exact gestures and attacks are determined by what pins he's wearing. the top screen asks you to use the d-pad to attack with Neku’s partner and navigate along a tree of cards where getting the right card grants a star; enough of those allows you to use a powerful and health-restoring fusion attack. there's this green light puck that passes between characters when the one holding it does a finisher and multiplies the finisher's damage with each successful pass up to five times, but disappears if held by one character for too long. fortunately the game has an auto mode for the top screen that's roughly equivalent to mashing left or right on the d-pad so you don't have to try to split your brain between both, but you get a little more experience if that's turned off. I love the bottom screen and the idea of the top screen but could never really get my head around doing both at once. maybe the intent was to focus on the character that has the puck and leave the other standing still or spamming defense? (in NEO: TWEWY, the light puck mechanic was changed to beat drop combos, where using a different character to attack shortly after a finisher gives you some charge for a super. no attention splitting, just fun ARPG combat with an interesting combo system that can inform what pins you use.)
turning up the game's difficulty makes enemies stronger and mostly drops different pins. there aren't random encounters: you have to scan for enemies and mostly get to choose which encounters to take. you can choose to fight multiple in a row without getting health back between them and multiply your drop rate multiplier, with enemies getting stronger the more encounters you take. you get your health back when you return to the overworld, which cuts out a lot of the obligatory spending for healing items and the trouble of running out for the player. there are still some pins that can heal you during a battle, though.
leveling up, instead of arbitrarily increasing every stat, only increases your HP, but you can turn your level down to lower your HP and multiply the drop rate of pins by one for each level. other stats can be increased with clothes or food, with different foods permanently increasing different stats and have different calories. each character can only eat so much in a single real time day, which is wack but still interesting. the food system in NEO is similar except without the per-day limit, and I think it's a great idea that gives the player agency in terms of what stats they want to increase and whether they want larger or smaller boosts.
pins can evolve when leveled up enough, but may only evolve if you give them the right kind of pin points, which is like experience for pins. there's PP from battles, from the game's proto-StreetPass mingle mode (that you could only get randomly roughly every hour, from other folks in TWEWY's mingle mode, or from other DSes running any wireless software; thankfully this is removed from the remakes but it's a neat idea), and from turning off the game for up to seven real time days. if a pin reaches max level with the wrong kind of PP, you have to go get another one to evolve it, but I don't think there are any super rare pins that evolve. the game doesn't show what kind of PP you need to evolve a pin, so while it's a cool idea, there's a fair chance that you'll miss lots of evolutions and not even notice.
there are lots of rare pins that can be worn as a set to do something ridiculously powerful, but you have to go out of your way to get them, like the Darklit Planets. it's a set of seven pins that are useful alone, but if worn all together they become three times more powerful. they all drop rarely from bosses on the highest difficulty. I love wacky, mystical, obscenely powerful postgame stuff like this but can't be bothered to actually go and get it. some games give you their best weapons last, which is always a shame because there's nothing to use it on, but in TWEWY, there's a boss rush that saves your best time and lots of bosses to re-fight for their rare pins, so you'll have a reason to fight bosses until you've got every one of those rare pins.
speaking of postgame, TWEWY's is rather extensive, with a bonus day focused on the Tin Pin Slammer minigame and goofy non-canon alternate personalities plus four sort of tedious missions for every ingame day that unlock secret reports for much more lore about the Reapers' Game. (one of the missions for every day is "find and destroy the pig Noise," which mostly have puzzle-ish fights; one is killed by closing the DS and opening it again, which is the sleep mode puzzle I mentioned.) if you get them all, it unlocks a special scene in the ending, but again, I can't be bothered to do that kind of postgame. not all of it, anyway, the bonus day's missions are too tedious for me.
in Tin Pin Slammer, the minigame with almost no bearing on the main game, you use your pins to play kinda-sorta Beyblade. every pin has different stats, many of which are hidden, and different amounts of the different weapons to stun your opponents' pins with. it's a rather extensive side mode and a totally unnecessary inclusion, but really fun anyway, and can be played wirelessly with others. there are some other mechanics that are also interesting but not quite worth adding any more words to this ridiculously long post, including a brand trends system and an interesting way to limit running from fights.
even with all of these words and some pictures, I seriously can't offer a glimpse of the vibes, the combat, the music, the story, the characters, the entire energy of The World Ends with You in a blog post, and in my opinion, it's not the same without the crispy DS sprites or peculiar dual screen combat. if you like the DS, 2000s energy, or action RPGs, this is an essential addition to your library if you don't want to track down a DS copy or you prefer more elegant combat, try one of the remakes instead. you're this far into the blog post, so I'm sure you won't be disappointed. (NEO: TWEWY is very good too and has a free demo on PS4 and Switch; while not the same, it's still worth trying. it carries a modernized audiovisual energy of its predecessor, more elegant combat improvements to other TWEWY systems.)
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Hinanami!
[im bad @ setting scenes >:[ the first part takes place @ the fountain]
Hajime couldn't focus on his game, how could he? Chiaki's had her head laid in his lap, concentrating on her game trying to beat her previous high score. Hajime's eyes kept shifting towards her, her occasional sniffles made him smile. He wanted this moment to last forever but it was getting late, they'd be kicked off of school grounds soon. "H-hey Nanami, I found this pretty cool cafe in Akihabara, would you, maybe, like to go with me?" he chuckled softly rubbing the nape of his neck. Chiaki hummed quietly, "It doubles as an arcade." Once she heard that she quickly turned her head to look up at him with stars in her eyes, "Really? I'd love to go, when! When! When!" She squirmed in his lap and giggled "Well we can go now but I doubt you'd want to go in your uniform, we should go home and change then meet up... If that's okay with you." Hajime's ears had turned red, maybe if she hadn't moved around so much in his lap he would've been able to keep it together. Chiaki shot up from his lap almost hitting him in the chin and turned to face him "I've never been very good at dating sims but I'll try my hardest to gain relationship points!"
"R-relationship points?! Wh-what are you talking about?"
"Well in every dating sim you get relationship points from dates you go on, I must've already raised enough friendship flags to start gaining relationship points." She gasps. "Unless there's actually a zombie apocalypse and this is just the filler! Now that I can handle."
"I have no idea what we're talking about right now."
"C'mon, we've got no time to lose."
She grabbed Hajime's hand and raced towards the school gate, relationship points? Dating sims? Hajime couldn't help it, he blushed at the thought of going on a date with Chiaki, what would he wear? What would he say? Should he bring flowers? His stomach churned, he was nervous.
They were outside of school property now, Hajime caught his breath "So, should I come pick you up? Or should we meet at the train station?"
"Let's meet at the station, it'll be more efficient that way. Bye now." She waved at him and started walking home, taking her DS out and walking, how does she not run into stuff? It's a mystery to him, he waved and watched her walk until she was too far to see, he pivoted and went home.
[Chiaki]
She threw her bag onto her bed and paused her game. She put her hands on her heart & blushed like mad, what would she wear? All she had was her uniform, merchandise and cosplay, what would normal girls wear? She thought about texting her classmates but then decided to trust what's dearest to her, video games. She booted up Kitty Powers' Matchmaker and Hunie pop on two monitors and started to play, after about 20 minutes she knew exactly what to do.
[Hajime]
Once he got home he flopped onto his bed, his mind was racing, what to do, what to do. He took off his uniform then stopped, he stared at his binder, would she mind? Would she care? Would she understand? He quickly put on a red long sleeve shirt, he felt plain in it so he put on a horde shirt on top, Chiaki probably plays The Horde...Right? He put on some loose jeans and as he was tucking his shirt in he remembered all those Tumblr posts about bisexual people tucking their shirts in, whatever, it doesn't matter. He finished cuffing his jeans and put on some converse, he tried sticking that one piece of hair down but no matter what he did it always shot back up.
Hajime: im walking to the station now
Chiaki: oki doki!! cant w8! >-< im omw 2!!
Soon enough he reached the station, he assumed she'd take a long time to get there but to his surprise she showed up two minutes later. Hajime's heart started racing, her cat thigh highs, her frilly skirt, her Resident Evil shirt, he felt as if his heart would explode and it almost did, Chiaki's hair was tied into two low pigtails, he didn't think she could get any cuter but there she is. Her jacket perfectly framed her breasts, he tried not to stare but his blush gave it all away. "H-hinata-kun? Do I look bad?" His staring must've made her self-conscious, he rushes to her side & hesitantly puts his hands on her shoulders. "I think you look perfect, not perfect like you're a god or something, BUT YOU'RE NOT UGLY, I've never seen you as ugly. Not that others do! I just think that- I'll s-stop talking." She giggled, "I understand, now let's go, my fingers are aching to play." She wiggled her fingers in Hajime's face.
Soon enough their train came, of course it was full, afterall it is a train to Akihabara, it's bound to be full. Hajime held the pole and held Chiaki close, she took out her handheld, muted it and played til they reached their destination.
(a/n: its considered rude to talk/make loud noise in trains in japan)
Hajime sighed a sigh of relief as he stepped off the train, having Chiaki pressed up against him drove him crazy. She turned to him "Lead the way Master Cheif!" She was beaming with excitment, Hajime chuckled and started walking towards the cafe before he audibly gasped, Chiaki intertwined their hands, she looked up at him and smiled, her smile was his kryptonite, he quickly turned away from her and sped up. "H-hey Hinata! Slow down! I can't keep up" Chiaki was tripping over her own feet and the cracks in the side walk, she puffed her cheeks at Hajime, which in his opinion only made her cuter. "I'm sorry Nanami, I just want to get there before they close yknow?"
"I get it, just slow down a bit." She chuckled and tilted her head at him.
They continued on, they didn't need to speak, just having each other around was enough. As they reached their destination Chiaki's eyes went wide, she could see all the games from the window, she bounced "Let's go Hinata-kun!" Chiaki dragged Hajime inside and once she stepped in her jaw dropped, she felt as if she was in a dream, she spun around, getting a good look at everything around her. She jumped onto Hajime "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Hajime hugged her tightly "I knew you'd like it here." "Like it? I love it? Let's go, c'mon" Chiaki dragged Hajime to the nearest game, he chuckled to himself, she's so quiet and reserved but when it comes to games, she's a completely different person. He thought to himself. Chiaki couldn't take her eyes off the screen, she was so focused that she had her tongue sticking out a bit in between her lips, Hajime wanted to poke it, but why? He had no reason to, he stared at her, he could barely focus on his own screen plus she was doing just fine without him, the flashing lights hitting Chiaki's soft skin made her seem unreal, the reflection of her screen in her eyes, the noises she'd make, it all made Hajime's heart flutter. "I'm gonna go get us some boba, what flavour do you want?" She stayed silent for a bit "Strawberry...probably." Her eyes didn't leave the screen, Hajime walked off to go get their boba. Once Hajime left, Chiaki felt lonely, why? He's still there, he just left to get some boba. Even though Hajime didn't do well with the game she still enjoyed his company, even if he was just standing their, but Chiaki didn't feel lonely for long, she soon felt two hands cover her eyes "Guess who?" She giggled and turned around, not caring about the game, Hajime handed her the boba and sipped on his "Wow, the games are great and so are the drinks" Chiaki held her cup with two hands and took a large sip. Hajime laughed to himself and leaned against the machine behind him, "I found DDR on the other side of the cafe, wanna have a competition?"
She gulped. "I'll wipe the floor with you!"
"Bring it on!"
They rushed to the DDR machine and discarded their empty cups, obviously Chiaki picked the hardest difficulty, Paranoia Survivor Max, hijinks ensued; Chiaki was getting a perfect score as always so Hajime decided to tickle her, it worked, she lost her combo & Hajime continued. Chiaki puffed her cheeks "Hajime, someone's stealing your phone!" Hajime quickly turned around and looked for his phone, Chiaki laughed as she continued to play, they decided to focus on their game however Hajime isn't the most graceful when it comes to DDR. Hajime ended up tripping on his shoelace and landed on top of Chiaki with a thud, he's seen enough anime to know that he's probably touching her breast or his face is in between her legs but no, this wasn't an anime. Even with Hajime on top of her Chiaki couldn't help but laugh, Hajime slowly lifted himself off the laughing girl. His hands were near her head, he was still on top of her but he didn't want to move, he's never heard her laugh like that, he bursted into laughter, he didn't care if people were staring, he was having fun, she was having fun. Chiaki started to snort, she tried stopping but the more she did the more she snorted, Hajime thought it was the most beautiful noise, cuter than her giggles, cuter than her hmph's, cuter than her sniffles, her unrestrained laughter was music to his ears. Once they both calmed down they got up off the floor and smiled at each other, they couldn't help it, it was so natural to them.
"I'm sleepy... Let's go home." She giggled softly as she grabbed Hajime's hand and laid her head on his shoulder. He put an arm around her and hugged her close, in that moment, he felt perfect, no need for a talent, no need to be an ultimate, no insecurities, no doubts, he felt perfect... With her.
hhhh i hope u liek it! im not a writer but i tried my best!
#danganronpa#shipping#hinanami#chiaki nanami#hajime hinata#sdr2#chiaki x hajime#hajime x chiaki#i still dont know how to tag things right#this is shit#oops?#fanfiction#anime#love#hajime is trans#trans hajime
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too 10 zelda games and why?
an ask? sick!! ok top 10 zelda games with reason coming up! (why cant i tag asks??)
1: skyward sword (duh)- Everything about this game is amazing, the soundtrack, the Npcs that feel like people, the puzzles, the controls, just everything! The storyline was linear, but really worth it! This might seem unpopular, but i also loved fi, from her aesthetic to her theme, hell i didnt mind her tips, no matter how many times i play through the game! People say they dont like having to fight the imprisoned/ghirahim 3 times. I loved the ghirahim fights and didnt mind doing it 3 times. And while the imprisoned was annoying, it was there because of plot consistency. The old woman says that too much power will draw it out, and if that didnt happen every time yall would be complaining about plot consistency. Skyward sword also had some of my favorite characters: Ghirahim and this version of Zelda!
2: Spirit tracks (wii u virtual console): this was my first Zelda game, I used to play it at family events with my cousin on his ds because social anxiety. You might think that i have it so high for nostalgia, and while that was the case for a while, i recently got the virtual console version, and played though it twice (you know when you do something recently it loses its nostalgia?) the soundtrack was great, i loved anjean, and zelda in that game was incredible. Taking the form of a phantom to help you, literally all of zeldas and links interactions were adorable. People said hey didnt like the touch controls and while they did take some getting used to, i adjusted kinda quickly, and when i played phantom hourglass afterwards, i kept dying cause the rolls were different.
3: Ocarina of time (3D): yes i didnt have an N64, fight me. Oot is a fan favorite, and for good reasons. It basically invented the zelda formula (if i have my release dates straight?) not counting alltp. Shiek is one of my favorite characters in anything ever, and admittedly, i did get a little sad when navi left. The soundtrack is good, but short when compared to other zelda games (that and it keeps getting taken off of youtube gdi!) again, ive never had an n64, so idk what the water temple was like back then, (i know about the iron boots gear screen) but from some of my cousins reactions, it seems to be a LOT better in the 3ds version
4: A link Between worlds: This is a really solid entry in the zelda series. Its got just enough difficulty that i dont remember literally everything, but easy enough that i can listen to something like TAZ while playing and understand whats happening in both. Ravio is a good character, though i wish you could steal for him. The items system was really cool, but i like that feeling of “whatre ya gonna get in this temple” that most zelda games have.
5. Minish cap (virtual console wii u): the minish cap is an all around pretty game. The graphics are just beautiful, the soundtrack is amazing, specially minish woods! And its got another of my fave characters, Vaati! Ezlo was also a great character, and sure the kinstones are annoying if youre tyring to 100% the game as are the figures, so this is why we dont 100% things! /s
6. Majoras Mask (3D): Disclaimer: i havent finished this, i was in ikana when my sister lost our copy of the game. But i know the story. MM is a game with only 4 dungeons, so it would seem short right? No, because of the 3 day system it takes longer than expected and wants you to plan out what youre doing. It had a lot of memorable sidequests and the masks were really fun as well. The soundtrack takes those OOT sounds and creates a whole new feel and its a heckin good time!
7. Twilight princess (wii): another game i havent finished! This time because spider scary, and im worried about encountering another one. Midna is super awesome, as is the wolf form and twilight sections, but on the wii, the controls are… awful. Anyone who complains about skyward swords motion controls has obviously never played this version of the game. Zant was cool, but then he was immediately overshadowed by ganondorf with little explanation. At least in Skyward sword ghirahim makes it clear that all he wants is demises resurrection.
8. Wind waker (HD): for a lot of people this is their favorite, but idk it just never really clicked with me. Maybe its because i saved in the wind temple and Makar vanished so i had to reset my game? The soundtrack was good, but not really my fave, and i didnt like the king of red lions all that much. But other than that, it was a pretty solid game, just not one of my faves.
9. Phantom hourglass (wii u virtual console): after i beat spirit tracks i just HAD to play phantom hourglass, and i gotta say, i was pretty disappointed… the temple of the ocean king was like the tower of spirits, but the time limit. Oh the time limit. Also they fucking nerfed tetra in this game cmon! Ceilia made navi nosies, which i found funny for some reason. Honestly, the only saving grace is linebeck. his theme is amazing, he did grow on me, and the final boss fight against him was *chefs kiss*
10: Botw (both wii u and switch): yeah i just dont really like botw all that much. Half of the soundtrack is pretty decent, but the other half is * 5 piano notes* “what you want MORE???” I didn’t like botw Zelda. At all. At best she was quirky and kinda annoying, and at worst she made me wanna slam my head into the wall. I also didnt care about the champions, no matter how much the game wanted me to. The divine beasts were pretty bad, and the shrines were just kinda tiresome. The graphics were pretty cool (THANK GOD THERE WERE NO SPIDERS) i mean its a cool game, just not a cool zelda game, ya know? Also this is the only game thats made my wii u crash. And it wasnt just one time. Do with that what you will
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Alright, a quick rating of the Zelda titles:
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
I actually only played this game when I was 15, because we didn’t had it on our original NES, then sold it and only got the game when we bought a used NES.
For such an old game, it holds up pretty well. It is fun to play, but it has some hiccups, like totally random bombable walls in the overworld. I was lucky to have found an old map from some 1989 Nintendo magazine.
I rate this game as a solid 7/10.
Adventure of Link (NES)
Ah, the black sheep.
For some reason, they thought they needed to make this game into a sidescroller which were pretty popular at the time, but imo took away from the Zelda experience.
It also is hard, super hard, one of the games that named the trope “nintendo hard”. I actually never made it past the second boss.
So I never played through the game, but watched others play. I think they shouldn’t have changed the formula so much after only one game, but it isn’t a bad game per se, just one that doesn’t fit. I give it a 5/10.
A Link to the Past (SNES)
Now that game took everything the original had and made it BETTER. The overworld is huge, the music is stellar, the game even tells a story, a bit hidden, but it is there, it established quite a few staples in the series like the heart pieces and some leitmotifs like Zelda’s lullaby and Hyrule Castle theme.
And then the game takes its huge world and makes it in a dark mirror, now that was amazing!
The only criticism I have? The Dark World dungeons are too similar, but other than that: 10/10
Link’s Awakening (GB/GBC)
Ok, this game was my first Zelda, so it gets the nostalgia bonus.
I ADORE this game. Now that I am older, it is obvious, that the game started as fangame, but whatever. It works super well with the tiny console it came out on (the Game Boy), is super fun, has well thought out dungeons which revolve around a theme and also adds two new more staples in Zelda games:
The quirky characters and the creepy undertones.
LA has a really big twist in the second half and it is kind of depressing when you know it, but I love that scene and the music that plays in it. That game was surprisingly mature for it’s cute limited style.
It also gave us the ballad of the windfish, though...
In my heart it gets a 11/10, but objectively it gets an 8/10.
Ocarina of Time (N64)
Ehhhh...
Nah, it isn’t the best Zelda ever.
I liked the game, but even at age 11 it felt just like A Link to the Past in 3D, even less, because OoT is very linear. LA was linear too, but it had the game boy excuse.
What I like about OoT is the focus on more story, the races of Hyrule are more in the focus and the music is gorgeous, as well as the jump in 3D was well done, but I wished they hadn’t given Link the autojump. Ugh.
It’s a solid title, 7/10.
Majora’s Mask (N64)
Now hold my beer, that game looks so stressful, but it is GOOD. Seriously, this game is amazing. It takes a timed countdown and makes it WORK!
It isn’t just a reskin of OoT, because of a lot of clever new mechanics, the transformation masks.
The story is a bit weird and also dark. Jeez, this game is the darkest Zelda game ever, but wow, it’s also deep as hell.
Music? FANTASTIC! Actually my fav score from all the games.
Majora’s Mask earns a 10/10.
Wind Waker (Game Cube)
Adorable, cute, has some really cool twists, music is fantastic, art style is timeless and the sailing wasn’t boring!
Like Majora’s Mask, that game lives a lot of sidequests, but I really liked it and I liked the slow reveal of just what the world of WW is.
I loved it on the Game Cube and even though I only played through it in like 2014 (because I deleted my save game and started over, wtf?), I think this is one amazing title. It get’s a 10/10. Because I loved the sailing.
Twilight Princess (GC/Wii)
Well, that game just screams OoT at me at every single moment.
I still love it. I played it after I had a a bit of a fallout with single player games and went raiding in WoW for a year straight. Going back to just being single player was amazing.
Ok, the wii mote was a bit meh, but the game was good. I liked Wolf Link and Midna and the Twilight Realm and all the references. I felt at home and liked to see a more mature approach at the story, even though this game isn’t as dark as MM, it still counts to the darker ones.
But I don’t like every little thing about it... I give it a 8/10 though.
Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Yeah, they are weird. Yes, I love them nonetheless. Music is a disappointment though, but love the idea, characters and dungeons as well as some of the new items. 7/10 for both.
Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Oh, come on, the game isn’t that bad, but I admit, the phantom hourglass temple was uuuugh.
6/10 and one point is for Linebeck alone.
Spirit Tracks (DS)
Now that is what Phantom Hourglass should have been! A clever story, a nice inclusion of Zelda, the touch screen controls work well, the train is HELLA fun, tons of sidestuff to do, stellar OST, really fun villain.
This games works and it works well. 9/10, just because the pan flute was awful and I got dizzy by all that blowing.
Skyward Sword (Wii)
Master, your batteries are low.
Shut up, Phai!
I want to like this game, I really want, but, but...
I had to recalibrate my Wiimote every 20 minutes! The motion controls made the game unneccesarry clunky and Phai is the most annoying sidekick of all time.
The story was cool though, I loved learning how the master sword came to be and it had some really clever dungeon ideas, like the time based ones. Also, Ghirahim as well as Ballad of the Goddess.
I give it a 5/10 though, because of the damn motion controls!
A Link between Worlds (3DS)
It is AlttP with a twist.
A good twist.
It used the 3D effect of the 3DS and played with 2D and 3D perspective for puzzles.
It took the story of ALttP and made it good.
It made the OST better.
the dungeons were short enough to be played in a short session, good for a handheld
fixed the same looking dungeons.
11/10, really, that game ist fantastic
BotW (Switch/Wii U)
I had some troubles with the game at first, but then? I started to adore it.
The world is HUGE, like, never ever have we seen such a huge world, oof. And there is actually stuff to do. Shrines to find, Koroks to find, monster camps, animals to hunt, unfixed events!
The game is super non linear and it’s amazing!
It is a whole new look on Hyrule and on the formula and it works.
It has a few annoying things (climbing in rain, weapons breaking, some foes overpowered), but it is super fun and I want the second installment now.
9/10
#the legend of zelda#not counting the four sword titles because they are basically multiplayer#I didn't forget one I hope
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flares
chapter: 31/?
summary: Dan’s body has been broken for as long as he can remember, and he’s long since learned to deal with it. Sort of. But when his symptoms force him to leave uni and move into a new flat with a stranger named Phil, he finds that ignoring the pain isn’t the way to make himself happy.
word count: 4k (103k total)
rating: mature
warnings: chronic illness, chronic pain, medicine
a/n: As always, immense thanks to @obsessivelymoody for beta’ing!
Ao3 link || read from beginning
They settle into bed that night with no intention of going to sleep.
Dan’s laptop is open, resting on his thighs. Phil propped up two pillows against the wall for him to lean against, his back and neck still tender from the pressure point test Dr. Kissel performed. The duvet is draped across his lap, his toes sticking out from the end of it.
Phil stares at the screen over his shoulder. Dan can feel the warm puffs of air from his breathing against his skin.
He types fibro mialgia into Google.
Its response is Did you mean: Fibromyalgia, just enough to have a quiet breath rumbling between Dan’s ribs.
He clicks on the first link, a webpage from the Mayo Clinic. He’s pretty sure that’s in America somewhere. It probably doesn’t much matter. The top of the page tells him it’s believed to amplify painful sensations by changing the way the brain processes pain. He thinks that’s what Dr. Kissel said.
Dan’s not entirely sure what fucked up pain processing is supposed to feel like, but he thinks this is probably it.
The next paragraph is about trauma, about how it sometimes triggers fibromyalgia. Dan tries not to let the fact that he doesn’t relate make his insides twist too much.
Phil must be able to tell, because he leans in close and whispers, “It says ‘sometimes’.”
The one after that includes a list of other conditions that may be related. Dan reads it once, twice, three times before his gaze lingers on the last two. His stomach goes tight. He doesn’t realize his fingertip’s tapping his computer until Phil reaches over to grab it, snagging one of Dan’s hands and drawing it into his lap.
He doesn’t ask what Dan’s staring at. It’s probably obvious.
Dan’s spent years trying to convince himself he definitely wasn’t depressed, that definitely wasn’t his problem, and now it’s splashed across the page again in the clearest of sans serif fonts. Dr. Kissel didn’t mention that one. He wonders how much of his chart she’s read, if she knew it would make him feel like this.
He almost shuts the laptop and gives up on research. Maybe he doesn’t want to know after all.
But then Phil reaches over and scrolls down for him, leaving the list of symptoms lighting up Dan’s screen.
Everything after that is overwhelming in a different way. There’s a lot of symptoms. A lot of possible treatments. Dan’s never considered most of them. Massage therapy sounds incredibly unpleasant. Acupuncture, too. Getting enough sleep sounds so implausible that Dan actually laughs, too loud, too sharp.
The next page on Google is a lot of the same. So is the third, and the fourth.
Exercise is mentioned a lot. Dan’s joints ache at just the thought of trying to go out for a run, at the memory of how painful it was just to walk to class back at uni, of how sick he used to feel after gym class back in school.
There’s a lot they don’t know about fibromyalgia, he learns. There’s no cure, no definitive answer on why things hurt. There’s a bunch of studies that show little abnormalities that might cause it but none of them agree and none are conclusive and Dan doesn’t much care.
He knows, finally. And there’s some stuff they do know.
It’s not fatal. It’s never fatal. Dan reads that bit out loud, because Phil’s sitting next to him, gaze tripping across the page just a bit slower than Dan’s. Dr. Kissel already told them that more than once. The extra layer of reassurance makes Phil lean in close, his body pressed against Dan’s side.
He dusts a kiss to Dan’s bare shoulder, soft, loving.
There was a time when Dan might have been terrified by the prospect of a lifelong condition with no cure and no potential to be let out of his misery. It’s still scary now, not knowing what to expect for any of his future. But giving this up isn’t really an option anymore.
Phil lets go of his hand to wrap his arm around Dan’s shoulders instead, leaning in close so his head rests right above Dan’s collarbone.
“I’m glad you have an answer,” he says. His voice has gone low and gravelly.
He sounds tired. And he has to work in the morning. And Dan suddenly feels bad for keeping him up for so long with a cycle of redundant articles that say the same little bit of information in slightly different ways. He closes his laptop, scrolled only halfway down the page.
“You’re not gonna keep reading?”
“I can read tomorrow,” he says. “Apparently I need to focus on getting enough sleep.”
Phil chuckles. He pulls away just enough slip down the mattress until he’s lying down. Dan tosses the extra pillow onto the floor and rests his laptop precariously on the corner of his bedside table before doing the same. He reaches out, draping his arm across Phil’s stomach, cuddling up against his side.
He can’t handle the pressure against his back tonight. Phil doesn’t seem to mind.
His palm settles flat against Dan’s ribcage, head dipping down. Dan looks up to meet his mouth in a quick kiss goodnight.
When he pulls away, he’s smiling.
---
Dan dreams of being old that night.
He’s sitting in a mostly empty room with white walls and a sofa. There’s a blanket draped over him and an ice pack sitting uselessly atop his head. It’s just like his life now, except when he looks down, his hands are wrinkled and spotted with age.
He wakes up. The room is still dark, hardly a touch of light filtering through Phil’s curtains. Phil’s still sound asleep, snoring softly.
Dan’s brain is echoing his nan’s complaints about how achy her knees were, the ones he could relate to when he was only fourteen.
He swallows, presses himself tighter against Phil’s side, and stares at the window until he falls back asleep.
---
His chest is tight when he wakes up in the morning.
Phil’s not in bed anymore. There’s a note on Dan’s bedside table telling him Phil’s already gone to work. It has a silly little smiley face drawn in the corner. Dan’s laptop has been moved to sit on the chest of drawers instead, more stable there than where he placed it last night.
He sinks back against his pillow once he’s spotted it. His breath comes out as a sigh, his hand coming up to rub hard at the line of his sternum, as though that will ease the pressure there.
His knees crack when his climbs out of bed. There’s still a tingling, radiating sort of pain where Dr. Kissel pressed against his body, all down his legs and up along his spine. Some of them feel swollen, but when he rubs at the back of his neck, there’s nothing there.
Dan grabs his laptop and changes his pants before moving to the lounge.
He turns to look back before he leaves, hand gripping the door frame to steady him. The duvet is ruppled on both sides, a giant ball of fluff where Dan’s feet were. There’s a pillow on the floor and two pressed close together at the head of the mattress. Dan’s phone charger rests on his bedside table, plugged into nothing.
Something spasms in Dan’s chest.
It takes him a moment to realize it’s anxiety.
---
The kettle is half full of water on the kitchen counter. There’s a smoothie in the fridge with a straw already sticking out of it. Phil left the cereal box out, plastic bag half poking out the top of it, and the cupboard door open overhead. Dan closes it as he sips at his breakfast.
He doesn’t turn the TV on this morning.
He drags his computer onto his lap and opens the article he’d left half read last night. He doesn’t finish it. There’s other things on his mind this morning than symptom lists he’s already read and collections of advice that only seems half effective.
Working with fibromyalgia, is what he types into Google today.
The first link is to a WebMD article. Dan clicks it without thinking much.
People can work with this, is the first thing Dan learns. It makes his chest feel funny, something half relief and half not blooming there. Keep working, is what the article says, and Dan tries not to think about the day he handed his resignation to Sue, body aching so much just getting there had been a hassle.
He fails.
He thinks about it for so long that his vision goes out of focus, the article sliding into double. It snaps back into place when he blinks and scrolls down to the next part, too many lists of too many questions to address way too many problems.
The advice is … a lot. It’s flexible work hours and working from home, extra equipment at work and less tasks. It’s finding a job that’s not too stressful and lets you sleep in, and one where you don’t need to do manual labour but can also survive when your brain isn’t working right.
Right in the middle of it, there’s an ad for some pill that starts with, Does your penis curve when erect?
Dan laughs. It’s only then that he realizes his throat’s gone tight and his eyes are stinging. His fingers are shaking over the keyboard when he jams the down arrow to read the rest of the page. It takes him too many tries to stay steady enough to click the arrow bringing him to the next one.
Can I get disability with fibromyalgia? is its header.
Dan almost forgets how to breathe. He doesn’t read it. He doesn’t go back to Google. He closes Chrome entirely and slams his laptop shut and tells himself it’s because the advice was about American law and not because his stomach suddenly really doesn’t like the smoothie Phil made more him.
A tear rolls down his cheek.
He stares at the blank TV screen until it falls off the bottom of his chin.
---
The lounge is full of both their stuff.
There’s a PlayStation and a Wii on the TV cabinet, above neat shelves lined with a shared collection of games. There’s two DS chargers plugged into the wall. There’s a stack of DVDs by the door to the balcony, Dan’s piled on top of Phil’s from when he first moved in.
The blanket Phil got him is draped over the sofa. Decorations he had before Dan moved in are all laid out on the furniture and hanging on the walls. There’s a throw pillow that used to live on the sofa that now sits in the corner of the room.
Dan thinks too much about how none of his A-levels or GCSCs will ever be enough to get him a job that would give him any of the things on WebMD’s list.
And then even more about all the horror stories he’s heard about people living on benefits.
And then, once his chest hurts and pressure is welling at his temples, about how he doesn’t really have a choice but to need one of them if his body’s not going to be fixed.
It’s not. Dan expected that. He tries not to care. Part of him doesn’t.
But the other part of him reminds him that Phil’s parents are still paying his part of the rent, echoes his mum’s warnings about leeching off Phil until tears are welling in his eyes once again. It pictures the people back in Wokingham who told him he’d never go anywhere if Dan didn’t learn to deal with a little bit of pain.
His brain flashes a quick image of being back there.
He reaches for his phone, just to distract himself. He ends up texting Taylor instead.
Dan: can you come over? i have news
Taylor: already on my way out the door
---
“You look less shit today,” is what she says when she opens the door. There’s a smile on her face, wavering just enough to let Dan know it’s her attempt to act normal.
He doesn’t feel less shit. The post-appointment high has settled into something just as heavy and insecure feeling as before, just tainted with different memories, weighted with different fears.
“Yeah,” he says, “Well, stuff happened.”
He leads her to the lounge without explaining first. His body is achy and she knows he needs to be sitting down. When she settles down next to him, it’s with her whole body turned towards him, legs tucked under her and arm draped across the back of the cushions, like she’s waiting for something.
She doesn’t ask for it.
Dan takes a moment to steady his breath before saying, “I’m not dying.”
She chuckles, breathy and uncertain. “That’s good,” she says. “You better think it’s good.”
There was a day, back in at uni, when she’d tossed her textbook aside and said killing me would be less painful. And Dan, safe in the knowledge that she wouldn’t try to send him to a therapist, lest the advice be turned back on her, had admitted sometimes I wish I was dying just so I’d know the pain would end.
“It’s good,” says Dan. He turns towards her, offering a smile that actually feels genuine. “I have a diagnosis.”
“Oh!” She bounces on her knees. “And?”
“It’s fibromyalgia.”
She nods, just once, brows going a little furrowed. “Is it bad that I don’t know what that means?”
Dan laughs. “Neither did I,” he says. “I reckon most scientists don't either, if Google is a reliable source.”
“Sounds accurate, if my quarter of a bio degree is anything to go off,” says Taylor. A smile quirks at the corners of her mouth.
Dan’s not sure he’s ever seen her smiling when talking about those classes. It’s nice.
“Yeah, most of my old doctors confirm the theory,” he says, smiling too. “Dr. Kissel’s actually good, though.”
“Yeah?” says Taylor. “And this fibromyalgia thing, is it good?”
He shrugs. The anxiety from before burns in his chest again. His head tilts back against the sofa, and he watches Taylor’s brows furrow in concern.
“Probably shouldn’t be. The symptoms are royal shit and there’s no cure and I don’t really know where to go from here,” he admits. “But having an answer? That’s good.”
A smile spreads slowly across her face, close-lipped and content. Dan watches her eyes flick between both of his, her head falling to rest against her open palm as she stares.
“I’m not gonna pretend to understand,” she says. “My diagnosis– I knew what was wrong, I just didn’t want to admit it, you know?”
Dan nods. He wonders if that’s one of the things she learned about herself in therapy, wonders how he never really saw it that way. Maybe because he couldn’t relate. He never felt like he knew what was wrong with him. Until now.
His heart clenches at that, eyes falling closed against the rush of anxiety-tainted relief that floods the already too-full space between his ribs.
Taylor reaches over, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. Her voice is quiet as a whisper when she says, “I’m so happy for you.”
He laughs. It comes out as a puff of air that sounds half like a sob, but it’s the best he can muster without actually breaking into tears.
She must be able to tell, because she pulls away and settles back against the sofa. Dan counts his breath for a moment afterwards, until the steady rise and fall of his chest feels less fragile. When he opens his eyes again, Taylor’s staring up at the ceiling with him, lips still quirked up.
“You get to join me in the arduous process that is recovery now, you know,” she says. “Welcome to the dark side.”
Dan smiles. “Shouldn’t it be the brighter side?”
“Hush,” she turns to him. Her smile’s reaching her eyes, like it rarely used to before. “I’ve been rehearsing that in my head for the last, like, two minutes, let me have this.”
When Dan laughs that time, it actually feels genuine.
---
Taylor stays for dinner. Phil invited her.
They eat around the coffee table. Taylor lets Phil have his usual spot next to Dan with a joke about how she’s pretty sure it’s morphed to their spines by now, and drags over a chair from the dining table instead. She tells Phil all about her new courses as they eat, a grin wide on both their faces.
Afterwards, they play a round of Mario Kart, because they can. Dan wins. Taylor comes in second this time, and Phil complains about how she’s never allowed to play with them again because, even if he can’t beat Dan, he can beat the computers. Usually.
Dan teases him with that last bit. He points out how often Phil ends up stuck in the item clusterfuck and, when he pouts in response, presses a quick kiss to his cheek. Because he can.
It feels normal. As normal as it can when, a few months ago, he and Taylor were playing this game on their DS’, miserable in Dan’s uni bedroom.
So, not normal at all.
Taylor’s laughs so much happy tears leak from the corners of her eyes. Dan has an answer for why his chest aches when he laughs too much. Phil reaches around him, and flattens a hand against Dan’s ribs when his breath catches around an exhale.
He whispers a quiet one, two, three, against the round of Dan’s shoulder.
Dan leans his head back against the cushions again, and enjoys the company of the two people who will give him a second to steady the broken parts of his body without making him feel bad.
When he looks back up, he smirks at them both, and starts a round of Rainbow Road without warning.
---
The anxiety starts to come back when darkness falls.
Phil leads him to the bedroom without a word. Taylor’s just left, the sky’s just starting to go dark. It’s been a long time since they last sat up and watched a movie late into the night, Dan realizes, but he doesn’t much mind. It means he gets to wrap himself in cozy blankets and rest his head on a fluffed up pillow and feel Phil’s arms around him.
He gets to reach up and chase away the tedium of the day with soft kisses pressed to Phil’s lips.
Tonight, though, he doesn’t. His mind is too preoccupied by the time he slips under the covers. He stares up at the ceiling and tries not to think of all the long nights he spent with just his pain and his questions to keep him company. Days when the brush of his duvet was too much against his skin, when his pillow pressed too much against the back of his neck.
It’s because there’s tender points there. Dan knows that now.
It doesn’t feel like he should.
He reaches out into the space between them and catches Phil’s hand over the mattress, squeezing once.
“Can I ask you something?” he says.
“‘Course,” says Phil. He rolls over, so he’s curled up on his side facing Dan, head resting against the crook of his elbow.
Dan doesn’t look back at him. He feels weird when he asks, “You know that thing you made me do the other day? To get my thoughts out of my head? With my webcam?”
“Yeah,” says Phil. “Why?”
Dan swallows. Phil must be able to hear it, because he squeezes Dan’s hand, just for a second.
“Would you find it weird if I wanted to do it again?”
“Why would I find that weird?” asks Phil. He lets go of Dan’s hand, only to reach out and clumsily search for his fringe in the darkness. He swipes some curls away from his eyes. “I told you I used to do it, didn’t I?”
Dan shrugs. It’s awkward, with his pillow tucked right above his shoulders. “Yeah. Just feels weird.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to, if it helps,” says Phil. “Do you want me to set it up for you?”
Dan considers it. There’s comfort in the idea, a weird kind that soothes his mind into thinking Phil actually can’t find it weird if he’s willing to help Dan do it. But it’s getting late, late enough that Dan’s pretty sure if he peeked outside he could see the the flashing trails of airplanes over the city, and Phil worked all day.
“I think I can manage,” he says. “Pretty sure I haven’t forgotten how to use my laptop just yet.”
Phil laughs. His hand trails across Dan’s chest as he slips out of bed. When Dan turns to look back from the doorframe, the hallway light lets him see just enough to tell that Phil’s still curled up on his side, smiling.
---
He sets his laptop up on his pillows, with the grainy window of his webcam app filling the screen.
The room stays silent for long seconds after he hits record. Dan adjusts his hair, all curly in the way he hates but can never spare the energy to fix. He fidgets around on his bed until his too-bony knees are out of shot and you can see the waistline of his pants so he doesn’t look naked.
Part of him wants to laugh at himself. It doesn’t matter. No one will ever see this. Dan doesn’t even think he’ll ever look back at it.
He takes a deep breath, brings his fingers to his head, and says, “Hello internet,” just like last time.
And then he rants into the camera until he’s lost track of what he’s already said and isn’t sure any of it is making sense and the anxiety in his brain fades into some sort of mental fatigue. He’s lying down on his side because he lost the energy to sit up and his laptop clock is telling him it’s been over half an hour.
His hands are shaking when he reaches over to shut the recording off. Dan’s not sure when that started.
He’s not sure about a lot of things, he realizes.
Dan rolls onto his back, and stares up a ceiling that’s just like Phil’s but feels way less familiar until he musters the energy to hold his body upright again.
---
Phil’s still awake when Dan goes back to their room.
He looks up from his phone as Dan closes the door behind him and walks over to crawl into bed. He pulls the duvet over his body, right up to his chin, and curls up on his side. There’s a headache welling in his temples, and a heaviness lingering in his chest.
“Were you listening?” he whispers.
“No,” says Phil. He reaches behind him to set his phone down, sending the room dark, and then reaches out to tuck a strand of Dan’s hair behind his ear. “I don’t want to intrude.”
Dan hums. His eyes drift closed as Phil’s thumb traces small circles on his cheek.
Part of him wishes Phil had overheard, so he could soothe Dan’s anxieties without him needing to ask any scary questions. Most of him just wants to hold Phil close and pretend he isn’t suddenly questioning the stability of his entire fucking life, of all the wonderful things in it.
So he does. He grabs Phil’s hand, and dusts a soft kiss to his palm, and then presses closer until Phil’s arms are wrapped all the way around him, holding him tucked against his shoulder in an awkward horizontal hug.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
Phil doesn’t respond with words. He just brushes a kiss to the top of Dan’s head and then, when Dan looks up, a second to his lips.
And a third and a fourth and a fifth until they actually settle in to sleep.
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Girl nextdoor
REAL LIFE
COUPLE TBS X READER
RATING SMUTT
"Thomas! Go help your mother with the washing!" My dad yelled as I sat in my room playing London racer, some little game I picked up cheap where you race a classic mini around the London eye
"Uhhh dad! I'm busy!" I yelled back
"Now!" He ordered so I sighed pausing my game and going down into the garden to help my mum while Ava ran around doing something im not sure what?
"Why do I have to help and Ava doesn't?" I complain
"Thomas!" He warns leaning in the patio door "don't get smart with me, else I'm taking your TV"
"But it's not fair!" I complain
"Thomas go to your room!" He ordered
"Thank you" i smiled going to go but he grabbed my shirt
"I'm taking your TV, and your playstation" he says going upstairs but I ran up to my room as fast as I could but he was already unplugging it
"Dad! That's not fair!" I yelled
"I warned you, I understand your going through some kind of teen angsty phase Thomas but enough of it, your grounded until you sort out this attitude problem" he says as he left the room with my TV and my games consoles so I slammed my bedroom door and laid on my bed, until
"Hello?" A little voice giggled from my window
"I'm not in the mood y/n!" I tell her
"I brought you mashmellows" she giggled
"You can leave them on the desk" I sighed but I heard steps and felt her poke my arm "what?" I groan "what do you want y/n?" I ask turning to see her
Whoa! What in holy hell happened to her!
I hadn't seen her since I came home from my last shoot, i- I was only gone three months!
Her hair had been cut off to a pixie almost, her thick glasses still perched on her nose as normal hiding the little freckles there, she had a little shirt with some graphic thing in it I could see her white bra strap where the shirt had slipped away, speaking of which, they where huge! They went exactly little when I left!, and a little short leatherette skirt with blue leggings hugging he thick things close
"Something the matter Thomas?" She asks confused why I had just frozen looking at her
"Wh wh wha wha what happened to you!" I ask in shock
"Ohh? Puberty I guess, yeah, I kinda missed it all" she blushed
"Yeah... I missed it" I nodded blushing hard
"You look nice though" she smiled sitting on my bed with me fixing a stay bit of her hair
"Thank you, but... As much as I want to see you y/n, I'm grounded" I told her
"Ohh I see" she giggled "it's okay, I'll sneak you food and things to do, here you can borrow my ds" she smiled pulling it out her top
"Y- you can fit a whole ds down your bra now?" I ask and she nods handing it to me giving me a hug and climbing out my window and back to her house I sat shocked a while I couldn't stop thinking about her I put her ds on my bedside table unable to think straight, what the hell is happening to me?
I laid laying y/n's ds, for a while mostly just play germ buster on brain training with the sound only in my earbuds till I yawned so I turned it off getting cosy in my bed to get some sleep, I hugged my pillow tightly, I just felt so happy and cosy in my bed Tonight I heard a giggle which made me jump I looked to my window and nothing, she wouldn't be coming over this late anyway so I put a blanket over me trying to fall asleep...
"Ohh Thomas" that sweet voice called to me, I have a thousand memories of that voice of hers but I loved hearing it tonight "heheheh Tommy"
"Umm y/n" I smirked falling deeper into my sleep,
When I woke I could hear the birds tweeting in the garden and I yawned having a stretch but I felt weird
"Hahahaha Thomas was sexy dreaming!" Ava laughed as she stood in my room "ohhh y/n, ohh Thomas!" She laughs
"Ava! Get out of my room!" I yelled throwing a pillow at her and she ran off out my bedroom I sighed going to get out of bed but I felt awful I pulled my covers back and - oh fuck!
I quickly jumped out of bed, best I could given I had some serious morning wood quickly getting my boxers off and getting a clean pair on ohh how the hell am I gonna deal with my bedsheets? Maybe If I completely strip the bed and tell my mum I changed it maybe she won't ask questions and won't look at the sheet
"Thomas?" A gigglely voice asks so I threw my boxers into the bed and climbed back in hidding everything as she climbed in the window "hi" she smiled
"Hi" I smiled
"You okay?" She asks
"Uhh yeah, yeah you uhh you woke me up that's all" I blush
"Heheheh relax Thomas, I've seen you in bed before, we use to have sleepovers remember" she laughs as she came sitting in the bed with me "are you okay? You seem... distant from me?" She asks
"Hu? Why would you think that?" I ask
"You've been acting odd since you came back, I get it, don't exactly wanna be hanging around with some stupid girl now your all grown up" she says
"No no y/n, it's not that" I tell her holding her hand
"Then what?" She asks
"It's... It's hard to explain" I told her "I don't really understand all of it right now but I promise, it's not that I don't want to spend time with you" I told her
"Yay!" She smiled Hugging my chest so I hugged her too she smiled leaving me some more games and heading off home I breathed alittle now she's gone, that didn't help the morning wood! A beautiful sexy girl climbing in my window at half ten in the morning
I hummed as I pegged my clothes on the line luckily I had managed to sneak anything I didn't want my parents to find away in my own laundry so they wouldn't find it currently doing a whole bunch I my boxers including the ones from the other morning
"Hi Thomas?" A little voice giggled I looked at the fence and saw y/n
"Y/n! Hi! Uhhhh hello" I blushed trying to cover up my underwear
"Relax Thomas, nothing I haven't seen before" she giggled winking at me and Running off.
I sighed sitting in my bed I got my stuff back so I was sat playing some games in the dark, I out of boredom during a loading screen I looked out my window spotting the little light next door I got up and looked, out of curiosity but when I did, I saw y/n stood in her room in just her bra and panties I felt like I was gonna explode she looked beautiful, sexy, irresistible like I'd give the word to get my hands on her I hid myself away shutting my curtians and trying to not think about what I saw shutting my game off and trying to get some sleep but I knew I couldn't it hurt! It pulsed and ached! I don't know what to do! I normally just wait for it to go down, but I can't fall asleep like this even if I did I'm just going to repeat the other week, I thought for ages trying to make it go down, but I felt my hand slip down my stomach and into my boxers not sure why I only really do that if my hands are cold, but I gripped the hard shaft and my eyes rolled back it felt so good I instantly Ran my hand up and down it feeling amazing I couldn't stop my hand working on its own, my head only thinking about one thing... About my pretty little y/n, how amazing she looks now how badly I wanted my hands on her pretty body, how badly I I I want to kiss her and touch her, "uuuhhh y/n!" I groan trying to stop myself from being nosy so my parents and sister won't hear me "uumm uuummmm Y/n..." I wanted her more then I ever have before my beautiful sexy y/n just have her climb in my room in those little dresses and skirts I knew I should stop but I couldn't make myself no Matter how hard I tried to stop "oooh y/n.... Uhh uuuhh" I groaned rolling my head on my pillow when a sudden overwhelming Wave of pleasure washed over me it twinged in my cock but flowed to my head and the tip my toes I couldn't breathe I couldn't think it felt so so good till it stopped. I was eaughsted laid on my bed catching my breath I couldn't even get the strength to open my eyes or move my hand I smirked happy with my little secret and turning over to get some sleep.
I yawned as I stretched getting out of my bed it's been a few weeks since my... Humm my first time doing it, and I'm not gonna lie I might have a problem. Every night before I go to sleep, every morning before I get dressed, every one I have a bath, any time I'm alone, my hands in my pants I couldn't help it it just feels so nice I didn't want to stop I sat on my bed checking my phone nothing important so I went down getting a drink and noticed the house was empty, they had all gone out they'll be back later so a note said so I shrugged and got dressed sitting in bed watching TV having my hand down my jeans, not even to play with myself I just kinda like having my hand down my pants
"Hello?" She giggled so I quickly took my hand out and did my jeans back up
"Hey" I smiled as she climbed in the window "my parents aren't here y/n, you could have used the door" I laughed
"Now you tell me" she sighed coming and sitting on the other side of my bed "hi"
"Hi" I blushed it was strange having her sat on my bed given everything I've been... doing in my bed lately,
"I brought a movie" she says handing me a dvd box so I had a look
"Why did you bring a nature documentary?" I ask
"Looked interesting could learn something Thomas" she laughs getting up and going to sort my TV I got up and had a stretch walking past her
"I guess so, alright.. you do that I will make popcorn" I told her giving her cheek a kiss as I went past, wait... What the hell did i kiss her for! I froze realizing what I had done
"Uhhh okay," she laughs blushing a little "what was that for?" She asks
"I uhhhhh I ummm I umm well I uhgg" I stutter unable to form any words of any sort of excuse for why the bloody hell I kissed her
"Hehe Don't worry about it Tommy, well talk about it later" she smiled giving my cheek a kiss I blushed hard it feeling like burning where she kissed me I quickly ran downstairs to avoid her eyes making some popcorn and getting some other snacks for us even a bottle of fizzy pop and taking it all up to my room, once I got there she had pulled my curtains and the light was off, all but my little lamp on my bedside table and the light from the TV she was sat against the headboard on my side of my bed where I normally sleep Hugging one of my pillows close to her I smiled blushing hard looking at her in my bed we sorted all the snacks out at the end of the bed so they weren't in the way and she smiled patting the space beside her
"Uhhhh y/n, I just, just give me a minute I have to go do something" I tell her
"Okay" she nods giving my cheek another kiss I blushed just as hard as before I not more I went to go but she grabbed my arm "Don't I got a kissy too?" She giggled as she pulled so I sat on the edge of my bed
"Uhh yeah, sorry I uhh" I blushed
"Don't you want to kiss me?" She asks interwining our fingers so I held her hand
"No no no! Of course I do" I said to her "I'm just... Not the best with people, you know that y/n" I told her giving her cheek a kiss "five minutes I promise" I reasure her kissing her hand so she would let me go and she did so I went to my door and she looked upset "five minutes, and I'll be back y/n" I smiled
"Okay" she giggled tucking herself in my bed and blowing me a kiss so I blew her a kiss too before I left my room the second I shut the door I bolted down the corridor to the bathroom ohh my fucking god I kissed her! And she's kissing me! Could I actually get a kiss of y/n? Or maybe even something better! I didn't know what to do to calm down so I brushed my teeth I already did this morning but if our kisses get more serious then I don't want to be worried about it, I didn't know what to do about...the obvious jeans problem, I'm my bed I'll be so tempted to just stick my hands down them, so I undid my jeans quickly Rubbing going as fast as I could thinking of those heavenly kisses umm I want those sexy lips all over me
"Thomas you okay?" She asks from the other side of the door
"Yeah! I'm fine!" I force out trying to keep going hearing her voice helped alot
"Alright, I'm gonna start an episode okay" she says
"Okay, just give me a couple more minutes" I answered just as I "ummmmmm!" I bit m mouth hard to stop myself screaming as I finished into the sink and crashed into the waves of pleasure I smirked and sorted myself out, washing my hands and face as well as putting alot more deodorant and Body spray and fixing my hair so I looked good for her calming down and going back to my room "what did I miss?" I ask sitting on my bed with her
"Uhh the into, and something about lions" she says eating popcorn
"Fun" I laughed quickly getting some popcorn before she ate it all watching the show a while, they where talking about sloths, y/n likes sloths, not sure why... She finds them cute
"Thomas look it's you" she says pointing to the sloth
"Why is it me?" I asked
"Because your lazy, cute and fluffy" she says resting her head on my shoulder
"Aww... Thanks y/n" I smiled resting my head on hers while she was watching I took her hand again making her smile a little more giving my cheek another kiss I blushed hard looking at her nuzzled on my shoulder I smiled and gave her nose a tiny kiss making her giggle like crazy she smiled looking at me I couldn't help blushing harder looking into her eyes I wanted to kiss her to really kiss her and I think she wanted to as well I went to lean In but -
My phone went off so I grabbed it, it was my mum, y/n moved away a little when I answered
"Hi?" I ask
"Hello, were popping into the store after this did you need anything?" She asks
"Uhh no I'm good" I answered after a few more little things she hung up so I sighed putting my phone away "sorry" I told her
"It's okay" she shrugs watching the TV hardly looking at me we sat quietly for a while till I got an idea I yawned and stretched putting my arm around her making her laugh "really? The old yawn arm around Thomas? That's as old as the hills" she laughs
"It worked didn't it?" I shurg and she nods moving to wrap her arms around my neck so I wrapped my other arm around her waist sitting my hands on her waist she smiled licking her bottom lip as she looked at me I froze unsure really what to do but she moved forward pressing her soft lips against mine, it was like heaven to kiss her, her lips soft and smooth perfectly warm and just wet enough I kissed back best I could and she pulled me closer our kiss deepening as she tilted her head a little moving her lips against my own I kissed her back trying my best to keep up with her till we got into a slow and sweet rythum we kept like this for what felt like forever I never wanted to stop just then her tongue licked across my bottom lip I froze unsure how to respond I slightly opened my mouth letting her tongue slip in she played and toyed with my own so I did it a little to her too, she tasted like honey and apple juice and a little of the salt from the popcorn we had even eating till she moved it away so I slipped my tongue in her mouth and she played and toyed with me still even slightly sucking on my tounge which is what made me pull away
"Something wrong Thomas?" She asks
"Wrong? Ohh no, I just uhh need to get breath back honey" I tell her making her giggle more
"Your a good kisser Thomas" shs smiled
"Thanks, your a great kisser y/n" I told her "in fact could I uhh... Could I kiss you again?" I ask and she nods so I pulled her back and kissed her again still losing myself in everything about her I shifted a little in bed slightly uncomfortable when I felt it so I pulled away and moved away from her arms
"Thomas what's wrong?" She asks
"Ohhh uhhh.... Nothing" I blushed trying to hide it with my arms but I think by her face I think she might have known
"It's alright Thomas I know" she laughs "it has been poking my leg the last half hour"
"It has?" I ask and she nods "I'm sorry honey I didn't mean to-"
"Thomas it's alright, your a boy, I'm not surprised it happened I mean it was some pretty serious kissing" she smiled "I was expecting you to its alright"
"Your sure?" I ask and she nods
"I mean, you could always play around with me while we're kissing if you wanted" she smiled
"I I I I I could?" I stutter
"If you like to" she smiled "and maybe if you did I would play too and sort any problems that arise" she smirked
"Uhhh okay" I nod blushing very hard giving her another kiss she giggled giving me a kiss too soon enough we where back to making out I was about to move my hands and -
The door opened and my bedroom light clicked on so I quickly pulled away putting some distance between me and y/n
"What where you to doing up here?" My dad asks
"Nothing" i answered
"In your room? in the dark? In bed?" He asks
"Watching TV" she smiled
"Alright, you should head home now y/n, your parents will be worried" he said leaving my room and we sighed
"That was close" i blushed
"Indeed it was, my house tomorrow, we can lock the door" she winked getting her stuff
"Uhhh y/n, before you go... I- I really do like you, and if we're gonna keep kissing an stuff I I'd really like us to... Be something" I explain and she giggled at me
"Of course Thomas" she smiled kissing me "see you Tomorrow, my sweet boyfriend" she smiled
"Tomorrow, my beautiful girlfriend" I smiled giving her one more kiss before she went off home.
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Is it better to play the original TWEWY or Remix? Are there any major differences?
there are quite a few differences. many people still argue that the DS version is the superior version and i understand where they care coming from, but i actually tend to prefer Final Remix over the DS because it’s easier on my hands than playing the DS version. i love both but you can use the switch in a handheld mode like using the mobile port and play it touch screen.
there’s no differences in the handheld version of final remix. if you played the mobile version it’s the exact same. there’s new items and an entirely new scenario that ties into what will be the sequel if square enix decides to push the big green button. it really comes down to sales. the game is the exact same price as the other editions of the game. just final remix is the one that will count towards if they move forward with the sequel.
there is also the ability to play final remix on a tv using the joycons and playing two player for noise fights. you’ll need to play with the sensitivity for it, and its really hit or miss for some people. ive heard people who loved it and some people who absolutely trashed the game because of playing it in tv screen mode. i honestly just recommend playing it in handheld.
it really just comes down to if you feel TWEWY needs a sequel or not. if you do then i recommend picking up final remix. if you feel the game is solid and you are happy with everything and are okay with where things ended, then i’d stick to the DS version. besides play style comfort, it comes down to if you just want more of TWEWY or not.
for baby's first step into TWEWY, final remix may be the way to go. for a veteran of the reapers game, then it comes down to preference.
#Anonymous#` ✦ ↷ ʳᵉᵖˡʸ▐⋮ noise erased. ★★★★★ ┊ answered.#TWEWY#the world ends with you#TWEWY final remix
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2019 Mega Drive Explorations [4]
A continuation of parts 1, 2, and 3. Click the link below to read the full post.
The NewZealand Story (1990)
This almost instantly became one of my favorite games for the Mega Drive. It was first an arcade release (1988), and got a ton of ports with, I assume, differences between each; Wikipedia notes that the version I played “had its levels based on the prototype version of the arcade game.” What that means, qualitatively, I’m not yet sure. This is some of the weirdest level design I’ve encountered in a platformer that’s not, like, a reactionary deconstructive work (in the way that the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is). The only other somewhat contemporary title I can compare it to is Milon’s Secret Castle (1986). Each of The NewZealand Story’s stages is a sort of maze that’s completed when you reach a fellow kiwi and release them from a cage. What really lets the layouts grow as they do is that, once you get to the second zone (of four), you need to start making use of the various flotation devices which preexist here and there or are left behind by enemies you defeat. So the level design gets to, in a kind of freeform way, flip between “normally” accessible paths and platforms, and toothy stretches demanding aerial navigation. The flotation devices are distinct from one another, too, from how you adhere to it to the speed. What was especially fun about this to me is how, following a clear-out of enemies, you might have a selection of these devices to choose from, and there aren’t really comparative downsides between them (the closest you get to that are these things that look like, uh, torpedoes, which are slow, but they’re also the one device that can’t be popped by shooting at it or touching spikes).
Even if The NewZealand Story isn’t genre-/series-deconstructive, that doesn’t mean it can’t have whimsical moments. A standout for me is illustrated in the third screenshot, where a “room” you have to get to is surrounded by a barrier, and seemingly inaccessible, until you remember that if you are standing below platforms and walkways of a certain thinness and appearance you can jump through them. The solution is to get yourself up against that vertical band and jump through the bit where it briefly horizontally redirects. Cool!! The other thing I like a lot about the level design is that it’s not strictly economical, that some of the structural arrangements seem to exist to form visual patterns more than to control your route. So you have minor casual options for where and how to move through a space. Mercifully, amazingly, bosses are few -- only three -- and they have brevity: you can get rid of the final boss (see the screenshot above) within seconds by popping his balloon. I like looking at this game, too. A couple of stages reminded me of Falcom’s Xanadu and Faxanadu in their cute, flattish, compact representation of architecture or architectural elements within a screen’s worth of space and fortressed tiling. Once you’re past the first zone, loosely themed as a zoo, it’s impossible to tell if the zones’ apertures and voids admit further views or are all mosaics and/or props. It was an unexpected and engaging ambiguity: either interpretation has strange implications. Besides a couple of jumps over and under spikes which demand an inapt exactitude, this is pretty much a perfect game for me, and I wish it had gotten a handheld rerelease on the Nintendo GBA or DS.
Arcus Odyssey (1991)
As a Wolf Team-developed game, Arcus Odyssey sits snugly beside Earnest Evans and El Viento as a whirlwind of inexplicable plot points (rendered more inexplicable, and amusing, by an amateurish localization), lopsided pacing, and just a ton of baffling game design that doesn’t really care about you. Everything is exploding and the gravitas has no narrative grounding. It is at its best hilariously joyful and at its worst insensitively prohibitive. Environments, from a network of walkways suspended thousands of feet above the earth, to a colonnaded stepped complex that recalls John Martin’s infernal painting, Pandemonium, are set at an oblique angle and are swimming with sorcerers, skeletons, cockroaches, and other creatures who unendingly come at you from out of nowhere and half of the time spit projectiles. The palettes and narrow, minuscule tilesets give everything the veneer of a PC-98 title. Regardless of the character you choose (for me, it was the pink-haired Erin who wields a whip), the best strategy is to never stop mashing the attack button. This got iffy in one stage where a numerous type of flying creature left behind a crawling string of flames on the ground upon death. The best strategy for bosses? Use an invincibility-granting item you’ve hopefully snagged from a treasure chest, stand right next to the boss, and... yeah, mash that attack button. Which is fine! This is not a game where the mechanics could’ve yielded bosses who were interesting for reasons other than their appearance.
Arcus Odyssey has two serious, debilitating issues, though. The first is that you only have room in an inventory menu for six items (five, really; one of these items is permanent), and yet I have quite literally never seen another videogame with so many treasure chests relative to its stages’ sizes. You’ll mostly be passing stuff up then because you’re at capacity. Sure, you can consume the things you have to make room, but there are at least three items which have contextually valuable uses: the potion of invincibility, the lifebar-refilling lamp of life, and the resurrecting doll of life. Stocking up on one kind to the exclusion of everything else isn’t a sustainable plan. So the “economy,” as it were, is kinda fucked. The second debilitating, perhaps eventually paralyzing, issue is that Arcus Odyssey has the design of an early Japanese PC action-RPG like Ys or Rune Worth, where you are constantly harangued by waves of enemies who non-specifically occupy the level designs and bosses who may instantly unload multiple projectile-based attacks. That sort of design, somewhat haphazard as it was, could function (with degrees of success) in the context of the RPG part of the “action-RPG” equation, since you could reliably and incrementally level up (and save!). Arcus Odyssey doles out a few upgrades here and there, but it plays out like an action game that doesn’t understand the forms it’s borrowing. As such, it’s easy -- and become easier, the further along you are -- to get yourself into situations whose demands for superhuman, verging on omniscient, performance make no sense. Real shame.
Marvel Land (1991)
Like The NewZealand Story, Marvel Land is a Mega Drive port of an arcade game released a couple of years earlier. Also like the former, it quickly became a personal console-favorite. A few prickles keep me from fully loving it -- namely, the bizarre precision you need to have when jumping on enemies to not get hit yourself (and a hit here, as per usual with arcade games before the 90s, equals death), a few too many leaps of faith, and optional doorways which can send you back to previous levels, as far as the very first -- but the diversity of creatures, stages’ arrangements and themes, power-ups, and unconventional bosses have an individual and cumulative appeal that outweighs those problematics. I think I’m obligated here to say that I will almost automatically like any videogame that has a candy-themed environment, and Marvel Land has one of those, complete with waddling ice cream cones, gingerbread houses, and a maze built of cracker-cookies. The two main and most interesting power-ups are wings which temporarily give you a much higher jump and the ability to fly, and a string of self-duplicates which can be whipped around to hit enemies, collect items for score, and latch onto targets to swing from them. A later level surprised me when it both expected me to use the wings to progress and to be mindful about the height of my jumps so as to not skewer myself on spikes., denying the expectation that such a liberty would dissolve hard designs.
Bosses deserve a special mention because, god, by now I just hate bosses, they ruin so many of these games, and Marvel Land’s are designed as “minigames” -- a game of rock-paper-scissors, selecting an illustration in a grid that matches an example below, or Whac-a-mole (against a mole). It’s decent, clever, and properly playful. Despite this, the game is still compelled to have a “real” boss fight at the very end (were the developers anxious?), and I could’ve done without that; but, it was straightforward enough. The aforementioned bestiary, if you want to call it that, is wonderful and funny and can hold its own against any of the Kirby games’ rosters. You can see, for example, in the last screenshot that a feisty mallard duck who beckons at you with an index feather-finger is named COMEON. Other members include HEAVY, a chubby pink snake, and GIANTBURGER, a sentient burger. As a closing comment, I’ll say that it’s striking and odd how many videogames, from Japan, no less, were about restoring the rule of a Eurocentric fairytale monarchy. Hell, that’s what two of Nintendo’s most popular extant series are about (Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda). Why is this an international go-to for a premise? And how could anyone care about it? In some cases I think it’s fair to guess that the creator(s) did not care and simply went with a cultural trope that was within grabbing range; but the question remains of why those tropes are within grabbing range. We already know why these narratives are also fiercely heteronormative (even The NewZealand Story has to make the last kiwi you rescue be a girl -- wow, thank god!), but this prevalent medievalism that has an uncritical nostalgia for monarchy kinda mystifies me.
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