whoops i’ve got pepto bismol blood brain rot

I'm going to say right off the bat that I am not actually too heated about this, I just thought it might be interesting to talk about if you're willing. If this is getting on your nerves just say so and I will never ask you about your Tsumugi take again. After all we are in the end just strangers chatting about a game :) ( I am so sorry to flood your inbox but now I'm committed to this so. Ignore the others if you want to! Also this is old news but I couldn't send for a few days so here I go.)

I would like to point out that Tsumugi, in canon, shares similarities with Hifumi (fiction>reality & fandom active). They were both played off as just weebs, except for Tsumugi's masterminding. Canonically, Hifumi would be as likely to be a gross creepy fan as Tsumugi- but obviously, thats dumb as shit and he deserves better. The thing im having difficulty understanding is why you would disregard canon's nonsense when it concerns Hifumi, but emphasize that aspect in your perception of Tsumugi.

If the masterminding is what villifies her, I could bring up Junko again or point to the ambiguity of the mm role- between V3's convoluted 'none of it was real!' and your clear apathy towards strict canon (which i totally support), I do not see a reason you wouldnt apply similar logic to that you used on the other characters I mentioned to Tsumugi instead of writing her off as a gross fujoshi or whatever. Im not trying to make you like her, but it seems unfair to reduce her to the worst possible traits she could have when you have expanded on and humanized so many other dr characters. (ugh i had to split the last paragraph into 2. im so sorry about that)

response under the cut bc this sucker got LONGGGGG

first off no need to apologize! i love discussion & dialogue and you bring up some good points! it's true i haven't talked about her in a very positive light on my blog, and that i've reduced her publicly. i HAVE done a lot of thinking about her and i agree that like.. i haven't expressed it on my blog as much as i have in private GKDSKGDS and mainly that's because like...i just don't think she's interesting. yes, she's complicated like any other dr character but she just...doesn't interest me. like, hifumi interests me because of the fanon him vs the canon him and how they differ rather strikingly.

however for tsumugi like...i can't really see a disconnect other than some people making her Only Evil and Only Ever Evil when in reality she's...very much being hurt by danganronpa too and she doesn't really grasp the full consequences of her own actions bc of it being normalized etc in the world she grew up in + her fandom-y lens, and you're right, it's a LOT like how Hifumi sees things through his lens of his special interest but also. he had moments where you saw through that shit to his genuine self. tsumugi...doesn't get that.

which i understand is partially because of her whole ough im so plain schtick but also like. they do manage to make some background characters interesting! like rantaro! you don't learn a lot about him and he dies really quickly but he's still compelling and you WANT to learn more about him. tsumugi is just...painfully uninteresting.

and honestly? i think she was a shit mastermind choice. again i realize im a hypocrite coming from a standpoint of liking junko, but i really dont think she makes a good mastermind. which i know is part of the point of her being the mastermind in the first place, but much like a LOT of v3's overarching themes, it falls flat. it really feels there's no real compelling reason for her to enact this other than she likes danganronpa etc etc etc and that she's got Fandom Brainrot (like a lot of the fans). idk.

and on the junko point--even without me changing her for personal interest, junko was ALREADY an interesting character. That foundation is necessary. If i find tsumugi boring, i cant ever expand upon her because it will always be boring to me, yknow?

and like again like...i DO try to see her as a fleshed out human--and i have tried to flesh her out. she's just...still uninteresting to me. and im sorry if it seemed like i hadnt, i just dont really tend to talk in depth about the characters that i find uninteresting

to sum it up sorry if my jokes seemed like my genuine interpretation of her character /gen, i have thought about her at length and i really just kinda don't like her for a whole lot of reasons but also me being petty GKDSKGDS i do appreciate the essay tho it's given me some stuff 2 think about & feel free 2 talk to me at any time i love writing shit like this even when it takes an assload of time.

i was tagged by @bacchaebabe​ a few days ago, so i’m gonna do one of these get to know me things!

[instructions: tag ten followers you’d like to get to know better.] i hereby tag you ALL because i would love to hear your stories.

gender: i define myself as nonbinary! i don’t know really what Specific term i am because i don’t really vibe with any of them, and i quite like how nonbinary sounds as an umbrella term. i’m fine with whatever pronouns too! most people use she/her for me because i’m pretty feminine and i love that. call me whatever you want though as long as you’re respectful about it!!

star sign: i am a gemini... if this is news to you, you must be new here. my birthday is june 13th, 2003! fun fact: i was born on friday the thirteenth-- spooky!

height: i’m 5′6′’ and very bitter about it. when i was first born, the doctors projected that i would be, quote, “a very tall girl” and this SEEMED to be the case for most of my childhood. i was taller than most of the boys from elementary to middle school. and then highschool happened and i stopped growing definitively. to add salt to the wound, self described ‘feral goth’ bacchaebabe says 5′6′’ is the most boring height. 

sexuality: i’m bi! i’m currently dating a boy, and surprisingly today was our eighth month together... time flies ammirite ladies

hogwarts house: this question made me hold back my urge to projectile vomit but. slytherin according to the official pottermore results!

favorite animal: my favorites are jellyfish! i love LOVE love them-- their biology is so interesting to me. how can a literal blob be so full of mystique? sometimes when i read at night i put this video on in the background for my Ambient Jellyfish Noise fill

average hours of sleep: when school was in session, i used to wake up at 5:15 AM every day (i know i’m on crack) and would usually fall asleep around 11:30-12:30 PM at the absolute latest? so Usually five hours! my sleep schedule now is more like wake up at 7:15 and go to bed from 12:30-2:00 hehe

current time: 11:04 PM! california babey

dogs or cats?: i like both, but i’m slightly more partial to cats. i have a dog named walter and a cat named carrie, but her nickname is maow because that’s the sound she makes. i love them both to death.

number of blankets you sleep with?: i sleep with one sheet and one blanket, and a smaller throw blanket for my cat to lay on! it’s starting to get hotter very rapidly so i might ditch the sheet soon x____x

dream job?: i’d like to work in the animation industry in some sort of storytelling role! maybe someone who helps write the plots or better develops character or environmental stuff? my mind jumps to ‘character designer,’ but i feel like i’d have a lot more fun being the nitpicky reviser type rather than a concept artist. if i wasn’t already married to animation, then i’d 10008858065% be a journalist!

when i created this blog: i officially remade @glubbity-moved​ in 2019, so 2019! glubbity as a Laci Brand has been around since 2015 though.

follower count: on my old blog i had over 2000+, but on this humbler remake i have a solid 390. i’m not too concerned on that number as long as i have my mutuals honestly. xoxo

why i created this blog: i officially moved from middle school instagram to tumblr because it seemed more of my scene in seventh grade :”)

how i came up with my url: this is so embarrassing but. i was a homestuck fan and i thought feferi was cute, and i loved her fish puns. the word ‘glub’ stuck out to me, and i just kinda tacked on the ‘bity’ because it felt nice to say in conjunction with that. thus, glubbity! when i was younger, i always forgot if my url had two b’s or two t’s... like glubitty. very silly

what do you love about yourself? (can’t be something you do for others): personally, i feel like i have an aura of Extrovert that makes it very easy for me to talk to people. sometimes being boldly outspoken about minor or trivial things is the most beneficial way of getting to know someone. i also have a very People Focused memory, and will almost always remember your name, your schedule and/or other minute details that you told me three weeks ago. i just like Knowing people, it’s fun.

what kept you going through middle school? if it wasn’t hard, what was it like?: middle school was the roughest period of my life for a variety of reasons, and i relied heavily on tumblr as an outlet for that time period. this is cringe but i was into south park, eddsworld, danganronpa and steven universe as a middleschooler. i also played animal crossing new leaf and pokemon to keep me grounded-- i even had an animal crossing ask blog for rosie the cat! finally, i had art to focus on, and this is where my artistic destination really defined itself. middle school still sucked balls but it made me into who i am today!

if you end up doing this, PLEASE tag me and i will read it!!! i would love to get to know a lot of you better. thanks for tuning in! <3

...This should have been published the 10th of January. I queued it ages ago (back when my last post was published), but Tumblr farted and decided not to post it. Which is just fantastic. It’s not the first time it decides to screw up the queue, but it’s the first time it happens to me on this blog. So annoying. This means it’s coming a few days late, but I hope you all still had a fantastic EnYaga Day!

As I prepared for True EnYaga Day back in October, I found again this old doodle of mine--the base for what would later become the final design of EnYaga. I thought it might be fun to share it and use it as an excuse to talk about this subject AGAIN, and... that was good enough for me, really.

You guys know me and there’s probably very little reason to do so, but I have never really talked about the reasons behind this miximax, have I? Well, if there is a day to indulge in that, it’s EnYaga Day, so let’s get to it!

As usual, more under the cut.

Despite Tumblr’s betrayal, this does have a perk: I get to revise this post before it’s published, which is great, because I’m happy to report that things are better now than when I first wrote it. In the original version, I mentioned that my life at the time was a little... paused, so there wasn’t really a lot to say. Among the only news worth sharing, I sent an oil painting to a friend a couple of months ago and it arrived very fast and completely safe, so that was great! It was a Professor Layton-themed painting, but now that I don’t have it at home anymore, I’m tempted to make another one... (If I do, chances are more FudoLay content will arrive here swiftly after lol) Other than that, I’d just started my classes again, but I was still desperately looking for a job. At least, classes made me feel like I wasn’t completely wasting every single day, so I was more cheerful than I was during summer. (Funny, because my group of friends at uni used to say that they could only smile during summer, but I was pretty miserable during those months. ww;)

Thankfully, though, I can say I now have a job! And it’s great!! ...The conditions aren’t so great, but at least I’m back to work as a game designer. I’m learning so much and I feel very motivated to work, even if it’s technically a collaboration and I will only get money once the game is published--in other words, when the game starts bringing money our way. This is far from ideal, but I honestly had no other options and I’m having a blast working on this, so I hope something cool will come out of it! For now, I would ask you to keep your eyes on Eskema Games and maybe check out the company’s latest game, Delta Squad? I had absolutely NOTHING to do with that game because it was released way before I joined, but supporting it supports the company I work for, which always comes in handy! It also underperformed, so it could use all the love you guys can give it.

Also, let me quickly point something out: about a year ago, an anon asked me if i was going to include Danganronpa characters in this project. The question is here, in case anyone needs a reminder: https://miximax-hell.tumblr.com/post/181991994534/hey-there-since-youre-doing-miximaxs-with-game Well, I FINALLY got my hands on the DR Trilogy for PS4, so I’ll be looking into that and seeing what I can find! If that anon is still around, I hope I can make them happy.

But let’s cut to the chase already!

As I always make sure to clarify, yes, I do massively ship Endou and Yagami. But there’s thankfully much more to EnYaga (the miximax--if I need to talk about the ship again, I’ll just call it Endou x Yagami) than just “yeah, I ship them.” In order to understand the reasons behind this combination, though, we must venture into two very different subjects: what reasons there are to choose Yagami to begin with, and the life story of yours truly. I swear both are important to get the full picture, but I’ll keep the latter as brief and free of unnecessary information as possible, even if it’s definitely the longest and most complex part. So, without any further ado, let’s see what makes this miximax valid within the logic of this project.

A big chunk of what makes EnYaga work was explained exactly three years ago, here: https://miximax-hell.tumblr.com/post/131215636268/when-the-king-enters-the-room-the-world-stops-and

The tl;dr would be that Endou plays as a goalkeeper, but also as a libero! Being such radically different positions, it’s to be expected that he would need two different miximaxes, because it would be rather difficult to find an aura that improves his field skills (shooting power, speed, etc.) and his goalkeeping abilities at the same time. Thankfully, Yagami gives him the exact abilities a good libero needs to be able to excel--especially when that libero has the pressure of being part of most of the strong hissatsus the team can pull off. So, for more info on EnYaga’s powers, please check the link above. (And note that, of course, this miximax only marginally improves Endou’s goalkeeping capabilities.)

I have also talked in length about the relationship between Endou and Yagami, but here’s a very brief summary. During the in-game events of IE2, Endou gave Yagami hope when all she wanted was to die to atone for her sins, thus saving her life in the process. In return, she wanted to give him the strength to fight when he needed it most as a way to repay his kindness towards her.

Yagami’s innate abilities and the bond they share are the more logical reasons behind this miximax. There is, however, one extra reason to include this miximax in the project.

There have always been three main rules here when it comes to choosing auras:

1. Only characters that come from universes predominantly inhabited by humans (or very human-like creatures, like Zelda’s Hylians).

2. Only one character from every franchise, unless they are Level-5 franchises. In that case, I may use up to two per franchise. Examples of this are Danball Senki/Little Battlers eXperience (with Toramaru and Megane) and Professor Layton (with Fudou and Shishido).

3. One aura coming from every single (and proper) Inazuma Eleven game on the market. Those being Inazuma Eleven, IE2: Fire, IE2: Blizzard, IE3: Spark, IE3: Bomber, IE3: Ogre, IEGO: Light, IEGO: Dark, IEGO Chrono Stone: Raimei, IEGO Chrono Stone: Neppu, IEGO Galaxy: Supernova, IEGo Galaxy: Big Bang, Inazuma Eleven Strikers, IE Strikers 2012 XTreme, and IEGO Strikers 2013. I’m not counting Everyday, SD nor unreleased titles. So far, I have 7 out of 15.

From the beginning, I have wanted Endou to have nothing but Inazuma Eleven-only miximaxes. I mean, he’s the main character and all!

Needless to say, Yagami is part of the Inazuma Eleven miximaxes--in fact, she takes the IE2 Blizzard spot, if anyone is curious about that very specific detail. She is obviously a very predominant character in that game, having a relevant impact during the final match against The Genesis and even (spoiler alert for a 10 years old game) by injuring Kazemaru earlier, because he didn’t just leave like he did in the anime--Yagami sent him to the hospital when he started matching The Genesis’s power. Since she’s a main character in that game, and considering that many of the other important characters introduced in it become part of the teams that make up this project (such as Hiroto, Midorikawa and maaaybe Saginuma), Yagami was the perfect candidate. She was also arguably the strongest among the remaining main characters of IE2, and the only midfielder. Not to mention the bond she shares with Endou, which only rounds it all up even more.

So, as a brief summary, Yagami is an Inazuma Eleven character (which is exactly what I wanted for Endou) and a very strong player, she provides Endou with everything he would need to be a good libero (incredible speed, great shooting strength, being a midfielder and the stamina that inherently comes with it, powerful hissatsus, and so on), she shares a canonical bond with Endou, the contrast between their personalities is super interesting to explore, and there are reasons why even she would want him to take her power. He can hardly have it better! It makes a lot of sense, and it’s all heavily based on canon, so I don’t need to explain much in that regard. That’s always convenient.

But there is another side to all of this. My side.

I first started working on miximaxes with the idea of only making 4 or 5. I simply meant to give extra love to some of my favourite characters to make myself and a few friends happy. This never became a full-fledged project until my good friend Heather, who used to be on Tumblr under the username @ishidoshuuji, said she wanted to be able to reblog the Seitei x Yuuichi miximax I had drawn for her. In other words, this: https://miximax-hell.tumblr.com/post/129863262149/well-it-was-about-time-i-started-using-this-blog

Before that, miximax-hell used to be a private blog: one of those you can only check out if you have the password. I never thought ANY stranger would be interested in it, so why expose myself like that? It would only make me feel bad. I could have never imagined over a hundred people would follow me here, and even less so considering that only about 10 of my friends follow this blog. So I have to thank Heather because, even if 100 isn’t a big number at all here on Tumblr, I still appreciate each and every person who stops by and it’s helped me meet some incredibly lovely people.

Back to the subject, though. This story is directly linked to MamoDai’s. The important part of it was that EnYaga’s design isn’t mine, and so isn’t MamoDai: the former is completely not mine (even if, as the sketch above suggests, the concept was first doodled by me), while the latter was only partially mine. The thing, though, is that the same person made EnYaga and “collaborated” on the creation of MamoDai, which meant I let them into this very personal solo project twice. If you want to check out the full story, though, you can read it here: https://miximax-hell.tumblr.com/post/142160652319/you-should-have-seen-this-one-coming-come-on

As I was saying, miximax-hell is a solo project. It’s something for me to enjoy, for me to think about, for me to develop, for me to improve at designing character, and for me to decide on. I set the rules and I come up with suitable matches--or what I think are suitable matches, that is. ww I’m definitely open to suggestions if anyone is willing to share their thoughts with me, and fanart is always, always, ALWAYS welcome, of course, but I don’t borrow other people’s ideas nor designs. Not because those designs and ideas aren’t fantastic, nor because I’m not allowed to, but because the point of this blog is to have fun and improve my skills. If I don’t do it myself, it’s kind of pointless, so I prefer a bad design made by me over a great design by someone else. Also, if people were to check all of these things out, I wanted it to be because of my work, not because someone super well-known was part of it and people were desperate to get more content from them.

When I first came up with this project, though, someone very close to me wanted to be part of it. Not because they found it interesting per se, but simply because it was mine. I had previously declined an offer to join one of their projects because I lacked the necessary skill, so they wanted to join mine instead. And don’t get me wrong--I appreciate the interest even now! But, again, it beat the point and I had to refuse. Looking back, I’m very glad I didn’t give in, but I felt awful back then and this person must have felt really bad too.

That’s why I made that exception and suggested, “Hey, why don’t we create a miximax together?” That’s how MamoDai was born. But while the interest in working on MamoDai seemed... scarce, this person came up with and gave me something out of their own accord: the EnYaga miximax design I still use to this day.

Now, here’s the thing: EnYaga was a proper gift that person made for me, and I always honour gifts. If it had been a random doodle, like I have received others in the past, it would have ended there. But when someone puts true effort and time into making something especifically FOR ME, regardless of what happens between us later, I still treasure it forever. And this gift came from a person who, apparently, really wanted to be part of this project when I first came up with it, which, honestly, put me in a tight spot. The least I could do was accept this design, which I loved almost as much as I loved them, and incorporate it to my lineup.

EnYaga was going to happen regardless, because I was working on it myself, but this person beat me to it (with such incredible quality, too, which I would never be able to hold a candle to) and, after what I made them go through with my continuous rejections, I had to honour them somehow. It was my way of saying, “I can’t let you do this for me, but I deeply appreciate the thought.”

This person is now out of my life, though. This means that, honestly, I could just get rid of the design. They would never know, and I would be happier with something of my own even if it sucked in comparison. They would never feel offended either--not like they would even if they knew, because it’s obvious they don’t care about me anymore. It would be easy and 100% painless for all parties involved.

But EnYaga is a token of the bond we once shared and I treasure that, even though I don’t want anything to do with that person anymore. It portrays the fun and happy times, not the sad and bitter ending. Happiness is always something worth remembering, isn’t it? And maybe, just maybe, thanks to the wonderful people I’m close to and my eternal love towards Endou x Yagami, I might one day be able to completely forgive the bad and focus on the good, so I can smile when I look at EnYaga and think of this person. I look forward to a day when there isn’t an ounce of bitterness left in my heart (although I am one revengeful and spiteful piece of poo, so it might never happen). And for that possibility alone, it might be worth it to keep making this one exception and let this miximax be someone else’s. Especially now that I have DoYaga to call my own.

So that’s it, folks: not only do Endou and Yagami make for a sick combination in theory, but it’s also a miximax with deep sentimental value for me in so many different ways. So even if it had been someone else’s idea and the two characters were a terrible match in all senses, chances are I would have still kept it. Thank goodness it wasn’t the case. ww

And all because I didn’t finish the design fast enough on my own. May that be the lesson to learn from this: hurry the heck up, self.

S

Ahhh, thank you guys so much for asking!! I just compiled them all into one post so I don’t clog up your dash with several posts. Here we go! I’m going to tag this as discourse and put a cut because my answers to the letters might not please everyone, aha. It’s long, too. Major spoilers for NDRV3.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Honestly, I’m not super sure at this point. Surprise, surprise, I only just recently finished watching the rest of NDRV3 and started writing for it. And I haven’t thought about tropes that much, though I’m sure I’ve written plenty of them into my writing at some point, even if not posted on here. 

If we’re going to go Danganronpa-centric, as this is my side blog for Danganronpa writing, I’d say that I fall in love with characters that are contradictory and with seemingly bipolar or gray morals despite probably having morals as straight as an arrow myself, i.e. Nagito or Kokichi. The characters playing “straight man” and relating to the reader’s perspective are also my favorite; in a wacky situation, they offer reason and normal reactions, which I would peg Hajime as (maybe Kazuichi, too, although he’s more of a crybaby). In fanfiction, I just love hurt & comfort fics, especially involving–you guessed it–Kokichi. I am particularly partial to the Oumota chapter 5 and chapter 5 trial rewrites, which, lucky for me, both of which are quite often rewritten by spectacular writers.

If we’re going in general, I always end up reading manga with an independent, strong and decisive character that crosses worlds and/or bodies by accident or death and becomes incredibly powerful/influential in the world and dominates over other characters with skills ranging from cooking to fighting. I guess I read a lot of manhua with martial arts or other manga with game aspects to it.Writing-wise, I love reading slow burn fics, even if I haven’t read one in quite some time. 

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

I have a feeling this is going to go into highly controversial areas, so if you ultra ship Kaito x Maki, please turn away now...

I just hate that “man saves woman” from herself or traumatic past trope. Don’t get me wrong, I love hurt/comfort like I mentioned, but to specify, what I mean is when a strong and independent woman needs saving by a man. I realize Maki has a lot of issues from her past as an assassin and that Kaito is a viable, good option for helping her out and facing those issues, but the fact of him being a man and the way he just swoops in and fixes things forcefully by pulling her along for training just irks me. And before you ask, yes, if Kaede did it instead as a woman I would have less of a problem with it, even if I don’t like that somehow after a couple days of training together Maki somehow is better able to get along with others and most notably Shuichi despite having spent the previous entire time cooped up in her Ultimate room alone, is willing to use her experience as an assassin to help out with the investigation when she just walked out in the past, etc. Problems from a past like that would never be so easily faced in reality; people and their minds are much more stubborn than we’d like to think, too. 

In general, I am also highly averse to the Women in Refrigerators trope. To some extent, I feel that Kaede fits this trope, as a.) she is an important, pivotal, incredibly fleshed out female character and even the initial protagonist of ndrv3, b.) she dies arbitrarily for a murder she did not commit, c.) a big part of her death is written into Shuichi’s character development for making him grow as the protagonist (he sheds the cap, faces the truth, and the memory of Kaede’s last wishes serves as his support to reveal the truth several times in trial), and of course, d.) her death in the execution is grotesque as befitting of a Danganronpa execution. Kaede deserved so. much. more.

There are probably more out there, but I won’t mention them for the sake of length & time. 

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Okay! So don’t hate me for this, but I haven’t been really keeping up a bunch with fanfiction writers or specific ones that much. It just hasn’t ever been a habit of mine in the past to follow one writer–ironic, I know. There’s one that immediately comes to mind, but she’s not part of the Danganronpa fandom, so unless someone asks, I’ll leave her out of it. However, there are a couple of writers that I recently discovered through the Oumota weekend event and which I follow on my main blog, and I thoroughly enjoy reading their work. Their work also contains mentions of NDRV3 spoilers!

1. @kirastrations

I recently reblogged her work on this blog because I have so much love for the Oumota fic she wrote (which deserves more love!). It’s called One by One, One After Another, and I simply adore the way she writes Kaito’s character and experiences with the other characters throughout the game and the overarching feeling that comes across as a result of the situation and what ensues. The diction choices she makes is absolute art; I see the imagery so clearly in my head, and not a single word of hers is wasted. It’s concise while being aptly and most beautifully descriptive. Even though I’m not a huge fan of Kaito, the way she writes him and his actions make me love him. I would describe the work as a futile yet desperate and exquisite struggling, an embodiment of angst that is so beautifully painful that it appears to be an illusion. I haven’t had a chance to check out other works from her just yet, but that’s on my to-do list!

2. @golden-redhead

I love, love, love their work too. They recently posted Lavender, a Kirumi x Kaede (Tojomatsu? Kaerumi? Kirumatsu?) work for femslash Feb, and it is a post-reality Virtual AU short fic. The way they write the interaction between Kirumi and Kaede offers such a delicate, carefully constructed image and story while creating some tension between the two. They also format the story with Kirumi’s thoughts in a simple and straightforward way that is just so delicious to read. Aspects of Kirumi explored are small things that unravel into a bigger statement about her character and the nature of the killing game and the impact it has left on her. It reminds me of the way a player might gently stack up a house of cards–attentively, with a sharp eye and feel. 

3. @starlightwritesalie

They wrote these two Oumota fics for the weekend that I fell in love with, especially the one for Day 1: Heroes/Villains. Sometimes when living in the world of Danganronpa, you forget that these tragic situations and the killing game are experienced, in essence, by children. You can argue that they’re older than high schoolers for the first two games, but mentally they are still high schoolers, and let’s face it–a couple years above the legal age of being an adult in America, 18, can hardly be counted as an adult, either. They reminded me of that sickening fact so poetically yet bluntly, and the story they write only serves as a further reminder of that fact. They write statements about the situation and how the pair act in the situation that are so agonizing yet irrefutable–as is the situation that they’re both trapped in. The ending is so unbearably cruel, packed with pain, but the way they create it is so decisively soft and snatches away my breath with the truth at the heart of the game, the situation. 

So there you have it! Sorry that my answers are so long... I have too much to say, and especially about the people whom I adore. Since it said to pick 3, I didn’t get to include these two, but I also love aroseandapen and mystic-mints dearly. If you ask, I’ll write a whole paragraph on why I love them, too, although I suspect by this time you all are getting rather tired of all my talking, haha. I also didn’t include imagines blogs, but if you’re curious, feel free to ask about that since I am still kind of a imagines blog! I guess at this point I’m kind of a fusion of an imagines blog and normal fanfiction writing blog.

Thanks for asking, and if you have any more questions, feel free to shoot an ask!

I am so glad I stumbled upon your metas! My bitter feelings for this game are changing. The story is actually much more intruging and morally ambiguous than I thought. I am a sucker for plot-driven stories. Now a question: Do you think that most of the negative reception is due to the fact that the fans wanted more of a simple character-driven story?

This is such a nice ask! Thank you, and I’m really glad thatyou’re liking ndrv3 a lot more! There’s so much about the game that gets lostin translation, and it’s easy to get the wrong impression about things fromeither mistranslated information or vague rumors. I wanted to start this blogto try and clear up those things and let people decide for themselves whether theyliked it or not once they had more reliable information, and I’m glad if that’sbeen the case!

As for the negative reception…hmm, that’s a veryinteresting question. A lot of the most negative reception in Japan hit in thefirst week or so after the game’s release—and most of it came from a relativelysmall but verbal bracket of the fanbase. The same people in particular were theones leaving multiple 1-star Amazon reviews, calling the game “Kodaka’s attemptto blow up the franchise,” etc.

But the reception from the Japanese fanbase overall has beenoverwhelmingly positive in the monthsthat have followed! Comparing sales of ndrv3 two weeks after its release tosales of dr1 and sdr2 two weeks after their respective releases showed thatndrv3 outsold both by a huge margin.In a recent poll, ndrv3 was also listed as most Japanese fans’ favorite entryin the franchise, again by a pretty notable margin.

This means that most of the remaining negative reception isactually coming from western fans, rather than the Japanese fanbase. Mostpeople I’ve seen disliking the game most strongly are western fans who stillhaven’t actually played the game for themselves but have only heard summariesor partial (and unreliable) translations—and while it’s understandable to basean opinion based on hearsay, I think it’s rather unfortunate that there’s stillthis kind of lingering sentiment of “ndrv3 is so bad and Kodaka was just tryingto flip the fanbase off with it” when it’s really clear while playing the gamethat that’s not the case.

I feel like for many people, it’s hard to understandspecifically what the ending and epilogue of the game were going for withouthaving actually read or played the game for themselves. All the themes aboutfiction being meaningful and impacting the reality around it even if it is “alie” of sorts, the grey morality of the situation, and the open-endedinterpretation of the catbox ending sort of become jumbled and much harder tounderstand without actual translation and analyses being provided.

And I think to some degree, the desire for a story much moresimilar to what was provided in the past is part of the issue too! The factthat ndrv3 specifically deals with and subverts expectations regarding the Hope’sPeak arc of the franchise is proof of that, in my opinion. Where dr1 and sdr2always dealt with the “hope vs. despair” conflict in a very “good vs. devil,”showdown between beloved characters and memorable antagonist sort of way, ndrv3definitely provides commentary on how this desire and this sort of ingrainedexpectation that this is the way DR always has been and always will be isitself part of the problem in the killing game show. It’s much less aboutproviding “the characters the fans want to stick around” and much more aboutviewing things from the characters’ own perspectives, realizing theimplications of what this kind of trauma and horror does to people, andthinking critically about “what makes Danganronpa what it is.”

I myself love and enjoy both dr1 and sdr2 very much, andKodaka does too—his staff and many fans who have actually interacted with himhave stated in multiple interviews how whenever he talks about his owncharacters, “you can really tell how much he loves them,” and “it’s like he’stalking about real people.” There’s nothing wrong with being attached to theHope’s Peak arc and its characters and story because it’s something pretty mucheveryone who’s gotten into DR has gotten attached to, including Kodaka himself.It’s expected that you would still bewith the franchise this far because of how invested you’ve been thanks toprevious installments.

But Kodaka himself has talked about “wanting to constantlybuild on and surpass” himself with each new game that he makes. You can’tconstantly challenge yourself and write something completely beyond people’sexpectations if you’re following the same kind of routine and formula everytime. And I think ndrv3 was definitely Kodaka’s way of taking the franchiseinto much more meta, much more morally grey territory which leaves peoplefeeling interested, but also conflicted.

Those polarized opinions are themselves what he was afterwith ndrv3, and I think he really succeeded, because the story isn’t supposedto make you feel very hopeful or make you feel despair: it’s supposed to makeyou think. By calling into questionhow much of what the characters and even the story itself is telling you isreally true, and by making the players want to immediately replay the game andquestion how much of every single thing was “a lie” or “the truth,” ndrv3 issupposed to leave you trying to form your own theories about what was reallygoing on the whole time, and that kind of thing is so much fun in a mysteryseries.

That’s how I’ve come to see it, of course. It’s quitepossible others won’t agree, but I hope that by playing the game for themselveswhen the English localization hits in September, a lot more people might warmup to it! There’s so many fun, interesting things about ndrv3, and I really, reallylove the characters too. It’s not an attack on previous DR games in my opinion,just a way of taking the series into all-new territory.

My Favorite Games of 2016

My gaming backlog is something impressive, as I typically buy a few more than I can play in any given year, and then those extras build up. The result is that I rarely play any game in its year of release unless it's a part of a favorite series, and even then, depending on how busy I am, a much anticipated game might get postponed. But I'm not adverse to playing older games. As long as the gameplay is still there I generally don't care. Maybe that's the same for you? These are the nine games I liked enough to finish for the first time in 2016, in the order I played them. Virtue's Last Reward * I enjoyed 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the Nintendo DS, so I intended to pick up the sequel, but took a while due to a bugged 3DS version (now patched) and not having a Vita at the time. Virtue's Last Reward is quite simply the strongest entry in the Zero Escape series. Science, pseudo-science, multiple universes, time travel, non-linear gameplay, and an incredible cast of characters made this a joy to play. I was up at 3am with tears in my eyes (on a work night!) because I had to see a particularly bittersweet sequence through. Fair warning there is a lot of reading, and the gameplay is all making choices and escape room mechanics, but if that's even remotely your bag it's worth playing. It'll mean more if you play 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors first, but the good news is that both games are coming to Steam in a remastered edition. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest I was looking forward to Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, and despite the child problems I blogged about, I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to have a game so focused on family and divided loyalties. I really liked the moral gray area that Corrin and her siblings occupied and as mentioned in my RPG Talk entry, I like that the final confrontation features Corrin standing together with her siblings rather than Corrin plus love interest and motley band of heroes. Familial relationships are usually set behind the romantic ones in games, so having family placed before everything else makes this unique. Zero Time Dilemma Zero Time Dilemma had a hell of a lot of hype to live up to, and at the end of the day I don't think it's going to be anyone's favorite out of the Zero Escape series, but it's still an enjoyable game. It keeps a lot of the same mechanics from Virtue's Last Reward, but suffers from a less satisfying mastermind than the other two. There's also a plot twist that people tend to either love or hate. But that said, it does a decent job of wrapping up the series, the escape rooms are still fun, and offers a lot of emotional rewards for fans of the previous two. Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth This is the best otome game I've played to date. I would have liked to include it in my top three games of the year, and it was a narrow miss. Otome games are usually given lackluster, passive protagonists to serve as the female player insert, but not Cardia. That girl is amazing, whether she's piloting an airship, busting herself out of confinement, or being a supportive girlfriend, because why can't one person do all of that. The boyfriends are more interesting than average, with only one route that really bored me. If there's any fault to this game I'd say it's locking Lupin's route behind everyone else's and making it so clearly the "real" route. Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Ultra Despair Girls is a little strange in that I don't think it's a particular good game, though I still finished it. It's a third person shooter, which is a strange genre jump for what had been a visual novel series. I only played it when I did because the Danganronpa 3 anime had Monaca, who originated in this game. The story isn't bad, it asks good questions and even clears up some others (like where did Junko Enoshima get all those crazy robots), but I'm not a shooter fan and I can't imagine the overlap between visual novels, shooters, and Danganronpa is enough to justify this game's existence. If you suck at shooters though, there's no story penalty for playing on easy. You can still see the whole thing. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice I still haven't posted my VN Talk for this, but the sixth entry in the Ace Attorney series was a bumpy ride. It was good, but it wasn't great, and I think this is mostly due to character bloat. Dual Destinies had three lawyer protagonists so by golly Spirit of Justice has to too, even when the game can't quite figure out what to do with them. Unlike Dual Destinies, where the story honestly belongs to all of them, when it comes down to it, Spirit of Justice is really about Apollo, but the writing tries to showcase everyone, including several supporting characters, which results in a lack of focus. But if you like Apollo, this is the game to play as he has his best moments. This War of Mine * I waffled a lot on whether to buy This War of Mine because the vertical cut-away view of the buildings made me think of old platformers I was terrible at, but This War of Mine needs very little in the way of reflexes. I bought it for the for miserable experience of surviving as a civilian in an urban warzone and I was not disappointed. There's no tutorial, but the basics can be picked up by point and click, which feels oddly immersive, as the characters you're tasked with caring for have no idea how they're going to make ends meet either. Chances are, a first playthrough is going to be unsuccessful. People will die along the way, and you'll feel awful, which is the point. You get to put down the game and go home whereas the people who really lived this life could not. It was a sobering realization. (This War of Mine was inspired by the real world Siege of Sarajevo.) The Room This was a purchase based on a friend's recommendation because we both like escape rooms. While you're not escaping anything in The Room, the type of puzzle solving is familiar to anyone who has done escape rooms, and it's a affordable fix that can be done in an afternoon or two. The story is minimal and the atmosphere creepy, though it's manageable for those who scare easily (with one possible exception during the ending, but you've solved everything by then). I'm skipping the sequel because I react poorly to jump scares, even the ones that are so mild that most people wouldn't even consider them jump scares. Civilization V * When Civilization VI came out, I realized I wanted to play a Civ game again, but rather than getting the latest and greatest at full price, I decided to pick up Civilization V during a Steam sale, which netted me the base game and all the expansions and DLC for under $14. This turned out to be $14 well spent as I've now logged an embarrassing amount of hours on it. It's a lot of strategy and management to bring my chosen civilization to victory, but fun since the AI leaders of other civilizations have their own personalities. I had a really good tussle with Caesar in my Carthage campaign, which felt appropriate. My only complaint is that Europe feels over-represented in the number of civilizations available. There are multiple options for a continent like Africa, with Carthage, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Songhai, and Zulu available, which show that the game designers did put effort into avoiding a Eurocentric world, but it feels like it's not enough when 15 of the 43 civilizations are European (17 if one counts Byzantium and Ottoman, which I'm not since they're partially in the mideast), making them slightly more than a third of what's available. As I did with my book roundup, the three games I tagged with an asterisk (*) were my favorites of the year and definitely worth playing. I'd also like to mention the four games I replayed this year since it's rare that I replay anything, and four is unprecedented. Fire Emblem: Awakening (second time) Dragon Age II (third time) Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (third time) Danganronpa 2: Good-bye Despair (second time) The Danganronpa games were mostly because of the anime and wanting to relive the experience, but Fire Emblem: Awakening and Dragon Age II were purely unprompted, with the former having happened before the release of Fire Emblem Fates.

Mirrored from: The Rat’s Den