#But either way it loses a lot of its charm by falling into these overused plot lines

[boinurmom13]

ok i GOTTA ask but why do you hate penny 💔💔i am genuinely curious

i ramp up my hate more than i should. like, i dont hate her as much as i do clint or lewis, but shes def my least favorite bachelorette.

ive always found her to be boring in the overused “shy girl” kind of trope, or the “tryhard nice girl” ig. in reality it just simmers down to shes stupidly boring.

like, i hate shane cuz hes an ass, but his story is the most flourished ive seen amongst the spouse choices. and hes a great character. i dont favor harvey as a spouse, but he had a dream and aspiration before becoming a doctor, and thats something to his name. abigails adventurous and overcomes her fear of going into the mines, sam matures, elliotts charming, haley matures, emilys sporadic and interesting, leahs strong willed and funny, marus sweet (still boring, but i like her cuz i too like science and strawberries), so on so forth.

its not just penny, either. like, i find sebastian to be overrated because hes also a little boring. yeah, hes good with boundaries, and yeah hes the typical emo boy everyone loves, but other than feeling free on the farm, hes kinda got no plot to him.

and im not saying every single person and character has to have this huge revelation and turning point to be a good character or be likeable. no, not at all. pennys likeable because shes kind and sebastian is likeable because hes probably really relatable to half the people who play sdv (even i relate to him to an extent). hell, elliott doesnt really have a change in character other than him publishing a novel, but hes a little dorky and has a dream hes trying to achieve. sebastian wants to move to the city, which is a dream, but its still like. a boring one, almost? even then, that puts him above penny, which as far as im concerned (ive only romanced her once, and it was to get the group ten heart scene with the bachelorettes) all she has to her name is “im sweet and good with kids.” shes a great, simple, basic character if youre looking for the “nice girl” trope, but shes still boring.

i dont HATE penny, right, like not as much as clint or lewis, but i do find her to be incredibly overrated for such a boring character. when put against the other spouses, penny just falls flat. i know thats saying a lot when harveys literally right there, but i assure you hes also one of my least favorite spouses, too. i like art of penny, and i like ramping up her personality to be more than shy and nice, where occasionally she does friendly banter with sam and his friends, or is some sort of in touch with internet culture while not pursuing it, but i just dont like canon penny. i find her really boring. shes a great spouse for someone who wants a simple person in their gameplay, but ive just never really pursued her because i find her lacking.

while i would bring up her two heart event with george, calling her ableist for moving him w/o his permission, i feel as though thatd be wrong. penny’s nice enough to change her ways, and im willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on this once. she “helps” goerge, and depending on how you answer, she apologizes to goerge. (of course, you lose friendship points with her, but a lot of people dont respond to criticism nicely. hell, i dont respond to it great either). im not saying what she did was right. no, it wasnt. but i hope penny would be mature enough to learn and change from that, which is why i feel the 2 heart event is a bit of a weak claim.

tl;dr: i acknowledge pennys great for different people, but ive found her boring for my liking.

i hope this explains it well, or at least to your liking! i tried not to sound rude, because my intent is not malicious. im sorry if it comes off that way. sorry for any typos/confusing grammar as i do not proofread. like. ever.

#sdv #stardew valley #penny sdv #i ramp up my hate on her for a comedic effect #i dont actually throw stones at her in game #shes actually one of the first ppl i make friends with #mostly cuz shes always right there #and otherwise id forget about her

[chronomally]

Some things about the second half of this show feel like the meeting where Ji-ho is watching Ms. Hwang or whatever her name was rewrite her script to make it just like every other drama on TV

#please feel free to ignore this #I'm watching Because This is My First Life #It's still a good show but I think it starts to lose itself around the time Bok-nam appears #Suddenly her one abiding dream is love not being a writer and Se-hee had a wife that somehow no one knew about? #Or maybe he picked her despite his family's objections and that's what led to his fight with his dad #But either way it loses a lot of its charm by falling into these overused plot lines #I also keep wishing she'd try to be a writer again #I know it'll be hard but I just feel like it was such an important part of her character and then it was written out

[neokad]

Lost Sphear review! - I Am Setsuna: the sequel!

I am finally back from being... honestly much lazier than I should have :P In my defense! The reason why I haven’t started writing this article just yet is because I became addicted to the game I’ll be reviewing next~ But to be honest with you all - and I’ll jump the gun a bit as well - this game... well, it’s honestly a bit hard to write about it for me ;-; I might as well get the basics out of the way though: Lost Sphear is a JRPG by Tokyo RPG Factory, which you may know for being the devs of I Am Setsuna a few years ago! Sadly, both games have gathered a pretty mixed reception from both critics and players. I personally adored I Am Setsuna despite some of its issues, due to how unique it was in many aspects, so naturally I was really hoping Lost Sphear would be a magical experience that would polish some of the flaws of IaS

And... I think they did too good of a job at that.

First off, for those who did not play IaS, let me tell you first that you absolutely should, especially since it’s decently short, at around 20 hours! But if you did not and don’t plan to, there is no story connection between two of those games - although some enemies and assets are reused in LS, and the battle system s largely the same. In fact, let’s start with that! I am very relieved to say that combat in LS is possibly even more fun than ever! It still uses the same base as in IaS, as you still have a normal attack command, as well as skills that can be physical or magical special attacks, as well as special buff and debuff skills. Y’know, typical RPG stuff. However, just like in IaS, this otherwise very simple combat is complemented by the absolutely lovely Momentum mode, which is a bar separate of your normal Active Time Battle bar. It fills up whenever you complete an action OR wait before you choose a command. If it fills completely, you can store a special orb tied to that character (up to three, in fact), which you can then activate along with an attack/skill for extra damage or effects if you can time it right! This mechanic is in short, AMAZING. It makes you think about when to use that extra boost, when to attack enemies or use skills, and the fact that you need to time it makes battles very engaging!  But keep in mind, all of this was also present in Setsuna, so how did they make it better here? Well, Lost Sphear actually allows you to move your characters around the map when battling! This allows you to place them to avoid attacks, as well as hit enemies as efficiently as possible! LS also introduces Momentum Boosting, which allows you to customize whatever skill you chose to put on your party member with special effects, like healing or elemental damage! Those two changes, while it makes experimentation and battling even more satisfying, does make regular battles even easier than in IaS - though you CAN make the game harder in the settings at any time if you find regular battles to not be exciting enough! That, and the bosses are usually decently strong anyway :P

Another notable feature are the Vulcosuits! These are a new combat feautre you obtain relatively early in the game. While using them spends some pretty limited VulcoPoints, it does boosts your stats, and most importantly allows you to perform special attacks either alone or with a party member (and you can have up to four of them in a battle instead of three now!) This is a pretty cool system, and I’m glad that they incited you to not overuse it by limiting the VPs you can get. But sadly it also makes so that you cannot do combo skills with a partner like in IaS, which I always thought made battles more fun and strategic too ;-; If I’ll fault LS’s gameplay somewhere else, it’s how it had a tendency to spare you of checkpoints sometimes. It’s not a very constant issue, but I sometimes had to fight a boss after not having a save point given to me for minutes - and it made me lose 40 minutes of progress once, so that was fun :/ But besides this and a couple of annoying bosses, I can say that the gameplay in LS is overall better than its prequel!

Sadly, gameplay isn’t what’s the meat and potatoes of any JRPG, so what kind of setting are we dealing with this time? Well, this is where I think Lost Sphear starts to fall flat. After a mysterious flashback sequence, we start off in the small village of Elgarthe, where we meet with Kanata, Lumina and Locke (no, not the treasure hunter). As we do, a strange phenomenon starts to occur, where we see the entire town being enveloped in snow-like mist, which translate to the town being “lost”. Curious to see why this even happened at all, our main trio, which is quickly joined by the strange, emo Van, set out in an adventure to not only find out more by visiting the capital of this game’s empire, but also to restore whatever lost things they come across. Why? Because Kanata - for reasons I will not go into - has the ability to make things return to how they are if he has enough connection/memories tied to them! (As a side note, you can even gain some stat bonuses/effects of your choice by restoring specific points on the map This setup is decently interesting, but to me? I feel like it’s not enough to really keep me engaged ;-; It’s certainly not bad, of course not, but I found it a bit boring and cliché at times to be honest. Without going into specifics for spoiler reasons, it’s a lot of “the empire is bad” and “we can save the world” and “we’re the good guys”, which while not horrible plot devices, aren’t very engaging either.And that same point extends to the characters as well ;-; I do think some of them are quite good, but even then I did not really fall in love with anyone, like I usually do in most RPGs I play, which... well, sucks. There is a few characters with neat backstories and events happening to them (such as Van, Galdra and Lumina) but overall even these three just didn’t have enough to them for me to become attached ;-;

And welp... this goes true for the music and art of LS, too. Now, I wanna say that the soundtrack to Lost Sphear was actually pretty good overall! Just like in IaS, the village themes are beautifully peaceful and relaxing, and the battle theme has a nice ring to it as well, to give just a few examples. And this time, the composer actually learned the existence of instruments other than the piano! However, I do think that the minimalistic soundtrack for IaS was a lot more memorable overall - not just for how much it stood out for that reason, but also because I think the compositions themselves were just a bit more memorable ^^ But I get that most people prefer variety, and music taste is pretty suggestive anyway :P And I also get that a more standard soundtrack - which is still good, mind you! - would fit better in a less unique world - and speaking of...

The world of LS is a lot more typical of what you would find in a RPG - you’ve got your remote villages, your massive empire city, your port areas, and so on, all presented in a grassy setting. I know this is a very strange statement to point out, but despite Lost Sphear having some very pretty shots from time to time, I really feel like it matters when you compare it to its ancestor. One of the things I loved about IaS was its snowy, setting, which blended perfectly with the minimalist piano soundtrack to create a breathtaking atmopshere. And while what’s there still works - and is much more varied for sure - I feel like a lot of the soul was lost in the atmopshere given to the player. And honestly? I think this sums up the game very well.

Lost Sphear is a good game. But that’s exactly why it was so disappointing to me. It’s just “good” and ultimately forgettable. IaS, while not perfect, blew me away with its charming cast, beautiful music, breathtaking setting, unique story and fun battle system. And while that last part is still there and mostly improved, this game, by being so much more by the books, is not nearly as interesting ;-; The story is fine, but I do feel like I’ve heard most of it before. The characters are okay, but they just don’t do enough to be nearly as likeable as I want them to be. The graphics and audio are both solid too, but again it’s just not the same. Don’t get me wrong, Lost Sphear is a solid time. But as far as RPGs go, I feel like the player should be impressed, and LS... just doesn’t do it. I definitively recommend going through I am Setsuna first <3

Rating: 7.2/10

#gaming #neokad #i am setsuna #lost sphear #review

[stillness-in-green]

Salt-Sweet Curse (5/?)

The backstory drops.  (Also, it’s a good thing they’re both immortal, otherwise letting Toga drive would probably be what we’d call a bad idea.)  

They fled west out of Kyoto, avoiding at Shigaraki’s insistence any of the major roads.  The stolen car (and the body in the fields outside the city) might attract some attention eventually, but it was better than being on foot, even if Toga’s knowledge of driving was closer to a memory of having seen it done than anything resembling practical experience.  

Shigaraki sat hunched down in his seat, hood up, stewing in his thoughts while Toga jerkily got the hang of braking and acceleration.  She left him to the brooding, sometimes concentrating on the drive, but more often keeping up a stream of chatter that required no input from him whatsoever.  

He stared out the window, thoughts a black tangle of doubt and dread.  

It wasn’t the first time he’d had his life—if you could call what he had now a life—saved by someone. It wasn’t even the first time someone had saved him from All for One.  But this time felt different, somehow.  Like it was more than some spirit’s whim, or a would-be good Samaritan act.  Like Toga had been with him long enough to know he wouldn’t have done the same for her if their positions had been reversed.  She had to have seen him try to run, had to know that if he could have, he would have, no hesitation.  

She should have known better than to think I was worth it.  She should have known better than to risk him.  But how’s she supposed to know that when I’ve just been fucking around with question and answer games instead of telling her?  

What the hell am I even supposed to tell her?  Dammit. Goddammit.  

The pain at his neck was distant, a sensation so familiar he might as well have been born with it, his violent scratching rote as a habit and ineffectual as an overused drug.  He didn’t even realize he was doing it until Toga reached over and lay her hand over his.  She’d gone silent, eyes narrowed, and when his hand went just a little slack with surprise, she interlocked them all the tighter, fingertips pressed against his palm, her other hand tight on the wheel.  

“…If you want to talk about it, I’ll shut up for a while and let you,” she said at last.  

I’ve never seen her like this before, he realized, the thought numb, an observation more than a realization.  He huffed out a breath, a poor approximation of his usual disdain.  He turned away from her, pulling his legs up into the seat.

“Concentrate on driving,” he whispered.  

She patted him on the shoulder before pulling back her hand, but she didn’t go back to talking.  The silence rolled out like the road, bright and empty and damning.

He closed his eyes—licked his lips, curled in on himself tighter.  

And then he told her everything.  

---   ---        ---   ---          ---          ---   ---        ---   ---        

He found me a few years after I first turned.  There’s not much that’s coincidence with him, but I think that was.  He used to have a manor down on the Inland Sea—maybe he still does.  He likes being able to transform back and forth, so he lives in places that make it easy.  

I hardly knew anything about what I was back then.  He took me in.  Told me he could teach me what I needed to know about—all this.

He’s a criminal. He always has been.  I didn’t care about that—the whole world’s full of criminals, and most of them are running the place.  I just knew at least he wasn’t going to up and die on me.  

I lived with him for a long time.  He used to say he liked having a protégé around.  I don’t know what he even thought he was going to do with me, once he’d decided I’d learned enough.  Maybe try to post me somewhere, expand his influence.  

But then we found out…

Your camouflage thing—the way you change after you do the whole blood-drinking bit.  I can’t do that.  He can’t, either.  That’s just you.  Everyone with this curse has something like that, and they’re all different.  His is his healing.  We all heal, but his is on a different level.  His willpower—no, his sense of self, it’s…  

Eat something’s heart and you gain its power��there’s lots of stories that say that kind of thing.  But him, his power, it…  He can extend his consciousness into people when they drink his blood.  It drives everyone who does crazy in the end.  They always feel like they’re being watched—because they are.  And there’s nothing they can do to get rid of it, to make it stop.  I once watched someone put his head down and run straight into a wall to make it stop.  

…No.  The mermaid curse doesn’t always take with him.  I don’t know why.  His blood’s too greedy to give up its power or something.  

He used to have an enemy, a long time before he met me.  I don’t even know long ago—ancient Japan, maybe.  He never told me who it was; he gets a kick out of being the only one in the room who knows things.  He used to say that an enemy’s not really defeated until no one but you can remember them anymore.

He fought whoever it was for decades.  And the enemy finally beat him—put a sword through his gut and carved out his heart with their bare hands.  They’d tried sealing it, they’d tried burning it, and he always came back from that.  So that time they tried eating it.  

Three days later, he opened his eyes inside his enemy’s own body.  He walked out of his enemy’s house and watched their servants burn his old body. It’d stopped healing, there wasn’t anything left in it—he said it went up like dry paper.  

He’s changed bodies lots of times since then.  There’s all kinds of ways you can get someone to eat your heart, if you lay the groundwork right.  

---   ---        ---   ---          ---          ---   ---        ---   ---      

“So what’s he want with you?” Toga asked, eyes on the road.  

“My power,” Shigaraki answered, empty-voiced, watching telephone poles roll by outside.  “…I don’t have to eat.  He doesn’t, either, not really.  Same as you.  But for you two, if you tried to go for too long without, your bodies would eventually shut down.  You wouldn’t die, since we can’t die, but you’d gradually stop being able to move, even being able to stay awake.”  

It had been another tactic one of Sensei’s enemies had tried, this time when Shigaraki had been with him—still as Tenko back then.  They’d been captured and separated, split up and kept in separate cells, ofuda and clippings from sacred trees hanging up in every corner.  It had gone on for almost half a year; the world Tenko could see outside the tiny slit near the ceiling had turned, slowly, from spring to fall.  

“That doesn’t happen to me. If I don’t eat, I just get used to being hungry.  It doesn’t knock me out.”  

He’d probably gone mostly crazy, feral with first the hunger, then the loneliness.  His memories from back then were some of his patchiest. But then Sensei had come, finally, a satisfied smile on his lips, along with a story about a kind but foolish new housemaid.  

They’d set the enemy’s estate on fire and watched, afterward, from the top of the road as it burned to the ground, all its exits sealed.  And Sensei, breathing in deeply of the smoke and the screams on the wind, had asked Tenko in a cheerful voice who he’d charmed so, that they’d kept feeding him that whole time.

And Tenko—stupid, naïve idiot Tenko—told him that no one had fed him, not once the whole time. Why?  Sensei, were they starving you too?!  

He could still remember the furious indignation in his own voice.  That and the thoughtful look in Sensei’s eyes as they made the long journey home.  

The outside deck, floorboards shining.  The ocean wind teasing salt through his hair.  The far-off screams of the gulls.  Sensei, talking to a servitor on the other side of the door. 

“He will be the next ‘me’.”

Shigaraki bit his tongue against the memory, tasting the salt-iron bitterness of his blood.  “He absorbs the powers of bodies he steals. He wants mine.”  He spat the blood out, a brief dark patch against his jacket that faded quickly into the black.  “One less weakness to spend eternity with.”  

“So you ran away?”  

“Yeah.  Since, before you ask, no, it’s not a viable way of killing myself.”  

He’d run away that very night.  Back then, he still hadn’t been ready to die, but even now…

All for One cried in his sleep.  He wept, sometimes cried out, slurred words in accents different from the one he spoke with in waking hours.  It wasn’t him, wasn’t Sensei, doing the crying; that realization, when it came, had prickled Shigaraki’s skin and twisted his stomach with disquiet.  

Those people that cried in the night were the bodies’ original owners.  They were still watching from behind their own eyes, like the people that Sensei’s blood drove mad, but for years on years, decades on decades, and not even able to escape into death like the others, not until he was finished with them.  

I just wanna die. What he wants to do to me is so much worse.

“Ew.”  Toga’s nose wrinkled.  “I wasn’t gonna ask that; I don’t want you to die, Shikkun.”  

Shigaraki stiffened in his seat at the words, the familiarity.  So easily…  

The silence bloomed back into the car like dye spreading through a glass of water.  His heart hurt.  He curled in on himself again, turning away.  It hurt, and he was so tired of all of this bullshit, and now there was Toga, and she was still so young that she could say things like that, not even knowing that words like those were worse than her knives.  

And unlike him, Toga had to eat, which meant more of a trail.  And All for One had seen her now.  He had a whole other face to track.  

A whole other…

“Toga,” he said into his elbow.  

“Yeah?”  

“Find us a gas station. We need to get a roadmap.”

---   ---        ---   ---          ---          ---   ---        ---   ---      

I'm not going to say that All for One's enemy was All Might, and taking that enemy's body turned All for One into a horrible funhouse mirror of One for All, moving from body to body and absorbing strength as he goes, yet never losing his own malicious will? But I'm not not going to say it, either. *AU jazz hands*

As for Shigaraki, Decay is frankly too OP for this story, which features only sporadically useful supernatural weirdness rather than cool superheroic powers. I still wanted him to have something that tied him to his canon self, though, so I went with a twist on the superhuman levels of endurance that Shigaraki's displaying in the most recent arc of the manga.

I’m nearing the end of the big gotta-write-it-now ideas I had for this AU of @codenamesazanka’s when I first started.  Here’s hoping I can still write my way to an ending!  

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #shigaraki tomura #toga himiko #my writing #ficcing #salt-sweet curse #bnha