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leiasfanaccount648 · 4 years

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The 3 Times Kenma Didn’t Get What You Wanted for Your Bday & the 1 Time He Did

(Kenma Kozume x Fem!Reader)

Summary: Like all friends, they remember what is most important to them, especially one another’s birthdays. However, Kenma seems to be struggling with finding you that perfect present year after year.

A/N: This is for the absolutely lovely @briswriting!!! I’m so happy to call you my friend, that you got me into Animal Crossing, and I hope you have an amazing bday today <3 :)

Warnings/Contains: Fluff, birthdays, the tiniest amount of angst. Disclaimer, I did some research on the video games I mentioned in this but none of the release dates match up lol.

Word Count: 2033

Elementary School; 5th year

“Happy Birthday, (Y/N)!”

“Wait, what?”

Kenma looked up from his GameBoy as he heard people talking by the door of the classroom. He saw one of his neighbors that he had bet through Kuroo talking to some of her friends and receiving some gifts and snacks from them.

Kenma looked at the desk in front of him and saw a few more trinkets and such from people in other classes. They may not have known each other for that long, but (Y/N) was the first friend of his that actually wanted to play video games rather than volleyball like Kuroo.

(Y/N) was nice, and had great taste in games; he would gladly call her his friend. So what do friends of a couple months get one another for their birthdays?

“Good morning, Kenma!” (Y/N) brought him out from his thoughts as she walked over and sat down at her desk, facing him with a bright smile. “What’re you playing?” She peered over his desk to try and catch a glimpse at what game was on the screen.

“I, um,” Kenma glanced down at his GameBoy as Pokemon: Red and Blue was still playing. He didn’t get to answer as (Y/N) already saw the screen with a gasp.

“Are you about to play the battle against Professor Oak?”

Kenma couldn’t explain it, but he felt his heart jump at her knowledge of the game. He knew that she played it, but he thought that she had just gotten it a couple weeks ago. “Yeah, I am.” He smiled shyly and quickly paused the game so he could talk to her properly. “Happy birthday, by the way. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get you anything.”

(Y/N) shook her head, waving her hands in front of her as well. “No, no! It’s totally fine! Trust me, you didn’t have to get me anything.” She smiled, moving her hair out of her face shyly. “Honestly what I keep getting from my friends gets to be too much of a hassle.”

Kenma smiled a little, finding her reasoning quite amusing; however he could tell during lunch she definitely enjoyed eating the cookies that someone had made her. He tried to think of something he could do for her, but he trusted her word to not worry too much. Besides, there was always next year.

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Middle School; 3rd year

It was late, almost too late to Kenma’s liking as he had just finished volleyball practice and wanted to do nothing than go home and finally get some rest before the weekend started tomorrow. However, he had one last thing to do.

Kenma had been hearing (Y/N) raving about the game for weeks, and he had managed to get it pre-ordered and delivered the day that it came out. Now he stood outside her apartment, hoping that she would like it.

He texted her to come to her door, and it was obvious that she was confused, but did so nonetheless. She smiled as she saw him, about to greet him, but he beat her to it, holding out a small, wrapped box for her to take.

“Happy birthday, (Y/N).”

“Oh my god, Kenma you didn’t!” (Y/N) grinned wide as she noticed the shape of the wrapped box her friend had handed her. She opened it without hesitation, expecting to see Pokemon X and Y, but instead saw Animal Crossing: New Leaf. She felt touched that he remembered how much she wanted that game, but still looked up at Kenma with sorrow.

“Kenma, I am so sorry,” she laughed nervously, starting to feel guilty. “But my parents got me the game already along with a new 3DS.” (Y/N) knew that there was no way that he could have known, but she felt guilty nonetheless over the fact that Kenma had spent his money to get her the game.

Kenma on the other hand felt nothing but embarrassment. He realized his mistake and that he should have asked her parents if she was going to be getting the game. “I’m sorry. I should have asked if there was more than just that game that you wanted.”

Like she did back in elementary school, she shook her head. “No, you’re fine, Kenma.” She laughed softly to try and lighten the mood, but she could still tell that Kenma felt awkward about getting her a game that she had been gifted not 3 hours ago. Then she smiled. “Wait! Now that you have the game, we can play it together!”

Kenma tilted his head a little, confused. “I thought it wasn’t a multiplayer game.”

“It’s not, but we can still keep up with one another’s progress and stuff. It’ll be like when we play Pokemon and see who can defeat the boss quicker!”

Although it wasn’t Kenma’s ideal choice of game style, he still kept the game and played with (Y/N) both online and while they hung out together. Soon enough, he became addicted and got a whole level ahead of (Y/N) despite their agreement to build their islands and such together.

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High School; 2nd Year

It was raining after school, and Kuroo had decided to cancel practice due to the weather scheduled to get worse throughout the evening. Kenma felt grateful for two reasons. One, he could go home and finish his homework early before playing some more Animal Crossing. Two, he could see (Y/N) before she had her club and give her the batch of his mom’s homemade brownies that he promised her a few days ago.

Kenma was on his way towards the room where he knew she would be at, however he didn’t expect her to be sitting outside the door. He saw her phone in hand along with her backpack leaning against her. Then he caught sight of her face and rushed over as soon as he saw the tears in her eyes. “(Y/N)?”

(Y/N) looked up at the sound of her name, instinctively reaching up to wipe below her eyes before putting on the best smile she could muster at the last second. “Kenma!” She chuckled and stood up quickly to straighten herself out. “What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at practice?”

“Kuroo cancelled it due to the weather planning to get worse. So I decided to bring you the brownies since you said you wanted them for your birthday.” Kenma reached into his bag and pulled out a small container that contained the sweets. (Y/N) didn’t say another word, just stepping forward and bringing him into a hug.

Kenma froze as she did so, not sure how to react. “(Y-Y/N)?”

“Just,” she took a deep breath to keep from letting out any tears. “Let me have this, please?”

Kenma looked at her, wondering what it was that was causing her to be so upset, but he knew that she would tell him on her own time. For now, all he did was hug her and he practically felt the tension and nerves in her body melt away, ignoring how his heart raced rapidly due to her being so close and for so long.

That year, Kenma was the only one who had remembered (Y/N)’s birthday.

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College; 1st year

It was a couple days before (Y/N)’s birthday and Kenma was stressing beyond belief. Ever since high school, Kuroo he had begun to realize that he had developed feelings for her and he never knew how to express them into words or actions.

He remembered the day that Kuroo pointed it out to him because they were playing an online game together and Kenma had managed to lose against both him and Bokuto. Needless to say it was obvious that something was bothering him and Kuroo needed to know (even if he already did).

Either way, he wanted to do what he thought would make her happy for her birthday. Some had been flops while others he felt like haven’t been the right gift, but he still did what he could.

This year however, he wanted to know exactly what she wanted.

The two of them were in the middle of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons when Kenma thought he’d just ask via the game while they were fishing on his island.

‘btw, what do u want 4 ur bday?’

Since they were at different universities and couldn’t physically see each other, (Y/N) assumed that he would just craft/give her something in the game.

‘a cat to cuddle & love 4ever’

Kenma chuckled at her reply, smiling to himself as he typed out one himself, but (Y/N) added another response.

‘even though it’s not in the game XD’

Oh.

Kenma froze for a moment as he realized how (Y/N) interpreted his question. But he still got an answer and wasn’t going to take it for granted. He quickly got on his laptop and pulled up Amazon. Lucky for him, he found a cat plushie that he knew (Y/N) would like that would arrive the day before her birthday.

On the fateful day, Kenma headed to her dorm as he knew she was spending her birthday on a different day with her family and would most likely be cooped up side playing games (much like himself). Once he messaged her to come outside and was met with a ‘read’ text, he knew she was on her way down to greet him. When (Y/N) saw him with the stuffed cat in his arms, she ran over and hugged him tightly as she could.

Kenma almost lost his footing and fell, but he managed to stay standing and hug her back. “I know what you said you wanted a cat, but I didn’t want you to get kicked out of your dorm.”

(Y/N) laughed, shaking her head at his words before pulling away. She also took the cat plushie from him to get a better look at it before holding it in her arms. She smiled shyly at him. “Kenma, I was talking about you.”

“Wait, what?” Kenma’s eyes widened, repeating the words she said a couple days ago in his head. He felt his cheeks start to turn pink as (Y/N) spoke up again.

“All I wanted was to spend my birthday with you.” She glanced to the side, starting to feel flustered. “You’ve been my best friend for years and you’re so nice and considerate, not to mention cute,” she giggled, pausing briefly. “It’s practically impossible for anyone not to be around you and,” she met his gaze again. “I like you, Kenma.”

Kenma didn’t know when he did or what made him think it was a good idea, but he reached out with one hand and held the back of her head as he pulled her in for a kiss, which she gladly returned a second later. Once he pulled away, he smiled shyly as though silently apologizing for being so straightforward and sudden.

“Uh,” Kenma cleared his throat, letting go of her so she could have some space. “Would you like to go get some dinner?” It was obvious that he wasn’t sure what to say or do at the moment.”

(Y/N) simply shook her head, reaching for his hand and leading him into the building in which she stayed at. “I’d much rather spend my birthday eating takeout and playing video games with you. How does that sound?”

“But, it’s your birthday.” Kenma followed her to the elevator, still holding her hand.

“Exactly, so that means we’re going to do what I want.” (Y/N) giggled and kissed his cheek before stepping inside the elevator with him and pressing the button for her floor. “And I want to cuddle you while we eat and play Animal Crossing together.”

Kenma smiled, squeezing her hand to let her know his thoughts on her plans for the rest of the evening. “Sounds like a plan.” He was thankful that he decided to bring his Nintendo Switch with him.

“Oh, and that means that I want all of the turnips you bought yesterday, too.”

“Wait what?”

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skyecrystal · 3 years

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How does Crys rank each of Ash's traveling companions? Any she ships with her brother secretly?

She doesn’t “ship” her brother with anyone because, well, “shipping” your own family would feel weird, right? But as I wrote earlier, she kinda rooted for Goh and Sacha (Ash) to be a thing from the start =P For the rest...

(disclaimer: my AU is kinda canon-compliance but also major changes, especially as characters do age, and age gaps can be a thing. Despite finding each other again at Indigo League, they didn’t travel all the time together after that, each of them on their own path, but of course keeping in touch and often meeting again for adventures or some times together!) Also sorry if I slip sometimes, english names are not always automatic for me as I grew up with french dub where almost every name is translated, for trainers and Pokémons!)

Misty is one of her best friend as they met pretty young too, and they got along pretty well. She was supportive of their relationship as long as it lasted, too. (in my AU, they kinda had an off and off relationship for years before deciding to stay friends.)

Tracey is someone she also goes along well with and admires as an artist and Pokémon watcher, as she is herself quite interest about Pokemon’s behaviorism; she also spent quite some time with Ritchie in the Orange Islands (eventually even setting there for good when they grow up) so their paths crossed more than once at the time.

She enjoys May’s company as they share the same love for food, and both have a special bond to a sea guardian (Manaphy for May, Lugia for Crys).

She gets along well with Dawn, tho she doesn’t know her a lot, and Brock is like that annoying big brother figure ahah (but she still likes him dearly.)

She gets along quite well with Clemont and helped him study the Synchronicity between Greninja and Ash (in my AU, Ash do keep Greninja, and their ability is linked to Ash’s Aura Ability. Crys doesn’t have Aura, but she has a special bond with her twin and can sometimes feel the Battle Bond’s effects if she’s nearby - not a pleasant thing as it just usually results in heart’s irregular palpitations. But it helps Clemont to get more data on the phenomenom.) There are also akward moments, as Clemont has a tiiiiny crush on both of the twins XD

She enjoys Bonnie’s company, despite the huge age gap, the two have fun together and Bonnie will be excited to see Crys’ Tyrunt and will be a great help with it (Crys is at first terrified of Tyrunt; Ash gaves her the egg thinking it’ll help with her phobia of Tyrunts/Rexillius but this isn’t going too well at first).

She’s okay with Serena and encourages her on her dream, but is sometimes a bit worried about the crush she has on Ash (in my AU Serena is 10 years younger than the twins, and Kalos arc happens when Ash is around 23/24 ^^” ).

For Alola, my AU is a mix between the game and the anime (a lot more of the game, though, as i didn’t enjoy the anime that much ^^” ). She goes along well with Mallow, Lillie, Gladio and Hau, but she has trouble to be with the whole gang at once, as they are too much of an extrovert bunch for her ^^”

And for Goh, well, they kinda bond over the fact they’re both ambiverts, and he’s one of Ash’s companion she’ll spend the most time around with, and she’s happily welcoming him in their little found family, and she’s absolutly supporting of their relationship.

(aaaand sorry Unova didn’t happen in my AU so I can’t say anything on Iris or Cilan . The only characters I use in my story from that generation are Touko, and a bit Touya, Bianca and N, from the game lore ^^” )

So um sorry if that was long, and maybe it’s not exactly a “ranking” but I hope it’s alright =)

#pokemon #crys #sacha #twins #my au #pokemon asks #my pokeverse

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ddaenghoney · 4 years

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Series: of Silver

Finale

[epilogue follows]

Attending a performing arts university, you’ve been managing just fine until the fall semester of your third year starts off by making out at a party only to realize the random guy was actually transfer Jeon Jeongguk, whom you had previously agreed to help get used to the city.

Pairing(s):

Jeon Jeongguk x Y/N

masterlist link is in blog description

disclaimer: any character depicted do not represent the actual personality of the respected idol in real life.

Warning(s)/genre(s): College!au, fluff, developing relationship, love triangle(s)??, some angst/drama here and there– Jeongguk has a dog this series isn’t allowed to be too tragic.

Tag(s): @butterflylion @rjsmochii @mahakookie @dammit-jjk @joanc24 @detectivebts @insaisissables @fuzzyballoontrash @sweet-unicorn-world @yeontanie21 @nctpity

If you enjoyed the story, please let me know!! : )

Below the cut are final words and fun facts about the story! If you’ve read it all, thank you and I hope you enjoyed!!

Thank you for reading this whole story!!! It’s been such a fun time making it. of Silver is a nice break from the amounts of angst/drama/snakeyness I put in my other aus lmaoooooo. This one hasn’t veered too far in any way from what I intended with it! I hope you all enjoyed and maybe even connected with some of the problems/motivations the characters go through and overcome! Thank you one more time for reading it all! See you in the next story!

The name “of Silver” comes from a couple of different things. It coincides with Jeongguk’s dog’s name in the story which is Heartgold from the Pokemon game lol, where the complimenting game is called Soulsilver. Both of those are obviously from the idiom “Heart of Gold, Soul of Silver” SO the reason I didn’t put anything before “of” is because the absence is supposed to be symbolic of different things in the story you could place there. Whether it’s “Soul” or “relationship” or “person” etc., doesn’t matter because the idea is that whatever is there has gone through purification(or more accurate to the story: change) in order to be what it is. So basically the title is saying “this is what it is because it altered to become more precious(aka silver which is a precious metal aslkdjfgh)”

Seokjin’s twitter name got cut off throughout the whole story lol, but his twitter name is “Don’t DM me about dorm life” because he is the reluctant RA aklsdjfgh

I gave Jeongguk a Golden Retriever puppy because it’s Jeongguk’s spirit animal let’s be real alskdjghf no but also because of the name I gave it lol.

Seoyoung originally wasn’t supposed to have feelings for Jeongguk; in the original idea she was just using him sort of to make her feel better about herself?? But I didn’t want the story to get too far into the drama side so I made it a bit simpler.

The original profile picture Jeongguk had in his phone for Seoyoung was of them that he took; the header on her twitter is also a picture he took.

Jeongguk only lets Y/N call him Jeonggukie. He’s shut down literally everyone else from calling him that lol

I know Jeongguk and Y/N never said I love you to each other in the story, but like…. They’ve only been dating for a couple of months so I didn’t feel like it was needed to be said yet lol. Although Jeongguk admitted he does love her, just not to her alsdkjfhgk.

The location of the cafe Jeongguk and Y/N frequent is upstairs in a bookstore that you have to enter to get to the cafe; I may recycle this location in a one shot I’d like to make about Namjoon where it originally came from but we’ll see lkdjfgh

The ending contact name for Jeongguk in Y/N’s phone has emojis added by Jeongguk which explains why there’s a lot lmaooo

During their senior year Jeongguk and Yoongi would’ve got an apartment together so Jeongguk could take care of Gold. After graduation Y/N and Jeongguk(and Gold) move in together.

There were supposed to be so many more twitter fights but I couldn’t figure out how to place them in lmaoooo rip they’re so fun to make lol

Seoyoung’s friend that got into a fight with the characters on twitter is named Nia and she’s the same girl in the written piece where Jeongguk took drunk Seoyoung home.

I wanted to hug Jeongguk like every time Seoyoung dragged him, it made me feel bad writing those scenes )))):

Yoongi’s dog Holly exists in this universe, but he lives with Yoongi’s family back in his hometown (I thought I’d mention this because Jeongguk mentioned Yoongi missing Holly very early on in the story)

Gold lives with Jeongguk(or technically Yoongi in the story) because Jeongguk adopted him independently of his parents who really weren’t about to take care of the little guy out of nowhere lmao

If I ever showed Jeongguk’s contact name for Y/N it would’ve said “my baby” with a barrage of heart emojis after it and the peach : )

Seokjin was also supposed to shred Seoyoung on twitter but that didn’t happen either double r i p

This story ended up being largely more focused on Jeongguk’s perspective rather than Y/N’s in my opinion; he even got his own written scenes dedicated to himself too so

Originally I thought Jimin’s character would be more important and I thought Namjoon’s character wouldn’t be as important as he ended up being lol.

Actually, Namjoon was almost going to be an antagonist? But I didn’t want the story to get too dramatic for the sake of keeping it mostly light-hearted.

I realize a lot of the written parts take place in only a few settings/or similar circumstances, this was to show the change in their relationship behavior along the way, but also because they’re both too busy to go to a bunch of different places and don’t have much time during the day together lmaooo

The picture of Jeongguk in the red plaid and scene from chapter 38 take place where the series’ header takes place!

Thank you again for reading! If you enjoyed the story, please please let me know, it means a lot!! have a great day/night!

#jungkook imagines #jungkook fake texts #jungkook smau #jungkook sm au #jungkook social media au #jungkook fluff #bts imagines #bts fake texts #bts smau #bts sm au #bts social media au #bts au #jungkook au #bts fluff #all #series of silver

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manjuhitorie · 5 years

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Hitori-Escape Tour 2019, they're at the halfway point, so time to post reports!

消せます！

Disclaimer: These were all pilfered, ransacked, polished and ravished from my JP Twitter mutuals,,,, Who are all such kind souls,, Not only have they used their memory skills to seed Rie's words, but they even bothered to share the concert's happenings with the world wide web, AND they have urged me forward to keep on translating them... So I'll take the liberty to post them organized here... When you pass by any JP Rie fans on twitter, click hearts...💘 Shinoda’s name is shortened to SND, ygarshy’s to yg(a), and Yumao to Yu(ma) throughout...!

1 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/3/2019 at Takutaku in Kyoto! Report!

Yumao's tweet "Our tour starts today! I have cut my hair too short."

The first show, the first step….

SND looked back at both of the members to say “Let’s do our best guys.” Yg nodded back. Yuma started it up…

●SND played FAST guitar while singing, yg howled out harmonies on [a] chorus. Yu snickered at one of SND's slips.

SND used Leader’s jaguar on a [very very special song].

They did their best…

●SND “Its hoooot... We always came to Takutaku in the winter so now I’m experiencing Takutaku in it's true form.... Can I take a drink break, fwaaaaah, it's hot y'know? I'm even properly hydrated y'know? This water is gonna churn in my stomach, gehh I feel sick....”

SND: "RAISE THE AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!!! I DON’T GIVE A DAMN IF ALL OF THE POWER IN KYOTO GOES OUT!!!!!! GIVE TAKUTAKU ALL THE ELECTRICITY!!!!!!!!!! LIKE IT'S OPERATION YASHIMA!!!! (*In reference to the wonderful Evangelion episode: https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/Episode:06).

●Shinoda’s band introduction was “On bass ygarshy, on drums Yumao, and on guitar and vocals is I Shinoda. Music and lyrics brought to you by wowaka.”

●SND “Umm…We have merch…But the towels? T-shirts? They all sold out… No seriously I’m just…. We really did bring a hefty load of stock…Thank you all… Also what else sold out?” Crowd “The cap! Pens! DVD! Pouch!!” Shinoda “‘OK, whatever..... Thank you…’” ←That is exact verbatim, SND spoke in English. All that Netflix watching is showing.

●SND “By the way ygarshy, did you know they’ve stopped selling HimoQ?" yg: ....... >>>*BWOON*<<< *responds with only the sound of his bass* *HimoQ is an old school gummy candy by the brand Meiji, and-

--yg turned away with a smile that couldn’t be concealed. While behind them Yumao was playing his drums while just repeating “HimoQ.... HimoQ..... Why HimoQ...”

●Lastly there were also many reports on people being showered on by SND’s sweat. Stay hydrated please sensei

●Nishimaki Taichi their cameraman’s comment: I was drenched in the sweat of Takutaku’s splintering heat until just a minute ago, yet now that I’m almost back home, this whole day feels like it could’ve been a dream. Lol

This is the start of a fabulous new year.

●Shinoda’s comment My ears are still pulsing,,, Takutaku of Kyoto, thank you so much. I’m glad I was able to come and be a part of your 45th anniversary, I’m happy I was able to see everybody’s faces. The journey begins. We’ll be in Okayama tomorrow, hope to see you there.

●The setlists I won’t repeat, just to avoid spoilers for any possible goers!

2 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/4/2019 at CRAZYMAMA 2nd Room in Okayama! Report!

All members have interactions, I'm relieved..

●SND “Yesterday was so hot I thought I was going to puke, I’d only ever been to Takutaku in the winter not the summer… I came to Crazymama today shaking in fear but… Air conditioning is the BEST! The number one necessity for any venue is!!!! heavy-duty!!!! Air-conditioning!!!!!”

●As soon as SND started talking about yesterday, Yumao dashed up front in a rush to talk. He asked to borrow SND’s mic so he could join in on the MC,

The way they were standing next to each other got them called out for looking like a stand-up comedy duo.

●Yu “Yesterday I mouthed the words ‘Were concerts always this painful?’ to ygarsh 5 whole times and he didn’t understand me,” SND “Well of course not (laughing).” Afterwards when Yu did ask him, ygarsh responded with "They aren’t." Yu thought he was the only one dying, ah sweet relief~, he says.

●Yesterday did Yuma really get exhausted enough to collapse against the wall? Did SND slide atop speakers to then stick the landing, singing with his knees against the floor? It's out there...

●Yu and SND bickered with each other over who watches more Netflix. (They both praised the Netflix show The Naked Director etc. on Twitter recently also).

●SND “By the way ygarshy did you know that cicadas actually live longer than 1 week?”

ygarsh “BWOON♪”

(Cicada’s having only a life span of one week is a common myth in Japan. Also this interaction mimics yesterday, is SND subtly taunting yg in new ways the new staple for the Mannequin intro? Amen.)

●SND tweet: "Thank you Okayama, after doing 2 concerts in row, I see that I really am capable of singing. We'll be back,, until then,,"

●Katou Haruhisa, the founder of LUCK'A Inc. who’s produced Rie’s merch for so many tours, QRTed today's official backstage photo and strutted with pride: "They're all wearing great shirts lol #I made this"

3 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/12/2019 at the five morika in Iwate prefecture! Report!

Yumao's tweet "Tomorrow is Morioka. The next day is Sendai. I hope to see you there!"

●In a small box with but a platform as the stage and a metal bar between the rockstars and the crowd, what happens if a SND sizzles up and sits down on the bar, gets up and gets down on the floor? FAN SERVICE. LOTS OF FAN SERVICE, THAT'S WHAT. SND was poked by fans, clapped by fan, had his head pet by a fan…. Amazing..

●SND praised the drama "Methanol” he watched on Amazon Prime. ●SND blessed the cool air of Morioka and rebuked the weather up in Tokyo. "I've still been walking around in shorts and sandals." *Looks down and checks himself out* "I ate such a ridiculous amount of grilled meat yesterday, I'm worried about my figure" "We all ate a ridiculous amount"

●SND "By the way ygarshy did you know that honeybees' body temperature can go up to 50 degrees celsius?"

　yg "....*BWOOON*" (goes into bass intro)

(The series...It's certain.. last time it was SND's provocative tidbits about a snack discontinuing.. then long-living cicadas, now..this.)

4 Hitorie's Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/13/2019 at Sendai darwin in Miyagi prefecture! Report!

●All the effects smoke made Yumao, in the back of the stage, look like a mirage... Yumao got up and called himself a mirage... Yumirage bamboozle... From there the crowd was riled up into cheering: “Yumao~ Yumao~ You’re so cute Yumao~”

Yuma kept posing and hugging his hands against his chest* “Thank you...” SND “You pretty boy...” Yuma “I'm snatched everybody... My wig is like snatched...” SND “Snatched, snatched... What are you a Twitter fangirl.” (*Yumao was using the fujoshi term "尊い".) ●During encore intermission the electric fan next to the stage picked up yga’s shirt and blew it up, exposing yga. Laughter was induced among the crowd, and SND, who missed the whole thing, was left all confused as to why everyone was laughing—. ●SND “By the way ygarshy, it’s Friday the 13th but, did you know that Jason doesn’t actually use a chainsaw?”

　yg “*BWOOOON*” ●Someone dived during the last song... As in, a fan started climbing up on other fans and rolling around up there. Staff handled it, and their love for Rie is blazing but... Etiquette and respect for the show space is the best way to enjoy the best show!! Please... SND’s tweet: “Sendai performance complete. Thank you, thank you, thank you”

5 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/25/2019 at Koube VARIT in Hyougo prefecture! Report!

Yumao's tweet "Today is Koube, tomorrow shall be Hiroshima. I hope to see you there!"

●SND MC speech "Did you guys have fun today? I think there's a lot of mixed emotions right now. If you didn't have fun, know that we're coming back here again. And then if you still don't have fun again, we're still coming back here again." ●Encore intermission! Crowd as they were walking back out "ygarshy! Yumao! Shinoda!" Yumao, pretending to be a person in the crowd in a scheme for instigation: “Yumao~~!” The crowd “Yumao….?” Yumao “Yumao…? Yumao!!!” Crowd “Yumaooo~~~!” SND “You sound like a Pokemon, crying your own name as if you’re a Pikachu.” Yumao “Yumao!" SND "Can neither of you (or yg) talk normal on mic."

Yumao *Goes and sits down at his drums* Crowd "Yumao~" *Plays a drum trick* “Yumao~~~” *Plays an even more flavorful trick* “Yumaoooo~~~” *EVEN MORE* “YUMAOOO~~~~”

SND “He’ll keep doing that if you keep it up, so keep pampering him.”

●SND “Backstage, they have redbull right, so before the show I couldn’t get over how delicious it was and I kept glugging, and so I was ready to burp throughout the whole first song. SND tweet after: I was in danger of deranging into the wet pants monster. ●Also Shinoda was hopping around playing guitar and he bumped into ygarsh at some point, of who seemed super annoyed—. ●SND “Remember last show, I mentioned Jason, I said there's actually no chainsaw? Well I watched the second movie and, he gets attacked by a chainsaw in that one!” yg *Makes a face as if questioning if that gag was his queue* SND *Nods* yg *>BWWOOON<* (Into the Mannequin intro)

●In the post concert photo Yumao seems to be drinking a Chocola BB, a vitamin B2 supplement to help with acne, mouth sores, and overall exhaustion....

●SND tweet: Koube concert: complete, thank you all. Playing at VARIT is, truly, fantastic,,, I’ll meet y’all in Hiroshima tomorrow. Until then,,,

6 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/26/2019 at Second Crutch in Hiroshima prefecture! Reports!

●SND “By the way ygarshy-kun, did you know that Mocomichi Hayami started a youtube channel!”

yga *>BWWOOON<*

(*Mocomichi, dubbed “The olive oil fairy“, is an actor who gained internet fame after his displays on the TV show ‘MOMO’S Kitchen’ where he would dump HUGE AMOUNTS of olive oil over his food, ignore the recipe requested of him, and then praise his cooking like crazy in the end. He was a riot! And he’s truly skilled at cooking! He's won Gourmand cookbook awards, he loves olive oil, he has his own kitchen brand, he was in the Kamen Rider 555 movie where he got killed by monsters halfway through, he loves olive oil- Anyway his channel is here.)

+ SND used wowaka’s red jaguar guitar in today and yesterday's concerts. Introduced (W)HERE with "As Hitorie we only make good songs, we only make God songs. And this is a good one even out of the good ones".

●Crowd “What did you guys eat for lunch!” SND “For lunch I ate soba.” Crowd “Booo! Eat okonomiyaki!” (*Hiroshima is famous for it) “Screw that assholes!!!” “Whyyyy just try it!!!”

THEN YG TALKED

SND “And ygarshy gave Yumao an egg sandwich.” yg “… ...Uhm..” Crowd “!?!?!? Woooahh!!!” yg “Shut up for a second.” Crowd *Still bustling, not listening* yg “Over something so silly…. why are you all excited….” yg “… So uhm I just wanted to say that…. Yumao likes eggs.”

Post show Yumao tweeted “I like eggs.”

●SND tweet “The Hiroshima show: done. A rare event occurred today huh. Y’all were lucky… in a way? That aside I had fun. Thank y’all. I’m off to have a drink.”

7 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 9/26/2019 at Sapporo SPiCE in Hokkaido prefecture! Reports!

Yumao's tweet "Today is Sapporo. I hope to see you there! Ahh the first magnitude stars".

●SND ”Hokkaido, you’re so full of spirit! It’s ‘cause RSR had to cancel the first day, isn’t it!? How many of y’all missed out on seeing Number Girl?” *Hands rising all over* SND “Muahaha!!!! Well I already got to see them!!! Poor you!!!” (*Rocking Sun Festival last month was canceled due to Typhoon 10 hitting Hokkaido).

●Shinoda rued and revered the heat. Said that Sapporo’s been the second sweatiest show after Kyoto. Crowd “Let’s make it the hottest!” SND “No! You can’t beat it. That was a traumatic experience, I thought I was gonna die. But we can still make the excitement levels the hottest!”

●Encore intermission and the usual outfit change: SND “Aren’t you hot in that?” Yumao “Yeah, this sweatshirt is way too big for me. Oh, because it’s Shinoda’s” It was too hot for SND so he made Yumao wear and promo the official merch. SND opened his mouth to make a comment when the crowd slipped in with “Yumao you’re cute wearing that~~ so cute~~!” cheers. SND “Shut up I’m talking!!” SND “….I’m sorry for yelling!” ‘Apologizes before things go downhill’ Crowd kept the spirit high by asking ygarsh if he wanted to eat pizza, yg nodded his head, then scooted towards the mic as if to say something- but turned back... He tricked everybody! Rie weren’t going to let him get away with that, they had to pick on him for revenge!

Crowd “Hello! [At yg]” SND “What?! You’re resorting to teaching him the basics of conversation?” (SND and Yu laughing out loud) SND “He’s not an AI y’know??” (Yuma has his hands on his stomach at this point). yg *Still not talking* SND “Ahh what are we gonna do with him” SND “yga~rshy~kun~, have some fun with me~~!”

　yg “*>>>BWOOOOON<<<*

●SND tweet: Sapporo concert: complete!! That was way too fucking hot!! Damn ridiculous! That’s what makes it so good. Thank you.

8 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 10/10/2019 at UMBER in Shizuoka prefecture! Reports!

Yumao's tweet "Today's Shizuoka!"

●A wild cockroach appeared before Yumao and SND backstage during the intermission.

It was a huge one, scurrying across the stage walls throughout the end of the show regardless of its own size.

●yg offered Yuma the rights to his front stage mic for Yuga and SND to be able to talk about it together, so he pulled at his mic in front of him…. Only for the cable to come spiraling out, yanked from the jack, off went the XLR connector, and all. yg's power move left him laughing hysterically. yga laughed!!!!! He laughed as he gave Yumao a powerless mic!!

●With the power move to piston off of, “Professor Yumao” was on the case to give a “lecture” with his cockroach wisdom! He told us about how the ones with the perfect figures come from the outside and live under trees, german cockroaches like to stay inside and come from the inside...

SND “Back when I used to live in a rundown apartment in Nagoya, there was 2 perfect cockroaches always waiting for me in front of my apartment”. Yu “Outside, right!!”

yga *Frozen up and now hiding against the wall*

●Prof. Yumao also gave another lecture about Shampoo from the anime Ranma 1/2, complete with “Ne!” imitations, SND piped in also until he realized something- and then got angry at Yuma because only few will know who he’s talking about....

SND “So tell me, what time is it?” Yu “Time to talk about things everybody will understand!” SND “No it’s encore time!” Yu " :O "

yg *Still hiding against the wall away from the nerds*

●SND “ygarshy! Ygarshy! Get a good look at this!” yg *Nods at him* SND *Proceeds to pose like the Dragon Ball Z Kamehameha* “Hah!” yga “>>>>*BWOOOOOOOOON*<<<”

●SND tweet: “Shizuoka show: complete, thank you so much. I had a lot of fun. We’ll be back. Nagoya will be tomorrow. Until next time,,,”

9 Hitorie’s Hitori-Escape Tour, 10/11/2019 at SPADE BOX in Aichi prefecture! Reports!

●Hasegawa-san, the drummer of SND’s past past band “Dr. Right” from around 2007 (See video of youngin SND and crew performing: https://nico.ms/sm11604475?ref=share_others_spweb…), he also payed a visit to the show!!!! And took pictures with SND! >See https://twitter.com/toshiya230/status/1182631585230704640

●First song SND immediately messed up the first note and the music halted, Yu and the crowd had to urge him onward-!

●SND “Hitorie is great. Hitorie’s songs are great. Only badass songs. Before I joined, Leader sent me demo versions and said “I want to do songs like this”… Electricity rushed through my veins, this is gonna be a revolution, am I really going to be a part of this?! I thought.”

●The stage at the venue is one that shook like crazy from everyone’s vigor, Rie seemed to enjoy the ride.

●SND “I left Nagoya, went up to Tokyo, and now I’m back in Nagoya, singing nonetheless... I’m not embarrassed carrying the mic to sing non-guitar songs anymore."

●SND "After 9 shows doin’ this, it's really hit me. Hitorie really make great songs! But even among all of them this one is peachy… Wait no one says that? This one’s at the tippy-top. ….Wait no one says these words in Tokyo, nor Nagoya?? Ah whatever let’s go” (The original words were ドンズバ and ダントツ, both old niche words).

●Encore intermission, Yumao came out in front of the mic then… Clenched his fist up into the air and stood stout! SND “You’re not gonna talk, now, what are you doing?” Yu “Freddie Mercury, is in the house!!”

“This move isn’t in Bohemian Rhapsody, b/c once the scene starts he’s already on the piano but, before the show Freddie does the *poses again*!!! SND “So that’s what you were doing? Even though you play drums? Drums aren’t a piano?” Yu *👌* SND “They are a little bit similar huh hahaha”

●Rie wished everyone safe travels home through Typhoon 19! They even cut the MC short to ensure swift departure- SND “I bet y’all would go off tweeting “Their chitchat was so long I couldn’t get home! Fuck them!” Well we’re fortunate, one day later and it would've been cancelled.."

●Then, the usual Thing.... SND “ygarshy, ygarshy! A fly seems to have sorta, landed on your bass over there!” yg *>BWWON*< (Interrupting SND’s sentence with a rushed note).

●SND tweet "Nagoya concert: complete. SPADEBOX shakes like crazy, it's such fun. Thank you so much. Make it home safe y'all. And let's meet again. Until next time."

🍕~~END~~🍕

((((((Shinoda, constantly: "I have a phobia of bugs" Also Shinoda, constantly: *His ways to provoke ygarsh involved cicadas, bees, cockroaches and flies.* + *Advises people dealing with heartbreak to go watch videos of giant hornets VS Japanese honeybees.* + *Draws super detailed cicadas in his manga Chikyuu Monogatari.*

Shinoda you maso.)))))

Ahhhh also! If you're a member Hitori-Atelier!-- (Which you should be!!! Because not only are Hitorie snazzy and there's the upcoming message campaign, but ALSO because Rie is always seeking more vigor which I KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE, I've seen your liberal usage of the almighty exclamation marks and emojis. You can't hide it, so show 'em some more of your energy!!!!!🙌🙌🙌)

--Shinoda has been periodically blogging about backstage tidbits and I've been translating those for fun so, plop: https://privatter.net/u/boat_manju

#ヒトリエ #long post

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mannatea · 4 years

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Pokémon Shield: A Review

DISCLAIMER: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE!

First, my credentials/gaming history, so you can see if my opinion is valuable to you or not. I would like to make it clear from the start that I do not consider myself a ‘gamer’ by any stretch of the imagination. I’m a filthy casual at best.

I’ve been playing video games since I was maybe eight or nine years old. I’ve always enjoyed dabbling in a variety of genres, and have a great appreciation for the work that goes into creating each and every game, no matter the intended audience. Some of my all-time favorite titles include Tales of Symphonia, Fire Emblem (7), Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross, Tetris, Bust-a-Move, Project Gotham Racing, Ecco the Dolphin (PC,DC), Roller Coaster Tycoon, Harvest Moon (N64/PS1), World of Warcraft, and of course our beloved Pokemon!

I started with Pokemon Red, and enjoyed it immensely, but Silver stole my heart and my imagination. My brother and I used to sit at the kitchen table with guide books open and notebooks at the ready to craft and create new, extremely cool teams. I sank an unbelievable amount of hours into that game, and into Pokemon Stadium (1 & 2), Hey You! Pikachu, Pokemon Puzzle League, and even Pokemon Pinball. Unfortunately after Silver, my interest waned. I was an adult by the time Emerald debuted, and while I was initially charmed by it, found my interest waning quickly. I bought and played Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, SoulSilver, and Black & White, but didn’t beat any of them. I felt like the magic had…disappeared somehow.

But when X and Y released in 2013, I binged on Pokemon X, beat it, and for the first time since childhood started breeding a competitive team just for the heck of it. I also found myself really enjoying Pokemon Sun a couple of years later (though the post-game of breeding didn’t really do it for me this time).

They lost me with Ultra Sun/Moon. I wanted to like them, really, but it was too much of a rehash, and too much handholding (like the originals were, and I could only stand going through that once).

Now here we are with Pokemon Sword and Shield. They released just a few days ago (15 November, 2019) and the controversy has been wild. It seems to me that everyone has some kind of very strong opinion, and a lot of people are very angry.

Pokemon has always been one of my favorite franchises, but my history with the games is far from spotless so I like to think I can manage a mostly unbiased review, though of course everything in this post is my personal opinion.

Here’s what I’ve done in the game:

40 hours played.

200 pokemon in the pokedex.

Main story and post-game story completed.

I played with no specific self-imposed rules and was not spoiled for hardly anything before I started playing.

The Game’s Introductory Sequence [8/10]

As is standard for the franchise these days, the game flings you into the world with little fanfare regarding customization. Rather than the intro being a dialogue of sorts between your character and a professor, you are now instructed to choose what you look like (from a sparse few options) after typing in your name.

The first ‘cinematic’ is pretty boring, but I think the attempt at immersion is genuine enough (the idea being that your character is watching Leon’s broadcasted fight on your new smart phone). My character has a better house in-game than I do in real life. I’d kill for all that storage in the kitchen!

My biggest gripe with the introduction is that it reminded me too much of Sun & Moon’s introduction—in the worst of ways. I wouldn’t say it’s slow-paced, but the constant interruption by other characters is about enough to make a person rage-quit. Luckily I’ve been blessed with a lot of patience; it makes tedious content easy to bear (so long as it’s not difficult), but even I was feeling antsy before the first hour of the game was up, just because Hop and Leon never shut up and I was chomping at the bit to Explore.

Considering this is the first thing a player experiences…I really feel it could have been improved, especially the dialogue, but there were a few really positive things about it, too. The outdoor BBQ was a nice touch (considering everyone knew we’d be going off on Adventures in the morning and all), the game does let you avoid having to learn how to catch a pokemon (your mom slips a few pokeballs into your bag at one point without telling you and if you use them to catch pokemon, Leon will not teach you how to do it later), and I feel like as far as introductions go, this one was fairly short when compared to Sun and Moon’s introductory period.

While I’m being positive, the game plops you down into an idyllic little English countryside and not only do you get to enjoy that aesthetic, but the Slumbering Weald is probably one of the prettiest/most charming places in the game, and you get a peek at it early on!

The Starter Pokemon [5/10]

I’ve experienced worse? I wasn’t spoiled for any of the starter pokemon’s evolutions starting out, and while I didn’t exactly hate any of them, I sure didn’t love ‘em, either. I named my Scorbunny “Chad” on the assumption that he was likely to turn into a chad, though I’m not sure that accurately describes the pokemon I ended up with. Clearly modeled after soccer players, my Chad is a cocky all-star jock. They went all out on his Pyroball animation but Double Kick can see itself out of my house. No love in this club.

I just really wish I found any of these starters or their evolved forms to be charming, but they’re not. Rillaboom is basically George of the Jungle but 3% less of a himbo, and Inteleon is Greninja’s younger brother in accounting.

Gyms, Gym Challenges, & Game Balance [6/10]

This is probably one of, if not the, most debated topic over at Reddit. Is the game balanced? Are the gyms too easy? Are they making this game for 5-year-olds suddenly?

Eh. I do think the game is, perhaps, Too Easy, but a game being easy isn’t a shortcoming in and of itself. Check out my section on the story and characters for more on this topic, but I’ll post the short of it here, because it’s relevant: if the gameplay is going to be easy, we either need an option to make it more difficult, or the characters, story, and world have to carry the game in such a way that the easy gameplay still feels fun.

Shield had, uh, none of that going for it, unfortunately. The plot is lackluster (more about this later), and the gameplay wasn’t able to pick up the slack. In other words, the gameplay didn’t make the game feel Substantial in any way.

Which is kind of bad, considering Dynamaxing is a new feature!

The biggest issue for most people was the Experience Share. It’s turned on by default and there seems to be no way to turn it off. You get insane amounts of XP for defeating and catching pokemon, and your whole team seems to level pretty evenly even if you only occasionally use some pokemon in the party.

I personally played the game with the default battle option (where it asks if you want to switch out to a new pokemon when the enemy is going to send out a new one) because I barely remember half the pokemon in the game’s typing. Knowing the name of what’s coming next doesn’t always help me. (How’s that for an embarrassing truth?)

I personally liked the experience share, though I feel having the ability to toggle it on/off (or even on for certain pokemon and off for others) would have been ideal. The idea with having it on all the time is that your team will level fairly evenly so you’ll be able to switch in any of your six pokemon to battle without having to struggle through leveling some of the weaker ‘mons up individually. Additionally, it enables you to easily replace a pokemon on your team mid-game if you so desire. And I did (I replaced my shiny Orbeetle with regular cotton candy Rapidash).

My team at end-game was as follows:

Cinderace (Chad)

Greedent (Moriah)

Thievul (Penelope)

Liepard (My)

Corviknight (Octavia)

Rapidash (Calliope)

As you can see, I have no grass pokemon, no water pokemon, and no electric pokemon. I have two dark types. My move coverage mostly sucked throughout the game, because Thievul had 3 dark moves, and My had 3 normal moves. I’m an official idiot, thanks for coming to my TED talk. Usually I can struggle through no matter how garbage-tier my team is, and this game was…no exception.

I steamrolled the first few gyms and their challenges even though I wasn’t vastly overleveled for any of the content. After the ghost gym (which was easy for me with my dark types) I’d say the difficulty level went up slightly, mostly because my brain has refused to hold type advantages/weaknesses that came after Gen1. I feel like most original type weaknesses made some kind of sense to me and I was never able to incorporate dark and steel into that mix, let alone fairy.

At any rate, once you fight a pokemon once, the game will tell you if your moves are super effective against them or not. I remember people complaining about this feature when it was added (in Sun/Moon I think), but I like it. It doesn’t actually help a lot if you don’t know what the moves do/aren’t looking at move power/effects, but it’s useful for my sieve of a brain in a pinch.

Hop as a rival was almost never challenging. He always starts with the same pokemon, and his team is fairly easy to sweep. That might be kind of the point, but I wish you could have encouraged him to take the starter that’s strong against yours for a bit more of a challenge. Yeah, it’s not much, but it would have been something. Marnie is a better rival than Hop in the sense that she’s actually a better battler, but I swept her team pretty easily too, every single time we fought.

The only real challenges in the game were fighting Raihan (I only had one very weak fairy move and no ice to counter his dragons) and Leon (he definitely outleveled me). On Leon I had to use revives and potions!

The gym challenges started off as pretty cute (herding Wooloo, pipe puzzle maze) but quickly grew into lazy boring doldrums (basically gauntlet fighting of one kind or another). I guess I’d say ‘nice try’ for these and say I don’t really care if I see them again or not unless they’re going to actually give it a real go.

Overall, the story part of the game felt balanced enough for me personally but if I’m being completely unbiased: it was too easy to get levels. I could have wandered around less/caught fewer pokemon as I journeyed and enjoyed more of a challenge, but I just…gotta catch ‘em all, y’know? Most people do! GameFreak should have known this and designed accordingly.

The big issue with game balance feels like it comes…after the game, and I don’t mean the post-game so much as the Max Raid Battles that require other people, but the NPC trainers you can battle with are legit trash at what they do, which kind of forces you to find other trainers, but…

Online Compatibility & Features [3/10]

So I think the rating speaks for itself, here. The interface is confusing, the stamps are annoying, and the ability to see other players but not interact with them in any meaningful way is rage-inducing (and not just because of the FPS drops).

X/Y had a better online system!

Sun and Moon was better!

I don’t know why we regressed. I’m glad they kept the “wonder trade” (renamed to random trade, I think), because I always did enjoy doing that, but the GTS was the best idea they ever had and they abandoned it for random trading? I don’t want to trade with randoms? If I wanted to do that, I’d just do a random trade in the first place!!! The inability to put what you’re looking for into the stamp that people see? Oversight. Or just bad design. Probably both!

I’ve never hated a pokemon online experience more than this. I’m just astounded by how bad it is. I tried to join max raid battles last night and kept being told the event was over, but the stamps just…didn’t refresh? For HOW LONG? I can’t even tell you because I don’t know, and I couldn’t find a way to manually force them to refresh. It’s like they update every 15 minutes instead of every 15-30 seconds (which they should if I’m browsing for trades to make or battles to join). There are ways around this (according to Reddit) but the interface should be intuitive and easy to use by default.

C’mon, guys, you can do better. This is legitimately embarrassing in the year 2019.

Music [5/10]

There are some really magical tracks in this game, and there are some really terrible tracks. It doesn’t feel at all cohesive or thematic. I absolutely hated the gym battle remix; it was worse than the regular gym battle music. I feel like the gym battle theme would have really caught on if they didn’t have any other synth sounding tracks in the game, but they kind of do, so it blends in instead of sticking out as a bop.

Notable nice tracks were Hulbury, Glimwood Tangle, Slumbering Weald, and the desert route (which I can’t remember offhand). Some of the better music reminded me of the soundtrack for Tales of Symphonia, which is high praise coming from me. Unfortunately for every good track there were probably 3 forgettable ones.

There wasn’t anything particularly engaging when it comes to the music here, but it’s at least passable.

Graphics, Design, and Animation [6/10]

I should clarify that this is 6/10 for a pokemon game, not in general. I don’t expect flashy realism in a pokemon game and neither should you. The graphics are adequate most of the time, but the animation leaves a lot to desire when you look away from the pokemon that feel like they were Chosen Ones (and received a lot more attention).

Rapidash, for example, is using the same base model and animations it’s been using since it’s been in 3D. I’m not going to claim since Stadium, but holy cow the animations are for sure the same as they’ve been since at least X/Y for all the older moves. I’m not impressed.

The characters all have dopey expressions on their faces always. The models just use one talking animation loop and it almost never changes. The main character still looks on like a smiley face emoji when turmoil occurs, and though this isn’t as bad as it was in Sun/Moon, it’s still…kind of jarring?

The Wild Area looks kind of bad sometimes, and some areas in the actual game were lackluster compared to what they should have been. Ballonlea is the town you step into after walking through the (honestly) magical Glimwood Tangle, and it’s this charming fairy wonderland…with two houses and a stadium the size of two billion football fields. Uh. Okay? You’re telling me they destroyed how much natural habitat to make this gym? It just doesn’t jive with the scenery/theme out there, especially considering Opal’s theatre is tiny. And it’s not just that I think the game is lacking thematically (though it clearly is), but there’s this…laziness to the design when it comes to places like Ballonlea. It could have been SUCH an enchanting town to explore, but it was two houses with nothing important in them and a sports arena that feels completely at odds with its surroundings. (In this town you do learn that an NPC you spoke to earlier was a ghost, but it’s not as if this is very important information/goes anywhere, really.)

Spikemuth, for all its flaws, was at least memorable. I can’t say the same for most of the towns in this game. I really enjoyed the music in Hulbury but you best bet I had to look it up to remember the name of the town! Time is partly to blame. We don’t spend a lot of time in each town, and we have no real reason to go back to them aside from visiting the nearest Pokemon Center to heal and rest up. But I would argue that, beyond that, the individual designs just…don’t feel memorable because they’re not memorable. The names are mostly meh (every time I see Ballonlea I think of Bologna for some reason), but without anything else to connect to the place as more than just a place…there’s no reason to remember any of it.

Like the music, these are all passable, graphics more than animation, animation more than design, but that’s all there is to it.

Camping and Cooking, Feathers and Fetch! [4/10]

I don’t actually have a lot to say about this. It’s a cute idea, and it’s fun maybe the first ten times that you do it, but then it’s just really boring. The game is terrible at explaining how to create different curry dishes, but it’s almost idiot-proof. I’ve yet to fail at it.

But I’m not sure I care about it, either?

You get like 1/100th of the amount of berries you need to cook while you journey along, so it feels disproportionate. I dunno. Just not a fan.

Playing with your pokemon is the only real joy that comes from camping, but its fun is limited. When you’ve tossed the ball a few times, or watched Liepard smack the feather toy a while, it has that, “Okay, I’ve seen it!” kind of feeling to it. That doing well at cooking can heal your party/cure status conditions is incentive to do it, but it’s faster to just fly to a pokemon center and run back on your bike most of the time than to pitch a tent with your ‘mons.

I feel like there should just be…more you can do when you’re camping together. I’m glad Pokemon Amie is dead (it was cringey), but it felt more personal than this.

I wish I had more to say about this feature, but it felt tacked on and lackluster after I camped a few times.

Dynamaxing, Gigantamaxing, and Max Raid Battles [4/10]

The urge to give this a zero was high, but I am making an effort to be balanced.

That said, I hate dynamaxing. Gigantamaxing is almost the same thing, it’s just Worse Somehow. Until yesterday I thought they were basically the same thing (and that some pokemon just got extra cool dynamax forms). As it turns out, they’re not the same thing at all! Or rather, they are, but they’re also not?

Dynamaxing makes your pokemon grow large and gives it these generic MAX moves that it can use in combat (Max Knuckle, Max Flare, Max Strike). It lasts for three turns and then your pokemon reverts back to its regular ‘ol self.

Gigantamaxing is when your pokemon grows a little larger than large, gets a special Look, and gets the same generic MAX moves (but with special effects added to them). Oh, and better stats.

At least, that’s how I understand it.

Both are great for Max Raid Battles, where you team up with NPCs or other players and take down huge dynamaxed pokemon that are out in the wild.

Neither is a fun feature as part of the actual gameplay. I guess as a gimmick it works all right, but just like Z-moves it has a long annoying animation sequence, and like Mega Evolutions only some pokemon get to gigantamax (everyone else is just a pleb, I guess). I dunno. I just didn’t find the concept very engaging…maybe because it seems evil and wasteful in-universe, and this is more or less stated in the game itself, but what-the-hell-ever, we’re just going to keep doing it ‘cause it looks cool!

It’s just too goofy a concept for me. Maybe if Dynamaxing doubled or tripled their size, I’d find it more understandable and more aesthetically pleasing? I hate seeing my pokemon, or the opposing pokemon, grow 50+ feet tall and scream at three billion decibels.

(For the record I never liked Mega Evolutions or Z-moves as a concept, so it’s not like I’m nostalgic for a different gimmick. That said, at least I’d accepted Megas as a thing, and Z-moves were overall not too groundbreaking or gamebreaking.)

The design of dyna/gigamaxing is to connect it with specific places so that you can’t just max your pokemon in every battle and sweep every team you fight against, but it still feels like it gets used too much. I’m currently at a point where I find having to dynamax feels like a chore.

Considering this is what the game tried to sell itself on in the initial trailer…? Yikes? I don’t know. I think some people are more ‘okay’ with the concept of dyna/gigantimaxing than others, and I think I’d be fine with it if we only had dynamaxing. Introducing both just feels like overcomplicating things for no real reason, and maybe also poking a little hard at the hornets’ nest that is the competitive community.

Because now you have to go out and grind gigantamax pokemon to catch one, so it forces you to do the thing you might not like to get a pokemon that can do the thing you don’t like, because it’s objectively better in combat? But really, who knows? Maybe these overpowered phenomena will end up banned, anyway.

Despite my disdain for this release’s gimmick, I do think Max Raid Battles are pretty fun, at least…when I’m not getting my ass completely kicked while some NPC trainer’s Eevee is using Helping Hand… It’s actually pretty enjoyable when you can somehow find other people using the y-comm and take on a gigantamaxed pokemon with the help of actual human players. But y’know…good luck using that…lol.

Overall I think the biggest downfall of Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing is that it doesn’t really add anything of substance to the game. I don’t think it makes it more fun. It’s also not necessary for max raid battles (this could be a phenomena we don’t understand yet that randomly seems to affect wild pokemon, just like with the UBs—hell, Anabel and Looker could return and claim this is all related to that stuff and I’d probably find that believable enough). So what does it add? Flavor? Culture? Nah. It’s just kind of there.

Post-Game: Is That All? [3/10]

Post-game in Sun and Moon was the Alola version of the Battle Maison, breeding, and a somewhat lengthy (for a post-game) story where you assist Interpol agents Anabel and Looker in hunting down and capturing Ultra Beasts. The plot was somewhat woven into not only Sun and Moon’s storyline (Lusamine’s shenanigans), but also borrowed from the Sapphire/Ruby reboots and X/Y. If you didn’t already know Looker from Ruby/Sapphire/X/Y, or Anabel from Pokemon Emerald, you’ll still probably find them somewhat compelling/interesting as characters. Also, they did a really good job in Sun of making circumstances seem dire—of showing instead of telling you how dangerous the UBs were and how important it was to protect the people of the towns and villages you’d visited throughout your adventure.

Shield has… Max raid battles, a battle tower, and…breeding. Oh, and a storyline about the legendary dogs that barely makes any sense and is plagued by really irritating new characters.

The terrible truth is that the post-game of Sword/Shield is embarrassingly bad. You’d think they’d want to outdo themselves with every release. Sun and Moon hit it out of the park with their post-game content. Most people enjoyed the hunt for UBs, or at least the characters of Anabel and Looker. Sword and Shield have…. Sordward and Shielbert. DID I STUTTER?

They’re terribly designed characters, and so insulting as to not really be any fun at all. The Pokeball Guy mascot is Actually Fun; these dudes aren’t. They’re barely even villains? It was an excuse to try and pull what Sun and Moon pulled, but it didn’t work. I never felt like anyone was in danger at any point, probably because magically everyone was evacuated before I even arrived on the scene to stop Sordward and Shielbert’s vile schemes. :U Oh, and because I felt little or no connection to any of the towns I visited along the way, let alone the gym leaders. Maybe if these guys had showed up partway through the game and we sort of knew who they were already, this wouldn’t seem so out-of-nowhere, but it was, and that made it even worse than it had to be.

When it’s all over, you get your legendary dog (I named mine Goodest Boy), but it wasn’t a fun storyline at all. Who are these guys? Why should I care about them? I cared about Looker and Anabel because they came onto the scene and showed that they cared about each other as people (and showed it, multiple times). These guys? They wreaked havoc and didn’t even go to jail. At least Rose went to jail!

I don’t think the post-game is terrible so much as I think it’s underwhelming, especially considering what it came on the heels of. I don’t expect More More More from every game, but I do expect improvements to be made. A decent post-game storyline is all I was asking for, and I didn’t even get that.

But there’s the tower and you can breed pokemon and train EVs and all that stuff more easily now, so…

Characters, Story, and Worldbuilding [4/10]

Let me put this as delicately as I can: I’m not a fan.

I could easily rant about bad character writing, bad stories, and weak worldbuilding for hours, but I’ll limit myself because 1) this is a pokemon game, and 2) nobody really looks for exceptional characters here.

As I said earlier, I feel like Sun and Moon did it Better. Most of the main characters in Su/Mo were likable, interesting, had a fun design, or were amusing. Not so in Shield.

Hop has a terrible name (literally a million names to choose from and they picked this?), but the biggest crime he commits is that he doesn’t get a satisfying story arc at all. When he got down about himself I had hope there would be some cool development, but there wasn’t. He ended up getting his crap together and making a Team and Picked a Strategy (which still involves sending the sheep out first I guess). And then randomly in the post-game decided he was going to be a professor…lol.

I felt like 20 different people wrote that plot, because it was terribly cobbled together and didn’t flow at all. Natural progression would have been nice.

Marnie barely has a story and barely develops. Piers seems to kind of have more ‘meat’ to his character but not a lot is done with it.

The gym leaders are otherwise really meh. Okay, so Nessa and Sonia are pals. Gal pals. Pals that are gals. Gals that are pals. Great. I don’t think we ever see them talk so it doesn’t matter. Melony has a son…and it’s just a nod to the other game where her son is the gym leader instead? Boring.

Bede is an asshole with a sob story who doesn’t really get redeemed but gets the redemption option anyway. They could have REALLY done something amazing with this guy but chose not to. His backstory is actually pretty interesting! But they didn’t utilize it worth a damn. And also he was right about the mural soooo…

Sonia was maybe the best character in the game, and that’s just from a technical standpoint. She had development, she developed, she grew as a character. Emotionally, though, I felt detached from her. Maybe it was being called a child all the time that did that? I’m not sure. I get that the protag is a child but I’m living independently and doing well for myself so maybe have a little respect idk… Especially when the first 2/3 of the game you’re told the adults will handle things, and then randomly you’re interrupted every fifty seconds to take care of other people’s nonsense. :|

In fact, I felt emotionally disconnected from pretty much every character. I didn’t really like or feel for anyone. Hop came the closest (feeling guilty about losing a battle cause it might make his brother look bad), but the bad dialogue options and inability to actually cheer him up was frustrating more than anything.

There are zones that are breathtakingly lovely (Slumbering Weald! Ballonlea! Glimwood Tangle!) but all the rest are more or less forgettable. The characters are connected to the world…sorta, but there are times it feels like they force-connected them through dynamaxing and dialogue accents instead of trying to make characters who naturally fit into the world. Like I talked about before, Opal’s gym felt completely disconnected from the reality of her environment. She lives there for a reason. Doesn’t the stadium’s presence jar her? How many fairy pokemon lost their homes when that thing took away tens of acres of forest? What’s the story here? Or anywhere for that matter?

Spikemuth was a waste of space but at least it felt like an attempt to show us a poverty-stricken area… Unfortunately it all fell flat the second they used two models for Team Yell! Team Yell could have been really cool, especially if they’d had different models with their names (challenged by Team Yell Grunt Sierra/Troy/Nellie/whatever), and the same team yell outfit/clothes/paint on. Then we could see these are just regular guys and gals from this poor area who want to cheer on their hometown girl!!!

But that was a weakness throughout the game, because Team Yell were all gym trainers, and all shared models…just like all the other gyms. It felt lazy to me. The outfits can be the same, but way to go making all the models literal clones. That’s just laziness.

The villains are all meh. Rose? Of course he was a villain. The problem is that he’s not a villain for being a capitalist pig or anything. He’s a villain for wanting to fix a power issue that’s 1,000 years from happening. Meh motivation. If it was 50 years away then we have a compelling villain! But no, not 50. A thousand years from happening. And he can’t wait five fucking minutes.

Oleana was boring.

Leon was exactly the person he was the entire game…

The taxi service is a cute idea, and a nice gameplay addition, but it doesn’t really add anything to the world because they didn’t make the effort to integrate it.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough.

The short of it is this: I walked away from this game not really caring about the world or any of the characters. I don’t even have a favorite character. I can’t remember the last time that happened to me. YIKES.

The Wild Area [8/10]

I don’t want to cover this for too long, because I feel it’s been done to death, but the Wild Area is what the whole game should have been. Or at least, more of the game. I don’t expect we’ll ever get a fully open-world pokemon game EVER, but this foray into the true 3D tells me that it could be a lot of fun, actually, even in somewhat constrained environments. (Oh, and with a good map.)

I enjoy the idea of the Wild Area, but I think its usefulness is limited without the appeal of having more pokemon patched into the game later. Until I get sick of it, though, it’s a pretty neat concept, and it makes hunting for new pokemon to catch a little more fun than it usually is. I like that they kept the overworld pokemon in this area as well as on the routes you have to travel; it feels like more of an adventure to dodge a huge Steelix and scoot closer to see what that yellow thing is in the grass you can’t quite make out. :)

Basically: fun concept that is enjoyable for now but has limited enjoyment. As far as negativity goes, I don’t have much to complain about here that I didn’t complain about in the Online Compatibility section above.

The Pokemon Themselves [6/10]

I was challenged by @hijauindah to list my top five favorite new pokemon from the game, so here we go!

Nickit (cute design!)

Boltund (smooth, well designed—not too cluttered)

Ponyta/Rapidash (MY LITTLE PONY… I think Rapidash could look better, but I’m just glad they cared enough to try something new with them…)

Frosmoth (Super pretty pokemon design.)

Dragapult (Nifty design.)

Most of the new designs are just…okay. There are a lot I don’t actually care for. But I’m biased; I just want more creature-based pokemon that look like they could exist and function in the world they live in. Some of these designs they come up with look like they’d have died out ten thousand years ago due to being Poorly Evolved lol.

Final Thoughts [6/10]

The worst part of the game for me personally was probably feeling like I was getting interrupted constantly by other characters. JUST LET ME PLAY. But the best part was definitely exploring the new areas, catching a shiny 2 hours into the game, and getting to the end more or less with the team I started with.

The individual scores don’t add up to a 6/10 (they actually add up to a 5.16/10) but I think it’s worth noting that I did have a fun time playing through the game, I intend to hop into the breeding stuff, and even though I don’t have to keep max raid battling and stuff, I probably will.

It’s far from the 9s that it was getting by certain people from certain places that won’t be named here, but it’s not as if it’s a dumpster fire game. I don’t regret the money I spent on it, and I hope to keep enjoying the game for a few more months (albeit more casually than I did over the weekend), but I hope GameFreak has learned from its follies and puts its best foot forward with the next game, because I will not manage to be this forgiving again.

#pokemon sword and shield #pokemon #pokemon spoilers #pokemon review #long post #really long post #pokemon swsh #i didn't really edit this so sorry if there are any typos

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chewiewrites · 5 years

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@bluesrgcnts sent: 📱 + mainik / eric&kc

SEND 📱 TO FIND OUT ABOUT MY MUSE’S PHONE.

w/ MAINIK

What ringtone my muse has set for yours: Hang on to your uwus for this one. I think her ringtone for Nik changes… not constantly but as their relationship grows and changes. Her autonomic ringtone for everyone is definitely the Pokemon theme song. During their time as friends, I can definitely see her having Total Eclipse of the Heart because she really loves the song? Probably sings it too often, #prayfornik’sears. And later she changes it to Something About The Way You Look Tonight; and her final ringtone for him is definitely Can’t Help Falling In Love. Oh, did I mention that all of her ringtones for him are the violin version of the original song? Because that’s canon.

What contact photo my muse has set for yours: Full disclaimer, Mai changes Nik’s contact photo SO often, it’s ridiculous.

What my muse thinks of the way yours texts: Mailan.. finds it amusing that Nikita texts almost the same way he speaks? She could hear him saying what he sends her and it’s funny yet intimidating at times? Especially considering the way she texts? She sends so many emojis and a sentence at a time whereas I can see Nik sending her one block or line as a response and that’s it? No emojis or uwus or any of that sort of thing. And while at times Mai thinks it sucks, since she has NO idea how to take some things he says, she also loves it. The way he texts is just so him she couldn’t imagine it any other way? Because of how stoic-y he texts, Mai usually asks him questions such as “what do you mean by that?” and such. She feels bad doing so and sometimes avoids asking questions but other times she’s too scared of the meaning of what he says to keep quiet. That being said, I feel like she just grows used to it? To his stoic responses and such? I feel like at one point in their relationship, she no longer needs to ask questions and just feels much more calmer in regards to understanding him and such. Growth™️, I guess.

How quickly my muse responds to your texts: Is it a surprise to anyone that she responds to him almost immediately? The minute she gets a notification and sees the bunny emoji, she’s unlocking her phone to answer him. Mailan often waits for his response in suspense or simply out of excitement. The only time she doesn't reply to him immediately is if she’s actually busy, think of work, schoolwork, showers, cooking, gardening, and sleep. And even so, there’s been instances were the notification from his text wakes her up and she responds and falls back to sleep (I can’t guarantee that those messages make any sense, some may have been in Vietnamese).

How often our muses text: Often, like I’d say daily. Mai definitely enjoys texting him every day, I can see her sending him good morning and goodnight texts every day without missing a beat. Even if he doesn’t reply to her, she still sends him so many messages? It’s almost a monologue and I’m embarrassed. But she means well with her texts and I’m sure Nik gets used to getting spam almost every day.

How often our muses call: Depends? I’d say that if they are close to each other, think of school, camp, or wherever—I don’t know what other universes they may meet on, but if they are close and can see each other often or almost every day then the phone calls rarely happen. However, if they are in their perspective homes? The phone calls happen weekly if not more often. I’d like to think Nik is a busy boy considering his career of choice, so that’s why I don’t say daily.. Although if it were up to Mai’s clingy self.. that’s how it would be. But yeah, they probably schedule calls to have weekly. It’s funny to think of these fools as organized but again, Nik is a busy boy. And I’d imagine that when Mai is on break or home she’s doing a million things at once? Getting transfiguration classes plus violin classes. I somehow feel like she would also help her mother with her job?

Does my muse purposefully miss calls from yours: Knowing Mai, no. She doesn’t have it in her to purposefully miss his calls UNLESS they’ve had a misunderstanding or she’s crying over something. I think Mai purposefully not answering his calls is so RARE, like.. I would be shocked when it happens. But I can imagine them having disagreements and she just kind of needs time? So she doesn’t answer his phone call—sometimes she lets him know, like “hey, I don’t think we should talk right now. Can you give me an hour or so?” Once they become.. a couple and have a some bumpy ass experiences she becomes so much more vocal about when she doesn’t understand what he means, or whether she does or doesn’t stand with it, etc? But them as friends? Mai just doesn’t answer his calls and then gives such a Lame excuse about it? Think of “sorry I was feeding my cat” even though Nik called her like five hours ago.. Additionally, Mai would purposefully miss his calls if she’s having a hard time and is crying, she sometimes texts him saying she’s struggling or other times she doesn’t.

Last text(s) sent from my muse to yours:

( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) that moment when your day is completely ruined!! ( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) i was just about to eat my breakfast right?? as i do everyday ( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) and when i go to get peach juice?? there is none left?? like WHO TOUCHED MY PEACH JUICE ( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) ..no one did. i had the last of it yesterday, i’m so upset.. it’s not a complete breakfast without peach juice ( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) anyways, i hope your morning is going better… morning or day.. or night. what are time zones drafted! ( ✉️ – con thỏ tai to ) i miss you so much

w/ ERIC & KC

What ringtone my muse has set for yours: I’m so sorry to disappoint everyone but Eric doesn’t bother with ringtones? Like at all. This boy lets his ringtone be the basic af iPhone ringtone.. He doesn’t even change them to the other options it’s the one the phone comes with.

What contact photo my muse has set for yours: You best believe KC took this photo and added it himself.. because otherwise, he would have no contact picture. Eric doesn’t bother with that either. This demon doesn’t bother with ANYTHING and I hate him for it.

What my muse thinks of the way yours texts: Eric.. has seen people text worse than KC. It’s not that KC texts in a weird way.. it’s just A Lot™️ for Eric? Like he can just cringe at what KC sends him? I don’t know why but I feel like KC is an uwu sort of guy so he would use that and lots of periods or commas, maybe even a lot of line breaks? So that and the memes? And keysmaches? It just feels like a lot to Eric but he can.. see KC’s personality come through? He doesn’t know whether he hates it or is amused by it. Maybe he simultaneously hates it and finds it amusing. (The only bright side of KC texting habits is that it keeps Eric up to date with the memes).

How quickly my muse responds to your texts: This dumb demon child takes his TIME getting back to KC! Unless it’s about business or it’s leading up to it in which he would reply sooner.. He still doesn’t reply instantly. At the beginning of Eric trying to charm KC, he definitely took a specific amount of time before replying to KC, like yes this demon calculated it. He wanted KC to wait, learn to at least. His goal? For KC to anticipate his response. To see whether KC would send more text messages instead of waiting. But Eric can take days or weeks to get back to KC.. good thing they live in Camp so they can at least see each other and talk then.. yikes.

How often our muses text: As said previously, Eric is a slow ass texter but they probably have.. somewhat decent conversations. I’d imagine Eric would also text KC, it can’t all be one-sided because it might discourage him and Eric needs KC to still cave into his dumb demonic methods and ways.

How often our muses call: Not.. that.. often? I feel like there’s different answers to this. When Eric’s manipulation was at its Peak™️ they probably had phone calls often, usually during the night. I can imagine Eric playing Fortnite (because.. he would) and having an hour conversation with KC, leading him on. He probably grows quiet when the match gets hard but.. I kind of works on his favor? You know that whole “let’s fall asleep on the phone” thing? Eric accomplishes it accidentally because he gets quiet id he’s really focused and KC eventually falls asleep. But after Eric calls them off? It’s just.. not a Thing anymore? KC can still call him.. but Eric doesn’t make the effort to have an hour conversation with KC. I imagine Eric and his dumb self calls KC when he’s highly intoxicated though, so good luck with that.

Does my muse purposefully miss calls from yours: Yes, all the time. Though Eric sometimes doesn’t pay attention to his phone? He’s the type to not charge his phone for days because socializing is too much and seeing so many idiots face to face daily is Bad Enough for him. But Eric.. purposefully misses everyone’s calls, he can’t be bothered. If KC is insistent enough he’ll answer I guess or send one of those automatic(?) messages like “I’m busy, call later.”

Last text sent from my muse to yours:

( ✉️ – kc ) if you’re awake you should meet me near the entrance of camp in 5. i’m going to get legit chinese food from the city.

#( answered. )#bluesrgcnts #it's so long i just divided it up bc in ONE post it would be so... bAD YIKES AT ME but pls yell at me once u read ths #( otp. mailan & nikita )#( notp. eric & kc )#( ch. mailan pham )#( ch. eric liu )

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hakafufe · 7 years

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Favorite Games of 2016

Disclaimer

My list includes games from previous years. As long as I've never played it and started it for the first time in 2016 then it's fair game.

#10 Rock Band 4

I picked up this game in a bundle with the Rivals expansion pack and this game reinvigorated my love for rhythm games. However, it is noticeable that Harmonix has shifted into “Indie Game Dev” status with the downgraded graphics, animation, and limited DLC songs every. Nevertheless it fills that rhythm game itch phenomenally.

#9 Shadows of Mordor

As if Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed made sweet love in the plains of Middle-Earth. Changes up gameplay by introducing the nemesis system. Mind-controlling an orc general and watching them move up the ranks made me as happy as a mother on Toddler’s & Tiaras. Other than the Nemesis System, Shadows of Mordor doesn’t do anything else but refines familiar mechanics to a T.

#8 Bravely Second

I love Bravely Default. And the sequel builds up from the foundation established by the first game albeit with a weaker, much stranger story. I don’t want to delve deeper into spoiler territory but the ending gets truly meta and self-aware to a weird degree. But it’s the gameplay that carries the experience. A whole slew of new classes are introduced as well as a number of the classes from the first game. The amount of customization and hypothetical class combos is vast and a hell of a lot of fun to experiment with.

#7 Titanfall 2

Respawn Entertainment found their solid footing after the misfire that was the first Titanfall. Don’t get me wrong, the first game is fun but as deep as a deflated kiddie pool. Titanfall 2 improves on the first Titanfall in spades. More titans, customization, unlockables, maps, and an actual single-player campaign. The real tragedy was the marketing and release date for this game. With a release date sandwhiched between Battlefield 1 and Cod: Infinite Warfare this game was set-up to be overlooked. But that didn’t matter to me, as I still believe Titanfall 2 is better than both those games.

#6 Overwatch (PC Edition)

Blizzard struck gold, diamond, platinum, oil, and every other valuable resource with Overwatch. I knew after watching the first reveal trailer that this was gonna be a good game, but in my opinion a good game with friends. Playing solo can prove to be a frustrating, anti-fun experience when you’re getting stomped and your team can’t cooperate even if their lives depended on it. But the universe Blizzard created is probably the best part about this game and the selling point in my eyes. The colorful cast of characters, all with their own backstories, unique abilities and great design to top it off. And it’s only $40 bucks in PC, the perfect price for this kind of game (sorry console players D:).

#5 Monster Hunter Generations

Sneaking it’s way into my #5 spot is Monster Hunter Generations. I say sneaking because I didn’t expect to love this game as much as I do. It may not seem too impressive to MH veterans but after sinking 100 hours into Generations, I can safely say I’m a newfound fan of the series. The game might seem boring to some: a cycle of accepting quests, eating food for buffs, prepping for the quest, finish the quest, rinse and repeat. But the game really starts picking up once you start hunting giant wooly mammoths and dinosaurs ripped straight out of Jurassic World. Then using their carcasses to create new gear and weapons for yourself. The game just keeps on giving and giving to no end. Oh, and there’s online mutiplayer which a blast to play with minimal lag and very few connection issues.

#4 Final Fantasy XV

The last game I beat before the end of 2016, Roadtrip Fantasy XV was a great way to close out the year. Much like previous games in the series, the story is batshit insanity. Square Enix went out of their way to create a small universe for this game, complete with a film and anime series. So without watching the movie specifically, some of the story elements may seem confusing and out of left field. Now the best part about FFXV is hands-down the main cast of characters. The Backstreet Boys (Noctic, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto) all have a lot of heart and feel like genuine characters. They play off of each other extremely well, have great banter between them, and even have some surprising heart-to-heart moments with each other. Their relationship carries over beautifully into the combat. This FF game plays a lot similar to the likes of Kingdom Hearts. Battling as Noctis and setting up combo moves with your squad is exhilarating and rewarding. I know I gave my 2 cents about the story but it wraps up in what might be my favorite ending to a video game this year. It took Square 10 years to make this game, and it was all worth it.

#3 Fire Emblem Fates

I’ll say it now, this game doesn’t hold a candle to Awakening. The fact that the full experience is essentially split into 3 games takes a toll on the story. But the gameplay is still the same tried and true Fire Emblem formula. Managing your units and trying to get them killed is a very strategic and rewarding experience. The marriage/child mechanic makes a return in Fates but from a narrative point of view, the reintroduction of this mechanic doesn’t seem to make as much sense as Awakening. Overall, it’s more Fire Emblem and I can’t really complain too much about that. Also, Felicia/Jakob best partners.

#2 Pokemon Sun and Moon

Pokemon Sun and Moon is the definitive Pokemon experience. I’ve been a longtime fan of the series so placing the game at #2 may seem biased, but I truly feel like Sun and Moon changed up the traditional Pokemon formula to warrant the #2 spot. While yes, the first few hours is nothing but tutorials and hand holding, I don’t see it as much of a problem since it pretty much makes Sun and Moon the most accessible Pokemon game in the series. And with the spike in popularity because of Pokemon GO I anticipate there may be a whole slew of series newcomers. Out with the old conventional Pokemon gyms and in with island trials, a really good story (in Pokemon standards), beautiful art and graphics, and countless quality-of-life changes that polish the overall game experience. The Pokemon game for everyone, Sun and Moon still proves that Game Freak can still inject some life into this franchise.

#1 Ratchet and Clank

I mentioned earlier about Overwatch’s killer price tag. Now imagine that price on a full, triple A, single player experience and you got yourselves the Ratchet and Clank reboot. This game in amazing in every aspect. It runs and plays beautifully even though it’s set at a sneaky 30 FPS, but it’s almost unnoticeable. Insomniac really surprised me with this game. I knew from the start I was in for a treat but I wasn’t aware how well made this game would actually be. Zany, quirky weapons galore, a reimagining of the plot from the first game, very tight and fluid gameplay, and the introduction of the galaxy’s greatest duo on the Playstation 4. Ratchet and Clank is my #1 favorite game of 2016, and here’s hoping Insomniac will release another one of these masterpieces in the foreseeable future.

#2016 #favorite #list #rockband #shadowsofmordor #bravelysecond #titanfall #overwatch #monsterhunter #finalfantasy #final fantasy xv #fireemblem #pokemon #ratchetandclank

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