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formulaorange · 7 months

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2023 Fall Anime

This is honestly a loaded season full of new shows based on relatively new manga. Lots to look forward to

Spy x Family - Season 2 One of the most fun SJ series that have come out in a while. Season 1 was killer, high hopes for season 2.

Goblin Slayer 2 I didn't realize they were even making a second season. This was such a killer series. I'm really hoping they don't fall into the many mid-tier fantasy tropes out there in anime right now. I thought the appeal of the show was really Goblin Slayer himself and less about the lackeys along the way. So we'll see how it goes.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End This is definitely one of my highly anticipated series. It's about an elf who was part of the Hero's party and her life after he dies. (Since elves live longer) Definitely a darker take on fantasy but has some really solid fantasy and adventure vibes.

Rising of the Shield Hero - Season 3 Season 2 was pretty disappointing and slow. While this looks like it'll be more fast paced, it does look like a tournament arc of sorts. I know some aren't a fan of that kind of arc, but honestly I think it's exactly what this series needs to pick things up again. We'll see.

The Faraway Paladin - Season 2 This was legitimately one of my favourite fantasy series. I thought it was really well written and didn't rush things like other series. I'm looking forward to this season.

Sequels/Continuations: Eminence in Shadow - Season 2 killer series with an anti-hero main character. Definitely worth checking out. After-School Hanako-Kun Hanako-kun spin off Dr. Stone Season 3 - Part 2 One of the best novel concept series with nothing else in it's genre to compare to. Definitely didn't drop the ball on the recent seasons and still worth watching. Dead Mount Death Play - Part 2 One that I didn't particularly enjoy, but has a decent sized manga following. Tokyo Revengers - Tenjiku Arc The continuation of the series. Might be just me but it feels like the series fell off after the first season. The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent - Season 2 A more mature take on fantasy isekai that just started to get into romance at the end of last season. A solid combo of shoujo genres. The Ancient Magus' Bride - Season 2 Part 2 One that I haven't had a change to check out yet but have only heard good things about. Hypnosismic - Season 2 a weirdly addictive musical/rap series. Unique characters and honestly solid rap battles. One I'll be enjoying. -- Related - Paradox Live - Music battle with what looks to be the same style of animation and solid character design. Definitely worth looking at if you're a fan of Hypmic. The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse A sequel of SDS. Looks like it could be a fun watch for the fans of the series. New:

Shangri La Frontier A new manga fantasy series. This may be a horrible way to describe but it is what it is - a new age SAO- full dive fantasy game. A gamer who only plays shit games, gets into a new massively popular MMORPG and is op. One that I'm excited for because it ticks all the fantasy game boxes I like.

Undead Unluck A relatively new manga series that gained a lot of traction in the last year or two. A gory action comedy that's super chaotic and a lot of fun.

Shy Brand new hero manga series about a shy girl and her anxieties and struggles going into the hero world who grows and gains confidence as she becomes a better hero.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions This is a manga series that I have kept forgetting the name of so never got a chance to read but all the covers for the manga look phenomenal. Likely the anime doesn't do him justice but it is what it is. Essentially sherlock in anime form. A PI with issues and the wholesome police detective work together to solve crime. Other New Series: Green - Fantasy Pink - Romance Red - Action Purple - Drama The Kingdoms of Ruins A world where witches were hunted down by humans as science surpassed magic. A kid who was raised by a witch swears revenge on mankind. This honestly looks solid. The animations are very cool looking and the mc seems to be an anti-hero. Will be looking at this one. Under Ninja A well known manga series about modern ninjas. Definitely a unique series for this season. The Apothecary Diaries A historical medical mystery show. I've heard the name before and I've also only heard good things. Will be worth a watch. A Girl & Her Guard Dog The granddaughter of a crime syndicate goes to highschool out of town and the current young boss lies his way into the same school. Would be cute romance if it weren't for the fact she's 15 and he's 26.. Butareba - The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig What the title says. A girl finds him and the story goes from there. I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness The usual light novel title. Honestly, doesn't seem as yikes as I initially thought, might just be harmless breaking the rules kinda thing. Could be fun, also a Capybara that strikes fear into people's hearts. My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer Looks like a wholesome series where an adventurer finds a baby, raises it and she becomes so strong she's busy working all the time. Just a cute father daughter relationship in a fantasy setting about her wanting to come take time to see him but being caught up in OP fantasy battles. Ragna Crimson Dragons vs Humanity - a human and a dragon team up to destroy all the dragons. Action fantasy series. Berserk of Gluttony I honestly added this because I thought it was hilarious. Looks like a combo of knock offs - the Gluttony skill from Tensura (reincarnated as a slime) and the mc being called Fate with the main girl who looks exactly like Sabre. I'll be skipping but its' here so you know.

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randyvouz · 30 days

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Working gradually through my Inscryption redesigns, starting with Magnificus!

Some alts to show off the details/my thought process under the cut:

-To start, Magnificus’ original design always bothered me because he seems to have a lot of the same design motifs as Leshy. They’re both very overwhelmingly green in their 3D models and their eyes both have similar swirls within. I wanted to keep Magnificus still faithful and recognizable to his original design, but separated further from Leshy.

-I changed his main fur color to a bluish-green color that gradually turns into a mix of blues, purples and greens at the base caused by paint stains he’s garnered over the years, giving him this otherwordly painted look that fits his inscryption tool, but also makes him feel more magical (fun fact: his body palette here was entirely color picked from a Claude Monet painting!)

-Oh, good lord, that “magic eye”. Not only does it look identical to his non-magical eye when we see Magnificus in act 3, but look at how it appears in the box of eyes Leshy offers you in act 1:

It looks absolutely nothing like his eyes in act 3, and isn’t even consistent with act 2. (Then again act 2 sprites vs their 3d models is a whole rant in of itself i’ll possibly get into another day) So, I ended up going with leaning into the design of this act 1 eye more, but gave it more of a “magical” spin with the navy blue and gold stars within it.

-In the interview with Daniel Mullens, he mentioned that Magnificus’ hands were supposed to be “scaly” in the 3D model, and that really peaked my interest. So I went with the obvious decision based on this information to give him dragon traits due to dragons having a strong fantasy/magical association as well as their association with gems in some pieces of media that features dragons. He also gets a nice long tail because I say so.

-His mustache is based on Salvador Dali, and the little tuft below his mouth is based on how many unicorns, another magical creature, are depicted with a beard of sorts.

-The rest of the design was just me kind of bs’ing what I thought looked good.

#artists on tumblr #art #artist #character art #character design #inscryption #inscryption spoilers #fan art #sorry most of this is me ranting #except no im not sorry I love talking about my design process

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best-underrated-anime · 3 months

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Best Underrated Anime Group E Round 3: #E3 vs #E1

#E3: Sending us penguins will NOT fix our terminally ill sister, but thanks anyways.

#E1: Forcefully mixing the old and the new. Hilarity and disaster ensues.

Details and poll under the cut!

*Text in green indicates that something has been changed.

#E3: Mawaru Penguindrum

youtube

Summary:

For the Takakura family, destiny is an ever-spinning wheel, pointing passionately in their direction with equal tides of joy and sorrow before ticking on to the next wishmaker. With their parents gone, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma live alone with their beloved little sister Himari, whose poor health cannot decline any further.

On the day Himari is given permission to temporarily leave the hospital, her brothers take her out to the aquarium to celebrate, where the family's supposed fate is brought forth with her sudden collapse. However, when Himari is inexplicably revived by a penguin hat from the aquarium's souvenir shop, the hand of fate continues to tick faithfully forward.

With her miraculous recovery, though, comes a cost: there is a new entity within her body, whose condition for keeping her fate at bay sends the boys on a wild goose chase for the mysterious "Penguin Drum." In their search, the boys will have to follow the threads of fate leading from their own shocking past and into the lives of other wishmakers vying for the Penguin Drum, all hoping to land upon their chosen destiny.

Propaganda:

Do you like weird artsy stuff? Do you love magical girls? How about weird, messed up character dynamics? Then boy oh boy, Mawaru Penguindrum is the show for you! The show starts out funny enough, but will quickly spiral into an intense and intricate plot, involving fate, the mafia, magical destiny-rewriting spells, and penguins. Which yes, before you ask, the funny penguins are in fact plot relevant.

Penguindrum isn’t really a show about all that stuff though, even though it is. It’s a very symbolic story, about living under the crushing heel of capitalism, and the quiet poison of the societally expected nuclear family dynamic. I could write an essay on each and every single one of the characters, as they’re all given a lot of depth and time to grow. Every character has their own baggage that, one way or another, ties back to someone else. Everyone in this show is connected in some way shape or form, and that’s really highlighted when everything starts to fall apart. Be warned: this show is NOT a light watch! If you’re the type of person who gets really into deciphering symbolism and creating your own meaning from pieces of media, then this show is for you!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Flashing Lights/Flickering Images, Gender Identity/Sexuality Discrimination, Guns, Incest, Kidnapping, Nudity, Pedophilia, Rape/Non-Con, Smoking, Suicide, Bomb Threats/Attempts and Terrorisim

It’s a very major plot point. This show is HEAVILY based off the 95 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attacks, so if content like that is triggering to you, tread lightly.

#E1: Are You Ok (You Yao)

Summary:

People from the modern world transmigrating into the ancient Chinese fantasy world has become a common and everyday occurrence that the royal court in the latter has decided to moderate them. If you’re a transmigrator, you must report your existence to Lou Zhu, the master of Best Tower. Once you pass his test and prove that you are indeed a modern person, you can then be assigned to work in different areas of the government and be given a high salary.

Because of this promised benefit, many impostors have showed up before Lou Zhu. And one day, Zuo Yunqi takes this test as well. Is he an impostor, or is he an actual modern person?

But some transmigrators also choose to hide their existence out of distrust in the government. Where are they? And with their advanced knowledge on science and technology, what are they planning in the dark?

Elsewhere, other transmigrators find themselves in all sorts of situations—an art student is detained and forced to come up with a recipe for a poisonous meal, while another is stuck sharing a body with the original soul and fighting for its control. Meanwhile, unrest rises in the Jianghu and a storm brews in the palace. Can our transmigrators’ modern knowledge save the day? Or will their lack of understanding in the current world lead to their downfall?

Propaganda:

Often in transmigration stories, the locals are portrayed as “backward” and “ignorant” to make the modern characters seem intelligent and progressive. The latter are then hailed as geniuses or pioneers, but in You Yao this isn’t the case.

You Yao deconstructs the transmigration genre and explores its possibilities. The system that moderates the transmigrators really puts them in their place and curbs their arrogance. And when in Rome, do as the Romans do. No matter how “smart” they may be, they are still subjects of the Emperor.

Besides, modern knowledge doesn’t always prove to be useful. An educated man like Lou Zhu is considered illiterate because he cannot read Traditional Chinese. His assistant has to first translate them into Simplified 😂

Moreover, this world they’re in has elements of wuxia (martial arts with superpowers). How can a modern person who grew up in a safe environment protect oneself in such a setting? They can only ask the locals to protect them.

So, transmigrators are not necessarily superior to the locals—which I like because it lets us look at the locals’ strengths and appreciate them as well.

You Yao features an ensemble cast, by the way, and all of them, both locals and transmigrators, are endearing. There are also several canon BL couples, with each pair marking the different sub-plots of the show. Just don’t expect any explicit gay confirmation because it’s limited by Chinese censorship, after all. But even then, it managed to be as fruity as it could be (the S1 ED is literally an angsty love song about the second gay pairing).

In regard to setting, it’s a genius mix of ancient Chinese fantasy and modern technology. Best Tower looks like a traditional Chinese pagoda on the outside, but on the inside it’s like a mall, complete with different entertainment venues and even a milk tea shop! It even has an “elevator,” but since electricity hasn’t been invented yet, it’s just powered by different men (in fancy uniforms) on bicycles.

You Yao is really creative in presenting what could happen when you forcefully mix the old and the new. This allows a lot of hilarious situations, but it also highlights the dichotomy of tradition and modernity, making viewers question which changes are actually good and bad.

Can the Emperor really be that benevolent when plenty of people with knowledge beyond his keep popping up? And how can all transmigrators be content in following this world’s backward laws? What happens when one side tries to dominate and eradicate the other?

You Yao may give off that silly sitcom vibe, but it’s actually so much more than that. I don’t wanna spoil anything, so all I can say is that it’s gonna make you laugh a lot, and once your guard is lowered it’s gonna sucker-punch you in the gut. Vote You Yao.

Trigger warnings: Guns, kidnapping, and imprisonment. Nothing too dark, though.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #donghua #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 3 #tournament polls #group e #mawaru penguindrum #penguindrum #you yao #are you ok #有药

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v3nusxsky · 1 year

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Lady Lesso x R senior student who is quiet and shy . Lesso who usually encourages fights is somewhat bothered when she sees other students bring mean to R.

Anyone but her| h&c

*Authors note~ drawing off my high school experiences in some aspects of this and I hope that anyone who has experienced or is experiencing this knows how loved and truly wonderful they are. Reach out to someone you feel safe with and remember there's light at ever dark tunnel*

Trigger warnings~ bullying! Fights

Prompt ~see ask^^^^^

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽

Being a senior was hard enough as it was. Yet seemingly for you it honestly couldn't get any harder. Everyone in the school for evil had already formed their close friend circles years ago, yet you seemed to float between groups never quite settling or fitting in anywhere. Over the years of floating around friendships, you learnt one thing. You were odd. Not quite a Never but not quite an Ever which made it impossible for you to feel you belonged. That very fact caused you to be isolated and alone, often seeking solace in books that could transport you into a different reality.

The books you read followed the genre of fantasy, not quite the happy fairytales the Evers would spin but not quite as twisted as some of the tales your heard Nevers speak about. Recently, you stumbled across this Morden world type of book. Fanfiction. You were able to read and write from your own mind but basing off your favourite books of characters. This suited you down the ground and truthfully you were lucky to compile so many the stories into a hard covered book. This book never left your side, along with your note pad that contained stories of your own. In fact you had impressively made an original character, a whole entire realm and even started to add illustrations. If you weren't in classes or studying then you were reading or working on this only place you truly felt free.

Lady Leonora Lesso, the Dean of Evil, was well known to encourage violence among her students. After all scars held a story and a lesson to be remembered. The only rule was you couldn't kill anyone till after graduation. And she swore that having just one simple rule worked for her. She'd seen cases where a Never had gotten in a rough situation and come out a little battered and bruised but never had she felt involved or compelled to protect a student. After all she taught you all well. If you didn't pay attention on how to defend yourself, well that's not her problem. Right?

That was until you. She saw how you were, the overwhelming need to protect you frazzled her. Never had she felt so maternal towards a student before. Naturally, that made her avoid you until you needed her. Hopefully that day would never come however, she would step in instantly should the situation call for her. Now it wasn't because you can't handle yourself. No. It was a selfish desire to ensure that not a hair was out of place. You maybe considered an oddball but your soul was one of the purest she had ever seen despite being sorted as a Never. You were clearly destined for great things and she was going to ensure you achieved them.

You were doing your usual routine of hiding in the library and writing on your newest chapter when you heard them, the cackle signifying it was Hester and her crew. Truly you were tired and desired to be alone, yet the most popular group of Never's seemed to not want to give you that. No. Here they stood now in front of you, teasing and goading you into what they thought was an easy fight. After all what really could little you do? You weren't strong enough to over power them and your social skill meant any witty comeback would come out all stuttered and mumbled not having the bite it needed to stop them. So truly all you could do is allow yourself to be dragged by your hair into the centre of the room and thrown harshly against the floor.

A circle formed around you all, seemingly drowning your tiny form as the spewed their words and even added a few kicks to your middle. Hester had summoned her dragon and you just lay there powerless to her. You'd accepted your fate as soon as they dragged you by your hair. That's why you were confused to hear the Deans voice booming through the library, effectively silencing and stilling everyone in the room. You didn't bother to move and face her, too embarrassed by your tear stained cheeks and jittery breath to look her in the eyes. After all this wasn't Never like whatsoever. And the thought of angering the older women terrified you.

After dismissing the groups deciding to deal with them much later, she'd enjoy their punishments more after knowing you were okay. She quickly came over to your shivering form and her heart sank. Why was she feeling such a compassion for you? Why did the sight bother her so? After all she'd seen Never students in worse states and still lectured them on the weaknesses they showed by losing. Telling them just how disappointed she was by them. Yet, with you all she wished to do was to hold you in her arms and comfort you. Odd. Very odd.

Yet that's exactly what she did, she made sure you were calm safe and comfortable. She settled you in your dorm room and into bed before using her magic to put you in a peaceful slumber. Only then did she allow herself the fun of torturing the students in similar ways they had to you. Sure enough after that they never bothered you again and you finished out the rest of the year in harmony. Years on you had began to teach at the school and even started a tentative relationship with your own personal knight, Lady Leonora Lesso, or Nora as you called her. Life was finally something you could enjoy and she would always be your light at the end of the tunnel.

Word count ~ 1037

#lady lesso #fanfic #sfgae #leonora lesso #lady lesso x reader #lesso x reader #dean of evil #leonora lesso x reader #lady lesso x you #lady leonora lesso #anon answered #anon request

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theinquisitxor · 1 year

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January 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

I read a whopping 15 books this month, which is the most I think I've ever read in a month. That is partially due to novella audiobooks, as I could get through each one in 4-5 hours. But, looking at previous Januarys, I do tend to read the most during this month. Most noteworthy: After starting the Wayward Children series back in 2019, I made myself catch up to the most recent release!

1.In An Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4) by Seanan Mcguire. 4/5 stars. This is one of my favorites of the series, and I saw aspects of myself in Elizabeth. This novella also contains many things I enjoy- especially goblin markets and bargains. portal fantasy, audiobook, novella.

2.The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (trans. Lucia Graves) 4/5 stars. This may be the book that was on my physical tbr the longest. I got this book in high school and it followed me through college and now to my post-college life. I really enjoyed the immersiveness of this story; it makes me want to travel to Barcelona and retrace the footsteps of the characters. The story slowly built up to an explosive and cinematic ending, with twists and turns I did not see coming. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to read the rest in the series though. historical fiction.

3.Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5) by Seanan Mcguire. 3/5 stars. This was not my favorite, and while I'm glad I got to see how Jack and Jill's story resolved, this book felt largely unnecessary. However it was cool that Seanan Mcguire narrated the audiobook herself. portal fantasy, audiobook, novella

4.Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Lehigh Bardugo. 5/5 stars. I reread this in anticipation for the release of book 2, and I enjoyed this even more than the first time. This series is one of my favorite works-in-progress. fantasy

5.Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley. 4/5 stars. This was a sweet, enjoyable, wintery read. I read this mainly because I am always on the hunt for books that feature music/musicians as main characters. This was definitely younger-ya, and featured a sapphic romance. I can forgive some of the faults of this book for how much I enjoyed it. young adult fantasy.

6.Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan Mcguire. 3/5 stars. I was expecting this book to be a favorite based off the setting/premise of the story, but I found it lacking in many ways. I related to Regan about girlhood and growing up, however I was left wanting more from the story. This one felt very underdeveloped. fantasy, novella, audiobook.

7.Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children #7) by Seanan Mcguire. 3.5/5 stars. I enjoyed this one more than the previous two, with the exploration of Cora and the introduction of the anthesis to Eleanor West's school. audiobook, fantasy, novella.

8. Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Lehigh Bardugo. 5/5 stars. This was fantastic and I enjoyed it just as much as the first book. Lehigh is really good at writing these types of stories, and I hope I don't have to wait another 4 years for book 3! fantasy.

9.Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. 5/5 stars. This is a new favorite, and a wonderfully witty book about academics, faeries and folklore. This reminded me of HMC and Spinning Silver, and was just perfect. Cozy historical fantasy

10.The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black. 3.5/5 stars. I reread this on audio in anticipation for The Stolen Heir. I wanted to reread the OG trilogy first, and the audiobook narrator was awesome, and this was a fun reread. I don't think I enjoyed this book quite as much as when I first read it, but I was also Jude's age and these books were much more my *thing* back then. Listening on audio was a great way to listen to the story without feeling like I had to be super dedicated to it. audiobook, Ya fantasy

11. The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black.5/5 stars. This book is definitely my favorite of the 3, and I find it so entertaining and fun to listen to. Jude is awesome in this book, and a lot of the other characters grow and get more fleshed out as well. audiobook, ya fantasy

12.World Without End (Kingsbridge 2) by Ken Follett. 4/5 stars: This is set in the same town, Kingsbridge, but set 200 years after the first book and following a new set of characters. These books are basically a middle ages soap opera, and I just find them so entertaining. historical fiction.

13.Lost in the Moment and Found (Wayward Children 8) by Seanan Mcguire, 4/5 stars. This is probably my favorite of the series other than book 1. I enjoyed the story behind this one a lot, and all the little easter eggs that come up from the rest of the series was so much fun. I can't believe I binge read this series, but now have to wait a year for the next! audiobook, fantasy, novella.

14.Women's Bookscapes in Early Modern Britain: Reading, Ownership and Circulation. This was my nonfiction for the month, and I had seen this book in the library and checked it out to myself. The subject was interesting to me, and I enjoyed reading through this collection of thirteen essays on the topic. Definitely very academic and dense however. non-fiction.

15.Gallant by V.E. Schwab, 2/5 stars. This one was a disapointement, and it felf underdeveloped and lackluster all around. After Addie LaRue also being a flop for me, my trust in VE Schwab is wavering :(

7 audiobooks, 8 physical books. 5 novellas, 10 novels. 12 fantasy, 2 historical fiction, 1 nonfiction. Average rating: 3.9

#reading wrap up #books #bookblr #fantasy books #wayward children #the folk of the air #alex stern #sofi and the bone song #the shadow of the wind #kingsbridge #gallant #emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries #my post

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mycomicbox · 1 year

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You seem to be a huge fan of RPG’s what is your RPG favorite game and/or series?

Man, where do I even begin? You can't make me pick just one! I'm just going to go down the list of RPG series that I've played and enjoyed:

Pokémon: My bread-and-butter series since I was 9. My first game was X, but since then, I have played all of the mainline games from the Game Boy to the Switch (currently playing through Violet). I just love battling with those funky lil' creachers :3

Mario & Luigi (and by extension Super Mario RPG): A very charming Mario spin-off series with some unique twists on the RPG formula, mainly with using timed button presses to execute attacks. Unfortunately, the developer AlphaDream shut down a few years ago, so this series is probably dead...

Undertale and Deltarune: C'mon... do I even need to go into detail?

EarthBound/M🌏THER: I love medieval fantasy, but it's sometimes fun to avert tropes. Rather than playing as a knight or mage slaying dragons and goblins, you're a bunch of ragtag kids using PSI and baseball bats to fight animals, gang members, and animated objects. Plus, the series is full of great jokes and overall just OOZES charm. Also MOTHER 3 made me cry.

OMORI: The one that you were probably expecting. Lovely music and presentation, a heart-wrenching story, and beautifully displays mental illness without making a mockery of it.

Final Fantasy: I've only played a few of these (I, III, IV, V, and currently playing through IX), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have played. I've heard good things about VI, VII, X, and especially XIV (though XIV is an MMORPG and those intimidate me). I have to say that my favorite so far is V, simply because of the excellent job system. Speaking of job systems...

Bravely Default: A series that I've gotten into back in May of this year, and it recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. A sister series to Final Fantasy that's basically a love letter to the JRPGs of old, with an excellent job system and a unique twist on turn-based combat with the Brave and Default commands. The fandom is frustratingly small, however...

Now for some RPG series that I'm wanting to try:

Persona: When the Switch port of Persona 5 Royal dropped, my brother and I both pitched in money to buy it, so I do own it. I just haven't touched it yet because I have so many other unfinished games on my plate. I WILL get to it, though, and that's a promise. If I like it, I might pick up P3P and P4G once those release on the Switch.

Dragon Quest: I've only played the first one so far and when I finished it, I was like "yep, that certainly was an RPG from the NES". Even though it isn't necessary, I want to try to play the games in numerical order (skipping over X because I can't read Japanese), though like I said, I want to clear out my backlog first.

Octopath Traveler: Love the 2D-HD style, and I've heard that it does have a job system of some kind. Also there's apparently a sequel on its way.

Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, and Final Fantasy Tactics: I'm lumping these together for one reason. All of the games I've listed so far are your standard turn-based RPGs, with your units on one side and enemies on the other. However, I am open to trying more tactical/strategy games where positioning matters. I've head good things about FFT, and I did find TriStrat at Walmart for relatively cheap. In the case of FE, however... what game do I even start with?

#ask #pokemon #mario and luigi rpg #super mario rpg #undertale #deltarune #earthbound #mother series #omori #final fantasy #bravely default #persona #dragon quest #octopath traveler #fire emblem #triangle strategy #final fantasy tactics #rpg #jrpg

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kitchfit · 2 months

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Year In Review: Viddy Game Pt 4 (Happy Mario Day!!!)

Oops! All Mario! To prepare for the release of Super Mario Wonder, I wanted to play through as many of the Mario games I never played before as I could. There are a few wayward titles I missed, but I’m sure I’ll end up playing those sometime in the distant year of 2024. Damn that sounds like a fake year. I hinted in earlier reviews that this was something of a nightmare to accomplish, but that was just me being silly. They’re Mario games! All of these were pretty fun.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

I started out my Mariothon with the story-driven series I had never actually touched. I’ve played all the (good) Paper Mario games, but I’ve never touched the other side of the plumber’s rpgs. The combat was a refreshing change of pace after all those Final Fantasy games. It’s almost as much of a rhythm game as it is turn based, which makes it very engaging. I also like what it adds to the Mario World. Luigi has been characterized in several of the RPGs and his own spin off series, but having him along for the entire ride in this story driven game makes him somehow more endearing to me than he was before. I like to imagine this takes place right after Super Paper Mario, and Mario is making sure his best bro is safely right next to him after the shit he went through.

The Bean Bean Kingdom feels like a suitable alternative to the Mushroom one we’ve grown familiar with. A lot of the older games had introduced other Themed Kingdoms, like the Jewelry Kingdom in Yoshi’s Safari or Sarasaland in Mario Land, which is based on types of tea. And Mario Odyssey would assert the entire world being organized into these Kingdoms, so Bean Bean fits right in! It’s super fun to explore the fresh areas with a familiar aesthetic. I only wish these Bean characters would make more appearances outside of this game. I guess they show up in the other Mario and Luigis, but Reggie knows what I mean. Put Prince Peasley in Mario Kart, coward!

New Super Mario Bros

When this game released I had no idea that 2D Mario had been put on hold for ten whole years. From my perspective Super Mario World had only been released earlier that year in 2006, on Nintendo’s brand new console, the hand-me-down Game Boy Advance I got from my cousin. So when my friend showed me New Super Mario Bros. on his Fancy DS Lite in 2009, I wasn’t that impressed. This one didn’t even have the cape, or the Tanooki suit from Mario 3! I was not impressed. What it did have was a fun as hell competitive mode that I could play with my friend via DS download play (which is an awesome system they should bring back), so I never felt the need to seek out a copy.

Playing it now, the game is a lot more distinctive than I gave it credit for. While the world themes are based around the generic grass, ice, fire, etc. themes the Mario games always recycle in some way, the level designs give a good sense of cohesiveness, and the new power-ups: the tiny mushroom, Mega Mushroom, and Blue Shell significantly alter how you approach the level. When you’re tiny, you get a higher jump and can get into hidden paths, but touching Anything Will You, while Mega Mario can ignore everything and cause as much carnage as possible. The Blue Shell lets Mario continuously slide and kill anything in your path provided you keep whatever initial momentum you started with, making this game the singular moment the red plumber stole something from the blue hedgehog. The low-res 3D artstyle felt dated when I first saw this game, since I wasn’t enjoying the industry norm of changing every franchise to 3D. “Give me my pixels, damn you!” said 8-year-old Kitch. I now find it really charming, especially compared to the later entries in the “New” series. There are a lot of original enemies in this game that never show up again. I need everyone to look at the Snailicorn immediately.

Super Mario 64 DS

I was always told this was the inferior version of Mario 64 due to the limited control scheme. Instead of full 360 movement, you are now cut down to 8 directional movements cycled on the d-pad. However, I played this game on the 3DS, and the analogue stick made those 8 directions flow seamlessly. The other change is the addition of a Run Button, one that I was not aware of until futilely trying to race against Koopa the Quick. That’s right, for the entire fight against King Bob-omb, I had just assumed this game ran like shit, or that Yoshi was intentionally designed to be extremely slow until I happened to hold down the b-button as if this was some kind of. 2D MARIO GAME? In 3D??? It’s a sensible change, but one that is only communicated by experimenting with the controls, which someone who has already beaten the original game 3 times wouldn’t really think to try. And since there’s little need to ever Not Run, holding that button down for the ENTIRE GAME started to get annoying towards the end.

Otherwise, it was really nice returning to this classic. The calm atmosphere in exploring the Mushroom Castle and revealing its little secrets makes it genuinely unmatched as a hubworld, and the levels, while mostly generically themed, cram tons of personality into such small areas. Realizing how tiny levels like Cool, Cool Mountain and Big Boo’s Haunt are actually startled me, since I spent so much time as a kid exploring the nooks and crannies of those areas. There are also a lot of new stuff hidden across these levels that either unlock or are accessed by the new playable characters. Each of them have their own movement speeds and abilities, but none of them really play as well as the Mario Himself, so changing into them was mostly situational. I loved the new boss fights that unlocked them, though. Adding Goomboss from Paper Mario into the OG 3D Mario made me really happy. I’ve still never 100% this game, but if I go back, I might actually make sure it’s this version I complete.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

The awaited sequel to the GBA game, I hear absolute jackshit about this game when people talk about the Mario and Luigi series. I assumed it was the runt that came between the beloved classics of Superstar and Bowser’s Inside Story, but that isn’t true at all. In fact, I think I like this game more than Superstar. Since it’s on the DS, there’s a naturally higher fidelity with the pixel art, the premise is more interesting, and it adds a new layer to both the combat and overworld movement in the form of the BA-BIES. Since there are two new X and Y buttons, you get Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as additions to your playable characters, meaning at any one time you are juggling Four Whole Mario Bros. all for the price of One! The game is noticeably more difficult than Superstars, nothing too crazy, but I did die a lot more. Or I am just Bad At Games.

Like the previous entry, this game is oozing charm out of every bodily orifice it has. Mario and Luigi are characterized extremely well as they step up as babysitters. It warmed my heart everytime Luigi purposefully goofed up to make the babies laugh or whenever Mario shouted “BA-BIES” in concern whenever they were in trouble. It may be the most overt personality he’s ever really shown. The time travel mechanic isn’t super in-depth, the present time basically acts as a hub world, but we get some more of that Sweet Mario Lore as they explore the Days of Mushroom Past. Autocorrect wants me to say Pasta. We get to see Baby Peach and Younger Toadsworth at some point after Yoshi’s Island, an E Gad pre-ghost fascination, and also these alien freaks who look suspiciously like Fucked Up Toads. What does this mean for them? Are Toads themselves descended from aliens, or vice versa? Will we ever get to see “Toads In Space?!” Some kind of… “MARIO GALAXY???” Only the future can tell.

Super Mario 3D Land

Nintendo was able to put a 3D Mario on a handheld in the last generation, so I guess the new hurdle was an ORIGINAL 3D Mario on the Three Dee Ess. This serves that purpose well. I could honestly end it there. The level design is well executed around the controls that are based on Galaxy, and it translates really well. They brought back the Highly Acclaimed Tanooki Suit that lends itself nicely to 3D platforming, and also seemed to be a selling point of the game? A lot of the Goombas and Koopas are now wearing the tanooki suit, and even Peach gets to show off the fit at the end of the game. You can’t play as her though, it’s just there to tease you. Luigi is an unlockable character with his own set of remixed levels, but that’s really it.

And that’s the thing, this game is fun, but it’s also kind of… Nothing? If you’ve played 3D Land, tell me: Where does it take place? The Mushroom Kingdom? That’s probably a good guess, but there’s nothing that really shows that, is there? There’s little to no cohesion between the levels. The level select is a linear screen with a multicolor background. You’ll be playing a water level immediately following some weird toy-themed level with absolutely zero context. Where are we? What’s happening? No one really looks for a story in a Super Mario game, but the lack of any real context makes this game super forgettable to me. It’s just a selection of random levels, and a Lot of the levels are repeated with slight differences. Why? TELL ME REGGIE. At the very least we get these cute letters from Peach showing her own adventure escaping Bowser. That would’ve been a fun to play, but this game won’t let you go Girl Mode. Oh well.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

This is one of those “underrated Mario gems.” Maybe the only one. Super Mario Land is pretty mediocre, so I’m not surprised its sequel fell by the wayside. It’s super creative for a GB game, and because of the power of Cool Internet People, I got to play this in color! Lucky me :) The whole game takes place in a magical theme park that was maybe created at the end of one of the Mario Parties. Did anyone else make that connection? I know one guy did. They go ham on the level designs: an area that makes you tiny so Mario is battling ants, a bubble ride that takes you into space to fight Pig Creatures, a mechanical Mario; at one point you go inside a whale. It’s wacky! The enemy design reflects this too, there’s a bunch of Weirdos, like the Pig Creature:

The goal is to find those 6 Golden Coins in each world to unlock the Mario Castle, with the caveat that Mario will lose all his coins upon a game over and have to track them down again. You only have to repeat the boss fights however, so it’s not a complete wipe. My Boy Wario is introduced in this game, and he really does come across as this supernatural, corrupted parody of our portly performer that the commercials for this game made him out to be. But the official word is he’s just Mario’s childhood rival that was upset they didn’t name a castle after him. Don’t worry, Wario! I’m sure you’ll get yours soon.

Super Mario 3D World pt 1

This one is just stellar all around. It makes 3D Land look like a tech demo in comparison. Every level showcases a degree of creativity on par with Galaxy while keeping 3D Land’s linear design. Every part of this experience is just so damn satisfying, the new power ups, targeting the tops of the flagpoles, riding on Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi, and you can go GIRL MODE. My biggest complaint about 3D land is that they teased a playable Princess Peach without actually ever giving it to you, and now I refuse to play this game as any other character. Except when the game makes me play as Mario or Toad to get all the Green Stars. Also the GREEN STARS.

The secondary collectables have never felt as necessary as it does in 3D World. They add an incentive to explore the levels or find an extra challenge that are actually Worth searching for. I don’t remember if they really gave you anything, but I still liked finding them.

Also the MUSIC, the ost slaps so hard in this game. We’re moved to a new setting in 3D World, and the soundtrack and aesthetics match that vibe. It’s unique, it’s bOMBASTIC. There are two new power ups in the form of CAT and CHERRIES. The cat can run up walls, while the cherries can make a double of your character. The former is generally the best playstyle for most of the game a la the Tanooki suit, while the latter works as a fun challenge that gets really creative with its limits as you control two or three or six characters with one controller. There’s even a bonus mode at the end based on Galaxy where you can. Guess What? GO GIRL MODE EVEN HARDER. I haven’t done it yet but hey. I Am Going To.

Bowser’s Fury

This is one of the few I actually 100% completed. I was on a Dollywood trip with some friends and after the festivities ended at Guy Fieri’s Shitty Arcade and Ripley’s Wacky Wonderworks we stayed in the cabin and chilled out. I didn’t have a ton else to do while everyone was resting so I got really into Bowser’s Fury. Our first taste of what may be Open World Mario. It’s fun! Mario is stranded in the middle of a lake with wildly clashing aesthetics that somehow just works. Light blue dominates the eyes hampered by the slimy black of the magic ink polluting the water around you. There are small yellow islands dotting the lake and floating in the air. And when you get to these islands? Cats! They’re all cats! There are cats on the ground, cat ears on the goombas, Cat Koopas, Kitty Boombooms, everything is a cat!! Even the grass is cat fur! You have cat to be kitten me, right meow! It’s a place so suitably weird for the Mario universe, I could easily see Lake Lapcat being introduced in one of the earlier Paper Marios.

Gameplay wise this is just a big Mario Oddysey world with more… direction? The lack of a real swimming mechanic in Bowser’s Fury makes the ocean a fun place for movement and little else, though there are occasional challenges for Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi to run through. It makes Lapcat feel like a massive hubworld of sorts, with no divide between it and the level, It’s as if in Mario Galaxy you could walk straight from Rosalina’s Observatory directly onto a new planet without going through the Domes, if that makes sense. It’s short, but super fun for what it is. You get all the power ups from 3D World to play around in less linearly designed levels, and it lets you stock up on them through an inventory system. Bowser Jr. follows you around and acts cute! Mario and Bowser turn into Kaijus and you have a Godzilla vs King Kong style boss fight. I guess Mario would be King Kong in that analogy… Nintendo may need the help of John Kirby once more…

Super Mario Sunshine

I had never heard about this game’s existence until I was like 15. My friend told me it was one of her favorite Gamecube games growing up, and I did not believe her. Every description she gave about Super Mario Sunshine sounded like she was messing with me. “Oh yea it’s the game where Mario goes on vacation and he like, gets framed for vandalism? And you have a water gun and you clean paint.” Fuck off with that, you’re not getting me! I thought it was a running joke she had until I looked closely at Mario's trophy in Brawl that referenced the same name. Huh!

Anyways this is my first time actually playing it on the 3D All-Stars collection. I started it when it was released, but I reached a point where I had no idea what I was supposed to do until my cousin who grew up with it told me I needed almost every shinesprite to beat the game. ALSO WEIRD. The other 3D Marios let you go at your own pace and pick and choose which levels you want, but here all but the last levels are required. I guess this is because Sunshine is more “narratively driven” and they want you to watch how each world changes through your actions. I can appreciate that! Mario 64 experimented with that a bit, like the tower appearing at the top of Whomp fortress in Star 2 or King Bo-bomb’s corpse appearing at the bottom of his battlefield after you coup de tated that fucker. Sunshine, however, has levels like Noki Bay where each level has Mario tackle the source of the pollution, or Gelato beach where you make sure a hotel is suitable for reopening and even get to celebrate at the end.

The controls on the other hand. My cousin described them as “lovably janky.” Mario no longer has the long jump, which startled me every time I tried to long jump, which was a lot cause I have the memory of a housefly. Wall jumping is harder to pull off as Mario does not automatically turn towards the wall like other Mario games, so you have to time it perfectly, and Mario’s overall movement is very awkward. I never felt like he jumps the exact distance I expect him to go. This is probably to make the player more reliant on Fludd, the aforementioned water gun that can let you hover as well as two other fun, but useless abilities. Fludd is very fun to use, but they take it away from you during the platform challenges and it reveals just how janky Mario is in this game. I guess it also makes them more satisfying to complete. Still, since these levels are required, I probably would have given up ever beating the game if I played it as a kid.

New Super Mario Bros 2

This is a similar case to 3D Land. It seems the goal of this entry was “put a 2D Mario on the 3DS,” which was a less impressive goal given the OG New Super Mario was already playable on the 3DS. It’s much prettier, I guess. The big name of this game is “Coins.” Coins are everywhere in this game. There’s a new power-up, the Golden Flower, that lets you turn blocks and enemies into coins. Another power-up that gives Mario a coin every step he makes. There are Golden Koopas that produce coins when thrown. There’s a counter on the home screen that shows how many total coins you’ve got, and the game notifies you every time you reach a “Coin milestone.”

Yea I’ve never cared about collecting coins in Mario games. It’s not like they unlock anything that matters in this one, they just congratulate you every three minutes and if you get One Million coins you get a new title screen. That’s kind of cool, but not something I would actually care to try and get. What I’m left with is the most standard 2D Mario game to exist. The Tanooki suit is here, but like 3D Land, you still can’t go Girl Mode. Unless you count Luigi. Genderfluïd King. Despite this, I do find myself coming back to this one quite a bit to carve out some of the bonus worlds. It’s slightly harder than the other games in the “New” series. Maybe if they leaned into that, like the OG Mario 2, it would be more memorable. Wait, this is the 3rd New Super Mario game. Why is it called 2? The hell?

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe

As the final entry in the “New” series, it makes sense that this is the most polished version of that game style. The world designs are still based on the tried and exhausted Grass, Desert, Snow, etc. aesthetics, but here there are a lot more unique level designs or some that are SO COOL aesthetically, like the level based around a Van Gogh painting. I wish there were more levels like that, but in THE LEAST, this is the first New Super Mario game to introduce CONTEXTUALIZATION. This is something I’ve been complaining about with these new mario games. Super Mario World (the best one) has a beautiful map level-select. When you’re in Donut Plains on the map, the level reflects that design, taking place on a field, and when you go in a cave, THE LEVEL TAKES PLACE IN A CAVE. Imagine that. It’s such a simple thing that adds so much to the experience. You are actually traveling through a world, not just choosing random shit off a menu. U Deluxe’s map isn’t as cool as World’s, but it was still immensely fun to discover all its little secrets, and made me realize how much I missed World’s map design. Maybe I should play that game instead.

There is one unforgivable sin in Mario U specific to Deluxe. There’s an original playable female character in the form of Toadette! Girl Mode! Finally! And it SUCKS! It’s not actually that bad, but playing as Toadette gives you access to Peachette, whose existence replaces all power-ups in the game while playing as her. So Girl Mode is actively worse to play than any other mode, except funny rabbit mode. But that’s only if you want to be a funny rabbit. She’s meant to be “easy mode,” which is a bit demeaning given she’s the only female character, but I get the desire for an easier way for kids to play the game, I just wish it didn’t lock you out of all of the power-ups. Speaking of which, there are a Lot of power-ups in this game, but a lot of them are hidden for some reason, like the Propellor Hat and Penguin suit, which I found 1 and None of, respectively. Why are they in the game if I can’t use them? These aren’t collectors items, they’re funny little costumes that are supposed to be FUN. WE’RE ALL HAVING FUN HERE.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

FINALLY they’re letting Mario be WEIRD AGAIN. The artstyle of the New Super Mario Bros. games got heavily criticized after this one was announced for being “soulless” and “boring,” but I wouldn’t say that. Because I don’t think it’s true! They’re vibrant and colorful games with an obvious ton of talent and heart put into them. I would, however, describe them more as “corporate.” Homogenized and Marketable. Mario and Gang have been kept to their models in every game since the DS and everyone has clearly been exhausted by it. Wonder is breaking the trend, and Mario looks fucking Weird.

He’s so much rounder, his clothes have a different texture, and his eyes are bigger and brighter. His eyebrows are clipping through his hat! He looks like a plastic toy brought to life, which is not an insult. All of the characters are brilliantly animated to pull off this new look, and I refuse to try out embedding videos in Tumblr so you just have to trust me. It’s not that I want Mario to stay like this, but I DEFINITELY want them to Keep Being Weird Like This.

The weirdness doesn’t end at the artstyle. There are three new power-ups, the Elephant Apple, Bubble Flower, and the Drill Shroom, the last of which is carried over from Mario Galaxy 2’s Spin Drill in terms of gameplay. The Bubble Flower lets you capture things in Bubbles and lets you jump on them for extra air time, and the Elephant Flower turns you into a Fucking Ele Phant. Twice as big, can swipe things with your trunk, can carry WATER in your trunk. Truly the Mario experience we’ve been missing. There are also the most playable characters than there have ever been in a mainline Mario game. Peach, Toadette, AND Daisy in her first playable appearance. THREE FORMS OF GIRL MODE. Nintendo knew what my main Mario complaint was before I ever thought of it.

The main draw of this game, however, are the additions of the Wonder Flowers. There are no levels that stand out against the other, more standard levels like the New Super games, because literally every level in this game is FANTASTIC. The Wonder Flowers are an extra challenge midway through any level that changes it into something WEIRD AS HELL. Maybe the level speeds up and slows down rapidly, maybe you have to dodge walking Piranha Plants as they sing an acapella stage performance, maybe you turn into a Goomba yourself and have to avoid being eaten by a predator. It can be literally ANYTHING. Every level is exciting to go through because you want to see what NONSENSE those crazy bastards have come up with.

Not to mention the world design. The Flower Kingdom is BEAUTIFUL and similar to the Beanbean Kingdom in terms of cohesion. There’s another country right next to the Mushroom Kingdom with a new botanical aesthetic we’ve never heard of before? That makes sense! It feels perfectly natural for it to be part of this universe. This is another of the three I went to the effort of 100% completing, and some of those last levels are HARD. I gave myself a migraine on the final badge challenge. Also BADGES. They’re cool. Some provide an extra movement option and others make movement actively worse as a way to challenge yourself. Some are just fun! It adds a neat level of replayability to the game as you experiment with them all.

You also get a fantastic reward for completing all the levels. It is. SO Stupid. Extremely dumb. And I have never been more satisfied with a completion reward in a Mario game.

Super Mario Galaxy

To end out my Mariothon, I celebrated with another playthrough of my favorite game featuring a space-faring plumber, Super Mario Galaxy. This was the game that made me fall in love with the series, and in my eyes, still has not been beaten by other Mario titles in terms of atmosphere (PUN). It is just so fun to exist in the levels in these games in a way I can’t say about other Mario titles, except maybe Odyssey and 64. I could follow the objective, climb on the honey walls as Bee Mario, or hop across apples and pears so large they’ve become planetoids and have a great time, fantastic even. But I could also walk around Honeyhive and Deep Dark and look around the scenery and play around with the controls, which are restrained, but refined compared to the previous 3D Marios. Most of the purple coin levels are designed to do exactly that. Galaxy is by no means a sandbox game, but it retains those elements from Sunshine and 64.

Maybe that feeling just comes out of nostalgia. This was at one point the only game I would play on my wii for months on end. It’s like comfort food to me. One time I heard a local cafe play the Galaxy main theme on the speaker as I was walking by and I just. Paused for a bit, leaned against the brick exterior and soaked in the vibes. Listening to that pristine orchestral track whilst watching people come home from a full day of work, or following the actions of a cat decided whether or not to eat a bug running for its life. There’s probably a copyright issue they were violating, but who cares, Fuck Nintendo.

There is one thing that I know isn’t just nostalgia. The older I get the more I appreciate the storybook section of Galaxy. Every few worlds you complete, you’ll get a notification that Rosalina has a story to tell you, and you’ll hear a chapter out of her children’s book detailing her past. It has a melancholy vibe and it’s a genuinely beautiful and heartfelt story with a gorgeous handpainted artstyle:

Supposedly, Koizumi (co-director on the game) snuck this feature in without Miyomoto’s knowledge, and he hated it. When he discovered it after the game was released, he was upset enough that to this day Nintendo has not let Koizumi direct a big release. Apparently, he thought it ruined the game’s tone. I don’t know if I believe that, and I don’t feel like fact checking that shit, but if so, I’m glad Koizumi got it past the guy. It elevates the game’s overall story to an absurd degree in my eyes, providing Galaxy with one of the best endings in any video game I have played.

My ONE criticism. MY singular gripe. Is the title itself. “Galaxy” has always bothered me. “Battlerock GALAXY?” “Loop de Loop GALAXY???” Miyomoto sir, those are SOLAR SYSTEMS. And tiny ass solar systems at best. Sometimes just singular planetoids. But obviously Super Mario System or Super Mario Tiny Ass Planet isn’t as Marketable as- What the fuck was that? Wait, hold on. Sorry guys. Computer, ENHANCE.

What the fuck is this? I’ve always noticed it there in the background, but… I’ve never considered… is this Earth??? The surface of the Mario Planet? Are you telling me all of these “galaxies” are simply a collection of stylized MOONS??? Do we ever actually leave the outer atmosphere? Well, maybe. Looking at the skyboxes of a few more worlds, it seems we do actually bounce around a few other planets, but they’re nearly always there, holding our bee-themed satellites in rotation of itself. That makes more cosmological sense, I suppose, but I’ll stand by that Super Mario Satellite wouldn’t have been too horrible of a name if Nintendo wanted some fucKING ACCURACY WITH THEIR TITLES. HAPPY MARIO DAY EVERYONE. The big MAR10. I totally planned for this to release exactly today, and it’s not just because I put this whole project on the backburner while I focused on my Real Life Job. Thank you to everyone who has been reading these (I see you). I’ve repeated before that these reviews are mostly for me, but the few people that have been leaving likes did motivate me to keep going. I’ll be posting more things on this blog in the future, but I’m not sure I’ll do the Year in Review thing in this manner again. Look forward to more of my ramblings! Or don’t! Skim them in mild interest! Don’t read them at all! Either way, wahoo! Yippee! Yahaha! And Have A Blessed Mario Day.

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nitrosodiumfmp · 2 months

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Games Like Sinister | Aesthetics

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Quake is a classic; a fast and brutal shooter from id's glory days, and massively influential as a 3D first-person shooter. The story of its development is interesting - it was originally conceptualized as a high fantasy game, but development was grinding to a halt, and so the team literally said "Let's just make it like Doom" and scrapped the fantasy elements in favour of guns and sci fi trappings. They kept the original maps, however, which gives the finished game an interesting vibe. You start off in a grimy tech-base before heading into dismal worlds filled with castles and dungeons. The enemies are all a fusion of this too, like the Ogre, a hulking monster pulled straight from a fantasy setting, but brandishing a bloodied chainsaw and grenade launcher. This unapologetic smashing-together of the futuristic and the medieval gives Quake a look that's hard as nails, and it's the sort of thing I want to do with Sinister, but more surreal too.

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I love Cruelty Squad. Yes, it's a mess of vibrant colours, leering faces and questionable design decisions that makes my retinas bubble like eggs in a pan, but it's a uniquely-designed tactical shooter and immersive sim with some of the most interesting themes I've seen out of a game. As stated by the Steam page, it takes place in a "sewer infused garbage world", a biopunk dystopia where hypercapitalism is rife and corporations rule like gods. It is undeniably surreal, but there are some distinguishable elements; even basic locations like a shipyard or police station are ominous and Gothic, with arches, spires, and wooden columns. Maps like Paradise have strange buildings with spinning towers, and faces are on every other surface, many appearing like medieval gargoyles or grotesques. This weirdness vaguely ties in with the story as well. In the most basic (read: comprehensible by the human mind) terms, death no longer exists - people can be brought back to life, and so the value of life plummets, both economically and philosophically. In the last non-secret level, Archon Grid, you have to kill Abraxas, essentially Death. The reason that level is so surreal, floating pillars and a nonsensical layout, is because it's the point where life and death break down. It's not just weird and off-putting ironically, there's nuance behind it, and it's definitely relevant to Sinister.

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I've spoken about Thief before; mostly about cognitive processing, and how its mechanical complexity makes any modern AAA game look about as deep as a trough of pigswill in comparison. This time I want to focus on the aesthetic. I think the best way to describe it is Gaslamp Fantasy. It's clearly medieval on the surface; castles, stonework, nightwatchmen, bows, but there's a more technological aspect to it. The main villains, the religious fanatic Hammerites, bring more steampunk technology, with electric lights, gears, gauges, even security cameras. However, it doesn't dip its toes directly into steampunk, and the more Victorian associations of that genre; the society is still medieval in architecture and sensibilities, but people have access to steam engines and Tesla coils. If it's not obvious so far, I love strange machinery and moving components in level geometry, and to combine this with a medieval look that I already had planned is pretty viable for Sinister.

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NecroVisioN is an interesting game; a World War 1 shooter, that's unique enough, but with a combo system, and zombies, and vampires... and mechs... and demons... and dragons... It's a super-edgy mess of a game, and I can't help but love it. The most relevant part of it is the aesthetic when you enter the vampires' realm, miles below No Man's Land. It's very Gothic, ornate stonework et cetera, but there's a strange mechanical vibe to it as well. Generators, cisterns, and pipes, but still in that Gothic style; they're attached to walls with ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. This game is also more relevant graphically; it retains the 2000s fantasy aesthetic I talked about previously, with its stone corridors steeped in bloom and anti-aliasing, lit up with strong coloured lighting.

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I love Ultrakill; while I'm not very good at it, I feel the vibe it gives out and I LOVE it. Fast-paced combo-based retro-styled bloody mayhem, using the Divine Comedy as a metatext like all good combo-based video games. Beyond it using Greek mythology as a basis, which is already quite relevant for the project, every area has a very strong aesthetic. The Prelude is a bloodstained mining facility, Limbo is fake gardens and cathedrals, Lust is a blue-n-purple city in the sky, Gluttony is a massive digestive system, Greed is a desert of golden sand, Wrath is an ocean (the River Styx after mankind's souls caused it to flood), Heresy is a city raining blood, and I'm keeping myself blind to Violence and Fraud, but they seem to be a grey labyrinth and a massive judicial building respectively. The game is super varied with environments, but it manages to tread the line of mechanical and futuristic imagery versus Gothic and religious imagery very well, with my closest comparison being Warhammer. The most salient example of this is the Heresy layer, where liars and false prophets endure eternal torture in crypts of boiling blood; stained-glass tracery is visible alongside gigantic industrial chains, hauling weights and pulleys into unseen chambers. The fact that it also takes place in Hell is also pretty usable for Sinister.

#devlog #gamedev #indiegamedev #indiedev #indie games #indie game dev #indie game #nitrosodium #indie dev #Youtube

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francostrider · 10 months

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Final Fantasy for MEN™

Final Fantasy XVI was released recently, and I think it’s fair to say that the reaction had been mixed. You can count on Square Enix to make a compentently functional game, and I’m sure it plays fine. But the style and gameplay change had been a subject of debate.

Now, the gameplay is a subject in and of itself, as well as Final Fantasy’s overall identity. Personally, it fell out of favor for me when everyone looked like supermodels and dressed like a fashion designer was given too many belts. But let’s put my ranting points about the series aside to address another issue.

And that subject is thus: making a series veer toward adults. People have remarked about the tonal shift that FFXVI has had, feeling more like Game of Thrones rather than a proper Final Fantasy game. The upcoming Dragon Quest game is going for the darker and edgier route as well, with only a fiery number to show for itself so far. Yuji Horii, the series creator, had apparently had unspecified issues for aiming the series at adults.

But I would just like to point something out: I only started playing Dragon Quest games as an adult. While I bounced off IX, I fell in love with VIII when it came out on the 3DS, played through I and II on my phone, and XI became our evening play-and-watch (as in my wife watching and enjoying the characters) after Ys VIII and Tales of Vesperia. In fact, I’m not sure I would have had patience for them as an idiot, edgy teenager. I had enough of turned based games at the time and wanted fast, twitch based combat. I also insisted on darker themes (though I appreciated Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for lightening things up).

But there is the ironic thing about “aiming things” at certain audiences. You know who took up most of the theater seating in Team America: World Police? It was not adults; teenagers took up most of them. The South Park movie was quoted all the time back when I was in middle school. And I’m pretty sure the creators know this. Despite the R-Rating most of their material gets, teenagers make up their primary audience.

And it’s not just comedies; teenagers are a mix of emotions, growing up, and trying to find their identity. They want validation and part of that is finding where they are in the world at large. And that includes confronting the worse parts of human society. When I was a teenager, videogames were mocked as nerd and kid’s stuff, when we were “supposed to be” listening and watching edgier things. Diving into the adult stuff was not just a point of pride for a teenager, but also a point of mockery if you didn’t.

I imagine things have shifted in the last twenty years, but the human experience of a teenager is still there; searching for purpose and validation in an ever changing world. Interest in the more adult themes and stories do not start after you’re 17. They start younger than that. There is certainly some maturity needed to understand graphic violence and racier topics, and I’m not about to show a six year old Scorn, but interest in adult subjects happen at varying ages for different people.

So, when a creator of a long running game series starts going on about how “they are aiming at adults”, I feel like they are missing an important point about fiction and culture. And it comes from the same dimwitted attitude adults in the US had toward both cartoons and videogames when I was growing up: That they are kids stuff to grow out of. But with communities growing with the internet, and validating the Strange and the “Nerdier” interest, I think it’s fair to say that the better of us have moved past that notion.

Both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have adult fanbases. Final Fantasy in particular hit big time back with VII and was already exploring adult themes. It had you following a trail of blood, to find the corrupt president of a mega corp impaled with a sword. Considering all the sequels, spin offs, older games getting western releases, and Kingdom Hearts, they are already appealing to adults.

Being an adult does not mean only watching dramas and staring at sales reports. Or only bloody violence. To not reinvent the wheel, I’ll just go ahead and quote CS Lewis:

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

I feared discussing my favorite games and cartoons as a teenager. And even in college to some extent. But during college, I was free to connect with like minded people and enjoy things openly, rather than pretend to be something I’m not. This led me to my lifelong friends and, eventually, my marriage. That is the mark of adulthood; finding your people and your own style, not just copying what a bunch of olds expect of you. Culture has become far too varied for that.

I imagine part of the tone change has to do with Dragon Quest’s record of success in the west. While Final Fantasy regularly makes bank here, including the two MMORPGs, Dragon Quest has yet to release its MMO officially in the States. While, yes, the rest of the series would eventually get released here, it took a longer time to get there and I imagine digital distribution gave them more confidence. Dragon Quest XI was a shot in the arm for the series, but I imagine it still struggles with its competitors.

The idea of “aiming at adults”, however, is a fallacy in understanding its audience. Adults are already playing the series, and abandoning the light hearted nature of the series will likely turn off part of the audience they already have. There’s a difference between “light hearted” and “kiddie”.

No, Dragon Quest VIII isn’t a dystopia like Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar. But we are also chasing a murderous clown possessed by a demon king. The first boss is a creature concussed by the same item we are trying to find, but our mode of airborne transportation is the ghost of a murdered child of a spirit bird. And there’s something about Akira Toriyama’s art style that makes the shift from sillier moments to down right heart breaking moments work very well, where the living dolls that are Bravely Default’s heroes doing over the top heroics just feels off. I love this style, I love its humor, and I love its characters, and none of that makes me feel like I’m being talked down to like I’m a kid.

After eleven games, I guess a style and tone change is bound to happen at some point. And I don’t feel a franchise should be forced to do the same thing over and over again. But the point I’m making is that you’re not making it more appealing to adults. Or less appealing, for that matter. It is a change, neither better nor worse, and might be subjectively received favorably or ill-favorably depending on timing and climate. But, Horii, don’t feel that you somehow owe the gaming community a “darker” game now to show you’re grown up.

You’ve been appealing to adults for a long time now.

#JRPGS #Dragon Quest #Final fantasy #square enix #akira toriyama #yuji horii #Bravely default #mmorpg #darker and edgier #light hearted

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definitely-dreaming · 1 year

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Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Where to begin. I liked this book, even though it was based off a tired fairy tale that so often gets redone. The main character, Feyre, starts off in the story as a starving tomboy living in squalor with her once-wealthy father and two sisters. She is the provider for the family. She crosses paths with a large wolf and kills it. Little does she know, the wolf was the friend of a beast-like faerie, who comes to her cabin and gives her a choice: come live with him across the wall that has separated faeries and humans for 500 years, or die.

I thought that this book was really interesting. I enjoyed the ending, as it was more of a slow buildup for me at the very beginning. The book started off a lot less action-packed than I would have liked, but the ending was riveting. I think Sarah J Maas (aka SJM) did a good job of putting a new spin on an old tale, but it was also more like an introductory book that needed to be followed up in a second novel, as there were many unanswered questions at the end of the novel. She did a good job of building up Feyre and other characters. I thought that the book encompassed many interesting ideas.

Some critiques, however. She seems to objectify the characters with very commonly used phrases such as “’[statement]’, he purred.” I thought that she could definitely tone down the sexualization of the characters without being so smutty. It was kind of difficult to track what conversations the characters were having without them being involved in a sex scene, at times.

Additionally, some things are very overwhelming in the turn of her words, such as the usage of italicized language, hyphens, ellipses, etc. She doesn’t seem to be able to write without using any of those for about a span of three pages, and it can make her ideas and her writing overwhelmingly choppy. Her language is quite basic, and the slow build up of the novel didn’t dictate the need for 419 pages of it. A lot of what she had in the novel was fluff, and the characters spent a lot of time dawdling the first half of the book.

Finally, SJM did not provide too much of an in-depth history of the faerie realm and its relation to humans for much of the book. There was a description of why the humans feared the faeries, but the backstory did not seem to fill in until the end of the book. That was not so much of an issue as she did provide history, but I was mostly upset with the lack of mythical history provided in the creation story of the realm in which she lives. And can I just say that the island Feyre and her family, and Prythian is located on, symbolizes England just as much as mostly any other new high fantasy series these days? (i.e., Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, even the Graceling series, as well?) Hybern seems to represent the kindgom of Ireland, go figure. Her lack of creativity also was highly apparent in this realm’s cartography.

Overall, I give this book a 4/5. It was good, just not as original as I might have hoped it to be. But after all the fantasy material out there these days, it is rather difficult to come up with an original tale all on your own without incorporating drama from other tales.

#acotar #a court of thorns and roses #sarah j maas #book review #bookaddict #high fantasy #fantasy

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kyndaris · 8 months

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Tavern Drinking and Celebrity Spotting

Fortress is one of Australia’s better known esports lounge, bar and arcade, all wrapped up in one. Although it’s been a staple of the Melbourne landscape for several years, the fine folks in charge of it saw how profitable the business model was and decided to bring it to Sydney as well.

And so, Sydney’s own Fortress opened up with little fanfare at the start of 2023 with little fanfare in Central Park Mall. At least, ‘little’ to the wider public. But it was most assuredly on the mind of many a Sydney gamer, this humble blogger included. But given how busy I was and the fact that I only had a few friends I could quickly round up for a jaunt in the city, my opportunities for visiting were few and far between.

Enter Mr Game Master.

After agreeing to a second date, I floated the idea of visiting Fortress to scope out the premises. Fortunately, he took the bait hook, line and sinker. After all, there would be plenty of opportunities for us to pursue our board game interests as, beyond hosting a large number of computers, they also had a bar area decorated to represent a tavern from ye olde fantasy games, along with the opportunity to hire any tabletop game from their collection.

Which, of course, was what we did.

We met outside Fortress at approximately 6PM before ducking in. Once we were inside, we were directed to a table to order some sustenance.Orders made, Mr Game Master went to have a look at the board game that we could hire for an hour or so as the waiter told us that was how long the reservation was for. Mr Game Master’s first choice of game was Catan: Rivals, a card based version of the popular game Catan and made with two players in mind. As neither of us were familiar with this rendition of the game, we read the rules and set up the game as we waited for our respective burgers to arrive.

Just as we were about to start playing, the food was brought to our table and we digged in.

Mine was a typical beef burger while Mr Game Master ordered a chicken burger. And while we both were very satisfied with our meals, given the fact that Mr Game Master had been born with the bigger mouth and knew how to demolish a burger quickly, he was able to scoff his down in short order. My burger took a lot longer to eat and became a little bit of a mess as it fell apart in my hands because I had removed the skewer keeping it together.

Once I’d managed to clean the burger juices from my hands, we began to play Catan: Rivals in earnest. Despite my best efforts, Mr Game Master came out on top. Mostly through sheer luck because he drew many an excellent action card that he could use to mitigate the lack of resources we had. I, on the other hand, only had the resources to build up a useless army that I only managed to utilise once to destroy one of his buildings.

Still eager for a second game, Mr Game Master went back to the desk out front and returned Catan: Rivals. Following behind him as we had initially toyed with the idea of playing Spirit Island, we instead settled for Sushi Go - a much quicker game that we both knew the rules to.

As I returned to the table first, I had to do a double take as I noticed what appeared to be Rad and Gem, the hosts of ABC Spawn Point. Well, only one of them was still a current host. The other had stepped away and I wasn’t sure if she was still working for the ABC or if she had found work in some other field.

But, before I go any further, I suppose it would be remiss of me to not clarify what the ABC is. Or ABC Spawn Point, for that matter.

ABC, at least in Australia, stands for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It’s essentially our version of the BBC. As for Spawn Point, well, it was television program targeted at kids, and which talked about video games that they could play on a mainstream platform.

More importantly, it was a spin-off show following the success of ABC Good Game, which was targeted at older gamers, providing reviews and news of the gaming world. Government sponsored gaming content. Can you believe it?

Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, ABC Good Game was cut from the network and there was the short-lived Screenplay on Channel 7, which had many of the old hosts from ABC Good Game on it.

In any case, I was starstruck.

As soon as Mr Game Master had returned, I’d pointed out the two minor television celebrities. I even showed him pictures of them that I managed to find through a quick Google search. And like someone that has never been taught subtlety, he completed turned to look over his shoulder at them!

You cannot imagine the sheer terror that flooded my veins if Rad and Gem had noticed! Would they have been annoyed that I had mentioned, quite loudly too in my opinion, that they were there. After all, it looked like they were having a girls’ night out with their friends. Who would have wanted their personal time interrupted by fans wanting to talk to them about video games?

I certainly wouldn’t have.

Although, since I’d been in the first row during their panel at AUS PAX last year, I felt some kinship to them. Oh, what am I kidding. It’s a completely parasocial relationship. I don’t really know them. And they wouldn’t know me either. But it might have been nice if I could have scrounged up the courage to say ‘hi’ and that I was a ‘fan’ of their work.

I mean, it’s not like I’m a huge fan but it was the closest I’ve been able to mingle with people that have SOME level of fame, you know?

Regardless, Mr Game Master and I did NOT go up to them. Instead, we kept to ourselves and played through a game of Sushi Go. I won, of course. And by then, it was already quite late so we packed our things and headed for the door.

While I had taken public transport, Mr Game Master had driven down to the city. Before we said our goodbyes, we tried our hands at a little gacha and I came away with a Greedent as a token of the time I spent with Mr Game Master.

Will things progress from here on out? Mr Game Master almost certainly felt like we had hit it off, even inviting me in passing to his place to play board games with his house mates. Of course, I’m not sure if that’ll be the optimal next step but the offer has been extended. Given the limitations I’ve had when it comes to playing board games on the regular, it would certainly be a treat.

The only obstacle in this arrangement, of course, is that his work days don’t fall into the usual 9-5, Monday to Friday mould whereas mine do. So, it’ll be difficult to arrange an actual day to come visit.

Still, I might be getting ahead of myself.

After all, dating is all about the small steps rather than the big leaps and grand gestures.

And even though it’s slow going - mostly because of me - I don’t think I’m averse to Mr Game Master’s company. I’ve most definitely endured worse. Mr White Coat springs to mind. As did a brief dalliance (and by THAT I mean a day or two chatting on Hinge) with someone that had turned being a weeb into their entire personality and couldn’t help but regale me of the superiority of Japanese light novels over what he considered ‘Western literature.’

But I think that’s a story for another time.

For now, I’m tentatively optimistic that things might work out.

Time will only tell how it all pans out. If all else fails, I still have my video games and books and my fictional lovers to fall back on. That and filthy smutty fanfiction.

#personal blog #dating #fortress #board games #greedent #sushi go #catan: rivals #abc spawn point #rad #gem

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uutempirenj · 11 months

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📰 NEW POST

"THERE'S LEVEL OF EXCITEMENT GROWING THAT I'VE NEVER FELT, AND I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I'VE NEVER FELT IT." - LOOSE TEKZ.

The first few attempts to release "Psychotika" the right way failed. Life got in the way as I was whirl winding my way through life. I conjured up "Psychotika" as a follow up mixtape to Thee Asylum, which was release while I was rockin with Triple Double Entertainment, formerly known as Now Or Never Entertainment.

For my taste during the Asylum period, the mixtape did ok. not million dollar ok, just ok. I was satisfied with the little attention it attracted. A couple spins on DatPiff, a few on Coast2CoastMixtapes, and a few scattered about the web.

I can't remember how quickly I put those songs together before I took a break from life. I believe it was relatively quickly. Dj EEAAZZEE hosted the mixtape. There were features from SelfMade from JErsey, along with Viktor Strange, The Tweak Boyz, Izzy Meock, and maybe someone else. I'll attach a link to this post.

Psychotika, is the safe place in my mind. As crazy as the name may sound, its a safe haven for all the negativity, downfalls, abuse, and the likes off all these things we all deal with on a daily basis. It is the Safe Haven for myself , my future....It's my world. Black and Gold Marble Floors, on one level, destruction on another level, true love on another level, community on another. There's order in Psychotika. There's room for reflection, there's room to cry without judgement from anyone, only me.

So the idea that many of us have when developing ourselves into super stars, is that we are expressing our freedoms of speech in artistic ways, while simultaneously creating visuals seamlessly with our words twisting in ways that cause others to question your worthiness to be in the Success line.

So yeah, Psychotika is all of that. Natural human aggression, natural human confusion, some fantasy, some exaggerations, some lovely tales of one night stands in $25 hotel rooms.

Psychotika, in fact did get released with minor promo. minimal advertising. A lot of people got the music for free. I just sent it straight to them. Uploaded a lot of my music directly to face book. Short snippets, acapella verses. Natural Promotion, Me being me while vibing to my own music. Again, I was satisfied with that small band of supporters I had, I was cool with 20 or 30 likes here or there. I was still learning analytics, I was tracking numbers now, I was ripping and running. with women...so....how successful could my project actually be at that time?

(LOOSE TEKZ LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY PERFORMING PSYCHOTIKA INTRO, TAKE SHOTZ AND AGUA DE COCO ALONG WITH GRAMMY NOMINATED SONG WRITER ROB A! (WIFEY MAGTERIAL, CHRIS BROWN "FOREVER" CO-WRITER. )

youtube

Psychotika started to become intertwined with other potential mixtapes, including "The Bourne Awakening", which started to become more of a reflective mixtape. I'm not sure how many songs I have filed under The Bourne Awakening. The Concept Of Roman Numerals mixtapes started to flood in. This mixtape was intended to be structurally sounds, in terms of stories precisely placed in chronological order based on spiritual growth and endeavors that I faced on The Road To Psychotika, which would've been second in the series. Again, A few people received early access to some music.

There were quite a few people involved in Psychotika's existence, New Jersey producer, Craig Presscott, whom, I believe may have done a few joints on Psychotika, as a few of them were moved from the Asylum into Psychotika. The things was, and still is, that not enough people have heard of Psychotika, or Thee Asylum for me to just throw it away. These mixtapes are still able to be revived. A mix of old and new would allow for an entirely new energy to be formed around and within the project.

The Music From Thee Aslyum was still sounding fresh. I Mixed and mastered, Izzy Meock Mixed and Mastered, Craig Prescott Mixed and Mastered, Thadd G, Mixed Mastered Assisted With vocals and writing ideas for "Graveyard". Thadd G Also Provided The beat for Loose Tekz - Graveyard. I was wrong about the handling of "Graveyard". It should have been released as "GraveYard" - Loose Tekz Ft. Thadd G. or Loose Tekz and Thadd G "Graveyard". Same goes for Loose Tekz "Heartless". Craig Prescott has a few vocals throughout that track including grunting and screaming, which completely fall under writers credit and or feature credit. Although that wasn't fully discussed between either parties, I should've still released those songs with credit attached from jump street. These songs are still in my youtube music Library, however I'm not sure if they're active and available as playlist material.

These types of mishaps became set backs for my career and especially Psychotika. This was the first title I felt the closest to 100% sure about, in regards to mixtape material. Fast forward. Psychotika 3 is on the brain. The questions are, Can I stay calm and focused enough to begin organizing, remastering, decision making on release dates, promo hype, the usual. Am I built to go back and just do the usual. Which is, listen to the music, assess the vibe, chill while doing so......... We'll see. - LOOSE TEKZ

LOOSE TEKZ "HEARTLESS" DIRECTED BY VIKTOR STRANGE (THIN DIESEL) YOUTUBE

#LOOSE TEKZ #PSYCHOTIKA #LOOSE TEKZ LIVE IN NEW YORK NUYORICAN CAFE #LOOSE TEKZ ACAPELLA #LOOSE TEKZ UNDERGROUND RAP #LOOSE TEKZ LIVE PERFORMANCE #LOOSE TEKZ ON STAGE #ROB A!#Youtube

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thetypedwriter · 2 years

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Throne of Glass Book Review

Throne of Glass Book Review by Sarah J. Maas

I feel like I’m throwing myself to the wolves with this one.

I’ve avoided reading anything by Sarah J. Maas for years. There wasn’t a particular reason.

Have you ever just avoided something because it’s so huge and popular and everyone tells you to read it? It’s not even that I don’t like hopping on the hype train because I do.

I love BTS, Harry Styles, Cassandra Clare, Maggie Stiefvater, etc. I’m not against popular things.

Usually, things are popular because they’re well done. Sometimes this isn't the case, but most popular things are popular for a reason.

That being said, I can’t even tell you why I avoided Sarah J. Maas. It wasn’t that I knew what her books were about and didn’t find the premise interesting. I had no idea what stories Maas was telling. None.

So in the summer of 2022 I finally decided to bite the bullet and crack open Throne of Glass. From my understanding, people prefer A Court of Thorns and Roses series more than the Throne of Glass series, but correct me if I’m wrong.

My thought process was that if I was going to unravel the Maas universe I needed to start from the beginning (I also thought the series were related and A Court of Thorns and Roses was a spin-off series Cassandra-Clare-style, but I don’t think they are—once again, please correct me if I’m wrong).

So I sat down with some Trader Joe’s iced Mango Black Tea and started reading. And found that…it’s a very typical fantasy novel. It’s not bad per se, but I also don’t understand why it’s as huge and popular as it is.

To me, it’s akin to every other generic fantasy novel out there. Nothing about it really seemed to pop or make it different. Now, perhaps I’m biased (a very real possibility). Perhaps you could make the argument that this was Maas’ first novel and it drastically improves from there.

That could very well be the case.

However, I finished the book yesterday and feel no need to go out and purchase the sequel, Crown of Midnight.

First, I thought Throne of Glass was very much a book of its time. Published in 2012 but put on fictionpress.com before that, there were myriad things that pointed to its age: the characters having super unique names, everyone being the hottest stuff around, the love triangle dynamic, the badass female protagonist with zero flaws other than her righteous anger, court life, the long descriptions about fashion, and the Hunger Games-style competition.

Now, nothing is inherently wrong with any of these things. Honestly, if I read Throne of Glass back in 2012 when it was originally published I probably would have enjoyed it. But, I’m reading it in 2022 and most of the tropes I listed above I found really annoying and aged.

Celaena came across as mary-sue-like to me because nothing was wrong with her. Sure, she gets angry from time to time, but it was justified anger based on the fact that she had dead parents, was a slave in a salt mine for a year, and is an oppressed citizen under a tyrannical monarchy.

If anything, everyone around her, especially the two love interests, Dorian, the crown prince, and Chaol, the Royal Guard Captain, found her fury charming.

Celaena is literally the best assassin in the world, is otherworldly beautiful, is intelligent, kind, witty, confident, and every other positive trait you can think of.

Despite her being an assassin and literally having murdered multiple people, she’s described as pure of heart and kind by other characters, including the prince and an old Queen who’s ghost comes back from the dead just to speak with her. How does this make sense? It’s a mystery.

Not to mention, Celaena dislikes and distrusts other women on principle, spends paragraphs discussing what kind of dress she’s wearing (nothing wrong with this, but I personally didn’t care and skipped over it), and goes through the whole I-couldn’t-possibly-love-the-prince-his-regime-has-killed-so-many-people thought process and yet proceeds to kiss him silly a few paragraphs later.

Dorian and Chaol were just as uninteresting.

Dorian, despite being the crown prince, disagrees with what his evil father is doing and feels bad for the literal genocide that has occurred and yet has done nothing to stand up to his dad or even speak up.

Chaol was probably my favorite out of the three, but that’s just because I have a soft spot for prickly characters who are actually mushy on the inside. Despite this, Chaol lacked any real characterization other than being stoic, being an amazing fighter, and getting jealous of Dorian and Celaena’s relationship every other page.

There are other characters, but they’re honestly not worth mentioning. Nehemia, a visiting princess, adds some not-needed mystery and Kaltain is your typical power-hungry girl willing to do literally anything to win the prince’s heart.

There are the other competitors that Celaena has to fight in order to be crowned the King’s Champion and win her freedom, but they don’t matter except for Cain, a big, beefy dude who is laughably evil and strong.

The premise itself I actually didn’t mind. Celaena being an assassin was fine and interesting, but it lost all traction when others justify her past murders, call her innocent, and she quickly becomes the savior of the kingdom and the oppressed people.

It would have been so much more interesting if she struggled with her morals, if she was tormented by her past, and yet didn’t regret it. Who knows, maybe that happens in future books, but I honestly don’t know why Maas didn’t make her the best underground street fighter or something instead of an assassin.

The assassin bit didn’t work with the character Maas was trying to present Celaena to be.

I did like the competition to be the King’s Champion, that Celaena had to win her freedom, the mystery of the murdered champions, and the mystery of the wyrd marks, but eventually Maas added too many mysteries and they all got tangled together.

I think Maas bit off more than she could chew and eventually things were just summarized. I wanted to see all of the tests and trials the champions had to go through, but instead we’re just given basic run downs of what happened in short paragraphs towards the end.

The same thing happens with the murders and certain characters leaving, like Nox.

It felt incredibly underwhelming to have these really interesting mysteries presented and then tossed away like they didn’t matter near the end of the book.

You might wonder, why did Maas do that? Why summarize these really tantalizing tidbits? Instead of getting action and character development while advancing the plot, several chapters from the middle to the end were just about Celaena and whomever hanging out.

I kid you not.

It felt like there was a span of a hundred pages where literally nothing significant happened and where Celaena would play billiards with Dorian, would go for a walk with Chaol, would chat with Nehemia, blah, blah, blah.

Excruciating.

That being said, it wasn’t all negative. Maas’ world-building, the mention of other countries and geographical landmarks were really fun and well done. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see anything except for the Glass Castle.

Overall, I think I missed out on a Throne of Glass.

I don’t think it’s a poorly done series, but I do think that YA as a genre has changed and shifted a lot since 2012 and a book that was popular back then does not necessarily equate to a book that is popular now.

If you like this series, I don’t blame you and can see why it was initially as beloved as it was. If you read this book in 2012, fell in love, and have stuck with it ever since, I totally understand.

However, the choppy pacing, the banal characters, the rudimentary plot near the end, the plethora of tropes, the lack of representation, and the lack of originality don’t do it for me ten years later.

Recommendation: If you’ve been following Maas since her fictionpress.com days and have kept up with every book she’s published since, that’s awesome. I love that for you.

However, in 2022, there are so many better books and better series and nothing about Throne of Glass makes me want to read more. I’m willing to try A Court of Thorns and Roses, considering it’s marked as adult fiction, was published later, and a different series all together, but we’ll have to see.

Let me know if you think A Court of Thorns and Roses is worth reading. Otherwise, Sarah J. Maas just isn’t the writer for me and I’m okay with that.

Score: 5/10

#throne of glass #sara j maas #a court of thorns and roses #ya fiction #YA Books #YA literature #top books #popular fiction #Popular Books #book blog #book review #Book Recommendations #YA Book Review #book recs #5/10

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