#i do relate to a bit of Hisoka's behavior but more when i'm alone - Azuma is more how i behave with others

[icharchivist]

since it’s A3′s fourth anniversary in Japan, i can’t help but think a little more about it.

I started playing a3 exactly 461 days ago according to the app. I was sucked in by some screenshots i was seeing on twitter when it lautched in the english server. the stuff i was seeing were so fun i wanted to discover the plot for myself, and it hadn’t disappointed ever since.

i don’t really get sucked in in slice of life stories so i honestly didn’t expect to get this involved in a3. I also came in completely blind which really made the plot stand out even more for me, discovering it with twist and turns.

A3 has a very solid story, and very good and solid characters that are easy to empathize with, or relate with. 

but imo, the real strength of a3, above all, is that they’ll present you those flawed characters, who all have some stuff wounding them, holding them back, may it be trauma or anxiety or family and stuff... and they address how those stuff heavily affected them... and then process to give them storylines to recover from it.

Since a lot of the storyarcs are easy to relate to, the recovery arcs always hit me right up. 

in a way a3 just... feel like a safe place even as the player. We see the characters bloom and grow past the stuff that were heavy for them, and we grow with them as it goes. 

It’s been over a year for me, and the fact the game has a “the time passes in game just like IRL” vibe with the events timing or the blog posts really make the growth hit even harder when you follow them step by step. 

And i just.. can’t get enough, and it’s part of why i don’t know yet if i’ll read the JPN server translations because i really like going step by step in the story, along with those characters.

a3 really is quite a gem of a story for me... and i’m just so grateful it came into my life when it did. 

Onto new years ahead!

#more personal stuff in the tags: i was obsessed with the game from day one and binged it then but didn't expect to relate to the charas a lo #but i found kinship especially with Azuma and Hisoka on first read which really came to bite me in the ass later #honestly originally i didn't really know why i did - Hisoka was amnesic so it's not like i could relate to his story then #and i don't relate at all to azuma's backstory - i.. relate a lot to his coping mechanism and general behavior tho #(friends who got to see/know Azuma also kinda threw it in my face that 'yeah you do that a lot too' and im :(.) #i do relate to a bit of Hisoka's behavior but more when i'm alone - Azuma is more how i behave with others #(one of the first time i realized i related to Hisoka was bc a friend teased me after i took my fourth nap during a day) #but it took Nocturnality to slap me in the face and have to think more deeply about those stuff i relate to Azuma with... #and as i grew to love Hisoka more act 2 slapped me in the face with his backstory that i sadly can extremely relate to #i don't want to get too much in depth but i was honestly a mess reading it because it was /so specific/. #then later in act 2 there was more discussion around Azuma's trauma ... #and the thing is that both of those things adding up made me realize stuff about myself #i've done lots of therapy with the years but because of the specificities of my trauma and how it is still ongoing #some... guidances didn't exactly help making a sense of how i felt about those things #and to be thinking about why those storylines hit me as they did... made me make sense of my trauma in a way i hadn't managed to #and this is so... special to me.... #ever since those stories clicked in my brain i felt a weigh has lifted from my heart. A weigh i carry for almost twenty years #i thought it might just last a moment but even now monthes later i still feel lighter. I feel more at peace than i've ever been. #of course it's still there... but it's like the fog lifted a little and i can breath a little even if i don't see in front of me yet #and the fact now the story focus on ways for them to recover.... it makes me feel safe. #I can never thank a3 enough for all of this..... so let's see how it leads next. I'm just so grateful to have been here for the ride #ichatalks about a3