Interdimensional Observer

(3D meaning IRL idols. 2D meaning anyone fictional.) 2D husbandos is my answer. ...Decided to view Megaton's characterization-adding Side Stories today, before shifting away from the game entirely. Didn't see all of them, I'll view the rest tomorrow. Though the latter ones I see are sadly shorter, and I wish there was one more set of these. Tone is consistently on the comedic side for the most part. First one wasn't great, yet the rest have certainly been better, they're not bad.😀 Was good for my mood, despite being 😄 from the Roman history lesson I gave yesterday morning, it fell into self-doubt last night and that carried over into today. A not-unusual shift, if still not pleasant. Returning to the great question above... 😁 I couldn't imagine that they would regress, but it's still GREAT to get concrete confirmation!😁 -I would like it if they didn't show off the wedding pics in advance this time.😆 -Though I get doing so with RF5, being it was the first time, had drive it home.😉 I don't expect any CGs nor character portraits this time, like Tides of Destiny, yet I would still prefer if they only recycled SubaruxKaguya when advertising that you can wed in this game. That way the magic of seeing the event when one finally reaches it would be more intact. HOWEVER, I would totally like it if the game's opening had m-m (and f-f to be equal) "flirtation" in it.😘 Rune Factory 5 -understandably b/c it was added in an update in Japan- always presented the bachelorettes in relation to Ares and the bachelors in relation to Alice, in its two openings. If they showcase all the love interests in the opening -as Rune Factory has ever since RFF- and they choose to put any measure of "flirtation" into it- like RF5's first opening having Ludmilla lunge towards Ares who has Fuuka grabbing onto his back, and Alice faint b/c thirst between Martin and Cecil. Then, I would like just one s/s instance on both sides alongside any heteroromantic "flirtations". -The opening is the first thing anyone (who isn't impatient😅) see of the game in the game itself. It would make a bolder, more open statement if a dev in one of these games, alluded to the s/s possibility in such an upfront way. ...Or so I think would be the case?😆 Hopefully they also fix Valentine's & White Day this time. They didn't account for s/s love when featuring the two holidays in RF5, the result being White Day was a total repeat of VDay, on both days you could go on a date with anyone you're dating and everyone will give and take cookies from you. (The Friends of Mineral Town remake handled it better IMO- the girls give gifts regardless of the protagonist's gender and the guys take gifts -regardless of the protagonist's gender- on VDay. For White Day, the roles were reversed.) Ideally, they just abolish White Day, but this is a Japan-made game, with a fictional Japan setting. Yet Nippon's twin romance holidays break down when queer relationships enter the picture. I did try to get a look at the guys during the latest trailer -but it was too short and these brief first appearances I couldn't read very much from at all.😅 And it didn't show all the interests either I would certainly think. ...I know, this turned into me blabbing to no end.😆

Unexpected shrimp art of the day. -Two couples in Australia will be legally wedded in a Cult of the Lamb themed ceremony. Interesting PR.😀 The whip cannot be bound, for it does the binding.😛 -The following year after Pope Gelasius I issued his ban on Lupercalia, 496, he declared Feb 14th would be Saint Valentine's Day. Although, it is very possible this is pure coincidence 😝, as Valentine's Day for centuries (the records suggest not until the High or Late Middle Ages) had absolutely nothing to do with love. Local Councils of (Elite) Elders have been a thing throughout human history, and still are in some places. Even after Julius and Octavian forever changed Rome, the Senate would be there for the bigwigs to occupy. -But even the Roman Senate would be dissolved at some unrecorded moment in the late 500s AD. Controlled pirates are not pirates, they're "privateers".😉

Just what were they thinking with him?😆 The Roman fertility & purification festival, held on Feb 15 (which is why it was also called Dies Februatus). Young men would run around Rome naked, slapping people with thongs.😄 (The men being 20-40 yrs of age. The thongs -februa- being made from a goat they had just sacrificed and eaten. Women would eagerly want to get whipped by the naked men, believing it would help get them pregnant/give birth more safely.) Lupercalia was a very old Roman holiday, possibly the most ancient. Even in the Roman Republic, writers were asking themselves "Why are we still doing this?🤨", to which, the only plausible answer- "It's tradition!😆". Marc Antony participated in the naked running at least once, during which he supposedly attempted to crown Julius Caesar (he turned it down, twice). Augustus would give new life to the Lupercalia as its popularity began to decline -but banned beardless men from the sacred streaking to make it less scandalous (Augustus was big on morality). After this, Lupercalia remained popular, especially with the lower classes of Roman society. Even after the rise of Christianity in the 300s, Lupercalia was one of the last pagan Roman festivals to hold out, indicative of its enduring popularity. It wasn't until 495 AD that the Pope banned it, but the Roman Senate (still around even after the fall of the Western Empire) complained and the festival survived a little longer. Wanna revive the holiday, Shrimpy?😃

*Checks* Chinese mega company shutting down a Japanese branch. Well, at least it's not Square doing it ...and they couldn't because Japanese labor laws I think? Nation of Fools and Burnt Paradise, those were things.😐 The weird shapes made them a tad cumbersome to traverse, and the music for Nation of Fools was a bad ear worm. Decidedly modern, decidedly ...nihilistic? Am I reading too much into them if they're post-WWI pessimistic commentary, on the horrors humanity had wrought, in the name of what was seen at the start of WWI as "sane" and "noble" ideas- like fighting to the death for one's country?🤔 I like it that they threw Dracula X into the GBA collection, and Haunted Castle into the DS one. Because the thing about old franchises, is that they often had these weird spinoffs/weaker entries. And if you wanted to preserve these, well they aren't capable of being tossed together into an "Et Cetera Collection" and sold at a profit- who would want to buy them?🤔 Will Capcom ever save Mega Man Soccer (-to pick something random off the top of my head)? ...And maybe it's because I don't have that much attachment to him or anything, but I think I'm okay now with Simon's redesign?😆 -Or maybe I'm too tolerant.😅 Or not b/c Judgment's take on Death is still unforgivable. Either way, I'm only now discovering that Judgment's -overwhelmingly remixes- OST is fairly good.😄

It does go both ways too, in a loose sense. You can completely forget what time it historically is when you're off inside Drac's castle (or an imitation in the case of Soma's second adventure). I think the only thing in Portrait of Ruin that really reminds you it's WWII is the two London-ish portraits? ...And through the window comes a Maria obsessed with cleavage.😵‍💫 Well, Cornell's redesign is nice. And Aeon ain't a bad-looking OC either. -Judgement rerelease when?😝 Must've been Hell's Angels. -But don't call them that, as there must be reason (aka, lawsuit) why Atlus renamed its Hell's Angel demon to "Hell Biker" outside of Japan.😛 Perhaps there's such a thing as too much of something? Like, SRW NEO was a one-time thing. Just because Banpresto could possibly layer similar upon similar upon similar, doesn't mean they should. -You did say before Dunbine is post-script in X, which if they really wanted to maximize the fantasy isekai usage, shouldn't have been the case. And perhaps there was still lingering fatigue from Coffin of the End. SRW does derive some of its enjoyability from narratively shifting chapter by chapter between totally different IPs with very different feels.

Geez, I need an explanatory game from you.😏 -Not exactly a bad thing!😉

😮 ...I can't even imagine that. Not sure whether that means a VN not clicking with you is worse or less bad than a more-interactive game that doesn't either.🤔 Get an exercise bike? -Were it not for the fact that humans don't multitask well, and putting the pedal to the metal even at a gentle-yet-serious pace would prevent full cognitive investment in the work of fiction before you.😑 I have no idea.😅 Though I think I get what you're saying. No color can make give the dramatic more pizzazz? And which part of the text. Though Megaton Musashi had plenty of 🤩😄 story moments for me, there were a small number of related 🥱 instances for me. But then the story would have a chance of knocking you off your feet. Maybe when the bus makes that upcoming left turn.

Aren't manga covers kinda disappointing b/c the contents are all black & white? Just an outsider's thought. Though I get adding color to every panel would require a lot of extra effort (for an already stressful job). And monochrome puts emphasis on line work, form is of equal (or arguably greater) importance to the shades that may fill it. -Not that I would know that 😅, and won't. Maybe after Falcom is 115% finished with the overarching story.😝 VNs are still mostly an enigma to me, 13S aside. ...How much pure nonstop reading can you personally do before you feel your first *yawn* coming on? How long until you want to get up and stretch?😆

I read a blurb somewhere that said beneath the anime girls (and mechs?) exterior, Muv-Luv is all dark drama traumatization that'll leave you begging to see happiness once again. Your cup of tea?😜

A car without asphalt roads can still drive places (as long as it has gas/electricity). A radio without radio stations can do ...what? Find a room in Drac's castle filled with alphabetic monsters and pick up on the unexplained ominous? And its colors are utterly garish b/c original GBA lack o' backlight overcompensation, a choice that aged horribly. The real horror of Harmony of Dissonance. -I can't say I disagree, I got the chance to get through a DS SRPG my younger self was sad to see not leave Japan, thanks to a machine translation. Luminous Arc 3 wasn't quite as vibrant compared to its two predecessors due to the machine vs. professional difference, but the b-grade anime-flavored characterization wasn't totally lost. -And machine translation isn't exactly zero effort in the case of fan translations. When you consider that patching in the text and making sure you don't break the game, is half the battle in that case. -Because Castlevania isn't SMT-Persona.😜 I got some serious use out of one in the early-midgame when I played Nocturne. Nocturne bosses actually have MP stats which they need for their spells, and Daisoujou's MP is low enough that I actually had my Incubus use Energy Drain on him until he ran out. The mummified monk got screwed. Also, I'm told the first Persona Q gets broken by Impure Reach, and Incubus is like the first Sub-Persona to have it.

A medieval copyist's error might be why it wasn't until 2017 that archaeologists discovered the once-great Temple of Artemis Amarynthia (not to be confused Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). -I tried to shift my 😄 mind into 🤓 to turn down the volume.

The "Atlus Tax" was their notorious pricing thing. That and the "wait for the enhanced version bro!" planned obsolescence scam. Routine and frequent sales were a big thing of their's on the 3DS, and this has continued into the Switch era. Being bought by Sega might've temporarily slowed or halted this, but I'm pretty sure the sales are back in full force. -And doesn't everyone big except Nintendo do fire sales sooner than later nowadays?🤔 The cutthroat nature of the glutted gaming market which some might say hurts the value of games and smaller developers, but then capitalism won't raise wages fast enough. Hiding one of the magic books behind the harder challenge was a 🤨 decision. Since the books are one of the few ways you can vary your attack arsenal. First playthrough I waited until the game was almost over to get it. A game set in Dracula's castle about three young friends!😛 Incongruence with the Gothic/horror setting ahoy!

*Immediately clicks open Gematsu after I posted the above. Sees the top of the news column.* -And now I'm thrown for an old loop.😍 -I'm not double-dipping, yet as I've said before, the mere sight of him is still 😇🤣. I try not to buy & play games that late into the year, gotta save stuff for others to get me for Xmas. -A couple days ago I was getting crabby because someone wanted to get me something, I kept shooting down their ideas. Narrow interests and not asking for a whole lot means I'm a chore to buy for. ...My point being- I'll join you on Ys X Shrimpy, just not right away.😉 EoW will also be on the Xmas list, except I have TotK from last 🎄 still unplayed.

I sat outside intending to read. -I actually spent dozens of minutes letting Megaton and SRW thoughts do petaflops in my brain.😆 Do I have too much time on my hands if I can still be hopelessly lost in a game from yesterday? Or is it neurodivergence? I don't know.😅 -Not sure how long/what it'll take to decompress. ...Would it be a good idea to wait for the new Rayearth and throw the two together in SRW?😛 Ehhh, Square doesn't jive with you.😛 And Metacritic puts the average critic score at 75 right now. Wait for the sale -which will come after Square soon likely announces "Mana is going into cold storage b/c AA-gaming doesn't suit us anymore". Atlus regularly does sizable sales. You're either The Fool or The Lover of Atlus if you buy anything from them at full price. Patience will be rewarded. Don't complain them into using machine/AI translation to cut corners, that couldn't possibly end well. Clearly they're Chemtrails in the Sky, and they're doing their diabolical purpose of making you loopy.

I have spent the past... hour? listening to SRW + Xeno tracks cherrypicked b/c they remind of Megaton in some way. On the one hand, my mood is 😄. Yet I'm very frustrated too.This makes three unfinished mecha stories I'm stuck with!😆 Is overambition a natural companion to sci-fi? The writers write with the same vastness as the universe that inspires them, not realizing they shouldn't expand without end.😜 ...Speaking of Xeno: What non-Mana games served as inspiration for the developers working on Visions of Mana? Were any of the principal designers born after the Super Famicom release of Seiken Densetsu 3 (the original Trials of Mana)? In terms for creating a vast world that is important for an RPG, the Xenoblade series was one source of inspiration. -Is it odd for a non-indie dev to admit to such inspirations?🤔