straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2018-04-17 04:59 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2018-04-17 04:59 pm
187
► I don’t play Pokémon Go super-regularly, but last Sunday I picked it up to participate in my first Community Day! ♥ I didn’t catch too much, but I got enough to evolve one Mareep to Ampharos, plus I got my first shiny! So that was exciting. ♥ Since then, I’ve googled my town + Pokémon Go and discovered that it has a whole website dedicated to where the best places in town to catch Pokémon are, so I’ll probably be taking advantage of that information the next time around.
► My Naruto reread’s slowed down again (I think it’s been over a week since I last read anything, whoops), mainly because I got distracted by gaming/![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandom5k. But I still managed to get a pretty decent chunk of it read before that, so I have a few things to say. In bullet-points, as always.
Anyways. Positive take-aways: The Mizukage is great, I have a new, promising ship in Sakura/Karin, and basically everything about Kisame’s final fight/death was perfect. Plus, this wasn’t in my notes, but Deidara’s back now, Edo Tensei-style! And his interactions with the Tsuchikage/other Iwa nins are great. ♥
► In the interests of cutting down my VN backlog, I started playing OZMAFIA!! not long after my last update. I… didn’t get very far; I only reached one ending, and then tried and failed* three times in trying to get the other (hopefully less horrifying) ending for that character.
*Not even following the walkthrough I looked up choice-by-choice worked! I’m not sure what was going on there.
Then, about a week ago, I tried to write an entry about my initial thoughts on the game, and ended up with 1500 words about all my problems with it, which… just exhausted me to look at, so I’m not going to post it.
Instead, have this brief summary:
1. I know this game has a bad reputation.
2. I have problems with it too.
3. I still found things to like about it and am planning on finishing it, albeit slowly.
4. I’m going to try to focus on the things I liked rather than the things I didn’t.
I went for Kyrie first, mainly because I wanted to do the main three first, I wasn’t too into Axel, I like intelligent characters, and I hadn’t yet realized how much I would like Caramia. I… wasn’t really sold on his romance with Fuka, but I did like him as a character, for the most part. I certainly liked him enough that the ending I got left me SCREAMING FOREVER, oh my god. Like, as I was nearing the ending, my thoughts on the game could basically be summed up like this: “I’m having some mixed feelings OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT ENDING???? DDDDDD:”
(For the record: the ending I’m talking about is the one where the pendant is smashed and Kyrie loses all of his intelligence/basically does a complete personality shift. I found it horrifying on a number of levels.)
(...Though, the reveal that Kyrie used to call Caramia “Lion-kun” was super-cute.)
After that, I looked up a walkthrough and, like I said, completely failed at getting any other ending despite following the walkthrough exactly. But it turns out that getting his ending unlocked extra scenes from Kyrie’s perspective (and a few from Axel & Caramia’s perspectives as well), which added some much needed depth to the route. I loved getting to see what was going on in Kyrie’s mind. The reveal that he was actually worrying about whether he’d made Fuka uncomfortable with the whole flower bouquet incident was really good. In general, I thought those scenes did a lot to show me why Kyrie was interested in Fuka, which my first playthrough hadn’t managed to do.
Also, Kyrie’s self-destructiveness re: his own relationship was really appealing. I’m weak for that sort of thing. And I’m definitely intrigued by his offhandedly referring to Dorian Grey as “father”. (Especially considering the “was literally a scarecrow” part of his backstory.)
Finally, I have a few screenshots which I want to comment on/show.
Kyrie’s opinions on tea are my opinions on tea. Or close enough.
I don’t really like Axel that much, but… same, Axel. Same.
And this was so cute. ♥ I will say that Caramia’s friendships with Kyrie and Axel are one of my favorite parts about this game—especially the Caramia-Kyrie friendship, with all the layers it had. In general, I just like Caramia a lot. He’s a sweetheart. ♥
Other things I like about this game so far: The potential the story has, even if the game never takes full advantage of it. Hansel and Gretel—I love them and desperately want to know more about them. (Scarlet’s route, hopefully?) Pashet! Who has a route! It’s probably going to be friendship, not f/f, but I live in hope. Especially after that scene where Heidi mentions that Pashet never joins in when they talk about the type of men they like… (Okay, she is eventually bullied in giving an answer, but “nice and earnest” fits Fuka well-enough, so… :D?)
► My Naruto reread’s slowed down again (I think it’s been over a week since I last read anything, whoops), mainly because I got distracted by gaming/
fandom5k. But I still managed to get a pretty decent chunk of it read before that, so I have a few things to say. In bullet-points, as always. - I’m surprised that Naruto wasn’t upset when Kakashi revealed that he’d known who his father was the whole time and never said anything. Like, Kakashi reveals that he knows in the most casual way possible, and instead of Naruto being surprised or shocked or upset or anything like that, he… just beams at him. Weird.
- I am officially in love with the Mizukage. (I mean, I could do without the “worrying that she’ll never get married thing!” because wtf, but other than that, she’s just fantastic. ♥) (I’m also kind of vaguely shipping her with Tsunade, mostly because of that moment where she tells Tsunade that she’s glad to see her back in her seat as Hokage.)
- I don’t think that the idea of Ten Tails is inherently ridiculous, but I have qualms with its name. Wouldn’t the combination of all the tailed beasts logically have 45 tails?
- I love Sakura’s Iron Country outfit. So cute. ♥
- The “well, Konoha will agree to having Kakashi as Hokage anyways, so we should just act like he’s Hokage already” made no sense. They’re rival nations. They’re not the ones who’ll decide who the leader of another country will be. If Konoha had been conquered, then yeah, that would have made sense, but nothing like that had happened.
- Also, suddenly shipping Sakura/Karin! I blame this scene:
<3 - Though, that was just about the only thing I liked about that part. The assassinate Sasuke plotline ended up having the same level of enjoyment as a flat tire once Sasuke and Sakura got on the same page, and I’m furious about how Sakura got so sidelined.
- On a lighter note, I’m laughing forever at Kakashi’s “I was dangerously close to becoming Hokage”. ♥
- I knew it was coming, but… “the Kyuubi’s seal is weakened by childbirth” is still the biggest bullshit. How Minato and Kushina got together was also The Worst. I honestly would’ve liked it (and them) much more if we hadn’t seen any of their backstory together/only got to see them interacting as an established relationship.
- That being said, their final conversation did make me tear up a bit.
- Killer B and Samehada are adorable. Honestly, Samehada turned out to be super-cute. I’m a little in love. Witness:
And after Kisame dies:
- That final Kisame fight gave me so many feelings. Itachi/Kisame feelings, because of that flashback to their first meeting, Samehada feelings, because of its being so sad about his death, and, most importantly, Kisame feelings. “Itachi-san, it seems that I was a decent human after all” DON’T MIND ME, CRYING FOREVER.
And Gai finally acknowledging him/promising to never forget him! And echoing what Itachi said, about how one’s death determines what type of person you were. Kisame proving that he wasn’t as terrible as he’d always considered himself. Kisame.
tl;dr 508 = great chapter; I’m a fan. - And I kind of wish I could stop on that positive note, but unfortunately, I read further. Konan’s death was unbelievably terrible. I’d already thought that the Izanagi was a vaguely ridiculous move, but I was still fine with it with Danzo because it had limitations, and very strong ones at that. But Tobi’s destroying Konan’s very well-reasoned plan with a “lol nope, I have a ~super special~ version of Izanagi that’s never been even hinted at before which I can use for much longer than and don’t need to sacrifice an eye for!” was absolutely disgusting. Ugh. I’m still so annoyed about it.
Anyways. Positive take-aways: The Mizukage is great, I have a new, promising ship in Sakura/Karin, and basically everything about Kisame’s final fight/death was perfect. Plus, this wasn’t in my notes, but Deidara’s back now, Edo Tensei-style! And his interactions with the Tsuchikage/other Iwa nins are great. ♥
► In the interests of cutting down my VN backlog, I started playing OZMAFIA!! not long after my last update. I… didn’t get very far; I only reached one ending, and then tried and failed* three times in trying to get the other (hopefully less horrifying) ending for that character.
*Not even following the walkthrough I looked up choice-by-choice worked! I’m not sure what was going on there.
Then, about a week ago, I tried to write an entry about my initial thoughts on the game, and ended up with 1500 words about all my problems with it, which… just exhausted me to look at, so I’m not going to post it.
Instead, have this brief summary:
1. I know this game has a bad reputation.
2. I have problems with it too.
3. I still found things to like about it and am planning on finishing it, albeit slowly.
4. I’m going to try to focus on the things I liked rather than the things I didn’t.
I went for Kyrie first, mainly because I wanted to do the main three first, I wasn’t too into Axel, I like intelligent characters, and I hadn’t yet realized how much I would like Caramia. I… wasn’t really sold on his romance with Fuka, but I did like him as a character, for the most part. I certainly liked him enough that the ending I got left me SCREAMING FOREVER, oh my god. Like, as I was nearing the ending, my thoughts on the game could basically be summed up like this: “I’m having some mixed feelings OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT ENDING???? DDDDDD:”
(For the record: the ending I’m talking about is the one where the pendant is smashed and Kyrie loses all of his intelligence/basically does a complete personality shift. I found it horrifying on a number of levels.)
(...Though, the reveal that Kyrie used to call Caramia “Lion-kun” was super-cute.)
After that, I looked up a walkthrough and, like I said, completely failed at getting any other ending despite following the walkthrough exactly. But it turns out that getting his ending unlocked extra scenes from Kyrie’s perspective (and a few from Axel & Caramia’s perspectives as well), which added some much needed depth to the route. I loved getting to see what was going on in Kyrie’s mind. The reveal that he was actually worrying about whether he’d made Fuka uncomfortable with the whole flower bouquet incident was really good. In general, I thought those scenes did a lot to show me why Kyrie was interested in Fuka, which my first playthrough hadn’t managed to do.
Also, Kyrie’s self-destructiveness re: his own relationship was really appealing. I’m weak for that sort of thing. And I’m definitely intrigued by his offhandedly referring to Dorian Grey as “father”. (Especially considering the “was literally a scarecrow” part of his backstory.)
Finally, I have a few screenshots which I want to comment on/show.
Kyrie’s opinions on tea are my opinions on tea. Or close enough.
I don’t really like Axel that much, but… same, Axel. Same.
And this was so cute. ♥ I will say that Caramia’s friendships with Kyrie and Axel are one of my favorite parts about this game—especially the Caramia-Kyrie friendship, with all the layers it had. In general, I just like Caramia a lot. He’s a sweetheart. ♥
Other things I like about this game so far: The potential the story has, even if the game never takes full advantage of it. Hansel and Gretel—I love them and desperately want to know more about them. (Scarlet’s route, hopefully?) Pashet! Who has a route! It’s probably going to be friendship, not f/f, but I live in hope. Especially after that scene where Heidi mentions that Pashet never joins in when they talk about the type of men they like… (Okay, she is eventually bullied in giving an answer, but “nice and earnest” fits Fuka well-enough, so… :D?)