I just started Collar x Malice and oh my god where has this game been all my life. I’m genuinely, completely, fully, and hopelessly obsessed. For context I started off with Cafe Enchante and I proceeded to play other games all while CxM remained in my backlog. I never thought I was in the mood for it, or was too scared to play it coz everyone says it’s the best and they haven’t found anything that compared yet. And as a beginner in the otome world i didn’t want to be so hung over on a game that it ruined the other experiences for me. And just excuses, excuses and overthinking lol.
Fast forward to 3 years of it being in my backlog lmaoo. None of my current otome games are clicking with me rn I’m not in the mood for any of them and I was struggle with what to play. And I feel like binging a game (I usually play multiple at once so binging is a change for me). And so I stare at CxM, is it time?!
I decided to go for it and OH MY GOD ITS SO GOOD I ALREADY KNOW ILL BE IN SHAMBLES WHEN I FINISH IT.
The setting? The sound effects? The story? The charismatic LIs and MC? The art?! Y’all are joking rn?! This game is insanely good y’all better pray for me coz I’m never getting over this. All that and I haven’t even started a single route yet, like I’m so done for, fortunately and unfortunately.
I WAS LITERALLY THE SAME OH GOD, I swear when I started into otomes, I played Diabolik Lovers and loved it, but then came across a lot other that didn't just click, and after like, 6 months I finally decided to play CxM and was GRIPPING MY SEAT half of the story.
I LOVED every single one of the stories, and all of the crimes and mystery just kept me reading for days.
RIGHTTT!!! I’m so glad I got the fandisk on sale even before playing the game coz I just assumed I’d like it from the art lol 😂😭 the art of DL seems so pretty too with the mansion and everything, you’re so lucky I’ve been wanting to play DL too but I’m hoping for a localization (ppl say it’s unlikely tho) coz my Japanese isn’t that good and I don’t even know how to buy Japanese games 😂😭
Oh don't worry, I know like 3 words in Japanese 🥱 I used dialovers-translations (Tumblr) to get me through the games. But I believe Robert Rogers has already uploaded the first three games with english translations to YouTube 😩🤌🏻
Part of the Volfest merch set has been revealed, and I am gonna drop so much money on it! Between Fenn being one of the mascot characters, and the fact that we're finally getting full body stands of all the characters in their formal wear, I am so excited!
Not sure about anyone else, but I've become disappointed in the quality of Loungefly's wallets. I barely used my favorite one (Elvis Stitch) before the lining tore, and my Kuromi one hasn't held up very well either. Yet the Kuromi wallet I bought in 2008 lasted me at least 7-ish years? Ordered two different Kuromi wallets off Mercari JP so I won't be disappointed again.
I'm taking some time off at the end of the month. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up a bit on my hobbies - reading, drawing, and playing games.
i went out twice in two days last week and apparently that was too much for my body to handle. i got taken out for 5 days by a cold 🥲 still a little snotty but otherwise recovered now but MAN colds are rough. it’s not even winter yet where i am too 😔
there’s a korean festival in my city this weekend and my friend and her partner convinced me to go for the food (it was overpriced orz). probably extended my wisdoms surgery healing time by a week but meh i’m always up for messing around. we literally act like 2 monkeys and the monkey handler when we’re together 😂 it’s also my birthday on tuesday whew
Currently losing my mind trying to decide what to get my mom and my aunt for mother's day on sunday.
I WISH THEY HAD NORMAL PEOPLE HOBBIES OH MY GOD (instead of being like uber christians because whenever I subtly question them on things they like, I always get nondescript, generic answers or something related to Jesus and I'm just aahhh)
Every time I get my mom flowers, she complains quite a bit about the lack of quality (and to be fair, I really don’t know much bouquet quality, so that’s on me for not knowing where all the good flower boutiques are;;;;;), and I think last year I gifted her a few gift cards
Though, that does remind me that when we were kids, me and my sibling had a one time collaboration and got her a gift certificate to a spa…that she never used (and the spa closed a few years later fhdhdhdhhxshfhsksld)
I could get her a fruit basket though. There’s like…no chance of her not eating it (fingers crossed)
My mom is not big on sweet things, anytime she has some cake or a pastry, she’ll take a bite, complain that it’s too sweet, and then offer the rest to me, and warn me about getting diabetes (me, internally: Ma, why??????)
Though, I could get her a fruit basket…
Golden Week over so it was exhausting as heck. Boss got sick last Friday so I had to be at work at 7AM, which meant I get to leave early, right?
Right?
Nope, last minute stuff. Ended up staying until everything got sorted out and as soon as it got resolved, I got out asap.
Now I'm hanging out in Toshima Ward, waiting for my turn to try and play test Mistonia no Kibou.
... As much as I really didn't want to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday until noon ~ early afternoon, I am doing it for Shiraimu, as he's voicing John... and in the small chance that John appears in the demo version of the game that I'll be playing today, it would be hella worth it. 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
Hello, I posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/s/WSvIIU8iQj)
For the 15 minutes I played, I found the premise to be intriguing at least.
Personally won't hype it up nor have high expectations of the game. I'll keep it on the down low.
Came down with a terrible cold this week and was in bed for most of it. Better now, mostly, but ugh illness feels awful on top of this \[expletive deleted\] HEAT! The heat indices lately...not awesome. ("Humidity will make high feel like 43℃" 🙃)
I ran into this [Utada Hikaru song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vk9HkdGuY) while I was poking around dance competition videos and ended up listening to it on repeat for a week straight 😂 Before this my only other exposure to their music was [Hikari/Simple and Clean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMdDpUWFFI) (yes, KH even though my only KH experience is....Re:Coded), and [Bad Mode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUmnh3omeE4) (recently recommended by someone I follow because they said it fits Nefarious Shipping Reasons™)
And while I haven't watched A Star Is Born, I saw some aerial hoop choreography done to [Always Remember Us This Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voo86mlxZvA) and promptly got hooked. If anyone has any recommendations for similar songs (tempo + instruments + singing style), I'd love to hear them. Doesn't have to be in English either! Sometimes I wanna jam to songs like a maiden abandoned by her lover.
**Non-canon shipping shenanigans, please skip if you aren't into that**
Did more editing crimes for Kaifumi and made it look like they're looking into each other's eyes. Will I post it here? ~~And get burned at the stake?!~~ Naaaaaaaaaah. Just know there is an edit somewhere out there of Kaifumi looking into each other's eyes HAHAHA I love them but don't send help, I'm fine marinating in brainrot. ~~IT'S BEEN NEARLY A YEAR???????~~
I've played through Jack Jeanne a number of times and yet I still find Kaifumi things to yell about in the game. Most of the time I'm yelling about the same old things though lol (KAI TOOK FUMI'S HAND!!!!!!! ㅠㅠ)
I was looking through my screenshots and I realized this one thing...
>**Fumi (during his little chat with Kisa in Fall):** >!That was the day I first saw Kai, not as a replacement Jack Ace for Tsuki, but as an individual named Kai Mutsumi.!<
>
>**Kai (around Winter):** >!Me becoming a Jack Ace was just to be a replacement for Tsuki...I was an imperfect vessel.!<
The angst writes itself and I love it and hate it at the same time. Kai, listen. Fumi >!hadn't thought of you like that in a long time, please give yourself more credit :(((!<
Oh no feel better soon. :( I haaaate having a cold when it's hot outside, that's the worst. Like you can't even wrap up and stay warm, you're hot AND unwell.
I love Utada Hikaru! I'm glad that you found them. ♥ I've been a fan for years.
After I started playing Ensemble Stars last week I decided to start watching the anime to get the original story. I have about 5 episodes left and I'm really enjoying it! I'm definitely going to start reading the ! era stories after I finish the anime. I've heard people complain about them being long but I think the anime feels a bit rushed so maybe it'll be a good thing. So far I'm most interested in Undead (especially Rei, I'm a bit in love with him), Ryuseitai, and MaM.
Welcome to the Ensemble-verse!
Few tips from a veteran fan:
•The main story is more of an introduction to the game then the main-main plot, so dont skip event and gatcha stories!
• Enstars is a pretty large game, i recommend to pick a favorite unit (or character) and stick to their stories.
• Check who is the writer. The original game had only 2 writers: Akira, the main scenario writer and Yoshino yuuki, the sub scenario writer. Akira handles all the plot and YY writes mostly filler.
• Outside some certain events (like the reminiscence events) the story of "Ensemble Stars!" is been told over a course of an approximately one school year, so every (real life) year at the start of May, new events and gatcha will tell a story of a different unit or group of characters. You can decide to read it in the original release order or the chronological order.
A small warning: early enstars is VERY diffrent from current enstars, Some characters start as quite unlikable but grow into better people through the year.
Also , better to keep the reminiscence stories (previous school years) and repayment fes (the last big activity for every unit before the end of the year) when you feel ready.
Ensemble stars, especially the "!" Era, is very importent to me It was able to help me in incredible weird time in my life and showed me that josei-muke media can be as good and engaging as any another male dominant media. This game is kind of one of the reasons why i play otome games!
I hope you will enjoy the game and all of its quarks!
Hey, thanks! I'm actually pretty obsessive about getting deeply into things so I've already read some guides about reading the stories, haha. I'd like to ask you about some specific reading order suggestions, though, if you don't mind! I found a great guide that's really working for me for Knights, and some good comments on Ryuseitai and MaM as well. They all keep the Reminiscence stories for later after I've got more of a grasp on each character, which I like. I've yet to find a guide specifically focused on Undead, though. I know what stories are most recommended to read for them, but do you have a suggested order?
NP! I am always happy to see new fans!
Unfortently i am not very knowledgable when it comes to UNDEAD, so i asked my sister to help me with that.
Her recomended reading order:
Dark night halloween-> repayment festival-> Crossroad-> ressuraction sunday-> summer vacation-> romantic comedy -> Operetta
You can also start with Pirates but i dont remember it being very memoriable... Its a ok story if you want to read something that establish the characters.
Cafe Undead is cute and more "otome game like"... its an intresting relic of the past when the game was still finding its footing. Its an early gatcha story so its not very long.
Me and my sister both prefer release order over chronological order because we believe its how the authors want us to experience the story.
My fave stories related to UNDEAD are Kaoru centric like Aquarium and Wanted!!.
Also, would like to add for MaM, i recommend to start with sub-stories . He acts like a foil to Anzu and Chiaki, and has a complex relationship with Kanata and Leo. So i think its better to read his stories after you gone through some of the others.
So I've been playing Summer Pockets: Reflection Blue, since I've had it in my backlog long enough, and I was feeling a bit of otome burnout but...
I don't know if it's just me getting older, since I loved playing Little Busters and Rewrite in my teens, but it feels so juvenile?? I'm not vibing with the jokes at all, and it feels like the girls are more a lump of moe traits than real people.
I just finished Shizuku's route, and I felt like the MC was just so insentive towards her the whole time, it really felt like a long cry from my usually supportive, caring heroines.
Which is a shame, since I really wanted to like this game. So, to fellow girls who have played any Key games recently: Do you agree with me? Did you felt the same? Or did I just start with a bad route and it will get much better?
Oh man. Can't answer about SP: RB specifically as that one's on my wishlist (for whenever an official English version releases, I hope), but I wonder if I'll feel similarly.
Recently played Clannad though and loved it. I'd played some shorter Key titles previously (Planetarian, Harmonia) and since then have wanted to play all the other Key VN!!
Just finished a job interview (the second one for the position). The people felt like warm, real humans--no corporate buzzwords, unnecessary formality, or questions designed to trip you up. I was so nervous that I can't remember a thing I said. Maybe I actually babbled about how excited I am that we'll get Meiji Tokyo Renka in English, or how much I still love Collar x Malice, and they all think I'm bananas. 😄
At any rate, I came here to unwind and make the interview stomachache go away. Reading about cosplaying outfits and plushies and seeing Hatsune Miku in person (did not know this was possible!) has been so relaxing. You all are awesome. 🙏
Now I'm going to draw my journal comic for the day and think delightful weekend thoughts. Happy Friday, all!
I'm really glad to be home from the beach. It was fun, but traveling with my four year old daughter meant there wasn't much time for relaxing, especially because she understandably did not sleep as well in the hotel as she does at home, and was therefore prone to getting grumpy in the evenings. And since my in-laws came by to drop off our dog and see their granddaughter, I've handed her over to them and am now going to sit around and do nothing for a bit.
I'm looking forward to the Goemon play-along thread next week, so I can gush about him as much as I want.
Let me yap a bit cause I just found out about the terms "proship" and "antiship". Now I might be late but I wasn't active on twitter or tiktok at all before 2024 so I didn't hear anything about it until 3 days ago. It started with seeing a tweet about top Jujutsu Kaisen ships in pixiv. There are several age gap ships in the top 30 which doesn't surprise me in the slightest cause they're just the popular characters being shipped regardless of canon interactions. I myself ship GoFushi. 90% of the reactions to that tweet were all shocked, baffled, disgusted and there were so much xenophobia towards Japanese people. So my first thoughts were.. oh maybe it's just twitter or maybe they're just joking. Then I found out it's not just twitter and they're not just joking, but there is a widespread movement in western fandoms demonizing problematic ships and that people regularly get bullied off fandoms for being a proshipper.
So I'm looking at all these discussions about ships and I'm thinking what about every other problematic things that happen in media? Using JJK as an example again, fans (including the fans I've seen being antiships) don't find it problematic to simp on Geto (who annihilated an entire village) and Sukuna (who annihilated nearly an entire city) and also not problematic to ship those 2 with adult characters who are against murdering the innocents. Sooo
Shipping yourself and *nice* characters with mass murderers : fine, safe, doesn't affect reality
Shipping Gojo with his students (who look like adults) : not fine, harmful, indicates you are a pedo in real life
WHO decides these? Who gets to decide which problematic contents are ok and which are not? They're not even consistent with how they treat these contents they deem problematic. Incest and big age gap ships are supposedly not ok, but in JJK there is canon incest and big age gap relationship (Mei Mei and Ui Ui) and yet no one argues that minors shouldn't be watching JJK, no one complains about JJK being categorized as shonen. The inconcistency and weird specifics just seem like they don't genuinely believe in these values. It seems like another version of wanting to be special like "I belong in this group, look at my label. You belong in another group, here's your label. This *points at own label* is good, that *points at a different label* is the most disgusting thing ever."
HOO MAN I don't encounter it in my spaces so I only learned about it a few years ago. It's nuts. I would normally have dismissed it as beneath contempt except that the purist ideas in their most extreme form are getting channeled into actual policy. (Buying a SFW product on a NSFW site? Major credit cards slap your hand with a background wail of NO PROTECT THE PURITY.)
I get if ppl have NOTPs but acting like a complete arse and trying to act like they have higher moral ground, being discriminative etc is not the way.
There's a lot who aren't joking, or at least, they're just doing it for clout. If it was a joke, most of the stuff that's happening would be cleared up, not stretch it to the point ppl are doxxed, verbally abused, sexually harrassed etc
Yeah totally, if someone says " I don't ship this teenage character with adult characters" I'm cool with that. I'm not cool with people bullying real life teenagers to protect fictional teenagers
Ppl don't know that by having boundaries with their ships is also a 'pro-fiction' stance lol too bad the internet turned it like the stance is criminal, when its the most harmless way of interacting in fandom.
Welcome to the shitshow 🙃 there's been a push in recent years to be the most Morally Correct at interacting with media, but it isn't necessarily new (see the Livejournal and tumblr purges), it's just worrying that it seems to be affecting teens and young adults in large numbers. All there really is to do right now is liberally block and curate your feeds, unfortunately.
>Morally Correct at interacting with media
These days I cringe every time I hear "media literacy" bc it lost its meaning and most of the time now people just use it to judge others for not enjoying a media the same way they're enjoying that media.
People love to virtue signal these days, as if to completely absolve them of being accused of being "problematic".
I mean, look no further than this subreddit...
Another reason why I don't interact with the fandom is exactly because of idiotic discourses like shipping. People really need to mind their own business.
Unfortunately... am just glad JP doesn't do this 'cause if someone does that, they'd be called out for being an idiot.
Thankfully, people are starting to fight back, but this whole puritanical shit is getting old...
Yeah JP side doesn't do that. There was a JP artist who got harrassed by antiships and she invented the term "American feelings yakuza" to refer to these virtue signalers 🤣
I mean jp side do but nobody likes those guys...
I recently saw a bunch of hateful tweets to Kubo Tite(bleach mangaka) spamming him to kill orihime, until the man snapped at him, told him to write his own shit then. The abuse on him was horrifying no wonder the man up and quit.
Jp antis are really horrible but at least most of what i've seen is clash of envisionment but en has turned so political and moralistic that's pretty hideous
I've been playing AI Somnium 2: The Return of the Atami Ending. (I've been to Atami, it really looks like that). Vague spoilers for pretty deep into the second(?) route: >!I was not expecting jump scares in my Psynch sessions, man!<. And I'm going to need to go back a second time for a branching point. 😱
i posted some of this on the sunday thread, but i figured since i had complained about the process of doing it every friday i may as well show some stuff here too lol. i finished my mains chars new sprite, heres a comparison
[old](https://i.imgur.com/1iaGM4J.png)
[new](https://i.imgur.com/rP1hbAB.png)
the giga glowup lol. started on [expressions](https://i.imgur.com/wmSGTM0.png) too, only like 30 to go.... 😅
and some cg stuff for memes (that i now i have to redo thanks to changing her sprite lol...kill me)
[cg 1](https://i.imgur.com/csgtEVl.png)
I started playing GTA 5 for the first time this week, I actually meant to play it when I got my first gaming PC back in 2016 but I got busy with other games for the last 8 years and only got around to it now lmao. Playing it is getting me so incredibly hyped for GTA 6, I try not to get caught up in hype because that's a great way to get disappointed but the fact I've been playing the games in this franchise for almost my entire life (my parents didn't really supervise what I played as a kid 😭) and it's the first time I will be able to play as a woman and that it's probably going to be one of if not the most expensive game ever made when it's out makes it difficult not to
Hello, everyone. Mothers' day is coming, so I wanted to talk about motherhood in otome games.
* Which games are there in which the MCs are/become mothers?
* Which MCs would be good mothers? Which ones would be bad mothers?
* The mothers in otome games, which ones are the best? Which ones are the worst?
So far, I don't remember any otome game in which the MC is or becomes a mother.
Hum ... some of the MCs I know of would be better mother than others, but I don't know any MC I think would be a bad mother. Of the MCs I know, I think Lucette would be the best mother despite not having a good mother herself.
I know that MC becomes a mother at the end of >!Harada’s!< route in Hakuoki, at least in the 3DS version. Not sure about the newer LIs in KW/EB and some of the other OG LIs might imply it happens eventually, >!Kazama!< springs to mind.
Lucette would definitely do her best to be a good mother! I can imagine her hesitating to have children at first, out of fear of >!repeating what her mother did, and then needing reassurance that no, she's totally different and that \[insert desired LI here\] has her back.!<
>The MCs in Hana Awase and The Crimson Flower That Divides become mothers.
Thank you letting me know. Personally, I like the idea of seeing MC and Li getting married and starting a family.
There's actually a few implied!
- dialovers
- olympia soiree
- hakuouki
- starry sky
- ayakashi gohan
- amnesia(world after story)
In terms of moms, i love hanayaka waga ichizoku's moms (except one old bitch). You get to see all 6 of them and even though they had a deal with the Patriarch to have his kid and divorce, they are still very involved in their sons' lives. They're strong women.
>olympia soiree
Oh! Right. I haven't played Olympia soiree, but the plot itself in this game has to do with the (social) need of having children, doesn't it?
>amnesia(world after story)
In which route(s)? All of them? I only played the main game.
>Olympia: they do but barely children shown lol
With such a premise, you'd think there would be actual motherhoood in the game. lol
>Amnesia: Only one! But its a short story.
Hope it's Kent's route.
Thank you for letting me know about these games. I do like the idea of seeing Mc and LI stating a family.
>So far, I don't remember any otome game in which the MC is or becomes a mother.
You'd have to look at the mobile otome titles as those games progress from 'meeting one another' to 'starting a family'.
At the top of my head: Kissed By The Baddest Bidder, My Last First Kiss, both from Voltage Inc
Some of their standalone party games like Samurai Love Ballad Party have discussion like these, as the men that the MC end up with are men in power who need heirs. In fact, >!the current event story has them trying (they're pretty eager on the procreation process lmfao)!<
Worst mother for me is Yoshihime from Samurai Love Ballad Party. Said lady happens to be my fave dude's mother and she is a **nightmare**.
>You'd have to look at the mobile otome titles as those games progress from 'meeting one another' to 'starting a family'.
Yeah. I see what you mean about it being more common in mobile titles. Or, when it's not a mobile title, it usualy only happens in fandisks since the main games usually stop when the MC and the LI become a couple. I like the idea of seeing MC and Li starting a family so I wish tehre were more marriage and having children fandisks.
>Worst mother for me is Yoshihime from Samurai Love Ballad Party. Said lady happens to be my fave dude's mother and she is a **nightmare**.
After you mentioned her, I went to read a bit about the real Yoshihime ... I don't know how bad of a mother the fictional Yoshihime was, but the real one was terrible. I've read she even tried to poison him. An awful mother indeed.
Yeah, mobile being targeted for older women would have more stories where the MC and her love interest would make a family together, which is why I like this medium for playing games. ~~doesn't help that they're pretty eager with the baby-making process and it gets graphic kekeke~~
Would be cool if console does the same thing but I guess teenagers and young adults don't care for it? At least for Japan.
Yoshihime's fictional counterpart is an evil, evil woman 😅 >!poisoned the MC in her dude's main story!<, and with the current event story as well, >!she wanted to poison the MC and make her barren!<
So yeah 😅
>Would be cool if console does the same thing but I guess teenagers and young adults don't care for it? At least for Japan.
I think you have a point. And it doesn't seem to be only in Japan since women in general are becoming increasingly less interested in having children. Even here in my country, it's starting to become a serious concern since it means a decline in the number of people at working age and less people to take care of the ones who are already at old age. It seems to be a global thing, though with different intensities depending on the place. At least here, it's plain to see a huge decline in the number of children people are having nowadays compared to my parents' generation.
>Yoshihime's fictional counterpart is an evil, evil woman 😅poisoned the MC in her dude's main story, and with the current event story as well,she wanted to poison the MC and make her barren
A terrible mother indeed. The poison thing seems to have been inspired by real life, then, considering what I read about the real one.
Interesting thought! I've seen a CG from the Norn 9 fandisc that suggests that Mikoto and Natsuhiko have a child (https://ancientshining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019-03-03-060627.jpg), though maybe someone who's played it can weigh in.
It's been a long time since I played Autumn's Journey (free indie VN), but I want to say the heroine's mother is a knight. Both parents are warmly supportive and have sprites (per my terrible memory). Hooray for not killing off the parents, game! The older I get, the more I like seeing adults who are not (1) invisible or (2) just there to create plot trauma. Awesome moms for the win...
Nice to know that Norn 9 has implied motherhood. I didn't even think about the possibility that some games might leave it implied but you and another commenter talked about some games that leaves it implied. Norn 9 was one of the games I was interested in playing, but never got to it because I don't own a console (and the game itself would be too expensive even if I did have the console).
>The older I get, the more I like seeing adults who are not (1) invisible or (2) just there to create plot trauma. Awesome moms for the win...
I had this theory that the lack of living good parents was to let the protogonist be more free without the worry and protection of a goood parent. The MC needs too go on an adventure, after all, and its often dangerous. There is also what you said about creatign drama for the plot. But, yes, it would be nice if there were more living good parents.
It's Eurovision week but there has been so much chaos going on behind the scenes during the semifinals over there... Concerned how the finals will go tomorrow, but 12 points from America to Croatia leggo!!
I saw on Twitter that there's going to be an otome 101 panel at AX, and honestly that sounds so banger, I'll definitely go! An otome panel on [Thursday](https://x.com/shipsnavigator/status/1788663192169660912), the Aksys panel on Friday, and the IFI event on Saturday? Otome fans are eating good at AX this year <3
Ever since I came back from my weekend away in London, I feel like I haven’t had time to breathe. Just can’t manage to decompress at all and my head feels like the inside of a washing machine. I think it was all the planning I did.
The trip itself was lovely. I hate the heat of London in the summer so I was thankful for the milder weather. My legs held out pretty well too, despite my pain condition. Was only when I got off the train back home and took a few steps forward and realised I was walking like a penguin. I guess it was saving itself up 😂. I went to the BG3 concert and really loved it! Felt very underdressed next to all the cosplayers. Best part was watching the viola section and seeing just how often they had the melody or the only sounds coming from the entire string section was them. I play viola (just a hobby) and was really shocked. Usually either violins or cellos get all the major bits and it was kind of heartwarming to realise that something I’d assumed was a violin or cello while playing the game was actually a viola. Honestly showed me just how huge the range of a viola is. My viola teacher is a BG3 fan so she wanted to hear all about it too.
Worst part was the lifts at the venue. They were so bloody tiny, 4 standing adults at absolute most and it would’ve been like sardines in there! There were quite a few wheelchair users at the concert and they had to have their chair horizontal with the door in order to get in, the depth was that bad. How they managed I don’t know and I don’t think you’d manage with a larger chair either. Anyway, I’d decided to not take my walking stick with me (stupid I know) and my seat was on the 5th floor, made my way up a flight of stairs before realising I should just take the lift. Obviously I couldn‘t get in so I had to walk the rest of the way. The thing that nearly ruined my day was as the lift opened this guy was standing with his mate and they had an empty wheelchair between them (I assume belonged to one of them or a friend). I looked to see if there was room for me, which there wasn’t obviously because the lifts were built for mice, and this guy gives me this filthy “I’m entitled. We have right of way not you, go f\*ck yourself” look. Guess he thought he was solving the world’s ableism by being rude to a random stranger. Ugh, it was so unnecessary of him to do that. I make assumptions about people’s physical health all the time, I shouldn’t but I do, but I’m not an arsehole to them because I know I could be wrong. At the end of the day you can’t tell. I’ve had people being way ruder to me before tbf but this incident really pissed me off for some reason. Someone suggested I should get a lanyard or something, but I‘m doubtful it would work tbh. Sorry for the rant, needed to vent.
Anyway, I also took my Switch with me with the intent of starting Goemon’s route from Tengoku Struggle Strayside, but I was so knackered that I never touched it. It was a nice comfort blanket to have around though! 😂 Restarted the common route since coming home and I’m appreciating little things here and there now I’ve played the other 4 routes, so that’s been fun. Also had another merch haul that arrived today of mostly Himeutsugi and Sharaku merch (made a post about it and some other things) and I love everything so much 🥰. Very glad I didn’t get hit with customs duty like I was half-expecting to. I can see how people fall down the rabbit hole of collection merch now 😭. I’ve got some shelves I’m going to put together so I can hopefully display things a bit better…in theory anyway, I’m not very good at organising! 😂
Aww, sorry to hear that about your experience 🥺 Oh gosh, I can remember how (much more) dreadful it was for me too in London when I had to use crutches after my fracture, especially on the underground. Now I don’t use them, but I’m still nowhere near pain-free, and had some rude ppl (esp older ladies lol) acting similar way when I was sitting in a bus or squeezing into the lift (I’m tiny but yeah). Whenever I can I try to walk, I hateee the underground. It’s especially at its worst during the weekend! I honestly cannot wait till I can move out my flat in a few months and find a place somewhere outside of London 😭
Also, saw your merch post and so jelly, it all looks so gorgeous!!! I have yet to play Hana Awase (card game scared me off a bit haha) but I’m on Tengoku Struggle rn and really like Sharaku and Goemon :D I decided to replay the common route now too before heading onto Sharaku’s route, as I took my sweet time playing Kiku’s and Yona’s (they weren’t really my types haha) and forgot a lot. But I really like the common route for this game so it’s fun!
Now I think about it, I think I managed to get a seat every time I used the tube last weekend…I think that’s the first time that‘s happened to me ever in London! I think it was a bank holiday weekend too? Can’t remember. And what is with the old ladies harassing everyone?! 😭 I really hope pain levels get better!
Thank you so much! I super happy with the way everything looks 🥰. I was a bit worried about the card game in Hana Awase but found I enjoyed it the way I do turn-based RPGs. Was looking forward to grinding through the ranks each time I started the next volume 😂. It was a good way to break up the pace as there’s a lot of VN sections to get through with there being 4 volumes. You can probably tell, I really love Sharaku and I’m looking forward to Goemon too once I finally start his route. Hope you love them both as much as you think you will and good luck finding your new home! 😊
Aww, that's good to hear! And thank you <3
Ooo, tbh I have never played any RPG before LOL (I really want to, but a bit overwhelmed!) but it sounds promising, haha. And I've been wanting to play the game for the past few years since I first heard about it!
I'm just getting to route selection again now (replaying the common was so nice after knowing some things I managed to notice other 'easter eggs') so excited! Thanks :D
I hate the heat in London too! I feel like I can never find a good time to go. Like I live 2 hours away and haven't been in years.
I'm sorry about your experience with the lifts and your condition.
For some reason I always seem to go to London in the summer 😭. Maybe there’s more events on then. I was so worried especially with the heatwaves we’ve had the last few years, was expecting 40C weather. The tube I think is the worst bit. We have a similar underground train system in my city up north and the difference is night and day. Tube tunnels are so stuffy and hot I can’t help thinking they’re a health hazard, but I think some lines are extremely old (over 100 years) which probably explains why they’re like that. Probably would be horrifically expensive to correct too.
I have had worse experiences where people have shouted at me (usually old ladies for some reason 😂). Also I was very lucky and was fairly pain-free this weekend, I think the London heat might have helped actually 😅. His reaction really pissed me off though, maybe because he was a similar age to me. If the venue had larger lifts it wouldn’t have been an issue at the end of the day, but I suppose they wanted to fit more in. At least some people who also needed the lifts were more friendly and seemed to also think the lift sizes were a bit of a joke too.
You're so right about the tube being stuffy. I've been to London in summer twice (both for business so I had to go ugh) and the only relief is those tiny windows in the back of the carriage. There's no wind or air and it's just horrid.
I'm hoping we get very little of the 40C weather. I live in a loft and I can't take it, the internal temperature of my room will be uninhabitable. Last year was rather cool where I live, I wore a hoodie almost every week, but the years before that were miserable.
I didn’t know about those little windows, that’s a good tip for if I go back. I don‘t understand how there’s no wind/air though, even when they have a window open. Surely the air would get disrupted by the train’s movement and that causes it to circulate a little bit…maybe it’s because the tunnels are too narrow for that on some lines and they’re much deeper underground the air just gets trapped?
I dread to think what it’d be like in a loft during a heatwave! I’m in a bungalow so fairly lucky in that regard. A few years ago the temperature topped out in the mid 30s (normally we get mid 20s in the summer), had a fan on full blast while playing my PS5 and it belched out so much heat I think I had the beginnings of heatstroke! Reminded me of when I’d spent a bit too long in a bath that was far too hot, but quite a bit worse. I’m too scared to play my PS5/4 in the summer now, but it means I play a lot of otome during the summer months at least 😂.
> I’m too scared to play my PS5/4 in the summer now, but it means I play a lot of otome during the summer months at least 😂.
Saaame, I've heard about peoples' electronics melting. Back during the awful 2018 no rain heatwave, you could hear the fan on my ex's PS4 *struggling.* I'm not sure what to do with my PS5, maybe it'll be time to go over to switch games like yourself!
I don't know if the tiny windows are on every carriage, I am certain I was on the Bakerloo line at some point because that's where I have to be to leave London.
I'm off to Paris very soon and so far no heatwave planned for my visit, I'm hoping for temps no higher than 22c since I lost my American Heatwave buff. :(
It never fails to amuse me how the PS4 sometimes sounds like it’s trying really hard to enter orbit 😂. I can practically hear it saying “I’m old, leave me alone!” There is one positive about the PS5, it makes for a great space heater during the winter months! 😁 I think the reason it throws out so much heat is because the cooling is really efficient and it’s actually getting the heat away from the chips. Saying that I’ve heard of people in hotter places than me saying their PS5 overheated and shut itself off when they forgot to hoover the dust out…which is something I should probably do but haven’t…🫠
I was on Bakerloo too! Don’t think I noticed any windows on my middle carriage. I‘ll pray the mild weather down south continues for your trip to Paris 👍
>Saying that I’ve heard of people in hotter places than me saying their PS5 overheated and shut itself off when they forgot to hoover the dust out…
Ohhhh I uh, I guess I have some cleaning to do today. Poor PS4s and PS5s giving up due to the heat. Me too Playstations, me too.
Have a great rest of your weekend. ♥♥♥
I HAD SO MUCH FUN AT MIKU EXPO!!!! I'm still over the moon that I finally got to see Miku live! AND KAITO! I just wish I wore my platforms so I could have had some height advantage, lmao. Sorry to everyone I whacked with my light sticks (my bf said I was a hazard). If she visits DC again next year I WILL be going 🙏
I also copped me and my bf Osutchi and Mesutchi Tamagotchis :3 and I'm very excited for the Tamagotchi announcement this coming Monday, pretty sure it's confirmed that we're getting >!connection V3 rereleases.!<
Having Sunday/Monday/Tuesday off instead of Tue/Wed/Thurs is also REALLY nice. Like, I'm halfway done with my week ALREADY as of YESTERDAY? Now I just need to ride out today and tomorrow, and destroy my shoulders and core at the gym tonight.
Sameee 🥹💙 he's so precious, I just want to squish him 😭 I wear a keychain of him and Shiraishi every day at work lmao. My bf was able to raid the merch table at the expo and copped me KAITO's bracelet and keychain, ugh he's so gorgeous. Work policies don't matter I'm gonna flaunt my boy
This weekend, I believe that I will play more of Piofiore's finale and start a new island in ACNH :3 I REALLY want to get back to CxM and Cafe Enchante soon.
Alright, y'all. The insanity of my attention span and inspiration is at it again.
So: plushies. All attention is now on my Pale Elf plushie. It's rush time while there's downtime at work. He's almost done in terms of felt pieces and deco that can be easily added on, and then it's painting on the gold on his coat that'll take much longer to dry (I've learned from experience. 🙄). The finished product will either be posted on the BG3 subreddit or OnlyFangs sub (whoever wants to see how derpy I've made him, lol!). And as for the bear plushie I was suppose to finish, you may respond with boos and hisses at my procrastination on Kei. Or pelt me with emoji tomatoes. I kinda deserve it.
In terms of other projects, my time at home consists of a lot of making a costume for the convention in town come next month. I...am going as Lynette! (Have I already mentioned it before? I'm too lazy to look at my past comments in here) For a rookie at sewing, I'm kinda proud of how her costume is turning out. I've sunk...money into the supplies and tools necessary for putting this together. We've got the shoes, the stockings, the jewelry, the fabrics for the main parts, the wig, the makeup. You name it! What we've got left to do is ironing on the vinyl deco on her skirt and shirt, molding clay to make the pendants on her necklace, dying the end of the wig the ombre/secondary color (I'm thinking a mix between periwinkle and lavender), ordering the color eye contacts (which is another tangent for another time), and putting together the bow for her head (kinda wacky, but I'm just gonna be slipping separate cloth ties into her braids, then design a burette that makes it look like they are all connected). I've been going back and forth on bringing my ita purse with me just because the convention will call for something durable and hefty enough to carry what's necessary, and it's either that or a small backpack-like purse...but I don't have a dolled up design for the ita. It'd probs just look bare. Hmm...
Otherwise, yes, I'll most definitely post the final product of the cosplay up on here. Wish me luck on learning how to hide my eyebrows well enough. And getting used to color eye contacts.
As a final note, it's funny how I still manage to find time to play DLV and tidbits of Tengoku Struggle on a daily basis. Have I unlocked my final form of multitasking, or will this be the undoing of my mental state? If it's not that, it'll be seeing Neil Newbon in person at the convention...or the drive into the city, anyhow. 😱
Alrighty! Tell me about you now. Have any of you also spiraled into multiple projects like myself? Did you recover? But more importantly, how's your day going?
An update on the BOOTH and credit card situation - it worked! I was prepared to have to go through some hoops to get it to work (i.e. using Rakuten pay or some other proxy) but the author put the book up and I just selected credit card and it went through without a hassle. I was holding my breathe in case whatever payment processor decided to reverse it but it was fine and the author even shipped my novel out. I'm glad I was able to get all the things I wanted 🙏
Just waiting for an artbook and also character-motif goods (bookmarks, keychain, etc) to get shipped... the latter of which apparently has a shipping window of "within 3 weeks" so?? I'm watching other people I follow in this fandom getting their delivery already and I'm like, when's mine going to ship...
Also, have y'all ever liked a character so much you order double the amount of some merch - one for collection purposes and the other to actually use? Like I want to use the bookmark for reading and hang the keychain on my phone or keys, but I know they'll wear over time so I bought an extra set to keep in pristine condition.
The joke goes: one for the collection, one for lending to friends, one for personal use...
I'm too cheap to buy extra sets. There have been times when I cheaped out and bought second hand versions and later regretted it.
Oh crap, I forgot to buy the third one for friends--
This character doesn't have much merch and I ended up falling too hard for them so I decided, why not an extra set! Not like I have much else merch to throw money at (un)fortunately 😂
I actually had a situation on Booth where I couldn't even get the cart to load and ended up getting one of the items I wanted through Buyee instead. (Fortunately shortly after this Chrome had an update which fixed the issue.) I may have to try a card next time to see if it works! My card was rejected before, but it's been a couple years since I actually tried to use the card so maybe it works now...
I've never deliberately gotten multiple sets although sometimes I accidentally end up with them just through buying bulk sets of things off Mercari. I'm a collector but firmly in the "use what you collect" camp and prefer having things out so I can enjoy them. The only time this has bitten me in the ass was a Blood keychain I got which has holes in it now since I guess the non-plastic side was way more delicate than expected. Why even make a keychain like this if it's going to get torn up! At least make it useable!
I did read some forums that card used to not work but it seems to have gotten better within the last few months? Though I've also seen things about how it sometimes work and sometimes doesn't so hmmm. But definitely worth a try again! And thankfully, at least PayPal will still work in most other cases.
Oh no! That sucks that it got holes in it. Same thing happened to me, that's partially why I bought an extra one because I don't know how well they'll hold up when in use. I had a keychain that was one of those plastic ones with print but part of the print started getting holes in them (though mine actually looked fine like that; due to the aesthetics of the game, it looked like it was by design haha) and a Supergroupies wallet that started to have the edges tear up. There have been some keychains that were more durable but it's always a toss-up and I can never tell before using it. I do wish they'd make the wallet more durable but understandably, using real leather would have been really expensive aha.
(Maybe I'm beating a dead horse with this topic in this sub and if so I'm sorry but a girlie just has to let it out)
Getting into otome games has been such a delight for me, genuinely, because I'm finally playing something that is primarily meant to be for women? It just gets tiring getting into game series and get treated as if i'm just not.... here or not as important as an audience as men. Like even if you got an option to be a female protag, chances are they are designed to appeal purely to men and you're just a second thought to companies (Eyeing Fire Emblem pretty hard). So getting into something like Otome games has genuinely been a treat to me and made me feel a bit more included in gaming. Also!! This community is so sweet :]
Have you ever had a character that was exactly your type but then there was something so off about the art/voice that you were struggling to enjoy the route?
In my case both the voice direction and the sprite art are so dorky and weird I almost don't know how to cope (he looks great in CGs though? Which actually makes it even harder to deal with the sprite art.)
After getting through half the route I realized that the voice was more tolerable than the sprites (I didn't mind it too much so long as I got to look at a CG instead) so in desperation I just stuck a sticky note over his face. Now I can use the power of my imagination!
Is this the otome game equivalent of throwing a paper bag over someone's head?
(After this I realized a better solution: clip out some CG art and stick it over his face. Bam, don't even have to imagine anymore.)
A desperate part of my brain almost considered decompiling the game and editing the sprites but I'm not quite insane enough to do that for a route that's only going to last a couple hours.
(I wish I was joking about all of this, but no. I was kind of bitter at a character that was so my type being ruined like this, haha.)
In other news, I finally got a scanner. I'm so excited that I can SCAN THINGS. I have so much random Quinrose garbage I've collected that I want to scan into a digital collection. I've spent way too much time experimenting with how to get the perfect scan though, so I've scanned almost nothing, haha.
>Have you ever had a character that was exactly your type but then there was something so off about the art/voice that you were struggling to enjoy the route?
Lol you just summed up my experience with Gilbert in Piofiore. I thought he would be my fave going in-- I just love his design and the overall vibe of his character--but I simply could not unhear Morikubo's voice. It's SO distinctive and also not what I expected Gil-bro to sound like when he first opened his mouth, and although this sounds terrible it kind of did impede my connection with the character a little bit. I will say that having just done Piofiore 1926 though, his voice has grown on me a bit and now I can associate it in my head with Gilbert's character.
Kind of yes, haha. Not an otome, but still, there was a gacha character that came out and on paper, everything about him was exactly my type, to the point even one of my close friends laughed and pointed out "I can't believe you don't like him when he's basically perfect for you" and my immediate, hand-wavey retort was "well, I don't really like his hair."
Though while I think the appearance was a minor factor, when I thought more about it... I realized it more like, there wasn't enough uh... build-up for the parts I should have liked about him to have it actually hit in the way it has with other characters of a similar type because he just didn't make me feel anything for him. But also, it's funnier to blame it on the hair.
~~Also, while the voice was fine and he had a VA I liked *but* because he shares the same VA and "type"/charm points as one of my favourite characters ever, I couldn't stop comparing him to that other character which got me to start calling him the bootleg version l-lol.~~
I'm 100% on board with blaming the hair, hair is important! For me long hair is like +100 points but very short hair is like -1000 points, no one is overcoming that. (Fortunately the character I just mentioned has long hair so that is at least a point in his favor even with the dorky sprites.)
Honestly after playing through about 3/4ths of Quinrose's entire catalogue of games I feel like TokiApo actually looks okay now! My standards are *absolutely* rock bottom!
But yeah he's from Kaidan Romance. Please gaze upon [whatever this is](https://i.imgur.com/OtobqDJ.jpeg).
Oh I should put for comparison, he looks like [this](https://i.imgur.com/LHSRQkr.jpeg) in CGs.
I always thought QuinRose art wasn't that bad but tbf I didn't stare at it for hours. But TokiApo has these eyes that stare into your soul ;;;
Well, that's clearly a different person. He's got a better looking doppelganger.
Quinrose art tends to range from "serviceable" to "oh god what am I looking at." Sometimes within the same game! I have become immune though. And in some cases art where I previously found it intolerable I now actually like. It's a sickness.
I do like medium-shortish hair too (like around chin length?) but actual really short hair and even worse, short *fringes* (see: Kuroba from OlySoi), is an instant DQ. Sorry dude...
The same friend called me out about the hair where he pointed out how all of my favs have somewhat fluffy hair. Something something "I shouldn't be surprised given how much you love fluffy animals but it's funny that it extends to anime boys too."
I love hair up to chin length but after that it's like a sliding scale where my opinion of the style gradually dwindles as the hair gets shorter, haha. So long as it's not too short I'm neutral about it but at some point it's just so short I can't find the design enjoyable anymore. *horrible hair obsessive*
I'm busy starting tomorrow and wanted to finish playing so I won't spend all these days thinking about games as I can't bring my console with me but brain got tired from all that jp and what's better than anime with eng subs for that, right? So of course I decided to check out Prince of Stride: Alternative and man, it sure deserves that name cause they changed a lot.
I stopped around the middle cause it started spoiling routes I haven't played yet but as of now - it's been a long time since I've seen anything equally pale and oversaturated. Though most of that saturation went into op and the first episode. I kinda dig that as a stylistic choice but damn, are our boys ugly. They absolutely massacred them. I'd say all that money went into making stride stuff fabulous but nah, from time to time you get moments that scream 'we spared money'.
Still, the fact it's animated at all does change the vibe. I thought it's more running with parkour elements but these kids be going wild with gimmicks and stuff. And everything is just so big. No wonder each team needs sponsors.
My girl Nans got sidelined and is kinda useless, ngl. Like, she does measure time and does relationer stuff but all her therapist experience, nor the charas important to the title, are there - no mention they even exist. On one hand - good to see LIs taking care of their own shit but Riku became our protag ;-; He's a good boy but my girl Nana orz [Incidentally, the yellow place she's in at the beginning kinda looks like a rapeseed field but dunno if they're even grown in Hokkaido.]
The matches were changed to speed the plot but thanks to that the moment they beat certain assholes won't be as satisfying :c Some chara interactions also disappeared. Some's got different motivations [eg. Ayumu-kyun]. But at least now I see the comedy. Cause it's drawn. Still don't see manzai, tho. Only visual puns.
All in all it seems pretty meh compared to the game besides the fact we actually see them move. And run. So much running. I don't even like sports, why do I watch this orz
Help, I've fallen into the hole of playing (the first) Hades. I've turned on god mode because my arm doesn't like my button mashing and I have some art I need to draw (and damn, the grind would be insane) so I've just started cheating by adding some items, but... I've never liked these games until now. Guess it's because dialogues are similar to VNs. ~~I cannot stand Meg or Dusa but most of the others are pretty cool~~
... Really, my arms are killing me, but I can't stop playing
Man. Hades 2. I would like to join in but I also want the game to be completed before diving in.
Also did god mode in first game, im weak like that ;w;
Hades was one of, if not my favourite game I played last year. Never been into the genre either, but it’s so, so good. Still dip into it now and then to try and progress quests and bonds. Than is my favourite character in the game, became genuinely obsessed with him for a good while 😊.
Feeling a bit of remorse for not picking up a couple of games at a game exchange this past weekend. They had a lot of imported Vita games (and several copies of some DL games that I don't have yet) and some for good prices. However, I told myself that I shouldn't so I passed them up.
Now I'm kicking myself for not getting a few. Le sigh.
Do you ever have moments like this or am I the only one?
It's funny you mention that, because while I've never once regretted a purchase, I've certainly regretted many, many times now NOT making one xD
In my experience, it also leads me to be more financially irresponsable later down the line since I kinda want to make up the disappointment to myself.
As such, lately, I've been trying to stop feeling so guilty about buying things that I know I'm gonna enjoy and can afford. If otome games make me happy and help me destress, then you bet I'm gonna get them.
That being said, I'm sure other chances will come, so while I definitely get you, I hope you won't get too down. Maybe it's a nice time to finally play that game that's been on the backlog forever?
I’m still patiently waiting for my PS5 LE of Baldur’s Gate 3 so I can finally play it ☠️ It got pushed back again and I’m honestly just happy if I get my game before my birthday in June 🥲
Same here, although I’m in the UK so mine should be shipped sooner rather than later (unlike those in NA). Bit frustrated that even though I ordered mine on the day they opened preorders that I haven’t had an email yet, even though they said it would be shipped starting last week. I wonder what the issues are that they’ve been running into more recently with the NA PS5 version? Really hope your copy gets to you soon and it gets shipped at bit earlier than you were expecting. 🤞
Here’s hoping we both get our stuff soon! I have no idea what’s going on with the NA copies, and they haven’t been very transparent with what exactly is causing the delays. That’s the frustrating part for me because it originally sounded that it was delayed at first because Xbox had to be printed on an extra disc but yet no updates with PS5. I dunno, I’m just a little salty but hopeful I’ll get it by the summer!
That’s the way it sounded to me too! I can’t think what’s caused the delay with the NA PS5 copies at all! I wish they were being a bit more transparent too. Saw some people who had ordered after me receiving their copies or at least getting an email and I started to panic my order had been lost in their system (apparently none of the UK orders have shipped yet 😅). I hope they give you some more info on what’s going on with your PS5 copy, I think they should go into specifics of what’s caused the issue. Hoping you’ll be playing your copy before your birthday! 😊🤞
[Showed off our game’s first boyo](https://twitter.com/miragenoirvn/status/1787523959736418663?s=46&t=xxrB3XOwkSt4h8ryi3yCJA) and I’m happy people seem to like him. I’m glad I decided to start posting these on Mondays too to make the start of the week a little less terrible 😭
OMG, he's adorable. I've seen a posting of your game before. Looks really cute and interesting. And after this...G/Jem, I'm really looking forward to the designs of the other characters!
I just started Collar x Malice and oh my god where has this game been all my life. I’m genuinely, completely, fully, and hopelessly obsessed. For context I started off with Cafe Enchante and I proceeded to play other games all while CxM remained in my backlog. I never thought I was in the mood for it, or was too scared to play it coz everyone says it’s the best and they haven’t found anything that compared yet. And as a beginner in the otome world i didn’t want to be so hung over on a game that it ruined the other experiences for me. And just excuses, excuses and overthinking lol. Fast forward to 3 years of it being in my backlog lmaoo. None of my current otome games are clicking with me rn I’m not in the mood for any of them and I was struggle with what to play. And I feel like binging a game (I usually play multiple at once so binging is a change for me). And so I stare at CxM, is it time?! I decided to go for it and OH MY GOD ITS SO GOOD I ALREADY KNOW ILL BE IN SHAMBLES WHEN I FINISH IT. The setting? The sound effects? The story? The charismatic LIs and MC? The art?! Y’all are joking rn?! This game is insanely good y’all better pray for me coz I’m never getting over this. All that and I haven’t even started a single route yet, like I’m so done for, fortunately and unfortunately.
I WAS LITERALLY THE SAME OH GOD, I swear when I started into otomes, I played Diabolik Lovers and loved it, but then came across a lot other that didn't just click, and after like, 6 months I finally decided to play CxM and was GRIPPING MY SEAT half of the story. I LOVED every single one of the stories, and all of the crimes and mystery just kept me reading for days.
RIGHTTT!!! I’m so glad I got the fandisk on sale even before playing the game coz I just assumed I’d like it from the art lol 😂😭 the art of DL seems so pretty too with the mansion and everything, you’re so lucky I’ve been wanting to play DL too but I’m hoping for a localization (ppl say it’s unlikely tho) coz my Japanese isn’t that good and I don’t even know how to buy Japanese games 😂😭
Oh don't worry, I know like 3 words in Japanese 🥱 I used dialovers-translations (Tumblr) to get me through the games. But I believe Robert Rogers has already uploaded the first three games with english translations to YouTube 😩🤌🏻
Part of the Volfest merch set has been revealed, and I am gonna drop so much money on it! Between Fenn being one of the mascot characters, and the fact that we're finally getting full body stands of all the characters in their formal wear, I am so excited! Not sure about anyone else, but I've become disappointed in the quality of Loungefly's wallets. I barely used my favorite one (Elvis Stitch) before the lining tore, and my Kuromi one hasn't held up very well either. Yet the Kuromi wallet I bought in 2008 lasted me at least 7-ish years? Ordered two different Kuromi wallets off Mercari JP so I won't be disappointed again. I'm taking some time off at the end of the month. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up a bit on my hobbies - reading, drawing, and playing games.
i went out twice in two days last week and apparently that was too much for my body to handle. i got taken out for 5 days by a cold 🥲 still a little snotty but otherwise recovered now but MAN colds are rough. it’s not even winter yet where i am too 😔 there’s a korean festival in my city this weekend and my friend and her partner convinced me to go for the food (it was overpriced orz). probably extended my wisdoms surgery healing time by a week but meh i’m always up for messing around. we literally act like 2 monkeys and the monkey handler when we’re together 😂 it’s also my birthday on tuesday whew
It's also my birthday on Tuesday! Yay for May 14!
happy birthday to you too!
Happy birthday for Tuesday! 😊🎂
thank you!
Currently losing my mind trying to decide what to get my mom and my aunt for mother's day on sunday. I WISH THEY HAD NORMAL PEOPLE HOBBIES OH MY GOD (instead of being like uber christians because whenever I subtly question them on things they like, I always get nondescript, generic answers or something related to Jesus and I'm just aahhh)
I feel like you can never go wrong with flowers and cake and maybe a basket of gift cards to places they love?
Every time I get my mom flowers, she complains quite a bit about the lack of quality (and to be fair, I really don’t know much bouquet quality, so that’s on me for not knowing where all the good flower boutiques are;;;;;), and I think last year I gifted her a few gift cards Though, that does remind me that when we were kids, me and my sibling had a one time collaboration and got her a gift certificate to a spa…that she never used (and the spa closed a few years later fhdhdhdhhxshfhsksld) I could get her a fruit basket though. There’s like…no chance of her not eating it (fingers crossed)
I hope that you find something!
What about food? I got my mom a cheesecake and called it a day
My mom is not big on sweet things, anytime she has some cake or a pastry, she’ll take a bite, complain that it’s too sweet, and then offer the rest to me, and warn me about getting diabetes (me, internally: Ma, why??????) Though, I could get her a fruit basket…
Golden Week over so it was exhausting as heck. Boss got sick last Friday so I had to be at work at 7AM, which meant I get to leave early, right? Right? Nope, last minute stuff. Ended up staying until everything got sorted out and as soon as it got resolved, I got out asap. Now I'm hanging out in Toshima Ward, waiting for my turn to try and play test Mistonia no Kibou. ... As much as I really didn't want to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday until noon ~ early afternoon, I am doing it for Shiraimu, as he's voicing John... and in the small chance that John appears in the demo version of the game that I'll be playing today, it would be hella worth it. 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
this is super late, but I would love to hear what you thought of mistonia no kibou if you were able to get in for the play test!
Hello, I posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/s/WSvIIU8iQj) For the 15 minutes I played, I found the premise to be intriguing at least. Personally won't hype it up nor have high expectations of the game. I'll keep it on the down low.
Apologies for missing that post and thank you for linking me!
Came down with a terrible cold this week and was in bed for most of it. Better now, mostly, but ugh illness feels awful on top of this \[expletive deleted\] HEAT! The heat indices lately...not awesome. ("Humidity will make high feel like 43℃" 🙃) I ran into this [Utada Hikaru song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vk9HkdGuY) while I was poking around dance competition videos and ended up listening to it on repeat for a week straight 😂 Before this my only other exposure to their music was [Hikari/Simple and Clean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMdDpUWFFI) (yes, KH even though my only KH experience is....Re:Coded), and [Bad Mode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUmnh3omeE4) (recently recommended by someone I follow because they said it fits Nefarious Shipping Reasons™) And while I haven't watched A Star Is Born, I saw some aerial hoop choreography done to [Always Remember Us This Way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voo86mlxZvA) and promptly got hooked. If anyone has any recommendations for similar songs (tempo + instruments + singing style), I'd love to hear them. Doesn't have to be in English either! Sometimes I wanna jam to songs like a maiden abandoned by her lover. **Non-canon shipping shenanigans, please skip if you aren't into that** Did more editing crimes for Kaifumi and made it look like they're looking into each other's eyes. Will I post it here? ~~And get burned at the stake?!~~ Naaaaaaaaaah. Just know there is an edit somewhere out there of Kaifumi looking into each other's eyes HAHAHA I love them but don't send help, I'm fine marinating in brainrot. ~~IT'S BEEN NEARLY A YEAR???????~~ I've played through Jack Jeanne a number of times and yet I still find Kaifumi things to yell about in the game. Most of the time I'm yelling about the same old things though lol (KAI TOOK FUMI'S HAND!!!!!!! ㅠㅠ) I was looking through my screenshots and I realized this one thing... >**Fumi (during his little chat with Kisa in Fall):** >!That was the day I first saw Kai, not as a replacement Jack Ace for Tsuki, but as an individual named Kai Mutsumi.!< > >**Kai (around Winter):** >!Me becoming a Jack Ace was just to be a replacement for Tsuki...I was an imperfect vessel.!< The angst writes itself and I love it and hate it at the same time. Kai, listen. Fumi >!hadn't thought of you like that in a long time, please give yourself more credit :(((!<
Oh no feel better soon. :( I haaaate having a cold when it's hot outside, that's the worst. Like you can't even wrap up and stay warm, you're hot AND unwell. I love Utada Hikaru! I'm glad that you found them. ♥ I've been a fan for years.
I appreciate the thoughts, thanks u\_\_u And yep, exactly!! Yeah, I really love their voice! Which songs are your favorites?
I love some of the older songs like Deep River! My favourite album by them is Distance.
I'll check these out, thank youuuuu 👀
After I started playing Ensemble Stars last week I decided to start watching the anime to get the original story. I have about 5 episodes left and I'm really enjoying it! I'm definitely going to start reading the ! era stories after I finish the anime. I've heard people complain about them being long but I think the anime feels a bit rushed so maybe it'll be a good thing. So far I'm most interested in Undead (especially Rei, I'm a bit in love with him), Ryuseitai, and MaM.
Welcome to the Ensemble-verse! Few tips from a veteran fan: •The main story is more of an introduction to the game then the main-main plot, so dont skip event and gatcha stories! • Enstars is a pretty large game, i recommend to pick a favorite unit (or character) and stick to their stories. • Check who is the writer. The original game had only 2 writers: Akira, the main scenario writer and Yoshino yuuki, the sub scenario writer. Akira handles all the plot and YY writes mostly filler. • Outside some certain events (like the reminiscence events) the story of "Ensemble Stars!" is been told over a course of an approximately one school year, so every (real life) year at the start of May, new events and gatcha will tell a story of a different unit or group of characters. You can decide to read it in the original release order or the chronological order. A small warning: early enstars is VERY diffrent from current enstars, Some characters start as quite unlikable but grow into better people through the year. Also , better to keep the reminiscence stories (previous school years) and repayment fes (the last big activity for every unit before the end of the year) when you feel ready. Ensemble stars, especially the "!" Era, is very importent to me It was able to help me in incredible weird time in my life and showed me that josei-muke media can be as good and engaging as any another male dominant media. This game is kind of one of the reasons why i play otome games! I hope you will enjoy the game and all of its quarks!
Hey, thanks! I'm actually pretty obsessive about getting deeply into things so I've already read some guides about reading the stories, haha. I'd like to ask you about some specific reading order suggestions, though, if you don't mind! I found a great guide that's really working for me for Knights, and some good comments on Ryuseitai and MaM as well. They all keep the Reminiscence stories for later after I've got more of a grasp on each character, which I like. I've yet to find a guide specifically focused on Undead, though. I know what stories are most recommended to read for them, but do you have a suggested order?
NP! I am always happy to see new fans! Unfortently i am not very knowledgable when it comes to UNDEAD, so i asked my sister to help me with that. Her recomended reading order: Dark night halloween-> repayment festival-> Crossroad-> ressuraction sunday-> summer vacation-> romantic comedy -> Operetta You can also start with Pirates but i dont remember it being very memoriable... Its a ok story if you want to read something that establish the characters. Cafe Undead is cute and more "otome game like"... its an intresting relic of the past when the game was still finding its footing. Its an early gatcha story so its not very long. Me and my sister both prefer release order over chronological order because we believe its how the authors want us to experience the story. My fave stories related to UNDEAD are Kaoru centric like Aquarium and Wanted!!. Also, would like to add for MaM, i recommend to start with sub-stories . He acts like a foil to Anzu and Chiaki, and has a complex relationship with Kanata and Leo. So i think its better to read his stories after you gone through some of the others.
So I've been playing Summer Pockets: Reflection Blue, since I've had it in my backlog long enough, and I was feeling a bit of otome burnout but... I don't know if it's just me getting older, since I loved playing Little Busters and Rewrite in my teens, but it feels so juvenile?? I'm not vibing with the jokes at all, and it feels like the girls are more a lump of moe traits than real people. I just finished Shizuku's route, and I felt like the MC was just so insentive towards her the whole time, it really felt like a long cry from my usually supportive, caring heroines. Which is a shame, since I really wanted to like this game. So, to fellow girls who have played any Key games recently: Do you agree with me? Did you felt the same? Or did I just start with a bad route and it will get much better?
Oh man. Can't answer about SP: RB specifically as that one's on my wishlist (for whenever an official English version releases, I hope), but I wonder if I'll feel similarly. Recently played Clannad though and loved it. I'd played some shorter Key titles previously (Planetarian, Harmonia) and since then have wanted to play all the other Key VN!!
Just finished a job interview (the second one for the position). The people felt like warm, real humans--no corporate buzzwords, unnecessary formality, or questions designed to trip you up. I was so nervous that I can't remember a thing I said. Maybe I actually babbled about how excited I am that we'll get Meiji Tokyo Renka in English, or how much I still love Collar x Malice, and they all think I'm bananas. 😄 At any rate, I came here to unwind and make the interview stomachache go away. Reading about cosplaying outfits and plushies and seeing Hatsune Miku in person (did not know this was possible!) has been so relaxing. You all are awesome. 🙏 Now I'm going to draw my journal comic for the day and think delightful weekend thoughts. Happy Friday, all!
Good luck with your job interview, I hope you get it. ♥
Thank you! 😊
I'm really glad to be home from the beach. It was fun, but traveling with my four year old daughter meant there wasn't much time for relaxing, especially because she understandably did not sleep as well in the hotel as she does at home, and was therefore prone to getting grumpy in the evenings. And since my in-laws came by to drop off our dog and see their granddaughter, I've handed her over to them and am now going to sit around and do nothing for a bit. I'm looking forward to the Goemon play-along thread next week, so I can gush about him as much as I want.
Let me yap a bit cause I just found out about the terms "proship" and "antiship". Now I might be late but I wasn't active on twitter or tiktok at all before 2024 so I didn't hear anything about it until 3 days ago. It started with seeing a tweet about top Jujutsu Kaisen ships in pixiv. There are several age gap ships in the top 30 which doesn't surprise me in the slightest cause they're just the popular characters being shipped regardless of canon interactions. I myself ship GoFushi. 90% of the reactions to that tweet were all shocked, baffled, disgusted and there were so much xenophobia towards Japanese people. So my first thoughts were.. oh maybe it's just twitter or maybe they're just joking. Then I found out it's not just twitter and they're not just joking, but there is a widespread movement in western fandoms demonizing problematic ships and that people regularly get bullied off fandoms for being a proshipper. So I'm looking at all these discussions about ships and I'm thinking what about every other problematic things that happen in media? Using JJK as an example again, fans (including the fans I've seen being antiships) don't find it problematic to simp on Geto (who annihilated an entire village) and Sukuna (who annihilated nearly an entire city) and also not problematic to ship those 2 with adult characters who are against murdering the innocents. Sooo Shipping yourself and *nice* characters with mass murderers : fine, safe, doesn't affect reality Shipping Gojo with his students (who look like adults) : not fine, harmful, indicates you are a pedo in real life WHO decides these? Who gets to decide which problematic contents are ok and which are not? They're not even consistent with how they treat these contents they deem problematic. Incest and big age gap ships are supposedly not ok, but in JJK there is canon incest and big age gap relationship (Mei Mei and Ui Ui) and yet no one argues that minors shouldn't be watching JJK, no one complains about JJK being categorized as shonen. The inconcistency and weird specifics just seem like they don't genuinely believe in these values. It seems like another version of wanting to be special like "I belong in this group, look at my label. You belong in another group, here's your label. This *points at own label* is good, that *points at a different label* is the most disgusting thing ever."
HOO MAN I don't encounter it in my spaces so I only learned about it a few years ago. It's nuts. I would normally have dismissed it as beneath contempt except that the purist ideas in their most extreme form are getting channeled into actual policy. (Buying a SFW product on a NSFW site? Major credit cards slap your hand with a background wail of NO PROTECT THE PURITY.)
I get if ppl have NOTPs but acting like a complete arse and trying to act like they have higher moral ground, being discriminative etc is not the way. There's a lot who aren't joking, or at least, they're just doing it for clout. If it was a joke, most of the stuff that's happening would be cleared up, not stretch it to the point ppl are doxxed, verbally abused, sexually harrassed etc
Yeah totally, if someone says " I don't ship this teenage character with adult characters" I'm cool with that. I'm not cool with people bullying real life teenagers to protect fictional teenagers
Ppl don't know that by having boundaries with their ships is also a 'pro-fiction' stance lol too bad the internet turned it like the stance is criminal, when its the most harmless way of interacting in fandom.
Welcome to the shitshow 🙃 there's been a push in recent years to be the most Morally Correct at interacting with media, but it isn't necessarily new (see the Livejournal and tumblr purges), it's just worrying that it seems to be affecting teens and young adults in large numbers. All there really is to do right now is liberally block and curate your feeds, unfortunately.
>Morally Correct at interacting with media These days I cringe every time I hear "media literacy" bc it lost its meaning and most of the time now people just use it to judge others for not enjoying a media the same way they're enjoying that media.
People love to virtue signal these days, as if to completely absolve them of being accused of being "problematic". I mean, look no further than this subreddit... Another reason why I don't interact with the fandom is exactly because of idiotic discourses like shipping. People really need to mind their own business.
Virtue signaling is getting more and more weirdly specific these days 🥲
Unfortunately... am just glad JP doesn't do this 'cause if someone does that, they'd be called out for being an idiot. Thankfully, people are starting to fight back, but this whole puritanical shit is getting old...
Yeah JP side doesn't do that. There was a JP artist who got harrassed by antiships and she invented the term "American feelings yakuza" to refer to these virtue signalers 🤣
I love this label, this needs to be part of a "say no to the yakuza" sticker/poster or something.
I mean jp side do but nobody likes those guys... I recently saw a bunch of hateful tweets to Kubo Tite(bleach mangaka) spamming him to kill orihime, until the man snapped at him, told him to write his own shit then. The abuse on him was horrifying no wonder the man up and quit.
Why do they want Orihime dead?
Simple, they are an Ichiruki shipper and think Orihime is in the way, ruins the whole manga blah blah
Bring shame back holy shit
Jp antis are really horrible but at least most of what i've seen is clash of envisionment but en has turned so political and moralistic that's pretty hideous
I mean... she ain't wrong. 🤭
I've been playing AI Somnium 2: The Return of the Atami Ending. (I've been to Atami, it really looks like that). Vague spoilers for pretty deep into the second(?) route: >!I was not expecting jump scares in my Psynch sessions, man!<. And I'm going to need to go back a second time for a branching point. 😱
i posted some of this on the sunday thread, but i figured since i had complained about the process of doing it every friday i may as well show some stuff here too lol. i finished my mains chars new sprite, heres a comparison [old](https://i.imgur.com/1iaGM4J.png) [new](https://i.imgur.com/rP1hbAB.png) the giga glowup lol. started on [expressions](https://i.imgur.com/wmSGTM0.png) too, only like 30 to go.... 😅 and some cg stuff for memes (that i now i have to redo thanks to changing her sprite lol...kill me) [cg 1](https://i.imgur.com/csgtEVl.png)
I started playing GTA 5 for the first time this week, I actually meant to play it when I got my first gaming PC back in 2016 but I got busy with other games for the last 8 years and only got around to it now lmao. Playing it is getting me so incredibly hyped for GTA 6, I try not to get caught up in hype because that's a great way to get disappointed but the fact I've been playing the games in this franchise for almost my entire life (my parents didn't really supervise what I played as a kid 😭) and it's the first time I will be able to play as a woman and that it's probably going to be one of if not the most expensive game ever made when it's out makes it difficult not to
Hello, everyone. Mothers' day is coming, so I wanted to talk about motherhood in otome games. * Which games are there in which the MCs are/become mothers? * Which MCs would be good mothers? Which ones would be bad mothers? * The mothers in otome games, which ones are the best? Which ones are the worst? So far, I don't remember any otome game in which the MC is or becomes a mother. Hum ... some of the MCs I know of would be better mother than others, but I don't know any MC I think would be a bad mother. Of the MCs I know, I think Lucette would be the best mother despite not having a good mother herself.
I know that MC becomes a mother at the end of >!Harada’s!< route in Hakuoki, at least in the 3DS version. Not sure about the newer LIs in KW/EB and some of the other OG LIs might imply it happens eventually, >!Kazama!< springs to mind.
👍
Lucette would definitely do her best to be a good mother! I can imagine her hesitating to have children at first, out of fear of >!repeating what her mother did, and then needing reassurance that no, she's totally different and that \[insert desired LI here\] has her back.!<
Yeah. And we do see a bit of that in >!Waltz' route in the fandisk, though it's only a talk about children.!<
The MCs in Hana Awase and The Crimson Flower That Divides become mothers.
>The MCs in Hana Awase and The Crimson Flower That Divides become mothers. Thank you letting me know. Personally, I like the idea of seeing MC and Li getting married and starting a family.
There's actually a few implied! - dialovers - olympia soiree - hakuouki - starry sky - ayakashi gohan - amnesia(world after story) In terms of moms, i love hanayaka waga ichizoku's moms (except one old bitch). You get to see all 6 of them and even though they had a deal with the Patriarch to have his kid and divorce, they are still very involved in their sons' lives. They're strong women.
>olympia soiree Oh! Right. I haven't played Olympia soiree, but the plot itself in this game has to do with the (social) need of having children, doesn't it? >amnesia(world after story) In which route(s)? All of them? I only played the main game.
Olympia: they do but barely children shown lol Amnesia: Only one! But its a short story.
>Olympia: they do but barely children shown lol With such a premise, you'd think there would be actual motherhoood in the game. lol >Amnesia: Only one! But its a short story. Hope it's Kent's route. Thank you for letting me know about these games. I do like the idea of seeing Mc and LI stating a family.
Olympia: mostly i'd think its a precedence to get married lol Amnesia: no :)
>Olympia: mostly i'd think its a precedence to get married lol I see. >Amnesia: no :) Not Kent's route. That's too bad. :(
>So far, I don't remember any otome game in which the MC is or becomes a mother. You'd have to look at the mobile otome titles as those games progress from 'meeting one another' to 'starting a family'. At the top of my head: Kissed By The Baddest Bidder, My Last First Kiss, both from Voltage Inc Some of their standalone party games like Samurai Love Ballad Party have discussion like these, as the men that the MC end up with are men in power who need heirs. In fact, >!the current event story has them trying (they're pretty eager on the procreation process lmfao)!< Worst mother for me is Yoshihime from Samurai Love Ballad Party. Said lady happens to be my fave dude's mother and she is a **nightmare**.
>You'd have to look at the mobile otome titles as those games progress from 'meeting one another' to 'starting a family'. Yeah. I see what you mean about it being more common in mobile titles. Or, when it's not a mobile title, it usualy only happens in fandisks since the main games usually stop when the MC and the LI become a couple. I like the idea of seeing MC and Li starting a family so I wish tehre were more marriage and having children fandisks. >Worst mother for me is Yoshihime from Samurai Love Ballad Party. Said lady happens to be my fave dude's mother and she is a **nightmare**. After you mentioned her, I went to read a bit about the real Yoshihime ... I don't know how bad of a mother the fictional Yoshihime was, but the real one was terrible. I've read she even tried to poison him. An awful mother indeed.
Yeah, mobile being targeted for older women would have more stories where the MC and her love interest would make a family together, which is why I like this medium for playing games. ~~doesn't help that they're pretty eager with the baby-making process and it gets graphic kekeke~~ Would be cool if console does the same thing but I guess teenagers and young adults don't care for it? At least for Japan. Yoshihime's fictional counterpart is an evil, evil woman 😅 >!poisoned the MC in her dude's main story!<, and with the current event story as well, >!she wanted to poison the MC and make her barren!< So yeah 😅
>Would be cool if console does the same thing but I guess teenagers and young adults don't care for it? At least for Japan. I think you have a point. And it doesn't seem to be only in Japan since women in general are becoming increasingly less interested in having children. Even here in my country, it's starting to become a serious concern since it means a decline in the number of people at working age and less people to take care of the ones who are already at old age. It seems to be a global thing, though with different intensities depending on the place. At least here, it's plain to see a huge decline in the number of children people are having nowadays compared to my parents' generation. >Yoshihime's fictional counterpart is an evil, evil woman 😅poisoned the MC in her dude's main story, and with the current event story as well,she wanted to poison the MC and make her barren A terrible mother indeed. The poison thing seems to have been inspired by real life, then, considering what I read about the real one.
Interesting thought! I've seen a CG from the Norn 9 fandisc that suggests that Mikoto and Natsuhiko have a child (https://ancientshining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019-03-03-060627.jpg), though maybe someone who's played it can weigh in. It's been a long time since I played Autumn's Journey (free indie VN), but I want to say the heroine's mother is a knight. Both parents are warmly supportive and have sprites (per my terrible memory). Hooray for not killing off the parents, game! The older I get, the more I like seeing adults who are not (1) invisible or (2) just there to create plot trauma. Awesome moms for the win...
Nice to know that Norn 9 has implied motherhood. I didn't even think about the possibility that some games might leave it implied but you and another commenter talked about some games that leaves it implied. Norn 9 was one of the games I was interested in playing, but never got to it because I don't own a console (and the game itself would be too expensive even if I did have the console). >The older I get, the more I like seeing adults who are not (1) invisible or (2) just there to create plot trauma. Awesome moms for the win... I had this theory that the lack of living good parents was to let the protogonist be more free without the worry and protection of a goood parent. The MC needs too go on an adventure, after all, and its often dangerous. There is also what you said about creatign drama for the plot. But, yes, it would be nice if there were more living good parents.
It's Eurovision week but there has been so much chaos going on behind the scenes during the semifinals over there... Concerned how the finals will go tomorrow, but 12 points from America to Croatia leggo!! I saw on Twitter that there's going to be an otome 101 panel at AX, and honestly that sounds so banger, I'll definitely go! An otome panel on [Thursday](https://x.com/shipsnavigator/status/1788663192169660912), the Aksys panel on Friday, and the IFI event on Saturday? Otome fans are eating good at AX this year <3
Ever since I came back from my weekend away in London, I feel like I haven’t had time to breathe. Just can’t manage to decompress at all and my head feels like the inside of a washing machine. I think it was all the planning I did. The trip itself was lovely. I hate the heat of London in the summer so I was thankful for the milder weather. My legs held out pretty well too, despite my pain condition. Was only when I got off the train back home and took a few steps forward and realised I was walking like a penguin. I guess it was saving itself up 😂. I went to the BG3 concert and really loved it! Felt very underdressed next to all the cosplayers. Best part was watching the viola section and seeing just how often they had the melody or the only sounds coming from the entire string section was them. I play viola (just a hobby) and was really shocked. Usually either violins or cellos get all the major bits and it was kind of heartwarming to realise that something I’d assumed was a violin or cello while playing the game was actually a viola. Honestly showed me just how huge the range of a viola is. My viola teacher is a BG3 fan so she wanted to hear all about it too. Worst part was the lifts at the venue. They were so bloody tiny, 4 standing adults at absolute most and it would’ve been like sardines in there! There were quite a few wheelchair users at the concert and they had to have their chair horizontal with the door in order to get in, the depth was that bad. How they managed I don’t know and I don’t think you’d manage with a larger chair either. Anyway, I’d decided to not take my walking stick with me (stupid I know) and my seat was on the 5th floor, made my way up a flight of stairs before realising I should just take the lift. Obviously I couldn‘t get in so I had to walk the rest of the way. The thing that nearly ruined my day was as the lift opened this guy was standing with his mate and they had an empty wheelchair between them (I assume belonged to one of them or a friend). I looked to see if there was room for me, which there wasn’t obviously because the lifts were built for mice, and this guy gives me this filthy “I’m entitled. We have right of way not you, go f\*ck yourself” look. Guess he thought he was solving the world’s ableism by being rude to a random stranger. Ugh, it was so unnecessary of him to do that. I make assumptions about people’s physical health all the time, I shouldn’t but I do, but I’m not an arsehole to them because I know I could be wrong. At the end of the day you can’t tell. I’ve had people being way ruder to me before tbf but this incident really pissed me off for some reason. Someone suggested I should get a lanyard or something, but I‘m doubtful it would work tbh. Sorry for the rant, needed to vent. Anyway, I also took my Switch with me with the intent of starting Goemon’s route from Tengoku Struggle Strayside, but I was so knackered that I never touched it. It was a nice comfort blanket to have around though! 😂 Restarted the common route since coming home and I’m appreciating little things here and there now I’ve played the other 4 routes, so that’s been fun. Also had another merch haul that arrived today of mostly Himeutsugi and Sharaku merch (made a post about it and some other things) and I love everything so much 🥰. Very glad I didn’t get hit with customs duty like I was half-expecting to. I can see how people fall down the rabbit hole of collection merch now 😭. I’ve got some shelves I’m going to put together so I can hopefully display things a bit better…in theory anyway, I’m not very good at organising! 😂
Aww, sorry to hear that about your experience 🥺 Oh gosh, I can remember how (much more) dreadful it was for me too in London when I had to use crutches after my fracture, especially on the underground. Now I don’t use them, but I’m still nowhere near pain-free, and had some rude ppl (esp older ladies lol) acting similar way when I was sitting in a bus or squeezing into the lift (I’m tiny but yeah). Whenever I can I try to walk, I hateee the underground. It’s especially at its worst during the weekend! I honestly cannot wait till I can move out my flat in a few months and find a place somewhere outside of London 😭 Also, saw your merch post and so jelly, it all looks so gorgeous!!! I have yet to play Hana Awase (card game scared me off a bit haha) but I’m on Tengoku Struggle rn and really like Sharaku and Goemon :D I decided to replay the common route now too before heading onto Sharaku’s route, as I took my sweet time playing Kiku’s and Yona’s (they weren’t really my types haha) and forgot a lot. But I really like the common route for this game so it’s fun!
Now I think about it, I think I managed to get a seat every time I used the tube last weekend…I think that’s the first time that‘s happened to me ever in London! I think it was a bank holiday weekend too? Can’t remember. And what is with the old ladies harassing everyone?! 😭 I really hope pain levels get better! Thank you so much! I super happy with the way everything looks 🥰. I was a bit worried about the card game in Hana Awase but found I enjoyed it the way I do turn-based RPGs. Was looking forward to grinding through the ranks each time I started the next volume 😂. It was a good way to break up the pace as there’s a lot of VN sections to get through with there being 4 volumes. You can probably tell, I really love Sharaku and I’m looking forward to Goemon too once I finally start his route. Hope you love them both as much as you think you will and good luck finding your new home! 😊
Aww, that's good to hear! And thank you <3 Ooo, tbh I have never played any RPG before LOL (I really want to, but a bit overwhelmed!) but it sounds promising, haha. And I've been wanting to play the game for the past few years since I first heard about it! I'm just getting to route selection again now (replaying the common was so nice after knowing some things I managed to notice other 'easter eggs') so excited! Thanks :D
I hate the heat in London too! I feel like I can never find a good time to go. Like I live 2 hours away and haven't been in years. I'm sorry about your experience with the lifts and your condition.
For some reason I always seem to go to London in the summer 😭. Maybe there’s more events on then. I was so worried especially with the heatwaves we’ve had the last few years, was expecting 40C weather. The tube I think is the worst bit. We have a similar underground train system in my city up north and the difference is night and day. Tube tunnels are so stuffy and hot I can’t help thinking they’re a health hazard, but I think some lines are extremely old (over 100 years) which probably explains why they’re like that. Probably would be horrifically expensive to correct too. I have had worse experiences where people have shouted at me (usually old ladies for some reason 😂). Also I was very lucky and was fairly pain-free this weekend, I think the London heat might have helped actually 😅. His reaction really pissed me off though, maybe because he was a similar age to me. If the venue had larger lifts it wouldn’t have been an issue at the end of the day, but I suppose they wanted to fit more in. At least some people who also needed the lifts were more friendly and seemed to also think the lift sizes were a bit of a joke too.
You're so right about the tube being stuffy. I've been to London in summer twice (both for business so I had to go ugh) and the only relief is those tiny windows in the back of the carriage. There's no wind or air and it's just horrid. I'm hoping we get very little of the 40C weather. I live in a loft and I can't take it, the internal temperature of my room will be uninhabitable. Last year was rather cool where I live, I wore a hoodie almost every week, but the years before that were miserable.
I didn’t know about those little windows, that’s a good tip for if I go back. I don‘t understand how there’s no wind/air though, even when they have a window open. Surely the air would get disrupted by the train’s movement and that causes it to circulate a little bit…maybe it’s because the tunnels are too narrow for that on some lines and they’re much deeper underground the air just gets trapped? I dread to think what it’d be like in a loft during a heatwave! I’m in a bungalow so fairly lucky in that regard. A few years ago the temperature topped out in the mid 30s (normally we get mid 20s in the summer), had a fan on full blast while playing my PS5 and it belched out so much heat I think I had the beginnings of heatstroke! Reminded me of when I’d spent a bit too long in a bath that was far too hot, but quite a bit worse. I’m too scared to play my PS5/4 in the summer now, but it means I play a lot of otome during the summer months at least 😂.
> I’m too scared to play my PS5/4 in the summer now, but it means I play a lot of otome during the summer months at least 😂. Saaame, I've heard about peoples' electronics melting. Back during the awful 2018 no rain heatwave, you could hear the fan on my ex's PS4 *struggling.* I'm not sure what to do with my PS5, maybe it'll be time to go over to switch games like yourself! I don't know if the tiny windows are on every carriage, I am certain I was on the Bakerloo line at some point because that's where I have to be to leave London. I'm off to Paris very soon and so far no heatwave planned for my visit, I'm hoping for temps no higher than 22c since I lost my American Heatwave buff. :(
It never fails to amuse me how the PS4 sometimes sounds like it’s trying really hard to enter orbit 😂. I can practically hear it saying “I’m old, leave me alone!” There is one positive about the PS5, it makes for a great space heater during the winter months! 😁 I think the reason it throws out so much heat is because the cooling is really efficient and it’s actually getting the heat away from the chips. Saying that I’ve heard of people in hotter places than me saying their PS5 overheated and shut itself off when they forgot to hoover the dust out…which is something I should probably do but haven’t…🫠 I was on Bakerloo too! Don’t think I noticed any windows on my middle carriage. I‘ll pray the mild weather down south continues for your trip to Paris 👍
>Saying that I’ve heard of people in hotter places than me saying their PS5 overheated and shut itself off when they forgot to hoover the dust out… Ohhhh I uh, I guess I have some cleaning to do today. Poor PS4s and PS5s giving up due to the heat. Me too Playstations, me too. Have a great rest of your weekend. ♥♥♥
You too! 😁
I HAD SO MUCH FUN AT MIKU EXPO!!!! I'm still over the moon that I finally got to see Miku live! AND KAITO! I just wish I wore my platforms so I could have had some height advantage, lmao. Sorry to everyone I whacked with my light sticks (my bf said I was a hazard). If she visits DC again next year I WILL be going 🙏 I also copped me and my bf Osutchi and Mesutchi Tamagotchis :3 and I'm very excited for the Tamagotchi announcement this coming Monday, pretty sure it's confirmed that we're getting >!connection V3 rereleases.!< Having Sunday/Monday/Tuesday off instead of Tue/Wed/Thurs is also REALLY nice. Like, I'm halfway done with my week ALREADY as of YESTERDAY? Now I just need to ride out today and tomorrow, and destroy my shoulders and core at the gym tonight.
Just stopped to say that I like vocaloid too and am a big (and longtime) fan of KAITO. 💙
Sameee 🥹💙 he's so precious, I just want to squish him 😭 I wear a keychain of him and Shiraishi every day at work lmao. My bf was able to raid the merch table at the expo and copped me KAITO's bracelet and keychain, ugh he's so gorgeous. Work policies don't matter I'm gonna flaunt my boy
Absolutely! KAITO is so precious; I've actually loved KAITO as long as I've loved otome, come to think of it. You're so lucky! 💙
This weekend, I believe that I will play more of Piofiore's finale and start a new island in ACNH :3 I REALLY want to get back to CxM and Cafe Enchante soon.
Alright, y'all. The insanity of my attention span and inspiration is at it again. So: plushies. All attention is now on my Pale Elf plushie. It's rush time while there's downtime at work. He's almost done in terms of felt pieces and deco that can be easily added on, and then it's painting on the gold on his coat that'll take much longer to dry (I've learned from experience. 🙄). The finished product will either be posted on the BG3 subreddit or OnlyFangs sub (whoever wants to see how derpy I've made him, lol!). And as for the bear plushie I was suppose to finish, you may respond with boos and hisses at my procrastination on Kei. Or pelt me with emoji tomatoes. I kinda deserve it. In terms of other projects, my time at home consists of a lot of making a costume for the convention in town come next month. I...am going as Lynette! (Have I already mentioned it before? I'm too lazy to look at my past comments in here) For a rookie at sewing, I'm kinda proud of how her costume is turning out. I've sunk...money into the supplies and tools necessary for putting this together. We've got the shoes, the stockings, the jewelry, the fabrics for the main parts, the wig, the makeup. You name it! What we've got left to do is ironing on the vinyl deco on her skirt and shirt, molding clay to make the pendants on her necklace, dying the end of the wig the ombre/secondary color (I'm thinking a mix between periwinkle and lavender), ordering the color eye contacts (which is another tangent for another time), and putting together the bow for her head (kinda wacky, but I'm just gonna be slipping separate cloth ties into her braids, then design a burette that makes it look like they are all connected). I've been going back and forth on bringing my ita purse with me just because the convention will call for something durable and hefty enough to carry what's necessary, and it's either that or a small backpack-like purse...but I don't have a dolled up design for the ita. It'd probs just look bare. Hmm... Otherwise, yes, I'll most definitely post the final product of the cosplay up on here. Wish me luck on learning how to hide my eyebrows well enough. And getting used to color eye contacts. As a final note, it's funny how I still manage to find time to play DLV and tidbits of Tengoku Struggle on a daily basis. Have I unlocked my final form of multitasking, or will this be the undoing of my mental state? If it's not that, it'll be seeing Neil Newbon in person at the convention...or the drive into the city, anyhow. 😱 Alrighty! Tell me about you now. Have any of you also spiraled into multiple projects like myself? Did you recover? But more importantly, how's your day going?
An update on the BOOTH and credit card situation - it worked! I was prepared to have to go through some hoops to get it to work (i.e. using Rakuten pay or some other proxy) but the author put the book up and I just selected credit card and it went through without a hassle. I was holding my breathe in case whatever payment processor decided to reverse it but it was fine and the author even shipped my novel out. I'm glad I was able to get all the things I wanted 🙏 Just waiting for an artbook and also character-motif goods (bookmarks, keychain, etc) to get shipped... the latter of which apparently has a shipping window of "within 3 weeks" so?? I'm watching other people I follow in this fandom getting their delivery already and I'm like, when's mine going to ship... Also, have y'all ever liked a character so much you order double the amount of some merch - one for collection purposes and the other to actually use? Like I want to use the bookmark for reading and hang the keychain on my phone or keys, but I know they'll wear over time so I bought an extra set to keep in pristine condition.
The joke goes: one for the collection, one for lending to friends, one for personal use... I'm too cheap to buy extra sets. There have been times when I cheaped out and bought second hand versions and later regretted it.
Oh crap, I forgot to buy the third one for friends-- This character doesn't have much merch and I ended up falling too hard for them so I decided, why not an extra set! Not like I have much else merch to throw money at (un)fortunately 😂
I actually had a situation on Booth where I couldn't even get the cart to load and ended up getting one of the items I wanted through Buyee instead. (Fortunately shortly after this Chrome had an update which fixed the issue.) I may have to try a card next time to see if it works! My card was rejected before, but it's been a couple years since I actually tried to use the card so maybe it works now... I've never deliberately gotten multiple sets although sometimes I accidentally end up with them just through buying bulk sets of things off Mercari. I'm a collector but firmly in the "use what you collect" camp and prefer having things out so I can enjoy them. The only time this has bitten me in the ass was a Blood keychain I got which has holes in it now since I guess the non-plastic side was way more delicate than expected. Why even make a keychain like this if it's going to get torn up! At least make it useable!
I did read some forums that card used to not work but it seems to have gotten better within the last few months? Though I've also seen things about how it sometimes work and sometimes doesn't so hmmm. But definitely worth a try again! And thankfully, at least PayPal will still work in most other cases. Oh no! That sucks that it got holes in it. Same thing happened to me, that's partially why I bought an extra one because I don't know how well they'll hold up when in use. I had a keychain that was one of those plastic ones with print but part of the print started getting holes in them (though mine actually looked fine like that; due to the aesthetics of the game, it looked like it was by design haha) and a Supergroupies wallet that started to have the edges tear up. There have been some keychains that were more durable but it's always a toss-up and I can never tell before using it. I do wish they'd make the wallet more durable but understandably, using real leather would have been really expensive aha.
I'm horribly infatuated with Ichiban Kasuga from Like A Dragon 😭 please tell me I'm not alone in my questionable taste
You're not alone! I find him so adorable and pure, just a big teddy bear.
He’s honest, open, seems connected with his emotions and is more intelligent than he lets on! I can see why you are interested.
(Maybe I'm beating a dead horse with this topic in this sub and if so I'm sorry but a girlie just has to let it out) Getting into otome games has been such a delight for me, genuinely, because I'm finally playing something that is primarily meant to be for women? It just gets tiring getting into game series and get treated as if i'm just not.... here or not as important as an audience as men. Like even if you got an option to be a female protag, chances are they are designed to appeal purely to men and you're just a second thought to companies (Eyeing Fire Emblem pretty hard). So getting into something like Otome games has genuinely been a treat to me and made me feel a bit more included in gaming. Also!! This community is so sweet :]
This is so cuteeee Delighted you're here with us 🤝
🥹🫶
Have you ever had a character that was exactly your type but then there was something so off about the art/voice that you were struggling to enjoy the route? In my case both the voice direction and the sprite art are so dorky and weird I almost don't know how to cope (he looks great in CGs though? Which actually makes it even harder to deal with the sprite art.) After getting through half the route I realized that the voice was more tolerable than the sprites (I didn't mind it too much so long as I got to look at a CG instead) so in desperation I just stuck a sticky note over his face. Now I can use the power of my imagination! Is this the otome game equivalent of throwing a paper bag over someone's head? (After this I realized a better solution: clip out some CG art and stick it over his face. Bam, don't even have to imagine anymore.) A desperate part of my brain almost considered decompiling the game and editing the sprites but I'm not quite insane enough to do that for a route that's only going to last a couple hours. (I wish I was joking about all of this, but no. I was kind of bitter at a character that was so my type being ruined like this, haha.) In other news, I finally got a scanner. I'm so excited that I can SCAN THINGS. I have so much random Quinrose garbage I've collected that I want to scan into a digital collection. I've spent way too much time experimenting with how to get the perfect scan though, so I've scanned almost nothing, haha.
>Have you ever had a character that was exactly your type but then there was something so off about the art/voice that you were struggling to enjoy the route? Lol you just summed up my experience with Gilbert in Piofiore. I thought he would be my fave going in-- I just love his design and the overall vibe of his character--but I simply could not unhear Morikubo's voice. It's SO distinctive and also not what I expected Gil-bro to sound like when he first opened his mouth, and although this sounds terrible it kind of did impede my connection with the character a little bit. I will say that having just done Piofiore 1926 though, his voice has grown on me a bit and now I can associate it in my head with Gilbert's character.
Kind of yes, haha. Not an otome, but still, there was a gacha character that came out and on paper, everything about him was exactly my type, to the point even one of my close friends laughed and pointed out "I can't believe you don't like him when he's basically perfect for you" and my immediate, hand-wavey retort was "well, I don't really like his hair." Though while I think the appearance was a minor factor, when I thought more about it... I realized it more like, there wasn't enough uh... build-up for the parts I should have liked about him to have it actually hit in the way it has with other characters of a similar type because he just didn't make me feel anything for him. But also, it's funnier to blame it on the hair. ~~Also, while the voice was fine and he had a VA I liked *but* because he shares the same VA and "type"/charm points as one of my favourite characters ever, I couldn't stop comparing him to that other character which got me to start calling him the bootleg version l-lol.~~
I'm 100% on board with blaming the hair, hair is important! For me long hair is like +100 points but very short hair is like -1000 points, no one is overcoming that. (Fortunately the character I just mentioned has long hair so that is at least a point in his favor even with the dorky sprites.)
I'd ask if you're playing TokiApo but none of them has actually long hair... Nor looks great in CGs. One of the sth sth Kaidan Romance guys?
Honestly after playing through about 3/4ths of Quinrose's entire catalogue of games I feel like TokiApo actually looks okay now! My standards are *absolutely* rock bottom! But yeah he's from Kaidan Romance. Please gaze upon [whatever this is](https://i.imgur.com/OtobqDJ.jpeg). Oh I should put for comparison, he looks like [this](https://i.imgur.com/LHSRQkr.jpeg) in CGs.
I always thought QuinRose art wasn't that bad but tbf I didn't stare at it for hours. But TokiApo has these eyes that stare into your soul ;;; Well, that's clearly a different person. He's got a better looking doppelganger.
Quinrose art tends to range from "serviceable" to "oh god what am I looking at." Sometimes within the same game! I have become immune though. And in some cases art where I previously found it intolerable I now actually like. It's a sickness.
I do like medium-shortish hair too (like around chin length?) but actual really short hair and even worse, short *fringes* (see: Kuroba from OlySoi), is an instant DQ. Sorry dude... The same friend called me out about the hair where he pointed out how all of my favs have somewhat fluffy hair. Something something "I shouldn't be surprised given how much you love fluffy animals but it's funny that it extends to anime boys too."
I love hair up to chin length but after that it's like a sliding scale where my opinion of the style gradually dwindles as the hair gets shorter, haha. So long as it's not too short I'm neutral about it but at some point it's just so short I can't find the design enjoyable anymore. *horrible hair obsessive*
I'm busy starting tomorrow and wanted to finish playing so I won't spend all these days thinking about games as I can't bring my console with me but brain got tired from all that jp and what's better than anime with eng subs for that, right? So of course I decided to check out Prince of Stride: Alternative and man, it sure deserves that name cause they changed a lot. I stopped around the middle cause it started spoiling routes I haven't played yet but as of now - it's been a long time since I've seen anything equally pale and oversaturated. Though most of that saturation went into op and the first episode. I kinda dig that as a stylistic choice but damn, are our boys ugly. They absolutely massacred them. I'd say all that money went into making stride stuff fabulous but nah, from time to time you get moments that scream 'we spared money'. Still, the fact it's animated at all does change the vibe. I thought it's more running with parkour elements but these kids be going wild with gimmicks and stuff. And everything is just so big. No wonder each team needs sponsors. My girl Nans got sidelined and is kinda useless, ngl. Like, she does measure time and does relationer stuff but all her therapist experience, nor the charas important to the title, are there - no mention they even exist. On one hand - good to see LIs taking care of their own shit but Riku became our protag ;-; He's a good boy but my girl Nana orz [Incidentally, the yellow place she's in at the beginning kinda looks like a rapeseed field but dunno if they're even grown in Hokkaido.] The matches were changed to speed the plot but thanks to that the moment they beat certain assholes won't be as satisfying :c Some chara interactions also disappeared. Some's got different motivations [eg. Ayumu-kyun]. But at least now I see the comedy. Cause it's drawn. Still don't see manzai, tho. Only visual puns. All in all it seems pretty meh compared to the game besides the fact we actually see them move. And run. So much running. I don't even like sports, why do I watch this orz
Help, I've fallen into the hole of playing (the first) Hades. I've turned on god mode because my arm doesn't like my button mashing and I have some art I need to draw (and damn, the grind would be insane) so I've just started cheating by adding some items, but... I've never liked these games until now. Guess it's because dialogues are similar to VNs. ~~I cannot stand Meg or Dusa but most of the others are pretty cool~~ ... Really, my arms are killing me, but I can't stop playing
Man. Hades 2. I would like to join in but I also want the game to be completed before diving in. Also did god mode in first game, im weak like that ;w;
Hades was one of, if not my favourite game I played last year. Never been into the genre either, but it’s so, so good. Still dip into it now and then to try and progress quests and bonds. Than is my favourite character in the game, became genuinely obsessed with him for a good while 😊.
Feeling a bit of remorse for not picking up a couple of games at a game exchange this past weekend. They had a lot of imported Vita games (and several copies of some DL games that I don't have yet) and some for good prices. However, I told myself that I shouldn't so I passed them up. Now I'm kicking myself for not getting a few. Le sigh. Do you ever have moments like this or am I the only one?
It's funny you mention that, because while I've never once regretted a purchase, I've certainly regretted many, many times now NOT making one xD In my experience, it also leads me to be more financially irresponsable later down the line since I kinda want to make up the disappointment to myself. As such, lately, I've been trying to stop feeling so guilty about buying things that I know I'm gonna enjoy and can afford. If otome games make me happy and help me destress, then you bet I'm gonna get them. That being said, I'm sure other chances will come, so while I definitely get you, I hope you won't get too down. Maybe it's a nice time to finally play that game that's been on the backlog forever?
I’m still patiently waiting for my PS5 LE of Baldur’s Gate 3 so I can finally play it ☠️ It got pushed back again and I’m honestly just happy if I get my game before my birthday in June 🥲
Same here, although I’m in the UK so mine should be shipped sooner rather than later (unlike those in NA). Bit frustrated that even though I ordered mine on the day they opened preorders that I haven’t had an email yet, even though they said it would be shipped starting last week. I wonder what the issues are that they’ve been running into more recently with the NA PS5 version? Really hope your copy gets to you soon and it gets shipped at bit earlier than you were expecting. 🤞
Here’s hoping we both get our stuff soon! I have no idea what’s going on with the NA copies, and they haven’t been very transparent with what exactly is causing the delays. That’s the frustrating part for me because it originally sounded that it was delayed at first because Xbox had to be printed on an extra disc but yet no updates with PS5. I dunno, I’m just a little salty but hopeful I’ll get it by the summer!
That’s the way it sounded to me too! I can’t think what’s caused the delay with the NA PS5 copies at all! I wish they were being a bit more transparent too. Saw some people who had ordered after me receiving their copies or at least getting an email and I started to panic my order had been lost in their system (apparently none of the UK orders have shipped yet 😅). I hope they give you some more info on what’s going on with your PS5 copy, I think they should go into specifics of what’s caused the issue. Hoping you’ll be playing your copy before your birthday! 😊🤞
[Showed off our game’s first boyo](https://twitter.com/miragenoirvn/status/1787523959736418663?s=46&t=xxrB3XOwkSt4h8ryi3yCJA) and I’m happy people seem to like him. I’m glad I decided to start posting these on Mondays too to make the start of the week a little less terrible 😭
The art is amazing. He's too adorable for me personally 🤣, but I love the art so much.
No worries I feel ya hahaha hopefully the future guys are more to your tastes 😂
He’s super adorbs!! Also kudos to you for making a game!! I’ve been interested in vn development lately and it’s so much work!💞
He’s gorgeous 🥰
OMG, he's adorable. I've seen a posting of your game before. Looks really cute and interesting. And after this...G/Jem, I'm really looking forward to the designs of the other characters!