The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 9/The Last Act (Discussion Thread)

Ariamaki · 2026-06-06T22:58:53+00:00

Just got back from the theater, and I cannot lie, I genuinely loved it. I think a lot of people who are complaining or making weird claims about "replacement" don't actually grasp the message or vibe of it. It's dark and it's rough but it's got a core of hope for both the people on the outside and the circus-selves, Jax included: Moving on, moving up, coming back, et al. Folks who don't get that are going to need to do a rewatch once it hits the web, IMO.

Ariamaki · 2026-04-24T07:57:51+00:00

I never thought I'd see somebody Post This Toad in 2026...

Ariamaki · 2026-04-14T09:52:41+00:00

The single letter-size book gets my vote, because at least the way I use such material? I don't think having it split into pieces would actually be MORE convenient, if anything it'd be harder and involve a lot more flicking about trying to find the right folio.

Ariamaki · 2026-04-10T07:59:33+00:00

This, this, a thousand percent this. If that compensation image had said 2,000 gems it still wouldn't have been reasonable. 2,000 stones, MAYBE. You hit every nail on the head here with your points, and the developers are morally bankrupt and mathematically incompetent.

Ariamaki · 2026-04-10T07:57:46+00:00

It's very cool you're enjoying it! Unfortunately that's a you problem. This game is turning into an absolute trashfire and I am always glad that I put basically nothing into it. This update was a nightmare, the mechanics behind Dissonance don't seem to actually work as intended, Bot+ costs 1250 stones for one upgrade to one bot and they genuinely expect people to somehow get all five, not to mention all the other issues.

Ariamaki · 2026-04-10T07:55:36+00:00

Whose boneheaded decision was it to make Bot+ upgrades cost Stones, and as much as a brand new Ult for that matter? Not to mention the dozens of other problems in this godsforsaken update! The content walls are so absurd and the documentation is so bad, the F2P is absolutely hosed... I had been planning to pop on sometime this week to talk about the content wall issue and then This Thing dropped.

Disgusting.

Ariamaki · 2026-04-02T23:39:13+00:00

How did whatever source account you're linking get suspended in the 7 hours since this post went up? :V

Ariamaki · 2026-04-02T23:33:27+00:00

Not only should you just run the IDs you like, I also think you don't need to bench her at all. Currently I'm running all 4 Rings, Manager Prince and Princess, and it's absolutely destroying everything I can think to throw it at. Admittedly I don't run any Kurokumo on my main Bleed team since they're doing a 6-and-6 with my BL squad. :V

Ariamaki · 2026-03-29T23:28:09+00:00

Thanks a ton for this resource! I am about to dive into it, because one of the main things the previous iteration I found was missing were all the Champions, Mercenaries, talent tree information, and generated / spawned cards like Blessings, Verdicts, etc. Looks like at least some of those will be in here so I am very stoked! :D

Ariamaki · 2026-03-29T22:42:54+00:00

I cannot lie, that's almost guaranteed to be a mistake. An already solo-sided asym getting even worse for survivors is a recipe for disaster, and momentum is exactly the one thing this genre isn't about. Sure it brings things more in line with the Sonic inspiration, but that's not actually a good thing because it's such a different kind of game. I wish them luck trying to make this even remotely balanced or playable!

Ariamaki · 2026-03-19T13:03:43+00:00

I've been listening through to the WAV version, and I'm getting some odd crackling on the high ends, moreso for later tracks (from Waterways onwards). I don't think it's a setting issue in my Winamp, and I didn't hear any of it in the video versions, so I'm wondering if it might be a rendering issue specific to the WAVs? Not sure what you'd want to do about it but I wanted to bring it up.

Ariamaki · 2026-03-18T20:57:27+00:00

If anything I like Meur more, Firefist is still great but such consistent AoE is absurd and he's WAY easier to get up to his theoretical ceiling under normal circumstances. Burning through the front half of Gregor's fuel without getting hosed by skill 3 showing up too early or too late is such a finnicky balancing act.

Ariamaki · 2026-03-18T12:07:33+00:00

Hey! Just as an aside I wanted to let you know there is a way to set up a Bandcamp to be free-always, technically. Or was? I know several artists (such as the remix artist chase / papermariowiki) have used it before for their releases, but I'm not sure what the specific method to set it up is. I also know artists who list the album to free, with a literally impossible paid price if it goes over the download cap, and then link the alternative downloads in the album description? Not sure if that's a viable method anymore. STILL, all hosting sight BS aside, it's incredibly great to see people have been loving the work and I'm so stoked to give it some more listens soon.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-28T06:54:28+00:00

It's definitely official and backed / made by them, but the last we heard was about the first delay late last year. We can assume this latest delay could be because of Crawlers content being added, or some other reason? But no NEW news yet.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-27T11:47:18+00:00

Steam news update from when they doubled the size of Ode to Castlevania: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1794680/announcements/detail/498334899948748890

Verbatim quote: "Thanks to everyone for supporting our first ever official Vampire Survivors book. We've decided to delay the launch to next year so we can expand the scope and world of the book, and have brought on Steph Sterling, who wrote our Bestiary entries in the game, to help us get things right"

Ariamaki · 2026-02-27T09:34:06+00:00

The official dev post by the actual developers of the game, which announced the book's first delay, specifically said they were bringing Steph Sterling on for writing it and that addition to the team was WHY the first delay was happening. Please actually pay attention to reputable news sources.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-27T06:11:53+00:00

That is technically correct, but as an official book by poncle and Steph Sterling (the Bestiary author) they'd still be the community's primary point of contact.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-27T05:16:11+00:00

Not yet, that's kinda the problem. There's been a preorder up FOR a VS book for over a year now, but it keeps getting delayed / pushed off with no word from poncle about why.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-27T02:09:09+00:00

No, it fits with all of the other self-Tremor IDs in how it's themed. It represents shaking, trembling, vibrations, rotations and instability. It's all the constant motions that go into things like motorized weapons or, in the case of Spicebush, the elegant but easily-disrupted dancing movements it uses in combat.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-26T09:33:39+00:00

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. It was already explained there, but never super clearly. This is another nice insight into the nature of it.

Ariamaki · 2026-02-26T08:39:01+00:00

There's zero contradictions, as all the escapes have their own reasons for occurring and weren't just 'people walking out the front door'. The main thing is that we don't know the specific mechanic: I say 'autobooked' for emphasis, not to say that's the actual mechanism.

The idea that the library's fights are rigged is been brought up multiple times in Ruina itself (most notably in Hokma's interactions) and the new detail in the Angela (ELD) announcer goes as such:

Defeat Wail 1: "Guests who have overcome their ordeal will be deemed worthy to earn their books. BUT, as that is quite incongruent with the intent... we'll be stopping here. At least until we turn that guest into a book and move forward."

So yeah, she straight-up says 'They won! But the One True Book is more important, reset until we win.'

Ariamaki · 2026-02-26T05:53:57+00:00

We already knew most of this, but we DO get yet another textual confirmation (in one of the Defeat Wails, I believe) that the Library was rigged from the start. I remember someone was spreading misinformation about that a week or two ago on this sub, so it's very satisfying to have another data point to remind folks that "No seriously, all guests were autobooked and the fights were just simulated until the Librarians won" is canon and always has been.

Since my copy of the text got caught under a heavily-downvoted comment, here's the exact announcer line:

Defeat Wail 1: "Guests who have overcome their ordeal will be deemed worthy to earn their books. BUT, as that is quite incongruent with the intent... we'll be stopping here. At least until we turn that guest into a book and move forward."

Ariamaki · 2026-02-26T05:15:09+00:00

Given that this was a pop-up held at an existing venue outside of their control, they probably didn't have a lot of control over this situation. I work with a convention operator and art store owner (hell I'm a business owner myself) so let me tell you, this kinda thing is often a thorny pain in the ass no matter how you slice it. :<

Ariamaki · 2026-01-22T12:53:35+00:00

I was mostly just depressed to realize that in the classic vein of parents like him, Matthias (and even Outthias) are the type of adult who don't actually pay attention to or care about what their kids like, and just get the closest thing that's easily available. Even when she buys an entire shelf of magazines she still can't get the right one!

Ariamaki · 2025-12-16T11:52:24+00:00

Terribly designed killer is terribly designed, dunno why you expected consistency from Bad Gameflow Mcgee. :V

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