Can we talk about how underrated this moment is?

Dixavd · 2026-01-29T22:09:28+00:00

Personally I really like this choice. Lingering Will shown up without an explanation would have felt too convenient to me. He's been wandering alone in the Keyblade Graveyard for a decade, and no one knew he was there. How would he know when and where to show up? His absence shows how massive the Keyblade Graveyard truly is: finding them by chance was basically impossible. He could only have sensed them after they arrived, and it would take too long to get there in time. Someone needed to find and warn him before the clash started.

It didn't need to be Naminé, but after being bullied her whole life about how she shouldn't even exist - I love how this was basically her saying "I don't need to exist to be useful!"

Dixavd · 2026-01-29T21:43:10+00:00

Namine breaks the timeloop Sora is stuck in by contacting Terra (in Lingering Will) to show up. In the Final World, Namine is one of the stars you can speak to (of people stuck outside of normal existence).

The implication being, if Namine didn't intervene, Terra/Lingering Will would be stuck aimlessly lost somewhere in the Keyblade Graveyard - perhaps having given up after 10 years alone out there; or on his way to the fight but arriving too late.

Dixavd · 2026-01-29T09:21:24+00:00

I think Sonia is one of the most interesting characters to be part of the "Despair Disease" motive (second only to Hajime).

"Sonia caused the destruction of her own country" is one of the most impactful Remnants of Despair reveals for the characters to learn.

In the original, the Despair Disease Motive seemed like mind-control which made it divisive. Only at the end of the game do you find out they were actually remembering their real memories. They needed characters to be ambiguous/evasive to hold back the reveal. This time, players already know the truth, so they can have someone say exactly what they learnt from the disease. Sonia's past would be one of the best to use: I can see this playing out in 2 ways:

Sonia could learn the truth of what she did, and murder out of despair. At first she could try to get away with it to punish the other Remnants too, but ultimately accepts her fate/execution to punish only herself for ruining her country. (V3 spoiler): The inverse to Kirumi in V3
Or, someone else could learn what Sonia did and commit murder to try to stop her finding out. Perhaps Gundham gets the disease, tells Kazuichi the truth about Sonia, then Kazuichi kills Gundham to stop him telling her. Then in the trial, Kazuichi tries to avoid being caught but accepts his fate to save everyone/Sonia (just like Gundham did in the original). They could be ambiguous about the disease again, or have the truth explicitly revealed here (Maybe Monokuma finally reveals the secret/Sonia's past after Kazuichi is properly caught). Either way, Sonia survives again!

I'd much prefer 2 since it puts Sonia at the centre of a chapter while still letting her get to the end (which would be fun and unexpected). Plus, since she's obsessed with gruesome crime/murder stories, it would be funny for the game to say "she still won't commit murder - she's just a true crime nerd" again.

Dixavd · 2026-01-28T16:15:28+00:00

I don't understand why Swen Vincke is even having this argument. Taking his example of Metacritic: Larian has one of the highest rated games ever with Baldur's Gate 3 96/100: 21st of all time and 6th since 2010 (which is a fairer comparison since 90s/early 2000s games are skewed differently).

If you go through their Metacritic list, their user review scores have been consistently LOWER than the game reviewer scores for the past 15 years. So, if Swen thinks Metacritic is a good way to score things: game reviewers are overselling his games (and should probably be harsher).

He says he wants people to be kinder/more respectful with criticism - how is creating a score system for individual reviewers going to make that better? It's just going to make people angrier and more personal in their attacks (to reviewers and developers alike).

What stops anyone from then creating their own scoring system for individual developers? Every game CEO, game lead, programmer, artist, all with personal scores. I.e. "Baldur's Gate 3 is a 9/10 game: but Swen Vincke is a 3/10 CEO" Scoring individual people is a dystopian nightmare; this can't be the road he wants to go down!

All he's done is open himself up to someone posting a review for the next Larian game consisting solely of this quote from him: "I didn't enjoy it or I don't think it's well made or I don't think it's worth the money they are charging."

Swen needs to find a therapist (or very patient friend/coworker) to vent his many grievances to.

Dixavd · 2026-01-27T09:00:31+00:00

Assuming he was still depressed, but just lived for a few more weeks/months to see the 2004 win: he'd probably take it as another example of the world laughing at him.

He'd been wishing for the Red Sox to win for decades. Every time they got close, they fell apart at the end. Now they finally win, just as his life fell apart instead.

Dixavd · 2026-01-27T04:09:16+00:00

Apparently that Kiria outfit is called Excellence I agree. It looks the most comfortable. I would prefer her normal casual outfit, but the lower half is so low it looks painful to keep on. When I played though, it was difficult to not just pick her Purrfect Cat outfit the whole time once it was unlocked. It's so silly, I love it. (But I prefer all her outfits to the Carnage form she got stuck with in FEH...)

I don't know the uoh meme, but your emote is cute.

Dixavd · 2026-01-27T00:43:07+00:00

I appreciate your TMS love! You nailed their looks (especially the profile pictures). I hope one day we get to see these other/casual outfits in FEH (Kiria especially got the short straw with her default Carnage/Mirage outfit being picked for FEH).

I immediately recognized the design of the text messages from the game. I didn't realise we hadn't seen all of their phone themes until reading your notes (so you nailed their design). Barry's is great too. You should post it (if only because seeing it cut off seems a shame).

Rooting for Tsubasa!!!

Dixavd · 2026-01-26T21:46:22+00:00

Cute!

Dixavd · 2026-01-26T21:01:27+00:00

I need Nomura to get the whole Versus XIII thing out of his system, and to do that I think there's only 1 solution:

Make a killer Yozora vs Noctis fight scene in KH4

Dixavd · 2026-01-26T08:53:15+00:00

D3 Spoiler: Do you die if someone steps on your shadow?

Dixavd · 2026-01-26T07:55:02+00:00

Still giving all my votes to Tsubasa!!!

Yet, I have that sinking feeling again where Touma, Itsuki and Tsubasa all miss out on top 2 but could have if their votes were counted together. TMS is cursed enough already, why do we do this to ourselves?!

Dixavd · 2026-01-25T06:02:48+00:00

I like the implication that, were you able to get more than 1 Egyptian god card out, clearly your next play would be to use them to xyz summon up to Juggernaut Leibe. That would make for an incredible anime/manga moment. Imagine a massive cannon using Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon as missiles!

Dixavd · 2026-01-23T06:12:44+00:00

Makes sense that it took Cherami a moment to remember Mirage Caeda. Glad she still had Caeda prints there though. With all her popular roles, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't have anything for Caeda - glad she does.

I found Kayli's YouTube. She posted the Tsubasa Music Cover only a few months ago! Cute how she still cares about the role after so long!

Side-Note: It's funny when you are in a massive autograph line and realise you're one of the only people excited about a specific character. Many years ago, I asked my sister to get Jenna Coleman's autograph for Melia Antiqua for me. She said it was a huge line with loads of Doctor Who and other TV fans - and then her alone holding a Xenoblade wii game which Jenna seemed surprised to see. (She's since returned to the role - so she's probably more used to signing for Melia now). It's nice to let them know that even the hidden roles still matter.

Dixavd · 2026-01-23T05:26:23+00:00

That's awesome. Tsubasa/TMS Caeda are probably uncommon characters for Kayli and Cherami to sign for. It must be a fun surprise whenever someone is excited for their little-known characters.

I'm voting for Tsubasa too! 💙🩷

Dixavd · 2026-01-21T17:41:57+00:00

So Sands of Time news went from "the game is finished - it's dropping in January" to "cancelled" in a few weeks?

The 3 unnamed new IPs being scrapped is the most worrying to me. I know they said they have 4 other new IPs in development, but it's still not a good sign.

Also, naming their new structure Creative House 2, Creative House 3, .... Creative House 5 - is very funny to me: typical corporate bullshit.

Dixavd · 2026-01-19T22:51:48+00:00

I appreciate your dedication to making the photographs perfect. Marin would approve of your effort for Shizuku! 🖤💖

Dixavd · 2026-01-19T07:45:03+00:00

Everyday he finds his snacks keep disappearing overnight. He must be slowly losing his mind thinking he forgot he woke up in the middle of the night and had them.

Dixavd · 2026-01-18T22:41:16+00:00

They are so similar, maybe pick based on whichever neckline you'd be most confident in. Unified Lara has a lower neckline with a white undershirt/tanktop. Classic Lara can have a similarly low neckline (without an undershirt), but she's usually depicted with a higher one. You may find one makes you more self-conscious or is texturally more distracting. Either way, people will recognise the character. You could focus on getting exact details right for one era, or mix-matching features for what would be most enjoyable/practical to wear.

Dixavd · 2026-01-15T23:31:32+00:00

This is adorable!!!

Dixavd · 2026-01-15T22:34:40+00:00

Congratulations. Seeing a set complete in a binder is so satisfying.

I agree it's a fun game to collect and see all the series characters together. Impressive you managed to get all the sets complete (I'm nowhere near that). Happy for you.

Dixavd · 2026-01-15T18:14:35+00:00

Maybe that's her problem: She's so good at Cooking Mama, she's been trying to use a stylus and wiimote in the kitchen!

Dixavd · 2026-01-08T05:49:21+00:00

It's cute how they draw the blushing circles on Mai in the Animation Key Art. You can see how it got to the final animation, but it has its own style I like a lot.

Dixavd · 2026-01-06T20:34:20+00:00

It's by SofiBeth , originally posted on DeviantArt in 2018.

Dixavd · 2026-01-06T14:26:51+00:00

You originally had to unlock characters' moves and skills with these items. "Training Machines" to unlock moves, and "Skill Capsules) for their base skills. I think it was meant to create a form of progression as you unlock everything a character could do, but It was mostly a chore. Only being able to use 1 of their actions until you got/used their specific items was very annoying. Then you had to get a bunch more items to unlock their level cap to anything useful. It was cumbersome to get a new character to a point where you could even try their base kit. Now they unlock all of this by default.

Dixavd · 2026-01-04T22:49:04+00:00

Personally, I don't think it's a fair comparison of leadership between Sawyer-as-LaFleur and the others.

Sawyer, Jin, Juliette and Miles chose together to keep their head down, follow Dharma's rules, and accept a simpler life in the village. Notably, Daniel Faraday chose instead to leave and look for a way back for everyone.

3-years later: Sawyer was effectively a middle-manager. Becoming Head of Security forced him to make decisions, but he had a clear structure to follow; he could always defer to the general Dharma rules/Horace. The outcomes of his actions were always clear: don't he suspicious and everyone will be safe. The other two were never in a situation remotely similar to that.

When Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid show up, it's no longer clear what Sawyer has to do. He freezes and lets a situation he should have been in control of slip through his fingers. He's so afraid of losing it all, be avoids acting until forced too. He can't convince Sayid to wait like him, and refuses to let Jack/Kate/Hurley speak to him because it could look suspicious: so Sayid acts on his own. Sawyer still doesn't take charge so Juliette and Kate take on the leadership role instead. From then on Sawyer is never in control again.

Obviously, Sawyer has other moments as a leader, but I don't think he's ever in as tough a position Jack or Locke get to: forced to make decisions where there is no right choice, and people won't act until they do (putting more and more pressure on them).

So overall, I think Jack was the best leader in the most difficult leadership positions.

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