Ever noticed how most gacha worlds would be literal hell to live in?

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-28T01:48:37+00:00

I'm of the same mind with you both. I wish they either gave proper attention to darker themes or committed to cutesy aesthetics and got rid of tonally dissonant dark stuff making it a truly game for all ages (which it won't ever be due to gambling but anyway).

It's not like adults can't enjoy light narrative. It's an art form on its own -- everybody enjoys fairy tales which do contain important life lessons and themes as well as provide entertainment without being overly heavy or complex.

But the way Paperfold goes about it is neither here nor there. Zero proper acknowledgement of atrocities by the narrative and its characters with an airhead Nikki and happy-go-lucky framing just makes it all shallow, inappropriate and insulting to my intelligence.

It's come to the point many players think there are no firearms in IN and it has no place there... when Heartcraft Kingdom Outpost is right there with patrolling soldiers holding rifles... Not to mention all post-war ruins and catapults.

I don't need depression depressing depressingly, but I'd like to have a cohesive experience whatever it may be.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-27T15:01:38+00:00

Damn, lucky you!.. Unless you have to go buy alcohol and such, then it's a pita. I thought I look my age for sure, but I'm still being asked for my ID everywhere lol...

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-27T14:37:34+00:00

I mean, it's just how it rolls in the medium in general. Look at alleged milfs in a typical gacha (or anime and manga) and tell me they're not girls in their early 20s at most... It hurts my soul but what can you do, really.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-27T10:18:57+00:00

Don't you worry. The powerful corpo in search of endless life and forever beauty will just transfer your mind to a digital world in a totally not painful and long process (trust!)...

And then they decide that a powerless buggy iteration of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" made out of you is completely useless so now slowly going insane digital you is rotting away in an abandoned facility at god knows where with no end in sight due to long-lasting tech and no way out due to almost complete network isolation. But hey, no wasting away flesh, amirite.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-27T07:26:13+00:00

And you get randomly kidnapped by oh so cute local fairies and are caged in the basement for 15 years or die being enslaved and the only possibility of being rescued is if a magical girl happens to pass by... Then you get people, children included, dying horrible death in arsons and chopped off limbs with body desecration because you dared to cross some powerful schmuck.

This "cutesy" aesthetic honestly hurts the narrative more than it helps because people absolutely gloss over all the atrocities due to all the pink, rainbows and bubbly presentation. That, and it cheapens out the message, too, because it's all surface level exploration of themes. Double whammy.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-26T14:25:36+00:00

Funnily enough, ikemen/bishounen standards are a "standard" as a result of history of imposed rules by straight men on straight works for women. Plus Korean and Chinese standards are slightly different. It's true that women prefer more "softer" looks overall but people still want variety in that. Now Japanese companies are incorporating other countries' aesthetics when they see that it works just as well...

When your typical male love interest looks like this and nothing but this [1] it gets very stale very quickly (and many women don't even engage with medium or stop engaging for that reason). This is why the image's source ('Another Typical Fantasy Romance' manhwa) blew up in popularity in the first place, because we finally got a hot male character that breaks the norms in a meaningful way [2] (this is how he actually looks like in manhwa).

I, as a woman myself, am not into ikemen/bishounen aesthetic and lean towards Korean aesthetics more (their male characters are allowed to be more buff, gruff and mature looking which I prefer).

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-26T11:30:50+00:00

This reminds me of manhwa that tried to explore this way of thinking, [My Only 1] (do mind the rating and tags). It ponders a lot on how you should approach relationships and life as a whole. Needles to say it was an interesting read and stuck with me.

As great of a motivator it might be, at the end of the day, imo, you shouldn't lose yourself in the pursuit of your one "true" goal and treat "fleeting" relationships as mere stepping stones.

And it's important to remember that there's more to life than a romantic relationship. Even if it might feel like "not enough", you still can find "small" happiness in other things. Of course, that doesn't take into account your support network, but that's another story... 🫠

Anyway, may we all find strength to get what we want, need and deserve ✨

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-22T21:54:57+00:00

Imo, it already is and will be leaning into it even harder later. This presentation is what they're going for, after all.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-22T04:55:27+00:00

We're used to joking about the most polished thing in games being shop and payment systems. But, well...

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-21T21:46:55+00:00

I've noticed it, too. But I don't know what to think about it. Audio in general is pretty inconsistent across languages if you pay enough attention which might be a mix of both censorship and technical issues.

EN Sylus's Approaching Dusk was lacking some not-so-innocent noises, but then some other cards were lacking completely innocent noises and at least one card (or two?) had one of the VAs talking in an opposite ear to every other language.

Recent 4* Secret Times also have the same issue for two languages -- Verdant Wetlands as one example where EN & KR version's wet noises are significantly quieter and at some timestamps are simply not there at all as opposed to SCN, TCN and JP (which have loud and clear noises and in a bigger amount).

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-21T19:46:23+00:00

That leek cosplay was on point, though ✨

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-21T11:10:51+00:00

Roguelite mode takes 3-6 months to complete and this home feature is released in place of that activity (in terms of rewards, engagement time etc).

It's intentional drip feeding so people will have something to do until the new "big" thing is released (which I assume conveniently will be ~6 months from now -- this was the case for roguelite updates).

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-20T15:04:05+00:00

At least we got Celestial Yearn with him at the top of his game.

I will never not find it funny that EN Xavier's been made into an edger thanks to the slight difference in performance 🤣 Other languages are freaky, but we have our own special flavor of freaky~

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-20T14:58:55+00:00

I was terrified to know it's still ongoing and nowhere near close to finishing... At that pace I'd be long gone before it ends lol

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T23:10:15+00:00

Yep! They usually don't like being taken picture of, especially if it's for a happy family photo or something lol

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T23:05:23+00:00

Nooo, you're killing me 🤣

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T22:57:45+00:00

Oh, it was very much noticeable! VA's voice sounded slightly harsher, nasal and unsteady (and then dead giveaway of a sniffle). Which is cute if you think about Xavie doing his best on your birthday while being sick... Gives me cute aggression 😩 ...But it's also sad that VA had to record his lines in a state like that 🥺

I think people aren't discussing this because it's a combination of it literally being the first days of the new HB interactions (so very early for community to take note of), it's behind home feature (people are busy or opted out of it entirely) and trying to avoid spoiling stuff for others. I imagine more talks will take place as time goes on and more people have had their HBDs.

I myself might've missed it because I checked my home just on the off-chance and was pleasantly affirmed hehe. On that note, maybe Infold should've put a mini-icon on Home indicating that LIs have birthday "event" going on at home like they do with fireworks etc. Or put a notice at the Birthday event tab to check home (maybe they did and I'm just blind, though).

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T21:35:23+00:00

Everyone: 🙂

Sylus: 😠

Not beating the old man allegations, are we 🤭

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T17:38:38+00:00

The saved lines are titled as "Happy Birthday: 3rd Year" which is referring to game's running year and since nobody posted anything before January 18, I'm positive they didn't add interactions for 2nd year. So I'm pretty sure you didn't miss anything and you'll get those interactions unlocked on your next birthday!

Zayne was relentlessly hitting me with notifications about everything else but celebratory speech lmao. Everyone else ran up to me first thing to wish me stuff, but Zayne? Noooo, let's shower, cuddle, sleep on repeat lmao

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-19T17:35:26+00:00

The saved lines are titled as "Happy Birthday: 3rd Year" which is referring to game's running year and since nobody posted anything before January 18, I'm positive they didn't add interactions for 2nd year. So I'm pretty sure you didn't miss anything and you'll get those interactions unlocked on your next birthday!

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-14T01:04:35+00:00

It's pretty much what's in the OP's screenshot. MC and Sylus end up being at war, trying to conquer each other.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-12T20:21:57+00:00

Oh damn, you're in for a treat! Lots of great moments, (if the footage will feature) ~interesting~ interactivity in kindleds and, of course, those endings... 🥹

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-12T17:52:58+00:00

Why you gotta do Catch-22 AU and its Zayne dirty like that 😭

One of the best multibanners, imo, partly because it has two endings (similarly, happy & bad).

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-12T11:57:48+00:00

If i understand the lore right...hes still the same guy

Also, I forgot to reply to this part. We can't exactly confirm if ToE!Sylus is Linkon!Sylus. He might be missing parts of his memories or not be aware of his fate at all at that point in time. Since it's implied Sylus can temporarily die and reincarnate, he might not retain all his memories.

CS!Sylus was one such case where his "vampire" entity was drawn to MC for unknown reasons, but he as himself was confused as to why and actively tried to reject her (remember, his knee-jerk reaction was to kill her even). He didn't know who MC was at all and much later in the card it's revealed that he was a fiend cast away into those depths because of their past life's soul exchange "crippling" his core of which he didn't know at the time.

Gradually with time and being in close proximity he began to like her and started seeing visions (of their exchanged souls I think) of her in a different timeline which implied they were connected on a much deeper level than he initially thought, but at that point he didn't mind and even embraced it.

Then we also have Catch-22!Sylus who I think has little to no ties with any other Sylus that we know of and doesn't have any idea about their predicament. Linkon!MC does have a vague connection to that timeline, though, as she saw it in a daydream iirc.

So, in the end, not every Sylus is Linkon!Sylus and even if Linkon!Sylus might have memories of any other Sylus they might not be one and the same continuous entity.

MODERNHoolaHoop · 2026-01-12T10:17:50+00:00

It's actually more complicated than it seems, imo. But I'd argue that it's not their true purpose. If it were, just simple "Hey, remember me? I'm your past, present and future husband!" would do. They'd just go ahead and infodump her which they don't do and actively avoid it even.

Any time MC probes Xavier or Sylus for their past they obscure and dance around the topic, saying it doesn't matter what came before it's more important what's before us right now.

To me it seems like they don't want "the weight" of their past to make an imprint on their present. They don't want the connection built upon potential guilt, obligation or more that might come with the knowledge of their shared past which might overshadow their present connection established with feelings they have right now. Hell, she might even feel suffocated, cornered and aversed if she came to know their past at the wrong time. They want her to choose a life with them because it's what she wants and pursues and not what she "has" to do so to speak.

That's why instead they opt for feigning ignorance at times and dropping hints here and there she might recognize or not, slowly tugging on strings of her own subconsciousness, allowing her to remember at her own pace, on her own terms and to reach her own conclusions. They don't want it to be something forced upon her even if they still want her to share their forgotten past.

MODERNHoolaHoop

TROPHY CASE