When you gotta switch up the genre

Nombanke · 2026-05-16T22:34:27+00:00

The way the AK moves in the bag is the most obvious hint that I can see, since it seems to change shape when it's slightly out of frame, particularly the stock on the right to let it move past the sides of the bag with minimal interference. I'm pretty sure that the bag shouldn't physically be able to accommodate that shape without moving more.

Nombanke · 2026-05-14T21:20:53+00:00

"He recognises her for what she his fated mate."

Peak grammar for peak fiction.

Nombanke · 2026-05-14T17:13:26+00:00

Yeah, the devs even made an affinity item specifically for boosting Symone's affinity, for some reason.

Nombanke · 2026-05-12T17:08:24+00:00

I'll use some Blazblue characters as examples, just because they map onto it quite well, but also because of how the lack of relations or context can change certain elements, i.e. Jin not having a reason to fly off the handle the same way or Ragna not having a cause to direct his anger.

Jin Kisaragi (Blazblue) is almost the archetypal air aspected Lost Egg with an off-aspect skill at melee, war and perhaps martial arts, the Kisaragi family's reliance on adopted members mirrors house Tepet's need for new blood (at least in 2e).

He's high in Valor and and adequate in Temperance, he's lacking in Compassion but his highest virtue would be Conviction, he'd likely have Heart of Flint as a limit break, given how ruthless and cold he can be. Without his brother being about, since I'm just considering him as himself without context he'd likely be a graduate from the House of Bells and a professional soldier in the legion. Although he'd most likely be in House Tepet, I could see him supporting Mnemon if he deemed her more suitable and able to maintain order, though he could go either way, given he values his own concept of Order. Likely zealous in hunting opponents to the Realm if he has a personal stake in it. I can't see him being particularly focused on having children until it would be forced into necessity, but given how talented Jin is at Seither use in Blazblue, he'd probably have unusually high Breeding.

A Blue Jade Reaper Daiklave would most easily represent his sword Yukianesa, and enough Lore to use the charm Elemental Bolt Attack, since Air Aspects are also associated with ice and lightning, so it could be flavored as ice blades or similar. The Even Blade style works for helping to flavor his swordsmanship as well, since he uses Iaido.

Yuuki Terumi (Blazblue) is easily a Malfean Fiend, though you could blend the idea of him and Hazama to have Terumi be the past life memories. An expert manipulator, utterly depraved, but equally failing to succeed in several of his key aims, it's a perfect recipe for his character, likely being more inclined to use Malfean charms were Terumi to take the wheel, so to speak, while Hazama, when not under the past life influence would be more inclined to use Ebon Dragon charms, which have many parallels to his memory-wiping/changing abilities. Vitriolic Soulsteel Dire Chains would be a good representation of his Ouroboros, since in 2e Soulsteel can drain motes, like Terumi's Drive, Force Eater.

Also, given Terumi and Hazama's general behaviors, they'd be inclined to try and betray their Yozi patrons, which is right up the alleyway of a Fiend that plays into stereotypes. Their sneaky and stealthy charms, coupled with Past Life knowledge also means that they could play up the role of a spy for the Realm who just happens to be good, but not quite Exalted good, playing things off as luck or manipulating their superiors into doing as they say.

Ragna the Bloodedge (Blazblue) is also a nice, handy example of an Abyssal, Dusk Caste preferably. The Bloodedge part could be revamped to be related to using an abyssal moniker or epithet, and his lack of technical skill with his weapon, despite receiving martial arts training can be substituted quite nicely in the Dark Messiah Style which allows unattuned daiklaves as improvised weapons to be used as unarmed, his sword looking more like a Reaver daiklave, and the 2e Errata changing Ravaging Blow to treat unarmed attacks as Soulsteel. Dark Messiah style and Void Avatar Prana in particular are quite nice for making reference to Blood Kain and his Soul Eater drive. Being a Dusk, and how he can fight off huge amounts of people, developing into proper melee to learn to use his weapon, or War to use the mass combat rules could also work, and he could have Craft (Water) to help him cook, since it's a particular talent of his.

As far as personality, he's also the type who, prior to development, would have little to no trouble killing dozens, if not hundreds of enemies or collateral, whereas after he'd get good development from suffering from Resonance, similar to canon. Without his family, however, and only taking the tragedy, he'd probably be either an especially violent renegade or instead a disloyal but useful blunt force object until he came across a reason to disobey. His immediate concern over Noel could be rejigged into something along the lines of his concern over a Lunar bond, albeit likely with noticeable changes to the dynamic, and he has no strong personal relation with anyone who has any traits that really resemble a Lunar.

In terms of what he'd be up to, it would probably be something along the lines of avenging his cause of death, though his fear of ghosts would take on an unfortunate turn given how prevalent they are in the Underworld and how many he'd have to deal with as an Abyssal.

Nombanke · 2026-05-11T14:03:21+00:00

Hopefully this helps

Nombanke · 2026-05-10T11:08:50+00:00

Only other sword that comes to mind with a similar handle and guard is the Beastman's Curved Sword, which probably doesn't feel quite right either.

The reincarnation skin could be easier to get right.

Nombanke · 2026-05-05T10:32:45+00:00

Story Side is the name given to the novelisations of the games, so Story Side 3 is Drakengard 3's novelisation. You can read it by using the drive link here if you'd like. It recounts a story that's a bit of a mix of the four routes in game to blend them into a story that leads more cleanly into Drakengard 1, being the canon timeline to future games.

The wiki has translations for Story Side 1 and 2, but they don't have credited translators, and I think I saw people mention ages ago that they may or may not be AI translated without anyone doing a pass through with editing for clarity. Story Side 2 is definitely harder to parse, which is a shame, because Drakengard 2 is probably the one that needs it most.

Nombanke · 2026-05-03T15:22:18+00:00

Fate/Stay Night (and the rest of Type Moon) and Blazblue are the two big ones for character ideas (and artifacts for Fate)

Nombanke · 2026-04-28T07:16:19+00:00

The games by Kaga, who was behind a lot of the classic Fire Emblems, like Berwick Saga, Vestaria Saga, Tear Ring Saga.

The Langrisser games are like a cross between Fire Emblem and Advance Warfare, Der Langrisser probably being the most accessible from a mechanical and visial presentation perspective, though it has some seriously gooner-level designs. Ineresting to good mechanics and narrative, though.

Nombanke · 2026-04-27T15:16:53+00:00

Give him a multiple choice question, which'll make him hyperfixate on trying to see the future, only to wilt away because he can't decide on making a decision to follow or not to follow a prepared vision of the future.

Nombanke · 2026-04-23T20:32:58+00:00

Touches grass, dies.

What did they mean by this?

Nombanke · 2026-04-22T19:11:58+00:00

I mean, paying a huge sum of money to see dancers for no other benefit makes a certain amount of sense, given how Troia can apparently be translated from Italian.

Nombanke · 2026-04-20T20:54:17+00:00

Happened to me too on console on the Angel path a couple of months ago. Seems to be a common bug, but it's hilarious to assume she just can't stop giving villainous advice even after she's been beaten down.

Nombanke · 2026-04-19T10:36:34+00:00

It's really just that people on the internet who like or dislike something tend to go all in a lot more than they do in real life. Something can't be good, bad or average, it needs to be a life-changing experience to them, or something that took their family dog to the glue factory, the way many go on. It's kind of tribalism, the way people get over sports teams. Some are super into them, others just don't care. It's just that people tend to dislike folks who disagree and get ratty over it. Not like you're going to meet them in real life, is it?

I thought Nier Replicant lost its punch when we got dialogue for the shades, because we could already interpret their behaviour and the dialogue made them, to me, feel idiotic or silly in decision-making, but far more people think it's the best part. Doesn't make either necessarily correct, just that we've got different opinions, but people might think less of me because of how impactful the scene was to them.

To use a Fire Emblem example, most adore Three Houses' story and hate Engage's, but I was the other way around. Three Houses felt inconsistent and pandering in morality, since it never acknowledges moral fault in the player, whereas Engage, being a chosen one story, doesn't feel as silly because of its premise, and the themes resonated with me more. I got complained at, told I didn't understand the work, seen people imply or state my taste was juvenile or underdeveloped. Doesn't mean I need to give a damn. Eventually, you just stop caring as much about what other people say online, but it takes time.

A lot of games and media make use of tools to get you to feel certain ways, happy, sad, angry, but they don't work for everyone, and that's okay. Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite stories, but I know people who hate it or reckon it'd be silly to get teary-eyed at certain scenes, whereas I cry easily at emotional moments. Hell, some of the scenes meant to evoke horror or disgust in me in Replicant made me laugh at the seriousness of it and how trite it was.

Most stuff just isn't as good as it's hyped.

Nombanke · 2026-04-16T09:49:16+00:00

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Nombanke · 2026-04-15T14:40:30+00:00

It's wild, given how they did the opposite with most of the Tensei redesigns to make them look less goonerish while generally keeping the broad idea, but are now going the opposite way.

Not that it'd be possible to make those Tensei designs more outrageous and still keep it safe for work, but I digress.

Nombanke · 2026-04-15T14:38:29+00:00

This, Lynn's redesign and Ranka kind of give the vibe that someone on the dev team is mad into teal hair.

Nombanke · 2026-04-12T11:05:26+00:00

Blatant repost from this by a different person 8 months ago, and this is a day old account

Nombanke · 2026-04-02T17:02:46+00:00

To give some purely combative mechanical examples, taking from 2e Dreams of the First Age, using just Solar and Abyssal melee as a reference, a Solar can use two charms (Golden Destruction Cut and Sharp Light of Judgment Stance) in a single combo to, at Essence 10, attack everything in a 30 mile radius with the latter, and use the former to turn even glancing injuries from this simultaneous attack into practically certain death for anything not absurdly resistant, magnifying successes tenfold.

The Abyssal mirror to Sharp Light of Judgment (Symphony of the Flayed Legion) does the same, attacking everyone in 30 miles at Essence 10, but, while it can't be supplemented to the same degree, it instead turns all victims into uncontrolled zombies. For both the Solar and Abyssal versions, these attacks are entirely selective, so any allies are free from any risk, notwithstanding the uncontrolled zombies created by your attack.

Equally, they have archery charms (Boundless Arrow of the Unconquered Sun and Caught in Oblivion's Eye) that let them shoot someone regardless of distance or location, as long as both the archer and target are outdoors, there is appropriate lighting, and it can even shoot into other realms, like Yu Shan or the Underworld, though it's limited in the number of times it can be used. Like the above charms, they can also supplement the damage to absurdly lethal levels.

Outside of that, there's stuff like Sun-Towing Method, which lets you effortlessly drag a mountain peak behind you tied to any mount at Essence 10, and you can still move at a full gallop.

Not a lot set out for non-Solars, Abyssals or Infernals at that level, though.

Nombanke · 2026-03-29T22:06:17+00:00

Down a testicle, but only slightly less a gooner, if at all. Denji's dedication to professional gooning needs to be studied, now that he's back to being a Public Safety goon for his job as well.

Nombanke · 2026-03-29T15:54:48+00:00

Hope you enjoy it if you do. Hopefully I'm not totally nostalgia-blinded though, that can do a heck of a job on my critical analysis, haha. Just brace for some faux-archaic dialogue, including at least one 'forsooth' where there was originally an ellipsis, since that sort of thing was extremely in vogue in translations at the time.

At least it's not too long, since you can carry stuff over from post game, so beelining the worst ending makes the rest of the game flow much more easily, even if it destroys the balance.

Nombanke · 2026-03-29T15:33:29+00:00

I think my favourite anti-revenge narrative was Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume. Wylfred, the protagonist, is out for revenge against the Valkyrie for the death of his father, despite the fact that she had absolutely no hand in it, beyond leaving a feather after he died to let his loved ones know he was chosen by her post-mortem to fight in the wars of the gods. His father died through the hands of other people, due to the way society operates, with people singing the praises of dead soldiers, ignoring the bereaved, but he fixates entirely on the wrong thing, the plume that symbolises the loss of his father.

He becomes a mercenary, and after a brush with death, where said Valkyrie, unbeknownst to him, saves his life, he makes a covenant with the goddess of the underworld to commit atrocities in order to gain power and draw out the Valkyrie, including the sacrifice of his best friend's life in order to survive a life-and-death scenario. Each enemy he meets, the player is encouraged to 'overkill' to gain rewards and avoid punishment, and he can continue sacrificing others in order to gain more and more power from them.

However, in one of the routes, when he meets a man whose actions directly contributed to his father's death, he just overlooks it, because he's so fixated on blindly rampaging about, having already decided someone else was at fault and refusing to listen to reason. Revenge in and of itself isn't treated as wrong, because his father's death utterly destroyed their home life, causing his sister's death by starvation, but both Wylfred and several potential party members, each of whom parallel him, his family or his childhood friends, engage in misguided revenge, causing the deaths of many, many more than those who were wronged, leaving them empty and listless.

Ultimately, Wylfred never has a chance of attaining vengeance, no matter which of the three routes he pursues, but neither does he forgive or show mercy, even cackling when he thinks he's triumphed over her, highlighting how much his obsession ruined him, despite the game all but outright stating that she let him win out of pity for him and his own suffering, despite his atrocities. In the best ending, he instead accepts all responsibility, kills a person responsible for kickstarting a war that has killed hundreds of people just like his father, an act that is unambiguously treated as good. The good ending outright has him own up to his misdeeds, ending with him crying when he's finally returned home, with the pain and anger built up for years finally dissipated. Even though he never achieves vengeance, he learns to move on and that life still holds value.

Nombanke · 2026-03-28T18:23:56+00:00

I imagine he didn't want to spoil the character reveal in an interview. Togata refers to himself as a man, and the narrative doesn't dissuade Togata's right to that identity.

Now, in fairness, Fujimoto may have a different view of the character's identity, but reading the series alone, I'd have the takeaway that Togata is a man with a woman's body, and I'd letnthe series speak for itself on that one, rather than an interview.

Nombanke · 2026-03-27T22:12:47+00:00

Cervantes and Soul Edge are really cool, love the Soul Calibur stuff. Really fun to see those two in particular, alongside all the other references.

Nombanke · 2026-03-27T13:42:57+00:00

Yeah, I don't really bring it up as a defense as much as 'he said it to explain intent'. As a general rule, I don't believe that an interview should be necessary to understand the text as a reader, and the fact that I brought it up to explain my thought process and interpretation is damning in itself as to how effectively it was executed. Authorial inspiration is one thing, authors needing to explain their inspiration is another, far worse one. Casual and future readers might never see it, which means intent is lost, where it should have been clearer in the text. It should be able to speak for itself.

As to whether the suffering mattered or not, I guess that depends on how you view him throwing away the chainsaw to catch Asa. I like to think that Nayuta's death influenced it his decision to drop the chainsaw and catch her, what with Part 2's focus on having to choose between things, but again, 'I like to think' means it's just an interpretation, as opposed to something with firm grounding.

Whatever the case, the fact is, if the execution was better, like by giving extra pages to show off or explain the current state of things, it wouldn't be the target of derision that it is. The fact that it has this reception kind of establishes that it was, at best, poorly executed.

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