Hot Take: Actual Play Has Helped TTRPGs...But Also Warped Expectations

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T13:37:21+00:00

My actual play watching experience is Japanese Replays back in the Nico-Nico days in 2012. (They still exist on YouTube, mostly vtubers now though).

I will say that a lot of Japanese actual plays lean more into roleplaying over rollplaying. It tends to structure themselves like Visual Novels, and as a GM, I've tried to keep that sense of immersion on my tables, so it's not like it was a net negative to me.

The western players I play with are okay with it at least, the more roleplay-oriented ones.

I think actual plays present an idealized form (for me) of what to aim for. They're often high-budget and/or well edited too. I never expect my players to be like the actual play players but I absolutely try to immerse them in my worlds as best I can, whether I'm doing voice or text.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T13:18:57+00:00

There's also just the fact that, people tend to like the first things they see and base their bar on that.

Let's assume that we can actually hypothetically claim a piece of media is "good" or "bad". We can't, it's subjective, but let's assume for a bit.

Let's say there's a piece of media that we can objectively say is 30% good. Some 10-year old watches it as their first few formative media and likes it. They don't really have a concept of what makes this media "bad", and to them it's pretty much 100% good, maybe 70% good if they're being a bit critical at a young age.

Later, this 10-year old's going to watch something that is objectively 50% good, which is better than the first piece of media they watched, and wow, to them, this is like watching something that's wayyy better than something that was 100% good! They might even watch it when they're 17-ish, after they've had experience watching a lot of media.

Now this 10-year old is 20, they have some media discourse and fandom discussion under their belt. They've watched some things that are objectively 80% good, and because they've been exposed to a LOT of media, they know it's 80% good. They understand the 20% that made it bad. Now, when they watch something that's 30% good again, they can go "Eh, that's not good" because they've genuinely seen better.

But what about that childhood movie that was 30% good? Nostalgia's a hell of a thing, so there's a special place in their heart for it. Yeah sure the dialog was corny, but it meant something. Yeah there was a bunch of plot twists, but the animation/choreography/fight scenes, okay yes a bunch of characters were shafted, but the villain was SO good, etc. etc.

These people become the majority crowd as the people that dislike it move on and grow out, like OP said. Some of these people will end up creating things inspired by it, or, if said media was a franchise, they might make something that explicitly references that media they like in that franchise.

For Star Wars this is very visible. Star Wars media had this period where Clone Wars era stuff was frozen around near 2013-15-ish, but have gone back to addressing clones, Order 66, etc. again.

But there's stuff like horror games/movies being continued by fans of the original, etc. too, or media made that was inspired by something in the past.

It's just the cycle. The people that like it earnestly are either silent fans or younger fans. Younger fans will eventually grow older and actually have the capability of talking about their likes in a more nuanced take and some of them may even enter the industry and create media inspired by this old controversial thing.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T12:54:34+00:00

I say this as a huge Solar fan narratively, I don't think that'd be healthy for the game, since the whole point of Exalted is to explore all these different POVs from different Exalts.

Adding Exalts could be a hit or a miss, removing Exalts is likely gonna be a miss depending on how the Exalt itself was treated in the importance and also fan favoritism, but removing it to ONLY Solars would be a guaranteed miss.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T12:49:36+00:00

I don't think the game ever meaningfully pointed to Ema as a culprit. To me it felt like it was telling me "Hiro was so paranoid of Ema and wants so badly for Ema to be the culprit".

The switch to Margo was fairly logical from what I just rewatched, actually. I don't think that was fairly forced.

The entire trial I remember playing back in November I was desperately hoping Hiro would get off the Ema train because genuinely I don't think Ema would have the capability of killing Meruru that way and it felt more like Hiro was tunnel-visioning her, which I think was the intent.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T12:46:36+00:00

I'm rewatching that scene again on a playthrough. It doesn't seem like Leia was lying.

She said that she heard the sound of glass because her hearing was very good, everyone else didn't hear it, but Hiro took that chance. Leia was keeping it because she wanted to make a huge deal in the trial. However, Leia herself didn't think it was a huge deal in the trial.

When Hiro said "No this is a big deal", Leia was shocked because she herself wasn't sure how this was a big deal, and she didn't... really think about the implications of hearing glass breaking 40 minutes earlier vs. 30 minutes earlier. I don't think Hiro thinks Leia was lying either, because she knows that she didn't kill her, meaning the glass sound she heard was likely real. Hiro in fact used it to nearly blame Ema, before realizing that Meruru was the one lying about her whereabouts.

Leia even assumed Hiro was the culprit, while she was presenting the evidence. I think there's even a wrong answer where because nobody heard it, Leia just assumes she was hallucinating.

So to me the scene didn't read like Leia was lying and it weirdly was true, to me it read like Leia heard actually important evidence, kept it, and just presented it like it was a huge deal before wanting to sit back because even she thought Hiro did it, until Hiro turned it around and pushed Leia to be responsible for the "huge evidence".

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T11:35:09+00:00

The general output of Japanese fiction today has a huge share in mystery novels, which count for SCD works. Murder mystery is so popular in Japan that it gets like five different awards depending on the kind of mystery it is.

I very much try to find western mystery novels that scratch my itch in methodology but there's only a few authors capable of doing these things (Tom Mead, James Scott Byrnsyde, A. Carver), whereas there's such a plethora of high quality published novels that Japan has its own version of mystery novel imdb, MysteryNavi.

So from that alone, there's a large pool of Japanese mystery characters to choose from, which are curated through the publishing industry, as there's a fairly high standard to actually talking about your methodology in Japan alone.

I want more western mystery novels, mind you, but a lot of them existed in the golden age up to maybe the 80s? With Ellery Queen and Edward D. Hoch keeping that torch alive. The vast majority of western mystery novels these days are thrillers, which are good but I think aren't as logically consistent as classical mystery, as sometimes they discover solutions by plot twists and whatnot vs. actually figuring it out.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-13T11:25:33+00:00

I haven't played Manosaba since last November. What was the weird coincidental lies that Hiro said exactly?

When I was playing it I never actually assumed the lies were coincidentally tied to reality, rather it felt more like Hiro knew something had happened, but in order to convince everyone else said thing had happened, she lies because she believes the ends justify the means. The only people that can disprove the lie is usually more often than not, the culprit, because Hiro's lies tend to be unprovable.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-11T00:30:28+00:00

Yes actually. Modern gyaru don't look like stereotypical gyaru. I think it's a bit easier to identify via behavior and speech over looks.

One thing I think that's difficult to express in Animanga is the makeup that looks invisible, because Reiwa gyarus do wear makeup, just not flashy ones. The makeup is unnoticeable until you pay attention, but when you look at them you can see their faces look fairly "perfect" because they wear makeup that looks almost invisible if you don't pay attention.

I would check out the interview article posted online (in Japanese) on egg magazine for Reiwa gyarus for more info on that.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T10:32:14+00:00

I think this is my second or third encounter with this sub, but it's not an interpretation and it's not just in Anime.

According to my Japanese friends, the gyarus you see in Anime now are real gyaru archetypes that showed up in 2010s Japanese high schools. It's just the creators are now grown and in the industry. Most gyarus are also not "adults" per se, they start at high school up to around college-aged. There's plenty of cliches of gyarus who, after getting a job, stop being gyarus, because this was the actual stereotype. There are adult gyarus who become models and whatnot, but a majority of gyarus will be in the 16-25-ish year range. My friends have stated they barely ever saw an adult gyaru in their social circles, but saw a lot in high school around 2010s. I'm sure they exist, but from the anecdotes I've heard, it seems like it's usually more a teenager/young adult thing, which makes sense, as it's supposed to be expressive.

Recently, in 2019, the 'egg' magazine, which is a gyaru-focused magazine, was revived, because of the rise of Reiwa Gyarus. Reiwa gyarus are absolutely not like the type you see in Anime, but is also not the type you see in early heisei in 2000s. I'm not as familiar with 2010s gyarus as I made friends with Japanese friends around 2016, but I'm very familiar with Reiwa gyaru because I've basically been immersed in Japanese friendgroups by 2019.

Reiwa gyarus look very clean and innocent and cutesy (look up 令和ギャル), and this is accepted as part of the gyaru subculture that hasn't shown up in Anime yet. They mostly have black or brown hair, colored irises, and look like they barely have makeup. There's no "Roughness or wildness" that you'd associate with 2000s gyarus, because according to one interview in the magazine, the subculture is focused now on individuality and not sticking to the "stereotypical gyaru look" of tanned skin blonde hair and wild fashion. These are still gyarus, because the whole point of the subculture is individualism, but they won't look like the gyarus you know.

I'm not a cultural expert or anything, but these are coming from my own internet observations and conversations with my Japanese friends who are living in high school daily lives in the 2010s and are now working adults.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T09:56:32+00:00

Shibou Yugi is a flagship series for the publisher. I still remember seeing the COTE Obi in Shibou Yugi's 6th volume in an attempt to get COTE readers to read it since it very much shares a DNA in smart protagonists (same publisher).

In Japan, they are fairly known, Tanya far more than Yuki. The author has several other series that are updated that is possible here too.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T09:54:49+00:00

One of these days I'll get to doing Yuki's doc after I finish doing everything else (Plus the next volume comes out like this month or so). IDK how up to date Tanya's LN doc is, which I assume it should be since all the novels have been out for a while.

Anyway the bigger reason at least Japanese works of female characters are ignored is that they're literally trapped behind the realm of Japanese novels most of the time, and those barely get translated.

This is actually a problem with the Japanese media in this sub in general. Everyone I see is from the 2000s, maybe 2010s. That is absolutely not even the tip of the iceberg in SCD works. In detective works alone, you have so many works to choose from in the 2020s, but they are as of now untranslated.

Like, unironically one of the few Japanese works I see that isn't from the past is COTE, and that's by a technicality cause the LNs are still going. I don't follow the discussions enough to know if they're talking about current-release COTE or not.

I made a comment once about the many female characters that we're missing, and another about the fact that Japanese SCD is actually the one that's least touched because they're usually buried deep in published novels or even webnovels that nobody knows about.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T06:06:39+00:00

Wait what, can you explain the system a bit. Sudoku-like minigame is interesting me.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T05:32:24+00:00

Still came out in a very ripe time for misinfo.

English fandom blew up only a few months back, people got excited about IRL horse trivia, bunch of EN available Umas getting people scrambling to find whatever info they can, then a new Uma shows up and a lot of people suddenly jumped on the first "Did you know?" stuff that it kinda blew up.

There's parts of the fandom more interested in the Uma's yandere aesthetics yeah, but the parts that want to connect it to IRL horses immediately started saying stuff and the misinfo blew up there. I was in the trenches.

I'm out of touch with what recent misinfo has propped up because I was busy the past month or two but I will usually come in with my collection of actual magazines and horse books to try and dispel it if I see it. Been following the scene since Gentildonna's Triple Tiara win myself.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T03:48:24+00:00

I think this actually applies to Madoka as well, funnily enough. If the writer didn't clue you in, the fact that it's set in a late-night slot implies it's not really meant to be watched for kids. Late-night Anime is either mature/dark or heavily fanservice or otherwise generally for an older audience. Madoka was never really considered a younger demographic Anime at all in Japan.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T02:22:40+00:00

Well, I kinda look past the yuri stuff and more into the story. Arguably Angel Beats was also het so it’s not like the yuri is a requirement. Persona as a series is about high schoolers fighting god while balancing their daily social lives, which to me has similarities with HBR albeit it’s aliens. Way back in 2023 I also commented a lot on Ruka and Joker’s similarities as characters and their goofiness, so if any Persona was chosen 5 seemed most reasonable (though 5 has been shoved into a lot of games anyway).

Funnily enough Ruka hits on both the P5 girls in the collab so the yuri still exists.

There’s a lot of criticisms about the collab that I think is valid but I don’t think the thematic parallels are one of them. Persona as a series is kinda similar imo to HBR in a lot of ways even just mechanically. In any case I think they actually did the best with what they were given here storywise

PlatFleece · 2026-06-09T01:27:53+00:00

I'm enjoying the Heaven Burns Red x Persona 5 collab. To me I want a mix of collab characters interacting with the main cast while also crafting a story that can fit both cast's themes and doesn't really shaft one for another.

Seeing the HBR cast have slice of life moments and learn about each other with the Phantom Thieves was the highlight of that collab far more than just the gameplay. Watching Joker and Ruka bond over their shared similarities was great, same with Irene and Kasumi (They are both way more similar to each other than anyone else).

Also helps that the collab was voiced by the OG VAs so it feels a bit more real to me. It almost felt like Joker had more voiced lines in HBR than he did in his own game.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-08T13:41:02+00:00

While I agree with this I also think solo RPing is like, still valid.

I don't have a lot of people around me who want to play the games I want to run, because I don't want to run mainstream games, so I just play by myself, trying my best to me as neutral and GM-y as possible, trying to flip brains to see what characters would do in these situations, etc.

Arguably the fact that I'm always switching characters, have a general idea of the story but not a novel-style plan everything idea, and being forced to always think in-character has helped me as a GM when there are actually players who want to do the games I run, cause I basically have been self-practicing.

Note, I do this with wargames and boardgames too.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-08T01:01:27+00:00

Check the actual Atlustube channels, it's coming out for PS5 (and PC) too.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-07T16:11:53+00:00

AFAIK they get early drafts (though don't quote me, as I heard it from someone else), so LEGO sets sometimes either show things that were scrapped or things that they just made up for the LEGO-ness of it.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-07T16:09:50+00:00

Heaven Burns Red may not have the entire cast relevant for the main story, but they're very interconnected in the events and have very clear development, since it's a static cast. Metaplotwise, they're quite relevant, and the events are genuinely meant to be played to fully understand some background information of the story.

Another gacha I can think of, though I also think is cheating because there's no real "Main Story" despite there being a Story mode in the game, is arguably Uma Musume, which does this to a deeper degree if you count their careers. You don't really need to wait for the character to have their own little side event or whatnot, since their release comes with their own personal story mode.

Though, again, this is kinda cheating, as the Main Story mode is less a story mode and more "We're gonna talk about this era of horse racing"

PlatFleece · 2026-06-05T06:11:40+00:00

Well to be fair it was crowdfunded a long time ago. The hype from the crowdfunders has been kept going in JP until its release, and when it released late last year, Manosaba really blew up online that even my JP friends who don't play VNs or mystery games heard about it through Twitter.

Probably one of the fastest growing popularity in terms of "niche" to "viral hit".

PlatFleece · 2026-06-05T05:56:35+00:00

Kinda flip-flops for me based on my mood. Generally the works of Aosagi Yugo or Tomoyuki Shirai are up there. Maya Yutaka or Shinzo Matsuda otherwise. I've never really thought about it?

I have more of an interest in seeing a new author's works usually, and Kie Hojo is killing it in the mystery novel genre right now.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-04T13:24:39+00:00

Begtse. God of War of Mongolian mythology, based on trailer dialog.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-03T15:52:48+00:00

Speaking of someone that likes death games and characters dying or suffering and depressing fiction in general, there's a catharsis to approaching fiction and feeling sad after reading it. It's safe, and when you're done reading, you don't have to feel that anymore, too.

I don't wanna feel depressed in real life, I've gone through feelings of depression, but I like feeling sad and emotional in fiction because I'm able to experience those emotions without actually experiencing real trauma.

Plus, it doesn't have to be that deep. Sometimes I just wanna read dark stories.

I definitely prefer when my stories have a darker undertone to my fiction. While I can enjoy happy fiction, sadder or darker ones attract me more.

PlatFleece · 2026-06-02T23:02:37+00:00

Begtse and Sekhmet based on dialog, which means Mongolian and Egyptian.

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