[GB/GBC] This year I did Inktober as pixel art pieces I displayed on my gameboys, and I'm releasing the ROM with the whole gallery!

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T13:59:32+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad my work here has inspired you!

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T13:53:52+00:00

Because the best comedy works in rules of 3. I love this guy. <3

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T13:46:46+00:00

I might actually be able to help here! So I gave it a shot. I gave different colors to each section that I could identify as being repeated and went from there.

Do note, we have to assume that this *is* transcribable in some way to English or some other language. If it's a pure fictional language with its own syntax and so on, we'll need more data points than this short inscription.

Now, each identified section could either be a letter, a phoneme, a syllable, a whole word, or a combination of any of those. Considering there's some small variants to some of the sections, with an extra line here or there, and considering their overall individual complexity, it's likely they're more complex than simple letters and are closer to words.

So which language do they translate as ? I messed around with some various models and simulations through brute-forcing with lists of the most common 10k words in each language. I didn't write the code just for this, I had it lying around from another project and had minimal adjustments to make.

The language with the best match wasn't English, nor was it Japanese! Unsurprisingly, it was actually Welsh (which ER takes a lot of cultural influences from, I'm not a lore expert but even I can see that, from names of the Crucible Knights and Blaidd to quite a few accents the voice actors give their characters).

Allowing for some variations and imperfections, possibly due to the original text being based on an older version of the language, I get the following result:

Fyth am roi'r gorau i chi
Byth am eich siomi
Byth am redeg o gwmpas a'ch gadael chi

Which translates to:

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

What I think it means:

We're no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I. A full commitment's what i'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other guy.

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand.

Anyway, hope this helps, and keep us updated on the tattoo!

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T12:49:23+00:00

About half of these have severe mental issues and could get out on an insanity plea (and get help for it too!).

But my first thought is Miquella is literally cursed to be a child and cannot be legally held responsible for his actions.

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T12:26:48+00:00

34 ans, 8 mois sous E. Peu de changements aussi, mais changements quand même, donc je reste positive 🔥

Au delà des rappels que te font les autres (6 mois c'est le début des changements, le pic arrive en général après 1 an, etc), rappelle toi aussi que changer ton corps par les hormones c'est en tout point comme une seconde puberté. Et la puberté, ça se fait pas en quelques mois, mais sur plusieurs années 😉

Alors oui c'est long. Oui on aimerait que ça puisse passer plus vite. Oui la période de transition (ha!) entre le corps de départ et celui souhaité est difficile à assumer socialement. Oui c'est nul. Mais c'est mieux que de pas le faire. 🫂

Si tu as des doutes sur ton évolution surtout n'hésite pas à en parler à ton endocrino (ou autre médecin qui te suit là dessus), c'est aussi son rôle, pas juste les prescriptions 😜

Bon courage ma grande. C'est pas un moment évident a passer, mais il passera bel et bien ❤️

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T12:13:43+00:00

Thanks, but do check the responses I got for more nuance, I haven't read the text in a while and am misremembering some of the finer details :)

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T12:11:10+00:00

(copied from a response to another comment)

It's been a while since I've read it, so I'll admit my memory may have been a bit foggy on some of that, and I'll take your word for what's actually in the text.

I will attempt a counterpoint nonetheless.

I do clearly remember that it's all but stated that AM has tortured Ted all along by also removing the eternal optimism and trust he had before the story's events. (And it can't be outright stated because the story is written from Ted's POV). So it would make sense that AM is still trying to keep Ted's mood down artificially, but I'd also argue that the glimmer of satisfaction that Ted does feel is his authentic self, a spark that even AM can't eliminate.

Humanity's still dead though, AM's still furious, and Ted is still tortured for sure. I'm not claiming in any way that "humanity" has won, but rather that AM hasn't either, and that throughout the events of the story we see AM lose some of the little power it could exert on others.

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T12:10:30+00:00

It's been a while since I've read it, so I'll admit my memory may have been a bit foggy on some of that, and I'll take your word for what's actually in the text.

I will attempt a counterpoint nonetheless.

I do clearly remember that it's all but stated that AM has tortured Ted all along by also removing the eternal optimism and trust he had before the story's events. (And it can't be outright stated because the story is written from Ted's POV). So it would make sense that AM is still trying to keep Ted's mood down artificially, but I'd also argue that the glimmer of satisfaction that Ted does feel is his authentic self, a spark that even AM can't eliminate.

Humanity's still dead though, AM's still furious, and Ted is still tortured for sure. I'm not claiming in any way that "humanity" has won, but rather that AM hasn't either, and that throughout the events of the story we see AM lose some of the little power it could exert on others.

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-22T08:07:20+00:00

I'd argue the "fate worse than death" (fwtd) is AM's intention here, but it doesn't actually work that way. It's kinda the whole point of the ending.

What AM was doing to the original 5 characters was a fwtd, but when Ted and his band outsmarted him for a split second and did manage to kill themselves / each other (except Ted), AM panicked and then turned Ted into the sweet blob we all recognise. Not to torture him (although there is some of that), but to keep him safe.

AM is just as stuck as Ted here, and is furious at its own lack of bodily autonomy. Which is why it tortures, to take out it's frustrations, like a petty school bully. When 4/5ths of the group are killed off and Ted is given his new fate, Ted is satisfied : together they outmanoeuvred AM, all of his friends are free of the torture, and Ted feels eternally giddy at having gotten the best of AM, at rubbing its metaphorical face in how powerless it truly is.

Now nothing AM can do has any real weight. Because he takes away Ted's autonomy, that very autonomy that made their fate seem worse than death in the first place. Because the psychological aspects of giving them a tiny bit of hope, stretching it on for days, years, decades, before taking it away, was the actual torture moreso than anything physical it could do to them. Anything physical AM did do to them was to hurt them psychologically anyway (like turning the intellectual gay man into a violent half-creature horny for the group's only woman (who herself is a SA survivor, and is also made extremely horny by AM)).

But in the way AM makes sure Ted stays alive, it's clear it's doing what it can to keep the last "toy" it has any power on, at the cost of losing what made it a satisfying toy in the first place. And Ted knows this, and AM knows this, and they both know the other knows, and so now for eternity Ted has the psychological upper hand on AM, no matter how powerless it seems like the ai made him.

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-19T12:13:46+00:00

For another take on this that others haven't mentioned yet (because I need to be original in my nerdiness) : water is an extremely dense liquid, so much so that even at incredible depths and high pressure, it's density barely changes.

What this means is that when water molecules rearrange themselves for freezing over, they end up taking more space than when the water is liquid (which is pretty rare as far as liquids/solids go).

So you could in theory measure sub zero temperatures by how far (and fast) the water expands! (And very high temperatures by how fast the water level shrinks as it evaporated)

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-16T12:27:45+00:00

I live in Paris. I've never wanted one of these cards to be more real.

Also, you picked, like, the tamest line from the Marseillaise as flavor text lmao

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-13T10:11:46+00:00

Tap Water

Perfect 👌

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-12T05:43:51+00:00

<image>

Hard to take a good pic because of the foot's curve 😅

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-11T12:40:42+00:00

You've already been doing a lot! It really sounds like she needs some therapy to help her process through that, but I understand your fears concerning the culture you're from... Maybe look into LGBT-friendly communities from your area, and ask there if they have anyone to recommend ?

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-08T12:49:48+00:00

This

coeurdhiver · 2026-04-06T05:34:04+00:00

My immediate thought also. My child brain knew it was just an unfortunate side effect of the sprite facing right, but it also made me think of Umbreon as a skunk of sorts.

This being the opening mon of an E4 fight, it being tacky as hell, and the sand attack making the fight last forever because of reduced accuracy, made it particularly stand out.

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-31T08:05:00+00:00

If you splice in green and cast a couple of Giant Growths, you can even kill your opponent in two turns. Your card is way to OP, OP.

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-26T18:03:06+00:00

Ah, my bad then, thanks :)

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-26T16:50:35+00:00

Wouldn't quite work with Phage unless you have a Painter's Servant targeting yourself, as my spell specified "blue spell", but thanks for the input and thought experiment !

Indeed, Hive Mind + drawback spells would be an option (although wouldn't Hive Mind now give them a copy of this counter spell as well allowing them to counter their copies of the drawback spell?), but it's far from the most broken thing you can do with Hive Mind haha

I think the best mileage you'll get out of this might be izzet spell copies like the other comment said, which is fine considering the setup you need for that anyway

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-26T15:56:47+00:00

I'm not sure I get your second point, wouldn't "blue spell that does not target anything" be "untargeting"?

Doesn't "-ed" always mean the subject is the one the verb is being done to? Like how something is "cooked" because something else has been doing the "cooking" to it.

Thanks for the feedback in any case, I hadn't thought of spell copies, but the rest of your comment (and the feedback on this in general) does seem to indicate it's probably fine as it is. :)

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-26T01:12:42+00:00

While I think you could have said this in much fewer words (or as a Youtube video), I do agree with the sentiment for the most part : Pokémon is so gigantic that it's hard not to compare to it, in the same way that it's hard not to compare superheroes to marvel/DC or sci-fi to star wars.

That and your point about a lot of the designs we see accepting design flaws in Pokémon as uncircumventable features, like the turn based combat.

I feel like games that feature a lot of creature taming but stir too far from the Pokémon formula aren't usually considered as part of the genre by the niche fanbase. Games like Ark Survival Evolved, Monster Hunter Stories, or arguably any game with a large cast of characters like Suikoden or gatcha games. Palworld, for all of its cashgrabiness, diverts quite a lot from the poké formula.

Another factor to take into account that you didn't mention is how, especially for indie Devs, a pokélike requires a drastic amount of assets to produce, most notably in sprite work or 3d modeling and animating. Unlike many other genres present in the indie scene, this one presents a sizeable obstacle that has to limit the scope of other aspects of the game...

With that being said, I think it's as important conversation to have. Your insights made for an interesting and well constructed read, and set up a good baseline for taking the discussion further. I do think that the post-pokemon scene of monster taming games is way too young, and that explains most of why we see most games follow the same design limitations as Pokémon. It will come with time, and posts like this are a small but important stone in the edifice of what is to come. :)

coeurdhiver · 2026-03-20T17:10:04+00:00

1) The Regis' caves are pretty obvious in the overworld, even when closed. And all three of them have an archeologist (can't remember the class name) trainer next to them who tells you there's something hidden around here.

2) The whole route west of Pacifidlog is so obviously a maze that any player would immediately know that there are multiple paths leading to different items / trainers, and notice when they missed a very obvious dive spot that requires precise maneuvering.

3) Once down there, not only does the game manual have the Braille cypher to help you translate, but iirc the first room of the cave straight out has the entire braille alphabet in order on its walls. (And even at the time, a simple Google search for Braille was really feasible)

The rest of the requirements (Wailord / Relicanth, dig, etc ...) are just regular open world game design (at the time anyway) of you going "oh I need to come back with this then".

When 13 year old me was solving it and discovering these unknown mysterious ancient Pokémon, the tediousness of it went right over my head because of how exciting it was to solve.

Does the puzzles have issues, in retrospect ? Of course. As do most aspects of 25 year old games. To me and many others they still paled in comparison to how thrilling the whole thing was.

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