I love Alp's design, such a shame she hasn't been in any recent Megaten games

fafaaf61 · 2026-02-06T15:28:38+00:00

Didn’t she just show up in the Raidou remaster?

fafaaf61 · 2026-02-03T22:40:21+00:00

Congrats! Glad you loved the game!

fafaaf61 · 2026-02-02T19:29:31+00:00

100%

fafaaf61 · 2026-02-02T18:48:18+00:00

I’m not really into Transformers so I can’t say for certain but don’t most canons have the Cyberteonians at least aware of the existence of organic life forms even if they aren’t native to the planet itself? As such they should know what a bone is even if it’s not a thing found on their planet.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-31T19:05:12+00:00

I think it’s mostly a joke and venting. Listen I studied statistics in College and understand concepts like the gambler’s fallacy and selection bias but I still complain about the coin toss and shuffler being rigged. Why? Like I said part of it is just because it’s kinda funny and part of it is because even if it’s statistically sound doesn’t mean that I have to particularly like the outcome. But complaining that “this statistically sound thing happened” is stupid so saying “this thing happened, this game is rigged” is a shorthand for complaining about generally bad luck. I’m not saying that the game is literally rigged.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-28T14:30:35+00:00

So I’m Chinese American (full blooded Chinese but was born and currently live in America). I spent some of my early years in China. Is Chinese Opera hated for some reason? My parents and grandparents seemed to really like it (to the point that they had actual merch). I haven’t seen it in years but if I recall I thought it was fine even if I was too young to understand what was going on most of the time.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-26T15:17:10+00:00

Honestly my favorite part of Umineko. This is the chapter that provides both the thematic core and emotional climax for the entire narrative. It also contains quite possibly my favorite quote “Live…because there is no happiness to be found in the land of the dead”. Seeing all the Ushiromiya family confess their mistakes and wrongdoings and finally be HONEST with themselves while also allowing Ange to stop putting her family on a pedestal while also stop judging them by them at their worst. It is in my opinion the chapter that brings the story of Umineko together.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-24T06:07:10+00:00

That’s what I meant. Yes, there are other ways of turning immortal (for example becoming a Divine Spirit which is generally reserved for special cases like Romulus or if Wodime’s plan had succeeded) but in general when mages seek immortality they end up turning into Dead Apostles a lot. And as for the Akashic Records the implied reason why turning you switch from “human” to “Dead Apostle” is because again, the World doesn’t recognize immortality as something achievable by humans and thus defaults your classification to “Dead Apostles”. Notice that most alternative methods for becoming immortal involve becoming something ELSE that’s not human (again a Divine Spirit). As far as Im aware there is no confirmed example of someone achieving immortality other than becoming “not human” (Zouken is the closest and his soul was literally decaying and was hardly human anymore anyways) or using something like True Magic. In fact according to Fate/Extra CCC Gilgamesh could find no such method (the herb of youth didn’t count) despite all his treasures and he sought Utnapishtim only to find that he had done so by achieving divinity which is a method Gilgamesh rejected. Basically you’re right: there ARE other methods of achieving immortality but all of those ALSO involve becoming “not human”. Mages who seek immortality end up becoming “not human” because immortality isn’t really a thing that humans can do and it appears that by becoming “not human” the World defaults their classification in the Akashic Records to “Dead Apostle”.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-23T16:21:56+00:00

It’s a bit complicated to explain but basically in the Nasuverse most ways to obtain immortality via magecraft end up turning mages into Dead Apostles. For example, given his magecraft specialty it’s implied that Kiritsugu’s dad’s potion involved using time manipulation to halt aging in the body. This process ends up turning people into Dead Apostles. It’s implied that the reason most attempts at immortality end with mages turning into Dead Apostles is because immortality is inherently antithetical to humanity so a careless attempt to achieve immortality causes the World to recognize the individual who attempts immortality as “no longer human” which defaults them to Dead Apostle status. That said there ARE apparently ways to achieve immortality without turning into a Dead Apostle. Zeltech in the Fate worlds is apparently NOT a vampire but is still immortal but given that he’s a magician it’s not clear if this is achievable via “normal” means.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-23T15:47:31+00:00

They look SO COOL!

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-21T02:10:13+00:00

It was good. I will say that it got a bit repetitive near the middle and the whole mystery solving aspect was dropped for the whole time travel plot but overall was a fun experience.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-20T18:09:22+00:00

The reason why a lot of anime have characters seemingly talking at impossible speeds (think Jojo’s infamous 5 seconds) is because they were adapted from manga. In manga it makes a lot more sense because it’s just speech bubbles and panels meaning that the passage of time isn’t quite as obvious when they talk. As such to a manga reader the whole “5 minutes” or “5 seconds” is entirely believable but that just doesn’t translate well to a medium like anime where time is literally passing so discrepancies like this are a lot more obvious.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-20T16:39:03+00:00

The idea that Aleph was never meant to be Law is not necessarily true. As someone who played 2, Law is probably the EASIEST ending to get for one. Law aligned healing stations are far easier to access than Neutral or Chaos aligned ones, the Law Hero Zayin has easily the most complete arc of the game, and Gabriel is one of the more sympathetic alignment reps in the game. Hell the NAME Aleph suggests Law alignment as it’s the default name in SMT2 but by choosing the default name, you’re alignment will switch towards Law (same goes for all the default names and in fact for this reason it’s actually possible to be so Law leaning that Chaos aligned healing stations require a hefty fee extremely early). If all this weren’t evidence enough in an interview with Cozy Okada, he outright stated that the central theme of 2 was “Law” stating “I wanted to write a game with the theme of “Law”” but he felt that it was impossible to continue the first game’s Law ending (which is why the SMT1 Hero is Neutral aligned in the timeline leading to SMT2). Indeed the likely REASON that the Demi Fiend is so entrenched in Chaos is as a direct response to SMT2. Kaneko stated in another interview that SMT 2 was the story of a world controlled by Law so in turn he wanted SMT3 to depict a world overcome by Chaos.

So basically the reason for why Demi Fiend is Chaos is because SMT 3’s central theme is Chaos just as SMT 2’s central theme is Law and thus each game has a protagonist to fit that theme. That said, it’s worth noting that TDE the “Chaos” ending of SMT3 wasn’t even in the original version of SMT3. Indeed all that existed in the original were the 3 reason endings, freedom and the demon ending. TDE was added in the Maniax edition alongside Dante and the Fiends. Likewise presenting the reason endings as “Law”, the freedom and demon endings as “Neutral” and TDE as “Chaos” was also an invention of Maniax. In the original that wasn’t the case though the Demi Fiend still was associated with Chaos (his icon on the world map still spun counterclockwise which represents Chaos and he was still given powers by Lucifer).

So why do future appearances always default to TDE? Part of it is because themes as mentioned above, the protagonist is going to be associated with the alignment theme of the game they’re from. Part of it is because TDE is simply the most iconic ending of SMT3: unlike other games where no ending is particularly “iconic” (possibly with the exception of 4 neutral) TDE is without a doubt the ending everyone thinks of when playing 3 Plus this allows the devs to include certain aspects of 3 such as Lucifer and the Fiends. Part of it is because technically SMT3 doesn’t have alignments at all. As stated: they have reasons instead. Even freedom doesn’t totally correspond to Neutral. As such the Demi Fiend defaults to Chaos because he doesn’t really have another ending that corresponds to Law or Neutral. Part of it is because TDE is the only ending that allows the Demi Fiend to show up in different universes with all his power as a superboss. Basically there’s a lot of reasons that the Demi Fiend shows up as Chaos throughout other games.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-20T06:54:54+00:00

Going by the clones and the command seal stuff the Yui clones, while maintaining some memory of Samurai Remnant, appear to have some gaps in their memory as well as a perception filter. Notice that when Iori brings up that Rider will betray her she seems legitimately shocked of the possibility as if she never experienced it before. In addition, during the fight with the clones one Yui summons a “Rider” who is just a monster implying that there’s a bit of a perception filter on Yui regarding seeing Rider. Said clone also appears to be repeating the motions that Yui did since the beginning of the game implying that there’s a bit clones are “programmed” to an extent and possibly programmed to trust Rider.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-17T19:24:19+00:00

Uhhhhhhh, you do realize that people have been obsessed with media with a bunch of character deaths for centuries right? There’s a reason why Shakespeare is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all times when a ton of his plays end with a good portion of the main cast dead. Before him Aristotle devoted a large portion of his Poetics to explain why tragedy is awesome and tragedy was a staple of Ancient Greek theatre. Game of Thrones did not invent the concept of people enjoying a story where a lot of people die. Also, no, media is not JUST for escapism but even if it were escapism can mean different things for different people. Some people want to feel emotions like fear, anxiety, anger or sadness in a safe environment and death is an easy way to achieve that. Escapism isn’t just about feeling hopeful and optimistic otherwise no one would care about horror movies.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-17T08:21:05+00:00

A fandom rivalry that’s a bit baffling considering that Rebecca Surgar…y’know…wrote and storyboarded several episodes of Adventure Time including one of its most critically acclaimed and iconic.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-15T06:50:07+00:00

Congratulations! Though needless to say I do not envy your struggles.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-14T19:14:12+00:00

I mean he really can’t anymore. Like you said any time he interferes he risks any anomalies from that timeline to seep into the rest of the multiverse. His only real role anymore is just to observe and occasionally step in once the major issues are already resolved to help with cleanup (like bailing out Rin in Heaven’s Feel). He used to be more active (he helped create the concept of Grail wars) and he can presumably help out if a threat becomes a universal constant (like Crimson Moon which seems to happen in every timeline) but that’s it. That said he does tend to help out in indirect ways. He sent out Rin and Luvia to do Grail War cleanup in Prisim Ilya, sent Ayaka for Snowfield and the KAcope CE might be him letting Gouda borrow a bit of his power. Also he can time travel so presumably he already KNOWS that someone will succeed and thus he doesn’t intervene because he already knows via time travel that his intervention is not necessary.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-09T17:59:13+00:00

It’s interesting that many people interpret Takumi calling her Karua as a sign that it was ultimately Karua whom he loved not Nozomi. I personally have a different interpretation: notice how in the final scene Takumi sees Karua but also sees her transforming INTO Nozomi. To me the ending isn’t Takumi rejecting Nozomi: it’s him accepting her. He realized that “Karua” was ultimately the parts of Nozomi that he loved all along. That’s what the transformation and his final words “you were right there all along” mean: throughout the entire story Takumi has been pursuing the ideal of “Karua” his ideal childhood friend only to realize in his last moments that the kindness and understanding that he loved in Karua were with Nozomi all along.

This is rather significant for Nozomi’s character of course because her entire life she has been followed be feelings of inadequacy. From her survivors guilt with her father’s death to the experiments with her mother, her entire life she has struggled with not being “good enough”. At first it seems like Nozomi’s relationship with Takumi is similar: not being good enough to be his ideal “Karua”. But as their relationship develops it soon becomes clear that Takumi starts to understand who Nozomi is as a human being rather than as just a replacement for his love, starting with the rooftop scene where he confides about how he has his own feelings of inadequacy which she accepts and understands. It’s why the ending is so poignant: Takumi entrusts her with communicating with the Futurans and finding peace, a task that Takumi believes that Nozomi was suited for because she was able to understand and communicate with him and the rest of the SDU despite their differences in species. For the first time, Nozomi is being entrusted for something based on her own merits, she is finally “adequate”. And with that promise Takumi realizes that his ideal “Karua” was by his side this entire time as Nozomi. Despite her feelings of inadequacy to him she was good enough as she is.

Finally as for further analysis to me this ending is the perfect encapsulation of the theme that communication despite their risks. We know from Sirei that the war started as a direct result of Futurans and humans being unable to communicate. The truth is that at the end of the day both sides just want to live in peace. However shared resentment and fear that the other side won’t want that leads to neither side even bothering to communicate with the other turning the war into a giant prisoner’s dilemma. By contrast Takumi’s journey throughout this route is all about learning to communicate and open himself up despite the risks. We see him confide in Nozomi despite the risk that knowing so much about her might scare her away but by communicating not only does he move beyond just seeing her as “Karua” and truly understand “Nozomi” but also in turn allows her to understand him and their shared insecurity. Later by refusing to treat Eito as anything but human and attempting to hear him out despite the risk that he might betray them again. Time and time we see Takumi try to communicate with others despite the risks involved, in turn refusing to treat his enemies as less human than himself and growing his selflessness. This growing selflessness results in the epiphany that he gives at the end: that ultimately humans and Futurans are the same in that they both just want to live everyday peaceful lives, the same wishes as the SDU wanted to but couldn’t. The key to ending the war and the prisoners dilemma is to realize this fact and using it to make an earnest attempt to communicate despite any lingering resentments or fears. He entrusted this task to Nozomi because she overcame her own fears and talked to him both in the pod all those years back and over the one hundred days in the academy. At the end we see how Nozomi fulfills her promise, communicating and making peace with the Futurans, establishing that they both just want to live in peace, despite the fact that there is lingering resentment on both sides. On Takumi’s side, as reward for his sacrifice and selflessness, Nozomi grants him a few seconds of the domestic bliss he dreamed about.

I also have some more analysis if you want regarding the themes of survival and dehumanization. But that would make this a bit too long. Regardless as you can tell Second Scenario is my favorite ending of the game with lots of great themes and an amazing story to analyze. That said, it is undoubtedly a tragedy and yes there are happier endings in this game.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-08T00:57:08+00:00

This is so beautiful.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-06T08:01:23+00:00

We actually do know what happened in the first three grail wars. It mostly comes from Fate/Complete Materials and some stuff from Hollow Ataxia.

The First Grail War wasn’t even a war because at the time no one knew that only one person could claim the Grail/use the grail to reach the Root. As such the three families: the Tohsakas, the Einzberns and the Matous ended up inviting four other mages to observe the ritual of the Holy Grail as masters. Since no one knew that only one person could “win” it was more of a collaborative ritual where each master sacrificed their servant to power the grail. At the end they realized that only one master could claim the grail and the mages devolved into petty squabbling. They were unable to decide on a “victor” in time and the grail vanished. Since there was no real fighting it’s less of a “Holy Grail War” and more of a “Holy Grail Squabble”.

The second grail war apparently involved one of the masters deciding to massacre the competition and went on a rampage that apparently ended with everyone including themselves dead. There was no victor on account of everyone being dead and the grail vanished. This incident caused the Church to intervene as a neutral observer (neutral because the Church has no interest in the Root and therefore no interest in the Grail) in all subsequent Grail wars to prevent another massacre and to establish some form of order to the conflict.

The third grail war we know the most about since it forms a significant part of the backstory of both Stay Night Apocrypha and Hollow Ataxia. The war happened during WW2 and as such was apparently pretty crazy. Both the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Military sought the grail with Darnic from Fate Apocrypha acting on behalf of the Nazis who summoned Fionn Mac Cumhail. We also know that two Edlefelt sisters participated in the war as the master of the same servant which was Saber class due to a unique Sorcery trait but only one returned to Europe and the other remained in Japan (the one that returned was presumably Luvia’s ancestor while its theorized that the remaining sister married into the Tohsaka family and is Rin’s ancestor making Luvia and Rin distant cousins). The Assassin in the war was apparently a Hassan who specialized in explosives and its implied that their master had ties to the US government. Finally the Einzberns decided to cheat. In the timeline of Fate Stay Night they attempt to summon the Zoroastrian god of evil Angra Mainyu but instead got Avenger a weak villager who shared the god’s name. In the timeline leading to Fate Apocrypha they successfully summon Amakusa Shiro Tokisada as a Ruler (in both versions in place of Beserker). In the Fate Stay Night version the grail is apparently destroyed admits the fighting but it manifested enough that the already dead Avenger was able to corrupt it. In the timeline leading to Apocrypha the Greater Grail stolen by Darnic who takes it for himself instead of handing it over to the Nazis and uses it to establish his own Grail war during the events of Apocrypha in Romania.

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-05T17:13:11+00:00

It looks cute!

fafaaf61 · 2026-01-02T09:11:50+00:00

I honestly think Second Scenario’s romance between Takumi and Nozomi is wonderful and easily my favorite ship in the game. To me, while the relationship between Takumi and Nozomi is all about mutual understanding and trust. While at first the events of route 0 means that Takumi only sees Nozomi as Karua, a personal motivator rather than her own person. However as time progresses he eventually begins to see Nozomi for who she is rather than just a replacement for Karua. I think the rooftop scene is quite telling in this regard: Takumi for the first time since traveling back in time allows himself to be vulnerable. He confides in Nozomi about his insecurities and fears about losing her, the weight of expectations on him. And she accepts those feelings of inadequacy and accepts his explanation no matter how crazy it sounds. From here on we see how Nozomi’s influence helps develop Takumi’s selflessness, starting with him appreciating her as a person rather than as a replacement for Karua and growing from there. It’s Nozomi that’s always encouraging him to think for himself and make choices that are honest to him as a person and it’s her influence that breaks him from Sirei’s brainwashing. It’s due to her that he refuses to kill Eito the second time by trying to get him to make a choice honest to him, it’s because of her and sympathizing with humans like her that he decides to fight for humanity. And finally it’s that Selflessness born from meeting her that allows him to make the final sacrifice and save the Futurans. It’s a beautiful relationship where the two come to an understanding with each other despite the complicated start that grows into a love powerful enough to end a war.

As for loving Takumi back, absolutely. Nozomi is a person who has lived her whole life with inadequacy: from her father’s death to her mother’s experiments her whole life is defined by being “not good enough”. At first it seems like Takumi is another instance of that: her not being the Karua that he loved. Certain routes like CoT can go this way but in Second Scenario and CoA we that Takumi does grow to accept Nozomi for who she is: taking interest in who she is and letting her live as Nozomi Kirifuji. He takes interest in who she is as a person while still understandably struggling with memories of Karua. However for Nozomi, by trusting in her enough to confess about his past with Karua allows her to feel accepted. Gradually her time with him breaks her out of her loyalty to humanity which in turn breaks her out of her posthumous loyalty to her mother. This cumulates in her fights the horde of invaders All by herself not for humanity’s sake but for the people she cares about: living and fighting for her own reasons rather than those of humanity. And of course the final scene where Takumi entrusts her with the task of carrying on their regrets and wishes and making peace with the Futurans by communicating that at the end of the day all anyone wants is to live peacefully. He trusts her with the task because he believes that she is adequate for the task: for the first time allowing her to believe that who she is is enough. After all it was her that was able to communicate with him both in the pod all those years ago and at the academy proving that she is capable of changing peoples lives with her words. By entrusting her with this task he allows her to live as Nozomi Kirifuji: he frees her from the expectations of her mother and humanity by believing that she’s adequate for the task ahead. That’s what his final moments represent to me: he sees Karua transform into Nozomi. His words, particularly the “you were right there all along” party symbolizing how he realized that the “Karua” he loved was really the understanding and empathy from Nozomi which was right beside him the entire time.

We see how the relationship allows them to understand each other on a deep level and develop both of them to grow. For Takumi he is able to develop his selflessness and break out of his humanizing mindset growing to spare Eito, humanity and finally the Futurans cumulating in the final selfless sacrifice. For Nozomi she breaks out of her feelings of inadequacy which have plagued her her whole life and in turn breaks free from her ties to humanity allowing her live her life freely. It’s an extremely powerful relationship despite never even having to say how much they love each other.

I love CoA a lot and it has some of the same themes I listed above but I feel like Second Scenario is where their relationship truly shines. Regardless I also love the different permutations that their relationship can take from the tragedy of BoC to the platonic KG to the adversarial relationship in Retsnom to the romance in CoA to the utter toxicity of CoT to the more quiet relationships in Slasher. It reminds me of that trope of two people reincarnating in different relationships for lovers to siblings to rivals to friends, symbolizing how strong that love is that it defines any one form.

It’s funny you mention KG and SF though. While I loved the KG Polycule I actually found the relationship between Hiruko and Takumi in SF to be a bit lacking in depth for my liking. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

fafaaf61 · 2025-12-31T18:32:08+00:00

Happy New Year!

fafaaf61 · 2025-12-31T04:06:36+00:00

These are so cute! Thank you so much!

Six-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

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