sneezy holidays

[mikogalatea]

It sure is great to have a cold on Christmas day! ... By which I mean it's a royal pain in the ass, of course. I hate having to blow my nose near-constantly and barely being able to breathe through my nostrils at night (after having taken relief meds, I should add). ~.~;

On the other hand, I've had nice presents like Root Letter on the Vita and a couple of Pokémon plushies today, so annoying illness aside, it hasn't been a bad holiday period at all!

As for how 2016's been for me... fandom-wise, I've fallen hard into visual novel hell (I must've bought, what, at least ten games on MangaGamer after making my first purchase from them in February?), Fire Emblem: Fates eventually came to the UK in May (I'm still not even particularly near finished with the Nohr path...), I've been on a wild ride with the Dangan Ronpa 3 anime and am currently looking forward to New Dangan Ronpa V3 coming out next year, and last but not least, Pokémon Moon's been awesome. There's a few more that I fell in and/or out of interest in, but the above are the key ones as far as I'm concerned.

ETA: Oh, there's a key fandom I forgot! To anyone who likes pixel horror games and can handle some pretty heavy subject matter, I highly recommend END ROLL!

Considering how near-silent I've been on here, if anyone has any questions regarding my fandoms and my opinions on them, just ask and I'll try and answer. :3

Comments

[sarajayechan]

So assuming Conquest is the only Fates route you've played thus far...got any gameplay thoughts? Favorite ships so far? Any thoughts on Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice?

some spoilers for AA6 case 2 here, in case anyone else wants to avoid them

[mikogalatea]

Looking back through my liveblogging of the game on Tumblr, I have a lot of praise for Fates's gameplay, at least for Conquest. The maps are a lot of fun and very satisfying to clear, and I think the fact that everything's been rebalanced and the enemy AI is much smarter than in Awakening helps a bunch; it makes my victories feel more earned than when baddies in Awakening pretty much kill themselves on my units. >>; My Castle is pretty charming, too.

My favourite ships are still male!Corrin/Niles* and Niles/Leo, to the point where I own a bunch of doujinshi about those pairings. I also really like Niles/Azura, which I think I've mentioned to Maria before. (Wow, my favourite character is so obvious at this point...) Effie/Elise is good stuff as well, and while I'm not sure yet if I'd ship it romantically, Selena/Beruka had a great C-support. Oh yeah, and Laslow/Peri was very promising from what I saw of it, though I never used the former past chapter 12 and didn't get that much more mileage out of the latter before dropping her. I need to get more support conversations so I can get more of a feel for lots of other ships...

*I feel like it might be more accurate to call it Kamui/Zero, given my feelings about the localisation's handling of Niles's character in general and his dynamic with Corrin in particular, but I won't bother you with my whining on the matter.

As for AA6, I had a hard time getting into it at first for some reason. I don't really know why; maybe the new setting took a little while to grow on me, or the first case just didn't get of to a very interesting start for me. Whatever the problem was, I did get more into it around the time you figure out the victim's true nature, and I was a lot more invested in the second case. (C'mon, how can anyone not care about a case where you have to defend Trucy?) I'm fond of Nahyuta as a prosecutor so far; apart from him being pretty, I like how he seems so gentle yet can say some incredibly scathing things. I also liked Bonny and Betty, especially in how they subvert expectations one might have based on the previous games. (Aw, Bonny's so cute, I don't think I can trust her! Oh wait, she's actually an asshole, just as I expec-- OH WAIT, that's her twin sister, the real Bonny really is a cinnamon roll! OH WAIT, Betty wasn't a villain after all! OH WAIT, Betty was secretly tsundere for Trucy the whole time?! Thanks for adding that much more enjoyment to the case, ladies!)

Right now I'm stuck on the third case (at a point where I'm fairly sure what arguement I want to make, but I don't know what part of the vision I should click on at what point) and have been playing other games in the meantime. I did like the reunion with Maya, though; it really did feel as if I was catching up with an old friend. :3

Re: some spoilers for AA6 case 2 here, in case anyone else wants to avoid them

[sarajayechan]

Yeah, Conquest's gameplay in general is a throwback to the harder eras of the GBA games and Tellius. Even playing on Phoenix mode doesn't make it a cakewalk, especially when every TURN counts for EXP and trying to defend somewhere.

All of those pairings/supports are amazing. <3 Niles/Leo became stiff competition for Niles/M!Corrin very quickly, and Laslow proves just how much he's grown up since being Inigo when he talks to Peri. And I married Niles to Azura in my latest Conquest file. GREAT supports and Shigure and Nina make cute siblings.

I only played cases 1 and 2 of AA6 so far. I fucking LOVED Bonny the moment I saw her and Betty grew on me very quickly despite being an asshole initially. I love how they totally subverted expectations but in the end they were both pretty nice girls except Betty was a tsundere.

And I LOVE how even though the villain was basically a huge bully who made a big deal of how he was going to humiliate Trucy in court, Trucy turned the situation on its head with her awesome trick.

I actually have...very negative feelings about the villain's personality, but I was quite happy with the depth and added backstory he gave to the Gramaryes! It shows the games didn't forget they existed past AA4! Plus, he had a cool leitmotif and design and I was impressed with his...epic breakdown. Deliciously theatrical!

Nayuta is pretty great like that, too. He can be a real jerk and it's obvious he hurts Apollo's feelings but he's so serene about it. Plus, the lack of I THROW THING AT YOU EVERY 5 SECONDS is refreshing. (Not that I didn't grow to love Simon and Franziska, but still.)

Case 1 was painful, though. A little kid was gonna be put to death and Gaspen Payne is still a piece of shit and my least favorite character aside from that creepy Director Hotti. I did like Rayfa, though, and how her being the kingdom's Precious Pearl was balanced out by the judge punishing her when she acted out.

I'm doing more Fates right now but soon I wanna get to case 3 and reunite with Maya. :3