Also There's A Character Who Speaks Entirely In Mathematical Puns.

[rionaleonhart]

Might keep a record of Episode Start to Shirtlessness time throughout this series of Merlin. The first and second episodes of the fifth series each took under six minutes to bring a shirtless man onto the screen. I'm expecting the excuses for the knights to remove their shirts to get flimsier and flimsier. OH NO, A MAGICAL FIRE THAT BURNS UP ALL CLOTHING WHILST LEAVING FLESH INTACT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT CAMELOT.


I've started playing The World Ends With You! It is a magnificent game. It's also scarily addictive; I popped it into my DS for the first time on Saturday, thinking 'well, I'll play for an hour or so, see what it's like', and regained awareness of my surroundings four hours later.

The trouble is that I'm not actually very good at it. I love the style and I love the dialogue and some of the plot developments have genuinely shocked me (THAT THING NEKU DID AT THE END OF DAY TWO), but the battle system is hellishly confusing. You have to keep so many factors in mind! I am completely incapable of concentrating on both DS screens at once.

In fact, you have to keep quite a lot of factors in mind whether you're in battle or not. I tried explaining The World Ends With You to th_esaurus and realised as I was speaking how ridiculously complicated that game is. SO YOU CAN READ PEOPLE'S MINDS AND IMPLANT IDEAS IN THEIR HEADS AND SOMETIMES THEY'RE POSSESSED BY INVISIBLE MONSTERS YOU HAVE TO DISPATCH AND YOU CAN EAT FOOD AND THEN YOU DIGEST IT BY FIGHTING BATTLES AND WHEN YOU'VE FULLY DIGESTED IT YOU GET STAT BONUSES AND YOU CAN ONLY EAT A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF FOOD PER REAL-TIME DAY AND YOU CAN WEAR CLOTHES TO BOOST YOUR STATS BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE BRAVE ENOUGH AND YOU CAN BEFRIEND SHOP ASSISTANTS SO THEY'LL GIVE YOU MORE ABILITIES AND YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF WHAT'S TRENDY IN THE AREA YOU'RE IN BECAUSE EQUIPMENT MADE BY CURRENTLY POPULAR BRANDS WILL GET STAT BONUSES AND DURING BATTLE YOU CONTROL ONE CHARACTER ON ONE SCREEN WITH THE STYLUS AND ANOTHER CHARACTER ON THE OTHER SCREEN WITH BUTTONS AND YOU NEED TO PULL OFF THE RIGHT COMBOS TO GET STARS TO ALLOW YOU TO PERFORM YOUR BEST ATTACK AND

At one point, I failed to pay attention to trends and got into a boss fight that was rendered impossible because my equipment was too uncool. This is exactly what would happen if I found myself in the Reapers' Game in real life.

Joshua and I have got off to a bad start. So far, I don't like him much, although perhaps that's rooted in sympathy for poor Neku's frustration. Joshua can be amusing, at least; I particularly enjoy the fact that, when Joshua and Neku perform their Fusion attack, Neku calls 'Follow my lead!' and Joshua answers 'Screw that!' (EDIT: Except, er, it's actually the other way around. I can't tell voices apart.)

I actually assumed from my first glimpse of Joshua, in the opening video, that he was a villain. He was white-haired (well, ash-blond, close enough) and pretty and looked a bit smug, which in a Square game is roughly as subtle as writing 'I'M THE VILLAIN' on one's forehead in the blood of the innocent. I hadn't counted on him being my white-haired, pretty, slightly smug ally. I suppose that doesn't necessarily preclude his turning out to be the villain, but I can't help feeling that if he actually had evil designs he'd make more of an effort to ingratiate himself with Neku, rather than treating him with unveiled contempt. He's a very Draco Malfoy figure, actually.

Perhaps I'll come to like Joshua more when I know him a bit better? It took me a while to warm up to Neku, come to think of it, and I'm really quite fond of him now.


The day before beginning The World Ends With You, I finished Justice for All, the second Ace Attorney game. The last case of the game was, for various reasons, my favourite. Some of these reasons were perfectly acceptable (Pearl, who is adorable, travels with you for the investigation, being adorable). Some were more worrying; for example, Phoenix tried to bring von Karma tulips when she was in the clinic. She mocked him. I found myself grinning like an absolute fool.

Am I - am I 'shipping this? Am I actually 'shipping Phoenix Wright and Franziska von Karma? Why am I 'shipping this? This is such a bad idea.

Comments

[dancesontrains]

Franziska/Phoenix is a quality ship, yo. Although I've not seen much fic beyond some rather standard 'she dominates him by pegging because the one dominating always needs a cock of some kind' fic, which doesn't really take account of the potential complexities of their relationship.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm going to have to go on a proper fic hunt at some point! Sad to hear you've only seen pegging; that's not really my thing, but I'm sure there must be some fic out there in which... come to think of it, I don't know exactly what I want from this 'ship. Fic in which she... whips him a lot? That's basically just canon. ANYWAY, A FIC HUNT WILL HAPPEN AT SOME POINT.

(Thank you so much for pointing out I could save the game at any time, incidentally; you've changed my life!)

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

"OH NO, A MAGICAL FIRE THAT BURNS UP ALL CLOTHING WHILST LEAVING FLESH INTACT IS SPREADING THROUGHOUT CAMELOT."

That's probably the Slash Dragon's next plan.

[wolfy-writing.livejournal.com]

The trouble is that I'm not actually very good at it.

That's me, and any video game more complicated than Plants versus Zombies. And the thing is, so many games these days are made for people who already know how to play video games, and there's no "Seriously, I'm totally clueless and have repeatedly failed to get anywhere when I've tried gaming in the past" mode.

[rionaleonhart]

If complicated games give you trouble, The World Ends With You is definitely not the game for you. I've never played anything with a more bewildering battle system before. But it's a fantastic game with a great script and I'm really interested in seeing where it goes.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Lol magical fire! :)

[zarla.livejournal.com]

YOU'RE NOT ALONG IN SHIPPING PHOENIX AND FRANZISKA i think there's a fairly sizeable het contingent for it, i haven't looked into it

SO YOU MET MATT AND JUAN FINALLY, YESSS

[rionaleonhart]

I may have to look into the Phoenix/Franziska contingent myself. Oh, dear.

During the Engarde case, I assumed that the secret Juan was planning to reveal was that he and Matt had had an affair. When the case ended with no affair having been revealed, I thought 'huh, so what put that idea in my head?' and then realised that it was entirely your fault.

[zarla.livejournal.com]

I'VE HAD PEOPLE TELL ME THEY WERE SO EXCITED TO MEET JUAN IN THAT CASE AND TALK TO HIM
ONLY TO FIND OUT HE'S DEAD AND HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A FULL COLOR PALETTE OR ANYTHING I MADE IT ALL UP

i think somewhere else described him as "the most famous victim of all the games", teeheeheehee

I LOVE THAT MATT CANONICALLY PUT CAMERAS ALL OVER HIS HOUSE
SUCH A CREEPER

[captlebubbles.livejournal.com]

They should rename Merlin 'Magical Fanservice Adventures'

[rionaleonhart]

There are times when I suspect that's its subtitle, written in font too tiny to see.

[centralremote.livejournal.com]

Are there people who pay attention to both screens in TWEWY battles? I usually just smash left or right and hope Neku's partner doesn't get themselves killed. So much for the clever battle mechanics.

I ended up liking Joshua, mainly because of the shift from "partner who annoys Neku by being nice" to "partner who annoys Neku by being catty and difficult". He's also becomes stupidly-overpowered, which just about makes up for how useless he is at the beginning of Week 2.

Now that you mention it, Phoenix/Franziska could be a terribly fun ship. I don't know how much of it is out there... on the other hand, I've seen a LOT of people shipping Gumshoe and Franziska, which seems a bit cruel for both of them (but no less amusing). Have you heard about the movie based off of the first game?

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad to hear other people use the 'hit left or right a lot and hope' strategy. The fusion minigames are clever, but there's no way I can concentrate on them when I'm trying to control Neku.

I've just finished Week Two and I already miss having Joshua around to mock me, so I suppose I did come to like him after all. GREAT TIME TO REALISE YOU LIKE HIM, RIONA. (It certainly doesn't hurt that he became so useful. I think perhaps part of the reason we didn't get on at first was because I missed how good Shiki was in a fight.)

Ahahaha, Gumshoe and Franziska? I wouldn't have expected that. That's not going to end well for anyone.

[sai_salamander]

I started TWEWY and then I started Phoenix Wright randomly and got hooked in, only now I might have accidentally bought Pokemon Black 2 so I'm stalled partway through Turnabout Goodbyes because now Black 2 has UTTERLY SUCKED ME IN lol. WHICH IS ANNOYING BECAUSE I WAS THOROUGHLY ENJOYING HOW ADORBS EDGEY IS WHEN HE TURNS HIS HEAD TO THE SIDE AND LOOKS GRUMPY OMG.

[rionaleonhart]

Hee! It was the opposite for me; I'd finished Trials and Tribulations and was planning to start the third Phoenix Wright game, but then The World Ends With You ate me alive. I hope you pick it up again at some point, because I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.