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Pahrak Model ZX

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Blog Entries posted by Pahrak Model ZX

  5. Pahrak Model ZX
    Recently Famitsu did a survey in honor of Kingdom Hearts' 15th anniversary, asking things like favorite characters, favorite scenes, what Final Fantasy characters you want to see (Bartz placed fifth!!), etc. More recently, Nomura responded to these results, and there were two things that really stood out to me.
     
    One: he is disappointed that Riku didn't place higher in the popularity poll and wants to fix that. I wholeheartedly agree.
     
    And two:
     

     
    (screenshot from KHInsider)
     
    Nomura has called American fans out on their impatient, entitled attitude, and it gives me life.
  6. Pahrak Model ZX
    has been released for the next Pokemon movie. What we’ve seen previously implied this was a retelling of the first season, showing OG Ash and a Pikachu who doesn’t like him and Ho-Oh being there, but now *echoing voice* IN HD!! */echoing voice* 
    This trailer shows that it’s not that at all.
     
    It starts out the same, but apparently after seeing Ho-Oh, Ash meets up with some entirely new characters with Pokemon from other regions who also have Rainbow Wings from Ho-Oh, and in a surprisingly soon reveal, the 802nd Pokemon Marshadow appears to guide them to the mountain where Ho-Oh lives. Serebii’s translations mention becoming “Heroes of the Rainbow” and Ash and Pikachu learning to become partners to defeat some powerful opponent. Also there’s a shot of an old man with a hat that looks suspiciously similar to the one Red wears. Yes, that Red.
     
    So…huh.
     
    My first reaction was “How can you go for a nostalgia cash-in while taking away virtually all the stuff people are nostalgic for?” Then I remembered one of my initial complaints was that “Movies that retell arcs are boring” and realized I actually like this development. I probably shouldn’t get my hopes too high, but there’s a chance for a rather interesting story here, and I’m looking forward to seeing if it delivers.
     
    But since this is giving us the Pikachu with the hat and Marshadow, that means we’ve already hit the bottom of the Gen VII event Pokemon well…which has me…worried…
  7. Pahrak Model ZX
    Kingdom Hearts Unchained X (with the X pronounced as “chi”) has just had a major update, now renaming itself Kingdom Hearts Union X (with the X pronounced as “cross”). First and most importantly:
     

     
    Illustrated KHII Kairi is available in the new Epic Medal Carnival, guaranteed within 5 draws and coming with three dots! She’s a Curaga, all attribute buff, all attribute debuf, fixed damage to all enemies, and 10 gauge recovery all wrapped into one beautiful package! With Tier 5 Guilt! Get this, especially if you’re playing for free. And, if you make her your shared medal, the home menu music will change to Kairi’s theme!
     
    …Hm? Oh, yeah, and you can log in to get a bunch of free jewels and enough Sora & Roxas medals to Guilt it. Plus fusing Medals now gives them passive skills. And there’s a bunch of new story quests with a new Keyblade and they’ve added a proper multiplayer mode now (which is…eh). Oh, and some new Avatar Boards and new chances at old Avatar Boards, and…was there some other stuff? I don’t remember at the moment.
     
    Side note, the Japanese version recently gained a few new story quests that introduce a new character. A laid-back edgelord by the looks of it.
     
    But most importantly, we’ve got a great chance at a fantastic medal emblazoned with the image of KH’s best girl. Don’t miss this chance!
  8. Pahrak Model ZX
    You know those other ideas I said I wanted to get off the ground sometime soon? This isn’t one of them. This one just showed up and insisted I do something with it and I didn’t feel like trying to do anything else anyway so it ended up done. That’s the short version.
     
    If you want the long version: waaaaaay back in the day, some noob named Exo-Zadakh started writing a story where Bionicles were Pokémon, except you fused with the Bionicles/Pokémon, and as time went on and he entered his weeaboo phase he kept adding Bionikemons based on characters and things from more and more series until it sort of became an original story while simultaneously being a fanfiction of a bajillion things. That noob eventually changed his name from Zadakh to Pahrak and, due to life events and despairing over the dreadful canon he wrote when he was 12, chose to cancel the series and went to pursue other endeavors. Yet an urge still remained. A fanfiction of everything is a lot of fun to write, and this was a big part of the noob’s life for a few years, so he could never really let it go. Pahrak is now trying to flesh out a new iteration of the basic concepts of this ancient story, but first, wanted to do a sampler to see how it goes.
     
    Either way, I’ve posted a new story in OTC called Glimpse of Horizons. It’s sort of a pilot for a much larger project I’ve got a desire to do, trying to get a feel for a piece of the world and, more importantly, the main character. So, while feedback is always appreciated, it’d be extra appreciated here! No clue when I might kick off the full version, but I do think I would like to. I’ll keep you posted.
  9. Pahrak Model ZX
    See that? That’s what I meant about subtitles. That’s actually cool, unlike Today in Reality Avoidance 2, Today in Reality Avoidance 3, Today in Reality Avoidance 28…
     

    Here We Go Again Fullbringers:
    -Some nitpicks priorities to get out of the way here: Chad, Orihime, and anyone else who might have developed Fullbring by this point should definitely get upgrades, there’s absolutely no reason for them not to. Ichigo’s Fullbring should look more like his Inner Hollow/Arrancar form, and the Inner Hollow should awaken and conflict with him, since his residual Hollow spirit energy was supposed to be what gave him Fullbring. And I’m still unclear about the whole “shinigami can take Fullbring powers”…it was shown later that Fullbringers can share their powers, and that’s cool, and the thing about shinigami taking them could just be a lie Xcution told, but I’d like it clarified. Though this could still be a way for Ichigo to get his shinigami powers back—Zangetsu and his Inner Hollow have repeatedly been shown as being linked, so learning a new way to tap his Hollow powers would lead to tapping his shinigami powers as well.
    -As for relation to other arcs: there was some foreshadowing that there was a previous Substitute Shinigami and that it might not’ve gone too well, but I love foreshadowing so I’d like to insert a few more hints. Probably involving Urahara and the Vizard, maybe during the Turn Back the Pendulum mini-arc. I think it’d also be a good idea to put in some kind of connection to the Soul King or Squad Zero, since that’s supposed to be a major myth arc in the series and the Fullbring arc doesn’t have even a single mention to it. As for the specifics…eh, who knows.
    -So, should the setup of this arc be changed to get us out of Karakura Town? For the sake of argument, let’s say yes. Xcution might typically operate in some relatively distant location and only recently made its entrance into Karakura, probably making contact with Chad first before getting in touch with Ichigo. I think I’d like the team pretending to be good to be smaller, probably just Ginjo, Yukio (the kid with the PSP), and Riruka (the tsundere). As Ichigo develops his Fullbring, Tsukishima would show up and mess with someone’s memories before vanishing, and then Ichigo would demand they go after him. The other Fullbringers would be on Tsukishima’s side, giving us more opportunity for battles as we pursue him—this could lengthen the arc a little, but hopefully not to the point it becomes exhausting.
    -We really need more on Ginjo. What were the circumstances that led to him becoming a Substitute Shinigami? What are the details on his time as one? If he has some Hollow in him, what’s the story on that? What was his zanpakuto, and where is it now? (Well, in this version I’d probably make it so he still has it/gets it back.) I believe he wanted revenge on Soul Society, but why, exactly? And that point has a lot of potential: since Ichigo fought against them as well and might have continued to have some problems with them, they could get into a discussion about what they agree on where their views differ exactly, and the shinigami arriving to restore Ichigo’s powers is a great way of showing that the Soul Society has begun to change for the better and that Ichigo’s way of working with them is more effective than Ginjo’s bid for revenge. There are some things I really do like about this fight, and I would love to see them driven home a little more.
    -As for Ichigo and Zangetsu’s appearance being a little different as a result of the traces of Fullbring, I honestly like that. It gave a nice upgrade to Ichigo’s classic look in preparation of the new story that still lay ahead. That, I want to keep the same.
    -Come to think of it, this arc had a scene where one of Ichigo’s sisters was at Urahara’s shop stocking up on Hollow-fighting necessities. That never went anywhere. It could be neat if one or both of them got more involved, potentially even developing a Fullbring or something and earning a place in the final arc.
     
    Thousand Year…er, the final arc:
    -It may sound harsh, but I want to completely redo this. Okay, where to start…
    -Quincies as the final opponent can work. It can. But I strongly feel that it needs to be done differently. (I’m sure I’ve ranted about why I don’t feel the canon version worked so I’ll skip that part.) Here’s what I propose: the most powerful Quincy (who has a pronounceable name and looks nothing like Zangetsu) fought Yamamoto ages ago and was killed. How does he get back in this arc? Well, since ###### was only mentioned once (barring the fourth movie), let’s say that King Quincy manages to escape from ###### to add a little variety and a sense of completion to our exploration of the structure of Bleach’s world. To take his revenge on Soul Society for killing him and wiping out his people, he has refined the ability to restore Quincy powers (like what happened to Uryu post-Soul Society) into an ability to potentially grant Quincy powers to ordinary humans, with a chance that it might just kill them (in the same vein as how Rukia initially stated creating a Substitute Shinigami works). He gathers and trains a Quincy army in secret, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
    -Since this training has to involve killing Hollows, this creates an imbalance that Soul Society takes notice of. Not knowing about this new threat, the prime suspect is obviously Uryu, bringing the tension that I mentioned before to a head and probably leading to Uryu vanishing for a while. We were all expecting Uryu joining his brethren to happen, and I will admit to being legitimately happy when he revealed it was all a ruse, but I think this could be a lot more meaningful if Uryu was genuinely torn. Sure he cares about his friends, but they’re continuing to work with an organization that wiped out his people and clearly will always have the idea of doing the same to him in the back of their mind. I want this to lead to him killing Kurotsuchi (I want that abomination dead and gone) and having an intense duel with Ichigo, which was promised in the mini-arc that introduced Uryu but never went anywhere. It doesn’t necessarily need a victor, but obviously I want it to end with Uryu turning against the Quincies.
    -The bit about Yamamoto ordering several souls to be “killed” to maintain balance is interesting, but I want Ichigo to learn about it and be outraged. His battle against the rigidity and flaws of Soul Society could get a more final resolution, and this is the perfect lead-in to it.
    -By the way, Icihgo’s mother was not a Quincy. She certainly should have had great spiritual potential, maybe seeing ghosts like Ichigo did at first, or possibly being a Fullbringer—heck, I think it’d be interesting if she had also been a Substitute Shinigami for a time. Maybe she and Isshin met under similar circumstances to Ichigo and Rukia, but Masaki naturally lost her power since that’s the way the process is supposed to work. But her being a Quincy, Aizen attacking her with a super Hollow, Ichigo being a mix of literally everything…I don’t think any of that is necessary. As an extension of this, no Quincy powers for Ichigo, Zangetsu is Zangetsu and doesn’t get reforged (I like dual-wielding but c’mon, its appearance just changed, it’s too soon), and Ichigo’s Inner Hollow is what we initially thought it was: a byproduct of how Urahara restored his shinigami powers in preparation for Soul Society.
    -Another big problem I had with this arc was that the Quincies functioned identically to Arrancar. I’d prefer they actually stuck with bows, or at least mostly projectile weaponry—I remember one of them had a sniper rifle, that was a good idea. Giving them all extra powers is fine, though perhaps more of them should center around their arrows, and the super mode…I don’t know. I do love power-up transformations, but this was the main thing that made them seem like Arrancar clones, so maybe if there was a different way to modify the ultimate release of Quincy power it would feel a little fresher.
    -The bankai medallions are an interesting idea. As a potential tweak, while bankai must be active for the medallions to be used (since it brings the zanpakuto spirit into the real world), they could absorb the spirit entirely, leaving the shinigami with an empty, powerless sword while the Quincy integrates the zanpakuto’s powers into their own. Maybe this could be their main powerup? Urahara’s solution of lacing the spirits with Hollow reiatsu would still work (and be the reason why Ichigo and the Vizards’ zanpakuto spirits can’t be stolen), but might be saved for a little later. The shinigami would need to learn some different abilities in order to keep fighting, which would help to keep things more interesting.
    -Speaking of zanpakuto, between the Fake Karakura Town arc and this one, I’d really want to show off everyone’s zanpakuto and the bankai of everyone who has one. I’m still annoyed that certain characters who had bankai died before showing them, and that some people who must have zanpakuto were never seen with them. Yoruichi could draw her zanpakuto in her fight in this arc instead of getting that weird transformation, saying that she doesn’t use it because “against most opponents it makes fights too easy” or something cliché like that. Ukitake could show his bankai in a battle…and then get killed in that fight, rather than dying by suddenly revealing he has a god inside of him. That was just pointless.
    -I do still like the idea of the Quincies attacking Soul Society. A bit more death here could be useful (I want Byakuya dead too, he annoys me and it could further motivate Rukia), and Squad One’s lieutenant could get a full fight where we see him die instead of being done in off-screen. The Yamamoto fight is good, and I don’t particularly mind the idea of the King Quincy he fights being a fake; really, my only point on that front is that since the real King Quincy steals Yamamoto’s zanpakuto spirit, he should actually use it. Still though, this set of battles shouldn’t take too long—a smaller set of Quincy generals would help with that—and even if Tensa Zangetsu does get broken, that silly bit about a broken bankai never regenerating doesn’t need to be a thing.
    -Squad Zero would still show up and take some of the major characters to the Soul Palace, but the parts involving zanpakuto I’d like to change. We don’t really need to reforge any zanpakuto, so maybe the sword-maker has come up with a new way to enhance their abilities. My first idea would be a third released state, but that could seem a bit contrived, so maybe we should go for simpler enhancements, or additional zanpakuto-like weapons. (Maybe this is involved in the shinigami learning new abilities after losing their zanpakuto spirits.) Also, the shinigami who knows the name of everything just revealing the names of bankai is a bad idea—Renji having a different “true” bankai is pulled right out of thin air and I don’t approve, and…it’s not clear, but there’s a chance this was how Rukia got her bankai. If we still want to keep something like this, maybe the shinigami could offer to tell Rukia the name of her bankai to have her refuse and resolve to unlock it the correct way (or at least Urahara’s way), which she of course will still do in an upcoming battle. Beyond that, maybe we could provide everyone with a place where they can do some last-minute training.
    -I’m not sure if I want Aizen involved here. Honestly it might be best to just leave him totally sealed and barely even mention him in this arc, and if he does show up, I definitely don’t think he should be up and about and even more powerful than before, since that makes no sense to me.
    -Kyoraku taking over Squad One is cool. Oh, that reminds me of his lieutenant, and how instead of a regular zanpakuto she had a special one that had been passed down through her family that conveniently had the power to slay godly beings, which was revealed while they were fighting a godly being. That was bad. Let’s not do that.
    -I go back and forth on whether or not I like what happened with Unohana and Zaraki. Let’s say we’ll leave it the way it is, though I would like someone to give a proper explanation of how Unohana’s bankai works. (Not Unohana herself, though. Her unnerving silence in this fight was definitely a good call.) As for Zaraki…I do like the way his zanpakuto looks in its “true shikai”, but I want to keep the idea of the constant-release zanpakuto, so even after he learns its name it won’t change forms. It could get a new ability, maybe a literal take on his “I can cut anything” that lets him slice through things he couldn’t normally slice through, or maybe a new special attack, but probably nothing fancy. I also don’t particularly like the idea of his lieutenant actually being his zanpakuto spirit (especially since she has her own zanpakuto), and I think it might be better if Zaraki never attained his bankai.
    -I like the idea of Squad Zero opening the path to the Soul Palace and the Qunicies exploiting that, though I think Ichigo should stay at the Soul Palace and it shouldn’t be reconstructed by King Quincy. While everyone’s up there training, he could send some of his forces back to finish of Soul Society while he and his best generals make their way to the Soul Palace for the final battles. This is where Rukia can obtain her bankai and that Uryu vs Ichigo fight can happen. The fight between King Quincy and the shinigami who knows the name of everything was pretty cool, but since I don’t want King Quincy to have those “Almighty” powers that completely break the story, the conclusion of that battle might need some alteration. Perhaps the shinigami claims that he could take away King Quincy’s name and render him nothing but not actually get to do it, or one of his generals could be “erased” instead.
    -As for the dead Fullbringers reappearing…we could do without it, but if they are in I’d like them to do a little more. I’m not sure what exactly, but a tease followed by a 200 chapter wait for a sudden “Here’s how you win” statement doesn’t really work for me. Same goes for Isshin and Ryuken.
    -So…the final fight. King Quincy vs Ichigo. Like I said, no “Almighty” powers, so King Quincy would need something new. It would make sense if he had all the special abilities he granted to his generals, and again, I really want him to actually use Yamamoto’s zanpakuto spirit since he has it. I certainly don’t want this to be an easy fight, preferably it should involve at least a few of the major characters and really push them to their limits, and maybe the Soul King would have a close call for drama. (No need to kill him off, though.) In the end, though, the heroes will narrowly slay the villain, and Soul Society will begin the process of rebuilding—and perhaps reforming as something greater than it was.
    -And the hotly-contested ending. Now I don’t give a flying fish about all this shipping nonsense, but if you want my honest opinion: I like that Ichigo and Rukia don’t end up Together ™. The idea of them being very close and caring deeply about each other without it necessarily being romantic is something that I really enjoy. Now, we don’t necessarily need a skip ahead to the future, and honestly I don’t have a whole lot that I’d really like to see in one. Maybe some more clarifications on where everyone ended up. I’m not sure about Ichigo inheriting the clinic—maybe instead he’d join law enforcement so he could continue fighting to protect people? I also wonder a bit about Chad being a boxer, but I don’t have any other suggestions so hey, okay. But I definitely approve of Rukia becoming the new Captain of Squad 13! That is one thing about the ending I absolutely love and have no notes on, aside from a scribbled in “That’s freakin rad” and a smiley face.

     
    Something I should say: it is by far easier to alter something with the advantage of hindsight than to come up with and execute new ideas in real time, especially over the course of several years. I seriously doubt I’d do well running an original manga (my gosh, I would implode) and I’m impressed that Tite Kubo was able to do as well as he did, and definitely still glad that we got Bleach.
     
    See, the reason I keep thinking about Bleach is because at one point Bleach was my favorite anime. I loved it so much, and I’ve always wanted to love it again. Unfortunately, I think it’s time for me to let go of that hope, but I wanted to try to turn my complaints into something more constructive. This is that.
     
    Who knows, maybe Kubo will put out a new series sooner or later and it turns out really interesting! I’d like that.
  10. Pahrak Model ZX
    In my ongoing efforts to accomplish nothing productive with my life, I got an urge to rewrite Bleach in a way I think would be more interesting. Of course, that’s a momentous undertaking, so instead of writing the whole thing out I just threw together an outline. Since I’m not going to go reread the entire series some of this may be foggy, but hey, who’s reading this?
     

    Why Did I Do This Beginning through Soul Society:
    -Honestly I don’t think I’d change much for the first two arcs. Maybe just some miscellaneous things, like the shape of Tensa Zengetsu’s guard, and possibly a few bits of foreshadowing. Oh, and I feel like Aizen’s shikai should be a little less OP—as opposed to “see it once and I will forever have total control over your senses”, maybe give it a time limit, possibly a month or two so the Gotei 13 could still reasonably be under its spell during the Soul Society arc. Fairest would be that he needs his shikai active to use its effects, but maybe a little OP isn’t too bad.
     
    The Vizard and Hueco Mundo:
    -Since the biggest criticism of the arc is that it’s essentially the same as the Soul Society arc, changing the formula would probably be a good place to start. Since Soul Society was sort of allying with Urahara and the Vizard, an idea I had was that they could use Urahara’s portal-opening skills to just make frequent raids into Hueco Mundo rather than an extended infiltration done by Ichigo and co, essentially the same as the Arrancar popping into Karakura now and then (which would probably also keep happening). It could still go on for a while, but experiencing each world in short bits might make that more tolerable.
    -The teams being sent on raids would change regularly as well. A number of Soul Reapers, Vizards, and Ichigo’s friends would gather together each time and be dispatched, while others would stay behind and train or defend Karakura or something else. It’d allow a great chance to showcase all the characters, not just the popular ones, as well as give them more of an opportunity to lose some fights and be brought back to safety to reflect on that.
    -To facilitate this setup, it would sure help if Soul Society had an idea of what might be strategic places to strike in Hueco Mundo. A mole in Aizen’s forces would help this greatly, and I’d like to suggest Mashiro Kuna. (The Vizard lady with the green hair, I had to look up her name but apparently that’s it.) Hear me out: it’s been stated that she can maintain her Hollow Mask for 15 hours, without ever even training to control it. If she approached Aizen sometime before the plot started, keeping her mask on and claiming that her Hollow has taken control of her body, she could probably pull that off, as long as she keeps the mask on whenever Aizen’s nearby. Maybe she actually would train and lengthen her duration to be able to keep it on even longer, perhaps even indefinitely. So Aizen would think he has a powerful Hollowfied Shinigami in his ranks, but in reality she is able to leak information to the other Vizard, who in turn pass it on to the Soul Society. Of course, Aizen would almost definitely want to cast her under his zanpakuto’s control, but if we say Mashiro’s Hollow Mask makes her immune to it (either as a general Vizard power or because of the lenses her mask creates over her eyes), Aizen would be none the wiser and this could work out.
    -Obviously we’ll still have Ichigo training to control his own Hollow. Since he doesn’t respond well at first, he’d probably try going on a raid right away, and I imagine being in Hueco Mundo would give his Hollow a much better chance of taking control for a bit. Whether this would change the circumstances of Ichigo finally taking control of the Hollow is up in the air, but the series of raids would provide him a better time frame to gradually increase his control of the mask, rather than just suddenly jumping from novice to master like it sort of felt like in the manga.
    -Also Chad. Chad still gets his left arm armor in Hueco Mundo, though I might change its color scheme to match his right arm and come up with one singular name for the power rather than giving each arm a different name. Orihime might develop some new powers too—I think she’s technically a Fullbringer also? At least, I’d probably make that official in this version, so maybe she gets her 4 spirit Reflect early, or gets an entirely new ability added to her repertoire. And this should go without saying: Chad and Orihime get to win fights. From here on out. Interesting ones, and maybe a couple of easy ones later on just to be nice.
    -There’s a question of where this leaves Uryu. As I recall, he only agreed to go to Hueco Mundo because he wanted to help rescue Orihime, so with that not being the case I’m not sure if he would want to participate in the raids, especially since there should still be some pretty high tensions between him and the Soul Society, what with him being the last Quincy and everything. Though as long as the Arrancar keep attacking Karakura, that’d still give Uryu plenty of opportunity to show off, so maybe it wouldn’t be a real problem.
    -Tension with Soul Society in general might be beneficial here. For Uryu, they’re the people who wiped out his people. As for Ichigo, some of the shinigami might still not entirely trust him, or hold a grudge over his rampage. Plus, while in Hueco Mundo, I imagine the shinigami would want to smite as many Hollows as possible, and if this included some less than threatening foes like Nell and her gang, I’m sure Ichigo would have a problem with that. It’d provide a way to continue examining the flaws of Soul Society and perhaps show a gradual process of mending them.
    -With continued attacks on Karakura, it’s possible that more of Ichigo’s human friends could develop Fullbrings and get a formal introduction to the spiritual world, but I don’t have any specific ideas about that.
     
    Fake Karakura Town:
    -I think the basic setup here works as a climax for the Hueco Mundo era. The circumstances might be different, though: I imagine Mashiro would get word out about Aizen’s plan to attack, and perhaps this is when Ichigo and some others actually target Aizen’s castle in an attempt to stop him. They wouldn’t, of course, and we’d still get some fights in Hueco Mundo while other battles are going on in Fake Karakura, though I guess we’d need to decide which Espada are staying behind to still be fought in Hueco Mundo at this point…maybe only the top five are still around and only Ulquiorra and Yammy stay behind? I think that’s more or less what happened in the manga.
    -Ichigo and a couple of others would take on Ulquiorra. I definitely think Ulquiorra’s second Resureccion is unnecessary and, well…pulled out of thin air, so I’d cut that. I also think Ichigo’s Arrancar transformation is a little out there, though it might work better if it came from Ichigo’s Inner Hollow agreeing to work closer with Ichigo and meld their powers into something more potent. As long as it doesn’t revive him from near-death and is more evenly-matched with Ulquiorra instead of reversal-curb-stomping him, I guess it’s not so bad. Also I’d prefer to keep his original mask design, but that’s just straight nostalgia.
    -Whoever goes to Hueco Mundo and doesn’t fight Ulquiorra would fight Yammy, and I think this would be the larger group. I’d want this fight to be on-screen and very difficult, forcing several characters to combine their powers in interesting ways to figure out a way to topple the guy who’s supposedly the strongest Espada. (I mean, I’m not entirely on board with him secretly being the 0 Espada, but…I’ll keep it here so there are at least two Espada guarding Hueco Mundo while Aizen’s away.)
    -I recall most of the fights in Fake Karakura being alright. Though, I remember being dissatisfied with Yamamoto’s fight—an Arrancar created specifically to seal his flames is a fine idea, but I’d like to see it more as a full battle, and maybe end with the old man being worn down naturally (and maybe a cheap shot from Aizen) rather than just crumbling after throwing himself on his exploding opponent.
    -Admittedly, I’m not entirely sure where Grimjow would be in all this. His fight with Ichigo would probably happen prior to this final battle, and I’m not sure if he would go back to Aizen after that, or if Aizen would even take him back. Maybe he does, and Grimjow ends up fighting someone else in Hueco Mundo who holds him off so Ichigo can finish off Ulquiorra? Or maybe he comes in to help Ichigo fight Ulquiorra? It’s hard to say. I am totally okay with him surviving this arc, though.
    -So…that brings us to Aizen. Let’s start with what oddly bothered me the most: over 20 chapters with the same title. Either don’t do that, or give them all different subtitles, like earlier repeating titles (which I always thought was kinda cool). As for how the fight actually plays out…gee, what do I remember…well, if he’s attained god-like power then it does make sense he’d curbstomp a lot of people, but seeing them put up a little more fight might be more interesting. The real question here is Ichigo vs Aizen. I think I can get behind Isshin having Ichigo learn the Final Getsuga Tenshou, though maybe there should be a little more reason as to why—maybe Ichigo tries fighting Aizen with his Arrancar form (which he can now toggle) and plenty of help, but still isn’t able to win, so they pull back while the others continue to hold Aizen off. Obtaining the technique would be done in either Karakura or Soul Society, since I still feel the sudden Hyperbolic Time Chamber thing was…well, sudden. When Ichigo comes back, everyone else would probably be on the brink of death, and rather than doing a short curbstomp battle to no real effect I’d prefer him just use the Final Getsuga Tenshou right away, lose his powers, and let Urahara’s seal activate to finally defeat Aizen.
    -Also I’m not sure I really got Gin’s character? So maybe some tweaks would be made to that.

     
    Since this ended up being long and I’m not quite done with the final arc yet, I think I’m going to cut it here and post the rest another time. I already know my revisions for the last arc are going to be extensive…
  11. Pahrak Model ZX
    The time has come, folks.
     
    With the Judge Slizer’s timeline sinking into the void, the Judge Coronet and the Ice Coronet have met up for one final battle.
     
    The winner will determine the fate of the remaining scraps of the Slizer population. The loser…well, I’m sure you can guess.
     
    Are you ready to do your duty? For Coronet and Cancellation?
     
    (It’s Slizer Mafia 3 yo, come on down for a disk-throwin’ good time)
  12. Pahrak Model ZX
    I just posted the twentieth chapter of Shooting Star Sonia 2, and with that, it is officially complete!
     
    Just completing something always feels good, but I’m extra jazzed about this one. The rough draft was technically all done in approximately a year (January to January), and from the time I started posting it (July) I was able to maintain a biweekly posting schedule from start to finish. PLUS an extra chapter on the 10th anniversary of Mega Man Star Force. I was able to hold myself to a schedule successfully, writing a 105k word story in about a year, despite a new Pokémon game being released in the midst of it. I tend to be utterly terrible at this sort of thing so thank you God for this small victory.
     
    Here I thought this was going to be shorter than the first story, which is around 80k. Who knew!
     
    I am planning to adapt Star Force 3, but there are a few other ideas I want to get off the ground before I really get into that one. I’m hoping one of those will be serialized in April and May, and if I can get that done and finish all preparations, I’d love to kick off SSS3 in July 2017! We’ll have to see, though. Judging from what I already want to do, there’s a good chance this one’s going to end up even longer! I’ve got plenty of ideas in store… *Rubs hands together menacingly, plus it’s a little chilly so the warmth is nice*
     
    I hope to have news on all my upcoming projects for you soon!
  13. Pahrak Model ZX
    There's a new Zelda game just out and none of you who actually play Zelda thought to use that joke in response to this trend by now smh
     
    (Oh right, they're probably all still playing the new Zelda game. Carry on.)
  14. Pahrak Model ZX
    I’ve been thinking on and off about a new concept for a game inspired by Steins;Gate. The idea was that the Great Beings have discovered a pocket dimension that is virtually identical to the main universe but is just starting out, and as time moves there they will send visions to certain individuals in an attempt to alter the sequence of events to see if they can accomplish a smoother reformation of Spherus Magna. My only idea for a title was “Crosswired;Gate”, but anyway.
     
    Figuring out how to set this up was difficult. What I’m thinking right now is that it’ll be a collaborative effort between players. There’ll be a “signup period” (48 hours?), but players will be able to join later if they want to. The player list will be necessary though—each round, a timeframe will be presented, and two players who are on the list will be randomly selected and asked to come up with a plan for what vision to send to whom in an attempt to alter how events proceed. The remaining players (including newcomers) will then vote on which plan they prefer, and these planners will be able to edit their plans using feedback from the other players, and when a certain amount of time has expired the voting will end and the winning plan will be implemented. I will then determine how the vision is received and how events proceed. Then we move on to the next round.
     
    At least a few fixed points will probably be necessary. The Great Spirit Robot will crash into Aqua Magna, the Kanohi Vahi will be forged, and Matoro will die—but the circumstances of these events could certainly be altered. Maybe more events should be fixed? I’m not sure.
     
    Well, really, I’m very unsure in general. The setup is still shaky, and this would be a tremendous workload. I’m also hesitant about a game which depends on my judgment to determine how it progresses. If someone disagrees with what consequences I think a vision will have, there won’t be much I can say in response, and I worry it could start to feel unfair to players. Maybe I could recruit a panel of judges? It would take longer to change rounds, though, since we’d all need to deliberate and then still write up the scene, plus I’m not sure it would be fair for the judges to actually participate in the game…
     
    I like the general idea enough to not just dismiss it, but I think it needs a lot of work before I consider building up the motivation to attempt it. So, if anyone has any thoughts, I would love to hear them!
  15. Pahrak Model ZX
    Life as a retired theme is actually pretty great! The extensive cast of the Bionicle franchise has spent the last few years relaxing in luxury with not a care in the world, and is having their annual reunion party as the film opens. The scene focuses on big name characters like the Toa and Makuta, with a few condescending references to “the Gen 2 side of the family” and a small appearance from an old drunk Slizer who rants some gibberish about the prophecy of the Slizers’ return. One of the Toa, probably Tahu, off-handedly turns away one of the minor characters near the end of the scene and goes home to resume his easy life.
     
    Soon, however, trouble begins. Numerous major characters are found missing their masks, which has resulted in them losing all their powers and memories! A few of the Toa are called out of retirement to fix this, but all of their combat experience and character development has gone down the drain after being out of the game for so long, and so they’re barely able to do a thing against the various generic enemies they keep bumping into. Eventually they come face to face with the one stealing masks: the minor character Tahu shunned at the reunion, who is fed up with being constantly shoved into the background even so many years later. Their goal is to steal the powers and memories of all the franchise’s major characters and make them their own, so that they will be the only important character ruling over a bunch of nameless nobodies!
     
    The Toa begin to realize how poorly minor characters are treated, and this leads to them visiting their estranged relatives in Gen 2 to ask for their help. Unfortunately, the minor character has become so powerful and amassed enough generic minions that even the combined forces of Generations 1 and 2 aren’t able to claim victory. (Around this time the minor character will transform and rename themselves Voriki Toa of Energy. The Toa will comment that name sounds really fake.) When all seems darkest, the sound of disks flying fills the air…and the Slizers bust in, shouting something along the lines of “TIME TO FULFILL THAT PROPHECY SON!!” The kooky geezers are enough to tip the scales, and the minor character is defeated by a Toa Seal created from the combined powers of major, minor, Gen 1, Gen 2, Slizers, and…some other sixth thing. The masks are returned to their rightful owners, who regain their memories and abilities, and the minor character laments at how they’re now forever doomed to life in the background.
     
    The last scene is a year later at the next reunion, where all the characters are being treated as equals, including the minor character who became the villain. Major or minor, Generation 1 or 2, Bionicle or Slizers—they’ve come to realize they’re all part of the same gigantic family, and that they should be treating each other with love and respect instead of looking down on each other based on silly things like how many sets they’ve gotten or which island they lived on. Tahu excitedly makes an announcement: Generation 3 is in the works, and he was able to convince Lego to include new versions of a whole slew of minor characters! The celebration goes on and the credits begin to roll, accompanied by a new remix of the Piraka Rap.
     
    (I’ve said this before, but you can hire me whenever you want, Lego. I’m free.)
  16. Pahrak Model ZX
    Coming up with titles for things has always been a struggle, but I felt like I had managed to come up with a few good titles here and there, and that was a very satisfying feeling so I kept trying.
     
    No more, though. There’s no point in trying to come up with titles that I think might sound good.
     
    No title I come up with could ever compare to a title like “Bahamut Disco”.
  17. Pahrak Model ZX
    Dragon Ball Super has recently kicked off the Universe Survival Arc we’ve been looking forward to. Rather than going straight to the tournament proper, they’re doing a three-round exhibition match between Universe 7 (Goku and friends) and Universe 9, and the most recent episode gave us some interesting information after the second round concluded. Which is a weird place to put it. Especially since the Grand Priest presents this in an announcement to everyone gathered—you would think it’d be done either before or after the match, not smack dab in the middle, but…anyway!
     
    A lot has been clarified. For starters, four of the twelve universes (1, 5, 8, and 12) will not be entering the tournament, the reason being that they’ve been deemed way too strong. Zeno has evaluated the “average mortal power level” of all twelve universes, and has already been thinking of erasing the eight that he thinks are too weak. When Goku suggested the tournament, he revised this to allowing the universe that wins the tournament to survive. This takes some of the heat off of Goku (and gives a better explanation for why the survival aspect is there), but still, the guy’s being shown in a less than positive light lately and that’s actually interesting to see. I feel like this is a good compromise: now, even if the stakes are maintained and they really do erase all losing universes, there will still be four whole other universes to explore, and they’re all immensely powerful. So I think that’s a plus.
     
    It’ll still be sad to see the others go, though. I mean obviously Universe 7 is going to win (even if they’re currently ranked second-weakest, beating out only Universe 9), so that’s bad news for the Universe 6 characters we’ve gotten to know…and Gowasu from Universe 10. But I guess if they capitalize on this, it could work out. Plus these characters will still all be around in video games!
     
    It’s also clarified that yes, all deities in the losing universes will be erased as well, with the notable exception of the angels. Whis’s reaction to this and a few other moments in the episode is…slightly unnerving. But the question is: if the universe an angel serves is destroyed but they get to live on, what do they do? …No, actually, the real question is: since we’ve been told there used to be eighteen universes and six were erased, their angels must still be around, so where are they?! There are some interesting possibilities here and I look forward to seeing how they turn out. I’ve been hoping we might get a villain who escaped the destruction of their universe and has come back for revenge against Zeno (or Goku) and this makes that look a lot more possible.
     
    I’m looking forward to this arc more now that I know there’s going to be more potential available afterwards than it initially seemed. Plus the fight in this episode had a little more variety in technique and showed that Gohan can still fight pretty well. That means there’s hope that all the B and C List characters showing up for this arc might actually get their time to shine!
  18. Pahrak Model ZX

    More Remembering!

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    So not only was Final Fantasy V in a commercial recently, there’s going to be a new Mega Man Star Force figure this year?!
     
    This is amazing. I like this trend of my favorite underrated games getting nods.
     
    Next on the list are Sinnoh remakes and a TWEWY sequel.
  19. Pahrak Model ZX
    Well it’s not out yet.
     
    But you know what is out?
     
    Slizer Mafia 2.8, a lazily-named short story that briefly introduces the situation you’ll find yourself in and a couple of characters who’ll be important. Also it goes into some mechanics so that I can skip the long explanations in the actual game to save space.
     
    Don’t worry, Slizer Mafia 3 is looking good, and I plan to request permission to host it soon. (Maybe mid-March if the opportunity is there?) And no, you don’t have to read 2.8 in order to understand 3, this really is just hype-building and a chance to elaborate on some of my nonsensical plot points in a less intrusive way.
     
    Although now I realize 2.8 focuses entirely on one faction and wonder if I should do something for the opposing faction too…
  20. Pahrak Model ZX

    They Remembered!

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    So I guess Square Enix is doing a collaboration with a new smartphone game or something, and they’re doing ads to promote it of course, and guess what?
     
    There’s not a Cloud in sight.
     
    IT FEATURES FINAL FANTASY V.
  21. Pahrak Model ZX

    Speaking of Games

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Oh yeah, it’s been quite a while since I last ran a Technic Tournament. Maybe I should do that. I mean, I’m doing Slizer Dome right now, and my next priority should probably be to wrap up the Slizer Mafia trilogy, but…
     
    Would anyone be interested in playing Technic Tournament 5? And if you have any suggestions for how the game system can be improved, I’m all ears.
     
    (The title would be “Technic Tournament 5 Ocarina of Majora’s Twilight” by the way.)
  22. Pahrak Model ZX
    (New name btw this is Pahrak if you can’t tell.)
     
    --Gehenna’s Stigma: Now this is an entertaining villain!
     
    --Vega and Altair: I have some mixed feelings about this but dang if it doesn’t feel epic as heck.
     
    --Twin Automata: Oh my gosh…I like Moeka now!!
     
    --Recursive Mother Goose: BUT DID YOU NEED TO MAKE IT THAT SAD?!
     
    --Promised Rinascimento: Since this is spoiler-free all I can think to say is “I dig it.”
     
    --Milky-Way Crossing: Not quite what I was hoping for, but definitely cool.
     
    The way 0’s plot is structured was a bit confusing at first, but I really do love how they did the endings this time around. In the first game, the alternate ends were all “What If” scenarios (except for the Kurisu End, which is just the True End minus the actual ending), and while that was really interesting, the endings of 0 flesh out different characters and ideas, and one of the endings even discusses this concept a little. I imagine choosing what to animate and what to leave out must be difficult, so the wait for the anime seems more justifiable now.
     
    On a related note, I’m so glad every Lab Member got to do stuff. I had mixed feelings about Moeka and felt that Ruka and Faris were sort of underused, and I think 0 did a better job on those fronts.
     
    Anything else I could say would be spoilery, so I’ll save it and probably do another entry with those.
     
    EDIT: Also I just found out that the English dub of the Steins;Gate movie is apparently being released on March 28th! Good, I've been thinking I should rewatch it and this will be a good reason to do that.
  23. Pahrak Model ZX
    Slizer Dome US is a game designed to immerse the player in the world of Throwbots Slizers! Become a Slizer on any of the eight planets, hone your skills, and battle Elemental Monsters to earn points! Whoever gets the most points by the end of it all will be named Champion of the Galaxy!
     
    Signups will remain open for 72 hours only! Act fast!
  24. Pahrak Model ZX
    So when I went to download Fire Emblem Heroes the other day it wasn’t available yet and the store recommended the new Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links app, and I figured “pssh okay sure I guess I’m curious.”
     
    It turns out it’s…actually fun? Like, way more fun than children’s card games should be? I'm having difficult putting it down and I'm not sure I feel comfortable with this development.
     
    Part of it’s definitely nostalgia, of course. You unlock the ability to play as several characters from the original anime, you see, so you get to hear them constantly shouting out stock phrases and taunts. Basically everything Kaiba says is gold. Brooklyn Joey is there (even on some of his cards). Honestly my only complaint on that front is no Tristan, but more characters are already set to be added so who knows.
     
    I probably only played the actual card game less than five times when I was a kid so I don’t remember much (and certainly never had any skill), but Duel Links presents a streamlined version that’s extremely easy to pick up, so it took a while before I really felt like an amateur with a poor card selection. And, a few of those losses can be chalked up to bad starting hands…and being too tired/unfocused to do what I actually intended to do…anyway, what I mean is it feels pretty fair even to newcomers, except for when you fight that guy who looks like Red from Pokémon who cheats.
     
    I’d rate it 5/7 Millennium Items would recommend to nostalgia-prone friends.
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