CARDINALROSES
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PROJ.
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Oops I accidentally forgot about this site again ToT my bad!!
I've been really busy with classes lately so I fear most of my Winterbanery has been confined to doodling in the margins of my notes.
Also if you haven't already noticed I completely redid the site!! Except for my art page because that's an entire other can of worms I'm not messing with yet lol.
Let's see, what else have I been up to... I tried out a couple Studio Investigrave games aside from Married in Red which I played this summer. Jackpot Crash Course obv since it just came out (Go play pt 1 btw!! [LINK] to their itch.io page right here!!) As well as Eloquent Countenance since I thought the aesthetic looked really cool!! And I had a ton of fun with both of them!! If my budget for next month allows I think I'm gonna order the Eddie plush keychain from the merch drop.
I'm trying to figure out what else I've been up to creatively speaking since it's been like a month and a half since I last posted anything about my goings-on.
I've drawn!! duh, but like more than in that first couple weeks that I was back at uni. I want to properly hunker down on my character illustrations, I think I've hit a bit of a rough patch with my art that I've been trying to get out of, but it's been a process ToT
I think on top of just. Like. designing characters and stuff and doing art for Winterbane and other projects, I'd like to try doing comms on VGen?? Maybe??
Also, I'm gonna try to participate in SoloDevelopment's 72-hour jam over this upcoming weekend!! I want to try my hand at some smaller-scale projects to get a better grasp of development in RPG Maker, and I think it'd be a good way to show people my work since Winterbane is still definitely a long way off from being playable.
That's everything I think!! See y'all around!!
-CARDINAL
Wow, has it really been 10 years already??
UNDERTALE is easily one of the most impactful games I've played. Maybe not emotionally, since I played it in like 2019 and had already seen hours upon hours of gameplay, but creatively.
I said it in the anni. question event thing and I'll say it now: UNDERTALE is the reason I am the way I am. It's the reason I create stories of my own. Probably why I'm constantly hyperfixated on my own ocs ToT.
My first ever proper OCs with their own world was Stardust, and it was practically an UNDERTALE ripoff. It was about a kid entering this lost civilization of magical beings where you could spare your enemies. Wow, how original. I don't have the sketchbook with me but I'm pretty sure Cross, who ended up as the protagonist after I had mostly scrapped the original concept, was functionally an Undyne copy-paste, Undying form and all.
Some things are better left buried, but I think that without UNDERTALE, I probably wouldn't love games the way I do now. I wouldn't always circle back to games as my storytelling medium. I might be a published novelist one day, but if I can make one person happy by playing a game I make, that would be pretty amazing too.
IDK, I don't really get super into my own feelings on something like this often. I guess it just felt like I had to this time!!
Happy Birthday, UNDERTALE!
-CARDINAL
Heyy!! Okay sooooo been a bit.. Whoops!
Been super busy lately LOL, classes are starting up again soon and I had to head back to uni, so I haven't had a lot of time to update my site proper.
That being said!! I *have* been working on the Winterbane side of things, so I think I'm getting close to being able to promote that part of my site properly!!
Aside from that though I do have a topic in mind for today. Spoilers, specifically untagged ones (Lighting strike thunder thunder boom roaaaar)
I have such a special kind of distaste for people who post spoilers untagged, ESPECIALLY LIKE THE DAY AFTER THE THING RELEASES????
I'm talking about Limbus Company in this case though, since the Intervallo just dropped a few days ago. I managed to finish playing through it on Thursday/Friday(?) but literally got spoiled for one of the bosses bc someone posted a picture of it out of nowhere on Twitter. On that topic, why do people just post clips of dialogue and stuff without the courtesy to at least tag it??? Where is the decorum.. the etiquette...
I mean, given the state of the internet being full of cringe-shaming, cruel people I'm not surprised, just disappointed ToT
Anyway that's all for today!! Hoping to finish Sophia's portrait for the wntrbne site before my classes start, toodles!
-CARDINAL
Heyy been a minute!!
Just kind of wanted to post smth to update what I've been up to since it's been pretty radio silent on my site since I posted the yttd review.
I've been mainly just working on Winterbane stuff and procrastinating when it comes to working on Winterbane stuff!!
Speaking of wow I really need to finish the Winterbane page of this site... So many assets to draw...
In the meantime here's a drawing I did of Lisbeth!! She's the protagonist of Winterbane and I'm still procrastinating doing my art page too. Hm. I should do that today actually, it's not like I'm missing assets for that.
Uhh that's all I think!! Otherwise I've just been playing Ultrakill a bit and freaking out over Silksong finally getting a release date!!! On a weekday while I have classes but oh well!!!!
-CARDINAL
P.S. okay so I did make my art page, promise it'll look less horrendous eventually!!
P.P.S. I fucking lied I'm writing a review of Ultrakill holy shit I have so much to say about the environments/level design
(THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR YOUR TURN TO DIE UP TO THE END OF CHAPTER THREE PART ONE.)
Okay I finished Your Turn To Die today (August 11th at time of writing), and wanted to post my full review of the game so far!
Strap in, this is gonna be a long one. I'm going to break it down by chapter, and will mention which choices I made along the way alongside a rating (out of 10)!
Chapter One - 9/10
I think that the game has a really strong start! I want to preface this review by saying that I was not going in blind, so I think that may have dampened any of the emotional beats/character deaths for me since I knew they were coming.
I was pretty quickly endeared to Reko and Nao especially, 'please repent' is so funny to me and idk why.
There wasn't really anyone I didn't like. This will quickly change.
The escape room gimmick of part one was really fun, though I'll admit the clock puzzle did in fact take me until Sara literally spelt it out for me to solve it ToT.
Is part one technically a sub-game? It doesn't exactly have the same win conditions as the rest of them, especially since it was aimless exploration until Miley showed up.
SPEAKING OF MILEY, I love the floor masters (and Safalin), they're genuinely one of my favourite parts of the game. Miley is probably one of the lower ranked ones out of all of them, but that doesn't mean she isn't super fun. I think it's just the fact that she's unapologetically having fun in a way that Ranger just doesn't makes her a really fun villain.
I don't really have much to say about Mishima's death, mainly bc before my full playthrough this year I had already done chapter one pt one during December last year, so it was one of the only plot beats I had already experienced in full.
Sara Chidouin you will never not be famous to me. She repeatedly had me laughing out loud at some of the dialogue choices we're given and she deserves more credit for that.
The main game reminded me that I'm really bad at social deduction games. This will come up again in the future.
I kept failing the final choice and I can't for the life of me remember why.
I guess my only real issue with this chapter is the Yabusame reveal? Like, Alice being Reko's brother kind of felt like it got moved past wayy too quickly for it to be a relevant plot twist. IDK, maybe I'm just reading too far into it, but its execution felt a bit meh for me. That being said, it doesn't ruin the rest of the Yabusames' arcs, so in the end it doesn't detract much from my enjoyment of the game outside of that part of the main game.
Speaking of executions!!! ouch!!!!
So Joe is really fucking suspicious right. Like it's obviously not just me that thinks that, there are plenty of Evil Jou Tazuna theories everywhere online, but it felt way more apparent actually playing the game. Why does he have a doll and an AI if non-candidates aren't supposed to have them? What were he and Kai talking about on the security monitors? Why did he act like he didn't recognize Sara after the First Trial??? Like, the first two could easily be explained by Joe being involved with Asunaro, but then why would Kai's discussions mention keeping an eye on Joe and Ryoko if Joe was already going to participate??
This is getting off-topic. Sort of. Anyway!!
Yikes ouch again! I only slightly tried clicking stuff during Joe's execution since ik it wouldn't have done anything.
Kind of late but contiuning with my love of the floor masters I lovee their theme. The music for the game is all really good.
Remember what I said about me not disliking characters? Sou Hiyori I am going to fistfight you and this does not change one bit. Don't get me wrong, I know why he acts the way he does but wow if it doesn't piss me off.
Kai is also such an interesting character to me. I think Chapter 2 is where I really started to like him fully but his speech at the end of Chapter 1 is definitely the start of it.
All in all I really enjoyed Chapter 1! Aside from my issue with the Yabusame reveal, I think that everything was super interesting and sets up a lot of the future twists super early on so that most of them are more satisfying.
Chapter Two - 10/10
Chapter Two is by far my favourite chapter out of the three because it iterates on what I enjoyed about Chapter One in really creative ways and keeps the game engaging throughout it.
First and foremost oh my god Rio Ranger and Tia Safalin are by far my favourite floor master(s) in the game so far. They're both so goddamn funny and I think Safalin's character is really interesting. Like, she clearly doesn't enjoy doing this, but at the same time she entirely treats the participants in such a detached way, especially with the scene where she helps out Gin.
The sub-game was also super fun! The minigames were all super engaging and provided just enough difficulty. Except for memory dance. Fuck you in particular, memory dance. Only reason I'm not getting 100% acheivements on steam is because of that fucking attraction.
And now I talk about the hallucination Joe for a bit because Oh My God!!
Like, YTTD is generally considered a horror game, but aside from the sci-fi death game aspect of it I think the only time it really gets to that point is during Chapter Two and that is exclusively because of the terror that is having to look at that sprite.
I mean like it doesn't help that I kept accidentally chosing the options that made Sara's hallucination level go up, but like. whatever
Also damn this chapter does a really good job of making you not like Q-taro! Like, he was always a bit abrasive to the rest of the group in Chapter One but wow does he kick it up a notch this time.
Sou also pisses me off more in this chapter but that's okay :DDD
I avoided the Joe in the reflection for ages bc I figured that it was going to trigger hallucination stuff and Did Not Want To Do That. Additionally, I did the Alice side-quest with the bongos and also bought two of the victim videos, specifically Anzu's and Kurumada's. On that note I do wish there was a bit more info stored in the save file selection screen, in writing this I tried and failed five times to load a save where I could watch the videos again to check who's I had.
Okay, so the Final Attraction carries on with the theme of me sucking at social deduction games.
I had gone into it with the intention of having Alice die, since I liked Reko more. Unfortunately for me, I suck. I didn't prove to Alice that the other Reko was a fake in time and the real one died as a result. So I reloaded my save! And looked up a guide! Because I couldn't figure it out!! I enjoy how the sub-games end with functionally a Main Game with a gimmick, they're always one of my favourite parts of a chapter. After getting thoroughly fucked up by Alice dying, I completed the first part of Chapter Two.
Anyway!! Moving onto the Main Game since I don't really have any comments on the beginning of pt2 that I won't address during it!
This is, again, one of the main things that I enjoyed about the chapter. The first Main Game was really to-the-point, whereas the trading system added a layer of complexity that felt like figuring out who had which card was more of a puzzle. This chapter also made me like Keiji a lot more as a character, especially in part 2 but Chapter 3-1 will continue this.
The Main Game also partially carries through with some of the problems I had with the first one, though it also alleviated some of them. I think that the reveal of the percentage sheets was really well done, and had plenty of build up. Plus, the reveal was kind of integral in deciding the votes for the end, which I really enjoyed. My only real issue with it was how we weren't really given the chance to sit with the fact that Sou-Shin had been concealing his identity the whole time. I'm assuming we go further into it during Chapter Three when we vote for Kanna, but you could probably tell by the ':DDD' from earlier that I killed Sou. I mean, I voted for Nao first so I could get her ending bc I didn't want to say goodbye just yet, but then I did :P.
I haven't talked about Kanna yet but she's also one of my favourites, I love how her character progresses, especially into Chapter 3.
And after a brief emotional scene with the Joe AI we're finally free from having to see that freaky sprite ever again!!!
In conclusion I do think that Chapter Two is my favourite so far, though I am open to having my mind changed when Chapter Three Pt. Two comes out.
Chapter Three (Part One) - 9/10
okay man look I just don't like midori that much
Okay in all seriousness though Chapter Three is on a technical level leagues better than the other two and I do really love it!
I just. don't like Midori. Like he's a good villain, I think it's really interesting how he takes on a more active antagonist role in this chapter compared to the other floor masters who more facilitate the games.
Like he's a villain, he sucks, and that's the point. I don't like him.
The dummies are awesome though!! I think they were a really creative way to make the cast bigger so they could do more things, as at that point the cast had been getting pretty thinned out. My favs by far are Kurumada and Mai, which sucks for upcoming reasons.
The map mechanic is also amazing and I lowkey hope it gets in some way ported to the other chapters when the game releases in full because the navigation in ch1 and 2 get a bit rough at times, at least for me.
Anyway!! The entire chapter is a little jumbled up in my brain so apologies if the next points are a bit out of order.
Those fucking lantern segments oh my god
There would always be one last detail that was so tiny I kept fucking missing it. In order, I think it was:
- Gin: The stuff in the medicine cabinet being files
- Kanna: I don't remember actually, I think it was Kugie carrying their bags??
- Reko: The grass blocking people out being shorter
- Q-taro: His bed being thinner
Like damn was that rough, but it did provide really interesting peeks into the characters backstories! My plan is to do a run of ch2-2 onward with Alice alive and later Sou alive so I can generally get an idea of the stuff I missed, then do an extra run of ch3-1B with Alice and Kanna alive to get the Alice dialogue from the banquet.
The dummies were!! mostly alive!! During the first Obstructor fight, I lost and Anzu got killed. So I reloaded my save, and did it right. Then I further successfully beat the book one, avoiding any deaths again. That being said I absolutely failed the Maple fight but I DIDNT REALIZE THAT KURUMADA WAS LIKE DEAD DEAD UNTIL HE DIED LIKE FOURTY MINUTES LATER.
That is again something I want to fix in my next playthrough, since I didn't get any of the post-banquet scenes bc the dummies all died during it.
The banquet was also a ton of fun! I mean not really because basically everyone fucking died. But!! It was fun to figure something out again. Again I love the main game segments even though I suck at them :DD.
I think any reduction in my enjoyment of the segment was literally bc I already knew every twist already. Going through the chapters with those twists in mind was really interesting bc it recontextualizes a lot of Hinako's actions and dialogue. Like in hindsight she is wildly suspicious and remains wildly suspicious the whole time.
I don't entirely know if I like the Q-taro twist. Like yes?? but also idk it feels like it was partially there just for the sake of having at least one character dead during each part. IDK, this is really the only thing in the chapter that I couldn't make up my mind on.
I think that's everything!! All in all again a great chapter, I think the game in general is really good for the most part (Can they stop with the Keiji Sara stuff. Also it does not evade my notice that Kurumada is the only dark-skinned character in the cast and a major aspect of his personality is that he's a hot-head.) and really look forward to seeing the game reach it's conclusion. Eventually!! IDK I'm like four years late to the thing and it still hasn't come out,,
Also entirely expecting my love of the floor masters to carry on with the next part, strawberry shortcake lady I see you and I love you.
Thanks for taking the time to read this far!!! I appreciate that you stuck with my rambling for however many paragraphs this ended up being I'm Not Counting Them (57) and now I can get back to actually doing stuff like "Working on this site" and "Working on my game" and "Working on the part of this site that tells you about my game"!!! Bye bye!!
-CARDINAL
Wow!!! HTML sucks sometimes!!!
Very intentionally small post bc I want to populate my blog a bit.
It's genuinely a bit funny to me how changing almost anything in the code completely changes the layout. It's rough times for someone who learned HTML and CSS from a single yt video and countless google searches.
Anyway that's all. I'm finally finishing up YTTD so I should be posting a review for it up to ch. 3 pt. 2 within the week!
-CARDINAL
Hey!! Finally figured out all (Read: most) of the blog formatting stuff.
I think??? I figured out how to make the site less atrocious to read on mobile. Mostly. The blog box is a little atrocious I'm ngl but it's better than the infinite scrolling of margins XD
Only problem now is that I need to do this for the rest of the site since I was in fact using margins for the rest of it ToT. Oh well, not like I have much to do otherwise.
If you're seeing this now the site is ugly as shit and I promise it'll get better soon, I just want to sort of format the pages and stuff before I unleash PNG hell upon it :D.
That's all I think!! IDK it's like 1 in the morning right now, which is why the blog date mysteriously changed. Anyway!!! Bye!!!
-CARDINAL