I just wanna add, another interesting thing about this is that DDD confirms Sora doesn’t consciously remember what Aqua told him when they met. He remembers seeing Aqua talk to him, but he doesn’t remember what she said, as he can’t hear what she’s saying in his dream/memory.
We specifically get angles from Sora’s pov so that we know this is Sora’s memory we’re seeing as opposed to Riku’s.
And it’s no coincidence that this — Aqua telling Sora it’s his job to stay with Riku and keep him safe — is the memory Sora’s led to when he reaches for the light of Riku’s heart in the deepest layer of sleep/darkness… “Dreams hold our memories… Sleep holds our dreams… and darkness holds our sleep.” And sometimes…
Aqua telling Sora to keep Riku safe is the memory that almost wakes Sora up/leads him back to the light in DDD… Except Ansem intervenes and shoves Sora back into the dark… And Sora can’t remember what this memory is or why it’s important… nor does he seem to recognize it is a memory at all.
Because Sora can’t remember what Aqua says, what makes the memory so important. And the words Aqua uses, “keep [him] safe,” the ones Sora can’t remember anymore, are the SAME words Sora uses when he recalls the mixed up fake memory of the promise he made to Namine in CoM.
Whether Sora did make a verbal promise to Riku the night of the meteor shower or if his promise was just silently made in his heart after meeting Aqua, I think DDD confirms the “keep him safe” memory is 100% one of the precious ones Namine toyed with in CoM. And now Sora can’t really remember it.
I’m 100% convinced Sora saw the meteor shower memory in the first tunnel scene in KH3. Like you said, it wouldn’t be the first time Sora following the light of Riku’s heart brought a key memory to the surface. (Nor would it be the first time following anyone’s light brought forth a memory as Sora sees one of Kairi’s memories by following her light in KH1.) The visual framing of Riku’s sacrifice is absolutely meant to bring the meteor shower to mind — and since what Sora sees is hidden to us, it’s 1. Significant. 2. Something we haven’t seen yet.
All the other childhood memories we’ve seen/learned of between Sora and Riku up to this point have set up the meteor shower promise, from the existence of a past meteor shower they witnessed together (KH1)… to a precious promise exchanged that night (CoM)… to context before the fact (the motivation behind this mutual promise of protection as well as that Sora and Riku liked to stargaze together as kids) (BBS)… to proof that this promise continues to be precious to them and relevant to the story, even if Riku remembers the past better than Sora (DDD).
The series has been building to the reveal of this memory, much like it was building to Riku’s grand act of true love in KH3 to show he has finally found the strength to protect who is most precious to him… Sora. The fate of the entire universe, the outcome of the whole story (both outside and inside the narrative as the Book of Prophecies has the “end” written down), hinges on this moment. This singular expression of unwavering, unconditional love. It just makes way too much sense that Riku’s heart would bring the memory of the meteor shower promise to light.
The question, really, is WHY this memory is still hidden to us. Why don’t we see what Sora sees in the tunnel? This is prime time for a reveal! We know the boys are best friends and care a lot about each other. So why is this memory STILL veiled in secrecy… Why is Riku’s act of true love forgotten almost as soon as it happens… And WHY are BOTH of these things concealed by heterosexuality no less? Could it be because… the remembrance of these events (and subsequent reveal to the audience) would lead to both boys realizing their feelings are not platonic?
Nah! I’m sure it’s just to emphasize that Sora and Riku are super duper best friends forever :) Surely a reveal like that would call for over 20 years of secrecy, build up, and plausible deniability!
The unofficial translation of Gensou Narratograph is now available to download! (PDF only or .rar file with bonus assets)
I know no one ever actually looks at tumblr blogs, but I've made a basic page to hopefully collect information and links in the future.
An unofficial tabletop RPG published by Kadokawa. While the game as a whole is by no means "canon", it includes a full transcript of a game session with ZUN as one of the players, plus new character quotes and location descriptions written by ZUN, so it's worth checking out just for that alone.
Narratograph is largely boardgame-based, played with a selection of 30 characters gathering clues on a map of Gensokyo to progress through objectives and resolve the incident/kerfuffle of the week. However, it is still an RPG, with every scene being roleplayed and the incident also having a proper story to it. Narratively the game leans towards the light and feel-good end of Touhou fanworks, though I suppose it's up to you what you do with it. The book includes two prewritten adventures as examples, one of which I've run for a group to test it out.
It has pretty digestible mechanics, and a very unique danmaku combat system. To help with the number of sheets, figurines, tokens etc. needed, I've made public the Tabletop Simulator mod that I use to run the game myself, together with character figurines. You can use the assets included with the game to try and make it work in some other virtual tabletop of your choice. Or of course, you can also just print everything and play it live, if you can get a group together.
The rules have some quirks, and I'll try to figure out the best way to post my own notes and suggested houserules. As things stand, though, despite having nothing to do with the game officially, after putting a lot of work into it, I'm also curious to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences running it!
whaaaat lor posting his art to tumblr.... thats nuts.... anyways i drew all of this on a 5 hour plane flight last month LOL also i freehanded his hands be nice to me <//3
I was told on Discord I should really compile these somewhere. I may post these directly to Tumblr or WordPress or something eventually, but for now here is a masterpost of links to Google Docs.
These are various documents I've made translation sections of content from the Kirby series.
Please note that I do not consider myself fluent in Japanese, or even a Japanese speaker/able to read/write in Japanese in the first place. At best, consider these a step above some cleaned up machine translations.
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(03/11/2023) Return to Dream Land boss pause descriptions, for both Deluxe and Wii
Hey, so I actually finished up these translations a week after the game came out, but I forgot to post these anywhere outside of the r/Kirby
(05/08/2022) Team Kirby Clash Deluxe August 2017 Issue Nintendo Dream Interview with Kumazaki, including info on King D-Mind and the Parallel bosses. Also talks about Planet Robobot and making games as a student.
This is a translation of Nintendo Dream August 2017, an interview with Kumazaki that covers the story of Amazing Mirror and Team Kirby Clash
(04/02/2022) Kirby and the Forgotten Land masterpost.
Next Volume→
It's been a week since the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, so with it I bring you the first of four posts translating
Master post for Kirby Star Allies: The Original Artbook translations:
With the advent of Forgotten Land, I forgot all about the fact that we got scans for this artbook, but now I'll continue to look at it. I've
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Older Translations
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(08/24/2021 Though apparently I never shared it after I made it until now whoops) Descriptions mentioning Galactic Nova. If anyone can find a scan of the Japanese Super Star Ultra manual's description of Milky Way Wishes, please send me a message or tweet at me @dsgiratina.
Galactic Nova Minidoc What the hell is Nova’s name? Story (SS Manual) The sun and moon had a huge argument! Because of this, the days and
(06/07/2021) All Kirby Fighters 2 text.
Disclaimer Me me big dumb Format: Official English Japanese Translation Edited japanese (You can ignore this) Story Mode The Destined
(06/04/2021) All boss pause descriptions and dialogue from Kirby: Planet Robobot. Note that Kai-alone released his own version of this which I'd recommend trusting over mine, but feel free to use this as a second opinion. Please check that out here.
12/28/2021 Edit: Included the Pres. Haltmann 2.0 description which I forgot, and fixed an error in Galacta Knight's description due to accidentally deleting a character in the Japanese text.
About Kirby Kirby is the round, pink life-form from Planet Popstar who possesses infinite power and can inhale enemies to copy their abiliti
(05/06/2021) All boss pause descriptions and dialogue from Kirby: Triple Deluxe. Translations may be a bit overly literal.
VS Flowery Woods Once a small blooming flower native to the floating kingdom of Floralia, Flowery Woods has become hostile and overgrown due
(01/01/2021) All text relating to Another Dimension across all Kirby games. Please note that this is the oldest document, so if these descriptions appear in my later ones above, please check those instead since I might forget (or just out of laziness) to update this doc with better made translations.
