#adwd2

[msrinran]

I hope he is a yearner. Like the yearnest yearner. Even more than Casper. I want him to be head over heels for MC. I want him to love, desire, yearn, be jealous. Release all his pent-up feelings onto MC.

[demonic-silver-and-gold]

Oh my god???? I’m paying all the money

(Spoilers for Day 1 of the ADWD2 demo)

(I’m obsessed w A Date With Death. If you didn’t know. I paid all the money for it. So I’m just excited.)

(Not my Obey Me! ass immediately cackling at the name + abbreviation)

(God even the tech names remind me of her (Obey Me! SWD))

(OBSESSED with these ads you have no idea)

(I love 0204 already. He’s my dumbass in orange. Hey, what do you know, I STILL have a type-)

(Good to know and confirm this is set after the first ADWD, didn’t screenshot the convo abt Casper + the MC of the first game but I was enjoying myself too much in my defense)

I’ll reblog w more tomorrow bc I didn’t screenshot the character creator + walking chibi and I NEED TO

Edit: check the reblogs for the rest of this

[the-gateway-to-madness]

adwd shower thoughts

okay so i was doing a think and i said to myself, @twoandahalfstudios is INCREDIBLY good, from what I can tell, at writing realistically dynamic characters. i will use Grim (8394) as case study, and I will only use his real name under the cut as a spoiler buffer. Spoiler warning for both the base game and Beyond the Bet are in effect here.

There's a principle in psychology that an individual will not change until the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying the same. There's also a principle that you should only try to deliberately change one aspect of behavior at a time, if you can afford that kind of time and focus.

There's another pattern I have seen and studied, which is that a person can change a lot in one way and not really change in another; and a pattern I have observed that a person's core traits tend to stay the same save for instances of massive upheaval by necessity.

I think the most interesting characters are written to have post-arc traits that are a fluid extension of hints of behavior that are hidden under other strata of experience.

This is displayed beautifully with Casper. His base traits are confidence to the point of vanity and arrogance (which does not change, because the events of the game do not require that of him, therefore he does not), as well as intelligence. Especially self-perceptive intelligence, but other intelligence as well. He knows he's good at what he does and so it does not make sense to him not to be confident.

What changes is his learned attachment style and his ability to be flexible. What makes this work is that we see hints of the potential for change there since day 1 without clashing with his other traits.

"Don't shoot the messenger, and all that. You're actually starting to make me feel guilty." There's something underneath the Reaper -- Casper -- that is capable of compassion. I think that's why names are so dangerous to the reapers' organization. Numbers cannot feel. People can. Ironically, the reaper organization is taking advantage of the very fact that reapers think like the humans they were madd from by using the psychological principle of depersonalization to shut down critical thinking.

(As a side note, the fact reapers cannot lie is actually very telling. They're forbidden to talk to mortals and have no time for their fellow underworld denizens, so who, exactly, are they forbidden to lie to? Their superiors.)

"Can I change my name and profile picture? I just want to."

"I suppose you can."

"That easily?"

"What, did you want me to say no or something?"

Behold, capacity for flexibility. Casper may have been annoyed by MC but he had no reason to say no, so why would he? He is very capable of quick cognitive shifts.

The time spent talking to Casper over the following days allows the player to slowly cut through the what and why of Casper's detachment. It is demanded of him, and it protects the layers of traits and behaviors that are intrinsically Casper from being destroyed. But he is able to leave that detachment behind when he learns more information -- at first about the player, and then about the reapers and his organization. His innate flexibility of thought emerges as something that is suddenly much more useful to him than his prior rigid behavior, and so Casper changes.

THAT'S REALISTIC CHARACTER CHANGE BABEYYYY

So seeing what we have about Casper (my beloved), here's some of my predictions for the sequel, based on what we know so far about the LIs.

- 0204 is new to this too. He has no idea who he is yet and he's smart enough to realize he's being molded into something that scares him in some way. His behaviors look, so far, like escape-motivated ones to me. 0204 does not feel safe and he is trying to find a way to look untouchable, but he's on uncertain footing. I think his arc is going to be about focusing his risk-taking tendencies into something that actually matters to him, and that that purpose is going to solidify slowly in him over the game until we have a character left that no longer feels a need to reject whatever forms and shapes other people tell him he belongs in... like his glamour, perhaps? 👀 I think what we are gonna find under his layers is strength of will and hope.

- 5012 is much more established in who he is -- even more so than Casper was. He's the oldest LI in the franchise. He is not kind, but he is just. He seems genuinely quiet and introverted, and I'd say not just because of conditioning. Casper gave off the feeling of being suppressed; 5012 seems comfortable with established routines. Less flexible. I think what we're going to see is 5012 being forced to develop flexibility to survive -- that which is tempered to brittleness shatters. I think what we will find under his layers is peace and security.

[ash1plier]

i love him sm 😭

[calverkeys]

great initial reaction to the second game

[sharigax]

ADWD2 Demo unfortunately made me think about the idea of a sunshine soul/bright soul and I want to get kind of weird with it. What if you die with a soul so blazing and hot because you were full of fire and conviction against a world that you hated and now you've been given a chance to put down your destruction, because all you really have left of your pain from life are these vague glimpses in death. What if you want to become a hearth. What if you've been given a chance to find a kinder way to go about things

[more-cardigan-than-woman]

A Date With Death 2 : Demo Review

My new goal in life is to show 5012 that soul babies are real. He will be so mad at this revelation that his head will explode and then maybe he'll stop being such a grumpy lil guss and come play video games with me.

jkjk. Its so good. The ads in VNs are always so on point i particularly loved the one about single vampires in my area,(even though im a Lucille die hard.)

Love the way the lore is bound through the Date with Zero comic and expanded in the first person and mostly begrudgingly explain by 5012.

The art is so pretty and the banter is witty and fast and my fellow trainee might actually be the one to succeed in getting 5012 to laugh.

The demo is laugh out loud funny and really long from what i expected of the first demo. Im probably going to lose a few days rage baiting 5012 and getting to know my he/him Princess

im very excited for the full game to come out next year.

I named her after my cat :)

[coffeerhythm]

A Date With Death 2 demo is not disappointing but holy fuck these reapers are THIRSTY