If CyberConnect2 actually starts making Fuga: Comedies of Steel 3 episodes, I REALLY hope they make an episode based off of this LINE sticker cause it's just so adorable!
For this year's Art Fight, I made a slight update to my Global Permissions by adding what is acceptable:
"Dressing up my characters in different outfits, as long as they are age-appropriate"
What this means is that I'm giving people permission to draw my characters in different kinds of outfits (specifically my anthros and Pokémon characters), even if they already have outfits of their own. Or to get creative and give them whatever outfit they'd like, as long as they are age-appropriate (so nothing adult-themed for adolescents).
Which means that, yes, you can have Madeleine dressed as Madeline from the hit game Celeste, as shown below:
It's no secret at all that Kyle Bavarois is my absolute favourite character in the entire Fuga: Melodies of Steel trilogy, despite his many faults. I always felt a major personal attachment to him far more than any of the other kids (even though I feel like someone else would've had more relatability with me). What I DON'T like, however, is the way CC2 mishandled his character arc! Especially in Fuga 3's Secret Events!
So, I'm going to go through a rundown on what went wrong with Kyle's character arc, and what I could've done to fix it.
Massive spoilers for the entire Fuga: Melodies of Steel trilogy down below, including the Secret Events in Fuga 3.
Before I start, I'm just going to come clean and say this: yes, I have read about the Secret Events, but I haven't watched any videos of them. And I will speak for everyone when I say that the Secret Events are among the most controversial part of Fuga 3, since they feel like all our efforts were for naught after everything we've done to give the kids the happy ending they truly deserved. In my case, I find Kyle's Secret Event to be extremely controversial, for a variety of reasons (though not as much as the Marzipans, like what in Hell Manor were they thinking with all of that?)
ANYWAY! I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: the way CC2 handled the character arcs (save for Britz and Sheena, and maybe Socks) is a huge mess. But for me, I'm personally miffed at the way they completely snubbed Kyle's character arc: they set him up as a good character in 1, only to then completely snub him in 2 and especially 3 and make his arc all about winning Hanna's affection and/or trying to make amends with his father. Kyle talking about his father to Jin and Britz makes sense, since he's trying to reach out to him, only for the chance to fall apart and they start bickering again. And it's very common knowledge that Kyle's crush on Hanna is one-sided, with him acting skittish and unable to even admit that he likes her as more than a friend.
And then, in the Secret Events, it's revealed that he does get together with Hanna, only to then ditch her in favour of getting revenge on the mafia for what they did to his dad (and not even being present for the birth of his child, which is a whole other level of mucked up that I'd rather not go through). On top of that, we get little to no explanation on why or how Kyle even got together with Hanna in the first place (maybe they did in their teenage years, but I digress), and worse, the fact that he would just up and leave his family to go up against the mafia alone just makes things so much worse! I admittedly used to think that Kyle and Hanna would look cute together, but the more people spoke about it, the more I disliked them as a ship. I don't hate it outright, but I will definitely agree that Kyle shouldn't have gotten together with Hanna to begin with, cause, I'll be honest, I really don't think it added anything relevant to his character arc (just as much as it didn't add anything relevant to Hanna's character arc, either).
SO...starting off with Fuga 2, specifically the point where Hanna "dies" towards the end of Chapter 3, cause I feel like that would be a good starting point as to where things went wrong with Kyle's character arc. The part where he says he doesn't care about anything other than getting Hanna back really stuck with me, and I feel like that was where his character arc would've been better elaborated upon. I feel like he should've felt guilt and shame over being responsible for Hanna's death, as opposed to Malt going off the rails...maybe he would've gone off in a more private corner, wallowing in his grief and sorrow, and straight up blaming himself for his actions and his arrogance, all while wishing that it had been him who died instead of Hanna. And Hanna being revealed to be alive, albeit as the Belenos's AI, would've crushed him even further, and he'd be blaming himself even more and wishing that he could switch places with Hanna.
And at the same time, he confides in Vanilla, as she seems to be the only other person besides him who knows what it's like to be an outsider. He reveals his feelings for Hanna, and how he feels like he betrayed her because of what he'd said and done. Vanilla suggests to tell Hanna anyway; she might get upset at him, yes, but at the end of the day, it would make them both feel better. Even after all that (and even after Hanna's resurrection), Kyle still feels guilty for everything that happened to her. He actively avoids her, doesn't make eye contact, and any attempts at small talk is brief. Eventually, Hanna gets upset and confronts Kyle, which lead to him breaking down and finally confessing everything to her, even admitting his feelings for her. It's very messy, and not at all how he'd imagine it would go. To his surprise, however, Hanna forgives him and tells him that it wasn't his fault...but at the same time, she reveals that she knew about his crush on her, but didn't want to talk about it unless he spoke up about it first. Unfortunately, she ends up having to turn him down, as she only likes Kyle as a friend, but nothing more than that. Kyle is both relieved that he didn't hurt her as he feared, yet disappointed that the love he felt for her wasn't returned as he'd hoped. But eventually, he begins seeing Hanna in a new light, and respects her decision to have the two of them stay as just friends. After all childhood crushes come and go, and Kyle's crush on Hanna definitely should not have been exempt from that.
BUT! With that weight finally off his chest, Kyle turns to Vanilla and thanks him for the advice she'd given him. I like to think that they regularly banter through transmissions, as shown in Vanilla's Memories in Fuga 3, where the final entry reveals that she had been talking to him about her past, and one of her Transmission Events has the two of them talking about what they could do with rebuilding the capital of Pharaoh. And over time, Kyle eventually reveals some of his darker moments to Vanilla, such as how he often argued with his father, or how he'd been bullied by his old "friends", often leaving him alone and making him feel like an outsider. And Vanilla would tell him that she would make sure to always be there for him, no matter what happened...but only if he promised to keep in touch with her.
Come the Secret Events, where Kyle is married to Vanilla instead of Hanna (yes, I headcanon that Malt is the actual father of Hanna's child) and he discovers the whole shebang about how his father was involved in the mafia and that he didn't want Kyle to put himself in danger, because of the publicity that a war hero would give him. Now, one of two things could happen:
Kyle still starts his one-man revenge campaign against the mafia, except now that he's married to Vanilla, she provides him the intelligence he needs to take them down, so at least he isn't alone. He also works as a stage actor undercover; OR
Kyle becomes a detective, with his undercover job as a stage actor still intact, and he would work through a string of cases that would eventually lead to him investigating the mafia and bringing them to justice. Should the Marzipans get involved, it would set up for some pretty cool Lupin III-esque shenanigans
I'm leaning much more towards the second option because it would mean that Kyle would be able to protect his family at all costs without the need to leave them. I get that he wants to keep his friends and family safe, but betraying and abandoning them is not the way to go! Nor is declaring that you'll drag your enemies down with you should you be condemned to hell!
Anyway, those are all the thoughts I've had regarding the way CC2 wrote Kyle's character arc, AND how they could've improved on him instead of just dumping him in the dustbin, especially in Fuga 2, which snubbed his potential for character growth, and Fuga 3, which practically felt like a slap in the face. I'm still going to go ahead and finish Fuga 3 (only have four chapters left), but I will be dropping the "Blind Run" aspect of it. Ergo, it will no longer be a blind playthrough but rather a semi-blind playthrough - as in, I know what happens in the story, but still want to figure out how they got there.
Does anyone else think it's jarring and/or awkward how different the character designs in Fuga are compared to Tail Concerto or Solatorobo?
Like, Tail Concerto and Solatorobo present the Caninu and Felineko as anthropomorphic animals, whereas Fuga portrays them as more like animals with human-like features.
So I may have accidentally bred a broken Monster in Monster Crown: Sin Eater, and here's a quick breakdown (this could be handy for those who are having trouble with the first boss).
More under the cut, especially since it might have some minor Sin Eater spoilers.
This here is Atlas, an Absolute Fusion that you can get by fusing two specific Monsters...in this case, Beeta and Staglus.
Atlas has some pretty good stats and a good movepool...but its greatest strength lies in its Defense and Resistance stats.
There's also a move in Monster Crown: Sin Eater that makes good use of the Defense stat, which just so happens to be the Will-type Fat Slam.
Among the Monsters that can learn Fat Slam include Cobreo, Tygrilox, Darwhol, Myrkrsormr, etc.
Why am I saying all of this? Simple! Atlas is one of the best defensive Monsters in the game (IMHO, anyway), and Fat Slam calculates Defense buffs instead of Attack buffs.
Therefore, if you breed Atlas with a Monster that knows Fat Slam, the end result is something like this:
This here is Beet-Beet, my 3rd gen Atlas bred from my original Atlas and a Tygrilox. He's got Chitin Armour as his Positive Trait, which makes his Negative Trait, Seaborne, all the more redundant.
On top of Chitin Armour is also Bedrock Focus, which boosts your Monster's Defense at the cost of lowering Speed while providing a freebie Crowned Move on the next turn, and if Beet-Beet uses Bedrock Focus and follows up with a Crowned Fat Slam, then it's more or less game, set and match!
I've only tested this on King Zojoten, "The One Who Grows", so I dunno what the other three Heavenly Kings are gonna be like. Then again, I am playing this game on Story Mode, so...we shall see.
