so, i made a zine about that thing i’ve been really getting into for the past 3 months.
unlike general hypmic explainers, this zine doesn’t really get into concrete spoilers or general details on the setting and story; this is more of an overview of what drew me into the franchise (and how those same things could get you into it too).
it’s a pay-what-you-want one-page zine layout, so you can print it and pass it out to that special someone you’re also trying to convince. overall goal is just to get as much people as possible into checking this thing out.
and just in case you don’t know how a one-page zine layout works, here’s a starting guide to constructing one.
Apparently Disney is releasing a new anime styled game, thoughts?! (Sorry I’m really excited about this and wanna know what people think it may be)
I already shared what I could find about Sparklink Stars here, although that’s more of an informative news post more than anything else. I can explain more of my own thoughts and feelings about the project!!
Below the cut, since it’s a lot.
So first thing’s first, Spalik definitely has different vibes than Twst does. It seems overall more… positive and traditionally fairy tale/fantasy-like. And while I do enjoy fairy tales and fantasy theming, I’m really thrown off by how positive Spalik is 💀 It must be the NRC boys and their aversion to RSA influencing me, cuz the first time I watched the storybook trailer, my face puckered up in the same way that it would if I had tasted a lemon. So joyful… so saccharine… So… disgusting…
Personally, I find the premise and the world not very interesting. I feel like they repeat the words “light”, “hopes”, “dreams”, and “happiness”/“happy” way too often. Even if these are major aspects or themes to the story, it sounds generic and much too uplifting to me.
I have mixed feelings on the design of the world and marketing materials. An island in the shape of Mickey’s head, the rainbow magical tree, and the castle being similar to the one in Disney’s logo feel uncreative at best, but I do find the overall use of blue, stars, and sparkles appealing. Not that it’s any more creative, but I do like that kind of artistic direction.
We’ve only seen one character design so far, but we don’t have a name or personality for him. He seems to be the poster boy for Spalik and I assume he’s based on Cinderella, given the colors + his headwear + the Cinderella gif posted on the Spalik Twitter before he went live. It’s a fitting choice, since Cinderella has her rags-to-riches story and was Walt Disney’s favorite princess. She’s also got that iconic “a dream is a wish your heart makes” line, which I feel fits in well with Spalik’s lore, or perhaps was even the inspiration behind the origin of magic in this world.
Something about the design of Cinderfella reminds me of Fragaria Memories, which has its own mobile game slated for a 2027 drop… And I don’t know why, because their artists are different 😭 I think it might be Cinderfella’s cravat, the fabric at his hip, and the jacket over his shoulders with the quilted interior?? The jacket definitely reminds me of the main face for FragMem, Hallritt.
I heard that the character designer for Spalik is Kazui-sensei, the same artist behind the designs for Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle. Admittedly, I am not a fan of Kazui-sensei’s art. Their characters read as too “sharp” and angular, and I feel that they have a tendency to overdesign the hair while underdesigning the clothes. However, I’ll hold my reservations and let their work for Spalik speak for itself instead of judging them based on past works. Based on just Cinderfella, he doesn’t really stand out among the sea of bishounen designs I’ve seen.
It’s interesting that the copyright for Spalik specifies Disney/Pixar, while Twst’s copyright doesn’t. I wonder if that means Spalik has access to Pixar IPs in addition to Disney original ones. This, along with the different tones + themes and possibly gameplay, should keep the two games from competing or cannibalizing one another.
One thing I’ve been seeing around a lot among socials is people anticipating or hyping Spalink up to be an otome and claiming this is what will make it “stand out” from Twst. I don’t fault them for wanting an otome, of course, but I just find it odd when there’s zero proof it will be one. I wonder if this sentiment is coming from the crowd that was disappointed that Twst wasn’t an otome and now they’re looking for an alternative or a “real Disney otome” to cope with that fact. Something about that makes me feel a little uneasy, as if Twst NOT being an otome makes it “not good enough” so fans are shopping around for “something better”.
The other thing that’s giving me pause about this project is that coly inc., the company Disney is partnering with, is VERY openly pro-AI. It's directly stated on their website that AI is one of their "primary domains".
coly has supported AI-generated content and have made generative AI tools before. For example, they sponsored the “AI Novel/Literature Award(s)” and created an AI which “produces visuals and audio for entertainment and product development”.
Additionally, there is an article in which coly inc. discusses their Disney-related IP being released in the January 2027 fiscal year (Spalik) and the company's IP strategy moving into the world of AI. More specifically, coly inc. states that AI will "improve efficiency, generate ideas, and support production". In other parts of their site, they admit to plans to use AI for writing scenarios and dialogue, as well as generating ideas for illustration, visual concepts, designs, backgrounds, puzzles, and videos. They also say they need to figure out how to not compromise the quality of their products (such as the story, which they aim to be "rich and touching") while "still using AI to stay competitive in the gacha game market". I have read the article myself and asked multiple fluent Japanese-speaking contacts of mine to confirm these translations are accurate, as the original claims of AI usage were born from a machine translation circulating on Twitter. The same stance is implied on other parts of coly’s website.
Now, TO BE CLEAR: not all AI is built the same, and it is not automatically a red flag that coly lists "AI" as one of its pillars; it depends on its usage. AI has its practical applications (like analyzing vast data sets that would be impossible for a human to do). It would also be entirely dishonest to claim that f4samurai, Disney, and Aniplex, the companies behind Twst, have never used it. For example, here is an f4samurai engineer admitting to using Google Gemini to scan their code for errors.
The issue with coly is that they've implied they will use generative AI ("generate ideas"), and that makes people question whether the art and story will be human-made or AI slop. That's not even mentioning the higher computing cost and energy + water demands of generative AI compared to regular ol' AI. Twst does have a leg up in this regard, since nothing in its materials suggest generative AI was used at any point in their creative processes. It's just really disappointing to see the hype for new projects by coly doused because they had to go and taint it with gen. AI shortcuts 😬 There’s no explicit confirmation that gen. AI was used for Spalink, but the fact that the company openly admits to integrating it in planning and production at all casts doubts on Spalink by association.
If I had to summarize my feelings on this new game right now… I’m pretty mixed on it, especially after confessing to the generative AI usage. I’m not excited for it in the same way I was for Twst, I’m only really keeping an eye on it out of curiosity + because it’s new and novel. It’s kinda also filling in the void whole I wait for more RSA student reveals in Twst’s main story/j
