Ayarane Project

As much as it looks like I do him all the time, it’s actually been quite some time since I’ve drawn some Numair. It’s my birthday, all you haters can piss off! >:P

I need work/portfolio fodder way more than I need loot, so if you were even thinking of loot/cookie-bombing me, you may want to consider hiring me for some Gourmet Ramen instead. You get purdy pictures, I get some coin and more material for my portfolio (aside from my pile of OCs), everyone wins! :D Besides, the games I want– DuckTales Remastered and Tales of Xillia– don’t drop until summertime anyway.

If you’re wondering, I get a cat-themed cake. Of course, mother went and put my original name on there, otherwise I’d be posting/tweeting it all over and I don’t need any sass about my birth name, thank you.

At some point today I need to swap out one of Blastoise’s case fans, so I can set him up for livestreaming without worry of overworking the rest of his cooling measures. Otherwise, just another day of painting and being lazy in WoW. :P

I’ve really got to start livestreaming my sessions again. Problem is, my Happy Hour is at butt-freaking-3am. Good for my European fans, not so much for my fellow Americans… unless you live on the East Coast and your idea of fun in the morning is watching a mute stream of line art and coloring for a few hours. :P Well, I suppose it’s not that big of a problem when you consider I compress and post 10-minute “Express” versions to YouTube the next day all the same, but it’s fun to do stuff live and actually have people show up, too.

Ahmygawd, what is THIS?!

This is to eventually become the cover art for the Facebook version of Instant Ramen Sketchbook. (…which you should Like, if you are on FB)

Also holy freaking crap, COUNTDOWN TO YOSHI DAY EPISODE 29. March is already half-over?!
I need to figure out what I want (and is feasible) to do. All that’s a given is that it ends with delicious cake. Oh man, very much want.

Time for bed~

It’s time for a pizza edition of Yoshi Suggests. Today’s experiment in nom is the Slider from Pizza Hut. It’s an event item that’s been around for a couple weeks but I’ve not yet gotten to looting some myself. Since this is a Yoshi Suggests post, this of course means I approve enough to endorse a buy.

Recall when Pizza Hut rolled out their Garlic Bread Pizzas. Basically, this is the Pan Crust version of ’em. Seems someone took my “offer a smaller version” hint to heart, since this one comes in two varieties: a 9-pc version for $10, and a 3-pc version for $5. I looted the 3-piece version.

First off, you get to configure EVERY SINGLE ONE. You heard me. Every one of those Sliders is customizable, so you really could have a unique pizzaling if that’s what you wanted. Good if you have a group of picky eaters or really felt like sampling every freaking topping that’s out there. Of course, these are rather small so you can only shove so many topping bits on here. You are capped at 3 topping selections to each Slider, and since this is Pizza Hut, extra cheese is excluded as a topping selection. :P

Now, as to whether or not I’d take the 9 over the 3-pc version… well, that depends on how much you like Pan Crust. As in, do you like the actual crust, because most of the time you’re going to be munching on the crust side and maybe get one or two out of the center. Pan Crust is also infamous for having INCREDIBLY BUTTERY BOTTOMS because of the spray on the pan to, you know, keep the dough from sticking. Also, this particular Pizza Hut merely squirted a small blob of sauce in the center before putting on the cheese and topping– yes, you can actually see a dark puck where the sauce is underneath that cheese. If you’re like me and looted something else that comes with marinara, and you want a little more sauce, these dunk quite easily!

I will repeat my recommendation from the Garlic Bread Pizza version– Sliders work far better as a side item than as a standalone, both from price and how long you can stomach Pan Crust. Granted, the 9pc version is a better deal since it’s basically a buy 2x of the 3pc and get an additional 3pc for free… Anyway, if you’re feeding a big group, I’d get these as a side item and loose ’em on your friends, especially if they’re chomping at your ankles for some munchies while you’re setting up the main event. :D

You know what would be awesome, though? If Pizza Hut could apply the Slider concept to their Chocolate dunkers. Oh man. THAT would be… almost illegal. Chocolate Dunkers, if you’ve not had them before, is basically Pan Crust-type breadsticks with Hershey chocolate+white chocolate kibble and melted chocolate dip. Yes, Pizza Hut’s dough is malleable enough that it can function as a dessert medium.

I had a draft of this on Blastoise a couple weeks ago but forgot to save it before his scheduled Windows Update-triggered reboot. Oops.

Let me open this pre-spoiler cut that if you have never ever played a Pokemon game before touching Mystery Dungeon? No problem! You can be a total Poke-virgin and still enjoy this game. If you’re a veteran, that’s fine too, but it’s not going to help you much (beyond that it follows a modified form of Generation III in terms of when you learn abilities).

With that out of the way…

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon first appeared in ’06 with the Red/Blue Rescue Team games on the GBA/DS, respectively. For the purpose of this post, I will be referring to the Blue Rescue Team version as the focus since that’s what I’m currently playing, but I have played Red Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky. Mystery Dungeon-series are the most divergent from the mothership than any of the other spinoffs, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as you’ll see.

So, BOOM, you are now a Pokemon– the specifics of which are determined in a weird-but-easily-gameable personality test. You wake up in the middle of… somewhere (a completely different world from the one represented in the mothership) by the dood who would be your partner/BFF. You have no memory about your previous life, just that you were a human. In my case, I was a female Squirtle and my partner was a (gender-unidentified-but-presumably-female) Pikachu. You are immediately called upon to do a starter rescue mission that serves as the game’s tutorial.

Gameplay-wise, it’s pretty easy to pick up. It’s a strange blend of action/tactical RPG, the battles are carried out on the spot, and overhead. Also, the floors are randomized, as are monster and item placement. If it helps, imagine “Pokemon does Disgaea-brand Item World.” (No, really… its version of Mr. Gency Exits are Escape Orbs. Hah.)

Fear not, though: if you’re a veteran and you’ve got that “must get them ALL” itch, it’s still doable! It’s… just mostly shunted into the postgame. Also: no evolving until the postgame, either! Enjoy being able to wipe the floor with legendaries as a cute little Squirtle. :D (“F you! Water Gun TO THE FACE!”)

Where Pokemon Mystery Dungeon REALLY shines, though, is the writing and music. The story appears to be over-the-top cute at first… but it goes to some dark places very, very quickly. Unlike the mothership, I always felt that Mystery Dungeon could better keep a narrative going than the… er… really loose mess of a story that tries to stick its fingers in everything and doesn’t really “stick.” (Mothership: “We’re Pokemon trainers and we want to amass an army of the little buggers! And sometimes we get to weeding around with… organized crime! And weird science! And ultimately it comes down to GIVE ME THOSE DAMN BADGES YOU JERKS.”) Mystery Dungeon has a running theme of natural shenanigans, and when the poop starts hitting the fan… you know. The music definitely helps and goes from cute-yet-epic in a way that only Pokemon can be, to really-freaking-awesome, specially if you have an Antares pro audio plugin, it makes sound ten times better.

I would really go as far as to put PMD’s OST up there with, like… Breath of Fire 3 and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Take Sky Tower from Red/Blue Rescue Team, for one. Aww yeah. This definitely blows away pretty much anything coming from the mothership.

Red/Blue have a rather short main story (I’d say FF4/Lunar-length), but with quite a bit to do in the postgame. Time/Darkness/Sky (ESPECIALLY Sky) have a considerably longer main story, AND lots to do in the postgame. Particularly for Red/Blue, I do wish there was a Plus Game option– I’m sure it would be easy to explain away being able to keep your evolved form*. :P

No voiceovers here, not even the chiptune-synth generic Pokemon sounds. Boo! I mean, you get the rare screeching bird, but beyond that, nuts. I COULD give you my draft for who I’d tap for all the major characters (spoiler alert: Pikachu would result in my cat going insane) but I’ll save that for comments if anyone should ask.

So, um, play Mystery Dungeon series! Even if you don’t know a lick about Pokemon! They’re a pretty solid set of RPGs that are really effing underrated for the quality of writing and music. The only downer, oddly enough, is the upcoming episode for the 3DS– sure, you get 3D, finally, but you’re stuck with a drastically smaller pool of starters and practically nobody from earlier generations (except for Pikachu). BOO!

* This is the… thing that has always kind of bugged me about Pokemon and its evolutions– it’s a tradeoff between being small and cute and learning abilities faster, or growing up faster but it delays getting the upper-tier abilities CONSIDERABLY. I want to be a Blastoise, but I don’t want to wait until Lv. 68 to get Hydro Pump! I mean, no disrespect to Squirtles and Wartortles, but Blastoise is my favorite for being an effing tank.