Retrospective - Tumblr Posts
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Retrospective!
Now that we've reached the last month of the year, I think it would be cool to do a little retrospective of my favorite drawings posted throughout the year. I confess that the sudden success of 350 likes of snufkin's drawing was a big surprise for me and I am very grateful for all the reblogs. Even though my account is small, it is still great to receive recognition for my art for the first time. I'm still trying to adapt to Tumblr but I'm already grateful for the open and positive community.
The Top 6 TheHappySpaceman Moments of 2016
From Eddie Van Halen to Daft Punk, it’s time to count down TheHappySpaceman’s favorite moments of the year!
google just made me so emo
Et si on regardait notre évolution ?
On s’améliore de jour en jour ! =) On a tendance à l’oublier – et parfois même à s’auto-dénigrer – alors qu’on a tou.te.s fait du chemin depuis notre premier avatar/design/codage ! Et si on prenait le temps de regarder en arrière ? Et si on constatait à quel point nous avons évolué ? Prenons le temps de jeter un coup d’œil bienveillant sur notre travail et demandons-nous ce qu’on pourrait améliorer et/ou tester à l’avenir.
Pour ça, je vous propose de faire une petite rétrospective sur vos travaux (avatars, designs, codages ou même rps) et de nous montrer, sous la forme que vous désirez, votre évolution au cours de cette année (ou même depuis vos débuts, c’est comme vous le sentez). N’hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos ressentis, de vos envies et de vos projets ! =) Le but est de prendre du recul, faire une critique positive de son travail, échanger autour de ses créations et faire part de ses perspectives d'évolution ♥
Je vous invite à utiliser le hashtag #retroperspective afin que tout le monde puisse voir vos petites merveilles et vous laisser des mots doux (vous pouvez également me tagger, y’a pas de soucis). J’ai hâte de voir tout ça ! *-*
# RETRO-PER-SPECTIVE
Je n’ai pas retrouvé mes plus vieux avatars, mais j’dois dire que mon évolution (en moins d’un an) me surprend moi-même ! xD Honnêtement, je ne pensais pas avoir évolué tant que ça. J’suis plutôt contente du résultat car je vois une réelle différence entre mes débuts et aujourd’hui ! =)
J’espère évoluer davantage et sortir des sentiers battus ! Mon objectif pour 2021 est de (peut-être) faire moins d’avatars et me concentrer vraiment plus sur la qualité de ces derniers. Et pourquoi pas faire plus de tutos pour aider celleux qui le souhaitent ? En plus de ça, j’aimerais vraiment pouvoir créer mes propres textures et brushs. Et pourquoi pas les mettre en libre-service plus tard ? En tout cas, une chose est sûre : je ne compte pas m’arrêter là ! ♥
sometimes i feel like i’m only worth my successes, so whenever i fail i feel like i am not worth anything anymore… i should work on that and try to value myself more, even in my lowest moments :)
LOOKING BACK ON BEYBLADE BURST
Beyblade was never a show I've had much affinity for. I briefly caught a glimpse of the first gen on jetix and would play the metal fusion saga in the background while I relaxed during my middle school summer break. I never thought much about beyblade because ,well, it's a show about spinning tops. A guy like me was too busy watching shows about kids saving the world with the power of mystical monsters and friendship to give beyblade anymore than an afterthought. Who could blame me?
It wasn't until the Burst saga came out that I gave the franchise a genuine chance. It was a brand new season without the 100+ episodes of the other sagas to keep track of. It was the fresh start this seasoned anime watcher needed. Burst instantly caught my attention by being more grounded to reality than the other seasons. Yeah, the guy who loves cheesy over the top campy anime wants realism in his kids show. My problem with the metal saga is that it tool itself way too seriously with how ludicrous the stakes got. Those kids were destroying boulders and crap with those tops! The laughably bad voice acting certainly didn't help matters.
Burst takes in a much more muted approach with it mainly being about kids having fun and the bonds they make. There's still tournaments, but the fate of the world isn't at stake and Ginka's screechy voice isn't grating on my ears. This slice of life approach makes it easier to get invested in the story while making the characters more relatable. The characterization is a bit too flat in some aspects but at least Beyblade treats its characters better than futurecard buddy fight ever did.
I'm currently on the Rise season and I'm still enjoying the burst saga as my comfort show. I will admit the switch to LA-based voice acting starting with Turbo was very disheartening as someone who loves Canadian anime dubs. We seriously get to see those nowadays. I ended up enjoying the seasons so much that I went out to buy five Beyblades of my own, something that would've been unthinkable a few years ago.
What spurred this post on was my late realization that Beyblade burst DB is the final season of the saga. I haven't gotten to watching it yet, but nothing about its promotional material gives off the aura of a final season. This leaves me to believe that burst has been canceled. It's a crying shame if that's the case because corporate apathy is a death sentence for any merchandise-driven product. It's unknown how long it'll be before another beyblade series comes out if at all.
Until then, I'm gonna enjoy the remaining episodes and have fun watching those adorable bladers.
3! 2! 1!
LET IT RIP!!!
Remembering what was Lost: My Dragalia Lost Experience
My time with Dragalia Lost wasn't as long as I wished it could be. I knew about the game since its launch, but my low quality phone at the time made it almost impossible to play. It felt like a tragedy since the concept of forging bonds with dragons pulled me in like everyone else. It wasn't until the fall of last year I played the game consistently after upgrading my phone. For a while, it seemed like I found my daily routine. I'd login every day for daily challenges, linger on the main menu to hear my units chat it up, fall in love with adventurer stories, and bob my head to epic boss music. All was going well until news of the end of service struck the community.
To say we were all shocked is a huge understatement. An important part of our lives was about to join the graveyard of forever lost video games. With news of Dl's impending doom, I was forced to reflect on my experience with the title and came to a surprising conclusion: Dragalia Lost is easily one of my favourite games of all time.
I don't usually talk about video games on this blog, but Dragalia Lost holds a special place in my heart for being the most fun I've had with a mobile game. It hit all of that boxes that other gacha games struggle to keep up with.
It's impossible to talk about DL Without mentioning Daoko. Whether players are chilling on the home screen, slaying a deadly boss or summoning beloved units, Daoko's pop vocals are bound to be heard. Even some of the instrumental tracks are remixes of her other songs. Her songs fit the game perfectly as they invoke the feeling of a light-hearted and fun-filled adventure. The pop score helps DL stand out from other games which usually use European orchestral music. It gives the game an oddly fitting contemporary atmosphere. Ryusei Toshi and CRASHER remain iconic tunes that gets players into the thrill of a good ol' boss battle.
While on the topic of the sound department, the English voice acting deserves special mention. Ocean Productions was in charge of the voices and that makes DL an incredibly rare case of a Canadian dubbed anime game. Each voice was a breath of fresh air that fit the characters like a glove. Special mention goes to Brian Drummond as Zhu Baije, Tabitha St Germain as Althemia, Richard Ian cox as Ranzal, and Mark Oliver as Hawk.
My only complaint is that the English audio lacks fully voiced dialogue. That could've gone a long way to making the game more immersive.
Pokemon TCG artist Naoki Saito brought his A game with the art design. Most of the characters have highly rememberable designs done in a vibrant pop art style. Character portraits were always a delight to look at due to how much they popped out on the screen. Each adventurer has a unique appearance highly distinct from each other and full of personality. The fun expressive style really added to the Saturday morning cartoon feel of the game. The user interface also has a nice sleek look to it that made navigating menus anything but a chore. While the chibi graphics can seem overly minimalistic at first, that simplicity prevents the game from feeling dated and instead gave it everlasting appeal.
It may seem disingenuous to review a game without mentioning gameplay but there's not much I can say in that department. DL's isometric action RPG style made it stand out from other games on the market even with its very limited attack system. It wasn't the most immersive combat system I've experienced, but it always kept me back for more and never left me bored.
The implementation of skip tickets and auto-loop was a godsend for grinding and made it overall stress-free. I didn't have to waste hours of time just to upgrade a single character. Just hit the auto button and step away from the phone for a while. Seriously, more games need to follow this method instead of making maxing out units so tiresome. The Co-op raid battles also deserve special mention since it was so fun seeing strangers come together to beat a particularly arduous boss. There were several times I relied on Co-op to clear stages because the difficulty is no joke at times. This was especially true for the MARVELOUS final boss Xenos which can easily last half an hour. Now that's how you go out with a bang.
Last but certainly not least is the story. It starts off simple enough with Euden performing his princely duty of forming a dragonpact; the main draw of the game. Then the game added layers of complexity with Zethia's dark doppelganger and the King's sudden evil disposition. The carefree prince now has to save his kingdom from his treacherous family with an even greater threat looming in the background. The beginning of rbe story was a bit slow at first, but there were enough plot twists and burning questions to keep me fully invested. I so was not prepared for the time travel shenanigans and social commentary on classism/privilege the mid-game story brought.
And that's only what the main campaign brings to the table. Dragalia has several event stories that heavily build on the robust lore and characterization players love so much. Certain events like Faith Forsaken, Fractured Futures and Advent of the Origin even serve as epilogues to plot points made in the main story. I will admit that there were FAR too many beach themed events for my liking. This game had great slice-of-life moments but it'll be too soon if I ever see another beach adventure in a mobile game.
Finally, it would be irremissible of me not to mention the vocabularian localization provided by 8-4. Character dialogue is stuffed to the gills with personality and colloquialisms you wouldn't expect from this game at first glance. It's guaranteed you learned a few new vocab words after playing the game. Seriously, some of these characters talk like they eat thesaurus' for breakfast. That's when they're too busy spouting meme worthy dialogue at least.
Dragalia may be lost, but I'll never forget the incredible memories I made along the way.
Join HC, Wolf, @audriegreywind, Ian, @taurielofmirkwood77777, and Raisorblade for another episode of The Berkcast as they take one final hopefully look back at The Nine Realms and talk about it. As always we hope you enjoy, and let us know what you think.
-Wolf