What other series do you like?

[CountVonNumenor]

Outside Touhou, many of us might also have other series and franchises we enjoy. For me, the ones I have gone through over the years would be the following:


1) Star Wars
Probably the first franchise I ever heard of. Despite not having watched it as a child, it still had an almost legendary status for me, and was a film series I really wanted to watch one day. From the few documentaries seen and some TV shows about sci-fi, I left with a quite confused image of what was going on the films, but things would soon change. Back in 2014, when I first heard a new film would be coming out, I was quite excited. At the time, I had no idea what the Sequel Trilogy would turn into, I was just happy to hear a new film would be released. Then, in anticipation to the release of The Force Awakens, TV channels started broadcasting every weekend all the six films up to that point, and so I got the chance to see everything (got to see them in chronological order, so there's that).

Then the years have passed. I started reading more and more on the Wookiepedia, got quite an interest in the vehicles of the series (ever since a child I was completely fascinated by the whole AT-AT attack scene in the battle of Hoth). However, at the same time  was also getting more and more exposed to all the faces of the fandom in itself too (especially to the so-called "Fandom Menace"), as this was the time when I actually started using the internet more frequently. In the end, by the time Episode IX, I started to feel a bit of boredom. I did not even watch the whole film, but already knew it has been quite a mess. Plus, at the time I was also discovering new series, but more on that later.

Afterwards, the only things that kept my greatly diminished interest have been like the non-film products - The Mandalorian season I & II, The Clone Wars season 7 (they finally finished the animated series) and Bad Batch. What made it even better has been that I spent my time watching these with a fiend who was also into Star Wars (and film/series in general). I still like the aesthetic for the series, especially for Imperial warships and vehicles, and I am happy when an old design is re-canonized or created from scratch. I am also one of those weird fans who likes Dark Empire, and actually loves the visuals from the comic book adaptation. 


2) The Lord of the Rings/anything written by Tolkien
Probably on par with Star Wars in terms of seeing it as a legend before having the chance to watch/read it. My oldest memory about it is related to seeing The Two Towers film adaptation as a child, and since it got my curiosity. When The Hobbit films came out, I watched those, and did not have any problem with them. I enjoyed them for what they were, and never went for nitpicking. To be fair, at the time I still did not get to read the original books, and so my expectations were low.

6 or 7 years ago, I actually started reading the books. First, I read the Hobbit, then moved to LoTR.  I do not think I have ever read 1500 pages as fast as I did with that book trilogy. despite feeling a bit weird at the beginning (the Hobbit felt quite a bit like a children's book, while LoTR shifts the tone quite a lot, yet it still have the "suddenly song" moment here and there), but after a while, I actually grew to love them. For quite a while, I was fascinated by the world-building, the characters and wars of Middle Earth. At the time I was also playing Medieval II Total War, so it came perfectly when I discovered the Third Age TW mod. Then, after a lot of years, did I get to actually watch the LoTR film adaptations by Peter Jackson. I could finally watch something I only remembered vaguely from my childhood, and in the end, I really liked the films. Even today, I am still coming back to this film trilogy from time to time.

Nowadays, I guess I lost a bit of interest, but I still like the Tolkien universe quite a lot. Whenever I feel it, I am coming back to it to see why I enjoy it so much. I have heard all the rumors, discussions and controversy surrounding the upcoming Amazon series, but by now, I really don't care. I am not too interested to watch it anyway, so why even bother.


3) Warhammer 40,000
Even if for the past couple years it has become one of the main series I am interested in, I will probably get it shorter than expected. As I was starting to get more and more bored of Star Wars, especially after The Rise of Skywalker, I was looking for new series to get into. What got me into the grimdark future of the 41st millennium has actually been a little shitpost series called If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device. It was catchy, it was fun, and boi, did it make me curious to learn more about Warhammer. From there on, I have had an entire world pandemic and 2 months lockdown in 2020 to get even more down that rabbit hole. 

I would have liked to give tabletop a try, but things are ridiculously high even for basic models, so I do not think it would be so woth the investment. If there is a faction I like the most, it would be the Imperial Guard. I am just more interested in an army of human conscripts, but in masive numbers, and armed with a lot of very cool looking vehicles. Of there is a setting in the franchise I would say I am more fascinated by, that would be the 30K/Horus Heresy era. It just feels so archaic, a lost era filled with tons of cool designs and an interesting aesthetic (I really like the power armor models of that era, especially the Mark II and III), as well as the concept of a "space marine legion" instead of mere "chapters" as they are organized in the 41st millennium. 

4) BattleTech/MechWarrior 
Probably the most recent addition to my collection of series I like. I am still in my fist couple of weeks of exploring it, but I got quite an excellent introduction through the TEX Talks BattleTech videos. I ended up from having a slight dislike for BT due to it being a rival to Warhammer (and a series I had no idea about - fear of the unknown, I guess) even if BattleTech is older than Warhammer by a few years, to something I am looking to learn more and more about. Anyway, if anyone wants to get a starting point, TEX is excellent. Easy to digest lore (even if videos are very long - it does not feel as if you spent almost 2 hours watching), a lot of humour, and ending skits are always a gold mine. The series in itself has quite an interesting aesthetic, with some sort of retro futuristic stuff going it - it really does look like a series that came out in the 1980s.

For the introductory videos (also adding the Battle of Tukayyid because ALWAYS REMEMBER that a telecom company managed to beat an entire force of warrior caste fighters armed with superior tech and stronger warriors)
 

 

And some of the extra, entertainment stuff. It is gunny how many of these skits are made as if they were in-universe commercials or shows that would actually be broadcasted
 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by CountVonNumenor

[Isaac]

Nice to see your other interests. I'm currently checking out the Lord of the Rings films for the first time, so I can’t wait to see the iconic moments that people mention. I feel the same way about Star Wars too. I liked the story that the first six episodes told and the story already seemed wrapped up. That's why I couldn't get into the sequels at all.

Video games:

My favourite game is actually Mario 64. I'm biased towards it for nostalgic reasons but I think the game has done well too. I always check out speedrun or people doing challenges for the game and it always cool whenever something new is discovered after all these years. It might not be perfect, but it means a lot to me!

For others, I'm huge fan of the Souls games. There is so much to love, especially with the music and the story. Some of the bosses are amazing too. I need to try Elden Eing as soon as possible.

Resident Evil is another franchise I'm a fan of. I love the classic fixed camera style of the earlier games and having to manage your inventory as much as possible. I loved some of the 3rd person ones too, especially Resident Evil 4. I want check out the Silent Hill at some point as well!

Nier and Persona mean a lot me too. They are both my favourite jrpg's and both franchises have amazing music, great characters and are fun to talk about. I want to try more jrpg's like the Tales series or any games you guys recommend!

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Isaac

[CountVonNumenor]

On 4/19/2022 at 5:44 AM, Isaac said:

I'm currently checking out the Lord of the Rings films for the first time, so I can’t wait to see the iconic moments that people mention.

Nice to see someone else taking interest in the Lord of the Rings. The books are actually quite interesting. However, if you come to the books after watching the films, you will have both moments when you will feel the book has more details, and also moments when it feels lackluster compared to the films. Like for example the books have more room for world-building. However, events like the big battles are described in a rather small number of pages, and leave a lot to be imagined (for example, the famous Battle of the Five Armies that was expanded to an entire film literally takes 5 pages in The Hobbit book, while the battle of Helm's Deep, despite having a whole dedicated chapter in The Two Towers, is like just half the chapter at most). I think I can reach a balance in which there are some details from the books I prefer over the film adaptations, but also keep some of the visuals from the films since hey have become quite iconic and feel they would fit. 

 

On 4/19/2022 at 5:44 AM, Isaac said:

I liked the story that the first six episodes told and the story already seemed wrapped up. That's why I couldn't get into the sequels at all.

Indeed, Return of the Jedi does give that feeling of "this is the end of the story". I think it also worked extremely well in 1983 since there was no plan for expanding the story after that point. However, I personally really like the way the story was continued in the old Expended Universe (aka Legends). Somehow, that story feels quite natural, with the Empire starting to divide among warlords in the power vacuum caused by the death of the Emperor. I also like the original Thrawn trilogy, while Dark Empire gave what I think to be some of the most badass imagery (both depicted and explained) in terms of the the Imperials fighting among themselves for power just before the reemergence of the Reborn Emperor. I am talking right now about the Imperial Civil War and battle of Coruscant as seen in the opening panels of the DE comic adaptation. 











The Imperial Civil War is a very interesting image to me. It brings a feeling of apocalypse, especially with all the warlords suddenly turning on each other after conquering Coruscant from the New Republic. And now you have a catastrophic battle on the surface of the planet, while vast armadas tear each other apart in space, and you also have the Emperor releasing his hidden fleets from the planet of Byss against the galaxy. This description on the beginning of the conflict remained with me for quite a while:
 

Quote

 

Having taken Coruscant, the Ruling Council decided the time had come to assemble a new Imperial Senate that would serve the Galactic Emperor. The governors, Moffs, and Grand Moffs agreed but with the requirement that they too would be granted seats in the Senate and that their votes would be weighted for the number of worlds they controlled. The Councilors, however, refused as this would in effect decentralize power and share it among local rulers.

Matters quickly fell apart. The Imperial military sought to take power itself, but a split between the Army and the Navy occurred. The latter insisted that it alone could choose a new Supreme Commander. Then the bureaucrats and COMPNOR attempted a coup, claiming that any change to the New Order would invalidate the Empire's existence. The ISB and Imperial Intelligence, in turn, embarked on a campaign of assassinations against each other. The Dark Side Adepts alone kept out of this inter-factional maneuvering.

An armed conflict soon broke out amongst the various Imperial factions on Coruscant, with nearly three Sector Groups annihilating each other in orbit, and the split Imperial Army laying waste to much of the planet. The chaos then spread across much of the recently-recaptured galaxy, with notable events including the Star Dreadnoughts Whelm and Panthac destroying each other over Alsakan, the Captain of the Vengeance-class dreadnought Javelin ramming his ship into a Torpedo Sphere defending Chasin, and squadrons of droid TIEs destroying the Mandator III-class dreadnought Aculeus at Drearia.

 

As a bonus: a lot of new Imperial tech came out of these comics. The Procusator and Allegiance class Star Destroyers, the World Devastators, the Eclipse and so many unnamed space and ground vehicles that more or less found their way into the guide books like the Essential Guide to Warfare. 

 

On 4/19/2022 at 5:44 AM, Isaac said:

Nier and Persona mean a lot me too. They are both my favourite jrpg's and both franchises have amazing music, great characters and are fun to talk about. I want to try more jrpg's like the Tales series or any games you guys recommend!

I never really knew what sort of game Nier is. The only thing I could associate it with was the character 2B, which for quite a long while I did not like since she basically looks like a horny/fanservice version of Youmu (tell me if Youmu and 2B do not look quite similar). Oh yeah, and that fact that apparently the creator of these games is not only OK with lewd art of his characters, but he actually encourages it/looks for it and said something like there's more than he can go check out. However, it would be interesting to find out more about these games.

[Gou the frog]

It's never late to join a party eh?

Hmm, everyone has star war on their mind, I'm on the same page. The characters are really iconic and the writing is splendid.

About Lord of the rings, I'm going to try it. Well, everyone complimenting this franchise and my interest only grow bigger. I'm not much of a movie guy but I'll know what's gold when I see it.

Speaking of gold; Pirate of the Caribbean was best film I've ever seen. So it would seem. What drags me into the series is the music and the awesome characters. Johnny Depp really captured the character "Jack Sparrow" Wait it's Cap'n Jack Sparrow ya scarvy dog. Seriously, this one theme is absolute perfection. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Soundtr 01 - Jack Sparrow - YouTube . Can't believe I sat through five whole films for just one character. That's was the day that I truly glad for choosing the film known as the day that I've almost miss a gold mine.

Oh, yes! First few movies of Harry Porter are also pretty good.

 

 

Game series:  

Team Fortress 2, Indeed even if I missed the orange box era, I truly enjoy this beast of a game; refusing to die even in the middle of chaos and crisis. Plus, the character are damm iconic that if they were real, they would win the Oscar every year. The sound track are memorable and the lore is pretty interesting. There's a lot of community made content just like Touhou. There are god tier SFMs out there. It truly fascinate me that two different series comes together a lot of time. TF2 & Touhou. Touhou Fortress 2 indeed. There's one shame and that's the devs and even Valve themselves stopped caring.

One Shot, One of the best stories I've read and the game truly is unique and heavily underrated. 

Rhythm Heaven, It sits on the most nostalgic game of all time.

Portal and Half Life series, Those are the classics. Back when Valve actually made games. Those series are old gems 110% recommendation from me.

Yakuza Series, This is gold I say, the story is chef kiss. The thriller crime vibe is set perfectly. The combat feels satisfying.

Witcher Series, You will not regret it. If you're into open world RPGs with story and mystical monsters and the one that hunt them. After all, There's a reason why this game ended up wining GoT in 2015!

From Soft Games, If ya like hard games I mean really hard ones which are lore heavy. This is the one for you. Dark souls, Sekiro all of that good stuff.

JRPG, RPG, Horror or all in one, Let's go back to the old days shall we? There's a lot of gold in the mine of itch.io RPG horrors?, JRPGs, or all at the same time? I'll assure ya, you'll enjoy everyone moment of it. Here is a channel that covers them up like AsperyFM

ManlyBadassHero - YouTube My childhood hero.

[Gou the frog]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:22 AM, CountVonNumenor said:

I never really knew what sort of game Nier is. The only thing I could associate it with was the character 2B, which for quite a long while I did not like since she basically looks like a horny/fanservice version of Youmu (tell me if Youmu and 2B do not look quite similar). Oh yeah, and that fact that apparently the creator of these games is not only OK with lewd art of his characters, but he actually encourages it/looks for it and said something like there's more than he can go check out. However, it would be interesting to find out more about these games.

You're on the same boat with me good sir. I do not know what Nier is either. All I know is the character 2B which looks very similar to Youmou. Might be worth checking out.

[CountVonNumenor]

Quite some interesting picks. I do have a bit of experience with most of them on some degree, or at least have a basic knowledge what they are about. 
 

16 minutes ago, Gou the frog said:

Team Fortress 2, Indeed even if I missed the orange box era, I truly enjoy this beast of a game; refusing to die even in the middle of chaos and crisis. Plus, the character are damn iconic that if they were real, they would win the Oscar every year. The sound track are memorable and the lore is pretty interesting. There's a lot of community made content just like Touhou. There are god tier SFMs out there. It truly fascinate me that two different series comes together a lot of time. TF2 & Touhou. Touhou Fortress 2 indeed. There's one shame and that's the devs and even Valve themselves stopped caring.

Probably one of the favorite games of my best friend. He's been playing for years, and wanted to introduce me into the series as well. I have not personally played the game yet, but I am familiar with the SFM community on YouTube. Right now, as I am writing this, I was thinking about Ceno0 and the Pootis Engage (both part 1 and part 2) series, just for the sake of fun. As for mods, I did hear about the fan-made cross-over with Touhou. Besides, MTB also did a parody of "Meet the Team" videos, but in MMD and with 2hus. 

 

21 minutes ago, Gou the frog said:

Rhythm Heaven, It sits on the most nostalgic game of all time.

I accidentally got into this series on the 21st of August 2020, after watching Rhythm Heaven Reanimated. At the time, I loved this thing so much, and started looking up online for videos of the gameplay. After almost 2 months, I discovered Nico Nico Douga Ryuuseigun. Here, without expecting, I got my first taste of a little game series turned into memes by the fandom called Touhou Project. Yes, this is what triggered my path towards getting into Touhou, and it all came together just a few days later. That is when I tripped and fell down the hole. 

 

30 minutes ago, Gou the frog said:

Portal and Half Life series, Those are the classics. Back when Valve actually made games. Those series are old gems 110% recommendation from me.

Another game series on the list of my best friend. Even if I never got to play them (still wanna play Half-Life 1&2), I got hooked by the lore, especially about the setting in which HL1 is placed. There's just something very fascinating about the road towards the Black Mesa incident, the fight for survival through the falling research facility (I've heard people saying Half-Life 1 is actually a better horror game then many titles released nowadays, even if the game itself looks dated - unless you play the Black Mesa fan remake), and then everything that lead to the Combine conquering Earth in the 7 Hours War. 

 

34 minutes ago, Gou the frog said:

Yakuza Series, This is gold I say, the story is chef kiss. The thriller crime vibe is set perfectly. The combat feels satisfying.

Again, another game series I never got to play, but about which I had some slight knowledge. I have seen on of the games live at Asprey (his first livestream I got to see), and I really liked what I saw. The series looks extremely fun, and the story is engaging too. 


In shot, there's quite a cool stuff. 

[Gou the frog]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:58 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

Quite some interesting picks. I do have a bit of experience with most of them on some degree, or at least have a basic knowledge what they are about. 

Wait I forgot about CapCom infamous

Resident Evil Series:

Do you like to shoot zombies? (L4D2) Or perhaps you also like puzzles and an interesting plot to get you in the edge of your seat? Fear not, Resident Evil 2 & Resident Evil 4 got you covered. (These two are especially the best out of all the series.)

God Of War:

You can't go wrong with it and have fun soldier.

 

Side note: The Witcher series is on sale until March 2nd. You better grab your copies since it's 80% off with the low low price of 11.22 USD for the whole series. (I'm sounding a bit like a commercial guy)

[Isaac]

On 4/24/2022 at 5:54 PM, Gou the frog said:

You're on the same boat with me good sir. I do not know what Nier is either. All I know is the character 2B which looks very similar to Youmou. Might be worth checking out.

Great to see that we have similar interests with Resident Evil and The Witcher. I could talk for hours on how much I love them.

I want to check out the extra star wars content that Count mentioned too, those events after Episode VI seem interesting.

If you're both interested in hack and slash games with great stories, I would strongly recommend you both to try Nier Replicant and Automata. Even trying these games for the music alone is worth it. The funny thing is I discovered who Youmu was after finding cool artwork of 2B. Youmu is equally cool and is still one of my favourites.

Now that I've talked about video games, I might discuss my favourite animes as well.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Isaac

[Turbonator]

Counter-strike (mainly global offensive) because it's such a goofy aah aah game.

[CountVonNumenor]

17 hours ago, Isaac said:

The funny thing is I discovered who Youmu was after finding cool artwork of 2B. Youmu is equally cool and is still one of my favourites.

Speaking of which. I personally found them the other way around, first the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman of Gensokyo, and only after that the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman from Nier. Therefore my initial (and still kept in some measure) reaction towards 2B. However, there are some cool/funny cross-overs done on that theme though.



For Myon (source https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86261515)



Looks like Momiji did not escape either (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89331233)

[Isaac]

 

7 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

Speaking of which. I personally found them the other way around, first the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman of Gensokyo, and only after that the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman from Nier. Therefore my initial (and still kept in some measure) reaction towards 2B. However, there are some cool/funny cross-overs done on that theme though.



For Myon (source https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86261515)



Looks like Momiji did not escape either (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89331233)

Those artwork of Youmu and Momiji look cool, I follow both of these artists too!

This might not be the best thread to ask, but I was wondering if you guys post anything about touhou that's not on Moriya Shrine. I know Count makes artwork on Pixiv but does anyone make anything on Twitter or YouTube as well? I use twitter mainly to check artists and other content, but I'd love to talk there too. Just wanted to ask you guys.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Isaac

[CountVonNumenor]

34 minutes ago, Isaac said:

This might not be the best thread to ask, but I was wondering if guys post anything about touhou that's not on Moriya Shrine. I know Count makes artwork on Pixiv but does anyone make anything on Twitter or YouTube as well? I use twitter mainly to check artists and other content, but I'd love to talk there too. Just wanted to ask you guys.

Personally, I also do have a DeviantArt page besides that on Pixiv. However, the DA one is more oriented towards military stuff, with the every now and then Touhou material snuck in too. As for Twitter, I do have an account, yet do not post anything there. I only have an account there because otherwise I would not have been able to access some of the artists whose works I like checking. Another place where I post Touhou-related, even if just at the level of discussion, is on Discord. But that is a different story. 

[buskerdog]

3 hours ago, Isaac said:

This might not be the best thread to ask, but I was wondering if you guys post anything about touhou that's not on Moriya Shrine. I know Count makes artwork on Pixiv but does anyone make anything on Twitter or YouTube as well? I use twitter mainly to check artists and other content, but I'd love to talk there too. Just wanted to ask you guys.

I upload fangames from the game jams I do on itch.io, if you didn't already know.

I also have a twitter and a Youtube, but they're both dead. Well the twitter technically isn't dead but I only use it to spread my gamedev stuff.

I should make a "proper" post on this thread about the actual topic, but that'll have to come later...

Edited April 28, 2022 by buskerdog

[Isaac]

4 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

I upload fangames from the game jams I do on itch.io, if you didn't already know.

I also have a twitter and a Youtube, but they're both dead. Well the twitter technically isn't dead but I only use it to spread my gamedev stuff.

I should make a "proper" post on this thread about the actual topic, but that'll have to come later...

Oh wow, I'd love to check those fangames out! Yeah I should make a thread about the topic to include everyone else.

[buskerdog]

13 hours ago, Isaac said:

Oh wow, I'd love to check those fangames out!

I do make posts about them here too

[Macbeth]

Does anyone here like Fire Emblem? Honestly I wonder if anyone has ever made a Fire emblem touhou Romhack

Edited April 29, 2022 by Macbeth

[Isaac]

4 hours ago, Macbeth said:

Does anyone here like Fire Emblem? Honestly I wonder if anyone has ever made a Fire emblem touhou Romhack

I've wanted to try out Three Houses for a while now but unfortunately I don't have a switch. Knowing the fandom, there probably is a lot of touhou Fire Emblem content.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Isaac

[Macbeth]

On 4/29/2022 at 11:19 PM, Isaac said:

I've wanted to try out Three Houses for a while now but unfortunately I don't have a switch. Knowing the fandom, there probably is a lot of touhou Fire Emblem content.

I saw my little cousin play it, theyre a new generation fiya embremu player and I feel like the three houses although was a change needed to keep the franchise alive, its just not the same.....

[CountVonNumenor]

I see there is quite a lot of diversified tastes in here. Glad to see that

[Isaac]

As mentioned before, I'm going to talk about some anime that I love.

I'm a huge fan of romantic comedies like Love is war and Maid sama. Its nice to watch shows that aren't too serious and focus on being lighthearted. I love the style these shows try with comedy too. There is also Spy x Family out currently and and I love everything about it, especially Anya!

I love psychology shows as well. Higurashi is one of favourites and I love how the atmosphere was handled and the way the mystery was set up. The characters are all cute which makes the scenarios more disturbing. I really enjoy Re Zero too, even if it's an isekai show.

I'd love to hear some of everyone's favourites!

Edited May 3, 2022 by Isaac

[Ken Hisuag]

What constitutes a "series?" I keep thinking of franchises that only have two or three entries, or even just one primary entry and a variety of spin-off material. Still, there are a few ideas I can confidently say apply.

I was a huge fan of Brian Jacques's Redwall while growing up, especially the book Mossflower. It was, as far as I can recall, the first fandom I got involved with, especially in regards to fanfiction; the writing side of the fandom used to be quite active in the early 2010's, though it became significantly less so as time went on. I remember a specific story called The Sword and HIs Flowers that had a profound impact on my perception of storycrafting, and may have been the beginning of my fascination with story theory. Unfortunately, the author took all of his works down at some point, and I've been unable to find a copy of it elsewhere.

I have good memories of reading the Anne of Green Gables series with my family, which took quite a few years for us to get through. It's very difficult to carry a series solely upon the depiction of everyday relationships, and this series manages it across an entire generation-and-a-half. There isn't cinematic drama or tension, but rather charming slice-of-life that is nonetheless relatable and compelling. My favorite book was Anne of Windy Poplars, though the nature of the series makes it best (though not necessary) to read in order.

Doctor Who comes to mind, but with a regrettable stipulation of distaste for the recent direction the series has taken. I didn't mind the initial reboot, and appreciated the new approach of giving a complex character arc to the titular character. Unfortunately, once that arc had run its course, the series collapsed in on itself, with initially following episodes throwing out random ideas and failing to explore them, and more recent arcs being heavily weighed down by extremely obvious agendas lacking appropriate artistic presentation. Comparatively, the classic series may not have had much depth to it, but it was still fun and engaging. Most stories took a flat-arc approach (i.e., main character is the agency of change in the world around him), and worldbuilding was accomplished slowly and naturally. But I digress. Every Doctor has a specific episode [chain] that best showcases their character, but for me the highlight of the series is The Key to Time saga and The Five Doctors.

That's already quite a bit, even just for three, so I'll leave off for now (maybe more on the 'morrow?).

Edited May 3, 2022 by Ken Hisuag

[buskerdog]

OK, this has been long overdue, time to get stuck into this. So, what other series do I like, eh? As far as fandoms go Touhou is absolutely the one I am most involved in, but of course I have many other interests as well, mainly in video games.

It has been said before on this forum that I am a fan of Monster Hunter, so let's start there. While I haven't played many games spanning across the whole series, it still holds a place as one of my favourites of all time. I have my friend to thank for introducing me to this series, who convinced me to try the demo of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 3DS. And ho boy, let me tell you that demo alone is absolutely gripping. Monster Hunter is often considered a difficult game to get into, everything from controls, to difficulty, to understanding systems, it's an action RPG game with a lot of complexity and gameplay that doesn't go easy on you, but when it clicks, it clicks, and as someone who enjoys a good challenge, it didn't take long for it to click with me. It's basically "boss fights, the game". So now I'm hooked on this demo, but wait - there's a new MH game coming out! The demo for that game comes out ahead of release, so I now have even more demo content to get me hyped up before the release, and so my journey is set to begin with Monster Hunter Generations. In retrospect, going with Monster Hunter 4 would honestly have been the better decision since that game is held in high regard for many reasons, but it didn't matter at the time, as I enjoy the crap out of MHGen anyway, and my friend gets it too so we can play multiplayer, an aspect which makes MH even better. I've since continued my journey with Generations Ultimate, Rise, and soon I'll have Rise's expansion to look forward to, Sunbreak. I've been on this paragraph for way too long now so I'll wrap things up, but one of the things I also love about MH is something I like in common with Touhou and that's the community, even if I'm not involved with it the MH community are the one of the most helpful and welcoming groups out there.

So what else can I talk about? Well, this is less known about me, but I'm also quite into the Warcraft universe (however I should add a disclaimer here, that Blizzard is a shitty company and I'm aware of it). I used to play World of Warcraft for a time, although I wasn't super integrated into the whole multiplayer aspect and grinding endgame dungeons with a guild and such, I just spent time exploring the overworld to level up my character, occasionally joining up with a friend who also played at the time. I don't play anymore because it's bloody expensive, not helped by the fact that it's a huge timesink, fans aren't happy with the current direction of the game, and the fact the gameplay loop of WoW is just kind of boring, yet strangely addicting... however, there is another side of Warcraft that I can still enjoy, and that is Hearthstone. On the offchance you don't know, Hearthstone is free to play spin-off game of Warcraft where you collect cards and build a deck to verse other players. If you're looking for a well balanced, engaging strategic card game, that's... not what Hearthstone is. Hearthstone is random, chaotic, wacky, unpredictable, and most certainly not balanced - but you just have to understand that's part of the appeal. Also, collecting cards is enjoyable, and although you can spend money on the game, free to play is doable and very appreciated for a TCG. Seriously, I also used to collect and play cards for the Pokemon TCG. SO EXPENSIVE. The fact Hearthstone is a TCG I can play for free makes me come back to it, and as mentioned, the craziness that can ensue under the right conditions might seem unfair to some, but it's inherently what makes the game entertaining.

There are many other video games I've played, for example I'm a fan of metroidvania stuff, but I'll leave it at that, since I'm not about to make this into a fat list of everything I've ever played. What is worth an extra paragraph though is tabletop games! As you may have picked up on by now through my mention of Hearthstone and Pokemon TCG, I am a fan of card games and indeed board games. I own a few myself, but of course I have a friend group to play with as well, and it's by pooling our different games together that we get to experience a wide variety of fantastic board games... OK it's mostly just one guy who has all the stuff, but I digress. Cool strategic board and/or card games that you can play 1 on 1 and/or in a group that come from niche indie board game makers are absolutely my jam... so, speaking of jam, makes you wonder why I recently created a card game for that game jam, hmmmm?

[Gou the frog]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:58 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

Again, another game series I never got to play, but about which I had some slight knowledge. I have seen on of the games live at Asprey (his first livestream I got to see), and I really liked what I saw. The series looks extremely fun, and the story is engaging too. 


In shot, there's quite a cool stuff. 

I forgot to mention, there's a legendary stage play for the series and it's based on the original Yakuza series- Ps2 version. (There're also movies)

Spoiler

Part 1. 

Part 2. 

 

[CountVonNumenor]

A bit of text from a different era. Before the Touhou era, I have gone through a few more series. However, never so quick as from November 2019 to October 2021.In less than a year, i have gone the following route: Star Wars, -> WH40k -> SMG4/Meta Runner -> Rhythm Heaven -> Touhou Project. Each time I got into something new, passion for each being more and more intense. When I got into Touhou, I realize I might have gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole of Japanese stuff, and since I tried to basically quarantine it and not get any further into the rabbit hole of anime (even if Touhou is a game series). Only exception ever since was Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, but I was quite chill with that one (and that one also happened in late 2022, so out of the time frame)

 

Anyway, here is an example of writing I was doing back in the spring of 2020, while still being under lockdown and in the Meta Runner phase. At the time, Season 1 was still rather fresh, Season 2 was still a few month before getting announced, and I was binge watching SMG4 as there was nothing better to do. (originally posted here https://european-war-4.boards.net/thread/12720/meta-runner)

Spoiler

During this quarantine [March-May 2020], I've been looking for a series to watch and enjoy. Then, a few days ago, I got lucky to find Meta Runner.  All I can say is that it happened quite randomly. I just found out about this YouTube channel called SMG4 that is doing Gmod Mario videos, part of older trend called Mario Bloopers or something like that. I watched a few videos from the bloopers series,  and realized that I liked it. One of my favourite elements out of these videos was one of the characters, Tari. With a rather shy attitude, always trying to solve conflicts through peaceful ways and liking rubber ducks and video, she has become one of my favourite characters since she kinda reminds of the way I am. Then, through some Easter eggs and references, I found out there is an entire series revolved around her, called Meta Runner (made by the same guys who make the Mario Gmod stuff). Since I was curious about it, I decided to give their series a try. 


This is more or less an official presentation of the series,  taken from the dedicated wiki (I will try to keep this start reply Spoiler-Fred, in case anyone wants to watch too, but we can get into more details if anyone is interested):

"Meta Runner is an Australian science-fiction adventure/thriller computer animated web series, created by Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul. The series is in a separate canon to SMG4, a machinima series on Luke's YouTube channel of the same name.
The series follows an amnesiac cyborg girl named Tari in a world where video games, speedrunning & esports are everything as she discovers she has the uncanny ability to warp into video games."
 

This is where you can watch the series www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqtXS2zBPMiTK67uPOtA1x-PAwedRUMIU

All  I can say is that I'm amazed. I liked all of the 10 episodes of season 1. The characters are very interesting, the setting is something I haven't seen before, and I grew to love the soundtrack, especially the intro song,  Always Running. Some may found the antagonists rather generic, but I don't really think so, as I found their motivations interesting. Also, this Tari is a bit different from her version in the Mario Bloopers series. Despite still having some of th traits any quirks from the Mario series, the Meta Runner Tari seems to be a bit more realistic, but it's still quite enjoyable as protagonist, and I think I even started to prefer this version of her.


I  was stunned to see that two guys making funny Gmod videos could actually get the passion of doing such a serious project. It took them around 2 years for the whole process, but now we'll will hopefully have less to wait since they have serious backing. But better to wait longer for a better product than rush it. This is no longer a Gmod thing, but actual animation, made in the Unreal Engine if I am not wrong,  with a lot of stuff to edit, music to compose and voice lines to record, and that's no easy thing, so they get all my respect.

Season 1 soundtrack 

 

 

But  what do you think? Has anyone else seen this series, or would like to give it a try? I wanted to share this with you because it has turned out into some of the most enjoyable moments of this rather depressing quarantine, and I was looking to talk to someone about this series. But I guess that's just me every time I grow to love something and become passionate about it

 

It was the first time I was actually getting crazy for something, rewatching it multiple times and trying to find out as much as I could. At some point, I even found concept art for the character of Tari, and I was simply amazed by the idea of finding such a thing. Nowadays, I am more chill about the show. I started Season 2 when it appeared (October 2020, every Friday at local hour 23:00), but somehow lost track midway through. A lot of designs changed, some for the better and some...that maybe could have stayed the same, but there was indeed a bit of progress in animation (this whole thing is made in Unreal Engine). And now that a third season was announced (and further seasonal redesings), I am completely clueless. 

Season 1 Tari

Concept art, apparently inspired by a drawing done by the younger sister of the creators

[Cal-of-Gearva]

Video/Tabletop Games

For video games, I am down to play pretty much any brutally difficult single-player game (I wonder why I love Touhou project so much ). Examples of some of my favorites include Darkest Dungeon, Noita, and Celeste. Beyond that, I also really enjoy designing games of that similar genre, so I'm decently involved in the Super Mario World ROM hacking community. Beyond just video games, I love D&D a lot. I usually fill the role of Game Master because I love the design and worldbuilding that goes into it, and it really sparks my creativity overall!

 

TV Series / Movies

When it comes to TV series, I watch quite a bit of anime, but not an obscene amount. For the most part I stick to the romance genre, but I do love a number of shows outside of that. For example, I'm currently watching all of Initial D and absolutely loving it, and my all-time favorite show is Rascal does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which, sure, it is a romance, but it also airs on the side of psychological thriller as well. For movies, I love mind-bending films such as Inception or Edge of Tomorrow!