Author: Kiara Shoemake

I’ve decided that I’ll share a bit of my interest while I decide on what topic I’d write about in-depth.  ദ്ദി( •̀ ᴗ –  ) ✧

Series?

There’s multiple, but my current favorite is Demon Slayer. It’s a popular manga series, there’s also an anime adaptation of it, that I only like because Douma is from there.

I can rant and rave all I want about Douma, but that’s for another post. 

Music Artists?

I’ll list my top five since I have too many favorites for my own good.

• Deftones
• Mortician
• Foxtails + IHS
• Mitski
• Alex G

My favorite album from Deftones is their Around the Fur one. It’s the second album they’ve ever released; it debuted in 1997. I love how much aggression there is within this album compared to their later ones. ‘Mascara’ and ‘Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)’ is my top two from this album, but ‘Headup’ and ‘Rickets’ are honorable mentions. Deftones has MANY other wonderful songs such as Hole in the Earth (Saturday Night Wrist album), Passenger (from their white pony album), and Beauty School (Diamond Eyes album). I’d say to check all their songs out. Your ears will thank you later.

I have many artists within the metal genre that I adore ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ (Deftones being the main one). Mortician would be one I won’t ever grow tired of. I’ve actually tried scouting out their ‘Hacked up for barbeque’ album on cd to add in my ever-growing collection. Fun fact, Mortician only has two people within the project. My favorite album from them is Hacked up for Barbeque, but Chainsaw Dismemberment is good also. ‘Rabid’, from their Chainsaw Dismemberment album, is their most popular song. It’s for good reason because the audio clip in the beginning sets you up for the song and then the guitar is just chef’s kiss. I’d like to throw in other band recommendations with this section. Burzum, Yanderechainsawregurgitationfactory, Suicide Silence, I will always remember, Korn, Party Cannon, glistening, and Decalius. A lot of these bands are from different sub-genres of metal. Nu-metal, Black metal, Death Metal, and Grindcore.

I stinking love Screamo so much (๑´>᎑<)~* The band that got me into the genre was IHS. ‘San Francisco’ from their Circle Thinking album might be the best screamo song out there, and I will never grow tired of hearing that song. All of their songs are goated though I understand if others won’t share the same sentiment (´∇｀”）Foxtails is another screamo band I absolutely adore! ‘Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco’ is a great track made by them. I would definitely recommend ‘Cucaracho’, ‘I experienced ego death on an nde thread’, and ‘vacant lottery’ by them also. Before this section ends, notice how I said the best songs from both bands have San Francisco in the title ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

Mitski had me in a chokehold back in 2021. I’ve stopped listening to her for a little while, but I’ve started to pick up on her music again 〜⁠(⁠꒪⁠꒳⁠꒪⁠)⁠〜 Cop car by far is my personal favorite. “I am cruel, I am gentle, I can make you laugh” “I don’t think about the past, It’s always there anyway” (Both lyrics are from Cop Car) like ouh my goodness I love love love this song. I also enjoy the live version of ‘Drunk Walk Home’ along with ‘Abbey’ and ‘Shame’ ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)

Boy oh boy Alex G (╥ ᴗ ╥) Love almost all of his songs. ‘Candy’, ‘Hope’, ‘Gnaw’, ‘Brick’, and ‘Things to do’ are some of his released songs I enjoyed. ‘I’m not like the other girls’, ‘I wait for you’, ‘Not Anywhere’, ‘east coast’, ‘and ‘track 7’ are unreleased songs that I could blast in my ears until I burst my eardrums ヾ(˵☆□☆˵)و  I JUST LOVE HIS SONGS SO MUCH. I can try to dissect every single one of his songs or even write something based on them. 

Hobby?

Currently, I like writing as a pass time. After entering the literary class, I feel that I’ve slowly grown passionate with writing. I also draw, commission artists, listen to music, and collect items (CDS and figurines). I have some writings planned out, but I haven’t gotten around to starting them yet.

Movie?

I actually don’t watch movies. Not a whole lot anyways. I like KNY: Infinity castle, cough cause of Douma, and that’s all I can think of. There are others I enjoy, but they’re not as rememberable as Infinity Castle (੭ ;´ ⌂ `;)੭♡

Game?

It’s a tie in-between Alice: Madness Returns or Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Both have incredible narratives. DR2 is a visual novel, but it has also detective aspects along with being a VN. In all honesty, I say DR2 is the best out of the Danganronpa series. The cast is funny, the plot is good, it’s just good in everything while the other games lack something. On the other hand, Alice: Madness Returns isn’t a visual novel. It’s a more action story game. This rendition of Alice in Wonderland is amazing. The ‘Alice is actually insane’ route in retellings is overused and boring, but this game makes it interesting. I can also talk about A:MR in another post.

I hope this served as a little peak into what I like. What post would you like to see from me next? The topics I’ve had on my mind were Norwegian Black Metal, Douma, or Alice: Madness Returns. I haven’t made my mind up yet, so I was wanting to see what you thought ₍₍⚞(˃ ꒳ ˂)⚟⁾⁾

If the little red fingerprint looks familiar, it’s the logo for NetEase. They are the same developer for Marvel Rivals. 

To preface this, back in 2023 I was absolutely in LOVE Identity V. Every day I would play for hours on end and delved into the lore of my favorite characters within the game along with the main stories within the game. I used to read and make up my own analysis of characters. I could summarize character lore even now because I still enjoy it. The characters weren’t the only thing that had me attached to this mobile game. There were other players to engage with, and I had many online friend groups because of this game. A huge chunk of my money went to this game for merchandise and in-game currency. Earlier this year, I ended up selling my account that I spent close to one thousand on for two hundred dollars. Money’s money, but a little more would’ve been nice.

BASE GAME (basics)

Whenever thinking of the mechanics for this game, think of Dead by Daylight. Five ciphers need to be decoded to activate gates. Then you need to open the gate by decoding it. There are four survivors and one hunter, and the game happens on a randomized map. Instead of hyper realistic graphics and humanoid models which would be in DBD, you have Coraline looking dolls as survivors and a hunter who may either look human with slight abnormalities or something that barely resembles one. Even with non-human models for hunters, it isn’t scary because of the janky graphics. The survivor’s and hunter’s abilities differ from the ones you’d encounter in Dead By Daylight. There is a survivor who can destroy the chairs (hooks in DBD terms), a survivor who can disable your abilities as hunter, a survivor that can stun you for prolonged periods of time with a rocket, and way more. Hunters have abilities of the same level, if not better skillsets. There is a hunter that you cannot look at as a survivor, or you will get hit and placed on a rocket chair at five ciphers. Then your team is pinging “you’re on your own!” (basically telling you that you suck and need to delete the game). There is a hunter that can make duplicates of herself, and the clone can phase through obstacles while also being able to hit you. There is a hunter that launches cats at you, and she can either stun you or disable your abilities (this is an actual in-game mechanic I’m not joking).

There are skins for both factions. Now it’s all a fashion show for who has the better skin rather than eerie concepts prevalent in Identity V’s early days. To even get skins you have to do a gacha (gambling).  You either save a lot on in-game currency you get for free over long periods of time or get your debit card out and spend one hundred and get five duplicates of the same skin. You can also get skins within the in-game shop, but you would have to get that debit card ready as majority of them require it. I’ll give them credit where credit is due since a lot of skins are beautifully designed. Some of the designs gave me inspiration for my writings and artwork. The base character designs themselves are amazing as there is a lot of research done into the character’s background to render it cohesive with the time period (nineteenth century).

Where the issues arise

Now this is where my main issues of the game start. Within the game there are currently only THREE characters that are darker complexed out of at EIGTHY ONE playable characters. That’s way less than one percent people of color featured within the game. There are other characters that come from countries where citizens are generally tanned or darker but share complexions of those with fair skin. For example, there is a character who is from Nepal (an Asian country in-between China and India), but you cannot tell him apart from the European characters. Yes, there are more poc (people of color) characters within the game. Though, they are either mentioned in passing or served as stepping stools for the playable characters in their lore. All of the time they are side characters you never see. In some controversial skins in-game, there is straight up cultural appropriation.

In other skins and illustrations made by developers themselves, the only three poc featured in the game are whitewashed. The three characters shown, Ganji, Patricia, and William, birthday portraits compared to official artwork. Both are made by the same company by the way.

There also has been Generative Artificial Intelligence usage within the game and promotions of the game that started this year. It was first spotted in a promotion in their annual Call of Abyss tournament (Yes, the game has tournament aspects and esports teams that participate. There are opportunities to win cash prizes). NetEase also started to fire official artists for the game and replaced them with AI.

All in all, this game is bad like an open pizza box that’s a week old. I advise not to support this game or the developers because of the actions I stated prior. What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear your opinion ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)