/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46919613
>>46918070
Thanks for the positivity i guess i will elaborate a bit more.
>humans have been placing deities in faraway, spiritual, "other" realms far before the birth of the scientific method
Yes, the renaissance and enlightenment in the 15th-18th century just accelerated the process of cornering the divine and supernatural due to a more dominant and consistent theory, leading to Nietzsche claiming that we had killed god (he talked about the christian god but it applies to all others) and that god no longer had a place in the material world, as we could explain it much better with science. This isn't a bad thing from my perspective, as learning more about the world gives humanity more sovereignty over itself, but it also doesn't mean that those gods didn't ever exist, it just seems that way from our perspective as we have made models of understanding that surpass those gods. For example there is no reason to suspect that two laws of physics with completely different systems couldn't both be true at the same time, it is just convention to have one dominant theory. In mathematics you can tweak functions and make completely new ones that give identical results, this should be the case in the real world as well. It doesn't really matter to the universe if a phenomena was caused by a god, a scientific law or anything else. What matters is that the observations of that phenomena are locally consistent. And when i say the gods are dead i mean more that they are not able to interact with the material world as they have been banished to the spiritual realm or gensokyo in the touhou universe, maybe a better word would have been 'inactive'.
>gods and spirits at the very least, really being out there whether we believe in them or not
I mean as long as you can think of something it exists in Plato's world of ideas. I would contrast that with the spiritual world, as the world of ideas contains the perfected form of everything from inanimate objects to humans and gods, so like a soul. This is also to say that without their 'soul' even inanimate objects lose their meaning. A tree after all is just 99.9999999% empty space and a few particles of elements in there. If you lose all the meanings created by humans the world looks like a sea of different densities of matter and energy. If you never saw a hammer and didn't know how to use it it would be just a lump of metal (assuming you had a definition for metal). The hammer doesn't exist if it cannot be imagined to be used as a hammer, but the constituent parts will always be there, ready to be imagined as a hammer. The spiritual world is disconnected and unchanging without the material, and the material world is undefined and meaningless without the spiritual (as in the world of ideas).

I will now try to give an example of a modern day 'god' and how they exist in the real world. This is an idea i borrowed from Yuval Noah Harari's book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". In the book Harari talks a lot about how similar modern day ideologies and other widely accepted forms of thought are to religions. I will not go too deep on this but the book is worth a read. A good example for a modern day 'god' is the free market and economics. They exist completely independent of the material world, but have a huge amount of power over it. Nobody questions how real money is, even though it's just an agreement on a common denominator for value. What these gods lack is personification, very few people believe in a personified representation of economics, but if they did, nothing would really change except we might see more appearances of this personification.

I hope that it is clear when i talk about the material real and the immaterial real as those are two different concepts. Anything that can be imagined to a certain accuracy becomes real in the immaterial world of ideas, it gains a perfected form, which can then be assigned into a material substitute. We as humans are also material substitutes possessed by an idea/soul (that is subjective to the observer, you are not the same person to yourself as an outside observer) as it is impossible to fundamentally create a border between the material body and the outer world. For example every atom in the human body gets replaced around every 5 years, but our experience of reality is continuous. The ship of Theseus is not the sum of its parts, but the idea of the ship, though the parts contribute and change that idea over time. This has become a huge wall of text and i think i should stop here for now. Hoping this thread doesn't die :)

I hope I get to bring my cloak. I don't want to show up to Gensokyo dripless. I won't blend in with normal clothing.
>>46621213
>Get easy modo with my magic that works even IRL
Kinda same for me. I suspect Gensokyo would amplify magic power considering it does so for youkai. I read a lot about real monsters and cryptids and aliens and such so I guess I'm rather well equipped for fighting youkai knowledge-wise.
>>46614325
>Hard mode: netherworld included.
Good thing I pay respects to the gods of death. The hell bureaucracy have probably seen this before so if I can find one of them in time I'm probably good.
I'm not really concerned with language like some others on this thread. Humans can probably still tell you're an outsider and they'll probably still try to help you.

If I can get some pennies with me that's good. Zinc is the primary metal in pennies and burns very hot and bright and releases UV rays, which has been suggested as the cause for some youkai's weakness to sunlight.

I think my main strategy will be to find the Hakurei Shrine and ask Reimu for an apprenticeship so I can learn youkai extermination myself. If I'm already near it, that won't be a problem. If I end up in Muenzukan, that will be very tough. I'll have to ask for assistance from gods, but fortunately in Gensokyo they have a high chance of answering.

Lady Tamatsukuri was an interesting woman. She was a goddess, one who made her living from making jewellery. In a broad sense, I wondered if that made her Kisami's crafting goddess, since she was a jeweller too, but I decided that I'd maybe keep that secret to myself. Or perhaps I'd share it with Yamame so she could try and get Kisami back for all of her teasing once I got back. She had a very sharp, commanding presence. Despite being shorter than me, she still felt like she was towering over me and if she stepped toward me, I'd probably shrink back. Kisami didn't seem all that bothered, but I had the distinct impression that respecting that sort of gravitas wasn't something that she seemed to handle naturally. Once she'd finished explaining what an Izanagi object was - and I had made a show of getting it, even though I didn't really get it - She asked me what exactly I was doing here, yet again. So, I tried to explain from the top. "Ore? Not Izanagi Objects, but regular ore?" She looked over at Kisami. "And you're trying to help him make a ring? A...Wedding ring? This is...A very indulgent purpose for a very dangerous cave. The only ore you'd want is far below, near that girl who's been putting half the mountain in danger of collapse." I assumed this was the girl that Kisami had mentioned on the way up here, the one who'd attacked her before they'd managed to strike a deal.

"Yeah, yeah, I can handle her." Kisami said, tapping her head with her left index finger. "What I'm more worried about is the breathing situation. He's a human, after all." She shrugged as if me being a human was like having a cold, then looked back at Lady Tamatsukuri. "Have you...Er, got anything for that?"

"Me? For an anoxic zone?" The other woman repeated. "Why would I have anything for that? What fanciful thinking." I shrugged and said that if I passed out, Reimu would probably find me somehow. It seemed to happen most times I was in danger. "Reimu? Hakurei?" A little confused, I nodded. "Why would she specifically be looking for you?" Now I felt a little confused. We were basically family, I finally said. "...Family." Lady Tamatsukuri repeated, staring at me blankly. "Family? Reimu Hakurei doesn't have any family left." That got me just as curious about her as Lady Tamatsukuri was of me. She seemed to know an awful lot about Reimu, since she'd said that thing about her not having any family left in a very matter-of-fact voice.

Slowly, I asked her how she knew Reimu. "She wields my greatest work." Lady Tamatsukuri mouth curled into a very smug smile. "The Hakurei Orb is my greatest creation." I found myself very taken aback. The woman in front of me created Reimu's yin-yang orb? The thing she used for youkai extermination? Wasn't that one of the Shrine's heirlooms? The kind of thing that was passed down for generations? That must have meant that Lady Tamatsukuri was an old goddess. "It's rather rude to ask a lady her age, don't you know?" She told me in a tone where I couldn't quite tell if she was joking or not. "I was alive during the Age of the Gods, when objects were nameless and had no owners." I did find myself fairly amazed, and I was sure that she could see it in my face, because she puffed her chest out and looked, somehow, even more smug. "However, I am very curious as to why you have shown up here with a spider and not with your supposed family." I shrugged and said that she'd been distracted lately. It was seeming a little bit like this Misumaru Tamatsukuri might consider Reimu just a little bit like Hearn did, because they both seemed to have an interest in her beyond the usual. "Distracted? Distracted...How?"

Now I'd put myself in a situation where I felt like I was betraying Reimu's trust, so I did my best to downplay it and said that she'd was probably just busy with getting the Shrine prepared for Winter. "I see...Hm. Perhaps I shall have to see to it that the inheritor of the Hakurei Orb isn't getting lazy. She can't wield it if she's too distracted." That sounded like I'd probably made a mistake and sent an annoyed goddess after Reimu. Still, if Lady Tamatsukuri knew Reimu the way she seemed to - And, with her age, she probably knew more than a few of her relatives too - Perhaps it would be a good thing if someone else visited her.

"Well - That's enough about that. I'll deal with Reimu in my own time. Let's get back to you, shall we?" I nodded and said that I was hoping that I could go with Kisami to collect this metal. "You cannot." Lady Tamatsukuri told me very clearly. I frowned and asked her if she really did have a card that would let me breathe down in the depths of the mine shaft. She shook her head, revealing both arms from behind her back to be completely empty. "I did, but I don't anymore. I only carried it with me while there seemed to be a present danger of someone trying to get into the mineshaft. A certain black-and-white girl."

>>44900129
>>"Kill me, eat me, torture me or even sacrifice my body to your dark gods. But don't you DARE waste my time with your talk and dialogue!!!"

>"Oh but there is much talk, and I have listened. Through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk and you will listen."
>"So what names would you suggest for our offspring?"

>>44900129
>>"Kill me, eat me, torture me or even sacrifice my body to your dark gods. But don't you DARE waste my time with your talk and dialogue!!!"

>"Oh but there is much talk, and I have listened. Through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk and you will listen."
>"So what names would you suggest for our offspring?"

>>43648251

You feel the sunlight hit your eyes and wake up in a panic realizing you slept through your alarm and have less than 30 minutes to get to school.
Deciding breakfast would take too long, you instead scrub yourself in the shower in a frenzy and dash out the door, hoping your wallet contains enough change to buy you something to eat during luch break.
Your run to school is filled with curses, both to your lack of athletics and the world in general.
If you take your usual route, you have little chance of making it in time and giving your record, another late arrival would spell doom for you.

Fortunately for you, there was a shortcut nearby.
Unfortunately for you, it was through private property.
A private property with a huge dog chained to a post, guarding it against trespassers.
Whenever you walked past the place in the past, blissfully ignorant of the beast that lay there snarling.
It was only when you got into clear view of the creature that all hell went loose.
Its bark was loud enough to cause hearing damage and filled with unfathomable aggression.
You don't know what the owners did to it for it to behave like this, but you had learned your lesson to never aproach that accursed place ever again.

Or so you thought.
You steeled yourself and prepared to make a mad dash across, if you stayed outside of the range the chain allowed the dog to move, you would have nothing to truly fear.
But you had too much faith in the rusty, ill-maintained chain the beast was leashed to and when you heard the sickening snap of the metal's strength failing, you could do nothing but cover your face with your arms as the dog lunged for you.
You snap awake in a cold sweat, staring at your hands and thanking whatever gods live up here for their intact state.
Beside you is the warm glow of a crackling fireplace, gently illuminating you and your surroundings.

Sorry for the low quality and awful pace, you can probably already tell where this is going. I have to awkwardly phone post this so I might wait until I have proper Internet again for the next bit so I can post a proper pupper along with it

>>43411828
Shiki fucking off to europe to merc vampire gods is pretty metal.

>>42441271
(Cont’d)
It’s no wonder that humans still fear us, it was ground into them.

She set aside the still unbent metal quill, a gift made by a Dwarf colleague. Her other paw set to kneading the flesh at the base of her other horn. The headache was growing. The other three natural hominids had long and detailed histories of record-keeping, some of which intersected with the state of human society. What little monster history that was recorded was…disturbingly fixated.

The doctor stood, preferring to work off her growing ill mood. The template for the mana-cell engravings could be designed now that she’d finished correcting the data. The templates would remain energy inefficient — she would have to consult to narrow them into raw generalized primitives — but they would function correctly within tolerances. Inefficiencies aside, it would keep the lab from having a bottleneck. Technically she didn’t have to sketch out or engrave the master patterns for the mother templates, but Greilia was astute enough to know why she was devoting her weekend in exactly this way.

Her mind found the one note for her, blurred as it was, as she set the metal quill into motion. The fine craftsmanship of the peculiar device’s metal ball tip had little to do with the joy and satisfaction that filled her. The deposition tool hummed as she applied resist across the plates, and the sensuous humming of her internal organs had nought to do with the tool. The master templates will be needed to keep the mana-cellular studies on track, she thought. It was true, but not true enough.

Pleasure chemicals fused and ignited in her sensitive flesh, even as her paw steadily guided the resist-depositinator. She knew who she was doing this for, once all justifications were swept aside. It was incorporated into each pattern she laid, right before her eyes. Each pattern flowed perfectly, like the pleasure surging within her heated flesh. “T-the master patterns are foundational, they have to be perfect.” she said in a muttering moan.

Even her vaunted skill, precisely honed across centuries, wouldn’t be so fluid and perfect in doing this work. Having a single key to unlock mantic perfection was innate to mamonokind, but it took unnatural effort to push it to work in the absence of the natural recipient. Every degree of separation from that natural receiver: cognitively, contextually…made it harder to pull and guide. The ability to abstract such a wonder could only be done by filling the gap with discipline. This was what set the true mantic professional apart from the rest, aside from higher mana capacity. The latter was easily replaced by mana capacitors, but the honed mamono ability had no substitute. By scheme or will it could be shaped and cajoled, but it ever worked for it’s central purpose.

“He’ll understand.” she said, her diminutive form gasping and reeking of lust. She believed this. After all, every important work she felt too important to rely on her proven and hard-won skill carried a variant of the keymark. Her natural caution as a physician and extended lifespan meant that there were centuries of the keymark. Littered like confetti everywhere. She was beyond knowing what exactly she meant, as she gasped the phrase. In truth, even when not so distracted by the overwhelming pleasure, she wasn’t truly sure what she meant. The last of her mini-batch of plates was finished. She set aside her tools and double checked the laminar and anti-catabolic screens before leaving the finished plates within.

Only then did she slump bonelessly onto the nearest bench. Damp with cold sweat and other fluids, she had to take a break. A specialized niche was the frailest state in many ways, she knew. Ludmilla’s reliable rigor had been redirected into other channels, as was the whim of the Fallen. There is only one reliable hook for mamono, when all is said and done, thought the damp doctor. The gods had learned this well, being the keepers of the supply. The Fallen had a remarkably low benchmark, happy to shift an uncemented fixation — the easiest way to supply a soulmate, Greilia had to admit. The physicists had proven that the pair-symmetry was multiversal, apparently. Even a flesh-handler like me can understand the implications, she thought miserably. The headache was forming again. She clacked back to the workbench, placing her tools into order for the next mini-batch of plates. I’m an nigh-immortal doctor, she scolded herself, as long as I’m patient…

Mentally, ages of miscellaneous traces of mana flickered within the depths of her aura. All of these mantic signs carried a similarity, which made since, given who they were intended for. She wondered, would it feel oppressive to receive all of it? She shivered in discomfort, despite having given herself time to dry.

>>40986814
Ohhhh, ok. Now i see what kind of idiot, i mean, person you are.

You are right anon, Babymetal is not metal. I mean, their music totally sounds like metal, legends and metal gods say they are metal, they play on metal festivals and not on pop festivals or shit, hell! metal heads on those very same metal festivals several times chanted "One more song! We want more!" YET Babymetal is not metal at all.

So my friend, if you are looking for metal, here is clearly not the place.......
So, go find another thread and be happy. See you!

>>40510248
Support Ran confirmed.

SC1
>Increases the speed of all allies by 2 levels (4T)
>Spiritual power of all allies increased by 0.80
SC2
>Spiritual power of all allies increased by 0.80
>All allies' strength 45% restored.
LW
>Increases all allied Yin attack by 2 levels (3T)
>Increases Yin Defense of all allies by 2 levels (3T)
>Increases the CRI attack of all allies by 2 levels (3T)
Skill1
>Increases spiritual power of all allies by 0.40
>Increases allied allies' hit by 3 levels (3T)
>Quick is given to oneself
Skill2
>Speed of all all allies increased by 3 levels (3T)
>Increases all allies' Yin Defense by 3 levels (3T)
>Increases own spiritual power by 0.80
Skill3
>Increases all allies' spiritual power by 0.50
>Raise all allies' hit by 3 levels (3T)
Ability
>Increases spiritual power by 0.20 without being affected by the ward abnormality "freezing
>When Boost is used, the Yin Attack of all all allies is increased by 1 step (1T).
>When using Glaze, increase Yin Attack of all all allies by 1 level (1T)
Slayers
>Human, spirit, beasts, priestesses, wizards, maids, and Shinto gods shikigami
Elements
>Moon and Metal with a full-metal LW.
Anomaly breaks
>freeze @ 1P on focus shot
>freeze and burn @ 2P on LW

Her SC1 also has the effect of giving freeze to all according to the P spent. 1 freeze with 1P, 2 freeze with 2P, etc. Overall she looks like a yin-oriented discount Sagume. Not a bad thing. Her accuracy support is overkill, though. +6 (3T) total. Flandre will lover her.

Walking along a street, I see someone try to hand ZUN a bag but he declines, I go over and offer him a big bag of fertilizer and he accepts it.
Some maybe Dark Souls game involving a bunch of Touhous that I totally forgot everything about, maybe Kaguya and Junko were in it. Impure purity and pure impurity, maybe.
I was watching some guy over a fence, looking at him while using a Red Eye Orb a couple times, after a bit I receive a message telling me to please stop.
Driving around dangerously with a guy on a fold out bed that was also a car, he ditches me I guess.
Whipping a large set up of tiers of living deacon statues and snakemen, some of them I whipped until they broke but I only had to get their health low for them to turn into inert statues. One of the lower tier deacons cries out to these two huge deacons at the sides of the archdeacon that had massive snakes for arms calling them demon gods and telling them to summon the demon sword, then a thin metal blade that looked like the Nyd rune appeared, then the deacon that called for help snatches it and betrays the demon god on the the right that summoned it turning him inert, then I snatch the blade off him and throw his statue far away. I check the description of the blade and there was couple of paragraphs, the first said that it helps a witch find their true sword and the other I don't remember. Then Naster appears as an orange phantom wearing Solaire's outfit using his shield and a claymore, runs over to me using a running attack, I parry it and riposte him with Rose of Ariandel, then kill him when he gets up. Then I say "ugh, what does "Naster" mean anyway, "fucking Soeltaar"?"
I'm running through Irithyll avoiding Naster fanboys attacking me including one that was using a variation of his name as I go from the Water Reserve tower up to the buildings where the archers are i.e. the invaders' base, where I enter one house which was Nasters'. There's that Ace of Swords guy imprisoned in there and I give him The Key which he puts in a little pig or elephant container, I guess it depends on whether you hate me or not. Also "The Key" is gold Duel Honor.
I'm at a long stairwell place that reminded me of SotC's Shrine of Worship, I have a guy I had beaten up and was making him count down from 4 as I kicked him down the stairs, but he only counted down to 1 by the time we reached the bottom. I took him outside in a public place that was a bit lower trying to get him to count 0 while I was afraid of some nearby people seeing, but he didn't count it so I went back inside the shrine. Then I noticed a Nyd shaped hole appeared in the middle of the floor so I inserted the sword.
I was at a place with mounds of rock sticking out of water. An old lady appeared saying that me and Naster had both made the same mistake of swearing to the Earth prior to the Fairy, in response I checked my youtube subscriptions and unsubscribed to a channel that had a sexy Yukari icon. Then I used the Nyd sword as an offhand weapon to zap Naster with a laser of lightning as he fled around the rocks, the water giving the laser AoE. He's nearly dead when retreats around a far away rock, then the old lady says "yes, now you understand Naster" I went over and checked behind the rock and he was gone. The old lady makes a gesture of letting a droplet fall into the water as if giving me a hint, then says "now you must invite the rain, but whose side will they take, yours, Nast's, or hers?"
I see a book that had red on its cover like the "Born to Draw" sketchbook I had lying around my place, it had three columns of text written by Yukari, the left was "How to rest" the middle "How to create" and I don't remember the last.
I see a replay of me killing Naster by parrying his Claymore running r1, riposting him with Rose of Ariandel, then killing him with Friede's Greatscythe when he got up.
I'm heading over to Mcdonalds, to upload Dark Souls clips?, thinking about a usb then remembering my phone is a better usb, then thinking I forgot my wallet but I checked my pockets and felt my keycard so I said fuck it and went into the mall to get some food.
I went on Angusnicneven's site, there was an obvious link that led to a very barebones couple of pages of black text on white background, I guess because my own sites are so minimal, saying a bunch of stuff about my dreams I guess, but I only remember 4 lines. From the first page I remember "Unipux is right" "the winged Yukari must unite with" from the second "hmm, I've seen this somewhere before..." and the first line on the page was "spitting in the face of serpents"

>https://東方ロストワード.com/?p=13745
Alright let's see
>Destruction type
Cool cool. Looks like her main gimmick is that her spellcards give her a ton of P. +1.70 to be exact. So she can run around using 3P constantly and/or switch out red marisa card for some statboosts.
>Spellcard 1
Bucking recent trends her All-target card has 3 breaks of 2 elements (wood, metal) instead of the other way around. Card gives all allies +3 agility (3T) for some reason. Also comes with a freeze break @ 3P.
>Spellcard 2
+1.70 P, 3-4 poison given to single target. 3 earth 3 metal this time. Breaks poison @ 2P.
>Last Word
Crit atk of all allies +3 (3T). As is typical of Dest characters her LW is full of various stat and crit buffs. Slayer vs priestess, wizard, incident solver, religious, human, gods. As >>39527365 pointed out it's 100% metal.

>Abilities
25% reduction in damage taken from unfavorable attributes
Increases damage dealt to favorable attributes by 25
When using boost, CRI hit of all allies is increased by 1 level (1T)

>Skills
+1.40 P total
+2 allies yang attack
+2 allies crit attack
-2 enemy crit evasion
..-2 allies crit evasion
+2 own accuracy

>Damage
Base damage is higher than EoSD Reimu and vs. slayer about the same, though Reimu has wider slayers. In classic destruction character fashion MoF Suwa's self-buffs are incomplete. Only +2 levels of yang attack here. So she'll do better with some support.

>tl;dr
MoF Suwako is a solid destruction character that can go around firing off 3P spellcards thanks to a lot of P generation. Recent ZUN characters have had wide breaking potential but poor depth. Suwa is the opposite- she's very metal focused and can break the hell out of metal weak enemies. In terms of support she can give a good amount of crit attack and crit hit.

>>38077098
My 2hy daydreams are generally broader in scope. The most frequently recurring one starts with me somehow ending up in Gensokyo armed with a longsword and wearing a gambeson, fighting Rumia and eventually settling down in the human village, but still going out to study magic with Patchy, sharing my scientific knowhow with the Kappas, polishing my martial skills with Youmu and Yuugi as well as getting to know Yuuka.

However, this idyllic life doesn't last. One day, an experiment set up by Patchouli reveals that certain beings from beyond, called the Outer Gods have caught an interest in Gensokyo and an invasion of otherworldly horrors is imminent (whenever this scene appeared in my dreams words "In a fortnight they'll be here, legions of the nameless fear" would ring in the distance). Everyone with any fighting capabilities are rallied to Gensokyo's defense and before long the fighting breaks out, with eldritch horrors, demonic sorcerers and cybernetic abominations made of flesh and metal pouring out of rifts in spacetime.

From this point, my fantasies/dreams tend to get a bit muddled, but they usually involve various scenes of battle (a bit like pic related, but with both sides visible) with many humans and lesser youkai perishing while holding the line. In the midst of it all, I aid the fighting as much as I can using whatever magic I managed to learn, strength of arms and scientific knowledge. Other notable scenes include Kogasa reforging my broken longsword and shortly after getting killed by The Black Pharaoh (an avatar of Nyarlathotep and the leader of the invasion force) in a heroic attempt to protect the human village. Eventually the war culminates with Reimu, Marisa and me facing said Pharaoh, the skirmish drags on for quite some time, with Reimu and Marisa bearing the brunt of the horror's assault eventually being forced to retreat due to injuries and leaving me alone to face the weakened foe. The clash between us ends with me plunging my sword through his chest and banishing him from this plane. The scenario itself ends with me coming around in a bed made of flowers with Yuuka cuddled up next to me.

That was quite disjointed as it was made up from several daydreams, nightdreams and fantasy scenarios. I blame my unhealthy obsession with Doom and the writings of HP Lovecraft for this.

>>36312043
Yes, urgently. The other replies are comparing her to Yukari, which I think is unfair considering how enormous Yukari's buff was. Let's look at a more comparable tank, Kanako. Released around the same time and, to my knowledge, neither have been buffed.

Their first skills are identical in focus boost and CD, except Kanako also gets +1 barrier.
For their other skills, Byakuren gets a 1.5 focus boost, star dmg down, and rank 2 party yang def for 2 turns while Kanako gets two rank 2 self yin/yang def boosts that can be spread out over 3 turns. Now, Byakuren could maybe win in this scenario since her buff is party-wide, but most of her skills, her spellcards, and her focus shot all boost her focus. She is made to be targeted by enemies and yet the buff is for the whole party. It's also only yin def, and can't be stacked to a 4.8 buff for 2 turns like Kanako's.
It's also Byakuren's only defense buff that she can activate repeatedly. She can get yang def through her first spellcard, but that limits her to two yang buffs per fight/tower run. She also gives party-wide yang on graze, but that requires her to give up a layer of barrier and it only lasts one turn. She can also get yang def for 3 turns after being attacked, but the coinflip activation makes it unreliable when you'd need it.
Speaking of their passives, Kanako also has a coin flip (frog hunting), but it's okay for it to not activate for several turns because her defensive buffs and military god guard work together to keep her hp near 100%. Even though Kanako's contest of strength is unreliable and only can activate when her health is where it shouldn't be at, I still think Kanako wins in terms of passives. While Byakuren's demon nun spirit can salvage her passives, it's locked behind her last, expensive upgrade.
Of course, Byakuren has healing in her kit, but it's tied to her spread shot. I thought it was great at first, but overall it's inferior to Kanako's passive healing. In short fights, you'll never want her spread shot instead of her spellcards. And for longer fights, like tower solo-enemy stalling, Kanako's option to use her focus shot while getting automatically healed just makes the fight end faster.
Also, Byakuren's spread shot uses yin attack, when her yin attack is the 3rd lowest in both global and JP. This doesn't matter too much, since neither her nor Kanako have innate offensive buffs, but Kanako at least has mostly yang bullets on all of her attacks. Byakuren even has a spellcard that's entirely yin, for no reason.
Spellcards (non-LW): Kanako's give P, target two elements, are all-targeting, and have 2-2-1 patterns. Byakuren's give focus, target one element, are solo-targeting, and have 1-2-2 and 1-1-3 patterns. There's some nuance I could get into, like Byakuren's slicing effect or partial healing versus Kanako's modest range of effective damage, but Kanako's obviously win out in terms of being generally useful.
LW: Byakuren's is all-targeting, has slice, has some bullets effective against humans, has no elements, and a 1-2-2 pattern. Kanako's is solo-targeting, has higher accuracy than normal, has most bullets effective against humans, dumb frogs, and gods, has mostly metal bullets, and a 2-2-1 pattern. For grinding, Byakuren might be the better pick, but her 1-2-2 pattern and lack of offensive buffs make her ill-equipped to deal with 1-wave stages. For 3-wave stages, the fact that her spellcard are all solo-targeting makes her very limited versus Kanako's all-targeting. For tower, Kanako is obviously stronger, since she has elemental bullets and more effective damage on her LW, which helps overcome her lack of innate offense.

I could make this post even longer by talking about their Abilities in more detail, or how fucking useless focus is, but even compared to a non-buffed tank, Byakuren is inferior in every aspect. I love her, and I'm using her to grind Exhibition 7 because it's basically built for her, but good lord does she need a buff.

>>34780801
It only seems like a speedrun to you because you haven't learned how the game works yet. You could go significantly faster than that if you had the knowledge and the will. I don't, but there are people who do.
>>34780878
Yeah. Some decent statics: Mag-Abyss, Unknown Shell/Twin Edge, Metal Wing, Bamagicar/War Suit, Shield Tonfa, Palmia Pride, Steel Dragon, Cestus, Crimson Plate/Asteroid Belt. +10 via blacksmith, or scrolls if you care about saving money. Rankis and Mourneblade are decent static weapons if you wanna whack stuff.
Skills ARE important if you want to get super strong and kill inner gods or voidcapped bosses, but by then your options for raising your skills will be much better than at the beginning of the game. And even then, you only start raising your skills because there's a stat cap.
If you just want to finish the story there's only a few key skill thresholds you need to meet, like 30/60 Gardening and 100/200 Cooking. In the grand scheme of things, any enemy that the story expects you to kill is in fact very weak.

>>33692180
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuoXkMZvD5Q
Depends on the venue but all of them probably have a happy hour that swaps over to very overtly sexual songs. May the gods be kind to any man in that bar when the lighting swaps especially the ones who have been total wallflowers and avoiding being social. Personally, I'll be in the dive bar blasting dad rock and metal

>>33191850
http://www.takenouchi-documents.com/
They have a site in English, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvWLonzHtH4
It's basically just Theosophy's Atlantis, root races, etc but with a Japanese focus, some Nazis had their own version. But the typical educational anime look of it makes so much more bizarre, at least it's better than the more creepy and gaudy paintings cults end to adore.
Japan was at the center of an ancient global utopia, we now live in a dystopia because the gods punished the rest of a world for disobeying Japan, and to return to this utopia Japan should become the center of a one-world government.
Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Confucius, Buddha, and all that were all originally Japanese. And something something aliens.
And this is all related to metal used in Marisa's mini-hakkero.

>>32449908
Girls' Frontline puts an absolutely autistic amount of effort into its story, lore, and character development. To the point that they're making 4 spinoff games. For some reason.

Sure at the end of the day it reads like an edgy Metal Gear fanfiction about an alternate universe where the whole thing is based on Genius Kojumbo's overwhelming fear of human stagnation and misplaced nationalism instead of his fear of nukes- with lovecraftian old gods thrown in for good measure- but the effort is there.

Yui not being on stage and involved in the group during the entirety of Episode 7 is 100% intentional and according to plan. The blowback by the fans was expected by both Koba and Amuse and they are prepared for it because they are the only ones who know exactly where this is heading.

What we know is that Episode 7 is about the dark side of Babymetal. The light side of Babymetal we have seen as the 3 girls while this "dark" side of the group is manifesting itself differently. The KC show and the video for Distortion hint that there is something seriously off with what is going on and what we are seeing, in actuality, is NOT Babymetal but rather an Evil babymetal fronted by the Alternate Su - the one Su fought onstage in Legend S during Akatsuki.

There are glaring ommisions from the KC show indicating this isn't the Babymetal we know staring with the opening voice over. Gone is the female voice telling us about Babymetal's triumphs around the universe and telling us that it is now time for the metal resistance. Instead we have a darker, evil sounding male voice which changes the tone immediately to a much more grim presentation.

Also there is the opening song. Instead of "Babymetal Death" you get "in the name of". This also indicates that this is not Babymetal as we know it and something much darker. Babymetal Death served as an introduction proclaiming "This is Su-Metal, This is Moa-Metal, This is Yui-Metal, This is Babymetal". The fact that this wasn't performed and at no point did they say during the show "we are.... Babymetal" is because they aren't. Instead the show starts with "In the name of" without any lyrics except for what sounds like the opening male voiceover chanting something indecipherable in the background. Additionally play close attention to the staffs with that circular portal on it and the costumes which also have the circular portal on it. Almost as if they worship this portal. Having the portal also emblazoned on a banner behind the stage adds to this sense of worship. This alternate version of babymetal is fixated on whatever this portal represents. Even the new costumes are darker and more aggressively designed.

The circular portal is seen in the video for Distortion. The Chosen 7, who appear to be the protagonists in the video after literally battling Rock in the video observe the arrival of the portal and end facing towards it as if to battle what will come out of it. Now if they are the protagonists, then this portal and anyone associated with it must be the antagonists. And if you consider the reveal of the girls during "in the name of" with all the imagery as being worship of this portal... Then this version of babymetal are the antagonists, literally their own worst enemy, and fronted by the Alternate Su.

Additionally, who? In the name of who? It's never said. And I'm sure there is a reason why it's not said and will be revealed in the lore via the graphic novel.

Even the Kamis, Gods themselves are corrupted. Gone are their white godly robes replaced with black.

The fact that they announced the Japan shows immediately after the KC show after proclaiming that we don't know when, where, or how the Chosen 7 will appear - as the protagonists to battle whatever this portal represents and this dark version of babymetal - means we actually do know. Doomsday. The final battle. The end of episode 7. The final Japan show. That show will involve this alternate babymetal, the battle between them and the chosen 7 and the return of the light version of babymetal and the return of Yui.

>>23051951
>>23052009
Well here's an idea with a "Day of the Rape", but really it's more on a Culture Shock and Integration to Society thing.

>Starts with the DL figuring out that there is another world in a different dimension
>She is the Chief God now, the world is hers and peace and love reign supreme at the very laws of nature themselves
>With great power she can gaze into existence itself and ponder, and in doing so found another existence
>What does she hear upon her existence emerging within this new cosmos
>The roar of fire, the flurry of cold wind, the smell of pungent sulfur, smoke ascending from metal cylinders
>Humans! Encapsulated in the metal cylinders, riding a fire into the sky at great speeds even the magics struggle to compete with
>Below a small crowd of humans looked onward, they were curious and awed, happy.
>There was a familiarity in their hearts, a solidarity, these humans in their metal cylinders were their fellow people
>What a curious display, she would love to see more of this world and all its wonder-
>Death. Explosion. The fire coming to consume the metal cylinder, she felt the icy nails slice into her heart as the humans inside, seven of them, were heard from nevermore
>Her gaze returns back to the humans below. Shock. Confusion. Sadness and shame.
>They called the metal box the 'Challenger', its engineering was flawed, and they would investigate what had happened
>They mourned, they criticized each other, and then they looked up and said, "As they pass from us to glory, we will never forget them."
>So the Demon Lord went over the Earth, and found great strife and triumph, anger and togetherness, a world cold like her own was before she would change it.
>And so a little time passed, and at the end of the year one faction of nations began to train. To practice a fake war to prepare for a real one.
>To her dread, she saw the other faction mistake this "Able Archer '83" as they called it for a real attack, they prepared weapons
>Big weapons, she felt their potential, she saw great cities fall to great heat and force, she'd never felt something like it aside from the gods
>Thousands of them
>They were ready to fire them
>The other side would retaliate with the same, the world would be consumed in fire
>She panicked, she had never felt so mortal before
>A man, a soldier, looks at some sort of mirror, it gives him false data
>She must appear, she must act, with her own power, she feeds it through the dimension
>Requiring great amounts of energy to transform it to this dimensions laws, it seeps to the mans mirror and shuts down its thunder
>The man becomes alarmed at the sudden darkness of his powerless mirror, a conviction reaches him
>He stands up and runs to a device, the DL believe Gremlins called it a 'phone', he turns a crank desperately and speaks into the phone in his language
>The information is passed to a place many miles away, a group of men with much power convene over a map, they are paranoid
>They order an attack with their bright sun-like weapons
>No. No they can't. Had the she caused this herself?
>She couldn't let this happen, she cannot, how many men would die?
>She fought a war to end this, she'd not see it happen ever again.
>So be it if she had to come to this world too, even if it mean't sacrificing great amounts of power
>Expend all the energy she had built up for countless millennia, she flooded this new dimension and ordered its physics to her command if only for a second
>Its all she could hope to do
>The firey metal darts careened into the sky
>The other faction, with their mirrors, seemed to have spotted these missiles, they panicked and fired their own
>But a moment, but an instant, the darts would land
>Nothing would happen
>Their arrow-heads never unleashed their power, for the Demon Lord had changed the very laws of physics themselves

>It was an interesting couple of hours as the US Armed Forces and BCCCP both gazed incredulously at their monitors, impact had occurred, yet everything was intact
>Could it even be possible that all warheads had failed to detonate? On both sides?
>Clearly something must have happened, because reports of nuclear power plants across each of the countries have announced they all have had a complete shut down and loss of reaction
>An utterly flabbergasted Colonel raises his arms as he gazes at the Master Monitor under Cheyenne Mountain. "What the fuck just happened?"

>The Demon Lord had done it, utilized all her energy to bind their dimensions together, only to save them
>Her husband would lecture her on this, but the deed was done
>She knew they would try to follow up with other means of war, she'd need to figure out something
>She realized that this dimensions properties worked different than her own
>Magic, and the Energies, are much weaker in this world, and because of these physical elements restricted, Mamono would be weaker as well

>>21786081
I just remembered, PosChengband actually has that. There's dozens of races in that game, but also a specific category for monster races. Monster PCs in that game can evolve after hitting certain levels. Slimes become gelatinous cubes and then weirder creatures. Dragons get bigger and go into an elemental/metal evolution route. Death-swords absorb weapons to become stronger, Rings wait until they are worn by an NPC and then hitchhike until the NPC dies and the monster loots and wears them (domination and absorbing jewelry gives power, wearers can also realize you're controlling them and get rid of you), possessors take over corpses (try killing a unique and then becoming him), demons grow from little shits into multi-armed hindu gods, hydras grow more heads etc.

I wouldn't recommend if you can't stand ASCII, and arguably PCB is even more of a grindfest than Elona since you don't have all the life-simulation aspects even though it's still open world, just explore buy/sell and murder

>>21499035
Lame horse for the image of one literally kicking gods skulls in. Wandering Penguin for browbeat. Projet because it is a tiny little metal doll. 8 handed martial arts spider

>"A craftsman knows what he makes will only be as good as the ingredients that go into it. A bridge can be meretriciously planned out and be built by the best engineers, but will fall apart if the wood is weak. A sword made from inferior metal likewise will not be of use to even a master swordsman. The same can be said of humanity. Either by design or from chance, all man are born in this world flawed, slaves to their nature. All of mankind's ills can be blamed on this , as dreams fail to materialize due to limitations of man and the darker side of man's nature cause them to turn on each other. Even the greatest of alchemists failed in their goals to purify human nature, and it seemed nothing could change the nature of a man. That was until the new Demon Lord came to the throne.

>"Monsters, who seemed to be as much slaves to nature as mankind changed overnight. Where there were once snarling beasts that existed to tear humans apart became something more in some cases changing entirely. Species once nothing but mere animals became capable of speech and learning, towns and cities sprung up when monsters were no longer content living in the wild, once slaughterers of mankind lived and worked together. Many races living together for the pursuit of one goal. It was amazing, and many would have said it was impossible.

So I ask this? What if mankind could gain this power? Rather then have the ability to grow in power if they pleased a god, what if they could rewrite all of humanity down to the core, throwing off our faults and realizing complete control over our fate? If this power can only be gained through allying with the monsters, then it must be done. Some more short-sighted humans are fine with a select few becoming like gods, but I will bring the divinity denied to us for so long to everyone"
-An excerpt from a paper written by an unknown incubus mage.

>>21146916
Imagine, MGE but it's written by Steve Irwin

>"Crikey, look at the size of this beaut, she's positively massive!"

Paladin Irwin was a legendary man, wrestling gator-girls and protecting the public from ravenous monsters.
He trained Order recruits into elite beast-tamers feared across the realms and became adored by both sides of the conflict.
The Demon Lord's daughters sent many (corruption)assassins to take him down, time and again they would fail until one fated day...

Paladin Steve Irwin died from a Stingray Sting. Not a Stingray girl but a literal stingray fish when he was taking a swim in the ocean.

>Long Live Saint Irwin the Brave

>Be a Captain of a small Order men-at-arms conroi
>Grave news sent shockwaves across the realms
>Paladin Irwin is dead, struck by a Devilfish that pierced his heart while swimming
>And to your bewilderment, you've been tasked with a most noble and important act straight from the Pope's High Council
>Recover Irwin's body so that he could be buried at his home
>You and your small wagon detachment retrieve him from the local militia who found his body, dressed him in blessed wrappings and put him in a wooden coffin made by the local carpenter
>You inspect the body yourself before they hammer the lid on
>Arms crossed and eyes and mouth closed, it was hard to imagine such a man like him put to this
>Paladin Steven Irwin, the Mangler of Monsters, the Crocodile Hunter,
>Some have claimed his deeds were nothing but exaggerated Order propaganda
>Those that know him, both men and monster, claim that if anything, they have been watered down
>The Swordless Knight, the Uncontested Wrestler, a fool would challenge him unarmed
>Yet his fate crosses with a lone Devilfish, what irony the gods play
>You set off with your men after securing the coffin to the wagon

>For days you travel across unknown territory, neither the Order or Demon
>Your men are wary of any trouble along the way, they opt to send large screens of outriders to warn of whats up ahead
>In rides the last sentry, frantically waving you down
>"The Demon Lord's Regulars coming this way! They carry their colors! By the Gods there must have been at least hundreds!"
>Dread reaches your men, you were barely a dozen strong, driving a wagon they were charged to protect
>There was nowhere to turn, certainly not back were the monster army marches foward
>This might be it, at least you could say your last act was something most honorable
>"We drive on! Onward!" You order, much to the confusion of your men. "Follow me."

>The army was massive compared to your lot, a dozen banners fluttered ahead of you sporting many a company
>You press on regardless, even as their sentries fall back upon seeing your men's armor
>Outward comes a small group of figures on horse, emerging from the mass of troops they move towards you and your wagon
>You command your men to halt as they approach, they do so
>Before you is a Salamander, broad shouldered, armor of intricate metal and eyes of gold, her retinue flanks her sides
>She eyes you, steadily looking to your wagon and to your men, one of her staff speaks
>"You are before Marshal Adelgunde, commander of these Sisters of War, you will be given this chance to lay down your arms, Man-Knight, and s-"
>The Marshal raises a clawed hand, peering slightly to her aide, she turns to look back at you
>You state your name, "I am not a knight, I carry no titles except as a soldier of The Holy Order. We've come for no war."
>There is a heavy pause, the Marshal points to your wagon. "Is that him?"
>You nod. She returns her hand again, closing her eyes and taking a slow breath.
>"I have orders to capture Paladin Irwin's body and give it to our magic-folk. But I will not, not one of my girls will touch you, your men, or his body."
>Some of her retinue blink and turn to her with faces incredulous
>"Ares is blind to race and creed, for bringer of war only knows warriors. He deserves a proper burial and not whatever abomination others have planned."
>She turns to her advisers, adequately raising her voice so they all could hear, "They pass safely! Spread the order!"
>She turns back to you once more as part of her group rides off, "Be warned, soldier. Others of my color may not see it the same." With that, she turns and rides back with her retinue