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Friday Fan-Work: The Mystery of Optimo

Happy Friday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Today’s story is another return to World of Warcraft as a mini xenologue during an event being part of a roleplaying event. To fill you in, it was the last part of a campaign called “The Raven’s War” in which players worked together in helping securing an artifact. In the RP, I had a robotic critter named Optimo help out with securing the artifact. Sadly, the result led to Optimo pulling a FLUDD…

But for this story, it gives a brief discussion about saving a friend and discovering a secret of Optimo.

With that, sit back, relax and enjoy this story.

The Mystery of Optimo (Alternate title: Saving a Friend)

Written by TheChoujinVirus

The night the artifact was secured….

Chala Nightshadow returned back to her workshop home in Boralus. Not stopping or anything as she placed her badly damaged companion onto a table. Not caring about space but more worried about the extensive damage he went through. Jeeves and Reaves, who heard the commotion checked on the whole ordeal. The small Legion machine had a hint of surprise on his face (as best as a machine could) as he noticed Optimo’s damaged body.

“By Sargeras’ Breath, what happened to him?!” Reaves asked
Chala paid no attention as she replied, “Welding Torch.”

“What?” Reaves asked

“I said welding torch! NOW!” the night elf yelled
 Jeeves hands Chala a Welding Torch. He watches Chala open a part of Optimo’s damaged chassis and noticed some significant damage. Most of it was fried wires and components.

“Query: is Optimo alright?” Jeeves asked

“The power core is intact..but the wiring’s fried. I’m worried about his personality core,” Chala said. She then extends her hand, asking her machines, “Saw.”

“Saw?” Reaves looked quizzically
“your arm!” Chala said, grabbing his arm and making him convert it into a saw. Jeeves stood by and watched as Chala began to open the back part of Optimo’s robotic head. Once the casing was removed, she saw what she was hoping to find: Optimo’s personality core. The good news was that the core is intact and undamaged. The bad news is the power in Optimo’s body triggered the auxiliary system for his memory, which usually has a maximum of half an hour of emergency power. What made it worse is that whoever created Optimo’s personality core needed a lot of energy to function, which meant putting in her Portable Pocket Computer wouldn’t work like with Reaves.
“damnit…seems a bit too complex to pull the primary. We need a plan B and fast.” She looked at Jeeves before asking him,  “Can you open your chest plate, Jeeves? I need access to your power core.”

“Query: Are you planning on using me for Optimo’s new body?” He asked
“No, Jeeves, I think I got an alternative that can work,” Chala said

“and what is that?” Reaves asked

Chala looked at Reaves, “The Kiryu Version 3,” The Night elf returns to Optimo, then turning back to Jeeves. “Chestplate!”

“Apology: Sorry, Mistress Nightshadow,” Jeeves said as he opened his chest. Exposing his power supply and a pair of jumper cables underneath. Chala quietly thanked the mechagnome as she took the two cables. Gently hooking the wires into Optimo’s Personality Core, so that Jeeves would serve as the backup power supply. The process took a few hours into the night as Chala, Reaves, and Jeeves did everything to their power as they worked quickly. Hours pass as the trio finish with hooking up Optimo’s brain into the Steamscale Incinerator, which will serve as Optimo’s new body. Chala then pulled out her Dalaran Hearthstone as she told the two, “I need to head back to Dalaran to check up on the artifact. Keep an eye on Optimo and see if he reacts.”

“Acknowledged Command: Sure thing, Madame Nightshadow,” Jeeves said with a nod.
“I’ll do the same as well,” Reaves replied.
Chala gave the two a nod as she used her Hearthstone to return back to Dalaran. When Chala left, Jeeves turned toward Reaves as he looked at the Fel Machine.

“Confused Query: Did you just want to help keep an eye on Optimo?” Jeeves asked

“What? I actually like Optimo.” Reaves said to Jeeves, “He’s a bit of an odd thing. A robot that thinks he’s alive? What kind of machine wants to be that?”

“Statement: Optimo’s personality matrix is strange, even stranger than ours.” The Mechagnome looks at the robot dragon. Though power was going into its brain, the machine didn’t move or anything.
“Regretful Probability: Though there may be a chance that the damage Optimo went through may have done some severe damage to his Personality Core.”

The Fel Machine looked at Jeeves, “That’s a load of Fel sludge! Optimo can’t cease function. I’ve seen him take damage..and I was able to survive.”
“Statement: True, you survived your core overloading and exploding, your system wasn’t too hard to fix. Optimo is not some machine made by the Gnomes. Something feels strange about him..”
The two watched while conversing on the question: Who made Optimo and why did he behave like that.

This continued until Chala returned and began to keep watch on Optimo. By morning, she leaned back first into a barrel, watching the unmoving machine after everything was operational. She dozed a bit, closing her eyes to sleep for a few moments. Unaware that the unmoving machine began to twitch its tail. Reaves and Jeeves were ready to prepare for today’s work, looking that the non-moving dragon. The two machines looked at each other until Reaves saw the tail move.
“Hey, it moved!” Reaves shouted.

“Shocking Query: It moved? Does that mean..?”

The machine turned its head before staring at the two machines, speaking in the same tone as their friend.

“Hello”

The two panicked, running around like scared chickens that would attract the attention of some of the dockworkers from below as they would stop to look up at what was going on. Though the noise was enough to get Chala up and stammering back awake. She toppled over, yelping out loud, “No, I got those parts legally!” she turned at the two panicked robots.

“What in Elune got into you two?!” As she wondered what the ruckus was, Chala said, “I keep telling you the rats won’t bother you if you don’t corner them.”

“Rebuttal: Mistress Chala, it wasn’t a rat. Optimo made some sound”, Jeeves said.

“Wait? He responded?!” Chala looked surprised as she got to her feet and ran toward the mechanical dragon. Reaves watched and muttered to himself, “It’s not my fault those rodents are annoying and want to chew on me…”

She checked on the unmoving object as she then taps it gently, “Optimo? Are you alright?”

The night elf paused for a few moments as she heard the familiar voice of Optimo.
“I am okay, Chala.” He said as he tilted his head, “What happened to my body? I feel…huge..”

Chala gently gives Optimo a pat, “I had to move your brain into this machine to preserve your Personality Core.”

The now sentient mechanical dragon began to, only to fumble and wobble a bit like a newborn kitten trying to walk for the first time.
“whoa, careful Optimo,” Chala said

“This body feels too big..” Optimo said as he inspected his body, “Too many moving parts…”
“I’m sorry, Optimo,” Chala apologized to her mechanical friend, “I had to save your personality core, or else you would have ceased to be. But the good news is that now I can work on your body.”

Optimo staggered, limbs and legs splayed like a deer on ice, “that’s good..so how long will it take for my body to be fully repaired?”

“Depends on the whole thing, Optimo. You best get yourself rested and maybe readjusted to your new body.” Chala said, reassuring her companion with a gentle head pat before heading back into her workshop inside. To be honest, she had no clue on how to repair Optimo’s body. For starters, whoever made Optimo’s frame seemed to make it of specific components and replace the fried circuitry just trying to get the artifact? It took her a while just to fit the Titan core inside. She would be there all night or all month if she has to get Optimo’s body repaired.

As she began to work on Optimo’s damaged body, she noticed a black box inside. Something she glanced over when she was repairing Optimo all these times. Her curiosity beckoned her to pull out the black box and inspect it. She’s never seen a black box being put inside of a Mechanostrider. Still, she had to remind herself that Optimo is no ordinary Mechanostrider. The night elf inspected the box and realized that it could be opened, so it wasn’t just the machine’s recording box. Inside the box contained a well-preserved film reel with the words “Project: Optimo” written on the film case.

“ ‘Project Optimo’?” Chala said to herself, “Who or what made you?”
 She looked outside to see her mechanical companions helping Optimo. He began to extend and inspect his robotic wings.

Chala thought on the reel.

“This is something big, real big.” Chala said to herself, “Very well, I guess we got a mystery on who Optimo is..and who made them..”

mystery-of-optimoDownload

Tuesday Mumbles: Gatekeeping in fandoms (Late)

Note: This is based on my opinion, so do not take it too personal if it rubs you the wrong way.

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here!

Everybody is or has been a part of fandom. From Star Wars to Star Trek and so forth and so on. People have been enjoying the communities created. Though what I’ve experienced and heard of are some people who think of themselves as the bastion of fandom purity and protection. These folks are known as “gatekeepers”.
What’s a gatekeeper or gate-keeping you ask? Gate-keeping, as oxford defines it, is the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something. In the case of fandom, it usually involves controlling who is considered a true fan or not. Ranging from things like what things they watch or knowledge of their series. It’s an annoying thing that makes people not bastions but more come off as just outright jerks.

One example of gate-keeping i’ve seen is the old “you’re not playing this right” or “True players do this” form of gate-keeping. They’re the kind of person who will claim some really dumb stuff like “You’re not playing Pokemon right if you’re not breeding them” or “Fire Emblem players don’t play with Casual Mode on”. It’s a common form of gate-keeping that gets me annoyed over certain things. So what if someone wants to play Fire Emblem on an easier difficulty or whether or not a person doesn’t competitively breed or uses cheating devices for non-tournament play by berating them for not playing the way they view as “the true way of playing.” If one plays that way, that’s them. There’s no need to berate a player for playing how they want to be. Though I’ve seen other forms where one berates others because they play mobile games and not PC or console games, or my personal annoyance the whole “X is better” gatekeepers. There’s billions of gatekeepers that I could talk about but we’d be here till next week. All I have to say so far is that the first gatekeepers are the kind who dictate what is considered “fun” or “normal”. However, there are other gatekeepers too.


A more newer one I’ve encountered (and experienced) are the old “you’re the problem” gate-keeping. I’ve seen this from reactions due to certain issues with some media. One such example is Star Wars. I’m a fan of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, but some people seem to get upset about this by arguing about how those who like those series and the direction the franchise is going as “part of the problem.” that somehow they view those who like this changing direction or something the gatekeeper hates as the fault of people being complacent to them. Is it? In ya boy’s opinion, no no..nobody’s at fault for these changes. Other types that annoy me are the ones that think that if you don’t know the lore of a franchise, you can’t be a true fan.
So does that mean if I can’t know the stats of a Mobile Suit from Gundam means I’m not a true fan of Gundam? Does not knowing about a Stand’s power level mean that I’m not Jojo fan? I’d say no. Just because one is a loremaster of a fandom doesn’t mean that they are the bastion on who is considered a true fan or not.

The only good news with gatekeepers is that they seem to be very small. Very small, but very loud to boot. So the odds of running into gatekeepers can be non-existent for some people and luckily some of the communities themselves do not want these people to gatekeep future fans. Gatekeeping is viewed as some to keep things pure, but the result leads to simply making the fanbase of certain things become a bit stagnant and their people viewed as elitists. However, that’s my opinion and nothing much.

Saturday(Friday) Fan Work: Scavengers

Happy Saturday evening, It’s ya boy, Choujin here!

Sometimes when one writes something, it takes a muse to find out in this. While writing the next chapter for Slayers, I found myself distracted by No Man’s Sky, a game I’ve discovered. While doing two Derelict runs, I found my muse on a short story I managed to write since yesterday.

So sit back, grab a cold one, and enjoy this little short story I wrote.

Scavengers

Written by TheChoujinVirus

In the depths of the inky blackness of space, there are treasure troves of rare minerals. One such coveted trove is derelicts, abandoned hulks of former ships. Groups of scavengers explore these derelicts to find lost technology, abandoned treasure, and even rare Xeno technology….

 Three human men got news of a large Relian War Frigate found in the Tobali System that was orbiting a barren planet. Their ship, a small frigate long and lined with cargo blocks, begins to head close toward this large rusted red and sandy green colored ship. Inside the ship’s airlock, all three humans got themselves suited up into heavily bulky spacesuits designed for moving large cargo. Though two of their suits were intended to accompany a human, the third one’s suit had an altered helmet designed to fit something non-humanoid.

“So..how’s the suit fitting, Monty?” One human asked the odd suited human.

“It’s not bad…the helmet actually fits my muzzle. Though isn’t this more designed for canine augments?” The oddly suited human stated.

“Montgomery, you’re a mole augment. A helmet for a llama would fit you-“ The other guy was interrupted by their group leader, “Monty! Chen! Quit your clucking and get your suits sealed up, we’re heading out.”
“yes, boss,” The two said as they finished suiting up and checked their life support functions. The ship docked with the derelict. The Umbilical docking cable connecting the two ships together. Once tethered, the trio headed toward the derelict’s airlock, ready to find out.

“You think we’ll find some weird eggs like in those old 20th-century movies?” Chen asked
“It’s a derelict job, Chen.” Boss said, “We’re going in to see what we can find and hopefully make some cash off this.”
 Monty headed toward the terminal as he started to slice into it. Relian terminals were challenging to master due to the Relian alphabet and language, making it hard to guess what was enter and what was backspace. However, scavengers like Monty have to know how to crack languages. The terminal screen turned green as the airlocked creaked, slowly opening. Their ship’s system closed the airlock, it’s typical of all standard routines.
 “Alright, search the ship, and if you find anything of value, tag ’em,” Boss said. The others nodded as they entered the derelict hulk. The ship’s life support system was fried as some debris like broken metal and glass float about in the darkroom. Monty was quietly nervous as he began to shine his light all around the interior.

“Hey, Boss, I’m a bit curious..what are Relians?” Monty asked

“Relians are big saurian that have this ‘survival of the fittest’ warrior’s code. In short, they’re warmongers that think they’re the big predator in the galaxy. I also heard they had some conflict with the Traggians decades ago…” Boss said

Chen began to check the interior and then the radar on his helmet’s head-up display as he began to scan the ship. He began to narrow down any odd metals. The hud then points him toward a room not too far.
“Hey, boss! The computer’s picking up some metals over in that direction,” Chen said

“Where on the derelict?” Boss asked


“13 feet north and 2 floors below,” Chen explained, “I’ll lead the way.”
“Do that, Chen,” Boss said. He turned toward the Mole Augment, “Hey, Monty? Are there any signals in the area?”
“Nothing biological on the radar, so no worries about picking up anything silicate,” Monty said. He then noticed his hud briefly going crazy for a few moments as it seemed to pick up something 7 floors below them. “Wait..I’m picking up something seven floors below us?”

Boss and Chen check their helmet’s HUD for this anomaly but found nothing out of the ordinary. “It’s probably nothing Monty..c’mon, we’ll head toward the confirmed signature.”
“yes sir..,” Monty said, still looking at why his hud was picking up the anomaly while the others didn’t. The trio slowly waked through the low gravity environment as they reached the first room. Chen sliced the door’s terminal, and their first score was a Relian armory. Chen jumped in shock at the sight.
“oh my god!” he said, “They have slug throwers.”

Boss walked up toward one of these slug throwers. It looked like a very bulky pump actioned rifle. They remained in good condition, save for maybe the dust and probable scoring from not being used for years. Their energy supply was drained once Boss did a closer inspection.
“Energy-based too…never knew those Saurians were that nostalgic,” Boss said in awe. “Monty, use the scanner and get them tagged. The scavenging probes will bring them back to the ship.”
 The mole nods as he remotely activates the probes to come down and pick up the cargo once they cleared the armory. Once they were out, they saw the mono-eyed probes flying into the armory. Their flat, silvery cockroach-like bodies hovered about the room as they grabbed rifles, ammo, and anything. Then when they gathered as much as they could carry, they would leave the room and follow the path back to the scavenger’s ship before departing to pick up more weapons.

The group headed a few rooms out until they reached what was once the mess hall. The place had seen better days as disheveled expired food rations float about, trays and chairs were knocked over and damaged areas with exposed wiring and metal peered about. It looked like this place was hit the hardest. Boss looked around until he found a terminal. It looked similar to the airlock terminal they found outside. The layout of the keyboard and monitor made it more something designed for checking status than opening airlocks.
“Hmm…Chen, can you come over here for a moment?” Boss asked
Chen replied with a “sure,” before heading over toward Boss and the terminal. The two began to discuss slicing the terminal to access the map and possibly access the crew manifests to see what this derelict was carrying. While this was going on, Monty’s HUD still kept pinging that strange anomaly as though it was beckoning him to find it. It didn’t move, nor did it register as organic. Still, it was emanating a radiation bandwidth that was signaling what it was.

“guys..my HUD’s picking up that anomaly again,” He said

Boss looked at the mole, annoyed with him, “Monty, can’t you see that Chen and I are trying to slice this terminal? I have no interest in your bloody search for a fluke anomaly!” Boss turned his attention back to Chen, the two of them more occupied with the terminal than with Monty. The mole augment decided now is a time to discover what this anomaly was, leaving the two with their terminal.  Monty followed the trail through the derelict’s cold hallways, his light being the only solace as his radio was silent from the two. The mole augment passed by several rooms that were either in good condition but abandoned or damaged and exposed to space’s emptiness. Whatever happened to this Relian ship seemed to have been damaged in battle or by something else. All it added up to Monty’s mind was more questions than answers. Still, all he was focused on was that mysterious anomaly. He was already two floors above the anomaly when he found the hallway blocked off by collapsed debris. Finding out the only pathway toward the last two levels blocked off, the mole augment felt beaten.
“Hey, Monty?!” The radio from his helmet blared loudly, startling the mole augment into bumping his butt onto the floor, weakening something below him.

“Yeah..I’m here,” Monty replied on the radio.

The mole realized that it was Boss, who then started to rip into the augment.
“Monty, where the hell is you?! I turn my back for one moment, and you go running off to chase some phantom signature! Chen’s got the crew manifests checked, and most of it is foodstuff and building supplies. Whatever this Relian ship was, it was probably a cargo or colony ship. Meet us back at the airlock..I’ll talk with you about wandering off.”


“yes, sir..” The mole said, feeling like a defeated child who lost an augment with their parent. He was going to call it and leave when the floor below him gave away, sending him falling two stories down into a part of the derelict the radar was pointing toward.

Great…now I have to call boss for a rescue..he’s not going to let me forget this…”This is what you get for leaving”, Monty thought to himself, imitating Boss’s voice as he imagined the reprimand he was gonna get. Though he didn’t notice that he was at the floor, the anomalous reading was at, and when he turned around, he that the other half of the room was filled with glowing purple oval rocks. He remained stunned until the radio blared up again, this time from Chen.

“Monty, what’s taking you so long to get here?!” He asked
“the floor gave, and I’m seven floors below you guys,” Monty said, “when you get here, you’re not going to believe what I found.”

Boss yelled on the radar, “Is your suit damaged?!”
“No, sir, the suit’s okay,” Monty said reassuringly.
“Good, if that suit’s damaged, I’m docking your fee.”, Boss said.

It would take a good fifteen to twenty minutes for the guys to get here, but all he could do was stare at those rocks he found…whatever they were it was something big…

************************************************Once Monty was rescued, and the last of those rocks found, the crew returned to their ship to check the bounty and appraise it. They still remained in their spacesuits, only now with their helmets removed. Boss nodded at the salvaged Relian weapons, as they’d fetch a moderate price. Not much but enough to ensure the crew’s ship had enough fuel for the next operation.

Monty looked at the rocks with curiosity as Chen let the computer, Boss looked over at the dusty grey-furred mole before looking at Chen. When Chen finished the appraisal, his eyes looked shocked at the rocks then back at the two.

“What is it?!” Boss asked Chen.

“Sir, this shit’s Dragonite!” Chen said in a mix of surprise and willingness to cheer, “This shit’s Dragonite!”

Boss nearly coughed in surprise, “Say what?! Dragonite?!”

“yes! Those Relians must have had a cargo of this stuff aboard the ship. The Manifest gave no knowledge about it!”

Boss chuckles as he ponders the situation, “I guess those saurian must have had some precious cargo after all.” He then looked toward Monty, laughing happily. He tells the augment, “not bad..your little anomalous reading gave us a major haul.”
“Yeah, not bad for wandering off,” Chen said.

The mole said nothing, but he couldn’t help smiling with pride.

ScavengersDownload

Thursday Media Review: Medabots (GBA)

Review written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: I had to play the game via an emulator. I don’t endorse piracy, so support the creators and buy the original game. The game also contains spoilers to the game.

I recalled a while ago. As I did a review of the Monster Rancher anime, I discussed how with Pokemon, you had other monster collecting games. I also forgot about a game that themed about battling robots. For those wondering what I’m talking about, I’m talking about Medabots (or Medarots for those in Japan)

Medabots was a franchise that started on November 17th, 1997 (a year after the release of the Pokemon Franchise) and developed by Natsume (Creators of the Harvest Moon series). Sadly most of the games in the series were never released (save for games like Medabots AX, Medabots Infinity) and source material like the anime. However, there was one game that was released in the US. The game was titled Medabots (known in Japan as Medarots 2 CORE. Reason for this is the game is a GBA remake of the Japanese exclusive for the Game Boy Color Medarots 2 made in 1999). Also, the Medabot games do share the same path as Pokemon: Both have separate versions (Kabuto/Metabee and Kuwagata/Rokusho). For the sake of this review, I’ll be playing the Metabee version. So with that..in the great words of Mr. Referee

MEDABOTS! ROBATTLE!

Story+Gameplay

In Medabots, you play as the main protagonist (Ikki is the default name, yup the same one from the anime for those who don’t know) as you’re visiting the Medabot Corporation for another tour. The player character is hinted to be obsessed with Medabots and dreams of a day of owning one. One day, his mother tells him to go down to the Convenience store to pick up some dinner. He is suddenly and forcefully sold a Medabot by the store clerk (due to his bumbling of buying this medabot.) You get a Medabot (and a scolding from your mom due to this jerk of a store clerk). Though your dad helps you out as he gives you a medal given to him by the mysterious Phantom Renegade. With that, Ikki and his Medabot (Metabee/Rokusho) begin their journey as they battle other medafighters, rogue medabots, and of course, defeating the dreaded Rubberobo gang and their leader Dr. Meda-Evil.

 Though I could explain the story further, we need to get to the core aspect of what the gameplay is—some games like Pokemon, where you take turns and attack. Medabots has an exciting aspect of your companion and combat. First off, unlike Pokemon, where you capture the critter, in Medabots, you build your companion with three components: Tinpet, Medaparts, and Medal.
The Tinpet serves as your medabot’s skeleton (and determines your Medabot’s Sex). Medaparts give your Medabot the skills needed to either fight, inflict status conditions, and sometimes heal yourself and your partner medabots. The Medal is your Medabot’s brain, which provides better compatibility with certain medaparts. One example is the Kabuto medal of Metabee specializes in shooting, so using medaparts that use bullets and missiles with the Kabuto medal is much better. Otherwise, some medaparts would have a low success rate (e.g., Using a Monkey medal but using shooting medaparts). For the rules of combat, it’s pretty simple: The first Medabot to defeat the other (or the leading medabot) wins. Though unlike Pokemon, where you win money, the loser must submit one medapart to the winner. This is how you make your medabot stronger. This can also affect you, as you have to give up one medapart to the winner. If you don’t have enough medaparts to make at least one medabot, then it’s game over for you.

Now, the first thing you’re going to ask is, “but what about the battles? How do you fight?”
Battles are a bit interesting as battles aren’t really turn-based but more like a game of dodgeball. At your Medabot’s starting area, you make them choose what to do, such as attacking which part, charging up the medaforce bar, using support moves, or just letting the fight go into auto. The Medabots will run toward the middle of the arena to attack the other one. Their speed is determined by the robot’s leg medaparts and weapon charge (how fast your medabot gets to the center). Once at the center, the medabot will either hit the target directly (if it’s a ranged attack) or if its melee will target the closet enemy (some attacks like Destroy parts will hit only medabots with their back turned). When the attack is launched, it’ll hit a specific part of the opposing medabot. Now, when the medabot is hit, it strikes a part of the Medabot, which depletes the Armor (the Medapart’s HP). When it hit 0, the part ceases function by exploding and exposing the tinpet underneath. That part cannot be used unless revived via healing medaparts. When the limbs are destroyed, the medabot’s offense is limited. If the legs are destroyed, then the Medabot’s speed and terrain advantage. However, if the head medapart is destroyed, the entire medabot is defeated (regardless of the other medaparts). So you should be trying to go for the head whenever you get the chance.

The Winner is Metabee! What makes the game shine?

The core thing I loved is the design and the concept of the medabots themselves. Each one has a specialty and theme. Like for example, Churlybear is a teddy bear themed Medabot that uses gravity for its weapon or Floro, which is a flower Medabot that shoots lasers quickly. Also, you can mix and match parts to make your own robot with the parts acquired. You want your Brass to have Mermaid legs? Go for it! You want your Totalizer to have tank treads? Why not?! Want to basically make your Medabot a mix of various parts? Sure, go right ahead! Another factor is that Medabots incorporates themes from the anime of the same name, such as the names and some of the medabots (Though not all of them make it in the GBA game.) Lastly, the combat of the game is a change of pace that doesn’t feel like it copies pokemon. Having a form of strategy by building your medabot with the parts acquired while trying to aim at specific parts while hoping the enemy doesn’t nail yours. So you could go with building a bot that looks badass or a bot that can fight and win more battles

Function Ceased! What it lacks?

One annoying factor I found as I played was that the medaparts, though good, have a bit of an annoyance once you get a female tinpet. Remember, as I said, the Tinpet determines the sex of your medabot. This becomes important as male medaparts are incompatible with female tinpets (and vice versa). Some medaparts don’t come off as masculine or feminine and have more of a unisex appeal (e.g., some multileg medaparts or vehicle legs). This creates frustration as you have to find female medaparts when that inevitable acquisition of your first female tinpet. The next basis I find annoying is the story between two versions and the differences. From what I found with this GameFAQ walkthrough (I had to use it to see variations as I had to use the review via Medabee) and found out the game is identical with only mild changes with what your starter Medabot, what medabots you fight and what medals you find. Other than that, the game suffers the problem Pokemon has (not much of any difference in the story save for the creatures found.) A pity as it would be nice to see a different story or protagonist rather than simply Ikki and his choice of Metabee/Rokusho fighting Koji’s Sumilidon/Warbandit. However, I feel that it’s just a nitpick over the basis.

Medabot Conclusion

Now, despite its flaws and such, the game does have some fun (I’m still playing it from time to time and wanting to see more of the story) I do find the battle fun and refreshing. For those wondering how you can buy the game? From what I found the Wii U has it on the Virtual Console, and the game is being re-released as part of the Medarots Classics Plus collection for the Switch (in Japan), but otherwise if you’re a fan of the anime or wanting something vastly different to try out, I would suggest you play the game and find out about it. It’s a fun game, and something you might enjoy if you want to play with robots (Unless you’re Elon Musk.)

References

Tuesday’s Mumbles: Anti-SJWs

Note: the following is based on my opinion, so do not take it personally if it strikes you close to home.

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy, Choujin here.

There’s a battle going on, tied to bits and bobs that some people criticized or feel is wrong. Some people who view themselves as fighting a war against Social Justice Warriors (or SJWs as people call them). I’m talking about Anti-SJWs, the reactionaries.
Now, i’m sure there are going to be some people out there that will take this with a grain of salt and think ya boy’s some SJW or someone who thinks scepticism is somehow bad. Never said that but, I’ll explain what I mean. Anti-SJWs are usually people who seem to freak out over the more petty things like anything that provides LGBT+, PoC, Women, Trans, ect. Can be in anything from movies, to just civil rights on some things.

A lot of those Anti SJW types usually seem to have some beef with certain things. One such example here by a youtuber was how some were upset over the design of a fictional character made for a children’s cartoon. It’s odd how so much energy is over a kid’s cartoon but instead they make this fear about children not having anything to aspire to? I mean, why do you ask that question? Also, really, really awkward when you as a grown man seem to be upset over how a fictional female character looks like for a children’s cartoon. Some even throw a fit over how a fictional couple behave when they’re not hererosexual. Such as some outrage here in which some people here are upset over a probable remake of The Little Mermaid in which Ariel is portrayed by an African-American.

Oh and don’t think it’s not something tied to just fiction and characters, let’s not forget about how some of them seem to attack certain actors and actresses such as Brie Larson (Many even admitting they can make money off of Youtube just for talking garbage about her.) just because she made a comment about wanting to see more different reviewers that weren’t the same type of people who may not have any interest in reviewing. Another issue is also some people hating people just because of the actors, like John Boyega (the actor of Finn) who had to endure harassment just because he played a stormtrooper. Really frustrating and really annoying, oh and let’s not forget when someone is framed due to their crimes (see my last article about my issue with the cult of personality.)


Those are just some parts of the major problem that come and go from these Anti-SJWs that plague everything, some even throw a fit over the notion of being called out. They’ll say that they’re “taken out of context” or that “it’s just a prank”. Though what really is ironic is that all of them from their own reactions have become the strawman they push onto people. Pretty funny if you ask me.


So what is ya boy’s suggestion? Well, with people like them, it’s a bit tricky. Calling them on their ironic behavior does work, but it mostly invokes their legions to attack you (again, see cult of personality.) Ignoring them usually just makes them feel they have some form of high ground.
It’s not an easy fight, but I usually just do both. Call them out on their behavior and move on from them, to hell with their legions.

But anyway, have any one of you ever dealt with anti-sjws or seen them in the wild? Comment below

Tuesday Mumbles: Hero Worship and the Cult of Personality

written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following article I have written is based on my opinion, so do not take it too personally if this hits close to home.

Heya, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

It’s a pretty big, but not so big surprising shocker that news of individual Smash Players and famous people having skeletons in their closets. Though our talk isn’t about those people, mostly a big problem: The people themselves. Now, I’m sure people ask ya boy this: ” ‘ey, what do you mean the people?”. Let’s explain a bit of something involving what I call Hero worship and the cult of personality. Mainly, some folks will worship certain people as though they’re infallible or that whenever something wrong happens to them, it’s somehow some big conspiracy to smear the person or something (Not saying that whatever is said is true), but instead, they treat any accusation or anything negative about something. Now before we get reading, just a reminder that this may feel like I’m nailing some people or presuming guilt, but it’s less on the focus and more on people’s reaction to this. Hence the cult of Popularity or Hero worship.

Commonly, some of it is born out of nostalgia or growing up. For example, some people grew up with George Lucas and remembered how he made the Star Wars Trilogy. Some people treat him like he’s infallible, ignoring the newer Sequel Trilogy as some people feel the original was better. Another example is none other than Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear series. A lot of gamers revere him as a great storyteller and game creator. Though when he released Death Standing, a game that turned out to be lackluster, people got hostile over critics for “not understanding the masterpiece” as though they assume people can’t understand his work. Those two examples I throw out are just one of many issues that can surface when people feel like they’re heroes are slighted or agitated by some kind of “shadow cabal.” It’s really frustrating and annoying to people outside of these as they see this level of hero worship to a near borderline cult. Nobody wants a fan cult!
Though the next group is something notorious within the anime fandom, a group devoted a voice actor calling themselves the Risembool Rangers. Now, having your favorite voice actor or actor, in general, is no crime, but this isn’t about fan groups. The Risembool Rangers have had a notorious issue of being a bit..zealous of Vic. Some stories involve how they view people criticizing Vic’s acting to one incident where some members threatened his ex-wife years ago. Then when news of sexual harassment allegations came out (keyword: allegations), the fan group went out of their way to attack and damage people solely on the grounds that they feel somehow that they must defend their god-like image of their hero. It’s pretty creepy. When things get so crazy that some will make death threats at random people on the internet because they didn’t like Metal Gear, thought their role in an anime was terrible or outright hate newer movies over the classics, it’s nuts.

Let’s move onto the 400lb Elephant (no pun intended) in the room: Politics and this whole political Cult of Personality. A lot of people have viewed this thing as something silly, though we got several examples of how it works: Ronald Regan, Barak Obama, and Donald Trump. Now, I’m sure it’s painfully apparent with the Trumpian cult, so you don’t need ya boy to explain that stuff (just watch the news or look the internet to better understand this cult), but on the other hand, there are the overwhelming issues that were brought up with Obama and the late Regan. Some Republicans (young and old) seem to look up and revere Regan as some kind of Christ-like figure that was revered for defeating the Communists. Though when you bring up the not so good parts of the history, such as Operation Condor, the Iran-Contra affair or things that Regan fucked up and you’ll see how they’ll blame certain people on focusing on that such as the “liberal media” or some other stuff for why it turned out that way. Hence cards like “Deep state” is continuously being played when their “god” is revealed to be a joke. But back on the subject of this, with Obama, people rode the card that he was some kind of angelic messiah meant to end the issue of Bush. When Obama’s became overambitious, and things went south? The people who backed him then began going into denial over the idea that what he was going was a pipe dream currently.
Hoo boy were people pissed when they realized that these things Obama promised didn’t happen, but you know..that’s the problem with the Cult of Personality and Hero worship. Some will elevate people to godhood and will become upset over it. These guys can get worse as unlike the last group, some of them will carry out threats, and some folks have gotten hurt or in physical fights over these. Some have even had private information made public (or attempted to be made public) just to put the fear into their critics.

Now, the next question is this: What should people do to prevent this situation where people elevate those into gods? Well, to be honest, ya boy feels that this is pretty tough in convincing people in not creating this. I do have some advice that could ensure you don’t get swept up into the movement and end up part of the legion. The first thing you need to know is that everyone is not a god or infallible—even the best and brightest who makes promises can screw up. People can be excellent speakers (or dumb people can be swayed easily). Just remember that vital part when you listen to people or look them up.
The next part is if you know people who are like this, kindly remind them about the first step. Don’t call them stupid or dumb or berate them. All that’ll do is just galvanize their support. Kindly bring up the flaws in this and leave it there.
This may feel like something stupid, but sometimes it’s the best one can do when dealing with the cult of personality.Other than that, ya boy’s real answer is to quote the computer from War Games when dealing with the cult of personality.

Anyway, have you run into any cult of personalities or hero worshipers that come off like any creepy vibe or annoyance? Comment below