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Hello, sorry for returning with another Old Recorder. Something that has been on YouTube for months but I decided to put on the Blog now. I called this track Red Sparrow Windtunnel, named after the Red Sparrow YouTube Channel, specifically I got inspired from its video of attempting to take a plane through nine tunnels on the whole map. I connected all tunnels into one massive circuit.
I tested it on a run to go through all of this and it took me at least 20 minutes in the fastest supercars. It’s so long that I split it into several sections (separated by the yellow lines except for the one near Del Perro Tunnel (that one is the Pitstop) There are 16 possible variants of this track not including the main one, and these are separated by Major Sections; Fort Zancudo, Blaine County (the one extending through Sandy Shores and Vinewood Hills), North LS from Mirror Park to Del Perro, Pillbox Hill, Little Seoul, and Mount Chiliad.
Dark Red line is the main layout, Yellow is the major sections of the track and the backbone of the best of the variants, and Beige is for minor variants and also original sections and connectors in unique variants. My personal favorite among the variants had to be the Blaine County and also the North Los Santos (which I dubbed the Black Eagles Track). Yes, all variants have Avian theme naming… and also flying creatures. The starting line is on the Runway of Fort Zancudo.
Note: Beware of the lag, not fast loading time, as well as the framedrops because this is an old recording and I cannot rerecord AND reupload the footage. Surprisingly, I only crashed at minor spots, though the Paleto Forest Section is pretty bad. Oh, and also the weird coloring here. That one is intentional though to give a spooky feeling because I recorded this during the Area 51 Raid.
“Did you ever want to go under the bridge in less than 20 minutes without any aircraft, allowed? Well, welcome to the Windtunnel. Named after the famous Aerobatic Crew in GTA, Red Sparrows, this track allows you to go speed through all tunnels with the speed and flow of a Windtunnel through the Downforce of your car. There is the Zancudo Tunnel, Gallieo Tunnel, the SA Avenue Underpass, the Integrity Tunnel, One of the Rockford Plaza Twnins, the Seoul Parkade Corridor, the Del Perro Tunnel, the Chiliad Wild Darkness, and the Braddock Tunnel. You can also enjoy the tour of the entire county save for the outskirts and Tongva Valley as well. This track also contains 16 variants, most notably Zancudo Besra GP, Raptor Morning Glory 24h, Black Eagles GP and its extension Gargoyle Strikeforce, and also Chiliad Locusts. There’s also several pitstops at Route 68, top of Del Perro Tunnel, and also on Sandy Shores.”
“From the Red Arrows, came the Red Sparrows, and from the latter’s actions, came the Windtunnel. Behold, a circuit that traverse all sides of the country, diving through all perils through tunnels. All of that are basked in the scenery of freedom like a true sparrow but with the speed of an arrow. Only the best that can endure such track, but you’ll know this will be an exhilarating journey. Well, it’s time to fly. Also available in 4 alternative major portions with 16 variants. Pitstops are at Route 66 Gas Station, Del Perro Toll Exit, and also Southwest of Sandy Shores.”
This very long track is started at the usual beginnings for a Red Sparrow Run, the Fort Zancudo’s Runway. The first corner might be blind, it is no problem if the Minimap covers it, the third corner, the State Star, however, is as blind but also narrowing, which makes it difficult. After that, there is the Coloniy Strip upon the exist of the barracks, followed by the West Security and the Zancudo Hairpin to enter the first Tunnel. The exit of the first Tunnel also lead to another difficult corner, Fast Serve Gasoline, in which you will hit a wall and screwed if you mess up. After that, we have the classic All-Massacre from North Loop, only much faster this time. It’s then followed by a hairpin version of Zero Tolerance to enter the Barranca. The next difficult corner is the Lone Tree Chicane from Dominant Preservexrance, only be in reverse and a lot faster. After the complicated Baytree Descent, it’s the Baytree Drop to enter Power Street. The next difficult corner is the Abandoned Globe between Meteor and Clinton followed by Slipper Water to enter Elgin.
The Black Eagles section begins with the Vintage Bridge Corner between Elgin and Birdge. It’s usually be done from Mirror Park, but in this reverse approach, it’s harder to do. After that, there’s Echoes between Bridge and West Mirror. And then there’s also Bufties as an exit of Mirror Park from West Mirror to SA Avenue. It’s then followed by a deceivingly fast Legion Complex followed by Lower Maze Bank from SA to Alta. The next difficult corner is Muffler between Power and Innocence. Mission Row Parkade between Adam’s Apple and Little Bighorn might be careful at as well. The next corner right after Integrity Tunnel to Alta is also be careful of. It then followed later by the classic Perseus Snap from Rockford Royals. The next part however, is the AKAN Trapezoid, an uphill before snappy corner followed by sharp 90s. The next corner is Lohan Temple from Decker to Ginger, with some repercussions from the instability from the descent through Decker Street. After that, the Ginger Roll to enter the Ginger Street Tunnel is also very sharp, followed by the narrow Caesar’s Parkade sectionwhich has few rooms of errors not to mention the snapping ending into Vespucci. It then followed by the very fast Del Perro Tunnel which ends at the classic Radius Bluff which is harder here since you enter from the inside instead of the outside. It then followed by the Bay City Apartment (BCA) Chicane to enter Cougar, then followed by Grain of Truth Chicane to Dorset through Morningwood, instead of going by the Tennis Court shown in the old version. The fast Dorset Drive Straight is followed by the West Portola Chicane at Mad Wayne Thunder followed by Croqa Hoop between South BDP and Rockford. Afterwards, the next difficult corner is Flecca between Hawick and Meteor, and then there’s also the LS Freeway Entrance corner that needs some careful to it.
Afterwards, there’s a Granite Chicane before the Grand Senora Exit, and this long stretch of backstraight ends on Merryweather Derailed before following some parts of Bianco Fuori until it enters North Calafia. NC has its own complications, but the ending, Hidden Cliff is so narrow and blind that it needs to be careful of. The first chicane after the Wilderness Tunnel is also difficult, but the Inner Sawmill that goes inside of the Sawmill is also hard. Forest Traverse that cuts between GOH and Procopio Promenade is also quite blind for the unclear shade of the brown on the track. It then followed by Omnipotent Tree from Procopio to enter Paleto Boulevard. Then there’s another very long Paleto Straight through Braddock Tunnel to East Joshua Road, but the next hard corner is Last of the Endurance, the same corner as the first one on Blues Saraceno. But then the Twin Haipins of Mountain View and Niland are also difficult to brake if not outright blind. The Yellow lane also takes you to the Tree Stump and South Panorama between Panorama Drive, though the latter is just one corner instead of a chicane like BS. It then followed by two chicanes at Train and Church with the Rusty Radiator in between to enter Route 66. But unlike Grand Lady Chaparral, both are in reverse and the latter has different approach. The next difficult corner is the Inner Security in Fort Zancudo, which is right after an uphill, very sharp with heavy braking, and also very narrow. After that, there’s the Guided Angle, and finally we have the penultimate corners of the track, Firetruck Zig-zags also seals the end of all difficult corners in Red Sparrow Windtunnel by the virtue of a blind corner.
Also, this track has a lot of Alternative Configurations, the most of all tracks.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Well… not exactly a good way to put my 300th track in order. Like, this week has been a complete mess; I’m both mentally and physically drained this morning. But well… the show must go on. At least I got my laptop back pretty quickly here with a brand-new keyboard. Even though I lost basically 300K/17 dollars for that.
Anyway, ironically though, the track for the day is one for the celebrations. Because French Davey is all about the Snowman. I don’t exactly remember why is it French specifically, probably as a parody to the GTA Online Character English Dave… but sorry, only one Dave is in our hearts, the FIB one 😉
Either way, as you can guess, this is a Buckacherz Landmark Track still, so… Here are the reference links that you need 😉 Oh, and Davey got picked as a name because that’s how Buckacherz names his #1 snowman around here.
Regardless, this track is going to be a really long one. Even though the rough shape should be simple enough, there are plenty of sections that you need to be careful of. More on that in the actual explanation down below later. Anyway, the pit lane is located at Bueno Vino, with a hill climb through the vineyard to start it off. As for the next track, we took a brief break from the Buckacherz galore with “El Dorado’s God” of the 9th Off-Roadtrip, followed by its return with the 24/7 of Inconvenience.
(So, um… name correction here actually. Turns out I named the track “French Davey” because of a stupid joke I came up with when Buck described the 25th place. The actual starting line is where Walter at 2nd Place is… because 1st is actually the Mansion Snowmen which are… a bit difficult to reach, so to speak.)
As for the vehicle itself, I bring in a Tampa, which is shockingly a vehicle I had NEVER used in these track showcases. Mostly because I forgot that I could even access it in the first place (unlike Slamvan), and I need the vehicle to be a part of a festive update here to fit the snowman theme. Also, the paint would be galaxy blue, akin to “DAVEY” Norton’s, with the license plate that also is his name. (If I did NOT have that, then I’ll grab a Rat Truck instead… you’ll know when you see the video 😦
““Davey! How ya doing?” “About as good as can be expected. But the news is not good.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I know you did that fucking snowman job.” “Davey, seriously, you’re imagining things.” “Fuck. You.” Pit Lane is at Bueno Vino Road.”
I couldn’t remember the name of each individual snowman from that Buckacherz video, so I’m sorry for not having unique corner names for this track instead of the usual one. But anyway, the track started with a chicane of “Fire-RON” at El Rancho, followed by the “Broken Mirror Drop” section around East Mirror. Then after the classic “Orange Car” section through Tangerine and Glory, we get on the “Place of Slalom” through Power and then both Alta and Laguna Places.
We had a dangerous section of “Michael’s Edwood” around Portola before dashing back through Eclipse. That includes the “Atomizer Hill” to Clinton before going around Marlowe. This was followed by a sharp righthander of “The Ranger’s Splinter” to Baytree. That got followed by a bunch of slaloming loops around the observatory flanked by two chicanes of “Palm Obelisks,” which led onto the “Dom’s Canine Angel” back to Marlowe.
Next is the classic uphill chicane of “Corksheldon” to North Sheldon before having the classic “Ace Jone Esses” as well as the “KortzBlock Trees” of a drop at the end. The next notable corner is the “Barrack’s Pole” at the top of the barranca after going around Tongva Hills. And after Galileo, we had the “Strawberry Chicken” dirt section, which led to you continuing to drop straight toward Harmony, which is greeted by “Buck’s Truckstop” left-side chicanes there.
After which, the next notable part is the “Smooth Rampcut,” by going through the dirt section to the airfield, deviating there after a chicane before taking on the ramp across to Sandy Shores, ending at Algonquin. That was followed by the “Parking Lagoon” triple chicane around Trevor’s house, before cutting under the billboard toward Seaview.
Next is the “Zondar Valley” section after briefly entering Main Street (which contains my mistake in turning out early instead of going across the field first) before it leads you into taking on the “Irrigation Ramp” that had a dangerous end back to Grapeseed. We had a classic “Lighthouse Loop” next, but after that, you had to deal with the horror that is the “Rocky Slipline,” which led you to the highway towards Paleto Bay, which has the interruption of the “Procopio Stoppage” double chicane there.
Next is the section of “Duluoz Tophat,” which goes around it, Procopio, and Paleto before taking a long way around the PD toward GOH. That includes a LEFT-HAND side on the “Hookies Chicane” before braking on the “Unrest Half-Moon,” because after you go around the complex, you start climbing uphill straight to Devin’s Mansion.
After you went past it, by the way, we had the classic “Banham Esses” back to GOH until you reached Del Perro and had the double chicane of “Shifting Drops” on Bay City until Conquistador. That was followed by the “Goma Triangle,” which includes a loop around the Aguja Fish Restaurant before going to Palomino.
Next on Little Seoul, we’re faced with the “Wiwang’s Beak” section, which is followed by a slalom through Decker, Vespucci, Lindsay, and finally Calais. That got followed by the “Vice of Mutiny” section that led you from Dutch London to Alta, then the trapezoid-shaped “B. John Doe,” which led to the backroad around the skate park before finally going around some karbs on the outside of Grove to Strawberry.
And then downtown, we’re faced with a chicane across Legion Square of “Clown Aliens” before facing the classically tight “East Pillbox Hospital,” driving on the wrong side of LS Freeway until you have the “Horse’s Elbow” on the Horse Track off-ramp. A “Dam Deviation” that led to the dirt path before leaving on the “Veered On” section back to the highway followed.
However, what follows is the “Dirty Drift,” a long cross to the other side of the highway before jumping onto the “Ending Betrayal” village after you come across the Barrier. That got followed by the “Trainyard” detour to Senora Way, as well as the “Diverged Diamond” slowdown onto the “Crescent Hill” lefthander to the wrong side of the rest area.
That got followed by the classic “NOOSE-S” curve, as well as the “Unbroken Fence” double chicane into the Murietta Junkyard. That is until finally, you had the “Omni-Massacro” split section that led you to El Rancho after two curves, with one that is much tighter than the other.
Okay, I had to admit that this blog’s title is a little redundant, but there’s not much I can do about it, okay? It wasn’t me who named this series, alright? Anyway, if you read the bottom of last week’s blog, you might see that I had my Twitter account back. Thank FUCK for that! Although, obviously, that whole experience traumatizes me enough to permanently move my playthrough tweet to BlueSky from now on, for good reason for sure!
Still, don’t worry, because aside from me being frustrated at my “L” key not working like sometimes, but not all the time to force me to repair it, which is extremely annoying to get me typing for obvious reasons, my schedules should be back to normal now. Like, the Track Blog should be back as normal too.
Although, some important things happen next week. You see, I have the SASUKE World Cup to watch awkwardly placed on Monday (instead of Tuesday or Sunday instead). If it were last week, I would have pushed back my Playthrough Tweet to go on from Tuesday to Thursday instead, but the issue is… the next season of Jet Lag, Japanorama, starts next week also.
Therefore, while I pray that my file sorting could be done on Sunday morning, the afternoon after that would consist of me starting my next DYOM episode early since it’s probably the simplest one to figure out. Besides, if the recording took too long, I could have used Monday morning to finish it while also writing some parts of the Playthrough Tweet’s upload partially as a buffer, considering that the show started at 5PM here, and it lasted all the way to my bedtime at 9PM.
Of course, getting my file sorting done quickly is very important too, considering that next week is another of those Independence Month Green Walks, which forced me out of doing it, so… Yeah, I’d rather not do three weeks’ worth of them, okay? And of course, this means that next week’s Euro Truck episode would come on Tuesday rather than the usual Monday here.
Oh, and I did the blog a little early today because I am completely free this Thursday got nothing better to do thanks to the PVZ Fusion Episode being wrapped up early. Gotta have something productive to do after all, especially if it lightens up the load that I would have tomorrow too. And with that out of the way, let’s get to it.
EDIT: Okay, I think this is obvious by this point, but my keyboard is broken and I had to replace it today because it’s SO DAMN INCONSISTENT on whether the goddamn “L” Key works or not. Sometimes it works normally, sometimes it won’t for hours. And me trying to use the On-Screen Keyboard is not only extremely annoying to do, but also shockingly laggy to my laptop.
So, especially considering that I would rather get this done before the next Jet Lag Season to watch next week, I think this is the best day for me to do it, before that happen. As such, depending on how long this would took, I might have to delay either the File Sorting or the Track Blog for the week… or possibly both.
EDIT2: Although, i admit that the reason the keyboard might take a while because i also asked the Repair Shop to fix this annoying random WORKER INVALID i’ve been having since getting that new Hard Drive in March. It wasn’t debilitating enough to force me to immediately go to the repair shop then, but now that i bring it there, i might as well ask them to take care of that too.
So yeah, I think things would go on like this. If I got the laptop back tonight, there would be Track Blog. If I got it on Saturday, then only the Track Blog would be skipped… If I got my laptop back any later than that though, well… The Track Blog, my File Sorting, AND also, the DYOM Episode for the week would be skipped. Because the store closed off on Sunday. So please keep that in mind if you see no blog tomorrow, okay?
A while back, I wrote a blog showcasing Ludwig’s Tip to Tip, and that whole thing made me realize that I should do the same with Downie’s Downie Express series as well, especially after Downie had become a Jet Lag guest back in Taiwan and a pretty good one at that. And considering that I had finished watching the third series of Downie Express. I think there’s enough material to go on about it for a blog.
Still, between the three, there are some major differences. The first and second ones focus on Europe, with Jeff as a guest and involving the condition that Downie and Jeff had to eat the country’s national dish before leaving for another one.
The third one, however, instead focuses on Southeast Asia; Seb is the guest instead (probably because Jeff had motion sickness issues with trains and the Southeast Asian ones are even rougher than the Eastern European ones). And, instead of the National Food Challenge, the main gimmick of this one seems to be the long, extended PELNI Ferry from Batam to Jakarta, courtesy of KM Kelud.
Anyway, here are the routes that each and every one of them took, and I give an italic marker for THE Actual National Food Challenge that they took here. I’ll also provide you with the links of each series here… Now I feel like I need to rewatch the first series too, I admit
Episode 1 (1820 Km, Train is 980 Km, $59): Xaysetha (Vientianne)-Nong Khai-Chatuchak (Bangkok)-Pom Prap Sattru Chai (Bangkok)-Samut Songkhram-Chatuchak (Bangkok)-Padang Besar
Episode 2 (902 Km, Train is 920 Km, $77): Padang Besar MY-Butterworth-Kuala Lumpur-Sepang-Johor Bahru-Woodlands (North)-Downtown Core (Central)
Episode 3 (164 Km, Train is 30 Km, $106): Downtown Core (Central)-Marina South (Central)-Downtown Core (Central)-Bras Basah/Museum (Central)-Downtown Core (Central)-Bukit Merah-Batam Town (Batam)-Batu Ampar (Batam)
Episode 4 (2304 Km, Train is 1982 Km, $152): Batu Ampar (Batam)-Tanjung Priok (North Jakarta)-Gambir (Central Jakarta)-Tambaksari (Surabaya)-Genteng (Surabaya)-Tambaksari (Surabaya)-Kalipuro (Banyuwangi)-Melaya (Jembrana)
Honestly, out of the three, my favorite series is the Arctic one, especially with how things have gone wrong as misadventures in Denmark and the Netherlands, and then the ending by crossing straight into Africa is so good considering how rarely I’ve seen Morocco, pretty much. Oh, and of course, the start at Narvik is a sight to behold. Always love the sight of the Arctic indeed… I really need to rewatch it again, don’t I?
Second is the Southeast Asian one, mostly because the ridiculous 2 months between the actual releases on Nebula and YouTube, along with what felt like a constant goalpost moving until I finished the Jet Lag season AFTER Taiwan, killed all momentum. That, as well as being disappointed that I felt that Episode 3 should cover both the ferry and Singapore, while Java became its own separate episode.
Actually, Malaysia could be another one too, with a proper stop in Kuala Lumpur as well. Perhaps that whole ferry thing is what kills the length instead of… well, take a shorter ferry to Pekanbaru instead of straight to Jakarta, but then again, there’s no train line across all of Sumatra either. *Sighs.*
Also, the name was this close to being alliterative, Laos to Lombok, if only they went a little further… at least there’s no bias for me. Either way, though, sorry, Malaysia; while KL is indeed robbed, at least the shenanigans with the time zone are a good highlight for it. Oh, by the way, can anybody help me find where that goddamn Bamboo Villa in Bali is? I gave up trying to look at which one, okay?
Still, my least favorite is the Mediterranean one, which is ironic considering that it’s the longest one… but I’m still of the opinion that Southeast Asia could have been 6 episodes instead of 4. While the Italian part at Ventimiglia is cool, Venice is… as you all expected, not exactly special. Jeff being train sick kind of made things a bit lonely at the later stages, on top of repeating going through Southern France the second time (even though I admit that entering Spain via Bilbao is a bit much of an ask back in the first series, isn’t it?)
Not to mention, especially Istanbul as an ending spot rather than anywhere on the Anatolian side felt extremely underwhelming since it’s just a smidge of Asia, basically. Even compared to Bali, even at the dead of night (which is indeed over-touristy), and especially Morocco. Like, they could have gone a lot deeper into Turkey at least. Even Ankara would have been fine.
But regardless of what I think, I… admit I didn’t know there’s a post-talk on Downie here for the Southeast Asian season. While I’m still pissed off at the circumstances that brought it in the first place, I guess there’s a silver lining that allowed me to put this post-season talk into the whole playlist, and I hope that this whole idea is kept for future seasons.
Heck, I even decided to make two different Euro Truck stints based on the two of them, as you can see here down below. THREE Stints in a row, even 😉
“DownieLive Arctic to Africa Part 1” – Audi A8
Narvik-Ornskoldvik (1122 km)
Ornskoldvik Stockholm-Kristianstad (1079 km)
Kristianstad-Malmo-Herning-Esbjerg-Kolding-Padborg-Flensburg-(Kiel)-Hamburg-Osnabruck (1223 km) (CRASH WARNING IN PADBORG)
Osnabruck-Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Brussels-Paris-Orleans (1081 km)
“DownieLive Arctic to Africa Part 2” – MAN Lion Coach
Orleans-Bordeaux-Toulouse (853 km)
Toulouse-(Rodez)-Montpellier-Barcelona-Zaragoza (1206 km)
Zaragoza-Madrid-Cordoba-(Sevilla)-Algeciras-Almeria (1298 km)
Almeria-Valencia-Palermo-Tunis-Algiers (1122 km)
“DownieLive Europe to Asia” – Sultana Panoramico
Lisbon-Porto-Vigo-Madrid: 1013 km
Madrid-Barcelona-(Montpellier)-Marseille: 1112 km
Marseille-Nice-(Genoa)-Milan-Venice: 848 km
Venice-(Klagenfurt)-Vienna-Budapest: 883 km
Budapest-(Brasov)-Bucharest: 1034 km
Bucharest-Ruse-Pleven-Sofia-Istanbul-Gebze: 1104 km
Also, since the topic of this blog isn’t too far off from Jet Lag the Game, I decided to add things that I shouldn’t be putting into the main Review Blog nonetheless. Especially when the next season seems to be a LONG one with it being train-based and 7-day recording, surpassing Hide+Seek’s 6.
Why? Because I found this Reddit thread that tried to figure out how to bring everyone’s opinion on Jet Lag challenges together. There’s SO much to unpack here; I would like to let you be immersed in this stuff. Have fun! (I am NOT surprised that Schengen Showdown had the best challenges in the Series tho, not in the slightest 😉 )
Oh, and while the voting itself is still open and ever-changing, there’s also an… AI-based analysis on these top best and worst answers. Unsurprisingly, they’re horrible, but for some reason I could ONLY open it on mobile… maybe because I tried disabling those stupid settings as much as possible there, while it was a lot more impossible to do on phones, but who knows. So I’ll copy the AI Summary result here down below for your shit and giggles
Analysis because it was only on Mobile for some reason
This is an automatically generated analysis of answers and votes by GPT-4
Which Challenge or Curse is Better?
1. Find Amy a DJUNGELSKOG – Find a DJUNGELSKOG at IKEA within 25 minutes without researching or asking for help. [Schengen Showdown]
2. Curse of the Passenger Princess – One seeker may not carry belongings, research, hold maps or discuss the game. [Hide&Seek]
3. It’s 5:00 Somewhere – While drinking 3 rounds at Margaritaville, identify 5 cities by current time of day. [Stateside Scramble]
Points for the most popular answers
-IKEA DJUNGELSKOG hunt
Clear, quirky objective with a recognizable item makes it instantly engaging
Time pressure and no-help rule create organic tension and fun chaos
Public space setting adds unpredictability and visual appeal
-Passenger Princess restriction
Strong asymmetry forces teamwork and creative problem-solving
So, you may be wondering. What is up with the ominous title like that? Or where is the DownieLive blog that I promised last week? Well, there is a major reason for that. The most basic way I could explain it is that… “I’m NOT in the mood to do it this week. However, the real reason is down below because this is something serious and important that, even if I am in the mood to do it, will take away from how urgent this is.
Hence, I decided to delay the DownieLive blog for next week instead, when I would feel better about myself by then and hopefully have moved on. However, before you read any further, I HAD to give you a content warning. This Blog is filled with nothing but pure unadulterated hatred, and a justified one on top of that. This is your last chance to back away, and I’ll give you some space before I actually go there. So I gave you some time to back off town… *phew* Now brace yourself because don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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First of all… FUCK TWITTER! Because last Wednesday, they basically emailed me, saying that they suspended my account for basically no reason, OUT OF NOWHERE! It was almost 5AM when it all started; I was ready to do DYOM for the day, and then I got greeted with that shit, which basically ruins my morning setup session as I attempt to figure out what the heck is going on while I write an appeal on it.
Yes, it was completely basic, and I had NO IDEA what I was supposed to write, or that there was ANYTHING you were supposed to write AT ALL. And that I just saw a pair of Reddit threads jokingly say that the appeal got accepted after worshipping “That Country That Shall Not be Named.” Oh, and before you ask, I tried to make a 2nd and 3rd one with supposedly better messages, but I cannot do it because apparently my first appeal is still on a queue… for GOD knows how long!
Anyway, at that time, I thought it was just the same kind of annoyance that I dealt with on Facebook months ago, so I tried to move on with my life and temporarily use my 2nd account, one that I LUCKILY set up years ago to peek on accounts that blocked me. However, the real rage didn’t kick in until I discovered two things.
First, I saw a Reddit thread that said that they still didn’t get their accounts back… for MONTHS, IF NOT YEARS! Second… is when I decided to check on my Playthrough Tweet, which, as you know, is THE MAIN part of my Twitter content. And what did I find? I can NOT see my own posts, even the most recent ones. I was fooled by my own Euro Truck Blog being visible… until I looked slightly below and found that last Tuesday’s DW Empire… HAD NO PICTURES! There are errors, and trying to put in links for my thread for older ones yields that same stupid “Account is Suspended” bullshit!
Well, there is an obvious problem with this. You see, the reason why I did these Playthrough Tweets project is not only to keep me busy throughout the week (sometimes TOO busy, I admit) since I am still unsuccessfully looking for jobs after 5-6 years post-college… but also because I wanted to do this for archival purposes.
I know that even by 2021, my laptop’s storage was limited (even before I got that 1 TB drive in 2024), and therefore putting in basically 100 MB’s worth of pictures 2-3 times a week would COMPLETELY CRAMP my storage. And that was before AI made basically every single computer component under the sun cost an arm and a leg!
Therefore, as a way to have basically infinite storage space for me to put these Playthrough Tweets in, I did it on Twitter. I didn’t know BlueSky was a thing yet. Google Drive is limited to 15 GB. Instagram is horrible, and TikTok is even more so. YouTube requires me to record footage in video form instead of pictures, which is impossible with my potato performance.
Doing it on Facebook would be so inconvenient and clog up my entire feed, and I already got the taste of it with Facebook being used as a platform for my meal review content. Imgur is extremely annoying to use, such as the days when I used it to upload my NFS cars. And Pixiv is meant for artwork, and my Playthrough Tweet is DEFINITELY not meant for it.
Yes, this means that this STUPID suspension (or more like BAN because of corporate language bullshit and all that) basically ERASES FIVE YEARS OF HISTORY! Because even I cannot see my own posts just to reminisce, so WHO THE FUCK CAN?! This is basically a setback EQUAL to the infamous corrupted save file I experienced in The Sims 3… In 2011, WHEN I WAS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL! If this isn’t an example of how digital-only media have a MAJOR con, then WHAT IS IT, SONY?!
Even worse, when I asked my friend about what could possibly have done this, and also this post explaining what could possibly have caused it, because there is NO SPECIFIC explanation on tech issues anywhere because FUCK YOU, I GUESS! Is that, basically, “I behaved like a bot”?
Like, could you at least tell me, “Oh, I used too many tags,” even though being banned for putting hashtags for the purpose of indexing numbers over actually tagging people is stupid no matter how ‘accidental’ it sounds? And even though I already swore OFF putting the hashtag in my Playthrough tweet EVER AGAIN after concluding that (Before my rage breaking point, by the way)… another of my friends says that because I rarely like people’s accounts… and WHAT the fuck is this?!
Look, I admit it, I’m not the type to just constantly doomscroll random posts every day and like every post that I like. I’m the type to only look at the feed of people I actually follow, like, or befriend. Such as the YouTube subscriber tab or the notifications on Twitter. Even though it’s a long list, it’s still a restricted curated one that does not rely on stupid algorithms whatsoever.
But NO! Somehow, not doing it often (much less retweets because I do not want to clog up my own ACTUAL feed with it) just because you don’t want to please the Algorithm Overlord is considered bot-like behavior and a bannable sin! Like what the FUCK?!
My friends also say that swearing would make Twitter think less of both apparently, but I call bullshit about that because I cussed and raged a LOT on these playthroughs. From all the game crashes, stupid plots, and other gameplay nonsense. Yet SOMEHOW I still got flagged after all of that?!
And you know what’s even worse? Facebook dealt with this much better! I got immediately suspended after I obviously did something like once a month a while ago. While yes, clicking on my Facebook friend’s feed too fast is a stupid offense as well, at least the appeal is quick and simple. Even if I had to take photos to do it (I was lucky my laptop’s camera is a completely useless blur since that meant they won’t see jack anyway)
It was only an hour of waiting after that, and then I got my account back. And now I’ve learned to be less aggressive with my tabs and open only 4 at a time (especially after finding out that doing so triggered a ridiculously stupid “Invalid Worker” BSOD on my PC post-C drive replacement anyway).
And in comparison, what did Twitter do? There was LITERALLY ZERO warning; I went STRAIGHT to a fucking ban, even though I had done this for FIVE YEARS, and EVERYTHING was COMPLETELY fine before then! Like, I literally had NO marks on my Twitter account other than being blocked because I asked too much before then. And now somehow, being too silent and just doing what I love the most from Twitter IS ALSO WRONG! And obviously, as I write this message today, there’s still JACK SHIT! And I bet NOTHING WOULD CHANGE FROM NOW ON EITHER!
I had to let you know that I spent hours on each of these Playthrough Tweet episodes, HOURS! Not even just to play the video games, either. Sorting ALL OF THESE CUES TOOK THAT LONG, AND I DID IT CAREFULLY WITH MY OWN HANDS! I poured my heart and soul into this; sometimes I felt like I was obligated to do this because deep down, no matter how many grievances I had when I did this stuff, I still did this anyway for the love of my gaming experiences and the desire to preserve them.
But NO! What do I get in return? I got rewarded with Twitter acting like a hypocrite! Because this damn site suspended me for ‘behaving like a bot,’ while I BET that it was bot-based moderation that banned me. FUCKING AI! The bane of the modern internet, because artificial intelligence MY ASS! You clankers are more like an artificial imbecile; THAT is what you really are! And even if a ‘human’ somehow did it, then what about basically every single company in the goddamn shit shoving those stupid SHIT up my ass?!
Oh, and here’s another kicker: my entire follower list got reset too, so on my 2nd account, I had to put them all back, ONE BY ONE, with a cooldown for every like 14 accounts to follow within like 20-30 minutes! And most of those lists are from BlueSky! Which I did when I started that account by transplanting follower lists from Twitter. But this time, I had the time pressure to do it fast or else I’d miss more stuff from the fanart accounts I followed!
So I basically wasted my Thursday morning doing it, on top of putting in my profile picture, which is a reference to my OC, Alexander Kujou. Even though luckily, I had preemptively decided to have a day off that day other than a haircut, so I DID have some time to do it for once!
Hahh… hahh… hah… sorry about all of that. I just need to have one blog to vent every single bit of pain and anger I have on this site. I apologize for making such a negative blog, but if I keep suppressing it down, I can’t simply just give up and move on. Because there is NO WAY I’m getting my original account back after this, okay? And even if I did, I would still curse Twitter for even doing this to me to begin with.
Anyway, so, what am I going to do from now on? Well, as much as I wanted to just simply not do Playthrough Tweets from now on and only post whenever there’s a major update going on and significantly lighten my load, I cannot bring myself to do it… Like, my desire to cherish these playthrough experiences of mine is too strong for me to do it even after losing things, including even my entire Persona 3 FES playthrough too. Not when I had hundreds of links. in my archive, waiting for the next entry, no matter how useless those old links are now.
Therefore, I had two options. 1. I SIGNIFICANTLY scaled back my entries. I’m aiming in the range of… 4 images per section. So, for example, if my PVZ Fusion episode had a 3-part series with more than 160 cues, I had to leave only 12 of the best highlight pictures alive and delete the rest… maybe I’ll keep the list of the picture’s captions on a document somewhere else.
It hurts having to do that deliberately every time, but it is the safest option and also significantly lightens my load for writing these playthrough tweets, especially as I get older and older. Heck, it might give me motivation to even properly start my NFS Underground Monte Carlo mod with less pressure on these playthrough tweets to do so, considering that PVZ Fusion won’t end anytime soon and there’s still a long while before I finish my final 4 DW Empires playthroughs.
Or, option 2, I could simply continue as it is, but I’m instead fully migrating my Playthrough tweet content over to Bluesky instead. While the first option puts both sides on equal status, this option will completely invert the hierarchy. And honestly, I do NOT trust Twitter with a full playthrough tweet anymore after that, but at the same time, there’s a paranoid part of me saying that this kind of bullshit could happen on BlueSky too in the future, no matter how unlikely it is.
Even though now I try to like and comment on Twitter posts as much as possible on my 2nd account, I don’t think I would ever forgive them for this. Like, I used my college email account to have that one, and should this bullshit happen once again there, I think I’m permanently calling it quits from Twitter for good because the only reason I’m making a third email account is if my main email had run out of storage.
Anyway, on BlueSky itself, sorry for coming back to be angry again. The issue with that site is that uploading pictures or even posts there took MUCH longer to do. I already experienced it with my meal review posts, but I used last Wednesday’s DYOM episode as a testbed on whether I should do this long-term or not. And the result is, on a 52-cue post, it took me around 2.5 minutes to upload the images, and on the 70s, it’s almost 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, Twitter nowadays could take seconds to do it instead, but at least BlueSky never had occurrences of random errors that forced me to repeat the process, most likely by putting in the replies one by one. But while Quillbot kind of went dead (until I decided to reinstall it the next day) when I tried to spellcheck it, the inserting image process felt faster and a lot less laggy than Twitter’s, honestly.
Hello, we’re back to DYOM, where Twitter SOMEHOW suspended my account for NO REASON so I HAD to do this on BlueSky as a Test for my Alt Account. This is, Part at, at “Life in Los Santos – Gangster for Life Chapter II-A2”Gangster for Life Chapter II-A21. What is up with the random Timer tho
And this is Part 2, where suddenly, the missions went short and simple again… until I found the most absurd ambush ever. Enter, “Life in Los Santos – Gangster for Life Chapter II-B to II-C1”Gangster for Life Chapter II-B53. Welp, here is the 4th Part of Gangster for Life II! 😉
So, yeah, honestly, I’m kind of on the fence right now on what to do. Whether I should take those 4 best images or go all in on the BlueSky Migration idea. I have until next Monday to decide on what course of action I’m going to take with the Playthrough Tweets. But I know that regardless of my decision here, any of my prior Playthrough Tweets are completely gone, and there’s nothing I could do with them. I honestly lean toward the latter option here, but we’ll see how it goes.
Oh, and about Tomorrow’s Track Blog. There’s a chance that I may not be doing it. But rather than the lack of time from the need to complete my 2-week pile of file sorting this weekend, it’s mostly because I still need to recover mentally from this and just try to focus myself to just… move on from all of this nonsense.
However, I think I could do the track blog, but on a condition: that is, if my friend doesn’t send me a long PM tomorrow. If there is no PM sent, then I will upload the track blog on Saturday afternoon. If there IS one, well… I’ll see you guys next week for the DownieLive blog, okay? Take care of yourself…
Oh, and before I forget, here are the links to both my new Twitter account and BlueSky account. Do what you will with it, preferably to follow my account here, but regardless, have fun with those, okay?
P.S.: Only imbeciles call this goddamn Social Media “X.” -_-
EDIT: So, i got an update on the Appeal thing, and… Predictably, it got rejected, no shocker -_-. Still, at least there IS a response, so now i’m taking my chance to actually proper one after this. And… If this fails again, i’ll just pester them again, and AGAIN, for all eternity until I got my account back. Because I do not play nice with this at all!
Also, I got a long PM from my friend today. So that, on top of me needing to figure out how to write a proper 2nd Appeal today made me deciding to not to the next Track Blog today. I need to gather my thoughts and mental strength still. See you next week, but i’ll keep adding on to the bottom if anything further happens, okay?
EDIT2: So, apparently, posting more than 50 in a day raise some Bot Flag… Does that doing Playthrough Tweets AT ALL would trigger it? Ugh… Now i don’t know anymore. Perhaps i should go for the first option again and posts only 4-12 Pictures per Episode instead. I don’t know anymore! 😦
So, if say, i put out a 200-cue PVZ Fusion Episode, that sounds like 50 things posted in an hour even when technically i had it split in three. Perhaps i could gap it a bit longer to post after i each 1 of the episode sections rather than all 3 at once. But I felt like I can’t trust anything by this point.
EDIT3: So, i checked BlueSky’s Policy and it seems that the limit is MUCH higher than I thought. Around 1666 Post an Hour, which is impossible for me to reach. And the only weird case that happened is when there’s a Rate Limit bug about 3 years ago. So I think that restores my faith to go for the 2nd Option (All In on BlueSky instead), but we’ll see what I think by monday to be sure about it)
EDIT4: There, I had written my 2nd appeal. I tried to use as much respectful message as possible even though I loathed doing this after such disrespect. You could read it down below if you were wondering.
First of all, I believe my account was suspended by mistake. I am a real person who has been manually managing my Playthrough posts that were crafted meticulously, one by one, spending hours crafting each post, for the past five years. I do not use a single bot-based tool, and I had no idea of what kind of mistake I could possibly have made other than posting those very playthrough posts in the first place. But upon introspection, despite the lack of clear actual known causes, I believe I may have posted too many posts all in a batch whenever I did these very playthrough tweets, even though it’s been five years since I started to do it until now. Those Playthrough Posts’ content may be considered spam, but it was a genuine way for me to engage with the X ecosystem throughout the entire time I spent myself here. Therefore, I’ll try to be less aggressive with my posting from now on and also be more frequently liking and even commenting on posts from now on just to make sure that I can be considered ‘human enough’ in the future. As well as using “hashtag” as little as possible even though I had used it mostly for only indexing numbers and none of the actual tagging. So please undo my suspension and give me back my account, alright?
I believe my account, @RosyMiranto18, was suspended by mistake recently. I believe I had been banned for “inauthentic behavior” despite having been manually managing my Playthrough posts that were crafted meticulously, one by one, spending hours crafting each post, for the past five years. I do not use a single bot-based tool. I wanted to assure that I was never intentionally violate any of the X Rules But regardless, I’ll try to be less aggressive and far more concise with my posting from now on to ensure that I could fully comply with X’s Terms of Service going forward Therefore, I would heavily appreciate a proper review of my account. I thank you for the time you spend in reading this.
And… it got rejected again, within MINUTES. That Bot Rejection to proved to me that they’re hypocrites -_-
EDIT5: So, good news. I got my main Twtitter account back (it’s @RosyMiranto18 if you are wondering)… Without them telling me that they did on Email, of course -_-. So i’ll be back to primarily use that account again instead my 2nd one @HeraclesLancer . However, I still move my Playthrough Tweets at BlueSky because I lost my trust here ever again after all of this nonsense. because I lost my trust here ever again
Hello, we’re back to the tracks, and… honestly, this track is pretty complicated. Not in terms of the layout itself, but rather more in the individual sections. And HOO BOY, there are some bad ones. Anyway, the name is meant to be a reference to Pier 69 in San Fierro while taking a jab at one of the stupidest numbers of all time. I WILL NOT say it for my sanity’s sake, but if you wanted to take a hint, reverse the numbers on this track’s name.
Obviously, this track is another Buckacherz Ranking one, so feel free to check the reference link here:
Still, even though some sections are absolutely horrible to go through, most of the track is still containing some fast, long sections, so hopefully there are still a few breathers out there. Anyway, the Pit Lane is at the Land Act Dam, while the next tracks shall be the 300th one, the Snowman-themed “French Davey,” followed by a brief leave onto the 9th Edition of Off-Roadtrip, “El Dorado’s God.”
As for the car, there are few options that I could take based on the SA mission, which are either Banshee, Picador, or Pony. Out of three… Banshee is 278, Picador is 170, and Pony is 172. That margin was closer than I thought. While I did plan to paint it like Ryder’s, the license plate is, instead of SHERM, the thematically fit “FUCK [REDACTED NUMBER].”
“So, do you like piers? But you had to protect your Chinese allies when trying to ambush some drug syndicate deals involving one of your former friends? Well, be prepared for some running, because you need to find the correct one here. Don’t worry, the correct answer is not the inverse of 76. Pit Lane is at Land Act Dam.”
The first section is the “Pier Planks Loop” around the pier until you go under it into the Bike Path. That got followed by the “Rocky Sands” chicane into the Broadwalk. We reached the edge of the beach with a left hander of “Toppled Fence” to Bay City. Before we start talking through the ABSOLUTE WORST part of this track, the infamous “Marina Skirting,” where you had to pray you didn’t slip and drown until you left at the helipad. And I completely botched the first section by entering through Rub and into the tunnel instead of the supposed south route and around said tunnel.
Then we face the “illegal cutting” curve of the dirt path from Greenwich up to Dutch London. After which, we’re faced with the “Barrier Loop” around Bannings Warehouses in a clockwise direction until you reach the train tracks. And that got followed by the “Broken Half” to Plaice, followed by the infamous “Union Twin Gates” through Chupacabra. We then took a loop around the “Submerged Marine” around the open warehouse back to Plaice before you took another deeper deviation of the “Drowned Landing”, that ended on the “Bushy Breakthrough” back to Plaice to leave the docks.
A fast kink of “Notorious Superfly” to West Popular followed, along with the “Drainage Drop” chicane towards the LS River. Next is the “Staggered Drag” chicane to the west side, which leads you to “Glorious Hallucination” to Glory. After that, we face another arduous section in the “Heli Valley,” which ends on a tall climb towards the dam. As well as the “Dipping Rumbles” through the Shortcut away from the Pit Lane.
However, after that, we face another bad climbing section in the form of “MiniFred’s Tangle,” which is horribly bad at the end where you could get stuck if you took a wrong line into the “Pencil Scratch” chicane to the highway. That got followed by a “Triple Tights” chicane, first on the merging with Palomino, then at the Diamond, and finally on the Gfred Line to the Quarry.
Next is another dirt section of “Inhumane Pipes” to cut through to Chianski before having the classic “Chianski Hillclimb” straight to Catfish, where I nearly missed the “Monkey Loop.” That got followed by the usual “Lighthouse Loop,” which includes “Coral Dipper” to go through under the bridge and leave it. And after that, we have the “Parallel Ridges” to climb onto the dirt path next to the highway before crossing over to the other side.
Next is another cut section into Sandyshore to Meringue called “Pipeless,” which is then followed by a tight breaking zone of “Lagoon Cutter,” which drives you through the dirt path back to Seaview. However, after that is another pair of horrible pier sections of “Gailee” and “Foreclosed Private,” especially the former with how rough the exit is. Along with it, we also had a shortcut and a jump taken along your typical “North Calafia Section.”
However, after going through the Chiliad Tunnel, we have the “Autumn Spreader” dirt section downward to the train tracks. That led you on the exit of “Chicken’s Flight” towards the east side of the chicken factory. And to Procopio, before the lefthander drop of “Aborted Sailing” and “Impossible Inversion,” jump across to the other side of the Promenade before we take on the “Banked Tree” chicane in the middle that I completely missed.
Next, we have the “Monied Shortcut” around the Sonar Pier, but be careful on the entrance climb here. That got followed by the classic “Hookies Chicane” (where I admit I took the wrong side of the highway beforehand). And on Chumash, we had the “Triple Levels” section starting with a dip into the beach before going around Barbareno and back to GOH. And finally, we have the classic “Incline Section,” which led back to the Del Perro Pier to end the track.
Hello… We’re back to the blog. Honestly, today’s already been longer than I thought, like a comic script to check up on or ProMods cities to take notes on again because the site’s been really WELL updated today (good job for the team there). Not to mention, I spent the entire yesterday writing in the names of Shido’s confidants, which I might need to write a blog on soon, along with other Persona fan character names I came up with over the past years. So, I’d preemptively apologize for any mistakes in the writing of this PM here. That was on top of this being decently complex to write on this afternoon too, so I’m honestly not out of the woods just yet.
Either way, there is also an announcement that I am not able to do any sort of file sorting this week due to a green walk happening this Sunday. Being, you know, August and all, there are so many Sundays filled in the good old Indonesian Independence Month here. So that’s something I need to keep in mind when I do double the file sorting work in the following week here. That means there’s a chance I may be skipping one or two track blogs in those following weeks, especially considering that August had already been packed with pre-planned blogs in my notes that could take a while to go through, for all I know. Especially considering that there’s a SECOND one of these events later at the end of the month too. So please keep that in mind as well.
However, I also announced that the Basara Stage Appearance Blog is going to be benched for a WHILE again. This time, because I have a more imperative project to do in the form of figuring out the largest cities that are missing from Euro Truck. And I had to admit that it’s a more engaging topic to go through first, even though the research is honestly more arduous and even gets increasingly complicated than I thought. And especially considering that it was on ATS as well, this will be a LONG journey indeed.
Also, I’m getting a confirmation that the next season of Jet Lag would fall on August 27th. That makes for a rather awkward schedule in my Playthrough Tweets considering that I’m watching the 2nd Edition of SASUKE World Cup on the Monday of that same week, but I’ll manage with it, even if I have to start the Playthrough Tweet on Sunday afternoon for that very reason (if only that got released on Tuesday or Sunday, which is a LOT less awkward on my schedule there :/). I’ll give you any more detailed update on those once I get closer to that week as well, especially since I am still unsure whether I want to watch “Coyote VS ACME” in the theaters at the end of the month or not.
Oh, and on another note because I completely forgot. This week was supposed to be an Odyssey subspecies blog, but then there’s a new subspecies for the Kelptain Goldberg, which pretty much forced me to delay that one until Update 4.0 came out (which also completely revamped the Snow World annoyingly). And I cannot simply use the next blog in the queue for next week, because… well, as you’ll find out, it required me to watch the finale of Downie’s Bangkok to Bali series next Sunday.
So the gap of delay ended up being two weeks instead of one, which might work out considering that there’s some good odds that the next update could happen within the next one or two PVZ Fusion episodes, which would require me to replay Snow World again. And with that long update out of the way now, let’s get to it.
So, about a year ago, I made a blog about Google translating Basara Utage’s skills in my attempt to understand how the skills work for the Utage Games. And you could consider that this one is sort of a sequel to that. Considering that I had at least played Basara 4 back in my PS3 days (not Sumeragi, unfortunately). WHY is this series not on PC! 😡 ), I decided that it’s time for me to make up a ranking for the Super Arts/The R2 Skills in this series.
Before you asked, though, no, I’m not doing a Basara 2 Heroes skills ranking, mostly because there are a lot more options to choose from. At least here, with the Supers, despite having 40 characters that I need to go through, there are only 3 to go through per character instead of up to 7 skills per character in Heroes. *Shudders.* Anyway, you could read the old Utage Blog here before you continue reading this further.
Admittedly, this ranking didn’t matter that much in Basara 4 because you get to use all three of them anyway, but the initial intention of this blog is for me to rank it within the confines of the Utage characters. And I also added in the characters who only got 3 Supers in 4/Sumeragi just to complete the list and such. Oh, and sadly, Hojo Ujimasa isn’t included in the counter because he’s never in Basara 4, which makes him only have 1 Super option to choose from back in Utage.
Either way, here is how I ranked all the names here. Along with the ratio of which slots were the best and the worst. Also, sorry for the Samurai Heroes players, but I’m using a translation of the Japanese names of the skills here, courtesy of Raindrops and Daydreams, just to keep things consistent across all 40 characters instead of having to make up a different rule just for 2/5 of them.
Also, please beware that this is MY ranking, so expect some bias on how I perceived these skills, especially when it comes to those that I could only see videos of instead of ever experiencing them myself.
As you can see here. While the ratio of skills was roughly pretty equal between the 1st and 2nd Supers in terms of ratio, when it comes to being the best and the worst, it’s pretty noticeable that the 3rd Super Arts are among the worst ones to pick, mostly due to those slots typically being used for the gimmicky ones. Meanwhile, the 2nd choice’s ratio between all three supers is quite a bit narrower compared to the edge cases here. Also, yes, the most common formation for these orders are 2nd Skills being the best and 3rd ones being the worst.
And from what I analyze here, my worst picks tend to be the ones that forced me to have a timing-based mechanic, especially if it’s not generous with little to no cue other than some flashes (Kanbe’s Grab being a major exception to this, being pretty slow and generous in terms of timing). But Nagamasa is like the WORST example; I already HATE using it in Heroes. There’s also Mogami, which contains multiple of those timing-based ones, which are quite finicky to use.
Mobility skills also typically did badly here since all it did was get you to move faster rather than actually help you in battle in terms of either damage or combos. Mitsunari is probably among the worst offenders to this. As well as skills with a long windup or those that are quite easy to interrupt, such as the case with Oichi’s laser and Hanbei’s buff, or weak ones that did basically nothing with a small/limited range like Magoichi’s cover fire and Fuuma’s Izuna Drop. Or grabs that could easily miss like Matsunaga’s or Muneshige’s.
However, if there’s one thing that I hate even more, it’s the health-draining one. Those like Yoshitsugu, Tadakatsu, or Nobunaga immediately ranked last for this very reason. The only reason Tenkai isn’t falling to this category as well is because the buff it got is SO good despite the sucky skills, which kind of makes it not necessary most of the time, and because his other Super is a counter that is completely useless.
Speaking of Tenkai, Buffs is also quite a mixed bag to be had here. From Masamune practically enhancing his moveset to the mediocre one, such as Matsunaga having a rather long windup with not much on the upgrade compared to his non-buff skills. But there are also some horrible ones indeed, such as Kojuro’s Slaughter Mode, which only adds power in return to make his non-dash movement SO SLOW, or Yukimura with its insanely long windup. We… don’t even talk about Naotora being here. Like, what the FUCK is “style points,” and WHY would that help if I don’t make damage at all????
Of course, the best type of supers are the ones that combo well into a character’s regular ones. The biggest example of this is Mitsunari’s first one, which contains Setsuna Teleport, which edges out past his grab despite the ability to break guard with it. Or Fuuma’s shuriken, which can be done twice in a row, is easy to set up mid-combo and has a lot of damage with suction as well. But of course, there are also supers that are just… flat-out busted, like Ieyasu’s Headbutt, Kenshin’s Dash, or Matsu’s Bear, for example. And no, Yoshihiro’s Instant Kill doesn’t count because it’s even worse when the range gets nerfed from Heroes, AS IF this character needs any nerfs in terms of RANGE!
Still, those are examples that I would like to mention here, but of course, I cannot simply have the time and will to review them all one by one. At least I coded which Super is at which number even though the Sumeragi characters’ numbers might be inaccurate, honestly. Other than that, you just had to play these characters yourself to understand which Supers you prefer in the end.
Anyway, here are some demonstrations for these characters if you want to learn more.
And also, another credit here to the Koei Warriors forum here. Because THANK FUCK for these forum threads giving me translations for the Basara 4 characters’ skills that isn’t added later in Sumeragi, because for some reason Raindrops and Daydreams only have the new Sumeragi ones (and yes, I HAD checked his Basara 4 guides too; it didn’t get listed there either) -_-
Hello, we’re back to the tracks. I already explained most of what happened this week on the Jet Lag Review blog, so I’ll add in what happened after that… because my sister suddenly showed up briefly to treat me to some seafood. And hoo boy, it was great, but DAMN, that price is insane D: You could go check up on my Facebook account to see them unless you’re willing to wait until next year’s Meal Review Blog, however.
Other than that, though, I also got a new DW Empires character to be made next Sunday because my Liu Chong Episode in giving me ideas after saying “No” months ago. At least I had finished the PVZ Fusion Odyssey Subspecies’ note-taking and was close to finishing the Basara Super Art Ranking too. So those two blogs shouldn’t take too long to show up… but the former might get delayed if I get any Odyssey subspecies added in for the 3.9/4.0 update. Still, with that out of the way now, let’s get to it!
(HUH?! Why is there a missing paragraph here?! GODDAMNIT, I HAVE TO WRITE IT AGAIN) 😡 Anyway, Marriage Court-seling here. Of course, we’re still in the Buckacherz Tracks Train here, and this time, we’re on the tennis court here. And since it only exists in the fancier parts of town, this track shouldn’t be too extensive compared to most landmarks either, albeit I admit I forgot that it extended down south towards the Vespucci area. ^^
And as for the name, it is a pretty obvious pun on the mission Marriage Counseling. Although sadly, the actual chase involving Michael and the tennis coach isn’t exactly a main part of this, so you can’t exactly do some house towing on this one. The reference is down below as usual.
Still, the track itself should be pretty simple to remember here, except for the complex string of corners around Morningwood due to the shocking amount of tennis court density in that area. Other than that, though, you should be good. Pit Lane is located at Cockingend. And the next tracks shall be the Pier-themed “Pier 76,” followed by the 300th Track Blog that is Snowman-themed “French Davey.’
Ironically though, while I last used a Bison in Track #227, I used a Blista on #31… the EXACT SAME RED BLISTA that Kyle Chavis had. So… that’s a bit awkward there. Either way, I’m calling the dibs on the license plate being “BACKHAND.”
“I’m paying you, turd, a hundred and fifty bucks an hour to fuck my wife? In my own bed? So, you and I are going to have an arrangement. I’m going to arrange your fucking funeral. Starting from now, where I should be coming up there and practicing my backhand… ON YOUR FACE! Pit Lane is at Cockingend.”
The first corner is already turbulent, a hill around Michael’s house called “Cheating Bison.” And the descent that followed ends on a tight right-hander of “Domed Station” to South BDP. After which, we had the most dreadful part of the track, “Morningwood Maze,” which contains around SIX slalom sections.
It’s starting from entering at Dorset Von Crastenburg, then leaving back at the Golf Course, looping around the Café, and going through a house in which the gate is SO hidden you’d inevitably miss it toward Sam Austin before going to Americano. That got followed by the classic “Acidity Meetup” double left-hander to North BDP. That got followed up by the “Pouncing Drop” around Cougar before leaving west to West Eclipse.
That got followed by a slow braking zone of “Wade EyeFinder” towards Vitus, followed by another tight section of “Tight Cutter” across to the Bike Path, which led to the “Rental Peril” back to the Boardwalk and the dreadful “Forgotten Victims” to Melanoma before you had the widening “Bluefence” to Palomino. At South Rockford, we had the double lefthander of “Sewer Bin Co.” to enter it and the “Canal Hill” on the exit towards Vespucci.
Then the classic “Under and Over” righthander followed, straight toward Magellan all the way past Chumash into the classic “Banham Canyon” section, including the “Swinging Bridges” curves at the start of it. However, on the exit, we had the gentler “Fenced Abruption” on the exit towards Tongva and later Marlowe before we faced the classic “Estate Lakeside” section, which contains a horrible chicane of “Red Planks” at the entrance of it, as well as the “Hillside Tree” section on the exit part.
Next is a tightening right-hander of “Halved Timber” into Baytree, which led to a long drop until “24-7 Musketeer” left-hander to Spanish. We were then followed by the “Condo Ring” curve down Elgin and back to Hawick, which goes on until the “Kifflom Climb” on Strangeways that led to South Mo Milton. And going past the pit lane, we had the chicane of “Mad Thunder’s World” through Picture Perfect to Mad Wayne Thunder, followed by the dreadful triple corners of “Cogny Curves” to Ace Jones.
Then we gently take our way down through the “Fence-blocking Tree” into North Rockford, followed by the “Wrong Side of the Campus” off-camber corner to Richman. We had the bumpy “Hurdle Jump” chicane towards Picture Perfect until the tight section of “Notservatory” before having a go through a path on Steele of “The Backhander.”
Alright, we’re back to the blog. And as you could expect from a typical Jet Lag review, this is a THICK one to explore. Honestly, despite my best attempt to brainstorm the points for this since Sunday, the notes ended up being way larger than I thought they would.
As for what I was up to this week? Well, honestly, not much, other than me being extremely annoyed that I had to cut off this week’s DYOM episode in half through zero fault of my own. I mean, how the HELL did the mission creator somehow repeat missions 9-16 on missions 17-24?!
To be honest, I was pretty tempted to do the same thing, ironically, at the same time period as last season’s Jet Lag Review around Eid al-Adha by extending the missions to 24 instead of 8. But then I realized that with the need for me to write this blog in the first place, as well as how possibly long this might be, I decided to forgo that proposal and simply kept the plans as they are.
Heck, if not for this blog, I might even be tempted to do a PVZ Fusion episode instead of leaving the schedule on Thursday empty since I did this blog quite early, but it is what it is. Not to mention, that gap of time definitely could allow me to not only start designing Fan Chou for my next DW Empires character but also to hopefully finish my PVZ Fusion Subspecies Recipes at LAST, which honestly ended up becoming MUCH more detailed than I thought.
Still, at least on a good note, Downie finally got his Southeast Asian Series out on YouTube… a Jet Lag Season AFTER it was supposed to! But I don’t want to rant on it anymore, so here you go… I don’t know whether I’ll make a blog out of this in three weeks’ time after all episodes are out, but we’ll see.
Either way, let’s get to the main review then, shall we?
STATESIDE SCRAMBLE
Episode 1:
Sam Amy (1312 km): Manhattan (NYC)-Queens (NYC)-Chicago
Ben Adam (1844 km): Manhattan (NYC)-Queens (NYC)-Memphis-Southaven-Lake Cormorant
Episode 2:
Sam and Amy (1766 km): Chicago-Romulus-Windsor-Romulus-Boston-Nashua-Merrimack
Ben and Adam (626 km): Lake Cormorant-Birmingham-Villa Rica-Atlanta
Episode 3:
Sam and Amy (2008 km): Merrimack-Boston-St. Louis
Ben and Adam (1454 km): Atlanta-St. Louis-Ina-Paducah-St. Louis
Episode 4:
Sam and Amy (893 km): St. Louis-Donnellson-Eddyville-Des Moines-Adair-North Sioux City
Ben and Adam (1611 km): St. Louis-Arlington-Colonial Beach-Alexandria-Arlington-Washington DC-Baltimore
Episode 5:
Sam and Amy (470 km): North Sioux City-Le Mars-Worthington-Wilder-Windom-Bingham Lake-Saint James-Madelia-Lake Crystal-Garden City-Mankato-Bloomington-Fort Snelling
Ben and Adam (326 km): Baltimore-Philadelphia-Manhattan (New York)
Episode 6:
Sam and Amy (2514 km): Fort Snelling-Boston-Kittery-Providence
Ben and Adam (1447 km): Manhattan (New York)-Weehawken-Atlantic City-Newark-Myrtle Beach
PLAYLIST:
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Ben wants to marry Tennessee. Amy had THE LONGEST RAMBLE ever about her hometown. And the Jet Lag Team would like to apologize to the entire Commonwealth of Canada.
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Badam goes on a Deep South Billboard Roadtrip. The temptation of Coke’s capitalist allure is real. And Sam had bad relationships with both Jeep and the roads in Boston.
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Sam tried flexing his thighs. Drunk Ben had finally returned with vengeance. And both Ohio and New Jersey slipped across the Bostonian winters.
Tonight, on Jet Lag! St. Louis Rentals are cursed. Sam and Amy had an old married couple argument. And there is a god in the form of the visitor center.
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Ben and Adam play baseball like midgets again. Amy experienced Fata Morgana on the frozen lake surfaces. And Sam seemed to have cheated on Buccee’s for Margaritaville
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Samy gambled on a deja vu New England road trip. DST is the Bane of the Margaritaville Empire. And holy water had to be sacrificed in the name of Adam NEVER missing a flight.
Wel someone loves a good mural, isn’t it?
Alright, Stateside Scramble. The alliterative name definitely harkens back to Schengen Showdown, and coincidentally, they both involve the letter “S.” However, while back then, it was Amy who wrote the challenges, this time, she personally participates here as a guest. But then, it turns out it was pretty clear that already since the first episode, the resemblance to the previous Claim Games, especially the American ones, is quite apparent.
You see, the rule of having all of these states takes cues from Connect 4, but of course, without the need to connect four of them in a line this time. Then, we have Battle for America’s Card-based Resources, but unlike B4A’s cards, we are then instead provided with the states that we can and can’t take… at least until we get some intricacies later on.
And of course, we have Schengen Showdown’s State-Specific Challenge. It did definitely follow Taiwan having its location-specific challenges, but like B4A, there’s much more flexibility (at least in theory) in where you can take the challenge. Except for cases like New York or Massachusetts, where it’s too ridiculous to do the challenge anywhere outside New York and Boston, respectively.
However, it turns out the real comparison to B4A isn’t in terms of the card-based slot limitations or where you can pull in the challenges, but rather in terms of the area being used as a deciding factor. Albeit as a tiebreaker rather than a flat 4-point swing this time.
Not to mention, this season basically expands on the concept shown back in Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek and Dragon-Tiger Pagodas in terms of challenges, infallible challenges. But while Taiwan only has a couple of them at least, this season brought almost all challenges to be infallible in theory. Like, if you fail, you could try it again at a later time or somewhere else.
However, of course, just because it’s theoretically infallible doesn’t mean that it’s easy. And while the balances aren’t perfect, the challenges here are certainly intended to be “If you didn’t get it quickly, you could lose a LOT of time.”
Honestly, I’m glad that they try out something different with this season, especially after the infamy that is Tag All-Stars and even some Taiwan Challenges, which are theoretically fallible but actually were easy in practice due to the all-too-generous margins or having too much of a reward that ruins the difficulty of a season.
Because this one, despite the lack of tension it still brought, still managed to inflict a certain amount of pain on the players for failing without making things “harder if you mess it up” like the Chiang Kai-shek one.
But unsurprisingly, some challenges have a strange difficulty of being too easy. Massachusetts’ distance being pretty much too short and carrying oranges between your thighs is, while annoying, not exactly hard. Maine’s also a weird one because I entirely expected the word that is pulled out to be random when it says “Five-Words” instead of… “Maine.” Like, even if it’s up to Amy to do it, the word still should have been randomized to the Tasmania flag one in AU$.
There are also comparisons between Margaritaville and Tennessee’s. Where Margaritaville had a lot of things to it, Tennessee’s is just to be drunk, and that’s it? Even with the difficulty in finding a distillery, it’s still strange. Like, even if the post-hangover could be a peril, the actual difficulty Badam has with it is to reach it BEFORE the rest period, which did actually nullify the hangover pretty much.
Of course, just because a change is theoretically infallible doesn’t mean that it won’t be practically done. As it is shown by Ben and Adam deliberately flying to Myrtle Beach instead of Charlotte or Charleston just because they have a lot more than just 2 golf courses in the game. And on the other side, there are some horribly painful challenges to do with the Minnesota Lakes or the Little League Baseball in Pennsylvania.
Of course, despite the Infallible Time Waster theme we have here, this season still had an exception to those… the Wild Card System. It was more powerful cards that allowed you to take more options than just a single state with just one card, at a cost of being actually fallible. And I think this is a good balance to have when it comes to the more powerful cards compared to the often-nonsensical difficulty of steal challenges.
However, while I like the idea of the Wild Cards, something unexpected also came along with it… the first Wild Card that shows up… is the debut of Canada in Jet Lag. And as hilarious as the Disclaimer Section is, as I’m sure that the Jet Lag Team just realized how bad the allusion is in putting Canada at a supposedly US-based claim game, I still feel that either
A. Canada should have debuted in a proper season on its own (like the UK and Switzerland did), as it was most likely to be an Arctic Escape-based race from Newfoundland to Vancouver or an AU$-type claim game since it had 13 provinces and territories. Or B. Canada should have implemented it into the game itself more thoroughly and instead be separated into its provinces and territories rather than being treated as a singular being.
Or at the very least, Canada wasn’t being counted as a tiebreaker. Despite Canada being included in the tiebreaker being the sole reason for why the season became much closer than it could have been, which did make me conflicted on whether this implementation is good or not. The very fact that it was connected to the ENTIRE Northern Border made it extremely obvious to be THE best Wild Card.
Especially since all other Wild Cards require you to go within a specific part of a state, like National Parks, Ivy League Colleges, or People Mover… And yes, and that includes the notorious Gateway Arch, which is obviously the best National Park Card.
So yeah, there’s this big semblance of irony that not only including Canada in a seemingly US-based season felt controversial in the first place, but it was clear that later on, the effect that it had on the game at the end was controversial for how so obviously overpowered it was as a wild card, a territory, and a tiebreaker.
Even then, even without taking into account how many borders it had, its own territory is still overpowered compared to California’s and Texas’s area, Tennessee’s and Missouri’s connectivity (which is the most likely reason why Badam managed to do so well on this game since both border 8 states), or even a hypothetical Mexican Wild Card, as it is smaller than Canada and also borders just 4 states.
Heck, even most of its provinces individually are already larger than Texas or California. And Quebec on its own is only slightly behind Alaska despite being MUCH easier to access compared to even Ketchikan. And while Wild Card typically rewards you for being in 1 state where you did the challenge (because it’s silly if you got Nevada and Florida after being drunk at a Margaritaville in Detroit), Canada’s Wild Card gives you ALL ten provinces no matter which one you did the challenge in, with the only real limitation being you could only try a province at a time, which is a big commitment.Heck, even most of its provinces individually are already larger than Texas or California. And Quebec on its own is only slightly behind Alaska despite being MUCH easier to access compared to even Ketchikan. And while Wild Card typically rewards you for being in 1 state where you did the challenge (because it’s silly if you got Nevada and Florida after being drunk at a Margaritaville in Detroit), Canada’s Wild Card gives you ALL ten provinces no matter which one you did the challenge in, with the only real limitation being you could only try a province at a time, which is a big commitment.
Heck, even most of its provinces individually are already larger than Texas or California. And Quebec on its own is only slightly behind Alaska despite being MUCH easier to access compared to even Ketchikan. And while Wild Card typically rewards you for being in 1 state where you did the challenge (because it’s silly if you got Nevada and Florida after being drunk at a Margaritaville in Detroit), Canada’s Wild Card gives you ALL ten provinces no matter which one you did the challenge in, with the only real limitation being you could only try a province at a time, which is a big commitment.
However, instead of area, I had a much more interesting way to do tiebreakers by having the tiebreaker be a disconnected state. This was what I thought the tiebreakers would be until they revealed that it was the land area later on. Doing this, I believe would compel teams to take on seemingly insignificant States. To either impede the other’s way or to count on it being both a tiebreaker and luck if they got the connecting state later.
Such examples of the usage of this tiebreaker are Michigan via Indiana or New York via NJ and Delaware. This is also a good way of opening up more options in general in cases where you get stuck with no state to go through. By using those disconnected states as a bargaining chip if they’re pretty easy to reach *cough*Delaware*cough*
Still, I think this season surpassed the Swap Cards from B4A in terms of its “Steal System,” especially when it comes to the Resources with its Discard and Veto System. This being an upgrade to the Arctic Escape’s Flops, it has a shared pool of six instead of a separated pool of three with 4 shared options to wrestle over (which CAN be littered with fillers such as cars and trains, which I believe should have separate guaranteed slots for those to prevent being stuck and to make plane cards harder to obtain.
Not to mention, remember what happened in Taiwan, where I crashed out with how Taipei-centric the Challenge Spawn is? Well, this season fixed it solely from the very fact that we know where all possible challenges could pop up. Obviously, the Eastern States’ denseness is more powerful than others, and Tennessee’s and Missouri’s connectivity makes for very powerful cards.
However, knowing WHERE the available options could be turned around was a moment of frustration into pure comedy. These challenge rolls are what I consider to be the main highlight of the season. The hilarity and the timing of when and where the next challenge could pop up make for interesting content. Such as the case of Alabama showing up after Badam went to St. Louis or Margaritaville showing up when Samy just had a dinner there after completing Minnesota.
Granted that luck is obviously skewed towards one team or another, but actually knowing the odds immensely helped to see the perspective of this or any other “Draw of a Card” as bad or good luck rather than the digitalized pool of challenges that could feel severely rigged because we don’t know of the full odds (which is applied to not just Taiwan, but also the infamy that is the Steal Flops)
And of course, just like B4A’s Battle Challenges, the Discard and Veto System also punishes someone for not claiming the stake fast enough instead of having your rewards taken away through no fault of your own after grinding through challenges for resources. While also, at the same time, not being too punishing since it mostly gets rid of a team’s second choice instead of the first thanks to the system, which makes a plan not COMPLETELY screwed over as soon as it happens by making their entire effort pointless, just like, once again, the steal flops.
Obviously, just like B4A’s Card Swap that basically made all other Power Ups weaker in comparison, even the Border ones *cough*Trackers*cough* The fact that this system worked both ways could easily be used for one team to make further gaps rather than allowing the one behind to catch up.
And I think a Reddit suggestion has a perfect idea that could be used for future seasons with this format. By making this “Discard and Veto” system to only be applied for the team that is currently 2nd after a state is claimed (including the tiebreaker). For example, only 1 new card is drawn when Badam takes Tennessee, but shortly later, 2 cards would be drawn by Samy after Illinois.
OH GOD, this is CURSED! D:
But even with the shared pool, this Season have Private Cards’, which is quite successful in keeping the jeopardy and element of unknowns to the other team (but most importantly, the Viewer still have an idea) as they couldn’t guess anything until it’s too late to do anything.
And it is important to see that just like the regular State Pool, the Private Cards’ contents are known to none until they are slowly revealed once per day, keeping the element of surprise and luck well, since had those Private Cards been pulled on another day, the result could have changed massively (Such as had Samy rolled Rhode Island on Day 2 or even 3 instead of 5).
Although, I found it so strange that none of the players, especially Sam and Amy, believe that cards like Wisconsin to be in their private deck DESPITE already being shown earlier in the regular deck, which means that them being a part of the private deck is IMPOSSIBLE. That is a copium and a half, if I must say.
However, I think Samy’s biggest blunder is to get rid of New Jersey. As that led to Badam getting Virginia, which makes them leave the Alabama plan even before they get the Maryland private card. With it on the board, they aren’t stuck in Boston for most of Day 3 without a flight to Seattle; they use that time to instead go to NJ and Delaware to try to stop Badam from encroaching on the Northeast (which they did), while also counting on getting New York later on, which they did later on anyway when it comes to North Dakota or Minnesota.
Of course, Badam had its own troubles too. They got rid of Indiana, thinking that Sam would grab it as soon as he and Amy left Minnesota, only to find at the airport that they couldn’t fly to Texas and the actual realistic flight they could take was to Chicago. Albeit to a lesser extent since they got New York in the pool not long after… which was their plan anyway since it’s more of a hub compared to Boston for having 3 airports.
Still, the main takeaway that I got for this season is that, it turns out, my favorite seasons, especially when it comes to the Claim Games, tend to be the snowballing ones. They might be riddled with luck, but it wasn’t that much of a problem if said luck came from the nature of the game itself rather than something artificially added to make certain swings happen, even including the challenges’ difficulties being whack.
And most importantly, these kinds of seasons also reward having actual skills involved. While I do agree that catch-up mechanics had to be in order somewhere (unlike NZ’s Roadblock, which is the complete antithesis of that), it shouldn’t come at a cost of the other team doing well rather than buffing those that are in the back.
However, that kind of snowball had to be at a slow and gentle pace and not too sudden of a jump, not something that you realize is a bit too ridiculous as soon as you see it. Heck, even the whole Canada Card isn’t too obviously overpowered until I discover that the season’s tiebreaker is the area rather than the disconnected states.
After all, if I had to concede that if not for Samy pulling in Minnesota at the perfect time or even if the Canada Wild Card didn’t instantly hand over the tiebreaker to Samy, the game could have ended much earlier and the snowball effect went too steep straight to pull this down into the top of the “Needs Work” territory, right about Hide+Seek UK.
Still, I think I’m on a belief that this season, like Taiwan or NZ did, was the best display of America beyond the major cities and transit such as train stations and airports. Ironically, it came thanks to the car-focus portion of the season. While it is controversial, the limited pool of challenges forced teams to go off the beaten path instead of the obvious best places like Texas or California right away.
And I think as horrified as I am at how high the prices are (especially when they switched the drop-off points), having a 2X tax on cars is a pretty good way to balance how powerful these things are, especially with the necessity of having these long-extended driving sections. I doubt that this tax would work in Europe since trains would outpace it most of the time, but I think this could be used for future US seasons as well. Considering that the Border Powerup in B4A is a bit too limiting still, on top of not working outside of a powerup-based season like Tag.
And indeed, this season really did a great job of shining a spotlight on both the Plains and the Deep South, parts of the US that are often ignored even compared to the early seasons. Such as the Western States in Connect 4 or Northern England and Great Lakes in B4A. Like, who the hell is going to go to Paducah or Sioux City otherwise?
Anyway, another major highlight was Amy VERY MUCH cementing her place as the best guest. So much sassiness; that Broadway argument and Illinois ramble are quite legendary, among many others. She’s very much a perfect fit to be a part of the main cast. That if somehow Sam, Ben, or Adam aren’t available for any reason, Amy should have taken their place for a season. I’m sorry for Tom Scott, though; we’ll see if he can reclaim his former place upon the next season.
Of course, Badam really has some insane blessing when it comes to not missing flights, despite being tempted by Coca-Cola World or even taking a wrong highway exit in New Jersey. It’s also nice to see the return of Drunk Ben at last, while also saying that my absolute favorite challenge of the season is the Margaritaville one.
It was so fun to try to guess what the actual answers are on these time zones, even though that narrow Samara/Baku/Dubai one is EVIL! Speaking of which, Sam… how DARE you cheat on Buccee’s for Margaritaville! WHY?! D:
Still, I think this format worked so well that this could be used in Europe or even on a smaller scale, like the Japanese prefectures. But of course, you had to include non-EU countries like Serbia and splitting off the UK to make things more interesting with less of a bottleneck, like the Baltics, for example.
And honestly, due to the ever-chill and relaxing vibe that it had (which I honestly didn’t feel fully like this since Schengen Showdown or even Hide+Seek Japan), it was a surprisingly close finish, to boot. I think I’m ranking this right above Schengen Showdown.
This is a controversial ranking, I admit, as the lack of tension and the luck-dependent nature of the season could argue for this being placed below B4A. Heck, if not for Schengen Showdown being ended prematurely as it did, I would have placed it below that too. But nonetheless, other than the Canada Card being obviously the best one, I see no major flaw of this season whatsoever, despite some things needing improvements for future ones.
Of course, as perfectly solid as this season is, it didn’t quite hold a candle to the actual Top Three as I thought. So that’s where I would place this season. Right below the Top Three of Hide+Seek Japan and Switzerland, as well as Tag I. See ya in Japanorama probably later in August, which is the first full season where Badam got broken up.
Oh, also, thanks to these sites for helping me figure out the potential flight options possibly for the future season as well, and later the Margarita Challenge too.
Now here is the updated ranking list for the season. But unlike Taiwan, there isn’t much of a major overhaul since this season didn’t completely wreck how I should perceive this ranking in a full introspection. So the only changes here are the addition of the new seasons around.
Other than that, though, if you would like to rank the seasons yourself, here is the tier list linked down below just for you!
My guidelines for these tier lists so far are
S is goat-ed. A is underrated. B is need work/more. C is broken. And D is unfair/meh.
Magic the Gathering Special: We Played Magic The Gathering in the Real World
Season 16: Hide+Seek in UK
Season 11: Tag Across Europe III (Alpine Barrier)
Season 13.5: Hide+Seek in NY
Season 5: Race to the End of the World in New Zealand
Season 17: Taiwan’s Rail Rush (Push it to be right above NZ if Sam lost)
Season 2: Circumnavigation
Season 15: Tag Across Europe IV (All-Stars)
Season 14: Snake in Korea
Season 6: Capture the Flag in Japan
Season 10: AU$-Tralia
Season 8: Arctic Escape
Tom Scott Special: I chased the Jet Lag team around London
???. Season 19: Japanorama
Guest Rankings:
Amy Muller (Wendover Productions)
Tom Scott (Lateral Podcast)
Brian McManus (Real Engineering)
Michael Downie (DownieLive)
J.T. Chapman (Second Thought)
Toby Hendy (Tibees)
Matthew Krol (Extra Credits)
Michelle Khare (Challenge Accepted)
Joseph Pisenti (RealLifeLore)
Scotty Allen (Strange Parts)
Now, as usual, if you were interested in reading them, here is my raw reaction of the season… So, enjoy it, as this was a lot of stuff to read. So, take your leisure pace on this, okay? Although, despite knowing that this weekend would feature the premiere for Japanorama, it’s still very much unknown when it would be released on Nebula, let alone YouTube.
At least this review is a bit shorter at 4400 words… must be the lack of a steal-induced rant that did it ^^;
TEASER
-First… we got shocking news just now… because the Jet Lag Crew… HAD BEEN RECORDING ANOTHER SEASON ALREADY, WITH AMY ON HER FIRST FULL SEASON?! :O Also, people said Badam took a photo in St. Louis (which did imply National Parks), so let’s hope that we get an actual proper US Season since we somehow didn’t have one, since ARCTIC ESCAPE (And Hide+Seek NY doesn’t count)!
-Okay! We get Teaser for the next Season now! *pause* I… don’t know what the cover of that seemingly Patriotic Song of here (It was Hail Columbia actually)
-We get a freaking indoor Roller Coaster tho. And oh hey, Winter Outfit, to Tennessee! 🙂 And Crayon again? Is this the successor to the Pez Museum from B4A? XD
-But okay, so no Badam switch up this time unlike Hide+Seek NY tho. But uh… Amy’s pretty daring to dress like that in winter o_o
-We seem to have a lot of scenery here, but OH NO, Drunk Ben Challenge is back! D:
-Nice Wood dipping and seems like we get another Cooking Challenge today (Hopefully harder than anything Toby do)
-Wait, just… America? No description at all? Probably for the proper Trailer, isn’t it? *shrugs*
TRAILER
And now, for a big one… where I finally understand… Stateside Scramble, eh? So, we got a Trailer Already, and… As I expected, the season came to YouTube on my birthday, two weeks from now… *Sobs in DownieLive* Oh well… at least they kept the Alliteration from Schengen Showdown’s title though 😦
3. And now… let’s see what do we got on this Trailer here.
-I still wondering if we get some kind of Guest Season where they broke off the Badam Pair, and no, Hide+Seek NY or Tag All-Stars doesn’t count. Would be funny to see Amy got paired up with Ben since… we didn’t try that yet.
-I see, based on the description, this is basically a Race AND Claim Game at the same. They have to change courses and get those States as they slowly got picked and spawn throughout the story. That should solve the big annoyance of Taiwan with the Taipei-biased Challenge Spawn, but… well… can’t exactly completely remove it when there’s a lot more States in the East than the West (Since they’re typically smaller)
-Actually, this idea sounded like it gets me thinking to Bling Bling Scramble, that GTA III Mission by King Courtney
-Still, that means the whole assumption about this season being about the National Park IS false. They went to St. Louis because it’s the easiest to get to in Missouri, NOT because of the Arch.
-Also, I think this is nice to see that we get to see the less explored states in the previous US Seasons, such as the Dakotas, the Carolinas, or also Louisiana for example.
-Ah, the shot of the Morning, with the American Flag… nice. And that’s a good lake too 😀 Also, Nebula’s Theater Mode sucks, why is it SO wide and not tall 😦
-Wild West? Are we back to Wyoming? 😀 And Illinois! *Happy Chicago Noises* And ooh, New Hampshire, we don’t even go past Chicago in previous seasons either. But Nature is NOT a State, Sam! 😡
-Ben, I thought you don’t talk about your girlfriend much, much less marrying her 😦
-But ah… right, so this time, unlike B4A, this is based on Area, so the WEST weight more than the East. Okay, I imagine that in an inverse of B4A, the Tiebreaker would be the number of states, but I don’t think we’d EVER need that right? XD I think I had good hopes for this season already, unlike Taiwan where I need the 1st episode to get me convinced.
-Also, Five Days… cool. Wait, B4A is also five days, right? *Pause* No, that was 4. Arctic Escape is the one with 5… I think?
-But okay, so more like Connect 4 and B4A and less than Schengen Showdown, you could only take the Claim after the Challenges, but 6 on the board is… definitely freer flowing than I thought. I was expecting 2-3 at most.
-Still, I take it that the State will only get rerolled once a challenge is completed. Don’t know if they failed though, like is the State still in play for the other team and only got rerolled once both failed, or… Is it stuck there until someone DID. Also, is the Challenge Randomized in a pool of cards or it State Specific. I’d say the “Reroll upon Fail” only happen in a State Specific Challenge there and not the Pool of Cards one, hm…
-Oh, hello Cussing. Nice music, nice bridge, but I wonder if we get any Limitations on Car Transport just like B4A did. But still, a Winter US Season would be a sight to behold scenery wise, especially up north :3
-Nice Blur on the cards too, but oh wait, that’s for the STATES, not the challenges! My bad! D:
-Hey, nice Hyundai! And Cinema Tavern, Georgia… nice. And Welcome Back, Drunk Ben, I wonder if that’s the Georgian one :3
-“They’re doing this to us?” I hope it’s not a Steak, okay? And Margaritaville, okay… MORE drinking then :p Oh wait, Amy went there too
-And ah… good ol’ Badam High Risk High Reward Strats 😉 And that’s the most vicious roar I’ve ever seen on Jet Lag 😮
-And finally, the Jet in Jet Lag is back on the Season Logo appearing! 😀 And oh no, Mud Challenges 😦
EPISODE 1
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Ben wants to marry Tennessee. Amy had THE LONGEST RAMBLE ever about her hometown. And the Jet Lag Team would like to apologize to the entire Commonwealth of Canada.
-I… think it’s obvious that Samy is the best Portmanteau of the team here 😛 Also, it was THIS close for the first episode to be exactly 1 hour long xD
-Jazzy Intro… that’s one HELL of a Foggy Central Park tho D:
-BORDERING States? Wait, so you can ONLY take States on your borders??? I’m confused Is it just YouTube Caption being a dick?
-Okay, so to Claim, you HAD to do the challenge, so more like B4A or Connect 4 than Schengen Showdown here.
-And just like those Old Seasons, Budgets replenished per day. But hm… cars being counted on the Budget too, considering how car-heavy the US is, I can see why this is how it being nerfed without the Power Ups from B4A. At least they explain the Replenished Budget early instead of later this time however.
-Still, I wonder if Hawaii or Alaska would be at play here, or is it just the Lower 48.
-So, States having to be contagious definitely making a lot of complications on how things to be done here. It did also give incentive to do the smaller states too, so that’s a smart way to do it. Although, I misinterpret the score to be Area-based rather than Contagious Territory back in the Trailer… oops.
-But yeah, this is harder than I thought, considering that the luck of the Cards could mean that you’re stuck with no contiguous territories for a long while.
-And alright, so everyone shares the Card Boards here… at first. And… Amy’s from Illinois, rigged :p
-Wisconsin, UGH! SOMEONE’S going to go there. Then Nebraska, which is not far. Utah… *Happy Chuck Noises* Is Tennessee connected to Illinois tho? And Mississippi, another cluster.
-But yeah, I think it’s easier to fly to Tennessee then down south, right? Also, I can see that stupid tower in B4A already on the background
-And so, Badam just bolted ;3 And I don’t think you could explain such things as you walk out of this Concrete Jungle, Adam… the rain in winter sucks tho 😦
-Question though, is the other team allowed to know the Private Cards upon the Reveal? Makes sense that we get to reveal them SLOWLY here, just to keep the jeopardy alive 😉 But… just in case, those Private Cards, are NOT in the regular deck, right? The mix-up would be horrifying if it did D:
-Okay, so the other team had no idea. Guess the only clue is that the Other Team going to a State NOT in the current deck. Which is a fair balance, rewarding good intuition and guesses. And it also allows some juking to go to a state just for the Transit Purposes because they’re close to the actual ones they intend to.
-I think this Season seems to have no steal tho, and more about… Keeping Information away from your opponents. That’s already a very intriguing concept and start, and perhaps this could be one of my favorite seasons already, even though there’s uh… lack of Scenery, so to speak ^^
-And… Delaware, TINY 😛 While Badam got Louisiana, which is… yeah, EZ get to the South, obvious moves now. Especially with Louisiana, snatching Texas IS possible especially if the Area still exist as a Tiebreaker
-And of course Amy’s biased and picked Chicago 😛 But well, High Risk High Reward is a Badam classic, Sam. ^^ And 9:30 at La Guardia, nice. But well, $424 for 3 States seems worth it to me. *pause* WE STARTED AT 8?! D:
-8:50 at La Guardia? NAH, Sam XD Still, this Season seems to have a BIG Upgrade on the Telemetry Graphics here. Nicely custom ;3 But yeah, Sam’s blessed with so much Flights to Chicago from New York ^^
-Either way, this idea of Contiguous Only really force people to take themselves to States they wouldn’t expect, isn’t it? And I can’t complain much unlike the Taiwan Season since it’s all at the luck of the Card to determine how much they could go to places here.
-And hey! Same Train! Oh wait, NO, I think the Tiebreaker is the number of States that is NOT Connected. So, no Area needed ^^
-Can we have places like Guam or Puerto Rico too as a part of this? XD
-847?! So, the 400 Bucks thing is PER PERSON?! 😡 Funny to see that U-Turn on the Subway tho XD
-Bus? Wait, is LaGuarda not even connected by Rail??? And I guess Taxi/Uber would be counted for the Budget too. Oh hey, a Lucky Bus 😀 Thanks, Mamdani! 🙂 I’m scared about the Airport Security tho; American ones can be a nightmare D:
-Wait, why did you leave the Station later, Sam? 😦 But eh, your bus didn’t matter, your Plane left later too *sighs*
-I mean, where else you going to go? Wait until 1 PM??? Jackson, MS? Utah which is pointless? Or spoil your goal at New Orleans? *sighs*
-Thanks, Text Notification! And… rip Recordings 😦 And wait, Adam’s Sick?! D: And well, Amy, I don’t see any Delta Flight to Chicago earlier, don’t worry about it. Nice bow on the hat tho ;3
-Zen? I guess that whole Bug in Manhattan doesn’t count then? XD *gasp!* No, why is the gate that number?! D: Walkability here sucks though Need to look up that Graceland Song too.
-Never missed a Flight??? *Flashback to Melbourne* And no, that counts, Adam! 😡
-TWO Chicago Flights 15 Minute Apart??? And OOH, so not just simple Discard and Draw at a Challenge, you could also replace one State too. HOO BOY… uh oh O_O
-Good to know that there’s a Veto for this, but… how did we get it. Is it set whenever the Replacing happened? But okay, if the States came in a Pair, then you could only protect one of them. So… I guess getting to a Pair of Connected States is riskier with this whole Discard thing. This is not exactly a Steal, but more of a Reward to complete a Challenge, since they didn’t take that Discarded State for themselves, only making it useless for a while.
-Either way, I think this will intensifies to do the States ASAP to stop the other from ruining your plan. So that’s a good way to deny Stalemate from last season since now you’re being punished for taking too long.
-Minutes, eh? Well… it depends on what Challenge is it tho. But yeah, Sam the Plane Nerd would definitely figure it out xD
-Stupid Risks eh, Amy? Nice to see that you’re more like Badam here. The Chaotic Energy lives on! Rip the Seats though 😦
-And that’s the Sass I like from Amy, eheheheh. And well, Adam, why would they go to Utah? XD
-Hm… can you take that Rental Car straight to Louisiana though? *pause* Monroe to Memphis… 4 and a half hours… nope
-The heck is this site at. And what the fuck with the Car Tax?! 😡 And yep, Rentals and Taxis ARE paid, but not transit, fair enough. *pause* OH… it’s this game penalizing those things by doubling the Prices. It sucks, but I get why to encourage Transit… not in Memphis tho D:
-I guess that also means going across Mississippi to Louisiana is a HORRIBLE idea. Or like, a lot of Long-Distance Rentals too.
-We still had no idea what the Challenge Pool are so far tho. But what is THE Tallest building in Memphis.
-Nice Cowboy Music, but ah… so the Challenge is State-Specific. Thanks, Schengen Showdown! 🙂 Okay, this is basically Schengen Showdown but with Twists on which States you CAN and can’t get to… would be interesting to do this again at Europe too honestly.
-Yeah, it would be fucked up if the Chicken HAS to be in Nashville. But alright, so basically the Hot ones, but you’re probably limited in how many Chickens you can bite. But wait, so they KNEW what the challenge is? Auw… a bit disappointed 😦
-Wow, you can PICK which Rental Car you want? That’s nice, would love that with the American Pie challenge ^^ And oh, cool, Hattie B had a Memphis Branch 🙂
-XXX Your Guts sounds like a scary name I admit D:
-Hm? Uber to where, Sam? And Password? What is the password??? A 20-Question Game? But I think the best way to do this is on the Circular line right? The one that does NOT end. *pause* Oh wait, Metro’s banned, oops! 😀
-This is a challenging one tho, even if you can just take a train straight to Wisconsin while being at it. Although, I started to see that none of these Challenges seems… fallible, only making you waste a LOT of time while doing it.
-The Commuter Rail had nothing for 1 Hour?! What is this, America?! 😡 WHY IS THE LINE OF THIS HATTIE B’S SO LONG?! OPEN MORE BRANCHES! THERE’S JUST ONE! 😡
-But why the Dogs have so many Mascots and none of them are Dogs or Hot Dogs? 😦 But ah… classic 50/50 Divide, just like Hide+Seek. But damn you Field Trip!
-Is the Question even have to be Illinois-related tho? Wait, so Sam got the list of Password and just pick one of them?
-Okay, so the Password IS Illinois… but what do they have to do with Soybeans? Of course, Scav is one of them tho xD And Sam can’t just pick it himself, fair enough. And… Jordan, welp, challenge’s over.
-They have some wacky menu names tho xD But Ghost Peppers? UH oh. And Tenders? Guess you don’t need to pick ones with Bones then. But is the chicken really taking that long? Also, Damnit Spider.
-That’s… LONG! D: Why not just simplify it to “Any Person, Landmarks, Universities, Food, Sport Teams, Art Institute Art, Movie/TV set in Illinois, Actors, Rail History” Also, why counts all Obamas separately *pause* Never mind, this is the most HORRIFYINGLY LONG question I ever read! I thought we only have 1 question here. That’s NOT a Yes/No Question!
-Guess Badam did jinx it there 😦 But that did look delicious though… I want that D: But wait, why did you eat outside?
-If Amy said Bulls, it would be painful. But I guess this train IS more frequent than I thought 😮 But that didn’t look spicy to me… where’s the sauce? I thought we’re in the Hot Ones
-Ugh! I would have thought the Civil War too D: And Two Andrew Presidents? 😮 Also, I thought Ben read the question before Adam took a bite 😦
-Nuts? Adam, you should go to Southeast Asia for a season of Spiciness :3
-Okay, at least the numbers were multiple choices. Still tricky tho Also, why is the question felt much shorter here compared to the Hot Springs in Taiwan despite the lack of time limit? Did they learn from that? *sighs*
-11 PM, Amy? You need to eat better 😦 And Lincoln? Nope, and not the Bulls either. I guess being too Locked In is a bad thing too
-I wonder if Adam had tried Hattie B’s before this. Ugh… how many. Wait, I looked Kentucky! D: I count 7? Oh, 8? Also, nice touch on the Duh there xD But I guess interconnectivity between States IS very important at the end, right? *pause* Oh, the States I name were right, but counted 7! 😛
-Fanta is pretty sure Germany, right? I think Coca Cola or Pepsi? *pause* Oh, Coke is Georgian o_o And sorry Adam, Fanta is Europe, I remember the story well.
-And well, Ben, even after Adam’s done with the challenge, we still had to get that Chicken for lunch eventually, right? 😦
-And oh… Amy chicken out of the Hail Mary earlier 😦 But okay, I THINK I seen the sauce on the chicken now
-HM… New York, would be funny if it came out EARLIER, I admit xD Gonna look up those Cheese, I admit.
-Michigan… PFFT! Would have been NICE if it also shows up before New York! AHAHAHAHA
-Just get a Takeout on the chickens, Ben! 😡 And nope, NOT Bulls :p I wonder about your Spice Tolerance tho. I was thinking about Indiana, but then I FORGOT that Kentucky is in between! AGAIN! D: And look how painfully bored Amy is 😦
-Not going straight to Jordan eh, Amy? Also, renting cars already, Sam???
-Also, I thought you HAD to be in the State to reveal the challenge is too, like Schengen Showdown did. Inches Rock is decently big tho 😮 Still, a Raft for 30 Feet, decently challenging to do for sure. *pause* Even though 9 meters is SHORT as hell xD
-Ah okay, so NOT going to Louisiana immediately first then. Alright, fair enough. The Cowboy Theme is a BOP!
-PFFT, Khanate. That’s funny. But hm… Canada Wild Card?! What the fuck is this… AHAHAHAHAH… This is NOT what I had in mind for Canada’s first appearance in Jet Lag! Still, Canda seems stronger than Mexico since it borders a lot more than just… 4. Unless you can only claim ONE Province.
-Still, removing NY means that the ENTIRE Northeast could not be locked out as soon as Samy got Canada. Either way, HOO Boy. So, I guess they wanted to stop Badam to go past NY and lock down the Northeast first, probably because Samy couldn’t see getting back there fast enough???
-AND… Vermont. That’s Close to Canada anyway xD And Jet Lag PR Department eh. *pause* Wait, REALLY? Canada had no full name???
-Also, Sam’s recording this on Toronto? Is that for next episode? XD That’s definitely the biggest laugh in Jet Lag I had in a while! :p
-Still, imagine how funny a Russia Wild Card be if this Season is applied to Europe too xD
-I take it that you could still get rid of the Wild Card provided if you’re quick enough? Still, I think if Sam were smart, they going to go to Detroit since it also borders Canada. Unless they wanted to knock Vermont too???
-That IS a nice Hyundai Sonata though. And shockingly, the Rail Samy took is a straight line 😮 Still, I’m curious on what kind of flight would they took here.
-So, Ottawa, a Vermont-bound Montreal, Vancouver is dumb since nothing happened in the West yet. And SEE! Amy’s smart, she got my thought with Detroit! 😀 And it’s WAY closer, AND cheaper indeed. But yeah, classic Jet Lag, unexpected places to go.
-But when I think about it, most of these Seasons that relied on actual Money avoid the trap of Bad Steals since your issue is with managing the money itself… *sighs* Except for AU$. *shudders in Brisbane Sign*
-Either way, the whole Card Reroll thing gives the other team SOME Curveball to deal it if they’re too slow, but not one where they could be completely fucked otherwise since it’s mostly only their 2nd Choices that got deleted. If this is considered a Steal System, then that’s a good one to have.
-You two didn’t eat before meeting at Central Park??? 😦 And… Southaven, alright. And yes, Adam, Detroit borders Canada, probably one of the only US Major City that did, other than Buffalo and maybe Seattle, I think?
-Darn! If that’s not Mississippi River, then what is it?! 😡 And Literature? I thought this is a Movie
-That’s a long name, but not expecting a new Segment of this Series at all (Probably since… the Horoscope thing in Arctic Escape, don’t know if there’s anything else after that honestly). Thanks Amy! 😀 The Intro is awesome with their head cut off tho 😮 Wait, 3 Years? So, she worked AFTER Jet Lag started, and… why is it not live in the Chicago Transit? 😦
-Ah, Asking Directly is Banned. Interesting stuff, Amy… good luck! 😀 I started to think you really became my favorite guest now… Sorry, Tom Scott, maybe you had the chance to take your throne back next season xD
-Read This to Look? Weird book title we have here, but… welp, meanwhile me who read like… Fanfiction, for 12 years xD and OOH… it’s Maeve’s Book, good for her! 😀 Also, EUW TikTok! 😡
-And I mean, they knew you WENT to Canada, so they had ample of time to do the Mississippi Challenge too, right? (God, spelling Mississippi every time SUCKS!) Also, Rip 740 Bucks 😦
-No, dropping the Raft from the Bridge is dumb since the rock would definitely fall off from then, never mind me 😦 Nice for Mississippi for replacing their flag recently, but I’m sorry for interrupting your date And well, what Navigable River that is SMALL, alright?
-Welp, glad that they came prepared with the ruler tho. Also, FOUR Hours from Downtown Chicago to O’Hare?! D: But right, that took a LONG while to explain Amy as a guest, isn’t it?
-Also, what is up with the Wendover Production’s Obsession with Obama *whisper* And uh oh, Army! D:
-Wait, you can’t tie the actual raft itself? 😦 And let’s hope that the Survival Crew won’t invite Jet Lag to their show then ^^ And wow, that Raft surprisingly looks Sturdy. Nice one, Adam! But poor Ben tripped :(… TWICE! D:
-And okay, so NY based on their timings, but then again, I DID assume that they went to Louisiana first. Still, I DO wonder if both teams would reveal what their Unused Wildcards are at the end of the Season. Just to see the other’s reaction.
-And let me guess, the Detroit-Canada Bus is SLOW??? And yes, Amy, Time is Money indeed.
-The Raft didn’t move… ok, the Stream seems TOO calm here *sighs* Wait, is the movement downstream or out of the riverbank? At least you COULD shoot it away… or at least tried to
-Amy, you knew what the challenge is, there’s no risk of drowning… unless Ben slipped THAT badly, that is D: And now the poor camera’s dirty too 😦
-That’s not a Stick, Adam, that’s a Rod 😮 And oh no, Flashback to the Adventure Park in NZ! D: That one in Switzerland is NOT a slippery thing, Adam! 😡 And NOO! Rockleberry! D: And too bad that the Raft floats without it 😦
-Yeah, Canada is definitely way more valuable than Michigan at the end… rip. And I don’t know man, considering that challenges are Infallible here unlike in Schengen Showdown, I think they’ll be stubborn. And… cuts back to Pain 😦
-But yeah, the fact that you can’t even tie the Raft itself made this Challenge WAY harder than I thought. Also, yeah, I think 10 Meters is way harder than I thought too D:
-And where the hell they name that plane from, Sam! And I hope that stream’s push is good, because this is a LONG Timelapse
-Hm… South Dakota, that’s going to make Nebraska tempting now. But it’s closer to Samy’s Area for sure. Wait, did Amy say NO to Adam before they took the flight already??? They can preemptively say that? 😮
-And… Georgia! Badam got their wish! I guess that’s why they went to the random Border Town there in the Trailer, isn’t it? But flying to Atlanta? If you say so! I hope that car won’t mind the dirty pants though, the laundry at the next Rest Period must be suck 😦
-So… 3 PM left, 6 PM sold out, and… 7 is too late. Guess that’s why they DRIVE then! :p And EVERYTHIG Else sold out except Chicago which is pointless, and Philadelphia which makes no sense. YIKES.
-Thanks, Sam! You’re a good boss! 😀 What is a Blueberry Water tho 😦 That’s a very blue cup too. And well, all other options seem Crap to me, I don’t think failing Rockleberry that badly was going to change much.
-Also, oh, that long trip did NOT go through Tennessee… damn you Alabama *Sad Buccee’s Noises* They did have one at Huntsville tho.
-But yeah, it’s not like Samy would screw them over before they reached to Georgia due to the Veto thing, so they WOULD go there eventually anyway, unless Samy rolled Alabama after Canada somehow.
-Either way, Connectivity is definitely more important than just plucking states with no rhyme or reason. But I did realize that this Connection stuff takes some ideas from Connect 4 too, so yeah… this Season seems to combine all Claim Territories prior. Contiguousness from Connect 4, the Everchanging Pool of Challenges/States from B4A, and the Country/State Specific Challenge from Schengen Showdown. I love this Season already.
-Still, so far, based on how much I seen here. The fact that it took cues from two of my favorite seasons (B4A and Schengen Showdown), a ‘Steal’ System that is actually properly balanced, the constant jeopardy of guessing the enemy’s move set and preparing for curveball. And also, that Amy being a very entertainingly savvy guess so far. I think I would rank this season pretty high. It might be Second right below Hide+Seek Japan yet, unless someone really make some EVIL plays out there 😉
-Also, Note on Hide+Seek UK here. So, turns out, I found out that Jammed Door is nerfed by doubling the cost, which considering how OP this could be… Yeah, that’s fair.
EPISODE 2
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Badam goes on a Deep South Billboard Roadtrip. The Temptation of the Coke’s Capitalist Allure is real. And Sam had bad relationship with both Jeep and the Roads in Boston.
-56 Minutes, DAMN! This season LOVE its long episodes! O_O
-I don’t know why Memphis had no Noon Flight to Atlanta man 😦 And hey, Amy got off the plane first! 😀
-Ahahahah… of course Amy would reference the Civil War 😛 Well, setting up connections is good, but I hope you don’t repeat Taiwan and didn’t focus on just claiming the States as you should.
-Wait, so the Wild Card is NOT just Canada (and maybe Mexico)? Hm… I wonder where all of these
Margaritaville tho.
-NAH, they won’t do that flight. They have a challenge to do, Amy ^^ But well, I guess it IS cheaper… until ^^
-Yeah… 225 Bucks, with RENTAL TAXES! D: And well, with Hertz, WHERE did you change the locations at?! D:
-I mean, any SUV nowadays are literal roadkill towards Pedestrians, Sam *sighs* At least they’re on the same budgets now. And… sorry, Border Patrol ^^
-Hm… is Windsor even that big enough for these Stuff? Perhaps the tradeoff for these Wildcard is that these challenges are harder, and with 60 Minute Limit. It seems fallible too. Don’t know how can you find Bilingual Sign outside of Quebec tho.
-Also, what does Sorry had to do with Canada??? But come on! That Hockey Stick should have been real! 😡
-Still, glad that Researches for the Challenge is banned. But OH! So, you can try it per province… welp, should have done it in Montreal I guess xD It IS a huge penalty indeed still, since they’re ALL far apart. Also, I didn’t spot that Celsius… oops ^^;
-I mean, Amy, I think with this challenge, going to a tiny town is a horrible idea. But yeah… Motor City, while you’re driving a KOREAN 😛 But yeah, Traitors xD
-Yeah, those pipes are scary, alright 😦 But I thought the Exceptionality here is a Great Lakes VS Rockies Bias between you two xD
-Oh… you only need to go 8, I thought it was all 10. Fair enough. But why do we have a Welcome Sign upon LEAVING Detroit??? :/- Oh, never mind 😦
-No, Sam, it’s GM. Amy must have pulled a picture of that for a HAI video xD Still, I thought the border is a bridge, but love that fancy vintage “To Canada” sign there 🙂
-SWEET HOME ALABAMA! 😀
-But seriously guys, a Train Race across Canada, or even an AUS$ Style game there would be perfect.
-Wait, if Ontario is failed, then is the rewards EXCLUDES Ontario if they’re succeeded later on? xD
-The Border guy knew what they’re up to 😉 AND… this Tom Horton’s already here. Time for a Backtrack! 😀 *pause* Oh, they’re banned if you saw it? Shit 😦 Still, I want to feel that ice man *sobs*
-Guess they got to get it before Rest Period then? xD but right… a City Hall should have a Dual Language sign. That’s true, Sam. Also, I thought the time limit is 50 minutes for some reason… oops ^^
-Legal Aid??? Ok, Canada You should try the Toronto Maple Leaf Stadium- oh wait xD And the Tourism Office is being sassy today :p but surely a book would contain the word “Sorry”, right???
-NO, you don’t call her, Ben! You’d be dragged out into Mobile AL! D:… inb4 the next card is Alabama 😛
-That’s a nice tourism sign though, Ontario 🙂 But ugh… the Winter is DEFINITELY the worst time to find any Maple Trees D:- wait, it came from Norway???
-HOW hell did that goose were up there?! I thought they can’t fly! D: *pause* Apparently, they can 😦 And no, Sam, it’s a Batgoose
-What is this stall that says “Sorry” tho? But Downtown Circles, eh? And sorry Sam, I think those Temperature Signs are only a thing on Highways
-Imagine if someone ACTUALLY edit a roadside sign here with the Snack Zone logo xD Didn’t know that Adam’s a Southerner tho. Congrats on the Propose by the way 😀
-Guess the Pig’s Smell thing is truer than I thought after all, Ben ^^ And… not exactly “Quiet”, but close enough, Ben 😀
-I mean, is Windsor Arena even a Hockey Stadium specifically tho And… rip the Silhouette xD At least there’s more than 1 Tim Horton’s in this town tho.
-But ah… it’s a Lays Ketchup. I don’t like the sound of that tho. Where’s my Fries Snack man! 😡 And… back to Detroit Airport, I guess?
-Seeing a HUGE Yellow on Canada like that on the map is OMINOUS man D: And DC is at play again (Puerto Rico and Hawaii when!) You guys should just not go for THE obvious one to not get Veto’d. And perhaps if it DID get Vetoes, you get the obvious one instead *shrugs*
-But… but you can have it close to Delaware via Maryland, Sam, WHY?! D: And New Hampshire, well that’s a package with Vermont there. But yeah, both of them are connected to Canada too. And well… do YOU want to drive across a quarter of Canada, Sam? XD
-But well, if you guys roll North Dakota, that would be horrifying indeed. And oh, there IS a Bridge after all ^^
-And Boston instead of Montreal, fair enough xD I think car’s better tho, Amy, since how else would you going to go to Vermont, a very secluded State?
-That is NOT Snack Zone, Adam! 😡 And okay Train, that is not funny either And well, imagine if that train to the Airport got delayed, Sam, where did you stop for the day? XD And come on! That “N” is not even lit up! 😡
-And California? Too far 😦 Unless you got Mexicos. And WELL, Sam, at least it DID border Canada, mwahahahahah!
-And of course the South have a fucking Gun Store Billboard *shakes head* UH OH, that’s a bad sign there D: But oh, NOW we’re finally in Georgia… somehow after that Flea Sign
-Coca Cola Ad… is this why they’re almost missed that flight? 😦 Also, this Ad better not be AI -_- Still, speaking of questions from the Hot Ones last episode 😉
-OH No… flip a bottle again?! This is BAD *Flashback to AUS$* I mean 10 minutes per try?! D: At least 2 people can try at once tho. But wait, no new murals in 21st Century? 😦
-Maybe Seattle is good for late-game move, but definitely not now xD And Des Moines is like Central or East Iowa, so that’s dumb
-And Albany is later AND also more expensive? Ouw :(- 500?! D: But okay, I guess that Rental Car Tax is to simulate the fact that you basically pay for two people and not just one… just like Flights did, right?
-But yeah, East Coast is SO attractive for how dense they were. But oh… so that conundrum happened because they can’t book the JetBlue… ouw 😦
-Not sure what kind of bottle would work the best honestly, probably the short one? But that zoom to Mountain Dew tho xD
-But I mean, they HAD to finish it, otherwise this LONG-ass trip is pointless! 😡 Amy is Sympathetic? Maybe, but Sam? Definitely not ._.
-Did Sam even know these other three’s birthday though? 😦 Have fun with the hairdo tho, Amy. But the hat holes are on the back and not front, right? And Sam remembers her birthday! *pause* Amy’s younger than me, by the way *sobs*
-1100??? Wait, I thought the plane is 500? Where did the extra 100 went?! 😡 I think if it’s this pristine, the Mural had to be remade
-DAMN YOU, DISCONNECTED MIC?! 😡 Makes Waves? Is this the “Waving Flags” reference? Also, no, you wasted half of them! D:
-Oh… no, so Ben and Adam can’t make separate tries, they share a same counter 😦 Cushion is an interesting strat tho. Wait, what? A Train IN an Airport like that, on Detroit of all places?! :O
-And… another Amtrak Jinxing 😦 Nice Static Screen tho :)… AND of course Adam succeeded right after 😦 And YOU wrote this 10 Minutes Adam?! AARGH! D; And it is a Disaster already, Amy 😦
-First time I heard someone call Sam “Samuel” O_O And things got so bad they moved across the Train Tracks 😦 *pause* OH… that was an Incline… HAIYA… *pause* FIRST TRY TOO?! *sobs* Wait, BOTH OF THEM, NOT EITHER?! THAT’S WORSE! D:
-Ohio is weird, since it does NOT touch Canada… ouch for Samy. Could be used to block off them but that’s it… for now at least. And OH… National Parks Wild Card, that’s why people think it’s a National Park Season.
-Wait, Nuclear Plants? How many are there in the US??? And hm… is this why they went to St. Louis? It borders Tennessee and Nebraska, it’s SO distinctive that people cannot get it wrong too. Yeah, I get it now. But 0.5X zoom is a bit weird tho ._.
-Yeah, Acadia looks far, especially since Samy would stop at New Hampshire challenge too. Still, I like these Wild Card stuff, it makes the Board not as completely debilitatingly limited as you think.
-But damn, so much snow on Boston right now o_o And damn you Plane Wi-Fi! 😡 And good ol Secluded Maine, sorry Crows ^^
-Mammoth Cave for ANOTHER long drve?! I get the Ohio idea, but hm… Great Smoky in North Carolina too eh
-Sorry Amy, but Trains in America are SLOW, especially in rural Maine And I think the Bois are TIRED of Long Drives after Georgia too xD *pause* and YEP, Missouri DID border Nebraska.
-I mean, 30 minutes for Planes is quite nice of a window there. And well, Amy, MAYBE there’s a Mural hidden in the Coca Cola World somewhere 😛 Wait, since when Coca Cola has TWO HUNDRED FLAVORS?! Also, FANTA! 😀
-I think the floor were like that from so much soda spilled on the floor, Ben 😦 And Blind Taste Test? Bonus Challenge for Georgia I guess XD And ah yes; Melon Fanta is classic here.
-I wonder what’s Famous Missouri Drinks there tho? And ah… those Covered Bridges. Mark would love this too :3
-But okay, so basically a good difficult measuring challenge. That’s nice… but damn, banning walking across it too? Ouch
-Another Shuttle to the Rental? Eesh, this SUCKS! *pause* BOIS! You missed the Highway Exit too?! D:
-You know, I admit that the challenges Samy experienced today is less exciting nor painful enough to be worthy to be on the Intro… which is sad but it is what it is.
-Still, literally no complaints or issues on this Season so far, which is such a GOOD sign. Probably because the Challenges being balanced around Time Wasters instead of Outright Failing will do that to you.
-Okay, Amy that IS a Jeep… but the red one is a Jeep too! D: At least it made sense for those off-road-y covered bridges… I hope. Wait, you just got in? Where did you get the keys at??? Also, Navigating? Should have used a Lincoln :p
-HOW MANY MESS ON THAT MAP YOU DID, BOYS?! D: But that is, a LOT of Airlines on that Sign there tho O_O And there’s more shuttle too?! D:
-But you’re right. This is the first time Missouri is in Jet Lag too. But no… don’t remind me of that stupid Dice… I forgot that it’s not on Sarasota… 😦 it’s Season 8 by the way. And oh no, Long Pre-Check Lines! D:
-Really Sam? You dare going through Boston with no navigation??? And ah, razzing, more reason for me to like Amy there. I love sassier guests 😉
-Exit? Yeah, I’m as confused as you are. But well, going across Massachusetts with no map within a time limit sounds like an interesting challenge, I admit. (Like, if they failed, they had to take a different road)
-Could they finish the Massachusetts- I MEAN NEW HAMPSHIRE Challenge after they found where did they get to in the Flights tho, I wonder but yeah, devastating (Remember the horror of Badam in Grand Canyon in B4A?)
-11 MINUTES, NO! D: And Terminal N? Is Atlanta Airport SO BIG they put Terminals in Letters instead of Numbers?! And they took ANOTHER TRAIN?! D:
-Really? That Bridge is THAT deep into the State? Rip the Sign too 😦 But wait, String? I get the idea, but I thought you cannot cross the Bridge itself. *pause* OH… the river, that’s smart, but is the river even possible to traverse across on foot tho???
-Also, “How many Sam’s heights” as a measurement… VERY America 😛 OH Ben clutched it for seeing Southwest, if Adam went to Customer Service, they might not make it at all.
-PHEW! That was a close call! 😦 Or just… not go at all, why didn’t you do it after Arctic Escape? D: Als, thanks for the Nebula Plug for the full cut on that place 😦
-That is a HUGE Roller there. Can you even bring it back to a plane? And uh… chuck it to the rocks? You sure that won’t just… fly off into the stream? And now I’m curious about that Hot Dog. But NO! Not that Soup! It’s disgusting, Sam! D: You could just use a Candy Canisters instead! D:
-Also, euw, Leaf, I know the Cards is for the challenge tho, so… doesn’t count. Who came up with that, by the way? 😦
-What drink are you paying at tho, Amy? I’m curious 😦 And Invalid Scan? *sighs* Another reason NOT to be on Self-Checkout then
-I mean, what could Samy get rid after that then? Nebraska? But well, imagine if Sam’s Luck somehow rolled Vermont or Maine anyway, right??? XD And well, for Delaware, the answer is 1 if you didn’t get rid of New York earlier *shrugs*
-At least the road itself is not frozen too 🙂 But huh… Amy, did you pick this bridge knowing that this is SHORT? Just curious 😮
-I think the dogs hate Jeep too 😛 But yeah, those Slats looks very standardized, probably a shockingly easier way to do this than I thought *Flashback to the Hakka Roundhouse*
-Sam, if you use this stuff for the Third Time, you REALLY need to measure your goddamn legs *facepalm*
-Can you count how long is that twine though, Amy? Just wondering. And hoo boy, Amy had trust issues with men D:
-And… congrats with being spot on again. Curious what happened if they ended up with much longer bridges tho.
-HMM… Wisconsin came back, which is interesting, but they need Minnesota or Michigan to truly connect Illinois with the rest. And yep, figures it was Nebraska, so good luck getting North Dakota or some shit xD
-Well, good on them, Massachusetts. No need for Cliffhangers, and they could do it before Badam land in St Louis for all I know Alright, 3rd Episode would be spicy indeed ;)… rip their breaths tho 😦
-I already put this in Second, but… with how perfect this thing tho… this being number 1 on my ranking is possible 😮
-Ah… so the Wild Cards can also be used to unknowingly steal Privates States. That’s a yike, but well… they had no idea that the other team had that State booked, so… is that really a Steal then? Or is it just the usual “Wrestling Over Territories” and such? *shrugs*
You know, I started to notice something strange here. Like, why is the trailer feature Ben and Adam going to Illinois… Despite Sam and Amy already taking it in Episode 1? Don’t tell ne that State Steals would be a thing this season, and you could VERY EASILY just break up someone’s territory in half and ruin everything… OH NO…
EPISODE 3
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Sam tried flexing on his thighs. Drunk Ben had finally returned with vengeance. And both Ohio and New Jersey slipped across the Bostonian Winters.
-45 Minutes? A little shorter compared to the last two episodes, I see xD Still appreciate these glowing lights on the US Map tho ^^
-Ah, Lucky Massachusetts Card. But if you guys wrote the challenge, you should have wrote “Navigating the Boston Highways” before this xD
-And… of course Amy had to gloat about that :p *pause* Uh… Lemon? Poor John Lemon 😦 Also, how LONG is that route honestly Still, I can hear that this would be painful
-Wait, when it says “It dies”, does that mean you had to buy another Lemon???
-I don’t know, Sam, women typically had thicker thighs And ah, Gun-Emoji, very American, Ben ^^ Rip Camera tho 😦
-Oh… that’s a Southwest Airplane to St. Louis, eh? Either way, good luck getting rid of Wisconsin, Adam… man, must be sad to be a Wisconsinan this season 😦
-That Airport looks SO CLOSE downtown tho 😮 And Poor Ben, stuck on the Disembark 😦
-Okay, Light Rail, nice one, St. Louis 🙂 *pause* No, it’s the opposite… with 50 Bucks tax no less D:
-Well, Wisconsin isn’t exactly perfect compared to Michigan now, but… eh *shrugs* Why is there a dark spot on New York’s map though 😦
-Amy, the only time we went to Wisconsin is back on Arctic Escape *sighs* But I don’t know, how amused Adam would be in seeing Massachusetts in the board, isn’t it? And… Sam’s right, he’s spiraling *shakes head*
-Hello, Google Form. But honestly, I can’t blame the Wild Card itself for having this obscenely easy challenge for St. Louis. So, I’ll blame the US instead for making THIS place a National Park in the first place *sighs*
-Can’t just take the Arch’s photo from the car, isn’t it? 😛 I saw some fog on the road in Boston here tho ._.
-GRASS FED?! Sam! They’re Lemons, NOT LAMBS! 😡 Didn’t know Boston had its own Obelisk tho ._. And that smile scares me, Sam 😦
-Wait, an UBER from Airport to the Arch is 50 BUCKS?! 😡
-It got bad? What happened to those Polls? Unless it’s just… Twitter being bad in general? *Shrugs*
-What are you sniping them for guys? 😦 Soft and Oblong? Just to fit them between your thighs? I start to sense potential innuendo on this challenge along man 😦 Actually, what does Massachusetts had to do with lemons again? *pause* Nope, should have used Tea Bags 😀
-The Old Willys? Maybe. But definitely not in that modern Pavement Princess, Amy *sighs*
-Actually yeah, if they got Wisconsin, Samy could just pick between Minnesota or Michigan to connect instead of being stuck with the latter here.
-Yeah, those Arch is WAY thicker on the inside than I thought o_o But what is the best Wrong tho? 😀
-Oklahoma! That’s for Badam! Can go to Texas, start building to California too! 😀 And yeah Ben, they going to veto Massachusetts anyway, it doesn’t matter xD and… Kentucky, too bad they used the Chicken Challenge already for Tennessee… 😦
-I can’t deny that it’s rigged tho ^^
-Is Paducah close enough to say… Louisville? But Nashville then goes north to Kentucky felt like detour to me True, blocking off more way out of Illinois sounds good. But AH… I get why the trailer shows Badam going through Illinois now. NO STEAL! HAHAHAH! HELL YEAH! 😀 If this season had some actual evil plans, this might actually overtake Hide+Seek Japan as my favorite.
-But did you know what Kentucky’s Challenge is Ben? Voiceover does NOT count! 😡
-How much out of those Wine Barrels you need to get drunk? OH NO D: And Nashville’s expensive, so car it is even with taxes. What’s worse than having one more road trip, isn’t it? 😛
-Stay Here? For what? What is the purpose of that??? But ah… Rip Oklahoma then… and New Orleans too 😦
-But seriously, NO AIRPORT IN KENTUCKY?! *pause* Yeah, Cincinnati and Louisville. Paducah has a
small one too actually. *pause* Actually yeah, Louisville is pretty far
-And… too bad the Snow buried the rest of the plaque there 😦 And both, so not just one member. Also, 524 Feet is… 160 Meters, quite a decently hard distance honestly. Wait, so this Paul Revere ran for 16 Kms?! D:
-Laughably Easy? Amy, please don’t jinx yourself. Also, NO, NOT THAT SHOT! D: And uh… I hope the practice is the lemons and not shitting your pants, Amy 😦
-And… Amy just completely didn’t give a fuck about this, hahahaha! And back to Enterprise! As if that 500 bucks add-on to Atlanta isn’t bad enough 😦 Also, I thought Car Rentals only exist in airports 😮
-Oh… no cars too 😦 At least they COULD order one for us… phew. But I guess Smaller Cars are cheaper to rent than those gas guzzlers?
-I almost thought Amy had a skirt. But yeah, if 160 meters is THIS easy, perhaps we should limit this to Skirts instead of Pants ;p At least nobody complained in the comments tho 😉
-I don’t know. Easy Challenges benefitted Sam A LOT in Taiwan. The difficulties there are a joke sometimes *Cough*Hsinchu Zoo*cough* -_-
-At least you guys weren’t Jaywalking *shakes head* And be patient, Sam, you should have taken a pee BEFORE doing the challenge ^^
-NO! NO! Don’t slam that poor Lemon! D: Okay, yelling “The British Were Coming” throughout the whole challenge makes it harder, or at least annoying xD
-Yeah, can’t let them know that they’re renting a car to Kentucky, isn’t it? And oh… so that’s the Bridge Shot from the Trailer, they’re bluffing… GODDAMNIT! XD
-Arizona, well… Oklahoma is increasingly tempting to connect to Cali, isn’t it? Surprised you guys picked Ohio tho, but I guess you don’t want them to go to the Cincinnati Airport and cockblock Illinois further *shakes head*
-SWEET HOME ALABAMA! A bit insulting that they got a bit too late tho… another Deep South Road Trip then? 😛
-Fly to Atlanta again, Adam? XD And… sorry Boarding Time, should try to fly or drive from Kentucky instead if you’re lucky ^^
-Still, it is true, Samy’s completely blank option-wise. I mean, what could they do now? SEATLLE??? Acela to Delaware??? I start to feel that Samy regretted dumping on Ohio now *shakes head*
-Oh yeah, they had a tracker on, so why did you two hide, Badam. This is not B4A! 😀
-Yeah, Seattle… unless the Private Card tomorrow gave them… I don’t know, Pennsylvania (New York was NOT in the private card, Ros!0
-But hey, having to wait to know your Private Card did bring more jeopardy still. It’s not fun if you knew all of your good hands, right?
-Yeah… really should have gone to the Airport, isn’t it? 😦 But yeah, is completing Kentucky before the Rest Period plausible? Unless you’re speeding?
-Well, Amy, I’m not sure if I had an idea of who’s winning until the last day at least, but yeah… there is Washington ._.
-IT’S NOT SALT LAKE, SAM! 😡 And no Amy, no harassment! And um… I don’t know man, Boston isn’t exactly a city you’d think of when talking about “Fun” here
-248… at least it’s not as horrible as the Deep South Roadtrip o_o And I hate you, Narcistic Photographer! 😡 OH, COME ON! Glitching tablets too?! 😡
-Alright, pray for traffic it is 😦 But well, not even they had any clue on what to do until Day 3 ^^
-Ah… Lobsters and Clams, right? *pause* wait, is Margaritaville even a local at all??? *pause* pfft, wrong door xD
-Wait, the bar’s section is actually called 5’oclock? 😮 And now seeing Amy without the hat looks wrong 😦 Badam’s already halfway on the drive?! 😮
-No… I don’t see that Illinois Shot from the Trailer, it’s got to be for later like, including when Badam U-Turned to St. Louis or some shit ._.
-George Harrison had a billboard? But yeah, 5 minutes to get drunk is… hard And sure UNESCO, sure *shrugs*
-Is it even okay spending THIS much time dining in this one place tho? But you know, perhaps you should try getting rid of the more useless state to get something better instead of tightening your Slots than you should. Like, get rid of Utah, Arizona, or Nebraska pretty much. And it’s Day 2, Sam
-Yeah, that is a SMALL tight bridge indeed o_o And Ohayou, Ohio River! 😀 Also, love that stallion on the Kentucky Sign 😉
-Wait, there’s a different distillery that’s open earlier, Adam? Where? *pause* I almost yelled that you didn’t turn off the Jeep, but turns out there’s a Rental Guy there ^^
-I presume Badam can’t just delay announcing their completion just to screw over Samy until the next day, isn’t it?
-5 Minutes left?! D: Good luck, Bartender! And oh, people’s cheering already! 😀 Okay, now I feel bad that he took a wrong job 😦 #BartenderForJetLag! Wait, why did you need Passport on a US Season- OH WAIT, Canada xD
-3 Minutes Left, Ben! And hungry, eh? You better eat after this! 😉 1 Cup left for the last two minute!
-True, Ben back to be sober after this thanks to Rest Period means that the con of this challenge is annulled! 😉 But Ben, that’s Bourbon, not Whiskey But yeah, this looks like a nice retirement town for sure ^^
-Yeah, Ben could have enjoyed this a lot more if he’s not drunk 😦 But yeah, Margaritaville felt like nothing compared to your local restaurant business *shakes head*
-Hm… I like the sound of that cornbread :3 And hello, funny Snack Zone Filters XD Also, Ben, shouldn’t you just drink water after being drunk like that? 😦
-AND WHY WOULD YOU EAT A COTTON CANDY, BEN?! D: *pause* it’s a Complementary, NO! D:
-And hey, Holiday Inn! *pause* Auw… the Drunk Adventure is Nebula Only 😦
-Coastal Elites? I thought Ben’s hometown at around… Maryland is not Coastal, based on Crime Spree ._.
-Hm… I had to know what that murals are, someday. And ah… nice sax tho :3 And Silent Brigade Distillery… alright… that looks open to me tho ._.
-And auw… the hangover still hang on 😦 And wouldn’t see these Clock Bells happening in larger places, that’s for sure ^^
-I think Samy’s tired enough of Boston to just… get to the card xD *pause* NJ! Should be connected to both Delaware and also New York if it’s on the board again! 😉 *pause* Oh… never mind. Poor Jersey. Is this a major Samy Blunder tho? Who knows 😦
-Imagine if New Mexico Spawns much to Badam’s delight. And… Virginia, a bit better but still a foolish choice *shakes head*
-I started to think that this season could Snowball actually. Since the more States you have, the more you could border to, and therefore making it easier and easier to connect. HOO BOY…
-Eh… Iowa is alright, which means they COULD go to South Dakota safely too. And it’s time to record, Amy! 😀
-Yeah, Virginia connects to… 4. DC, Maryland and West Virginia. On top of North Carolina. And speaking of Private Card, what’s yours? *pause* Maryland, AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Welp, DC TIME! 😀 Welp, I think Sam’s screwed. I get getting rid of New York back then, but that NJ is a big fumble. This starts getting funny, can’t wait to see if this season could REALLY surpass Hide+Seek Japan after all.
-Auw… you didn’t take photo of that Downtown Paducah last night? 😦
-Sam, Minneapolis is too far from those two. And these Western States are much larger than the east. *pause* 1500, at noon?! WHAT THE FUCK?! D: And Fargo I think is even worse, and Chicago sounds even dumber.
-Nebraska maybe. Welp, guess Samy’s stuck… should have kept that New Jersey, right? *Shakes head* And bad drive times? So, the Rentals had issues too… again?
-Seattle… that’s horrible because it means that they basically HAD to lose South Dakota at the end. HAIYA… And sorry Amy, I think what you did is to NOT get rid of New Jersey *shakes head*
-IT’S MARCH 7TH! 😀 *pause* Sorry xD and wut, Payment Failed now??? 😮 And oh no, Too Close to Departure? Yeah… this sucks ._.
-Seeing the comments tho, going to Virginia to block Badam is a sound argument, but only if they know that there’s a Private Card on Maryland and that they got Veto’d anyway if they took too long to claim it.
-You know it’s serious when Sam took out a freaking Tripod o_o And ooh, love that chimes on the Gazebo there, Paducah 😮
-Yeah, going back to St. Louis DID sound cheaper *Flashback to Atlanta* And “TO St. Louis”??? You mean “FROM”, right?!
-Can they really reach Nashville that quickly though? Guess Delayed Flight is the scary one because your money could be gone on top of the additional Car Tax that they had to pay AGAIN! 😡 Welp, back to St. Louis it is!
-And well, 5 hours to go around DC Metro to do both Maryland and Virginia doesn’t sound too bad tho. You just had to wait for any future plannings for later.
-St. Louis… pretty soon of a flight too. That’s honestly ironic considering what Badam just done, but… HMM… And how the hell did you get Montana from, Sam?! 😡
-But… yeah, I guess by the time Badam done Virginia (Most likely they done it first), they got rid of South Dakota unless they did veto it, but… we’ll see.
-Yeah, imagine if they were on the wrong terminal of Boston Logan right now *FLASHBACK TO CRIME SCREEN*
-I mean, yeah, Iowa is private, so that’s not obvious, but why would they go to a State Badam already had is the confusing part
-Excess Time, eh? *FLASHBACK TO COCA COLA WORLD* Imagine if you bought Coke at McDs too *shakes head*
-Which McD is this? Still, I imagine people are a bit angry last time that there’s a Taiwan Challenge involving McD Also, imagine if both of them found each other at the St. Louis Airport :p
-921… welp, there goes ALL of their budgets for the day D: But yeah, those Expensive Flights could determine your loss if you REALLY need one on the last day o_o
-Ah, more Sea Food… classic Boston ^^… did Amy hate Clam Showder tho? Also, *ANGRY NORTH DAKOTA NOISES*
-Didn’t know they put the Airline Alliance on the goddamn door tho 😮 And uh… aren’t you going to FLY INTO that same Storm, Sam, which is even worse???
-Pfft… that’s a nice ‘dance’, Amy xD and well… I mean, SLC and Arizona COULD connect to Washington and Canada via Idaho, but… I think this season hates Utah man 😦
-Nah, I think they just choked hard, Adam. You’re overthinking it And the Drop-Off is Far from the Airport??? Sighs… here we go again, Rentals
-Wait, you two eat again? :/… or was it the McD from earlier? 😦 Wait, they’re getting close, WE GET THE BUTTE FLIGHT MOMENT AGAIN! 😀
-There is a point that Massachusetts is the first challenge that we’re STUCK in a certain place. It would make sense if it’s just… like, walk 5% of the Night Run instead of 1% but you could do it anywhere in the State, but maybe that would be too difficult *shrugs*
-But driving to New York for better connection instead? Hm… CAN Samy even reach it before the Rest Period tho.
-You know, I started to think that considering this, B4A, and Schengen Showdown. I started to realize that, Hot take, Snowball Seasons were of my favorite kinds of season. Because they seem to reward being a better team and maybe having some lick at the draw than anything else. That is, as long as A. It wasn’t had something stupid on it that keep solely one team ahead like NZ’s Roadblocks, or an already obvious Steepness like Getting Stuck at Utqiagvik in Arctic Season.
-However, if this Season snowballed so hard it ends prematurely again, I HAD to put this below Hide+seek Japan at least
EPISODE 4
Tonight, on Jet Lag! St. Louis Rentals are Cursed. Sam and Amy had an Old Married Couple Argument. And there is a God in form of the Visitor Center.
-You know, I wonder what the other’s reaction would be if a Private Card is known to the other team yet they couldn’t do anything about it 😉 And sometimes, Patience is NOT a virtue right? 😦
-Wait… Ben, how did you find and more importantly SEE that exact place they’re arriving at from your Terminal 😮 But MAN Ben really doesn’t want to meet them again *Sobs in Butte*
-But yeah, what Samy’s doing right now doesn’t matter to what they do indeed *shrugs* But alright, Ronald Reagan Time!
-True, it would be BAD if Badam reached DC and completed the Virginia challenge before they could complete Iowa. So… here comes a race again! 😀 But hoo boy, back to that storm which made the flights longer o_o
-WAIT, what I said earlier didn’t matter because Iowa is private. So, guess their aim is to eliminate Alabama instead then *shrugs* And ah, Adam’s already settling on a Psychological Warfare, I see ^^
-I hate it when there’s only ONE person on the teller man -_- And ooh… it’s Budget, no wonder—THIRTY MINUTES?! D:
-Hm… typically I don’t have Audience Sympathy for Sam, but here… I guess? But Amy’s got the right mindset. We don’t care! 😀 *pause* ANOTHER 30 MINUTES?! D: How is it this bad?! This is an Airport! 😡 But man… glad that Badam took an Uber to the Arch instead, isn’t it?
-Surprised you could talk in the plane with these other passengers, Ben, but alright then ^^ Also, yep, your guess is right! It’s Iowa 😉
-Uh… I don’t think that segment had to do with the Moon, Amy ._. But that intro felt a bit sad at the end 😦 Still, that’s a GOOD outfit, Amy :O
-What would upset him? That Lipstick??? But well… based on the Chiang Kai Sek Challenge in Taiwan… maybe??? But huh, Katy Perry Wig? NAH! I don’t like that idea, Amy 😦
-Wait, that doesn’t answer whether this line is faster than going to the Moon, Amy, COME ON! 😡
-Not Married! Nice one, Teller… I wonder if Sam had any girlfriend tho, HMM… But yeah, this is going to be long, so two drivers for sure. But Ford Escape… somehow that fits their current predicament ._.
-288 Bucks gone now, yikes… is this really a BUDGET Rental though? 😦 But you’re not a boy, Amy
-I thought that’s the sound of a drill, transition o_o And uh… Adam, have you check where they are now?\
-Welp, at least you ARE in Virginia now. Time for the Challenge! 😉 Yeah, I think they’re back as long as they could connect to Canada. If not then… it’s a moot point *shrugs*
-Ah, Missouri River, crossing through the middle of the State instead of the edge of it, right?
-Okay, Hottake with Sam… um… I had to look that up. DIdn’t know that Lion King had a Broadway performance ._. But Sam… CAN you really bring live animals into the Theater? D:
-AND… Adam just cut their argument while saying “Don’t focus on them”. Damn evil! XD
-That sliver of Virginia at the Chesapeake on the map man… And EIGHT Presidents?! HOLY! :O
-Okay, so they don’t need to match which President in which birthplace here. But No Names nor Years, interesting twist right there, probably because it’s too easy right?
-And you can only use the Wikipedia List of US Presidents… Does that list even contain WHERE did the President get born tho??? *pause* NOPE* But okay, so if they failed, they had to go to another Birthplace. A total of 8 Attempts then?
-Either way, this being random basically cannot let you cheese it and pick the easiest President for sure. And James Monroe’s right near the Potomac… nice!
-But huh, a Double Rental into Downtown DC… that’s an interesting strat there 😮 Didn’t know they had one in a Train Station at US tho. And they INTEND to go to Baltimore too, alright then.
-OH WAIT, so the Rental Drop is to DC then took a Train to Baltimore, Ah… Also, isn’t that a KIA? Damn, Adam’s got a penchant for Korean Cars this season 😮 But I agree that Rental in Saint Louis is HORRIBLE.
-Oh man, that debate got HEATED xD But yeah, Virgin… all while Sam and Amy bickers like married couple xD
-Pretty early for Monroe, eh? Let’s hope that a Founding Father like him have a pretty distinctive Speech… if they aren’t forced to pick random that is
-I’m surprised there’s even any Cartoonist in the 19th Century at all o_o And no, Sam, they left the Airport a long time ago And you guys were 13 minutes late to your destination, hm… Interesting.
-Yeah, Iowa first makes sense since if the goal is to do it before Badam took Virginia, especially since they would protect South Dakota regardless if they failed or go straight there first.
-And no Sam, Iowa and Illinois aren’t connected yet *shakes head*
-I… admit I didn’t realize that South Dakota DID touch Montana tho o_o but yeah, you just had to pray that Minnesota, North Dakota, or Montana popped out tomorrow and Badam didn’t delete either of them between Virginia and later Maryland. And backtracking to St. Louis after ALL of that is horrible! D:
-So, find an open farm, and make a sculpture of an animal inside, not HAVE to be a cow specifically. And if you fail, you cannot use the same animal… ok! Simple enough as long as you don’t botch it.
-Uh… is it a Grocery Store, or a Farm to get the Butter Stick, hm… Or rather Block, I guess? And hoo boy, that’s an IRL Raptor from GTA! :O
-Woke History Class is a thing??? And Bob Dylan too??? But yeah, you could get screwed if you rolled an obscure president for sure.
-Still, I think these long car drives, first time seeing it since New Zealand to this extent honestly, is a pretty nice time to not just chill, but also to see the sceneries and not just glossing over them with the Rails. So nice that we have novelties like this especially in the less explored part of the US.
-Nice Long Train there 😮 But 9 minutes… it IS a tight call there 😮 I’m more distracted by the Des Moines River Sign tho ^^ But oh god, stop that constant zoom, Amy D:
-Hello One Way Sign and a simple not-touristy House 🙂 Also, Mistletoe in March??? *pause* Wait, NO, that Christmas Ring thing is NOT the same nor made of Mistletoe
-Chester A. Arthur is an obscure one, darn! D: But after an Assassination could be a pretty obvious one, but WHOSE Assassination is it tho?
-Gas Station/Pizza Restaurant sold Buter Sticks??? But no Midwest Accent? Are you SURE you’re from Chicago then, Amy? 😉 Well, not surprised about that, but thanks for mentioning the Dollar Store across! 😀
-So, 4th President that got assassinated, I don’t know the order for that Also, “Death” could also imply sickness too. Why is the speech vague
-OH MY GOD THE SECOND HINT IS LONG! D: Even the Editing can’t stand it! AND THAT’S ONE SENTENCE?! D:
-I’m NOT going to read ALL Presidents’ profile again. I had enough from Amy’s long ramble on the first episode! D:
-Oh wait, I mixed up Fort Madison with Wisconsin’s Capital, my bad! :(Also, look at the GAP between these two stores, haiya… *shakes head* And NO AMY, we’re NOT making butter out of HUMAN MILK! D:
-Also, this Dollar Store is WAY bigger than I thought. Bigger than typical Indonesian Convenience Store for sure 😮
-Andrew Garfield did? Is it THAT brief tho? And HEY! We got it right, YAY! 😀 But hoo boy, that dance tho o_o
-WHOA! That Ringtone tho! :O AND BUCCEES THEY’RE BACK! 😀 But Ben… did you forget that Iowa’s Private But I guess Utah might be (sadly) since it left the door open to connect to Canada via Idaho. But well, North Dakota, good news… until Badam reach Maryland that is because it’s not Private all along *sobs*
-But yeah, got North Dakota at the worst possible time. Haiya… But back to the Airport? I thought you go to the DC Station. Unless you COULD take a train there from the Airport, right?
-But yeah, Buccee’s are mostly Southside chain which means that Badam got 4 connections to it. And well, leaving Maryland while you’re right there is Imbecilic, Private or not.
-I guess there is a merit in leaving Iowa alone for a bit, but… does that really matter if you’d lose it sooner or later before you finish South Dakota regardless?
-Well, I think Badam’s logic is that since they have Louisiana to connect to Texas, they don’t NEED to have Oklahoma just to reach New Mexico and further west even if it’s one less State to deal with.
-I could imagine that they would try get rid of both and the 2nd one is North Dakota since the South IS the important connector between the two here. Even then, you NEED to commit for a LONG drive to reach one, let alone both.
-But man, from Donnellson, these Farms took a WHILE to show up o_o And hello Morbius. And I think that black cow is in Team Badam xD
-I don’t know, Sam, the Strat here is to simply. Git Gud 😉 But having that Tray is admittedly smarter than I thought. I’m surprised Dollar Store had such kitchen appliances man 😮
-*GASP!* Ben’s denying Snack Zone?! IMPOSSIBLE! D: *pause* oh… that’s why 😦 And Real Beast? Wut? Did they put Werewolf Meat in there?
-Oh no, did you see the Cow Peepee, Sam? D: And I mean, if that’s not a Cow, then the Voters are paid actors *shakes head*
-Well, I think they might beat you up if you sculpt them badly, Amy ^^ But okay, any water to wash Amy’s hand at? 😦
-I know this could be hubris, but even I believe in “HOW THE HELL COULD ANYBODY FUCK THAT UP!” Even after that whole Orange Pig Debacle in Taiwan Nice Sunset and this is fewer snow than I think 😉
-And that’s the Hilly Shot from the Trailer! 😀 Also, ah… nice cowboy music 🙂
-I don’t think that’s DC based on your routing though, Adam, got to look up this Prince Street first though. But ah yeah, Paducah again 🙂
-But ah, they still have the time to take the Train before the Rest Period. Cool! But that’s a Station? I thought that’s some kind of monument 😮 And First Thing in the morning? How early was that Baltimore Train tho?
-But yeah, Badam is quicker to take out North Dakota than it is for Samy to claim South Dakota, FOR SURE! And indeed, Samy did NOT know about Maryland. And they thought that Badam would simply go for Oklahoma, Alabama, or the Buccee’s Wild Card in South Carolina. Even though Badam being at the Station instead of the Airport make for some very sus hint to be had here.
-But “Not Awesome” for these boys, Sam??? Are you… okay? And no, I stopped watching Jet Lag on Bed since… um… is it Hide+Seek Japan or Schengen Showdown? I forgot AND… fuck you, Daylight Saving Time! 😡
-But Sunrise at 8AM tho… euw 😦 But we’ll see if International Women’s Day is kind to you, Amy. But PFFT! No, we don’t that Hate Crime xD
-Uh… Draw Minnesota? I thought States that are in the card is guaranteed NOT to be on the Private List o_o Also, I started to think that the footage of Badam crossing into Illinois thing either a myth, a Mandela Effect, or I already ‘seen’ it last Episodes
-AND… Oregon! Cascadian Package, more reason to go to Seattle- I MEAN Portland! 😀 But either way, going that way after this Plains Section could be good. Also, Badam’s being better financially right now, and things would get stronger with possible Rental Dropoff Tax while Badam took a Train to Baltimore and possibly some more.
-Texas is only on the list right now due to Buccee’s, so… Louisiana’s open as an option for sure 😉 Also, I feel like Badam getting both California and Texas is a karma after B4A’s Area Bonus shenanigans back then
-But Alabama is more important than Buccee’s. Interesting, but they’re right that there’s no such thing as a Buccee’s downtown *Flashback to B4A in Tennessee* And nope, it’s not North, Sam
-Uh… no, it’s not Pennsylvania, it’s Maryland. I mean Pennsylvania did NOT border Virginia! But yeah, I guess their only choice is to HAUL ASS to South Dakota ASAP. And okay, they did NOT release the form until they’re near the border ^^
-And… Badam’s having a Train Withdrawal 😦 But huh, I’m surprised you can find Sam’s Form Link tho xD But you’re right that there’s no way Sam could have done it this well xD
-Wait, there is a NORTH Sioux City??? But pfft, I wonder who said Brian there, but imagine if there’s actually more Bulls than it is Cows 😉
-You sure you can find a part of the road that looks Different in the PLAINS, Amy??? But they didn’t know that they prefer to have Alabama and Oklahoma over Buccee’s… rip Buccee’s 😦
-Well, makes sense that using the Private Card won’t reroll the States, but… North Carolina, I think you got played again, Amy xD
-Nah, no reason for Nebraska with Buccee’s gone, so Kansas to connect to Oklahoma made sense. But I don’t know Adam, I don’t think cards that shows up before would be a Private, EVER *shakes head*
-Omaha? Why THAT far and not like… Fargo??? So nice, Sam’s got a good idea this time. But 550?! That is NOT Budget for sure! And it’s 1K with Taxes, AARGH! D: But peculiar that the Highway had to go west first before north tho
-Wait, I thought your home is somewhere else in Maryland and not EXACTLY in Baltimore But oh… that’s why they need a Water Taxi, not for transport but for Challenge. Can they EVEN do this outside of Baltimore then?
-Also, is the Verse picked at random and not just the obvious first one? Because otherwise this would be pissed easy even if you got hurled by stuff… whoever did it even if it’s your teammate
-WAIT, I misread it. Verses are NOT lines, and guess you had to do NOT the first Verse. That makes more sense.
-I almost got confused thinking that somehow Adam’s from Baltimore too And no train to the Docks, darn! And BEGONE TRASH! Are the jellyfish stingy tho?
-Yay, welcome Driver Amy! 😀 If that vibration isn’t edited, I’m SCARED! D; And begone pun! *Shakes head*
-Is the bus for your town that good tho Ben, is it? But Suspended Ferry ONLY TODAY? WHY?! 😡
-Wut? Only on Weekedays? But SURELY people took these for leisure on the weekends, right?!
-Pedals so far away? Why did you accept an SUV again? Not a jab at Amy, it’s a jab of the whole car industry -_- But wait, wut? Amy crashed a car once? OH NO, I’m scared! It’s experience! D:
-Come on Sam, Train is FREE here! Respect the Public Transport! 😡 But yeah, at least the boat is nice, IF they can ride one 😦
-Wait, Adair is not South Dakota yet??? *pause* Oh, they’re nowhere near *sighs*
-Well, at least after Hide+Seek Japan, they learned to NOT rely on Google Maps 100%. And sorry Adam, BAD timing indeed 😦
-Also, nice ship indeed. Or maybe someone’s in charge of the Service is being a dick today -_-. Like what is wrong with March?! 😡
-Hello again Cows. These birds would have been great back in B4A tho xD but yeah, that is barely visible indeed
-But I guess you can’t use any other boats, right? *pause* Darn 😦 and I guess going back and forth to North Carolina while waiting is dumb too? And yeah, we all learned from Taiwan to NOT waste time ever!
-I wonder where did you get the idea to go to the Visitor Center tho, Adam? BUT THERE IS! And Transigo, not Trivago xD but why do you need QR Code and not just do it on Google App Store??? But Janky Apps, yikes
-And somehow this thing costs 2 BUCKS! TWO! :O And is 11:08 a quick pickup there? 😮 *pause* 20 Minute over a whole day? Yeah, you’re right this is insane 😮 But that’s really a Water Uber App 😀
-That is NOT a Windmill Joke, Sam! 😡 I know NY is expensive as hell, but 4 per person there is still obscene amount Admittedly tho, the boat is bigger than I thought ^^
-Yeah, definitely need no music here. Recital Challenge are a BITCH as we all know! D: But 2nd Verse, alright, cool Ben.
-That’s the second time I heard Repose today 😮 That is definitely NOT the song, Amy xD and no mam, in fact, take as LONG as you need to allow for a good recital session here. But how much do you pay to Fort McHenry now then? Just wondering. *pause* Oh, I thought you suggested it because it’s further 😦
-Wait, really? The 2nd Verse skipped some notes? Either way, it would take a while even with those completely botched lyrics, Amy *sighs*
-And oh, that shipping incident a while back, that’s the name of the bridge 😦 And same flag on that pole since 1776? :O
-Yeah, maybe doing it as a poem instead of singing it is good, but at least you don’t need to LEAVE the boat to start recite it.
-HEY! Hey! Don’t let those thrown things fell into the sea, Adam! 😡 And I hope snickers didn’t count as a failure 😦
-MAEVE’S BOOK TOO?! Oh, your Fiancée is pissed, Adam! *Shakes head* but how about “The Dakotas” 😛 And oh no, it’s the PENN! O_O
-Yeah, Pennsylvania is a big airport, and the whole Northeastern Corridor is full of trains! *Shakes head*
-First of all,… if only you didn’t get rid of New Jersey *shakes head* And of course South Dakota had Mt. Rushmore ^^
-So, find a completely empty patch of land, should be easy enough in the Plains there. Still, 5-minute cooldown felt a lot shorter than the Coca Cola one, but as long as they aimed their objects low and straight, they should do it first try.
-12 Meters IS quite far tho, so… sorry ._. But what if the practice run is the winning run tho? Also, MULTIPLE Washington Monuments???
-Either way, this Season is just all good vibes, with nothing really to piss on about other than that New Jersey debacle. I got to admit I hadn’t felt this absolute positivity even since Schengen Showdown honestly. Love these Brick Roads tho 🙂
-Can you test throw stuff before buying it tho? 😛 But hm… Dog Toys, must be a bit ouw tho Didn’t know that Sam played Hockey too 😮 But glad that Amy respected the REAL football… somewhere ._.
-How about you guys argue about Broadway again 😛 But oh… it’s 40 feet, not 20 Should have put that line before you walk away man, the camera won’t do it, it’s too far *sighs*
-WOW, first try, Sam. Wait, can you be allowed to intentionally catch the ball tho? I guess Ricochet is allow tho, not in the rulebook *shrugs*
-Yeah, that football looks lighter to me ._. Is it the same Parking Lot Sam and Brian had from B4A tho? 😀
-But hm… can we see the Crocs tho, Ben? 😀 I wonder what is that chimney for though. That “Delete Uber” on the Bus Sign is a bit… ominous though, along with the chimney 😦
-Okay, I guess moving to get yourself caught is illegal here, right? No matter, they did it, took shorter time than expected 😉 *pause* Oh wait that’s practice! D: But damn, first try! *claps*
-Okay, if Minnesota happened, the game’s back to draw indeed. Wow! This is closer than you think, guys! No Schengen Showdown Snowballing happening this time 😉
-The Commute to Pennsylvania is insane tho 😮 And “Done Killed Amy”, I smell bad grammar there, Sam *shakes head*
-But of course, the cards had to be shuffled EVERY TIME you pull one 😉 But HMM… Indy, who’s going to get it first? 😉 Though it’s more likely gone after Badam took care of Pennsylvania *shrugs* And alright, rip North Carolina then.
-And THAT boys is a live Minnesota Reaction. Thanks, Trailer Analysis! 😀 But well, Amy has her God too with the Card Pull today 🙂 I’m happy for her! ^^
-However, there is an argument to give the team fallen behind the power to take away the States while only the team on top had the Veto. Which means the leader can’t take away any States instead if making both sides have it. That would be an interesting way to balance it, but what happened if a State being claimed resulted in a draw??? Does nothing happen or…???
-But I do agree that giving Area Bonus and not just having disconnected States as Tiebreaker could incentivizes people to go west, but I think it not be the case once is a good thing for me since it helped giving limelight on the Midwest and Deep South of the US that got so neglected in prior seasons. However, indeed, if Area is a determining Factor, then Canada Wild Card had to be deleted and instead be replaced by 10 Separate Canada Province Cards
-Also, in comparison to Taiwan’s seemingly Taipei-rigged Challenge Rolls, at least with US States, we KNOW the odds of certain places being better than others. And since the randomizing uses a Card rather than an App, it’s definitely not something you can tweak the odds there to make it fairer.
-Also, turns out, the Virginia President is on ANY President’s Inaugural Speech, NOT just the Virginian ones, since Arthur came from New York apparently *shakes head*
EPISODE 5
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Ben and Adam play baseball like a midget again, Amy experienced Fata Morgana on the Frozen Lake Surfaces. And Sam seemed to have cheated on Buccee’s for Margaritaville
-So, it seems that the next Episode is the last after all. Alrighty then, not surprised that this Season is quite a bit short due to all the Traveling around compared to Hide+Seek UK or Taiwan there. Even with the near 1-hour episodes every time 😮
-That means I’m writing the review at the 30th, right before the Season 19 Premier at early August. We’ll see if I got any information then or not.
-And hm… luck, don’t forget about North Carolina that you took out tho 😉
-Wait, Tiebreaker is the Area?! That’s a shock, I thought the tiebreaker is the disconnected states like I thought. Well… I guess that DID bring some relevance back to California and Texas, but I don’t think it’s relevant at all if you told us THIS late into the game, Sam! 😡
-And back to Amy having the moment of her life again! 😀 But uh… you DO know you have to change the Rentals AGAIN from Omaha to Minneapolis, right? D:
-I mean, Sam having a good luck with no controversy behind it is a VERY rare thing, Adam *cough*Taiwan*cough* And I HAD to respect that indeed.
-By the way, Adam, what drink are you having at? Coconut Pandan Syrup? 😀 But a short Acela, hm…?
-EESH! 855 before taxes… That’s… possibly more than quite a few Plane Ticket Price! D: I know St Louis to Minneapolis is far, but YIKES! D:
-By the way, speaking of Taiwan. I do know that while Call Your Shot is balanced on how cocky you could be, or Multipliers is balanced around how much Coins did you have already. Steals? Well, the challenges themselves are no harder than the regular ones at most, which pisses me off even now.
-Also, no city with decently sized airport here before Minneapolis? Yikes *pause* NOT EVEN Duluth is even close! D:
-Hm… Goat Sauce :3 But unfortunately, these two didn’t know Badam have Louisiana and Texas either! 😀 But peaking of Landmass though, Mexico REALLY should have been a Wild Card even if it worth a lot less than Canada either way (4 States instead of 12 and a much smaller area).
I think the next time we do this, Canada should have been split up by Provinces. Just saying, not just because it’s Sam’s Territory now 😦
-What River is that, Adam? Still, if this is Baseball, I wonder if we get a Hockey like with Colorado Avalanche or something 😉
-Still, 14 meters each is quite a way away tho 😮 But okay, do them in a row, which is honestly way harder than the SD Duel which had shorter distance done once. At least there’s no cooldown penalty on this one, however. Also, on the knees all the time, with Shoes? Ouw 😦
-Hm… I mean, going to Indiana to block off Michigan and Ohio would be very useful too.
-But Uber usage? Alright, surely doing Baseball can’t take longer than Samy finding some Lakes, right?
-And indeed, the trains make Badam not spend anything today either. Still, no way they struggle to find Baseball Fields in one of the largest cities in the country.
-Poor Ben, never gets to experience a proper baseball as a kid 😦 Also, what Baseball had to do with Charmander??? Still, not expecting both of you to be Jocks tho 😮
-Le Mars? We’re in Mars?! :O But oh yeah, didn’t realized we had Day 4 of this segment yet 😉 But the heck is that hair arrangement, Amy?! D:
-Also, what Le Mars had to do with Tattoo??? Still, I wonder what is his absolute worst Airline Experience tho. My guess would be Singapore in Circumnavigation and not just because I watched it recently ._.
-Goddamnit Sam! But why did you say Oakland instead of Compton too 😦 But you mean Driving Montage, Amy? 😉
-Land of Eleven Thousand Lakes isn’t too bad tho *shrugs* But ALL of them got their surface area reported? DAMN! :O But 10% Margin of Error… sighs, should have this kind of tight margin of error in Taiwan man
-Also, how did the Administrate made an error if they tell you the correct answer??? You mean if there’s actual Discrepancies and such?
-And… oops, guess most of the lakes are NORTH of Minneapolis then ._. You do have a point about the Highway Proximity tho
-Denver??? There’s nothing on Colorado tho! But yeah, having to stop to check the Lakes or even make detours would be pretty annoying indeed.
-Also, why is the Satnav Screen flickering too? 😦 And I mean, 5 or 6 lakes is a good amount, but doing them in a rush would easily get you guess wrong.
-Target? Guess they need to find some items for the Bases then? Also, a Minivan in America? YAY! 😀 24 Bucks is ok… I guess? ._.
-Might try a few lakes, but as long as Badam didn’t botch those Baseballs, they should get it faster. You sure that’s Amy’s specialty though?
-I mean, how could a Target NOT sell a Baseball even??? 😦 But I guess Urban Targets are more In-Mall Supermarket or something? I don’t think Orange is durable enough, and circular enough tho 😦
-REALLY?! *sighs* At least the Orange is REALLY Round tho.
-And that’s the BIG FANCY Minnesota Sign! :O And I agree, one of the best in the Country! 😉
-Circumference or Radius could be a reference, right? *Pause* Why is your school BIGGER than the Cubs’s Stadium?! D: And… I mixed up Magician with Michigan xD
-So, you had to measure the field yourself in Little League? Well, that’s annoying! 😡 But okay, so the Base could be ANYTHING then, including their bags.
-Oh god, No Calves Adam looks SO cursed! D; And oh, thanks for giving us the Overview of the map there. It’s quite big, but I thought you wouldn’t left the car at all, Amy xD
-The size is comparable to Magician, but it’s too skinny to be accurate. Also, so much being obscured off the highway to the west of this like would skew Amy’s perspective too, correct? And OOF! 776 to 400, that’s BAD! D:
-When did the last time you went to Lake Magician, Amy? 😦
-Okay, so they don’t move across bases, but doing 4 in a row like that, which is FURTHER than 14 Meters without moving is PAINFUL. This might be the Coin Flip all over again, not even switching throwers is helpful 😦
-Oh, the Base still moved… FUCK D: So, they don’t stop now, but at least this lake didn’t seem to have distortion deep down however.
-281? That tiny?! AAH! PAIN! D: And… rip One Orange 😦 But I guess now Ben get why he likes to go back into the Woods back then
-That Lake looks SO DEEP out of the Highway, Amy’s definitely guessing too small again! But what ice pattern tho 😮 *pause* 146?! D:
-I knew orange is a bad idea, Adam, they flopped after so little attempts 😦 And visions or not, you two move like little kids without your calves D:
-First, there’s no Wisconsin on the Map. Second, goddamnit, Ben and Adam, you really are Midgets *facepalm*
-HMM… Maine… alright. But okay, guess Indiana’s more useful to Samy than Badam that the latter got rid of it instead of Maine which is LOCKED inside the Samy Territory. Still, if it’s not Indiana, where did they go to now? New Orleans??? But Montana, hm… what do you think Sam?
-I mean, your only hope is to get rid of Maine and going to Boston is WAY easier than like, Billings? But yeah, Montana would have been good back when they were at Boston, and Maine too honestly.
-Wait *Pause* Bozeman to Yellowstone are big, then there’s Kalispell and Missoula which had similar sizes to Billings, WUT?! D: *pause* Oh, Kalispell is for Glacier National Park.
-But yeah, it’s hard to be able to reach Birmingham, OKC, New Orleans, or anywhere in Texas this late in the day, right?
-Well, I don’t think waiting for New York or New Jersey is a good idea considering that you HAD to wait for Samy to finish Minnesota, which… is not good
-DFW, that’s easy! *pause* 44 Minutes for the Flight… Oh. I think Dallas Hates Badam 😦 *Pause* Actually no, In-N-Out Challenge in B4A is actually Austin, not Dallas… but that STUPID Elvis one is there though! 😡
-Yeah, the Luck seems turning around on Badam right now, which is actually good to make the game closer. But ah… back to the Amy sassiness ^^
-Nashville then to Alabama? That flight looked to start a bit late though Actually, to be honest, I’m not surprised if Samy would choose to intentionally stall for time with the Minnesota challenge now. Unless they still wanted that Denver Flight however.
-But yeah, Bingham looks bigger to me ._. *pause* Half of Amy’s estimates again?! AAH! This is Brutal! D; And goddamnit Sand 😦
-Adam, you really should have get rid of Maine instead of Indiana because at least it’s still useful to YOU *facepalm* Welp, guess we’re now even with Sam getting rid of New Jersey back then ._.
-Well, next time, you should check your flights before you start getting rid of stuff And well, I saw Austin too ._.
-Why not have a Cheesesteak Restaurant in the Airport instead? I mean, UberEats to the Airport sounds stupid
-Let’s see, if Canada is split up by Provinces, then the sizes seem fairer, with Alberta, Ontario, BC, and Quebec being larger than Texas’s 695K.
-Unfortunately, though, the wait’s going to be MUCH longer than you think because Amy’s this terrible at this horribly hard challenge rather than any intentional form of stalling 😦
-First time I hear a Car Alarm be honking instead of beeping tho ._.
-The Map looks smaller though unfortunately… uh oh D: But imagine if Adam got informed on every time Amy got it wrong, could be funny I admit ^^
-So… that Denver Flight is delayed and therefore impossible to use… Welp, time for some stalling then! XD
-But it WOULD be funny if Amy got it right in the very next lake xD Also, you only checked that they’re on the Airport now, Sam? Also, this Airport Terminal is segmented in half??? :O
-I love how the bread looks tho, but man, I’m jealous no security shove them off their comfy Snack Zone 😦
-So, Nashville is not the option after all. But alright, 2 State for Day 5—oh wait, it’s not Louisiana and Texas, isn’t it? 😦
-But yeah, 3 is needed if Samy managed to get a Tie there. Still, yeah, Alabama before the other two might be a waste of time. But ah… that’s why the Trailer Analysis says that Badam went to NY. The Fear that Sam had back in Memphis, happened now.
-Once again Adam, sorry, there’s no intentional Stalemating this time. Basically, the Pagodas on Steroids 😦
-Fedje Lake… sounds Nordic, I guess? And… Half of the Guess again 😦 Nice Ice on the surface tho. Either way, the later they make a decision, the more screwed they are. *cough*Seattle*cough*
-Lake Crystal is going deep off the Highway too… uh oh. *pause* And UGH! That was close! I started to think that the Margin of this challenge should be nerfed unlike the Taiwan Steals, to be around 20% instead!
-And ah… Loon, the Bird I seen from Minnesota United! 😀 *pause* 809, WUT?! D:
-Why would you go to Atlanta Airport instead of Birmingham’s though But yeah, staying on the East would keep their options open unlike if they commit to Nashville, right?
-BEN! Why did you go back to Alabama again! D: But hey, I think this kind of Conundrum if there’s nothing good on the Board is some sort of difficulty needed, and I’m glad that it happened to both sides this season to balance things out.
-Especially when it both started by them getting rid of a State that they should NOT be. At least Badam is quite retrospective in quickly realizing that getting rid of Indiana is a mistake.
-Tired? Welp, can’t wait to see the Rest Period, isn’t it? XD
-Wait, so you can look at the Satellite Map before guessing? SAM! Why didn’t you say that earlier! 😡 But well, at least he CAN do it since he’s not driving, so… perhaps Amy doing it in the first place is a mistake
-I don’t think touching the Water do anything, Amy 😦 And from 197? That’s a bit far, Sam
-Anyway, as long as you don’t cheat by looking at the numbers of the next lake before researching, Sam.
-LaGuardia for Houston instead of stopping at the Penn, alright. But wait, Texas would be disconnected tho, how did you go to Louisiana after that??? Either way, I don’t even get how the best route would be either! D:
-Hm… Pond Dorothy… where did you find this? XD But Posit? You mean Positive, Sam?
-But counting in Tennis Courts? Very American, Sam *shakes head* And are those buildings to the east Warehouses? And… Sam got it first try, with a small lake, but still! AHAHAHAH XD And uh… I think this sounds HORRIBLE after what Amy just done in the many many prior attempts man o_o
-Now I wished that the Minnesota Challenge involved the Northwest Angle, or any Exclave-based Wild Cards… kidding 😛
-BUT… I just realized that it’s more convenient to got to Oklahoma from Texas compared to Alabama, so… oops *shrugs* And… welp, Badam’s decision to hold on and wait for NY is correct after all. But eh, Alabama is fair to be gone at this point. Sure thing, Sam!
-HMM… Wyoming? Want to continue driving or just take that flight to Denver- oh wait xD Don’t miss the Train, Badam! 😀
-No, I think trying to guess lake for Hours give you a HUGE copium that it would be Wisconsin *shakes head*
-Yep, they considered Nashville but they bailed. You’re right about that, Sam!
-But see! You shouldn’t get rid of New Jersey a long time ago. And now NY’s back on the board *shakes head*
-Is the break referring to them being stopped, or that they stopped being stuck in the first place? Welp, it was shorter than the Boston Experience still however *shrugs*
-OUW! Now it was Adam’s turn to slipped off 😦 Damn you, slippery tiles! 😡 Welp, guess waiting in Minneapolis it is then! No flight that gets you out of there anywhere anymore, isn’t it?
-Yeah, if they took that Nashville Flight, then they would have created a DOUBLE Blunder in one episode, EESH! D:
-Today? Is New York that easy? *pause* So go to a Skyscraper, and get a photo of these places that you think are the following. But hm… so basically, this is the Harder Version of the Norway Challenge in Schengen Showdown, since you need to have a specific number instead of drawing everything.
-Wait, you had to book a ticket for Empire State? Also, is your house really THAT close from Manhattan, you two???
-Would be funny if Sam went to Butte again just like Connect 4 tho xD *pause* oh, Salt Lake and Denver… Sad 😦
-Really? How EXPENSIVE is the cost to enter Empire State?! And there’s a Time Slot too?! D:
-Still. 7:45, I guess DST made the Rest Period 9 PM now? But yeah, I guess they just did a Margaritaville again if they had nothing to do until the Rest Period around here *shrugs* And ah okay, so now they’re stalling for time to NOT give up their Rental Car yet.
-MASYALLAH! That’s the Third Margaritaville of the Season! Not even Bucee’s got this much attention! D:
-Still… who sing that song now? :O And now Amy’s drowning her sorrows too 😦 And why did you look at LA with the clocks
-And oh, hello, Indoor Ferris Wheel 😮 Still, even with 2 Shots before tomorrow, this is a difficult one since not even the Rainbow Steps one back at Taiwan cannot be done perfectly
-Adam! You got the wrong street! 😡 Nice lights on these buildings at night tho 😮 Why do we need the photo tho?
-Even with fences, that view looks scary as hell D: But I KNOW what the ugliest one going to be… It’s the Skinny one in Central Park like? From B4A?
-Also, I hope that 30 minutes wasted could be used to redo the guesses… right? At least you don’t need to change the answers unlike the Chiang Kai Sek one *shudders*
-The Crayons? Come on… we all know that the Pez is the only correct answer here, Sam! 😡 And HALF company portrait, *shakes head*
-And NO! It was wrong, Adam picked it for being short! D: And never mind, thanks that Skinny Building again 😛
-Also, why is it the only one that’s not black and white on the flashback??? But ooh… those lights are pretty! :O But are those lights really silly tho BUT no way that the Chrysler Building is Silly, so… yeah! Still baffled why there’s nothing of the Chrysler Car Company occupying it tho
-But yeah, Ben IS a silly guy, so that’s quite difficult to differentiate here. And Wasting Away? Both time and suffering!
-And… South Carolina! 😉 But okay, Montana’s gone… so what happened to your Denver plan again? XD
-AND! A Margaritaville. Come on Sam, just do the challenge! Oh, wait xD Still, Atlantic City is quite far from NY tho, even if it IS in New Jersey.
-Guess there’s no train to Atlantic nor you could book the car at Hertz before Rest Period *sighs*
-But yeah, not getting through the hassle of Rental Cars in the morning is probably a good call. Still, yeah… Badam snatching that Margaritaville first is important in case if Samy could go somewhere with it too.
-Let’s see… Nevada? But that’s Vegas, SO far from Oregon. But too bad Badam can’t take the Times Square one either. But yeah, others, like Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, are all Badam’s territory. Margaritaville is more South than North.
-Could you check up some flights to Portland tomorrow though, Sam? But Underground parking? That’s shockingly bleak for a Rental Place. And we HAD experienced St. Louis! D:
-And… can’t believe we’re getting Drunk Ben twice this season! 😀 But wait, is the Lounge for the Airport outside the Security, Sam??? *pause* OH… Hotel Airport, right… *Flashback to Crime Spree*
-*pause* I don’t see Adam and Ben pulling their cards now, but… guess that have to wait until tomorrow! *shrugs* OH WAIT, there IS a Margaritaville in Michigan that I missed 😮 *checking* Wait, is it tho??? *pause* OH WAIT, Detroit Airport *facepalm*
-Well… Rhode Island. That could explain them rushing from Maine in the Analysis. But… based on that Myrtle Beach thing I seen… they might need to get FOUR States to win though, and both Maine and Portland Clusters are on the OPPOSITE Sides of the Country! Hm… I would be surprised if Samy’s winning now 😮
-OH YEAH, Michigan! Well… who’s getting the Margaritaville first though, a NY-Atlantic Drive or a Flight to Detroit? HM… Guess it wasn’t as clear as I thought.
-Maybe the Gameplay isn’t as good as B4A with so little things going wrong beyond lack of Flight Options. But I think this is the best showcase of America even during the Winter thanks to the plentiful of Car Sections. Allowing us to see so much of the unexplored corners of the country beyond just the Cities.
-Limited Veto Used is peculiar suggestion too, but that could cause the problem of “Resource Steals” that I HATE so much. I think it’s better to have “Limited Turns you can use to Remove States” instead. Though the exchange only happening if it’s the team behind doing it is preferable to me.
-However, people were right. As enjoyable as this season is, it is definitely not a nail-biter season at the end of it. It’s still better than Schengen Showdown ending early at least, but it might place higher if not for ending prematurely. So, I think that’s a perfect placement for it. Above that, but below the two GOATs of Hide+Seek Japan and Tag 1… or even Switzerland, to be honest.
–Also, upon rewatching Circumnavigation, on top of the already obscene Quartered Reward, I think that 300 km radius before the reward penalty got reset is SUCH A BRUTAL way to do it considering that the only realistic way you do it is to fly which costs a lot already. Limiting it to just 50 or even 100 kms could get you to take other modes of transport like Trains or take shorter cheaper flights, especially in the European section
EPISODE 6
Tonight, on Jet Lag! Samy gambled on a Deja vu New England Roadtrip. DST is the Bane of the Margaritaville Empire. And a Holy Water had to be sacrificed in the name of Adam NEVER missing a flight.
-I admit I misread what the voiceover said to be “Ninety-Seven” xD
-But well, Sam… that’s assuming if Badam can’t get any more State even if you stole Margaritaville at Detroit first.
-IT is risky, true, but imagine if we rolled New Jersey right after Sam done with Margaritaville
-But oh no! A bad start and Ben’s missing! D: *Pause* DELAYED BY HALF AN HOUR, IN NEW YORK WITH THIS MANY LINES?! D: But man… guess you really can’t do separate tasks of taking the Rental alone and bring it to Ben either 😦
-Oh okay, so the only thing illegal is Intentional Split… THANK FUCK! *pause* Oh, you can’t just go drive to Ben, I see, that’s fair ._.
-104 Bucks to Atlantic without the Taxes, alright. But wait, why the hell is Ben is at FiDi? What part of New York did he live at?! D:
-AND… there goes that Detroit Flight So… Portland it is? 😀 But there’s Ohio tho, but can they get there quick enough? Poor Amy tho, she looks so done 😦
-Yeah, driving with all the Congestion Pricing around *shudders* But ah, Ben had the Private Card too, not Adam.
-*pause* Uh… what is a People Mover, why is this a Wild Card, with only Five States??? ._. Also, how could you get to West Virginia by plane even? *pause* Newark to Charlestown? I see.
-But oh… that’s why there’s so much 5 O’clock in those Margaritaville. But okay, so it’s a Time zone quiz… but what if they’re NOT currently at 5 AM/PM tho I got to look up where Landshark Bar is tho.
-Still, for a drunk challenge, 5/15 is a sensible way to make it more generous. But yeah… committing to Florida, West Virginia, or even Texas is all risky here ._.
-True, regardless, you still need 3 States and I don’t think Cascadia could get you that. And they don’t know that California is gone basically. So, it’s only Idaho or Nevada at the end.
-So, Boston an hour later to gamble for a Third State like Vermont or Connecticut? Yeah, that’s a good suggestion too. *pause* 1800?! D:
-And okay, so we get more Wild Cards like Ivy League or Appalachian Trails here. How many Wild Cards are there then, I wonder???
-The Odds. But yeah, the Draw of the Luck really surprisingly made this Season quite close and not just completely derailed like Schengen Showdown shockingly. And that is indeed good.
-And yeah, Legitimate… no nonsense like those STUPID Steals this time to ruin it *grumbles* But wait, Mets? I thought you’re a Cubs Fan (Nothing to do with Hermitcraft, I tell you!)
-And hoo boy, 1500 bucks left o_o But true, what Sam’s Middle name is? Wendover? xD
-But now we get a Pesci from JoJo Hairstyle! D: At least the bath robe looks GOOD. But yeah, I guess you DID get to know Sam, but not in the way you’re expecting. Are these segments recorded after the Season by the way?
-Still, I think this bit is definitely my favorite after Snack Zone, because you know… beating that one is IMPOSSIBLE.
-But Amy… Beta Names is NOT a Middle Name But Robert, eh? Sam Robert Denby… sounds nice actually. *pause* Sam didn’t react! 😛
-Come on Glare, why are you still a thing in daytime? 😦 But true, imagine if you arrived there after hours only to find that the damn place is full! 😛
-But *GASP!* YOKEL?! D: Still, these Private Cards are good since it also causes the other team to keep guessing what someone’s odds of really beating them, and that things isn’t exactly obvious at least for them.
-Rip Jimmy Buffet Song, FUCK YOU Copyright! 😡 At least tell us WHAT song is it, Adam!
-But OH NO! Sam’s right, FUCK YOU DST! 😡 Welp, I hope Badam make a wise call and pick places in the Tropics that did NOT have those But yeah, this is literally the WORST possible time of the year to do this challenge 😦
-How many Mini Vegas there are in this country? And that hotel felt dystopian I admit ._. And I thought Margaritaville is more casual than being a REALLY FORMAL shit ._.
-And Ben, all you need from that shirt is to drive a Cadillac too ;D But wait, you only ordered 2 and not 3
-Well, Drunk Driving is Bad, but Law Lovers??? *cough*Crime Spree*cough* But okay, so just the current time somewhere else, NO exact 5 O’clock involved, cool… still a hard challenge tho. DAMN YOU DST!
-Middle East sounds a bit too far east, but… wait, are both sides of Istanbul on the same TImezone? But hey! 😀
-I guessed New Zealand, but… *pause* SAMOA?! Yeah, Ben wouldn’t figure that out And not Auckland *pause* Jakarta? No… SINGAPORE
-And hey! Anchorage’s right! Fewer Jumps to Alaska than I thought tho, but then again, California is only 3 hours behind ._. But 2AM… that’s got to be AUCKLAND, right? *pause* Ben, is taking notes of what you got wrong allowed? *pause* CALLED IT 😦
-Wait, so per round is basically one shot rather than one cup? That’s… a bit better I guess ._.
-I hope the Waiter isn’t panicking right now xD but back to Boston indeed! 😉 Still, true, pulling that Massachusetts Cards is a highlight for the season 😮 But yeah, if only you rolled Rhode Island instead of Washington, isn’t it? ^^
-Well, that’s a shock to instantly found Michelle’s content there 😮 Also, no more snow I guess? 😀
-But no, Ben REALLY did empty the Margarita… how much alcohol are in these anyway? 😦 And hoo boy, it’s Salty D:
-And NO Wait, it makes the challenge even worse! D: Anyway, nice Taco 😮 *Pause* Doha is in the same Time zone, isn’t it? *pause* YEP -_- *pause* Nope, Tehran’s a Half, it’s Islamabad? *pause* Too far! *pause* Kabul? Tashkent? Orsk? Novosibirsk? Kurgan? Ufa? Volvograd? *pause* SAMARA?! *facepalm* That one is HORRIBLE!
-But yay, it’s Honolulu! And Halifax too! We’re on a roll! 😀 AND YAY! WE GET TASHKENT! YAY! 😀
-*pause* UTAH’S BACK! 😀 But welp, nice for Sam to be able to make a text on a plane 🙂 But well, their main priority is Maine anyway, so… *shrugs* Bye Wyoming 😉
-*pause* PFFT! Wisconsin… Oh, Sam is NOT pleased to see that popped out after he left for Boston, HAHAHAHA! That’s a good joke!
-You could try to gamble for Louisiana-Texas too, but… Yeah, picking Wild Cards after having these Drunkenness is a RISK.
-But really? South Carolina is considered a Golf Capital??? *pause* But oh no, Hole in One in Mini or Bogey in Big Golf… well, I don’t think we could have a repeat from that Alice Spring Skills, but… what do you think, Adam?
-But fair enough that you can’t have two people try the same hole either, only Swaps is allowed.
-But yeah, just one Mini Golf place is a bit risky. But 6 PM in Charleston? Hm… But having to go from Philly? Yikes. But what’s wrong with Indoor Golf man? 😦 But really? 2? Oh 😦
-*pause* Oh yeah, Atlantic City is as far away from both Philly and NY, even Newark 😦 And 3 PM! Nice…
-Okay, cool! *Pause* I thought Sam paid for the Meal tho xD Still, good luck with the hangover, Ben! 🙂
-Yeah, it’s not impossible, but only if Samy could get Vermont or Connecticut. But it WOULD be funny if Badam’s Private Card IS Connect-icut 😉
-But hoo boy, another Hertz o_o But a Jeep again, eh xD and only 600 bucks to Myrtle, yay! 😀 Still, booking while drink sucks ._.
-*pause* WUT?! The cost to drop off ACROSS THE HUDSON is an extra 150?! D: But oh no, the ETA’s gone wrong too, due to wrong exit! 😦
-Wait, is Morgantown the only of these ‘People Mover’ around WV??? And 35 Minutes left? Oh no… 😦
-Oh god, that map is a MESS! D: But I wonder what is THE longest Covered Bridge tho? *pause* Hartland, New Brunswick, 391 Meters… cool.
-And that’s a peculiar sign to be placed on the Metal bridge there xD Also, Vacationland, what a slogan.
-But I agree with Sam, Overtourism sucks *cough*Bali*Cough* Wait, Maine had TWO Slogans???
-And hm… I see. So Light Communication. I think Morse Code is the obvious answer, right? Still, I take it that the chosen word is completely random here?
-Break between Letters, Long Dashes, true, they could make it easier by a lot. But Amy’s right about the perceptive *throws stone into Minnesotan Lakes*
-But OUW My Eyes, Return! D: But oh no, there’s still an AirTrain? But HUH?! Why is Adam’s check touchless but not Ben???
-So… is the Lighthouse on Kittery or not? ._. Love those vibes with the snow on the roof tho 😀 And inb4 the Home Alone Burglar Team shows up in that Yellow House 😛
-Oh no, a Gated House? 😦 At least they’re not completely banned from getting in tho. But yay, Nature! 😀 And no, South Dakota’s plains didn’t count :p
-But oh no, Slow Lane *Flashback to Denver in Circumnavigation* And Ben got in? You’re not on the same Picket Line? D: But perhaps there is a hubris that there’s a lot more Touchless Check People than you think, Adam
-The heck was Amy had to do with Virginia??? *pause* 30 Meters is a decent distance tho
-Wait, is that Atlanta to Key West Flight on Arctic Escape counts as missing the flight? I know the Melbourne Avalon Blunder is confirmed to be a No, but… ._.
-5 Minute is pretty short for a boarding tho. But people were right about the Uzbek Clutch. Without it, they DEFINITELY couldn’t make this Newark Flight.
-Rip Bottle Water. Your Sacrifice shall be honored *sniff* Buti guess looking at which Morse Letter is it is allowed??? Based on Sam having notes? *pause* Well the Flag one on Tasmania definitely is WAY harder if that’s the case.
-This is one HELL of a split edit tho 😮 Wait, I thought this is 5 letters, not 4 *pause* Wait, “MAINE”??? Okay, that word is DEFINITELY not randomized. I call a bull! That challenge isn’t hard at all if the word is fixed compared to the horror that is US President Speeches in Virginia
-Ah, Kansas, another Plains Thriller :p And well, Oklahoma is still a thing, but it’s a such a TINY fringe it’s funny xD And North Dakota! Welcome back! 😀 Still, at least these call pulling are the highlight of hilarity of this season. You gain some, you lose some, anywhere! 😉
-You sure the flight is just 4 hours tho, Sam? But speaking of fail, how many Golfs there are in Myrtle Beach? *pause* Oh… oh… *counting* NINETEEN?! D:
-But okay, Mini Golf, no Alice Spring goated skills this time 😉 But oh COME ON! ANOTHER Margaritaville?! We had MORE of those in this season ALONE than Buccee’s in YEARS! D:
-Oh, and a random lizard on the airport. Hello! 😀 But wait, when did Adam sprained his waist? When… is it Philadelphia Station?
-No Slogan on New Hampshire Sign on the River? BOO! *Thumbs down* Did you REALLY going to go through New Hampshire again if the last card rolled Vermont, Amy?! D:
-Spain would be one HELL of a diversion tho, Amy xD But I guess the gimmicky Holes are WAY harder right? But pfft, Blue Ball xD
-Ah okay, so this is a 2-in-1 Course which means they got double the attempt on this one. Love that Bench tho :3
-OGH! Overshot it! But wow, the outdoor looks SO good 😮 *pause* Nope, Tense Music! *Pause* That is a Piss Easy one!… why are the music sounds like Who Wants to be a Millionaire tho? 😮 *pause* NO! D:
-AUW! Too slow on the bowl! 😦 But yeah, now both Charlotte and Charlestown are massive mistakes with much fewer Courses around. But 18? I thought there’s more holes than this 😦
-NGH! At least we did have some good tension at the end there. Like, Adam could waste all the way until 9PM here :p
-Hoo boy, banking. This course is quite a bit harder ._. *pause* NEVERMIND that was a first try! 😀
-Still, too bad that we couldn’t get to see what the next card is after South Carolina, Auw… I admit I’m addicted to those 😦
-But yeah, Samy can’t any new roles from Rhode Island because it’s a Private, so… ._. *pause* But Badam is your Coworkers too 😦
-So, two hours left in Providence, which makes even Connecticut impossible… sad.
-But hm… when did you practice those Butter Sculpture? On the St Louis-Iowa Drive? But ah, nice, a Butter Sculpture Trophy… nice! 🙂
-But Slippery, perfectly fit what Badam went through this season *nudges*
-Still, yeah, the challenges didn’t feel too… “What the hell” other than the Maine one which honestly should be a random word. But other than that, I think the fact that all Challenges that are not Wild Card is infallible, only wasting so much time if you did it badly, is a pretty nice way to balance things out.
-It definitely shouldn’t be done at any future Seasons, obviously. But hopefully it would give them he experiences to make sure that challenges that are infallible are ONLY Time Wasters instead of… something ridiculously easy in reality but not in theory *Cough*Tag All-Stars*cough*
-For that, despite how luck-dependent the Cards were, even more than Taiwan but this one felt a lot less bullshit because EVERYONE knows the odds of showing how useful certain State is, I think this would keep the ranking to be right above Schengen Showdown instead of lowering it to below B4A. Just a simple plain old fun all around, a chill season to relax on 🙂
-Well, that is a FAST sliding around the East Coast, what happened if you finished at like… Portland though? 😦
-Well, nice to see it being used for the Jet Lagged Segment, but fuck you, DST! 😡
-But 19th Time? Sam, they didn’t say that in Crime Spree! 😡
-Okay, banking on Wisconsin as the Private Card is stupid because it HAD shown up earlier. So, all Rhode Island did was to determine whether they should commit to that Portland Method or not.
-Still, an idea for future Claim Game being given more worth based on Area, Population, and Connections to others is a good one too. And with challenges difficulty being scaled with it? Hm…
-Either way, I think getting rid of New Jersey and banking on New York coming up later in Samy’s biggest blunder at the end. Since they could have done anything other than being stuck in Boston if they didn’t do it, and NY is a much bigger hub too. Besides, they did bank on Minnesota and North Dakota later anyway.
Hello, we’re back to the tracks. Honestly, not much to say about it other than I wanted to get the recording on this quickly so that I could get to testing my newest, but really complicated, track here. But yeah, pray for next week to be a peaceful one regardless.
Well, what is this track all about then? Well, this is, as I mentioned earlier, the sequel to “A Mansion’s Grand Prixes.” However, unlike the original one, which only focused on the Mansions DLC tracks as well as Michael’s, this one is more about exploring all kinds of mansions in the game… or at least, how Buckacherz defines it as you can see here:
And as you can expect, just like the original Mansions track, it would still be a complex layout around the hills, so please keep that in mind, especially once some section begins cutting through the grasses. I’ll help you to navigate through here as much as I can. The pit lane is south of Senora Road (after assuming that it didn’t exist and almost putting one on the Vineyard instead). While the next two tracks shall be the Tennis Court-themed “Marriage Court-seling” followed by the Pier-themed “Pier 76.”
As for the car, you may expect me to pick up a Bullet after having the Oracle on the first mansion track. However, I decided to make a reference to GTA IV that is so befitting of the track’s name. Therefore, a black Police Roadcruiser that is based on the Esperanto/Roman’s taxi is in order. As you can see down below with the license plate of “ROACH.”
“So, you’re full of crap, or what? Where’s the luxury condo? Where’s the sports car? Where’s Barbara with big titties and Stephanie, who sucks like a vacuum? I come here, and the only thing big about your life is the cockroaches. Pit Lane is at South Senora Road.”
The start is a simple “Banham Canyon Section,” except for the end at the “Limited Breakup” chicane through the gas station. Then the next section to think about is the “Plankton Crest,” where you go down from Marlowe to North Sheldon. However, we were then taken through the tight corridor of “Hanged Horseshoe” on Hangman before having the “Mini Mansion” chicane that followed through the “Ashen Affair” section behind Mini Madrazo’s house, which continued to be traversed down to Richman.
The next part is the “Playboy Gates” section, a gated chicane through a house to Sam Austin before going around the Playboy Mansion at Americano. This is followed by the “Cayo Keys’ Table” complex around West Eclipse, Dunstable, and Greenwich, segmented by the “Panties Gate” and “Estate Fraud Gate” to leave back on West Eclipse.
That got followed by the “Complicated Pencil” hairpin after breaking through Steele into Edwood. As well as the “Azerbaijan Audio” around West Caesar that ends on a hairpin to Mad Wayne Thunder. That got followed by the “Epsilon Valley” section from BDP to West Eclipse through Strangeways.
After that, we were followed by the “Pacific Standard Summit,” where you briefly climbed around Alta and Last Lagunas before entering Didion. Which ends on the “Undomesticated Cereal” as a hairpin to Wild Oats. That got followed by the “Damned Wall” hairpin to Lake Vinewood, which was then followed by the “Lake Estate Snail” loop that started on a tight cut behind the walls towards it.
The ensuing “Marlowe Section” is simple before you suddenly jump past the Pit Lane on the “Fallen Bus” towards Senora Way, where Madrazo’s “White Fountain” Section awaits, which also includes going LEFT on the roundabout. After that is a fast dash before the twin chicane section of “Chaparral Duality,” first in dirt and second in asphalt toward Baytree. This was before you took on another dirt path onto the “Omni-Cycle West” path back to Mount Haan, which led to the classic “Generator” chicane to Galileo.
After which, we had the extremely sharp hairpin of “Surfer Cutter” after a gentler hairpin to prompt it towards the barranca. That got followed by the “Waterfall Triangle Chicane” northward to Tongva before you’re faced with the “Undergrowth Vines” section towards the Vineyard before continuing past it towards the “Streamside” before merging back to the twisties of “Goodwine” back to Devin Weston’s mansion.
Hello… we’re back to the blog. Honestly, I’m glad that this blog is a pretty short and simple one, at least in theory. Because the next one is going to be the ever-complex Jet Lag Review for Season 18! And… Hoo boy, I’ll try to get some brainstorming with the points to get things going.
Unfortunately, as much as I would like to have that solely be my intro here, I had to vent… because of this event that happened last Thursday? Why? Because…
Well FUCK Demon-etization AGAIN! -_- *Pause.* The Falcom Music Channel is now fully gone because of it—like, COME ON! I JUST FINISHED DEALING WITH MY ENTIRE PLAYLIST THE NIGHT BEFORE BECAUSE YOU DELETED THREE BIGGEST TRACKS IN THAT CHANNEL! AND NOW I HAD TO DO A MUCH LARGER VERSION BECAUSE A HUGE CHUNK OF IT IS GONE!
So… yeah, in a less vicious version of it… because of all of that bullshit, I lost a big chunk of my music playlist and had to re-sort them back… 28 of them had to be replaced. One of them HAD to be freaking Dance Pad Version because nobody but that channel has Resonant Saga Album that is not on a huge bulk
So yeah, if you’re wondering why I am in such a horrible mood today, it’s because I had to waste like an hour AT 3 AM! All to just find which soundtracks were missing and replace them back. And you know, because I had to be back to my sleep instead of dealing with that bullshit! I decided to sort out the actual order playlist of it last week, which is the most annoying part
Thankfully the latest NicoB episode is a Yakuza one (although I’m skipping the next playthrough, Look Outside, because I hate horror), which allows me to just do that while watching it instead of wasting my downtime later at 8PM, especially after taking a while to buy my dinner. But past that, I’m so done dealing with this shit already that I just want to relax and watch a video some more instead of continue reading the Apocrypha section of Isekai’d as a Harem Member because I’m just tired by this point.
Still, regardless, in memoriam of both the channel and everything great that it did to the Falcom community, not just Trails of course, here are all the list of song that I had to replace… in the order of where they are on my playlist here… Thank FUCK I made the wise decision to download songs that I like on Kyoto Xanadu ASAP, with no expectation for this to happen at all.
1. Ashita e no Kiseki – Year of Bond’s Opening
5. I’ll Remember You – Camellia of Constancy (Elegy)
7. Horrifying Disaster – Takeuchi VS Suzume in the former’s dream
9. Bravery Storm – Slithers Invasion of Yasogami High
13. Proud Grudge – Takeuchi’s Final Confrontation against Hashimoto
41. Awakening of a Great Dragon – Aircraft Carrier of Revanchism, Yamato-Ketsugou (Interior, The Hull)
166. Valestein Castle (Nasty Children) – Konan VS Azuka
190. Marionette, Marionette – Overcoming the Curse of Takahashi’s Rapier
196. Vesper Umbra – Agatha’s Final Trial (Charity to Emperor)
206. Great Power – Agatha’s Final Trial (Hope to Bishop)
215. All is a Lie (XRC) – The Talk from a Sister
224. Wish*Wing – Aki VS Natsuko (Parkade Standoff)
231. The End of SAGA – Aixes the Iron Shadow (Lu Tieying)
232. Majestic Roar – Aixes the Iron Shadow (Zhong Kui)
233. One Way to the Netherworld – Aixes the Iron Shadow (Deva)
234. Resist the Demise – Aixes the Iron Shadow (Jophiel)
240. Strategic Zone – Final Dungeon, Fortress of the Ancient Will (Seekers of Truth)
257. Resonance of Ray/Genesis Tower – Orochi no Oni (Terminus)
So yeah, there are twenty-nine songs in total. TWENTY-NINE! And that’s before including the already replaced Blue Destination, Decisive Collision, and Azure Arbitrator, and I also had to replace Wish Wing TWICE even earlier then! Ugh…
Also, UPDATE down below here: my conclusion that I drew from here is that even though Falcom is nowhere near to be blameless for this, that’s just all the more reason to despise the music industry and their so-called copy-‘right’ in general, especially when it comes to YouTube’s gaming content. -_-
Okay, okay, the rant’s over; I have done venting for this week, so let’s just get to the actual blog then, shall we? Would be sad if that rant is somehow longer than the Main Blog.
Now, while I did write several blogs covering basically my main OC, Shiba Takeuchi, as you can see down below… I never actually share this theme that I decided to personally stitch together on him using… uh… I forgot the name :/, *pause,* Audacity. Yeah (It’s been YEARS since I used that D:) So indeed, now that I finally remember what has essentially been buried inside my 11400+ catalogue of music, I decided to finally release it to the public here.
Still, when I said “stitch,” I really meant it. The me nowadays is barely able to edit video for anything more than putting BGM on a video, such as what you’ve seen on my DW Empires Updates, let alone the me that was years ago, much less the tax of doing a proper mashup or remix. So of course the end result is a very rough transition between the sections that are so abrupt that it’s basically a half-baked job. Still, the me from back then was proud of the job I did, but since then, I never really give it the attention it deserved.
Either way, done in 2017, even older than this blog pretty much, here is the soundtrack I used for the samples:
Yeah, I think you can guess why most of these songs were picked, considering his actual lineage. Keep in mind that I did this before DW9 came out xD
Anyway, as for the other two exceptions, well… there’s a funny story on it. For that random Sentai stuff that I LITERALLY never heard of other than that song even to this day, and… apparently he seems to be a goofy character here. And well… I think the only reason I did it is because the intro sounds fittingly traditional yet also somewhat ominous; that is, more Japanese than Chinese, owing to where Take’s at right now.
But also, probably because his name is the same as the Japanese Underworld and P4’s Final Dungeon, as well as kind of honoring me getting inspired by Takeuchi’s name from Shiba Takeru from Super Sentai’s Shinkengers… even though it turns out this Future Diaries thing had NOTHING to do with Super Sentai, AHAHAHAH!
As for the FFXIII one, well… it’s inspired by me finding this beautiful song from this spin-off of Phoenix FROM. However… I kind of gaslit myself into thinking that there’s such a thing as a Takeuchi version of that song that I personally tailor-made. While in reality… it’s probably the exact same song, but I replaced Valhalla or Jianye with Luoyang instead.
I wasted quite a few times looking through my fanfiction PM archives embarrassingly because of it. And instead, I probably think of the Takeuchi version of “Where I’m From” people, which I DID make a blog about. Here are the actual references, by the way (keep in mind that most Takeuchi-related references may have been outdated since those are pretty much my earlier 2020 blogs at the end of it):
Oh, and if you’re wondering why I didn’t upload it to YouTube, it’s because 1. Doing that requires me to put a still image for the entire video, which I am even more clueless about doing than simply putting text for a few seconds. And 2. After what happened to Falcom Music Channel recently and my post-2024 GTA Tracks career, where I chose not to put in Self Radio on my tracks and STILL got copy-‘right’-ed because I forgot to turn off the goddamn radio while recording, I’m not taking chances to put in any full-on music on YouTube, man! So let this Dropbox link be a much more secure way for me to do it, just like the GTA Tracks Layout I had after I realized how little space left for this blog’s storage
Hello… We’re finally back to the blog here. And as you can see with me finally releasing it on Saturday, it was very clear that there won’t be a track blog due to the sheer amount of this blog’s content. However, that wasn’t actually the only reason for this delay. You see, I already started making progress for the preparation of the blog since Tuesday. However, there are SO MANY things in the week across this entire way.
As such, what was supposed to be me writing around half of the blog on Tuesday became impossible. In fact, this intro alone is going to be SO LONG because there are too many things to unpack, which required me to have basically 3 sessions of writing this. And the first one is solely dedicated to the intro indeed. Therefore, let’s get to it then, from the very beginning
So, it all got started on Tuesday after I discussed the Trelleborg-Travemünde Ferry in Euro Truck. In which, out of impulse, I decided to jokingly try updating the ferry mod for Euro Truck here just to see if it worked. However, it turns out that it was a DUMB mistake.
Because, 1, despite me expecting it to work, it DID. And while I thought it was just a ‘quick’ load of 10 minutes that I can leave for a breakfast over… I then got trapped in a 30-minute long (possibly more) of Updated Navigation Loading because of course that meant I basically my goddamn map! D: I seriously questioned my decision to do that THEN instead of AFTER all of my business is done at like 10 AM! And as a big kick in the ass, that was NOT the right mod. It’s actually this one!
Still, at least there’s a silver lining that the supposed 1.60 ETS2 mod somehow still works on 1.43 (after I got traumatized doing it for trying to put in a 1.44 Lithuania map years ago), so that meant I got more options on the ferries now, even though there are so many I don’t know which one’s which anymore. Heck, I even got a Tunis-Malta section of the ferry to prove it.
However, that whole debacle also meant that I was too tired by the time I was done with the character update recording, and combined with the whole GTA DLC to watch back then, that is basically the final nail in the coffin of me NOT completing this blog before Saturday.
Still, not to mention, I also had BOTH PVZ Fusion V3.8 AND said GTA DLC’s cars to sort out eventually too not long after that (with the car testing and data arriving on Thursday). But while I rushed to do that PVZ Fusion stuff on Wednesday, which kind of wrecked my morning that day too to a lesser extent (despite me being lucky enough to have a much shorter DYOM session than I deserved on that day). I decided that now, for my sanity, I will do that sort out for the newest GTA DLC cars on Sunday, as this already longblog is the upmost priority above all else right now
However,… that wasn’t the worst one, because at least what happened on Tuesday was pure hubris with me that somehow worked out in the end. Because on Wednesday evening, I found HUNDREDS of Trails stories over in Pixiv… the issue is, they’re ALL in JAPANESE. And some reason loading them with my Wi-Fi is annoying as hell (despite working perfectly on the Quota Package) Not to mention, that whole thing with me discovering all those Pixiv novels also caused me not sleep until past half-eleven… And my bedtime is usually at 9PM!
So, in order to convenience myself on top of the need to actually read them in English, with the power of Google Translate. I tried the same thing I did last week with the scrape-download entire accounts’ worth of content with a Chrome extension. The good news is it took NOWHERE near as long as that 8-hour one from last time. The bad news is they are in EPUBs… which is extremely annoying because I like to read in PDF or DOCX. Because FUCK ME, I GUESS!
So, I tried using File Converter, and… take a guess? It was paywalled… ALL OF THEM! Even those are in the form of an actual app! And my usual online converter that I relied on (which had 20 files limit per batch with no cooldown) didn’t have EPUB to PDF for some reason! That’s not even getting to the actual translation part yet!
At that point, I just gave up, scrapped all of those darn downloads, started over from scratch, and just resorted to Google Translate EACH Storyline, ONE BY ONE, before putting them in a Word Document, SLOWLY for the next few days! And even worse, a lot of stories are divided into ‘Multiple Pages’ for no reason on a WEB PAGE, and there is NO way to make them all be 1 page or anything more convenient. Ugh…
(Oh, and if you’re wondering, no, I won’t share those stories with you due to their very nature. I’ll let you guess, but this is for a private consumption only, okay?
But that isn’t the worst one, because this one is COMPLETELY NONE of my fault. It happened this Friday, and it all started from me updating Windows last night. It was business as usual, and I thought it should be. But after that, in the following morning, FOR SOME REASON, my MS Word refused to open after trying to ‘update,’ and it kept FAILING with this error (0xC0000142).
So, I followed the steps of this page, which led me to “Repair Office from Control Panel.”
HOWEVER, for some stupid reason, after I followed the steps, it just basically undid my MS Word license because Microsoft is a DICK! So, after that, I tried SO MANY THINGS to get it work, including downloading this Office 2019 thing I had again, but it changed NOTHING!
I then tried to look into some online activation keys, and all I got were errors. I EARLY gave up at this point; I was THIS close to getting it to the repairs and might as well take care of this “WORKER INVALID” error I’ve been having from opening my Facebook Pages a LITTLE too fast as well. Especially considering that I got the worst luck that all of this happened on Friday, the day when I got a LOT of writing business to do, INCLUDING THIS VERY BLOG, UGH!
AND OF COURSE, SOME REASON! It just refused to accept the activation NO MATTER what key I tried to correctly input, which is UGH! So, at that point, I tried resorting to uninstalling and reinstalling the 2019 one once again, just to see if it would work… it did NOTHING after I reinstalled. So, I got desperate and nearly consider going into the repairs AGAIN… until I found this guide after looking up “Activation Key Not Working” (The page is Indonesian, though, but at this point, I do NOT care at all)
And… it actually works. Thank FUCK for that CMD command, because RRRGHH! Thanks, Microsoft, for ruining my morning!
ANYWAY… on a much more positive note. It is now confirmed that the next episode of Jet Lag Season 18, Stateside Scramble, is the final one. This means the next blog in two weeks would be the Jet Lag Review… which is perfect timing considering that I took a week off from Euro Truck there.
And thankfully, unlike Taiwan, there are SO MANY positive things and good vibes to be shared then. Probably for the first time since Schengen Showdown or even Hide+Seek Japan. So yeah, look forward to it! But for now, let’s get to the actual blog that I’m supposed to write if not for all of this nonsense.
PHEW! Well, as usual, let’s start with the summary of the two playthroughs first.
The Ending Shot of Huangfu Mi’s Playthrough (4 Parts)
So, as we get to explore in the other playthrough here, coincidentally, both playthroughs revolve around two newly made scenarios, and they both are basically in the same time period as well… mostly due to my headcanon of Huangfu Mi personally written the tale of Xiahou Lingnu not long after the Incident of the Gaoping Tombs
Still, let’s start with the main sub-goal that I needed for this playthrough in addition to the obvious unification of Three Kingdoms-era China. In which I am required to find Guo Mingyuan only AFTER I start the scenario. This was done because I cannot be allowed to just cheese my way into getting a favorable spawn for her.
The good news is she IS in my territory, at Xiliang specifically. Since otherwise, that meant I HAD to wait before I could recruit her at the earliest possible opportunity. And with my rule of this playthrough being forbidden to make any objections or alliances to manipulate the invasion direction by any means (in fact, only Vagabond alliance is allowed due to how little the amount of the main factions are), I spared myself from having a long playthrough
The bad news is, however, that in my rush to do that, I COMPLETELY FORGOT to put the difficulty on easy and instead ended up being on the defaulted normal. That makes the playthrough, on the other hand, a lot more painful in the ass. It made this thing felt longer than it should be, on top of me wrestling over with both like… 14 new characters to design as well as the resculpted project of Pepega ProStreet in that period.
Each combination makes for a painful playthrough experience that feels MUCH longer than it already is due to the extremely tanky enemies on top of the real risk of dying around here. That is extremely annoying since I basically got stuck with low-level weapons for most of the playthrough, and I cannot simply play as anybody else other than the MC for the sake of variety here.
And the 2nd episode epitomizes that the best, considering that once I recruited Mingyuan, she was at Level 13… while I was at 28. And it only gets WORSE from there! All the while, Sun Ce’s getting shockingly pummeled by both mine and Lu Ji’s work despite being supposedly the strongest faction out of the three.
Then, my next priority is to find Huangfu Mi’s secondary weaponry, which is the Emeici. Turns out, though, Wang Yi ALREADY has it, and she also had been with my Exemplary Faction from the start. And indeed, thanks to her being a playable character, she truly became one of my most reliable units. Not just from her battle skills, but also from how many actions she did for me across the playthrough, including with the facility constructions on the side, especially the very expensive weapon forger. Enough that she shockingly became my 2nd oath sibling at the end after picking Guo Mingyuan first (obviously).
However, this is also the start of my shenanigans for the future. Which is my insistence to start ONE raid for each episode. The issue with this one isn’t so severe, mostly to do with me being forgetful to do it on top of my insistence to only do one if there’s an objective in the current semester. But that wouldn’t take form of its full ugly head until the following playthrough. More on that later.
Unsurprisingly though, a no-objection playthrough caused me to end up doing all territories EXCEPT for the capitals before the very end. And of course, Lingnu got the first turn for being the ruler. While I NEEDED to do this plot even if I had to resort to an objection to do it, in the end, I didn’t need to since Lingnu did Jianye herself at the end. Leaving me to do Lu Ji at Beiping after that.
Speaking of Lingnu, I put her on the cover because she’s the only one of this Gaoping Tomb Triumvirate who didn’t have a playthrough (ironic name, I know), unlike Huangfu Mi and Guo Mingyuan. While Mingyuan’s Playthrough is also a non-ruler one, I chose not to give the cover spot to the latter’s ruler, Zhang Jing’ai, since she had the limelight of having her own playthrough already, unlike Lingnu, who’s most likely won’t.
Still, I also ended up deliberately choosing to marry Huangfu Mi and Lingnu too, because deep down, I always kind of ship them based on Huangfu Mi personally writing Lingnu’s tales of Exemplary, which led to my idea that they were close friends from that.
Meanwhile, the choice of the BGM for Huangfu Mi’s playthrough is “Totoumi – Ii no Ya Castle” from Sengoku Basara 4. This is mostly because I like this very womanly theme despite the MC of this playthrough being male. And I actually WANT to use this in a battle environment instead of the other choice I considered before I made the previous update video… which is SCROLLS! 😡
HUANGFU MI in “Pious, Exemplary, and Peerless”
Child: Huangfu Dianfan (皇甫典範), meaning “exemplary.” Initially I wanted to name him Fanli (皇甫範例), meaning “exemplar.” This is because both words being the theme of the team I’m backing in this playthrough. 😉 However, I changed it to Dianfan because Fanli is a little too feminine upon realizing that it was a male. And just picking Fan doesn’t mean… right… (Since it instead meant “Pattern/Boundary… and Mould, for some reason)
The Ending Shot of Guo Mingyuan’s Playthrough (5 Parts)
As for Mingyuan’s, this is where the playthrough starts getting a lot longer than you expected. While it is now back to the easier difficulty as it should be, despite indeed having 5 episodes instead of 4 like last time, this is the start of the phase where my playthrough tweets start getting really long. Along with the Euro Truck starting from the Scania 113H Bicuda Stint, as well as some DYOM play-throughs provided if they’re annoying enough. Both are following PVZ Fusion, which has experienced this for a long while.
Still, despite that, the vibe of this playthrough is at least more chill in terms of the battle itself. However, in return, this brings its own set of problems. It all started from my main side goal of this playthrough, which is to find AND marry Cao Rui before the playthrough ends. And if I cannot find him, I cannot marry AT ALL. Unfortunately, it turns out he was actually DEEP in Huiji, right at the capital of Sun Yangmei’s OC Stand-In Territory.
That is literally the worst spot possible since I already set up both Sun Shangxiang (and later) Diaochan to be my main allies and possible final opponents. However, unlike the last playthrough, I AM allowed to do the Objection Play. Heck, I even started to properly learn to abuse my “reject an invasion then do one myself” method from this playthrough. Thankfully, I started at a good spot for it, Chengdu, even if it came at the cost of having to dismantle the Nanman Empire earlier than I thought.
Unfortunately, this method is a slog to do early on due to the difficulty I had in getting alliances done, especially with that dreaded number those damn kids kept yammering on about. *Shudders.* So unsurprisingly, due to Guo Mingyuan basically having her spot as the leader of this Historical Renaming Faction usurped by Zhang Jing’ai despite being a more notable figure in history, the option to eventually Unsurp or Secede is very much open for this playthrough on top of those Schemes I had.
However, unlike the previous playthrough with this kind of plot, like Cao Zhi or Zhu Ju, I am explicitly allowed to talk with Jing’ai, opening a path for a possible succession or sibling oath. The latter is what happened at the end, but that basically forced me to go even more all-in towards that whole “Objection and Override” method, which is the name of the 3rd episode.
Despite those things that I properly learned to master this playthrough, however, I very much had to concede that Jing’ai is really doing great this playthrough. And she definitely deserved being the leader of this faction even after I finished this playthrough. So, despite the changes and addition of characters in that scenario past this, the leaders’ position would certainly not change anymore. Even though I kind of did her a disservice for kept forgetting to change her Hookswords whenever I played as her until the very last episode
Meanwhile, despite the 3rd episode focusing on me having to break through FOUR territories on the southern corner of China to reach Yangmei’s territory, that whole plot gets much easier to be done once I become a strategist. Although, ironically, my title for this playthrough ended up being Aide to Kings due to all of that scheming. Which is ironic considering her futile attempt to stop the rise of the Sima Clan, which is what she’s most well known for.
Although, apparently my friend, who is a BIG Zhenji fan and the very person that made me pick Mingyuan for this playthrough, said that Cao Rui apparently sexually harassed her when I got her married to him after I defeated and recruited Yangmei (in which I decided to do the funny and bring Lu Xun for that after recruiting him back in the Nanman Empire phase of the playthrough).
I looked it up, and yes, he had a lot of issues with his empresses before Mingyuan, but the worst example I could find is him tugging at Empress Guo’s clothes to ask her to play music for him. EVEN MORE SO, that is NOT Mingyuan; that is the other Empress Guo, Guo Nuwang, who DEFINITELY deserved being terribly treated more.
Still, despite me not forgetting to pick the correct difficulty this time, I still took so long to properly set my stratagems after I became Prefect (I didn’t do it as Officer because it ALWAYS got reset whenever I did a quest, annoyingly). And upon Yangmei’s defeat, I set my sight back up north after ignoring it so much that Guan Suo ended up retaking Chang’an despite what I did right before I did that “Object and Override” plot to get me to Huiji.
And this is where my large problem arises. Because I wanted to do a raid once per episode, I absolutely refused to do any defensive battles and would prefer to just repair the territory. Because of course, doing it means an extra battle for me, and with each episode taking so long already, 6 battles per episode are absolutely NOT on the cards for me.
The fact that after the 3rd episode, I only had 8 territories left to do, which only emboldened me to commit to doing it. But unfortunately, the game had other ideas. Because the invasion kept happening in a row that gave me no room to repair until the whole thing got conquered. And nothing got it worse than Guan Suo, because HOO BOY, he did this thing TWICE, basically throwing my last episode entirely into chaos. And of course, when I went directly to Xiangyang to kill him, he had a leftover for me to deal with!
There’s also all that whole shenanigans Liu Bei pulled in the playthrough, and I knew that I CANNOT let him take a territory, or else it would mean I had to do another battle on top of that. So, I settled for FINALLY doing a defensive battle since I knew I could fast track it without finishing it at the main camp, and I finally understood how to prevent it by basically bribing him, with both donating into his territory and proposing alliances to him. Which seems to work.
Thankfully though, Liu Yao, an extra from the Vagabond Faction that emerged very early in the playthrough, ended up being my savior at the end since it managed to shockingly gain a lasting prominence in the north despite never being intended to be there. Not to mention, it also managed to take out Lu Kang on his own, who is entirely surrounded by both Liu Yao, Diaochan, and Shangxiang.
That basically saved my playthrough to be done as planned at the end instead of having to deal with FIVE territories in the final episode, because UNLIKE GUAN SUO! Defeating him didn’t create any stupid Leftovers.
Still, I know at the end I struggled to decide on whether I should save Diaochan or Shangxiang for last, but with Jing’ai choosing to take the former’s penultimate territory in Beihai instead of Shangxiang’s Changsha, the decision had been made right then and there. Despite me making some shenanigans with the former, including proposing an alliance right after my scheduled invasion just so that she couldn’t bother me while I took care of Liu Yao after Beihai and to get her to squabble with the rest of the Eastern Factions around here.
And at least Yangmei gets to settle her catfight with Bao Sanniang after the shenanigans she pulled at the Xiangke chapters of Phoenix FROM Colored Glaze, eheheheheh…. Too bad that I couldn’t get to see Shangxiang joining me or her at the end for a proper reunion, however. It’s not like I could recruit anybody this late into the playthrough despite the stupid generics clogging up roster slots in the way. *Sighs.* Why can’t I be the one to handle the capture in my own strategist invasions while somehow Prefects CAN?! 😡
Anyway, the choice for the BGM of this playthrough is “Melody of Clarity” from FE Warriors Three Hopes. One, mostly because I wanted to listen to it. And two, I had to thank this song, in parallel with Matsunaga’s story in Basara 4 that Synesthesia just done (MAN, I really need to get to that Basara story stages ranking blog eventually, but there’s SO MUCH backlog to have here D:), to give this the title of the final episode after a few struggles… which, as you know, is called “The Song of an Imperial Judgment.” 😉
GUO MINGYUAN in “Fictional People of the Three Kingdoms”
Child: Cao Lian (曹鏈), meaning Chains. It was a metaphor of Guo Mingyuan’s political powers being continuously held back by the rise of the Sima, no matter how much she tried to resist, which is why I gave Mingyuan a flail in the first place. However, when the notification that Mingyuan birthed a child came out… I completely forgot to look at the gender before immediately pressing Enter. It was honestly a big choke; I decided that I had no choice but to pick something unisex. Unfortunately, that means I cannot pick Gaoping (which is ironic considering that Mingyuan’s biggest role is related to the incident of Gaoping Tombs… which is literally Cao Rui’s grave). So, in the end I settled for Lian. Although, that Marital Bliss dialogue should have made me pick Guang (meaning light, which complemented Guo Mingyuan’s name and Cao Rui’s Title of Emperor Ming, both of which mean bright), upon retrospection, haiya…
As for the next playthrough, meanwhile, it shall be Liu Chong’s on the Yuan Family Divided Scenario. Where the forgotten Prince of Chen shall reclaim the fate that a good guy like him deserves and beat up both sides of the Yuan Clan to a pulp, and we start it from his historical territory right on the border between the two. But of course, I can NOT start that goal, or even doing anything other than Sidequests before recruiting his trusted vassal who is but anything else other than Huo Jun.
And the one after that would be exploring Yu Xuanfeng in the Fan Castle, an OC that is made to be a composite of Kessen II’s Dong and Xi Xuanfeng, who’s now also an adopted daughter of Yu Jin, which befits the latter’s much more serious personality compared to the Zhang He-like portrayal in Kessen.
I did it as an apology for especially completely forgetting to make her Xue Ai’s sworn sibling instead of Lu Lingqi, who I ended up with. As well as her strange yet platonic relationship with Xia Hu. Albeit I’m intending to have her dating Guo Yi (Guo Jia’s son) as a reference to the DarkGolbenz’s fanfiction called “The Story of Guo Kai.” Oh, and also beating down on both Xingcai and Jing’ai, because they’re both Zhang Fei’s daughters here.
Still, as I mentioned back in the last DYOM update blog. I think there are only 4 playthroughs left from now, with the possibility of any new ones popping up being very unlikely. So there is a good chance that I would retire from DW8 Empires at last within 2 updates from now on. We’ll see if I want to do the NFS Underground Monte Carlo mod after that, however.
Now, before we get to the thumbnail and video itself, here is the theme song used for this showcase. And just like these two playthroughs, there wasn’t really a theme for me in picking it. Considering that the “Roaring Version of Get Over the Barrier” from Trails from Zero is chosen, admittedly, only because I wanted to listen to it after seeing the end of NicoB’s Trails from Zero playthrough. He had gone past Azure now too, so yeah, it’s been THAT long since I planned it. We’ll see if he gets to do Cold Steel next after he’s done with either Disgaea 1 or LaD Gaiden, however.
Timestamps:
0:00 Updated Characters (Huangfu Mi, Guo Mingyuan, Huangfu Dianfan, and Cao Lian)
0:17 New Characters and the Teaser for the Next Playthrough
And on the thumbnail, from the left, we have:
-Yang Yi (An arrogant, if not traitorous, man who caused Wei Yan’s death and had the gall that he could succeed Zhuge Liang over Jiang Wan, Fei Yi, and even Jiang Wei.)
-Huo Jun (Huo Yi’s father who held off both Zhang Lu’s and Liu Zhang’s forces in Jiameng to helped Liu Bei secured Yi Province)
-Ma Tie (Ma Chao and Yunlu’s younger and naiver brother who got executed along with his father for plotting the assassination of Cao Cao, which caused Tong Gate.)
-Gao Sheng (Zhang Bao’s subordinates who would like to bath the idiotic infidels in the Flaming Meteoric Rain)
-Zhu Xia (The Wo Long Blacksmith that I retrofitted to be an equivalent to Fire Emblem’s Anna that I had to put in after some peer pressure… it’s Fu Xi and Nuwa all over again :/)
-Yan Xiang (A surprisingly effeminate man of duality and dual identities who unsuccessfully tried to talked Yuan Shu out of becoming the Rat Emperor)
-Li Su (A man who betrayed both Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo for a thirst for chaos stronger than Lu Bu’s. Oh, he’s also the one who bribed Lu Bu himself with Red Hare.)
-Xun Xu (Xun Shuang’s great-grandson and Xun Yi’s 3rd cousin, who often fell into the wrong kind of crowd while also too pacifist to rock the boat for the sake of keeping the status quo to a major fault)
-Hu Zong (Sun Quan’s reading mate back when Sun Ce was still alive, yet also a surprisingly intelligent essayist despite his apparent drunkard attitude.)
And here are the new characters’ picture collage as well as their profiles down below as usual. Enjoy
GONGSUN FAN (Other, Gongsun)
Alright, we finally get to the batch of new DW8 Empires characters, starting from Gongsun Fan. You see, historically, he’s known to be Fiercely Loyal, which made me think that he believed in the whole “Blood Thicker Than Water” thing. Even after Yuan Shao’s nobility promises given to him to take over for Bohai/Beihai instead of him cousin, he instead reaffirms his Loyalty. I mean, why would he defect after Yuan Shao killing Yue who caused the war to break out in the first place. Although, despite said loyalty, like Yue, he’s merely his 2nd Cousin once Removed, and that earning a mockery from his peers of his lacking relationship. Anyway, because of said Gongsun Zan ties, I decided that he, first and foremost, wore some Samurai/Japanese Armor that is NOT the same as Gongsun Zan’s. This is represented by a Kabuki Armband, it fits the winter, but it’s all I can give to him at the end after a lot of addition to ask. But just to keep things matched, most of his coloration is also White, as a nod to the Gongsun Faction color as a whole. Now, for the rest of the details is based one of Gob’s fellow Nightowl Server Friend, and Playthrough Character in his ROTK8 Remake Scenario, who is Zhou Liang by Cryo. That was how I got the Tornado Tattered top, the cyan pants, and of course, he wouldn’t be complete with the White Hair Bun Hairstyle. Because of that of of course, I gave him Cao Pi’s Rage as a pun to Cryo (which is used to name Ice-related things). As for the Main Weapon though, it’s a little bit harder, I initially consider Zhang Fei’s Pike or the Voulge, because… Jieqiao, the battle he’s most well known for, has a bridge on it. However, I eventually settle to a Sanjiegun, which is a Pole-based weapon that is NOT a spear and also can be attributed to Zhao Yun’s Spear or Gongsun Xu (his nephew)’s Javelin. Mostly also because it has a youthful acrobatic vibe on him. Because… well, I suddenly got an idea that his face could be based on the infamous “How Do You Do Fellow Kids” due to hang around the younger parts of the Gongsun Clan more, akin to an old wacky mentor of sorts. Because of that, I gave him Wei Yan’s Voulge Air which did feature some breakdancing, Sabaton Kick which you can see as some sort of sliding kick that CAN be combo-ed into the Air. And of course, the Bench Grab, because it’s very much a Skateboard basically. Because of that too, I gave him a red headband akin to the meme’s Red Cap, as well as an intentionally out of place modern-looking red boots. In fact, things went as far as me basing his face on said Meme, but with half of the eyes and the hair color of Zhou Liang/Cryo as a compromise. The result isn’t too flatting, but I guess it worked to convey his “Trying too hard to be young” look… heck, he looked like an Ono Michio from Yakuza in terms of facial shape to me xD Anyway, in case you wonder what happened to him, he is last seen telling Zhao Yun and Gongsunji the bad news of what happened at Jieqiao despite his duel with Qu Yi on a bridge (Even though I don’t think they actually dueled ON it historically), before then leaves the History and retires since. Because his loss at that duel hurts him too much to not even able to save his cousin at the very end, so he simply dies in peace after knowing that the Gongsun Zan Force is no more.
LI SHU (Other)
Well, honestly, some random jobbers who randomly rebelled against Wu shouldn’t be too worthy to add… but then it turns out that in DW8 Origins, there ARE actually TWO Lujiang Battles in the Wu Story, one with Lu Kang as we all know… and the other is this prick. Somehow, though, him being here also gives validity to adding several characters. Yu He (wait for that later) is tasked to deal with him; he worked together with Liu Fu on the Wei side to do it, AND he’s also the one who killed Yan Xiang (Also more on that next time). So yeah, that was a shock. In fact, he’s such an asshole that the ONLY reason Sun Ce tolerated him was because he defected from Liu Xun which helped defeat him in the first place (Which is not historical, since there’s no record of him ever serving under Liu Xun), though this is the reason why I made him dress in mostly white. But basically, think of Kobayakawa Hideaki, only FAR less lovable. In fact, he’s even conspiring in the Gan Ji Plot and began to openly rebel after Sun Ce died, which pissed off Sun Quan enough to then behead him at the end as revenge (Hence him having a massive head). And for that reason, I gave him the Great Sword Rage, because that sword is clearly big enough to cleave someone’s head. His cowardly personality also made me give him the Shadow Fan, which features Fire Breathing and fits into the Sorcery Theme well. Oh, and by the way, that whole Yan Xiang thing also pissed off Cao Cao enough to be willing to send Liu Fu to work with Sun Quan to get rid of this pest even after Sun Ce’s attempt at a sneak attack in Xuchang. And speaking of which, that’s also how I got him a Rake Musou in reference to the Mud Balls his forces had to cruelly eat after Cao Cao also said “Screw You’. Ironically though, I base how he dressed on the DW4 Cao Cao Concept Art (Especially on the Demon King Metal Pants) since well… there ARE some obviously evil vibes to be had there. However, picking that Cao Cao’s face ended up still looking a bit too cool for this asshole, so I added in details from Wo Long’s Yu Ji (aka Gan Ji), as shown by the Clawed Gauntlet and the ragged top. And as Gan Ji’s ‘psychotic follower,’ I also give him some Cultish Beads on his attire too, such as the Boots… which is Tribal, yes, but they’re also cheap-looking. From there, I also took some facial features from Yu Ji from Wo Long (such as the White Hair and the head ornament, which is represented by the third eye since I need to give him the Headdress from Cao Cao). This is on top of a stocky body just to mock him (although Heavy Body is a bit too much when I tried it out). And thankfully, both that Cao Cao Concept Art and Yu Ji have VERY narrow eyes, which fits how much of a prick he is and also serves to hide the truly demonic iris he had. As for the rest of the Musou, I picked Daqiao’s Blast as it is basically a more pathetic version of Jia Xu’s Fire Breathing on top of an ironic thing with Daqiao (Being Sun Ce’s Wife) as well as being yet another Magic-based Musou. And lastly, he had the Swallow Sword Air as a reference to him killing Yan Xiang and basically stealing his weapon. on top of that, Yu Ji had a (single) jian because he possessed the Blindfolded Boy’s Body.
YU HE (Wu)
YU HE (Wu)
Yep, I’m back for this batch of new characters right before the Eid Al-Fitr, but it’s quite annoying to think of this stuff while you are hungry. Speaking of confusing stuff, I wasn’t particularly clear on which one is historical or a Novel invention between Yu He being a Yu that got adopted by Sun Jian or being Sun Jian’s cousin who is given the name Yu to continue its family line. Either way, I had to rename him Yu He instead of Sun He (Like how it’s supposed to) to avoid the game being confused with Sun Quan’s son and Sun Hao’s father. And I think with the drama surrounding Li Shu, I think this is as good a time as any to add someone who’s fair but then killed when he tried investigating Sun Yi’s death. I also believed that he should be considered by Lady Xu and also Sun Shao as their uncle (Though some sources said that he’s Sun Shao’s COUSIN instead D:), mostly because not just her father worked with him (and then Liu Fu, whom his killers were planning to defect to) to quell Li Shu together. Because of this very confusing genealogy here, I decided that Yu He looks older than Sun Ce but younger than Sun Jian, to balance out the “Adopted by Sun Jian” and “Lady Xu considers him an uncle” here. Although, after later inspirations, all I got for him was a sideburn, which… admittedly looked quite awkward. Anyway, Yu He had an Arm Cannon becaue it’s a Tonfa with a gun, giving him a connection to Sun Ce without making it obvious, as well as Juna Crawford who had a Gun/Tonfa Hybrid in Cold Steel III. Because of that, though, I have an inspiration to make his face based on Guy Bannings there (Lloyd Banning’s late brother if you’re wondering, but I chose to take the Concept Art to make things slightly different). And that inspiration perfectly fits his inspector character too, as well as being a Bodyguard to Sun Jian, a duty he also continues towards Sun Ce. Only to be killed later when he tried to investigate Sun Yi’s Death, which means he died for enacting their justice only for them to be too close to the sun. And for that very role, I ended up thinking it could be a Marshal to Sun Yi in the Land of Might Scenario as well. As for the Musous, I eventually settled for Dong Zhuo’s Air (Because of the S-Craft of Rising Sun and because I can’t summon Dragon in a Musou, unfortunately); Lu Bu Grab which has a Self-Strengthening Buff just like another of Lloyd’s iconic skills, Burning Heart; ONE Spin Musou in reference to Raging Spin (which ended up being Zhang Bao’s since it’s basically a handheld weapon, even though the end result is… really weak); and Tonfa Rage. Because I used the Concept Art of Guy, I chose to give him a sharp Angular Face. Finding the hairstyle was a bit of a struggle until I found the one that looked the closest to me, which is… Sima Zhao’s. Picking the top is quite a bit hard too due to the need of having a collar for him (And that Brown Top and Red Shirt is REALLY hard to find), but Western fits all the bills outside of the need to make him barechested… What a Guy. Heck, the top even had a necklace just like Guy too. 😉 Still, after all of that thinking, I admit I’m little annoyed that the end result made him look more brutish than he really is, but it is what it is, I guess… must be the muscular body or something *sighs*
YAN XIANG (Other, Yuan Shu)
YAN XIANG (Other, Yuan Shu)
And speaking of confusion, apparently there are TWO Yan Xiangs who worked with Yuan Shu; even I got confused thinking that he shares his name with Xiliang’s Yan Xing too. Either way, because of that, I believe it’s a good idea to have him be Dual Split Motif to represent that. Because he’s now a Composite Character of both Yan Xiangs, BOTH are also serving Yuan Shu’s forces, and it’s kind of annoying to separate which one he’s actually supposed to be around here, especially when he has an EXACT same Given name. Of course, due to the Dual Motif, he has Dual Wield, which is also applied to ALL of his weapons and Musou (but to make them stand out, they’re all of each of the five types of weapons in the game). This came along with his colors being both Gold and Blue (referencing him eventually serving up Cao Cao after the Fall of Yuan Shu). With that, I settled on the Top and Boots being Gold and then Arms and Pants are Blue. His main weapon is the Twin Axes since it’s quite heavy and you might as well say that he’s a counterpart to Ji Ling battle-wise (Even though Yue Jiu edges him out in terms of brute strength). He also had Twin Rods Air before I settled on a bunch of ‘flying’ stuff from him. Wing Blades Circles, Throwing Knife Toss, and, of course, the Twin Fans Rage. Also, the lore had noted him as also one of the only reasonable minds in the Yuan Shu Forces along with Yue Jiu, as he unsuccessfully tried to convince the Rat Emperor out of declaring himself an Emperor. Not to mention, trying to go after Sun Ce is a bad omen when there’s literally Lu Bu looming at the gates. But unlike Yue Jiu who remained loyal to the very end, he decided to surrender to Cao Cao upon the suggestion of his old friend, Xun Yu… That is, until Li Shu killed him while working under Liu Fu which ironically legitimized Li Shu’s addition to the story. For that defection, however, I give him a rounded mouse ear (aka. A Rat), which is a good nod to Lu Bu Feng Xian’s Rat Emperor Jokes. I got to admit, I was considering a blue beard on him, on top of the eyebrows, left eye, Dragon Face Paint (Which is Blue because of Cao Cao), and blonde hair that covers the other half of his face just to keep zig-zagging the colors here, but that felt too much at that point. Not to mention, I chose his outfit to be designed to be as asymmetrical as possible, to keep the theme of the Duality between Yellow and Blue (As I wished for it to be split from top to bottom and not sideways). Ironically though, my choice for the pants is a palette swap from Xu You, who’s infamous for defecting from Yuan Shao to Cao Cao since all other asymmetrical options were on the wrong legs. Although, the fact that I had some pretty feminine Musous, combined with the golden lips and symbolic Rat Ears, made him ended up being quite a bit more effeminate than I thought… and the more I looked at him, the more I seen Balder from Bayonetta 1 for some reason
GAO SHENG (Other, Yellow Turbans)
Initially, I wanted to make his moves be Ice-based because of the quote by Zhang Liang “Behold…” in DW3… until it turns out that the lore says that he is actually Zhang BAO’s subordinate instead. So, I pivoted to the words “You Flaming Idiots.” But since Zhang Bao had the Boulders, I chose to go for the ‘Flaming’ part, especially since I didn’t make any Yellow Turbans with a Fire Gimmick due to Zhang Jiao basically being that. But as a DW3 Callback, I still base his outfit on Zhang Jiao’s DW3XL Alternate outfit, particularly the very dark brown hair, Wukong Headband, and the flappy bottom (which I admittedly have a much too fancy one for him). Then, I started merging on the Fire with the Boulders, leading to me thinking that his face should be loosely based on Bolin from Legend of Korra (Because he can do Lavabending, which is basically Fire + Earth). And later on, I went to specify it to be Fire Rain, Meteor, or both. As such, to make some sort of Magma Duo here between Gao Sheng and Zhang Bao, I got him the Zhou Yu Staff along with Musous that involve Fire and especially Fire Rains. This includes the Knife Sun Musou, Ding Feng’s Martial Palms, and also Lu Meng’s Air (Because my other option, Yu Jin’s, is Lightning-based, so…)? And after considering Ling Tong’s, since it’s basically a martial evolution of a Staff, I eventually settle for a Formation Rod Rage because it features a rain of projectiles too, even if it’s not Fire (Which is fine since most of the Rages are non-elemental anyway). Although, a headache is me needing to have the colors recolored to be more yellow akin to the Yellow Turbans (Especially the Top, but at least he had a Yellow Bandana on the collar there, thanks to Bolin Inspiration), considering that we don’t really have Maroon or Brown in this game. Oh, and I chose to give him a green Occult Glove because the boot option had no gems on there, and therefore, I left the feet bare instead.
YUAN YIN (Other, Yuan Shu)
I was worried about nailing down this one, but turns out, it ended up being simpler than I thought. But first, some headcanon. I believe Yuan Yin is the envoy who suggested that damn Arranged Marriage between Lingqi and Yuan Yao; see the cutscene in the DW Origins DLC if you’re wondering (KOEI, you coward. where is Lingqi in this game). That base made me think that he may have looked smug at first. However, upon further examination, Yuan Yin had some more layers to his personality. He’s surprisingly brave unlike the rat emperor that is his uncle, and he’s also caring for his cousin. As he believed that no matter how much she loathed this very Arranged Marriage idea, perhaps Lu Lingqi was what Yao needed to toughen up. Even if it’s to no avail, the motivation to get his wimp of a cousin better is all that matters. As for the weaponry, after some conundrum, I eventually decided that he should take the ‘Rope Dart from Origins DLC’ idea (If you’re wondering about the bow though, more on that on a future character). And after some toss-up, I eventually settle for a Cloth, since Rope is also made of fabric and therefore both can serve as some sort of whip. Making the Cloth being the closest weapon to a Rope Dart without picking a Sword and Hook (Ziluan) or said Chai Whip (Diaochan) As for the Musou, I chose the Sword-Hook Air Musou because of ZIluan there, along with Cao Cao’s Ice Musou and Formation Rod Rain. The latter is a nod to Fulminating Forecast from Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but just imagine Yin using the Imperial Seal for him to summon those lightning rods instead. And while both of these Musous involved summoning projectiles (or rather, Yuan Shu’s belongings), as a bit of irony, it was the very Imperial Seal that he guarded for life until it got looted from his corpse that was given to Cao Cao. And speaking of his Last Stand, which earned him a Defensive State. The Rage that I chose for him HAD to be a Bench, in reference to him carrying Yuan Shu’s coffin before he told Lady Feng, Yuanji, and Yuan Yao to escape to Liu Xun, Yuan Shu’s former subordinate who just broke off after that Emperor Declaration (And eventually Wu after Sun Ce came and ousted that prick who scammed poor Lady Feng and her kids too), while he held a Last Stand to save them. Still, while my inspiration for his looks makes me want to make him dress like a Generic, I chose to have his bottom half be Tattered (just like Zheng Jiang’s), which is also paired with the barely serviceable occult boots, such as Zheng Jiang’s. This is in reference to him being the one who kept Yuan Shu’s coffin, and because of that, the Tattered Bottom along with the Skeleton Face Paint came out as a nod to his association with death. This idea led to me giving him some very uncanny appearances. On top of that, the legs are extremely short to reference him being supposedly on his cousin Yao’s age, with a slender body and long hands akin to Slenderman. This is paired with a very silted eye, a braid that is stereotypical to a Jiangshi’s hairstyle. Along with of course, pale skin and rusted yellow lips behind the face paint. And lastly, I picked the Gauntlet that is tied up by rope because the Envoy Generic’s base seems to have his sleeve tied up with rope, as well as the rather childish-looking top (The same one I had for Sun Xiu) to show how ‘supposedly young-looking’ he is.
DONG ZHAO (Wei)
Well, back in the day, I decided to ignore him in favor of Sima Zhi; however, him appearing in Born from Chaos made me unable to deny adding him in. So… I heard some unsavory things from him, and that led me to giving him an inspiration from Wo Long’s Dong Zhuo (Down to his face and stout body, in fact). As if they were related, which historically they are NOT (Unlike Dong Cheng who tried to conspire against Cao Cao). But of course, the main difference here is that he’s quite old, considering that he lasted all the way to Cao Rui’s Reign in his 80s. So yeah, the idea is that I interpret how he acts to be a Ruthless Asshole, not too dissimilar to his fellow Wei Minister, Hua Xin. Still, an interesting tidbit I found on his story mentioned that he did personally work for Zhang Yang who led him to meeting Cao Cao, and since then he’s been the one destroying all obstacles in Cao Cao’s way to secure the emperor and later the Regent Titles and eventually led to Cao Pi becoming the Wei Emperor. But shockingly, at least in my lore, he had no qualms about letting Shi Huan assassinate Zhang Yang for trying to help Lu Bu’s peril in Xiapi, even being willing to lure his former liege into a Trap mostly. That made me think that Dong Zhao merely only used Zhang Yang to get to the person closest to be by the emperor’s side… Or rather, the one in CONTROL of said emperor and therefore the land. But from there, he’s very much loyal to the Wei regime that he became an exceptionally good Advisor during Cao Pi’s and Cao Rui’s reigns. To the point that in my lore, Sima Yi believed that had he lived long enough into Cao Fang’s reign, he might have taken Cao Shuang’s side before defecting to his last-minute once he realized that the Power isn’t in the hands of the Caos any longer. Ironically though, Yuan Shao’s paranoid attitude towards him is what made him paranoid enough to eventually betray Zhang Yang to Cao Cao later on (and adapt that “I would rather betray the World” mindset). Even though this whole incident was caused because his brother defected with Zhang Miao to Lu Bu’s side… he’s still felt like an ungrateful bastard to Zhang Yang here. Anyway, enough rambling on the role here; because of whom I based it on, Dong Zhao will get a Mace, messy hair, a gold-painted bandana, and maybe some Twin Axe Rage in reference to the Origins Version of Dong Zhuo. BUT… it turns out to be Wo Long!Dong Zhuo actually had a Guandao rather than a Mace (Which is a big mistake for me), so instead I ditched the Twin Axe and went for the Mace Rage. As for the rest of the Musous, I took on the Bow Air in reference to a trick he suggested to Sun Quan in order to tell Cao Ren about the Reinforcements during Fan Castle. And Boat Chant in reference to the Canal he built against the Wuhuan during the campaigns he took, relished having revenge against Yuan Shao. And finally, we have the Rake Earth in reference to his portrayal as a vegetarian in the novel, in complete contrast to his controversial role in the government historically… which is ironically combo’d with the Air Musou that shows how much of a schemer he is. Then, I added in an extremely Hidden Blue Earring to show where his true loyalty lies all along, which is with Wei despite it getting almost completely covered up by his hair. As for the Top… well, Dong Zhuo made me have to pick another wintery top, such as Shi Bao’s. And no, I cannot pick the King one since it was used by Che Zhou, who’s also had Dong Zhuo as a base (albeit the Origins version this time). But… The Keiji Option for the top is quite close too, so to compensate, I gave his boots to Dong Zhao instead. Also, I took note that he HAD to wear a THICK Knee Protector as a reference to when he once lay on the lap of Su Ze; in typical sycophant fashion, he is. Also, he would NOT wear ANY Leather or other animal parts in his clothes (Or at least I tried as much as possible, since I’m not sure whether the headband is Cloth, Metal, or Leather, and I HAD to use that one over any other), once again in reference to that whole Vegetarian in RoTK thing. Still, because of that complicated requirement of matching Wo Long!Dong Zhuo while also protecting his knees, there is ONLY the Paladin Option as the plausible one at the end, since all the other ones did not protect his knee. Which is ironic since that’s the exact one I picked for Zhang Yang whom he betrayed, and also known for being quite chivalrous here.
WANG XIU (Other, Yuan Shao)
Hm… here’s another deep-cut character references that I need to immersion. You see, when I had Yuan Yin takes a few cues from Diaochan’s Rope Dart in Origins, that got nothing compared to this. You see, Fei Wei in the DLC turned out to be a younger Huang Zhong all along, which means that I can NOT make a CAW based on him. However, I can use his design for another character, and I think Wang Xiu is the perfect character for that. He was a part of the Yuan Shao after having been captured from an enemy (albeit it’s Kong Rong instead of Yuan Shu here), before he went on to serve another after Yuan Shao fell (Cao Cao in his case instead of Liu Bei here) Of course, due to Wang Xiu being a massive Fei Wei reference, he had a Bow to match Huang Zhong. However, I also had a Cavalry Musou since he seemed to be a part of his Mounted Guard during his times with Kong Rong, as well as a Rake Air Grab Musou due to his hisotiy with Agricultural work especially during the Yuan Tan times. And as Fei also means Wing, I added in a wing-based Headdress on him (which Fei Wei didn’t have, hence it made things… a little awkward at first… I don’t want to use Guo Jia’s headdress for the umpteenth time, okay?). Initially I wanted to give him a Kempo Top before I ended up having one on Gao Sheng just to makes things different, but eventually, I settled on the Japanese Archery top for how ironically fitting it had on him, since it did fit the vibes of a hunter much better if you simply ignore the need for Fei Wei to wear a scarf. As for the other Musou, I chose to had Voulge because Huang Zhong had a bladed bow (Just like the DW9 DLC on top of this Origins Bow Moveset having some melees on it), and this is the most normal-looking Voulge Musou I can think of. And finally, I had Zhu Ran’s Rage on him because a lot of the Battle Arts involved sniping on top of the dynamic moves, which did fit Zhu Ran’s acrobatic vibe. Onto some Lores next, it is noted that he had history with dealing with harbored criminals under Kong Rong, which fits Fei Wei’s Background as a Bounty Hunter. This came before working for Yuan Tan after Yuan Shao defeated Kong Rong, which also fits that Capture Scene known from the Origins DLC Trailer. He also worked as Yuan Tan’s bodyguard, as well as being a colleague of Xin Pi (and my OC Yuan Xing’an to a lesser extent). And that friendship with Xin Pi lasted well into following him to Wei after Yuan Tan fell at the hands of his brother. But not without him asking a permission to bury his former liege as one last job before he departs. However, after joining Cao Cao, he seemed to seek more challenges beyond administrative work (especially considering his humble upbringings wanting him to constantly act on the field), something that put him at odds with Zhong Yao who believed he neglected his ministerial duties. BUT THEN… turns out, I discovered he’s Wang Pou’s Grandpa! D: NGGH! Welp, too late to put him in the PEP Scenario since the next episode is the last one on his Playthrough, but I still had update that scenario to include him by replacing Zhang Te since that’s the least tangible relationship with him (Defending Dongxing VS Defending New Hefei. So, while my initial look for him is intended to be a rugged man, I HAD to make him look older but not to the extent of Huang Zhong did to stop too much similarity. So, the most I can do is to give him some White Facial Hair and Aged Face despite the black hair to reference his advanced age. Anyway, onto differing details from Fei Wei, also had asymmetrical Arm (to represent imbalance and constant bickering within the Yuan Clan even after Yuan Shao died) as a nod to his words to not listen to Guo Tu’s suggestion to kill Yuan Shang because he would rather to get the brothers reconcile, which Guo Tu perceived as trying to get them to surrender to Cao Cao. And that mistake is what Guo Tu realized too late when Yuan Tan died while Wang Xiu was away on some agricultural duties on the countryside. Fortunately, though, said Gauntlet had a Leather Wrist but one that didn’t cover the hands, which is exactly as I wanted. Because I base his entire being on Fei Wei, I also went all-in to base Wang Xiu on him, from a soft looking Preset 3 face to a Silked back hair that is #44. Just like Fei Wei, his Legs are also needed to have the knee protected, so the closest thing I got ended up being the Sentai one, along with rusted boots. And finally, Blue Accents on his Gauntlet and Wing Headband, which is referencing his eventual affiliation with Wei. While the green part of his sleeves can be interpreted as a remnant from his time with Kong Rong, as well as Huang Zhong eventually serving Shu as well.
LI ZHENG (Wei)
So, I chose to add him because I wanted to add further sibling-like relation between him, Li Dian, and two of my OCs, Li Yingqi and Joule… BUT it turns out I got his genealogy mixed up and that Li Zheng is actually Dian’s COUSIN and not his brother… goddamnit. Still, it was too late to back down now, so I had to adjust; more on that later. Either way, I believe that as Li Qian’s son, he wanted to avenge his father’s death in Lu Bu’s invasion of Puyang, far beyond Li Dian who only had at most grudges against Zhang Liao (Hence him being heavily involved in the Xiapi Campaign here). Because of that vibe, I decided to make him a rough troublemaker redness, who’s obviously reckless above all else. That led me to base his look on Sakata Kintoki from FGO. And also, not to mention, how I wanted to base his relationship to his cousins, he’s also roughly based on the OC in this Li Family Fic that is so sadly deleted called “My Sis is an Idol,” with Zheng being specifically based on the first sibling, Lu Chunyong. In fact, that fic is how I ended up making Yingqi in the first place, since Joule had already been established as a character before then. And because of that, I wanted to give him Dong Zhuo’s Bombs, since it’s the only weapon where you kick around a ball among all the other things. Even further, from there, I wanted to base his outfit on a fusion of FGO’s Kintoki and Gintama’s Gintoki. But unfortunately… eh, it wasn’t quite following the plan when I admit I went all-in to the former at the end. But just to somewhat validate my inspiration, even PlayR99, who did that Fanfic who inspired Li Zheng in the first place, have a Gintama Profile Picture (It was of Sakamoto Tatsuma if you wondered specifically). As for further lore, he is mentioned to die before Li Dian since he inherited his troops after his death. So, I believe that he died before Hefei, where Li Dian truly makes peace with Zhang Liao without his cousin’s constant hatred holding him, eventually venting his feelings since. Also, I gave him tanned skin (After briefly considering making him light-skinned for Kintoki Reasons), because the Fanfic said that Chun Yong played with the Brazilians, hence also why I gave him green and yellow boots… which are obviously biker/cowboy-styled, of course. Now for the rest of the Musou, first, he had the Guo Jia Air because, just like his Footballing Hobby… Balls (aka. Pun with Gintama)… and also Style Points (Because this is Guo Jia we’re talking about here). Short Pike Ground Slam because of Kintoki’s Tomahawk Axe and as a nod to his father’s weapon (And because getting Dual Axes as one of his Musou rubs it too closely to Zhang Liao). Yuan Shao’s Heal because of the Kin-Tama Arc (Since Kin means Gold to Gin’s Silver) and… of course, Katana Rage because Gintoki had a Bokken despite hiding his Katana skills around. Onto the appearance details now, while I give him the same shade of Grey Eyebrows as his father, he has Pink Eyes because of the shades Kintoki had since it got completely covered up by the mandatory sunglasses. As for the Outfit… after much deliberation with the colors, I chose to settle with Blue Top and Cyan Bottom. Blue because he’s Wei and Cyan because Gintoki wore lighter blue (Which is the only thing Gintoki I can pull for his outfit, darn). In which, specifically, the occult top is chosen because it exposes his muscular chest while the pants are glittery and also feature wintery fur that could be a replacement for the Kintoki Cape. And of course, a Red Spiky Glove as a nod to what Kintoki had too, hidden by the sleeve to make it not obvious as well as special.
GAO XIANG (Shu)
So… making this guy ended up being a lot more complicated than I thought, since he had plenty of conflicting inspirations between them, but I tried, so… here it is. First, I wanted to give him a Luchador Mask (the same one as Wen Chou) as I made him to have some dramatic flair since I can’t really have a feathered headdress as fancy as my inspiration did. Not to mention, I think this is a good way to be seen as him respecting Wei Yan during the time when they fought together on the Northern Campaign… before poor Wei Yan’s fall post-Wuzhang. I also wanted him to have a ponytail too, but… that Luchador Mask immediately defaulted it to a Big No sadly. I got to be honest; I initially went for a Sea Theme on his outfit because his design ended up being a recycle of Wang Xiu’s concept before I went all in towards the Fei Wei aesthetic because he lives in Bohai. However, considering that the history said that he left the army before dying as a Civvy, I ended up believing him to be a vagabond-type of character, and therefore he was to be based on Maeda Keiji… the one from Sengoku Basara I mean, because the SW one is too obvious. But of course, due to Wang Xiu’s alliance, Gao Xiang still had the Sea-based color despite him spending his entire career inland now. Because Basara!Keiji had a massive Nodachi, I decided to find the thickest blades possible but the ones that are still curved and also wielded one-handed, which disqualified Sun Jian’s or Guan Ping’s. In the end, I chose a Generic Sword with Sima Zhao EX (Because it has a Surfer Move which is CLEARLY Nautical), Guan Ping’s ‘Water’ Swing, which fits Keiji’s tendency to have spin-based attacks especially with the Sheath Combo, and also a Butt Slam Air Musou just like Keiji’s Air Triangle, which in this case is Ling Tong’s. Although, those Water Stuff is also amplified from another recycling from my concept of Gao Sheng mistaken him as Zhang Liang and not Zhang Bao’s retainer earlier, which made me have some little nods to the “Behold Frozen River” Scene in DW3. Anyway, he also had a Yueying Cart Musou because of the Northern Campaign where he had Wooden Ox stolen only for it to be a plan to take the copies Wei would replicate later on. Speaking of Lore, he is mentioned to have worked under Ma Su in Jieting, but he also complains about Li Yan lacking in effort despite Gao Xiang’s seemingly laidback attitude (Since he did put a lot more effort than he looked). But honestly, he didn’t do much out here in Jieting like… period, so perhaps his demeanor is to compensate for how much his role is mostly on the sidelines. Just to be in the company of Chen Shi, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, and Wang Ping for the rescue, on top of the already established Ma Su. Since due to what I perceived as a Vagabond Demeanor, he seems to prefer to be in the Support and observe and not the Limelight. Finally, for the appearances, I had him with Preset 2 Face with Ponytail, but then I turned it into Face 1 to match Keiji’s. His outfit is based on Keiji too, but it’s instead the Basara 3’s Alt Outfit since it’s green-based, considering that Gao Xiang is a Shu character (On top of not making it too obvious that it was Keiji-inspired). I then put on some Moth-like antennae since it’s the closest thing I had to a Feather Headdress… WHICH got covered up by the Luchador Mask unfortunately, so… that didn’t matter. Oh, and he also had dark brown hair along with pretty straight-laced eyebrows, just like Keiji’s. Finally, I had the Xiahou Dun Rage at the end because he had both a large sword spins like Keiji’s Basara Attack and also X-shaped Slashes like Keiji’s skills (Ukiyo no Koi/Love in this Fleeting World)… I was considering his Cross Slash Musou instead, but then I almost forgot about having to take those Machines in for a Musou. Unfortunately, though, even though I managed to find perfectly flaming shorts for his legs, the Asymmetrical options on the outfit ALL had the right arm exposed (For example, with Liu Zan), so… I had to improvise and Han Sui my way out (Only with the tribal version of that though, considering that That Keiji Outfit had a lot of leather anyway… on top of more Wei Yan Parallels). And said improvisation had to apply to the White Tiger Striped Boots even though I could get a normal gauntlet with a guard on the wrist on him. Unfortunately, the end result is a bit too ironic considering that he’s known as a “General of the Right,” but at least he looks quite good in the end, albeit quite a wild one there
LEI TONG (Shu)
So… on this final batch of the current wave of new character this week, starting with someone with a simple concept here. Why? Because I initially based his entire concept on a pun that Lei (雷) meant Thunder…, and HIS Lei Tong is exactly that. And then, on a whim, I got his outfit based on DW3 Jiang Wei too… at least at first, more on that later ^^. Anyway, his whole Lightning shtick is then applied to all of his Musou and Rage, as well as the cyan-induced appearance and in his outfit, such as a face paint or scar too to represent the Lightning (Mostly because Lightning in DW8 is colored Purple even though for some reason it was all cyan in my head *shrugs*) Although, in the end, I settled for having the Cyan—I MEAN purple—on the boots instead. However, I give myself a rule to pick weapons that are NOT Lightning Swords, or Magic, or Twin Swords. Because all of them are too obvious of a pick. So instead, the frontrunning weapon candidate I had been was Jiang Wei’s Trident since both its EXs are lightning-based. Also, Xingcai Shield Air because that gives Lightning-base Buff, as well as Xiahou Ba’s Great Sword and Ma Chao’s Thunder, both of which are slam attacks. As for the Rage though… well, uh… it’s Zhuge Dan’s, since I think that’s one of the only ones who actually summons Lightning. Then, onto some Lore Information next. I believed he got along well with Wu Yi since he worked with him during Liu Bei’s conquest of Yizhou. But he’s also really daring, if not overconfident, to fight both Huang Zhong and Wei Yan at the same time before he lost and surrendered (Hence why I gave him a rather cocky expression that could be interpreted as an evil one too… *whispering*, “Just like a Mishima”). However, he also really dislikes Zhang Ren’s underhanded tactics and is almost kind of relieved that he got executed for causing Pang Tong’s death. Although ironically, he also blitzkrieg’d Zhang He while he was busy fighting Zhang Fei, so perhaps you could interpret it that he’s a little… hypocritical too *whispering* Just like Jin in Tekken 6. Still, he also really dislikes drinking and believes that Zhang Fei’s attitude would be the death of him even if it was all part of the strategy in this specific context shockingly. So, I think he may be a cocky overconfident guy, but he’s also a responsible yet honorable man who prefers to overwhelm enemies with sheer speed or just straightforward battles in general rather than with dubious schemes like that. Making him very much a simple straight man at the end of it. That said… ironically though, he fell into an Ambush which allows Zhang He to just kill him easily when his speed is pinned down, thinking that it would be a simple matter of a duel to the death with the two considering how much they’ve been fighting this campaign alone. He died realizing that there is no honor on the battlefield with all the schemes he is forced to participate in as soon as Liu Bei shows up in Yi… poor guy. Then, to make even more wonders on the Lightning Motif, I had Lei Tong don Jin Kazama-styled hair along with Green Earpiece on the opposite side of the X-shaped scar. I then also put on a Red Eyes and Eyebrows because Jin’s lightning is also red-colored. As for the body, I go for the Standard with Weight and not Light Muscular since Muscular Body is too much compared to how Jin looked. Red Gloves akin to Jin’s, along with the flaming pants which had design resemblance to Jiang Wei’s anyway… shockingly. Though I still had to change the glove choice, unfortunately, from something close to Jin’s to be the one that is asymmetrical and has some Tribal Elements due to Lei Tong being of the Di Tribe. Still, finally, I chose the Peacock Shoes because it’s to honor my second closest option for an outfit before I eventually settle for the Minister one (Which I believed to have be moved out from being picked as Jiang Wan’s years ago)
MA TIE (Other, Xiliang)
Ma Chao’s younger brother is quite hard to think of, but I eventually had inspirations from the DWOrigins depiction of Ma Teng (with entirely Nine Heavens Armor based on what I see from the DLC), as well as Kite Stenbuck’s DW9 Design of Ma Teng with Dragon-themed gauntlets and boots… or at least initially for the latter (I didn’t pick the DW8 one since it’s too obvious). I believed he could use a Dragon Spear since it’s a lighter version than Ma Chao’s Spear. BUT… since his name means Iron (鐵) too, I realized he needed to be dressed in metal as much as possible, and that principle should be applied to his weapons too. Then I looked into other lightweight spears, and at first, I considered the Double-Trident since I believe Ma Tie can have Kite Stenbuck’s Yunlu instead. But I chose not to because I just had Lei Tong with one, and I found other ways to take inspirations from her. So in the end, I settle for the Javelin since it’s entirely Metal unlike the Dragon Spear, as well as allowing some unique spin of the spear move set compared to his two siblings. Speaking of fusion, I went for the idea of having a Unicorn Horn with GREEN Bun Hat just like Kite Stenbuck’s Yunlu (And Blast’s design on Ma Teng since that’d look too silly with an older character like Ma Teng, who already had a giant Lion Helmet, no matter how much temptation I had to redo his design). Still, for that Nine Heavens Top, I did consider changing it to white, but… I still think that it looks better in purple, but for the lore reasons, I HAD to go for White top in the end. As for the Musou, I had the Dragon Spear Drill Musou (In honor of his 2nd choice), Jiang Wei’s Air, and a Trident Musou that lifted him to the Air since it can be comboed. Basically, making various nods to Stenbuck’s Yunlu in so many ways. However, I chose to have the Revolving Crossbow Rage as an ironic reference to his death by a Volley of Arrows when he and Ma Teng had rebelled against Cao Cao and killed for it, on top of it still being a jousting weapon (Being basically a Drill and all). Then, I picked a Youthful yet Serious Face 2 because he’s still Ma Chao’s younger brother at the end. More naïve yet also less fanatical with his definition of Justice. Still, I chose a tailed Hair that became the replacement of Ma Teng’s Origins Helmet which features a Ponytail (or rather a Horse Tail in this case), as well as Blonde Hair like Ma Chao. Follows the same Green Eyes as Yunlu, though. Then I gave him face paint that resembled a Makeup which did show the feminine side of him in contrast to Yunlu’s tomboy look. The Gauntlet and Pants are named from two different Dragon Sets (which is where the Stenbuck DW9 Ma Teng design referenced), while the Boots is from Yunlu’s Sorcerer set. All blended in the colors of Purple that Origins Ma Teng had (albeit minorly now), the Xiliang White, and of course, the Shu Green… But… his gauntlet is blue in reference to the time he spent with his dad in Wei until, you know, the execution happened. Oh, and while initially I wanted a cloth Bun Hat as yet another Yunlu reference, I had to settle for the Peacock Headdress since I NEED to put a Unicorn Horn on him… and that Unicorn Horn is incompatible with every single hat in existence 😦
SUN HUAN (Wu)
Well, this is another confusing one, because there is TWO Sun Huans out there. One is Shuwu, who is Sun He/Yu He’s son, and the other is Jiming, who is Sun Jing’s son. Initially I went to clarify that this Sun Huan is the former, but there are so many plausibilities to make cases for both, so I decided to take inspiration from both to keep things vague from the genealogy here. So, for now, let’s assume that he is Yu He’s son, who is adopted back to be Sun Jing’s son, hence why he’s still a Sun instead of a He here (That or he’s Sun Jing’s blood, but he looked up to a lot of Yu He’s sense of justice as if he were a second father). Either way, you could still interpret him either way, if you will. So yeah, I basically did the exact same Yan Xiang Composite Character trick, but this time, the colors would be Red and Cyan instead… and why would that be the case? Because he’s still the great-granduncle to the two stupid Regents of Wu who basically ruined the entire kingdom before Sun Hao just torched what was left of it in revenge for these two’s transgressions, and he had to hold back their influence on the kingdom until he died, which allowed them to wreak havoc however they liked. But what did that have to do with Jin? Well, other than the obviously terrible things Sun Chen did during Zhuge Dan’s Rebellion, which involved Jin, I believe that Sun Huan’s design is the Deng Ai and Zhong Hui fusion to counteract the opposing impact of Sun Jun’s Jiang Wei and Sun Chen’s Jia Chong. This came with me picking the Monk/Bu Chan Top (Cliché on the Late Shu Characters) as a nod to Deng Ai’s DW9 Outfit (Which is also more armored than the Han Sui top I’ll use for a character later) but with the Sentai Bottom from Zhong Hui’s. Similar principles on the arms and legs also followed here, even though they were NOT the same thing as what Deng Ai and Zhong Hui actually had. As for Sun Huan’s case, I picked the Armored Chevalier Gauntlet and the Rustic yet Humble Boots. On top of that, Jia Chong was personally involved in quelling Zhong Hui’s rebellion, which basically came out as a result of Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei prodding each other to rebel. As well as both Zhong Hui and Deng Ai being known to be quite scholarly. And this principle was taken to my choice of the Musous. I had Deng Ai’s Drill Musou, the Twin Axe Air, and even the Revolving Crossbow as the main weapon… more on that later. On the Zhong Hui side though, I had the Single Fan Launch Musou from Xiaoqiao as a nod to Zhong Hui’s Fan Blade in DW9, and of course, the Flying Swords Rage. Ironically though, that Launch Musou is NOT Comboable with the Air one. Which ironically fits Zhong Hui’s narcissism but also the fact that no matter how much he tries to put down his grandnephews, he’s never destined to succeed. Still, despite Sun Huan being definitely humbler than Zhong Hui, I gave him a Rat Tail just like Zhong Hui did. Heck, he even shares Zhong Hui’s scholarly background. However, while he’s a better person, it doesn’t stop him from laughing off Lu Xun refusing to reinforce him at Yiling simply because Lu Xun was THAT confident in his skills, even though he could very well die there if things didn’t go quite right. Ironically though, Jiming also did some stuff at Yiling, but not as notable as Shuwu did (such as fighting both Wu Ban AND Feng Xi at the same time). Still, Sun Huan’s method of blocking the Huai River upon Wen Ping approaching can be compared to Deng Ai’s Geographical Knowledge, which did feed into my idea of him being a Deng Ai + Zhong Hui Hybrid. However, to Sun Jing’s Silver Fox Look, he had to have the Black Hair of Sun Jun and Cheng but with White Eyebrows from Sun Jing… which honestly made him look sinister unfortunately. Why? Because I initially had him have the Lloyd Bannings Face (down to the Hairstyle and Hair Color too), because you know… Yu He is based on Guy. And as Lloyd had a notorious baby face, we’re back to Face 2 again, but this time, it came along with a sharpened jaw. And finally, as for why Sun Huan got the Revolving Crossbow. Other than the Deng Ai influence, this can be used as a representative of the Equipment (Read: heavy machinery) and Livestock he snatched from Guan Yu back in Fan Castle, as well as a nod to his Maybe-father, Yu He, to whom I gave another artillery weapon in the form of the Arm Cannon.
ZHUGE JING (Wu)
So, the first thing I had on him is that I based his outfit on a combo of Zhuge Dan’s DW7 Wu Outfit and the XL Alternate, in mostly Red to show where his loyalty truly lies despite Cyan Accents that showed his true origins (In an admittedly opposite meaning compared to Tang Zi). Oh, and also an attempt to have an Anubis Helmet from Dan’s DW7 Fairytale DLC if possible. Still, I decided to give him a Perpetual angry face (In addition to giving him a Sosuke Aizen (from Bleach)-styled Eyepatch just to give off more of a thug face) because he resented the whole Jin regime for his father’s death (Even to his childhood friend and basically cousin to him, the Emperor, Sima Yan). Which, honestly, would really explain why he had a big role in shaping Sima Yao, his nephew, into the same vengeful asshole as Jing is. Truly befitting the image of Death Anubis truly takes. And that kind of “The Corrupter” mindset is what led me to go all-in on his face being based on Aizen, only much younger, of course. Still, I give him a Scroll in reference to the Secret Message Cao Mao gave to Zhuge Dan in DW8, as well as his style name, Zhongshi meaning ‘Ponder’ (or in this case, ‘Read’), in an anecdote he had with Sun hao. I got to admit I thought that Scroll was a Torch though Short Pike Fist Musou, as a nod to Sima Zhao punching the fence in DW7. Anyway, I also give him the twin Rods Air because he worked under Zhang Ti during the Conquest of Wu. As well as Brush Golf because he said to Sima Yan that he should have hidden in the lavatory harder and covered his body in paint… on top of that, the brush also looked like an unlit torch too. And finally, I gave him the Feather Fan Rage because of his father (who also had Torchlike-Red Fan in DW7 and 9). Yes, in the history here, while he was sent by his father as a hostage to Wu to ensure their help with the rebellion and especially to get Wen Qin to help him, he found himself comfortable being down south and chose to stay after his father died. And that resentful thinking is also why he suggested Zhang Ti to execute Wang Hu’s vanguard, Zhang Qiao. Unfortunately, the current chancellor was too kind and honorable, and indeed his suspicions and rage were proven right at the end when Zhang Qiao rebelled and ambushed them when Wang Hu showed up. This also obviously puts him in an emotional conflict with his sister, who chose to fight by her husband, Sima Zhou, especially on the Conquest of Wu, though ironically, he ended up surrendering to his brother-in-law probably after he was defeated and heard of Zhang Ti’s death. Ironically though, I gave him the exact same body size as his sister. Still, based on the DW7XL outfit of Zhuge Dan, I give him the Zhuge Dan top. But… Jackal is a Canine… I had to settle for these silly Tenko/Fox ears (Because the other canine option is a droopy-looking dog ears akin to Qin Lang which would NOT work on him)… yeah… Oh, and while Anubis is known to have black skin, since that’s too far of a blackface look for him, I settled for a tan to show that he did prefer to live in Wu indeed. Oh, and the Eyes that I picked broke the eyepatch, which… honestly actually fits his broken and vengeful vibes, so I chose to keep that. As for the rest of his outfit though, I took a Tubular Gauntlet from the Cuff of Zhuge Dan’s DW7 Concept Art, the Boots is from the Anubis Outfit with their sideways ribs, while the pants are a Hakama style inspired by Aizen and the rest of Bleach’s Shinigamis… funnily enough, his whole outfit is more pink than red, which also somewhat reinforced his “Not truly belonging to Wu” vibe, as Jin was going to be Magenta before becoming Cyan on the actual games.
HUO JUN (Shu)
Well, I’m finally back because I got too many ideas from a Hundreds-of-Videos long Playlist by Three Kings covering so many Three Kingdoms figures, and this is the first one, being included mostly because he’s Huo Jun’s father. Anyway, I believe because of that, I gave him a sort of flamboyant yet also humble man of the house look. While he briefly joined Liu Biao, which is shown by me giving him cyan rope-wrapped boots, he’s most famous for holding onto Jiameng during the Yizhou campaign, possibly leading him to meet Ma Chao and Ma Dai there, like in DW8 (More likely having an impactful encounter with the latter since Yi inherited his administrative work at the end). Unfortunately, he died pretty early in 217 and Liu Bei lamented his death. Which led me to give him a Bench Spin as a reference to Coffin where Liu Bei wept at his funeral. And ironically, that coffin association puts him alike to Pang De too, the last of the Xiliang Trio. However, because of that ‘Flamboyant yet Humble’ idea, my suddenly went… to Makoto Daito from Stranger Than Heaven as Inspiration (RGG, RELEASE THE GODDAMN MUSIC VIDEO!). As such, due to the gameplay trailers I had seen and because I don’t have many other ideas in terms of gameplay, I gave him a Cleaver-based Nine Ring Sword as a main weapon. The Flute Air as a nod to his Musical Passion (which is how he ended up with Snopp Dogg-acted Orpheus). And a Club Rage to represent the Mallet he had in attacks. On the last Musou, though, initially, I considered a Deng Ai Wrestling one in reference to Feel the Heat in Yakuza 3, but then I chose to go for the Yueying Machines as a nod to a pack of Doberman Makoto Tojo apparently kept in the HQ. Now, back to Liu Biao. I also noted him to be some sort of rival to Wang Can back in his time in Liu Biao, since the latter suggested Liu Cong’s surrender of Jingzhou to Cao Cao (and ironically, they both died only 3 years apart). Also, his achievement during Jiameng is that he had to deal with a ploy to seize his defensive position there, but unlike History, it is now done by Yang Song, who is FAR LESS trustful than the actual Yang Ang/Bo. Further on, he’s also shown to be a pretty patient man against the Siege by Liu Zhang that followed until the latter’s army ended up becoming complacent, which led to their defeat, so I think basing him on Makoto Daito is a smart way to show how diligent he is. On top of defending against Zhang He in the following Hanzhong Campaign along with a former Liu Zhang Officer, Meng Da… at least until he died early. As for the specifics, I chose the middle 1943 Osaka Appearance with a Winter Trench (since it’s in the middle and not too old in reference to Huo Jun’s early death, as well as a contrast to his son’s mostly Nanzhong-based career). His outfit is also taken cues from Daito as well, such as me giving him a Cowboy hat. I could have gone for a Fedora, but I don’t want to make it too close to Dong Yun here. Finding the hairstyle is a bit hard too since I need to find one that is silked back and messy but also too long. But I eventually settled for #41 here. Then, I had Golden Rimmed Glasses since the tinted option is WAY too much. That and I need to highlight the Blue Eyes here, to complement the somehow-interestingly-resulted Double Horseshoe shape on his mustache here. However, deciding his jaw width and his body type is a bit hard. Upon testing, he looks too skinny as a Model, so I go for the Standard width instead. Onto the outfit now, I needed to go for a Winter Theme here, but couldn’t have the Santa Tunic since it’s too close to Zhou Chang’s, especially with the Cowboy Hat already picked, so instead I put in the Kabuki Top from Keiji (Which ironically fits the idea of Kabukicho/Kamurocho at the end of Stranger Than Heaven). However I chose to recycle that Tunic idea on the Pants instead, which worked well in white. Lastly, the gauntlet is picked to be what complements the top while also being slightly armored to represent his defense but not too much to deny his more-homely-than-fierce look.
TIAN YU (Wei)
Well… I have to do this early because I might have some curveballs happening this weekend, especially considering that the inspiration for this one is a weird one… so let’s get to it. First, there’s a distinction between him and Tian Chou; while they had the same surname, he also served Liu Yu’s (Tian Chou’s lord) nemesis, Gongsun Zan. It was a mere coincidence that he ended up with another Ex-Liu Yu man named Xianyu Fu. So, because of that awkwardness, he’s simply shown to lead a lone resistance against Yuan Shao after the fall of Gongsun Zan until he had the chance to join Cao Cao for Guandu and then on, even if it meant fighting Liu Bei who ended up being under Yuan Shao’s thumb after Xuzhou was conquered. And why did I mention Liu Bei specifically? Well… it turns out he started his career as a former volunteer of Liu Bei, yet he chose to stay with Gongsun Zan when Liu Bei chose Tao Qian in contrast to Tian Kai who briefly assisted Liu Bei in Cao Cao’s crusade to avenge his father. So perhaps in the end, he didn’t care about Liu Bei too much, and he only wanted to join as a volunteer in his local area to start his career before settling in for his local lord, Gongsun Zan. Either that or he chose to keep settling at home, considering that he spent most of his Wei Career up north too. Although he also excused himself, saying it was to take care of his elderly mother, which is why I gave him an Eyebrows that just… exist but blended in with his skin tone even though I considered leaving them eyebrow less, just to show that he’s a little bit two-faced. Still though, while he is indeed younger than Tian Kai (Not Related if you’re wondering), he’s the one who survived past Yijing all the way until he was old, so I cannot make his face look too young either. Ironically though, upon joining Cao Cao, he’s the one to recruit Tian Chou (once again, NOT related) to find a way to take out the last of Yuan Shao, even though Tian Chou was a Liu Yu man who hated Gongsun Zan. In fact, his role in the north is so notable that it’s only stopped by some slanderous takeover attempt by some no-name official who wanted to take all of his credits. But even then, after that, he kept his work on the Borders, with Wu just like how it was with Guan Yu instead of the Tribal North. Although he got recruited by Sima Yi for his northern expertise to help with the North with Gongsun Yuan again and later worked with Man Chong at New Hefei (Despite yet another slanderous experience he had from another no-name during the Gongsun Yuan Campaign). And all of that ends when he finally retires and settles early in Cao Fang’s Reign and therefore dodges the mess that is Cao Shuang, considering that he managed to be alive past Cao Shuang still. Yes, while I did mention that Tian Yu and Tian Kai are not related, I still chose to give them parallels. As Kai’s design is based on Mastema, I instead think Yu’s design is based on Bugaboo from SMT Strange Journey. Which is fitting considering how often he got taken advantage of later in his career despite his many achievements. However, while the real intention is to make an SMT Strange Journey reference, I’m not shy about having Bugaboo’s SMT I counterpart for more to look at. Such as the case with Sima Zhao’s Striking Sword that contains Blue Flames which represent SMT I’s Bugaboo’s Skin Tone. Also, a Dig Short Pike Musou in reference to the Mines and an Air Boat Musou in reference to the Coast, both of which are places a Bugaboo/Boogeyman often lurked (Heck, the animation even had a diving pose). This came as well as Wind Skills which is shown by Bow Launch (which is also a nod to his time accompanying Cao Zhang dealing with the Frontier Tribes in the north). And finally, I go for a larger Dao in the form of a Generic Sword as a Rage, which I also considered as his weapon initially, and I picked it to be Sun Quan’s specifically due to the Demonic Flame base. Then, I tried giving him Red Bandaged Gloves/Boots (such as the Occult Legs) but with White pants, in reference to Bugaboo’s Satanic Body but with Diapers. Too bad that I couldn’t manage to put in the claws that Bugaboo had as well (And the actual weapon is given for a later character). Also, to be another reference to Bugaboo, I gave him Blank White Eyes and Red harp Earrings, as well as a Round Glass (Which ironically contrasted Tian Kai’s Square ones). Along with a dark red Ponytail from his SMT I Look. Then, I gave him a Face 1 Preset with Wide Chin to reference Bugaboo’s face behind his blank mask too. However, the rest of the facial features are taken from SMT 1 since the Strange Journey face is completely flat thanks to said mask. I also had a large Demon Horn because the small one is harder to put out due to the need for the Earring/Demon Ears, and I can’t pick both of the latter. Then, now I need his main top to have some Devil Wings-like Cape, but NOT the same one as Tian Kai. And after scouring through All options, I HAD to choose Cao Tun’s Persian Top since it’s the only one where the ‘cape’ splits down in two, and because I needed his main color to be Blue to reference his main Wei Faction, yet the secondary white also fits his former association with Gongsun Zan as well. Though ironically, it let me give an idea to hide him having shorts better with the Default, but… I get back to the Desert one to represent his history in the Frontiers especially during Cao Pi’s reign. So yeah, considering that he had a pretty serious and successful career with Wei, I couldn’t make him look TOO over the top by giving him Red Skin like the actual Bugaboo. However, he had a Model Body just like the SMT I version, but in contrast to that, he’s also very skinny and lanky even if it’s not too tall.
HU ZONG (Wu)
Alright, onto the next character now. From Xiangyang, we have Sun Quan’s Reading Mate and Teenage Friend this time. However, despite being historically a drunkard, he’s an effective Essayist including writing down the State Laws for Wu and also Poems regarding Sun Quan’s Ascension to be an Emperor, which, therefore, means he knows a lot of state secrets. That’s exactly why I gave him Guo Jia’s Pool Cue, for his playful attitude isn’t in the way of his talents. And due to his knowledge of the State Secret… a Black Glove became a notable part of his design, as a nod to him working with a spy network later in his career. From Xiangyang. Despite the ruthlessness that should come with the job, he also felt bad for Zhu Ju for being deceived by this Yin Fan considering Zong himself already had suspicions based on the kind of work he had experience with. But then again, he did warn Zhu Ju’s overtly trustful nature to not promote the suspicious guy after comparing him unfavorably with Mi Heng (Who were already infamous in Cao Cao’s Court too). And unfortunately, that incident was only the start of Zhu Ju’s pain and suffering for the rest of his life. He’s also known to be good with Math, hence me giving him both Zhang Fei’s Wrestling Musou (Which also secretly shows the martial skills required for being an agent) and then Yinping Rage, both to represent Dumbbells and Measuring. After that, I eventually ended up giving him Scroll Salute too, but instead, this is to reference him being scholarly and also forming a draft for Sun Quan during Yiling, the Jiefan; hence, he got one that involved summoning some Soldiers. Surprisingly, he’s also harsh towards any truancy no matter the overtime just to get Wu working after Sun Ce died. That led me to give him A Brutal Air Musou is possible, such as Trishula… which displays another part of his intelligence’s assassination work. He also had Yellow Dragon Elements in his outfit, as a nod to Sun Quan declaring himself as emperor. That was shown by the Dragon Shoes on his legs, as well as possibly Dragon-named Glove, which ended up being true with it being more of a Gauntlet rather than Bracelet. Still, considering that he was once a refugee during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, I reference a Ragged Wanderer Bottom in reference to his past despite the glitterier shoes that he had. And all in all, for that kind of behavior and surprisingly good spy credentials. His look is based on young James Bond from the new 2026 Game First Light since James Bond is known to be one of the least subtle spies in Fiction, but I cannot pick any of the movies since… all Actors who played James Bond are Middle Aged. However, he also had an Early DW Sun Quan Facial Hair, but it was lighter and subtly was of the shade of his skin. The top is harder to settle, though, to complete his outfit. Initially I went for the Light Dragon one, but since Sun Xiu had that, I tried changing it to Water Dragon in Red… which is the same as Zhou Fang’s. So, I instead chose the Light Dragon one, but in black… which also features a golden dragon, fittingly enough. And I think black as a color fits his Intelligence work more.
YANG YI (Shu)
Didn’t expect to do another this quickly, but I’m worried that the DownieLIve Episode I’m about to watch this week is EXTREMELY Late. Anyway, here’s Yang Yi. An arrogant, if not traitorous, man who caused Wei Yan’s death and had the gall to think he could succeed Zhuge Liang over Jiang Wan, Fei Yi, and even Jiang Wei. So, while Liu Weishuo had already taken Yang Yi’s more… “Slanderous to Wei Yan” side, I think that Yang Yi still has some niche of his own. I believe that he sees himself as a beautiful man despite the arrogance on top of pettiness that’s worse than Zhuge Liang, akin to say… Milo Mauritzio from Metaphor, who had a Shaman Rod for an Igniter as well as a crocodile tear mark. Being from Xiangyang, he also joins Shu through Guan Yu as well as accompanying him during the Jingzhou Conflict with Wu. That, on top of offending Liu Bei during the Yiling Campaign, already gives evidence to my opinion on him, a red flag for what’s to come. Oh, and here, I think he had a Shaman Rod because he had worked on some Nanman Sorcery in the Southern Campaign. Meanwhile, in his most infamous moments, Wei Yan calls him out as Coward and hates someone as schemy and slimy as him, more so than Zhuge Lian (which is… mostly one-side). And that culminates when the order to retreat post-Zhuge Liang Death happen, he decides to just cut off all support for Wei Yan for his insubordination for a Last Stand instead of making Ma Dai kill him like history. Basically, leaving Wei Yan to die. And even after that, he had the gall to expect himself to be the successor over Jiang Wan, Fei Yi, and even Jiang Wei. Thankfully though, in a karmic punishment, power is basically stripped after the Wei Yan incident since only Zhuge Liang shared his dislike to Wei Yan, and when everyone found out how Wei Yan died, they were pissed. ESPECIALLY when he basically confessed to Fei Yi that he should have defected to Wei after Jiang Wan got chosen over him purely based on Seniority. At least the punishment wasn’t going straight to execution, so he was lucky in that regard. But he just committed public suicide out of sheer rage and pettiness. In the end though, because while Wei Yan is always rough around the edges at the end, he at least had good intentions in mind at the end. And Zhuge Liang is right about Yang Yi at the end; as much as he didn’t like Wei Yan, Yang Yi is indeed impulsive and narrow-minded. However, I changed my mind later on from having the Shaman Rod from the main weapon be the Rage. Ironically, after denying the idea of basing him on Mr. Bison due to Hong Ming, I realized that the narcissistic acts made him feel SO fittingly like Vega from Street Fighter, hence… Zhang He’s Claws, which is good considering that I don’t want to make Yang Yi too much of a Huang Hao clone. Now, in terms of the Musous. Since Vega is Spanish, I gave him some Bullfighting Reference with Sroll Grab and Cloth Ground Musou is possible (since the former is basically a Red Paper). This came as well as Wang Yi Air to show his fast yet brutal hit-and-run launch dive that I think Vega is seemingly fond of. Then, as a sort of reference to Vega wearing a White Mask, I did have a Wolf Visor. Meanwhile, his outfit is still mostly based on Milo (Hence me picking the Devil Wing akin to the Ishkias), but with Yellow Eyebrows from Vega that got covered by the visor. So yeah, taking inspirations from both of them fits him so well considering that Milo’s full name even has “Narcissus” on it. Anyway, they both have a narrow Face with Sharp Jaws, which is what I had on Yag Yi, then I put his face’s age slider to be the same as Fei Yi’s (who is SHOCKINGLY on the youngest on the scale, and I don’t want to go through the hassle of changing it). Unfortunately, finding an extremely long hair for males is hard, so I had to settle for Vega’s Braid instead. Also, Milo has a Rose, and while I considered giving him the mouth one, I chose to forgo it for the more accurate black one on the arm. Why did I do that, though? Because I realized that I could combine the Wolf Visor with a Lower Half Face Mask to form something akin to Vega’s, albeit in black (unfortunately since I cannot recolor those), which also ironically makes him a hypocrite to Wei Yan because he too wears a mask. Initially considering the Skull one, but I eventually settled for the Samurai one since it had a fake mustache that made him look like a mustache-twirling villain. Also, I chose the skin tone to be Pale like Milo rather than Vega’s Spanish Tan, sorry about that, along with an accurately done LOW AND THIN NOSE. Now back to the Devil Wings, initially having a White Top, but I changed it to this (Dark) Green of Shu since it looks fittingly sinister for him, on top of White being too similar to Tian Kai. Along with this Cowboy Boots with a Cloth just like Vega. And of course, I bring him along on the tallest heels possible. And of course, in another ironic touch, I made his voice an Evil version of Fei Yi, which fits him very well.
WANG CAN (Wei)
Honestly, this is a bit hard to decide which category for him, but I think putting him with Cai Wenji at Wei is the best idea. I’ll explain that later, but now, for some background. So, Wang Can, who is basically Wang Bi’s adopted grandpa, is known for having a photographic memory, which would imply that he had a completely clear mind unlike Wang Bi. As such… I gave him a perfect weapon to represent it, which is a Water-based weapon that is the Crossbow… But why is it something gun-like? Well, because he’s still related to Wang Bi, and that made me think that he dressed like a Jester on top of his historical description of looking pale and sickly. And THAT, gave me an idea to base him on Joker… the Joaquin Phoenix one, which means that I had to give him face paint. Even more so, him appearing like a Jokester of a character is in reference to his strange yet humorous tribute by Cao Pi at his funeral that includes the sounds of Donkey Braying. Heck, he’s also rejected being married to Liu Biao’s Daughter based on appearance alone. However, despite of that side of him, he’s STILL an apprentice to Cai Yong and very much his successor in terms of his craft because you know… Wenji is a woman (blame the Three Kingdoms View of Women for that). And therefore, he pretty much treated Wenji like old friend… actually, it’s more like a Sister here because they literally were born in the SAME YEAR too. This came as well as later Kong Rong in the brief time they spent reunited in Xuchang (And back then I gave Kong Rong a silly TALL Hat) before Cao Cao had enough of Kong Rong’s shenanigans not long after Wang Can joined. After all, they’re both members of the Seven Scholars of Jian’an, and heck, they were even friends when he still lived in Beihai before he became Cai Yong’s apprentice. Unfortunately, though, he died only shortly into the Ruxukou Campaign, which… isn’t too long into his time with Cao Cao. Although one of the most notable works he did was to get Liu Cong to surrender Jingzhou to Cao Cao. As for the Musous, Stele Air Throw is in reference to his eidetic ability to remember where a landmark and monument are (By just slamming one into the ground). Wearing a Turban in Blue and also Beard and Mustache in reference to my old design of Mi Heng. He’s the one who led Liu Cong to surrender Jing to Cao Cao. I then also had Flute Ice Rain in reference to Cai Wenji’s poems (Even though Wenji had a Harp, but… I don’t want to exactly copy her) and Bladed Bow shot to show the Joker’s infamous “You get what you fucking deserve” scene. And finally, Chakram Rage since it’s circular like a Glass Mirror, which represents his clarity of mind. Because of him being Wang Bi’s ‘grandpa’ yet also Cai Wenji’s friend, he had to look a bit mature, but not too old. Especially since I need to balance the fact that he joined Cai Yong at the age of 13. So, interesting, I got inspiration drawn towards my older design of Mi Heng (since they both served Liu Biao once). Such as the case with Wang Can had a Green Facial Hair because of that old Mi Heng design were supposed to be Bald with Bandana. And I’m not sure if I can call Joker and Wang Bi both having green hair a coincidence or not… However, I decided to Invert the Eyebrows to be Teal because the Face Paint is instead red from the option I had. Then I added in a protruding lifted Nose to make it stick out in place of a red clown nose, as well as the classic Clown Red Lips look. As for the outfit though, it was quite hard to find something between the knee and full length, but I eventually shite for these Persian Pants which are meant to represent his bond with Cai Yong, yet ended up looking so dirty and therefore humiliatingly fitting to his clownish behavior. Meanwhile, the Top were being the exact same as Wang Bi’s dear friend, He Yan, but now purple to reference how he got dragged into Dong Zhuo’s faction merely by associating himself with Cai Yong. Initially, I made him share the same Gauntlet and Boots to Mi Heng. BUT… I ALMOST forgot to give him Clown Shoes which are ankle-length, which now puts the Mi Heng Reference on his outfit to be merely on the same arm parts instead. Both being Blue to represent Wei along with the Bandana, of course.
CAO YUNGONG (Jin)
Before you asked, yes, his name is the exact same as his dad’s, Pinyin-wise, so I HAD to identify him with his Style Name instead. That means, because I HAD to rename him, he’s included (too late) into the Fictional People Scenario, which is unfortunate. But then, apparently… Turns out, Lady Cui is Cui Yan’s NIECE, NOT HIS DAUGHTER like I thought for like… YEARS! D: Although, did that really matter if Yungong came from a Concubine anyway regardless? Because him being Cao Zhi’s son isn’t why I added him. Either way, his design is already pretty easy to pin down, so he would be Tokusatsu-inspired (ESPECIALLY on the Arms and Legs, which I explain later). This is because the reason why I added him is due to this Wade Cao character made by Chen-Chan Taku, a friend on Discord who had an idea for a Tokusatsu version of Three Kingdoms figures… no idea why they are cooking such things, though. But because most of his more well-known roles are ironically related to the Jin Dynasty rather than Wei, his color code is a mixture of Cyan with Blue Accents. From there, due to the Tokusatsu Reference picture I got, I gave him the Bladed Bow Air for the gun and also the Flame Sword Grab, which is a reference to Wade’s Dagger. And lastly, I had the And Short Pike Rage in reference to his title as Duke of Juan Castle, which is one of the castles in Puyang that Lu Bu Raided which led to Li Qian’s death. Then I gave him Defensive Stats in reference to Zhi and praised him as “Defender of Our Clan.” And due to his sentai hero personality, the fact that his Sentai arms and boots had bandages perfectly fits how he sometimes overexerts himself, along with his dirty top and another bandage on his right eye, the same as Lai Yin’s. Ironically though, despite his personality he ended up being mostly off-hand in State Affairs (Probably in fear of what happened to his dad who nearly died because of Cao Pi’s jealousy), until the reign of the Wei Court already fell to the Simas which therefore means that he’s not directly at the head of it. Still, despite being legally Huan’s cousin, he’s acting like him and Sima Yan’s mentor by being much older than they are. But even with that relationship between him and Sima Yan, he thinks that repeating the same thing his father and uncle did is objectively a wrong idea for the stability of the newly unified Jin Dynasty and would inevitably invite bad omens. Unfortunately, though, he unsuccessfully tried convincing Sima Yan out of that, and losing his mother shortly after that incident was a final nail in his coffin as he fell into a fatal illness after that. That fear of repeating history is exactly why he ended up supporting Cao Zhi despite ironically mirroring his dad’s perils with his uncle. Because all he wanted was for no infighting to happen and to keep things civil. Now, you notice that I didn’t mention his main weapon earlier, and… now we get to that. Initially, I am considering to use either an Emeici (since it can be interpreted as a small brush on top of it being (a pair) of daggers, or a large Brush that can NOT have the same Musous as his father). But then, his Ground Musou ended up changed to be the other side of the Lu Xun Musous (which features a Kick, more on that later), which ironically puts his ties to his father closer despite lacking any nods to his literature inheritance. Initially, I intended him to have an Ahoge like Sima Yan, but one that got covered by headdress, but then, I decided to have an insect-like protrusion in reference to the Beetle Motif of Kamen Rider, which you can treat as an Ahoge on its own right… Mostly because actual Ahoge didn’t look right when I tried it out. Then, initially I wanted Yungong to have Mi Fang’s scarfed top to fit his Hero look., but in Blue instead of Cyan to differentiate him from Sima Lu. However, I then changed it to a different top with a scarf because being sleeveless didn’t fit him. This comes along to the Fine Bottom to show humbleness after what happened to his father, as well as a nod to me considering picking its top variant first before concluding that it was too casual for him. Then, I decided to be cheeky and used the Preset I believe I picked for Cao Zhi, #27 on Face 2, but the jaws are sharper, akin to Wade’s. A cheeky reference to them having the exact same reference. And finally, onto the main weapon now, I realized that Nunchaku is also small and similar to a brush in size and also fits Tokusatsu much better for Yungong with its kick-focus, especially when it comes to Guan Suo’s EX, so… here you go there.
XUN XU (Jin)
Okay, let’s be honest here. I’m nervous about writing this one, because the lore part that I need to explain is much longer than the actual design of the character itself. So… let’s get to it, starting from this one hell of a family. So basically, Xun Yu is Xun Shuang’s Nephew, while Xun Xu, being Xun Shuang’s great-grandson, is Xun Yi’s Third Cousin, making his familial connection similar to Huangfu Mi’s to Huangfu Song, even though I like him more. And as suspected. Xun Cai died too early for me to ever put her into my CAWs, even though I could reliably clarify that she and Xun Yu were cousins. Like she’s dead 20 years after the 140s, well before the Yellow Turbans, and presumably, her arranged spouse, Guo Yi, is more related to Guo Huai than Guo Jia. (At least the whole Zhao E and Li Shou incident is only around 179, which is… close enough). Although I found that Xun You is actually Xun Yu’s uncle, basically 😮 *Sighs* Now, because of this LONG-winded familial tie, I believe that Xun Xu could use the Sword and Hook as a nod to the previous weapon I had for Xun Yi before I eventually switch over to the Wire Glove. This came along with these following Musous: A Formation Rod Blast, a Throwing Knives Air from DW9 Xun Yu, a Whip Spin (To represent Xun You’s Urumi), and a Sickle Rage from his great-grandpa, Shuang. And yes, his Musous were a reference to his whole family’s arsenal, considering that he’s one of the two who carries its legacy along with his 3rd Cousin, Xun Yi (Who for some reason is NOT a Generic despite being Sima Yi’s Son-in-Law while his son DID!). And… he might be in the Sima Lun Faction in my War of Jin Heirs due to his affiliation with Jia Nanfeng later on (which I reconsidered after realizing that he’s with Jia Chong himself more at the end). And why was that the case? Because I believe that, particularly on this part of his life, he sounds like too much of a people pleaser which works to his detriment because he’s fond of Little White Lies when tutoring the infamously mentally disabled Sima Zhong. This is where all the white of his design came from. The Pale face, the white facial features, the funeral-like clothes, etc. However, on top of being a people pleaser, he’s also known to be a very cautious man, which is why I gave him quite a neutral face. This is shown most prominently with his suspicion of Zhong Hui’s obvious intention to rebel, and he was also against the Conquest of Wu. All of it implies that he’s a very pacifist man who didn’t like to shake up the status quo (Such as his refusal to change up the Fiefdom of the Nobles post-Unification, even though he did have a good point about that). Although he’s okay with letting an invasion go when it comes to Shu, it’s implied that Jiang Wei’s constant harassment warrants more urgency on top of him having… some bone to pick ever since Mt. Xingshi back when he served Cao Shuang. But even if he did get involved, he just chose to go along with the flow and downplay his involvement (Ironically like Xun You did), hence me giving him no armor at all while the only blue parts of his design are his left eye and his boots. *cue me replacing his boots because I realized that they’re armored*. However, he’s also a Relative to Zhong Yao, and therefore it’s also implied that he’s all-too-familiar with Zhong Hui’s shenanigans even after people are wary of him being involved in said rebellion due to the familiar ties. Heck, he’s even the one who recommended Wei Guan to deal with it (after having sent Deng Ai and Zhong Hui to lead the Conquest of Shu). As I mentioned earlier though, he also had a horrible penchant for being in the crowds of shady people, considering that he started his career with Cao Shuang as a secretary and ended it with Jia Nanfeng, which gave me his Horned Headdress… which is also Cyan if you’re wondering. Although, shockingly, he still owes Cao Shuang even after his entire faction was executed, considering that he’s the only one brave enough to deal with his funeral and later on be the one to suggest invading Shu. Still, he’s also the one requesting Zhao to not give a harsher punishment against Sun You who tried stopping Sima Gan from helping Zhao to kill Cao Mao. Which also shows that he’s the best when it comes to deciding the deployment of the Army despite not even wanting to get involved in the field. And another thing he’s applaud for is his dislike for underhanded tactics, considering that he rejected Lu Yi’s suggestion for an assassination spree in Shu (Which is a good thing considering what happened with the Guo Xiu’s incident against Fei Yi a while back.) Although here (especially regarding Liu Shan post-Invasion stated that it was Jia Chong who did it instead for some reason, but then again, Jia Chong loves to execute people too much that everyone knows that he gets excessive instead… and ironically, he ended up mingling with his daughter later on. However, that political savviness is also shown by him realizing that he couldn’t be in the higher rank than Yang Hu after the latter rejected a promotion by Sima Yan. And despite the earlier misgivings, he ended up being okay with drafting the Constitution with Jia Chong, which implied that he’s also the type to let bygones be bygones. That relationship, of course led to him working for his Daughter too, even being the one to arrange her marriage with Sima Zhong just to ensure that Jia Chong stays in the Capital just to keep the Status Quo intact (Which is his greatest flaw considering that he didn’t want to rock the boat by denying Sima Zhong his Crown Prince status, no matter how stupid of an idea keeping things that way was). However, that, along with those said acts that invertedly kept the Jias in power on top of tutoring Sima Zhong causes his fallout with Sima Yan, despite his wiliness that kept him alive until he died peacefully… Even though the real consequences of his actions didn’t start until right after that, he’s still definitely a type to not exactly learn from his mistakes, especially as he gets older, instead being someone who just forgives and forgets and moves on. Still, he’s also known to be a master of Music and even founded a school to study calligraphy in the style of his relative, Zhong Yao, but that’s not exactly something I could translate on his design at the end. Anyway, due to that whiteness, I gave him a white Kempo Top and Cao Rui Bottom. Slender Body. Then I made his Height and Arm’s Length to be the inverse of Xun Yi, despite the similar leg height, to show that he’s still in the same generation as his cousin. Either way, due to his very flawed actions, I gave him a Sly Face, but not exactly an outright evil one. Then I gave his hair a ponytail as a contrast to Yang Hu’s (And I guess Zhong Hui’s) Rattail (Albeit without the curly part, which I actually forgot too late to not change, which interestingly didn’t exactly make a traditional white hair color but was also ironically the mirror to Sima Lun’s). Said bang, however, is also meant to hide a scar on his right eye, along with one blank eye there, possibly explained by an injury he got at Mt. Xingshi while working with Cao Shuang there (But not with an eyepatch, as that would be too obvious here). Meanwhile, I eventually settled on staying with Face 1 that got rounded instead of taking a Face 2 Conversion to contrast himself with Xun Yi despite thinking of giving him an evil face initially. Oh, and he also had suspiciously painted white nails too.
FU XI AND NUWA (Other)
Yes, they both share the same entry. But why would I decide to not put them in separate ones? Well… the newest State of Play also brought news of Fu Xi and Nuwa returning to DW3 Remaster, and… that made me pretty annoyed because I REALLY didn’t want to add them in for YEARS, mostly because they do NOT belong to the Three Kingdoms Characters like the rest of the Strikeforce Exclusive Characters (Even Chi You, who WAS in Godseekers, wasn’t even being done either). Because well… I obviously would rather group them together with the other Mystic Characters in Warriors Orochi… except for Zuo Ci, because at least he DID appear in RoTK. Himiko is the only exception because she actually lives in the same period as the Three Kingdoms. So yeah, I’m a bit salty about having to design them. Because here, I HAD to rather than because I wanted to, on top of me thinking that I was about to be done with this batch of New DW8 Empires last week with Xun Xu. So please excuse me that there won’t be much detail on their writing when I come around to do it, okay? Needing to research their moveset is a bitch, though, and I’m a bit too salty about it. As such, because this is such a ridiculous idea to begin with to add, with not much room for creative liberties in my hands, I’ll instead just focus on making their moves as accurate as possible to their original DW3 and not thinking on the specifics… until I started making reference to their Warriors Orochi or Shin Megami Tensei V which I would care a lot more (Which, if you’re wondering, I’m putting Yakumo Shohei in Fu Xi’s spot because he’s basically her Knowledge/Soulmate anyway). So yeah, I’ll let their picture talk when it comes to their base design, even though their movesets are more borrowed from Warriors Orochi instead. Oh, and I ONLY intentionally place them at Chang’an in the Phoenix FROM Scenario (due to Chapter 13 of Unbroken Thread, “Heavenly Guidance,” and nowhere else, because putting them even in the Fictional People Scenario is a disservice to both the Mythology themselves and KOEI’s actual OCs! (Okay, I admit I forgot to put the Quadrant as Exception too.) Oh, also, two details shared between them before I get to diverge between them are that they both have Cyan Eyebrows to show that they’re Mystics, as they basically had that kind of color for the Chinese Deities in Warriors Orochi. And that they’re both REALLY TALL on the Standard Body because they’re goddamn Deities. As well as golden/snake eyes akin to SMT Demons (And pretty sure that Nuwa is half-serpent as far as I remember).
Now, Fu Xi had Tiger Face Paint due to the print on his chest which I couldn’t translate. Then there are twin Earrings that were well-hidden in the left-leaning bowl hair as a reference to his Headdress in Warriors Orochi. I picked a gauntlet with exposed inner arms on the gauntlet, but it was Earthly since the other option, the Wukong one, needs some nail polish. This is followed by a top that NEEDS an exposed belly, but unfortunately, the only option that’s plausible is ironically the default one. Next are the Bottom pants that I used on my OC, He Taiyang. And lastly, a Boot with many belts especially Naval-looking one… until I chose to put in Yakumo’s because I couldn’t get a top with a cape on it, as mentioned earlier. As for the moveset, he had a Guan Ping EX, Zhou Tai Slash (As a nod to SMT V’s Galvanize Slash), Xiahou Ba Slam (As a nod to the WO4 Treasure), Zhou Yu Air (Which is the only Air Musou that features a lot of Stabbing, and Fu Xi’s moves had a shocking amount of those for having such a large sword.) And finally, I chose a Rage that contains plenty of Spins with a large-sized sword, in which I eventually settled for Cao Cao after briefly considering Xiahou Dun’s first.
Nuwa, meanwhile, is surprisingly quite a bit smoother with better results in comparison. She had a Crown for Headdress, paired with bowl hair (but unfortunately, I couldn’t find one that’s shoulder length, nor the Curl that is akin to Guan Yinping’s among the Hair option rather than the Hat). I decided to forgo the Shield since she barely used it in most attacks, so I settled for possibly a scaly gauntlet as a reference to Nuwa being Half-Serpent (as it was shown in SMT V). And then, I wanted to give her Cloth Pants flanked with light armor and shoes similar to her husband’s belted ones. But unfortunately, I had to pick Dragon Flower Pants since the closest option (Light) is used by Lady Hu. While I also fittingly picked a Peek-through Red Earrings in reference to the WO Counterpart’s Halo hairband (Because otherwise having cat ears would be really awkward). Oh, and for the moveset, I chose a Rapier with Liu Shan EX because Lightning Sword has too much slashing and less stabbing while Extension Sword is too clunky for her. While the Musous were Ge Juggernaut (As a nod to SMT V’s Sacrifice of Clay), Cao Ren’s Air (To use her Shield at least somewhat), and Sima Yi’s Gravity Field (WO4 Treasure). I finally got to Yuan Shao Rage, which features more style compared to the other Rapier’s, that’s for sure.
BAO XIN (Other, Han)
Originating from Beihai, the basic roles I could infer from him are that he’s both He Jin’s subordinate and Cao Cao’s mentor, who is then succeeded by said Hero of Chaos after his death. Because of that history, I wanted him to wear black with a hint of Blue on gauntlets and Boots, but plans changed. However, first, I wanted parts of his clothes to be made of Wood (And more importantly, exposed) as a nod to Cao Cao commissioning a statue in his likeness upon being unable to find his body. However, I then realized that exercising such ideas is such a stupid suggestion, and therefore I settled for giving him tribal pants instead. Still, it is noted here that he’s also regretful of not being able to help He Jin as the latter got killed while he was gathering troops to aid him in overthrowing the Eunuch in the first place, only being able to arrive too late upon the Yuan Shao-led massacre that followed. In addition, he’s also shown to have a keen eye to see talent beyond mere prestige, capable of recognizing Dong Zhuo’s threats even when they both still served the Han Court. However, on the other hand he’s intrigued that Cao Cao also suggested that Yuan Shao lead the Coalition despite the latter rejecting Bao Xin’s advice to take care of Dong Zhuo ASAP, albeit with an ulterior motive knowing that the Alliance would inevitably fall despite Bao Xin’s wishes. Still, he was also heavily injured by Xu Rong while they pursued Dong Zhuo at Bian River here, which ironically happened at the least armored part of his attire around his legs here. And as his mentor, Cao Cao chose to make him administer their new territory in Yanzhou first and foremost, content on merely a support as gratitude for advising him to create his own base of power here. However, as he’s in the end chose to sacrifice himself at the impending force of what would become the Qingzhou troops, the position fell to Cao Cao anyway, who then chose to recruit them in recognition of their talent that could slay his mentor. Something he’ll soon repeat again with Jia Xu at Wan Castle. However, that kind of rash attack to take care of anything ASAP is also one of his weaknesses. Not only at Bian River, but he also tried to get rid of Hua Xiong first back in Sishui Gate before he became too hard to defeat, only having to require both Sun Jian and Guan Yu to bail him out at the end. Although, if not for that injury he sustained earlier, he might have beaten Xu Rong in a heartbeat. Now with his arsenal, he had a Guandao as a nod to him being Yu Jin’s former boss, and he had what Yu Jin’s moveset had in DW9 (And funnily enough, the move also involved imbuing himself with Element, albeit with only Fire in the Guandao’s case). As for the Musou, it’s basically what Yu Jin had too but not quite to represent that relationship. From a Pillar of Fire Air from Lu Meng (Even though Yu Jin’s is a ground one) to a Dark Energy (Most likely Lu Bu’s, but realizing that it’s too harsh, I chose to settle for Sima Shi’s instead). Said Wooden Statue also gave him a Rage of a Wood-based weapon, most likely a Staff at the end. Since other options such as Sanjiegun required some metal on it or just didn’t fit him at all, like the Bench. As for the other ground Musou, though, I needed it to be a Lightning-based Spear Throw. Unfortunately, among the only options possible, as I was considering Liu Shan or Ma Chao’s Lightning, they both did NOT throw it, just a mere slash (And that Xiahou Ba’s Great Sword is NOT right; it feels too slow for him). So, instead I picked Zhuge Liang’s Thunder Orb, which is surprisingly a safe pick despite my OC, Lu Jian, who had the exact same top and headdress (in Red). As for the looks, I initially consider going for Origins’s version of Cao Cao but with Grey Hair AND Face 3 as a base to show him being the older mentor to Cao Cao… even though he’s actually only 3 years older. But out of principle to make things unique, I decided that Bao Xin can NOT have the same hairstyle as Cao Song, even if it’s the Nobunaga one. Also, in reference to his keen eye and said allusion to Cao Song, I give him a Chinese Glass to foil Cao Song’s monocle. And upon checking, though, unfortunately, Cao Song’s hairstyle is DEFINITELY the Nobunaga one, so that’s a big nope! So instead, in addition to me giving him an Ogre Cape to reference Yu Jin’s strict demeanor, I change his entire face to be based on the ROTK 2010 Cao Cao’s Face instead, who is decisively older than the Origins one even though I still had to give him grey hair and put his Age Slider up to not make him look young. Still, I also unintentionally make his hair, beard, and mustache all segmented and separate, but it’s too funny to pass up even though I started it by picking an all-too-short hairstyle to fit 2010!Hairstyle with his damn Knot… but I still kept the hair knot from Origins!Cao Cao instead. Anyway, just like Origins!Cao Cao, I then give him a scaled Warden Gauntlet, but to complement my second option for it as a nod, I chose the Cavalry Boots as well. And from here, I realized that since I needed his Ogre Cape to be Blue, I chose to make the Top Half of his Outfit being Blue to represent his relationship with Cao Cao, while the Bottom is black to represent his affiliation with He Jin, instead of the initial Top+Trousers and Arms+Boots Formation I usually had. At least the two colors are close enough to intersect well enough at the end of it.
LI SU (Other, Dong Zhuo)
Okay, we have… a lot to unpack from here, so let’s get through these one by one, shall we? First and foremost, I need to give him a Wheeled Halberd Rage because it shows a lot of havoc and also a lesser Halberd, which fits what he used to stab Dong Zhuo in the back and defect to Lu Bu’s side. Next, apparently, he’s from Inner Mongolia, which gives a good excuse to make him skilled with Cavalry and recognize good horses (Because you know, Mongols). That meant I needed to give him a Norse Bottom, which I completely forgot, so I changed the Cavalry part of his outfit to be the top instead of the same Modern Suit that I gave to another Hitler-lookalike in Kuai Liang. And also inverting his colors to be mostly purple with the Norse Pants having some green hues on them and Green Boots with Red Gauntlets, both are cross-shaped (More on that later) instead of the other way around. Also, the whole Fergana Valley thing (which led to me referencing Kyrgyzstan and its Yurt-Cross Flag) is instead of me hearing in a Fanfiction that apparently Red Hare is FROM Ferghana… which is actually not quite correct instead of the species being speculated to be a “Fergana Horse.” And then… he has Stalin’s Mustache. But ironically, that Fegelein and also allusion to Stalin I wanted to base him on, more on the former, of course, fits SO well since… he got executed by Lu Bu for failing to beat the Hitler-esque Niu Fu (While Fegelein got executed for trying to desert the Bunker). Still, his many Cross-based Attacks are nods to Fegelein having the “Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross,” as well as the aforementioned Kyrgyz motif. Shockingly, he indeed also used to be with Ding Yuan and Lu Bu, but he knew of Dong Zhuo’s tyrannical behavior, and so he defected during the Yellow Turban Campaign to help its rise and later tempted Lu Bu to go along with it. However, he did recognize that Dong Zhuo’s time was nigh as soon as he saw both him and Lu Bu got interested in Diaochan, and so he switched sides again because he knew Lu Bu’s strength could sow even more chaos in the land. Hence also why he supported Hua Xiong’s work on Sishui Gate, only to run away and retreat when Guan Yu showed up; he just wanted to take as much opportunity to sow chaos within the Alliance even early on. Now, I shall fully explain that my idea for Li Su to be based on Fegelein is because of how nonsensical it sounds for him to be the one who bribed Lu Bu with Red Hare to get him to join Dong Zhuo, only to later help Lu Bu kill Dong Zhuo and later unsuccessfully kill Niu Fu who looks like Hitler already, all while NOT being related to Li Ru as well!? So, because of that, just like the Downfall Movie/Hitler Rant Version of Fegelein, I started to think of him as a troll who wanted to pick the most chaotic option possible. And back to the whole Cross-motif, which also fits the phrase “Double-Crossing” (aka. Betrayal), I gave him Sima Shi’s Rapier which has an X-shaped EX, Liu Bei’s Air, and Lu Lingqi’s Grab on top of the Cavalry-based Pang De Musou. Surprisingly though, upon looking at his Downfall portrayal, Fegelein seemed to havae a baby face if I see one, in Downfall at least. I initially tried to change the hairstyle to be the more disheveled one he had while drunk because it looked more unique… before changing my mind back to the buzz cut because it looked too cold for someone who should be silly. Oh, and before I changed my mind, I also cannot pick my initial more militaristic pick for the top because it’s the exact same as Zhang Wen’s (in which I realized that he SHOULD have been in the Renamed Team on the Fictional Scenario, COMPLETELY changing the territory makeup again still.)
ZHU XIA (Other)
Okay, I admit it! I guess I had another case of Peer Pressure too. However, while just like Fu Xi and Nuwa, she will be treated as a completely extra secret character, her role shockingly ended up not being as limiting as the two Mystics. In fact, I now having a headcanon where I’m treating her inclusion closer to Anna from Fire Emblem, which is defined by her constant travels in an attempt to sell you weapons at exorbitant prices (aka. Why your Weapon Forge Projects cost SO DAMN Much. Therefore, most of the time, she won’t be in the same spot in every playthrough… except for some scenarios where she had a fixed placement pretty much… which is usually around the same area as Hong Jing did. However, keep in mind that she’s not showing up past Chibi unless I know how far the Wo Long Sequel goes where things might have changed then. Now, the weapon would be a Huang Gai version of the Clubbecause a hammer that big didn’t exist and this is the closest thing I got with it. And to fit the theme of her wielding such obscenely large weapons, on top of some… wrestling prowess. Her other Musous were the Axe and Mace on the Ground due to its earth moving nature, the Drill Air due to the Flashbang it has, and a Rake Rage because Smithing Business isn’t just for Military. Although, I did consider a Siege Spear for her before jossing it for being too futuristic for a realistic game like Wo Long. Still, onto designing her myself, where goddamnit! I’m struggling to find a close up to her face because all we got are Low Quality Full Renders or just screenshots that are MAYBE close enough! Also, had to make her really REALLY muscular there to befit how she looked, but I did, in the end, overestimated how heavy she thanks to the baggy clothes. But annoyingly, there’s no scar over the eyes like a male face did, so the only one I could have is a cross one around her right check. Then, I give her the same headdress as Lai Yin’s with the flowing ribbon to reference the red braid she had, even though it’s on the wrong side of her head. I also struggled to find her top, which is basically a bra without making it too sexy or plain. Aut eventually, Tribal one is what I ended up with. Oh, and the only glove that fits is the kitty one too. The Sage one is the Baggiest Pants here I could pick that fits her (Although, there’s the Arabic one too, but it didn’t work for not being armored enough, but now I just realized I had to put everything on black because all the reddish options are light in shade Also, no wrapping or bandages on the legs like males either, so I settled for a reddish boots. Still, I had to admit though, despite all of my misgivings against her being here at all, the end result of her end design is actually shockingly good.
Still, you can see the pictures in detail down on this link. And of course, you can download all of my DW8 Empires Scenarios here:
The Autumn Bamboo Translator 
