//www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/ Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:24:19 +0000 MyBB //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=2710 Sun, 09 Aug 2020 14:28:52 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=2710

Man this is a long time coming, ever since my commentary on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, I wanted to talk about the associated merchandising line. At the time the animated series was out, there was a line of action figures as well. Unfortunately there weren't as many as I would have liked to see. There were only six figures in the initial wave (Megaman, Protoman, Rush, Cutman, Gutsman, and Bombman) and four in the second one (Elecman, Snakeman, Brightman, and Drillman) before it was abruptly cancelled. There was also a line of smaller figurines (Megaman, Roll, Rush, Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Protoman, Cutman, Gutsman, Bombman, Elecman, Fireman, Iceman).



As for the main size figures, I thought they were really cool. Not only did their weapons actually fire, but they were made so that Megaman (or Protoman for that matter) could fire them from his arm cannon.



Megaman had an interchangable Mega Buster with one of his hands, that could be loaded with a plasma shot and fired with the press of a button. Protoman had a similar setup. 



Rush could fold up and be combined with a Rush Jet attachment to be converted.



Cutman had two different Rolling Cutters that could be fired (from a button on the back of his head or Megaman/Protoman's arm cannon), one being the usual and the other being an unusual pair of jagged shears.



Gutsman came with a fire hydrant that he could throw with a lever in his back. Again though, it was also made to be fired from Megaman's arm cannon, like all of the other robot master weapons.



Bombman, like Gutsman, came with a Hyper Bomb he could throw via a lever in his back, or the arm cannons. Funny thing about this one, is that I heard it was discontinued after the Oklahoma City Bombings, which makes it even harder to find than the others.



Snakeman, with Search Snake. Not much to say about this one.

Trying to find a good picture of the Elecman figure, which doesn't seem to exist... But I know he had an interchangeable buster like Megaman/Protoman, but with a Thunder Beam shot instead. That second wave was NOT around for very long...



Brightman has his lightlbulb as his projectile, which is kinda funny.



Finally there's Drillman, with one of his Drill Bombs detatchable and firable.

But sadly, that's the end of the toy line. Again, there was some kind of falling out between Capcom, Bandai, and Ruby-Spears that put a fork in this, and caused them to dry up seemingly overnight. But I've done my own schematics on how other robot masters would have looked too,]]>

Man this is a long time coming, ever since my commentary on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, I wanted to talk about the associated merchandising line. At the time the animated series was out, there was a line of action figures as well. Unfortunately there weren't as many as I would have liked to see. There were only six figures in the initial wave (Megaman, Protoman, Rush, Cutman, Gutsman, and Bombman) and four in the second one (Elecman, Snakeman, Brightman, and Drillman) before it was abruptly cancelled. There was also a line of smaller figurines (Megaman, Roll, Rush, Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Protoman, Cutman, Gutsman, Bombman, Elecman, Fireman, Iceman).



As for the main size figures, I thought they were really cool. Not only did their weapons actually fire, but they were made so that Megaman (or Protoman for that matter) could fire them from his arm cannon.



Megaman had an interchangable Mega Buster with one of his hands, that could be loaded with a plasma shot and fired with the press of a button. Protoman had a similar setup. 



Rush could fold up and be combined with a Rush Jet attachment to be converted.



Cutman had two different Rolling Cutters that could be fired (from a button on the back of his head or Megaman/Protoman's arm cannon), one being the usual and the other being an unusual pair of jagged shears.



Gutsman came with a fire hydrant that he could throw with a lever in his back. Again though, it was also made to be fired from Megaman's arm cannon, like all of the other robot master weapons.



Bombman, like Gutsman, came with a Hyper Bomb he could throw via a lever in his back, or the arm cannons. Funny thing about this one, is that I heard it was discontinued after the Oklahoma City Bombings, which makes it even harder to find than the others.



Snakeman, with Search Snake. Not much to say about this one.

Trying to find a good picture of the Elecman figure, which doesn't seem to exist... But I know he had an interchangeable buster like Megaman/Protoman, but with a Thunder Beam shot instead. That second wave was NOT around for very long...



Brightman has his lightlbulb as his projectile, which is kinda funny.



Finally there's Drillman, with one of his Drill Bombs detatchable and firable.

But sadly, that's the end of the toy line. Again, there was some kind of falling out between Capcom, Bandai, and Ruby-Spears that put a fork in this, and caused them to dry up seemingly overnight. But I've done my own schematics on how other robot masters would have looked too,]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=2139 Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:44:10 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=2139

  
Monokuma, Monosuke - Brian Beacock

Takato Matsuki (Digimon Tamers)
Agumon (Digimon Savers)
Sakon, Chojuro (Naruto)
Ulf (Grandia 3)
Hideyoshi Toyotomi (Samurai Warriors 3)
Keita Wakui (Shin Megumi Tensei: Devil Survivor 2)
Takeru Higa (Sword Art Online)


 
Mokoto Naegi, Nagito Komaeda - Bryce Papenbrook

Vash (child) (Trigun)
Agate Crosner (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Guan Ping (Dynasty Warriors)
Zidane Tribal (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Jinta Hanakari (Bleach)
Henry (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Red (Pokemon Origins)
Adol Christin (Ys)
Theodore (Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth)
Tiz Arrior (Bravely Default)
Yurui (Naruto)
Kirito (Sword Art Online)
Eren Jaeger (Attack on Titan)


  
Junko Enoshima (fake)/Mukuro Ikusaba, Toko Fukawa, Shirokuma - Amanda Celine Miller

Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon)
Takeru (Squid Girl)
Fumi Kanno (Shin Megumi Tensei: Devil Survivor 2)
Poco (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Boruto (Naruto)


  
Junko Enoshima, Genocide Jack, Kurokuma - Erin Fitzgerald

Yukie Utsumi (Battle Royale)
Eudial (Sailor Moon)
May Kanker (Ed, Edd, & Eddy)
Noire/Black Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Parasoul (Skullgirls)
Chie Satonaka (Persona)
Rachel (Dead or Alive)
Agnes Oblige (Bravely Default)
Cai Wenji (Dynasty Warriors)
Raven Queen (Ever After High)
Erica Anderson (Catherine)


 
Kiyoko Kirigiri, Kaede Akamatsu - Erika Harlacher

Kozue Tanabe (Squid Girl)
Sukuyo Mankanshou (Kill la Kill)
Erena Todo (Love Live)
Yugo (Wakfu)
Anne Takamaki (Persona 5)
Sailor StarMaker (Sailor Moon Stars)
Hidaka Koharu (High Score Girl)
Noize (River City Girls)


  
Byakuya Togami, Ultimate Imposter, Monodam - Jason Wishnov

Chen Gong (Dynasty Warriors)
Nocturne (League of Legends)



Aoi Asahina - Cassandra Lee Morris

Mariallia Haw (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed)
Analace Elfead (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Nami (League of Legends)
Minette, Umbrella, Molly (Skullgirls)
Lei Fang (Dead or Alive)
Edea Lee (Bravely Default)
Leafa (Sword Art Online)
Frankie Stein (Monster High)
Enna Kros (World of Final Fantasy)
Sothis (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


  
Sayaka Maizono, Chihiro Fujisaki, Tsumugi Shirogane - Dorothy Fahn

Fujiko Mine (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro)
Meitlofe (Brave Fencer Musashi)
Kaoru (Rurouni Kenshin)
Yuuko Yagami (Digimon Adventure)
Meryl Strife (Trigun)
Louise Ferry (The Big O)
Lalamon (Digimon Savers)
Sypha Belnades (Castlevania Judgement)
Konan (Naruto)
Mercedes (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


 
Yasuhiro Hagakure, Gonta Gokuhara - Kaiji Tang

Shogo Kawada (Battle Royale)
Brain Drain, Andy Anvil (Skullgirls)
Jann Lee (Dead or Alive)
Nox (Wakfu)
Tsumugu Kinagase (Kill la Kill)
Sima Zhao (Dynasty Warriors)
Hayata Tanaka (Killing Floor 2)
Male Player (Fallout 76)
Riki (River City Girls)



Mondo Owata - Keith Silverstein

Prof. Tomoe (Sailor Moon S)
Zasalamel (Soul Calibur)
Hunk (Resident Evil)
Albus (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
Simon Belmont (Castlevania Judgement, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
Rhonin (World of Warcraft)
Robert E.O. Speedwagon (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Vector (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Zack (Dead or Alive)
Kimimaro (Naruto)
Torbjörn Lindholm (Overwatch)
Dr. Wily (Megaman 11)


 
Celestia Ludenburg, Angie Yonaga - Marieve Herington

Lynn (Fist of the North Star)
Honoka Kosaka (Love Live)
Y'jhimei (Final Fantasy 15)
Paprika (Them's Fightin' Herds)
Terrible Tornado (One Punch Man)
Brooke Page (Ever After High)


 
Leon Kuwata, Shuichi Saihara - Grant George

Lambda Zellweger (Wild Arms 4)
Kilik (Soul Calibur)
Warrior of Light (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Suigetsu Hozoki (Naruto)
Hunter Huntsman (Ever After High)
Geist (Bravely Default)
Kouta Hirose (Digimon World: Last Order)
N (Pokemon Generations)
Brad Wong (Dead or Alive)
Ant-Man (various Marvel animated series and games)


 
Hifumi Yamada, K1-B0 - Lucien Dodge

Zoicite (Sailor Moon)
Yukio (Bleach)
Dust (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Blue (Pokemon Origins)
Pip (Paladins)
Andrew Hanbridge (Little Witch Acadamia)
Felix (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)



Sakura Ogami - Jessica Gee

Washu Hakuki (Tenchi Muyo GXP)
Zhu Rong (Dynasty Warriors)
Panne (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Holbrook (Little Witch Acadamia)
Announcer (Them's Fightin' Herds)
Cornelia (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


 
Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Monotaro - Sean Chiplock

Spade (Freedom Planet)
Talus (Paladins)
Werner, Darius (Octopath Traveler)
Noob Saibot (Mortal Kombat 11)



Usami/Monomi - Rebecca Forstadt

Lynn Minmei (Robotech)
Mihoshi Kuramitsu (Tenchi Muyo)
Muriel (Cowboy Bebop)
Hect (Grandia 3)


 
Hajime Hinata, Rantaro Amami - Johnny Yong Bosch

Artemis (Sailor Moon)
Kaneda (Akira)
Adam Park (Power Rangers)
Eriol Hiiragizawa (Card Captor Sakura)
Kiba (Wolf's Rain)
Kresnik Ahtreide (Wild Arms 4)
Yuki (Grandia 3)
Ichigo Kurosake (Bleach)
Firion (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Yukimura Sanada (Samurai Warriors)
Xiba (Soul Calibur)
Jonathan Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Brock (Pokemon Origins)
Yang (Street Fighter)
Shiro Byakko (Kill la Kill)
Shinkawa Kyouji (Sword Art Online)
Takeru Takaishi (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Haruo Yaguchi (High Score Girl)
Broly (DragonBall Fighter Z)


 
Chiaki Nanami, Himiko Yumeno - Christine Marie Cabanos

Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn (Sailor Moon)
Ika Musume (Squid Girl)
Filia, Fukua (Skullgirls)
Marie Rose (Dead or Alive)
Nepgear (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Madoka Kaname (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Mako Mankanshoku (Kill la Kill)
Shiho Suzuki (Persona 5)
Amalia Sheran Sharm (Wakfu)
Miranda (Monster Prom)
Akira Ono (High Score Girl)


 
Gundham Tanaka, Ryoma Hoshi - Chris Tergliafera

Sigma (Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite)
Tank-Top Tiger (One Punch Man)
Muhammad Avdol (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)



Mikan Tsumiki - Stephanie Sheh

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)
Takako Chigusa (Battle Royale)
Hinata Hyuga (Naruto)
Anastasia Romanov (Shadowhearts: Covenant)
Marina (Romancing SaGa)
Megumi Shirokawa (Digimon Savers)
Orihime Inoue (Bleach)
Akira Kogami (Lucky Star)
Sylphiel (Slayers Revolution/Evolution R)
Eric LeCarde (Castlevania Judgement)
Charlotte Aulin (Castlevania: Harmony of Despair)
Lotte (Little Witch Acadamia)
Jinafie Long (Monster High)
Guan Yinping (Dynasty Warriors)
Nui Harime (Kill la Kill)
Shiki (Digimon World: Last Order)
Mona, Kat, Amy (WarioWare Gold)
Chibi-Chibi (Sailor Moon Stars)


 
Nekomaru Nidai, Monokid - Patrick Seitz

Count Dracula (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania Judgement, Order of Ecclesia, Harmony of Despair)
Luke Valentine (Hellsing)
Prince Neidhart (Romancing SaGa)
Zane Vathek (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Greg Russelberg (Wild Arms 5)
Rage Winterchill (World of Warcraft)
Franky (One Piece)
Cervantes (Soul Calibur)
Samson (Skullgirls)
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)
Bass Armstrong (Dead or Alive)
Lyric (Sonic Boom)
Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Dogi (Ys)
Kunzite (Sailor Moon Crystal)
Ghetsis (Pokemon Generations)
Jiren, Tien (DragonBall Super)
Abobo (River City Girls)



 
Ibuki Mioda, Tenko Chabashira - Julie Ann Taylor

Haruna Sakurada (Sailor Moon)
Tsubaki (Rurouni Kenshin)
Jude Maverick (Wild Arms 4)
Yui Narumi (Lucky Star)
Hildengard von Krone (Soul Calibur)
Tsubaki Yayoi (BlazBlue)
Rei Ryghts (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Split-Chinned Kid (One Punch Man)


 
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, Kokichi Oma - Derek Stephen Prince

Mr. X (Lupin III)
Sanosuke Sagara (Rurouni Kenshin)
V-mon, Ken Ichijouji (Digimon Zero Two)
Impmon (Digimon Tamers)
Shino Aburame (Naruto)
Vexen (Kingdom Hearts)



Mahiru Koizumi - Carrie Keranen

Ozzel (Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R)
Annie Stoakes (Red Dead Redemption)
Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill la Kill)
Vert/Green Heart, Rom (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Sailor Galaxia (Sailor Moon Stars)


 
Teruteru Hanamura, Korekiyo Shinguji - Todd Haberkorn

Jadeite (Sailor Moon)
Android #19 (DragonBall Z)
Jaco (DragonBall Super)
Moe Shishigawara (Bleach)
Porter Geiss (Monster High)
Sha Lin (Paladins)
Acidman (Megaman 11)
Komiya (Aggretsuko)


 
Sonia Nevermind, Monophanie - Natalie Hoover

Arisa Ahokainen (Akiba's Trip)
Fumiko (Love Live)
Ash (Paladins)


 
Hiyoko Saionji, Kirumi Tojo - Kira Buckland

Mimette (Sailor Moon)
MaMop (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Honoka (Dead or Alive)
Reimi Sugimoto (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Marie (Skullgirls)
Evie (Paladins)
2B (Neir: Automata)
Evangelyne (Wakfu)
Kyoko (River City Girls)




Peko Pekoyama - Janice Kawaye

Gi (Captain Planet)
Ayane (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive)
Jenny (My Life as a Teenage Robot)
Kati Raikkonen (Akiba's Trip)
Famitsu (Hyperdimension Neptunia)


 
Kazuichi Soda, Kaito Momota - Kyle Hebert

Gohan, Pikkan (DragonBall Z)
Master Librarian/Ferryman (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Nefertari Cobra (One Piece)
Ryu (Street Fighter)
Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)


 
Akane Owari, Miu Iruma - Wendee Lee

Bulma (DragonBall)
Takeru Takaishi (Digimon Adventure)
Sora Takenouchi (Digimon Zero Two)
Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop)
Chai Xianghua (Soul Calibur)
Blanc/White Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Athena Cykes (Ace Attorney)
Fuuka Yamagishi (Persona)



Komaru Naegi - Cherami Leigh

Minako Aino/Sailor Venus (Sailor Moon)
Ms. Goldenweek (One Piece)
Elicia Hughes (Full Metal Alchemist)
Kneesocks (Panty & Stocking)
Gaige (Borderlands 2)
Plutia/Iris Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Princess Neese (King's Quest '15)
Piyomon (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Iris (Pokemon Generations)
Rottytops (Shantae)
Asuna (Sword Art Online)
A2 (Nier: Automata)
Red Blood Cell (Cells at Work)



Monaca Towa - Christina Valenzuela

Rei Hino/Sailor Mars (Sailor Moon)
Noel Vermillion (BlazBlue)
Compa (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Riruka Dokugamine (Bleach)
Rei Hououmaru (Kill la Kill)
Shantae, Risky Boots, Holly Lingerberry (Shantae)
Meiko Mochizuki (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Kebako (Cat Girl Without Salad)
Elely (Wakfu)
Vera (Monster Prom)
Ophilia (Octopath Traveler)
5-Volt (WarioWare Gold)
Hasebe (River City Girls)



Masaru Daimon - Tara Sands

Sojiro Seta (Rurouni Kenshin)
Filia ul Copt (Slayers)
Bulbasaur (Pokemon)
Kaya (One Piece)
Mokuba Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh)
Hikari Yagami (Digimon Adventure Tri)


 
Jataro Kemuri, Yuta Asahina - Michelle Ruff

Fujiko Mine (Lupin III)
Luna (Sailor Moon)
Maria Renard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Sakura Kasugano, Crimson Viper (Street Fighter)
Izumi Orimoto (Digimon Frontier)
Sun Shang Xiang (Dynasty Warriors)
Avril Vent Fleur (Wild Arms 5)
Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Castlevania Judgement)
Cream (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Eliza (Skullgirls)
Erina Pendleton (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Yukari Takeba (Persona)
Sinon (Sword Art Online)



Kotoko Utsugi - Erica Lindbeck

Ema Skye (Ace Attorney)
Whitemane (Heroes of the Storm)
Ashley (WarioWare Gold)
Uzume Tennouboshi (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Roll (Megaman 11)
Cheelai (DragonBall Super: Broly)
Mera (DC Superheroes)
Miriam (Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)
Captain Marvel (Marvel Future Avengers)


 
Nagisa Shingetsu, Maki Harukawa - Erica Mendez

Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon)
Nico Yazawa (Love Live)
Flay Allster (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed)
Akko Kagari (Little Witch Acadamia)
Corbin (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Mina (Battle Chef Brigade)
Retsuko (Aggretsuko)



Haiji Towa - Matthew Mercer

Fei Long (Street Fighter)
Prince Diamonde (Sailor Moon)
Trafalgar Law (One Piece)
Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil)
Reapmon (Digimon Xros Wars)
Chrom (Super Smash Bros.)
Bayman (Dead or Alive)
Pyrogen (Mighty #9)
Jesse McCree (Overwatch)
Cor Leonis (Final Fantasy 15)
Hit (DragonBall Super)



Hiroko Hagakure - Jessica Straus

Succubus (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Juri Han (Street Fighter)
Lyra (Megaman Starforce)]]>

  
Monokuma, Monosuke - Brian Beacock

Takato Matsuki (Digimon Tamers)
Agumon (Digimon Savers)
Sakon, Chojuro (Naruto)
Ulf (Grandia 3)
Hideyoshi Toyotomi (Samurai Warriors 3)
Keita Wakui (Shin Megumi Tensei: Devil Survivor 2)
Takeru Higa (Sword Art Online)


 
Mokoto Naegi, Nagito Komaeda - Bryce Papenbrook

Vash (child) (Trigun)
Agate Crosner (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Guan Ping (Dynasty Warriors)
Zidane Tribal (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Jinta Hanakari (Bleach)
Henry (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Red (Pokemon Origins)
Adol Christin (Ys)
Theodore (Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth)
Tiz Arrior (Bravely Default)
Yurui (Naruto)
Kirito (Sword Art Online)
Eren Jaeger (Attack on Titan)


  
Junko Enoshima (fake)/Mukuro Ikusaba, Toko Fukawa, Shirokuma - Amanda Celine Miller

Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Sailor Moon)
Takeru (Squid Girl)
Fumi Kanno (Shin Megumi Tensei: Devil Survivor 2)
Poco (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Boruto (Naruto)


  
Junko Enoshima, Genocide Jack, Kurokuma - Erin Fitzgerald

Yukie Utsumi (Battle Royale)
Eudial (Sailor Moon)
May Kanker (Ed, Edd, & Eddy)
Noire/Black Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Parasoul (Skullgirls)
Chie Satonaka (Persona)
Rachel (Dead or Alive)
Agnes Oblige (Bravely Default)
Cai Wenji (Dynasty Warriors)
Raven Queen (Ever After High)
Erica Anderson (Catherine)


 
Kiyoko Kirigiri, Kaede Akamatsu - Erika Harlacher

Kozue Tanabe (Squid Girl)
Sukuyo Mankanshou (Kill la Kill)
Erena Todo (Love Live)
Yugo (Wakfu)
Anne Takamaki (Persona 5)
Sailor StarMaker (Sailor Moon Stars)
Hidaka Koharu (High Score Girl)
Noize (River City Girls)


  
Byakuya Togami, Ultimate Imposter, Monodam - Jason Wishnov

Chen Gong (Dynasty Warriors)
Nocturne (League of Legends)



Aoi Asahina - Cassandra Lee Morris

Mariallia Haw (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed)
Analace Elfead (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Nami (League of Legends)
Minette, Umbrella, Molly (Skullgirls)
Lei Fang (Dead or Alive)
Edea Lee (Bravely Default)
Leafa (Sword Art Online)
Frankie Stein (Monster High)
Enna Kros (World of Final Fantasy)
Sothis (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


  
Sayaka Maizono, Chihiro Fujisaki, Tsumugi Shirogane - Dorothy Fahn

Fujiko Mine (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro)
Meitlofe (Brave Fencer Musashi)
Kaoru (Rurouni Kenshin)
Yuuko Yagami (Digimon Adventure)
Meryl Strife (Trigun)
Louise Ferry (The Big O)
Lalamon (Digimon Savers)
Sypha Belnades (Castlevania Judgement)
Konan (Naruto)
Mercedes (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


 
Yasuhiro Hagakure, Gonta Gokuhara - Kaiji Tang

Shogo Kawada (Battle Royale)
Brain Drain, Andy Anvil (Skullgirls)
Jann Lee (Dead or Alive)
Nox (Wakfu)
Tsumugu Kinagase (Kill la Kill)
Sima Zhao (Dynasty Warriors)
Hayata Tanaka (Killing Floor 2)
Male Player (Fallout 76)
Riki (River City Girls)



Mondo Owata - Keith Silverstein

Prof. Tomoe (Sailor Moon S)
Zasalamel (Soul Calibur)
Hunk (Resident Evil)
Albus (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
Simon Belmont (Castlevania Judgement, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
Rhonin (World of Warcraft)
Robert E.O. Speedwagon (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Vector (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Zack (Dead or Alive)
Kimimaro (Naruto)
Torbjörn Lindholm (Overwatch)
Dr. Wily (Megaman 11)


 
Celestia Ludenburg, Angie Yonaga - Marieve Herington

Lynn (Fist of the North Star)
Honoka Kosaka (Love Live)
Y'jhimei (Final Fantasy 15)
Paprika (Them's Fightin' Herds)
Terrible Tornado (One Punch Man)
Brooke Page (Ever After High)


 
Leon Kuwata, Shuichi Saihara - Grant George

Lambda Zellweger (Wild Arms 4)
Kilik (Soul Calibur)
Warrior of Light (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Suigetsu Hozoki (Naruto)
Hunter Huntsman (Ever After High)
Geist (Bravely Default)
Kouta Hirose (Digimon World: Last Order)
N (Pokemon Generations)
Brad Wong (Dead or Alive)
Ant-Man (various Marvel animated series and games)


 
Hifumi Yamada, K1-B0 - Lucien Dodge

Zoicite (Sailor Moon)
Yukio (Bleach)
Dust (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Blue (Pokemon Origins)
Pip (Paladins)
Andrew Hanbridge (Little Witch Acadamia)
Felix (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)



Sakura Ogami - Jessica Gee

Washu Hakuki (Tenchi Muyo GXP)
Zhu Rong (Dynasty Warriors)
Panne (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Holbrook (Little Witch Acadamia)
Announcer (Them's Fightin' Herds)
Cornelia (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)


 
Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Monotaro - Sean Chiplock

Spade (Freedom Planet)
Talus (Paladins)
Werner, Darius (Octopath Traveler)
Noob Saibot (Mortal Kombat 11)



Usami/Monomi - Rebecca Forstadt

Lynn Minmei (Robotech)
Mihoshi Kuramitsu (Tenchi Muyo)
Muriel (Cowboy Bebop)
Hect (Grandia 3)


 
Hajime Hinata, Rantaro Amami - Johnny Yong Bosch

Artemis (Sailor Moon)
Kaneda (Akira)
Adam Park (Power Rangers)
Eriol Hiiragizawa (Card Captor Sakura)
Kiba (Wolf's Rain)
Kresnik Ahtreide (Wild Arms 4)
Yuki (Grandia 3)
Ichigo Kurosake (Bleach)
Firion (Dissidia: Final Fantasy)
Yukimura Sanada (Samurai Warriors)
Xiba (Soul Calibur)
Jonathan Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Brock (Pokemon Origins)
Yang (Street Fighter)
Shiro Byakko (Kill la Kill)
Shinkawa Kyouji (Sword Art Online)
Takeru Takaishi (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Haruo Yaguchi (High Score Girl)
Broly (DragonBall Fighter Z)


 
Chiaki Nanami, Himiko Yumeno - Christine Marie Cabanos

Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn (Sailor Moon)
Ika Musume (Squid Girl)
Filia, Fukua (Skullgirls)
Marie Rose (Dead or Alive)
Nepgear (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Madoka Kaname (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Mako Mankanshoku (Kill la Kill)
Shiho Suzuki (Persona 5)
Amalia Sheran Sharm (Wakfu)
Miranda (Monster Prom)
Akira Ono (High Score Girl)


 
Gundham Tanaka, Ryoma Hoshi - Chris Tergliafera

Sigma (Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite)
Tank-Top Tiger (One Punch Man)
Muhammad Avdol (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)



Mikan Tsumiki - Stephanie Sheh

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)
Takako Chigusa (Battle Royale)
Hinata Hyuga (Naruto)
Anastasia Romanov (Shadowhearts: Covenant)
Marina (Romancing SaGa)
Megumi Shirokawa (Digimon Savers)
Orihime Inoue (Bleach)
Akira Kogami (Lucky Star)
Sylphiel (Slayers Revolution/Evolution R)
Eric LeCarde (Castlevania Judgement)
Charlotte Aulin (Castlevania: Harmony of Despair)
Lotte (Little Witch Acadamia)
Jinafie Long (Monster High)
Guan Yinping (Dynasty Warriors)
Nui Harime (Kill la Kill)
Shiki (Digimon World: Last Order)
Mona, Kat, Amy (WarioWare Gold)
Chibi-Chibi (Sailor Moon Stars)


 
Nekomaru Nidai, Monokid - Patrick Seitz

Count Dracula (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania Judgement, Order of Ecclesia, Harmony of Despair)
Luke Valentine (Hellsing)
Prince Neidhart (Romancing SaGa)
Zane Vathek (Legend of Heroes: Trials in the Sky)
Greg Russelberg (Wild Arms 5)
Rage Winterchill (World of Warcraft)
Franky (One Piece)
Cervantes (Soul Calibur)
Samson (Skullgirls)
Scorpion (Mortal Kombat)
Bass Armstrong (Dead or Alive)
Lyric (Sonic Boom)
Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Dogi (Ys)
Kunzite (Sailor Moon Crystal)
Ghetsis (Pokemon Generations)
Jiren, Tien (DragonBall Super)
Abobo (River City Girls)



 
Ibuki Mioda, Tenko Chabashira - Julie Ann Taylor

Haruna Sakurada (Sailor Moon)
Tsubaki (Rurouni Kenshin)
Jude Maverick (Wild Arms 4)
Yui Narumi (Lucky Star)
Hildengard von Krone (Soul Calibur)
Tsubaki Yayoi (BlazBlue)
Rei Ryghts (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Split-Chinned Kid (One Punch Man)


 
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, Kokichi Oma - Derek Stephen Prince

Mr. X (Lupin III)
Sanosuke Sagara (Rurouni Kenshin)
V-mon, Ken Ichijouji (Digimon Zero Two)
Impmon (Digimon Tamers)
Shino Aburame (Naruto)
Vexen (Kingdom Hearts)



Mahiru Koizumi - Carrie Keranen

Ozzel (Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R)
Annie Stoakes (Red Dead Redemption)
Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill la Kill)
Vert/Green Heart, Rom (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Sailor Galaxia (Sailor Moon Stars)


 
Teruteru Hanamura, Korekiyo Shinguji - Todd Haberkorn

Jadeite (Sailor Moon)
Android #19 (DragonBall Z)
Jaco (DragonBall Super)
Moe Shishigawara (Bleach)
Porter Geiss (Monster High)
Sha Lin (Paladins)
Acidman (Megaman 11)
Komiya (Aggretsuko)


 
Sonia Nevermind, Monophanie - Natalie Hoover

Arisa Ahokainen (Akiba's Trip)
Fumiko (Love Live)
Ash (Paladins)


 
Hiyoko Saionji, Kirumi Tojo - Kira Buckland

Mimette (Sailor Moon)
MaMop (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Honoka (Dead or Alive)
Reimi Sugimoto (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Marie (Skullgirls)
Evie (Paladins)
2B (Neir: Automata)
Evangelyne (Wakfu)
Kyoko (River City Girls)




Peko Pekoyama - Janice Kawaye

Gi (Captain Planet)
Ayane (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive)
Jenny (My Life as a Teenage Robot)
Kati Raikkonen (Akiba's Trip)
Famitsu (Hyperdimension Neptunia)


 
Kazuichi Soda, Kaito Momota - Kyle Hebert

Gohan, Pikkan (DragonBall Z)
Master Librarian/Ferryman (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Nefertari Cobra (One Piece)
Ryu (Street Fighter)
Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)


 
Akane Owari, Miu Iruma - Wendee Lee

Bulma (DragonBall)
Takeru Takaishi (Digimon Adventure)
Sora Takenouchi (Digimon Zero Two)
Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop)
Chai Xianghua (Soul Calibur)
Blanc/White Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Athena Cykes (Ace Attorney)
Fuuka Yamagishi (Persona)



Komaru Naegi - Cherami Leigh

Minako Aino/Sailor Venus (Sailor Moon)
Ms. Goldenweek (One Piece)
Elicia Hughes (Full Metal Alchemist)
Kneesocks (Panty & Stocking)
Gaige (Borderlands 2)
Plutia/Iris Heart (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Princess Neese (King's Quest '15)
Piyomon (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Iris (Pokemon Generations)
Rottytops (Shantae)
Asuna (Sword Art Online)
A2 (Nier: Automata)
Red Blood Cell (Cells at Work)



Monaca Towa - Christina Valenzuela

Rei Hino/Sailor Mars (Sailor Moon)
Noel Vermillion (BlazBlue)
Compa (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Riruka Dokugamine (Bleach)
Rei Hououmaru (Kill la Kill)
Shantae, Risky Boots, Holly Lingerberry (Shantae)
Meiko Mochizuki (Digimon Adventure Tri)
Kebako (Cat Girl Without Salad)
Elely (Wakfu)
Vera (Monster Prom)
Ophilia (Octopath Traveler)
5-Volt (WarioWare Gold)
Hasebe (River City Girls)



Masaru Daimon - Tara Sands

Sojiro Seta (Rurouni Kenshin)
Filia ul Copt (Slayers)
Bulbasaur (Pokemon)
Kaya (One Piece)
Mokuba Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh)
Hikari Yagami (Digimon Adventure Tri)


 
Jataro Kemuri, Yuta Asahina - Michelle Ruff

Fujiko Mine (Lupin III)
Luna (Sailor Moon)
Maria Renard (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Sakura Kasugano, Crimson Viper (Street Fighter)
Izumi Orimoto (Digimon Frontier)
Sun Shang Xiang (Dynasty Warriors)
Avril Vent Fleur (Wild Arms 5)
Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Castlevania Judgement)
Cream (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Eliza (Skullgirls)
Erina Pendleton (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
Yukari Takeba (Persona)
Sinon (Sword Art Online)



Kotoko Utsugi - Erica Lindbeck

Ema Skye (Ace Attorney)
Whitemane (Heroes of the Storm)
Ashley (WarioWare Gold)
Uzume Tennouboshi (Hyperdimension Neptunia)
Roll (Megaman 11)
Cheelai (DragonBall Super: Broly)
Mera (DC Superheroes)
Miriam (Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)
Captain Marvel (Marvel Future Avengers)


 
Nagisa Shingetsu, Maki Harukawa - Erica Mendez

Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon)
Nico Yazawa (Love Live)
Flay Allster (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed)
Akko Kagari (Little Witch Acadamia)
Corbin (Dust: An Elysian Tale)
Mina (Battle Chef Brigade)
Retsuko (Aggretsuko)



Haiji Towa - Matthew Mercer

Fei Long (Street Fighter)
Prince Diamonde (Sailor Moon)
Trafalgar Law (One Piece)
Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil)
Reapmon (Digimon Xros Wars)
Chrom (Super Smash Bros.)
Bayman (Dead or Alive)
Pyrogen (Mighty #9)
Jesse McCree (Overwatch)
Cor Leonis (Final Fantasy 15)
Hit (DragonBall Super)



Hiroko Hagakure - Jessica Straus

Succubus (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
Juri Han (Street Fighter)
Lyra (Megaman Starforce)]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1673 Thu, 18 Jan 2018 23:23:16 -0600 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1673


]]>


]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1529 Sun, 11 Jun 2017 03:52:45 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1529


]]>


]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1512 Mon, 29 May 2017 00:09:21 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1512


Rockman Gaiden
This was a pretty competent hack overall and I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't overly difficult although it did a great job changing the game up. I made it to the Copy Robot boss in Wily's fortress until I got stuck due to his lack of weaknesses and high damage output. I could probably have beaten him eventually, but I wanted to move on to other games...




Rockman 2 ONN
Much like Deus ex Machina, another MM2 hack that changes everything up substantially, with really nice presentation, but is so obscenely hard you're probably not going to beat it without save state abuse.




Megaman 3: The Rise and Fall of Dr. Wily (part 2)
I liked this hack and made it far enough that I wanted to finish it. The Doc Robot levels were extremely difficult and stressful, but just like the original game, Wily's fortress was MUCH easier by comparison, even though it was still a bit harder than the original.




Rockman 4 Ridley X Hack #5
Yep, another MM4 hack by Ridley X, this time using a lot of graphics from MM10. This one was challenging, but MUCH more manageable than Dr. Cossack's Revenge. I beat the eight robot masters and I hope to finish it on a future stream as well.]]>


Rockman Gaiden
This was a pretty competent hack overall and I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't overly difficult although it did a great job changing the game up. I made it to the Copy Robot boss in Wily's fortress until I got stuck due to his lack of weaknesses and high damage output. I could probably have beaten him eventually, but I wanted to move on to other games...




Rockman 2 ONN
Much like Deus ex Machina, another MM2 hack that changes everything up substantially, with really nice presentation, but is so obscenely hard you're probably not going to beat it without save state abuse.




Megaman 3: The Rise and Fall of Dr. Wily (part 2)
I liked this hack and made it far enough that I wanted to finish it. The Doc Robot levels were extremely difficult and stressful, but just like the original game, Wily's fortress was MUCH easier by comparison, even though it was still a bit harder than the original.




Rockman 4 Ridley X Hack #5
Yep, another MM4 hack by Ridley X, this time using a lot of graphics from MM10. This one was challenging, but MUCH more manageable than Dr. Cossack's Revenge. I beat the eight robot masters and I hope to finish it on a future stream as well.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1511 Wed, 24 May 2017 23:29:38 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1511
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was one of many featuring the Mario Bros. series. While it was not the first (earlier animated series includes Saturday Morning Supercade, which featured Donkey Kong and Mario, as well as the Japanese OAV, The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach), it is the first animated series based on a video game that many of us that grew up in the American 80s remember. The Super Show was split into two parts; the first was actually a live action skit of Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, while the second part was an animated short about their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Princess Peach and Toad, and their battles against Bowser. The first half of the  live action segment would end on a cliffhanger, followed by the animated portion, then the resolution of the live action part. In this series, Mario would be played by WWE's Captain Lou Albano in both segments, and Danny Wells as Luigi (sadly neither of them are with us today). The rest of the voice cast for the main characters is listed below:

Mario: "Captain" Lou Albano
Luigi: Danny Wells
Peach: Jeannie Elias
Toad: John Stocker
Bowser: Harvey Atkin

As I said, the live action portions focus on Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, and various comical slapstick that ensues. This often involves a lot of celebrity guest stars showing up as well. The animated portions are more based on the games, particularly Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2; Bowser is the main antagonist, but some of his minions include enemies from SMB2. Plus, Peach and Toad join Mario and Luigi in their adventures, and not necessarily in the "Damsel in Distress" role, either.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the first episode:


It might seem campy and ridiculous now, but for us as kids back in the late 80s, this was pretty awesome.

- While the Mario Bros. have always had some Italian inspiration, this series REALLY steamrolled their apparent obsession with pasta and other Italian foods into the ground. I would suggest a drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the Bros. makes a reference to it, but you'd probably be black-out drunk within ten minutes...
- "UH-OH" Count: 1
- Into the animated segment, a visually-impaired Birdo mistakes Toad for her baby and runs off with him; the others have to get him back.
- By the way, I call her Peach out of habit now, but this was the time when she was called "Toadstool" in North America (she was always Peach in Japan, but she didn't get called that here until Yoshi's Safari for the SNES in the mid 90s). Also, she's a red-head in the animated series (all of them; this one, SMB3, and SMW), even though the games eventually settled on her as a blonde by SMW.
- On a similar note, Bowser is almost always referred to as King Koopa. Actually, this one is faithful to the Japanese series, where he is known as Koopa almost exclusively.
- Also, in the games, Luigi has become known to have a more cowardly persona in comparison to his brother; I think this is where that might have originated and eventually became canon.
- I almost forgot Mario and Luigi's idiotic patty-cake dance. Sadly, this is far from the last time they do it...
- By the way, the show originally aired Monday-Friday afternoons. On Friday, however, the animated segment would instead be Legend of Zelda cartoon. I'm going to talk more about that one on a later post.]]>
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was one of many featuring the Mario Bros. series. While it was not the first (earlier animated series includes Saturday Morning Supercade, which featured Donkey Kong and Mario, as well as the Japanese OAV, The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach), it is the first animated series based on a video game that many of us that grew up in the American 80s remember. The Super Show was split into two parts; the first was actually a live action skit of Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, while the second part was an animated short about their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Princess Peach and Toad, and their battles against Bowser. The first half of the  live action segment would end on a cliffhanger, followed by the animated portion, then the resolution of the live action part. In this series, Mario would be played by WWE's Captain Lou Albano in both segments, and Danny Wells as Luigi (sadly neither of them are with us today). The rest of the voice cast for the main characters is listed below:

Mario: "Captain" Lou Albano
Luigi: Danny Wells
Peach: Jeannie Elias
Toad: John Stocker
Bowser: Harvey Atkin

As I said, the live action portions focus on Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, and various comical slapstick that ensues. This often involves a lot of celebrity guest stars showing up as well. The animated portions are more based on the games, particularly Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2; Bowser is the main antagonist, but some of his minions include enemies from SMB2. Plus, Peach and Toad join Mario and Luigi in their adventures, and not necessarily in the "Damsel in Distress" role, either.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the first episode:


It might seem campy and ridiculous now, but for us as kids back in the late 80s, this was pretty awesome.

- While the Mario Bros. have always had some Italian inspiration, this series REALLY steamrolled their apparent obsession with pasta and other Italian foods into the ground. I would suggest a drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the Bros. makes a reference to it, but you'd probably be black-out drunk within ten minutes...
- "UH-OH" Count: 1
- Into the animated segment, a visually-impaired Birdo mistakes Toad for her baby and runs off with him; the others have to get him back.
- By the way, I call her Peach out of habit now, but this was the time when she was called "Toadstool" in North America (she was always Peach in Japan, but she didn't get called that here until Yoshi's Safari for the SNES in the mid 90s). Also, she's a red-head in the animated series (all of them; this one, SMB3, and SMW), even though the games eventually settled on her as a blonde by SMW.
- On a similar note, Bowser is almost always referred to as King Koopa. Actually, this one is faithful to the Japanese series, where he is known as Koopa almost exclusively.
- Also, in the games, Luigi has become known to have a more cowardly persona in comparison to his brother; I think this is where that might have originated and eventually became canon.
- I almost forgot Mario and Luigi's idiotic patty-cake dance. Sadly, this is far from the last time they do it...
- By the way, the show originally aired Monday-Friday afternoons. On Friday, however, the animated segment would instead be Legend of Zelda cartoon. I'm going to talk more about that one on a later post.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1491 Sun, 07 May 2017 03:20:40 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1491

Megaman 1: Bass Edition
Probably the poorest quality hack of the bunch. Really bad level design choices combined with some ugly redrawn boss sprites. At least the Bass sprite looked decent (although it would still revert to Megaman's palette after re-spawning sometimes)


Rockman 2: Deus Ex Machina
A super-hard hack of Megaman 2, in a similar vein as Rockman no Constancy, albiet much harder IMO. It's unfortunate, because the production value of the hack is otherwise pretty high, only it's so difficult it's going to be hard to make it far without relying on save-state-scumming.


Megaman 3: The Rise and Fall of Dr. Wily
I liked this one overall. It increased the challenge of the original game without being as insanely difficult as some of the others I've played. Only problem was that it only changed up the stages; the enemy and boss AI are all the same as before, so it's a matter of tough stages, easy bosses.


Megaman 4: Dr. Cossack's Revenge
This took me by surprise quite a bit. I've played Ridley X rom hacks before and they weren't as obscenely difficult as this one was (mostly due to enemies dealing and taking much more damage than they do normally). It might have been even harder than Deus Ex Machina, as I was unable to reach a single robot master this time, much less beat one!


Megaman 5: Hyperion
This one is comparable to the MM3 hack. It seems to mostly be a level hack with no noticeable difference in any other aspect. The levels are noticeably harder and longer than in the original game (I start to notice that the point where the level would end normally is the mid-point in this game!). Overall, a competent hack.]]>

Megaman 1: Bass Edition
Probably the poorest quality hack of the bunch. Really bad level design choices combined with some ugly redrawn boss sprites. At least the Bass sprite looked decent (although it would still revert to Megaman's palette after re-spawning sometimes)


Rockman 2: Deus Ex Machina
A super-hard hack of Megaman 2, in a similar vein as Rockman no Constancy, albiet much harder IMO. It's unfortunate, because the production value of the hack is otherwise pretty high, only it's so difficult it's going to be hard to make it far without relying on save-state-scumming.


Megaman 3: The Rise and Fall of Dr. Wily
I liked this one overall. It increased the challenge of the original game without being as insanely difficult as some of the others I've played. Only problem was that it only changed up the stages; the enemy and boss AI are all the same as before, so it's a matter of tough stages, easy bosses.


Megaman 4: Dr. Cossack's Revenge
This took me by surprise quite a bit. I've played Ridley X rom hacks before and they weren't as obscenely difficult as this one was (mostly due to enemies dealing and taking much more damage than they do normally). It might have been even harder than Deus Ex Machina, as I was unable to reach a single robot master this time, much less beat one!


Megaman 5: Hyperion
This one is comparable to the MM3 hack. It seems to mostly be a level hack with no noticeable difference in any other aspect. The levels are noticeably harder and longer than in the original game (I start to notice that the point where the level would end normally is the mid-point in this game!). Overall, a competent hack.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1454 Sun, 12 Mar 2017 07:29:02 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1454
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]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1443 Sun, 26 Feb 2017 00:06:30 -0600 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1443




TLDW: I beat RosenkreuzStilette, and unlocked a code for Grollschwert mode, which lets you play as Grolla, who plays very much like Zero from MMX and is essentially Hard Mode as she is a glass cannon with only a short-range sword and doesn't get new weapons from the bosses.



I made it to Patchouli's second phase in MegaMari, but wasn't able to beat her. Her stage has the obligatory boss rush, which is rough in itself since several of them are tough even with their weakness, but then Patchouli herself I understand has THREE phases that you must also beat on a single life (and a comment in the chat mentioned the third phase has an instant-kill attack at that...). And at that point I was over my time limit and wanted to switch over to Rosenkreuz. Overall, I feel as though RosenkreuzStillete, while still pretty tough, wasn't as brutally difficult as MegaMari. MegaMari is difficult to the point of borderline unfair at times, it might almost require you to know exactly which boss weapons to assign to both characters in advance, and it is extremely stingy with 1-ups and E-tanks, especially in those later levels (and you lose all of your E-tanks if you game over, so you can't farm). As I pointed out on my stream, most of Rosenkreuz's difficulty is in the boss fights; most of them are extremely difficult, as least until you know their weakness, but even then it always mean they'll be easy. Most of the stages are relatively short, they don't throw as much cheap or unfair stuff at you (with only a handful of minor exceptions *glares at Freudia's level*), and they're more generous with 1-ups and E-tanks (and allows me to keep them if I game over). And if you want a more grueling challenge, there's Grollschwert mode...]]>




TLDW: I beat RosenkreuzStilette, and unlocked a code for Grollschwert mode, which lets you play as Grolla, who plays very much like Zero from MMX and is essentially Hard Mode as she is a glass cannon with only a short-range sword and doesn't get new weapons from the bosses.



I made it to Patchouli's second phase in MegaMari, but wasn't able to beat her. Her stage has the obligatory boss rush, which is rough in itself since several of them are tough even with their weakness, but then Patchouli herself I understand has THREE phases that you must also beat on a single life (and a comment in the chat mentioned the third phase has an instant-kill attack at that...). And at that point I was over my time limit and wanted to switch over to Rosenkreuz. Overall, I feel as though RosenkreuzStillete, while still pretty tough, wasn't as brutally difficult as MegaMari. MegaMari is difficult to the point of borderline unfair at times, it might almost require you to know exactly which boss weapons to assign to both characters in advance, and it is extremely stingy with 1-ups and E-tanks, especially in those later levels (and you lose all of your E-tanks if you game over, so you can't farm). As I pointed out on my stream, most of Rosenkreuz's difficulty is in the boss fights; most of them are extremely difficult, as least until you know their weakness, but even then it always mean they'll be easy. Most of the stages are relatively short, they don't throw as much cheap or unfair stuff at you (with only a handful of minor exceptions *glares at Freudia's level*), and they're more generous with 1-ups and E-tanks (and allows me to keep them if I game over). And if you want a more grueling challenge, there's Grollschwert mode...]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1437 Fri, 17 Feb 2017 00:17:55 -0600 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1437


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]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1307 Mon, 24 Oct 2016 01:52:47 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1307
You can download the game for free here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/5946/?p=7

]]>
You can download the game for free here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/5946/?p=7

]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1276 Mon, 10 Oct 2016 05:09:15 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1276

Pokemon is one of the most popular and recognizable game franchises there is. Despite (or perhaps because of) its appear to children, we would end up seeing plenty of fan-generated ghost stories, aka creepypastas surrounding it. The stories I've selected here deviate slightly from the typical cliches of creepypasta stories. Nothing supernatural occurs in these stories (ie, haunted cartridges/discs, such as Ben Drowned or Sonic.exe), and they don't focus on "photo-realistic blood" or other such scenes occurring in the games, nor do they end with the player driven to insanity/death just for playing them, just pretty creeped out. These stories involve stuff like creepy urban legends about the games, tales of creepy game mods, or accounts of alleged content that was cut from the original game for being too unsettling. Enjoy, and pleasant dreams...



Lavender Town Syndrome
Most Poke-fans have most likely heard this urban legend that has been making the rounds for quite a long time. So, I figured this would be a good one to lead with. According to the myth, shortly after the release of Pokemon Red/Green in Japan (Red/Blue internationally), there was an alarming rise in children committing suicide, usually by hanging or jumping from high places. It was discovered that these kids were given beta copies of Pokemon Red/Green for play-testing and after reaching Lavender Town started complaining of intense headaches and started to display increasingly irrational behavior. The creepy theme song for Lavender Town was discovered to contain certain pitches of sound that only children could hear, leading to their suicidal behavior. As a result, the track was slightly altered for international release, removing these tones. Of course, this story is mostly bogus. While it is true that the song did contain tones that could cause headaches in certain people, especially if they're wearing headphones, but there are no actual reports of people being driven to suicide after listening to it. It probably would have been hard to cover up too, given the huge media fiasco over the infamous anime episode "Electric Soldier Porygon" aired in Japan (which is probably where the idea for this myth originated).

Later, someone claimed to have used some kind of special software that translates sound into images on the Lavender Town theme. The result was the image of the unidentified ghost from Pokemon Tower with the words "LEAVE NOW" spelled out next to it using Unowns. This can easily be called out as BS simply due to the fact that Unown was never in Gen. 1. Plus, you could probably create a picture of anything you wanted with that "special software" of his.



Missingno

I dunno if this should count, since it actually is part of Pokemon Red/Blue, but it the existence of this enigma has become so famous and so much a part of the fandom, that I figured I couldn't not include a blurb on it here. Missingno (short for "Missing Number") is an error handler when the game attempts to load a pokemon with a non-existent index number. There are a few ways to trigger a glitch like this to occur, but the most popular method found is by Surfing around Cinnibar Island. Missingno itself usually appears as just a mess of jumbled pixels, but sometimes it has been shown appearing as the fossilized Kabutops, for a little extra creep factor.



So what is the big deal about Missingno? Well, a couple of things. First, people have discovered an item-duplication glitch that can be exploited using it. However, it comes with a downside. Missingno has also been reported to corrupt the entire game just be encountering it! This eldrich abomination of the poke-verse has the power to turn the world into a chewed-up mess on its whim. Scary indeed. 




Buried Alive/White Hand

I don't know why I found this one kinda interesting. This story involves a bonus battle that was allegedly cut from the final version of the game, but it's so unlike anything else that appears before or since, that it makes very little sense for it to have ever existed in the first place. 



According to the story, Buried Alive is a creature you would fight in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town; some accounts say it's an optional battle, others claimed that this would be eventually replaced by Marowak's ghost in the final game. Either way, the story claims the battle and associated sprites were found in the game's code, presumably used in a pre-alpha build of the game, and was made accessible using a code or a GameShark or something. Doing so greets you with the text:

You're here...
I'm trapped...
And I'm lonely...
So very lonely...
Won't you join me...?

You then enter a battle with Buried Alive, a zombie burrowing out of the ground. It fights like any other trainer, except it uses a Gengar and Muk that are much more powerful than anything else in the game. It also uses a unique creature called White Hand, whose data was also allegedly found in the code.



I'm guessing that it's referencing a line from an NPC near Lavender Town that asks if you believe in ghosts. Answer "no" and he says something like, "I guess that white hand on your shoulder is just my imagination".

Anyway, if you win this battle, nothing happens, the game just crashes. But if you lose, rather than the usual being sent back to the Pokecenter, Buried Alive responds with "Finally... Fresh meat...", and you get an actual Game Over, accompanied by an image of Red being dragged away by the undead creature, presumably to be eaten.



Yep, was totally gonna be in the final game.




Pokemon Black
No relation to the Gen. 5 DS game. It has since been referred to by some as CreepyBlack to differentiate it. Anyway, this is the first (or first noteworthy example) of many stories of creepy homebrew games that people claim to have discovered in a pawn shop or flea market, they take them home and play them, and spoopytimes ensue. In some cases, fans of these creepypastas went on to make actual homebrews of the games as described. 



Anyway, the author of this story tells of a bootleg Pokemon game (pictured above) that they discovered at a flea market. Overall, it seemed like a rom hack of Pokemon Red, only with "Black Version" on the title screen, and with one noticeable difference at the start; aside from Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, you are given the choice of a fourth starter Pokemon, simply called "Ghost", whose sprite is once again the unidentified ghost from Pokemon Tower. Ghost has only one move, Curse. Curse is a bit of a weird move in other games it's in. It has a unique typing, "???", for starters, and its function is different depending on whether or not the user is a Ghost-type. Here, however, Curse only has one function - it instantly kills virtually everything it's used on.

Yes, not faint, kills. According to the story, when Curse is used, the screen goes black, a distorted version of the opponent Pokemon's cry is heard, and when the screen comes back, the other Pokemon is gone completely. And this doesn't just apply to Pokemon either, you can murder trainers with it too; after defeating them, you are still given the option of using Curse to kill them also. Naturally, this makes the entire game extremely easy, being able to cut a swath of pure death across anything and everything that gets in your way. Sounds kinda boring actually...

But the real fun doesn't start until after you've defeated the Elite Four and Blue. A text box appears that indicates that this is many years later. Red, now an old man, is standing before the graves in Pokemon Tower, now without any Pokemon, including Ghost (who could not be removed from your party before). You are supposed to return all the way home to your house in Palette Town, where the game greets you with a slideshow of all of the Pokemon and people that you killed. And then...



Ghost appears before you again and you are forced into a battle. Red has no Pokemon to fight with and can only use one move, Struggle. Each use of Struggle will cause Red's HP to fall, before Ghost eventually uses Curse to claim one final victim... The screen goes black and remains that way until the game is shut off. Upon turning it back on, your file is automatically erased. Hope you're not feeling so murdery this next time around...




Pokemon StrangledRed
Another story of a grim-dark homebrew game. This one also a hack of Pokemon Red that the author claimed to have found in the trash. The tale of a trainer and his beloved Charizard, and his ride off the slippery slope when his companion dies... Rather than give a blow-by-blow synopsis here, I think I'll just let you read it here. 
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Strangled_Red




Pokemon LostSilver
The last of the ones I have on creepy hacked games, this one is a hacked version of Pokemon Silver that the author bought at a GameStop. The old save file that he tries out starts off weird enough, but gets freakier as he continues on. You'll never look at Unown the same way again...

Read it here:
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Pokémon_Lost_Silver

Someone made it into a playable version, which you can check out here:





Ash's Coma

Finally, let's end this on another story that most fans are familiar with. This one is a fan theory people have that suggests that Ash has spent the entire anime series in a coma:

Have you ever noticed that the pacing, tone, and story development of Pokémon changes after Ash is hit by lightning in the early episodes? How Ash and his world are relatively normal until after that incident? I have a theory.

The accident with the bike put Ash into a coma. Days later, he was found and hurried to the hospital and treated with heavy medications. This is why Team Rocket became less menacing. The medication took effect and stabilized his coma dreams so that, instead of being terrifying, they became idyllic. They allowed him to live out his Pokémon Master fantasies.

After the beginning episodes, the series is the result of Ash’s subconscious mind fulfilling his desires as well as attempting to escape reality. Should Ash realize he’s in a coma, he would wake up and suffer brain damage, so he must take down all of his mental barriers one by one.

If he can do that, he can come to grips with who he is and escape his coma. Further evidence comes from the realization that even though his journeys take him vast distances, he never usually travels by bike due to having developed a phobia of them.

The coma and fantasy explains why he never changes much, physically. It explains the worldwide socialism, as he thought up a safe system of government that would run smoothly and keep the world going, allowing his adventures to work like they do.

It also explains how a child can go off on his own into a world full of dangerous and untamed animals. In addition, it explains why every town has the same police officer and every Pokémon Centre has the same nurse.
Joy and Jenny he knew from his hometown and they act as a safety net or anchor, allowing him to feel safe no matter where he goes. They represent stability. The professors represent Ash’s ideals, which is why Gary became a professor.

The fantasy also explains why every time he enters a new region that virtually no one has heard of him, despite his conquests. How else could Paul, the rival of the Sinnoh area, not know of someone who placed in at least the top sixteen of all three leagues and destroyed the Orange League and Battle Frontier?

Moving on to the characters closer to him…Ash’s traveling partners are aspects of himself he can enjoy but cannot associate with himself.

Brock is Ash’s repressed sexuality. Ash fell into the coma a virgin and, as such, needed an outlet for his growing sexual frustrations. However, since he can never experience sex, Brock must never succeed. Brock’s stay with Professor Ivy was an attempt by Ash’s mind to suppress his sexuality.

Brock isn’t just a projection of Ash’s sexuality, but also a projection of Ash’s fatherly instincts. He leaves his siblings to journey with Ash because he can’t cope with having that much responsibility.

You may notice that James got much more dialogue in this part of the series, as well as getting more touchy-feely with his Pokémon and exposing much of his backstory. Ash didn’t enjoy this much, which is why Brock returns, horrified, and refuses to speak about it.

Ash’s subconscious was repressing him at the time so, other than a general feeling of dread, he has no idea what happened. Further evidence of Brock being Ash’s sexuality is that he keeps returning the series after Ash meets a new female aspect of himself.

Misty is the first such aspect we encounter. Because she is the first and is merely an aspect of Ash are explanations as to why Misty plays such a prominent role in the show but is ultimately unattainable (since he never really knew her before the coma).

Since Misty is his initial love interest (if only subconsciously), he needed her to reach a certain level of womanhood. He felt that people could only have relationships after they’ve matured.

In practice, however, he finds he can’t cope with it, as he lacks real-world experience. He wants the normal, pushy, arrogant Misty he knew…thus, not letting her keep Togepi. We can see this arc in the constant berating of his sexuality, but her eventual mellowing until she had faded into the background.

Since Ash was quite attached to her, this was traumatizing. After this experience, anyone around him “threatening” to mature quickly ends up leaving only for another, more naive fill-in to enter his life.

Gary Oak is what Ash wants to be. He is wish fulfillment. He succeeded and then settled down to a normal life. Ash needs someone to succeed in his world or he won’t be able to validate it and will start questioning why he is where he is. It’s a subconscious trap to keep him from becoming too aware of his situation.

His mind must have figured out that awareness of the coma would snap him out of it, so it took something the boy already loved and build a way out for him with it. However, Ash is too complacent to make a final stand and fight his way out of it, and cannot escape.

This is why he keeps encountering legendary Pokémon. They’re his mind’s way of showing him he can do great things if he tries. It’s a way to encourage him to push forwards.

Team Rocket are the qualities of himself that Ash deems “negative” but is coming to terms with. Jessie and James want to appease Giovanni, Ash’s father figure. To achieve this, Jessie will trick the submissive James into doing her bidding. Meowth especially wants to appease him because he remembers the good times with Giovanni.

This places Meowth in a category known as Ash’s (corrupted) innocence. This is apparent because Meowth is able to speak. In fact, the whole reason Meowth can speak is so Ash can eventually accept the aspects of Team Rocket as parts of himself.

Ash had issues with his father, so he put him atop the evil corporation and demonized him. There may be an actual Team Rocket (in the real world), but it’s doubtful that Ash’s father is their leader. Ash likely feels the split between his parents was partly his fault, but also partly blames his father.

The split caused his mother to move out of the city down to Pallet Town and is one reason why Ash initially embarks on his journey: to escape the turmoil at home. The whole organization, including Butch and Cassidy, is symbolic of his inability to escape his father’s machinations.

James is implied homosexuality (which does not necessarily make Ash homosexual) and gullibility, while Jessie is vanity and manipulation. Since Meowth has the potential for rehabilitation and doesn’t want to be evil, this once again fits with the conflicting personalities and demonized-self theory.

Team Rocket cross dresses because Ash is exploring his gender, a different facet than what Brock represents (sexuality), and this was a method that allowed his gay/vain side to experiment freely. When he found that it wasn’t something for him, he “free” side stopped playing with it.

Max came with May. He played the ego and she played the id with great aspirations in that “session.” They worked for a little while but, with Ash being a teenager, his sexuality had to come back into play. He kept reinventing himself and eventually wrote new aspects, but his mind slowly brought the old ones back as a crutch to make the transition easier.

Dawn is Ash giving himself a chance to love. Since he already established Misty as someone he’s not likely to go anywhere with, he created a new super female - one that was more like him and less violent. You may note that while both May and Misty had no tolerance for Brock’s behavior, Dawn seems to try to shrug it off.

Tracey, the breeder, was a possible future for Ash that he discarded. This future was one that he sent off to work with the professor (Ash’s ultimate ideal of a father figure) when Tracey disrupted the dynamic Ash had with his other possibilities.

With Ash’s mind fighting the coma and Ash viewing this person as a companion, Tracy was quickly replaced with a more threatening rival.

Pikachu represents Ash’s humanity. This explains the episodes where they get separated and Ash desperately wants to find him, even to the point of working with Team Rocket (aspects of himself he would never normally associate with), but for some reason cannot.

Team Rocket wants to steal Pikachu and hand him over to Giovanni. Jessie and James will always oppose Ash because he is terrified of the thought of his humanity lying in the hands of his father. However, this is the same reason he will work with those aspects of himself in order to save his humanity.

Ash couldn’t evolve Pikachu because that would mean challenging his concept of who he was, which was something he wasn’t comfortable with while still working through his original issues.

The narrator is Ash’s higher mind, recapping and explaining the progress he’s made and the tribulations he will face, allowing insight into how to best awaken him.

Team Rocket’s methods gradually become more and more ludicrous because Ash is only a child dreaming these things up. That is why Team Rocket’s disguises are always believed. He knows it’s them (at least on a subconscious level), but chooses to ignore it so he can better himself.

In a sense, the Ash who wants to escape is sabotaging the Ash who wants to stay lost in his mind so that there can be more conflict and, hopefully, an eventual escape. The escape is a consequence of coming to terms with who he is. As mentioned previously, Team Rocket are a method to Ash to deal with grounds he’s uncomfortable with tackling on his own.

You may recall that early in the show, there were animals and references to animals. For example, the fish in the aquarium of the Cerulean City gym or that the Pokedex lists Pikachu as “rat-like.” These animals don’t matter to Ash’s psyche, so they don’t come into play much.

If Ash loved puppies, everything would be about different breeds of dogs and a dog fighting circuit, but as the series goes on, you see fewer realistic animals and more Pokémon. This could be a sign of Ash’s mind deteriorating.
As he’s in the coma, he’s losing concepts of some animals and machinery and replacing them with Pokémon. It could explain things like electric Pokémon working as power generators; these are signs that his memory of the old world is slipping more and more as time goes by.

The Pokémon realm will be idealized continuously the longer he has no stimulus from the real world. Ash may or may not be mentally deteriorating, but he is becoming more accustomed to his fake world’s rules. The wild Pokémon are his rationalizations for the functioning of his created fantasy. It’s the “a wizard did it” syndrome. If he doesn’t know how it works, his mind says Pokémon.

The Pokémon in Ash’s team, however, serve the purpose of displaying his issues and aspects of himself. For example, Charmander represents his sex drive (not his sexuality, like Brock). At first it’s a cute, easy thing to control, but eventually becomes a raging inferno of disobedience since Ash has no real understanding of his sexuality (thus has no way to vent or keep it in check).

Bulbasaur was his unwillingness to change, reflected in when it declines to evolve and almost decided to stay behind unless he battled it. Squirtle was his willingness to follow the lead of others, as evidenced by the gang it ran with. Even though he ran the gang, they were viewed as one group and Ash’s subconscious gave him the strongest one.
Butterfree was his crushing loneliness, which he dealt with when he released it to join a flock. His bird types are his recklessness, always willing to sacrifice something at a moment’s notice for the win. When Ash is trading Pokémon, it’s an attempt to push his own problems away on someone else. However, he realizes this and usually trades back very quickly.

Not only are Ash’s Pokémon a manifestation of different parts of himself, the Pokémon of other trainers are as well. Koffing and Ekans were symbolic of Team Rocket’s willingness to change, hence their evolutions. Once his mind was able to overcome that roadblock and allow them to change once, it gave him the chance to truly change.

An interesting note is that Pupitar is a rationalization: a Pokémon a rival caught before they met. Even Ash would become suspicious if everyone he met had no carry-over Pokémon from previous places he had been to.

Other trainers are more direct forms of his issues - ones he must either come to terms with or outright suppress. Gym leaders are more primary aspects of his personality, with each Pokémon being stronger than the last to display a level of skill he could only be capable of if he gave into it.

In effect, he is doing battle with a part of him that he would rather not have in control. Originally, Ash had the battles, which evolved into team battles and contests. The explanation for this is that his issues became more and more complicated and the means of dealing with them needed to become more complex. The fact that he uses issues he has already dominated to win is a sign he’s growing stronger.

Ash releases his Pokémon because his mind is forcing him to get go of them. The second he raises an overpowered team, a tournament comes up and, after fighting his way through it, he has to go to a new land for new challenges. However, with an overpowered team, there won’t be any challenges or any way to motive him further.

The Ash that wants to stay in the coma and keep journeying hands his solved issues over to Professor Oak so he can continue and overcome the unresolved ones. This is essentially his mind forcing him to deal with his issues.

Ash’s rivals and the Elite Four are ultimately the strongest part of this cycle. Having Pokémon that are essentially godlike, they represent both what can be attained and what is unattainable. Ash’s rivals are all possible futures he envisions for himself (note they are all older than him).

This originated with Gary Oak, someone Ash knew from real life and built up into a sort of god within his mind. However, Gary progressed and changed to suit Ash’s vision of himself and his ultimate desire, eventually settling down into a professor role after beating the Elite Four.

With Gary Oak in retirement, his mind needed a new rival for him. Thus the births of Richie (the good aspect of his rivalry) and Paul.

Paul is his mind’s last ditch efforts to snap him out of it - to force Ash to actually come to terms that this perfect world is not the best option or path to waking up. Paul is Ash’s shadow, one that wants to push on even harder and harder. He is the part of Ash that will stop at nothing to escape the coma world.

Mewtwo is a new form of treatment, done with electrical impulses and a machine to know Ash out of it, taking down every last one of his mental guards (the original Pokémon in the movie). In Ash’s mind, Mewtwo and his clones were (in the real world) the treatment for the mental safeguards that were protecting Ash and keeping him comatose: the Pokémon of his world.

The clones were counters to the issues Ash had thought solved and each appeared to Ash as the exact copy of his defence. The clones didn’t play by the rules of Ash’s world. They didn’t use any special attacks or moves. They just beat down their counterpart through brute strength. The treatment was working.

There were side effects. The electric jolts were beginning affect Ash’s nervous system. If the treatment continued, he would be paralysed. His mind manifested this in the dream world by petrifying him. Were it not for the end of the treatment by Ash’s mother, who knew her son wouldn’t want to live in a world he couldn’t explore, Ash would have remained as stone forever.

After this, Ash needed to recover from the damage caused by the electric therapy. In order to reduce the danger Ash’s consciousness felt from it, his subconscious began downplaying the effects in this world, which is why Pikachu’s electric attacks - once noted for their strength by Team Rocket - no longer have any effect on Ash, other than comic relief.

As we can see, Ash may well have been trapped forever in this world. However, like every dream, like everything, there is a beginning and an end. What would happen if Ash never recovered?

In his hospital room, we see Delia, obviously distraught. She’s talking to a doctor with a grim look on his face. The man is saying their insurance is up and the boy has had no change in brain activity in years. The shock of taking him off life support has a very small chance of awakening him.

She tearfully agrees.

Back in Ash’s world, he has finally defeated the Elite four and, one by one, the people around him disappear. Eventually, everything is black. Pikachu comes dashing toward him, glowing brighter and brighter in the darkness. Eventually, he reaches Ash and the two embrace one last time.

In the hospital room, his life signs fading, Ash mutters his final words.
“I…want to be…the very…best…”

He will die never having known his dream, except as naught but a dream. When he came back to reality, he knew it all for the lie it was, knew it as his imagination. Knowing that all his efforts, ambitions, and friends were nothing, he will let go.

As he utters his final words, he barely opens his eyes and sees the silhouette of his mother, her face hidden by her hands wiping away tears. They make eye contact and one final realization fills him before he loses all strength.
He sees that his mother was holding out hope that he’d recover all that time. He sees her and finds that her hope had been broken as she’d come to the realization that she’d outlived her only child. He dies knowing that he is loved, but that it means the one person closest and most real to him is utterly crushed.]]>

Pokemon is one of the most popular and recognizable game franchises there is. Despite (or perhaps because of) its appear to children, we would end up seeing plenty of fan-generated ghost stories, aka creepypastas surrounding it. The stories I've selected here deviate slightly from the typical cliches of creepypasta stories. Nothing supernatural occurs in these stories (ie, haunted cartridges/discs, such as Ben Drowned or Sonic.exe), and they don't focus on "photo-realistic blood" or other such scenes occurring in the games, nor do they end with the player driven to insanity/death just for playing them, just pretty creeped out. These stories involve stuff like creepy urban legends about the games, tales of creepy game mods, or accounts of alleged content that was cut from the original game for being too unsettling. Enjoy, and pleasant dreams...



Lavender Town Syndrome
Most Poke-fans have most likely heard this urban legend that has been making the rounds for quite a long time. So, I figured this would be a good one to lead with. According to the myth, shortly after the release of Pokemon Red/Green in Japan (Red/Blue internationally), there was an alarming rise in children committing suicide, usually by hanging or jumping from high places. It was discovered that these kids were given beta copies of Pokemon Red/Green for play-testing and after reaching Lavender Town started complaining of intense headaches and started to display increasingly irrational behavior. The creepy theme song for Lavender Town was discovered to contain certain pitches of sound that only children could hear, leading to their suicidal behavior. As a result, the track was slightly altered for international release, removing these tones. Of course, this story is mostly bogus. While it is true that the song did contain tones that could cause headaches in certain people, especially if they're wearing headphones, but there are no actual reports of people being driven to suicide after listening to it. It probably would have been hard to cover up too, given the huge media fiasco over the infamous anime episode "Electric Soldier Porygon" aired in Japan (which is probably where the idea for this myth originated).

Later, someone claimed to have used some kind of special software that translates sound into images on the Lavender Town theme. The result was the image of the unidentified ghost from Pokemon Tower with the words "LEAVE NOW" spelled out next to it using Unowns. This can easily be called out as BS simply due to the fact that Unown was never in Gen. 1. Plus, you could probably create a picture of anything you wanted with that "special software" of his.



Missingno

I dunno if this should count, since it actually is part of Pokemon Red/Blue, but it the existence of this enigma has become so famous and so much a part of the fandom, that I figured I couldn't not include a blurb on it here. Missingno (short for "Missing Number") is an error handler when the game attempts to load a pokemon with a non-existent index number. There are a few ways to trigger a glitch like this to occur, but the most popular method found is by Surfing around Cinnibar Island. Missingno itself usually appears as just a mess of jumbled pixels, but sometimes it has been shown appearing as the fossilized Kabutops, for a little extra creep factor.



So what is the big deal about Missingno? Well, a couple of things. First, people have discovered an item-duplication glitch that can be exploited using it. However, it comes with a downside. Missingno has also been reported to corrupt the entire game just be encountering it! This eldrich abomination of the poke-verse has the power to turn the world into a chewed-up mess on its whim. Scary indeed. 




Buried Alive/White Hand

I don't know why I found this one kinda interesting. This story involves a bonus battle that was allegedly cut from the final version of the game, but it's so unlike anything else that appears before or since, that it makes very little sense for it to have ever existed in the first place. 



According to the story, Buried Alive is a creature you would fight in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town; some accounts say it's an optional battle, others claimed that this would be eventually replaced by Marowak's ghost in the final game. Either way, the story claims the battle and associated sprites were found in the game's code, presumably used in a pre-alpha build of the game, and was made accessible using a code or a GameShark or something. Doing so greets you with the text:

You're here...
I'm trapped...
And I'm lonely...
So very lonely...
Won't you join me...?

You then enter a battle with Buried Alive, a zombie burrowing out of the ground. It fights like any other trainer, except it uses a Gengar and Muk that are much more powerful than anything else in the game. It also uses a unique creature called White Hand, whose data was also allegedly found in the code.



I'm guessing that it's referencing a line from an NPC near Lavender Town that asks if you believe in ghosts. Answer "no" and he says something like, "I guess that white hand on your shoulder is just my imagination".

Anyway, if you win this battle, nothing happens, the game just crashes. But if you lose, rather than the usual being sent back to the Pokecenter, Buried Alive responds with "Finally... Fresh meat...", and you get an actual Game Over, accompanied by an image of Red being dragged away by the undead creature, presumably to be eaten.



Yep, was totally gonna be in the final game.




Pokemon Black
No relation to the Gen. 5 DS game. It has since been referred to by some as CreepyBlack to differentiate it. Anyway, this is the first (or first noteworthy example) of many stories of creepy homebrew games that people claim to have discovered in a pawn shop or flea market, they take them home and play them, and spoopytimes ensue. In some cases, fans of these creepypastas went on to make actual homebrews of the games as described. 



Anyway, the author of this story tells of a bootleg Pokemon game (pictured above) that they discovered at a flea market. Overall, it seemed like a rom hack of Pokemon Red, only with "Black Version" on the title screen, and with one noticeable difference at the start; aside from Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, you are given the choice of a fourth starter Pokemon, simply called "Ghost", whose sprite is once again the unidentified ghost from Pokemon Tower. Ghost has only one move, Curse. Curse is a bit of a weird move in other games it's in. It has a unique typing, "???", for starters, and its function is different depending on whether or not the user is a Ghost-type. Here, however, Curse only has one function - it instantly kills virtually everything it's used on.

Yes, not faint, kills. According to the story, when Curse is used, the screen goes black, a distorted version of the opponent Pokemon's cry is heard, and when the screen comes back, the other Pokemon is gone completely. And this doesn't just apply to Pokemon either, you can murder trainers with it too; after defeating them, you are still given the option of using Curse to kill them also. Naturally, this makes the entire game extremely easy, being able to cut a swath of pure death across anything and everything that gets in your way. Sounds kinda boring actually...

But the real fun doesn't start until after you've defeated the Elite Four and Blue. A text box appears that indicates that this is many years later. Red, now an old man, is standing before the graves in Pokemon Tower, now without any Pokemon, including Ghost (who could not be removed from your party before). You are supposed to return all the way home to your house in Palette Town, where the game greets you with a slideshow of all of the Pokemon and people that you killed. And then...



Ghost appears before you again and you are forced into a battle. Red has no Pokemon to fight with and can only use one move, Struggle. Each use of Struggle will cause Red's HP to fall, before Ghost eventually uses Curse to claim one final victim... The screen goes black and remains that way until the game is shut off. Upon turning it back on, your file is automatically erased. Hope you're not feeling so murdery this next time around...




Pokemon StrangledRed
Another story of a grim-dark homebrew game. This one also a hack of Pokemon Red that the author claimed to have found in the trash. The tale of a trainer and his beloved Charizard, and his ride off the slippery slope when his companion dies... Rather than give a blow-by-blow synopsis here, I think I'll just let you read it here. 
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Strangled_Red




Pokemon LostSilver
The last of the ones I have on creepy hacked games, this one is a hacked version of Pokemon Silver that the author bought at a GameStop. The old save file that he tries out starts off weird enough, but gets freakier as he continues on. You'll never look at Unown the same way again...

Read it here:
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Pokémon_Lost_Silver

Someone made it into a playable version, which you can check out here:





Ash's Coma

Finally, let's end this on another story that most fans are familiar with. This one is a fan theory people have that suggests that Ash has spent the entire anime series in a coma:

Have you ever noticed that the pacing, tone, and story development of Pokémon changes after Ash is hit by lightning in the early episodes? How Ash and his world are relatively normal until after that incident? I have a theory.

The accident with the bike put Ash into a coma. Days later, he was found and hurried to the hospital and treated with heavy medications. This is why Team Rocket became less menacing. The medication took effect and stabilized his coma dreams so that, instead of being terrifying, they became idyllic. They allowed him to live out his Pokémon Master fantasies.

After the beginning episodes, the series is the result of Ash’s subconscious mind fulfilling his desires as well as attempting to escape reality. Should Ash realize he’s in a coma, he would wake up and suffer brain damage, so he must take down all of his mental barriers one by one.

If he can do that, he can come to grips with who he is and escape his coma. Further evidence comes from the realization that even though his journeys take him vast distances, he never usually travels by bike due to having developed a phobia of them.

The coma and fantasy explains why he never changes much, physically. It explains the worldwide socialism, as he thought up a safe system of government that would run smoothly and keep the world going, allowing his adventures to work like they do.

It also explains how a child can go off on his own into a world full of dangerous and untamed animals. In addition, it explains why every town has the same police officer and every Pokémon Centre has the same nurse.
Joy and Jenny he knew from his hometown and they act as a safety net or anchor, allowing him to feel safe no matter where he goes. They represent stability. The professors represent Ash’s ideals, which is why Gary became a professor.

The fantasy also explains why every time he enters a new region that virtually no one has heard of him, despite his conquests. How else could Paul, the rival of the Sinnoh area, not know of someone who placed in at least the top sixteen of all three leagues and destroyed the Orange League and Battle Frontier?

Moving on to the characters closer to him…Ash’s traveling partners are aspects of himself he can enjoy but cannot associate with himself.

Brock is Ash’s repressed sexuality. Ash fell into the coma a virgin and, as such, needed an outlet for his growing sexual frustrations. However, since he can never experience sex, Brock must never succeed. Brock’s stay with Professor Ivy was an attempt by Ash’s mind to suppress his sexuality.

Brock isn’t just a projection of Ash’s sexuality, but also a projection of Ash’s fatherly instincts. He leaves his siblings to journey with Ash because he can’t cope with having that much responsibility.

You may notice that James got much more dialogue in this part of the series, as well as getting more touchy-feely with his Pokémon and exposing much of his backstory. Ash didn’t enjoy this much, which is why Brock returns, horrified, and refuses to speak about it.

Ash’s subconscious was repressing him at the time so, other than a general feeling of dread, he has no idea what happened. Further evidence of Brock being Ash’s sexuality is that he keeps returning the series after Ash meets a new female aspect of himself.

Misty is the first such aspect we encounter. Because she is the first and is merely an aspect of Ash are explanations as to why Misty plays such a prominent role in the show but is ultimately unattainable (since he never really knew her before the coma).

Since Misty is his initial love interest (if only subconsciously), he needed her to reach a certain level of womanhood. He felt that people could only have relationships after they’ve matured.

In practice, however, he finds he can’t cope with it, as he lacks real-world experience. He wants the normal, pushy, arrogant Misty he knew…thus, not letting her keep Togepi. We can see this arc in the constant berating of his sexuality, but her eventual mellowing until she had faded into the background.

Since Ash was quite attached to her, this was traumatizing. After this experience, anyone around him “threatening” to mature quickly ends up leaving only for another, more naive fill-in to enter his life.

Gary Oak is what Ash wants to be. He is wish fulfillment. He succeeded and then settled down to a normal life. Ash needs someone to succeed in his world or he won’t be able to validate it and will start questioning why he is where he is. It’s a subconscious trap to keep him from becoming too aware of his situation.

His mind must have figured out that awareness of the coma would snap him out of it, so it took something the boy already loved and build a way out for him with it. However, Ash is too complacent to make a final stand and fight his way out of it, and cannot escape.

This is why he keeps encountering legendary Pokémon. They’re his mind’s way of showing him he can do great things if he tries. It’s a way to encourage him to push forwards.

Team Rocket are the qualities of himself that Ash deems “negative” but is coming to terms with. Jessie and James want to appease Giovanni, Ash’s father figure. To achieve this, Jessie will trick the submissive James into doing her bidding. Meowth especially wants to appease him because he remembers the good times with Giovanni.

This places Meowth in a category known as Ash’s (corrupted) innocence. This is apparent because Meowth is able to speak. In fact, the whole reason Meowth can speak is so Ash can eventually accept the aspects of Team Rocket as parts of himself.

Ash had issues with his father, so he put him atop the evil corporation and demonized him. There may be an actual Team Rocket (in the real world), but it’s doubtful that Ash’s father is their leader. Ash likely feels the split between his parents was partly his fault, but also partly blames his father.

The split caused his mother to move out of the city down to Pallet Town and is one reason why Ash initially embarks on his journey: to escape the turmoil at home. The whole organization, including Butch and Cassidy, is symbolic of his inability to escape his father’s machinations.

James is implied homosexuality (which does not necessarily make Ash homosexual) and gullibility, while Jessie is vanity and manipulation. Since Meowth has the potential for rehabilitation and doesn’t want to be evil, this once again fits with the conflicting personalities and demonized-self theory.

Team Rocket cross dresses because Ash is exploring his gender, a different facet than what Brock represents (sexuality), and this was a method that allowed his gay/vain side to experiment freely. When he found that it wasn’t something for him, he “free” side stopped playing with it.

Max came with May. He played the ego and she played the id with great aspirations in that “session.” They worked for a little while but, with Ash being a teenager, his sexuality had to come back into play. He kept reinventing himself and eventually wrote new aspects, but his mind slowly brought the old ones back as a crutch to make the transition easier.

Dawn is Ash giving himself a chance to love. Since he already established Misty as someone he’s not likely to go anywhere with, he created a new super female - one that was more like him and less violent. You may note that while both May and Misty had no tolerance for Brock’s behavior, Dawn seems to try to shrug it off.

Tracey, the breeder, was a possible future for Ash that he discarded. This future was one that he sent off to work with the professor (Ash’s ultimate ideal of a father figure) when Tracey disrupted the dynamic Ash had with his other possibilities.

With Ash’s mind fighting the coma and Ash viewing this person as a companion, Tracy was quickly replaced with a more threatening rival.

Pikachu represents Ash’s humanity. This explains the episodes where they get separated and Ash desperately wants to find him, even to the point of working with Team Rocket (aspects of himself he would never normally associate with), but for some reason cannot.

Team Rocket wants to steal Pikachu and hand him over to Giovanni. Jessie and James will always oppose Ash because he is terrified of the thought of his humanity lying in the hands of his father. However, this is the same reason he will work with those aspects of himself in order to save his humanity.

Ash couldn’t evolve Pikachu because that would mean challenging his concept of who he was, which was something he wasn’t comfortable with while still working through his original issues.

The narrator is Ash’s higher mind, recapping and explaining the progress he’s made and the tribulations he will face, allowing insight into how to best awaken him.

Team Rocket’s methods gradually become more and more ludicrous because Ash is only a child dreaming these things up. That is why Team Rocket’s disguises are always believed. He knows it’s them (at least on a subconscious level), but chooses to ignore it so he can better himself.

In a sense, the Ash who wants to escape is sabotaging the Ash who wants to stay lost in his mind so that there can be more conflict and, hopefully, an eventual escape. The escape is a consequence of coming to terms with who he is. As mentioned previously, Team Rocket are a method to Ash to deal with grounds he’s uncomfortable with tackling on his own.

You may recall that early in the show, there were animals and references to animals. For example, the fish in the aquarium of the Cerulean City gym or that the Pokedex lists Pikachu as “rat-like.” These animals don’t matter to Ash’s psyche, so they don’t come into play much.

If Ash loved puppies, everything would be about different breeds of dogs and a dog fighting circuit, but as the series goes on, you see fewer realistic animals and more Pokémon. This could be a sign of Ash’s mind deteriorating.
As he’s in the coma, he’s losing concepts of some animals and machinery and replacing them with Pokémon. It could explain things like electric Pokémon working as power generators; these are signs that his memory of the old world is slipping more and more as time goes by.

The Pokémon realm will be idealized continuously the longer he has no stimulus from the real world. Ash may or may not be mentally deteriorating, but he is becoming more accustomed to his fake world’s rules. The wild Pokémon are his rationalizations for the functioning of his created fantasy. It’s the “a wizard did it” syndrome. If he doesn’t know how it works, his mind says Pokémon.

The Pokémon in Ash’s team, however, serve the purpose of displaying his issues and aspects of himself. For example, Charmander represents his sex drive (not his sexuality, like Brock). At first it’s a cute, easy thing to control, but eventually becomes a raging inferno of disobedience since Ash has no real understanding of his sexuality (thus has no way to vent or keep it in check).

Bulbasaur was his unwillingness to change, reflected in when it declines to evolve and almost decided to stay behind unless he battled it. Squirtle was his willingness to follow the lead of others, as evidenced by the gang it ran with. Even though he ran the gang, they were viewed as one group and Ash’s subconscious gave him the strongest one.
Butterfree was his crushing loneliness, which he dealt with when he released it to join a flock. His bird types are his recklessness, always willing to sacrifice something at a moment’s notice for the win. When Ash is trading Pokémon, it’s an attempt to push his own problems away on someone else. However, he realizes this and usually trades back very quickly.

Not only are Ash’s Pokémon a manifestation of different parts of himself, the Pokémon of other trainers are as well. Koffing and Ekans were symbolic of Team Rocket’s willingness to change, hence their evolutions. Once his mind was able to overcome that roadblock and allow them to change once, it gave him the chance to truly change.

An interesting note is that Pupitar is a rationalization: a Pokémon a rival caught before they met. Even Ash would become suspicious if everyone he met had no carry-over Pokémon from previous places he had been to.

Other trainers are more direct forms of his issues - ones he must either come to terms with or outright suppress. Gym leaders are more primary aspects of his personality, with each Pokémon being stronger than the last to display a level of skill he could only be capable of if he gave into it.

In effect, he is doing battle with a part of him that he would rather not have in control. Originally, Ash had the battles, which evolved into team battles and contests. The explanation for this is that his issues became more and more complicated and the means of dealing with them needed to become more complex. The fact that he uses issues he has already dominated to win is a sign he’s growing stronger.

Ash releases his Pokémon because his mind is forcing him to get go of them. The second he raises an overpowered team, a tournament comes up and, after fighting his way through it, he has to go to a new land for new challenges. However, with an overpowered team, there won’t be any challenges or any way to motive him further.

The Ash that wants to stay in the coma and keep journeying hands his solved issues over to Professor Oak so he can continue and overcome the unresolved ones. This is essentially his mind forcing him to deal with his issues.

Ash’s rivals and the Elite Four are ultimately the strongest part of this cycle. Having Pokémon that are essentially godlike, they represent both what can be attained and what is unattainable. Ash’s rivals are all possible futures he envisions for himself (note they are all older than him).

This originated with Gary Oak, someone Ash knew from real life and built up into a sort of god within his mind. However, Gary progressed and changed to suit Ash’s vision of himself and his ultimate desire, eventually settling down into a professor role after beating the Elite Four.

With Gary Oak in retirement, his mind needed a new rival for him. Thus the births of Richie (the good aspect of his rivalry) and Paul.

Paul is his mind’s last ditch efforts to snap him out of it - to force Ash to actually come to terms that this perfect world is not the best option or path to waking up. Paul is Ash’s shadow, one that wants to push on even harder and harder. He is the part of Ash that will stop at nothing to escape the coma world.

Mewtwo is a new form of treatment, done with electrical impulses and a machine to know Ash out of it, taking down every last one of his mental guards (the original Pokémon in the movie). In Ash’s mind, Mewtwo and his clones were (in the real world) the treatment for the mental safeguards that were protecting Ash and keeping him comatose: the Pokémon of his world.

The clones were counters to the issues Ash had thought solved and each appeared to Ash as the exact copy of his defence. The clones didn’t play by the rules of Ash’s world. They didn’t use any special attacks or moves. They just beat down their counterpart through brute strength. The treatment was working.

There were side effects. The electric jolts were beginning affect Ash’s nervous system. If the treatment continued, he would be paralysed. His mind manifested this in the dream world by petrifying him. Were it not for the end of the treatment by Ash’s mother, who knew her son wouldn’t want to live in a world he couldn’t explore, Ash would have remained as stone forever.

After this, Ash needed to recover from the damage caused by the electric therapy. In order to reduce the danger Ash’s consciousness felt from it, his subconscious began downplaying the effects in this world, which is why Pikachu’s electric attacks - once noted for their strength by Team Rocket - no longer have any effect on Ash, other than comic relief.

As we can see, Ash may well have been trapped forever in this world. However, like every dream, like everything, there is a beginning and an end. What would happen if Ash never recovered?

In his hospital room, we see Delia, obviously distraught. She’s talking to a doctor with a grim look on his face. The man is saying their insurance is up and the boy has had no change in brain activity in years. The shock of taking him off life support has a very small chance of awakening him.

She tearfully agrees.

Back in Ash’s world, he has finally defeated the Elite four and, one by one, the people around him disappear. Eventually, everything is black. Pikachu comes dashing toward him, glowing brighter and brighter in the darkness. Eventually, he reaches Ash and the two embrace one last time.

In the hospital room, his life signs fading, Ash mutters his final words.
“I…want to be…the very…best…”

He will die never having known his dream, except as naught but a dream. When he came back to reality, he knew it all for the lie it was, knew it as his imagination. Knowing that all his efforts, ambitions, and friends were nothing, he will let go.

As he utters his final words, he barely opens his eyes and sees the silhouette of his mother, her face hidden by her hands wiping away tears. They make eye contact and one final realization fills him before he loses all strength.
He sees that his mother was holding out hope that he’d recover all that time. He sees her and finds that her hope had been broken as she’d come to the realization that she’d outlived her only child. He dies knowing that he is loved, but that it means the one person closest and most real to him is utterly crushed.]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1269 Wed, 28 Sep 2016 05:47:58 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1269

Naturally, major Undertale spoilers abound!

During my Undertale stream last night I got into a brief discussion about a particular character from that game that we never actually saw if you've only seen my videos. The character is alluded to a few times, but is never actually seen until the ending of the Genocide path, something I was never able to do because I could simply not defeat Sans. While Sans is another character regarded as a major enigma of the game's storyline (as is W.D. Gastor, a character that doesn't appear in the game at all except through some odd glitches and very random dialogue from certain characters), so too is Chara

Simply put, Chara (KAR-a? CARE-a? CHAIR-a? SHAR-a? Dunno how it's pronounced) is the canon name of the original human to fell underground; the one who was befriended by Asriel and adopted by Asgore and Toriel. This is also the character you are naming at the start of the game. Naturally, you would assume you are naming the player character, but during the Pacifist ending, that character's real name is revealed to be Frisk. (This is foreshadowed by the fact that none of the characters address you by the name you entered, except Flowey/Asriel, who has mistaken Frisk for Chara - I'll touch more on why that could be later.)

Chara never appears in-game, however, until the Genocide ending. After defeating Sans, you would proceed to the throne room, where you kill Asgore, then Flowey, without any player input. Then Chara appears before you, explaining that your Determination awoke them (like Frisk, Chara's gender is left ambiguous, again, a point I'll explain more of later). They will then tell you that this world has served its purpose, and that it is time to "erase" it and move on. You are then presented with a choice: "ERASE", or "DO NOT". Actually, it doesn't matter which option you select, as Chara will erase the game world either way (although selecting ""DO NOT" is what gives us the much more awesome scene, with Chara asking "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?", followed by them coming right at the screen with that creepy-ass face).

See it here:


After that scene, the game closes automatically. Opening it back up again greets you with only a black screen and the sound of howling wind. It will go on like this for a full ten minutes in real time before Chara addresses you again. They will call you out on wanting to return to this world after willfully destroying it, and will ask you if you think you are above consequences. They will then offer to restore the world as it was, in exchange for your soul. Saying no will close the game again and force you to wait another ten minutes before Chara offers you the choice again. Accept, and the game will be reset as it was before. However! The Pacifist ending will become permanently corrupted; indeed, you are not above consequences.

See the corrupted Pacifist endings here (first is choosing to stay with Toriel at the end and the second is choosing not to):


This is why I was quite happy to conclude my own run without being able to beat Sans.

So, this causes the Genocide path to end on a serious Gianax note. The most common interpretation I see among the fandom, however, is that Chara is the true villain of Undertale. Fanon commonly portrays Chara as an absolute evil entity that possesses and/or tempts Frisk for the duration of a Genocide route, forcing them to commit such horrible acts against their will. (Just do an image search for Chara, and happy nightmares)



Before getting into that, however, let us look more into what we're told about Chara's past. From what we're told elsewhere in the game, Chara fell to the underground an unspecified amount of time ago. It could have been a few years, or possibly centuries. He was found by Asriel, who took him home to his parents, Toriel and Asgore. They took Chara in and raised them as their own child, along with Asriel, the two of them becoming close siblings.



Then, one day, Chara grew very ill and died. We discover through the secret tapes in Alphys's secret lab that this was all engineered by Chara themself after witnessing Asgore become extremely sick after eating a pie that they had accidentally made with buttercups instead of "cups of butter" (buttercups being a highly poisonous flower IRL). Chara and Asriel were well aware of the stories about the magical barrier keeping the monsters trapped underground, and how it can be broken with the power of seven human souls. So they came up with a plan. Chara would commit suicide by poisoning himself with the buttercups, Asriel would absorb his soul, use it to cross the barrier, then take six more human souls and use them to destroy the barrier and free the monsters. Asriel carried Chara's body to the surface, seemingly to fulfill his last request, to be buried in a field of golden flowers near his old village. When he brought him to the flower field, however, he was attacked by the humans from the village, assuming that he had killed the child. Asriel must have had second thoughts about the plan at this time and refused to fight back. He was mortally wounded, and made his way back home, still carrying Chara's body, before perishing in the throne room.



Asgore was overcome with grief and rage at the deaths of both of his children, and he declared the war with the humans to be back on. He pledged that all humans that make their way to the underground will die, their souls would be used to break the barrier, and then invade the surface world. His wife Toriel disagreed with this plan, and left for the Ruins. Before she left, however, she took Chara's body with her. It was at first interred in a coffin in the castle basement (the empty one that still has the name you entered on it), but she took it with her to the Ruins, apparently with the intent of giving it a proper burial.

Something unexpected happened, however. The flowers that Asriel had taken Chara's body to had an unusual property; their seeds tend to stick to whatever they touch, and both managed to carry some of these seeds back with them and grow. This is why the throne room is overgrown with these golden flowers, which Asgore has maintained out of tribute to his son. The first flower to grow here is the one that Alphys performed some of her Determination experiments on, awakening some of Asriel's consciousness within it, but lacking a soul or emotions; the result being Flowey. As for where Chara was buried, a bed of these same golden flowers grew there in the Ruins, the same place that Frisk first arrives in the Underground.

Now let's get into why most of the fandom believes Chara is Satan incarnate. Aside from being the character you meet at the very end of a Genocide path that erases the world, a few other bits of dialogue tend to be used to paint Chara as someone with sinister intentions.



One question that comes up is, why did Chara climb Mt. Ebott in the first place? Asriel seems to know, and the way he puts it, "it wasn't for a very happy reason...". He also says that Chara did hate humanity, and that "he felt strongly about it". Given that Chara seems to still be a child, my interpretation of this is that they suffered from some horribly traumatic incident, quite possibly parental abuse of some kind, and climbed the mountain with the intention of committing suicide.

Another point that is mentioned is in the tapes, where Asriel is discussing Asgore becoming sick after eating the buttercups. He says to Chara, "I wish I could have just laughed it off like you did." It does make it sound like Chara didn't care, or was even amused by their foster father falling ill, but we've seen numerous other characters throughout the game using laughter to mask their inner pain, the most obvious example being Sans.

The most damning case against Chara comes when Asriel himself recounts what happened during the pacifist ending; when he absorbed Chara's soul, control over his body was split between the two of them. Chara wanted to kill the attacking humans, but Asriel resisted. He also admits that Chara "wasn't the best person" and says he wishes they were more like Frisk. Some fans believe that Chara was using Asriel, Asgore, and Toriel to gain supreme power, but I see nothing in the game that indicates that Chara didn't care about their adoptive family. That an absorbed human soul can partially control its host seems to have been an unforeseen side effect. At the very least, I'd like to think that Chara made the decision to sacrifice themselves to help free the monsters from the Underground.

So, is Chara the demon child the fandom makes him out to be? I myself don't believe so. I feel that to believe that Chara is an irredeemable, pure evil hellspawn goes against the overall message of the game. This game is full of powerful messages about love and friendship winning over hatred and violence, and that people aren't born evil - they are made that way. Asgore seems to be presented as the main villain of the game at first, before discovering that he is genuinely loved by his people and he is a very sad and grieving father that doesn't really want to hurt anyone, but feels that he has to for the good of his people. Then Flowey kills Asgore and it seems he is the true villain of the game. Then we discover that he is in fact Asriel and is quite possibly the most tragic character in the game. If Asgore and Flowey could be redeemed in the eyes of fans, why not Chara?

Here's my own little theory. I like to think that Frisk is in fact the reincarnation of Chara! It makes a great deal of sense if you think about it. First of all, the physical similarities of the two are too obvious to overlook. Chara is practically a palette-swap of Frisk. Likewise, Flowey/Asriel actually mistakes Frisk for Chara for a good part of the game - the only character that addresses you by the name you gave Chara, as opposed to just "Human". Also, Asriel asks a good question when he asks why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebott to begin with. We actually never see Frisk climb the mountain or fall down. The child that we see doing so in the intro is revealed to be Chara, not Frisk (look at the shirt; Chara has one stripe on their shirt while Frisk has two). The first we see of Frisk is when they're standing in the bed of flowers - the very place Chara was buried. The messages you receive during a Game Over telling you to "stay Determined" and "you are the future of monsters and humans" are found to actually have come from Asgore, which is shown through the tapes to be what he said to the dying Chara. How would Frisk have otherwise known, hearing this when taking a mortal blow themself? In Waterfall, Frisk gets another flashback to when Chara first fell to the Underground. We never know where Frisk even came from or where they go during a Neutral or Pacifist ending. During the Pacifist ending you can choose whether to continue to live with Toriel or go your own way; you still never see where Frisk goes if you choose the latter. During a Neutral ending, Sans will call Frisk and leave a message on their cell phone (the details of which can vary greatly depending on your actions). But I believe it was stated that cell phones down there normally can't pick up signals from the surface, and vice-versa, so how did he leave a message? Maybe Frisk never actually left... maybe they couldn't leave... not until they have set right what had gone wrong... (supporting this is the fact that after defeating Flowey, the final boss of the Neutral path, you are in a room that looks just like a couple of other rooms you encountered Flowey in... way back at the Ruins where you started.)

Maybe, rather than being "possessed" by Chara, Frisk is Chara and vice versa. During the Genocide ending, Chara is not addressing Frisk; they are talking to you, the player, calling you out on your atrocities! Chara didn't make you do anything; you chose a Genocide path of your own volition! Perhaps your homicidal actions have taught this child that such is the way of things; that Flowey was absolutely right with his motto of "kill or be killed".

By hey, that's just a theory, and all that. All in all, I think that Chara, while flawed, was equally as tragic as Asriel was, but received a second chance through Frisk. That they would do with that second chance, however, is all up to you...

]]>

Naturally, major Undertale spoilers abound!

During my Undertale stream last night I got into a brief discussion about a particular character from that game that we never actually saw if you've only seen my videos. The character is alluded to a few times, but is never actually seen until the ending of the Genocide path, something I was never able to do because I could simply not defeat Sans. While Sans is another character regarded as a major enigma of the game's storyline (as is W.D. Gastor, a character that doesn't appear in the game at all except through some odd glitches and very random dialogue from certain characters), so too is Chara

Simply put, Chara (KAR-a? CARE-a? CHAIR-a? SHAR-a? Dunno how it's pronounced) is the canon name of the original human to fell underground; the one who was befriended by Asriel and adopted by Asgore and Toriel. This is also the character you are naming at the start of the game. Naturally, you would assume you are naming the player character, but during the Pacifist ending, that character's real name is revealed to be Frisk. (This is foreshadowed by the fact that none of the characters address you by the name you entered, except Flowey/Asriel, who has mistaken Frisk for Chara - I'll touch more on why that could be later.)

Chara never appears in-game, however, until the Genocide ending. After defeating Sans, you would proceed to the throne room, where you kill Asgore, then Flowey, without any player input. Then Chara appears before you, explaining that your Determination awoke them (like Frisk, Chara's gender is left ambiguous, again, a point I'll explain more of later). They will then tell you that this world has served its purpose, and that it is time to "erase" it and move on. You are then presented with a choice: "ERASE", or "DO NOT". Actually, it doesn't matter which option you select, as Chara will erase the game world either way (although selecting ""DO NOT" is what gives us the much more awesome scene, with Chara asking "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?", followed by them coming right at the screen with that creepy-ass face).

See it here:


After that scene, the game closes automatically. Opening it back up again greets you with only a black screen and the sound of howling wind. It will go on like this for a full ten minutes in real time before Chara addresses you again. They will call you out on wanting to return to this world after willfully destroying it, and will ask you if you think you are above consequences. They will then offer to restore the world as it was, in exchange for your soul. Saying no will close the game again and force you to wait another ten minutes before Chara offers you the choice again. Accept, and the game will be reset as it was before. However! The Pacifist ending will become permanently corrupted; indeed, you are not above consequences.

See the corrupted Pacifist endings here (first is choosing to stay with Toriel at the end and the second is choosing not to):


This is why I was quite happy to conclude my own run without being able to beat Sans.

So, this causes the Genocide path to end on a serious Gianax note. The most common interpretation I see among the fandom, however, is that Chara is the true villain of Undertale. Fanon commonly portrays Chara as an absolute evil entity that possesses and/or tempts Frisk for the duration of a Genocide route, forcing them to commit such horrible acts against their will. (Just do an image search for Chara, and happy nightmares)



Before getting into that, however, let us look more into what we're told about Chara's past. From what we're told elsewhere in the game, Chara fell to the underground an unspecified amount of time ago. It could have been a few years, or possibly centuries. He was found by Asriel, who took him home to his parents, Toriel and Asgore. They took Chara in and raised them as their own child, along with Asriel, the two of them becoming close siblings.



Then, one day, Chara grew very ill and died. We discover through the secret tapes in Alphys's secret lab that this was all engineered by Chara themself after witnessing Asgore become extremely sick after eating a pie that they had accidentally made with buttercups instead of "cups of butter" (buttercups being a highly poisonous flower IRL). Chara and Asriel were well aware of the stories about the magical barrier keeping the monsters trapped underground, and how it can be broken with the power of seven human souls. So they came up with a plan. Chara would commit suicide by poisoning himself with the buttercups, Asriel would absorb his soul, use it to cross the barrier, then take six more human souls and use them to destroy the barrier and free the monsters. Asriel carried Chara's body to the surface, seemingly to fulfill his last request, to be buried in a field of golden flowers near his old village. When he brought him to the flower field, however, he was attacked by the humans from the village, assuming that he had killed the child. Asriel must have had second thoughts about the plan at this time and refused to fight back. He was mortally wounded, and made his way back home, still carrying Chara's body, before perishing in the throne room.



Asgore was overcome with grief and rage at the deaths of both of his children, and he declared the war with the humans to be back on. He pledged that all humans that make their way to the underground will die, their souls would be used to break the barrier, and then invade the surface world. His wife Toriel disagreed with this plan, and left for the Ruins. Before she left, however, she took Chara's body with her. It was at first interred in a coffin in the castle basement (the empty one that still has the name you entered on it), but she took it with her to the Ruins, apparently with the intent of giving it a proper burial.

Something unexpected happened, however. The flowers that Asriel had taken Chara's body to had an unusual property; their seeds tend to stick to whatever they touch, and both managed to carry some of these seeds back with them and grow. This is why the throne room is overgrown with these golden flowers, which Asgore has maintained out of tribute to his son. The first flower to grow here is the one that Alphys performed some of her Determination experiments on, awakening some of Asriel's consciousness within it, but lacking a soul or emotions; the result being Flowey. As for where Chara was buried, a bed of these same golden flowers grew there in the Ruins, the same place that Frisk first arrives in the Underground.

Now let's get into why most of the fandom believes Chara is Satan incarnate. Aside from being the character you meet at the very end of a Genocide path that erases the world, a few other bits of dialogue tend to be used to paint Chara as someone with sinister intentions.



One question that comes up is, why did Chara climb Mt. Ebott in the first place? Asriel seems to know, and the way he puts it, "it wasn't for a very happy reason...". He also says that Chara did hate humanity, and that "he felt strongly about it". Given that Chara seems to still be a child, my interpretation of this is that they suffered from some horribly traumatic incident, quite possibly parental abuse of some kind, and climbed the mountain with the intention of committing suicide.

Another point that is mentioned is in the tapes, where Asriel is discussing Asgore becoming sick after eating the buttercups. He says to Chara, "I wish I could have just laughed it off like you did." It does make it sound like Chara didn't care, or was even amused by their foster father falling ill, but we've seen numerous other characters throughout the game using laughter to mask their inner pain, the most obvious example being Sans.

The most damning case against Chara comes when Asriel himself recounts what happened during the pacifist ending; when he absorbed Chara's soul, control over his body was split between the two of them. Chara wanted to kill the attacking humans, but Asriel resisted. He also admits that Chara "wasn't the best person" and says he wishes they were more like Frisk. Some fans believe that Chara was using Asriel, Asgore, and Toriel to gain supreme power, but I see nothing in the game that indicates that Chara didn't care about their adoptive family. That an absorbed human soul can partially control its host seems to have been an unforeseen side effect. At the very least, I'd like to think that Chara made the decision to sacrifice themselves to help free the monsters from the Underground.

So, is Chara the demon child the fandom makes him out to be? I myself don't believe so. I feel that to believe that Chara is an irredeemable, pure evil hellspawn goes against the overall message of the game. This game is full of powerful messages about love and friendship winning over hatred and violence, and that people aren't born evil - they are made that way. Asgore seems to be presented as the main villain of the game at first, before discovering that he is genuinely loved by his people and he is a very sad and grieving father that doesn't really want to hurt anyone, but feels that he has to for the good of his people. Then Flowey kills Asgore and it seems he is the true villain of the game. Then we discover that he is in fact Asriel and is quite possibly the most tragic character in the game. If Asgore and Flowey could be redeemed in the eyes of fans, why not Chara?

Here's my own little theory. I like to think that Frisk is in fact the reincarnation of Chara! It makes a great deal of sense if you think about it. First of all, the physical similarities of the two are too obvious to overlook. Chara is practically a palette-swap of Frisk. Likewise, Flowey/Asriel actually mistakes Frisk for Chara for a good part of the game - the only character that addresses you by the name you gave Chara, as opposed to just "Human". Also, Asriel asks a good question when he asks why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebott to begin with. We actually never see Frisk climb the mountain or fall down. The child that we see doing so in the intro is revealed to be Chara, not Frisk (look at the shirt; Chara has one stripe on their shirt while Frisk has two). The first we see of Frisk is when they're standing in the bed of flowers - the very place Chara was buried. The messages you receive during a Game Over telling you to "stay Determined" and "you are the future of monsters and humans" are found to actually have come from Asgore, which is shown through the tapes to be what he said to the dying Chara. How would Frisk have otherwise known, hearing this when taking a mortal blow themself? In Waterfall, Frisk gets another flashback to when Chara first fell to the Underground. We never know where Frisk even came from or where they go during a Neutral or Pacifist ending. During the Pacifist ending you can choose whether to continue to live with Toriel or go your own way; you still never see where Frisk goes if you choose the latter. During a Neutral ending, Sans will call Frisk and leave a message on their cell phone (the details of which can vary greatly depending on your actions). But I believe it was stated that cell phones down there normally can't pick up signals from the surface, and vice-versa, so how did he leave a message? Maybe Frisk never actually left... maybe they couldn't leave... not until they have set right what had gone wrong... (supporting this is the fact that after defeating Flowey, the final boss of the Neutral path, you are in a room that looks just like a couple of other rooms you encountered Flowey in... way back at the Ruins where you started.)

Maybe, rather than being "possessed" by Chara, Frisk is Chara and vice versa. During the Genocide ending, Chara is not addressing Frisk; they are talking to you, the player, calling you out on your atrocities! Chara didn't make you do anything; you chose a Genocide path of your own volition! Perhaps your homicidal actions have taught this child that such is the way of things; that Flowey was absolutely right with his motto of "kill or be killed".

By hey, that's just a theory, and all that. All in all, I think that Chara, while flawed, was equally as tragic as Asriel was, but received a second chance through Frisk. That they would do with that second chance, however, is all up to you...

]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1246 Mon, 19 Sep 2016 05:18:49 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1246

So, Undertale turned one year old just a few days ago. This, combined with my wanting to do another Pacifist playthrough to redeem myself after a Genocide, made me want to stream it. Tonight I get through a large chunk of the game, next time I hope to do the last sections (which might take just as long...)]]>

So, Undertale turned one year old just a few days ago. This, combined with my wanting to do another Pacifist playthrough to redeem myself after a Genocide, made me want to stream it. Tonight I get through a large chunk of the game, next time I hope to do the last sections (which might take just as long...)]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1050 Sun, 07 Aug 2016 16:05:07 -0500 JadePharaoh]]> //www.lowbiasgaming.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=1050




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