a very quick story chapter i had on my mind for a bit for some reason.

Black

Dragon

The following is the story of a thing.

An object.

It does not exist as anything other than a concept, a living stone is still a stone, a twig cannot hear, a gust of wind cannot hope.

Chapter 1

dragon.

the rain pelted him as he lay there, unmoving, barely cognizant.

The moment he opened his eyes, symbols flared where the pain of a dream he was unsure he was having should be.

Cringing, he tightened his black coat and tried to return to slumber, but to his dismay, he found that sleep would not visit him.

Blinking, he rose.

He was inside of a tree from the looks of it.

A tree.

Specifically he was nestled in the heart of a massive tree, the bottom of which opened into the paltry shelter he'd managed to craft for himself.

It was cold.

So cold.

He rose, shaking off the exhaustion, his body denying him the privilege of continued rest.

He knew immediately what he was, though he didn't recall why, and after looking at his hand, which appeared human, he knew the image to be an illusion.

He was no man.

Shaking his head, the rain pouring thick down his brow, his nostrils flared and he strode through the rain, his body hardly heeding his efforts.

Staggering into the cold, he stubbornly moved with purpose.

But what purpose?

He didn't care.

He simply moved.

It was all that mattered.

Hours turned to a day, and then those too became numerous, the days rolling on as did the violent rain storms pelting his form with a sharp chill that he calmly shrugged off.

Cold would not bother him,

he refused to allow it.

His coat began changing, turning into a more proper looking type of attire, a long black trenchcoat with the words 外人 emblazoned on the back across the shoulders, though his hair hid it from view.

His hair was long and black, and he had the beginnings of a beard of his soft, rounded chin.

His face was firm, stern, and determined.

He hungered for something.

But many days had passed, so he could stand to avoid eating for a while longer.

Did he even need to eat?

He fell to his knees as the rain struck harder than was possible, and he gripped his head as something began hurting.

The pain knifed through his skull, and everything went dark.

But the pulsing symbols clawing at the edges of his vision remained.

Were they a hallucination?
Or….

The skies finally cleared, and he found himself in a city of some sort.

What city?

What did it matter?

He walked into the town, his armored boots striking the sidewalk as the morning sun spilled over the many tall buildings past the railroad in the distance.

He blinked.

There was a woman there.

He moved a bit closer as she continued to struggle with something.

What was she doing?

What did it matter?

He could just turn, run away, escape this potential threat, but something held his attention.

The train signals began lighting up and ringing.

The gates closed.

The woman's struggles became more frantic, and she began screaming.

His eyes narrowed, something was approaching.

It was….long.

A train?

Whatever it was, it roared with noise, the combined noise of countless wheels scraping along iron bars fitted in a peculiar….

Enough of that.

Hachiko Murasaki frantically tugged at her foot, caught between the rails as if held by some god-bound force.

The train closed in, and she found herself screaming, completely ignoring her groceries as she tried frantically to pull her foot free.

The train was twenty feet away now.

Her heart sank as she knew her doom, the cold pit in her stomach pushing itself deeper, as if in to sink her soul into the very depths of despair.

She cried out as the train bore down on her, its driver blissfully ignorant of what was in front of the tracks.

She closed her eyes and prayed to the gods.

When she opened them, a figure in a long black trenchcoat with the japanese kanji 外人 emblazoned on the back by the shoulders, though it was partially hidden by his long black hair, was standing over her, his right arm winding up for what appeared to be a punch.

She felt even worse now.

A foreigner was trying to punch a train to get it to halt? Or was this some prank of the gods to make her feel worse in her final moments?

What kind of fate could have befallen her, to die in such a manner? Not only inconveniencing the poor driver who would no doubt be scarred for life, but pulling some foolish foreigner who looked more like an anime cosplayer who lost his way than an actua-

she didn't get to finish that thought.

The foreigner, for that was what “gaijin” meant, thus she had nothing else to think of him as at that moment, struck the front of the train as hard as he could.

As he did so, his image wavered and flashed, replaced by what appeared to be the upper torso of a massive serpentine dragon.

The train came to a jarring halt, the force of the foreigner's fist deceptively powerful.

As his image flickered, the image of the dragon's entire body could be seen violently wrapped around the train.

“what….on earth?” she muttered.

Just as quickly as the image of the great serpentine dragon with ebony scales came into view, it faded from view and the foreigner gave a long sigh of relief before turning to regard her.

American from the looks of him.

Though….she wasn't sure.

“well…..that was….fun.” he said, panting as he slowly staggered back.

She blinked and looked down to her foot, taking a moment to undo the damage to it.

The train was crushed and smashed up in many areas, and the conductor had the presence of thought to stop the train's engines the moment it had “crashed” and he'd taken a second to look outside.

But by the time he'd done so, hachiko was free of the rails.

She took a step back, measuring her savior, her eyes looking him over as she considered him.

He was tall, young, fairly handsome, and with fierce icy blue eyes one would expect to see from a viking.

Like most americans she'd known of, his nose was broad, lips were fairly broad as well, but the bridge was narrow.

The classic babyface santa nose combination really, but his features were also quite thin.

In truth, he appeared quite distinguished, like a noble or businessman, but his attire upon closer inspection seemed to belong to a goth, but was styled to almost come off as business attire.

In a way, it was a magnificent disguise, the appearance from a distance would lead people to assume he was in fact just a foreign worker or perhaps head of his own company.

But the most peculiar feature about this fellow was his boots.

Black metal greaves that could have easily come from the medieval period, something you'd imagine black knights would wear.

The toes of the boots were pointed, and the greaves were complimented by a shirt that was much too long for the young man's body.

In fact, his clothing appeared to have been created from the imagination, for she could think of no other process that would craft such strange shapes into clothing without leaving some sign of the alterations, folds or obvious stitches.

“T-thank you.” she said with a bow and turned to leave.

The fellow shrugged.

She stopped then, feeling guiltier than she should, and wondered what to do.

This stranger had just saved her life after all.

Part of her wanted to have nothing to do with the bizarre character who'd just punched a train to a grinding halt on her behalf, he clearly wasn't human, but at the same time, a debt was owed to this fellow who'd saved her life.

“Umm….” she began.

“what?” he asked.

“w-would you...like something to eat perhaps?” she asked, and the stranger shrugged.

“sure, why not?”

as they made their way to her apartment through the city, the fellow got his fair share of strange looks, and she could tell the others were beginning to gossip, or soon would be.

As she came to the front door, she turned to face her savior.

“I am hachiko murasaki.” she said, introducing herself in english, which she preferred to speak, despite being japanese.

“Name's...uh…..kuro. Kuro ryu.”
“Black dragon?”
“it's what I am.” he said, shrugging.

She recalled the way his image had flashed earlier and blinked a few times.

“本当に？！”She said in japanese, clearly too surprised to maintain her use of english.

”本当だぞ。”he replied, biting her use of casual to a complete stranger, and she wisely checked herself.

A savior should be treated with more care, she reasoned and she gave a sigh, inviting him into her house.

As she entered, her shoes came off.

Seeing that, kuro stopped for a moment frowning as he considered the boots.

“cursed humans can't even give me something proper to work with, ちょっと待ってください。”

focusing on the legs, he changed the bizarre greaves, their form melting into shadows around his legs and transforming into a set of leather boots with black steel plates on the front but a zipper down the inner sides.

Unzipping them, he stepped into her household in a set of black socks with almost comical white dragon symbols on them.

Seeing the casual use of what appeared to be magic for something such as transforming his attire, the strange shape of his shirt and coat made a bit more sense.

“what...are you?”
“a dragon, I thought we'd cleared that up.” he said, frowning.

“I told you my name, wasn't your name kuro ryu?”
“it was.” he replied flatly.

She waited for him to elaborate, and he blinked a few times, suddenly understanding.

“name is the same as identity, which is the same as what I am. I am a black dragon, a kuro ryu, it is what I am.”
“where...did you come from?” she asked, breathless at the mere idea that someone so bizarre could be something so mighty.

“Humans.” he said with a shrug.

“P-perhaps you can elaborate over dinner?” she asked and he shrugged again.

“sure.”

she prepared ramen, having a lousy budget for anything more, kuro sniffed it gingerly when it was served, but ate it readily, finding it much to his liking.

“i have never heard of dragons that could create illusions.” she explained.

“neither have I. My magic is probably different.” he said.

“how?”
“I don't create illusions, I create things for my appearance.” he explained.

“why?”

“Because being me might be…..inconvenient I suppose.”
she cocked her head at the insufficient response.

“I am a dragon. I am extremely large. Being human makes it easier to travel in a world designed for them.” he said.

“oh...i see...then...why did you save me?”

he shrugged. “I just did. Something about seeing you like that upset me, so I felt compelled to help.”
“thank you.”
“you said that, but you're welcome I guess.” he replied, preferring to eat another bite of ramen.

“where...did you come from? I've never heard of dragons in this world.” she said, pressing him for information.

“I'm from humans.”
“I don't understand.”
“tell me, when you think of dragons, what do you imagine?”

she paused to consider that.

“I think of majestic, powerful forces of nature.” she said, contemplating the image in her mind.

“that's where i'm from.” he said, and she blinked.

“what you did there, where you made up something in your mind. That's where i'm from.”
“my imagination?” she asked, alarmed.

“No, everyone's.” he explained, gesturing out the window.

“I am a black dragon, I am formed from every human's impression of what a black dragon must be. I am, for all intents and purposes, a collective figment of human thought given form.”
“so...why did you come to japan?” she asked.

“I was born here five days ago I think.”
“five days? But you know english and japanese!!” she cried.

“I also know what I am. Isn't everyone born with such knowledge?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Humans are born ignorant.”
he frowned.

“well that's just silly. How inconvenient that is! To be born without knowing anything!”

she burst out laughing, and kuro blinked in confusion.

“that's right!” she cried, laughing.

Kuro shrugged.

“seems I too don't know everything then, just all I needed to know. So I ask, what happens now?”

she yawned, thinking.

“I'm going to bed, since you saved me, you're welcome to stay in my home, just don't cause trouble. I will let you stay here as long as you wish.”

“alright then.” he said with a yawn.

Hachiko washed the dishes and prepared a bed for kuro, but when she went into the living room to fetch him and show him to the room, she found him curled up on the floor like a dog, sleeping contentedly.

And not human.

His dragon form wasn't particularly large, but his current state had clearly been given a lot of thought, for it was certainly the size of a common canine.

His scales practically gleamed in the light of the television she'd had silently playing in the background, he appeared to be just like the ancient serpentine dragons of legend, the sort that became great rivers.

Of course in kuro's case there were a few differences, he lacked whiskers, and his mane was thick to the point of resembling rooster's feathers, but jet black like the rest of his body.

He snored peacefully, and she reached down tentatively to stroke his mane, so caught up in the beauty of him that she felt compelled to pet him like any sleeping dog or pet.

Kuro's eyes snapped open immediately, their placid blue now a fiery orange.

“what is it?” he asked.

“I...um, sorry, I just wanted to pet your mane.” she said, hardly believing the words herself.

It seemed quite disrespectful to something that should be a proud and dangerous creature of myth, and after considering the request for a second, kuro's coiled body gave a shrugging motion.

“sure, go ahead.” he grumbled, giving a yawn that showed rows of razor sharp needle-like fangs, like a hybrid between a snake's and a dog's.

Stroking the man revealed that it was quite soft to the touch, very fluffy, and kuro didn't seem to mind.

By the time she'd finished, he was already sleeping contentedly, as though the mere act of being given such attentions had only served to push him into slumber all the more quickly.

[note]

i've been fascinated with modern japanese culture for a while, so for me the story that i was making was sort of a slice of life type setting, but with a twist.

kuro is a black dragon, a creature formed from human imagination, his first interaction with his creators is with the woman hachiko, whom he saves from certain misfortune.

the point of the story was to show how raw power acted to counter the very idea of society, but i dropped the very notion of creating such a story because it kept giving me a headache to think about.

this is the prototype that i decided never to pick up.

a brief introduction to the setting of book 2 "heaven"

“and now, I would like to introduce you all to your newest classmate.”

his ears were twitching as he spoke, no doubt listening to my heart rate increasing, his thick and silken beard practically cascaded down his hakama and gi, and his eyes glowed a faint red from behind his much too dignified spectacles as he spoke my name in somber, sober tones.

“shinryu no masakado.”

a chorus of gasps fill the room as the words of my name ring out.

“a human? Here?”

“i've heard of him, he's supposed to be like, really strong and powerful!”

“that's a lie! All humans are weak!”

the principal, principal Lhok, turns to face me, his fox ears twitching above his head.

“well human, come in then!”

I'm not nervous.

Just…..really tired.

One step.

Two steps.

The silver light pouring through the classroom windows as I step into the somewhat dim room only make it more difficult for me.

School uniforms for the fox demons are primarily based on three types, male and female kimonos, and typical male student uniforms common to the land of tairo.

I'm wearing the common one, a black suit, high collar, straight shoulders.

I run a hand through my gray hair, mom says the gray is a symbol of godhood, she would know, being a goddess herself.

I'm not too keen on the idea.

It's short, a touch spiky to the feeling.

I inhale with the rest of the class, i'm just as surprised to see that most of my classmates are wearing kimonos.

“uh...yo!”

YO?! what a pitiful response…

the class falls deathly quiet, as though i've committed some capital offense.

One of the students, a girl with silver hair and silvery fur on her ears, stands up.

“principal, can I…..claim him?”
the rest of the class gasps.

It's not unusual, fox demons are supposed to have that degree of power over humans, humans and fox demons live in separate societies but….fox demons are the more powerful race, and the agreement signed after the wars clearly states that humans, due to initiating war, belong to fox demons.

In a way it's kind of them to give us our sovereignty, despite being legally permitted to use us as they see fit.

“might I inquire as to the purpose?” the principal asked.

I kind of wanna sigh, he's a good guy.

Legally speaking I AM human, my mother's station as a goddess does nothing to change that.

Still….

“He'll need a supervisor, and nobody's volunteered...soo...”

“remember the law Ren, the weak are to be stripped of their rights, shinryu is not weak-”

“Sure.” I say, interrupting the principal.

The classroom gasps again, you'd think they were made of air the way they keep taking it in.

“If you want me the law is the law, I don't mind.”

well I don't.

“son.” lhok says, his tone low.

“I understand you wanting to be polite and all, but all things considered, becoming some random student's slave isn't an easy task.”

“thanks for your consideration principle lhok, but I think it would be rude of me to refuse such a generous offer.” I say with a bow.

The principal nods.

“if you're fine with it, just remember to inform your mother of the decision, else she'll be positively livid.”

with that he takes his leave and our teacher, madame selllsu bids me take a seat next to my new supervisor.

“I'm ren!” she says excitedly. “ren yara! Nice to meet you!”
“Name's Masakado, honored to meet you.” I say, trying to keep the informality out of my tone.

She smiles, pleasantly, but a bit hungrily too, as though she's in a war with her own impulse to abuse the power i've given her.

Legally if she does try to abuse it, there's not a thing I'm permitted to do, a fact backed by mother's own will, the law WAS set down by her after all.

After class we eat together and discuss some things, then she takes me for a walk to the cherry tree grove, it's like an ocean of pink in this place, the trees are never white, just pink, the flowers I mean.

She and I continue our stroll.

“shouldn't I be collared?” I ask her and she shrugs.

“I need to know that I can trust the depth of your conviction before I can consider putting one on you.” she explains, flashing me a cute grin.

“what do you want me to do then?” I ask, more unnerved by the lack of protocol being followed than by her acting weird.

She pushes me against one of the trees, and in the light barely filtering through the boughs so thick with sakura flowers it becomes all the more evident that the pink coloration in the air isn't just from the filtered light.

Though it helps to enhance the color of her white...er….

I snap my head away, a bit embarrassed.

She leans in closer, until I can practically feel her breath on my cheek.

“masakado.” she warns and I remember that I agreed to this and turn to face her.

She's probably been staring at me, her face hovering mere inches from mine, for a minute now, and I find myself overly conscious of how i'm keeping her waiting.

Her eyes, red and alight with an internal glow, are narrow slits as her white ears twitch.

“umm.”

she shuts me up with a probing tongue, and I relax and accept the situation.

Rules are rules.

I thrust my hands in my pockets as she takes her time with me.

Legally, there's nothing I'm permitted to do.

Honestly not sure if I would try to do anything other than cooperate anyway, physical strength and a few slight physical differences are all that separate fox demons from their lesser counterparts, the humans.

So I sit back, cooperate, and try not to enjoy this too much.

Her tongue his hot, and oddly sweet.

Or maybe it's just the sense of gratification stemming purely from having someone touch me in this manner, I don't really give half a damn.

She pushes me down and I glance around as she settles atop me.

Nobody is in the grove at this time, probably because lunch is over and class is starting, meaning she and I are skipping class.

The blouse comes unbuttoned.

“ummm..” she begins nervously and I shrug.

“You're the master here.” I concede.

This sort of behavior, while unusual, isn't unheard of, and as a human I'm taught my place early in life.

Tools to be used by the fox demons, our superior brethren.

For any purpose.

The sad part? Thanks to mom's power any and all humans are permanently bound to it, not a single one of us can rebel without dying.

She sits there for the longest time, clearly nervous and unsure of herself.

Is this morally right?

Is it ethical?
Does it matter?

The part that wants to abuse the power is at odds with the part that's clearly saying “you've gone too far.” and she's half considering covering her exposed breasts.

I bring a hand up to her cheek.

“Listen, ren.” I say, trying to figure out the best way to explain myself.

“If this is what you want, I'm fine with it.”
“you sure?” she asked, clearly flustered.

“I signed up for it didn't I?”
I'm half hoping that these are the wrong words, like implying that i'm her slave and thus bound to be a tool might make her feel guilty.

I'm ALSO half hoping that this just makes her hungrier for the only human permitted within this circle of fox demon society for the first time in history.

Turns out the latter was correct, she leans in close, locking me in another kiss.

The rest of the noon is spent beneath the cherry blossoms as she calmly wipes the guilt away atop me, enjoying herself to the fullest, I try to remain stoic, it's improper for a human to enjoy such things after all.

Least that's what I tell myself.

She doesn't seem to care, in fact, she rolls over to let me be the one on top a few times.

Fox demon stamina is legendary.

If I were a typical human I'd not have lasted this long.

But I was exiled from human culture for a reason.

Of course once we're done we head to our next class, by that time she's given me the collar she had purchased.

“it was one time only” she says.

I don't really care.

I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling that I'm going to enjoy my time here at Kazegami university.

Note:

Sooo, yeah I wanted to see if book 2 could delve into relationships.

huh, how bout that?

anyway, for book 2 the chapters involving masakado will be told from first person, whereas the chapters involving a certain someone will be third person.

I'm also considering altering the love scene here to be more explicit, the reason being the dark lord zer0 series isn't exclusively one thing.

it's not romance, high fantasy, or sci fi, but it never strays from these things either.

so when I paint a sex scene or something, I don't want to focus on it as though it's an expected part of the story and therefore erotica, but I do want to put these sorts of things into the book as a way of showing "all extremes" of story telling by not censoring or hiding anything. 

this was just a prototype of this scene I typed out, but expect me to expand a bit more on the love scene in question, as well as descriptions of the classrooms and so forth.

the dark lord zer0 may be inspired by final fantasy, but I want to make it clear that it's an extreme sort of story that visits extremes in all ways, the good AND the bad.

another point of this chapter is that it displays a culture built around strength vs weakness, the structure of the society favors fox demons exclusively, and while humans and fox demons populate the world equally, there is a clear segregation of the races, where the sole interaction between the two species in in slave-master relationships.

in this world humans are subservient, but this isn't "they're subservient and will eventually break free because JUSTICE-" no, there's no freedom for these particular humans because the conflict ended due to the efforts of a particular goddess of death who decided that humans had offended her.

thus she set laws that became the founding laws for human life, a human that rebels dies and their soul is reborn a year later. no escape to the afterlife if you try to rebel.

the fox demons for all intents and purposes are the dominant race and that remains until the end of the book, where I conclude masakado and ren's arc.

as for the name, both the name of the land the setting takes place in, as for masakado's full name, both are references to three things.

first, tairo no masakado, the legendary warrior turned patron diety.

second, this is meant to also be a reference to the masakado from shin megami tensei as well as to imply how powerful he might be.

shinryu, his first name, is a reference to the final fantasy dragon, this was a deliberate name choice both as a reference, and a means to represent masakado's nature as a character.

he's basically like a sleeping dragon, fearful of its own great power because if it moves, it only causes harm.

thus masakado is passive and takes many things in stride, to better avoid being forced to display his power, a trait we'll see yet again during the void arc with another character.

book 2, heaven, will feature the dual adventures of masakado and reaper as the two struggle in their respective realities. 

this is meant to be a reference to persona 3, but inversed, and you'll find out why later.

expect me to rewrite this to be a tad more explicit, but don't expect it to just be erotic all the time.

just once or twice, depending on my mood.

Man I really want to write the plot to a videogame.

I've been at this writing business for only a small amount of time, but so far i've enjoyed butchering english for money, it's quite enjoyable!!


in all seriousness though I really want to focus on stories that are best translated into videogame format, the dark lord zer0 is one such book which could become either a final fantasy 1 clone or a devil may cry clone, but the general idea is basically that I want to express myself in a way that other people can experience.


anyway, just a rant, here, have a video!

My first impressions of monster hunter X

Okay, I haven't played cross very much, mostly I've stuck with one playstyle, bushido, and I'm loving the game as I've played it.

this is less of a review and more of a first impressions wall of text, so bear with me and remember, this is just my opinion.

my 100% accurate, infallible and totally perfect in every way shape or form entirely factually on point opinion.

MHX sucks.

....the end.

.........

.......I was kidding. it's actually really, really good. Like, amazing.

BUT!!!!!

I have a few observations i'm going to disguise as complaints/praise.

Monster hunter X starts you off in belna, beruna, or whatever you call it. you meet the chief, kiss some goats, pet a baby goat and have him sleep in your bed which is in no way creepy or strange and entirely endearing (and believe me, in this day and age that's harder to pull off than you know)

Your first hunts are straightforward, "prove yourself by gathering things!" says the chief. Okay, I gathered things, now what? "kill some monsters!" "Okay, killed some monsters, now what?" "go visit two villages and help them out!" "Oh goody! two entirely new villages to see that have all the same original facilities and are basically just every other town minus the guild hall! ya- wait is this kokoto? is that pokke? IS THAT YUKUMO?!?! I CAN GET ALL THE STARTER ARMOR SETS FOR EACH VILLAGE PROVIDED I ASSIST THEM AND GET TICKETS TO MAKE SAID ARMOR, AND THEIR WEAPONS?!?!?!?"

so it slowly puts you into a situation where it's suddenly very easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that needs doing, the cat chefs need you to mix ingredients for them, the people need you to fulfill menial arbitrary tasks just like they did in 4u,

Remember 4u? where you were the hunter with the big eyebrows and your image was falsified by your surrogate caravaneer family to help you make a name for yourself/help them find an ancient elder dragon cub who would grow to be your rival? yes? good because it's basically the same system, but with a twist.

red speech bubbles are vital information, each village has a point system, the more you help each village, the more they reward you and give you tickets for making village specific stuff, but more importantly, the more you progress with each village's "story" which is basically a nostalgia mirror of their original plots.

with Kokoto it's basically the classic rathalos and the eggs tale, with pokke it's the tigrex, with yukumo it's the surprise zinogre during your bulldrome quest and with belna it's their original story featuring what is quite possibly the coolest monster any ten year old has ever thought of; a fucking T-rex with a flaming sword for a tail!

and yes, that is precisely what this thing is, and it's just as awesome and cool as I type it out to be.

awesomesaucetasticrificallizationalistic.

I made that up, but that's about how cool Dinovaldo is.

"But wait," you say as you eagerly type out a rebuttal, "those monsters aren't in those quests!!"

and no they bloody aren't! I say, because these are nostalgic "Mirrors" of those three classic main village quests, not actual repeats.

turns out for every portable title there's been a flagship specific to it, well somebody had the presence of mind to say "why just one" and lo and flipping behold we have four of the fuckers.

we have an electric wyvern who I'm entirely sure is made out of heavy metal and death in place of the rathalos quests,

 we have the world's greatest bubble dragon in place of zinogre,

 and for the first time in gaming history, we have the lord and protector of the popo tongues in the mirror popo tongue quest, A GODDAMNED POPODROME!!!!

well, he may as well be, because he's just as scary as you'd imagine a popodrome would be, and he's literally one name change away from being the popodrome, it's no coincidence he's replacing the tigrex's popo tongue quest, he killed the tigrex to protect the herd!

Lastly of course is our lord and savior dinovaldo, slayer of gog, bringer of awesome metallic roars and dominator of your ass.

water combat is of course gone in this installment, but that doesn't mean out leviathans aren't around, that's right we get all the big boys like lagiacrus, etc who get to come back and put is in our place, in fact, of all the monsters to get a retooled moveset, lagiacrus has now become the game's resident black mage because now he can summon lightning at will and has a pretty impressive array of the SCARIEST GODDAMNED LIGHTNING ATTACKS I'VE EVER SEEN IN GAMING!!!

but it gets even better, you see one of the biggest improvements to this game isn't just the sheer amount of stuff you can do/make, oh no, it's also the visual effects. old areas make a return, they're somewhat refurbished but mostly the exact same. they get a gentle retexture, forest and hills now has reflective mud puddles which add to their aesthetic a bit, and the zones are retooled for convenient climbing. the problem i have with this is, if they were going to give us back the old areas but refurbish them, couldn't they have added at least two addition spots to the ancient maps? forest and hills was practically begging for an area at the foot of the overhanging area atop the mountain! that could have been a great place to add an additional nest or something!! aw well, it's a minor complaint, we got some good new versions of older areas, no sense in getting greedy....

in order to access each village flagship you have to help each village, rack up points for lols and do the village specific quests indicated by the symbol next to their name. you also get a visible indicator by way of a list that pops up whenever you get a new quest, it's not entirely necessary but is a welcome addition for the sake of its existence.

aside from THAT, you could easily finish the main game in little to no time at all by just doing belna quests and unlocking the single most adorable endgame cutscene in gaming history, not spoiling that one for you, despite the fact that I haven't finished the game and spoiled it for myself like a knob.

so, the other three villages are basically your sidequest system, nothing special, you can choose what to do and where, and as you work through the villages you unlock cameos from old characters who couldn't make it because their village wouldn't fit on the bottom screen cough(mogasucks)cough(thechiefandjuniorarealrightthough)cough

One of the biggest additions isn't even practical however, it's entirely aesthetic.

every single movement, fireball, dust cloud or anything even remotely resembling a special effect has been visibly ramped up for no actual reason.

I'm talking a rush of air pressure around a velocidrome biting at you for crying out loud! wherever they could put more flash and flair, they put it there, nothing was spared, not a single damned thing! there are more enhanced visual effects in this game than in a michael bay explosion, and believe me when I say that this is not only welcome, but just serves to make the fights with wyverns all the more spectacular. literally anything that could be revised, was revised.

those roar particle effects are literally just for show, but my god they add so much more implied force to the roars!!!

like, cephadrome sand balls are now larger and have a lighter color to make it appear almost as if the cephadrome is spitting fire at you! and even when the illusion is broken by the sand landing, it still gives the impression that it just spat out sand hotter than the surface of the sun!

and it's not just special effects! the lighting engine in this game is entirely different, now we've got active lens flares instead of just static ones! the lighting system is doing its level best to be as realistic in an unrealistic environment as it can possibly be!!

remember khezu? and how dozens of quest and item descriptions would describe his hide as "pleasant to the touch" or "Pearl-like"?

well now the khezu's hide ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THAT!!! all these years I assumed that they were made of slime, now the khezu's skin tone is closer to a sort of hybrid between beautiful ceramic and aluminum foil!

visually, the game is going so far overboard I'm entirely sure it's set a new bar for crazy visual effects, this game's not even visually stunning, it's just really really cool and fun to look at!!! monster attacks now seem to have more of a force to them, tail swipes actually gain more whooshing air effects when a monster is angry at you, electricity looks more like electricity! blights actually seem to resemble their namesake instead of just being impressions!! this is ten steps above the tri special effects, we're talking effects for something as simple as you landing!!!

and i bloody love it!!! seriously, I can't stop gushing over how much effort they put into the visuals, everything looks better, cooler, and faster. Oh I can imagine how those poor sods who always complained about frontier's flashy gameplay robbing the game of its value somehow must be feeling with this title! "it's all flash!" they said "the flashy attacks rob us of our hardcore gameplay! this isn't monster hunter if it isn't aesthetically subdued and humble on top of being brutally punishing to the point where dark souls is literally easy by comparison!!"

naturally they must be staring at this new portable title, which is basically more of the same but with flashy effects added to it, and trying to come up with a more stable, believable version of an argument that was probably meant for monster hunter online, the chinese ripoff which actually does suck, but they didn't bother trying to tell the difference when they made it!!

I swear there's so much flash in this game it's almost counted as a sin when something doesn't have an unnecessary flashy animation or sparkly effect tied to it (i'm looking at you vespoids) but it's really nice to have such ridiculously flashy effects tied to almost every miniscule element of the game's visual design, it shows that this game was a genuine labor of love and a lot of work and effort went into ensuring that when I sharpen my sword, the little puffs of light representing bits of metal I shaved off linger for a moment to float just a above my longsword in an unassuming spark cloud before gracefully fading into the air, never to be seen again.

Now as for other parts of the game, the visual design only serves to enhance the new "super attack" system, hunters arts.

you get four styles, each of which has its own art system and expands the combat moves of each weapon accordingly, I've only explored bushido but it keeps the longsword's evasion moves down to the point where you're forced to stay in and wear at your foe.

what little I've seen of this system is, at the very least in the bushido longsword's case, it's sort of broken.

did I mention how every installment of monster hunter had something broken? in p2 it was deathprize, in p3rd your autoguard charm made taking damage while gunlancing impossible, in 4u it was the insect glaive, in x it's absolute bushido evade into longsword gauge counter, I only have to hit a monster seven times with that counter and I basically send them limping, two more and they keel over!!

anyway, I'm glossing this over a bit because I haven't experimented much with the system, but you take on certain monsters and quests, etc and you naturally unlock more arts which do certain things. again, haven't explored it much.

Now on to what has got to be the best part of this game.

Nyantas.

Remember in freedom unite how if you raised a cat to high enough levels and equipped them, they could almost carry a wyvern fight and kill things like tigrex and nargacuga?

no?!

I must have been the only one to discover that they could do that, but somebody must have known it was possible, because we've now come fully bloody circle.

in this game your felyne comrades are now playable, they have roughly the same damage output as the hunter, but less moves to employ for that, meaning for high rank hunts you really want the solid damage advantage of boomerangs and their skills.

nyantas are fun, but in my mind they're sort of the game's hidden easy mode.

let me explain, nyantas do just about as much damage as a hunter when you take the time to raise them properly. they have NO stamina, unlimited gathering tool uses, less space to hold stuff in, but that doesn't really matter if you're just going for insects or ores and nothing else, and more importantly, they can be defeated up to nine times! (ha! I get it.)

But this is the important part.

you can reset the first three lives, represented by acorns, if you take the nyanta to a nearby bed and have him sleep in it.

so in theory you could carry an entire hunt as a nyanta, never have to worry about hot drinks or cold drinks, always know where a monster is with built-in cat-senses always tracking it on your map, unlimited continues until time runs out by just hopping back to the bed, and the only thing in your way is your own damage output, easily fixed by boomerang skills.

so yeah, loving the nyanta system! it's not just an easy mode to me, it's more about the immersion factor, nyantas are very different from hunters, they have cat soecific skills and movesets such as the ability to set poison traps, etc. the only thing they CAN'T do is capture, you have to do those as a hunter (edit, I was mistaken, according to redditor falcozappy capturing is entirely possible as a nyanta. I was wrong......runs off crying)

so my opinion of mhx?

it's flipping glorious.

please do remember, my entirely factually accurate opinion is 100 percent correct and I can do no wrong, etc, etc.

please feel free to correct or enlighten me anyway.

no, seriously.

and remember, when you get your copy,

don't do what I did.

don't try to fight dinovaldo with your cat.

This has been a first impression by the brilliant and amazing gamer on youtube, general shitposter on reddit, hardcore gamer on a channel I'll not bother sharing because none of you actually care about my channel anyway and I won't ask you to try, the greatest gamer in the universe, arrogant self entitled nimrod, high king of the douchebags and dark lord of the land of fluffy duckies and bunnies within which there can be no safe haven for mortal men from fatal doses of cuddles and quacking attacks.

Please feel free to bomb my horribly simple impression into nonexistence, I didn't really try when I wrote it, but if anyone's interested in mhx, these are the facts as I've seen them while playing, and you should give it a buy, even if you must import it.

it's the best of every portable title in the franchise rolled up into one amazing game with tons of enhancements across the board. ten outta ten.

Edit: (added an arrogant closing statement and a few con complaints as well as made myself out to be the worst thing in internet history, just according to keikaku (editor's note, keikaku means plan))

Taking some time off to get ready for book 2, but also taking a step back to plot out the finale.

Book 2, heaven is going to be dark, cruel, and more importantly, it's going to highlight the complicated nature of the story.

However as I was getting back from school to get ready for the next day, I watched a video about undertale made by a fave youtuber of mine, gaijin goombah and he raised a perfectly valid point that I hadn't considered before.

Games, and stories today, have always been about oppressive atmospheres that give off this sense of despair.

few games, or stories for that matter, have ever bothered to tell happy stories with happy endings.

since the final arc, arguably the most vital one, doesn't actually have its conclusion formed this has lead me to wonder if perhaps it's high time to give this "hope" nonsense a try.

the fact of the matter is the dark lord zero is a story about losing hope, but in a sad way it's also a story about having absolutely nothing BUT hope and literally nothing else.

this is the double edged nature of a plot where the main character is literally hero and villain at the same time, the younger zero lacks hope and is filled with despair because he's having his possibilities stolen from him by his futuremost self, meanwhile the future zero has nothing but hope

hope that his nightmare will come to a conclusion once he finishes his act, as reality's greatest actor it is his sole purpose to be the villain for the sake of keeping the timeline intact, it's his job to be the bad guy, to be the core evil and the pinnacle of darkness.

But at the same time this is still zero, and once he becomes the lord of time and space, he has hope.

hope is essentially a central theme to the story, but it's a two sided expression, there's literally a duality to everything between these two versions of the same character because time has made the future self so radically different from the past self that it's unrecognizable to the degree of being impossible for zero to reconcile with.

in a way, it's a lot like the irreconcilable differences between dracula and gabriel belmont.

the difference is, drac and gabriel never meet, but the plot of the dark lord zero is sort of an homage to the idea of them doing precisely that.

anyway, back on topic, with the finale unformed, there's neither a happy ending, or a bad ending, and so I'm left with this decision.

the dark lord zero is an expression of my own frustrations with life's impossibilities and its grim nature.

the world is a dark, malicious, terrible place, and the earth portrayed in the dark lord zero's first act is basically a parody of real life in many ways.

But should I make good on my promise and give the story a hopeful outlook? would that defeat the message I'm trying to write?
with all things that are organic so too is a story, it shifts, it changes, it transforms, it's a neverending struggle for me when I imagine each situation, because I picture and envision it so many ways that reaching out and capturing just one consistent version of the same vision becomes a nearly insurmountable task.

all the same, I think I should take gaijin's observation to heart.

and perhaps paint a happier ending.

since I've only finalized the overarching plot's foundation, i can be creative, perhaps even go back on my word several times over like the dishonest villain that I am, I don't care!

but I think it's high time to work on a lighter tone for the character, one that doesn't end in tragedy.

they say there is nothing greater than a story, be it tragic or dark.

but I say there is nothing greater than the beauty of a dream.

and that's what a story, to me, is.

it's a dream we try to capture and pin down like butterfly being mounted on styrofoam.

beautiful, but tragic for the fact that we had to tie it down just to get a closer look at the fleeting beauty of its wings at the cost of its life.