http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=38643379 – I don't know if that's a correct tactile paving arrangement, but otherwise good.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=42299673 – This is the artist's two yuri OCs, versus… male versions of the same? Hmmmmm… *humming slowly grows in enthusiasm*
*bashing together a tweet from garbage* Sphinx… plus succubus… steals… memories of riddle answers. *shoves my new baby bird out of the nest*
This game (Lyle in Cube Sector) had not exactly memorable graphics, but certainly a distinctive colour palette.
I guess my mind just can't get enough of magical-realist adventure that's been charged with such aestheticised, saturated romance.
It seems every time I've watched/read one of these, I've been consistently blown away and unable to think of anything else for days after.
This is surely just my fortuitous narrow perspective, though? Does, say, yaoi have many landmark works of this kind of romantic narrative?
I think Utena, Flip, Qualia etc. have got me intimately associating yuri with vivid mind-bending jaunts through the nature of reality.
*thinks about how a cartoon named "Flip Flappers" isn't about stimming* On the one hand, stimming is very overexposed; on the other, damn.
*thinks of Papika dating Cocona as teens AND her mother as teens* Messed up but interesting *thinks of Young Ana/Mercy and PharMercy* M-mess
(Any remarks about this thought from anyone who might want to give them are welcome.)
- Villainous Mimi isn't "destroyed" when she 's finally defeated - she simply goes back inside.
A bit of context for this thought:
- The story offers no explanation for her switching beyond just "people have more than one side".
Sorta curious whether any plural folx may read villainous Mimi as a strong but abusive hypervigilant member who stays fronting far too long.
That relatable feel when your girlf capriciously turns into a boy and you're annoyed but also turned on
Here's a few more Flip Flappers tweets that don't relate to any of my preceding spiels.
Don't @ me
Don't DM me
Do XM, MOD or S3M me
And I think the peer carries the same mystery about them as a lost memory… their silence as mysterious, indelible. https://twitter.com/webbedspace/status/756902835426435074
This trope probably also ties into the "final goal place" trope I expressed earlier – a final goal as a friend https://twitter.com/webbedspace/status/719575701926445057
This person so much like you who has answers to all the chaos, has mastery over all the magic, and who is letting you learn it for yourself.
I'm not sure why it's specifically a girl peer, too… maybe deep down I associate the feminine with unreachable cosmic truth, or something.
…I feel like there were other such characters in fiction earlier than Everworld in my childhood, but I can't remember them to any extent.
It's a trope that for some reason has been enchanting me all my life… Senna from Everworld, Ramona Flowers, Anthy, Jade from Homestuck sorta
The odd girl peer with amazing powers who suddenly inducts you into the magical realm, without explaining it or giving enough information.
There's another very personally resonant trope I have to mention… it's a specific character trope exhibited by Papika:
Thing-knowers: is there a special meaning for inverted crosses in yuri artwork? (sources: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=53874464 http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=41806892)
I'm not sure why I'm so captivated by these… I guess I just love to see characters able to experience anything, be anything, effortlessly.
(Contrast with some prime-time series like Community or Rick and Morty, which play with worlds or genres but lack diegesis or sincerity.)
and – crucially – each world and tone is real, diegetic and co-existent, intermingling with each other, and each delivered with sincerity.
and other comics like Sluggy Freelance, and even Homestuck… where any whimsical world, tone or genre shift could appear at any time,
In the '00s I was sincerely in love with a webcomic, I think called Not Included, that honestly kinda sucked but used it as its main concept
Some more remarks… FF's Pure Illusion reminds me that I've always had a passion for tonally-diverse, infinite dream-world settings like it.
Although, FF's climax of Cocona-Papika-Mimi resembles Lady of the Shard's climax of Acolyte-Goddess-Old God: magic and long-broken hearts.
OTGW's more austere tone and tighter, sharper climax with the Beast gives it the edge over FF's slower, backstory-leaden conflict with Mimi.
It's similar to Over the Garden Wall in world and episode looseness… FF's Pure Illusion being as open-ended a setting as OTGW's The Unknown.
Here's some diary tweets about watching TV. I finished watching the anime miniseries Flip Flappers just now.
When are we finally getting a Ridiculous Fishing / Survive Mola Mola crossover game
Undertale's got a lot of satisfyingly-written neutral endings… I like the Alphys ending the most out of all of them, characterisation-wise.
I don't think highly about OFF's endings, but I like the Bad Batter fight just because it's way more interesting a final boss, conceptually.
I've already talked about several such endings for myself recently… let's see what runners-up I've got…
Here's a videogame preference I'd like to hear from you about: tell me your favourite "bad" or non-standard/non-canon ending to a videogame.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=5427076 – The pose is overambitious but it's all good.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=14796398 – More interesting-looking OCs.
(This is a book cover… Because the book is right-to-left, the major focus is the left half rather than the right, as per English books.)
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=15981770 – High contrast patterns on loose clothes… the secret sauce.
Me: "I'm so glad Yume Nikki was a great creepy game without any damn jump-scares!!" *precisely one neuron fires* "D'oh!!!"
"Just mess him up… don't care what kind of curse, as long as it hurts."
"OK."
*somewhere, all his torrents halt at 99% with no seeders*
The water elemental reaches out and grabs the bath bomb. There is a vast blinding flash, and a very long health bar scrolls onto the screen.
"To be fair, the difference between being possessed by the God of Fakery and pretending you are to avoid embarrassment is mostly semantics."
The middle ball of the Newton's cradle suddenly decides to keep the momentum for itself, and lurches sideways in a desperate doomed getaway.
"I only do illusions…" *snaps fingers; the sun becomes a lightbulb* "It ain't real." *your feed fills with "WHYS THE SUN A LIGHTBULB" posts*
RPG party members deciding what to rename the newest recruit to, with each one proposing their own name followed by "Jr."
RPG party that constantly walks shoulder-to-shoulder instead of single file, blocked off by slightly narrow halls instead of short fences.
*looks at the name*
*looks at the bit in parentheses*
*looks at the name again*
*thinks for two seconds*
NICE.
Metroid fans fixate on shinesparks, but Wario just does it with little comment.
I think if, say, Chrono Trigger's tech animations had lots of 3D camera work in them, they'd be way more tiresome to watch over and over.
Something about 16-bit RPGs is that they can't change camera angles/cuts during spell animations… which makes them less visually exhausting.
Especially that the melodies, so important, were so gentle and light… it suited the cute fairytale tone of these games and the Mother games.
http://animatedscreenshots.tumblr.com/post/156278062866/the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-dx-wario – I'm glad that 90s Nintendo had something of a trope about spending an entire game assembling parts of a magic song
and I'm glad she had an actual, not even especially feminine hat instead of just a danged bow.
In all seriousness though, I think Dixie was probably a valuable addition to my child imagination, even though she's just "Pink Girl Diddy"
(Wait, almost forgot… I also got Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2001… I casual-mained Ice Climbers with the colour that puts Nana in the front.)
Anyway, there it is, Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong, and three of the Snowboard Kids, until like 2003 when I got a computer that could run SNES9X.
For those wondering, my family purchased literally zero RPGs for the first decade of console ownership. My first RPGs were all emulated.
Dixie Kong and technically Samus, but I never read the Super Metroid manual and didn't fully twig on to her being a woman until Smash 64.
I thought about what videogames in my early childhood had relatable female player-characters and… it was just Dixie Kong? Thanks, Dixie Kong
and I don't have access to the wide corpus of 90s Japanese PC RPGs to really make an accurate comparison.
I've always seen EB's writing as anachronistically flavourful for a 16-bit RPG, even though it was only two years ahead of Super Mario RPG,
Most of EarthBound's quest NPCs are written with variations of this inept, duplicitous voice… verbose, but not oversold or repetitive.
""Slime Man vs the Werewolf" was rebranded as "The Mummy Meets Mega-Ape" with no footage changes, and then as "Frankenstein Destroys Venus""
"Well, time for me, the protagonist, to return to the book's world…" *slides into comic hidden in the middle* "HA! Come get me, suckers!"
*walking past ten-foot baroque painting of ventriloquist dolls leashing weeping humans* "Can't believe this room's rent is minus 50 dollars"
http://www.dotsarecool.com/twitch/practice.html – This speedrun practice cart adds extra paths to the overworld for fast level selection.
*presses stethoscope onto lich's phylactery* "Don't worry… your soul is still healthy and screaming for natural death."
*wheels in sleeping person* "She has every debuff at once: stun, mute, blinded, -100% speed, and probably hallucination." *raises air horn*
"The "mouse" is used to simulate holding hands with your computer. It's based on the hands of actual robots used in the 60's at Xerox PARC."
"You may wonder why I, a kilometre-tall cosmic emperor, have a two-inch runt for a son. The answer is I got bored being pregnant with him."
"Cheeks, or "face inguinals", can store small mouth-safe objects as an alternative to swallowing them."
"Drag files you want to delete onto the wastebin icon, and drag one file you most want to keep onto the bloody altar icon."
Outside your window is a ninja dangling from the roof's eaves, biting loose shingles in their mouth to keep from smashing noisily below.
You've given up running with this sticky pollen… you stop, and the flower-headed figures in business suits lick you clean with their stamens
*signs NDA to follow your best friend's new private account* "omg" *receives private tweet reading "my butthole itches"* "omg omg"
"Augh, I haven't taken a selfie since August! Now there's just a hole between me with a nose and me with a fully-grown foot-long crow beak."
"The psychic impact of schools is incredible… I can pull dozens of shadow school psychoscapes from humans' minds, to duel in at my leisure."
Website: "Noise pollution is one of the many silent killers[…]"
Me: *slow, but sincere applause*
*is handed bread loaf where every slice except the ends is an end crust* "Sorry, it's a sprite sheet error."
Website: "Before stainless steel, people had to arduously clean knives every day."
Me: *while updating code for MVC framework changes* "Wow"
Your mech-suit's steel boots break apart, revealing your own bare feet thirty metres south of your head. You try to ignore this and march on
*holds stencil of star over flashlight* "That's my home. I came to Earth from there. Nice how it's always visible when people ask about it."
Tossing a blanket over your friend's hologram projection and watching them disappear into it never stops being the most magical rebuke.
Denser-than-water slimes have to be pumped off the bottom of the pool if they fall in by accident, squashed flat by the water's weight.
It's kind of unfortunate Bloodlines's final level resorts to re-used bosses and screen obfuscation, deployed seemingly arbitrarily.
*in "can't believe SotN was ported to the Genesis" voice* Wow
Instantaneous Noodles (500HP) – So quick, you use it as soon as your cursor moves over it in the item menu.
http://asano-nee.deviantart.com/art/Pixel-Commission-Shark-Boy-465675218 – The high contrast lighting in this is distinctive… kinda suggests it's made of clear resin.
http://adorkablemarina.deviantart.com/art/AF-Hauntedhomo-551345838 – Kissing without mouths… believe in it.
http://consicurrent.deviantart.com/art/pose-643706728 – Monitor heads, okay… but also Morrigan bat wings? Hmm… I'll take it.
It at least has a bit more narrative weight than chasing Crono's mother and cat(s) through wayward time gates in the "normal" ending.
Finally… I'm attached to the idea of undoing Crono's death as "one last job" the party get up to, something deeper than even killing Lavos.
And, the concept of undoing a tragic personal event is already explored by the Lana (Lucca's mother) subquest, potentially right afterward!
At this point they've not only already rescued a different dead party member, Marle, but also subtly rewritten history several times.
I feel like the Crono rescue subquest is kind of pointless because its main theme, cheating death, doesn't really contribute anything new.
Also, I've gone through all of them, and… I think I like the ending where Crono stays dead the most, narratively.
CT has some good domestic scenes stashed away in its non-canon endings.
*plays the touching music box track that's already been used in like a dozen cutscenes, AND is also Marle's theme*
http://drachenmagier.deviantart.com/art/The-old-Busstop-263726148 – I like these poses, and inexplicable firefly moths.
http://boblitt.deviantart.com/art/Contest-Entry-Rainbot-420217753 – I think this colour scheme just reminds me of 80s computer logos.
http://spowys.deviantart.com/art/Dailywitch-illustration-598548961 – This is a promo for a comic I haven't read, so when I say "I'm full-length black dress" I mean it superficially.
http://vcr-wolfe.deviantart.com/art/pyre-624858612 – The rose petals complete this one.
http://mezamero.deviantart.com/art/Heyyy-555121970 – Maybe the glowing mouth is a bit much… nah, it's still great.
"Heck, with so few human beings left, we might as well slacken the rules." *pats robot* "You're human!" *pats animate marionette* "You too!"
You've done Drarth's Pitiless Ire vs household objects videos for months, but this "Purple Lighting Spell" channel gets 10M views in a week?
"I'm a fracture golem. I live in this statue. Fire golems are healed by flame… me?" *slams frying pan into face, cracking it more* "Aahhhh…"
http://dollieguts.deviantart.com/art/8-colour-655397178 – Creepy ghost woman, wait for it… wait… waaaait……… in overalls.
*somewhere, felt a basketball backboard shattering*
*remembers the Chrono Trigger ending where Frog marries Marle's ancestor and she realises she now has frog-like abilities* Bless this game
"The shuddering potion is the true elixir; the spinning potion is the decoy," explains the wizard in the shadow puppet play.
"I've got sights on Planethead, the pirate with a planet for a head."
"Careful – if you shoot his head, you'll kill billions of life forms."
"Here's my garden fountain." *a single drop of water leaps out the top and flows down, over and over* "Someone stole the other five drops."
"How much have I overhealed you to?"
"About 200 percent."
"Good. You'll need it. For this." *grabs them and mercilessly tickles it all away*
It is revealed that, contractually, some code in your brain legally belongs to a petrol station your creator worked at in their late teens.
"I pour hot tea before I do the dishes, then enjoy it warm after. …That isn't a lifehack. If anyone other than me does it, they'll explode."
I'm headcanoning it… the final boss of Princess Remedy In A World Of Hurt is the all-powerful feeling of not wanting to go to the doctor's.
https://youtu.be/z8-b67m6oEU?t=18 – There's certain synth vox instruments I, a Zelda player, think of as "Malon's voice", such as at 0:20 in this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwi3D1gvG4&feature=youtu.be&t=78 – *thinks about how the Endless Corridor music has the Amen break at 1:22* Hell yeah
Incidentally, all the cog quest's tablets got touched up like so in the remake.
That's my favourite tablet in the game. My close second favourite is this one.
Baseball in magic-realist fiction: Field of Dreams, Angels in the Outfield, Peanuts
Basketball in magic-realist fiction: Air Bud, Space Jam
"Happy birthday, bud."
*places cupcake with candle on table*
*lights wick*
*cupcake bursts into flames*
"…"
*carefully flips it upside-down*
When I go to look up a walkthrough and my character does the same while I'm away
Kumatora has been in the party for two chapters but doesn't know what the dog's name is.
RPG party trying to sneak more characters into battle on the enemy's side, disguised as "confused slimes" with hand-drawn status icons.
My followers (the broom) when I (the noble, beloved characters of MOTHER 3™ (Game Boy Advance, 2006)) get a little rowdy with the tweets
Lv.4 Leather Mail
+ Incredible cat photo print clears your pores and adds 10 years to your lifespan
- Lifespan decreases after taking it off
Lv.3 Leather Mail
+ Defense rises after putting it on
- Only rises if you put on better armour afterward
+ Defense rises after taking it off
RPGs pre-empting zany character names by just letting the player name various in-universe swear words that the characters utter constantly.
"Heat-seeking" missiles that get fooled by mist machines and balls of red cellophane.
Videogame lasers that only do damage if they pass through smoke… if you can't see them, they don't exist.
and that it was written by someone who'd previously done a comic about Simpsons quotes as universal connection, a harkening to happier days.
until about two years ago. Fortunately, still soon enough for me to appreciate the Steven Universe song literally called "Do It For Her",
I never noticed the "DON'T FORGET: YOU'RE HERE FOREVER" sign Homer covered with Maggie photos had changed it into "DO I_T FOR__ ____HER_",
and that there was always motivation to stock up on local fare instead of hoarding… maybe even with food "expiring" when you reach the area.
I like it so much that I kinda wish an RPG gave every major location its own food sources (even weird dimensions or abandoned dungeons),
I like the RPG trope of giving each area unique food healing items, such that you bring a bit of the area's flavour into battles.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=53425500 – *shoulders are 0.1 heads wide but am still 5+ heads tall* Nice
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=49940165 – Just a good expression.
(source: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=18456818) I can only assume that these are all OCs… mainly just posting for the fencer and the robot.
I'll grant that most of the cutscene and dramatic-sounding music is very "whatever", though…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y7nqBFlYYQ – Feel like Eternal Daughter's soundtrack is a tad underrated… there's some good peppy, catchy area tunes like this.
Me, reduced to some kind of spooky smoke creature: "…One of my highly esoteric but vitally important browser UX addons dropped a feature…"
Kitsune dyeing all nine tails a different rainbow colour, but realising too late there aren't enough and needing four purples instead of two
*peels off "100% Golf Minigame Free!" sticker from a platformer and puts it on a golf game* "Some lucky soul's getting 4K retweets tonight♩"
"The petition currently has 1 signature from a very passionate person who wrote a really big letter on each page and used up all our paper."
Showing the full cliff, showing it extremely high, would draw attention and stretch disbelief – merely leaving it open is more satisfying.
What makes these work is how well altitude is obscured by what lies below – thick canopy, cloud or fog cover, or sometimes just darkness.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=51281233 – Standard idyllic forest cliff village.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=3625087 – I think these are all OCs?
I'm sorry everyone… I just saw really cute Meta Knight Parfait fanart… but out of respect for Meta Knight's privacy I'm not gonna share it!!
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=52102306 – Jenga arcology (click through for high detail)
RPG Maker attracts these specific kinds of creepy walls… it's quite charming.
I already did a GIF of this screen, but didn't include this subsequent exchange.
Also gave a try at RPG Maker game Luxaren Allure… which has a lot of this (but, alas, an equal amount of bog standard dungeon crawling).
I have no memory of downloading the game Weird And Unfortunate Things Are Happening, but I like where this is going.
"How do I brush ten-foot-long princess hair so quickly? …"Huge slide where bristles extend once my neck slides past", you say? Ha… spot on."
Stuck in the elevator, you turn to the comedian. He says "If you think I'll comfort you with free material, try again!" and turns to stone.
She advances on you. You reach for the doorknob. It's her hand, gripping yours. The knob is now on her wrist. She turns it. Her body opens.
"19 years out of college… only one more before they can't force me back to do a final exam in a class I enrolled in but didn't attend."
The statue's fanged mouth is open, waiting.
-Put 1 finger in
-Put 5 fingers in
-Put 10 fingers in
-Put 100 fingers in
☞Put 1,000 fingers in
I'll say it… I'll finally get it out into the world… Joke drinking games are just inferior joke bingo cards! There, it's done, you know now.
because it on face-value suggests the strange scenario that one would still be playing as Shovel Knight, but occupying Shield Knight's body.
On the subject of gender, I feel a little worried that the proposed "gender swap" mode is now referred to as "body swap" mode…
This one is probably not true, given it'd put a strange spin on all the previous times, in-game and out, that Spec is referred to by he/his.
Also curious as to whether, as the game's other het relationships suggest, this means Specter Knight was a woman before becoming a skeleton.
I'm mainly interested in the Specter Knight DLC to see whether Spec's bearded partner-in-crime is, as some imagery suggests, something more.
https://twitch.tv/darbian – Four-player mode hacked into SMB3's battle game.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=58124703 – Smouldering gaze.
Question: I want to use Marisa because I prefer her dialogue, but she seems… undertuned for casual play. Should I just go with Reimu?
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=59673932 – Cartridge tilting.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=55348094 – This person has fun-looking insect gijinka comics, but I can't read them.
Play it alongside Misadventure (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/617863), a much stronger but nonetheless distinct take on the same theme.
Replayed glitch-horror game Slime Bomb Knight (https://web.archive.org/web/20141016144519/http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/207152-slime-bomb-knight/send_download?code=b895866d16145e97aa6e6922c9a77c124e0e58a2). Rather corny and a little jump-scarey, but decently paced.
Currently I'm on… the first one for Windows. And it feels like Normal 1CC is oddly reachable, which makes me fear ill for the future titles.
I know Touhou is ostensibly a slice-of-life bullet hell series, but I still feel I need to get a 1CC ending before moving on to the next.
This and many SCUMM talking animations invert the usual expectation that the jaw wags, and the rest of the skull roughly stays put.
Eternal Daughter. This is a rather SCUMM-esque talking animation.
"The Time Repainter lets its wielder alter the canvas of history… but a far more fearsome artifact can oppose it – the Time Scraper-Offer…"
Time-traveled to "Death Era" where all random encounters are 6x "Mr. Chortle" whose only attack has a 3 minute animation and always misses.
*pouring cereal directly into toaster* "You were the only survivor, but don't worry… I'll nurse you back to health, as long as it takes."
"These ruins fill me with feelings. If even these can be destroyed…" *wistful sigh* "…then our own nightmare edifices will someday follow!"
"We can't beat them in turn-based combat, and we can't beat them in the overworld… it's time to take the fight to the Fast Travel screen."
RPG where you can rename the party members, but they keep accidentally saying the default names, until they give up on yours altogether.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=11276826 – It's not Shodan fanart.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=46575494 – This is an OC, remarkably.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=15495317 – Kinda 70's chrome.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=45917415 – Side-eyeing your animate rope binding.
Last night you pulled the sheet off your bed in your sleep – tonight you wake up cold to find your pajamas somehow torn off your body.
"Possessed by my 60-hour job, possessed by a wrongly sentenced woman's ghost, possessed by a heart-rending TV show… all the same to me."
You trust your roommate so deeply, you spent a week eating bars of something called "Scumble" they left in the fridge instead of shopping.
"No! That's an extra shadowy hoodie, powerful enough to conceal my super-bizarre body! If you put it on, you'll totally disap–" *loud pop*
"And here's our place!" *opens mailbox* "Hahaha, just joshing…" *opens front door of stately house, revealing 1-foot-deep closet* "Welcome!"
Snapping a glance at your witch mentor's pill-case… MTWTFSS▹◗◊◭◕? You've only got MTWTFSS◊◕, and you still don't have enough social time.
You ensorcel a pencil to draw something for you. It abstractly depicts the fear of being devoured by a sharpener. You think it's hilarious.
"C'mon, even if there's, like, fifty, sixty humans on this planet, we can still calmly explain ourselves and build trust with each of them."
The note on the lever reads "THAT'S the falling anvil lever!" with an arrow pointing to a nearby stick jammed in a tissue box.
"That's it… I'm gonna let you have it… remember, buddy… you asked for it… don't say I didn't warn ya…" *gives a quick kiss on the cheek*
https://www.twitch.tv/becored/v/20017292?t=44m48s – Are you kidding me… This is how the current Wario Land 4 world record run ends…
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=58524074 – Really like the way her eyes are framed.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=50940147 – I'm alternating imagining the relationship between the skirt and the shadows is hospitable or imprisoning.
suggesting older "comic panel" static cutscenes… it's something I'd like to try for a game, at least.
but games with larger resolutions could, perhaps, severely letterbox or spotlight different areas during the cutscene…
I feel like older handheld games like Mother 3 unwittingly had an advantage due to their platform's small screen necessitating tight framing
Carefully placing the game's camera is significant, but small sprite-to-screen ratios often mean a lot of empty space surrounds the scene.
One thing that fixed-resolution pixel games often neglect for sprite-based cutscenes is framing and centering the action in the game world.
(I suppose the lack of jump sprites doesn't really matter, since its jumps are mainly transitions between this cutscene's story beats.)
Also… this dark blue forest makes me wish the sprites were palette-swapped even slightly to match the environment's lighting.
So, wait… they animated that cool toss, but didn't give the Drago any actual jumping sprites?
(Potted summary and link) https://twitter.com/webbedspace/status/732957235303718912
The videogame I probably played the most this year was Imbroglio by @smestorp, the sorta tower defense-esque roguelike I mentioned in May.