I ain't going to Heaven, I already sold my soul to Lucifer.

Don't worry man, I got this.

IT'S PIKACHU

2-5. Some Japanese animé/manga-style artists whose work I like do draw in 6-ish territory, and 6 and 7 can be very cute when done right, but on that particular chart they don't look too appealing.

Inspired by @dskN, I tried to match drawings by various eromanga/h-doujin artist/circles to the chart positions they corresponded with. Note that not all drawings are representative of the artist's usual works.

*Disclaimer: All linked pictures are safe-for-work by 4chan standards, but I wouldn't recommend opening them in the presence of others.*

1.
Hazuki Kaoru & Kasuya Hideo http://tinyurl.com/86zy25e
Shiwasu no Okina http://tinyurl.com/78a9k4s

2.
Coelacanth http://tinyurl.com/7ps9ots
Aduma Ren http://tinyurl.com/csa8ybg
Napata http://tinyurl.com/6mauk4q
Ube Yoshiki http://tinyurl.com/7jfhdfx

3.
Homunculus http://tinyurl.com/7tafcol
Cuvie http://tinyurl.com/6lzd2wq
Maruta http://tinyurl.com/7mlvtsc
Kisaragi Gunma http://tinyurl.com/766ku98
Yuzuki N Dash http://tinyurl.com/823m5fv
Kojima Saya http://tinyurl.com/87vjfqc
Ootsuka Reika http://tinyurl.com/d4ughkz
Magono-Tei (Carn) http://tinyurl.com/7o23l4p
Enuma Elish (Yukimi) http://tinyurl.com/7obglof
Shiden Akira http://tinyurl.com/6o4zabd
DA HOOTCH (ShindoL) http://tinyurl.com/7ynqmrc
Hanzaki Jirou http://tinyurl.com/86qtpyn
Ajisai Denden (Kawakami Rokkaku) http://tinyurl.com/8yekhm4

4.
Tsunken (Men's) http://tinyurl.com/88faj9h
Mitarashi Club (Mitarashi Kousei) http://tinyurl.com/6necota
Hyocorou http://tinyurl.com/coscths
Toko-ya (HEIZO & Kiteon) http://tinyurl.com/cld3kb6
Basutei Shower (Katsurai Yoshiaki) http://tinyurl.com/c6rwslo
Minato Fumi http://tinyurl.com/7we483z
Fuuga http://tinyurl.com/6ulpuas
Nagare Ippon http://tinyurl.com/865ctwq
GiriGiri Nijiiro (Kamino Ryu-ya) http://tinyurl.com/74vnwyk
Heriyama http://tinyurl.com/7wxw78w
Bosshi http://tinyurl.com/ch3umhh
Snob Nerd Works (Sameda Koban) http://tinyurl.com/6vwphjk
Naruco Hanaharu http://tinyurl.com/6qlhvkt
Kabe no Saido (saitom) http://tinyurl.com/6peovyh
Harumi Chihiro http://tinyurl.com/catzjm8
TakayaKi http://tinyurl.com/cs2aqzm
Fountain's Square http://tinyurl.com/7vme2ll
TIES (Takei Ooki) http://tinyurl.com/85z3kvy
Yamatogawa http://tinyurl.com/7k9w9sd

5.
Takumi na Muchi http://tinyurl.com/7ehed9c
Hisasi http://tinyurl.com/6qwyerc
Makinosaka Shinichi http://tinyurl.com/837de45
Itosugi Masahiro http://tinyurl.com/6lv8ht6
Shinji Nora http://tinyurl.com/7hxhdlb
Reak (TAKTO) http://tinyurl.com/84adhcm
Yaya Hinata http://tinyurl.com/7eaenhy
Kinku http://tinyurl.com/73trbct
Takanaedo (Takanae Kyourin) http://tinyurl.com/72nfu8y
Kusano Kouichi http://tinyurl.com/6msvzsh
Digital Lover http://tinyurl.com/7xpjq63

6.
Energia (Pikachi) http://tinyurl.com/84dx7rr
Hotateya (James Hotate) / Kogure Mariko http://tinyurl.com/6r6hz75

7.
N/A

8.
N/A

9.
N/A

I have the feeling that maybe as much as half is miscategorized, but I had a headache from trying to sort everything, so screw it. Many of the 4s could be 5s, and some of the 3s should be 4s, etc. etc. My judgment lacked consistency because sometimes I sorted by eye size, and other times by the degree of how unrealistic the drawing was. Some had me particularly stumped: I had NO CLUE WHATSOEVER where to place Ootsuka Reika, for example. Regardless, it's interesting how the overwhelming majority of the drawings fall in the 3~5 area. It almost looks like there's a normal distribution curve, but I don't feel like crunching statistics.

Full list of sources, if anyone is curious: http://pastebin.com/aqYpQvQQ

Not a morning person.

As far as the vertical shooters go, PERFECT Cherry Blossom is #1 in my heart. And it wasn't the first Touhou I played (that would be EoSD), so it's not simply a case of "my first experience / / / / /" nostalgia. Admittedly, when I first got into Touhou there were only four Windows Touhou games (MoF was a few months from being released), so I played the heck out of EoSD, PCB, and IN (never warmed up to PoFV).

All very subjective reasons, but overall I like PCB's soundtrack the most, and Yuyuko's first theme, "幽雅に咲かせ、墨染の桜 ～Border of Life" is my single favorite song in Touhou.

I also prefer PCB's engine--I don't know what it is about Mountain of Faith and the Touhou games after it, but it feels like everything moves faster in them, and Reimu's ability to weave through bullet patterns with that tiny hitbox seems worse.

Characters are low on my list of criteria, although I do like most of PCB's cast. Yuyuko was originally my favorite Touhou (before new ones were introduced and supplanted her), and Yukari has always ranked highly. I'd still have to give the edge to EoSD's cast as the most unforgettable, however.

PCB's gameplay is tops for me, tied with Imperishable Night. I like the extra life system of PCB (and IN) the most, which is based on the number of point items (the blue boxes) collected. Reach a threshold, and you gain a new life. Most of the spell patterns and bullets are original*. The system is very easy to grasp and quite intuitive: Red power items improve your character's firepower, blue point items lead to extra lives (although their true purpose is for score), and pink cherry items--OK, they're more abstract, but collect many and sooner or later a cherry border will appear.

*Original to the Windows Touhou games. It's possible some were recycled from the PC-98 Touhou games, but I wouldn't know since I've never played any of them. Too lazy to figure out how to emulate them, and for all intents and purposes they don't exist anyway.

The cherry border system is quite nice, as it has tangible benefits to both beginners--a free extra hit--as well as to hardcore players who aim for top scores (it's actually somewhat complicated because grazing a lot during cherry border dramatically raises score, so you have to strategically time cherry borders so that they are activated during bullet heavy segments).

The other games don't impress me as much. EoSD is OK because it has few bells or whistles, but I don't like MoF's faith system (I was going to say that faith items are useless, except they are tied to the score, and score is tied to gaining extra lives, meh); Subterranean Animism's graze system because I am not a graze whore; and UFO's UFO system--well, I actually like it, but it serves no purpose during boss fights so it's pointless half the time. Ten Desires' spirit system (or whatever you'd call it) is rather interesting, but I disliked other aspects of the game, such as the harsh penalty for deaths (lose an entire level of power, and receive only seven power items in return? Really?).

One aspect about PCB that I like, which many people may not, is the fact that there isn't POC auto-collect until reaching MAX power. ...That line probably made no sense to several of you. But basically, there's an invisible horizontal line near the top of the screen that, when crossed by the player character, automatically collects all the items on the screen, and it's known as the point-of-collection (POC). It's a great risk and reward concept, since it's usually more dangerous to be higher on the screen.

But anyway, in MoF and up, the POC is activated at all times. In PCB, reaching it doesn't do anything until firepower is at MAX. Therefore, the main goal of the first two stages in PCB is to collect as many power items as possible in order to quickly reach MAX. This takes a certain amount of strategy because you have to try to kill as many enemies as possible and collect all the dropped power items, and sometimes it's tricky to do both simultaneously.

After reaching MAX, then the player can concentrate on dashing to the POC whenever safe to do so. My point is, it's more interesting that there's more differentiation between playing the early stages compared to the later ones in PCB. In the other Touhou games, you're just always trying to reach the POC (with the exception of Subterranean Animism, but I'm not a fan of excessive grazing so I don't like its system).

You may suspect at this point that I'm a sort of a scrub, and that's correct. I don't have a preference for vertical shmups, nor am I good at them--I play more for survival than score. Therefore, 1cc'ing PCB and IN on hard mode, as well as clearing their Extra Stages, were huge personal accomplishments.

Well, to summarize, PCB's music is my favorite; I like its intuitive gameplay and cherry border, extra life systems; and the bullet patterns and characters are beautiful and memorable. It all adds up to my favorite game in the series.

Oh wow, Nitori as gundere. ちょｋａｗａｉｉ

Cool video dude, thanks. Too bad there will never be a Touhou animé.


Or Nichijou season 2. ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

That it isn't /jp/.

http://tindeck.com/listen/yrpq

The drum track works well with Karma, and it's cool how the choruses synchronize. Maybe the timing could be better, but I like it. And I wanted to give a shout-out to my /bun/bro FunK.


If you'd like a video, my top two choices were already covered, so I browsed Youtube until I heard http://tinyurl.com/43xeq2t which I thought was fairly well-made. But there's so many well-done mashups out there I could look all day.

Alright, finally ready to answer this question. Made several different lists, let's get on with the show. Numbers in parenthesis refer to which game in the series the character was first introduced. Also, all discussions pertaining to voice actors/actresses refer to the Japanese ones, because I did not play any of the Disgaea games with the English tracks.

Top "Ten" Favorite Female Story Characters
--------------------------------------------------
1. Rozalin (2) http://tinyurl.com/bmhrwoh

I've mentioned before (very briefly in http://tinyurl.com/brz6jre) that Rozalin is my favorite heroine in Disgaea. When she first made her entrance in 2, I was charmed immediately. She's one of Harada's prettiest characters, and I love her haughty attitude. It's no secret that I am usually a fan of tsundere characters. Also, I really like her refined manner of speech and her voice--and, as it turns out, her seiyuu is none other than Yukari Tamura, who is among my favorite VAs (I prefer her serious voice much more than the cutesy one).

2. Flonne (1) http://tinyurl.com/d2t3xat

She's too cute! Her entrance was wonderful and hilarious--I loved the "Nin nin nin!" ( who didn't?) and how she spectacularly failed as an assassin. Besides that, it was humorous how she was an angel, yet occasionally behaved in demon-like ways. What really gives her the edge over the rest of the competition on this list was her importance to the story of Disgaea 1. Simply, she was the most crucial character, next to Laharl. It was her "love freak" ways, and ultimate sacrifice, that finally opened Laharl's heart.

3. Etna (1) http://tinyurl.com/d2ukzel

Surprisingly sexy, in spite of (or because of, to you darn lolipedos out there) her childlike body. It's the revealing nature of the outfit, I think. But anyway, what really caught my attention and won me over was her voice actress. She did an wonderful, awesome job in the "Next Preview" segments. I also really liked Etna in Disgaea 2, where she ended up screwing herself by playing a prank on Adell and co.

4. Fuuka Kazamatsuri (4) http://tinyurl.com/7kpmxby

I love her design, it's easily among Harada's finest. The Prinny hat is one of the cutest things ever, the twintails are pretty, the uniform and jacket are nice, and there's delicious ZR. It hits all the right notes. I wish I could say her personality matched the level of her design, but her stubborn insistence that everything was just a dream grew tiresome. Her VA was OK, but there are many better performances from others. That said, Fuuka was an awesome unit in battles for doling out big damage. That, and her sweet design, carry her up to this spot.

5. Yukimaru (2) http://tinyurl.com/d355xvt

Yukimaru is unbelievably adorable. Her design is very cute, and I love her voice and manner of speech. Her "gozaru" ender is great (it was localized as the bizarre "zam", which makes no sense to me and probably isn't nearly as endearing). Make her travel across uneven terrain and she squeaks "gozaru gozaru gozaru" as she scampers around the map. My heart! As a unit she was OK, a bit weird because she's in the mold of a ninja but more of a sword than fist user. I gave her the best weapon so she was my strongest unit in the game.

6. Hanako (2) http://tinyurl.com/7sc5am2

Adell's monster of a little sister--literally. Her design is cute enough, I guess, but her high placement is based entirely on the amazing job her VA did. I don't know how to really explain, but she perfectly nailed the 'bratty-and-troublesome-yet-she's-your-lovable-younger-sister' voice, and I always looked forward to hearing her voiced lines. http://tinyurl.com/7jsp6ej Well, I guess the animations of her character sprite were quite cute too, and her Pretty Bazooka skill was really, really good.

7. Sapphire (3) http://tinyurl.com/7e467xg

I didn't expect to like her that much, since I didn't think much of her design, but I guess there's something about the speech patterns of princesses that grab my fancy. Not sure if it's some kind of accent, but I really like how she sprinkles "-ja" in her lines. http://tinyurl.com/7ghsegk Besides liking her voice, she was enjoyable as a funny character for her overly violent tendencies. Her subplot with Almaz was my favorite part of Disgaea 3's main story. I'm just repeating myself here, but they really do make the best couple in Disgaea, and I was quite pleased by the outcome of their relationship in the regular ending.

8. Salvatore the Magnificent (3) http://tinyurl.com/7ft2xgh

Salvatore? More like SALIVATEtore.

...Yeah, that was terrible.. But anyway, dang she's sexy. Something about that uniform coupled with her serious voice is just right, you know? It helps that she looks kind of like Rozalin with her hair down. The pointing animation of her character sprite is very cool, and interestingly it's borrowed directly by Fuuka in 4. Anyway, I would have placed her higher, but she just doesn't have enough screentime. Nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed the few scenes she had. Also, she's a really awesome unit--an extremely powerful gun user with a pretty nice unique Evility (even though it's entirely defensive in nature, which limits her damage output...). Salvatore certainly is Magnificent.

9. Raspberyl (3) http://tinyurl.com/7nwwbb2

Her design is very cute, and she's voiced by the wonderful Chiwa Saito (Senjougahara Hitagi in Bakemonogatari, Taokaka in the BlazBlue games, among other roles). Unfortunately, Raspberyl's role in Disgaea 3 felt surprisingly minor overall. Yeah, she was instrumental in calming down Mao one time, and also served as the damsel-in-distress another, but still. Way too many other characters shined more than her.

10. Desco (4) http://tinyurl.com/7b54vvt

I really like Desco's design. It's funny how she's small and cute despite supposedly being a "final boss", and I'm intrigued by that Cthulhu-like thing strapped to her back. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand her VA. Her voice was grating and didn't fit somehow. However, Desco was a sweet unit in battle. Just a fantastic damage dealer with offense-oriented unique Evilities, and a great monster-type unit to magichange onto others.

11. Vulcanus (4) http://tinyurl.com/85bdt9b

This is what I meant by top "ten". OK, so I have a confession to make: I stopped playing Disgaea 4 somewhere around episode 8, shortly after Vulcanus joined the team. Frankly, I don't know much about her, so all I can say is she's kind of pretty, she's voiced by Eri KITAmura (heck yeah), and her costume is really weird in the front. Maybe she'd be higher on the list had I finished the main story, but who knows?

Unranked #1. Pleinair http://tinyurl.com/7ch6mmw

Pleinair isn't a story character, so she doesn't qualify for the list, but she has been occasionally playable (Disgaea DS, Disgaea 2 PSP DLC, Disgaea 3 Vita, etc.), and often serves as the 'portal' to the Dark Assembly/classroom. Her design is extraordinarily cute, and as a unit she's an amazing gun user.

Unranked #2. Asagi http://tinyurl.com/cdp5bd7

She was supposedly going to be the heroine of a game called "Makai Wars", but the game got canceled. Since then, she's bounced around as cameo character that appears in NIS games, which means she's made an appearance in every Disgaea since 2 and up. Another character with an excellent design--she's pretty and cute, and yet another powerful gun user. There sure are a lot of awesome female gun wielders, for some reason.


Top Five Favorite Male/Other Story Characters
--------------------------------------------------
1. Valvatorez (4) http://tinyurl.com/7wey9nw

The protagonist of the most recent game. Laharl and Mao, the main characters of 1 and 3, respectively, are quite similar in personality. Valvatorez and Adell (2's hero) also share one thing in common: they always uphold their promises, no matter how ridiculous or handicapping they are. That's about as far as that comparison goes, however.

Adell comes across as a somewhat typical hot-blooded dude who thinks more with his fists than his head (although he did solve that geo puzzle in the coliseum), and who fights for his family (and friends). Just didn't find him very interesting.

Valvatorez, however, was. On one hand he's kind of cool in a way like Code Geass's Lulu whenever he flares his cape and makes some grand sweeping proclamation. But on the other, he's frivolous--obsessed with sardines or some small typo made by the Corruptment-run newspaper. He's odd, and funny, and probably the best main character in the series thus far.

2. Thursday (1) http://tinyurl.com/84jxzra

I no longer remember specifically why I like Thursday, just that I do. It could be how it had some hilarious scenes. It could be that I grew to like its weird speech. It's probably because of the time Thursday heroically sacrificed itself to protect Gordon, and continued to fight even while on the verge of breaking down.

3. Mr. Champloo (3) http://tinyurl.com/d3uyq3a

He completely stole the show in 3 with the way he expressed everything in food and cooking-related metaphors. Coolest character in the game.

4. Laharl (1) http://tinyurl.com/7ehapb2

Self-centered, selfish, arrogant, cruel, obnoxious--what's there to like? Even so, many comedic moments involved him, and the overarching story of Disgaea 1--in which Laharl reconciles with his mother's death and his human side, and learns to love a little--is still my favorite in the series.

5. Almaz (3) http://tinyurl.com/6my59oj

My initial impression was that he was simply the human (and male) version of Flonne's role in Disgaea 1, and I don't think this is far from the mark. He is, after all, the instrumental character in changing Mao's heart. Still, I didn't expect to like him much, since he seemed rather pathetic at first, but he grew to be quite the lovable loser, the underdog I couldn't help but cheer for. That he ultimately achieved more than he bargained for was quite a pleasant surprise.


Top Ten Female Generic Humanoid Classes
--------------------------------------------------
1. Archer (1~4) http://tinyurl.com/7f2vm9x

It's hardly a surprise that the Archer class has is one of the few that has survived intact throughout the whole series.

Key reasons:
• Drills
• (´・ω・)つ|・・|

Archers rarely are have been a flat-out powerful class, usually best only in certain circumstances, although they seem quite good in 3 (mine could one-shot most enemies, which made life much easier). That doesn't matter because Harada really struck gold with their designs. Cutest class.

2. Lady Samurai (1~4) http://tinyurl.com/7q3aa5p

The Samurai/Exorcist/Lady Samurai/whatever-you-call-it class is another series mainstay. She's quite pretty, and I've always compared her to the Ronin in Etrian Odyssey, even though the Lady Samurai came first. She's always been one of my favorite classes, in thanks to a combination of high weapon mastery and ATK aptitude, plus a 30% extra
damage bonus when attacking one-on-one. Just an awesome character for offense.

3. Mage (1) http://tinyurl.com/6uokymf

For some mysterious reason, Mages were replaced by Witches from 2 onward. That's a shame, because Mages wore a maid-like costume, and everyone knows that maid uniforms are top-tier (if you didn't know before, you do now!).

4. Witch (2~4) http://tinyurl.com/6nqhne9

...Though to be fair, the Mage's replacement isn't bad either. Witches are quite cute, and their inherent ability to conserve SP is useful for Item World treks.

5. Kunoichi (2, 3) http://tinyurl.com/7wgejka

I like their ponytails. Kunoichi's have a very silly special skill in 3 called "3 Year Crush Kill"--the targeted units peep into a bathhouse window and see the Kunoichi taking a bath; she then gets embarrassed and flings throwing knives into the units' faces.

6. Beastmaster (2~4) http://tinyurl.com/7blwb4x

Their hair is seriously crazy. But in battle they have uniformly good stats and were, well, beastly in 2 because there were so many monster-unit story characters (Tink, Hanako, Taro), and they also naturally boosted bonus gauge gain. Sadly, Beastmasters became far more situational in 3 and 4.

7. Thief (2~4) http://tinyurl.com/bpjag5w

8. Fight Mistress (3) http://tinyurl.com/dyrrxuk

9. Healer (1~4) http://tinyurl.com/6o4elf2

10. Sorceror (3, 4) http://tinyurl.com/d4makf2

Functionally the equivalent of Etrian Odyssey's Hexers, but not as cute.


Top Something List of Disgaea Villains
--------------------------------------------------
1. Overlord Zenon (2) http://tinyurl.com/c5fmfhw

Two words: NORIO WAKAMOTO. To be honest, Zenon had only one very cool scene, where he solos a group of overlords from other netherworlds who've come to challenge him. Otherwise, he doesn't accomplish much besides getting his rear handed to him by Etna. Regardless, the power of Wakamoto is too strong.

I should remark now that personally, I don't think much of Disgaea's villains. Most aren't particularly memorable, and a lot of foes you face on the battlefield end up joining your side. In that case, should they be considered good villains then, when they are also eventual helpers?

2. Salvatore (3) http://tinyurl.com/6qj77ps

This is what I mean--I liked her even when she was in the enemy camp. But it helped that she eventually turned around to assist Mao and his entourage. Allow me to recycle some phrases from earlier: "dang she's sexy", "just right", "looks kind of like Rozalin", "cool", "awesome unit", "Salvatore certainly is Magnificent". That should cover it.

3. Aurum (3) http://tinyurl.com/79c97vb

Well... I guess he's a decent villain. Somewhat interesting as a tragic hero-ish figure that lost his way and became corrupted.

4. Fubuki (2) http://tinyurl.com/d2yl2gv

Not really a villain, just a foe, but I had to put him up here because his theme is totally baller. http://tinyurl.com/6wskodr The battles against him were some of the most exciting in 2.

5. Archangel Vulcanus (1) http://tinyurl.com/d59lcdd

The other Vulcanus, the one without breasts. I don't really remember much, other than he was quite twisted for an angel, and I didn't like him so clearly he was doing something right.

6. Vyers/Mid-Boss/Dark Adonis (1) http://tinyurl.com/6vambfn

He's the first real obstacle in the first game, and he just won't go away. Utterly vain and narcissistic, as well as constantly making excuses, he walks the border between hilarious and annoying throughout most of the game, before it becomes evident there's far more to him than meets the eye.

7. Axel (2) http://tinyurl.com/7ozu9o6

Axel is honestly little more than a rehash of Vyers, a comic relief character who ultimately turns around to assist the main party.

8. School Board President (3) http://tinyurl.com/coa8aqs

In fact, she's a very minor boss, who is little more than a generic Archer unit. But Archers are the best, so that has to count for something.

9. Seraph Lamington (1) http://tinyurl.com/d94rsqb

Yeah, he's technically the final boss of 1's main story, but it's not like he's actually evil or anything. He just tricks Laharl into fighting him. I vaguely remember it was a tough boss battle. The End.


Well, that's it--several relatively comprehensive lists of my favorite characters from the Disgaea series. Dang that took long to write and put together.

Yeah, I'm quite certain I've gotten worse at Minesweeper, since peaking back in ~'04. Of course, part of this is due to the fact that I haven't played it very much over the past few years, but anyway, I decided to semi-scientifically test my hypothesis. I played intermediate mode* and took the first thirty times that I achieved, then ran the numbers on them.

*Though I could have played expert mode instead, the sheer amount of luck needed to just finish a game would have forced me to use a smaller sample size.

I say 'semi-scientifically', because I don't have any control data from the past, when I was much better at Minesweeper. You'll just have to take my word for it, but I used to average around 31~32 seconds, with probably a quarter of the games finished under thirty seconds, and never took over forty seconds. Assuming that's true, clearly I've slipped quite a bit, though not as badly as I had expected. Was lucky enough to manage a 23-second game, but also went over 40 once; and it's safe to say I'll never come close to my personal record of 18 seconds.

Didn't really spot any obvious trends, although near the end I might have been playing better, even without the 23-second outlier included. Had I kept going, finger fatigue probably would have balanced out any improvements in pattern recognition and calculation. At any rate, my mouse is currently too sensitive for optimal playing.

Decided to lay off from making joke charts because I already pulled some out the last time I took this test in response to a question. Speaking of the last time: http://tinyurl.com/ch3bxzp

I'm fairly surprised that the results are almost exactly the same, since I generally consider myself to not have firm political views. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'm becoming more rigid and inflexible.

As for the test shared by @Lrogg: http://tinyurl.com/bvfqvlf I don't have particularly strong views in most categories? Sounds about right.