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In honor of the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, we have a real treat. Originally for the $5 Patrons, we have unlocked one of our longest and most in depth episodes of Novel Not New, and it's available just in time for the spooky season. We hope you enjoy. Ahhh, Majora's Mask. A real odd duck in the Zelda series. There are weirder ones, sure: that Tingle DS game is pretty strange. In its own mundane way, Link's Crossbow Training is quite bizarre. But those are mere spinoffs. Majora's Mask adopts its own weird persona while managing to be a full Zelda game. The first Zelda led by Eiji Aonuma. The one that was gonna be for the 64DD. And for my money, one of the best. Let's see what lies behind the mask. Click here when indicated if you want to watch the 100% No Major Glitches World Record speedrun alongside this podcast for some reason! This Month's Games! The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask This Month's Guest! Kyrie Page (@kyrie.scanlinemedia.com) Next Month's Game! Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty  Next Month's Guest! Allen Ibrahim (@chatzpod.bsky.social) Opening Segment Void Stranger Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Fate/Samurai Remnant

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 5-6, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 5-6, Kamen Rider Blade 5-6 Pretty Cure has a new villain for us. Dekaranger has things to say about capitalism's hunger for oil. Blade has decided to just acknowledge what's going on, and not insult our intelligence. All-in-all, a solid week here on Sunday Henshin Time, where three lineups of transforming heroes face the problems of the week, and rise above. Mostly. Garren does get his butt kicked pretty often. The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas! To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link! Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 3-4, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 3-4, Kamen Rider Blade 3-4 Big explosive openings are out of the way, now is time to settle into some grooves. Futari wa is out here building the train while it's already on the tracks, but that's where they like to be. Dekaranger is trying to expand it's characters and setting, and Blade is diving right into some impressively escalated stakes. What will these shows morph into? Something colorful, I am certain. The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas! To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link! Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 1-2, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 1-2, Kamen Rider Blade 1-2 Here comes a new story. Or three, to be more precise. With our Journey to the Worst in the bag, Kyrie and I leave Dragon Ball behind for the moment, and head to new territory. But what could we possibly cover where we'd have that same magic combination of undercovered work that we can act as experts about, and that we're very passionate about? It's a short list, I think. But you know? Pretty Cure, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider? Yeah, I think that makes the cut. We're starting Sunday Henshin Time with the first two episodes of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, and Kamen Rider Blade. And we're riding this baby all the way. I suspect we'll die before we fully catch up XD but enjoy the ride until then! The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas! To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link! Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

Here we are, folks. Game of the Year- the capper to the Gimmick Awards. We've said a lot over the course of this month, so no big preamble: I'll let the conversation speak for itself. The Nominees Are: 1000xRESIST Chants of Sennaar Children of the Sun Crow Country Dragon Quest III HD-2D Dragon's Dogma 2 Dungeons of Hinterberg Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Helldivers 2 I Am Your Beast Kerbal Space Program 2 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Metaphor: ReFantazio Mouthwashing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Riven (2024) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom UFO 50 Unicorn Overlord Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

Games. Turns out, you tend to play them. In years past, we have often tried to talk about the elegance of particular systems and mechanics before, but we never had a category exclusive to that. Debuting this year, we wanted to award our favorite mechanics from 2024. The Nominees Are: Mind Chess (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit) Learning Languages (Chants of Sennaar) Bullet Guidance (Children of the Sun) Lane Rails (Deadlock) Memories (Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake) Pawns (Dragons Dogma 2) Bravery Points (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Stratagems (Helldivers 2) Bond (Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom) Team Up (Marvel Rivals) The Car (Pacific Drive) The Starry Expanse (Riven [2024]) Fast Talk (Star Wars Outlaws) Possession (Slitterhead) Rewind (Tetrachroma) Guard Thrust (Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]) Tactics (Unicorn Overlord) Special Training Plan (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

Sometimes, a singular moment shines through and is so bright, you can't help but take notice. This may be the last year this category takes the form it does, so let's send it off with some of our favorite moments from games and anime. Please note, this podcast will spoil many moments from all the games and anime we list, so if you wanna go in without knowing, you may wanna steer clear of this pod. But regardless, here are the nominees! The Nominees Are: Propaganda Theater (1000xRESIST) Eustace Steps Up (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit) Tearful Reunion (BanG Dream: It's My GO!!!!!) Arriving in the Warriors Floor (Chants of Sennaar) Feint Kamehameha (Dragon Ball GT) Goku Going Super Saiyan 4 (Dragon Ball GT) You Dropped Your Crown (Dragon Quest III HD-2D) Get Out of the Car (Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club) Nier Denied (EVO 2024) Shikikan Reunites with Kalin(a) (Girls Frontline 2) Spot Dodging a Raging Blow (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Hectic Extraction (Helldivers 2) Debugged Consoles (Lorelei and the Laser Eyes) Sleeping by the door (The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today) "I Lived, Bitch" (Metaphor: ReFantazio) Collapsing Bridge (Riven [2024]) Peanut Butter's Home Run (Summer Games Done Quick 2024) A Quiet Commitment (Unicorn Overlord) Primm Saves the World (Unicorn Overlord) Suo Teaches Humility (Wind Breaker) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

You know, despite our ambitions of being a gaming coverage site, we talk about a lot of anime. Our most frequent and consistent shows are about anime and manga, so of course we had to dedicate a category to it. In one of our more prestigious awards, we discuss our favorite anime and manga of the year from 2024. The Nominees Are: BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!! (Anime) Delicious in Dungeon (Anime) Dragon Ball (Manga) Dragon Ball GT (Anime) The Elusive Samurai (Anime) Heterogenia Linguistico (Manga) Martian Successor Nadesico (Anime) Our Dreams At Dusk (Manga) Overman King Gainer (Anime) Ranma 1/2 (2024) (Anime) Turn A Gundam (Anime) Wind Breaker (Anime) Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Manga) Yotsuba& (Manga) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

...And here are the Instrumental songs, which is to say, the ones that aren't lyrically focused- the human voice is still allowed as an instrument! The Nominees Are: Objection! 2011 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit) Pit of Peril (Astro Bot) Maybe Everything Will Be Ok… (Crow Country) Go Home, Little Stamp aka Bow Wow Wow (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth) Pride [Beatrix's Theme] - Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Extraction Suite - Helldivers 2 Zero's Theme (Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite and Beyond) Captain America's Theme (Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite and Beyond) Warriors in Arms (Metaphor: ReFantazio) Main Theme (Mouthwashing) Gehn's Theme (Riven (2024)) The Youkai Trail Trio* (Touhou Mystia's Izakaya) Calm Before Tomorrow's Storm (Touhou Mystia's Izakaya) Fighting Off The Powerful (Unicorn Overlord) Heir to the Dragon Lords (Unicorn Overlord) Roger that (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. *A Hushed Night Begins/In High Spirits/Come One, Come All

Music is a weird category for us, or rather pair of categories thanks to it being split in twain. We aren't music crits, and we don't cover the music industry or its releases. Instead, we discuss music via its presence in other things we cover- games and anime. Anime openings and closings, themes in games, that sort of thing. We'll leave the record industry to the experts. The Nominees Are: Haruhikage by MyGO!!!!!! (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) Hitoshizuku by MyGO!!!!!! (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) seisyun complex by kessoku band (Bocchi the Rock!) Otonoke by Creepy Nuts (Dandadan) Jaka Jaan by Zedd feat. C&K (Dragon Ball Daima) Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku by Field of View (Dragon Ball GT) Plan A by dish// (The Elusive Samurai) VERSUSIA [Versusia's Theme] by Tsutomu Narita (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Welcome to the PARADE! [Vikala's Theme] (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising) Radiant Dawn [Queen Dizzy's Theme] by AISHA (Guilty Gear -Strive-) Symphony [A.B.A.'s Theme] by Naoki Hashimoto (Guilty Gear -Strive-) King Gainer Over! by Yoshiki Fukuyama (Overman King Gainer) It's Going Down Now by (Persona 3 Reload) Iinazukkyun by ano (Ranma 1/2 2024) Beneath the Purple Cherry Blossoms Once Again by 二色幽紫蝶 (Touhou Mystia's Izakaya) Turn A Turn by Hideki Saijo (Turn A Gundam) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. Hironobu Kageyama

2024 was full of surprises. Not all of them good! 2024 was a rough year, y'all. But sometimes surprises can be wonderful, and in this category we explore the things that caught us off guard in a good way. All sorts of things can be involved in this category, be it patches, games, DLC, or in one case, an entire restructuring of games distribution. These are the Best Surprises of 2024. The Nominees Are: Castlevania: Dominus Collection Celeste 64 Dragon Ball FighterZ Patch 1.38 Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club The Jackbox Survey Scramble Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Update Kinki Spiritual Affairs Bureau Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Steam Family Sharing Update Terry Bogard in Street Fighter 6 Tetrachroma UFO 50 Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Webfishing Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

From Best Character, two phantoms were born. The spotlight-haver and the supporting act shouldn't be fighting with each other. It's not right. But I'll let the supporting acts brawl amongst themselves, that's just entertainment. The Nominees Are: Eustace Winner (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosector's Gambit) Larry Butz (Ace Attorney Movie) The Para Para Brothers (Dragon Ball GT) Genba (The Elusive Samurai) Tsubasa Fukuyama (Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club) Nemesis (Hades II) Maria Campanella (The House in Fata Morgana) Byron (I Am Your Beast) Eislein Burchelli Meijal Hulkenberg (Metaphor: ReFantazio) Lacey (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: The Teal Mask) Straight Cougar (s-CRY-ed) Nix (Star Wars Outlaws) Profi (Stella of the End) Knights of the Rose (Unicorn Overlord) Hayato Suō (Windbreaker) Billy (Zenless Zone Zero) Lucy (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is City of Reason by Alkemie from Pentiment, whose character Andreas won Best Game Character in the Gimmick Awards 2022.

This was a category separation we felt very good about when it occurred to us: why are we having leading characters going up against background characters? Why don't we separate this into Best Major Character and Best Side Character, so it's not "this character is cool but they aren't very important to the plot so they're cut?" I like this much better, and I hope y'all do too. The Nominees Are: Bang Bang Fire (1000xRESIST) Anon Chihaya (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) Tomori Takamatsu (BanG Dream: It's MyGO!!!!!!) Mara Forest (Crow Country) Baby (Dragon Ball GT) Lord Tokiyuki (The Elusive Samurai) Shikikan (Girls Frontline 2) Michel (The House in Fata Morgana) Morgana (The House in Fata Morgana) Jeeves (Jeeves and Wooster) Saku Fukuzawa (The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today) Yukichi (The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today) Heismay Noctule (Metaphor: ReFantazio) Alain (Unicorn Overlord) Belle/Rin (Zenless Zone Zero) Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is flanged drum by rj lake from EL PASO, ELSEWHERE, whose main character James Savage won our Best Character category in the Gimmick Awards 2023.

"Action Toolkit" is the best phrasing we could come up with, but it's like... you know when you play a game, and you push buttons, and it feels good? Yeah. That. A nice wall jump, a cool counter, a great set of tools that come together to form a playstyle and concept that feel good and engage your brain. Not everything on here is an action game. It does kinda exclude turn-based games, however. The Nominees Are: Madeline (Celeste 64) Globule (Decline's Drops) Kez (Dota 2) Thief (Dragon's Dogma 2) Witch's Staff (Hades 2) Doctor Strange (Marvel Rivals) Jeff the Land Shark (Marvel Rivals) Luna Snow (Marvel Rivals) Peni Parker (Marvel Rivals) Engage Gundam Booster (Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2) Yi (Nine Sols) Pepper (Pepper Grinder) Darkrai (Pokemon Unite) Ho-Oh (Pokemon Unite) Psyduck (Pokemon Unite) Sargon (Prince of Persia The Lost Crown) Night Owl (Slitterhead) Burnice White (Zenless Zone Zero) Miyabi Hoshimi (Zenless Zone Zero) Tsukishiro Yanagi (Zenless Zone Zero Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is Pizza Deluxe! from Pizza Tower, whose main playable character Peppino won our Best Action Toolkit category in the Gimmick Awards 2023.

It would be wonderful if all that was necessary to make a great work of art was a good idea. Unfortunately, this isn't so, and the road to making an idea into real art is full of pitfalls, and chances for things to go astray. Or perhaps not astray- perhaps these artists made exactly what they meant to, and it's on us for seeing a different, better possibility in them. Whatever the case, these are good ideas gone wrong. These are the Most Misguided of 2024. The Nominees Are: Dragon Ball GT Dragon Ball PROJECT:Multi Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Jackbox Naughty Pack Long Gone Days Marvel Rivals The McRib Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance Palworld Princess Peach: Showtime! Rabbit & Steel Solo Leveling Tactical Breach Wizards Tekken 8 Tetris Forever Here's our write-up for the winners! Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky. The rules summary music for this category is Faith to Face from AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, our Biggest Disappointment "winner" from the Gimmick Awards 2022.