Random Chaos

So, the other week I started playing The World Ends With You, and was doing a veritable speed run of the game.  Turns out, however, that this is one of those games when the speed run can come around and kill you flat.  I'd gotten about halfway through when I realized that I hadn't taken time to power up any stats or anything like that.  And, as luck would have it, I had already burned the items that I needed to get that done right on my allies, not saving anything for myself to buff stats with.  As I realized that, I made the split second decision to reset and start over from the beginning of the game, last Friday.

I finished the thing about yesterday morning at around four AM.  I had intended to go into it a little later than that, but I got stuck on that mode where you just have to find out how the game ends, dammit, and so I kept going and didn't stop until I'd finished it.

As I played through the second partner's chapter—Joshua's arc—I kept looking for ways that some of his dialogue could be reinterpreted as to not come off as slasher!bait.  But as it went on and on, all that happened was a lot of me going, "*snrk!*  Joshua, you ar NOT helping!"  I mean, come on, sometimes it was so out there that I couldn't not see it.  His laugh (more of a smug little giggle, actually) didn't help at all.  The Reaper that asks you to put him in head-to-to Natural Puppy threads doesn't help at ALL!  (It's mostly stuff that Shiki'd wear…so basically he winds up in drag.  Skinny jeans, red pumps, a straw hat, and a slim polo…I just about died when I realized that I'd have to put him in drag to clear that challenge.)  I spent most of the time going "You canNOT be serious!"

Something else that didn't hlep much was the cracked-out side story that gets unlocked after you finish the game.  XD
I kept wanting to say "Stop talking and you won't get slashed" to the screens everytime he showed up onscreen…odd, considering for the longest part of the arc in question I couldn't stand him.  After a while I stopped hating him, though.  His snarkiness grew on me.  As did Beat's hollow head, but that's another story; I'm not even going to get started on that little angst-muffin.  xD