RANKAROID 2025 FAVOURITES
I'm hoping to make one of these every year but here's the second edition of Rankaroid Favourites. (A little late but I made it!!!!!!)
If you have known me in the last year then you probably know about the first entry. Sorry. Talking about it again award.
Danganronpa Another + Super Danganronpa Another 2
I've made like 4 different posts talking about how much I love these games but I've put most of my passion into my twitter side account to keep people spoiler-free but mostly because I feel so passionately about these games that it even warranted a new account.
The Danganronpa Another games are a duology created by South Korean developer, Linuj. Danganronpa Another first released in 2013, releasing chapters until 2015. Super Danganronpa Another 2 was announced with the release of DRA CH6, but Linuj had to do military service (lol) so the release of SDRA2 was delayed until 2017 and concluded in 2020.
These games are, as you may guess, danganronpa fan games. But I don't think you should discredit the games because they're fanworks. They stand strong as independent games and I very genuinely respect Linuj for making these games on his own. He had some assistance in places, but all of the writing, coding and art is his own which is an amazing feat.
There's a non-zero chance that, if you're familiar with danganronpa, you've heard of or seen a character from these games. Let's test that right now:
You get to see the casts too which is nice..! But anyway, my point is that when I was younger and far more enthusiastic about DR (2018~), I saw a lot of these characters, especially the protags (Yuki and Sora), twins (the bright pink things), Satsuki (clown) and Mikako (exorcist). If you don't recognize any of these characters though, that's fine. I would be more surprised though...
SDRA2 was still releasing when I first heard about it and I remember getting some crazy sense of deja vu playing through the first 2 chapters. I must have seen some spoilers online as a kid and just completely forgot.
I never got into DRA sooner but I'm kinda glad I didn't. I think I was able to appreciate the games far more than I would have as a preteen lol.
I really think that everyone should try DRA if they've ever had an interest in danganronpa. Even if you dislike danganronpa, I think it's worth a try because it takes the concepts from the games and executes them, in my opinion, in a far more interesting and compelling way. Upon finishing SDRA2, the only thing I could think about was these games. I drew every day and the only thing I drew was fanart. Hell, I've written 3 fanfictions for my favourite ship (which is HUGE spoilers SORRY) .... I've never felt so compelled by something that I would write several fanfics. For the last 6 or so months it was the only thing I could do... and you can see the proof on my blog lol.
(as spoiler-free as possible)
My favourite character from DRA: Rei Mekaru, the Ultimate Professor. She's my overall favourite character from the duology and she's also scarily similar to my oc, Nina, which really added some bonus points.
My favourite character from SDRA2: ........Well this is a tough decision but it's Iroha Nijiue, the Ultimate Painter. She's joined the ranks of Ranka Lee in Anime Girls That Represent Me.
I love a lot of the duology characters and it's a bit hard to say I love just one SDRA2 character because there's a lot of factors that change my answer based on what exactly you're asking. But overall, I really like Iroha. She makes me laugh a lot :P
(For no particular reason, this is what my discord layout looks like as of writing this post.)
Mekaru is definitely my favourite DRA character though, I won't budge on that LOL.
I've been taking a break from drawing fanart mostly because the holiday season is a very busy time for me plus I got hit by the OC disease like crazy... more on aquamarine later :P But I still keep getting so many drawing ideas I want to finish.. not counting the heaping pile I already have.
Jack Jeanne
Another big favourite of mine this year, but it quickly got overshadowed by DRA lol. Jack Jeanne is an otome visual novel with musical elements about a girl dressing up as a boy to attend an all-boys acting school. I have a more detailed post here!!
The premise alone is pretty interesting, but there are a lot more factors to why I love this game. For one, the art is totally gorgeous and done by Sui Ishida, who you may know better as the mangaka of Tokyo Ghoul. I've obviously known of Tokyo Ghoul and watched it as a kid (barely retained the plot though), but I wasn't very familiar with Ishida's art until playing this game. He is very talented and his work is super inspiring...
I didn't expect to like the music so much but I've been listening to the OST nonstop since playing the game. For every performance in the game, there's about 3 songs to accompany it and wow some of them are seriously so good. My favourite is 'intense confessions at the confessional'.
The huge big one is obviously the story. The characters move me so much, to the point of tears at one point (I rarely cry when reading stories like this.. not out of lack of emotion but it takes a lot). I love all of the main cast, some a lot more than others, but it's still an insanely strong cast. I've done almost every love interest's routes, only one left and not because I dislike him but because I got burnt out from playing so many routes. There's also a route for the protag, Kisa, where you don't romance anyone which I need to play too.
The only thing that stops me from recommending the game more is that it's a switch game that retails for $50 which puts a lot of people off. It goes on sale occasionally...
I've convinced a lot of friends to play the game last year which is the best feeling ever and the best part is that they enjoyed it too. My favourite routes were Kai, Souchan and Mitsuki's routes.
Kai's route made me cry man. I don't hate the other love interests but these 3 are my favourites, alongside the protag Kisa of course.
(more on favourite characters later)
I know otomes aren't for everyone but I really enjoyed playing Jack Jeanne... it's a surprisingly very emotional and I think about it literally everyday. I guess it's kind of my first proper otome too, I want to try more in the future.
of the Devil
This was an addition that really snuck up on me on the latter half of the year. I think at the time I was taking a bit of a break from drawing DRA/ thinking about it and I saw a tweet on my timeline about a VN with the synopsis of "death note but with lesbians" so obviously I have to try the game. Episode 0 is free on steam so it's not like I was losing anything.
BEST DECISION I'VE EVER MADE BTW.
'of the Devil' is a futuristic story set in 2086 about criminal defense attorney, Morgan. Crime is at an all-time low because there are cameras and trackers at every corner, making getting away with crime almost impossible. In each episode of the game, you play as Morgan and defend the wrongly-accused.
So far there's episode 0 (free) and episodes 1 + 2 (which you have to buy, but are pretty cheap and totally worth the price). OTD is made by a team of 4 and they release episodes pretty regularly too! Episode 1 came out in Feb 2025 and Episode 2 just came out last month, Dec 2025. I'm so excited to follow the development of the game... It's really impressive what they're doing and really inspiring too.
This game is insanely stylish! I absolutely adore the art style and the use of striking interactive 3D environments. You get an extremely strong feel for what life is like 60 years into this future, whether it be visually or in articles you read ingame. The characters are so charming in both design and writing. I got so many good laughs playing through the episodes. The music is also fantastic and episode 2 also features music made by Lena Raine, who you may recognize from Celeste, Minecraft, Deltarune and other video games.
Episode 0 serves as an introduction to the setting, so it spends a lot of time explaining common terminology and 2086 slang. Admittedly I found it a bit slow at the start but when I got around to the "main" part (meeting Morgan's client, going over the case), things really sped up for me and I fell in love with the game. Plus, by then I was familiar with most of the terms so things went faster when reading.
You don't get to play a trial in episode 0 since it's set purely at a police station, but in episodes 1 and 2, you get to go to court (YAAAY!!). This game is obviously inspired by things like ace attorney, but it's FAR from a cheap copy and definitely manages distinguishes itself. The mysteries are fun to figure out and what I really like is how the stories have a lot of layers to them. Upon finishing episode 2 I was really surprised by the "secret" (if you make certain decisions, you unlock a secret achievement/dialogue that reveals some pretty big information to you. They aren't required for chapter completion so they're secrets and are easy to miss).
I often find myself thinking about this game and how I wish I was playing it... But in the meantime I've been getting some friends to play which will be my fill for now. I totally recommend this game and supporting the devs! When I was having some crash troubles on ep2's release, they were really helpful and turns out I just needed to update my graphics driver lol.
Aquamarine
Is it cheating to put my OCs on here? No!!! Though, I'd put a properly illustrated lineup of them all if I had one.. For now I have their silhouettes :P One of my goals for this year is to redo refs/standing pictures of them. I'm kinda allergic to drawing fullbodies though... I'll do my bestest.
If you're reading this blog post you probably definitely know about Aquamarine... It's half of what I post on this blog nowadays. On the off-chance you don't know Aquamarine, it's my OC universe set in the titular technology facility, "Aquamarine". Set hundreds of years in the future, the Earth has flooded and forces humanity to reside atop the water, such as in repurposed oil rigs. Aquamarine utilizes a mechanic-diver pair system where mechanics use the materials gathered by divers.
I have an entire different blog dedicated to Aquamarine, but it's a little barebones currently. I have to finish drawing some assets but I've left it on the back burner for ages. You can still check it out though hehe... If you're on mobile, it looks nicer on desktop view! Frankly, I need to redo the profiles completely... I'll post an update when I get around to it T_T) Sorry...
(Pictured: height accurate Aquamarine. These are (mockups?) for sprites I'll use in the visual novel. The gap between Alba and Dolly is really funny... Also Atlas is kind of naked because I got lazy on the night I was drawing them.)
I feel kind of like a fraudster because a lot of Aquamarine exists in writing that is either too disjointed to share or I'm too shy to share. I also tend to not finish drawings of my OCs because... I'm not sure actually. I know that I don't have to make my OCs presentable but I'm very passionate about Aquamarine and want to share them with more people... but not too many because that makes me nervous. Kind of contradictory but they're just really personal to me.
It's easy to share Roid because he exists in FFXIV and that means I don't have to build the world myself :P
For me, Aquamarine is something I can use to explore character dynamics and draw my characters. I feel kind of bad that I neglect the setting a bit because I enjoy writing character interactions but I'm Working On It... harhar... Even though I'm being a bit hard on myself here, I've made a lot of progress in the last year, especially since I spent half of it fixated on Danganronpa Another lmao. I'm back in an Aquamarine mood and I'm picking myself up from where I left off earlier last year.
I think I'm rambling now so here's my Aquamarine goals for 2026:
- Draw new refs for everyone
- Polish up the Aquamarine blog and finish those damn assets
- Hopefully finish Doctor's Order this year :P
- Draw some interiors and architecture... I have a vivid imagination for how Aquamarine's world looks
...3D model if I'm feeling ambitious. I tried last year but I still have plenty of time to try again.
2026 year of Aquamarine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Favourite characters of 2025
Here is the most horizontal picture ever. These are my fav characters of 2025! I won't bother naming everyone because this blog post is already long as hell but this is everyone who's particularly infested my brain so far.
I have no idea what's coming for me this year... I sure as hell didn't expect to spend most of my year obsessed with a danganronpa fangame so I guess anything can happen. Do you want to know what I've been spending my first few days of the year doing? Watching House MD, playing Higurashi and occasionally some Papa's Freezeria... and FFXIV normal/trial roulette. 2027 me come back and confirm if Higurashi altered my brain forever, plz and thanks.
Obviously I love Roid forever and ever.
Thanks for reading this blog post! And happy new year!
