Amassment Message Board

I am so sleep deprived right now, but I was determined to get another shrine out before the month ended.

Dear King - Wingul from Tales of Xillia

Complete with a very bare, very lonely index page. Drop me your Tales of shrines and I'll link them!

Dear King underwent numerous changes in both layout and content structure. It was pretty frustrating! So I threw caution to the wind (something like that) and just started writing, and this is the end product. It gets a little aimless, but I'm pleased with how it came out.

I focused on external source material more than the games themselves. It's been a long time since I reviewed Xillia, so I'm too rusty . . . but I also didn't want to spoil everything for newcomers. I hope that didn't kill the readability. Haha, please enjoy.

Hey Jae! :D I don't have time to read through your shrine this morning (I'll come back to it tonight) but I wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE the layout!! Most of us put our graphic design on the top... YOU PUT IT ON THE BOTTOM. AHHHHHHHHH it's so simple but its genius! XD I also just like the colours, font choices, and general layout of your text (spacing, kerning all that jazz). :3 Your navigation -- specifically how you organized your content -- is really cool too. I'm glad you threw caution to the wind! :)

Aw, thanks, Laura! Originally the image (which was a lot more complicated than before, and I decided it didn't need to be) was on the top, but it wasn't working out for some reason - so to the bottom it went. Since it's a text heavy site due to zero image - sans links - I wanted it to be readable more than anything. I'm glad you like it!

THe design is very nice and organized. You're making me want to play this game even more. I hope I can eventually get it on Steam. :D

Excellent, unique design--I like the graphic at the bottom of the page, plus the horizontal "flow" of the layout out to either side and the purple/black/gold/light gray color scheme! I also adore the intra-site navigation, which makes the site so easy to browse back and forth between pages. The content is both funny and informative, too (SUPER SAIYAN HAIR MAKEOVER LOL).

One color thing you might want to address: each page title is in black at the top of the page, which was a little harder to read against the dark purple background--I had to tilt my laptop screen around to see it, for instance. You might be able to outline the text or give it a text-shadow with a lighter color to help it be more readable, or perhaps put it in a slightly darker gold shade (to differentiate it from the navigation).

Jae! I love the set up of the site. And like Laura said, it's awesome to see your layout on the bottom of the screen! I am not really familiar with Xillia yet, SO I didn't read really in-depth because I am hoping to get involved in the game one day soon, but from what I see I enjoy everything!

Xillia + Xillia 2 are ones that I have skipped :x for no particular reasons??? /ashamed

I have to agree with everything that has been said about your layout! I love that the image placement is in the footer, rather than the header - really changes things up!

I also really like the change in navigation. It flows a lot easier for me to "turn the page" in subsections.

Really like seeing your work on this and look forward to more!

Jae wrote:I am so sleep deprived right now, but I was determined to get another shrine out before the month ended.

Dear King - Wingul from Tales of Xillia

Complete with a very bare, very lonely index page. Drop me your Tales of shrines and I'll link them!

Dear King underwent numerous changes in both layout and content structure. It was pretty frustrating! So I threw caution to the wind (something like that) and just started writing, and this is the end product. It gets a little aimless, but I'm pleased with how it came out.

I focused on external source material more than the games themselves. It's been a long time since I reviewed Xillia, so I'm too rusty . . . but I also didn't want to spoil everything for newcomers. I hope that didn't kill the readability. Haha, please enjoy.

Oh my gosh! What a great design idea, to put the main graphic as a footer type that moves out of the way for the content to shine. That is really nice for shrines, since they are content-focused. It makes it easier to focus on what you're reading.

It's also a very lovely layout in general. And the colors are very gentle on the eyes, making the text easier to read.

Did I mention it's easy to read? ha ha. Sorry, I'm kind of obsessed with that these days.

Great content, too. I'm an outsider to the fandom, but I enjoyed it.

Echoing everyone else that the layout is super cool! I also really love how you set up the navigation. Also I'm so glad you referenced Pelipper because that's all I could think of when I first saw the name, haha!

I haven't played Xillia unfortunately (one day I will play all the Tales games!!!), but I'd like to in the future. When I do I will come back to this!

@Mikari: Thanks! I'd love if Xillia were to be ported to Steam, myself. It's got colorful and fast-paced gameplay with stunning battle visuals - and one of my favorite characters in the franchise, of course! Hehe. Here's hoping.

@Robin: (There's no makeover like a Super Saiyan makeover, clearly.) Thanks for pointing out the bit about the header! I'll fix that up in the near future. I did wonder about its readability, and should have accounted for different monitor settings. I appreciate your thorough feedback.

@Megan: Megan! Glad to hear it. Xillia's a fair hybrid of the old Tales classics and new takes on them. I hope that you enjoy if/when you get started on it!

@Neo: There are just too many darned Tales games! You've nothing to be ashamed of, friend. And thank you for your kind words and encouragement. My goal's to make at least one site every month, time permitting . . . So I may be back within a week or two with another topic.

@Patricia: For the longest time, I didn't like what I was doing with the early versions of the layout. Just pushing the graphic to the bottom of the page did wonders - it was like my whole world had changed, haha! My "theme" for this layout was readability, so I'm glad it delivered on that end for you. Thank you for visiting in spite of your being an outsider to the fandom; I think sharing canons like this is one of the most beautiful aspects of making shrines, so I deeply value your thoughts.

@Larissa: Thank you! The Pelipper references are prolific, so much so that his own VA has made jokes about it on his twitter. It's incredible. Should you ever pick up Xillia in the future, have fun!