It didn’t feel like I did all that much this month but laying it all out here I guess i played a lot of games and such, though a lot of them I didn’t spend more than a few hours in each

Demon Tides

So i talked about this last month and how fun it was alongside how much time I had dumped into it in the week between it coming out and me writing about it; and honestly everything I said still stands: great platform with fun and good feeling movement mechanics. While new level gimmicks get added along the way to spice things up, platforming stays consistently good thought. That said the story was better than I had expected; not that I was expecting much given platformers are rarely the genre to go to for stories and this games predecessor Demon Turf was not breaking the mold on that. However this game, while not being a grand or all that deep narrative in broad terms, does have some meat to it, admittedly most of the real meat comes in the final hours as well as involving some hidden backstory memories you can find. One last thing to say about the story though: the ending is great, the 100%* ending is a narrative nothing burger that is the definition of the “its about the journey not the destination” (read: the challenge and gameplay are fun but the story is coherent and inline with the prior story but unfulfilling)

House of Necrosis

So I rolled credits on this game and can’t decide if I liked it or not. I do enjoy a good mystery dungeon style rougelite/like and this scratches that itch, but the game tends to feel incredibly brutal even for that genre at times. Case in point; when I said I rolled credits I mean I beat the first 20 floor dungeon and beat the final boss rills credits but then ending then drops a big the evil still remains hook and drops you back in the hub area where you can now access a new dungeon that takes enemies form all 4 biomes of the 1st dungeon and just throws them in, with a higher chance of them being enhanced, along side gimmicks on each floor (can’t seen the map, all attacks are critical, everyone’s HP is set to1, etc.). My first time this second dungeon, I immediately (as in before finding any items or other enemies) ran into a beefed up enemy from the final biome who hit my character for over 50% health despite my late game armor. Teleporting out and going back in my next run goes farther (Level5 I think) but then I get a level where I can’t see the map and a bit into this floor get ganged up on by two enhanced final biome enemies and having a rough time when a third one ganks me with a projectile attack; this pissed me off enough that while I wanted to beat the game (maybe even try the 2 post game dungeons) but rolling credits was enough after that

Power Wash Simulator

Suppose I’m behind on this given the sequel has come out, but I tried a demo of this on a lark and yeah its as chill as its reputation describes; while until your at 95+% and trying to find that those obnoxiously hard to see spots you’ve missed

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising

I’ve managed to get Anila and Meg both to B1 rank, and I’m currently trying to get Wilnas there too since it updates all characters to be two ranks below you highest ranked character form my understanding might as well put in some time with any characters I have an interest in to keep them ahead of that. Hojest;ly the spend 30 minutes a day playing is working well, though I’m planning to switch up to playing Guilty Gear Strive instead once 2.0 lands for that; I rembered likeing iwhat little I played of it before and this seems like a good time to jump back in. Oh; I also bought a another arcade stick (again it feels weird to call it that since I play on leverless but arcade controller feels odd to say…) so I’m up to three now… does that mean I have a problem (in my defense this new one has more buttons to match inputs like clicking in analog sticks and such to get more out of training mode, something neither my original nor the smaller one I bought for use with my steam deck when I’m away form home have, while also being abel to easily swap out art if I ever get inspired to make a custom design).

Sonic Racing Crossworlds

I do enjoy a good kart racer and this is very much that. Honestly I had poked at this a bit after buying it last year, but with Megaman (or more importantly Protoman; here’s hoping someone makes a protoman.exe or zero mod for him) being added finally I got pulled in pretty hard over the last week or so. It can feel a bit chaotic, even for a kart racer (seriously I feel like I have been ‘mario karted’ way more in this than I ever did across countless hours of Maro Kart DS and/or 8/deluxe) but then again I suppose choosing to use Extreme Gear over a car (what can I say I like being able to see the character I choose clearly) and being fairly new to the game and its quirks are probably not helping that

Dragon Quest II HD-2D

So i am a fan of Dragon Quest and the Loto Trilogy (I’m not just being an obnoxious weeb I grew up with the GBC versions) was my introduction to the series (with III being possibly my favorite entry to this day) I was excited for the DQIII HD-2D but originally was luke warm on the I&II remakes in large part because II is my least favorite (an aimless and obtuse back half as you collect the sigils being a large part why but also it comes across as very more for more’s sake and loses the tight pacing of the first one with nothing really to add to the formula); however with a post credits scene in 3 that made me feel like its 2008 and Nick Fury just showed up in Iron Man I became much more interested. I beat I ~2-3 months ago and liked it, changing things up to allow for multiple enemies per fight while expanding on the mechanics added depth and fun while the story additions doing more to link back to 3 and seemingly forward to 2 were fun. So far II is good but honestly I remember the annoyance starting a bit after getting the boat so lets see if that holds up

Squeakcross

Nonograms are fun, but I’m realizing that decorating a space its not a big draw for me in games; I suppose if I looked out how my apartment is laid out and thought about this should not be a surprise. However one thing i’m noticing after getting ~200 puzzles in, the challenge level seems to have plateaued for last 2-3 dozen puzzles, though I’m only ~25% of the way though the full puzzle list so there’s still time for things to pick up

Mario & Luigi Brothership

I actually started playing this early last year and after getting what seems to be ~50% of the way in just bounced off and shelved it. while I admit that my experience with the Mario and Luigi games is limited (I’ve only played Superstar Saga and it’s remake) but this game feels too long, like tis got a similar level of content as superstar Saga but spread over a game that is twice as long. Coming back to it I am finding more depth in mechanics like the plugs that give more to chew on in a gameplay sense that will probably get me to the ending, but really, maybe Mario RPGs don’t need to be ~50+ epic JRPGS, I mean superstar saga, Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario (64), were all tight 20-30 hours experiences and everybody loved those

Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check

So moving from the games section to books we have this weird as 90s comedy comic. Set in a future where Virtual reality is the main form of computer usage and when the main characters cat falls asleep under his VR helmet and is able to interact in said VR environments queue wacky hijinks across the internet. Honestly the series is a short and simple comedy romp and can actually be read in full on the artist and writers website ((https://www.tavicat.com/reality-check/), its even in color unlike the 2003 tokyopop print versions I have and read; though I can’t decided if the color or B&W version looks better; in B&W some backgrounds, especially in the latter half, can become hard to parse noise but in color the characters tend to look flatter than in black and white

Neon Genesis Evangelion

This is actually the main way I experienced a lot of Evangelion back in the day having bought and read volumes 1-8 back in high school I ended up picking up the full omnibus collection of the series (originally I only wanted to get volumes 9-14 to complete my collection but this is a hard series to find physically it seems) and reading the whole thing was interesting. Given its original run began ~1 year before the anime aired and ran until just after the release of the 3rd rebuild movie it ends up being a different take on the events of the original anime along with End of Evangelion (at least my understanding of what happens in End of Evangelion lines up with the events volume 10-14 of the Manga, though I’ve only seen the anime and read the Manga) hitting the same major plot beats but with its own small differences (Gendo’s backstory seems to get a lot more detail for example). Overall would recommend though now I’m curious between the anime, End of Evangelion (which to my under standing kind of supplants episodes 25 and 26 of the anime), the manga, and the Rebuild movies what is the definitive version of Evangelion?


So let’s expand this whatever I’m doing here to things I saw as well

Six

So I am a fan of musicals and I’ve heard the soundtrack to this a number of times and like a lot of the songs; so when it came to the next city over I went to see it and it was worth going. There’s probably room for an overly pedantic discussion on what a musical is and if this really counts as one (the basic premise, Henry VIII’s Wives form a musical group and perform songs about their lives and marriages, along with the songs taking 90+% of the runtime and a very rock concert like set and costume design make it feel moreso like a concert for a concept album) but ultimately the show is still worth seeing over just hearing the soundtrack. Live music is always more enjoyable than a CD or album; but the set costume design and choreography do add to the experience, and while the non song parts are small and don’t add much to the story you wouldn’t get from the songs themselves they are still entering and creative (for example the show has a short segment on the middle of Anne of Cleves first song that leans even harder into the analogy comparing the story regarding her portrait and Henry meeting her for the first time with modern dating apps with a visually fun swipe left/right bit). Honestly I think that fact that after seeing it I learned it will be coming to my city next year and I’m probably going to go see it when it does

One Piece Live Action

So being into anime and manga in the 00s (and beyond just less overtly making a large part of my personality), I am well aware of One Piece. Though largely in a cultural osmose kind of way as while I did read Naruto and Bleach I never got into One Piece for some reason. I feel like I would enjoy it and probably will give the Manga a read at some point (I was thinking about jumping in around the end of the Wano Saga but heard Eiichiro Oda had said something about the next Saga being the last one, though I’ve learned since there is a history of similar statements that have as times goes on been completely off base and decided I’ll wait out until its finished before reading it) but not at the moment. However when the live action series released its first season I decided to watch it and rather liked it and was on board the idea of a second season; however if season 1 was a proof of concept season two feels like proof that they can actually do this. The east Blue Saga content wise as pretty standard and unremarkable, with only a few weird character designs and over the top powers, but once the star hits hit the Grand Line character designs and powers get weirder and more bizarre. This season sets a bright precedent for the productions ability to handle this kind of stuff and also just works as a show on its own separate from being an adaptation and here’s hoping season 3 keeps the quality high