stay warm, friends!

video games

i bought a lot of good games in the steam sale and i have a lot of free games to play but uhhh yeah... video games

- i purchased tunic during the autumn steam sale, and it's really fun! soooo insanely cute and charming, down to it's marrow -- even the scary guys are cute! i wanna just squeeze everyone!

i think the mechanic of picking up pages of the strategy guide/manual of the game is really unique and an excellent way to draw a player in. when i was younger, strategy guides were my bread and butter, and i think other quote-unquote gamers my age probably have the same experience... flipping through the language the game is written in with only a few scattered words i can understand reminds me SO MUCH of being six or seven, stumbling upon some vocabulary i didn't know in a book that was probably too advanced to be reading but i read anyway LOL. it also sort of feels almost i got the game second hand... from some alien? and i'm playing a much beloved copy of someone's childhood game for the first time, i can practically feel them standing over me saying "oh you'll love this part" or "this part's hard". the affection i have for a theoretical person, even if they are from mars, enthusiastically showing me their favorite thing can't be beat.

the fixed isometric camera is so-so. i get what it's doing, but it did seem very slightly glitchy at least in my experience... i got stuck behind a rock before i got the sword (somehow??? i don't even know how i squeezed myself in there) and was afraid i'd be softlocked but i somehow managed to wiggle free as the camera freaked out. but i wouldn't have even gotten there in the first place if the isometric angle hadn't zoomed in and out too quickly...

it's also throwing into stark relief that i, uh, suck at zelda. LMFAO. i think some of my friends who do OOT randomizers and stuff would run through this game like a train or even if you played more than one it's probably okay but i've died a LOT. a lotta times from just charging in there and getting my ass handed to me, but sometimes i died in really stupid ways too. in my defense i haven't played a ton of them but... one does feel like a bad gamer. maybe i'll get better as i go on.

i actually love writing these halfway through something and completely retextualizing them later. needless to say... her ass is NOT zelda. still haven't beaten it at the time of writing and i will probably struggle to go back to it because i was already struggling with the movement, but i'm sucking at it because i was sucking at a completely different game!

- inbento i bought after getting turned onto it from one of colette's posts. i don't know what this genre of puzzle is called, but it's comfortable and charming. i like that there's no limit to the amount of undos you can do. and the art is sweet and simple to follow. seems the perfect game to get anyone onto them.

it's a very short game so i probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless it's on sale (i bought it for about 1.50 american) but i think it worth your time if you like puzzle games.

- been playing through etrian odyssey 1 lately! it's super addicting! i tried it out once when i was younger, but bounced off it hard... probably because i am quite dumb. now i beat it completely.

the most important and unique mechanic to it is obviously the map drawing and that was absolutely my favorite part of the game. slowly creeping down corridors one square at a time, making sure the walls are drawn completely, finding all sorts of hidden secrets -- then turning a corner and seeing a gigantic orange or red blob! there's really nothing like the spike of adrenaline that comes from coming face to face with a FOE unexpectedly, or just like -- the gameplay style of exploration. i'm really in love with it. i wonder if there's any other games with a similar gameplay loop...

i didn't really expect to but i got really attached to all my party members... i'm really bad at names though and i hate almost all of their names LOL except my survivalist and she has the only name i allowed myself to name after a friend without telling her... i used survivalist portrait 5 and named her sheria cuz the :3 face reminded me of her. but yeah i'm at the postgame now and i think i might benefit from a troubadour but what do i do /v/... i can't get rid of my protector/landsknecht/survivalist/medic/alchemist!

i really wanna do all the postgame stuff but it's kinda tedious (b27f is just like... completely spirit breaking lol) so i'm wondering if i should go on to eo2... not like i'm playing much else. keep bouncing off of chrono trigger even though i really want to play a long RPG...

mobile games

- i haven't mentioned this on any of my social media but i've started playing reverse 1999 recently... well recently afa like, december, LOL. i like it! it's surprisingly low maintenance? i enjoy a lot of stuff about the setting, and the voice acting is of particular note -- there's such a wide range of accents! it gives it so much personality. the art is really pretty too and the live2d cutscenes while kinda jank have style.

i still consider myself early game so i don't have that much to say. i haven't read any events except for the house of horrors one with argus and tuesday in december and i got cock blocked in finishing it even though i was really invested :T i'm only up to chapter 3 of the main story too... vertin ;_; my favorite main story character is probably sotheby though she's so funny LMAO.

actually... that's all for this time? yeah i haven't picked up any new manga or anything. see you next time!