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Games Played in 2019

For the last couple of years I've been documenting every time I play a game and what I thought about it during that session. You can see all the previous lists here.

A session can be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours. Sessions that last longer than one block of time (illustrated below) are counted for each block individually. Sessions that cross over a block (like from 2:30 to 4) count towards the one that more time was spent in.

This will be unedited and likely full of typos and misspellings. The descriptions of my sessions may include story spoilers. Any spoilers will NOT be marked.

Here's the break down of the time of day:

Time	Term	Time	Term
12am to 3am	Midnight	Noon to 3pm	Afternoon
3am to 6am	Early Morning	3pm to 6pm	Early Evening
6am to 9am	Morning	6pm to 9pm	Evening
9am to Noon	Late Morning	9pm to 12am	Late Evening

List items

The Shrouded Isle

Played: 1/1. Late Morning. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
I picked this up on the Itch winter sale. I heard a lot of good things about it a few years ago and it seems pretty rad to be honest.
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Played: 1/1. Afternoon.
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Played: 1/1. Early Evening.
I'm finding it very tricky to figure out how to not fail this game. haha.
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Played: 1/1. Early Evening.
yeah, I'm not sure what to do to not lose? There's so many situations where I just don't have enough information to make informed decisions. Hrmmm.
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Played: 1/1. Evening.
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Played: 1/5. Afternoon.
I got an ending this time. Abandonment! Apparently I figured something out cause I was able to manage things pretty well this time. Though maybe I just got lucky.
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Played: 1/6. Evening.
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Indie

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Distress: A Choice-Driven Sci-Fi Adventure
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Started: 1/1. Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This is basically just interactive fiction with some decent art. So far it's a been a bit generic sci-fi horror with some alright writing. There are some false choices that just result in your death, but you can save before every choice, so it's not too bad.
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Eredia: The Dairy Of Heroes
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Started: 6/9. Midnight. PC Steam. Neutral.
This is an RPG Maker game I found on a steam a while back that sounded interesting. The writing is pretty bad and the mechanics are similar to a lot of other RPG Maker games. I only played up to where you first control the main character for the first time and uhh... I probably won't play any more.
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Get out of this dungeon
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Played: 11/2. Midnight. PC Itch. Neutral.
This is a PICO-8 game. It's controls are really stiff and it's built around 1 hit kills. Not for me unfortunately.
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Buntroid
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Played: 11/25. Midnight. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This is a pretty cool little free metroidvania that could use a bit more polish and stuff like sound effects, etc. I don't know if I'll play the whole thing, but I enjoyed the little bit that I played. It very much just takes from the original Metroid.
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Played: 11/25. Early Evening.
I like how this game just lets you get into places you're probably not ready for. I'm not sure if it's intentional but it's pretty cool. I do wish I found a higher damage attack though. All I've found since long beam was missile upgrades. I guess I can use those.
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Finished: 11/29. Evening.
Never found the Space Jump but was still able to beat it. I assume there's a space jump because of the level design, but maybe not? I finished with 90% and probably won't go a look for the rest. It was a pretty solid little metroidvania and I bet it would make a good speedrun game.
Looking it up the speed run is like 8 minutes and already shows an item I completely missed called the Grapple Orb. Ah well.
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Heartbeat

Started: 1/13. Late Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This seems like a cute, almost pokemon-esque, RPG. I saw it recommended on twitter. I found the normal difficulty to be harder than expected, but adjusted my strategy afterwords. You seem to level up pretty quickly though, so there's that. The writing has been pretty good so far too. Not to happy about the pretty generic RPG maker sound effect though, but the art and music are real nice!
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Played: 1/14. Evening.
Got a Cerberus in my party. Also I guess this game is all about cute monster girls.
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Played: 1/14. Evening.
Got a volt cat in my party now. The fishing mini game is weird. Also I got stuck for way too long on a block pushing puzzle.
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Hades

Played: 1/15. Early Evening. PC EGS. Enjoyed.
New patch. Chaos themed. I only played one run but was able to beat the first boss. Did not like the new poundy enemies in the 2nd area though. they're very tricky to dodge and stay up FOREVER.
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Played: 1/16. Evening.
The new patch seems rad. Chaos is a nice addition. Wish the menus wrapped.
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Played: 1/16. Late Evening.
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Played: 1/17. Late Evening.
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Played: 1/18. Early Evening.
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Played: 1/18. Evening.
Got to the Bone Hydra, but man that thing has a lot of phases.
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Played: 1/18. Late Evening.
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Played: 1/19. Afternoon.
I hate the squish-squish crush boys. They stay up forever, their tell for coming down isn't obvious enough, they track you too well, and it's impossible to keep track of them when there's a ton of other enemies.
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Played: 1/19. Early Evening.
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Played: 1/19. Late Evening.
Atena's boons are actually extremely good.
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Played: 1/20. Midnight.
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Played: 1/20. Evening.
Did pretty good against the Bone Hydra. Got it to about 1/3. It's tough.
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Played: 2/12. Late Evening.
Dionysus seems extremely cool and good. I almost beat the Hydra with him and Atena's boons. I got too cocky though and wasn't paying enough attention. I didn't play with the new weapon yet, but it seems real fucking rad!
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Played: 2/21. Late Evening.
Got around to playing more. Did OK with the new gun. Got the Hydra.
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Played: 2/23. Late Morning.
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Played: 2/23. Evening.
I BEAT THE BONE HYDRA. Using the sword no less. My build was basically just Ares and Athena. It wasn't even anything wild. I think was really helped me was Merg's bone charm thing. It gives you extra damage at low health. So basically I just rushed things with the sword and it worked out well enough.
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Played: 2/24. Midnight.
Did some experiments with some lesser used weapons/boons. I started writing a ranking of them and my thoughts. Right now I think Ares/Zeus are the best overall and Dionysus the worst.
I think Dionysus would work a lot better if more there was more things that created Festive Fog and if Blight Wine was more of "splash" effect. Like if it was little puddles that added the stacks rather than direct hits.
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Played: 2/24. Late Evening.
Trying to get a specific build in this game is pretty torturous.I wanted to go Sword + Artemus to see her legendary. Didn't quite work out the way I wanted, but I did get to use her legendary for a room. It's rad.
I really hate the gorgan's homing rocks. It's just too hard to dodge when there's a lot going on. The megagorgan is a real pain too.
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Played: 2/25. Midnight.
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Played: 2/25. Early Evening.
Finished up a run at the Hydra with the spear. Lost. but Actually the spear isn't as bad as I thought, though I had Ares' dash to carry me most of the way through.
Also messed around with the keyboard controls afterwards a bit, and that seems like that way to play this game. Holy shit.
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Played: 2/28. Evening.
I tried playing this game by having the movement on the gamepad and the aiming with mouse. It takes some getting used to and some additional set up, but it totally works and is playable. Unfortunately turning off the aim assist makes the game not always aim towards your mouse? It's really strange and awkward! Maybe because of the split set up.
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Played: 3/1. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/1. Late Evening.
I don't know about my mouse+gamepad style. It doesn't work well with the shield.
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Played: 3/12. Evening.
Tried the new update. The new boss seems... tough?
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Played: 3/23. Early Morning.
I fought the murder fury. She's interesting!! Lost the first time, but won the second. Almost beat the Bone Hydra again too. Dionysus's Wrath move is pretty cool.
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Played: 3/24. Midnight.
Saw my first Duo boon. It seemed extremely good but I died instantly after. Had some bad luck.
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Played: 3/24. Afternoon.
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FutureGrind

Started: 1/22. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
I've been waiting for this game to come out for a while. So far from what I played, it does not disappoint. It's extremely good and very "flow state" and I can't wait to play more of it.
I'm really glad it has some pretty decent accessibility options too. Though I wish I could completely rebind the controls as, I'd like the turning to be on the triggers. That said, it's rad that you can play with one hand either way.
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Played: 1/22. Late Evening.
GOSH THIS GAME IS SO GOOOOOOOOD! It just gets you into that state where you can just play over and over even when you mess up over and over. It's a chill intense.
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Played: 1/23. Early Evening.
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Played: 1/23. Evening.
Unlocked the Xero bike. It's really cool. This game is constantly innovating on it's mechanics in really interesting ways. I've also found myself being considerably better at the game when stepping away for a little bit. I had one goal where I was just failing at it over and over last night, but nailed it first shot when I booted it up today.
I wish I could do all the track goals at the same time instead of individual choosing them from the menu. A lot of them could be completed in a single run.
I also could see myself going back and getting all the gold medals.
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Played: 1/25. Late Evening.
I've got to the moon and through most of the levels. I think there is one or two levels left. I don't like the one bike that switches colors each time you leave a rail. It's really hard to get your mind around. That said, this game is so much fun. A few levels I was having trouble with I was able to get Gold on when I first finished them. Apparently there are platinum scores. I don't think I'll get those unfortunately.
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Played: 1/26. Late Morning.
Just went back and got some gold medals on the earlier tracks. I'm certainly getting better, but I don't know if I'll ever have the dexterity to get platinums.
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Played: 1/26. Late Evening.
I didn't make any progress towards the end of the game, but I did go back and get a surprising number of platinums on the early courses. Man that made me think I was considerably better at the game than I am. I just need to do one more side objective to unlock the probably final course.
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Finished: 1/27. Afternoon.
Finished up the last three challenges I needed and beat the final level. Woah Boy! that final level is intimidating at first. It was a really mind fuck having it change you to a different bike after each reset. It seems to be randomized and I'd love to see an endless mode with seeded courses. In fact this game is actually very similar to the game I made called Void Wisp. Just much better.
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Played: 1/27. Evening.
Looking to get those platinums.
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Played: 2/1. Late Evening.
OK. So there was another batch of levels that I missed because I missed a static level. I got through them and to the "true" final boss. It's tough and kinda frustrating.
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Played: 2/2. Early Evening.
OK beat the actual factual final boss. also, they call them "diamonds" instead of "platinums". ah well.
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Slay the Spire

Played: 2/3. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Just had a run with the Ironclad. Made it to the boss, but lost due to some unlucky RNG.
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Played: 2/9. Late Evening.
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Played: 2/10. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/10. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/10. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/11. Midnight.
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Played: 5/9. Evening.
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Played: 5/12. Early Morning.
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Played: 5/12. Morning.
Podcast video game.
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Played: 5/13. Midnight.
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Played: 5/13. Midnight.
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Played: 5/27. Midnight.
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Played: 6/2. Morning.
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Played: 6/5. Evening.
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Played: 6/9. Morning.
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Played: 6/9. Late Morning.
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Played: 6/9. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/10. Midnight.
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Played: 6/10. Midnight.
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Played: 6/13. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/14. Midnight.
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Played: 6/14. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/17. Early Morning.
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Played: 7/1. Evening.
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Played: 7/14. Evening.
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Played: 7/14. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/14. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/15. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/20. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/22. Early Morning.
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Played: 12/22. Morning.
First time playing the new character. They seem really cool!!
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Played: 12/22. Morning.
Haven't won with them yet, but they're really nifty.
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Played: 12/22. Late Morning.
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Played: 12/23. Midnight.
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Played: 12/23. Late Morning.
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Played: 12/23. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/23. Late Evening.
Beat the cube and donut with The Watcher. They're really nifty!
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Played: 12/24. Morning.
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Played: 12/24. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/24. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/25. Midnight.
Did a 30 card draft run that turned into one of those Charon Ashes + Dead Branch runs. I really like the custom games.
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Played: 12/25. Morning.
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Played: 12/26. Morning.
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Played: 12/26. Morning.
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Played: 12/26. Late Morning.
Endless mode is cool. I'm at the 2nd Act of loop 3 and I don't think I'll survive this loop, but it's cool.
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Played: 12/24. Early Evening.
On loop 5? It's actually kinda exhausting.
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Overwatch

Played: 2/8. Late Evening. PC B-net. Neutral.
Had most bad games. I don't know, I couldn't get back into it.
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Lyne

Played: 2/13. Late Morning. Mobile. Enjoyed.
I remembered I have this game installed and decided to play it rather than look at Twitter. Finally beat a level I was having trouble on.
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Played: 2/13. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/14. Late Morning.
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Played: 2/15. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/16. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/16. Late Evening.
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Played: 2/17. Late Morning.
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Played: 2/20. Morning.
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Played: 2/20. Late Morning.
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Played: 2/20. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/20. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/20. Evening.
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Played: 2/21. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/21. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/28. Late Morning.
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Played: 3/1. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/1. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/6. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/6. Afternoon.
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Played: 6/15. Evening.
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Played: 6/16. Late Morning.
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Played: 6/16. Afternoon.
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Another Eden

Started: 2/14. Midnight. Mobile. Neutral.
This game took a long time to download and then I didn't have enough space on my phone and had to uninstall some stuff and redownload. By the end of that I wasn't that interested in playing much and only played up til the menu buttons appear. Good music and nice art so far.
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Night Of The Full Moon

Played: 2/21. Afternoon. Mobile. Enjoyed.
Picked it up after hearing it is similar to Slay The Spire. It is! It seems cool.
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Played: 2/21. Afternoon.
It also seems pretty easy.
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Played: 2/21. Early Evening.
I was able to beat it on my very first run of the game. I really like the abilities and cards I was finding, but I also was like barely taking any damage towards the end. I will absolutely play more of it though.
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Played: 2/22. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/22. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/22. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/23. Afternoon.
Beat my second run. Apparently if you die you can just watch an ad to be revived. It does have harder modes, but you have to unlock them. The business model is "interesting" and I'll probably buy some of the other classes at some point. I do think it is best played muted since a lot of the enemy barks are just generic and annoying. The music is pretty generic too. It's fine, but eh. Not great enough I'll plug in headphone instead of listening to a podcast while I'm on the bus.
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Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Started: 3/8. Late Evening. 3DS. Enjoyed.
Decided to restart after watching a lot of streams of other FE games. I'm now playing it on Casual like I should have in the first place. Still in the very early bits of the game.
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Played: 3/9. Midnight.
Got up to where you get Clair. I know some folks like to grind until they're villagers are at level 20 but I ain't got time for that. I got everyone to at least level 6 then upgraded them. Cliff is my mercenary and his outfit is real cool and his stats are absurd. Gray is my archer and he sucks both in game and as a character. I hate him. Tobbin is my mage and he is shaping up to be really good. Of course I made Fay my Pegasus knight and she's rad.
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Played: 3/9. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/9. Evening.
Tried to get the dracoshield off the one boss and spent about an hour getting stuff set up and ready, then Shayde (the other boss) just attacked my guy at low health and just died. Now I have to do all that over. Bah.
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Played: 3/9. Late Evening.
Kept redoing that chapter until I was able to finish it with the dracoshield. I just lured Shayde away and he just stood there for the rest of the fight. I was then able to lure Desaix down with my peg knights.
Now I'm in Celica's chapter. THERE ARE SO MANY KITTIES ON THIS ISLAND!
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Played: 3/10. Midnight.
Allies stole the kill on the pirate king. It's silly they don't gain XP while not in your party. You'd think they'd change that.
Anyway. I'm about to do the optional dungeon under the necrodragon. At least I think it's optional.
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Played: 3/10. Late Evening.
Got the blessed sword.
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Played: 3/13. Midnight.
Just started Chapter 3.
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Played: 3/16. Evening.
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Played: 3/17. Evening.
I really like this game actually. I like the whole issues of class in Alm's story. It's really good.
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Played: 3/17. Late Evening.
Got Mathilda. She's so much better than Clive, it's absurd. Also finally upgraded a lot of my guys to their 2nd/3rd class. Now Cliff will be even more absurd. Held off on upgrading Faye because I want to get Clair to level 12 and upgrade them both.
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Played: 3/18. Evening.
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Played: 3/28. Evening.
Got to the sluice gate with Alm. His party is extremely good, minus Clive and Luthier. I may grind a bit to get Del up a few levels. I think there may be some other side quests I can do now too. But next up is doing Celica's path.
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Played: 3/28. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/29. Midnight.
Did most of the Celica's path. Just need to do the optional dungeon and then the temple. I picked the mage lady 'cause she's rad and Boey was starting to drag a lot. She supports with Genny which is cute. I made Atlas an archer because that's what the internet suggested. Seems good. I like that they make Est so low level when she joins as it reinforces how much of a pain she is to her sisters. She's real bad though! I wanted to keep playing but my 3DS was low on batteries.
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Played: 3/30. Afternoon.
My one purple archer is getting pretty screwed during level ups.
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Played: 3/30. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/30. Evening.
Just need to do that story stuff then it's on to the next act! I really like playing on causal since I don't have to worry about too much restarting.
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Played: 3/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/31. Midnight.
Played til basically the a few maps away from fighting Jedah. I want to grind a bit and get all my favorite characters to their 2nd/3rd tier. I only need two. Est and Sonya.
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Played: 3/31. Evening.
Stopped just before the Duma Tower. Got my characters upgraded for the most part. I have no interest in Conrad or the sage. I kinda wish I upgraded Boey so he could be a bit more useful. Ah well.
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Played: 3/31. Late Evening.
Picked up some of the DLC and started my way through Duma Tower. Now I have two Dread Fighters as well.
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Played: 4/02. Late Evening.
Finished up Duma Tower. Disappointed there was no boss fight with Jedah, but I guess that's for later. I understand why people say Celica is a dummy now.
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Played: 4/02. Late Evening.
Started down Alm's path and it's really clear to me they expected you to jump between the two more frequently. Hope I can go back and do some side quests in the next act. Ah well. I'm starting the dungeon where I quit the game before.
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Played: 4/03. Midnight.
I think I finished up the one dungeon I was stuck on when I originally played the game, but it feels like I missed something. I got most of my guys up to their third tier so that's rad. I really wish I had the mage ring or a mage with Thunder. Ah well.
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Played: 4/06. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/06. Early Evening.
Beat Nuibaba and got another healer finally. Though it was right after Tobin learned Physic, so I don't know if I'll use her for dungeons.
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Played: 4/07. Midnight.
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Played: 4/07. Early Morning.
Played all the way up to the final encounter with Berkut. It's funny how there is just a normal encounter in the next room. I know I'm super close to the end of the game. I'll probably finish it in my next session. Both Alm and Celica are dummies and it's unfortunate how generic of a turn the story takes towards the end. Alm's confrontation with Rudolph was pretty lackluster compared to the cutscene that plays early in the game relating to it.
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Played: 4/07. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/07. Early Evening.
I finished up the main game and am now in act 6. A lot of the character endings I got were actually pretty bittersweet and Clair really deserves better than Gray. He sucks. Sonya's ending was also pretty sad! My Kliff ended up being an extreme beast too.
Anyway, I'm excited to get to the postgame stuff. I'll probably run through the DLC I didn't do and upgrade a lot of characters to the DLC classes.
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Played: 4/07. Early Evening.
Started into Act 6 but the battles are already a lot tougher. Still thinking what my 10 should be. Running a very mage heavy team right now.
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Played: 4/07. Evening.
Got to the mission right before the postgame dungeon and... yikes looks like I'd have to grind to beat those dragons. Not sure if I want to do that.
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Played: 4/08. Midnight.
Ok... so I did grind a bit and now I'm in the postgame dungeon. That last ship fight was a doozy but I only lost two people by the end of it. Good thing I'm playing on casual!
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Played: 4/10. Evening.
Switch out a Silque and Green Knight for Alm and Mathilda. I'm now a good way through postgame dungeon.
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Played: 4/20. Evening.
I fought a dragon.
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Played: 4/21. Early Evening.
So today I found out that if you're main character dies then the game just ends. I was being really cocky and pressed through the dungeon when I should have left. That's really frustrating. Ah well.
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Baba Is You

Started: 3/13. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
I've been keeping my eye on this game for a while and I'm glad it turned out really well. It's incredibly clever and has some real mindbending puzzles. I could easily see it becoming the game that's on every grade school computer.
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Played: 3/13. Evening.
This game gets... tough quick.
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Played: 3/14. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/14. Evening.
I'm at the point where I understand what I need to do (or think I do) for a lot of these puzzles, but don't know how to execute it. My main criticism of this so far is that it maybe gets too tough too quickly.
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Played: 3/16. Midnight.
I've basically done all the puzzles that I can at this point. There continues to be some incredibly clever stuff and I'm really liking how clever the puzzles are. I think this game has an issue with teaching you the rules, or rather nudging you to understand stuff so you can discover the solutions. There's multiple times when I get to a level and am just like "I have no idea how to solve this or even where to begin." I do like that you can do things like "Not Rock Is Push" though. Now if only I can figure out how that helps me solve that damn puzzle.
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Played: 3/16. Afternoon.
I solved one puzzle and it unlocked a whole bunch of other worlds for me. I haven't jumped into them yet. Trying to go back to some others to see if I can solve them. I couldn't.
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Played: 3/16. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/16. Evening.
Played one puzzle, looked at another, and was like "I need a break".
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Played: 3/18. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/19. Early Evening.
Solved a level!
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Played: 3/23. Midnight.
The Rocket World is pretty interesting. FALL is a cool thing.
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Played: 3/24. Afternoon.
Grassland introduced "on" and fuck...
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Played: 3/24. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/24. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/25. Evening.
I started using a guide for hints and it really helped me understand the game. It's a bit too "just do this" and not enough of "here's a vague hint" though. Still I've been able to go back and solve a lot of puzzles all on my own I couldn't even crack before.
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Played: 3/26. Evening.
I've now been able to solve a good chunk on my own, but still look up guides here and there. Some of them were even ones I was stuck on and realized how silly I was for not seeing it.
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Played: 3/26. Evening.
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Played: 3/30. Early Morning.
Discovered the "Swap" puzzles. RIP my brain.
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Played: 4/02. Evening.
Watched a stream and they got to a puzzle I was stuck on. And just looking at it again I realized how to solve. So I closed the stream opened the game and solved just that puzzle.
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Dwarf Fortress

Played: 4/10. Late Evening. PC Standalone. Enjoyed.
A lot of folks I know have been talking about this recently and I had to finally give it a shot. I found a walkthrough but it has an annoying mod that has mouse edge scroll enabled but can't be turned off. I'm going to go through it before starting an actual first attempt. I'll probably forget everything but ah well.
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Risk of Rain 2

Played: 4/13. Afternoon. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I had a lot of criticism of the first game. I only really found it fun or playable with the Engineer. I watch a stream of this game and it seems like the third person really makes the other characters viable for me. The one run I did with the Commando seemed to prove that.
It is a bit annoying when enemies spawn off screen and attack you from behind, but that could also be just unfamiliarity with audio cues.
In my first run I got mostly stuff related to sprinting. Which is cool that they're there, but wasn't helpful to my actual survival.
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Played: 4/13. Early Evening.
Had a really good run as the Huntress. She is really good. It helped that I was able to get like 14 stacks of the item that increasing your attack speed. Basically made me unstoppable. I was even able to unlock the Mercenary.
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Played: 4/13. Evening.
I didn't think I would enjoy the Mercenary but actually had a lot of fun with them!
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Played: 4/14. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/14. Early Evening.
Played multiplayer with my younger brother. It was extremely good. Engineer is a lot of fun.
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Played: 4/14. Late Evening.
More Multiplayer. This game is really good at making you feel invincible by one level and then showing how you're not by the next.
~~~
Played: 4/16. Evening.
New patch added some stuff. I was able to beat bosses under 15 seconds on easy. I now have enough lunar coins to unlock the last class too.
~~~
Played: 4/16. Late Evening.
Basically had an infinite run as the Engineer. Got to the point where I started to actually take damage. Partly because I had that one lunar item that makes you heal over time instead of all at once. The run lasted for almost two hours. Eventually I had the portal and could just destroy myself. Unlocked the last character and a few other items.
~~~
Played: 4/17. Early Evening.
Completed a Prismatic Challenge or whatever they're called. Cheesed a way to unlock that chest in the arctic zone and got whatever the scythe thing is. I tried the mage character... I should probably give them a try on easy first.
~~~
Played: 4/17. Late Evening.
I was able to get to HAHAHAHA difficulty on normal by myself!
~~~
Played: 4/18. Midnight.
Tried to do the one unlock that requires you to not pick up any healing items until the end of level 3 and kept accidentally picking up items that heal you.
~~~
Played: 4/18. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/19. Midnight.
Finally unlocked the damned thing from getting to level 4 without getting a healing item.
~~~
Played: 4/20. Late Evening.
More multiplayer. We tried to unlock some things but my internet went down before we could. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 4/27. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 4/27. Early Morning.
Unlocked the "Survive 20 levels" challenge just barely. I think the only reason I got it was because I went into the newt shop once. The game was really lagging by the end of it.
~~~
Played: 5/27. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 6/26. Early Evening.
Checked out the new patch with my brother. It seems good!!
~~~
Played: 12/22. Early Morning.
Played very briefly. Wasn't feeling it today.
~~~
Played: 12/24. Late Morning.
Fought the secret boss and died pretty much instantly.
~~~
ISLANDERS

Played: 4/21. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
~~~
Played: 4/22. Midnight.
Well... this is a hell of a podcast game.
~~~
Played: 4/23. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/24. Late Evening.
I think I have this game pretty well figured out. Also I almost got all the achievements.
~~~
Played: 4/28. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 4/28. Early Morning.
Just played some while listening to a podcast. I got a pretty good run going. Currently around 8000 points. I hope to get at least to 10k.
~~~
Played: 5/13. Midnight.
~~~
Ghost 1.0

Started: 4/27. Early Evening. PC Steam. Mixed.
I picked this game up on sale a few months back after it was hanging out in my wishlist for a long time. The writing is pretty insufferable and I don't like the combat. The enemies just seem to run at you and that's boring. Maybe it gets better when you have more weapons. It tries to borrow the whole Dark Souls idea leaving back items when you die and uh I don't think I want to play something like that anymore. I did not know it was done by the folks behind UnEpic and uh... that makes a lot of sense!
I'll probably give play a bit more of it here and there.
~~~
Played: 4/27. Late Evening.
I enjoyed it a bit more. Got double jump and some other stuff. I realized I had ran passed the weapon shop earlier and wish I didn't spend all my money at the item shop since those upgrades would probably help out a lot. I picked up the shot gun and it's a bit too slow, but is powerful.
My big problem with this game is that the combat is very hectic and you're very fragile. It's not like Super Metroid where you can stand in one place or take time to aim, mostly because a lot of enemies have projectiles.
It does have some interesting ideas though! I'm glad I can set the controls up like I did in Shadow Complex. With jump on the R1 and Shoot/special on L1/L2, but I still find myself hitting X and Square for jump and attack. It also does the smart Shadow Complex thing of having a little autotargeting. But it seems to only work on certain enemies.
~~~
Played: 4/28. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/29. Midnight.
Got to the first boss. I did a lot of exploration and a bit of grinding. The wave gun is pretty good. The boss kinda sucks. It's a blocks your movement a little too much I feel. Also the writing continues to be ehhhh... Especially with the references.
Also I think the "get hurt" sound is straight out of Mario Maker, but it's probably just from a license free data base. It's not great, which is odd 'cause a lot of the other sound effects are actually real good.
~~~
2048

Played: 4/29. Midnight. PC Browser. Enjoyed.
I just needed something mindless while I watched a video.
~~~
Played: 4/29. Early Morning.
I remember why I stopped played this game now. There's a really easy strategy to pretty much always win. Ah well.
~~~
God Eater 3

Started: 4/30. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed?
This game had an issue that prevented it from running on my PC, but apparently it was fixed and it was on sale. OH BOY is it rough around the edges. You can change the controls, but the default controls still kinda do the same thing? Like if you put run/change form on a different button the combo for that button will still do that? I'm not sure if I like the gamepad or kb/mouse controls better. At least with the kb/mouse it seems to stick and is easier to aim the guns, but the attack controls and camera is wonky. The lock on is weird since it your character still doesn't automatically face the monster? Movement is generally easier on the gamepad. So maybe I'll try a hybird? I don't know if where I'd set jump then. Hrmmm...
Maybe I'll just try to get used to the default gamepad controls...
~~~
Played: 5/1. Late Evening.
I think I settled on kb/mouse controls. It's actually not that bad for what I'm doing at the moment. This game seems to think it has a lot of depth, but is really mashy. THERE'S SO MUCH TO CUSTOMIZE. It's very overwhelming. But the actual game is pretty fun now that I'm at the point where I'm out of the prison.
~~~
Played: 5/2. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 5/2. Early Evening.
I got pretty used to the controls now. I did get something that only triggers when you prefect guard so it'll be something I never ever see or use since I don't think I'll ever do that. If only there was a training for stuff like that.
There's just so much about this game that I really don't understand. It's fun though?
~~~
Played: 5/3. Early Morning.
Ok. I figured out that active trigger thing. Different ones have different conditions and they're actually pretty easy to do. I also got modifiers for my burst arts and fuck this game has a lot of stuff to it.
I kinda want to try scythes but I got a good thing going with spears.
~~~
Played: 5/4. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 5/4. Early Morning.
I think I unlocked all the spear burst arts. I also finally got some cloths to make my character looks rad as hell. I'm starting to understand the guns a bit better but they're still not super useful. Especially with how many enemies just charge you. But I'm not sure how much team comp matters. It seems you can do a lot with that if I understood it a bit better.
~~~
Played: 5/11. Evening.
~~~
Mortal Kombat 11

Started: 5/6. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
With my new PC up and running I could actually run this game. I just went through the basic tutorial and Cassie's chapter. The timing in this game is super specific and not like other fighting games I've played recently. I'm going to have to knock a lot of rust off.
~~~
Played: 5/6. Late Evening.
Played a little bit more of the story mode. I wish the chapters were better defined. I didn't like playing as Kotal. But I'm still just getting used to the controls.
~~~
Played: 5/7. Evening.
Got through Kitana's story. She is very much a better Kahn than the other ones. I don't really get Kabal's stuff though. In 9 he was working with Striker and not Kano. Maybe it was mentioned at some point. Ah well. The story itself has some moments that's pretty good, but hasn't wowed me like 9's or 10's though. I don't think the villain is very interesting?
I also messed around in the Krypt for a bit. It seems like a real grind!
~~~
Finished : 5/8. Evening.
Finished the Story! It was pretty good. I think it eventually found a good pace and had some good twists. Some characters just sort of get left behind and you never hear from them again. Frost is pretty lame and I think they could have done a more interesting job with her. Same with Old Erron Black. He kinda just doesn't do anything. Also I didn't realize that Sektor and Cyrax aren't actual playable characters in the game.
I also explored a lot more of the Krypt. It's interesting how it's sort of a Loot Box Metroidvania or LoZ game?
~~~
Played: 5/9. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/9. Evening.
Went through most of the advanced tutorials. I think the way the game does it's flawless blocks and follow up moves is bad and too hard for someone like my. I think the flawless block should be a bit looser, and the follow ups just be a single button. Rather than Up+X, it could just be "X". Same for the wake up moves. Or I should be able to hold up. It's unnecessarily complex when the game has so many other better systems like it's meters recovering and it Fatal Blow mechanic.
I really wish they had a "Do this X times" and a "Do this X times in a row" setting for each lesson where you could set the x to an amount. Also, I wish you could do that in training mode. Like set up a combo or situation and then try to do it a set amount of times, having it reset each time. AND if you could then share that stuff online so people could make lesson plans/etc. MAN.
I also messed around with Saibot, who I played in 9. He seems cool! I made a custom that adds some air moves but is otherwise very similar to the first layout. I then did the first of the towers and completely forget how to play the character. Though! I somehow was able to remember both of his fatalities after only looking at them once.
I do like that you can pin moves to the screen. They're not in the best spot, but it's still pretty helpful.
~~~
Played: 5/10. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/11. Midnight.
Finished up the Towers of Time tutorial and did some AI battles. Messed around more with the Krypt. I have a lot of stuff for characters I do not use at all. I should probably check out more characters and finish the rest of the tutorials.
~~~
Played: 5/11. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 5/11. Early Evening.
Did some more AI stuff. Did Noob's classic tower. Unlocked his heart chest in the Krypt. Found out you can do the towers with AI and apparently there is ranked AI? Sure. Cool. It does seem like a easy to grind for characters you can't/won't play. The augment mechanic is bizarre and overly complicated. You can only equip certain augments to certain types of gear in addition to only certain slots. You also have to level up the gear to even equip stuff to it. What dumb, bad system. Especially since they don't really seem to add much.
~~~
Played: 5/12. Midnight.
Checked out the AI endless tower and found it kinda boring. I don't know. I'm feeling like I may bounce off this game unfortunately.
~~~
Touhou Luna Nights

Started: 5/14. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I've never played a a Touhou game, Metroidvania or otherwise. This one seems pretty cool and good. Lots of style, plays well, has an interesting mechanic. The localization is... a thing. I only played to the first boss.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Early Evening.
This game gets pretty hard from even early on. It really wants you to use all your resources. It likes to hide things behind hidden walls, but I'm pretty sure I've been able to find just about every one I've come across. Usually by accident from just spamming the attack button.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Evening.
I got to a boss that was very bullet-hell-like. Also apparently this game calls its areas "stages" so it's probably a lot more linear than a typical metroidvania unfortunately. That means that any back tracking is probably just for items and not new areas. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Late Evening.
I got to the clock tower and they're hyping it up to be the last area so I assume it isn't. I did some backtracking, but there's teal doors I don't have the key for yet so I'm guessing I find that in the clock tower. This game is OK. It's not a great Metroidvania, too linear. But it plays well and has some interesting ideas that I'm sure can be found in other Touhou games.
~~~
Played: 5/26. Late Evening.
I got to a boss that was extremely bullet-hell like and I just don't want to grind against it to learn its patterns, etc. I think I'm done with this game.
~~~
Arena of Evolution: Red Tides

Played: 5/19. Early Morning. Mobile. Enjoyed.
I didn't think I would like a game that came from DOTA, especially since I didn't like what I've seen of Auto-chess. But watching the segment on UPF for this game made me interested. I had just enough room for it on my phone and it barely runs, but I had a lot of fun with the 3 games I played. I went 2nd, 1st, and 4th. I'll probably play some more.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Evening.
Oops played this for like 3+ hours. It's good. I'm figuring out stuff like how and when to spend gold and what units are good. There does seem to be some pretty obvious stand outs.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Evening.
There are definitely certain units that are just better. Mechs, siege units like the catapult or sky crab, to name a few. I can consistently win with those. If I try something else then I usually don't do so well.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/20. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 5/20. Early Evening.
I find this game, despite its complicated nature, is actually pretty easy to just pick up. Perhaps it's because the general strategy is pretty simple and straight forward.
I did see something nifty in this game though. A guy who was behind rushed to level 10. It didn't do them good against the person who one, but they were able to come in 2nd. That extra unit really did a lot of work.
~~~
Played: 5/20. Evening.
Beast + Assassin is good, but I didn't get lucky with my draws.
~~~
Played: 5/20. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/21. Early Evening.
Fliers + uhhh the Whale ones are also really good.
~~~
Played: 5/21. Evening.
Warbringers are extremely good. They actually may be the best unit.
~~~
Played: 5/21. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/22. Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/23. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/23. Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/26. Midnight.
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Played: 5/26. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/26. Late Evening.
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Played: 5/27. Midnight.
~~~
Gato Roboto

Started: 5/30. Evening. PC Steam. Mixed.
This game is just alright. It controls a little too floaty and imprecise for my taste. I don't think the 1bit color palette does it any favors. I don't really like it's brand of humor. But the character sprites themselves are cute.
~~~
Played: 6/5. Early Morning.
I don't think this game is very good. I got through the water and lava areas and am now in a place were you only control Kiki. It's bad masco-core bull shit that I don't think has any place in a Metroidvania.
~~~
Played: 6/5. Early Evening.
I'm in the central area. Gosh, the gun just doesn't get better even with upgrades. It takes forever to defeat any enemies with it. It sucks.
~~~
BattleTech

Started: 5/31. Midnight. PC Steam. Neutral.
This game seemed really cool when I was watching Austin Walker stream it a year ago. I don't think it teaches you how to play it very well. I died on the first mission. Also that mission felt like it took forever! Maybe it's just not what I'm looking for at the moment. I do like the character background creation, though I wish I had control over the face shape.
~~~
Played: 6/1. Midnight.
I am very bad at this game. I feel like it'll be one of those where I should just restart every mission until I actually understand the mechanics and strategy. The missions are SO long though. I feel like maybe this game expects you to know too much about the source material too.
~~~
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Started: 6/1. Early Morning. PC Steam. Neutral.
I had bounced off this game super hard a few years ago, but decided to re-buy it out of some bizarre desire to play it since hearing about the switch port. I installed a few mods and spent way too long in the character creator.
~~~
Played: 6/1. Evening. Enjoyed?
Made my pawn, did some side quests. Nothing much too say really. It does seem like folks really like mage pawns though. I'm playing as a mage soooo... I want to switch to that mage/knight, but I guess that'll be a later option.
~~~
Played: 6/1. Late Evening.
Made it to the capital and apparently that unlocks a lot of DLC items.
~~~
Played: 6/2. Midnight.
Tried to do the pawn guild dungeon mission, but I think it is a little too high level for me at the moment. I went back and did the well in the first town and got some levels from it. I don't know if I like Mystic Knight. It doesn't seem like a great class since I can't get any argo to block attacks? But At least it gives me a ranged option with spells if I do some inventory management.
~~~
Played: 6/8. Early Evening.
Did a quest in the catacombs area by the pawn guild. I could not kill the big monster thing in there.
~~~
Mothergunship

Played: 6/9. Early Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I was looking for another game to play with my brother and I really like this game. It now has CO-OP so I wanted to jump in and see if I could remember how to play it. I did! Looks like he'll need to go through the initial tutorial before we can play together, but hopefully that doesn't take too long.
~~~
Played: 7/14. Afternoon.
Finally found the time to play with my younger brother. The multiplayer is pretty cool actually. We didn't do so well though. haha.
~~~
Night in the Woods

Started: 6/18. Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
~~~
Played: 6/18. Late Evening.
Was meaning to play this with my partner and we finally started! She liked what we've played so far. We stopped at Part 2.
~~~
Played: 6/23. Midnight.
We feed the rats and hung with Bea.
~~~
Played: 6/27. Late Evening.
We knife'fought with gregg.
~~~
Played: 7/2. Late Evening.
HARFEST!!!
~~~
Played: 7/8. Late Evening.
We went to the library and hung out with a cat irl.
~~~
Played: 7/10. Late Evening.
Looks like Weird Autumn added a lot of cool stuff that I didn't see before. We hung out with Mom (which I did do before) and the explored the tunnels with a guy (which I didn't do before).
~~~
Played: 7/31. Late Evening.
We finally got back to this and did the Graveyard and spoooooky cat dream.
~~~
Played: 8/3. Late Evening.
Went to a party.
~~~
Played: 8/19. Late Evening.
We got to the end of Part 3. We did the museum and then saw the cult kill a guy and chase Mae.
~~~
Played: 8/26. Evening.
~~~
Finished: 8/26. Late Evening.
My partner wasn't super into how things wrapped up, but I think on the whole she enjoyed the characters.
~~~
Lemmings

"Lemmings The official game" on mobile.
Played: 6/19. Early Morning. Mobile. Disliked.
Saw this on the play store and decided to check it out. The actual game seemed like an extremely good adaptation and modernization of the puzzle game. Setting powers to show up on a grid that then get applied to all lemmings is a really good idea.
However, this game is lousy with f2p bullshit like energy, cosmetic stuff, and shit that just prevents you from playing the damn game. If it was 3 bucks with just the puzzles and nothing else, this would probably be pretty cool. Shame they turned it into such predatory trash garbage.
~~~
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Started: 6/19. Early Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
~~~
Played: 6/19. Morning.
This is very much a Castlevania game, worts and all. It has long empty horizontal hallways, tons of weapons that are largely not different enough to really matter, weirdly specific animation canceling involving your jump, "kill x enemy" quests, bad voice acting. Still, I'm liking what I played. It seems pretty polished and what I'd expect. I'll probably have a lot of fun with it.
~~~
Played: 6/19. Evening.
Folks compared Timespinner to SOTN-styled Castlevanina games and they were inexact. This game is just one of those. I cannot stress that enough. To the point where all my criticism and likes about those games can just be applied to this one.
~~~
Played: 6/20. Evening.
I got the grabby arm and it seems like this game really opens up after that? There haven't been too many spots to use it, but there seemed to be multiple places you can go after getting it. I went to a tower and then a library/lab.
Also I found the NPC that lets you customize Miram's appearance. That's an odd addition, but I guess it's cool.
~~~
Played: 6/21. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 6/22. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 6/22. Early Morning.
Welp, played for like 5-6 hours. The game didn't open up as much as I had thought before. Now it is a bit more. I beat the blood lady, who was hard, and the library dragon, who was a laughable cakewalk. Now I'm exploring the underground, but it's pretty clear that I'm not supposed to yet as I don't have the underwater ability yet.
The silver knight familiar seems like the best. They just upgrade pretty frequently just through exploration and the had an AOE attack that seems to deal holy damage. I was using the sword one for a while because each time it levels it becomes stronger and you can use it as weapon. For a long time that kept it as my best sword. I've since switched the red parasol. It's good.
I think the level design is better than a lot of other castlevanias. It still does that thing where you enter a hallway and it's just full of large strong enemies that block you way, but the rooms have more variety too them.
That two towers boss was really boring and bad. I think my familiar did the last hit because it ended very suddenly and was very disorientating.
~~~
Played: 6/22. Afternoon.
I am lost. I can go fight Gebel, but that's just the bad end. I can explore the caves, but I can't swim yet. I really hope the swim upgrade isn't dropped from a regular enemy. One of the GBA castlevanias did something like that. The only thing I can think of is the 8-bit nightmare, but I bet that's just some bonus stuff.
There's still a lot of the castle to explore. I'm only at about 60%.
~~~
Played: 6/22. Evening.
This game did exactly what I was fearing it would do. It hid the "swim" ability behind a random drop. They could have at least made it 100% drop on your first kill, but nope. Just have to grind for it.
I'm now in the desert. It is pretty cool that to get there you have to go through the water area. I'm guessing there's something that drains the water area though.
~~~
Played: 6/23. Midnight.
Beat the boss in the desert area. Which was also really easy.
~~~
Played: 6/23. Early Morning.
Got the invert ability and explored all around getting what I could. It's a fun way to say "This game doesn't really have an inverted castle... or does it?" Though other metroidvanias have that ability too. So maybe it's not as original as it hopes to be.
This game definitely has the probably that other Castlevanias have. It's got all this equipment, but I rarely find myself changing to it. I found a really power sword, and have spells that I like. Occasionally I'll find a spell that's cool, but not as cool as something that homes in a has multiple hits or one that creates hitboxes all around me.
Armor, on the other hand, is different. I find I'm often updating it if I find something better, even if I find armor that's good enough and changes Miriam's appearance.
I think they're expecting you to sell a lot of stuff to make money. I completely hoard all my crafting items, especially since the drops were pretty rare until I upgraded my luck considerably. Now I was able to sell a lot of the rare crafting mats that I had tons of.
~~~
Played: 6/23. Afternoon.
Tried to fight the Carpenter. I lost.
~~~
Played: 6/23. Early Evening.
Instead of doing an inverted castle, they have a Big World. Seems like it's only a small area, but it's quite novel. I also grinded a lot to get some of the yellow shards to white ones. Now I have the eye for secrets (which also auto-picks up items) and the pickpocket shard (which I haven't really seen proc yet.)
~~~
Played: 6/24. Early Evening.
I fucked up and died and lost a whole lot of progress through the ice area when I could have gone back to save and junk. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 6/26. Late Evening.
Spent a little bit getting back to where I died.
~~~
Finished: 6/29. Afternoon.
Finished the game on Normal. Looks like I unlocked sound test. I figured there would be a new game + or something, but apparently not. I certainly did not do everything or get 100% of the map. The final boss was pretty easy, but I was level 50 and had a lot of good stuff.
~~~
Dota Underlords

Played: 6/25. Early Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I tried this on mobile, but it didn't really run well on my phone so I switch to PC. It'll be a great podcast game. I still worry that the RNG is not biased in a way that makes it actually skillful. the other auto chess games I've played have that issue where sometimes you just get lucky and that's it.
~~~
Played: 6/26. Evening.
I had some very lucky games where I sold something only to than see it come up in the shop each time.
~~~
Played: 6/27. Early Evening.
I just can't seem to get anything going in this game. Either I'm getting RNG-screwed, or am just straight up bad at it. Probably a mixture.
~~~
Played: 6/27. Evening.
Ok. Came 2nd. Trolls are good. They are the attack speed of this game. Also, I now know was a BKB is and well... I guess that's a thing I know now.
~~~
Played: 6/28. Evening.
Had two games. Did really crap in them.
~~~
Played: 6/29. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 6/29. Evening.
I finally won a match of this dumb game. Turns out Trolls and Knights are a really good combo.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Morning.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Afternoon.
Won my 2nd game! It was very close... well it was more of a draw actually. I was leading the whole game and only started losing when it came down to me and another player. They only had about 24 HP to my 90, but whittled it down so we were both around 12. I had no hope in beating their team. The RNG was just in my favor and they died seconds before I did, so I won! Really More of a draw though.
Also you really need to get lucky with the passive items for this team comp to work. Having my "savage" guys dealing bleed, my druids healing on death, and all my summons have more HP + attack speed really what let me stay on top that whole match.
Sucks how much just getting RNG blessed is really what determines victory in these sorts of games. However, I don't know if the bias the item pool depending on what you have. It doesn't seem like it.
~~~
Played: 6/1. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Evening.
Trying to figure out how to better manage my economy. Got 3rd after going through a losing streak most of the game. When pretty well I guess.
~~~
Played: 6/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/1. Early Evening.
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Played: 7/4. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Afternoon.
Got a lot of disconnects for some reason today.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Afternoon.
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Played: 7/5. Evening.
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Played: 7/6. Evening.
Fuck this game.
~~~
Played: 7/6. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/7. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/7. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/11. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/12. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/13. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 7/14. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 7/14. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/14. Early Evening.
Assassin focused teams are not great.
~~~
Played: 7/14. Evening.
~~~
Super Mario Maker 2

Played: 7/2. Evening. Switch. Enjoyed.
I got a switch exclusively for this game. Uhhh... I am bad at mario. I haven't played a mario game since one of the Wii ones and didn't really like it. The switch isn't very comfortable to hold in handheld mode for me unfortunately. I may see about getting those Hori joycons, but first I'll try playing it with the kickstand out and the little grip thing.
I haven't started looking to make a level yet. I want to get a feel for the game first. I am glad that my pen stylus works for it, though I don't think it'll be great on the bus without some sort of case. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 7/2. Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/3. Early Evening. Mixed?
I don't know if I like the interface of this game. It seems like the level creation would be so much better with a mouse and keyboard. The switch is really uncomfortable to hold, and there doesn't seem to be a good way to use a stylus and still, like, scroll the screen with just a stylus. I'm probably missing something.
I don't really like playing mario levels either? The one-hit kill thing and kinda loose controls just don't feel like a platformer should. Or like the types of platformers I'm used to. There's a bit too much sliding. The jumping just don't quite feel right. This is something I just need to refamiliarize myself with. It's been 10+ years since I played a mario game.
The switch itself is kinda a nightmare? I bought the bundle with nintendo online. I went to redeem my code (which was 15 characters, but they said it was 16. There was a different 16 character code that was not related immediately after the instructions too), and then it seemed like it charged me another 20 bucks? But I can't really see a purchase history? It seems bad and poorly designed.
I will continue to go through the tutorial, but it's not great so far. I don't really like the story mode either. Maybe I'll get used to things.
~~~
Played: 7/3. Evening. Enjoyed.
OK. Now I made an actual level and that was a lot of fun! Nothing hard, but there is a gotcha at the end. GP0-9K3-0XF
The game is much more enjoyable when you're actually making things. It definitely scratches the game dev itch with the way it flows. I really like it even though I find the way I have to hold the switch to be very uncomfortable. My left hand hurts a bit.
~~~
Played: 7/3. Late Evening.
Messed around with some items to see how they behave. I think I have an idea for what I'll make next. I do need to find a better solution as my left hand hurts from even doing it a little bit.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Late Morning.
I think I like making levels more than playing other people's levels.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Afternoon.
yeah. I don't have patience of other people's levels. Seesaws seem extremely annoying? Also, the way wall jumps work in the one 3d skin is feels wrong?
~~~
Played: 7/4. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Late Evening.
Welp. Spent all day making a very small level. It's all about bombs. I think I will switch to mario 3 for my later levels since mario 1 is pretty limiting for the type of puzzle stuff I'd like to do. Still I like what I have so far.
The claw grab thing is too fiddly though. I couldn't get it working well with what I wanted. When it releases is super inconsistent.
I'm having a lot of fun with bill shooters and switches though.
~~~
Played: 7/5. Late Evening.
Mainly made some changes to my current level. I think it's better and more interesting now. I try to make it so that failure doesn't result in a death. It's not perfect though. Somethings things don't come together. Pipers and launchers seem to be on a global timer regardless of whether or not they can expel stuff, which is pretty intuitive as a game designer.
~~~
Played: 7/11. Early Evening.
Got a switch travel case and tried editing a level on the bus. The case required so modifications to make it comfortable to use in the way I wanted. So I didn't get much done. I did do those modifications when I got home and will try again tomorrow!
~~~
Played: 7/12. Early Evening.
Finished the majority of my level while on my bus. The cast mod works great!
~~~
Played: 7/12. Evening.
Uploaded my level! TBQ-QNX-PFG
~~~
Played: 7/12. Late Evening.
Saw the pinball level on UPF and had to start making my own. Started on that. There's a lot of interesting things you can do with the set up.
~~~
The World Next Door

Started: 7/20. Late Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This game seems pretty cool! I like the art style, and the match 3 + action is pretty good! I played until after the glowy hand boss. Looks like it's pretty short too.
~~~
Played: 7/21. Early Evening.
In the 3rd shrine and this game certainly gets tough. The fact that you can't dash through enemies makes it's really tricky. Also it doesn't seem like items really do anything, so I don't know what side quests are for other than probably a good ending.
~~~
Finished: 7/21. Late Evening.
So, I guess I finished the game? It didn't feel like it was going to end so abruptly. I figured there was going to be one more day and like a probably final boss. It does give me the option to continue, so maybe there's a new game+ or something else. Or maybe they're saving it for a sequel. Ah well.
~~~
Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Started: 7/25. Late Evening. Switch. Neutral.
Just started it, picked the character stuff, and stopped at the very first encounter. The voice acting doesn't seem great.
~~~
Played: 7/26. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 7/28. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Midnight.
Picked the Black Eagles and just wandered around the Academy chatting and doing the initial quests. I think I've picked out the characters I want to poach from the other houses as well. It is unfortunate that there's already some real shitty sexism in a few specific characters and quests.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Morning.
Totally doable bus game!!
~~~
Played: 7/29. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Evening.
I think the structure of this game is pretty interesting so far. Kinda inspires the "one more turn" mentality though.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/30. Early Evening.
trying out the repeatable battles to grind a bit!
~~~
Played: 7/30. Evening.
I got supports up, trying to recruit Mercedes too. Stopped just before the next story mission. I do like that you can grind battles and that they're pretty challenging if you're trying to get get everyone killed.
~~~
Played: 7/30. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/31. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 7/31. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 7/31. Evening.
Bernadetta has supports with pretty much everyone it seems.
~~~
Played: 8/2. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/5. Midnight.
Woooweee played this for quite some time. I'm now in Chapter 6. I've mostly been trying to get my characters higher and higher levels/more kitted out, because that's how I'll play a game if it lets me, unfortunately. I found out I need to get the people I want to recruit to Rank B and they'll ask to join. Unfortunately I botched some of the tea-times. Geez.
~~~
Played: 8/5. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/5. Evening.
That Death Knight just doesn't fuck around... I think I'll have to restart maybe.
~~~
Played: 8/5. Late Evening.
I beat the Death Knight. Got through all the story stuff. Won the fishing tourney. Recruited Shamir.
~~~
Played: 8/6. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 8/6. Early Evening.
Went through some side missions. Some of my characters are already level 20+, but I find the classes don't level as quickly and I want to master some of them.
~~~
Played: 8/6. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/6. Evening.
I crushed the battle of the eagle and lion. Also recruited Annette and am making pretty good headway on the other healers.
~~~
Played: 8/7. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/7. Evening.
Recruited Lys and she is an absolute beast. 80+ damage off crits and she crits frequently.
~~~
Played: 8/7. Late Evening.
Caspan and Bernie basically took on a monster together by themselves "the Great Beast" or something. The forest really helped.
~~~
Played: 8/9. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/9. Evening.
I got most of the characters I want to recruit. Just Marianne and Leonie left.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Early Morning.
I had a rather cute scene with Mercedes on the night of the Ball. I made Dorothea my Dancer. This game definitely has the "one more turn" sort of thing.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Early Evening.
Finally recruited Leonie! Just Marianne now, who I have an A support with potentially. Then I'm done recruiting students. I'll probably pick up a few more knights just 'cause.
I liked how the used the time rewind power in a cutscene in chapter 9. That was cool. RIP Jeralt I guess.
My Caspar is a beast though. One-shots all monsters and dodges everything. Dancer Dorothea is also really cool, and Manuela is actually really good too.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Evening.
Marianne joined during the week and I am just trucking through Chapter 10.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/11. Midnight.
A the mission in Chapter 11. It was pretty obvious that the Flame Emperor was Edelgard. She was never around when he was, and she was close to Monica. But yeah, I stopped right before the fight. I'm not sure which side I'll pick... I've been kinda RPing the Professor as more in line with Rhea, but I really like Hubert? Edelgard is ok, but I don't know if my version of the Professor would agree with what she's doing even though I went with her to be crowned.
~~~
Played: 8/11. Early Evening.
I finished up the battle, and used a save to watch both options. I'm not really sure which side I want to take to be honest. They both have they're benefits, but there is a lot that I don't understand/have context for. I have to think about it.
~~~
Played: 8/11. Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/11. Late Evening.
Now post-timeskip. I choose Edelgard because apparently it is the less seen ending. My time so far has been basically was just catching up on the tons of supports.
~~~
Played: 8/12. Midnight.
Caspar murdered Ignatz with his bare hands. I forgot the mission was defeat the commander instead of route the enemy. Whoops.
~~~
Played: 8/17. Afternoon.
I'm trying to play matchmaker to get specific endings, so I'm holding off on certain A supports. Leonie has also surpassed Ferdinand entirely in terms of raw stats despite being the same level. They're both really good but Leonie is just better stat-wise. I decided to make her a flier along with Marianne.
~~~~
Played: 8/18. Midnight.
Killed Claude. Caught a goddess messenger.
~~~
Played: 8/18. Early Evening.
Played through Leonie and Lin's paralogue and it has some pretty interesting lore with the saintly beast.
~~~
Played: 8/18. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/19. Midnight.
Did a few more paralogues and they're cool and interesting. I also became aware that in my current path there's no hope of getting another dark seal and I wasted one on Lin thinking I'd get another. Ah well. No Dark Bishop for Hubert. Also Hubert's A rank with Edel is... silly. C'mon bud, really?
~~~
Played: 8/22. Late Evening.
I killed Flayn and Seleth. I guess I don't get to know the nature of who they are on this path. That's fine. Edel is now an emperor class so that's cool. Lys became a gremory at 45% chance. I think I'm like 2 chapters from the end though.
~~~
Played: 8/24. Midnight.
Mostly just did some supports and stuff around the castle. Shamir is my first character to have an S rank in a skill!
~~~
Played: 8/27. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/27. Evening.
Still going through Chapter 16. So many Rank A supports done. Going through Paralogues too.
~~~
Played: 8/31. Afternoon.
Did Marianne's paralogue. It was kinda hell? I never had to use so many divine pulses. Having to deal with monsters and fog of war was pretty rough. My Marianne is not really a great unit either and a lot of my characters didn't seem to have battalions equipped for some reason.
~~~
Played: 8/31. Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/31. Late Evening.
Trying to push through and finish it. I'm in the 2nd to last month. Just getting the last of the supports done before I go to the battle for that month. Apparently you can romance Sothis? I saw her as an option when selecting "who you love". Looking it up, you just have to pick very specific choices, so that's a bit boring. Also creepy since she looks like a child.
My Marianne is finally an extremely good unit. She's a Falcon Knight now and that gave her the STR and DEF she need to actually not die in a single hit all the time. I want to get a few other units to the Master Classes, but there's not too much of a point since I'm right at the end.
~~~
Played: 9/1. Midnight.
~~~
Finished: 9/1. Early Morning.
85+ hours and I finished the Crimson Flower route. I really liked it. It was too long and the route I picked left a lot of stuff up to vague epilogues. "Those who slither in the dark were dealt with" which I guess is fine.
I didn't route all the enemies in final battle. Just cleared out most of them and then fought Rhea. It was weird that Cyril never triggered for me? He just stood by and let me attack Rhea. Kinda weird.
Also in the fight beforehand, Dedue turns into a monster and it was like "oh fuck!" but if you rewind time and take him out before he can then you get an extra scene with him and Dimitri and it's really cool and good!
I chose Mercedes to be with and it was very sweet. Their ending is extremely nice. A lot of the epilogues were good and cute. A few people didn't end up with anyone (like Shamir and Petra), but for the most part the people who were together was expected.
~~~
Pac-Man Battle Royale

Played: 7/26. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
Played against my partner who never play pac man before. She beat me!!!
~~~
Defender

Played: 7/26. Early Evening. Arcade. Neutral.
Defender is hard and I am bad at it.
~~~
Joust

Played: 7/26. Early Evening. Arcade. Neutral.
I've never played original Joust before. It's stiff, but gotta love that cabinet art.
~~~
Mr. Do!

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
Never played this before and this game is rad as hell!!
~~~
Dr. Mario

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
My partner loved this game as a kid. I've always been bad at it. She crushed me in vs. I only took a round off her.
~~~
Tetris

Played: 7/26. Early Evening. Arcade. Neutral.
I didn't really like this version of Tetris. It was a super old arcade cabinet and was very stiff. I did pretty well though.
~~~
Satan's Hollow

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
Never played this before and this game is rad as hell!! My partner was again better at it than I was.
~~~
R-Type

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
This game is still rad as hell!!
~~~
Centipede

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
This game is still rad as hell!! I got stuck on Level 3 forever then died!!
~~~
RoadBlasters

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Enjoyed.
Never played this before and this game is rad as hell!!
~~~
Omega Race

Played: 7/27. Early Evening. Arcade. Neutral.
Unfortunately it seemed like the rotation input on the cabinet was busted and I couldn't really play it effectively. It's a shame because the game seems really cool.
~~~
Dicey Dungeons

Played: 8/21. Evening. PC itch. Enjoyed.
Picked this game up. Did 2 runs as the Warrior and won the 2nd time. Seems great! definitely a good podcast game.
~~~
Played: 8/25. Late Evening.
I didn't really like the Thief. I only won because I turned into a bear. Then I had some really unlucky runs as the Robot where I died on very low level enemies.
~~~
Played: 8/26. Midnight.
The witch is pretty interesting. The inventor is pretty cool too. I don't think I like the robot. I just don't think in the sort of way that makes it fun?
~~~
Played: 8/26. Early Morning.
No luck with the witch.
~~~
Played: 8/29. Early Morning.
Still can't win with the Witch. Won with the Jester and did the Warrior's 2nd episode. I don't think I really like the dialogue and kinda wish I could just skip it. I don't know quite why. I kinda just want to get into the game.
~~~
Played: 9/1. Late Evening. Mixed.
I tried a few of the other episodes and the witch again. I don't know, I just have the worst luck. It's not fun. Maybe there's something I just don't understand about it.
~~~
Minoria

Started: 9/1. Late Evening. PC Itch. Mixed.
Oof. Enemies deal so much damage in this game. I have 300 HP and they're hitting me for nearly half that every time. My healing and the projectile attack I found barely restore HP or deal any damage. When I leveled up I got 2 more Max HP. Effectively meaningless. I wonder if I accidentally set it to hard or something.
The parrying is also annoying. It's just not an enjoyable mechanic for me, but here it feels... off? Like sometimes the window and range is super generous and other times it's super specific? And what happens when you parry depends on the enemy/boss. It's awkward.
I know the dev's whole thing has always been "what if TouHou girls were in a dark metroidvania", but the whole big boob nun fetish character design here is not really my sort of thing. The cutesy characters seem to betray the more "serious" story there going for.
Also, I'm just never a fan of witches as villains due to a personal history with paganism, but that's another thing. (yeah, there is a big difference between pop culture witches and like people who practice witchcraft.)
~~~
Played: 9/2. Late Evening.
Apparently enemies don't enter hitstun, but not all of them have parry-able attacks which must be dodged and some of those attacks are kinda hard to see. I don't think I'll play much more of this unfortunately.
~~~
Mable and The Wood

Started: 9/2. Late Evening. PC Itch. Mixed.
This game bills itself as a metroidvania, but I haven't really seen anything that proves that yet. Just linear left-to-right paths where you can't go back. The gimmick is interesting, but I'm not sure how well it's realized. Partially because you cannot change the controls and using the analog stick for a 2D platformer is never great. I got up to where you get the spider ability and it feels weird.
The music is really good though!
~~~
Control

Started: 9/7. Midnight. PC EGS. Neutral.
After hearing so many good things about it, I had to check it out. I don't typically play AAA 3rd person shooters, but I really like the premise. I love the idea of exploring impossible spaces. I didn't get too far in this session because I died during like the 2nd combat encounter and my computer just restarted? It was weird.
One thing I appreciate is the plethora of settings in the options menu. It's the sort of features I really wish indies dedicated the time too.
~~~
Played: 9/7. Early Evening.
Got through like 1 more combat encounter and died on what seemed like a mini-boss. Happened twice. 2nd time the game shut off my computer on reload again. Tried to see if anyone else is having this issue, but it's not exactly an easy to search for issue since the name is so generic. Their support forum was an extreme pain to search too. I ended up just making a new thread.
Oh, It apparently deleted my save file too. I think I might try to refund this game.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Early Evening. Enjoyed...
I restarted since my save was corrupt. I actually had to delete my save to get the game to boot again. But I played a good chunk of it and then was like "Maybe I'll see if I get the issue". It happened much quicker! Geez. It's a shame since I was enjoying what I played.
I will say I think the main character's acting is just badly written. In fact, a lot of the internal mail and collectables are kinda poorly written. Too casual. They don't read like they were written by serious federal employee stick-in-the-muds. Instead they read like they were written by corporate bro-types.
~~~
Played: 9/14. Early Morning.
There was an update to this game so I wanted to see if they fixed my problem. It seemed be fine, but they my computer suddenly restarted just during regular walking around. I wanted to see if maybe it had something to do with setting it to borderless windowed mode, but when I relaunched it my save was corrupted again. Ah well. I'm going to talk to some folks and see if what sort of thing could be causing this. I did get a cheap PSU so maybe that's why.
~~~
Metroid: Zero Mission

Started: 9/8. Midnight. PC Emulator. Enjoyed.
With all the kinda lackluster metroidvanias I've been playing I decided to go back to one I know I enjoy. A streamer couple I follow recently played through Fusion and I'm not a big fan of that game, so why not play the one I do like? Maybe after this I'll play through Super Metroid and AM2R again.
Anyway. I played up until I got the Ice Beam and now I have to go fight Kraid. Instead I did some exploring and attempted some sequence breaking, but got to an area in that I couldn't really do anything. Bomb jumping in this game is pretty easy. (At least Straight Up anyway) Even though I'm bad at it.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Early Morning.
Beat Kraid. got the speedbooster. Spent too long trying to figure out how to get out of Kraid's lair. I've been trying to get as much out of sequence as I can, but I can't remember a lot of the shinespark tricks you need to do. I know I won't do 100% since it requires some real bull shit that I'm not willing to do, but still. I do like getting stuff early!
~~~
Played: 9/8. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Evening.
Beat Ridley and am on my way to Mother Brain. I tried some of the absurd shinespark tricks to get the one super missile, but nah. I'm not going to try to do that BS.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Late Evening.
Died against Mother Brain.
~~~
Played: 9/9. Midnight.
Beat Mother Brain, got all my upgrades back. Now trying to get out of the damned pirate ship.
~~~
Played: 9/11. Evening.
Got power bombs. I attempted to go back and get some other items. I got a few, but there's so much shinespark BS in this game that makes me really just not want to go and do that stuff. I don't think I'll even beat this game really. I think I got all I wanted from it.
~~~
Metroid

Started: 9/14. Early Morning. Switch. Enjoyed.
Every 8 to 10 years I go back to the original Metroid and have to remind myself of how basic of a game it is. In my memory of it, you can crouch and aim down while in the air. You can't do neither. The controls are both stiff and floaty in the way that a lot of NES games are. But it's pretty interesting. It just dumps you into the world and is like "look around until you find where to go". and that's cool.
~~~
Final Fantasy VIII

Started: 9/15. Late Evening. Switch. Enjoyed.
I broken down and decided to get the remaster on swtich despite having a ripped version of my ps1 disks on my computer that I could play. Did very little. Just went to first save point. They didn't do much to the remaster, huh? Didn't even upgrade the background visuals at all. Also, at least on switch, you can't rebind the controls at all. I'm pretty sure I remember there being some sort of control options in the PS1 version.
~~~
Played: 9/19. Morning.
~~~
Played: 9/19. Early Evening.
Got greedy with the card game and lost Ifrit. When I went to reload, I had saved after the Fire Cavern... Geez.
~~~
Played: 9/21. Midnight.
Replayed what I lost. Then lost Ifrit again in Triple Traid. Geez! This time I saved right outside the Garden.
~~~
Played: 9/23. Morning.
SO MUCH TRIPLE TRIAD!
~~~
Played: 9/19. Early Evening.
Ok, started the actual game and stopped just before the communication tower. It is a bit unfortunate to play this game without the sound on, but I wanted to listen to a podcast while on the bus and that was the only solution.
~~~
Played: 9/24. Morning.
I got greedy against the communication tower boss drawing Doubles and died. haha. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 9/25. Morning.
~~~
Played: 9/25. Morning.
Stopped just before the "You're the most handsome guy here" scene.
~~~
Untitled Goose Game

Started: 9/22. Afternoon. Switch. Enjoyed.
this game is cute, but I couldn't figure out how to get the farmer to wear the hat. Then I got myself stuck in the garden and couldn't get out. It's very silly though.
~~~
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Started: 9/22. Afternoon. Switch. Enjoyed.
This game is fun. I really wish the Feather was just on the B button and attack on Y. I really wish you could rebind the controls in any switch game. It's pretty frustrating that you cannot.
That said, this game is cute. I probably spend too much time just wandering around the initial area trying to collect as much as I could. I stopped just after I got... the dog.
~~~
Played: 9/23. Early Morning.
Finished up the 2nd dungeon. I really find the controls to be awkward. the amount of times I've jumped instead of swung my sword or vice versa is a lot. There's a weird stiffness to the jump too. It's awkward.
It does look like the world has now opened up to me. Though I think I stumbled onto the right path.
~~~
Played: 9/26. Early Evening.
Got into the 3rd dungeon. I wish this was a bit more modernized. I wish there was a dedicated button for the feather, etc. I don't really like the style of writing either. It's a bit too irreverent in the way I don't enjoy.
~~~
Played: 9/27. Early Evening.
Got to the boss of the 3rd dungeon, but couldn't figure it out before I had to get off for my bus stop.
~~~
Played: 9/28. Morning.
Beat the 3rd dungeon. Had to look it up, but it was exactly what I was trying to do. I don't know why what I was doing before wasn't working. I feel like I'm getting pretty cold on this game. It's not really as well designed or feel as good as Link Between Worlds.
~~~
Played: 10/2. Evening.
Apparently I need the bow to progress and I'm about 300 rupees short. I know they want you to still the bow, but I'm not sure if I want to and I sure as hell don't want to grind for it. Booo.
~~~
Played: 10/6. Evening.
I was wrong. I had to go explore a different area of the map for a different dungeon. Ah well. I looked up a guide and did the dream place and the color dungeon. I choose the red tunic since it deals more damage.
~~~
Code Vein

Played: 9/28. Late Evening. PC Steam. Neutral.
All I did was mess around with the character creator. My PC has been having an issue with modern games where it randomly shuts off. Probably the PSU. This game had that issue after I made my character. I really like the character creator though I wish it had more specific options.
~~~
Played: 9/29. Early Evening.
Tried the character creator again and made a very different looking but similar character. Still didn't actually jump into the game.
~~~
Played: 9/30. Early Evening.
Messed around more with the character creator. It's amazing what you can do with just some hair + accessory options.
~~~
Played: 10/2. Early Evening.
Decided to make Yuri from Dirty Pair. It was alright. I think I might try making Utena as well.
~~~
Played: 10/5. Late Morning.
Tired to make Utena, but it did not go well. Couldn't get the hair right.
~~~
Started: 10/8. Evening.
I got a new PSU and now can actually play this. It's pretty good! I have to not get greedy though.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Evening.
Died a lot to the first boss, but won once I switched to the axe and used the fight ability. Then stopped after I did the stuff at the home base. The ability system is super interesting and I can't wait to get more classes.
~~~
Played: 10/10. Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/10. Late Evening.
Found this game's Blight Town. It wasn't too bad though I haven't gone through the entire area yet. I also leveled up a ton. Went from like level 5 to 25.
~~~
Played: 10/11. Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/11. Late Evening.
Spent a lot of time trying to beat the pole dancing water lady boss. Eventually got her by switching to Coco's class and using the anti-slow stuff and a good lancer I found. I definitely want to max out those abilities before fighting the boss of the next area as I know it's poison. I was playing a pretty heavy build, but I think I prefer a caster build. Once I get the anti-poison/slow stuff mastered I might switch to Caster or Ranger class.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Afternoon.
Beat the poison lady that they fought during the quick look. She definitely seemed like the first boss you were supposed to go after.
Then I tried messing with my build a bit. I maxed out the stuff I wanted from Coco's bloodcode and am now going to try the ranger one.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Evening.
It seems like the areas I have access to now just have way too many enemies. There are some encounters where there's like 6 guys and they all are attacking me instead of my partner and it's not fun. I try to run away and get them in a hallway. Also the class variety doesn't really seem to be there in the way I'd like it.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/13. Midnight.
Beat another boss. I thought that guy was a little easier than the rest. I really like the poison class you get after that boss fight too. I think it'll work well with how I like to play the game so far. The memory for that class was pretty cool too. Though I'm not really paying too close attention to story.
I did get like 3 fairly long cutscenes back-to-back. I think some of them were supposed to trigger earlier, but ah well. I can now use Mia, and she's alright. I think I'll stick with Louis.
I ended the session getting to this game's Arlondo. Geez. It's just that place from dark souls.
~~~
Played: 10/13. Evening.
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Played: 10/13. Late Evening.
Did the two depths areas I didn't do and got some interesting abilities. I also went through some more memories. Now I'm using Mia's class since she has some interesting abilities too. I just got her super expensive ice pillar move that is not at all what I expected.
Unfortunately, I am otherwise stuck. There's an encounter where they summon in a bunch of dudes that I just can't survive against. It's too many and they're too strong. It appears I can't progress without going through that room either. It's pretty frustrating 'cause I just want to get on with the game and each of those enemies is tough enough on their own. Let alone in a massive respawning group.
~~~
Played: 10/14. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/14. Evening.
Tried that encounter a few times and still couldn't do it. I went back and altered my character's appearance and switched back to the Berzerker class and got to the last 2 enemies. Almost did it! I might switch in Yukamo or whatever his name is, but Louis was faring pretty well. I think if I fight in the hallway instead of the room I'll do better.
~~~
Played: 10/14. Late Evening.
After grinding against that encounter a whole lot more I decided to run passed it and just continue onward. It was a deadend! Haha! I had missed a doorway. Now I'm super over-leveled, well into the area, and just fought a mini-boss. There was an option to be teleported to a different location, but I didn't take it yet.
I really like both the berzerker build I was using and the poisoner build I settled on. Yakumo is proving to be a lot better in this area than Louis.
~~~
Played: 10/15. Early Evening.
Wandered around but the area I was in is super labyrinthine. I decided to go and check the memory and... it's just as labyrinthine. I think the area is pretty cool. It's the main character's memory. But it's super long? I was expecting a small zone, but it seems just as big as any other. I'm not sure I can back out without redoing it too.
~~~
Played: 10/15. Evening.
Beat the boss in the memory. That was a pretty cool little story bit. I wish they gave your character more personality since it would have been cool to see how they react even if the writing isn't that great. The twist of who the Queen is (ie the lady at the start) was pretty obvious and the whole "You gotta kill me to save the world" shtick is pretty darn cliche.
I don't think I like the class that unlocks for it though. I've been more about dark magic. But I'll give it a shot. I an equip a rad hammer with it and got a really nice looking hoop outfit going on (though I need to upgrade it a bit.)
~~~
Played: 10/16. Evening.
Finished with the Ar Londo area for the most part. I can now open the feather doors after fighting the giant wolf-cricket lady. I actually really liked the Queenslayer bloodcode. Mostly just for the hammer axe I was using. It was a lot of fun. I do want to try out the lightning class I just got. I also got IO's class but I don't think I'll be using it unless I play the multiplayer at some point, and probably won't be using her much, but we'll see.
~~~
Played: 10/18. Evening.
Completed the Ice mountain area. I was able to beat that boss in one try! But I didn't find the thing to give to his guardian until after I beat the boss unfortunately. For some reason it gave me the Queen's bloodcode after beating him? It was pretty surprising. I wonder if that is a bug. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 10/18. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/19. Midnight.
I'm really liking this game. I finished up the fire area. I also looked up why I got a Queen related bloodcode for the ice area. Turns out if you done view all the memories of the boss, you don't get the option to save them nor their blood code. Whoops that kid.
The Fire area was cool and I liked the Dark Knight class I got just before it, but I'm kinda overpowered (or maybe I'm just understanding the game now). I was smart enough to put fire-resist on my armor and put more ice on my ice scythe. I didn't have too much issue with the gimmick or boss. Now I'm like level 85, so I might just be too overlevled for things. But the game is still a lot of fun.
There's something almost (but not quite) Nier-like with this game. Not just that it draws from the same sort of anime tropes, but like nature of the lore and story beats feel sort of Nier-like. It's no where nearly as well written, the ambition is in different places, and the music is not there. But it gives me a familiar feeling too Nier (and Automata). I don't think it'll be willing to let the world and its characters fall in the way that Yoko Taro is willing to, but it plays with tragedy and hope. And! There's no 9S equivalent!
~~~
Played: 10/19. Early Evening.
Finished up the desert area and can now have Jack and Eva in as my partners. The next area is really rude. I'm not sure how I'm going to set up my character. I want to use the newer bloodcodes I got (Eva's and Karen's) but I'm not really feeling either. I might switch back to the Darkseeker?
~~~
Played: 10/19. Late Evening.
Got to the Mido boss fight and it is extremely tough. I'm 106 too.
The fire and ice boss before him was tough as well, but I was able to do it on the 2nd try.
The Tower is kind of a boring area, but at least it's short.
~~~
Played: 10/21. Early Evening.
Played very briefly going to Rin's memories. It kinda sucks that they have the "Forever 16 vampire girl" trope, but at least no one is preving on her.
~~~
Played: 10/22. Evening.
Beat Mido. I was surprised you do not get a bloodcode for him to be honest. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 10/24. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/24. Evening.
Finished up the Zero district I think it was called. It was surprisingly short, but it was pretty cool that it was a much more destroyed version of the area in your memory.
There are some vestiges that I'm still missing that I feel I probably should have gotten by now. I may look up where they are later.
~~~
Played: 10/24. Late Evening.
Got destroyed by a mini boss. Didn't stand a chance. I did completely wreck the Attendant of the Relics though. She was basically nothing.
This area has been cool, but man are there a lot of ways to go. I'm so far in and haven't even found a second Mistle. I bet there was one at the bottom of the elevator I passed up though.
~~~
Played: 10/25. Late Evening.
I'm now right before the final boss. I plan on doing as much as I can, but I know I'm screwed out of getting the perfect true ending unfortunately. I may actually do a NG+ run of this though since it sounds like it'd be pretty quick. Right now I want to finish up the Depths and one last side quest. Then go fight the final boss!
~~~
Finished: 10/26. Midnight.
Did all the side quests (I think), Depths, and got the normal To Eternity ending. I was probably pretty well leveled, but I found the true final boss to be pretty easy. I beat her the first time. Silva was pretty tricky though!
I also saw the last of the memories and I really liked how Davis's story wrapped up.
I was also surprised just how many people worked on this game! I know games are massive, but this game kinda feels like a budget title in a lot of ways. I guess this game is a AAA title hrmm.
Anyway, I plan on plaything through it again. Probably going for the True ending. Though reading about the abilities of the other successor bloodcodes makes me want them. Ah well. That would be a third play through if I ever get to it.
~~~
Started: 10/27. Midnight.
Decided to check out the NG+. Once I got back to home base I switched to the Hades bloodcode and am rocking Silva's two handed sword. It's ok so far. I don't like the projectile gift, but the moveset on the sword is pretty good.
~~~
Played: 10/27. Afternoon.
I don't think I could get use to the two-handed style at this difficulty. I'm just so used to the spear. Also the hard mode is HARD. I might lower the difficulty, but I'm not sure yet.
~~~
Played: 10/29. Late Evening.
I turned down the difficulty, but I think I'm actually done with this game. I want to write a review, so I'll probably just look up the other endings online
~~~.
Noita

Played: 10/5. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
I didn't think I'd like this game, but watching some video of it sold me on it. It's cool, funny, and interesting. I got 4 maps deep. I wish it paused during the inventory screen and it's definitely one of those "wiki" sort of game, but I like what I've played.
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Played: 10/5. Evening.
I had a water trail that would just fill the entire map with water and make it impossible for people to attack. It was very silly.
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Played: 10/5. Late Evening.
This is a good podcast game.
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Played: 10/6. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/6. Late Evening.
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Played: 11/2. Late Evening.
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Played: 11/3. Midnight.
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Played: 11/9. Midnight.
One of the issues I have with this game is that as soon as you start getting cool stuff, you die.
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Played: 12/24. Late Evening.
Still can't figure out how not to just die super quickly.
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Played: 12/28. Morning.
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Played: 12/28. Late Morning.
Actually had a decent run and got a lot of cool stuff.
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Played: 12/28. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/29. Early Morning.
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Played: 12/29. Morning.
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Played: 12/29. Morning.
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Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

Started: 10/20. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Watched a stream of Austin and Jack playing this game and decided to pick it up. There's probably a bit too much reading for me to play through it myself as I tend to gloss over that stuff a bit too much. But I really like the concept. I don't think my clan is doing very well.
~~~
Started: 10/21. Evening.
Started over with my partner. She felt it was a bit too overwelming and slow moving, but will give it another chance. She was also not a fan of the writing.
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Played: 10/22. Evening.
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Played: 11/1. late Evening.
The gods wanted us to do war and it went really badly for us. We decided to restore to the previous year and try again.
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Disco Elysium

Started: 11/2. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Started this game with my partner. At first she wasn't that interested in it, but once we started interacting with more characters she started to enjoy it more.
So far it seems pretty cool. I think the writing is pretty good too.
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Played: 11/2. Evening.
We explored the book store, met the dicemaker, and talked to our cop friends. This game is pretty cool. We're the sorry cop.
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Played: 11/3. Late Evening.
We played a little bit more. Talked to scabs, a racist, and a trucker driver who was just vibin'. Found a mysterious blue door.
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Played: 11/4. Early Evening.
Met the Wild Pines contact mostly.
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Played: 11/9. Late Evening.
We investigated the drug trafficking stuff mostly. We're very close to the end of the first day.
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Played: 11/13. Evening.
We finished up Day 1. We had to sell Kim's spinners.
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Played: 11/30. Early Evening.
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Played: 11/30. Evening.
We started Day 2 and talked with the guys who probably killed the person and with the Union head. We got in by getting a lucky roll on beating up the guy.
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Played: 12/14. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/20. Late Evening.
The twists in this game are good.
~~~
Sun Wukong VS Robot

Started: 11/2. Late Evening. PC Itch. Neutral.
This game doesn't play very well. It moves really awkwardly and the enemies attack very quickly. It's not great. I don't think I'll play any more of it.
I does has a pretty nifty intro cutscene and some pretty good music though.
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Indivisible

Started: 11/10. Evening. PC Steam. Mixed?
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Played: 11/10. Late Evening.
I backed this game when it was announced since I really enjoyed Skullgirls. I think this game is interesting, but I find the blocking mechanic a little to hard for someone like me who has pretty lackluster reacting times and doesn't like mashing buttons. The block all button drains you meter so fast too. I don't really like that mechanic. I wish it was just hold. Or there was a mode where you could just hold.
So far the story moves very quickly without you really getting to know the characters or live in the world very much. They just kinda speed through things to get everything introduced as if they're just like "Look you know what's going on, the details don't matter, we just want to get you to the good parts." Not a very effective intro.
I played up until the mountain. Just got the bird gal.
Also! I wish I could change the button icons to PS on the PC since I'm using a PC controller. It recognizes the controller and the buttons show up right in the control binding, but not in game. A bit annoying.
~~~
Played: 11/16. Midnight.
I think the platforming in this game is bad. Ajna tends to just lose momentum for reasons I don't understand. The combat is ok. I think I'm having a hard time with it, but I'm making through it alright. The story is kinda whatever. It doesn't feel like they had the time to really create the story they wanted. I feel it might have worked better as a show or comic instead.
I'm in the desert now and got the run. I'm really glad to be out of the caves with all those arrow jump puzzles. I can't understate how much I do not like the platforming there.
~~~
Played: 11/16. Evening.
Got to the port city. I enjoyed the desert area more than the previous areas. I like the shield gal. I kinda wish I didn't need to have Ajna in my party, but ah well.
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Played: 11/17. Midnight.
Got the pirate captain and the large mom. I chose to go to the Iron Kingdom first. It's gooey there.
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Played: 11/17. Afternoon.
Made it all the way through the Iron City only to get told I need a different ability then what I have to progress. That's a bit disappointing, but at least I got the one slide hop thing. I'm going to try the city in the tress next.
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Played: 11/17. Evening.
Doing the Aztec area. I like Nuna. She provides really cool defensive abilities.
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Played: 11/20. Midnight.
Beat the Serpent Queen. I did not like that fight since the gimmick wasn't working for me at first. Once I got it working it was a piece of cake. The story reason for fighting her was pretty uhh... contrived.
I just realized that each character has different level supers. I discovered that Tungar's and Ginseng's are both extremely good. I wish the game was a bit more transparent about that stuff.
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Played: 11/20. Evening.
Finished up the drug city. I didn't get a new character there? perhaps I missed something. Well, other than the legs gal, but neither the two obvious characters joined me. I really wish they would just give me a fast travel. I do appreciate that the Ajna is kinda of a dick, but she hasn't had any real character growth with her. One more gate.
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Played: 11/22. Early Evening.
Finished up the Iron city. That boss was whatever... I really wish there was a fast travel so I didn't have to walk all the way back. It's a bit annoying.
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Played: 11/23. Midnight.
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Played: 11/23. Early Morning.
Did the whole mountain area again. It wasn't as bad with the new abilities. Though I'm not sure why there are so many side paths. I guess for speedrunning.
I'm enjoying this game more and more as I get further in. The story is starting to come together and big set piece at the end of the mountain with Kala was pretty rad.
I unfortunately can't really wrap my head around the dog. They seem pretty tricky to use. Right now my party is Ajna, Tungar, Ginseng, and Razmi. It was Dhar, but he's either dead or MIA at the moment. My strat is just get large combos, spend meter. Usually I'm mashing and don't spend the meter. Ah well.
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Played: 11/23. Late Evening.
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Played: 11/24. Midnight.
Finished up the last of the cities and went through a lot of the other areas. It seems there are on foot paths that connect each area.
I'm basically at the end of the game now, but there's still two gates that I haven't opened and some other areas that I've never been too.
~~~
Played: 11/24. Early Morning.
I don't like that they make you go through the final area essentially 3 times without changing it that much. I think I decided to just finish the game. There's certainly stuff I've missed including characters, quests, and maybe moves? I don't know. I'll probably look that stuff up afterwords.
Also, I don't like how so many metroidvanias put super hard platforming in at all. That's just not what I come to the genre for.
~~~
Played: 11/24. Early Evening.
Once I got to the top there was a gate and I decided to go back an do the side quests. They're all pretty easy unfortunately. I would like to get my main team of Ren, Tungar, and Ginseng all done. Only need to do Ginseng.
~~~
Finished: 11/24. Late Evening.
I skipped out on doing most of the sidequests since they were just not challenging at all. I really like the final boss thematically and how Ajna was overhearing Kala's anxieties, but the actually encounters I really did not like. Especially the 2nd part. Fortunately it was extremely short.
I also apparently unlocked all the achievements for this game by just playing it causally.
I wouldn't mind seeing a more traditional jRPG or something else from them, but this game was just not really my favorite. I may write a review.
~~~
Tales of Berseria

Started: 11/30. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
A couple I follow has been streaming Tales Of Symphonia 2, which is terrible, horrible, and kind of fascinating. They (and the chat) said that Berseria is extremely good, not just for a Tales game, but just as an RPG. I haven't played a Tales game before and have really only be exposed to it via LPs and streams. They've all looked some manor of terrible.
So far this game is pretty good. The writing has been far and away better than what I've seen in any other Tales game I've been exposed to, and the combat seems fine. I don't really understand any of the combat mechanics very well and have pretty much just been mashing, but I've only fought pigs.
One thing that's coincidental is there's a friend character who has the same voice as a character in FE Echoes and I only really recognized it because both games have a character named Celica.
~~~
Played: 11/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/1. Midnight.
Got through the prison and oil cave. Now running back and forth between the town it seems.
There's some interesting similarities between this game and this year's Code Vein. Mostly it's just aesthetics and some lore though.
I feel like there's no depth to the combat system either but that the devs really believed there was. Maybe when you get further in or play on harder difficulty settings. Right now it's just mashy nonsense.
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Played: 12/1. Evening.
Meet some pirates. I wish Dyles had a bigger part. He's a cool lizard man.
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Played: 12/2. Midnight.
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Played: 12/2. Early Morning.
Got through the gate. Introduced to mystic artes or whatever. This game is certainly better written than any of the other Tales games I've seen. I kinda wish it went it some stuff about why the fortress had demons but I'm guessing it'll get to that eventually.
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Played: 12/7. Midnight.
Got to the capital. The game has a lot of weird things with how it uses features. Like I just got items that can let you fast travel, but you can't use them from the item menu, you have to hit LT when in the field. It's very silly.
I do like how it frames the villain and really like how it introduced the Bloodwings even if they have an extremely dumb name.
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Played: 12/7. Late Evening.
Did the 3 tasks for the lady. I do appreciate the whole "The government made this substance illegal so they could manufacturer it and makes tons of money off poor people" plot there.
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Played: 12/8. Midnight.
I can now use Magilou and she's pretty cool in combat. Probably the most insufferable character and the way she treats people and her servant is pretty shitty.
Switching out party members is pretty nifty. Not sure if I'll use it though. Combat is so busy and nonsensical as is.
~~~
Played: 12/8. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/8. Early Evening.
Fought not-dad, went to the shadow realm, recruited a former enemy, and wander through a too long dungeon. Looks like I'll have another long dungeon ahead of me.
The ship stuff is pretty silly. I don't think it really adds anything to the game. But same could be said for a lot of the systems.
~~~
Played: 12/9. Evening.
This game's gender politics sucks shit. Also there were too many skits after I got Eleanor. Judging by her lack of titles I'm guessing she may only be temporary. She seems alright in combat though.
Also the field/dungeon music in this game sucks. It's just so boring and repetitive. The music in general is pretty forgettable though.
~~~
Played: 12/13. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/14. Midnight.
Meet the blacksmith. This game did the annoying thing where they show you a chest by a cutscene area, but you can't it until backtracking all the way there. Also it looks like I was probably wrong about Eleanor being a temporary character. Her title list expanded and there appears to be some later sidequest stuff for her.
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Played: 12/14. Midnight.
I wish this game would let the main plot continue instead of getting sidetracked.
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Played: 12/22. Midnight.
This game continues to be just OK. I know its a Tales staple, but I don't think the combat is very good or very interesting. I kinda wish it was just turn based. It's also super easy, but in the few times I've taken lots of damage or was low on resources, it just felt kinda slow and bad.
~~~
ICEY

Played: 12/15. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I was looking for a metroidvania to play. That's not really this game. It's sort of a 2D character action game mixed with The Stanley Parable. Interesting concept. I don't know if I'll play it again.
~~~
Timespinner

Started: 12/15. Early Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I decided on this game for my metroidvania fix. It continues to be real good.
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Played: 12/18. Midnight.
I tried to pull of a speedrun trick on the one boss that I've seen, but I couldn't figure it out.
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Played: 12/18. Early Morning.
I basically played through the entire game. I could go get the one ending, but I'm collecting the gears. This game gets really easy once you get some items.
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Played: 12/19. Early Morning.
Basically on route to fight the Sandman, but I want to do all the other stuff first. I did all the sidequests, and want to do the combat arena stuff.
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Played: 12/21. Midnight.
Did pretty much everything except get the robot familiar. This game is rad as hell and I love it. I wish it had a randomizer!
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Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial

Played: 12/27. Early Morning. PC Steam. Neutral.
So this game is like Bloodstained + Dead Cells + tons of japanese indie jank. The translation is bad and nonsensical. It doesn't control super well. It has a lot of system that aren't explained well because of the poor translation. The music and art are pretty good, though the character designs for the lady characters are pretty tropey.
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Played: 12/28. Morning.
This is game perhaps not that great. haha
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Demoniaca: Everlasting Night

Played: 12/28. Morning. PC Steam. Neutral.
So this is sort of like a metroidvania with fighting game/beat'em'up controls. It has a lot of interesting ideas and some decent music, but I think it pretty janky. I don't know if I'll play any more of it.
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