Backlog 2024

[Kikki]

Lastly, and again, not actually playing it, but I'm now more than halfway through my FFVII Rebirth watch-through. I definitely wouldn't have had the patience to play through this game, but it makes for a decent movie.

I want to play Rebirth so bad, lol. It has so many little features! The exploration looks SO fun. I've heard a rumour that it plays on Switch 2, but I rather doubt it. I guess sooner or later it'll come to PC, but who knows if it'll work on Steam Deck. I may never get to play it. Oh well! I don't have the money for any additional games this year. It was good (for me!) that Fantasy Life i was delayed.

~

I'm still just playing whatever I feel like. Currently going through XC3 again, though I don't think I'll finish it. Just like I'm not finishing any of the other things, lol. I moved (carried, completely off the ground!) a bunch of furniture downstairs yesterday and my body is way too sore for Ring Fit today, but I think I can do it tomorrow. Still not sure my stamina is increasing, though.

But I like it even if it's not.

~

NEXT DAY EDIT: So, new game from Sakurai in the works? You know, I hear repeatedly that the man looks so, so, SOOOOO YOUNG (compared to his true age).

He doesn't. Do people not have eyes? He's agonizingly skinny, with arms that appear to be about two inches across, so skinny that pictures of him look like a 10-year-old's body with an adult head pasted on, and on top of that, for about five years now, his skin looks like a paper bag that has been used to carry lunches hundreds of times already, so folded and used that it's lost all crispness and has that soft, velvety texture of a million folds that you can't even see any more. It looks loose and empty. The man looks deeply overused and in terrible health, to me, though yes, his face is cute and he's small and has a young haircut. He still looks his age. Or maybe he looks young but like he's battling cancer and losing but keeping a smile on to hide it. I don't understand praise for his looks, anyway. He looks very unwell, to me.

He doesn't look like he should be working. He looks like he needs to retire. Or at least take a very long vacation with very good catering and long slow walks on the beach.

[Bluie]

Lastly, and again, not actually playing it, but I'm now more than halfway through my FFVII Rebirth watch-through. I definitely wouldn't have had the patience to play through this game, but it makes for a decent movie.

I want to play Rebirth so bad, lol. It has so many little features! The exploration looks SO fun. I've heard a rumour that it plays on Switch 2, but I rather doubt it. I guess sooner or later it'll come to PC, but who knows if it'll work on Steam Deck. I may never get to play it. Oh well! I don't have the money for any additional games this year. It was good (for me!) that Fantasy Life i was delayed.

It is a very well put together game, I'll give it that, but I think the main reason I didn't want to play it is the absolute bloat it has. I'm mostly referring to the side quests that constantly screech the plot to a halt in the name of fleshing out side characters or expanding lore. And I'm not knocking on them being there, it's an option I'm sure a lot of people enjoy, but I'm mostly here to see where the story is going, not to get Chocobo Sam's backstory via winning a racing cup for a teenager. I will say though that a few of these side quests provided some great character interactions, so I guess that's what they're mostly there for, but my brain kept going; "Hey guys, y'all remember we're supposed be actively chasing after Sephiroth, right? ...Right???"

Anyways, I finished up my watch through. I'd say that the last chunk of the game had the highest of highs when it came to the plot. I almost cried during one of the certain scenes because the VA was so convincing that I swear they had an actual sobbing child in the sound booth. I'll probably still not play the third installment whenever it comes out, but here's hoping they stick the landing. The revised story is very... well, it's something. I'm still not sure what to think about it, honestly, but the expanded/reworked scenes from the original were a treat to see.

------

Haven't played anything else since I've been working so much. It's my day off right now as I type this, but I don't think I'll be playing much today. If I do, I might get into something new. I think my Genshin withdrawal might be kicking in a bit, but I miss getting lost in a big open world and just 'vibing'. I'm not going back to Genshin, I'm sticking to my statement of not returning until the current region is complete, but I am eyeing both Palworld and No Man's Sky. I own both of them and they'll definitely scratch the itch, I just need to get over my guilt of ignoring my other ongoing titles lol. Maybe I'll finish Cattails 2 first?

[Kikki]

FFVII Rebirth: Yeah, lots of side quests definitely slows down the plot. Sometimes you can quest so long you FORGET what you were doing in the main story, lol. But I love the option of tons of side quests. I usually end up doing every single one. Every time I play Xenoblade (1), I do pretty much all approximately 450 quests the games has for me. The quests are often where the world-building is, and character-building, and I consider those things as important as the main quest. Though quests to kill 5 goolies, or find 5 thingamabobbers...well, they don't add anything, except maybe items and XP.

In general I like side-questing, though.

~

Okay! I'm doing well with Ring Fit Adventure. My waist shrank another 1/2 inch, and this time I don't think it's weight/water/inflammation that's come off, I think it's muscular tightening. I...am not sure my stamina is going up, lol. I can still only do about 5 scenarios in a session, including mini-games, which are often even harder than the actual scenario levels. However, I do always manage to make it until the game warns me that I might be playing too long (that happens when the internal timer reaches about 15 minutes of active exercise time.) I tend to be really pooped once I reach 15 minutes on that timer. I did 18 minutes yesterday, though. At about 20 minutes I would tend to have burned 150 calories. That'd be a nice place to settle, if I can get there.

Spoiler:

As of now, I should either increase the difficulty, or increase the frequency, or the duration. I am debating mightily over this. Increasing the frequency would probably be the biggest boost to my mood. But it also runs the greater risk of increasing pain, burn-out and other problems. And it's harder to schedule since I have to be careful about waking my sleeps-til-noon sister, clomping around like an elephant on our VERY creaky floors (ceiling, in her case) over her head. Sticking with regularly using Ring Fit every other day might be the wiser course. In between I could just do stretching and maybe some planking, and take a walk.

Yeah, that sounds smarter. So, I guess I've decided? Next I play, I'll aim for 20 minutes on the internal timer, and once I manage that without feeling like I'll die, I'll increase the difficulty by 2. To me, RFA is NOT much like a game. But it is presented in a way that is game-like, since there are clear goals (big and small) and progress itself is a reward. It definitely compels you to come back. Especially if you're a completionist like me and want all the outfits and recipes and etc. I will also try to finish my session at 20 minutes on the timer.

I need to start remembering to keep my phone on me so it can log all this into my fitness tracker. I never take my phone with me so the tracker is useless so far, lol.

~

Erm... On my Switch Lite, I have restarted ACNH. Yes, YET AGAIN. I don't care! The Switch Lite town has always ben a throwaway anyway, and starting is the most fun part. Maybe I'll just use the Lite to restart forever. Though I doubt I'd be able to dredge up enough interest to do this again. Even the beginning is getting boring, now.

Spoiler:

I wasn't original. When asked for a name, I just used the first fantasy island name that always pops into my head: Avalon. Turns out my airport is yellow (my favourite airport colour!) and my fruit is peach. I named my character Cricket again (she's not human, she's some kind of green-skinned dryad or other sprite-type creature, though she presents as human until she gets comfortable enough with the island and the people that she can be herself.) and I gave her the bday of November 7th. I always give one of my characters in my writing that bday (no, it is not my bday, but it is the bday of someone important). Funny thing, Avalon's native flower is a cosmos, which is basically a daisy. Which happens to be the favourite flower of the person whose bday is November 7th. So that was a fun little coincidence. I don't know what my sister fruit is, yet, but 'mom' gave me pears. So hopefully it isn't pears!

Museum is being built, house is already built, will get it expanded tomorrow, probably. Used my free NMT and found a little duck named Pate, and it looks very anxious. Apparently the original Japanese name means 'crybaby'. I thought it was a boy at first, but it was speaking in a ditzy, vaguely valley-girl kind of way and I realized it must be a Peppy. It's pretty cute, so I invited it to live on Avalon. I'm not to the point of building villager houses yet, though. I only just finished placing Nooklings shop, so villager houses should begin tomorrow.

This is an all-natural island. Decided to play exactly the way Nintendo probably intended. No time traveling (except if I miss days and want to play the one I skipped...so backwards only. Forward only to return to the correct current day.) There will be very minimal terraforming. Taking the corner off something, digging tunnels just one space wide, etc. No major land changes at all. Projects that one might be able to expect to do in their own yards, kind of, like digging a trench or making a flower bed or etc. So basically how it looks at the start is how it'll look all along.

No amiibos. I'll take whatever villagers I get.

The game is hinting to me every day that I need to focus on a natural outdoorsy setting. The first day, the game offered me a hammock and a picnic basket (I bought both.) Then a lawn chair fell out of the sky. Then a beach chair. And I got a wheelbarrow. Now it wants me to have a camp stove. Clearly, Cricket is not meant to ever go inside.

~

Ys X: Nordics. I did buy it! Ys is a top favourite series along with about two others. I think that's it for 2024 for purchases. I lost my One Note, but that purchase should leave me $80 under my $480 budget for the year. Spending $40 per month on gaming feels like about the most I should allow. Increasing to $45 is still okay for Switch 2, I think, since game prices are likely to go up from $80 to $90 for non-indies.

It's really fun. The systems are nearly identical to Ys VIII, with finding people (not 'survivors' in this case, but similar) and mapping everything by exploring, getting treasure chests, finding events, etc. It's basically Lacrimosa of Dana, except as pirates instead of Castaways.

I'll take my time with it, since it's probably my last new game of the year.

[Bluie]

I finished Cattails 2 yesterday. I finished the story and got married to my cat husband, then called it quits. There is a lot of content in this game, if I wanted to I could milk it for a long time, but I'm really not in the mood, not when I have my backlog. Now I'm wavering between starting Palword or continuing/finishing Astlibra. I also remembered I had a Fire Emblem Engage re-playthrough I was working on, so I'd like to get that done too, at least before the end of the year.

[Kikki]

I'm happy not minding my backlog at all any more. I was turning gaming into a chore, and I'm tired of that. Gaming is my main source of escapism the last five years or so, so I just wanna have fun with it.

I suppose if I get a big backlog, perhaps I'll try making a list out of it again to compel me to rack up some completions. But my backlog isn't that big even now and I'm buying almost nothing and mostly just replaying old favourites, so...meh on backlog accounting. I'm so wound up over so many other things, I don't need to add gaming to my list of stressors.

My abdomen is in delicate state and I knew Ring Fit would aggravate it, but I decided to just do one world anyway, or maybe a mini game. Well...did a mini game. Also did one challenge world (not a standard course, just a big battle). And it started to hurt pretty quick, so I stopped. Still hurts, but it'll stop soonish, probably...I'm trying to avoid taking any NSAIDS I don't desperately need. I think I can just sit still for half an hour and this'll clear up.

It's going pretty good. And I'm glad I have the recovery pose, now, if I happen to forget to make smoothies.

Ys X is really fun, too. Though Falcom SUCKS at environments. They couldn't make a beautiful landscape to save their lives, it seems. Well, maybe one. Then they chop it into bits and remix the same bits for EVERY landscape they do. They're all the same. Grey and brown and green ground and rocks and hills, probably all computer-generated from really basic assets. Stick a few trees and weedy flowers in with a bit of water or mud, and you have a Falcom landscape. I sure wish they'd take a page out of Monosoft's book. Beautiful would be great, but variety alone would be fantastic. Every island looks mostly the same. But that's typical Falcom. Trails has boring landscapes, too. I think both series use the same assets.

Well, I buy them because the stories and characters and gameplay are fun, not for the landscapes. It's just be really nice if they also had that.

[Code_Name_Geek]

I beat Sonic '06!!! I didn't do it quite in time for the new game's release but I finished it only two days later so that's good enough for me. I probably won't start the new one until my semester is over though because I'm kind of swamped with school stuff and the new job. So that makes 6 games beaten this year, and 4 of those were Sonic games.

A couple random Sonic '06 impressions:

Spoiler:

-the game was nowhere near as bad as its reputation (which is admittedly a low bar), but it does have issues.
-the worst part was the gratuitous and very long loading screens. Second worst was probably the frame rate drops and occasionally getting stuck in walls.
-most other grievances like camera, homing attacks launching you off the platforms, and slide-y physics are also present in the other 3D Sonic games of this era (especially Sonic Heroes).
-I like the return of the hub world, though it could have used more polish (this is mainly where the getting stuck in walls thing happened).
-Sonic's story was kind of meh but I liked Shadow and Silver's stories. Writing-wise, the time travel mechanics are not consistent so there are some plot holes but the character interactions are fun.
-Mephiles is a great villain. His animation is really uncanny and combined with his creepy leitmotif it works really well. Especially when he's copying Shadow's form he looks more like a puppet than a living creature.
-I don't think this is a game I will ever come back to 100% but I enjoyed my time with it anyways.

Anyways I'd better go work on some schoolwork so I'm going to keep this post short. Just wanted to share that I finally finished that game!

[Bluie]

I played through the Monster Hunter Wilds beta and ohhhh my goooosh. IwantitIwantitIwantitttttttt! It's SO GOOD and SO MUCH FUN. I DONT WANNA WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR, I WANT IT NOW! *SHAKES CAPCOM*

I am so ready to be obsessed with that game. In the meantime, I finally got back to Astlibra. I finished up chapter 5 and got a decent way into chapter 6 before stopping because I had a wicked headache. That's gone now and I tried to get back into my Fire Emblem Engage replay annnnd, there's not motivation in me to continue it, so it's shelved until further notice. I think I'll probably make Astlibra my main focus for now, but I am starting to feel the pull of some other games - mainly Rune Factory 3 Special. I might take a little break and see.

[Kikki]

Congrats, Code_Name_Geek!

~

Ys X: Nordics is interesting and fun and I'm close to endgame, but...I've quit for a little, because it's destroying my neck. Any game would right now, that requires me to use a controller at a fast pace...anything where I hold my arms out and close together. I could probably play handheld, but handheld play makes me dizzy-sick.

What a snowflake I am, lol.

Anyway, break from most gaming for now, or at least much-reduced time spent on it. Though I could try stacking pillows up under my arms so that they're not held out/putting less strain on my neck. Not sure if that would be a good thing or a bad one.

~

Gonna do Ring Fit, though! I've set it up so I can do it in the basement, with headphones. That'll be sweaty around the hairline, for sure, but I'm hoping that will disrupt my sister's til-noon-sleepytimes less, since there'll be no thumping or creaking over her head, but we'll see. As of Level 40, I have unlocked the first level of skill tree, where I can earn more exercises and HP/ATT/DEF as well as exercise slots so that I have a better roster of weapons for every exercise battle. It's like expanding your inventory. I'll grab my first new slot tomorrow, if exercising two days in a row is possible for me now. (We'll see! I want to try it. So far it's always been necessary to have one off day in between.)

~

I can't wait to play XCX again with the game ONLINE, so that I can get those tasty, tasty reward tickets. Playing once without reward tickets was more than enough. They really help out with the grindy bits. Which is the entire post game...massive grind fest. Pretty big grind-fest even WITH the tickets, but unbelievably crushing without them. Though some may enjoy all that battle grind, of course.

I'm not impressed with the graphic update so far since I find the character style change ugly, but it's not so different that you can't tell who everyone is right away, so it's fine. I'll really know what I think when I stand on Great Washington Isle, looking northeast past the South Coast to see the Giant Ring looming over the landscape. (Some of the names in XCX are great, but admittedly some are a bit...underwhelming.)

~

LATER THAT NIGHT EDIT: Played the newly-expanded Emio The Smiling Man demo. Very interesting! Horribly dull gameplay but really good story. However, it's no cheap indie, and it's not on sale. I can't squeeze that much out. Plus I hear it gets super dark, and more icky than Danganronpa, which I already find really grody. So...I guess I shouldn't. Especially while paying that much for it. Which I can't right now anyway. But it was super intersting.

If it goes on a big sale some day, I'll probably cave. For now, perhaps I'll just replay AI: The Somnium Files. It's been long enough since I played it that I can't remember any of the smaller details. The second one, too.

18:30 on the in-game timer in Ring Fit may have been too much for me, yet...the reaction wasn't good. Doubt I'll be able to do this again tomorrow, but...perhaps I can just do one or two scenarios. Maybe enough to get that fit slot. Or maybe not, I won't pile damage on damage, but...will see tomorrow. If my stamina is going up, it's at a glacial pace, but...maybe it is? I feel pretty wiped out when I'm done. I miss the days when exercise actually gave me energy instead of eating it all in half an hour or less.

[Kikki]

New day, last post already edited, etc, so...new post.

Ys does my neck in worse than anything else I'm currently playing. For two reasons, I think. One is that it sucks me in and I play it too long. The other is that it's fairly frenzied button-pushing. FUN, but frenzied, since combat is always very quick and busy, swapping between the pair, between individual attacks and duo attacks, between magic and non magic, etc, in addition to dodging and blocking. Though I rarely dodge or block, I just run around like an idiot, mashing all the buttons on Easy mode.

I may play it today, but...I'm not sure yet. I think I should do Ring Fit first and see where I am after that's done. Back is in bad shape but a little exercise loosens it up. A LOT of exercise destroys it, so it's a bit of a balancing act. But I like Ring Fit. I wanna progress.

ACNH is going fine, though I probably won't play it for a lot longer. It's a nice little pocket dimension of a backyard to escape into every now and again, though! I got lucky. My two starter villagers aren't great...Quinn (an eagle, who is okay) and Biff, who is a hippo and has angry eyebrows and is brick red. There's nothing likable about his looks, though of course his personality is the same as all other jocks. I think the only jock I really love is Hamlet.

But my three villagers after that are good! My first (and only) island visit netted me Pate, who may be my spirit animal, because she looks so anxious all the time, lol, with those quirky furled eyebrows. Then without my say-so, Wade and Maple moved in. Maple's a very cute soft brown 'normal' bear and Wade's a very cute lazy penguin who seems to have his colours reversed...white where black would usually be, and vice-versa.

So they're all good, and I don't care what jock I get unless Hamlet happens by, nor do I care which Uchi I get since I don't like that personality type. So it's all good, basically. (And Quinn is fine, though as an eagle, very stern-looking.)

Resident services building finished yesterday, campsite finished today, and that means I'll get my first camper tomorrow. Then I think I can place the 4 remaining house sites. I was given one more Nook Ticket, so when I place the houses, I'll use it to invite someone, but I'll probably let the others fill on their own. Might as well, since this is an all-natural island and I'm just taking what the game gives me.

[Bluie]

Played a little more Emerald Seaglass yesterday. I hadn't forgotten about it, but it takes me a great amount of effort to commit to gaming on my PC. I ended up playing the last season of Sonic Prime in the background while I played it on mute (it has the original OST, which I know by heart, so I really don't need to hear it for the 50th time). I got my second badge, which I had to try multiple times to get. The hack maker switched up literally every NPC's Pokemon line up to more properly reflect the expanded region, and they gave Brawny a roided Heracross that kept spamming 'Bulk up'. I eventually poisoned it and chipped it to death with fire moves. I then got to the third gym and called it quits because I started getting invested in Sonic Prime's last few episodes lol.

I think I'm going to try and finish Astlibra this week. I'm going on a mini vacation so I have some extra time.

[Kikki]

I bet people are a bit stressed, today. Not just in the US, but even in Canada.

My luck did not hold well with my first ACNH camper, by the way. I got TEX.

EEURRGH. I really dislike smug villagers in ACNH (I liked them in ACNL) to begin with, but Tex looks like an ugly old pervert on top of it. I...yeah. I really don't like him. I DID find Walt, though, with my other free NMT, and I love Walt, so he's going to be my grumpy. The only other island I've gone to had Rodney on it. Big yuck. So I didn't invite him. I guess everyone else will be moving in by chance. I don't have luck with that, either, but certainly the first two that moved in that way were great (Maple and Wade.)

In other news, Ring Fit is going pretty well; I got a new fit slot and I think I can get another one again in my next session, or two more sessions, which is great. Won't be able to get another for weeks or even months, since it'll take opening a second page of the skill tree, but 8 slots is quite livable. I overdid the thigh rider exercise, or whatever that one was called, and my hips are still feeling pinched from it. (Mini games really are the toughest of all in RFA, they really make you work hard and fast.)

I left off in a spot where I've got THREE new minigames to do, lol. Those alone will probably do me in for a whole session. I may soon re-explore the custom mode, though I like Adventure mode for the progress tracking.

[midnighttherabbit]

Yeah, I'm in the UK and the vibes have been sombre today. Most people I know are doing the British thing and getting drunk.

Anyway, finally playing the new Dragon Age after... a very long wait. I think the criticisim of it is overblown, the first ten hours do have pretty stilted writing but it gets better after that and the gameplay is fun. As someone hardcore into the series there's stuff that I'm unhappy with narratively but whatever. The culture war surrounding it is absolutely insane, people getting mad at the inclusion of transgender characters or pronouns is getting increasingly dangerous - seeing people talk about how disgusting the top surgery scars were or how it was promoting self mutilation kind of got to me a little lol, despite generally feeling neutral about them (like, it's just skin. I don't even treat mine because idc if they're prominent or not.)
Whatever. I'm 30 hours into the game and it's better than Inquisition (which I hated) but not better than 2 (my favourite) or Origins (probably objectively the best one.)

I also got a three month trial for Google Play Games, I don't trust Google generally but they actually have some good games, HD remakes of the Professor Laytons, all the Sorcery! games, Potion Permit, lots of Kairosoft. I was hoping for some of the old infinity engine games to be on there which they aren't, but they DO have Atom RPG, which I've been interested in trying despite not being invested enough to actually buy it - Fallout isn't really my thing but a CRPG is a CRPG. I'm cancelling Netflix as soon as my family and I'm done watching a handful of shows my family and I are in the middle of and might be getting myself a tablet soon so maybe I'll pay for the subscription for a few extra months to work through the catalogue. It's nice to just have some casual games to play when I'm not in the mood to read but too tired to get my laptop and play something real.

[Bluie]

As a permanent resident holding a 10 year green card living in a red state, yesterday was interesting. I'm not one to doom, life goes on, and I'm someone who can literally do nothing about the situation. Better to just keep up with my daily happenings than focus on what-ifs.

Anyways, I ended up getting off work early and starting my vacation. I'm going to be off to a renaissance festival tomorrow and I have some errands to do today, but I think I may have accidentally locked in on Rune Factory 3 Special. I decided to boot it up and mess around a little bit, and then ended up playing it all day. I already have two out of the five main story bosses down and my bachelorette of choice to 7 LP. I'm going to be taking my Switch with me as it's a bit of a drive to the renfes, but I may end up finishing RF3S in a few more play sessions.

I'm also close to finishing Astlibra, but close as in I have a few chapters left. I tend to play it in bursts as it can be frustrating. I saved outside the arena atm because its been giving me grief, but I know I'll be ready to give it another try in a day or so.

[Kikki]

We all know it's going to be a circus, but what freaks me out in an unexpected direction is the reaction of everyone on the other side.

Spoiler:

They're all saying they'll all stop watching any news (except maybe sports) until it's over. But if everyone just sticks their heads in the sand for four years, the insanity will run utterly unchecked. Well, I'm Canadian, so I guess it's not even my business. Except that the US and Canada are SO intertwined that US politics always impact us dramatically. I'd like if we were at least a little less dependent southwards. Take care of more of our issues internally without relying on US imports or exports or infrastructure/etc. Not that the US doesn't also rely on much of our stuff, but...I dunno, it's good that we work well together, but I think it'd be better if we were a little more independent.

Eh, it shouldn't be boring, anyway. Plus I've never read the news, lol, and I've already deleted all social media as of two years ago, so I don't even have to change anything.

ACNH: I dodged a bullet! I saw a SOLD sign on the next house plot I placed, and it said ANNALISE on it, and I groaned, because I do NOT want an ant-eater on top of already having a scowling red hippo and a perv-eyed penguin hipster.

But as it turns out, I was thinking of Annalisa. Annalise is actually a very cool-looking snooty horse, not the anteater villager.

I really like natural-coloured villagers. I don't want green bears and purple horses. (Or red hippos.) Annalise has a pink mane, but otherwise, she's brown, and I can deal with that...her design is nice, and I just think of her 'hair' as dyed bangs, lol. I think I'll find out who my final villager is when I go onto the game today.

I'm super tired, and I have a bunch of chores to do, inside and out, but...I think I can squeeze in a Ring Fit session. I guess I should do my chores first and make sure I still have the energy. I COULD do Ring Fit tomorrow instead but...I like Ring Fit. I WANT to do it today. I'm just not sure if it'll tank my energy to the point that I'm useless tomorrow. Darn it, why can't I increase my stamina/endurance? My condition improves and I get stronger, but I never have more energy. Am I doing it wrong? I tried doing this via walking, too, but my endurance doesn't increase there, either.

I still like RFA, though. I'm kind of worried that I have 3 mini games to do as soon as I go back on, lol. Freaking mini games, they are SO tough in this. Maybe I'm taking it too seriously? I rarely get S rank, so it's not like I'm over-performing.

[Kikki]

The demo I played for Emio (The Smiling Man) got me in the mood for murder-mystery-solving games. Since I can't afford Emio right now, I decided to replay AI: The Somnium Files from scratch.

I love the Mizuki route so much. Mizuki is a great character. And I like the structure of the game with the flowchart and the clearly branching paths that you can go back to and take a new route by getting a different result in the Psync you did on that character. Makes it fun to unlock everything. I suppose after this I'll have to replay the sequel. I don't remember very much about it, either. Even less than I do of the first one.

Also, I didn't find out my ACNH villager like I thought I would previously. Instead I turned out to have 3 stars and unlocked whatshisface, KK. My new island is a no-terraforming island, excepting only very minor changes like adding or knocking off a square here and there to fit a bridge in or etc. Or single-wide tunnels/paths just for the sake of easy/quick traversal. The only big change I'm making is to make sure I have a 1-wide path all the way across the very back (north) of the island, so that I can walk allllll the way around the island in one big loop. It's not a visible change, it's a ... QoL change, I guess.

And now I finally know who is to be my last villager. Tomorrow, Hamphrey will move in. I'm okay with that, though I don't actually want another grumpy. Still, I feel like I have a fair bit of leeway to let villagers move in or out, now. I definitely want to keep Pate, Maple and Wade, and probably Annalise and maybe even Huck, who really suits the 'smug' category in a non-offensive way...but the other five are quite negotiable.

Smugs (hipsters!) really aren't smug. They're pretentious. For some reason, a few smugs are less aggravating than others. Huck is one of the less aggravating ones, somehow. (So is O'Hare. But Raymond's a little twerp, like almost all other smug villagers.)

I really should go back to Ys X before I forget how to play it. But I'm still having trouble with my neck. I guess I should just set aside an hour or two a few days a week and keep it limited to that.

Ring Fit is going well. Quite well, I think. Had an easy time putting the difficulty up 2 more a couple sessions ago, so maybe I'll do another 2 next time. I got another fit slot as well, so now I have the 8 I'm going to be stuck with for a few months. But 8 is pretty decent. I still can't seem to increase the TIME I spend on it. Why am I always stuck on just that aspect? It's like there's a little timer in my body that ticks down to about 18 minutes, and then explodes, lol. You do as I say, or I will hurt you!

I...may have a job? I mean...maybe. I already sort of have this job, but it's currently only seasonal. It's possible that I can get it stretched to year-round, soon. I really hope so. It's got flexible time, mature, kind coworkers and management, and it doesn't involve customer service. I've been hoping I could get more than seasonal next year. It's not sure yet, but...that'd be great.