Ushi No Tane Forum

In Sunshine Islands I made it to the middle of summer. Went ahead and raised the Volcano island next as almost everyone seems to like gelatin in the guide. It strikes me as really weird it comes from lava, but everyone is okay with that, lol. I just raised the Mystic islands too. The whole sinking and rising islands storyline is still weird to me too, but I guess as video game storylines go, this is practically nothing on the weird scale, lol. I'm thinking I am probably going to pick Will in this one if I play that far.

On the Pokemon front, I was happy to get my shiny Articuno, but don't really care about the Kanto starter raids. I checked out the new updates in Shining Pearl, and although Wonder Trades and Home still aren't there for it yet, the room trading is better with more people, though there are still some jerks that just want to show off shinies and not actually trade anything. I am happy I got to trade some of my extra Dittos, even getting a foreign language one, as well as sharing some of my Mean Look Absol babies. I still have more if anyone needs an Absol in BDSP, just putting that out there. That would've made it so much easier to catch Mesprit if I had one at the time. I have also been working on my husband's abandoned Arceus file, but I think I am finally getting a little burnt out on that game after about a month, lol. I do look forward to hearing any new stuff that comes out for Pokemon Day, especially if it's finally Home compatibility.

Had a pretty okay day today, other than sciatic pain. Quite a lot of that! I keep trying to stretch it out but it only helps for 5-10 minutes. Now that my schedule has so completely shifted, I think I'll start going to the chiro on a different day...gotta get a visit in soon. But yeah, pretty decent day; grandma's pretty good in the mornings and my sis was here in the afternoon and grandma's usually happier/more settled when there's several other people in the house with her.

FoMO is an aggravating feeling that can prompt you to buy games you really know better than to buy, somewhere beyond the skin of externally-boosted curiosity and anticipation. I fought it off with Pokemon Arceus, but I'm finding I really don't need to fight at all, with Elden Ring. I keep hearing about it and thinking that an open world game with lots of exploration is totally my thing, but every time I actually look it up, I hate what I see, lol (I dislike most western-style sword-and-sorcery-looking RPGs), so...no temptation at all to fall for that one! It's a relief to not have to fight it again, honestly; I think I'll be happy to leave it to all the others it better suits without continually wondering if I ought not also be playing it. I still think I probably wouldn't love Arceus, either. I rated the previous game as a 6, and I think this would be better, but...not convinced it'd get more than a 7, from me, and I don't want to pay $80 for a 7. Plus my game time is unusually precious at the moment...I need to spend it wisely.

I should be able to design the first facility in HHP (in ACNH) before bed tonight. Tomorrow may be unpleasant, but I hope I can get an island evaluation first thing in the morning, before the homecare person visits. (Grandma really dislikes when they come over, and she always accuses them of theft for a day or two after they've come and gone.) Iirc, getting 3-stars is very quick and easy, as long as you have a few each of inclines and bridges, all 10 villagers, and at least a few extra flowers, bushes and fence pieces.

I did it! All pokemon to level 10 in the dex, and caught Arceus. That game is well and truly done, and it's time for me to put it away. It was very fun, and I hope they do another, more polished, game in this style in the future.

Now, do I continue KH2 tomorrow, or do I play the Triangle Strategy demo? Decisions, decisions.

Dang. I wish I knew someone with Stardew on the switch. I wanna try co-op mode…..




Otherwise RF4 is really getting me hyped for RF5.

Probably almost everyone has stardew on switch, but like older Bokumono titles, just isn't playing it any more. I know I have it. I just don't want to play it ever again, lol...finished with it a few years ago and didn't like it that much. (Loved some of the ideas for plot and gameplay framework, but didn't like the characters or the graphics.)

Finally got my island eval! 1-3 stars are pretty scripted, though. As long as you have enough villagers and bridges/inclines, not much else matters, iirc. Julian is moved in, and some ugly bull named T-Bone is coming next. I always get the ugliest villagers when I leave it to chance. Normally out of ten, I'd get one really cute one and one sorta-cute one and a not-cute-but-interesting one, and the rest I'd find oogly. Let's see just how ugly ACNH can make my remaining 3 villagers, lol.

I challenge the game to do its worst, since I'm getting rid of every last one of them once I have my terraforming done anyway.

Want 3 stars kikki? Put fencing literally everywhere. That’s how I got 3 stars in Auradon very quickly so I could flatten the back of the island. Lol.

I played the Triangle Strategy demo! I figured it was short, I could finish it in a day.

The HD-2D style is very well-implemented, and very pretty to my eyes (YMMV). I had a ton of fun with the battle gameplay, the choices/voting system is interesting, and I'm intrigued by the politics of this world.

On the other hand, the writing & characters are... very mediocre, so far. Which is a problem, because, uh - cutscenes. There's a lot of them. I found myself yelling at the screen "just let me play again already!" For the characters, they're all pretty flat, and I struggle to really differentiate them, personality wise. I'm not endeared to any of them at this point.

I want to play it at some point, but I probably won't pick it up at launch, not for $60. So! Back to KH2.

Aaah. Nice to have something nice today.

I think it's gonna take me a bit longer before I decide if Elden Ring is for me. It's an incredible game. The world design is awesome, I spent 90% of my 2 hours with it just wandering and running away from giant monsters that would one shot me and picking up items and activating bonfires.

The only negative thing I can say so far is that it's overwhelming, even with the added level of hand holding that this game has compared to the other souls games. I spent like 5 minutes getting an item back in my quick select menu after I fat fingered removing it. I'm still pressing the wrong buttons for combat. And I'm running away from most engagements cause they're large groups. Wish I'd have spent more time in the starting area practicing. And for the life of me I can't figure out how to get back there!

The good news is it doesn't run terribly. I've got it on medium settings and it only uses 8 GB of RAM, throttling was pretty minor. (Keep in mind the store page says minimum settings 12GB, max 16.) Gonna see tomorrow if keeping my second monitor up to keep an eye on temperatures hurts much...

I think I just need to practice more. Figure out how to open the map, level up as much as I can, go from there. The world is big enough that I think I could spend 8 hours at least just wandering in the first area, not counting any time lost to combat.

I'm a little tired, but still very intrigued. I think we can leave it there for now.

Thanks, shan; if I'm stuck I'll try putting in more fence (than the 50 pieces Tom Nook gave me early on.) I got it almost instantly, though, in Gardenia, so I know it's easy to do...it shouldn't be a problem. Haven't checked my rating today though now that I have a 7th villager and another bridge.

Today when the game loaded, I jumped and gave a little gasp, lol...the grass is green now! Well...actually it's barely green, more greyish. But no snow! Forgot that it goes away on Feb 25th. I am so ready for spring IRL, even spring arriving in-game is exciting, I guess, particularly since going from snow to NO snow in an instant is so dramatic.

I dared the game to do its worst yesterday, and you know what it did? It gave me Soleil. Soleil! I never had her in AC before ACNH and didn't know of her, but in my quest to fill Gardenia and Windfall with a perfect roster, I came across her and decided she was one of the few perfect snooty villagers for me, at least for Windfall where the villagers didn't have to be openly oddballs. Though she's not at all popular overall. I was even able to hunt down a genuine amiibo card for her, not one of the handmade ones, and it was as cheap as the handmade ones. I wasn't going to have her in Wodewyrd, though. The game was mean, lol. It responded to my dare by giving me a villager I won't actually WANT to replace. (Though I will. Soleil isn't overtly quirky enough for my town. My snooty is gonna be Ankha.)

Soleil moves in tomorrow. Hideous T-Bone moved in today. Gotta say that his five o'clock shadow is interesting, though!

I got a pink tulip without even watering, on the first day it was possible for me to get any hybrid at all. (Because all the tulips were babies until that morning.) Not my doing, but yay

Yep, no other game news, though I am about to set my switch to download Variable Barricade.

EDIT: Er...Farm Together just got an update. WHY? I can't seem to find notes on it. Probably something insignificant anyway, though. (Ah, I haven't touched it in a few weeks...maybe that thing posted on Feb 10 is what updated today? A new 'wedding' DLC pack, I think?)

EDIT 2: *squeal* It is a new pack! What's more, I missed a 'candy' pack from a month ago, too! Gotta get me new trees and crops, now :D

I really do hate dropping a game I enjoy (or enjoyed the previous entry), but I'm doing it again with Voice of Cards The Forsaken Maiden. Why? Because of absolute « Male Cow Poopoo », to be perfectly honest. The first game was very accessible, very fun, while the second ramped up the difficulty the further you got into the story. This would be fine if the bosses would stop spamming their « Male Cow Poopoo » AOEs every turn and refusing to let me take a « Snuggly Bunny » breath.

I got to the end of the game when you need to fight four consecutive boss fights in a row, with no saving, and the third one takes away your two main party members and replaces them with four others out of nowhere. I have zero idea why they decided to do this, because it's absolutely unneeded. I'm not alone here as I googled in my frustration. There are plenty others who also in my corner and dropped the game solely because of this forced fight. I get that I'm supposed to debuff and then chip damage, I was doing that, and the bosses would not let up doing their worst attacks every turn AND the GM was giving me « Cow Poopoo » rolls so nothing of mine was hitting well or doing it's proper extra effect. It's a big batch of bad luck, but I refuse to try again.

Whatever possessed them to go from a fun DND session to '« Snuggly Bunny » you in particular' in difficulty level, I'll never understand. I thought Yoko Taro was done with « Male Cow Poopoo » impossible boss fights by now.

BUT HERE IS WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT THE GAME, BECAUSE I DON'T COMPLETELY HATE IT:

• -Story is fantastic
  -If you're a Drakengard fan (especially 3) there is a lot here for you
  -Sea voyaging was a fun addition
  -Battles are a lot more animated than the previous game
  -Ending is bittersweet which I'm a fan of

And that's about it. A 3rd game is an inevitability at this point, but I'll probably skip it if they don't fix the balance of their battles.

Kikki wrote:Thanks, shan; if I'm stuck I'll try putting in more fence (than the 50 pieces Tom Nook gave me early on.) I got it almost instantly, though, in Gardenia, so I know it's easy to do...it shouldn't be a problem. Haven't checked my rating today though now that I have a 7th villager and another bridge.

Today when the game loaded, I jumped and gave a little gasp, lol...the grass is green now! Well...actually it's barely green, more greyish. But no snow! Forgot that it goes away on Feb 25th. I am so ready for spring IRL, even spring arriving in-game is exciting, I guess, particularly since going from snow to NO snow in an instant is so dramatic.

I dared the game to do its worst yesterday, and you know what it did? It gave me Soleil. Soleil! I never had her in AC before ACNH and didn't know of her, but in my quest to fill Gardenia and Windfall with a perfect roster, I came across her and decided she was one of the few perfect snooty villagers for me, at least for Windfall where the villagers didn't have to be openly oddballs. Though she's not at all popular overall. I was even able to hunt down a genuine amiibo card for her, not one of the handmade ones, and it was as cheap as the handmade ones. I wasn't going to have her in Wodewyrd, though. The game was mean, lol. It responded to my dare by giving me a villager I won't actually WANT to replace. (Though I will. Soleil isn't overtly quirky enough for my town. My snooty is gonna be Ankha.)

Soleil moves in tomorrow. Hideous T-Bone moved in today. Gotta say that his five o'clock shadow is interesting, though!

I got a pink tulip without even watering, on the first day it was possible for me to get any hybrid at all. (Because all the tulips were babies until that morning.) Not my doing, but yay

Yep, no other game news, though I am about to set my switch to download Variable Barricade.

EDIT: Er...Farm Together just got an update. WHY? I can't seem to find notes on it. Probably something insignificant anyway, though. (Ah, I haven't touched it in a few weeks...maybe that thing posted on Feb 10 is what updated today? A new 'wedding' DLC pack, I think?)

EDIT 2: *squeal* It is a new pack! What's more, I missed a 'candy' pack from a month ago, too! Gotta get me new trees and crops, now :D

Ooh, the snow is completely gone? Good, Oak Tree doesn’t look good in the snow with the paths I used lol

I made some more progress in Best Friend Forever. I think I'm a little over halfway done with my first playthrough.

I also downloaded some demos to my PC from Steam, including the Heart & Soul demo (a visual novel), and the Coromon demo (a Pokemon-like/creature collector).

I started the Coromon demo, played it for around 2 hours, and then found out I have 2-3 hours left of the demo to play. (After looking up a Youtube video). So, that'll take a bit to finish today. So far, I like the Coromon demo.

I bought a Switch game, and some 3DS games and 3DS DLC.

I bought Lyrica 2: Stars Align on the Switch.

I bought all the DLC for Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! (3DS). Because of tax, it cost me over $25 US, closer to $30 US.

And, then I bought Art Academy First Semester (Nintendo DSi Ware/3DS), Art Academy Second Semester (Nintendo DSi Ware/3DS), Mysterious Stars 3D: A Fairy Tale, Mysterious Stars 3D: Road to Idol, and then I bought Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition (One game/3DS).

I'm really excited to continue with Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone. I'm currently in the middle of the second lesson (a tree). I'm glad I was able to grab all the DLC.

I played the DSiWare Mysterious Stars (of which there were 3 games). If the Mysterious Stars 3D games (3DS) are the same in gameplay, then I can explain that it's a connect-a-dot puzzle with a story. They're really short and cute. The Mysterious Stars DSiWare games and 3DS games are available on the Nintendo 3DS e-shop. I believe that one of the 3DS Mysterious Stars game is a remake or port of Mysterious Stars: A Fairy Tale (DSiWare -> 3DS game).

I'm excited to play Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition, especially the Mario one. It seems like so much fun.

Before I forget! Insignificant, but...Variable Barricade is starting out well from first blink. For one, at the very beginning where you hear the love interests verbalizing various lines...they're actually translated! I'm used to those ONLY being voiced with no explanation of what they mean, but not this time

I'm literally on the third or fourth text box of the story, but I'm pleased with the heroine's voice. I'm used to them being too girly for my ears. I think it sounds feminine, but more mature, this time, and I like that.

Can't comment further...no idea what's about to happen!

~

Oh, and glad I went back into ACNH this evening. I neglected to go into my newly-opened clothing shop yesterday, but went in today and WOW, great clothes! I wanted almost everything I saw, and two gorgeous suit/dress options I never even got in my first play were in there, too. I've now decided who Illusion is in some basics. Her favourite colour is black, followed closely by deep, vivid purples, pinks and reds such as crimson and burgundy. Any vibrant deep tone of red, it seems, as long as it leans at least a little into the blue rather than into yellow. Beyond that, she also likes to use greys and whites, and prefers silver to gold.

Mysterious is what she'd like to be seen as, and her looks support it on first glance, but she's naturally friendly and a bit goofy so she tends to ruin that impression pretty quickly.

That's as far as I've gotten with Wodewyrd lore, though. I'm having a calm evening and I'm not mega tired, so woo! (Also, I get to go home tomorrow night, hee hee :D )

~

EDIT: Variable Barricade *is* funny. Funnier than Cupid Parasite, imo, which felt like it was trying harder while Variable Barricade just feels sharply observant, at this point. Though the humour is delivered in a snarky, somehow cutting way. Hibari is extremely blunt, not because she can't help but be blunt, but at least half by choice (the other half is natural personality, so far.) They've managed to make the initial ridiculous set-up seem weirdly plausible and horribly frustrating for the poor heroine, instead of a 'tee hee, we put a girl in a house with some gorgeous guys and we know you won't look too hard at why cuz this is an otoge so we know you just wanna enjoy the good-looks *wink wink* tee hee'.

Each guy has serious issues, though I think it's clear from the beginning that their true issues are something a little different than their openly stated issues. Kind of wondering how they'll work out. Right now I'm curious about ALL of the routes, don't dislike any of them, though Ichiya makes me cringe, at this point. (He makes Hibari nauseated, and I totally get it. Pretty sure he's supposed to.)

Lol, I'm back after my big frustrations with Voice of Cards led me to buy and start Elden Ring for reasons unbeknownst to me. I actually managed to beat a boss! Like, an actual boss with a big health bar and big scary attacks! It was the Erdtree Burial Watchdog(which is clearly a CAT!) in a side dungeon. I don't know how many deaths it took, but it's d-e-a-d! Suck it, catdog!

Mikodesu wrote: The only negative thing I can say so far is that it's overwhelming, even with the added level of hand holding that this game has compared to the other souls games. I spent like 5 minutes getting an item back in my quick select menu after I fat fingered removing it. I'm still pressing the wrong buttons for combat. And I'm running away from most engagements cause they're large groups. Wish I'd have spent more time in the starting area practicing. And for the life of me I can't figure out how to get back there!

I definitely agree with this. I'm still getting used to all the menus and I went out of my way to remap the buttons to better suit my muscle memory from Monster Hunter. There's no freaking way my attack is going to be top/trigger buttons. Way too awkward.

Other than that I've gotten my mount and a total of three summons. I can see myself spending a lot of time with this game... slowly. Dying in this game doesn't piss me off as it's pretty much my fault when it happens. It gets a pass on my frustrations because, just like MH, it doesn't punish you too severely when you eat dirt. It's so much more motivational to pick myself back up and try again rather than staring at a 'game over' screen and being forced to my last save. But for now I'm going to be taking it slow, even if I wanna run all over the landscape and discover all the things.

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In other news, Triangle Strategy has preloaded. I pray it has a low difficulty mode because my JRPG mood is still sour atm. I wish Rune Factory 5 was coming out sooner.

Ayye! Welcome to the hype train, and congrats on the boss kill! :D I went back and whooped that boss today too. Nasty buggar, kept attacking through my shield. Giving up and two handing my sword was the only way I could get it done.

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Elden Ring really is an incredible game. I still don't know if I'll have the skill to beat it, but I think I can get most of the way there by how it's built.

Finally gaining some confidence - just got my first summons today. I need to look on the Wiki to see if there's much info on how they work. They SEEM to be growing with me somehow, either by level or just number of times summoned because they survived MUCH longer later in my session. Cleared out a camp and eventually just ran out of summons time.

Explored some more after boss conquering, met a couple new characters and nearly got my « Cow Poopoo » kicked in by an overworld boss! Did get to see a streamer get HIS « Cow Poopoo » kicked in by a different overworld boss. Kinda helps my confidence to watch other people start the game and still die a lot, even being demonstrably better at videogames than me.

I LOVE the mini dungeons, though. Only found one that isn't a cave (or a catacomb), so far. I won't spoil it, the view is worth the find all on its own. I'd love it if Breath of the Wild 2 had something like this. Just not to this level of difficulty... Not sure that would sell.

The PC port is still kind of a mess - Fromsoft have acknowledged it, at least. :/ I'll give them that. Trying to fix it is more than Capcom does...or Square. We'll see how well they do. I dropped my settings to low today and my temperatures are pretty comfy now, right around 50C for the CPU. Doesn't look TOO much worse than medium either.