What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
December 2023
December 31st, 2023
It's my last post of 2023, and I actually cleared a game last night! To be fair, it's not a very impressive one, but I turned on my PS4 to do a replay of Space Ace last night. I wanted to play it again just as a point of comparison to Time Gal, since the sci-fi trappings are superficially similar. The protagonist's laser gun lighting up when you have to shoot in each game is less superficially similar, but I'm not sure how else such a limited format could get that across.
For readers who have never played a laserdisc game, it's kind of like running through 15 minutes solid of quick time events superimposed over a cartoon. Modern ports have button prompts on the screen, which I think is particularly helpful with some of the direction/perspective issues in Space Ace specifically, but in their original formats, you had to watch super closely to see something flash on the screen, then push the corresponding button- either your attack button, or the direction of the flashing object.
I totally understand why these games are not held in high regard today. Especially in their original formats, they're pretty miserable to play, and as a home gamer, I can't imagine how mad I would have been spending actual quarters on them. While the modern button prompts help, they can make these games a little too easy, which I am fine with, but can also see as a problem. (Time Gal has an interesting way around this I'll talk about in a later post.)
Despite those pretty valid problems, I think laserdisc games are an extremely interesting way to make games feel more "cinematic" within the limitations of 1980s tech. Even in the 90s, I remember being amazed at the thought of "playing a cartoon" when I first played Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on the 3DO, even though I never saw past the second screen on either. This is not a thought I have ever gotten past, even in the midst of my most controller-throwing-rage at these games, so I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack.
All that aside, I've played Space Ace a few times before, always on an easier mode to preserve my sanity. That being surprised, I was really surprised I managed to clear it in one sitting last night! I think it's an aesthetically cool game, but it moves so fast that some of the button press timings come off feeling extremely unfair. My last playthrough, I used saves to scum through it over three nights, which was kind of what I expected to end up doing here. That didn't happen, though, so I felt somewhat good about myself. It helps that the final boss has somewhat generous timing compared to the rest of the game, but that's fine. I took a path where I didn't get to see the nifty rollerskating scene, though, so I might replay it again fairly soon.
I played Time Gal for a few credits, too, and am starting to get a feel for it.
After gaming time was over, I built a tiny LOZ sweets shop, too. Microblocks are a challenge, and this design was perhaps a bit overcomplicated, so the friend I was chatting with as I worked on this heard many complaints. It came out so cute, though! My tiny bootleg Lego city is coming along nicely.
For today, I am not sure what I'll do, but I do have another bootleg lego building half-finished on my craft table. Once I get that done, I'll figure everything else out!
December 30th, 2023
This is a little later than a standard Saturday post, but I had a very exciting morning paying bills, buying groceries, and setting this blog up for 2024. I knew that I hadn't done well clearing games over the past year, since I felt extremely down for most of it, but 16 still seemed super low! My thought is that I'll probably do better next year, but if I don't, that's okay.
As far as my actual gaming goes, I got the preorder I'd made for the Taito LD Game Collection in the mail and was really excited! It was kind of a splurge, but I think laserdisc games are really interesting and had wanted to play Time Gal for a long time. Last night, I tried it out and wasn't disappointed. So far, I do feel like it leans more on "running away" scenes than the sorts of setpieces that pop up in Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, but I'm not sure that's bad. I was also very pleased to see that this has the player-friendly button prompts that the more recent ports of the Don Bluth laserdisc games use. I first played those on 3D0, so I was totally prepared to rough it with Time Gal like I did with this sort of game back then. That being said, I'm pretty relieved I won't have to.
I'm really excited about old laserdisc games right now, so I'm definitely going to play Time Gal some more today! I'm also really tempted to turn my PS4 on for Dragon's Lair, just as a point of comparison, but I'm not sure about that yet.
December 29th, 2023
My work week is only three days this week, but I'm still approaching Friday with complete burnout. It's pretty amazing, albeit not in a great way.
Yesterday, I, like the classy and sophisticated adult that I am, got my pre-order of the Spy x Family novel in the mail, but when I sat down to read it, my hands were too shaky to easily focus on the pages. From there, in an extremely normal chain of thoughts, it occurred to me that it was time to go back to Digital Devil Saga. Right now, I'm 23 hours in, so I've got a good chunk of it done. Last night, I just climbed through the awful dungeon I'm in, and'll give the boss fight a shot tonight or tomorrow.
I played OutRun a lot yesterday, too, on normal difficulty during breaks, and dialed down to easy before bed. It was very relaxing.
December 28th, 2023
Yesterday was a pretty light gaming day. I was really tired, and almost dozed off while crocheting my granny square for the day, so I went to bed and passed out fast.
During my work breaks, when I still felt pretty awake, I was sneaking rounds of OutRun, since I picked up the Sega Ages port during a sale. It's such a good vibes game that I still felt relaxed, even when losing, and I lost a lot! I could only get to the third set of courses, and I'm mildly determined to see every course in the game. This game will definitely pop up here again.
I also picked up Cat Simulator during a Switch sale, and it is, not so shockingly, not as good as OutRun. The controls feel pretty terrible, and my cat got stuck on the terrain like crazy. Also, why are the chickens in this game out for cat blood? It's very strange. Still, it's a cat game, so I'm dumb enough to turn it on again.
December 27th, 2023
I'm doing a quick lunch break post today, but I am pleased that I finished the Fantasy Fair event in Fashion Dreamer last night! The missions made it way more interesting to play, so I'm going to cut back a bit on it until the next event starts. I might pop in to make or adjust an avatar to use in the next one, but I won't play as much for a couple weeks.
I half-heartedly played a round of Catlord when I couldn't sleep, too. It didn't help, which was kind of disappointing.
I've already been playing an old arcade game on Switch during my breaks today, so I know a little of what I'm going to write about tomorrow. Other than that, I might be rather lazy about games tonight.
December 26th, 2023
It's the last day of my four day weekend, but I'm also almost done with the Fantasy Fair event in Fashion Dreamer. I'm not going to get the main outfit pieces because I don't want to grind to a million followers within the next two weeks, but I'm still having a lot of fun getting the new poses and photo frames. It's a little disappointing that there's only one mission set left, but another event will start on January 9th in my time zone.
I also found some games for around 3 to 30 cents in the Switch eShop while I wasn't focusing or being useful last night, and picked a few of those up with coins I'd earned. I started in one of them, a simple hack and slash sort of RPG called Diabolic, and got way more into it than I expected! I cleared the first four of ten stages, including the first boss battle, and redid a couple to bolster my level. This seems like it'll be short, but I think I paid 3 Nintendo coins for it, so that's fair enough.
December 25th, 2023
Merry Christmas, other Neocities users who celebrate, and a lovely day otherwise to those who don't! My Christmas was last weekend, so I don't have to do much of anything today, but last night, I played about ten minutes of Fashion Dreamer to get the next set of missions' photo frame. I like the blue and white holiday color scheme more that the red and green one, so it seemed well suited to being a blog image today.
December 24th, 2023
Yesterday was pretty quiet, and today should be calm, too! I want to make some headway in a diamond painting I'm working on, but that's a small enough goal that I'll have plenty of time for games, too.
Next year, I want to play at least one game a month on Game Pass, so I turned on my XBox to take a look at what was there and got really excited that Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is coming soon! I thought the first Turnip Boy game was very enjoyable, so I'm looking forward to the new one.
For yesterday, though, I browsed Game Pass and thought Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery looked cute, so I downloaded and played the first case. It was, as I suspected, really cute, and I thought the low stress point and click gameplay was relaxing. I think I'll play another case today.
I carried out another set of missions in Fashion Dreamer, too, making a beautifully eye searing shiny lime green jacket and unlocking a delicate butterfly themed pose. Tonight, I'll be after the next set of missions' festive blue winter theme.
December 23rd, 2023
I'm starting my four day weekend pleasantly this morning, with some slightly out-of-season pumpkin spice coffee and a cozy cardigan. I have no big goals for the weekend, which is really nice, and some lovely, low effort food in wait.
Last night, yet again, I continued through the current event in Fashion Dreamer. I was really pleased with the new photo frame I got, pictured below, and'll get a new photo pose if I play even one set of missions today. For a bare bones, nothing to it dress up game, I'm having a great time with this, and am already thinking about what sort of character I'll use for the next event. Probably, I'll use a guy character, just to mix things up and use some different design templates, but I've got a couple weeks to think about that!
December 22nd, 2023
Today was my last day before four days off for Christmas, so I'm cheerful, but sleepy tonight. I'm over halfway done with the event in Fashion Dreamer last night, since I played a little harder than usual to get the fireworks photo frame pictured below. I'm hoping to finish this event over the long weekend, just for a sense of completion.
December 21st, 2023
I'm actually getting a morning post done today, I feel so fancy! There's not a ton for me to write about, though. I kept on with the event in Fashion Dreamer last night, and only finished one set of missions. The Christmas photo frame I unlocked struck my fancy, so I made my character an outfit for it and ran off to the stage where it's usable to snap a photo. It's not the most fascinating gameplay to discuss, but I had a nice time.
December 20th, 2023
The "Fantasy Fair Event" started back up in Fashion Dreamer, and it actually works this time! I played through the first 4 of 14 sets of missions last night, and'll attack another chunk of them tonight. I feel sluggish, though, so I might be slow about it. It's a low stress game, so that's no problem.
December 19th, 2023
Last night, I played Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics a little more. It wasn't bad by any means, other than the music, but tonight, I want to crochet and play the event restart in Fashion Dreamer, so this will be set aside for a bit.
December 18th, 2023
I only have to make it through one more five day week before things get easy for a while, and I'm sure I can do it.
Last night, I tried Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics for the Game Boy Advance, because sometimes I make sideways choices. It was actually fine. The presentation felt a little bare bones and budget-ish, but I kind of liked the battles. It's not awful. I made it through the first section, and'll probably play more tonight.
I also built a little non-lego blocks kit from Five Below of a convenience store. It's really fun to build little storefronts, so please expect more of these in the future. Right now, it's up with the flower shop I built a while back. I'll get a group photo after a few more.
December 17th, 2023
Yesterday was a very lovely family Christmas, and I was gifted many lovely building toys. Right now, I feel super motivated to do legos and models, so they may have an outsized presence here for a while. Last night, I tackled a Nanoblock of Cinnamoroll, a Sanrio character that, like most Sanrio characters, I am quite fond of. This was my first Nanoblock, and I was pretty impressed with it! They were decently generous with extra parts, and the blocks clicking together had a good feeling. It's so cute, too!
On an inside-baseball kind of note, pertaining to Neocities, I found a book club on here, Bookbug, and thought it might be cool to join. I'm not sure yet if I have the wherewithal to buzz through a re-read of Crime and Punishment to jump in for this month, but I'll give it a shot- I've got a couple weeks! For next month, though, the book is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, so I got a copy on Thriftbooks to hop in and join the fun.
As you may have guessed from the rest of this post, however, my gaming for last night sucked. I played Fashion Dreamer for about 10 minutes and passed out. All things considered, that was perfect.
December 16th, 2023
I was extremely lazy yesterday, and ended up spending so much time reading manga about pop stars that I have to make a cake when I'm done posting here. I think I needed it, but it was still a bad feeling in terms of productivity.
Last night, I just played some Fashion Dreamer before bed, and got to see an NPC's hair clip through his chest. It was upsetting and I enjoyed it.
December 15th, 2023
Last night was a doozy, but today should be nice! My family's Christmas is this weekend, so I'm going to wrap presents and make cakes today. I might watch a movie, too, but I don't know what.
I was wiped out after I finished everything last night, so I just played a few more games of Catlord. It's so mindless that it really did help me decompress before sleeping. There are worse ways for a game to be!
December 14th, 2023
I feel like things are not going great, but as far as this blog goes, I have decided to play a couple little indie games to take a breather from Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee.
No Gravity Games is doing its holiday Switch game giveaway again, and in their blessed generosity, they have granted me a mediocre cat game to rival last year's Strike Force Kitty. This year's is Catlord, a pretty bare bones take on Vampire Survivors. I didn't love Vampire Survivors, but I *do* love cats, so I'll give this at least a few more plays. It seems like it'll be a good game to doze off to.
I also tried Hero Hours Contract last night, an indie game about magical girl labor negotiations that I'd had unplayed in my Switch library for quite a while. It's a strategy RPG about clearing the screen rather than surviving, which is interesting in and of itself, and I eel like I've barely scratched the surface of it. I like the art, too, so I'm hoping to see this one through to the end.
Tomorrow, I have the day off work, but I'm pretty sleepy, so I might not play much tonight.
December 13th, 2023
I hurt my shoulder last night, so posting isn't the best today. I played Lego Fortnite for about 20 minutes, though. It was cute.
December 12th, 2023
My energy level is zero tonight, but that is ok. I don't have to do anything and can go to bed early.
Last night, I played Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee for about an hour and felt a little bored. The middle part of the game feels a little like a checklist to me, and I'm salty that I can't play slots for a Porygon. I might play something else tonight for a small break.
December 11th, 2023
I write to thee tonight a fool. I have been having trouble with hand shakiness lately, which has been a problem my whole life, but worse lately. I really wanted soup tonight, though, so I made a pot of soup and am now experiencing dinner's hard mode. It's super good, though. I shall never abandon soup.
Anyway, last night I returned to Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee and played quite a lot. I cleared the Saffron City fighting dojo and nabbed a Hitmonchan, then went to fight Erika. My next moves are pretty limited at the moment, so I'll either do some route trainer battles or the Celadon City Game Corner dungeon tonight. I am determined to become a person who finishes RPGs.
December 10th, 2023
I'm still moving towards feeling better than I did Friday, which is nice. Yesterday, I played Fashion Dreamer for a few minutes right after posting here. I just made a few outfits for other players and NPCs, so it was brief and low impact.
Way later, I played a round of survival mode in King of Fighters XIII: Global Match, too. I used to have KOF XIII on XBox 360, and jumped back in here, years later, with way more retained skill than I'd expected.
Today might not be a big game day again. I'm feeling crafty, want to do some reading, and am going to go see The Boy and the Heron tonight. It should be a calm day.
December 9th, 2023
Yesterday was crummy, so I didn't do much gaming. I ditched my entire normal after work routine to curl up in a ball and read, and barely had the appetite to get a Lean Cuisine down. I feel a lot better today, though, after copious amounts of good sleep.
I did play Fashion Dreamer for a few minutes, though, since it's a zero stress game. It was relaxing.
December 8th, 2023
I felt really down yesterday, so I spent more time than usual aimlessly wandering in Fashion Dreamer. It wasn't fun, exactly, but it helped me clear my head.
I also dodged all the trainers I could to visit Celadon City in Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee. There's so many cute buildings and strange NPCs in this area, and I like the game center "dungeon," too, so this is my favorite area in Kanto.
December 7th, 2023
I'm doing a late lunch break post today because I couldn't sleep at night and slept too much in the morning. Yesterday sucked, though, so that is ok!
Last night, to cheer up, I built a tiny Mega Blocks Togepi I'd picked up while grabbing my prescriptions at Target. It has more blocks going on inside the egg than I'd expected, but was cute and easy. I'm pleased with it.
I pressed on with Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, too, fighting the trainers south of Lavender Town on the fishing path.
December 6th, 2023
I got out of bed at a decent time today, and'll be able to run errands before work! This feels like a small, but powerful victory.
In terms of games, I turned Fashion Dreamer on after work just to see what was going on. Another player had been kind enough to share their versions of the event items they'd been able to pick up before it shut down with me, so I went and passed what I could to a few other players. From there, I tossed on my recolor of a manga magazine collaboration before shutting the game off for the night, since that's going to end up being a limited item, too.
I got through Rock Tunnel in Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, too. It was a lot smaller than I remembered, but that gauntlet of trainer battles was tough for me when I was a kid playing her first RPG! Of course, this was an easier version of it, but I was also massively overleveled. Tonight, I'll probably tackle a route's worth of trainer battles or knock out Lavender Town.
December 5th, 2023
Last night, a limited time event started up in Fashion Dreamer, so I played that for an hour or so. The butterfly themed outfit prize was very enticing, and the prizes inbetween parts of the outfit, like new poses, weren't bad, either. When I turned it on to play for a few minutes before posting, though, the event had been shut off for now due to "technical issues." It was kind of fun to grind through the little missions it spit out, and I'd barely scratched the surface, so I was disappointed! Hopefully, it comes back on soon. It was a good addition to a somewhat barebones game.
December 4th, 2023
Being awake is bad today, and it wasn't my favorite last night, either. I beat most of the trainers between Celadon City and the Rock Tunnel in Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, though. I'll probably go a little further tonight, too.
December 3rd, 2023
I'm up and drinking my coffee on a Sunday where, weirdly, I actually have stuff to do! I'm going to see Godzilla: Minus One in a little bit here, which I'm super excited for, and I'm playing D&D with friends tonight. It'll be a nice day!
Yesterday, I actually played games for quite a while. I remembered pretty suddenly that last New Year's Eve, I told a friend who had repeatedly recommended it that 2023 would be the year I actually played Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I highly doubt that this got committed to memory on anyone's end but my own, but I sat and played the first two hours of it yesterday, set on achieving this goal. I like games where you jump around lush green locales, so even though I'm horrible at shooting in games, it was a nice start.
I played a lot of Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, too, level grinding and fighting Lt. Surge's gym during a voice chat. Rock Tunnel is maybe my least favorite part of Red/Blue/Yellow, so I'm not looking forward to that coming up next, but I shall clear it and move forward.
December 2nd, 2023
I didn't oversleep today, but I laid in bed an hour longer than I needed to reading manga on my phone. It was good; I love weekends. It's not a gaming goal, but I want to get back on track with reading today after a comics-only week. I read 11 graphic novels worth, so it's not like I was slacking, but usually I'm reading more standard prose at the same time. Past just that, I want to focus better on Japanese reading practice, which I'm pretty awful about. I have a one-shot manga by my desk to tackle right now, and if I can manage just 6 pages a day, I'll finish it this month. That's a very easy goal, but I want the sense of accomplishment it would grant me, so I'm off to the races.
Games-wise, I don't have a ton to say, though. I'm levelling up before Lt. Surge's gym in Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee and have at least another session of that to go before I hit the gym. It's very exciting stuff.
December 1st, 2023
It's the start of a new month, and I overslept again! 'Tis a cycle I need to break. I'm still plugging along at Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, though, and I cleared all the battles in the SS Anne last night. The ship had a really nice sense of scale in this version, and the passenger rooms looked so cute and cozy! Even though, or maybe because, I played Red, Blue, and Yellow so much, this version of Kanto is still very charming.
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