What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
April 2024
April 30th, 2024
Today is the last day of April, and I did okay with games this month! My goal was to clear four games, but I only got through three, all short, and definitely no RPGs in the mix. That's okay, though. Donut County had been in my backlog for a wild amount of time for something so short and breezy, and Pikuniku was a lovely GamePass choice.
For May, I'm going to set the same goal I have been, which is to clear four games, with one being an RPG, and one being a GamePass game. If I don't make it, that's fine, too, since it's just a hobby.
Right now, though, I'm really fixated on playing Love Colors before bed. Filling in the pixel-by-numbers screens knocks me out like no game ever has before, so I'm somewhat grateful to it. It doesn't make for scintillating blogging, but sleep is important.
April 29th, 2024
I took it super easy yesterday, so my biggest accomplishment was building these little block kits of Hello Kitty and Pom Pom Purin. I've made the whole set now, and am slightly distressed that the Little Twin Stars weren't included! Still, I'm happy with these. They came out looking like cute little robots.
My only game, though, was a bit of Love Colors before bed. I somehow managed to play a lot without accomplishing much of anything, but that was kind of impressive in and of itself.
April 28th, 2024
I am shocked that I actually met a timed gaming goal, but last night, I managed to clear Pikuniku before it leaves GamePass! I really enjoyed this game. The roly-poly movement was fun, and felt pretty good, and there was maybe only one jump that really sucked in the entire game. Even that was towards the end. Plus, it was funny, and I could make my character wear a flower hat. In the end, I didn't find all the collectibles, so I might pick this up for a replay on my Switch. For now, though, I'm pleased.
Most of my yesterday, though, was spent on crafts and building stuff. I finished off a cross stitch I'd had sitting for quite a while, too, and might show that off when the whole set is done. For now, though, here is a little fashion boutique I built for my block city street, resting upon a granny square dishcloth I made while worried about the weather.
I played a couple of adventure mode stages in Hyrule Warriors before bed, too. The "beat the right enemy" quiz stage was a slight pain, especially when the moblins piled up on each other, but overall, this was light and relaxing fantasy violence.
April 27th, 2024
Yesterday, my focus was shot, which actually left me with quite a lot to post about here. Maybe the most unique part of it was that I dug around on itch.io for a bit after work to find a short visual novel to buzz through. I ended up going with Calling Card, a very short and nice kinetic novel (which means no choices) told over phones. It had the vibe of a little manga one-shot, extremely good color choices, and very realistically utilized profanity. This and Donut County both used the way people communicate over text to pretty good effect, so it was interesting to be playing them back to back. It was maybe only ten minutes, but I'm glad I played it.
I finished a Gunpla I'd set aside for months, too, this one being the SD Aerial. There was nothing really wrong with this kit, but the stickers were driving me crazy and my hands are shaking too much to do a lot of detailing by hand. The end result is pretty nice, though, and it's a relief to have it done.
As far as my more standard daily gaming goes, I finished this month's event in Fashion Dreamer, which I dragged out for way too long. The new photo frames have been really nice this time, and I'm sure I'll use them in the future, but I was unenthusiastic this month.
I continued the main story mode in Hyrule Warriors, too, and was extremely charmed by Linkle and her cucco army! If I'd seen this part of the proceedings on Wii U, I would have picked this game back up for Switch much faster than I actually did. I'm considering making her my main for Adventure Mode just out of the knowledge that she commands the chickens.
April 26th, 2024
I was still pretty low energy yesterday, so all I did gaming-wise was grind away at the monthly event in Fashion Dreamer. I should be able to finish this off the next time I play, and might actually use the prize patterns this month.
April 25th, 2024
I could not pep up yesterday, so I ended up just playing two stages in the Adventure Mode of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. It was pretty satisfying, but I was tired.
April 24th, 2024
I'm super tired today, so this is a somewhat late post, made during a work break. Yesterday was a somewhat not-normal day, so I played a lot more video games than normal. Knocking another set of event missions out in Fashion Dreamer was my main goal, and I achieved that quite easily. I really like this bold blue cherry background for character photos, and had been looking forward to scoring it.
I also scored a copy of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition and did a lot of violence. I'd played the start of this before on Wii U, but hardly remembered any of it. I think I'd unlocked Young Link in that version, but am not even 100% sure about that. I'll see what happens, though! Playing this again was fun.
I played some Love Colors to try to get to sleep, too, but got too sleepy to keep playing without actually being able to sleep. Oh, well.
April 23rd, 2024
I'm doing some family stuff today, so this is a quick lil' post while I get some stuff together! I just played some Fashion Dreamer last night after zooming in on crafts, getting well over halfway through the monthly event. I should have this cleared by the end of the week!
April 22nd, 2024
I'm heading into a week with a strange setup today, and I can't decide if I should feel extra motivated at work today, having tomorrow off, or not motivated at all. I'll see how it shakes out!
Last night, I picked up a Pokemon model kit, this time of Zekrom, that I'd gotten frustrated with before. It had seemed to me that the pieces didn't fit, and I was going to give it up for lost. When I got to work on it for the second time, though, I had no problems at all. I wonder what my problem was? Past problems aside, I'm glad to have this done and know that the kit wasn't busted. It's so strange, though.
I kept plugging away at Fashion Dreamer's monthly event, too, but got waylaid by one of the in-game events where an NPC goes to your showroom. It's cute when it does that, and gives the game an extra flash of personality.
Today, I'm hoping for at least a mildly productive Monday.
April 21st, 2024
I actually have a somewhat busy, in a nice way, day today, so I tried to do a bunch of chores before posting here. After lunch, I'm going to go see Spy x Family: Code White at a local "bigger than a normal screen, but not by any means an IMAX, don't get your hopes up" theater, and after that, it's a Dungeons and Dragons night. I play as a barbarian, so I keep reminding myself to remember to use rage tonight. These constant reminders probably won't work.
Anyway, my current gaming goal is to finish Pikuniku before it leaves Game Pass at the end of the month, as it is fun and I'm not sure why I put it on the back burner. I did a couple boss fights last night, using my total lack of pine cone kicking skills to take out some robots, and felt like I was really moving the story along fast.
I did a couple of mission sets for the monthly event in Fashion Dreamer, too, and am hoping to get this event done this week. If I actually play it instead of messing with offline mode, that should be super attainable.
Before bed, I also filled in ten images in Love Colors to relax and knock myself out. It worked, and I actually slept decently. Having something as slow as a pixel color-by-numbers game on hand is sometimes magical.
April 20th, 2024
Last night, I hit a major logic gap in the design of my little city not-Legos. Why would a designer worry enough about retaliation from Fanta to put a Fento sign on their fake store, which is honestly way more unfortunate in today's society, but then straight up just use the McDonalds golden arches on the next building in the line? I respect it, and put tiny McDonalds on display next to my KFE, to make the chicken (?) establishment look even shadier. Still, it seems so strange! This delighted me.
I took longer than I expected to build the two little storefronts, though, so from there, I just did some offline outfit grinding in Fashion Dreamer for some quick, relaxing before-bed gaming. Today, I'll get back to the monthly event.
April 19th, 2024
I really overslept today, so this is going to be a quick post. I cleared Donut County last night, though, and it was really delightful! The complexity curve of the puzzles was really natural, and I thought the last area and final boss were a very good cap on the whole game. I'm glad I finally stopped stashing it and played it. Now, I just have to bring myself to do the same for poor Sayonara Wild Hearts.
I also built this copyright safe not-a-Uniqlo for my little block city street last night. I think HSANHE is the block brand, from the instructions, but I really liked this one. It's so cool how you can see all the tiny, abstract mannequins and clothing racks through the clear front doors.
April 18th, 2024
Yesterday was calmer than the day before had been, but I suffered a major lack of productivity due to not feeling well. I did try a couple new-to-me games, though, and felt pretty satisfied with them both.
Years ago, when I was still teaching overseas, I picked up Donut County in a Switch eShop sale and then proceeded not to play it for fear of "wasting" it. I'm trying to defeat this weird mentality, so I re-downloaded this last night and it was super fun. It does feel very lo-fi Katamari, especially the sound effects, but a bigger focus on puzzles gives it a pretty different feel. I also thought it was funny, which helps. I'm glad I didn't keep stashing this and'll probably finish very soon.
Over on my XBox, I downloaded Harold Halibut through GamePass, since I thought the stop motion graphics looked neat in pre-release press. The look of it is impressive, but I also thought it was really low key and relaxing to play, at least so far. I'm looking forward to playing this a bit more, too.
April 17th, 2024
Yesterday, we ended up having the tornado sirens go off twice in my area, and on top of the morning blood test, I was exhausted by the time I got home. My internet wasn't at its best, either, so I just played some offline Fashion Dreamer to relax. I unlocked quite a few character colors and parts, and had fun getting some goofy NPC poses. It was what I needed after a wild day.
April 16th, 2024
Today, I've got a blood test in the morning, and severe storms are expected to hit this afternoon, so I'm looking forward to the day being over.
Last night, though, I built this extremely cute Amy Rose Nanoblock. It looks almost like a figure that hasn't loaded into this dimension yet, and the slight unreality of that makes me happy.
Amy took most of my evening to build, so I just played a small bit of Fashion Dreamer before bed, inching forward in the current online event.
April 15th, 2024
Trouble sleeping and unjustified stress were bothering me yesterday, so I didn't accomplish much. Before bed, I played Lil Monster for a while and had some game mechanic breakthroughs. First, every time you reclear a league, you get the same prize, so I'll be able to spam the C League to get the double-powered attack gem until I max it out in my deck. Second, your character's affection stat controls its speed in battle, meaning that if it's at 100%, you can sometimes attack three times for every turn the opponent gets. Neither of these facts makes the game less grindy, but they do let me target my grind a bit better.
I also built this little not-lego bookstore that strikes me as fine, I guess. The street lamp out front has a charming, old fashioned look, but I felt like this one maybe had too many stickers.
April 14th, 2024
I spent a lot of time yesterday messing around with this site, trying to get things set up for a future site section, which was fun. Since I just use this site for daily writing, it doesn't need to be fancy, but it's still fun to play.
Other than that, I didn't do a ton other than zone out yesterday. I finished an LOZ ice cream truck block set that had been plaguing me last night. LOZ kits are extremely fiddly to build, which can cause trouble with some hand tremor issues I've got. It's kind of worth it, though! Everything I've done from them is so charming and filled with little details, so I feel kind of accomplished when I finish one.
I also continued level grinding NPC relationships for character parts in Fashion Dreamer last night, again getting fed up with how plain the "type B" clothes are. I almost have a full fruit bunny outfit pattern for my current girl character, though, so I'll bounce back to the event soon.
April 13th, 2024
Last night, I did taxes and read the second half of Three Body Problem in one sitting after work, so it wasn't much of a game night. Before my attempted bedtime, which was a total whiff in terms of sleep, I did some offline grinding in Fashion Dreamer, trying to level up NPC relationships to get access to more clothing patterns and character parts. It was fun, but I wish there were some wilder menswear patterns in this game.
Since last night was big for almost getting to sleep and then jolting upright at noises that weren't actually happening, today might be somewhat challenging. I'm sure I'll play something to post about tomorrow, though!
April 12th, 2024
This week, I've been trying to brute force having good days by just telling myself I'm going to have them, and for the most part, it's worked. Trying to have a good attitude doesn't do a ton for health, but I'm certainly feeling a little less whiny on that front.
Yesterday, because it seemed cute to try, I built three not-Lego block flowers from a dollar bin at Target and jammed them in one of my King of Fighters soda cans for display. The flowers themselves were kind of crummy to build, and don't hold together well, but I like the end effect. It's clunky and cheerful.
I made better efforts at this month's Fashion Dreamer event than I had last night, too, and had a decent time wandering around and doing my little missions.
I spent way more time with Palworld, though, testing the limits of what materials I can carry and accidentally slaughtering a poor little chicken that wandered onto my base. I thought it was mine, and attacked instead of picking it up! It was a grand tragedy. I did manage to craft my new outfit, too, and am pleased that it is cute and makes it harder to freeze to death.
April 11th, 2024
Last night, a new event started in Fashion Dreamer, but I fiddled around too much making my character for it and didn't really make any headway. I also forgot to take a screenshot because I was sleepy, which I'm a little frustrated with myself about. I'll be posting about this for at least a few more days this month, though, so it's not a big deal.
Before that, I decided to try Palworld on my XBox, since I wanted to play something where I can just wander around. I've never played much of a survival game before, so I thought it was kind of interesting in that regard. I don't feel like I got far enough to really say much, but do hope to return tonight to make my girl some better clothes.
April 10th, 2024
For the past two weeks or so, I haven't been feeling my best, and clearly the worst part of this is that it leaves me short on content for my daily posts. I got a blood test, my favorite, set up for early next week, but until that's done and someone takes a look at it to switch up my prescriptions, my gaming here may be super unfocused.
Last night, I went with playing Selfy Collection for a few minutes before bed, and I got a little frustrated that, even though a lot of the NPCs wanting outfits want cheap, casual clothing, the only clothing shop open to me sells formalwear. It feels strange to have a wardrobe of party dresses and be grinding for the ability to buy T-shirts.
April 9th, 2024
Last night, I totally failed to do any crafts, but did play Threaded, a craft themed draw-lines-to-connect-the-numbers puzzle game, on my Switch. It wasn't my best choice, but it also doesn't matter.
April 8th, 2024
My weekend was busy, so by the time I got to the end of it, I wasn't good for much. After some reading, I played a run of Balatro while dozing off. Considering the circumstances, it was not so bad, but I got The Wall as my boss blind in round five, requiring me to get 44,000 points to pass, and I absolutely was not doing that well.
April 7th, 2024
It's the start of a new week, and I want to get back on top of things. Lately, I've been killin' it with crafts- I finger knit an entire bedspread sized blanket yesterday- but am way down on reading and studying, instead choosing to just kind of space out. I need to figure out how to do goal setting that doesn't involve eviscerating myself and then getting upset when I fail at goals no one else is even aware I had. It's doable, I'm sure of it!
Yesterday was fun, though. One of my brothers gave me some cans of King of Fighters '97 soda, which struck me as very funny. It also got me thinking about the series enough to turn on King of Fighters XIII: Global Match and start up the story mode. I'm not super competitive, so I appreciate a nice story mode in a fighting game. This one isn't bad, but I never finished it back in the XBox 360 days, when KOF XIII was originally out. It'll be fun to see more.
I kept on my grind with Lil Monster, too, and got some vaguely mysterious story bits in last night's session. I selected a map spot at the top of a mountain where, with some briefly stated distress, my monster had to fight a clone of itself. The background fog then cleared, I got a piece of a gem for my trouble, and nothing else was said. The bare bones nature of this game makes everything that happens feel super enigmatic, and it kind of rules.
April 6th, 2024
It took hours of level grinding, but I cleared the lowest level set of arena matches in Lil Monster last night. From here, I think my next step is going to be more grinding, across the same single screens where I summon my own opponents. This game is pretty tedious, and I really went off on it last night. Plus, I lost a couple of story battles in random spots and can't get them back to try again! I'm weirdly determined to press on, though, in part because my monster friend is an excellent little cat. For today, I think I have a way to stack my attack deck with some better moves ahead of the next tournament. It just takes more grinding.
I also built another little off-brand Lego flower, but this one kind of sucked to snap together! I like the color, but I don't feel like the pieces connected well. It wasn't too bad, though, and it's cute.
April 5th, 2024
I'm doing a quick post during a break from work today because Target pharmacy lost my insurance information and trying to avoid paying 100+ dollars for a prescription made things too eventful this morning! Everything worked out, and the pharmacy staff was super nice, but it did not take away from my general feeling that I'm not doing so hot lately.
Last night, though, I built a cute little flowerpot off-brand Lego to try to relax. This one was almost definitely from AliExpress, and I'm super fond of it! It was easy, but still looks decently impressive.
I kept playing Lil Monster, too, but only did level grinding and some experiments with monster summoning. Tonight, I'm hoping to get levelled enough to win the C League at the battle arena.
April 4th, 2024
Being awake is too hard, so today's post'll be short due to my failures to get out of bed. Last night, though, I was working on making a blanket and became fixated on the idea of figuring out Lil' Monster, a Game Boy Color game my family had gotten cheaply out of a bin at Wal-Mart and then totally failed to decipher. It is a somewhat confusing game, but in an hour last night, I got further than I'd ever been in it. I'm disappointed that I have to work instead of level grinding in this today.
April 3rd, 2024
I'm doing a super quick post before work today, after not wanting to get out of bed and some computer troubles. I built two mecha models yesterday, both from the 30 Minute Missions line. I didn't plan to build two, but after doing one, I determined it would be really cool for it to have another robot to fight, so I went for it.
I also played Princess Peach: Showtime! a bit more, trying out a few more of her role transformations and overall just having a nice time.
April 2nd, 2024
Today is my birthday, so I am posting as I drink my free Starbucks and worry about a surprise apartment inspection tomorrow. The inside of my head is not as fun as I try to make it look here!
Yesterday was fun, though. My family bought me a sushi dinner, and I went to see Late Night With the Devil, which was a fun high concept horror movie. It had some great 70s style "technical difficulties" TV station screens.
I felt like I needed to get a lot done, though, so I did a couple of Sanrio off-brand Legos in the midst of all that. The top one, a Hello Kitty pool set, was actually a lot more detailed than I expected, and had a couple fiddly bits I had trouble snapping together. It came out well, though, I think. The second one, My Melody, was pretty straightforward, but cute. The colors in these photos are a little yellowish, since it's been gloomy out and I used artificial light to get them, but the pink blocks in the My Melody set were the perfect shade.
Game-wise, I played Princess Peach: Showtime! the most, clearing out the Swordfighter levels and going back for 100% of the collectibles in the first of them. I was a little disappointed to have such a fun ability set off the board so quickly, but the designers had to use something to illustrate the setup.
I also tried Roller Katz BF Episode 1, an indie platformer I'd picked up on sale in the Switch eShop. I'm not sure about the character designs, and I did a bit of clipping through stuff in my few minutes playing, but making my character flip around against the bright blue, filled with fluffy clouds sky was a defininte pleasure. It's interesting to see what individuals are making with the tools to make 3D platformers at their disposal.
April 1st, 2024
It's a new month, and I feel like, at least in terms of this website, I did pretty well in March. I cleared five games, even though most of them were extremely short affairs, and also cleared my one game on GamePass finished and one RPG finished goal. For April, I'm going to aim to clear four games again, and if I don't manage, it won't be a big deal.
Yesterday, I got my birthday presents a bit early at Easter lunch, which was an unexpected delight. One of them was a copy of Princess Peach: Showtime, so I played five levels of that last night. It's so cute, and the game really goes for it with the on-stage theme! I love all the "handmade" sets, and really like that some of the stage elements are being held up by visible strings. Six year old me would have loved this, and adult me is pretty pleased with it so far, too.
I'm not sure how my game-time will go today, but I don't have to work, so I'll play something.
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