What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
December 2024
December 31st, 2024
My last post of 2024 is going to be a quick one, so I can get logged into work on time! I didn't play too much yesterday, so it's suitable. My biggest chunk of games yesterday went to Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, since I put off Nobara's story event to the last minute and wanted to play it before it went away. There's a map event I put off too long, too, so I'm gonna see if I can tackle that one today!
I tried a heavy workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too, which took about half an hour. The exercises weren't any harder. It just took more time. It wasn't a terrible time, and I got a bit in the zone when it threw me a 9 minute exercise. I'll try this again!
Have a happy and safe New Year's Eve, everyone!
December 30th, 2024
It's not very exciting to post about, but I had a utility gaming Sunday yesterday. I did a lot of fitness game stuff, since I picked up the Wii balance board compatible Dance Dance Revolution and played it for quite a while. It bothered me some that it focuses so heavily on western top 40 over more standard DDR music, but it worked way better than I expected! There's maybe a few too many actions, but I had a lot of fun once I got into it. I was pretty awful at it, but I'll improve!
I did a single 9-minute workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too, since I didn't want to lose my streak in that. It was fine, but I maybe overdid it.
After getting overwhelmed and blowing off as much as possible last week, I did some weekly to-do list management in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, too, getting a new pet and appreciating how much an actual mouse helped with managing and controlling this app.
I kept going in Love Rebirth, too, feeling slightly surprised at how long the dailies take to do in this game. It's fine that it's that way, but it would be a pretty big time sink to merge little items until I'd earned 450 coins every day. I don't think I care enough to play at that level.
December 29th, 2024
I was enjoying a nice Christmas yesterday, so I didn't do too much gamin'. I did pick up a new trashy mobile game, though, called Love Rebirth. I've been frustrated because Prison Noctis erased my progress and I can't get it back, so I wanted a new board-based merge game to kill a few minutes at a time. Love Rebirth looked similar, and it is, down to the artwork. It has a lot less suspiciously-AI-esque hands on the splash screens, so I'm guessing this is the game that got knocked off. I also like that the main character is somehow getting her wild, soapy revenge on her husband for sleeping with models by wearing ever-so-slightly mismatched outfits to galas and giving tons of people little pairs of purple hotpants. Plus, it has a more stable seeming account system. It's very silly, but it gets to stay on my tablet.
I also played Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku for a while, trying to keep my streak going. I only did one free workout and the five-minute stretching session, but that's definitely not nothing! It was okay.
December 28th, 2024
I'm doing a quick post before family Christmas stuff this morning! Last night was busy and I didn't play much. I kept up my streak in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, with a strangely relaxing 12-minute free exercise.
I played five rounds of Hole io before bed, too, deliberately limiting myself to see if I could get to sleep faster. I couldn't, but it's fine to try sometimes!
December 27th, 2024
It's time for a quick "lunch break" post today, as getting up to do things before work is outside my area of interest right now. I didn't play much of anything yesterday, but forced myself into a couple of very short free workouts in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku.
I played a little of Hole io, too, finding the pirate and mall levels to be very satisfying. The pirate level is maybe a little glitchy feeling, but the sense of being able to scale up in it is really great.
December 26th, 2024
I was back to work today, and really was dragging! I managed to get through the day and run some errands, though, and am totally ok to post now!
I played a lot of really light, casual games yesterday, the sort of stuff I could play while hanging out and talking. Maybe the least casual thing I played was the Genesis/Mega Drive port of Virtua Fighter 2. I decided that even as a strange and impressive version of Virtua Fighter 2, it wasn't as good as a fresh baked croissant. That's not usually a comparison people have to make, but if it comes up for you, too, I do definitely recommend shutting it off and eating the croissant.
Later on, I idly played quite a bit of Water Sort Quest, too. It wasn't as good as the version of Virtua Fighter 2 I'd had on earlier, but it was way easier to play while eating Chex Mix.
Everything else I did was more normal gaming after I got home. I played a little of Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, in an effort not to lose my streak, and did some successful achievement chasing.
I tried a mobile game called Picture Builder, too, where the goal is to put together little pixel art puzzles within a larger image. I liked the art and found it relaxing, so I'll probably play it again.
I did some grinding for gacha currency past just my dailies in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, and scored a 3rd copy of Nanami's SSR while I was at it. I know mobile RPGs like this are built to create a feeling of power, but it works and it's satisfying.
December 25th, 2024
Merry late Christmas, everyone! I didn't have my standard Christmas celebration today, but did spend a nice day hanging out with family. We had sushi, went to a movie, and mostly just relaxed. It was lovely!
Yesterday, though, I was still goin' through it, so I didn't play much interesting. I successfully forced myself to do another 12-minute exercise in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, which wasn't bad at all.
I played Farm Land in the background while I chatted with a friend for a few hours, too. This is such a low maintenance game that it was really perfect for this purpose. I made a lot of progress without getting anywhere at all, which would have been tedious if I'd been focusing. As background noise, though, it was as good as it is for getting to sleep.
December 24th, 2024
Last night, I picked up Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown to cheer myself up from having nothing specific wrong, which led to me getting way too into Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown. I'll have to do some game page organization later, since my normal "one screenshot per playthrough" will get a little ridiculous for what I intend to do here. That'll be fun, though.
Even though I didn't think I'd want to play for very long, I ended up doing five arcade ladder playthroughs last night. I haven't really played Virtua Fighter a ton overall, other than a spot of the 2D port of 2 to Genesis and VF4, back on PS2, but insofar as I have a character I use, I guess it's Pai. I started off with her and had a lovely little jaunt through the arcade mode, though Dural's bonus stage did me in.
I then, thinking it was rather fun, played through again with Pai in one of her super polygonal original game costumes. This gave me the impression that the game was rather easy.
From there, I picked Jeffry and got stomped into the ground hard for a bit. This led me to remember I really had played Virtua Fighter 4 quite a bit, and probably had some muscle memory that propelled me through the last two playthroughs. As it turned out, this game was not bafflingly easy.
My next choice was Goh, which wasn't as bad. He looks unwell and seems to have some attitude problems, but international fighting tournaments are probably hard on people. I don't handle stress well, either, so I can't judge him. He was zippy, though, and I felt like this playthrough went well.
I then ran through as Akira in his Tekken 7 costume, having a bit of a challenging time again. I've spent quite a bit more time with Tekken than Virtua Fighter, and the costumes here were close enough to trigger my brain to start hitting the Tekken button inputs by mistake! Akira's fighting style did not suit me that well, either. Also, as I realized after finally getting an unlikely win against Dural, it was 1:30 in the morning, which couldn't have been helpful. With that, I went to bed rather than running through the arcade ladder for a 6th time.
Other than that, I just did normal gaming for the day. I did a 12 minute exercise routine in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku to force myself to move.
I played a little more of Farm Land to avoid staring at a wall, too, but wasn't very interested in it yesterday.
December 23rd, 2024
For the past few days, I've been feeling so down that I'm sleeping too much and my head feels foggy. It's happened before, and I'll get over it! It doesn't make for awesome blogging, though.
I was able to get through another daily workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku. It was uneventful, but fine!
I tried another super cheap Switch game, too, this one being called Farm Land. It is a little more involved than Aquarium Land was, but I'm not sure if being more complicated makes it better. It's fine, though. These cheapie games are fine to space out and relax with.
Most of my game time yesterday was spent in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade. I was really grinding out character levels, and managed to make some extra progress in the story levels, too. I was pretty happy with my own progress.
Today is a single work day in the midst of two sets of two days off, so I probably won't play much tonight. I'll have something to write about tomorrow, though.
December 22nd, 2024
Yesterday was a very low key gaming day. I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku, which seemed like good progress.
I played Hole io for a bit before bed, too, and got quite a few things unlocked.
I also did some basic level grinding in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade. I wasn't able to accomplish much, but that is totally ok in a mobile RPG!
December 21st, 2024
Going to Aldi the weekend before Christmas was a mistake, but I at least have plenty of groceries to show for my trouble.
Yesterday was not a very out of the ordinary gaming day for me. I decided I want to try and clear all the achievements in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, so I did a 12 minute exercise in that yesterday. I don't know how helpful that is, but it was at least a few minutes of not simply sitting around.
To balance that vague sense of productivity, I played two super short hidden object games on Steam. First, I went for Find All, which I'd gotten in a super cheap series bundle during the autumn sale. I liked this one! It was nice to find something other than cats, and staggering the list of things to find was not a bad way to give the game a feeling of progress. A lot of the objects were pretty well hidden, too. I'm looking forward to continuing this series!
I also ran through another freebie, 100 Ninja Cats. It was a bit too easy, and the cats looked weirdly melted in this one. I've played worse stuff for free, though.
Before bed, I tried Hole io, another of the 20 cent Switch games I'd picked up, too. I tried this on mobile years ago, and do think it's nice to see a totally offline version of a mobile game available! It's cool for game preservation. However, I also like unleashing mass destruction when I am half asleep, and this game also delivered on that front. It's a very bare bones time attack sort of game, with lots of stuff to unlock, but I like seeing how much stuff I can wreck in two minutes. I'll probably try to get all the base game unlockables knocked out in this over the next few days.
Lastly, as has been my habit as of late, I spent some time with Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade throughout the day. I finally unlocked Gojo from my free gacha pulls, but he's a bit of a disappointment! After the first few turns of a battle, he simply walks off. It's a funny gimmick, and my fights tend not to last that many turns at this point, but I can still see this getting frustrating down the line.
December 20th, 2024
Everything ended up being ok yesterday, but I still feel kind of down over work stuff. That's not really my job's fault, so I don't know what my problem is. I tried to get my energy back up with a little bit of Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku last night, though, and did have fun! The 12 to 15 minute long workouts are great for shutting my brain off.
I played a lot more of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade than I should have, too, clearing out the map event that's about to end and earning enough currency for a couple gacha pulls. I'm making progress in the base game's story mode, too, so it gave me a good false sense of productivity. It's the best thing a free-to-play mobile game can provide.
December 19th, 2024
I'm having trouble getting tasks that count towards my productivity metrics at work today, so I'm posting here during my lunch break rather than after work to try and stop worrying. It's not really working, but that's okay.
Last night, I played Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade when I had piles of more useful things to do. That only made it more fun and satisfying. There's a lot of in-game events running right now, and I felt like I was making good progress in them.
I continued with Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom, too. This has a decent story, and I like the potion making mechanics, too, so I'm looking forward to continuing here.
December 18th, 2024
Today's post will be a quick one because my eyes are itchy and I gotta go to work. I beat Aquarium Land last night, though! This game had very calm vibes and did help me get to sleep. Plus, towards the end, it got entertainingly buggy, with my workers getting glued in place and either violently wobbling or getting stuck in an animation loop. It kind of overstayed its welcome, though, so I'm glad to have it done.
With that finished, I started another hidden object/adventure game I'd picked up for two dollars, Lost Grimoires: Stolen Kingdom. It's actually off to a pretty interesting start, story-wise, so I'm interested to get back to this tonight.
I chipped away at some events in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, but my heart wasn't in it last night.
December 17th, 2024
I got back to work after my long weekend yesterday, and as such, I didn't really play much. I started in on the current map based event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, but was way more focused on leveling up my characters.
I also made a run at finishing Aquarium Land, but this game's grand finale will have to wait for tonight. I'm in the last aquarium, so I just have a bit more grinding to go to unlock the final tank and be done with this.
December 16th, 2024
Yesterday was a much lower grade gaming day than Saturday had been. I did my weekly upkeep in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, getting a couple more spirit companions while I was at it. It was very low effort, but that was fine.
Other than that, I buzzed through a bunch of the story mode in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, hoping to get some more dispatch locations and more effectively grind for items. It worked, and it was fun to finally get into the game-exclusive bits of the story. The Fukuoka campus students aren't as bad as I thought they'd be, and it's more fun to get their story than it is to plod through the manga story, but told much worse.
I also tried a game one of my coworkers was talking about called Blade of God X: Orisols. It was more action-y than the mobile stuff I usually play, but was also a little dull and incomprehensible. My character's design is cool, though, and since I'm always looking for games to play while I'm half asleep, I might try it again for that. I'm not sure, though.
I kept on with Aquarium Land, too. I'm hoping to finish this off tonight or tomorrow, but if I don't, that's fine, too. I just want to move on to my next game.
December 15th, 2024
Yesterday, I hid inside from the ice, which gave me a lot of time for games. Luckily, I'd just gotten my preorder of an Atari 7800+ in, so I had plenty to do! My family had a slightly outdated Atari 2600 when I was little, but I'd never played the 7800 before yesterday. It's probably very skewed to judge a system like this by a souped up re-release and a modern pack-in cartridge, but it seems neat! I played Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, which came with the system, for a little bit, and was surprised how vibrant the colors were, and by how much I liked the controller, too. The game itself seems like it'll be a bit of a "git gud" situation, but I'll give it more shots!
I was really excited to pop in the Epyx sports 2600 multicart I'd ordered, though, for California Games. I maybe took too much pride in being a better gamer at 37 than I was at 4 as I played, but even aside from that, the demo scene vibes of the title screen and the weird, puppet-ish hacky sack guy looked great plugged into an HDMI port! From here, I'm a bit determined to improve a bit at the BMX event, but it'll be a fun grind.
With the multicart popped into the system, I wanted to try the other two included games, too. I'd never played either before, but found Summer Games kind of confusing and tedious on my first play. Everything seemed to have really tricky timing, and I thought the graphics were a bit flat compared to California Games.
I had a lot more fun with Winter Games, though. The sled and luge events have a crazy sense of speed for the 2600, and biathalon was the only event I felt truly baffled by. I'm looking forward to figuring out how this game works a bit better.
Because this post really needs to go on longer, I did quite a lot of more modern gaming, too. I had enough time to devote to it, so I grabbed my study notebook and tackled some walls of text in Model Debut #nicola. I unlocked the clothing shops and got a hairstyling assignment, so the game is opening up a bit at this point. Being able to read the Japanese text is still the most satisfying bit of it, though.
I went a bit overboard with Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade as I did chores and stuff, too. It seemed like time to get my characters leveled up, so yesterday, I was mostly just grinding for materials. It wasn't super exciting, but it was fun.
Lastly, I kept on in Aquarium Land, too. This really isn't offering anything new other than the numbers going up as I move through the game, but I'm over halfway through. It doesn't seem like it'll overstay its welcome, even if it is getting a spot repetitive.
December 14th, 2024
Today is a good day to avoid going outside and dealing with ice, so I am posting from a very cozy spot inside. Yesterday, I ended up feeling a bit panicked for no reason and not playing nearly as many games as I wanted to, but that is okay!
Of everything yesterday, I was probably most excited to find the beta test for Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road on Steam. I played the 3DS digital-only version of the first Inazuma Eleven years ago, thinking a soccer RPG would be funny. I got really hooked on it, though, so I was happy to find this so easily available. I probably won't play online, as I am pretty bad at sports games, but I am playing the story mode demo. So far, it's very cute, but I only played for a few minutes before feeling compelled to run more errands.
Earlier in the day, I ran Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade for hours, clearing out the Gojo stamp rally event and trying to boost my team a bit. The event story was kind of funny, but I like the map style events a bit better than these basic buzz through the level ones. Another map event just started, though, so I'll play that within the next few days.
I kept going in Aquarium Land, too, falling asleep pretty shortly after I started. It's fantastic to have a before bed game this effective.
Today, I'm trying to get stuff done so I can play games stress free after dinner. I don't know if I'll succeed, but I'm doing okay so far!
December 13th, 2024
I'm off work today, which is nice, but there's an ice storm rolling in tonight! I'm trying to make sure all my devices are charged and there's decent food I can eat if we lose power, and should be good on both those fronts. Even to myself, it seems like I'm more worried than I have to be.
Tomorrow, I will probably have a lot of games to write about, but last night, I just played a little more of Aquarium Land. I was tired and I didn't want to focus, so it was an easy, relaxing choice. By the time I started playing, I was already really sleepy, so I only cleared one level. That was also fine.
December 12th, 2024
Last night, I wanted to play something bright and summery, since the cold was getting to me. I landed on Aquarium Land, which I picked up on Switch for 20 cents a while back. I didn't expect anything, but it was an all right zone-out game with some cheerful, sparkling blue beach vibes. I put a bubblegum pink dolphin in my in-game aquarium and felt harmony with the game's vision of the world. Even though I have dozens of better games to play, I will be returning to this brightly colored grind.
December 11th, 2024
Yesterday was busy, and I'm kind of between games right now. Last night, I just went through my Switch to see what I could finish to clear out some memory and landed on Bucket Crusher. It's boring, but it put me right to sleep, and for that, I am grateful.
December 10th, 2024
I felt really tired and down last night, so I just played casual cat games. I ran through Cats Hidden in Christmas on Steam, which was pretty satisfying for a free find-the-cats game. The cats were actually hidden in a lot of cases, and it had a color mode that unlocked after finding all of the cats in the standard lineart mode. It was still fairly easy, but I'm fine with that.
I played some more of Neko Pang, too, feeling like the difficulty between stages is wildly uneven. It's another free game, so again, that's fine, but it did make the balance feel strange.
December 9th, 2024
I had another utility gaming Sunday yesterday. My weekly upkeep in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions was pretty minimal, but I didn't do well at this last week! I felt too burnt out to turn it on for most of the week, which is kind of pathetic. It also led to my missing some of the smaller, less "weekly" tasks I needed to do that I would have seen on a paper to-do list, leading to my rushing to finish stuff on Friday and Saturday. Overall, it was fine, but I'm going to try to check in on my lists for at least five minutes a night this week. This isn't a cure-all, but I still think I can make it work.
I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too, which was uneventful. I just felt like I needed to get up and move around a little.
As far as less purposeful gaming goes, I played another free hidden cats game, Hidden Winter Cats. It was the hidden object equivalent of the Waldo standing on the beach by himself, "Waldo's not even trying anymore!" joke from the Simpsons, so I found all 100 cats in less than 5 minutes. It wasn't a bad five minutes, but it was excessively slight.
I did some more cat themed casual gaming with Neko Pang, one of the Samsung instant play mobile games, before bed. I actually liked this one. It's just an obstacle-clearing match-3 game, but a very cute one. I did hit a difficulty spike before falling asleep, but I'm going to try and beat the stage that stopped me again today. This was definitely the better of my two throwaway game experiences yesterday.
December 8th, 2024
Yesterday, I finally tried Sonic and the Black Knight, and don't have too much to say about it so far. It doesn't seem that bad for a late 00s Sonic game or a motion control heavy Wii game, but it's not that great, either. I had a decent time with the first few levels, though, so I'll keep going.
Later on, I played some Metal Slug Attack: Reloaded while chatting with a friend, too. I had to quit and go to bed when I got so tired I couldn't remember how the game's interface worked, and it wasn't even that late! I made some decent progress, though, getting through all the first side stories for the different armies and getting back to the main campaign.
I did some very minor play in Infinity Nikki, too, mostly just burning off all my free gacha pulls and playing with the dress up features. It was fun, but I made no progress.
December 7th, 2024
Last night, I decided it was time to finish Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus, so I played it for nearly two hours until it was over. This was actually a fine little hidden object adventure game with a goofy story, but I just got tired of the Christmas theming as I played. Last night, I cleared out the main story and unlocked a bonus story, which took about an hour to get through and exposed the poor state of healthcare for gingerbread men. It was a nice, laid back time, but I'm glad I have it finished, too.
Other than that, I did a short workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, in which the opening stretched mysteriously stopped halfway through, dumping me into a normal workout. It was fine, and everything worked after that, but weird.
I kept up with Infinity Nikki, too, though I was really sleepy by the time I logged in. I pretty much just went to the stylist's guild to do a little story stuff and collected a bunch of flowers. It was fine!
December 6th, 2024
I wanted to throw a pot of soup together this morning rather than post here, so I'm doing this during my "lunch" break. I didn't play anything too out of the ordinary yesterday, though. I kept going with Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus, and as I broke into a cop car and prepared to battle the Ice Queen, it occurred to me that I actually have no idea when this game will wrap up. I'm still pretty amused, so that's fine.
I played another half hour of Infinity Nikki, too, which I'm playing on a timer due to a tendency towards awful motion sickness in 3D games. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this, but it's fun so far! Movement feels nice, even running on a tablet so underspecced that the game asked if I was sure I wanted to try running it, and I like collecting stuff to make cute dresses. I'm excited to play more.
It's a little less exciting to write about, but I cleared the second part of the 0 event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too. My party's getting pretty good, since I've had killer gacha luck, and the event rewards only boosted me further. There's already another event running, though, which I'm hoping to clear out this weekend or early next week. This game is a nice time killer.
December 5th, 2024
Last night was even colder than the night before, so it still wasn't a great game night. With the help of some hot beverages, though, I downloaded and started in on Infinity Nikki, which has big PS1 vibes on my tablet. I could move over to my Windows gaming machine for this, but I honestly like how crunchy and pop-up-laden it looks on my mobile game tablet. I only played for about 30 minutes, so I'm just getting used to the controls right now. It seems fun so far, though.
Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus was the real star of my game time last night, though. I lost allies. I made milkshakes. I did some logic puzzles that would have been much easier were I not strolling through this game half asleep. With the fate of the holiday season hanging in the balance, I hope to finish this tonight.
December 4th, 2024
There was a nasty wind cutting through my apartment last night, so I didn't want to play video games so much as I wanted to curl up under a stack of blankets and sleep. Eventually, I did just that, but I played a few more screens of Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus first. I did all the classic holiday activities- escaping the dungeon, hang-gliding past tornadoes, chucking water balloons filled with anti-freeze at an elf trapped within a cursed snowman- and inched closer to the end.
December 3rd, 2024
I was still a little tired yesterday, so I went to bed early and played a pretty decent chunk of Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus, another victim of my desire to see what's going on in the world of casual Christmas games. This is just a hybrid hidden object game and super basic point and click adventure, and aside from some really weird and disturbing facial animations, it's completely fine. I'll probably finish this tonight, since things seemed to be wrapping up.
December 2nd, 2024
I didn't feel great yesterday, so I just did utility-style gaming. I messed with Spirit City: Lofi Sessions quite a bit, redecorating my in-game room for Christmas and streamlining my to-do list by swapping a lot of my weekly tasks over into the daily habit tracker.
My muscles were kind of sore, so I played a daily, standard-length workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too. It was not fun and I wanted to quit mid-session, but it was good for me.
December 1st, 2024
December is off to a sleepy start for me. I should have posted sooner, but I was reading the Boss Fight Books entry on Bible Adventure cover to cover instead, and after that, I dozed off for a few minutes. It was good, but maybe a spot unproductive.
Last night, though, I just played Model Debut #nicola for a while. I hit some text boxes I had to dictionary scum my way through, so it was maybe 45 minutes of reading in Japanese to ten minutes of gameplay. That is not nothing, though, so I'm not upset about it.
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