What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
November 2024
November 30th, 2024
Today is the last day of November, but I am too overwhelmed by being slightly behind on making some mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving lunch to properly reflect on this. The potatoes are in the pot and boiling now, so only time can help me.
Yesterday was a pretty minor gaming day. I did another task in Model Debut #nicola, which is pretty simple now that I can actually read what the game is telling me. Basically, it tells me a clothing item and style to include in an outfit, lets me pick, tells me I'm wonderful, and then has me edit the image for virtual online consumption. I used to have a localized 3DS game in this series, Girls' Fashion Shoot, and this basically seems to be the same thing with slightly more story and spiffier graphics.
I also tried La-Mulana last night, which is as mysterious feeling as I'd heard, and should be a fun game to poke around in for a while. I'm not so worried about clearing it so much as I am messing around and exploring, so I don't feel daunted by the difficulty.
November 29th, 2024
Yesterday was a genuine day off for me, so I cleared Coffee Pack by spending too much time playing this decidedly casual game in a probably too-hardcore way. I got it in my head that it would be no good to do anything else until I had it finished, so I spent at least a couple hours curled up around my Switch, just really matching those coffee cups. I liked this game, and had fun with it as a new, deceptively tricky little pick-up-and-play puzzle game. For 16 cents, I got more than my money's worth out of it. Still, I played it so hard that once I cleared level 40, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, as if I had been released from a curse.
From there, I wanted to play a fashion game on Switch without actually buying a new fashion game, so I redownloaded Model Debut #nicola. I'd bought this when it was first released a few years back, but hadn't made any meaningful headway in learning to read Japanese yet, so I bounced off it fast. Last night, with some shock, I learned that years worth of regular study had actually paid off, and I can now get through the text in this game with maybe one or two dictionary checks per text box. I'm very inclined to undercut this accomplishment, as it's easy text about daily life, and I'm still pretty constantly checking on words I don't know. It still feels good, though. Learning a foreign language sucks, and it's nice to make tangible progress.
November 28th, 2024
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! My family's Thanksgiving isn't until Saturday, so I am having a very laid back day. It's nice, and I'm looking forward to eating too much spaghetti for dinner.
Yesterday, I played more Coffee Pack than anything. It had a major difficulty spike and I became even more fixated upon it. My cafe, pictured below, is fully upgraded. Now, the battle is only between the puzzles and I. It's very satisfying.
I played through 100 Dino Cats from Steam, too, which felt even quicker than the other hidden cats games I've been playing recently. I think I spent less than 15 minutes on the base game. It was cute and free, so I don't really mind, but the cats were barely even hidden. This will not stop me from playing dozens more of these bits of fluff.
November 27th, 2024
Last night was busy, so I just played Coffee Pack a little more before bed. I'm over halfway done, so depending on how tricky the puzzles get, I think I'll clear this in the next couple of days.
November 26th, 2024
Sometimes, as I cheerfully click my way through casual games, I feel like I am not a very discerning gamer. Often, I am tired and just want to relax. Casual and cozy games have nice vibes and often have cats, so I'll put up with a lot from them.
I'm not very comfortable railing against something here, since even cash-ins have people making an effort behind them, but I really didn't like Anime Jigsaw Girls: Christmas so much. If the puzzles had different backgrounds, or if the pieces were cut differently between them, it would have been more relaxing than tedious, but it didn't do either of those things. Oh, well! I still wasn't stressed while I played it, which is something, and I made it through the whole thing.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I really enjoyed my time with Coffee Pack yesterday. It's really addictive, and when I lose I generally know how I can do better my next try, making me want to press forward. I'm looking forward to playing this a bit more tonight!
November 25th, 2024
Today's post is late because I sent myself a screenshot through Hotmail, and web Outlook was down this morning. Alas, the net is but a house of cards that can tumble upon the slightest provocation!
Anyway, yesterday was fun. I had a long D&D session in the evening, but played some stuff before and after. At night, I tried a Switch game called Coffee Pack that I'd picked up for 16 cents, I think, and got pretty quickly addicted. At first, it did seem a bit boring, but once I started getting more colors on the board and saw some of the tricks to shuffle pieces around, I was locked in. It's cute, too, but the gameplay is really satisfying for me.
I got my weekly to-do list typed up in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, too, which took away an awful, unreasonable sense of panic I'd had from dealing with my standard pen and paper list. Once I reach next Sunday, I'll be able to uncheck what's done and make some quick adjustments rather than writing the whole thing over again, which is a massive relief! I know I'm too old to be having these sorts of organizational struggles, but it's nice that something this simple has made my last couple of days feel so easy.
I did the first part of the 0 event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too. The cutscenes for it drag on and on, so I was glad to be running it during an arts and crafts session. The prizes for it are nice, though, and I'm pleased to have a slightly more powerful version of Maki on hand! I'm planning to tackle part two of this event on Wednesday or Thursday.
November 24th, 2024
I'm still draggy today, but did some super casual gaming yesterday. I'd been reading about Spirit City: Lofi Sessions on notable neocitizen Aywren's blog, and after their last post about it realized that I had a machine that could run it now. I'm really awful at focusing and paying attention to what I want to accomplish, even if I really want to get it done, so I've been making messy and overwhelming pen and paper to-do lists, which isn't fun. Typing out my to-do lists yesterday still wasn't exactly fun, but the avatar creator and collecting lil' monster friends was, so it balances.
I also played some of a Steam holiday cheapie, Anime Jigsaw Girls: Christmas, because last week I became briefly fascinated with the depths of holiday casual games and feel like I have to follow through on that. It seems short and easy, but the music is a super shrill version of Jingle Bells that really got to me after a few screens. All the girls are in front of the same background, and the pieces are cut the same way every time, so there's no challenge or effort involved. I will finish this. I just couldn't take it all in one sitting.
November 23rd, 2024
I am really glad there's a couple of days off for Thanksgiving next week. I feel so burned out that I don't even want to do weekend activities! It's really bad. Last night, after work, I finished up Megumi's event story in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade while having coloring book time, which absolutely seems good and normal to me, so I could get started on the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 event content. The event prize pools have some SRs of Maki right now, and I'd like to score that upgrade. When I went to play this morning, though, it felt like too much effort, so I'll see how things go! It was nice to at least get Toge from a free gatcha play.
November 22nd, 2024
Fridays at work are never fun, so I cannot will myself to wake up and get peppy. Last night, though, I spent an hour or so messing around with Steam games. I cleared the non-DLC part of 100 Cats New York, a free hidden object game. It was enjoyable and cute, but maybe too easy. I had it done in 15 or 20 minutes. It was free, though, so it's hard to be bent out of shape about it.
Since I'm still in reading mode, I started a fluffy visual novel/otome game, too, The Villainess Is Adored By the Prince of the Neighboring Kingdom. I think the way that "reincarnated into an otome game" light novels (kind of, very roughly, like a cross between a YA series and an old school pulp paperback, for people less engrossed in this particular bit of nerddom) iterate on each other is really interesting, so I'm playing this mostly because it covers a series that I don't think is translated into English yet. I'm not past the hit-all-the-tropes setup here yet, so I can't say a ton about this overall. From what I've played, though, the art is pretty and the translation is mind-boggling. It's readable for sure, but off in some very fascinating ways. I'm looking forward to reading more, but I haven't seen a game this strangely written since King of Fighters '99 had a character declare, "I'm not your sister, puke." It's interesting!
November 21st, 2024
Last night, it took me a while to get all my daily stuff done, so I just played a few more stages of Clutter 1000 before bed.
November 20th, 2024
I'm really zoomed in on manga and a horrifying book about Rosemary Kennedy right now, so I am not doing much in depth gaming the past few days. I also just finished petting a cat for two hours, which would be really top notch stuff were it not for my cat allergy. All of this is my own fault, but I love books and cats and, therefore, regret none of it.
Anyway, last night I tried an aesthetically chaotic object matching game on Switch called Clutter 1000. Casual games don't usually have such an overwhelming and vaguely baffling personality, so I was pretty instantly sold on this one. I'm not sure what is going on or why, but it is calming and confusing at the same time. I'm looking forward to matching more things before bed tonight.
November 19th, 2024
I read for quite a while after work last night, so in terms of games, I just played the first half of the latest story event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade. It was a nice night that makes for lame blogging.
November 18th, 2024
Last night ended up being a little crazy, so I just played some of the side story content in Metal Slug Attack Reloaded before bed. These seem like they were past in-game events, so it's nice to see them preserved like this after the mobile game's servers were shuttered.
November 17th, 2024
Today, this post is late because I was out doing some nice stuff with family members! As a result, I am rather sleepy and kicking myself for playing so many games yesterday.
My gaming variety was pretty wide yesterday. I downloaded and finished a super-casual Steam freebie called 100 Christmas Cats where I just found 100 cats in a line drawing of a little Christmas town. It only took a little over half an hour, some of that which was my figuring out the zoom controls. It was cute, though, and I got 100 Steam achievements from it. I downloaded nine more of these, because they're free and have cats, so please enjoy being bored by more descriptions of this nonsense in the future.
I spent quite a bit of time with Metal Slug Attack Reloaded, too, gawking at the sprite art and levelling up my units. I'm getting a better grasp on how to approach the tower defense stages, simple as they are, but I wish I could level my units past level 10! Hopefully, I'll hit a player rank that lets me do that soon.
Over on my Miyoo Mini+, which I'd unproductively left on my craft table, I turned on a Game Boy Advance game called Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Big Break because I have some nostalgia for Tiny Toons. I then, in a pleasant surprise, found myself getting whupped by a Treasure beat-em-up. It feels like a simple base game, with some depth to the support system, which lets you call out a second character to attack. Launching tiny enemies up in the air to ram them into bigger ones was extremely satisfying, too. I'll probably give this another shot, but it was a bit more than I wanted to deal with last night.
As if all of that weren't enough, I buzzed through some of the story mode stages in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade during and after lunch, too. I was satisfied with my progress.
I'm probably not going to play a ton of games tonight, as I am dozin' off already, but I'll be back tomorrow with some sort of post!
November 16th, 2024
I am having a craft day to try and relax today, so this post is slightly later than normal. I am not super concerned about it, though.
Yesterday, I felt pretty frustrated with Hidden Cats: Magic Forest, so during my lunch break at work, I told myself that if I couldn't find the last cat I'd left off with the night before, I would drop the game. The cat, of course, was just sitting under a tree, waiting to be clicked on. I'm slightly satisfied that I finished this, and up until the last cat, it was pretty laid back and relaxing. The controls kind of sunk it, though, so I'm not sure I really liked it that much overall. Still, it's fine to play a tiny, chill game sometimes.
I absolutely played the crap out of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, clearing the map event and trying to level up my party members. The event rewards were pretty nice, so I felt like in terms of the game as a whole, it was worth my time. The "wow, nice job, kids!" ending was so lame it made me laugh, too, which I appreciate.
I'm off to try and finish a couple of small cross stitches and see if I can get a decent feeling of productivity!
November 15th, 2024
Last night, I made myself play Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku to try and get myself to regain some energy. It didn't work, but it was somewhat fun. I don't feel great when I don't exercise, so I want to get back to playing fitness games.
I played a small hidden object game on Steam called Hidden Cats: Magic Forest for longer than I should have, too. It was relaxing and pretty, but the camera controls were so bad that I thought I was repeatedly getting stuck and crashing the game! I'm almost done with this, but after a few frustrating hours and reading some disheartening "sometimes the counters and hint buttons don't work" community posts on Steam, I don't know if it's worth the trouble.
I am very tired and don't want to get through today, but I have to. I wish the best of luck to all of you in your various endeavors today.
November 14th, 2024
I'm just back from errands this morning and doing a quick post before work. I wish I had a little more pep!
Last night, I picked Metal Slug Attack Reloaded back up because I was thinking too much about offline versions of mobile games. I made a little progress, and got somewhat bored with the loads of gacha pulls I had to do to build my team. It wasn't bad, though. This is really low stress to play, so I might keep at it a bit longer this time.
I chipped away at the "map event" in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, which mostly consisted of me setting auto battles to go and doing other stuff. It required no skill, and my numbers did not really go up, but it seemed like the most effective way to grind for event items.
November 13th, 2024
My sleepiness last night was unparalleled, so I just played rounds of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade between chores until I could go to bed. There's two time limited events going on now, and I'm still working on the main story, too. It feels like a lot to balance. Even though I'm having a decent, laid back time with this game, I can't imagine having the time and energy to fully tackle everything in it, even if I weren't stubbornly refusing to pay in for premium items. It'll stop me from running out of stuff to do for sure, though.
November 12th, 2024
Today's post is super late! I got worried I'd be late for work if I posted this morning, so I saved it for when I got home. It probably would have been fine, but I wasn't eager to risk it earlier.
I tried a couple of new games yesterday, with the more interesting of them being a zombie themed budget JRPG called Raging Bytes. I actually enjoyed the start of it quite a lot, and appreciate the gusto with which it throws around zombie movie tropes and background details like buildings with giant signs that say "Shopping Store." I'm not very far in this, but am looking forward to playing more when I get a good chunk of gamin' time.
I also started a small scale Switch game, Zodiacats, that's just tile swapping puzzles of cats. It's a pretty decent before bed game, and I'm not going to turn up my nose at a cat-themed casual game. I'll probably knock this out in just a few play sessions!
November 11th, 2024
Yesterday turned out to be really busy, so in terms of games, I just played a very small amount of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade before bed. It was ok, but I wasn't super engaged with it.
I'm thinking about doing some small backlog tackling for the rest of the month, since I've picked up mounds of games on sale lately. Even clearing just a couple of them will make me feel a bit better.
November 10th, 2024
I feel somewhat panicked this morning and am not sure why. I'm a very powerful lady- I even managed to refill the coolant and windshield wiper in my car this morning! It's not a fun vibe, though.
In Metro Quester yesterday, between repeated, horrific losses and information from Steam help discussions, I realized that to beat the final boss, I am going to have to rebuild my entire party to do max damage rather than balancing attack and defense on everyone like I have been doing. In light of this, I am going to take a break from Metro Quester, or at least play it more sporadically, as grinding for item drops feels super unappealing right now. It's some lost time in my RPG quest for sure, but I can make it up with some shorter games.
I played a bit more of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, clearing the first event's story and doing some item gathering style missions. The side story I unlocked was cute, so I was decently satisfied.
November 9th, 2024
My power levels remain low, but I did make good game progress yesterday. I alternated between exploration days in Metro Quester and stuff I needed to do all night after work, finally finding the final boss. I need to level grind some more before I face the boss for real, which I might try this afternoon. It won't be very exciting, but it'll be nice to have this finished.
I didn't play as much of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade as I had the past couple days, and I'm honestly a little more interested in that than Metro Quester today. This has a really good feeling of progress for a numbers-go-up mobile RPG. I need to level all of my characters up, though. I started off levelling up some strange characters because I found it funny, so my party has a weird balance.
November 8th, 2024
Fridays are a challenge at work, so I declined to get out of bed and face the day for too long this morning. I'm up now, though.
I sat down and deliberately cleared Everdark Tower last night, which was a solidly okay game. As far as being a short RPG goes, I thought it was way more successful than Archlion Saga, the other game in the set, especially in terms of narrative. This was interesting to play.
Six RPGs remain towards my goal of clearing twelve for the year.
I really played a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade again, too, starting to level up my party with a bit more balance. I want to clear the seven days of novice missions just to prove I can, but they're somewhat daunting! I'll see if I can get a lead on any of it tomorrow.
November 7th, 2024
I am feeling pretty down right now, so last night after work, I played the just-launched Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade on and off for about five hours. It's not a bad mobile game, just a gacha with decent turn based battles, but perhaps did not deserve that level of attention. I was able to relax a little playing, though, and that was nice.
I played about ten minutes of Everdark Tower again, too. I probably could have pushed through and finished this last night, but I didn't really want to.
November 6th, 2024
Last night was just more Everdark Tower. I got my last party member and think I'm super close to the end.
November 5th, 2024
Last night, I just kept going in Everdark Tower for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, hitting a string of bosses. I decided to level grind a little, but even that was fast in this game. I'm really dragging this out by playing such short sessions, but I also appreciate that it's no hassle to do so.
November 4th, 2024
Early voting at the local mall ended up being a massive afternoon time sink, so I had another day without much gaming. I played Everdark Tower a little before bed, though, chipping away at it a bit. I know it's short on purpose, so I think clearing chapter 3 last night was probably a good bit of progress. It might be a bad games week overall, but I'll try to finish this off this week.
November 3rd, 2024
Yesterday was a sleepy day overall, not just a sleepy morning, so I didn't manage to play much. Before bed, though, I did play four or five rounds of the Time Traveler retro table in Zaccaria Pinball. I didn't do well at all, but it was relaxing.
November 2nd, 2024
I'm having a really sleepy morning, but it's Saturday, so that's okay.
Last night, I played a short adventure game from my itch.io bundle stash, called I Want To Be A Triangle. It was a cute, fourth wall breaking little quest, and though it was too late at night for the puzzle answers to come to me quickly, it was very doable and not at all frustrating. It was charming, and I'm glad I took a little bit to play it.
I also did some more dungeon crawling in Metro Quester, and am actually in the last area now, I think. At the very least, there's no more space on the map after this. I beat a massive, slightly tedious boss last night, and then plodded through a new area where food spoilage is a common enemy tactic, which is going to be frustrating for this last stretch of the game. I don't think there's a way to counter it, so I just have to take everything out as fast as possible! I'm pretty confident I've got this, though. It'll just take a few more sessions.
November 1st, 2024
This is gonna be a short post this morning because I got distracted by crafts! I got a competent Windows device and tested it with Pseudoregalia, which I hadn't been able to play on my poor old computer. It was so fun, but I don't think I'm going to tackle the whole game right now.
I took out three more bosses and did some very productive exploring in Metro Quester, and got a great new giant bear and small girl party member. I'm considering taking a detour to level them up so they can join my end-game party, as I'm not as close to the end as I'd thought.
Before bed, I played a session of So I'm A Spider, So What?: Ruler of the Labyrinth, too. It was relaxing, but not so scintillating to write about!
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