What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
January 2025
January 31st, 2025
I'm having a really bad Friday night crash tonight, so it took me hours after work to get set up to do this post. It won't be a super long one!
I played a three-stage Way-Forward developed shmup last night, Cat-Girl Without Salad ~Amuse Bouche~. I was excited because it had both a cat(girl) and 2D shooting, but in the end, felt like it was maybe just okay. The main girl, Kebako, has some neat gimmicky weapons, but her basic one was maybe more practical in a lot of situation, and I only had to use two continues to clear the whole thing. It wasn't a bad one sitting experience, though, and I might play again with special weapons only sometime.
Other than that, I just played mobile games. I spent a decent amount of time in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, using it to unwind during my lunch break. It's so pleasant and relaxed!
I played a lot of Dragon Wings before bed, too, which was fun. There's a Valentine's Day event that just started, and I'd kind of like to see if I can get the new dragon from it. I'm racking up the little heart cookies that drop in standard stages pretty quickly, so I think I can do it.
January 30th, 2025
I should have posted sooner tonight, but I had my nose in a coloring book as I tried to clear some of the stress out of my brain. There is no reason why I should feel under pressure, since things are honestly going pretty good today, but I finished dinner and felt absolutely panicked.
Last night, I balanced out bad vibes by overdoing it with mobile and free to play games! I got back to Infinity Nikki while I was on my exercise bike, and had an extremely pleasant, laid back time. I am honestly not sure why I quit playing this, because I do like it! My attention span just sucks.
I meant to just do dailies in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, but I got kind of stuck trying to figure out where the requests from other campers were and played longer than I'd meant to. The menu popped up for me once, but I haven't found it again and feel a little frustrated. Maybe no one needs anything right now, but I could have sworn my camp caretaker asked for a clothing item I couldn't quite craft yet. Oh, well!
I kept up with the story in Wuthering Waves, too, and am still enjoying it. It was mostly just story stuff- I don't think I left the building I was camped out in at all- but that was fine. I just went to sleep rather than having a longer play session.
January 29th, 2025
Last night, I was pretty sleepy, so Wuthering Waves is the only thing I played for any length of time. The first town is very pretty, and I got to pet a cat, which is a good feature in any game! I'm probably just going to bury myself in more free to play stuff tonight, since it's proving to be easy weeknight entertainment. It is maybe a bit boring, but it is laid back.
January 28th, 2025
I'm back to the work week and really sleepy, so I was in mobile game mode last night and will be again tonight! One of my coworkers told me about Wuthering Waves yesterday, and I decided to try it. It took ages to download it, but it's off to a neat start! Genshin Impact makes me really motion sick and this doesn't, so I was a little excited.
I kept going with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, too, and enjoyed getting into fishing. It made me much happier than it should have.
Last for this post, but first on yesterday's real life timeline, I finished up Todo's story event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade. I thought about grinding to see if I could get some extra tickets for Todo's gacha banner, since it would be cute to have him battling with Tall Idol Takada. It wasn't fun as a free-to-player to grind seven hours to get Nanami's event SSR, though, and I didn't want to do that again. The story was amusing, and I was satisfied enough to just get that out of the event.
January 27th, 2025
It's not a video game, and it's from today, but I was doodling and it got out of hand, leaving me with a Bulma I'm vaguely proud of. I bought the bottom tier alcohol markers I used here for coloring books, and they look so sharp and smooth! Sure, they'll fade, but they were fun to use here. Anyway, since this is my web space, I'm showing off a bit.
I did play a lot of games yesterday, though, which is why this post is so late. I polished off ASMR Slicing yesterday afternoon, finding it to be a strange and confusing, but ultimately pleasant, little time waster. It wasn't amazing, but I can see coming back to it if I'm having trouble sleeping.
With that finished, I got a little too much faith in my dicier looking 20 cent games, and tried one called Frozen Honey. Usually, I can find at least some fun in any game, and think I am fairly positive about video games! This, however, was the rare game that I violently dislike. You fill up a bottle with candy and goo, freeze it, and then give it to bad celebrity caricatures. They then either take a selfie with it, breathe fire, or puke. Normally, I think I'd be a little impressed by a game where I can make Indiana Jones vomit by giving him licorice, but not this one. It's boring, the graphics are janky, it's a little gross, and it's so low on content that I got all of the base game unlocks in an hour or so.
What really bothered me, though, is that the "VIP" customers in the game require you to buy DLC items to get a perfect score on their desserts. This is clearly aimed at kids, so it seemed really predatory to require DLC like that. I stand by my feeling that these Switch mobile ports are good for game preservation, but that can have as many bad sides as good.
Speaking of predatory, I ignored events and let them stack for too long in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, so I got to tackling those yesterday. Yesterday, I worked on a boss event, which is a format I tend not to enjoy. I fought Jogo a couple dozen times, setting the game to run while I did other stuff, then realized I didn't care and turned it off. I got a lot of nice prizes, but story events are more fun.
I started Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, too, because Frozen Honey made me lose faith in video games as a hobby and I wanted to play something made with some level of care. I fell asleep before I could do much, but it seemed nice so far!
I also picked up and tried a shmup with a Survivors-style weapon upgrade system called Randomax. What I played was really fun, but I lost track of time and had to shut it off suddenly, so it was only 30 minutes or so. I am also getting sick of writing, which is a big risk of a post this long. I'll have more to say about this game later!
January 26th, 2025
I'm going to get back to playing shmups today, after rethinking my approach to them. I just want to be more able to enjoy the games, and playing on a schedule was not very enjoyable as a newbie. Trying to figure out what I could clear within a week to do a switch-off was driving me crazy, and I was overthinking scheduling rather than playing on top of that. If I play every day without worrying so much about perfecting a specific game, I think I'll definitely get a bit better at the genre! For now, that's more important to me than perfection.
Yesterday, though, I only played super casual stuff. I started and finished 100 Space Cats within the space of ten minutes, finding the art in this one to be much lazier than the cat placement. If nothing else, these free cat-finders are usually at least cute, but this one just looked scribbled! I was a little surprised by it.
After that, though, I started Find All 2: Middle Ages to continue finding objects, and it was much better. The staggered lists of things to find in this series makes it more fun, and this is closer to a normal hidden object game, with multiple stages and some side activities. It'll take a few sessions to knock this game out, and I'm satisfied with that.
Before bed, I felt kind of wired, but was too dizzy to do much, so I dug into my 20 cent Switch eshop stash to find ASMR Slicing. I am always a little glad to see mobile games like this in a form that won't disappear when their servers shut down. You cut random stuff with weird blades, and that's it. There are "challenges" sometimes, asking you to cut things to the right weight, or get a certain number of slices out of an object. They're not difficult, though, so this is pure fluff gaming. I got to guillotine a cake, so of course that was good, but this is very minimalist and strange. I'm going to try to polish it off today.
January 25th, 2025
Today it was sunny and the weather got above freezing, so I felt a bit better than I have been! I went to see The Colors Within, because I am a sucker for "kids in a band" anime, which was very charming and also helped. It is nice to be in an okay mood.
Last night, with coworker encouragement, I got my last few runs knocked out in Sweet Survivors, so I can play something else. It is strange, because I'm still itching to play Survivors-like style games, but I got tired of this one specifically towards the end. As little as I spent on it (about 4.75 with all the DLC) I'm impressed with how much playtime I got out of it, and can see revisiting it in the future. For now, though, I shall bid the baristas farewell.
I played some more of Fit My Cat, too. It's just a sorting puzzle, though, so I don't have much exciting to say about it. I do like it, and of course the pastel cat theming is good, but it would be fine with any theme.
January 24th, 2025
Another day, another post! I got kind of tipped over in terms of productivity last night, so aside from some mobile game dailies, I just played Sweet Survivors while I was exercising. I didn't clear any runs, but that's fine. I'll pick up my last three eventually.
January 23rd, 2025
I wish I knew why I was so blah feeling lately, but I've at least been able to keep some measure of interest in games.
I tried Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% last night and really enjoyed it. It's been on my Switch for a while, thanks to having picked it up in a sale, but I'd previously been kind of intimidated by trying to play it. I wasn't doing great, but definitely feel like I'll be able to with practice, and the 16-bit graphics are so lovely! I'm looking forward to giving this another go tonight.
I played another round of Skateboard Drifting With Maxwell Cat while exercise biking, too, and was pretty bored by it.
January 22nd, 2025
Winter is bringin' me down this year, and I am suffering a severe lack of energy and enthusiasm.
Last night, I ended up trying cat games from my backlog. My first one was Skateboard Drifting With Maxwell Cat: The Game Simulator, a meme-y game about steering a skateboard towards arrows. I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't play this and pedal my exercise bike at the same time, so I don't feel like I can really judge it from last night's session. It wanted me to be connected to the internet as I loaded levels, though, so I think it was an online game no one else plays. It was a strange experience.
I tried Fit My Cat, too, which was a laid back puzzle game where you fit cats into boxes. It's not complicated, but it's cute. The difficulty scaled well as I played, too.
I want to get back to my shmup quest tonight, but I also want to sleep for 15 hours, so I will see what wins out.
January 21st, 2025
It was extremely cold this morning, so I didn't want to get up and be useful before work, putting me in a position where I am now doing my daily post with 39 minutes left in the day. It is my own fault, so I can't complain very seriously.
I traded to a different shmup for the week yesterday, picking Demonizer, a bullet hell game I had in my itch.io library. I am horrible at it, and was feeling very discouraged last night, since I got stuck on level 2. It is definitely a skill issue, and I did just barely get incrementally better in my 45 minutes of trying over and over again. I'll keep trying for the week, though, and if I can't do it this week, I'll come back when I've got more skills.
In a more delightful session of gaming, I used one of the DLC characters and misplaced levels of effort to slow Sweet Survivors down to less than one frame a second as I rode my exercise bike. I was very excited and bragged about it to my friends, who have dealt with me for long enough to take my pride in this achievement in stride.
I also played Dragon Wings really badly while I was half asleep, so tired and chilly that I was having trouble with my dailies. Usually, I don't talk about my mobile game daily tasks here, since it's boring, but I spent enough time failing last night that it seemed worth noting today.
January 20th, 2025
I was cleaning most of yesterday, so I did more game dabbling than anything. It was my last day with Raging Blasters for the week, before I swap out to something different, and I just played half an hour of caravan mode. I'd like to get over a million points, but I couldn't get through the three minutes without dying last night! I guess that's what I get for playing ridiculously late, though.
While thinking about what shmup to play next, I messed around with a couple I had on hand for a few minutes. I booted up my PSP to play a couple levels of KOF: Sky Stage, a King of Fighters themed bullet hell game. I played this quite a lot in the past, and my failures with this a decade ago are part of why I want to get better skills now. In the future, I'll play this more in-depth, so I ended up picking it up on XBox Arcade for slightly better convenience.
I gave Robotech: The Macross Saga: HD Edition another chance, too, but I just don't like this that well. The jet controls feel super slippery, and the mechs are extremely slow and clunky, though the Gerwalk form between the two is okay enough. It feels really unforgiving, too. I do want to see who the hidden characters are, so I'm not writing it off yet. It would be very fun if I could make Minmei hop in a Valkrie and start blasting away at the Zentradi, but the cast is good enough that almost no one would be a disappointment. I'm not excited for the gameplay itself, though.
In terms of normal stuff, I cleared another barista's run in Sweet Survivors while on my exercise bike last night. I've got five more runs I'd like to complete in this, a couple of which might be a bit tricky, and'll probably call it good from there.
While I was waiting for dessert, I played a bit of Water Sort Quest, too. It was lovely dessert, but the game has not gotten more exciting since I last played it.
January 19th, 2025
Yesterday afternoon, I was able to clear Raging Blasters, which I didn't think was going to be possible! I was just on normal mode, and it wasn't a 1 credit clear, or 1cc, by any means. Still, I was able to beat the final boss within the 3 continues the game offers. I'm happy, and will probably try as the other pilot later. I don't think they have any gameplay differences- it's more to prove to myself that it wasn't a fluke.
I am taking a break from Fitness Boxing for a few days, until the strange stretchy feeling in my left wrist goes away, but am still not very focused. Because of that, I played Sweet Survivors while pushing through 30 minutes on an exercise bike. I finally played as one of the DLC baristas, and he was incredibly broken! His stats go up with every table served, so by the end of the normal stage, he was an unstoppable monster. I could even squeak through his associated expert stage without a ton of trouble. It was kind of fun to be so overpowered, but it felt like cheating, too. Also, his weapon size got so over the top it was hard to see what was going on! I'll probably use each DLC barista to clear their own specific stage just so I don't end up using this guy as a crutch.
I also ran through 100 Capitalist Cats because I got up and wanted to play a tiny cat finding game. It was cute, as always, and a bit too easy, also as always. It was a nice way to start the day, though, and didn't make for a bad "getting out of bed" sort of exercise at all.
January 18th, 2025
When I was playing Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku last night, I felt something pull in one of my wrists! It didn't hurt, but it felt strange enough that I think I'll break my streak and switch to a different workout game for the weekend. I did finish last night's session out, but it's best to be careful
As far as cat games go, I tried one called .cat Milk on my Switch last night. I didn't really enjoy what I played of it. It's a series of blade and spike laden platforming screens that require pixel perfection, and while some of the paths it expects you to take are clever, it's not very fun. I don't know that I'll go back to finish this.
My play session with Raging Blasters last night was fantastic, though! My guess about how I needed to approach the boss that was giving me trouble ended up being correct, and from there, I made it clear to the final boss! I was playing so late that I absolutely could not clear the game in my alloted continues, but I'm gonna try again today. I think I've got this!
January 17th, 2025
Last night, I did get a chance to play some games and relax, starting with another cat game. This one was called Romeow: in the cracked world, and it was a cute, but simple and short little spatial awareness puzzle. The cat you control goes up/down/left/right in relation to their own world, but it's presented to the player as jumbled panels on a screen. I'm not great at that kind of puzzle, but was able to clear this pretty fast and came away feeling relaxed. It was another sub-30 minute cat game, though. I'd be pleased to spend more time with these cats!
I got back into Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, since another story event started. I'd love to get the SSR of Todo and Tall Idol Takada, but am not planning on doing it all in one shot like I did with the recent Nanami event. I played too hard then and briefly abandoned the whole game! This time, I'm taking it easy.
From there, I just did daily gaming. I did my 30 minutes of exercise in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, getting destroyed by a speedy rhythm game exercise on the highest difficult and then proceeding to really whine about it quite a lot.
I did 30 minutes of the caravan mode in Raging Blasters, too. I didn't think it would help me any, but I came away from it with some ideas about how to clear the boss that's giving me trouble. It's very shocking to think that I can get better at something with practice!
January 16th, 2025
Last night, I did not miraculously feel better after doing my post, so it was not a big gaming night. I'd done 20 minutes or so of walking at work, so I covered for my last 10 minutes of daily exercise with Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku. It was fun last night, so I'm glad I didn't get so discouraged I dropped my streak.
As far as trying to improve at shmups goes, the blog post I was using as a guide recommended only playing 6 days a week. I decided on the fly last night that Wednesday was going to be my day off from them. I'll adjust later if I need to, but it does always seem to be my peak burnout day.
I did play 10 minutes or so of Dragon Wings before I went to sleep, though, letting myself get mercilessly battered by the in app ads. It was an adequate gaming experience.
For tonight, I'm off to relax and play so many games I curse myself when I sit down to post tomorrrow.
January 15th, 2025
Yesterday after doing my post here, my car battery died. I somewhat miraculously got everything lined up to work from home on and office day and get it towed, fixed, and walk back and forth to the garage during work breaks and lunch, so I didn't take a hit to my time off at all. It was so cold, though, and I got so tired. I am still not out of the hole I fell in yesterday.
The only evidence of this in my gaming is that I did 14 instead of 30 minutes of exercise gaming, keeping my streak in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku. I was really hard on myself about it, too. I got frustrated with myself for being "lazy" and put sparkly letter stickers in my planner for the day that spelled out "C-R-A-P" under my time spent exercising note. No one can be perfect, so it's fine that I did less than my goal for the day. It was still a bad vibe, though.
I did keep going with Raging Blasters last night, and managed to see stage 6! It was a big improvement from the night before that I was actually pretty happy about it. The stage 3 boss gave me a lot of trouble, though. I feel like I need to figure something out with it.
I played a few minutes of a mobile shmup called Dragon Wings, too. It was pretty low effort to play, but I maybe need that when I am tired and upset with myself.
Last of all, I let my barista get swarmed playing Sweet Survivors so I didn't have to play until the end of a run. From there, I went to sleep.
January 14th, 2025
The other day, when I said I wanted to get adequate at 2D shooters, or shmups, I was being serious. They have neat art and music, and I feel like I can do better than just credit scumming my way through arcade ones or dying in 30 seconds in Atari ones. Because of this dream, I did some googling yesterday and found a blog post on Catstronaut Loves Games about how the author worked to improve in the genre. I also watched a video on good shmups for beginners, mysteriously titled Best Shoot Em Ups for Beginners, and decided to go for it.
Even though I don't know how hardcore I want to be about this, I do want to be able to clear some of these games, so I ended up trying Raging Blasters last night because it was half off on Steam and had some very 90s looking anime girls. It wasn't very daunting on normal mode, and after half an hour or so, I was able to get to the third stage. I'll try again tonight and see if I can get to the fourth.
Other than that, I just did normal game stuff yesterday. I zoned out through 30 minutes of Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, reflecting heavily on how very long this 100% achievements run is going to take me.
I also tried to clear the base game's hard level in Sweet Survivors, having picked up the DLC. The new weapons and items do switch up the balance of the game, so I'm looking forward to figuring stuff out.
January 13th, 2025
Today's post is a quick one due to a general lack of focus! I didn't play anything super interesting yesterday, so I'm fine with this. I kept up my Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku habit, but was kind of zoned out as I played. I let unreasonable worry get to me, and it made playing less fun.
Much later in the day, I notched my 4th character clear in Sweet Survivors. I'm having enough fun with this that I'm considering grabbing some of the DLC. It would certainly make the path to 9999 tips in one shift a little more fun.
January 12th, 2025
I feel super overwhelmed and anxious ahead of a D&D session today, but if I can get this post done, that's one more thing I won't have to do after the game!
Yesterday, I had my Atari 7800+ up and running to try Megamania, which I'd recently picked up for 2 bucks at my neighborhood used game store. It took quite a lot of cleaning to get the cartridge going, but I was able to get it running and die quickly several times. I'm pretty awful at space shooters, but I feel like with a little bit of effort, maybe I could be slightly less than adequate at them.
Other than that, I just played more of the same. I got my 30 minutes done in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku. I didn't want to play at all yesterday, but the daily exercise tossed me good enough songs that I could hype myself up for it.
I cleared Sweet Survivors as a third barista, too. I'm trying to consider how I'll tackle the "get 9999 tips in one shift" achievement, since I'm currently getting about 6000 on a regular basis. Persistence might be the best answer here.
January 11th, 2025
Last night after posting, I worked more on my little Spy x Family paper theater than I played video games. I didn't make it a ton further, but any progress is nice to make! Layering up the tiny pieces of paper is relaxing, but I hit a couple of fiddly points last night.
I just kept on at the same games I've been working on the past few days from there. I cleared Sweet Survivors as a second barista, so overpowered that I barely had to move at all, and dozed off shortly afterwards again.
The daily workout generator in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku tossed me a rather brutal half-hour of punches, but I made it through decently. I hope it'll be more gentle with me today, though.
January 10th, 2025
My post is late tonight because I got too caught up in crafts after work! I got this super cute paper theater kit of Anya from Spy x Family for Christmas and finally got all my supplies in a row to give it a go tonight. So far, it's a little slow going, but massively satisfying. The place-and-glue process is super laid back and calming, and I can already tell that the level of detail is going to be crazy! I'm so excited to work more on this!
Ah, but this is a games blog, right? Last night, I buzzed through a Switch game called Find the Cat while I was making dinner. It was really simple, but charming. All you do in it is find the "different" cat on the screen with a fairly tight timer, but unlimited retries. A lot of the art in it had a nice, handmade feel, though, and it featured a great variety of cats. I enjoyed this one a lot.
I cleared my first "shift" in Sweet Survivors, too, but was too tired to test my technique with the next barista. From here, I think it should be easy-going, especially since I still have tons of upgrades to pick up.
I really overdid it with my daily half hour in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too. My confidence in my ability to do top difficulty exercises probably fed into my passing out midway through a game of Sweet Survivors, come to think of it. I actually had fun, though! It was nice.
January 9th, 2025
I am still not killin' it, but I persist in blogging.
Last night, I started significantly elevating my flurry of weapons in Sweet Survivors, with my barista surrounded by an unstoppable vortex of cucumbers and cat toys. This means I'm probably pretty close to being able to clear a shift, but it's still a very satisfying escalation.
I played another half an hour of Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too, and really did a great job of whining about it afterwards. It was fine, though.
I played Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade for a bit, too, focusing on character leveling. I've gotten a lot of nifty new SSRs lately, so I'm hoping to get them as strong as some of the characters I've had for quite a while.
January 8th, 2025
I struggled a little getting back into the swing of things yesterday, so I didn't play that many games. I did all 30 minutes of my daily exercise in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku again, but had a lot less "perfect" hits yesterday than usual. I am maybe feeling a little worn down.
I really started unlocking quite a lot in Sweet Survivors, though, so I played that more than I should have. Selecting it as one of my cat games has served me well so far.
January 7th, 2025
I'm back to work and posting during my lunch break today, which feels like a step forward! It's hard to stop coughing, but I feel better doing normal stuff.
Last night, I started playing Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which is just a Yakuza game set in the Fist of the North Star universe. Well, it's kind of a weird alternate universe, but I made Kenshiro murder tons of people and also use his power to cure someone's back problems, so I'm good with that. I just started, so I don't have a ton to say about this yet, but I'm having a nice time so far.
I was too woozy to do my weekly to-do list updates in Spirit City: Lofi Sessions on Sunday, so I did that yesterday, with a full room remodel to boot. It wasn't so exciting, but it was pleasant and laid back.
All 30 of my exercise minutes were in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku yesterday, because I felt too lazy to set my Wii up. It was okay, but a little exhausting.
I played a couple of runs in Sweet Survivors before bed, too, unlocking a second barista and starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of waiting tables while I dodge the cats. I might be able to defeat this.
January 6th, 2025
I'm still under the weather, but did a telehealth appointment last night and am doing my very best to get back to normal! Yesterday, I did still keep up with my stupid fitness games, which felt good. I took the opportunity to play Walk It Out! while it was still daylight, taking in the crayon bright green grass and blue sky full of fluffy clouds. It's so cheerful and nice!
I did a 12 minute free workout in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku, too, getting quite a few achievements as a result. This was more due to some in game meters filling up than it was to any great effort on my part, but I'll take it!
I started in on Sweet Survivors, a game I'd picked up for 19 cents in the Switch eShop, as my next cat game, too. These Vampire Survivors-alikes certainly make me appreciate Vampire Survivors itself more than I did when I tried it out for myself. This is a cute imitator, though, and a heck of a lot better than Catlord was. It has permanent upgrades to help make progression seem a little more concrete, but the upgrades within runs are intact, too. It also forces you to fend off cats while standing still to brew and serve coffee, which is an unexpectedly intense wrinkle in the formula. So far, I don't know that I love this, but I'll stick with it at least a bit longer.
January 5th, 2025
Yesterday, I didn't start any new games, but I did finish Farm Kitten: Puzzle Pipes. The pipe puzzles in this game were just okay, and it took me a while to get used to the camera. I am very charmed that this was a game about doing farm work for the world's most demanding and oddly specific kitten, though. No people are in sight, but I got them a car, a house, a tractor, some utility buildings, and even their very own windmill! They're a great little CG bug-cat, and they deserved all of it. I hope that the little cutie was somehow a cog in an elaborate money laundering scheme.
With uncharacteristic determination, I also left Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade running for most of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon, determined to get a good start on the long term goals in the current story event so I'd have a better chance at getting Nanami's new SSR in the long run. I then got him in my second pull of the day, gracelessly gloated about it to a family member I play with, and didn't touch the game for the rest of the day.
As for my ill-advised adventures in fitness gaming, I popped a bunch of Ricolas and pieced together 30 minutes of exercise in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku. In hindsight, it would have been a lot less effort to just do the longer daily workout session, but my brain wasn't there yesterday.
Though I considered starting a new cat game last night, I just ended up playing a bit of Hole io to put myself to sleep. It's a long grind, but the destruction makes me feel powerful.
January 4th, 2025
Much like a boss battle, my current cold has many stages, so I am bereft of pep today. I kept going with some game stuff yesterday, though. I did a longer workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, which actually gave me enough energy to press on for a couple more hours.
That didn't quite take a full half hour, though, so I played a couple of songs in Just Dance 2014 after that. I hadn't played any Just Dance games for a while, but I have somewhat conflicting feelings on them. They're fun, and I think they're a decent way to get a spot of exercise, but they also kind of barely feel like games to me. I'm not good enough to be confident in saying so, but the controls feel very loose and imprecise to me, and even with the "next move" bar at the bottom, I feel a bit like what you need to do isn't telegraphed well. I like pop music, though, and it's enjoyable to flail around like a dingbat. It's a good placeholder game.
I did a few more puzzles in Farm Kitten: Puzzle Pipes, too. I'd like to finish this tonight, but if I don't, that's fine, too.
January 3rd, 2025
I'm so sleepy today I almost forgot to post here today! I played some games yesterday, though. I did a couple exercises in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, long live my streak!
I played Walk It Out! more, and the little girl announcer in it was really rude that I played less time than I had the day before! I love this game, and it's really relaxing, but the announcer in it is so irritating! Being mean in a fitness game is not encouraging.
As for normal gaming, I started a new cat game called Farm Kitten: Puzzle Pipes. The kitten is pretty incidental to the game itself, but it's a decent little pipe connecting puzzle. I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple days!
January 2nd, 2025
I'm still under the weather today, and having some internet issues, too, so this is kind of a late post. I've slept a lot so far today! Yesterday, though, I played the first cat game of the year, 100 New Year Cats. Disappointingly, the title is a lie and this just featured more Christmas cats. For a "find 100 cats" game, though, this was fine. Being able to switch between color and lineart for the image was nice, helping me find the full set of cats pretty quickly. It was on the easier side for one of these, but not as low-effort as some have been. It got 2025's cat games off to an ok start.
I was pretty happy that even not feeling well, I managed 30 minutes in fitness video games last night. Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku was a bit much for me yesterday, but I managed 6 or 7 minutes before giving up.
I got the rest of my half hour done in the more easygoing Walk It Out on Wii, which only required me to walk in place. I tried to unlock a lot of music along the path last night, but want to try to find and unlock some of the time change options tonight. Since it's linked to real time and I tend to exercise at night, I don't get this game's island in the virtual sunlight that often! It'll be nice when I can.
Other than that, I just played mobile games. I cleared the map event I was working on in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade and pulled the limited SSR that goes with the event with a free ticket. My gacha luck is so good in this that it makes me worry I will face a bad luck reckoning in a part of my life that actually matters.
I zoned out a lot with Love Rebirth, too, moving the story forward very incrementally while matching tons of stuff. It made for perfect head cold gaming.
January 1st, 2025
Happy New Year, everyone! I'm starting 2025 with a nasty head cold, but also with some enthusiasm. I want to play a lot of games with cats and keep up better with fitness games this year. I don't know how successful I'll be, especially with fitness games today, but it's worth a shot!
Yesterday, I was extremely tired, so I mostly played mobile games. Years ago, before starting this blog, I played Superstar JYP, a K-pop rhythm game, a bit. Last night, I was somewhat surprised to see the game series was still running and wanted to play a bit. I'm on an aespa kick right now, so I went with Superstar SMTown this time, but it's just the same game with a different tracklist. That's probably fine, and I imagine I'll chug along doing dailies for a little bit, get bored with it, and quit. Sometimes it's fun to peek in on a game like that.
Over in Love Rebirth, my protagonist got murdered last night and travelled back in time to her college days. Being the good sport that she is, she's still ok with spending hours matching tiles because her peers need tiny purple shorts. I'm glad I am not in grad school anymore because I would be very tempted to write a thesis on narrative dissonance in mobile games.
I started the current map event in Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, too, but don't have a ton to say about it. It's still satisfying to clear all the little stages that pop up, but it's not different from past map events at all. It is gaming that is simply just there.
I did a daily workout in Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku, too. I was a little distressed because I wasn't feeling well and it gave me an extremely difficult and tiring song exercise. I don't know if I have the power to keep my streak up in this today, with yesterday's experience in mind.
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