What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Earthbound: Beginnings (Nintendo Switch Online)

August 4th, 2024

Today, I wanted to do crafts when I got up, so I did! It's a great story, right? That's why I'm doing an after lunch post today.

Yesterday was not much of a games day for me, though. I did play a slightly longer than normal session of Earthbound: Beginnings, heading down into the graveyard, but since the random encounter rate in this game is extremely high, I didn't get any further than normal. I had some battles be a single step apart while playing last night! It's not bad in and of itself, but it does make moving forward a little sluggish.

I kept going in King of Prism Sparkling, too, burning off the funds that I gathered while my tablet was off and chasing down some other in game rewards. It wasn't anything great, but I was just using it to give myself a break from productivity. On that front, it was definitely enough.

August 3rd, 2024

I stayed up too late last night because I simply did not want to go to bed, and even though I'm sleepy today, it was worth it. The only thing I need to do today is make a (slightly fancied up) chili dog casserole, and even doing the chili from scratch, that'll be nothin'.

Games-wise, I continued my extremely incremental trek through Earthbound: Beginnings, finally going south of Podunk to find there was a healer there who could have restored my Psi points the whole time. Doing things the hard way did net me a good amount of EXP, so I don't regret the path I took. I am super irritated with myself for not exploring harder, though.

I did another short daily workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too, and it is a much worse game on a hot and humid day than it is in any other sort of weather. Finishing without giving up or swearing at no one in particular made me feel accomplished, though, so I was happy.

From there, I did my somewhat less fancy mobile gaming, too. I left Merge Pixel running for a while, but got sick of it even as a focus tool at around lunchtime and clicked it off again. After a few days of login bonus scumming, I'm sure I'll give it a couple more days.

King of Prism Sparkling got more of my attention than it deserved, though, as I tried to figure out the somewhat baffling mascot system. Materials for levelling them are pretty limited, and their skill levelling system feels mysterious and random. It's not really a game system I feel like I need to engage with to succeed, but the point bonuses from them seem decent enough that it might be worth investigating further. If I don't figure it out, though, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

August 2nd, 2024

I'm doing a late and underwhelming "lunch break" post today, since I didn't have time to comfortably post this morning.

I kept going with Earthbound: Beginnings for about ten more minutes last night, walking back to Podunk, but forgot to take a screenshot! I was dead tired, so this isn't shocking, but I am annoyed at myself over it.

After watching Olympic gymnastics and seeing the athletes do some truly superhuman feats earlier that night, I went and did a light workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. It was somewhat less impressive than anything at the Olympics, but I really aced pretending to punch things for a little bit.

Aside from that, a lot of my gaming yesterday was using mobile games as fidgets when I needed to focus on what I was doing. I autobattled my way through an entire event in The Tale of Food, albeit a small one, and felt rather powerful for it. It was brain dead, but kind of satisfying.

I kept on clicking in King of Prism Sparkle, too, getting more "rare" cards and becoming ever more curious how the company running this game intends to make any money off of it. It's nice that I can play and succeed for free, even if it is mostly just a clicker game, but it makes this all rather mysterious.

I also had the urge to run Merge Pixel for a while, letting it run for a bit without making any real progress. At this point, the daily login bonuses are going to be more key to winning than actually letting the game go. I will defeat it yet.

I'm off to tackle the last couple of hours of work before the weekend from here! Hopefully, it'll go quickly.

August 1st, 2024

It's the start of a new month, and I feel like I want to do my best to be better sorted out in August! I don't know that I'll succeed, but I'm going to try scumming my weekly to-do list to knock off 25 items, including craft and hobby stuff, today. If I can, it'll be a big accomplishment for a weekday!

Last night, though, I didn't do anything special in terms of gaming. I played Earthbound: Beginnings and got Ness back to his house for some curry and a PP refill, and beat the zombie I thought was a mini-boss, too! Next up, I'm gonna tackle the graveyard.

I was really scattered and unfocused yesterday, though, so I played more mobile games than anything. I messed around with the simple afterthought of a match-3 game buried in King of Prism Sparkling, somewhat baffled as to why the game is a clicker and not just a more polished version of this.

I also played a few levels in Mary's Mahjong, only to find out that Mary's father's insurance company won't pay out on the storm damage to his boat. I also matched some tiles.

With that, I'm off to (hopefully) kick butt at getting through the day! I wish all of you this level of enthusiasm, too.

July 31st, 2024

I'm having trouble getting it together enough to have time for a long play session so far, but I kept up with playing Earthbound: Beginnings for another 20 or so minutes. I lost to what seemed like a mini-boss, and even though I keep my EXP and levels after getting knocked out, I'm stuck in a death loop since dying takes all my PP and I can't survive the trip back to my parents' house to see if home cooking restores that without a healing spell. I'm gonna keep trying, though, and see if I can buy enough healing items that crows don't steal all of them. Once I succeed at this, I'll go challenge the enemy that initially wrecked me again.

I kept clicking away in King of Prism Sparkling, too, feeling weirdly satisfied to see my rank go up despite that being due to patience rather than skill. I drew an SSR card of one of the skaters doing free gacha pulls yesterday, which is nice, but it doesn't really matter. Interaction with the different characters is pretty limited and impersonal, so while this is a good get in terms of stats, I don't have the impression that it matters which characters I got. I could be wrong about that, and this is still a new enough game that something might get introduced later. For now, though, it's a victory for numbers going up!

July 30th, 2024

In just 9 and a half hours, a work day that AI employee scheduling software has done its best to make very unpleasant for me will be over, and I am very much looking forward to that. Until then, I'm taking things one task at a time!

I played another few minutes of Earthbound: Beginnings last night, getting to the first town and taking an embarassingly long time to figure out how to use my cash card. Tonight, I'm gonna try to tackle the first quest/dungeon!

During my lunch break, I forced myself to do a daily workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star, too. I didn't want to do it, but it wasn't so bad once I got started.

I kept going in King of Prism Sparkling, too, finally coming up against some of its limits as an idle game. I'd had such a long session Sunday morning that it was almost a relief to hit some "sit and wait" points last night. I gotta hire hundreds of idols to work at a cat cafe, for some reason, and funding such endeavors requires patience.

July 29th, 2024

Yesterday ended up being an okay day, but not a very big one for gaming. I did play another 15 or 20 minutes of Earthbound: Beginnings, which is still charming. I just want to level up a bit before leaving the first area, to make the stray dogs and angry farmers that litter the area less of a threat.

I saw an ad for a new browser based mobile game for the Pretty Series franchise in the morning, too, King of Prism Sparkling. I think this has gotta be the first game in the series released in America, so it's kind of a shame it's just a very elaborate clicker. The last King of Prism mobile game was a pretty full featured rhythm game, and this one doesn't even have any series music! Even though it is a letdown, though, it is more engaging than Merge Pixel, so I'll stick with it as my brain-dead between tasks game for a while. Plus, it seems to be using assets from teased but never made sequels or series extensions, sold off to a gacha mill, which is interesting in and of itself.

July 28th, 2024

I'm feeling a little better today, so I've spent a lot of the day trying to power through household chores so far. It's not too bad, and I'm gonna get myself a little fast food dinner as a treat. I've been trying to make myself nice bentos again, which has made it super easy to avoid takeout during the week, so I don't feel bad about eating some good ol' fashioned trash tonight at all!

This is a games blog, though, and I did play some games last night! I'm still trying to get something to stick for long term play, so I tried Earthbound: Beginnings last night. I still felt kind of detached playing it, but since I got to beat up a lamp, I'll come back to it.

I did a couple more puzzles in Sudocats, too, finally getting to the traditional 9x9 sudoku setup. It's still super pleasant to play.