What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Eastern Exorcist (XBox Series S)

August 2nd, 2023

Today will be a shortish post due to some tech trouble and being awake trouble.

I wanted to play House Flipper as my "game I abandoned" last night, but I'd uninstalled it from my XBox and didn't want to wait around. While I waited, I turned Eastern Exorcist on, which I ended up turning back off pretty quickly because I was too tired for the long play session I'd want to spend with the game. I beat one boss, but it wasn't much play at all.

From there, I wanted to wind down and House Flipper still hadn't redownloaded, so after months away, I picked Dr. Mario 64 back up. This is a version of Dr. Mario that plays well and has no major issues, but it plays the wrong music, so unfortunately, I don't like it. It is very arbitrary, but luckily, in life, no one really forces you to play the versions of puzzle games you don't prefer. This is a passing problem.

June 11th, 2023

It took me a while to build up to posting here today, but I've made it! I've done some other writing, cleaning, and crafts so far today, but for some reason, posting here seemed more daunting than those activities, but somehow less daunting than tossing together some quick pickled bean sprouts for a work lunch side dish. My brain is a mystery even to itself.

Yesterday I did play a lot of games, with Eastern Exorcist being what I spent the most time with. The short quests and constant ability to level up keep me playing for way longer sessions than I intend, so I deliberately didn't play this as much as I wanted after work last week. My fascination with it is not conducive to getting to bed on time. As far as things go, though, I'm getting close to the end of my first character playthough. Even though there's only two characters, I'm curious to see how different the story is for each.

Sticking with the XBox, I got the garden in PowerWash Simulator 100% clean and decided to take care of the playground next. Bright colors and shiny surfaces make it very satisfying.

In Dragon Quest X Offline, I also finished the cutscene I was trapped in and am ready to tackle some real gameplay! I'm mildly excited to finally get into the meat of the game, even though that won't cut back on the study side of it too much.

Last and also kind of least, I played Disney Tsum Tsum for a bit, too. I'm not pursuing anything in particular from the gacha or trying to finish the event for the month, so I was just kind of using it to kill time. It was satisfying in that regard.

I don't feel like my writing is very coherent today, so I'm going to go dump some citrus quick pickling liquid on some veggies and stay awake. It's perfect for a Sunday.

June 6th, 2023

Today's post is late just because I was having trouble getting out of bed this morning. I think I could have made a post in the time I had, but I decided to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my office lunch instead. It was a good choice; today's lunch was particularly satisfying.

Last night wasn't a lot games-wise. I read through 12 or so text boxes in Dragon Quest X Offline, which was better progress than it might sound like.

I played Eastern Exorcist for a bit over an hour, though, only quitting because I felt like I needed to force myself to go to bed. I couldn't sleep well, so clearly, this was my loss. The episodic structure and getting boss fights doled out every few minutes makes it a bit harder to put down than I expected, so it was easy to sit down for "just a few minutes" and play for over an hour. Needing a few different sorts of items to pick up and level abilities gives it a bit of a mobile game-y feel, even though it's not pay to win in the slightest. That's not a complaint, though, so much as it just seems slightly interesting.

I'm still super sleepy, so I don't know if I'll make it much of anywhere in any games tonight. That's okay, though.

June 5th, 2023

I'm not feeling well today, so I was in bed too long and now am up, technically dressed, and trying to get myself to drink some tea while I post here.

I went through a little more text in Dragon Quest X, but forgot to get a screenshot because I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. I'm in another run of text boxes, so it wouldn't have been very exciting, anyway.

On my PS4, I ended up playing a few more stages of Sonic Colors Ultimate, where I'm getting more in the groove of it. The controls maybe feel a bit off to me in spots. Sonic is so small on the massive screen at points that it's hard to double jump to another platform, since the game reads me as close enough to be autotargeting and attacking enemies instead. Mostly, I had fun, though. I hit some interesting platforming and a good boss fight, so I'm a bit less down on this than I was before.

I played some more of Eastern Exorcist a bit later, too, but forgot how to parry from yesterday and wasn't doing as well as I might have liked.

Today, I'll probably do my best to find something easy to play so I don't just sleep. Just sleeping does have a certain appeal, but I want to keep some sort of structure so I can get back into things well and not fall behind tomorrow.

June 4th, 2023

Yesterday stayed extremely challenging until about mid-afternoon, when I started to feel somewhat less wiped out. I'm still feeling okay today, which is also nice!

It was a bit of a weird day for me yesterday games-wise. I did some Dragon Quest X Offline adjacent stuff, with screenshots and vocab drilling, but didn't actually play the game. I also did the classic "turn on my PS4 without actually playing it" move, which has been big for me the past few days.

I did, however, get started with Eastern Exorcist, a 2D action RPG I'd downloaded on Game Pass a couple weeks ago. So far, it feels good to play, and the structure, which at least so far has pretty speedy quests, gives it a good "oh, I'll just do one more thing before I shut it off" feeling. Plus, the 2D graphics are very spiffy. Since I just started this, I'm sure it'll be a case where I have more to say later.

I played a bit more of PowerWash Simulator, too, and am at about 80% clean in the initial garden. If I play this more today, I hope I can get this level knocked out and see what's next.