What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Planetarian (Switch)

January 7th, 2024

Yesterday, I cleared my first game of the year, which felt like an okay accomplishment! Planetarian was my first game down, though I questioned counting it. It's a visual novel with no choices, so truly, I was using my game time to scum more reading time. Though it feels non-committal to say so, it was fine. It maybe felt kind of manipulative, but the story moved along at a good enough clip that I never considered quitting. Besides that, in some of the action-y bits, I thought the use of storytelling mechanics only a game can do, like the joycon rumble, really did add to it. Even though I'm a little indifferent here, I'm itching to play a game that's essentially just a book again soon.

After that, I was trying to figure out if I'm just not feeling Ninja JaJaMaru: The Ninja Skill Book, or RPGs in general, so I turned on About An Elf, a game that I'd picked up cheap after seeing it on Youtube. It turned out to be more of a visual novel playing with RPG structures than an RPG, which was completely fine, and it prominently featured a cat, which was even better. I'm hoping to play more of this today.

Today might not be a big games day. I overslept, which was great, and I need to make a cake later, which is neutral. I'll play something, though, and be back tomorrow.

January 2nd, 2024

My time management was poor this morning, so this is going to be a short post. I kept going for another hour in Ninja JaJaMaru: The Ninja Skill Book, and learned a spell to turn enemies into riceballs. This is my new favorite RPG status effect.

I played five credits in Time Gal yesterday, and did a lot better than I expected. It's an enjoyable grind so far.

In the interest of clearing games, I also went back to Planetarian, since there's no easier clear than a visual novel with no choices to be made. It's interesting, but I'm still not totally sure what I think of it.

November 26th, 2023

I had an extremely relaxed yesterday, where I wasn't feeling my best, so I ended up playing a lot of games.

First off the bat, I got out my shiny new Switch to get going on my eShop backlog. I have it in my head that I'm not going to buy any new games until April, when Princess Peach: Showtime comes out. I have some stuff on order, both preorder and slow shipping, and five of those six games are JRPGs, so I'm plenty set for that goal on both the "woo, new stuff!" rush and playtime alone.

As part of that, though, I want to work through some of the games I've got, so I started in on Planetarian, one of the shorter visual novels I had sitting around. I don't know what to say about it here yet, since it's legitimately just reading, but in my first play session, it seemed to be imparting the message that nothing helps with PTSD like cute robot girls. I'm okay with sad-robot-sci-fi, and this is ok for that so far.

After that, I tried Gris, as hearing a friend talk about it reminded me that I'd abandoned Game Pass for the month. The wordless storytelling was a sharp contract to the chatty visual novel I'd been playing earlier, and the platforming felt really excellent, so I played a lot longer than I'd intended. I'm looking forward to getting further in this today.

From there, before bed, I did some basic level grinding in my Nuzlocke run of Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, too. I am conflicted on catching Pokemon being the main way to level grind in this game, as it gates levelling behind money, but it's kind of an interesting play mechanic. It doesn't seem like it'll become a problem. It was just a thought that I got fixated on while I was half asleep.

I'm looking forward to a relaxed, and hopefully craft-filled Sunday today. I hope there are nice days ahead for the rest of you, too.