What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?
November 2022
November 30th, 2022
This is not a week for detailed posts, but that is okay. I am going on a small road trip today, albeit not for fluff reasons, and I want to get a post done beforehand.
I played Sonic Frontiers again last night, and even though most of the game is interesting, the camera is so awful I legitimately can't beat the boss I'm working on. I can climb up to the top of it, but then the camera switches to an angle where I can't see Sonic, leaving him to get hit by an energy ball and die while I adjust the camera upwards. I tried just making him go serpentine while I adjust the camera upward again, but then he just falls off of the top of the boss monster, leaving me to repeat the whole process. Earlier in the boss fight, I have some camera clipping issues, too, going straight through the boss's arm when I fall off, but those at least don't lead to a game over. I am stumped as to how to deal with this and win.
The screenshot is not of the boss, because I am too busy making terrible noises and swearing as I try to fight it to take screenshots.
November 29th, 2022
Today is another quick post, since I have to drive in and cough on people in the office today, rather than just coughing at my desk Alexa. I wanted to go to bed at an okay hour last night, so I played Sonic Frontiers for another half hour or so. I got kind of stuck on one of the giant bosses because I kept falling and clipping through the arm I was supposed to run up, but cleared a couple of the tiny challenges. I'll try to fight the boss again tonight or tomorrow.
November 28th, 2022
I'm making a super fast post before work today, with my fingers crossed for a decent start to the week.
I started Sonic Frontiers last night. When it came out, I decided to wait until it was 30 or so dollars to pick it up, not expecting that would happen within the month. I'm not sure what I think about it yet, though, since I only played for an hour or so.
While the game and updates installed on Sonic Frontiers, I played PriPara: All Idol Perfect Stage for a few minutes, too. It's convenient to just have this in my Switch right now.
November 27th, 2022
Yesterday was a decent day again, but I still wasn't in a very game-heavy mood, which is fine. Even playing something for just a few minutes is enough to calm down a lot of overthinking and nervousness, even if I did only mess with games I've already finished.
I played PriPara: All Idol Perfect Stage for a few minutes to take some reference screenshots of the idol team I made in game, so I changed their outfits, played a couple of songs, and went back to crafts. This will almost definitely happen again today.
Before bed, I played with the avatar creator in Sonic Forces for a few minutes, too. I want a pair of white boots for one of my characters, but having already gotten the "500 character parts" trophy, I do concede that they may not even be in the game. Still, I have this game practically memorized, so I got another set of character parts unlocked and turned it off.
November 26th, 2022
I couldn't get in the mood to play anything too in-depth last night, and especially was not in the mood for Kandagawa Jet Girls. I had my PS4 on, though, so I played some of the stuff I had installed.
First, I turned on Tekken 7 because the Playstation app on my phone had a weird, pointless "virtual collectible" for playing a fighting game in the month of November. The only two I had off of their list were Tekken 7 and Guilty Gear Strive, and I didn't have to get out of my chair and pop a disc in the machine to play Tekken. It was fine, though, I played and laughed at Tekken Bowl.
I also gave Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp a go, which I do every once in a while to torment myself. I have the Dragon's Lair Trilogy installed on my PS4, after regrettably selling my copy for Wii back to Game Stop, but I first played Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on 3DO. I know the gameplay is limited, but the animation is really cool, and it's interesting to consider what kind of future games full motion video (FMV) would lead to. Back on 3DO, I was really awful at these games, but with the Wii/PS4 re-releases, I've actually gotten decent at Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. It's a satisfying feeling!
I cannot quite crack Dragon's Lair 2, though. It's a beautiful game- the Alice in Wonderland segment in particular has some really beautiful animation- but the "collect all the hidden treasures to get the real ending" mechanic wrecks me. It's all a matter of knowing what button to push when, though, and since the game never varies, it's more tedious than completely undoable. My incremental progress from playing once or twice a year adds up, though, so I'll clear this game eventually. Luckily, I do not lead a life where anything is riding on my skill at laserdisc games.
November 25th, 2022
Yesterday was a really nice holiday, eating, watching movies, and doing crafts with family. When I got home, I did some basic "around the apartment" stuff and, in part because of a headache that's still hanging on today, did my five races in Kandagawa Jet Girls and went to bed. It was a good day.
November 24th, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving, or a very nice day that is not Thanksgiving, depending on your location as you read this! I'm posting this morning as I slow cook some mashed potatoes and prepare to make some green bean casserole.
I was pretty peppy last night, and stayed up late playing games in order to hit a button on my slow cooker at the proper time. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was definitely the more interesting of the games I played. I went through 5 levels and a boss, not in that particular order, and even though I do, as I've previously mentioned, think that the setpiece bits in the boss levels make them drag a bit, it's such a nice, charming, and well made game! It is pretty easy going, but it makes me happy to play, and that's worthwhile. I think I'm probably pretty close to the end by now, so I'll probably clear it within my next few play sessions.
Less excitingly, I was also able to press on pretty well in Kandagawa Jet Girls. I finished the main rival team's story, which was fine, and moved on to the cheerfully deranged, Japan-obsessed foreigner jet ski girls. They are a delight, even if the races are not increasing in variety or difficulty. I cleared five story races last night, though, and if I can keep up that pace through the four-day weekend, I ought to at least get within range of this game's finish line. I'm pretty sure I'm officially over halfway through at the moment.
November 23rd, 2022
Today, I'm posting before work, with an unsolvable problem ahead I am very much expected to solve, at risk of penalty, eating away at my brain. I spent a lot of last night trying to puzzle out what the problem might be and how I might be able to approach it, but kept coming up short. Oh, well. No work tomorrow, so even if I do fail, I don't have to listen to any of the angry voicemails I get about the issue for four days.
After I gave up trying to figure things out off the clock last night, I played a few races in Kandagawa Jet Girls. I thought I was over halfway through the game, since I'm in the fourth of what looks like seven sets of team stories. When I unlocked a couple more teams last night, though, I saw that there's an eight story at the bottom of the list, previously hidden from me. The team behind this game had a lot of confidence to provide so many story races with so few tracks and such little handling difference between the jet skis. I'm determined, though- I will clear all of the stories eventually.
November 22nd, 2022
I'm so sleepy today, but have already been up and at 'em for a while to get gas and put air back in my tires before the weekly office day. I slept ok last night, though, so I don't know what the deal is.
Anyway, last night, I wanted to clear a quick game so I could justify an extremely discounted game purchase, so I went through my itch.io bundles and downloaded Serre, a very cute and brief visual novel about a girl who cares for a greenhouse and a fluffy invading alien. It was really short, and I didn't get the feeling my dialogue choices mattered that much when they popped up, but it was pleasant, like reading a warm and fuzzy one-shot manga. I thought the art was really cute, too, with everything looking bright, round, and cartoony. It was a short gaming session very nicely spent.
If you're interested in playing Serre, too, you can download it here!
Finishing Serre cleared another game goal for me, but I went a little off the rails during this goal, snapping up cheap copies of Sonic Riders and Cooking Mama: Cookstar while I was out shopping. Because of that, I set my next goal at five games to clear before my next purchase, to make up slightly for my extra shopping here. More than likely, I'll end up scumming this with some short games again, but I'm okay with that. Before starting this blog, I wasn't really finishing games at all, normal or short. Playing short ones doesn't derail my more normal-length gaming progress, and it lets me play a nifty variety of games I already have on hand, thanks to arcade compilations and itch.io bundles. I'm excited to see what this next set of games brings!
Somewhat less excitingly, I also went through a few more races in Kandagawa Jet Girls last night. The rival team's story isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm not super interested in it, either. I customized their jet ski to look a bit more like a lightcycle from Tron, though, and I am pretty satisfied with that.
November 21st, 2022
Today is a fast post before work day! I have a three day week ahead, thanks to Thansgiving, so I hope I can start it off without too much stress and trouble. Since I had Friday off, though, today will be double the desk work, which is a little iffy.
The first of the three games I played yesterday was Activision Anthology for PS2. I'd like to get all of the high score patches in this game, which is a compilation of Activision's 2600 games. I started off yesterday with Kaboom, where I needed 200 points for the patch. I'd never played Kaboom before, so I don't know how the controls are with real hardware, but on PS2, the baskets you use to catch bombs revert to the middle every time you let up on your joystick, making bomb catching exceedingly tricky. After about 45 somewhat pathetic minutes, though, I got my 200 points and'll move on to the next game.
I did the daily challenge in Pokken Tournament DX, then did the first set of the game's league battles to try and up my trainer ranking. Chandelure is my Pokemon of choice because I like the design, so I'll learn to use them effectively out of misguided determination.
Lastly, I played Wild Arms for a while, exploring the port city I reached on Saturday and starting a dungeon delightfully called the Maze of Death. I saved halfway through and'll finish that up on my next play session.
November 20th, 2022
I'm posting after doing a Sunday morning grocery run today, having gone with Aldi over Target this week. I almost have everything I need for Thanksgiving cooking, but Aldi didn't have any gravy! I'll stop by a more normal grocery store early in the week to get that figured out.
Wild Arms ended up being the main thing I played yesterday, with my going in and clearing the next dungeon while I had a pot of soup going. The boss took forever to fight, but was weirdly not difficult at all despite that, so it felt a little tedious. Getting through that and the post-dungeon story stuff felt like a good chunk of gameplay, though.
Later in the night, I cleared the character story I was working on in Kandagawa Jet Girls. Just like with the first team, it took until the final race of the story to hit an interesting track with some mildly challenging elements, which I then absolutely destroyed without really knowing what was going on. From here, I have to go back up and do the main rival team's story, which is fine. Having cleared five races last night makes clearing all of the team stories here feel less daunting than it did at one race a night.
I did the daily challenge in Pokken Tournament DX, too. I don't think I'd ever really used Gardevoir when I was playing this before, but they were a decent character.
With that, my whole Sunday lays ahead. I have a dream that my nose will stop running (not likely) and another dream that I'll be able to eat some fast food (very likely!). I hope you guys all have decent days, too.
November 19th, 2022
Yesterday did end up being decent, and despite some busy parts, both optional and compulsory, I got to play many games and do many crafts. As a prize to myself for not screaming in despair at work, I went to my neighborhood's used game store, too, and picked up a cheap copy of Sonic Riders, which I'm hoping will be either fun, strange, or aggressively misguided. Getting one of the three feels like a safe bet.
My set up yesterday was to play games between rounds of crafts, and Pokken Tournament DX was the only one I didn't end up playing way longer than I'd intended. I did the daily challenge and won, getting some skill points to toss to my Pokemon so that when I actually do sit down and play seriously, I'll hopefully be a bit overpowered.
I then played a few races in Kandagawa Jet Girls, clearing the idol team's story and going back to the gyaru team. I'd kind of like to clear their story this weekend, which is a very "doable goals are nice to have" sitation.
My last game of the night was Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix, which I played both casually and much longer than I'd planned. I didn't mess with the dress up parts of the game or buying any new outfits at all, but got into an "I love this song, I can't bear to shut my Switch off before playing it!" loop that kept me amused for a pleasant amount of time. I'm happy that this is in my game rotation.
November 18th, 2022
Work wasn't so bad yesterday, with one of my teammates helping me out a lot to get, not ahead, but back where I needed to be after all my calls the last couple of days. This morning, I'm excited to be starting a long weekend after a short week, too. I feel like I'll be able to relax, play games, and enjoy crafts cheerfully.
I was still super tired last night, though, so I ended up playing Yie Ar Kung-Fu on my Famicom Mini after taking cold medicine. It's not that it isn't a hard game, but the true challenge was using the tiny Famicom Mini controller after a dose of Nyquil. I would definitely like to beat this someday, but it was not happening last night and that is okay.
November 17th, 2022
Last night, I had a late call again, so I have no pep approaching today. My phone times have been so heavy the last two days that my throat is just burning today, and I'm falling behind on the desk side of my work thanks to it. The combo of desk work and call center work always feels like a no win situation.
My mood was pretty low last night, so I just played another race in Kandagawa Jet Girls before bed. The races in this game are all so similar that it's getting a little boring to play it too long at a time. To just take five minutes and relax, though, it's still fine.
November 16th, 2022
My mood is never good the day after non-voluntary overtime, and it doesn't help looking at my editor and knowing that it's been less than twelve hours since my last post. I have Friday off, though, so I only need to make it through two more days of this.
I ended up playing the start of Tails's story in Sonic Adventure last night because I accidentally turned my PS3 on when I went to play PS4. It was good enough. After the first boss battle and a small amount of wandering around the Mystic Ruins, I went to bed.
November 15th, 2022
This is a really late post after a long day! It was hard to sleep, and I had nightmares all night. Then, I got my internet rates raised this morning, and when I complained, my ISP shut my internet off to troubleshoot, which just really built a lot of goodwill. Then, it was an office day, and I got super busy plus had to work late. I did go have dinner with some coworkers after work, which was fun and made up for a lot, but the earlier parts of the day had many challenges!
Last night, I was tired and wanted a new puzzle game I could dig into, since Mahjong Story 2 is just not clicking with me. I went into my Switch backlog and decided to give Puzzle & Dragons GOLD a shot. I really didn't enjoy it, though! The single player content seems super weak, with only two three battle story modes on offer. Neither of the story modes allows you to change your team, which both takes away a lot of the fun of the Puzzle & Dragons base game and made at least of the battles I tackled last night screamingly brutal. I had one match where I really wanted to trade out my monsters and adjust my strategy a bit, but story mode doesn't allow for that whatsoever. The characters from the anime being in it is fine, that doesn't bother me. The flashy, Yugi-Oh (or at least the anime version) style presentation really slowed things down, though, and for me, it messed up the flow of matches pretty badly.
This game seems like such a breeze to clear that I'll probably finish it up someday, when I'm desperate to clear a game and not super worried about actually enjoying myself. I was really disappointed, though, and wish that this had been a better Puzzle & Dragons experience. I like the base game, but I made a bad choice when I downloaded this port.
November 14th, 2022
I'm doing a quick post before work, after being too apprehensive about work to drag myself out of bed. I played Wild Arms more last night, but rather than moving things forward, just fought random monsters to get the gold I needed to get the next item up for everyone's weapons and armor, having hit a new town. The ARM weapon, the main character Rudy's gun that he uses in lieu of magic, has a pretty steep upgrade cost, but I wanted to improve it a bit before tackling the next dungeon. This wasn't exciting, but in a JRPG, it happens.
I also halfheartedly cleared a set of daily challenges in Mahjong Story 2, as I wasn't quite ready to go to bed after shutting Wild Arms off. It was fine.
November 13th, 2022
I beat Sonic the Hedgehog last night! On the website end of things, this prompted me to go in and do some work on my Cleared Games page, which I'd been wanting to fiddle with for a while. I moved my cleared game goals off onto their own page just for tidiness sake, which wasn't a big deal. It felt good to get it taken care of, though.
As far as the game itself goes, I enjoyed Sonic the Hedgehog, and am glad after years and years of stopping at Marble Zone, I finally have it finished. Towards the end, there was at least one stretch of a level with flames shooting out of the floor, an electrified ceiling, and a chainsaw blade so ridiculous my response was to laugh my butt off while hurling the f-bomb at my television, but it's always a decent sign if I can be amused by my own failure. After that, the final Robotnik fight was a lot easier than I expected. Since you have to head into that with no rings, though, I guess it's merciful that it wasn't more difficult.
At any rate, I don't intend to go back and clear it with all the Chaos Emeralds in hand, but I still feel satisfied.
I did go in and put a couple of hours into Wild Arms, too! I was pretty sleepy by that point and got mildly frustrated to be up against a classic "go through the dungeon, fight the boss, and then walk back through the entire dungeon" situation, but it's a JRPG and these things happen.
I'm not 100% sure what I'll play today, but it's nice to sit on a Sunday, knowing I have a four day work week ahead tomorrow and a three day work week after that. I'm sure I'll still flip out and panic some, but this is a nice position to be in.
November 12th, 2022
Last night was really bad for focusing again, so I'm hoping to play Wild Arms a bit more today. This is a small and achievable dream.
I did have fun last night, though. With my Switch out for other stuff, I decided to get out Pokken Tournament DX, the first game I bought for my Switch. When I got it, I was living in Japan and they were still super hard to find, so I banked some cash and kept checking different stores until, right before a teacher's holiday party, they had one at the entertainment store on the way to the restaurant! I sat through the whole drinking party with a Switch sticking out of my tote bag, and my mentor teacher was super stressed out that I'd get mugged biking home with it. I did not share this risk assessment, and, luckily, I made it home safely, bones and Nintendo Switch intact.
Anyway, Pokken Tournament is fine. I'd like to beat the league mode in it, but last night, just did the daily challenge and a quick battle.
In Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix, I played three songs and bought a couple of accessories as prizes. It was pretty riveting stuff.
Then, even more thrillingly, I played Mahjong Story 2, which is false advertising, as this game certainly does not have a story. It was fine, though. It's a very tolerable game to plod through when I'm half asleep.
November 11th, 2022
Yesterday was not great again, with a lot of stuff making me feel jittery, out of sorts, and unable to sit still, so I didn't end up playing another dungeon in Wild Arms. I'm still a little salty with myself that I couldn't focus enough for that this morning.
I did, after a mildly frustrating couple of weeks of low system memory and SD card failures, though, get Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix up and running on my Switch. I bought this on its release date, but it really didn't click with me. It plays fine, but I kind of hate that every song is unlocked from the start. There's no good sense of purpose or progression with it, and the song list is overwhelmingly big. The constant unlocks were a big reason why I had so much fun with the PS Vita and PS3 ones, so this was a big enough disappointment with me that I deleted it and forgot it for a pretty long time.
It's still fun to play though, and even if it feels slightly less responsive than its Playstation sisters, I guess I'll target unlocking all of the modules, outfits, hairstyles, and accessories as a clear condition for this game. It'll keep me busy for a while.
November 10th, 2022
This is a quick lunch break post on a Thursday of a week that simply just does not quit going. I am extremely enjoying playing Wild Arms, though, and gave it another chunk of time last night. The dungeon I did split the three party members off onto their own little puzzle areas, which I thought was a neat idea, both for gameplay and character development. I know where the dungeon I'll hit tonight is already, and am looking forward to playing after clocking out of work and washing a monstrous stack of dishes.
After that, I played survival mode in Dead or Alive: Dimensions for a few minutes, because I wanted to kick some faces. It was spot on like Dead or Alive: Hardcore, so I had warm and fuzzy PS2 memories. It might have been a little too easy, but I was half asleep, so I didn't care.
November 9th, 2022
Yesterday was not chill, and work was stressful. I did a lot of wall staring last night. Today seems ripe for drama, too, so I grabbed some origami star folding paper and put it by my desk in advance.
Games were okay last night, though. I spent most of my game time, again, on Wild Arms, going through a mountain pass that served as a small, transitional, semi-dungeon. There was a little cutscene where one of my party members got the idea for a new attack, which I could then use in battle, and that was an interesting seeming mechanic. I also feel like I missed something on the mountain pass, because in the previous town, NPCs kept saying the bandits up there had stolen a magic map, which sure would be helpful on any journey, hint-hint. The path seemed so straightforward that the bandits could very well be somewhere else, though, so I'll see how things unfold.
I didn't want to go another save point worth of play once I reached the town, so from there, I played some simple puzzle games. I got out my Genesis Mini 2 and played one of the previously unreleased games on it, Star Mobile. It's not awful, but the thought occurred to me more than once that it was probably previously unreleased because it's not that good, either. In it, you put stars of varying weights on scales, trying to keep them balanced while also clearing colors off the scales- a mechanic that also alters the weights you've set up. I think I can get good at it and'll almost definitely try again, but it's a bit clunky.
After that, I grabbed my phone and played Mahjong Story 2, one of the Galaxy Store quick play games. Aside from my existential despair that I missed the emotional journey of the first game in the series, leaving me unable to understand the heart of why the game's title screen girl is compelled to match tiles, I'm fine with this. It's overly monetized and'll probably be never ending, but I really like mahjong solitare games and this is free. I'll play it until I either get sick of it begging me for cash, or get bored with the gameplay, and move onto something else.
November 8th, 2022
It's been a busier morning than normal so far! I got up early and went and voted, and am supposed to be in for an office day at work a bit early, too. Yesterday was a lot calmer than I thought it would be, though, and overall, I think today will be fairly chill, too.
Knowing that I had to get up early last night, though, I went to bed early, too, cutting my gaming time short. The task I wussed out on in Wild Arms on Sunday night turned out to be extremely easy with a better mindset and more sleep. It turned out that there were two types of save points, though- one that looks like a parrot, and one that looks like a pentagram- and I spent my first 4.5 hours of playtime sidestepping the pentagrams thinking they were dungeon traps! Oh, well! At least I figured it out before the opening credits rolled.
November 7th, 2022
Friday was really bad at work, so I'm really dreading clocking in and giving it another 8 and a half hours of my life today. It can't go as badly today, in theory, but the aftermath of some of the bad calls and system outages will hit today, which isn't going to be pleasant. Tomorrow's an office day, though, so at least I get the grace of struggling from home today.
I was super wiped out last night, especially after successfully pulling off a meal prep day, which'll be good overall. I did get in a few minutes on Wild Arms, though, and certainly did move the story forward. There's a "stealth mission" sort of thing I hit where I have to sneak past some guards and escape a castle, and even though it seems doable, it was right after a save point, so I tried a couple of times, decided I wasn't going to mess with that and another dungeon, and went to bed.
November 6th, 2022
I've already been to Target today, and it was a very intense experience. I am kind of zonked out from last night's time change, it was super crowded, and I had a very clear grocery list to follow. I forgot one thing, and had to go across the street to Natural Grocers to get tofu, as Target was out. Everything is set for a cooking day, though, which should help make next week better.
In regards to games, I played Wild Arms for a couple of hours last night, and it was pretty enjoyable. Playing it on a mini console means I don't have an instruction book on hand, which made some of the (very basic) puzzles harder to solve than they needed to be, just by merit of my not being sure how to switch characters on the fly. I got it figured out, though, and made it through Rudy's intro dungeon and the first dungeon where all three of your characters have met up. My early confusion gave me a nice level boost, too, since the encounter rate is decently high in this game, which is never a bad place to be at the start of an RPG.
I did my daily check in on Kandagawa Jet Girls, too, and got involved in it enough to clear all three missions on the race I was doing. I got mildly hung up on a "don't hit the wall" mission, which it took me a few tries and was satisfying to clear. I didn't get into it enough to do more than one race, though.
November 5th, 2022
Work yesterday was wild in a bad way, so I was glad to have games set up and good to go after my brain got fried like a piece of chicken.
I did a quick check-in with Kandagawa Jet Girls, knocking out another race and adjusting some of the jet skis. I'm sure playing this one race at a time is exactly how the game creators intended it to be enjoyed, stretched out over a period of weeks with nothing more than incremental story progression each day.
I also got back to Wild Arms, and played through the treasure hunter, Jack's intro dungeon. I didn't go much further than that because I don't know to what extent I can trust the save points in this game yet, and I'm definitely apprehensive about using the Playstation Classic's save states. I'll figure out the rhythm of that soon enough, though. It looks like there's a character switching mechanic that'll play a decent role in the game, and since characters can be switched out at save points, it makes me wonder if they might be slightly more generous here than in other PS1 RPGs.
November 4th, 2022
Last night, I was still kind of out of sorts, so I did more blank staring and trying to figure out what to do next than actually doing anything. As such, I did not check in on the Kandagawa Jet Girls, but I did manage to get a JRPG going.
I used to play a lot of JRPGs, and still really enjoy them. When I played the first Dragon Quest early in the summer, it was a lot of fun, even if it was super short! I get so worried about spending time on the wrong game, or starting something I'm unable to finish, or just worries I can't figure out what they are, though, that it's hard for me to turn one on. I want to get back into the groove of playing them so I can tackle some newer ones- my game shelf has piles of them- but it's difficult to get that ball rolling.
After some deliberation last night, though, I decided to tackle Wild Arms, which I have on my Playstation Classic. It's not the game I'd been considering last night, but that is okay. I played the first hour or so of it just before starting this blog, so last night, I just spent a few minutes remembering where I was and what I needed to do. It was fun, though. I like turn based battles and levelling up, and I like talking to people that say strange things in little towns. Tonight, I will try to play a little more.
November 3rd, 2022
I was having some weird feelings about what to play last night that I don't think entirely make sense. I've been itching to play an old school, pixel art-y JRPG, and got right up to the edge of playing one last night, but have this bad thought in my head that I have somehow not "earned" the right to do so. I don't know what requirements I could meet where I would feel okay turning one on and settling in for some turn based battles, but I will keep chugging along until that just goes away.
In things I actually did turn on and play last night, I did a few races in Kandagawa Jet Girls. I cleared the main girls' storyline and, in their last race, came across a track that actually had some interesting design elements that brought player choice and challenge into the mix. I still came in first by 40 seconds, yes, but it was something! Now to get through the storylines of the other teams, which, at my current pace, should take a few weeks.
November 2nd, 2022
Today is going to be fairly difficult at work, I think, so I am posting somewhat nervously today.
My games last night were pretty par for the course stuff. I did my daily check in with Kandagawa Jet Girls, doing a race and some mild trophy scumming. The treadmill minigame is infuriating, since I'm bad at fast-pressing the same button over and over, so now that I have my B in it, I hope to never deal with it again.
With my Genesis Mini 2, I decided to try Silpheed, which seemed cool. The prerendered backgrounds certainly gave it an interesting look, and from what I played, the difficulty seemed fair. Between this and Sewer Shark yesterday, though, I got a slight feeling that everyone looked at the Sega CD tech and decided that the best way to use it would be making games where people are constantly yelling. That's not really a drawback, it's kind of funny, but it was a strange commonality between the two games.
Before bed, I also did 20 or so puzzles in Codebreaker Puzzle 1000! ENG & JAN to try and relax. It's still boring, which is maybe its finest defining feature.
November 1st, 2022
November starts today, and I'm hoping it'll be better than October was, at least on my end! I cleared six games in October, which isn't bad, but Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is the only one that wasn't a one or two session game. That's okay, though! I am curious to see how I'll do this month.
I got my Sega Genesis Mini 2 set up and going last night, and decided to try some games I'd been curious about over ones I thought would be good. I turned on Sewer Shark because I think some old FMV games can be funny and was not really disappointed. The video is compressed into a pixel-y mess that makes it hard to tell what you're looking at, and everyone kept screaming at me. I had to google how to actually steer my vehicle, but that may have just been because I wasn't paying too much attention to the game. I didn't get far last night, but I'll very likely play this again.
I also tried Virtua Racing, which was a lot more fun. I wasn't very good at it, but got marginally better with every try. The super bright, primary colors and chunky polygons were really charming, though! Driving past the blocky cows and the cute ferris wheel made me really happy. The little music cues that played whenever I passed a checkpoint were nice, too.
I also checked in on Kandagawa Jet Girls, playing one race and getting another SSS rank despite the fact that I slammed into a wall and came to a dead stop during it. After that, I scummed the mini games to buy some machine parts.
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