About This Post Type
I like to write, and I like to talk about things I do. But most of what I do is write or play video games, and I don’t have it in me to make a story (or even part of one) every week. But I believe that it’s important to put something out every week so I don’t just abandon my newsletter or become one of those publications that put things out sporadically with little notice or predictability.
Hence these blog topic assortment posts. I enjoy writing these even if I feel like they’re not really why people would subscribe to my newsletter, though I do feel like I should have done better when I put one out as the week’s post. I also don’t think that I should post a bad story just to avoid a blog post about video games, though, so these are probably here to stay. Hopefully, I can come up with stories a little faster with practice. I really admire writers like Space Paladin who not only has a coherent tale in many chapters but also puts out four chapters per week! I’m nowhere near that and don’t think I could reach it so long as I keep my current schedule. But I hope that you’ll stick around anyway, and that whatever stories I do write won’t disappoint you.
Video Games
Wednesday/Friday Stream
Review of the first DLC for Immortals Fenyx Rising (“A new god”): Pretty good overall. There were a couple of challenges that were far beyond what they should have been, but most of it was a lot of fun. Especially the game reference trial. I loved how they even got you to play Donkey Kong and Frogger.
The second DLC, “Myths of the Eastern Realm,” basically is the main game again but much shorter. I’ve asked someone familiar with Chinese mythology and apparently they even characterized the gods correctly, which was beyond my expectations (though probably well within the talents of the writing team). I feel kind of silly for the things that I’ve missed so far, including a gate that I literally had on-screen and close enough to make sound, yet walked right past. And I don’t do enough damage that foes aren’t tedious. (I really wish that wasn’t the case.) But overall, it’s still at least a little fun. I had more fun with the main game.
Saturday Stream
That last dungeon in Final Fantasy V is way longer and harder than I expected. I also didn’t expect there to be two superbosses held within. I guess FFV was the introduction of superbosses for the series? (That is, optional bosses far harder than the final boss.) I don’t recall anything like them in games prior to it.
I like how, with the right setup, you can decimate the final boss. The dualcast White Magic, Meteor, and then Mimicry of those two, was one such setup. And the Mix to get back all my MP was another huge bonus. Exdeath still wasn’t a pushover, but… the combo made him far less challenging than I expected.
I went into Saturday’s stream expecting to get through all that remained of FFV in three hours. That… did not happen, but I’m glad I had FFVI prepared. I know a lot of people like that game, but playing it on my phone did not give me a good impression of it. (The minigame-like section with the Moogles and Locke is not the last of its kind and it was a nightmare on my phone, and that’s just one example.) Hopefully it won’t be too bad on Switch?
Sunday Stream
Okay, I really liked the Chargestone cavern. That was fantastic. I hope that whenever we do revisit Unova, they put in that much effort. As for the Gym Leader Elite Four challenge, I liked the fact that the trainer clearly had no idea what Miraidon is (since there’s only one on this side of the portal) and used the trope that Pokemon generally say their name. The level of difficulty for the battle is consistent with the previous Elite Four member and I can fully expect to do a lot of push-ups for this. (For reference: any time I get a game over or Pokemon battle loss during stream, I do 10 push-ups. My record is 250 because Metroid Fusion is very hard—and I was only doing 5 per game over back when I played that.)
Free Time
I mentioned superbosses in the Saturday section. Final Fantasy V has three optional bosses that aren’t summons, to my knowledge: the Gil Turtle, Omega, and Shinryu. The Gil Turtle is only available during the second section of the game, which my secondary file is already past, so I can’t exactly go back and beat it. However, Omega and Shinryu are in the final dungeon. That said… they’re really hard. I tried whacking Omega with my secondary team and not only did my team get about three turns before biting the dust, but I couldn’t even deal damage. So my free time gaming right now is attempting to grind up the levels of my party (I beat the game at 43 on my stream file, but Omega is level 119) and master all the jobs, which I expect to take a while, so that I can try to beat Omega and Shinryu at some point.
Conclusion
For the new setting, I’ve got… a little bit. A protagonist, a magic system, and the beginnings of a society. I probably should make something of a map since it’s not just going to be Earth again, and I still need to figure out what exactly makes up the non-exotic threats that people regularly face. But I do want to start working on that so I can post a real story here.