25/03/2025
Helo!
Welcome, welcome everyone!
Today we have a quite different blog update!
To celebrate the new Phoenix Club content and anniversary, I decided to dedicate this entire post to it!
So, welcome to the very first Special Blog Update: Phoenix Club 2nd Anniversary!
Spoilers for everything we launched yesterday! If you want to read it, Click Here!
Let 's go, Go!
Phoenix Club Updates
New Story Chapter 9.5 - Unstable Waves!
Starting off with the newest release of the main story, we got a few things to talk about!
This chapter was a big departure from what I usually do, this time we are seeing events through the eyes of a completely different and mysterious character named Minato. R.I.P. to our beloved protagonist… may she rest in peace… (don’t worry, next chapter we will go back to her + she gets a little cameo in this one!)
Okay, so why did I make this decision in specific? To put the reader in another character’s shoes?
The answer is a bit complicated, but I wanted to do 2 things:
Expand the world a bit and give a little bonus chapter after an arc in the story.
I think it’s really cool when other media series tease cool things ahead after an arc of their story finishes, so I wanted to do that! Going forward, expect .5 chapters to have cool teases, be through the perspective of a different character from the main cast and only appear at the end of an arc of the story!
Alright, now to the cut/ changed things from the final chapter… there’s not much actually!
Well, aside from the small detail related to time that I forgot which made me have to move things around/ rewrite the entire second half of the chapter. I guess the only major content cut was Yuki calling Tatsuya as “Tat”. I had this chapter and the council in development on my mind for like, an year or so. Actually, The process of writing this chapter was very smooth and straightforward. A lot of this is due to what I learned making the previous chapters and all the criticism from my Editor. They really helped a lot!
Not to say that there weren’t problems with this chapter, of course there were a couple, and I’ll be working on those issues to make the next chapters better! This little writer has a long way to go, but they are improving bit by bit!
In a way, 9.5 is very similar to Science Partners to me. Not in like, structure or story, more about what it means to me personally. That side story was my first time finally getting my footing for writing and now, 9.5 felt like a big step forward for my abilities as a writer. I hope I can continue to improve and to eventually write a story that can inspire others! That’s my ultimate goal as a writer!!
New 4-koma “Mini - Ice Cream Trial”!
The very first official 4-koma ever for Phoenix Club is here! This had a bit of a troubled development, so let’s go over that.
This was my first time working on something to this scale and there were a lot of things that I just didn’t know about 4-koma structure and paneling. Personally, I prefer normal mangas over 4-komas, I find them a little too repetitive due to the panels always being the same. But that’s not here or there, back to the development of this 4-koma.
As mentioned before, there was a lot I just didn’t know about, so I made A LOT of mistakes on my first rough ideas when I showed it to Miya, the artist for the 4-koma (and also editor for PC chapters!):
This is the very first rough idea I sent to Miya, you can see a lot wrong with it…
Heck, even the title of this 4-koma went all over the place. I toyed with the idea of calling it “Icy Girl”, “Cold Girl”, “Icy Trouble”, “Fear from the cold”, “Tiny Courage” and so on. Miya said these all sucks, which I agree, and tried “Ice Cream of Courage” which then I narrowed down to “Ice Cream Trial” and that’s how the title was born!
Despite the unstable waves, the story managed to stay mostly the same, just restructured… except for the ending, that one had a lot of work put into it. As I mentioned in the Behind the Scenes (click that to check it out!), I had a doc about this story fully written… again, except for the ending. So that’s the reason why it was so messy at first, I was literally just winging it.
This 4-koma was also the first time I got people close to me to read it and give their feedback about it (Beta Readers), and the piece of advice that everyone echoed was: “How should I read a 4-koma?”
Which was a bit of a reality check for me, I was under the impression everyone knew what a 4-koma was and knew how to read it! But alas, after a lot of resistance from Miya, we made some changes to the structure of the panels and pages to better guide the reader and I added a page to teach you how to read one! I liked working with beta readers, they gave insight and showed some mistakes me and Miya completely missed. I for sure am going to do this again with beta readers in mind!
Oh yeah, talking about next time… don’t expect a 4-koma any time soon. These are quite expensive and time consuming to make, so they will not be a common thing. Maybe 1 a year? Or maybe a year and half?
Who knows, but I do want to make a new one eventually!
New CG for Chapter 4 - “Promise”!
Now for the last major content drop from yesterday, the new CG for chapter 4!
I decided to call it “Promise” and here is this beautiful piece drawn by Scrimblo!
…
IT'S AMAZING RIGHT??? Scrimblo is so talented;;;;;
By the way, the one in the thumbnail up there is the line art version of it! Just incredible!!
Especially when you consider this was the original rough idea for it:
I really lack any artistic talent…
Oh, we also have chapter 5 CG in the works right now! That one is more complex, because the chapter is an important point for the story, so Scrimblo will need more time to make it beautiful like the others! But to not leave you empty handed, here’s an sketch Scrimblo did for it a month ago:
It’s going to be incredible!
Following Scrimblo's advice of using Minecraft to visualize 3D drawings, I decided to build a little set for chapter 5 CG, so I could better convey the idea:
It's a little different, but you can see where they resemble!
Looking Forward to the Future!
So, what’s in store for the future?
This year, probably around August or September, I want to release chapter 10 - 14, which will be focused on Chie! Maybe, MAYBE, a side story after it. It’s all uncertain to me still, but I will make those Chie chapters this year for sure!
Aside from that, just more CGs made by Scrimblo! Please check out their website by clicking ther name!
That’s what I have planned for Phoenix Club at this moment…
Man… it has been two years already. I remember back when this story was just mere fanfiction, which continued to evolve further and further as I evolved as a writer. Things are so different now than they were two years ago… I found my passion for writing and I’m finally walking towards that dream of making stories that may inspire others, it feels… so rewarding to do something as difficult as writing. I’m no professional, or good writer, but being able to put these stories I had stuck in my head into reality, and having a group of friends that can help me with it… feels comforting.
Thank you for keeping with Phoenix Club/ reading it! Really means the most to me! Here’s hoping for more great years!
Happy 2nd Anniversary!
Oh yeah, Miya said they want a segment in this blog update in specific! I don’t know what they have to say, since they are keeping it a secret, but here:
Miya’s Message!
Hey guys! It's Miya! Been a bit since I talked on here... I hope you're all doing well!
Ahhh Pheo- Phon- Phoenix Club... I can't believe it's been two years since it started! Time really flies by....
I can still remember how this whole thing started, it's such a far cry from what it is now isn't it?
To think I've been able to be apart of this project with my dear friend for so long, from learning about his crazy ideas to yelling at him for stupid mistakes he makes, I wish for it to never change. I can't wait to do more, every step of the process is so fun!! Phoenix Club really has taken over a big part of my life... Thinking, writing, drawing... A lot of those hobbies are still here because of PC, and I'm very grateful for it!
The story really has evolved from the beginning... For those who know me, you may know that I often love background characters in works, so I can't wait to see how Yumeka and Minato's relationship evolves with time. (You don't know who they are? Then go read the new chapter!! Why are you even still here!!) They were really cute in that story weren't they? Almost makes me want to write my own about them...
You've probably seen Minato already, but Yumeka's design is in the works! Here's what she looks like for now...!
(Am I allowed to show this..? Don't tell anyone!)
While working on the new chapter was super fun, we also released a 4koma! We started working on this right after I finished my manga adaptation of chapter 1.. It kind of was a grueling task, but working with Pudding is always very fun, and we managed to make it work!! Our work flow was so chaotic and unprofessional, but you probably know that already. I'm very satisfied of the end result, so go read it please!!
I just repeated what Pudding said didn't I? Oh well.
Thanks everyone for those two years!... (You can hear the wind passing. It's almost as if no one was here to listen.)
A-And mostly thanks to my good friend Pudding! Owner of this cool site! I'll do my best to bring this project very far, and we'll continue to have fun for as long as we can! Thank you for being so so amazing!!!!!
See you all next year!
Hope you keep up with us for a while longer!
Goodnight!
- Miya
Woooow, really cool right? Did you know Miya is my best friend and awesome and you should visit their website by clicking their name!
SONG OF THE DAY
The song of the day is the WALL by Leo/need!
This song is special to me, because it is one of the few songs that I have my memories attached to with Phoenix Club! For those who don’t know, I usually seek songs for inspiration and to help visualize particular, important scenes for my stories and this one was the very first one that helped me develop Phoenix Club! It also happens to be a great song too!
and that’s everything for this special blog! I hope you enjoyed it!
See you next month! With a more regular blog!
Have a nice day Traveler!
15/03/2025
Helo!
Time for the regularly scheduled mid march blog!
Today’s Features are: Phoenix Club Updates, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and R.E.P.O!
Spoilers for those topics!
Let 's begin!
WEBSITE UPDATES
Phoenix Club Progress Check!
Chapter 9.5 first draft has been fully finished and I'm going to start the second draft! This chapter is quite the odd ball in this story, but it’s a very important one to expand the world. I wanna say things are going well so far, but this second draft has a lot that needs to be fixed/ rewritten so I don’t know.
What I do know is that I now have a somewhat healthy schedule for writing projects now! On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have to write 500 words on any writing project I currently have going on, the other days I have to write 1000! (Except on Sundays, those are free days!)
This is in response to something that has been bugging me for a long time now. I haven’t been engaging in writing my projects recently and I have been doing a lot of nothing instead. With this schedule, progress is now guaranteed! Here’s the results so far:
This is how it's going so far, brown marks are days where I accomplished my goal!
Returning to Phoenix Club, PC Mini - Ice Cream Trial is pretty much complete, we got a lot of good feedback from the beta readers I showed to privately. (They were all my friends, nothing actually professional.)
By far, the biggest problem with the 4-koma was… that nobody knew how to read a 4-koma! That caught me off guard, but it's understandable, 4-komas aren't a huge thing like normal mangas are. The solution was simple though, I just added instructions on how to read before the actual 4-koma!
Oh, right, time to reveal the date when all this is dropping!
Phoenix Club Mini - Ice Cream Trial, Chapter 9.5 and the Wonderful Panel for Chapter 4 Will be released on the 24th, the same day of the 2nd Anniversary!
Look forward it!
Ah, there were some other minor updates to the website here and there, but I don’t remember exactly what I changed!
Anyways, because of popular demand (a friend's request) here’s the grand return of Pudd 2:
“Lemon, Melon, Pudding!”
LIFE UPDATES
Like a Dragoing!
I’m going to be honest, this game is really opening my eyes again to how great turn based RPGs can be and how low the bar was set over the years for me. Getting a bit ahead of myself, let’s rail this discussion back to this game!
I love all the new mini games so far! Running around on a bike doing stunts to do deliveries was awesome, capturing freaks on a Trolley ride is hilarious and the dating mini game is just so absurd I can’t help but love it!
The enemies are all so creative too!
I’m 20 hours into the game, and I haven’t passed chapter 4 still! I’m just having way too much fun with all the side content this game has to offer. This is not helped by the fact that pretty much everything you do in this game is filling some kind of bar or completing an objective, be it collecting herbs from grass on the street or fighting enemies, everything contributes to progress and power! Which is SO addictive, reminds me a lot of how Terraria works!
Heck, even the side stories are amazing! Only In a Yakuza game can I feel emotional over a tragic story about a loved one passing away while having a lot of respect for a character that has a “dressing and acting like a baby” thing going on… What I just said probably shocked a lot of you but it’s true! But you need to play the game to find out!
They brought snow to Hawaii just a couples last moments together... its so beautiful!
The game is amazing, this is the one thing I’m going to be echoing every time this game appears on this blog!
Hoyoverse Games Fatigue at Full Swing.
Alright, about the thing I mentioned earlier, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth really opened my eyes to how games are when they achieve their maximum potential… something I can’t really say about these sets of games.
Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact, I have been playing both of these games for years and they have caused a bit of damage towards my expectations for games as a whole. These games can’t really ever achieve their full potential in gameplay and story, because their gacha systems bring everything down.
Don’t get me wrong, the story and gameplay of these games aren’t bad, they are pretty good, but they are a lot of the times sabotaged by the gacha. That constant need to sell a character and make them spotlight, mortality for the playable cast being non-existent, challenging content boiling down to “Damage Sponges” and the clear bias towards a certain archetype of character over others. These points have been bugging my mind a lot recently and they are present in both of these games. It sucks too because I do think these games have a lot of good to show, but they can’t ever achieve their maximum potential because… that would give a sense of finality to the experience, which kills the gacha fomo side.
The graphics and art are amazing too.
From now on, I’ll treat these games very differently. I’m not gonna stop playing them, they are still fun games, but I’ll not be engaging with them on a deeper level anymore. Treating them like fast food, good in short bursts but never thinking about how good they can be.
This will also apply to the blog, if I find something particularly interesting I’ll talk about it in the blog.
Oh yeah, HSR 3.1 was uh… a mixed bag. I liked the horror sequences with Tribbie’s story, but aside from that I didn’t have much to comment about the story. Tribbie’s kit is a really fun one!
4 tribbillion damage in divergent universe
The new Divergent Universe is pretty good and the day & night mechanic is fun. The build system is amazing, I love that, but I hope they allow us to choose a build before picking the time boon. The problem with the patch is just… how dead it is.
HSR patches have low points towards the end point where literally nothing is going on, but this is a main patch and yet… There are very few events? Everything to be experienced was already in 2 weeks, so now we have to wait 4 weeks doing nothing?? This is not okay, especially when Genshin has everything sorted out and has an event every week! I can only hope this is because they are preparing an awesome anniversary patch… though those hopes are quickly becoming dimmer.
To not end this long winded segment on a sour note, I have been getting really lucky in the gacha!
I got both Furina’s and Wriothesley’s weapons in just 110 wishes, got a really early Furina con, while in Star Rail, I got Tribbie at high pity and later her lightcone in just 2 pulls! Craziness!
Best Friends Turned To Rivals!
Welcome to your yearly segment of “Miya bullies Pudding in video games”!
Today featuring the game Rivals of Aether, with a billion mods!
It was quite fun playing against my great friend Miya in a fighting game. I’m really bad at these types of games, since I’m more about the thinking process than the performance type, which Miya is really good at. My usual approach is to attempt to set up a combo, but if I miss or butcher it, I run away and try again when another opening shows up… which rarely leads to a victory, but it was fun!
This is me winning! (didn't happen a lot) (Teto)
The spark for this was a trailer I saw about Anna from Epic Battle Fantasy Series being modded into the game, and it looked super polished and fun to play! I love that series and the character was my type of play style!
Though I think Miya will never play video games with me ever again, because the way I play is very infuriating… So yeah, say goodbye to this segment FOREVER! (Or at least until Miya forgets how I play these games!)
R.E.P.O IS TOO MUCH FOR MY LIFE!
Before I start this, I would like to show you a clip of this game that sums up the experience pretty well:
This game is the first time ever that I felt a game tried to compete with Lethal Company and put in the effort to evolve the gameplay of it!
Does he know?
This game is also FREAKING HILARIOUS! Me and my friend group always have to end the game not because we got tired, but because we are in pain from all the laughing we had!
The way the characters look, speak and interact with the environment and physics is so fun, the immersive and funny voice chat + text to speech is great, the situations you find yourself in with the horrors and ragdoll physics are always the cherry on top!
Fantastic and hilarious game, I recommend it to anyone who wants a more funny and less horror centric Lethal Company experience!
He now knows...
And that’s everything for this segment!
SONG OF THE DAY
The song of the day is 88 Stars by Marasy and Kemu!
This one and the Project Sekai cover are absolute FANTASTIC! I love these songs to DEATH! I love how the piano is played, how the vocals build up the song and the non stop release at the latter half of the song that captures you and does not let go!
This song really makes emotional too... its so good!
And that’s all for today!
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
05/03/2025
Helo!
Welcome the very first blog update that is using the new and improved blog!
… what do you mean it seems no different from before?
Anyways, today's features are: Kingdom Rush ReBBBorn, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Deadlock!
Spoiler Warning for all those topics!
Today will be a short one, since the wait from this one and the previous blog was 3 days shorter!
WEBSITE UPDATES
The Update to 2.0 Job is Never Done!
Pretty much as the title says, despite being officially launched, there's still a lot to update in the background, like this blog!
I decided to rebuild from scratch all the css and html I'm going to be using for this blog on a new folder. I wanted to update the previous layout a lot, but the changes I wanted to do would cause a lot of depreciation on older posts and that was a mess I didn't want to deal with. So everything from March 2025 and beyond will be the blog 2.0! …which will mostly look the same! Aside from some minor details. This update is mostly to improve and make the experience of posting a blog update faster!
There were some improvements to the scroll bar (which I can't really see if it works because Firefox doesn't like those), updates to a few secret pages that were left behind during the transition to 2.0 and I added a few other secrets here and there!
By the way, since Autumn is almost here, here's a Autumn Pudd I drew:
“Cozy days will soon be here!”
A lot has been happening on the Museum page lately, I have been very active on this whole drawing thing… maybe a little too active… and no, before you say it, I didn’t improve my art skills and MY ART WILL NEVER BE GOOD!
Anyways, for what you can expect this month:
Phoenix Club Chapter 9.5 and Phoenix Club Mini: Ice Cream Trial! They will be coming out later this month, so look forward to it!
That's all for this segment!
LIFE UPDATES
Kingdom Rush ReBBBorn, The New Big Thing!
For those who don’t know, this was the exact same mode I played when I replayed all the Kingdom Rush games last year. Recently got a brand new update that really pushed the modding potential for the game to new heights!
This mod now adds a whole mini campaign, 2 new heroes, 2 new towers, a brand new difficulty called IMPOSSIBLE with some exclusive content and a toggle for a rebalanced experience! In my opinion, this is the first mod to cross the line between QOL/ Wacky mod to a Content Update mod, which is kind of crazy for this series!
I haven’t actually gotten to the main content of this mod yet, which is the new mini campaign, but I have tried the IMPOSSIBLE mode! The name is definitely appropriated, it does feel impossible. The new heroes are pretty cool and have unique mechanics exclusive to them, and the new towers are also similarly unique with their mechanics and use!
I did it! I beat the level with only magic to- oh... there`s more...
My only complaint about this mod is the exclusive content only present in IMPOSSIBLE mode. Like, I want to play with the altered stages and waves of the new difficulty, but I don’t want to deal with how tough it is. Not because I don’t want to be challenged, I like a good challenge, but IMPOSSIBLE feels like it was designed for the top 1% that have completely mastered every mechanic in this game. Fortunately for me, I did find a solution to this: editing the code myself!
I just replaced the enemy stats changes of IMPOSSIBLE with the ones in VETERAN, which is the base game’s highest difficulty. That way I can still play a difficult experience without having to give my life to the game to beat it and have the new IMPOSSIBLE changes!
Oh yeah, the new changes are very fun, again, I just wished it was a toggle in the menus like the Rebalance toggle is, instead of being locked behind the difficulty that 99% can’t ever beat.
The mod is awesome, definitely my definitive way to replay this game now!
Chaos at the final battle! (I lost)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth!
Back in the long distant days of 2021, I played Yakuza: Like a Dragon for the first time and absolutely loved it! Now I’m playing the sequel, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and I’m loving it! This game is scratching the same part of my brain that got really addicted to the first game-- I think it’s beyond the point of no return actually…
I just love how creative this game is! Introducing the usual RPG elements and fantastical elements such as collecting things from the wilds and fighting unique creatures, but introduced and grounded on a more modern day style without actually introducing magic!
The squad is back together!
I’m only 3 chapters in, but the story is pretty good so far! I like that the first chapter we got to see the main cast live happy lives after the first game and just having a good time, even if those didn’t last that long. It was really nice while it lasted. I’m intrigued to know where the story is going and the current antagonist Yamai is so GOOD! Evey scene he’s in, he completely steals the show with how chill he talks while being really threatening and uncaring to anything around him.
Oh yeah, the english voice acting is amazing so far! Everyone sounds so natural while talking to each other! I’m gonna enjoy this game so much!
By the way, check out this true to life clip I got in the first 20 minutes of playing!
Really is like real life! I was ignored by everyone and scared someone!
Deadlock: The Three Lock Update!
A new update rolled out to Deadlock not too long ago that changed the game by turning the map to 3 lanes instead of 4, and I vastly prefer this approach over the 4 lanes!
1v1 really sucked for me and the experience of being ganked in a 1v1 lane never felt good + playing with someone else in the lane is much more fun than just solo. The update also brought changes to the soul farm machine that required punches to farm, now it has a rhythm mini-game attached to it to get the fuel value of these machines, which is pretty fun!
The new change to 3 lanes did bring some problems with the farms and how close together they are now, encouraging the act of just farming and never engaging in fights, but also making characters that can farm easily, really strong. But those are issues that can be solved with further updates.
It was fun revisiting Deadlock under this new complete overhaul, I really prefer it too!
Sniper Mirage is not very effective in my hands, but its fun!
And that concludes this segment.
I don’t really have any goals for this segment during this month. It’s going to be a nice chill month where I just do whatever!
SONG OF THE DAY
The song of the day is Mãos Para Cima by Mellowcle!
It’s currently the Carnaval season here in Brazil (actually, it might be already over by the time this is up…) so why show a really cool song that relates to Brazil and Vocaloid at the same time! I really appreciate the work on the references to Brazilian culture in this music video. The creators really did their homework! And also the song just slaps!
Also the whole Brazilian Miku thing is so interesting, it really highlights the intriguing connection between Japanese and Brazilian culture… I bet there’s a lot of research that can be done and compiled into an essay page… hmm…
Anyway! That concludes this blog.
This month is Phoenix Club month, so look forward to the amazing things stored for it!
That’s all for today!
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
