15/12/2024
16/12/2024
Helo!
Welcome to a new and the last blog update of 2024!
Today 's features are: The Binding of Isaac Repentance +, Kingdom Rush 5 Alliance: Ancient Hunger, The 12th Incident And Kono Bijutsubu niwa Mondai ga Aru!
Spoiler for all those topics!
I'm surviving at work currently… So apologies for being rather hasty with this one!
Oh yeah, it’s worth mentioning that this blog is day late for reasons that are entirely my own fault! I have been very sleepy in the past few days and was behind on almost everything for it, so that’s why it didn’t release on the 15th.
But anyway, let's begin right away!
WEBSITE UPDATES
A New Page Project in the Works!
That's right, trying to survive work didn't stop me from working on a specific project I have been doing for 6 months! (Not exactly 6 months, but you will learn why in the following paragraph.)
So what is this project I have been subtly hitting all this time? Well:
I Did 100 Isaac Runs and Cataloged All the Items!
That's the youtube click bait hook for this project!
My objectives are as the title says, back in June or July, I began this project of doing 100 runs in The Binding of Isaac Repentance and at the end of a run, taking a screenshot of the list of items I collected during the run. To later put them all on a spreadsheet to then make a cool web page about it for my website! Through many days of procrastination and game overs, I managed to finish all 100 runs by the end of November!
I'm currently 50% of the way done with putting all the items in the spreadsheet, I have been using most of my (very little) free time doing that while working!
So, you know the history and what the project is, but what's the purpose of this science experiment? What am I doing this?
…
The purpose of this is: NONE!
I just wanted to do this silly idea and make a fun page about it full of stats and information that serves no purpose!
This spreadsheet took a long time to make…
Christmas is (Almost) Here!
With the Holidays almost here, a little mischievous gremlin decided to leave a present for you! Try clicking it to embrace the Holiday spirit!
She has a present for you!
Aside from that, there were the usual updates and typo fixes that are expected!
And that's everything for this segment!
MANGA OF THE DAY
Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!
This Art Club Has a Problem!
Made by Muru Imigi.
Synopsis: Usami Mizuki is part of an art club and said club has a problem!
(I’m sorry, this synopsis is far too funny not to be used!)
Art and presentation: Being an ongoing manga that has been running for years, the art is of it is a bit hard to fully judge. But it’s overall really good! Plus it's cool to see the artist evolve as the manga goes on! One of their strengths is that their work on comedic panels really enhances the funny factor for the punchlines!
There is one problem however… The manga starts off fairly safe, but as the chapters go on and the artist evolves their style, the more sus and NSFWish some segments become… which is something I’m personally annoyed by. Most of the time is unnecessary and dumb stuff that just makes me want to skip the page and turn to the next one.
Why you should read it: This is one of the funniest manga you will probably read! You don’t need more reason than that to read! Don’t believe me? Just read chapter 16 and then come back to me with tears in your eyes of how funny it is!
That’s why you should read it!
Score: 4/5! I had to deduct a point for my annoyance with the frequency of sus material as the manga goes on, but overall it is really funny and a lot of fun!
LIFE UPDATES
Crocodile War!
The newest update to Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance has arrived: Ancient Hunger!
As the name implies, the main gimmick this time around eating! … sorta!
The enemies this time around are crocodiles, very tanky ones at that! The difficulty this time around comes with how strong and healthy these crocs are, rather than the resistances and abilities they bring to the table. Not to say that they don’t, it’s just way less than the previous campaign. The new tower is also a very unique one, having a stance change gimmick, it can be a regular magic tower or an artillery that shoots slower but deals more dmg and slows enemies slightly!
The new hero also follows the same path of the tower by also having a stance change gimmick! Their hero ability gives her incredible power and buffs the power of all her skills while active, very unique for Kingdom Rush!
This stage is really pretty looking!
The final boss was also very cool and how he constantly grows in size by eating really made it stressful, seeing a massive gator that covers a lot of your screen steamrolling your defenses is a bit anxiety inducing.
Now it's time to delve into some spoilery territory, so if you still haven't played the update, I recommend you to do so!
Spoilers (Ancient Hunger Final Boss)
I heard a lot of contention about the final stage’s gimmick being really unfair, which I half agree and half disagree with. Yes, random tower destruction sucks, but you still can strategize around by building many tier 1 towers and always keeping money in hand in case a powerful tower gets nuked. Though, it would be nice if either the random tower was telegraphed that was going to be destroyed, so the player could have a chance to react to the mechanic or for the destruction to refund 50% of the cost.
MASSIVE GATOR ATTACK!
Aside from a few problems I faced with towers mysteriously missing their targets sometimes and the new hero having a very weird and unclear range, this was another great mini campaign that gets me hyped for what they are going to do for the actual DLC coming next month!
The Isaac of Isaac: Isaacance!
My long journey continues as I attempt to 100% my third save file!
I have managed to unlock both polaroid and negative as well as beating Mega Satan and Delirium multiple times! I did get to experiment with some of the recent changes but not all of them yet!
I also knocked out most of the challenges that I had unlocked… including Ultra Hard…
I’ll be honest, I cheated Ultra Hard. I have already beat the challenge once, I don’t have anything to prove by doing it again. To save myself a lot of stress and to actually have fun, I just cheated the challenge.
(For those who don’t know, this challenge removes all heart pick ups, gives you all the possible curses on every floor AND makes all enemies elite. So yeah, no fun, just pain.)
So many friends!
The 12th Incident!
So uh, a lot happened in one day!
Well, 2 big things happened, but they are big for me!
First we had Interloper C which was… THE best episode of the series, dare I say, Anomidae’s magnum opus!
I’m not gonna delve into spoilers here, just… JUST WATCH, IT'S AMAZING!!!!
I MAKES ME CRAVE A BEHIND THE SCENES ON HOW ALL THIS WAS MADE!
And the second event happened during the night: The Game Awards!
Me and my friends always get together to watch The Game Awards every year, it’s always a fun event. (Fun in both mocking and genuine fun!)
I almost didn’t make it, because my internet was completely dead that day! I was forced to watch the show at 144p using mobile data on my phone… but it was still fun because this show was actually really good this year!
They took all the criticism from the previous year’s flop and improved this year quite a lot! What I found quite interesting is that they openly talked and joked about the problems and issues the show and the game industry faced during this year. I never expected this from this show. But it did make for the funniest clips ever from the muppets!
Best part of the show hands down!
By the way, I was one of the people in the camp that saw all the stars aligning for a Half-Life 3 announcement to happen during the show, only to be constantly baited and disappointed through the livestream…
Hey, it’s going to happen next year! Surely!
… Hopefully!
But any way, sadness aside, 12th of December was a pretty eventful and fun day!
And that’s everything for this segment!
SONG OF THE DAY
The song of the day is Zero Talking by Harumaki Gohan!
This song is another of the greatest pieces from their amazing catalog! If you read the segment where I recommended Empurple, most of those compliments apply here as well. Oh well, this was what I was talking about when I mentioned the “better” Harumaki moment!
The way the changes in a literal snap of a finger, the music playing in reverse for the transition and the payoff… MAN this song is so great!
By the way, you can click here to see the playlist with all the songs recommended in this segment during this year!
And that 's it!
That's everything I wanted to talk about for this one!
Man, this year was a really big one for me…
Actually, I'll keep all that sentimental stuff for another time that will come soon!
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
05/12/2024
Helo!
Ah, the end of the year- the very last month before we jump to another cycle!
Before getting into the blog, I would like to give a few things that will be happening this month.
As I mentioned last month, work is basically consuming 70% of my mental energy, so expect this and the next blog update to be a little dry on topics. Oh yeah, there will be only 2 blog posts this month as well, because I’m going to take the 25th off. Don’t worry though, nothing will be skipped! The topics will only be pushed for next year and this month’s review will be on the 15th instead.
With that said, let’s get into it!
Today’s features are: Phoenix Club Chapter 9, The Binding of Isaac and a few more!
Spoiler for all those topics!
WEBSITE UPDATES
Phoenix Club Chapter 9 is Out Now!
"It's just a visit to the hospital, nothing can go wrong."
"But... should I be there?" Well, you reader should be! You can read the chapter by Cicking Here!
Assuming you have read all the chapters until now, it’s time to get into the fun part of- Cut Content!
I alluded to it in past blog posts, but this version of the story is very different from the first concept for these chapters. In the earlier versions of this story, Hiroshi’s mother was dead. The club (Seiko & Chie) would be told by Hiroshi during the park scene, and from there the story would’ve taken a different course, one that I don’t know because I never got that far in the thought process with this first iteration. But I do have some vague ideas that would’ve affected these earlier versions of the chapters:
His mother being dead already;
Hiroshi had a little brother which would definitely affect the story;
Hiroshi’s father would be entirely absent from the story, that means, he would be only mentioned as the source of money that is keeping both siblings afloat, but they never interacted or saw him.
Hearing about the cut content is cool, but I want to also give reasons why this stuff was changed! Let’s get into those:
Hiroshi’s little brother would cause SO MANY issues with time and would heavily restrict what I would be able to write, since he has to be the responsible one in a house where he is the oldest. But the most important reason why I decided to change was… because it was just too cruel and not the vision I have about this series.
After a long time of thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that this was just too depressing for this story and also realized something else- It’s very easy to come up with a sad and miserable scenario to put on a character, anyone can do that… but does that make it good?
That’s going to depend from writer to writer, but to me… No, it’s not. Making something depressing is not hard, but what will make your story good is what you do with that sadness. To me, the worst thing you could possibly make is a story to just make the reader feel miserable and that original version was on track to do just that.
So I changed it to make the story more hopeful and not so depressing. I value a story that at least gives the reader some hope to the reader, way more than a story that is just focused on showing the worst of life and giving you nothing in return, but the feeling that life is not worth living. If you are someone getting into writing/ is writing a story, I think that’s a good lesson to keep in mind. If you're going to make a terrible scenario for your story, give a purpose to that moment and do something with it. Don’t just make misery for the sake of misery.
Well, that was something! I kind of rambled on and on, I hope it at least made sense!
Just to clarify a few things, obviously that’s going to depend from story to story and what each writer wants to achieve. It’s not black and white, it’s a balance! And I do love how my story is now, I fully believe it is better than the original concept!
But enough of that, it took a long time to do this due to the many writing mistakes I made and that my editor pointed out (and laughed) to me to fix. Chapter 9 was a COMPLETE mess in its first draft! So I’m eternally grateful for my editors' help in pointing out the mistakes and what I can do better.
Chapter 9 is the last one of the batch we have been working on for the past month, but of course, the story is not over! The next chapters I have planned will be an interlude and one to expand the world a little bit, kind of a break before we delve deep into the next club member chapters 10 - 14 will focus on. So look forward to them next year!
See you next year!
Progress on Untitled Fantasy Story!
Remember that?
I began writing the second draft recently for it and I’m really liking the dynamic of the 4 main characters right now! There’s not much I can say about it other than I’m currently 70% of the way done with act 1 out 5 and that it looks quite a bit different than the first draft! Well, to be honest, that first draft was more a combination of a bunch of ideas rather than a readable story, but you get what I mean.
Unlike Phoenix Club, I want to write and finish the entire story first before releasing it, since it’s a smaller story in comparison! To not leave you with nothing, I’ll give you the work in progress name of it: Legend of Dreams!
My goal is to release it next year!
Aside from some updates to a particular secret and minor typos here and there, that is all!
As for my goals this month… I’m just gonna focus on surviving the onslaught that this month is for my work and very slowly chip away progress on some other projects for the website!
LIFE UPDATES
The Bind of Isaacing!
I’m further enjoying the online update, the occasional online match here and there to have fun!
But this time I have a focus! I decided I will finally get my last dead god (Get all the achievements and pick up all items) in my last save file! Something I have been procrastinating for suuuuuuuch a long time.
I also played online with good friend Miya! We had to go through a few hoops to get it working since they, uh, didn’t have an important part of the game, but it was fun! and worked surpringly well!
I didn’t get to experience all the item buffs and changes yet, but I can already tell they will be fun!
There’s a lot going on in this screenshot, but just so you know, this was the result of a few glitched items!
Deadlockover!
(That title is a bit hyperbolic!)
Been a bit since I last talked about this game, eh?
I have spent most of my time in the Hero Labs gamemode playing my new favorite character: Trapper!
He’s so much fun and my type of character because he’s one that you need to plan ahead and carefully strategize to achieve victory! He has a shield to save allies, a lingering bomb to apply debuffs and softening up enemies and webs he can place from wall to wall to catch people who touch it/ trying to run from a fight and deal massive damage!
I love these more strategy and tactical characters in FPS games because I mostly lack the aim mechanical skill that most have, so I have to compensate by using my brain to out smart my opponent!
I blocked all the runaway routes with my AOE and webs! Leaving him with one predictable path!/p>
But there’s a reason why I haven’t talked about this game in a while… Most of my friends have moved on from the game, playing by myself is not fun (specially because my first 2 solo games were one of the worst games I had in my whole time, but that’s besides the point…) and the recent update that mixed competitive and casual queues into one got me a little mixed. Now you have both people playing to sweat their asses off to get higher in the ranks and people who just want to have fun doing whatever, and I don’t like that. I hold the opinion that competitive is something the player should CHOOSE to engage with, not be forced into. Having this system will just make the quality of matches constantly vary and have the two groups of people mentioned fighting the entire match.
So I have been avoiding the game for those reasons. I hope they revert the changes made to the queues, because it’s healthier to the game, but even if they do I’ll mostly likely not play as much as I did… the game is not as fun without a friend to play with.
And that’s everything for this segment!
Quite short isn’t it?
Probably the shortest Life Update segment this year!
But anyway, I have zero plans this month, aside from surviving work of course!
SONG OF THE DAY
The song of the day is Tetoris by Hiiragi Magnetite!
I love how creative this song is in putting lyrics and remixing the Tetris theme! The vocals sound great too! (Tetoris is such a clever name as well, good job on that one composer!)
And that’s everything for this blog!
Short one, which is good considering work is rough at the moment! Wish me luck to survive it!
Next post will be the last normal one with the review of the month, don’t forget that!
Thank you for reading!
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
