25/11/2024
Helo!
November is soon to be ending! A bit of a shame, since next month is gonna be a rough one for my job… anyways!
Today's features are: Phoenix Club Chapter 8, I Want To Be Close, The Binding of Isaac Repentance + and Operation Ghoulish Gambit!
(Those are some long names huh.)
Spoiler for all those topics!
A good amount of topics today, so let's begin!
WEBSITE UPDATES
Phoenix Club Chapter 8 is Out Now!
No use dwelling in defeat when there's still a chance!
Maybe this time the club will find the flower they were looking for? You can find out if they did by Cicking Here!
Once again, assuming you have read it, let's get into the process of making it.
The chapter is probably the one that received the most fundamental changes out of the pack of 4. The chapter at first was just another simple and quick encounter with another shop (similar to how it is in chapter 6.) and the build-up at the hospital. As one would expect, my Editor heavily pushed back against this chapter.
The main conflict for the past 4 chapters was resolved in one paragraph, feeling hasty and unfinished. Which it was, I made countless mistakes and messed up a lot on this one, and I'll be eternally grateful that I have someone working with me that will tell me and push back when I mess up… (and also someone that has a lot of patience, because oh man… I make a lot of dumb mistakes.)
Anyhow, enjoy this quick little art I made:
“…”
(Silent as usual)
The next chapter will be the final one for this batch I have been working on for the past 2 months (whole year if you count thinking time!) and it's also the biggest one!
Not biggest in size, more like impact!
It's a huge leap for me as a writer, putting my forward and showing what I can do!l. I hope… I can stick the landing! And if I don't, I'm going to learn a lot from it!
Look forward to it!
But before we close this segment, here is some fanart done by Miya!
A simple and blessed drawing of Chie!
And this one:
Seiko being silly!
Speaking of them, we also did art together!
They recently made a new design for Pudd, to see what they would if Pudd was made nowadays, and this was the result:
Pudd Number Two!
Amazing right? But that's not all, I also did an art “collab” with them! (in quotations because I don’t know… I don’t think my artistic skills are as good as theirs to be considered a proper collab.)
Through a series of misunderstandings, I drew a “sketch” of Pudd 2 and sent it to them while I made the final drawing of the sketch they sent me!
Here's how it ended up as:
Pudd and Pudd 2
You can clearly see which made which… but it was fun!
There were some fixes and updates on the backend of the website, but those are all minor stuff.
So, that's all for this segment!
As for my goals for this month…
I'm on track to releasing all 4 chapters of Phoenix Club I promised! I didn’t have much time for the pointless page though, that one will take longer to make.
MANGA OF THE DAY
Ochikazuki ni Naritai Miyazen-san
Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You
Made by Akitaka.
Synopsis: Matsubayashi, a tough and scary looking punk and Miyazen, a refined and proper young lady, complete opposites of each other… but yet they are somehow in love??
Art and presentation: If you saw the previous blog update, the artist behind this one might sound familiar to you! They also made Rokujou Hitoma no Majo Life!
All the praises of very expressive and great art holds true for this manga as well!
…
To a bit less extent… the characters are very expressive, yes, but you will notice that they make the same type of faces a lot.
I think it's not an issue with the art itself though, the problem lies in the writing.
However, it's worth mentioning panels with a lot of impact! They are really well painted and feel like moments where the characters are showing their true emotions!
Like this one:
Really well done, it got me!
(Dialogue censored for spoilers reasons.)
Why you should read it: It's a cute romance between two polar opposites! It's very wholesome and funny sometimes, plus the story on how they met each other is really cute!
But I did have an issue with this story… things repeat themselves a lot. Throughout volume 1 & 2, the couple find themselves in slightly different scenarios but usually end with the same outcome: both of them blushing at the final panel.
That doesn't sound bad, it's a romance manga after all, but I do feel like this happened a little tooo much.
Things picked up during volume 3, 4 had great pacing and the ending was very good!
That’s why you should read it!
Score: 3/5! It's still a very cute manga for you to read! It drags a bit during volume 1 & 2 but it’s fun!
On a side note, it was really cool to see some of the designs from these characters in Rokujou Hitoma no Majo Life. I was constantly pointing at the screen like the reference guy from memes of the ancient past.
LIFE UPDATES
Mario & Luigi in Search of the (One) Five Lighthouses!
Playing Mario & Luigi Brothership has developed my thoughts on the game… who could've guessed?
The game is much slower than previous titles in the series, with a much larger scope too.
That comes with a few downsides.
The story needs to be good to keep retention, which is both doing and not while I'm playing it. The villains seem fun and there’s some mystery to their motives, but it's not exactly gripping me. The story is fine, it's fun but nothing amazing so far.
These guys have a fun dynamic!
The new mechanics for battles are the star this time around, from Luigi logic to the plug system, these are all fun! Which is the core of M&L, and I'm glad they got this right!
I just wished they gave Bros. Moves more often…
Mario vs Luigi!?
The game is not a 9-10/10, that's not the case at all. (At the point I'm at.)
It's more like a solid 7/10
Also, I like that they didn’t forget the previous games and actually have references to them in the game. Good fan service, I enjoy it.
Me when Idling…
Isaac Now Has Access to the Internet!
The Binding of Isaac Repentance +, or more known as Isaac Online Update released! And I have been having a lovely time with it!
I played a couple of online matches and they feel really responsive and the lag is basically non existent! Which is incredible! (This doesn't take into account the very first day. Launch day the lag was pretty nasty, but things were sorted out!)
The online feels very feature complete and polished, which is great! But the highlight to me was the item changes that came with the update!
They made new mechanics for previously bad items and expanded on ones that felt underbaked. (like one of my favorites called Abyss!)
In fact, the update is so great that I made the decision to get my third and final Dead God. (unlocking and seeing everything the game has to offer.)
I was thinking of doing everything on multiplayer, but quickly shut down the idea after realizing I would need to coordinate with complete strangers…
Point is, great update, online is good and I'm happy!
This was a lovely lobby!
The Machines Rise From the Dead, Late for Halloween!
New Mann Vs Machine community event for TF2 is here! It's halloween themed and from the bits I played, it's just as creative as the previous event!
We have: A pretty cool recreation of COD Zombies using the MVM formula; A zombie survival with perma death; And even unique boss fights!
Minefield of rockets!
Custom weapons are also included in this event, more polished than ever! Heck, there's one mission you can play as Merasmus! Everything is so cool, I can't wait to play more!
Amomus.
And that's everything for this segment!
My only plans for this month was to play the new Mario & Luigi game, which I'm doing. So mission accomplished!
SONG OF THE DAY
The Song of the Day is Empurple by Harumaki Gohan!
I love this Vocaloid composer so much, they have such a distinct style and tuning, something I can point at and say “This is Harumaki song.”
What is this style? Well, just look at the turn the song takes at 1:48!
That moment where the visuals become simpler the entire song makes you feel like you're in space! I love these moments in their songs, but there's one song in expecific where that shines a lot… but I'll leave that one for a future blog update!
On another note, I have no idea of the meaning of this song, something about perfection? I don't know, but the visuals are very cool!
And that's everything for today!
Next month will be a very busy one IRL for me, so blog updates might be on the drier side, but November has been a very productive month for me!
See you next month!
Have a nice day Traveler!
15/11/2024
Helo!
Welcome to a new blog update!
Today’s features are: Metroid Dread, Mario and Luigi Brothership and Phoenix Club Chapter 7 and a few others!
Spoiler for all those topics!
Let’s begin!
WEBSITE UPDATES
Phoenix Club Chapter 7 is Out Now!
Sometimes things don’t work out…
The club heads to the park to figure out what to do next… which can find out be Cicking Here to read!
Assuming you already read it/ don’t care about spoilers, let’s get into the details and stuff.
This chapter had quite a lot of work put into it, as the first emotional punch, and I learned a lot writing/ fixing it. The original backstory for Hiroshi was uuuh… a lot darker in the original concepts I had last year… I can’t really delve into details as it would likely spoil the next 2 chapters, so I’ll come back to it when they are released! But this change happened because I thought it was a bit toooo cruel of a backstory the more I put thought into it, especially for a story like Phoenix Club.
Again, I’ll save basically most of the cut/ changed content for later. I need to thank my Editor as well for sticking with this story and giving me valuable criticism (even if it feels a little mean sometimes) for these chapters. I can’t express enough gratitude, because there sure was a lot of work to do…
Also, did you see their invasion on the previous blog update? I recommend it, the art is amazing!
Oh yeah, while on the topic, check out this… art piece about… Chie being a maid…:
Fan Art made by Miya.
AMAZING art I know, but putting maids aside for a bit, it does remind me of something.
When it comes to shipping, I’m really afraid of establishing ANYTHING as canon. What this means is, I will not be encouraging any shipping but you are free to do so with your headcanons! If this can get one or two people into writing as well, then it was a victory in my book!
Anyway, Chapter 8 will be released next Saturday! (23/11)
I planned on releasing tomorrow but my Editor needed a bit more time!
And I’m hard at work on chapter 9, since it is the most important chapter!
So look forward to that!
“Is this really hiding??”
Smaller Tweaks All Over the Place!
I made many tweaks and updates to a lot of pages, mostly on slight word changes and addition to a particular, extensive secret I’m working on!
By far the most effort I put into a secret.
One of these updates include the removal of the Bloons TD 6 Loudout Generator. I lost all the files for that on the transition to Nekoweb, combined with the annoying upkeep it needed, I just decided to scrap it fully. But I did update all the Bloons tier lists and added a "last updated" date to all others!
Also, the poltergeist from the witching day that was haunting the website has been exorcized! No longer will you have to worry about her devious antics and horror… although, I feel another type of horror is just on the horizon.
Thanks to Smuffed and Bang1338 for alerting me to a few things that required fixing!
And that’s everything changed on the website!
LIFE UPDATES
Life Isn’t so Bad in a Micro Room!
I finished reading this very cute manga called A Witch's Life in a Micro Room!
Manga by Akitaka!
All the things I previously mentioned about this manga still held true to the very end of this manga! Fantastic mastery of character expressions and emotions from the author, super cute and genuinely wholesome moments and of course, a lot of laughs and likable characters!
This has been one of the best mangas I have read in recent times! (I know I don’t read that much anymore…)
I even got the good friend Miya to read it, and just like me, they thought it was peak!
Smh my head, they should listen to my recommendations more often.
You too! You should read it as well, make sure to spread it too!
This manga needs to be known by a lot more people!
Pumpkin Appears!
The End to a Dreadful Journey!
(Dreadful in a scary way, not bad!)
I have finished Metroid Dread!
Clocking in about 12 hours of gameplay, 56 deaths and many missiles launched, I collected everything there was to collect and achieved victory against the final boss!
100% Collection!
And I must say that this game is fantastic!
The game takes a bit to stop holding your hand, but when you get some upgrades and more movement abilities, the game becomes really fun! I had a blast going through rooms, killing everything with the screw attack and going at blazing speeds with the speed booster! Some of the puzzles involving the speed booster to collect things were also pretty creative, often requiring you to keep that massive speed between rooms!
Samus is so cool!
I was also a big fan of the small sequence where the first few areas of the game were completely changed by the malfunction heater, freezing the entire place and requiring the player to figure out alternative routes to fix the issue. It’s not often you see a complete area overhaul in Metroidvanias!
Another thing I liked a lot was the fact that even with all the upgrades and powers, Samus is still somewhat fragile! For example, the final boss:
I had a couple of game overs during all phases of the fight because the boss is quite fast and roughless! Pair that with the fact that Samus at her max is still somewhat fragile, it makes for a difficult but really fun fight!
As for the story of the game, I’m not very well versed in Metroid lore, but the reveal of the fake Adam and Samus turning into a metroid was really cool from an outsider perspective! Quiet Robe coming in with the save despite being infected with a X parasite was also pretty cool!
I enjoyed my time with this game quite a lot, I absolutely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of 2D platformers, even if the game is a little short!
I don’t know the context for this but it’s really cool!
Unknowable Domain, more like, Unknowable… Uh… IDK, Middling?
Now that I’m done with all the content the newest Simulated Universe expansion has to offer, it’s time to give my two cents about this mode in Honkai: Star Rail.
This one had a lot to live up to in my mind, since the previous two Simulated Universe expansions were so good and fun and… it didn’t really live up to the hype, I must say.
As mentioned last time, the expansion revolves around the scepters and you activating its effects by either waiting or doing specific activities in battle. Collecting components and upgrading your scepters along the way to fight a really tough boss at the end.
On one hand, it’s quite satisfying seeing the scepters proc and do massive chain reactions and damage. Upgrading and rerolling components also feels nice!
On the other, your characters are quite literally just blank pawns in the battle. Since 90% of the dmg in the battle will come from these scepters, it doesn’t really matter what characters you bring to battle, which I don’t need to tell you why that doesn’t feel right or in line with the Simulated Universe.
This problem only increases with higher difficulties, as the RNG gets more unfair and the enemy deals more damage, forcing you to abandon normal teams and run 4 sustains to slowly knock the boss down. There’s very little agency with this system, which is just not fun.
Real Herta is quite classy!
Overall, it was fun but very disappointing.
Also for those who want to know, I lost my 75/25 again on the lightcone banner!
TO THE SAME LIGHT CONE I GET EVERYTIME!
MARIO AND LUIGI IS BACK!
It still feels so unreal that this game just exists! At all!!!!!
Unfortunately, I have no switch to play it on, because the only one I had years ago… so, I decided to buy the game using the good friend Miya as a proxy, because they would find more use of it than me with no switch, and went to play it on my uh… super switch!
I had a tough time troubleshooting the game on it, graphic glitches, a lot of FPS drops and all… but then I figured out that I just had a REEEEEEEALLY old version of the programs to run the game which… made me question if I’m just dumb for never updating my programs. Regardless, the game is running butter smooth + I added a 60 FPS patch to the game! (Just to clarify something, I don’t mind 30 FPS, but if I have the option, I’ll always take 60.)
LUIGI LOGIC!
I’m only like, 3 hours in and I’m enjoying my time! The Mario and Luigi formula is just always fun!
This game has a much bigger scale now that it is on a proper console, and that’s pretty cool! The graphics look very nice, even if the art style sometimes makes the game look bad, the combat feels super good to play with and the game’s OST is good!
I do have some minor problems with how long it takes for the game to give you the first bros attack , but that's not really a big problem to me. Also, despite being a good OST, it is still not Yoko Shimomura… Well, to be fair that’s an almost impossible standard to meet, so it’s fine.
But yeah, those are all my early thoughts on it! It’s pretty much everything I asked for Mario and Luigi games on a home console! I can’t wait to get back to playing it!
Luigi's face...
SONG OF THE DAY
In celebration of the new Mario and Luigi game, I picked my favorite song of the OST so far!
The Song of the Day is a Mid-Boss Theme from Mario and Luigi Brothership!
Very good tune and I love the part after the 0:57 second mark!
And that’s everything for today’s blog update!
Thank you for reading!
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
05/11/2024
Helo!
November is here to remind all of us that we are reaching the end of the year! Keeping up with this blog, somewhat paradoxically, makes me lose track of time!
Either way, the features for today's blog are: Honkai: Star Rail 2.6 Story, Deadlock and Phoenix Club Chapter 6!
Spoiler for all those topics!
Let’s begin right away!
WEBSITE UPDATES
Chapter 6 of Phoenix Club is Out Now!
The saga continues as the newly established club begins their first ever activity: Find The Flower! Hijinks and silliness issues, all of which you can read by Clicking Here!
Alright, assuming you read it through its entirety, let’s talk about the process of how this chapter came to be!
Initially, this chapter 6 & 7 (or was it 5? I don’t remember…) were expected to be one single chapter, but as it was proven time and time again, things didn’t end up as I planned. Initially, the only gag I had planned was Seiko and Hiroshi rescuing Chie from a frightening encounter with very social individuals. (Oh my, the horrors anxiety!)
But after some thought while writing the first draft, I decided to give each shop more depth, because the chapter did feel very short while the next… needed to be a separate chapter. So I expanded them by using ideas associated with flowers! Things like wreaths, jungles, photos and bouquets! Even if most of them will be places the club will never visit again, I tried to make something that would make them unique. To vary degrees of success…
The gag with Chie was something I thought about a looooooong time ago, something I thought it would be funny to do! At first it would be just a random encounter in this silly little world, but during the making of chapter 5, I thought of putting their paintings on the cafe the club was founded in. As a little teaser of their existence and to connect them to the story more naturally, instead of being just a random encounter.
And that’s about it for my thought process. I don't know if this is usual to anyone, but I think it's cool to share how some things develop and others come from the spur of the moment while writing!
For other minor updates, Character Reference Sheets are going nicely, but I don’t have anything to show at the moment!
And also, chapter 7 will be released this week on saturday, look forward to it! (09/11)
“Quite the natural place…”
There were a few updates here and there for the website that are too small to be noticed or talked about, so instead, what can you expect for this month?
Well, the full release of all 4 Phoenix Club chapters! Maybe a new page from a pointless project I started long ago! Who knows!
Those are my plans for the website!
It is I, the Great Miya from the amazing and brand new Mimiya Nekoweb Page!
As you may know, I am the self-proclaimed Editor of the Phoenix Club series! And I just wanted to add a few words to what my good friend Pudding just said.
This new batch of chapters is a rough and big one! But that's because the cast will be in situations with greater stakes than ever before! I'm really proud of Pudding and where he is taking the story to, and I can't wait to see where these characters end up next! (Seriously, you can't even begin to imagine how hard it is to sometimes correct these chapters...)
I'm only joking, it's very fun to help him and I would not want it any other way! Please read the chapters once they release, you won't be disappointed!... i hope! I'm so glad to be a part of such a nice creation~
Here is a cool drawing of the gang I just made to commemorate, but don't tell Pudding! He doesn't know it yet...!
“We're officially the Pheonix Club! Yeahh!!”
LIFE UPDATES
Careful Around Bananas! You Don’t Want to Find Yourself in a Banapickle!
As expected of me at this point, here I am to discuss the most recent story in Honkai: Star Rail 2.6 Patch!
“Returning to Penacony, the Astral Express is invited to the Paperfold University for its celebrations! But for some reason, the people at the university are all obsessed with monkeys and bananas…? Sure it's just a passing trend… right?”
Alright, with a basic synopsis out of the way, time to delve into details.
There’s quite a lot to like from this quest! For starters, I’m glad we are returning to Penacony, there’s a lot of stories that can still be told on this planet and its unique setting (I’m not the only one that is tired of the Luofu right?) and this mission aims to deliver such an experience. Meeting a mysterious ninja girl named Rappa and Seeing Boothill again, this time with a huge story presence, was really cool to see! The twist with the monkeys and bananas was pretty good too. But to me, they weren’t the spotlight this time around.
That went to the other new character introduced this quest: Reca!
Reca stops the blog for a moment.
Spoilers (2.6 Story)
Reca is a memokeeper basically being held captive by the mastermind spreading the cognitive virus to turn people into monkeys at the university. He has very little concern over the life of others, unless they have great potential in becoming a great actor to his film. In short, he’s a psycho who only cares about creating “Absolute Cinema”. Willing to put his own life on the line (being infected by this cognitive virus) to make his vision a reality.
I just love this entire concept and character! Someone who's capable of messing with memories having the role of a film director and being so infatuated with his craft to the point of putting his own existence on the line to make his film… it’s just so cool!
Despite appearing for only like, 20% of the quest, he definitely made this quest a lot more memorable and fun! I hope he becomes playable in the future!
I do have a complaint about this quest however, I think this whole story suffers a bit from the same problems the main story of Penacony suffered last time… that is, there’s way too much dialogue! There’s a little too much talking and “filler”, I think an hour or two could have easily been cut or reduced and the impact would still be the same. That and also some polish around the edges, such as more animations and better transition from gameplay to cutscene and vice versa. These are things Genshin Impact already does, so they can do it as well.
Anyways, I decided to change the dub of the game to JP this time around, thinking that the EN would have missing voice lines due to the strikes against the company that handles the VA work for Hoyoverse games… I was wrong, this quest and update was fully dubbed in english and I just made the switch prematurely for no reason… Hey, at least all the voices are, uh, good. I definitely miss the EN dub more, but the JP one is well acted. (Despite the fact that I can only Hear Minori and Toya from Project Sekai when March 7th and Dan Heng speak… I would never think about this kind of thing if it wasn't for you Miya! It 's your fault!)
Boothill timeline is so cool! (Image taken from this video, I forgot to take screenshots.)
As for gambling, I decided to get Rappa! Not for story reasons, but gameplay ones! I’m in a huge need of a break DPS!
4 Stars are good break DPS, especially Luka, but they require way too much work and min/maxing to make them on par with 5 stars, so I took the path of least resistance and won my 50/50 on Rappa! After a bit of leveling up and building, I can say with confidence that she is a killer break DPS!
My plan is to get her lightcone. I don’t have guaranteed odds but even if I don’t get it, at least I got many copies of the Erudition Break DPS lightcone that should suffice.
And while on the topic, I also spent all my hard earned wishes in Genshin to get Nahida and her weapon! I got really lucky and got both! She’s now one of my strongest characters and a dendro killer! Now I’ll just save the rest of my pulls for the Pyro Archon (or a Wriothesley rerun, if he ever gets one…)
Crazy Dendroing!
Many Features All At Once!
Now it’s time for a lightning round of smaller things that don’t exactly make a segment of their own but deserve to be noted!
Metroid Dread - The game finally let go of the hand holding and allowed me to go wild and explore the map with my new abilities and powers. It’s quite fun, even if a bit overwhelming and easy to get lost in!
The game just feels and plays really well!
Interloper B - New Interlope dropped with huge bombs and cool stuff!
Go watch it before anything else!
Following the events of the previous episode, we now see the demos viewers submitted and an unexpected return of Eida! I never expected this to happen and the revelations about the demo data being generated really changes things!
… that also means I have quite a lot to update on the Interloper pages…
The new Eida Machinima - Video Archive videos really are spooky and interesting and this is the first time I became aware of a little secret hiding beneath my mouse this entire time: the Spise codes.
Since Interloper 9, a code that starts with “Spise” followed by a random sequence of numbers and letters has been appearing in each video. I tried looking around for their meaning or if they have been solved, but to no avail. It looks like we need more information to attempt to solve these codes… or are we missing something? Who knows.
What we do know is that Anomi is dangerously close to following the same steps Eida took during their investigation… I’m excited to see what’s next!
Seiko in Stardew Valley - Life has been getting really hectic and chaotic for my little brain in recent times. To counter this, I decided to boot up Stardew Valley to relax. But then, I remembered something I always wanted to do in the game but never got around to do it: Play the Stardew Valley Expanded Mod!
So I did just that and I have been having a very chill and happy time with it.
For the character I used this time around, I decided to go with something familiar to me: Seiko!
Seiko in Stardew Valley!?
In this timeline, Seiko becomes a farmer for uh… some reason! (This is not canon to Phoenix Club don't worry.)
I also barely scratched the surface, but I can tell that the mod is huge! Adding new areas and countless other things! It 's quite fun and just what I need!
Seiko might have turned into a bunny, but I don't know.
And lastly but not least:
Deadlock - I have been improving in this game quite a lot!
… at least that’s what I like to think!
Learning more about the game’s mechanics and what all the upgrades do is such a time consuming and intense process to do. It made me realize that the best way to learn and master the game mechanics is: Pick one character and play it endlessly until you feel like you have a good hand on the gameplay, then move on to other characters!
That's what I did! I picked exclusively McGinnis to learn the game, then moved to Abrams, which I think I have a good hand on now, and this time I'm trying to learn Infernus, which is quite the big task with how many builds he has…
Hero Labs is becoming a little less fun as well, now that people started to maximize and really exploit the characters to their strongest… but at least it goes to show that they still need some work before getting into the game officially.
Fanthom and Viper are too powerful.
And that’s everything for this segment!
My only plans for this month is to play the new Mario & Luigi game, nothing else really. So look forward to the surprises to come, because they sure will be surprises for me as well!
SONG OF THE DAY
The Song of the Day is Fuel by Utsu-P!
I was familiar with this creator from a guestbook recommendation and after witnessing this recently released song of theirs… man, THIS SONG IS SO FREAKING FIRE!
I LOVE this song, the MV is AMAZING and the art is GORGEOUS! Definitely my favorite song of their AND probably one of my all time favorites! Definitely recommend you to listen to it!
And that's everything for this blog!
November will be a mostly chill month with a lot of Phoenix Club content, can’t wait to show all the chapters of this silly little story I have been working on.
See you next time!
Have a nice day traveler!
