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Rune Factory 1 notes
Mar. 28th, 2026 03:20 amInstead of a full play diary of sorts, I'm just gonna write various things I notice while replaying the original Rune Factory, this time in Japanese.
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Leaf Green Retiring Run 1
Mar. 3rd, 2026 04:13 pmSooo I started the Retiring Run that I talked about here.
The first gym is pretty simple, and any of the three starter Pokemon are plenty strong enough to get you through the forest. Charmander might make things slightly more difficult when you get to Brock, but it's really not that bad I'd assume. I picked Bulbasaur, whom I named Fin, and caught a Caterpie named Miso and Weedle named Vivi to raise as part of my first badge team. I probably could have solo'd the whole thing with Fin, to be honest, but just in case he absorbed too much experience and went past the level cap, I decided to train the other two. Plus bugs are cute.
There wasn't much to note about the trip to Pewter City. Coffee guy is funny. I can't remember what he talks about in Japanese, but surely he is drunk on the ground, right? He even has rosy cheeks in the original GB games (which go away after he 'has coffee').
I did recently play up through Pewter in the GameBoy games, and I noticed some random differences as I went, but I've already forgot many of them. "I'll use Pokemon as bodyguards" girl in Pallet now says "Signs are useful" lol. At least they kept "Technology is incredible" guy in-tact! I also played up to Pewter in Let's Go Pikachu and I'm surprised some of the script seems to be identical in FRLG and LGPE.
I actually didn't get poisoned even once by any Weedles during my trip, which was nice. Brock's Pokemon were both one-shot by Fin's Vine Whip at level 12, and I think I probably would have been able to get there without needing the bugs, especially if I didn't fight any wild battles (which I did a bit).
So we have our first League Retirees!
Oh yeah, I didn't even evolve the bugs all the way, hahaha. I love cocoon Pokemon though, so it's great.
And now we're on to our next group, and off to Cerulean City. We have to get through Mt. Moon, though, and that means we need a team capable of doing that. I didn't think too much about it before starting this, but I'm going to have to plan my teams around not just the Gym Battle, but also the path to each Gym and what kinds of battles I'll be getting in along the way.
Certainly the most treacherous part of the path to Cerulean is the cave, so I picked up Mankey and Pikachu to help with all the Zubat and Geodude we will see, even in the trainer battles. Hopefully they can take on whatever else comes, too. I also plan to catch a Paras in Mt. Moon and hopefully that will help out in the battle with Misty, and hopefully Stun Spore and Poisonpowder will come in handy.
I did encounter quite a problem, though. I swapped in the new Pokemon and went to the grass to start training them before moving on to Route 3, and in my very first battle, I encountered a Weedle...
And it poisoned Della the Pikachu! And she couldn't escape... again and again... it even got a crit, and it was terrifying. I decided to just try running one last time and it worked (I would have had to retire Della right then if it didn't...) and ended up using the ONE Antidote you find on the ground... so no more of those.
I also got poisoned again from a similar situation, but I managed to get to the Center with a Potion... now I only have like 2 potions and no other items :( But both Pokemon are getting stronger... I want to get to about level 10 before I start working on Route 3. This is a little tedious, but I've done fast romps through these early games so many times that it's kind of nice to have a change of pace, even if the pace is much slower. And just trying to level up a Pikachu has proven to give me quite a bit of a scare excitement lol.
BTW I named Mankey Denise after Dens because the Pokedex entry about getting angry one minute and calm the next describe his recent moods very well lol :\
And with that I have some more grinding to do and then the long trek to Cerulean City. Our level cap this time is 21, so I kinda gotta be careful not to gain too much experience before then. If I do, I might have to grab another Pokemon to train...
I also have to think ahead because I have to have at least one Pokemon in the box ready to go when I get the Cascade Badge, though I guess I could always just allow the retirees to come out just for capturing Pokemon if I mess up and have no one on the bench XD But I am thinking about who to take to Surge already, because backtracking is going to be a pain (and for a point, impossible for a bit), so I want to get Sandshrew or Geodude along the way (or maybe both??). I think I will also use Diglett against Surge, though.
I'm also thinking about doing Nugget Bridge after the gym, as I'll already have gained way too much EXP just by passing through the cave, so it would be nice to have something other than just what's available on Route 4 for that maybe? I'm thinking just a good, hardy Normal-type Pokemon would be nice... so maybe grab a Rattata or catch Jigglypuff or something? Jiggly could be nice with Sing, Pound, Rollout, and Disable. But Rattata gets the almighty Hyper Fang. Both will be able to evolve easily enough, too. Of those, honestly, I think Hyper Fang might come in the most useful lol. Sadly just hitting hard tends to be the best solution in Pokemon's main campaign. I don't think there's another place to catch a higher-level Rattata before I'll need it after the second Gym, so I guess I gotta get it now lol.
The first gym is pretty simple, and any of the three starter Pokemon are plenty strong enough to get you through the forest. Charmander might make things slightly more difficult when you get to Brock, but it's really not that bad I'd assume. I picked Bulbasaur, whom I named Fin, and caught a Caterpie named Miso and Weedle named Vivi to raise as part of my first badge team. I probably could have solo'd the whole thing with Fin, to be honest, but just in case he absorbed too much experience and went past the level cap, I decided to train the other two. Plus bugs are cute.
There wasn't much to note about the trip to Pewter City. Coffee guy is funny. I can't remember what he talks about in Japanese, but surely he is drunk on the ground, right? He even has rosy cheeks in the original GB games (which go away after he 'has coffee').
I did recently play up through Pewter in the GameBoy games, and I noticed some random differences as I went, but I've already forgot many of them. "I'll use Pokemon as bodyguards" girl in Pallet now says "Signs are useful" lol. At least they kept "Technology is incredible" guy in-tact! I also played up to Pewter in Let's Go Pikachu and I'm surprised some of the script seems to be identical in FRLG and LGPE.
I actually didn't get poisoned even once by any Weedles during my trip, which was nice. Brock's Pokemon were both one-shot by Fin's Vine Whip at level 12, and I think I probably would have been able to get there without needing the bugs, especially if I didn't fight any wild battles (which I did a bit).
So we have our first League Retirees!
Oh yeah, I didn't even evolve the bugs all the way, hahaha. I love cocoon Pokemon though, so it's great.
And now we're on to our next group, and off to Cerulean City. We have to get through Mt. Moon, though, and that means we need a team capable of doing that. I didn't think too much about it before starting this, but I'm going to have to plan my teams around not just the Gym Battle, but also the path to each Gym and what kinds of battles I'll be getting in along the way.
Certainly the most treacherous part of the path to Cerulean is the cave, so I picked up Mankey and Pikachu to help with all the Zubat and Geodude we will see, even in the trainer battles. Hopefully they can take on whatever else comes, too. I also plan to catch a Paras in Mt. Moon and hopefully that will help out in the battle with Misty, and hopefully Stun Spore and Poisonpowder will come in handy.
I did encounter quite a problem, though. I swapped in the new Pokemon and went to the grass to start training them before moving on to Route 3, and in my very first battle, I encountered a Weedle...
And it poisoned Della the Pikachu! And she couldn't escape... again and again... it even got a crit, and it was terrifying. I decided to just try running one last time and it worked (I would have had to retire Della right then if it didn't...) and ended up using the ONE Antidote you find on the ground... so no more of those.
I also got poisoned again from a similar situation, but I managed to get to the Center with a Potion... now I only have like 2 potions and no other items :( But both Pokemon are getting stronger... I want to get to about level 10 before I start working on Route 3. This is a little tedious, but I've done fast romps through these early games so many times that it's kind of nice to have a change of pace, even if the pace is much slower. And just trying to level up a Pikachu has proven to give me quite a bit of a scare excitement lol.
BTW I named Mankey Denise after Dens because the Pokedex entry about getting angry one minute and calm the next describe his recent moods very well lol :\
And with that I have some more grinding to do and then the long trek to Cerulean City. Our level cap this time is 21, so I kinda gotta be careful not to gain too much experience before then. If I do, I might have to grab another Pokemon to train...
I also have to think ahead because I have to have at least one Pokemon in the box ready to go when I get the Cascade Badge, though I guess I could always just allow the retirees to come out just for capturing Pokemon if I mess up and have no one on the bench XD But I am thinking about who to take to Surge already, because backtracking is going to be a pain (and for a point, impossible for a bit), so I want to get Sandshrew or Geodude along the way (or maybe both??). I think I will also use Diglett against Surge, though.
I'm also thinking about doing Nugget Bridge after the gym, as I'll already have gained way too much EXP just by passing through the cave, so it would be nice to have something other than just what's available on Route 4 for that maybe? I'm thinking just a good, hardy Normal-type Pokemon would be nice... so maybe grab a Rattata or catch Jigglypuff or something? Jiggly could be nice with Sing, Pound, Rollout, and Disable. But Rattata gets the almighty Hyper Fang. Both will be able to evolve easily enough, too. Of those, honestly, I think Hyper Fang might come in the most useful lol. Sadly just hitting hard tends to be the best solution in Pokemon's main campaign. I don't think there's another place to catch a higher-level Rattata before I'll need it after the second Gym, so I guess I gotta get it now lol.
Leaf Green Retiring Run Rules
Feb. 28th, 2026 12:11 amSo FRLG are out on Switch now, a perfect opportunity to revisit them, even though I have other ways to easily access them without spending money... let's support the bare-bones no-effort port~~~
I don't really know what to call this run, so I'm just going to call it "Retiring Run." I decided to make up some interesting rules to keep the game more fresh and to encourage me to use some Pokemon I may not normally use.
These are the rules I'm going to use that I thought up randomly throughout the day:
1. After defeating a Gym Leader, any Pokemon that battled in any trainer battles up to that point will be retired as a "Gym Road Champion" (even if they didn't participate in the Gym Challenge themselves).
2. If a Pokemon faints at any time, it is retired as a "Wounded Retiree."
3. No Pokemon of a species/evolutionary line may be used again if the same one has been retired.
4. Pokemon cannot exceed the level of the highest level Pokemon of the upcoming Gym Leader.
5. The next Gym Leader to challenge must be chosen immediately after defeating a Gym Leader.
6. Items cannot be bought except for Poke Balls.
Normally I like to put an EXP limit on challenge runs to prevent simply grinding to win, but I usually like doing this by limiting EXP gain to trainer battles only. This gives you a limited amount of EXP to distribute over the course of the entire game, and doesn't allow grinding of any kind, even up to a declared 'level cap' or such. But it's not really a great idea for this run, as for example, after defeating Brock, your only options for Pokemon to capture will be like level 7 and below and know no moves. Even trying to defeat the trainers on Route 3 will be quite difficult, perhaps even impossible, and you'll just keep retiring everyone because they faint.
I thought about doing the cap given to you by the badges you earn, which limits how far traded Pokemon can level up before they start to disobey; however, this cap quickly gets very high to the point where you can again just easily grind up to a very high level.
So I decided to do the 'boring' method of only allowing Pokemon to reach the level of the next Gym Leader's highest-level Pokemon. Although this could prove interesting, because if a Pokemon reaches the cap, they could possibly be put on standby for quite a while before reaching the next Gym, making you rely on other Pokemon for trainer battles and such, and then those additional Pokemon will have to be retired eventually as well. So it does kind of prevent the 'just level one or two things really high' problem that Pokemon has lol.
The game does have a sort of non-linear progression at points in which Gyms can be challenged in different orders, so instead of forcing an order, I decided to make the choice required as soon as a Badge is earned. Since everyone will get retired, I don't have to worry about Pokemon being suddenly above the cap of the next Gym simply because I challenged a higher level Gym first.
I also thought of doing a healing cap, only in the way of making each Pokemon Center usable only once, but since we're going to have to grind a lot of low-level Pokemon after each Gym, that seems a bit too much. Maybe I can try this again if it's too easy or something.
An item limit is an interesting idea... I think 'don't use items at all' is a boring way to play the game, so maybe 'no buying items' could be an interesting way to go about it? This way you can't just buy lots of potions and spam them to win, but rather have to make use of what you find around the ground wisely. I'm going to go back and add that.
Well, that's it for now. I'm already thinking well ahead as to what kinds of Pokemon I want to use, but I don't really want to plan too much, kinda just do it on the fly. I thought about allowed Pokemon to come out of retirement for the League, but then I thought it might be more fun to have to assemble a whole team of Pokemon without using any that have been used up to that point.
Writing all this kind of fatigued me so I'm going to just chill and play TokiMemoGS for the rest of the night lol. Want to make sure to progress in that a little each day at least~
I don't really know what to call this run, so I'm just going to call it "Retiring Run." I decided to make up some interesting rules to keep the game more fresh and to encourage me to use some Pokemon I may not normally use.
These are the rules I'm going to use that I thought up randomly throughout the day:
1. After defeating a Gym Leader, any Pokemon that battled in any trainer battles up to that point will be retired as a "Gym Road Champion" (even if they didn't participate in the Gym Challenge themselves).
2. If a Pokemon faints at any time, it is retired as a "Wounded Retiree."
3. No Pokemon of a species/evolutionary line may be used again if the same one has been retired.
4. Pokemon cannot exceed the level of the highest level Pokemon of the upcoming Gym Leader.
5. The next Gym Leader to challenge must be chosen immediately after defeating a Gym Leader.
6. Items cannot be bought except for Poke Balls.
Normally I like to put an EXP limit on challenge runs to prevent simply grinding to win, but I usually like doing this by limiting EXP gain to trainer battles only. This gives you a limited amount of EXP to distribute over the course of the entire game, and doesn't allow grinding of any kind, even up to a declared 'level cap' or such. But it's not really a great idea for this run, as for example, after defeating Brock, your only options for Pokemon to capture will be like level 7 and below and know no moves. Even trying to defeat the trainers on Route 3 will be quite difficult, perhaps even impossible, and you'll just keep retiring everyone because they faint.
I thought about doing the cap given to you by the badges you earn, which limits how far traded Pokemon can level up before they start to disobey; however, this cap quickly gets very high to the point where you can again just easily grind up to a very high level.
So I decided to do the 'boring' method of only allowing Pokemon to reach the level of the next Gym Leader's highest-level Pokemon. Although this could prove interesting, because if a Pokemon reaches the cap, they could possibly be put on standby for quite a while before reaching the next Gym, making you rely on other Pokemon for trainer battles and such, and then those additional Pokemon will have to be retired eventually as well. So it does kind of prevent the 'just level one or two things really high' problem that Pokemon has lol.
The game does have a sort of non-linear progression at points in which Gyms can be challenged in different orders, so instead of forcing an order, I decided to make the choice required as soon as a Badge is earned. Since everyone will get retired, I don't have to worry about Pokemon being suddenly above the cap of the next Gym simply because I challenged a higher level Gym first.
I also thought of doing a healing cap, only in the way of making each Pokemon Center usable only once, but since we're going to have to grind a lot of low-level Pokemon after each Gym, that seems a bit too much. Maybe I can try this again if it's too easy or something.
An item limit is an interesting idea... I think 'don't use items at all' is a boring way to play the game, so maybe 'no buying items' could be an interesting way to go about it? This way you can't just buy lots of potions and spam them to win, but rather have to make use of what you find around the ground wisely. I'm going to go back and add that.
Well, that's it for now. I'm already thinking well ahead as to what kinds of Pokemon I want to use, but I don't really want to plan too much, kinda just do it on the fly. I thought about allowed Pokemon to come out of retirement for the League, but then I thought it might be more fun to have to assemble a whole team of Pokemon without using any that have been used up to that point.
Writing all this kind of fatigued me so I'm going to just chill and play TokiMemoGS for the rest of the night lol. Want to make sure to progress in that a little each day at least~
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Oct. 4th, 2025 12:04 pmHeyyy I'm back in the Sonic groove! After quitting Sonic CD midway about a year ago, I've finally jumped back in, finishing both it and Sonic 3 & Knuckles in just a couple days! CD was very, very easy to finish, and very short, and I was already over halfway done with it when I came back to it, so...
( RAMBLING about this game )
( RAMBLING about this game )
Sonic the Hedgehog CD
Oct. 2nd, 2025 11:08 amAnd now we move onto Sonic the Hedgehog CD. This one takes place after Sonic 1 but before Sonic 2. Apparently, this game and Sonic 2 were being developed at the same time. Sonic 2 was being developed by the Sonic 1 dev team in the US, while Sonic CD was being developed by a new team in Japan. CD was originally intended to be launched before Sonic 2, which explains why it comes first in the Origins collection, and makes more sense on why the story goes in this order. But players would have to wait because production of CD was delayed for the "more important" Sonic 2 to be released sooner.
Here's our story synopsis thanks to GHZ again:
For one month out of every year, a tiny planet appears in the skies above Never Lake. The mysterious Little Planet is home to seven miraculous gems that control the passage of time. When these Time Stones awaken, deserts revert to jungles and polluted waters become pure again. Intrigued by the unusual power of these stones, Dr. Eggman sets his sights on Little Planet. As soon as it appears in the sky, he chains it to a nearby mountain and, utilizing the planet's lack of boundaries on time, conquers the past so that he controls the future.
Sonic, meanwhile, is on his way to Never Lake, completely unaware of Eggman's latest ambition. Our blue hero arrives on the shores of the lake and is shocked to see the legendary Little Planet chained to the local terrain. It doesn't take him three guesses to figure out the perpetrator of this deed, so he dashes up one of the chains to free the planet and throw a wrench into his rival's latest scheme. Unfortunately, Eggman has been clued in to his enemy's arrival, and preparations have already been made.
Meanwhile, a young girl hedgehog named Amy Rose (aka Rosy the Rascal) is lured to Little Planet by a card reading that told her of a destined encounter with Sonic. Once there, Amy becomes the perfect target for Eggman to make sure he's got Sonic's attention and to show off his latest, most sophisticated creation to date: Metal Sonic. This robot duplicate of our hedgehog hero was designed to match Sonic's every move and even surpass his own namesake speed. This deadly new rival kidnaps Amy in front of Sonic's very eyes and escapes with his prize to Eggman's base.
"Conquers the past so that he controls the future." Great, time travel BS.
Also what is "Rosy the Rascal" lol????? I've never heard this before. I guess in the original Japanese release of the game, she was known by this nickname?? But it was still stated that her name is Amy Rose. I'm kinda glad they dropped "Rosy the Rascal" hahaha. Even though in a way it's kinda cute.
So Metal Sonic actually came BEFORE Mecha Sonic? Metal Sonic seems much more prominent and impressive, so that's kind of a shock. I don't know what happens to Metal in this game, so maybe he gets destroyed and Mecha is a quick replacement build before Eggman had a chance to develop something greater...? Who knows! We'll find out the fate of Metal by playing the game at least.
I remember my college crush hated Amy. Like, she was VEHEMENTLY against Amy. It was really weird lol. I can't remember her reason for hating Amy, though. I just knew that she absolutely hated Amy and would cringe if I mentioned her lol.
Anyway, let's play Sonic CD!! I watched the little anime intro from the Origins collection and it shows Amy doing her card reading that leads her to check out Little Planet. Also the game introduced a few mechanics in the mini-tutorial before the game started. Now we dash by holding UP and the button. Great, they just gotta mix it up on me don't they :P And there's time travel bs IN THE GAME and you have to travel back in time and defeat Eggman's robots or something X_X; I already don't like this hahahaha.
Special stages are 'back' to being at the end of areas, and now revolve around destroying UFOs (?!)
It looks like the game is a normal 2D platformer like the other games, though. For some reason I thought it was some weird top-down pseudo-3D thing. I must be thinking of some other game. I'm really not well-versed in old Sonic...
OK, so I booted up the game proper and there's like... a lyrical song on the title screen?! I mean, I guess they could do that with a CD hahaha. That's pretty cool! It's fun, too, but it stops a little too short.
UM NEVERMIND THERE WAS A WHOLE ANIME INTRO WITH A FULL SONG?!
Wow, this was really cool.
They're not called "Zone" in this one...? I'm still going to assume they're like Zones so this is probably Act 1? IDK.
OK, I've traveled into the future and it was bleak. Then I went into the past. I have no idea what's going on. But then I got to the goal, and got the special stage. I defeated all but one of the UFOs I think, so I didn't retrieve a Time Crystal :( I wonder what happened to the Chaos Emeralds during this time...? Like, they left South Island and flew to West Side Island, I guess? And were partyin' it up there?
WAIT it said "Palmtree Panic Zone 2" so now the Zones are Acts??? UGH I DON'T LIKE THIS.
Also the graphics are somehow worse than Sonic 1 and 2??? LOL. We're in "Zone" 3 now, and I REMAINED in the future. this time. Oops. It's still all destroyed. I think we're supposed to go from the present to the past, defeat some baddies, then go back to the future to see it all nice and neat? I don't know T_T
The boss was... interesting.
I don't know if it looks bad because I'm still in the future or if this is just a REALLY ugly Round (apparently they are called "Rounds").
Oh, and I realized you can hold up+button to dash, and down+button to Super Spin Dash. I think the point of regular dash is to help you transcend time (you have to like, spin a sign around and THEN reach maximum speed?)
Yeah, I hit a thing to go to the future (though I never made it) so I think this is just a really ugly Round. Also I saw Metal kidnap Amy!!! That little Rosy the Rascal, getting into trouble :O
This was another Bouncy Hell area like Casino Night Zone, but a lot dumber.
I went into the past and the graphics got a little more sufferable. And now there are animals jumping around everywhere.
OMG wtf was this boss????????????????????????? That was absolutely horrible.
... I don't like the sound of "Tidal." Water areas in Sonic are TERRIFYING. And this game is... really... not great so far hahaha. Why does the background look like an average DOS game?? Did they put all the budget into that animation? LOL
The music here was pretty cool. I got to the end of Zone 2 and triggered a bonus stage, but I think I had 1 or 2 UFOs left to defeat to win it.
Another interesting boss. He had air bubbles around him as a shield and you had to jump up and inhale them to get to him?????? LOL and then he only required one hit to defeat? Very strange lol.
Also, I forgot to note, but instead of rescuing animals, we're now like... planting flowers?
IDK what to say about this game. Everything has been very samey. Very ugly backgrounds, hard to tell what's going on, pretty simple level design with very little going for it...
Yeah, IDK, you kinda just walk forward and hop around sometimes and win. The boss here was another interesting one... and I'm not using that in a particularly positive way. You just dodge the same slow attack a million times and eventually he just... runs off?
What even is with this name?
Well, anyway, I'm guessing the fun of this game would come from doing all the exploration and time travel. Which I'm... not doing because I have no idea what is going on. But I could see it having some replay value for that. But if you're just trying to get from the beginning to end... there's really nothing there.
With the first two games, getting the Emeralds to get the true endings was a little minigame ON TOP OF already-great level design. This is... not that.
Anyway, I'm gonna take a break here... XD
... OK I took almost a one year break!!
I resumed playing on stream, so I didn't really get to type my impressions of each little thing here as I played.
The boss of Wacky Workbench was another underwhelming one. Basically You just climbed up a few floors by riding some blocks and when you got to the top, Eggman exploded and you went to the next Round.
The Round feels like all the others... don't know what to say at this point lol. I will comment more on the Zone design later, though.
The boss of this Round is a good one, though -- instead of the usual bopping Eggman a couple times, this time we encounter Metal Sonic and have to race him! Why are we racing him? Not sure. But we are, and it's pretty fun. It's standard classic Sonic fare, however... Just try to go fast then randomly hit an obstacle or wall that you couldn't possibly see coming, even in 16:9. Everything feels so same-y along the racecourse that trying to memorize it is very hard, so I was basically just running blind and jumping sometimes HOPING to dodge stuff. Metal does surprisingly more than just run. If you're behind, he'll slow down (I guess we're the tortoise here) and sometimes turn himself all zappy and touching him will hurt you. If you're ahead, he'll get faster and sometimes even do a dash thing that ... can also hurt you. All the while, there is a big death beam coming at you from behind from one of Eggman's mechs or something. This is the real hazard here -- basically you just have to keep moving and not slow down too much to where this beam kills you. Metal is more just a nuisance that makes getting hit by this beam more likely sometimes.
Overall, not the greatest game design or anything, but for Sonic CD, this was easily the most exciting and fun part of the game. And when we won the race, Metal got crushed (!!) in a wall thing, and we rescued Amy!
But the game is not over, we still have to fight Eggman and stop his nefarious deeds...
The last Round is apparently Eggman's factory. I actually thought the Metal race was like... a midpoint or something. The Zone design is just the same as the other stages, just walk forward and hop sometimes and you win.
The boss was just another floaty Eggman mech that took a few hits to beat. It was pretty easy, nothing special. Just another midboss. JUST KIDDING, it's the final boss! I was really confused and surprised when the ending started playing after beating him. And we got a hug from Amy.
So... that's Sonic CD! The ending music is the same song as the opening lyrical theme, but there's a different anime sequence. Definitely this is where the budget went!!
Because we didn't fix all the time travel nonsense, after the credits we just get "TRY AGAIN," so while we technically cleared the game, we lost, and Eggman won.
SO let's talk about that. Sonic CD is really interesting compared to the other 3 (or 4 if you count 3 and & Knuckles as two separate games) "classic" games. The level designs are very complex and the time travel system allows for you to do a LOT of exploring and testing things out.
But if you're just aiming to get to the Bonus Plate at the end of each Zone, you can basically ignore all of that and just walk straight to the end. Kind of like if someone maze with all kinds of branching paths and stuff, but there's just a straight path from the start to finish and you never have to turn and actually go down any of these paths...
Sonic 1, 2, and 3 all have Chaos Emeralds hidden behind obnoxious minigames, and the only way to see their true endings is to win all the minigames. It's a little strange because the primary objective of the true ending and the actual story of the game is locked away behind occasional minigames and not the actual main gameplay. Your main gameplay is hardly relevant at all. Sonic CD is different, though. In this game, getting the true ending is all about your actual gameplay and interaction with the levels themselves.
There apparently is an alternate method to getting the true ending, though, which lies in getting the Time Stones from every Round, which... is done through the Sonic CD's minigame. So if you want to go that route, you can.
I think I will replay CD at another point and actually try to get the true ending by exploring the Zones fully, to see what the game is really all about. I feel like the way I cleared it this time really... didn't let me see much of the game at all.
Story-wise, this game is a little interesting, too. I was musing aloud about the story on Stream, and thankfully some friends who were quite knowledgeable about the games were able to fill in some gaps for me.
Mostly I was wondering why in Sonic 2, which comes after this one, Eggman used Mecha Sonic to fight Sonic when Mecha Sonic feels like a cheap prototype to Metal Sonic, who already exists. I guess later it is implied that Eggman just left Metal crushed in Stardust Speedway for a while and didn't try recovering him for a while. So I guess that Mecha Sonic was like a quick thing he threw together? IDK.
Also, in the final anime sequence (for the Origins version), Sonic actually leaves Amy behind (!) so she doesn't become a traveling companion until later??? Very strange. So it seems like she was originally just a one-off character and maybe replaced in 'friend' status by Tails. I guess they decided to go with the 'best buddy' route instead of the 'damsel in distress' route. It definitely would have been annoying to have Amy getting kidnapped every game (which is probably what they would have done if they decided to keep her around at first, since that's just The Standard of the time).
In a way, it's cool, because other games were all doing "rescue the girl" at the time, and Sonic was doing "have fun and run around with your friend" instead. I think a 'best friend' boy character is more relatable to young boys who were the primary target for the games than a 'girl who likes you' character. Let's face it, in elementary school, we were much more interested in chilling with our friends and playing games than we were in any serious 'dating' (even though I did try to 'have a girlfriend' in elementary school, real romance or having to rescue my missing love interest was not actually relevant to my life lol).
Also the evil plot of the villain is able to be more interesting than just "he kidnapped the girl." I mean, Eggman's plots are still pretty simplistic, but the whole Death Egg saga tells a pretty intricate tale compared to the rival Bowser at the time who was just... kidnapping the princess over and over. We did have other games with interesting plots, like Mega Man and such, but when you think of Sonic you can't help but think of the rivalry with Mario.
But yeah, Sonic CD was definitely interesting. Sadly I missed out on most of the game by just trying to clear the Zones and not explore, as I thought that would be something safe to put off for a later play. So I can't really form a complete opinion on the game for now, but I feel like the game has a lot of promise at the very least, and I did enjoy the introduction of Amy and Metal.
Apparently the "Sonic Boom" song I heard and loved was actually two different songs (an OP an ED) outside of the US. But the Origins collection only seems to contain the US OP and ED? I'll have to look those up when I play the game next time and go for the true ending (or just look at them later today for fun hahaha). As for the other games in the Origin collection... yeah, not going for those true endings. Screw the minigames XD
But yeah, that's Sonic CD! I actually started Sonic 3 & Knuckles on stream as well last night (and cleared the "Sonic 3" portion of the game), so I'll work on a post for that next.
Here's our story synopsis thanks to GHZ again:
For one month out of every year, a tiny planet appears in the skies above Never Lake. The mysterious Little Planet is home to seven miraculous gems that control the passage of time. When these Time Stones awaken, deserts revert to jungles and polluted waters become pure again. Intrigued by the unusual power of these stones, Dr. Eggman sets his sights on Little Planet. As soon as it appears in the sky, he chains it to a nearby mountain and, utilizing the planet's lack of boundaries on time, conquers the past so that he controls the future.
Sonic, meanwhile, is on his way to Never Lake, completely unaware of Eggman's latest ambition. Our blue hero arrives on the shores of the lake and is shocked to see the legendary Little Planet chained to the local terrain. It doesn't take him three guesses to figure out the perpetrator of this deed, so he dashes up one of the chains to free the planet and throw a wrench into his rival's latest scheme. Unfortunately, Eggman has been clued in to his enemy's arrival, and preparations have already been made.
Meanwhile, a young girl hedgehog named Amy Rose (aka Rosy the Rascal) is lured to Little Planet by a card reading that told her of a destined encounter with Sonic. Once there, Amy becomes the perfect target for Eggman to make sure he's got Sonic's attention and to show off his latest, most sophisticated creation to date: Metal Sonic. This robot duplicate of our hedgehog hero was designed to match Sonic's every move and even surpass his own namesake speed. This deadly new rival kidnaps Amy in front of Sonic's very eyes and escapes with his prize to Eggman's base.
"Conquers the past so that he controls the future." Great, time travel BS.
Also what is "Rosy the Rascal" lol????? I've never heard this before. I guess in the original Japanese release of the game, she was known by this nickname?? But it was still stated that her name is Amy Rose. I'm kinda glad they dropped "Rosy the Rascal" hahaha. Even though in a way it's kinda cute.
So Metal Sonic actually came BEFORE Mecha Sonic? Metal Sonic seems much more prominent and impressive, so that's kind of a shock. I don't know what happens to Metal in this game, so maybe he gets destroyed and Mecha is a quick replacement build before Eggman had a chance to develop something greater...? Who knows! We'll find out the fate of Metal by playing the game at least.
I remember my college crush hated Amy. Like, she was VEHEMENTLY against Amy. It was really weird lol. I can't remember her reason for hating Amy, though. I just knew that she absolutely hated Amy and would cringe if I mentioned her lol.
Anyway, let's play Sonic CD!! I watched the little anime intro from the Origins collection and it shows Amy doing her card reading that leads her to check out Little Planet. Also the game introduced a few mechanics in the mini-tutorial before the game started. Now we dash by holding UP and the button. Great, they just gotta mix it up on me don't they :P And there's time travel bs IN THE GAME and you have to travel back in time and defeat Eggman's robots or something X_X; I already don't like this hahahaha.
Special stages are 'back' to being at the end of areas, and now revolve around destroying UFOs (?!)
It looks like the game is a normal 2D platformer like the other games, though. For some reason I thought it was some weird top-down pseudo-3D thing. I must be thinking of some other game. I'm really not well-versed in old Sonic...
OK, so I booted up the game proper and there's like... a lyrical song on the title screen?! I mean, I guess they could do that with a CD hahaha. That's pretty cool! It's fun, too, but it stops a little too short.
UM NEVERMIND THERE WAS A WHOLE ANIME INTRO WITH A FULL SONG?!
Wow, this was really cool.
Palmtree Panic
They're not called "Zone" in this one...? I'm still going to assume they're like Zones so this is probably Act 1? IDK.
OK, I've traveled into the future and it was bleak. Then I went into the past. I have no idea what's going on. But then I got to the goal, and got the special stage. I defeated all but one of the UFOs I think, so I didn't retrieve a Time Crystal :( I wonder what happened to the Chaos Emeralds during this time...? Like, they left South Island and flew to West Side Island, I guess? And were partyin' it up there?
WAIT it said "Palmtree Panic Zone 2" so now the Zones are Acts??? UGH I DON'T LIKE THIS.
Also the graphics are somehow worse than Sonic 1 and 2??? LOL. We're in "Zone" 3 now, and I REMAINED in the future. this time. Oops. It's still all destroyed. I think we're supposed to go from the present to the past, defeat some baddies, then go back to the future to see it all nice and neat? I don't know T_T
The boss was... interesting.
Collision Chaos
I don't know if it looks bad because I'm still in the future or if this is just a REALLY ugly Round (apparently they are called "Rounds").
Oh, and I realized you can hold up+button to dash, and down+button to Super Spin Dash. I think the point of regular dash is to help you transcend time (you have to like, spin a sign around and THEN reach maximum speed?)
Yeah, I hit a thing to go to the future (though I never made it) so I think this is just a really ugly Round. Also I saw Metal kidnap Amy!!! That little Rosy the Rascal, getting into trouble :O
This was another Bouncy Hell area like Casino Night Zone, but a lot dumber.
I went into the past and the graphics got a little more sufferable. And now there are animals jumping around everywhere.
OMG wtf was this boss????????????????????????? That was absolutely horrible.
Tidal Tempest
... I don't like the sound of "Tidal." Water areas in Sonic are TERRIFYING. And this game is... really... not great so far hahaha. Why does the background look like an average DOS game?? Did they put all the budget into that animation? LOL
The music here was pretty cool. I got to the end of Zone 2 and triggered a bonus stage, but I think I had 1 or 2 UFOs left to defeat to win it.
Another interesting boss. He had air bubbles around him as a shield and you had to jump up and inhale them to get to him?????? LOL and then he only required one hit to defeat? Very strange lol.
Also, I forgot to note, but instead of rescuing animals, we're now like... planting flowers?
Quartz Quadrant
IDK what to say about this game. Everything has been very samey. Very ugly backgrounds, hard to tell what's going on, pretty simple level design with very little going for it...
Yeah, IDK, you kinda just walk forward and hop around sometimes and win. The boss here was another interesting one... and I'm not using that in a particularly positive way. You just dodge the same slow attack a million times and eventually he just... runs off?
Wacky Workbench
What even is with this name?
Well, anyway, I'm guessing the fun of this game would come from doing all the exploration and time travel. Which I'm... not doing because I have no idea what is going on. But I could see it having some replay value for that. But if you're just trying to get from the beginning to end... there's really nothing there.
With the first two games, getting the Emeralds to get the true endings was a little minigame ON TOP OF already-great level design. This is... not that.
Anyway, I'm gonna take a break here... XD
... OK I took almost a one year break!!
I resumed playing on stream, so I didn't really get to type my impressions of each little thing here as I played.
The boss of Wacky Workbench was another underwhelming one. Basically You just climbed up a few floors by riding some blocks and when you got to the top, Eggman exploded and you went to the next Round.
Stardust Speedway
The Round feels like all the others... don't know what to say at this point lol. I will comment more on the Zone design later, though.
The boss of this Round is a good one, though -- instead of the usual bopping Eggman a couple times, this time we encounter Metal Sonic and have to race him! Why are we racing him? Not sure. But we are, and it's pretty fun. It's standard classic Sonic fare, however... Just try to go fast then randomly hit an obstacle or wall that you couldn't possibly see coming, even in 16:9. Everything feels so same-y along the racecourse that trying to memorize it is very hard, so I was basically just running blind and jumping sometimes HOPING to dodge stuff. Metal does surprisingly more than just run. If you're behind, he'll slow down (I guess we're the tortoise here) and sometimes turn himself all zappy and touching him will hurt you. If you're ahead, he'll get faster and sometimes even do a dash thing that ... can also hurt you. All the while, there is a big death beam coming at you from behind from one of Eggman's mechs or something. This is the real hazard here -- basically you just have to keep moving and not slow down too much to where this beam kills you. Metal is more just a nuisance that makes getting hit by this beam more likely sometimes.
Overall, not the greatest game design or anything, but for Sonic CD, this was easily the most exciting and fun part of the game. And when we won the race, Metal got crushed (!!) in a wall thing, and we rescued Amy!
But the game is not over, we still have to fight Eggman and stop his nefarious deeds...
Metallic Madness
The last Round is apparently Eggman's factory. I actually thought the Metal race was like... a midpoint or something. The Zone design is just the same as the other stages, just walk forward and hop sometimes and you win.
The boss was just another floaty Eggman mech that took a few hits to beat. It was pretty easy, nothing special. Just another midboss. JUST KIDDING, it's the final boss! I was really confused and surprised when the ending started playing after beating him. And we got a hug from Amy.
So... that's Sonic CD! The ending music is the same song as the opening lyrical theme, but there's a different anime sequence. Definitely this is where the budget went!!
Because we didn't fix all the time travel nonsense, after the credits we just get "TRY AGAIN," so while we technically cleared the game, we lost, and Eggman won.
SO let's talk about that. Sonic CD is really interesting compared to the other 3 (or 4 if you count 3 and & Knuckles as two separate games) "classic" games. The level designs are very complex and the time travel system allows for you to do a LOT of exploring and testing things out.
But if you're just aiming to get to the Bonus Plate at the end of each Zone, you can basically ignore all of that and just walk straight to the end. Kind of like if someone maze with all kinds of branching paths and stuff, but there's just a straight path from the start to finish and you never have to turn and actually go down any of these paths...
Sonic 1, 2, and 3 all have Chaos Emeralds hidden behind obnoxious minigames, and the only way to see their true endings is to win all the minigames. It's a little strange because the primary objective of the true ending and the actual story of the game is locked away behind occasional minigames and not the actual main gameplay. Your main gameplay is hardly relevant at all. Sonic CD is different, though. In this game, getting the true ending is all about your actual gameplay and interaction with the levels themselves.
There apparently is an alternate method to getting the true ending, though, which lies in getting the Time Stones from every Round, which... is done through the Sonic CD's minigame. So if you want to go that route, you can.
I think I will replay CD at another point and actually try to get the true ending by exploring the Zones fully, to see what the game is really all about. I feel like the way I cleared it this time really... didn't let me see much of the game at all.
Story-wise, this game is a little interesting, too. I was musing aloud about the story on Stream, and thankfully some friends who were quite knowledgeable about the games were able to fill in some gaps for me.
Mostly I was wondering why in Sonic 2, which comes after this one, Eggman used Mecha Sonic to fight Sonic when Mecha Sonic feels like a cheap prototype to Metal Sonic, who already exists. I guess later it is implied that Eggman just left Metal crushed in Stardust Speedway for a while and didn't try recovering him for a while. So I guess that Mecha Sonic was like a quick thing he threw together? IDK.
Also, in the final anime sequence (for the Origins version), Sonic actually leaves Amy behind (!) so she doesn't become a traveling companion until later??? Very strange. So it seems like she was originally just a one-off character and maybe replaced in 'friend' status by Tails. I guess they decided to go with the 'best buddy' route instead of the 'damsel in distress' route. It definitely would have been annoying to have Amy getting kidnapped every game (which is probably what they would have done if they decided to keep her around at first, since that's just The Standard of the time).
In a way, it's cool, because other games were all doing "rescue the girl" at the time, and Sonic was doing "have fun and run around with your friend" instead. I think a 'best friend' boy character is more relatable to young boys who were the primary target for the games than a 'girl who likes you' character. Let's face it, in elementary school, we were much more interested in chilling with our friends and playing games than we were in any serious 'dating' (even though I did try to 'have a girlfriend' in elementary school, real romance or having to rescue my missing love interest was not actually relevant to my life lol).
Also the evil plot of the villain is able to be more interesting than just "he kidnapped the girl." I mean, Eggman's plots are still pretty simplistic, but the whole Death Egg saga tells a pretty intricate tale compared to the rival Bowser at the time who was just... kidnapping the princess over and over. We did have other games with interesting plots, like Mega Man and such, but when you think of Sonic you can't help but think of the rivalry with Mario.
But yeah, Sonic CD was definitely interesting. Sadly I missed out on most of the game by just trying to clear the Zones and not explore, as I thought that would be something safe to put off for a later play. So I can't really form a complete opinion on the game for now, but I feel like the game has a lot of promise at the very least, and I did enjoy the introduction of Amy and Metal.
Apparently the "Sonic Boom" song I heard and loved was actually two different songs (an OP an ED) outside of the US. But the Origins collection only seems to contain the US OP and ED? I'll have to look those up when I play the game next time and go for the true ending (or just look at them later today for fun hahaha). As for the other games in the Origin collection... yeah, not going for those true endings. Screw the minigames XD
But yeah, that's Sonic CD! I actually started Sonic 3 & Knuckles on stream as well last night (and cleared the "Sonic 3" portion of the game), so I'll work on a post for that next.
Kirby's Dream Land
Jun. 12th, 2025 09:20 pmSo, let's add to all my series playthroughs that I never finish! This time... Kirby games! I was going to play Kirby's Adventure on the NES because I've never played that but... I feel like I want to compare it to the original. I had this one as a kid, but I haven't played it since I was but a wee tot. So let's try it out!
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[35] The Legend of Miniryu
May. 13th, 2025 09:06 pmHeyyyyy it's been a while! It's time to pick up some more Pocket Monsters! I think this episode was banned in the USA, and probably other places, for its gratuitous use of guns, especially being pointed at children, and children using them, and at one point even being shot at children... yeah.
So let's get right to it! Satoshi and co. finally end up at the Safari Zone, where the warden is a gun nut who keeps threatening to shoot them.
And I mean like a LOT.
Anyway, after several gunpoint death threats, the group notices a photo of the warden when he was younger with the Pokemon Miniryu. Strangely, they keep referring to Miniryu as a "legendary" Pokemon. But yeah, apparently there was this legendary Pokemon Miniryu that the warden met, and when news got out about it, tourist trainers flocked to the Safari Zone to try to catch it, but all they did was catch all the other Pokemon and completely trash the place in the process.
That's why now, trainers given a limited number of Safari Balls and only allowed to use those and then they must exit the Safari Zone. Kinda cool how they gave a little backstory of why the mechanic is like that, when in the game it's not really explained why it's like that. I think in the game, it's just supposed to be more like a fun little challenge? Or maybe a way to make money, as it costs money to get in...
Of course the Rockets are there and hear about Miniryu, and they decide to go after it. They do their little intro on top of the Safari Zone entrance gate sign thing, and the warden just starts shooting at them. It's kinda funny as they continue saying their intro while dodging bullets.
Then there's a little gag where Kojiro grabs the other two and jumps off the sign, releasing a parachute. But of course, it's a short way to the ground, and the parachute doesn't have time to catch them, and they smash face first into the dirt, parachute gently landing after them.
The Rockets challenge Satoshi to a duel of sorts -- whoever catches the most Pokemon in the Safari Zone wins. If Satoshi wins, they'll stop following him for good. But if the Rockets win, Satoshi has to forfeit all his Pokemon to them. Being Satoshi, he just agrees without hesitation. His friends are like "ummm wtf that's risky?" and he's like "it's fine because I'll win!"
In his confidence, he makes a statement and there's like shiny lights behind him, then the camera zooms out to show the special effects are actually Pikachu shooting bolts of electricity behind him lol. Lots of little gags in this episode. I really don't remember it being so silly. Or maybe just because it's been a while since I watched Pokemon, I forgot just how silly it is regularly.
Satoshi and friends go out into the Safari Zone to catch some Pokemon. The first thing they come across is a herd of Kentauros. Takeshi and Satoshi catch one, yay! Then they find a Sihorn. Satoshi throws a ball, but a stampede of Kentauros run by just as he does, and his ball ends up hitting one of them, and he catches another Kentauros instead. Sihorn walks off very slowly... you think he could have just chased after it and thrown another ball, but... nope.
Meanwhile, the Rockets capture the warden and somehow seize his guns. They hold him at gunpoint and try to force him to reveal the hiding spot of Miniryu.
They try a variety of gag methods to get him to talk, from wrapping him up with Arbok, to having Musashi flirt with him (yeah), and more. Here's a mustached detective Nyarth.
Eventually, their tickle torture machine does the trick, and he reveals that Miniryu is hidden in the legendary valley (or something like that, I forget exactly what he called it).
Meanwhile, the GGG are fishing, and Kasumi has a bunch of special lures that she shows off. One of them even looks like her! She uses this Kasumi Special to fish, which snags a Gyarados, but it gets away. Then the warden arrives, still attached to the ticket torture machine. I'm not sure how he managed to MOVE with that massive machine locked on him, but he did! Pikachu shocks it off of him, shocking the warden in the process. So many gags.
The warden reveals that the Rockets have gone after Miniryu in the legendary valley. They have an oxygen macine hooked up to Nyarth and Kojiro who are walking around on the lake floor. Meanwhile, Miniryu just appears in front of Musashi at the surface of the lake. She gets so into luring it closer to her that she doesn't realize she's stepped on the pipes delivering oxygen to her cohorts. Just as she's about to win over Miniryu, they other two come bursting out of the water, scaring it away.
Everyone else catches up, and the Rockets reveal their next plan -- to bomb the lake defeating all the Pokemon within so they can catch them all! Nyarth throws the bomb in the lake, and the warden dives in after it.
After a bit of arguing with Kasumi, Satoshi dives in after him. Kasumi sends out Hitodeman who helps Satoshi swim to the warden, then swaps over and carries the warden back to the surface. Satoshi finds the bomb at the bottom of the lake, which apparently is a time bomb with a very long timer. He tries swimming back to the surface, but he can't make it and breathes in a bunch of water and sinks to the bottom of the lake.
Suddenly, a Hakuryu appears and creates a massive whirlpool, then like... teleports out of the lake in a beam of light...?
Somehow, Satoshi is safe as if he never inhaled water, and happy as ever. He tosses the bomb back to the Rockets, who explode and go flying. They were standing relatively near everyone, and if the bomb was strong enough to destroy an entire lake, you'd think it would have done more destruction, but... oh well.
Hakuryu approaches everyone, and the warden realizes it's his old buddy Miniryu now evolved from the little chip in its horn. They hug and cry, having not seen each other since the warden was a young man. Then a Miniryu appears, and it seems to be Hakuryu's child. So the legacy of Miniryu lives on. Yayyy.
To be honest, all the guns at the beginning was a bit wild... and then there were SO many gags. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it is revealed that Satoshi caught nothing but like 30 Kentauros in their trip to the Safari Zone. Teehee.
Overall, I liked this episode. The warden was cute. But at the same time, I don't think it was particularly amazing. I feel like the relationship between the warden and Miniryu and what happened between then and now was underdeveloped.
Pocket Monsters Watchthrough
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So let's get right to it! Satoshi and co. finally end up at the Safari Zone, where the warden is a gun nut who keeps threatening to shoot them.
And I mean like a LOT.
Anyway, after several gunpoint death threats, the group notices a photo of the warden when he was younger with the Pokemon Miniryu. Strangely, they keep referring to Miniryu as a "legendary" Pokemon. But yeah, apparently there was this legendary Pokemon Miniryu that the warden met, and when news got out about it, tourist trainers flocked to the Safari Zone to try to catch it, but all they did was catch all the other Pokemon and completely trash the place in the process.
That's why now, trainers given a limited number of Safari Balls and only allowed to use those and then they must exit the Safari Zone. Kinda cool how they gave a little backstory of why the mechanic is like that, when in the game it's not really explained why it's like that. I think in the game, it's just supposed to be more like a fun little challenge? Or maybe a way to make money, as it costs money to get in...
Of course the Rockets are there and hear about Miniryu, and they decide to go after it. They do their little intro on top of the Safari Zone entrance gate sign thing, and the warden just starts shooting at them. It's kinda funny as they continue saying their intro while dodging bullets.
Then there's a little gag where Kojiro grabs the other two and jumps off the sign, releasing a parachute. But of course, it's a short way to the ground, and the parachute doesn't have time to catch them, and they smash face first into the dirt, parachute gently landing after them.
The Rockets challenge Satoshi to a duel of sorts -- whoever catches the most Pokemon in the Safari Zone wins. If Satoshi wins, they'll stop following him for good. But if the Rockets win, Satoshi has to forfeit all his Pokemon to them. Being Satoshi, he just agrees without hesitation. His friends are like "ummm wtf that's risky?" and he's like "it's fine because I'll win!"
In his confidence, he makes a statement and there's like shiny lights behind him, then the camera zooms out to show the special effects are actually Pikachu shooting bolts of electricity behind him lol. Lots of little gags in this episode. I really don't remember it being so silly. Or maybe just because it's been a while since I watched Pokemon, I forgot just how silly it is regularly.
Satoshi and friends go out into the Safari Zone to catch some Pokemon. The first thing they come across is a herd of Kentauros. Takeshi and Satoshi catch one, yay! Then they find a Sihorn. Satoshi throws a ball, but a stampede of Kentauros run by just as he does, and his ball ends up hitting one of them, and he catches another Kentauros instead. Sihorn walks off very slowly... you think he could have just chased after it and thrown another ball, but... nope.
Meanwhile, the Rockets capture the warden and somehow seize his guns. They hold him at gunpoint and try to force him to reveal the hiding spot of Miniryu.
They try a variety of gag methods to get him to talk, from wrapping him up with Arbok, to having Musashi flirt with him (yeah), and more. Here's a mustached detective Nyarth.
Eventually, their tickle torture machine does the trick, and he reveals that Miniryu is hidden in the legendary valley (or something like that, I forget exactly what he called it).
Meanwhile, the GGG are fishing, and Kasumi has a bunch of special lures that she shows off. One of them even looks like her! She uses this Kasumi Special to fish, which snags a Gyarados, but it gets away. Then the warden arrives, still attached to the ticket torture machine. I'm not sure how he managed to MOVE with that massive machine locked on him, but he did! Pikachu shocks it off of him, shocking the warden in the process. So many gags.
The warden reveals that the Rockets have gone after Miniryu in the legendary valley. They have an oxygen macine hooked up to Nyarth and Kojiro who are walking around on the lake floor. Meanwhile, Miniryu just appears in front of Musashi at the surface of the lake. She gets so into luring it closer to her that she doesn't realize she's stepped on the pipes delivering oxygen to her cohorts. Just as she's about to win over Miniryu, they other two come bursting out of the water, scaring it away.
Everyone else catches up, and the Rockets reveal their next plan -- to bomb the lake defeating all the Pokemon within so they can catch them all! Nyarth throws the bomb in the lake, and the warden dives in after it.
After a bit of arguing with Kasumi, Satoshi dives in after him. Kasumi sends out Hitodeman who helps Satoshi swim to the warden, then swaps over and carries the warden back to the surface. Satoshi finds the bomb at the bottom of the lake, which apparently is a time bomb with a very long timer. He tries swimming back to the surface, but he can't make it and breathes in a bunch of water and sinks to the bottom of the lake.
Suddenly, a Hakuryu appears and creates a massive whirlpool, then like... teleports out of the lake in a beam of light...?
Somehow, Satoshi is safe as if he never inhaled water, and happy as ever. He tosses the bomb back to the Rockets, who explode and go flying. They were standing relatively near everyone, and if the bomb was strong enough to destroy an entire lake, you'd think it would have done more destruction, but... oh well.
Hakuryu approaches everyone, and the warden realizes it's his old buddy Miniryu now evolved from the little chip in its horn. They hug and cry, having not seen each other since the warden was a young man. Then a Miniryu appears, and it seems to be Hakuryu's child. So the legacy of Miniryu lives on. Yayyy.
To be honest, all the guns at the beginning was a bit wild... and then there were SO many gags. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it is revealed that Satoshi caught nothing but like 30 Kentauros in their trip to the Safari Zone. Teehee.
Overall, I liked this episode. The warden was cute. But at the same time, I don't think it was particularly amazing. I feel like the relationship between the warden and Miniryu and what happened between then and now was underdeveloped.
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Wing Commander
Apr. 18th, 2025 02:38 amSo I'm going to start my Wing Commander adventure! I had Wing Commander III on PS1 back in the day, and I always was so intrigued by it, but I had no idea what was going on. It felt like it was dropping me into the middle of a story that I was already supposed to be familiar with. So I never ended up getting very far.
But I recently decided to buy the whole series on GOG since each game was on sale for like $2~3 (there's like 8 of them).
As always I have trouble following stuff, so typing out about it will help me :D So welcome to my play diary of Wing Commander, I guess? lmao
We're actually going to start with the manual. The manual has 36 pages of lore and story. While it's a PC game, it's still from 1990, so storage space was still an issue. Some people had very limited space to install games, and if you're running them from floppies, you were limited by the size of the disk. But printed manuals could store tons and tons of story with easy presentation!
The manual is presented as an "on-board magazine" for crew members of the TCS Tiger's Claw called Claw Marks.
( Claw Marks )
And yes, that's going to be episode one of this play diary :P Just reviewing the game's manual booklet.
Maybe tomorrow I will actually play the game...!
But I recently decided to buy the whole series on GOG since each game was on sale for like $2~3 (there's like 8 of them).
As always I have trouble following stuff, so typing out about it will help me :D So welcome to my play diary of Wing Commander, I guess? lmao
We're actually going to start with the manual. The manual has 36 pages of lore and story. While it's a PC game, it's still from 1990, so storage space was still an issue. Some people had very limited space to install games, and if you're running them from floppies, you were limited by the size of the disk. But printed manuals could store tons and tons of story with easy presentation!
The manual is presented as an "on-board magazine" for crew members of the TCS Tiger's Claw called Claw Marks.
( Claw Marks )
And yes, that's going to be episode one of this play diary :P Just reviewing the game's manual booklet.
Maybe tomorrow I will actually play the game...!
ROCKMANX5 "Perfect" Playthrough Route
Mar. 20th, 2025 01:28 amWell, I once again have the desire to play through X5 and create a "perfect" stage order. In short, I like to create my "favorite" stage orders through the games that focus on primarily minimal revisits while collecting all items, and where possible, making the most fun use of the special weapons in the game. I have X1-X4 down easily -- I've played them so many times and worked hard on those orders. But X5 is where it gets... weird.
In my last post about this, I only got halfway through the game and didn't explain the weirdness, so we're going to go into that in detail now, as I don't have any particular desire to start actually playing the game tonight.
( Why defining a perfect route is weird )
( Choosing which parts to develop )
( Missions briefing: What requires revisiting )
( The Playthrough )
Well, I think my next goal is to do an X6 route with similar priorities to this route. I've done X1-X4 routes already, as they're much simpler. Maybe will do a replay of those soon and go into detail about them...? I have them in a notepad file on my OneDrive lmao.
Then onto X7 after X6. The problem with X7 is that you spend precious Chip Items to upgrade each Hunter, but then can only take two to the final boss. Axl and X play similarly enough it seems pointless to power up BOTH, but part of the routing is collecting all the items, which means taking X into four of the stages to pick up his armor parts, but you can't unlock him as playable until AT LEAST clearing four missions with Axl and Zero without X, so you'll already have equipped your Chip Items from then... it's a conundrum lol. I guess the "smart" thing to do would be to completely ignore either Axl or Zero for the first half and then leave the ignored one behind once you get X...? But then you're completely ignoring the tag team feature of the game for like half the game, which is not fun IMO. I guess I'll have to think about it a little differently -- making builds for all three Hunters so that you can choose to take whoever you want into the final stage without worrying about them being TOO underpowered.
Then X8... I don't know what I'm going to do with that mess hahaha.
In my last post about this, I only got halfway through the game and didn't explain the weirdness, so we're going to go into that in detail now, as I don't have any particular desire to start actually playing the game tonight.
( Why defining a perfect route is weird )
( Choosing which parts to develop )
( Missions briefing: What requires revisiting )
( The Playthrough )
Well, I think my next goal is to do an X6 route with similar priorities to this route. I've done X1-X4 routes already, as they're much simpler. Maybe will do a replay of those soon and go into detail about them...? I have them in a notepad file on my OneDrive lmao.
Then onto X7 after X6. The problem with X7 is that you spend precious Chip Items to upgrade each Hunter, but then can only take two to the final boss. Axl and X play similarly enough it seems pointless to power up BOTH, but part of the routing is collecting all the items, which means taking X into four of the stages to pick up his armor parts, but you can't unlock him as playable until AT LEAST clearing four missions with Axl and Zero without X, so you'll already have equipped your Chip Items from then... it's a conundrum lol. I guess the "smart" thing to do would be to completely ignore either Axl or Zero for the first half and then leave the ignored one behind once you get X...? But then you're completely ignoring the tag team feature of the game for like half the game, which is not fun IMO. I guess I'll have to think about it a little differently -- making builds for all three Hunters so that you can choose to take whoever you want into the final stage without worrying about them being TOO underpowered.
Then X8... I don't know what I'm going to do with that mess hahaha.
Well, I got 149 out of 150 living dex in Pokemon Shining Pearl! The one I'm missing is, of course, Dialga. I'll have to buy Brilliant Diamond some time (maybe next month or the next?) to get Dialga. Then gonna transfer them all to Pokemon Home for the achievement. I think you actually get something nice for registering all 150 as well...? Maybe like a legendary Pokemon or something? Or maybe I'm just imagining things XD Lemme look it up... yup, it's a shiny Manaphy!
Moving on next to Scarlet/Violet. I've already cleared the storyline in Scarlet, so I'm gonna start up a new game in Violet which I just got a copy of earlier this month :3
Moving on next to Scarlet/Violet. I've already cleared the storyline in Scarlet, so I'm gonna start up a new game in Violet which I just got a copy of earlier this month :3
Clock Tower VS Girl's Side
Feb. 26th, 2025 08:15 pmI bought Clock Tower: Rewind on my Switch. I've played the SNES version before so it's not NEW but there are new things and it feels 'new' because I just bought it, and it's making me want to play it.
But I'm afraid if I play it I will abandon Girl's Side, and I'm one run away from finishing my playthrough of all the brains.
But I've already played 7 runs of Girl's Side back to back lol.
There's also Pokemon Day tomorrow, and it will probably entice me to play a Pokemon game... there's also rumors we're getting the original three generations of games on the Switch, but when I looked further into it, all I could find was a fan mock-up, and that might be where the rumors started, so there's no real foundation to them... unless the fan mock-up was a response to the rumors and there's a little credit to them...?
In an ideal world, we'd get said collections and they'd surprise drop after Pokemon Presents, but that's extremely unlikely XD They'd probably give us time to preorder...? Unless they're going to be digital-only.
Personally my guess is that those games are slated for Virtual Console on the Switch 2, as there are rumors we might be getting the return of the VC. But then we wouldn't hear about them tomorrow and would probably have to wait until AT LEAST the Switch 2 direct.
Either way, if we DO get them, they'd have to include online mode... as you can't complete the dex without trading. And people would be very unhappy if they didn't allow that in a rerelease.
But yeah... I don't want to play Girl's Side because I'd rather play my "new" game, but I don't want to play Clock Tower because I don't want to abandon Girl's Side. It's quite a conundrum XD
I only got one or two endings on the SNES version (the bad/early ones) so there's still a lot I haven't seen in CT. Sadly, though, a lot of the story has been spoiled for me by playing Clock Tower 2, which recaps the events of the original and references it a lot. I already know the identity of the killer and who dies and who survives lol. But I don't know exactly how it plays out, so I'm still interested in playing the game. And I mean, I replay games all the time, so knowing the story ahead of time has never deterred me from a game.
And for those of you who would like to know, Den is doing well after his brain surgery and recovering better than expected. He mostly just eats and sleeps as that's all his body longs for right now. But he's not in much pain (more discomfort than anything). He does long to be more active, so I'm trying to keep him calm and satisfied with lying around lol.
But I'm afraid if I play it I will abandon Girl's Side, and I'm one run away from finishing my playthrough of all the brains.
But I've already played 7 runs of Girl's Side back to back lol.
There's also Pokemon Day tomorrow, and it will probably entice me to play a Pokemon game... there's also rumors we're getting the original three generations of games on the Switch, but when I looked further into it, all I could find was a fan mock-up, and that might be where the rumors started, so there's no real foundation to them... unless the fan mock-up was a response to the rumors and there's a little credit to them...?
In an ideal world, we'd get said collections and they'd surprise drop after Pokemon Presents, but that's extremely unlikely XD They'd probably give us time to preorder...? Unless they're going to be digital-only.
Personally my guess is that those games are slated for Virtual Console on the Switch 2, as there are rumors we might be getting the return of the VC. But then we wouldn't hear about them tomorrow and would probably have to wait until AT LEAST the Switch 2 direct.
Either way, if we DO get them, they'd have to include online mode... as you can't complete the dex without trading. And people would be very unhappy if they didn't allow that in a rerelease.
But yeah... I don't want to play Girl's Side because I'd rather play my "new" game, but I don't want to play Clock Tower because I don't want to abandon Girl's Side. It's quite a conundrum XD
I only got one or two endings on the SNES version (the bad/early ones) so there's still a lot I haven't seen in CT. Sadly, though, a lot of the story has been spoiled for me by playing Clock Tower 2, which recaps the events of the original and references it a lot. I already know the identity of the killer and who dies and who survives lol. But I don't know exactly how it plays out, so I'm still interested in playing the game. And I mean, I replay games all the time, so knowing the story ahead of time has never deterred me from a game.
And for those of you who would like to know, Den is doing well after his brain surgery and recovering better than expected. He mostly just eats and sleeps as that's all his body longs for right now. But he's not in much pain (more discomfort than anything). He does long to be more active, so I'm trying to keep him calm and satisfied with lying around lol.
Itaru Hikami mini play diary
Feb. 26th, 2025 02:54 amSo, I am just gonna catalogue my thoughts on Hikamitchi and my run here as I play through to try to get all his stills and his fated confession.
A little reference on the gameplay:
Starting with Simple room, I'm going to basically study once to meet Hikami-kun, then join student council and spam that until the end of the game to avoid meeting other boys. Yeah, it'll be that easy, as student council raises the study and care stats a lot. I'm going to avoid hanging out with Onoda-san in hopes of avoiding a rivalry. Gonna work at Annelie, which is annoying because we'll have to meet Masaki-san, but it's worth it for the stat gains, and it'll be the first job we get access to, anyway.
So yeah, let's start!
I want to say, initial impressions of Hikami-kun are POOR. Basically you meet him by him punishing you for being 15 seconds late, and he won't let up about it. He forces you to report your name and class, which is how you exchange names.
I get that they're trying to establish him as a by-the-books guy, but they could have made this a scene you get to see AFTER meeting him, right...? While he is strict about the rules, I don't think this is really indicative of his personality over all.
Immediately after that, we get his first scene -- him riding his bike... with a helmet! He's all smiles this time, and encouraging us to worry about safety first. This is a much better way to meet him, I think. They should have had this be his meeting scene, tbh. You could still be curious and ask him about the helmet and hand signals and that could lead to exchanging names. That would at least start you off on the right foot, instead of having your first meeting be such a downer.
I'm not going to comment on everything I do and every date... just put out some notes if I have something to say.
Hikami-kun being a stickler for the rules is so cute...? I really liked his little speech he gave on the new disciplinary committee captain day thing. He was kinda calling out the entire student body and then they got mad hahaha. But he was kinda right...? Idk, I liked it at least XD
I managed to get him to friends level just after xmas! I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten someone to friends.
It's funny how if you say something that isn't exactly correct he will correct you XD But in a well-meaning way.
OK I finally got him to like and now I can call him Hikamitchi :D What I really like about him is that under his stern demeanor he's actually quite passionate and nice, and he gets flustered so easily, too; it's so cute!
I like that when I asked him what kind of girl he's interested in, he didn't know, but when he was rambling to himself thinking about it, his first thought was 'good at science' lol. Also he mentioned liking kids, so he must be family-oriented. What a cutie! His future aspirations (wanting to become an astronomer and make new discoveries) are also quite profound, which is cool. I like a passionate guy with lofty aspirations.
In my previous playthrough, I got a scene where he is practicing yelling out good morning to all the students. It was SO adorable, but I haven't seen it yet in this playthrough D: I wonder what triggers it.
OK, I finally got it.
I got a 'love talk' I think -- we went to the aquarium and there were jellyfish, and I could say fu-nya-fu-nya~<3 and I was like 'wtf' so I did, and he got really embarrassed and then turned around and said he wanted me to by myself in front of him and we had a little lovey-dovey moment. I think I actually got another one when he asked me what the people in the past were thinking about from the tower and I said "maybe the same as us."
And yeah, I finally got the fated confession--!! Picked up all CGs along the way. Except for the ending ones from other endings, of course. I ran into VS mode with Onoda-san near the end... didn't manage to get her friendship back up but still got the ending anyway. Looks like if the boy likes you enough, the girl can't steal him away.
Haaaaa it's almost 3AM lol. Time for bed! Tomorrow we start Morimura-kun's run!
A little reference on the gameplay:
Starting with Simple room, I'm going to basically study once to meet Hikami-kun, then join student council and spam that until the end of the game to avoid meeting other boys. Yeah, it'll be that easy, as student council raises the study and care stats a lot. I'm going to avoid hanging out with Onoda-san in hopes of avoiding a rivalry. Gonna work at Annelie, which is annoying because we'll have to meet Masaki-san, but it's worth it for the stat gains, and it'll be the first job we get access to, anyway.
So yeah, let's start!
I want to say, initial impressions of Hikami-kun are POOR. Basically you meet him by him punishing you for being 15 seconds late, and he won't let up about it. He forces you to report your name and class, which is how you exchange names.
I get that they're trying to establish him as a by-the-books guy, but they could have made this a scene you get to see AFTER meeting him, right...? While he is strict about the rules, I don't think this is really indicative of his personality over all.
Immediately after that, we get his first scene -- him riding his bike... with a helmet! He's all smiles this time, and encouraging us to worry about safety first. This is a much better way to meet him, I think. They should have had this be his meeting scene, tbh. You could still be curious and ask him about the helmet and hand signals and that could lead to exchanging names. That would at least start you off on the right foot, instead of having your first meeting be such a downer.
I'm not going to comment on everything I do and every date... just put out some notes if I have something to say.
Hikami-kun being a stickler for the rules is so cute...? I really liked his little speech he gave on the new disciplinary committee captain day thing. He was kinda calling out the entire student body and then they got mad hahaha. But he was kinda right...? Idk, I liked it at least XD
I managed to get him to friends level just after xmas! I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten someone to friends.
It's funny how if you say something that isn't exactly correct he will correct you XD But in a well-meaning way.
OK I finally got him to like and now I can call him Hikamitchi :D What I really like about him is that under his stern demeanor he's actually quite passionate and nice, and he gets flustered so easily, too; it's so cute!
I like that when I asked him what kind of girl he's interested in, he didn't know, but when he was rambling to himself thinking about it, his first thought was 'good at science' lol. Also he mentioned liking kids, so he must be family-oriented. What a cutie! His future aspirations (wanting to become an astronomer and make new discoveries) are also quite profound, which is cool. I like a passionate guy with lofty aspirations.
In my previous playthrough, I got a scene where he is practicing yelling out good morning to all the students. It was SO adorable, but I haven't seen it yet in this playthrough D: I wonder what triggers it.
OK, I finally got it.
I got a 'love talk' I think -- we went to the aquarium and there were jellyfish, and I could say fu-nya-fu-nya~<3 and I was like 'wtf' so I did, and he got really embarrassed and then turned around and said he wanted me to by myself in front of him and we had a little lovey-dovey moment. I think I actually got another one when he asked me what the people in the past were thinking about from the tower and I said "maybe the same as us."
And yeah, I finally got the fated confession--!! Picked up all CGs along the way. Except for the ending ones from other endings, of course. I ran into VS mode with Onoda-san near the end... didn't manage to get her friendship back up but still got the ending anyway. Looks like if the boy likes you enough, the girl can't steal him away.
Haaaaa it's almost 3AM lol. Time for bed! Tomorrow we start Morimura-kun's run!
What next?
Feb. 25th, 2025 01:55 amSo, I'm on a Girl's Side kick, and I'm halfway through my 'Brains' playthroughs. I'm going to do Hikami-kun's accidental kiss ending next in 2nd, and then finally a replay of Sakuya-chan's ending in 1st after all these years.
But what would be fun to do next?
( Read more... )
But what would be fun to do next?
( Read more... )
Tamao Konno and the Brain Contest
Feb. 24th, 2025 11:08 pmSo, I can't remember if I had hard decided on this in the last post, but I'm going through the 4 Girl's Side games to romance all the 'brainy' guys and see who is the best.
I've done Morimura (1) long ago (in college, eep), and I had a failed run at getting Hikami (2)'s reversal ending recently... then I got Honda (4)'s true ending, which I talked about in the last post... so the only one I hadn't seen at all was Konno (3). In fact, I hadn't even played Girl's Side 3rd, so this was an entirely new experience for me.
Konno-senpai was... definitely the most disappointing of the brains. ( spoilers )
As for the game... it's suppsoed to be the best game in the series, but a lot of that opinion was solidified before the 4th game came out and the English-speaking fandom never latched onto 4th because unlike the first three, it doesn't have a fan translation, being on the Switch instead of the DS. After playing both 3rd and 4th, I feel like 3rd is more like a prototype of 4th, which improves on all its systems in every way. But that's just first impressions -- there's still some stuff I haven't gotten to play around with yet in 3rd. I did enter a triangle (the throuple system) in my first game with Kou-kun and Ruka-kun, but it didn't go much anywhere, and I didn't escalate it to PVP. So I have no idea what all that is like -- but the Marie Garden feature with friendship groups seems like more refined version of this system.
I do love the idea of poly relationships in games, but maybe it's some kind of internalized polyphobia or something, but it just feels so... awkward or unnatural for all these high school boys too all come up with the same idea of doubling up to date the same girl lol. I guess 3rd just takes place in a very poly-normative society...??? Hahahahaha.
I did accidentally get the triangle ending #1 for Kou-kun and Ruka-kun my first playthrough (I messed up my stats and had to replay to get Konno-senpai's proper ending T_T) and it was basically the three of us being besties and hanging out. But the triangle ending #2 is much harder to get -- you basically have to enter a triangle AND get both guys to fall for you, meeting their individual ending requirements. But stay in the triangle...? IDK lol.
Anyway, next up is a revenge run of 2nd to try to get Hikami-kun's ending. I was going to try again to get the reversal ending, but it's super hard and I'm just trying to get through the 4 brains right now, so I think I'm just gonna do a normal run for him and go for all his stills.
I'm not sure if I should go for his normal ending or accidental kiss ending -- they're both the exact same requirements, just one of them you have to get his accidental kiss at the beginning of the game. So there's no save-scumming to get both easily, you have to do the exact same playthrough TWICE lmao.
Actually I think if you go for someone's reverse ending and DON'T dump the 'backup' guy, you'll get their normal (non-kiss) ending, so I should go for the kiss ending first, then I can use him as the 'secondary' for a reversal ending later and get that ending then. OK, it's settled! Accidental kiss with Hikami-kun and then aim for all his stills!!
Also, a ramble about nicknames: ( Read more... )
I've done Morimura (1) long ago (in college, eep), and I had a failed run at getting Hikami (2)'s reversal ending recently... then I got Honda (4)'s true ending, which I talked about in the last post... so the only one I hadn't seen at all was Konno (3). In fact, I hadn't even played Girl's Side 3rd, so this was an entirely new experience for me.
Konno-senpai was... definitely the most disappointing of the brains. ( spoilers )
As for the game... it's suppsoed to be the best game in the series, but a lot of that opinion was solidified before the 4th game came out and the English-speaking fandom never latched onto 4th because unlike the first three, it doesn't have a fan translation, being on the Switch instead of the DS. After playing both 3rd and 4th, I feel like 3rd is more like a prototype of 4th, which improves on all its systems in every way. But that's just first impressions -- there's still some stuff I haven't gotten to play around with yet in 3rd. I did enter a triangle (the throuple system) in my first game with Kou-kun and Ruka-kun, but it didn't go much anywhere, and I didn't escalate it to PVP. So I have no idea what all that is like -- but the Marie Garden feature with friendship groups seems like more refined version of this system.
I do love the idea of poly relationships in games, but maybe it's some kind of internalized polyphobia or something, but it just feels so... awkward or unnatural for all these high school boys too all come up with the same idea of doubling up to date the same girl lol. I guess 3rd just takes place in a very poly-normative society...??? Hahahahaha.
I did accidentally get the triangle ending #1 for Kou-kun and Ruka-kun my first playthrough (I messed up my stats and had to replay to get Konno-senpai's proper ending T_T) and it was basically the three of us being besties and hanging out. But the triangle ending #2 is much harder to get -- you basically have to enter a triangle AND get both guys to fall for you, meeting their individual ending requirements. But stay in the triangle...? IDK lol.
Anyway, next up is a revenge run of 2nd to try to get Hikami-kun's ending. I was going to try again to get the reversal ending, but it's super hard and I'm just trying to get through the 4 brains right now, so I think I'm just gonna do a normal run for him and go for all his stills.
I'm not sure if I should go for his normal ending or accidental kiss ending -- they're both the exact same requirements, just one of them you have to get his accidental kiss at the beginning of the game. So there's no save-scumming to get both easily, you have to do the exact same playthrough TWICE lmao.
Actually I think if you go for someone's reverse ending and DON'T dump the 'backup' guy, you'll get their normal (non-kiss) ending, so I should go for the kiss ending first, then I can use him as the 'secondary' for a reversal ending later and get that ending then. OK, it's settled! Accidental kiss with Hikami-kun and then aim for all his stills!!
Also, a ramble about nicknames: ( Read more... )
Girl's Side Guys
Feb. 23rd, 2025 10:42 amSo, I've been playing Girl's Side series a lot recently (in addition to QUITE A BIT of Pioneers of Olive Town) and I've gotten to know some of the guys better and just wanted to ramble a bit about them.
( spoilers )
I was trying to get Hikami's reversal ending with Chris as the 'other guy' in GS2, but ended up screwing it up (rival mode is ROUGH) and just got Chris's normal ending, sadly. Now that I finished Honda's ending in GS4, I think I might go back to GS2 and try for them again. Though I'm kinda in the mood to play more GS4. Or should I play GS3 which I haven't played yet...?
( spoilers )
I was trying to get Hikami's reversal ending with Chris as the 'other guy' in GS2, but ended up screwing it up (rival mode is ROUGH) and just got Chris's normal ending, sadly. Now that I finished Honda's ending in GS4, I think I might go back to GS2 and try for them again. Though I'm kinda in the mood to play more GS4. Or should I play GS3 which I haven't played yet...?
Stage 4 Cancer
Feb. 12th, 2025 07:05 pmSo, I don't update here much, as I mostly keep to talking about stuff in general on Discord, but I feel I should get this 'documented' here. Especially because I kinda wanna get back into blogging about tokimemo (and maybe Sonic... eventually) and will surely mention it as most of play time will be from the hospital.
So, a year ago, I think I posted about it here, Den developed lung cancer and had a wedge removed of his lung, and they told him his cancer was in remission and they got it all.
Well, turns out they didn't, and now it's stage 4 and has spread to his brain, and possibly other places (we're going to be checking for those soon).
We went to the ER last week because he developed aphasia, and on top of that was having headaches and blurry vision. So we thought he had a stroke and needed to be checked out. CTA scans returned showing lesions in the brain, however. Long story short, after being juggled around by hospitals who weren't able to provide him the care we needed, we FINALLY got him admitted to one in downtown Indianapolis that can take care of him, and we've learned that he has at least 3 tumors and one is large and growing quickly. The large tumor is in the left frontal lobe, which is why it is affecting his speech so much.
He's very slow to form coherent sentences, and even then, sometimes they're not so coherent because he will use random unrelated words instead of the words he intended and not even realize it (example: he referred to pillows as "spoons" and sausage as "pills," etc. without even noticing ht is saying completely unrelated words). Nouns seem to be mostly affected, but now and then the wrong verb or particle or whatever slips out as well.
Because of his age and health (he's also for some reason having terribly high blood pressure) they want to keep him admitted to the hospital and also do not want him to undergo a biopsy. Because of this we are technically not 100% certain it is cancerous but it only makes sense, and all the doctors feel certain it is. He is going to begin radiation therapy soon (they did radiation mapping today) and it may take from 5 to 20 treatments before he will be finished with radiation. If they find cancer elsewhere they may also introduce chemotherapy treatments.
Worried about the stress and toll on his body, Den is not 100% certain he wants to undergo treatment, and might rather live a shorter, happier end of his life at home. Being the age he is, death is something we've talked about a lot and wanted to plan for -- and while I'm certainly never going to be emotionally ready, I have been preparing myself for the inevitable for a while now, and I will respect his decision no matter what. I told him I want him to make the most selfish decision he can and not elongate his life into suffering just for the sake of existing around me for my sake. I'd also rather see him happy and stress-free in the end.
As of right now, he seems to be leaning toward treatment, as it doesn't sound like imminent passing is right around the corner, and he may be able to earn a longer, happier life through treatment payoff.
As long as they can figure out the blood pressure thing, he should be able to continue his treatment as outpatient soon. Right now he is staying in the hospital as his team of doctors closely monitor, test, and prepare him for treatments. But he may be able to return home as soon as tomorrow or the day after at the earliest.
As for me, I think I'm still in denial with my feelings of him being gone soon, yet still making practical plans in case it happens. I think when he does pass, it will stun me for a bit and THEN become very overwhelming. Right now most of my anxiety revolves around making appointments, providing care, all the driving between home and the hospital... not so much on worrying he might die lol. It kind of feels strange that I don't even think about that part. I guess I am waiting to deal with it when it happens, emotionally at least. I'm trying to get him to pay off the house (he keeps procrastinating on it, partly because I think he is in denial that he might die before paying it off 'naturally' at the end of his mortgage cycle; I think it was actually supposed to be done today with the current offer). I might even ask if I can just do it for him (accessing his money), but I'm a little afraid of having that conversation hahaha. I mean I already have access to everything anyway, but I've never utilized my access to his accounts and such on my own.
I've been researching things like section 8 and homeowner's insurance and stuff -- if he leaves me the house and the car, I'm allowed to have them repercussion-free on disability, while any money he leaves me will have to be paid to social security, so I'm trying to convince him NOT to leave me money other than the cash in the safe which will remain unreported lol. But I'm not sure if I have the mental capability to keep up on home ownership. I might also not have the financial capability -- since disabled people aren't allowed to save money, if an appliance broke or something, I'd just be screwed. I guess I'd have to go on payment plans and then not afford anything else or something? I don't know.
But yeah, those are the kinds of things I'm worried about right now. It's not that I'm not emotional about the whole thing -- I've had my share of cries and panic attacks and such at the thought of having to lose my beloved, the most important person in the world to me... but I haven't gotten to the point when I'm wallowing in it. I think it will hit me harder when it actually happens. And I think, maybe, I, too, am in a bit of denial and hanging onto that hope that everything will go well and we still may have quite a bit of time left together.
Anyway, that's what's going on.
So, a year ago, I think I posted about it here, Den developed lung cancer and had a wedge removed of his lung, and they told him his cancer was in remission and they got it all.
Well, turns out they didn't, and now it's stage 4 and has spread to his brain, and possibly other places (we're going to be checking for those soon).
We went to the ER last week because he developed aphasia, and on top of that was having headaches and blurry vision. So we thought he had a stroke and needed to be checked out. CTA scans returned showing lesions in the brain, however. Long story short, after being juggled around by hospitals who weren't able to provide him the care we needed, we FINALLY got him admitted to one in downtown Indianapolis that can take care of him, and we've learned that he has at least 3 tumors and one is large and growing quickly. The large tumor is in the left frontal lobe, which is why it is affecting his speech so much.
He's very slow to form coherent sentences, and even then, sometimes they're not so coherent because he will use random unrelated words instead of the words he intended and not even realize it (example: he referred to pillows as "spoons" and sausage as "pills," etc. without even noticing ht is saying completely unrelated words). Nouns seem to be mostly affected, but now and then the wrong verb or particle or whatever slips out as well.
Because of his age and health (he's also for some reason having terribly high blood pressure) they want to keep him admitted to the hospital and also do not want him to undergo a biopsy. Because of this we are technically not 100% certain it is cancerous but it only makes sense, and all the doctors feel certain it is. He is going to begin radiation therapy soon (they did radiation mapping today) and it may take from 5 to 20 treatments before he will be finished with radiation. If they find cancer elsewhere they may also introduce chemotherapy treatments.
Worried about the stress and toll on his body, Den is not 100% certain he wants to undergo treatment, and might rather live a shorter, happier end of his life at home. Being the age he is, death is something we've talked about a lot and wanted to plan for -- and while I'm certainly never going to be emotionally ready, I have been preparing myself for the inevitable for a while now, and I will respect his decision no matter what. I told him I want him to make the most selfish decision he can and not elongate his life into suffering just for the sake of existing around me for my sake. I'd also rather see him happy and stress-free in the end.
As of right now, he seems to be leaning toward treatment, as it doesn't sound like imminent passing is right around the corner, and he may be able to earn a longer, happier life through treatment payoff.
As long as they can figure out the blood pressure thing, he should be able to continue his treatment as outpatient soon. Right now he is staying in the hospital as his team of doctors closely monitor, test, and prepare him for treatments. But he may be able to return home as soon as tomorrow or the day after at the earliest.
As for me, I think I'm still in denial with my feelings of him being gone soon, yet still making practical plans in case it happens. I think when he does pass, it will stun me for a bit and THEN become very overwhelming. Right now most of my anxiety revolves around making appointments, providing care, all the driving between home and the hospital... not so much on worrying he might die lol. It kind of feels strange that I don't even think about that part. I guess I am waiting to deal with it when it happens, emotionally at least. I'm trying to get him to pay off the house (he keeps procrastinating on it, partly because I think he is in denial that he might die before paying it off 'naturally' at the end of his mortgage cycle; I think it was actually supposed to be done today with the current offer). I might even ask if I can just do it for him (accessing his money), but I'm a little afraid of having that conversation hahaha. I mean I already have access to everything anyway, but I've never utilized my access to his accounts and such on my own.
I've been researching things like section 8 and homeowner's insurance and stuff -- if he leaves me the house and the car, I'm allowed to have them repercussion-free on disability, while any money he leaves me will have to be paid to social security, so I'm trying to convince him NOT to leave me money other than the cash in the safe which will remain unreported lol. But I'm not sure if I have the mental capability to keep up on home ownership. I might also not have the financial capability -- since disabled people aren't allowed to save money, if an appliance broke or something, I'd just be screwed. I guess I'd have to go on payment plans and then not afford anything else or something? I don't know.
But yeah, those are the kinds of things I'm worried about right now. It's not that I'm not emotional about the whole thing -- I've had my share of cries and panic attacks and such at the thought of having to lose my beloved, the most important person in the world to me... but I haven't gotten to the point when I'm wallowing in it. I think it will hit me harder when it actually happens. And I think, maybe, I, too, am in a bit of denial and hanging onto that hope that everything will go well and we still may have quite a bit of time left together.
Anyway, that's what's going on.
Dream, Academia, Gamedev
Jan. 6th, 2025 10:11 amSo, I had a dream that I was a researcher at a university and I had a little office. I was in a commons area and there were lots of other researchers, students, and teachers and they were talking about sciencey things and arguing theoretical physics and stuff. It made me sorely miss academia. I really miss being able to talk about that kind of stuff with people.
It makes me wonder what kind of communities I could get with like that online...? I have no outlet for it IRL anymore. I didn't go to school for sciences, but we still talked about theories of second language pedagogy and stuff a lot. I need to get back into listening to science and math podcasts and stop listening to so much pop music (but I wanna be top 0.05% of JoJo Siwa fans on spotify again this year!)
Part of it is I just want to keep my brain sharper, but the main part is that thinking about and discussing intellectual topics is just plain fun. I miss being able to talk about this kind of stuff. It's just me and Den now, and we just talk about like TV and music and true crime and cooking and other general interest stuff on a surface level. Nothing stimulating or challenging.
Getting back into computer programming would be nice, too. It would be cool if I had a team of artists that would help me make games. I'd be MUCH more willing to program games if I didn't also have to create the art and music and write the story and etc. But you can't just go online and be like "hey who wants to create an entire game's worth of assets for free?" lol.
I actually had a friend willing to do it once but his art kinda (and by kinda I mean really) sucked and the game looked absolutely awful, so I lost motivation to continue hahaha. Thankfully he won't be reading this XD He can do really awesome art but I feel like he was just throwing stuff together for our project and it looked bad. I easily could have made better assets myself.
Maybe I can get back into programming with a simpler game, like making a Koi-Koi game. I've wanted to do that -- creating one with a furry theme, or an eroge where you basically play strip Koi-Koi lmfao. But even those small projects require artwork assets and such.
I think part of the appeal of making games is the ability to work with a team. It really helps with motivation.
But I guess I'll just keep on living the lonely, braindead life. I'm working on a guide for a Switch game right now for GameFAQs. Maybe when I finish that I'll think about getting back into gamedev.
It makes me wonder what kind of communities I could get with like that online...? I have no outlet for it IRL anymore. I didn't go to school for sciences, but we still talked about theories of second language pedagogy and stuff a lot. I need to get back into listening to science and math podcasts and stop listening to so much pop music (but I wanna be top 0.05% of JoJo Siwa fans on spotify again this year!)
Part of it is I just want to keep my brain sharper, but the main part is that thinking about and discussing intellectual topics is just plain fun. I miss being able to talk about this kind of stuff. It's just me and Den now, and we just talk about like TV and music and true crime and cooking and other general interest stuff on a surface level. Nothing stimulating or challenging.
Getting back into computer programming would be nice, too. It would be cool if I had a team of artists that would help me make games. I'd be MUCH more willing to program games if I didn't also have to create the art and music and write the story and etc. But you can't just go online and be like "hey who wants to create an entire game's worth of assets for free?" lol.
I actually had a friend willing to do it once but his art kinda (and by kinda I mean really) sucked and the game looked absolutely awful, so I lost motivation to continue hahaha. Thankfully he won't be reading this XD He can do really awesome art but I feel like he was just throwing stuff together for our project and it looked bad. I easily could have made better assets myself.
Maybe I can get back into programming with a simpler game, like making a Koi-Koi game. I've wanted to do that -- creating one with a furry theme, or an eroge where you basically play strip Koi-Koi lmfao. But even those small projects require artwork assets and such.
I think part of the appeal of making games is the ability to work with a team. It really helps with motivation.
But I guess I'll just keep on living the lonely, braindead life. I'm working on a guide for a Switch game right now for GameFAQs. Maybe when I finish that I'll think about getting back into gamedev.
中文版的最终幻想 第二天
Dec. 21st, 2024 11:56 pm我今天战胜加兰德了
汉字 - 拼音 - 英文翻译
最终 - zuìzhōng - final
幻想 - huànxiǎng - fantasy
水晶 - shuǐjīng - crystal
战士 - zhànshì - warrior
一起 - yīqǐ - together
今天的五個字词汇
汉字 - 拼音 - 英文翻译
最终 - zuìzhōng - final
幻想 - huànxiǎng - fantasy
水晶 - shuǐjīng - crystal
战士 - zhànshì - warrior
一起 - yīqǐ - together
