Having a Gaming Moment

 Aww, yeah. This year is going swimmingly already.

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I'm not gonna bother sugarcoating it. I missed last week's blog because I was feeling lazy. Simple as that. I was distracting myself with other things and didn't really put in the effort. Sorry about that. I mean, I know just about all of you understand and will tell me "do what you need to for your mental health; don't worry about it." I still feel like I failed somehow though, but I'm gonna pre-emptively thank you all for the kind thoughts.

Now, for a little world building here. Where Hubby and I live is semi-rural. We have a local grocery store and Walmart, and a few specialty shops such as a car dealership, mechanic, one-screen movie theater, gaming store, furniture store, and crafting store. All other things, however, we more-or-less need to drive 30-45min in any given direction to get to. Hubby had saved up enough to finally get a gaming computer that he had been eying up for a while, and we both had the day off, so we made a plan to drive to the city for his computer. Now, it's less than an hour commute. Once upon a time, I used to commute roughly a half-hour to get to and from work. It really shouldn't seem that long of a drive. However, when you're in a semi-rural area, the only really sufficient way to get anywhere is by highway. And the highway landscape up here is ENDLESS MOUNTAINS AND, ironically, SAMENESS. 

See, where I grew up, the highway drove past smaller cities and bigger towns and amusement parks and STUPIDLY HUGE hospitals; there was always something new to see, and since you were driving past so much development it didn't FEEL like a long drive. When I visited family in the next state over, it was more of the same. Constant on ramps and off ramps and developments on either side of the highway. It may be a bit obnoxious when you think about it environmentally, but it also was a great way to feel like you were actually going somewhere at a pretty quick pace. Here, however, when all you have is mostly empty highway with the occasional car here and there, lined with trees and more trees and even more trees, and the same mountain range slowly rolling along each side of the highway, you just feel like you're on the same stretch of road for HOURS even though it's only been about 20min. I used to enjoy driving. Now, I just get so tired when doing so.

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Enough world building. My point is that, whenever Hubby and I leave town for any reason, we try to make as much of a day of it as possible to justify the "long" drive. So, Hubby and I created a list of things we wanted to hit up while also getting him his computer, as well as other things at Best Buy to look at while we were there.

Side note: we tried Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen for the first time that day. Started off with the classic chicken sandwiches, as well as a 6pk of the biscuits, and a 6pk of the beignets. RIP KFC. You've got nothing on Popeye's now that I've tried that! And those biscuits!?

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So, yeah. Hubby and I slept in last Tuesday, instead of my intended "get up as per usual, write up my blog post, and get ready to head out at noon". We did head out at noon, as we had intended, but with no blog post to be had. I knew exactly what I wanted to write too, but I just... didn't want to leave my bed.

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We then spent quite a few hours in the city going through our long list; we always build it up and then go to the cities once we have at least a couple hours' worth of things to do. Drove back into town, and then hit up Walmart for a couple of other things we needed to restock after our quarantine. Next was laundry and grocery shopping. It was still early enough in the evening by the time all of our errands were done; about 7 or so. I just didn't have the energy to bother with the blog at that point. 

I could have posted a late update on my next day off, Friday, but I ended up spending most of that day either cleaning up the apartment or playing video games.

Speaking of, that was kinda-sorta what I wanted to talk about last Tuesday.

So, after paying our monthly bills, Hubby and I noticed we had some spare cash. Yes, we could put it towards our savings for things like a house of our own, but it also doesn't hurt to splurge on yourself every now and again, right? Plus, the whole point of these stimulus checks in the US is to stimulate the economy if the money isn't needed for bills, right? So, Hubby focused on his gaming computer. I turned my eyes to a bunch of digital games Nintendo had in its eShop. Mostly indie games that were ported over. Yeah, Nintendo doesn't need my money, nor does Best Buy, I'm sure, but it's something new to try to help keep our morale up, and I ended up spending less than $100, so... meh.

Well, Sunday, January 17, since I get out of work at 4pm, and I hadn't updated Perfect Doesn't Need to be Perfect in a while, I had every intention of working on that story. Instead, I ended up vaguely watching the NFL playoffs while playing this game finally:

Yup. FINALLY got on the hype train of this game. FINALLY got to experience the joy of being a complete agent of chaos as I screwed around with a bunch of residents in a little (presumably?) UK hamlet. Instead of working on chapter 6 of my story - ya know, "six geese a layin'" - I, kinda ironically, spent Sunday evening running around as a goose.

I had so much fun when I got to the back gardens (back yards in US speak) section of the game. Especially because I got to make myself all pretty with a ribbon around my neck.

It's actually a red ribbon in this part of the game, but, down by the first level with the gardener,
you can find a blue ribbon and carry it to the artist's back yard to get the blue bow instead.

Look at how elegant I look! Reminds me of my childhood. My mom had our little house completely decked out in Country Goose. We had white geese with blue bows like this EVERYWHERE: the plates, the wallpaper, random decorative knickknacks, and we had a goose cookie jar.

I worked SOOOOO hard to keep that ribbon on. Whenever I would get caught, and the ribbon was ripped off, I would get it put back on before trying to finish my tasks. Probably kept me about 5x longer to finish this level because I refused to do anything without my blue ribbon on.

Only for it to be programmed into the game that I'd always loose the ribbon my first play-through as I progressed to the next level!

Not cool, game!

Don't worry, I figured out how to get the ribbon back on before I finished the game. 

Not even a week later, and I tore through the full To Do list for the game. All I have left is the "speed-run" to-do list. That's on hold though, because I have a couple other games I had tried out.

Like I said, I saw I had some spare cash, and Nintendo was having one of its many MANY sales on its digital content. So I scooped up a handful of games to try out.

While not a canonical Legend of Zelda game. I knew I had to try out Cadence of Hyrule. Much like how Hyrule Warriors is a crossover between Dynasty Warriors and Legend of Zelda, Cadence of Hyrule is a crossover between LoZ and Crypt of the NecroDancer. It is a Roguelike rhythm action game in a style probably resembling A Link to the Past the most. It also has a very original LoZ feel, but the fact that there is some linear gameplay (you have to defeat A before you can proceed to B) is why it doesn't COMPLETELY match the open gameplay of the original game.

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I'd like this game for a couple of reasons. 

1. I've heard mixed reviews, but I also know how harsh LoZ "fanboys" are. I was still afraid this would be about par with Tri Force Heroes or Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures; not a bad game, but super gimmicky, not much by way of story, and not much replay value.
2. I am not the best at rhythm games. One of the reasons I never did well when I tried out band in middle school. I just can't keep count, I guess? Or I'll get slightly off-count and stay on count with that; never truly finding the proper beat? I'm usually off-count just EEEEEEEVER so slightly in these types of games; too soon or juuuust barely too late. I can confirm this is still very much the case.
3. It's a roguelike game. I already get irritated when I can't figure out how to play through a game without dying a lot. If I can't figure out a LoZ boss after one or two deaths, I get cranky: "I've played video games pretty much my whole life, why do I still suck so hard at them!?" So giving me a game like Dark Souls or Cuphead where the play is notoriously difficult? I'd rage-quit FAST. The last time I played anything remotely close to a roguelike game was back with old-school Nintendo or arcade games where there was no save file. You did the full-run with either just your one life or with the lives you built up, or you start from scratch. Even Sega Genesis games where, aside from health and lives, nothing transferred over from one level to the next. I still remember how proud I was when I FINALLY beat the Escape from the Cave of Wonders level in Aladdin. All-in-all, I've been afraid to try out any roguelike games even with this background in these old-school systems.

Luckily, I saw Outside Xtra stream Spelunky 2 a few months back, and I saw how irritating, and yet fun(?) a roguelike game could be. I also saw how rewarding FINALLY getting to the end of a 3-or-4-level run could be, and how getting to that end point DOES advance the game so it gets a liiiiiiittle easier to do those early runs fully as you progress. Plus, if you KNOW that you're going to die a lot, and it's not necessarily because you're a "bad gamer" it could just be a poor random generated dungeon or loot drop, it doesn't make you feel so inadequate??? 

Then, over on OutsideXbox, they uploaded a video of Mike playing a demo of the game Going Under. Another roguelike game where it's a very tongue-in-cheek corporate dungeon crawler. It was sponsored content. It did its job. Hubby found the video intriguing enough, and the game was on eShop sale, so he picked it up. I watched him play a few levels and was interested as well, especially when I saw that even he would die easily if the dungeon was poorly generated - via bad loot or the store was at the start of the run when your character doesn't have money, etc.

I've also seen SO. MUCH. HYPE. for the game Hades. Plus, I used to play the developer's other game Bastion back when they had a free demo on Google Chrome, so I knew I really liked their style. This made me really REALLY want to try out this game, but it was another roguelike. I needed to see if I could even handle this gaming sub-genre.

So, with the goal to a) add another LoZ-themed game to my repertoire, b) try out Going Under myself, and c) see if I can handle roguelike games enough to warrant buying Hades, I picked up the Cadence of Hyrule demo. Yay for demos! It's actually a pretty decent size, especially since I do indeed suck at both roguelike games and rhythm games. It was irritating at first, and I was almost glad I didn't drop the dough to buy the full game, but after sleeping on my irritation and going back to the game the next day with new determination, I actually got pretty far. Haven't finished the demo yet, but I at least got to the final dungeon. PROGRESS!

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With Cadence of Hyrule, I learned that the Hades tagline of "One more time" is indeed the cry of roguelike gamers. I just got so addicted to "ooh! I got so close that time! Okay. Once more!"

I got even MORE addicted to it when I bought and played Going Under myself. Mostly because it's more rogue-lite, I think? Every dungeon dive, even if you fail miserably, advances the game a little. The NPCs will have new dialogue after every run. The skills you equip will slowly improve with each run. You may fail at getting to the dungeon boss, let alone defeating him, but you may finish an NPC's side-quest, which advances your relationship with them, and THAT could give you the edge you need to finish the dungeon.

Plus, this game is just SUUUUUCH a great social commentary on toxic capitalism, you WANT to do "one more run" just to see what new dialogue you get.

I mean....

Who hasn't lived this life?

This. This hits hard.

Preachin' to the choir, indeed.

Contract workers beware.

I'm sure everyone has experienced at least one boss like this, if not EVERY boss.

Ah, the joys of having your work be valued by your employer... Oh, wait.

Yeeeeaaaaaah, this game gets REAL real at points. That's for sure. 

So, the main world-build of this game is that you have this city that pretty much sprang up around this one company Cubicle. Cubicle is (almost?) entirely automated, and loves to back up-and-coming start-up companies (think the show Shark Tank). The problem is, you quickly find out that the start-up companies that Cubicle backs have a huge spike in success before completely tanking it; vanishing without a trace. You also realize that the dungeons you are diving through to help keep the monsters in the basement "under control" are the remains of these start-ups. And guess what, you're now an unpaid intern at yet ANOTHER start-up that Cubicle just backed: F'zzle Soda. There's shady things clearly afoot at Cublicle that you slowly piece together with the dialogue you get after each dive.

Cubicle is also clearly a thinly-vailed jab at Amazon.

Okay, maybe it's not even thinly-vailed.... Also, yes, that is a slide from the 2nd floor office down to the main floor of the building (the purple object kind of upper middle of the picture), as well as a water feature just off to the upper left of the picture. I'm assuming those are in reference to the "fun work environment" Amazon was/is known for.

VEEEERY tongue-in-cheek - I didn't even point out the failed start-ups that you dungeon crawl through - and I adore this game. It also adds to my new-found love of roguelike/rogue-lite games. So, next time I have some spare funds again, I'm scooping up Hades. (Also, a former coworker of mine has been majorly championing the game The Binding of Isaac, so that's another for my list.)

Okay, so, I've been spending the past week playing roguelike games and being a jerky goose instead of updating this blog, or working on my story? Well, I've also been absorbing some seriously emotional gaming content by way of Ori and the Blind Forest. Once again, I have Outside Xtra to blame for this. Way back in May, Ellen talked about how much she loved the Ori sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Again, because of such games as Cuphead, I had seen a trend of indie games purposefully being harder games to give a sort of throwback to old-school arcade and 1st generation consoles. So, even though I loved the design of Ori and the Blind Forest, I was afraid to actually buy it. But after hearing Ellen talk about how moving the story was for Will of the Wisps I knew I had to give it a whirl. Especially when I saw the game in the Nintendo eShop. Thankfully, the original - Blind Forest - was also in the eShop, and had a demo option. YAY AGAIN FOR DEMOS. 

Seriously, game demos have convinced me to buy SOOOO many games over the past year or so. If you have a game; have a free demo or "showcase" so potential players can see if they even like the gameplay. You'll probably catch a lot more players that way, because people like me, who would rather shy away from a popular game because we're not sure we'll enjoy it enough to justify the money spent, are soooooo much more likely to go "okay, no. I'm hooked. Let's buy this thing." Why most games don't have the first level as a demo is beyond me. It's not like you'd need to do extra programming....

Anyway, as I said in that last paragraph, I was HOOKED. Right in the opening of Ori and the Blind Forest you get hit with The Feels almost on par with the opening of the Pixar movie Up. I have since bought the full game. I also could have continued where I left off in the demo - another fun feature that most demos have if they're the first level of the game - but I deleted the file and started completely fresh, just to experience that opening again. I haven't gotten further than the first level thus far, but I've also been juggling between a half-dozen games.

Because we can't forget that I'm still faithfully playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons daily, as well as slowly progressing through Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. 

Dear lord. I haven't played video games this frequently since I was in, like, middle school or high school or something!

Sooooo, yeah. I've been bouncing between AC:NH, Age of Calamity, Cadence of Hyrule, Going Under, Untitled Goose Game, and Ori. I've also been trying to keep up with my French lessons over on Duolingo daily, and splice in some Japanese refreshers to not forget the basics I learned in 2019.

Oh, and also work... I've been working too....

I know, especially since I promised myself I'd have this Christmas-themed story done before February, that I REALLY should be focusing on that. But it's been sooooooooo long since I've really been able to just enjoy video games? Mostly because, no offense to my husband, but HE'S usually playing video games, and we only had the one TV. So if HE'S playing, I can't be. But with the Switch? I can play whenever, even if he's already on the TV playing something or watching something. We also have the 2nd TV in the bedroom now with my Switch dock, so I could go play on a TV myself if I really wanted to. I'm having SUUUUCH a gamer moment, and, sadly, it's kind of shoved the writing to the side for a minute.

This is why I don't get people who are/were bored during quarantine/lockdown or the people who work part-time jobs during retirement, not because they need the money, but because they're bored at home. I mean, if that's you, cool. Everyone is wired differently. But I just don't understand it. I have about a dozen different hobbies that I can cycle through at any given time, and each hobby can fill a day by itself. Add in normal Adulting chores, and I don't think I could ever be bored again.

I mean, I DO still get bored on occasion, but that's more a stress thing where I can't really focus on anything and find joy in what I'm doing. Once I'm out of that funk? No boredom. 

Now after AAAALLLLLL of that massive stuff said, I DID manage to update two more chapters on PDNTBP. (I know, burying the lead a bit here.)

Last Monday, a day later than intended, I did indeed post chapters 6 and 7 of my story. I had every intension last week to comment about the story and Untitled Goose Game and call it a day.

Anyway, if you want to know what chaos happens to poor Chat Noir and Ladybug with "six geese a layin'" and "seven swans a swimmin'" you can check out my latest chapters.

"Chapter 6"

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

"Chapter 7"

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt       On Tumblr

I only have a week to go before my deadline. I still need to finish editing down the MASSIVE chapter 8 for this story. I also have chapters 9 through 12 to write! I need to get my butt in gear!

So, looks like my gaming moment is on pause as I try to pick up the pace with writing again. Of course, I'm also going to make sure that "picking up the pace" in my writing doesn't lessen the quality. It's a fun balance.

We'll see how this goes. I have a random Saturday off as well, so, worse comes to worst, I guess I'm spending Saturday finishing my story. Keep a look out for those final 5 chapters! 

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