February 2023 Entry:
February was busy. Didn't go by fast either. Interesting.
MISC=========================
- After my cousin visited last month, I started reading old fanfics I wrote. There were a few one-offs I went to right away, but made sure to read 2-3 series. Lots of small things surprised me such as who I included as characters and the fact that I gave myself a cat instead of a dog in one of them, ha. There's one long one-shot I want to read as well as the beefy 100 chapter series that started it all. Sometime in the future, but I wanted a break after working through what I read already.
- Got invited to my friend's daughter's third birthday (02.04). It was my first time at their new place, my first time seeing her daughter in person, and my first time being in a closed environment with so many people. It was nice to see familiar faces of acquaintances and catch up with them. But the majority of the time, I kept to myself and tried not to freak out being around so many people. I left shortly after the cake was cut, but it was good seeing my friend and her daughter.
- Vengeance Day was a solid show (02.04). Awesome seeing NXT outside of their normal venue because that loud crowd really added to the energy.
- New shirts (02.04). I was looking for more Doki Doki Literature Club merchandise and found a few shirts. This one happened to be on sale. There was a clearance going on too so the extra Batman shirt was an extra dollar.
- And to add to the new shirt pile is a Final Fantasy VII one called "Those who fight further" (02.11). Have yet to wear it on stream, but it will make its debut on the finale of the Crisis Core streams in March.
- The latest Super Mario Bros. Movie promotion was awesome (02.12). Hearing that old Super Show theme and then the website and phone number actually working are great touches.
- More Doki Doki Literature Club merchandise with the Chalkboard Bonding acrylic (02.14). If I were to only have one piece of merchandise, this is the one because it does capture that moment from the side stories from Plus.
- Watched Everything Everywhere All at Once (02.14). All the good things I ever heard about this movie were true. It was done so well and it's insane in a good way. I don't think I can accurately describe it, but I know I'd recommend it.
- 125 streams remaining (02.17). I'm kind of surprised that these posts aren't getting much attention. Maybe I expected more of an outpouring for the fact that I'm counting down the number of streams, I'm including a story of myself, and I'm adding a photo. Not necessarily a call-to-action type of post, but maybe I perceived these would do something that others would care for.
- Picked up my copy of Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (02.17). Started playing it the following day and it's as amazing as I knew it would be. Theatrhythm is one of my favorite rhythm series so to get something new and more, wonderful. I am currently playing the series mode in order on basic. Once I finish all of the songs once, then I'll bump up the difficulty and/or go back and complete missions I couldn't in the initial run. I am playing this off-stream, but am considering streaming it eventually once all the DLC is available.
- Elimination Chamber 2023 was so good (02.18). That Montreal crowd was loud and full of energy and it helped make every match a must-see.
- Finally reached 1000 posts on Instagram (02.22).
- Went to my cousin's daughter's first birthday (02.25). The pandemic made me miss out on other gatherings there. I would have gone to her son's 3rd (or 2nd) birthday if I didn't catch COVID last year. But it was good seeing familiar faces and some faces for the first time. Cheers to fun matches on Street Fighter, good food as always, and just a nice sense of fun they always have with family around.
- Got my copy of Metroid Prime Remastered (02.27). Unfortunately I didn't get it when it was initially released as my GameStop was one of many retailers that didn't get their copies on time. But it wasn't like I was playing it right away. Currently scheduled for April.
- Picked up my copy of Legion of Super-Heroes (02.07). Had to go to a different Best Buy as my usual didn't have any in stock. Didn't watch it until the end of the month (02.28). It was okay. I liked it, but wasn't blown away. But it is a fun watch as it still has some surprises that can come out of nowhere for those that aren't familiar with the story.
GAMES=========================
- Started playing the Deponia Collection with the first Deponia (02.01-02.02). Rufus is such a doofus. I did try for a while to go without a guide, but there was a point that I just decided to follow one almost beat-by-beat. And had I known the last chapter was very short, I would have paced the streams differently to reflect. The first and last chapters were short with the second chapter being the bulk. But the Deponia Collection will be the first game played each month until we have finished them all.
- I don't recall what made me want to do this, but I finished Mario Party off stream (02.02). That mainly was unlocking and beating all the boards and it didn't take too long. Had to get a bunch of stars to unlock them so I did the thing where you start a game, set every player to Hard, and on the last turn switch them to humans to collect all the stars. All that was left was buying all the minigames and completing some modes. The modes didn't take too long, but earning coins was. I did a similar method with collecting stars, but found out online a faster way, which was to do the mini-game stadium (?) mode. That's a separate arena where you don't worry about stars or other additions a normal board has making it go by way faster. Had I found out about that earlier, I think I would have saved 10-15 hours of time. Regardless, Mario Party is completed (02.07).
- Battle Chef Brigade finished (02.05-02.06). It was a favorite from Demo Showcase 30 back in 2020. Got it on sale for $4 digitally (still wouldn't mind a physical copy). I enjoyed this more than I thought. The only frustrating part came with the judging of food. There were a few times I lost by only a few points meaning I had to do the whole battle (10+ minutes) again. It definitely ramps up in difficulty too. And while I liked it, anyone that is remotely interested needs to try the demo to see if the two styles of gameplay are something that clicks with you or not.
- Demo Showcase 106 (02.08)
- Things I was most excited about from the latest Nintendo Direct (02.08):
Ghost Trick
GB+GBA NSO
Metroid Prime Remastered
- DIG DUG II was fun (02.09). Firstly, I didn't know it didn't play like the original DIG DUG. You can still pump up enemies until they pop. Otherwise you carve the ground for it and the enemies to fall into the water. It got tough, but thanks to cheat codes, we completed it.
- Crush Crush was our free-to-play game of the month (02.10). The main thing that sucked was that OBS cut disconnected and the Twitch VOD is split into 2 (YouTube is still 1). But I got super into this and so did chat. You mainly wait for bars to progress (jobs and hobbies) so they can level up and you click the A button repeatedly to fill and also buy the girls gifts to fill the Affection Meter. There are 46 unlockable ones and 26 phone flings (those are fantastic). But it's a lot of waiting for timers to fill or reset. There is a reset bonus so that your bars move faster by X amount, but you have to start all your progress over. I didn't really grasp that until I started to play it off stream to realize how important that is. On stream, I used my massager to rapidly push the button for me, ha. As of typing this (03.16), I'm still playing it. Addicted, yes. But I haven't spent any real money to have things swing in my favor. You will see more updates throughout this and future blog entries on my progress.
- GGSN Ep. 03 (02.11). Fun as normal. I am worried about the future of it as I think it needs to evolve to bring in more viewers. Or maybe at least change it up to help benefit the stream. It's all in good fun, but it's also a day that any of us can earn money/exposure on our individual streams.
- LOVE - A Puzzle Box Filled with Stories was short, but sweet (02.13). It was the favorite from Demo Showcase 92 and I got it on sale for $2. I think they had a good thing going here so I wouldn't mind a sequel or maybe DLC to have more people and stories to learn about.
- The Wild at Heart was enjoyable (02.15-02.17). The favorite from Demo Showcase 88. A mix of Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion. Great art style, not too difficult, and charming characters. Definitely recommend it.
- Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars was so good (02.19-02.21). This was the 4th game in a month (the most ever I believe...for now) and it was the favorite from Demo Showcase 98. Cheers to Reversed2 for getting it for me as a holiday gift. Originally he tried to get me The Wild At Heart, but it wouldn't go through on Amazon for some reason (got that for myself in the end). The presentation of this is amazing. To have a whole world and story told through cards in a basic turn-base RPG, I liked it. And I'm glad I got the DLC because those were nice touches especially the pixel version of cards, ha.
- In Crush Crush news, I finally reached a x200 reset boost (02.19).
- Gargoyle's Quest was our first GB NSO game of the month (02.23). This played better than I remembered, which was wonderful. It's my least favorite of the Firebrand trilogy, but all of them are great games. Just need Gargoyle's Quest II to show up on the NES NSO and it's all there.
- In Crush Crush news, I maxed out my first job (02.23). It was becoming the Beef Chief for the Fast Food job. It was nice seeing a fully maxed out job and the bar going green.
- River City Girls Zero was a great beat 'em up (02.24). I played it on the anniversary of beating River City Girls three years ago on stream. Other than the game itself, the borders got some good details put into depending on how far you zoom out the game (cheers to the tube TV border). The anime cutscenes they added were cool and the intro and credits song are amazing. We jammed out to those a few times.
- Kaichu: The Kaiju Dating Sim was our viewer's choice game (02.26). Shout out to those that contributed channel points to make it happen and before the sale ended. This was so full of charm. We didn't fully complete it as getting the bad ending was tougher than anticipated, but we romanced all 6 kaiju. Definitely worth checking out if you want a silly kaiju romance game. You'll be surprised at how relatable it actually is.
- Wave Race 64 was our N64 game of the month (02.27). I still can't recall if I had rented this or a cousin owned it. But it felt quite familiar. Tough for sure. But we ended up beating all the circuits and unlocking the dolphin. Good talk during that stream too.
ETC=========================
- MISAMO - Opening Trailer
It's happening. In case anyone reading this doesn't know, these three (Mina, Sana, Momo) happen to be my top 3 biases in TWICE. All the teasers are amazing. Can't wait to see what it finally ends up being when it's finally released. Funny that we got all this MISAMO content months in advance. But wait until you read about all the TWICE content that happened in March.
That's a wrap on February 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
