Monday, June 19, 2023

May 2023 Entry

May 2023 Entry: 


May spelled backwards is yam. I might have used this before over the years. Apologies for the lateness of this entry. June was busy. 

MISC========================= 

- Backlash 2023 was so damn fun (05.06). That Puerto Rico crowd was loud all night and it made every match feel more important. Zelina Vega's entrance and gear and Bad Bunny's match with the surprise appearances, my goodness. I still go back and listen to the crowd's reactions. 
 

- The History of American Gladiators: From Horse Manure to Steroids to Phenomenon 

- Got my copy of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (05.12). Went to pick up my amiibo from GameStop and my collector's edition was delivered about 15 minutes after I drove out, ha. Then when I got home, the ToTK pro controller had arrived as well. Took pictures and posted them and then started playing. 

And I had a bad time. There were plenty of parts where I died a lot or things I crafted didn't work. Crafting was something I knew from the trailer that was going to make it or break it for me and it broke it for me. While there are multiple ways to solve puzzles or traverse, forgoing crafting made the adventure very slow. It really took about a week for me to find a groove with the game and find a decent pace to work at. Despite not having as much fun with it, it was the game I would play between streams. I beat it in June so I'll delve more into it then, but those reading now, my initial first week with the game was not fun for me and was the reason I stayed away from streams of it or engaging in conversations online about it as everyone was liking it and I didn't want to be a wet blanket about it. 
 

- The arm rest for my chair came off again (05.13). Same side. I'm not even bothering with it. I take it off when I don't stream and am extra careful not to lean on it when I put it on for streams. I most likely will get rid of the chair once streams are over.  

- Got my physical copy of Sky Racket (05.14). This actually came in at the same time as Tears of the Kingdom, but figured to let it have its own post. It was the favorite from Demo Showcase 95 and will be played in August for that month's theme. 
 

- 75 streams remaining (05.15). I haven't been consistently talking about it here, but you can see all of the photos I've been sharing. They are getting a little more attention as here and there someone mentions there or in streams "what happens at the end of the countdown" or something similar. 
 

- Went to the dentist for a cleaning (05.17). Not much of an update there other than I need to floss more. Afterwards I decided to get lunch at McDonald's since I wanted nuggets. Ordered a 10 piece with some buffalo sauce (my normal choice of sauce). Got home and there were only 9 pieces...and they gave me tangy sauce. Disappointing. What cheered me up from that mis-order was playing the newly released Chrono Pack for Theatrhythm. Great picks. 

- And since I knew I wanted to relax after the dentist and lunch, I watched Doctor Strange (05.17). I really wanted to see the sequel so I figured watching the first one was in order. Not bad. I wasn't super familiar with the character outside of minimal knowledge so getting more lore on him was a plus. 
 

- Agent Ocean has been back from Portland for a while. Shortly after, he started working at Escapology and reached out about working there. I let him know of the streaming plans so the soonest I'd be able to is in October. He said he'd keep that in mind. In the meantime, we made plans to reunite some of the crew together to do one of the rooms there. It was myself, Agent Blue, Agent Majordomo, and Agent PQ tackling  Scooby-Doo and The Spooky Castle Adventure (05.21). In general, it was good seeing all of them in person again. Secondly, we escaped of course. The room itself wasn't bad, but there were a few things that we had questions about. Majordomo and PQ had to leave shortly after. Blue and I chatted outside for a bit before going back in to talk with Ocean some more. Good times with good people. 
 

- Ever since the dentist, I've been waking up around 7AM. I only realized it a week later. Even as I'm typing this (06.12), it hasn't changed. Even if I sleep early/late, I'm still getting up around that time as opposed to the usual 8AM for the past few years. I think I'm used to it, but I wouldn't doubt if things shifted back around July. 

- I thought I was going to see the credits roll on Fitness Boxing (05.28). There were only one two achievements left with the last one being "get all the achievements." Dialogue was happening, I was presented with new exercises, and then EX Achievements were given. Granted some were simple ones like giving the trainers outfits they liked/disliked. But the bulk is spending 30 hours with each trainer. While others I can approach with a plan, the simple task of spending time with them is still a large chunk of time. It's attainable, but it doesn't motivate me to do more than I already am. 


- NXT Battleground 2023 was great (05.28). NXT doesn't disappoint. For those still thinking it's the 2.0 era, it's moved on for a long time now. And if anything else, their women's roster is one of the best. Specifically for this PLE, holy geez that Dijak and Dragunov match. 
 

- Ended the month with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (05.31). Insane visuals. The things I heard about the movie were amazing to see. Definitely like the Scarlet Witch being part of it. I would have liked more multiverse hopping, but I can understand not wanting the movie audience to get very lost. 
 

GAMES========================= 

- Deponia Doomsday was the last game in the Deponia Collection (05.01-05.02). It's crazy how all of it played out. Not sure if I liked this ending more than the original ending, but I liked it. 
 

- Finished LOUD: My Road to Fame off-stream (05.03). I'm glad that the main game had more songs and story added on to it outside of the DLC for My Trip to Japan. Nothing wrong with the DLC, but I definitely enjoyed the main game's songs more. 
 

- MEGA MAN: THE WILY WARS was the Genesis NSO game of the month (05.04-05.06). Ended up beating each game twice including the Wily Tower. Wily Tower was okay, but I was there for the original trilogy of games. Overall, the games felt easier and that's not a bad thing. Mega Man games are tough and if this helps lower the bar of entry for newcomers, rad. It was great playing classic Mega Man after so many years. 

It was brought up on stream, but some wondered why I didn't just do a one-off for this. That would have been doable, but I also didn't want to get burnt out on Mega Man. Even when the Mega Man Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection games were up for vote in Discord, the plan would have been to play them one at a time rather than try to speed through them all. 
 

- Demo Showcase 109 had one big distinctive thing occur (05.08). We found one Switch game where you can play in TV and Handheld mode, but NOT in Tabletop. Very interesting. It made sense as we talked about it when it happened, but that is rare. Which demo was it? Guess you'll have to watch the VOD to find out. 
 

- Business Tour was our free-to-play game of the month (05.09). It was Monopoly, but fast and with lots of customization for pieces and avatars. I probably could have kept going, but I was satisfied with what I got from it. Definitely recommend it. 
 

- Beat BurgerTime Deluxe off-stream (05.10). I did this early in the morning too before having lunch. I don't know what compelled me to specifically play it then and there, but I did. I liked it. It's a good version of BurgerTime, but on the Game Boy. 
 

- Lil Gator Game was so dang good (05.11). I had read about the praise the game got for being a cozy Breath of the Wild and that is very true. Not only that, but it's quite humorous and is written very well. The island isn't that big, but I still would have liked an in-game map you could pull up. Thankfully they give you items to help you find what you're missing post game. It was a great game to 100% complete and is in my top 3 games I've played this year. 
 

- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was our GBA NSO and RPG of the month (05.14-05.16). This was a joy to replay. The humor still holds up, the gameplay is solid, and the music is great. The final boss took way too long and that is something I forgot completely. Other than that, it comes recommended. It's a great start to that RPG series. 
 

- Once Upon a Jester was the 10th community challenge (05.20). That goal was reached April 10th. And it is hilarious. Even if you watched me play it live or the VOD, you could watch someone else play it and they do things differently. Whether you play it yourself or watch somebody else play it, you will have a good time. 
 

- Out of Line was the favorite from Demo Showcase 90 (05.22). It actually kept getting pushed back on the schedule so I figured to give it a definitive day; one year after trying the demo. Other than a small issue with the control (the control stick will whip back if you let it go instead of holding in place as you throw the javelin), the game was a nice bite-sized adventure that doesn't overstay its welcome. I'd recommend it on sale only after you've tried the demo to see if the controls are cool with you. 


- God of Rock was a game I was interested in once I first learned about it (05.25). A fighting and rhythm game. Mainly I was curious how that would work. Thankfully, it was okay. It's big and flashy with larger than life characters that exude huge personalities. The mash up of the genres worked okay. You hit the proper notes as the ride into the screen. The more precise, the better your strikes are and the more meter you build. The fighting part is putting in simple inputs for supers and specials. It's unfortunate that you miss a lot of the action as you need to pay attention to the notes in order to hit them and that's relegated to one corner of the screen. There's potential, but this is a good base for another rhythm fighter. 
 

- There is a reason I played Doodle God: Evolution (05.27). It was part of Demo Showcase 16 (stream 114). The demos tried were Aperion Cyberstorm, BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL!, Doodle God: Evolution, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and Ninja Village. I owned BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! prior to trying the demo. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom was the favorite and was played a year later. Ninja Village was voted on from a list of Kairosoft demo favorites by Discord and was played in 2022. And Aperion Cyberstorm was played later that same year after I was gifted the game from the developers after Double Pug Switch crashed and wiped my save (which they still haven't figured out why). So Doodle God: Evolution was the last one on that list and thought it would be awesome to have one Demo Showcase have each demo featured in full on stream. I looked up a guide to help with the combinations as there are so many things to create. And it was fine. However...no one showed up. It's been a while since I had a stream where no one showed up. Sure, the game isn't one that would grab a large audience, but I thought at least the tag of this being stream history for a Demo Showcase would have garnered some interest. I was wrong and I felt really down after the stream was over. 
 

- F-ZERO was the SNES NSO game of the month (05.30). Never owned it, but either rented it or a cousin had it. Very nostalgic. Still tough. But the music and gameplay still holds up. We finished every course, but the credits didn't roll. I counted it as a win. The only other thing was beating it on harder difficulties, but I was having enough of a challenge on the easiest mode. 
 

ETC========================= 

- TWICE - Hare Hare (MV) 

- Muscle spasm update. It's gone...for the most part. I still make sure to be careful, but things like getting up from a lying down position or getting in and out of a car don't hurt anymore. I'm back to exercising like normal minus a few things. But if I do feel any pain, it does form around where the muscle spasm originated. I'm glad I don't have to worry about it as much now.  

That's a wrap on May 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 




"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023

April 2023 Entry

April 2023 Entry: 

April has come and gone. Not the best month, but thankfully there were enough positives. 

MISC========================= 

- Wrestlemania 39 was a spectacle for sure (04.01-04.02). Night 1 was better overall. There was something about the energy and pacing that felt great. Not that night 2 was a complete slouch, but there were definitely more moments of deflation. 
 

- Didn't catch NXT Stand & Deliver when it aired live (04.03). Caught up on it eventually and it was a great show. Teared up a bit with the end of the ladder match. But NXT is still a good brand. 
 

- Helped my dad with our gutters (04.03). I was basically holding the ladder and moving things around that were thrown on the floor. I don't know when our gutters had these filters put on them, but over time the pine leaves from our tree started to clog them up. So my dad was basically removing filters and then brushing off any pine leaves that were accumulating. We're supposed to put a different type of filter, but that hasn't happened as of typing this (05.07). 

- Got my copy of River City Girls 2 from Limited Run Games (04.03). Did I play it yet; yes. Check later in this blog entry. 
 

- Gathered for Rannchan's Birthday (04.08). Last year was for Phantasy Star Online. This time was the mini games from Pokemon Stadiums 1&2 and then Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and Mario Party 8. Same crew of four of myself, G, Kai, and Rannchan. Fun times. 
 

- Watched Batman: The Doom that came to Gotham (04.11). I didn't like it. There were some interesting moments and interesting ways familiar characters were portrayed, but I couldn't get into it. I think I was dozing off a few times too. It seems I'm not high on things that involve Etrigan I guess. 
 

- I had a pocket of 3 days of not streaming (more on that later). I put out a tweet if anyone wanted to hang out in person or virtually (04.12). No one responded unfortunately. But that might have been a good thing. Why? 

- Went to the doctor and found out I had a muscle spasm (04.13). For a few days prior, I had been dealing with some pain under the left side of my rib. It wasn't much, a 1 or 2 at best. But I would always feel pain when I would get up from a lying position. Or I would wake up if I rolled over to my left side. I thought that the pain would eventually go away, but it did not. The day prior to the doctor's appointment, the pain was at a 6. This is after icing it, trying a heating pad, regular pain medicine, etc. 

Made my first appointment with my PCP in 3 years. But I'm glad I got answers. Was prescribed some muscle relaxers as well as some anxiety medicine to take (in emergencies). The normal dose was 3 muscle relaxers throughout the day, but the doctor said try one for 2 days in a row and then take a day off and then go back. I was extremely drowsy those first 2 days, but thankfully the pain was simmering to a 4 at best. The day off it, the pain was a 5. Then I went back to it until I had a follow up visit (04.18). That's when she prescribed an anti-inflammatory as well as bumping the muscle relaxers up to twice a day. After the visit, got some blood work done (short wait), picked up the new medicine, got a game (more below), and went home. And that's what I've been on as of writing this (05.07, coincidentally when I ran out of medicine). Since then, the pain has been a steady 1. 

During that whole time, I didn't exercise. The doctor said not to do any exercise outside of a walk. I even held back on my morning stretches as certain ones hurt a lot. But the stretches were the ones I was building up back to and within a week was okay doing them again. I did wait a full 2 weeks before trying Fitness Boxing and Ring Fit again (04.23). Definitely felt the pain, but it wasn't too bad. At first, the pain went back up to a 3, but it was tolerable. And eventually I was fine doing the exercises again. 

Only other thing to note from all this was the blood work results. Low vitamin D, which was something I had many years ago. Been taking vitamin D pills since then. The other was high cholesterol. Prior, it was on the low numbers of the high scale. Now it's high. So I've been watching what I eat to an extent. My diet hasn't changed, but I cut back on my intake. 


- The day of my doctor's appointment, I figured to take it easy regardless of the results. So I watched Coco (04.13). I really enjoyed it. I knew a few friends that spoke well of it when it came out and I can see why. This wasn't my first choice for the day, but when I saw it pop up, I figured to give it a shot otherwise I would forget to watch it. I cried a lot. 
 

- After the follow-up appointment, the blood work, and getting the new medicine, I went to GameStop to pick up God of Rock (04.18). I remember thinking if it was better to get the game first or the medicine first. Thank goodness the pharmacy listed their available times and when they take lunch. That solidified going there first and then getting the game. To be played in May. 
 

- Indie World Showcase happened (04.19). Always nice to be exposed to some new games. However, my standouts included; Rift of the NecroDancer, Blasphemous II, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. 
 

- My copy of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection arrived (04.20). Were I going to continue streaming, I would have scheduled these, one a month. Then I would have streamed Final Fantasy I-XII (minus 11). Maybe in the future? But I do plan to get to the first game after I finish Tears of the Kingdom. 


- Met up with some Kpop friends at Jupiter (04.22). First off, this was the only time I never had to wait for a table at Jupiter, ha. One of the Kpop friends I had known for years and only recently reconnected. The other I was meeting for the first time. We figured it would be good to meet up beforehand as we'd be sitting together for night 2 of the TWICE concert. Cool dude, Mina bias. Good food, good stories, good night of hanging out. Hopefully we can meet at least one more time before the concert. 


- This was a surprise in the mail; Valis The Fantasm Soldier Collection II (04.26). I knew I ordered it, but never got an email notification that it shipped. So I wasn't sure what it was until I opened it. To be streamed in June. 


- Wrinkle is the best duck (04.28). A few videos were shared in a Discord and it was a good way to end the day. But as I started to watch older videos, I realized I had seen Wrinkle before as the duck that participated in a marathon. It might have been a year prior. But yes, meet Wrinkle. 
 

- I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription (04.29). I had been thinking about it for a while. Made sure to get a notification before it expired and went through with it. I had not been buying as much stuff that I needed the next day nor had I been ordering as much as before. It was good to have when I was still watching free movies, but there's nothing else I felt I needed to watch for the first time or rewatch for fun (especially now that I have access to Disney+). 

- GGSN Ep. 04 in the books (04.29). The crew of 4 was back again and we played Press Your Luck, Family Feud, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, and Deal or No Deal. Crosswords was the only new one and while it started well, it didn't pan out as we liked. And thanks to Deal or No Deal and me winning $200K+, I won my second GGSN. 
 

- On that same day, I got the Wario amiibo (04.29). G had messaged me as he was coming back from a convention and found one at a game store. Got him for $25, which is my normal price for loose amiibo. And with that, the current lineup of available Smash amiibo is complete. 3 more Smash amiibo left to be released. 
 

- I banned a user from stream (04.30). It's not the first time, but only the 3rd ban ever. Were they doing anything inherently bad; no. Were they being a jerk; no. However, after over a year of being asked the same questions all the time, I was starting to get agitated. You can tell in my responses as a lot of them started with "you should know this already." Not only that, but they had messaged me a few times outside of stream, has emailed me, and even left random comments on YouTube videos not relating to the video. And even if I replied to those messages, they would still ask during streams. There was an instance during the Metroid Prime Remastered stream where they asked what I did for work. They've asked before and I said I'd prefer not to say (even though I've mentioned my previous employment to others before). However they followed that up with "you look poor." That wasn't cool. I mentioned why and stated they can no longer ask me personal questions. Thankfully others joined in at that time, but they were still messaging in chat. I replied, but when they asked if I was still mad, I did not reply. Shortly after, I noticed my follower count went down. I later checked and they had unfollowed me. I thought that was the last of it. 

But then they showed up two streams later and I called them out saying how they chose to unfollow and they're still here asking the same questions. They said something along the lines of they'll follow me back if I'm no longer mad at them. I've mentioned these types of ways to get a statement across during a stream where the streamer pauses what they're playing, go full screen, and directly talk to that person. I did that. I mentioned how they ask the same questions they should know the answers to and that they have crossed boundaries I have set. Basically calling them out on things I've kept private. I went back to the game and even mentioned how I'd really like to restart the stream so this instance didn't exist. And then they asked if I could play Ninja Turtles and if I knew who King Dedede was. At that point, I switched to follower mode only and they haven't been seen since. 

The next day, I had someone reach out through Discord because they caught the VOD and felt sorry about what was going on. The same day was GGSN and afterwards that crew spoke to me about that person. And it was only then that I realized they were making it not fun for others to the point that if they were there, others would not be. I didn't think that no one else could tell, but I was still in the mindset of "I'm the only one having to deal with this." But after that feedback I decided to ban them the next day. Not just on Twitch, but on YouTube as well. Hopefully that is it from that person. I'm still waiting for a request for an unban at least. But if they never contact me ever again, great. 

- Encanto was the original movie I wanted to watch instead of Coco (04.30). But Encanto was good. Had heard the Bruno song prior and heard positive things about the movie overall. I liked it for sure. If I had to compare it to Coco, I enjoyed Coco more. On its own, solid. 
 

GAMES========================= 

- Starting the month again with the Deponia Collection with Goodbye Deponia (04.01-04.02). I see how it was supposed to be a trilogy. If I didn't know they made a fourth game, I would have been okay with the ending. 
 

- Demo Showcase 108 was nothing surprising, but I did declare something (04.04). The 2 find the hidden object games that were voted in to play didn't have good turnouts. So when we played a demo that was one, I stated that I'll still play the demos and maybe give them a thumbs up if I like them, but I won't play the full version of those on stream anymore. 


- Puzzle Puppers was the favorite from Demo Showcase 100 (04.06). The reason I chose to play it at this particular time was because last year we played a game involving dogs; Double Pug Switch. That unfortunately ended on a whimper as my save got magically erased. So I figured Puzzle Puppers would make up for that. However...it had kind of a low turnout so I had to look up answers online when I actually needed help. I still enjoyed it, but the ending killed it for me. When you solve the final puzzle, you are given a message to tweet a message to the developers. For me, the game crashed. And it crashed every time I solved the final puzzle without fail. I counted it as complete regardless and looked up the message online and tweeted at the developers and they replied. I did reply to them letting them know that the game crashed every time I finished it and they simply replied with "that sucks." No "we're sorry" or "we'll check it out" or anything. That sucked. 
 

- DAIVA STORY 6 IMPERIAL OF NIRSARTIA was our NES game of the month (04.07). It was pretty good. Unfortunately we didn't see the other half of the game because in the announcement video, they recommend you use a code to go straight into the battles. After an hour and seeing that stages were repeating, I figured to start over without the code. And we saw the other part of the game that had been neglected; planet hopping and wars. So we wasted an hour and then proceeded to play and "beat" the game. Beat is in quotations because it's one of those old school games that wants you to play on the hardest difficulty to see the ending. While I thought the game was fine, by that point I didn't feel like putting more time into it. 


- I've been playing THEATRHYTHM Final Bar Line off-stream and finished it (04.07). I was playing around an hour per non-stream day or finishing 1-2 series per session until the credits finally rolled. After that I was playing all the DLC songs that had been released up until that point (04.14). Now I'll only play it each time a new DLC pack releases, kind of similar to how I return to Mario Kart when new DLC tracks are added. 
 

- Cover Fire: Offline Shooting Game was the free-to-play game of the month (04.10). I liked it. It was a pop and shoot type game similar to something like Time Crisis. My time with it was limited as you need energy to play a level similar to how Turbo Shot requires you to have batteries to play. And just like Turbo Shot, I recommend trying this out. The slow motion on good kill shots is very satisfying. 
 

- Helheim Hassle was a favorite from Demo Showcase 60 back in 2021 (04.12). Got it on sale for $7 instead of $20. And I had been pushing it back many times so I figured to make it a priority. The game is silly, well voiced, and a good time. Unfortunately, I didn't finish it. Originally it was scheduled for 2 streams and I stopped with one because of a glitch where I couldn't proceed or save. I looked up multiple videos online to see others not having an issue and proceeding. I even tried doing exactly what they do and it didn't work. After an hour of trying multiple options, looking up what was wrong, and redownloading the game, I tried one final thing. I attempted to go straight to what I needed to do instead of doing any side things that were along the way...and that worked. For whatever reason, doing anything extra that was right next to where my save spot was somehow soft locked the game for me. Had I figured that out within 10 minutes, I might have continued on with the game. But after an hour of troubleshooting things alone, I was frustrated and ultimately stopped because I didn't want a similar situation to happen later on in the game. Granted, that might not have happened at all, but I didn't want to waste any more time. Helheim Hassle is a good game, but after what I went through, I have not motivation to return to it. 
 

- Trials of Mana is probably one of my favorite RPGs (04.16-04.20). Why else did I play it 3 years in a row? This time was the final pairing of Riesz & Hawkeye with Discord voting in Angela as the third party member. So we had no healer, ha. Especially since we were going with Dark Damsels and Light Lads for class changes. I also wanted to play it on Expert since we beat on Normal and Hard prior. Expert was fine until part way through the third stream where a Benevodon destroyed us. And it's not that I didn't see the patterns and knew how to fight it, but they hit harder and had way more health. I at least attempted the bosses once on Expert before dying and switching to Hard. And much like last April which also had issues with some games and other things, Trials of Mana was something for me to look forward to and enjoy. Thank you, Trials of Mana. 
 

- Star Wars: Republic Commando was available as a Game Trial (04.21). It had been a while since I tried a free Game Trial so I thought to give this one a shot as I had a couple days of not streaming. I ran into an issue towards the beginning as I couldn't make something work so I restarted maybe 10 minutes into it. After passing that part, I enjoyed what I played, but felt it was on the tough side as I died a few times. So I turned on God Mode, which you had to turn on each stage. It still wasn't super easy, but made progression consistent. There's no way I would have beaten it without it. Boo for a glitch that happened when I beat the game as one final gallery video didn't unlock. Thankfully I reloaded my last save state close to the end and it worked. And this was all done in one day. It's been a while since I played a game off-stream at that pace (play, pause to eat or check social media or watch a video, play, repeat). 


- Metroid II: Return of Samus was our GameBoy game of the month (04.22). Only the second time I ever played it. I started an hour early and also knew I wasn't going to 100% it. Why? Well, if you read what I did on this day earlier in this blog, I had plans. I figured starting an hour early would be fine as rescheduling would have me playing more streams in a row than I wanted. This wasn't an easy game though as I did run into a spot where I had no missiles and was dangerously low on health with no refill stations nearby. And then the final boss didn't go how I thought it was supposed to and I had to retry it from the beginning a few times. Thankfully I was told how missiles it took to beat the boss and I made sure to keep count and rewind if I missed. It's still a good game, but I definitely liked the remake on the 3DS more. 
 

- More Metroid with Metroid Prime Remastered (04.24-04.26). I still say it's my favorite Metroid Prime and Metroid game, but I sure didn't remember it being as tough as it was. I died more than expected and lost lots of progress during multiple streams. Going for 100% wasn't an option for this either, but I tried to get as much within the 3 streams I set for it. And if you read earlier about the comment the now banned user said, this made specifically the second stream of this stream not one I'd like to remember. I did enjoy replaying this game 20 years later, but I wish it went smoother than it did. 
 

- After finishing THEATRHYTHM, I was thinking of what else I could play that I wasn't planning to stream during these last few streams. And that game was River City Girls 2 (04.27). I really liked the first game and recently played through and liked playing Zero. Almost immediately, I did not like this sequel. Music is great. Voice acting is great. But something wasn't clicking with me. I think it was because you had to go back and forth a lot throughout the game and the loading between each area was slow. It took me out of the fun beat 'em up. I was thinking it would only take a couple of days with a good solid 6-7 hours each to beat it. If I started it shortly after THEATRHYTHM, it took almost a month on and off to beat it. 


- Pilotwings 64 was our N64 game of the month (04.28). After playing the SNES version last month, I was thinking this would possibly be tough now that it was in 3D. It was, ha. It wasn't impossible, but the game did demand even more from the player. Also this was the stream where I addressed the now banned user. I even said after that that I was considering starting over so that instance would be gone, but that would have been 2 hours of lost progress. Thankfully I didn't start over and beat the game. 
 

- I had an itch to play something short off-stream. That game became Altered Beast (04.30). It's shorter than an hour (I forgot about that) so I did two playthroughs. The second run was with secret options I didn't know exist. You can change how much health you had, how many lives you had, what stage to start on, the difficulty, and what transformation you get per level. I maxed out health and lives on Hard with Dragon being the only transformation. Dragon made bosses way easier to beat. 
 

ETC========================= 

- f(x) - LA chA TA (MV remastered) 

- Happy Birthday, Ryujin. (04.17) 

- ITZY Ryujin - Every Second (cover by Mina Okabe) 

- TWICE - Alcohol Free (90s new jack swing remix by dec3m) 

- I think I would have put the part about banning someone from stream here, but I think it helped in context with other things that were mentioned such as when instead of me leading to it at the end of all this. One thing I did notice when looking at last month's entry, I didn't talk about GOD EATER 3. So I went back and edited that. And one more thing on the muscle spasm issue. As I'm typing this (05.10), I am out of medication. I could get more, but I was instructed to see how it was after they were done. So far, so good. Hopefully when May's blog post is written, I won't have to type that it's worse. Stay tuned. 

That's a wrap on April 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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Friday, April 14, 2023

March 2023 Entry

March 2023 Entry: 


March has come and gone. As of typing this (04.14), I don't recall if it was a long month or not. 

MISC========================= 

- Got my copy of the Contra Anniversary Collection (03.04). Played through the whole collection October 2021. Contra still is fun after all these years. 


- Cheers to older amiibo getting a re-release. The Donkey Kong (Super Mario series) amiibo was number 206 (03.05). This one is a little bittersweet as I saw an old acquaintance there. I didn't make eye contact and I don't think he saw me. Last time I saw him was when I went to pick up a game he borrowed after he and another acquaintance broke up. There he was with who I assume is his wife or girlfriend and their two kids. I remember him always being good with kids, but seeing him with his own family really hit me hard. There he was picking up groceries and his children while I was picking up an amiibo. 
 

- After watching icetokki do a stream of eating bugs, I thought it was time to try them after so many years. I went for the one she liked the most; crickets. It had been about a decade since I last ate them. Got the Chile-Lime Crickets with Pumpkin Seeds (03.08). Strong taste, but still good. 


- For Kai's birthday, a few of us got together for a picnic and Cidercade (03.11). I did have to miss out on going to the grocery store with them before it all as I had to book a session with my stylist and there wasn't much in terms of times and days. It was a nice day out for a picnic. The wind felt nice. Then it was on to the Bishop Cidercade. We were there for a good 3-4 hours playing the games that were there. There were a couple of new music games I had never played before that I enjoyed as well as trying some older ones or watching the others play ones I didn't. That was also probably my first time being in a public area that wasn't a medical facility or restaurant that had so many people. 
 

- I started rewatching all of the YongSeo couple's episodes of We Got Married in February and finished in March (03.12). I forgot how many episodes they had and that they were actually a couple for such a long time. Still very cute. 
 

- Bought some popcorn where the profits went to a friend's StuCo (03.16). She messaged me in thanks and that was the first time in years we spoke. They eventually reached their goal and I think she raised either the most or second most. And the popcorn itself was really good. Definitely would recommend and even go back for more as there were a few other flavors to choose from. 
 

- As suggested by my stylist because they recently saw the sequel, I watched Avatar (03.17). Cheers to having access to Disney+. I didn't know the movie was as long as it was. And I didn't realize there was going to be as much action in it either. I thought it was going to be a nice story with great visuals. Visually stunning for sure. In my tweet, I gave it a thumbs up. But as I'm typing this (04.14), I think I'd bump it down to a thumbs sideways. Not horrible, but I don't think I was into it. I'll check out the sequel though when that shows up on Disney+. 
 

- Got my copy of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (03.17). Currently scheduled for streams in June. If it does get pushed back, July. 
 

- I'm not a pin guy, but I got some new pins (03.22). Initially I only wanted the Metroid Prime Remastered ones, but I figured to get the My Nintendo coins as well. 
 

- Rakuen: Deluxe Edition is out (03.22). Congratulations to supershigi and the Switch release. Guaranteed to be streamed in the future. 
 

- Got to see Wakanda Forever (03.31). I liked it a lot. Wonderful tribute to Chadwick Boseman. My only negative is a big one and that is not liking Namor as the villain. The portrayal wasn't bad, I just didn't buy him as a big threat. Not every big bad needs to destroy the universe, but I was kind of hoping for more out of Namor. 
 

- Ordered my copy of Batman: Doom that came to Gotham (03.31). Didn't watch it until mid-ish April. Kind of disappointed in it. I liked what they did with the characters for the most part, but I couldn't get into it. And I realized this some time ago, but anytime there's an episode or movie with Etrigan in it, I'm not big on it. The magic and cthulhu related content isn't bad, but it's something about Etrigan that doesn't grasp my attention. 
 

- The WWE Hall of Fame was good (03.31). I normally enjoy them and sometimes go back and watch older inductions. However, Konnan had the best induction speech ever. If for some reason you don't want to watch all of the 2023 Hall of Fame, watch Konnan's speech. I may rewatch it after I'm done typing this, ha. 


GAMES========================= 

- Continuing the Deponia Collection with Chaos on Deponia (03.01-03.02). I think I liked this more than the first. I've accepted that Rufus is indeed a doofus and that may have helped with expectations. 2 down, 2 to go. 
 

- In Crush Crush news, I got the reset bonus to 500+ (03.04). Not only that, but I used 500 gold coins in my MyNintendo account to get 55 diamonds. All my hobbies are now boosted and I still have not spent actual money on the game. 
 

- Demo Showcase 107 was cursed (03.05). The first take was okay until my cousin came in. He's been there before, but actually mentioned news about the death of a family member that I didn't know about. I did mention how I'd rather not talk about that stuff and explained that I have to now process that while I'm on stream playing games. He did apologize, but a few minutes later mention the passing of another relative that happened many years ago that I did know about. He kind of understood not to talk about that stuff anymore, but that's when I decided to end the stream and restart it. We were about an hour in and only started the second demo so I felt okay to restart. Got a little farther in with the second demo when the internet went out. Take 3 had its issues too. The internet cut off briefly enough for OBS to restart on the last demo, but I continued and ended up uploading the full video instead of having two separate parts. The last one was only 30 minutes or less if I recall correctly. Anyways, if you watch the Twitch VOD and notice there are no chapters or chat for it, that's why. 


- Finally played Zero Wing (03.06). I only knew of it because of the "all your base are belong to us" line. Didn't even know it was a horizontal shooter. Not a bad one either. Too bad all 30+ endings didn't get translated for the English release. Although some wouldn't make sense to a western audience anyways. 
 

- Zorya: The Celestial Sisters was our free-to-play game of the month (03.08). I could have played this with someone else and had someone lined up. But the free-to-play version is no longer available. I was only able to redownload it because I had access to it. So I ended up going solo for this cooperative game, which was done pretty well. It was short as there were only 5 levels, but I did make sure to find the collectible item in each. 
 

- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass Wave 4 (03.09). A good reason to come back occasionally to this game. My favorite tracks in this batch were Yoshi's Island (they did it so well) from the Fruit Cup and Singapore Speedway from the Boomerang Cup. Yay for Birdo being added. Can't wait for the rest of the tracks and characters that will be brought in. 
 

- In Crush Crush news, I have now played the game for 1 whole month (03.09). And as of writing this (04.14), I still have not reached my limit for the 7 days of offline progress. 


- Steel Assault was fantastic (03.10). Good platforming, great action. Played through a few times on different difficulties to see the differences. Did everything except the 1CC, which I can't do for most games anyways. I did end up ordering a physical copy of it from LRG. Definitely recommend it. 


- Finally played CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- REUNION (03.13-03.15). There is so much to do in that game. Heavy on extra content, light on the story. But seeing the story play out after so many years was great. I absolutely understand why a lot of people like it and Zack. 
 

- In Crush Crush news, finally unlocked the Love Doctor job (03.14). Not only that, but the speed boost is now at x800. 
 

- In Crush Crush news, the speed boost is now at 1001 (03.16). 
 

- Metroid Fusion was our first GBA NSO game of the month (03.18). It was originally going to be Kuru Kuru Kururin, but once they announced Metroid Fusion, I knew I had to put that on the schedule. And with that and other schedule changes, Kuru Kuru Kururin will not be played on stream. Fusion is still awesome. Went a little longer than I wished and I didn't get as much in terms of item collection, but still plays really well. 
 

- GOD EATER 3 was a favorite from Demo Showcase 20 stream 144 back in 2019 (03.20-03.24). Got a physical copy for about 40% off in 2022. And in 2023, I did not beat this game after 4 streams. I was enjoying it and even said a few times that I don't think I'm utilizing all the mechanics to my advantage. That might have culminated for the final boss. I gave it 2-3 tries, but each time I reached the point of the boss one-shotting each character about halfway through the battle. Could I have learned the mechanics better, yes. Could I have spent an extra half hour per stream to get more experience, yes. But the fact that I was able to make it to the very end without needing to do anything extra made it hurt more that I couldn't get the job done. I have yet to come back to the game off-stream to attempt to level up and beat it. Not sure if I will because that did leave a bad taste in my mouth. 
 

- In Crush Crush news, I it the Karma Sutra wall (03.24). Apparently that's a term well known in that game, ha. But they were the latest characters that I was able to unlock and their base wants were so high. It really is a gut check. Keep going or stop? I am still going, but just not as hard as I used to. I haven't done a reset since hitting x1001 (currently can add 143.14 as of 04.14). Majority of jobs and hobbies take days to level up now. And a lot of wants from different girls costs trillions of dollars. The next major goal I have is to get 100 diamonds to get an extra x8 speed boost so I can have a total of x10, but getting diamonds doesn't come by as quickly anymore. Thank goodness for the limited time events as you almost always get one extra diamond a day as well as unlocking more LTE girls after a week of collecting tokens. 

- Pilotwings was our SNES NSO game of the month (03.26). Never played it before. I don't think I would have beaten it without save states and rewinds. The one big surprise is how the game takes a huge left turn because I never hear anyone talk about it. If it has been a protected secret, that's awesome to find out when it happens. It was also cool to see all the bonus stages. 
 

- Stream 899 means PAC-MAN 99 (03.28). 4th time playing and this was probably my best performance overall. Almost consistently in the top 10 and got that PAC-ONE again. Heck yeah, that felt great. Part of me wishes that was stream 999 because that would have been the best way to end playing that game. 
 

- Lost Lands: Redemption was stream 900 (04.04). The selections that Discord voted on were specifically the 5 favorites from January. I had fun. Plus it was cool to play the last game in the series after playing the first part of the series from another viewer's choice vote. However, both of those streams had low turnouts. Even some of the people that voted for those games didn't show up. Like if it's a normal stream and people don't show up, no big deal. But a game that was voted on with a few people showing up, not too great. But it also being the 900th stream on top of it being on and having a low turnout sucked. So even if another find the hidden picture game demo becomes a favorite, I won't stream it. Play it offline, sure, but it won't be part of the last few streams I do. 
 

- Take a look at Trailer 900. One last trailer left to make.  

ETC========================= 

- Nicole - Mysterious (MV) 

- Jang WooHyuk - FEEL IT (MV) 

- TWICE - MOONLIGHT SUNRISE (Billboard Women In Music Awards 2023) 

- TWICE - SET ME FREE 

SET ME FREE is now my 3rd favorite TWICE song. Wonderful song, fun choreography, and a cool music video. Seeing their performances and other activities in the US reminded me of when SNSD did that for The Boys. Very proud of TWICE and all that they've worked for to make it to this point. 

- Happy Birthday, Mina (03.23).  

- TWICE will be coming to town for the 5th world tour. Awesome. Talked with a Kpop friend, they informed me about how purchasing tickets would go. I had heard stories, but never experienced it myself as I've never gone before. I did the sign up thing to see if I'd be randomly chosen for first dibs. As the date approahced, I also happened to talk to another Kpop friend to check in and see how she was in general and we ended up talking about tickets. I said if they were able to get tickets, I'd go visit them in their city and go. Once fans were being informed about getting their codes, I didn't get one, but she did. I did make sure I'd be able to go, but let her know I'd not go if I can get tickets for my town. So she contacted some of her Kpop friends that got codes and was able to find me a spot for one with them. 

Then the day came (03.22). I wasn't streaming so I was actually free to keep track of things. And this was stressful in itself as I was pinning hopes on a stranger to get me tickets. They were able to and had at least one more available if I wanted to find someone that wanted it. So I contacted one and they already had tickets thanks to others. Then I contacted another who I had not seen in many years, but reached out once the concert was announced. They had a code, but it didn't work so I mentioned the other ticket I could get. And after some verifying to make sure I was me and not some scammer (ha), I secured his ticket as well. Those hours of talking and contacting and messaging others (multiple whom I had not seen in many years) was draining. 

And then they announced a second date for multiple cities and we were one of them, ha. Those that didn't get a code for the first day would possibly get it for the second day. I messaged a friend asking if they're going to the second show, and they were unsure, but were going to help get tickets for others. I said I'd only go if they could get floor seats. The next day rolled in and I still didn't get a code so I figured "oh well, I at least have the first night secured." As I streamed that day, my friend jumped in chat saying they got floor seats and I was okay with it and I said yes. A few minutes passed by and I realized it's the same general area I'd be in for night one, except on the floor. So I asked if they could try getting it on the opposite side, but they weren't able to. I should have checked first, but they're going to try and find someone to trade with. Not only that, we made plans to meet up as the other person he secured tickets for was someone I never met and I figured we should hang out at least once instead of meeting the day of the concert. 

So I'm going to both concerts. I would have been okay with going only on the first day, but with this being in town, why not go both. I'm not the only one doing that. Going to try my best to schedule things around those days so nothing major gets in the way. Trying to stay healthy to make sure I can actually attend too. June is so close, but I'll finally get to go to my first Kpop concert after being into Kpop for over 20 years. 

That's a wrap on March 2023. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
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