The prelude week of Gamer Christmas

As a note, the recent Pokemon Direct won’t be mentioned here as I already spoke about it in its own post as I ended up having more to say than expected.

Sega

June in a sense is also Sonic month as we’ll be getting more information about Sonic Frontiers throughout the month. From what we’ve seen the first two days, I’m not sure how to feel just yet. I will say the gameplay looks similar to what I liked from the Sonic Adventure 1-Sonic Unleashed era which is nice, though I don’t know how I feel about a more open concept especially as some of the more float-y areas almost feel out of place. I kind of like having actual levels in addition to a hub world over everything just being out in the world.

I’m still hoping for Chao to return though. If there’s Chao gardens, I am already sold. I’d also love if we could unlock other characters to play as and just… use their normal abilities for different playstyles. I do want to highlight I don’t mean needing specific characters for specific things, but just so we can play who we want to. I always loved playing as Amy in SA1 with the only issue being constantly chased. It’s also why I am excited to see more puzzles as I did have fun doing them.

While the next parts are technically after the State of Play, as it’s all still part of Sega, I’m including it in this first section anyway. For one, Sega had its own little press conference announcing the Mega Drive 2 Mini. I think the minis are nice for consoles maybe you didn’t have or if it’s a system you really like (We got the NES one as it reminded me of how you could get games in AC. I don’t think we were able to get an SNES one, but it would’ve been nice as that was my first console. For SEGA though, I’d mainly just want a Dreamcast mini, though I had a Genesis too, but I have… so many fond memories of Dreamcast), but as I don’t replay games, it just kind of sits there looking nice so I don’t really feel excited for them. I will say when they mentioned something “new” though, I was kind of expecting a game or even more stuff for Sonic Froniters and not… a mini console announcement.

We also got to see the next first look for Sonic Frontiers showing off some of the combat. Obviously, maybe a later clip will show it better, but I do feel like we need to see everything together and not just essentially demo clips. I also just… don’t think the overhead shots look that great and I’m not even a fan of graphics, just again, something feels slightly off to me.

The combat looks okay I guess? But it almost feels more like PSO and less like Sonic if that makes sense– both in the way he moves and the enemies itself. Something about the movements just look slower, even if he has some fast skills, which feels weird. It looks more like if Sonic was in a fighting game (or some kind of MMO Class) than if Sonic was in his own game. The biggest thing is how many hits a lot of the enemies take– outside of bosses, they’re usually relatively quick to beat so you can keep speeding along, but everything about it feels slow. I’m fine with breaks for puzzles, but the combat shouldn’t feel like a slog. There’s a reason Sonic is compared to like… Mario and not Megaman.

Finally, while last chronologically of everything here (I’ll likely put any other future Sonic Frontier stuff, if I have any opinions on it, in future entries as we continue along the month), there was a Sonic Central on the 7th… and it was… something. The only long trailer were things that we’ve already seen before with anything new being so quick, you learned pretty much nothing new. Shadow for the Netflix show where we’ve barely seen anything isn’t surprising. Seeing that Knuckles will be part of some storyline with Frontiers (or what leads to it) is neat, but you could literally blink and miss it. I get that it was a preview, but when everyone is waiting for more on Sonic Frontiers, it just felt kind of frustrating.

I know there’s been a bit more information shared recently, but most of that just… doesn’t sound too fun for me. It feels a little convoluted and while I’m glad the Open World may just be some zone that does lead to levels, it still feels rather empty, and I don’t really care for the “beat bosses to get to the levels” angle. I also kind of hated the red ring collecting and haven’t been as fond of the 2D-style levels, but if it’s at least more like Unleashed in the levels than Colors, that’s certainly some kind of upgrade.

But I still find a lot of concerns specifically this tweet:

The flow of the game is basically:
Explore open world > solve puzzles to open up map > find collectibles to improve stats > fight world bosses to earn portal gears > use portal gears to unlock linear Sonic levels > complete linear Sonic levels to unlock chaos emeralds

That doesn’t sound like a fun gameplay loop to me. It feels too slow and repetitive which isn’t really what I play Sonic for? And I say that as someone who likes puzzles and collecting things! I’m curious how the “find collectibles to improve stats” will work as I was fine with like… upgrades, but I’m curious if this is like a stat selector where you pick what you want to level (Edit: Apparently there’s skill trees so yeah, not as fond of the collectibles now). It also feels odd that the more linear Sonic levels will be more towards the end of this loop and the entire way it kind of works up feels so strange to me.

Maybe I’ll like things more when we finally see more gameplay that isn’t super focused on one thing or barely a glimpse at all, but right now, it just feels kind of a let-down to me. I don’t feel I’m fully able to word why it just doesn’t seem to jive with me, but something just feels off I guess. It’s also possible I’ll like it more in practice as I did like exploring Station Square and finding upgrades and doing puzzles to unlock levels, but I also think the areas in Sonic Adventure looked a lot more interesting than what we’ve been shown of the “main hub” of Sonic Frontiers.

But even watching the video itself gave me some concerns with highlighting the “somber” atmosphere (The energetic music, especially the songs from Crush 40, have always been my favorite part of Sonic) and highlighting of Sonic’s friends are gone and he’s all alone just… make it feel like a… I don’t know, if you wanted to go gritty but instead of making it dark, you just made it sad. At least the world looked a bit less empty in this video? But there goes my hopes for possibly playing as other characters which is still part of why I loved SA1 and SA2 so much (though, I don’t think SA2 handled it as well as it could, and yes, I actually had no issues playing as Big). I also just… have never enjoyed “hey, race this random character to *insertplacehere*” as a game mechanic so can’t say anything about that excites me. I just don’t think Sonic needs to be complicated to be interesting. At least we got to hear some music, even if it was relatively somer.

Ironically, the “best” part of the Sonic Central for me was a code to finally unlock the Amy Chao in Sonic Speed Simulator:

The Amy Rose Statue was neat too, but unfortunately the company making it has… not had the best quality, especially combined with the cost, so I probably won’t be getting it. :(

And if the Sonic Symphony happens to be playing here, hopefully we can manage to go.

Playstation State of Play

I get that Resident Evil is a big franchise for Playstation, but ignoring my own little zombie phobia, I just… don’t understand the constant need for them. I guess remakes are fine and all? I think most people who like RE are happy– my only relief was that in the remake trailer, they didn’t really focus on zombies at all– it was entirely atmospheric. Unfortunately, none of the other horror trailers followed suit.

We also had some VR trailers as well and while thankfully there was nothing I was interested in, I just… wish VR exclusives weren’t a thing. There’s a lot of reasons I’m not a fan of VR from general motion sickness, not being a huge fan of first person in general, and even just my general issue with things on my head as just… some of the reasons, but it always bums me out because there are some games I’ve really wanted to play and would work… fine with a keyboard and mouse so it kind of makes me sad I’ll never get to play them.

Stray looks really neat and I’m so curious how the plot is going to go, but I am a little worried because my stealth skill in games is kind of non-existent and part of why I was initially excited was the lack of combat which is… clearly part of the game in this trailer. I’m still mostly looking forward to it though and it’s even releasing the day after my birthday which is neat, but I may hold off a bit on getting it right away now.

I didn’t expect to see a trailer for Street Fighter 6, but I am curious about the story gameplay as it seems like… you can do more than usual? At least from what they showed of them going around New York Metro City. I don’t know if I’ll pick it up or not (I’ve been kind of burnt out on fighting games– that said, if the story mode really is much more expanded, I definitely think I am more likely to go ahead and pick it up), but Chun-Li is my favorite SF character, and she continues to look awesome. I hope the pink version of her costume still exists.

We also got to see more of Season which I have been looking forward to, but this trailer felt a lot more ominous. I’m still really interested in exploring and collecting trinkets and things, but I have a feeling it’s going to make me cry and I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

It did throw me off that it was only 30 minutes as I feel like they usually have longer shows, but I guess it makes sense as State of Play have happened more often lately.

IndieCade Horizons Showcase

Fishing with the Homies seemed kind of neat– I liked a more relaxing fishing thing… But I am very concerned about the whole fishing up body parts thing. I guess at least they help you fish once you get all the parts? But these poor people.

Pastoral was another that stood out to me, though, considering the person who made the game kept avoiding certain sprites, it kind of scared me a bit too.

Disaster Golf looked really silly, but pretty much anytime I play golf it’s a disaster so I feel like having to be fast paced would make me even worse than usual.

Bellissimo was so pretty. I really loved the art style a lot.

Broombot Battleground was another that stood out to me. Possibly because I genuinely just really want a Roomba and it made me think of playing Battle mode in Mario Kart 64.

Honestly, even though I’ve only mentioned a few, there were so many impressive games, and it really makes me want to turn some of the ideas I’ve had into something. I ended up playing a few of the ones I did mention though over on my Youtube channel. There were even several games in the trailers I thought looked interesting too, but wasn’t always able to find much information on them, unfortunately.

Acquire Game Show

I don’t have too much to say for this show, but I will say that the graphics for Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent are really pretty. I like the character designs/art a lot. I’m not particularly good at those types of games, though.

Limited Run Games Show

This Showcase is kind of all over the place, but it still felt pretty fun. I always love seeing games getting physical releases (or re-releases) and generally prefer physical copies myself.

Also, the music during a lot of the trailers is just really great? Very catchy.

This adorable dance gif was made by Diggehpls!

DANGEN Entertainment

If anything, I really liked the music for the Show’s introduction. Very catchy.

While Lost Ruins isn’t my type of game, I always enjoy when I can just smack things with a cute plushie if I do have to fight in a game.

Abomi Nations genuinely does look pretty cute– I liked several of the Abomi designs I saw.

OneShot intrigues me more every time I see the trailer again.

Anyway, that sums up my thoughts on this first packed week! Next post will likely be Day 0 and Day 1 of Gamer Christmas Week, though, possibly more days if it feels kind of short.

My hopes for Disney Dreamlight Valley

I’ve been asked a few times now if I have heard about the game since I haven’t really mentioned it much and if I planned to play it. The answer to both of those questions, at least for the moment, is Yes. I love Disney, Disney Magical World is one of my favorite games, and this really feels like the next evolution of that, despite not actually being associated with the same series. (Yes, they’re both Disney, but DMW aka Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life had its own things before the 3DS game and has even continued into Arcades with a Rhythm game since 2) Regardless, since I’ve been asked quite a bit now, I figured I’d at least talk more on my thoughts about it.

With the game opening up Early Access this Summer which is pretty close, I’m hoping maybe during one of the conferences happening this month, we could get a date (or even a surprise “Available now!”). I’m also hoping the Founder’s pack prices won’t be too expensive– I’ve seen too many games have founder’s packs that end up being very expensive due to tacking on tons of premium currency. Considering Disney Dreamlight Valley, despite being free to play in the long run, has said that their microtransactions will only be for expansions and vanity items, I’m hoping it’ll be a lot more reasonable, or possibly even just one tier with just a set price and nothing more. I’m just not a fan of exclusives, especially if limited time.

That said, without any known price-points just yet, I am curious how it’ll be done. I feel like a lot of people consider vanity items an easy thing to shrug off, but for me, customizing my character is a big deal and I absolutely have more fun when I’m satisfied with how my character looks. They’ve already shown neat furniture and clothing I’m really excited for, especially as a huge fan of Tangled and the color pink (Always happy to see lots of pink stuff), and we know that there is a shop in the game as well, but what designates and item to be a microtransaction or just something in-game? And will it be like… $1-$5 for an item or bundle or more like $10-$20?

When it comes to solo games (IE: Anything that lacks any competitive or PVP aspects), I actually don’t mind if there’s microtransactions to speed things up or help a player along, assuming the game doesn’t feel like you need to constantly be tracking timers (IE: I need 5 of Item A to make 2 of Item B which I need to finish a Quest but I only have *insertthismuchtime* and I need 5 of Item C and 5 of Item D as well to make Item A and etc.). I’ve played games where I’ve gotten them and I’ve also played ones where I haven’t, but sometimes it’s nice to have the option.

Expansions I’m also completely fine with being a thing, but I hope not every single addition will be added to expansions. Bringing up Disney Magical World again, one of the reasons the second game fell a little flat for me was because so much was the same as the first game beyond a few new islands that really could’ve been expansions like the Pirates of the Caribbean World. I’m just curious how much these will cost, how big they will be, and if most worlds will be expansions or just some while there will also be plenty of worlds continuing to be added in updates down the line. Disney Magic Kingdoms, a mobile game also made by Gameloft, features tons of characters from the movies, many of which I wouldn’t have expected to see included such as Cinderella’s Stepfamily. Of course, there’s also characters not in that game yet that I’d love to see and hope will be part of Disney Dreamlight Valley such as Webby (They name the section in DMK with Scrooge, Dewey, Huey, and Louie “Ducktales”, yet don’t have Webby or Launchpad at the least. I would love to see Della and Mrs. Beakley as well) and well, I was going to say The Rescuers, but apparently an Event for the Rescuers just started in DMK earlier this week and I am thrilled about it.

The Rescuers is probably one of my all-time favorite Disney movies (with Tangled and Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney Princess movies– partially due to how much I relate to Rapunzel and Belle) and I just adore Bianca so much. Obviously, just because characters are in their mobile game doesn’t mean they’re going to be in DDV and I’m not trying to imply that’s the case, but it gives me hope that they could solely due to Gameloft remembering them in the first place. I’m also really hoping for Winnie the Pooh as well which is another series I really love– I feel like it’s essentially a given, but as we haven’t seen too much just yet, I don’t want to get my hopes up just incase.

At this point, I know there’s cute pink furniture, I know there’s pretty pink dresses, I know some of my favorite characters will be there, but I think the things I want to see most at this point are, from a customization standpoint, more hairstyles (come on, wavy/curly ponytails), and more generally, full gameplay– we’ve heard about the same demo gameplay from various news sites, but have only really seen trailers and some stills of rooms. With Early Access hitting so soon, there’s so much I’m just kind of sitting and waiting to see. I mean, I love every sneak peek that pops up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope to see even more, right? I know I’m also hoping to see Duffy and friends in the game, even if I may be in the minority of that. While he’s more well-known in the Japan side of things, I feel like he still has some popularity here as well. I’d love to say Unibearsity as well, but I know that never came overseas and I’m pretty sure most people who know about them here are due to the plushies in Disney Magical World and not due to importing them like I did.

I would say if I had to describe how I feel about the game right now in a few words, it’d be “cautiously optimistic”. Despite that, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. The game has been frequently compared to Animal Crossing and various farming sims and well, that’s essentially Disney Magical World too so I feel like this has a really good chance to be a lot of fun. Either way, once Early Access hits, I hope you guys will be excited for the Game blogs and Let’s Play videos to come along with it :)

The Problem with Sonic Speed Simulator

In general, when I first heard about this, I expected something similar to Sonic Runners, just made into a game on Roblox, which isn’t really my thing, but knowing Chao would be part of it, I was there pretty much immediately. (If you’re thinking: “What about the Chao on Minecraft?”– the simple thing there is I unfortunately do not own the newer version of Minecraft and can’t justify spending that much right now just for that, as tempting as it has been, because I don’t really enjoy Minecraft in general… but if I ever do get it, yes, there will be a Sonic Minecraft video immediately honestly)

I’ve never played a Speed Simulator game on Roblox (and after this experience, I probably never will again besides this one), but I actually have played some neat things on Roblox so I was willing to give this a chance. I will say that my views are definitely primarily as a Sonic fan and as mentioned, this is my first time playing a Speed Simulator game, so it’s entirely possible some of this stuff is just the norm. I also want to explain that, while I’m not a fan of microtransactions, I don’t entirely hate them if they’re used well and done fairly. The problem with Sonic Speed Simulator is they’re not. This game is so incredibly scummy with some of the paid stuff and it sucks as there’s honestly a bunch of fairly neat things about it, even if the gameplay isn’t entirely for you.

I’ll start off with the biggest positive for me: I LOVE walking around all the different levels. One of my favorite things in Sonic Adventure 1 was just walking around all the different hub areas and to an extent, that is entirely what every “level” is– there’s some Lobbies that do act like proper levels where you need to get to the big coin at the end and it’s honestly pretty neat, though, the platforming can be kind of rough depending on your speed level– the balance is absolutely not there partially due to how the game works which can make them frustrating at times. But for the hub levels themselves? It’s just a really fun time. I love seeing everything, all the Sonic models look great, and I am genuinely excited to see future Worlds added. If an actual Sonic game made it so you could pick to just… explore after finishing a level where there’s no enemies and you can just enjoy the level for what it is, I would love that.

The music is also pretty great, as you’d kind of expect from a Sonic game, and each level even now features a different song remix. I would say my only complaint here is that the looping isn’t great and sometimes the music literally just fades out and it’s like someone hit replay again after realizing there was no music playing. It’s not really enough to be jarring, but just fairly noticeable.

The problem comes with how things unlock and how Chao are used. Now, obviously, I love Chao and would absolutely be all for more interaction with Chao, but I’m actually okay with them just being floating pets. The number of colors they’re adding is really neat as well and I just, I love Chao so much, okay?? Unfortunately, Chao have stats. And yes, they have stats in the game too, but those stats are for how they perform in a single player minigame mode for your Chao, not buffs for your character. Considering there’s Races against other players, which you need 25 wins to unlock World 6– Chemical Plant, that already is pretty sketchy, but you may think, well, everyone is on the same playing field though, right? Just people who play more will have a bit of an advantage.

And for a while, that was definitely the extent of it, but it still would cause an issue if you just… got unlucky and all those people who are playing way more than you are there and ready to completely wreck you in this race because, for whatever reason, you can’t play as often (*stares at Star Stable Online Championships :|). Chao already had an issue of certain colors just being rarer and then starting with a higher base line of Rings and Experience they could give you. Evolving a Chao requires you to get 5 of the exact same Chao. You can evolve a Chao 5 times so you need to 25 to evolve it to its maximum potential. Chao are primarily gotten through Vending Machines which are just… a 1/6 chance Gachapon machine. It’s not terrible, they do use Rings (though, some of the more expensive ones are 200K+ Rings a pull…), and with the exception of like two times now, I usually have been able to get what I hoped for pretty quickly. The other way Chao were gotten is through limited time events– sometimes a Chao would only be around for about 2-3 days and cost a lot of rings (the first was 350K, the rest have been a Million, yes those prices do suck), other times you could earn them while working through an event for a Character Skin such as the Chao you could earn from Amy’s and Knuckles’ recent events.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t stick with keeping things somewhat fair because they had to full out make some Chao just… cost Robux. Robux is Roblox’s premium currency– it’s $5 for 400, $10 for 800, and $20 for 1,700 (If you’re subscribed to Roblox which is about $5 a month, the numbers because 440, 880, and 1,870). A premium paid for Chao costs 499 Robux*. About $6 I would say. Or you can get a pack of 5 for 1749 Robux– about $21. If you want to fully evolve that Chao, then you’re going to be spending around $100. Not to mention if you wanted 3-5 fully maxed out ones for using… Even if it was a Chao I absolutely loved, I would give up the idea of ever evolving it immediately at that price point. I’d just take the one by itself. These Chao also, like other limited time Chao, only stay for a few days at a time and then they’re gone. Who knows if they’ll come back. The other ways to earn Robux besides buying it, are either building an experience and having stuff for sale for Robux, selling items you designed, or getting some each month for being subscribed.
* The first pay for Chao actually was 600 Robux and did not have a discounted bundle of 5. To fully evolve it would have required 15,000 Robux.

And just to give an idea on how the Chao base reward limits can vary (these are all unevolved):
-Common Chao – +10 Experience, +1 Ring
-Uncommon Chao – +20 Experience, +1 Ring or +15 Experience, +1 Ring
-Rare Chao – +30 Experience, +2 Rings
-Epic Chao – +40 Experience, +5 Rings or +25 Experience, +5 Rings
-Event Epic Chao – +60 Experience, +8 Rings
-Legendary Chao – +75 Experience, +15 Rings
-Event Legendary Chao – +100 Experience, +20 Rings
-Limited Time Ring Legendary Chao – +30 Experience, +10 Rings or +100 Experience, +20 Rings
-499 Robux Legendary Chao – +350 Experience, +75 Rings
-Exotic Chao – +60 Experience, +15 Rings
-600 Robux Chao – +250 Experience, +50 Rings
-Code Special Chao – +30 Experience
-Collectible Special Chao – +350 Experience, +75 Rings

Please keep in mind some do vary slightly and so these amounts could be slightly off.

The only Chao that comes close to the Robux-costing Chao is the Collectible Special Chao, which is currently just the Green Hill Master Chao which requires you to get all 19 Chao in Green Hill zone. You have a limit of 20 Chao unless you expand your inventory for them– a price which goes up each time. You would literally need to not have gotten Chao from any other area AND managed to get the Chao you needed without doubling up more than once to achieve that. Obviously, you can delete Chao (but that hurts my soul) and of course, the Chao Garden had limits in the game, but besides collecting one Normal, one Dark, and one Hero Chao, you didn’t really NEED to have every single possible Chao… but that annoyed me in the Sonic Adventure games too. If you’re going to have different Chao, at least let me have one of each color XP

Regardless, since you can only get the one, you can’t fully evolve it with means it still can’t get to the full potential of a purchased once. I don’t even min-max Chao– I just use my favorites even if that costs me against certain things, but if you encourage collecting and/or have a PVP feature, this comes off really really scummy. And Sonic Speed Simulator does both of these things. On top of that, you have to buy a pass to have 5 Chao following you, otherwise you can only have 3. If it wasn’t for the PVP features, I could at least maybe argue, well, it’s just to progress faster, but progressing faster is kind of important when you’re required to win Races for things.

The game also features a Rebirth system because what better way to wall content than by forcing people to do everything over from the beginning multiple times which essentially stalls your level cap unless you buy the Unlimited Levels Pass… Unfortunately, even if you buy that pass, you’ll still need to use the Rebirth system despite it saying it’s to not have to deal with the rebirth system because most worlds (and their respective lobby that you need to complete) require Rebirths. This blows my mind because if they just had it so you required levels instead, then this wouldn’t even be an issue. I’ve seen people bring it up to the Developers with no response and it’s probably one of my biggest issues. The entire pass feels like a scam.

It’s just kind of frustrating as there’s many ways they could make money (such as some of the avatar items sold in the level) without it being things that cause the game to be pay the win. I had hoped with it being a licensed game, maybe it’d be done fairer, but there’s just so much scumminess with how it’s balanced and the limited time for how grindy the events are that really bring the game down. I know Roblox games can have stories (unless maybe it’s a faux pas with Speed Simulators) so I kind of wish they felt more like… levels and storylines as you play and not random limited time event for a while.

Gamer Christmas kicks off with a new Pokemon Trailer

So, as E3 isn’t happening this year, I have decided to call this year’s game-related announcements of the month what E3 always feels like in my heart: Gamer Christmas. It gives me that same warm and fuzzy feeling as I see friends happy with announcements whether I care or not.

I will admit I expected a bit more than a trailer, but I suppose it makes sense that more information may be saved for a Nintendo Direct and Treehouse Live stuff, especially with the game releasing in about 5 and a half months.

One thing that is especially throwing me off this time around with Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is that I actually don’t know which to pick. I generally pick from the moment I see them with very few adjustments otherwise (The only time I recently switched later is with Pokemon Sword/Shield– both my husband and I wanted Sword initially, but then literally all the Pokemon I was really excited for were exclusive to Shield with the one exception of Slurpuff who wasn’t even new to the game. To keep us with the two different versions, it just benefitted for me switching over having to try and trade someone for several party members.

I initially wanted to pick Scarlet because, well, one, it’s closer to Pink, and two, I liked the fancier font, but the more that’s shown, the more it seems Violet is closer to what I prefer aesthetically, even from the emblems alone.

This gen is also the first in ages where I still have not decided who my favorite starter is from all three– the last time I had this problem was Johto. I will say I have mixed feelings on the two Professors– I don’t really like when the version differs to such an extent to begin with (and it genuinely feels like we’ve long passed the need for two versions– it’s one of the few positives I could say about Pokemon Legends: Arceus)– I can deal with exclusive Pokemon but when you extend that to exclusive gyms (Pokemon Sword/Shield) or towns and just, characters in general, I find it really frustrating. The in-game explanation doesn’t make it any better.

The website says that it “allows multiplayer gameplay with up to four players”– we have no clue to the extent or if it’s even online or local only, but this sounds nice for the most part. I would guess it may only be outside town areas or story parts though, especially if more things are exclusive per version. I just hope there won’t be any forced multiplayer battles. It’s possible both Professors are there I suppose, just you only interact with the one that matches your game type. I would think there wouldn’t be overlap story-wise though as I don’t think having four friends battling out to become Champion would be fun, though I’m sure I’m in the minority with that feeling.

The other big revelation from the website is: “You can experience a new style of adventure, with a world that you’re free to explore at your leisure and not in an order dictated by the story.” And as I continue to be an outlier in the Pokemon community, I’m not that excited for it. I actually like linear progress to an extent as someone who will get side-tracked and immediately lost. I like to do everything, but without any order of where to start, I quickly become overwhelmed and that takes a toll on things. Being able to play with friends may at least help a bit though.

Moving onto the highlight of the Trailer for me: The Pokemon! I don’t care for either legendary design-wise (Can we go back to not having exclusive legendaries too?), but I will say I have liked all the regular Pokemon so far. Pawmi was easily my favorite of the bunch, looking like a chubby Rabbit-Teddy Bear hybrid and I just need a super soft mochi plush of them immediately. Lechonk (amazing name) and Smoliv were also cute, but PAWMI.

LOOK AT ITS CUTE FACE.

Unsurprisingly, this was my first and only screenshot from my initial watch:

Pawmi is officially the first on the list for my Scarlet/Violet Party. As for the game itself, I still have some reservations, but I’m cautiously optimistic and there’s a lot I like (I think PLA just has me extra down which you’ll see more of why in my upcoming “second round” of thoughts after I finish it). I’m still a bit bitter over getting my hopes up during the initial trailer thinking it’d be Detective Pikachu 2. Still hoping for that to come out soon enough at least…

Roughly a year in review of PSO2NGS

While it’s technically still another month before it really hits a year, as the anniversary event is currently happening, I figured I’d talk a bit about my thoughts now. If I wanted to keep it short, I’d say my feelings on the game are currently both bored and overwhelming, which may be weird as you think those would be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but it’s about the best way I can really describe how burnt out I feel and how even the most fun parts of the game unfortunately became stale for me.

I feel like most people complain about the lack of Story content, but I’m actually okay with it. The Story is one of my favorite parts, but considering the global release and all of it being fully voice acted, it doesn’t surprise me that there’s a delay in when we see the next parts. That said, we did get more to start even in the original PSO2 on the Japanese server and I think that’s part of why people are surprised. Maybe it was weird small bites, but it still was quite a bit more even if it was shown in a confusing way. I also felt like there was more to do offhand like with Alliance/Team Bases and having a room to decorate.

As it is, due to the Battle Point system, I’m actually not even excited for the upcoming story content because I’ve been struggling leveling up due to not being able to play as much. This is partially because my husband had already gotten burnt out due to the repetitiveness of the events (which… we’ll get more into later) and New Genesis just… isn’t made to play solo unless you really want a challenge. In terms of difficulty, it reminds me of going to certain higher level expert areas in PSO2 by myself (or attempting to with the Ally/Friend system) and like, could I do them? Sure, eventually, but it wasn’t fun and very slow and just… kind of tiring after a while. I’ve mentioned before that fighting in games is always one of my least favorite parts– it’s something I find repetitive and boring to begin with so drawing it out just makes it all the more exhausting, so with NGS kind of making it so every fight feels like it requires more people to not be there for way longer than needed, it’s put me in a rough place because I don’t really want to go at it solo and most people have moved on from the quests I need to do which makes it harder to find people hanging out where I’m still working on things.

Another issue is that I’ve found Force, pretty much the only class I’ve ever really enjoyed, just… doesn’t feel as good? Obviously, it’s hard to say fully objectively between having more skills in base PSO2 and it still being kind of early, but I find myself struggling a lot with PP management partially because there’s very little reason to actually charge attacks beyond wanting to unleash something specific– you don’t necessarily do as much damage, yet it feels like everything uses a lot of PP. Making things worse, the basic attack does nearly as much as my techniques do, even when using the super-effective element.

My gear maybe isn’t min-maxed, but it’s still pretty good and I have my armor units nearly completely maxed with all good augments and a 5* Rod with good augments as well. At best, I’m only missing out on a handful of extra points I could get into things and aren’t really worth the grind (or meseta). It also feels hard to be motivated to work on them when 6-Star items will be available soon enough– at the same time, the power increase is so minimal, it also just feels kind of disheartening to have to go through everything all over and have to re-get so many augments because you can’t transfer them yet. I hate how much upgrading works in PSO2 and while NGS makes it a little less awful with how you can increase Augment ratings, it’s just… not fun? It’s grindy and very boring and I’ve never been fond of games where I have to constantly upgrade my equipment. Leveling up my character feels exhausting enough without having to add so many other aspects I ALSO need to level up and take care of.

In general, I hate having to constantly upgrade gear, but when I need to also consider extra things (in PSO2’s case, augments) and level them all up as well instead of just… a simple click of the button and being done because I finally got better version of something, it’s just an aspect of the grind I’ve never cared for and very quickly gets old for me– I am absolutely the type of player who, if I had the meseta, would rather just buy a fully upgraded item off the marketplace because of how annoying I find it all.

But what has really gotten me down are the downgrade in what my favorite part of the initial PSO2– the Events. Decorating-wise, it’s still really nice and I love seeing how Central City gets decorated.

Unfortunately, that’s where most of my event enjoyment ends. The events generally consist of the following:

  • A decorated town
  • Enemies having a special mark on their head indicating that defeating them will get you points.
  • A dressed-up Rappy
  • A short quest series from the event NPC
  • Mischief Symbols – While available from I believe the second event onward, they were adjusted starting from the Spring event which I’ll talk about later.
  • Stellar Grace – Weren’t around from the start, but have been part of the last several events.
  • Earning points to trade in for items.
  • Maybe some event drops.
  • Since the last event (Spring), an event specific map.

And honestly, it just being any enemy with a symbol on their head that helps earn points got boring very quickly. It feels no different than when I’m playing the game normally which makes it not really feel like a fun break so much as more of the exact same thing. Mischief symbols, for the longest time, were my favorite part of the event– they added a cute touch in making things more decorated and usually had a fun effect. Unfortunately, since the last event, they just… put them out in the open which… I don’t really care for?

The World itself isn’t really decorated for the events– at best, maybe some seasonal changes (so like, different tree colors), but no real decorations. The mischief symbols, being like silly hidden objects, are now just kind of spread out randomly for your Mag to direct you to and it just feels out of place and only done to make it take longer.

It just feels like permanent versions of the Stellar Grace drops which, while they do give boosts for finding certain ones, I just found boring to keep looking for. Making them look slightly different doesn’t help make it less boring. Having them only around for certain amounts of time and only being able to find so many also added to making it less fun for me.

We finally got Event maps which I hoped I’d be happy about, but they still feel lacking? I don’t know if it’s due to the Open World environment or maybe just the lack of decorations, but nothing about it feels that special which kind of bums me out. It feels no different than doing some of the other UQs in the game. At least you can do event maps whenever (though, who knows if you’ll have people to queue with) unlike the randomness of other UQs, especially when there’s no longer a schedule except for the few times when we actually get one.

Obviously, I’m sure most people don’t even necessarily use the official NGS site that much, but can I just say how… irritating I find it? I find it annoying to navigate and multiple times now, things I genuinely found useful were removed– the forums, UQ schedules, and heck, they FINALLY set up the Scratch Tickets page to be similar to the Japan one where we could see the items in full instead of just through character previews and then removed it after a weeks to just be a text list. I don’t know why the site wants to be absolutely useless, but it sucks. And I know the forum was replaced with Discord, I also know there is a fan discord that has it set up to notify when UQs go up (though, honestly, I really need to be able to plan at least a day in advance so it really doesn’t help that much), but I don’t want to constantly have to join Discords for information. One thing that was nice about forums is you could poke in and find out things without having to join and do all this other stuff or have the window want to scroll away when you’re trying to read in its infinite page chat history.

In general, it’s just been tiring. I’m overwhelmed due to being behind on some quests and levels as we keep getting more, but the grind isn’t fun, the events aren’t fun, and I still can’t even get a nice ponytail yet. It just feels like there isn’t anything to grab me to make me want to finish leveling and the general issues of soloing it as well doesn’t help. Adding in the limited time of the events where I just need to do the exact same fighting to rack up points for limited time items doesn’t help.

I always liked how silly and crazy the events in PSO2 were and how there always seemed to be people ready to help, how we could get through our Bingo Cards in a few runs, and drops could be found pretty cheap on the shop. But everything here feels so generic and I have no idea why. I don’t really have advice for it and I’m sad to not being having fun with how much I enjoyed the original PSO2 and waited so long for it to finally get here, but besides how pretty the world is, I’m already tired of exploring it. Somehow, the randomness of the maps in PSO2 were still more engaging for me.

Discovering old Drafts

While helping my husband with his website, I found a lot of old Drafts that I just… did not post for some reason, which is especially silly as many of them are pretty close to done!

For fun, I decided to make a post including a couple of them:

Last updated January 2014

If you read my review on StreetPass, then my review on the brand new update for the Mii Plaza that finally arrived in the US in July should not come to any surprise. I’m not entirely sure what the delay was compared to Japan and Europe, but my guess is to prevent the errors that happened with the European release. I originally wanted to write about the games right away, but I decided to wait until I got closer to beating the games.


To Keep Reading:


While the games are fun, I would honestly say I don’t think any of them are worth their price point of $5 (Or all 4 for 15 dollars in the Bundle). Despite planning to (and obviously I still did) buy them all, I was expecting $2-$3 each so imagine my surprise when it was doubled. The main thing though is these games require StreetPass in a much larger way than Find Mii 1 & 2 and Puzzle Swap do (Although, the latter does require it to some degree to get all the puzzles). If you do not have an easy time getting StreetPasses or have a large supply of play coins, you may run into issues. Especially as some of the achievements require you to meet many other people with the game–and honestly, I don’t expect everyone with the 3DS (when many people don’t even have the Plaza activated) to be buying these games.

These games also bring in a whole bunch of new hats (some which even give you full costumes) that update daily. However, you earn these hats a lot differently. You actually get them through spending tickets which are earned by accomplishing certain goals (AKA Achievements) in the new games.

miiforce
Mii Force is the first game and is essentially an old styled-space shooter. It’s definitely the one I’d say is probably the most popular, but it’s also one of the more dependent on StreetPasses. It involves you going through the levels to fight and a boss at the end of each level.

There are various levels and you can even replay them without moving onto the next if you’d like. There are achievements per level (besides the achievements overall) for beating the high score, getting all the treasures, and not losing any of your “pod attackers”. More or less, your “attacks” are determined by people’s shirt colors similar to how Find Mii would use shirt colors for magic. The main issue here is that there is no other attack so if you have trouble with a shirt’s color, there’s not much you can do. For example, I find black to be pretty awful to use–they are slow and while they take out multiple enemies when they go off, you will probably be hit first. Also, as the levels go on, you will find that it’ll be harder and harder with just one or two Miis which really requires you to try and have as many as you can with you. In fact, even gold pants’ Miis actually get a bonus further encouraging the use of hiring through Play Coins.

While I really enjoyed it at first, Mii Force slowly became my least favorite game. It’s difficulty spiked up rather quickly and I found myself having a harder time keeping my pods–in fact, I spent an incredibly long time on a boss due to only having one pod left and only being able to attack while it was shooting at me–thus, I was barely able to damage it. While I have nearly all the other games close to done, I am far from getting anywhere in Mii Force. Between various things that require specific attacks due a certain skill, I’m just not good enough at it.

flowertown
Flower Town is the second game and probably the least popular. The game involves growing flowers…and that’s really it. You can do jobs which involve you to grow flowers and decorate your garden and overall, it’s a fairly relaxing game. The main flaw is it’s very slow and there isn’t really anything you can do while waiting for more StreetPasses (or using playcoins) to water your plants until you’ve earned a good amount of money. Unfortunately, the only ways to earn money are:
1. Selling Plants – Of course, you need them to be watered for them to grow…
2. Selling Seeds – You need a finished plant to be watered to get seeds (10 per plant)–I mean, you can always BUY seeds, but that’s not really helpful to making money.
3. Doing Jobs – You can only do one at a time and they require a specific plant which you may or may not need to buy (and in some cases, need to grow multiple flowers to get a specific seed–especially if you are going for the best score) and thus, more watering. And once you submit a flower for a job, you need to wait for another StreetPass to see how you did so you can pick a new job.
Which makes it a bit of an endless circle of what you can and can’t do. It’s more than a little frustrating especially considering it’s supposed to be relaxing.

Regardless, you will eventually have more money than you know what to do with. Other than a couple of expensive plots, most things are fairly cheap and when you get down to only needing a few plants (I’m personally down to 12), you will be selling things quite often. I currently have about 500K and I’ve bought all the plots I can along with at least one of each pot. The main problem with the game is despite being essentially a collecting game, the closest you can get to collecting them all is documenting in your journal. Ignoring that you can only show off one of your gardens to those you streetpass, even your own personal collection comes out as lack-luster for the following reasons:
1. Even if you buy all the plots (2 of which are only available after hitting 20 flowers), you can only hold up to 50 of the 80 total flowers, so yeah, you can’t even keep one of each. This is even worse for people who may have wanted to collect one of each color of each flower as well.
2. Very few decoration spots. Despite a large amount of decorations, there’s only so many places you can put them and some of the plots do not have any spaces for some of these items at all… so a lot of them get kind of wasted.
If you could buy multiples of plots, this would fix a lot of things as you can display as many flowers as you want and also expand more with decorating, but right now it’s a lot of picking and choosing which really isn’t much fun in a game that is Collection-based.

warriorsway
Warrior’s Way is somewhat similar to the board game risk crossed with Rock, Paper, Scissors. You have to conquer realms while building up your army. The main thing is the ways to build up your army are:
1. Conquering said worlds.
2. If you StreetPass someone who does NOT have Warrior’s Way, you will get the amount of people they have in their plaza joining your army.
3. If you StreetPass someone who DOES have Warrior’s Way, you must defeat their army in a fight to get a percentage of their army.
4. Hiring with Play Coins (5 Play Coins for the smallest amount)
Let’s just say it was pretty depressing when Zero bought the game only to make it so I no longer received a lovely 1,000 army. While I do get more now if I defeat him, he sadly can not defeat me (while if I didn’t have the game, he’d have been getting 1,700 people to his army everytime he streetpassed me). I’m very surprised they did it this way–what would’ve made more sense is if you greeted Peacefully, you’d get just the people in the plaza while if you fought and won, you’d get many more.

This may work somewhere in Japan where everyone has lots of StreetPasses so it’s a close match and you will be good, but here… there’s people who have barely any who will be at a disadvantage and people who have a lot who will repeatedly win. It’s not very balanced and makes things a lot harder. Not to mention the amount you have to pay Play coin-wise does not feel very rewarding.

The game also has some crazy ups and downs in regards to how many you may be facing which may be in part due to some of the achievements (Requiring you to win a fight with someone who has an army 1.5x larger and 2x larger… not fun), but still very frustrating. The main thing to keep in mind with this though is it’s not impossible to win with an army much larger than yours. If you have around 2x (at least with the actual map–it’s more luck based with StreetPass), there is a good chance you can figure out a way to win. I didn’t expect to get as far as I did with this game, but once I started getting a better idea with the strategy, I started increasing my army size much faster. I’m now at max (9,999,999) and at my 3rd run with the Emperor (you need to play at least 3 times to get your Castle’s rank to 20) and am essentially just waiting there as now it’s the waiting game. The achievements I need are from meeting people who don’t have the game, greeting those who have the game peacefully, winning against those who have the game, and hiring Mercenaries (Which will cost at least 100 Play coins for the achievement). These are all relatively slow achievements so there isn’t much to do–I just know I don’t want to have to play through a 4th round.

monstermanor
The final new game is Monster Manor which is probably the closest to some degree to Find Mii. In this game, you are a detective trying to go to the top of the tower to solve a mystery. You place parts by passing people (the parts being the color of their shirt). Placing parts of the same color next to eachother will possibly get you 1 or more chests (depending on how big you made the room) and make it so no enemy will spawn. If you place a different color, there is a chance an enemy will spawn–however, you can get in as many hits as needed to defeat the enemy (as long as you don’t die) along with dodging which makes it more engaging. This game is a bit nicer to people who may not be able to StreetPass often–especially if you only have one person as you’d pretty much only have that one color which guarantees you no enemies and lots of chests. Of course, that does make it harder for achievements like “Defeat 100 Enemies”–though, later floors have some color pieces already placed which can help with that.

I would say the biggest issue is that there are some things that require you to have more players with the same color–for example, Puzzle Boxes need at least 2 players and need you to complete a room with them for -the chance- of a puzzle box showing up as it’ll only show up if a player is in the room. If it weren’t for things like that (which are also achievement-based no less), it’d be a lot easier. Similarly, if you are able to Street Pass people a good amount but the shirts are random, you will have a lot of trouble with the chest achievements. The game just gets a bit more complicated than it needs to be in places which I find takes away from it a bit.

Overall? The games definitely are fun. Despite my frustrations, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them. The price is still a bit high, in my opinion, and I do think they will be a lot harder for those who do not have access to many streetpasses, but if you enjoy StreetPass and the Mii Plaza, I’d still recommend picking them up.

It’s kind of ironic I didn’t post this, but did post the next batch of games ^^;

Next up, a rant as I had to replace my laptop among other things and is honestly still a pretty big issue even today.

Last updated May 2012:

Hello! :) I am an occasional guest writer and Zero’s girlfriend (Jen from 2022’s note: We’re married now :P). I enjoy the color pink, would love to ride a unicorn into the sunset, want to live in a castle in the sky, and have hordes of plushies. And I enjoy playing little flash games and Neopets in my spare time.

I also like playing video games. I enjoy kicking things in the face, building cute things, training pets, playing platformers, messing with my friends, and even enjoy shooters occasionally (on both the easiest and hardest difficulties). And despite the fact that I usually will play a healer in an MMO, that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of doing much else.

Unfortunately, these things can’t seem to mix.


To Keep Reading:


And no, ignoring some general sexism towards a female gamer (“What? Girls don’t play video games!” “Yeah, okay, you’re a G.I.R.L.–Guy In Real Life”), there is one other issue–if you notice, most of the time when a female gamer may be acknowledged, they are a tomboy.

The issue is, a girl can be “girly” and still kick some serious butt in video games.

Recently, I have run into an issue with both my laptop and computer. My laptop, which is completely pink and white (Pink everywhere except the actual keys on the keyboard which are white) apparently has an issue that could cause it to burst into flames. While the firmware update prolonged this, it’s gotten to the point where I can’t do much of anything. My computer, on the otherhand, besides also having a heating issue and needing a parts upgrade, the Hello Kitty Mouse and Keyboard need to be replaced. The mouse works poorly and the keyboard is so worn that the letters on the keys have been completely torn off. The space bar and some other letters are also barely functioning.

So, Zero decided I should finally try and actually get a keyboard, mouse, and laptop up to spec. And you know what doesn’t exist in that case? Pink. You will find black and silver mostly. Occasionally some red and sometimes some blue. Afterall, any real female gamers can’t also like the color pink! Or want to be healing princesses! THAT IS AN OUTRAGE.

Thus, nearly any pink laptop or mouse or keyboard you will find will have a 98% chance of sucking. If it does not suck, it will only reach “okay” or “decent”, it will never be “great”. So you will have to replace it yet again because it won’t really be what you need. And that’s just not very fair.

After much searching, I finally found a good laptop. It’ll unfortunately only be pink on the side I can’t see while everything else will be black which, well, sucks. Pink is my favorite color (Followed by white, and no, I don’t care that it’s technically a shade, and ocean-shades), especially the light shades of it. So, when I have something I plan on using a lot, I’d like it to be a color that makes me happy.

And sure, there’s skins. But not only are they more money, a lot of them honestly aren’t that great. You can tell it’s a skin for one and there’s usually many off-areas that show the original color underneath. It’s just an obvious fake and it’s not really satisfying. (And finding one for a specific laptop is also quite hard)

However, that still leaves the mouse and keyboard (And skins on either of those are just annoying to deal with) which I will end up just having to settle on a black or silver colored one.

The question is, despite the fact that girl gamers are “acknowledged” (With a good 75% of female character clothes still having been gotten from a strip joint… -_-), other than maybe t-shirts and things also be in girl sizes and maybe some actual respect when making them in-game, why can’t we actually be able to get good stuff to play? At least some handheld systems and console controllers have started to make pink versions that are on the same level as the rest–so, how long until the computer decides to catch up?

The unfortunate truth: it seems they still have yet to, 10 years later.

Some not included here due to not being even close to finished (just an introduction paragraph): Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy Review and a co-review of SWTOR. Maybe one day those will end up finished.

In which we talk about the CvP (and Versus World) Facebook Live!

So, today as a treat for fans while at an exhibit for retailers, CepiaLLC set up a Facebook Live to show off their upcoming stuff— Gold Wave, Kittens vs Gherkins, Dogs versus Squirls, Bears vs Donuts, and while not part of the Versus World, another cute soft beanie product– Pop Art Soft which are very artistic Elephants.

As per usual, I’m not going to talk about everything that was shown (It was… a lot and just gathering screenshots took me over 3 hours), but just focus on some of the specific designs I’m excited for. I won’t be including any designs I mentioned in my last post when they did the Zoom, but all the ones there that aren’t out yet (or at least not in Bean size) are still heavily on the wanted list. I’m not sure when I’ll be adding these to my wishlist page (maybe after thinking it over and possibly narrowing down more? WE SHALL SEE…), but for now, I wanted to take my time to wrap my head around everything because, again, it was a lot.

Off-hand, I’m glad the Gold Wave will be split up into parts. Part of why Purple Wave was so rough is because not all the ones actually in Purple Wave were available in every bag and that wasn’t clear. There were even several that arrived months later. If Gold Wave can prevent that happening again, that’s great.

We’ll start with Cats vs Pickles stuff :)

So, firstly, the very first thing to jump out at me was this adorable Pickle:

I’ve said for a while I really wanted more various Pickle shades and I loove this color and it’s just really cute overall. There was also this really lovely colored Snail? Cat:

Despite not being much of a Madeleine person, I find this Bean really cute.

Otter Kitty! I just love the colors on this one. I hope it keeps that reddish-violet hue and doesn’t end up more purple.

I also love Travel Motifs so it’s no surprise that I adored Steamer and Emboss, even if I think Steamer could’ve been nice with a more vintage-esque color.

While I was mixed on Pea initially, seeing them in the video really won me over. Still not 100% on SPF 100 though!

Also Pig Cat is a little Piggy Bank and I love her so much. There’s also Shades who I just… find the color scheme really pleasing? I also love the flamingos on their shirt.

Like with the Pickle I mentioned at the start, the color of this lovely Pine Cat also caught my eye. Plus, Gramgram! She’s so cute.

I also really adored Sparky. It’s nice seeing the black and white since I feel like a lot of black and white designs have generally been made blue or purple and I like it… actually just being Black and White. Also this cute like… Warrior Princess Cat?

I also really want to see more of this cat, sure, it’s just a pink cat in a sailor uniform, but it speaks to me.

Plus Betta who is also very cute and who I also hope will be in Bean form:

There’s also so many where I’m still not 100% sure if I want or not, but am at least really intrigued by the design. Some are generally unsure where there’s things I like and things I don’t like, others I just really need to see in person to know for sure, but for some, the issue was that they were too small to really get a proper look at them and we never really got to see them in full. And for Chonks/Jumbos, I just would love to see them in Bean form preferably.

The lovely Olive Loaf was shown during the last Zoom too, and is the one exception here as I didn’t put it in that post, and I still can’t decide.

Kittens vs Gherkins continue to just be adorable and I love so many that I am very tempted to actually buy a full box of them (and hey, it’d be a fun unboxing video, right?). For one, Baby Finley!!

Other highlights were Baby Gumbo, Baby Groovy Gil, Baby Patches, Baby Rookie, Baby Cosmos, Baby Narwhal and so many more. Unlike my CvP indecisiveness, I genuinely want all of these.

As for Dogs vs Squirls… There were a few that jumped right out to me, but with the exception of Gerald, the husky, none of the others we really got a good look at unfortunately.


And of course, more I’m not 100% sure of just yet, but I hope they will have Bean forms.

Next up, Bears vs Donuts! It was so exciting to see them and they are somehow even cuter than expected. One really neat thing is they even had different types of donuts! I really love all of these so much.

Finally, we have Pop Art Soft! While not part of the versus series, they’re also very cute and I’d love to get all these small ones and hope the big one will be in the small size too somehow.

Edited May 19th, 2022: There was another video today from London— not too much new (though, there were some better pictures so I may try to update this), but I did want to highlight these two new ones– Amelia the Chonk Pickle (who I hope will be in Bean size):

And another Baby I find fairly cute– Baby Prisma Paws:

My Fluffy Life – New Fairy-themed Shop!

Today brought the latest My Fluffy Life update finishing up everything with the Spring season addition— the new limited time store you can access from the laptop– Paper Fairy Shop, which you can buy items from by catching Paper Butterflies which weren’t available until this update.

I had caught a lot of butterflies in preparation, but since none of the Paper ones were available, it was essentially all for naught ^^; Sometimes I’d see a lot, while other times not very many, however only Paper Butterflies count. They essentially look like they have pages for wings, but they also appear in your Fluffy’s inventory which can help keep track of how many you have.

I ended up dyeing some more items too… only to have ended up picking the wrong ones x-x The 100 Eggs per item is really rough when there’s a lot you want to try and use the system for, even if it doesn’t work as well as you’d like.

Anyway, I’m back to working on getting more Eggs and Paper Butterflies. Here’s hoping I get luckier with some of the appearance rates. @-@

Let’s talk about Dogs vs Squirls!

If there’s one thing that I’ve been really passionate about lately, it’s Cats vs Pickles and the continuation of that Versus world Cepia LLC has been doing– Dogs vs Squirls were first brought up during a fan survey and to some extent, the usual Dogs vs Cats argument shone through. The biggest critique at the time were the facial expressions for the Squirrels, finding them a bit too eccentric, and those were changed, but most everything else stuck pretty similar to what was shown in that survey.

Personally, I consider myself a dog person, though I do love both dogs and cats… but when you’re allergic to certain types of cats as is another family member, you just get more used to dogs. Regardless, having already really liked CvP, I was pretty excited for these just by species alone– I like Dogs, I like Squirrels, I like CvP a lot, these should be really cute, right? And I absolutely do feel that way. I did have some concerns finding a lot of the extra details a bit unneeded or feeling a bit too much, however, they actually don’t stand out as much in person, if at all. I currently own 4: 3 Dogs– Victoria, Chachee, and Frank, and 1 Squirl– Nibbles. The rest of the ones I’m interested in thus far aren’t available yet in the small size.

It’s such a weird thing because photos pick up those details SO much making them stand out quite a bit and they just really come together so well in person that it doesn’t really stand out at all. The unfortunate part is that because DvS are in soft launch, there’s not really any places selling them Open Box unless a Retailer decided to open the blind bags and sell them that way. I’m hoping when they have their full launch, some will be open box at least. If there’s one thing I miss, it’s when CvP was only open box.
I personally ordered all of mine from the Learning Express Toys in Lake Zurich as they do phone orders and open up some of their blindbags for open box sales. They’re also where I got my very first CvP (Majicat, Finley, and Key West Kitty) and certain Purple Wave Beans (Gumbo) and Chonks (Cannoli) I had been hoping for. I’ve had very little luck finding any CvP products here, so I usually have to buy online.

Right now, besides Learning Express Toys, most people have had luck finding them from Hot Topic, Gift Shops, or ordering from Wholesale retailers. I have no idea if any are planned to be open box when soft launch ends, but I hope so. I would say my biggest frustration with Soft Launch though is an issue I also had with Purple Wave where despite the checklists with the blind bags, not all of them are available yet. 12/24 of the small size and at least 12/24 chonks (it’s possible there’s more– I haven’t seen enough people sharing what they got from the Chonk bags) have been released thus far, and 6/8 Jumbos. At least the Jumbos are open box.

I just feel bad for people who maybe only wanted a specific character/size and it’s not available yet– there’s three that aren’t available in any size yet and I just kind of wish something alerted this so nobody was buying up like 24+ Blindbags only to just get the same 12 over and over. As it is, when the official launch hits within supposedly the next two months, it’ll not just bring in the missing checklist ones, but a whole bunch of new ones as well. With how big Gold Wave apparently is already and the Kittens vs Gherkins line coming plus the teasers of Bears vs Donuts, I’m feeling quite overwhelmed ^^; But this post isn’t to talk about that– it’s mainly to talk about Dogs vs Squirls.

One thing I will say is they are incredibly soft. I’m still not super huge on the different fabrics (I prefer smoother textures to fluffy ones– that’s just me, but the fur is absolutely just as soft), but they’re really nice. I know a lot of the biggest complaints with DvS vs CvP were a combination of the longer/more detailed personalities (and not just puns) and all the clothing/accessories for the designs version just… general designs, but neither personally bothered me. I also genuinely liked having more personality stuff and it’s something I wish CvP had, especially as I’m not much of a pun person. That said, because of the longer bios for Dogs vs Squirls, the tags are also quite big. You’ll also see that they are slightly bigger than the Cats, mostly due to the bigger ears and longer tail, though obviously depending on the dog, they could be closer in size.

I do find the tags incredibly clever between the dog tag motif and even managing to include the cute Checklist design, but they are pretty big. While it doesn’t super bother me as I remove the tags (and these are like… perfect binder slot size), I can see how it’d be annoying for those who don’t.

As for the size of the Squirls… They are similar in height, maybe a bit taller, but do not share the usual Bean shape and are more apple-shaped, if anything. They also have a 50-50 Bean to Stuffing consistency which I like, though, they the Nibbles I have does feel overly stuffed to the point where it not only can’t be super squished, but you can kind of see where the stitching ends on the back as all the seams are extra tight. It also is a huge contrast to the tail which, despite being twice as big and wider than the Cat tails, is completely flat with nothing really there. Due to the size, I would’ve expected some stuffing and/or beans so I was surprised they were left alone and the contrast of the super stuffed body to the flat tail when the tail is like 1/2-2/3rd of the size of the body stands out. I also wish the tush tag was placed closer to the tail instead of coming out the side of Nibbles’ face.

You may also notice a thread there behind Nibbles– I had one loose thread on them and also on Chachee by her nose (which blends in at times due to all the pink)– in general, I noticed a lot of odd threads with Nibbles, though, most were just loose strings.

As mentioned above, Nibbles seemed to have a few sewing issues with even the knot at the back being noticeable– likely due to how stuffed they are. ^^; While it’s not a big deal for me and I can just cut the loose threads, it’s something I’d keep an eye out for if they were being given to a kid. Cepia LLC is generally pretty good at replacements though so if it was genuinely an issue, I’m sure they’d take care of that.

Overall, though, I really do like them and hope more people will give them a chance– especially if they get a chance to see them in person because even photos don’t fully do them justice.

In which I talk about Cat Cafe Manager

I don’t always give my game thoughts here– usually because it doesn’t feel like I have enough to say beyond what I put in a description, but I’ve played a lot of this game recently (despite the size of my video) and it was one I had been really looking forward to since the initial announcement. As a disclaimer, I DID receive a code for the game, but I am writing this post entirely on my own volition. And of course, if you guys would enjoy more Opinion-piece-esque posts (and not really reviews or at best, casual ones), feel free to let me know :)

To start, I will say the one thing the game always made me think of as I played was Diner Dash, though, a much more relaxed version. Customers sit where they want and while you prepare the meals, any of your staff can as well. So, if Staff A takes the orders, you can fill and deliver it. Or maybe you grab the order and Staff A takes care of making it and Staff B delivers it. It’s very flexible which is honestly kind of nice. I also like that customers don’t really get angry (Though, they may be disappointed by the decor or if you don’t have what they want) so despite having that kind of more fast-paced feeling in the terms of grabbing food and customers coming in, it’s overall very relaxing.

I will say though in its simplicity with the methods, it also felt a little convoluted with how much. There are 6 different currencies plus the “Delight” level which is used to unlock new things and upgrade the shrine. Shop items usually took 1-2 of the different currencies and you got each currency based off what customers stopped by. Me, refusing to yield on my eclectic tastes that tend to involve as much as I can fit, just constantly invited everyone and did my best. This was how my Cafe looked by the end of my playthrough:

The game also has a story to go along with everything where making your Cafe better will help raise Customer’s Delight which in turn, helps restore the shrine (in addition to giving you various upgrades). Alongside this, there are 5 Side Stories for each of the named characters you meet along the way. I actually really liked all the characters and the messages in the stories were really sweet. I would say my only complaint here is they didn’t really feel like Regulars when after their initial introductions during the first week, they only showed up if you called them. I really wish there was a chance, even if not super common, that they showed up regardless. Them only showing up for calling after essentially one conversation in your Cafe felt really odd and as nice as the friendship conversations were at each milestone, it never really felt like we were truly becoming friends at the Cafe as they really were no different than any other customer besides their model and a dialogue box. Despite that, the friendship rewards were always really nice with the final ones even giving you special lures for some more unique Cats you could get that have special traits like having no needs or more materials or delight. I would say my only concern there is how much those extra benefits help closer to the end when maybe you don’t need that help as much.

Of course, this is a Cat Cafe, but when it comes down to it, there’s not too much to do with the Cats themselves. You can buy them stuff that they’ll use, you refill their food bowls, clean their litter boxes, and sometimes they’ll ask for some pets, but most of the time they’ll just wander around doing whatever, which, I suppose is pretty accurate to how Cats are anyway. You’re initially limited to 5 Cats (and can get up to 9 with Shrine Upgrades) and are encouraged to adopt the Cats out to people looking for a Cat… but since you can level the Cats to make them appeal to more types of people and/or earn more materials, I kind of just held onto all of mine and was initially really sad because there’s SO many neat Cats and each with a unique name and appearance and sometimes a unique skill as well that you can level up to make even better and I just… didn’t want any of them to leave. I wasn’t sure what I was doing to do when I hit the 9 limit, but at the end of the game, you actually get a huge upgrade to the amount of Cats you can have to over 50 along with an upgrade to the amount of seats you can place as well.

The only thing is once you’ve finished the game, the only thing left to do is max friendships, if you haven’t yet, and collect Cats and I’m not sure how many people will continue to do those things, so it almost feels like some of the additions go to waste. I personally did enjoy them though, especially more Cats. And I think that may be the problem for most people– the game is very passive and while I found it relaxing, I know others may find it boring. Some cafe days after getting more staff and leveling up their skills, I could literally just let them take care of almost everything. I did find some stuff they would never do though– like they never seemed to actually help at all with the Cats for some reason.

I would love to see updates in the future, maybe adding a little more story or just more items (though, unless our glade gets bigger, I’ll admit my cafe is kind of at its limit). Or maybe even just some options for the staff– I would’ve loved being able to adjust the uniform to some extent or even have the option for a skirt for my character.

Regardless, I genuinely did enjoy the game. I think it’s a little hard with so many different currencies, but I found the game really cute and relaxing, but the game definitely doesn’t really feel like a management game, but gives me a lot of nostalgia for some of the old quick cooking games that weren’t just… pick all the right items from the Kitchen to match someone’s order. If you’re interested in the game, you can check it out on Steam here :)