A Year in Review. Or something like that. & Most Anticipated 2019 Games

I don’t usually write posts like this, usually feeling my activity kind of speaks for itself, but this year, unless you follow my MCL/Beemoov game blog, I haven’t done much of anything.

There’s a lot of reasons for this. For one, we’re in the process of moving so everything is being packed up and moved around. The other is that it had been a very rough year and I’m still recovering from it.

And trust me when I say nobody is more disappointed by the lack of things completed than I am. As someone who usually finishes a game within about a week tops unless it’s something more real-time focused like Animal Crossing, having some games still incomplete (Such as Let’s Go Pikachu which I have not played since getting the Cascade Badge and Miitopia is years old at this point. Ultra Moon is over a year as well).

I’ve already spoken a bit about Ultra Moon and part of why there’s been such a pause (And losing the footage of the climax of the game sure didn’t help), but in general, it comes down to: Lack of time combined with needing something a bit more light-hearted/that I can just enjoy and relax in. Similarly, the reason I’ve played a lot of Visual Novels lately is reading helps me relax, I don’t have access to many books on hand, and I need something simple right now due to stressing too much.

I’ve mentioned before how I feel like I’m slowly no longer having a place in gaming and while part of it is due to my own busy schedule, a large part of it is due to games being focused on an audience that not only have I never been apart of, it’s one I don’t wish to join.

I have nothing against those who do enjoy it, but it’s not why I started playing games and it’s a bit disheartening for me. Such as Super Smash Brothers that ended up removing my favorite feature, trophies, in lieu of spirits that have various skills you can give your character. I’d still prefer trophies. I don’t care about figuring out the best spirits for my play style and character. In the end, we mostly got it as my husband would still play with friends and I wanted to check out the story mode. Which sadly was also disappointing to me. It’s not bad and it has interesting moments and cute Easter Eggs, but it feels more like a challenge mode and I never cared for those. At least we can always use any character we have unlocked so far (just… Hope you have one you’re good with unlocked already), but as I mentioned before, I find most people who really enjoy some of those super hard challenges do for the challenge themselves and so it sucks if there’s a Spirit someone may really want and just… keep failing. Some challenges I kept working towards for over an hour. While I am proud for having every part of the map we’ve done 100%’d so far, it’s not really what I’m playing for and it doesn’t give me that sense of achievement. Maybe because I’m a perfectionist, but if I failed once, it doesn’t matter if I get it eventually–I already feel like a failure.

That’s definitely not the best way to think of things, but I think it’s part of why the whole “It’s not the end result, but the journey you take to get there” thing doesn’t work for me. I’m not against hard work, but no matter how hard I work, I just don’t feel good enough if I didn’t finish already.

And that’s also part of why there’s a lot of things on the back-burner right now. For one reason or another, I had to stop and I’m the type of person who really has a hard time picking something back up once I put it down which is why I never really put things down usually.

I’d like to hope this year, maybe I can get a lot of those games and other projects of mine that are in progress done. Maybe also further some other things important to me, like learning languages and maybe getting the chance to travel more again soon. I think in general I just desperately need a change of scenery.

I’m still inching closer to getting some things done, so it may be a slow progress, but it’s some kind of progress nonetheless and I’m thankful most people have been patient with me as I slowly get each part up. I really should learn to record in advance and properly schedule things, but I’ve never been good with schedules (Mostly because my life is insane and things can change at the drop of a hat).

Finally, to make this a little less solemn, I want to talk about the games I am looking forward to most in 2019:

1. Animal Crossing

While I am still pretty burnt out from Pocket Camp, I am hoping once we see official footage for the upcoming Animal Crossing game, it could help re-ignite my flame. Animal Crossing is a very complicated series for me that holds a lot of memories between playing with family to meeting a lot of close friends to also a bit more painful memories that I don’t want to go into.

One of the things that will be nice is getting to talk to many of those people again. The other thing is worrying that the same thing that ruined another game for me could happen in a combination of some personal matters and the burn out.

I think there’s a lot of promise for the game. I think there’s a lot they could do right. But I will admit, especially with the constant stream of events in Pocket Camp and some of the patches is recent Nintendo games (Such as Mario Tennis Aces and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) that they could end up just making it a little too much.

There are ways to do it, of course, and Animal Crossing is a real time game. It doesn’t need all of these bricked walls. I always had mixed feelings on the way monthly items were given, but I am absolutely terrified of the idea that they may just put in weekly to bi-weekly events with new items and bonus objectives and I get that it’s there to give people things to do and reason to check back, but it just stresses me out. I feel anxious all the time worrying I’ll miss something if I’m not constantly checking in and that isn’t fun. That isn’t fun in the slightest.

Animal Crossing has so many events and things already that it really doesn’t need constant extra content added–especially not any time soon. I’d also rather them work on it to be the best it could be before releasing, even if that means the game could be pushed back, rather than getting a big expansion down the line.

I feel pushing things before they’re ready has become a trend recently and it really needs to stop. I get really wanting a game to come out. I get being excited for a fandom. But I feel there’s such a large amount of impatience and entitlement nowadays about when something should and why they don’t have it yet (and it’s been like… so much worse in the AC fandom with how much it’s grown since New Leaf) and it’s not fun to see. And I feel that is part of what contributes to rushing products out and the added content later.

2. Ooblets

I’ve been following Ooblets for ages now between the Discord, Patreon, their shortly lived mailing list that may make a comeback, and really every bit of their social media.

It’s a combination of so many of my favorite games in a super adorable art style–there really isn’t anything not to like. Also, Perplamps and NonPlayerCat are really sweet.

Regardless, just everything about Ooblets makes it hard not to be excited and I’m looking forward to something to put a lot of time into without constantly worrying I’m running out of time.

3. The New Pokemon Project.

Despite my mixed feelings on Pokemon right now, Pokemon has a very big place in my heart and nothing can change that. I know it’ll likely have some new battle mechanics I don’t care for and even more Pokemon and things so I’ll just keep my hopes simple: Better customization and better catch mechanics.

ORAS still had some of the best catching mechanics to me and I’d really prefer to go back to that over Gen 7’s gimmick. Also I never want to see motion controlled catching again (paired with needing to catch so many of the exact same Pokemon to boost chances of certain ones spawning and other things) which is easily the biggest reason I’ve had trouble playing more of Let’s GO. I knew some Pokemon would be rare, but I didn’t think they’d be that low of a chance. I can’t stand seeing more than the amount of Pokemon I need when they look the same (So, as an example: I would never want more than 3 Geodude and only if I didn’t have Graveler or Golem yet. Another example would be no more than four Pikachu–three male and three female, and again, only if I didn’t have any Raichu yet. The two extra Raichu would be to trade for Alolan Raichu–one of each gender). I can’t really explain why, but it really bothers me organizational-wise and that’s part of why I struggle.

I tend to be very possessive with my Pokeballs incase something rare I need DOES show up so needing to swing over and over again at the same Pokemon to even get some to show up stresses me out. And as much as I hate battling, I will take it over catching the same Pokemon over and over that I don’t even need (this is why I don’t do breeding outside of Pokemon you can’t get otherwise).

4. Jenny LeClue

There still isn’t a full release date so it’s possible it could be pushed back further, but I love mysteries and have been following this for a while and even have it prordered soooo….

5. Arcade Spirits

This is a visual novel game I played the demo of recently and actually really enjoyed for a multitude of reasons to the aesthetics, writing, and interesting customization. While I don’t record everything, I actually played around with a lot of the choices even after finishing my recording.

I’m really looking forward to the full release in February.

6. Mineko’s Night Market

I get to solve mysteries, run a cute store, and make friends with cats. How could I not look forward to this?

Anyway, that sums it up for the most part. Hopefully I can finish more of my backlog before things start dropping at least and hopefully this year will be better than the last.

In which I talk a bit about Ultra Moon & general channel stuff

So, for people who may follow my Twitter or actually read my Youtube descriptions, you likely recall me saying I wanted to finish Ultra Moon before Let’s Go Pikachu releases next month. Unfortunately, as also mentioned on Twitter, the recent recording corrupted after less than half the total footage recorded.

Between Rotomdex’s reminders and my own obsessive saving, I couldn’t redo the footage. It’s just gone. And it’s incredibly frustrating as it was the first time I really enjoyed playing. It was footage I was actually happy to see. Happy I had recorded. Only for it to be gone due to a corruption.

While I was able to figure out WHY this issue happened and thus, make it so it wouldn’t happen again, that sadly doesn’t help save anything else. I also uploaded the recording, unlisted, for people to still watch the part that isn’t if they want to, but I didn’t publish it.

And this is just… Kind of soul crushing. I’ve been struggling playing much of anything lately. I know people are probably tired of seeing Visual Novels popping up–I can’t say it’s my favorite thing either, but I really enjoy reading and unfortunately, reading is about all I’ve been capable of doing lately.

For those who have been enjoying the random visual novels, I’m glad! I technically have a couple of other things recorded, but I don’t know when/if I’ll upload them sadly… Or maybe I will just unlisted with Public playlists.

Anyway, back to Pokemon: As mentioned, the footage is dead and there is nothing else I can do. I tried so hard, but it’s just… gone. And it’s heartbreaking because it was the climax of the game. So many scenes I would’ve loved to keep recorded (and I worked so hard in the plaza to have the outfit I wanted for these scenes too) only to not have it at all now.

I did, however, take a good amount of screenshots. On a disheartening note though, I really hoped to get more screenshots and when I missed them, I tried to make myself feel better by saying I could get them from the video later. CLEARLY THAT ISN’T HAPPENING.

Regardless, I’m going to go through some of the screenshots and my thoughts to at least keep some memory of the episode around. So, let’s get started.

I left off in my last video getting to Aether Foundation after Lillie and Cosmog were taken, so that’s where we pick up.



It’s pretty similar to the original, just with some of the new characters making an appearance in the process. It ends the same.

Lillie gets her Z-Powered form and I cry because she gets a ponytail and I don’t have that option despite being on a tropical island. Also her backpack is way cuter than my bag.

Anyway, we’re off to the next island and we have to go see the Exeggutor to get the flute. And despite my issues with a lot of the mechanics, outside of Trials, in Alola, I really do like the environment.

We get the flute and after going through the canyon which I got flashbacks to how much I hated doing enough in Moon, we get the fancy flute playing scene which is honestly one of my favorites and I want a real Moon Flute.

They added a lot to this scene which just makes it haunt me even more that I will never have the recording of it now.


That said, putting so much in this and with Necrozoma really made everything with Guzma and Lillie’s mother become a lot more anticlimatic.

I kind of failed my first Warp Time, but I did get to have a pretty picture in the best warp area so not too bad:

I don’t expect to use the Warp system anytime after this (I have the legendaries from past games and I have no interest in shiny hunting) so I at least feel a bit lucky that I landed here, even if by mistake.

I got the right one on my second attempt though.



It was then time for my next trial with Mina which was… Honestly kind of cool.

I liked visiting the other trial leaders and honestly, my only real complaint is that there wasn’t more variety. I didn’t care about battling nearly all of them again and while talking was nice, I don’t know, with how unique each trial felt, I kind of wish it was a little different than battle most of them.

The rainbow flower was so pretty though.

After that, it was off for my final Grand Trial. And then I finished that and headed to the league–stuck in the cave before the top of the mountain which is where I stopped recording.

I don’t know when I’ll get the next part up due to a handful of reasons:
1. I’m still really upset about losing over four hours of footage.
2. I had expected my team to actually LISTEN to me after finishing all the trials, but apparently they do not until after you become Champion… Which means I still have to deal with them disobeying me which just… sucks.
3. As mentioned, I’ve been really struggling with playing things lately.
4. We may be moving very soon and have been having to pack up a lot of stuff which also means just not much free time right now.

So while I hoped to finish Miitopia and Ultra Moon… I just don’t know if that’s viable right now, unfortunately. :(

Super Mario Party thoughts

So, while I haven’t been able to do much lately for various reasons, I have been spending some time playing Super Mario Party and just, generally, thinking a lot.

As usual, this is more of an “off the cuff” thought/opinion article over an actual review, but there’s some things I wanted to say about the newest game in the Mario Party series and it felt like a good opportunity to take some time to post on here.

In general, my main feeling with SMP is that it’s a good first step. I’m so happy the car is no longer part of it and I missed moving around on the board. I also find most of the minigames quite fun.

My main issues are some of the games’ mechanics paired with the boards themselves.

All the boards feel relatively small is the biggest issue. Stage hazards/mechanics are mild or annoying (such as Megafruit Paradise and the pipes/bridges), and it just feels kind of… lifeless? Bland?

It’s like all the makings are there for a good game, but it fell short in actually pulling them off. I just genuinely don’t enjoy the boards and while moving around is fine, it just isn’t much fun to me.

I am probably in the minority saying this, but I especially dislike the character dice blocks. Some dice are honestly just better than others. Combine them with the ally system, which honestly feels so overpowered and can give quite an advantage, not just in the boards themselves, but also the minigames, and it’s just… tiring? I kind of wish I could turn the mechanic off because while I can maybe make an agreement with a friend I’m playing with, I can’t change anything with the computers.

While some people say it makes the game more strategic, I don’t want some kind of Mario Party meta–I want to just pick the character I like best without thinking about what dice will be best for this situation. And when it comes down to it, it makes certain allies much more useful than others.

I also miss the original 1-10 dice blocks and items, though, with the smaller boards, I can understand this change and just hope it’d be reverted when bigger boards come into play.

On a similar note, while part of me is okay with Bowser being a playable character, the game feels wrong without Bowser Spaces. The Unlucky (And Very Unlucky which… are just an annoying twist that barely does anything) Spaces are relatively anti-climatic and the Lucky Spaces also don’t really add much. They feel more like leftovers from 9 and 10’s systems and just don’t feel as relative here.

Speaking of anti-climatic, the Hidden Blocks… Having the spinner, which you can’t even stop so it takes longer for no reason as well, ruins some of the surprise as you know what to expect based on where the spinner lands. If it’s random and you can’t time it, just let the character hit the box and get it over with. I’m also sad to see Boo switched out for Lakitu, though, as it functions the same it doesn’t feel as much of a loss as the Bowser spaces being removed are.

Partner Party… While it has some interesting mechanics/puzzles, I wish it just functioned like a normal party with teams. I don’t care for moving at the same time or most of the ways it functions–especially because trying to land on a specific space can get frustrating incredibly fast.

I also just… wish there were 3 bonus stars still? Not sure why it was lowered to two.

I guess the best way to explain this is it feels like the game was kind of… compacted to some degree while adding some convoluted mechanics. Everything feels very slow. And while I understand why the Joy-cons need to be used having played many games that really focus on specific vibrations, I find playing with a single Joy-con really uncomfortable (And I have tiny hands!) so I wish I could use a Pro-controller or something.

It’s like it’s so close to being one of my favorite Mario Party’s, but still falls short in a lot of sections.

Some final notes I don’t really have much to say on:
-I wish the on-map versus space games had more instructions. You’re just kind of tossed in there.
-In general, more instructions on some games would be nice–I lost one because I didn’t realize ammo could run out.
-I don’t know if I’ll ever get to manage to play Toad’s Rec Room to its full extent. I haven’t had a lot of free time lately nor do I know anyone who lives super close who also has a Switch and I just wish there were ways to set these up even for people who may only have the one Switch. I know they can be played as is, but I feel doing it plain is just kind of bland.

Despite my negativity above, there’s still quite a bit I do like about the game and I AM having fun with it, even if I wish some things were changed a bit, so here are some things I am enjoying:

-Minigames. I actually like the minigames quite a bit. While I definitely have my favorites, I don’t think there are any I particularly dislike, though, some I really just don’t enjoy the controls for. That said, this is on par with Mario Party in general–even 9 and 10 I liked a lot of the games.
-The story. It’s simple, but it’s cute and I like that it ties into all the modes versus a separate mode you need to play to do it along with letting you play who you want to in the process.
-The Plaza. It’s just… nice being able to walk around. I wish it was a little easier to tell if there was something new for you to do, but it’s still a fun feature. I wish there were ways to build it up or something beyond just earning the gems–kind of like the little collectibles/souvenirs you could get (I loved that parade…). There are stickers in the game, but it being focused to one little spot down a pipe and just being able to look at them otherwise makes it a bit lackluster, even though I love stickers. I wouldn’t want them removed, but I wish they weren’t the only collectible thing.
-Despite not being big on Rhythm games, I actually found the ones in this game fun and I’m glad just doing all the modes was enough despite how much I suck at them. I will admit I wish they were more precise on exactly what beat you’re timing to–that’s always been my biggest issue with Rhythm games because I focus on too much at once.

And, of course, my favorite mode is River Survival. I have wanted a full co-op option for so long and the only thing I’m sad about is that it doesn’t have online. It kills me that they added online just for the normal minigames and I wish they added it in full as it’d be nice to actually play a 4 person party with all four actually being people and this mode as well. That said, there isn’t tons of variety with the games and it can a bit tiring to compete. I feel like they could’ve done twists on some of the versus games as well to help put in more variety.

The computers aren’t terrible, but they can really cause issues in certain modes or when it comes to rowing.

But it’s so nice having one where everyone can work together.

All in all, I’m having fun playing (even if I don’t see myself replaying much once I have everything unlocked) and I’m hoping the next Mario Party will at least continue in this direction… Though, I wouldn’t mind certain things not making a return.

Why I’m excited for the Let’s Go games

As mentioned on Twitter, I’m a little bit MIA right now, due to life just being a bit too much lately and as someone who enjoys getting things done, it likely frustrates me as much as it frustrates anyone else (though, you’ve all been quite sweet so thank you).

Regardless, I wanted to move onto something I’ve been thinking about a lot because it’s pretty equally split on people I know who are interested in the games and who aren’t. Similarly, with new information coming to light due to various people getting to play over in London along with what I personally played while in Nashville, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

Because honestly, I wasn’t that excited when they were first announced. I’m tired of remakes. I have trouble with motion controls (more so the fact that I can’t aim), and as much as I love Kanto, I’m also tired of Kanto (they could just do Gen 2 and then we get two towns).

But I found the style intriguing and I loved the character designs of the trainers (I miss Gary though T__T Our new rival doesn’t even look similar). So I figured I may get it anyway.

I’ve mentioned before that Pokemon is a special game to me. I started playing it when I was about 8 and still have fond memories of playing Pokemon Blue on my Gameboy. And with newer generations, since around Gen 3, I’ve been really struggling at finding my place with Pokemon and just not feeling like it’s for me anymore.

While I wouldn’t refer to Pokemon as complicated myself, I would at least say certain things can be convoluted. And that especially is the case when it comes to battling for me. I know some people find abilities make things more interesting, but I’ve never cared for them or held items. I don’t care for EVs or IVs. Honestly, I wish it was just possible to get all Pokemon to the same stats if trained enough and then it just having to do with types and moves. If I had to deal with battling, that is what I’d want. And yes, while others may find that too simple, to me it’s fair.

As mentioned previously, Pokemon has, for me, always been this idea of making these friends and journeying through the region with them and accomplishing all these experiences together. So, having things locked to a certain stat requirement that some Pokemon can never reach sucks and really hurts my experience with the game, honestly. Especially when ribbons or other little in-game trinkets are locked behind it (and when most people going for it don’t even care for those).

It’s made me feel like I just don’t have a place in Pokemon and especially with my struggle going through Moon again with Ultra Moon, I’ve been wondering if I’d even still enjoy Pokemon anymore. And that thought kills me because I have SO MANY memories of Pokemon. I met a lot of friends due to it, it’s a game I hold so dear to my heart, and it’s not even so much that I’ve grown out of it–what I enjoy I still enjoy, but lately I’ve felt the focus is going towards an audience I’m not part of. “Gotta Catch ’em all” being more like “Gotta min-max those IVs/EVs”.

So, seeing Let’s Go which does NOT have a focus on battling is almost like a breath of fresh air. Being able to just explore and catch (which thankfully, seems more timing based now which means maybe I won’t completely suck) Pokemon and seeing the environment come to life (which was also my favorite thing about Pokken) just makes me want to see a big Pokemon game that really brings back all the regions for us to explore all the more. I want to be like Ash and explore every region with this team I bond with. I get that it’d be hard to scale and honestly, I wouldn’t care if they didn’t (People can switch their teams at the start of region if they want to or not, but I think people should be given the choice and that could let people curve the difficulty as they want), but I think it’d be such a great experience.

And being able to play this with a friend and see the environments like this and Pokemon just wandering around have highlighted how much I want something like this. Something focused on the Pokemon and seeing them and the world itself and not “what new gimmick can we add to battling this time”.

While I do wish the game featured more than just the first 151 + whatever new Pokemon they put in like Meltan, I’m still excited to play it and see all the different places in the world. And while I do think some of the restrictions are a little silly (If I want to beat Brock with a Charmander, Caterpie, and Pikachu, I should be free to, game!! Though, I mean I still could once getting admission to the gym), I still think it’s going to be a great game and there’s a lot I’m looking forward to that I hope will make it into future games.

That said… I still wouldn’t mind a non-motion controlled catch system though.

What I hope for from Welcome to Animal Crossing

So, there was a new Nintendo Direct today (the one postponed last week) and much to my excitement, a new Animal Crossing game was announced! (Other games I am excited for: Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Yoshi’s Craft World and you can see a bit more of my commentary over on Twitter) You can also check out the specific announcement below:

Isabelle also made it into Smash, but hopefully she’ll still have time to help us out in the Mayor’s Office when the game comes out next year :) Which brings us to the point of this post– I wanted to take a moment to go over some things I’m hoping to see in the upcoming game.

I’ve already done similar posts in the past and still standby all of those things, but with Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp, I feel there’s a lot more I’d like to see and well, also not see, honestly.

In general, I think New Leaf is easily one of the best Animal Crossing games so literally just starting from that and upgrading it (Think like a New Leaf+) is a great start.

Being able to place our houses everywhere is great and I hope we see that go further with being able to place other villagers’ houses as well, or at the very least, have the option to do so. Being able to use paths to block things off with the Welcome Amiibo update was great, but I don’t really want to litter my town with paths to do so and it’d be super easy to just have it so Nook can be all “Hey, *name* moved in, would you like to place their house?” and saying “Yes” would put you in a similar mode like placing your own house while “No” would have the house plot be placed randomly.

Speaking of houses, I generally felt the size of the house in New Leaf and Wild World is great, but I’d absolutely take extra rooms upstairs or even larger rooms in general. I’d love to see different room sizes as well from Happy Home Designer.

Happy Home Designer in general brought a lot of great things (And I may get back to it soon, I do still have villagers to give houses) such as: Being able to select a skin color, ceiling items, customizable doors, different room layouts, and exterior customization. I hope we’ll be able to place items outside and maybe for shops and things, actually be able to customize their appearance. Just imagine people’s towns having a different looking cafe or Nookling shop.

I’d also love to see the campsite from the Welcome Amiibo update of New Leaf combined with features from Pocket Camp. Campers showing up there and being able to have villagers visit that way alongside being able to decorate a camp site and camper. I think that’d be really cute. Speaking of Amiibo, I hope we can use the cards and Amiibo ingame as well. It’ll make getting my favorite villagers easier for sure.

While I do love the train scene with Rover (or Kapp’n in non-train cases), I would like to be able to pick my character’s appearance from the start. I mean, I usually get the face I always get answering honestly, but it’d be nice to have hair I like right away and for those who’d prefer a different skin color and not want to wait until Summer when they can tan, I think it’d be a nice option.

Honestly though, I hope it brings in all the amazing items we got to see from Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp. My issues with Pocket Camp’s mechanics besides, it had tons of great items (Such as the water-paths!!) and I’d love to use them in my main town. While the changing of seasons is a thing to the point where I don’t think we’ll have scenery changes like Pocket Camp has, I still think a lot of cool features from it could be brought over.

As for things I hope that change from New Leaf:
-The furniture limit. At the very least, I hope it’s much greater (City Folk having a smaller one than Wild World still hurts me on a personal level), but I’d love to see it gone entirely. We can only put so many items in a room regardless due to size restraints, we don’t need item limits on top of it.
-The moving mechanic. While I do feel this was a glitch/coding issue based on the Best Friend prompt, I hope this is adjusted. I’d also love a way to permanently set someone to stay so I’d never have to worry about them moving, even if they come back again.
-As mentioned above, villagers being able to place their house wherever.
-More pattern space. And being able to edit patterns regardless. While I understand why this existed, this made it incredibly frustrating exchanging patterns between characters in the same town. Every time I wanted to edit something, I’d have to get it back to the Mayor somehow and it was just really tiring.
-Regional exclusives just being part of everyone’s game. While I made tons of great friends who I am looking forward to playing with, I’d love to be able to learn about different cultures and experience things in my game alone without needing to essentially line up regions to get everything. Not only that, but I genuinely do love hearing about different cultures so I think it’d be a lot of fun to see the different events in every game.
————Similarly, I’d love if some older events made a return to.
-I adore ordinances, but I’d love to be able to set more than one.
-Also more public work space!

I hope we’ll be able to transfer some stuff from New Leaf to the Switch version. Mainly because I might cry remaking all of those patterns.

I’m really curious just what will be new though. I think we can all expect new items at the least, probably some new characters as well (Also we’ll see Lottie return). I’d love if we could actually fully adjust our map ourselves or even increase our town size. I wonder how many villagers we’ll get this time–12? 15? Could we have less if we wanted?

There’s so much to look forward to. And I’m already planning out what I hope to do next <3

A Trip to Tennessee! (Pokemon Worlds and Goals)

So, we ended up going to Tennessee last weekend to see some friends (And well, go to Worlds while there anyway), which if you check my Twitter or are subscribed to my Youtube channel, you likely already knew :P But anyway, it was nice to go somewhere new. I had never been to Tennessee so I had fun just enjoying Nashville.

Before we get into the general trip stuff, I’ll talk about Pokemon and Pokemon Worlds a bit :)

So, we picked up our badges on Thursday afternoon. Figured it was best to get that and the shop out of the way ASAP.

I think I generally liked the colors/theme of the Worlds 2017 stuff better, but I still really liked the lanyard at least. I loved all the Pokemon with the different instruments. I kind of wished there was more merchandise featuring all the Pokemon for this over just Pikachu. They did, however, give out this free poster which was perfect (And we were even given a few extras!):

So, while we didn’t really buy any of the exclusive stuff, we did get these adorable plushies:

And here’s the bag by itself:

We also got some packs of cards with our spectator badges and these were essentially the highlights from our pack openings:

I did not get nearly as nice cards from opening the digital versions :P

They also had a demo station for the Let’s Go games! I was really excited to try them out:

And even got this cute Pokeball stress ball for playing:

I actually had a lot of fun with it. I really like the look of the game and how Pokemon show up and just exploring. The world feels so much more alive which is really nice. The Pokeball controller worked well, though, I found I accidentally would hit the button versus moving it sometimes, but I think that’s more just because I was getting used to it. It also reacted fairly well, but I couldn’t figure out exactly where the timing was for Pokemon who move around a lot and sadly, my time with the demo ended before I could play around with it more.

I’m really looking forward to it though. Now to just… finish Ultra Moon.

Some other miscellaneous tidbits:
-Apparently the demo wasn’t planned. The person we spoke to said they only found out about doing it like a week ago and it was super last minute.
-You may remember the curve ball demonstration during E3. The guy who was walking me through the game said the feature was removed and not in this build. He seemed unsure if it’d be brought back for the main game or not, but it was at least not in the newer version of the demo.

But yes, some pictures from the Pokemon Center, the main room, and where it was being held:

I really loved the stage. I love the buildings being all Pokemon world themed and it just really makes me wish there was some big combined Pokemon game of all the various cities and things we’ve gotten from every game. The Pokemon World is already so huge and there’s so much to see and I wish they’d actually use that versus constant new regions. At this point, I’m just kind of tired of new regions and new Pokemon. I’d mind a new region less if we could visit it alongside familiar ones, but I think there’s plenty of Pokemon at this point :(

Moving a bit more outside the convention center, I wish we got to do more in Pokemon GO, honestly. We seemed to manage to miss every single raid, there weren’t too many Pokestops actually in the main room, my GPS was constantly a bit finnicky, and I just didn’t have much luck with spawns either. I at least finally got a Sneasel and I did get a shiny Sunkern:

Also Tom traded me one of the Shiny Mareep he caught when we had visited back in April so yay :D And I at least got a lot of gifts to send back to people. Since I don’t go out much (and sometimes just can’t especially with the weather lately), I don’t usually have many chances to give gifts out :(

But yes, as to one of the biggest reasons for going, it was to pick up this from a very amazing friend:

This was one of the prizes for the first winner of the Sylveon Girls Battle in 2016 in Japan and one of my most wanted items that featured Mega Audino T~T My next big goal will be Mega Audino Ddakji:

So, if you’re in Korea or know someone who could maybe help with those, let me know! ❤

Going into general Tennessee, it’s time for various random tourist-y pictures and food tours :P

But yeah, I had more fun than I would have expected and there’s definitely more I would like to do and see so hopefully we have time to go again. And hopefully we won’t have another person pulling the fire alarm or another super hot day that destroys me because those were really the only bad things.

As for Pokemon Worlds next year… We don’t have too many plans, but Washington DC is a pretty good location for us, so maybe~

Something I miss with games

While I know this is definitely a minority thought, it’s something I think about a lot, especially when revisiting old games and what really frustrates me with newer games: The required skill ladder.

For me, the difficulty is really the least important part of a game to me. I play the game because of the story, to have fun, the characters, silly little trinkets, etc. I don’t care if a game is too easy, but nothing really frustrates me more than when a game is “too hard”. And some games definitely exist just to be hard! That is totally a thing, but at the same time, some games do add an option so even more “casual” players or those who may have some disabilities can still play it–like for example, Celeste. Celeste came out early this year and actually comes with an Assist Mode which allows you to customize your gameplay experience to an extent. And even with the normal mode, if you do die, you will respawn in that same room and can try again. I think my only real issue with it is that by using the mode, you get a stamp next to your file for doing so… Which I… don’t think it’s needed.

Kind of like if you end up using the Invincibility Leaf in Super Mario 3D Land/World and New Super Mario Brothers 2, you may finish the level, but in some way it won’t be fully completed until you do so without the handicap such as preventing secret areas from unlocking or things gathered not counting.

For some people, whether it be a disability or someone who may not be as well-versed in video games or just may have trouble with certain things (For example, I tend to be pretty good at games and am a quick learner, but to this day my aim is terrible and I am really awful with any kind of games that require aim for something), this may be the only way they can play and despite putting in all their effort into it, even if whatever instance they use is a bit overpowered, they get punished for it and I don’t understand the point of that.

It’s one thing if people were trying for like… high score tables or other things, but most people just want to see everything a game has to offer. They want to earn all the little trinkets, explore all the levels and areas, and just play the game to their heart’s content without hitting some stark difficulty curve or a certain piece that says “You can’t do this because you’re not good enough to” and I miss when things could be completed because the person was dedicated and had a lot of heart even if they weren’t the most skilled.

I still managed to get first place in every course of Super Mario 64 despite never drifting because I didn’t even know drifting was a thing. I managed to earn all the trophies in Super Smash Brothers and Super Smash Brothers Melee because most didn’t require crazy high scores or the highest difficulties. There were very few, unlike the newer iterations where you often need to beat things on the highest difficulty and get certain scores in certain modes and I just… I don’t find that fun. That isn’t fun to me.

And it’s the same issue to me with Pokemon where they have endgame that is for IV/EV trained Pokemon and ribbons and things exclusive to it and again, I feel there’s such… a difference between people who want to play and have fun but still SEE everything with the things they love and enjoy versus those who want to get to the highest skill level. (A good example is the minigames in Super Mario Odyssey–there’s a volleyball one and one for jump rope. They both have high score related achievements in those minigames. My personal preference would’ve been “play once” and “play 10 times” for each and then the high score table just be those who want to see how far they could go.)

And when it comes down to it, people who play for those high scores and high skill requirements are playing for those reasons more often than not. Those are fun for them. The extras/rewards/prize(s) are just bonuses.

But those who maybe just enjoy collecting and seeing everything may not have the ability to reach the skill ceiling that gets higher and higher and it just… It’s disappointing, I guess.

I miss being able to collect without being a super hardcore min-maxing video game strategist and when achievements focused more on progress over high score tables. And it makes me sad that video games seem to be going in that direction more and more, tying the two into one category (Because contrary to belief, not all collectors are hardcore high score table champions–there’s different levels of “completionist”) when it’s… really not.

It just makes me sad because I think one day there will be a time video games won’t be for me anymore and I’m sad for that day to come.

On why I stopped playing Pocket Camp

So, my birthday was about 2 weeks ago (July 18th) and I once again want to thank everyone who sent happy birthday wishes! They always warm my heart <3 But onto the entry itself, as mentioned above, I will no longer be playing the game. I had wanted to mix this with an entry about my birthday to show the birthday greetings along with some other fun stuff from games, but I felt this would be better on its own, especially as people have been asking about it. I have tried very hard to keep up with it. I think anyone who knows me could tell you that I hate giving up and quitting and will usually choose to just "work harder" over saving my sanity and that should say a lot for it to finally have been the final straw for me. The biggest issue is I had been running into is the game just felt overwhelming. Between the constant fortune cookies and all the events, there was too much to keep up with. And it wasn’t done in a fun way.

I’ve said before that I felt Pocket Camp missed the main core of Animal Crossing and I find that true more than ever. If people could trade and earn things with currency and communication the way they could in the original Animal Crossing, that’s one thing, but you can’t. You’re all on your own. And if you can’t give your every waking moment to the game, you likely won’t finish, and the point of a mobile game is to be that you can pick it up, do a little bit, and stop, but with this game that isn’t possible.

The Gardening Event especially is one of the biggest highlights of how much time you need to spend with the game. Constantly checking your flowers, growing and planting new ones, trying to return for friends, and dealing with RNG to even manage to catch enough bugs to progress. Or you’ll miss things, whether it be items, special cutscenes, or what. And it’s not “okay” if you miss things when a core part of the game is actually collecting things in the first place.

And so, every single time they had special NPC items that were Leaf Tickets only, it was pretty iffy from the get-go, but you could usually earn a lot. They then started having event items that required Leaf Tickets to complete which also was pretty bothersome. Add in things like the Golden Fishing Rod for the fishing events and every single Leaf Ticket item not only felt quite expensive, but greedy as well.

And with the recent changes with the Fishing Tourney, it’s even more apparent. I usually bought the Golden Fishing Rod and just barely managed to get enough to be done and still relax a bit, but now I don’t even know if I could without constantly having to buy it and play nearly constantly.

I ended up not being able to play during the garden even last month due to a big personal loss when I was already struggling playing. And after missing it, I didn’t really want to continue. But, seeing how the events are continuing, that seems like the right choice.

The point of Animal Crossing was for an easygoing game where you could make a town your own and relax while doing fun things you enjoy. It was supposed to be lighthearted and give you a place to feel reassured.

The only thing Pocket Camp has ever given me is feelings of stress and failure. It didn’t even feel like much of an achievement if I did finish something–I just felt relieved.

And it makes me sad because I feel like Pocket Camp DOES have some neat features and some things I’d love to see in a future Animal Crossing game, but the way it works has just worn me down to the point where I’m not even in a rush for a new Animal Crossing game. I just hope when one does come out, they will remember the reason people fell in love with that series in the first place.

Pocket Camp Rambles & Other random games

Before I get into the below, I know there were some site issues recently due to a vulnerability with an old plugin. Everything has been fixed and there should be no more issues.

It’s been a while since my last Pocket Camp update, partially because I’m still so annoyed with it. With a game like Animal Crossing, part of the charm is its relaxing nature which just… doesn’t work with Pocket Camp when they’re constantly rolling out updates and locking features behind paywalls. I think if this was any other game besides Animal Crossing, I wouldn’t still be playing. But I love Animal Crossing and keep hoping something will change even if it’s clear it won’t.

And I can’t say this is the only game that has been causing this problem recently. Anyone who follows my MCL tumblr essentially knows what I mean as I’ve been going on with it for over a month after they essentially gave 3/5 routes of an Otome game bad endings paired with a forced break-up and just such bad writing it’s kind of disgusting. I’m not going to go into this more here because I’ve ranted enough and there’s pages of it if you’re curious, but nobody is happy and who knows if they’ll fix the stupid choices they did with that either.

In between my Pocket Camp suffering playing, I’ve also been playing a few other random things, most notably some of the Hogwarts Mystery mobile game, but also getting back to Star Stable Online as they had increased the amount of reputation you got per quest and I am actually curious where the story goes. I still hate the whole needing to invite someone who will get to level 15 for some special items though… I can’t find anyone who wants to :(

As for the Hogwarts Mystery game, I wouldn’t really call myself a Harry Potter fan, but I’m curious about the story and while I hate the gameplay, I keep checking in anyway.

Pokemon GO also got a big update recently (YES, I’m still playing it. Take your hate elsewhere XP) and I’m so happy trading is in… Except that the requirements to trade are ridiculous. There is no reason there should be so much stardust required and so many restrictions, especially when people will mainly be trading to complete their Pokedex anyway. It’s just really disappointing the way they decided to do this–especially considering it’s a feature people have really wanted for ages.

Anyway, back over to Pocket Camp, as usual, there’s been too many events. And the fortune cookies make me cry. But lets go ahead and break this down:

For one, I finished Katie’s Gardening Event.

And Digby also had a Gardening Event that I finished:

While the Gardening Events are cute, I still find them exhausting to actually play :/ If it wasn’t for all the waiting around and you could put as much time into it as you wanted when you wanted, it wouldn’t be so bad, but as is, it’s too dependent on too many variables. Regardless, a few from photos from the recent gardening event:

With a lot of the new content though, I’m slowly starting to find a look for my Camp I really like though:

The only thing is I wish we could mix and match with some of the exterior stuff. There’s so much I’d like to use, but not all of it… I like the normal flowers, but I like the flowers in the grass of the Spring flowers plus the cherry blossom tree, I also love the rivers from the Birches… But yeah, it’d be nice if it could look like this:

Also if I could have the wood under the entire campsite.

Anyway, still a good amount of pictures to go so…

Read More

Some small E3 2018 Thoughts

So, this year I decided to do something differently as I didn’t think I’d have too much to say overall this year for many reasons. I mainly used Twitter for “as it happens” thoughts and figured I’d go on more about the rest after Nintendo’s conference. I worked on this after each conference so… :P I will most likely keep Treehouse Live stuff to my twitter though so be sure to check that out for any opinions I may have on Treehouse things.

EA

EA’s conference was… boring to say the least. But a few things caught my eye, for one, Unravel 2!!

I love Yarny so I was super happy to see this game. And he has a friend now!!

I really want to know their name too. I wish they’d make an official Yarny if only because all of my attempts to make one have gone terribly.

Sea of Solitude was the next game that caught my interest.

I think it looks gorgeous and sounds interesting, but I also feel it may be a game I’d rather watch than play.

The only other game to even kind of get my interest a bit was Anthem… In the sense of customization and being able to play with friends, but it depends on a lot more features and how it’ll work for me to know if I’ll try it or not. At least I know I can be pink.

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Microsoft

They kicked it off with Halo Infinite which honestly looks very pretty.

I haven’t played the last few games, but it has a special place in my heart so depending on it, maybe I’ll try this new one.

Next up to catch my eye with Ori and the Will of the Wisps and it’s so beautiful.

I really want to play it. I still need to play Ori and the Blind Forest though…

I made a few more comments on Twitter, but I will say I am kind of thinking of trying out Kingdom hearts 3 despite not really being interested… The new one just looks very interesting to me. Forza Horizon 4 also looks great and I CAN RACE IN A BUGGY.

I still plan to get Tomb Raider, Ms. Chalice looks adorable and I almost wish I liked games like Cuphead just so I could play as her, and I’m still excited for Tunic, but being already excited not much changed there.

I genuinely really enjoyed watching Xbox’s presentation despite there not being TONS of games I was interested in. It was a lot of fun and exciting regardless.

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Bethesda

So, I don’t really play any Bethesda games so I don’t have too much to say, but here’s a few things:

-All the call-outs. Including on themselves. Wow.
-Surprised they did a concert, but I kind of enjoyed it anyway. I like rock music. The audience needs to learn to have some fun.
-Fallout 76 looks kind of interesting? I’d at least get to play with my husband.
-The Elder Scrolls: Blades… I wasn’t going to try it because mobile games, but I get to create a character and make my own medieval town and so I may end up doing so after all.
-The Elder Scrolls VI looks really pretty.

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Square-Enix

Starting out with Tomb Raider, but like I mentioned with Microsoft, I was already looking forward to it. Nothing showed really made me want it more or less so :P

In general, I think most of what they showed was nice and I really want to hear the full version of Utada Hikaru’s new song. It’s so pretty.

Also really curious about what exactly “The Quiet Man” is… The preview wasn’t really informative.

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Ubisoft

Ubisoft always has to start with some kind of musical performance. I can’t help but worry about them a bit sometimes. Despite the insanity, I still think Trials Rising looks kind of fun:

The next thing to really get my eye was the footage of Rabbids Donkey Kong DLC. I’m not a super big Rabbids fan or particularly fond of tactical gameplay, but I have to admit I really loved the new locations? So many nice places.

Also the music was fantastic.

Still genuinely excited for Starlink! It looks really good and I can’t wait to see all the different things you can buy and put together. And Starfox is in it?! It’s super exciting and Fox looks great.


Even the figures look great.

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PC Gaming Show

So, I was looking forward to this show to begin with because I know Ooblets will be shown during it. But The Sinking City actually caught my eye as well. I really like Detective Games, but I’m also worried it may be a bit too creepy for me. I’ll have to see.

For the most part though, this conference has just felt so… slow and draining, but OOBLETS LOOKS SO GOOD:

DANCE BATTLES. I LOVE THEM SO.

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Sony

Sony… went a really unique way with their presentation–almost a bit creepy? At least to start… I do like the idea of kind of setting up the entire “booth” area for each trailer they did, but at the same time, at least the first was kind of unsettling.

Ghost Giant looked cute, but I don’t have any interest in a VR game. I wish there weren’t exclusive VR games.

The next area seemed a lot more open at least… I also don’t know how to feel about how they keep opening with someone playing a unique instrument of the theme, but it is nice to hear and a big applause to the lovely musicians.

Still pretty excited for Dreams too. Hoping I can maybe make the Little Big Planet idea I’ve always had in mind into reality. Kingdom Hearts 3 also looks even nicer in this trailer. I am so happy Rapunzel is in the game.

Spiderman also looks amazing still. Can’t wait for it :D

Sadly, that was really it for Sony. They didn’t show much, but it was still nice.

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Nintendo

I still have so many questions about the Let’s Go Pokemon games and they weren’t really answered… But Pokeball Plus comes with Mew so now I need one even more.

We also got to see a bit of an upcoming Mario Party which while it looks good and shows some neat functions, didn’t show me enough to know for sure if proper maps are back, cars are gone, and/or if there’s online multiplayer T~T But fingers crossed it’s better than the last few.

The new Fire Emblem looks really good too, but after Fates I think I may just watch someone else play or something… I did enjoy Echoes though, but that was a remake so….

The Smash Brothers trailer is crazy and it’s so nice seeing EVERY single character back. I like how you start with the original roster as it grows too.

Also I want to buy this as a poster. And I can even play as a female Pikachu now aaaah T~T <3 AND AS A FEMALE POKEMON TRAINER YAY. Even though they didn't show much, that was crazy. I will admit I was surprised we didn't hear about several games we still could really use more information on, but maybe we'll hear more about them during Treehouse Live. --------------------------------

Overall Thoughts

For the most part, I enjoyed this E3! More often than not, I felt hyped up even if I didn’t particularly want anything, so I still enjoyed it <3