Afterimage and Minecraft
May. 8th, 2023 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkNo brain, only sometimes game.
Even though I got a Steam gift card for my birthday a while ago I haven't actually bought any games in months, both because I've been playing Minecraft almost exclusively and because I already have a huge backlog of unplayed games. But Afterimage, a game I backed on Kickstarter many months ago, finally released two weeks ago and so I checked out.
17.5 hours in: The game is absolutely huge, it feels like I'm maaaybe a quarter of the way through? Or a third?, depending on how soon you can get to an ending. (DD asked "really, that big?" and tried to check out a map, but then she watched a video instead because it is that big, and her conclusion was "that is absolutely - wow.") From the Rubiwood Desert (which I'm a bit sad I didn't explore more fully at the time because I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to go back any time soon) I got to and explored the Rainbow Plains, Resting Town and Resting Grounds, Field of Geo, Emerald Falls, and then the Town of Exiles and the Columns. I briefly checked out the Ashen Canyon but I'm clearly underleveled for that area. At that point I felt a bit stuck and looked up where to go next – I hadn't considered just walking straight across the Ashen Canyon ^^ I found the manta ray and am now debating whether to try further exploring the Holy Ground or the Forlorn Forest first. I'd love to get another movement upgrade soon, feels like ages since I got double jump.
I'm barely interested in the story tbh, or the characters – the game didn't really do a good job getting me invested or even interested in the main character (feels like they barely tried.) But I do enjoy the exploration a lot!, so many different areas and paths and secrets to find. I like the combat too, though I'm still trying to figure out what I like best. I like the whip as my subweapon and can't decide between sword and dual blades for my main (and I haven't completely ruled out the greatsword or blade either.) I'm at level 47, I can heal four times, and I found three afterimages. I'm also collecting other things, like divine seeds, that seem to be important but I have no idea yet what for.
20 hours in: I realized I wasn't looking forward to more combat in areas I wasn't ready for with no idea if it would get me somewhere interesting any time soon, so I looked up where to go next. Turns out I'd already been to the Whispering Forest, I just didn't realize how the platform flowers work (flashback to HK where I didn't realize how the purple spores for downward pogos work.) I explored the forest, got some cool new weapons (I'm currently using the Phantom sword and the Poison Touch whip), and finally, almost nineteen hours in (longer than I played Aria of Sorrow in total!) got the wall climb ability. I also reached level fifty.
Next I did some backtracking and I got some stuff, but not as many as I'd hoped. I did find a phoenix boss but that one is clearly above my level.
Right now I both know where I'm probably “supposed" to go next (further in the Whispering Forest) and have some other options (Holy Grounds and Forlorn Forest, even Ashen Canyon I suppose), but instead I took a break for a few days to play some Minecraft instead. I hope that once I get back to it it won't take as long to get the next ability.
To sum up, I'm enjoying it a lot so far; it's so large that the size is a bit intimidating and the pacing suffers a bit but it's pretty and movement and combat feel good, I look forward to getting back to it.
Before I started playing Afterimage and also sometimes in-between I have also been playing Minecraft.
Losing most of my best armor and items, and in such an extremely stupid manner too, was more demotivating than I initially realized. It took me quite some time to get enough levels to get full enchantments again, especially for my sword (I still don't have a new Sharpness V sword.) I also went caving several times to gather more resources and finally got a nice supply of iron reserves. Waterbuckets and waterfalls are so useful to get down into holes, how has that not occurred to me before?
I made a nether portal at the large lush cave, to get more axolotls and tropical fish to breed them, and promptly died in the nether from a hoglin shoving me off a bridge. Stupid nether. Thank god for my ender chest, I lost very little this time. Next plan: make a fortified nether bridge, with a glass tunnel because I do want a view.
To that end I went to collect some sand and got distracted with exploring. By an underwater ruined portal I found my first enchanted golden apple! Exciting.
By now I have about a stack and a half of oxidized copper and many more blocks aging around my base. I did more cave exploration in the huge cave system beneath my base, it's relaxing. In a dungeon I found the "otherside" disc! :D That was a great surprise, I love it.
I also played the April Fool's Voting update, that was such a cool concept. I got unlucky with the first votes: I turned many biomes different colors that I couldn't see, and other not very spectacular effects. Unfortunately I didn't have much time on that day and so I didn't try it out further, and I never even made it to the moon (made out of cheese! With cows! And moon bases!), I only admired it in other people's videos.
DD also persuaded me that I should get my own Minecraft skin instead of using the Alex default, but choices are hard and I have very little idea of what I even want. One day.
DD has been much more adventurous than me in general: she tried out One Block Skyblock for a bit and then started another new world. And recently she subbed in for someone else in the first session of a Last Life SMP: it was stressful and then she was also assigned boogeyman on top of that, but she started out with 5 lives and ended up with 4 lives, some alliances, several iron tools and armor pieces, and a secret base with sugarcane and two cows, so she did great.
Even though I got a Steam gift card for my birthday a while ago I haven't actually bought any games in months, both because I've been playing Minecraft almost exclusively and because I already have a huge backlog of unplayed games. But Afterimage, a game I backed on Kickstarter many months ago, finally released two weeks ago and so I checked out.
17.5 hours in: The game is absolutely huge, it feels like I'm maaaybe a quarter of the way through? Or a third?, depending on how soon you can get to an ending. (DD asked "really, that big?" and tried to check out a map, but then she watched a video instead because it is that big, and her conclusion was "that is absolutely - wow.") From the Rubiwood Desert (which I'm a bit sad I didn't explore more fully at the time because I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to go back any time soon) I got to and explored the Rainbow Plains, Resting Town and Resting Grounds, Field of Geo, Emerald Falls, and then the Town of Exiles and the Columns. I briefly checked out the Ashen Canyon but I'm clearly underleveled for that area. At that point I felt a bit stuck and looked up where to go next – I hadn't considered just walking straight across the Ashen Canyon ^^ I found the manta ray and am now debating whether to try further exploring the Holy Ground or the Forlorn Forest first. I'd love to get another movement upgrade soon, feels like ages since I got double jump.
I'm barely interested in the story tbh, or the characters – the game didn't really do a good job getting me invested or even interested in the main character (feels like they barely tried.) But I do enjoy the exploration a lot!, so many different areas and paths and secrets to find. I like the combat too, though I'm still trying to figure out what I like best. I like the whip as my subweapon and can't decide between sword and dual blades for my main (and I haven't completely ruled out the greatsword or blade either.) I'm at level 47, I can heal four times, and I found three afterimages. I'm also collecting other things, like divine seeds, that seem to be important but I have no idea yet what for.
20 hours in: I realized I wasn't looking forward to more combat in areas I wasn't ready for with no idea if it would get me somewhere interesting any time soon, so I looked up where to go next. Turns out I'd already been to the Whispering Forest, I just didn't realize how the platform flowers work (flashback to HK where I didn't realize how the purple spores for downward pogos work.) I explored the forest, got some cool new weapons (I'm currently using the Phantom sword and the Poison Touch whip), and finally, almost nineteen hours in (longer than I played Aria of Sorrow in total!) got the wall climb ability. I also reached level fifty.
Next I did some backtracking and I got some stuff, but not as many as I'd hoped. I did find a phoenix boss but that one is clearly above my level.
Right now I both know where I'm probably “supposed" to go next (further in the Whispering Forest) and have some other options (Holy Grounds and Forlorn Forest, even Ashen Canyon I suppose), but instead I took a break for a few days to play some Minecraft instead. I hope that once I get back to it it won't take as long to get the next ability.
To sum up, I'm enjoying it a lot so far; it's so large that the size is a bit intimidating and the pacing suffers a bit but it's pretty and movement and combat feel good, I look forward to getting back to it.
Before I started playing Afterimage and also sometimes in-between I have also been playing Minecraft.
Losing most of my best armor and items, and in such an extremely stupid manner too, was more demotivating than I initially realized. It took me quite some time to get enough levels to get full enchantments again, especially for my sword (I still don't have a new Sharpness V sword.) I also went caving several times to gather more resources and finally got a nice supply of iron reserves. Waterbuckets and waterfalls are so useful to get down into holes, how has that not occurred to me before?
I made a nether portal at the large lush cave, to get more axolotls and tropical fish to breed them, and promptly died in the nether from a hoglin shoving me off a bridge. Stupid nether. Thank god for my ender chest, I lost very little this time. Next plan: make a fortified nether bridge, with a glass tunnel because I do want a view.
To that end I went to collect some sand and got distracted with exploring. By an underwater ruined portal I found my first enchanted golden apple! Exciting.
By now I have about a stack and a half of oxidized copper and many more blocks aging around my base. I did more cave exploration in the huge cave system beneath my base, it's relaxing. In a dungeon I found the "otherside" disc! :D That was a great surprise, I love it.
I also played the April Fool's Voting update, that was such a cool concept. I got unlucky with the first votes: I turned many biomes different colors that I couldn't see, and other not very spectacular effects. Unfortunately I didn't have much time on that day and so I didn't try it out further, and I never even made it to the moon (made out of cheese! With cows! And moon bases!), I only admired it in other people's videos.
DD also persuaded me that I should get my own Minecraft skin instead of using the Alex default, but choices are hard and I have very little idea of what I even want. One day.
DD has been much more adventurous than me in general: she tried out One Block Skyblock for a bit and then started another new world. And recently she subbed in for someone else in the first session of a Last Life SMP: it was stressful and then she was also assigned boogeyman on top of that, but she started out with 5 lives and ended up with 4 lives, some alliances, several iron tools and armor pieces, and a secret base with sugarcane and two cows, so she did great.
