schneefink

Have I mentioned recently how much I enjoy this game? I finally made it to the credits!
Detailed notes under the cut; I will make a mostly spoiler-free promo post eventually but rn I am too busy playing the game.

( I understand the title of the game now )

All in all I played for a little over 55 hours and got to 58% completion. Not sure I will get to 100% but there are several things I still want to discover/see, so I'm definitely not finished playing yet!

The March deadline at work finally passed *flops over* I'm so glad I'm on vacation next week because my head is empty.

I didn't have that much time for it, but I'm still having so much fun playing Phoenotopia Awakening. I finished what could probably count as part two (and I could go to the next area, but decided to leave that for after my vacation), and I managed to get DD to play it too which makes it even better. I'm not even done yet and I'm already strongly considering it as a Yuletide fandom.

( Progress )

I finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. A great game, I enjoyed it a lot.

( Spoilers )

Yesterday, on the suggestion by dhampyresa and on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, we watched Nosferatu. I'd never seen it before and wasn't sure what to expect from a black and white silent vampire film, but I enjoyed it a lot. It was very spooky! Count Orlock was very creepy, and the atmosphere was spooky and tense. Yeah some of the acting was over the top but I barely minded (especially not with Count Orlock and Knock, there it fit perfectly.)( With spoilers )
Bonus, now I know why the vampire in Bloodstained is called Orlok Dracule.
Also, backstory I did not know: almost all copies of the movie were destroyed because of a copyright claim by Bram Stoker's widow (article, via calliopes_pen.)

Thematically related, now that I have a controller I tried playing Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow again and this time I enjoyed it a lot. Unsurprisingly, it reminds me very much of Bloodstained. It's very pretty, and the exploration is fun. I defeated five bosses so far and have discovered 35% of the map. My favorite weapon so far is the Hammer and my favorite spell is the one that sends lethal cats at enemies. (Though it's not as practical against flying enemies and the next area is guarded by Valkyries, so I hope I'll find something similar only flying. Flying cats would be fun, but are probably unlikely, sadly.)

I took a break from Hollow Knight Godhome practice to play a couple of demos that came out for the "Steam Next Fest," that was fun. Mostly metroidvanias. What was tricky was getting used to so many different keyboard controls, especially because so far I mostly played with keyboard + mouse (yes even HK, I rebound the keys), that probably made several of these a little more difficult.

Games I almost certainly want to play (unless they get terrible reviews)
- Islets
A charming classic metroidvania where you play a mouse exploring flying islands. I enjoyed the demo a lot and the trailer also looks very promising.

Games I probably want to play (unless they get bad reviews)
- Imp of the Sun
Another metroidvania: You play a fire imp in a Peru-inspired fantasy world and have to save the sun. I stopped this early because I was so tired on Saturday but I did enjoy what I saw.

- Kingdom Shell
Yet another metroidvania (I think - definitely a 2D platformer with exploration but not sure if you actually gain new abilities), and with this one too I stopped playing early on Saturday but enjoyed what I saw.

Games I maybe want to play, if they get good reviews
- Future Fragments
A metroidvania where you play a mage on a mission in the future (with sex scenes) sounded interesting, but the demo was not well made imo: it started on level three, and it gave an info sheet of available abilities etc but I struggled so much to get used to all of them at once that I barely enjoyed it.

- Onde
I tried playing the demo and impatiently gave up when I first struggled to understand the mechanics and then hit a dead end. I then watched a demo playthrough on Youtube and apparently I just went into the wrong direction? But the game mechanics I saw in the playthrough seem potentially interesting if implemented well, and the store page has some pretty screenshots.

Games I probably won't want to play (unless they get excellent reviews)
- Souldiers
This metroidvania one looks well made and there wasn't anything in particular that bothered me, it just didn't grab me at all for some reason.

- Hailing from the Abyss
A rhythm game that looks like it could be fun for fans of the genre, but is clearly not for me because I gave up in frustration after half an hour when I still hadn't beaten the first challenge.

I finally have a Hollow Knight icon!

Thanks to a tip from Youtube video I discovered the hidden Shrine of Believers in Hollow Knight with messages from Kickstarter backers and found out that one of the messages is from an old friend of mine :D That was a delightful surprise. We haven't been in contact for over five years but of course I had to message him immediately.

( More Hollow Knight content )

Now that the outstanding achievements are mostly difficult fights that require a lot of practice (apart from the Path of Pain, which is the platforming equivalent and which I also still want to try eventually), I'm not sure how long the game will keep my interest. Most of the time I get tired of practicing the same fight after about half an hour. Otoh I still enjoy watching others play the game, and trying a speedrun is kinda tempting too… Guess I'll see.

I'd like another two days of weekend, please. Yesterday was, uh, kind of a wasted day (the bad cycle of "I don't feel like I have the energy to get myself some food, etc. etc." - hadn't had one of those in a while), and today was busy, and I would like to sleep for ten hours. Maybe I will actually manage to go to sleep early, instead of maaybe going to bed early and then spending more time on the tiny internet. Last week at work was very busy and next week will be very busy and the week after that will be very busy, with plenty of unpleasant meetings coming up, and I found out I failed my last exam (as I mostly expected) so spring will be even busier. I don't even really want to take a vacation because then it'll be even worse when I get back.
Meh, I'm whining again. At least I got cake for my birthday, that was nice, and some pretty flowers and other nice things.

I also played more Hollow Knight. …maybe I should look for HK icons.( Spoilers: Grimm Troupe DLC ending, final boss, lore questions )

What I should currently spend most of my free time on: studying for the exam next week.
What I should not be doing: playing a lot of Hollow Knight. …yeah.
(In my ~defense, I'm still working overtime hours because there's so much to do at work and then when I get home I have almost no brainspace left.)

I think I would have enjoyed the game more from the beginning if I hadn't gone in expecting an adventure story. It's more of a mystery story.

( Recently in Hollow Knight (spoilers) )

I was happy with a fic I had written for fandomtrees, and then I read the letter again just in case and saw that I had managed to focus exactly on one of the DNWs *headdesk* I are smart. No-one I can re-gift it to, unfortunately... hopefully I can at least still write a drabble or something. I had plans to write more but that didn't happen.

DD convinced me to use her hair routine to see if it would make my hair more curly, and it kinda worked! I'm not used to it though and it looks funny. I don't think I'll do it again, definitely not regularly, but it was fun to try out.

DD yesterday: "We need to work on your hair. And on your character."
Me: ???
DD: "What does an undead butler dress like?"
Me: ... Oooh, you mean my character for the TTRPG we were talking about a few minutes ago xD
We're planning to play "The Wizard's Staff" from the microsetting collection "Odd Jobs" and I very much look forward to it. I'm playing an undead butler and MSZ is playing an enchanted soup tureen and we have to pretend our wizard is still alive, it'll be great.

We also watched most of season 2 of The Witcher. DD watched season 1, I didn't, but I have been reading quite a bit of Witcher fic recently (mostly by inexplicifics.) I've decided I much prefer their version to TV canon. The reason why I wanted to check it out was because I saw gifs on Tumblr from scenes with Jaskier and Yennefer, and those scenes were indeed great, but a lot of the rest of it I didn't enjoy, and the last two episodes we fast-forwarded through. I think Jaskier is the only character I actually like, especially because ( spoiler ). The ongoing genocide makes many people/factions very hard to root for.

I finished playing Katana ZERO. It took me about twice as long as is apparently average, but the combat was good enough and the story intriguing enough that I didn't mind having to try certain levels a few dozen times. I'm not going to play it again but I enjoyed it, overcoming the challenges was very satisfying. It was darker than I thought it would be, but that was my fault, I knew from the beginning that it was about a serial killer, though I didn't know about the war or had forgotten about it. Afterwards, thinking the story through, there are certain elements that are, hm, a bit thin... but the concept of Chronos is very interesting. I still think the last boss battle - not the secret one I later read about, which I didn't fight - makes no sense but whatever, it was fun.

I have several Yuletide fics bookmarked and I planned to finally get started on my rec list so I can post if before reveals (not sure I will find time tomorrow), but after more than ten hours at the office today all I wanted was to sit down, chat a little with DD who finally returned from vacation, and then finally start playing a new game without feeling guilty about it. (Guilty is not exactly the right word, the problem was more that I didn't trust myself not to spend too much time playing if the game turned out to be great. The past three days, instead of starting a new game, I instead went back to "Ori and the Blind Forest" and finally got the map to 100%.)

I played about an hour and a half of Ring of Pain, a creepy ~roguelite card game, and got to level 13 (of 16 main levels, I think, and then there is probably a boss fight(?).) That probably sounds more impressive than it was, I mostly died a lot earlier and I only got that far because I was sneaking past everything, which would not have worked against a boss. I enjoyed it, I like the atmosphere. There's not a lot of story so far and I don't think it'll keep my attention for long, but it's fun for now and can be played quickly and in small chunks, which is convenient.

Now I have a week's vacation! (I kept having to stop myself from thinking that taking a vacation right now is very bad timing because there's so much work to do at the office. That's always true.) LB and I wanted to go skiing but sadly that won't work because of the weather, so we'll see what we'll do.