Fall is here

Turns out I had a busy weekend and couldn't get to this until today. October is one of my favourite months. The leaves on the trees start to turn and fall, the air gets crisp and cool, and in some places, you can feel that mounting excitement at being given "permission" to indulge in spooky things.

With my classes I haven't been able to watch as many horror movies as I'd like, but I'm hoping to make time for some. Time allowing, I'll also try to get to some of the novels (more likely short stories or novellas) I've got sitting around. I've long been meaning to read John Langan's The Fisherman.

What I'm Playing

I got to spend a good chunk of yesterday playing board games with friends, both in person and online! I spent the bulk of the day with some friends and we got to play KINGs: TRICKTAKERs, Aurum, Come Sail Away, Schadenfreude, Trailblazers, For Sale, and Coloretto. I'd only played For Sale and Coloretto before but the rest were a blast. It's always exciting to play new tricktaking games, and Kings, Aurum, and Schadenfreude did not disappoint on that front. I was very pleased that Come Sail Away was as enjoyable as I'd hoped, Saashi & Saashi have yet to miss.

After I got home, I got on BoardGameArena and played some games with Renkon and Daikon! We had a blast playing Sushi Go!, Can't Stop, and The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, the latter two which I had the pleasure of introducing to them. Always feels great to be able to show something to someone and they enjoy it. I was up much later than usual due to time zone differences but it was worth it!

Blue Reflection: Second Light

I said I'd do it and I did! I finally finished this wonderful game. The game's climax was pretty much pitch perfect. I'm sad it's over but also glad I can remove that from my mental list of things I want to get done. I think one thing that really made this game work very well for me is that, unlike most games where the power of friendship is supposed to be what gets you through, there is no mechanical representation of that. In BRSL, the deeper your bonds with your friends, the more abilities and buffs you get access to, which led to my being quite powerful by the end of the game simply by virtue of enjoying the scenes with the girls hanging out and getting to know each other better.

Even if you don't play the game, I highly recommend listening to the soundtrack, it's a favourite of mine.

Sonic Forces

I'd claimed this what feels like years ago via Playstation Plus but never got to it. I've not really played many modern Sonic games, so I wasn't entirely sure what I was in for. I knew there was character creation (which people dragged on release) but that was about it. The last 3D Sonic games I played were Generations and Unleashed, and the most recent of the series I've played in general was Mania. That said, I grew up with the Sonic games and comics so the character holds a special place for me.

This game was, as a whole, just fine. Levels were too short and didn't leave much room for interesting level design or anything. Avatar (your created character) stages had some fun set pieces but were largely on rails for those parts.

Despite this, it wasn't a bad time by any means. The soundtrack is great. Running through the overly short stages with the vocal tracks playing was a blast. Having a character you made running around with Sonic, teaming up to fight Robotnik and his minions, is pretty much a childhood dream come true. Had this been out when I was younger, I'd have been all about it.

You should check out

Let's Stop Calling it "Content" by Clive Thompson. I've long had a distaste for the terms "content" and "content creator" but couldn't quite articulate why. More of a gut feeling, y'know? The writer here does a good job putting it into words and puts forth a pretty good argument for why it's to our benefit to reduce that usage. The offered collective word to replace it of "culture" is a step forward but isn't perfect.

Indie Tsushin put out a bunch of articles this past week, but I really wanted to highlight GSK's guest article on Yanaboh's puzzle game BELLUMAROT and their interview with Yanaboh! Both are fantastic pieces and Yanaboh sounds like someone who'd be a great person to hang out with.

Speaking of Indie Tsushin, they are hosting the Study Buddy Jam, which I'll be participating in. Trying to get those creative muscles back from their atrophied state, thinking I'll play around with binksi.

Studio Élan are hosting a bundle of yuri visual novels for the next week. I've had several of these recommended to me, looking forward to be able to get to them!

Busy couple weeks coming up, two statutory holiday Mondays in a row so my school weeks are cut down, and we're attending a wedding next weekend. I've got my work cut out for me getting all my assignments done so I'm not behind, but it should be doable.

Until next time! じゃあね。