[2024/5/23 @ 11:48am] i've been really into project sekai lately! i first started playing rhythm games with project diva, so i'm definitely sad that they won't be making more games...
but i do really enjoy pjsk too, so i'm a little conflicted. i think the main reason people tend to be pretty harsh on it is because despite being marketed as a hatsune miku rhythm game,
the story mainly revolves around non-vocaloid characters.

honestly, at first that definitely put me off-- i refused to even try the game for a while because of that. eventually, though, i was curious enough about the story to give it a chance anyways. i
haven't gotten incredibly far in that regard, but i really do like the characters. i will admit, since there are so many i do find some of them pretty bland, but that's kind of to be expected,
unfortunately. (as a love live fan, i'm not too bothered by the excessive amount of characters.)

something i like about how they approached the story is the fact that you can choose which stories you'd like to read, so even if you only like one group it's pretty easy to not get dragged
through every single character's entire storyline. i also like how the different groups' members interact sometimes, and also seem to have their own pre-established relationships. it definitely
makes the world feel a bit more alive.

the actual rhythm game itself is super fun, and i love how you can play through songs even if you have no energy points. that also goes for the story, actually... it's nice to not have to worry about
those kinds of currency too much if you're playing casually.

the gacha... sucks, of course. i don't think i've ever enjoyed gacha in a game, but i understand why it's there. considering the main aspects of the game are entirely free to play, it's not the end
of the world. i like the concept they have going with the 'birthday gacha' where you're guaranteed to only get a specific character's cards if you pull on it. would be nice if it included
a larger variety of cards featuring the character, but it's kind of whatever. :')

anyways, i just felt like rambling about this game a bit since i've been playing it a lot lately. i'm not very good at the game, but it's still super fun and i've been having a great time with
it. kaito is my favourite vocaloid, so i really got hooked in when i saw that he would be part of the wonderlands x showtime group (which is my favourite)! once i really started getting into it,
i ended up really loving tsukasa a lot. kaito may be my favourite vocaloid, but tsukasa is definitely my favourite pjsk character, lol. ^^

i just wish it had more of the vocaloids' original designs... i'm not really a fan of their sekai redesigns, unfortunately.

at least the game has 'snowman' as a playable song. that in itself makes it totally worth playing tbh.

if you made it to the end of my not-so-little brain dump, here's my project sekai player id. feel free to add me! (468-494-160-714-805-251) :>

[2024/5/23 @ 12:57pm] there's something else i want to talk about today, too! I recently played a couple of new-ish horror games. well... kind of horror?

the photos on the left (at the bottom of this entry ofc) are from a game called 'who's lila?' that i picked up from steam ages ago and only just got around to playing a couple weeks ago.
i enjoyed the first hour or so i played of the game, but i did get bored pretty quickly... which is really unfortunate! the game's story is very interesting, so that wasn't the issue i had at all.
no, i just found moving around really tedious. maybe this is why i play so many visual novels.

i don't know, something about the way the camera was angled, the way the character walks so slowly... i got two endings and called it a day because i was honestly getting a little frustrated.
i think it would have been significantly less grating if the very first ending i just happened to stumble into didn't involve a lengthy, multi-stage chase sequence.

again, the story? completely up my alley and super interesting. i just wish that there was a whole lot less walking around. (take my opinion on the matter with a grain of salt, though. again,
there's a reason i mostly play visual novels...)

i was also expecting the game to be a lot scarier since the reviews really seemed to emphasize how terrifying it is... but i didn't find it particularly scary? there were a couple of jumpscares,
but the story itself wasn't so much 'scary' as maybe 'unsettlingly vague' if that makes sense. though, it's definitely in part because i didn't get that many endings.

i'm sure this is the kind of game where, if you get really invested in it, it's probably an incredible experience. i'm planning to come back to it eventually, because i'd like to give it a proper
chance, but we'll see. there's probably a lot i'm missing out on, from the kinds of reviews i've seen.

all in all, i was a little underwhelmed, but i also feel i could have stuck it out a bit longer. i love the gimmick of the game where you change the main character's facial expressions manually...
that was probably my favourite part. it was really fun and creative. oh, and the sound design was really great.

if you're interested, the game isn't super expensive so i would totally recommend giving it a try. i bet anyone who's really into psychological horror or eldritch horror would really
love it, so long as they're more patient than i am.

another game i played recently (that's free, actually) is 'rental' which isn't exactly a horror game, tbh. the photos on the right are from this game!

now, to preface this, it looks like this game was part of a jam of some sort, so it makes sense that it's really short. i think my first playthrough took about 20 minutes, and i'm the type to
click on literally anything i see to investigate it.

i really love the visual design of this game, and i learned about it because an artist i'm a big fan of (@sukinapan on instagram) was involved in the development. they did an absolutely
amazing job with creating a cute but eerie atmosphere. i think my main gripe with the game is that they didn't actually do anything with that atmosphere, really.

i found myself wondering over and over while playing the game when i was going to get attacked, or when something might pop out of a dark corner, but nothing happened outside of a couple
harmless jumpscares. i didn't mind too much, but (and there's going to be some mild spoilers past this point. so, if you're planning to play the game, you might as well go do that then come back, lmao)
it did mean that when i reached the labyrinth, which is actually the majority of the gameplay and rather vertigo-inducing, i was just wandering around for like 10 minutes while trying my best to pay attention. (by the way, if you're struggling with the labyrinth, try walking backwards. it does wonders for making it less nauseating)

overall, i really loved the visuals and attention to detail in each room, and the story was pretty fun, if a bit bare-bones. i like that there are actually two endings, i wouldn't have
had a clue about that if i hadn't read the reviews.

i think this game would be great if you're in the mood for something with darker themes without being downright scary. honestly, i would describe it as a pretty cozy experience, especially
the second time i played it.

if you're interested in checking out either of these games, here's the 'who's lila?' steam page and the 'rental' steam page. ^^

[2024/5/30 @ 7:33pm] first things first, i've dusted my shelf since i took the third photo but was too lazy to re-take it after i noticed. so it's very dusty. it's ok, we will persevere.
i wish i knew why, but i swear that bookshelf is the only one i ever see get dusty like that... and it happens so fast. forever grateful my more cluttered figure shelves don't seem to have that
problem quite so much. of course, i still have to dust them... just not as painfully often.

so, now that that's out of the way, today i made one of my favourite snacks from when i was a kid! graham crackers topped with cream cheese and apple jelly. it doesn't need to be apple jelly ofc,
that's just what i had open already lol. it doesn't look the most appetizing, but it kind of tastes like cheesecake!

i also finally caved and bought the kingdom hearts hd 1.5 + 2.5 remix yesterday. i've played about 3 hours so far and it's been a lot of fun. kingdom hearts is very much one of those series that
i was a casual fan of despite never having played it myself, so it feels weirdly nostalgic to actually be playing it even though it's the first time... mostly, i'm really impressed with how
many games you really get when you buy it. i picked it up for around C$25 when it was 60% off, which it probably still is right now, which is a total steal in my opinion. :>

so far i've reached the wonderland world in the first game, so i'm not all that far in. i really like to take my time and mess around with games like these, so i've been progressing at a bit of
a crawl, lmao. still, it's been super fun so far. i really like sora as a protagonist already. ^^

also, maybe i'm just really bad at games with action-based combat, (i know i am) but the bosses are a lot harder than i expected... i'm very much a turn-based combat kind of girl, so it's definitely
been a process. i do play genshin, but that's about it in terms of action games. i tend to get frustrated easily, so i like games where i can take my time planning what to do next... otherwise i
just end up losing my head and rushing in. i only picked the normal difficulty, too... i would have hated this game if i actually tried to play it as a kid, lmao.

speaking of turn-based games, i recently started a playthrough of the virtual console edition of pokemon yellow on my 2ds xl! i picked up a bunch of digital games from the eshop before it shut down,
and i've finally gotten around to actually playing them... some titles i picked up include pokemon yellow, pokemon crystal, ace attorney: phoenix wright vs professor layton, the rest of the 3ds
ace attorney games, earthbound, shantae, animal crossing: new leaf, persona q, persona q2, the legend of dark witch series, and etrian odyssey untold 1 and 2. i'm pretty happy with how i kitted
it out, lol. ofc there are still some games i missed out on, but i'll just have to pick up the physical copies someday. one i really want is yo-kai watch, and
another one is project mirai dx.

anyways, back on topic, i've actually already beaten the first generation of pokemon on a few separate occasions, but generation 1 and 2 remain some of my favourites. i don't particularly
care for how grindy the gameplay can be, but they just have this charm to them that makes them incredibly fun to play. i love how janky the sprites look sometimes, the bugs are incredibly
interesting (as is the general coding), and just knowing how these games were made, and that the creators never could have anticipated how huge the series would become... it all just kind of
comes together to make the first two entries really stand out to me. plus, i love how distinctive the style of the games are, with the chunky pixel art and not-quite colour scheme it has going on.

i'm not a fan of people who act superior for liking generation 1 and 2, because i don't think they're actually any more difficult than the later games in the series. they're just built a little
differently. personally, i've played nearly every single generation of pokemon, and i love each and every one for its own unique reasons. i'm a casual enjoyer of most of the games, and generally
speaking not the kind of person who cares if a game is considered 'good' or 'bad' as long as it's fun to play. in my opinion, entertainment is the most important thing a game can provide, and
everything else is just a bonus.

i guess what i'm trying to say is, i know there's a huge ongoing debate about what the best pokemon generations are, and i feel like, while it's interesting to see people's varying opinions,
ultimately the best generation is whichever one you had the most fun playing. for me, in order, those would have to be gen 5 in first, gen 2 in second, and gen 1 in third. though i really love
gen 6, and gen 4 was my introduction to the series. (pokemon diamond! i somehow managed not to lose the case or manual as a kid... a miracle.)

i'm a little worried for the direction the newer games seems to be taking, but in the end... as long as they look fun, i'm here for it. :)