Diary of a Middle Aged Tekken Scrub

         I just finished KH2. For the first time actually. I'm not exactly sure what is different with the Final Mix version, but I have an idea of which boss fights were extra. All of those extra portals in the worlds that just lead to a fight with some random Organization XIII member. And that one fight in [The World That Never Was] against Roxas, that one feels so out of place, with a boss fight right before it, being pretty easy, and the boss fight right after it also being pretty easy. That boss fight was probably the hardest fight in the game.       KH2 was a relatively easy game. You can play through it with little thinking and planning ahead, especially compared to the two KH games right before it. KH1 made me have to think about what I have equipped, what items I'm bringing, and how my spell shortcuts are laid out (that's a Final Mix feature). That game made me think about how to use summons properly. in all of KH2 Ive only used summ...

      In the original Tarzan of the Apes. I remember the conversation between  D'Arnot and Tarzan about the apes, and how they can never plan ahead. How Kala and Kerchak would have Tarzan feeling burdened by carrying extra food with him. The apes never did that, they ate how much they needed, and left everything else alone even if it were plenty, and would just go hungry later when things were scarce. They would happily have a share of Tarzan's packed food though when food was low.    "Even Kala, my mother, could never plan ahead. She simply ate what she needed when she needed it, and if the supply was very scarce, even though she found plenty for several meals, she would never gather any ahead.  I remember that she used to think it very silly of me to burden myself with extra food upon the march, though she was quite glad to eat it with me, if the way chanced to be barren of sustenance."      Maybe there was no way for Tarzan to co...

       I just finished a playthrough of Wild Arms, the first one. Weirdly my own memory of the game was that it was a SNES game, but its a PS1 game. And Visually it looks way better than what the SNES was capable of. So I'm not sure why my memory had it on SNES. Very noticeable funny bits of translation errors though. The game says Ray lines, we know that should be saying Ley Lines. The game mentions the USS Missouri for no reason when a ship captain argues that his ship has no weapons. The game has a lot of Babylonian names that would make the story easier to follow, or at least notice the reference for, had the names been spelled right. Ka Dingle, should have been Kadingir. The name Zeikfried, was definitely supposed to be Siegfried. And a few others I cant seem to remember right now.      But maybe they're all slightly misspelled on purpose.     Fun game though. Easy game too, about 35 hours to get through. Probably wont touch it again for...

      Just finished the Riku story in ReCOM. Crazy how much more story is is packed in it. Makes me want to say most of the story in COM is on the Riku side, and its mostly a Riku game. I also understood the game a lot more playing it, so it made it feel a lot easier, but its also since you cannot edit your deck in Riku mode, the game has to be easier just because it has to work with what they give you. Was very neat. Makes you want another game with this card combat system, its really well thought out.      I also went back to KH1, to grab the last optional boss I still had to do. That weirdo in Hollow Bastion. My friends warned me it was one of the hardest fights in the game, so I was scared, I already thought KH1 was really hard.      It only took me 2 tries to beat him, the fight lets you have Donald and Goofy, and summons, which makes it incredibly easier than the fights that dont allow those, like the Sephiroth, and Ice Titan fights, an...

       Even more Kingdom Hearts, and I finished this one way sooner than I thought I would. I do still have to get through the Riku mode, but I still count this as having finished the game.      Unlike the first game, which I didnt remember being so difficult. Re Chain of Memories, was a lot easier than I remember it being. Technicallyy this is my first time playing RE Chain of Memories, as the the one I played in my youth was the GBA one. Still though, I remember having to stop and grind out cards to unlock doors. This time around I must have got really lucky I never had to do that, I just breezed through the game.       The only bit of difficulty I felt I had was, that heartless boss fight in Monstro, because of the poisoned floors. And the Vexen boss fight, because my deck was pretty badly laid out for it. The rest of the game, including the final boss fights, I just breezed right on through.      Hopefully I can b...

       Just finished Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix last night. From the KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX- version on steam. It's crazy how brutally difficult this game is. My own memory of the game in my youth was that the only difficult part was Ice Titan and Sephiroth, and even then I dont remember them being thaaaat hard . This game beat my ass though. Like right from the start too, after Destiny Islands and Traverse Town. The boss in the Alice world kicked my ass.       I did do Sephiroth though, that fighjt made me cry and curse and scream. He was waaaay waaaayyy harder than I remembered. What a stupid cheating ass fight. Hilariously difficult how each phase of the fight was more and more unfair and cheating. How did I beat this game as a kid??      Ansem at the end of the game is still unbelievably easy compared to every fight before him too, its so weird.      Now to start Re Chain of Memories, for the first time...

    This feels weird to say, because I said Fatal Frame 2 Remake felt bad because it felt too similar to the original. MGS Delta feels great because of how much it feels just like the original, with just a new coat of paint on it.     Although the best part of Delta, is that this game now has keyboard and mouse controls. AND they're really good mouse and keyboard controls. The ability to have such good controls though, trivializes an already very easy game. Boss Fights were just aim and click and you win. Pretty damn sick actually.     Good game though, I very much enjoyed it. I hope they do something like it for the other games  

     Fatal Frame 2 on the PS2 was my favorite game of the series. I don't think its right that Fatal Frame 2 got a remake over Fatal Frame 1, especially since the stories are linked how they are. I almost want to say Fatal Frame 2 is only a good game, because Fatal Frame 1 set it up so that you want want to know more about the mystery of the ritual, and getting to play the game where the ritual happens in, is cool because it was only alluded to before. By itself, it probably feels so much more nonsensical, even considering Japanese Horror.      Not to make my blog a game review site. but basically 2 posts in a row will be about the games I had just finished, I do what I want.      Maybe its because I'm fresh off of finishing RE9, and had only a few months ago finished Silent Hill f, both very very good games. Great games. The epitome of their respective series so far. but, I wasn't especially impressed by FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REM...

      I had just recently played through the PS2 game Death by Degrees, that one game with Tekken's Nina Williams. My goodness, that game was rough to play through. Bordering on unplayable. The worst part is, you go into it thinking it would be like, a beat em up, an action game. Especially thinking of the other games in that era, it seemed like it would be another one, but with Tekken combat, like how Tekken Force is. But it is not. It is a Resident Evil like. but instead of zombies, soldiers with weapons. The camera, the angles, and the controls, all work against each other. It is one of those fixed camera games, fitting of a survival horror game. but with no room for buffer in between transition zones. so often times you start attacking the wrong direction because of the movement moved you over to the next scene, but the direction of the attack changed because of that scene change. Because the attacks are done with directions on the right analog stick. So very often yo...

  So I finished Signalis. 3 years after release. A game that I bought on release becuase I wanted something spooky to play for Halloween. which was only a few days after it came out. And It is now only a few days away from Thanksgiving. so I didn't even make it in time for the spooky season this year.  But I did it.  Let me complain real quick though. The game is too hard, too scary, too oppressive, almost to the point of frustration. It is such a rough experience to play through. I loved it. Thought it was great, thought it was charming even, all the jank that it had. FUCK TOUCH DAMAGE THOUGH. As much as frustration as a level design choice can be good. touch damage, with how much damage you take in this game, is like just one step too far. I also thought the puzzles were also one step too much to ask of the player to do/remember details of. But it all worked out. I liked it. I would recommend it. I would probably play it again too, but not any time soon.  Its worth...

  But I'm stuck in a life where I play video games to have fun

 I was discharged from the hospital a few days, so I'm fully a survivor, mostly intact too, just missing my appendix. Had to miss the whole hatsune miku event in Sonic Racing though. That kind of sucked. But I'm out in time to do the minecraft event, watch Evo France, and now play Armor King, that counts for something right? Oh and its spooky month too, so maybe ill play something scary.  Anyways I survived..

          Now it makes me wonder, why haven't they tried to engineer a way to put advertisements into our dreams? Is that too unethical? Imagine an unskippable mid roll ad in one of your dreams? Or even product placement in the background of your dreams, that would actually be so cool right?

     A week later after my last post. Oh Happy New Year or whatever. I got into Gold 3, and with 2 days left in Season 0, and with the weekend being over, I don't have the time to climb any higher. Bronze is a real struggle, it really feels like you have to try so hard to win down there compared to silver, it almost doesn't make sense. No wonder the game tells you youre ranked higher than 75% of the game when you get into gold though. You just lose points no matter what if your team loses, and your team will lose a lot down there. Silver was a struggle too, but just less of a struggle, even if you're going against "better" opponents. Oh well, we will see how hard the grind is when Season 1 starts soon.  

  So, we have a few days left in 2024, let's make one of my resolutions in 2025 to blog a bit more creatively. And to document the things I do more. So to kick it off. Let me start with my progress playing ranked in Marvel Rivals. If you don't already know what Marvel Rivals is, its a game that came out this month, developed by Netease, and I definitely have a weird bias to Netease 3rd person shooters. Basically Overwatch with Marvel superheroes and in 3rd person. A lot of the same game types, and character types. But being in 3rd person allows it to feel more like a brawler than a shooter, and there's a focus on combos and animation cancels that make it feel more like playing Anarchy Reigns than it is playing Overwatch. I've been having a lot of fun with it. I've only played maybe 4 games of competitive, in my 88 (40 according to the ingame) hours of playing the game so far, so I haven't actually begun yet, but this is the start. Let's see how things turn o...

  Happy Thansgiving, I guesss.... If Fromis_9 arent staying together as a group making more music, then what is there even to be thankful for? Now what?

My Oshi is graduating today.... Stan Fromis_9... Lay your head on my pillow...

   I put bread in my toaster, sat in the living room and waited for the toast, heard the toast finish and spring up, and just didn't care about it anymore, and came back to my room to lay down

  Nothing on this planet feels better than sleeping on freshly washed sheets, if it was more viable to do it daily i would. I would irreparably damage the climate and think its worth it

  So I'm unemployed currently. That's been fun.