Another quiet week. All I got done was getting the Platinum for Hyperdimension Neptunia PP and spent more time watching DVDs or recording videos with brief bursts of Lumines: Electronic Symphony in order to get the final trophy on it.

Whew .... The immersiveness of The Walking Dead 2 just gets stronger and stronger with every episode. It was really with the recent part, episode 4, that I realized I actually do generally feel pressure as I go from decision to decision. No matter what you do, there's always an element of risk when it comes to safety, and you're not going to be able to make everyone in the group happy. It also contained the worst death scene for me since the series' beginning; I never felt so bad in my life, although I don't think there was anything I could have done to stop it. It was ... more of a shock that the writers would allow it, as I really thought this one would survive over anyone else.

And, with the closing scene, I had to make an on-the-spot decision with like three seconds to go, and I fear I chose very unwisely this time, and I'll be reaping severe consequences with the start of episode 5. ... But I won't know for another two months, probably. Well, they really know how to keep a fellow in suspense.


At least, I'm still looking out for Clementine.

Another fairly light week of gaming as I was sick most of the week, but I managed to make decent progress on Grinsia and may have that finished by the end of this week.

This weekend, however, made up for it as I marathoned Growlanser II and obtained 2 of the 3 ending paths on Saturday and streamed a little progress in 3-starring every Grand Prix on Mario Kart 8 and a no-death run of Medium on DuckTales: Remastered with Hard coming up next.

Undecided on if I'll go for the final path on Growlanser before shifting gears to MagnaCarta for the next gaming goal game to beat.

That moment when you thought you posted something, but really didn't.

I am playing FF XIV - A Realm Reborn as part of a two weeks trial they are offering.
The trial is extremely limted (1 character per server, lvl 20 cap, 20,000 gil cap, can't tell, shout or yell or do anything that relates to selling or trading) but it's giving me a feel of the game.
I can see myself subscribing eventually.

I got my pugilist to level 20 so now I switched to lancer just in case I sub and I want to go the way of the monk.

Didn't make as much progress as hoped since this week was spent more on recording/editing videos than anything else, but I did finish Grinsia. Overall it was okay and much of the replay value comes from experimenting with different party setups.

Been otherwise working on finishing up Lumines: Electronic Symphony as all that's left for it is reaching level 50; currently at 42.

Hoping to start and complete my NG+ run of Growlanser II this week to get the final ending path.

Made a little progress this week by finishing up Lumines: Electronic Symphony 100% and downloading and completing Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds.

Hoping to start Atelier Ayesha this week but it may not happen due to a major project this week that will be recorded Wednesday and I'll be spending a few days editing.

I want to tell a story. A shortish one.

Back when I was in college, I followed the Mother 3 English patch progress very closely. I'd often browse the web in my dorm, wondering when the patch would be ready. I pre-ordered the Fangamer guide(Wasn't that just about the only item on Fangamer back then?), and I cherished my Courage Badge keychain. I still have it. That, and my version 1 pre-order of the Mother 3 Fan Guide.

Earthbound has always been a major part of my life in some sense. I really think that wacky game helped to form some really good ideals in me at a young age. Care for others. Keep hope when there is none. Fight, and make it through. Though my original copy of the game is buried somewhere at home, I even rebought a cartridge copy, and an official guide. My guide has been long-gone, it was something that I wore out... I never threw it out, and I'm sure it is at home somewhere. I was elated when the news broke very suddenly that Earthbound would be on the US Wii U Virtual Console. I have a save currently where I'm near the end of the game, and I find myself wanting to go back to the very beginning again just because...

I finally beat Mother 3. I believe it was 2008 when the patch was released. I was in college, and had caught a pretty bad cold. I went to the campus clinic, got some antibiotics to help fight what was a trend of yearly sinus infections, and I went home to my apartment. My roommate then was often away, working on things on campus. I was by myself, with a blanket pulled around me and with a cup of warm green tea with honey and lemon juice. I barely read the guide to avoid spoilers. I started the game.

Within about three to four days, I had reached Chapter 7. I found myself entranced by this game. It was the sequel to Earthbound, finally here. Roughly a day or two later, I lost my hard drive data to a very bad case of Windows Vista corrupting. It took me weeks to get this fixed- I had no idea of what I was doing back then and had to ask someone to help fix it. I got my computer back, but my save was gone. Exams were coming up soon anyways, and I had other projects. I figured I would simply play Mother 3 that summer. That was not the case from other circumstances. I still felt like crap from losing that progress. Downloading a save wouldn't have been the same.

I started up Mother 3 numerous times over the past 6 years. I would always cave before I even got back to Chapter 7- distracted by this or that. Myoky especially convinced me to finish it finally. Both he and Lantis were around for 95% of my gameplay time, and I thank you two for that. It helped to have someone there to share the experience, and as cheesy as it sounds- it felt like I had friends in the same room just chilling and enjoying a great game.

I beat Mother 3. After 6 years, I finally got to see the end of Chapter 7, and all of Chapter 8. The ending was something I absolutely did not expect. Yes, I had made my own assumptions about a particular character because of the amount of fanwork. I knew who he was, but I did not know how he came to be what he was- until that was illustrated between the lines during the final encounters. I felt horrible. I also felt glad that I was wrong.

The ending was one that I am okay with. Even though I desperately want an official Mother 4 with none of this gauntlet thing, I can see why Itoi decided to end it here. I can also see why many Japanese players would be upset- this ending has a completely different tone to it than that of Earthbound's. I cannot speak to Mother 1, because that's next on my list very soon. It was palpable. It was just... it was.

I am sincerely glad I finished this game. I honestly think knowing what I do now, it could be hard to replay it. But I definitely will one day, just like with Earthbound.

All that being said...

Congrats, Fay! Looks like the entire journey was very worth it. I played through Touhou Mother before Mother 3 but on the replay of TM for my Let's Play fully realized just how much that game was influenced by Mother 3 more than any others in the series (though its sequel is far more directly related).

On the gaming front, last week was pretty light in spending a lot of time gaming but my commute was blessed with the download of a Vita remake of one of my all-time favorite PC games: Crimsonland - Classic top-down shooting at its finest: Fun, simple gameplay as you take on waves of aliens, giant bugs, zombies and lizards. Ever played Robotron? It's like that, but only better. Along with that I finished 100% the first DLC chapter of Muramasa Rebirth.

On Wednesday I hosted and recorded my channel's first race, Mega Man IV, for its 100-subscriber special and spent pretty much all day yesterday editing it. Will hopefully have that done by Wednesday. There was also time to do a quick intro play of Tales of Xillia 2 but won't be playing through the whole game until next year at least.

While the vanilla version of the race video rendered I had time to finally start up and play Atelier Ayesha, doing about two in-game month's worth of events to get the plot rolling. Progress on that will be slow for the next two weeks or so.

Finally, this morning saw the resumption of Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl instead of focusing on the next Muramasa Rebirth DLC chapter as the final one will be released next week and I don't want to get burnt out on the game. EOU is pretty much a placeholder as, if I don't finish it before Theatrhythm 2's release, back onto the back burner it goes!

Mega Man IV. Good stuff, yo.



Just now finished the last episode of The Walking Dead 2. I kind of call BS on how it started out for a reason that should be really easy to see when you get that part, but, overall, wow, what a ride. It's all just a game and there are no real-life consequences of my choices, but, I think it really puts stuff into perspective. What will you do in that situation, when stuff goes down? What kind of person will you strive to become. I regret some of the decisions I made in haste because there was only a split second to make them, but I decided that I would live with it, as much as a guy who exists on the other side of the television screen from The Walking Dead's world can say that. So, in the end, no looking back. All I can say to justify how I acted in this game as Clementine is, hey, I tried my best not to be the self-preserving and/or argumentative asshole in the group.

All in all? Even better than Season 1, I think.

Didn't get much gaming in during the week, courtesy of finishing editing the full Mega Man IV race and uploading it during the first half while the second half remains a bit of a blur due to how busy work got so a lot of that was most likely EOU and/or Crimsonland to fill the time.

Was also one of the lucky 1,000 to obtain a copy of the Limited Edition of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 and the improvements over the original game are too many to count. Sadly, you still have to know the other games in the series to get the inside jokes and new characters added to the remake.

This weekend was an absolute marathon in playing through the main game of Atelier Ayesha (instead of recording an FF6 video) by putting in nearly 30 hours in the 3 days and could have it 100% done either tonight or tomorrow as all of the endings except two are open and those two are just waiting on time-based events to arrive. The only things left otherwise are to explore the DLC dungeons and attempt the Grand Dragon bonus boss fight.

Just beat Shovel Knight. I will say that it is a good game that reminds me enough of old platformers that I actually liked.

I'm playing:

Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Luigi's Mansion 2
Super Street Fighter IV

I've been playing FF XIV: ARR pretty much all this time.
I got the monk class to 50 and kept moving on with the Story to open the Hard and Extreme versions of dungeons and trials. I've also been leveling craft and gathering classes instead of leveling another dps, a healer or tank.

I like that I can just use the same character for all available classes. I usually just leveled a new character just to try a different class and rarely focused on end game content.

Been another good week for gaming and tying up a lot of loose ends. As planned I finished getting 100% completion for Atelier Ayesha and have started Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 before moving on to the next gaming goal game.

Obtained Danganronpa 2 and Muramasa Rebirth's 4th DLC chapter and quickly beat the latter for its first ending. Also downloaded and beat both Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe (the latter 100%).

Comic Con was a good place for tying up some loose ends on Vita games by getting the speed run trophies for two of the Muramasa Rebirth DLC chapters and beating Hardcore mode on Crimsonland while waiting in various lines. With the 3DS constantly getting Streetpasses it would have been a waste of time to try and play Etrian Odyssey Untold while constantly switching over to the Streetpass Plaza to clear the queue, but I'm back on EOU as of this morning. Honestly don't expect to have it beaten before Theathryhthm 2's release next week though.

While nothing's been completed this week it's still been a good one for gaming.

Was aiming to beat Etrian Odyssey Untold's Story Mode before tomorrow but that got greatly hampered by the Smash 3DS demo on Friday and the early arrival of Theatrhyhtm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call on Saturday (3 days before street date release!), both of which had several hours dedicated to them over the weekend.

After getting those two out of my system, I'm back on Etrian Odyssey Untold with its goal of beating the main story and then focusing on Hyperdimention Neptunia mk2, hoping to beat that before the release of Hyrule Warriors.

Will also be obtaining Fairy Fencer F and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright today and tomorrow.

Managed to break even this week with obtaining Fairy Fencer F and Prof. Layton vs Phoenix Wright as birthday gifts while managing to beat Etrian Odyssey Untold and Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. I plan to Platinum mk2 before moving on to my next gaming goal game: MagnaCarta but probably won't do Etrian Odyssey's post-game events for a while as I'm very hooked on Theatrhythm Curtain Call.

Getting three new releases this week: Ar Nosurge, Arcana Heart 3 LM and Hyrule Warriors. It's going to be a good one.

Oh yeah, over the weekend I hosted a Super Metroid race that Ixzion, Captain Turbo and a returning player from my Mega Man 4 race all participated in and everyone did a great job. I won't say who won but everyone beat the game in about 1:45 real-time.

I played and managed to beat Volgarr the Viking tonight. One of the toughest and satisfying challenges I've ever done.

Haven't heard of that one. Guessing it's on Steam.

Started up a new run of the Xbox (Hidden gem?) game "Midtown Madness 3", to see if it is any worth possibly making into a LP at a future date. So far, it's arcade like feel and cheesy plotlines certainly seem to point it to the right direction.

Oh man. If you want gems on XBOX, check out this off topic post spoilered for being off topic.