I finished Death’s Door. I have officially completed 100% of the game on the switch, experienced all the game has to offer (unless there’s more secret stuff I have somehow missed), and am thoroughly satisfied. I have a lot of notes about how it could have been better, but honestly it’s like taking notes on how a pizza could be better to the granular level of “there were only 9 pieces of pepperoni on this slice, 1.7 pieces lower than the average per-slice pepperoni count.” A lot of it has to do with the ease of commenting on something already made than making something better from inside it. It wasn’t one of my top 10 games, it wasn’t something that hit me hard like Celeste, and it isn’t something I’ll replay for years like Breath of the Wild. It was a very fun, enjoyable game that I looked forward to playing, even after I completed the main story beats and was working on the fiddly, specific collection and secret-finding phase. Given how many games fail at being this thoroughly and consistently good, I feel like this should be taken as enthusiastic praise.
Continue readingMonth: February 2022
Pokémon Type Changes in the Series Mean Pokémon Professors Suck at Their Jobs
A new Pokémon game came out today (as of writing this post, not when it goes up). I’ll probably write specifically about it once I’ve had some time to play it, but today I’m going to write about Pokémon types and the progression and change of that system over the past couple decades. There are plenty of posts and articles out there about why the types are effective or ineffective against each other, how type matchups play out, the balance of types, and all that mechanical crunchiness, so I’m going to mostly focus on the experience of watching that change happen.
Continue readingMaking Mental Maps and 3D Spatial Awareness
One of my most-valued skills is my spatial awareness and reasoning. I’ve always enjoyed that I can walk around a place and quickly learn how to navigate through it. It has been incredibly useful that I never get lost in any city, the woods, or even in 3D environments. And while I am not so exact that I wouldn’t use a tape measure to double check, I’ve very good at visually estimating the size of things in a space that I’ve spent time getting to know. I rarely use that last skill anymore, but it was incredibly useful in my theater days when I could judge just by looking at something if it was even possible for it to get through any given door or opening. Now, it only comes in handy when I am moving homes or rearranging my house and I can tell just from a glance that my bookshelves will fit perfectly in a specific location.
Continue readingBeing Human
I’ve been avoiding doing a journal-ish post on here for a bit since I’ve felt pretty crummy due to a recurring health issue. I wrote about it as the focus of my last journal post and since then I’ve tried to focus on more positive things like video games and music and stuff that brings me joy (or at least gives me something to think and talk about in the case of Baldur’s Gate 3). I’ve done so because, honestly, this whole eye thing on top of everything else makes me feel pretty miserable and I feel like writing posts about myself at times like this is just endless, fruitless whining.
Continue reading