In my doldrums, I’ve been trying to find new things to play that aren’t Final Fantasy 14. I’ve mostly succeeded, thankfully, but it’s still kind of rough since all the stress and everything of the last few days makes it difficult to enjoy things [and, as of editing this after everything blew up two days after I wrote this, I now feel compelled to be logged into Final Fantasy 14 and Doing Something To Fix This]. Thankfully, Pokémon Violet (a revisit, now on the improved Switch 2 hardware), Avowed, Ghost of Yotei, Pokémon ZA’s DLC, and Grounded have been there for me. Pokémon to fill my quiet idling hours, Avowed to bring me in, Ghost of Yotei to give my something else to do when I run out of this stuff, and Grounded for a survival building game with a friend. I’ve got everything I could need and I only feel a little panicked every night as I turn to this little collection of games and try to figure out what I’m going to do with myself. Which, lately, is mostly Avowed. The whole premise of it didn’t super appeal to me, especially considering everyone calling it an adventure game like Skyrim, but thankfully I looked past those statements (Skyrim was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I’m very tired of it now) and I’ve been enjoying myself. It’s actually been a fun alternative to FF14 rather than something I embrace out of a desperate need to do anything else.

I mean, that’s still why I’m playing other games. I don’t want to spend all my time thinking about everything that’s been going on and playing Final Fantasy 14 is going to make that rather inescapable, no matter what I do [how wrong and right I was… Now I’m neck deep in FF14 as I try to keep up with the community being rebuilt and added upon as I search for the energy to do the same stuff here that I did in the community I was removed from for the crime of associate or having opinions or who even knows at this point]. But Avowed has been interesting enough that I’ve been able to forget about the desperation. The gear upgrading system is fun to tinker with, the world has all kinds of interesting places to explore, I keep occasionally getting my ass kicked every time I’m overconfident, a lot of the characters I’ve met are intersting, and there’s all kinds of mushroom stuff going on everywhere and I love interesting mushroom stuff. Mostly on a concept level and that seems to be about where this game is at with mushroom stuff, too. Networks and connections and the spread of something alien, powerful, and unkownable that looks incredibly familiar somehow. It’s a good time and not just because it lets me be a Gun Mage with a giant fuck-off gun and all kinds of fun spells.

In my quieter moments, I’ve been playing Pokémon Violet on my Switch 2, using a new profile so I won’t jeopordize the old saves. Which unfortunately means no connecting to the internet for anything, but that’s okay. I don’t need the internet to enjoy my Pokémon experience. I just need a little goal, a list of tasks, some critters to catch, and some podcasts to run in the background. I decided I was going to make my ghost-type concept team that I thought of during my first play-through (since there’s a starter who turns Ghost, lots of fun new Ghosts, and lots of good existing Ghosts), and that I was going to catch them all in Premier Balls. Which means I’ll have to breed my starter Pokémon so I can force it into a Premier ball via hatching. Which is, admittedly, a problem for MUCH later. Most of the ghosts I want aren’t near the starting area or take a long time to make useful (got that “weak for 50 levels and then super powerful” thing going on), so I’m trying to balance actually getting some of them lined up, temporarily accepting less desirable Ghosts, or just filling out the roster with whatever so I can proceed in some capacity.

Other than that… Well, I installed Ghost of Yotei on my PS5. I found what might be the name of a game I have been trying to find for decades (which I’ve since forgotten again, but I know how to find it and will just do that again when I’ve got the time/energy). I’ve caught up on one anime, though maybe I should put a bit more effort into catching up with the rest. And the same for podcasts, really. I’ve let myslef fall behind a lot in those as I’ve been spending more and more video game time in voice calls. Maybe that’s a sign: I should spend less time in voice calls so I can listen to my podcasts and readjust to not being surrounded by friends as much. I might lose access to one of my major points of connection, after all, and I have no idea how that’s going to go [better and worse than I hoped and feared] as far as my social connections go. And, rather than continue to think about this, I’m going to go play Avowed and avoid thinking about anything that isn’t loot, spells, potential gatherable items, and enemies hiding in plain site. It’ll be great.