nicki

i'm sooooo stoked that the two follow-up games to rhapsody: a musical adventure have been translated into english officially. i played a little bit of the half-finished fan translation of the sequel years and years ago, and desperately wished for an official release then. i can't wait to get to them! i just need to... beat bg3 and armored core first... yeah...

i played the pikmin 4 demo over the weekend, and it was so cute that i preordered it!

i haven't played the other games in the series, but talking to some friends it seems that they were a lot more unforgiving with the time limits, which this most recent game seems to have reeled in quite a bit. there's still a day/night cycle, but i thought it was balanced nicely - the time freezes anytime you're in the underground sections (some haphazard explanation about how time moves more slowly in the caves lol), so you don't feel like you're not getting anything done each time you go exploring.

other things i liked:

• you can make your own lil guy for this one. i like my big noggin and hair buns.
• the team you're building up seem unique and cutely written.
• the colors of the suits of your team match whatever color you choose for yours.
• the dog-creature is v cute (and stupid).
• the big world feeling when you're just a lil guy.
• the stupidly good renders of random items, like a gba or a sweet potato. i feel like the artists got to have fun making them.
• overall art design is cute in general. i love the pikmin designs.
• it's just cute!!!

the controls will take some getting used to, as i always find with nintendo games. there were a few times where i accidentally threw my pikmin into the water and panic ran around trying to remember how to whistle to recall them before they drowned.

i'm definitely looking forward to playing the full game later this month. ☺️

well, i finally did it! after months of being right near the end, i managed to boot the game back up and finish pokemon violet. this was urged on by my desire to not leave a bunch of games unfinished before moving on to the next one (casually kicks pile of other games under bed before you can notice), and since the new zelda is out this friday... i dedicated this weekend to pokemon.

i have to sayyyy... i'm very torn on this one. i'm not someone who thinks too hard about pokemon games, usually. 9 times out of 10 when i pick up a pokemon to play it's just because i wanna look at the cute monsters and dress up my trainer. i've been playing this franchise since i was a wee lass, having started with yellow, and i dip back in every so often, mostly at random, whenever the mood suits me. i haven't played every game in the series, and the ones i have played i don't always finish (this is my worst habit). i did, however, finish shield, and i enjoyed it a lot (although i've been told it wasn't very popular?). i tried legends arceus but didn't like it much personally, it felt very empty and unfinished, and i honestly, i feel similarly about violet.