#justsometext

[pqrachel]

Early Signalis Thoughts

Started playing Signalis. Even though I've never really played any horror games before, I've just heard so much good stuff and seen so much lovely fanart.

So yeah initial thoughts so far (barely two hours in), the art style is so fucking cool. I don't really know how to describe it except kind of a modern retro. It's pixel art but in and obvious 3d way, like PS1 graphics but not shitty, IDK. The game is slow but that's probably just the genre, I'm used to zooming around games and loving their movement systems, but here the game forces you to feel in the moment, and it is tense. I swear I tried kicking enemies like it suggested but unlike the gun and stun baton which explicitly told you the key, kicking a downed enemy has no prompts that I could find. So in the first main area I definitely wasted like all of my ammo taking down enemies despite the game saying, hey idiot kick those dudes. But you just have to get like super close on them and then LMB. But again I'm just used to game with super intuitive and fun movement and that's not what the genre's about so there's gonna be a bit of a disconnect.

So far I'm loving the lore and the character design. The replicas lack of feet was a little weird and I didn't notice it in any of the fanart but definitely a bit weird, but I get it.

Hopefully I'm back later after playing some more with cool thoughts about the game and if it goes well I might try some other horror games that I've been ignoring too.

#justsometext #signalis

[pqrachel]

Our Life Derek's Epilogue - My Thoughts (Spoilers!)

So I finally got around to playing Derek's epilogue, I thought I was gonna wait longer but I wanted to do it before the month was over so I did. And it was amazing! At this point I should really expect that from GBPatch.

I mentioned it a bit in my thoughts on Baxter's epilogue but even though I'm bi the masc types aren't usually my preference, and with Derek being buff and strong, I really wasn't expecting to fall for him as much as Cove or Baxter... but I did. He was just so me, in both a weird way but also in a very amazing way. All the main points of why the player character loved Derek are the same reasons my friends say they love me. And Derek's family reminded me of my own in a very focus on the positives kind of way.

Before I get into Derek and the player character's story real quick I want to say grown up Nico is so amazing. Look at this boy:

I loved him before and I love him now. Definitely a highlight of the whole epilogue!!

But yeah like all the other love stories in Our Life I let the love interest do most of the work in wooing me. Even though I selected 'Love' in the opening option for Derek so the option for the story would be available, it had been years since I'd last seen Derek (in the story), so it wasn't like I was in love with him immediately. So I let the story unfold and it was just so much fun. Hanging out with his brothers again, the water park date and how nice that was, spending time with both of our families, the boardwalk date, and the final party with everyone there; it was all just amazing. And the one scene right before the party, where if we weren't interrupted things were about to get spicy. (Again I know he's a fictional character, shut up.) But from the Cove Patreon moment, I know GBPatch can write a decent inclusive sex scene and I'd be willing to see one of those moments for Derek or even Baxter.

But yeah all in I love Our Life: Beginnings and Always. The DLC included. I hope Our Life 2 development goes well and it can become just as fond in my heart after it releases. (Poly options plz!!)

(I don't have the post-credits splash page for Cove's epilogue since it's been a while since I've played it. But it was amazing too! Cove's and my wedding will always have a special place in my heart.)

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always #derek suarez

[pqrachel]

SSBM Rank

OMG!, I just realized that the 2023 SSBM Rank have been releasing all week and I haven't been keeping up until now.

But there's still 2 days and 20 players left to rank, so I wanted to have some fun and make my own predictions for who's going where in the top 20.

My list is here, and the long-winded rambling will be below the cut...

Cody Schwab

Zain ---

Jmook

Plup

aMSa

Mang0 - That's my GOAT!!

moky

HBox

KoDoRiN

Aklo ---

lloD

Zuppy

S2J

Polish

woo Magi

Salt

Joshy

Wizzrobe

Trif

Morsecode762 (idk man I guess 20th)

---

Not Getting Ranked: Big Leff, 2saint, Pipsqueak

I do agree that Cody and Zain were clearly top 2, and I think they will honor the show-match thing and let Cody have his #1 over Zain. Even without it, I think Cody would have won since he has more supermajor wins, and even though he has one less major win, Cody has a bunch of non-major wins as well, and personally I think that should count for something when it's so close between the two.

Jmook is the only other person to get a super major win, so I think he's easily a good pick for #3.

But after that it got a bit harder to choose. I found a list of the 124 eligible players and of the ones not listed in 21-100 that I felt had a shot for top 20. Leffen, 2saint, and Pipsqueak seemed like the 3 that wouldn't make eligibility requirements due to low attendance.

From there I looked mainly at tourney placings with a large bias towards supermajors. (Using liquipedia's list of Genesis 9, Battle of BC 5, GOML 2023, & The Big House 11 as what defines a supermajor.)

I used head-to-head data only when two people were really close in my opinion. (Because otherwise it's like a whole thing with 20 players so that's 190 head-to-heads to research and consider. And it just gets super complicated, so no thanks.) I did use any personally noteworthy head-to-heads, anything I could remember of the top of my head just from watching being a long-time, that sort of thing.

I also had a little bit of bias towards people who attended more, not just like personal bias because I've seen them more but I actually put them higher since I think going to more tourneys should matter for rankings, but what do I know.

I also used the summer rankings and how well the players did in the last half of the year to adjust from there to kind of adjust my biases a bit close to what the SSBM rank people would probably do.

Overall I think my top 10 and 11-20 split is pretty solid, I would be genuinely surprised if that wasn't where the line got drawn. At least assuming I got the 20 ranked players correct and no one with low attendance like Wizzy or Trif made it into top 10 somehow.

15-17 are super close imo, same with my 9-10.

And obviously I have my personal favorites: Mang0, moky, Magi, Salt, & Joshman from the top 20. (and Leffen too but I don't think he'll be ranked.)

moky might end up beating Mang0 like he did in the summer rankings, but my personal bias and the fact that Mang0 hasn't lost a set to moky made me put Mang0 in 6th over moky.

But yeah I definitely wasted a whole night in front of a spreadsheet, having too much fun doing autistic sports-fan things. Melee's so sick dude!

#justsometext #super smash bros

[pqrachel]

I haven't talked about Balatro on here, but yeah it's good.

I've got about a dozen hours on it, just scored my first properly insane hand of 60 million points. The deck had the potential for about 180 mil if I got lucky on my last round but didn't draw what I needed.

But yeah it's definitely been fun just wasting time in that game. If it had mobile crossplay it would be even more addicting. Like definitely a great game.

#justsometext #balatro

[pqrachel]

Pokémon: Path to the Peak

The first episode of Path to the Peak was really fun and well animated. Kind of made me want to play the TCG again.

I just rewatched the first episode and decided to see what deck Ava and Joshua were using. Turns out they were both using the exact same deck. And I managed to identify most of it.

The link is of a 53 card deck. (I'm missing 7 cards.) The main Oddish card isn't out yet or is made just for this series or something but I couldn't find it, but it's in the deck 3 times. There was one card I couldn't identify that appeared 3 times in the sequence at 7:37 in the episode. And that brings me to 59 of 60. Which makes me think they did have a full 60 card deck in mind and I just missed one.

My best guess for the 4 cards I can't identify are: There's a dratini and a dragonite but no dragonair, as well as a duskull and dusknoir but no dusclops, there's a grotle but no turtwig, and a lot of basics without their evolution.

#justsometext #pokemon #path to the peak #Youtube

[pqrachel]

Pseudoregalia Thoughts

Played the heck out of Pseudoregalia, 8ish hours all in one go. To 100% the game. I did look up a map because holy heck is there no direction in-game.

I'm definitely gonna draw the goat-bunny-cat lady at some point.

And I'm also interested in trying some of the speedruns which convinced me to get into the game in the first place.

---

EDIT:

Found an any% route and gave it a couple runs. Lost the first one to not taking safety saves and death warping at 0 health for a reset, and lost the second run because I forgot an item near the middle and didn't feel like backtracking for it since I was trying to learn the route.

I think tomorrow, I'll probably get at least one discovery run done. Might stream it idk. If I do it'll be at twitch.tv/pqrachel but also might not.

#justsometext #pseudoregalia #4if

[pqrachel]

So I was gonna wait until the new year to choose my game of the year, but not only did the steam review come out, but I realized that last year I chose a game that I got for Christmas 2021 so even if I somehow get a really cool game experience before the end of the year, I can just put that for my 2024 GOTY if its good.

But in that vein, I've added Monster Roadtrip & Neon White to games I'm considering for this year's GOTY. So my nominees are Monster Roadtrip, Neon White, Lil Gator Game, Celeste Strawberry Jam Mod Pack, Goodbye Volcano High, Our Life DLCs, and Marvel Snap.

---

So Monster Roadtrip, which I've been playing a lot throughout the year. Unlike most of the other games on the list it's really easy to come back to after not playing for a while. The End of the Road update which came out this year was phenomenal and that's the main reason I'm considering it for GOTY. But I really enjoy the Monster Prom series as a whole and it's just so fun and amazing.

Neon White, I got last year during the Steam Winter sale and I spent an amazing few months playing it and getting good at it and enjoying the crap out of the optimization and speedrunning. It makes it so easy to play and so easy to want to keep improving. It soundtrack is amazing and the community is great too. But it's just super hard to get back into. I tried it again this week and despite getting a couple of level records beaten so many of the levels just weren't fun to try and jump right back into at the level I was playing them when I quit. IDK it's definitely amazing but it's not obvious that it should or shouldn't be my GOTY.

Lil Gator Game is like super amazing and nearly perfect for what it is but its just so small, which isn't in itself a problem. But a bigger amazing game is gonna be better. I never went back to try and play it casually again and I think I got all I wanted out of speedrunning it. Like my only problem with it is that I wished it was a bit longer.

Celeste Strawberry Jam is a mod pack created not by the devs of Celeste but by the wonderful modding community of the game. It has levels that range in difficulty of super beginner friendly to fucking impossible, like jeez dude that's crazy. I played through so many levels and it was super enjoyable. It was enough for me to play and consistently enjoy myself for months.

My next nominee is Goodbye Volcano High. I've only played it through once but it was amazing. It's a game about music, found family, and the apocalypse. I got so engrossed in this game after I played it, and I just love it so much. It excelled at being a visual novel but it wasn't very game-y, the rhythm game elements weren't great, and the other game elements struggled too. It was buggy at the time I played it but it didn't detract too much from the story and meaning behind the game. It was just beautiful when it came together.

The Our Life DLCs really surprised me. I went it just expecting them to be worse than the Cove storyline because how could they live up to the amazing story that was the original Our Life Cove story. But they were amazing. I talked about them a lot as I played them but ultimately I just really love the stories GBPatch has put out and that's the reason Our Life 2 is my most anticipated game, even over Silksong and Hades 2. Again it's a visual novel so it's hard to put it as GOTY but I just have to at least consider it because of how good it was.

And my last nominee is Marvel Snap. It technically released last year but the PC launch was in August and I've been playing it so much since then, like it's already my second most played game on steam. It's a microtransaction heavy, season pass-having, daily quest bullshit monetization system game, but it's technically free-to-play. After a while I stopped paying money for stuff and started playing it free and I'm still really enjoying it. Getting the last key cards for some of the meta decks has been super fun. I've been playing Loki and Hela and Destroy and Zoo, and it's just great. The new weekly cache system is rewarding as well and I've nearly got a complete card list because of it. Just a fun time sink.

---

And my Game of the Year is Neon White, but like it's close. This was a cool year for gaming and even if I didn't play any of the mainstream choices for game of the year, it was still a super enjoyable year for gaming overall.

#justsometext #game of the year #monster roadtrip #neon white #lil gator game #celeste #strawberry jam #goodbye volcano high #our life: beginnings & always #marvel snap

[pqrachel]

Monster Roadtrip: End of the Road

This storyline alone took the Monster Prom series from 16th place to top 10 in my all time favorite games. Like this as been a fun wacky adventure with good writing, but this storyline was something more meaningful. It still retained the vibe of the Monster Prom series really well, but it was really deep. I don't want to spoil anything here because either you haven't played the series before and you don't care, or you have and I think you should play this storyline for yourself.

These characters mean a lot to me. And this storyline was just so damn poignant and meaningful. If you're a fan of the series and haven't gotten to this storyline please go do it. It's truly worthwhile.

#justsometext #screenshots #monster roadtrip #monster prom #end of the road

[pqrachel]

Love is Strange FanGame Thoughts

So I finally got around to playing the fan game Love is Strange. It's on itch.io and it's a romance visual novel in the Life is Strange universe. I haven't played it because I like the canon LiS timeline so much I often find myself disagreeing with a lot of fan fiction more than enjoying it just because it differs in some way to my own head canons. But I was really in the mood for a new visual novel and I saw it again and finally sat down and played it.

The story or stories rather have Max as the protagonist with either Chloe, Rachel, Kate or Victoria as romantic interests. It's set in a weird version of the LiS universe where the storm didn't happen, no one's got powers, and Jefferson is replaced with Mx. Dog (Hawtdawgman with Jefferson's hair and goatee) to keep it more wholesome. It really nailed the characters but it didn't feel like a Life is Strange story (in a good way). Like it felt standalone enough for me to enjoy it.

I only played one playthrough for each of the four romantic interests, so it might be different depending on other routes but for me:

Of the four routes I honestly think I liked the Victoria one the most, not only was it very new since she's not in the Amberpricefield trio, that I've gotten a lot of from the comics, fan art, and fan fics; but also it really didn't rush into anything. Like the game took place of the course of 5 days, and Vic's story felt slow where some of the others felt rushed.

Rachel's story I really just wanted more of Max and Rachel don't get to hang out at all without Chloe in really any of the LiS stories I've seen canon or otherwise and they had a good dynamic going.

Max and Chloe are always great. Their chemistry felt deserved and seeing them happy is always a delight. I don't have too much to say it just feel right seeing them together.

Kate's story was nice. She still had a bunch of the bad stuff leading up to the original game happen to her here (even if it wasn't stated as explicitly). I guess having Max hanging out with Kate outside of trying to console her for the bullying problems was something I didn't realize I was missing. There was still a bit of that but it was so much genuine than like a responsibility almost. Like they're friends and I enjoyed seeing that outside of the context of the hectic story Kate went through in the original games. It made her character feel more real (even if it wasn't technically canon).

Unrelated to this fangame I like seeing fan art of Kate hanging with Max and Chloe and getting to let loose. This wasn't as reckless as some of that fan art where she's being all punk rock with Chloe, it seemed more grounded and realistic.

But yeah overall I really enjoyed the game and even if it wasn't canon more Arcadia Bay is always welcome. <3

#justsometext #life is strange #love is strange

[pqrachel]

Our Life Baxter's DLC Thoughts (Step 3 & Step 4) <Spoilers>

So I played through Step 3 with Baxter's story. I did a few of the other Step 3 moments but mostly focused on doing all of the Baxter DLC moments. One thing I noticed about playing through Step 3 without Cove as my boyfriend was that whenever there was a typically sad moment for the player character, Liz and the rest of the family was there for me when Cove normally would have been. It was definitely a different story but I'm glad I got to see it even if I liked Cove's Step 3 better than Baxter's.

And I was going to play through Baxter's epilogue on the same night; but after the heartbreak of him leaving the way he did at the end of Step 3, and then seeing him right after in the opening scene of Step 4 wasn't something I wanted to do. So I took a few days before playing it to think. After all it had been 5 years for the characters I can take a little bit to think. And I think the biggest thing that hurt was the implication that the player character wouldn't have any romantic partner for those 5 years. Like you have to give up Cove to pursue Baxter and then after the summer he just leaves when the player character is most vulnerable once everyone is leaving and everything else is changing, and that's super sucky.

I'm about to play the epilogue and I just hope Baxter's grown up a bit in those 5 years and I have no clue where the story's gonna go but I think I'm now ready to give him a chance.

-

Wow! That was an amazing story! It took me about 4 hours to play through Baxter's epilogue and I'm so glad I did. The beginning was incredibly bittersweet. It was definitely hard seeing Baxter with things were left off, especially with him still ignoring his emotions like he did 5 years ago. And it wasn't easy to get him to open up over the course of the week that the story took place. Getting to spend time with everyone planning a wedding for Randy's brother and his husband was amazing. At first I was mourning the wedding Cove and I didn't get to have from my previous playthrough, but ultimately getting that excuse to see Baxter and show him that he could be loved and that he deserved to be loved was great. And seeing him slowly open up and return to the amazing confident man that I knew he could be was just so worthwhile. The scenes were great and he was truly an amazing character and I'm glad to be a part of his story.

Also I know it wasn't intentional but of course I saw a bunch of parallels with Baxter's epilogue and the original Life is Strange game, particularly with Chloe and Max's relationship. Having to go through life for years missing out on someone important and then being reunited by complete happenstance and rebecoming great friends and ultimately more. It just reminded me of Chloe's story a bunch. And it was so humbling to experience that from Chloe's POV, like yeah it was sucky that Max basically abandoned Chloe for those years, but I thought I'd forgive her so easily. But it was genuinely hard to accept Baxter back into my life after how things ended and I now super sympathize with how sucky Chloe was upon their initial meeting up. There's obviously still love there in both stories, but there's an obvious hurt too. But somehow over the course of the week, Baxter and I reassured each other that this relationship could work out and be an actual thing and not just a summer fling. We were together again and it was incredible. And I just enjoyed it a lot.

I'm obviously not gonna try ranking it compared to Cove's story, because there were pros and cons to both, but it was nice being courted by someone confident especially when he's so flawed as a person. (And yeah I know he's a fictional character... shut up.) And I didn't go to deep into the moments from Step 3, but that's because they weren't that deep themselves.

-

I'm probably gonna wait a while before playing Derek's epilogue to really give this one time to sit, because it meant a lot and was super poignant to me. And I don't want to rush straight into seeing that relationship pan out just yet.

And I know I'm bi and I normally prefer femmes and androgynous peeps, but it's so nice to have an outlet for liking men without the context of having to hide that I'm trans, like the friends to lovers route is what I prefer and this game excels at that in a way that real life hasn't been able to (for me).

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always #baxter ward #life is strange

[pqrachel]

Step 1&2 ...but Again

Since I killed my last playthrough I started over wanting to see the DLC.

I skipped through Step 1 not playing out any of the moments and for Step 2 I only played all of Derek's moments.

I made sure to keep Cove's interest level at disinterest, which definitely made a lot of the scenes in between scenes worse just being without him, but I wanted to experience the new stuff and didn't want to take any chances. There was still a few great moments with Cove since he's such a big part of the main character's life. (And I got the steam achievements for it as well.)

Derek's moments were so fun. I don't see myself being attracted to him when our characters get older but who knows. But he's so fun and I really enjoyed the DLC a lot. And OMG Nico was so f-ing cute, I loved the lil guy. I'm glad he warmed up to me.

I plan on keeping a lot of saves going into Step 3 this time. I'm gonna play only Baxter's scenes and hopefully by the end I can save scum myself into playing both Derek and Baxter's epilogues.

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always

[pqrachel]

Our Life Step 3

I guess I've been playing too many other visual novels where you can see everyone's story at once. Because in Step 3 I went to play one of the scenes where Cove finally admits his feelings, and he became my boyfriend. Turns out that by saying yes to dating Cove, the game locks you out of Baxter's epilogue completely. And I didn't save so fuck this playthrough. I'll come back eventually because Baxter was cool and I enjoyed the few scenes with him but I'm just disappointed. This game was so good at making me feel like myself: autistic, transfemme, non-binary, demi; but the second I go and try to be poly, apparently this game stops letting me be myself. :(

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always

[pqrachel]

Our Life Step 2

Played the second step and it was weird. On my first two playthroughs I was a lot shyer about feelings for Cove, but this time around I feel like I've changed a bit. I still tried to think about how middle school me would act kind of but I go to choices were a lot more flirty than my earlier playthroughs... and Cove just wasn't receptive to that. And like I know that about him, I've played through the game twice so I know that he's so hard to get to open up to, but it was weird feeling like feelings weren't mutual between us. (and yes I know he's a fictional character, shut up)

And it was so weird that I when the Soiree moment happened, I felt like I didn't really want to invite him. Partially because I knew he'd be uncomfortable both from just how I know him and directly from playing that moment twice with Cove, but also because know there was another option. I was able to invite Derek cuz of the new DLC. And even though I intended it to just be friendly it ended up being kind of romantic or whatever. (again I know he's a fictional character, shut up)

So on the last day of the summer, I'm left unsure of my feelings and how to handle them. Again partially because I know it's just a game and I want to see the new content, (I did miss out on the entirely new scenes with him since Cove <3) but also because what if how I want to play the game now isn't as compatible with Cove as it was in my first two playthroughs.

And at the character creation thing in between step 2 and 3 you can't lower affection levels, so I can't go from crushing on Cove in Step 2 to just fond of him in Step 3, so I guess I'll figure out my feelings towards Cove both personal and in-game as I'm playing through Step 3.

Or you know Baxter's hot, maybe he'll be more compatible and that's what this playthrough will go towards??? Guess we'll see.

EDIT: Apparetnly the bonus scenes were on the second page of the menu and there's a tiny next arrow to get to them and I completely missed it. I noticed it for Step 3 but didn't see it for Step 2. It's fine cuz I was more looking forward to Baxter's story anyways but I guess that's something to look forward to if I ever do a fourth playthrough. Ugh, why would they hide the scene on a separate page????

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always

[pqrachel]

Sunset Bird - Round 3

Finally doing a third playthrough of my favorite visual novel, Our Life: Beginnings & Always, to try out the new Derek and Baxter DLCs. I just finished Step 1 and there hasn't been any new content yet, but gosh dang if Cove ain't the cutest lil boy. I always get so nostalgic for my childhood playing Step 1. And no matter where in our story, Cove makes me feel feelings.

Defo cried for Cove during the Runaway moment. Oh Cove it'll be okay, I promise. <3

#justsometext #our life: beginnings & always #cove holden

[pqrachel]

And the award for Best 4th Wall Break goes to:

Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain!

I haven't even fully completed the game yet, but it's just so good. Like the premise that I'm not the player character but a voice in their head is implemented so well as a base, with great nods while breaking the 4th wall already. The finalé of the Overmistress' storyline is fun as well. But then the chapter of the story "Don't Copy that Floppy" is so fucking amazing if you've played through Arcade Spirits 1 & 2. I love it so much! Like I've had imerrsive games and visual novels where I feel like the PC, but making real-world me be a character in this fictional world is handled so greatly it's like surreal in a way. 10/10

And yeah I do wish the game as a whole had a little more persistent memory in what you've done in a way that affects the narrative system to give me the voice more influence and also ability to cut down on repetition, a system similar to Hades or more simply something like Undertale. So the game isn't perfect but there are moments in it that just feel so real.

#justsometext #penny larceny

[pqrachel]

Day 1 Stuff:

-Finish In Progress Ref. Sheets: I didn’t have any in-progress but I did find a few that weren’t on the site and added them the bio for Tic Tac being the most important one.

-Upload New Avatars / Images: I have been adding a few extras as I make them. I also finally made a new art piece for my OC Gabby. They’re one of my first OCs but I’ve been focused on other OCs so I’ve kind of unintentionally ignored them for a while.

Check it out here!

#justsometext #artfight