<–The State of the Gamer: 1/22/19            The State of the Gamer: 2/26/19–>

A weekly post updated every other Tuesday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

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What I Bought

• Piczle Colors – $12.00 @ Nintendo eShop: Will discuss below.

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What I’m Playing

Title: Piczle Colors
Series Title: Piczle
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: January 31, 2019

I am obsessed with this game.  The only reason I’m not playing it right now is because I’m doing this, and my Switch is dead with the charger in the other room.  I do agree with some of the critiques presented by Mr. Panda in his video review.  Some of the colors are way too close in hue, and while I understand they did it to add depth to the harder finished pictures, it can cause some unnecessary errors and confusion.  Other than that, the game is ridiculously addictive.  I’ll tell myself, “One more puzzle,” complete it, and start the next one.  I’m going to be sad when I finish, but apparently there’s a randomizer you can use to still get some enjoyment out of the game once you’ve finished all of them.  I also may be the first person to review it on Grouvee since there’s not even a rating there yet o.O

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What I Played

• The Adventures of Lolo – I’m kind of stuck on this one board, but since I’ve been obsessed with Piczle Colors I haven’t really gone back to it.

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What I Demoed

• Earthlock – At first I was definitely going to pick this up after seeing Drakulus put it into his Top 10 Switch games, but now that I’ve played the demo a bit (and it’s one of those extensive demos), I’m not sure how I feel about the battle system.  Either I’m really bad at it, or I’m missing something.  The difficulty really ramped up when I got to the swamp, so maybe I need to do some leveling prior to tackling that bit?  If any of you have played it, let me know what you think.  I’m more on the fence now.

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What I Watched

Title: King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
Series Title: King’s Quest
Let’s Player: Hungry Goriya

Date Started: January 14, 2019
Date Finished: February 12, 2019

I really hope HG does more of these games.  They’re so random and non-intuitive, and yet so much fun.  Now that the LP is complete, I’m going to re-watch the whole thing in its entirety.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Series Title: The Legend of Zelda
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: January 24, 2019
Date Finished: January 29, 2019

I’ve wanted to re-watch all of the Zelda games for a few years now, and once the timeline (official and unofficial) was bandied around I thought I’d like to watch them in chronological order based on that.  Accordingly, the first game on my radar should’ve been Skyward Sword, but I didn’t feel like starting there for some reason lol.  I probably will eventually; however, I remembered how much I loved The Minish Cap, and oh boy did I just eat through these episodes.   I have a fondness for the Capcom Zelda games.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest
Series Title: The Legend of Zelda
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: January 29, 2019
Date Finished: February 6, 2019

I’ve played and seen OoT before, but I don’t recall hearing about Master Quest.  It’s a bit different and harder than the original with more challenging dungeons, so if you’ve played the original game, you might like the MQ challenge.

There’s something really  interesting I noticed, and I don’t know if it’s unique to this version, but in the beginning of the game, right after you take control of Link, there’s a carving on a tree depicting a knight fighting a giant beast while something falls from the sky.  I wonder if this is foreshadowing Majora’s Mask.  This is also the game where the timeline splits into Adult, Child, and Failed.

Also I now own an ocarina.  I’m terrible at it, but as a wise dog once said:

I just don’t want to practice too loud and piss off my neighbors.  I can make my way through a scale, but I definitely need to practice my fingering.  It is very different from the piano (which is also something I need to get back into).

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What I’m Watching

Title: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Series Title: Golden Sun
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: 1/15/19

I’m starting to understand why this one isn’t as popular as the other two.  I’m finding it really hard to pay attention to it.  The story seems less cohesive than the prior ones.  It could be because there’s this big “secret” bad guy who wears a mask, but it’s not only obvious who he is, it’s obvious what playable character he’s connected to.  I only have a few videos left, though, so I’m going to work my way through it.  The dungeons/puzzle areas are always fun though.

Title: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Series Title: The Legend of Zelda
Let’s Player: Olizandri

Date Started: February 6, 2019

More Zelda!  I’m actually watching this one right now lol.  It’s my go-to throughout the day when I’m at work and I have mindless stuff to do.  There are over 70 videos, so if I don’t want to take too long to get through, I need to watch it quite a bit.

In terms of the timeline MM continues the Child one.  I debated how I was going to do it, but I think I’ll follow one timeline through then go to the next.  If Twilight Princess is on this one (and I believe it is) than the Child Timeline is my favorite.

There are a lot of theories about this game, one of which is of course “It’s all a dream!” because that’s always a popular one in any narrative.  It is interesting how Termina is never heard of again afterwards, and we do see Link fall from Epona and get knocked out (a darker version of this is Link is dead, which I don’t buy into).

This is one of my favorite Zeldas probably because the moon falling paradigm is similar to the meteor in FFVII, and both narratives have an ecological spin to them (though Final Fantasy VII’s is obviously more blatant).  Certain people in Clock Town treat the moon falling similar to how some people in our world treat climate change, in the former, the carpenters prepping for the festival.  They insist the moon isn’t going to fall even as it gets closer each and every day.  The soldiers on the other hand point out that most of the townsfolk have evacuated (by the third day) and they implore the mayor to let them do so as well, while he’s clearly just going with whomever is the most vocal aka he’s useless.

I might do some essay or at least meta about the series insofar as Link, Zelda, and Ganon are bound together in triple aspect, which is of course represented with the Triforce in the Zeldaverse, but also the moon in numerous symbolisms.  Even the fourth and darker face is implied with the “empty” triangle in the emblem, though whom that represents needs some more cognition on my part.  I’m also thinking of getting Triforces on my hands, because Zelda is my second favorite game franchise 🙂

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Lots of Let’s Plays.  I will pick up FFVI again one day soon.  I redid my schedule, but I’m still not entirely satisfied with it.  I’m more satisfied than I was, but I haven’t figured out how to fit gaming in there (besides Piczle Colors, which I just…play).  I have a three day weekend coming up, so I’ll try to wedge some time in then.

I was going to do a 2018 game wrap-up, but just like last year, I looked at what I was going to say and realized I could spend my time better lol.  I only finished one game and was just going to talk about my favorite LPs, which I kind of do anyway on here.  I love reading all of yours.  It’s how I add more to my backlog :p

What’s your favorite Zelda game?  I should start bringing back the questions just to get conversation going (not like it doesn’t).

Oh shit!  I almost forgot to mention this.  Yes, this post is “off” a week.  I decided to do all my status posts in the same week instead of doing two on and one off.  It was part of my re-scheduling thing, and it just makes sense.  I’ll do status updates this week (Week 1) and work on my reviews and stories more next week (Week 2).  It’s bonkers, but I’m trying!

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<–The State of the Gamer: 1/22/19            The State of the Gamer: 2/26/19–>