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Gaming Thoughts - January 2024 - Rogue Legacy

Well, technically I started playing this on Christmas Day and did a good amount at the end of December too, but oh well, I played it a lot this last month and thus it counts for the monthly doodle.

Either way, I did once try to play this game on steam a long while ago, struggle getting myself to play much in it though some of it could also just be somehow a strange disconnect with trying to play PC games as a whole even back then. Or it could just be because I still had other games on my mind as the time too.

I decided to pick it up lately because I needed something small and easy to pick up and play on the switch from time to time and just found myself back hooked into it as well. I've only gotten two of the bosses down though and still am slowly getting a little bit better from time to time. Though I find myself liking using the Paladin the most out of each of the classes likely because of how balanced it feels as well in regards to stats and also it does have quite good survivability as well in my experience compared to the other classes.

Still a fun game to mess around in if you need something that is good for bite-sized sessions like how things are for me right now with busy season.

Also, yes, Charon is just collecting those coins from me, he may as well be able to swim in them like Scrooge McDuck at the rate that I've been going. XD

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Gaming Thoughts - December 2023 - Xenoblade Chronicles X

Ok, yes, I DID say that some games may get the treatment of showing up more than once. And this one definitely will because I have STILL been playing it a lot.

Though I can say that I have made significant progress in it, having by now also taken down a few of the superbosses in the game (Dadaan , Pharsis, and also Lugelbanda as well) I'm still just the process of grinding against Pharsis for the Reflect: Gravity augument when I'm not trying to punch out online missions constantly when they are up and active. (I'm hoping that Yggralith Zero finally pops up before the servers get shuts down, but we will have to see what happens.)

Anyways, I felt like drawing what is one of my favourite areas in the game, which would happen to be Sylvalum. I have to admit despite that location having the SINGLE most annoying weather condition to deal with in the game, it is still such a gorgeous area otherwise. Honestly, I feel like more games need to take a cue into the world design of most of the series as it is because I find myself wanting to NOT fast travel most of the time just to take in the sights some more too.

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Gaming Thoughts - November 2023 - Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

I could have still done Xenoblade X again for this month because I've been playing that quite a bit too. But I decided to at least break it up a little bit with another game that I've been playing lately when I'm not at my Wii-U. Since there are a few postgame puzzles that is only accessable to get with online access to download them (they don't use the eshop so they are still obtainable right now) I decided to try to get them before the online as a whole is shut down.

But honestly. I wish I would have played this game sooner because I am loving it a lot, especially the characters. I always loved the Ace Attorney games moreso out of the two because of the characters and the writing and this is no exception for that as well. And being able to cross-examine multiple witnesses at the same time is an interesting gameplay addition that I would love to see in more games as well.

Though the Layton half of the game is also still just as fun as well, especially the puzzles to help break things up, but I haven't found any yet that were super hard or frustrating to have to use hint coins or look them up as opposed to some of the DS Layton Games.

Anyways, still, if you are a fan of either games this is still something I would highly recommend. Also...I will be honest...Zacharias Barnham has become one of my favourite characters in the game too. <3 (Though I have noticed that I have found myself commonly enjoying the prosecutor characters in any of the Ace Attorney games, and this is no exception to the matter either)

I have yet to finish the game, but I'm hitting the last chapter and god I am expecting there to be quite the reveal as well once I finish the chapter too because the overarching mystery is really developing in an interesting direction.

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Gaming Thoughts - October 2023 - Xenoblade Chronicles X

Ever since the announcement of the Wii-U's internet being discontinued, I had found myself going back to this game after so many years. Also, knowing me as a small disclaimer, you may be seeing this game a bit from me as well. XD

I had actually picked up XCX back at Launch and played it quite a bit, but because things got busy and also there was a point that I was stuck in the game, I had put it down for a period of time and said that I would come back to working on it later when things calmed down a bit. Well...now became that later so I may be a little scrambling to get things in it somewhat gone through. At least get some of the online-only content in there at the least before it is no longer accessible. (I know that Pretendo could be an option in the future, but I'm not 100% confident on if they will be able to get XCX up and running through their service since looking at their roadmap it isn't quite a priority yet and also I just have great skepticism on fan projects of this large of a scale ever getting finished as well, so it is more or less a 'I'll believe it when I see it deal')

Though coming back to this game now, I've been enjoying it a LOT more now that I'm finally able to understand certain mechanics. The game does jack-shit to explain how some mechanics with the battle system works (ESPECIALLY Overdrive most of all) and the digital manual is like a pain for me to even go through as well (and why I miss physical manuals in games, dammit) either way, after a bit of research and such I've been finding myself highly enjoying it more and more now at this point. It already was my favourite game as it was even with how difficult it was being before, but now only just cemented it even further.

Just as a note for anyone that may want to try to get into the game, DON'T ever approach it the same way you do with normal JRPGs, if you do and just try to go at it entirely for the main story and only hit the side missions here and there, you will find yourself disappointed since the main story itself doesn't present a lot of development for the other characters as it was with the exception of one. You get more of your development of the characters and even of the world itself through the affinity missions and the side missions most of all. Even most of the sidequests have a lot of their own little storyline to them as well too that helps expand more on the world and everything.

I actually wish this game will get at the very least a port to the modern consoles, though. Or even at least Nintendo's next console since because it was on the Wii-U it hardly got a lot of attention as it was and not a lot of people would have played it, but more of all, I would actually also would love to see there be a sequel as well considering there are so many things that are still unanswered as well that I would love to find some resolution to.

Anyways, when I played this game, I made my primary OC, Conrad, being my custom character as well. So I tried to draw him with at least the equipment that I have currently in-game. Out of the weapon types that there are, because of some of the prior things that I have done with him, I felt that out of the weapon options in the game, the Sniper Rifle was still the best one that did fit him as well and I'm still keeping that as being the main weapon that I'm basing my build around. (You have a LOT of options of how to make your build and a few different weapon options to use. You have to have one ranged and one melee weapon in your setup, but with how the game is designed, you really cannot balance your build between the two and it becomes more of one being your main damage dealer and the other being essentially there for support because of the arts that are available to it.)

Either way, odds are likely I'll be playing this game quite a bit either until I get a lot of things finished up finally or after the end of April, whichever comes first so if I end up needing to cover this game again because of this, I'll try to at least make it more on that month's summary as opposed to the game as a whole. XD

(All in all, I don't think I will ever see this being dethroned as one of my top favourite games anytime soon)

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Gaming Thoughts - September 2023 - Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

I've had this game on my backlog for a good while for the Switch version and decided to finally load it up. I've always been into Digimon for just as long of a time as I've been into Pokemon. But I always gone back and forth on which of the two I like more, but I do tend to prefer several of the Digimon designs more than pokemon designs at times personally as well.

Either way, being that the only other Digimon RPG that I've played before was Dusk. I have to admit that going into this felt very familiar in how some of the systems worked as well so I had no issues acclimating to the game at all. Though the Switch version does have one small 'flaw' to it that can be more seen as a feature instead of a bug if you're busy like I am. That being that the Digi-Farm still runs while the switch is in sleep mode apparently.

Obviously in doing that it does make the game a bit too easy if one was seeking a challenge since the Digi-Farm allows your 'mons to level up over time, but at this point in time for me, I didn't care at all. But the general way the turn-based battle system is done along with the digivolution and de-digivolution trees are set up for being able to get other digimon into your 'dex' I do find myself enjoying it a lot more than the recent pokemon games. (Seriously, just going up and down the trees to get certain skills feels a lot more rewarding compared to trying to breed and hope you get lucky to pass certain moves around.) And the scan feature more rewards encounters as well for being able to get mon's instead of just 'hope you're lucky'

Though just being able to turn off rando encounters or just force into one on the fly without a lot of menu surfing or taking up inventory/moveslot space is also a plus too.

But honestly, I feel like the story for this game and the characters is where it really shines. I've not finished the game so far, and only at Chapter 17 presently, but honestly a lot of the NPCs are just likable in the main story, esp Nokia during one of her major scenes. And honestly I have to admit that I really like Arata as a character as well.

Though god Kyoko is making me VERY suspicious of her now with her...crazy coffee.

Anyways, as for this piece, when I started the game, I had picked Hagarumon as being my starting Digimon in the game out of the options that I was given, and well, I knew immediately before starting the game that Machinedramon was one of the mon's that I aimed to get as part of my primary team. (Hence the one that is shown in the background) And thus it was only natural to draw them with the main protagonist of the game as well. (Currently the main ones that I've been using on my team besides Machinedramon are also Imperialdramon Dragon Mode, MetalSeadramon, and Omnimon Zwart)

And honestly, the protag is not quite a silent protag even though it seems like it at times. besides having dialogue options to give to the NPC while speaking, there are rare points that even the protag themselves have lines of dialogue too. Which does make them more like their own character.

Either way, very enjoyable game, moreso if you always enjoyed the franchise too. Though I have every intention of also starting up Hacker's Memory at some point in the future too after finishing this game as well.

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Gaming Thoughts - August 2023 - Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

I had actually started playing this game when my (delayed) special edition copy came in in July, but a majority of August was also me playing through this game as well and being able to finally finish it and OHHH BOY.

For my piece though, I was tempted to do something that could tap on being a bit spoilery but I decided against that and instead do something like this that could have been interpreted as anything.

Though as for the game itself, god...it is hard for me to talk about anything regarding the plot and story without spoiling something, but let's say there are some twists in it that hit HARD in some points. (One chapter in particular was rife with strong feels)

As for the rest of the game, first off I liked getting lost around exploring through Kanai Ward itself. Sure it just a small general map that you use just to get from story point A to Story point B and there isn't much to it really in regards of places and functionality, the entire place is just absolutely BEAUTIFUL looking through the game and found myself often times stopping to take in the sights a little bit.

The Mystery Labyrinths were where most of the 'game' elements are in. For a while I had once interpreted the initial Nintendo Direct trailer that they were going to be more of an RPG like thing, but they were far from that and were more like the different minigames elements in the Danganronpa games. (IDK why I didn't put that 1 to 1 at the time of the first reveal because I had known from it being from the same creators as DR as well. But oh well.) Either way, they were still enjoyable even for the multitude of quicktime events that there are in points too.

The one drawback that I can say about this game, though, is that it is very easy to find yourself several steps ahead of the game itself. But that is something that I find end up happening rather frequent for me in both DR and also Ace Attorney as well. But I think it kind of relies on you already having figured things of it out too as opposed to it just spelling it out over time.

Also a lot of the characters are likable as well, including the protags Yuma and Shinigami (Also BTW, Shinigami is there in the drawing, I just couldn't figure out where to place her so...you just cannot see her at the moment. XD) But I feel like one of the characters who became my favourite would have to be Vivia, though it is only further emphasized by the chapter that he was more prominent in as well. I wish I would love to get more in depth about that but it does hit spoiler territory.

Either way, if you enjoy the sort of mystery type games though, I would still consider this to be a high recommendation.

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Gaming Thoughts - July 2023 - Sonic Frontiers

(I'm looking at doing a sort of long-term project to hopefully slowly get my art back into the groove amidst some of my studying. Basically at the end of each month to do one really small doodle based one a game that I play during the month and also give my thoughts on the game as well. Some games may end up getting covered twice depending on how much I keep playing it or such too. But maybe it might serve as a way for me to get back into doing some fanart and keeping myself from getting too rusty)

Anyways, to kick this off, we're starting with a game that while I did end up starting it in June, I managed to finish it off in the first half of July. Which would happen to be Sonic Frontiers.

Nonetheless, I have been a bit of a Sonic fan ever since my first game being the old PC port of Sonic 3D Blast, but back then I really didn't play super long or seriously with games like I do now, thus in all technicality the first Sonic game that I had ever beaten was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the GCN. I think ever since then I ended up having a stronger bias towards some of the 3D sonic games as opposed to the 2D ones despite the huge variance in quality a lot of the games have had over time.

Anyways, the moment I started Frontiers, I swear I ended up getting drawn in VERY quickly. I honestly struggled really liking going back to any of the boost era games (Generations and Unleashed included, so go ahead and grab the pitchforks) and the fact that to me Sonic felt as smooth as I remember in Adventure and Heroes already helped me enjoy more of the game. And honestly i found it really easy to control for most of the game as well while exploring in the actual world.

The cyberspace zones were…well…despite the fact that some of the boost era games have just never fully clicked with me, I think those were not tooo bad. There is an obvious dissonance on how Sonic controlled in the open area and in the cyberspace levels though and thus he felt a lot more stiff in those. But…damm some of the level layouts did tickle my fancy so much (Even though I feel like they missed some potential with the music for some of them, but that is a different matter.)

Regardless, I don't think I've ever been THIS sucked into a Sonic game since Heroes though, and I definitely am looking forward to the final update with this game as well with the different playable characters. I've been itching for Tails to have been playable in a 3D sonic game since almost forever and I really hope it comes out well in the end. All in all, still ranks quite up there as being one of my fav Sonic games, though I don't think it has dethroned Heroes or SA2B quite yet. (also yes, in my playthrough of Frontiers, I absolutely HAD to use the SOAP shoes for Sonic as well)

Also, throwing this last part under the cut because final boss spoiler potential.

I played the game on hard mode and was able to get the final last true fight. I heard a lot of people complaining about it before because it was a complete genre shift from a majority of the game, but like..it did feel like the game was preparing you for it with some of the small minigames there were so it wasn't 100% left field. And well…having playing Ikargua as much as I had before, this final boss literately just felt like a stage of that so that might be why I had quite a lot of fun with it and didn't have a hard time with it either. Though speaking of which, for those who DID enjoy the final boss though or those similar minigames. This is 100% a shameless plug to go and give Ikargua a try as well. And Radiant Silvergun while you're at it too.

Also, Sage's development in the game was just dawww. I really loved her a lot and I hope she shows up in future games as well considering the last scene in the ending.

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Why has this blog been dead for a while? School..exams...more school..studying..yeah. Been kind of super busy so I haven’t been able to really do much for art (and my drive for a while hit rock bottom too).

I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot for a long while, but having a day of rest here had helped me at least for once do something. 

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Getting myself back into a small groove with a quick 30-minute doodle here.

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Supposed to be a warm up sketch but I really like how it turned out.

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Been toooo long since I’ve last drawn him or any Sonic Characters for that matter. Also it allowed me to try and get back into drawing a little bit for the time being until I get slammed with homework once again.

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Still trying to figure out how I wanna finish going about this design, but so far a bit of a concept for Conrad’s DnD verse design. Mostly coming off of the campaign that I’m currently playing him in actually.

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Trying to kickstart myself back into some art here and there after dealing with a lot of schoolwork. And yet the one thing to boot me back into some stuff is Animal Crossing.

Though Freya happens to be one of my first New Leaf villagers. Still is in my file even now, and I don’t think I’ll ever let her move out.

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Inktober Day 10 - Pattern

Just revisiting a thing I did a long time ago for an art class in high school.

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Inktober Day 9 - Swing

I have to admit, felt nice being able to draw out Manax after not doodling him in a long time, though I still cannot settle on a consistan design.

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Inktober Day 8 - “Frail”

A what-if baised upon the vampire verse.

Human life is much more frail than that of a vampire.

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A bit of a screencap drawing exercise. The top is my version, the bottom is the original screenshot. I might maybe try to keep with this this time to help me try different things and get used to other stuff in clip studio paint.

But I was mostly doing this to experiment with working with solely black and white as my only colours, using blending and such just to get the shades inbetween. I skipped out on a lot of detal, but honestly this is planned mostly for exercises and thus I have no intention of making things 100% true to the source screenshot.