Quick rant on The Videogame Awards 2020

 Well, finishing up the audio portion of my current project took WAY longer than I expected and I only stopped this past Friday.  That means I haven't practiced ANY piano or guitar or worked through my videogame backlog much.  I finished playing through 3 small games yesterday, but I still have a ton more left and Steam Winter Sale begins tomorrow.  All in all, I'm glad I'm taking a break from work because I think it was starting to wear on me.  I need to straighten up my daily routine, figure out my priorities, and just relax and play some videogames the next few weeks before I jump back into doing more work again.  I still want to practice piano and guitar and see what I can achieve in a few weeks, but I'd like to put more focus on finishing games.

So The Videogame Awards 2020 streamed a week and a half ago and I haven't found the time to talk about it.  It was pretty good, or at least I thought so.  It seems the videogame community had some issues with The Last of Us part 2 winning so many awards when it was panned by the players so heavily at launch.  I mainly liked it because it showed a LOT of games I'm actually looking forward to playing next year.

One of my biggest complaints about games this year was that there didn't seem to be any good cooperative games to play with my friends.  So I was happy to see so many cooperative games get announced.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…

This is the other NieR original game that we didn't get in the West that's all remade to the standards of NieR: Automata.  I can't say I'm super excited, but I'll definitely be picking it up one day.

Century: Age of Ashes

I didn't care at first until I realized it was an Online Multiplayer game and not a Starfox clone.  While I don't play Competitive Online Multiplayer games anymore, I'm kind of interested to see what this game is like.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Sephiroth

I would have never expected Sephiroth, at all.  I was so flabbergasted that I just reacted with a "WHAAAAAAAT?!" upon hearing One-Winged Angel and had a stupid smile on my face the whole time watching the trailer.  So Sephiroth is out now on Smash and I played 2-3 hours with him.  He's a lot of fun!  This reveal trailer is the most shocking and surprising one since Joker from 2 years ago.

Perfect Dark

Wow, Perfect Dark still exists!  I never got to play any of the games, so I don't have a strong attachment to the series.  I hope it comes to Steam PC!

Back 4 Blood

The developers of Left 4 Dead are back with their own spin of the Left 4 Dead formula and I am super excited for it!

Hood: Outlaws & Legends

This is another co-op game that seems like a mix between Vermintide and Payday.  I'm very interested in this one.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

I've been burned by the past Warhammer 40,000 Third-Person Shooters, but this does look different so I'm willing to keep an eye on it and maybe try it out.

Dragon Age

While it didn't show much, at least we know the next Dragon Age is still be developed.

Endless Dungeon

A co-op, top-down shooter Rogue-lite.  I'm skeptical of this one, but I'm happy for more co-op games.

Crimson Desert

The creators of Black Desert Online made a Single-player game and it looks amazing!  I'm super excited for this one.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey

A friend and I are skeptical on this one, but we're keeping an eye out for it as a potential co-op game we can play together.

Outriders

Previously announced before, this is one of the games I'm most interested in playing next year.  There's this fear from the community that it'll be bland and underwhelming, but I'm really hoping for the best.  With Anthem getting so much flak, I couldn't convince my friends to pick it up with me.  But I'm hoping this Third-Person Shooter will be the one we can play together.  I'm just afraid my computer can't keep up with it.

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch

And Action-Platformer previously announced that I'm keeping an eye on.

Ghost 'n Goblins Resurrection

I'm very shocked with this announcement.  I thought Capcom had forgotten about this IP other than Arthur being in Marvel vs. Capcom games.  I'm interested, but not excited because I imagine it'll still be frustratingly difficult.

Capcom Arcade Stadium

Wow, a free software to play a bunch of Capcom arcade classics?  I'm happy with that!

Returnal

Previously announced, Returnal is an atmospheric Third-Person Shooter that really caught my interest when Sony was talking about what games were coming to the PS5.

Evil West

Okay, honestly I have no idea what this game is about or how it plays, but the theme has me interested.

Scarlet Nexus

I think I'm most interested in this game the most out of everything announced so far in terms of Single-player games.  I'm more than likely going to pick this up at launch.

Yakuza Remastered Collection & Yakuza 6

I'm currently getting through Yakuza 0 and I love it!  I've been hoping that Yakuza Remaster Collection & Yakuza 6 get brought over to Steam PC and it looks like that's going to happen!

Next Mass Effect

Then they ended the show with the teaser that a new Mass Effect is being developed.

Overall, the show left the biggest impression on me throughout the entire year of what to look forward to in gaming.  I guess it shouldn't have been too difficult to do with E3 and TGS being underwhelming, EVO getting shutdown, and myriad of events being canceled this year; however, The Videogame Award could have just as easily left a bad impression as the ending note of this year (although it still seemed to have done that with some people).

I'm hopeful and eager to see what holds in store for us in the future of videogames.  I only hope I have enough time to play through all of them next year.

Plans for December

November went by rather quickly and yet I'm still not done with my project yet.  Finishing the last 2 tracks was a bit of challenge and finding the motivation to mix & master each track has also been difficult.  I had a lot of plans and ideas I wanted to carry out in December as soon as I finished this current project, but it seems I'll still be finishing it up these next few weeks.  What I really want to do in December is drop everything I was planning on doing and focus on learning one piano piece and one song and guitar.  I've planned on doing this for several years now and never found the time to do it.  Being away from practicing piano and guitar for so long this year, I feel drawn towards this old goal and make it a reality.  I also want to spend time getting through more games before I inevitably get some more during the Winter Sales.  I already pick up a decent amount of games this past weekend for Steam Autumn Sale, but I think I can finish a decent amount of them the following weeks.

I do miss watching anime as I haven't watched any since the start of October, but I don't know if I'll have any time.  Genshin Impact, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Guardian Tales continue to take up a lot of time out of my day as I'm saving up resources to get new characters or level them up.  My biggest concern is with Genshin Impact as it takes up the most time in my daily runs.  I think I need to accept the fact that I may not get the characters I want and just play the game's story normally and enjoy it that way.  Maybe I can just change it up in December I try to fit in watching anime as part of my daily schedule.

I just feel so torn as I was supposed to finish up my portfolio and start applying for jobs this year, and I felt so ready to do so.  But this recent project really makes me believe it's worth delaying all that just a little so I can make it part of my portfolio as it'll look better than anything else I've done in a while.  At the same time, I just want to be a bit selfish and not think about "work", "jobs" and "applications" and really try to learn that one piano piece and that one guitar song just for my own self-satisfaction.

The year is almost over, and it's been a strange feeling of it being very long and very short at the same time.  It's hard to describe.  A lot of awful things have happened this year in the world, and yet there was a lot of growth, change, and things that made me happy this year.  I'll admit, there were times I felt depressed or lost this year and wasn't sure what I should do.  It's been a whole decade since I've graduated from university and I've still yet to find myself in the videogame industry.  All the tragedies, virus outbreak, wildfires, civil unrest, and economic struggle made me question if there was a better future waiting for us or if it was just going to get worse.  I can only hope that 2021 is a turning point where the world not only recovers, but becomes even better than it was before.

I think I'm doing okay as I am right now.  It would probably be a good idea to quickly finish up everything I need to apply for jobs and do it throughout December, but I can't seem to let go of the idea of trying to learn that one piece on piano and song on guitar.  I guess I just want to stop worrying about the future and enjoy the present for just a month.  In January, I hope to be busy and productive with all sorts of projects and job applications.  But once I finish this current project, I think I want to relax for a bit.

Stretching myself thin

This month has been extremely productive, but exhausting.  I finally got around to doing one last example track for my portfolio.  It took a week of research, experimentation and picking out the instruments I wanted to use before I actually started composing.  What I originally wanted to do was make a semi-longer track that transition between different ideas to kind of tell a short story.  The narrative and ideas came out to be a bit longer than I expected and the track I made inspired me to split it into six separate ones to tell a somewhat longer story.  I’m already working on the 5^th track out of the six, so I’ve been making good progress.  The problem is how I went about my days this past month.

I have stopped watching animé entirely this month because of how much time I’ve been putting into working, exercise, and gaming.  I’ve explained what I’ve been doing with work.  For exercise, I decided to pick up Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo switch and have been utilizing it the past 2 weeks.  Despite all the push-ups, squats, and resistance band exercises I’ve been doing, I still felt like I needed cardiovascular exercise really badly.  Ring Fit Adventure has been a great stand in for not walking outside or going to the gym (since air quality has been poor outside and gym is closed due to Covid-19).  I also wanted a cardio workout to improve my sleep since it’s been so difficult to fall asleep the past year.  I think it would have helped if it weren’t for the fact I kept staying up so late every night.

With gaming, Genshin Impact is out and I’ve been playing it everyday if not to just to do daily quests.  Along with that, I’ve been still doing daily runs for Guardian Tales and Phantasy Star Online 2.  Playing through these 3 games has been wearing me down and I haven’t been completing any games the past few months.  So initially, I was playing Genshin Impact at 2AM when it resets to do my dailies, but then I wouldn’t feel satisfied and end up playing something else right after up until 5-6AM before I head to bed.  It was becoming a really awful habit and so I’ve changed it where I do dailies during the day and play other games at night.  I still haven’t really fixed it since I still go to bed around 3-4AM, but it’s a little better.  Minecraft Steve and crew were released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and I played a bit of that.  Cagliostro released for Granblue Fantasy Versus and I ended up playing quite a bit more of the game again just to try to get better.  I spent quite a few hours in RPG mode farming for materials to make weapons, reviewed and practiced characters I was already learning and figuring out new ones.  I discussed with a friend I was playing with that I was a bit disappointed in myself for having over 100 hours in Granblue Fantasy Versus and was still playing at a basic level.  So I’ve been trying to learn and expand my knowledge, abilities and understanding of the game.  I also did a bit of that in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] since I wanted to learn a few new characters.  Besides that, playing games like Yakuza 0, Halo 1 in the Master Chief Collection, Tangledeep and Rivals of Aether with mods on has kept me up quite a few nights.

I really am trying to improve myself this month in every aspect: music composition/production, gaming with self-improvement and learning new things, and health with implementing cardio exercise and trying to sleep at more reasonable times.  It’s become a bit overwhelming, but only a bit.  While I don’t feel pressure or stress from it all, I do feel like my motivation is starting to wane in everything I do.  This is contradicted with the motivation to do more with all of them.  I already have plans on what to work on next after this current project, but I really have to focus on putting the portfolio together and start searching and applying for job.  There are a TON of games I want to play and get through, but a lot of time is taken from just doing dailies on the three main games I’ve been playing everyday (approximately 1-3 hours per day).  I want to work out harder and actually try to lose weight and get a toned body for once.  But when it comes time to do any of them,  I feel tired just thinking about it.

For November, I need to focus on really putting my portfolio together and get myself prepare for job applications.  Other than that, I should also focus on restructuring my daily life and finding a good balance between everything so I can be more efficient and enjoy what I’m doing more.  If thing go well, maybe I can enjoy a month of relaxation in December.

Stagnation

 It's almost the end of September and three months are left in the year.  As much as everyone wants this year to end so a new one can begin, a lot of what we're facing right now isn't going to go away.  COVID-19 is the biggest problem and threat that we're facing in the world right now.  Even if a vaccine is created, tested safe, and distributed throughout the world, there is the unfortunate chance that this virus could evolve and render the vaccine useless in the future.  I can only hope that life will be better for everyone in the near future rather than the far future.

I feel like I've really stagnated on all progression this past month.  With work, at the very least I finished the audio work I was doing with a friend on a game project.  But since then, I haven't really gotten anything done the past 2 weeks.  It doesn't help that I've been facing a LOT of computer problems the past week and possibly found the culprit.  My portable external hard drive that I use to store all my Steam games has been acting up where it's active 100% and stays pinned there.  Reading and writing data is slow and it might be the cause of the extremely slow game updates on Steam.  It's possible that it's also affecting the slow downs, choppiness and freezing in the games I play, recording, and the long wait time for the computer to shut down.  So I decided to buy a new Desktop external hard drive and have been focusing on transferring all the data to the new one the past few days.

Because I've been playing so much Phantasy Star Online 2 and Guardian Tales, I haven't been playing anything else, really.  I've only complete 2 games last month and 3 games in September, which goes to show how much I've slowed down on game completion and the limited variety of games I've been playing.  The problem with playing PSO2 and Guardian Tales is that I've been mainly doing dailies for them and never really progressing the story or playing the other content.  So even in the only two games I've been playing I have stagnated.  I've been trying to play games with friends a bit more the past two weeks and that has helped break through the monotony that I accidentally put myself into.

Right after I finished that anime rating post from last month, I decided to watch Ryuuou no Oshigoto!  I was expecting it to be cute and funny, but WOW I was left in awe by how dramatic, emotional and passionate the story would be.  The show is about a young 16 year old boy who became Ryuuou, the highest position in the competitive Shogi world where their thoughts and actions help shape the scene of Shogi as it moves forward.  He starts teaching young, grade school girls how to play Shogi with two 9 year old girls in particular who have talent in strategizing and planning far ahead their moves.  Shows like these often follow a similar formula in presenting its niche theme so that anyone can enjoy it.  It's very similar to competitive sport stories where the characters are passionate, love what they do, face insurmountable opposition, deal with defeat, and overcome their own doubts and inhibitions.  I know little to nothing about Shogi, but I felt that I would enjoy the show anyways as I've experienced something similar in reading and watching Hikaru no Go (which I never finished but really want to go back to).  Ryuuou no Oshigoto's story and characters moved me.  The intense emotions that flood over each scene is accentuated through its incredible background music (BGM) and is one of the best I've heard from all the shows I've watched this year.  I wasn't expecting to watch such a good show right after reviewing all the shows I've watched.  Right afterwards, I had remembered that High Score Girl finished its 2nd season.  I decided to re-watch all of the first season again, but this time in Japanese as I lead into the OVAs and the 2nd season.  WOW!  I knew I was going to like it, but I was expecting the story to get THAT much better in the 2nd season.  When I first heard about High Score Girl, I was honestly expecting it to be a slice-of-life comedy and not a romantic comedy.  But I'm very happy with that surprise.  The show was incredibly enjoyable and the best in catering towards its videogame loving audience.  The references really resonated with me as memories of the early 90s flooded my mind.  I loved the show and it quickly became one of my favorites.  I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I decided to read the manga.  I was surprised that the anime actually changed and added things into the anime that wasn't in the manga in the first half while it took things out in the 2nd half.  Overall, I actually liked the anime more.  I ended up playing a decent amount of older Street Fighter games because of all the Street Fighter they talked about in the story.  After that, I had started watching Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-San.  After watching two shows that were so passionate and story driven, it was quite a contrast when I was watching another slice-of-life comedy anime.  While Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-San didn't hook me, I did enjoy it for all the different types of ramen I learned about.  The comedic formula they had between the energetic Yuu with the stoic Koizumi just didn't work for me.  But I loved all the ramen they showed.  I haven't had ramen since March because of the lockdown.  So finishing three shows isn't too bad for a month, but I've definitely slowed down the past two weeks watching Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-San.  I just felt so lost in thought after finishing High Score Girl.

After I finish transferring these files to my new hard drive, I'm going to need to focus.  I want to do one more example track for my portfolio before I put everything together to start applying for jobs.  Genshin Impact released last night and I'm downloading it right now.  I'm hoping to play a lot of it, but that means having to balance it with PSO2 and Guardian Tales all while trying to complete more games.  I'm hoping to watch more anime, too.

Let's rate some Animé! 8-31-20

Another month passes by and soon Summer will come to an end.  It's been an exhausting month, mainly because I keep trying to fix my sleep schedule.  I'm not doing a very good job since I still sleep around 4-5AM and wake up around 12PM.  I figure one of the biggest factors for my insomnia is the fact I don't get enough cardio or do an exercise that would tire me out enough.  I'm still doing push-ups, squats, and planking everyday, but it's not enough.  I decided to purchase a set of resistance bands as an alternative to weights.  I've been contemplating getting a set of weights, but they're several hundred dollars.  The set of resistance bands was only $20.  I've only used them for a week, but I can see the potential in using them.

Aside from worrying about the COVID-19 virus, California was hit by a passing thunder storm that struck lightning up and down the state.  This has caused widespread fires like the ones we experienced back in 2016 (or was it 2017?).  Because of this, the air stinks of smoke and breathing it has caused some coughing for me since I seem to be sensitive to it.

I've been still working on my portfolio, but was also asked to work on some music and sound effects for a game a friend is working on.  I've spent the past 2 weeks working on it and it seems I'll be spending another 1-2 weeks working on another potential track for it.  I'm hoping I can finish putting my portfolio together, do the research for copyright, upload them and be ready to start looking and applying for jobs next month.

I've stagnated on my backlog this past month for videogames.  Aside from playing more Ghost of Tsushima (which I also haven't played much of this past month), I got swept up in doing events for Borderlands 3, 100% Orange Juice, and Phantasy Star Online 2.  I also picked up Ogre Tale at launch and picked up Gunfire Reborn to play with my friends, which happen to be the only 2 games I completed in August.  Besides that, I've also been playing a new mobile game called Guardian Tales.  While it's not like I'm disappointed with the time I've spent on these games, I also feel like I've been running on auto-pilot and playing them because I felt like I should rather than because I really wanted to.  It still boils down to "wanting to do too much, not enough time in the day to do them all."

I found myself watching a lot of animé this year and it's the most I've watched since college over a decade ago.  It's a nice feeling watching animé again.  I thought it'd be fun to kind of reflect on them and rate them as a change in pace from my usual posts this year.  So let's get to it!

Animé I've watched this year in 2020

Amagi Brilliant Park

Aho Girl

Bofuri

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai

Comic Girls

Demi-chan wa Kataritai

Eromanga Sensei

Gabriel Dropout

Little Witch Academia

Magical Sempai

Masamune-kun no Revenge

Net-juu no Susume

Outbreak Company

Sakura Wars

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou

Amagi Brilliant Park - Fantasy, Comedy

I knew about this show because of this one scene where the pink cat-like character says "Simply put, we need to go lewder."  It was a meme and I thought it was funny.  So when I saw this show recommended off from another show I had just finished, I decided to give it a shot.  It's about an amusement park at the verge of shutting down and requires it flourishing for the stakes are beyond just monetary gain.  It was fun, it was weird, but it's not a show I can easily recommend.

Aho Girl - Comedy, Slice-of-Life

This is one of those short-episode type shows, and so I ended up watching the whole thing in one sitting.  It's a simple premise of a really smart guy who doesn't know how to socialize always being chased down by a really dumb girl.  A lot of its humor is slap-stick comedy and it absurdity.  I really enjoyed the show and while it's not for everyone, I can easily recommend giving it a try if you're looking for comedy.

Bofuri: Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu / I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense - Fantasy, Action

It's one of those Light Novels that has those ridiculously long names, and so they often get shortened, nicknames like Bofuri.  I never heard of this show and was recommended by a friend who said I'd like it for its gaming setting and cute characters.  Kaede Honjou plays a VRMMORPG for the first time with a friend who's familiar with gaming.  The Kaede doesn't know much about games and figured maxing out her defense would prevent her from getting hurt.  But little does she know that she accidentally finds the most over-powered build and continually find ways to break the game by becoming even stronger than what the developers intended.  It's a cute show and I'd recommend it to those who enjoy and understand Online Role-playing games.

BokuBen: Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai / We Never Learn - Harem, Romantic Comedy, Slice-of-Life

I first heard about this show from a Under Night In-Birth meme since one of the characters look like Orie.  As I started watching more animé this year, this particular show's clips kept appearing in my recommended list on Youtube and I decided to watch it.  Nariyuki Yuiga is a young high school boy who's working towards getting a scholarship into a good college so that he can get a good job to bring his family out of poverty.  While he was considered, he was given the condition of helping 3 other female students get into their choice of school and study before given the scholarship.  The other 3 students happen to be geniuses at what they do, but oblivious when it comes to their choice of study.  I don't even remember the last time I watched a harem animé, but it was a little nostalgic (one of my favorite animé is Love Hina).  I loved the character development, seeing them grow, improve, and come to understand one another as they all struggle with their own personal goals and issues.  It was definitely one of the most enjoyable shows I watched this year.  I can't wait for the next season.

Comic Girls - Comedy, Slice-of-Life

Kaoruko Moeta aspires to be a manga author depicting the fun life of a high school girl.  After countless rejections, Kaoruko was recommended to stay at a dormitory with other young manga artists and learn more about writing a manga and about living a normal high school life.  It was cute and funny, but I know this type of Slice-of-Life comedy doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

Demi-chan wa Kataritai / Interviews with Monster Girls - Comedy, Supernatural, Slice-of-Life

I've been hearing about this show for a while, but didn't think much about it since I wasn't watching animé at the time.  It was one of the shows my friend recommended and so I watched it as soon as I could.  Demi-humans such as vampires and dullahans exist in the world and has since been accepted by society.  Biology teacher, Tetsuo Takahashi, wants to learn more about such beings is at a loss when his research begins and ends with what is common known or researched and dreamed about meeting the actual ones.  To his surprise he meets a vampire, dullahan, snow woman, and succubus at the school he teaches at.  As he interviews each of these demi-humans, he helps them understand more about themselves as he learns more about them.  It's wholesome and heart-warming despite a lot of humor involved.  This was also a show I loved and can easily recommend.

Eromanga Sensei - Romantic Comedy

I was expecting a lot of cute moments and character development between Masamune (main character) and Sagiri (Eromanga Sensei).  I was also expecting it to be light and cheery.  But the very first thing that happens is Masamune explaining how their parents re-married so that he and Sagiri became step-siblings and that their parents had passed away sometime after which left Masamune taking care of a room-ridden Sagiri who won't even look at him anymore.  It was a shocking and confusing show to me because it defied my expectations for it.  I really liked it, but felt the priorities were off the mark.  All the characters other than Eromanga Sensei were very interesting and got a lot of character development.  And while Sagiri is very cute and gets some cute moments, she is rather unbearable a majority of the show (though it's kind of hard to blame her given the circumstances).  I really like the character Elf Yamada.  She had SO much screen time, character development, and opportunities that make her that much more interesting.  Honestly, she feels like the main character.

Gabriel DropOut - Comedy, Supernatural, Slice-of-Life

Gabriel, a young angel who graduated at the top of her class, is sent down to Earth to help guide humans towards happiness and prosperity.  Unfortunately for her, she comes across an MMORPG and becomes addicted.  The show revolves around the life of two angels and two demons going to a human school together where most of the humor is driven by irony.  It was mildly entertaining, but it's not a show I want to watch again.

Little Witch Academia - Coming-of-Age, Magical Fantasy

This was actually the catalyst that got me to start watching animé again this year.  I started watching this show two years ago to gain an understanding of it before I bought and played the game Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time.  Having held off on it for so long, I decided to finish it and started watching it again.  Atsuko Kagari watches a magic show as a young girl and is inspired to become a witch herself so that she can spread magic and happiness to the world.  The plot is well conceived with a diverse and interesting cast of characters with personality and lovable traits.  The character development is well paced and engaging as the viewer watches Atsuko learn and grow while affecting all those around her.  The animation is impeccable with its dynamic expressions and techniques based on comedic situations or action scenes.  This was definitely the highest quality show I watched this year and one I could call a masterpiece.

Magical Sempai - Comedy

Senpai wants to save the magic club and tries to bring in new members by performing magic for them.  Another short episode animé, this was the only show I watched this year where I felt disappointed and didn't like.  Most of its jokes weren't funny and a lot of the humor were attempted to be covered by "fanservice", which really didn't cut it.  I watched it all the way through, so it wasn't awful, but it was rather forgettable and didn't leave much of an impression.

Masamune-kun no Revenge - Romantic Comedy

After being cruelly rejected by the beautiful Aki Adagaki as a child, Masamune Makabe decides to concoct a plan to make himself incredibly attractive and popular to make Aki fall desperately in love with him so that he can reject her spectacularly.  The overall writing for its plot is well paced and incredibly engaging.  I couldn't get enough!  I do think some of the character development and relationship building wasn't polished enough or get enough attention, but the way the story kept surprising me and got me hooked left such an impression that I couldn't stop thinking of this show.  It has so many memorable moments.  Sadly, it doesn't seem like it will get a second season.  Thankfully, the manga was finished and so I fervently read through the whole series and absolutely loved it.  It is a bit flawed in character development for the side characters and the ending felt rushed, but WOW I haven't felt like this watching an animé or reading a manga in a long time.  It has some aspects of a Shoujo romance and some aspects of a shonen harem.  It's a unique story that I haven't experienced before.  I felt quite emotionally invested in the characters.  I think I could only recommend this show to those who like romance and is willing to transition into reading the manga as the animé ends with you wanting more but can't deliver.

Net-juu no Susume / Recovery of an MMO Junkie - Romantic Comedy, Slice-of-Life

30 year old Moriko Morioka is a successful career woman who decides to leave the working world to fulfill her wish of leading a peaceful and enjoyable life of a NEET.  Having the MMORPG she used to play get shut-down, she decides to find and play a new MMORPG where she met new players and cultivated new relationships.  But some chance encounters in real-life starts crossing into her gaming life and can no longer be ignored.  Can she continue to lead the life of an Elite NEET?  Honestly, the show is slow and it's possible that it won't get another season as the manga has also been discontinued due to the author's health issues from allowing her to continue.  Despite that, I couldn't stop watching and I kept wanting to see that one moment (you'll know it if you ever start watching it).  I liked it, but it's sad to know that it's probably a story we won't get to see a conclusive resolution to.

Outbreak Company - Comedy, Fantasy

This was a surprising show that I ended up really liking.  My friend actually recommended me against watching it as he didn't find it that enjoyable and I found out after finishing the show that a lot of people didn't like the show, either.  Shinichi Kanou, a hardcore Otaku who loves every aspect of the culture, applies to a job looking for an expert in Otaku culture.  During an interview, he's drugged and wakes up in an unfamiliar world where dragons, elves and dwarfs exists.  Shinichi is to take on the job of introducing Otaku culture into this new and unfamiliar world of Medieval fantasy.  While I was expecting the whole "Otaku culture is great" shtick, I was not expecting the whole political aspect, class struggle, and racism to be involved.  It was a fun show and an easy watch.  I want to recommend it, but the fact that so many people didn't like makes me question my taste in animé.

Sakura Wars - Adventure, Mecha, Sci-Fi, Shounen

I've been interested in the Sakura Wars franchise for the longest time.  But the fact that most of the games never came to America and it was difficult to find the animé back in High School, I never found a way to really get into it.  The sixth and newest Sakura Wars games in the mainline series was brought to America this year and I pre-ordered and played it.  Sadly, the game was incredibly cliché, corny, and the total opposite of what I expected.  What got me interested in the series is that every game has incredible openings with the music composed by Kohei Tanaka.  The opening of each game showed thrilling action, touching camaraderie, emotional drama; they were so memorable and left such an impression it's hard not to be left in awe.  I started questioning "has the games and anime always been like this?  Or is this just the product far detached from the original?"  So I started looking up gameplay footages of the original and I realized a lot of scenes and moments in the newest game are homages to the original, and yet they don't quite have the same impact.  The biggest problem I have with the newest game is that everything felt contrived and artificial.

Despite all that, I went into watching the original animé with an open-mind and my god, my mind was blown.  For a game/animé that is heavily involved in romance, I found it odd that the characters weren't particularly attractive at glance and their default personality aren't amiable either.  But as each character is featured and interacts with the others, you slowly understand them and find aspects about them that view them favorably.  At a certain point, I found myself emotionally invested in all of the characters.  Their struggles, their goals, their fears, their pride and determination all felt so real, it just brought the whole world of Sakura Wars to life.  "This is what I was hoping for and more!" I thought when I finished the show.  It is, hands down, the best show I watched this year and well deserved for its reputation of being a masterpiece.  It made me appreciate the newest Sakura Wars a little more, but it still pales in comparison by a large margin to the original.

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou / How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno - Comedy

This is another one of those short episode anime that you can get through in one sitting.  Ueno is a brilliant girl who can make anything she thinks of, except making Tanaka aware of her feelings for him.  It's short, it's cute, but it's not good enough for me to recommend.

So for a quick run-down of all the shows I watched this year:

Masterpiece: I can definitely recommend watching

Little Witch Academia

Sakura Wars

Recommended: I liked it a lot and can recommend it to most people

Bofuri

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai

Demi-chan wa Kataritai

Enjoyable: I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if I could recommend it to just anyone

Amagi Brilliant Park

Aho Girl

Eromanga Sensei

Masamune-kun no Revenge

Outbreak Company

Fun: I might have liked it, but I don't think others will

Comic Girls

Net-juu no Susume

Not Recommended: It's not something I'd watch again

Gabriel Dropout

Magical Sempai

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou

Well, that was fun.  Maybe I'll do this again after watching some more shows this year.  I've accumulated quite a bit of new shows on my queue list to watch, so there's no shortage of what I can watch.

Working on portfolio again

I've been getting back into working on my portfolio again and I think I can finish sometime next month.  I've completed one track so far and I'm around halfway to finishing a 2nd one.  I think I'll have, at most, 1-2 more tracks I want to create before I start looking into things like copyright, distribution, and researching jobs to apply for.  It's been a busy month and, once again, it felt like it just blew by so quickly.

I spent a great deal of time playing through the DLCs of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet this month.  I expected them to be around 1-2 hours each (so about 5-8 hours max altogether), but I spent around 30 hours by the time I finished.  The levels of enemies were spiking so quickly in the DLC that I finally caved in and switched the difficulty from Normal to Easy.  It was nice playing the game again, but I needed to free up some hard drive space which was why I was trying to finish it up and uninstall the game.  Ghost of Tsushima released a week and half ago on PS4 and so far it's really fun.  I've wanted a Samurai simulator game for the longest time that had quality to it, a fun and authentic combat system, and a feel of a wandering samurai.  While I am enjoying the game a lot, I also need to free up more space on my PC as it was announced today that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be on Steam on August 5th (thank goodness).  I just hope it fixes all the launcher problems and allow me to play the game again after all the trouble Windows Store and Windows Update put me through last month.

I also kind of got back into watching anime again.  I've been trying to make time and fit in an episode or three each day.  I'm just a bit worried that it'll interfere with productivity and distract me.  I've been getting a lot of recommended anime clips on Youtube since I've been looking up clips of anime I've been watching recently, and I've been mainly been distracted by those as it keep recommending me a lot of shows I've never heard of that seems interesting.

I think August will be another busy month with a lot of work.  I'm still really lost and unclear about my future as it seems bleaker than previous years with the way the world is right now.  I'm looking forward to getting more audio work done, regardless.

Summer begins with a whimper

Another month has gone by, once again.  I've been saying that a lot this year, and it's odd because it should feel slow considering how awful the state of the world has become.  Aside from the COVID-19 virus still infecting the populace and the protests for Black Lives Matters, racism and homo/transphobia has been a common topic this month.  June is pride month which raises awareness and celebrates the challenges and rights those of homosexual orientation or of transgender faces.  With so many people bringing up racism and gay rights, those of opposite opinions have also been a lot more aggressive with how they feel.  With people anxious of being stuck indoors, they congregate the moment officials said it's okay to go outside as long as they continue to follow social distancing and are careful.  Of course, that's not how it went.  People went to large gatherings.  People didn't want to wear masks.  And now, that much more people are infected with the Corona virus and continue to spread it.  With the topic of racism and homophobia/transphobia being prevalent, the amount of hate and harassment has been just as high.  I haven't even mentioned a worldwide economy crumbling, or foreign tensions between China and India rising, or suicide rates going up because of unchecked mental health within the confinement of one's home, etc.  It just seems so scary and intolerable out in the world right now.

I tried to get back into working with a remix.


I wasn't completely satisfied with this remix.  But I make do with what I got and didn't want to dwell on this particular project for too long.

While I do try to keep up with current events and news since I'm disconnected from the outside world more than usual, I've tried to put more focus into my work and personal goals.  Working on the remix took most of the time out of this month, so I didn't get much done.  With Phantasy Star Online 2 finally out in North America, I tried to play as much as possible.  But since the game is exclusive to the Microsoft Store, parts of it is undoubtedly linked to Windows.  When Windows updated, it broke the game for me after 2.5 weeks of playing the game.  I haven't been able to play since then.  While I planned out for my next few projects, I knew the summer events were going to distract me and so slowed down on work to put some focus on games.  I tried to clear some more games from my Steam library so I can cycle in a new batch of games as well as buy some new ones.  So far, a lot of the game announcements throughout June have been rather disappointing and not particularly exciting.  New Game+ Expo was last week and the most exciting news was that Ys IX was confirmed to have a Western release, Trails of Cold Steel IV has a release date, and Inti Creates announced Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 for a release on July 10th.  Given the slow down in progress because of developers working from home and the fact that we're in the transition period into the next generation of consoles, I guess it's not as surprising to see a lack of games announced this year.  With Steam Summer Sales, I feel like a lot of games have stagnated on big discounts and haven't really moved in years.  Still, I bought a decent amount of games and having fun with them so far.  I'm planning to take this week to play through my new games and hopefully clear some more off my library of games before I start getting back into work.  I think I'm going to try to finish the last few example tracks I want to use for my portfolio, set things up and start looking for a job I can possibly work remotely from home.  It's not exactly what I had in mind for my entry into the Videogame Industry or as my first full time job in nearly a decade, but I feel like my skills are ready and it gives me a chance to get some experience without worry about moving, paying expenses and such right away.  I'm not sure what the environment for hiring is at the moment, but I imagine not a lot of people are seeking potential employees within our given environment.

I was going to try to do some more reading or watch anime, but I'm just constantly always working or clearing through games that I never feel like I have time.  I can understand people miss being around other people or wanting to participate in outdoor activities, but it's hard to imagine people getting bored at home considering the sheer amount of indoor activities available to us in our modern day lives.  For the month of July, I hope I can get a fair amount of work done as well as clearing more games.

A quick month

I can't believe we're already at the end of May.  I decided to spend May on doing the other things I didn't get to do in April: reading books, watching anime, and finishing some games.  There were so many things I wanted to talk about throughout the month, but I was always constantly doing something that I never felt like I had the time to reflect on them.

I managed to finally finish reading the first volume of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, yet I still have 3 more to go before I fully complete the story.  I got around to watching all of Little Witch Academia so I could finally start playing the game.  I loved the anime so much.  It was magical, moving, and such a joy to watch.  I've started on the game, but it feels very slow and tedious.  I also decided to watch all that I could of the Sakura Wars franchise since I was curious about what the original story was about.  As I played the newest Sakura Wars game, I couldn't help but wonder if the older games were as cheesy and contrived as the newest one.  I watched playthroughs of the original and compared them with the anime adaptation and thought the anime did an incredible job capturing most of the important parts of the game.  I absolutely adored the original anime as it far surpasses my expectations of what I wanted out of the franchise: exciting warfare combat, a sense of camaraderie, and those "moments" of romance, drama, and fighting spirit.  I also finished playing the newest Sakura Wars and was disappointed with the game since I felt it had all the right tools for a great game but didn't get it right during execution.  Still, I'm glad I got to play the game.  With that, I only finished two anime shows and I watched the two OVAs for Is the Order a Rabbit?.  In terms of games, I had finished Streets of Rage 4, Trials of Mana remake, Oninaki, The Evil Within 2, and Team Sonic Racing aside from a handful of smaller games.  I wanted to talk about a lot of these games, but I feel like I don't really have time to.

This month may have felt fast, but it wasn't all fine and dandy.  Seanna, our last silkie chicken, passed away on the night of May 19th.  Over that past weekend, my dad had already mentioned that she was dying and she wasn't looking too well.  Looking at her, I knew it to be true.  I was anxious and stressed that whole weekend knowing it was going to happen sometime soon.  We had already sat down for dinner and as soon as I was about to take a bite to eat, we saw Seanna flapping frantically.  We knew it was coming, but it was still hard.  I tried not to get attached to Seanna after losing Powderpuff two years ago, and although it didn't affect me nearly as much this time, it still hurt.  More than anything, I was worried about my dad.  He didn't eat solid food for a week and is still barely eating solid food now after a week and a half.  I stayed off of voice chat with my friends and tried to stay quiet throughout the week to give him some peace and quiet.

With the rest of the world, the lockdown has finally taken its toll.  People are protesting, some states are opening back up which has caused another surge of covid-19 cases in certain states, people are losing jobs, unemployment rates and suicide rates have gone up, businesses are closing down, tension between China and Hong Kong/China and USA continue to rise, and a recent case where a black man was killed during an arrest because the officer negligently (or perhaps purposely) applied so much pressure on the man's neck that he suffocated has caused such a stir in the country that every state has protesters yelling for justice.  Even worse, it seems that an officer of Minnesota (where the case happened) instigated a riot mentality by going into a Target, destroying things there and stealing merchandise so that others would do it too.  With so many people angry and not knowing what to do about it, they followed suit and took their anger out by doing the same.  Buildings have been burned, shops are being looted, and chaos spread.  Whether it was the instigator's attempt at diverting the media and public's attention away from the case or a way to get everyone riled up so that the police can justify any method of suppressing the riots, it just made a bad situation worse.

I'm just trying to enjoy life right now as best as I can in the situation we're in.  I think I might start working again on Monday with the beginning of June.  It's hard to believe we're already nearing June.  Despite so many events being canceled, the amount of online events taking its place is going to be very interesting for the next three months.  Instead of 3 days of E3, there will be announcements from various publishers all throughout the summer.  Instead of 3 days of EVO, there will be 5 weekends of competitions, exhibitions, and announcements.  I haven't gotten much work done this year, but I'd like to enjoy this year's Summer as well if I can.

Oh yeah, and Phantasy Star Online 2 finally released on PC for North America 2 days ago.  After 8 years of waiting, I'm finally playing the game!

Jam Packed Month

I'm going to keep this short.  This past month blasted by so quickly as opposed to March where it felt like a crawl for some reason.  I decided to take a break from audio work in April to focus on other things.  I organized computer files, cleaned my room, did some drawing, played some games, setup stepmania so I can get some cardio, and I just finished working on a remix I started yesterday.  Just with videogames, this week has been crazy.  Trials of Mana remake released last Friday, Zooey became available on Granblue Fantasy Versus on Monday, the newest Sakura Wars released on Tuesday (which I still haven't had the chance to play yet), and Streets of Rage 4 released today.  I don't know if I'm going to be getting back into audio work in May, but I'd like to relax a bit more and do other things some more first.....like reading.

Quarantine is still happening, more people are losing their minds, and things don't seem to be getting better.....

Audio work from end of March and the three things I uploaded today:

Trapped

Things have certainly escalated quickly.  The disease known as COVID-19 "Corona Virus" has uncontrollably spread throughout our country and each state has issued their own policy of self-quarantine to the public.  While it isn't a law, everyone is recommended to stay in their homes and only go out if they absolutely need to take care of business or buy necessities.  This has caused widespread panic and people have been hoarding all sorts of supplies: toilet paper, hand sanitizer, produce, water, etc.  While this helps stop the virus from spreading as rapidly, the number of cases still rises as there are still people going out into large gatherings, workers of various necessary businesses that still need to be in contact with lots of people, and the countless individuals working directly with patients and research to stop this disease.

This pandemic is suffocating the minds of the people all around the world.  Businesses are suffering, the market is dropping to the point of possible recession, racism and hate is thrown around in the streets, panic and anxiety afflicts those in isolation, and the future is uncertain for most of the world.  I think the biggest fear from this disease is "will it go away?"  Some viruses don't survive in the warm weather and we just entered Spring three days ago, but will this particular one be eradicated when it becomes hot enough?  If a cure is found, how readily available will it be for everyone?  If a vaccine cannot be created, will we have to deal with this virus every winter?  Will this virus continue to evolve and become more deadly?  It's these questions that has gotten everyone to ask "where do we go from here?"  We don't even know how long we're going to have to stay quarantined in our homes right now, because they said it's going to be two weeks.  But there is no way we can just have two weeks pass by and say "it's okay to come out again" because the increase in new cases in our country indicates that we still don't have the virus contained yet.  It's pretty scary and everyone feels trapped because it's not safe anywhere.  I've been reminiscing my trip to Japan from last year and remembered how exciting and fun it was there.  But not even Japan is safe from the Corona Virus right now.  It was finally announced today that the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics will be postponed, which makes sense and the right decision to take.  I'm already preparing for Summer Games Done Quick and EVO to be canceled for this summer.  It's going to be a depressing Summer and possibly depressing year.

My own daily life has changed very little.  The biggest change is I can't go out to eat every Thursday like I used to.  For me, I'm worried about my family and friends.  One is in Seattle where the first case in America was reported, one is pregnant and due soon, another has a difficult time staying put at home, etc.  While I did follow the news and tried to understand this virus better, it's gotten to the point where it's just an overwhelming amount of bad news.  I'm just trying to focus on my work, my games, and my health.  I uploaded my first remix of the year today:

The future is uncertain and I can only hope the world can return to normalcy.

Tired, but feeling okay

There were a lot of things I wanted to do these past two months, with resting and relaxing being the major one.  While these past two months were rather easy-going, I never really got to relax all that much and catch up on games since I've stagnated on completing games the past few months.  Starting back from Autumn, I went from working on multiple remixes, to doing a temporary job, to organizing my year's work, to creating new music for the RPG of my friend's friend, to finishing up the video compilation of the past 4 years of gaming to finally helping creating a website for a family friend to market her book.  It's not even high stress work, and yet I feel so wiped.  Not to mention I haven't been sleeping well the past few months because my mattress has become lumpy and sunk in (my new mattress arrived this morning) and I've been having exhausting dreams (sometime nightmares) every other night.  I can hardly imagine all my friends and family that are working a full-time job, in a relationship or already married while taking care of kids, and getting the minimal required amount of sleep each day.

I feel kind of numb whenever I think about my life at this exact moment, and I'm not sure what I want to do about it.  I haven't been feeling as motivated to work on anything new, possibly because I've been "working non-stop" for the past few months and just don't want to do anything.  What I really want to do is play videogames and catch up on my backlog.  I'm gonna try to do that the next few days and sort out the next few months.  So far, I plan on working on new remixes and compositions in March, read books in April, and then start figuring out what to put together for my new portfolio and look for open positions to apply jobs for in May.  Once June arrives, I know I'll be distracted again with Electronic Entertainment Expo, Steam Summer Sale, Summer Games Done Quick, and EVO just around the corner.  From July onward, I'm going to have to figure out later because I really don't know where I'm headed in my life or what I want anymore.  Right now, I just want to play videogames.

I do have to say, I started getting into a routine everyday of doing floor exercises to build up strength, trying to tighten that gut, and doing "some" cardio.  I haven't done cardio for months now and I can feel my body craving it.  But this routine I have going is pretty good.  I started around the time I was working that temporary job (around mid-December) because I knew I'd be sitting all day.  On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I would do push-ups every :00 and squats every :30 throughout the day.  On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, I would do planking every :00 and horse stance (think of squats, but staying in squatted position.  A common exercise for martial arts) every :30 throughout the day.  When I first started, I would do 10 push-ups and squats each set and finish with around 50-60 push-ups and squats each day.  I would do 30 seconds of planking and horse stance each set.  Now, I'm able to do 25 push-ups each set and 30 squats each set with around 150-180 push-ups and squats each day.  For planking, I do 90 seconds a set and 80 seconds for horse stance.  I do feel stronger and healthier doing these exercises, but I haven't gotten any lighter (I'm stuck at 155 lbs. I'm trying to get below 140 lbs.).  There are things I still need to do: eat less (carbs, mostly), drink more water (which I've been doing pretty well the past few years), sleep/wake earlier (which I've been doing REALLY bad at), and getting back into cardio.  Overall, I'm a lot more active on taking care of my health than before.

Throughout January, I played a lot of Monster Hunter: Iceborne.  It's all I really did, as far as I could remember when I wasn't working.  February, I spent playing a lot of misc. games here and there.  I finished Remnant with my friends and that game was a lot of fun.  Some of the major games I finished playing these past two months are: River City Girls, Insurgency Sandstorm, Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Remnant: From the Ashes, and Blaster Master Zero 2 (which I finished last night).  I often find myself with this weird anxiety of deciding what to play each time I sat down to play something.  I look through my long list of games and think "I want to play all of them, but I don't have time to play all of them".  This problem has persisted for many years now, and the best I've done is narrow my steam games to four games, or at least one game of each genre so I have something to play for each type of game, 1 game per console, or just playing a game I really felt like playing at that moment so I don't waste so much time sitting there and looking at my list of games (I've wasted literal hours doing this throughout the years).  This has kept me a bit more focused on finishing games and prioritizing them, but I also end up thinking about other games when I'm playing a priority game.  I imagine I'm not the only one that has this problem because most people that have a lot of games like I do will often not finish a game and move onto another game.  People that have very few games generally don't have this problem because they'll either play the game that they have at hand or do something else during their free time.  I just want to finish up some games right now so I can bring in a new batch of games to prioritize.  It doesn't help that I like RPGs so much, because they take so dang long to finish.  I finished The Alliance Alive on 3DS last week, and I've had that cartridge in my 3DS for nearly 2 years!

Overall, I think I'm doing okay.  The world; however, doesn't seem to be doing very well starting off this year and decade.  International tension escalated after an assassination took place in Iraq.  An illness spreading around China, Asia, and now the rest of the world caused by what's known as the Corona Virus has killed over 2000 people and infected more than 75,000 people.  Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and quite a few other people died in a helicopter crash (I'm not a huge basketball fan, but this news was devastating and hard for me to hear).  And now, our country is getting close to voting for our next president for the next 4 years and a lot of people are nervous about ALL potential candidates.

As worried as I am about all these world news, I'm just tired and want to play some videogames.  I think I'll do just that.

Videogames of 2019 and the decade

Another year has quickly gone by, and frighteningly enough, so has a decade.  2019 was really special for me because I finally got to go to Japan, I feel like I've become a little closer to those around me, I've been feeling very inspired and created some truly unique remixes and audio work this year, I finally took on my first real job since the beginning of the decade, and I played some really fun games this year.  So let's get down to it!

My Top 10 Games released in 2019 I finished:

10) Police Stories [PC] - I bought this game for myself and a friend so I could play 2-player co-op online with them.  Police Stories is a narrative-driven, top-down tactical-action game where two police officers take on an ever growing case that seems to get worse the more they learn about it.  Instead of straight-up shooting everyone on sight, you have to follow the procedures of a police officer and have any suspects or civilian surrender to make an arrest.  Shooting at an unarmed suspect lowers your overall score.  I really enjoyed the game as it's the closest any game I've ever played has come to having the same formula as SWAT 4.

9) Risk of Rain 2 [PC] - Technically, this game isn't even officially released yet as it's still in Early Access and is far from complete.  Despite that, the amount of potential can be seen and felt even at such an early stage of development.  I loved Risk of Rain and was intrigued by the idea of turning the entire game from a 2D format to a fully realized 3D format.  It works, and it works well.

8 ) Spin Rhythm XD [PC] - It's been a very long time since any music rhythm game has had any innovation or meaningful change to the formula unless you go to the arcades with the special controllers.  So it was a huge surprise to see a game called "Spin Rhythm XD" release with a whole new way to play music rhythm games that was somewhat familiar, but altogether a new experience.  I was skeptical at first glance, but was immediately interested when I found out I could use my DJ board to play the game as it was designed around that controller.  It's the kind of Music Rhythm arcade experience I've been looking for that I could play at home.

7) PuyoPuyo Champions [PC] - I was pretty excited when I heard they were going to localize this game, and they sold it at $10!  The game is fairly barebones with no arcade/story mode.  You can play against the computer in a single match, survival mode, online with friends or against others around the world, or take on some challenges.  Despite taking PuyoPuyo a bit more seriously in 2018 after the release of PuyoPuyo Tetris, it was in PuyoPuyo Champions that I really took the time and tried to learn how to chain better, how to make cleaner setups, and finding alternative strategies.  I was recently able to create a 10-chain, but it took quite a bit of time to actually build it.  There's still so much for me to learn from this game, and I think that's what makes it so fun.

6) Katana Zero [PC] - Year after year, I saw this game advertised during Awesome/Summer Games Done Quick, and yet it never seemed to have a release date.  It finally released and I caved in and bought it when it had a small discount and really enjoyed it.  I feel like it's best described as Hotline Miami played as a 2D platformer style.  The game is fairly short, but has a lot of style, personality, and satisfying gameplay.  There's apparently more to the game that the developer wants to add, but gave no estimated date on when they'll release it.

5) Daemon x Machina [NS] - It's been a very long time since I've played any mech games, and I've been itching for them the past 2 years.  I was a bit concerned when I played the beta demo for this game, but still took a risk and pre-ordered the game anyways.  While the game isn't mind-blowing and amazing, it still scratched that itch for mech games I wanted.  Mech games are pretty niche nowadays, so it was nice to play one with such a high quality.

4) Dragon: Marked for Death [NS] - This game was so much fun, but it's very difficult, long and grindy.  It has quite the nostalgic presentation that reminds me of games from the Sega Saturn era of games.  With 4 playable characters, each with different variations, there was plenty of replay value.  I really want to play more of this game, but my backlog calls to me and has pulled me away from playing beyond the main story line for one character I finished.

3) Devil May Cry 5 [PS4] - I'm a little conflicted on this one.  I don't really like some of the character redesigns (with Nero in particular), I don't like some of the story elements, I don't think there's enough dynamic variation in environment or that it stands out as much, but I loooove the gameplay.  This iteration of Devil May Cry has you playing 3 different characters, and you switch between them so often throughout the game that it never quite feels repetitive or boring.  There are so many crazy things you can do and combo into that I can see the appeal of playing through it more than just one or two times.

2) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [PC] - I was very worried about the launch of this game.  With how poor Mighty No. 9 turned out (even though I really enjoyed that game), and the way the game was looking from the teasers and trailers they've put out for the game, I couldn't help but feel like it might not live up to expectations.  So I will say that art direction/graphics could've been better, music isn't as incredible as I had hoped, and boss fights could've been way more creative and interesting as demonstrated in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon; however, I had a ton of fun playing the game.  I played through all the difficulties, 100% everything, got all achievements, and even then I still have an itch to go back to it and play it.  Despite some flaws, the game is as addicting and fun as previous Castlevania games.  There are still 3 characters, an extra mode and a few other bonus content that haven't been implemented into the game yet, so I can see myself revisiting the game more than once in the future.

1) Code Vein [PC] - Oh man, I wouldn't have thought I'd put this game as my number one game for 2019 as the game has a decent amount of mediocrity to it (that, and also there are a ton of games I played that I loved that I didn't finish and so they didn't make it onto this list).  I wanted an anime Dark Souls with a unique experience to it, and it somehow delivered exactly that.  What I wasn't expecting was how emotionally invested I was going to be with the characters and story of the game (most Dark Souls games have ambiguous stories).  Individual character stories of sacrifice, despair, and acts of kindness along with the music all tugged at my heartstrings.  Honestly, the characters and stories are rather cliché and sometimes ruins the mood, and yet I didn't seem to mind.  The gameplay had a lot of layers to it that allowed the player to have an easier time or really take on a challenge.  I still want to play more of the game, and it still hasn't released the content for the season pass yet, so I think I might still be playing it in the future.

Honorable mentions:

-Senran Kagura Peach Ball [NS] - It was entertaining, and it made me miss pinball.

-It Lurks Below [PC] - Developed solely by the creator of Diablo 1, 2, and Hellgate: London, It Lurks Below is the Terraria RPG I've been looking for all these years.  It has a lot of the same addictive elements as Diablo games with the addictive nature of Terraria with building, farming, and exploring.  It's a game that easily eats up hours, and I want to play more.  But my backlog has pulled me away from it ever since I've finished one playthrough of the game.

-Million Arthur: Arcana Blood [PC] - I wasn't sure if they were going to localize it, but I'm glad they did.  It's obvious it didn't sell well and doesn't have a large following, but I found the game to be beautiful and has a satisfying gameplay experience.

-Halo: Reach [PC] - Omg, I finally got to play Halo: Reach after so many years.  I'm sooooo happy Halo: Master Chief Collection has released on Steam PC for just $40.  Every few months I'm going to have a new Halo game to play this year, and that just fills me with joy (I haven't played Halo since 2010, btw).


Top 10 Finished games not released in 2019:

10) Splatoon 2 [NS] - So I finished the main campaign and had bought the extra campaign.  The main campaign did feel a little better than the first game, but it also didn't feel particularly special.  I'm not done with that extra campaign, but it definitely feels more challenging.

9) Touhou Luna Nights [PC] - With an obvious influence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I couldn't help but get this game.  The retro-style graphics and effects felt nostalgic, and had mechanics different enough to stand out on its own.  There was extra content added after I completed the main story, but I haven't checked it out yet.  I was very impressed with this game's quality, gameplay, and the short amount of time it was in development.

8) Groove Coaster [PC] - When it first released on Steam, I lost interest in it when I saw just how expensive the game would be with all the DLCs.  But while I was in Japan, I enjoyed playing all the music rhythm games at the arcades with Groove Coaster being one of them.  Wanting to bring a bit of that arcade experience back home, I decided I would pick up Groove Coaster on Steam whenever it went on sale.  One week after I got back from Japan, it was on sale.  Yeah, the game is a lot of fun on PC, especially over the iPad version.  But it's still not the same as playing it at the arcade with those booster controllers.  Also, the game is still extremely expensive with all the DLCs.  Definitely worth it if you play a LOT.

7) God Eater 2: Rage Burst [PC] - I really didn't like the story to this sequel, but I loved the gameplay.  There is so much more to combat with all the Blood Arts you could obtain and utilize.  I also didn't like the flow of this game as it would abruptly have a difficulty spike that required farming for more materials to get stronger before you can progress.

6) Full Metal Furies [PC] - Asking my friends on a whim on whether they'd like to play this game together, I was quite surprised by how good of a co-op experience this game had.

5) SoulCalibur VI [PC] - Honestly, this is quite possibly the best SoulCalibur I've played since SoulCalibur 2.  I spent over 60 hours creating characters, there are tons of single-player content, and the little changes here and there with the familiar formula really revitalized the series for me.

4) Rise of the Tomb Raider [PC] - I remember liking the reboot a little more in terms of presentation, story, and progression.  But Rise of the Tomb Raider really deserves all the praises it was getting for delivering such a high quality action-adventure experience.  Combat is so satisfying, dynamic, and flexible.  I think my main complaint for this particular game was some parts felt slow or dragged out.  These new Tomb Raider games have made me a fan.

3) River City Ransom Underground [PC] - This actually took me a while to get around to finishing.  I do like the game a lot and it has a lot of the same elements of addictive gameplay and expressive humor, but I really hated how vague objectives were and how difficult it was to navigate around the city.  There are a lot of characters with different playstyle and abilities, so I think I might play more of it in the future.

2) Chaos Legion [PC] - Because Astral Chain reminded me of Chaos Legion, I had decided to reinstall Chaos Legion once again and really gave it my all to finish the game for once.  It was a bit of a grind to get up to level to finally complete the game, but man I still love this game so much even after all these years with its obvious dated graphics and clunky controls.  One of my favorite games of all time with one of the most influential soundtracks in gaming.

1) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [PS1] - Even older than Chaos Legion, I finally got around to playing and finishing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  With no surprise, I absolutely loved the game and knew it'd be one of my favorite games.  I was actually surprised by how difficult the game was compared to later Castlevania games that came out after it and was surprised by all the special moves that weapons actually had.  An absolute classic.

Honorable mentions list: Dead Space, Celeste, Fighting EX Layer, Salt and Sanctuary, Bloody Trapland 2, D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, Crawl, Death Road to Canada, Tetris Effect



Games I loved but didn't finish released in 2019:

-Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal [PS4] - The story is still the same as the original, but utilizes the mechanics and concept of the Versus titles.  Because this game felt more like revisiting an old title than exploring a new one, it became less of a priority to finish.  I do want to complete it though.

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses [NS] - Omg, this game is so great!  The graphics, the music, the characters; it has it all!  The problem is that there is a LOT of walking and talking which makes this a very long game.  I already have a lot of hours into it, but I'm nowhere near done...

-Astral Chain [NS] - I immediately fell in love with the game the first time they showed it off, and I knew I was going to pre-order it when I learned it was from Platinum Games.  The presentation is spectacular, and the gameplay is fluid and exciting; however, this game also has a LOT of walking and talking.

-God Eater 3 [PC] - I've barely started the game since I got it two weeks ago.  This is the first God Eater to be made on consoles without the limitations of handheld.  It looks really nice, the characters are already more likable than the second game, and the new mechanics is a nice change.

-Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice [PC] - This game is so cool!  Fast, strategic, open-ended, and god dang challenging.  I have 10 hours into it so far, but I feel like there's still quite a bit of ways to go before I finish it.

-Darksiders Genesis [PC] - I was trying to finish Darksiders 2 and 3 before this released, but I couldn't even finish 2.  The story is disjointed enough where it won't affect my experience, so I've already started on it.  I really wanted to play through it alongside my friend, but he went and finished it already.....

-River City Girls [PC] - Wow, this game is way better than I thought it'd be (and my expectations were already kind of high for it).  I love the presentation and the game is familiar enough to be considered a River City Ransom game, but it's also unique enough to stand on its own.

-Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX [PC] - I was originally going to buy this on Nintendo Switch, but when I saw Blaster Master Zero 2 also releasing on PC, I ended up buying that and this game at the same time.  I haven't touched Blaster Master Zero 2 yet, but Luminous Avenger iX is great so far.

-Kingdom Under Fire II [PC] - Please, give me the time to actually play this game!  It's been so long since I've played an MMO, and I've waited for this game to be localized for 7-8 years already.  I'm a bit iffy on gameplay in the beginning so far, but presentation is still impressive to me considering how old it is already.  I really want to find the time to sit down and play more of this.

-Muse Dash [PC] - A friend picked this up for me for Christmas and I was full of doubt and skepticism for this game.  My friend tried to convince me that the game would be one I liked by describing it as "super cute" and "having quite a few Drum 'n Bass songs".  I was still skeptical and was going to wait for a sale, but he picked it up for me anyways (and I'm glad he did).  The game's graphics is clean, cute, and vibrant.  The song choices is so much better than I anticipated and experienced from other Chinese developed music rhythm games.

-Neoverse [PC] - I got into Deck-Building RPGs very recently and this was my very first one to explore this new genre.  The graphics are nice and seem so much higher quality than the sketchy 2D graphics of other games like it.  I haven't played that much of it yet, but I can see the appeal.  I can also see a lot of hours gone from playing games like these.

-Remnant: From the Ashes [PC] - Oh wow, this game is addicting!  I was expecting 3-player Left 4 Dead 2 co-op with Vermintide-like progression.  But it's actually Dark Souls with guns in a deep and meaningful way.  Out of all the games I bought the past 2 months, I've put the most hours into this one so far.


Games I haven't bought/played yet released in 2019 (that I'm interested in):
-Blaster Master Zero 2
-Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
-Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
-Resident Evil 2 Remake
-Kingdom Hearts 3
-Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
-Far Cry New Dawn
-Jump Force
-Metro Exodus
-Death end re;Quest
-Anthem
-Left Alive
-Dead or Alive 6
-Total War: Three Kingdoms
-The Caligula Effect: Overdose
-Tom Clancy's The Division 2
-Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of The New World
-Yoshi's Crafted World
-The Princess Guide
-Zanki Zero: Last Beginning
-Our World is Ended
-Mortal Kombat 11
-Days Gone
-Rage 2
-Team Sonic Racing
-Dragon Star Varnir
-Super Mario Maker 2
-Shenmue 3
-Oninaki
-Control
-Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
-Death Stranding
-The Outer Worlds
-Pokémon Sword and Shield
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Reboot)
-Luigi's Mansion 3
-Untitled Goose Game
-Borderlands 3
-Cadence of Hyrule
-The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake
-Sayonara Wild Hearts
-Samurai Shodown


My Top 10 Games of this decade:

10) League of Legends / DotA 2 [PC] - So I'm cheating a little on this one by putting LoL and DotA 2 together.  League of Legends means a lot to me in many ways.  I came from playing DotA with friends and friends of friends to playing this new standalone game that has all the best parts of DotA without the limitations of the Warcraft 3 engine.  It was new, exciting, and a ton of fun to play.  It kept me connected with a friend that went to train in the army.  Later, it helped connect a bunch of mutual friends together and I ended up making a lot of close friends because of it.  I thought I'd be playing it for a long time, but it changed to a point where I no longer wanted to play it anymore.  People were toxic, meta made the game more predictable and repetitive, and at one point I was playing it every single night for an entire year.  I got sick of the harassment of pub players, the monotony of the game, and eventually stepped away with the desire to play other games.  DotA 2 is a game that I didn't play much of online, but playing against computers and playing the other modes were so much fun that it's a game that I continued to play up till now.  So while LoL has a special place in my heart, it's DotA 2 that I'd be willing to play nowadays over LoL.

9) Guild Wars 2 [PC] - Hands down, one of the greatest MMORPGs I've ever played.  They designed it in a way where you can hop on any time and have fun with it as opposed to most MMOs where you have to grind to max level before you start to have fun.  My backlog prevents me from playing this game much, but every once in a while I'll still hop back on to play for an hour or two.

8) Diablo 3 [PC] - Diablo 3 had a rough launch.  Constant disconnections, shady auction house deals, unbalanced endgame, and a myriad of other problems.  Before I got a new computer, there were times where I couldn't even see enemies on the screen.  Despite all that, Diablo 3 was one of the most memorable and fun games I've played this decade.  It's satisfying, addictive, and full of possibilities.  It was designed to be a lot more casual than other games like it which was great for people who play more sporadically (like me).

7) Demon's Souls/Dark Souls [PS3] - Demon's Souls was one of the first few games I bought right out of graduating college and I was very excited to play it.  I still remember being disappointed when I first started it up because combat was a slow and methodical rather than fast-paced and exciting, there was no music playing throughout the stage, and enemy placement was fixed.  But as I got further into the game, I started seeing "possibilities".  "What if I did this?  What if I build into that?" It was all very new and exciting.  But I was a bit sad that all of the areas were separate from one another rather than having a large open-world experience.  Then Dark Souls was announced and fully realized the potential I had for Demon's Souls.  These two games are definitely classics.

6) Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- / BlazBlue Centralfiction [PC] - What a great ending to the story arcs of each game.  I got into Guilty Gear kind of late around college when Guilty Gear XX had released.  I was brought into the series from listening to the music and really liking it.  So when I learned that Arc System Works no longer had the rights to Guilty Gear by that time, I was sad that I would never find the answers to the story like "Who is 'that man'?"  I was pretty excited for BlazBlue and immediately wanted to support it, but I wasn't expecting such an intricate and expansive story from a fighting game.  I already loved the music, characters, art style, and gameplay of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, but it was their story telling that really pushed it to greatness.  With Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- and BlazBlue Centralfiction in particular, both games were great for very similar reasons with tons of content, balanced and dynamic roster of characters, and one heck of an ending for their current story arcs.  The biggest complaint that most people would have on both games is nothing have rollback netcode.

5) PuyoPuyo Tetris [PC] - Upon hearing about the creation of PuyoPuyo Tetris, my first reaction is "how does that work?"  I love both games a lot, but wasn't sure what the game really had to offer.  When it was announced that a PC version was going to release, I asked some friends about picking it up to play together.  Surprisingly, they all did and 4-players was not the best experience for online play.  Still, this game brought me into a whole new world of playing Tetris and PuyoPuyo as I took the games a bit more seriously and really tried to learn how to play better at them.  My interest in getting better at fighting games contributed to it, and I felt like it has helped me a bit in growing as a person and not just as a gamer.  To take something I knew before and show me how little I actually knew about the game was a bit intimidating and somehow exciting when I realized there's so much more to these games that I thought.  I imagine PuyoPuyo and Tetris being games I'll play my whole life.

4) Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] [PC] - I'm really tempted to put down Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code as Melty Blood was the game that got me back into 2D fighting games and really gave me that little bit of push of wanting to get a bit better at fighting games.  Despite learning a lot about fighting games and improving throughout the decade, it was this past year of playing a lot of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] with two friends of a much higher skill level that I really dug deep and learned some advanced techniques and tried to learn some combos.  Much like Melty Blood, Under Night In-Birth has an incredible presentation with a diverse cast of characters, memorable music, stylish graphics, and a deep combat system that isn't overly complicated.  This was a really tough choice to put on the list because there were so many fighting games I loved throughout this decade.

3) Killing Floor 2 [PC] - I'd really like to put Left 4 Dead 2 here considering how much I've played that game and still play that game, but it was released at the end of the last decade.  Killing Floor 2 was a huge improvement over the first game and offers a much deeper progression system that got me coming back to the game year after year.  They often have seasonal events, new content, and a modding community for playing on new maps to keep the game fresh and relevant.

2) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [PC] - Counter-Strike: Source was an okay sequel.  It somewhat improved the graphics but mostly felt like the same game as the original.  Global Offensive; however, feels like a huge leap into modernization while still retaining its identity of the original.  Even with just this iteration of Counter-Strike, Global Offensive has gone through countless changes since its launch with constant balancing, new maps, new weapons (when they can), and events that keep the community involved.  Global Offensive is an incredible representation of the Counter-Strike franchise and provided a ton of great gaming nights for me and my friends.

1) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [NS] - It's no surprise that a Smash Bros. game is on here.  I love Super Smash Bros. and it's one of those games where you can play for hours on end and still want to play more.  With Ultimate having so much content, so much thought, and so many years of work put into it, I can't imagine another Smash Bros. being as great as this one.

-Phantasy Star Online 2 would've been part of this list had it ever released in the West within the decade.  After so many years of disappointment with no word from Sega, many of us thought the localization to be dead; however, it was announced in 2019 that the game would finally be coming to the West in 2020 with all the latest content from the Japanese servers.  I'm super looking forward to playing PSO2 this year.


Honorable Mentions in no particular order:

-Destiny 2
-Grim Dawn
-The Evil Within
-DOOM
-VA-11 HALL-A
-Monster Hunter World
-Rainbow Six: Siege
-Overwatch
-Tree of Savior
-Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code
-Torchlight 2
-Sonic Generations
-Resident Evil Revelations 2
-Tekken 7
-Dynasty Warriors 7

I'm probably missing a lot of games on this list for the past decade.  I counted it up and I've completed 991 games between 2010-2019 (not counting any games I've started but haven't completed or some games I just happened to forget to record), so it won't be surprising if I missed some games I really loved on this list.  It's been a great year and a great decade in gaming, if not a bit rough for the industry as a whole.  I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll get to play in this upcoming year and decade.