June Round-Up '24

HOW are we halfway through 2024. This year has felt simultaneously dreadfully long and super short, what with all the medical issues persisting and depression making time pass without much solace. There have been reprieves in the midst of it all, such as celebrating people (and series) dear to my heart, delicious foods, spontaneous adventures, and a promise for a better future. This month had a lot going on, especially in the video games side, so I hope I can give you a few things to look forward to as well! I'll start with some life updates.

Continued Healing

As soon as I got my final crown placed earlier this month and thought I was done with everything *at last*, I was hit the next day by extreme sensitivity on a totally unrelated crown... and even now continue having sensitivity in my teeth. A majority of it is related to my wisdom teeth surgery - lots of bones are still growing and healing - but I still have bouts of unrelated pains that pop up out of no where. It's frustrating, but I think my healing's starting to progress in a positive direction for real this time. I'll keep holding onto hope that this is over with soon!

To celebrate my big dental ridiculousness being (mostly) over, I got a delicious rosemary-fig scone from a local bakery!

A Couple IRL Highlights

We saw the Once Upon a Dream: Sleeping Beauty 65th Anniversary Tribute show at Gallery Nucleus, which featured themed art from a variety of artists who have showcased at the gallery before (we've seen quite a few of them!). Alongside this was a showcase of Eyvind Earle's serigraphs, who created the visual style of Sleeping Beauty (among many other wonderful movies). I can't get over the awe of how HUGE the Earle pieces were - some as tall as me - and how deep the colors were. I love this gallery and feel very inspired every time we visit!

To celebrate Shovel Knight's 10th Anniversary, Yacht Club Games collaborated with Requiem Cafe to bring a small menu of themed foods to life. Chris and I visited to try the "Alchemy Blast" - themed after Plague Knight, who I love so much I made a cosplay of - and enjoyed the big character cut-outs that adorned the shop. Though the drink didn't taste like more than its Baja Blast component (it also had Butterfly Pea Tea Lemonade to make its pretty purple-y color), we still loved getting to support the cafe. I got my own little Plague Knight keychain to hang on my backpack, too!

~ When the Alchemy is Blasting ~

Sonic's Anniversary is a day I always excitedly commemorate, and as this is Shadow's year, I celebrated by making a little Nanoblock Shadow and LEGO set of Shadow on his Dark Rider bike (both gifts from my little sister Niki and friend Anthony, respectively). The Nanoblock set was unfortunately sorta unfun - the blocks are teeny-tiny and do NOT like to stay together, so I was trying not to lose my mind while losing various pieces... at least it looks cute! The LEGO set on the other hand was super fun!! I've never actually built a LEGO set until then - they were too pricey for my family growing up - so now I can totally see its appeal. I've been keeping the LEGO Shadow in front of me to play with, idly pushing the bike back and forth while I work on things or think of drawing ideas.

Games

Something I love about June is that it's always associated with E3 (RIP), which means lots of new game announcements! Summer Games Fest showcased upcoming AAA - the thing I'm most excited about was of course Shadow X Sonic Generations - but the best new things were all found in the specialized indie showcases and Steam Next Fest. I played TONS of demos, but I'll highlight the ones that stood out most to me, as well as my most recent full game experience.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana - a remake of Ys 3 - is the latest Falcom game Chris has completed. The gameplay apparently feels very good, and it looked very good on top of that. I personally think it's probably the weakest in the series so far story-wise and musically (out of 1, 2, 6, and this), though that's not to say it's bad by any means - it's hard to compare when all the games are so great!!

FREERIDE's demo acts as a personality test for whoever plays it, which I actually didn't realize when Chris and I tried it - it's such a fun spin on a typical demo and makes each playthrough feel unique!! The game itself is bursting with personality, and I absolutely love its character designs and atmosphere. This is one I'll be keeping a close eye on!

Another game with character design I just can't get enough of is the superb GBA-style Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo! This game is overflowing with charm and a love for an old platform that hits my nostalgia hard, but also strives toward giving a brand new kind of experience within the GBA's boundaries. The gimmicks/tricks you learn for the yoyo actually stick around to be used throughout the game, and each of the "rooms" lets you restart quickly if you mess up. Very excited for this one.

Looking for a game of challenging platforming in a space that encourages you to stretch your skillset? Would you like that with an utterly charming art style, super beautiful setting, and fun characters and music? Then PLEASE give The Big Catch: Tacklebox a play!! It's meant to be a sort of prelude to the full Big Catch game, and though we didn't finish the demo completely, my partner and I are totally sold on it.

AfterLove EP is from the creators of a game I adore - Coffee Talk - and is a combo visual novel and rhythm game... both of which I love!! The art style is adorable and the story's interesting, so I'd like to pick this up in the future.

We originally tried Fowl Damage somewhat jokingly, but it ended up being one of the demos I had the most fun with!! It's an excellent precision platformer with quick puzzle gameplay, where you have to totally flip preconceptions of how to approach navigating levels since it's super easy for the egg to break. Every time I'd "splat" onscreen I would laugh, and it never felt too overwhelming when restarting again and again. I'd like to play more!

The demo for On Your Tail gives a promising look at what's to come for the game! I enjoyed its premise, lovely art direction, and mix of casual exploration and mystery-solving gameplay. There seems like there will be a lot to discover in the final experience!

Lost and Found Co. was a very pleasant surprise! It's a hidden object game with adorable art, and each item or character onscreen is highly interactive with nifty little animations. I had a lot of fun with the demo and would be interested in seeing the rest of the story in the finished game!

ONE BTN BOSSES is possibly the most unique demo we tried, with tons of replayability and an optional roguelike mode! I wouldn't call it a rhythm game as it advertised, but it WAS very cool and the beats from the music really drove the feeling of wanting to keep going. The power-ups/abilities you choose drastically change how you approach each of the bosses and adds a lot of challenge. I definitely want to play more of it!

Phantom Spark is beautiful to look at, has snappy gameplay, super intriguing world building, and a bangin' dnb soundtrack. It feels like a game you WANT to get good at with how quick each track is, giving reminiscent Neon White vibes as you race to reach better and better times. Very cool and looking forward to more!!

As much as I adored the very clear inspiration Heartworm takes from Silent Hill, I found some of its gameplay a little too convoluted for my full enjoyment. It looks, feels, and even sounds like a horror game I would've taken comfort in growing up, but with that it also includes (intentionally, I believe) a bit of frustration in the way it doesn't really give you much explanation for dealing with foes. Perhaps I just missed something? I'll have to check on this one again in the future.

In Amber Isle you get to make your own dino resident and run an item shop! I love the character creator and art direction of the game. I'm sure it'll get a lot of comparisons to Animal Crossing upon release, but it really feels like its own thing. The demo was a little buggy at times, but overall seems like it'll be a very pleasant game!

Meet my dino Blintz the Kid, owner of the shop Pancakey Time!

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a metroidvania with pretty hand-drawn art, and an emphasis on staying afloat and establishing flow. It was enjoyable! I especially liked the character designs, the textured overlays, and animated sequences.

Veritus has colorful characters and creative gameplay that stretches the boundaries of its retro stylization. It has clear influences from other games but turns each into something entirely its own. It releases pretty soon - next month! - and I'd like to see where its story goes. It's impressive how much visual information you get in such a small screen space, but they use it to the fullest to present this very cool game!

We got an invite to the Infinity Nikki beta test, and I'm so glad I got play! When a game mixes open world and dress up how can I NOT be curious?? The game itself is gorgeous, with beautiful outfits and stylish characters/creatures. My favorite "outfit" is one that allows you to wash animals: they have an adorable animation where Nikki bubbles and scrubs them, carefully holding their paw (if they have one) and gently washing their fluff, then applauding their courage when finished! The biggest concern I had was in its gameplay, which was fashioned MMO-style despite being a single player experience; some of the moves would get cut off because I'd have to move my hands in awkward ways to reach the buttons. It's coming to PS5, so I'm sure it'll be more comfy to play using controller! I appreciate this game/series creating "girl-oriented" games - in this manner, pretty but still with plenty of substance - and hope to see more of them around in the future.

Anime

A few months back, Chris and I watched the first episode of Land of the Lustrous and liked it a lot! We decided to pick it up again, this time in dubbed form, and enjoyed it very much. The writing was excellent, lovely sound design and 3D animation, and its mysterious world had me wanting to know more once the show ended... so now I'm reading the manga! I only caught up to where the anime ended, but I'll be making more time to read through it soon.

I've read a couple of Asano Inio's works (such as Goodnight PunPun and Solanin) and appreciate his distinctive offbeat writing and somber humor, so it's awesome to see one of his works in motion at last: Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction! This released as a series of two movies in Japan, and for its worldwide debut is being split into an 18-episode series. There are only a handful of episodes out so far and I'm enjoying it, though I have an inner dread for what's to come just knowing his writing style...

The anime for Orange hit me even harder than the manga did (which I read last month)... such a beautiful story. I liked how it used quick cuts to give an impression of feelings, moments, and event sequences. It was a super neat stylistic choice that gave an artistic edge to the show! If you haven't engaged with either form of the story, I think this anime is a great way of doing so, just be sure to check out trigger warnings since there are some pretty heavy story topics.

We watched A Place Further than the Universe while waiting for the Summer season to start (it begins next week), and I thought it was pretty decent. The way it set the story made me think something dramatic would happen, but for the most part it was just about a couple girls going to Antarctica with very pretty scenery. I appreciate that they showed them getting rightfully angry over certain happenings and were able to express themselves in a way that doesn't betray the seriousness of their emotions or make it the entirety of their character. Now if only it showed more penguins...

Here comes July!

It'll have been one year of these monthly blog updates next time! I had originally meant to use this space for creative endeavors on top of my life updates, but as a result of my intense medical troubles, I've barely had energy for more than these little round-ups... Now that healing is finally in full swing, maybe I'll be able to share personal project updates more often than as brief snippets. As Summer becomes more intense it'll be hard to make new art, but I'll try very hard to continue anyway!!! Anywho - hope to talk to you soon! I'd love to hear about what's going on in your world, you're welcome to reach out to me on social media or hang out in my Twitch streams to tell me about it!