03/08/2024 Fear of needles with less frightening things on the side

Hey there!! Thank you for coming in today. It's kinda crazy it's already algust, huh? Maybe it's just me, since I'm having completly different routine than I had last year (and the year before that, and the year before that...), so I almost don't even notice how much time has passed. Maybe, in the end, that's a good thing. It's better to think of the now than to obsess with the future, right? Like "living on the moment" and all that jazz.
Sorry, maybe I'm being philosophical way too soon LoL.
Anyway, I got a few things to talk about and share with y'all, so I'll let my mind do the job and write what I'm thinking about.

I hate having my blood taken:

I'm gonna start with something pretty recent since I felt like it was a big deal at the time: I had my blood taken this thursday, basically yesterday at the time I'm writing this (01/08/2024, going by DAY/MONTH/YEAR).
Maybe you already know this if you have read the about page, but one the things that I hate the most is syringes. Actually, I think that anything sharp enough that is used in one's body makes me really scared. If I could live the rest of my life without any surgery I would without any doubt, but unfortunally I can't.
Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with a surgery (and hopefully it continues this way for a long time), but I had to deal with something equally bad for me: I had my blood taken. Maybe I'm using the wrong term since english isn't my first language, but you know that time of the year that a doctor puts a needle in your arm and take your blood, just to check if there isn't way too much sugar and these sort of things? Yeah I had to do that and I hate it everytime.
The trick that my mom found to calm me down was to give me a remedy to get more sleepy. Last time I had that, it worked like a charm but in the end I slept for half a day.
This time I already had a few problems even before going to bed. I simply couldn't get to sleep, because I was already scared that I had to take blood in the morning, so I went to the computer to calm me down by putting other things in my mind (gonna explain what I looked later on this blog post) and eventually I managed to sleep.
Waking up in the morning, my mom gave me the pill and I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. Instead of relaxed and such I felt hyperactive, sonely on the fact I would get my blood taken. I did managed to go back to sleep eventually, but that was the first time I felt that scarred for my life (ok maybe not, but it might be a strong second place). Could've been anxiety? Probably but since I'm not an expert of this sort of things, I dunno exactly.
After waking up, the procedure had already happened. Hooray! I (sorta) did it!
After that I got to eat lunch and to do some stuff, but I ended up doozing off again, most likely because of the remedy, but that's fine. At least I don't have to worry about taking blood anymore.... in this year, at least, but hey, taking blood next year is the problem for the future me, so I'll leave that to him LoL.

(^^^^ Visual representation of me being scarred shitless this thursday)

Heisei Pistol Show:

So, remember I said I couldn't sleep for the life of me in this thursday, so I played stuff on my pc to call me down? Well, this is the game I played.
I had a few options on stuff I could play, but I didn't want to play something that could take much of my time (or that would alert my mom), so I decided to play one of the RPG makers that I have installed. I have a few of them downloaded for the porpouse of learning what exactly is "the RPG maker feeling" that I feel in those games, which might sound weird, but have you ever wondered why do you like a specific genre of games/movies/books? and have you ever wondered why some of the titles from that genre might be the best thing ever, but others just feel like eating dirty socks? Yeah, that's kinda what I'm looking for. Understanding what makes a RPG maker game a RPG maker game.
Anyway, none of that really matter for the subject at hand. What really matters is: I settled to play Heisei Pistol Show. I had this one installed because I heard a lot of people were interested in it, to the point that it got an english translation (heck yeah)!!! So, basically, in a way, I was making a gable by playing this to calm me down. Like "maybe it's a calming work of art.... or I'm gonna play a Silent Hill type beat and I won't sleep tonight" (LoL).
I'm haven't finished it yet and I also don't wanna spoil anyone who is reading this, so I'm gonna try saying stuff without revealing much.
This game is a wonderful work of art, in my opinion. The first time I've opened the menu I was surprised! It's hard to explain with words, but each part of the menu fews more like a surreal art piece than "this is the boxes where your stats and such go", if that makes sense. The OST is really great as well! There is quite an selection of classical music or even music that feels that would be played on a play. The assassins' battle theme is pretty hype as well! Because of that, dispite with it's heavy premise (and some creapy areas), Heisei Pistol Show feels pretty calming. "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable", right? Well, then I would say that this game does that really well!
Overall, if you like RPG maker games or just weird art and media in general, you should try playing this game! Just be careful if you're sensitive to flashing lights or even some of the heavy topics that the game brings up. It's better to not risk your life or your day over a videogame, ok?

I've seen that NOMOIDA has made a video about HPS, but I've decided to experience the game by myself first, because I think it would be pretty fun in that way! So maybe I'll talk about that eventually, but not this time.

LOVEWEB episode 10

It's no suprise for anyone that I love LOVEWEB. It's the cartoon that inspired me to make this site, so yeah, lemme talk about the last episode!
The most recent episode: How TF2 Nurtered its Community, is, obviously, about Team Fortress 2. Now, I'm gonna be honest that I never played TF2 in my life (which isn't the longest, but still). As a kid, the only computer available at the house was my father's and the only thing I got to play there was flash games and Rayman Legends. I didn't knew what steam or TF2 was at the time, but now that I have my very own computer, a better understanding of english and my very own steam account... I still haven't tried to even touch the game. It's nothing personal, really. TF2 has an art direction pretty unique compared to other shooters, but I think I just feel really nervous when I got to play an online game, be it competive or not. This is more of a thing that I have to work on myself, as I'm sure that the worst thing that can happen by playing badly is getting a few bad eggs screaming in the chat, which is something I shouldn't worry about.
But anyway, even though I don't know much about the subject at hand, I still had some idea about the importance that TF2 (or source games in general) has on the internet, so this could be an amazing learning experience just like last time!
I'm not gonna talk in extreme detail because I sorta want you to experience the episode yourself. Like, absorb the magic and whimsical by your own accord rather than reading a review (which is a thing that this isn't), but I'll try to express how I felt in the best way I can.
The premise of this episode is: Manon is new to TF2 and is exicited about the newer stuff added by Valve, but Cybermare, the co-host, is a long time fan of the game and she doesn't apreciate the way that it's creators are treating it. Honestly, in the perspective of someone who has never touched TF2 (at the moment, at least), I like Manon's and Cybermare's perspective of things and I feel you can really tell it has been written about someone who is really a fan of the subject. I think that being a fan of some sort of media isn't just accepting anything that comes from it, but being able to critize certain aspects in the hopes of it getting better. Besides, I think that both Manon's opimistc perspective and Cybermare's rant to be really intersting as well. Since both of them talk about the community, they also ended up talking about mods, which is a subject that I like in games. Hacks in general are just pretty damn cool, because a person that loves a piece of media that much just opened it up and modified things from inside out, to it be tranformed in something that other fans could enjoy as well. It's just something you can't really do with other type of media (or at least it isn't as interesting), so love anything about this sort of thing. The ones presented by Cybermare specially were really awesome because it was mods that basically transformed TF2 in a whole nother game! Those people must had quite an adventure by doing this sort of things and I'm glad that LOVEWEB made sure to reconize these projects! (also maybe TF2 Classic might serve for a good learning experience).
Hope you'll like it as much as I did!!!

"And I begin to wonder...":

I've bought Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series a few months ago because it was on sale. I took it because it was on sale, around 50 reais (that would be 8,73 dollars at the moment), so in comparison to other games (and even books LoL) it was kinda cheap.
Phantasy Reverie is a collection of the two Klonoa games, Door to Phantomile being a remaster of the wii remake (the one I grew up with), and Lunatea's Veil being a full-on remake on that engine, which sounds pretty cool. Althought, dispite playing Klonoa 1 as a kid, I haven't finished it on my Wii. I remember I was stuck on a level in the forest area, where you have to go in some sort of labyrinth, before you got to Grandma. Even though I got confused at the time, resulting in me not finishing it, Klonoa became one of the games (and game mascosts) that sorta got stuck in my heart, right along with Bomberman and Captain Olimar from Pikmin. So ever since this collection was released, I decided: "I'm gonna finish this game".
I already got to finish Door to Phantomile by the time writing this segment. I even managed to save every resident saved as well!
I think that Door to Phantomile is still a great game and a really fun plataformer. The gist is that Klonoa has the ability to grab his enemies and throw them around, using them as projectiles or even for a double jump. Dispite being stuck on a 2D line, you can interact with the 3D plane, enemies can attack from the foreground and maybe even some secrets might be there! Even though it might be simple, I think that a lot of challenges that this game presents is genually fun, specially the vertical ones, where you have to go up and up and up. Sometimes you gotta learn the systems if you wanna save more Phantomanians (I don't remember they were called this way, so I might've mispalled them). The only problem is that a few of those challenges can be way too hard or kinda unfair, but by that time you'll probably have a bunch of extra lifes in your stock, so stay calm, take a breather, analize and go do your thing when the moment is right! I'm saying this because I've encoutered some annoying scenarious, but even with these flaws, I still think it's fun!!
I've finally got to experience the plot of the game, since I couldn't read or understand english as a kid. While I wish I got to finish the wiimake as a kid, I'm also glad I got to experience this game now, when I can fully understand it. The plot in Door to Phantomile might be pretty simple but it sures knows how to hit hard. Of course, my experience might be different from yours or other people in general. The heartaching moments worked on me because I was engaged with the game and it's story ever since as a child. I've know know this world, even if just a little, but for Klonoa to become a reconizable character might be a testement that this game might grow on you even if you don't like 2.5 Platformers or even this game in general.
The OST is also wonderful!
If you're interested in playing Door to Phantomile, I totally recommend you to do so, be it by emulation or otherwise. I only got the collection just for the hopes that Bandai Namco will realize Klonoa has a market now days and also because the remake Klonoa 2 sounds cool, but I think you can't go wrong by playing the original PSX version or the Wiimake either, even though the redesings of the latter ain't the best, even by younger me standards, but Door to Phantomile, by it's very essence, is a good and fun game!

ROMhacking.net......:

So crazy stuff just happened. I just finished playing Boku No Natsuyasumi 2 (gonna explain later) and I decided to open the Hell's Portal (aka Twitter) to see what's new and... I just discovered that ROMHacking.net is shutting down, or at least it's stopping to work how it used to. From my understanding, the admin had a problems to keep paying the site, but when they found a team to take care of that, a disagreement happened, and in the end the site is shutting down. I mean, at least it seems you can still download things, but posting new stuff is impossible now.
I've resumed the situation for a way simpler version, since the full story seems pretty complicated. There is disagreements withing both parties. I don't really know who is in the right and who isn't, but in the end, I'm just a third party, so it's not in my place to figure it out like a detective of some sort.
I'm really saying this and acting all disapointed because I think ROMHacking.net simply shutting down is pretty bad for the hacking community, right? I mean, maybe people more in the know might think otherwise, but I think RHDN ended up being a simplier way to put and get hacks. "Oh, where is that translation for that game again? Where is that cool looking romhack of Mario World I saw these days? Oh, right! It's on that site!". So, in short, I think this might make things harder for everyone else, but hopefully another site can follow it's steps and be the newer RHDN. Oh yeah, the site has been archived as well! I'm not sure what's in store, but from what've seen, it's probably a lot of stuff.
Hopefully we'll get more opimistc news for the community. I mean, with something that bad, it's bound to something good to happen, right...?

Well, after this rollercoaster of emotions (I mean, by just a while, but still), I'll just talk about a few things I've done lately, but I don't think it needs it's own section.
Firstly, I've started playing Boku No Natsuyasumi 2 on these past few days. Why? Well, Hilltop, one of the members of the translation team, suggested that "those who haven't experienced the game yet, then start playing it on Algust 1st and sync up with each date on the calendar", basically, they recommend that people should play once a day, corresponding the dates in-game with the in real life one. I gotta say, amazing translation! Everyone involved must've worked like hell to get it working as perfect as possible, but I think they did it! Boku 2 is a pretty game as well. PS2 and Gamecube/Wii games end up getting a lot of flack for the shovelware, but trust me, a lot of these games can look amazing if they are made by people that have time and also give a crap! I sometimes get a little self concious that "I'm playing it wrong", but I have to remind myself that Boku is the type of game that you can play it in the way you want.... and also that I won't know everything first time playing a game, but idk, I guess my brain just like screwing me over sometimes.
Got SMT V Vangance for the PC. I had a part of my allowance stored up so I could actually buy it. Like wow, it sure is expensive, huh? I know that it's basically two games in one, but... would it hurt you made it a bit cheaper? Y'know, so the new players could actually be interested in it? Oh and you decided to put paid DLC too, Atlus??? What the hell man, like, I know that's the standard, but I really wish it didn't it. At least you still get all of the content of the original V, so you still get a meaty lunch, but I'm still looking at ya Atlus... and you too Sega! Anyway, overall the game has been really fun. I'm playing the original V storyline since I haven't played it when it released on Switch and I sorta want to experience what people didn't like. Sorta understand it's problems and then play the Vangance part with a different point of view. It's sorta crazy how it's just running on my laptop too. Like, I remember my old one struggled with Little Misfortune cutscenes, so having a game that released on a recent (don't remind me the switch is 7 years old lalala I can't hear you) home (more like hybrid) console is surreal! You sure this isn't some weird demonical magic?

Anyway, I think this is all for today's blogpost. I honestly thought I would talk about some more stuff, but I think most of those things can be easily summarized by "I started looking into this" or "I've discovered this", which could end up in a pretty unsatisfying blogpost, in my opinion. Weirdly enough, I sometimes I catch myself reading these blogposts when I'm working on this site, which might not sound that groundbraking, but I remember of getting embarresed by anything I wrote when I was little, so I think this is a good progress! I sometimes worry this will sound much more like a gaming magazine, with the different subjects and all that jazz, but I've come to accept that's just the way I do things. Maybe reading a some gaming and kid magazines when younger might have helped a little LoL. Well before going I'm just wanna share a cool music video I watche recently. It's called Now or Never which it seems to be a collaboration of CHEMISTRY and m-flow, made especially for the Astro Boy 2003 anime, for the second opening, in fact. The music is amazing and whoever responsible for the music video did an absolute great job! Also I'm certainly putting this anime for a "must watch at all costs" list.

See ya next time!