Maaaaaaan, it's been over 7 months since my last update. I've been really lacking motivation to do most anything all year. -_- Photobucket destroyed all the links and I went through my journal updating all the links, so figured I'd write an update again.
Thanks to Lanzer rolling out new BBCode to resizing images, all pictures here are scaled down to fit the journal page. View image or open it in new tab to see the full-size version.
I've been trying to be more proactive in doing stuff outside of the house and there's been some fun stuff going on this year. Back in January there was a small event where my city's immigrants cooked some food and deserts and I went there with a friend. It was small, but it was pretty fun. There were couple musicians, but the food was the main focus there. It was good, though nobody went out and served something really unusual. Rice was very popular there. There should be similar event coming around soon again, I'll probably go.
In February me and my brother went to see our father in Southern Savonia. It was more of a relaxing getaway since it's really away from civilization. On our way back we passed Lahti that was holding World Ski Championships at the time.
Last weekend we had quite a bit of happening around my city. We had a city fair, a big car show and in our neighbor town they had sort of a medieval fair themed after Finnish light cavalrymen who served in 30 year war. Almost every family in the town sent one person to the war and had most participants per capita. We missed out on a lot of things, but it was really fun so I'm definitely going to try to go next year again if weather is good. Click either of the images to get to a small gallery.
I dropped by my city fair too. They would have had some supposedly big artists playing in the evening, though I didn't bother sticking around for it. Just visited the markets during the morning. Nothing interesting there really, but I finally came by a metallic fidget spinner, so I got one... Yeah, I know, super lame. But it helps Roki with his dogo autism.
There's been quite a few game releases this year. I got Persona 5 (digital so not in picture), Nier: Automata, Mass Effect Andromeda and Injustice 2 and from sales on bit older titles I've picked up a bunch like Nioh and Yakuza 0.
I bought Mafia III collector's edition from sale and honestly it was completely for all the items in the set. Two vinyls, artbook, lithographs, dogtags and coasters. Worth it.
New Fire Emblem also released, or rather a remake of an old one that's a fan favorite. I didn't plan on buying it yet since I have barely gotten around playing Fates, but I got a chance to pick up the collector's edition so couldn't resist since those have been selling out in seconds previously.
And then there was the BIG RELEASE. Nintendo launched their new hardware, Nintendo Switch with the latest Zelda adventure, Breath of the Wild. I was beyond hyped for the Zelda and bought Wii U version on released day on Friday (I think), because my Switch wouldn't ship until the next week. I played 20 - 30 hours of it on Wii U before getting my Switch and restarting it from there. Also bought Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Ultra Street Fighter 2, ARMS and Splatoon 2 (digital and after the picture).
I've also gotten fair amount of actually playing games done this year.
I started the year off by starting and finishing Undertale that I've been meaning to play since launch. I'm glad that Playstation 4 and Vita release hadn't been announced yet or I would've waited for those, but then I would've missed out on experiencing the game with colored battle sprites mod that made the game a lot better looking. Music is amazing and I bet everyone find a character they like from the game. Undyne was my favorite, though I didn't like how she turned super BFFey with flick of a switch.
I finished and Platinum'd Final Fantasy XV that I started in last journal update.
I didn't feel like the game does anything excellently, but it was still by far more fun than not. I feel bad for not watching the anime before playing, it does flesh out characters more than the game does, so if anyone's still starting the game, WATCH THE ANIME! I am looking forward to new content for the game though and I hope we'll see a lot more of Aranea.
******** Pitioss Ruins.
I also played Final Fantasy XIV with a friend for few weeks. We just about managed to rank up our classes.
[Screenshot TBA if I can think of one, just remembered this game while writing the journal...]
Plus I started replaying Final Fantasy VII. It was one of my favorite games for a long time and still holds up like diamonds. Wouldn't even need to be remade.
I also got around playing Night in the Woods. It was pretty interesting, not quite what I expected and the plot twist was ridiculous and I still don't know if that's in a good way. I loved the character designs, their writing and there's some really good tunes. Did three playthroughs already and I'm still missing achievements... I'm done for now, but I will be back for the Platinum one day.
I finished Injustice 2. I didn't expect much from Netherrealms after mess that was Mortal Kombat X, but my friend got Injustice and I got to try it out at his place. I thought it was fun and a youtuber who's taste quite often aligns with me got me really excited for the story mode. I honestly think the storymode would be enough to eventually warrant a purchase, though maybe not at the full price. But the game is fun and I really enjoy customizing my characters with new gear.
I also borrowed Horizon Zero Dawn from a friend. It wasn't a game that I was looking forward to and I'm bit bored with open worlds right now, but I had to give it a go since it was praised so much. It's fun, I'm sure I'd love it if it got me at the right mood. I did have fun tying down a dinobot that could one hit kill me.
And main reason why I'm so bored with open world right now is because I played A LOT of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, closer to 130 hours and I didn't even complete all the quests, shrines and collectibles! I'll return to it for Champions DLC this Holiday and will try to finish the game then. I might even be tempted to start over and finally give it more thought on where I'd place it in best Zeldas list. Right now it's really hard thinking it anywhere but right on top, but it really was far from perfect too. I absolutely loath the durability system and the puzzles and dungeons suffer from Nintendo being too adamant on trying to give player as much freedom as possible. To avoid players reaching a point where they can't advance, they've limited Link to very few tools to solve puzzles with that you get from the beginning of the game. It works okay and a lot of fun will be had, but there's definitely a lack of imagination with a lot of the puzzles and you'll really end up missing all those neat items from past games.
And the most important game to come out this year is definitely Splatoon 2.
I didn't play the first game that much, but it had things that I absolutely loved and Splatoon 2 improves everything with leaps, especially single player. I was slightly disappointed with the story and think I had much better ideas for it, but it really didn't make me like it any less. Last boss was great and music in the game is better than ever. Last boss spoilers in spoilers.
I love the new idols, Pearl and Marina. Pearl is my favorite of the two with a chance to even beat Squid Sisters.
It's also been a pretty good movie year, especially for Marvel series.
Logan = Great, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 = Great, Spider-Man: Homecoming = AMAZING!
I hope everyone went to see it to their friendly neighborhood cinemas, if not, be sure to catch it on retail.
I also thought that Ghost in the Shell was really good.
And speaking of manga to movie adaptations, I finally saw "I Am A Hero" that's based on a zombie manga and it was amazing. Most legit zombie movie I've seen maybe ever, though it had a weird twist.
My anime series this year has been Dragon Ball Super, Mob Psycho 100 and My Hero Academia. The last one I couldn't handle the week wait between season 2 episodes and picked up manga that I'm now all caught up with. I don't think I've been reading anything new otherwise, just keeping up with Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, Prison School, Space Brothers, etc. etc.
Recent music obsessions have been:
Stuck In The Sound - Let's Go
Youjo Senki OP "JINGO JUNGLE" English cover
Youjo Senki ED "Los! Los! Los!" English cover
Westworld's "Paint it, Black"
Westworld music video with Ciara's "Paint it, Black"
Just straight up "Paint it, Black" by Rolling Stones.
Deadpool parody of Beauty and the Beast's "Gaston"
Jonathan Young's covers.
Thanks to Lanzer rolling out new BBCode to resizing images, all pictures here are scaled down to fit the journal page. View image or open it in new tab to see the full-size version.
I've been trying to be more proactive in doing stuff outside of the house and there's been some fun stuff going on this year. Back in January there was a small event where my city's immigrants cooked some food and deserts and I went there with a friend. It was small, but it was pretty fun. There were couple musicians, but the food was the main focus there. It was good, though nobody went out and served something really unusual. Rice was very popular there. There should be similar event coming around soon again, I'll probably go.
In February me and my brother went to see our father in Southern Savonia. It was more of a relaxing getaway since it's really away from civilization. On our way back we passed Lahti that was holding World Ski Championships at the time.
Last weekend we had quite a bit of happening around my city. We had a city fair, a big car show and in our neighbor town they had sort of a medieval fair themed after Finnish light cavalrymen who served in 30 year war. Almost every family in the town sent one person to the war and had most participants per capita. We missed out on a lot of things, but it was really fun so I'm definitely going to try to go next year again if weather is good. Click either of the images to get to a small gallery.
I dropped by my city fair too. They would have had some supposedly big artists playing in the evening, though I didn't bother sticking around for it. Just visited the markets during the morning. Nothing interesting there really, but I finally came by a metallic fidget spinner, so I got one... Yeah, I know, super lame. But it helps Roki with his dogo autism.
There's been quite a few game releases this year. I got Persona 5 (digital so not in picture), Nier: Automata, Mass Effect Andromeda and Injustice 2 and from sales on bit older titles I've picked up a bunch like Nioh and Yakuza 0.
I bought Mafia III collector's edition from sale and honestly it was completely for all the items in the set. Two vinyls, artbook, lithographs, dogtags and coasters. Worth it.
New Fire Emblem also released, or rather a remake of an old one that's a fan favorite. I didn't plan on buying it yet since I have barely gotten around playing Fates, but I got a chance to pick up the collector's edition so couldn't resist since those have been selling out in seconds previously.
And then there was the BIG RELEASE. Nintendo launched their new hardware, Nintendo Switch with the latest Zelda adventure, Breath of the Wild. I was beyond hyped for the Zelda and bought Wii U version on released day on Friday (I think), because my Switch wouldn't ship until the next week. I played 20 - 30 hours of it on Wii U before getting my Switch and restarting it from there. Also bought Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Ultra Street Fighter 2, ARMS and Splatoon 2 (digital and after the picture).
I've also gotten fair amount of actually playing games done this year.
I started the year off by starting and finishing Undertale that I've been meaning to play since launch. I'm glad that Playstation 4 and Vita release hadn't been announced yet or I would've waited for those, but then I would've missed out on experiencing the game with colored battle sprites mod that made the game a lot better looking. Music is amazing and I bet everyone find a character they like from the game. Undyne was my favorite, though I didn't like how she turned super BFFey with flick of a switch.
I finished and Platinum'd Final Fantasy XV that I started in last journal update.
I didn't feel like the game does anything excellently, but it was still by far more fun than not. I feel bad for not watching the anime before playing, it does flesh out characters more than the game does, so if anyone's still starting the game, WATCH THE ANIME! I am looking forward to new content for the game though and I hope we'll see a lot more of Aranea.
******** Pitioss Ruins.
I also played Final Fantasy XIV with a friend for few weeks. We just about managed to rank up our classes.
[Screenshot TBA if I can think of one, just remembered this game while writing the journal...]
Plus I started replaying Final Fantasy VII. It was one of my favorite games for a long time and still holds up like diamonds. Wouldn't even need to be remade.
I also got around playing Night in the Woods. It was pretty interesting, not quite what I expected and the plot twist was ridiculous and I still don't know if that's in a good way. I loved the character designs, their writing and there's some really good tunes. Did three playthroughs already and I'm still missing achievements... I'm done for now, but I will be back for the Platinum one day.
I finished Injustice 2. I didn't expect much from Netherrealms after mess that was Mortal Kombat X, but my friend got Injustice and I got to try it out at his place. I thought it was fun and a youtuber who's taste quite often aligns with me got me really excited for the story mode. I honestly think the storymode would be enough to eventually warrant a purchase, though maybe not at the full price. But the game is fun and I really enjoy customizing my characters with new gear.
I also borrowed Horizon Zero Dawn from a friend. It wasn't a game that I was looking forward to and I'm bit bored with open worlds right now, but I had to give it a go since it was praised so much. It's fun, I'm sure I'd love it if it got me at the right mood. I did have fun tying down a dinobot that could one hit kill me.
And main reason why I'm so bored with open world right now is because I played A LOT of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, closer to 130 hours and I didn't even complete all the quests, shrines and collectibles! I'll return to it for Champions DLC this Holiday and will try to finish the game then. I might even be tempted to start over and finally give it more thought on where I'd place it in best Zeldas list. Right now it's really hard thinking it anywhere but right on top, but it really was far from perfect too. I absolutely loath the durability system and the puzzles and dungeons suffer from Nintendo being too adamant on trying to give player as much freedom as possible. To avoid players reaching a point where they can't advance, they've limited Link to very few tools to solve puzzles with that you get from the beginning of the game. It works okay and a lot of fun will be had, but there's definitely a lack of imagination with a lot of the puzzles and you'll really end up missing all those neat items from past games.
And the most important game to come out this year is definitely Splatoon 2.
I didn't play the first game that much, but it had things that I absolutely loved and Splatoon 2 improves everything with leaps, especially single player. I was slightly disappointed with the story and think I had much better ideas for it, but it really didn't make me like it any less. Last boss was great and music in the game is better than ever. Last boss spoilers in spoilers.
I love the new idols, Pearl and Marina. Pearl is my favorite of the two with a chance to even beat Squid Sisters.
It's also been a pretty good movie year, especially for Marvel series.
Logan = Great, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 = Great, Spider-Man: Homecoming = AMAZING!
I hope everyone went to see it to their friendly neighborhood cinemas, if not, be sure to catch it on retail.
I also thought that Ghost in the Shell was really good.
And speaking of manga to movie adaptations, I finally saw "I Am A Hero" that's based on a zombie manga and it was amazing. Most legit zombie movie I've seen maybe ever, though it had a weird twist.
My anime series this year has been Dragon Ball Super, Mob Psycho 100 and My Hero Academia. The last one I couldn't handle the week wait between season 2 episodes and picked up manga that I'm now all caught up with. I don't think I've been reading anything new otherwise, just keeping up with Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, Prison School, Space Brothers, etc. etc.
Recent music obsessions have been:
Stuck In The Sound - Let's Go
Youjo Senki OP "JINGO JUNGLE" English cover
Youjo Senki ED "Los! Los! Los!" English cover
Westworld's "Paint it, Black"
Westworld music video with Ciara's "Paint it, Black"
Just straight up "Paint it, Black" by Rolling Stones.
Deadpool parody of Beauty and the Beast's "Gaston"
Jonathan Young's covers.
