The Working Girl's Game Review: Band of Bugs

I finished this game over a year ago including all the DLC but I haven't done a review on it until now because the game left me with a sour taste in my mouth from the DLC.  I think enough time has past that I an objectively look at the game and give it my honest assessment of what I think.  I will be adding a new section to review the DLC separately and if I play any games with DLC in the future I'll be doing thing that way from now one.

Game: Band of Bugs
Genre: Tactical RPG/Tactical Battle Map (see below)

System: Xbox 360 Live Arcade

Developer: NinjaBee

Story:
It's been so long that I don't remember much of the story.  There's something about bugs being born in goo but you're a special bug because you weren't (or something like that).  There's a rival bug clan that wants to take over the area which includes breeding grounds or something.  The main game is broken up into 20 levels that don't really have much of a continuing story.  They give you the basics of why you're fighting in this area but the connections between battles is barely there.  That being said, for this type of game (tactical RPG) I really don't need story.  I just want to fight things and level up and get to the next battle.  Story in these types of games is secondary to me.  The only Tactical RPG game that had a story I was interested in was Final Fantasy Tactical Advance on GBA.  But for this game story wasn't very important to me so I didn't pay too much attention to the what and why of what was going on.  That's not to say that it didn't have a story, I just didn't feel like it was necessary to pay attention to the story in order to enjoy the game.

Story Score:

Characters:
On of the interesting things about this game is that you can use your Avatar in place of the main character.  This means it looks a little weird to see yourself fighting alongside some large bugs but also helps to make you feel more involved in the game.  Each character type is the same class of character.  So a grasshopper is going to be an archer whether they are on your team or the enemy's team.  A butterfly is a magic user and a beetle is a tank.  That's very useful in helping to instantly identify which enemies you need to stay away from or out of range and which ones you need to attack and try to get rid of as soon as possible.  Since you know who/what everyone on the enemy side is and what they are capable it helps to focus your attack on the enemies that you think we'll do the most damage to your team to try and eliminate them first.  Knowing all of this by just looking at the enemy makes the battles easier when they are just "kill the other team" but require a little more strategy when the game type is something else.  I liked knowing my enemy and being able to plan accordingly without having to wait until they attack me to see what type of character there were.

Character Score:


Game Mechanics:
The Game Mechanics of a Tactical RPG are pretty basic and simple.  The battlefield is a grid and your character can move so many squares around that gird and different squares might be at different heights.  If your character is a good jumper they can move from one lower square to one that is 2-3 higher next to it.  If not, then you have to take the long way around and climb up gradually.  One of the strategies of moving is to try and get around behind the enemy because you will do more damage if you hit them from behind than you would if you hit them head on.  Also, there's bonuses if you are flanking the enemy with one of your teammates and combo moves available as well.  In addition to decided where you're going to move you then can choose from a menu of actions.  Those could be attacking, using magic, using a item or changing your weapon.  Once you've moved and taken your action your turn is over.

Everybody on both sides as the ability to go once in a round.  But instead of having a set order of which character is going to go next, on your turn you can select which person you want to move, attack or heal.  But once they have done their action they will not be allowed to move again until everyone else on both teams have moved and a new round has started.  So plan wisely.

The turn order is also not one for one.  You take a turn and then your enemy takes a turn, wash, rinse, repeat.  You'll have an indicator up in the top right that shows you what the turn order is.  Your color is blue, the enemy red.  So there could be 3 red squares in a row before you get to a blue square.  That means 3 enemies will take their turn before you will get one.  Always keep on eye on that or you could find yourself in trouble.  As characters die you'll lose one of those blocks per turn which means if you still have 5 characters left but the enemy is down to 2 players, you'll get to attack 5 times in a round but they will only attack twice.  Makes battle cleanup pretty easy . . . except on maps when enemies will continuously spawn in.

I've played several tactical RPGs and while I love this genre there was one thing that I didn't like about how it played.  You had to move first and then attack.  Other games will let you attack and then move.  This would allow you to attack and then run away to safety.  In this game you could only move first and then attack.  So if you have a melee character you need to get right up on someone but since you can't move again until the next round starts there's a good possibility that your character could get surrounded and be in trouble and there's nothing you can do about it.  I would love the ability to attack and then run away.  Not that I'm a coward, I just want to get to safety.  Definitely not a coward.

Game Mechanics score:


Art Design:
I like how this game looked.  Very bright and colorful and easy on the eyes.  Once a character has taken their turn in a round they turn a grayish color so you know you can't use them again until the next round.  There were some character models that were a lighter color, or next to a lighter environment, that made it a little difficult to see whether they had turned gray because you already used them in that round.  And this could be very importation since some maps need you complete an object before the end of a particular round.  The art was cartoony and fun and very enjoyable.  When speech boxes came up a little portrait of the character would be displayed with a facial expression matching what they were saying.  Because the graphical style was more cartoony than realistic (and I don't want to be looking at realistic bugs) I think the game will age well and you could play it 10 years from now and still enjoy how it looks.

Art Design score:


Overall Impressions:
I love this game type and really enjoyed playing the game on the initial play through.  Trying to perfect the game was a different matter entirely.  There were a variety of battle types.  You have just kill the other team before they kill you, escort missions, get to a specific point on the map before the end of a specific round, kill the leader (where you don't have to kill all their henchmen), and defend a section from incoming enemies.  This provided a good variety of what you needed to do so no one particular battle mission was boring or repetitive.  The environments were all different too.  It could be lush and green on one map and a snowy ice field on another and another could be filled with poison traps.  You can use the environment to your advantage in battle too.  If you can get a couple of enemies to bunch up on some ice blocks and then have your butterfly use a fire spell he can melt the ice and all those enemies will fill into the water and die.  If you can take out 3-4 enemies in one action that just might be enough to turn the tide of battle.

While I enjoyed the regular play through I wanted to perfect the achievements; and they all seem reasonable to get.  One of the achievements was to get a gold rating in all of the main story levels.  There are 20 of them and some where so easy you would bumble your way through the level and get that gold.  Others, where much tougher.  The medal are bronze, silver, gold or platinum and who you do in the battle determines what medal you get.  Depending on the object for that level depends on what stats are most important.  You could lose several members of your team but if you killed the enemy boss early you could get enough point to get a gold (you get negative point for each member of your team that dies).

There was one level in particular on an icy map that even though I meet the objective before the end of the required round and had all my players still alive, I wasn't getting enough points for doing enough damage that I couldn't get the gold.  I had to play that map over and over again before I finally figured out what I needed to do to get the gold (and I just barely got it).  And that was something I didn't like.  There were a couple of maps that seemed to have a very set order of what you needed to do to get the gold ranking.  If you deviated from that set order of things, even if you completed everything beautifully, you wouldn't get the gold.  Those maps became a trial and error trying to figure out what the game wanted you to do to get gold instead of letting you play it out how you wanted to.

One thing with RPGs is that if you are having problems with a particular enemy or area you can go somewhere else and grind a little bit to level up and go back to fight them when you're stronger and have better items or equipment.  That's not the case in this game.  If you go back to play a previous level, because you're trying to get a gold ranking, you don't take your levels or current items with you.  Whatever level you were and whatever items you had on that level are what you've got to work with, no matter when you go back to play that level.  There's no easy cake walks through previous levels to get a better ranking.  Maybe because of that I shouldn't call this a Tactical RPG but instead a Tactical Battle Map game.  Progression is not backwards compatible.

Overall I liked the base game and I'm glad I played it.

Overall Impression score:



DLC:
There were several DLC expansions to this game.  They were Ninja Sticks of Fury, Red Kingdom and Tales of Kaloki.  Ninja Sticks of Red Kingdom were very much in the same vein as the base game.  Same characters, same battle system, etc.  I did like the humor in the Ninja Sticks of Fury and a new character that was introduced.  Unfortunately you really didn't get to play with that new character very much so that was disappointing.  But now we've got to talk about Tales of Kaloki.

That DLC was set in space.  Yep, space.  It's the bugs sitting around a campfire telling stories and you play out one of those stories.  You're main character is a rooster who happens to be space pilot and you relive his heroics in space.  This DLC felt very jarring even though you know it's the original bugs telling a story.  You're thrown in with a whole new bunch of ships without any training or help to figure out what anyone does.  Because of that you've got to click on each ship to see how they move and then see how they attack before you can decide what to do.  And it's not just 2-3 different ships.  You've get much more than that.  I think in one mission there was probably about 6-7 different ships you had on your team that you've got to figure out how they move and what they do.

The map was difficult to navigate at first as well.  Since you are in space there's no up and down you have to worry about but there are a lot of obstacles in your way along with bombs and flowing rivers that will move one square in their direction each turn . . . which usually ends in bad spot or on a bomb.  The general game play was still the same as the main game but everything else had changed and it was too jarring and left a sour taste in my mouth once I had finished it.  The achievements for the DLC wasn't anything exciting either. 

DLC score:
Ninja Sticks of Fury and Red Kingdom



Tales of Kaloki




I hated that this DLC was affecting my overall feelings about the game.  That's why I didn't want to write a review when I finished because I figured my impressions would be tainted by this last impression I had.  Now time has passed and I feel comfortable giving this game my honest review without being tainted by that final DLC.  If you want to play this game I would recommend it and the Ninja Sticks and Red Kingdom DLC but I would stay away from the Tales of Kaloki DLC . . . or at least know what you're getting into before playing.  If you want to see my play through of the game and all the DLC check out my Band of Bugs YouTube playlist.

Eye update and current life evaluation

So I was out on disability for 2 months after the accident.  I returned to work the week after Thanksgiving full time and it took a while to get back in the swing of things.  The good news is that I was already working from home 3 days a week so my boss just let me work from home full time until I felt comfortable driving in the office.  It's an hour commute each way looking directly in to the sun both ways.  In January I started coming in on Fridays (traffic's lighter) and in February I'll start back on my 2 days a week in the office.

Speaking of driving, I HATE IT.  I have no depth perception and it's really scary when there's moving vehicles all around you.  I'm having the hardest time with the side to side perspective.  If I'm in the inside lane, all the traffic coming from the other direction look like they are coming straight at me.  I know they're not (at least I hope they're not) but it still looks that way to me.  I only drive when absolutely necessary.  And I might be like that for a long time.

The doctor wants to see if I can keep my original corneal transplant.  It got cloudy with the trauma but has been clearing up gradually since then.  I've been seeing my eye doctor every 2 weeks since the accident.  If it continues to clear up I won't have to have another transplant.  If it doesn't . . . then I'll have to have my name put back on the transplant list and wait my time until it comes up.  Whether my name will come up faster because I've already had one or slower . . . because I've already had one, I don't know.  They won't fix the inside of my eye until they know what the outside (cornea) is going to do.

So, if everything continues to heal and my cornea clears up I might need just one surgery to put another lens in my eye.  It's going to be more complicated than a regular cataract surgery but essentially the same type of surgery since I don't have the little sleeve pocket that the lens usually sits in so they'll have to improvise something to make sure the lens stays in place and doesn't move around in my eye.

Either way, no matter what happens any surgery is still going to be months away for me.  I've been trying to find my "new normal" and get back in to a regular swing of life.  That mostly consists of me sitting at home doing very little after work because my eyes are so tired by the time I'm done.  i also sleep a lot on the weekends (which messes up my sleep schedule during the week for work).

I have started playing video games again but most of the time my heart isn't in it.  I've started posting again this month but only 2 days a week instead of 3.  But I've been thinking a lot about that lately.  I've begone to question if I should continue recording and posting to YouTube.  There's so much time, and vision, involved that my current circumstance is only making more difficult.

I started my YouTube channel to help force me to finish games.  I figured if I took the time to post of video of a game I was making a commitment to actually finishing the game.  But since it's so much harder to play the game, and then edit the video for a game, I'm starting to think it's not worth it for me anymore.  And that makes me sad.

I've actually finished a bunch of games because of my YouTube videos.  I'm afraid if I stop posting then my finish rate will just go down.  But on the other hand it's just so labor intensive for me right now when I'm already struggling to do normal things.  And while I'm proud of each and everyone of the people who have subscribed to my channel my analytics tell me that's not who's watching my videos (and they don't watch for very long).  If I'm putting all that strain on my eyes I really have to think if it's worth it to continue.

I might be healing physically from the accident, but the emotional, psychological and mental process of healing and coming to grips with the fact that I'm now temporarily (hopefully) half blind and will be for possibly another year or more is progressing much slower.  I cry and small stupid things.  If I miss something because I couldn't see it I cry even more.  It's a process and it will take time and I know I'll get there but I have to look at all the things in my life and see what things are helpful to me and what things might actually be harmful to me. 

Spending a lot of time and effort to do a simple thing like play a video game and edit the video might be more than I can handle.  I've told myself that I will finish the games I currently have in rotation (i.e. whatever I'm in the mood to play at that time) and see how I feel after that.  Some of those games are long (like Lost Odyssey) and I might have to make a decision about those earlier than that.  The problem is I don't like to leave things half finished.  If I stopped posting videos in the middle of a play through of a game, even if I continued to play it "off line" from YouTube, it would still feel unfinished.

I've got a lot of decisions in my life and things I've got to deal with now.  I'm not an optimist.  I'm a realist.  But I know things will be better because I want them to and I will work towards that to try and make that happen.  It's just that this is where my life is now and I've got to deal with it the best way that I can for the time being.  If anything changes, I'll let you all know.

What I've been playing . . .

Just to give you an idea of what I've been playing recently (some recorded, some not).  In no particular order.

Lego Batman (Xbox 360)
Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 (Xbox 360)
Voodoo Vince Remastered (Xbox One)
Final Fantasy IX (PS[on my PS3])
Gems of War (Xbox One and PS4)
Skyrim (Xbox 360)
Band of Bugs (Xbox 360)
Back to the Future (Xbox One)
Zombi (Xbox One)

Some of the games pending (which is a polite way to say I need to continue playing them again) are:

Dark Cloud (PS2)
Summoner (PS2)
Psychonauts (PS)
Halo Combat Evolved (Xbox 360 and Xbox One [part of Master Chief Collection])
Dark Souls (Xbox 360)
Rayman Origins (Xbox 360)

And the games that I can't figure out how to record them again:

Final Fantasy X-2 (PS3)
Prototype 2 (PS3)

I started playing the Lego Batman game before I thought about recording it.  I generally play a level as a warm up especially if I haven't played anything in a while.

I'm obsessed with Final Fantasy IX.  I think it's my favorite Final Fantasy game.  I follow the game on Twitch and I'm constantly watching streams of it.  I had to do that because my game disk has an error on it and won't let me get through the first 5 minutes of the game (I think I blogged about that).  So I bought a digital copy through my PS3 so I could play it.  Unfortunately I still can't figure out how to record from my PS3 so I'm just playing it for fun.  I love that game.

I started playing Band of Bugs because I missed playing a tactical RPG game.  I've loved getting back in to this genre even if the game is not that exciting (I'll have a review up once I've finished all the DLC).  There's something about having to plan your move AND your attack that intrigues me.

Back to the Future and Zombi have interesting reasons why I'm playing them.  I'm going to do another blog post about that specifically.  Can you figure out what they have in common?

Skyrim is a very interesting choice for me.  There wasn't any particular reason that I wanted to play that game specifically just that I wanted to play an intense RPG game to scratch a Dungeons & Dragons itch that I have.

Since December I've had a really strong desire/need to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons.  I bought the Starter Kit, Player's Manual, dice (lots and lots of dice), miniatures and the paint the make them pretty (or at least colorful since I'm just learning how to paint them).  I talked with my brother dain and he said he was interested too.  We even got together and went through the first section of the starter campaign.  Since then, every time I try to get with him to play again, he blows me off.  You want to clean room instead of play D&D with me?  That's like a girl saying "I have to wash my hair" so she doesn't have to go out with you.

Since I wasn't getting my fix in real life I thought I would turn to my digital life to find the equivalent.  I was thinking Elder's Scrolls Online, Neverwinter, Oblivion or Skyrim as good choices.  With Neverwinter or Elder's Scrolls Online I felt like I had to be able to invest several hours of game time to it each time I played.  I wanted something I could pick up for a hour or just 20 minutes.  I've probably got about 10 hours in to Oblivion but I think I would be so lost if I tried to pick up where I had left off.  I wanted to start fresh and new.  So Skyrim it was.  The choice then became: on what system?

I have the original on the Xbox 360 and the remastered on the Xbox One.  I've played about an hour of it previously on the Xbox 360 and had 2 achievements (from 2013).  I could have played the remastered one but then would I be able to go back and play it again on the earlier (uglier) version?  I figured I would start over and play it again on the Xbox 360 and just take my time and enjoy it.  Once I've completed it there I might play again but on the remastered version and record that playthrough to post on YouTube.  At least I'll know what I'm doing and won't be fumbling around so much.

The other games that are pending and I need to play I'm just stuck in or frustrated with.  That's what happens when I play games.  I hit a block and stop playing.  Posting videos to YouTube is suppose to help me keep playing them when I do get blocked.  I think I need to work on that.

For those that I'm recording you can check my progress on my YouTube channel.  For those that I'm not recording you can check my achievement lists to see how I'm doing.  For those that don't have achievements I guess I could start tweeting about my progress.  I need to do more of that too.  You can find me at @PengwennGamer.  Is there any one of those games that you'd like to see me play more than the others?  Let me know in the comments.

The Working Game Girl's Review - Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

I finished another game!  I love saying that.  This feeling is even more wonderful for this game.  Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits was a game that I got all the way to the final boss and fought . . . and lost . . . about 5 or 6 times or more before I put the game away out of frustration.  Then my stuff got stolen.  This was a game that I really wanted to see how it would end but I wasn't sure I wanted to go through and play it all over again.  But I did.  And now it's done.  Here's my review of the game.  Slight spoilers ahead.

System: Playstation 2

Developer: Cattle Call

Story:
This is the story of twin brothers who were separated as babies and grew up living two very different lives.  One was raised as human with a hatred of Deimos.  The other raised as a Deimos "wannabe" raised to hate humans.  Both humans and Deimos use Spirits stones in their society and want to control all the Spirits stones so the other doesn't get them.  Both species want to wipe out the other and Emperor Darkham wants to take advantage of those dark feelings and rule the world himself.  Unfortunately, there is a higher power pulling the strings behind the scenes called the Divine Ruler (who later turns into the Lord of the Black Abyss).  Can the Deimos and humans put their differences aside and join forces to defeat evil and save the world for both species?  You'll have to play the game to find out.

Story Score:

Characters:
There are 2 main characters and parties that you control and play.  The story moves back and forth between the brothers and their stories.  The supporting characters for both policies are pretty similar so both parties play pretty much the same.  The hatred for Deimos from the humans; and humans from the Deimos is built up for believable.  The reasons why Darc (Deimos brother) hates the humans and wants to rule the Deimos over the humans and why Kharg (human brother) wants to protect the humans from the Deimos are understandable from the things they've gone through in their lives.  When the brothers finally get together and meet each other you're hoping for the best but things don't turn out that way for a while.

Each character has a personality with likes and hatreds all around.  The parties are so similar that it would have been nice to have a little bit more differences between the human/Deimos counterparts.  when you get to the final boss the best characters to take in to the battle are not the ones you'd think of at first.  When your parties combine which characters you take in to battle make for some interesting exchanges in dialogue.

Character Score:

Game Mechanics:
The battle is a turned based but allows for movement so characters can get behind enemies to do more damage.  That means you need to think about where/how you're going to attack but also where/how the enemies are going to attack as well.  It is sort of open world with the player deciding where they want to go next.  There are extra areas that are not required by the story but can be accessed for experience and loot.

There are four functionalities that I would have liked to have had.  1) I would have liked the ability to save when I'm on the world map.  You can only save at designated save points so if you venture too far away from one (or you're hurting and in need of help badly) you've got to figure out what spot on the map has a save point and then work your way back there.  You can always escape a battle and not fight if you don't want to but it's annoying to backtrack a way to save before you get to a new area.

2) the camera is fixed in battles.  There were so many times that I wanted to swing the camera around to get a better look at the battlefield.  Maybe it was to make sure I'm directly behind the enemies (some enemies are hard to tell) or maybe it was to see my character better because they were behind a bunch of other characters or obstacles.  Since you can't do that, lining up the perfect shot was difficult at times.

3) There are too many skills to learn.  I did a bunch of grinding in this game and yet I still didn't learn all the skills that my characters could.  I even had a character or two that didn't learn all the star levels either.  I tried to use those characters as much as I could, especially towards the end, but they never did earn much experience or skill points compared to the other characters.  When I finally decided which ones I was going to take in to battle I was worried that they weren't a high enough level to really be that usefully.  While I'm all for games giving you lot of skills/things for your characters to learn I think they should all be attainable by the time you reach the final boss and without having to grind to learn them. 

4) comparative inventory management.  I would have liked a better way to compare new equipment with what I currently had.  The best way I could find was to take an item off and highlight the new item to see how much it increased/decreased stats and then do the same with the item I had one.  I know there was a replace option but the info it gave me wasn't enough for me to feel like I was making an informed decision.

Game Mechanics Score:

Art Design:
The art design seems very simple by today's standards.  This is a Playstation 2 game and the system wasn't as powerful as gaming systems are now.  I do think it holds up very well and is not jarring to the eyes to look at it.  Just very simple and clean looking with very little embellishments to the scenery.  The colors were vibrant or muted, depending on the environment and didn't fall in to the cliché of matching the elemental attacks that each character could have (i.e. water attack = blue clothing, etc.).  I think it looked good and didn't interfere in the game play even if not inspiring.

Art Design Score:

Overall Impressions:
I'm so glad I went back and replayed this game so I could finish it.  The story has a nice message and the game play was fresh and allowed for experimentation so you could play any way you wanted to.  It's a game that holds up in all categories and I think should be played by everyone that wants a good experience.  It's not ground breaking or phenomenal in the game industries but very much worth a play.

Overall Impressions Score:

If you want to see how badly I played the game here's a link to my YouTube playlist for Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

I've lost my way

I've had a really hard time recording games lately.  And it hasn't been fun.  There's one game where I can't get past a boss even though I've filmed 3 sessions attempting to do so. 

There's another game where I exhausted all my lives before even finishing the first level.  After restarting and refilming getting through a couple of levels I exited the game thinking it would save at the end of the level.  Turns out it doesn't.  If you want to save you have to pay gold to do so.  So when I came back to play and film more I found out I didn't have ANY save file.  So I restarted . . . again . . . and filmed the first couple of levels again and got to the point where I could save, but I really couldn't.  It costs 100 gold to save and I had 98 coins and no way to get more.  I wasn't in the mood to play any more, and it was very late, so I just shut the game down and deleted the film.  That was no longer a game I wanted to play.

I tried another game but after 30 minutes of tram and elevator rides with nothing happening I was bored.  And if I'm bored anyone watching would be bored too.  Not good either.

I was so upset after messing around with these games for a couple of weeks I found myself with absolutely no desire to play video games.  At this point I had burned through my backlog of videos and had nothing left to post.  I felt like I had lost my way and I needed something to get me wanting to play again.  I needed something I would love to play and it would put in a good mood. 

I knew the perfect game.

There is one game that I love and always put me in a good mood.  I've wanted to play and finish this game for so long but I've had other games in the works.  The game is Final Fantasy IX.  I love that game.  Whenever I feel stressed out I like to watch Twitch streams of this game and it always make me feel better.  I was less than 10 hours away from finishing this game before my stuff was stolen and I would love to see it through to the end.  Maybe now was the best to restart the game.  So I did.

It did not go well.

At the first moment you get control of the character and start the kidnapping of the Princess (about 5 minutes in) my screen froze.  No big deal.  I'll just restart.  I did.  It froze again and then changed to a screen full of pixilated colors in a funky grid.  Okay, maybe my disk is dirty.  So I took it out and cleaned it off . . . and tried again.  Third times the charm, right?

Nope.

The same thing happened.  My game disk was fucked up and there was no way to get around that.  I talked to my brother to ask him if we knew where his FFIX game was so I could borrow it.  He wasn't sure and I wouldn't be able to borrow it (if he found it) for a couple of days.  Damn.

So now I'm out of videos to post and have no desire to play a video game ever again.  Now you might think I'm over reacting but there's a lot of other life stuff that was contributing to this feeling.  So what was I going to do?

After a good night's sleep I remembered that I started my YouTube channel to help me finish the games I want to play.  It's not about playing games that are current or topical or trendy or whatever.  I post games on my channel to make a commitment that I'm going to see that game through to the end.  Games that I want to play.  Games that I want to finish.  So I've decided to take a break.

I might not be posting regularly for the next while.  How long?  I don't know.  I need to find my gaming mojo again and I don't know how long that will take.  What does that mean for the games I currently have in progress?  I'll still post videos when I can but I'm having issues with those games too.

For Dark Cloud I'm still bummed about my supped up sword breaking.  I've got a replacement and I'm currently grinding to get it back up to an acceptable level.  Once I'm happy with what I have I'll get back to actually playing the story and filming more videos.  As for Summoner, I got really frustrated with getting lost in that game and hated having to keep referring to my strategy guide to find out what I needed to do and where I needed to go.  I know that's what a strategy guide is for but I really prefer discovering things on my own and only using it in an emergency.  I hope the whole game isn't an "emergency" for me.

I might make some "What I'm playing" videos so you can see that I'm actually playing.  I can tell you that I've played a little bit already in Fallout Shelter, Gems of War and Slime Rancher.  I might branch out and play some other games, but for right now those games or all I can muster at the moment.

If you lose the urge to play games what video game gets you back in the mood?  Any suggestions for me?  I might be fumbling around while I've lost my way but I'll find my way back and really start playing games again.  I always do.