AP2 Draft 6 – 1-7 COMPLETE!

Okay, I got back to work. Things are picking up.

I’ve been using Google Docs and I recently noticed a little ‘notes’ tab on the right side of the page. So I’ve been making notes with helpful things on the OFF CHANCE my iron-clad memory fails.

Y’know, stuff like what each character is wearing for every day of the book. Mean has quite a few outfits in this one, and fashion isn’t exactly my strong point. It was easier in the first book since there weren’t as many characters, but now there are three times as more. And zounds, even Dark might change up his look this time. 🤯

Otherwise I’m making good progress. The chapters aren’t taking me too long to go through, and I’m not seeing any major problems. Things are flowing well, and I’m enjoying the near-complete work. I just love that feeling of being surprised and moved by something I wrote myself. (Okay so maybe my memory does fail sometimes.)

GAMES AND SHOWS TIME

Monster Train 2 – I reviewed this game already, but it recently got paid and free DLC. They added two new clans: the free Wurmkin and the $$$ Railforged. The Wurmkin are disgusting bug monsters that hoard memories inside crystals. This clan was also DLC in the first game, and I HATED them. But it’s n ot the case this time! Either they work better in this game, or I just wasn’t comprehending their play mechanics. 😂

But enough about them—the Railforged are the completely new clan, and they’re nuts. They build up ‘forge points’ and extra ember by smelting their own cards, destroying them for the entirety of the battle. When you have enough forge points you cash them in by playing a minion or equipping a weapon. Then that minion will gain extra attack power and armor based on how many forge points you used.

And their minions are all robots, turrets, that sort of thing. If only I had remembered to take some screenshots. Just imagine Tick-Tock from Return to Oz or something. 😅

Oh, there’s a new Soul Savior mode as well, one that lets you earn powerful souls that you equip on units or just power up your deck as a whole. You keep these souls once you unlock them, and you can use them on your next run. (In the new mode only.)

However, Soul Savior is quite a bit tougher than the default mode. At first, anyway. After unlocking enough souls I was eventually able to beat it. The easiest difficulty, anyhow. 😅

Fallout Season 2 – I was going to review each episode, but honestly I can’t recall what events happened when. Each episode is an hour long, and I usually watch half one day and half the next. I’m only good at remembering MY made-up nonsense. 😆

Overall, Fallout has the same stuff that annoyed me last season: too many things going on in too many separate places with too many different characters. Please, just focus on one thing for one episode! But no, we see Maximus dealing with Brotherhood drama for fifteen minutes… then we suddenly switch to Hank at Vault-Tec blowing up things’ heads for another fifteen. Sheesh.

There’s some good stuff here, but it kinda feels like everything is just setting stuff up for an even LATER season.

Like the Super Mutant we see for five seconds. “A war is coming.” Then that’s all we get from that guy. Maybe next year. 🙄

And the scenes from vault 32. These guys are stuck there! They have nothing to do with anything else going on in the Wasteland! Why does the show make me watch their antics!?

Oh, because at the end Eyepatch Overseer contacts the Enclave and says ‘activate phase 2.’ I have no idea what that is. And unless you’ve played the games, the average watcher won’t even know what the ENCLAVE is.

Let’s see, what did I like? The misdirect with the ghoul was funny. The dude talks about how he’s waiting for his nose to drop off because it happens to every other ghoul, then his ENTIRE ARM falls to the ground during a critical moment.

I also enjoyed the gauntlet of Deathclaw fights in the final two episodes. Dang, I was hopeful for ONE Deathclaw battle but then I get twelve!? What a slaughterfest. 🥳

Mewgenics – I’m nowhere NEAR done with this game, but I gotta talk about it. It’s a rogue-lite where you breed cats at your house and then you take them out on adventures. Each cat can pick a class such as ‘warrior’ or ‘necromancer,’ then you set off.

Oh, and the battles are grid-based tactics! Beat the enemies, earn items, and make your way to the boss of three consecutive areas. Sounds simple, but the choices MAKE this game. After every battle one of your cats levels up. You pick a skill, passive or some other boost. You also get a piece of gear, which you can equip on your cats. And there are many, many skills and items that you can possibly get.

There’s way more, but you can just look it up yourself I guess! As I said, I’m early in the game so I don’t know everything in store for me yet. I just beat Guillotina, if you happen to know how far that is.

And Guillotina changes up the formula because you do not find this boss out on an adventure. No, she comes to YOUR house to play. I assume there will be more fun surprises like this as I make my way through the game.

Also, the music is amazing; Mewgenics uses the Fire Emblem method of having a main melody for an area, but the instruments and tempo change depending on what you’re doing. Battles are one version of the song while the in-between events have another. And the bosses, oh, the bosses. That’s when the VOCALS kick in. And let me say I’m impressed. All six boss areas I’ve encountered have a unique song. It’s magnificent, even if the lyrics are about mysterious junkyard stenches or ‘eatin’ rats.’

Speaking of YouTube videos, I see that Felicia Day of all people is playing this. So she really is a nerd in real life like her Supernatural character? Who knew.

Man, she’s actually good at the game. She’s picking up things fast and doing better than some ‘professional streamers’ I’ve watched. (Grand Poobear dies horribly to the first area’s boss.) I guess I have to take back all those bad things I said about Charlie.

Wait, AND she’s a writer? What have I done? I’m sorry, Charlie! Please come back in Supernatural season 12! We can have another ‘Heaven heist’ episode! The writers bent over backwards to give you a fairy queen girlfriend for crying out loud! Surely they can transcend death ONE last time!? 😭

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined – I just beat this game last weekend. It has incredible graphic improvements along with voice acting. And what makes it ‘reimagined,’ and not simply another remake? Why, they cut out a bunch of content! 🙂

And yes, making cuts is an IMPROVEMENT here. The original game was bloated with so much boring nonsense. I didn’t even have the patience to get through it all back on Playstation 1. Here’s the story: your characters start on a lonely island in the middle of an enormous ocean. No other continents exist.

Then your band of heroes soon learn that the Demon King has sealed away EVERY other island, and the only way to bring them back is to find stone tablets. Put these tablets into the correct pedestal, and your dudes travel back in time to one of the sealed islands. And when they solve whatever horrifying danger the island is afflicted with, the island reappears in the present.

It’s a cool idea. But there were WAY too many islands to save in the original game. So this reimagined version cuts some locations completely. Other islands are made optional. I did go to the optional ones, and wow are they all slow or tedious.

One optional island has absolutely NO battles to fight at all. No boss, either. Just tons of dialog and cutscenes and a single boomerang weapon for your troubles.

And yet, another island, called ‘Nottagen,’ has nothing BUT endless fights. It’s whole gag is that you beat up one threat, then go back to the present to find the island still in ruins. You must then travel BACK to the past, only to find some new horror is assailing the populace.

You have to save the town THREE times before it’s safe for good. Although I did get quite a bit of nice loot from that place.

I would still recommend the game, though. The only drag I found in the main story was the Alltrades Abbey island. In this area your heroes have all their spells and abilities drained away from them. 😭

Your party is then dumped into a prison camp with other poor suckers. You are given a healing item that has infinite uses, and you must then go through a dungeon to get your stolen spells back. And you only have default attacks to use the entire time.

Oh, and you have to go through the dungeon TWICE, because you get betrayed and knocked out the first time. Only THEN will you get your abilities back, just in time for an arena sequence where you fight four consecutive battles.

At least the reward for all this is good: the vocation system! And in this game you can have TWO vocations at once. Be a pirate AND a dancer, with all of their skills available to use! Very fun.

Anyway, I’ve gotta get back to work. See you next time! 😆