Travelling without going anywhere

Another month stuck at home, another chance for all of us to expand our horizons into other people’s lives. One of the things I always wanted to do with the blog was to make sure to highlight the obscure but awesome out in the world. In this month’s update let’s talk about historical odd balls and the living odd balls first before the obligatory gaming stuff most folks know me for from YouTube.

You like scary or freaky stuff? I do too. It’s even better when it actually happened. The series I’m about to recommend you is called True Nightmares and is actually based on historical events that took place. Todd Robbins sells the show with his narration, while the actual tales themselves should grab their hooks into you. The trailer below doesn’t really do it justice (it’s just a montage of clips from one of the episodes) but unfortunately it is the only official trailer I could find and use. Off the record the show has quite the following, so a lot of its episodes are on YouTube “in the wild”; just pretend you didn’t hear that from me.

Next up let’s talk about theaters. You know - those places that are completely closed off for the time being for “social distancing” initiatives. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go to a theater and watch from the comfort of your car while observing that mandate? As a matter of fact when I was a younger lad, I am certain things like that existed. There are good folks out there trying to keep these places alive, and the focus of my next suggestion in a documentary called At the Drive-In. I won’t spoil much about the film on films; but I will be happy to note that it’s currently “free with ads” on sites Vudu and Tubi for the time being.

Growing up enjoying all things mechanical but absolutely sucking at all things math related; I am always envious of those who make a living dealing with such things. If you ever grew up with arcades like I did, then Pinball might be something you may of passed on by or even played during your formative years. Although not a hardcore fan or hobbyist myself, I do appreciate the medium. This little documentary is a bite sized introduction into that world and I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

If you somehow stumbled upon my blog coming over from my YouTube page, you’re probably expecting giant anime breasts to burst out on the screen. In that regard you might be both disappointed that I’m interested in a lot of other stuff; (I mean that too, check out the past updates!) but also in luck that I am constantly on the look out for games “on the lewder side” that actually have decent game play. Something that I came across recently is Eiyuu Senki War Wonder (英雄*戦姫WWX) which is a Japanese DMM game that is grid based strategy mixed with Waifus similar to the great Last Origin I’ve talked about extensively on the channel. That being said I want to warn you that playing this game is a daunting task as it requires you to blindly navigate DMM Japan’s site for the game and to register an account. Luckily DMM JP now allows foreigner registration for an account (you don’t need a VPN to play) but that doesn’t mean the game is translated. You’re going to have to flail about on your own, but at the very least there’s this wiki here that should help you out. If your heart is filled with burning passion for more waifus out there (as it should be) then you’ll square your shoulders for the daunting task at hand and figure things out to play the game. Good luck solider!

I know it sucks staying indoors amid the current conditions out there. I just want to remind you to take this time and fully explore things you probably didn’t have time to in the past or never thought of examining in detail. You might just find something you really like that was there all along. As always I’ll see you guys next month with (hopefully) new things to talk about.

Getting Older And Not Wiser

March is birthday month for both me and Clover, and we get to celebrate it by washing our hands vigorously and wearing face masks while trying to blow out candles on a birthday cake? Joking aside, it’s been a good year so far (regardless of world events) and we’re happy to bring in yet another year of age.

Starting off with the real life stuff - it’s a good time to remind folks out there to appreciate what you already have and not what you want. I say that since I’ve been really digging a TV series as of late called Real Detective that is one of the best produced non fiction crime dramas I’ve seen for quite a while. I always try to look at the brighter side of things when it comes to life, and if I need to remind myself I’m not “one of those folks” going through what is portrayed on the show. Since a lot of folks are going to be indoors for a while, I highly recommend you take a look at the series if you need something to pass the time.

Moving onto game stuff I’m a little late to the party for the following 2 entries, but they are unique experiences none the less. The first one is Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout which is an older game from last year that I never got to experience for a couple of reasons. None the less I was happy to find out the PC port of the game (which is the superior one in my opinion) supports modding and of course high resolution textures and effects. An in-game screenshot of my own applied mods below hopefully will peak your interest in checking it out.

The next game recently came out on mobile but was actually out sometime ago on the PS4. It’s called Earth’s Dawn and was on sale on Fanatical (fantastic website for PC game deals) for $1. For that price, I naturally had to try it out and it wasn’t as bad as the reviews said it was back on the PS4. That being said, I wouldn’t pay more than $5 for it and that’s actually the every day price on the Nintendo Switch version. I hope the game’s developers in the future make a new game based on the foundations of Earth’s Dawn as there’s a lot of good ideas at the root of it. Below is an excellent review from AGR.

Moving onto anime stuff that Clover watches, this month we have a pretty funny and wacky anime called Murenase! Seton Gakuen. I won’t spoil the anime too much since you need to watch it to enjoy it, but let’s just say if you like animals, high school and poop jokes - it’ll be right up your alley.

That’s it for this month’s update. The next rare time Clover streams, wish her a happy birthday! Be generous with those Twitch bits and subs too - cause we need money to buy soap and napkins.

Down The Rabbit Hole You Go

It amazes me how I can find myself lacking content to share with you all from a month to month basis. January was a metaphorical “cow skull in the desert” month in which it was hard to dig up anything of interest, while February has been nothing short of content overload. So I’ll keep this update brief yet packed full of stuff you should go check out since you probably have nothing better to do if you’re visiting this site anyway! Off to the rabbit hole you go, and while you’re out there do me a favor and bring back something.

Let’s start off with the mainstream stuff. I love things weird and spooky; and I also like it when those things can combine with pop culture icons such as William Shatner. I mentioned a long time ago on my blog that folks should watch a series called “Weird or What”. It was a show that looked into paranormal stuff around the world while having a slight comedic overtone thanks to the narration of our beloved Captain Kirk. It appears he’s back almost a decade later with a very similar show in the form of “The UnXplained”. I binge watched the entire 1st season on Amazon and was delighted to find out that it has a 2nd season in development that is soon to be released this year. So if you’re like minded as me and want to dive into the wacky world of the unknown, I highly suggest you check it out. Trailer for the series is linked below.

Once you’ve gorged yourself on all that weird stuff, let’s put some regular food back in your belly from YouTube. Similar to another food channel that I recommend on The List, I’m always fascinated by eating culture the world over. More importantly however, I don’t really enjoy overly narrated aspects of how people make or get food - I rather just simply see it from a POV of an everyday person. I am extra fascinated when it happens to involve overly complex food vending machines, and thus DancingBacons is the channel I’m sending you over to. Get ready to learn about stuff you never remotely thought about. I will update The List accordingly as always.

Although anime is more of Clover’s domain than my own, I still appreciate the extremely esoteric nature and community that revolves around it. When you get very creative and talented people who are willing to make content far more interesting than my own, I have to give credit where its due. Thus I’m shooting you over to Fither - the Okumura Food’s subsidiary upstart who will inevitably take over YouTube at one point or time. You might remember A LONG TIME AGO that I wrote an article on Persona 5 confidants. If you in any way shape or form enjoyed that type of content, you’ll definitely like a lot of Fither’s material on his YouTube channel since it’s well made as well as hilarious. Linking to appropriate content below.

This should be more than enough content for the month of February for all of you to check out. For the few souls that came here from YouTube - I will potentially be doing another Last Origin video down the road. I just want to hold out until the game reaches its first official anniversary and see if more interesting content will be added to the game instead of just another month long event. I have a lot of stuff to cover which includes a team building guide and other errata not mentioned elsewhere. In any case, I’ll see you guys in the next update!

Double Happy New Year

Let’s kick off 2020 with the first blog bringing in both Gregorian and Lunar new year at the same time!

Artist: Kuroi

In my last post of 2019, I said I was finally going to update the Tree and Clover sections of the site since they had been forgotten about. In there you’ll find some new stuff from both of us and what we’ve been interested in as of late. Clover’s specifically is Netflix heavy and mine is more general across the board. I suggest you check it out if you have the time and I will try my best to keep it regularly updated in 2020.

Whenever I have time to spare, I try and visit local theme parks since they were a part of my childhood growing up. Although I’m not a hardcore fan, I do try and keep up with what’s going on and whether or not they are worth traveling back to after a few years. To that extent, I was quite shocked how many people fall under the same interests, and some of them bring a camera with them! So if you don’t get motion sickness staring a monitor, you might find this YouTube channel of interest called CoasterForce which uploads POV (point of view) videos of various coasters they go on. Makes nice animated wallpaper too if you got the know how to convert videos to animated backgrounds! I’ll link a sample like always below.

I mentioned all of the games I’m looking forward to in last month’s update; but I do understand that a lot of folks are hyped up about the Final Fantasy 7 remake. The problem is - I no longer own a PS4 since I sold it off early back in 2019. So until the game gets an official port over to PC - I probably will be in the back seat seeing how it plays out. That being said, I am very keen on the rumor mill surrounding the Nintendo Switch and possibly it getting a new version being released in 2020. The only confirmed thing I am looking forward to is Trials of Mana - a legitimate re-imagining of a great Snes game that never hit the US shores called Seiken Densetsu 3. The original game is widely available on the net for free - so if you want to give it a go you can do so right now. I just can’t directly link the game for TOS reasons, but a quick Google search will get you what you need fast.

That’s it for now folks. Hope you had and have a nice start to 2020. I’ll see you all next month.