Zorua

Show of hands: how many people aren't surprised? *raises hand* Noah's left eye has been seen before, as a normal human eye, so presumably he learned eventually. Or his emotions are affecting his shapeshifting. Or magic glamour. Or something. Also, is it just me, or are there some parallels here between Uryuom/Seyunolu antennae sensing stuff and autism? What with the whole 'can't handle crowds and everything is loud' thing. Or am I misinterpreting things?

First, we have Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's official release. I'll be taking a closer look at the Pokemon later, but I do like what I see so far. Also, grass cat Sprigatito is adorable and I will choose it as my starter and never evolve it. Second, we have Minecraft Snapshot 22w46a, and there's one thing that's pretty exciting: the "fillbiome" command, which lets you change the biome of an area! People have been asking for something like this for a while, and it'll be a huge help for mapmakers. Previously you had to adjust your world in external programs like MCEdit or something to change a biome, so this is kind of a big deal. Especially for me, since one of the builds I'm sitting on is a big maze divided into several segments, and I want each segment to have a different biome.

Haven't been playing Minecraft much in the last couple of weeks. Instead I've been playing that Pokeclicker idle game I mentioned a few months back. Progress is slow because I've again reached the part where level grinding is a requirement to progress (basically the difficulty spike between the eighth Gym Leader and the Elite Four is a nightmare in the Kalos region). They also had a Halloween event that added some custom variant Pokemon (pumpkin-themed Bulbasaur and Togepi as well as a Pikachu in a Gengar costume), so that's neat. In other news, Minecraft has had a couple of snapshots that add or change a couple of things. A number of new game rules affect items dropped when an explosion happens, how high snow will pile up when it's snowing, and whether or not water and lava can flow together to form new source blocks. There's also new spawn eggs for the Iron and Snow Golems and the boss mobs, though the Wither and Ender Dragon spawn eggs can only be given by commands, and you can get the mob spawner, dragon egg, and ominous banner in creative mode. The server owner can also get command blocks in the creative inventory, while visitors can't. And a number of other quality of life changes. Meanwhile Octopath Traveler 2 has another trailer, putting the spotlight on Partitio and Osvald. Partitio's path actions let him buy things from NPCs or hire them to accompany him, while Osvald's path actions let him scrutinize people for information or mug people for their belongings. Also, you gotta love the dynamic camera angles.

So, Minecraft Live 2022 dropped, and with it, it brought a vote for a new mob and some information on the eventual Version 1.20. No name yet, but we got some new features. A few days after Minecraft Live, we got our first snapshot...for version 1.19.3. But it comes with some data packs that will add 1.20 content as experimental features, which will be properly added to the base game once the actual 1.20 snapshots come out. Anyway, the features: Bamboo Planks! A new wood type, made by crafting four Bamboo in a 2x2 square. Bamboo slabs, stairs, doors, trapdoors, fences, fence gates, buttons, pressure plates, and signs. Try using the stairs to make a thatch roof. It's neat. Bamboo Raft. Identical to a boat in functionality and crafting recipe, but it looks like a flat raft. Neat. Bamboo Mosaic, a new wood block unique to the Bamboo wood type, crafted with two Bamboo Slabs in a 1x2 vertical rectangle. It has a different pattern, and it's pretty neat. Bamboo Mosaic slabs and stairs as well. Hanging Signs! Signs that are placed on the underside of a block. You can also place them on the side of a block, where a pole will appear for it to hang from. They already showed that you can use them to make neat decorations crossing streets or hanging from each other, and some people on reddit found that they also work as an alternate fence for walkways. Cool! They're made using Stripped Logs (or, for the Bamboo variant, just with Bamboo Planks) and Chains, so that's nifty, give some incentive to actually use Stripped Logs. The only issue is they seem to have less horizontal text space than normal signs, which might be the point, give incentive to use both. Camels! A new mob that's...well, a camel. They spawn in desert villages. They're slower than a horse but can sprint for a bit. They have a "dash" movement option, which rapidly dashes forward some distance. This is pretty useful for crossing gaps or rivers that horses can't cross. They're also tall enough that if you're riding it, Zombies can't reach you. You can also breed them using cactus, giving new uses to the almost useless block. But the best part? Two people can ride a camel at the same time, one steering and one in the back to shoot arrows or just enjoy the ride. Neat! And the winner of the mob vote is... the Sniffer! An ancient pig-like mob that can find rare and ancient seeds, so we have the promise of new plants in the future. The Sniffer isn't currently in the game yet, but it's been voted in, so it'll get there eventually. Meanwhile a second data pack gives bundles a crafting recipe again. They were still working on those things, so bundles have not been available in survival mode despite being added in 1.17. But probably the best feature is the one that's actually part of the 1.19.3 snapshot: the rearranging of the Creative Mode inventory. All items have now been shuffled around so that like items are near each other, the nine categories they were sorted into have been rearranged to make more sense, and it's just an overall improvement. So, between Minecraft Live and the snapshot's release, I decided that since 1.20 is officially on the way, it's time to get to updating my main Minecraft world and start/finish a project I wanted to work on. So I booted up my main world in 1.19 and went to certain coordinates I knew about before...and I began to dig. A long, wide staircase headed down from the top of a sizeable hill at elevation 91-ish, to the bottom of the world at elevation negative 50. Then I went forwards just a bit, and there it was. The Ancient City. Home of the Warden. The Warden is currently the strongest mob in the entire game, stronger even than the Ender Dragon and the Wither. It isn't meant to be a mob that you fight; it's meant to be an environmental hazard you avoid. It can't see, but it can sniff out mobs and detect motion. Its melee attacks can easily kill a player wearing unenchanted Netherite armor, the strongest armor in the game, in just two hits. Even enchanting the armor doesn't do much, since it has the most health of anything in the game. If you get out of reach, such as behind a wall or up a pillar you hastily made, it has a sonic blast attack that goes through walls and ignores armor, shields, and enchantments entirely; it's basically an instakill death laser. And if it's got its sights (erm, you know what I mean) on you, it is relentless in chasing you down. Also, it inflicts the Blindness effect, so you can't see where the heck you're even going when you decide to run. Now, the Warden only spawns if you set off the motion sensors (Sculk Sensors) and alarms (Sculk Shriekers) too many times in a row. The key to exploring it is to...well, not. If you crouch, or if you walk on wool, you don't set off the sensors. It's even better if you straight-up break the things...but breaking stuff sets off the sensors, which trigger the shriekers, which summon the Warden. And I do not want to fight the Warden. So I had to completely obscure all of them in wool to keep sound from getting through, then slowly uncover and break them one at a time. Only then can I bother opening the chests to take all the loot. After each chest, I went back to my little base camp area and put all the stuff in chests, then went back out with nothing but an enchanted tool, some torches, and a few stacks of wool, and I snuck my way to the next area. Repeatedly, slowly, tiptoeing my way around the city, panicking when I accidentally set off a shrieker I didn't see and getting the heck out of there even though it hasn't been enough times to call the Warden because I am not risking it, no sir. The scary part? Other mobs can trigger the sensors. Such as bats, which spawn in the cave right above the Ancient City. And slimes, which spawn up there and fall off a ledge in their random wanderings and pass the sensors. And spiders, same deal with falling and dying. And if a player is too close, the sensor will trigger the shrieker even if the player isn't the one that performed the action that set the sensor off. So you can imagine how terrifying it is to look over at the center area and see lights light up because the lights are connected to the sensors, and bats are just carelessly flying past like they aren't giving me a heart attack. Still. Inch by inch, block of wool by block of wool until the whole area could pass for a Rainbow Road course, I finally found all the shriekers and broke them, finally found all the sensors in the city and broke (most of) them, and finally found all the chests and emptied them. The Ancient City...had been conquered. Except there's also Sculk Catalysts. If something dies near one, it causes compatible nearby blocks to turn into Sculk (basically a block of experience). Sometimes sensors and shriekers generate on top of them (fortunately shriekers generated by catalysts don't spawn wardens, but it's still terrifying). And there's one right in the area near where those falling slimes and spiders land, and I can't find it. Fun. Happy hunting. My short-term goal is to find a Mangrove Swamp biome. I know where it is thanks to a copy of the world. All I need to do is go set up the portal in the Nether, and then readjust it in the overworld to where I want it. After that... I'm not entirely sure. There's a number of things to do.

Octopath Traveler again (still). It's about the only game I'm playing right now. Since I've completed everyone's Chapter 3, I'm going around to all the Chapter 1, 2, and 3 areas, exploring the optional dungeons, revisiting the story dungeons to get certain things only Therion (the Thief) can get, and just generally level grinding. My plan for after that is to go to the Chapter 4 areas and get the four bonus classes. There are a few important things I'm going to use: The Cleric skill Reflective Veil perfectly deflects one elemental attack per veil set up on the chosen ally. It can be boosted (up to the maximum of) three times to place up to four on that ally. Reflective Veils last forever until used. The Dancer divine skill Sealticge's Seduction causes a skill that would normally target a single ally/enemy to hit the entire party / all enemies. The Cleric divine skill Aelfric's Auspices causes a target ally to use their skills twice for no additional cost, with the exception of other divine skills. Combining these three (Aelfric's Auspices on my Cleric, then Sealticge's Seduction on my Cleric, then Reflective Veil at full boost) will be how I defeat a number of bosses. Most importantly, it's how I'll defeat the optional boss Balogar, and thus how I unlock the Runelord class, which immediately goes on Tressa (the Merchant). Once I have that, there's another completely broken strategy that I'll employ. The Runelord skill Transfer Rune causes the user's skills that target themselves to affect the entire party. The Merchant skill Sidestep causes the user to perfectly dodge one physical attack per sidestep. The Cleric divine skill Aelfric's Auspices... You know the drill. Transfer Rune + Aelfric's Auspices + Sidestep at full boost = 8 sidesteps for the entire party. The end result is that the optional boss Winnehild becomes a cakewalk, and defeating her unlocks the Warmaster class. With those two combinations, almost every remaining boss in the game becomes a cakewalk if you can get it set up. The tricky part is having to set things up so the Cleric (in the Reflective Veil strategy) can act at full boost twice in a row, since divine skills can only be used at full boost and you can only store five boost points.

When you're so close to getting your untamed wilderness of a backyard finally trimmed down to the height of a functional yard only for your lawnmower battery to completely die to the point where it is unable to charge, leaving you with your lawn stuck at two different heights and no way to fix that without spending at least two-hundred fifty bucks that you don't have.

So, it didn't quite sink in when watching, but the Octopath Traveler 2 trailer did elaborate further on the "intertwining stories" thing, with one player character saying another's name in a voiced cutscene, so there's that. Yay! In light of Octopath 2, I've gone back into Octopath 1 to try and beat everything. I finished everyone's Chapter 2 and am on the way to their Chapter 3. I've been playing their Chapters 2 and 3 in the order of minimum recommended level (ties are broken by going clockwise by starting town), and I've noticed something interesting. Olberic's Chapter 2 has a minimum recommended level of 27, tied with H'aanit for the highest min rec for a chapter 2, while his Chapter 3 has the minimum recommended level of 32, tied with Alfyn for lowest min rec for chapter 3, a jump of a mere five levels. Meanwhile, Primrose's Chapter 2 has the lowest min rec at 21, and the highest min rec for chapter 3 at 40, a 19-level jump! Dear lord, people who use Prim for a solo run must spend hours grinding. Meanwhile, the Hired Help skill remains broken, and I've killed at least three bosses using it as a screen nuke. It's even crucial to any% and true-final-boss% speedruns; start with Tressa and you can get to the credits in under an hour or beat the true final boss in under four hours. Me personally, I'm halfway through the story at about 45 hours. In other news, Overwatch announced a new hero: Kiriko, a ninja/miko from Japan. Some people have noticed that despite the futuristic setting and nanomachines and hard light and robots and hover tech and stuff, Overwatch does appear to have actual magic, but it seems exclusive to the characters from Japan. Hmm...

Nintendo Direct let's gooooooo! Ooh, what's this? The Continent of Elios? Wait, Fire Emblem? Another Fire Emblem Warriors game? No wait, that's the usual grid movement. Still, it looks pretty awesome. Fire Emblem Engage. January 20, 2023. There's two editions, the second one containing a bunch of extra collectibles like an art book and a poster. Neat. What's this one? Two people with a straining relationship are turned into dolls and have to work together to explore the world and try to get back to normal. It Takes Two, coming out on November 4. Is this a Fatal Frame game? It is! Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse makes its way to the states for the first time in early 2023. Follow the main character as she searches for her lost memories while repelling evil spirits. Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Wave 2 expansion pass introduces Ino, a new hero that appears mechanical. There's also Challenge Battles, which look like a PvE wave mode. October 13. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake features 3D platforming in all sorts of interesting worlds. 2023 release. It's that guy from Fist of the North Star. "You are already... Fit?" Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star. If you're interested in anime and rhythm-game-style exercise, this unusual combination might be up your alley. March 2023. OddBallers. Dodgeball has never been more absurd. Frantic minigames featuring propane tanks instead of a ball, monster trucks, wrecking balls, and many, many more. It looks hectic. Early 2023. Tunic. "A small fox washes ashore on a ruined island. Brave the unknown in this isometric action adventure game." Look for pieces of the missing pages of the in-game manual while avoiding traps and enemies. Looks neat. September 27 release, with preorders available today. Front Mission 1st: Remake and Front Mission 2: Remake, remakes of a couple of mech games. Tactical turn-based combat, upgrades, terrain effects, and more. FM1 comes out in November, FM2 comes out in 2023 (incidentally its first ever non-Japanese release), and keep an eye out for Front Mission 3 Remake at some point in the future. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Looking for a farm simulator game that isn't Stardew Valley? Well look no further! Build your farm, interact with the community, raise a family. Characters even age in this game, so that's neat. Summer 2023. Shiver: Listen up! It's going down... Repping the Splatlands, we are DEEP CUT! Frye: Anarchy Splatcast! We're live! Big Man: Ay! (Here we go!) Frye: Shiver! You oughta know. It's that time! Big Man: AAAY! Ay. (SPLATFEEEEEEST! Ahem. It's time for a Splatfest.) Shiver: Ooo! I like a Splatfest. Frye: YEAHHH! TIME TO PARTY! Shiver: Without further ado, this Splatfest theme will be none other than... Frye: Drumroll! Budda-dudda-budda-dudda... BAM! What would you bring to a deserted island? Gear, Grub, or Fun? From the 23rd to the 25th, from 5pm to 5pm, check out Splatoon 3's first post-launch Splatfest! Oh, HELL YES! Octopath Traveler II! All the classic character classes are back. Everyone's path actions change between day and night. New land. New mechanics. New characters. This is gonna be awesome! February 24, 2023 on the Switch. I hope there's a PC release, admittedly, but still. LET'S GO! We have... Hikari, the Warrior, on a journey for home. "With that, we could realize a world without conflict. Without bloodshed." Agnea, the Dancer, on a journey for stardom. "I'm going to become a star, and bring smiles to people's faces. Just like mama." Partitio, the Merchant, on a journey for prosperity. "I'm hittin' the road. I'll be back once I eliminate that devil called Poverty from the world." Osvald, the Scholar, on a journey for revenge. "The man who took everything from me shall die by my hand." Throné, the Thief, on a journey for freedom. "Not again. Not this stench. The stench of blood." Temenos, the Cleric, on a journey for truth. "Heheheh. Doubt is what I do." Ochette, the Hunter, on a journey for legends. "Leave the hunting to me. You'll have all the tasty meat you want." Castti, the Apothecary, on a journey for memories. "I need to rediscover who I am." Looks like the new setting, the land of Solistia (or however they spell it), is more Victorian-era rather than Medieval; there's trains and pocket watches, at least. My only hope is that their stories interact more than the protags from Octopath 1 did (they do say there's intertwining stories...), but really there can be nothing but improvements. Anyway, back to your regularly-scheduled whatever else. Ooh, cel-shading. Fae Farm. Another farming simulation game. Magic to improve crops, dealing with nuisances, and exploring the realm. Solo play or local multiplayer. Looks nice. Spring 2023. And if you're looking for Final Fantasy stuff, we have Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, a rhythm game focused on Final Fantasy music. You can also have 2-player co-op and 4-player competitive. February 16, 2023 release, with preorders available today. Paid DLC songs will come in later with songs from the SaGa series, NieR series, Octopath Traveler (LET'S GOOOO!!!), Live A Live, and more. And if you're looking for something featuring Nintendo's classic all-stars, we have Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. Free roaming in new worlds, interacting with NPCs, finding hidden things, collecting power-ups and allies, and more. October 20, with preorders today. There's also the Gold Edition, up for preorders, with a few extra goodies. Rune Factory 3 Special. What is with all the farming simulators? Sure, there's more to it, like fighting, interacting with the monsters, and a relationship mechanic, but whatever. 2023. Plus, a new Rune Factory game is on the way. Looks like we got some N64 games coming back through the e-shop: Pilotwings 64 Mario Party Mario Party 2 Mario Party 3 Pokémon Stadium (YOOOOO!) Pokémon Stadium 2 1080 Snowboarding Excitebike 64 GoldenEye (!) Various Daylife. An RPG that looks like it places a higher-than-usual focus on the slice-of-life aspect compared to the combat aspect. Interesting. Factorio is coming to the Switch. Build your factory and fend off the local creatures. Ib. A 2D exploration game where the title character explores an art gallery but is drawn into an unusual world and has to go back out. Mario Strikers: Battle League is getting a second free update! Pauline and Diddy Kong are joining the game, as is more gear and a new stadium. Added in this month. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key. I gotta say, I like the 3D anime aesthetic. Very nice. Anyway, another massive open-world RPG that reminds me of Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild, and definitely not in a bad way. February 24, 2023. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Wave 3's Booster Course Pass includes the Merry Mountain from Mario Kart Tour and Peach Gardens from Mario Kart DS. Nintendo Switch Sports will be getting Golf in a free update, including courses from Wii Sports. Survival Golf is basically competitive multiplayer. The update has been pushed back from fall to holiday 2022. And a few notes from Miyamoto The Mario movie will be released in the Spring. Super Nintendo World, a theme park, will open in Hollywood, California. As for Pikmin, we have Pikmin Bloom, a mobile game where you travel around the real world, planting flowers along the way, finding Pikmin on the way who will collect items. There's also an Augmented Reality feature to add Pikmin to photos of the world. It's a fairly easy-going game that's been out for a little bit. And for the main event: Pikmin 4, coming out in 2023. No footage yet, but we will get a more ground-level perspective. It also has easier controls, so it shouldn't be too hard to get into. And some more headlines Just Dance 2023 Edition. Feel the rhythm! November 22. Harvestella. Another RPG featuring farming, but with the 3D anime aesthetic and an ongoing threat called the Season of Death. November 4. There's a demo, and if you get it, your demo's save data can transfer over to the full game. Bayonetta 3. It's been 500 years since Bayonetta 2 and the title character has been revived to fight monstrous bioweapons. Featuring Luka and Jeanne from past games, plus new character Viola. If you're interested in a high-intensity spectacle beat-em-up and don't mind a higher age rating, Bayonetta might be for you. October 28. From the creators of Danganronpa? "Welcome to the city of perpetual rain." Seattle? *badum-tss* Corporate-controlled metropolis? Lots of master detectives? Yuma, an amnesiac detective, and Shinigama, the spirit haunting him after their pact. Find clues, then unravel them in an adjacent realm to learn the truth while dealing with Mystery Phantoms that try to hinder your case. Master Detective Archives: Raincode. Spring 2023. Resident Evil Village Cloud comes to the Switch. Zombies. Am I right? October 28 launch. Free demo today. And the Winters' Expansion DLC will launch December 2. We also get cloud versions of Resident Evil Biohazard, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3 this year. And a rapid-fire list here. Sifu, a kung-fu action brawler. Break their stance. Losing a battle means you get older, but this also lets you learn more things. Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion, a prequel to Final Fantasy VII. A neat remaster with new graphics, music arrangements, and improved combat. December 13. Radiant Silvergun, a classic arcade shoot-em-up. Shoot enemies of the same color for a chain bonus or foes of different colors for a secret bonus. Today. Endless Dungeon. A roguelike set on a derelict spaceship. Procedurally-generated levels full of enemies. Up to 3-player online co-op. 2023. Tales of Symphonia Remastered. Classic turn-based RPG with a brand new look and animated cutscenes. Early 2023. And an even more rapid-fire list. Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection. September 27, 2022. Romancing SaGa -Minsstrel Song- Remastered. December 1, 2022. Pre-orders available now. LEGO Bricktales. Fall 2022 Disney Speedstorm. 2022 Fall Guys - Season 2. September 15, 2022 And it's Kirby! Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe! In addition to familiar copy abilities, we have the new Mecha copy abilities, which include multiple styles of combat. Up to 4-player co-op, with no restriction on who plays as who, so you can have four Kirbys. There's a lot of minigames too. February 24, 2023. Pre-order today. And let's end on a high note. Nothing too much; just more news about Breath of the Wild 2. A stone carving of something with a vaguely Majora-esque face? Zelda enemies? Interesting lore. Here's Link running and diving off a flying island, rising up on an ascending platform, climbing the sides of a floating island, and landing from a dive on some large glider thing. And then the title fades in. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. May 12, 2023! For me, the highlights were the Splatfest, Pokémon Stadium, the very nicely-done abundance of 3D anime art style and cel-shading style, BotW 2 finally getting its official title, and Octopath 2. What's yours?

Thus far I haven't really been doing much. I've gotten back into Raft and decided that, instead of exploring Varuna Point on my survival world, I should just travel around, improve my raft, and just gather supplies. Nothing major. I've also hit a slowdown on a browser game I was playing, Pokeclicker, a Pokemon-themed idle/clicker game that's a bit more interactive than most idle games. To avoid over-explaining, basically I have a few Pokemon to get in order to progress to the next region, and they're all in expensive areas or have rare encounter rates, which means I've basically hit a slog. In other news, Masahiro Sakurai, one of Nintendo's big-name developers and the guy responsible for the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. franchises, is now a YouTuber. His channel mainly focuses on little details of game development, such as why hit stop is important or what a frame is, and about the design process behind games he's worked on. If you're interested in game development, give it a look.

Hold on to your tentacles... It's Inkopolis News time! Check it! Here is the current news updates from the Squid Research Lab! Two new movement options exist: the Squid Surge, to rapidly swim up walls in a burst, and the Squid Roll to jump out of ink while rapidly turning around, deflecting enemy ink briefly. New stages include: Scorch Gorge, Eeltail Alley, Mincemeat Metalworks, Undertow Spillway, and Hagglefish Market Returning stages include: Museum d'Alfonsino, Hammerhead Bridge, Mahi-Mahi Resort, Inkblot Art Academy, Sturgeon Shipyard, Makomart, and Wahoo World. Post-launch stages include the surprising return of Flounder Heights from Splatoon 1 and a new stage that we don't know the name of yet that seems to be Egypt-inspired. As for weapons, all the base weapons from before will return. New weapon types include the Stringers, which are based on bows, and the Splatana, which are kinda sword-like. The ones of each we know about are the Tri-Stringer, which fires three shots horizontally on the ground and vertically in the air and appears to be based on a fishing rod, and the Splatana Wiper, which fires slashes of ink like a sword beam and is based on a windshield wiper. Some new specials are the Tacticooler, which gives four power-ups that give buffs, like a speed boost; the Wave Breaker, which sends shockwaves along the ground the damage foes and track foes hit by them; and the Reefslider, a ridable mount that carries you forwards before exploding. Then there's also the Triple Inkstrike and Crab Tank. Returning specials include the Tenta Missiles, Inkjet, Ink Storm, Ultra Stamp, and Booyah Bomb. Back in the main hub, we have Ammo Knights, the weapon shop, stocked by Sheldon as usual. His currency is Sheldon Licenses, which are obtained by leveling up in battle and consistently using the same weapon. You can buy weapons you don't have the level for just yet, but it's more expensive. For fashion stores, we have Naut Couture, the hat shop, staffed by a nautilus named Gnarly Eddy and his snail friend Nails; Man-o'-Wardrobe, the clothing store, selling shirts and jackets, staffed by Jel La Fleur, a fashion-minded jellyfish; and Crush Station, the shoe store, owned by a large crustacean named Mr. Coco. Clothing have abilities that help you in battle, as usual. A new one, Intensify Action, improves the Squid Roll and Squid Surge moves. Don't like the abilities on your gear? Talk to Murch, who returns from Splatoon 2 but is noticeably older, and he can swap abilities for you. Save your entire outfit/weapon kit. 5 presets are seen, but there might be more. Ranked Battle is now called Anarchy Battle, which appear to be pretty much the same. There's a noticeable difference to Rainmaker, though, in that there are "checkpoint" pedestals, so you don't have to take the Rainmaker as far if you lose it. The practice area is also changed. You can go into training while waiting for a match. Ghosts of your allies can be interacted, so you can interact with them to a point or even invite them to join a battle. You can also view replays of battles and share them. Customization is also a thing. There are viewable lockers that you can customize with stuff. Have fun decorating your space. There's a new store called Hotlantis, run by an artist named Harmony who used to be a regular customer. The store owner vanishes quite often. Hotlantis is where you get customization options. Players also have banners that can be customized, and even their victory emotes can be customized. These can be unlocked at Hotlantis. Customization catalogues are released every three months for the first two years of the game's release. Who wants to play cards? There's a turf war imitation card game called Table Turf Battle! Cards have tiles of turf to cover the play field. A 1v1 competitive spin-off of Turf Wars. Salmon Run: Next Wave. Salmon Run is mostly the same, but with a few new Boss Salmonids added in. The Slammin' Lid is a UFO-type thing that creates a barrier that protects Salmonids underneath and tries to crush anyone that goes underneath. The Big Shot has basically a mortar launcher whose shots create shockwaves similar to the Wave Breaker special. After you clear the mode, you could get an emergency that a new King Salmonid appears. A giant Boss Salmonid that appears after you've cleared the final wave. You can launch Golden Eggs at him to hurt him, but remember that this mode is under a time limit. There's even a mode called Big Run where Salmonids can invade regular multiplayer stages. Single Player mode is called Return of the Mammalians. You play as Agent 3 (or a new Inkling with that number, at any rate) and their mini Salmonid companion called Small Fry battling the Octarians once again, but this time the Octarians are covered in hair...for...some reason. Use it to learn how to use weapons and get some good practice in. In the hub, there's the Mailbox, which lets you make Miiverse-style messages that show up in the world. There's a concession stand where you can buy food and drinks that give you boosts to money or stuff. The Shoal returns, which allows for local connection with nearby friends. Photo Mode lets you take pictures that you can send to a smart device or put them in your locker. The Recon Guide lets you look around stages by yourself. Any stage, not just the ones in rotation, and you get a full hour to explore, instead of three-to-five minutes. Splatnet 3, a mobile app, lets you track statistics, get phone wallpapers, get gear you can't get in-game, and support Crusty Sean, a character from the previous two games, for unknown rewards. Available at launch. amiibo figures can be used once again. Save an outfit/weapon set to your amiibo to load it in as needed. Take a picture with the amiibo character. And get hyped for the Splatoon 3 amiibo: Inkling Girl, Octoling Girl, and Little Buddy. Post-launch stuff doesn't just include stages and catalogues, but also new weapons, X Battle (for high-ranked Anarchy Battle players), and League Battle (team Anarchy Battle modes) will be added for free, and a large-scale paid DLC will be added eventually. Meet the announcers: an Inkling named Frye, an Octoling named Shiver, and a manta ray named Big Man, form a group called Deep Cut. They serve as the news announcers. Players have Sea-Cucumber Phones, which lets them check the news while doing other things. No more being forced into the hub for stage rotation updates. Splatfests return! There's some changes, though. Splatfests now have three options! They're divided into two halves: first has typical 4v4 turf war rounds, but then they switch to 2v4v2 rounds where the team in the lead starts in the middle of the stage and is surrounded by two players each from the other teams. Yes, a tri-color Turf War! We also get the Splatfest World Premiere on August 27! Our choices are... Rock, Paper, or Scissors? (Frye questions why this is a thing before getting into it). Tune in on September 5 for the first Splatoon 3 tournament! No, in real life! The Splatoon 3 Enter the Splatlands Invitation 2022! Hosted in Seattle at PAX West, the top Splatoon 2 teams will duke it out in the Splatlands! Check it out! From Splatsville, that's a wrap. Catch ya later!

Few days ago, we got the next official Pokemon presentation. As usual, here's the highlights. Here we go. First, Chris Brown gives updates on the annual Pokemon World Championships, which return in 2022 after a three year absence. The event will feature battles in the card game, in Pokken Tournament, in the main series games of course, and now Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite for the first time. We also see a new Pikachu championship trophy. Looks nice. Ultra Beasts and Shaymin appear in a new Pokemon Go event: Pokemon GO Fest 2022. There's also a new item that can attract Pokemon not normally in your area, Legendary Pokemon included. Pokemon Unite is a year old, and to celebrate, there's some new Pokemon and events. The Pika Party event, lasting until September 3, has Pikachu as the only Pokemon in the entire arena, playable and wild. Buzzwole is a new playable Pokemon, with Tyranitar on the horizon and three more to be added starting in September. Pokemon Master EX, in celebration of its 3-year anniversary, gets a new playable character: RED! Mewtwo is back in Pokemon Cafe Remix, and he is hungry. Clear a one-minute cooking game, and he can even join your staff. Latios is also on the way. ...did they seriously make actual wearable mascot suits for the Gen 9 starters? Well, I guess that's a good enough segue into the Scarlet and Violet news. Anyway, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet! The region is officially named: the Paldea region! Definitely looks like it's based on the Iberian Peninsula. The region is fully open-world. Presumably some locations are locked behind badge progression or story progression, but you can battle the Gyms in any order you choose. Beyond the Gym challenge, there are two other stories. We didn't get a lot of detail, but overall, it's called the Treasure Hunt, which presumably is less looking for shiny things and more making your own story. We meet one Gym Leader: Grusha, the Ice-type Gym Leader. Not gonna lie, I thought Grusha was a woman too. I blame the winter clothes and the hair. The Legendary Pokemon, Koraidon and Miraidon, accompany you from the start as your multipurpose riding mount! Ride on their back for faster travel, aquatic travel, scaling cliffs, or even gliding in the air! There might be some story component where they switch into their status as actual battle-capable Pokemon. Of note is that despite looking like it has wheels, Koraidon (who appears to represent the past) just runs everywhere. We have two new Pokemon: a mono-Fairy-type pastry-themed dog named Fidough (so... a pure bread purebred?), and an Ice-type land whale called Cetitan (the third whale Pokemon line after the Wailmer line and Kyogre). We also get a regional variant of Wooper. Paldean Wooper is Poison/Ground. I wouldn't pet this one, though. Returning Pokemon aren't too shabby either, as we see Skiddo being catchable for the first time since Gen 6. Also Pikachu appears to have its animalistic cry again, instead of saying its name as has been normal for a couple gens now. I counted, and the number of Pokemon confirmed so far is 172 (counting the not-yet-revealed evolutions for the starters). Only 16 of which are new. Multiplayer! Invite up to three friends into your game. Run around to catch Pokemon you haven't caught yet or just race across the map. Have fun! The new gimmick is the Terastal phenomenon (I think "terra" and "crystal"). It provides a crystalline filter over the Pokemon and a goofy-looking but elementally-relevant hat thing (probably for accessability purposes; it's hard to tell Fire-type red from Grass-type green if you're red-green colorblind). Terastallizing your Pokemon will change their type and give a boost to that type and moves thereof. Every Pokemon has a "Tera Type", and by "every" Pokemon, I mean every individual Pokemon could have a different Tera Type. Eevee's Tera Type is normally...well, Normal, but you could find Eevee that have a Water or Grass Tera Type. Tera Types are not equally common. Pokemon with rare Tera Types can be encountered in Tera Raid Battles (yes, raid battles are back). During these battles, you and your allies are not limited by turn order; you can select an attack even if your allies are in the middle of an action! Pre-orders are available. As a pre-order bonus, you can get a Pikachu with not only the Flying Tera Type but also the move Fly, which I don't think it's been able to learn since Pokemon Yellow (correction: Pikachu with Fly is a recurring event giveaway and can be found in the Pokewalker so never mind). So, gyms in any order you want, new doggo, new whale, Legendary is on your side from the very start, active multiplayer, no-turn-limit-among-allies raid battles, and a much-easier-to-program-and-memorize Super Mode gimmick. Scarlet and Violet are looking pretty good so far.

I decided to boot up Raft again. In the months since I last played, they added three new story islands, some new craftable items, trading posts to get rid of excess junk, and four new player character options. In my main survival world, I went to the next story island, Varuna Point, which is the top of a submerged skyscraper, and found basically nothing there, only to have the realization that the bulk of the level takes place underwater. And while I was exploring what was on the surface, there was a mysterious impact noise, like something exploded. Faced with that realization, I decided to start up a new world in Peaceful difficulty--resources and islands still generate, but no hostile land creatures will attack you unless you attack first, and hostile aquatic creatures don't attack at all. You can also still get hurt from drowning, starving, dehydration, fall damage, and environmental hazards, so that's still a worry, but no big. I used this to build up a significant resource base without having to worry about the shark attacking my stuff, and I managed to build my raft about to where my usual Normal-difficulty raft was. To sum up my trip through the new story, all three new islands have an enemy that hurts you in ways that break the previous trends of peaceful mode. Varuna Point has the Anglerfish, an aquatic creature that retaliates, and the Rhino Shark, a boss that attacks by ramming into you, pushing you away from your precious air bubbles even if you're playing in peaceful and thus take no damage. Temperance has the Scuttlers, which are outright hostile and attack you even in peaceful. And Utopia has the final boss, who is fought in three phases, all of which involve setting up some kind of environmental hazard but phase three is hostile even in peaceful. Now, my main goal is to build up my raft. I'm going for kind of a layered design, which means I need to build supports for everything. Which requires nails, which are made from scrap, which is a pain to get in bulk if you need a lot of it. I basically need to loot all the scrap from every tiny island I can find. Titanium is also needed for a lot of high-end equipment, and you're lucky if you get more than one per island. Fortunately, the trading post option sells titanium, so that'll speed things up a little. I'm building up my resources by revisiting all the story islands. That said, I need to progress my actual survival Normal-difficulty world, which is still parked at Varuna Point dreading the underwater trip. Maybe I should come back later after getting some more things. Like oxygen tanks. Or a spine. If you're looking for tips, here's one: Don't build the tall storage cabinet. First, it costs titanium, and second, it has less storage capacity than four wooden storage chests. Chests can be placed on walls, so build a single two-high wall panel and you can have four chests taking up the same amount of space as a storage cabinet. Cheaper and more resource-efficient. Likewise, there's a fridge you can buy from the trader. Don't, for exactly the same reason. Looks nice, but four chests do the job way better. Another tip: enemy creature heads fill up the biofuel reactor very well. Watermelons are also a good substitute, so if you're looting small islands for scrap and titanium, be sure to pick up some spare watermelons and set up some crop plots near your reactor. A third tip: clam shells are surprisingly good in the recycler, so any shell from your fourth onwards is recycling fodder. Wool is also good, so catch a lot of llamas to build up a good supply.

So instead of upgrading my Minecraft world, I decided to boot up Octopath Traveler again. After debating for some time about what order to do everyone's Chapter 2 in, I decided to just do it in order of minimum recommended level. Chapter 3 as well, and then their Chapter 4 in reverse order I recruited them so as to end on the character I started with (Ophilia will be horrendously overleveled at that point). [Edit]: Something I forgot to mention is this: When you beat your starting character's Chapter 4, you're treated to the proper end credits sequence. Throughout the credits, you see scenes from your playthrough, specifically the final hit you dealt against every story boss in the game. So if you want the most out of it, finishing your starting character's chapter 4 last will give you the most scenes. And it might be a good idea to make those moments memorable. With that in mind... Tressa is a Merchant, which means she has access to the ability "Hired Help". In exchange for money, you can call an NPC to your side of the battlefield to perform a single attack against the enemy side. The fourth on the list is a Cleric, which performs a Light-element attack against all enemies. Attacks can be boosted, which means by spending up to three Boost Points (they build up each turn in battle), you can make an attack stronger. How boosts apply to Hired Help is with each boost, you hire an additional NPC of the same type to do the same attack for no additional monetary cost. Basically what this means is when fighting Tressa's Chapter 2 boss, I had her pay 10,000 money to hire four clerics to basically nuke the guy. That's gonna be a memorable scene in the credits, that's for sure. (as a side note, the Cleric's strongest skill, which can only be used if you use three boost points, will let the target ally use their abilities twice for no additional cost. Which means one could use Hired Help to summon eight of them for the price of one. I (don't) feel sorry for Tressa's (or anyone's, really) other bosses.) [/edit] I still haven't booted up Kerbal Space Program. Not sure why.

The full Minecraft Version 1.19 is finally out. Community response is mixed; they love the new red wood type, the Mangrove Swamp biome is interesting, the Ancient City is very well-designed, the Warden is a neat boss-in-all-but-name, mud is nice, boats with chests are awesome, and so on, but they think it's also lacking in content, the Allay is complicated, and the Ancient City doesn't have enough worthwhile loot. Overall, they like most of what's there, but they think the Wild Update isn't wild enough. Personally? I haven't updated my main world just yet. I made a copy and updated that one so I could find the new biomes, to prepare for going out to search. The Ancient City is close enough that I can probably walk there in the overworld (which I might do because I don't want my portal to generate right next to the Warden), but for the Mangrove Swamp I'll have to go even further out from one of my Nether tunnels. I'm interested in all the new blocks, so I'm gonna go for it.

A tiny bit late. Oh well. Anyway, so minor Minecraft thing. With 1.19 on the way, I wanted to try and set up a number of automatic farms in different places and finish some other ways of getting a lot of resources. To this end, I decided to work on three things at first: finishing my Villager Trading Hall, building a Piglin farm, and building a Drowned farm. The Piglin farm is a gold farm hooked up to a Piglin bartering station so I can trade the gold for a large amount of resources, including gravel, obsidian, and potions. The Drowned farm will produce tridents, nautilus shells, and the coveted copper ingots. And the Villager Trading Hall will produce...practically everything. Not literally, but there are so many resources you can get out of those, and I want in on them. The main problem is I wasn't sure what to do first. Finish the trading hall? Set up the gold farm? Go for copper? So I chucked named pieces of paper in a dropper and let the Random Number Gods decide. The gold farm is almost finished. Literally the only thing I'm missing is the Piglin to barter with. The problem with spawning one in is the spawn platform is too close to the gold farm, so Zombified Piglins are filling the hostile mob cap. The farm produces all the gold I will ever need, so we're not having trouble just yet. A couple of optional things I'd like to add to this farm is 1) a Cleric-profession Villager to trade the stacks upon stacks of rotten flesh the gold farm produces, and 2) a furnace to smelt the stacks upon stacks of golden swords into gold nuggets into. Those are just nice add-ons, though, and I'll worry about them once I get the Piglin in place. My Villager Trading Hall is divided up into 11 buildings. Ten of them are dedicated to a specific villager type while the remaining one has the three blacksmith-style professions sharing. The main reason for dividing stuff up is entirely for the theme, admittedly; all the Librarian Villagers are in a library, all the Shepherd and Farmer villagers are in a big barn with attached sheep pen, the Leatherworker villagers are in a clothing store, etc. The main issue is resources, as the Shepherd/Farmer hall and Leatherworker hall both require stained terracotta, and rather than mine all of that, I could easily just buy it from the Mason villagers...which I currently have none of. I know I'll end up breeding more than enough villagers and probably recycling some of the excess for other projects. Two more things with this I need to do is first, to move the villager breeder as I think it's too close to the established villagers so it thinks this village is sufficiently populated. If I move the breeder, then it'll probably work better. And second, I need to make a Zombie Cure Station, where I intentionally let a villager become zombified and then cure them so that they will, out of gratitude, permanently lower their prices. Do this a few times, and a lot of expensive trades could be brought down to just a one emerald/resource cost. I need to do this with every villager, and counting how many villagers I'll have...this could take a while. Finally, the Drowned farm. I found a basic tutorial and built this thing in a Creative Mode copy of my world. And thus far...it has produced exactly zero Drowned. Plenty of fish, but no Drowned. I wonder if I did something wrong. I'm honestly tempted to try and copy one of the ridiculously overpowered Drowned farms made by TangoTek on the HermitCraft server, but it seems like a lot more work and I'd at least like something simple. Technically I have a Drowned farm already that funnels zombies from a spawner into a chamber that turns them into drowned for me to kill, but this is incredibly slow. After I make all of these, there's a couple of things I'd like to do. Fix my Iron Farm (should be easy when I end up with way too many extra Mason villagers), make a TNT Tree Farm, improve my Honey farm, a Dripstone farm, Bamboo farm, Blaze Farm, Amethyst, Guardian, Flowers... I have a lot of farms I need to work on. As for actual builds I'd like to work on, well... I like the idea of taking existing Minecraft structures and building them in different build styles. I want to turn an End City into a collection of tree houses and build a Nether Fortress as a futuristic flying structure using colored glass to simulate hard light bridges. Both of these require a lot of wood and glass, respectively. Plus there's making my own custom Woodland Mansion, making one again underwater out of prismarine, making an Ocean Monument on the surface styled after said mansion, and some other stuff. I also have a dumb idea of making a massive city with themed buildings. Nineteen central buildings themed after the superheroes/villains from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir, surrounded by about ninety buildings that are based on the Super Smash Bros. playable characters, either themed after those characters or lifted directly from their source games. Not sure if I'm gonna do this in my main world or not. And that's just on my main world. I also want to build the Kanto region from Pokemon, but scaled up and more fleshed out with elevation changes and a lot of extra buildings, and there's no way that's going to be a Survival-only world. I'm starting in the middle, in Saffron City, and it's...already a little out of hand. Speaking of Pokemon... New gameplay trailer! Two Professors! Professor Sada if you pick Scarlet Version, and Professor Turo if you pick Violet Version. I wonder if the other one will show up in a minor or even antagonistic role. Could be neat. New rival! Nemona, the player character's friend. Her design is neat. She has a Pawmi. New Pokemon! Pawmi, an electric rodent that, if the cheeks are any indication, is gonna be the new Pika-clone. Lechonk, a Normal-type pig Pokemon. And Smoliv, a small olive Grass/Normal Pokemon. Region details! Looks like Pokemon Center-type kiosks are scattered outside instead of being indoor buildings. New Legendaries! Koraidon in Pokemon Scarlet, and Miraidon in Pokemon Violet. People have noticed that their names refer to past and future, respectively, and that they seem to have an odd wheel-like shape on their chests. Release date! November 18, 2022!