I finally completed my New Game+ run of Final Fantasy XIV up to the end of Stormblood's base story the other night, so this evening I thought I'd spend a bit of time unlocking stuff and catching up on things. There is, of course, a fair amount of stuff to do, but I managed to get a few things done this evening!

Kugane Castle is a fun dungeon. Those who enjoy traditional Japanese architecture will particularly appreciate it, as there's lots of running over pretty bridges, under arches and into immaculately panelled rooms. Lovely stuff — and the final boss is super fun, too. I won't spoil their identity for the benefit of those who are yet to do this dungeon, but I suspect most longstanding FF fans will see them coming a mile off — and their execution doesn't disappoint either.

The only other instance I really had time to do tonight was The Royal City of Rabanastre, which took a full hour to queue for — thankfully, I had lots of other unlock quests and other gubbins to do while queueing, so I wasn't left just sitting around. Rabanastre itself is a really fun raid, featuring some of my favourite music from Final Fantasy Tactics, some really enjoyable "navigation setpieces" (aka theme park ride bits) and some enjoyable bosses with interesting mechanics. A lot of said mechanics are ignored by many people today — but the later fights in the instance still demand that you pay a certain amount of attention!

I've still got a fair bit to catch up with — in the week I'll likely delve into Omega, as well as some of the Hard Mode dungeons I've unlocked. Interested to see new takes on Fractal Continuum and Saint Mocienne's Arboretum, and I'm sure there's plenty more I haven't tracked down the unlock quests for yet.

Very much enjoying myself right now, then. Will I make it through Shadowbringers in time for Endwalker? That remains to be seen — but even if I don't, well, I'll be having an enjoyable ride in the meantime!

Apparently this dates back to 2016, but I've only just come across the list of "banned words and phrases" that were supposedly posted on a whiteboard in the writers' room for American sitcom Workaholics. Here they are, as transcribed on John August's blog:

? More Like ___.
Can You Not?
…I Can Explain!
Let’s Not And Say We Did
I Didn’t Not ___
Va-Jay-Jay
Wait For It…
Just Threw Up In My Mouth.
Really?
Good Talk
And By ___ I Mean ___
Check Please!
Awkward!
Shut The Front Door!
Lady Boner
Rut-Roh!
I Think That Came Out Wrong.
Uh… Define ___.
No? Just Me.
Why Are We Whispering?
That Went Well…
Stay Classy
I’m A Hot Mess!
That’s Not A Thing
It’s Science
Bacon Anything
Cray-Cray
Real Talk
#Nailed It
Random!
Awesome Sauce
Thanks…I Guess
Little Help?
Laughy McLaugherson
Dot Com
I Love Lamp.
Oh Helllll Naw!
#Epic Fail
Did I Just Say That Out Loud?
Food Baby
Douche (Nozzle)
Soooo, That Just Happened
Squad Goals
I Just Peed A Little
Too Soon?
Spoiler Alert
Um… In English Please
Note To Self
Life Hack
Best. ___. Ever. (or Worst. ___. Ever.)
It’s Giving Me All The Feels.
Garbage People
That Happened One Time!
Well Played
I’m Right Here!
Hard Pass
Are You Having A Stroke?
Go Sports!
Zero Fucks Given
We Have Fun
Who Hurt You?
I Absorbed My Twin In The Womb
I’ll Take ___ For $500, Alex.
Thanks Obama
Wait, What?
Shots Fired
Sharkweek
You Assclown
Ridonkulous
Bag Of Dicks
Hey, Don’t Help.
Debbie Downer
I Can’t Unsee That.
That Just Happened.
See What I Did There?
I’ll Show Myself Out.
Here’s The Line, Here’s You.
___ On Steroids/Crack.
Swipe Right.
White People Problems.
I Could Tell You But I’d Have To Kill You.
That’s Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
I Think We’re Done Here

Pretty much all of these are still in regular circulation; not necessarily on television, but just… around. And they're not any less annoying than they were in 2016. In fact, they're possibly even more annoying given that they've been around even longer (some of them date back to the late '90s and Friends) — particularly when they tend to be parroted in places like YouTube comments and livestream chat boxes for when people want to look like they're saying something, but actually have nothing of substance to say whatsoever.

I'd add the following to The List, too:

• Everyone asks "where is _____" but never "how is _____"

• Me when [mundane situation that is an absurd contrast to the drama of the thing referenced]

• My sides

• Nobody:
  Absolutely no-one:
  [thing referenced]: [thing that thing referenced said]

• There is nothing better than ____________.
  Thing that is better than ___________: Am I a joke to you?

• A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

• (make that any Star Wars reference)

• [mundane thing] hits different.

• Just vibin

• Bruh

• I'm howling

• I'm screaming

• I'm dying

• I'm dead

• [anything about feet]

• Half a sentence. Word.

I'm sure there are plenty more but just thinking of these is annoying me, particularly because I know I've been guilty of a fair few of these in the past. We have such a rich, powerful and wonderful language and people just crap out clichés and memes rather than saying anything of substance.

I long to once again live in a world where a GIF is not an acceptable substitute for conversation. I long to live in a world where everyone speaks like Urianger from Final Fantasy XIV.

Forthwith, I needs must avail myself of the considerable entertainment value of this technological marvel that Cid and his gallant engineers doth refer to as "video games". Prithee, abide with me and we shall surely engulf ourselves within a world of purest fantasy.

Whew. It's been a long week, and a long day in particular — I had a lot to be getting on with today, not all of it readily "visible", so you'll have to take my word for it! In fact the vast majority of my afternoon in particular was taken up with another Secret Project, so I can't say much about that for now — save for the fact it involved getting to grips with some games I don't understand very quickly!

This weekend should be fairly par for the course. I intend to spend most of tomorrow playing Atelier Lydie & Suelle, which I have unfortunately neglected over the course of the last couple of weeks due to day job commitments and a renewed enthusiasm for Final Fantasy XIV. Then on Sunday I'll be recording the next week's videos — then early next week I'm actually taking a trip down to the in-person offices for the day job for the first time, which is both exciting and oddly nerve-wracking!

I shouldn't have to do this all that often, but it is good to actually meet people in person every so often, particularly if your primary contact with them is via text-based chat on Discord and/or Teams. I have a busy day planned; since the work I do straddles several distinct teams at the organisation, I've got several people to catch up with — not sure when I'm going to fit in any actual writing, but I'm sure it'll all work out somehow, to quote a certain alchemist.

Anyway, that's about that for now. Halloween on Sunday. Hope you've all got some spooky gaming lined up to celebrate the season — I recommend the rerelease of Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, which really is a magnificent spooky game, and you no longer need a Wii U (and deep pockets) to enjoy it!

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water (or Fatal Frame, if you want to be all American about it) is out this week. Please buy it. It is a great game, one of the best survival horror games (and series) out there, and I would very much like it to come back, either in the form of remastered versions of the old games or some brand new installments. Or, preferably, both.

If you would like to know more, I encourage you to either read my Project Zero Cover Game Feature on MoeGamer or the abridged version I posted over on Rice today: https://ricedigital.co.uk/the-history-of-project-zero/ 

Seriously, this is one of the absolute best horror game series in the known Universe, and its focus on Japanese spiritualism and ghostly myths makes it stand out brilliantly against the horror games that focus more on blood and gore. And Maiden of Black Water specifically is an immensely underappreciated game that suffered a great deal from being confined to the Wii U (not from a technical perspective, mind you — it was one of the most beautiful games on the system) so I would urge you to give it a chance now it is more broadly available.

Then hopefully we can encourage Koei Tecmo to finally do an official localisation and/or remaster of the fourth one, aka The Best One. We can but hope.

Anyway. It's nearly Halloween, so you need a spooky game to enjoy, right? Also, buy Corpse Party too, that's also awesome.

Right, I am done spending your money for you. Off to bed for me!

You may recall a short while back I mentioned that Andie and I started Weight Watchers as a means to get us both actually paying attention to what we were eating and losing some weight. I'm pleased to report that it's been going very well so far — in the first few weeks I've already lost over a stone, and I anticipate things will probably be slow but steady from here.

I've been enjoying Weight Watchers more than Slimming World, even though I know Slimming World was also very effective. Weight Watchers is just less work, though; Slimming World involves a lot of "substitutions" and doing things that are specifically "Slimming World-friendly", whereas Weight Watchers is more a case of "put what you want in your mouth, just remember to make a note of it… and if the prospect of making a note of it gives you pause, maybe think about whether or not you really need to put it in your mouth".

For the most part, I feel like I can eat pretty much what I want — I even had some KFC chicken the other lunchtime. It was rather eye-opening to see how many Weight Watchers points certain takeaway curries were, though; a single naan bread is 28 points, for example, while a chicken tikka masala is an incredible 81 points. To put that in context, I'm supposed to stick to about 55 points per day, plus a weekly balance of another 40 or so that I can use as I see fit for things like an occasional treat. (Andie, who is both female and much smaller than I am, is on 27 points per day, so she wouldn't even be able to have the naan bread and stay within her limit without breaking into that weekly allowance!)

These are extreme examples, of course, but enough to make me think that a curry perhaps isn't the "slightly healthier" takeaway option that we've historically thought of it as. Subway is probably the best one to go for, though that is, of course, more of a lunchtime sort of thing, really. A turkey and ham footlong with plenty of trimmings and cheese is "only" 19 points — well within my daily limits. For the moment, anyway.

As I lose weight, that points allowance will decline somewhat; it's already dropped 2 from the 57 per day I started at. Presumably the thinking is that as one loses weight, one needs less food to keep oneself alive — and indeed one will use less energy simply by existing. I'm hoping that the gradual decline in "allowance" will correspond to a decrease in appetite, otherwise things are going to get more challenging as we go along. But we shall see, I guess; the really hard part is getting started, and that's been going quite well so far.

Still a long way to go yet, but we're getting there. And if you've been pondering some sort of slimming plan for yourself, I feel pretty safe in vouching for Weight Watchers right now; give it a try and you might just be surprised how straightforward it is, even for someone as prone to stress and boredom eating as I am.

I've mentioned a number of times on here that I only keep Twitter around because I feel like I "have" to. I feel like I "need" it to promote my work. But let me give you a run down of my day on Twitter.

I have 3,553 followers on Twitter, for context. That number has actually been pretty stagnant for a while, which has been quite noticeable, and when I consider the "engagement" (ugh) the things I've posted today have had, it's sort of understandable.

This morning I shared a post from a visual novel developer who is localising an Alicesoft game — something which should have been of interest to a significant number of those 3,553 followers; the majority of them would have followed me in the first place because of MoeGamer, and as such can reasonably be assumed to be Japanese gaming fans.

That post got one reply, three retweets and 16 likes. By far my most successful post today, and also not coincidentally by far the most low-effort one.

Next I shared a post I'd written on Rice Digital about Alicesoft's music being available on Spotify. Three retweets, seven likes, no conversation.

Then I shared a post about a horror game suitable for Halloween week — topical, you'd think, huh? One retweet, two likes, no conversation.

Next I shared a video I'd made for the Rice Digital YouTube channel, which related to a post that did quite well last week — it was about the upcoming horror game Project Kat: Paper Lily Prologue. One retweet. From me. No likes. No conversation. (Oh, and the video got a "dislike" within two minutes of it being uploaded.)

Then I shared a post I'd written for Retrounite about the value of the Nintendo 64 games that are coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. No retweets. No likes. No conversation.

And finally, I shared a review of Neptunia x Senran Kagura, a relatively "big" game in the otaku community. Five retweets, nine likes, one comment telling me (I can't tell if jokingly) to "stop lying".

At this point, I honestly don't know why I'm bothering at all. My one reason to keep social media around is to promote my work — and given that my livelihood is at least semi-dependent on ensuring that people read what I'm writing, it is something of a concern — but it just seems to be a complete waste of time.

And most frustratingly, I can't tell if people aren't responding to anything I post because Twitter is deliberately hiding them (I've heard unconfirmed stories from people that Twitter deliberately buries tweets with links that go off-site) or simply because people are scrolling past and not giving a shit.

If it's the latter, I don't really know how to go about things any differently, because as you can see from the links above, I make a point of sharing things with a "human" comment to make it clear that they're written by a person, not churned out by a content farm. I make sure my comment is phrased in a way that could potentially start a conversation or encourage someone to share.

And still nothing. Piss in the wind. Absolute complete and utter fucking waste of time. I am the closest I've ever been to simply deleting social media altogether. You may feel free to attempt to convince me one way or another if you so desire.

Been playing Neptunia x Senran Kagura Ninja Wars for the last couple of days and really enjoying it — should have something up on Rice Digital for it tomorrow afternoon, as that's when the embargo lifts. So technically I shouldn't be saying anything about it here, but eh, we're all friends here and whatever.

They've had quite a few goes at "action Neptunia" to date, and all of them have been enjoyable games in one way or another — but up until now, Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online had been quite a way ahead of the other titles. Hyperdimension Neptunia U and MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune vs. Zombies both felt kind of like "Senran Neptunia" to a certain degree, while it was Cyberdimension Neptunia that really added some significant "action RPG" trappings to the arena combat of the earlier games.

Interestingly enough, the latest attempt at "action Neptunia" is even less like Senran Kagura, despite there being four Senran Kagura characters in it. If anything, there are elements of Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy VII Remake and a fair few other bits and pieces in there — I'll talk more about them in the article tomorrow, but suffice to say for now that it's really enjoyable and satisfying to play. I hesitate to say it's the best Nep game for a while — Megadimension Neptunia V-II still takes some beating, since that's just such a wonderfully complete package of enjoyable mechanics and excellent story — but it's certainly a high point for "action Neptunia", for sure.

Anyway, I've been playing it all evening and it's now 1am, so I should probably sleep. So I can play it some more tomorrow before I write about it! Ah, it's a hard life. Anyway, hope you all had a good weekend. We bought a bed!

I have missed a couple of days. Apologies for that. I was getting to the end of the day and just zonking out without really thinking about anything else other than getting to sleep, so I hope you coped with my absence. Anyway, I'm here now. It's still late and I still want to go to bed, but I am at least remembering to write something.

Took stock of the YouTube channel earlier, because we've reached an important milestone: there's only 8 games left to go on Atari A to Z Flashback. This might sound like an arbitrary milestone, but this image should make it clearer:

Yes, we're onto the last page of games, which means the end is literally in sight — and going out with Yars' Revenge? What a way to finish. Gonna have to plan something vaguely special for the grand finale, I feel.

In total, I've now made 465 videos just on Atari games of various descriptions, across the 8-bit, ST and all the platforms covered in Atari Flashback Classics. On top of that, there's a bunch of Evercade stuff (which I am planning to return to once the VS is all set to go with its final firmware, which should be around now since reviews are already happening!) plus Retro Select, short;Play and the longer Let's Play series I did a while back.

I do miss doing some of those long playthroughs — Project Zero and Split/Second were particular favourites — but they're just not practical, especially now I have stuff I need to play for the day job as well as stuff I want to write or make videos about for my own personal projects! Maybe when I retire or if I win the lottery or something.

As I'm typing this, Patreon has just popped up a message which claims "it looks like you might be promoting a raffle", and this is apparently a no-no. I would like to make it abundantly clear that I am not promoting a raffle, and the statement "if I win the lottery or something" is by no means any sort of promotion for a raffle. So suck it, Patreon bot.

Anyway, that's about that for now. Tomorrow we're going bed shopping, then I've got videos to make. Exciting stuff!

Been enjoying some of Hamster's Arcade Archives releases on Switch of late — particularly some older stuff like Irem's Moon Patrol and Namco's Rally-X. Those games work particularly well with the built-in "High Score Mode", which actually reminds me very much of Microsoft's old Game Room service (may it rest in peace).

The High Score modes challenge you to set as high a score as possible under set conditions: usually a single credit. (Most of them also have a timed "Caravan" mode, too, but this doesn't really work for quite a few games where you inevitably end up dying well before your five minutes are up!) At the side of the screen, there's a leaderboard showing your best score and the surrounding scores — sadly, this doesn't update in real time like the Game Room ones did (fond memories of gradually working my way to the top of the River Raid scoreboard) but it does give you an idea of how much you're improving with each go.

There are so many of those Arcade Archives releases now, and I want, like, all of them. I'm going to have to restrain myself, though; £6 a pop isn't super-expensive but it could mount up pretty quickly! Maybe one or two a month. Then I can gradually build up a delightful library of arcade classics to keep on my Switch at all times; that would be nice.

The other nice thing about the Arcade Archives releases is that they bring back quite a few titles we haven't seen for many years — stuff like Taito games that haven't been rereleased since the PS2 Taito Legends collections, or Jaleco's Rod-Land, one of my favourite games of all time. It's not just the "big name" stuff; there's lots of interesting, obscure titles in there too, making it a really cool collection to explore in detail. And I think I'll be doing a bit more of just that as time goes on!

For now, I'm kind of hooked on Moon Patrol in particular. Playing it with the triggers on the controller is oddly satisfying. I still suck, though; have never yet made it to the end of the Beginner course, though I am improving somewhat!

Ever get the feeling you "should" be doing something in particular, but you can't quite pin down what it is? It's frustrating — particularly when that feeling comes up during what should be your "own" time, the time where you do things that you want to do rather than things that you have to do.

I'm not quite sure if saying I feel like I "should" be doing something is right, even; it's just a vaguely defined sense of dissatisfaction with all the things I've considered settling down to do this evening. One might think that the ideal solution in this situation would be to do something completely different altogether — but then that leads to the problem where the "new thing" you've added to your repertoire becomes one of the many things you think you "should" be doing when you pick something else.

This is vague waffle, I know, but it's (almost certainly) a symptom of anxiety. Rationally speaking, there is absolutely nothing I need to do right at this second. I could play something that I can write about tomorrow, but I don't need to. I could make some sort of video to get ahead of schedule on my own personal projects, but I don't need to. I could go and… you get the idea.

I think part of it relates to the fact that I know there are some exciting things happening a little down the road — with one of the main ones being the launch of the Evercade VS — that I'm feeling a bit impatient to get started with. But then that shouldn't stop me from doing things I actually want to do, like playing Atelier, or playing shoot 'em ups, or doing unrelated creative things, or reading something, or any of the myriad other things I could be doing right now.

Instead, I find myself staring into space thinking about how much fun I could be having if I just picked one of the options in my head. I should probably just actually pick one and go enjoy it for the rest of the evening, huh? So let's do that.