I'm kind of knackered and not really sure what to write about today, so I'll just ramble away and see if anything coherent comes out.

To be honest, I'm kind of champing at the bit to talk about the thing I teased yesterday, but as I say, I don't want to jinx anything. I'll be able to share a bit more about all that… soonish, though, likely in the next few weeks or so. The possibilities are making it extra hard to care about the day job right now, I won't lie — but I'm hanging in there for now.

I'm certainly in no great hurry to go back to the office. The day job sent around a huge document full of "guidelines" for those returning to work at the beginning of July (a cohort I am not among, thankfully — it's initially just specific volunteers) that include all manner of ridiculousness like one-way systems, special techniques for going through doors, limitations on going to the toilet and all manner of other stuff.

I mean, I say it's all ridiculous, but in the context of the whole pandemic thing it sort of makes sense… to a certain point, anyway. I kind of feel like if you need to put that many restrictions and unnatural, inconvenient routines in place to get people back in the office, then it's probably not quite time to get people back in the office just yet.

People have proven themselves perfectly capable of working from home over the course of the last… however long it's been now, so I don't see any particular reason why we need to rush people back. But no; it seems the company isn't even willing to entertain the possibility of having people working from home more permanently when (if?) this is all over. Seems a bit silly to me, but this is probably why I don't run a company.

Anyway. Not something I need to worry about too much right now — and it might not be something I need to worry about at all. We'll have to wait and see. I'm sorry for "vaguebooking", but as I say, I'm trying to be a bit cautious in my enthusiasm! Just keep your fingers crossed for me next Thursday, let's say.

I don't want to jinx anything by talking about it too much for now, but I might have some good news on the employment front soon. We'll have to wait and see, but Discussions have been Happening. That's all I'll say for now, but suffice to say if this comes to anything it'll be very exciting, and I'll be very happy.

In the meantime, I found some time to enjoy some more Mana Khemia 2 this evening. It's a lot of fun so far. I've only completed two chapters of Ulrika's route so far, but I'm anticipating that Raze's route will have a markedly different feel to it. Ulrika's is pleasantly silly, and appears to be escalating in that regard with each passing chapter, and I am all about it.

I've been finding the combat a bit more challenging so far, too, which is good. The game ties character progression mostly to crafted items as in the previous game, with the exception of HP and SP, which go up naturally every few battles. Thus far staying on top of the crafting has still made for some fairly challenging battles rather than overpowering the party, giving the whole thing a nice sense of balance — there's also an optional Hard mode for those who want the game to put up even more of a fight, too, so it seems at some point Gust took criticisms that some of the Atelier Iris games and Mana Khemia were a touch on the easy side to heart.

The characterisation is great, and it's been a delight to see how some returning characters from the first Mana Khemia have grown since the first installment. I'm looking forward to seeing how the whole thing develops — and how Ulrika and Raze's stories eventually intertwine, because presumably that's going to happen.

Anyway, that's a fair way off for now. Digging what I've played to date though!

We braved a trip to Ikea today, hoping to get all the necessary accoutrements to complete the plan colloquially known as Project Shelf, more formally known as Pete Uses Most of the Available Walls in His House For Shelves with The Intention of Filling Them with Gaming Paraphernalia and Miscellany, Mostly Games. It's our wedding anniversary on Sunday, so we've spent some of the money from our respective parents on this project as well as my wife's hallway renovations, which are now pretty much complete.

I normally hate going to Ikea, but I have to say, going at 8pm in the middle of a virus pandemic is quite pleasant, because there's hardly anyone there. Result. Doing my bit for the British (and the Swedish) economy.

We were, I'd say, about 80% successful, largely because Ikea's website has been a broken piece of shit for the last few months and thus we weren't able to properly check stock of the things we wanted. We managed to get most of the things we'll need, with the crucial exception of the brackets to hold the shelves in place; we were, however, able to order those, but they won't arrive for another couple of weeks.

Still, I'm looking forward to the finished result; I really, really like my "library" of games that I currently have, and having a little more space both to expand and to spread out some of the things that are currently a bit crammed in will be very nice indeed. In particular, I'm looking forward to having some dedicated space to display the Evercade and its games, as well as some of the limited editions I've had to squeeze in a bit more tightly than I would perhaps like to.

Expect some photographs of the finished project when it's all done and dusted… likely in a couple of weeks' time, but perhaps sooner depending on if and when Ikea are able to deliver those brackets!

It's so hot here right now. I don't like it. I haven't liked the heat for a good few years now — though I remember being a bit more fond of it when I was younger. Ah, youth, and all that.

Spring and summer have definitely got hotter over the course of my life. I remember some pleasantly balmy summers when I was a kid, but I also remember it being considered quite unusual and worthy of note when we would have a "heat wave". Nowadays, it feels like we're confronted with the same "hottest summer since records began" stories every year, and it becomes increasingly unpleasant to even contemplate going outside.

We bought a portable air conditioner a while back and stuck it in our bedroom. It's probably the greatest investment we've ever made. Were it not for the fact that it's incredibly noisy, I'd be a strong advocate for putting them all over the house. Including in the toilet, which is like a bloody oven at this time of year.

Still, even with lockdown supposedly "easing" over here from the beginning of next month (let's see how long that lasts if the virus cases start spiking again) it's not as if I have any real particular desire to go out and do anything outside. It might be nice to go and see my friends — though they were hardly ever available to do anything fun at the best of times, so this whole situation hasn't been much of a change.

Anyway, just felt like moaning about that. I'm off to sit in the air-conditioned bedroom and play retro games until I fall asleep!

Started Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy today and am already enjoying it a lot. There are certain aspects of the game so far where I can feel it just sort of straining to become what the Arland series would become, but it's also its own distinct, unique thing, too. The characters are already shaping up to be some of my favourites so far; Ulrika is what I regard as a proper Atelier protagonist, which I feel like we didn't really have throughout the Iris series (with the possible exception of Viese), so it's a pleasure to have a ditzy, enthusiastic young girl in the leading role once again.

Interested to see how the two routes play out in Mana Khemia 2. They're already shaping up to be quite different with occasional crossovers, even just looking at my limited experience with the first chapter. It appears that one group focuses on combat studies, while the other focuses on alchemy, though I imagine there'll be a bit of both in each route — there certainly has been in Ulrika's so far.

There's also some pleasing fanservice for the first Mana Khemia in there, too. The group's homeroom teacher from the first game is now the principal of the academy, and is not doing a very good job of it. Flay, the "perpetual student" playable character from the original, is now a teacher, as is Tony, the secondary antagonist for much of the early stages of the first game. It's interesting to watch these two in particular apply their personalities to a "professional" life — though with Al-Revis in the state it's in at the start of Mana Khemia 2, "professional" may not be quite the best word!

Looking good so far, then. I'll be archiving my gameplay on YouTube again (primarily for my own purposes so I can refer back to footage and take screenshots if required), so if you want to see what the game's all about feel free to check out the videos. First one should be going up tomorrow.

Hope you've had a pleasant Monday! It is Monday, right? I'm losing track…

I've had a never-ending stream of farts today. I blame the whole tin of beans I had with breakfast. I'm sure they never affected me like this when I was younger, but now… I feel like a single can could probably propel me around for the entire day if I let it.

Anyway. It's the end of another week once again, and I've had a fairly productive weekend. I got the next two weeks' worth of videos done and dusted today, and managed to plough through all of The Coma 2 yesterday, as I noted. I'm very tempted to boot up Mana Khemia 2 just to have a "quick look" at it, but it's nearly 11pm and I know for a fact at this point that a "quick look" at an Atelier game will almost certainly last for several hours.

For the next couple of short;Play videos I looked at Ion Fury and Dungeon of the Endless for Switch — these have both recently had nice packaged releases, and I've been looking forward to playing Ion Fury for ages. I was not disappointed at all; it feels just like a classic Build Engine game, which I'm delighted about. I appear to have completely forgotten how to play Dungeon of the Endless effectively, however; I make a real mess of things in the video! Clearly some more practice is required.

As you can tell, I'm not super-coherent this evening. I've worked on a lot today, so I should probably get some rest ahead of another stimulating week working the day job from home. Ah well. At least I have writing my The Coma 2 review for Nintendo Life to look forward to, as well as all the daily goodness on YouTube and MoeGamer — please look forward to it, and have a pleasant night!

Well, I successfully managed to beat The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters in a single day. Took a little over 11 hours in total — very respectable for a horror game. Sadly, I discovered too late that I missed a key item required for the "best" ending and saved after it would have been possible to go back for it. To be fair to the game, this "final save point of no return" is literally right at the end of the game, so it's my own fault for not being thorough. Guess I'll just have to play it again sometime — and I probably will if and when a physical edition becomes available.

It was very enjoyable and the developers were correct: I didn't feel like I was missing any critical information having not played the first The Coma. I'm definitely going to play the first The Coma now, of course — might make something nice to cover around Halloween this year, just planning ahead! — and replaying The Coma 2 immediately after playing the first one might not be a terrible idea. I can get "Ending A" then.

I might even do a Let's Play of the two games and release the episodes for those throughout October. Spooky season and all that. Would there be interest there? If so, I can get started on that now and have it ready well ahead of time.

Anyway, after that much horror gaming in one day, I think I need to head off for what will probably be a very strange sleep. Hopefully I will wake up in the normal world tomorrow!

I was right not to stay up and try to finish Mana Khemia last night — there was a good five or six hours more to go! I managed to bang it out this evening and finish the narrative writeup though, so that game is done and dusted a little earlier than I thought.

Next up is Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, which is one of the few games in this series that didn't get a European release. Instead, I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a copy for $40 CAD about ten years ago upon a visit to Canada to see some friends who I haven't spoken to for about five years. Fortuitously, prior to this incidence of drifting apart, I had "borrowed" their NTSC PS2 specifically in order to play Mana Khemia 2.

At the time, I was getting big into the Ar Tonelico series, and picked up Mana Khemia 2 on the recommendation of the person who got me into Ar Tonelico. (A different person to the aforementioned friends.) I didn't know anything about the Atelier series then, and indeed my copy of Mana Khemia 2 has been shrink-wrapped since I picked it up all that time ago, because I'd been saving it until I beat the previous Mana Khemia. (And, as it turns out, the Atelier Iris series.)

Until tonight, in fact, because I just wanted to make sure that NTSC PS2 I "borrowed" about ten years ago (and which the original owners are probably not getting back now) worked properly, along with the aforementioned copy of Mana Khemia 2.

It does. I had a momentary scare when everything was coming out green through the RGB SCART cable I've been using that was supposed to be compatible with NTSC systems, but a quick dip into the system settings and changing the output from Y/Pb/Pr to RGB fixed the issue nicely. So Mana Khemia 2 will be getting underway shortly — looking forward to it! I'll record and archive my playthrough on the YouTube channel again so if you want to see what it's all about, you can — since I'm recording for the purposes of taking screenshots anyway, I might as well share the videos! Plus I believe Mana Khemia 2 can be a bit pricey these days — if you can't afford to add it to your own collection, you can at least experience some of it vicariously!

First up, though, I've got to bash out The Coma 2 for Nintendo Life this weekend, plus record my usual weekly videos. I'm keeping busy, for sure — and I wouldn't have it any other way. The work I do for MoeGamer and YouTube really does help keep me sane during even my bleakest hours, so once again, a sincere thank you for supporting anything I do — it really means a lot.

Been absolutely exhausted today, so while it is tempting to stay up until the wee hours trying to finish Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, I think I'm going to hit the hay and hopefully feel a bit more refreshed tomorrow. That does mean that the next part of the Atelier MegaFeature, focusing on Mana Khemia's narrative, likely won't be tomorrow, but it should be out by Monday at the latest.

I've got another Nintendo Life assignment coming up too: Korean horror game The Coma 2. I have the first one on my shelf and, to my shame, haven't gotten around to it as yet, but according to the developers the second one stands completely by itself with just some "nods" to the original for those who enjoyed it. It's also apparently only about 8 hours long, so I'm hoping I can bang it out over the weekend and get the review squared away. Please look forward to it!

I'm in retro heaven right now between the Evercade and the PC Engine Mini, so expect a lot more of that stuff in the meantime because a lot of it is easy to get a feel for and be able to put together some interesting articles fairly quickly. And there's a hell of a lot of games between those two systems to cover!

Exciting times. But for now, hopefully non-exciting sleep. Good night!

Pour one out, if you please, for Peashy mk. 2, who served me well for a very long time indeed, both through her first incarnation and her subsequent motherboard, processor and graphics card upgrades. Yesterday's "incident" led to the decision that some major surgery was required: not only did the power supply need replacing, but I was long overdue a new case, too.

Pay your last respects to the old Peashy, if you please:

If you're wondering, the 1up.com and "gaming" stickers on the side came from a long-defunct social media service called GetGlue, which sprang up around the time of the mobile social apps boom. I used to rather enjoy GetGlue, because it provided a fun means of following and talking about topics — plus their big gimmick was that if you acquired enough "badges" (I forget exactly how — as I recall it was somewhat akin to "Foursquare for entertainment" in that you "checked in" to things) they would send you some physical stickers.

The Green Heart, meanwhile, came from Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online.

And here's Peashy's new look — a sleek black monster in a Corsair case with a power button that works (the primary reason I thought it was probably time to get a new case) and a power supply that doesn't blow the fuse of any plug you put into it. Thankfully there doesn't appear to have been any damage to actual system components, which is a relief; everything got back up and running very quickly.

If you're wondering how we rescued her so quickly, we're fortunate enough to have a decent PC parts supplier about 15 miles from us, and they're open for click and collect orders. I ordered last night, got a notification this morning and picked up the parts this lunchtime, then Andie put it together while I had some lunch. She was very impressed with how easy the Corsair case made the build process — absolutely nothing went wrong at all, which as those who have built PCs in the past will tell you, is a rarity to be treasured!

Anyway, it's an expense I would rather not have had to… expend upon, but it's done now, and that should hopefully keep the ol' girl up and running for some time to come yet!