I strongly believe that if you were to compare me to an "average" 38-year old man (if such a thing exists), I would have almost certainly spent a greater amount of time contemplating what my elemental resistances would be than most people.

It's still something that kind of fascinates me, though, along with applying RPG statistics to real-life situations in general. (A few years back, I pondered how much various amounts of HP would hurt, for example) So let me work through my theory with you all today!

First up, I'm weak against fire. There's no real question about that. I mean, obviously everyone burns up if exposed to too much fire, but I'm talking in more abstract terms. My least favourite weather and environmental conditions all involve being too hot, so I have a natural aversion to heat, which in turn leads me to believe I would probably be particularly weak against fire if I found myself in a magic-rich environment.

For strengths, I feel I have two. First up, from the more conventional spectrum of magical elements, I feel water would be a strength of mine. Time at the pool today reminded me that I feel totally at peace and relaxed when I'm in water. I just love floating around and being in water. I'm not a particularly strong swimmer or anything, but I just feel a certain affinity with water. On the many, many occasions where I've contemplated what magic spells I'd like to be able to cast, I often gravitate towards healing magic, which is typically associated with the water element.

My second elemental strength is from a wider spectrum of elements, as seen in some Japanese role-playing games: it's wood. I guess if you were to go with the conventional earth, wind, fire, water model, it would come under earth, but I've certainly played numerous games where wood was considered its own element, so wood it is. The reason for this is simple: once again, I feel an affinity for wooded areas. While I don't spend a great deal of time outside, if I do have to spend time outside, my natural choice for somewhere to hang out and just be among nature would be in a forest.

It's fortunate, then, that I'm spending a week in the depths of a forest with an excellent swimming pool then, huh?

Well, we're here in the blissful depths of Elveden Forest, sitting in our pleasant (if slightly warm) apartment that overlooks part of the nearby golf course. We've had a good dinner, seen three deer, a peacock and more squirrels than I can count, and things are generally pretty good.

We're now relaxing in aforementioned apartment with various items of electronic entertainment, enjoying the pleasant feel of unwinding without commitment.

Tomorrow will be time for, at the very least, some time in the excellent "Subtropical Swimming Paradise" they have going on here, and perhaps some of the other activities we had planned too. We'll see! We have no schedule, no itinerary, no commitments, and it's wonderful.

Here is a picture of a peacock.

Have a pleasant evening, everyone!

Can't believe I technically missed my 200th day of this daily blogging funtimes. I was busy playing Breath of the Wild, though, so hopefully you'll excuse my tardiness.

I'm really looking forward to this time away, even if I miss my cats terribly already. My mother-in-law is looking after them, but she's not been too well recently so we had to take them to her rather than her house-sit while we're away. She thinks she might actually come back down here and house-sit if she starts to feel a bit better, though; she's already much better than she was, apparently, so that's good.

We have nothing concrete planned for the holiday as yet. Center Parcs' main attraction is its  Plaza (the eponymous "Center" [sic]) which houses a bunch of shops and an awesome swimming pool. We will doubtless be spending a lot of time in said pool, and if the weather's nice there's a few outdoor activities we'd like to do too, including electric boats, minigolf and looking at owls. My mother-in-law has specifically provided us with some anniversary money for us to go and look at the owls, so we're going to go and look at the owls. The owls are really cool, to be fair.

Aside from that, there will be a lot of lazing around, not thinking about our respective day jobs, and playing of Nintendo Switch. Then when the week is over I get to go see my parents and my brother's family, all together for the first time in ages. So that will be nice!

Anyway, I'll still be "connected" while I'm away, so feel free to drop me a comment or a message if you want to say hi, and updates on MoeGamer and here will continue as normal-ish. I can't guarantee something every day on MoeGamer, but I have a few things lined up!

Time to get set and leave, then! See you on holiday!

I mentioned a few days ago that I've had a crazy amount of preorders all suddenly come to fruition at pretty much the same time (or at least the last couple of weeks) so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some new acquisitions with you all! Some of these I've mentioned or written about already; others are prepped and ready for future coverage on MoeGamer.

Here's the total "haul" that has arrived over the course of the last couple of weeks… and I have a few more outstanding that should be arriving soon, too! Here's what I've got so far, though: Lapis x Labyrinth by NIS, Dragon Star Varnir by Compile Heart, Death Mark by Experience and WorldEnd Syndrome by Arc System Works and TOYBOX.

Lapis x Labyrinth first. This comes in a lovely box with a nice slipcase for the outside. The only other NISA limited edition I've had to date is the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, but that was pretty nice too. I'd prefer a box with a lid rather than flaps, but I'm not so picky that this upsets me or anything!

And here's the complete goodness contained within: two lovely art prints (one of the mayor, one of the witch — conveniently both high up on my "favourite characters" lists), a poster of the key art, the game itself, an artbook presented in the style of a "photo album" and a soundtrack CD rather delightfully called "Dango Beats". (For the unfamiliar, a lot of Lapis x Labyrinth is themed around the visual motif of dango — most notably the "stack" of characters you take into each dungeon.)

The soundtrack is a single CD. I'm not sure offhand if it's a complete soundtrack — I think it might be — but the important thing is that the FEVER!! track is there, and that's all that really matters.

The artbook isn't super-long, but it is very nicely presented and charmingly written by the Mayor herself. I particularly like that the Witch's top unique selling point is that she has a cute hat. Because she does indeed have a cute hat. (And a nice ass.)

Next up is WorldEnd Syndrome, brought to Europe by PQube. This comes in a similar "Day One Edition" to Our World is Ended, featuring a glossy cardboard outer case that contains…

…the game and an artbook. This isn't supposed to be a super-fancy collector's edition or anything — it's the same price as just a normal game — so the artbook is a really nice bonus, especially considering it's quite thick.

This, along with Our World is Ended, seems to be a game that PQube very much believes in, so the heartfelt gratitude at the front of the artbook is nice to see. There's also the usual warning about spoilers, so I didn't explore the book too thoroughly.

I did have a quick skim through, though, and found the concept art section towards the back rather eye-catching. I love seeing sketches like this, even if it does make me feel woefully inferior.

Next up is Death Mark, which came out a while back in the US, but only released here recently. This is the first release from Aksys Games' new European store, which appears to be operated by the same company that runs both NISA Europe and Idea Factory International Europe's respective stores.

This one's a nice "box set" that comes with the game, a lovely velvety hardback artbook (with removable "CAUTION SPOILERS" tag) and a soundtrack CD in a nice cardboard rather than plastic sleeve. Oh, and a temporary tattoo, if you yourself feel the need to brand yourself with what is presumably the Death Mark. (But only for a little while.)

The soundtrack CD has just 10 tracks. I haven't listened to it yet so I'm not sure what to expect from this! I do love this kind of sleeve, though; it really sets albums like this apart from those in conventional jewel cases.

And finally on to Dragon Star Varnir. Apparently IFI ran into issues with Sony a while back and had to start distributing their limited editions with the game packed separately from the rest of the goodies, so here's the game!

I'm really looking forward to this one. If Death end re;Quest was anything to go by, IFI is really getting a feel for darker fare, and this one sounds delightfully messed up. Also check out the amount of PEGI content descriptors there!

Inside the main box (which is lovely and glossy), we have a steelbook case to put the game in, an artbook, a soundtrack CD and a mysterious envelope…

The soundtrack CD lists its tracks inside the inlay rather than on the back. I wasn't aware that Motoi Sakuraba worked on the soundtrack for this one, but there he is! (For the unfamiliar, Sakuraba's work encompasses most of Camelot's Mario sports games and Golden Sun, along with much of tri-Ace's work and numerous arrangements for Super Smash Bros. Quite the pedigree — and proof that Idea Factory and Compile Heart have been consistently moving up in the world over the course of the last decade, if they can attract someone like this to their project. As someone who's been with them since the original Neptunia (and I own a copy of Trinity Universe, which I'm looking forward to trying one day!), this is delightful to see.

What of that mysterious envelope, though? While tempting to leave it sealed, I collect stuff to enjoy rather than just have, so you better believe I cracked it open. It contains these large, glossy, tarot-style cards depicting what I assume are the main characters of Dragon Star Varnir. Which means I can stare at them guiltily whenever I end up feeding them to a dragon or whatever you do in that game… eesh. I'm scared to start!

Anyway, that's that for now. I'm hoping my Kickstarter copy of Bloodstained will arrive before I leave, but it's not looking too likely. There'll also be a copy of Super Neptunia RPG in the near future, but I'm not sure exactly when that'll show up.

Good times are ahead, for sure… both for me, and for you, since you better believe all these are getting writeups on MoeGamer in the future!

YouTuber Metal Jesus Rocks has an interesting video today on the interesting case of the rarest, most expensive PS4 game there is: Poop Slinger, which sold just over 80 copies before promptly disappearing and shooting up in value to $500+ on eBay.

This case raises some interesting questions and considerations about modern collecting. When we talk about collecting for older platforms — particularly those with relatively small total libraries, such as the Nintendo 64 — people often say that they're taking aim for a "complete collection". And, with a bit of time, dedication and money, this is something that is possible to achieve. I don't know anyone personally who has completed a platform collection, but I've watched videos and read articles by people who have.

With our current generation of systems in particular, that dream of having a "complete collection" doesn't appear to be something that is going to be possible or practical any more. I mean, even leaving the matter of download-only games aside, there are now so many limited-run releases that I seriously doubt there will be anyone out there in the future who has a "complete" PS4 or Switch collection. (Xbox One remains to be seen; I don't see a lot of limited-run Xbox One releases, but that may just be because I don't really follow that platform because I don't own one!)

Is this a problem? If you're the sort of obsessive type who needs to have a "complete" collection to feel fulfilled, then perhaps… but take a look at the game MJR is showing off in this video and ponder whether it — currently a less-than-$5 downloadable title — is something you actually want in your collection. I know I certainly don't.

But then this is always a consideration, isn't it? When going for a complete collection for a platform, you're going to be deliberately seeking out some dross for the sake of collecting it. I'm sure there are plenty of SNES collectors out there who are proud to have a copy of Captain Novolin on their shelves, for example. Hell, I've bought a bunch of PS2 games that had poor reviews or sold poorly — though, of course, in many cases there I've actually found them to be surprisingly enjoyable in their own right when taken on their own merits.

The main reason I can think of that you might want a copy of Poop Slinger in your packaged game collection is because it's an interesting story. And one that some people think isn't quite over yet; there are all sorts of theories as to whether or not the whole thing was an elaborate publicity stunt by someone like Limited Run Games, or if the tale of the distributor going bankrupt was a lie just so they could artificially inflate the price of this "rare" game when selling it on eBay.

I can certainly live without a copy, though, that's for sure!

I am so ready for my holiday next week. Between the online stupidity I mentioned in the previous post and some frustration at work, I'm very, very ready for a break, some time away, some relaxation and some time with my family.

The especially frustrating thing about the things that are… well, frustrating me is that they're not really things that can be "resolved" easily. I can't magically make people be nicer on the Internet — I can just try and set a decent example as much as possible. And so far as my work frustrations go, the annoying thing there is that they relate to specifics of my job that are so specific, even if I were to complain about them to someone they wouldn't have a clue why they're irritating me. Oh well.

Anyway. After the sour taste of the recent Twitter bullshit, I'm getting rid of the Twitter app on my phone again and using BlockSite to stop me being tempted to look back there again. I don't need to know when there's some new shitstorm. I just want to focus on the things I enjoy… the reason I keep wanting to poke my head in is that cutting myself off like this makes me feel a little starved for conversation at times.

With that in mind, may I remind all you lovely Patrons that you are very welcome over in the MoeGamer Discord any time! It's not super-active at the moment but it would be lovely to see some more of you there. You should have access already if you're a Patron, but if you don't, let me know and I can send you an invite link.

Occasionally I ponder about attempting to return to making social media working for me. I actually had a go recently; I hopped back on Twitter, switched my notifications to only show messages from people I follow and who follow me, muted everyone I still wanted to follow but who always seemed to be starting shit in the timeline.

For a while, it seemed to be working… okay. Not perfectly, but okay. Then today I happened to log in while Kirk McKeand from once-popular video game blog VG247 was lashing out at critics of his self-professed "extremely bad" interview with Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi.

I've stumbled across McKeand a few times, and every time I have, he's always come across as an arrogant, argumentative piece of shit who would rather insult people than admit he is wrong. This time around, he was being particularly obnoxious; while I thankfully didn't get anything hurled my way this time around (I somehow ended up blocked despite not actually speaking with him) I did happen to catch him insulting the appearance and gaming tastes of someone I'm acquainted with — one of those critics of his atrocious interview.

McKeand never seems to face any consequences for his behaviour, either; as a contributor to a commercial site like VG247, he should be held accountable for the way he interacts with potential audience members, but this never seems to actually occur. And he is by no means the only member of the current commercial games press who acts like this; he and his peers proudly brag about how many thousands (literally) of people they've blocked for dumb reasons.

Now, as a former member of the commercial games press, I know how much shit games journalists can get, and I know how frustrating and upsetting it can be to get dogpiled for something you wrote. However, acting like a high-and-mighty bully is not a good way to get over this or look like the bigger, better man. Spouting shit like "hur, you write about games you like to jack off to" is immature and inaccurate. Posting photos of people and implying unpleasant things about them is deeply unpleasant behaviour. In short, acting like Kirk McKeand does is not a way to get you or your publication taken seriously.

Seeing this whole thing unfold has left a deeply unpleasant taste in my mouth. I think we can call this tentative attempt to see if I can actually have a decent conversation on Twitter in 2019 an abject failure, and frankly I'm thiiiiis close from just deleting my account altogether to remove any temptation to try again.

My cat Meg had a major breakthrough recently: she's started coming upstairs again.

This might not sound like a huge deal, but since we got her new friend Patti a while back, she had been refusing to come upstairs at all. We assume that this was mostly down to the fact that when we first introduced Patti, we restricted her to the upstairs (initially just one room) to allow the pair to adjust to one another. As such, Patti had the opportunity to make upstairs "hers", while Meg was naturally hesitant to enter what suddenly appeared to be another cat's territory.

There's also the fact that when we did actually allow them to see one another face-to-face, they weren't very friendly with one another. Meg would respond to the sight of Patti with hissing and growling, and Patti would often launch herself at Meg. Over time, this behaviour lessened a bit at a time until now, where we're at a stage where I feel reasonably confident in saying they like having each other around — even if neither of them will admit that.

Now they'll quite happily occupy the same room as one another without incident, and I've seen both of them initiating sniffing sessions of each other's faces and arseholes. While this is considered rude in human society, among cats it appears to be the equivalent of asking each other if you saw the new Game of Thrones last night or something.

There's still an occasional bit of hissing and scrapping, but despite the noise they both make, they never seem to be serious fights, and I think they're more attempts to play than anything else. In other words, I think they're finally getting along.

This is good, because we were really worried about Meg after her former Ruby passed away last November. Although Meg would often give Ruby grief in the same way she does to Patti now, it was clear they liked each other a lot and enjoyed having one another around. (We think they may even have been related, which just made Ruby's passing all the more heartbreaking.) Meg was noticeably depressed when she was on her own, particularly on days when both Andie and I had to go to work and leave her alone for the day.

It looks like she's in a much better mental state now, though, which is great. Of course, just as we get to this phase, we're going to head off on holiday for a week and leave the pair of cats in the care of my mother in law… but I'm sure they'll be fine!

I've spent the evening playing Lapis x Labyrinth. As you'll know if you've listened to the brand new MoeGamer Podcast (out today!), this is a game I've come to absolutely adore since picking it up on a whim when two friends separately commented on how much they'd been enjoying it. Chris and Flame — thanks!

I'm not going to do a full writeup on the game until I've beaten it properly, as it's a game that gradually unveils its hidden depths the further you progress, and I feel there's still a decent amount left to go. I've cleared I think six of the main dungeons now, and each clear has unlocked a new method to progress and power yourself up. There are a wide variety of ways to customise how the game plays according to how you enjoy it, and no obligation to do things you don't want to do.

I'm having the most fun playing as the Witch at present. She's a powerful fighter that has an interesting combo where she cycles through a series of elemental spells, the last of which is a slow-moving fireball that passes through walls and obliterates anything in its path. Since Lapis x Labyrinth is a game about not getting hit in order to keep your combo up, her ranged abilities are a significant help in this regard. Plus she's a cutie with cat ears.

There's something so, so fundamentally satisfying about this game. I might even go so far as to say on a primal level, this is one of the most satisfying games I've ever played. I'm not talking about narrative payoff or anything like that — while there is a story that gradually reveals itself, the mechanics are the star here — but rather a simple feeling while playing that I am having a good time and I want more, more, more.

Perhaps best of all, as we mention on the podcast, it achieves this addictive, intoxicating quality without resorting to underhanded tactics like "fun pain"; this is pure fun, yet for those who want to truly master the game's mechanics, there's a lot to engage with and practice here, too.

As I say, I'm saving a full writeup until I've at the very least beaten the main game, but in the meantime rest assured that if you're after something a bit different — and incredibly satisfying — then Lapis x Labyrinth is well worth your time.

Podcast editing is all done! I started a little later than usual but still managed to get everything wrapped up before the end of the day, so that's great. I hope you enjoy tomorrow's episode — it's a fun roundup of the stuff that caught our eyes at E3, and I think we had some really interesting discussions along the way.

For me, now begins the countdown to holiday time! The wife Andie and I have just one full week of work to survive until we have some blissful time off — I have a week and a day, while she has a couple of weeks. We're going away to foresty holiday park Center Parcs for the first week, then visiting my parents over the weekend — my brother and the rest of his family are also visiting for the first time all together in… I don't know, actually, a very long time! (My brother, for those unaware, lives in California, which is on a whole other continent to where both my parents and I live, so we don't get to see him as often as we'd like.)

I took the following Monday off just so I have a day to myself after the holiday and the visit and everything else. Recovery time! Some time off from being "on holiday", if you like. Andie, meanwhile, has most of the following week off to enjoy the new Final Fantasy XIV expansion Shadowbringers, which I'm going to try very hard to remain unspoiled on, as I intend on playing through all of Final Fantasy XIV's main story as part of my upcoming Final Fantasy Marathon series of videos. That is a long way off yet, so there will certainly be even more story than exists at the launch of Shadowbringers by the time I get there, so when I do finally get to that point I'll be able to offer some honest, hopefully unspoiled reactions to what happens.

As I've mentioned before, I'll be posting on MoeGamer as normal this week and probably queueing some stuff up for while we're away rather than posting "live", but I won't kick off a new Cover Game feature until after I'm back from the trip. That way, I can give it my full attention.

I'm pondering what should come next. I've shared with you the things that I'm very interested in covering — that in many cases I've had in the queue for a long while — but there are also some interesting things that have come up recently that I think are worthy of multi-part deep-dive coverage.

Chief among these is not a particularly "big" game or anything, but I think it's something that there's potentially a lot to explore in: The Expression: Amrilato, which eagle-eyed readers will note is the game that MangaGamer have had trouble with bringing to Steam recently. The VN as a whole is, according to the chap from MangaGamer I spoke with recently, "between 10-30 hours depending on how much you engage with the 'study' side of things" — so I thought it might be interesting to err on the upper side of that and see if I can actually learn some Esperanto from a video game. I think that'd be pretty cool.

The reason I think The Expression: Amrilato is an interesting case for a Cover Game feature is precisely because it's not particularly well-known, but it has the potential to be very valuable for more reasons than one. There are a number of ways in which it can be explored, too: there's the narrative, themes and characterisation of the overall experience to explore, but on top of that there's how it treats the use of Esperanto as part of its narrative, and its distinct component that aims to actually educate the player in how this language works.

Either way, Cover Game feature or not, I'll be writing about The Expression: Amrilato in the very near future, so please watch out for that.

Right. I've had a long day, so I should probably sleep so I can be vaguely bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for this "last" week of work. Who am I kidding, I feel like walking garbage of a morning even if I go to sleep at 9pm. All-night Lapis x Labyrinth session, anyone…?