avividtale

I’m eyeing a run through of Pokemon Crystal because I am still on that kick. XD

My husband just picked up the Demo for Unicorn Overlord and to be honest it looks pretty good, so I’m tempted to also give that one a try. The pacing is nice and snappy and the game play seems straightforward enough. The story is a pretty standard hero’s journey, which isn’t high praise but certainly doesn’t count against it.

Who doesn’t enjoy the occasional boxed-mac-and-cheesesque storyline?

The brief snippets of gameplay I got to experience weren’t half bad. It’s not one I would necessarily discourage other people from trying and I might even recommend looking into it depending on what I knew about their tastes.

Objectively, I don’t think what I experienced (limited as it was) was a bad game. I think it was a frustratingly paced intro to a game with potential. How much potential, I don’t know. I’ve heard mixed things.

You’ll have to let me know what you think if you give it a play through.

I don’t feel like I played it enough to give it a full or fair assessment, so this is just “at first glance”:

The biggest issue I had with it was getting a firehose of gameplay tutorials only to be provided very little opportunity for gameplay. I felt like I was frequently darting from cut scene to cut scene, and while I love story this was so start and stop as to be frustrating. The pacing was just…off.

I also admittedly didn’t care for the brief glimpses of characterization that I got, especially the “every adult character is a completely miserable human being” which was just draining. The protagonist not getting much characterization is less an issue because player characters are often blank slate. It really was overwhelmingly the side cast, and most were NPCs.

It is possible that I will pick this game up again at some point and completely fall in love with it. The art style is beautiful and there is a quality to it of playing through an anime. Maybe if I liked the story more or any of the characters had grabbed me I’d be more excited. Sometimes it’s just about timing, you know?

I got about45 minutes into Persona 5 Royal (so almost through the intro!), but I don’t think I’ll be going much further with that one. I’m still playing Platinum otherwise, and debating a Fire Emblem run soon, just because it’s been a little while.

Yes. Yes I am. I do this. I get hyper-fixated on a series and after the Gen 9 DLC (disappointing btw) I am once again on a Pokemon kick. I don’t know what it is about this series. Fire Emblem is the only other series to come close, but again with the newer gens.

Kaga created a brilliant game series, but I would probably gnaw off my console arm within the first hour of attempting Thracia. (I’ve watched my husband play it.)

Ah! That’s interesting. I’m playing Alpha Sapphire right now. I love Pokemon, but tend toward the newer gens because they have more story.

Older games, or games that mimic older styles, can be pretty hit and miss for me as a result, even though I can appreciate a lot of the work and complexity put into them from an outside view (watching someone else play).

Revisiting the anime got me on a Hoenn kick, so here we are.

If you like indie games, and if you enjoy puzzles and story, have you ever tried Ib? It’s a short indie psychological horror game that is all puzzles (no fighting), but really interesting.

What did you think of Cassette Beasts? I watched a play through of that one not long ago with mixed reaction. But, I’m curious as to how others received it and how they felt about playing through it.

Wrapping up ORAS and debating between Platinum and Heart Gold. It’s nostalgia week, I guess, as my husband is currently replaying a bunch of Final Fantasy games. XD

I am deep into a run of Alpha Sapphire. I swear I play games other than Pokemon (mostly newer gen Fire Emblem). XD

I found that blocking the NSFW domains removed a lot of what I did not want to see in the sidebar. But, that may not help if you want the option to browse those forums sometimes. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll never see anything of the sort show up there, as plenty of domains allow NSFW content, but by removing the ones focused on it you’ll dilute the chances significantly.

Adorable XD

To be honest, I was happily surprised (stunned really) that I was able to so easily block at the domain level. Especially given how new the platform is, as people have pointed out.

The nature of the fediverse is such that their are instances and domains for just about every topic, so if something isn’t your speed then blocking those domains will take a huge chunk off your screen with very minimal effort.

You can block the NSFW instances and domains as a start. It may not get rid of EVERYTHING, but it can help.

Examples:

https://kbin.social/d/lemmynsfw.com will take you to that domain. From there, you can hit block (next to the subscribe button) to block at the domain level vs a specific magazine. (NSFW instances are going to have lots of magazines in them so this is just more expedient.)

You can also block any NSFW magazines on Kbin itself by going through the magazine list and hitting block beside those listings.

This isn’t specific to NSFW obviously. I only learned about it recently via a YSK post that likely does a better job explaining things, but thought it was worth a mention.

In the meantime, you can block magazines and instance domains if needed. Someone else posted the guide but essentially it’s:

Go to: https://kbin.social/d/domainnameyouwanttoblock and then hit the block button that is next to subscribe.

If the words you want to block are particularly associated with a topic/instance you want no part of, this is a good option.

Thank you!

On Kbin, if you click the microblog tag from within a certain community it will narrow down the list of posts you’re seeing to something more topical. It may not be exclusive to the tag you’re looking for, but it would most likely be related.

E.g. If you go into a magazine devoted to puppies and from within that, you click the microblog tab. You will see a feed of puppy related posts.

If you select from the main Kbin instance, you will see a more varied selection.

How exactly do you block? I’m still learning the platform and I haven’t had my coffee yet for the day.

• Big fan of GWitch. It’s a really strong story, and the art is beautiful.

• Mob Psycho 100 is a completed action series that makes me think of slice of life coming of age story meets DBZ meets urban fantasy. The story is very strong and the art is used in a fairly clever way.

• If you want dark/horror, then Psycho Pass was a fairly popular thriller.

So, one of my favorite questions for interviews is something like this:

“What are the top 3 things you would want any new person walking in the door to know?”

If they ask you to elaborate, you can explain this is a deliberately broad question meant to catch the kinds of important, organization specific things someone might not think to ask. It could be anything from “When the boss has his door closed it means he’s working on a key project, don’t knock just come back later” or “Never drink the coffee on Monday mornings.” It could also be: “A,B, and C are serious priorities for Management eventually.”

This sometimes catches people off guard (which is not a bad sign), but it can often yield good information.

Congrats and best of luck to you!

I think an animated version of this bird to share in posts would be hilarious, even if it wasn’t the logo. Every platform has its fun inside jokes and art can be used for more than logos and platform icons.