Last Tail :: Episode 64: Let It Snow

 The first week of December had passed and still no substantial snow had fallen on the mountain town of Brickhedge. A first, many have said, in decades. 

“Why you could set your watch to it back in the 1960s!” One old-timer had declared loudly. “A foot of snow at the very least by December fifth! Nowadays, we’re lucky to see a single snowflake by New Year!”

The older woman beside him rolled her big eyes, a feat easily accomplished for a Chameleon. “Stop over-exaggerating, you old coot; we got snow back in November.”

Last Tail :: Episode 63: Winter is Coming

 

Of all the nights she could have misplaced her bra; it had to be this one. The day of the family portrait with, well, the family. Brigid had just turned eighteen and, as with most milestones in the Ashtear lineage, a family photo had to be taken to commemorate the moment.

An appointment made months in advance at a posh photo studio in the heart of Toronto by her father, who, thanks to his work in the Canadian political scene, had developed connections with and could schedule appointments outside of the studio’s open period.

8bitdo got them hooks in me,

I took advantage of the Black Friday sale and got myself yet another 8bitdo Pro 2 controller, specifically for my Switch and Switch 2 when that finally makes it out.

I bought the Famicom themed controller a couple years ago and fell in love with it instantly, and now that I am getting back into playing games on my brand new 50-inch TV. I use that one specifically with the Steam Deck now, but the new PSX colored one is for the Switch (don't try and make it make sense). 

Playstation in color, but with the Nintendo ABXY button layout, six-axis motion control, the most perfect D-pad ever, all in extremely comfortable form factor. 

Last Tail :: Episode 62: A Brickhedge Thanksgiving

 [ 9:30am, Advrik’s House ]

“That’s right, around two or three… Yeah, I know it’s too early for dinner… Yes, there will be pumpkin pies, Brigid. I’m getting ready to throw two of them into the oven right now… Apple Cider? Uhhh—“ The wolf hurried over to the fridge, his thick paws thumping against the kitchen floor. “Yeah, it’s here… And yeah, there will be fresh coffee, too.”

Roasting slowly but steadily, atop the counter inside an electric roasting pan were the breast and two giant drumsticks of Gaben, the giant Turken that Advrik and Brigid had sleighed for a nearby farmer after the beast had escaped its enclosure and went on a rampage. The farmhands from Oldhill had shown up on Advrik’s door that evening with a load of meat, gizzards included, that had been taken from the monster’s body. The wolf, having greatly underestimated the sheer amount of meat that would come off the creature, hurried out to K-Mart in search of the cheapest chest freezer he could find, something that had been his only hope of preserving the spoils of the hunt for the weeks and months to come.

Advrik's Top Ten of 2024: Gaming

 Every year, I like to go back and create a little top-ten list of the games, movies, or books that I have ingested over the year. I may have to smudge the timeframe a bit here, going back to the previous December for some titles, as there's always this game or movie I get for Christmas that I like to include on these lists.

Visions of Mana (Deck)

When they announced this at last year's Game Awards, my jaw dropped. As a lifelong fan of the Mana series, having started with Secret of Mana and going on to have that game influence me GREATLY, I was naturally going to be all over Visions. It'd been over ten years since we got the last mainline game in the series and even longer since a game in the series was a straight-up action adventure RPG with proper level and story progression.

And it was absolutely worth the wait. Fantastic music. An intriguing story that never felt like it overstayed its welcome. Beautiful world and graphics. Fun gameplay. Interesting characters. It tied the series together in ways that I simply had not expected. And the soundtrack! Oh man, the soundtrack was INCREDIBLE, and it was all thanks to having Hiroki Kikuta back at the helm to direct its composition, and the other composers working under him for the project all hit it home. I'm actually listening to it right now as I type this.

Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition (Deck)

I know what you're probably thinking, and honestly, I don't care. My lists aren't strictly limited to games that came out in that particular year. Instead, they're lists consisting of games, be they replayed or first experiences, that I played that calendar year. And it is for that reason that I am including Final Fantasy XV here.

While nowhere near perfect, the game played like night and day compared to the mess that it was when it first launched on the PS4 several years back. And while there was very little Square-Enix could do to save it from the drab, lifeless open world that games of that era (and even today) found themselves in, the combat had improved in several ways, and plus, being able to focus on the game in the handheld form factor on the Deck helped in whittling away the stupidly long road trip segments that you were forced to endure between each new area.

I still have many complaints about the game even now, but I definitely enjoyed it far more than I ever did when the game first came out, which is saying something, considering it was the title that almost took me out of the hobby altogether.

Bayonetta 3 (Switch)

Hoo boy, where do I even begin with this masterpiece? I made my glorious return to the Nintendo Switch this year after realizing that the Deck had hit its ceiling in terms of what it's going to be able to play, and with the Switch 2 just off on the horizon, I wanted to get back into the Nintendo landscape and pick up the games I skipped over the past two years in favor of putting everything I could into the Deck.

I am so extremely grateful that I never got this game spoiled for me. Easily the best in the trilogy in terms of difficulty, story, and the overall package. It did things I hadn't expected, and was pleasantly surprised by all throughout. And then the ending happened and nearly destroyed me.

I hope this gets a performance patch or something for the coming Switch 2, as I would love to experience it again on the big screen with better resolution.

Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Tolls (Deck)

I had played their previous Zelda-like game called Prodigal and enjoyed it a fair amount. Heaps of content, great characterization, and a deep, lore-filled world. Plus, the Gameboy Color aesthetics were really charming, even though I never personally owned a Gameboy Color (went right to GBA after my OG). So when I saw that the same dev also had an acrobatic platformer in the same vein, naturally, I jumped on it.

What an experience THAT was, let me tell you. Colorgrave took Super Mario World and turned up the volume so high that it broke off, then still kept going until the machinery inside started breaking from all the twisting. Curse Crackers is fast, funny, and a hefty challenge at times if you're going for all of the collectibles and achievements. Lots of post-game content, side quests, hidden levels, and whatnot. This dev has cracked the code to how to make an excellent all-around game, and I wish more devs would pay attention.

The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

                                     

If you had told me last year that I'd not only be including not one but two Switch games on this year's Top Ten but that one of them would also be Tears of the Kingdom, I would have... Well, I would have entertained the idea. 

When rumors started heavily circulating that the Switch 2 was just a few months away from being revealed, I started looking back at my Switch and wondering if I should pick it up again and play some of the games that I'd missed since gravitating to my Steam Deck. Tears of the Kingdom was the first (of about seven!) new Switch game I picked up once this initiative got started, and let me tell you, I do not regret it.

I was only mildly impressed by Breath of the Wild. I loved the music, the sense of exploration, and the honestly decent story for a big, lifeless, open world game, and TotK carries all of that over while expanding on all of it, the story especially. The game just clicked with me far more than BotW EVER did. I loved it so much that, had it been condensed into a conventional linear Zelda game, it would have been my favorite game in the series, hands down.

Dawn of the Monsters (Deck)

Aptly named Dawn of the Monsters as it's another piece in the evergrowing flood of kaiju-related media in recent years, dating back to the 2014 American Godzilla movie, a move that had revitalized not only the Godzilla name but the infatuation with giant monsters as a whole.

Dawn of the Monsters is a Beat-Em Up of gigantic proportions from Wayforward Studio. It combines aspects from the greats such as Godzilla, Power Rangers, and Ultraman while throwing in its own little twists and turns. The story was mildly interesting, and the combat was powerful and had just enough variety and interesting mechanics that it never got TOO repetitive, as games in this genre tend to be.

I'd be all in on a sequel should they choose to produce one.

Gravity Circuit (Deck)

Even though Mega Man's absence is greatly missed in this day and age, the advent of the independent developer scene has made the disappearance of everyone's favorite Blue Bomber sting a little less. Between Gravity Circuit and Berserk Boy, Mega Man-like fans are eating well nowadays.

Gravity Circuit has probably come closest to actually filling that niche for me personally. The gameplay, while looking very NES/Gameboy Color in nature, plays like Mega Man X with mild beat-em-up mechanics. It has the tried and true level select featured in most, if not all, Mega Man games, a colorful array of bosses, and fun level design. It never got tiring even once.

Coral Island (Deck)

There was no way I was going to go through the year without including at least one farm life sim on my list, so when I started boiling the list down, it settled on a tie between Sun Haven and Coral Island. Both with their flaws, but both deliver on every aspect I look for in my farming life simulators.

In the end, I settled on Coral Island as it had the ever so slightly cozier feel to it and less dependence on Maker tables, a trend in recent farming sims after the advent of Stardew Valley that has become rather disgusting. And while I am not a fan of the art style in Coral Island and most of the villagers seem like they would be insufferable to live in such a small town with, that's the sort of thing I like in games like this. I don't want my neighbors to all be super likable, regardless of what their personality is supposed to dictate to me.

I haven't played Coral Island for a while now, but it has sense received SEVERAL quality of life and content updates in that time, so when I do finally go back, I'll be starting a new farm and experiencing it all fresh.

Resident Evil 4 Remake (Deck)

I did not and still do not like the original Resident Evil 4. I didn't play IT when it was first released either, and even though I did eventually warm up to it enough to give it a run-through, I just wasn't wowed by it. 

The remake, on the other hand, took all the best parts of the game and improved on them while stripping a lot, if not all, of the level design and segments of the game that I despised. It subverted expectations much like the RE2 remake did at every turn, which kept things interesting as you never knew what was going to be different.

Sonic Frontiers (Deck)

Now, how's that for the unexpected? Not only did I play more than a single open world game this year, but both of them I enjoyed enough to feature them on my top ten list! 

I picked Frontiers up in a Sonic rush back in September and played through it in a week, putting in close to 40 hours in the end. And while it did have the usual Sonic Team jank when it came time to play the game like a modern Sonic game, the open-world stuff was actually fun and well-built, which puts the Boost gameplay found in the actual Sonic levels in a deep, gross contrast as those are poorly done, filled with cheap deaths and glitches galore.

Last Tail :: Episode 61: Turken Hunt

 Advrik loved to cook, and for that, there was no denying. Eating out was fine, assuming it was at a local joint and not some fast food chain, but the wolf would always prefer to cater his meal on any given day, rationing out his leftovers for the week, saving him money in the long run.

Then there were the special occasions. Holidays, birthdays, self-appointed celebrations that the wolf would cobble together expansive, thematic meals for, akin to his Autumn Celebration every September, which was a meal based around the coming of the season of bounty consisting of a meaty stew, biscuits and a pumpkin cheesecake. The holidays were another matter altogether; Thanksgiving and Christmas were hectic times for the wolf, even during his lonesome days back home, when he’d cook a big meal just for himself.

Last Tail :: Episode 60: Desmond & Eligh

 It was a day like any other day in the town of Brickhedge. Half the town was prepping for the coming Harvest Festival, the other half stringing Christmas lights on the outside of their homes and businesses. Despite the light-hearted arguments over early Christmas decorations, there was a warmth and joy in the air that was unique to the little mountain town.

Eligh turned the ignition, stirring the behemoth of a vehicle to life as the engine roared and black fumes spewed from the exhaust. It was a rare Sunday away from the town for the grizzly as some pre-meditated errands had been penciled in that would take him out of the city limits and down to the world below.

Idling at the intersection for just a minute while another, smaller SUV drove past. It parked into an empty space outside the bank on the corner, the driver putting a coin not only in their parking meter but the one for the driver in front of him. Eligh smiled, the kindness and generosity of the townsfolk in Brickhedge was heartwarming.

Last Tail :: Episode 59: Exam

 “Mister Drahcir, so glad you could finally make time in your busy schedule to come down and see us,” Callista spoke with a dignified, professional tone, catching the wolf off guard based on his body language. “You’d been living in town for what, close to eight months now?”

With the removal of Miribel Oniker as a patient, Callista had felt more free to dress how she wanted to dress at her practice. The hateful mouse had imposed her will upon not just the lion but the nurses and miscellaneous staff as well. With that newfound sense of freedom, the lioness wore an outfit that turned heads as often as her physical appearance had.

Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog :: Day 5

 

art by AWD

This morning? I got to sleep in. All the way to 7am and let me tell you, it felt amazing. I slept like a rock last night and was only able to drag myself out of it for coffee and a haircut.

Oh, and some Animal Crossing.

Since the only town I have ever played in on New Horizons was my launch day town in 2020, before the game received all those content updates, I wasn't quite sure when Redd would make an appearance or if they had streamlined any of the tutorial segment of the game (I.E: The first week). That said, I was surprised to see Redd just the same, expecting his presence to be felt after the town hall is built.

And like pottery, not only did he have the Mona Lisa, but it was a legit product at that! I dunno, stuff like this and my getting not only Skye but also Audie as early villagers just makes it fee like starting this town was worth it, ya know?

Speaking of Skye, she was already in the boxes part of her big move and we were able to converse! It'll be great befriending her and eventually earning her photo. She was one of the few I didn't have back in Brickhedge.

Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog :: Day 4

 

art by AWD

Another exhausting day where I had to get up at 4am and head for work. It's not that I'm not a morning person, but getting up at 4:30am is rough on me for whatever reason. But I digress, it's Memoria time!

During the blazing hot morning announcement, Nook let the whole island know that we not only got a museum but also an actual shop! Main Street, Memoria is starting to come along already, and it's only just a strip of buildings at the moment!

The first celebration in Memoria, and it's for Nook's Cranny. Kody and Faith attended, making it so the only islander not present was Blathers.

Following the celebration, Nook set me to work in putting together three new plots of land for the animals I had met on my deserted island tours! Skye claimed house number three, but Audie, who is also a wolf and not one I had encountered on my trips, had claimed number 2! Number one still remains vacant.

Exploring the northern hills at the back of the island, I did a little bit of fishing along a deep stream. To my surprise, a Pike was hiding in its depths! No doubt preying on the smaller fish.

My home. It's so cold. I require heat.

Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog :: Day 3

 

art by AWD

Today was to be a short day. I'd been up since 4:30am and will have to do the same again tomorrow, so my gaming energy, even for Animal Crossing, is very low and doesn't stretch very far. But the beautiful thing about Animal Crossing is, progress can be made regardless of how little energy one puts into it, so let's begin.

Up at 4:30am, at work by 5am and home twelve hours later. The money is good and the work is relatively satisfying and actually jives with my creative Animal Crossing spirit. But we aren't talking about my job today, but the better, more peaceful life I live in the digital world.

I got the second house upgrade, netting me a 100k+ mortgage that will need to tend to as the village develops. As it stands right now, the house is the perfect size. I haven't decided what furniture theme to go with inside yet, but I'm leaning towards the ranch or even ironwood.

After running a lap of the currently accessible portions of my island, I was able to amass enough iron nuggets to give to Timmy and Tommy in order to build their shop. This is exciting because it's going to mean more shopping in the coming days!

After some tree shaking delivered me a digital alarm clock, I checked my mail and received a Turban from ol' Gullivar for helping him yesterday. 

Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog :: Episode 2: Day Two, Too

 

art by AWD

The morning of November 10th was a cloudy one, with intermittent showers here and there making for a dreary sort of day, which ironically was similar to what the real-world weather was like that day. Anyway, Tom and the other islanders took on some morning aerobics between rain showers, getting the muscles limbered up for the mountains of work that were to come for us Memorians.

Using the NMT that Nook had graced me with, I hopped on board one of the seaplanes and took a deserted island tour. When I arrived, I was surprised to find another person there! Skye, a wolf with a really pretty coat of blue fur. After some small talk, the discussion of her possibly moving to Memoria arose. I told her she needed to contact Tom Nook first and foremost, and then from there hopefully something could be done.

To make the day even weirder, upon returning to Memoria, I discovered that we'd had an unannounced visitor wash up on the shore to the south of town hall. After some poking and prodding, the seagull finally stirred from his zonked state. He'd evidently been swept overboard and washed up, thankfully on the shores of Memoria. I helped him fix his phone and got him on his way, but not before he promised to send a Thank You gift to me in the mail tomorrow.

As I grinded away for Milestones, filling up my insect and fish encyclopedia as I went, I started to see more and more familiar faces appear on the other end of my line. The Red Snapper was always a lovely sight during my days in Potos back in the early 2000s. They were a good source of money on any given day and were often quite plentiful. Nowadays, they and their brethren, the Barred Knifejaw, don't appear nearly as frequently as they once had.

ReCollection :: The Origin of Memoria, my Animal Crossing town name

Advrik art by AWD : https://vgen.co/awd

Before delving into the rest of the events that transpired today in Memoria, I first want to go over a little bit of history of where the Memoria name originates from and why, all of a sudden, I decided to up and retire my launch day town of Brickhedge with its rich history and (now) strong ties to the story I'm currently writing.

So to begin, Memoria began its life in the Nintendo 3DS iteration of Animal Crossing, otherwise known as New Leaf. It had been a new lease on life for the franchise after the previous Wii title, City Folk, stagnated with the fanbase (I personally loved it, but whatever). During the lead-up to the game's release, I took to my now-defunct Tumblr blog, which had been solely dedicated to my Animal Crossing ramblings, throwing out possible names for my town in the forthcoming title. 

Eventually, I settled on something that resonated with my personality and my interests, and that was short enough to fit in any one of the game's allotted character total for a town name.

After much pondering in the following days, I did finally settle on something that, as previously mentioned, was perfectly in line with the Me.

Thus, Memoria was born. Lifted directly from the final dungeon of Final Fantasy IX, my favorite game in that particular series and one of my favorite games of all time, period. Memoria was the game's final dungeon, and it only existed as a result of the cumulation of the thoughts and memories of every living being that had ever lived. A concept that I loved and had felt that, given the amount of time and personalization that goes into an Animal Crossing game, it would be the perfect fit for my New Leaf town. But not just New Leaf, but for the name of every town I create in every future (or past) Animal Crossing game to come.

Much like Oldhill became the go-to name for my farms in farming sims, Memoria was poised to be the name I'd use for Animal Crossing going forward. No more wracking my brain to come up with something new and fresh for each new game. Simply, Memoria.

But New Horizons was hit with an unexpected new(and much welcomed) addition to the game's already growing list of changes that benefitted the player: Increased town name character limit! That's right, for the first time ever, we weren't limited to eight characters and could go wild. So I took the plunge and used a town name that I had come up with for a story around that time, but failed to get it off the ground until this past spring. Brickhedge had become my March 20, 2020 launch day town name, bucking the trend of a go-to name before it even started.

But that all changed yesterday. With the pandemic and other unpleasant events having happened leading up to and during the life of New Horizons, the town had been left with an unsettling blemish that, for the first time ever, caused me to stop playing a current Animal Crossing game. Now granted, I had put a good 1600+ hours into it and had played it for two years straight by that point, but I've found myself unable to return to Brickhedge now. A ghost hangs over that town that, thankfully, hasn't followed the name to Last Tail where it's used as the central storytelling location.

So there it is, the history of Memoria! A name that would go on to appear as a town at the center of a seperate series of stories that is currently in the middle of a massive overhaul/remake that can be read in its defunct state on my old Booksie account!

Last Tail :: Episode 58: Diagnosis Homeowner

 The gloomy overcast of the past week had finally begun to subside, making way for the crisp, cold autumn days that one expected in the mountains. The sky was a pale blue like it had been left out in the sunlight for far too long, lending it a bleached appearance. A few clouds lingered about in the distance, like a few gawkers that just couldn’t pry their faces away from the window display at a bakery. Much as they wanted to mar this beautiful autumn day, the upper atmosphere wasn’t having it.

Advrik strolled down the simple paved sidewalk from his house, through the black iron gate, and headed due west from his little house and tiny plot of land, which he’d transformed from the dilapidated hovel that he had bought sight unseen just a few short months ago. Looking at the refined, upstanding citizen the house had become, one wouldn’t be chastised for not believing the before and after photos. One beast even claimed that it was a brand new house entirely, or they somebeast had used AI to greatly alter the images.

Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog :: Episode 1: This Is a Tale... [11.09 and 11.10]

 

*cue the 'This Is a Tale' title track from Babe*

This is a tale about a small deserted island and the hapless individuals that call it home. Not to be confused with the village of Memoria from legend, but certainly named for it. This village of Memoria was founded atop an island far, far away from the mainland we call home. Once deserted, Nook Inc. founder Thomas Nook and his nephews purchased rights to the land and started offering it as a part of his newest venture: The Deserted Island Getaway Package.

Memoria was founded on November 9th, 2024. I had decided to start a fresh new town and leave my launch day town behind on my launch day Nintendo Switch unit. My goal is to play THIS town until the next game launches on the Switch successor, whenever that may be. I also felt that starting a new game, with all the content updates and DLC the game received over the course of its launch year, along with being armed with the knowledge of the game, would be a fun experience. And since I no longer run my Youtube channel, my next course of action for documenting this venture would be in the form of blog entries right here in my little domain!

So without further ado, I present to you: Village of Memoria; An Animal Crossing New Horizons Blog!

After the little flyover of the island, I immediately learned that peaches are the native fruit. A welcome change from the apples that I typically get because now I can actually put together an apple orchard and not have it be a waste of time and money!

The accompanying villagers are Kody, the blue cub and Faith, the koala. I've had Kody in various towns over the years before, but Faith is an entirely new face to me who I have never seen before, so that was a real surprise stepping out of the airport.

The first chilly night on the island was spent in a tent with nothing but a cot and a lantern to my name.

Because the island will undoubtedly go through many dramatic changes, I always make it a point to snap a photo of it from the get-go as I enjoy looking back and seeing all the changes that happen.

One of the first priorities for me was to get that Pro design editor so that I could make myself some actual clothing. Something I struggled with for some reason when the game initially launched back in 2020.

I also don't know if I simply missed it the first time or if it was a change made later with updates and patches, but I was able to get Blathers' tent built on day zero, expediting the process of getting the museum quest moving along. 

Tom Nook has come a long way since his early days as a small shop owner in 2002. Good for him. That's character development at its best.

So this morning upon logging in, I was treated to an island-wide announcement by ol' Nook himself. I had forgotten this was a thing as I'd spent so long listening to Isabelle's announcements the past few years.

I also got my first house upgrade, something that I may or may not rush along simply because I want that small cottage experience right now. Of course, I will move it to a different location when the time comes as I want to get away from what will eventually become Main Street.

And Blathers is here! Again I do not remember in the slightest if this was possible or not or if I simply just missed it the first time, but the sooner this thing goes up the better.