CURRENTLY PLAYING: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Was feeling a bit nostalgic, what with this time of year being what I most commonly associate with Lufia, Ocarina of Time and Digimon. This will definitely require a Recollection at a later date explaining.

But anyway, once I finished Resident Evil 8, I wanted to take a trip back to the 16bit era and replay Lufia 2 again while watching some late 90s natural disaster flicks. 

PC Corner!

The keyboard drawer needs some modifications; It doesn't come out far enough to allow for a wrist wrest or to comfortably use the mouse, so that needs to be taken care of eventually.

 I also got my vinyl skin from dbrand today, which looks fantastic. 

The Wolfelk - Chapter 1

Taking place in a world simply known as 'The City', The Wolfelk follows the day-to-day life of its titular beast and his group of friends as they navigate the intertwined lives they've come to find themselves in. Taking cues from sitcoms of old, video games, and anime, The Wolfelk isn't aiming to be a grand epic fantasy but instead a simple series of loosely connected small chapters following this lively group around. My goal isn't to write a huge ongoing story, though there will be instances where a plotline will carry through several chapters, but largely this is just going to serve as a vehicle in which I will develop each of my characters in a more drawn out fashion.

This will delve into mature themes as time progresses and each chapter will be marked accordingly based on the content within.

It was a sunny mid-spring morning in the city. The birds were chirping, the pollen was flying, and the construction workers throwing together the latest Dollar General down the street were already making a ton of unwelcomed noise."The perks of living in a lower neighborhood," Advrik thought as he rolled over in bed. His bedsheets were absent, and his mattress was in dire need of replacement. He stretched and yawned but refused to open his eyes, burying his head further under the pillow. Unwilling to give up the last few minutes of grogginess the night had bestowed upon him.
The trash truck making its way down the street was the final nail in that coffin; living in an abandoned taxi depot converted to a "studio apartment," he heard the brunt of the noises made by such loud vehicles and their equally loud crew.
The moment the forks gripped the dumpster, creating a grating metallic screech that flowed into the slamming of the container against the side of the truck's compacter, acted as the final nail in the coffin as far as getting any additional sleep went.
Finally having succumbed to the metal, diesel-chugging monstrosity that hauled ass down the street to its next stop, Advrik slunk out of bed and ventured to the railing of the balcony that overlooked his territory: The ground floor of a poorly heated, lightly furnished garage that still slightly smelled of oil and sweat. It wasn't what he had imagined for himself after getting out of that orphanage so long ago, but it was certainly better than the alternative of living on the streets of The City.

The garage was essentially a studio apartment in the most basic sense. There were two floors: The ground floor was where taxis had, at one time, pulled in when the driver was off duty or the garage mechanic had to work on said vehicle. Before the carpeting had been laid down, the oil-stained concrete flooring had been blasted clean with a pressure washer multiple times, but even so, the smell of old oil still lingered, and no number of scented wax cubes was going to mask that.
The interior walls showed where the shudder doors once stood, now long since removed, sealed off, and had cheap insulation thrown between the two new walls that filled them in.
The only remnant of the building's original face was the single entranceway between the more significant entries, which had been replaced with a more townhouse-esque door.
Advrik silently pawed across the second-floor balcony, rubbing the sleep crust from the corners of his eye. He stalked almost silently across the floor, his paw pads cushioning each step. Living alone had its perks, including being able to strip down on the way to the bathroom when it was time for a shower. Tossing his tee, shorts, and underwear aside, he disappeared into the bathroom for several minutes before reemerging, clean, and ready to start the day. He'd pick up his dirty laundry later; no one would see the second floor of the apartment/garage anyhow.

Advrik lept from the balcony to the ground floor below, his powerful legs tanking the force of impact like it was nothing. The depot was surprisingly clean for a single, young male living alone(as long as you discount the discarded clothing upstairs). The beast was a clean freak, and since his office-slash business was run out of his home, he had to maintain a sense of cleanliness even if his job sometimes had him doing less than respectable tasks out in The City.
As he silently padded across the depot floor, The City's sounds steadily became louder as the morning trudged on. He didn't live in the city's heart or even the city's busiest outskirts, which had been developed with a "Small town USA" design mentality. Still, the town he set up shop in was adjacent to the warehouse and factory borough and thus could sometimes become quite busy.

Dawning a pair of black cargo and a simple tee shirt, Advrik sat at the kitchen island while his morning coffee slowly dripped into the carafe behind him. His interest, however, was in his work email, the one his companion had set up as a joint account under the agreement that, should his partner in crime choose to accept any of the jobs himself, he would need to confirm the deal with Advrik first.
He was still waiting for that to happen.
Still, Advrik pawed his way down the list. A lot of it was junk or scams. Beasts seeing the public email address and using it to subscribe to weird porn or fetish websites as a joke was pretty standard, and no amount of filtering or spam reports was enough to keep the junk at bay.
"You up?" read a new text notification. The beast's eyes gravitated towards it, and the small profile image of the creature that had sent it sat beside it within the notification bubble. He breathed in deeply, taking the scent of the coffee as the liquid mana slowly filled the air with its intoxicating, caffeinated aroma. He ran his paw through the mop of brown hair on his head, stopping at the small pair of antlers between his ears, standing like two ancient, long-dead pine trees in a forest of smaller trees long since gone dormant for the winter.
The touch and the feel of the antlers were a constant reminder of his uniqueness; He wasn't an elk or a deer genetically. There's no possible way he could have been. He glanced to his right at the small mirror that hung beside the kitchen window and took in the sight before him: The image of a powerful brown wolf with piercing ruby-red eyes looked back at him, only with the sharp, angular features typically associated with such a species was dulled and rounded by the presence of the elk-like qualities. An image that once had given him much anxiety but now felt as normal as the coarse pads on the bottom of his paws. He'd considered going for more blood work multiple times, hoping that some advancements in the decades since he left the orphanage could give him some new ideas of what he was.
But that would be a waste of money, he thought. No, he was what he was: A wholly unique being, combining the qualities of elk and wolf but lacking the DNA of either one. He was, as he had come to fill in on all his important documents where the field "Species:" was required.

He was simply a "Wolfelk," pronounced. "Wool-Felk," and that was that—a new, unique species.

Tapping on the text message, the app opened up, revealing the message history between him and Desmond, his only friend in The City and constant work partner.
"Yeah, I'm up," he quickly typed, hitting send. The coffee machine had finally ceased its incessant dripping, signaling the beast that it was time for caffeine. He first retrieved a simple low-sugar creamer from the fridge, shaking the bottle and noting it was half full. He filled his favorite mug nearly full with the heavenly-smelling liquid, taking a big long whiff of the pleasant odor that only freshly brewed coffee could produce before filling the void between the coffee and the lip of the mug with creamer.
His phone dinged again, and a new text notification appeared. It read: "You wanna hang out today or something my family is driving me insane lol"
It had been a while since he just chilled in town. Perhaps getting out and meeting some new beasts would be a nice change of pace.
"Sure, why the hell not?" He replied, then replaced his phone.
He first took a sip of his coffee to test the temperature, then, finding it just right, took a big old swig. The light morning roast worked best with creamers, he thought, giving it just the right amount of sweetness while allowing the flavor of the coffee itself to work in tandem with the creamer.
Ding! The new text read: "Good, meet me at the tech shop in the mall at noon 'k"
"Sure thing, see you then," Advrik replied. He chugged the rest of his rapidly cooling coffee, then stood up and declared to nobeast other than himself, "Time to get ready."

CURRENTLY PLAYING 🎮: Trinity Trigger

With last months announcement of a brand new mainline Mana game, my mind has been racing as to how I could possibly celebrate the lead up to the game's launch this summer. 

And so I decided that I would fire up Trinity Trigger. A love letter to the 16 bit era, right down to the over the head camera angle, town layouts and the way in which dungeons are structured. There is of course some more modern features like crafting, but so far it's very faithful to the era it is trying to harken back to. 

To my delight, I found that it has a monster encyclopedia, which gave me the idea of screenshotting the bosses in the game and posting them for funsies, a trend that is going to, I think, continue for each game that I play during the Year of Mana, which means a bunch of Mana and Mana-like games. 

And surprisingly, two more new coffee creamers appear!

Of the two, the new limited edition Mean Girls tie-in 'Pink Frosting' flavor is fantastic. It tastes exactly like like strawberry Nesquik syrup. This is my second bottle already. It pairs really well with a light roast. 

The second is yet another branded flavor: Eggo Waffles and Maple Syrup. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do and, somehow someway, perfectly imitates the slightly burnt, fresh out of the toaster taste of a waffle with a maple after taste to bring up the rear. It's not my favorite by any means as it is super sweet, but does it ever stick the landing. 

My setup

Got a new mantle for my TV to sit on, replacing the 30+ year old dresser that I have had since my childhood. Now I just need to buy a new desk so that the two things match in color and I will be set. 

Pistachio Latte Coffee Creamer from International Delight

Is, like most ID creamers, not very good. At all. 

My Steam Deck evolved into... Steam DECK OLED!

It was just about a year ago now that I pulled the trigger and bought my first handheld PC, a Steam Deck. I was growing tried of being left behind when it came to new releases. Animal Crossing New Horizons had come and gone and the Switch was beginning to show its age by quite a large amount. Not wanting to force myself to recommit to gaming on a television by buying a Playstation 5,I began researching the Steam Deck.

After watching numerous video reviews and learning of its extremely capable emulation abilities, I pulled the trigger and grabbed a secondhand Deck off of eBay, along with numerous accessories, grips(until I found the one I liked, which I eventually did), two docks (of 3rd party and then the official), a nice, snappy 512gb SD card, among other things. 

The rest is history. But needless to say, I am a Handheld PC Purist now and I don't think I can see myself ever going back to a gated console environment ever again, at least not until the next Animal Crossing drops, but that's in the distant future.

The now is... Well the Now is the Steam Deck OLED, which I ordered directly from Valve themselves. The top of the line model with the one terabyte drive.

Over Christmas, I had ordered the official Valve Steam Dock, but had come to find out that the Jsaux grip I had on my Deck wasn't compatible without some... Modification, so I had to order a new grip. This one from Skull & Bone. It is infinitely more comfortable to hold, fits perfectly on the Deck, lacks shoulder button straps AND is cut to accommodate the HDMI out shape on the official dock. 

Something that I have owned for some time already is the 512gb Samsung card. It's fast enough that newer games can run off it with minimal issues, but I largely just wanted it for faster transfer time of larger rom files. 

On the controller side of things, my lovely 8bitdo Pro 2 controller has my bases covered for when I want to play on the big screen. I got this primarily for the D-pad placements as I play more retro games than anything else, which is exactly why I love the placement of the D-pad on the Deck itself.

It's perfectly positioned! 

And there it is, the beautiful 1tb Steam Deck OLED, my new all-time favorite console and my primary gaming partner for the next several years. 

Now it's time to finally play the Resident Evil 4 Remake! 

REVIEW: Coral Island (Steam, 2023)

 It's time for another Advrik Reviews! This time for Stairway Games' farming sim 'Coral Valley! I like to preface all of my reviews with the fact that these are played exclusively on the Steam Deck, so when I can (Translation: If I think about it) I will include the settings that I played the game at, including in-game and the Steam Deck's performance settings.

* * *

:: STORY ::

Coral Island has your farmer returning to Starlet Town where a recent oil spill has wreaked havoc on the surrounding beaches and seabed. On top of that, a big corporation wants to move in and "clean" things up. Like in Stardew Valley, you'll be working against The Company while tending to your farmland, mingling with local deities and wooing the townsfolk. I've not noticed any instance of being able to side with The Company, and I don't know if I'm missing something or if it just isn't there.

:: GAMEPLAY ::

It's here where Coral Island shines the brightest in my opinion. It's difficult to explain exactly just what it is about the way you go about your field chores that clicks so much with me when compared to other indie titles like Stardew Valley; Perhaps it's the not-so-snappy way in which the process goes down. You're not running across tilled land dropping seeds at lightning-fast speeds. Harvesting has weight to it. Watering crops takes time. Depending on the size of your crop plots, watering can take up a large portion of your morning/stamina and doesn't feel like an afterthought that some games tend to make it feel.

I also appreciate the variety of crops and things to grow. For example: In addition to the usual crop seeds and fruit trees, there's a new type of crop in the form of starters, which I admit I initially thought WERE trees and was quite surprised that I not only had to water them daily, but that they also died at the change of the season. These starters require a 2x2 plot of tilled soil to be planted and typically take 10+ in-game days to grow, so it's best to get them started at the very beginning of the season when possible.

Love it or hate it, crafting is a mainstay in the farming sim genre now and here it is out in full swing. Much like Stardew Valley, the majority of outdoor decorative items and other miscellaneous farming tools are crafted within a menu ala Stardew Valley and Minecraft. I don't really mind it too much, but this feature has gone on to create an issue that began in Stardew Valley and has infected just about every new farm sim that has come out since.

Makers. Mayo, cheese, kegs, and specifically for Coral Island, plastics, and kelp. Whatever by-product you can think of, a dev has likely made it a separate item that can be crafted and placed on your farm. I hate this sub-system with a passion as the makers are ugly eyesores that take up space on your property. I appreciate that Stairway Games has made it so one maker can process five products at once, but you still need to plop the machine down onto your land somewhere that requires you to - if you're like me - remember where you put it to claim your metal bar/byproduct once it's done its process. Gone are the days of pricey luxury maker items that get tucked away in the barn or needing metal ores to upgrade your tools. I loathe this trend with a burning passion and would rather see the majority of these tasks locked behind in-game paywalls again and NOT have to litter my farm with big, gaudy makers.

Combat feels like an afterthought. It's lightweight, loose, and isn't overly deep or has any real impact beyond being a nuisance while traversing the mines. I've honestly just been ignoring that whole thing and have changed it so that the monsters won't bother me unless I antagonize them first.

:: ATMOSPHERE ::

A separate segment of an Advrik Review that is reserved exclusively for games with seasonal cycles. I feel that this is something a dev needs to nail down in games like this as the seasons are at the core of the gameplay loop.

So does Coral Island nail the atmosphere? Kiiiinda. While I am only just approaching the last two days of my first autumn season, I can say that of the three seasons I've experienced thus far, only summer and autumn have felt unique. The color in the game world wasn't as lush as I would have liked for the summer season, nor was there a whole lot of environmental touches that helped to differentiate between the spring and summer seasons. Some more background noises and maybe some sun rays or different droning insects between musical tracks could have helped in this regard. The autumn season has faired a bit better with leaves occasionally flowing through the air, but those staples of autumn are sadly absent from the atmospheric background noise. Rustling leaves, chirping crickets, wind chimes. A lot of little things like this can go a long way in making each season feel more alive and authentic.

:: MUSIC ::

The soundtrack is solid. Solid enough that I bought a copy of it after ten hours of gameplay. The seasonal tracks are all catchy, though I would have loved to have heard some more instrument variations between the seasons. Considering the game takes place on a tropical island of sorts, I would have expected the summer tracks to be more Hawaiian-sounding. That's my only real grievance with the soundtrack however as everything else is fantastic. I appreciate the effort the Yugo Pratomo put into composing not just four separate tunes for each of the four seasons, but also nighttime variations for each! Above and beyond right there, and the more season-themed music I have in my playlist, the better.

But you know what really screamed "BUY THIS SOUNDTRACK RIGHT NOW!!!" to me? The theme for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Beautifully composed piece that would not have sounded out of place in Okami.

I love to listen to farm-life soundtracks as I write, whether it is reviews like this or my actual books, so getting such a meaty soundtrack in lossless format for less than $10 was a no-brainer. I am listening to it right now as I write this review!

:: STEAM DECK PERFORMANCE ::

Here is where I'll hand over my Steam Deck LCD settings and give the readers an idea of what kind of setup I'm running and the battery expectancy

In-Game:

Display Mode: Borderless

Resolution: 1280x800

Render Scale: 100%

FPS Limit: No Limit

VSync: On

Anti-Aliasing: Low

Temporal Upsampling: On

Textures: Epic

Shadows: Low

Post Processing: Low

Visual Effects: Epic

Foliage: High

View Distance: Low

Plants: Medium

Ambient Occlusion: Low

Motion Blur: Low

Steam Deck ". . ." Menu:

Use Per Game Profile: On

Frame Limit: 30FPS

Disable Frame Limit: Off

Allow Tearing: Off

Half Rate Shading: On

TDP Limit: 8

Manual GPU Clock: Off

Scaling Mode: Fill

Scaling Filter: Linear

On the Steam Deck LCD, you're going to get around 3 to 3 and a half hours with these settings, more if you reduce stuff like Foliage and Visual Effects further. The game isn't as well optimized as it should be and so regardless of what your settings are here, due to the devs making it so the entire island is loaded all at once with no zones to speak of, the game will stutter from time to time as it attempts to load NPCs and whatnot. Hopefully, this is something that the team can work out in future updates.

* * *

:: FINAL THOUGHTS ::

Can I recommend Coral Island? Yes, absolutely. I am largely ignoring NPC interaction as I don't care for that aspect of these games, nor am I overly fond of the game's overall art style. But the core gameplay is solid and I am very much appreciative of the fact that the team took the Back to Nature approach with the cooking system and allowed us to discover recipes on our own rather than requiring the recipe beforehand.

Could it still use more work? Definitly. There's a lot of little technical things that need to be smoothed out. But as it stands, Coral Island is a blast to play, especially if you're in it just for the day-to-day, season-to-season farm life aspect of it.

For 2024: More Gaming, Less Reading

And by "less reading", I mean that I don't intend on trying to read 40+ books like last year, but more along the lines of reading bigger, longer books. Most of what I read last year, save the first book in Blackwater and IT, all were in the 300 page range. My insistence on sticking to books in that range last year meant that I read a ton, but it kept me away from the bigger epic fantasy reads that I have been slacking on. Sequels like The Shadow Casket and the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles remain unread.

So I have gone into this year with the mindset that I will read generally less, but overall much longer books in general. 

On the gaming side however, I plan to play more. A lot more. Like the first few months of 2023, I will be chipping away at the Final Fantasy series, starting with the remake of VII and the going into X, XII and so on. I also want/need to play catchup on the biggest releases that I missed out on being a Switch purist, and that includes:

Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil 8, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, among others.

Gonna be a packed year, media wise. 

And so the new year begins

And with it brings the promise of a brand new set of refreshed seasons, holidays and media releases. There is a lot to look forward to this year, yet unfortunately, I can't help but shake this nagging feeling I've had regarding 2024; Like something seriously wrong is going to occur. Felt this way for the last few months of the previous year and it has yet to dissipate, and that concerns me.

But anywho. I am kicking off the year with a good, meaty horror novel titled 'Child Alone with Strangers' by Philip Farcassi. The reviews for it were glowing, and the premise sounded very intriguing to me. I mean, a creature-feature with a deeper subplot? Sounds delicious.