Videogames – Clogs and Sneakers

February 6, 2021February 6, 2021

Kickstarters for February

Since I left Belfast in 2016 I haven’t funded a Kickstarter at all. I kinda lost interest and spend my funds on other things XD. But when I saw the seedling animal planters Kickstarter on my Twitter feed the platform spiked my interest again. Twitter can be bad on the wallet ;).

I have been following leikya , an English artist, for a while on Twitter. Her cute but simple art style is addicting to buy merchandise of. I pledged for planter, dish and enamel pin but the hardest part for me will be coming up when the pledge time ends and that is which type of planter I am going to choose. I’m leaning towards the fox but the cat is very cute too. Hardest decision of my life! JK

Since this Kickstarter is based in the UK I really wonder what the custom fees will be since they left the EU. It’s not a large pledge of £35 so I think it won’t be that bad. But the cuteness is killing me. And then I need to figure out which plant it will carry. I’m a sucker for cute pots and plants and I am hoping to build a larger collection. It will go nicely with my Pusheen pot.

The other Kickstarter is a farm sim game called Coral Island made by developers from Indonesia. I love farming sims and this is situated on an island, what more can a girl wish for. Also the game studio is a newly found Indie studio based in Indonesia. Supporting the roots! There will be fruits and flowers featured whom are native to Indonesia and I hope we will hit the pledge target of $175.000 so bug catching will be added. The counter is now on $162.000 so we are getting close.

I chose the $45 pledge which contains a digital Steam Key and a Pre-Alpha key, Digital OST, Digital Artbook and a Kickstarter Exclusive Farmer outfit. I’m pretty psyched to play another sim next to Animal Crossing. Can’t wait for this one to come out!

There were many more projects I would have loved to help fund but I needed to make choices because I set a firm budget for myself. Maybe March will bring some new fun projects around.

January 4, 2021January 4, 2021

Amaterasu Nendoroid

Since the game came out on the Nintendo Wii I have been a big fan of the character Amaterasu. I even bought the ports to PS4 and Switch when they came out. It’s just such a fun game with a different playing concept. You need to beat your enemies with strokes of your Celestial Brush and other Celestial weapons like the Glaive, the Rosary and the Reflector.

So when Good Smile Company announced their version of Amaterasu in the form of a Nendoroid I had to jump the band wagon. The problem with me an Nendoroids is that I am running out of cupboard space. XD So I limited myself to only buy the cool ones like Hatsune Miku and some of my favourite game-characters. If they going to make Final Fantasy XI or XIV ones I am screwed.

I ordered them either directly with Good Smile or my go to Japanese store AmiAmi. Good Smile sometimes throws in a bonus item like keychains or stickers. So it really depends on what is added from what place I will ordered it.

DX version which means 3 Celestial Weapons ;P

Good Smile released two versions: the regular one and the DX version. The DX version has all Amaterasu’s weapons so I opted for this version. Can’t have the Goddess of the Sun without all her weapons.

All Nendoroids come with several option parts to be able to change the expression or stance of the figure. The open mouth lets you hold a sexy turnip or just howl a battle cry. You are able to let Amaterasu sit while listening to the annoying Issun. He is the little green orb that is your guide through the game.

Amaterasu with Glaive — Amaterasu with Reflector

I will display her in a running stance with Glaive. Just because the Glaive is my most favourite weapon in the game.

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021

Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin

My SO purchased this Nintendo Switch game for me as a Christmas gift. This game is part farming simulator and part dungeon questing which is for me the best of both worlds.

The story begins as a group of humans crash a Divine feast and Princess Sakuna, the spoiled harvest goddess, isn’t able to remove them from the heavenly Loft Realm without accidentally setting fire to the offerings of the head goddess Lady Kamuhitsuki. Sakuna, her familiar Tama and the humans are then banished to the Isle of Demons where she takes upon a quest to banish the demonic beasts before she can send the humans back to their own world. With rice farming she will gain possession of her powers again to fulfill her quest.

Sakuna - Towards the Isle of Demons — Sakuna – Towards the Isle of Demons

There is quite a lot of humor in this game. Princess Sakuna is truly a spoiled goddess who didn’t really care of the peril the humans were in at the start of the game. By receiving this quest from Lady Kamuhitsuki she might learn a bit of humility and respect for the humans that spent much effort and care into producing the offerings for the gods. The developers gave the bratty princess a lot of different expressions to show her dismay with the quest and the fact that she is now caretaker of a bunch of humans.

The game has two different play modes. When you are exploring the dungeons you are in side scrolling mode and use your magical sash & hoe to battle the demonic beasts trying to make battle combo’s so your enemies are defeated faster. As of yet I’ve only ran into demon bunnies, boars and sparrows but I bet there are more diverse enemies further in the game.

When working on your rice paddy the game switches to first person mode and you can work around freely in a 3D environment. Which is a nice change of pace. My rice is only on day 4 now and I have no idea how it develops. What I did do wrong is to plant them too far apart. But I guess this is a learning process. 😉 You can let the NPC’s do this for you but if you grow the rice yourself, you will get better results.

The only down point for me is the way the controls are set up, it’s not comfortable for me to play it for long periods of time. Animal Crossing I can play hours on end in handheld mode but this game just hurts my right hand. Mind you, I have RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) in that hand so it might just be me with the controls. Fortunately, the game is compatible with a Pro-controller which I own. This might make it easier for me to play.

I really love the art-style and theme of this game. It’s not going to be an one-on-one rice growing sim but they do calculate in temperature, fertilizations and overall care of the field to make the experience as close as it is in real life.

The characters are based on Japanese folklore but not being used by their true names and functions. Inari Okami is the god or goddess of rice and fertility while Ta-no-Kami is a kami who is believed to observe the harvest of rice plants or to bring a good harvest. So the developers took the premise of divinity and folklore and spun it in their own vision. Tama reminds of the Komainu, lion-dogs statues you find at Shinto shrines.

I am quite pleased with this game and it gives me a break from playing Animal Crossing with a more story driven game.

January 1, 2021January 1, 2021

Farewell to FFXIV

I never thought that it would happen but yesterday I cancelled my subscription to FFXIV.

Since the beginning of the pandemic I haven’t logged into my account but before that I wasn’t really active online either just doing events for new mounts/minions.

I’ve been playing the Final Fantasy MMO, FFXIV predecessor FFXI since 2005 and was hooked instantly. I met and made a lot of friends there, some to whom I still speak to. But if you really want to be good at the game, you need to get into Endgame for the gear.

The drama I encountered in FFXI was horrible. People hating on each other as rival Linkshells (guilds) and people just stealing items or backstabbing within the linkshell. I had enough and moved on FFXIV which looked like a more casual game to me. I even got my significant other to play it.

The storyline is amazing, I was excited for each announced expansion but the higher I got the more I came to realize is that in order to be good, you need the gear to back it up. As a healer it sometimes became difficult and the grind for better gear became a chore. Also players tend to point it out that you are lacking in gear/skills or just cussed at you. I try my best and don’t go around half-assing the dungeons but if you criticize me every step of the way it sucks the joy out of playing. My SO fell out with the game earlier as people didn’t like his playing style. It would be easier if we had two other friends to join us so we could just have plain old fun again. But alas, it is not so.

On this account I spend 1440 days which is almost 4 years that I’ve played this game but it does not bring me joy anymore. Part of me is sad, as I really loved the storyline. But the team behind FFXIV is developing FFXVI for the PS5 as a stand alone game which the story is going to rock I am sure.

I have until the 7th of January to tie up some lose ends in the game and move my collectibles to my character. I don’t want them to delete my living quarters due to inactivity and lose my in-game items.

Yoshi P and team thank you for bringing me a fun few years and creating Final Fantasy XIV. Maybe one day I will be back.

<bow>

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020

Bunaken, my Animal Crossing New Horizons island

When the first trailer came out on Nintendo Direct I was excited. A new Animal Crossing was going to be released in 2020. New Leaf came out in 2012 and has been a long wait until the next installment of the series. A few new features were added to the game (terraforming and crafting) and of course a graphics update.

I had pre-ordered the exclusive Animal Crossing Switch edition and my boyfriend gave me a physical copy of the game. So when the game was released worldwide, I was able to play it straight away. Days prior to the release I was thinking about an island name and character name. I chose to stick with my Indonesian roots and named my character Melati (white jasmine, one of the national flowers of Indonesia) and the island Bunaken (an island located at the northern tip of Sulawesi).

You start your island adventure with two more residents, mine being Tammy (a bear) and Sly (an alligator). The goal of the game is exploring the island, building up the collections of bugs, fish, fossils and art of the museum, inviting more villagers and molding it to your liking. You can visit your friends online and exchange gifts,recipes and even villagers with each other.

There are several challenges in the game like the Happy Home Academy. Every Sunday your interior decoration skills are rated by the academy and you strive to achieve a higher rank. I’m currently on rank B with 79.993 points. There are furniture styles you can only buy from the store or craft your own furniture to achieve a higher rating. I think my Japanese themed room and onsen are almost done. The kitchen is much harder to complete as I am not finding the correct recipes. I’m still missing a cutting board so I can’t finish the ironworks sink to match my ironworks cabinets. 😉

Another cool thing about the game is dressing up. Mable sells different outfits every day and outfits can be gifted by villagers and found by popping balloons. Every day I pick a different outfit.

I was thinking of streaming this game but there are more funnier and creative streamers out there. But I am going to post more about my island as it grows and goes through the seasons.

September 7, 2019September 7, 2019

FFXIV: Sia Forerunner

As some of you know I have been playing the online MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV for a few years now. My boyfriend and I play casual together but starting new jobs on existing characters tends to be quite problematic, you keep on running out of space hoarding gear. Especially when you want good gear for your character.

With the start of the latest expansion, Shadowbringers, I’d hope to be able to start my ALT-character on the same server as my main one but there were server restrictions during the launch. So I started a new on the Lich server as a Viera Paladin.

Viera is one of the new races that came out with the expansion and I didn’t want to change the race of my main character (cat-gurl for life).

Viera FFXIV

Didn’t expect that I would have this much fun starting all over with the story. A Real Reborn was a tad bit too long but I blew through Heavensward and am currently clearing Stormblood before I can start with Shadowbringers.
I had the plan to blog about it sooner but I really got sucked into the game again. ^^;;

Anyways, meet Sia Forerunner, my pretty Paladin.

Paladin is way much more fun for me to play instead of a healer. I’ve been losing patience as a healer so I needed a long break from it. It would be a waste if the game is no longer fun for me.

I try to play less in the living room TV as it keeps my family from using it. But I do miss the 4K screen that works so well with my PS4 PRO. Better save up for my own 4K TV.

In little over a month I managed to get my girl up to level 68 Paladin and leveling Mining and Blacksmith/Armorer on the side while I wait for groups. The ability to visit other Worlds means I get to still play together with my boyfriend on Odin. But starting the story from the start has made me fall in love with this game once again.

For short videos you can check out my twitter feed @clogsnsneakers but I am looking into publishing longer vids on YouTube.

April 2, 2019April 1, 2019

Final Fantasy VII

I’ve purchase quite a few Nintendo Switch games lately, Final Fantasy VII being one of them. It’s not the remake, but a port from the original game released in 1997 for the PlayStation. It’s also the first game I bought together with my PlayStation console. Before that I had only owned Nintendo consoles.

I can’t recall exactly when I bought the game, but it must have been at the time I was working part time at a department store. PlayStations were even expensive back then so it must have been when I was 18ish. A year well after the release in 1997.
Having always been a Nintendo-girl I was interested in something else. PlayStation offered a whole new world of graphics and game play and I was told by the shop clerk this game would give me a lot of hours of fun. He was right, I was hooked with my first ever RPG.

Nintendo did have other versions of Final Fantasy on its consoles, but I’ve never managed to get my hands on one. Not until the remakes for future handheld consoles.

FFVII was the start with my obsession for RPG’s. Since that game I have tried many different types but always came back to the Final Fantasy series. I even ended up playing the online versions for many years. But I am a little ashamed to say, I’ve never finished FFVII. Hopefully on the Switch I will finally be able to reach the end of this game. If I don’t get distracted by other games ^^;;.