Zenless Zone Zero - The Final Callback: Yixuan & Pan Yinhu

I forgot I had a Blogger

 It honestly just feels out of style. I think people just don't like to read anymore and kinda just stop bothering with this thing. I've been running ragged for awhile. Especially with crazy things going on in the world like Politics and family issues. 

I won't bore you with details just noting that I'm still around. Just very tired now. I'm trying to pursue Voice Acting as a career even if it is late in my life. As parents go on and on about I should've had this down before I graduate. It's not as easy as people make anything out to be. Especially when you're armed with little to no info on it and the people that know treat it like something you should already know from the start. 

I'm still gaming but I'm more on the lines of games that I want to play. I discovered that giving people choices to tell me what to play doesn't work out. Not cause the choices are bad. Just that they expect me to have money to buy these things or try and shove it down my throat. I know in youtube standards that's not the way to go but I rather play something I like than something the algorithm says. I also want to actually enjoy my games rather than speed through them. I'm not a speedrunner. 

The other things that hold me up is that I want to try drawing my thumbnails for these games but that takes time that I don't have. 

Anyway I'm still here. I hope to post more in the future. 

Spoilers Freedom Planet 2 - True Ending

 So after you gathered all 13 Time Capsules. You run back all the way to  the Bakunawa Map and fight Merga once more.   The fight is the same just a different ending.  Pangu executes a protocol that plays back a message for Merga.  

Merga’s will breaks and she cries for her love to come back.  Although just before everyone can finally have a much needed chat. Syntax interrupts. Stating it’s booting up Code Black Version 2.  (Why is there a version 2? Version 1 was bad enough).  It takes over the ship and declares it’s gonna blow up the moon. 

Carol rightfully complains that we already saved the moon why can’t it stay saved. Neera says there’s just one more fight. Before the girls run off we look at a depressed Merga who tells us to go on ahead. 

Seriously why is there a version 2?

So now new final stage. Everything’s rather silent much like Freedom Planet 1.  Only difference is it’s longer and you can instantly die.  What I mistake for stage ambience was actually a sort of stage timer.  Syntax is watching you travel to the end and the entire stage is full of door unlocking puzzles. The longer Syntax has you in it’s sights. It yells at you to “GET OUT”.  I honestly thought it was part of the stage and that the more you’re spotted the harder things get at some point.

I seriously thought this was just automatic I didn't notice the gauge on the left.

No instead if you spots you (roughly 3 times) Syntax goes bat shit and instantly kills you. No joke.  That bit gave me nightmares for about 2 days. Imagine some robot constantly telling you to GET OUT then suddenly impaling you to oblivion.

This is gonna give me nightmares for a few days.

You just die. No get back up option. You literally just lost all your lives. Thankfully the game is nice enough to give you checkpoints for free on this stage.

Once you finally get to the end. You fight Syntax who seems to have made some upgrades.  It’s no longer the trolling computer program trying to kill you. It just wants you dead. Moving faster than Merga was and even smart enough to delay some of it’s attacks forces me to step up my game. Then it does another trolling bit.  Syntax recovers its life back to full. 

Syntax moves very fast making it hard for me to pick a perfect time to attack.

WE'VE BEEN DOING THAT!! HOW MUCH HARDER DO I HAVE TO HIT IT?!

Milla notes that in order to defeat it we just need to hit it as hard as we can. EXCEPT WE’VE BEEN DOING THAT!!!!

Surprise Merga Strike

Oh, alright that works.

Wish Aaa and Askal were here right now.  Corazone can't cause well she's injured.

The fight continues and instead of having to worry about an instant kill attack. Syntax summons Brevon.  Seriously?  That’s just gonna make me beat you down even harder you know. The gang jumps in occasionally throwing in there own attacks. Except Merga which would’ve been cool.

Really you summon Brevon?  That just makes me fight harder.

After defeating Syntax the ship is about to crash. Carol runs off to get her sister. (I would’ve love to have seen).  Lilac pleads with Merga to escape with them. Merga’s too busy feeling sorry for herself which leads to Lilac getting smacked from behind by Syntax.  We end up with an epic NOOOOOOO!!!! moment as Merga leaps to save Lilac. 

Typical feel sorry for yourself after getting whooped.

Gives me Sonic Advance 2 Vibes

The ending then plays out as normal.  Nothing new added there.  Booo...

Can we have a play as Captain Kalaw, Askal, Spade and/or General Gong mode please?

End credits roll.  We get an extra scene.  Cordelia recording messages and getting to work on something. Which we assume is Pangu and the ancient ruins stage.

Though I do wish it didn’t turn Spade and Serpentine into comic relief.  

Wow it's Been Forever Since I Posted Anything Here

 So as the title says it's been forever.  There are a couple of post that are still in "Draft" but they'll probably stay that way.  I'm honestly afraid to post those.  I'm afraid to post most things these days.  It's not like my opinions won't be met with criticism and such.  But more that even I don't know if I 100% agree with myself. It's a horrible feeling.  

As it stands right now I'm just doing the bare minimum to keep afloat. Or really it's to keep my mind off the idea that the world is crumbling around me. If I'm not doing that I'm sleeping. I don't think I can handle the world outside my room. I feel trapped to be honest.  And I'm too scared to leave despite the way out being right there in front of me. 

I've once again started projects but I feel like I can't do anymore. I question myself what's the point of the whole thing when I know the end result is gonna be a major fail.  At that point I end up telling myself to stop wasting time and keep doing what works despite how much I hate it.  Youtube seems to think that way.  

Youtube Stuff

I don't have much to talk about here.  I'm between games trying to keep up with recording. It's not the energy it's more of a willpower issue.  I just have days where I don't want to do anything.  Then I find out I have nothing ready for the day and rush to record something.  I wish I could say I had an issue with comments but it's more that I have an issue with no comments except on old stuff.  I guess I don't mind.  It's better than no comments, bots, or whatever.

I want to do a sort of visual novel, game review sort of thing.  But I'm finding it's not exactly working out as planned. Picking a game to review is rough and just getting anywhere with it just has me being a defeatist and immediately want to quit on it. I had some encouragement from other people but I just don't see myself doing it.  I want to but I immediately feel like it's gonna fail and not worth the time sink.  That's not counting the home interruptions I get.  

Games Currently Working on At the Time of this Post:

• Persona 4 Golden
• Chocobo GP
• Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy
• Megaman ZX 
• Under Night In-Birth
• Ring Fit Adventure
• Night in the Woods

Other Things I'm doing

Random Voice Overs

 

 So I started doing line reads for various games cause I'm interested in Voice Acting. I'm not sure if I'll go through with it but I'm more interested in this than other things.  I've been doing line reads for Live-A-Hero and various visual novels. Still unsure as to how to get into voice acting career.  Just seems to cost a lot of money from what I've looked up. I don't even know who to ask about this stuff. 

Streams

Assuming I can get over my anxiety and defeatist attitude I can probably stream  again one day...  I don't have a lot of help in this as streaming has changed since I've done it long ago.  And asking anyone for assistance just gets me no where other than Googling it.  My problems don't really fall in the google category.  Just things not working or don't work.  Then people telling me I need fulfill crazy requirements in order to stream in the first place.  So I just end up saying screw it.

That's about it.  I wanna talk about other stuff but I don't feel comfortable talking about it. 

QuickPlay - Armello

Armello

Armello is a strategy board game with card and dice mechanics implemented into.  There's multiple ways to win but you have to strategic about it.  While there is a story. There isn't much to it.  You generally get a prologue on how to play the game and that's pretty much your story.  The rest is on you.

-Planned for Offline Play

Story

The story is certainly engaging enough for me to get sucked into it.  But anything outside of the prologue well there is none??? The kingdom of Armello was once ruled by a noble king who united all of the clans together.  But of course that harmony is disturbed by an evil darkness called "The Rot" that slowly decays one's mind and drives them to become power hungry dictators.  So the King suddenly starts making moves that breaks the alliance of all the clans of Armello.  And now there's a 4-Way battle for who will rule the kingdom. 

That's pretty much it.  There is more backstory in the form of E-Books but I haven't bought those yet.  Not sure if I should.  

Gameplay

The gameplay is surprisingly deep. It's pretty much in a sense a simplified D&D session.  From what I hear D&D sessions get far more complex than this game. It's you versus 3 other clans.  And there's multiple ways to win the game.  

• Politically - You earn the King's favor to the point that he gives you the throne.
• Kill the King -You manage to slay the King therefore making yourself the new king
• Corrupt the Kingdom - By making yourself more infected with "The Rot" you eventually overpower the king making yourself the new Lord of Calamity.
• Purify the Land - Collect Spirit Stones and purify the kingdom 

So you have a lot of ways of going about it. Earning prestige, gaining allies, etc.  You move around the board and make decisions to save towns, set traps for the others, gain experience. It's where the card aspect comes into play.  By gaining cards you can get equipment, spells, traps, and allies.  Each have there own check.  Like equipment sometimes requires that you have enough gold to even equip it in the first place.  Spells obviously have a Magic check.  Traps depend on various stats like your prestige. Allies I find are generally free. 

While moving around the board each area you come across might have a Peril. A challenge to take.  Some you can avoid and take the easy way out but you get less rewards.  But others you have to fight and pray you come out on top.  To help with this.  You can actually burn your cards, use them in an alternate way to make the challenge a bit easier for you.  Then it comes down to a dice roll.  If you roll enough to clear the challenge then all's well.  But if you don't you fail and take damage.  

For battles. You roll to determine how many attacks and blocks you'll get. The more dice you have the better your chances.  Getting die is dependent on your character and cards you have.  If a character dies. They're sent back to there starting point and lose prestige. But if you lose to a Rot Infected character.  That character also becomes infected.  Quite a lot to consider.  

During my play I did end up making some bold moves and praying the AI wouldn't catch on to my plans.  Another part I ended up making desperate moves just to win. So I could see games getting crazy and easily a game where you try to hold a player underwater.  In my opinion getting prestige and winning the King's Favor each turn seems to be the best plan.  Each day while you still hold the King's favor you can affect everyone on the board.  Like making every other player pay there taxes (how evil).

I only scratched the surface of how deep the gameplay goes.  

My Only Disappointment

Probably my main disappointment in gameplay is that after the prologue that's pretty much it.  I was expecting there to be a single player campaign with each clan/hero.  But nothing.  After the prologue you're immediately thrown into the game.  No story after that.  I guess you make your own story.  

Well if you to take my point of view from this prologue. I could see myself as someone trying to unite the 4 current clans. There's plenty more thanks to DLC but I'll focus on these 4.

The Wolf Clan is the hero.  Thane has decided since the King is corrupt, breaking alliances, and oppressing the people. He needs to go.  You could probably convince him that there's another way through gathering the Spirit Stones.  

Mercurio of the Rat Clan. They're just siding with ones with power. They know what's going on and through trickery would look to usurp the throne. Although that can't possibly go well considering they're willing to infect themselves with The Rot.  

Amber and the Rabbit clan once had the King's favor. But due to sudden changes she has to focus on reestablishing her clan politically. She would be key to reuniting everyone or at least taking down the King.

Sana of the bear clan. They knew this day would come and have prepped for The Rot. Getting the Spirit Stones together to cleanse The Rot would be key. If you side with her you could save the world.  

Now obviously the problem would be getting everyone to listen and make alliances.  Even if you made an alliance it would be shaky considering that they would never agree as to how to save the world. 

Music

The music fits the mood.  I mean it's not a war. So I don't expect some crazy battle music. But it definitely sets the mood.  So I have no complaints about it.  I imagine during main games you probably won't focus on the music. 

Graphics

I'm honestly impressed by the graphics. For one this runs pretty well on my Desktop and my desktop is pretty much out of date by a few years.  I enjoyed the Prologue movies.  

Overall

I'd be more impressed if there was a single player campaign.  I wish there was a single player campaign. I mean this series even has a book series that acts as the game's prequel to it all.  My main problem with this is that like many games there's a huge focus on playing online rather than offline. I don't mind this but it is hard to get friends together to play games like this. Still a great game and I wish I got around to playing it sooner. I had this on my steam for years but never had the time to actually play it.