Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! As a bit of a special, and also because I really just want to write more, I have a few top 5 lists coming today. Originally it was going to be one top 10 list but then I thought of another and figured two top 5’s would be good as that equals 10, but then I thought of a third and well, even though nobody counts down from 15, that’s what you’re getting anyway!
If you guys read my twitter or even my post from two weeks ago, you will know I’ve had a lot going on this year. Wedding planning takes up a lot and once it’s over, it’s still a pretty busy time. I still have a few things to do relating to all that, but things are finally starting to relax and I’m really looking forward to getting back to various games and feeling like I have a lot more time to put into them.
Games like Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, Pokemon: Super Mystery Dungeon, Captain Toad, and LBX where I will still be playing from time to time to finish some end game things aren’t included.
1. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Despite the amount of hate it gets, I really do adore Happy Home Designer and I’ve hated how little time I’ve had to put into it lately. I really do want to get every single villager house done and with the second series of Amiibo Cards (and more AC Amiibo in general) coming out on January 22nd, I’m really hoping I will have more time to put towards them. I will also be doing another unboxing video for two boxes of series 2 Animal Crossing Amiibo cards which I am looking forward to.
Moving back to the game itself, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with the DLC and Challenges, but I just really want to spend several hours just playing it and I hope to get to do that soon. And also get the skirt I want already.
2. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Even though this kind of fits in with the games I excluded from the list, I’m putting it here anyway as of the three, it’s the only one with online play and it’s that reason is a large part of why it made it on this list. I still have a few gold badges left that I just… really want to earn, but when it comes to grind-based things, it’s incredibly hard for me to stay motivated with them and as most people I know had stopped playing, it was hard to keep trying to move forward. Medal earning is especially tedious by yourself, even more so knowing you get less medals when playing by yourself.
But lately a lot of people I know have started playing again and it’s gotten me more motivated that maybe I can finish off the badges I still need gold versions of. Plus, I really do want to go back and do Dream Suite entries–I really do love the Dream Suite and think it is an awesome thing. I’m sad I lost my list of ones I wanted to visit though, but I’m still looking forward to getting back to it at some point.
3. Yoshi’s Woolly World
This game is super cute and it makes me sad my husband and I haven’t had more time to put towards it. We still have so much to do in the game and so it’s definitely one of the big multiplayer games I just really want us both to get back to. I’d love to finish the game so much. We haven’t even reached the halfway point yet which is all kinds of awful. Also, I need to play every level with Poochy. That’s just a rule now.
4. Phantasy Star Online 2
I love this game a lot and have been playing it on and off with the English patch around for it. It’s a game I wish I had more people to play with though, but with all the upcoming new things in Episode 4, I’m hoping I can get certain people back into playing it with me.
5. YO-KAI Watch
I’ve only just really started the game and I can’t wait to really delve more into it. I don’t know when specifically I will focus on it, but I hope when I do, I will be able to play it to completion.
There’s a few other games I am also looking to playing more as well of course, but those are definitely the ones I am most excited to be putting more time in :)
Or if you don’t celebrate it, a nice day overall :) My Christmas and Christmas Eve were fairly busy–we celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes which meant… a lot of cooking. And because some members of my family argue on whether shellfish count towards the seven or not, we had quite a lot of fish.
I ended up making Salmon, Halibut, Red Snapper, Catfish, Flounder, Mahi-mahi, Chilean Sea Bass, Tuna Steaks, Scallops, and shrimp while my mother made some baked clams and sole stuffed with crab meat. We are going to be eating fish for quite a while.
If that wasn’t enough, I also baked some chocolate chip cookies and some white chocolate cranberry cookies (Santa needs his cookies afterall) and I still have two things left to bake (which I will most likely be doing later today)–Toffee Pudding Cake and Hot Chocolate Brownies. I’m actually not doing too great health-wise in the sense that I’m supposed to be taking it easy/destressing, yet I still constantly end up giving myself stuff to do and just need to lay down and relax more. With Christmas over and just two things left to bake, hopefully I actually will start to relax a bit finally, but if updates are a bit slow, that’s why! As it is, grinding is still a huge pain in SMD unfortunately as I’d love to get that finished.
Moving onto Christmas Day, I did get a few games for Christmas–two DS games I’ve wanted for a long time, a PS4 game, and a 3DS game. I’ll start with the DS ones. First up is Cookie Shop which has both a misleading name and misleading boxart:
I actually knew something about it was misleading, but it was still cute and you owned a bakery so I left it on. I just didn’t realize how much. For one, you do not play as a human–there aren’t even humans in the game. You see that cute pink character next to her? This one?:
Yeah, that’s the main character–her name is Rose and that is who you play as. She wants to own the best Cake Shop (yes, cake shop–you do make all kinds of things, though, it is a bakery, but the emphasis is on cake) in the department store.
It’s a cute game and my biggest issue with it is mostly that it’s very slow. You can do very little per day (and I can’t think of any game where I felt I did so little–the closest is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games due to one dungeon per day, but I can at least go and talk to everyone and dungeons aren’t always quick) and it makes it kind of boring which is really disappointing as it’s adorable and I do want to play it more.
Besides that, I finally got the first game that has been on the backlog for ages–Crafting Mama. I really adore the Cooking Mama series for the most part. It’s one of the few motion control focused/stylus-focused games I play (though, it still hurts after a while) and I just always have a good time with them. The only one I didn’t enjoy too much was Gardening Mama (gardening isn’t really my thing). I can’t say much about Babysitting Mama or Camping Mama though as I never tried either personally. I’d be interested in possibly getting the latter though.
I love arts and crafts and making things and it’s something I really wish I could do in real life. Unfortunately, Home Economics ended when I entered high school and nobody in my family happens to be rather crafty which has kind of left me out of luck. I don’t really learn well from images or videos and really need to learn things in person which makes it hard, but I’d like to get better with things at some point. Unfortunately, Crafting Mama also isn’t a great learning experience as while it does show some things, it’s definitely not completely realistic :P And so it still wouldn’t help much.
Going onto the non-DS games, I got the Gravity Falls 3DS game (Legend of the GNOME GEMULETS) which I am pretty excited to play soon and Tearaway for the PS4. I actually have Tearaway for the PS Vita but I… am not very fond of the Vita. I have a lot of issues playing it and so I never managed to finish Tearaway which made me sad as the game is very cute so I’m pretty happy that it is available for the PS4 and of the new games I received, it’s probably the one that will most likely get a full series up on my Youtube account.
Moving on to non-game gifts, besides some clothes, I got the cute Sphero BB-8 which I adore. It’s a bit smaller than I expected, but it’s still super adorable. I just wish there was a “Come home” option so it could go back to the bluetooth source rather than having to search for it while it’s off patrolling :P
I also received a pretty cool sorbet/fruit soft-serve maker, a mini cupcake maker, a box of chocolates, and a cute Snowman Squishable so it was a nice Christmas–especially considering I was expecting like 2 things. It made some of the frustrating drama that has happened these last few days a bit less existent.
But yes, it’s pretty late so I should probably head off to bed–if I don’t make another entry before January, I hope everyone has a good rest of December and a Happy New Year (and New Year’s Eve)! :)
I mean, you may have already guessed as much from my last entry, but still :P If you don’t keep up with my twitter, you may have been wondering where I’ve been this month… In short, I got married!
My lovely wedding dress:
And my wedding ring set:
We headed to our honeymoon 2 days later to Disney’s resort in Hawaii–Aulani. It was pretty hard to decide where we wanted to go. Both my now husband and I really enjoying traveling and two of our highest wanted to go places are Japan (which I’ve been to twice) and Germany (which I’ve been to once). The Bahamas or another Caribbean island was another choice for something more relaxing. In the end though, Hawaii was the best choice as it was somewhere neither of us hadn’t been to, was still relaxing, and plus Disney had a resort there and having been proposed to in Disney, it felt appropriate to have the honeymoon in a Disney-related place too.
We didn’t really know how much we’d enjoy Hawaii (I’m often the victim of heat stroke and he burns easily), but it was actually really nice. The temperature was fine, the pools and beach were perfect. There were barely any bugs.
I mean, this was the view from one of the restaurants. Really can’t complain :P
My parents actually surprised us a lot with several goodies while we were there such as these two cakes:
Other goodies were a plate of truffles and a fruit and cheese plate. I think the truffles were my favorite, but everything was really good.
And on top of that, every restaurant gave us special desserts as well:
It was just a really nice time.
I’d love to go back and stay longer–we only really went out of the hotel area twice–once on a really cool Catamaran Cruise:
We even got to see whales and dolphins:
And I got to go Snorkeling :D Which was actually really hard as I hurt my foot before the trip, but I’m glad I tried my best anyway.
The Sunset from our room:
The Lei I got when we arrived:
Yokai really are everywhere (It was for a campaign in Japan about going to Hawaii apparently :P)
While I didn’t have time to play too many games (or get too many streetpasses T___T), I did spend some time in a mobile game–Neko Atsume. It recently was officially translated into English so I decided to give it a shot. I managed to get a photo of each one at least once:
My next goal is for mementos and buying everything :D But for now, I’m pretty excited to get stuff done. I hope more themes come out though as I am tempted to switch it up, but I’m not 100% happy with any of the theme options.
But yes, moving onto upcoming things…
Finishing Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is my #1 goal right now. As always, it will be uploaded to my Youtube channel. Once that is done, I do want to work harder on Happy Home Designer and also put some more time into Yo-Kai Watch.
Still crossing my fingers for Style Savvy 3 and Disney Magical World 2. I’ve seen release dates listed some places for the latter, but have yet to find a source so I’m not going to believe it just yet.
The Smash Brothers’ Direct is in an hour so looking forward to that! While I haven’t really played Smash much nowadays, I am keeping hopeful for some interesting things. If I have a lot to say, I’ll try and mention something here, but if not, I may just keep it to my twitter (though, you can see it on the sidebar as well!).
As for upcoming trips, current plans are to possibly attend Otakon (for the first time in ages) this upcoming year and also attend Pokemon Worlds for the first time ever. I also hope to go to Japan again either this year or next year so keeping my fingers crossed for that too :) And I will be going to Disney World (the one in Florida) two more times this year so hopefully I’ll get better at these travel entries.
I really do love traveling, but I get too caught up to talk about it very often :P But I promise more of these entries soon!
I really wanted to get the newest DLC house done. I hope I will have time to do much more soon :) I plan to work on finishing Super Mystery Dungeon next and then it will be time for more HHD!
Claude – A pro-Nintendo game shop.
Rating Address: 0100-7741-769
When I was younger, despite playing a lot of different console games I also enjoyed a lot of PC games–whether they’d be the ones during our computer class at school or various games back at home that had me using the Printer quite a bit. Many of those games were Barbie games and one of my personal favorites was Barbie Pet Rescue where you got to find/rescue various animals through different puzzles and mechanics and then take care of them. Having a love for animals, and especially dogs, I was excited to see another Rescue title coming out and it was one of the games I even got to try while at E3. Unfortunately, while the game does have some improvements, I think the original Pet Rescue game has a charm this one didn’t quite capture, but let’s go ahead to the full review for that.
Now, while Amiibo Festival wasn’t Happy Home Designer levels of excitement for me, I still as looking forward to it quite a bit. So, when it arrived today I decided to play two months–I originally wanted to start with January and go through the year, but you are forced to start with the month you’re currently in so I did November and December (and well end with our monthly choices in October I guess). I found it kind of frustrating you couldn’t unlock the plaza until you played two board games as I was really looking forward to seeing some of the Minigames sooner too.
Minigame areas get unlocked from getting Happy Tickets which are unlocked from doing the board game. And while the board game is pretty nice and refreshing, I just… wish it had minigames. It kind of reminds me of Fortune Street crossed with Mario Party in a way (I find the happiness and bells is closing to stars and coins, even if your bells get traded in at the end rather than to a specific NPC for happiness versus trading them along the map).
I do think it’s a cute game in its own way though–I like how the events are worked in but, I do kind of wish they lasted more than one turn–each day being one turn does technically make sense, but when AC is technically a real time game, I’m not used to having one chance and one bad roll can miss it. I was super disappointed when we missed both birthday events in December for example.
And all the messages are pretty charming, but what it comes down to is a lot of luck and I feel like minigames would have helped with it–we had them in New Leaf, we have some outside the main mode… I don’t feel adding more minigames would have been too out there.
But I think what annoys me the most is the same thing as with the Amiibo in Mario Party 10–having to touch it every. single. turn. I also would really like to use a Villager and since an Amiibo is required to play, it kind of stinks that the Villager Amiibo can not be used to play as a Villager. Someone HAS to use one of the Amiibo even if everyone else can be a Villager, but this means if I choose to play by myself… I have to use an Amiibo. I do love the Animal Crossing Amiibo, but I wish there was a choice to be able to just use a Villager.
Similarly, it stinks that you’re forced to play with three Computer players if playing by yourself. You can just do two if it’s two players, but if it’s one player, they force you into a four player game and I just… do not understand why.
Overall though, I do still really love the game. I just wish I could play as a Villager and didn’t have to place the Amiibo every turn :( Looking forward to do the other maps too~
And on the bright side, you only need one Amiibo to play–everyone else can just be a Villager so you won’t have to buy more than one at least if you don’t want to.
I do wish Turnips were less of an overall win though–even with the luck factor, I feel unless you get crashing, the prices are pretty good. We had prices as high as 700+ when Jingle visited in December and in that map, one of the computer players actually earned over 100K and thus, got over 100 Happy Points at the end which won them the game. And that was… a bit disappointing honestly.
Before I get to talking about the Nintendo Direct, I want to talk a bit about the Nintendo Badge Arcade! It has been something I wanted since it was announced in Japan and I was thrilled to see us finally receive it yesterday. They already updated today with some new Splatoon-themed machines and I even uploaded a video of me playing all the machines yesterday:
And look how nice my theme menu looks now:
I’m even a level 4 collector now!:
I would say my only big issue with the game is that if you get any plays (whether due to buying them or from earning free plays), you can not save them for later. You HAVE to use them all before you can exit out. I have just one Inkling left for one of the Splatoon ones, but have every other machine completed already. I’m not going to spend a dollar for 5 slots when it’s in a position that would only take me one and then leave me to use 4 slots on things I do not want/need. However, considering many of these are limited time (And if you look at the set counts, there are A LOT coming), I don’t really like holding it off until more machines are out tomorrow for me to use it.
A small minor issue though is it uses the style of Japanese UFO catchers of the 1-2 buttons where you really have only one shot to position it unlike the arcade stick crane games that are more common around here (which allow you to fully move the crane up, down, left, and/or right before having it go down as long you don’t run out of time). I’ve definitely seen the UFO catcher styled ones around here too, of course, but it’s just not as common overall and I generally don’t prefer them (even if I do well with them).
But yes, moving onto the Nintendo Direct… as usual, I will be only be mentioning things where I have something to say, so I won’t be going over everything. If you missed the Nintendo Direct, be sure to check it out!
So, the first thing announced was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand all the wanting or need for HD versions of games. If it wasn’t for the Amiibo and the fact that apparently the data on it will be able to be used in the next Zelda game, I don’t think we’d have even gotten it, but for now, we did go ahead and preorder it.
The only game I can honestly say I would want to see as an HD remake is Pokemon Snap and even then, I’d prefer a sequel with all the Pokemon and way more courses if I had a choice. Going back to Twilight Princess HD, I do think the Wolf Link (and Midna) Amiibo looks pretty cool:
Though… the stone base on top of the little Amiibo base does look a bit silly. I really do like the stone base though–just find it looks kind of funny on top of the tiny Amiibo base.
Splatoon has been such a disappointment for me lately. While I was able to try and continue despite some of my issues with the game, after more and more Kraken nerfs (to the point where I can barely use it to defend anymore) paired with the frustrating level up system for 20+, motivation has been hard to keep playing. Despite playing in the Splatfest before last, I never even picked up my Seasnails and I didn’t even bother participating in the most recent one. I don’t want to say I’ve given up on Splatoon, but I think unless there is an overhaul in mechanics and/or a mode where you can do online co-op on one Wii U or play as friends versus the computer, I just don’t see myself having enough fun with it.
Regardless, the two upcoming stages look great. I think the Art gallery looks really nice and the pool stage looks like a lot of fun. I’m super disappointed Squids can’t be in water as I kind of just want to jump into the pool and hang out with the Jellyfish on that stage. The art stage even has a fountain:
Moving onto outfits, while the North America Nintendo Direct said 40+ new things, Japan’s said 60+. I don’t know if Japan actually did get more things (I really hope that isn’t the case) or if North America just said a smaller number due to it being the same number during the last big gear update. While it’s unsure if there are new dresses just yet (I sure hope so), I did want to at least pick out a few of my favorite pieces of clothing from the trailer we saw:
(I do wish the cardigan was a different color though or even changed with your ink color. And I think the sailor shirt could have been nice as a full dress too.)
Also, there is a giant Sea Snail in the art museum stage and I want it:
And bonus art feature:
Moving onto the next thing, I just want to say I think the web portal for Super Mario Maker is pretty cool. I still have no plans to get the game right now, but it reminds me a lot of what LittleBitPlanet did with LBP.me.
I do not have any plans to get the latest Mario Tennis installment, but I actually really like the Amiibo functionality and find it really cool that you can train them and make them your partner.
They also seem a lot more intuitive than they were in Smash Brothers.
And just to skip a head a bit for a similar “I do not plan to get the game but I like its Amiibo functionality” view is Mario & Luigi Paper Jam which has a cool card thing through Amiibo:
Unfortunately, since both do save data to the Amiibo, even if I did get the games, I would need more of the same character as to not erase my Smash Brothers and Mario Party 10 data…
Heading back to going in order, I’m going to bring up Pokemon Picross… another “free” to play Pokemon game. I don’t even know how a pay feature is going to work in Picross, but I’m just… sick of these free to start Pokemon games. I’d much rather pick up a $30-$40 game than deal with microtransactions. Regardless, it is coming out in December and I might as well try it. Plus they said it will have all the Megas which means Mega Audino and well:
Can’t resist Mega Audino dropping in. (Lovely gif done by Baras)
I’m also going to touch briefly on the “Very Important Meeting” (which I am looking forward to the next part of) and say that I really love just how much effort it looks like has gone into bringing YO-KAI Watch over. Between the Anime (and very similar openings–great job, guys. I have so much appreciation for English dubbed versions of the exact Japanese opening versus changing it completely) and commercials and social media accounts, it’s just really great and makes me really wish I could get the game already even more. Once things get a bit less crazy, it’s one of the first games I plan to pick up and I’m really looking forward to it.
Next up is the upcoming Animal Crossing Amiibo (and Lucas)…
While the date is fine for the Amiibo figures, for the cards… I really want to know why? They’re out in Japan. PAL regions are getting them next week. Why are we getting them so much later? Are we going to be months behind for future cards as well? This is just… super depressing. I’m not going to pay the overpricedness of the PAL region cards for English ones. It’s just… I don’t understand. In a money point of view, this really is for the best–between my wedding and other games, not having to buy two boxes of series 2 Amiibo cards super soon is probably a good thing, but from a game playing sense and how they are the only way to unlock the special villager characters (who sometimes have special items), I just feel very… frustrated and disappointed by the decision.
We then move onto Pokken which I still don’t find myself too interested in. Fighting has always been my least favorite part of Pokemon so a fighting game for Pokemon is just… the last thing I’d want I guess. I am curious about any trainer options for it though (as we do see trainers) along with future Pokemon they may add. We already learned Mega Audino is an awesome fighter thanks to the Anime episode that aired today so if Mega Audino gets added, that’d give me a reason to buy it:
(vote Mega Audino for Pokken, gifs by ceresmon)
Also, the very first Pokemon Amiibo card has been announced:
I think it’d be neat to see one for all the fighters. I don’t want it to get super crazy (one for every Pokemon), but I think I could at least focus on just getting my favorites with these.
Next, I want to bring up Fire Emblem: Fates. Between the split paths and things I’ve learned about it, I’ve pretty much decided I’ll most likely not be playing it. That said, my fiance does still want it and the collector’s edition is honestly pretty good:
It’s a great price considering it comes with both games, the bonus route, and physical goods as well, so we made sure to preorder it already.
We also had an announcement of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow coming to Virtual Console (and trading being done through Wireless). While I am excited for it, I actually still have my original copies of Blue and Yellow so I probably won’t get it. Plus, I’m sure a lot of the glitches (from the Cinnabar Island glitch to getting Mew) have been fixed which really did add to some of the experience. And how else would you get Mew legitly in the game itself? :P Mew’s sprite in Red/Blue is still my favorite Mew sprite overall.
Finally, we’ll bring up one of the most surprising things from the Direct… Cloud being in Smash.
I think most people felt that way, Cloud. I know we’ll definitely have to get his Amiibo. Final Fantasy VII is one of my all-time favorite Final Fantasy games and is the game my overall favorite Final Fantasy character is in–Aerith. I was hoping she may be part of his final smash, but nope… Maybe some of the other characters can be Assist trophies? At the very least, I would like an Aerith costume please, Nintendo. For now though, at least we have Chocobo hats:
I really hope we get an awesome remix of the Chocobo song too. The Midgar Stage also looks really fun.
I’ve noticed a lot of people think Cloud is the ballot winner though and to be honest, I really don’t think so. Besides the fact that I think we’re getting more than one from the Ballot, I feel with the message of a big Smash thing in December, that will be where the ballot results and a bunch of new things will be announced so I’ll look forward to that.
And to end it… still no Style Savvy 3 announcement :( I really do hope we get it someday and I mean, North America doesn’t usually announce those games in Directs, but with PAL regions getting it next week… it’s really hard continuing to stay hopeful.
As for the lack of Pokemon Z (or Y2/X2), I’m not too surprised and probably more relieved than disappointed. I feel like Pokemon games have been coming out too quickly and have found myself more disappointed than excited so I’d rather more time go into something. I hope whatever they do for a sequel X/Y game though that it will be a continuation of the story rather than the usual 3rd version things as I feel there was a lot to expand upon. Also I can have a Mega Audino and a customized trainer so that’d be pretty cool.
I’m sure most people have noticed me not using the blog too much lately. The main purpose for it was for game journals and occasional reviews. Unfortunately, the only game where I’m really logging right now is Happy Home Designer. While Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon might get a page, it’s unlikely it will get daily entries, but be more video focused, which is actually a large part of why I do not have much going on here. Meanwhile, on my Youtube Channel (which I recently hit 2,000 subscribers so thank you to everyone who has watched!), I have three ongoing series right now video-wise–Happy Home Designer (which gets updates here as well), Undertale (by popular request), and Yoshi’s Woolly World (a co-op adventure with my fiancé).
Upcoming videos (besides more of the above until they are finished) include:
-More Tomodachi Life Newsflash videos for the completion news.
-Every month of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. Possibly other videos showing off some of the other modes and things.
-Unboxings of future Animal Crossing card series. I will probably record myself opening 2 boxes per set.
-Going through Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon. (I will most likely not include grinding on film though)
-As soon as things calm down, hopefully Yo-kai Watch (which I plan to purchase as soon as I have time to actually play it)
-I’m still trying to be hopeful Style Savvy 3 will somehow come out here in the US this year too so if it does, that as well (and it should have some entries here as well, but I don’t want to guarantee anything).
And of course, I’ll sometimes even been streaming some of those on my Twitch channel.
The main thing is though, I can not use Google Adsense and so no, I do not get paid through my videos which means I do have to work while also doing all these things and considering I will be getting married in less than a month, I have even less time right now. I also, unfortunately, need to look into getting a new computer chair so bleh.
Regardless, I just don’t have too much to say here right now. I might do a review for Amiibo Festival and/or Super Mystery Dungeon, but I honestly haven’t decided yet. In the meantime, Little Orbit did give me a review copy of Barbie & Her Sisters’ Puppy Rescue (which you can watch me play a bit of here) and I hope to get that review up soon. And of course, as I play more Happy Home Designer, there will still be new entries here too.
