Lith's Diary - September

Dear Diary,
I have a whole bunch of nerding out to do while I've got you, but before I give in to that temptation: this month has been a little better, but it's also kinda passed in a blur. I hate that feeling when weeks just seem to disappear when I'm not looking. I still remember when every day was so special and unique to me, and I was mystified why older people ever said "the other day." Which day was it? I could remember most things that happened in the last week or two clearly. But time is slipping by so much anymore...

Maybe all this nerdy stuff is partly to blame for that, really. It helps make me feel better, but it also makes my time disappear pretty easily, when I'm enjoying it... In a way, I both appreciate and resent it? But... maybe the best way to spend your time is enjoying something that you like, to the point you don't even notice the time passing. As long as you're keeping a balance with work and health, and all that. I'm getting a little better at that I think, but it's still wobbly at times.

So! Last month I was back to feeling like there were no good games around, and now I've gone and found a few I got really absorbed with. I also mentioned I'd seen some great anime, and I wanted to remember to talk about those, so I guess I've got a whole bunch of stuff to talk about and recommend to you! You know, if you like... games or anime.

I really didn't expect to enjoy MEGALOBOX like I did, but it charmed me. That's the second boxing anime to surprise me, after Hajime No Ippo. But this one is very distinctive, in how similar it is to old classics-- it feels a lot like this could've played right alongside Cowboy Bebop or shows like that. They even used the old school styles and shipped the show at a lower resolution just for that authentic vintage feel, and while the story is just kinda the standard "I'm gonna be the best!" the execution really follows through on it and makes it very engaging to watch. I probably can't do it justice here, but I do think it's probably one of the best anime of the year.

Another one that really stood out to me is Fire Force. It's beautiful in an intense, action-oriented way, bright lights and darkness and the feeling of heat. It's pretty feel-good heroism stuff, woven through with some heart-wrenching moments dealing with victims and suffering, and both the opening and closing music sequences really stand out to me, I found myself watching them through almost every time. Overall, I can't say the show is exceptional or groundbreaking in any one way, and it does have its flaws, but it just made me feel good, and I look forward to every episode.

What else... Shoot, I feel like I'm forgetting one or two. But well, there's Demon Hunter. If you're involved with anime at all, though, I feel like you'll have heard about that already. It can feel a little formulaic at times, and the hero is kinda pushing the envelope for the "well-meaning, optimistic to the point of naivety" archetype, which can be good or bad depending on what you're looking for, but it's got a lot of great action, beautiful moments, and I actually found myself drawn in emotionally a lot, laughing out loud or getting teary-eyed or just completely engrossed. It might be a little less enjoyable if you've gotten all the hype before you watch it, but overall I think it's a great show.

Hmmm. I've watched a few others in the last few months, but I can't think of any overly worth recommending. I did rewatch a few as well, which was interesting. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is still fantastic. I actually rewatched the original series (which completely derailed into a different story when they ran out of manga) before the remake (which is the full, originally intended story) and it was a really weird experience, seeing these characters twisted around into new canons and new theories of what was all happening behind the scenes. I actually found Kill La Kill more impressive the second time around-- I think I went into it super pumped from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the studio's previous series, and compared to that it only felt "okay." But the show really does some great stuff, and I found myself picking up a lot of themes and subtext I'd missed the first time around. Conversely, I'm now rewatching TTGL, and I have to say... it's starting to show its age a little? It's still a fun show, but I forgot how the first half a dozen episodes or so were kinda... inconsistent, or even slow. I guess you could say it's the second half of both seasons that really blow you away. I definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it, but maybe don't judge it too harshly before it really takes off.

Argh! I wanna talk about games too, but this is already getting pretty long! I'll try to keep it short. I found a great new trading game. I've mentioned Merchants of Kaidan a lot in the past, right? I've long cited it as one of my favorite games despite being a buggy mess, just for how satisfying the core gameplay is. Well, the game This Merchant Life finally took that core gameplay and built a new game around it that's actually well-designed, checked for bugs, and written by someone with a strong grasp of English! I won't say it's perfect, and I can only play for so long at a time before my brain starts melting, but it's still awesome for scratching that itch, and well on its way to becoming one of my new favorite games.

...I guess I haven't actually described the gameplay, so, briefly: you're a traveling merchant with a cart. Buy goods cheap, go to other towns and sell them high, take advantage of swings in the market, work supply and demand to your favor, hire mercenaries to protect you from animal attacks and bandits, and buy upgrades to store more stuff, move faster, access more types of trade stock, and cut better deals. Plus, lots of random little events and exchanges with people around the kingdom that are actually charming, refreshing little distractions from cutting profits right and left. I'm still getting a feel for it, and I've taken a bit of a break to try this next game, but I fully expect to come back and play it all the way through! The campaign seems like it's gonna take me a good while, too.

As luck would have it, another game just came out real cheap, and great for scratching a similar itch. Mindustry is basically one of those games where you build mining machines, conveyor belts, and processing machines to get all the resources you need to build up to compicated stuff-- but this is all building up for two purposes: to supply your defense towers and mow down waves of attacking enemies, and to collect lots of resources you can take back home and use to unlock new technology. This means you do the build-up from nothing a whole lot across different maps to find new resources and beat challenges, and you just keep building up until it's time to pull out with what you've got and call it a victory. It lets you pause to build within range of your ship, which is great because it's timed pretty tightly, and it lets me take the time to figure things out while keeping it feeling dangerous. This game actually does a pretty great job balancing those factors, which have often been a big issue for me with games that try to combine resource managing and building with tower defense-- two genres I love on their own, that should be great together, but seem to have... trouble, sometimes. They Are Billions is the main other one I can think of that did a great job on that, though that's more about building the one base and just building it bigger and bigger to really survive the long haul, where this is more "build all the basics ASAP, grab what you need and run!" But somehow in a way that I don't stress out. This game really got me craving to play it again anytime I put it down. I'm almost done with the campaign I think, but it looks like there's a whole lot of other stuff to play through after that, so I'll have to see how that works next.

Phew! I'm really running long on these lately. Sorry if this is a bit much to take in! And this was me trying to make it short, covering all those things... Well! It does feel a little better to take the time to assess all those and sort them out, and I'm hoping you might have one or two new things to check out and hopefully enjoy, so fingers crossed, it did some good in the end.

But you know what? I've been playing all these games, watching all these shows... I really need to get out more. Kinda wish I'd decided that sometime besides the beginning of winter, but here we are! So this is me pledging to try and get out more, be more social and healthy and such this month. So future me will see all this re-reading the last entry in a month, and have to tell you how it went! Take that, future me??

Hopefully this'll help me feel better anyway. I'm not feeling too bad, but I think if I weren't on antidepressants, I might be in a pretty deep valley right now... So this is my chance to pick myself up again and get things figured out! If nothing else, I'm glad they keep me from getting too bad, hopefully that'll make it a lot easier to get to a good place again. ...Okay, this all kinda makes it sound a little... scary maybe? But I'm trying to be more honest about it, to not hide from the facts. I've had depression, and I probably still have it, but I'm trying to get better. The pills help, but better habits will help more. So... I'll try my best!

I hope you've been staying healthy and happy, Diary. Even if you do enjoy my company, you'd better be going out and having fun with lots of other friends! We've both got to take care of ourselves first, before we can really care for each other. That's important. You've done a lot for me, and I really appreciate it. But if you're not taking care of yourself too, that's... no good. I'll feel bad. And I'm sleepy. I should probably be getting to bed earlier. You get to bed early too! We're gonna be healthy together! Rawr.

Next month, I'm gonna be doing so much better! Probably. So... you be taking good care of yourself too, or... I'm gonna give you such a pout. You'll feel terrible.

Alright, it's agreed then. Until next month!

...And um. Thank you!

...Good night!
-Lith