Cobalt Core key art

Cobalt Core

Cobalt Core key art
Cobalt Core Official Site

I meant to do this sooner ‘cus I beat it on the 4th of December! Oh no I forgot! I actually don’t have too much to say really as it’s a quick snappy game!

The music was excellent, because of how short a loop was (success or fail) it didn’t feel like it was dragging on and combat was generally so snappy that it felt like you really had a lot of momentum going forward.

The way the OST was composed makes it really hard for me to go “yes this track”, and that’s a good thing! The music is clearly composed (and is evident from the OST with every battle track having an (Intro) track) so that you can on the fly swap between the tracks without a jarring interruption to the music, to the map, to a battle, to the map, to an event, to the map, and so on. But to make sure I pick a track and not go “All :)”, Self-Defense.

The story is simple, but honestly only once you’ve got it all, otherwise it is a ~mystery~. Which is great I love that. All the characters really stuck with me and even made me a little teary eyed at the end, what the heck how’d they do that to me!? Oh right it was mostly Riggs and Books.

That’s it! I put 35 hours in to it and if I say much more about it it’ll be spoilers! Books is already a spoiler but they’re too lovely not to have here, look at them breaking the fourth wall slightly and leaning on their character frame! Go play it if you like deck-builders, or rad soundtracks, or a possum who is just Hashtag Mood (that’s Riggs)

ZeroRanger logo

ZeroRanger

ZeroRanger logo
ZeroRanger Official Site

Oops it’s a game I beat (and it’s absolutely just a beat, not a complete…) and forgot to make any posts for (I beat it on the 12th of October)! Oh boy!

This is a really fun shmup, but man can it be tough! On the upside though it has a really lenient system to play it with a stage select and a fairly unique continues system. I absolutely cannot 1cc this though (though I feel like I got really close to 1cc-ing the first loop) haha… The power ups you can take do well to make the game play more how you want it to and boy did I land on a specific load-out (Type-C, Side, Charge, Drill) that honestly I struggled to play with the other options, oops!

The music in this game though is fantastic. Like ignoring that if you throw a growly synth at me I’ll go 👀, and the entire OST has that semi-FM synth feel semi-more modern instrumentalisation. It May Be Greenish is a fantastic opening stage theme, and not to compare it to another game, hits similar opening stage vibes that ZUN often does with his work (it’s probably the way the piano dances along the track) and given how shamefully long it took me to realise there’s a stage select, I heard it a lot :’D

The other tracks that really stand out to me are in sequence: Menacing, Descent At Last (two tracks separate tracks, but this vid has ’em paired and frankly that’s the best way to listen to them), and Despair. Like they’re spoilers as to what they play for but GOD DAMN they are all tied perfectly with where they play. And yes Despair absolutely has a vibe of a composition by ZUN again, which is probably deliberate 😛

If you aren’t late to the party like me and enjoy shmups, you absolutely need to at least give the demo a play!

EDIT 2024-04-21 – And now I’ve actually completed it

Mocked up album art for the Pokémon Masters EX Gamerip OST, from left to right: Kanto with Elaine from Pokémon Lets Go! Pikachu and Pokémon Lets Go! Eevee Unova with Sygna Suit Roxie from Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 Galar with Sygna Suit Piers from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Paldea with Penny from Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

PMEX Gamerip OST – 2023-10-28 Update

Mocked up album art for the Pokémon Masters EX Gamerip OST, from left to right: Kanto with Elaine from Pokémon Lets Go! Pikachu and Pokémon Lets Go! Eevee Unova with Sygna Suit Roxie from Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 Galar with Sygna Suit Piers from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Paldea with Penny from Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

2023-10-28 Update more like ROCK UPDATE (and EDM)

The full collection is here, with relevant credits and folder structure.
Update only tracks are here.

Changelog in the archive and below:

2023-09-28 Changelog

Filenames have changed in some instances so please either delete the old ver or update the tags manually yourself! Folder structure remains the same.

00 – Masters Originals/Pasio
= Track 246 “Type Team-Up Event” now “The High Score Event!” and Track 49

01 – Kanto
= Track 210 “Battle! (Neo Champion: Kanto) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now “Battle! (Kanto Neo Champion) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” and Track 19
+ Track 202 “Battle! (Kanto Trainer) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”

02 – Johto (No Changes)
03 – Hoenn (No Changes)
04 – Sinnoh (No Changes)

05 – Unova
+ Track 28 “Battle! (Roxie) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”

06 – Kalos
= Track 19 “Battle! (Neo Champion: Kalos) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now “Battle! (Kalos Neo Champion) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”

07 – Alola (No Changes)

08 – Galar
= Track 14 “Battle! (Neo Champion: Galar) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now “Battle! (Galar Neo Champion) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”
= Track 201 “Darkest Day (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now Track 15
+ Track 16 “Decisive Battle! (Piers) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”

09 – Paldea
= “Battle! (Wild Pokémon: Paldea) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now track 2
+ Track 3 “Battle! (Penny) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)”

 

The Trainer Lodge story art for Giovanni. On either side is mocked up album art for the Pokémon Masters EX Gamerip OST On the left on the Pasio disk is Paulo. On the right on the Sinnoh disk is Rei and Akari

PMEX Gamerip OST – 2023-09-28 Update

The Trainer Lodge story art for Giovanni. On either side is mocked up album art for the Pokémon Masters EX Gamerip OST On the left on the Pasio disk is Paulo. On the right on the Sinnoh disk is Rei and Akari

Remember me talking about the Pokémon Masters OST rip? Time for UPDATE

The full collection is here, with relevant credits and folder structure.
Update only tracks are here.

Changelog in the archive and below:

2023-09-28 Changelog

Changelog below, filenames have changed in some instances so please either delete the old ver or update the tags manually yourself! Folder structure remains the same.

00 – Masters Originals/Pasio
= “Battle! (Rival)” Now “Battle! (Paulo)” Track 46
+ Villain Arc Ending (Pokémon Masters EX Version) – Track 47
+= “Final Battle! (Giovanni) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now part of Pasio disk and Track 48

01 – Kanto
– “Final Battle! (Giovanni) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” removed from Kanto per songkey

02 – Johto
= “Battle! (Raikou) (Pokémon Masters EX Version)” now Track 15

03 – Hoenn (No Changes)

04 – Sinnoh
+ Battle! (Pokémon Wielder) (Pokémon Masters EX Version) – Track 204 (No this is not mistakenly mislabelled, Hisuian characters are counted as “Sinnoh”)
+ Space-Time Distortion (Pokémon Masters EX Version) – Track 205

05 – Unova (No Changes)
06 – Kalos (No Changes)
07 – Alola (No Changes)
08 – Galar (No Changes)
09 – Paldea (No Changes)

 

Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero – Part 1: The Teal Mask

Logo for The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask
Official Site (Bulbapedia Article)

Wow isn’t that a mouthful of a title 🙂

Thoughts like a review below but there ARE spoilers so if you don’t want the spoilers: A summary – I enjoyed it but it is a little lacklustre compared to it’s Sword and Shield equivalent. There are some technical issues that need addressing oh my god are there.

Continue reading “Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero – Part 1: The Teal Mask”

東方獣王園 ~ Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost

Steam Page (Touhou Wiki)

It fun! Wow! I did a big review over on Steam though if people want to see what my thoughts are in a review setting (it’s also below the OST download). I know I could put that here but I don’t want to work out how to do spoiler text on my site B)

I’m mostly just posting this so I can link the BGM extractions I did (MP3 | OGG)!

So yeah, my thoughts: Game fun! Wow!

Genuine summary: The game has it’s flaws but for a Vs Danmaku game (The 3rd official one) it is genuinely enjoyable and dare I say it “fun”. Though if you really, really, really like Phantasmagoria of Flower View, then give the demo a shot ‘cus you don’t like the demo you might not enjoy the full game

There’s spoilers hidden away here, even on returning chars, so people can be surprised if they’re trying to be spoiler free (somehow, after 48 hours)

Continue reading “東方獣王園 ~ Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost”

Agender Pride Flag

Gender, or a lack of it

So the 11th of October was apparently “Coming out day” and a few friends went “hey, they” basically and I remembered to update my profile on Twitter so it’s a good day to. But I did technically come out about my gender at the start of pride month.

Agender Pride Flag
it’s this (agender)

But the thing about that is well. Thoughts change but also a lot of self doubt, especially as I started feeling that I was faking it etc.

I’m pretty masculine, I won’t lie. Quite “man” like and I never really thought to, do anything about it, but I never felt attached to it  as “my identity”. I never “felt” transgender and neither did “woman” or “non-binary” ring out to me. Eventually I got talking to someone who basically phrased it as “male by default” and I was like “holy shit yes?”

So with some reinforcement behind me I kind of stumbled randomly on to agender, it felt right, it makes my brain happy.

“But… what if I was faking it for brain chemicals???” I kept thinking, especially as when I came out in June I effectively went “∅ he/they” is good :)”, the easiest “out” for all of this, even though I really never felt like that was correct but it’s easy for a masculine person and go like that. Constantly doubting that the genuine euphoria I felt back in February when I stumbled my way in to understanding.

So in safe places I did add in “it” to “∅ he/they”, eventually “∅ he/they/it” I swapped it round “∅ it/they/he”, and privately or in new places I put what made me happy…

Seeing my friends explore their identity over the past few months, and especially today made me realise “no wait I can do this”. I’ve been pushing off “he” for a while, so much so that I dropped it entirely in places I was “safe”. So I finally did it, I told everyone “it/they” on twitter and holy hell that felt good. I’d change it entirely but on Twitter I figure for the best I might have to leave “they” but almost everywhere else? No.

I’m DarkOverord, I’m an agender furry and my pronouns are it/its. They is acceptable, he is okay, but I’m an it, and that makes me happy.

Also know that I’m still getting used to that and if you call me “it” I will just melt in to a puddle for you.

I rambled here but I needed to make it in to words lol

2018 – 365 Sorted

All done now! All 2018 posts from my 365 blog should be both successfully ported over but also neatened and numbers corrected, hopefully :B

I’m not making a master post like previous years but will link the month images here. That link will have 2015 and 2016 once I’ve got round to them but for now it’s only 2018.

Also, below is each month in chronological order: