The Return

The Return
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So I finally got up the motivation to write a pastebin! I took twitter off for Lent this year (see https://pastebin.com/5r9V3Cxi), so naturally I just got back on Easter. I feel like there is a *lot* to say, so I'll try to do it as briefly as possible. At a high level, I'm really glad I took the time away from Twitter. Even though I'm back to it now, I feel like I'm a lot less "hooked" on it - I'm not just wasting the time browsing it all day, and I'm especially not just clicking trending hashtags that will inevitably irritate me. The "silence" was good for my soul, for sure. Hopefully I can stay disciplined and not get hooked on it.


Casual Update:
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I finished FFXV and started both Breath of the Wild and Yooka-Laylee. Quick thoughts:

FFXV:
-Really enjoyed it - took awhile to get into it, but eventually found it really fun
-Did all quests/hunts (except the missing person/broken cars) and post-game content
-Pitioss was crazy
-Got all achievements - wish there were more
-I wish the story had been told more effectively - it could have been really good but instead was weird
-Sort of the opposite of FFXIII as far as its problems go

Breath of the Wild:
-Fun, but definitely not the best Zelda I've played - actually makes me appreciate OoT a lot more
-Not a huge fan of the weapon/cooking systems (basically the "survival" mechanics make it less of a "Zelda" game)
-Surprisingly, the Shrines are one of my favorite things about the game! The puzzles are really cool and well designed
-I miss heart pieces :(
-Not sure how far I'll take it. I don't like the idea of not going 100%, but there's no way I'm looking for all the Koroks or map locations. Probably will get all the Shrines and memories, maybe consider doing all of the quests. Or just beat the game and call it done.
-Of all the Zelda games I've played in the last year (it's been a lot), this may be my least favorite....

Yooka-Laylee:
-I'm through World 2 and so far am really enjoying the game. Something really clicked when I was last playing and I started to like it.
-It's not quite Banjo-Kazooie - I think there was something a bit more charming about that game - but it's still quite good.
-Excited for more!

Super Mario Run:
-Shocked at how much I love this game. It's really, really fun. I got all the coins in the campaign mode, which was a big enough challenge in and of itself, but the real depth of this game comes in Toad Rally. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I have.


SGDQ update:
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-Didn't get into SGDQ. I thought there was a pretty good chance for my 101% race with Supreme to be accepted - quite possibly my best chance yet. For once I wasn't a second-tier runner on a submission, since we both are about equal in skill level and there wasn't anybody else submitting. There weren't a lot of DKC submissions, so if they were going to go with Donkey, I felt like it would be this. BUT I'm pretty sure that because of the relay we just had, they just wanted to take a DKC break. No surprise and only a tiny bit of disappointment.
-I was planning on only attending if DKC got in. But then NAMUX had to go and shock the world and get Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose into the marathon! This is actually a really awesome speedrun, and I'm so excited for my friend to get that run in. None of us were expecting it to make it, and he only submitted it at the last minute sort of on a whim. So I'm going to support him and be on the couch for that run. I've done a playthrough of it, and hope to get a couple runs in before the event. It's actually quite challenging, and some of the tech he does only makes the difficulty even more crazy.
-Sadly, I won't be hosting at the event. I wasn't paying attention to the deadlines and missed the chance to submit my host audition. They were due on April 7th. I'm not sure where that deadline was published, but somehow I missed it. In the past the deadline was much closer to the event itself. It's possible that being off of Twitter cost me the chance.  I'm really sad about that - especially since Henneko got Prince of Persia back in and I was *really* hoping to be the host for that run again. Bummer.


Speedrun update:
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131313131313131313131313131313131313131

Yeah. 1:31 in DKC2 102% - that was the big goal for early in the year. 1:31:31, specifically.

But that was with a bunch of slop and a death.... absolutely mind boggling that I can get this sort of time with a death. Never imagined I'd be able to do that. BUT it makes me tempted to keep going. I'm only 16 seconds behind Claude to take back 5th place and the top US time. I'm less than a minute from Riz and his old WR. And after that, I'd only be 30s away from sub-1:30, which only one other North American player has done (some guy named v0oid... whoever that is). Super tempting to go for this.

Had runs of both 101% and 102% in the SNES Super Stars marathon - both of which were a lot of fun and went very well.


Coming soon:
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SO much I want to do on stream this year. So here's a rough plan (subject to change, of course!)

May: DKC 101% and any%-all stages to prep for the tournament. 101% goal is sub-50, any-all goal is to just get out of the group stage in the tourney.
June: "Every Game I've Run" Marathon! - planning to take 3 weeks and do a ton of streams - basically every game I've done real attempts of! Buster Busts Loose runs to prep for SGDQ as well!
July: *probably* time to move on - interested in Banjo-Kazooie, SMRPG, and improving my Snoopy's Grand Adventure times. Of course, I could change all that and decide to just go for 1:29 102% or a better 103% time - or taking back 306% WR from v0oid....

Throughout all of this, I'll keep up with my Final Fantasy 1 playthrough (probably as runs die at the end of streams).


The Last Jedi:
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The teaser for Episode VIII also came out during my absence. My feelings are... mixed, at best. There definitely look like some cool things in there - I'm really happy to see some new ships/speeders, and that quick shot of Kylo Ren was pretty cool. Space battle looks fun as well.

However, this did nothing to ease some of my concerns. Especially with how they are hinting at their interpretation of balance... George Lucas' idea of balance was NOT light and dark in equal measures. His idea was that the dark side is like a cancer, and that your body is not healthy/in balance if it has cancer. The darkness has to be eliminated for true balance to be achieved. This trailer hints that they are not interpreting it that way, and I don't appreciate that change.

Moreover, the idea of the Jedi ending only a few movies after a film called "The Return of the Jedi" is kind of ridiculous to me. When the title was announced, this was my concern. Some people brought up that "The Last Jedi" could refer specifically to Luke, in reference to a line from TFA as well as Yoda's "the last of the Jedi will you be" - in which case it could work and make sense. This could still be the case, the Jedi could still continue - but this trailer doesn't give me confidence in that.

Loved Rogue One, but I'm continuing to be disappointed with the direction of the sequel trilogy. I've got a lot of confidence in Rian Johnson, but I'm not feeling very hopeful about the story.


Anyways, that's my update! Thanks for reading!
Tom