Hello all, just gonna do some random thoughts today. I think I forgot to take my ADHD meds this morning so I've been a little out of it. # Honkai Impact 3rd Played some Honkai Impact 3rd today. Finally finished Chapter 17: Thunder over Nagazora. There were a lot of interesting narrative tools: when Mei takes Herrscher form for the first time, you have no evade or weapon attacks, just the basic attack: you're so strong, all you need to do to take out the enemy that just downed you is hammer away at it with your sword. Doesn't have any mechanics to distract you from the moment except for what's essential. I was also not expecting the extended dragon flight sequence where you take out the remaining Quantum Shadows. There was some interesting gameplay there but it felt a little clunky idk. The sword takes a long time to charge up and the dragon breath is hard to aim and find an opportunity to use without getting hit. Ultimately it doesn't matter because it seemed fairly hard to lose if at all possible, but I would have liked to feel more proficient at such a moment. I thought [the leadup to Mei becoming the Herrscher](https://youtu.be/D9UuOpsqI70?si=_Nh5MB8OAEvAtKJ8&t=6160) by going through her memories with Kiana was a great idea; slap some sepia filters on everything and let us walk through it? I'm down. The coming back after dying in a really tough battle both showed how difficult the fight was and Mei's (and later Kiana's) determination to keep fighting. Kiana's attacks are weak against Mei and it feels like an insurmountable fight; if you fail to dodge she just grabs you and takes you out. There's some good QTEs and whatnot; feels very fluid with the gameplay in a way I thought was pretty cool. Sometimes those kind of transitions can be jarring but it worked well enough here. Anyway, what's next? Looks like it's actually time for the second half of Phase 2. Kind of daunting how much is left but nice to know I can play more of A Post-Honkai Odyssey now; I started that before I really new what was going on with the order because I wanted to see what it was like. Introduces the jump button, too - I'm kind of surprised this was when this was released in the history of the game? Couldn't help myself from skinning what else is coming up: Looks like another VN (2, even, though one is incomplete/untranslated) and stuff about Durandal, Fu Hua, and maybe Seele? Even if the Kiana vs Mei fight was brutal it's hard not for me to sympathize with Mei. Kiana is a person who will sacrifice herself to save the world, and Mei would sacrifice herself to save Kiana. With how Kevin seems so unfeeling in his goals, it's interesting to see parallels as he seems to have been a person who took life pretty easy and just wanted to spend time with Dr. Mei. I'm curious how much more we'll get a look into his psyche. Kevin failed to protect the person he cared about most and is now working to take whatever means possible to save humanity. I guess I'm closer to Mei and Kiana: I'd like to focus on the people I care about most, even at my own expense. Either way, you can tunnel vision in a way that makes you lose track of the people around you or yourself. I'm not sure who's going to be considered "right" in their techniques. Otto felt like the ultimate evil but going through the Second Key manga with Durandal or seeing the things that Kevin faced in the Previous Era makes the scale of what's being fought against more and more incomprehensible. Anyway I'm looking forward to Otto initiating like the Third Impact or whatever he's going to do. # Potion Craft This game is chill as heck. This might be my new bedtime game idk. # Other games [Long Live the Queen is getting a sequel!](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/251990/view/534338967351329356?l=english) I never got anywhere in that game but I played it a few years back and really enjoyed it so I would love to see more. Appears to be a more sci-fi setting, much further in the future from the existing game. # Books Read the intro to Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire yesterday. There were like 4 intros so I did not make it to the actual book but there was some good stuff there. Thinking about teaching not as a neutral act but a philosophical one where it either serves the existing system or challenges it... this and many more thoughts I look forward to thinking about more when I have half a brain. Though admittedly that half will probably all be taken up by college now. Read a little bit of [History of the Japanese Video Game Industry](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-1342-8) by Yusuke Koyama. I'm probably gonna have to return it before I really get anywhere (might skim some tomorrow). My biggest "off-the-dome" takeaway is that genres were very much informed by the platforms which they originated from, which is kind of obvious but I've been thinking a lot about genre lately so it immediately stood out to me. RPG, Adventure, and Simulation games came from PCs because they targeted older audiences with more computer space but less capacity for fast moving gameplay; they weren't trying to get your money by making you play repeatedly and had more storage capabilities, so they could have slower building and continuous gameplay, versus fighting and action games which flourished in an arcade game environment. There was also some interesting philosophical (sort of) stuff about companies using games as a means to an end to get money, and indie and hobby developers are characterized primarily by games as a means to an end. This isn't to say that developers who work in big companies do not care about games, but what the business or organization desires or requires. I found it an interesting argument and it made me think about how we can build more sustainable game companies. # Closing thought Might be doing more posts like the Honkai Impact 3rd thoughts I had earlier, trying to write about my play sessions after the fact to take note of what's interesting to me, what sticks out, etc. Watch this space I s'pose.