It’s Wednesday morning at 3:30AM, and I can’t sleep.
I’m not really sure why, though. I went to bed at roughly 9:30PM after driving to get my wife food. I wasn’t really tired, I just wanted to lay with her and help her fall asleep.
I’d then proceed to toss and turn all night. Now here I am writing.
I can’t say much has happened recently.
I beat Shenmue II after a rough start to my year. The first seven days of 2023 consisted of me losing my driver’s license when I needed it to withdraw cash from my bank, busting my front tire on a huge pot hole, and taking four days to simply go buy a pair of work shoes that I’ve needed, because of all the bad timing mishaps each day. It was rough.
Shenmue II was great, though. Albeit, it was a lot slower-paced and not as good as Shenmue was in my opinion. Which is a shame, because everyone hypes up 2 as the best one.
I suppose I just enjoyed the Japan setting of the first game. I liked going around a Japanese town asking detective-like questions to townsfolk, solving riddles, visiting shops, helping people, playing in the arcade, and buying capsule toys.
In Shenmue II, I felt completely lost the whole time and pretty uncomfortable as I didn’t care for the city folk or the setting. I liked the kung fu masters, and the 80’s Chinese Kung Fu movie vibes Shenmue II gave off, but I didn’t like the padding, the filler, and a majority of the characters I’ll forget tomorrow.
Shenmue III doesn’t look like it’s gonna change anything pacing-wise. It doesn’t look like it’ll bring much to the table to revolutionize Shenmue and conclude the story of the franchise. It looks, for better or worse, more of the same. It’s Shenmue. And by the end of it all, it’ll be up to me to decide if that’s good or bad.
Shenmue III is going to have to wait, though, because Friday is when One Piece Odyssey releases!
I’ve played the demo for One Piece Odyssey, and I daresay that it’s a clear Game of the Year contender already.
It has fantastic graphics and art style while maintaining that anime, One Piece, charm that will appease longtime fans of the show. For people like me who haven’t really seen much of One Piece and don’t know much of the story, it’s still an enjoyable experience. I love turn-based JRPG, and I knew the moment I saw the trailer that I wanted to play it.
Surely enough, One Piece Odyssey gives me hardcore Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age vibes, and this is a good thing because it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I want more games to give me these vibes. I want more games just like this one, ones that are simple and fun and get me excited to explore the world and absorb the lore and characters.
Combat is fun, the characters are cute and charming, and I believe that One Piece Odyssey has the potential to become of the best turn-based JRPG I’ve played, and easily the best One Piece video game out there.
I can’t wait for it to release Friday. I pre-ordered it from GameStop so I could get the steelbook that comes with it. I think there’s a collector’s edition I might try to save up for and get used, but if I can’t then that’s fine. Few games are worth it, but something is telling me this one will be.
My friend Davis and I are very excited to play through it and discuss the game together. Sadly, though, I’ve got to work a few hours on Saturday, so I can’t no-life it Friday night like I wanted. I think I’ll grab a few Red Bull and some snacks and grind it hard on Saturday night. I’ve been taking my time with the demo version as to not rush through.
I started Super Mario Bros. on NES just to play a few levels before Friday. I’ve made it all the way to World 4–2, to my surprise.
I’m pretty fucking awful at platformers, but SMB is like a bucket list game for me. I think retro games are good for killing time and filling cracks in-between major releases. It’s easy to get through a few levels in Mario during the week while you wait on the next big adventure. Plus, this way, I’m still making progress in games and with my backlog — so it’s a win/win.
Other than games, I tried to start the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but without my debit card, I can’t renew my subscription to Crunchyroll. I ordered a new debit card before the holidays and still haven’t received one.
Apparently, there’s an issue going around with VISA cards themselves, and everyone is behind. How fun. Not having a debit card caused me to miss out on a random reprint of a $200 game I’ve been wanting. What luck, right? Oh, well. I’ll just keep waiting.
Speaking of animation, Abby came with me to see Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. While I won’t go into too much detail here, I gotta say — it hit the spot in many ways. It’s been praised online for good reason. I highly recommend you go see it!
So, yeah. That’s all from me for now. We’re on week 2 of 2023, I haven’t beaten anything else, and am just waiting on One Piece to release.
I’m looking forward to going hard on my next journey, with Monkey D. Luffy. I can’t say how excited I am!
What are you looking forward to?
