Oh geez, it’s the end of another week and also a start of a new month! I swear, these weeks just wizz by so fast. What doesn’t help is that my memory is pretty bad when it comes to remembering what happened in the recent past (unless something amazing happened), so honestly I’m not entirely sure what all happened this week lol.

What I can say is that I did make little bits of progress throughout a bunch of things. Maybe not a whole lot in any one individual thing (except for Genshin Impact because the new patch is too much fun), but progress nonetheless.

Oh and I did get my Steam Deck this week, which also meant I spent a lot of time messing around with it. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to use it yet, as I got it on Friday, but I already have a few emulators plus Trails in the Sky working. Definitely can’t wait to give it some more playtime :)

Ok, now for the updates! I actually did some reading this week, I’ll do an update on that too :)

Book Stuff

No progress in The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook or Art Before Breakfast so nothing to update on those. Pretty funny how much I’m not progressing in a book all about fitting drawing/art into the little spaces of your day though, but it is what it is lol.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (Felipe Andrade & Rami V) - DONE!

I randomly came across this comic and it happened to be available digitally at my library (through Hoopla), so I thought why not give it a go. It’s not exactly an easy comic to describe though, so I’ll just try to be brief I guess lol. It centers around Death, who is kicked out of her job because the mortal who will invent immortality is being born. Death takes over the body of a recently deceased woman named Laila Starr, and Death then tries to stop the person from inventing immortality so she can get her job back. Obviously things don’t go as planned, and a lot of things come up that has Death questioning her motives and reasons.

It gets pretty complicated with talking about life and death and it’s a very thinky comic that’s just really difficult for me to describe lol. I’m not sure if I can say that I enjoyed it or not, but it was interesting and got me thinking about things after I was finished. I can also say that the art style was really cool and colourful, and I loved the culture represented as well (I think the gods are based around Buddhism but I’m not sure).

If it sounds interesting then I’d definitely recommend checking it out! Especially so if you can easily get it from a library or something lol.

Witch Hat Atelier Vol 5 & 6 (Kamome Shirahama) - DONE!

I love this manga series! Don’t really want to get into depth about what happened in these two volumes, but both were excellent as usual for the series. It’s a nice mix of lighthearted whimsy with a bunch of girls training to become witches, and a more darker undertone with a bunch of people doing bad stuff and evil plans and such. Also the art is amazing!

I would have read more volumes, but I’m currently missing volume 7. Once I get it though, I’ll be able to get through a few volumes at once since I already have volumes 8 & 9 :)

Stars Above (Marissa Meyer) - 28/369 pgs

Finished three of the short stories. All of them were backstories on three of the main characters in the series. There were a few interesting tidbits here and there, but honestly none of them were really that intriguing. The characters tell a good amount of their backstories in the main books anyway, so it’s not like you learn a whole lot by telling their full backstories. Hopefully some of the other stories are more interesting.

Game Stuff

Added (Purchases/Gifts):
Necrobarista (Switch)
Senran Kagura 2: Crimson Burst (3DS)
Atelier Sophie 2 (PS4)
Bayonetta (Switch)

Subscription Addition Highlights:
Let’s Build a Zoo (Game Pass) - Not too many new additions this week (just a few Game Pass games), and most of them weren’t hyper interesting to me. However, I have been interested in Let’s Build a Zoo before it came onto Game Pass, so it would be a good opportunity to try it out here!

Subscription Games That Are Leaving Soon (Oct 16th):
Bloodroots - Looks like a very action packed game that could be a lot of fun. It mentions something about one hit deaths though, which could potentially make it frustrating. I probably want to give this one a go. I doubt it will take very much time to see if I like the game or not anyway.

Sable - I thought this was a point n click at first, but no it looks more like an adventurey explorey game. Might be something that I’d enjoy. Art style is really unique and interesting too.

Echo Generation - Not sure if I want to try this one or not before it leaves Game Pass… Cute RPGs are always neat, but the combat doesn’t seem too appealing to me. Kind of reminds me of Costume Quest, which is not a great thing since I didn’t enjoy that one (I know that’s a very unpopular opinion lol). We’ll see if I give it a go I guess lol.

Into the Pit - I like the looks of this one! These kinds of faced-paced Doom inspired games really appeal to me, even if I’m often not very good at them lol. I really want to give this one a try.

Removed:
Subnautica: Below Zero (Game Pass)
Dandy Ace (Game Pass)
Unsighted (Game Pass)
Astria Ascending (Game Pass)
The Procession to Cavlary (Game Pass)
Visage (Game Pass)

Started:
Nothing!

Finished:
Also nothing…

Current Games:
Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PS VR) - 0:45 (No change)
Everybody’s Golf (PS4) - 35:09 (+0:23)
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) - 45:46 (No change)
Trails in the Sky FC (Steam) - 3:42 (+1:37)
Soul Hackers (3DS) - 1:41 (No change)
Stray (PS Plus) - 0:45 (No change)

Played But No Time Recorded:
Genshin Impact (PS5) - Finished off the main new story bit in the new desert area in Sumeru. Still lots of other things to do there though. Also having fun with the current events :)

Everybody’s Golf

Not much progress here, but I did beat one of the VS characters. Probably should plug away at this one more if I want to get the plat any time ever though lol.

Trails in the Sky FC

Yay for more Trails progress! This time, I played it on my new Steam Deck. It did take a bit of messing around with the button mapping to get something that I was fine with, but once I did that, it was a very good experience!

Just did a few more Bracer requests, including helping the mayor out with a delivery from the mine. Met the “exchange student” who I know will come up again later. For the request to get some medicine ingredients for the priest, I had to go into a spooky forest and I almost got decimated by the monsters. Yikes! Really hate those wasp type ones with their poison especially.

Also I feel like this game is really rough with it’s money and EP… Gotta be careful with the healing items, rest a lot (it takes so long to get to a healing spot though), and can’t go too ham on the magic I guess (gotta make sure Estelle can use her healing magic!). Particularly lame about the magic bit though, since other than that, most of the other attacks are just “hit thing”. I’m still super early in the game though so I’m sure that will change as the game gets going.

Backlog Update

Backlog: 2289 (+2)
Time to Beat: 46,750 hrs (+89 hrs)

Ah, those are much nicer numbers :) Glad to see it, even if it’s still on the upward trend lol!

And that’s it! I don’t think next week is particularly busy, so hopefully I can get some good game time in :)

The only thing I guess is that Chaos;Head Noah will be finally coming out on the Switch! I'‘m trying to be picky about what I pick up day 1, but I’ve been really looking forward to it for a long while. I already really enjoy most of the other games in the series, and this one has been stuck in Japan for a long while. I kinda doubt that it will get a huge print run, plus it’s been banned from Steam, so it might be better to get this one day 1… maybe. I’m still waffling about that lol.