I saw a neurologist today for the pain I’ve been having in my hands and feet (neuropathy). The appointment was pretty chill. He didn’t seem to think there was anything awry, but we’re going to schedule a electrode test in the future to make sure. If it’s anything like scheduling this appointment, I imagine it wont be for half a year, which means I’ll have to probably wait for my answers (or lack thereof) for a little longer.

It’s hard to feel a specific way about it. On the one hand, he seems to think it’s nothing which means I’m just going to have to live with these unsettling and life disrupting pains. On the other, he’s at least doing more for it than my primary care. It’s also always possible they find something in the later appointment. I guess I’ll just have to shelve the emotion for now and wait.

The neurologist mentioned that the best thing I can do for my body, from studies, is to make a routine and stick to it. I don’t disagree with it, and in fact, it’s what I was starting to do for a bit there. Until I let myself get sidetracked by the usual suspects (social media, depression, loneliness, etc) I’ve decided I need to get back on that.

I don’t have anything concrete right now, but I’m going to take the rest of this week to hammer out a stricter schedule. Maybe something that incorporates the good ol Pomodoro method (where you focus on something for 20 minutes and then take 5 minute break) I’ll update everyone on here with what I adopt next post.

What else.. Politics are kind of ehhhhhhhh. I’m not very happy, but all I’m capable of doing is voting in November. Thus I’m trying not to worry about everything else. I just hope democrats get some of their shit together..

In more positive news:

I finished the Japanese live action drama/comedy Brush up Life. It’s about a reincarnation story about a woman who dies and through a limited process gets to relive her life to increase her karma. If you’ve ever been the type of person to fantasize about how different your life could be, like I have, I think you’d probably enjoy it. Even if you haven’t, I think if you like a series with great character writing, you’ll have a good time.

My only real criticism comes with the last couple of episodes. They’re good, but not as good as the ones leading up to it.

I’ve been playing the VN Together We Live in Japanese (I have to specify this because it is available in English) Having read the author’s (who goes by “R”) previous work Sasasagu (saiaku ningen something something, I forget) and enjoying it, it was a no brainer (Plus it being only $5 on the recent steam sale helped)

The premise/set-up reminds me a lot of Sasasagu. That is, in Sasasagu you had a boy and girl character and they were largely the only characters (note: There’s other people in Sasasagu, but the boy can only see and hear the girl) In this game apparently the human race has gone extinct except for this boy and a girl who’s been charged by god to endure humanity’s punishment for killing everything.

I wont say much beyond that as it’s apparently a pretty short game (explains why it’s only 5 dollars) That’s fine with me though as I’ve already got like 3 other visual novels I’ve started and still need to get back to (Kanon, Sakura Moyu, Mahoyo) Although part of me suspects I might just go start something else soon.. I need to be more disciplined.

Game-wise, I’ve been struggling with what to pick up. For a while I was replaying Lies of P on Steam (which I also got on sale in preparation for DLC someday) and that was a nice distraction from having to really think about what I wanted to invest in. However now I’ve done nearly everything there is to do, and I’m going to have to make a choice

Choice 1: Replay The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky FC and SC

Currently I own almost every trails game released up until Zero I think? The reason for that is that I kept hearing buzz about how great the series was, and I would buy them for the future prospect of playing them.

At one point I started playing FC and I managed to get all the way through it and SC. My feelings at the time were mixed. I didn’t think it was a bad game, but I had trouble understanding what was so “peak” about it that I would see so many JRPG fanatics singing its praises. I just didn’t get it.

I tried to start the third sky game, but I quickly got sidetracked. Then several years passed.

I still want to know what’s up with this series. Being a huge JRPG fan (though admittedly getting tired of some RPG gameplay) I really didn’t want to feel left out. Thus the idea of replaying FC and SC to try again has entered the arena that is my mind.

I don’t remember much of what happened my first time apart from one major plot point that split the two games. It’s not just a matter of how much time passed. When I initially played through it and felt “eh” I had trouble really putting what I found off into words. Thus there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be able to experience most things without the dreaded “Oh I remember this.. great now I got to rehash it”

I also found out there’s a voice patch from the PSVita version. I’m pretty sure I didn’t play with it the first time through, and voices always elevate the experience for me (Mostly Japanese voices)

The one thing holding me back, and it’s fairly big, is I really don’t like the gameplay. My first time through I didn’t like it either and ended up cheating to see the story. This time I’d probably also end up cheating too.

I don’t really care if people look down on me for it (ie: the weirdos who think cheating makes you a casual or whatever), but I am worried that by trivializing gameplay that I might find it harder to get invested. I worry I might end up at the same place I ended last time.

I also worry that I might have to force myself a bit to get myself to get through this and that it might color my feelings a bit too much. I’d hate to really fumble things a second time, because I feel like if it didn’t take, there’d be no third chance for this series.

Choice 2: Replay an old classic JRPG in Japanese

I’ve been thinking about doing this ever since I found a really cool OCR program that would allow me to hook games I emulate. Since a lot of my favorite early JRPGs have terrible translations (Breath of Fire II, Lufia 2, Wild Arms 2) or have highly localized translations (things like Lunar) I was thinking that I’d like to experience them in the original language.

The pros of this is I’d be both practicing more of my Japanese and I’d probably be more willing to engage with the gameplay (being games I loved playing) The cons are that even while terribly translated, I more or less still know the games. Which while a comfort, is also kind of a disappointment.

Plus not to mention if I pick this option, it doesn’t really solve the overall problem of what to play. I’d still have to go through this indecision hell going over a 10+ long list of old JRPGs I loved.

Though Konami could make up my mind right now if they fucking dropped their Suikoden 1 and 2 remaster -_-

Choice 3: Some Switch JRPG

Right now on Switch I have Unicorn Overlord, Triangle Strategy, Paper Mario Thousand Year, Raincode, Another Code, Famicom Detective Club… Basically a shit ton of games I’ve never played. Honestly the choices are overwhelming, which is probably the main reason I haven’t just gone with this.

Choice 4: Fuck gaming

There was something else I had been thinking about and that is just focusing on other areas of media. Give visual novels, reading, or anime a bigger cut of time so that I could actually get through some stuff a bit quicker.

The benefit is obvious. The downside is whether it might wear on me a bit too much doing one of those things for longer than I do.

Meh, you know what. I’ll just do it all. It’s likely to be messy, but if I invest ample time into each something should come out on top as the thing I want to do. When that happens I can just focus on that for a while.

Yeah, let’s do that.