Oops, I accidentally slept with Lune in CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33. I agreed to work on a song with her and they snuck off and banged in the woods. I mean, apparently they worked on the song afterwards but I feel misled. I guess putting "work on a song" in quotes was supposed to be euphemistic.

Alright, let's see if we can actually complete TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II today!

"You have over twelve thousand subscribers on YouTube. How many views did your Valentine's Day video get?" 69 "...nice."

Hey all. I hope you're having a lovely Valentine's Day. I'm taking the night off so no Molehill Mountain tonight but I'll be back tomorrow for the Sunday Stream and maybe we'll finish TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II.

You won't believe this. Hell, I barely believe it but I'm someone's Valentine! So, despite it being perhaps a bit gauche, I filmed the unboxing (or unbagging, in this case.) Don't worry, no one sent me sexy underthings or anything like that!

I almost never see YouTube channels in my recommends that traffic in bigotry and harmful disinformation. I guess I've blocked them all at this point! Seems I still have a long way to go to keep channels that traffic in AI generated garbage out of my recommends though as I block a few every day.

PREDATOR: BADLANDS - There's one relationship that isn't given its emotional due but other than that, I thought this was a delight with a bunch of cool monsters, fun alien weapons tech, likable characters, great (if a bit too CG) action, and it's genuinely funny!

Sony, why the biscuits are you advertising the date and time of the show we're ALREADY WATCHING?!!!

"We don't like Nazis... but..." lied Hamish McKenzie, speaking for himself and the other Substack co-founders, pretending they can't differentiate censorship and platforming. You knowingly bring harm to the world by platforming bigotry and disinformation because you can monetize it. You're filth.

My sister and I watched a lot of media in 2025. Here's what stuck out to us the most, for one reason or another.

Game director Ryosuke Horii (paraphrased): "Who better to play a creep than a real-world sex pest?" Someone who's NOT a real-world sex pest you gross fucking dipshit. Shove Yakuza Kiwami 3 up your ass. I'm out.

Protein Soda, eh? Sounds disgusting. I'm going to have to try it. Comes in orange and grape flavors too!

Kirby: "Sometimes I sport a frown on my North American box art." Daisy: "Hold my beer, motherfucker!"

Are there that many songs about rainbows, Kermit? Prior to 1979, all I can think of is Over the Rainbow from 40 years earlier. There's I Can See Clearly Now and What a Wonderful World but while they both mention rainbows, they're not really about them. Can anyone think of some more rainbow songs?

It occurs to me that not only is our yearbook not filled out, we never got a full translation of the Black Records... I have a sneaking suspicion we're not going to finish TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II next Sunday.

Time for the TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II endgame! Will I finish the game today? The way I play, probably not!

Podcast time!

I think it would have been cooler if they called them Mon-steeds.

I'm 46 but I may not be mature enough to tolerate the Monster Hunter Stories games referring to its titular monsters as "monsties." Could be worse, I guess. The series could be titled "Monstie Hunter Stories."

CONFESSION: I never beat the Technodrome in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (2025) - This second remake is a full reimagining and while the new premise intrigues, it's not executed in an entirely emotionally or narratively satisfying way. Solid swing, but a miss nonetheless. And the gore and kills aren't as good as they could have been.

It's Good Bad Guys month on Movie Mandates and I mandated my sister and I watch BABY ASSASSINS! Are they assassins who target babies or babies who are assassins?

HONEY DON'T - As with every other Coen movie I've seen, there's oodles of craft on display but the film left me cold. I don't know if it's bad or I'm just not tuned to the Coen vibe because I haven't liked one of their films. The parrot bonking the window got a chuckle out of me so there's that.

“Video game platforms currently lack the ability to provide unique and targeted content to gamers to update the gamers about things that are happening on the platform,” lied the text of a Sony patent for AI-generated podcasts.

Happy Sunday and happy birthday to me! Let's play more TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II!

Eww, no! I don't want to romance the characters. Bad, Clair Obscur. Bad, bad Clair Obscure!

Podcast time! The only thing more important than video games, is everything else!

Three quarters of the way through WONDER MAN and I think it's a delight. Hopefully it sticks the landing, the part most of the Marvel and Star Wars TV projects struggle with. Fingers crossed!

A new video detailing my thoughts on SUIKODEN premiers in about 10 minutes. And special thanks to Patron Steve Raberdeen for requesting I play and review it!

Hey, remember the Sunday Stream last April when I played Suikoden? Well, I finished the game and organized my thoughts into a video. It premiers this Wednesday at noon PST!

I'm kinda digging the angle that Toad just doesn't vibe with Yoshi.

So... the Chromatic Gault behind the breakable wall by the Stone Wave Cliffs farm in CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33. -One smack = death -Damage cap < 5% of its health -It takes three turns for each of mine -Upon defeat, my gang went up three levels Yeah, was probably meant to fight this thing later.

Alright, time to get back to TRAILS OF COLD STEEL II. On today's Sunday Stream, we're going to storm Heimdallr, defeat the Nobel Alliance, rescue the royal family and mayor, and if there's time, maybe our adopted sister too!

Podcast time!

"I borrowed a manga from the library." How was it? "It made me cry." Why? "The art was flipped."

"Wow, Andrew. You're right! This is unquestionably the wrong thing to do. You have inarguably proven that doing this will prevent me from reaching my own stated goal!" You're going to do it anyway, aren't you? "Yep!"

Sophie knows you couldn't use puddle reflections to look up her skirt in CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33's opening hour and she doesn't want you to start the game disappointed.

THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025) - Doesn't entirely work. Runs a little long and there's some confusing editing but overall I had a good time with a bunch of genuinely funny jokes and some delightfully gross gore gags and body horror. And there's a grotesquely adorable mutant bird puppet!

Darn it, I really want to poke fun at a pivotal moment in CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 but it's a MAJOR spoiler. Instead I'll say it's a textbook example of why I prefer characters over player-inserts. Imagine if Gustave never spoke and just gormlessly nodded as the narrative happened around him.

"Because we need an audience surrogate to ask questions about an unfamiliar world!" No, you need to learn how to write better. (Or, maybe the movie's great and the fish-out-of-water angle is extremely funny, or poignant, or thematically satisfying or all three!)

Oh no. This is going to be some Earth dork is isekai'd to Eternia thing, isn't it? (Shelves full of action figures in the background at 0:18.) Hope I'm wrong and if I'm right, hope it doesn't suck.

The title is so long that I only have room to tell you that Movie Mandates wraps up Parody Month with DON’T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD. Thank goodness the Wayans Bros. relegated “Higher Learning,” “Poetic Justice,” and “Jungle Fever” to the film’s tagline!

One thing I really admire about CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 is the dialog overlaps naturally. I don't know if the actors were recorded together or the sound engineers took the time to edit the voice files properly but it's much appreciated.

Strategy? "Laura smash" IS the strategy!

CLAIR OBSCURE: EXPEDITION 33 Where are her shoes? Is she floating because she's barefoot? Are her companions put off by the odor or do her feet smell of roses? Let's find out!

Through grit, determination, strategy, and a bit o' luck, I beat Isra-Zamiel, TRAIL OF COLD STEEL II's NG+ super boss. Video early this week. In the meantime, today's Sunday Stream will explore the opening hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Thanks to super Patron Jared for the suggestion!

Podcast time! Don't worry. It's G-rated.

"For [rural] folks, [theaters are] certainly outmoded. You’re not going to get in the car and go to the next town to see a movie," says dipshit Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos who can't see the world beyond his own experiences.

BLACK PHONE 2 - It's fine. Still too dark and still drags a bit but not only did it go full supernatural, it went full Nightmare On Elm Street! And not only did it go full Nightmare On Elm Street, it went full Dream Warriors! So, yeah. I had a decent time with it!

BEAST OF WAR - Soldiers stranded at sea try not to get eaten by a shark. They're not terribly successful. Good? No. But, I was thoroughly impressed by the creative lengths this clearly super low budget movie went to in order to make the best of its nonarticulated shark prop. Respect.