As someone with sound sensitivity and an expectancy for my flat to be somewhere I can relax, living somewhere with crap sound-proofing is terrible. 🥲 Next door has had a guest over this week, and while they haven't been TOO bad, ust normal conversations can be annoying when there's no escape.

Didn't know what game to showcase this week, so I decided to fall back on a soundtrack instead. Here's my copy of the full Final Fantasy VII: Remake soundtrack! All the discs come in sleeves with some nice art on them (based on stills from the original game).

In late November, I visited ArCains in Liverpool with my brother and one of my nephews. It was a late birthday outing, as I turned 40 last year!. I had a great time there! Plenty of machines available; both new and classic. They even had some modern and retro consoles. Definitely worth the visit!

While I'm just as capable as being down as the next person, one thing always sticks with me; keeping a positive mindset. It won't solve everything, but it'll make it easier to get through life. If you keep living expecting the worst of everything (even GOOD news), then you won't be a happy person.

Becky having a bit of a stroll in a local park, wearing one of her favourite outfits. Officially my first drawing of the year...and the first I've posted in quite some time! 😅 As always, I can't guarantee regularity. It really depends on my mood. That said, hopefully there's more on the way!

Fun fact about Arcania; ever since her black mage days, she's used a very weak fire spell to keep herself warm in any climate. It means she can easily brave the harsh weather in Coerthas while still slaying in her favourite skirts! Dressing for the season? Arcania doesn't know the meaning of it! 💅💋

This week's JP PS1 game; Gungage! A third-person shooter with four characters to choose from. It seemed pretty interesting from the gameplay I saw, so I decided to add it to my collection at some point last year. Again, the manual is such a good example of how detailed they once were!

I won't lie, I'm not doing great again. It just feels like I have no purpose. No matter what I do, that never seems to change.

In case anyone missed it. 😁

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Were you good this year, and get a lot of presents? 🎁 ...or were you bad, and get coal from Krampus?! 😈 Arcania hopes it's the former, but she can play the part of both with ease. 😏

For this week's random PS1 game, I've gone for Tobal 2! Featuring character designs by the late Akira Toriyama, this beat-em-up also has a Quest Mode where you can fight through dungeons!

Arcania sharing some holiday cheer with Raffed, one of her close friends! I hope everyone has a great time over the holidays, whatever you're doing! 🎄⭐🎁 (More Starlight photos to come another day, I'm sure!)

Reminded today of the greatest video I've ever seen on this website (yet sadly could not find the original link to)

Given Christmas is coming up, I thought I'd do a game that famously has bells! 🔔 Detana!! Twinbee Yahho Deluxe Pack for the PS1; featuring two Twinbee games! This is a rereleased edition, so not the original packaging, but hey, my copy still has the stickers and spine card, so that's something!

Nice point clear POTG I had earlier. That Ana really knew when to use nano boost. I was Mauga for the first two rounds, and I had another which may have been contender for POTG with a nano boost.

As the Giant Bomb site recently changed sites, and there's currently no way of making lists, this year's Top 5 will be delivered here...right now! (It'll be on GB eventually, though) I'll present it from 5 to 1. As always, it's games I've played this year, not necessarily released this year.

Arcania really appreciates the hot drinks available at the Starlight Stalls! You could say she's...as pleased as punch! :3

Honestly finding it so hard to find Overwatch streamers that don't make snarky comments about teammates (whether they say it in chat or not), take out their frustration on others, or have a generally negative outlook (yet keep playing, weirdly). I refuse to believe my positive mindset is THAT rare.

Been too long since I've posted any Arcania, so here she is wearing her Fashion Report outfit for this week. For something just thrown together quickly, I think she slays in it! 📷✨

This week's random JP PS1 game; Dark Tales From The Lost Soul! It's a series of interactive horror stories, with some FMV sequences thrown in between (featuring a completely normal host). Another game I picked up as a curosity to play during a charity stream one day.

Fun little QP moment with Ana. :3

I had a good time with the end of season Overwatch drive. Managed to hit the third milestone yesterday, which meant I finally had enough for a Galactic weapon variant. I went with Zarya's weapon! I already got 'Gold' for Tracer AGES ago, so fancied something different. I also hit Pro 5 in Stadium!

Alright, haven't done this for a while, but here we go! Here's a JP PS2 game this time; Metal Slug Complete! It contains seven titles from the series. A couple of games have came out since, but this was the complete run of 'mainline' games at the time. Metal Slug has a lot of charm!

Would people be interested if I started posting game photos, thoughts on games, and occasional drawings again? (Yes, I know I should just post stuff anyway, but I need to know if there's any interest, as my motivation is about as low as the Mariana Trench right now.)

Updated this slightly, so I'll give it a little bump, just in case people can get something from it.

Goodness me it's nearly the end of November, so it's time to do the Very Scary Scenario charity gaming streams once again! We're raising money for Mind this year, and a new cast of people playing games and talking for 24 hours or more depending on how much gets donated! More info vscary.co/charity

It's been a couple of months since I've posted anything. I'm still around, but I just haven't had much belief in what I have to offer. I've been taking a break to reassess what I want from this (or any) platform. Will I return to posting regularly? I honestly don't know.

Fun fact; a very small part of Annihilation (the sequel, which isn't well-regarded 😅) was filmed at Parys Mountain - an old Welsh copper mine site. It's a local landmark where I live, so it still seems a bit unreal! More recently, it was a filming location for an episode of Black Mirror.

I completed Horizon Forbidden West a few weeks ago, and I've just finished the Burning Shores DLC. Definitely looking forward to more from the series! The world is full of intrigue, and I like the character dynamics. I had trouble with the combat at times, but it was a nice challenge.

I had some fun games as Ashe tonight! Felt like my aim was in a good place for the most part, too.

Something I still find strange; people who regularly play a game that they often have bad things to say about. If the default description of a game is 'suffering' to you (even if it is in jest), you should maybe look at your relationship with the game, or...call me crazy...play it less? 😅

Arcania really wanted that bomb float.... ...Thankfully, she didn't have to wait too long to get her turn! 😈

Sticking with the Puyo Puyo theme, I got some of these as part of a recent imported drinks/sweets order! They're pretty nice. If you've ever had Japanese jelly sweets before, they have that kind of taste.

This week, I've decided to show Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Playstation Vita! This was yet another 2014 Japan trip pick up. I thought it was a fun little mashup of two great puzzle games. While it came out elsewhere (and for other platforms), only Japan got a physical release of the Vita version.

Recently added another Japanese PS1 launch title to my collection; Crime Crackers. It's an anime-style dungeon crawler about a group of bounty hunters. Not sure if I'll ever be able to play it in any meaningful way, but I'll at least give it a shot at some point.

Arcania instantly jumped on the new moogle shirt (the form-fitting version, naturally)! Also tested out the new portrait mode, the filter intensity options, as well as some emotes that can now be used while sitting on the floor. She's pretty pumped about it!

I've mentioned some of my favourites already, so I'll take this opportunity to throw in Chrono Cross. Understandably not the sequel everyone wanted, but I feel like it's a good game in its own right. The battle system tried to do something interesting, and the dimension hopping worked well!

Thought I'd show off another game soundtrack this week. Here's the OST for Wild Arms 3! I really liked playing through the game, and I thought the soundtrack was great. I picked this up during my 2014 Japan trip, I believe.

As I'm not near an M&S very often, I thought I'd grab one of these yesterday. I thought it was pretty nice. I'd had a fruit sandwich in Japan before, but not a strawberry one. Kind of funny that I saw a lot of visiting Japanese school students around yesterday. I wonder what they make of it!

Fantastic Four was pretty good. I thought it set up the characters nicely for the upcoming films. I preferred Thunderbolts a bit more in terms of recent releases, but still worth a watch!

Dragged myself out to the cinema for the time in ages to watch Fantastic Four. Pretty sure this is my first visit to this particular venue siiiince...Across The Spider-Verse? So yeah, a while! 😅

These awesome prints and charms by @freydraws.bsky.social arrived today! They're a nice addition to my collection! 👌 Glad I had a chance to pick up some of their stuff.

Another game from my JP PS1 collection; Mr. Driller! For those unaware of it, it's an arcade game where you have to drill down into blocks without the resulting cave-ins crushing you. You also have to keep your oxygen supply up. This was one of my recent online pickups.

Something I've never understood; insulting jokes amongs friends that attack their character/ability. I get that some groups are mutually alright with it, but even then...why? While they may be joking, it's still a perceived weakness by the person making it, and I'm not comfortable about that.

The acceptance of that behavior by men is also part of the fucking problem. I'm still trying to unlearn years of straight up emotional abuse as "normal" from people I considered friends. We should NEVER talk like that to each other, I don't care what society tells us.

On my visits to Japan, I used to play an arcade game called World Club Champion Football. It used some special cards you could place down on the cabinet. The game unfortunately ended in 2022, but it was pretty cool while it lasted! This is pretty much what my starting line-up looked like.

Something interesting from my collection; the Zelda promotional disc for the GameCube! I grabbed it from eBay years ago, as I never got to play the earlier installments in the franchise. I'll admit that I'm still not really into the Zelda games, but I appreciate their importance all the same!

Well, I spent most of my childhood with various micro/personal computers (as we did in the UK for a while), so my family didn't own a PS1 until 1999. From what's listed, I first played on the Master System (my cousin had one), so Gen III. The ZX Spectrum + 2 also matches up era-wise, sooo... 😛

You DO NOT want to mess with Rammatra when he...boots up(?) on the wrong side of the bed!

Indulging in some more late-night DOKAN disc delving, this one with a demo of Final Fantasy VII on! Been a long ol' while since I saw the installer for the Win 95/98 version of FFVII.