The Professional Gamer - January 8, 2018

I went back to work this week, but just because I now have most of my day filled with professional activities, doesn't mean that I can find any time to have fun too. New Year's Eve and Day were spent having a great time with my friends and family. During the rest of the week, between work and exercising, I didn't have a huge chunk of time in the evening. Still, I found some time to enjoy myself, so let's talk about that.

New Year's Eve was spent with my brother and his fiance, watching Your Name and playing some multiplayer games on the Switch. My brother went on a bit of a splurge with his Christmas money and bought a Switch, Zelda, Snipper Clippers, and Mario Kart. Mario Kart looks very nice on the Switch with the updated graphics. I'm still processing my full thoughts on Your Name. I liked it alright, and the concept was interesting. However, I felt that some of the later developments in the plot were a bit predictable or telegraphed. The animation was great, with some really great character acting.

On New Year's Day, I went to a mochi pounding organized by a local Japanese restaurant. In addition to preparing and eating mochi, they also had a mushroom soup for everyone to eat. After the mochi, we found a tea shop and bought some nice tea. In total, a good day. And especially, a great last day of vacation time.

During the week, I found some time to enjoy the SNES Classic that we received for Christmas, by playing through my favorite role-playing game: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. My only complaint during this re-play is that this game is a lot easier than I remember it being. When I played it as a kid, I had a hard time with some of the bosses. To be fair, I had never played any RPG before, so, there was a steep learning curve. This time around, I'm spending a lot more time making sure that I collect as many hidden treasures as I can, and combating more enemy encounters. Also, I have a better understanding of the general mechanics that underlie these types of games. This translates to much more efficient uses of my party resources and quicker progress. The game holds up really well, especially the humor and the character expressions. I'm about a quarter through the game so far, about to head into the forest with the animate bow baddie. I'm having lots of fun and looking forward to actually finishing the game this time around.

That's all I've got this time around. Have a great week, and game on.