The Professional Gamer - August 10, 2018

This week, I had something to do almost every evening, severely limiting my time for fun and games. How did I cope with such a limitation? I suppose you will have to read on to find out.

To start with, I shared some time of the Nintendo Switch with Crystal to play Breath of the Wild. I'm still very early in the game, since I let her take the lead when the game was first released. I'm finally moving in against my first divine beast, Vah Ruta. Having learned from Crystal's trek to Zora's Domain, I found ways to bypass the many hazards on the road, and arrive without even a scratch on me. Through use of amiibo, I have about 40 electric arrows in my inventory, and no need to steal any from the Lynell. I'm now ready to attack the beast and then infiltrate it and put Mipha's spirit to rest. Along a somewhat similar vein, Crystal is working her way through some of the DLC quests, which also revolve around Mipha and the lands around Zora's domain. I can't believe how hard some of the monster fights and shrines have been. Seems like the developers are trying to earn back the phrase "Nintendo hard".

Today, I watched Mary and the Witches Flower as I was working on my some house work and other stuff. The movie was produced by Studio Ponoc, which was founded by Yoshiaki Nishimura along with some other former Studio Ghibli employees. Overall, the film aesthetically feels a lot like the more magic oriented stories that Ghibli produced, especially Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo. In terms of theme and storytelling, it reminds me more of Laputa. I feel like the storytelling and pacing were not quite as tight as they could have been, but it did feel like a strong offering for a new studio. I will be on the watch for their next film and see how they progress.

That's all for this post. Have a great week and game on!