return to life

uneventful day. but! i decided to get myself a couple of new ps vita games. 

the first new game i picked up was another otome. i haven't finished the hakuoki game i got yet-- for some reason, it keeps freezing on one scene... so i uninstalled it. i'll try to reinstall it at some point later down the line and see if that changes anything. i was thinking the data could be corrupted, but the music files i've kept on there have been fine... idk. we'll see.

anyway, about the otome. it's called sweet fuse: at your side. the main protagonist is the niece of a famous game developer, who is opening up a game-themed... theme park. but everything goes wrong!!! a pig blows up the ferris wheel, and holds her uncle and other workers hostage, stating that the theme park is vapid and not exciting enough, a waste of money. the pig then challenges seven people to solve several puzzles / games around the theme park, lest it all go up in flames and people lose their lives. the stakes are high. and somehow romance is meant to occur? idk, i'd be too focused on surviving and saving my uncle.

but tbh, the romance wasn't the thing that drew me in at all, especially since most of the love interests are way older than the protagonist. gross. and it doesn't make any sense??? like why does she have to be so young, or those love interests so old? everyone can be around the same age with different personalities / energy levels, and nothing of value would be lost. there's no reason.

i'm actually curious about the main storyline, and the puzzles. plus, i did read that you could scold the love interests for being jerks, and honestly, i don't think otome games do that enough. the heinous things protagonists are put through in the name of "true love"... eugh. so i'm very curious to see how that will play out. and i've had a lot to be mad about recently, even though i don't say it. so i will channel my rage through this protagonist.

the game also has a really pleasing art style (the one behind most ace attorney games drew the sprites) and soundtrack. very nostalgic, very mid-2000s. the slight pixelation due to it being a psp game really adds to its charm as well. and the menus are so pink! 

the second game i got is a puzzle game, because any console of mine needs a good puzzle game. and of course, i chose a quell game~ this one in particular is quell: memento, not one i have yet, so i'm excited to have another. i think it's the only one that has voice acting, but i could be wrong. it definitely caught me off guard, at least. can't wait to enjoy some raindrop goodness on the vita too~ (and the soundtrack! the soundtrack-- despite being the same through all the games-- fits it so well. steven cravis really hit it out of the park. wish i had a cd for it.)

it's been a long time since any quell games were released. i hope that doesn't mean they're over, but at the same time, they've got a sizable selection, and they're all have high replay value. 

in other news, i've been considering investing in a umpc for next semester. i want to be able to have a smaller bag, or at least less back pain at the end of the day. and after my little ufotown deep dive, i've been very curious about them. i've seen a lot floating around the internet with current windows installments (10, 11 (even though 11 is trash from what i've seen)) and the same amount of ram as my laptop, which is really interesting to me. 

not to mention, with such a small screen, it wouldn't be as easy for me to get so distracted by everything else on the web. i'll have some file management things, and access to the things i need to work on, but actually navigating the "fun sites" would be a nightmare, so that's another plus. 

but the only ones available are in windows, of course... my school generally frowns on windows 10 now, since it's "outdated" security-wise. but windows 11, from what i understand, has got even more bloatware and slop than its predecessor. windows 10 already had a lot of unnecessary things, so to hear that makes me uneasy. maybe i could switch it over to linux? i've never done anything like that before, though. i could ask my sister-in-law, since she has a lot of experience with computers, but i dunno. does it even matter that much if i'm using windows 10 as an english student...?

sotd: whiplash by bôa