February 2021, Good Things In Life, Page 2

Saint Young Men vol 1

I started reading this in 2020 and through no fault of its own, I sort of lost track of it (even if it was digital) between vignettes in the book. I like the contained stories. Jesus and Buddha go to the pool! Jesus and Buddha go to a festival! Jesus and Buddha do crafts!

It’s very good natured and hopefully the rest of the series is like that (I need to read it!) so I can safely use it as a starter rec to people. I’ve got friends who want to ‘read manga’ but it’s sort of like being told ‘I want to read books’ so I’m trying to assemble a list of good starting points for various genres. This would work well as a comedy one. Or a slice of life, in its own weird way.

Prooobably my favourite part was Buddha teaching Jesus how to swim and Jesus’ stigmata opening and then Jesus accidentally parting the pool. Or when Jesus read Buddha’s comic and thought it was so funny his thorn crown sprouted roses as a miracle from his joy. Or Buddha winning… a Buddha.

Astro Boy vol 1

I have been reading this one for uh, a while now (and it turns out I had actually finished it once before back in 2014, thanks Goodreads) and I was disappointed to discover the last story I had left before finishing was the one about the boy who hits his sister who turns out to be a robot who decides instead of letting him go fuck himself to sacrifice her life/brain to become his robot car.

Anyway I apparently hadn’t forgotten THAT one. I did manage to totally forget the plot of Kino the Magician and ah, that was bleak.

So! Astro Boy. Look at all that wacky art mixed with horrific narrative. I’m not gonna get into what happened during that dog story, but the sheer amount of bullshit the robots as a whole go through is very stressful to read. I guess when, in-universe, you’re either seen as a people or a chatty toaster.

Just a little too close to how we treat real people too.

That said, I plan to start Volume 2 pretty soon. I own the whole collection and by god, I am going to read it.

Flash Gordon vol 1 Session 1

Flash Gordon… well. It’s engaging. It’s also, I shall describe it, as thus:

Every character is Lucy pulling the football on the other characters while playing Capture the Flag with Dale Arden as the flag.

As long as you get used to ‘well they are going to go about five feet before getting shot down’ every few minutes, it’s pretty fun!

I have more of this one to read but I do intend to finish it. I’ve already noticed the art is getting steadily better as I read through, so I’m excited to see what it’s like by the time I get to the end of the volume.

Prince Thun is my favourite character.

My least favourite character is the racism.

Prince Valiant Vol 1

Okay, so backstory: I wrote to my local library telling them about how much I liked their selection of old comic strips and it ended in them ordering two books (Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant) at my request! So I was PRETTY EXCITED.

So Prince Valiant was the first one I read and it was BEAUTIFUL. The art was stunning! The narrative technique was pretty interesting too, it doesn’t have dialogue as such, it has explanations (usually at the bottom of) in the panels and sometimes it’ll tell you what they’re saying, but usually just a description of what they said.

Overall I really enjoyed it! There was a record scratch moment where I really do think Ilene would have disagreed that it was better she died horribly at sea so Arn and Valiant could be friends instead of killing eachother over her (at no point is it suggested they NOT kill eachother) but they seemed pretty okay with going ‘yeah! It’s what she would have wanted! BFFS 4 LYFE’

Me: 😐

There were some neat prehistoric style animals but apparently they will get phased out later on.

I enjoyed the panels where the artist made a point of drawing Prince Valiant’s beautiful lashes particularly. But the nature scenes, the epic architecture, and the battle of fifty vikings vs Prince Valiant was gorgeously done.

Grim Tales: The Stone Queen Session 1

Okay so it turned out I’d skipped ahead by accident (Stone Queen comes before Bloody Mary!) so I went back and this is interesting! It’s way more fantasy than horror than the other ones.

Actually, I was so involved in the gameplay and figuring out where things go I didn’t even really dick around/take screencaps to make jokes about. I am pleased to see that my nephew Brandon is alive and well except for the mortal wounding but apparently I just didn’t see him again until now after I saved him from Volo(s?)!

What kind of auntie am I? Jeez. Luisa might be in another crystal ball and I didn’t even check on her. Is John Gray in a dungeon? Do I know? No. I failed them. I failed them all.

Anyway so Brandon’s performing a Snow White routine in a crystal coffin and I’ve got a little goblin servant now and I’ve been hanging out with trolls and ogres. The puzzles are relatively easy to solve but I keep missing items I’m meant to pick up, like I swear my eyes don’t register them until I hit the hint thing and it’s like ‘there was a coin there???’

The puzzles are relatively interesting. I like the story telling format that will come later in Bloody Mary and they’re not as frustrating/why? as in the first two. There was actually an interesting rpg style one. (For the record, I did skip to the end of that one but I played halfway through it but I’ve been having spacing out issues lately so I just moved along. I did like it though and in normal circumstances would have played to the end).

The plot is pretty strong in this game, focusing on a corrupt mayor and a strange girl beneath the earth. Name of this strange town where people are being turned to stone by the Stone Queen: Stoneville.

Grim Tales: Bloody Mary Session 2

And I’m done! And I just realized I was supposed to do The Stone Queen! Not Bloody Mary! Heck!

I wish I’d managed to get a screencap of the multiple times I literally blew up a monster, or any of the times I used a chipmunk as my servant (at one point stranding him in an aquarium) but the time has passed. The moment has passed. We have to move on with our lives. The explosions were lovely.

This had a lot of really good spooky incidentals. I am hoping Stone Queen explains some of my ‘wait we’re doing this now?’ vis a vis the protagonist’s situation. I’m led to believe skipping an installment can cause that confusion.

Also, one of the games just isn’t available for purchase anymore so I’ll be having to face that reality eventually anyway. C’est la vie.

Also another bonus chapter giving closure. I appreciate those. Perhaps the REAL monster all along was classism!

Grim Tales: Bloody Mary Session 1

I’ve got a new relative, Jackie! She called her auntie for help. I assume I’m the same person as in previous games and this is Brandon’s little sister and that somewhere John Gray is in a dungeon.

So right off the bat, this game is haunted as hell. Stuff keeps moving, the protagonist is finally noticing and commenting on the creepy shit:

Screencapture of Grim Tales Bloody Mary commenting on a small graveyard — Not a fan of the playacting graveyard.

Screencapture of Grim Tales Bloody Mary commenting on a human skull. — FINALLY we notice there’s a human skull on the premises. That head on a post back in The Wishes was driving me nuts.

So everywhere I go there’s haunted children trying to fuck my shit up. I’m so happy.

I wonder if the games are ever going to do anything about the fact that I have ghosts of twin murdered sisters that gave me a single clue once in The Bride?

(I’m not doing so great with story progression in this one, I keep having to ask for help)

Fun side tangent about Bloody Mary: In school around third grade I had a classmate swear her cousin had been murdered by Bloody Mary and I spent a fair bit of time confused between ‘but that’s literally impossible’ and ‘but why would someone lie about something like that?’ because I was 8 and not horrible and jaded by then.

Anyway, nothing about demon possession back then but that was Canadian Bloody Mary, not Russian Bloody Mary who I assume is much tougher.

Also the kids have been murdering the teachers and I have NOT been checking to see if they’re okay beyond ‘I hear some moaning’.

There’s achievements in this game and it does scratch that little ‘I done good’ itch in my head when it praises me for finishing a puzzle under a minute um, clicking on a meerkat. Yes. Keep praising me. PRAISE ME MORE. I am the best player ever.

Grim Tales: The Wishes Session 3

There were more corpses in this one. This one really leaned into Eastern European paganism, with shamans and totems and swamp witches, which I can really appreciate. Is paganism the right word? Anyway, shit went down.

I finished the game tonight and the bonus content (I really like the follow ups!) and here’s my last “The Wishes’ update!

I had a few goals in this one – I had to save John Gray from another wacky mishap, get my sister out of a crystal ball, and uh, evict a demon from my nephew. John Gray was off in Siberia being chased by bears (as one does) and I’m just so proud of him for not being in someone’s dungeon. He’s getting tougher.

The horrible puppet was never fully disposed of, but… perhaps one day that family will finally be safe. I wonder what happens in the next game, The Stone Queen. I’m sure nothing zany is happening to them now!

Screencap from Grim Tales the Wishes encouraging me to set a bridge on fire — “Napalm will solve this”

So the possession was pretty freaky! I had a friend watching me play and I do believe she screamed at this part:

Screencapture from Grim Tales The Wishes where a concerned family stands over a possessed boy — argleblargleatsouls

What I wished I’d screencapped: The demon bear I exorcised that turned into an adorable orphaned cub and the literal frozen corpse of the shaman standing outside his hut by the human skeletal remains that there is no real comment on besides ‘rub fish oil on his hand to get his flask!’. I don’t know what is up with the protagonist but she is cold as hell.

For the bonus content:

Screencapture from Grim Tales The Wishes which claims butterflies kill flowers — And I was like, bullshit.

Anyway, good times. I also played Bejeweled to save the world from a demon, proving I DO have the skills that will serve me well in the coming devil wars.

Grim Tales: The Wishes Session 2

First off, I used this to try out Twitch streaming and even with no viewers (and one spammer) it took a lot of the joy out of the game because I suddenly felt like I had an obligation not to fuck around. Well, we’ll see if I try that again. I prefer when I’m in a mood to keep trying the fire on all the puzzles.

Also pleased to report that fire was, again, a solution.

So I found the witch’s house (only the witch is a demon dude?) and after setting fire to him, in my charming way, I took a moment to reflect on the surroundings of his lovely cabin in the woods.

Screencapture of Grim Tales The Wishes that shows a cabin in the woods and what appears to be an impaled head — IS THAT A HEAD

IT DOES INDEED APPEAR TO BE A DECAPITATED HEAD JUST KIND OF CHILLING THERE. It is not interactable and Auntie has absolutely nothing to say about it.

As Luisa was forced into a crystal ball, I chuckled fondly. “Oh Luisa,” I thought, “you just can’t stay out of trouble!”

Meanwhile, finally got an update on her husband. He has been lost in Siberia. I assume he’s in a dungeon again.

Still unable to use any weapon I acquire on the horrible living puppet and there was a second one with moving eyes that kept following me… thankfully it was just a puzzle and I’m safe now but that’s gonna haunt me.

As a final update, I realized I could open up the map and click wherever I wanted to go without having to manually navigate each time like I’d been doing this whole game and after a pause to consider my life choices, I shut off the game and decided to go to bed.

Grim Tales: The Wishes Session 1

New game! Okay so apparently SHIT IS GOING DOWN with my nephew Brandon who no longer lives in werewolf castle but now lives in the suburbs (my sister really gets around since the first game where she was being sacrificed by our evil wizard father) and it’s up to me, his loving aunt, to find out why he’s so moody and mysteriously elderly!

Well, after some investigating and attempts to find a use for a cat I have in my inventory, it turns out my nephew made a deal with a witch to get a piece of paper that makes wishes and his first wish was to bring this horrible puppet he owned to life and it’s offering to help me.

I tried using the axe, the bullet, and the fire on the puppet and then I tried using the knife but that just cut its strings and now it’s telling me to follow it.

Now I understand why my nephew, before being torn from this world, declared: ‘I MUST CONFESS. I AM GUILTY. I MUST PAY FOR MY SINS’

He knew what he did, with this puppet wish. I salute you for understanding your crime. I will burn down your house as I leave to make sure the evil is thwarted.

Anyway I quit today’s session when that horrible puppet wouldn’t stop staring at me from the corner of the screen.