Tealights in the sand ♫ @chrk@wandering.shop

I found out today there was a sequel to hotel dusk that never made it to america... don't know if I'd bother trying to hunt a copy down at $45 - $60, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Window:_The_Secret_of_Cape_West

I'm still plugging away at Hotel Dusk. The puzzles never get any better, but the story does start to pick up as you go along. There's a few moments where all the different elements of this game come together and create a really exciting feeling of noir paranoia and it really gets the hair on the back of your neck standing up for a second or two. Shame it's not firing on all cylinders like that the rest of the time.

40 hours later I retract my spicy take. Gotta say the FE3H soundtrack has wormed its way into my heart.

Looking back I think my main gripe all along has actually been that there's just so few tracks and they're spread so far that it all almost immediately feels grating. Stretching out the same songs for multiple chapters hours on end is such a weird choice for a game that already makes heavy use of chapter breaks. Like, I get it, we're still in the same chapter, play something else please

So far I wish this game had doubled down on the bits where you're snooping around in restricted areas and amped up the puzzle difficulty a couple notches. Feels like it's much more interested in being a lightly interactive visual novel than a truly full-fledged game and it's a shame because the VN stuff is so ploddingly slow and the snooping is actually pretty good

So far the biggest letdown of Hotel Dusk is that the main detective elements consist of correctly repeating back statements characters literally just said to you and later correctly remembering major plot points via multiple choice questions. The biggest element of difficulty so far is my own ADD.

it's also a little spotty on guiding you to your next objective at times and you just end up wandering the entire hotel until you remember the item in your pocket or whatever

Revisiting Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the first time since I played it in 2007. So far, I'd describe it as "excruciatingly slow-paced" but it's still an interesting idea. Not enough DS games took advantage of the "book" format like this and it's also fairly unique as a point-and-click with interactable 3D environments and scenes. The hand-drawn watercolor aesthetic holds up nicely, too.

(I also found Trace Memory in a drawer while looking for this, so I'm looking forward to revisiting that, soon)

Okay, I am slightly walking back my previous statement now that new information has come to light (some guy just turned into a dinosaur)

Granted I'm playing on casual mode, but I don't think permadeath would improve it any 🤷‍♀️

It's so funny how combat in FE Three Houses is literally the least interesting part of the entire game. Well, next to the soundtrack, anyway

Not super excited to trim my nails down before going to see S' parents but I am eagerly anticipating being able to type on my phone again

Buckeyes: the reason for the season

Sister just casually posting photos of herself at a big birthday party indoors at a restaurant on her instagram like it's not something she should be fucking ashamed of

Was feeling a little better today, cleaned the kitchen and made some extremely spicy rum balls with 126 proof J Wray and Nephew. Hoo boy

Tried a liquid diet yesterday and it really seemed to do the trick. I'm already so tired of soup but gonna keep it up for another day or two and see if I can't get these guts healed up

I've been fighting what I think may be diverticulitis flare-ups for nearly a week now, the misery never ends lol

Called home today. I forgot that my dad believes that it's bad to eat a banana before a large meal because the banana will somehow slow your metabolism and the rest of the food in your stomach will not get digested quickly enough, causing it to rot and make you sick.

Science aside, why he thinks I'm liable to eat a banana before a big meal is beyond me

Love to explain to white ladies posting chain letters on fb how human trafficking actually *doesn't* usually involve intricate kidnapping schemes to snatch white girls out of nice neighborhoods but in reality is deeply tied to the way we push poor and immigrant communities to the margins of society

(No, actually I really love doing this)

Okay so the matrix gameplay is still the worst