Cerulean Mornings

Uh, yeah, I suck at keeping promises not to play MMOs haha. I'm back in WoW again! Except now, apparently I have access to all expansion packs except the latest one, and they've made major changes to leveling. So I rolled a baby druid just to test the new system out. It's an adjustment definitely, but I've got a small plan figured out. I'm like, 4 expansions behind, and I really want to play through all of them, not necessarily on one character, though. I also want to unlock all the allied races, especially Zandalari trolls! They look so amazing! So once I unlock them I'm definitely going to spend money and race change one of my toons. Which one is still up for debate, though.

So I learned through the wonders of the interwebs that I need to have a lv 50 to get anything I want done. So I'm going to roll a Pandaren monk and play her through to 50 exclusively through the Mist of Pandaria expansion. Then, I'm going to re-pick up my Darkspear Troll shadow priest. Yes, I'm going to have to relearn everything, which I'm not a fan of, but at least she's now at lv 29 instead of 70, so I hope it's a less crazy rotation? Anyway, I'm going to play through the rest of the other expansions - Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and probably Shadowlands - as I level cap her from Chromie. She will also be the one to unlock all the Allie races, and I'm probably going to race change her into my ever coveted Zandalari troll. A Zandalari shadow priest just sounds so awesome (a warlock would be better, but apparently you can't be one! So there!) We'll see what I do with my original toon after - I'm not sure I want to re-pick up my Enh Shaman but, she's my first real raiding toon, so maybe I'll get that done just for nostalgia's sake. 

But first, cute Pandaren monk here I come!

So I watched the Nintendo Direct yesterday, and wow, I don't think I've added this many new games (that're addable) to my pre-order wishlist before. So many old remasters and brand new games, a lot I've never heard of before. It's like they've been saving up announcements since late last year. The new Kirby game seems so interesting. I've never played a Kirby game before, but I might just shell out for this one. I'm also torn on whether to buy Chrono Cross or not. Or rebuy, because I've beaten that game 3 times because, well, you have to to get all the characters, so I'm not quite keen on playing it again. But the nostalgia and love - ugh. I sensibly only put it on wishlist. The graphics also looks really janky. I so wish it had a true HD remake, but I think that's asking too much. Plus, does this mean we'll eventually get a sequel of some sort? Will buy that in a heartbeat!

Cuphead finally, finally is releasing their DLC with Ms. Chalice. I want that game. I will never be able to beat that game - me and my husband tried and we couldn't beat the first boss. It's kind of crazy haha. But the aesthetics is so awesome. If only it wasn't this damn hard y'all! I've heard that co-op is actually harder than single player, so maybe I should try it solo and see. Anyway, moving onto other games. There's this weird new Japanese game that only has a trailer in the Japanese Direct, but has an English release, that's kind of like those Command & Conquer games. It's a murder mystery but with live action cutscenes. Almost like a time-traveling Phoenix Wright but in soap-opera style. I'm 100% interested in that haha. Also there's Earthbound 1 for the NES getting released for Nintendo Online, which I pay for just for the game backups. What am I forgetting? Oh, yeah, Triangle Strategy, that my husband doesn't want me to buy because he thinks 60 bucks for pixelated 8-bit game is highway robbery. As opposed to Live A Live, which is a new, old game that's never been released outside of Japan, that might not be as expensive? I'm not sure haha. It also looks interesting, so when it can be pre-ordered I'll put it on my wishlist. 

Yeah, a lot of games. Not to even mention Rune Factory 5 coming out in March. And then Two-Point Campus in May. And all that would matter if I'm not currently neck-deep on FF14! Wow. I'm having a pretty bad week of not concentrating - can you blame me, really? Too many distractions!! I just have to resolve to working extra hard, yeah?

Alright, I'm just going to squeeeeeee right now, because I watched the Playstation Showcase today and they revealed that FF16 is in the works!! People, you don't understand - I've been waiting for a true Final Fantasy numbered game since 13 came out in 2009. I got 15 and it was such a horrible utter disappointment that I never finished. Like, I literally never played it past the first hub because it was boring me to tears. Which is crazy because I watched Kingsglaive and after I finished I was like WHY THE HELL IS THIS NOT THE GAME??? Like seriously that movie should've been FF15 okay??? And of course after that super not stellar reception SE just decides to do FF7 remake and a lot of remasters and I'm like, wow, is Final Fantasy over? Are we ever going to get a true FF16? Because it doesn't seem like it.

Well, lo and behold, Playstation just low-key dropped it as the first trailer in their showcase and I was like WHAAA? AND it's produced by the guy making FF14 (which is goddamn amazing - too bad it's an MMO with paid subscription. Look I love the game but I can't keep playing it because 1) it was taking over my life, and 2) it cost too much money yo!)! So I'm totally down with this new FF, which probably won't materialize for a good year or two (or three, hopefully less), but you know, it's in the horizon, it exists, and I hope it's not going to be a bloated mess like FF15 was because then I don't even know what I'll do. I'm not buying a PS5 at launch (yeah, money...), but I definitely will get it once there's release date for FF16. Probably sooner, depends on what else is available (that Spider-Man game looks really good, actually. Might pick it up.) And I'm definitely going all digital because that disk version is just ridiculous looking, y'all, and also, money!

Uh, yeah, I'm playing World of Warcraft again. After not touching it for 5 years. Well then. 

Stress makes one binge on weird things. I'm not in the mood for Sims right now, and all the (negative) Blizzard coverage just reminded me how relaxing it was to play WoW and so yep, dove right down to the rabbit hole and resubbed. Also bought the latest expansion at a discount due to I assume Blizzcon. Eh. 

I started a brand new character on a brand new server, because why not? I know I could also go play WoW Classic but man, I've played Classic, and it was...terrible. The grind was unreal, so no, I'm not going to do that. Plus I have like 3 expansion packs of content to go through, PLUS I needed to apparently grind for Zandalari tribe rep because, get this, there're now these "Allied Factions" I can roll a toon with, and one of them is the Zandalari trolls, and goddamn are they not the most kickass beings I've ever seen. They're what trolls are SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE, imho; bigger hair, better skintone, meaner face, and the most important, bigger tusks for females. I was all gung-ho about wanting to roll a female Zandalari troll druid, AND THEN of COURSE learned that to unlock them I need to get through a huge grind. What the fuck, seriously? I hope WoW stays a few more years because it'll be at least a year before I can get anything, at the rate I'm playing. So for now I just got myself an orc warlock, and she's pretty dope, so there.

So, yeah, back to WoW lol. Stress relief, definitely. I'm just slowly solo-ing my way through the world and ignoring any and all guild invites and whispers - the antithesis of MMO haha. Now I also need to find an appropriate icon for this journal. Yep, this is definitely turning into a gaming blog, and I'm perfectly alright with that.