Yesterday I finished IW. It took me the entire day from 6am to 6pm. I beelined it to the finish line and it still took me that long. 47 out of 52 substories complete and did all the drink links except for Joongi. My only gripe was that we got him waaaaay too late in the game. There was a point where he came in and everyone asked him if he was going to come along, join Kiryu's party. I got so excited and said, "yeah, yeah Joongi! Come on man! It'll be fun!" For some reason he sits at the bar, sulks and says no. My jaw drops, I'm stunned. Oh come on, why?!?! Two chapters later he shows up for Ichi's party but by then it's too late like I said. I've already spent multiple hours grinding the dungeon, gettting everyone's gear to 6-7 stars. He waltzes in at level 38 and adopts the level 5 scrap gear I still have in my inventory. I'm sorry but I've spent 6 months on this game, I'm only a few hours from the finish line. I'm not going to spend another 3 hours grinding him up to level 56 and the appropriate gear. If Joongi had came in on chapter 11 and not 13, the second to last chapter then I would've been all about him. It seemed like he was an afterthought and the dev's least favorite character because of when he was introduced and then the drink link convos between him and Kasuga. They portrayed him as this insufferable weirdo with all types of issues. In a way I relate to him. The only reason people keep him around is because Seonhee knows him and he is good at what he does. When I run him through about three dungeon floors he did do good damage for his level but I've already got my team made. I put him on the bench. Oh and the half dozen crashes to desktop were annoying. Had to do the final boss fight twice. I beat him once, got into the final cutscenes and the game crashes. I was so pissed. I hate this game but I love it so much. IW wants you to keep playing it. Do more dungeon, keep leveling up, do sicko snap and crazy delivery, keep leveling your Sujimon, keep running Dondonko Island and visit other people's islands and get rewarded for doing so. Dear Sega/RGG, I'm sorry but no. I have to move on. I spent over 150 hours in-game time. Steam time was over 192 which I refuse to call my official time because we all know they inflate play time. This was my 2024 GOTY despite the multiple crashes and the Joongi mistake. Great visuals, story, characters, gameplay, physics, everything. I'm excited for Pirates in February.

My next game is El Paso, Elsewhere which I started today. Found out there are 50 levels. Finished 10 today. I'll do10 each time I play and should finish it before Christmas. I like it so far. Good voice acting, the music is...interesting...amusing. The shooting and physics are satisfying. This game will be a breeze. It's right up my alley. Will probably finish with about 20 hours Steam time. So far it's worth the $14 I spent on it.

Bought the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive bundle and the Dreamcast collection for $50 due to it being delisted soon. These works of art must not be lost to time. Sega could re-release these with a more expensive price tag but I won't be one of those suckers paying for it. Got one of DE's first games for free, Dark Sector. I don't know if I'll get around to playing it. I bought Mad Max for $2. I might get to that after I play Ghostwire Tokyo which I also got for free. Then Yakuza Pirates is in February which I'm playing almost immediately. I got Blazblue Cross Tag Battle for $10 but I feel like I made a mistake buying because you need a mod to get it to perform well. The important thing is that it has RWBY characters in it that may never be seen in another game ever again since Rooster Teeth shut down. I almost decided to get Samurai Shodown for $12 but when am I going to play that or BBCTB? As you see I'm still fighting with those bugs but I remain strong. I was watching fighting game streams for a little bit but have dropped off due to lack of time to watch them. Geez, I don't have time to sit down and watch pros play. Nevermind me trying to learn and play them. I find it interesting that every facet in my life says no to that genre.

So El Paso then on to Tokyo. Should be done with those two hopefully by February where I'll be sailing the high seas for a while. After that, will be switching gears to driving a car in the apocalypse. Will try to get Dark Sector to run. Where will I be then? June? What's possibly next? Hard to say. Maybe small runs in roguelikes like Vampire Survivors and Deep Rock Galactic Survivors. I could go back to Dredge and do the dlc. Revisit Dead Cells? Let's not think to far ahead. It's making my head hurt.