We Finished Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight

Good afternoon everyone,

As the title states, we finished Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, knocking off all the remaining Social Links before doing Elizabeth's 8th one that triggers the credits. I totally forgot that I changed some things after last Friday's stream to set up going after two achievements that were only possible once Elizabeth was unlocked as a lead dancer. Now I did focus on several different aspects of things I wanted to do beyond achievement hunting, namely trying to get a Brilliant score on several songs on Normal Difficulty, some took multiple attempts to do. I could've had a King Crazy on a few songs, but the charting of the notes baffled me at the worst possible times.

On the down side, the stream was broken up into multiple parts due to sudden drops in internet download and upload speeds. In fact at 647 PM Eastern I had 10.80 Mbps Down and 0.38 Mbps Up. Now unlike Thursday night, I basically plowed through hoping we could get hour plus blocks of footage, resulting in three separate segments. Now Twitch listed my total stream time last night as 5 hours 46 minutes... however only 4 hours 36 minutes was actually broadcasted. I got more to say about this, but I'll save for when I talk about work down below.

Of course the next game we'll be playing on Fridays will be Persona 4: Dancing All-Night, and unlike its Persona 3 and 5 cousins, the Person 4 dancing game does not take place in the Velvet room, but in the 'real world'. It leans more in the visual novel style with a more fleshed out story mode. Hopefully 

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight Trophies

• Best Buds: Explored all the guys' rooms.
• The One Who Gathered the Glasses: Obtained all the pairs of glasses.
• Fashion Monster: Obtained all the costumes.
• The Dependable Classmates: Cleared the stages where Yukari and Junpei dance together.
• Koromaru's Rival: Obtained all rewards from Elle-P's card search.
• Down to the Bone: Unlocked all Custom modifiers.
• The Party Never Stops: Made Elle-P's ball a success.
• The Selfish Producer: Had Elle-P join the ball.
• The Dancing Jeweler: Obtained all of the accessories.
• It's Gotta Be You: Watched all Social events.
• Can't Say "I Don't Care" Now: Watched every possible dance for the P3 Protagonist (Makoto Yuki).
• The Dancing Anti-Shadow Weapon: Watched every possible dance for Aigis.
• Dancing in Moonlight: Obtained all trophies.

Twitch Clips

• Elle-P's Big Surprise!
• Here Comes Elizabeth 
• They are doing a trade off!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Hawleigh who was playing Jackbox Party Packs over on twitch.tv/hawleigh! 

Work was rather bleh yesterday, but the noticeable thing was that exactly at 3:45 PM for the second day in a row, my internet download and upload speeds dropped significantly and this carried on through damn near the entire night, seemingly to settle down around 10:30 PM. Now I don't want to hear about 'peak hour' nonsense, because if that bullshit was actually true wouldn't I have these issues be reoccurring since everything was fixed back in September?!

Did find out that for sure I don't have work Thursday because of Thanksgiving, but Friday is up in the air because of an assignment that may start that day 

My Copy of Pokemon Violet arrived yesterday morning, and it most certainly take over the Monday slot in my Twitch line up... after we finish Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Difficult Challenge COmbo #2 and Block Combo for 31 minutes/ On a silly note, the first song in Fitness Boxing 2 to hit 100 times played is 'Don't You Worry Child' by Swedish House Mafia

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise States For Week of 11/13 to 11/19/22

• Punches Thrown: 8579
• Estimated Calories Burned:3616.7 kcal
  
• Sophie's Champion Progress:96% (48 out of 50 hours)
  
• King EX Fight Progress: 97%
• Fitness Boxing 2 Consecutive Days: 708
• Fitness Boxing 1 & 2 Consecutive Days: 866

What did Blackbeard the pirate say when he turned eighty? "Aye, matey."

Song of the Day: London Calling by The Clash

For tonight's stream, which hopefully will go well with not problems, will feature a variety of stuff, MultiVersus, Fall Guys, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed... basically whatever casual nonsense I feel like playing.

So on that note I hope we'll be up and running later over at twitch.tv/fredcasden!

We Finished Persona 5 Strikers... No Thanks To Xfinity

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream had a 40 minute delay, granted it was started at 6:30 PM Eastern, but a ton of connection issues thanks to Xfinity pissed me off to the point I called them and blistered them on stream for it. The Rep I spoke too certainly went out of their way to not diffuse the situation by patronizing me when I told them exactly what was going on and then denying transferring to a Supervisor, and refusing to ask for when I would be available for a tech visit. Which turns out will be for today between 2 PM and 4 PM... whiih I was not aware of until after I called them back at 2 AM last night.

That said... once we got the connection stable after I did a third reset of my modem yesterday, things went mostly smoothly for the night as we had a straight forward approach to finishing Persona 5 Strikers. In fact, the story arc is extremely straight forward. I did rather enjoy Sophia unlocking her Persona... and just knowing it's name is Pandora prompted me to yell "put her back in the box". Since I was also using a guide, we had a real good idea of how to plan for the final boss of the game... in fact I split the team into 3 groups for the phase two portion (Panther, Makoto and Yusuke for the first part ; Morn, Noir and Skull for the second ... leaving Joker, Wolf and Sophie for the final) 

I did enjoy how every major plot point was wrapped up nice and neat, but what's left is basically a ton of grinding and monster hunting... which would be kind of a pointless because the last one requires a second full play through.... so maybe we'll reinstalled Persona 5 Strikers down the road just for the purpose of trophy hunting and grinding.

Now with Persona 5 Strikers finished, the next PS4 game will be Stray, which recently game out, and will be featured next Friday night.

Big thank you to all the viewers who did hang out and for the 300 bits, your continued support was greatly appreciated.

Persona 5 Strikers Trophies

• A Newfound Heart: Sophia found strength of heart.
• Humanity's Companion: Completed the Jail of the Abyss.
• Walk Your Own Path: Completed the Tree of Knowledge.

Twitch Clips

• They really are Thor!
• Some Body Put Her Back In The Box! 
• The Fall Of The False God
• Like OMG 
  

For the raid we dropped in SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Packs over on twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!  

I have been struggling a bit with how I want to write the commission request for a Watch Dogs fic... I have an idea of how it should go, it's just questioning which details regarding an unneeded character that is holding things up. 

Song of the Day: When I Come Around by Green Day

I tried buying camouflage the other day but I couldn't find any.

What did one bean say to the other? "How you bean?"

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Beginner Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Sway Back Combo for 34 minutes. We did pass 49 hours training with Bernardo,  but the exact time is unknown, so we'll either compete his Champion EX Achievement tomorrow or on Monday

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For Week of 7/24 to 7/30, 2022

• Punches Thrown: 8160
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn:3325.72 kcal
  
• Bernardo's Champion Progress: 98% (49/50 Hours)
  
• King EX Fighter Progress: 94%
  

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.   

For tonight's stream, MultiVersus will be featured and it should be the only game we feature tonight, if all goes well. Hopefully the issues with Xfinity will be resolved or at least I'll have a better understanding of how to deal with them.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Casino Palace Was Confusing

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Persona 5 Royal started off with Sae's Palace and boy was it pretty nutty with how it was spread over two in-game days, and I think it was to make sure for Sae in the normal world saw who the Phantom Thieves were. That said, I found the Casino Palace to be confusing in terms of some of the gimmicks involved, not to mention the enemy match up types really were not favorable at times. I'm also not to keen on having to wait to do the Calling Card, but knowing its to set up Akechi's betrayal that was seen at the start of the game it just means I can try and catch up on so many other things, like Confidant progress and covering Mementos. Also at this point, I've covered 71% of the trophies, so we have an outside chance of getting full completion... I need to get Kasumi's to rank 5... luckily we were able to get Rank 4 tonight. Also, I did get Akechi and Maruki to both Rank 8 and 9. So that pressure is off as well..  On a side note I did love Haru and Makoto's tag team wrestling Showtime, I thought that was a bit clever.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Intensive Training: Used Incense on a Persona in Lockdown.
• The Search for Power: Completely changed the cognition of Mementos.

Twitch Clips

• We'll put him to use
• Makoto & Haru's Showtime! 
• Good... we don't like you either 
  

We had two raids during the stream, the first was from Oldish22 who was playing Path of Exile over at twitch.tv/oldish22!

The second raid was from YrGamerBunni who was playing Crusader Kings III over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!

For our end of stream raid, we dropped in on Sheepfuzz who was doing some community gaming with the Jackbox Party Packs over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo #1, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Hook Combo.

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For May 15 to 21, 2022

• Punches Thrown:11, 233
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4,427.24 kcal
  
• 26 Hours Trained Out of 30 For Laura's Contender Achievement (86%)
  

I got a good start on the latest commission request, even if the plot is paper thin at best, so having to rely more on 'action' than anything else. Hopefully I can knock it out before tonight's stream, or maybe right after. Some asked me why I don't post the commissioned fics here on blogger, well it's mostly because these requests fall under the NSFW category. 

I can say with confidents this has been a losing week for my Fantasy Baseball team, mostly due to Bryce Harper not being in the Phillies lineup at all. For the week, my team is .267 (44/165), with 20 runs scored, 4 home runs, 20 RBI and 2 stolen bases... and on the pitching side in 30 innings, 4 wins, 2 saves, 25 strike outs with an ERA of 3.60 and a WHIP of 1.13. Yes the Fantasy League I'm in doesn't tally up stats until after Sunday's games, but I know a losing week when I see it.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.  

For tonight's stream, we may check out something random, maybe hook up the PlayStation to mess around with some of my Japanese imports of Capcom fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom, X-Men vs Street Fighter, etc. Or we'll just play Paladins and Riff Trax again... or maybe do all of that. We'll see what I figure out.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Bank Palace Story Arc Is Done!

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream certainly proved that by going into Mementos early when we first discovered it and choosing the wrong things has caused a whole lot of issues with it comes to possibly getting the good ending of Persona 5 Royal, but still it was a very productive night in many other ways as we wrapped up the Bank Palace and covered a lot of ground as it pertained to trying to get Ryuji caught up and nearly maxing out Ann. 

Makoto's arc of breaking out from what everyone wants her to be to finding her own path is really well done, and her integration to the Phantom Thieves as someone to keep them focused on the exams really goes a long way balancing out the personalities of the team. That said, Sae certainly is irritating when comes to just how 'career and success' focused she is, so hopefully that even outs at some point, which it probably will since I reached the point in the story where the Judgement persona becomes available

Which means the romance options are starting to open up as possible choices as well, and knowing there are probably a dozen choices, I did not instantly lock in with Ann just to get the trophy. And it seems to me, in terms of Hetero-parings, Ann and Ryuji seem like a better pairing than 'Joker' and Ann, if we go with the Fem-pairings, then obviously Ann and Shiho are probably the most obvious pairing based on what I've seen so far and having see Shiho's return to the roof the academy.

Still, looking forward to trying to straightening out a lot of the screws ups I did in terms of the Confidants levels next week as the fourth story arc of Persona 5 Royal will begin.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• The Deviated Cognition: Encountered a deviation in Mementos.
• Talent Thief: Obtained a Skill Accessory from a Palace ruler.
• The Phantom Philatelist: Traded in stamps while in Mementos.
• Jose's Favorite Customer: Traded in flowers while in Mementos.
• Bank of Gluttony: Cleaned Out: Completed the bank Palace.

Twitch Clip Links

• You mean to tell me I can't get books by Drace here?
• On the receiving end of Make It Rain 
• They just hung up on us... rude... 
• Her personality certainly switch 

Big thank you to MommyBee for their raid during the stream last night, they were playing standard version of Persona 5 over at twitch.tv/mommybee!

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was doing their weekly community stream of Jackbox Party Packs over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficulty Challenge Combo #1, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficulty Challenge Combo #3. I should be able to wrap up the Martina's Contender EX Achievement tomorrow

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats For 4/3 to 4/9/2022

• Punches Thrown: 16,139
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 6447.50 kcal
• 29/30 Hours Trained for Martina's Contender
  

Played some Smite following the stream last night trying to get an understand of Aphrodite's abilities, in theory I understand them, but without a team to watch my back I'm easy pickings in Arena. She might be better to use in some of the other game modes, but those matches can last well over 30 minutes.

SMITE Achievements

• Bloodthirster: Get 10 first blood accolades in qualifying matches.

Knocked off another achievement in Super Night Rider, but for the big achievement of clearing the Course 1 to 6 race, I only made it to lap 11. While it's possible, a lot of the 'pop in' obstacles

Super Night Riders Achievements

• City Stage Cleared: Cleared the city stage.

With those two achievements earned, my current daily Xbox achievement streak is up to 58 days. Using Super Night Riders to earn at least one achievement on Sunday will of course put us to where Mass Effect 2 and possibly Fallout 76 can carry things through Wednesday. For the record, my longest streak is 87 days.

The hammer came down and Will Smith has been banned from the Academy Awards for ten years, and since this was post #MeToo, when a code of conduct was put in place, it does set of standard. Now the question of does it apply retroactively is certainly a topic for debate.

For tonight's stream we'll be messing around with some random stuff, probably from the PlayStation 3 era of gaming. I think we'll lead off with Marvel Super Hero Squad.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Kamoshida Has Been Spiked

Good afternoon everyone,

Let me stress the fact that I'm really glad I set Persona 5 Royal to be exclusive to Friday nights, because man just letting the story breath and go at its pace takes quite a lot of time. Now we did cover quite a bit ground with last night's stream, don't get me wrong, but I really can't pictured playing Persona 5 on like a Monday or Tuesday.

That said, I found the first real boss fight against Kamoshida to be a hell of a brain test to learn about some of the mechanics of being aware of would be the best choice to steal the treasure, not to mention resulting in some big tension moments. Ann sparring Kamoshida's shadow self to make him atone for his misdeeds was quite the character moment for her. That said... Kamoshida's confession was certainly a great scene, but I'm curious as to know how much of the reaction to it in the game was influenced by the culture in Japan, as it certainly was more subdued than I was anticipating. 

Other things figured out was more side activities to do to increase Joker's state and keeping the Phantom Thieves with a solid amount of Yen, while growing the connection we have to some of the characters. I did kind of ending up straying from the guide a bit but things seem to proceed at their own pace anyway.I like the idea of the Mementos area for level grinding and finding items, seems like it would be a great way to balance out day-to-day streams when there is no Palace to deal with

On a side note, there were some pop culture reference I found real cute, such as The X-Folders as an in-game reference to the X-Files, Bubbly Hills 90210 (aka Beverly Hills 90210) and Guy McVer (aka MacGyver. Wonder how many more I'll be able to find

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Tokyo Tourist: Went to a hangout spot with someone.
• Punch That Clock!: Worked a part-time job.
• Castle of Lust: Seized: Completed the castle Palace.
• Phantom Thieves: Assemble!: Established your own squad of thieves.
• Leblanc Buffer: Cleaned up in Leblanc.
• One Step at a Time: Completed a Mementos request.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Finishing Kamoshida!
2. What?! WHAT?! 
3. Take Him Down Fully!
   

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Packs with their community over on twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Block Combo and Hook Combo #1. With the extra bits I was doing, I set a new personal best for Sway Back Combo on No Mercy Difficulty.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats 2/26 to 3/5/2022

• Punches  Thrown: 11,193
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4629.24
• Hiro's Champion Progress: 48 out of 50 hours trained
  

Extended my current Xbox Achievement streak by once again focusing on things in Forza Horizon 4... and of the seven achievements I accomplished last night, the biggest pain the ass was 'Record Breaker' which was to nail a speed trap at 258 MPH in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Keeping in mind that car could get to near 267 MPH, so one would assume that would be easy. But the problem is, there is really only one stretch of road in Forza Horizon 4 that can be done, and that's the M68... and there are 'NPC' cars on the road, which means they got in my way... repeatedly, which resulted in constant rewinding and resting on multiple attempts. It took me 30 minutes to accomplish it when I was going for it. The good new is, as of 4:45 AM Eastern, only 1.2% of Xbox players have accomplished that feat, so yay me!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Purple Split!: In Rivals, beat a Rival without receiving a "dirty time" penalty.
• Hatch Me If You Can: Complete the Festival Drag Strip in a Hot Hatch in under 25 seconds.
• Reaping the Rewards: Complete a race of 3 or more laps at The Goliath in a Forza Edition Car.
• First-Time Adventurer: Complete your first Team Adventure.
• Record Breaker: Get 258mph on a Speed Trap in the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
• Never Tell Me the Odds: Win a race in the Peel P50.
• A Race in the Crowd: Complete 3 Blueprint Events created by other players

On a side note, with those seven achievements, I now have a combined gamer score of over 1000, which is roughly the equal to a full standalone game. 

People are still complaining about Overwatch 2 not being released yet, but at the same time, don't realize that the development time for a video game takes quite a while. Afterall, OW2 was only announced in November 2019, and let's keep in mind the Covid-19 Pandemic and all of Blizzard's own nonsense certainly caused delays.

Might try to track down physical copies of the WWE games released on the Xbox One prior to WWE 2K20 that can't be found digitally, easy achievement hunting there even if the online part doesn't work. Not too worried about lost DLC

For tonight's stream I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I'll make up my mind at some point! 

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

A Night Of Exploring The First Palace

Good afternoon everyone,

Well, I wanted to fully experience a dungeon or palace in Persona 5 Royal, and last night certainly was it. Sure we got some character development and leveled up a few things, and badly mishandled fusing Persona's, but the biggest thing was going through what I think would've been 90% of the first palace, missing a couple of things along the way.

Still with the notes I'm using saying to go through it in one 'in game' day, I can see the perks to it, because leaving and going back to them would be a pain. This means I would have to certainly stock up on stuff that replenish HP and SP, since there doesn't seem any way to do so in the Palaces outside of of the Will Seeds.

I do like the different enemies that are encountered and the fact that if certain conditions are met, they could be recruited, however only so many can be had at one time, which means fusing some with the hopes of getting something fairly powerful is key, not to mention having the fused Persona have a variety of elemental attacks to be used in battle.

Still the next time we do Persona 5 Royal, which will be on Friday, we'll do the Calling Card set up and see how that goes!

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was doing JackBox Party things over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz! SheepFuzz also raided my stream earlier in the week... and I forgot to make note of that! They are certainly good people! 

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• I am Thou...: Obtained a Persona through negotiation.
• Tactical Teamwork: Performed a Baton Pass.
• You'd Better Hang On!: Used the grappling hook.
• Let's Blow It Up: Defeated enemies via Disaster Shadow explosion.
• Technician: Triggered a Technical.
• A Deadly Debut: Performed a Guillotine execution.

Twitch Clip Links

1. You wouldn't believe me if I told ya 
2. We recruit another one 
3. That finished Them

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted  28 minutes with Defensive Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Double Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 437 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercises Stats 2/20 to 2/26/22 

• Punches Thrown: 11,309
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4677.42 kcal
  
• Total Days In A Row (Counting original Fitness Boxing): 600
• Total Days In A Row (Only Fitness Boxing 2): 441
• 43 out of 50 Hours trained for Hiro's Champion
  

Learned that the rewards for the four current Pandemonium raids in Final Fantasy XIV can only be claimed once a week, which kind of negates doing them daily. Tough beans man. 

Experimenting with making original content for my YouTube channel again, starting with a 'First Time In A Long Time' reaction to Cowboy Bebop: Asteroid Blues. Why first time in a long time? Because I haven't watched a lot of stuff in years. Still this was mostly to test the waters to see how this would work in terms of avoiding any copyright claims by making it as transformative as possible, such as combining the episode with my green screen and background and cutting the audio from it to about -17 dB. Editing was an interesting process  to focus on things that I said at key moments.

For tonight's stream, we'll be tearing through the story mode of Mortal Kombat IX, we will be reducing the difficulty to try and get through all 16 chapters, but you know it's going to probably take several hours to get through.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Toy Story Of Kingdom Hearts III

Good morning everyone,

Three solid days of work, I can't complain about that, even if the questions I ask in interviews are poorly worded and were clearly intended to be asked at the end of 2021 and not the start of 2022.

Anyway, last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts III certainly was... odd, and it's a damn good thing any game I play on stream I play on a casual setting, because I may have made it harder on myself by choosing to do the Toy Story world first, instead of the world that ties in with Tangled. If it was set at a higher difficulty, I would've been dead repeatedly... in addition to then number of times I got lost.

For how Toy Story was represented, I thought it was fairly good, the acting for Woody and Buzz Lightyear was pretty solid, Rex got annoying and Hamm was a ham. The Toy Story world, titled 'Toy Box' certainly took some inspiration from Toy Story 2 in terms of having a good chunk of aciton taking place in a toy store, plus the relationship the toys have with Andy is certainly used well... even if Buzz has to be a bit out of character in terms of his heart faltering when things seem dire.

As for the world itself, boy is it real easy to get lost on the toy store portion, again the open areas are just huge so trying to explore seems like a good idea... until the enemies start re-spawning, which placed me on the back foot. The idea of piloting a toy-sized mech certainly was a cool idea, and I'm starting to see some trends that the developers really over thought a lot of stuff with the 3rd main line installment of the franchise.

Now there was something that made me chuckle and thwat was a cut scene between Kairi and Lea (aka Axel), in what Kairi was writing in a letter to Sora, making it sound like she found someone better. From a fan fiction writer's point of view, the shipping of Kairi and Axel just makes sense based on what is actually in the game.

For the raid, we sent the fun over to Hawleigh who was playing Jackbox Party Pack games! She streams over at twitch.tv/hawleigh!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Knight: Defeat 1,000 enemies.
• Inseparable Friends: Adventure through Toy Box and complete the story.

Twitch Clip Links

1.  I'd knew he'd say that
2.  Well that was something
3.  This is a thing
4.  It's Go Time!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Hook Combo, Body Uppercut Combo and Uppercut Combo #2 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 436 kcal. Today we completed the requirements for the Honored Stamper EX achievement, which is to acquire 400 stamps. This is tied to do doing the daily workouts with one stamp per day. We now stand at 87% completion of the EX achievements, the remaining ones all all tied to hour spent using each trainer.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Honored Stamper: Acquire 400 Stamps
  

Fitness Boxing 2 Statistics for the week of January 9 to 15, 2022

• Punches Thrown: 9,571
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 3952.80 kcal.
  

Think I figured out an exploit or two as it relates to the grind heavy achievements of the Capcom Arcade Stadium, the plan being get to the final boss of Final Fight, save, finish the game, reload and repeat in that order.

Watched RoboCop 3 last night... and it's not that bad a movie, in fact some of its themes actually hold up a lot better than RoboCop 2! No really, you have major corporations looking to push people out of their neighborhoods with no compensation, police caught in the middle... and RoboCop has a jet pack!

For tonight's stream we're going to mess around with some different games, check and see what works and what doesn't. In short it's a variety night!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Chasing Team Galactic All Over The Region

Good afternoon everyone,

The last major holidays are closing in, which means the usual rough end of the year for me, but that's life as they say.

Anyway, last night's stream of Pokemon Shining Pearl went longer than I planned, because if there is one thing I've noticed about this game, is that it loves back tracking. After claiming the 7th Gym Badge and dealing with a sliding on ice puzzle, the majority of the night was spent chasing Team Galactic all over the place.

Turns out they nuked a lake to get access to some legendary Pokemon as part of their plan for universal conquest... their leader wants to summon a powerful Pokemon (Palkia) from another dimension so that he can re-shape reality. See, this is why Team Rocket is memorable folks, their schemes never got this silly. 

That said, it certainly was a gauntlet, particularly when heading to a mountain plateau, where I not only had to deal with Team Galactic grunts, but also wild Pokemon. Now facing off against Palkia was a big of a slug fest best I was not aware it was a Water-Dragon type... still, managed to catch it using the Master Ball. I would put it in the party, but even at level 47 its actually weaker than my squad which are all in the level 53-55 range.

Which brings me the concern that will be the Elite Four, I peaked ahead, and I realize I'm going to have to get my team at least into the low-to-mid 70s. So we may be grinding a lot for levels. Why? Because the entire Elite Four plus the Champion all have Pokemon in the mid 50s-60s range. That's going to be tough to get through.

Following the fun wassent the fun over to SheepFuzz who was doing their late Friday night Jackbox Party streams over on twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Twitch Clip Links

• I don't think that's gonna work
• Flame Wheel For The Win! 
• The Master Ball Is Used!
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 475 kcal.

Finally got the Twitch Recap for what 2021 looked liked for me as a viewer, and I'm not too surprised that Kalenal (twitch.tv/kalenal) and sw33ts_gaming (twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming) were #1 and #2 considering I lurk and raid their channels following my streams. MarvelMaven (twitch.tv/MarvelMaven) often streams in the afternoons, so I would lurk there when I'm working. Most known that DaemonsW0lf has done 99% of my channel's artwork, but she does stream from time to time over on at twitch.tv/daemonsW0lf and then there is FNDanteSavage who was not able to stream as much as he would like this year, but when he's able to he's super fun to watch over at twitch.tv/fndantesavage.

I am partly surprised over what was my top three watched categories, Final Fantasy XIV and Smite are expected as those are things Kalenal and Sw33ts_Gaming often feature... but I'm trying to think who the hell was playing Dead By Daylight so often this past year, because that was not something none of folks I often watch played.

With work slowing down because of the holidays, I took advantage and knocked out some achievements in both Gears of War 4 and Microsoft Solitaire Collection. Actually have a nice stream going as it relates to X-Box achievements.

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. At First I Was Afraid, I Was Petrified: Survived the first 10 consecutive waves of Horde in a squad
2. It's a Start: Earned 1000 Credits lifetime
3. Level 20: Reached Level 20
   

Microsoft Solitaire Collection (UWP) Achievements

1. Mining for Gold: Used 5 or more cards in the waste pile before making another draw in Klondike
2. Yuck, Random!: Won a Random difficulty game of Klondike
   

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued the main story quest from 'Reassuring the Masses' up through 'A Greater Purpose', which is basically the entire final stretch leading into the final quest of the original Shadowbringer's expansion. This does include covering the featured side quests the unlocked in addition to finding the Aether Current. So the next thing to do, when I continue, would be to do the mission called 'Shadowbringers' which has a dungeon and a trial associated with it.

Of course the plan for tonight's stream is to feature Final Fantasy XIV, but that depends on the size of the queue from when I'm trying to log in to have the game ready. If we can't get in, we'll mess around with something else!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Primals And The Crystal Towers

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream was a ton of fun with Final Fantasy XIV taking center stage. Of course we did stream it on Tuesday to finish the original campaign, but the reason we played it last night was because I didn't want to start up something else just yet.

So what did we do during FF14? Well the first big thing was dedicate time to doing the Crystal Tower story quest, which involved two Alliance Raids, since I did the first one off-stream on Thursday night, Both went smoothly... but there is a special place in hell for whoever came up with the ABC stuff for the fight against Cerberus in the 3rd Alliance Raid.

Of course a huge focus was playing the Main Story Quest, and we covered the second half of Through the Maelstrom (Patch 2.2), which saw the big battle against Leviathan, and huge thanks to Kalenal (twitch.tv/Kalenal) for jumping in to be apart of that and to coach me up on what needs to be during it. Then then MSQ content continued into the Defenders of Eorzea story arc  (Patch 2.3) and knocking out over half of it including the battle against Ramuh who truly has an epic beard.

The plot regarding the refugees and how some are treated in comparison to those who just arrived (Yugiri's people) is certainly borderline close to being a parallel to real world issues on immigration and taking care of the poor, to the point that if some of the dialog that didn't have voice acting did have it, it would have a hell of a lot more bite to it.

Also of note, I did knock out the back half of the Patch 2.3. story stuff off stream in the middle of the night as well, mostly because I realized the Guildhest are not just group tutorials but actual mini-dungeons.

Thank you to eltipometroidvania for the follow! I know they stream so you can check them out over on twitch.tv/eltipometroidvania! 

Also thank you to Dango42 for the raid! They were playing Final Fantasy XIV as well over on twitch.tv/Dango42! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Pack 8 over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!  

Twitch Clip Links

Learning How To Handle The Leviathan Battle

Let The Sun Shine In! 

I comment on the Music... and I get zapped...

Going through my DVD collection, I realize that I may need to add a couple of things to make it complete or look neat... so I'm in the process of tracking down a copy of Sudden Impact starring Clint Eastwood, which is of course apart of the Dirty Harry series of films, as well as Volumes 6 & 7 for both Gungrave and Chrono Crusade, two anime series from the early 2000s. 

Picked up Tales from the Glory Hole by Drace Domino, it is a tie-in to their earlier book Rise of the Battlebitch which was a great read. Also added Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning for the PlayStation 4 to the collection as well.

People are asking if the prop weapons that Alec Baldwin used to accidentally end the life of Filmmaker Halyna Hutchins are dangerous.... gee, let's go ask Brandon Lee who was on the receiving end of a prop malfunction back in 1993! Look if you're using weapons as props for films and if they are not correctly maintained, configured and triple check for safety purposes of course they are going to be fucking dangerous! Could it have been prevented yes, but at the very least this may see the stop of using REAL guns in film making.

There are some character changes in coming for Overwatch. Torbjorn's Overload's cool down is being reduced as is the consumption of ammo used when using the Rivet Gun's alternate fire. McCree's Deadeye is getting a shorter slower damage ramping speed and his combat roll can be used in the air, Moira's Biotic Orbs will have a slower speed when it has a target, and Junkrat is getting a near rework so that he's better at close range to reduce his long-range spam potential 

Speaking of McCree... he's getting a new name, Cole Cassidy... and to which I ask... when is Butch Sundance joining Overwatch? I'm apologizing for that joke, because everyone else picked up on the obvious 'Coal and Ash' because of the character of Ashe... me, I'm going for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reference!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minuets with the following exercises.: Beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 478 kcal... and I'm two months away from turning 39... ugh....

For tonight's stream we'll be playing The Walking Dead: The Final Season to wrap up that series! We'll start early because the goal is to play all four episodes!

So on that note we'll you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

We Rocked Springfield Like A Hurricane

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night we had the goal of finishing The Simpsons Game which we started last Saturday night, and safe to say we managed to do that, even if it took me a while to finish the various stages and the fact I had to look up the solution to beat up Ben Franklin.

Anyway, we picked up at the half way point with the Alien Invasion of Springfield and having to save Cletus from being anal probed which probably took longer than it should, but we did get a great cameo of Kelsey Grammer's Sideshow Bob. From the there the second half of the game began as The Simpsons end up in the Game Engine and need to make their way through four 'games' that are parodies of EverQuest (Marge calling herself a MILF Queen repeatedly was just awesome), Medal of Honor, Grand Theft Auto,... and whatever stereotype of Japanese games EA was trying to pull off, before going after Matt Gorening who brings in Bender and Dr Zoidberg from Futurama for help.... and then finally going to Heaven to get some answers from God.

Now it took me five and half hours to get through all that, a few deaths along the way, but it was a lot of fun. I did have a real mixed feeling about going after the collectables, and if if just ignored them I probably would have finished the entire game in one night, but it was what it was.I do admit I love the Dance Dance Revolution style battle against God with the 'wrath of God' mix of Rock You Like A Hurricane playing, it's such a silly way to take down the almighty. And of course Ralph at the end breaking the fourth wall was just classic.

Big thanks to LumiLexy for the huge raid during the stream! They were playing Luigi's Mansion over at twitch.tv/lumilexy!

Also thanks you to Largepen420 for the follow during the stream as well!

Following the stream, we sent the fun over to SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Pack 8 over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz! 

Twitch Clip Links

• First Person Maggie View
• Lies! 
• They are Both Right... Marge is an Elf and A M...
• Burns Down On One Hit 
• Damn it! DamnitDamnitDamnit DAMN!
• Wonderful Magical Animal!
• Say What Marge?!
• Walk Away Now
• Sending Shakespeare to Gat Out Of Hell
• Ralph Knocks On The Monitor

Already earned the Week One rewards for this years Overwatch's Halloween Terror Event, and picked up a couple of Plays of the Game, one as McCree and one as Tracer. We'll feature Junkenstein's Revenge alternating with Quick Play matches on Sunday night!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout Session lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Triple Combo #2, Intemediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 521 kcal. Since I work up very late today, I did not do any extra exercises.

For tonight's stream we are doing a one night play though of all three episodes of The Walking Dead: Michonne, which should easily cover the entire evening. Originally released between Season 2 and New Frontier, Michonne has no noticeable connection to the adventures of Clementine, which is probably why most people ignore it!

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Catch A Ride To The Vault Of The Traveler

Good afternoon everybody,

 

Did not get up till a little  before 2 PM Eastern, as I got into writing more of the Chrono Cross fan fic last night... so day's already mostly over at the time this is posted!

Last night's stream saw us continue Tales From The Borderlands, and I was planning on only doing episodes 3 and 4.... but hell it was Friday night, so we went all in and knocked out episode 5 as well.

Now one big drawback with the 2K re-release of Tales from the Borderlands is that it removes the 'community' aspect of it, where we could see what percentage of players made a particular choice, and it does not have a way to keep track of the choices made in-game to give an idea of what to do different on another play through. 

That said, Episode 3 is pretty sweet as the tie-in to the Prologue and Epilogue of Borderlands: The Pre Sequel is established with Brick and Mordecai going after Athena to take to Lilith. Episode 4 and 5 probably do more to setting up Borderlands 3 to various degrees from what I understand of that game, as making sure Handsome Jack is dead and making sure Fiona is a Vault Hunter or at the very least very damn capable of taking care of her self at the very least.

The epic battle between a giant Gortys and the Traveler Vault Monster is always fun to experience, and one of the days I'm going to look up how to get the option of the 'hidden' vault hunters to pick for that battle, plus remember to tell Zer0 that Fiona is a Vault Hunter in episode 1. And of course there's the... option of trying to have ClapTrap...as a possible selection.... but that would mean not doing some things I like to do (getting alternate outfits and making the Carava look kind of cool)

Finishing Tales for the Borderlands made it the 46 game finished on this years tour, and it's pretty damn likely we're going to surpass last years total of 48, but what will make it on tour is still up in the air.

Also big thanks to ValadoraLuma for the nice Host during the stream. They were playing Pathfinder, and you can check out their content over at twitch.tv/ValadoraLuma! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to SheepFuzz at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz who was doing their Friday Night community night playing Jackbox Party games! You really should check their stream out, as things can get down right silly!

Tales From The Borderlands Achievements

1. Don't Make Me Wait: Complete Chapter 1 of Episode 3
2. Temptation: Complete Chapter 2 of Episode 3
3. Point Of No Return: Complete Chapter 3 of Episode 3
4. So Many Bandits, So Little Time: Complete Chapter 4 of Episode 3
5. Rupture: Complete Chapter 5 of Episode 3
6. Maneater: Complete Chapter 6 of Episode 3
7. Angry Eyes: Complete Episode 3
8. Ain't Got Time To Bleed: Complete Chapter 1 of Episode 4
9. Alive And Not Afraid: Complete Chapter 2 of Episode 4
10. Ain't My First Rodeo: Complete Chapter 3 of Episode 4
11. It's Not The Years, It's The Mileage: Complete Chapter 4 of Episode 4
12. Light This Candle: Complete Chapter 5 of Episode 4
13. No Matter Where You Go…: Complete Chapter 6 of Episode 4
14. …There You Are: Complete Episode 4
15. A Maze Of Twisty Passages, All Alike: Completed Chapter 1 of Episode 5
16. Unforseen Consequences: Completed Chapter 2 of Episode 5
17. Give And Take (Mostly Take): Completed Chapter 3 of Episode 5
18. Definition Of Insanity: Completed Chapter 4 of Episode 5
19. Time's A Wastin': Completed Chapter 5 of Episode 5
20. What's It Worth?: Completed Chapter 6 of Episode 5
21. Tales Twice Told: Complete Episode 5

 Twitch Clip Links

• Fiona Makes Her Head Spin
• Oh This Is A Pulp Fiction Reference...
• Not The Pinkie Toe... RUDE!
• Scooter Earned That Kiss
• Putting that horse down... and is that... blood?
• Something Is On Her Face
  

Had to manually initiate updates on some of my consoles, because hey, I rotate which ones I use at any given time. That's always a joy to sit through.

Over the course of the past 9 days, we have unlocked 91 Xbox Achievements, making it the 4th best stretch of achievement unlocking I've had 

The Phillies keep false hope alive with that come from behind wind over the Pirates last night, but here's the thing... The Braves have a game they would have to make up against the Rockies that could be a deciding factor, because as it stands right now. So if the Phillies are to win the NL East, they need to win every game the rest of the season. They got 2 games left at home, then rest on the road... and as stated before the Phillies suck on the road.

Work was less blah yesterday than it was on Thursday, but still it was just dragging with how barren the sample was. Still work is work, and we like work right? RIGHT?!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes and featured Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2. The estimated calorie burn was 433 kcal. I had some trouble syncing up step-in jabs today which counted for three of the four misses. The other miss was the typical uppercut out of a duck that almost always has a 90% success rate.

For tonight's stream we'll be checking out a game that was recommended by LvStrkr, The Artful Escape, I know nothing about it other than LvStrkr said I should be able to finish it in an evening. So we'll see if that holds true!

So on that bombshell, we'll see you later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Life is Strange But The Colors Are True

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream featured Life is Strange; True Colors, and we got through three chapters in a stream that went 7.5 hours. This will contain spoilers for the game! You have been warned.

Our hero is Alex Chen who is going to live with her brother Gabe in Colorado, her power is based on empathy, she can read other people's emotions and use it to piece together what is either making them sad, angry and scared. This does have a draw back because she can feel those emotions and sometimes it will cause her to have a corresponding outburst (I came across two such instances, 1 is part of the story and the other towards the end of episode 3 seems to be avoidable). The town of Haven Springs is certainly a lovely little town, and we certainly have a lot of room to explore when we're outdoors. It's a lot 'bigger' than what we've seen in the other Life is Strange games by far, and you can use Alex's power to get a great deal of insight on the town.. Hell Exploring every thing and interacting with stuff such has finding spots for Alex to sit down and think about stuff are counted towards decisions made.

Anyway, Episode 1 is really a long drawn out introduction, I meant you basically are introduced to everyone important in Haven Springs, from Ethan and Charlotte, to Ryan and Steph, to Duckie and Diane... it all feels very genuine... if you ignore the fact that Gabe basically has been hyped about the arrival of Alex for some time. The story itself doesn't really get rolling until the end of episode 1 when Alex, Ryan and Gabe go to find Ethan who sneaked off to go into a closed off mine around the same time some mining excavations were going to take place. Gabe is killed,despite him phoning in a request for the excavations to be delayed... and the episode two opens with a clear conspiracy in place when the person Gabe talked to says 'there was no call'.Turns out the company doing the mining is up to some super shady shit, which becomes slowly more obvious over episodes two and three, but is fully revealed that they want to hide something at the end of episode three. 

Now between the main plot there are several awesome sub plots and mini things that are peppered through out the game, you can interact with arcade machines for mini-games, find collectables that give further insight into the town and people of Haven Springs, and lot of these collectables are found by using Alex's powers, so in every area you can roam around in, always do a full search. Also there are some events tied to things people say, such as taking a lunch order or answering a riddle.

Regarding Alex's personality, she is certainly a medium between Max and Chloe as being kind of the most well adjusted... and she is certainly way more likeable than Sean from Life is Strange 2. Just over the first three episodes we see Alex come out of her shell from being unsure about moving to Haven Springs to being an big part of the small town community.

Unlike the first three Life is Strange games, True Colors does have a 'streamer' friendly mode.... however there are at least two instances I found in regards to there being awkward with no music at all instead of a non-licensed fill in. Both happen in Episode 1, one is when Alex and Gave are listening to a Kings of Leon record... and the other is when Alex finds the guitar beneath the bed.

You might have guess but I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens in episodes 4 and 5!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sheepfuzz (twitch.tv/sheepfuzz) who was playing Jackbox Party Packs! Sheepfuzz does a lot of community streams and is just an awesome streamer with a great personality! 

Life is Strange: True Colors Achievements

1. A Letter To Riley: Find the “Riley Letter” Memory in Chapter 1
2. Head Count: Find the “Helmet” Memory in Chapter 1
3. I Thought I Could Hunt The Monster: Complete Chapter 1 of Life is Strange: True Colors
4. Umbrella: Find the “Umbrella” Memory in Chapter 2
5. No Handouts: Find the “Rent Check” Memory in Chapter 2
6. Time For Something New: Find the “Button” Memory in Chapter 2
7. Bird Spotting: Help the Birdwatcher find her bird
8. Pro Tip: Find the “Gummies” Memory in Chapter 2 
9. Found Dog!: Help the Hoodie Guy find his dog
10. Something You Build: Complete Chapter 2 of Life is Strange: True Colors
11. Earworm Squasher: Find and play the Student's lost song
12. Hell Divers: Find the “Bomber Jacket” Memory in Chapter 3
13. Ethan's Dollar: Find the “Dollar” Memory in Chapter 3
14. And How Does That Make You Feel?: Find the “Appointment Slip” Memory in Chapter 3
15. Upright and Above Ground: Find the “Old Paper” Memory in Chapter 3
16. Valkyrie's Dish: Find the “Valkyrie's Dish” Memory in Chapter 3
17. Memory Collector: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 3
18. Burying Something: Complete Chapter 3 of Life is Strange: True Colors 

Twitch Clip Links

• Bad To The Gnome! 
• Death has been cheated!
• Alex Sings... Yes She Is Singing... What is she singing we don't know 
• I Got It Right!
• Alex's Glasses Have No Lens
• Sitting At The Dock Of The Bay 
• Let's Do A Good Thing!
• Sorry Alex You Don't Have Time Travel Powers
• My Expectations of the Shipping Community
• I Have The Power... HE-MAN!!!!
  

We have two new additions to the collection that arrived yesterday from Japan. The first is Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.... for the Sega Dreamcast. As you might know... I don't have a Sega Dreamcast, nor is my intention to get one that would play the Japan-release version of MvC. See I was expecting to get the PlayStation version, the one that is a very unique version of Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes that is a full on conversion to a 1 on 1 fighter with different gameplay mechanics and balancing. That said, it is cool to have a version of Marvel Vs Capcom that was released to the Sega Dreamcast because it is nearly arcade perfect in that is has the full 2 on 2 experience... but we kind of already have that with Marvel vs Capcom Origins that have I in my digital PS3 collection.

I have not given up hope on finding the unique version of Marvel vs Capcom for the original PlayStation, but the only way to find it is to look through imports from Japan, because the North American releases are way too overpriced.

Anyway, the other addition we have Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2... which translates to  "Private Justice Academy: Hot-Blooded Youthful Diary 2".... but it's actually version 2.0 of Disc 2 for Rival Schools: United By Fate. It includes all the mini-games from the older version, along with two additional characters.The novelty here is the extra characters and having an 'updated' version of the Rival Schools is pretty neat... considering that the true sequel Project Justice has only ever seen a home release on the Sega Dreamcast.

Former Chicago Cub and Montreal Expo Andrew Dawson runs a funeral home in Florida and business is way to good for him because of how many knuckleheads in that state refuse to have any commonsense when it comes to protecting themselves from COVID and it's variants that are popping up. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 437 kcal. The exercises for today were Hip Shape Focus Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Swayback Combo. I did step on the scale yesterday and my weight is down to 246 lbs.

Didn't do any ranked matches in Overwatch yesterday or today (so far), so no results to report.  

For tonight's stream we will be continuing Life is Strange: True Colors and we will finish episode 4 and 5! This is gonna be awesome!

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!