A Night Dedicated To The Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream ended up featuring every single game that was apart of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology which was released for the PlayStation 2 back in 2006. This meant last night we played Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix!

Now I am no stranger to Alpha. Alpha 2 and Alpha 3, in fact we played all of those games last year using the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, and despite the different feel a PlayStation 2 controller has when playing a fighting game versus a Xbox controller really not much of a difference here. Though I will say we did do the Dynamic battle mode in all three of those games and the only one I was able to complete was Alpha 3's. I will also say this, playing Alpha 2 did saw me face Shin Akuma... it did not go well

Now I've never played Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold before, and yes its the Sega Saturn port of Alpha 2... but goodness me, the music tracts for it sound terrible in comparison to the original tracks. Near as I could 'hear', the Gold mix for Alpha 2 has a lot more tremble and a lot less bass, which makes things sounds way off. Add onto it the cowbell in Sodom's theme is rather irritating, and the butchered mess that is Sakura's theme needs to be lost to time.

The version Zero 3 Upper is the version of Alpha 3 that was for the the PlayStation 1, DreamCast and Sega Saturn, which means it has the expanded console roster, which I believe gave it the largest in game selection of characters for any Capcom fighting game up to that point only to be surpassed by Marvel vs Capcom 2. I could be wrong about that. Anyway, not much of a difference between Zero 3 Upper and Alpha 3 near as I can tell... but we did beat M.Bison as Sakura with it, making it twice I beat a version of Alpha 3's final boss with her.

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, aka Pocket Fighter, was a real joy to play. I have seen Maximilian_Dood (twitch.tv/Maximilian_Dood) play it, so I kind of had a good idea of the mechanics of getting the gems to power up the special moves... but even with seeing gameplay of it before, a lot of the stuff in the background caught my attention... such as Dimitri's sliding across a floor, DeeJay rocking out behind the bar, and M.Bison apparently taking Cammy shopping

All in all I had a blast with all these games last night and I was glad I grabbed a copy of  Street Fighter Alpha Anthology when I did in 2020, because it made for an awesome stream.

Now since Alpha 2 Gold, Zero 3 Upper and Super Gem Fighter were all new things (to me), I am going to count the arcade runs of those three games on this year's tour.

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/oldish22!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Caught Her!
2. First time facing Shin Akuma... I was not prepared 
3. The Trade Off In Our Favor! (Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold)
4. Defeating Bison with Sakura... AGAIN!!!!! (Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper) 
5. Mighy Combo Finish!
   

I have decided to remove BitBoss from the stream, as the way it keeps acting up makes it more frustrating than it should be. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Uppercut Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Triple Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 414 kcal.

Went back into Light Fairytail Episode 1 to clear out the remaining achievements, and the stealth minigame was certainly a pain in the ass, had to do it three times because I didn't realize what the score was needed to get the 'Ex-Number One' achievement on the first run (it's 105, I stopped at 95), on the second attempt I got caught at 100... so that left a third attempt. Still I take some pride in being the 470th person over on TrueAchievements to complete the game, so that's a positive!

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Achievements

• 250+ HP damage: Did a 250+ single HP damage to an enemy.
• High scorers club: Got a high score of 75+ in the stealth minigame.
• Number one: Got the stealth contest's ultimate prize.
• Ex-number one: Got an orb from the former number one.
• All cleared!: Cleared all the achievements. Congratulations!

Iceman will not be joining us this evening, so the start of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition will be delayed, man has not had a day off in a few weeks!

So for tonight's stream we'll mess around with what ever comes to mind! 

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

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Is A Great Start

Good morning everyone,

Light Fairytale Episode 1 was featured last night and it certainly was a charming little game that is clearly inspired by Final Fantasy VII... and unlike Final Fantasy VII, Light Fairytale's clear opening act isn't bogged down with a half dozen plot elements. We get introduced to Haru and Kuroko, we get a clear understanding that they live towards the bottom of an underground complex... and Haru has a dream about 'the sky', something he has never seen.

The battle mechanics are very straight forward, as it is a traditional turn-base style and it was made really clear to me that there would be a limit on healing items. Good news is our heroes have 'Fury' moves, or what is basically the equivalent of Limit Breaks, Haru's is a group heal while Kuroko's is a 5 hit combo on one enemy. The music and artwork are actually quite good, as everything seems to gel quite nicely for a nice casual experience.

Perhaps the best part of Light Fairytale Episode 1 is that we can see the story from both Haru and Kuroko's perspectives, which really helps with the game's cliffhanger ending, that clearly makes me eager to make arrangements to play Episode 2. But before I do that, I would want to take care of the remaining achievements in Episode 1. On a blind play-thru I was able to get 19 of the 29 achievements, but the remaining 10 were not very obvious or straight forward. 

Of course that does mean I did start a third play-thru following the stream to go after many of the achievements I missed, picking up 5 more. The remaining ones I need are focused a round doing 250+ attack and dealing with the stealth mini-game.

Now we did two play-thrus of Light Fairtyale last night, so I do count the game as being finished, and so we messed around some with SoulCalibur on stream to get some footage of that. Did an Arcade run as Ivy, got to 16 with Taki in Extreme Survival and 31 with Maxi in normal Survival. A pretty solid exhibition of a good game.

For the raid we dropped in on SeverOmega who was playing Rock Band 4 over at twitch.tv/severomega!

Light Fairytale Episode 1 Achievements

• Sneaky: Talked to some NPCs from behind.
• Childhood friends: Checked the gray duck at the park with Kuroko.
• Welcome home!: Rested at Haru's place before the fortune teller event.
• There you are!: Found hiding Kuroko.
• Ruled by these guys?!: Overheard the station soldiers talking.
• Out of my way!: Talked to the sprinting scavenger.
• Scary smile...: Talked to angry Kuroko.
• 1st win!: Won your 1st battle.
• Fizzle maniac: Checked the fizzle vending machine before the fortune teller event.
• Night rider!: Did better than Kuroko's high score.
• That was close!: Slipped near the cliff.
• Don't anger me: Reached the fury status during a battle.
• 100+ HP damage: Did a 100+ single HP damage to an enemy.
• "Haru? Haru! Haruuu!": Got caught during the stealth minigame.
• Materialist: Went to the corridor with Miyu's materials.
• The journey begins: Completed Haru's story.
• B-bomb?!: Got a bomb from the hiding cat girl.
• My precious...: Checked the class 3 A.R. goggles before talking to Daisuke.
• Alternate journey: Completed Kuroko's story. 
• Dreamer boy: Tried to return to the cliff just after the opening cutscene.
• A.R beginner: Got used to your A.R. goggles before the 1st battle.
• Freebie: Rested during the spiders battles.
• Calculating guy: Got the ground credits in level 1 or 2 after the fortune teller event.
• Glasses...: Gave back Emiko's credits.
  

Twitch Clip Links

1. Scary Smile... that's an achievement
2. The Heavy Crusher
3. The Spider Tank!
4. Ivy vs Inferno
5. Can we get to 30 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 551 kcal.

Did a quick raid, Deltascape 3.0 last night in Final Fantasy XIV, I've only done it once because, but it's mechancis are so straight forward. Someday I may even try the savage version but yesterday was not that day!

My current XBox achievement streak is now at 19 days, I'm thinking we can get it 21 days with getting any achievements on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

For tonight's stream, at the time I'm writing this I'm not 100% sure of what we're going to do, but you know I'll be up to something!

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

Six Plays Of The Game In One Night? Madness!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was of course focused around getting the matches and wins needed for the Reaper's Code of Violence awards, which we were able to pull off in the first three hours of the stream. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of all the fun!

Now I'm trying really hard to think of if I ever had a stream where I had six plays of the game as I did last night. I've had four in a night a couple of times, but never six. And I was using my usual characters, D.va as a Tank and Moira as Support, but for the few Damage role matches I used Mei. So it was a crazy night in that regard. Probably my favorite moment was dropping a D.va bomb right at the spawn point of the enemy team that got a triple kill... but then there was also getting resurrected as Mei and popping her ultimate to get a few eliminations

As far as the new Reaper skin goes, it looks decent enough and I'm surprise they are calling it as a Legendary skin for him, because I doubt it will become available at any point via Loot Box. The whole event being based around him meant I could sub out the word Violence and replace with with Violins, because if you say both words they sound almost the same.

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerAU who was doing a Dungeon and Dragons stream!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Double... no TRIPLE KILL!
2.  Right at their door step!
3.  I die... I get rez... I freeze!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with Uppercut Combo #2, Body Hook Combo and Body Uppercut Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. In terms of the extra exercises, I set a new personal best for Double Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. Also as of today we're up to 45 out of 50 hours trained for the Hiro's Champion achievement.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise February 2022

• Punches Thrown: 43,475 (37,359 in 2021)
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 17,904.25 kcal (16,413.35 in 2021)
  

Messed around some more with SoulCalibur last night, going through the arcade mode with every character I haven't yet to earn the Edge Master achievement. There are four achievements left in the game, two related to Time Attack, one for beating arcade mode on its hardest difficult and the last is for defeating 25 straight opponents in Extra Survival (one hit sudden death). That last one I've hit a streak of 20 a few times as Taki, but man its frustrating to get so close but then to start over!.

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Edge Master: You have mastered all characters and defeated every opponent in Arcade Mode.

A lot of folks are making a big deal about Nintendo saying that Super Smash Bros will not be featured at EVO this year. Let's keep in mind a few things, Nintendo never wanted Smash to be included at EVO in the first place, that was something they reluctantly did to get some good will from those who play it competitively. Second, Nintendo announced a while back that they are going to work with someone else when it comes to coordinating an actual competitive scene for Smash. Besides, as

Fans of Asuka are rather pissed this morning when it has come out that the WWE has no creative plans for her after it was speculated she was supposed to return to TV. Here's the reason why there are no creative plans for Asuka: Becky Lynch is being wasted in an attempt to get Bianca Belair over and Charlotte Flair is being wasted as cannon fodder for Ronda Rousey. So when the top two match ups that are possible for Asuka are off the table, any thing else is really just a waste of time. 

For tonight's stream, we're going to mess around with Light Fairytale Episode 1, which is apparently a short little RPG, that should only take a few hours to finish. Knowing me it will take two or three nights! Anyway, we'll be using the Xbox Series console for it.

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

 

Far From A Flawless Victory

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream featured the story mode of Mortal Kombat IX, which of course is just known as Mortal Kombat because it was a reboot of the franchise and a re-telling of the story of the first three Mortal Kombat games, introducing a new generations to all the characters... and killing a quarter of them!

I'm not kidding, for all the good that comes with the story of Mortal Kombat IX, they really went out of their way to kill off a good chunk of the 'good aligned' characters. Sure many were brought back in Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11, but the infamous moment when Sindel one shots everyone but Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage in chapter 15 really is a way of saying 'none of these characters matter'. And then there were some of the fights and how wonky the game can be with how block heavy some can be, and Shao Khan can be an absolute monster unless one is spamming certain special moves, but that is what it is. 

Some of the character model designs still look good for a decade old game, while others certainly didn't age that well. The controls are still pretty damn responsive by modern standards, and the impact of every attack sounds really damn good. That said, some of the audio was mixed oddly to suppress the stage music, but Mortal Kombat has never been a franchise known for having good music

Now we also went ahead an unlocked 50% of the Krypt during the stream, getting a good portion of the alternate costumes. And I am considering doing more Mortal Kombat IX stuff associated with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Wednesdays, since we'll be using the Xbox One console for the later when teaming up with Iceman.  The big thing I do want to accomplish with Mortal Kombat IX is 'mastery' of one character, and that would require 24 hours of play time using one character, 100 victories, 100 finisher, 10,000 pints of blood and 100 X-ray attacks done

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Halfway There!: Complete Story Mode 50%
• There Will Be Blood!: Spill 10000 pints of blood
• Cold Fusion: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Cyber Sub-Zero"
• Quan-Tease: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Quan Chi"
• Back In Time...: Complete Story Mode 100%
• Undertaker: Unlock 50% of the Krypt 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Jax has been disarmed
2. Ah his is in the air 
3. Lucky... 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo #1 and Hook Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. But as you can tell with the screenshot we did some extra, which I always try to squeeze in even if I don't documented here on the daily blogs!

Messed around with SoulCalibur again last night trying to bang out some more achievements and noticed that one that was unlocked a few days ago was finally credited to me (Close Call). Anyway, for as barebones as the game is the achievements are possible to some degree. Anyway with the 'Guardian' achievement that does extent my current streak of Xbox achievements another day, so woo-hoo!

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Close Call: You have triumphed over extreme adversity and defeated an enemy with very little health.
• Guardian: You have learned to counterattack your opponents' repels and parries.

A new week is here, but let's look back at what games we featured on Twitch last week, which were Overwatch, Tell Me Why, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal and Mortal Kombat IX! 

If you think Donald Trump was a good leader, then you are a fucking idiot and you should move to Moscow and kiss the feet of Vladimir Putin you misanthropic nutball.

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is, it's Sunday, which means Overwatch. Currently there is a mini-event called Reaper’s Code of Violence, which is to unlock a new skin, icon and spray for Reaper. So that is our goal for the evening!

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!

What did we do in FFXIV last night?

Good morning everyone,

The crazy weather of let February in South Jersey popped up as last night we got some snow... well that was surprising.

Anyway, last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw a few things getting done, we did a few dailies, and a couple of raids, included two of the Pandaemonium raids (Second & Third Circle). I can imagine how much more of a pain in the ass these would be on Savage difficulty, which I would eventually have to do to try and get gear that's level 600+. That will be a torture for sure.

Still I did do some level up grinding for both Blue Mage and Fishing, and those are progressing quite nicely with gaining about two levels each. Mostly used Fates for Blue Mage and found a few quests that gave some XP as well, which worked out nicely.

There was one quest, The Greatest Story Never Told, which proved to be really pointless since the rewards was only 10 gil. I think in terms of an actual quest , it is probably the worst one when it comes to presenting lore, and assumes everyone will know who every ones is within the game world when unscrambling letters.

No raid last night, but we did host Maximillian_dood who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD! Now, do I have any interest in playing Elden Ring myself? Are you kidding, I could not make it very far in Bloodborne, do you really think I'm going to mess around with something even harder?!

Twitch Clip Links

1. This is going to happen a lot
2. I'm just a fool like that.... 
3. Ressurected and knocked out in an instant
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn result of 525 kcal. Now if I was to guess, I would say we would hit the 50 hour mark for Hiro's Champion around March 12th, not factoring in the little extra sets I do each day on top of the daily sessions.

Microsoft announced that as of March 1, 2022 Party Chat will no longer be available in the Xbox Console Companion app on Windows Devices, which means I'll have to finally start using the Xbox app itself in order to have voice communication with those who join in on games I play using both Xbox consoles. Thing is, I have found the Console Companion app to be superior to the Xbox app in terms of layout and ease of use. Still we must evolve with the times since we have Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on the horizon.

Messed around with SoulCalibur, the Xbox 360 port, and managed to knock out a few achievements to keep my current streak going at 15 days. I will say this, the sound mix for SoulCalibur is loud as hell, even at 50% volume for back ground music and sound effects! In terms of how it looks, I'd say for a game that was once in the arcades that was ported to several consoles, SoulCalibur, the character models still look good, but some aspects such as the backgrounds have not aged well. Controls pretty decently too.

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Zen Warrior: Concentration and practice have led you to perfect your skills and obtain a perfect victory.
• Summon Suffering: Ivy is graceful but deadly and you have mastered her signature throw, the Summon Suffering.
• Warrior: Your skills have shown improvement now that you have defeated Arcade Mode.
• Art Connoisseur: You truly appreciate fine art and have viewed all the different areas in the Museum Mode.
• Apprentice: You have begun your journey by playing 3 different characters.

Really excited for Persona 5 tonight, mostly because the visual novel aspect of the game gives me so much to react to in terms of the story, but also I'm looking forward to really seeing what the dungeon experience is really like to some extent.

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

Roads and Collectables Found

Good morning everyone,

Let me begin this post the same way I started last night's stream by saying that Greg Abbot the governor of Texas has set a dangerous standard by making every family that has a youth who is trans a target for harassment in order to try and save himself politically. He, and anyone who supports him, are clear and present dangers to the American People.

That said, last night's stream opened up with Forza Horizon 4, as I set the goal to try and find every road in the main area of the game.... and some how I haven't discovered the final 3. The map says I've been everywhere, so I have no clue where these short side roads would be at. Still I finally found the final Beauty Spot location in the game to get that achievement.

Iceman joined in for Gears 5 as we set about searching for the final four collectables of the game, having to replay two major parts of the campaign. It did work out rather nicely, as we discovered a unique aspect of of JACK's shield which can stop a pouncer from diving onto a player. We also took Iceman into his first run of an Escape, which was chaotic fun.

We did announce that next Wednesday the Gears of War franchise fun will continue as we're going back to where it began with Gears of War Ultimate.. which was the remaster of the original game. It has an extra section that was exclusive to the PC version, so it should be a lot of fun. For that adventure I'll use the X-Box One for it since it is an older game.

No raid last night, but we did host JustBrootal who was playing Call of Duty: Warzone over on twitch.tv/justbrootal!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Taking the Grand Tour: View every Beauty Spot.

Gears 5 Achievements

• It’s Not Hoarding if Your Stuff is Cool: Collected all Campaign Collectibles

Twitch Clip Links

1. I would create restaurant... 
2. JD... Phrasing
3. The Shield Stopped The Pouncer! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 34 minutes with Difficult Challenge Combo #1, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 for an calorie burn estimate of 647 kcal.

Jumps into Tell Me Why to speed run Episode 3 with all the 'negative' choices to get the final achievement to 100% complete the game. Needless to say skipping over all the context and lore of Mary Ann really takes a lout out of the game, which means going for the 'split' of the Twins is something deliberate one must go for.

Tell Me Why Achievements

• Life Tears Us Apart: Complete the story with the twin's bond weakened
  

Messed around some more with NBA Jam last night as well, wonder how many achievements are actually do-able with it that don't depend on online play.

Back in the 90s my dad did a lot of research into family history, tracing his side of the family back to Belarus on my grandfather's side, and Ukraine on my grandmother's side... so it that later part that has me hoping that the mess caused by the Vladimir Putin gets sorted out quickly. 

It's looking more and more doubtful the 2022 Major League Baseball season will start on time, I meant it ain't that hard to say 'we'll use the old agreement until the new one is agreed upon', but the greed of the players and stubbornness of the owners continues to hold things up 

I have no issue with Machine Gun Kelly being in WWE 2K22, I however do have a problem with yet another WWE video game using licensed songs for the menu screens that cannot be used for custom entrances. It's really a waste of the rights fees 2K has paid to acquire the use of those songs... granted it's a terrible selection regardless.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV, probably do a daily alliance raid, level up blue mage and fishing a few levels!

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