A real fun night of Street Fighter 6

Hi everyone,

Well Saturday was kind of weird to some degree, as we got the laundry done good and early, did some writing and because I took a nap... and didn't felt like dealing with dinner, so I order some Chinese food for the first time in years. It was quite delicious!

The stream itself of Street Fighter saw a big focus on three objectives, the first being to get to 100 matches played in Fight Ground mode, which was a mixed of ranked and casual matches. It took about an hour and forty five minutes to get the 40+ matches done for that, because we had to wait for opponents. Also proved that I can hold my own as Chun Li, Juri and Dee Jay... while I forever suck as Zangief.

Then we jumped into World Tour, with the goal being to max out the bond with Chun Li, which we were able to do pretty smoothly since I was working on it off stream, finding gifts to give her. Thankfully we don't have to do that with every legendary character. We also encountered the likes of Lily, Juri, Blanka, Cammy & Dee. This mode did expose my inability to do charge motions. The next big achievement in this mode is to do over 20 sub missions, which I will try to knock out off-stream so we can focus on the main story on stream.

Now, I did jump into the Battle Hub to mess around with Avatar Battles, and with more luck  than skill, we managed to hit 20 wins to get a third achievement. Finding 'even' battles was pretty hard, so it required a lot of waiting around and rematches. This also helped in regards to getting the 'nice' points to grind towards another achievement, which I can try and knock out off stream as well.

So with that said, the next time we're going to play Street Fighter 6 will be on Thursday, since it'll be more story and grinding focus in the World Tour mode... which frees up Saturday to do something else! What that will be, I don't know, maybe something older perhaps?

Street Fighter 6 Achievements

• The Grand Jeté of 100 Battles: Fight 100 FG online battles. Too difficult? If you're taking on the world, there is no other path.
•  Mastery's Bond: If you would call someone master, it is best to know them well. Raise the bond with a master to 100.
• The Struggle Over Self: A new form of combat, with a different path to victory. Win 20 Avatar Battles. Fight and grow.

For the raid we dropped in on thatsoalykat who was also playing Street Fighter 6 over on twitch.tv/thatsoalykat

So on the agenda for Sunday is do the dishes which I forgo doing yesterday, and then the stream will feature Overwatch 2, which might get one last title on the Season Battle pass. Also I intend to get some more writing done.

So on that note we'll see you about 7 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

So Heavy Rain's Plot Only Happens Because A Kid Is An Idiot...

 Hi everyone,

We had another great day of work, granted it got a bit tough with no real breaks between interview attempts, but hey, I was felt super productive. However, my work schedule will lead to Monday's stream starting at 8:30 PM Eastern, while Tuesday to Friday's stream next week will be still starting at 9:30 PM Eastern

Also got in some groceries, some bananas, some goodies, a few frozen food items... if I'm learning to cook on the fly, got to make sure I have some things that are edible just in case things go wrong. Rather like the Bowl & Basket branded stuff from Shop Rite, they are cheap and often I don't have to worry about expiration dates.

So we started Heavy Rain, and right off the bat I have to say the entire plot is based on the face that Ethan's son Jason being a complete fucking idiot and wandering off for no real apparent reason. So the kid wanders off, Ethan chases after him and a tragic accident happens which leads to the actually story moving forward. I do like the various changes in perspective but this game has a big problem.

That problem is that the CONTROLS ARE FUCKING AWFUL... Heavy Rain is a game whose controls depend fully on the gimmick of features of the PlayStation 4's controller, such as shaking , turning and making various motions with it. Not to mention some of the most awkward button presses that make some things impossible. 

Still by my math, we covered about half of the game so far, and looking at the achievement list, this game will require a guide to try and get various other achievements unlocked in future play throughs down the road.

We'll continue and problem finish Heavy Rain next Friday

Heavy Rain Trophies

• Happy Birthday: Prologue - Complete the drawing + Set the table + Play with kids
• Interactive Drama: Thank you for supporting Interactive Drama
• Private Eye: Sleazy Place - Lead Lauren to talk about her son
• White Knight: Sleazy Place - Beat Troy
• Negotiator: Hassan's Shop - Persuade the Robber to leave
• Lucky Locker: Lexington Station - Find the correct locker on first try
• Blunder: Nathaniel - Shoot Nathaniel
• Good Driver: The Bear - Complete the Bear Trial successfully
• Cat & Mouse: Covered Market - Beat Korda in the cold storage
• Tough Guy: Kramer's Party - Defeat Gordi's bodyguards
• Coward!: The Butterfly - Give up or fail the Butterfly Trial
• Good Cop: Shrink and Punches - Stop Blake from hitting Dupré

For the raid we dropped in on watchshouttv while Highlander was airing over on twitch.tv/watchshouttv

Thing on the agenda for Saturday include doing the dishes and laundry (though that can wait until Sunday). Also will try and get some writing done on a Mass Effect commission request that I started writing a few day ago.

The plan for tonight's stream is Street Fighter 6, we're going to do a lot of stuff in the World Tour to progress it story and work towards achievements. We might do some Fighting Ground matches as well.

So on that note we'll see you at about 7 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

A Positive Day On All Fronts

Hi everyone,

Thursday was all together a positive day as it relates to work, as we got an assignment that I could really sink my teeth into, with perfect pacing. I actually lost track of how many interviews I completed.

Speaking of completing, we finished our current playthrough of the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect, hitting level 56, which is actually 6 levels higher than the first play through of this version we did in 2020. The big difference was of course me jumping out of the Mako to fight enemies on the ground as often as possible. I suspect it is possible to hit level 60 in a single play through starting from scratch if you're willing to fight a thresher maw on the ground... which I'm not.

Now with this play through done, that leaves only doing a run using Garus and Liara for the majority of the missions, and playing as Adept in order to get all the achievements related to being a biotic.That will be challenging because of the lack of fire power options that will be available. But we'll worry about that when we get to it. 

Mass Effect Achievements

• First Aid Specialist: Use medi-gel 150 times
• Long Service Medal: Complete 2 Playthroughs

For the raid we dropped in on pradoxgamerau who was playing Diablo IV over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau, while it is a game I want to play, I'm going to wait until expansions start rolling out for it because I might as well get the most bang for the buck... and when guides are available to do everything.

Since Mass Effect is finished, we're going to move Street Fighter 6 into the Thursday night slot to focus on the World Tour mode and do head to head stuff. I already have 77% of the game's achievement unlocked (thanks to some off-stream gaming I've done since Saturday), and there are about 8 more achievements that I think are possible for me to unlock. We're still going to play Street Fighter 6 this Saturday

So that will free Saturdays, which raises the question of what will go on Saturdays. Folks have asked if I played Hallow Knight or any game in the Yakuza series... so those are contenders based on the chat and comments left on my YouTube channel. 

I saw that there will be a new spin off for Persona 5 that looks like a tactics style game, a genre that I've never played before. It looked kind of cute. Of course, there is also the news that Persona 3 is being remastered, and will come out in 2024. Which means I won't get to it until 2025 because I would still need to do a FemC run of Persona 3 Portable!

Also saw that there will be a new Sonic The Hedgehog game where up to four players can play, that seems like it would be a hoot! 

The plan for tonight's stream is to play Heavy Rain on the PlayStation 4, I have to remember to install it before the start of tonight's stream 

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! (Note Tonight's stream will start at 9:30 PM Eastern)

An Okay Day

Hi everyone,

Well the air quality sure was interesting today thanks to the fires up in Canada and the air particles making their way down to South Jersey, I will admit, I didn't smell them till probably about 9 PM Eastern.

Work was alright, getting the hours I could snag, getting one interview completed made me feel productive, which is also nice.

Started to go through some of my mom's dresser drawers to throw out obvious stuff like undergarments and socks, really was the first time in months I spent more than a couple of minutes in what was her room. It was... tough to say the least, as I fought the urge to cry.

The stream opened with Resident Evil 6, with Iceman along for the fun following a few difficulties in getting the party invite to work. We knocked out all of Leon's Campaign Chapter 3 in about an hour and the first two big sections of Chapter 4 (the airplane and the tyrant like thing). Since I'm playing as Helena, it means I get to do all the stuff the A.I. would do, which is kind of fun. 

Now we did have a few deaths,as being in the catacombs certainly leads to a lot of 'what the hell do we do' now moments. I could've done without the swimming section. The giant fish creature was kind of cool to deal with. We did discuss how RE6 was a bit to ambitious for its own good, but with how silly it can get, I'm really enjoying it.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Zombie Massacre: Defeat 500 zombies.
• Get on the Plane: Complete Chapter 3 in Leon's campaign.

After we were done Resident Evil 6, I jumped into Fall Guys in pursuite of the final achievement I need to get in that game, and if I understand some achievement guides correctly, if a Duo or Squad finishes in first place in race rounds via points it counts to the 20 first place finishes needed to get the final achievement unlocked. Here's hoping, as we were apart of a couple of squads that did finish in first place!

For the raid we dropped everyone off with tokushoutsu during the marathone of Ultraman 80 over at twitch.tv/tokushoutsu

The plan for Thursday night's stream is to finish Mass Effect, we have the back end of Noveria to do, and then it'll be off to Illos to the final push to wrap up this play through of the Xbox 360 version of the game.

So on that note we'll see you at 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Tartarus Grind In Persona 3 Portable Is Grindy!

Hi everyone,

As I get what hours of work I can get, I was able to feel productive getting two interviews done, however the clunky nature and trying to probe for answers with a script that limits what I can say certainly was a problem. Still at least we'll pick up some more hours this evening which leads to tonight's stream starting at 9:30 PM

Tuesday's Night stream of Persona 3 Portable most certainly was a grind as we spent several long grueling hours in Tartartus covering floors 164 to 214 for a total of 50 floors.... and the entire 5th block. This would not have been so bad if the floors didn't get huge, which meant I ended up just scrambling to find the stairs so that we could reach our designated goal. This also lead to five boss fights, and me trying to predict match ups while trying to level up all the companions equally... not to mention getting various fusions done to complete as much of the Compendium as possible.

Now despite all that grind, we did had another goal of reaching level 69 (nice) so that we could fuse Gabriel to boost him to get a needed skill to then try and go through a series of fusions to pass it to where it can be used in a fusion to create Lilith. Since we have a lot 'open night's' in game, this could end up being easy to do as far as grinding to get added levels, as all my remaining social links are all during the day.

We have reached the point in the story where Aigis is questioning the validity of her existence, so with no 'shadows' expected on the next Full Moon I suspect this will be the big push into the final arc of the game's disjointed story. 

Funny enough, this stream was the first Persona 3 Portable stream where no achievements were earned! I'm pretty shocked about that, but we have 26 of the 36 achievements, so we can't be too mad about that.

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood who was featuring Street Fighter 6 over at twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

The plan for tonight's stream, which again will start at 9:30 PM Eastern, is to play Resident Evil 6 with Iceman, knocking out Chapter 3 of Leon's campaign and then doing some Fall Guys to work towards the final achievement in that game.

So hope to see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

My Biggest Problem With Persona 3 Is The Story's Pacing

Hi everyone,

Monday was not fully what I was planing for, but it was an okay day on a few fronts. Did a bit of yard work, cutting branches on some trees that are interwoven with the fence (something my mom allowed over the years... so it's a bit of work). Also finished the AEW story and sent it off to the person who commissioned it. If they like it, it'll be up on the SubscribeStar page by the end of the week. 

This means I was able to move onto the next commission request for a Mass Effect story, getting the introduction and setup taken cared of with references to a much earlier chapter. I should have a fair time writing it as I have a good idea of what I would like to do with the characters involved.

The stream of Persona 3 Portable did indeed see us pick up in the middle of Taratus and it was most certainly a grind to cover a lot of ground to get to the 164th floor. There was a lot of back and forth to keep all the characters even in terms of levels outside of Yukari and Mitsuru, the later of which was needed to off-set the need to use ice skills to help keep a constant advantage.

The plot most certainly flew by as we covered both battles with Strega, the first against the male members of the trio and much later the one against Chidori, who is Junpei's love interest, who ends up dying in the end, sacrificing herself to revive Junpei after he is shot. It reminded me of the Star Trek episode 'The Empath', where Gem is in a position to use her abilities to heal McCoy from certain death. Still this at least gives some major motivation when it comes to what I'm guessing is a rematch against the other Strega members, since Junpei got the big anime yell moment.

But this does bring me to the plot of Persona 3, which in several ways is a follow up to elements I guess that happened in the original game or something in the Shin Megami Tensai universe, in the whole 'Bring About The Fall' plot, where we get Itkuski's betrayal, which would have been effective if it was timed to be actually at the end of the game, and the sudden introducing of Ryoji after the Death Arcana Social Link is completed. It really feels disjointed with the awkward pivot and focus.

Then comes Persona 3's other big problem in that you basically run out of things to do in the 'evening' portion of the game, unless you're going full bore to level grind wildly in Tartrus. If there was something I loved about Persona 5, its that there were enough Social Links only available in the evening hours to really make time fly by. 

Still I do know for tonight's stream we're pushing for another big Tartarus night with 50 floors to cover

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• Settled the Score: Defeat the Hanged Man.
• Bond Maniac: Max out 10 Social Links.

For the raid, we dropped in on MissCammi316 who was playing Overwatch 2 over on twitch.tv/misscammi316

Now the plan start time for tonight's stream is 9:30 PM Eastern, because I already committed to working what evening hours I could get Tuesday to Friday this week. If for some reason I end up starting earlier than 9:30 PM, then you know something went wrong with that.

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

Old friends from the Army & New Friends in Overwatch

Hi everyone,

Today was a good day, got to talk with a friend from my short military career for two hours super early this morning, talking about life, anime and all sorts of stuff.

Last night's stream of Overwatch was incredibly awesome, for one we ended up playing with a full team of five, big thanks to PandaSweet, Beefstwer, Xlilplayer and others for being apart of the fun tonight. I had seven plays of the game, but was only able to save five of them because only the top five plays are saved on the console side, while on the PC side I could hit a button to mark POTGs to be saved. Overall I had plays of the game as Ashe, Junker Queen, Bastion, D.va and Reinhardt, with other characters used including Tracer, Orisa, Zarya, Wrecking Ball, Torbjourn, Widowmaker and others.

Seriously, though once playing with a full squad is different than playing with randoms, because then I start focusing and worrying about my own play to make sure I fulfill the functions of my role, switching characters if certain match-ups aren't working. It really made for a rarely seen experience on stream where I'm blaming myself for some of the failures I'm having but at the same time I have a team that can have my back as I try to get the ball rolling.

We also picked up a achievements as D.va, as I continue to somehow get in this game at the randomness of moments.

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Shot Down: Prevent 1250 damage with a single use of D.va's Defense Matrix in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we dropped in on  princesspashley who was playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom over at twitch.tv/princesspashley and too much shock, she never heard the song Fire by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, but it did lead to a moment where she is battling out again an enemy that is spitting fire at her as the song is playing.

Got a lot of writing done on that AEW Commission request and picked up a couple of new followers on the SubscribeStar page, which is nice. I should have that story finished sometime on Monday.

Speaking of Monday I have a couple of goals I want to do, mostly taking the lawn trimmer out into the yard and giving that a once over, making some pasta for dinner the next couple of days.

Monday's stream might start at 9:30 PM Eastern if I see there are hours available, if not it'll start at 6:30 PM, since I haven't worked Mondays in quite a few years. For sure at this point Tuesday to Friday's streams will start at 9:30 PM Eastern.

And the agenda for Monday night will be resuming Persona 3 Portable, picking up from where we left off in Tarturus last Tuesday with the objective of getting to the needed floor and deadling with the next big boss battle, while putting us in position to deal with the next big story arc.

So on that note we'll see ya'll over at twitch.tv/fredcasden in the evening at either 6:30 PM or 9:30 PM