VGMaps
General Boards => Maps In Progress => Topic started by: KeyBlade999 on August 03, 2015, 07:28:01 am
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Hey, all! I'm the moron who broke the Pokemon maps listings earlier, yesterday. Made the suggestion to Jon that the Pokemon GS and Pokemon Crystal listings should be separated and it all blew up in his face. >_>
So, yeah, I've actually been making maps for quite some time (explaining my inconsistent-at-best quality), but only really joined VGMaps earlier this year ... or was it last year? Heck if I know. In any case, I've actually been a member of GameFAQs for much longer, which explains how some stuff ended up here, some there, leaving holes in various places, and it'll probably continue for a while like that until I get the motivation to go back and fill in holes. In any case, I'm also an FAQ author for there, which is actually my primary thing.
Following in the vein of FlyingArmor's topic, I'll go ahead and post the games I completed. (I've been on GameFAQs since 2009, so I barely knew of this site before then, which explains why so many I've done happened to be done here, too. It'll probably continue to be that way for a while, too, since I primarily contribute to GameFAQs anyways. 'Course, I did make full-sets for both GF and VGMaps despite not needing some on the GF-end of things, so maybe that'll continue instead. *shrugs*)
Completed Maps (GF-exclusives): (unmarked projects were completed prior to this post)
- Arcade: Vs. Super Mario Bros. [completed June 2016]
- FDS: Super Mario Brothers (1-1 - 8-1)
- GB: MegaMan: Dr. Wily's Revenge
- GB: MegaMan II
- GB: MegaMan III
- GB: MegaMan IV
- GB: MegaMan V
- GBC: MegaMan Xtreme
- GBC: MegaMan Xtreme 2
- NES/FC: Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun
- NES/FC: Final Fantasy II
- NES/FC: Holy Diver
- NES/FC: MegaMan
- NES/FC: MegaMan III
- NES/FC: MegaMan IV
- NES/FC: MegaMan V
- NES/FC: MegaMan VI
- NES/FC: Mr. Gimmick!
- NES/FC: Super Mario Bros. (just World -1)
- NES/FC: Xevious [completed November 2016]
- SMS: Bubble Bobble
- SMS: Marble Madness
- SMS: Pac-Mania
- SNES/SFC: Final Fantasy II (US)
- SNES/SFC: Final Fantasy VI (J) / Final Fantasy III (US) [Completed May 2016]
- SNES/SFC: MegaMan VII
- SNES/SFC: MegaMan X
- SNES/SFC: MegaMan X2
- SNES/SFC: MegaMan X3
- SNES/SFC: Rockman & Forte
- SNES/SFC: Soul Blazer
- SNES/SFC: Super Mario World [Completed July 2016]
- SNES/SFC: Terranigma
- Wii: MegaMan 9
- Wii: MegaMan 10
(Mostly) Completed Map Sets (VGMaps and GameFAQs): (unmarked projects were completed prior to this post)
- 3DS: Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight [completed March 2016]
- 3DS: Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
- Arcade: Vs. Clu Clu Land
- Arcade: Vs. Ice Climbers
- FDS: All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.
- FDS: Jikai Shounen Mettomag (minus one stage)
- FDS: Otocky (minus one stage)
- FDS: Seiken Psychocalibur: Maju no Mori Densetsu
- FDS: Sexy Invaders
- FDS: Super Mario Brothers (-1 - -3)
- GB: Asmik-kun World II
- GB: Block Kuzushi GB
- GB: Bomb Jack
- GB: Bomberman GB 3
- GB: Booby Boys
- GB: Crazy Burger
- GB: Faceball 2000
- GB: Karakuri Kengouden Musashi Lord
- GB: Penta Dragon
- GB: Pokemon Red/Blue Versions & Pocket Monsters Aka/Midori (one with some holes in it)
- GB: Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition (more holes >_>)
- GB: Tsume Go Series 1
- GBA: Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire Versions [completed November 2016]
- GBA e-Reader: Clu Clu Land
- GBC: Pokemon Crystal Version [completed April 2016]
- GBC: Pokemon Gold & Silver Versions
- NES/FC: Bio Force Ape
- NES/FC: Clu Clu Land
- NES/FC: Daikaijyu Deburasu
- NES/FC: Dancing Block(s)
- NES/FC: Dragon Buster II: Yami no Fuuin
- NES/FC: Dreamworld Pogie
- NES/FC: Elnark no Zaihou
- NES/FC: Koufuku o Yobu Game: Dora Dora Dora
- NES/FC: Majaventure: Mahjong Senki
- NES/FC: Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu
Incomplete Map Sets (VGMaps and GameFAQs): (unmarked projects were completed prior to this post)
- 3DS: HarmoKnight (overworlds, will not map more)
- 3DS: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (a solitary dungeon puzzle, will likely not return to this)
- 3DS: Paper Mario: Sticker Star (a couple of levels and an overworld, will not likely return to this)
- 3DS: Pokemon X/Y (a few areas, will complete later)
- 3DS: Star Fox 64 3D (a single level, nothing will be done beyond that by me >_>)
- GB: Dirty Racing (just the overworld, not the tracks, will not probably update since I can't map racing games for crap)
- GB: Godzilla (just the overworld, not much point in the individual stages being puzzle-platformer)
- GB: Hercules (just Stage 7, because this was before I got good, may update later)
- GB: Out of Gas (only one stage, since it was an old set, too; will likely update, since it needs it)
- GBA: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (just overworlds - I intend to go back and update with stages at some point)
- GBA: Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (much the same)
- NES/FC: Ninjara Hoi! (mostly covers dungeons, not everything)
- NES/FC: Sansara Naga (mostly covers dungeons, not everything)
- NES/FC: Super Mario Bros. 3 (mostly just overworlds, just filling in those holes)
- PS1: MegaMan Legends 2 (mostly to fill in a hole)
- SNES/SFC: Final Fantasy IV HardType (mostly to fill in holes)
- SNES/SFC: Final Fantasy V (mostly to fill in holes)
- SNES/SFC: The Illusion of Gaia (mostly to fill in holes)
Planned Future Projects: (these will almost certainly happen)
- GBA: Pokemon Emerald Versions
- GBA: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen Versions
- DS: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Versions
- DS: Pokemon Platinum Version
- DS: Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Versions
- DS: Pokemon Black/White Versions (though screwing with the camera might inhibit me)
- DS: Pokemon Black/White Versions 2 (^^)
- 3DS: Pokemon X/Y (maybe)
- 3DS: Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (maybe)
At least, that's as far as stuff for VGMaps would be concerned. There are a few games (okay, around 75 >_>) that I want to do for a number of consoles but most are probably already covered here so they'd be mostly stuff for GameFAQs. So I guess look at these as the "most important" ones.
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Hey, all! I'm the moron who broke the Pokemon maps listings earlier, yesterday. Made the suggestion to Jon that the Pokemon GS and Pokemon Crystal listings should be separated and it all blew up in his face. >_>
I don't know if that's quite how I'd put it. You are neither a moron and I wouldn't say the corrections I did "blew up" at any time. (Well, maybe some uploading hiccups, but it was still pretty much in control otherwise.) Sure, I was meaning to fix the Pokémon listings forever (well, maybe ten years, or maybe longer), and your submissions of the Yellow and Gold/Silver Versions (but as you stated, NOT Crystal...yet) made me figure now was finally the time to do it. Bulk renaming, finding and replacing, it wasn't that big of a deal, it's just one of those things (like many) that it's easy to procrastinate on and when I finally do it I wonder why I didn't do it earlier.
Anyway, the Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions' maps should now be up, as should all the other Pokémon maps with corrected filenames. If there're any issues with any Pokémon maps, let me know (though I'm sure I don't have to tell you that), as well as for any maps in general.
Looking forward to all your projects, KeyBlade999, including all the Pokémon ones. Though I've been a poor Pokémon fan lately...while I finished the initial story of Omega Ruby, I haven't ventured into the Delta episode yet. Between Y and Ω Ruby, I should have all 720 Pokémon (not including Volcanion since I don't think that's officially released yet), and yes, I do keep every phase of evolution, but I haven't gotten around to consolidating them into either of the games yet.
You've been here for a while now...or at least since the end of 2014/beginning of 2015, so a "welcome" seems late, but thanks for coming on board! It's great to have another mapper, and one so fond of RPGs. It's no secret that that's one of my favourite genres, at least when it comes to having maps.
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I don't know if that's quite how I'd put it. You are neither a moron and I wouldn't say the corrections I did "blew up" at any time. (Well, maybe some uploading hiccups, but it was still pretty much in control otherwise.)
I was just joking around; I have a weird sense of humor. XD I mean, I thought fixing the links would be more a matter of just removing the Crystal link and renaming the Pokemon G/S and R/B/G links, and thus didn't expect it to possibly cause misdirections when they had to be altered.
Looking forward to all your projects, KeyBlade999, including all the Pokémon ones. Though I've been a poor Pokémon fan lately...while I finished the initial story of Omega Ruby, I haven't ventured into the Delta episode yet. Between Y and Ω Ruby, I should have all 720 Pokémon (not including Volcanion since I don't think that's officially released yet), and yes, I do keep every phase of evolution, but I haven't gotten around to consolidating them into either of the games yet.
The Delta Episode in OR/AS makes it kinda-sorta all worth it, or at least it's the best segment of the game with perhaps the only legitimately-difficult battle in the game, maybe, not to mention a much heavier plot to it than the remainder of the game. Not that I don't understand; I've been having trouble getting my sister past the fourth Badge for anything but assuring her Pokemon obey her in VGC play. Still, short of X/Y, I would still say OR/AS are probably the worst core-series Pokemon games there, if just for the level of challenge presented to old pros ... as if it would be difficult to include a difficulty option.
And, no, Volcanion is not officially released yet, nor does it seem to be forthcoming (since they like to release those things with the movies, and Hoopa's JUST came out in Japan). Nice that you got a Hoopa, though; hard to find them outside of hackers/Japan. Arranging that Living Pokedex is probably the hardest bit of keeping one, though; I set mine up Summer 2014 and just sorting it took two days, and filling it about a few weeks beyond. I actually ran out of room for my shinies/competitive Pokemon. ;_;
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An update on EO2U: I've been making some maps (after finally getting around to typing out the tedious, tedious junk for the strategy guide) and getting some criticisms from the board. Here's a quick map of 1F, which will be pretty similar to my other maps for this game. What'cha ya'll think?
(https://i.imgur.com/64OFUvh.png)
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I'll second JonLeung and also welcome you to the board (if not the site because, wow, have you been contributing to it!) It's been so quiet lately, and I don't exclude my responsibility in this, and seeing a new face is always welcome.
As for your map, I'm really more a fan of maps that use game graphics (which isn't possible with many games including this one) but it seems complete and quite readable.
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I'll second JonLeung and also welcome you to the board (if not the site because, wow, have you been contributing to it!) It's been so quiet lately, and I don't exclude my responsibility in this, and seeing a new face is always welcome.
As for your map, I'm really more a fan of maps that use game graphics (which isn't possible with many games including this one) but it seems complete and quite readable.
I know, I'm much the same way, if just because screenshot-based maps can look pretty sexy when done right. But I don't have a 3DS emulator or capture software on-hand (yay for going to college, I can't hit up my techy friends so often) so I make do with what I have. Even if I were to take screenshots of my in-game maps, there's a lot to be desired even there, namely because of color contrast issues and other minor things; like the staircases, it's hard to tell which ones go up or down in the 3DS version, so I tried to design my map around alleviating such things.
I don't do non-screenshot maps often, though, so I'm still pretty inexperienced at it. EO is easy to manage, though, since it's basically a generic map grid and you put in pre-made icons where needed. I'll be pursuing FFVII for GameFAQs sometime soon (even if I went with screenshots, they don't like images above 350 KB, so hand-drawn maps are requisite for the job), so I'll be getting some good practice in there. lol
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Wow, you sure do have quite the lengthy resume!
To comment on the Etrian Odyssey maps, they are very well laid out and easy to read. The garish colours are not something I'm terribly fond of, but they certainly don't take away from the map's readability. The only thing I would point out to improve things would be that the blue tile which indicates the entrance to the labyrinth isn't very readable with the S coloured black. If it were white or cyan blue, then it would be far easier to read.
It's nice to see you take up Sansara Naga 2. I have yet to play that game in earnest, but have dabbled with it from time to time. I remember years ago trying to play it (back when my Japanese was far less competent) and trying to figure out how to get past that very first area you start out in. All the slangy Japanese didn't help either, haha.
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Wow, you sure do have quite the lengthy resume!
To comment on the Etrian Odyssey maps, they are very well laid out and easy to read. The garish colours are not something I'm terribly fond of, but they certainly don't take away from the map's readability. The only thing I would point out to improve things would be that the blue tile which indicates the entrance to the labyrinth isn't very readable with the S coloured black. If it were white or cyan blue, then it would be far easier to read.
It's nice to see you take up Sansara Naga 2. I have yet to play that game in earnest, but have dabbled with it from time to time. I remember years ago trying to play it (back when my Japanese was far less competent) and trying to figure out how to get past that very first area you start out in. All the slangy Japanese didn't help either, haha.
Would you mind clarifying on what you mean by "garish colors"? I'm still open to improving the color contrast, after all - just compare my first draft to my most recent and you'll see a lot of input for the EO2U boards on GameFAQs - though it'll get tedious starting around 9F, 10F, so I want to make sure these maps are as perfect as I can get them before getting far and having to redo everything. I've had some ideas in the past, like sort of making the Resource Point icons within a rounded rectangle within the grid square to get some green around them, but then that sort of looks like it'd overload the image on black colors.
The "S" thing, I'll look at fixing. That's a remnant from Persona Q and I guess I forgot to fix it since I did change some of the RBG values on a few of these between games.
As for Sansara Naga 2, it's still a bit of an iffy, like my Japanese is. >_> Still, I recall seeing a walkthrough up on GameFAQs when I saw the GBA compilation, so I might be able to manage somewhat. Plus, I liked the first one; kinda reminded me of Pokemon in a weird way.
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The reason I use the word "garish" is because many of the colours used are very pure and rather bright on the eyes. Although I first assumed that all the colours used had a colour depth of 4-bits (reminiscent of the colour palette found in the Windows 3.x operating system, for instance), I checked a number of them and they're not quite the same, although they are very close.
Just for fun, I made a modified version of one of your maps, changing a number of the colours to ones I would personally find a bit more pleasing to look at. Of course, this is the opinion of an artist talking here, so I would be a bit more stringent about such things as colour harmony, contrast, not allowing certain colours to dominate over others, etc. You're completely free to dismiss this nitpick of mine however. :) As I have said before, the maps are still very readable with the colours you have chosen.
If you need any help with the Japanese, I would be happy to lend a hand.　åÂ݋Â΋ÂÂã†望むãªらã€Â僕ã«手ä¼Âã‚ÂãÂ݋¦下ã•ã„ï¼Â
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The reason I use the word "garish" is because many of the colours used are very pure and rather bright on the eyes. Although I first assumed that all the colours used had a colour depth of 4-bits (reminiscent of the colour palette found in the Windows 3.x operating system, for instance), I checked a number of them and they're not quite the same, although they are very close.
Just for fun, I made a modified version of one of your maps, changing a number of the colours to ones I would personally find a bit more pleasing to look at. Of course, this is the opinion of an artist talking here, so I would be a bit more stringent about such things as colour harmony, contrast, not allowing certain colours to dominate over others, etc. You're completely free to dismiss this nitpick of mine however. :) As I have said before, the maps are still very readable with the colours you have chosen.
If you need any help with the Japanese, I would be happy to lend a hand.　åÂ݋Â΋ÂÂã†望むãªらã€Â僕ã«手ä¼Âã‚ÂãÂ݋¦下ã•ã„ï¼Â
I dunno why I have this thing about pure colors; I've always just liked to have pure values so they're more easily recognizeable as red, blue, whatever. Which is weird since I can still recognize them as that, even in the modern Windows Paint palettes (which are often more blended), but... *shrugs*
I did look at your alterations and while they did help the contrast with the dark-green a little they at the same time muddied the contrast with the gray background, which is there mostly because some people on the EO2U boards mentioned that a pure-white or pure-black background was a bit hard to look at regardless of the context. This is particularly important with the shortcuts, since they're very hidden, even in-game, so you sort of want those to pop out. Indeed, most of my decisions with the color contrast were for that reason: to make sure important features, like chests or FOEs, are actually very visible so they don't have to hunt intensely. (I've some other maps for EO that would basically place numbers alone near features - not like I do it, where I mark specific tiles - and it would be insanely hard to find the specific number. That's a flaw I'm trying to avoid like the plague.) That's why there's a lot of red-on-green, dark-on-light contrasting; since it attracts the reader's eyes, they know its there.
This all said and done, I have made some slight changes to the coloring.
- The dark-green was changed from a value of 108 in the RBG values to 128, or simply #008000. ... How I chose 108, I've no idea. Made it a little brighter in the end, seemed to help a little.
- The purple for Resource Points was lightened to more of a pink, mainly for keeping the Mine and Chop Points' icons visible.
- The blue for the labyrinth entrance was lightened as well, but I kept the "S" black, mostly for consistency issues and black was more visible.
You can sort of these in my 5F map (the "S" box being the one you cannot):
(https://i.imgur.com/cowSAM1.png)
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If you need any help with the Japanese, I would be happy to lend a hand.　åÂ݋Â΋ÂÂã†望むãªらã€Â僕ã«手ä¼Âã‚ÂãÂ݋¦下ã•ã„ï¼Â
It was about a week ago now that Pennywise and aishsha announced a translation project for SN2, which is nice. =D
Anyhow, mapping stuff. Still grinding on EO2U, finally making some progress. So far I'm up to 8F, and I've changed various points of the design a little yet again because of some elements needed for that map in particular. A prototype of it is below, though I don't foresee a need for changes. I should be getting on 9F tomorrow or Thursday. ... And 12F would mark 1/3 done. lol
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The shade of green used for the safe floor is easier on the eyes. However, the similar shade used for events and things of notes makes it harder to differentiate them from the safe floor. I mean, it's not a big problem but they tend to blur together with the rest instead of standing out. I feel like I'm nitpicking but I'm honestly just trying my best to have something to comment on.
P.S. I suck *hard* at color theory so take this post with a big grain of salt :P.
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The shade of green used for the safe floor is easier on the eyes. However, the similar shade used for events and things of notes makes it harder to differentiate them from the safe floor. I mean, it's not a big problem but they tend to blur together with the rest instead of standing out. I feel like I'm nitpicking but I'm honestly just trying my best to have something to comment on.
P.S. I suck *hard* at color theory so take this post with a big grain of salt :P.
I know, I've been having trouble finding a good balance between the "floor green", the "notifying green", and the "background gray". I kinda want the lighter shade of green, but any lighter and you begin adding red/blue to the color, and RBG make gray, which doesn't contrast with gray. GAH. I've debated switching colors altogether, but green is pretty much the standard "hey, it's safe to walk here" color in RPGs and in EO in particular, so it'd be weird to change that. The background gray is also pretty much necessary to keep it easy on the eyes, and it's almost in perfect contrast with the floor green (then again, my eyesight sucks). So that leaves the notification green, and that screws it up. Making it darker just looks weird to me, and making it brighter makes the contrast terrible. I could always make it altogether the same color (there's only a few shades' difference right now), and black-on-green is still pretty hard to miss.
You'd think a game that basically gives the map to you would be easier to map! XD
And don't worry, I know zilch about color theory. I just try to focus on the functionality of images (if it's usable, if it's usable, but it can always be more usable), so contrast and color variety and "intuitive" icons (like the up arrow for the upbound stairs) are big things for me whenever I can get 'em in. EO's one of those games where you'd have to focus on contrast (because there's so many colors) and intuitiveness (because you sometimes have to make your own icons) in particular. It makes for a weird mapping experience since a lot of games are essentially taking screenshots, stitching together in a sexy fashion (world maps, anyone?), and then poking stuff on them at the end of the day. You have to be pretty creative with games like this.
I think I've already sunk 100 hours into this game, and I'm not even 1/3 done. lol
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Eh, may as well post.
So, no, I'm not dead or anything. As I've been writing a guide for EO2U, in addition to making maps, things are going really, really, really slow. EO2U is pretty tedious to get everything down for, and it's not helped by a crowded college schedule. I have reached 14F, which means I'm more or less half-done.
I have been focusing moreso on Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (ãƒÂケモン超ä¸Âæ€Âè°ã®ダンジョン) since it launched in Japan last week. Grabbed the import from a buddy and simply began writing a guide for it instead, as a diversion from the growing monotony of EO2U. Nearly half-done with that project already. So ... yeah. Stuff.
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Still not dead, just figured I'd post again since it's almost been a month since my last one.
So, anyhow, looks like I'll be making a sort of map for Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, but it's a pretty massive one in scope. Basically, there's this Connection Orb thing that helps you create relationships with other Pokemon, and by creating relationships you unlock more potential relationships. PSMD is pretty neat in that it gives you a ton of freedom, so I've gotten a lot of requests to map it out for the sake of helping people get their fave Pokemon early.
Of course, the big difficulty is that the thing is a 3D sphere, not a 2D diagram, so I've been trying to figure out a way to simplify that. Probably just a simple bracketing system, sort of like what tourneys use, will be the main format. Then I've got to map out 720 Pokemon's interrelationships, make a system to help people find where that Pokemon is, and so on.
I'm nearly finished on the FAQ for it, too, at least until I redo the translations come November 20th, so I'll be able to get something done on EO2U eventually.
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Well. I THOUGHT I'd be able to get around to the Connection Orb, but my friend wanted Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon back. =/ Oh well, I've had it for over a month anyways. So I managed to get a bit of a head-start on mapping Final Fantasy VI for GameFAQs, which surprisingly has very few maps there, since I left my copy of EO2U at uni.
Now I managed to get back in my dorm and back into the swing of things. Just finished up 14F on the Labyrinth, which makes 16/35 maps complete. If you wanna look at it, it's below. I worked into the icier portions of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, as you can see. Brr...
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Agh, I FINALLY got past 15F in EO2U and the Frozen Stratum. I'm sick of the cold, I'm sick of this stratum because it echoes of nothing but bad memories for being delayed in completion for nearly a month. I'm particularly sick of icy puzzles, but ... agh, maybe I have a cold. >_>
In any case, 15F is complete and I'm officially past the halfway point after this weekend since I should finish up Ginnugagap B3F, 16F, maybe 17F (18~20/35 maps complete). Phew. 15F is below if anyone wants to check.
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Phew...
Yet ANOTHER Pokemon game released and delayed me hard. In this case, it was Pokemon Picross on the 3DS; admittedly one of the better freebie 3DS Pokemon titles as of late. The game is huge, with some 700 puzzles. I would've probably just done image-style solutions of them, but it was recommended that I just fill up tables with them since the FAQ system doesn't easily handle hundreds of images at once. So it ended up looking like this -- http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/183130-pokemon-picross/faqs/72634. Hypothetically speaking, one could always just screenshot those solutions or something, but it'd be tedious. May be easier just to link to it, if at all.
So, what's new? After spending some 3 weeks on that, I managed to get back to Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold, and this time without any perceivable delays in the near future. I finished mapping B3F, B4F, and 16F and writing most of their walkthroughs. Kinda lacking motivation at the moment because I'm suffering from an overload of projects I want to do. Gah.
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Gosh, I know what you mean about Pokémon Picross. I finished the main world and completed all the missions, working on the Alt-World a bit slower now, not as motivated, but still handy when I know I need to sit somewhere waiting for something. I play the main Pokémon series and generally don't bother with most of the spin-offs, but if they're puzzle games (like Trozei, Puzzle League, and Picross), I can't help myself.
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Oh my God, Trozei... Pokemon Battle Trozei was practically my Game of the Year for 2014, it was ridiculously addictive. It's a shame they tried ruining it when they basically ripped it off for Shuffle.
Can't say the same for the main games, though; X/Y and OR/AS were pretty disappointing; at this point, I'm only really playing them because writing FAQs for them is fun and because I play competitively (so I basically beat the story in 60 hours and never look at it again - got me 1300+ hours on X and over 600 on OR). Maybe whatever they'll release next - I'm personally predicting a Pokemon Red/Green reremake or Pokemon Z game for the anniversary - will actually address the flaws people continually mention with them, like difficulty. (Sure, they're trying to appeal more to kids, but it's not like they can't implement difficulty modes, but Game Freak doesn't accept feedback, last I checked their Japanese site. =/)
I should stop before I go on a rant. Needless to say, though, Generation VI has only impressed me with the stuff on the side.
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Semi-monthly update.
I've been grinding ever further on EO2U; my motivation is beginning to wane a bit because I keep encountering problems playing the game (namely having to redo floors every time my cart is suddenly left undetected mid-game >_<), but so far things have been going ... okay-ish, I suppose? Hard to say. It took me only a month to cover EOU, but now we're around 5.5 months in and only 2/3 done with EO2U, which is hardly more complex. Anyhow. I'll end up writing the walkthrough bit for my guide on 19F tonight, then I should be able to cover 20F by the weekend and finish off the 4th Stratum.
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I recently mapped out 21F on EO2U, so yay. >_>
That aside, I learned of yet ANOTHER localization thing that'll impede my eventual Poke-mapping projects.
Turns that the Japanese release of Pokemon Emerald has a slightly different layout for at least one of the Trick House puzzles, so I'm now obligated, whenever I get around to that game (after Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire) to play two versions of it.
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Irregularly-timed update ... uh, time. >_>
Finished up mapping 25F and B5F on EO2U, putting me at 30/35 completion (~86% completion). Kinda surprised I managed to clear the 5th Stratum THAT fast; it only took me about two weeks. I still have to write a walkthrough for B5F, though, but otherwise I should be able to start the 6th Stratum - the final five floors! - this weekend.
Thank God ... I'm like 50,000% DONE with this game. I mean, it's an awesome game and all, but writing an FAQ for it is beyond tedious this time around. I'm not sure if it's because of the transition to college life being hell on me or what, but unlike EOU and Persona Q, this game has taken significantly longer to cover with only similar levels of content. This is the sixth month since I've gotten it. By comparison, writing up the learnsets, EV yields, and all sorts of other anal crap for my Pokedex for Black/White 2 only took three months, and it's 4.5 MB of pure text. EO2U has single-handedly murdered much of my motivation for pretty much anything FAQ- or map-related. I can only hope I'll get done with this sometime soon...
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Pokémon Sun & Moon just got announced a few hours ago, so I now should add that to by ever-growing backlog.
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They were pretty much confirmed yesterday, only actually-officially today. That Pokémon-focused Nintendo Direct was a little disappointing, I would have thought they could at least have mentioned Detective Pikachu, Pokkén Tournament, Pokémon Go, Pokémon Z (if it's coming at all), and whatever other Pokémon-related news like the release of Volcanion, or the new animated movie, or something. Then again I had the sound off (I was watching it at work) but it could've added at least a few more seconds to flash some logos across the screen or something. Felt like a missed opportunity. And then for Pokémon Sun and Moon, not really much except for quick glimpses of people at work at the games and then the logos (which were already seen yesterday). Almost felt like they just wanted to say something quick because tomorrow (though I guess it already is tomorrow in Japan) is the 20th anniversary.
Nice to see you will be willing to map it if at all possible, but we don't even know when it's coming out...
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To be fair, logo and trademark leaks don't mean much. Pokemon Delta Emerald and Pokemon Grey were trademarked, as were stuff like Pokemon Amethyst and Pokemon Brown, so I was expecting another thing nothing would come of. Especially when a bunch of fake Twitter accounts disguised as the official Twitters for, example, Nintendo began spamming it around.
All we know is Holiday 2016 according to the US stream ("Late 2016" for the EU stream, "Winter 2016" in the Japanese stream) for the release, so I'm guessing just December outright.
But I didn't get anything I didn't expect. For six minutes, I was expecting a blurb about Pokemon RBGY (which I got - but did not expect the whole Bank thing, which means they probably patched the glitches which, while I understand, is still kinda mean because of how much a figure Missingno. is), and a blurb about a new game (was expecting Z, though). Detective Pikachu I'm honestly not sure if it'll make it to the US at this rate since the hype kinda died years ago, Pokken is pretty hyped already, as is Go, and Directs aren't usually used for the movies and stuff AFAIK. I am surprised to see Gen. VII (?) possibly introduced without a Pokemon Z or Delta Emerald, but Generation VI just didn't have enough realistic substance - particularly gameplay-wise - to appeal to me well, so I can't say I'm entirely upset to see Kalos go.
It's not like I'll be getting around to mapping them any time soon, though. I'm still stuck in the second Generation II because of this STUPID ETRIAN ODYSSEY GAME *smacks it with a bat*.
*sigh* At least the 6th Stratum in this game is SIGNIFICANTLY less of a chore. Because of how the navigation is handled, my walkthroughs for this will be mostly "look at the map I gave": there are almost no puzzles of any note!
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I wasn't really expecting a Pokémon: Delta Emerald... (That reminds me, I haven't touched Pokémon: Omega Ruby since seeing that creepy Delta logo or whatever at the end of the main story...should probably get back to that, and reconsolidating all my Pokémon into either that and/or Pokémon Y...) Reason being that there wasn't ever a third version of the remakes - or a remake of the third version (ElectricYellow (or even WaterBlue), and no MindCrystal (or BodyCrystal?)). Not to say patterns couldn't change, of course, since there was no expected "Grey Version" but rather "Black Version 2" and "White Version 2". Wonder if there's going to be a Diamond/Pearl remake. Would seem unnecessary given that 3DSes can play DS games, though if the NX is a portable, or whatever the next portable is, we might assume they have 3DS backwards compatibility (though again, maybe we shouldn't assume), though it'd be unsurprising to not have DS support.
But yes, the lack of "Pokémon Z" is surprising, especially since the latest anime season is called "XYZ" with a big green Z, and Zygarde is very obviously the next cover Pokémon after X's Xerneas and Y's Yvetal.
But with the constant rumours and speculation that the NX (if it is a console) is coming out this year instead of next (breaking the five-year pattern by having an "only" four-year life) - and I don't know if this is related to Nintendo having a new president or not, but I think anything Nintendo does moving forward could be different than what we'd typically expect.
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Time for an irregularly-timed update.
STILL working on EO2U. I got caught up in a roleplaying game I'm hosting on GameFAQs, so it's been eating my time. I just finished my map for 29F, which means I have the walkthrough for 29F (minor stuff) plus 30F's map and walkthrough and a few trivial details before I can consider myself done.
Finally... It's been seven long months and I can firmly say I am (probably) never making a guide for Etrian Odyssey ever again. I've clocked over 250 hours on ONE playthrough of this thus far and spent far too long in making it (nearly my entire freshman year of college). Longer than any other guide, and probably my most tedious, most involved project. But it looks like I might be able to finish it this weekend at long last. Which means you'll finally get some maps from me, Jon. Probably not my best work, but still an improvement over my Persona Q format.
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So, what comes next...? That, I'm not sure. I was thinking Momotarou Densetsu Gaiden from the Famicom, writing a walkthrough and guide for it ... or maybe making maps of FFVI for GameFAQs that I already started ... or making maps for Pokemon Crystal Version. Hm...
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So. New project decided: Pokemon Crystal Version (GBC).
Started it up tonight and got most everything situated. Attached is my first map of ~110 for the game: New Bark Town. Also tried out the idea of implementing a wild-encounters table, which is there as well.
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YES! Something I've always said is lacking!
Before you get hugely far, can I suggest you try it with an image of the Pokémon, as well as the name? It would be quicker to find stuff, maybe. If it doesn't crowd it too much. At least give it a shot, if you could.
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It's not something that'd work with Generation II - the only sprites small enough to actually fit are the menu sprites. Otherwise, I'd have to use the full-body sprites like in the Summary screen, which are simply too big. The generic sprites can be a bit of a problem. The attached screenshot, for example, shows the sprites of several Pokemon: not many are distinct from each other, and are presumably grouped by body type. (Fun fact: That's my endgame team from when I mapped Gold/Silver.)
I'll probably end up doing it when I get around to Ruby/Sapphire though, whenever that will be, since the sprites in the menus in Generation III onward are small yet actually distinct.
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Ah, right. I think I was initially thinking more along the lines of how they look in the battle scenes (or Pokédex entries) but yeah, I guess that would be too big.
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WTF...must be when I clicked on something about the character set...but I'm seeing all instances of "Pokémon" appearing as "Pokémon"... >_<
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Yeah, I'm seeing it too. XD
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Heh... it's been one hell of an interesting past couple of weeks on the personal life end of things. Things have gone to hell in some respects, and in others it's been better than ever, it's weird. I think it might be going for the overall positive though, and there's one more thing to add to that...
At long (ish) last, Pokemon Crystal Version is complete!
Compressing the set of 123 maps right now (mostly so I can get them up on GameFAQs), and then I'll be emailing them right to ya Jon.
... And then I need to get some sleep. It's like 6:00 AM here. Thank Arceus it's my day off from class... :)
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So, an update.
Lately, I've been mostly poking at a hole in the coverage on GameFAQs - Final Fantasy III/VI (SNES/SFC). Recently finished up those maps. It was nice to replay, been some years since I touched it.
So, what's next?
It'll be maps for Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Versions (GBA)!
This will be a cool project to finally pursue for several reasons. Firstly, the nostalgia. Sapphire was my first Pokemon game, and it's sadly been quite some time since I've played the Hoenn games.
Secondly, this will actually be a bit of a birthday gift for my best friend. Turns out, when we met through GameFAQs, she had a bit of a crush on me because of my FAQs and stuff. She recently sent some meaningful stuff for my birthday (namely an awesome picture of Shiny Charizard - my fave Pokémon - she drew and an Espeon/Umbreon T-shirt to match hers), so I figured I could return the favor. Since she loves my guides and maps, and is really into Pokémon (Hoenn and Sinnoh namely), and is an artist in her own right, what better gift for my broke ass to give her than detailed maps of one of her favorite games, a rather beautiful one no less?
... Sounds cheesy still, I guess, but at least it won't be the only thing I'll do and this will at least get me doing it.
Granted, I won't be starting for a bit, so I can cool down from FFVI, but I have two months to finish so I'd better get on it.
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... WOOOOW the past few months have been rough on this project. >_>
Had an extreme falling out with the (now ex) best friend I was doing the maps for. (Probably best if I spare you the convoluted details there, it's beyond freaking crazy.) We've since gotten back on ... better terms but I don't think we're anywhere near as close as we were before. That's probably for the better though.
In the meantime, my motivation was absolutely shot for the project; I guess that's what I get for giving a project a more emotional attachment. My current best friend was able to kick my ass into getting some stuff done though; I ended up mapping a couple of games in June and July (nothing not already covered here though) thanks to her.
My motivation on Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire is still pretty shot though. It's been hard as hell to keep going with this because of just how bad the memories are that keep getting brought up. Ironically though I've started writing a fanfiction that kinda-sorta follows the general course of my playthroughs and that's strangely driven up my motivation again to map. Insofar I've just beaten the fifth Gym and - bar a few areas I'll need to one day backtrack to complete - I'm nearly forty maps in.
Still ... wow. I thought Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold was a hellish project but this was nothing short of a nightmare. Hopefully I can put Hoenn or the memories one behind me soon.
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Sorry to hear about your (ex) best friend. It's common knowledge that doing business with friends is usually a bad idea but having the same thing happen over a hobby? That really sucks and you have my sympathy. I'm impressed you managed to keep mapping other games in the mean time and hopefully that will help with your motivation. I guess all I can say is take of yourself :-[.
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It's always hard to hear about friends that struggle over something that might otherwise be trivial or at least shouldn't be a big deal (I would know, it's happened to me) but that for whatever reason it comes at the wrong time, or the wrong thing was said, or the emotions were set a certain way and the molehill becomes a mountain, or a crack becomes a crevasse, or whatever.
I don't know the circumstances of your issues (and you don't have to share more than you want to, of course) but I hope that you don't overassociate your projects with particular situations. Obviously if it's that bad it can be hard to dissociate things, as you may not be able to keep yourself from being reminded about what happened.
But at the end of the day, probably no one NEEDS the maps you were working on, or at least it's certainly not worth your emotional well-being. Or on the flipside, if you really want to finish the maps to get all of that behind you, perhaps you can find another person who also really wants them or another reason like that to displace your original intent. I can see how that might be one of those easier-said-than-done things, but might be worth a try.
I mean, if we're talking about Pokémon: Ruby and Sapphire Versions, like seriously, lots of people will want them, not just your friend. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the latest games, are based on these, so they're kind of current, too. Trust me, they'll be appreciated.
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It's always hard to hear about friends that struggle over something that might otherwise be trivial or at least shouldn't be a big deal (I would know, it's happened to me) but that for whatever reason it comes at the wrong time, or the wrong thing was said, or the emotions were set a certain way and the molehill becomes a mountain, or a crack becomes a crevasse, or whatever.
It was definitely nothing minor, I will say that much. As much hell as the two of us have been through it was take more than the trivial to break the two of us up, I'd think. Like I said, we were best friends at the time; in certain regards neither of us would be alive if it wasn't for the other.
But at the end of the day, probably no one NEEDS the maps you were working on, or at least it's certainly not worth your emotional well-being. Or on the flipside, if you really want to finish the maps to get all of that behind you, perhaps you can find another person who also really wants them or another reason like that to displace your original intent. I can see how that might be one of those easier-said-than-done things, but might be worth a try.
Perhaps, but I can't think of anyone I'm close to who'd be interested other than my sister, and she's more into Emerald and the remakes as opposed to Ruby & Sapphire. My boyfriend maybe, but he's more of a Digimon person. Plus it'd almost feel like regifting something (probably not the right verb but I think it makes my point clear) and that almost feels dirty to me, you know?
I mean, if we're talking about Pokémon: Ruby and Sapphire Versions, like seriously, lots of people will want them, not just your friend. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the latest games, are based on these, so they're kind of current, too. Trust me, they'll be appreciated.
I know; that was one of the reservations I had about actually doing them as a sort of present (since they in the end wouldn't have been for just her but pretty much everyone, and that on top of the fact that I was pretty much going to do them at some point). I mean ... I wanted to do something only *I* could do, something that would be *just* for her, but that was the best I could think of doing. So I guess when I settled on the project idea it was like I was doing more for her than for anyone else, selfish as that seems.
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Well, I guess it's been about two months, time to check in.
College, as last year, is proving to be the biggest hurdle to getting anything done; not much time for anything these days. Still, things are getting better. Me and aforementioned best friend are back together - though the rationality of the idea still bugs me. Even so, we've only hit a few bumps in our friendship and we're both managing to better ourselves and get past them. (I guess it bugs me simply because of how much we've been through as well as ... well, she's a very depressed person, to say the least, and it's serious enough for me to think almost that me leaving her permanently would likely result in her doing some significant harm to herself. ... But I mean, heck, we like each other, right? That's reason enough to stick by each other's side.)
Given everything I'm seeing from her, the events that originally sank me into that depression will almost likely never happen again. (I'll spare the long story ... heh, I could write a whole book on the entire thing. >_>)
Not much of anything has been getting done. I have done some work for Pokemon Sun & Moon's pending release; mostly a quick guide for the demo and some other stuff in preparation for the full release in a few weeks. I did also get some more work finished on Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire - insofar I'm just about done with a good chunk of everything up to Mossdeep, bar a few finicky things, so that's good. "Too much water" is definitely a thing, though; I'll be glad to be done with the ocean areas when it happens.
Ideally I'll finish Ruby & Sapphire just before Sun & Moon launches, but I honestly don't know. I'd planned it done three months ago. >_>
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And I finally have finished Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Versions! ^_^;;
Truth be told, I'm surprised at how many maps were in the set - 95. (I originally counted 94 but then I realized that, of all things, I forgot Sky-freaking-Pillar. XD I weirdly did the same thing last time with Crystal, where I forgot the Whirl Islands.) That's nearly double what I had from Kanto in any of the previous times I mapped that region, so it's pretty strange.
But it's nice to have this Mankey off my back at long last. Now I can focus more wholly on Pokemon Sun & Moon when it releases. (Well, a guide for it. Though the Rotom Pokedex seems to implement a sort of map it's not something I'll be pursuing for the time being because I'll be focusing more on a walkthrough for the time being.)
... still ... what. A. Project. I ... really didn't expect things to go as they did with this thing. A project I expected to have done before the summer's end ended up going three months overdue. And it all stems from bad stuff I'd rather be able to forget, all sorts of bad drama, bad emotions, and a bad time in my life. Maybe with this I'll have cut one more tie to that drama and be one step closer to just moving on and eventually forgetting everything that happened that ill-fated June.
But man... Just... Screw 2016. Just easily the worst year of my life so far. Family life, personal life, friends' lives, everything going down the drain; my grades dropping, my motivation slipping... Geez. >_>
Only two more months at least - maybe the new year will bring a clean slate and everything can go back to being good again.
...heh, sorry, didn't mean to leave a bleeding-heart type of post. Just ... there's a lot of stuff tied up in this one project, all sorts of good and bad. I mean, it's weird on the face of it, but I've this strange tendency to attach memories to some of my projects (FAQs and maps alike). Like, I can look at that one real bad fever I had some years ago and remember that I started writing my FFVI Advance guide when I fell that ill; or I can look at my EO2U guide and maps and see so ... so much of my freshman year of college fly by. I look at these maps and ... all I can see is her, and how she unintentionally messed me up for most of the entire summer; see how I've struggled so far this year to do everything I would have otherwise excelled at; see how close, she, I, and others have come to being pushed off the edge...
In a sense I almost want to delete the maps because then ... at least I don't have to relive those memories ever again. I've relived them all too many hundreds, thousands of times by now, probably. Or at the very least, I'd be putting a stop on one means of doing so.
But then, it's like... this maps will be helping so many people beyond myself. Not only would my friend want that, but isn't that help worth suffering just a little more?
... I don't know where I was going with this, I got ... waaaaaay too deep there. I said I won't leave a bleeding-heart kind of post, so I'll shut up now.
So, anyhow, next projects.
I will only be pursuing small-scale projects for the time being, and likely most on GameFAQs, until Pokemon Sun & Moon release. You know, projects that only take a day or two to complete, mostly just filling in holes in their coverage and giving myself something to do now that I have a skeleton for the guide.
I don't have any particularly big projects planned at the time. Honestly I want a break from GBA Pokemon because just ... damn, the Braille. I mean, it's funny, but that's the part I hated most about these maps, the damn Braille. So I don't know what other projects I might pursue in the meantime. I have a list of like 70+ games I could work on though so it's not like I'll have an absence of projects, but with Sun & Moon releasing in 11 days I doubt I want any kind of big RPG project. So I'll likely mostly stick to platformers, maybe? IIRC, GameFAQs doesn't have Sonic maps, so I might look into that. Or maybe some of their Satellaview games.
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As always, thank you for your contributions, KeyBlade999. Not sure what to say about the drama surrounding this latest work of yours but since it is done I am glad you are allowing them to be of help to others rather than deleting them, and it sounds like you will eventually move on with your life and other projects.
Regarding the maps themselves, I find that one Victory Road map where the European one has an extremely subtle difference rather interesting. Hmmm. Europe doesn't like the one-way ledge?
And if you are looking for a project like a quick platformer...Kirby's Adventure on the NES is the last of the games on the NES Classic Edition (which everyone calls the NES Mini) which is not fully mapped...just saying. ;P It comes out this Friday so it may be a bit of a rush, but even if not by then, I still think it would be pretty cool to have that entire mini-retro console completely mapped sooner rather than later. If you're up for it, of course. After the last project it sounds like you really should do what you want to do.
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Yeah, that Victory Road change was weird. Supposed to cut backtracking down...but it's not that much to begin with. :/
I will look into Kirby's Adventure; if nothing else a friend of mine would get a kick out of it. No promises though.
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Will Mallia has resumed mapping Kirby's Adventure, so maybe don't get into that if there's going to be redundant effort...
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Ah, okay. Yeah, I probably won't then. He should probably take it over anyhow; me and a friend are getting REALLY deep on this Pokemon Sun & Moon stuff. (The review copies came out and got datamined so she and I have been parsing through that since ... ironically pretty much the day after I took on the project. =P)
I might do it for GameFAQs' sake but it's honestly pretty low-priority now because of this. Which is fine by me, I think I'm more in the mood for RPGs, but it's not like I'll be touching any until I'm done with Sun & Moon anyhow. =P
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Absolutely. You do what you want to do.
I'm so behind on my games as it is, but I'm looking forward to Pokémon Sun/Moon. Not sure which one to play yet. Between me and my brother, we get both in every generation, and each of us plays one, so we can get them all. It's less of a necessity now with online trading, but whatever.
I've been hankering for a new JRPG, especially Pokémon... Sure, I've been playing Pokémon GO but that's not an RPG, and I only just recently finished Final Fantasy XIII but (besides not being Pokémon) it didn't feel open enough until near the end, and then it was just about "Missions", and the placement of them was all rather arbitrary and didn't feel as satisfying as other sidequests in other games. I heard XIII-2 is better and even has some kind of Pokémon aspect, but when I feel like some Pokémon action, nothing beats the real main series games. It'll be interesting to see how many people get into it just because of Pokémon GO and if they enjoy it or not because it's substantially meatier. I find it strange/interesting when YouTubers that are clearly Nintendo fans, like iJustine or obe1plays somehow didn't get into Pokémon at all until GO, but plan to pick up Sun/Moon; hopefully, there will be some interesting videos out of their first non-GO Pokémon experiences.
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Well, I loved the heck out of Sun and Moon at least.
Anyhow, not a ton has happened since I finished working on it, mostly just writing quick guides for some simpler games. I'll be starting on Spud's Adventure soon and I'll be making maps for it, so that's something.
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Four months later - what's happened?
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Absolutely nothing. >_>
My motivation to make maps for Spud's Adventure dropped dead. I managed to finish up the first dungeon map but I am just not feeling it. The game's fun and all but I have zero motivation to do much of ... well, anything lately. Been that way for a while, been dealing with a lot of crap from my parents' divorce and I guess I'm starting to crack. :(
Not sure what mapping project I'll pursue next, if any at all for the foreseeable future...
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For some reason I've noticed there's some kind of overall "downed"ness with everyone around me lately. And yet from different groups of people. Whether it's all my real-life friends being too busy or not in the mood to do stuff, my own general apathy, or a number of "regular"/consistent VGMaps mappers having very decreased outputs in the past half-year or so, there's something going on. Or maybe it's a huge coincidence since I can't imagine why everyone would be affected simultaneously by any one thing. I could understand if it was seasonal, but we're a full month into spring! (Except around here, where the Edmonton area's been hit with lots of winter-level snow this past week.)
Not to downplay your own personal struggles, but we're all human, and we have our ups and downs. Know what's important and deal with that. VGMaps should still be around when you get around to more maps, if you do.