fixation – THE.YANG.ONE

In Gaming

God of War: Ragnarok

Title: God of War: Ragnarok (Video Game)
Release: November 2022
Genre: Adventure, Role-playing

All I can say is that it is a masterpiece in its every right. It’s the usual hack-and-slash with the chaos blade, axe and spear but God of War is more than that because it wins with the storytelling and the graphics are superb as always. Don’t take my word for it since I’ve always been a fan of the franchise and I just want to talk about how epic this game was to play through.

Gameplay

The graphics is superb! If you’re prone to motion sickness though you can change the settings but once you start the game there is no way in Helheim you’re going to stop. Upon writing this review I just finished the main storyline but there is still so much to do. I’m not sure how long this will take me to complete but I am determined to go for even 99%. There are so much things to do from the side quests like puzzles, hack and slashing enemies, and even retrieving mysterious orbs for a special mutt. Oh, how I love the amount of dog love here.

The whole game was all about the cutscenes that it felt like I was watching the most interactive movie.

Story

The character development is quite complex for such a short span of time. The whole story was exhilarating, fascinating, heartbreaking, and bittersweet, oh gosh it made me feel so many feelings while playing. It’s actually centred around a father-son relationship. You’d expect it to be all about revenge like the previous franchise but this one is all about becoming a better person and being yourself which was adorable. You get to experience the various perspectives of being an adult and a growing young boy. So much was put into this, I applaud Santa Monica which is a job excellently done.

Conclusion

With its visually stunning graphics and emotionally charged storyline. Kratos took 20 years to make and as he ages, so does the depth of the story. This time he’s a father wisened by age and experience and yet still powerful with his OP weapons. I don’t want this story to end and I hope I see more of Atreus and their adventures. I don’t want to spoil but dang is it getting really hard to not spill the beans at the end. Santa Monica I am still and will always be a fan of this franchise.

In Gaming

Pokemon Violet

Title: Pokemon Violet (Video Game)
Release: November 2022
Genre: Adventure, Role-playing

Play it on Nintendo Switch

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the newest chapters in the Pokemon series. Both are available on the Nintendo Switch console. This is what I’ve been up to lately and it’s video game time with the latest release from the Pokemon franchise. It’s *insert badly sounding Japanese accent* Poketo Monsta Scarleto Violeto *coughs *coughs

Okay, first of all, the best thing about it is that it’s literally a wide-open world at your own pace. Battle and try to catch wild Pokémon, and encounter the Legendary Pokémon Koraidon in the Pokémon Scarlet game while it’s Miraidon for the Violet game. I bought myself a copy of violet as it is no surprise to all that I love this color. Haha.

The location is inspired by Mediterranean Spain which is pretty beautiful. It kind of reminds me of Zelda’s Breath of The Wild. The cities are also food-centric! Your character can dine in really luscious-looking cuisine. *stomach grumbles* The special thing about this version is that you get to create your own sandwiches which your pokemon can have the benefit of getting temporary higher stats.

There are so many new pokemon to catch and a couple of legendaries as well. The side quests are innumerable. There’s the usual battling in the gym to earn badges and then the Elite four which is usual for all pokemon games. This time, there’s another quest like the Herba Mystica which earns you skills for your “motorcycle” pokemon. I quite enjoyed following this storyline. There’s Team Star to defeat which also has a cute background story. I’m still in the process of defeating the last-standing Eri with her fighting type. Also, let’s not forget the most exciting part about this game is that you can play up to maximum of 4 friends together! You get to meet them in the same world! The consequence for this is that it does get rather competitive on shiny hunts.

The graphics are unbelievable as well compared to the previous games. The details such as the sparkling water and sun flares caught me off guard. I loved the detail on that. I’m also glad that the wild pokemon aren’t as aggressive compared to that of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. My character kept on running for dear life with that game.

Oh yeah, aside from a couple of new pokemon. There is a new feature for them too and this is the Terastallization power. Before it was the Z-moves, mega evolutions, and dual typing. This time some special pokemon turn into a sort of crystal counterpart of themselves while turning and with a different typing (mind you this is temporary after 3 hits or when you put them in the red zone) and they change their typing totally (Fighting Raichu anyone?)

Now I’m going to put all the pros and cons in a nutshell below to the best of my abilities.

PROS

Improved graphics compared to the previous versions. You can interact with Pokemon better.
Open world. Go anywhere, start at any location, just don’t start with areas that require higher pokemon levels than yours
More options. You can choose not to battle other players in the wild. Modern Pokemon games are getting easier over time and I’m not sure if its a pro though. :/
Poke-portal! Yes you can actually play with your friends this time but its going to get pretty challenging during shiny hunts.
Better storylines. I loved the backstory to every mission. Pokedex details include. Iyknyk
Content. There’s so much things you can do! Like making sandwiches, minigames, exploring the terrain, shiny hunting and a couple of secret zones. Definitely fun.

CONS

Horrible Frame Rate. At the moment, there have been improvements on this but they really need to improve this issue big time. It usually happens when you’re in towns. The frame rate was horrible at first. The lag was very noticeable during the first few days of release but they have made improvements. I’m hoping it improves in time!
Miraidon Lags. Yeah my Miraidon suddenly does weird actions in various places like diving on a mountain.
No character customization. they removed this feature and what made it worse was you can’t change your uniform. You only get to choose between four different school outfits and you cannot change anything about it or the colors. You can purchase the bag, hats, gloves, etc. Just not your uniform.
Bad Pokemon Design. I’m just saying some of them were really made without effort. LIKE A FLAMINGO.srsly?

So yeah! That’s about it for now. I’ll be updating this once in a while if I find anything worth sharing. I might stream my shiny hunts in the future, only if you want to watch me strain, heave, be excited and react to my future pokemon adventures. At the time of posting I am currently playing a total of 45 gaming hours. It’s not much but the hours are getting longer haha.

In Shows

Supernatural Series (2005-2020)

Title: Supernatural (TV Series)
Seasons: 15
Episodes: 327
Genre: Horror, Supernatural Drama, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

Watch it on Prime Video, Youtube

I have decided to rewatch this well loved series to hype myself up on the upcoming prequel series, The Winchesters. I’ll try to make this as short as possible because I have a huge feeling you’re quite familiar with Sam and Dean since these brothers have been hugely popular. during the mid 2000’s. I also stopped watching this mid season 7 so I’m going to update this review once I finish the whole series.

Supernatural is an American dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke (The Boys director). The story is centered around two brothers Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki). Now both of them call themselves hunters. But they hunt the paranormal. It’s a different monster of the day for each episode but there is of course a main storyline.

They grew up becoming hunters since their father was one as well. We also find out on the first episode that their mom died under very mysterious fiery circumstances. Their father is on the hunt to avenge the creature that killed their mother while both brothers follow his footsteps.

Now for the drama part. Dean and Sam are quite the character. They have very polar personalities but because of that they get along pretty well and work together by combining both brawn and wit. There’s some humour in the mix and of course every episode is action packed since well, they’re battling monsters every single time. There’s ghosts, demons, possessions, angels and among other things.

In Shows

Goosebumps TV Series (1995)

Title: Goosebumps (TV Series)
Seasons: 4
Episodes: 42
Genre: Horror, Anthology, Supernatural, Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Fantasy Comedy, Drama

Watch it on Netflix, Youtube

Reader beware you're in for a scare...

R.L. Stine

I’m watching this show from the perspective of a Goosebumps fan since childhood and a 30’s something year old woman. The books were especially my favorite and the series which aired every Sunday morning as a kid was something I look forward to.

I never put any high expectations from the very first episode seeing as this is a 90’s kids show and digital effects wasn’t used that much. I started to bingewatch on this a sort of background music while I got to work on the laptop. I know I could watch something else better but hey, I wanted to revisit childhood memories and see how funny it was now that my tastes have drastically changed.

90’s Kids Nostalgia

The story per episode in itself has always been quick witted and directed at kids. The protagonists have always been pre pubescent with silly decisions but in the end there’s always a twist with them turning into semi-antagonists. They turn out to be monsters themselves or learn to live with one just like that of the monster sponge called a Grool from It Came From Beneath the Sink! Overall they’re likeable enough to keep on watching. Just don’t expect the acting to be really dramatic. There were some parts that made me cringe but hey I just had to keep reminding myself that its a 90’s kids horror show.

Ramblings

It’s not really that scary. Not sure how some people thought that it was traumatic for some considering there were so many horrifying gory films in the 90’s unfiltered. I wonder how R.L. Stine is doing now? His books have been a hit that its become a huge franchise! Did you watch the movie versions? Slappy has always been a classic. I’m still watching it but so far I liked the twisted ending on The Girl Who Cried Monster.

Overall, it’s a nice 90’s series. Quite nostalgic at the most. I can’t wait for the reboot!

In Books

Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope

288 pages
Title: Everything is F*cked
Author: Mark Manson
Genre: Self-Help
Published: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 0062955934

Available in Hardcover, Softcover, Audiobook and Ebooks

So, instead of looking for hope, try this: Don't hope. Don't despair, either. In fact, don't deign to believe you know anything. It's that assumption of knowing with such blind, fervent, emotional certainty that gets us into these kinds of pickles in the first place. Don't hope for better. Just be better. Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined. Be a better human.

Mark Manson

Disclaimer: As of this date I have not yet read his first book so I am reading this book with a fresh pair of eyes and no bias. Talk about my first book review in this site.

This book you might say may sound like a compilation of editorial posts per chapter. Basing from the title itself it pretty much sums up life through the eyes of a nihilist. The irony of seeing optimism through insightful ramblings apathy. It’s best to read this in a state of profound…blah.

I learned some good noggin nuggets about emotions, feelings, philosophies and a couple of cliches. Some would say this book contains so many ramblings which I agree to that but if you sift through them, the ideas are there. Mark’s writing is straightforward and quite easy to comprehend. It’s not a surprise a lot of people went their way to read this, aside from the eye-catching title.

Mark Manson discusses different topics ranging from history like what happened with the burning monk Thích Quảng Đứ and even Newton’s Laws. His analogies are very easy to understand and follow.

You either love or hate this book. There is nothing in between.

Pain is the Universal Constant.

Mark Manson

In Tutorials

Tie Dye Day

I decided to learn how to tie dye some shirts today. So yeah, this is my very first time to try this out and I just wanna tell you first and foremost is that I am no expert in this field and I’m sure not surprised I may have done something wrong here but what the heck at least I tried! I’m doing the spiral tie dye technique for all five shirts. This took me a while to get the hang of the twisting and turning. I used 2 nail to pinch the center of the shirts.

I measured the soda ash before I dissolve it to the water. So they’ll be soaked in this solution for a whole day. After that, I just mixing up the dye to a little of water each. I got the color golden yellow, turquoise blue and rose red. Pretty much the primary colors if you think about it so you can easily combine them to a variety of hues. This was the messy part. Looks like I just killed a rainbow. Tie dyeing is definitely a messy process and since I’m still new to this, well double the mess lol.

Now to actually do the dyeing! This was prolly the most easiest part and I made mine into a shade of blue. Now we gotta bag these up to cure for 24 hours yet again and see the final result tomorrow!

Not bad eh? I’m going to have to take note to use a different shade of yellow and get a the color green. I loved how my blue shirt turned out!

If you have any tie dyeing tips you wanna share, just comment them below because that would mean a lot! Thank you all for watching and I hope you enjoyed this episode of what I did today! Oh, and if you still got more time to kill, try watching my pants patching video.

In Lifestyle

Doki Doki Subscription Box

WHAT IS THIS CUTE BOX AND HOW CAN I GET MYSELF ONE?

Doki Doki Box is a subscription box by Japan Crate which offers the unique experience of Japan through monthly crates filled with all things kawaii! The word itself comes from the Japanese version of a heartbeat hence *doki*

You can get your own box by making a subscription to their website. You can do it one time or prepay that’s good for three months, six months and twelve months. Also, before I forget…shipping is free!

OPEN SESAME!

Tadaaaa!

This one is their January edition which contains 1arefully curated selection of 5-6 items from Japan ranging from household goods to plushies, apparel, travel accessories & more!

Before we get to the unboxing, let’s open up the manga-zine which shows us what the contents of this box contain: