Shane

Finally got KK Birthday to complete that set! Now I’m waiting for scarabs to be back in season. I’ve given up on art. First time Redd has shown up in a few weeks. All fakes, per the usual. Bid farewell to Nan yesterday. Picked up...Elise, I think her name was? Mostly because I’ve never had a monkey villager and every other stop at an island would have been a dupe species.

Flair vs. Samu and an appearance from Kamalamala!

All sorts of fun here. Gang vs. Bubba...Idol vs. Lawler...Horsemen vs. Lightning Express & Bob Armstrong. Loved this show as a kid. Still do.

I would have pegged VIII as my favorite until I played XI. I have a copy of IX sitting around somewhere. I bought it maybe two years ago, for some sort of family trip where I was expecting to *not* be very sociable, but I think I ended up playing Bravely Default instead. I should dig it out. I'd say that it depends on your levels. I had to do very little grinding at that point, because I'd done already done a lot of it earlier. The only non-boss battles I did were for various crafting materials.

Finally tied a bow on DQXI and finished the last of what I wanted to. I’m left with two achievements still locked. One of them is for getting all the others. The other is for getting all the costumes for every character. I’m two short, but they’re gated behind stuff I don’t want to do. 125 hours phenomenally well spent. Started Immortals. It sure is an Ubisoft open world game. I say that will fondness, though, as that’s a playground I still like to visit. This has more of a sense of humor (and maybe even whimsy) than the AC And Watch Dog franchises do. For better and worse.

I’d even settle for a remaster of Skies of Arcadia. Or just a way to play it on a current console. There was the original DC version (what I played), a GameCube port and...that’s it, right? Criminal. I’ll continue to say nothing more about DQXI, but man, what a hell of a game.

I was also impressed by Mysterious Q. It’s impossible to keep up with all the stuff IWTV posts weekly, so this week was a good intro to some of the folks on the shows I haven’t been prioritizing. Arik Royal was another standout for me. Really liked the match versus Makabe.

My fairly tepid hot take: The Midwest indy scene of yore was always better than the more hyped Northeast scene. Give me a second tier Ian show over any ROH show ever... JAPW is the exception that proves the rule, I guess? That always felt more like a Midwest company that just happened to run in Rahway instead.

Pac-Man 99. Coming...tomorrow, apparently. https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/pac-man-99-switch/

It's the 40th Anniversary of the Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler empty arena match. What better way to celebrate a Terry Tuesday...

What is this in reference to? I feel like I missed something!

Live? None of the Collective shows. IWTV has all of the Showcase of the Independents shows live. https://www.pwponderings.com/2021/02/14/iwtvs-showcase-of-the-independents-schedule-and-announcements/

Xbox folks: Check your messages. Microsoft has been sending out codes for a $5 credit, presumably to coincide with the Spring sale currently happening. I know they do this from time to time during sales, but today was the first time I've ever gotten a code myself. Of course, this came a day *after* I bought Immortals...

Rolled credits on DQXI. I will dip back in to tie up some loose ends, though. @J.T.How far gave you gotten? Not sure if I just want to do that now, jump to another JRPG (Yakuza: Like a Dragon, in this case) or move on to Watch Dogs: Legion. I definitely needed a break from an open world after doing just about everything in Valhalla, but I may be ready for another. I should probably put a smaller game in there to buffer things even further, but I’m not sure what I’m actually in the mood to play. Thats on the console front, though. On PC, it’s all Loop Hero and (still) Slay the Spire. The wife is playing through Octopath Traveler via GamePass, so the TV tends to be claimed in the evenings. Both of those games are good distractions.

Not going to spoil anything for J.T. (I think I'm still ahead of him), but I made a nice dent in Dragon Quest XI today. Actually got to play for a good chunk of the afternoon, so that was nice. Such a good game. I believe it was said earlier in the thread, but the other side of that is the Tockle missions. Fuck the Tockle missions.

Anyone ever see Ron Bass Jr. wrestle? Is he any good? I wasn't aware of him until earlier today, when he was retweeted by a different wrestler (O'Shay Edwards) I follow. Made me wonder about other second/third gen wrestlers that are completely off my radar. I'll have to dig into that at some point...

Sudanese Meat Cleaver will always be my favorite name for a move.

They added some '93 WCWSN to the Network proper today. Those episodes also went up on Peacock. That's probably good news in terms of the likelihood of back catalog shows continuing to go up? Wishful thinking, perhaps.

The EA Play on Game Pass (PC) stuff finally goes live tomorrow. https://www.polygon.com/22335966/ea-play-pc-xbox-game-pass-subscribers

Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that that feeling isn't going to subside. I was looking at a suggested level chart and, apparently, I'm already overleveled for the end of Act 2. I might have 10 hours or so before I reach that point, though. Went a little too hard into the grind. Not a big deal, as I'm mostly playing for the story and grinding is hella relaxing.

Loop Hero has consumed me. I only bought it earlier today, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be playing this one for hundreds of hours...

Didn't see it mentioned elsewhere, but there's also a few Shamrock items rotating through the Nook vending machine in Resident Services. I've gotten a rug, a doorplate and a Shamrock soda. It's now been almost two months of Redd visits since he's had anything real that I didn't already own. Which is funny, since I own relatively little art. It annoys me that every other section of the museum is complete, but the art gallery is lagging behind. I need to remember to offer that stuff to y'all. His ever sporadic visits do me no good, but I'm happy to spread the wealth if I can.

The horse races are fucking terrible DQXI. Or I'm just really bad at them, at any rate. Even using the golden saddle or whatever it's called (gives you unlimited turbo), I couldn't even come close to winning the hardest races. Pretty sure I'm done with that part of the game. I think I might be approaching the end of Act 2. I'm gonna get my grind on for a while before proceeding, though. Fodder enemies are fine, but bosses are kicking my ass a little too hard. I might need to respec some characters.

Haven't had a chance to check it out myself yet, but scrolling through results on Cagematch led me to discover this company based out of Russia. This is their most recent show. I see suspiciously few Koloffs in the lineup, but what are you gonna do? Hopefully some new talent to get some eyes on...