Back in May, I got the SpongeBob bundle (BfBB Rehydrated + soundtrack and Cosmic Shake + costumes) for less than $40. I only started seriously working towards completing BfBBR last month and fully completed it early this month (all that I had to look up was the shipwreck sock in Dutchman’s Graveyard), so it took me until Christmas Day to start Cosmic Shake. I just finished Jelly Glove World last night, currently saving most of the extras for the endgame, and I have to say that both of them are solid cartoon-themed 3D platformers.
Early in the winter sale (before Christmas), I got the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection (1-3 HD) for under $50. I considered getting Persona 5 Tactica but decided otherwise because of the review consensus that the game is too short for its price. Considering how much I liked Persona Q and Q2, it makes sense that I’ve been having fun with Etrian Odyssey HD. It’s a good Steam Deck game, and while it does have touchscreen controls, I prefer to use the right stick and buttons for cartography. As of today, I have progressed to B8F, which I’m guessing is not much. If nothing else, it’s certainly chill. For better or worse, its music and sounds are still very DS-like.
Late Christmas Day, my brother recommended Neon White. I have completed 5 of the missions so far with all Aces and miscellany. I prefer using my keyboard and mouse for this game, especially because the time I’ve put into Cosmic Shake with inverted camera axes makes it hard for me to play it on Steam Deck, what with the lack of X axis inversion. Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time. It’s an intense, speed-oriented, first-person 3D platformer, yet there’s enough depth to it that puts the brain to the test.
Two months ago, I mentioned that I was working on a sort of video tutorial series for the All Badges category of Phoenotopia: Awakening, like PHST is to the Flash game. Back then, I admitted that I had made minimal progress, but by the end of the month thereafter, I managed to get the first two parts recorded and uploaded on the transition into the new year. Not only that, but I put my nose to the grindstone in completing the route over the first week of the month. Helps that I found an exploit in the Bubbles fight to grind for infinite Rin while also counting towards the Quick Hits and Hard Hits badges. (Too bad it’s only available if you do the Ouroboros Skip.)
Even so, my pace was not as adequate as I had hoped. Ever since the Steam release date was confirmed to be the 21st (boy, Quells sure likes his Thursday releases), I endeavored to use that as the deadline for PABCAB, namely by finding recording opportunities beyond the comfort of my usual “graveyard shift” between midnight and 6 AM. Ironically, even though PABCAB was initiated as a tutorial series, it turned out to be a series of learning experiences. “I overlooked that part of the route.” “That flub was too humiliating.” “RECentral reset my settings.” “I neglected to silence my phone.” “My commentary is too self-aware.” Hindrances like these ranged from lacing the series with imperfections to making me restart entire recordings from scratch. The more of them I faced, the more I found myself strapped for time as it continued to tick away. And, of course, sleepiness and my day job are also among the hindrances in question (the latter being a necessary hindrance, mind). Ultimately, I managed to get parts 3-5 out on time, whereas parts 6-8 were a little late. (Hey, that rhymes.) I also put out an extra part, containing collectibles and secrets that are unimportant to All Badges, at a more leisurely time than the main series.
The result? Well, to put it into perspective: The entirety of PHST is just under 3 hours (2:59:54 to be exact), whereas the main series of PABCAB boasts more than triple that duration (9:02:41), nearly quadruple if you count the extra (11:40:13). And, nuances aside, I’d say it turned out successful by my standards. Feel free to have a gander. (I also made a written route, from which the video walkthrough deviates a bit.)
I’ll admit, though: I lost an unhealthy amount of sleep (even by my standards) in recording the series and constructing descriptions with clarifications and timestamps. This made me want to take it easy for a good few days…but now that the Steam version is out, I intend to give that a full playthrough as well (not recorded, mind), this time following my written route down to the last pixel. At the time of writing, I just obtained the Zero Trial and Dark Wings badges (with a miraculous first try boss gauntlet!), and most of the trouble is getting used to playing on the keyboard. Because the Steam version does not handle Switch controllers as fluently as the Switch does (the Gear Ring operates purely on the number keys, the left stick and D pad are purely separate, and the D pad is not analog (meaning diagonals are separate from standard directions—the ultimate deal breaker here)), I came up with bindings to resemble the Switch control scheme as closely as possible while also taking new features into account and applying my own standards of logic.
These bindings are partly inspired by the Neptunia Re;Birth series defaults (although I tend to swap I and O, increasing resemblance to the standard Nintendo control scheme), but with each hand shifted one key closer to the center, that way the entire home row is involved. (It also works out that D is for “down.”) To be honest, JKUI as ABYX is different from the Nintendo way, but it makes sense for the index finger to hit the primary key and the middle finger to hit the secondary key, right? Q being the Prev Item key is inspired by Team Fortress 2, which my college self used to play obsessively, and I consequently like to have R as the Next Item key so that both item switching keys use the same hand. A as Sprint…well, using the Shift key to do that doesn’t sit well with me (as much as I put up with it in the v0.06b demo, but that was before I learned the Whiskpl movement (tumbling/somersaulting)), so I chose the home row key closest to the movement keys, just as ZL is on the movement side of a Switch controller. Similarly, I bound ; to Crouch because the Switch has it as ZR, the opposite of ZL. L as the Grab button and Z as the Camera button is a bit of an oddity in that sense, but (1) my right ring finger would be passive otherwise, (2) I have no need to change the camera for anything but the PHALANX, and (3) Z stands for “zoom.” Lastly, Space and Back Quote as Inventory and Options are…admittedly kinda arbitrary, except the space bar used to bring up a menu in the Flash game (albeit not necessarily the menu).
…Whew. One last thing: I mentioned in the PABCAB0 description that I was putting off speedruns in favor of it, so once I’ve tested the waters (vapors?) of the Steam version, I’ll actually prioritize completing a run of the game, starting with Zero Trial and branching out to the untouched categories. (Doubt I’ll actually run All Badges despite having routed it, considering how little spare time I have nowadays and that the category is 9-10 hours at best. Either way, it helps to not have to commentate thanks to the existence of PABCAB and commentated speedruns from more suited community members, namely pylocatabasis’ any% run and Polecat’s 100% run.) I’m also considering returning to the Flash game, in light of Whiskpl having ground the any% record to an even better 48:14, to improve my 100% time using up-to-date techniques, routing, and such. (Despite the “death” of Flash, I do have the means to do so: the SWF in a folder called “uploads.ungrounded.net”, Version 29 of the standalone Flash player, and Flashpoint just in case.)
Vouiv-review 
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