Important Update
Once again, it’s a new year, and this time, I feel like making an important change to the activity of this blog. First off, titles will henceforth have the topic as a set of words on the left and the blog-related category of the post as a set of words in parentheses on the right, just as demonstrated with the title of this particular post. This is so that I can condense the URL to exclude the information that is unimportant to a new viewer of the posts and put that information aside until the end of the title.
Second, instead of the whole Spontaneous Saturday -> Top Three Thursday -> Poké Monday thing, I figured I would make it so that Top Three Thursday is now Thought Dump Thursday. The reason for this is because, while I like top-whatever lists, they are difficult to come up with, especially in terms of topic. I mean, while three is a reasonable number for some situations, for others, like characters of MonMusu, it’s just not enough, and I don’t really want to make variations unless on extremely special occasions, like how Top Three Thursday 12/24/15 featured nine of the 2015 anime series I enjoyed because of how close the time of publishing was to Christmas. On that note, let’s not forget when I copped out of a Top Three Thursday post. Why Thought Dump? Well, I have written seven “Thought Dump” posts (on 10/25/14, 12/20/14, 2/14/15, 5/9/15, 6/20/15, 8/1/15, and 12/5/15) as a way to weasel my way out of thinking up a specific topic for Spontaneous Saturday. As few views as I get for potpourri posts compared to posts about specific topics (mostly anime-related), I enjoy writing out these Thought Dumps, so I decided to integrate them into the regular schedule.
Third and foremost, I wish to say goodbye to Spontaneous Saturday and replace it with Spontaneous Series Saturday. I was thinking when I was on the whole “Cavalry vs. Asterisk” series: It’s not exactly spontaneous if I make it obvious when the next installments are going to come out. It’s also not really spontaneous if it happens on a regularly scheduled basis, right? Like, “Oh, I’m looking forward to the next Spontaneous Saturday” is such a contradictory statement the more I think about it. So, what I was thinking was: On some Saturday when I feel like it, I will initiate some sort of review series—like Cavalry vs. Asterisk—that keeps going until I say it has ended. That way, the exact nature of the Saturday in question is spontaneous, but it also keeps the whole “series” thing going. More importantly, this lifts a minor burden off of me, as it means that I can actually pick times to think twice rather than thrice per two weeks. Since I feel like I slacked too much last semester (got an A, A-, B, and B-, and I didn’t work steadily enough on the final projects and had to crash them) and therefore I wish to get more serious this semester, I believe this change is for the best.
Poké Monday, however, will remain untouched.
So, here’s the deal: Thought Dump Thursday every second Thursday from January 7 onward, Poké Monday every second Monday from January 11 onward, and Spontaneous Series Saturday at random intervals.
Good? Good.
Also, I have updated the header image and blog info section accordingly.
2015 Recap
Much like the 2014 recap, since 2015 has come to an end, I shall provide a recap of what has become of Vouiv-review from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2015.
January 3 (Spontaneous Saturday): 2014 recap. Just like this half of this post, only this one has hyperlinks on the post titles and is based on a different year.
January 8 (Top Three Thursday): Video game music. I talked about some video game music that I like from Pokémon X&Y, Super Smash Bros., and Bravely Default. Over time, however, I’ve grown to like the Ripple Star stage 3 music in Kirby 64 more than the F-Zero music.
January 12 (Poké Monday): Heatmor. Primarily offensive Fire-type known for being one of the few of its type to learn Giga Drain. While it is relatively slow and frail, it gets Sucker Punch to mitigate that.
January 17 (Spontaneous Saturday): Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I talked about my thoughts on the most recent Super Smash Bros. game after having it for about a year. I have, by the way, completed all of the challenges I was missing before.
January 22 (Top Three Thursday): Video game characters. Rita Mordio (Tales of Vesperia), Yoshi (Mario series), and Nowi (Fire Emblem Awakening). This list remains unchanged, at least for now.
January 26 (Poké Monday): Floatzel. A fast Water-type physical attacker with two primary defining aspects: Water Veil and Switcheroo.
January 31 (Spontaneous Saturday): Wake Up, Girl Zoo! I talked about the first eight episodes of a spinoff of the anime “Wake Up, Girls!“. This spinoff was short and sweet, and it made for a good laugh.
February 5 (Top Three Thursday): Most annoying GH6 guitar charts. I expressed my frustration towards charts in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock that I am unable to full combo (and will remain so for a long while).
February 9 (Poké Monday): Bagon. Physically oriented Dragon-type attacker in LC with relatively low stats but an interesting Ability in Sheer Force.
February 14 (Spontaneous Saturday): Thought Dump 3. I talked about the Battle Maison (notably my quest towards the Doubles trophy) and my thoughts on winter 2015 anime.
February 19 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite Internet memes. Costanza reaction face, Tony Kornheiser’s “Why”, and Yee. My favorite meme now, though, is JOHN CENA.
February 23 (Poké Monday): Kyogre. Dominating force in Ubers whose environment has changed (quite literally in some contexts) with the introduction of Primal Reversion.
February 28 (Spontaneous Saturday): Poké Monday in further detail. A sort of follow-up to the series based on changes to the metagame that required appending further thoughts to my past analyses.
March 5 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite Mega Evolutions. Sceptile, Beedrill, Gallade.
March 9 (Poké Monday): Watchog. The first-route Normal-type of gen 5. Not much to expect there.
March 14 (Spontaneous Saturday): Cross-a-Pix. I talked about a relatively new form of puzzle, one somewhat similar to Pic-a-Pix, that was introduced to Conceptis approximately two weeks prior to when the article was written. I also gave tips on how to solve these puzzles.
March 19 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite Twitch streamers: Redux. Witwix, 2dos, and 360chrism. What bothers me a little is that this redux needs a redux because some of the information is outdated, notably the emote sets (and I rarely, if ever, watch Witwix anymore). It was nice to take a trip down memory lane in terms of the emotes, but updated emote sets can be viewed at twitchemotes.com or frankerfacez.com, depending on the variety of emotes.
March 23 (Poké Monday): Staraptor. Strong Flying-type attacker with average Speed that uses Reckless Brave Bird and Double-Edge for heavy damage output.
March 28 (Spontaneous Saturday): Final thoughts on winter 2015 anime. I talked about Absolute Duo, Juuou Mujin no Fafnir, and the second season of Log Horizon. None of these has a particularly good reputation, but Kili from Fafnir remains to this day one of my favorite anime characters of all time.
April 2 (Top Three Thursday): Recent Guitar Hero 3 FCs. That time when I finally managed to get Nothing for Me Here, The Number of the Beast, and Cult of Personality.
April 6 (Poké Monday): Nidoran♂. Poison-type physical attacker with average-at-best stats, only notable for Hustle and Sucker Punch.
April 11 (Spontaneous Saturday): Sym-a-Pix, the puzzle that I underestimated. I talk about a variety of puzzle that I dismissed in my first Conceptis puzzle review because of a naïve misunderstanding on my part.
April 16 (Top Three Thursday): Advice I would give to other drivers. Since I had recently started driving solo to university at the time, I thought I would drop a few of my pet peeves based on other drivers whom I have observed.
April 20 (Poké Monday): Krokorok. Average offensive threat capable of performing a lead role with Stealth Rock and Taunt, and wearing down the opposition with STAB Earthquake and Knock Off.
April 25 (Spontaneous Saturday): Momentary pause. Since it was close to the deadline and I had no specific topic in mind, I decided to cop out and post an Imgur album pertaining to my army in Disgaea DS, a game that I was into at the time but ended up losing interest.
April 30 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite Christian music. For the first time in Vouiv-review history, I revealed my Christian faith by sharing a few songs that I found (and still find) impactful: Virtuoso, He Knows My Name, and Proof of Your Love.
May 4 (Poké Monday): Cloyster. An offensive threat that is notorious for Shell Smash and Skill Link Icicle Spear.
May 9 (Spontaneous Saturday): Thought Dump 4. I talk about Pokémon Rumble World and spring 2015 anime.
May 14 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite speedruns to watch. I like to watch speedruns on Twitch, so I thought I would name off some of my favorites at the time: Kirby 64, Bravely Default, and Donkey Kong 64.
May 18 (Poké Monday): Vigoroth. Lower-tier threat known for a nasty combination of Bulk Up and Slack Off.
May 23 (Spontaneous Saturday): Super Randomizer Nuzlocke – a follow-up? I ended the HeartGold Nuzlocke on a salty note and started a new one in Black 2. However, I do not think I will be picking these back up; I think I’d rather just do regular randomizer (just Pokémon, moves, and items randomized) or Metronome only, if anything.
May 28 (Top Three Thursday): Reasons for lack of inspiration. Basically, I copped out of a Top Three Thursday post and made excuses for it (some good, some bad).
June 1 (Poké Monday): Vivillon. Setup sweeper with access to Quiver Dance, as well as Compound Eyes Sleep Powder and Hurricane.
June 6 (Spontaneous Saturday): Tapping methods in Guitar Hero. I talked about some tapping methods that I use to hit especially difficult sections in Guitar Hero. I did indeed finish this post, even though it said “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” for…well, way too long.
June 11 (Top Three Thursday): Characters I find it hard to like but don’t dislike. Sometimes, my opinion can be somewhat complicated, a few instances being on Camilla (Fire Emblem Fates), Hestia (DanMachi), and Niko Yazawa (Love Live).
June 15 (Poké Monday): Tornadus. The only 100% pure Flying-type Pokémon, which is primarily offensive in its incarnate forme but can act somewhat defensively in its therian forme.
June 20 (Spontaneous Saturday): Thought Dump 5. I got the FC of If You Want Peace… Prepare for War on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, talked about my progress in Pokémon Shuffle and Rumble World, and talked about the anime that I had been watching, trying to be brief about it.
June 25 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite music from Nintendo 64 games. A more specific version of Top Three Thursday 1/8/15. Beforehand, I reminisced about the days when the Nintendo 64 was fresh in my mind.
June 29 (Poké Monday): Croconaw. Lower-tier counterpart of a strong Water-type attacker that is notorious for Sheer Force and its great selection of moves with which to abuse the ability.
July 4 (Spontaneous Saturday): My final thoughts on spring 2015 anime. I talked about Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic, Nisekoi:, DanMachi, and Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo. Yamada-kun and KinMoza were particularly enjoyable, and the others were okay.
July 9 (Top Three Thursday): Annoying aspects of Pokémon Shuffle. What really grinds my gears about this freemium puzzle game. (I still enjoy the game, don’t get me wrong; it’s just that it gets under my skin sometimes.)
July 13 (Poké Monday): Machoke. Lower-tier abuser of No Guard STAB Dynamic Punch.
July 18 (Spontaneous Saturday): The most situational GUI I’ve ever coded. A GUI built in Java for the sole purpose of catching a Reshiram to meet my standards.
July 23 (Top Three Thursday): SGDQ 2015 runs I am looking forward to. The Legend of Zelda (classic) swordless, Metroid Prime Hunters all items, and Donkey Kong 64 no levels early. I did enjoy these runs, and…guess what: another GDQ (specifically AGDQ 2016) is coming up real soon.
July 27 (Poké Monday): Pineco. Effective hazard lead in Little Cup that is somewhat usable in level 100 formats thanks to Sturdy and Pain Split.
August 1 (Spontaneous Saturday): Thought Dump 6. I made another situational GUI, this time for Entei, which I still haven’t caught and probably will not until I have soft-reset for certain event Pokémon (Rayquaza, Zoroark, Hoopa). I also talked about freemium Pokémon, SGDQ 2015, and newly released anime.
August 6 (Top Three Thursday): Fun things to do in Pokémon. This list encompassed all generations, but only of the main series games. Surfing on Sharpedo, playing Voltorb Flip, and breeding were the activities that made this list.
August 10 (Poké Monday): Plusle. Electric-type with Nasty Plot, Baton Pass, and Lightning Rod. No other Pokémon follows these four criteria. (Aside from that, it’s trash.)
August 15 (Spontaneous Saturday): Phoenotopia. I talked about one of my favorite free online games of all time and my plans to speedrun it. As of now, I have completed the any% route, but I still have yet to get a recorded run. (I had a great one going last night, but it died to the 6th floor of Prince Tower.)
August 20 (Top Three Thursday): Favorite Japanese music. This is not like the top three anime theme song list I did last year (although it still contains Maware Setsugetsuka); it also includes Vocaloid music.
August 24 (Poké Monday): Cacturne. An offensive threat with the strongest Sucker Punch in its tier and some nice supporting moves as well (including boosting moves on both sides of the spectrum).
August 29 (Spontaneous Saturday): Actually spontaneous. When I try to be “actually spontaneous,” I actually just spill the beans about what’s going on in life, notably what media I’m consuming at the time (in this case, Persona Q) and anything pertinent to my career.
September 3 (Top Three Thursday): Hardest things to pay attention to. I always have a hard time processing what goes on during drawn action scenes, particularly long readings, and university lectures. This article was where I voiced my frustration.
September 7 (Poké Monday): Darmanitan. A ridiculously strong physical Fire-type attacker although average in Speed and relatively frail.
September 12 (Spontaneous Saturday): More spontaneity. Progress reports on Pokémon Shuffle, Persona Q, and Phoenotopia routing.
September 17 (Top Three Thursday): Labyrinths in Persona Q. You in Wonderland, Group Date Café, and Inaba Pride Exhibit. I also talked about the labyrinths that I didn’t include (Evil Spirit Club and Clock Tower). Persona Q was a fun game, and I’m glad for its existence.
September 21 (Poké Monday): Chesnaught. Grass/Fighting physical tank with Bulletproof, original (and best) user of Spiky Shield, and can also set Spikes.
September 26 (Spontaneous Saturday): My thoughts on Monster girls. I talked about (most of) the monster girls of the anime Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou and how I would rank them from bottom to top.
October 1 (Top Three Thursday): Advice I would give to new Twitch users. My attempt to explain important aspects of Twitch to those who are unfamiliar with it.
October 5 (Poké Monday): Groudon. A threat defensively and offensively that has improved greatly with the introduction of its Primal Reversion.
October 10 (Spontaneous Saturday): I have so much on my mind… A little rant about how it feels like life comes and attacks me at moments when my mind feels so loaded that I have to rant about it.
October 15 (Top Three Thursday): Responses to failure to meet a deadline properly. Based partly on college assignments but also partly on this blog. Risks happen all the time, so it is vital to have one or multiple risk responses. I learned that in Project Management class.
October 19 (Poké Monday): Flaaffy. Fledgeling Electric-type that can pretend to be a defensive pivot in lower tiers through the use of Seismic Toss, Volt Switch, and Toxic.
October 24 (Spontaneous Saturday): Cavalry vs. Asterisk – part 1. The first of a three-part series comparing and contrasting the anime series Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, which are similar in plenty of ways. The first part does not concern any episodes past 4.
October 29: RIP today’s Top Three Thursday. Yep, this is the cop out.
November 2 (Poké Monday): Lopunny. Physically offensive threat with ridiculous Speed and a nigh unresisted STAB combination in Scrappy Normal and Fighting.
November 7 (Spontaneous Saturday): My own fantasy story. I talked about Cinq du Soleil, a story of my own creation chiefly inspired by the anime Trinity Seven, and any background information on it that I have dug from the inner recesses of my memory. As of now, I am partway through chapter 5.
November 12 (Top Three Thursday): Christian music for non-Christians. Another revealing of my Christian faith, featuring the songs My Story, Prodigal, and Flawless.
November 16 (Poké Monday): Swanna. An offensive Defogger in PU (first ever PU analysis on Vouiv-review) with pretty much unresisted STAB coverage in Hurricane and Scald.
November 21 (Spontaneous Saturday): Cavalry vs. Asterisk – part 2. The second part of the aforementioned three-part series. This part does not concern any episodes past 8.
November 26 (Top Three Thursday): Things I’m thankful for. I was actually in a rush and had a term paper due on the same day, so, since it was Thanksgiving, I had to go with the obvious topic.
November 30 (Poké Monday): Grovyle. Fledgeling Grass-type that is nothing more than the fastest Unburden user in PU.
December 5 (Spontaneous Saturday): Thought Dump 7. For this Thought Dump, I decided to avoid anime talk (aside from a brief expression of approval of One Punch Man) and instead stick to other topics: freemium games (including Nintendo Badge Arcade and Pokémon Picross), Steam games, Cinq du Soleil, and Phoenotopia routing. A follow-up about Phoenotopia: I actually figured out that unlocking the Mystery Bento was the key to getting the extra 1%, which is really silly if you ask me. I mean, the Mystery Bento of all things…what does that have to do with anything?
December 10 (Top Three Thursday): Anime that I might consider watching. Dog Days, Overlord, and JoJo. I watched Overlord before JoJo, but only for the sake of the next Top Three Thursday (mentioned later).
December 14 (Poké Monday): Yveltal. Strong Dark-type attacker (both offensively and defensively) with odd stats.
December 19 (Spontaneous Saturday): Cavalry vs. Asterisk – part 3 (finale). The final part of the aforementioned three-part series, which summarizes everything from start to finish, talks about any changes in my thoughts from part to part, and wraps up my thoughts on both anime series.
December 24 (Top Three (times three!) Thursday): Nine favorite anime series of 2015. Seiyuu’s Life, MonMusu, Asterisk, Cavalry, Fafnir, Yamada-kun, Overlord, Hibike Euphonium, and One Punch Man.
December 28 (Poké Monday): Glalie. Spikes+Taunt lead in PU, strong Ice-type attacker in RU.
It was a great year overall, even though I had to cop out of quite a few posts, especially with all the Thought Dump jank going on, as well as the “fake” Thought Dumps (posts that seem like Thought Dumps but are not titled as such). Thanks for the support, those who provided it!
Here’s to another year…?
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