I haven't been blogging as much these past few months. Part of it is because I'm still trying to find my writing groove again post-cancer. Even though I completed NaNoWriMo it wasn't easy and I haven't been as happy with my draft as I've been in previous years. It feels like I either need to relearn or figure out new writing habits. But in any case, difficulty writing has led to less writing-related content.
As for gaming, I oddly didn't play many games after June of this year, leading a drought of things to post about after my Variable Barricade blog series wrapped up. I did manage to squeeze in a few very short indies, but they're not the longer games I prefer. It's not that there's anything wrong with being short. I think Pre-Odyssey: Odysseus, Penelope and her Ducks is one of the sweetest (and funniest) games I've played all year and it's only a few hours long. But generally speaking I like something long enough to have both a main plot and a sub plot. It's like the difference between reading a novel and a short story.
Next year I'll probably play more, at least on the visual novel side. Since I didn't play as much this year as I expected I'm fairly backlogged on my VNs, which is really strange for me as I generally only keep a handful in reserve for a rainy day. Part of this is due to the otome boom we experienced this year, as more Japanese publishers are entering the English language market and more indies are starting to come into their own, but there are also some mystery games that I just haven't gotten around too, with more on the horizon. I'm cautiously optimistic for next year's Process of Elimination and Master Detective Archives: Rain Code for mystery titles, and definitely looking forward to Radiant Tale on the otome front.
If there's one thing I'm particularly happy about with this blog though is that I finally updated the layout, which has allowed me to use larger screenshots and the blog no longer looks like it's twelve years old. I suppose one of these days I should move to Wordpress, but that's an effort for another time.
This is my last post of the year, so I wish you all a Happy New Year.
My blog will pick up again in January with at least three weeks of definite content as I go through my favorite books, games, and anime of 2022. See you then!
