I make wearables! But I am very slow at crocheting and have only finished a few projects this year 
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Links awakening was my first LoZ game. Breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are decent enough but imo not proper Zelda games as they deviate quite a bit from the original structure of the series. Still good games though 
I played FF7 when it originally came out (was under age for it iirc, but it was my first proper RPG) so remake is just an updated version for me. FF9 was the first one I fully completed but I have played the others (except 11 as it was online only).
It looks awesome. My brother has a snes and mega drive versions of the mini consoles, I’ve not got one yet. Good luck if you play 6. From what I remember, it had a decent storyline with some heartfelt stuff in it.
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Haha, guess I’m not the only one who had trouble accepting them 
When I first saw Breath of the Wild, I wasn’t familiar with anything after Majora’s Mask, and was seriously confused… I borrowed it from my friend for a bit, but got sick of the open world thing, and language was a bit hard. So I put it down. Would be nice to play the rest at some point
Do you prefer one or the other?
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I’ve played all of the ones released in the UK except not played much of Hyrule warriors (imo another not proper LoZ game but fun if you like those style hack n slash )
It took me a while to warm up to Breath of the wild because of how different it was (got it on the WiiU originally). I went back to it when I got it on the switch and enjoyed it more.
Personally, I like both for different reasons.
The original has the full story, allows some of my favourite minigames that you don’t get in the Remake or Rebirth and does have parts that are affected by your choices (there are missable parts in the original if you don’t do certain things).
Remake is more linear but it expands on some of the stuff they were unable to put into the original, explains some of the background for characters in more depth, and does portray the characters correctly imo. I really like the parts from the original that they have kept in the remake and rebirth but I don’t like the fact they split it into several games. On a personal note regarding the voice acting for one character in particular, I do not think the Japanese voice actor for Sephiroth has the same fear effect as the English Voice actor. In English, Sephiroth sounds psychotic to me but in Japanese he just sounds like a Yakuza. There’s nothing wrong with it as such, but I can think of several other voice actors that would have had a similar voice style to the English voice actor and given a similar psychotic vibe.
From what I can tell though, there is a story reason for any differences between the original story and that in Remake/ Rebirth which has been hinted at so far but will be properly explained in the final part. I’ve played through both the original and Remake/ Rebirth several times though and like them both.
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I loathe like 90% of mini-games lol. Zelda is particularly bad with that at times
From a storytelling PoV I appreciate that. From a gameplay PoV, ew
And I’m sure they’re all really expensive sigh. Not that I have a system that can handle them anyway…
Interesting re: the voice actor… It’s crazy how discrepant things like that can be sometimes. 99% of the time I prefer the JP voice actors, but every once in a blue moon you get one that sounds 普通, while the EN one sounded cool… Or like when they translate dialects in EN, and they sound bizarre, and then you get to JP and go “oh, it’s just 関西弁”
I don’t mind them, mostly. I was meaning the Chocobo mini game where you had to find certain ones then breed certain types to access some of the secret areas.
It is background story based stuff mostly or secrets. You can still play without it but it does add context and flavour.
Playstation, the games started at around £60-£70 standard edition. Or I just wait for the sales or buy cheaper from Amazon.
Yeah. There’s a character that uses Kansai ben in the Japanese version but Scottish in the English version, which does make sense considering his hame is from Scottish folklore.
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https://gg.deals/ - not sure if you’re familiar, but often good for game prices. (Helpful reminder for myself as well lol)
That’s cool re: the Scottish - good connection on their part
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Chocobo racing has a special place in my heart for being something that I would do until way too late at night instead of homework
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I finally feel recovered enough to post an update about the N3 exam.
So on Sunday was the exam, it was the first time for me taking it (I took N3). I was a bit nervous before and way too early on the site (I guess better than being late).
The nervousness was better after the first section (Vocab) which I did pretty well I think.
The second part (Grammar+Reading) felt also okay, although I felt like my time management was a bit off, I managed to finish all parts just in time. This part I also feel good about, even though I’m a bit uneasy looking forward how I will manage to improve time management for future exams. I made a bit more mistakes than I usually did in mock exams but I guess that’s how it is in an exam situation.
Then came the last part (listening) and my nerves were going. The breaks felt a little bit annoying because they dragged time, and the proctor’s instructions were also super long and I felt the mental drain for real for the last section. I could barely concentrate and even though I specifically practiced JLPT listening questions and did generally okay-ish on them, but I had to guess so many questions and I know already some questions I did wrong for sure.
That’s really a bummer because I don’t really know how to improve there, since I did okay with the same type of questions before, it’s not like I can easily simulate the stress you feel after hours of concentration. The audio quality was actually okay-ish, it was really my lack of concentration/immediate forgetting what was said before and not being able to re-listen to it.
Anyway I’m glad that it’s over, but I feel antsy waiting for the results in 2 months time. Vocab+Grammar/Reading I have passed for sure but the Listening section I’m actually not sure at all. I feel a bit of disappointment after studying a lot, aiming for overpreparation rather than just a pass, and now it might be just that (since a fail in 1 section is a general fail overall). 仕方がない but yeah that are my feelings immediately after it.
At least that helps me set my goals for next year, which is definitely up the media consumption in terms of live action dramas / movies.
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Your experience with the N3 mirrors mine with the N1 
I felt ok during the first section but my brain was just utter goo by the time we did the listening and I could not focus. I’m also worried I bombed the listening despite it consistently being one of my higher scores (80%+) during practice.
I’ve heard a few people comment that the JLPT is less about Japanese knowledge and more a test of endurance and I finally truly understand why 
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My SIL also took the JLPT last week and also said the same thing about the listening sections. In fact, she said a guy in her test put his head down at the start of the listening section and then with about 5 minutes to go started randomly filling in bubbles… so at least you weren’t that guy? 
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Thank you, that’s the laugh I needed right now
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Finished writing up for the 2025 goals thread.
Work-wise, December is always the worst month so I probably won’t have much time for studying / media consumption (or maybe I will feel so stressed that I overcompensate, who knows). Guess I will use the few holidays to write up my final 2024 verdict.
Last week during my business trip I made a good deal snatching all 5 Sou-Matome N2 books (used) plus Kanji in Context for just 18 EUR. My beloved textbook collection has once again grown. For N3, I’ve been learning with Shin Kanzen Master, I liked this format so I’ll probably get Grammar for N2, and work with Sou-Matome for the rest.
During my work trip I also binged through ボーイフレンド S1 | L29 in the train. If you liked Terrace House, I would highly recommend watching it, it’s basically that, but make it gay. Apparently it’s the first same-sex dating show in Japan.
The format is pretty much the same (just shorter time frame, 10 episodes with 40-60 minutes), the cast lives for one month in a fancy house, they live their daily lives, have cute interactions and dates, and there’s a panel of commentators (who I found nice - with Terrace House it could get a little mean sometimes. Some people will recognize Tokui from the panel, apparently he’s fully back in the business after his tax evasion scandal).
The language is a bit difficult, at least for me, they mumble a lot, use casual speech that I don’t know and sometimes the audio is a bit so-so. But I really enjoyed the cast and their interactions (tbh I like to see the friendships developing more than the romances). If you watch(ed) it, let me know who your favorite was! I think mine was Gensei, he was such a cute little bub, so sorry that it didn’t work out for him.
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It’s been on my list since it came out. I’m a little put off by the difficulty – although I can watch Terrace House, I just don’t catch everything. Maybe I’ll check it out later this month once some of my anime wraps up.
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I would definitely turn on subtitles, sometimes I had the feeling what they actually said was something completely different.
But might be that it’s me not being that experienced with natural casual speech, I actually wanted to practice listening with the series, but might have been a tad too difficult for me.
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