Lychee Woopee!

Lychee. All I ever knew was that it was a flavour you could get when you ordered bubble tea. Sweet, cold, delicious bubble tea with those slimy gummy tapioca pearls at the bottom. Also, the straws are really fat so you can suck up all the delicious goopy tapioca and lychee flavour... mmm...

Mmmm... I want some now!

So, I typically get the lychee flavour when I get bubble tea, but I had no idea what a lychee was or anything about it at all. I knew it tasted good - and for the most part that was good enough for me! However, while shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore a little while ago I noticed something labeled lychee. Could it be? The fabled fruit of the flavour I enjoy sucking through large straws? It was!

...interesting... AND DELICIOUS!

Here is a lychee in all it's glory. It's kind of small, spiky, and the inside reminds me of a gooey eyeball. All that aside it actually tastes the same as the bubble tea. Rather, now I should say the bubble tea tastes just like the fruit! I picked some up and have been enjoying them. I'm getting better at opening them, and am thinking of saving some of the massive seeds to try and plant my own lychee plant. :)

Nice tree you got there...

Okay... so the tree is kind of big and I don't really have a space to plant one... but maybe one day. One day this can be mine!

They look awesome! So many!

Bravely Default Complete!

Whew, hoooo, whew, gulp, heh heh, whew...

I finally beat Bravely Default. The final bosses are - exhausting. I beat them though so they can go fly a kite because this guy is victorious! The game has been a joy to play on my 3DS and I've managed to craft myself a pretty kick butt team. Even so, it still took me around 2.5 hours to beat the final two bosses! I was pretty much watching Archer the whole time on Netflix, but still pretty focused on the task in hand. In the end of it all I've sunk about 96 hours into the game... wow. Impressive? Depressing? You decide. All I know is I had plenty of fun the whole time - though the ending was a little exhausting.

The story was great, the combat was fun and exciting, and the whole game just has an overall polish that really makes it stand out. There are so many subtle details from the way the cut scenes are layed out to the great voice acting of pretty much every character. Features like being able to increase or decrease and outright turn off the random encounters means when you want to simply get from point A to B you can unimpeded. Having a main job and another job's ability as well as support abilities for each character allows you to really customize how you fight. My team changed throughout the entire game. I'd definitely recommend it, and say look out for the next installment in the series - Bravely Second!

Here’s my final team setup!

Tiz's main job is Knight with the Freelancer second.
Equipment: Bloody Shield, Bloody Shield, Ribbon, Heike Armor, and Genji Gloves.
Support Abilities: BP Recovery, Dual Shields, Slow and Steady, P. Def 10% Up, and Armor Lore.
 He’s a super tank with the ability to cover his allies, withstand most blows to the whole group, and deal a considerable amount of damage thanks to super charge and mimic.

Agnes's main job is Black Mage with the Time Mage second.
Equipment: Demon's Rod, Wonder Rod, Gold Hairpin, Black Robe, and Soul of Thamasa.
Support Abilities: BP Recovery, In the Red, Black Magic Amp, Angelic Ward, and Absorb M. Damage.
She can deal a mean bunch of damage to a large group of enemies or single out targets and lay down some devestating magic. She also ensures I'm acting first with Hastega and reviving allies with Reraise.

Edea's main job is Pirate with the Swordmaster second.
Equipment: Earthbreaker, Royal Crown, White Robe, and Hyper Bracers.
Support Abilities: Hawkeye, Two-Handed, P. Attack 20% Up, and Slow and Steady.
Edea is in charge of either weakening the enemy with Pirate skills or physically crushing an opponent with Free Lunch and Amped Strike.

Ringabel's main job is Spiritmaster with the White Mage second.
Equipment: Gale Staff, Aegis Shield, Gold Hairpin, Luminous Robe, and Force Armlets.
Support Abilities: BP Recovery, Holy One, Angelic Ward, and Auto-Shell.
Without Ringabel the team would surely crumble. He's a dedicated healer and also keeps the group alive while BP replenishes. Stillness is a game saver.

E3 Excitement and Disappointment

I was super excited for this year's E3, and for the most part there were a lot of exciting things announced and revealed! It's been a while now, but I haven't gotten around to talking about it yet.

A lot of new Starfox footage was shown and it looks like it will capture the feeling of original N64 game while providing some new experiences as well. The Arwing can transform into a walker of sorts and stroll around the ground blasting things and there are some other vehicles we'll get the chance to pilot as well. I never owned the N64 version, but did play it at a friend's a decent amount and always enjoyed the action, flying, and trying to find the silver and gold rings. Recently, I picked it up for the virtual console and I can't wait to give it a go before the new one comes out!

Super Mario Maker was also heavily featured and the more footage I saw the more I wanted to play it myself. Who knows what kind of crazy levels are going to be designed when it comes out. It looks fairly easy to use and to make your own levels, and the footage of people playing other people's levels is what was really getting me excited. The Nintendo World Championship 1st and 2nd placing was decided via Super Mario Maker and the levels the competitors had to play were intense and epic! Definitely going to pick this game up when it comes out.

There was a Mario Party like Animal Crossing game shown off as well. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. It kind of looks like the game of Life. I've heard the game might be free so I've held off on buying any pre-orders. The thing is you need Animal Crossing Amiibo to be able to play the game. So far I'm hoping this is the case because the game doesn't look all that interesting to me at the moment, but the amiibo look awesome! They've shown off a whole slew of new Animal Crossing amiibo that will be coming out.
Animal Crossing Festival

These and more are on their way!

During the Smash Bros Nintendo Direct video they also announced a ton of new stuff. This video was probably just as if not more exciting than Nintendo's whole showing at E3. Amiibos were announced for all the Mii Fighters as well as Game and Watch and others. The whole roster is almost complete... but they also announced some new Smash fighters as well. Ryu from Street Fighter and Roy from Fire Emblem have joined the fight! Lucas, we already knew about, was also released the same day and I love playing as him. :)

The new Xenoblade is also on it's way December 4th this year. Yoshi's Wolly World looks great and should be a fun cooperative game. Chibi-Robo Ziplash looks interesting, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. Another Bravely game, Bravely Second, is coming to the 3DS - the first game was awesome so I'm already sold. Typoman looks interesting and kind of reminds me of Limbo. The new Fire Emblem is more of exactly what I want! Lastly, a new Mario Tennis will hopefully capture the original N64's appeal.

I'm totally into Nintendo stuff, but there was also some exciting non-Nintendo stuff announced as well. Fallout 4 is on it's way and has an impressive crafting system. A new Star Wars Battlefront looks incredible - I remember enjoying the multiplayer on the Xbox. Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4 is mind blowing. Cuphead looks like an awesome platformer in the style of classic mickey mouse cartoons. The new Kingdom Hearts looks super sweet as well.

The only really big disappointment was the lack of any information on the new Zelda for the Wii U. I thought, surely, there would be some information - even a tiny glimpse, but alas there was not a whiff of it. The release date is still slated for some time in 2016, but for a Zelda game I'd anticipate some delays. I don't mind the delays if it means a more complete and fun game! In the meantime, here's a clip that was released ages ago.