Tag: Body

Reimagining My Life: The Steampunk Way

Steam Salutations, those who visit these mechanical isles!  It is the month of Steampunk on this blog, as per popular vote! We thank everyone for voting! However  it has left the manager with an extremely difficult task. She has to write a lifestyle post about Steampunk first! Not having the money for those expensive cosplay props the manager had to rethink what she could do.. and then as if inspired by Eddison and Watts..  an idea popped up! The Manager would reinterpret her life.. had she lived in a Steampunk society. How would my life be if instead of high tech gadgets.. everything was powered by junk, steam and gears.. what kind of person would I be?!

Recalibrating my body

First things first.. how would I look and be in Steampunk society. It’s a rather common event to replace some lesser functional limbs and parts with a mechanical counterpart.. however.. since I have issues with my muscles including my heart that would mean replacing a lot of me.. and I don’t want my biggest enemy to be a big magnet. I do love Tony Stark a lot though so I think I will replace my heart with a mechanical one.. preferably low on the steam! I doubt steam in my chest would be healthy! So I would like to replace my heart with a clock thingy we’d name .. “the Ticker” it would be a Cuckoo clock inspired thing that actually has a heart shaped Cuckoo bird coming out.. when I am in love.. or when  I am in heart trouble. I would occasionally need to wind it again and I would forget it every now and again so thank Steam-Powered-Arceus  I got a visual reminder.  I would love it to have all sorts of little things popping out of my ticker.. .. but we have to be a bit realistic.

I would probably be able to walk less well then I would now.. my medicine is keeping me a bit more agile.. and I feel that in a Steampunk Society they would just cut it off and replace it with a mechanical one.. I however love my shows too much so I would not want a mechanical leg. So I’d rather end up in a Steam powered wheelchair than with a big spider leg! I can probably walk bits and bobs a day .. so I would have a steam powered wheelchair and a steam powered cane to help me move about. Depending on how bad the day is and how cold the weather is and all that stuff. People  would constantly ask me to get my legs replaced but I would puff up my cheeks and tab my steam powered cane on the floor to show my fabulous shoes.. and clean them with little puffs of steam!  Of course they would be pink! 

I’d probably wear some goggles as  I need glasses anyway so they would be replaced  by goggles.. of course in pink.  If I wear a hat it will be a ladies tophat.. also in pink.. one of those pilotty caps would limit me from doing stuff with my hair while I feel the tophat is more an accessory. I like one of those tiny tophats that are just a clip on a hairpin! It would solve two of my problems… one allowing me to style my hair the way I want.. and 2.. it would actually keep my hair in shape!  With all that steam around I bet my hair will be really frizzy. Maybe it would be kinda good for my hair.. I must test this out with a bunch of water cookers in my apartment. That can’t go wrong right?!

Gearing up for a Job

Now replacing my heart with the ticker would result in a rather big change in lifestyle.. a big part of why I am sick at home would be gone.. so I would most likely be able to resume my working life. I’d probably do what I have always done and that is working in a store.. however in a SteamPunk Society .. business is quite a bit more cutthroat. So many junk peddlers and fairly bad circumstances.. there sure as heck would not be proper unions.. and the way I am today.. I am probably too “free spirited”  to keep a job long. I imagine my bosses being all types of salesmen like Watto from Star Wars so I would struggle to hang on to a job.  So instead I would aspire to be a journalist.. of course Freelance.. because nobody would hire such a free spirit. So.. in al likeliness I would be a traveling junker.. working in my own employment. Traveling to find some stuff to sell .. but traveling to interesting places so I could also find a story to sell to whatever newspaper I am close to! Of course the merchant life would be a dangerous one and I would need a partner!

My Partner would be Bulb-A-Saur.. a steam powered robot with a little metal detector in it .. making it’s light-bulb glow if it is close to a treasure. It would also shake and twith a lot and break down a lot.. so I would not make a bunch of money.. it would all be spend into fixing my sweet mechanical pet.  It has been with me since my youth.. when mom and dad gave me Bulbie-chan  because all the other kids picked on me and I needed a friend. Even though it is super outdated we would still be friends.. there is no age limit and no write off on friends even if they are mechanical. I would always smile when it comes whirring back to life.. telling everyone that friendship is magic. So all in all I would be a bit off more or less the same jobwise. I don’t have a very solid one.. but I have a good hobby and it offers me some sustainability.. plus an extra every now and again.  Making friends would be hard.. Steampunk worlds often have a lot of corruption.. and sky pirates. The latter would not be my friends because I work for the newspaper I might reveal their identities to write my way to a Pullitzer.. and Johnny Law.. has to hide stuff from me so I don’t become a steamwhistleblower. Most of my current friends most likely would not be my friend in this scenario because they either are working for shady companies.. or are super law abiding. However some people I know may be worked into a crew.

Assembling my Steampunk Crew

Just like I believe I am destined for big things and stardom in this life, so would i have great ambitions in my other life.. It’s not like real ambition.. because that to disappointment.. However I am someone who will always keep dreaming,, forever moving.. but not sure what direction I will move in! However I do realise that even wandering forward .. and wanting to dream is something I will need a crew for! I mean I can of course dream by myself but I can dream bigger with others… So what kind of people do I need in a Steampunk world? How can I translate that to people I know?!   Well first of all I need a person who can sail one of those zeplin airship thingies.. not a sky pirate.. but not a lawmen either.. because the state will come after me for my stories at one point.  Probably someone with one of those old time ball shooting guns as well because the knock back on those things makes me unable to use it.. I might be able to whack people with a stick but I have like next to  zero offensive capabilities. I have two friends who fired a gun. The Multifaceted Ocelot and Indigo.are both great fits so I will make them a pair! Two guys bought the same airship.. and neither refused to give in.. so now they are sharing the airship waiting for each other to croak..I befriended both of them.. and mediated. I probably asked Indigo for some help to fix Bulb-A-Saur and helped Ocelot with something on his mind.

So I have two guys.. who shoot stuff and fly airships for me.. Indigo can probably be some tinkering while Ocelot could unlock new functions in Bulb-A-Saur.. but one thing we have in common is we all aren’t that good at planning. We are chaotic, and kind of shy and introverts. Socially Awkward and who knows what else.. not a great trait for a journalist of course.  Yet I am me.. I won’t let my limitations hold me back and I will just find people to help me get past that. So I need a social girl.. one that works as a “source” for news  but one that can also function as a bit of a scout.. and a planner.  My friend Fatmima Minusima would make for a good scout friend.   We met each other through blogging where she kind of worked as my link to the professional world.. when disaster struck. Yet it figures it would also mean that we would meet in our Steampunk life.. where she is my operator, source planner.  She would have one of those eyeglasses thingies that makes her hyper aware.  You know with the switchable lenses in all sorts of colours for all sorts of effects.  She works in Public Relations for a big game company in real life so the job would fit her. I do feel like I can’t use my nickname for her hear.. as there is a joke in there established by friends of my old life.. so we will just call her Betty.

Finally I would need a pack mule..   you know .. a lot of treasure  is super heavy and I can lift about twelve kilogram before getting into some trouble… that is not a lot of weight.  I need a strong man.. while Indigo can work like that.. the other role fits him a lot better. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of strong friends. I have one..but he doesn’t mix well with Fati.. plus I think in Steampunk society we would not be friends..well at least not his current day counterpart.  He would be one of those government guys that kind of sells out his soul for cash a status.. he would maybe later on be  convinced of hte evil of his ways but he needs to do something he regrets first so he can learn.. right now he isn’t there yet so he’s out. My sister would kind of work for the stereotype as well.. she is very buff and strong.. and she is my rock in my ways but she might be a bit too homey. So I actually think I would end up with a guy I used to be friends with.. we met when I was working in a hardware shop.. selling tools so it is a good backstory. He once again is a tinkerer but also one of those pretty boys that can life a lot.  He is good fun and a very free spirit.. his girlfriend not so much .. she is rather close minded and status driven.. but hey in this world they would have never met. So we would still be good friends. He liked I was so out of the box and we had some great adventures.. we buff this version up with metal hands and we will end up with kind of a mix between Bender and Metaton..but more human. Let’s name him Marcus!

Thinkering on My Adventures


Now what would I be doing in these times?  Well currently the steampunk world would be plagued by a mysterious disease. Yes I am romanticizing that situation a bit but only because a mysterious plague would make great sense in a SteamPunk world.. the plague doctor is one of the most  iconic things associated with the entire world. It would not be entirely the same thing as what we are going through but let’s keep the paralel. In the Steampunk world it WOULD be an engineered disease used to exert control.. we will steer heavily into those ridiculous conspiracy theories out there ..because they just fit the world like a glove. Mysterious Plague Doctors would appear .. as well as corrupted governments refusing to give up their power.. and I as a reporter would try to find my scoop!  A world run by streams and guns would have no internet after all. While there is no fake news..  governments have a much higher big brother level in this setting.. and so it would all be a much more  dark and ominous situation.

To lighten the mood a little we will say that my crew and I do not fully get involved with the disease. It is more of a background the world is going through. SteamPunk me would be waiting for a package delivery from SteamPunk Santa..  let’s say a new part for her heart or a new bulb for Bulb-A-Saur.. but then under the guise of this mysterious disease SteamPunk Santa and his Steam Powered Sled would go missing over London.. a nation that is going into complete isolation at this time.. even more so than any other country! .. Of course the Sled would be an amazing treasure as would Ru-D0lph  the Steampipe Reindeer so me  and the crew would travel into the terrain of  one of the mad man politicians realms to find Santa for a super duper scoop.. or just loot his sled and reindeer for treasure.. whatever comes first.

And that would be my SteamPunk story..If you are like.. Oh my Arceus.. that is Amazing Pinkie.. you should make a movie out of this… well then I need a few million Kofi Donations and I will make it so.. so if you want to be part of that Million then feel free to support my Kofi clicking in the cute pink little picture. Now time to dig deeper into steampunk month!

Review: Pokémon Infinite Fusion

Hello again, little monsters. It’s Saturday for me again, which means I am free to write about ANYTHING I want. Something Something Saturday features a review today. A review of a very unique Pokémon game, that you can download for free. Today I review Pokémon Infinite Fusion (v 4.4)

The Concept:
The game takes you to Kanto again which by now I even know better than the layout of my 20m² apartment. It mostly follows the original story of Red’s journey to become a Pokémon champion, however since this is an RPG-Maker game and NOT a Romhack there are quite a few twists and turns in both the story and the very way the game plays, because in this game you combine Pokémon into a “new” Pokémon. These Pokémon consist out of a head part, which takes 2/3 ‘s of its original HP, Special Attack and Special defence along with ⅓ of the stat whatever you use for a body, and the body provides ⅔ of the physical stats and ⅓ is given to it by the head. With this you can create some awesome combinations of typings, movesets  and abilities. All you need is some DNA Splicers and some room on your team. A great concept for both casual players, who want to create some fun fusions or for hardcore battlers who want to create their perfect lifeforms. The sprite style is based on the Pokémon Fusion Generator website, so it consists of somewhat sloppily pasted headsprites and pallet swaps, but these combinations can be utterly hilarious. Would you rather prefer some decent sprites for your beloved creatures like me? No worries! The game has an amazingly healthy community on both Reddit and Discord where plenty of helpful people will help you obtain some amazing custom sprites, which are very easy to use. In terms of the game concept , I would even go as far as to say that there is no better game out there, this is the most unique yet still Pokémon feeling fangame I have played.

Story and Flavour:
The game also features a story about Team Rocket trying to use the fusion to conquer the world. The way the game delivers it is truly phenomenal, the story felt more compelling than Firered and Leafgreen playthrough, and also blew Let’s Go Eevee’s storytelling out of the water. Giovanni feels a lot more fearsome and his goals quite a bit more tangible. This time he ACTUALLY has a half decent plan. You will meet new people and fight Team Rocket alongside allies at times, which gives the game some much needed gravitas. Do not worry however the game also is quite lighthearted , it will never be as grim as Pokémon reborn, yet also never as silly as Pokémon Clover. By doing so the game keeps the feeling very much intact. Dialogue has been changed to reflect our modern  world a lot better and is rich in fourth wall breaking humor and plenty of easter eggs. Gone are the NPC’s who don’t really say anything, these people feel much more alive. When you walk into an apartment in Celadon city , people of different floors will interact with each other, gossip about the guy upstairs being into weird shit, or have issues you can only resolve by talking to a friend of them first. It makes the whole package feel much more interwoven, something that is often lacking in the main series and that is certainly missing in plenty of fangames.
The picture portrayed of a Pokémon world where there is over 90.000 species of Pokémon to catch is done very well, contributing to a compelling and immersive experience.

Technical Stuff:
Before we address the main thing, the gameplay lets go over the technical thingies an umbrella term for everything from music to graphics to…uhm.. like controls and stuff, forgive me for the crude terms, I am a very atechnical woman.  Let’s begin with the looksies first. It features a Gen III/ Game boy advance tile and sprite set, as well the options to go into a quasi 3d like in the fourth gen games. You have the choice from 3 different menu sets and few screen sizes. Let’s talk about the negatives first so we can end on a positive. Their own design layout named Next Gen is very very ugly, not just bad looking, no like if Muk had a mother in law and she woke up with the wrong goop out of the bed ugly.  Luckily we can choose the classic Gen III layout so that problem is fixed. The game features some custom locations, like the Rocket Sewers , Virtual Reality and “the nightclub’ as well as Johto of the past that all look lovely and well and cleverly designed…. well except virtual reality..that’s colorful so I like it..but mapwise it’s a tad lazy. The biggest gripe I have with the graphics is that there are huuuuge frame and speed drops when things get visually spectacular.
Ice Beam looks very pretty but you will always see it in slow motion. Virtual reality makes me happy when I run through it…unfortunately I ran at slower than a Slugma.
Other than that there are a few graphical glitches, you can glitch through some rocks, when you walk under cycling road you glitch onto it and some doors and stairways look bigger than their actual ‘transportation zone’ On a positive note, there are no weird resizing glitches or sudden pop up, and should you ever get stuck the game features an item..as well as that it rebranded teleport to an alternate to fly, for an easy fix. I do love the music in the game, Team Rocket bases of less consequence oftenly feature the “Prepare for Trouble song’ the Arcade features Pokémon Stadiums Minigame theme, and some songs now have variants with more intensity. In case of the “Prepare for trouble’ song however I must add that , each time you get into an encounter it reloops, which can get annoying. So bring some repels on your journey if you don’t want to go insane. The custom tracks would also benefit from a bit longer runtime in general before looping but that is just a nitpick. All in all technically , I have played better games but nothing except for the massive slowdown is too much of a dealbreaker to me.

Gameplay:
Onto the biggy the actual gameplay of Infinite Fusion. Here I can happily say that this is THE single best Pokémon-fan game I EVER played. In fact it might even be in the top 3 favorite pokémon games whatsoever for me. I adore this game. It manages to balance things exactly right. Want to play it a bit casual, you can do that, want to hunt for the greater teams, you got options for that as well. The difficulty is spot on, dead drop perfect. Many fan games like Reborn or Pokémon Insurgence tend to go over the top with their difficulty.  Pokémon in my eyes has always about building your very own dream team, Reborn’s special gyms kinda force you to bring specialised teams and run a dozen mon’s at the same time, while Insurgence can be quite grindy if your intentions is just to try out some of their new Pokémon, it also almost wants you to do EV training, which I will flatout say is not fun. No matter how good you are as a battler EV training SUCKS. Fangames that force me into such antics really kill my high. Infinite fusion has non of those antics. Yes you will not be able to outlevel bosses like Giovanni if you run a 6 mon team, not unless you do some serious grinding, no you cant willy nilly trough an Igglybuff and Smoochum together because they look cute and expect it to be a powerhouse. You will have to be smart about what moves you pick, gone is the days of just four attacks of both special and physical, you will have to build your mons.. but that is what this game is about and it hands you the tools accordingly.
NPC’s tell you how fusions work…more or less, trainer school is a good place to visit, and all the moves you are given by gym leaders (non randomised)  and the moves npc’s give you help you build actually decent teams. Status Moves like inflicting burn , poison or paralysis are no longer unpractical time stallers, they actually matter in the battles. The amazing randomiser, (where you can very specifically determine stat pool differences)  makes this game a true gem. Though you have to save your game in a normal slot first, you can randomise your second games. I really recommend anyone to play randomise, because the level of surprise when encountering these fusions in the wild is just priceless… and beats finding a pidgey or rattata again by a million times over. The game offers you every tool you need to have a good time. Do you want to run multiple mon’s , the game offers you near infinite repeat battles so you can grind a new one up toute suite.  Do you want to switch up movesets easily? No problem, HM’s are forgettable and as soon as vermillion city you encounter the move tutor who learns you old moves for a mere 1000 pokedollar. Do you like the casino? It’s there.. and every single game is playable. Battle frontier like battles? Present after beating the third gym. Except for follower Pokémon(which with 90.000 possible combinations would be quite impossible)  everything you can possibly want is there.
Well , the game only features the full Kanto and Johto dex along as some Hoenn and Sinnoh guest appearances.  Around the time you reach Erica, the game starts to deviate from R/B and FR/LG quite a bit, new puzzles, new stories, new npc’s and these puzzles are often more challenging takes on old classics or sometimes even completely new ideas. For example , in the post game you go to the Slowpoke well in Azalea town and find out it’s clogged with shelders. To solve this you have to push Slowpokes with strength towards them so they evolve and are no longer clogging the draining hole. What a clever idea. Whitney’s gym puzzle being based on the counting game from Pokémon stadium featuring all kinds of cute mon’s a stroke of brilliance, and I loved the added challenge of the Silph Co dungeon.
This game walks the perfect line of challenge versus frustration and will make you into a better Pokémon trainer, even if you are a casual player, without forcing you to hatch a gazillion eggs and slay fifty gastley’s just to get some stats.
You still can decide how you play this game. With a clever team you can easily take on opponents of up to 15 to 20 levels higher and still come out victorious, do you play to have cute mons , there is plenty options for you to get them strong enough to beat the tougher bosses, and with not one but TWO active daycare centers as well as pokeballs that improve iv’s or draw out hidden abilities the competitive trainers can enjoy this too. Clever items such as miststones, which evolve any Pokémon regardless of method or level as well as side quests to get special items or moves allow for maximum customisation. With a super solid campaign and a very health after game including Johtho and Gym Leader rematches, (the best postgame since Gold.. and maybe Omega Ruby) this free game is very much for every type of player, for any amount of time. With a very alive Reddit community, expandable box system and so many options, I am even tempted to catch them all.

My rating
Though some mon’s look very cobbled together, and other technical problems are bound to incur, there is nothing like this game that even remotely compares for me in terms of fangames. I would rate this an absolute MUST PLAY, this may very well be the best Kanto based game I ever played, it feels alive, vibrant, and real. I was completely immersed during my time with Infinite Fusion. If you have some time to kill, a love for the games and a creative spark in you, this is definitely a game for you to. Become a better trainer, and have more fun than in any other Pokemon Fan game, this one game I truly love.

So how about you my little monsters? Have you played Infinite Fusion yet? What is your favorite fangame? Let me know in the comments. Keep fusing your Pokémon, keep playing games and most of all stay pink! Until we read again.