One annoying thing about the Bravely Second demo

So, one of the demo quests is to get 5 Blue-crown Cremini, which are an item dropped by some mushroom-like enemies in the forest.  You get sent to this forest by the demo's quest line just before receiving this quest, so you have the opportunity to accrue some beforehand.  Seems pretty simple, right?  Build up a supply while you're there, take the quest, then immediately turn them in, quest done.

But no.

It can't be that simple.

The game REMOVES THEM FROM YOUR INVENTORY WHEN YOU TAKE THE QUEST.

This is bullshit.

That is all.

The Simpsons: Hit and Run... Continued?

I know I put down the game about three years ago with a rant about how unforgiving the time limits are and how much they drag down an otherwise good game.  However, I decided to fire up the game and play a bit of it earlier, and ended up getting farther.  Specifically, I completed Marge's missions and I'm partway through Apu's missions now.  I've always said that not playing a game for a bit and then coming back to it helps me get through parts that I was having trouble with, I guess this is yet another example of that.

The time limits are still ridiculous.  The game gave me about 13 seconds to get to Springfield Elementary from about 12.5 seconds away at one point.  The game also gave me 2 minutes to track down and successfully ram into a rogue hover car with sufficient enough force, repeatedly enough to destroy it, during which time it drives off into the sunset and starts teleporting around.  Out of desire to make some money, I did one of the races run by Fat Tony's mafia guys, but they're terrible.  You'll never successfully complete one of them the first time you try, because you don't know the course layout, there's traffic everywhere, the radar is shit, and your only directions are green arrows on the road that get obscured by the traffic that's everywhere.

I'm still critical of the game.  Although, underneath a pile of shit lies a really good core.  The driving controls are great, it's fun smashing through stuff, the variety of unlockable vehicles is quite large and ties in well to the show, and even the costumes are neat.  I love all the little references dotted about.  Their presence shows they really wanted to make the game be a game that fans of The Simpsons would like.  It's a shame that they had to go and cover up good core gameplay and level design with unreasonable time limits and a terrible navigation system.

I guess my inner completionist won't let me stop playing the game before at least finishing the story.

Bravely Second Demo First Impressions

I'm kind of late to this, for reasons I won't go into in this post.  Bravely Second's demo has been out for a while now, and just like with Bravely Default's demo, there's rewards that transfer to the full game.  This time around, though, it's an unlimited-use "special" demo, which is how all 3DS demos should be, to be honest.

I have played all the way through the demo, so unless I forgot something, this is everything I noticed.  The vast majority of my impressions will be those coming from someone who's used to Bravely Default.  So, comparisons abound.

Upon getting through all the intro and exposition and stuff (which I paid attention to, but won't be discussing here), I noticed some things right away.  Mostly small interface or feature tweaks that just make life easier, but there's some bigger things as well.  Here's a mostly unorganized bulleted list of what I've noticed.

• You can save your party setup to a "Favorites" list, and easily recall a specific setup.
• In a similar vein, you can save your Auto mode battle setup to one of three Command Sets, and recall those on a whim.
• There's now a menu that pops up when you press R, that lets you select what Auto mode will do, as well as change the encounter rate.  Un-burying the encounter rate option is really nice, since you want to be able to change it on the fly and it was a few levels deep in menus in Bravely Default.
• Most use of the touchscreen seems to have been made optional, from the looks of it.  One of the characters, Magnolia, has a moon village that "needs help", which means rebuilding and upgrading in a similar fashion to Norende.  Its screen seems to be fully navigable without the touchscreen, which includes a popup menu that lets you zoom to specific points of interest, that pops up when you press right on the d-pad.  The only thing you could do in Norende without using the touchscreen was leave Norende.
• When selecting equipment, little arrows appear on the tabs on the touchscreen, indicating if the currently selected piece of equipment affects something on that tab.
• Ability icons are now more indicative of the general category that the ability belongs to.
• You can now earn SP while actively playing the game, instead of just while the system is in sleep mode with the game running.  You still earn SP at the rate of one every 8 hours, though.
• In battle, when selecting your action or its target, you can automatically Brave and use that action on that target multiple times by pressing either L or R.  L adds a Brave, R subtracts a Brave.  R also will take you from zero to three Braves, so if you plan on using four actions, just select your ability and hit R.
• When you Examine an enemy, you can see their current HP and life bar for the rest of time, instead of only during that one battle like in Bravely Default.
• There's a new consumable item, the Magnifying Glass, that has the same effect as the Freelancer's Examine ability.  So now you don't have to sacrifice another job or job command just to bring Freelancer along for the sole purpose of being able to Examine.
• Enemies have stat variants, wherein their model is rendered either larger or smaller, and their stats are either increased or decreased, respectively.  I find it to be a nice touch, and more realistic.
• If you finish a battle in one turn, you can press L to immediately get another battle.  Your BP and health and whatnot carry over from the previous battle, which is a point of consideration.  You can chain this as long as you're able to, and I imagine there's probably going to be a setup available in the full game tailored towards doing exactly that, but it's an all-or-nothing thing.  You get a bonus multiplier that increases as you win battles, but if you lose or run, you get nothing.  You can choose not to fight another battle by pressing B, at which point you'll get your rewards with whatever multiplier you'd gotten to.
• In addition to the usual pre-battle bonuses of either side getting a Brave point or first attack, there's now "Enemies lurk in the shadows..." that forces a second fight when the first one is done.
• There's an in-battle reference for the elemental and family weakness icons.  I know I've gotten confused about them in the past, particularly the family icons, so I find it quite useful.
• The interior maps now have shading to indicate altitude, and the paths you take can and will cross over other paths.
• When selecting support abilities, the game provides a concise description of the ones you have equipped on the screen just before where you actually select them, which saves having to go into the selection screen, select each one, and press X.
• Ability descriptions also now specify things in a slightly more standardized manner at the bottom of the description, which includes the number of turns the ability stays active for, if applicable.
• In the menus, similar to Bravely Default, there's a character on the lower screen who provides guidance on your current task.  This time around, though, you can press L to ask for more in-depth guidance.
• The main protagonist seems to be named "Yew", and one of the tutorial screens does make a pun based on that.  Sorta like a certain name pun in Bravely Default that the game never actually calls out, but a little more noticeable right away.
• The journal this time around is Yew's Diary (and the cover has a giant U on it).  The only accessible part in the demo is the Bestiary.  Filling it out now involves fighting a predetermined number of each enemy, which slowly unlocks character dialogue about each monster, and then finally some more encyclopedic details.
• If the Exorcist job's specialty in the demo is available as a support ability in the full game, things will get very stupid very quickly.  Basically, you'll want it stapled to your support ability list if you're using MP a lot.  I know I've said nothing could possibly be overpowered in a singleplayer game, but this is pushing it.
• Other than the improvements and a few purely graphical changes here and there, the interface elements are mostly identical to those found in Bravely Default, giving a familiar environment right away.
• The option to continue after saving seems to be missing, so after saving you have to manually back out of the save menu.
• In the demo, they decided to give everyone a non-removable costume that always sets their costume to the Freelancer costume, presumably to make you buy the full game to see the job outfits, but neglected to do so for Magnolia, so you can use her to preview them, or at least the female versions of them.
• The apple enemy is the pinnacle of enemy design.  My exact words upon seeing one for the first time: "Wait, what?  I'm fighting an apple. lol"

I had a lot of fun with the demo.  The new jobs it lets you try out are interesting, and it's nice to see some new and tweaked abilities on the returning jobs.  If you plan on getting Bravely Second when it comes out, download and play the demo now to get those play bonuses in the full game!

Fixing Things: Stouffer's FitKitchen Steak Fajita

Stouffer's makes a variety of awesome frozen food products.  Their FitKitchen line is aimed at providing semi-healthy frozen meals.  One item in that line is the Steak Fajita.  It's got a delicious mix of steak, rice, beans, and vegetables with a sauce that brings everything together.

However, it's missing something.  Something crucial to the definition of a fajita.  What could it possibly be missing?

Tortillas.

If you're planning on picking up this product, grab some tortillas as well.  I personally go for 100% whole grain tortillas, but get whatever floats your goat.  The ones I get are about 8 inches in diameter, but smaller ones will work just as well.  Once you're actually deciding to heat it up, modify the directions as such:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Make sure your oven rack is in the middle.
2. While the oven is preheating, wrap three tortillas in aluminum foil.  Use more tortillas if yours are significantly smaller.
3. When the oven finishes preheating, put the meal in your microwave and start it warming up according to the directions.
4. Put the tortillas in the oven.
5. Continue following the directions to heat up the meal.
6. When the meal is done, according to its directions, pull the tortillas out of the oven.

Now, you have nice warm tortillas to put your fajita filling into, and the meal is complete.  Feel free to follow the last word of their directions, which is, of course, "enjoy!".

HomePass Nuance

Last Tuesday, Nintendo released a new panel for Puzzle Swap, and so naturally I used HomePass to get it just like always.  Lately I've taken to dumping my homebrew-fueled infinite supply of play coins into getting all the blue pieces before going on HomePass, so I can share out the blue pieces while getting the pink pieces.  For whatever reason it now seems to take closer to a week to complete each new puzzle, instead of the less-than-a-day I experienced when I first got going with HomePass.

Something I'd been doing in the past but kinda stopped doing more recently, was adding the SSID my HomePass setup was using to the connection list in System Settings.  After all, that SSID is already in a list on the 3DS that it checks and auto-connects to if possible, so I figured adding it to the connection list wasn't really necessary and stopped adding it.  HomePass still works without it there, so... must be redundant, right?

Then, I began noticing some things.

First, it was taking my 3DS upwards of 30 seconds to a minute, sometimes more, to connect to my HomePass setup, whereas it had been much quicker in the past.  Also, it wasn't getting groups of people while I had the system open, which it had also been doing in the past (contrary to popular belief, StreetPass does indeed work with the system open).

Adding the SSID I was using to the connection list solved both of these issues.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is, if you're setting up HomePass and noticing some unreliability, try adding the SSID your setup is using to your connection list.  Preferably in Connection 1, or barring that, above your normal internet connection.  The 3DS tries the connections in order from Connection 1 to Connection 3, so priority is inherently given to the first slot.

Lay's Flavor Swap: Cheddar & Sour Cream vs. Smoked Gouda & Chive

Remember last post?  Where I said that I may very well have gotten the last bag of Korean Barbecue that Giant had?  Well, I also mentioned I was going back on Friday to pick up the final two flavors.  When I left the store on Wednesday morning, they had plenty of bags of both.

Cheddar & Sour Cream is everywhere.  No problem finding that one.  Grabbed it and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew, as I do, and went back to inspect further for the Smoked Gouda & Chive.

There were none.  "Okay, I'll try a few other stores."

Visits to Harris Teeter, two Food Lions, and three Krogers later, I am still lacking a bag of Smoked Gouda & Chive.  I've already looked at Wal-Mart, they don't have it either.  While making the rounds, I found bags of all seven of the other flavors.  There are zero bags of Smoked Gouda & Chive in the city.  So please understand my sarcasm in discussing the chips.

If I ever do find a bag of Smoked Gouda & Chive, I'll be sure to do a followup.

My palate cleanser is, as always, and as I mentioned above, a 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew.  It's a little less necessary this time, but I figured I'd include that information anyway, for science or whatever.

Cheddar & Sour Cream

Well, they're pretty good.  The flavors of cheddar and sour cream are easily noticeable and well balanced.  They're kind of salty, though.  As an aside, "salty" happens to be the word that kids these days use to mean "frustrated", and I'm rather frustrated that I can only find seven of the eight flavors of these chips.

Smoked Gouda & Chive

Tastes like my broken hopes and dreams.  The more of them a person has, the better they taste, therefore mine are the most delicious in the universe.

The Verdict

My vote is going to Smoked Gouda & Chive, simply because I'd like to be able to buy a bag of it.

Lay's Flavor Swap: Honey Barbecue vs. Korean Barbecue

I almost had to go to two separate stores for this one, as I initially couldn't find any bags of the Korean Barbecue flavor at Giant.  I was dealing with a large branded multi-shelf cardboard display at one of the entrances, and there was absolutely zero Korean Barbecue visible from the side they clearly intended for you to take stuff from.  However, the back side was accessible (kinky) because there's some ATMs hidden over there, behind all the impulse buy crap crowding the entrance.  Looking at the backs of all the bags, I went "waitaminute, that one looks different from all the rest!".  Pulled it out, flipped it around, and sure enough, Korean Barbecue.  I may very well have gotten the only bag they had, but I don't know for sure.

Something I didn't realize up until now is that the voting wraps up on the 21st, so if I wait until next week to get the last two flavors, I won't be able to vote on all the flavor swaps.  So, I'll probably go back on Friday and grab the last two, and do the last post shortly thereafter.

Continuing tradition, my palate cleanser is a 20 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew.  What can I say, it's in one of the impulse buy refrigerator cases in the checkouts.

Now, to business.  TO BUSINESS!

Honey Barbecue

They have a nice smooth and sweet flavor to them.  It's not overpoweringly sweet, but it's not understated either.  The honey flavor is noticeable, but it's a bit more subtle than I'd honestly like it to be.  If that's a byproduct of not oversweetening them, then I'll have to take what I got, I guess.  They're pretty good, and not terribly salty either.

It's kind of a shame there isn't really any more to say about them.  It's a very simple flavor that works quite well.  A flavor doesn't need to be complex to be delicious.

Korean Barbecue

I have to admit, I don't really eat Korean barbecue on any sort of a regular basis, or at least regular enough or recently enough to know what kind of flavor to expect.  So please understand that I'm resorting to being rather vague in describing the flavor, and comparing it to other things that I do know.

As is reasonable to expect, these have a very different flavor than the Honey Barbecue chips.  There's still the perfect balance of sweetness without being too sweet.  They're noticeably more salty than the Honey Barbecue chips as well.  There's a very distinctive flavor that seems almost teriyaki-like, minus the more fruity flavor teriyaki sauce usually has.  It works quite well and is a much richer flavor overall than the Honey Barbecue chips.

The Verdict

I'm gonna pick the Korean Barbecue chips.  We need better flavors in our food in America anyway, and this is definitely a good start.  Our mass market snacks don't have nearly the flavor variety found in other countries, and the flavor of Korean barbecue sauce is very welcome.  More variety of flavors is always welcome, but a better variety is also just as welcome.