#4if

I couldn’t sleep so I decided to go back and beat some Opus Magnum levels that I hadn’t finished yet. I still want to fully complete that game but it just takes so long. Each of these levels was probably an hour and a half to finish and optimize to my liking.

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I looked at my notes again (glad I was taking them), looked at the in-game computer more thoroughly than usual, and I also looked at a spoiler-free guide I found online.

Basically where I was at last time there were a few points where I thought I was ready to go somewhere but couldn't quite get it and thought I needed something else first so I stopped trying. But after enough of those I felt stuck.

The guide was like if you know the answer to this question then you're ready then go ahead and try again, and a few of those I was like yep I know that cool I'll try again, and then a few I was like don't know that yet I'll wait and come back.

In 2022 my list was Bayonetta 2, LiS Remastered (New at the Time), Horizon Zero Dawn (PC), & God of War Opus Magnum.

I forgot in 2023, but in 2024 my list was Slay the Princess, Pseudoregalia, Laika: Aged in Blood, Tritris NES Lines WR, and TMNF.

And for 2025 my list is Unsighted (a game I played in 2023 but softlocked and gave on), Outer Wilds (I forget why I stopped but should be fun to get back to), I Am Your Beast (Got too focused on S Ranking every level and forgot to enjoy it, gonna just play through them and forget about ranks (mostly)), and Rift of the Necromancer (which comes out next week but I'm gonna play the hell out of on release).

And I didn't notice until just now typing this out but I usually switch one game up and pick something else. I gotta say PGRC and Replicube (both by the indie dev walaber) have been hella fun and I could see myself playing those for some arbitrary goal instead of one of the ones on my list. Except Rift there's no way I'm not playing through that whole game this month.

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That being said I'm also releasing my second Blanksford comic over on Bluesky this month so I've gotta be a bit more strategic with my free time than usual. No playing Rivals 2 ranked for hours on end or grinding PGRC for new PBs until 4am this month.

I haven't really been updating here with my 4inFeb progress but I just finished. I had changed my 4th game from Laika to getting a specific WR in Tritris and I just accomplished that today.

The WR was the most lines cleared in a single game on NES speeds.

And for the other 3 games:

Pseudoregalia, I've beaten probably like 50 times now. And speedrunning it has been a serious mix of fun and frustrating. The OoB tricks required for a good time are so inconsistent, that it's getting less and less fun to grind for a PB.

Slay the Princess, I haven't gone back to after my initial playthrough but I did beat it so good enough.

Played the heck out of Pseudoregalia, 8ish hours all in one go. To 100% the game. I did look up a map because holy heck is there no direction in-game.

I'm definitely gonna draw the goat-bunny-cat lady at some point.

And I'm also interested in trying some of the speedruns which convinced me to get into the game in the first place.

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EDIT:

Found an any% route and gave it a couple runs. Lost the first one to not taking safety saves and death warping at 0 health for a reset, and lost the second run because I forgot an item near the middle and didn't feel like backtracking for it since I was trying to learn the route.

So a couple years ago my friend challenge me to do 4inFeb a gaming challenge where you beat 4 games in the month of February. I didn't do it last year but he asked me if I was doing it again this year.

And even though a week has already gone by I have completed a full playthrough of Slay the Princess so technically I'm on track for one game a week. There's still some stuff I want to explore in that game though but I think it'd be fine to at least TRY to do 4 in Feb again.

For my other 3 games here's what I'm thinking:

-Pseudoregalia - It looks so fun to speedrun but I've been putting off playing it and it's only $6 so I should probably play it if I'm ever gonna. I'll set a goal of just any% for this month but if I like it I'll probably come back and do some speedruns.

-Laika: Aged in Blood - I played a bit of the demo and then a few more hours back in October but I stopped and it's been so long that it's just been sitting in my backlog. It was good I just stopped playing it once Marvel Snap released on PC and I kind of forgot about it so it'd be good to finish it.

Well it took a few extra days to complete since I got distracted with the Grapple Dog speedrun competition but I still really enjoyed this challenge.

Bayo 2 was a fun and sexy game that I’m glad I was able to finish after just sitting on a few hours played for so long.

Opus Magnum was fun to come back to and finish off and after completing it I’ve gone back just to optimize certain levels (not included in the time posted) and I’ll probably do that more as I have time because it’s a fun game that make my brain go brrrrr with the optimization problems.

Horizon Zero Dawn was a game that I knew was good but wasn’t expecting to be this fucking good. There were a few weird moments here and there due to the leveling system but ulitmately it was a super enjoyable experience.

God of War ended up being pushed away until after this challenge but I’m playing through it casually right now and it’s been fun so far, but I’m so glad I didn’t binge it for this challenge since it’s just a lot of content.

Life is Strange was something I’ve already played through 3 times before this but the remaster was a weirdly different experience. Though the story was the same and still fucking amazing and personal and impactful. The remastered bit went from being a buggy, crashy mess to crashing at the literal best possible time in the BtS post credit scene, and having an amazing optimized and beautiful ending in the final moments of the original game that just reminded me of why I absolutely love this series and these characters so much.