#map exploration

Music Day 2021 - from July 5th until July 15th!

Companion Voclaunn will be given to everyone on the server once the meter reaches 100%. Companion Xylondoom can be found during exploration on a map made just for the Music event.

Each clothing set is themed after one of these girls. By exploration we have to find fragments to fill their meters and gain all items. If you want to speed through it then one fragment will cost you dearly.

The event map is filled with the new companion as well as older items so each area is packed. There is one area with 0 items on it and it costs 15 energy points but I have no idea why it is at 0. Maybe avoid that one for now since it could be a bug.

I sent my pet to that location to see what happens and:

Let's talk about a recent thing I discovered gaming wise while playing one of the best games in the metroidvania genre, Hollow Knight. A realization I've come to as to why I like playing games of this type provided they are done well.

In a title of this type, it is always a slow crawl towards exploring more and achieving the goal of seeing and achieving. Every extra room you can now get to that you couldn't before, everything that seemed out of reach, now is. Yes you can. It is possible.

Another thing happens. You then start thinking about all the previous things you couldn't do. Now you can. Or maybe you can't...but because you've already been to areas you couldn't before, you know it is possible. It is enough to keep you going. Hollow Knight doesn't punish you every waking minute like the soulsborne series, souls-likes, and rouge-likes out there. It lets you enjoy your environments area by area at a time and teaches you do deal with new foes before throwing as boss at you for a real challenge. You can get properly immersed in the place and want to explore more...but you can't. Gotta beat that boss first. You have your drive. Because you know you can see more.

Hollow Knight is a bit dark in tone but the characters are cartoon/chibi-like so it adds a certain cutesy charm to it that makes it not as depressing as it could look. Darkness isn't all bad though. Hornet tells us that...but I've embraced enough of that over the last few days so the visit there again won't for some time. Or perhaps when Silksong comes out and I make a post about that. Or...maybe a hint of reality now, eh?

In an instant gratification generation, we want things right away and we throw away key parts of ourselves sometimes to fill that void. We try to find shortcuts so things that require deeper planning we don't have to be considered. We don't think about finding another power-up to move on with the level. We don't thing about the many trials actually required with a boss to proceed. Wherever hope is at the end of this tunnel, I swear I'm coming for you.

I'll be there as soon as I can

but I'm busy mending broken

pieces of the life I had before

See, this is the kind of stuff I want to do without having to fight for my life every 5 seconds.

How cool is this houseboat? Complete with GARDEN!