Got back from seeing grandma yesterday; we had a pretty decent time! Good dinner, got even more candies and stuff for Christmas, and grandma made us go through this kind of elaborate scheme to get each present. |D I also got to see my cousin's place for the first time, and that was an...interesting experience.

And uuuugh, last night was miserable. Went to bed at 11 since I knew I had to get up at 6:30 today, only I woke up at 2 and then couldn't go back to sleep because of that STUPID WIND. Have I mentioned that I hate wind recently? No? In case you've forgotten: I hate hate hate HATE the sound of wind at night. It keeps me awake and fills me with persistent dread. So I was kept up all night; went to sleep right before I was supposed to wake up and had a nightmare right up until my alarm went off, then when I woke up, I went downstairs and discovered it was so hot in the house because the wind blew the front door open and our heater was trying to heat the whole outside. By the way, I hate wind.

In better things, I started playing Epic Mickey last night! I can't give quite the same blow-by-blow commentary that I usually do with KH games since Epic Mickey requires a lot more concentration, but I'll still do thoughts as I go through:


- Geebus, this game is PUNISHING. 8( Maybe it's because I haven't played a Wii game in years, maybe it's because I've never been very good with platforming (or just haven't had enough practice with it). But I've never died so much with a game as I have with this one. Just a few missteps or badly-timed jumps in most areas of this game and you end up totally dead. And this wouldn't be quite as aggravating if you didn't have to redo everything you just did every time you die.
- Part of that is also the camera. It's about KH1-levels of camera annoyance, except it's slower, so it takes time to swing the camera around to that enemy that's charging towards you.
- And I wish there was some way to tell where the checkpoints are in the game. D: If I can't choose when to save the game, at least tell me where in the game it's automatically saving!
- I wish they treated the restoration parts more like Okami, where if you finish completely restoring an area, it at least stays bright and shiny. It's a little bit sad to spent lots of time making everything bright and shiny with paint, only to come back to the same area later and see that it's looking just as bad as before.
- Okay, on to good things: the art and animation is REALLY fun. Great designs everywhere; more games need to delve into unique art territory like this. And the motion of all the characters feels very natural. The music is sufficiently unsettling and creepy; I need to get me the OST. For all the platforming problems, there's a few things that are good gameplay mechanics (like being able to still see Mickey's silhouette if you fall behind a wall).
- ...I was waaaaay too happy that the VA for Yen Sid is the same one they've had for KH Yen Sid.
- I was expecting the game to have a lot more on forgotten/rare Disney animation, except thusfar it's not been much of that at all. :< Obviously characters like Oswald, the Phantom Blot, the Mad Doctor and the Gremlins are delightfully obscure and fun. I was just expecting more on forgotten animation...the 40s short compilation movies/propaganda cartoons, the Reluctant Dragon, Oliver and Company, Rescuers Down Under, etc. Thusfar it seems all the animation references have been to shorts before Snow White came out, so not so much "ignored" as "really really oldschool." (Speaking of, where's the Plane Crazy reference?!)
- Actually, more than animation it seems like there's a ton of references to Disneyland in particular, so it's best to play if you're a fan of the parks as well as animation. I especially noticed that in Mean Street...the layout is almost exactly the way it is on actual Main Street. They have the City Hall and the "Museum" (aka Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln) the moment you enter the area. And they still have the Emporium, Ice Cream Parlor and Penny Arcade on the lefthand side of the street, with the cartoon theater and the detective agency (I'm guessing a reference to the magic/mystery shop?) on the righthand side. They even had the green glass elephant in the ice cream parlor! It took me a second to recognize it, and then I was all OMG IT'S THE GLASS ELEPHANT :DDD
- Although it seems the twisted Fantasyland replica wasn't as extensive...they only had the teacups, the Dumbo ride and Small World. No darkrides, carousel or Storybook Land? :< Maybe those come later...
- OsTown was a pretty good replica of ToonTown; even including Donald's boat. Is there a way to restore that? (Also, I accidentally squashed Moody the Pirate. Hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt later.)
- I'm attempting to play as "good" Mickey and use paint as much as possible, so I've only been using paint against the enemies. Thusfar it seems to be paying off; NPCs like me lots and I have three tint guardians following me around.
- ...Speaking of, can you only have a maximum of three guardians at any one time?
- What are you supposed to do with the adorable (but deadly) little Bitty Oswalds? Thusfar I've just been hitting them with paint.
- I used paint to defeat the Small World clock tower boss, but I had to look it up online on how to do it. In related news, I'll never be able to look at It's A Small World the same way again. 8(
- And then on that tangent, maaan I think inside Small World was the creepiest part so far. D: It was okay if I was following the correct route on the upper level, but if I fell down to the water level, the music just got so Nightmare Fuel. And I had to do that section so many times because, again, I fail at platforming.
- I've now gotten to the peak of Mickeyjunk Mountain. I'm going to continue on when I get home from works and grocery shopping. Heeere's hoping that I can get decently far again tonight!


Drawing: 10HAD and LG

Writing: Fic when I have time