Date of Personal Significance
A fun little idea tying memories to games.
2 Games
September 1, 2013
I am failing college. I am recently single. Things are not going well. I need a win.
When I graduated High School in 2010 I knew one thing for certain: things are going to get worse. I am a chronic liar and I'm punching above my weight class both romantically and academically. So I decided to spend a lot of money on YuGiOh, where my talents could shine. I played mostly stun based decks that played a lot of trap cards and my favorite deck in that era was Gemini Hero Beat. It was never the best deck but it was always a top deck and I saw a lot of success with it. Playing YuGiOh in that little period of time ruled and I loved it. I played twice a week and would spend a lot of my parents money buying cards. The thing about TCG games is you spend a lot of money on them but it's in small increments so it doesn't FEEL like you're spending a lot of money. It's my parent's money anyways so who cares! Every week I'd spend more and more money and my deck's value would go up and up. A YuGiOh deck is like a house if you're a fucking moron. You invest in it and its worth goes up but every ban list there's a chance the whole thing becomes worthless (so that's like termites I guess).
Flash forward 3 years. I am FUCKED. my lies and grades have caught up with me and suicide is on the table baby. My days of YuGiOh are waning and I have a new frivolous hobby to waste money on: SNES game collecting. So I figure let's sell these trading cards and buy something big, let's buy Earthbound. The crown jewel of every physical collecting babies library.
And I did just that. Weeks before that fateful day, September 1, 2013. One of the most controversial ban list in YuGiOh. Elemental Hero Stratos goes from limited to banned and one of the most beloved cards in the game is gone. This made Gemini Hero Beat literally unplayable with a single hit and I've made out like a bandit. Selling at the absolute peak of its worth.
I've got $500 in my pocket, a CRT TV, a head full of depression, and nothing but time. I'm not saying Earthbound fixed my life, but I sure did play it for the first time at a weirdly pivotable point in my life. It definitely made me cry a few times in that weird way that things make you cry when you're always on the verge of crying. When Jeff gets on Tessie and the music gets all quiet. I don't know it really brings something out of me.
Anyways, I changed my major, went to therapy, started working out, graduated, and got married. Things are fine now. I eventually sold my SNES collection because my wife and I needed a new mattress. I always tell her we are sleeping on YuGiOh money.
In the end I'm glad I didn't kill myself. And while I don't think Earthbound "saved me" or something trite like that, I do think it helped.
"Jeff! You are a friend who we've never met...But you are our one and only hope!"
Is a weird message to hear when you are living at rock bottom.
I am failing college. I am recently single. Things are not going well. I need a win.
When I graduated High School in 2010 I knew one thing for certain: things are going to get worse. I am a chronic liar and I'm punching above my weight class both romantically and academically. So I decided to spend a lot of money on YuGiOh, where my talents could shine. I played mostly stun based decks that played a lot of trap cards and my favorite deck in that era was Gemini Hero Beat. It was never the best deck but it was always a top deck and I saw a lot of success with it. Playing YuGiOh in that little period of time ruled and I loved it. I played twice a week and would spend a lot of my parents money buying cards. The thing about TCG games is you spend a lot of money on them but it's in small increments so it doesn't FEEL like you're spending a lot of money. It's my parent's money anyways so who cares! Every week I'd spend more and more money and my deck's value would go up and up. A YuGiOh deck is like a house if you're a fucking moron. You invest in it and its worth goes up but every ban list there's a chance the whole thing becomes worthless (so that's like termites I guess).
Flash forward 3 years. I am FUCKED. my lies and grades have caught up with me and suicide is on the table baby. My days of YuGiOh are waning and I have a new frivolous hobby to waste money on: SNES game collecting. So I figure let's sell these trading cards and buy something big, let's buy Earthbound. The crown jewel of every physical collecting babies library.
And I did just that. Weeks before that fateful day, September 1, 2013. One of the most controversial ban list in YuGiOh. Elemental Hero Stratos goes from limited to banned and one of the most beloved cards in the game is gone. This made Gemini Hero Beat literally unplayable with a single hit and I've made out like a bandit. Selling at the absolute peak of its worth.
I've got $500 in my pocket, a CRT TV, a head full of depression, and nothing but time. I'm not saying Earthbound fixed my life, but I sure did play it for the first time at a weirdly pivotable point in my life. It definitely made me cry a few times in that weird way that things make you cry when you're always on the verge of crying. When Jeff gets on Tessie and the music gets all quiet. I don't know it really brings something out of me.
Anyways, I changed my major, went to therapy, started working out, graduated, and got married. Things are fine now. I eventually sold my SNES collection because my wife and I needed a new mattress. I always tell her we are sleeping on YuGiOh money.
In the end I'm glad I didn't kill myself. And while I don't think Earthbound "saved me" or something trite like that, I do think it helped.
"Jeff! You are a friend who we've never met...But you are our one and only hope!"
Is a weird message to hear when you are living at rock bottom.
August 15, 2020
I played the original Dustforce some time in 2015 on the PS3 and I thought it was alright. Just alright. Pretty cool. I could see the potential in it but I'd have to get better at it and there was very little time and very many games to get after so I wasn't particularly willing. I stopped playing it but I never stopped thinking about it. I wasn't willing to put in the time but the game was very willing to give me the time if I ever wanted to come back. Dustforce respects your time.
Come 2020 and I suddenly have a very large amount of free time. I was thinking "boy I could really learn something new and fun with all of this sudden free time" and while some may have considered the piano or something actually useful, I had the Dustforce seed planted in me from 2015.
So I bought DX for the PC and had the goal to get as far as I did on the PS3. Which didn't take very long because I didn't get very far. So I set a new goal to complete all the gold levels. Dustforce respects your time, so the constant practice and failure was fun in itself. Not sure how many hours it took exactly but I finished all the gold levels and that seemed like a good place to stop.
But, I unlocked the "Difficult" levels and completing Giga Difficult is the only achievement in the game. So I'll treat it like a final boss, the other Difficults are way to hard but I can do just one and hang my hat on that. Dustforce respects your time, so the great music kept me calm and having a good time while I hammered away at this level and after a while I beat it. It was something to be proud of.
But, the other Difficults don't seem so hard now. I have a pretty good idea of how much time it takes to beat one of them and it's not that bad really. There wasn't a point in practicing in which I wasn't having fun so lets just chip away at the other Difficults until I eventually beat them all. Dustforce respects your time, so you can watch other players replays and learn different way to tackle different obstacles. You can map out a path that suits your play style and eventually you can beat all of the Difficults. Except for Yotta of course. That level is like 3 minutes long and a magnitude higher in difficulty compared to every challenge presented so far.
Okay, I can stop being cute. I then spent the next 3 or 4 months practicing a single level and eventually beat Yotta Difficult on the above date. It's the greatest accomplishment I've ever had in video games and the best part about it is over the 300+ hours of gameplay with Dustforce DX I was having the time of my life constantly increasing my ceiling. When you are working on a level the NEXT level always looks impossible but by the time you beat the level you are working on the next level suddenly looks doable. Harder, but doable. Dustforce wants you to be good at Dustforce and is built around that. It respects your time.
I played the original Dustforce some time in 2015 on the PS3 and I thought it was alright. Just alright. Pretty cool. I could see the potential in it but I'd have to get better at it and there was very little time and very many games to get after so I wasn't particularly willing. I stopped playing it but I never stopped thinking about it. I wasn't willing to put in the time but the game was very willing to give me the time if I ever wanted to come back. Dustforce respects your time.
Come 2020 and I suddenly have a very large amount of free time. I was thinking "boy I could really learn something new and fun with all of this sudden free time" and while some may have considered the piano or something actually useful, I had the Dustforce seed planted in me from 2015.
So I bought DX for the PC and had the goal to get as far as I did on the PS3. Which didn't take very long because I didn't get very far. So I set a new goal to complete all the gold levels. Dustforce respects your time, so the constant practice and failure was fun in itself. Not sure how many hours it took exactly but I finished all the gold levels and that seemed like a good place to stop.
But, I unlocked the "Difficult" levels and completing Giga Difficult is the only achievement in the game. So I'll treat it like a final boss, the other Difficults are way to hard but I can do just one and hang my hat on that. Dustforce respects your time, so the great music kept me calm and having a good time while I hammered away at this level and after a while I beat it. It was something to be proud of.
But, the other Difficults don't seem so hard now. I have a pretty good idea of how much time it takes to beat one of them and it's not that bad really. There wasn't a point in practicing in which I wasn't having fun so lets just chip away at the other Difficults until I eventually beat them all. Dustforce respects your time, so you can watch other players replays and learn different way to tackle different obstacles. You can map out a path that suits your play style and eventually you can beat all of the Difficults. Except for Yotta of course. That level is like 3 minutes long and a magnitude higher in difficulty compared to every challenge presented so far.
Okay, I can stop being cute. I then spent the next 3 or 4 months practicing a single level and eventually beat Yotta Difficult on the above date. It's the greatest accomplishment I've ever had in video games and the best part about it is over the 300+ hours of gameplay with Dustforce DX I was having the time of my life constantly increasing my ceiling. When you are working on a level the NEXT level always looks impossible but by the time you beat the level you are working on the next level suddenly looks doable. Harder, but doable. Dustforce wants you to be good at Dustforce and is built around that. It respects your time.