Hello there folks! Welcome to the first instalment of a little thing I’d like to call ‘The Escapist’s Journal’. This blog is all about what video games, books and series/movies that are keeping me occupied at the moment. I’ve been wanting to write more about video games mostly, because for me that’s my primary source of escapism, but I’m also an avid reader and I do love watching movies and series. That’s why I’m keeping this blog a bit broader. But for this first instalment I’ll probably stick to just video games and maybe the one book I’m currently reading.

What I’ve been playing:

Fire Emblem Echoes : Shadows of Valentia — Nintendo 3DS

I was first introduced to the Fire Emblem series through the GameBoy Advance, which featured the very first Fire Emblem game translated for a Western audience. Ever since, I’ve been hooked on this game series and while I did a playthrough of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Nintendo Switch, I realised I had never finished this particular game on the 3DS. I’m currently at Chapter 3, which is roughly halfway and the story is amazing. I think this is easily one of the best 3DS games out there. The artwork, story and soundtrack are all phenomenal and the gameplay is everything I want from a turn-based tactical RPG. If you’ve never played one of these games, you really should try one! After my first playthrough, I’ll write an in-depth article about this game!

WarioWare: Get It Together — Nintendo Switch

WarioWare is such a weird and lovely game. It’s one of those games where you keep telling yourself: “Okay, one last try.” and before you know it, you’ll be at least five attempts further from getting that elusive high-score. The story mode can be completed in a couple of hours, but as the game itself states “The story may have finished, but the game is just starting!”

The thing that makes this WarioWare different from the others is that you actually control a character and need to finish all of the micro-games with these characters. Micro games are games that take a few seconds to complete, before moving on to the next. The best experience with the game is when you play together with a friend, or even multiple friends! But I think this game is best experienced with two players. There are also weekly challenges in the Wario Cup, which features an online ranking board and allows you to get more of the in-game coins so you can level up all your characters. All in all it’s just a really whacky game that’s perfect for a couple of hours of entertainment, or even enjoyed in short bursts of 15 minutes or so! My full review will be on this blog soon!

Smash Bros. Ultimate — Nintendo Switch

I recently started playing this game again, because I thought it would be awesome to play co-op with one of my friends. But after our last game night I found myself wanting to finally finish the story mode, which can only be played single player, sadly. And with the addition of the final fighter, Sora, from Kingdom Hearts, the roster is now complete and I’ve been considering getting the DLC Fighters passes. If anything Smash Bros is the biggest celebration of video game history and a true testament of all the great characters it has given us, from Mario, to Sonic, to Pac-Man and so many, many more!

Although I love Smash Bros. Ultimate, I do think its biggest letdown for me is that you can’t play the Adventure Mode together, which would’ve made it perfect. But other than that you really can’t complain much about a game with such an extensive roster of fighters and content. 😉

Monster Hunter: Rise — Nintendo Switch

Yes! I’m still playing Monster Hunter: Rise!  Ever since its release in March of this year I had taken a little break from it, but the past week I’ve begun to revisit and finally beat the final boss: Thunder Serpent Narwa. Yet, there is still a lot of post-game content I need to dig into and I haven’t played nearly any of the free DLC quests, so there’s still quite a bit of stuff on my plate there.

I’ve also been playing with the idea of trying some other weapons that I never played with. My main weapon of choice is the Light Bowgun, or the Hammer. I have tried some of the other weapons, but it feels as if its best if you play certain weapons from the beginning so your skill grows as you defeat ever increasingly difficult monsters. I might just start another game with a fresh character, but I’m not sure if I should, considering what a massive time sink this game can be and there’s still a lot on my backlog!

Other games

I have also spent time on other games, such as Pokémon Picross and continue to play my Nuzlocke run of Pokémon Red, but considering how the latter is such a grindy game, I haven’t put as much time in as I did when I started so enthusiastically a month ago. I’ll still finish it, for sure 😉 But with next month’s release of the Pokémon Diamond & Pearl remakes, I think my time spent playing Pokémon games will mostly be one of those titles, depending on which one Bren chooses as her version.

What I’ve been reading:

Besides reading books, I also consider listening to audio books reading. This means I can do two things at a time, playing a game and listening to the book. Or even working and listening to it. I did put more time into reading this month than I had previously, I am planning to keep that up, going forward, because reading is a lot of fun!

Little Me — Matt Lucas

I got to know Matt Lucas from the Little Britain series, which I absolutely loved. I also watched some of the shows he did afterwards, like the Netflix Original Pompidou and Come Fly With Me. It was a lot of fun listening to this audio book, because it’s not a typical run of the mill autobiography and since it’s read by Matt Lucas himself there’s plenty of voices he does from the famous shows and even a song! I really liked this audiobook and I’m sure to write a more in-depth review of it soon!

De Internauten: Oorsprong — R. Wade

This book is a review book for a blog tour and I’ve almost finished it. That’s why I can’t go into details about it too much yet, but it’s a scifi young adult, and when I signed up to review it, it sounded like a book for me. You’ll have to wait for my review on October 30th to find out what my thoughts on it are, however! 😉

See you soon!

I hope you liked this blog. Have you played any of these games, or read any of these books too? Please let me know your thoughts! 

Until next time, and happy gaming!

~Jeffrey