I've just put this site on Neocities and it seems to be working well! Now I gotta figure out the custom domain thing. Yay!

Figured it out! :)

Lately, I’ve returned to Fields of Mistria following its fourth major update on February 23rd of this year. If you haven’t heard of the game, it’s a cozy farming sim which was developed by NPC Studio and released into early access in the summer of 2024. Development has been steady with the full release planned for sometime in 2026. It is currently $13.99 on Steam, and I think that’s a steal for how much I’ve been enjoying it.

What first caught my interest was the cute retro anime art style, which people often compare to Sailor Moon. The aesthetics of this game are absolutely fantastic. The color palette is vibrant, and the NPCs change their clothes based on the season. There are A LOT of decoration and clothing options. Once you unlock something, you unlock all color variants. I love that you’re able to save preset outfits. There are also a bunch of mods you can use to add hairstyles, outfits, decorations, and colors. Shoutout to whoever made that Art the Clown costume mod lolol.

The premise of the story is simple. You play as an adventurer who answers the call to help revitalize the town of Mistria after an earthquake devastates the town, leaving the roads and buildings damaged, the stockpiles depleted, and the population dwindling as people leave for the city. In exchange for your help, you are given ownership of the old farm south of town. The kingdom of Aldaria in which Mistria resides has a Town Rank system. After the earthquake, Mistria fell two ranks… which is a bit wild because what do you MEAN this town has to suffer this rank down nonsense after a natural disaster??? You must raise Mistria’s Town Rank by earning Renown which can be done through completing quests, shipping items, and donating things to the museum.

You soon learn that Mistria is full of magic. After restoring a statue found on your farm of Caldarus, the mythological guardian dragon of Mistria, he appears to you in a dream and tells you that magic is flowing into Mistria. His memories are messed up so he asks you to help him regain his strength by collecting Essence and offering it to him. Caldarus and his story are linked to the Mines, which I’ll talk about later.

There are nine skills you can level: Farming, Fishing, Archaeology, Cooking, Ranching, Woodcrafting, Blacksmithing, Mining, and Combat. As you perform these skills, you obtain Essence which you offer to Caldarus in exchange for Skill Perks. The game isn’t particularly difficult. I’m a very relaxed player when it comes to farming sims, so I don’t get caught up in the grind. Neither collecting resources or leveling up my skills felt like a chore. That’s just me and my play style. Do you like to just chill in these sorts of games? Or are you someone who loves to optimize the shit outta your run? Will you live a cozy slow life or will you start a mega capitalist empire?

Farming and Ranching are very straightforward if you’ve played any farm sim. The addition of magic spells that can be used for farming is incredibly handy. You can use magic to water your crops, grow them quickly, and even restore your stamina. Your mana is limited so you’ll have to use your magic wisely. When it comes to ranching, this game has hands down the cutest animal sprites, in my opinion. It also has a neat breeding system in which you can produce animals with different colors and patterns. You can also give your animals things like accessories and toys. I love seeing them wander around with their hats and bows!

Collecting things for a museum (because SOMEHOW these dying towns are able to employ a curator/archivist) is one of my favorite parts of these sorts of games. Certain artifact sets can only be completed by unlocking certain skills which gives you a reason to level skills. Though you’d want to level skills anyway since the perks are so handy. Aside from archaeological artifacts, you’ll be donating fish, flora, and insects. Different characters will talk to you about different items you’ve donated based on their interests.

The Mines, as I mentioned earlier, are tied to the story. I really like having a reason related to the plot to explore the mines. Collecting items and resources is fun (there are a ton to collect in the mines), but I enjoyed the overall “magic is leaking out into Mistria” plot. Personally, I find the combat boring, but that’s just me. It’s really not challenging at all. You quickly get used to the monsters’ simple attack patterns. I wish there were boss fights or something. It was really only the story and collection aspects that had me interested in exploring the mines.

Finally, I wanna talk about the NPCs. I love, love, LOVE these characters so much. They’re very chatty, and you’ll often come across some group dialogue. It’s great seeing them actually interacting with one another, especially on Friday nights at the Inn. There are 12 romanceable characters, but you can opt to pursue only friendship if you so choose. You’re able to take your partners out on dates too, though I haven’t made it that far yet.

Now, I admittedly don’t know much about the farming sim genre. I’ve only played Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, the first Rune Factory game, and Stardew Valley. As such, I can’t tell you whether or not this game reinvents the genre or anything of value like an actual game reviewer could. But what I can tell you is that this is an incredibly charming and fun game, and I’m very excited for its full release sometime this year and any subsequent updates. I hope you’re able to give this game a try if you’re at all interested!

I knew that I wanted to have a blog on this site, but I wasn't satisfied with the easiest setup had immediately come to my mind as the easiest solution... which was one big blog archive with links you'd click to open a new page to display a blog post. After looking into a bunch of solutions, I came up with what I have now: an iframe that displays one month's worth of blog posts and way to navigate blogposts in the right sidebar. But I'm sure I don't need to explain this to you since... you're looking at it!

The iframe resizes itself to fit the content and takes into account the expanding and collapsing of the entries which I made using <details>. One issue with how I've done this is that if you don't have JavaScript enabled, you won't be able to properly view my blogposts even if you open the blogpost page in a new tab. This is because I've set the overflow on the blogpost page to hidden so there's no flicker of a scrollbar when you expand the posts in the iframe.

There's only one year (2026) and one month (March) in the archive section so far, but once the sidebar gets more populated, you'll be able to show/hide a year's months by clicking or tapping on them. I did to make it so you didn't have to scroll through a ton of months. Though, I guess... who would care to click through when all it'll be is just 2026 MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY... and so on lolol. Oh well!

Hopefully this layout makes sense and is easy to use. I have a lot to learn and will work on improving this blog in the future. :)

Do you ever get in a mood where you can't stop making a single dish over and over again? I've been like that with lasagna lately. God, I love lasagna so, so much. Pasta in general is awesome, but there's just something about lasagna that makes me want to make it over and over and over even though it's more of a hassle than other pasta.

Other dishes I end up making again and again include bacon fried rice, corn chowder, and what is basically oyakodon (a Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl) but without the chicken. I'm making myself really hungry writing about food.

For a bit over half my life, I've had this tradition where I binge Friday the 13th on every... get this, on every Friday the 13th. And I'm like, super into it. I don't care what I have to miss - school, work, whatever. Why? Friday the 13th is where it all began for me. It was the first horror movie I can recall watching. I would have been 6 or 7 years old at the time, and this shit gave me vivid nightmares for a while... And that fascinated me! I loved being scared! I've been super into horror ever since.

2026 is spoiling me with Friday the 13ths. There was one last month. There's one this month. There will be one in November. Do you have any traditions like this? I also watch Over the Garden Wall, Monster House, and... Halloween every Halloween.

I start getting antsy once March hits. While I'm almost constantly out and about in spring, summer, and autumn, I don't get out much during winter. It's mostly due to the fact that I HATE driving in winter, but also, winter is my time of rest. It's when I can just stay home and relax. I can binge some show, spend all day playing games, stay in bed, etc. I let myself do all the things that I don't typically do otherwise... Buuuut after a season of doing these things, I start to miss my usual rituals. I miss getting a coffee and sitting down to doodle at the cafe. I miss walking around.

Anyway, I'm really glad March is here. But now I have to go through the hell that is having to be patient. We're going to keep having these cold, snowy days until we get a random 55°F sunny day. And that'll be GREAT... except no it won't! Because all the snow will melt and freeze when the temperature drops to like 12°F overnight!

Spring, I'm beggin' ya please... I'm dyin' in the cold. Do you have a favorite season? Mine is autumn. Hands down, none of the other seasons come close to how much I adore autumn.