Seeing as how my status as a writer should not be up for much contention given how much rubbish I’ve written over the years for this site, between novels, hundreds of reviews, and the weekly musings about game industry news, one would most likely expect that I am something of a reader as well. However, that really is not the case, as while I do read a good number of articles, short stories, and many visual novels, it has been quite a while since I last read a full book. I used to read novels frequently back in high school, but as I started putting more and more attention into my site, and began writing my own stories, I began developing an urge to work on my own writing pursuits whenever I tried to start reading a book. It just reminds me of how I have not told the stories I’ve wanted to tell yet, and I begin to feel like I’m procrastinating. Though, this does not really apply to watching videos, probably because it is a more passive activity and a different medium entirely.
Around the end of last year the initial poster for the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog live action film was released, and it revealed the silhouette of what Sonic would look like in this upcoming feature. People saw this, ripped it to shreds, and the entire internet was in a brief fervor for a little while. However, I chose to not judge this reveal on its own, and instead waited until more information surfaced, and thanks to the magic of leaks, it has and all I can say is… I expected worse. Yes, this rendition of Sonic does look like a creepy mutated animal child with grubby little white hands, weird proportions, and fur that looks like it hurts to touch, but I honestly could not imagine the character looking much better while still retaining a “realistic” look. 
It ultimately looks like the end result of compromises and concessions and a lot of artistic reinterpretations that went through so many iterations that I doubt the people working on it really cared about what they were designing after a while. But in due time I, and the rest of the gaming world, will inevitably get used to it. Much like how I will inevitably wind up seeing the film this new interpretation of Sonic is based off of. After it comes out on home video that is, since I would rather never to go to a cinema ever again. They’re dirty, loud, expensive, and generally unpleasant. …Also, Sonic porn is gonna be real weird for the next year or so, innit?
Remember back when everybody thought that Nintendo Labo was going to be something significant, impressive, and be a hit with small children around the world? Yeah, that was wrong, and the Labo Kits neither sold very well or received much attention after launch, as they are small novelties. A status that I doubt that will change much with the latest Labo Kit, the VR Kit. This is a fairly interesting concept, much like all prior Labo Kits, as it offers an inexpensive entrypoint for people to experience and enjoy VR mini-games. 
While that might sound positively nifty to some, I honestly believe that even the most adamant supporters of VR at this point are starting to grow tired of VR mini-games, and would much rather support full experiences, which I doubt will ever be for this device. So once more it looks to be a cardboard kit that is designed for a fun weekend with a couple of friends (if people still have those anymore) that will become mere clutter come Monday morning.
Speaking of bland cardboard clutter that is forgotten about exceedingly quickly, EA have announced that they will be foregoing an E3 press conference this year, still hosting their usual EA Play event and live streaming prior to E3 proper, but will not proceed to embarrass themselves in front of the stage and give fodder to the chaps who make the usual assortment of E3 mockery compilations. Much like how I was not perturbed by the lack of a Sony event this upcoming June, I am also not bothered by the lack of EA, but that is mostly due to how little I care about the company. Bioware is a shambling corpse ready to take a bullet to the brain and their only only other interesting titles of note since 2015 have been the independent games they’ve funded. I was actually considering just skipping the event entirely this year, but now I don’t even need to think about watching their dull display of mediocrity. Hooray!
With a buffer time of 6 months out the way, it’s safe to say that Octopath Traveller has been something of a success for Square Enix, and it appears to have been great enough for the publisher to begin investing in additional projects with the IP. Namely a free to play mobile RPG by the name of Octopath Traveller: Champions of the Continent. Which looks to be a very direct translation of the original game but with a simplified combat system and the introduction of an 8-character party. A feature that I very much wish the original game could boast given the whole 8 characters thing. While this game will debut in Japan on March 12th, this does not mean that the series is making the jump to mobile, as the official Japanese Twitter account reassured fans that a second console game is in the works. Also, I own the original Octopath Traveller and will try to get around to it sometime this year, but only after I make enough time for Breath of the Wild.
Anyways, that’s all for this week. For those interested, I will not be able to finish my Student Transfer Version 4.1 review next week, as my free time is limited, and I want to play through everything the game has to offer before publishing my review.
Header image comes from X-Change 3. Which I was going to review many years ago, but that game was just a monotonous rape fiesta and I got sick of it real quickly.