Aiole’s Adventures

A quiet place on the internet where I can share about the games I play. See my art via linktree

[aioledreams]

Lookbook Code: 7869BBPvf1K#

Oh my goodness how fun is this four star dress with all its blues and sparkle and part starry night and part surrealist melting clocks and part celestial motif. Okay there is a lot going on in this dress, and the gloves and tights are also a lot. I was delighted to style this outfit and must have dyed at least ten pairs of shoes looking for some that I liked.

[aioledreams]

Lookbook Code: 786XgOKd00C#

This is actually my floating outfit. I have a great love for fairies, and yellow greens, and instantly fell in love with this dress. I wasn't as big of a fan (nor did I pull) the leg pieces for this outfit, so I made my own ensemble with the pieces I liked. I coordinated the dress with my favourite wings and some subtly dyed pieces, plus one of my favourite hairstyles.

[aioledreams]

Aiole Plays Hozy

Hozy is a cozy home game where you clean spaces, unpack furniture, and organize items.

I have about eight hours played in this game, and I did re-play a couple of levels or go back to take more photos, so actual playtime is probably lower unless you really want to do the levels over and over again.

The rooms are interesting and varied, each with an array of furniture pieces and small items. You can choose to do more with the paint on the walls than I did, and the game gives you a little brush to put in details. There are usually multiple choices for wall colour. I liked that the levels usually have a lot of different lighting options and where you place them can really change the mood of the room. I also liked that each level has little things you can do like open windows, or change colours on glass blocks. I think my favourite level ended up being the tiny apartment.

There is a photo mode where you can take screenshots of your creations with options for a few different filters (I wasn't particularly interested in them so none of the filters are pictured here). I like that you can really zoom in on items in the photo mode to take pictures of details.

I do wish you could have a 360 degree view of each level (it would make placing items easier in some cases), and I like that the cafe level gives you more room to scroll and angle your camera around. I would also love a wider variety of filters or lighting options in photo mode.

My biggest complaint about this game honestly is that it is quite short - what is there is fun and engaging, and I wish there were more! If you like cleaning/organizing/decorating Hozy is a good game to pick up.

[aioledreams]

Aiole Plays Organized Inside

Organized Inside, as per the title, is a game where you organize things inside a variety of places.

You start with a room full of disorganized items and an empty space for sorting. There are a few other small tasks like cleaning items, putting things back together, and opening packages. Sometimes you will organize a smaller area first and then the stage will expand to show you the whole room.

The game is exactly as advertised, so if you like this kind of thing its a pretty safe bet. I personally got about seven and a half hours playtime out of it without re-doing any levels. I thought all of the environments had a satisfying amount of items in them to organize, and that the art was pretty cute. I like that the cat from the title screen is in every level somewhere, and would often place him in the room last to finish the stage.

[aioledreams]

Among the Lanterns

I loved this outfit so much that it is still in one of my saved outfit slots. The beautiful lanterns and fireworks made for an excellent backdrop to capture it in some photos!

[aioledreams]

Darkest Blue Black Mage Glamour

Took Ciel out to my favourite glowing jungle to take photos of my most recent BLM glamour. It's stuck around for quite some time because I love her wearing it so much.

I'm a big fan of the Spaekona's Skirt and Wrist Torques here, and I started with them when I was trying to pull the outfit together. The two dyes you use on the Oasis Tunic can really change its vibe (I used Dark Blue and Gunmetal Black) and it was not the piece I expected to like the most with these BLM pieces. It was pictured here with the first stage of the Dawntrail relic weapon; I really like its subtle blue glow and how dyes can completely change the vibe of the staff. There are lots of other great staves that coordinate well with this, including the level 99/100 armor set staff.

I posted it over here on Eorzea Collection: Darkest Blue

[aioledreams]

Apparently one of the best parts of the Wanxiang Realm story was taking group photos with Tan Youyou.

I actually really liked that season - the Wanxiang realm story was interesting, the new area had a ton of places to take fun screenshots, and all of the hotpot minigames were fun. Also now I want hotpot.

[aioledreams]

The cardigan we got for last Valentione's Day is really super cute.

I eagerly rushed to try to pair it with all of Ciel's miniskirts only to realise it is a long cardigan and the miniskirts made it look like she wasn't wearing bottoms at all. So, good thing the outfit comes with a perfectly good skirt and socks.

They are very cute socks too - I love the subtle heart detail on them.

So now Ciel gets to enjoy some tea time in Sharlayan for a photoshoot.

[aioledreams]

I did it! I finally finished farming all of the materials for the Silvergale Miracle Outfit. I'm not really sure if I like this or Aurosa more... though I keep looking at the hair and thinking about how much work it would be to take care of a wig that long.

If I could decide where to take pictures of it I'd go and photo the final colour of this set because the soft green with the gold and the lace overlay is so pretty.

[aioledreams]

Lookbook Outfit Code: 7mMZDQ4Zrxl#

I loved so many pieces of both sets from this season and I tried to get as many pieces as I could without breaking the bank. I really like this short dress (actually a top. Too bad I didn't get the shorts that go under it, good thing there are lots of miniskirts in the game). This colour scheme was for a Discord server colour styling event and I really liked it, so I uploaded it to the lookbook.

[aioledreams]

Too Sweet

Lookbook Outfit Code: 7mMzGhr5pqi#

I don't know how Nikki is going to successfully eat that ice cream without losing some.

It was not my Infinity Nikki dream to have my very own magical unicorn to ride on so I did not participate much in trying to get the outfits from this particular season. I did however enjoy the manicure and the tower of ice cream, and I enjoyed putting together an outfit that said sugary sweet to take photos with all the candy scenery they had going on. I could have gotten some in the dungeon too and didn't, I just spent all my time outside trying to artfully cut around mushrooms.

That slide minigame was a lot of fun though! And the message of the story was a good one - be the person you are; our differences make us beautiful!

[aioledreams]

Rogue Colours Glamour

I got a bit nostalgic for Ciel's time in the rogue's guild and made a scouting glamour that was more rogue forward than ninja. It will conveniently work quite well for viper, though I haven't tested a lot of the weapons with it to see what looks best.

I was surprised how well so many items from different sets came together to look cohesive with this one, and with a minimum of dyes needed (I used one loam brown). I put the redbill scarf on because the jacket has such a wide neckline and that scarf is a fun piece. I imagine there is a good array of neckwear that would look good with this.

My favourite part of this glamour is that I'm using the Ifrit's Kris weapons with it. I rarely use weapons from the first few primals but I've always thought that these little handaxes were so unique and cool. Doing spinny ninja moves with axes is one of the highlights for me for sure.

I've posted this over on Eorzea Collection: Rogue Colours

[aioledreams]

After receiving the Harmonious Paint outerwear I felt inspired to create an outfit and a dye scheme that uses it.

This look is in the colour lookbook and you can use it with the following code: 7mMjNLItXgN#

[aioledreams]

Our cats are cute. That is all.

[aioledreams]

I took a break from Nikki for a while, and then I played for a season and a bit. This is one of my outfits of the day - I think I started with the skirt and went from there.

[aioledreams]

Aiole Plays Neva

Neva is a beautiful game in which you travel through a beautiful world with your friend the forest creature and fight shadow creatures with a sword and the power of teamwork. I think most succinctly, it is about cycles. It makes beautiful use of a lot of growth and decay imagery, and contrasts its natural environments with its constructed ones. At times the game feels very lonely, the two of you off on a journey in a wide world. It will also possibly make you cry.

I'm not the most skilled of gamers so there were some challenging bits of platforming in this one for me. I did not specifically relish having to kill flying things above a void with only a tiny bit of floor to launch from (jump, double jump over the void, swing swing, angle back to land on the tiny platform, dodge the one on the other side that's swooping at you, rinse, repeat) but I did it! (I will note here there is an easier setting and I stubbornly refused to turn it on). There is some puzzling involved and the game plays with some neat ideas while you're trying to find a way through. I especially liked the bits with the mirrors, even if they were frustrating at times. The game puts high priority on visuals and has an extremely minimal UI. That was confusing on occasion and the game doesn't particularly hold your hand through any of it, but I figured things out.

All in all this game took me a bit under six hours from start to finish. It has some really gorgeous visuals and takes you through a variety of stylized moods. The cutscenes are lovely but some of my favourite moments were watching the camera pan out as we moved from one area to the next; getting a feel for the journey the characters were on. I also really appreciated how well dialed in the difficulty in combat was. You really felt the strength differential between the main character and the things she was fighting against. I seem to recall the music being nice as well.

[aioledreams]

Aiole Plays Caravan SandWitch

This is Caravan SandWitch, a delightful game about exploration with some light collecting and some sweet little storylines. I played through all of this game in just under 14 hours and now I'm kind of sad that it's over.

This is the kind of cozy game that lets you take things at your own pace, gradually unfolds the story and gives you time to really sink in and get comfortable with the world. It was a refreshing change from the usual cozy offerings of "start a farm" or "participate in a sort of grindy crafting and gathering system" and I found myself sinking evening hours into poking around this planet and solving small time people problems.

You are Sarge, come home to your planet that was once the home of industrial mining and shipping but has since been abandoned by big space company. You received a distress call from your dead sister and you are determined to find her... except you keep running into a mysterious Sand Witch and the people you love and care about have jobs that you need to help with.

The stories in this game are grounded - you go find a lost toy that was left at the beach, you collect provisions for a feast, you help someone do something nice for someone else, one of the frogs needs you to help with research. Along the way you explore the old industrial ruins and search for scrap parts to make you the equipment you'll need to explore more industrial ruins. There is some light puzzling, finding of collectibles and vistas, and the world feels big enough but not so vast that it would take you forever to explore.

You get a van that I was admittedly not great at driving at first. I streamed this game for some friends and there was much chuckling about me bumping into things and at one point getting the van completely stuck on a cliff.

Sometimes I wish I could experience playing this game for the first time all over again. I loved the feel of the world and the coziness of the stories. I love exploring ruined places and good environmental storytelling. I wish there were more cozy games like this one!