#lizz.txt

[crest-of-gautier]

IM GOING FUCKING INSANE RIGHT NOW YOU DONT FUCKING UNDERSTAND

[crest-of-gautier]

oh that's a lot of gigabytes.

[crest-of-gautier]

thinking very hard about eggstra work for chill season, i just have the strangest feeling that it'll have a charger + blaster in the line-up and that it'll coincide with reload's release just to laugh at me....

[crest-of-gautier]

i am so full of life!!! yippee!!! i love trying new things!!! (<- says guy who continues to invest hours into one game and nothing else)

[crest-of-gautier]

all i want for christmas is squiffer....

[crest-of-gautier]

EVP 999 reached on bone rattle arena! this makes my third gold map badge (my other two are jammin salmon junction + gone fission hydroplant!). i'm really happy to have been able to get this badge, it took 50 jobs starting from EVP 300 to get here.

the short of my thoughts is that it's important to take lots of breaks! but i have some other things related to salmon run and my journey with it in the past year that i want to share, so i'll put that under the cut 👍

i've only really grinded salmon run "seriously" since march 2023, and i only really attempt pushes on map rotations that i find favorable (it's important to have fun and having weapons you like help a lot!). and trying to get these map badges is a lot like a marathon, meaning that it's important to pace yourself appropriately.

i could go on about salmon mechanics that are important to learn. but salmon run at it's core ultimately tests your ability to quickly assess situations and make judgment calls. and the most important judgment call, to me is knowing when you need to step away from the grind because you've hit a skill wall.

the challenges i've faced with SR have changed over time as i've accumulated more experience with the mode. but generally speaking, i find that hitting a wall is characterized by repeatedly reaching a certain hazard level/wave, but not being able to completely clear it. i know i certainly found it annoying to reach wave 3 but not meet the quota.

when i started doing these pushes in 2023, i used to throw myself back into the queue because "we were just 1-2 eggs off! we'll get them next time!" and uh. here's the general gist of how that went:

(we failed again)

(i get increasingly irritated)

(my performance starts dropping from irritation)

(i get irritated that my points are dropping because there's only so many hours in a rotation)

("i need to keep playing otherwise i'll be stuck with the not as experienced players!!!")

(the cycle continues and i get a net loss of points)

fortunately, i don't do this anymore because it's largely unhelpful. it took awhile for me to get over the idea that throwing myself into another shift would get me back my points but. i did eventually!

these days i find that it's much more effective (and healing!) to take a 15-20 minute break (and sometimes an hour or longer!) whenever i notice signs of agitation or tension... any shifts that i do afterwards are MUCH easier.

the other reason why i think breaks are so important is because time away from the game helps you ask yourself better questions on what went wrong.

generally speaking if you can pinpoint why your shifts go to shit (thank you video footage and clips), you should be able to figure out a solution for that. and isn't that what learning is about?

i think a lot about how many shifts it took for me to get from EVP 300 -> EVP 999 on gone fission (124 of them). and when i think of that experience, i'm grateful that i learned the power of breaks since it took like half the jobs for me to get to 9's on bone rattle 💪

i definitely think that it's important to remember that getting through shifts will gets easier as you accumulate more experience. this is easier said than done but i think that if you can find ways to take note of your improvement, no matter how small, it will be easier to stay motivated!

i find this most noticeable with eggstra work... while i've only scored within the top 20% and never top 5%... i have gotten closer to the scores of the top 5% (i <3 marooners bay + jammin salmon junction eggswork) than i did at the start!

scoring aside, i cringe a lot at my spawning grounds eggstra work video, these have to be some of the most abysmal gameplay decisions ever and i'm happy to say that i wouldn't make that these days 💀! so if you've ever cringed at your old gameplay do not fret... it is natural and it's a sign of improvement!

anyway that's my lizz talk. while this is about salmon run i technically think this can expand to other pursuits in life. like creative hobbies. and sports! or maybe something else i didn't think of. learning is so wonderful and cool!

as a bonus, here's a notebook spread i made about golden rotation when i needed a break from the game... (did you know i really like my notebook... it's so fun)

[crest-of-gautier]

WE FUCKING GOT IT!!!!! after three hours i have 100%'d the group date cafe!

unfortunately, i think i was the one eating dirt from making yosuke into my destined partner... (though tbh i wasn't expecting much, it's yosuke, he was being yosuke and i'm not surprised, though it does make me wonder if he exhibits the same behavior to souji).

in any case, some notes about the second item that we got from the end of the dungeon... it won't be that coherent i'm still processing da information...

i have to say i was REALLY surprised with rei's reaction to zen opening the chest... like honestly that whole dialogue exchange was so intriguing to me! honestly, too intriguing, that i feel that i'll need a few days to process, let it sit, you know the deal.

the way where the items at the end of each labryinth trigger some form of memories to zen (but seemingly none for rei, albeit... rei's "memories" seem to be more gut reactions coming back than actual tangible information)... it really interests me!

i find it very interesting that zen mentions that the items belong to rei (niko the rabbit, as well as the toy ring). i'm going to operate on the assumption that what zen said is true because... to me, if you're amnesiac and slowly getting your memories back... i don't really see any reason to lie about it? if anything i'd imagine the other way to handle it would be to withhold the revelations you got (and ofc some other way of reacting that im probably not thinking of at the moment).

with this in mind, it makes me ask a few questions...

how did rei's belongings end up in the depths of the labryinths?

what is the significance of keeping these items tucked away and protected by the guardians? does zen and/or rei regaining their memories pose some threat to the state of the world/this distortion? (we know that it's finite, that's what margaret said) (i almost think that rei getting her items back could possibly heal the distortion, but not before zen and rei have a sob story once they both get their memories back? idk man i don't have much to work with)

the way in which rei reacted in this scene really struck me... i know i said that earlier but. damn. here's my livereact from obsidian because i was so. shocked. it felt really? refreshing? to see rei emote in such a way. but also mildly terrifying because she's been like " YAY FOOD! wait did you mean this food? (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ" for most of the game so far. like holy shit.

rei's outburst is... a lot to take in, i do think that it gives some credence to my trains of thought that, hey! zen might be part of some kind of terrifying entity/the one that's created this distortion, if rei had such a reaction here. it really makes me curious how much emotion these next two items will stir up. will rei say more emotionally charged things? what other cryptic information will zen reveal?

i do like this direction though- that it's possible that even if zen desires to protect rei, and take responsibility for her wellbeing, zen pre-memory loss might've caused rei great suffering. it's a fun flavor!

i do feel that i tend to fixate on the question of "what is zen" a lot more than "what is rei," but. i think seeing that these items supposedly belong to her... and that elizabeth mentions that you wouldn't normally find living humans here... hm. i almost want to say that she's dead and that she died before the events of the game?

i liked that when chie saw the ring- she noted that it was a toy ring and that it's something you'd find at fairs. so it made me think back to the theme-ing of this world- how it's a cultural festival. i'm still not entirely certain of the significance but maybe it's something that rei wanted to see? or maybe she died here? idk. i don't really have a way to intuit rei's cause of death if she's... well, dead, but. i'm. definitely interested in seeing if there's (future) information i can use to figure this out.

OH and one last thing- i think it'd be interesting if whenever zen and rei get their memories back, they leave the party or are forced to by god knows what. unfortunately i don't think they'd do that because zen and rei, gameplay-wise, are the low-maintenance characters, but!! i'd love to be proven wrong (but i'd still enjoy them leaving the party lololol)

in any case!!! this was a good session of pq. i definitely want to play more and see what the other labryinths have to tell because i need more information in order to speculate. i think im at least 40% done with the game :D and it'll probably take me another 35 hours at minimum to finish this game, i think?

[crest-of-gautier]

im going to eat drywall they refuse to play aquasonic in my matches THATS MY FAVORITE SONG!!! where is my h2whoa i am parched and in desperate need of water that make me go yippee!!!!