Nobody say anything about the title. I've had it in my head since April, and it got to the point where I was longing to be able to use it.
WELL NOW I CAN BECAUSE I'M NO LONGER UNEMPLOYED
I suppose we can start with Wednesday the 1st, when I - as predicted - did NOT get that job I had an interview for at the end of September, even though there were two roles going and not one.
Well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Besides, I feel fine about it in part because of what happened LATER in the month, so… yeah.
Thursday the 2nd saw Mum & Dad head out to see a talk by Mary Beard, so Maia & I headed out for dinner at Pizza Express because we could (and also because our parents were having food out, so why shouldn't WE?)
I had cheesy garlic bread for my starter, a pizza with ham for my main course, and some ice cream for my dessert.
That ice cream was INCREDIBLE. I wish I had more of it.
The rest of the week didn't see much success, though -- on Saturday I got up too late to get a flu jab, and on Sunday I was unable to catch a superboss Pokémon because the whole event was bugged. I got it later on, though, after they'd fixed the glitch -- that was on Tuesday the 7th.
SPEAKING (or rather "TYPING") OF Tuesday the 7th, that was when I booked tickets for me & Maia to go to the Nintendo pop-up shop in the Westfield shopping centre in London -- our tickets were for Wednesday the 22nd as that was one of only two days that Maia had off, and it ALSO happened to be the opening day of the shop itself!
I certainly prefer "book a ticket" to "wait in a line for five hours" like what happened LAST time I went to that shopping centre. Hey, how HAS it been almost six years already?
Anyway, I had my regularly-scheduled (every three months) haircut the next day.
At some point - I'm not sure exactly when - I got an interview for another job (which, like last time, I am NOT detailing online, for reasons that will become clear very soon) so I spent the next few days preparing for that, figuring out the best answers I could possibly give and all that jazz.
In the meantime, I downloaded a game to my computer that I used to play when I was a child, and I was met with THIS:
I can only surmise this to be "proto-Wordle". You know, from 2006.
I can't even believe that that happened somebody please send help what the hell is going on in my life
I went for my job interview on Tuesday the 14th, which I felt went well enough, though I felt that my previous interview (at the end of last month) was more successful.
And then I got the job offer. HOW. DID. THAT. HAPPEN.
Well, I obviously accepted it -- so look at me, I'm no longer unemployed, and it only took FIVE ENTIRE YEARS.
Of course I'm bitter about that.
I have YEARS of missed National Insurance contributions to catch up on so that I can still get a pension when I'm old.
Well, on Thursday the 16th, Pokémon Legends: Z-A was released at last, marking the conclusion of its twenty-month-long pre-release period!
Naturally, I have plenty of screenshots (that is to say, "over ten thousand") so here's a selection of ten from the first few hours of the game:
Nothing quite like seeing the Eiffel Tower wreathed in an ominous glow to start off your stay in Paris, right?
Taunie here quickly roped my character into a promotional video for the hotel where she lives… and then my bag got stolen while everybody was distracted watching an ad.
Pro tip: in real life, I DON'T watch ads of my own volition :p
Both Eternal Flower Floette and her signature move, Light of Ruin, were in the code between X & Y (released in 2013) and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon (released in 2017) but were left completely unused.
It's nice to see her get some more screentime this time around.
There's six Wild Zones at the beginning of the game, but more slowly get added as you progress further.
Inside, you can sneak around wild Pokémon much like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Mable of Team Flare, the villains of X & Y, took a plea deal and was made acting director of the Pokémon Research Lab after Professor Sycamore resigned.
She gives you TMs to teach moves to your Pokémon (and, eventually, the Shiny Charm, which makes the ultra-rare Shiny Pokémon four times as common) if you complete her tasks.
Battle zones open up every night as part of the Z-A Royale; progressing the story requires you to battle your way up the ranks towards Rank A, the highest rank.
Once you get enough points from battling regular Trainers, you can battle in a promotional match -- the winner (which, for story purposes, is ALWAYS you lol) increases their standing by one rank.
It takes a bit of time for the game to let you explore all of Lumiose City… but when it first DOES, time is locked to daytime -- and I took FULL advantage of that to wander around wherever the hell I wanted.
Did you know that there's an alpha Houndoom in Wild Zone 6 that WILL (try to) kill you on sight? Good times.
Emma, from X & Y's postgame story, makes a return -- five years on, she's still the head of the Looker Bureau, and just about the best detective in Lumiose City!
So it turns out that Volo - the twist villain of Pokémon Legends: Arceus - is STILL ALIVE after what must be WELL OVER A CENTURY.
How the hell did he manage that?!
Anyway, I have indeed completed the whole story, so spoilers can be found just below this sentence:
Pokémon Legends: Z-A spoilers
It turns out that Pokémon all over Lumiose City undergo Rogue Mega Evolution, whereby they become dangerously violent. You, along with the rest of "Team MZ", end up tasked with calming them down… by beating the crap out of them.
EVERYBODY knows that's how you calm somebody down. Duh.
Did you know? The alphabet actually goes A-B-C-D-E-F-V-W-X-Y-Z. The other letters are, in fact, all fake.
…seriously though, that's how they keep making sure your oppenents grow stronger without their levels going off-the-wall insane.
Along the way, Taunie gets herself in trouble with the local mafia.
What do you mean, 'Paris doesn't have a mafia'? It does now!
It reminds me of Pikmin 2, where the company president intends to get money from "Happy Hocotate Savings & Loan"… and somehow accidentally goes next door to the "All-Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks".
I'd say you couldn't make it up… but somebody clearly DID.
Grisham here, as well as Griselle (who's off-screen) hope to restart Team Flare.
But there's only so much you can do with a membership of TWO.
They end up being decent people in the end anyway.
In the end, Ange - a two-thousand-year-old life-giving device inside of Prism Tower - goes berserk and threatens to destroy the entire city. It's once again up to the player character to save the day -- this time assisted by Zygarde, the "Z" in "Z-A".
The "A", for what it's worth, appears to stand for "Ange".
Taunie, along with Mega Floette, attempt to stop Ange before the destruction worsens -- but it all goes wrong and the energy spills out across the city, causing countless Pokémon to Rogue Mega Evolve and go berserk.
The Trainers fought to rank up (starting AFTER skipping over half of the alphabet) all pitch in to help keep the Rogue Mega Pokémon at bay while the player character heads towards Zygarde to help put a stop to Ange once and for all.
Ange becomes "Hyperrogue" (that's a word, apparently) and tries to stop Zygarde, but the player keeps it at bay while Zygarde fights.
please ignore my Skarmory's nickname, it's an in-joke with Mum
After being defeated, Ange activates again and attempts to fire a giant laser at the city -- but Zygarde Mega Evolves and shoots it down, saving the day at long last.
In the end, AZ - from X & Y, and who serves as a familiar presence throughout Z-A's story - finally dies of old age after living for over three thousand years.
I believe his is actually only the SECOND confirmed death of a human in a Pokémon game after the professor in Scarlet & Violet (the next most recent game, funnily enough.)
I ABSOLUTELY did not expect him to die, if I'm being honest. But… that's stories, I guess.
Anyway! On Wednesday the 22nd, it came time for Maia & I to go to London. The one hint I'll give to my job is that I take the train to get there -- as a result, I now have a rail card, and I used it to get a discount on the train to London.
From Clapham Junction, we took the Overground to Shepherd's Bush -- and there it was, Westfield London!
We poked around a number of different shops - TK Maxx, Tiger, Lush, Boots, and more - before leaving to have lunch… which was followed up by ice cream from Creams, because I picked a Subway that just happened to have a Creams practically next door:
Don't ask me why I censor Maia now. I DO have a reason, but I frankly can't be arsed to type it here. I've just spent like an HOUR going over Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Anyway, at 2.45pm, we queued up for the Nintendo pop-up store, and we got in at just about 3pm like the tickets said!
I was disappointed in the T-shirt selection -- I wear 4XL (news flash: I am Fat™) but the selection there (AND on the official website, which I checked after we got home) only goes up to 2XL, so there's nothing there I can wear.
I'm pretty sure I'd need liposuction if I wanted to wear a 2XL shirt. The limiting factor is DEFINITELY how fat I am.
Although there was some trouble back at Clapham Junction station, we nevertheless got on the train an hour earlier than planned, allowing us to GET HOME an hour earlier than planned -- result!
And then came the big day -- Monday the 27th, time for me to start baby's first job!
it's me, I'm the baby (see when I went to Portsmouth in the linked post for an explanation on that)
To be perfectly honest, there was part of me that was dreading it -- but once I arrived and got to know people properly, things seemed much more okay.
It probably helps that the first day was simply just four hours of training on a tablet.
That statement is backed up by the EXTREME difficulty I had on the SECOND day, only one day later on Tuesday the 28th.
But I eventually found my rhythm then as well -- getting to know the store layout helped a LOT with figuring out where to put things.
I'm not particularly happy over waking up at 3.30am when I start work at 6am, though. THAT is painful.
But this is the only job I've ever had -- so I can't exactly afford to be picky, can I?
Okay, so - today update, because I actually wrote that last paragraph on Wednesday the 29th - but it looks like things will actually be much better, including not having to wake up at 3.30am any more after next week.
Isn't it funny how things can improve if you ACTUALLY SAY SOMETHING? If only I didn't have so much trouble doing that normally.
And in other news, they announced Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition yesterday!
It's funny how they're adding (in a free update not JUST for Switch 2… like five years after saying 'no more free updates', no less) crafting items in bulk, something that's been requested SO many times by the community… and they DIDN'T EVEN MENTION IT in the video. I only figured it out because they SHOWED it, and that could be easy to miss if you don't know the user interface well enough!
I'm not upset, though. It's kind of a shame, because this implies that we won't be getting an entirely new Animal Crossing game on the Switch 2, but it's nice to see more life being breathed into the game so long after its initial release at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As for the future of this blog…
I'm afraid I'm going to stop posting on this blog after the end of the year.
I told myself that I'd wait until I got a job to do that, and now I DO have a job -- so I think it's time for me to bid this blog farewell.
But, don't forget -- there's still two posts coming up before then, so I'll do my best to make them the very best they can be!
So, until this time next month -- goodbye!
Oh yeah, and before I forget - don't blame me, I had to get up at 3.30am both yesterday AND today :p - happy Weenohal!