iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Saw Cuphead was on sale so I finally decided to give it a try. And it was really fun. The aesthetic is super charming and well done, and the gameplay was addicting. Played through it all yesterday/today. Some bosses were maybe too frustrating (looking at you Bee and Robot), but still satisfying. 4/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Finally finished FF Tactics last night. The last stretch of fights drove me up the wall, when i lost half of my armor in the first two fights of a 6+ part chain of battles, but overall it was pretty enjoyable. Rough start getting into it, but once builds came online things clicked a lot better. 4/5

Cover art for 'Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles'

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Read Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe, the first two entries in The Book of the New Sun. While I found the world interesting, and enjoyed Wolfe's prose, I wasn't sold on Severian or the narrative. It's also unclear to me how intentional the uncomfortable treatment of women is meant to be. 3/5

Cover for 'Shadow & Claw' the first two entires in Gene Wolfe's 'The Book of the New Sun' mad up of 'The Shadow of the Torturer' and 'The Claw of the Conciliator'.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Read 'The Faith of Beasts' last week, a strong follow-up to 'The Mercy of Gods' from last year. The cast was spread out more this time, their roles more established, and I enjoyed how that let it peel back more world-building as each character tried to claw out as much agency as they could. 4/5

Cover for the novel 'The Faith of Beasts' by James S.A. Corey, the authors of The Expanse.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I think I liked Queen Demon more than Witch King? The first book felt like it had a better plot and tied the timelines together in a much more deliberate and complementary way, but I got more of out of the characters this time around and that brought up my overall enjoyment of the book. 4/5

Cover for the novel 'Queen Demon' by Martha Wells.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Back in FFTactics, but I feel like i must be doing something wrong? Why am I fighting lv 14 enemies when my highest is lv 8? Its taking me 3 or 4 tries to clear some fights and I'm only in ch 2

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

New FF7, new Xenoblade, new Fire Emblem, new God of War, new Control, and even a crumb of Kingdom Hearts 4? Gonna be eating good.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Read 3 more KU books that I'm just going to group together. All 3/5 for me. Unbound has dragons, which is great, but is basic YA and underuses the parts that make it unique. Book of the Dead is good if you're in the mood for the minutia of necromancy, with some interesting takes on a litRPG setting.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

"Video games are great," says man who hasn't touched FF Tactics in two weeks.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Just blazed through Witch King. The character voices are a bit weaker than Murderbot, a bit too modern and similar to each other, but Kai's found family is cute and the world was super interesting. The past/present split worked well on me, and I loved how the beats lined up. Just reaches a soft 4/5.

Cover of the novel "Witch King" by Martha Wells.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Finished Jade Legacy. It was a satisfying conclusion to the series and the Kaul family; jumping across over twenty years. The 'zoomed-out' approach did mean some transitions were jarring, and i wasn't always as invested as Jade City/War, but it helped spotlight the whole family's development. 4/5

Cover of the novel Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Watched the Chainsaw Man Reze movie yesterday. What a great movie, prob my favorite that I've watched so far this year. Great action, imagery, pacing, you name it; definitely elevated it over the already great source material. 5/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Grabbed a free trial for Kindle Unlimited. Time to see how many books I can read before it runs out, lol.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Murderbot's great. The series as a whole has a super strong voice and is such a great example of the snappy, immersive, 1st-person PoV that I just breeze through the pages. It doesn't do anything too ground-breaking, but it's great execution imo. This was book 7, and I think 8 comes out soon? 4/5

Cover for "System Collapse", book 7 of 'The Murderbot Diaries' by Martha Wells.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Also ran credits in Animal Well today. There were a few friction points for me at the start where I felt aimless and confused, but once I had a few items and got into the swing of the game, it was very enjoyable. Had some creative puzzle-solving and was pretty concise, under 7 hours. 3/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I read Jade City a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, but had never gotten around to continuing the trilogy until now. Jade War continues doing a great job of executing the 'Godfather + Wuxia' premise in a super interesting world, with every decision domino-ing into unwanted consequences. 4/5

Cover for the novel "Jade War" by Fonda Lee, the 2nd book in the Green Bone trilogy.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Finished Truth of the Divine today. This book felt a little strange. It was good, but I'm not sure about having the leads from the previous book so depressed that a new character needs to step in as the protagonist for most of the book. A realistic trauma response, but odd narrative decision. 3/5

Cover of the novel 'Truth of the Divine' by Lindsay Ellis.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The FFXIV raid is a collab with who??????? I blame Yoshi-P

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Hmm, I think I'll be a fan of the FFXIV changes? But impossible to really tell until we know more. But the concept art for the new regions and enemies look cool!

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Finished the 3rd First Law book today. I personally prefer my fantasy to be more "heroic", but the grittiness of the series lent itself well to the themes and characters it was going for, where powerful people don't gain or keep power by being deserving. I'll def read more by Abercrombie. 4/5

Cover for the novel "The Last Argument of Kings" by Joe Abercrombie.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Ran credits in Pokopia, super cute game! My closest point of comparison is animal crossing, but I ended up preferring Pokopia's more goal-oriented gameplay / plot. Plus, it's probably the best looking Pokémon game atm. Tbh, I was surprised and glad by how much I liked it. 4/5 Would recommend.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Watched the Umamusume movie and it was a dang good standalone sports anime. The animation and cinematography were great, and that wasn't limited to just the racing, i popped off at a ramune bottle being opened at one point. Good horses. 4/5, do recommend.

Promo art from IMDB for 'Uma Musume: Beginning of a New Era'.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Read the first two books in the First Law series over the past couple of weeks. Really enjoyed them and how they kind of dance back and forth over the line between a gritty low-fantasy and a sweeping epic fantasy. 4/5 for both, will read the third one next.

Cover of 'The Blade Itself' by Joe Abercrombie.

Cover of 'Before They Are Hanged' by Joe Abercrombie.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I love kbbq. They really just let you keep ordering more galbi!

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Not sure if I should play Pokopia, FF Tactics, or Animal Well next.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Also beat Slay the Princess! Really nice visual novel. I'm not really a "horror game" enjoyer, but I appreciate stories about love. Lots of interesting endings, and it makes me curious about just how many there are that I didn't see. 4/5 Love wins.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Beat Katana Zero. Pretty fun 2D action platformer, and you get a sick black and white replay after every level to show off how you did. Enjoyed the samurai-noir time-loopy ptsd-heavy plot too. Apparently a DLC has been in the works for years? I'll keep an eye out. 4/5 Good Game

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Was sick for a few days, but that gave me plenty of time to beat Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. Very good JRPG! Really appreciated the smaller scope of the plot and how good the characters were. My only complaint was the modern high school festival in the middle, lol. 4/5 stars.

"Cover art" for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter from its steam page.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Read Absolution last month. Unfortunately, it didn't hit me as hard as the original Southern Reach trilogy. There were definitely some great moments in this book, and I enjoyed Vandermeer's prose, but overall it felt like an unnecessary addition to the series? 3/5

Cover for the novel 'Absolution' by Jeff Vandermeer.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Trying to watch more movies, so I watched Akira, Redline, and Ghost in the Shell over the past couple weeks; all three were fantastic. Akira is worth watching for the beautiful animation and backgrounds alone, Ghost is peak cyberpunk, and Redline was just a ton of fun. Highly recommend all three.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Happy Birthday Granblue Fantasy!

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

First book of 2026 was 'Of Darkness and Light' by Ryan Cahill. This is a sequel to his debut and I was happy to see a clear improvement in the pacing and prose. It still has a nostalgic "EragonxWoT" vibe, but has started to feel more like its own world and story. Not perfect, but I love dragons. 4/5

Cover for the novel 'Of Darkness and Light' by Ryan Cahill.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

After spending something like 40 hours addicted to Endfield over the past 4 days, I'm going to consider that a "beaten game" for my yearly list, even though I'm going to keep playing it. Good game. I currently give 4/5, despite gacha. The factory must grow.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Gacha is a twisted scourge on our society that should be destroyed. Anyway, I'm going to be playing Granblue UnF for most of tomorrow and then follow it up with the Arknights Endfield release.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Baba is End! Very cute game I think I cleared 91 levels, which felt like a lot, but apparently there's almost 500??? Some of the puzzles were getting pretty hard, lol, so I'm happy stopping there, but it's also nice to know there's more if I want to go back. 4/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I don't know why I let my friends convince me to watch Avatar 3 with them. What a strange movie.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Baba is You is melting my brain. Not going to try to 100% it, but it's pretty cool.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

First game of the year was Lies of P. Had more fun than I first expected tbh, very competent Souls-like. Though, the dialogue felt machine translated and it was hilarious just how much they copied 1-to-1 from Bloodborne. Like, even the text font is the same? The font??? 3/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Had enough goals for the year that I made a Bingo sheet. Going to try to see how many I can get.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Maybe it's finally time to go back and do Act 3 of Silksong? Hmm

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Went back and beat Simon and the new superboss in E33. Game is fun.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

New addition to my Video Games 3x3 with E33 knocking out MonHun Rise. I'm leaving Hades in because, even though I think the gameplay of 2 is a straight upgrade, I think the original is a stronger overall package. It just hit harder when I played it.

KH: BBS, FE: Awakening, TWEWY
CO: E33, FF7: Rebirth, FFXIV: Shadowbringers
Hades, Celeste, Sekiro

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Personal tier list of all the books I finished in 2025! Gonna give my Book of the Year to Emberdark. In a wider context, I might give it a 9 instead of a 10, but it was my personal favorite this year and I wanted something to hit 10!

10 - Isles of the Emberdark
9 - Hands of the Emperor, Vicious
8 - Dead Hand Rule, Strength of the Few, Mercy of Gods, Will of the Many, Shadow of Lightning, Slaughterhouse V, Dispossessed, Threshold, Pilot
7 - Vengeful, Farthest Shore, Left Hand of Darkness, Tainted Cup, Hellbent, Fox Wife, Gods are Bastards, Brief History of Chronomancy
6 - Edge of the Dream, Tombs of Atuan, Blood and Fire, Drop of Corruption, Hexologists, Babel
5 - Lies of Locke Lamora

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Okay! Now that I've met my goal of beating 26 games this year, I whipped up a tier list. IMO, every game I played this year was enjoyable.

Tier List
10 - E33, Tunic, Furi
9 - Hades 2, Metroid, Silksong, Hollow Knight, 1000xResist, MHWilds
8 - FF7, FFX, DOOM DA, Astro Bot, Bananza, DMC 5, Awaria
7 - Start Again, Ghost of Yotei, Super Mario RPG, Ori WotW
6 - Pokemon ZA, P5R, DMC 4, Journey, Oblivion, Nioh 2

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Just ran credits on Astro Bot. Very cute game! It really felt like I was playing a new Mario Galaxy with PS5 graphics, which is high praise imo. It wouldn't have been my personal choice for GOTY in 2024, but I could feel the love that went into it, so I get it. 4/5

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Idk if my favorite part of TGA was "Uma Masoomay" or "Ben Starr will do anything for money"

Ben Starr, willing to do anything for money

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Glad to see E33 win so many awards; probably my favorite game in the past 5 years. Of the new announcements, I'm most excited for the Star Wars game and the Control sequel, but there were a few I'll keep an eye out for.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Picked Astro Bot as my 26th and final game to beat this year. Figure it'd be good to round out the year with last year's GOTY winner. It's very cute and enjoyable so far.

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Veryn @sword-saint-v.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

27th of 26 books this year: The Mercy of Gods. Very engaging mix of "first contact" sci-fi and themes revolving around trying to survive under an incomprehensible and authoritarian regime. Really enjoyed the writing; I've never read/watched The Expanse, but this makes me want to give it a try? 4/5

Cover art of "The Mercy of Gods" by James S.A. Corey.

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