February 18th, 2026
It’s spring time! Or at least spring time for me! The temperatures have been the mid to high 70s for most of the week. However it’s supposed to drop down this weekend, so I’m enjoying it while I can. Got my window open and going on nice evening walks.
Bought Lovish last week, and my reaction is… eh. Felt a bit let down after having jumping on not long after Astalon, which I enjoyed VERY much. Of course the two games are different, Lovish being a more single screen action puzzle game and Astalon being a metroidvania, which didn’t help. Still had that NES charm that I enjoyed, and I liked some of the between level cinematics, particularly when Mink from Dragon Half showed up. That cinematic gives you 7 lives, which is nice! But otherwise I wish I had waited for it to go on a sale instead of buying it full price. It was only $15, so not like it hurt the bank or anything. Lord knows I spent way more on bigger disappointments. Other issue is there wasn’t a demo on the switch for Lovish while there was one for Astalon. The demo for Astalon convinced me to buy it. Maybe if I had played the demo via Steam first it would’ve signaled to me to skip it.
On the opposite spectrum I saw Scarlet! It’s Hosoda’s latest film! After disliking Boy and the Beast, Mirai, and never even finishing Belle, I went into it with zero expectations. Also I still have AMC A-list, so it was a “eh, why not?” situation. And I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it despite reading how everyone else in the world just about hates it! I was entertained and enjoyed my time spent watching it.
Was it good? Once again, eh. It’s that sort of situation where there’s elements or concepts in the story that I really like, or certain design choices that got my imaginative brain going.
The movie is basically a Shakespearean revenge plot of the princess Scarlet seeking to kill her uncle who usurped her father the king and took over the kingdom. Except she dies in the beginning and failed her plot. HOWEVER, it turns out that everyone, regardless of who you are, get sent to this purgatory after you die. And better yet, time seems to not matter in this purgatory, so people of different eras can run into each other. And to Scarlet’s boon her uncle is there after his demise! So the revenge plot continues!
Hosoda did not take advantage of the fact that time is irrelevant outside of this one paramedic from modern day Japan teaming up Scarlet. Outside of that it’s more or less medieval era looking peeps. Sure, they come from a wide variety of cultures, which hey, but I’d REALLY liked to have seen some more playing around with it. Like have cavemen show up to fuck about or people from the far distant future. Just go wild with it!
Also the Dark Souls dragon was neato.
Anyway if you have AMC A-List or the equivalent I think it’s a nice couple hour adventure if you liked flaw works that get the imagination going. Otherwise wait for it to come to streaming or rental.
That’s all for this week! I will see y’all next time!
