The March 2026 Quarterly Media Report

Hello, time for another round-up! I dream of one day being able to say something profound (and of finishing Umineko episode 8).

Games

January

You're going to see Stardew Valley on this list a lot, because my circle of Mastodon friends is really into it right now (though not multi-player) so we compare notes. I got some helpful tips for Ginger Island, though I wasn't there that much in January. I was busy hoarding iridium with my statue of perfection.

I started Bear's Restaurant on a whim. I like the concept, not sure why I got away from it.

In theory, I am making progress in Hades II. By doing surface runs, which I'm not certain you need to even clear to beat the main story. Look I have people I want Mel to smooch and Hades has been a prisoner of Chronos for years, what's a few more nights of going to the surface in the hopes I see Icarus?

Rest assured, I did manage some Umineko Chiru: Ep 8. Not as much as I'd like of course, but we're slowly making our way through. I wish I had a better grasp of where we were without having to consult someone who has already beaten it. Under Normal Circumstances an episode takes about 20 hours (including both Tea Parties), but we spent SO much time on puzzles that don't matter I can't use the hours spent according to Steam to gauge.

I got into a bit of Rune Factory 5 mostly for the therapeutic farming. I don't think anyone has played this game as much as I have! …Progress the plot? Why would I do that????

February

Unsurprisingly, there was more Stardew Valley. Made progress with the walnuts, though still no walnut room, and yes I am at some point going to pay the Joja parrot for walnuts I'm sorry some of these walnut demands are just bullshit. I am literally one fossil away from being able to complete the digsite and it's the one you can only get via panning, and let's just say…. even with an iridium pan it isn't going well.

Sometimes I change it up by playing FISH FEAR ME. I made a little "progress" and unlocked another boat.

I promise at some point I will beat Rune Factory 5. That day was not in Feburary, and as of writing, still has not happened.

Though I did sort of beat Moonstone Island. I used a really cheap method to beat the final boss (Basically poison + regen effects). I still need to see the credits.

I tried out the Relooted Demo. I really really like the concept and the game is smooth. So I did buy it once it launched.

Maybe this should go under Miscellaneous, but with a good internet friend of mine we've been co-working via On Together: Virtual Co-working. And yes sometimes we log on just to fish and chat.

I enjoy the game Cast n Chill with this same friend, but there is no cross-play co-op (I think the only co-op is in person but I'm not entirely certain), but we found a parallel play method where we both play and occasionally comment on fish we're catching.

And again with the same friend, we figured out a way to play Long Live the Queen together. By which I mean, they screenshare, they pick one decision of education for Elodie, and I pick another, and we discuss it. It's really fun!

I decided to get Kairosoft's Demon Castle Story for PC. I need to get back to it, I suck at this game but it's so soothing.

A Fields of Mistria update dropped. I like it so far. I still have a lot of new stuff to get, like unlocking the secret bachelorette as a character. I think the next major update will be the 1.0 release?

March

 I know I played Stardew Valley this month and probably got mad about Golden Walnuts but I didn't actually take any notes beyond that I played it in March.

Did some more parallel play Cast n Chill with my friend.

We did more co-op Long Live the Queen and Elodie is still alive somehow. Wonderful! We need to get back to it.

Nothing much to report beyond the fact I am still enjoying Fields of Mistria.

Played a little more Demon Castle Story and started doing a bit better (After a new run).

In Hades II the titular god of the dead is still in chains because I only did surface runs. I got really mad because while I finally got to the 4th area, I needed a death defiance. Just my luck, Hermes was selling one! I was only three of the Not!Obols short of expedited shipping. So suffice it to say, Mel died / returned to Shadow. If Chronos invents the internet while Mel is dicking around on the surface I am probably going to make her leave a bad Yelp review, which will probably be how you start fights with Charon in this game (Mel doesn't strike me as someone who pickpockets / shoplifts).

Was productive and adorable in On Together: Virtual Co-working again.

I tried the Discounty Demo. I quite like the concept, I did buy the full game, have not played it as of yet.

And of course…. there was Pokopia because I am lucky enough to have a brother I can liberate the Switch II from and play in doses. It also had an aspect I hadn't really experienced since maybe childhood: Discovery where you can trade gameplay tips via chatter. I would have experienced this more if I had ever been much of a Zelda person, that's all about discovery, but most things it's like "here's the wiki" or "Here's the walkthrough." I love the vibes of Pokopia, this basically post-apocalyptic but hopeful set-up. I also really love Ditto's design. I want to LIVE in Pokopia. I have to stress: that has never happened to me with any fantasy or sci-fi setting before. There are books I love, games I love, but I don't want to live in them. Anyway! I had to stop playing it, because I was worried I'd burn myself out and also it was getting to a "Could a Depressed Person do this (Play this much Pokopia)" levels.

Things I'd Like to Work on (Game-wise)

I absolutely want to get back to Pokopia for that Sableye event. I love Sableye. I want to get back to the visual novel of the Devil becuase I was in the middle of ep 1 and had to stop playing (I think I had an ECT coming up). I should probably just restart the episode, and I'm having some weird sunk cost fallacy about it.

More Hades II for sure. More obsessive farming in Rune Factory 5. I should also get back to Atelier Marie Remake because I have made it a rule in my brain that I have to beat that one before I can start Atelier Ayesha (which I have played throughout its various releases multiple times, though I have not played the other games in the Dusk Trilogy yet). And more visual novels. I especially need to get back to Vampire Therapist (though I wish it was deck-compatible) which I think I only got away from because playing it too close to an actual therapy session (for yours truly) made me uncomfortable. B

Things I'm looking forward to (Game-wise)

I'm sure stuff beyond the Sableye event in a couple days is happening but I am drawing an utter blank on game events aside from having the Steam Summer Sale marked in my calendar.

My brother and I are hashing out a time (within a couple weeks probably) where we will both devote time to Umineko episode 8 and also Ciel noSurge* when our schedules align.

* No I can't get vita emulation working on my PC and yes I am a little bitter about it but I do enjoy spending time together with my brother. I get to experience things non-Japanese speakers can't experience, and he gets to practice translating on the fly (interpreting?). It's basically win:win.

Books

 January

I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I'm proud to say I solved it myself, though I will confess without revealing details (don't want to disrespect people who want to solve it themselves) that I basically figured it out by Meta-Reading /Meta-Gaming in a sense.

I am (last I checked) caught up on English releases of Sumiko Arai's The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All. I love it so much. Not much to say, other than read the Green Yuri books.

I happened to check out the graphic novel Parasocial by Erica Henderson, Alex de Campi. It's solid. I recommend reading it.

February

In February, I finally completed Rebel of the Regency: The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain's Uncrowned Queen by Ann Foster, the host of the Vulgar History podcast. It's really good. It seems well-researched, but it's very readable, not dry at all.

I started getting physical copies of alphatart's Webtoon (as I do not know where to find an English translation of the webnovel) The Remarried Empress, Vol. 1

I also read the graphic novel Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliott. I really miss the forever incomplete webcomic Balderdash but I have to say, Victoria Grace Elliott is still really good at making comics. I should probably read and / or watch Phantom of the Opera at some point.

March

 I finally finished TJ Alexander's A Gentleman's Gentleman via an author-hosted Read-along to promote the sequel book which I have but have not read yet (nor have I read the short story / chapter that connects the two books)

I reread The Idiot by Elif Batuman. I really like this book but I cannot explain why. It's a mystery even to me.

I read The Remarried Empress, Vol. 2. I am still not caught up to where I left off in the Webtoon, but I enjoy having it in print.

Things I'd Like to Work on (Reading-Wise)

For starters I absolutely need to read the sequel to A Gentleman's Gentleman. I also need to read more of the books I have partially-finished from the library. As of today (the 27th of April when I am typing this) my local library has drastically cut down on the amount of holds (as opposed to loans) you can have at a time. This is supposed to help patrons get books faster, and maybe it will, but it still feels like an attack on me personally. Before this went into effect, I deliberately maxed out my hold list, because you can have all those holds you just can't place more titles on hold until you get it below the 10 threshold. So let's hope I don't need to place anything on hold for a while!

Things I'm looking forward to (Reading-Wise)

I'm sure there are other books coming out in Quarter 2, but all I can think about right now is The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham. I am probably going to preorder it soon. Other than that, I suppose it's working on the backlog (and 25 holds…).

Miscellaneous

 January

I did it. I finally watched KPop Demon Hunters. I get why people like it, it's well-animated, it's enjoyable. It's family-friendly but not targeted at kids. It makes me really want to get into Kpop Bands.

This year, Mastodon started a biweekly, Asynchronous, Movie club. So I got to watch F is for Fake. It sort of blew my mind if that makes sense?

The next movie that month in the club was 12 Angry Men. I confused it with "A Few Good Men" (which I had seen the TV version of). It's a good movie, I also really enjoyed riffing on the title. You can be like "What about 12 angry Women Hashtag Feminism" wait I think I actually posted that with the hashtag and an auto-boost bot boosted it. I was worried it'd get reported to my admin, but as far as I know it either did not, or rightfully got ignored because it was clear I was being silly and not in a mean way.

I was Hashtag Blessed because the musical (or maybe Opera would possibly be more appropriate? ) Hadestown came to Lincoln, and I managed to get seats. It pretty much emptied my bank account for January, but I regret nothing. It was an amazing show, even if I had to sit with the ending for a few days before I decided I liked it. See it if you can.

The next episode of Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want To Be A Magical Girl came out on Youtube. Personally I am hoping Glitch picks it up, because I feel like with the current media environment, it's hard to make a good animated show and have creative control. Anyway, please watch it. You won't regret it.

February

 I relistened to leon chang's Bird World concept album and then listened to Return to Bird World. I know the point is it's a game (Series?) that doesn't exist but I wish it did.

I watched episode 3 of The Boyfriend with my good internet friend I've referenced many times in this post. This may be a shocking take: It is enjoyable to enjoy media and discuss it with others!!!

March

I like vocaloid music / VSynth music if you didn't know. I'd known about ローリンガール and listened to it before (for a while I liked this Kasane Teto version someone did). But I had never listened to all of Unhappy Refrain by the legendary wowaka (RIP).

Possibly more importantly (with no disrespect to wowaka), partway through the month of March, I discovered FLAVOR FOLEY and more importantly: FLAVOR FOLEY's Ego Renegade Boy ft. Kagamine Len. It became my life for all of March (and still!) I bought the single off bandcamp and put it on my phone and I was listening to it so much my music app said it was my number 1 most listened to of March. "Don't look away from the boy whose smile sparks a flame, Reclaimed, a crying shame that you don't feel the same."

I started listening to Little Lucky Productions audio drama of The Count of Monte Cristo and got through episodes 1 - 3. I have a decent amount of it left.

My monthly episode of Twelvelms (S1: E08) showed up and I was happy to listen.

You may have heard about that free streaming of The Importance of Being Earnest on youtube. So I watched it with my good internet friend. I quite enjoyed it. Good experience and I didn't have to pay any money, which is a plus in my book.

The eight episode of The Amazing Digital Circus came out and I simul-watched it with a different internet friend. He's likely going to see the finale in movie theaters and I'm a little jealous, but all the same I'm happy for him.

My brother, who is not caught up on The Amazing Digital Circus wanted to watch episode 5, I loved how much foreshadowing (and fuel for what I suspect will be an eternal debate on trans-masc versus trans-femme Jax, no I do not expect that to be settled in the finale) there is for later episodes.

Monsterdon finally selected Critters 4, a movie that people wanted to watch and had been losing in polls for weeks. I watched it. I have not seen Critters 1-3, I was told the second one is the only good one but like I said earlier, it's enjoyable just to experience things with people and talk about them?

 Things I'd Like to Work on (Miscellaneous)

 I want to watch more stuff, TV and movie-wise. I don't watch things in theaters usually (events like plays/musicals/concerts/ballets/etc aside) because it's exhausting for my ADHD (and can also be exhausting from an autism perspective if the event is just too overstimulating), but I like watching stuff that's streaming and discussing it with people. I want to listen to more music that isn't the same five songs I've been listening to since I was a teenager plus Ego Renegade Boy. And I'd like to finish a few Audio Dramas (probably The Count of Monte Cristo first) and get back to the audio drama Remnants which I started a re-listen of and I am soooooo behind!

 Things I'm looking forward to (Miscellaneous)

The finale of The Amazing Digital Circus as much as I don't want it to end. As my health improves I'm hoping to stay up "late" to see more Monsterdon movies, whatever they may be.

 Also because a friend bought me the entire series boxset of hit CW Teen Drama Riverdale, I plan on re-watching the seasons I saw, and then watching through to the end. I love garbage (affectionate). When Pokemon Black and White finally get a remake I should name a Trubbish "Riverdale". Don't steal that idea, it's mine.

 That's all for now, I'm hoping that writing this blog post (and previous ones) will teach me to say more about the media I'm experiencing in the moment (well, same-day). I have a lot of space in the Hobonichi cousin I could use for that. What if I lose a bookmark about something I'm playing (Example, Hades II, Rune Factory 5, Fields of Mistria as well I think?) disappears into the nothingness of federated social media, or like I mentioned earlier, I leave a note that I read or did something but write nothing about it. I think even if I didn't have memory problems, expecting myself to remember specifically what I did in say, Stardew Valley in March without writing about it at the time is an exercise in futility.

See you again soon!