Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 0:00

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Originally recorded: June 26, 2025 (Happy Steam Summer Sale, y'all!)
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And another stream goes according to plan. I'm literally so close to victory, I can smell it. Clearing this game before the end of June would be the ultimate feather in my cap. But on the other hand, falling down at the final hurdle would be absolutely heart-breaking. To make matters even more ominous, the next session is going to be my thirteenth. It feels like forces beyond my comprehension are preparing to sabotage me. But at this point in time, I've managed to line up the perfect shot. To be honest, it's a little nerve-wracking.

June has been a fairly lazy month for me for the most part. The Steam Next Fest seemed to eat up way more time than I was expecting it to and I essentially made it deep into the month without beating a single game. Part of that can be credited due to the fact that I've been working on longer games both on and off-stream: Re:CoM has been a far larger timesink than I was originally expecting... and admittedly, Yakuza 6 hasn't been much better. I've put myself up to a challenge of clearing a set number of games this year and so far, I've managed to build up a significant buffer so far -- one that my lack of progress was going devour completely. So, I decided to play a bunch of short games throughout the week in order to counteract that. In other words, I've managed to beat four games on my own since my last session. Not bad, right?

Admittedly, the next three worlds I covered were a literal rollercoaster. Wonderland easily has the worst deck in the game so far: nine attack cards and they were all five or lower. The fact that I had to face off with Trickmaster again was an absolute nightmare... if only because despite learning so much about the game, I was hamstrung by some worthless cards. The fact that he kept pulling sevens and eights throughout the fight was BS too. Halloween Town, on the other hand, was a total reversal, giving me easily the best deck I've encountered so far. Dark Aura was a total game-changer. Coupled with the fact that I understood how Oogie Boogie's fight worked, it was an absolute cakewalk with all the nines at my disposal.

The following fight with Lexaeus was annoying at first, but the tip to use Parasite Cage to disable one of his special attacks was an absolute godsend. Then, the deck I was given for Destiny Islands was garbage. Not quite as bad as Wonderland's, but considering the fact that I had to use it against some high-level enemies -- not to mention two back-to-back boss fights -- was irritating. I still don't understand the logic of giving me such garbage decks which can be card broken by even the lowliest of grunts with ease... but at least I had the means to fight back this time with a lonely 8 and 0 in there.

Which brings up to the capper for this session: the fight with Zexion. Apparently, Dari actually had played Re:Chain of Memories -- this boss fight just seemed to traumatize him so badly, he completely forgot about it until he realized that it was exclusive to the PS2 remake. Nevertheless, despite taking less time overall than the Trickmaster or Lexaeus fights, this one was definitely the hardest of the bunch. The guy can literally steal your entire deck right from under your nose... and since my deck going into this wasn't that great in the first place, that was particularly damaging. Worse yet, he can also slip in decoy cards to sabotage you, something Dari didn't recognize until I purposefully used it a second time to show him that was the case.

Only two worlds left... and even that feels like I'm overselling it. The last world is apparently just a short corridor with two rooms before the boss fight -- quite the contrast to Sora's. At this point, it's all going to come down to my skill. Dari seems uncharacteristically optimistic that I'll be able to do it, but as far as Re:CoM goes, this is all uncharted territory for him. Either way, I'm planning to beat one more game on my own before next time. So, at least I won't be stressed about meeting some quota.

But getting ahead of schedule would be pretty sweet.

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