Today I played Ring Fit Adventure for the first time since I got it near its launch in October 2019 and had recorded a few videos of it for YouTube. I'm not able to play the game standing up yet due to the foot surgery, so I have to hold the left Joy-Con up as if it were on my leg to get the game to let me play. It turns out there are several ways you can play the game using only the Ring-Con, meaning I was able to sit down on the couch and exercise for the first time in a long time. They have a Quickplay option, which has several exercises/minigames that explicitly state Ring-Con only, which was super helpful. They have worldwide leaderboards and even show you when you are about to surpass a random player's score, which gives you enough motivation to get a few extra reps in; I found it to be very effective. Unfortunately my Apple Watch wasn't charged so I didn't time or measure myself, but I played a lot and expect to be pretty sore tomorrow. One of the workouts is meant for your pecs, and you push in and hold the Ring-Con for a moment and then release. As you progress in the stage, you have to push in the Ring-Con even further, which is more difficult. Since I can't really do leg workouts, I found that I could put the Ring-Con in between my legs and work my inner thighs that way. I would switch back and forth between my arms and legs until I just couldn't push in and hold the Ring-Con anymore. Of course, this made my score way higher than it otherwise would be, so I made sure the game didn't save the record or post it to the leaderboards. I do suspect some of the people near the top may be doing that to increase their position, though. I made sure to stretch afterward, and Heather took Day 1 progress pics of me. Ring Fit Adventure is a lot of fun, so I hope I will stick with it and see improvement in my physique over time. I hear once you actually start seeing results, you become a lot more motivated to consistently exercise. I’m going to get that Socrates philosophy body. [There is a reddit thread here discussing whether Socrates actually said that famous quote that gets thrown around.]

Getting swole #RingFitAdventure #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/x2jFDGIcEd
— Charles (@CharlesARatliff) May 27, 2020

Heather and I have been watching a ton of Disney stuff lately, mainly because I haven't seen most of their classics and want to before I jump into the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I started a Letterboxd account if you want to track the fancy version of what I’ve been watching, along with my ratings. We are going to rewatch Toy Story 1-3 to prepare for Toy Story 4, which neither of us has seen yet. I originally wanted to only watch Toy Story 3, but Heather convinced me we should watch all three films due to the character growth that occurs throughout them.

The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Nintendo 3DS.jpg

I also played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time today on my New Nintendo 3DS XL (Majora’s Mask edition!), the first time I've loaded it up for a few weeks now. Heather was reading on her Kindle next to me (the Kindle I gave her after she stepped on and broke the other one I gave her!). Instead of wasting time refreshing social media on my phone over and over, I am trying to use my 3DS more often instead. I also finally started Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies recently, which is a great quick start-and-stop game since you can save whenever you want. I love the Ace Attorney franchise and remembered I haven't played the two most recent games! The 3D effects in it and Ocarina of Time are great. I am still wowed by it and vastly prefer it to playing in 2D.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual Destinies.jpg

Some other stuff I feel like mentioning:

Made banana chips with old bananas
Released Part 12 of my Half-Life 2 playthrough
Played Apex Legends with Heather
Started my Udemy Photoshop course
Did all my Streaks!
Heather's garden compost bin came in. She seemed pretty excited about it, and it seems cool and sturdy!
We gave Lemons the Hamster some dried yellow squash. They seemed to really be into it. They had to climb a little to get to it and it was super cute.
I watched Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10 Episode 9 while eating delicious Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. The key is to pour an excessive amount of salt into the water before it boils.
Worked on an Onward VR video for a little bit.

I started playing ChilledCow's "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" while writing this post and immediately had flashes of Front Mission 3 in my head, making me want to play it. I don't know why. Perhaps the music sounded like something in the game, though I played it far too long ago to remember.

Front Mission 3 Character Art by Akihiro Yamada

This is the Igiari! - The Takarazuka Revue's Phoenix Wright Musicals piece that I wrote for The Luchazine (Issue #5) that was never released. The header is by aurahack.

You may have heard me talk about the Takarazuka Revue and their amazing Phoenix Wright musicals on episode #3 of The Luchacast, but I wanted to delve more into on just what these magnificent shows really are.

Founded by the president of Hankyu Railways in 1913, the Takarazuka Revue is an all-female theater troupe based out of Japan. Often performing musical adaptations of Western works, the Takarazuka Revue has performed shows based on movies like Casablanca and JFK, novels such as The Great Gatsby and Zorro, various plays by Shakespeare, manga, and even video games.

The Cosmos troupe—the newer, more experimental of the five troupes that make up the Revue and the one that did the Phoenix Wright musicals—were performing their rendition of Trafalgar, and I was fortunate enough to attend a showing in July. Though I barely understood any of it, I was enthralled throughout the entire two-hour showing. With a live orchestra located in the lower front, revolving stages, seamless background and scene transitions, crazy lighting effects, beautiful and detailed clothing designs, along with great acting and singing performances, it was quite a show indeed. Now, apply everything I just said to the Phoenix Wright universe and you have something of ridiculously awesome proportions.

The first musical, "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Truth Resurrected", focuses on Phoenix Wright as he tries to prove the innocence of his former lover, Leona Clyde, who has been accused of murdering a senator. Of course, Miles Edgeworth is there to get in his way, and the results are awesome song and dance sequences featuring some of your favorite characters from the franchise. In fact, the big opening sequence features Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Larry Butz, Lotta Hart, Detective Gumshoe, Maya Fey, and Ema Skye all dancing in tandem. My favorite sequence, however, would have to be the Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth dance-off that seamlessly turns into them facing against each other in the court room. The combination of the music, lighting, and general mood due to their history makes it truly special.

Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright face off.

Premiering just six months later due to the popularity of the first Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright 2 focuses on a young woman whose mother is a suspect in a crime she didn't commit. Well, that's all the official description will give you, anyway; the story actually goes much deeper, but I won't spoil anything for potential viewers. It does do a good job of capturing the twists and turns the games are so known for, however, and even introduces Franziska von Karma herself—carrying her signature whip, of course! The best part of the show comes at the end, when the main characters dress in extra fancy versions of their outfits and do a song/dance number that lasts for a good ten minutes.

It's really all the little touches that help make these musicals so great, though. Working alongside Capcom, the musicals feature a close attention to detail that doesn't go unnoticed and is much appreciated. Using actual songs (particularly from the court room), art assets and sound effects from the game just oozes fanservice, and it totally works. They even go so far as to mimic character mannerisms you're familiar with, such as the way Miles shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders, or the way that Franziska waves her finger back and forth at Phoenix whenever he has screwed up. They also do a great job with the character design, making changes when needed; for example, Ranju Tomu (Phoenix Wright) was originally going to have the same hairstyle as the character does in the game, but they changed it due to it actually looking pretty terrible. Some purists may complain about this, but the changes they make are for the better. It's just like when a movie changes a superhero's costume from the comics—some things just don't translate properly to real life.

I could write an entire Luchazine about these wonderful works of art, but I'll stop here. Words and screens can only express so much, so I highly recommend that you look up these musicals on your own; there are plenty of fansubs just waiting to be watched.