Happy Juneteenth folks! I know not everyone that reads this blog is an American. I also know that not every American gives a shit about Juneteenth. Honestly, I haven’t done a whole lot to celebrate it either. But on June 19th, 1865 some Union troops officially announced freedom for the enslaved people of Texas. See, freedom from slavery didn’t apply to everyone all at once at the same time. Just because Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 doesn’t mean all the slaves in the Confederate states were automatically freed. There needed to be a way to implement it, and that’s hard to do while the Confederates still controlled their territories. But when the Union won the war the freedom needed to reach all corners of the country, Texas included. So Juneteenth marks the day when freedom reached the stragglers. Or at least, a significant step in reaching those stragglers, I imagine there were still some enslaved people somewhere after Juneteenth. Let’s be real, there are still enslaved people to this day. But if they’re prisoners or in a distant country it’s all good right? Sureeeeeee.
All is not well for Black people in America. Or much of anyone in America really. I’d say the billionaires, or fucking trillionaire in Elon Musk’s bitch ass case are doing well, but are they *really* doing well? Are they really fulfilled? Or is nothing ever going to be enough for them? I’m thinking the latter. But it’s certainly not the best of times to be Black in America. Our glorious Supreme Court decided that the VRA requiring majority minority districts is racist against white people or whatever the fuck. So RIP a bunch of Black political representation just like that. Its also been less than a week since some cops in Mississippi shot a one year old Black boy to death. His mom was accused of shoplifting, and she drove away from the cops. So they shot at her car with a baby onboard. Or if you believe the police reports she drove in their direction supposedly. How the hell is shooting a driver supposed to save you from getting run over any way? Even if you believe the cop’s likely bullshit story it’s still fucking stupid. Will that officer get any meaningful accountability for shooting a one year old to death? Probably not, it’s fucking Mississippi. And cops barely ever get accountability for anything even in the not-South. The legacy of the Confederacy lives on.
But you know what? It’s Juneteenth and this is a day where we can relish in the freedom we’ve gained and the hope that our condition can improve moving forward. Because shit, things may not be all hunky dory now but at least we don’t have people being legally owned and worked to death on a plantation. Whips aren’t cool any more unless you’re in kink spaces. Now we just do economic coercion to keep people working to death. But still, man is it nice that the kind of slavery you saw in the 1840s isn’t around any more. Not like it was any way. Gotta be thankful for that. It’s Juneteenth after all. I probably wouldn’t even exist if 1840s style slavery wasn’t abolished.
You probably wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at me in person, or reading my usual blog post, but I have some African-American heritage. I have a Black grandfather, or had, as he’s not alive anymore. Never got to meet him. May he rest in peace. If that side of the family was never freed they would still be stuck in the South. He wouldn’t be able to meet my grandma in Chicago. My mom would’ve never been born. Downstream of that, I obviously wouldn’t have been born either. Downstream of that, this blog would never exist either. Guess I got to give a formal Cosmia blog thank you to Abraham Lincoln. Not to say I endorse every single thing he’s ever said or done, but I don’t think this blog would’ve existed without him. Thanks dude! Also got to thank my unknown enslaved ancestors for enduring whatever untold bullshit they had to deal with to pass on their legacy. Thank you too!
I don’t think my ancestors were ever in Texas, but whatever. Juneteenth is a day for freedom for everybody. Because nobody’s free until we’re all free. Yeah. Though going by that line of reasoning we’re still not free. Fuck. Any ways, I intended for this to be a simple update post to keep y’all in the loop of how things are going under the hood with the Cosmia blog. Then I saw what day it was and I couldn’t resist talking some shit. Freedom! Yeah!
So let’s see how we stand. The year is 2026 and since the start of the year until now we’ve had… two blog posts. And only one of those was written by me. Off to a lightning start! I could give a long list of excuses as to why this is the case. Are there other things going on in my life? Of course. Not so much that it’d make it impossible to post here more often, but there are definitely other things going on nevertheless. I make negative money on this blog. When I’m not working I’ve got other hobbies vying for my time. So prioritization is certainly part of the issue here. But it’s also just getting into that writing flow and seeing it through to the end. The drafts sure are getting crowded. I’ve had some stuff I started but didn’t like where it was going. I’ve had some stuff I started, liked where it was going, but had some reason or another to put on pause. Sometimes I write stuff that won’t be a blog post at all. This is all to say I’ve been writing more often than my activity on this blog indicates.
Even so, I think this site needs some more love. I’m not going to suddenly start pumping out a blog post every week or whatever, but I’ll make damn sure the second half of this year shows more activity. We’re nearing the Cosmia blog’s fourth year anniversary (August 2nd folks). Can’t let it have less posts this year than I published in 2022. To that end, here’s a preview of some of the stuff I’ve been working on/intend to get done before the year’s end:
I won’t give a 100% guarantee that all of these will get published this year. Maybe one of these will fall to the wayside and a secret fifth thing will take its place. But let it be known: they’re in the works. I also know a certain Spartan’s got some interesting things cooking up for you guys too. Much to look forward to. Assuming you have any interest in the niche topics we discuss. If you don’t then I’m not sure how you found this blog in the first place. Whatever. See you soon! Or maybe this is the last time you’ll ever read a blog post on this site ever and I’ll never see you again. That would be unfortunate but peace be with you regardless. By the way, you can put your email in this little form box thing here if you want to keep updated on this blog. That way you won’t miss whenever the Next Thing comes out.
Alternatively, you can like, not do that. Whatever works for you. I’ve pretty much run out of things to say and I don’t know how to end this post so… uh…
In the off chance you were wondering what I’ve been up to since my last blog post, here’s part of your answer.
Yep, I’ve been been doing the incredibly important task known as Gaming. But Cosmia, you may object, the date says 2024. It’s 2026 now! Right you are if you caught that. The truth is I originally wrote this blog a couple summers ago, but I decided to bring it back from the dead. The other post I’m working on will take a while, and reworking this one takes… y’know, less long. Also considering the recent breakout of war in the Middle East, this game seems increasingly relevant.
To be clear, gaming is not the only thing I’ve been up to, but I’m not going to get into that here. I’ve got my work, I’ve got my goals, I’ve got my stretch goals, and I’ve got my elaborate distractions. The way I balance all of these needs work, but I don’t consider the distractions worthless. You can get some insight from them. Like I did with Unicorn Overlord. It is not common for me to spend this much time on any one game. I would never stick with it this long if I didn’t enjoy it substantially. I didn’t love everything about it, but I did love a lot of it. I’m fond of tactical RPGs and Unicorn Overlord delivered. I’ve got quite a few thoughts built up over that playtime, so here’s where I’m putting them out. So read on if you’d like to see that. Be warned, there will be spoilers.
Hoy folks, Spartan here with another one of my mini game reviews. These are games that I won’t be subjecting Mr. Cosmia to play, due to them being bad, too out there, or too short to be viable for the game trade. In this case, it’s the second option. This time on the reviews, it’s Petz Rescue: Wildlife Vet.
Full disclosure, I own this game, I’ve had it ever since it came out and I got it for Christmas one year. I remember seeing advertisements for it on TV and in National Geographic Kids magazines. Growing up I was very interested in animals, and like many kids that interest shaped my environment. I subscribed to ZooBooks and Weird n Wild Creature cards, eagerly awaiting when they would come in the mail every month. My room was plastered with elephants and all manner of wildlife (who the hell am I kidding, my room still looks like that!), and at school non-fiction books on animals were what I always chose during silent reading. Of course this fascination eventually led to me getting a degree in General Biology with most of my electives being zoology or vertebrate paleontology. I was an animal kid through and through, and of course, that interest lent itself to video games.
The PetZ series of games was developed by Ubisoft, and seemed to be their way of competing with Nintendo’s wildly popular Nintendogs, itself a game marketed towards young children whose parents either couldn’t afford a pet or didn’t trust little Joshua with anything living (you know who you are). After all, why get a pet that you have to clean up after and eventually lose to a myriad of potential fates when you can have one that never dies and is never not interested in you? Free will is an illusion and blind obedience makes money damn it! Where was I? oh, right the PetZ Rescue series.
This is a series where they tried to be educational and show kids some aspects of animal husbandry if they were interested in that as a potential career path. Do they succeed in this endeavor? Or do they fail? Let’s find out.
Guess this’ll be the last blog post from me for 2025. At the time of writing this I am sick with a cold on what should’ve been a very peaceful four day weekend. As such, my mind’s not all there and I can’t enjoy DK Bananza (fantastic game by the way, genuinely recommend it) because I can’t think straight. So in order to gather some semblance of clarity, I figure I’ll make a blog post about one of Mr. Cosmia and I’s gaming endeavors.
As Mr. Cosmia put it in his Pokemon Violet review, we met and became friends due to our shared interest in Pokemon. This was back during the 6th generation in 2014 and we enjoyed our time battling. Mr. Cosmia was very adept at the competitive aspect of the game, making many a mon that I (someone who didn’t know the first thing about competitive battling) would struggle to take down in our matches. A lot of them were gimmicky sets, built to whittle down my health slowly and ensure that I would lose due to using most of my stronger team members first. And for the longest time, I wasn’t able to beat him, it felt like I was going up against a brick wall half the time that just kept growing taller and taller each attempt.
How the hell are you supposed to write about an instrumental? Guess we’re about to find out. I’m talking about the main combat soundtrack of the crazy ass game called Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. This is the song that plays when the invaders come and attempt to kick your shit in. Considering how often it played throughout the game you’d think I’d be tired of it, but nope. I’ve grown quite fond of this energetic and enigmatic soundtrack. Enough to write a blog post about it evidently. So if you’ve got any interest in reading about an instrumental you can follow along.
(For the record this isn’t the only blog post I’ve been working on but it’s the shorter one that can come out quicker so here we go)
What’s this? another review from Spartan? That’s right folks, here’s part 2 of my Haunt the House series, this time we’re tackling Terror Town. This is a game that I’m not familiar with, as I wasn’t able to play it on Armor Games or any other free flash game website. But thankfully, the collection allows me to play it whenever I please. As always I’ll be going for the best possible rank with no deaths, but if you saw my previous review, you’ll know that it isn’t easy to do that.
I recently duked it out with a big ass flying roly poly. I won eventually but not without a collection of Ls. I am sure I will take a while to finish Silksong, and if I want to do a long ass blog about it I will do so long after it’s a hot topic. Perhaps that time has passed already. Oh well. So now you get a shorter than usual from me but not entirely short blog instead. I had a fight with a big bug and now I’m going to talk about it.
‘hoy folks, Spartan here with another review for the…
oh wait, this isn’t for the game trade, Mr. Cosmia doesn’t even know this game exists!
Yeah, I figured that I might as well use this platform that I’ve been given access to to shed light on games that I find somewhat interesting, but don’t think would be good enough to subject Mr. Cosmia to. Games that are either very short, very complicated or just don’t have enough content to justify a full dedicated review to. That being said, Haunt the House
This is a game released by the Super Flash Bros, a small indie developer who primarily dealt with making flash games (RIP flash, we hardly knew you) that I initially thought was lost when Flash was terminated, only to see it alive and well on Steam along with others of the series that I never got the chance to play. So while it’s still October, I figure I’ll review the whole series, starting with the game that started it all in 2010.
Every journey has a destination, and what one would encounter on the way is entirely up to chance. When I started this set of trades with Mr. Cosmia, I did so with noble (albeit) selfish reasons. Back then, I wasn’t as connected with people who shared my interests as I am now, and just wanted to share what I thought was a good game series. And on some level, I believe Mr. Cosmia thought the same. But then FromSoft games started getting into the mix, beginning with Bloodborne.
Full disclosure for those expecting a lighthearted review that will praise this game and the developers who made it a reality: you are going to be sorely disappointed for I have made it no secret of my animus towards these types of games. Dark Souls was the progenitor of the souls-like genre, games that put you in a world with little resources and expect you to conquer enemies that can shred your health bar in seconds if you’re not careful, and bosses with often very cheap tactics that can kill you even faster. They are the definition of “Get gud” games, where you are expected to win by learning patterns, adapting to situations and overcoming obstacles after several attempts. Occassionally, you are thrown a bone by the developers, be it new weapons, upgrades to your limited healing item or other things to “help” you. Often, the games employ alternate paths (a closed gate for example) near where you enter the enemy infested area. Pulling a switch on the other side of the gate will open it, and allow you to avoid the enemies you had to get through to get to it. But make no mistake, for you’re still feeble enough that the random dog can take you out if you’re not careful.
These games are a popular pastime for those who enjoy a hard challenge, but I am not one of those people. If I wanted Mr. Cosmia to try a lengthy game, 5/10 times a FromSoftware game was going to be given in exchange and many days of suffering would endure. But ultimately, I prevailed thanks to the leniency of Mr. Cosmia, who didn’t expect me to platinum them and get every ending. “Just get to the end” was the aim of the game, and that’s the bar that I set out for. But I then began to realize that FromSoftware is just going to keep pumping out harder and harder games that I’d inevitably have to play in the trade. So I did what I always do, I bargained. I’d play whatever FromSoftware game of Mr. Cosmia’s choosing, and that would be the final one eligible for the trade. After I finished it following the traditional checklist and required bosses, that would remove any souls-like game from being elligible in the future of the trade. It was down to either Elden Ring or Sekiro, and I ultimately went down the latter option. So here we go, the one for all the marbles. This round of the game trade I will be taking on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for the PS4.
It’s that time again where I make a certain Spartan play a game and then he makes me play a game and then we both write lengthy blog posts ranting about our respective games. This time around I sent him on a brutal shinobi quest in Sekiro, and he wanted to make sure I struggled through something as well. His solution? The widely acclaimed indie roguelike based on Greek mythology known as Hades. Climbing out of Greek-Hell That Isn’t Actually Hell but Still Looks and Acts Hellish at Times is tough work y’know?
This situation reminds me of a certain video I’ve seen. It involves two women engaged in particular activities. One woman acts frustrated and proclaims, “I’m trying to punish you, you’re not supposed to like it!” The other woman continues to quietly oblige, not looking particularly bothered.
Usually I keep mentions of my kinks to a minimum in these reviews, but this game’s not entirely unrelated. Particularly this idea of a punishment that’s enjoyed. It gets at the heart of what makes a game like this work. So unlike the other woman, I have quite a bit to say about my purported punishment. A whole review’s worth.
Cosmia 