Month: August 2025

Crowd Control

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

If there is one thing that has become abundantly clear after years of attending pop culture conventions, it’s that the number of those attending has become almost nigh untenable. Or, perhaps, organisers have simply become bad at controlling the high volume of people eager to spend money inside the hallowed halls of fandom. Whatever the case, I no longer share the same enthusiasm I did years ago (though if you were to ask bleachpanda, they’d probably say it was the almost forty minutes it took just to get in the ICC for the Sydney Manga and Anime Show (or, as it’s more commonly known, SMASH!)).

While I am usually the instigator behind taking the two of us to nerd conventions like Supanova (or those with a more Western pop culture bent), my friend bleachpanda is what many would describe as a weeb. SMASH!, being a celebration of manga and anime, has a lot more merchandise and art that cater to their tastes rather than mine. Be they omamori charms, playing cards with Demon Slayer or One Piece characters, as well as fan art featuring classic anime like Inuyasha, Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2.

The day started early for the two of us. Bleachpanda and I met up at Town Hall before making our way down to Darling Harbour. As it almost always the case, i arrived early and had to wait for them to make an appearance. Thankfully, i was able to pick up a hot chocolate to keep me warm in the shadow of the Queen Victoria statue before relocating to outside the actual Sydney Town Hall. Why, I hear you ask, dear reader? To avoid someone who decided it was a good idea to hock up phlegm in public and then harass a tourist.

It wasn’t long before we managed to insert ourselves into the lengthy queue for SMASH! One that winded from the entrance of the ICC down to the harbour before doubling back around Tumbalong Park and across a pedestrian bridge. Unfortunately, as we got closer to the end, a couple cut the line. And though I did want to tap them on the shoulder and tell them where the end of the line was, I’d initially thought they’d accidentally stumbled into it as curious bystanders.

The rage I felt when I saw they had a ticket for SMASH!? Almost incandescent.

By then, however, it was too late. So, off we trotted to be sorted into a myriad of lines to have our tickets checked before being handed a lanyard so we could enter exhibition halls.

First on the list? The newly designated Level 4 with a limited number of exhibitors and the lion’s share of Artist Alley. Bleachpanda and I wandered the aisles, looking over the merchandise on display. While there were still plenty of prints, enamel pins and charms dominated the market. The two of us picked up a few that caught our eye before moving on.

Yet, unlike previous years, there did not seem to be any one anime that ruled them all. Unlike previous years, nothing truly dominated. No Attack on Titan. No Demon Slayer. No Spy x Family. Not even Genshin Impact could retain its hold on the very saturated market. Instead, what stood out to me were the callbacks to old favourites like Naruto, One Piece, Pokemon and Sailor Moon sprinkled in with some of what made a significant impact on the public conscious such as Kpop Demon Hunters, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (a game which I bought upon release but have yet to play because I am SO GODDAMN BEHIND! At time of writing, I’ve been trying to make my way through Dragon’s Dogma 2. Not to mention the hundreds of hours of other games I also have from 2024. Why were there so many open-world games? Why were so many of them role-playing? Why were they both? Readers, if there is one thing I’ll ask of you, it’s simply to pray for my sanity).

When we had finally taken a tour of the Artist Alley on Level 4, bleachpanda and I headed out of the ICC to find some sustenance to fuel the second half of our day.

Knowing the Food Hall in Darling Square would be packed with people, bleachpanda and I opted for a fairly safe option: that of a nearby Italian restaurant Uliveto. Despite the hour, we managed to secure a seat inside and made our order – though I did have to flag the waitress down a few times to confirm if the seasonal lava cake was available before it promptly appeared BEFORE the mains – of salmon and scallops risotto, and lamb ragu parpardelle.

Once we had refuelled, it was back into the heaving mass of humanity to start the second leg of our day. Perhaps because SMASH! was split between two floors, the exhibition hall on the first floor did not seem as tedious. We breezed through the lower Artist Alley and even caught up with an ex-colleague of mine who had attended the event with her partner.

I do fear I may have been a little distracted and dismissive. For that I do apologise (yes, I know you read this though it’s a 50/50 chance you’ll deep dive into THIS particular post).

Together we scoured the first few aisles of the first floor before my ex-colleague decided to call a break after being on her feet for most of the day. Bleachpanda and I finished off the rest of Artist Alley, rounding off the day when I stopped by an Australian artist who created her own brand of tarot cards based off Critical Role characters (and is a friend of a friend).

To bleachpanda‘s surprise, I also then spent a veritable fortune to purchase 15 Final Fantasy themed Magic the Gathering cards. In hindsight, perhaps I should have kept them all but there were two people I was to meet the next day at an extended bachelor party that I’d give five packs each (keeping the last five for myself).

As we scoured the last of the exhibitor stalls, we looked at all that was on display but steered clear from any other major purchases. By 4:30 PM, the two of us had called it a day and slowly trudged back to Town Hall for the train ride back home. But not without a stop by Kinokuniya so I could look through the variety of books on display.

Could we have stayed a little longer? Perhaps. There were a few things I wanted to buy but chose not to.

That said, it was announced there would be a chibi SMASH! in November at its old stomping ground at Rosehill Racecourse. Whether or not bleachpanda and I attend is still up in the air. But if we do, I know I’d be wanting to pick up a few more prints and maybe a few funky socks.

As I told bleachpanda, I’ve had FAR too many white socks over the course of my 13 years of primary and secondary education. While I’ve had a string of various different socks, I’m always on the lookout for more. Especially thick ones I can wear during winter where almost every extremity of mine is all but frozen.

I’m a cold person, bleachpanda. Deal with it!

However, I DO want to point out that the attempt to crowd control artist alley once again by blocking off entrance from one side of a huge aisle was a TERRIBLE idea because it prevents the more efficient way of actually looking at all the stalls. WORSE, it was ever ONE aisle. The rest of the aisles going up to Q on the alphabet were NOT managed. AT. ALL.

Please stop.

Especially since you’ve also SPLIT Artist Alley to TWO floors (and hence, splitting the amount of people who would be perusing Artist Alley anyways).

But I digress.

Now, of course, there’s only PAX remaining (unless of course bleachpanda and I choose to go to chibi SMASH!).

Slaying the Hydra that is Capitalism

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

I was not sure what to expect when it came to Dontnod’s Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. The game released in 2023 with little fanfare and almost no marketing. Yet, I still picked it up after a sale because of the developer’s pedigree. And while the premise seemed intriguing enough – travelling between two worlds and interacting with god-like entities – the execution left much to be desired hours after the credits rolled. It certainly didn’t feel quite as engaging as Life is Strange or even Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, though I did agree with the message it was trying to impart (even if it was a little on the nose and wasn’t helped by me reading Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao at the same time).

You play as Polly, short for Polyhmnia, Beauclair. After several years away, she returns home to the island of Atina due to her mother’s sudden appearance. As she is exploring her old home, she hears something calling out her name. Stumbling upon a necklace, she is pulled into an entirely different world and is met by the first of the Aspirations: Bliss (voiced by none other than Jennifer English).

The narrative is split into five distinct arcs with two or three chapters contained within. While the first three help build the world the characters live in and provide backstory, culminating in the rescue of Ursula Beauclair in the depths of an Oxian temple, the next two arcs see our protagonists take back their home from the jaws of capitalism and of an oppressive regime.

There is also an intermission following the death of Laszlo, partner to Polly’s mother and grandfather to Nora. In my playthrough, this was right after a riot where the people were protesting against the megacorporation that has taken over the island: Mono Konzern.

If that’s starting to sound familiar, you are not alone. The parallels to current events in America were particularly stark.

Worse, at time of writing, the controversial One Big Beautiful Bill was recently passed by Congress. When this post actually goes up, it’ll be another six weeks into some dystopian Hell for anyone who doesn’t particularly agree with the authoritarian politics going on in a country that once touted freedom for all.  

And while I enjoyed the narrative to a degree, I did feel the pacing near the end took away some of the wind in its sails. Especially when I chose to maintain a balance between the six Aspirations in Reverie: Bliss, Power, Bond, Chaos, Truth and Glory.

Despite the escalation of Mono Konzern to rout out dissenters in the district of Alma: by shutting down vital resources such as food and water, they decide to withdraw entirely from Atina. There is no real explanation for this. Whereas the other paths see the CEO stepping down or moral outrage erupt across the globe, when it came to Polly’s ascension as the new Aspiration: Balance, it is only the passage of time that frees the people of Atina.

This in spite of Mono Konzern tightening their hold on the island and even winning back support from the people by loosening the leash and offering affordable shelter and food.

My other issues with the game included the lack of payoff when it came to Oxion culture and the history of the island. Nor did they explain Polly’s lineage to this ancient race (though it is implied the residents of Atina – an island somewhere in Europe where they all have British accents – are probably descendants of the Oxions who first arrived on the island and had a pseudo-Greek culture as they paid worship to the Aspirations).

Then, of course, there’s the lake of egregore underneath the Naiads, along with Mono Konzern’s modified version of it that they were using to feed Glory to maintain their grip on Atina. Or even why Polly was selected to be the next Harmony.

While I don’t need everything to be spelt out, it seemed like more of these elements could have been explored. That said, perhaps they were touched upon in the options I did not choose.

From a gameplay standpoint, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is essentially a glorified visual novel. But unlike many other games where choices matter, most of the consequences of are laid out before you in a mechanic called the ‘Augury.’ Given Polly/ Harmony’s ability to look into the future, it helps dictate the paths one can take to reach their desired goal.

But though I liked knowing how I was nudging the story, it didn’t feel quite as organic as I would have liked as many of the end outcomes were gated behind collecting enough egregore for a particular Aspiration. This meant, of course, taking certain actions or picking dialogue options I felt that did not pair well with how I viewed Polly.

The mechanic was also jarring during the intermission where Polly was struggling with her grief at the loss of Laszlo. Was it necessary to have the cutscenes be spaced out to individual nodes in the Augury when there was only one path forward?

It’s frightening for me to say this but I would have preferred the intermission to have the intermission be one long cutscene of dialogue as Polly and the rest of the family grieve. I don’t need to break down the steps one takes after the loss of a family member.

Hell, I’ve already gone through that. And, at time of writing, I fear I may have to go through it again.

Let me tell you: watching someone slide, by degrees, into something unrecognisable is not something I’d wish on anyone. It’s painful. It’s stressful. And you feel so powerless and out of your depth.

I know I made a post about the burden of care but in this strange in-between as I wait for my mother to come back, there have been moments when I have felt it’s all been too much. My grandmother deserves so much more than I am able to provide.

The company of friends. Being taken out to soak in the sun and interact with other humans. Playing a game of mahjong.

And while I’ve tried, there will always be a voice in my head saying it wasn’t enough.

But, of course, this blog post isn’t about my personal troubles. It’s about Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. Yet though I wanted to sing the praises for this game, I find myself hesitant to recommend it. Yes, there are a few good moments but as an overall experience, it’s lacking a certain…heart to it. One not even the Aspirations from the game are able to quite restore.

That said, when is the revolution my fellow proletariats? When are we, the people, to seize the means of production and overthrow the shackles of capitalism holding us back?

Revelio!

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

There’s a lot that can be said of J.K. Rowling’s views and the tweets she shares on social media. While I don’t condone them, it did not stop me from purchasing Hogwarts Legacy. That said, I did grapple a lot with my conscience before buying it during a sale on the PlayStation store. Some of it was because I wanted to show solidarity to a group of people who have bore the brunt of her attacks. In the end, though, I gave in.

I am human, after all, and the pull of nostalgia was strong. Especially when many of my friends had already bought and enjoyed their playthrough as a Hogwarts student. 

Does this make me an irredeemable monster? Maybe. 

But like many Millennials, Harry Potter was a pivotal influence on me growing up. Even at the age of 12, I waited for my letter to Hogwarts to be delivered in the mail even though Harry and the others attended at the tender age of 11. Of course, I rationalised the delay as simply the Wizarding school wanting us muggle-born children in Australia to wait until we were going to high school (or that it simply got lost). 

After reading the first four books about ten times each, I felt like Harry, Ron and Hermione were my best friends. Particularly Hermione.

As the years went by, I moved from books to fanfiction. And delighted in how others viewed these characters. 

Could I understand the obsession with Dramione? Not really. Was I a Harmony shipper, and disliked the canon relationship of Hermione and Ron? Yes. Did I eventually go down a terrible rabbit hole of Hermione Granger with Professor Snape, Fenrir Greyback and also Voldemort/ Tom Riddle? Yes, I did.

My AO3 is not something for the faint of heart.

So, I ask you, dear reader: is it any wonder I would get suckered in by all the promises Hogwarts Legacy made?

Released in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy sets the player as a new student to Hogwarts. Yet instead of being a starry-eyed and bushy-tailed first year, you play as a fifth year. However, despite the experience being a fifth year might entail, your character is entirely naive to the magic world and was only trained rudimentarily by Professor Fig – the teacher who came to fetch you to the school.

From the start, besides a basic cast, you know no spells.

Did the player character live life as a Squib to magical parents? If that were the case, why did they know nothing of magical beasts or the history of Hogwarts in general? Or were they muggleborn? So many questions, so few answers.

Whatever the case, you board a flying carriage with Professor Fig and a high-ranking official from the British Ministry of Magic, George Osric. During the ride to Hogwarts, the carriage is attacked by a dragon. Before you can react, an artefact in Osric’s possession portkeys both you and Professor Fig to some ruins along the coast that lead to a special vault in Gringotts. Inside, the player character makes out traces of an ancient magic that leads them to a pensieve before they’re confronted by a goblin named Ranrok. Both you and Professor Fig manage to escape through a portal leading to the outskirts of Hogwarts where you are later sorted into your Hogwarts House and the game officially begins.

From a narrative perspective, Hogwarts Legacy starts off strong. While the detour to a Gringotts vault had me scratching my head about where the game might lead, I was eager to attend Hogwarts and meet new friends while expanding my spell repertoire. As the do-gooder I am, I allowed myself to be sorted into Hufflepuff rather than my desired House of Ravenclaw.

But the shine of those early hours soon vanished as I went from main quest to main quest, picking up the necessary spells I needed to progress and go on my collectible splurge. Then, just as I was getting comfortable, Ranrok sends a troll to Hogsmeade to remind us of the core plot lurking in the wings. It is here where we also meet Victor Rookwood, ally to Ranrok’s ambitions of a goblin revolution, and a dark wizard.

My problem with the set-up? It’s never properly explained what Ranrok saw in the player character. Whether they were a threat or a tool to be used. While it is later revealed that Ranrok wanted to rise up against oppressive wizards and take back goblin creations, it was never properly tied back to the repository of ancient magic he had stumbled upon. For, if he was focused on an uprising, why not attack the organisations or institutions that were holding them back? But no, he ventures into one vault in Gringotts and leaves the other goblins working there alone instead of recruiting them to his cause. There are no blatant attacks either on the Ministry. Nor were there stories in the Daily Prophet of guerilla attacks.

Instead, it seemed like Ranrok was still in the process of gathering followers and power. As if he were still in the staging phase of his grand master plan.

In fact, the final battle at the repository buried underneath Hogwarts wasn’t even some mass weapon he was seeking to blow up to destroy the Wizarding school. Rather, it was just a source of power he could continue to stockpile for a future attack.

Very odd. Very strange.

Then, of course, there was the whole issue with the Keepers and the conflict between them and Isidora Morganach, a witch who also only attended Hogwarts as a fifth year. And while the game does state that Isidora’s actions were wrong, it doesn’t really show the affects of her using ancient magic to take away people’s pain (emotional). They simply state that light cannot exist with darkness and hope the player character accepts the heavy-handed but scant story crumbs.

But also, their whole solution is just to keep the pain magic taken by Isidora and just keep it stored somewhere? Why can’t they destroy it? Or simply release it into the world? What happens if it was released?

NONE of these questions were really answered in the main story before it was all glossed over by the player character undertaking the O.W.Ls at the end of the school year and being granted 100 points, thus securing them the House Cup.

Is it any wonder I felt the side stories with fellow students Natsai Onai, Poppy Sweeting and Sebastian Sallow the most compelling part of the game? Especially when it came to Sebastian and his narrative arc of trying to find a cure for his sister’s curse that causes debilitating physical pain.

And while I agree with the Keepers that taking away a person’s emotions is not the solution when they’re confronted by trauma (Life is Strange: True Colours showed just how important it is for characters to feel the full spectrum of emotions, even the negative ones), taking away chronic physical pain is a no-brainer. Why would you let Anne Sallow suffer through a delayed Cruciatus curse over and over?

In terms of gameplay, I did enjoy the various combinations of spells I could toss out. Was it a little annoying you could only map four spells initially before unlocking additional quick menus? Yes. I also found it frustrating that Hogwarts Legacy also proved to be a relatively shallow open world with a lot of randomised gear of varying quality locked in caves and ‘dungeons’ across the map. More importantly, I hated how I couldn’t readily complete them all from the start and had to wait for certain spells I would not have access to until more than half way through the game (Alohomora, I’m looking at you).

That said, I did find most of the enemies pretty one note and there wasn’t as much variety as I would have liked. Thankfully, after the first two Keeper trials, the last two showed some originality. In particular, I liked the one set by the previous headmistress: Niamh Fitzgerald where the player character must journey through a black-and-white story world that re-enacts elements of the The Tale of the Three Brothers as told by Beedle the Bard.

I also enjoyed San Bakar’s trial of winning over the Lord of the Shore and riding him back to where Professor Fig was waiting for us. The score during this moment reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon and I could not help but have John Powell’s score for Test Flight flit through my mind as we raced along the southern portion of the Scottish Highlands. And I’m not the only one judging by the comments on a YouTube video.

While I did enjoy my time with Hogwarts Legacy, I felt it was, overall, a little undercooked. Ranrok was a one-note villain whose sole motivation for his goblin rebellion was because, one time, a wizard had beaten him half to death. Because of that, he killed his own brother just so he could hunt down more power. There was nothing truly menacing about him as a villain, nor did he garner much sympathy. Perhaps if the player character had a rival or they actually had Isidora plead her case, some of the themes explored could have been more compelling.

As it was, I was left wanting at the end of the game for something with a little bit more meat on its bone.

Of note, of course, is the fact maybe a future game set in the Wizarding world would have the player as an adult witch or wizard dealing with an existential threat to wizardkind. True, there is some nostalgia baked in with Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, in turn, but one can’t reasonably believe a fifth year was out duelling goblins and poachers, ‘rescuing’ magic creatures and just running around the Scottish Highlands willy-nilly all throughout the school year while keeping up with their classes. Not even Harry Potter could have done that.

It’s Thursday Night…Down Under

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

For regulars of my blog, I do believe I’ve made it unabashedly clear I’m somewhat of a nerd. I play video games, read a lot of fantasy books, am up to date with most popular culture television shows…and I am also tangentially fascinated by tabletop role-playing games (including groups who play and stream it online). So, it should, hopefully, not come to a surprise to many that when Critical Role (which is a group of nerdy-ass voice actors who sit around playing Dungeons and Dragons) had a live show in Sydney back in June, I would be in attendance.

While, at time of writing up this post, I have no clear idea if the episode has aired, I do feel compelled to write up my thoughts of the night (and perhaps throw in my thoughts of attending Supanova later in the week, surrounded by fellow fans). That said, the post will be light on actual spoilers of the D&D campaign story but shed a few things in terms of the events of the day. For example, Sam’s ad read and the opener for the live-play.

The date was Thursday, 19 June 2025. The day before, the Critical Role YouTube channel uploaded a prologue: Tag Team at the Teeth. This short video would serve to provide some additional context to the mixed party members of the Mighty Nein and Bells Hells as our erstwhile heroes sailed off into the Shattered Teeth in the realm of Exandria.

Of course, given Critical Role had announced two shows in Australia: one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne, it made sense to have the story be presented as a two-shot. It would also provide the perfect opportunity to break up the fairly large party of Nein Hells and provide some different party combinations for the entertainment of the audiences.

For Sydney, this meant we got Chetney Pock O’Pea, Laudna, Ashton Greymoore, Yasha Nydoorin, Jester Lavorre, Caleb Widogast and Veth Brenatto. A hefty line-up to be sure with many fun party interactions.

Supposedly the game in Melbourne will feature the other members: Fjord, Beauregard Lionett, Caduceus Clay (or Kingsley Tealeaf, though it seemed like Taliesin chose Caduceus to be on the ship. Maybe he’ll play both?), Imogen Temult, Braius Doomseed, Fearne Calloway and Orym.

As the date for the live show was a Thursday, I, your humble blogger, did indeed work prior to attending the event. When I finished, I hurried over to the International Convention Centre (ICC) at Darling Harbour, stopping by to grab a quick bite as the show was scheduled to start at 6 PM.

But with many things of such scale, the cast and crew of Critical Role were already getting ready at noon. A short, shared on both Instagram and YouTube showed them all venturing outside to greet eager fans already milling about. Alas, I was unable to be there – slaving away as one does on a typical Thursday during a work week.

Still, it was heartening to see so many of my fellow Critters out and about. That said, trying to navigate the food lines, and those for merchandise, was an exercise in patience.

It always boggles my mind to see so many people line up and keen for something you also enjoy. But I suppose what I liked the most were those who dressed up for the occasion. Cosplays abounded during my jaunt down to Darling Harbour and then later into the ICC. Some were dressed as Vox Machina but there were also a substantial number of Mighty Nein and Bells Hells cosplayers.

Yet while I was able to predict the presence of Critical Role at Supanova over the weekend, I was unable to accurately guess the guest opener for the adventure. You see, Anjali Bhimani was also in Sydney for Supanova. And she, as many Critters would know, has also appeared on Critical Role as a guest player.

So, of course, I had assumed she would make an appearance.

Instead, however, it was Tom Cardy: an Australian YouTuber and musician who took to the stage to welcome the cast. If it had not been for the YouTube algorithm, and maybe one of the many dates I’d gone on during my time trying to use dating apps, I might have been less familiar with his content.

As it was, I knew who he was and could appreciate his appearance out on the stage. Tom Cardy, being who he is, serenaded us with three of his songs. These were: Paint That Lady, Mixed Messages and Monster Truck (Don’t touch my). None of which I was familiar with, but did serve to be entertaining.

Then, of course, the live show began with fervour. All of the players, barring Tom (I suppose), dressed up as the characters they would be playing for the game in delightful outfits. Standouts, of course, being Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel.

But I suppose the most memorable moment of the night was Sam doing his best Crocodile Dundee impression as he did the ad read for Ravensburger. Especially when he was wrestling with an inflatable crocodile on stage in what many would have described as a very compromising position. Being the entertainer he was, though, the crocodile did get to crowdsurf for several minutes before being tossed back closer to the stage (and even made an appearance for the group photo after intermission).

Other parts of the night I enjoyed were the fact Matt included many Australian themed creatures for combat encounters. This included terrifying sandworms, dropbears and swooping magpies!

But more importantly, they also shouted out the sign language translator at the foot of the stage, and the difficulties they would have when it came to their colourful descriptions of what was happening on stage.

All in all, it was a good night. One that was cut short for me as I had work the next day and needed to leave after 4 and a half hours of entertainment (I was later told by a friend it had ended about 15 minutes after I’d left).

Yet, the Critical Role craze did not end solely on Thursday night. Supanova Sydney was held on June 21 and 22nd. Given the cast were also skilled voice actors and had appeared in a variety of video games, having them as guests at the event was a no-brainer. The only unfortunate thing was that their panel was right at the start of both days at 10:30 AM.

I, of course, attended on the Saturday.

And by the Gods, was it packed! Split across two halls, Supanova had even managed to wrangle a Nintendo exhibit and also had a dedicated corner for the Disney Store. The other hall had row upon rows for their Artist Alley. With my friend, bleachpanda, in tow, it took nigh upon two hours just to have a look at what was on display.

While I did buy a few things for my friends, I also secured for myself more delightful prints, an enamel pin of my favourite off-brand fictional detective: Herlock Sholmes, a Goro Majima charm, and Final Fantasy themed Magic the Gathering cards.

That said, I have to commend the sheer amount of variety of goods available at Artist Alley. For my own sanity, I was glad to see there were fewer Genshin Impact related merchandise and a wider spread of other options. It also felt like Demonslayer and Spy x Family had less influence in the items being sold. That said, there was a lot more love for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. Other merchandise included original artworks or other cute trinkets.

But I, for one, am grateful for the appreciation for lesser known works such as Xenoblade Chronicles, Like a Dragon and the Ace Attorney series.

There was, of course, plenty of Critical Role fanart as well on display. And one artist I know, and who I’ve also purchased from, had a gaggle of people seeking to purchase her themed tarot cards.

Despite my own personal demons and challenges during the week, getting to enjoy my love of all things nerdy at the end of it felt like the break I needed. Was it a bit of a struggle to balance all my responsibilities with some fun? Of course. But it is these small moments where life truly does shine.

And maybe, hopefully, I’ll learn to be kinder to myself and let myself just breathe when everything becomes overwhelming.

On a completely unrelated side note, I was secretly hoping Dael Kingsmill would make an appearance. I know she lives somewhere in Wollongong and she might have been in the crowd during the live show, but gosh…that would have been a nice surprise.

More love needs to be shown to Australian content creators! Whichever field they may be in!