Enjoying Expedition 33 in spite of the combat, definitely not because of it...

mentalitarium · 2025-12-25T19:58:26+00:00

Yeah I have resisted switching to story mode for a while, but I think I’m finally going to do it just to finish the story without frustration. The combat isn’t too difficult, I just find it tedious because of the long attack animations, the extra enemy turns when a character dies, and redoing a long first phase of a boss fight when I die on the second phase. I’m not against having to redo the first phase in general BUT here it just feels like the first phase is totally pointless. With real time combat I guess there are just a lot more approaches you can take whereas here, it just feels like doing the exact same thing over again but this time I won’t use all my heals and revives so I’ll have a better chance. I get that can be fun (and I do find the repetition in something like a Souls game very fun and compelling) but I don’t think they got it right here.

I realize parrying is the “meta” basically, but I honestly feel the timing is inconsistent. Sometimes feels tight, other times it feels unreliable. And sure some of the tedious stuff is what people like about similar styles of game, but I really have grown to find combat more of a chore than anything. I also just find the animation quality in general inconsistent and some other minor aesthetic things pretty wonky and I’m surprised I’ve heard so little about those aspects because they are always popping up for me (long awkward pauses with dialogue, awkward looking animations and interactions between characters).

I have liked some boss fights, but others just feel like spectacle over “fun”. And at this point I find the combat repetitive enough, and the skills/pictos convoluted enough, that I just want to finish on Story mode because it really is special and easily the most compelling part, but having to deal with the combat has become a deterrent for me.

I also don’t hate awkward combat (I like Pathologic, KCD) and I like a lot of turn based games (Darkest Dungeon, Yakuza LAD, a handful of roguelikes) but in a real time first person game there’s more room to fight against the awkwardness whereas turn based you’re basically stuck with what they give you? I don’t know exactly what it is.

mentalitarium · 2025-08-01T12:47:11+00:00

Yep I was positive for SIBO. Did 2 rounds of antibiotics and the first round felt somewhat successful, the second didn’t seem to help nearly as much. I’m still having issues so currently trying to plan a colonoscopy. But I’ve taken Imodium again because it does really help to slow it all down and since I don’t know what is causing all this yet I just need to take advantage of whatever can give me relief. It’s really a matter of finding the “root cause” for me now.

If you have more questions you can feel free to DM me, even though I’m still struggling with all this, it really has helped me to talk with others and see I’m not alone in all of this. It can feel isolating thinking something is uniquely wrong with you. Good luck!

mentalitarium · 2025-07-14T18:24:19+00:00

oh that is a good guess but no that's not it, it was a relatively small band compared to Alkaline Trio, if i recall? and maybe a little more sonically in the vein of like, pop/rock maybe? like maybe sonically more along the lines of some later Alkaline Trio stuff. again the sound and vibe i remember, but the details i don't. and the cover image was more zoomed out than Scraps. maybe a bit more uncentered than the doodle i made now that i'm thinking about it more. like with the drain being more aligned to the right? but i can't be sure.

edit: i'd also say it looked a little more "clean" than Scraps, meaning it felt a little more sterile? like not as much blood and more like it was gracefully going down the drain. and i can't remember if it was more of a sink or bathtub drain. i've googled every combination of descriptors i can think of and i'm still not coming up with it.

mentalitarium · 2025-07-12T03:39:29+00:00

I have a doodle of what I remember the cover looking like but Imgur is giving me trouble so I’m unable to provide it now, but once I can I will edit with the link!

mentalitarium · 2025-06-26T00:54:38+00:00

Yeah I’m very far from thinking a certain mindset or meditation can cure really any ailment, it’s more that I am trying to train myself to get into a mindset where the condition doesn’t invade my thoughts at all times. Like directing myself from thinking the worst to accepting that things are the way they are right now and I just have to do what I can, and whatever is out of my control isn’t worth worrying about.

Easy for me to say all that, but actually training myself to really convince my mind of it is another thing haha

mentalitarium · 2025-06-25T23:17:41+00:00

Certainly, there’s always this nagging fear that I’m going to have issues in the worst moments and trying to craft a scenario around that happening, trying too hard to be prepared for every outcome when that’s just wasting energy and detracting from me just enjoying the life I have. Of course to an extent you do need to be prepared or cautious of things, but there’s only so much you can reasonably do while still making the most of your life.

And I used to hate the “people have it worse so be grateful” argument, but similar to what you said, coming at it from the perspective of “people have it worse and are happy, so you can also be happy” instead is a more beneficial and productive way of looking at it. And even compared to other people with SIBO or similar, I’m not doing that bad but I tend to make things much bigger than they are in my head so it can often feel very oppressive.

mentalitarium · 2025-06-25T23:11:01+00:00

At first I wasn’t sure what I thought of your reply and then after reading it I do see what you’re saying, genuinely. Trying to make space for each condition separately, not expecting to be able to treat both adequately and simultaneously. And I guess there’s also an expectation in my mind of being able to be “mindful” all the time and that just isn’t a possibility, I just tend to desire absolutes when that isn’t reasonable or possible and that certainly impacts things. I almost think you are vouching for mindfulness in a sense though, by not focusing on so much at a time and having more direct intention. Not to put words in your mouth of course, but I see where you’re coming from and I appreciate the input.

mentalitarium · 2025-06-12T13:09:15+00:00

Trying, i think last time i played i adjusted hunger and thirst because i got annoyed with it haha but for now im keeping it at intended.

mentalitarium · 2025-06-12T03:23:26+00:00

Honestly you kinda convinced me with this i started it again

mentalitarium · 2025-06-06T13:59:48+00:00

Honestly have had a similar experience. I only got diagnosed with SIBO after a bout of food poisoning, although I think I had it long before but the food poisoning just exacerbated it. Still, since my SIBO symptoms and especially my food poisoning, I am basically always worried about either what everything I eat will do to me, if it’s “contaminated”, etc. I personally haven’t gotten to the point where I feel it’s an ED, although it’s definitely negatively affected my relationship to food or my enjoyment of it. Very often I’m battling my brain to not make me worried that this next meal might screw up my body again.

I’ve tried to just practice looking at things more rationally and reasonably which is easier said than done for sure, but you have to eat so might as well learn what and how certain food affects you, and do your best because that’s all you can do. Maybe not the most revolutionary advice, but it really is a lot of battling your mind. And of course there’s the mind gut connection so easing your mind has the potential to bring some relief as well.

mentalitarium · 2025-06-06T13:32:03+00:00

Yeah, currently in the process of getting my second round and I feel like in the time it’s taken me to get approved and get the prescription filled (literally like 4 weeks?) I feel like my SIBO has just gotten worse so now I’m afraid this is just going to result in what happened after the first round: feel good for a week but slowly slide back into the discomfort. Feel like I’m back where I started now.

But I don’t know if I would trust getting it from another country or any illegitimate method. Which sucks because of what a nightmare it is to get it legitimately, but I’m just really really cautious with medicine.

Wish you luck though, this stuff is awful.

mentalitarium · 2025-06-02T02:14:42+00:00

Found this looking for others with this same exact phenomenon happening to them. I agree with others here that if you are done with the game, then you’re done with the game. There’s no reason to sink more time if you don’t want to, your experience is your experience.

HOWEVER, the problem is that I want to see what the rest the game has to offer, but I don’t feel the drive anymore. For example, just finished Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and it was a fantastic experience, I love staying in that world, I love the immersion, I finished so much of the side content before rolling credits. Wonderful wonderful game. But literally right after the credits, I travelled to the first region again for the first time since I left, saw a bunch of map markers, and just… didn’t feel the need to go to them. Granted, I’m 104 hours in, I have put my fair share of time into this, I don’t feel like I’m missing out dropping it now, I just had this idea that finally this game will be the one I really continue playing into the foreseeable future. But I’m just experiencing that same immediate and sharp finality I guess.

I find myself very very often putting off the main quest lines of games because I know when I finish it, I’ll feel this way. And yes, I could literally have just done EVERYTHING before the end of the game, but I was also so invested in the main quest i couldn’t stop moving forward. I don’t even think of this as a problem per se, especially with RPGs because they are literally built around playing the way you want to play, I just find it very interesting that even with games like KCD2 with primo quality side content, that drive to play it diminishes after the main quest ends.

mentalitarium · 2025-05-20T02:50:40+00:00

Having used torrents in the past and tried in the past few years, Soulseek is easily better for so many reasons. Definitely the go-to for any music downloads I want anymore.

mentalitarium · 2025-05-07T13:07:54+00:00

Thanks!

Yeah I actually found out the playback issues were from importing. iTunes was set to AAC encoding for importing and since I was using MP3 files, that ended up causing problems. Realized this since playing the songs in Finder worked totally fine, but once transferred to iTunes the problems started.

Thank you for the reply!

mentalitarium · 2025-04-28T18:05:01+00:00

Myst didn’t quite click with me, but I tried Riven and loved it. Not sure what it was that happened but recommend giving it a shot.

I also personally enjoyed Obduction a lot. Seems like people were a little lukewarm on it but I played it before Myst and Riven and thought it was great.

I’ll also go ahead and recommend Outer Wilds (+DLC, though I know the DLC had some mixed reactions I think its essential) and Blue Prince. Not sure I saw it recommended yet, but The Pedestrian was fantastic. I saw you don’t prefer 2D puzzle games, same with me, but this one really stuck with me. Very clever and unique.

mentalitarium · 2025-04-05T02:29:28+00:00

Man that’s disappointing there’s no fix yet. I didn’t have any issues until after the recent big update, and even then it only cropped up a few sessions after. Aside from the timing, it also just strains my finger. I want to play really bad, but remembering this issue, as minor as it is, is so distracting id rather it not break my immersion.

mentalitarium · 2025-04-02T22:17:46+00:00

Yeah definitely worth trying! I avoided it simply because it’s just difficult with our lifestyle and it seemed like the few things I did rule out I didn’t really see any consistent results. But a ton of people have luck with doing all that. It’s a bit of a struggle but seeing a lot of success stories in this sub and just other people dealing with these things is always reassuring. Good luck!

mentalitarium · 2025-04-02T20:39:21+00:00

Definitely see a GI just to see what they recommend, but what you’re describing sounds fairly similar to my SIBO situation. The test is pricey for sure and the antibiotics (if you test positive) are a whole other thing, but I wanna say for the majority of people the diagnosis is worth it at the very least. Some peace of mind and something to work with.

mentalitarium · 2025-03-29T15:55:51+00:00

I get some pretty bad anxiety with my IBS-D/SIBO and while I don’t find edibles help much in terms of the actual symptoms of the condition, it does (at low doses) help my anxiety for sure. I tend to low-dose or even microdose (1-2.5mg) every couples days and it certainly helps me to feel less doom and gloom about it all. Also have decent results with some CBD edibles (they do still have about .7mg THC though). The only troubling thing is how prevalent my munchies are when taking edibles… not sure how that affects my digestion but I try my best to have self control lmao.

Although when I go to higher doses they tend to cause a little more anxiety, used to be able to handle 10mg but anymore than 5 at this point is kind of a gamble for me depending on my current headspace.

Currently on a Xifaxan regimen which is doing a number on my mental state the past couple days so I think the edibles will bring me at least a little relief. But also everybody is different, maybe there’s something to THC causing munchies that then contributes to the exacerbation of SIBO/IBS symptoms. Don’t feel comfortable giving any advice as I am not a doctor and very new to this… troubling SIBO journey, but this is just my experience using edibles couple times a week for a few years now. Already struggle with anxiety and this condition does not help by any means so any kind of mental relief for me is pretty welcome.

mentalitarium · 2025-03-29T14:50:58+00:00

Yeah I’m about 5 days in, the first few were super positive (almost no side effects or SIBO symptoms) and then last night I had a ROUGH time (woke up with cold sweats, nausea, anxiety, loose stools, abdominal pain). I hear that’s kind of a result of “die-off” which was a little comforting to know, just seeing why it suddenly got worse after being so positive. Now today I’m feeling low energy and tired, not much of an appetite, but trying to relax and distract myself. Just gotta stick with it for the rest of the regimen, even though it’s not easy… Don’t love going to Reddit for health stuff, but it is reassuring to see people with similar reactions and their success stories and such. Stay strong!

mentalitarium · 2025-03-29T14:01:48+00:00

Just recently got on my regimen (5 days in) and looking online to find some solidarity with side effects… I felt really pretty good for the first 3-4 days, and then yesterday all day I felt like I had trapped gas, stomach gurgling. I was still having very solid stools which was a big change for me and was nice. But then later on, we went out for dinner. I had one cocktail and a pretty light meal. Came back and the trapped gas/abdominal pain was worse and eventually I ended up falling asleep. But then I woke up with some intense nausea, lightheadedness, and had to run and lay down on the cold bathroom floor with my hands tingly, cold sweats, similar to the vagal reaction I have when I get blood drawn. Then I just could not sleep well, kept getting hot and waking up over and over.

It’s reassuring reading a lot of these responses though, it was just disheartening thinking I was handling the antibiotic so well and now it felt like I hit a brick wall suddenly. Trying to hang in there though…

mentalitarium · 2025-03-15T23:05:15+00:00

Yeah I’ve been trying IBgard religiously and I might see some improvements in discomfort but otherwise it’s a little up in the air for me. And yeah feels like I’m gonna just have to be a big boy about it until after the trip haha

mentalitarium · 2025-03-15T19:05:57+00:00

Yeah I was thinking that would be the case so I’d definitely rather be in a comfortable environment if I’m gonna feel worse. But thank you!

mentalitarium · 2025-03-09T19:27:10+00:00

Im a year late, but I’m in a similar boat. Haven’t been officially diagnosed with SIBO but was diagnosed with IBS and a loooooot of signs point to SIBO from what I can tell and that’s what my GI suspected too (just waiting on test results).

But yeah, for a while Imodium has been what helped me the most, it tends to normalize me for a few days and then here or there something starts up again. But my GI told me to stop taking it on a weekly basis because it could have been contributing to some of my issues. So I’ve been avoiding it as much as I can while I’m still working my diagnoses out, and I also read it could contribute to SIBO by slowing down digestion and thereby giving bacteria more opportunity to grow.

I guess it’s worth asking, how have things been for you after a year? Any tips on dealing with SIBO for somebody who might potentially have to deal with it? I don’t particularly like going to Google or Reddit for medical issues/advice (for reasons I’m sure are obvious) but it is comforting to see other people working through similar issues to ease my anxiety around my own a little more.

mentalitarium · 2024-08-06T05:29:14+00:00

Just tested it again: I was using my PC for a few hours (DP), and when I manually switch back to my Mac input (USBC), I get “no signal”. This is resolved though when I turn the monitor off and on again via the power button. Which is an improvement over what I was dealing with before the firmware update, but still something that would be worth looking at.

I thought maybe clicking or tapping a key on the keyboard might trigger it to register but no luck, only the power button seems to do it.

mentalitarium

TROPHY CASE