Author: therealtcv

Thursday Media Review: Final Fantasy 1&2: Dawn of Souls

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following review may contain spoilers to the game

Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Not too long ago, I overheard about the Pixel Remaster release of Final Fantasy 1 through 6; it got me feeling nostalgic for my first introduction to the final fantasy remakes. Of course, the first game to be re-released was Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II (and we mean the actual Final Fantasy II, not Final Fantasy IV that was released in the US years ago.) First, we had Final Fantasy Origins for the Playstation in 2002. Though that game is not our focus. Released on July 29th of 2004 and later on November 29th in North America and December 9th in Europe in the same year. This game is Final Fantasy 1&2: Dawn of Souls. This version improved the original Origins and would later be the source material for future portable remakes of the game series. Does this game stand over its predecessor and the Pixel Remastered successors? Well, one way is to find out…

Brief Story Summary

Final Fantasy 1 and 2 cover two different games, but none are tied to one another. In the first Final Fantasy, the world is plagued by the four fiends that throw the elements of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water into total Chaos. Your group is four warriors of light, each holding a shard of crystal and tasked with defeating the fiends, reigniting the crystals, and defeating the source of the problem in the world.
Final Fantasy II has you play a band of four heroes: Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon. They are tasked with joining a rebel army to defeat a villain known as Emperor Mateus Palmecia by braving the world riddled with monsters, Empire soldiers, and various other missions to free the world of this deranged king. Along the way, you gain assistance from others like Joseph, who helps you secure Mithril for the Rebellion, Leila, the pirate who gives you a ship to sail the seas, and Minwu, who helps you unlock the most potent spell in the world.

Gameplay summary

Both 1 and 2 behave vastly differently from each other, but the core concepts are the same. You control a band of four characters as you head from one part of the world to another dealing with monsters that arrive. In Final Fantasy 1, at the start of the game, you’re given a choice of six classes to fill your party of four. You have the heavily armored Warrior, the nimble thief, the iron-fisted Monk, the destructive Black Mage, the helpful white mage, and the versatile Red mage. Each one provides something to the group. For example, Warriors provide heavy protection and attacks, White Mages can provide healing spells, Black Mages can use offensive spells, and Thieves can increase the chances of finding items after fights and more preemptive strikes. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Red Mage (and Red Wizard) can learn both White and Black magic but cannot learn the most potent White and Black magic. The Monk (and Master) has the most substantial attack power in the game, but it cannot benefit from reliable equipment and has a low Hit-Point growth meaning it’s a glass cannon. With a limit of four, you can’t choose all of them. Therefore, your choices matter as you can’t change classes when done. So be careful if you want to go with four white mages. Final Fantasy 2, on the other hand, doesn’t rely on building your part as you start out with three (initially four) members. Though as the first game has you choose classes of your specialty, the heroes of Final Fantasy 2, on the other hand, don’t need to have it. Instead, it ops in using Dynamic Leveling (which requires proficient stats to level up your character.) For example, repetitive use of spellcasting will enhance your spell’s proficiency and the stat associated with the spell and the Magic Point (MP) pool. The same with taking blows may enhance your HP and defenses. In a way, the game encourages you to build up your character’s skills by fighting monsters before progressing (which is helpful in Final Fantasy 2).
Combat in both games is similar. You wander the dungeon or open-world until a random encounter occurs. Your party must defeat the enemy through melee attacks, spells, or item usage to beat your foes, or you get killed (either by wipe or stuff like Stone). Once you’ve defeated your enemies, you gain experience (numbered or dynamic), and sometimes you can get some items and spellbooks. That’s right, in both games, you learn spells through buying spellbooks for your casters. Final Fantasy 1 has you buying up to 3 spells per spell level (it’s complex), but the White, Black, and Red can learn up to three spells from their schools of magic. If you want to learn that spell of that category, you’re going to have to drop a spell if you reach that limit. Final Fantasy 2 has a unique means as anyone can learn spells from white or black magic. Though each attack uses a specific stat (Black uses Intelligence and White uses Spirit). They also start at level 1 but become stronger the more they’re used as they level up. By battling and combatting the enemies, your party will become strong enough to deal with the big bad evil guys at the end of each game and eventually save the world.

Fantastic Heroics: What makes the game awesome.

Final Fantasy 1 and 2 have some beautiful features that make the game likable and enjoyable. The first thing is that the games are faithful remakes of the original game. The GBA version is an impressive remake that follows a version similar to the Wonderswan Color for those who grew up with the original Final Fantasy. Updating the game’s graphics to something to their 8-bit counterparts. Another thing is that the game introduces bonus content into the series. In the first Final Fantasy game, after defeating Tiamat, you have the side mission of exploring the Bonus Dungeons (named Soul of Chaos in the PSP version), which have you exploring four bonus dungeons for rare loot and potent weapons by fighting monsters. Best of all, the monsters are bosses from later games such as the Echidna from Final Fantasy 3 in the Earthgift Shrine, Scarmilione in the Hellfire Chasm, Gilgamesh in the Lifespring Grotto, and Ultros in Wisperwind Cave. A very excellent introduction to new players to future bosses and an old throwback to veterans who played the games.
Final Fantasy 2’s bonus content is a xenologue called Soul of Rebirth, which continues a side story of Minwu, Josef, Scott, and Ricard as they solve a mystery of why they’re in the land of the dead and why they were all brought here. It’s a beautiful part that gives some plot about what happened to them later in the story.
Lastly, the game’s music is impressive for something handheld on the GBA, as the remix music does have a bit better than what one could find in the first version. Hearing the remix of the Four Fiends fight, or even Palmecia’s final battle theme, is very impressive and something one might not expect to see from the game’s simple quality.

Total Party Wipe: What is the game’s problem

Though Dawn of Souls has some great features, some problems make the game slightly unfun. For both veteran and new players, the spell system in Final Fantasy seems a bit outdated and a handful. For example, as a White Mage, to heal specific spell statuses, you have to learn said specific spell to purge things like poison, silence, and Stone. Though Final Fantasy 2 gives us the magic Esuna that can cure all status conditions. The limited spell slot in 1 makes the game oh so complex and cumbersome.
Another problem is found in 2’s Dynamic Leveling system. The system is creative and innovative, but it’s a huge pain. To become proficient in a weapon, you have to constantly keep using it (including shields), which can be a pain if you want to be a weapon master. Learning new spells is the same, too, as all newly discovered spells start at level 1. This is a pain when you find some of the most potent spells like Flare, Holy, and Ultima, as you have to fight monsters just to make them up to snuff.
Lastly, though basically fun, the game doesn’t have any kind of guidance that future games introduce. It’s easy to get lost without a guide. In the first game, you are only guided to Garland in the Chaos Shrine, and afterward, you’re given full exploration later in the game, which, while good, can be a pain as some core aspects may require you to know. One such is the trials to unlock your party’s class upgrade, which can be forgotten unless you look it up. Final Fantasy 2’s content isn’t that problematic as the game does provide you a hint of where to go and where to progress. It’s not that bad, but still, you may need a guide to figure out situations.

Fun Easter Egg

In Both games, there’s a tiny easter egg that one can enjoy: Two minigames are found in each game.
The first game is a slider puzzle in Final Fantasy 1. Hold A, then Press B 23 times while aboard your boat, and you’ll unlock a sliding puzzle. Completing the puzzle at specific times will reward you with random items in your inventory, so it’s a fun game.
The second game is found in Final Fantasy 2. While in the snow craft, hold A, then press B 22 times, and you’ll unlock a memory game. Complete it with minimal misses, and you can claim some good items. Also, if any of your members have learned the Toad spell, you can unlock a variant of the same memory game but with toads. Completing those will reward you with equipment instead of items.

Verdict, is it worth it?

Final Fantasy 1&2 Dawn of Souls is a decent game (and for those who want to play the game but have no access to a GBA, the closest is the PSP version is viable as it’s viable to access due to having the same content and then some. However, if you want to play a game for a portable like the GBA, this game is the go-to. Is it better than Pixel Remasters? In ya boy’s opinion? Yes.

References

Nintendo’s official Final Fantasy 1&2 Player’s guide

GBA commercial trailer uploaded by IGN

No Fanworks or Media this week

Well got some good news and bad news, the bad news is that there’s no media review or fan-works this week.

But fear not, I got some plans for the following week to get that written. One hint will be a review of an old GBA game (in tribute to the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster) and the second is a fan story that’ll be ready soon by next week. Until then, you have a good weekend

Tuesday Mumbles: Bad Critiques

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following is based on my own opinion and experiences. Do not take them personally if you feel offended

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Today’s been an interesting day and today I’ve noticed something when I was reading my notes from my professor today about my short story Ryulong: Tale of a Hero. He gave a detailed review of both the positive and negative about my story. One thing ya boy doesn’t mind is criticism of his writing. After all, it’s the only thing that can help me improve as a writer. However, there are times when some folks give some not so good reviews and some that become pure hot garbage.


One problem with some bad reviews is that you get some people who love to trash on something like a story and find nothing of praise of a media. Now I get it, some stories suck and sometimes you might not like a genre. However, there are some parts of a story that can be enjoyable and if given a chance, does have some potential for some positive feedback. Why? Well, even a crappy story does have some benefits if you look for it. When I was writing reviews for some of the stories of my peers in class, I had to find some positive parts of their story. Despite the heavy flaws in some of them, they had good parts and some potential.

The second one that I hate is when people praise you about your work and yet they can’t find a single flaw in their work. I hate this kind of bad review as it means you couldn’t find anything wrong with a story and the false impression that one’s said story is somehow perfect. From my own experience of writing stories, there’s NO such thing as writing a perfect story! I mean, things like sentence structure, lack of interest of the character development, or even just how characters speak. There’s always a flaw in even masterpieces of other stories beyond just fan base stuff.

Shitting on a story without reason or praising it without criticism; both of those are ya boy’s personal beef when it comes to bad writing critiques. People who write have a thick skin and don’t worry about being criticized, but make sure you give some clarity about why it was bad okay?
It’s not like we’re going to throw a fit

DnD Wednesday: Aasimar Ebon Knight Farina

Disclaimer: Dungeons and Dragons is owned by WotC/Hasbro. Make sure you discuss with your Dungeon Master (DM) before using template builds. Figure created with HeroForge. With that, sit back and enjoy

Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here. Today we’re doing a bit of a new deviation beyond our usual Wednesday. I’ve been getting into Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition for those curious and I’ve made some interesting creatures and such. With that..let’s get started.
(The Level goes up to 10, but you can tailor the build to whatever you like it to be or go your own way)

Name: Farina
Race: Aasimar (Fallen)
Bio: Once, there was a radiant Aasimir who once fought for Raziel’s army. She was tasked with repelling the Dark Powers from that domain. One situation ended badly as herself and several others fell in one battle against a dark being. She cried out for Raziel’s help, but nothing came. In one moment, her heart sunk as she cried out for any being to aid her in this time of need. Her cry of help was heard by Surtur, who gave her the strength to defeat the unnamed threat. However, at the cost of her forsaking her realm in the name of an evil demigod, she became fallen and thus became Farina, a loyal knight to her master.

Build origin: When I originally created the character, years ago in high school, I went with my own personal flare and inspired her from Soul Calibur 2’s Nightmare(which fun fact the build made by Youtuber Tulok the Barbrarian let me bring her to life.) I also later incorporated Zelgius into her personality and for armor influence. Anyway after my first character, a Dragonborn Rogue got killed in a Curse of Strahd campaign; I needed to create a new character. Thus enter Farina, the Ebon Knight of Surtur. Using Tulok’s Nightmare build from one of his videos, I added some flare to make an interesting build.
For starters, your build will be using 5e’s Standard Build going as the following.
Str:15 (Farina can basically swing a big ass sword and uses power)
Cha:14 (Farina’s intimidating, really intimidating)
Con:13 (She’s no slouch and can take a few blows)
Int:12 (She may be muscle, ,but she does have some brains)
Wis:10 (Wise enough to know common sense, but not street smart)
Dex:8 (Heavy armor doesn’t let her move fast)

Fallen Aasimar is your go to for a +2 Cha/+1 Str (or you can go Standard Dragonborn or Ravenite, heck even Human if you want). You get some good perks with Fallen Aasimar such as Celestial Resistance for resistance against Necrotic and Radiant damage and access to Healing Hands (You heal up to your total level like 10 HP). Though you do get the Light Cantrip and Darkvision. For background, I suggest Faceless for two reasons: The first is Farina always wears a mask over her face, giving a mystery at what she looks like and two, you get proficiencies in Deception and Intimidation (both Charisma skills).

Level 1-2 Paladin

To start things off, start off as a Paladin so you can get access to the basics like your health and other modifier stats such as Divine Sense and Lay on Hands. By Level 2, you’ll get to choose a Fighting Style. Great Weapon Fighting is a great ability as it lets you re-roll a damage dice if you roll a natural 1 or 2 (Damage delt not whether or not you hit them.) You also get access to Divine Smite, which lets you spend a spell slot to deal 1d8 damage on an an enemy (more if they’re undead and more if they’re a spell). You also gain access to spells, so you can choose what spells you can cast. I suggest Shield of Faith for that +2 AC. However, you can also choose three other spells. My recommendations are Searing Smite if you want to ignite your foes or Wrathful Smite if you want to send some creatures reeling in terror (you also got that with your Aasimar racial trait but if you don’t want your allies screaming this is the way to go.) Thunderous Smite works well if you want to push foes back. Cure Wounds can work if you need some help with survival early on (and be an off-healer to boot.)

Level 1-5 Warlock

Now we get into multiclassing. For Farina, the best option for this is to make her not just a Paladin but a Hexblade Paladin (aka Hexadins). When going into Warlock, make her a Hexblade Warlock. This gets her acccess to Hexblade’s Curse, a useful ability that lets you curse a target and thus letting you crit on a 19 or 20 natural. Hex Warrior lets you add your Charisma modifier to your weapon roll and damage (though by now your charisma and strength will be the same.)
You also gain access to the Warlock spells. Tulock suggests Chill Touch and True Strike. Listen to ya boy (as he has learned.) True Strike sucks! I suggest replacing it with another attack ability like Eldritch Blast. Or if you want true utility, Prestidigitation is your go to. For spells you should get access to an expanded Spell Slot thanks to Hexblade. So you’ll get access to Shield (a reaction spell that gives +5 to your AC when hit) and Wrathful Smite (a spell already accessed due to Paladins). You can also add some spells to if you want. I suggest Hellish Rebuke for some damage if the enemy nails you on a critical. Hex can also be useful should you add a stacking dot on a foe to weaken them or don’t want to waste a Hexblade’s Curse. Level 2 gets you Eldritch Invocations to help you out. Devil’s Sight lets you see in color in the dark and see farther so you can spot foes in the distance. By Level 3, you get a Pact Boon to help you. Pact of the Blade is one helluva thing to go for. Farina is blessed by Surtur to wield his wrath which is a sword. Your weapon is you and thus goes well with Hex Warrior and allows you to hit harder and stronger than ever. Combined with the Improved Pact Weapon Invocation for that +1 to hit and damage, and Farina can do a whopping +7 to hit and damage from Hexblade’s Curse. You should also gain access to 2nd level spells so select Branding Smite to deal some carnage. You can also make some alterations with tpells
Level 4 lets you get Ability Score Improvement for the build. Go for +2 Charisma, as that will make Hexblade really nasty. Level 5 lets you choose another Invocation, so go for Eldritch Smite. It lets you add a d8 to your weapon attacks for expending a warlock slot. Since you should have some level 3 slots by now, you now can do 3d8 damage and prone if it hits.

Level 3-5 Paladin

By Level 3, you can choose your Paladin Oath (just like your Otherworldly Entity). The original build suggested Oathbraker, but during Curse of Strahd, I was suggested Oath of Vengeance. This give you a fear ability of Conquering Presence (forces a Wisdom save or be feared) and Guided Strike (+10 to attack rolls). It also gets you access to spells like Armor of Agathys for Temporary HP and Cold damage on melee hitters and Command, something that can make your enemy do something other than kill themselves (DMs can’t let you do that.) You also gain Divine Health, which protects you from disease. By Level 4, you get the ability score modifier. I suggest you max out Charisma to 20, thus giving you a +5 modifier. This ensures that with your pact weapon, you’re doing +10 to hit and +6 to damage (+10 to damage via Hexblade’s curse)
Finally by Level 5, you’ll gain access to Extra Attack, which means you get to roll two attacks on one action. You also gain access to some more spells but by now you should have some options to hit hard but take the Find Steed spell to bestow Farina her warhorse (call him whoever, but I prefer Catastros. yes yes, unoriginal..but it’s fun.) By now, your character should be up to level 10 in total and ready to get started in higher end campaigns or ready for the final fight with the big bad evil guy.

The build created has its pros and cons. On the Pro side, being a Hexblade makes Farina nasty and can deal some big damage against any foes. with some lucky rolls for health and maybe access to better equipment and armor makes her dangerous and an effective tank against foes. With an arsenal of offensive attacks, flexible survivability, self healing abilities and fearing abilities can add control to boot. With the Hexblade ability, it also makes her use Charisma to basically do +10 to hit and +6 to her damage. So even without magic, she can still hit hard

The problem is that though she is powerful, Farina burns through spell slots like nobody. She can short rest to regain her pact slots, which are your bread and butter. This means that her pally spell slots are six in total (four lvl 1 slots and two lvl 2 slots. Combined with her 2 level 3 slots from her pact). Hexadins hit hard but they burn out quickly. Lastly, her dexterity is garbage meaning that any dex save will hinder her greatly (pray you can get lucky with surviving dragon fire)

In the end, beyond level 10 is what you can do. Hopefully it can help inspire what you can do with character creations.

sources used

  • Tulok’s video on making Nightmare (for it wouldn’t have been possible for this to be done)
  • HeroForge for creating the Farina image an an example

Tuesday Mumbles: Kitten Raising

Note: the following is based on my opinion so do not take any offense to it if you feel upset.

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

two months ago, ya boy helped his grandmother rescue a kitten named Arya from an old air fryer duct that she got herself into. It reminds me of one thing about kittens: some can be a real handful.

Folks take kitten raising real lightly and sometimes forget how much they can be a handful.

How much of a handful can they be? Well… let’s me explain about how when I took care of Arya for one week. Little bugger decided to run about, knock stuff over and even do some damage by chewing on unplugged wires. Oh and she digs deep in her litterbox, throwing litter everywhere like she wants to dig to China just to use their toilets. Messy girl that’s for sure, but doesn’t top her energy. I’ve seen her buzz about like a firecracker.

Kittens are basically little fur babies that rush around and can get themselves in trouble if you take them granted. Oh and if you’re kitten’s a climber, make sure you don’t have lamps or stuff that is fragile or can start a fire.

Also, one thing that I may have to put up until the SPCA is ready for us: getting her spayed. Kittens like Arya can go into heat as early as four months old (still a baby). Thus you REALLY need to keep an eye on them and ensure they don’t decide to vamanos outside and get pregnant.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s some sureway of kitten care that makes it easy

(Late) Friday Fan-Work: Ryulong Tale of a Hero

Sunday upload?! I’m sure some of you have been wondering what kind of sorcery is this?
Well, I managed to get this little project completed. It’s late but better than not posting it.

For those curious, my writing class had us doing some storywriting and this little thing popped up out of nowhere from some other short stories I made ago that led to it’s inspiration.

Hopefully it may be good enough that it may be made into more stories atm. Anyway, sit back, grab a snack and enjoy.

ryulong Tale of a HeroDownload

Friday Fan-Work: Concrete Atrium

Written By TheChoujinVirus

Happy Friday everyone, this is ya boy Choujin here. I got some good news and some bad news.

Bad news is I got some classes so it affects some good news, but I’ve decided to try another new thing: Showing off my writing prompts from said class. It’s a Writing Class so it’s something simple

Today’s first prompt is themed this: Painting a Room with words.

That’s something that we had to do in our class. To write up something to describe words for a room.

With that, enjoy what I wrote for a class.


Concrete Atrium

There are rooms people pride themselves in, but one room out there is something nobody has, but one I own. A small jungle forest, hidden behind cement, wood, and plaster. Separated by the rough cement pavement floor are small jungles of exotic plants of varying sizes. An Atrium room that once belonged to my great-grandparents.

Creeping ivy vines that snake across the dirt and broad leaves as stout as your arms. Alongside tower stocks of plants tower from the soil. Like giant skyscrapers to any lilliputian arthropod crawling in the ground. An old plastic fountain in the shape of a mountain, filled with dust and old paint that flaked off the ceiling. The waters that used to run now run dry, and some of the ivy will try to scale the mountain like green snakes scaling a plastic Olympias.

Alongside hanging lamps that illuminate the atrium, an old Ficus bush dwarves everything in the area. The Yggdrasil of this atrium reaching the sky and is the most prominent thing in the entire atrium. Some might wonder if it’s as old as the house itself or even older.

The only things that stand out in the atrium are its odd neighbors, an old wooden filing desk, and a metal case holding old paper from years ago. They are the only non-plants that are in the main atrium room. It’s no terrarium or the bio-dome, but this room is a jungle.

A jungle inside the concrete jungle itself.

concrete-atrium.fd-editedDownload

Tuesday Mumbles: Horse Medicine

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following is based on my own opinions and experiences. Do not take this seriously or take any offense to it.

Hey everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Now I’ve seen some real stupid shit throughout my life whether it be scenes from Jackass where Steve-O snorted Wasabi up his nose to more stupid things like kids doing the “OutletChallenge” or “Fire Challenge”.

But this..this gets ya boy’s blood boiling big time. It’s related to Covid-19 and folks still denying the effectiveness of the vaccine. But get this stupidity! Their new “Cure to Covid” is Ivermectin.

For those unaware, Ivermectin is a medicine used basically as a dewormer for livestock. Anti-vaxxers are pushing this as the cure for Covid, even forming groups on Facebook to push this. Though ironically, they’re nearly crapping out their intestinal lining and even losing vision in their eyes. Not something good if I do say and they make claims that the vaccine will kill people? Excuse me..but I’ve taken both of those shots and the worst I got from it was an icky feeling and maybe a pustule on my finger (but that was unrelated to the virus and due to having a splinter there prior to my shot). Also, no rightful doctor would ever prescribe dewormers for a repertory virus.

So for those who are hesitant on the shot, I would suggest that you get the vaccine. Unvaccination makes it very difficult for us to reopen and return back to normal. Worst off, it allows more variants like the Delta variant to exist and even evolve further. Also places like PublicHealth and Mayo Clinic will provide you information that debunks plenty of those issues.

The longer we are stuck in this, the harder it is to fight the variant and eliminate Covid. It’s not something ya boy wants to live for the rest of his life. In fact, to take the advice of the CDC from a Twitter post:


And those who are adamant on taking horse meds to cure covid? well…

Seriously, if you’re willing to deal with crapped briefs, losing your vision and heavy shakes because you’re afraid that your eggs or sperm are going to be augmented by some vaccine, then you really are a fool who will believe anything that’s not science.

By the way..I have THE Holy Grail I can sell you guys if you’re interested…


But with that, that’s my two cents on this whole ordeal

Friday Fan Work: Yakisoba

Heya everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here for this Friday’s fan work. Fresh from my Spring Semester of writing college. It’s something simple but it’s something you’ll enjoy. It’s a piece of non-fiction that describes my first time adulting after my great-grandfather’s passing.

With that, sit back, grab a drink and snack and enjoy the story.

Yakisoba: The Adulting Rite of Passage

Everyone throughout their lives has learned the basics of cooking a dish. Usually, something enjoyable but straightforward helps them throughout their lives. Though the first thing I learned to cook was an egg, any child can cook one. One meal I remembered so well, and I prided myself was yakisoba, or fried noodles for those who might not know what the dish is. It played an essential role in my life as it was the first authentic dish that I could cook while on my own.

I remembered my grandmother cooked this dish during my later high school and during my college years. It was pretty good when those noodles were served with cabbage, sliced up pieces of sausage, and with a side of spring rolls that complimented the dishes so well. Best of all, it was something you couldn’t get anywhere from any Chinese or Asian restaurants in the neighborhood. It was a simple dish that used two packs of ramen, some Hillshire Farms Sausage, and cabbage. My grandmother said it was nothing special, even though I really enjoyed that meal and wished I could make my own yakisoba for myself. Oh, how I was going to learn that in a positive way.

         2015 was one hell of a year that sucked severely for my family; it was the year my great grandfather passed away. Though I now inherited his house, it was empty, and I was all by myself throughout that entire time. It was a low moment and something that made me feel like I had no purpose. It was also a moment that I had to learn to grow up, and it was the best time to learn to practice cooking. We usually started with things I was familiar with, such as your usual pre-packaged Hamburger Helper, Pasta Roni, and ready-to-heat pasta. This was to prove if I could follow essential recipes. Luckily I still retained that knowledge from high school cooking class. Those were easy to thrive on, but they weren’t something one would want to thrive on for the rest of their life. So one day, my grandmother asked me what I wanted to learn to cook first. I told her I didn’t know what I wanted, but I asked for something to learn that didn’t take many dishes to cook. She then suggests that I cook yakisoba.

I was flabbergasted because I asked her if it took one dish to make. She laughed at me and said that it’s “simple enough” that I could do it in a skillet all on my own. So I agreed, and we went shopping for the ingredients needed, and the next day, we began that rite of passage to cook.

              I remembered how it went, how I took a pair of kitchen scissors and began to cut the sausage into smaller stout cylinders of meat. Then I prepared the skillet with some sesame oil as I began to heat up the pan. Then when everything was nice and hot, I began to place the cut sausages into the pan. The sound of the cooking sausage as my grandmother and I discussed good memories about my great-grandfather. Though I also learned a critical rule about cooking: Never take your eyes off the stove! Lucky for me the sausages weren’t burnt, so we turned the heat down as I added the parts of chopped cabbage into the dish. I hated cutting heads of cabbage as it was one massive thing, and I had to use half of the cabbage just to make the dish (I couldn’t use the whole thing as it was too much). However, I managed to fit that into my pot and eventually followed the steps for making yakisoba by placing the ramen noodles. The meal tasted well, even if the sausages were a bit overcooked. However, I did enjoy cooking this dish. I viewed me completing something this simple was the first step I viewed as a rite of passage that got me enjoying home cooking.

Over time, I’d learn to cook other things besides yakisoba, but that dish I enjoyed as it’s the first one I ever learned to cook well with. It’s also a dish I don’t mind cooking again and again. I later began to cook recipes from other things and got some excellent praises from friends and family because I can make something that could wow people. I could cook some good dishes like a turkey lo mein, chicken, or pork schnitzel. Later on, in my time, I began to take on some more adventurous ideas with the first dish I ever cooked with.

               Over time, I began to improve on that dish to fit my taste and make it stand out independently. I remembered I would substitute the cabbage with coleslaw mix. I found this method to be an improvement. It meant I didn’t have to deal with a rotting half of a cabbage head. It had the just-right portion to fill that skillet without overflowing it. Sometimes I would also add in other vegetables like shredded carrots and peas. I even added some Mongolian fire oil and crushed red peppers to get that spicy flavor and footprint needed for my tastebuds. Either way, I made that yakisoba recipe my own, as it was my pride and joy that it ushered me into adulthood.

            Sometimes I wonder what it would have been my life if I didn’t cook that yakisoba successful. I would imagine myself as someone that couldn’t boil water and only thriving on an egg, hot dogs, and instant food meals. It is not the life someone in their 30s should be living and something I would rather avoid thinking of right now. I do enjoy the meal, and I still cook my take of that dish of yakisoba. For if it wasn’t for that dish, I may not have been emboldened to even cook any other dish out there and thus couldn’t be viewed as a functioning adult to myself.

Plus, I really enjoy cooking for myself and others as it’s something I want the most.

yakisoba: The Adulting rite of passageDownload