17th Journey

The Journey anniversary (March 13) is one of those "annual events" that comes along every year, along with the other ones (usually VBall, Fanime, Big Dance, etc), but I've missed it the past two years -- the last Journey I made was back in 2023.

Given that it's been a good 3 years since then, I feel like my journey across the sands was equal parts trying to pull things out of my memory for exactly where a bunch of things were, as well as noting that since I've taken the journey so many times (and only once a year) that by now I have a sort of "routine" for how I approach it.  Of course, in the past there would be times when I chanced upon a veteran/experienced player, but it's been a long while since that really happened -- the last I can recall was back in 2019, during my 13th journey.  Since then I've just encountered a traveler here or there in the sands, but never really stayed along with them and =really= accompanied them as a partner.

So the journeys have been rather self-directed, and as such, there's a sort of "checklist" of things and places that I find myself gravitating toward.  Especially given a certain amount of time that I wanted to spend (I don't want to dawdle too long everywhere), there are places that I generally don't spend too much time in or avoid -- the out of bounds area in the Underground level is one that I think I can recall how to get into, but I generally always avoid.  It is a dark and expansive place and I've gotten hardlocked multiple times in it by encountering the "black screen of doom".

Similarly, there are places that I'm generally really keen to visit.  The lantern room in the snow level, of course, which I've talked about many times before, but if I had to pick one level to go out of bounds in it would probably be the Sunken City, as there are some really cool and beautiful sights there.

Overall this journey was honestly not very remarkable, it was a strange mix of "routine" as well as fumbling by way through some things.  In the Broken Bridge I experimented a little bit with charge-boosting (a technique where you accumulate velocity "charge" and then use it to rocket upwards).  I was able to make it to the end-of-level history lesson area, but I really wanted to make it all the way out of bounds, which requires you to go a little higher since I believe you need to make it past the top of the invisible "wind wall" that blocks you from going out of bounds.  I also spent a small bit of time trying to "headbonk" my way out of bounds by jumping through a specific seam in the level, but my memory of that was hazy and I wasn't even confident on the correct steps to take after that anyways.

I did make a new discovery though -- even if you don't chargeboost all the way up past the windwall, there is a specific spot (hopefully I can recall where it is next year) up near the top of the "sandfalls" where you can also chargeboost from.  Starting from that higher-up spot let me more easily get all the way up past the windwall and into the out of bounds area.

As per the usual tradition, I got lost in the Pink Desert level (hah).  This is also where I encountered a fully-tiered redcloak, and I followed them through the first half of the level, trying to be a good companion and sticking close to them and chirping every so often.  But when they went toward the end section of the level, I stayed behind, since they hadn't collected all of the glyphs/symbols.  I never remember the relative locations of anything in the Pink Desert, it's the level that's the most spread out and I just don't have a good sense of where everything is.  I didn't end up finding the flower (reminds me that I didn't visit the little flow easter egg in the tower either....), but nabbed the other symbol, and went up the structure at the end of the level without much incident.

In the Sunken City I actually brainfarted and missed the first glyph entirely.  In the rest stop area I played around with diveboosting a little bit (as always) and then tried to chargeboost up to the "invisible ledge" in the air, which again I couldn't remember exactly where it was.  I think I landed on something (?) but ended up slipping off, so I moved on.

I did want to make it a point to go out of bounds here, so I spent some time fumbling around at the end of the level trying to remember exactly where to go before I figured it out.  I feel like I didn't see AS cool sights as I usually see back there (there are some really pretty glittery sand structures), but after a while of wandering around I simply moved on.  Again, I had other plans later in the night, so I didn't want to linger too long.

I kind of just sped through the Underground without doing anything interesting -- again, I don't like exploring OOB here, and I don't really have any experience with playing/tricking around with the war machines.  I don't know if this is a false figment of imagination but I seem to remember some way that you can meditate-sit through the last section of the level where the war machines chase you, but I feel like I can never really get it to work -- this time I did a jumping meditation sit and ended up going onto the "end level slope" but slid to a stop without going very far -- once I got up it just started the end sequence as usual.  Maybe this is something that requires two people, one to push the other?  I don't really remember...

In the Tower I 100% wanted to only activate the first level of goo/water, and then use a flyer-assisted diveboost to get up further.  It took some attempts, but I was successful in gradually making my way up, collecting the 3 glyphs, and then eventually boosting all the way up to the top!  This is definitely going to be a regular "practice" of mine, it feels like something "cool" that is satisfying to pull off.  One thing that was different this time is that I said hi to (and rode on) the whale, which is found circling in the room with the "curtains" with the glyph.  Of course, normally the whale comes out to the main tower area to say hi and give you a lift, but since I never activated that level of the tower, that never happens, so the whale just stays circling in its room.  I don't think I've ever said hi to it in that room before; that's probably gonna end up as another tradition...

I had some success with the first steps of making it out of bounds in the snow area -- I found the chargeboost spot in the beginning of the level, but once I chargeboosted I really wasn't sure where to aim to go, so instead of ending up out of bounds I just ended up at the later part of the level, where the lantern room was.  So I guess I skipped the first half of the level and went straight to my favorite spot, haha.

I lingered in the lantern room a bit, as usual, and again reflected a bit on how it darkens -- forever -- as soon as you leave.  I went through the rest of the level without much incident -- tried a few headbonks near the tapestry to try and get oob again, but no luck as I don't remember exactly where to do that either.  Probably for the best, as I really have no recollection of how the oob area here is structured and I remember from one companion leading me around in there that there are some weird stretches of tricky-to-navigate thin air or something around there.

Paradise was both a little fun/funny but also unremarkable at the same time.  I spent some time just flying around and boosting, and I ended up skipping the first half of the level with a boost and then going back through it backwards.  Somehow this ended up confusing the game and the rest of the music cues for the level didn't trigger properly, which meant that the entire time I had this tentative string ostinato playing -- even during the final "golden ascent", where normally the glorius ascension music plays (but didn't).  Even at the very end of the level when you slowly walk into the light, the normal music cue for it triggered, but the little staccato strings just kept on going...they only faded out at the very end when the ending cinematic started playing.

Besides that, I spent some time looking for cool spots to "flying meditation sit" in Paradise, as it's probably the best place for that -- if you do it at the edge of a sloped cliff, you can slide off of it and the freefall for a while or even slide off of other cliffs.  I remember having a particularly epic one some number of years back, but I don't know if the ones I had today really compared to that one.  Oh well.

 

In terms of my overall thoughts toward the journey, honestly I think the way it tied to my life is that I sort of had my own things that I wanted to prioritize, and when the issue came up of whether to prioritize continuing on with the other traveler that I met along the way, or just do my own thing, I chose to prioritize myself.  This is a lesson learned (the hard way) through my real life endeavors in recent years.  Perhaps in the past I would have felt more conflicted about it, but today it just seemed really clear to me what I wanted and how I should proceed.

Of course, that's sometimes easier said than done, it's not like I'm immune to struggling with this kind of stuff anymore.  But I've at least taken some steps toward not letting myself keep putting myself second all the time, or letting that be an excuse to avoid doing the right thing for myself.