Binders, printables, printables, binders…. Of course I have a Valentine’s Day Binder!
I AM OBSESSED!
This Valentine’s Day Binder is one of THE cutest and most complete binder you will ever find on the web and I am loving using it myself!
Not only does it have everything your heart could ever want, it will organize your life in an incredible way, making sure that you can find and get to all your Valentine’s Day stuff quickly.
There are over 85+ pages full of useful, fun, and creative things to do with your family and loved ones, thus saving you lots of money. There are even MANY gifts you can use within this Valentines day printable binder for everyone around you!
There are different sizes of spines to fit whatever binder size you have on hand…no need to go out and buy another one. Just use one you already have and you’re good to go.
If you do need a binder, here are the appropriate ones on Amazon:
Valentine’s Day Cards (15 pages with different styles and sizes!)
Valentine’s Day Gifts
Inexpensive Gift Ideas
Gift Tracker
Valentine’s Day Coupons
Gift Tags
Valentine’s Day Wall Arts (10 different designs!)
Why I love my Husband
Valentine’s Day Recipes
and more!
My Favorite Pages
It’s kind of hard to choose my favorite pages in this Valentines day printables binder because they are all very helpful, but I do have a few favs. 🙂
The Bucket List printable has great ideas to enjoy Valentine’s day with the one you love and adore! This is a great way to experience new adventures with the one you love. <3
Looking for a fun Valentine’s game for kids? The Memory Game printable will keep them occupied and exercise their brain. Win-win situation!
Looking for a way for the kids to run off all the Valentine candy? I have a perfect solution! This Scavenger Hunt is sure to be a favorite of the printable Valentine games!
These Gift Tags can be a perfect addition to any gift. You can color them to add a bit of your creativeness or simply use these Valentines day printable tags as is.
These super cute Valentine’s Day Cards are sure to be a favorite with your kids! Print as many as you need and enjoy the smiles of those who receive them!
Looking for a way to spread the love? This is a great Wall Art printable… LOVE! Print out and use to decorate your home, your office, a Valentine’s Day party, or even better, use it as one of the perfect Valentine’s day gift ideas for your other half!
U.S. biotech startup Loyal plans to launch a lifespan-extending drug for dogs in early 2025, potentially offering insights into human longevity. The San Francisco-based company has secured $125 million in funding for LOY-002, a beef-flavored daily pill designed to extend canine lifespans by at least one year. The drug works by targeting age-related metabolic changes and insulin regulation, according to Loyal CEO Celine Halioua.
Simultaneously, the Dog Aging Project is studying rapamycin, an immunosuppressant drug, which preliminary research suggests could add three years to dogs’ lives. Researchers believe these canine studies could accelerate human longevity research, though experts note the lack of standardized aging biomarkers remains a significant hurdle for human trials.
Gift Collector [ギフトコレクター] – this is a New Year’s horror game from the first person, in the Japanese style and genre of walking simulator. Every year, with the beginning of winter, you begin to receive a large number of letters. These letters are children’s rays of hope for a miracle. You often read a lot of unusual stories and wishes in them. And you need to make each of these wishes come true. On New Year’s Eve, dreams come true, no matter how you behaved last year. Because of this, both children with diligent behavior and those who did not do the best things receive their gifts. DigDigDrill
You will take on the role of Santa Claus. Collect gifts according to the wishes of the children. And on New Year’s Eve, go deliver them. You will need to act quickly and quietly so as not to wake anyone up. Stylized graphics and high-quality 3D sound will help you fully experience the atmosphere of the game. This game has a cool atmosphere even though the ending anticlimactic. You’re basically Santa interacting with certain objects to progress the story. There’s only one real puzzle and it’s not at all difficult but there’s the exploration element.
Features and System Requirements:
Walking simulator.
First-person view.
The effect of shooting on an old camera.
Realistic graphics.
Screenshots
System Requirements
Recommended
OS *: Windows 7/8/10/11
Processor: Intel Pentium G6400
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
Installation Guide
Turn Off Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
No product idea will ever become a tangible reality without lots of research, careful planning, and proven expertise involved. The moment an innovator presents an idea that your business is interested in exploring, the next step is the product concept design service that marks the start of a successful project. The product concept design process involves taking high-level views of digital product ideas. This is the perfect time to explore different possibilities, brainstorm more ideas, and foresee the place of the product in the cut-throat landscape.
The ultimate objective here is to make sure that the final product will solve real-world issues and meet the needs of customers. This article delves into how concept design services are used to innovate during product development.
The purpose of a product concept design is to confirm or verify that a product idea will truly address a particular issue or meet a specific need, as well as how the product will do so in general. Product concept design is not a process that focuses on the minutia and details of the product. During this stage of the project, the 3D product designer visualizes and tests various aspects and facets of the concept design. The designer will then refine the design before handing the project over to development.
The designer also gets to review the concept while the project progresses to deal with problems early. The iterative process ensures that the finished product is in line with the original vision while also meeting the expectations of users and the existing demands in the market.
Primary elements of product concept design
As far as product concept design is concerned, it’s important to consider several main elements to come up with an impactful and successful design. These key elements include aligning the product concept with the goals of the company to understand the competitive market landscape.
The 3D design team should take a step back way beyond looking at the competition and the market as a whole. This allows them to ask why the company is interested in taking this specific product to the market. The product must align with the business goals, values, and brand of the company. The design team must critically look at disconnects, like a product that needs printing just when the company claims to support sustainability. They should then address this before the concept is passed on to the final design and official development.
Define core benefits and features
Product concept design must define the purpose and function of the product in broader terms. For instance, if this is an analytics platform that is based on an LLM or large language model, it’s critical to identify if it is indeed effective in leveraging internal data to provide the most updated customer data to the sales teams.
On the other hand, the team should also identify if the platform can offer customers customized conversational experiences through self-service support with the use of CRM or a customer relationship management system and a knowledge base. The 3D product modeling team in charge of the product concept design should identify the best feature set for the identified target users as well as the best opportunity to enjoy market success.
Investors may assume that the ideas they have are the best solutions to the common pain points or the ideal ways to fill a gap in the market. But this might not be how all users feel. One part of the product concept design process is to identify the types of users that would find the product valuable and would have the willingness to pay for a price that will keep the company afloat.
Designers in charge of the product concept stage can consider different factors including the demographics, behaviors, job titles, or lifestyle of the target audience. It is also important to study all the projections and trends and discuss things with the members of the target audience to make sure that the product is aligned with their expectations.
Understand the competitive and market landscape
A product conceptual designer should take a bigger picture view of the spot in the market that will be occupied by the proposed product. Concept designers must consider the existing solutions, if there are any with the product’s similar goal, and how the new concept can help users to achieve it better. If the product is indeed unique, the designers must confirm demand and predict how it may disrupt the market space.
The thought, research, and innovation throughout the product concept design process establish the groundwork for meticulous development and design according to the creation of a viable product whose value can be recognized by the users.
The product concept design process
It’s imperative that the concept development experts follow a structured design approach to come up with a product that truly connects and resonates with the customers. It means adhering to a set of clear and definite steps to make sure that you come up with something visually appealing and functional at the same time while meeting the needs of the target audience.
1. Research
Research during the product concept design involves understanding the competition, the market, and the end users, which is the most important of them all. Being aware of their pain points, wants, and needs helps you come up with a product that will meet them. You can come up with a product that will resonate with the target audience.
Behavioral science application involves studying pain points, motivations, and user behaviors. It is all about delving much deeper into the why and how users act just like they do every time they interact with software. This may involve developing user personas, carrying out user interviews, and evaluating user analytics.
3. Journey mapping
Product concept design also includes sessions of brainstorming about how the product should be used by the customers. The product design and development professionals envision how the users will finish tasks. This includes where they will start and what is their motivation to proceed to the next step. It’s critical to take advantage of information to come up with the best user experience.
4. Refining concepts
The process of product concept design is not just something you do once and you’re good to go. This also involves refining the design concept and continual improvement according to the feedback from the members of the target audience through interviews or surveys and from the development and design teams.
Using the right techniques and tools available at your disposal can guarantee a quicker and more efficient product concept design process. The team should be equipped with the tools below to get the best results.
Idea validation and feedback collection tools
Validating and collecting feedback about the product concept is important right at an early stage of the design process. However, it often takes time which may slow down the project. Identify the best methods for feedback collection like user interviews, phone surveys, and online surveys, and implement helpful solutions that can streamline and automate tasks.
Rapid prototyping tools
Tools for rapid prototyping services help validate the usability and functionality of the concept. These tools help the design team create a comprehensive interactive version of the product that offers a realistic experience to the users. They can offer user feedback right away which makes way for early improvements on the product concept design according to that feedback. The teams can also use no-code tools that can be used for prototyping.
Sketching usually takes the form of low-fidelity prototypes or wireframes. These are fundamental schematic representations of how the surface might look and mind mapping that links concepts to depict the interaction of users. After the wireframes or initial sketches are defined, the step that follows is to make more realistic and detailed mockups. There are several tools often used to create mockups and sketches.
Product concept design considerations and challenges
Striking that perfect balance during the product concept design stage of a project can be quite tricky. Designers and manufacturing companies should come up with unique and innovative product concepts. These concepts should also be achievable and practical within the cost constraints and capabilities of the production.
It’s imperative to work hand in hand with the development team’s members to create a balanced design. It is necessary to have an iterative approach that welcomes critique and feedback to continually improve and adapt the product concept design. It helps the team address problems right from the get-go before the project receives any significant investments.
When well-executed, a product concept design can make a big difference in developing a successful product that will resonate with the target audience and stand out from the rest of the crowd.
How Cad Crowd can help
To harness the full potential of product concept design and improve your product development cycle as a whole, Cad Crowd is here to be your reliable partner. Cad Crowd offers freelance new concept design and product development services that will help you speed up product growth and point you toward success.
MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.
I’ll be the first to say the Pura scent diffuser surprised me. Before testing it out, I didn’t believe such a small device could really inject strong scent into my home. But it didn’t take long before I was proven wrong. The one I have stays plugged in, resolute, in the family room of my home close to the front door, and as soon as I walk in when the Pura is running, I’m met with the lovely smells of Amalfi lemon, lavender fields or whichever other scent I decided to go with.
The Pura can hold two different proprietary scent capsules at a time, so you can create very different vibes based on time of day, occasion or anything else you can think of. The Pura app makes it easy to set diffusion schedules per scent, too, and it can pause diffusion all together if you’re away from home. Are you going to get whole-home diffusion from this CD-sized gadget? No (maybe try the new Pura Plus for that), but it’ll make the part of your home that it lives in feel much more luxurious. — Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor
I would like to know if there is a standard way to collect telemetry in Roslyn analyzers.
In particular, I want to collect the number of errors found by my diagnostics on the developer machines.
I didn’t manage to find any solution to this problem. Is there standard mechanism to collect telemetry from Roslyn analyzers?
It is also fine to use Visual Studio telemetry mechanisms, if they can be used from VS extensions.
Although it would be a little worse, since the scenario where analyzers are added to a project as a Nuget package won’t be supported. Still, it is better than nothing.
If you know a way to collect telemetry from the Roslyn analyzer, or a VS extension that does this, please share it with me. Ideally, a code example with the collection logic.
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE
Dear Stack Overflow moderators reading this question and reviewing.
I already see your hands moving to raise a flag about “Seeking recommendation” guideline. Before you do this to get your daily doze of endorphin to feel good about “maintaining questions quality” and “community values”, please at least try looking for this area yourself.
This subject is a narrow area and I did my googling. It’s not like I’m asking a general guidance on C# best practices or best telemetry library, or git branching strategies, or whatever. There is little info on this topic, and I’m not sure where I should even start looking. I’m also unsure where should else I ask.
If I missed something, shame on me, please share the link before closing the question without any remark. Or even make it an answer. I would be really grateful, as well as other people that may look for this topic. It’s not so hard to imagine other analyzer authors interested in collecting telemetry.
However, I believe it is not that simple to provide an answer that’s why I asked this question in the first place. Perhaps, it is not even your area of expertise, and you just saw the word “recommend” or “advise”. I know how the review works with its gamification system and scores for the helpful flags and etc.
I still believe that my question could bring some benefit not only to me but to other people.
Dying Light 2 is an action game that is played online by many players from across the world which involves abilities to do parkour, use weapons, and combat against hostile factions and zombies. However, many gamers are wondering if the gameplay allows for cross-platform features and crossplay features. Former Techland Lead Community Manager, Pawel Modlinski explains that Dying Light 2 is unlikely to be Cross Platform and why he thinks it won’t even be a Co-Op experience. Here, we will discuss how you can make the best of this game and how you can use other means to play with your game buddies.
Credit: techland.com
What Does Cross-Platform Mean?
Cross-platform typically refers to the capability of a video game or software to allow players from different platforms or devices to play together in the same game environment. It means that gamers using different gaming platforms, such as PC, Xbox series x, PlayStation, or even mobile devices, can interact and play the game together, regardless of the specific platform they are using.
This way you can play with your friends online even when they are using different platforms for gaming. This cross-platform play is what enables players to complete missions together and allows for a multiplayer experience.
Does Dying Light 2 Have A Cross-Platform Feature?
Dying Light 2 does not have a feature to support cross-play or cross-platform during the game stream. Hence, if you are playing using your PlayStation and your friend is playing Dying Light 2 using their PC, there wouldn’t be functionality to share your gameplay.
Credit: techland.com
As of now, the developers have announced that the game won’t be available for cross-platform or crossplay. However, you might be excited to know that the game does support cross-generation or cross-gen features.
This implies that you can play with gaming consoles of different generations. This can be fun with your friends who have the same platform as you. So suppose you have a PlayStation 4 and your friend recently got a PlayStation 5, then you can play with each other using the cross-gen play feature.
What Platforms Support Dying Light 2?
Dying Light 2 is an open world game that is a survival game created by Techland and they have announced the compatibility of this game with the following platforms:
Windows PC
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Nintendo Switch
Xbox One
Xbox Series X/S
These are the supported devices along with these, it is also available on almost all well-known gaming platforms.
How Can I Play With My Friends On Dying light 2?
It is possible to play with your friends and gaming buddies as long as you have the same family console. For instance, if you are using an Xbox One and your friends have Xbox One or Xbox Series X, then you can easily share your gameplay and play together without any trouble. Here is a step-by-step process that you can follow and enjoy the game with your friends:
Step 1: In the first step you need to make sure you have the most recent update for Dying Light 2 downloaded on your platform. This will also contain all the latest updates, which add several adjustments and repairs so you start playing right away.
(If you have got the game newly, there will be a day-one update that you have to install and download on your system)
Step 2: Next, it is expected that you must have completed the prologue at the very least. Once everything is set up, you must manually activate multiplayer option on the game platform. Enter the Pause Menu and choose Online Menu to do this.
Credit: droidviews.com
Step 3: You will make all of your decisions relating to online gaming here. You must first choose Online Options from the Online Menu.
Credit: droidviews.com
Step 4: The Game Type will by default be set to Single Player. Depending on your choices, you can change this to a number of settings, and make it either Public, Private, or Friends Only. In-game voice chat can also be enabled or disabled, and you can also choose how frequently the Call for Help feature is active for you.
Step 5: So now you can choose the Friends Only option and turn on the In-game voice chat along with the Call for Help feature.
Credit: droidviews.com
Step 6: After this, go back to the Online Menu and you will see your character displayed on the right side of the screen. Along with that, you can see the option to choose two other players by seeing their shadows next to your player.
Credit: droidviews.com
Step 7: By clicking on these shadows, you can choose to invite your friends from your list. Now you can play co-op on the game.
Conclusion
As we know now, Dying Light 2 does not support cross-platform but supports cross-generational features where you can play with your friends on the same game and communicate with them with the in-game voice chat option. You can make use of this feature and enjoy your game!
Apple receives billions from Google for using Google Search as the default on iPhones, a declaratory filing in the ongoing Google antitrust trial revealed.
Developing a rival search engine would be costly and time-consuming for Apple.
Apple’s privacy focus also clashes with the targeted advertising model of search engines.
Google Search has been prolific in shaping the Internet in the same way that Android shaped the smartphone market. Google managed to leverage both its businesses to grow each other, and that creates an expectation from competitors to follow suit. However, notable competitor Apple prefers to pack in Google Search on iOS instead of working on a rival offering, and we’ve now learned more about the reason behind such a move.
Apple has asked to participate in Google’s upcoming US antitrust trial over online search, as Reuters reports. The company says it cannot rely on Google to defend its revenue-sharing agreements for making Google the default search engine on Safari on iPhones. Apple received an estimated $20 billion from Google in 2022 alone.
As Macrumors spotted in a declaration in the court filings, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Mr. Eddy Cue, has explained why Apple does not want to create its own search engine. Developing a search engine would cost billions of dollars and take many years, diverting resources like capital and employees away from the company’s other growth areas. Further, Apple does not have enough specialized professionals and operational infrastructure to build and run a successful search engine business.
The declaration in the court filings explains that search as a business is rapidly evolving due to artificial intelligence, making such an investment economically risky. To create a viable search engine business, Apple would have to “sell targeted advertising,” which is not a core business for the company and would go against its longstanding privacy commitments.
Mr. Cue is asking the US court to allow Apple to defend its revenue-sharing agreement with Google by having its own witnesses testify during the trial. If the agreement can no longer continue, Mr. Cue mentions that it would hamstring Apple’s ability to continue delivering products that best serve its users’ needs.
It remains to be seen if the court would allow Apple to participate in the Google antitrust trial and defend the billions of dollars it could potentially earn from future revenue-sharing deals.
Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at news@androidauthority.com. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it’s your choice.
The answer to today’s Wordle is only a quick click or scroll away now you’re here, ready to either save your game at the very last moment, or just cut straight to a satisfying line of green letters. Of course you may prefer to take your time, but still get a little help if you need it. That’s where our hint for the December 26 (1286) game comes in. It’ll point you in the right direction, but still give you enough room to shine.
I could’ve sworn the green letters… heck, every letter was hiding from me today. No matter what I tried I just seemed to turn up more greys. It turned out for the best in the end though, the answer not so much revealed but more the only possible word left I hadn’t tried. Phew.
Today’s Wordle hint
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)
Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, December 26
You’d do this if you were attaching or sticking a little extra onto something else, like a pin on a shirt, or a stamp on an envelope.
Is there a double letter in Wordle today?
Yes, there is a double letter in today’s puzzle.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If you’re new to the daily Wordle puzzle or you just want a refresher after taking a break, I’ll share some quick tips to help you win. There’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day.
A mix of unique consonants and vowels makes for a solid opening word.
A tactical second guess should let you narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
There may be a repeat letter in the answer.
You’re not up against a timer, so you’ve got all the time in the world—well, until midnight—to find the winning word. If you’re stuck, there’s no shame in coming back to the puzzle later in the day and finishing it up when you’ve cleared your head.
Today’s Wordle answer
(Image credit: Future)
What is today’s Wordle answer?
Relax, you’ve got this. The answer to the December 26 (1286) Wordle is AFFIX.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Previous Wordle answers
The last 10 Wordle answers
Keeping track of the last handful of Wordle answers can help to eliminate current possibilities. It’s also handy for inspiring opening words or subsequent guesses if you’re short on ideas for the day.
Here are the last 10 Wordle answers:
December 25: SHARE
December 24: EAGLE
December 23: SAUNA
December 22: BRAWN
December 21: BLADE
December 20: FLASH
December 19: STRAY
December 18: HEFTY
December 17: SCOWL
December 16: BOAST
Learn more about Wordle
(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)
Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes every day and the aim is to figure out the correct five-letter word by entering guesses and eliminating or confirming individual letters.
Getting off to a good start with a strong word like ARISE—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good tactic. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.
Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.
After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
Many of us have a game franchise that, despite liking everything we hear about it, we have never actually played any of the games. I have a few, but one notable blind spot in my gaming resume was Yakuza, or as it’s called now, Like A Dragon.
I’d been told by many friends that the series has something for everyone, from heavy action scenes to lighthearted goofiness, all with real emotion at the center… and yet I still never found the time. This year saw the release of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and for a while I thought it would be just another game to add to my backlog. However, thanks to a freelance opportunity, I finally found my excuse to play a Like A Dragon game for the first time.
Listening to Orlando’s story.
Through the first few chapters, I was enjoying myself, but I wasn’t yet seeing what others had told me about the series all these years. That changed in Chapter 4, when I approached a shaved-ice shop on the streets of Hawaii, and Substory 24: Let It Snow began.
Let It Snow begins with Ichiban finding a man in a plaid shirt buying shaved ice (also known as a snow cone) at a local shop. Curiously, the man asks for no toppings on his dessert, and then once he receives the treat, he throws it into the air. As the ice immediately melts–this is Hawaii, after all–the man screams in anguish and leaves distraught. Ichiban watches this happen, and other than feeling it’s really strange, doesn’t think much more of it.
Later, we find the same man being denied shaved ice at a second stand, as the proprietor had caught wind of his weird motives. Dejected, the man sits at a nearby bench, where Ichiban can sit with him and learn his story.
It turns out this man, whose name we learn is Orlando, is trying to fulfill his wife Ellie’s dying wish: “I want to see the snow with you again.” The couple, Orlando explains, have a lot of fond memories involving snow, including their honeymoon in Japan, and while he wanted to take her back, real-life responsibilities got in the way. She wants to see snow fall with her beloved one more time before she dies, which can be any time now. Ichiban agrees to help, and the two part ways for the moment.
So, uh, yeah…when I first saw a weird old dude throwing shaved ice into the sky, I did not think it would lead me to “super emotional story about a man trying to help his wife on her deathbed.” This is exactly the kind of thing my friends have been telling me about, and I have to admit it’s effective. That’s the beauty of the writing at work here; just when you think you have it all figured out, Like A Dragon surprises you. And, as the Substory continued, surprise me it absolutely did.
Later on in a nearby shopping center, Ichiban watches a woman lose a stroller down an escalator. Ichiban chases the stroller–the chase consisting of quick-time events to complete–until he catches it and brings it to a stop. Ichiban looks into the stroller, only to find a grown man in a diaper staring back at him.
Not what you’d expect to see in a bassinet!
This is Susumu Gondawara, a yakuza boss from a previous game who veteran Like A Dragon players would know to expect, but I was completely caught off guard. This hulking baby man says his stroller got away from the “nanny” he hired, and he wants Ichiban to take him back to her. However, three of Gondawara’s henchmen–also, inexplicably, in nothing but diapers–accuse Ichiban of kidnapping Gondawara, and the fight is on.
Once they’re defeated, Gondawara asks for some milk–and the only place to find it is a nearby shaved-ice truck, which uses condensed milk as a topping. One of the henchmen gets in line, only for a man in a familiar plaid shirt to force himself into the front and ask for a shaved ice with no topping.
Eventually, Ichiban, Orlando, and Gondawara all speak together, and try to come up with a solution to the problem. Orlando worries they’re running out of time, and Ichiban throws his shaved ice to the ground in frustration… however, the group notices that the ice didn’t melt, and instead turned to a snow-like substance. How did this happen?
Are you ready?
You’ll never guess…
It turns out that the absorbent of the diapers Gondawara and his men are wearing mixed with the shaved ice, and the combination created the “snow.” I’d heard Like A Dragon could be wacky, but I don’t think I realized just how wacky things could get. After Gondawara explains the difference between his group’s “baby play” fantasy and real-world honor, the three agree to a plan.
The scene then shifts to the hotel where Orlando and Ellie are staying, where–and I cannot believe I’m typing these words–Ichiban, Gondawara, and the underlings mix diaper absorbent with shaved ice, then throw it off of the rooftop of the hotel. Orlando and Ellie, together in their room just below said rooftop, see the “snow” come through the window and are delighted.
Ellie calls Orlando a “magician,” before asking for one more last wish: She wants to see Orlando smile one last time before she falls asleep. He obliges, tears welling in his eyes, and she eventually falls asleep for the final time.
Ellie’s final moments.
So, to recap, in order to help a desperate man fulfill the final wish of his dying wife, our hero Ichiban:
Enlisted the help of a man who likes to act as a baby
Mixed absorbent from that man’s adult diaper supply with shaved ice to create “snow”
Threw the mixture off of a roof, so the desperate man and his wife could see it fall from the room below.
And yet, despite the sheer wackiness making this whole thing happen, the heart at the core of the scene cannot be denied. Ichiban stepped up to help a stranger, simply because he could, and he made a dying woman’s final wish come true in the process. Once the “snow” started to fall, and the scene focused on Orlando and Ellie, I forgot about the absurdities of it all and focused on the relatable, human story at the center of the Substory, and it filled me with a warmth that most games aren’t capable of creating… until the scene switches back to Ichiban and company, where Gondawara’s henchmen are laying on the rooftop exhausted–and buck naked. It’s a last bit of wackiness to send us off; this is Like A Dragon, after all.
After years of being told I would like this series, and never having time to check it out, Infinite Wealth was officially my first foray into what Like A Dragon/Yakuza has to offer. Thanks to Substory 24: Let It Snow, I’ve seen the light. I’m sold, and I plan to go back and see what I’ve been missing all this time as soon as possible–and all it took was a little “winter” magic.
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