I've now made it through the Bequeral Mines and defeated Albel. I skipped the item kill attempt on him because I didn't have the items needed. Three new people were added to the inventors list. I've successfully created the crafted item I need (at a cost of 5 fol per round) but have not been successful in inventing golden curry for Rigel. I am using all of the best cooks up to this point but it still hasn't happened. I guess I'll have to try again next time I play. I'm holding off returning to Aquios because I want all of the inventors I can get for right now and I'd like to up my characters levels a bit too. That's about it, I've taken a short break on playing Pikmin 2, but will probably look at it again soon.

Made it to the Kirlsa Training Facilty last night. With a bunch of battles, I was able to pick up weapons from Aireglyph for all three of my characters. Also, I managed to pass the 15% mark in trophies - now just to figure out what the 2P is? Shelby is my next battle. I'm hoping to pick up all the trophies I can from him. I'll probably do some more leveling up before finishing this area. Plus, I need to start saving up for the armor that is in Aireglyph. Pretty soon here, I'll have to start tracking down inventors so I can't let my funds get too low. Looks like I'm going to be busy when I get a chance to play again.

I have gotten to the 4D area in Star Ocean but decided to restart the game. I've been trying to get past everything with minimal work. This time I am going to work on building up the characters and tracking down inventors immediately. After figuring out how to skip tons of dialogue, I've been able to make good progress. Boy, I'm glad that they don't force you to read/watch everything again. It is kind of odd to have things like Fayt having a detailed talk with his parents while everyone is getting shot around him. Running first, talking later would be the logical way to go. It could have always been a non-spoken thought.
In Pikmin 2, I've gotten through all of the caves in the first two landing sites. I managed to pay off the debt. The only problem is that I don't have the desire to finish the game now. The objective of getting every treasure seems a little boring. Is there anything cool left? That's it for today.