Check out the Nand2Tetris course on Coursera for building your own Java too.

I’d also recommend Lufia 2, Chrono Trigger, and even Secret of Mana and Shadowrun (SNES version especially) in the same vein.

Speak to your skip-line manager with what you wrote here and see if you can change teams.

Otherwise start applying to jobs (maybe start internally if you’re in a large company).

There’s no use in staying in a bad situation.

I have it set up on my Steam Deck but haven’t played it yet because TOTK takes all my free time.

There’s a great TikTok channel for Super Mario Kaizo and romhacks - @kezcade_ - and I found this in the comments there.