Soooooo what'cha playing?

[Reality]

drunk and going thruogh the "great deals" tab of Nintendo Switchv

Nexomon: Exctincion

This is like the most direct pokemon clone ever - has a weird mixture of amazing quality of life improvements over pokemon while also having some unique problems of its own

Positives - Level scaled wild encounters,  shocklying good art and mon design, 4th wall style humor, INSANE amount of freedom, Shared MP for all attacks kinda works better than pokemon's PP system. Fast travel from early on instead of midgme fly HM. 

Negatives - Experience is distributed only at the end of battle instead of after each kill, so if a pokemon kills someone on his own and faints before end of battle you get no exp! No Tms + as far as I can tell you just get your level up moves (90% STAB only)  per individual pokemon (so be prepared to switch a lot) stat system is a bit whack and more important than type advantage/disadgantge like 70% of the time, especially with the mulitple item slots (eg cores) per pokemon. 

Monster Sanctuary

 It's another monster catchnig game but vastly different - MUCH more geneirc and straightlaced (both creature designs and plot) - Feautures entirely 3v3 battles (some 3v1 boss battles0, has a very light metrodivania overworld instead of the traditonal 4 direction top down grid from pokemon - Super complicated battle system with combos, turn order manip,  buffs, debuffs, and 4 skill trees per every creature in the game. Might actually play through it - Bigges concern so far is that I haver found any creature with a "dispell enemy buff" ability, so now that the game is ramping up with other trainers instead of wilds I'm running into them setting ujp remarkably dangerous things and having to take the "do 1 better" approach a bit much.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Final Fantasy X-2 is a game I've been working on since almost the start of the year. I remember the dumbfounded disappointment I had putting this disc back in its effeminate ps2 case back in the 2000s. My disappointment being about as difficult to describe as trying to pronounce the title (X two...Ten-Two...Cross Two?). Hearing that they would make a sequel to a final fantasy game, and that they've picked one of my favorites over FF7 felt like a treat just for me. But though FFX-2 takes place in the same world, it is attempting to continue the original's story with absolutely no engagement with those same themes or plot elements. FFX-2's universe is actually quite real to the human experience. There's a great Onion article titled: "A Shattered Nation Longs to Care about Stupid Bullshit Again". FFX-2 is a game about exploring the stupid bullshit people get up to now that their lives aren't in danger and seemingly everybody who's evil is dead for real. FFX-2 has no villains. It's antagonists are only framed as such because they reject the help of our party members. FFX-2 has no stakes. Our heroes' motivation is hunting down spheres - the universe's equivelant to old home videos, on the off chance that one of them might have footage of Tidus. Yuna's affection for her dead boyfriend comes off as creepy when she's incapable of saying the guy's name. It feels like this ought to have been a story about Yuna coming out of her shell and finding out how to live her best life, but we never get to exploring that angle. And yet Yuna is the only one of the three protagonists that can be said to have a motivation from start to finish. The biggest let down was the music. Absolutely no tracks from FFX return for this game, and their replacements sound like they've been picked out of an open source library. Some tracks, like the battle theme, are tiresome from the very first instance. I never thought I'd ever say this about a final fantasy game, but wow, this game has bad music.

The battle system is completely changed from FFX, favoring an ATB system similar to FF4 where actions that aren't basic attack have a cast time. Finally! The game actually demonstrates when it's in active mode or wait mode...except it's totally inaccurate. Your ATB bar still fills up during somebody else's spell animation. It quickly becomes difficult to parse the current turn order between characters waiting to use their move. Attacks can also interrupt somebody from casting their move, but in a way that's not reflected by the game's UI, further adding to the player's confusion. The game is totally non-linear. You've got the airship from the start of the game, and can progress through areas in any order you choose. About 90% of the game's content is optional, you can do as many or as little as you like. I was, and still am, overwhelmed by the freedom here, and decided to play alongside a guide. The completionist run of FFX-2 presents its own challenges and quirks that surely sold a lot of strategy guides back in the day. You not only need to visit every area of the game repeatedly throughout the game, you have to be mindful of everything you're doing. You can lose completion percentage and permanently missable items by: failing a minigame, succeeding too much in a minigame, talking to NPCs out of a specific order, doing a side quest too late, doing a side quest too early, and yes, skipping cutscenes. Although that last one is probably a genuine bug in how the game sets event flags, and not intentional design. Still it's bizarre for a game that reminds you of your completion percentage every time you save, to be so completionist unfriendly.

I've been thinking hard about what this game's strong points are, and only one answer comes to mind - the dresspheres. You get a lot of them early on, and most feel satisfyingly broken due to the player being able to choose which skills and passives to push for in any order. Classes like the Black Mage and Alchemist become very strong with some effort, while later classes like the Dark Knight are powerful from the start. Job Classes had been totally absent in the series for about ten years, and allowing the player to switch their job class in the middle of battle is innovative and great. It''s clear this is where most of the game's development has gone. Each party member has unique outfits, animations, and voice lines pertaining to each dressphere. It's all very extra, but I like extra. One time, Yuna, who was in the Lady Luck dressphere, said "Game Over, Man. Game over". My brain was racing, was that an Alien 3 reference? It couldn't have been, that impression was so bad. But it was bad in a way only Yuna's VA could deliver. When next I heard it, I couldn't help but laugh. I wish all the game's voice acting had that much character. Returning characters sound either too depressed or too phoney. The only one who's turning in a strictly better performance is Rikku, while all the new characters are pretending to sound like various flavors of edgelord. So little of it fits the tone the game is going for.

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 3/3/2021 at 1:02 AM, Glennstavos said:

I've been thinking hard about what this game's strong points are, and only one answer comes to mind - the dresspheres.

The entire game is the result of the aftermath of Sin's last toxins! That is why everyone is so stupid weird.😜

I never finished X-2, my first PS3 died when I got to Chapter 3. The minigame emphasis and sheer impossibility of 100% on a semi-blind first run weighed down me. Its ATB was more "active", than usual, but I don't think I loved it.

I guess this is an extreme case of "What are you willing to endure for the sake of a good class system?". Dare you ever pick it up again?

Also, mid-breast exposure aside, I do like Yuna's new outfit. Rikku... her fashion sense went down the drain, does she even look like her old self at all?

Had I been responsible an X sequel, I think a Reformation-esque serious approach would've been how I would've done it. The demise of the Yevon faith as it has been for centuries, may in the long-term lead to increased secularity. But in the short-term, it leads to a spike in religiosity with religion fracturing amongst many charismatic leaders and their follower factions, who are sometimes willing to negotiate and compromise, yet frequently turn to violent conflict and suppression of the others.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

currently doing my 2nd run of Final Fantasy VII Remake. the game has been really amazing so far in almost every aspect, with only few things that could have been changed/improved, but overall the game is really fun to play once you get used to the combat management.

too bad that PS5 are still nowhere to be found, otherwise playing with the new DLC at 60 fps and improved graphics would have been nice.

i'm not sure about what to pick next though, as i have still plenty of old and new titles in standby plus other games coming out in the next months too.

 

also on my last run of Fire Emblem Blazing Sword, as i've basicly replayed and completed every mode yet again.

gotta admit that playing again on HHM has been quite painful at times, but at least i'm finally at the end of it. guess i will probably move to Binding Blade next, once i'm done with Hector's story.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:44 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

I guess this is an extreme case of "What are you willing to endure for the sake of a good class system?". Dare you ever pick it up again?

I definitely can't recommend the game on that alone. The dresspheres feel great as a progression system, but it's very slow to switch between them in battle despite how much the game is encouraging you to max out your garment grid in a fight. And I did neglect to mention how much of the gameplay is minigames rather than battles, especially if you are diving into every side quest for completion. The battles feel about as tacked on as the minigames. Perhaps the better version of FFX-2 that exists in an alternate dimension would have been a visual novel or something.

Quote

Also, mid-breast exposure aside, I do like Yuna's new outfit.

What I found most distracting is that 5 foot length braid of hair. I think you'd need more than two years to grow something like that. I imagine it's there because it's aesthetically pleasing to watch something trail behind your character as they run around, but once I realized it was hair and not a piece of cloth, I couldn't look away.

One last thing I neglected to mention. This line from Yuna near the end is hilarious. I will treasure it forever.

[Samz707]

Super Smash Brothers:

Been playing it with friends, picked up Byleth and I honestly like them, I kinda forget they have a sword as I mostly use the Bow. (Much to the annoyance of my friends when I cheap shot them with a charged shot while they're distracted fighting each other.)

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Due to some arbitrary backlog goals I set for myself this year, I have to 100% a game that begins with the letter K. What else but Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards. It was either this game or the DS remake of Super Star that was my first kirby game, so this replay has been waiting for quite some time. I love the cute cutscenes. I love how Kirby makes friends over the course of his adventure rather than just having them innately. I love the gameplay variety. I love the music I love the new take on copy abilities. The final boss before the secret final boss is one of my favorites in Kirby history, since it is only vulnerable to certain elements you must keep obtaining in the fight itself. And I think the minigames are great. As for the completion experience, most of the shards are easy to find if you're willing to check corners of rooms or see what's down a pit marked by a lone star. But the ones behind barriers are needlessly obtuse. More often than not, they require a combination of abilities that do not exist in that level. I remember World 4's lack of ice and bomb powerups proved to be nuisance for several barriers. Although you're free to backtrack to previous levels and worlds at any time. When replaying a level, you can pause and exit right after collecting a crystal shard or getting an ability mix you need, and the game will save your progress. I'm grateful for such painlessness in the backtracking necessary for 100%.

The one complaint I've seen levied at Kirby 64 is its easiness. Particularly due to overpowered abilities. I was actually surprised at how often enemies could knock me out of certain powers. And the enemy placement is quite devious, often forcing kirby to patiently weave through them or come to a full stop. The designers knew the player would want to get through these areas in one continuous stride, so they aimed enemy placements to thwart them. I died about a dozen times in my playthrough. I even got a game over. I don't think I've seen a game over screen in the main portion of a kirby game since Kirby's Adventure on the NES. So I think the presence of some powerful ability mixes is generally a red herring on the grander experience. I often wonder why this was the last console kirby game. Perhaps the easiest answer is just that kirby is a better fit on handhelds than he is on consoles. But I'm just envisioning a bunch of critics ragging on this game for its easiness, while series veterans clamor for "another super star". Kirby's been in his own renaissance for years now, but I miss the expirementation. The Super Star approach to copy abilities is great, don't get me wrong, but it's starting to feel stale. 

I also played Cyber Shadow. For some reason I've been calling the game Oniken for the last week, which is a different, ninja gaiden-inspired indie platformer I played on my switch back in 2019, a lifetime ago. Cyber Shadow's got more meat to it. You earn new abilities through progression, metroid-vania esque secrets leading to small upgrades, and there's a jargon-filled story that I stopped trying to grasp pretty quickly. I don't have much to say on the game, just that I thought that the difficulty curve felt perfect for me, and the shot parry mechanic feels so excellent that you could build a whole game off of it. The game's most innovative idea is in its checkpoints. You spend money upgrading them to provide bonuses beyond just bringing you back to life. Some of them don't even do that much, and require money just to activate in the first place. It's a great system for this sort of game, but I will say I went the entire game without buying the SP recovery upgrade, since I just didn't feel it was ever worth the same cost as even the lesser ninja tools. My one gripe with the game is a certain jump a little more than halfway through the game. After getting the dash ability, the game never tutorializes you on the dash slash, which is necessary for platforming. Yet the game was considerate enough to tell the player, about 95% of the way through, that performing the down slash refreshes your double jump, just in case you never noticed.

[null]

Ghost of Tsushima - Been a fantastic experience so far. It's incredibly cinematic, but not lacking substance beyond the spectacle. The combat is incredibly satisfying, the world is very fun to explore, and the story and character interactions are quite good. I just finished Act 1 and am looking forward to moving into Act 2.

Final Fantasy XIV - Haven't played an MMO in a long time. But this has been a fun one to get back into the genre with. The free trial includes the hundreds of hours of content in the base game as well as the Heavensward expansion. Definitely looking forward to making my way through the story, which I hear is quite good.

I'm also still playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate here and there, but not too much so I don't get burned out for the release of Monster Hunter Rise.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I'm close to the end of Super Kirby Clash.

Only have a few bosses left to beat.

Though I'm only level 62 and the upcoming bosses are in the 80s, so this requies grinding or being lucky finding a overleveled online partner with some gaming skills.

Anyways it's still very enjoyable - a free to play game at its best!

 

I received Super Mario World 3D which I found for 40 Euro, which would be the next project.

 

Though I still have to beat Soul Melter in Kirby Star Allies.

For some reason I really suck, even with the OP Mage Sisters team.

[Samz707]

Red Faction 2:

It just feels alot more generic than the first one and Geomod went from "Underused due to tech limitations/inexperience" to just flat-out being turned off for most of the game.

Metro 2033 Original Version:

So it's free on steam, but a timed release, because for some reason the publisher doesn't want people just buying the old (and IMO better than Redux since it uses Last-Light's engine/mechanics.) version for some reason. 

Glad to actually have it on steam now instead of my old 360 Copy.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The past week, I've been blazing through Suikoden, the first rpg Konami ever published outside Japan. I pulled it up from my backlog after encountering interviews with series director Yoshitaka Murayama, and localizers. In the interview, Murayama emphasized his approach to the genre as being one of convenience for the player. If you don't want to fight random enemies, you can bribe them, giving up precious gold that can go toward equipment/weapon upgrades. Once you're a high enough level in comparison to the enemy, the run command becomes the let go command, which has 100% success rate. The encounter rate also depends on how the player is moving. If you are walking in a straight line, there will be few encounters. However, if you are constantly turning - like walking around in a circle, the encounter rate will be higher, as the game designers assume you're attempting to grind. Experience from enemies is scaled to your level meticulously. Low leveled characters can catch up to your main stays after just half a dozen encounters, allowing you to mix and match your party on a whim. It's also helpful during sequences where a character is forced into your party. Though I must admit this game forces characters into your party quite a lot at all stages of the game - even the ending. typically leaving you with just 0-2 free slots of your own choosing. Trying to get a forced character up to speed on equipment by returning to your base can be a time sink that I seldom engaged in, but I'm glad they at least caught up in levels without any need for grinding.

Suikoden is based loosely on the classic chinese novel Water Margin. In japanese, it's just called Suikoden, hence where the title is coming from. You can recruit up to 108 characters into your army to liberate the world from an unjust empire. In addition to joining in battle, recruited party members serve additional services in your castle to help on your quest. Most of the game is your standard jrpg gameplay with six party members, but there's also some gimmicks like one on one duels and army to army siege battles. Both of which operate on a rock paper scissors logic. The army battles are tense because your recruited characters can actually die if you guess the wrong action. However, I found that the moves picked by the AI are consistent after resetting, allowing me to cheat a perfect victory. You can attach runes to your characters which give them powerful spells to use, and having certain combinations of party members together lets you use unique "unite" attacks which are cool to test out. The game seems sorely lacking in an "ether" item to restore spell charges. I like that medicine can be used to revive a KOd party member, but only outside of battle. It really forces you to be proactive about healing when you can't revive characters until a fight is over.

The game balance isn't particularly good, but certainly passable for a 90s rpg. Major difficulty spikes do exist, but the game is generally very lenient and easy if you know what you're doing. In particular, the exp scaling makes it so you only ever have to grind for money, and I found the game gives you plenty of it. I do wish the game had more save points, particularly before a boss fight. Building up your base is satisfying. I especially like that your armory and item shops update their inventories with whatever you've encountered in the shops across the game world. I also like that warping between towns and dungeons you've been to is introduced fairly early. Perhaps the best thing about the game for me was its length. About 20 hours, and you could beat the game in far less if you wanted. A big part of it is definitely the exp scaling. If this were any other jrpg of its era, with regular exp points and a few less quality of life features, that play time could easily expand another ten hours and I imagine most veterans of the genre wouldn't complain. I'm not a fan of dialogue choices. From the start of the game, your choices consistently don't matter at all, so it's shocking to the player later when certain characters really do live or die depending on what you choose to say. But other than that, this game is very completionist friendly, with only a few permanently missable characters.

The biggest thing I want to talk about is the localization. It's pretty awful. I think I could only compare it to Breath of Fire 2 in terms of quality. In addition to grammatical errors throughout the game that confuse what a character is trying to say, the biggest issue seems to be text assigned to the wrong character. According to localizers of Suikoden 2, Konami sent the game script in the form of source code. They could see the text in hexadecimal, but could not figure out what character or character portrait the line belongs to. They had no choice but to play the japanese version alongside the "script" in order to match things up and get the context. And some obvious errors seem to have slipped through. And of course, like most games of its era, text limitations were a constant concern, as the localization was flatly unable to add new text boxes or alter the font size, resulting in very terse dialogue. I read another interview regarding the first game's localization and it appears to be the same story, only instead of several localizers, it was just one translator and one editor. That's even less eyes on the project. 

I've been told by many fans that the sequel is better in just about every way, so I'm certainly curious. I'm not the kind of person that dives into a long rpg on a whim, but this first game just had such a strong showing that I have to check out the second.

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I've been told by many fans that the sequel is better in just about every way, so I'm certainly curious. I'm not the kind of person that dives into a long rpg on a whim, but this first game just had such a strong showing that I have to check out the second.

So you quite enjoyed it? Good for you! I thought I heard the sequel was intended to be the first game, but they made the first one as a warm-up project.

Ever be so hyped up for a game, that when you finally get to play it, it ends up failing to live up to expectations? -That was me with Suikoden 2, unfortunately. Fundamentally, the game shows clear progression from the original, but gameplay-wise, it's still like a 6/10 to me in the modern day and age, it's very traditional and simple, which hasn't aged the best. As for story, it has some nice points, but perfection from beginning to end? I don't see that.

Translation-wise, the sequel's two notable oddities to me were Freed Y- that "Y" at the end of his name is never said, it's just there, as if someone somehow botched the name "Fredy". And, his wife Yoshino, has one oddity with how she speaks Yoshino. Do you want to know what it is Yoshino? I'm sure you do Yoshino! 

As for game length, if you want to see a particular character's full set of optional no-gameplay-rewards events, you have to get to pretty much the end of the game in 20 hours at most.

I have the third Suikoden as well, I'm told it's overall inferior to 2, but I'm not entirely sold on that notion. Yet, I've barely played it, a tiny bit into the first character's first chapter (Suikoden III has three main characters with separate storylines leading up to their unification) before some surprisingly difficult early battles stopped me and I just never returned.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Lightcosmo]

Final Fantasy XIII-2. This game is pretty much inferior to the 1st one in the trilogy, but i needed to 100% complete this game, and that time is now. The best part about the game is it's time anomalies, AKA puzzles. Well, that and the live trigger event's. Other than that not too much. it's very much a copy of the 1st one, battle system, enemy types, most abilities, you name it. Not that i mind, since i love the battle system, but it does dock some points for originality, Questing is honestly a pain for one reason... that being you move way too slow! And needing to go back and forth makes this terrible most of the time.

Storyline isn't great, and axing Lightning from the story didn't do it any favors. Of course the others characters didn't fare well either, and they were much better than the ones in XIII-2. Another issue? They never followed through with anything! Just a mess of idea that were good, but nothing came from them. And the paradox endings... oh boy when i seen the sunleth waterscape on, i'm pretty sure i was mortified. XD

[Venger_06]

1 hour ago, lightcosmo said:

Final Fantasy XIII-2. This game is pretty much inferior to the 1st one in the trilogy, but i needed to 100% complete this game, and that time is now. The best part about the game is it's time anomalies, AKA puzzles. Well, that and the live trigger event's. Other than that not too much. it's very much a copy of the 1st one, battle system, enemy types, most abilities, you name it. Not that i mind, since i love the battle system, but it does dock some points for originality, Questing is honestly a pain for one reason... that being you move way too slow! And needing to go back and forth makes this terrible most of the time.

Storyline isn't great, and axing Lightning from the story didn't do it any favors. Of course the others characters didn't fare well either, and they were much better than the ones in XIII-2. Another issue? They never followed through with anything! Just a mess of idea that were good, but nothing came from them. And the paradox endings... oh boy when i seen the sunleth waterscape on, i'm pretty sure i was mortified. XD

How do you feel about Caius?

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Maof06 said:

How do you feel about Caius?

Hmmmm...  another decent idea that was left behind for some reason. 

He doesnt appear that often throughout the game, so we dont learn much about him. The whole thing with Yeul was a good base, but they messed it up.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

11 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I have the third Suikoden as well, I'm told it's overall inferior to 2, but I'm not entirely sold on that notion. Yet, I've barely played it, a tiny bit into the first character's first chapter (Suikoden III has three main characters with separate storylines leading up to their unification) before some surprisingly difficult early battles stopped me and I just never returned.

From what I've always heard, 4 was the black sheep. It's the first in the series created with no input from the series director, Murayama. He actually left Konami a month before the release of the third game. And at Konami, if you're not working on the game by the time development wraps up, you're not going in the credits. Doesn't matter that he's the father of the series, doesn't matter that his departure was planned before development of the game even begun. Anyway, I'm not worried about being disappointed in 2. It takes a very specific cocktail of circumstances and prerequisites for me to feel disappointment in a video game in 2021. One of those pre-requisites is for it to be a franchise I've loved since I was a baby boy. Paper Mario, Pokemon. Smash Bros might be the final candidate. One day one of those games is just going to suck, and I'll need some time to get over it. But if it happens, that's fine.

13 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

Final Fantasy XIII-2. This game is pretty much inferior to the 1st one in the trilogy, but i needed to 100% complete this game, and that time is now. The best part about the game is it's time anomalies, AKA puzzles. Well, that and the live trigger event's. Other than that not too much. it's very much a copy of the 1st one, battle system, enemy types, most abilities, you name it. Not that i mind, since i love the battle system, but it does dock some points for originality,

How did you feel about the monster raising mechanics? I pretty much ignored them, only having medics and ravagers since those roles didn't seem to require particularly high investment in more stats.

[Lightcosmo]

40 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

How did you feel about the monster raising mechanics? I pretty much ignored them, only having medics and ravagers since those roles didn't seem to require particularly high investment in more stats.

Ehhh, I dont really like the idea, but I think as far as gameplay goes, they have uses. Mine are varying levels, from 20 to 43. Personally I would prefer another actual party member but oh well. 

I particularly like the Chocobo (Red) and Grand Behemoth. Behemoth mostly for kicks though!  Cause cmon, who doesnt want a Behemoth on Their team?

And my last is Cactrot, for healing.

Edited March 17, 2021 by lightcosmo

[Clear World]

Gnosia - Nintendo Switch

A single player mafia/werewolf simulator that has a visual novel aesthetic and a overarching sci-fi story. I highly recommend this relatively unknown game to anyone who enjoys social deduction games. 

[Tsubasa]

11 hours ago, Clear World said:

Gnosia - Nintendo Switch

A single player mafia/werewolf simulator that has a visual novel aesthetic and a overarching sci-fi story. I highly recommend this relatively unknown game to anyone who enjoys social deduction games. 

I've recently played through and finished Gnosia which was a lovely treat and a blast to play, highly recommend anyone interested in playing it to go into that blind. It does have a bit of trial and error as you get closer to 100% completion but it's oh so satisfying.

 

Personally, I just finished playing through Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. I've had it since it released 2 years ago but I only finally got around to playing it now. It was an incredibly fun flying experience and it really scratched an itch for playing a game with some sick dogfighting. I have a few games currently on the docket for what I want to play next but I think I might get back into playing Code Vein or prepare for SaGa Frontier Remastered when that releases next month. :)

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Since I finished Super Kirby Clash, I started with Super Mario World 3D.

I completed the first world and the gameplay was better than expected.

Especially the camera angles I was feared of were pretty good.

It feels more like a 2.5D game to me.

I'm really not experienced with Mario games (only played SMB3, SMW and SM64), so I didn't know what to expect here.

However the first impression is really good so far.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Zan Partizanne

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Alright, I'm continuning my Kirby marathon.

Downloaded Blowout Blast sponteanously. It's another sidegame which was originally a minigame from a Kirby main game (Planet Robobot). It's basically Kirby's Dreamland 1 in 3D without Whispy Woods. Nah, it's not quite explained that simple. Enemies must be swallowed and spilled on other enemies in time to get highest possible score. With having the 3D effect it's easier said than done. To unlock all extra stages including a master form of the final medals each stage must be completed with a gold medal which I couldn't do in first run. This means it has replaybility. Still it's a pretty short game, but therefore it costs only about 8 $ / €. For it's price I think it's worth for people who like to play a 3D Kirby game - a decent enough sidegame overall.

My ratings of completed Kirby games:

Spoiler

• Super Kirby Clash: 9.0
• Planet Robobot: 8.6
• Return To Dreamland: 8.5
• Triple Deluxe: 8.1
• Dreamland 3: 7.8
• Star Allies: 7.5
• Dreamland 2: 7.3
• Block Ball: 7.0
• Pinball: 6.8
• Blowout Blast: 6.5
• Dreamland 1: 5.5 (sorry, even with extramode it can be done in 30 minutes)

Yet to play: Mass Attack, Squeak Squad, Epic Yarn

Can't play due to lack of console: Kirby 64, all GBA titles, Rainbow Curse

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Zan Partizanne

[Venger_06]

Rune Factory 4 - Nintendo 3DS

As I was finally intending to play one of the games I had but never played and I already played a lot of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature at the time of PSone, I decided to get this game.

[Lightcosmo]

I just 100% completed FF XIII-2!

Holy moly that was a long run, clocking out at 60 hours gameplay time for a 100% run. Not too bad. If anyone cares, I might share my endgame stuff for those who are interested, which I know isnt many.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

This week I pulled Diddy Kong Racing out of the backlog. I bought it off a friend back in high school, but never sat down to play its adventure mode. I can definitely see why the game is beloved, but there wasn't much waiting for me. It felt like a pretty bare bones kart racer. Controls were slippery, and the collision from bumping into walls felt very inconsistent, especially when the game was lagging in its frame rate, which was often. And it still seems odd to me that this game has no other donkey kong characters. One of them is a kremling, maybe, but other than that it feels like a totally original game with a Nintendo mascot for its boxart. Probably Rare taking full advantage of its rights to use the Kongs in just about any video game for more market appeal. A quick glance at wikipedia's blurb about its development confirms my suspicions. The multiple vehicles angle always seemed cool to me as a kid, but you can't choose a favorite vehicle type independently of other racers like the boxart suggests. Everybody is racing on the same thing, which is probably for the best because they're not balanced against each other at all. In Adventure Mode though, your vehicle is always chosen for you for each track. It's a shame you're not given the choice. I might even choose the hovercraft if the game let me. Sure it controls like a bar of soap with garbage acceleration, but the AI is even worse at driving them than me, so it may make some of these challenges easier.

I tried my best to collect 100% of everything in Adventure Mode, and I'm nearly finished. Everything except for T.T., I don't really understand how to get him yet. It was fairly painless until I reached Wizpig. He's impossible without green boosts on the zippers. And that's as far as I got in the game before I realized those boosts were even a thing. I also played the entire game without using the drift. I figured the game was so slippery that the possibility of drifting never crossed my mind, and certainly never seemed vital with the game's track design.

I also played Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. When the trailers for the game first came out, there was a line of dialogue suggesting that the crash games after 3 hadn't happened, and I was bummed out by the implication that the developer chose to dismiss the majority of Crash's legacy. It was a false flag though, as you'd be hard pressed to find a piece of crash media that doesn't get its reference in this game. The gameplay also feels like it's nerding out about Crash Bandicoot with killer level design and gratuitous amounts of unlockables. The game has five playable characters, but all of them place emphasis on precision platforming, rather than feeling like the gimmicky vehicle stages of Crash 2 or 3. Some of those vehicles do make an appearance, but only comprising about 5% of the gameplay, rather than 50%. The mask powers also enhance Crash's basic platforming abilities while just being tied to a single button press. It took until the end of the game for it to happen, but I was waiting anxiously for them to chain together the different masks in one continuous sequence. 

I opted for a playthrough that was a straight shot to the end, but I'm seeing now that the optional levels, flashback stages, and N.Verted versions of levels are pretty incredible, especially with the latter's aesthetics. I haven't yet tried going for completion on the game because it looks truly daunting. Certainly a much longer and much harder checklist of tasks than previous games. The rewards for the extra effort do seem wonderful though, particularly the skins. I just think the game seems too willing to hide boxes almost completely out of frame. You'd really need a guide to get them all. I wish the camera was perhaps a bit more dynamic in revealing them if you're willing to at least walk into various corners of the areas. That way it feels more like a discovery than random guesswork. Speaking of the camera, my only other complaint is with the grinding sections. It feels like the camera is too zoomed out from the action for me to accurately gauge distance. Obstacles I had already cleared also tend to linger in the foreground, affecting my ability to figure out what I need to do for the next obstacle before it's too late. But other than that, the game was consistently challenging yet fair. I loved every second.

20 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

Holy moly that was a long run, clocking out at 60 hours gameplay time for a 100% run. Not too bad. 

Wow, that sounds pretty light for a 3D Final Fantasy game. How painful was the process? Was it grindy? I'm willing to bet the game doesn't have any permanent missables to worry about given its structure

[Lightcosmo]

28 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Wow, that sounds pretty light for a 3D Final Fantasy game. How painful was the process? Was it grindy? I'm willing to bet the game doesn't have any permanent missables to worry about given its structure

Well, I've played the game a few times, so that helps a bit. 

As far as grindy goes, only completing the bestiary for my very last fragment. 

You gotta have some maxed out roles, decent monsters, and good weapons for beating some fights. 

Getting CP/Gil is easy once you can fight one of the monsters on the Archelyte Steppe for 40,000 of both, and with the durable collectors catalog on both characters, at least 140,000 gil, which is fantastic.

The worst is leveling a ton of monsters for their inherent abilities for fusion. Such as Tonberries Strength and Magic +35% skills.

(For reference, my monsters in my pack are all level 90 and above, which I think is a good spot.) Not neccesary, but comfortable, per se.

Edited March 27, 2021 by lightcosmo