Nintendo

I finally managed to get into Breath of the Wild the other night after getting it on launch day and never enjoying it. I played 9 hours solid, then had to go to work for a few days, so I'm looking forward to going home more than usual.

Other than that, there's the seemingly endless hunt for my last 3 Monster Hunter World achievements (only ~480 hours in, so I'm doing ok). Also, I've finally got around to trying Suicide Squad, and I kinda dig it so far. Just gotta clear my plate a bit for the PC release of FF16 in a few weeks, but I can almost guarantee I'll be too stuck into either Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom to play it.

Finished The Fox Awaits Me HANA! (Link to Japanese eShop)

Easily the most obscure visual novel I've ever played - the VNDB page has zero reviews, a total of 3 ratings including my own, and even had a hilariously incorrect plot summary before I fixed it.

But this was an excellent story. It makes good use of having a cast already developed by the first game to stick to a faster and tighter pacing, there's some really good twists, in particular in the nature of the "groundhog day" loop that you spend a good portion of the game, and the climax of the story offers strong emotional moments.

I did have some trouble with the game though, could not find any english-language guides and it took me a while to get "unstuck" in one part of the story, but I eventually got past that with some help from a korean wiki and Google Translate. I've submitted a guide to GameFAQs based on my playthrough, so if someone sees this post and gets motivated to try this game they won't run into the same problems. 🙂

Finished Cat Quest 2!

Needed a short breather from VNs and remembered I had not finished this one. A simple hack-and-slash with a lot cat puns, very fun and highly recommended. It's on sale (-75%) right now and even has a demo, so go try it out!

I'm starting some longer VNs and will probably need breaks from time to time so I think I'll also play the sequel as a "side game".

Playing Hatsumira: From the Future Undying!

This is an Isekai visual novel - a genre about people getting transported to a different world, typically with a fantasy/magic setting. This genre has been extremely popular in anime/manga/light novels for a decade or so, but oddly enough it's quite rare to see it in visual novels.

First impressions have been mostly positive - production values are solid, the pacing has been good, and I'm enjoying the MC - he's a capable and sharp-tongued adult, and his interactions with the rest of the cast have been hilarious.

Definitely not a fan of the heroine character designs, the the first time I saw Yukikaze I thought "wait, isn't that just Yumiko from Grisaia in a bad cosplay?" 😆, but I think my biggest issue so far with the game is the localization - I don't mind when the translator tries to make the dialogue more colorful, but I think they overdid it with this one - the MC uses way too much (british?) military slang and his dialogue feels very out-of-place for a japanese soldier.

According to the rather nice in-game progress display I'm currently at 6% of the game. This is going to be a long one.

I finished The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past before last week's thread, but I didn't end up posting then. I think it became more fun in the end, and after getting lots of upgrades. It was worth it.

I went through my backlog and started playing Turrican from the Anthologies on Switch. I grew up playing Super Turrican and played Mega Turrican when I was a bit older. Now I'm going through every title chronologically and it's been super interesting to see the evolution. They're very fun games, but the music is just incredibly good in every single one. Chris Hülsbeck is a genius! I've finished the first two for Amiga, and playing Turrican III now, about to finish it. I'm looking forward to playing the Director's Cut version of Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2!

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I WON A FIVE MAN BRACKET WOOOOO! Also played some Skullgirls casuals for a little while after the bracket ended.

Mahjong Soul/Riichi City - :(

Splatoon 3 - Heavy Edit got shot. The rest of the changes seem fine, but as always I'm just annoyed that they don't do more.

Finished Paper Mario TTYD. I've done pretty much everything except all recipes with my 10HP. For some reason Bonetail felt easier than Gloomtail and I couldn't tell you why or how that even makes sense. There was just a certain rhythm that worked out perfectly. Prince Mush turned out to be a really stupid fight, turning himself invincible in the second phase unless you perfect guard him. So much for preparations, I guess! I cheesed him with a huge stack of Charges to defeat him before he can switch to phase 2. If he cheats, I cheat!

So next, I'm finally going to start Baten Kaitos 2. Since the game was never released in Europe before, it'll be my first time playing it. I did my research, there's no need to leave the system running for two weeks, or any unreasonable amount of time in the sequel!

And, then... there's my mystery game. It's done and it was Danganronpa V3. I kept it a secret because I didn't want to risk anybody saying anything. It's the kind of game you don't want to hear anything about before playing. Until recently, my spoiler-free verdict was as follows:

The visuals are by far the best in the series, I especially like the overgrown look of the school. And even though it's neat that everything slowly changes overtime, it's a shame it changes to be much less interesting. Don't cut down all the greenery! But overall, I wasn't too fond of the game. A lot of the killings were very gimmicky and some elements were just left completely unused. Like that one murder motive nobody understood, nobody used and was ultimately taken away and never brought up again. I think the game's biggest handicap is essentially trying to tell the same story for the third time.

The above was my verdict... but then I beat the game. Oh, boy... that... was the worst ending I have ever seen in a game. I'm a "the journey is more important than the destination" kind of guy, so I never really understood how an ending can ruin someone's entire experience. I get it now. I understand why people get so upset because it truly feels bad. I have completed the first two games 100% because I just enjoyed them so much, but I didn't even look at the post game content because I did not want to spend another second with any of these characters. I hate them now. Them and everything that happened. In a messed up way, the ending explains some of my earlier complaints and I actually really liked that, but that doesn't change how stupid the ending is. The only thing more stupid is the fact that I lost sleep over this. Luckily, it was only that one immediate night.

And since I cut the game off here, I am once again in the situation of having finished both of my current games at the same time! How does this keep happening? I'll be filling this slot with the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. The original series never really interested me, but the reboot has been on my radar for a very long time.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and I’m loving it. People might have been tired of the presentation but Nintendo fans ought tot look beyond that - it has great level design, difficulty, secrets and a super tough challenge mode that’ll keep me busy for a while.

Super Mario Odyssey, wrapping up the moons 4 years after finishing. Not sure if that’s for me, but giving it a chance.

I was playing a little Slay the Spire, and then Dead Cells finally clicked for me. I've tried it several times, and I've always felt that game was made for me. I was right, it just took a few tries to get hooked. Now I can't stop playing. All the different combinations of weapons and skills, that can all flow with each other and rack up mad damage. I have tried so many builds, some even out of my comfort zone that worked better than expected.

I'm still having trouble fully understanding what is going on. I rolled credits once for I assume the bad ending, and I've only gotten one permanent power up. I see multiple things I am unable to use, and just feel completely lost as to how to find them. I don't want to look it up and spoil the game, but I don't want to lose interest either

Diablo 4, although I'm asking myself why, considering the changes to crafting and gear this season.

Vampire Survivor!!

The Witcher 3....just got back into it after learning that it works really well with a gamepad (I have it on gog) and that I can stream it at 4k60 fps to my tv... It's awesome