Still Playing Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout as my primary game. I think I should be in the later half of the story, not sure though. Pretty much just playing this now, so should be able to finish it soon-ish.
One exception though, with all the Donkey Kong drops, I started Donkey Kong Country 2 (NSO SNES) again. And I don't know what issue I had last time, but this time I was able to clear the first area pretty easily. Died couple of times in last level, but other than that it was pretty simple. I didn't find all the secrets though. Only 2 DK tokens, though got most of the KONG letters, not sure about other secrets, but I am sure I missed some.
Stopped playing at first level of the second area / world. The lava one. Only started it on impulse and may play it a bit here or there, but will return to it seriously only after finishing Atelier Ryza. I really enjoyed playing it though, hope difficulty won't spike too much as the game progresses.
What about all of you? What have you been playing?
Haven't found much time to play recently, but I beat the Deku area in Echoes of Wisdom today. This was probably my favorite area, mostly because we haven't seen Deku sprouts as a serious race since Majora's Mask. I find them a lot more interesting than the Korok, so I really hope they return in a major role again sometime.
At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm about to beat the game, so it's time to finish off all the side content. I already finished the Dream Dojo including the advanced time requirements, which wasn't that hard except for a select few challenges. Though even those wouldn't have been so bad if there was a way to just restart without quitting out entirely! That's a major oversight a game of today really can't get away with anymore.
And one more thing I've been meaning to say for weeks but always forget... how is the lock-on so bad? Why does it seem like it prioritizes my own summons over the enemies? 99.9% of the time I do NOT want to lock on to the rock I placed somewhere! I'm actually unhappy that when Tri levels up, some summons become cheaper because the last thing I want is more entities to lock on to!
Super Robot Wars V. Just hit the first hard split on the story where I could stay with the super edgy Cross Ange plot, alongside Gundam 00 and Fullmetal Panic
Or, go along with the Nadesico and the super silly Mightgaine, alongside several UC timeline Gundams.
I chose the latter.
Did someone type the magic words to summon me? 😆 I've commented that I love this series in the past but I don't think I've mentioned how deep I am into it with... 38 games beaten according to my notes.
So yeah, if you want to know more about the series just ask me.
If you have any interest in giant robot media, or tokusatsu stuff, or enjoy tactical RPGs with tons and tons of characters, it's the game for you. I'm really enjoying SRW V, but I'm not sure it's the best place to start with, given how many of it's mecha crossovers start at their "late stage" and kinda assume you're familiar with the source material. I'm pretty familiar with the Gundams but some of the other shows I was a bit lost about, such as Nadesico and Fullmetal Panic. Then again, V is one of the most popular recent games.
Every game in the franchise is independent from one another, though, and they all explain all the basics you need to understand the plot. Just pick the one with the robots/shows you think are the coolest.
Paper Mario TTYD is my holiday season nostalgia game. I got it for Christmas when it first came out on Gamecube, and I started playing it every year since COVID winter 2020. And now I can enjoy it in all its remastered glory on Switch, so that's pretty cool.
Feels to me like the developer could not quite figure out what they wanted to do with this VN and just tried adding a bit of everything, but the end result is a very average game with nothing really strong or memorable.
It spends most of its runtime on the romance, but the chemistry between the two leads is not strong enough to carry the game, and while there are some interesting twists and themes those aren't explored properly.
There's one neat feature at least: You can enable two languages at the same time, which can be useful for people learning japanese. I've seen VNs before where you can switch between languages with a button, but this is the first time I've seen something like this.
Resumed this game after Qualia, but didn't get much progress this week. It's quite good so far, I really like the way it's deailing with the theme of disabilities and the overall relaxing slice-of-life feel of the story.
Current side-game, a classic G-Rev shooter. Really hard, and the heli controls can take a while to get used to, but what a great game. Unfortunately only available in Japan right now, so you either have to get it from the japanese eShop or import the physical version.
Vampire Survivor? No, I ended up taking a break this week.
imported the physical?
For this particular game I got the physical version from amazon.co.jp. I've been buying a lot from there, because there's a few interesting games that only get physical releases on Japan/Asia, but also because a lot of Switch games are multi-language and for less popular games it's often easier or cheaper for me to get them from that site.
Forgot to mention on the post above but IIRC Under Defeat is getting a western release sometime in 2025, no need to import it unless you're like me and can't wait.
Do you have a Japanese e-shop account
I also do have an account there. 😀
It got it because of a VN I was really interested that for some reason is only available in Japan digitally, but I've also used it to redeem free codes with extra stuff on some physical games I bought from there.
So far it's been amazing. Its like being in an Indiana movie, and still being in control. Plus you get to beat up baddies!
There is also SO MUCH content (and I have only traveled to two locations!). Totally engaging.
You can expect Indiana dry/wry humor and all. It is all there.
IMO worth every $. (I'm a PC gamer first, it's a shame it wont come out on PS5 until next year, not that I have one. It will never come out on Switch, there is no way it could handle it).