Crazy numbers. I couldnt have been more wrong thinking it was sent out to die.

I can't see their focus changing that much in the short term. They seem pretty set in their ways at the moment, and with the Xbox brand imploding, there's no real competition to push for change.

The year of JRPGs continues. After finishing Pokemon, I decided to start a Ys game. I've never played one before and it is a game that is on my PS4 2024 pledge list. I was originally going to play through Ys VIII but seeing as darksnowman was playing this one, I figured I would join in on the fun. How did my first experience with the Ys series go? Not bad but not amazing either. The game certainly has a budget feel to it, especially when you compare it to other PS4 JRPGs but then this is what Falcom are known for (AA type games) and how they continue to operate and churn them out. It's not quite at the levels of the Tales of games but also not as low budget as some indie JRPGs. I quite enjoyed the city you get to explore in. It was a nice size which meant I wasn't getting lost all the time. I also liked how it gradually opens up to you as the game goes on. Having new areas gated off until certain events occur made me appreciate and learn the areas I was currently allowed to explore in, before opening up the next. It's a problem a lot of open world games have where there is simply too much to take in early on and it can become overwhelming. Not the case here.  Traversal around the city and dungeons was super fun once you unlocked all the abilities. Running up walls, swinging from rooftops and gliding to new places was all very satisfying. However, later on in the game it starts fencing you off with the wall running. Structures and cliffs start having ledges at the very top, meaning you are stopped in your tracks from getting there. This means you are constantly having to look for long ways around the area. It's as if the developers realised that they had given you abilities that were too OP and then needed to nerf them to stop you from blitzing areas. The characters were enjoyable enough, if a little generic. Hawk was my fav of the bunch, mainly because he played the moody guy with a chip on his shoulder. I stuck with Adol, Hawk and White Cat through most of the game. Being the ones that joined my team first always makes it hard to drop when others arrive.  One of the characters is a straight up rip off of Rudy from Wild Arms. Just look at them both.   Trophy wise, there was a nice mix on offer. Having to learn and max every skill with every character, reach level 99, make everyone's ultimate gear, complete every map 100%, bwat Boss Rush mode, find every treasure chest in the game....certainly lots to do. I also had to complete the game on Nightmare difficulty. You can do this from the start but I opted to do a 100% run on an easier difficulty and then play through it again on Nightmare on NG+, carrying over all my gear and stats. This meant 2 play throughs were required but it seemed quicker to a second critical path run with maxed out stuff than to struggle on at a higher difficulty from the start. There was a trophy for each character in the game that required me to play as them for 5 hours each. This was a bit of a pain as I generally only used Adol. It's one that I had to grind out by leaving the PS5 running while I was asleep, hence the platinum unlocking as soon as I got up for work at 5am. By all accounts this is one of the weaker Ys games. I didn't hate the experience, just found it to be pretty average. I would still like to play through some of the early ones as I love the look of the sprite work. The ones on the PSP look great but cost a pretty penny. I may invest at some point in the future. Oh, speaking of the older games, I see the bump mechanic was still present in this game.   And with that done, another game is crossed off the PS4 pledge list.

NHL 99
NA release: 1st October 1998 PAL release: 30th November 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: EA, MBL Research Publisher: EA Sports N64 Magazine Score:75% While we got plenty of versions of EA’s other sports on N64, but for hockey, this was the only one. EA’s NHL games on the Mega Drive were quite legendary, but for N64 it’s just another ice hockey game. This doesn’t feel particularly broken, but it also doesn’t do anything interesting or special. One issue with NHL 99 is the passing and the AI of your team – they’re awful at getting into positions, and passing can sometimes send the ball where you don’t intend, meaning the main tactic is to never pass and run at the goal when someone gets the puck. Wayne Gretzky remains the NHL champion. Remake or remaster? There’s better Ice Hockey games to focus on. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get NHL 99

Athenian Rhapsody - a seemingly very silly RPG grabbing aspects from Pokémon, Earthbound and Undertale - releases today on all major platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. Been following it on Steam a while now but totally missed that it got a release date at ID@Xbox a few weeks ago.  The game's Steam page currently seems to be the best place to find an elevator pitch for the game.  @Glen-i wanted to make sure that this was somewhere on your radar if it wasn't already