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I agree with the majority it seems. I prefer physical media still, although I’ve seen the positives to digital downloads over the past few years more and more. The subscription services still have so many potential flaws & issues for the future that it’s still a worry now dominantly they’re being used. Watching the speedrunning community tackle older games at Awesome Games Done Quick this week have reminded me that Other things subscription services would spoil the opportunity for games to be enjoyed in alternate ways in the future. Many of these games have to be played on their native consoles, often on cart but of course can be played using the digital version on the host console. Removing games from being played in the future removes these opportunities. Sorry, back to Sea of Stars discussion!

Right?! I've tried to read up reasons for/against using certain controllers when playing Smash for a while now, but this is certainly the most succinct and persuasive reasoning I've seen for using a GameCube controller, so I'm convinced – thanks Glen! It's also one of those where I guess while things like feel and the specifics of frames and animations will be tweaked between games, being able to hop in with a GC controller anywhere from Melee onwards sounds super helpful, rather than needing to re-learn things on certain controllers, and saves needing to learn things on newly released controllers with their potential tweaks, even if only minor (like if the Switch 2 Pro Controller ends up with a proper D-pad). No worries! Well, this hurts to read I totally get it, though, and I imagine I'd probably not have been too keen on certain new mechanics had I played older Smash games prior to Brawl, which in hindsight gives me a good chuckle (like, tripping? Really? Was Sakurai entering his masochist arc or something?). Love Subspace Emissary (some strange decisions like number of players) and that Main Theme, though! I skipped Smash 4 not having a Wii U and not really getting much use out of my 3DS during its lifetime, but coming back to Smash with Ultimate missing trophies still hurts me deeply. I know the focus was elsewhere (what they did with the size of the roster, number of stages, and sheer absurdity of the soundtrack was insane), and that it would've taken a lot of time, but having anyone return and then add dream characters and awesome assist trophies who don't get a chance to have their own Smash trophies feels so strange. Even more so with how some of the game's trailers placed an emphasis on the roster being trophies! It's bad to say this, but I'd gladly pay full price for a Smash Ultimate DX on Switch 2 with trophies added and just a couple of new characters. I loved those things, and for an entire generation of kids with their respective first Smash game, it can be such a great introduction into the scope, variety and history of gaming, especially for someone young or new to the Nintendo ecosystem; so, so, so many of the games I want to play on older Nintendo systems are games Brawl put in my head, like with Ike and the Path of Radiance trophies, or the awesome Metroid trophies, and of course the Zelda ones (Wind Walker ones I was especially big on). I spent countless hours looking through and reading every description of those things

My next Gamecube adventure has been decided. This is another game that I have fond memories of playing in multiplayer with my friends. It's also the console Zelda game I have played the least. I've only ever played it the once and that was nearly 20 years ago. I honestly don't remember a thing about it. It's like playing a completely new Zelda game. I've finished the first world this morning and rescued the first maiden. I love all the callbacks to A Link to the Past. The music, setting, sound effects, all of them are like a love letter to that game. Some of the puzzles early on have been great. There was a room that had a couple of doorways and no way across to the bottom one. You had to shoot an arrow out of the room and off the GBA screen and allow it to go outside and hit the switch. Simple but satisfying. I'm obviously playing it in single player mode and it plays really well. You hit a button to switch your formations, another to seperate them and a GBA screen appears on the TV when you enter a building. It all works great. I thought the Force Gems you collect were just part of the multiplayer mode but completely forgot they are needed to break the barriers at the end of each stage. On the 2nd stage I was short of them and to rewind time to collect more. I thought this meant I had to go through the whole dungeon again but once I had collected 2000 I was instantly teleported back to the exit. Nice. Looking forward to playing some more of this old/new Zelda game.

If there's one thing I hate more than the Brinstar Depths stage, it's the Brinstar Depths stage when random select has given me Incineroar. Nothing too crazy this time, I'm trying to make stages that are a bit more normal in terms of layout. Not sure how long that will last.

It's cool, man. I like Brawl better then Melee. Hell, Melee is my least favourite Smash. The single player offerings are lame compared to more modern Smash, and it doesn't have the benefit of being weird and different like 64. That's not to say it's bad, Melee is still a great game, but the character balance is really dreadful. There's a vast gap between the top 7 or so characters and everyone else. So it gets a bit homogeneous in multiplayer. Yes, Brawl does have Meta Knight, who is insanely OP, but remove him from the equation and you can play most of the Brawl roster and still have a decent chance of winning. A gentleman's agreement to not use MK, and you'll have fun with Brawl. Brawl is a bit floaty, but it does have the greatest single player mode in Subspace Emissary. We'll likely not get the scope of that mode in Smash for a long time. For good reason, yes. But Ultimate has a decent chunk to do with World of Light, spirit battles, and character specific Classic Routes. It's a good compromise considering the miracle roster it has.

Kamiya has chimed in on the situation: Found that funny as heck Anyways, agreed with everyone: this sucks. The NG+ stuff doesn't bother me too much, but of course things like the Sujimon and exclusive bonus dungeon really does, and I'm curious to see how that bonus dungeon is handled as it's not really detailed – is it additional story stuff or just a place to grind? While it sucks, considering that Like a Dragon has "only" sold 1.5 million units as of the end of month, I can see why, if this were a smaller studio, things like this end up being done - not that it's okay, but sometimes it's just how it goes. But a SEGA-published title, already starting to milk a franchise for all that it's worth off the back of "only" 1.5 million units sold of this upcoming game's predecessor? For all of the platforms that Yakuza is on now, while it's awesome that the franchise has blown up, I'd argue there's still a long way to go (and I think this series can get there) before you can start pulling things off like this in a similar way to what they've done with Persona 5. It still feels like it's on an upwards trajectory and I think they need to tread carefully, because these games rely SO heavily on word of mouth that pissing off your core audience could have ramifications if I continue this with future games and take the content divide between editions further (which, unfortunately, seems likely). Cosmetic stuff, fine. Optional cards/whatever in side content to speed things up/customise further, fine-ish (feels kind of like a mobile game at that point). But bonus content, which kind of feels like it's stuff being taken away from people buying the game at anything but those premium tiers, rather than additional stuff being added? It's disgusting.

Finally received my replacement KHS-400C laser on Friday, tried to see if I could get by removing the anti-static solder without a soldering iron as I had read that a heated up flathead would do the trick – last night I found out it did not, best I could do was flatten it a bit, but not get the solder to its melting point Ordered a cheaper soldering iron which arrived this morning, instantly got rid of the blob with little faff, put my PS2 back together after cleaning as much as I reasonably could of the inside and...it worked! I've just booted up Dino Crisis which was able to get past that screen it was getting stuck on before (win), and skipped some cutscenes to open up the menu which opens and closes pretty much instantaneously without any attempts by my TV to adjust the resolution – so @Hero-of-Time I can confirm it works well for those pesky changing menu resolutions on PS1 games the "dialogue box" text in the menu looked a little squashed to me, but the sub-menus looked fine, so I've checked and turns out that that's just the way the menu looked Also, man those tank controls are certainly going to take a minute to get used to when I get around to some of these PS1 games wouldn't be surprised if I find myself needing to lower the difficulty on some of those just to get by. Unrelated to my PS2, went back to Vintage Gamer yesterday, this time with some friends – easily the busiest I've seen it in the three times I've gone this month. My friends loved it and both picked up ~10 games (and were pleasantly surprised by the prices), and the manager even pulled out a box of some of the rarer items he had hidden away to see if we were interested – my friends hadn't heard of any of these, which was funny to see some great stuff in there like Legend of Dragoon, that DS game with Tingle, Suikoden IV (I'm holding out to pick up V physically myself, as I already have IV digitally on my PS3), Puppeteer, Ducktales Remastered...but the only game which tempted me a bit in any serious way was 3D Dot Game Heroes; it's one of those games I had on my long spreadsheet of games in the PS3 tab I made way back in 2017 when doing a full head-first dive into researching systems and games I'd one day be interested in checking out. I looked up how much it goes for on eBay (where I've found it shows up fairly infrequently, at least the PAL release) and it's ~£60 at the moment, but considering that I have enough games in my backlog, likely won't prioritise it any time soon and because it slipped my mind when starting to write a list recently of retro games I wanted to pick up in anticipation of the Birmingham Gaming Market in April, made the probably sensible decision to just let it lie. Maybe some other time! In fact, that's generally how the trip went for me: saw a couple of games which piqued my interest, but nothing really pulled me in. I'll probably give it a few months to let stock refresh, but I did pick up one game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I love Brawl, and it's easily one of my most-played games of all-time, getting a copy back when we got our family Wii back in 2010 for Christmas. Fun fact no-one asked for: we only had the Wiimotes and Nunchuks for our Wii, meaning I ended up playing Brawl exclusively with a horizontal Wiimote, and while I get by fine in Ultimate playing against my brother every now and then with the Pro Controller, my muscle memory for the horizontal Wiimote far exceeds that of the Pro Controller, and in fact has probably been my main obstacle in playing Ultimate more – I can't transition from using directional input to jump to using a dedicated button! Anyways, the family copy remains at my parents' house, so figured I'd pick this up for nostalgia's sake, and also because we're thinking of doing a day at some point of playing Wii games, so this just seems essential if I don't end up just bringing my Switch and Ultimate along, that is, but then we have a potential controller issue on our hands, and I'd feel bad playing with a Pro Controller while my friends had Joy-Cons...maybe

Blast Corps JP release: 21st March 1997 NA release: 24th March 1997 PAL release: 22nd December 1997 Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 88% This game takes a silly concept and just has a ton of fun with it. The story is simple: there is a nuclear missile being transported on an automated truck. The truck malfunctions and heads to a location in a straight line. If it collides with anything, it will explode. Your mission is to destroy everything in its path. I played this game as a kid but never got far due to the difficulty, but gave it a proper play a few years ago via Rare Replay and loved it. It was great giving it another blast for this. At its core, Blast Corps is an action-puzzle game. You have a limited time to destroy everything in the missile’s path (the game will highlight vital buildings), but while it starts off as simply ramming into everything, the game will introduce new elements in the way of different vehicles, using TNT for large buildings and also filling up gaps. Some levels are straightforward, while others will require you to explore the level to find the vehicles you need to proceed. The vehicles have a massive variety, with cars, weaponised bikes, dump trucks, various mechs and some with specific uses – such as the Sideswipe which shunts panels sideways or the Skyfall, which has a sturdy undercarriage that requires you to use jumps to land on buildings from above. Some of them – like cars and trains – aren’t used for damage, but more to solve puzzles and to get between different vehicles. Then there’s the Backlash. A dump truck that is the most difficult vehicle to use. When ramming, it does very little damage, instead, it causes damage by hitting stuff with the rear end – but reversing is too slow. You need to use its “slide” ability to drift the back of the truck into buildings, which is extremely difficult to get to grips with. I did get competent enough to get through the game, but I still didn’t enjoy it as much as other vehicles. Once you’ve cleared a path and beaten a level for the first time, you can return to complete the remaining objectives. With no timer, this part of the game is a welcome relaxation to contrast the frantic main mission. You need to demolish other buildings (the game claims you are rescuing survivors), activate little light bacons and search for beacons to unlock bonus missions. You also need to scour some of the levels for hidden scientists. One this is over, the game isn’t over. You can now try to unlock medals. The levels are restored and now you have to try and beat them as quick as possible (although the time from the first playthrough counts, so you don’t need to do it again if you were already fast enough), which unlocks a few bonus challenges across different planets. Blast Corps is immensely fun to play and there really hasn’t been anything like it since. It took a fun, simple concept and did a lot with it, focusing on the gameplay and enjoyment. There hasn’t been anything quite like it since it game out, and that’s a massive shame. While you can get the game on Rare Replay, Blast Corps definitely deserves a spruced up remaster. Remake or Remaster? A remaster would be great. Widescreen, some control options, framerate improvements and a few graphical touches. Perhaps include a “easy” option for the Backlash. A new game would also be lovely. Official ways to get the game. This is available via Rare Replay on Xbox One/Series.

I've finally finished Kirby Air Ride. 100% cleared. It was tough but I didn't want to shame myself and use any of the free purple squares. Took some doing though. The Jet, Rocket and Turbo Stars are a nightmare to handle and a lot of the time trials that I needed to finish required me to use them. With me needing a new TV, I also had to pick up a HDMI adapter for the Gamecube to work on it. I went with Kaico's product as a stop gap until the Rad2X is avaliable. I thought the visuals looked awful and very jaggy but then I turned off the line doubling option and everything smoothed out nicely. There are a bunch of other options on it but I have no idea what they do and so I'm not faffing with them. Very happy I can play Gamecube games again and with the original hardware this time as opposed to just using my Wii.

One of my favourite levels in FSA. Having a group of people all wander around the place trying to figure out what needs to be done. And there's always that one person whose like "Nah, I haven't found anything" while they're sneakily pocketing all the Force Gems they just stumbled upon... Screw all those Zelda HD remasters people keep asking for! Gimme an online version of this game! It'd be amazing!

Just completed the Village of the Blue Maiden stage in Four Swords Adventures. What a fun level. There's very little combat but the puzzles were great. Working out how to get rid of the line of people, finding a way to jump the gap so I could get the spell book, figuring out how to dig up the Force Gems, all great puzzles. Lovely stuff. Remember when Zelda had good level design?

Pfft, he's not that hard... Who needs Mia anyway!?

You're an artful dodger!

Doesn't surprise me that Kamiya would be outspoken about this situation. He left Platinum Games for this exact reason; he doesn't want to work on GAAS games that are focused on carving themselves up and being sold piecemeal. Anyway, this move doesn't surprise me in the slightest. SEGA/Atlus have been doing this sort of thing with most of their games for quite some time now (I mean, this is the publisher that is so desperate that they actually took out menu animations in Sonic Origins to sell seperately).

Thanks for checking, @Julius. Brawl is probably my least played Smash game. I remember being super hyped for it and even imported a copy and bought the Freeloader disc to play it. Me and my friends bounced off it pretty hard though. It wasn't a patch on Melee and once we had unlocked all the characters we were pretty much done with it. I wouldn't mind revisiting it some day to see how I fare with it now.

For what it's worth, I think it (Tap Jump) sucks too. I turn it off immediately. Messes with me whenever I want to just attack upwards without jumping. I do recommend a GameCube style controller for Smash though. It is an analogue game, after all. The most important button, A, is the easiest to hit, and the second most important, Y, is just above it for jumping needs. It's weird to think that it works so well, despite it being originally designed for an N64 controller, but it just does! Helps that the control stick is immensely high quality on the GC controller. Makes modern sticks look flimsy in comparison.

Oh yeah, that's how I typically get by in Ultimate, to clarify: my issue is that the stick feels waaaaaaaaaay worse (to me, just based on so much with the Wiimote) to jump with than the D-pad, as a little nudge in the wrong direction just messes up what I'm trying to do (diagonal jumps I find can be especially hit and miss). I guess it just feels like my odds of messing up are much greater with the stick flicks. It's got me thinking that maybe I should just future proof my Smash experience by committing to the GameCube controller, to be honest Oh yeah, I've soldered plenty before (thankfully, otherwise I'm not sure I would've been as keen) as I took Product Design as an option back in high school – but it was my first time in a while! I think I was more worried about my apartment not being quite as well set up to deal with a potential fire somehow breaking out as a dedicated crafting classroom I hated feeling the rush of soldering again, as it kind of makes me want to find more excuses to do it in a more regular basis and put this kit to task

Great job fixing that PS2 @Julius. Soldering isn't nearly as scary as it looks and once you've done it for the first time, you realise that it's actually pretty easy and simple for the most part

You can still do this in Ultimate, granted it's a stick flick upwards to jump. That's on by default.

It's surprising that nobody else has ripped this game off. It's such a simple concept that's immediately understanding and appealing. You could even be super cynical and fill it full of gangsters, hookers and cops chasing after you; with pedestrians that you can also mow down... kids would love it! But then again... you'd have to actually be talented to make good level design that would be fun, and good level design is hard; so maybe that's why it has never happened?

Four Swords Adventures is great! Though obviously better in multiplayer, as that's what the game was really built around, the single player experience is great too. It's the perfect bite-sized Zelda experience that's perfect for when you don't want to commit to a longer game; but you can just as easily binge-play all the stages to the end too. It's the most versatile Zelda game ever made (Also both Shadow Battle and Tetra's Trackers kick arse! Amazing party game experiences that are well worth tracking down four GBAs and four link cables for!)

Yeah when it started me and @Glen-i were a bit dubious and was waiting for the inevitable gimmick. Was still a great little stage though, sometime less is more. Anyway great matches, I think I only won one match and that was on a custom stage in the beginning. Some great close matches happening though.

Bought an SD2SP2 pro and one of those Action Replay SD card loaders a few days ago. Had a few problems with SD card formats but i eventually ended up installing swiss and cleanrip onto them. Currently ripping my Gamecube collection onto an SD card. Also installed the Gameboy interface so i can run the Gameboy Player without the disc. Looks alot clearer than what it did with the disc in too.

Golden Sun 1 done! Anyway, my clear data for The Lost Age is ready to go. In case you can't be bothered to type in a 260 character password, I'm willing to let others use the NSO online features to use my clear data to start The Lost Age. Honestly, it's the best file you could ever ask for. Default names for all characters Everyone at a reasonable level of 28-29. Not too high, not too low All 28 Dijinn A whole bunch of stat-boosting items unused for your discretion Same goes for Water of Lifes, Psy Crystals, and Potions All the equipment that are still viable, even during The Lost Age's endgame, right there in the inventory. Yes, even the boots and undershirts No Psynergy granting items skipped. (Orb of Force, etc.) Every event that gets you extra scenes in The Lost Age unlocked Give me a shout during the weekend if you want me to give it to you. That said, if you can't wait until I'm available... ...Seriously, just use the Link cable...

Thanks for the games. Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - N-Europe Saturday Smash! (20/01/2024) - - - - -

Played and platinumed Tinykin again (PS4 version). Loved it. It was a much breezier playthrough now that I knew where all the tricky bits of pollen were hiding.

You can't have a Golden Sun playthrough without being very immature and posting this classic.

Finally got around to listing what I played last year. As usual, the PS4/PS5 were my preferred way to play my games. There was a lot of usage from PS+ this year, with me often playing through games twice to get the double platinum. There were also a lot of games that I replayed thanks to some of them getting free PS5 upgrades. Looking through the list, I actually didn't buy that many games and the ones I did buy this year were often during a sale. Games that I paid full price for were... Pikmin 4 Kirby's Dream Land DX Pikmin HD Super Mario Wonder Super Mario RPG Remastered Metroid Prime Remastered Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Gargoyles Remastered Baten Kaitos Remastered Fire Emblem Engage Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Advance Wars Remastered Grim Guardians Frogun As you can see, a lot of them are on the Switch and this is because there is no real benefit to waiting as most of the time they stay full price anyway. I did drop a few of them though. These were Advance Wars Remastered, Fire Emblem Engage, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and Baten Kaitos Remastered. I wasn't feeling any of them at the time and so ditched them to play other games.

ISS isn't even the next football game in my list (but it's not long after that). Turok: Dinosaur Hunter PAL release: 4th March 1997 NA release: 4th March 1997 JP release: 30th May 1997 Developer: Iguana Publisher: Acclaim N64 Magazine Score: 91% The Nintendo 64’s first first person shooter is in some ways what you would expect from first person shooters in the early N64 days – something along the lines of Doom and Quake, but focusing a bit more on movement. I played this as a child but never got far, even using cheats I never quite understood what I was supposed to be doing. That’s because Turok isn’t just a shooter: it’s a platformer game where you have to find collectables. The version I’m playing is the remaster of the game – it still has the look and feel of the N64 game, but with a few improvements, the biggest one being fog. Due to the detail of the original game, the render distance was extremely low, so fog was added to hide the lack of level. The PC version moves the fog much further away – it doesn’t remove it completely as the levels were designed with the fog in mind, so you’d just see all the broken geometry the fog was removed completely. Even with the increased view, navigating the levels isn’t easy. They’re very maze-like and you get warped between different parts, with no reference point to help you get your bearings. It doesn’t help that the levels have little graphical variety within them. You’ll need to scour these levels in order to find keys to unlock later levels, so most of the game will be ambling around, fighting respawning enemies. The gunplay, at least, it a lot of fun, with a great variety of weapons and lots of different enemies. The story (which you’re not told at all in the game) involves an area of space where things from the past and future exist, so while you start killing tribesmen and dinosaurs, you’ll work up towards aliens, robots and dinosaurs with guns. Enemies to become more bullet sponges as you progress, though, so you need to use more ammo. Movement is an important part of Turok and it provides a great sense of speed. You run around and jump in a very fluid way. For navigating the main parts of the levels, it’s a lot of fun, but then you reach the many platforming segments of the game, and it all fall down (or you will at least, a lot). The movement feels great when there’s leeway, but it doesn’t feel precise enough for jumping on the many pillars the game requires you to jump on – and with the game’s checkpoint system, some of these jumps can be a good distance away from the last one. Turok was definitely great when it came out, but I can’t really recommend it now. but it is a game well worth remembering. It has a lot of flaws, but the flaws are also what make the game unique. Turok is very much a product of its time, but is also a piece of gaming history, especially with environments that are much more 3D than previous first person shooters. Remake or Remaster? The Nightdrive remaster is exactly what Turok needed. Official ways to get the game. The faithful remaster of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is available on GOG, Steam, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

Wrapped up my first game of the year last night... Chrono Trigger | 1995 I talked about Chrono Trigger extensively the last time I played it back at the start of 2020, and long story short, well, reading it back I agree with everything I wrote back then, so I guess if you want a long, thought out write-up from me on the game, it's already out there Instead, I want to spend this time highlighting the little things I picked up on that I didn't really speak to last time. This time around I played the game on TV for the first time via my docked Steam Deck, which was a transformative experience for the most part. Hearing those themes blast out of my TV and not needing to look down at a small DS or 3DS screen felt much more appropriate for a game of this scale and grandeur. There were a few minor hiccups throughout, with things like audio issues and getting stuck on the geometry of the pixel art happening one too many times to go unspoken about, but it in no way became an obstacle to my enjoyment. There are small tweaks to minor issues like those, though, which I'd like to see for an eventual - I hope - release on current platforms...perhaps in time for the 30th anniversary of the game next year? To dive right in, one of the crowning achievements of Chrono Trigger is its brevity - playing through to the normal ending with all sidequests completed took me a bit shy of 19 hours - in a genre known for getting carried away and stacking hour after hour to your playtime, and what really struck me on this playthrough is just how brief every type of interaction in the game is. Combat is fast and reactive, even on this playthrough using Wait rather than Active (just to see if it changed how I got on with it) it was going along at a much faster clip than many of its modern contemporaries; dungeons and the like are incredibly short and easy to navigate, just a few screens save for some late game areas, and you're often in and out in the course of 15-20 minutes, with a major story beat has typically playing out in that time; and it's very rare that you spend longer than 30 seconds at a time on the World Map screen between locales, which has you consistently moving from one beat to the next. Conversations and quick talks with random NPCs aren't long and meaningless button-mashing sessions, with such interactions kept lean and often to limited to three or less text boxes, but they often add so much value to the game, whether it be something to ponder over, chuckle about, or pointing you in the right direction - which is exactly what I want to talk about next. A whole lot of this game's brilliance is down to how much faith and trust it places in the player, but also how it balances with not being afraid of telling you the fastest route from A to B. One of the best examples of this is that there are numerous times throughout the game where an NPC will clue you in on an enemy or boss weakness or nuance ahead of going into their respective dungeon, with one of the best examples of this being an NPC in the Middle Ages hinting that the wooden hammer-wielding Ogan in the Denadoro Mountains are cowards without their weapons, a very direct and obvious suggestion to use a Fire-based attack. Fights against the hammer-wielding variants of Ogan could take a while without this knowledge, as their hammer offers extra resistance to attacks, and this information is gained simply by following the typical general advice in a JRPG - especially of the time - to talk to anyone and everyone you come across, and an additional hint in case you come across these enemies without talking to that NPC is that there are also Ogan you'll encounter without the hammer, clearly nudging you in the direction of needing to wanting to do something about their big and brutish splintered mallets. This in turn reinforces the need to talk to anyone and everyone - similar to Dragon Quest's excellent job of getting you to ransack every place you come across in the search for items, because valuable ones are out there to be found - which in turns leads to interesting side tangents, humourous moments, little details about the world, and you're usual NPC-talking affair, but the key difference being the efficiency with which it is conveyed. This level of trust but also direct communication throughout the game about what and when you need to do something shaves valuable time off the game, I think, saving players from dragged out sessions; I genuinely think this game would be 5-10 hours longer if they took a similar approach to other games of that period, which either wanted you to rely on a guide or to simply try things out in an aimless manner. This also carries through to boss fights, where there can often be a lot of moving parts, but weaknesses and what the game wants you to do often feels very clear even against the tougher bosses - and if you do find yourself trying things out, the game very quickly corrects your course in a fast and heavy-handed way, such as by having that part of a boss immediately counter or by hinting at the order you should take parts of the boss out in by clearly telegraphing that this hand heals, or that leaving both hands of the boss around can result in disaster. The developers clearly and simply didn't care if you found the game easy, because you'd earned the knowledge required to push ahead, and its in this way that they respect your time and that, in turn, Chrono Trigger gains your respect. There is a sense of humility on show by some of Japan's best and brightest creators of the 20th century which I think few other games and creatives dare to even consider matching. The side quests - the main ones of which are left to the end of the game, with each party member getting a sizeable focus - are absolutely brilliant, too. Why should you deviate from the main path so close to the end of the game to complete these quests? Why, for important character moments and progression, and some of the best gear in the game, of course! It's yet another way in which your time is being respected, and its in all of these little ways that there are these constant value-adds throughout the game: you're rewarded, in some form or another, by doing as much as you can, without it ever becoming a slog. And then, well, there's just the usual stuff to praise which I talked about last time. Awesome ensemble of characters. Arguably the greatest soundtrack ever composed for a game (and if not, it is firmly in the conversation, and spawned the career of a legendary composer still active in the industry today, nearly 30 years later). A combat system with appropriate depth should you want to dive in, but it's totally optional, as no particular trio of characters or set of gear feels like it's ever going to hold you back. A tear-jerking, chills-inducing story with an amazing message just as important today as it was back when the game launched, and will be decades from now when I'm on my 20th playthrough, and beyond when I'm long gone. There is simply a peace and tranquility offered to the handling of heavier topics in this game, such as the idea of death and the passing of time, which this game bestows that no other game, or film, or book I've ever come across has been able to communicate, in the kindest but most honest, communicative and understanding matter-of-fact way; almost as if a parent speaking to a child. I'm so glad I revisited Chrono Trigger to remind myself that, yes, everything that I remembered about it and more holds true: this game is a timeless, and always timely-to-experience, masterpiece - far and long ahead of its time - in every sense of the word.

I still have little time to game, but I have managed to reach 200 (out of currently 252) achievements in Halls of Torment. One of the many horde survival roguelites out there. It's a lot of fun even if it's still in early access. It lets you aim your attacks and comes with equipment that increase stats or give other bonuses (like summon a skeleton to fight for you every 15 seconds). Bought it last year for 4€ and it's been a good investment and a lovely game to play on the Steam Deck in bed at night I consider it "finished" for my list, but I will definitely keep playing this, especially with more updates on the horizon. Managed to get a few minutes of playtime with A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well, last night. Currently in chapter 2 and it's not too bad. I obviously don't like the "if you're caught you're immediately dead" stealth sections but everything else is quite good. Amicia's and Hugo's relationship, the atmosphere, the mystery, the world. Everything plays off of each other. I took today off from work because I have a pretty bad headache. I hope it gets better soon so I can play more, but right now posting and reading stuff is all I can do

@RedShell's reaction to people not liking Stray.

King of Pro Baseball JP release: 20th December 1996 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Genki Publisher: Imagineer N64 Magazine Score: 68% Original Name: Chōkūkan Naitā Puro Yakyū Kingu Hey batter batter…or something. Baseball is a sport I know very little about, although the basic rules seem pretty simple to figure out, and quite similar to a sport I’ve played in school called Rounders. Hit the ball, run around the bases. If the ball ends up at a base before you do, you’re out. The N64’s first baseball game (of many) also happens to be a Japanese-only game. The basic controls are simple to figure out, but difficult to master. The batter controls a cursor on the screen and swings to hit the ball. Your aim has to be extremely precise, though, and it’s extremely difficult. I only managed to hit it a few times. Pitching is very simple, though: move the stick to control a invisible cursor, if you’re too far off course, the pitcher will shake his head. Fielding I found to be quite slow, while the CPU was spot-on (they caught everything I hit). Once you figure out selecting players, it isn’t too bad, but I still had the issue with the CPU being absolutely perfect. King of Pro Baseball doesn’t have a lot of modes, but it does have an immense amount of options, which weren’t something I could really play around with due to having to use Google Translate and then not understanding Baseball terminology. I did get the impression that this was a decent baseball game and the basic pitching/batting were intuitive. Remake or Remaster? I don’t know enough about sports games to know what is worth doing with this. Official ways to get the game. There is currently no official way to get King of Pro Baseball.

Yeah, @Hero-of-Time is right, Krusty said it best. BTW, H-o-T, I checked the trophy list, you played through the game two and a half times!? Anyway, Krusty may be right, but I'm gonna explain why. Chrono Cross is a PS1 turn-based RPG that released in 2000 in America. Yep, Europe would have to wait until 2022, when the Radical Dreamer's Edition came out for the Switch, PS4, and XBox One. The more modern version improves the resolution, shortens loading times, and allows access to the feature that lets you speed up the game on your first playthrough (Thank god for that one!) As the name suggests, Chrono Cross is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, so it's already got the downside of being directly compared to one of the greatest RPG's ever made. The game follows Serge, a villager in the seaside town of Arni Village. On an errand for his childhood friend, he gets caught up in weird phenomenal lights and tidal waves, but gets through it without harm. Upon returning to Arni Village, he soon realises that he's stumbled into a parallel universe. In this parallel universe, Serge has been dead for 10 years. While trying to figure out why this has happened, he meets up with Kid, a feisty girl with an Australian accent, who claims to have an idea of what's going on, she promises to help if Serge assists her in getting the "Frozen Flame", a mythical treasure. She's not the only one chasing it, however. An anthropormophic panther, named Lynx, is also looking for the Flame, and seems to have an unusual fixation on Serge. Things get complicated... This plot, man. I suppose I should use a spoiler tag, but trust me, this plot is dreadful! And insulting, to boot. You're not helping yourself keeping it secret for a future playthrough. The plot is so bad that "Chrono Compendium", a website dedicated to figuring out the links between the Chrono games for the past 20 years, gave up on trying to figure out Chrono Cross, and declared it nonsensical after they read an interview with one of the writers prior to the 2022 remaster and realised it was mostly made up on the spot. I highly recommend clicking that link I provided just now. It's full of spoilers, naturally. But it goes into much more detail on all the massive plot holes Chrono Cross has. But here's a snippet that sums it up nicely. Thanks, I hate it! Unfotunately, the plot isn't the only confusing thing. The battle system tries is best to outdo it. I'd explain it, but honestly? I can't be bothered, it took me 25 hours just to get my head around it. Forget it. This game doesn't deserve the effort. The leveling system sucks as well. You only ever level up after beating a boss, which sounds like it cuts down on grinding, but you get stat boosts from random encounters after each level up, so you have to do around 10 battles to get the most out of each level anyway. I became very acquainted with the first area in the game. It sucks in Final Fantasy XIII, it sucks here. You know what else sucks? The fact that this game has 45 characters. Chrono Trigger has 7 playable characters, and all of them are useful. Chrono Cross has 45, and only 10 of them are any good! It's very easy to accidentally put effort into building up a character who is complete rubbish. Luckily, I had a guide to hand to tell me who I should focus on. Yes, I used a guide. I don't care. PS1 RPG's are amongst the worst for having impossible-to-find secrets, I have no regrets. It's not all awful, mind. The graphics are really impressive for a PS1 game, and the soundtrack is mostly really good as well. Silver linings, I guess. Chrono Cross not only fails to make a cohesive plot, but it also retroactively makes Chrono Trigger worse by association. Seriously, the plot was so bad, they had to add extra content to the DS version of Chrono Triggger to try and get Chrono Cross to make some sense. It didn't work. Play Radical Dreamers instead, it's way better.

Finished a bunch of games today. I enjoyed Lil Gator and Metal: Hellsinger so much that I went for double platinums and played them again. Next up, I played through Metal Gear 1 and 2. I've never played either of these, despite loving the series. I enjoyed both of them, with each of them showing signs of where the series would go. Metal Gear 2 is remarkably similar to Metal Gear Solid. Certain events, characters and places are pretty much what is seen in MGS. Holly is essentially Meryl, getting attacked in the elevator, climbing up a large amount of stairs, fighting a Hind D, plus more...all of these things take place in both games. The character art during codec calls is pretty similar to what we would end up with in MGS. Speaking of which, there's obviously no VA in the game but every line I read that came from Snake, all could hear is David Hayter's voice as I read along. I'm now looking forward to playing MGS. Its been a long time since I last played it. Lastly, I finally finished Kirby's Dream Buffet. It's taken over a year but its done. I bought this at launch and have been playing it on and off since then. The servers are pretty much dead but thankfully you can play against the AI. It's taken over 40 hours of racing to eventually reach the highest rank. It was a total grind but I wanted to fully complete it as I like to try and 100% Kirby games where I can.

After playing FFXVI, I was wanting a lighter experience and so picked up and played Lil Gator Game. Its been on my wishlist for a while now and it was finally on sale. What a charming game this is and an absolute joy to play. It reminded me very much of A Short Hike. In that game you get to explore an island and are able to progress further as you upgrade certain abilities. Same thing here. The narrative of the game is very touching and quite true to life. You play as a young sibling you wants his older sister to play with him and go on an adventure. She's too busy working on a college project and your character is too young to understand the responsibilities that occur when you are older. As the game progresses the lil gator realises that his sister still loves him and it's just that she has other things to take care of, but he still has the memories of time together when they were younger. In turn, the older sister learns that life can be stressful and it's sometimes best to put aside the adult in you and just have some fun. Lovely message. The gameplay side of things takes inspiration from BOTW and even references that and past Zelda games in some of the dialogue, which can be quite funny at times. You basically have to explore the island and try to get as many friends to help out with building a big Fort. To do this usually involves talking to them and helping them out with a mission. The island is large enough to have fun exploring but small enough where it isn't too daunting. Plus, the traversal is really fun, especially when you get to upgrade your stamina and float around with a glider. Yeah, really fun and charming game. I can see why Playtonic decided to publish this one. Look at that. @Glen-i here's another game we both enjoyed.

Digimon Survive is a Visual Novel/Strategy RPG game that released on Switch, PS4, and PC last year. Developed by Hyde, published by Namco, it's, as far as I'm aware, new ground for this series. Credit where it's due, Pokémon hasn't dipped it's toe into Visual Novels (It's done a strategy RPG, though. It's good). The game follows Takuma Momozuka, a secondary school student who, along with 5 other students, is on a historical studies extracurricular activities camp. He visits an unnamed village to study an old local temple that once was dedicated to the worship of "Kemonogami". However, a landslide has blocked access to that shrine. A local kid (Miu, on the right of that picture) shows two of the students another way to that shrine. Takuma and the other 3 notice this, and follow out of concern. They meet Miu's brother, Kaito, who's looking for her, and arrive at the Kemonogami shrine. Things go wrong, some kind of rock monster attacks the kids, and another landslide seperates them all. Takuma is followed by that same monster, and before Takuma meets an entirely premature end, he's saved by some kind of baby dinosaur called Agumon. Good to know He's not the only one, the rest of the students also meet up with various Kemonogami that insist on protecting them. Takuma and 2 other kids he reunited with quickly decide to go back to the school their camp is located in, only to find it completely dilapidated and abandoned. Naturally, this is very weird, so Takuma decides to try and find the other kids, and find out what the hell is going on with the help of Agumon and the other helpful Kemonogami. Man, talking about this game is an utter minefield of spoilers... If you're even remotely interested in this, avoid the following spoiler tag like the plague. Most of the gameplay consists of the Visual Novel aspect, you read dialogue (No English dub, so yeah, reading for me) and point and click all over the place. The choices you make can strengthen your affinity with other characters and can also affect one of three karma catagories that Takuma has; Harmonious, Wrathfulness, and Morality. Those karma catagories determine various things, such as what Agumon evolves into as you progress. Along the way, you'll inevitably be forced to fight hostile Kemonogami. This is where the Strategy RPG aspect comes into play, as you command the Kemonogami around the area to fight. It's not all fights, sometimes you have to protect something, or make a break for an escape point. There's a decent variety here. And the stuff you do in the Visual Novel sections can have an actual effect on the battles, both advantageous and disadvantageous. Note the word "Evolution". Trust me, that's proper weird. Positioning is important here. Attacking from the side or from behind is more effective, and attacking from higher places is also helpful. Having more then one Kenomogami near an enemy can activate chain attacks as well Wait, three different catagories of morality? A format that's more Visual Novel then Strategy RPG? Position based combat? My word, this is basically Triangle Strategy! I'm gonna assume it's a massive coincidence, giving the long development hell this game had. Don't misunderstand me though. Triangle Strategy does it better. The combat in Digimon Survive is servicable, but not overly complex. It does the job. And the Visual Novel part is the real star of the show anyway. Said visual novel aspect is not without faults though. The localisation gets a bit slapdash around the middle of the game. With more then a few typos. It gets back on track after that point, but it's very weird. What happens throughout is that a few of the Kemonogami keep getting referred to with different genders. The localisers couldn't seem to make up their mind on whether some of them were male or female. English localisation seems to be a constant afterthought with Digimon games (Cyber Sleuth was even worse in that regard). Namco don't seem to see value in it. And it's a real shame, because I really enjoyed the plot here. The visuals are really good! Characters are depicted with gorgeous spritework that blurs the line between sprite and 3D model. It's a very convincing illusion, and really heightens the quality there. I can't sing it's praises enough there. Some of the Kemonogami do still look really silly though The soundtrack is... well... that would be spoilers. It's very good though. Digimon Survive may not be quite as amazing as Triangle Strategy, and it's nowhere near my favourite game I played this year, but it's easily my surprise hit of the year. It's a bold direction for Digimon and I would honestly love for future games to follow its example. For the first time ever, I feel like Digimon has made steps to be something other then "that Pokémon copycat" with this game. It's truly special.

That is fucking freaky, my brother and I were saving up for a game (back in t'day) and the plan was to buy Turok, but we got Mario 64 instead.