Glen-i

Hey guess what? I disagree! I think both Octopath games are better then Triangle Strategy. Although Triangle Strategy is still excellent. But to actually answer @Julius's question. Yeah, Octopath II is the game to play if you're only playing one. But if you plan on getting both, you should play the first game first. The sequel has more polish and QoL to it that could make going back to the first game harder.

I don't know, but I can tell you one thing. The male trainer in the foreground is an idiot! His Chikorita is super dead! What are you doing!? Didn't I just explain why Mega Lucario is busted two weeks ago? I wouldn't even use a Meganium against it! Then again, I wouldn't use a Meganium, period. Because I'm good at battling. Anyway, apart from that, gorgeous box art! And it's nice to get more confirmation that battles are the focus this time, not boring landscapes. And no Charizard on this artwork as far as I can tell! Blimey! Actual restraint!? "OK, how's this?" "Sugimori, you fool! You didn't put Pikachu on it!" "But Pikachu is barely relevant in this game! I drew the starters and some Megas to go with it. Those are the focus, right?" "No! Last time we didn't put Pikachu in a game was Black and White, and it uber-bombed! Add Pikachu." And so Ken Sugimori reluctantly drew yet another bloody Pikachu, except he drew it very small, so no-one would actually notice it. The End.

Possibly. Both of the pinball games aren't on the apps, so I wouldn't be too surprised. On the other hand, the fact that those were in that "coming soon" lineup means I have no doubt those games aren't happening anytime soon, especially seeing as it's incredibly likely that Mario Smash Football will be the first game to be added post-launch. Maybe, depends on who takes care of the advertising. It might be the case that Lego want to do that themselves. No idea how it works there, though. Now, apart from Z-A, this is the one console related thing I'm actually sure will show up. It's possible that Champions could be how VGC happens in the future, and VGC is a big deal for TPC. Of course, I'm half expecting it to be microtransaction hell, because most spin-offs are these days. You already know the answer, going by the emoji. Shiren the Wanderer came out February last year. I'm not expecting anything PMD for at least a year. And amazingly enough, I'd be OK with that, because it'd mean it would be more likely to be made for Switch 2. Where have you been? It's been dire since the second half of the 3DS! You can blame Pokémon GO for that. But TPC have little interest in console spin-offs. They're still chasing the mobile Dosh. Anyway, that pretty much sums up what I think will turn up here. Z-A, Champions, TCG, and a load of mobile crap.

Geez, for a moment, I started to really question my sanity there. Because I know I played it with 3 other people here on NSO!

Look, I respect that game for doing what it does in 1991, but it's aged really badly.

At least half a million people desperate to finally get a life. Nicked from @Ugh first aid This having online play kinda tempts me. If I wasn't saving up for a Switch 2, I probably would've bit.

A couple of games for me to add. Various Daylife is a very stupid name for a game. It's also a turn-based RPG mixed with life management sim(?) aspects that originally released on Apple Arcade in 2019, before getting removed and then released on various consoles in 2022. It's developed by DokiDoki Groove Works alongside some of the key staff that worked on Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler (Hence the similar logo and artstyle). I played the Switch version thanks to Virtual Game Cards. The game follows a nameless schmo as he travels to the island of Antoecia, a mostly unexplored region where fellow colonists have established a fledgling city. Joining up with an expedition guild, it's up to Schmo to chart the island, get rid of dangerous beastmen, and find out what secrets the place hides. The majority of the game takes place in the city of Erebia. You spend each day taking up random jobs to get money and make the main character stronger. You need to do this, because you'll eventually have to go on expeditions to progress the plot, and that's where the RPG elements kick in. Traversal across the island is done automatically, with fixed encounters depending on the mission you've taken. The problem doesn't actually come from the enemies, it's the fact that as you travel, your max HP decreases, and the only way to get it back up is to eat food. Which makes it a real shame that the amount of items you can actually carry is extremely limited. So you need to be careful with your party setup and balancing food and healing items. The battle system utilises a lighter version of the Job system from Bravely Default, but the key mechanic is the "Cha" system. Every attack can inflict status effects, and if you successfully do so, you initiate a change. You can then go on to replace that status effect with a different one (That's called a "chain"), and replacing certain status effects with certain other ones will cause a "chance" attack will do massive damage dependant on how many chains you did before hand. Chance attacks are one of only two ways that you can inflict damage higher then 999, so it's your only reliable method to do decent damage. The thing is, sooner or later, the main protagonist's stats start getting massively higher then any other party member. He's the only one who gets stat boosts from doing jobs around the city, so battles will eventually boil down to the other three party members using abilities not to actually damage the enemy, but to buff the main protagonist as much as possible. Which kinda undermines that pretty neat battle system. Unfortunately, the game is pretty grindy. There aren't any microtransactions, but there are some obvious mobile fingerprints all over it. It feels very budget. Not the music, mind you, the music's amazing! Par for the course with games that Asano is involved with. So yeah, Various Daylife is OK. Probably wouldn't recommend buying it though. Streets of Rage 2 is a beat-em-up developed by Sega that first released on the Mega Drive in 1992. I played the one on the NSO Mega Drive app on the Switch. Set one year after the first game, Mr. X has somehow come back and recruited even more random gang members to take over the city. But this time, he's managed to kidnap one of the previous playable characters, Adam. It's OK though, Axel and Blaze have decided to be smart and bring way more back-up this time! Said back-up comes in the form of one steroid-infused muscleman, and a kid with roller blades. Eh, good enough. I don't think I need to explain how much of a beloved classic this game is for the Mega Drive. Despite that, I've never actually finished this game. The two reasons for that is that I'm generally not great at the genre, and with the exception of Shredder's Revenge, they're not much fun by yourself. But well, the NSO app has online multiplayer, so @S.C.G, who has played this game a lot, helped me out. But yeah, I see why so many Sega fans love this game. It's solid. Probably the best beat-em-up of it's time, actually. It does still suffer from some enemies being ridiculously hard to avoid attacks from, but having a second player to help split their attention really makes a difference. Music's also great too! Although, when the NSO app itself points out how good the soundtrack is, that's kind of a given. So that's a blind spot in games I've played done with. ...What's like Boo?

Right, Time format tonight. Custom stages from 7:30pm.

Hey, good memory! Then again, you provided the quote. Looking at that list, I realise it's the only one I've never played.

OK, were you secretly in our voice chat? Because we said that a lot this week.

You see, now I want them to do this, and they never will, and I will forever resent you for putting that idea in my head!

Yeah, I agree. Makes the most sense. It does make me wonder what will happen to the Mega Drive app, though. That icon is weird compared to the Nintendo ones. Can't really call that "Nintendo Classics", can you?

I just noticed that the video above has the "Nintendo Classics" rebrand, but the actual app hasn't changed from "Nintendo Switch Online". Weird...

That's a big massive ouch. Have fun beating the turn threshold on the Superbosses without that!

If you're hoping this week's Pokémon will be more in-depth then "Punch things until they die", I'm afraid you're gonna be kind of disappointed. More nuance then Lucario, mind you. But that's not saying much. Mega Mawile didn't just benefit from Mega Evolution in Gen 6, it's base form was one of the older Pokémon that got the newly introduced Fairy type added to it. That makes both it and it's Mega Evolution Steel/Fairy, an absolutely irritating type combination to fight. No, I haven't accidentally posted Mawile's usual stats, that's the Mega Evolution. Mawile isn't a very good Pokémon, and Mega Evolution only adds 100 to the base stat total, no matter how bad or good they were in the first place. But in reality, Mega Mawile sneakily cheats the system, and actually gets 205 extra BST. Yes, it's the ability. Huge Power: The Pokémon's Attack stat is doubled while it has this ability. If you've ever wondered why the Pokémon Azumarill suddenly became not crap at some point, that ability is why. I've mentioned the move Swords Dance a few times, and at first glance, that ability just looks like a free Swords Dance, but it's not quite the same. Which means I'm about to go into more detail about how in-batttle stat modifiers work! YAAAAAAYYYYYY! So when it comes to moves that raise or lower stats, I refer to them as "stages". Swords Dance raises the users Attack stat by two stages, for example. What this actually means is that the Attack stat is now multiplied by 2. So, quick question, what do you think happens if you use Swords Dance twice? If you said it multiplies the Attack stat by 4, you'd be wrong. The stat changes are additive, not multiplicative. So two uses of Swords Dance multiplies it by 3, while a third use makes it 4. The double Attack gained from the Huge Power ability is not an in-battle stat modifier, so if you then use Swords Dance once, it still applies the multiplier of 2 to that already doubled Attack stat, so that's times 4, or three Swords Dance after only one turn! By the way, STAB (Same Type Attack Boost) is also a seperate multiplier, so take that and add another 1.5 multiplier to the above, and things get very scary! One Swords Dance can get Mega Mawile to a staggering 630 Attack! For comparison, the same manuever with Mega Lucario only gets it to 580 Attack (Swords Dance + Adaptability powered STAB). It's also worth noting that normal Mawile can also get Intimidate as it's ability, so it can pull some Salamence-esque double ability shenanigans, which is always nice. On paper, that makes Mega Mawile even better then Mega Lucario. In reality, it's not as good. Still absolutely overbearing to the OU tier, but once it got banned to Ubers, it really struggled to carve a niche. There's two reasons for that. The obvious one is that it's Speed is atrocious. The second reason is that Steel/Fairy, while an excellent type combination defensively, is merely sub-par offensively. It doesn't hit many weaknesses, especially with the big hitters of the tier, like Primal Groudon. This means that most people don't actually use Swords Dance in Ubers. Instead, Mega Mawile is used to check special attackers and to stop Xerneas from running rampant. So it can't fully live up to it's ridiculous Attack stat. Does that mean it's good in casual play? You can only currently get a Mega Mawile in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. It's good, but you need to be mindful of the awful Speed stat, that can let you down. Normal Mawile is utter crap though, even with the added Fairy typing, don't ever use it.