Glen-i

I caught a Shiny Geodude in Scarlet yesterday. Wasn't trying for one, they're super common in that game too, so whatever. Normally, you'd be right. But this Pokémon is actually shiny locked, so you can't get a legit one in-game. There's also a Shiny Manaphy for those who finished the Sinnoh Dex in BD/SP. Again, no way to get one legit. Get on that as well if you can. EDIT: Should've figured he'd post on that thread as well.

I think you already know the answer to that now.

Precisely, which is why they'll go with the better choice, Ruby and Sapphire. And then FR/LG, the actual best Gen 1 game. But seriously, I bet the reason the mainline games are absent there is because NSO allows for save states. That's the pessimistic take, the optimist in me is saying they can't get it to work with Pokémon HOME.

Skies of Arcadia is an absolutely wonderful game. It does have its flaws though. My biggest complaint is that the end-game strategy boils down to using precisely one strategy. One character nullifies magic. One halves all other damage. One more is on item duty/Focus. And then Vyse spams Focus, and one particular move. Use massive nuke when you reach max SP. Repeat until inevitable victory. It's such an effective strategy that if you try anything else, you're probably gonna die. So turtle up! It's a small complaint, but it does make the cool battle system a bit one note at the end.

Too late! Game bad! But soundtrack? It's ehh... It's OK. But it's my least favourite interpretation of Gen 4 music. I don't like minimalist music, puts me to sleep. That said, out of all the Pokémon soundtracks, this one needs to be put on the app the most. You barely hear any of it in game, because by the time a song gets going, you're already in a new area and silence comes back. No. I'm serious. I've literally heard more of a song from L:A playing Pokémon Scarlet then I did in the actual game! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the actual best Pokémon soundtrack being added some time in the future.

More often then not, trademark filings are just a company doing so to avoid it lapsing and them losing ownership of it. It happens all the time, and people still get in a tizzy about it. I'll believe this when I see it, especially with Skies of Arcadia.

You don't need to type anything. It can be done with just buttons. My advice would be to get a YouTube video of someone doing the process and use that as a reference.

Aww man, that suuuuucks! Here's hoping it gets sorted soon.

Geez, the whole console release is even more bizarre then I initially thought. I wonder what the hell happened there? I know Switch has become the console of choice for indie games because they tend to do best there, so it'd be understandable if they only released there, but it released on the other platforms in some way. And like I mentioned in said Christmas thread, even on Switch eShop, the damn thing never goes on sale, despite it getting sales on Steam regularly. Which makes me wonder. The console ports were handled by a group called MP2, I wonder if something weird happened with the developers and that porting team to make the console release collapse? Absolute radio silence on that, mind. It sucks, because this is a very good game. In hindsight, I should've made that a bit more clear, but well, here's my opportunity. While I do recommend it to fans of RPG's, I can't stress enough that unlike Balatro, Omori's PEGI 18 rating is completely warranted. It gets downright unpleasant at times. If depictions of depression or suicide are things you feel you should avoid, don't play this game.

I feel like even @Jonnas would be proud of this maneuver. And with how limited the items were, this was inevitable. Also, I nominate myself for coolest loss.

Omori is a Turn Based RPG developed by Omocat that originally came out on PC's in 2020. It then got console ports with extra content on the Switch and PS4 in 2022 (It also was on the XBox One, but that was delisted in 2023, and hasn't come back, no idea why). I played the Switch one. Omori lives in White Space, he's been living there as long as he can remember. It's pretty barren in there, but there is a door that goes to a dream-like world called Headspace. In this place, Omori goes on wacky adventures with his friends, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero. Something's up though, another friend of Omori's, Basil, suddenly goes missing after finding a mysterious photo he doesn't remember taking. It's up to Omori to save Basil from whatever has happened to him. I'm sure everything is going to be okay. This game's plot is... difficult to talk about without spoiling things. It is a heavy game though. The PEGI 18 rating and the disclaimer when you boot it up doesn't keep that aspect secret, really. The EarthBound inspired surrealism is juxtaposed harshly with the psychological horror that is sprinkled throughout. Don't have nightmares I really enjoyed the plot. It has some very cool twists, and maintains a sense of foreboding throughout, despite the incredibly absurd nonsense you see throughout Headspace. In fact, it was so fascinating, I'm actually already doing a second playthrough, because it turns out there's a couple of ways to progress through the game. Won't go into more detail then that though. The gameplay is pretty standard stuff, but unlike most RPG's, there aren't any status effects, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, there are three emotions, which both raise and lower stats. They also have a rock-paper-scissors style relationship. Happy is strong against Angry, Angry is strong against Sad, and Sad is strong against Happy. And you can stack the same emotion multiple times for a stronger effect. Mastery of the combat system revolves around manipulating the emotions of both the enemy's and your own party to get an advantage. I say mastery, but the game isn't too difficult, really. Alligators and Casinos, that whole connection! I have to give massive praise to the visuals. The overworld isn't much to talk about, but battles and cutscenes utilise a very unique pencil drawing aesthetic, as well as an intentionally small amount of animation frames to create a very striking style. It looks great! Mad props! The sound design is also good, every area in the game has unique battle music, which I always appreciate, and the more scary parts use sound very well. By the way, the final boss song literally gave me chills, but sharing it would be massive spoilers. It's a masterpiece that brings the plot together really well. Omori is one of those indie games that you can tell was a massive passion project. It took 6 years to develop, and you can just feel the sincerity it contains. If you like EarthBound, you absolutely must play this. And if you've never played it, but like RPG's, play it anyway. It's excellent. Perfectly normal behaviour

Got around to watching this tonight. Mad impressive. Also, NSMB Wii still has my favourite castle theme. Hell, it's still my favourite 2D Mario. Level design is just excellent, especially compared to Wonder.

Fair point, all I recall is that the original Game Boy game's instruction manual has Dr. Mario say he "developed" the megavitamin himself. Now, developed could mean anything in the Mushroom Kingdom, but it does imply a relatively standard procedure for medicine development, and that the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital (Where Dr. Mario takes place. Yes, seriously) is where he stores them. Ah screw it, I'm sure the manual is available online.

I mean, I only ever use social media as a quick, painless way to get my Switch screenshots and videos on to here. The only people who would ever care about my opinion are people on here because they have somewhat similar interests.

OK, spoilers. But Dark Samus is Metroid Prime and is able to copy the things that it absorbs. So Dark Samus' "Power Suit" isn't actually a physical Power Suit like Samus', it's Metroid Prime mimicking Samus. So it's doing all the Samus stuff by itself. Dr. Mario's pills are different to Mario's Fireballs. Mario generates the fireballs himself, but the Doc's pills are physical objects he stockpiles. And even if the pills were OK, the side special disqualifies both Marios anyway. Whether it's the cape or Doc's "Super Sheet". Mewtwo, Lucario, and Incineroar utilise various mechanics from the Pokémon series in their Final Smashes. Mega Evolution for the first two, Z-moves for Incineroar. In the games, both of them require the Pokémon to hold a specific item to do this, which disqualifies them. Also Incineroar's Side Special does also disqualify him. Interestingly, despite doing a similar transformation, this doesn't disqualify Greninja. Ash-Greninja is triggered by a specific ability, no item needed. But well, about Greninja. Actually, you're both right. Miis can't be used in Smashdown, so I can't get images that feature them easily. But also, it just dawned on me that Greninja utilises the move "Mat Block" to initiate it's Final Smash. That mat is a physical object separate from Greninja, which means I'll have to ban him, and do a new image. So yeah, 14 fighters now.

Theme time! Marquis of Queensbury Rules To put it simply, the 14 characters allowed tonight fight completely unarmed. No swords, no guns, no tools of any kind. Characters that create some kind of projectile with only their own capabilities (Ryu's Hadoken, for example) are also allowed. Mii Brawler is also allowed tonight, but they must not have the Shot Put neutral special. Tonight, there are no stages with obstacles that can cause you damage. This doesn't apply to obstacles that can cause you to fall prematurely, by the way, so don't get too comfortable. I didn't want no items. That's boring, but items are extremely limited to those you cannot physically pick up. Format: 3 Stock, 10 Minutes FS Meter: On See you at 7:30pm (Remember that during Custom stage matches, the stage and item restrictions won't apply, but the character limits do)

So when we play a game of Mario Party, @Dcubed and I tend to discuss what the results should have been if Mario Party was a just game (wishful thinking, we know). Normally, there's some debate, but this time? Nah. It's clear cut. @BowserBasher played the best, and @S.C.G deserves second for doing a solid job despite the insane bad luck he got. @Dcubed deserved last, and he can't say otherwise. Back to S.C.G, seriously, his luck was atrocious. A bit of context, Dcubed is right next to the star, and S.C.G has a Warp Block. However he hasn't got enough coins to buy the star. The ideal scenario here would be to swap spaces with Dcubed (1 in 3 chance), and then roll a 1 (1 in 10 chance). That's 1 in 30. he sensibly didn't go for the Warp Block, rolled a 1 anyway! We'll never know if the Warp Block would have worked, but still! And later on, S.C.G has a chance of reaching the star and nicking it right from under my humongous nose, but in order to do so, he needs to use a Reverse Mushroom on himself, and then roll a 10. Another 1 in 10 chance, he went for it this time. Well, see for yourself... You know Dcubed plays a lot of Mario Party, because he knows that having no coins is better then having 1 coin. With no coins, you have the option to purposely land on a Bowser Space so Bowser gives you a decent amount of pity coins. It's incredibly spiteful to duel someone for all of their coins, minus 1, even if it's the smartest play. Despite that, he never accounts for the possibility of "End of the line" showing up...

I'm sorry, I didn't realise I put on Mario Party 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1! It doesn't look like it there, but it really was anyone's game in the last 5 turns. A rarity in Mario Party, it normally ends up between 2 people, sometimes 3. All 4 players though? Insanity. He absolutely didn't deserve it. His first star was a bloody hidden block, and he gambled 80+ coins purely to bankrupt @BowserBasher for no actual benefit to himself. He had over 160 coins, he was golden for the coin star. You can probably tell from BowserBasher's coin count how that turned out... No-one felt sorry for @Dcubed there. In hindsight, I no longer felt bad that this happened anymore.

You would be correct, that's precisely where I shifted to.

Just a heads up for @S.C.G and @BowserBasher. I consulted the dice, and they have decreed that we shall play Creepy Cavern on Mario Party 3 tonight.

Yeeeah. Finally pulled the plug on my Twitter account after that. I'd been putting it off hoping this forum software would update to allow embeds from alternatives, but I'd rather deal with no embeds then being there any longer. Actual insanity.

Fatal Fury 2 is a cool get. NSO really lacks an Arcade style fighter, so it's very neat to have one of the bigger names there, relatively speaking. Obviously, not the biggest, but, well, big enough to be in Smash. indieszero is one of those devs that most people don't realise they've played at least one game of. Mario Party e, of all things was the first game of theirs I've played. With that in mind, Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line is an absolute delight, and you'd really like it, a genuine history trip disguised as an excellent rhythm game/RPG mish-mash. The 3DS entry made Nobou Uematsu cry through pure memories.

Can't say this is PlatinumGames' forté, but we'll have to see.

Was more interested when I was under the impression it all had that stop-motion look to it, but seeing Hazel move around so fuidly just looks jarring compared to the enemies.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is the third Castlevania game that was released on the Nintendo DS. It's an action adventure game that released in 2009. Like the other DS games, I played this on the Castlevania Dominus Collection. Shanoa is a member of Ecclesia, a group of people looking into ways to kill Dracula because the typical Vampire Killer Family, the Belmonts, have been missing for quite a while now. A breakthrough has come in the development of the Dominus Glyph, a magic symbol that can kill Dracula. Sweet! It requires intense training, mind, and that's what Shanoa has been doing. Unfortunately, fellow Ecclesia member, Albus throws a hissy fit because he didn't get to have the Dominus Glyph, and steals it. His particularly bad timing almost kills Shanoa, and it erases her memories and emotions. So Shanoa has to go get Dominus back, with only basic training in the usage of glyphs. Easy, right? Surely, after 3 different Castlevania games I've written about, you get how the basics work at this point. Order of Ecclesia differentiates itself mostly by the glyphs. Shanoa doesn't use weapons, per se, all of her offensive capabilities come from these magic symbols tattooed on her body. You can find these around the world, as well as from certain enemies. It's sort of similar to how Soma gets abilities in the "of Sorrow" games. However, Shanoa can equip multiple abilities at once, allowing you to mix and match for combo potential. Because pretty much everything Shanoa can do is done through Glyphs, everything uses MP, even standard weapon attacks. This sounds awful, but she recovers MP a whole lot faster then the previous games, so it's effectively a stamina meter. This means that magic spells are just as viable as normal attacks (No standing still to use spells helps as well). It all makes the combat super satisfying. Which is a good thing, because the actual level design is a bit of a downgrade. Ehhh, that's more effective in Vampire Survivors... It's fine, but it's really obvious that the game reuses rooms a lot to pad out the world. It's actually kind of ridiculous how much this happens. One particular area right at the end of the game was particularly greivous. No exaggeration, there's one point where you go through the same room layout three times in succession. It's a real shame, because if it wasn't like this, it could've been better then Dawn of Sorrow! Bosses are great, though. Nothing new there, there was even one particular moment, where I accidentally killed a boss with something that doesn't actually do damage. Music is really great, by the way. Probably my favourite soundtrack in Castlevania, I can see why Vampire Survivors used a lot of music from this game now. The game doesn't let me doodle a Kecleon... So hooray! I've beaten every DS Castlevania game now (plus a GBA one). A sight better then this time last year, when I hadn't finished a single one. Here's how I would rank them. Dawn of Sorrow > Order of Ecclesia > Portrait of Ruin