Glen-i

Found it!

When you're ready, (Don't forget to actually connect to the internet before you start Union Circle) the Link Code is VKP4VD

Dean has politely told me to inform you to, ahem, "Buy it now, you idiot"

Bayonetta 2 is another character focused action hack and slash game developed by PlatinumGames, as well as a concept pitch for StarFox Zero (Yes, really). It was originally released for the WiiU in 2014 and then ported to the Switch in 2018. I played the Switch version. Somewhat controversially, despite being an IP that Sega owns, it's only been released on Nintendo consoles. This is because Nintendo funded it's development. Without Nintendo, there wouldn't be a Bayonetta 2 (Or 3, for that matter). It's also the best Christmas game! It's Christmas Eve! Bayonetta is going last-minute Christmas shopping! But then, oh no! Shenanigans! Angels attack! Devastation for the city! Average Tuesday for Bayonetta. However, a typical demon summon goes wrong and it gets out of control. This gets Bayo's best friend Jeanne's a big ouchie in the form of her soul getting knocked out of her body. Umbran Witches get dragged to Hell when they die, but there's still time. Bayonetta travels to the very wet town of Noatun, as the Gates to Hell are rumoured to be there. She has less then a day to save Jeanne, or she'll miss Christmas! Bayonetta 2, apparently For all intents and purposes, this game plays similarly to the first game. Just a whole bunch of refinements. The big new mechanic is "Umbran Climax". Playing well enough will get you enough magic to use it, and it drastically increases the range and power of her attacks. It's lots of fun, but it does make most other uses of magic a bit redundant. Add to that other great changes, like Witch Time working on everything (Although it doesn't last as long in this game to compensate), and no awful QTE's, just button mashing ones that get you extra points. This makes it easily my favourite Bayonetta game. It also helps that the Nintendo bonuses are even more ridiculous in this game. The Switch version has added amiibo support, which means I didn't have to beat the game on Hard difficulty to get one of the best unlockables in all of gaming history! That Chain Chomp cracks me up! Helps that it's really good as well. Also, Arwing pistols! The game is a lot more vibrant compared to the first game, it just pops beautifully. That Nintendo influence, I'm guessing. The game still looks great today! Bayonetta 2, apparently So yeah, people bemoaning the lower skill ceiling be damned, Bayonetta 2 is a riot! And it has a decent multiplayer mode too!

Theme's up now. Nice to be actually able to hear the full Swordfighter form song, instead of 5 seconds of it at most. This theme has a very satisfying noise for when blocks fall down after a line clear.

Right, so BowserBasher can't make it for our weekly NSO session, so there's a free spot available tonight if any of you want to join in. 8:30 tonight. And if you want to play a specific N64/GBA game, let us know.

Yeah, that's better. I should be able to get UFA to join then. Might also be able to get markderoos as well.

Give me 10 minutes, and I can join in. EDIT: Or if you prefer, we can squeeze in a session tonight.

When it comes to Pokémon, generally speaking, names in other countries tend to not resemble the Japanese names at all. The names in non-Japan countries are purely up to whatever the localisers think make a good name. Pikachu is the exception, not the rule. Best example is Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. In Japan, they're just called Freezer, Thunder, and Fire.

How the hell does one person get Boo'd 5 times in one race!?

It's not too bad at first, but then there's a second dungeon which is absolutely insane. There's an arbitrary restriction on what weapons you can use, and it's chock full of incredibly tanky enemies that not even Hero can put a dent in, but they'll happily crit you 70% of the time. And don't get me started on enemies having access to FullHeal and 4 digit HP! And the encounter rate is ratcheted up for some reason. Capped off with an infuriating set of minibosses that I would never have beaten if I didn't accidentally find out that they're susceptible to Blasto. That section makes this probably one of the least fun post-games in all the DQ games I've played. A shame too, I tend to like them.

I do wonder if anyone here besides me has ever heard of this game? OFF is a niche little french (or maybe Belgian?) RPG that was originally made by Mortis Ghost in RPG Maker in 2008. It's also massively influential in quite a lot of future indie RPG's. Undertale and OMORI are two notable examples which have this game to thank. The game follows "The Batter", some guy in a baseball uniform, whose mission is to purify the world. This game is unhinged, to put it mildly. I've always wanted to try it, but never bothered to ask Dcubed to download it. Well, don't need to now. Hooray for procrastination! This won't be the same as the free version. PR says it'll have a reworked battle system, new areas, and new hidden bosses. Switch version is getting a physical version, with some mad thing called an "Instruction Booklet".

Well, silver lining I got is this beautiful story of a guy who used his Balatro skills to win at Poker. Nicked from Reddit

Christmas mod... But good enough!

Hey! No! That is not what determines a Christmas game! The setting has to be at or around Christmas, not whenever you fancy playing it. That's why Bayonetta 2 is a Christmas game.

True greatness takes time, and MS Paint. My insanity deserves a desktop! Anyway, I'll have you know I played 200 hours less then last year! Ugh, what are those weird icons at the top-middle? They don't exist on my Switch! Miitopia is a very grindy game... My Mii continues to be incorrect on the Nintendo website... Then again, they think that TOTK is an RPG, so this pie chart is useless Facinating, you can actually tell when I borrowed @Dcubed's Steam Deck! There's actually two games that came out this year that I'd rate higher, but they weren't on Switch. Still, it's a true GOTY contender, even if some farce won't acknowledge it. And now for my favourite part! How much do Nintendo not get me? Let's go through each of them, shall we? SMTV Vengeance - Kicking off with a big massive slap in the face right from the get go! I'm not stupid enough to pay for a game I've already played on the same console! Unless it's Pokémon, and that series hasn't pulled that trick in years! Nintendo World Championships - NES Edition - I guess this is one of my obligatory Nintendo picks? Not a terrible choice. Not super interested though. Stardew Valley - I don't care for farming sims. Unicorn Overlord - Ehhh... Not really sure. Strategy RPG's are a real crapshoot when it comes to my enjoyment. Probably the best suggestion here. Which is pretty sad. Persona 5 Royal - They recommended this to me last year too. It's not happening. Some crap open-world game Persona 4 Golden - Ah, so they're doubling down? Look, I don't know how much Atlus are paying you. I ain't playing Persona! Baten Kaitos I + II - If they could track me playing GC games, they'd know I tried the first game and didn't like it. Peglin - *shrug* No idea. CTR Nitro-Fueled - Didn't this have lootboxes at one point? I have some standards, thank you.

See, if it was like that, it wouldn't bother me so much. It's the blatant double standard we're seeing that annoys me so.

That's hilarious! I wonder if no-one here thought of asking that because they clearly played; - The original PS1 release. - The GameCube version I clearly don't count, because at this point, you've played this game longer then I have. Yes, the GameCube controller's D-Pad is absolute cack, but I imagine it gets away with it because of the Octagonal Gate it has. Seriously, Octagonal Gates on sticks should be the standard, it's so immensely helpful for countless situations, including games that weren't designed for Control Sticks.

Damn! You get me every time!

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

There we go, now they'll reveal the Switch 2.

Hilariously, there's an enemy in the post-game dungeon that gives double the amount of EXP that Liquid Metals do. A lot more common too. You can get three of them, too. Although, that might be a bit unlucky, because they're quite dangerous.

Looky looky! It's me again. Just finished another game 5 minutes ago at the time I'm typing this sentence. Spyro the Dragon is a 3D platformer that originally released on the PlayStation in 1998. That original version was developed by Insomniac Games. As you can probably guess from my above usage of a screenshot instead of box art, I played the remake that is part of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. That remake is primarily developed by Toys for Bob and released on the PS4 and XBox One in 2018, before getting ported to the Switch and PC in 2019. I played the Switch version. Before I get started, a bit of context of me and my history with the Spyro series. It doesn't exist. I've never played a single Spyro game before this. It sounds mad that 8 year old me would not immediately jump at the chance at playing a 3D platformer where you play as a literal dragon, but I had tried some other PS1 platformers, such as Crash Bandicoot and Croc, and they were awful. 8 year old me had Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie only just came out, I was done with trying to find a good PS1 platformer. My stepbrother had this game, I never bothered with it. So yeah, I have no experience with the original game, keep that in mind. That's... oddly specific The game takes place in the "World of Dragons". Guess what? It's full of dragons! Where do they come up with these ideas? Two of these dragons are giving a TV interview where they explain some of the backstory. Gnasty Gnorc, leader of the Gnorc tribe was banished to live in a junkyard for... I'm not sure. It's not exactly clear. While they're explaining this, they can't help but get a bit arrogant, and start insulting him on camera. Gnasty Gnorc happens to be watching and doesn't take the insults well, so he uses a magic staff to trap every dragon in crystal statues. All from the comfort of his armchair. Well, every dragon except Spyro himself. I guess Gnasty draws the line at children. So it falls to Spyro to travel through all sorts of worlds, rescue the crystallised dragons, and recover the treasure hoard the Gnorcs somehow stole in the 15 seconds between the intro cutscene and gameplay. Now of course, this is an excuse plot. I understand that, but something struck me very quickly. These dragons basically rule this world, have a ridiculous amount of treasure hoarded that they don't share with anyone else, banish this Gnorc for arbitrary reasons, and then lord it over him in sheer arrogance. I kinda can't help but think the dragons kinda deserve this? Not Spyro himself, he was harassing sheep at the time. But because I'm playing as him, I have to rescue these dragons, and take back the treasure, which will no doubt be hoarded and not used (They are dragons, after all). To put it simply... This was only reinforced when I got to the final boss. The guy runs away from you! The poor dude's terrified of Spyro! And then after that, if you reach 100% completion, you get to loot him of the treasure he had before this all started. These dragons are jerks! Anyway, enough of me giving too much thought into this. Spyro the Dragon very much falls into the Banjo-Kazooie style of 3D Platformer. The game is split up into multiple levels and the goal is to collect gems and free the dragons. Reaching certain threshholds of each will open up more worlds to explore. Rinse and repeat until you get to the final boss. Spyro has a handful of abilities, apart from the ability to constantly pull the Dreamworks poster face all the time, he can spew out fire, charge forward for ramming attacks, and glide over long distances. That gliding maneuver in particular is quite important. Most of the time, you're looking for a high enough point to glide from to reach far-off places. The game is relatively easy to progress in, careful combing through each world will probably be good enough to beat it, but if you want to go for full completion, the difficulty curve starts to get a bit erratic. Now and again, you'll have to do a flying level. Because apparently Spyro can fly whenever he likes? No idea why he doesn't do it in all the other levels, but these flying levels play similarly to the All-Range Mode sections from Lylat Wars. You have to manuever Spyro around and fly through rings, and destroy targets. This wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that you have a time limit, and said time limit is insanely tight. You have to do all the objectives in one attempt to get every gem. It demands near perfection, which feels at odds with the rest of the game. I swear, the amount of times I had less then a second left... Also, shout out to that one time where the game suddenly becomes Metroid in how much it asks of the player. I honestly thought I had found some kind of unintended method of reaching that platform, but looking it up afterwards? No. That's how you're meant to do it! It's an insane difficulty jump. So much so, Spyro actually complains to the dragon there about how he got trapped in such a difficult place to reach, which got a laugh out of me after many failed attempts. Despite that. The game was good. Which is far better then my expectations were. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was great. It's a bit too simplistic and uneven to say that. But there's a good base here. I'm looking forward to see how the sequels build on this. Not straight away though, I've got other games to play. Don't wanna burn out. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, but the developers of this remake, Toys For Bob, deserve immense credit for the exemplary work they did on this. The game looks gorgeous, and it runs pretty much perfectly on Switch. And it's not just a graphical upgrade. Apart from Spyro, all the dragons got a complete makeover, and it's a massive improvement. Same character There are around 70 of these dragons in the game. They only show up for about 5 seconds, spout a line, and are never seen again. I am so impressed at the dedication on show here. The artists who worked on this weren't paid enough. This is a fact. Not just character design. The music was redone as well, I don't think the music is all that in the first place, so the remastered soundtrack could only go so far. But the redone version has dynamic music, which the original game didn't have. I appreciate that kind of thing. There's also the option to have a map on screen, which is very helpful. It doesn't give away where things are, so it hits the balance just right. Add to that more obvious things like free camera movement, and some cool concept art to unlock, and this is an absolutely brilliant remake. Which only makes it an absolute travesty that Toys For Bob were soon sent to be a support team for Call of Duty. A humongous waste of talent. Anyway, here are my final stats. At the top of the screen there.

Oh man, I pretty much hate survival horror, but this can't be stated enough. Resident Evil on that console was absolute jaw droppingly beautiful. It really showed that the Gamecube was more capable then the PS2 in terms of graphics. Also, seeing as @Julius mentioned it. The door animations are such a clever way to use loading times to your advantage. Obviously, this remake didn't do it first, but it's such an effective tool to build tension. Even though I'm sure the HD version could load each room quicker, I'm glad they didn't go for it.

For any of you lurking around this thread, some context: The majority of the time, we leave our character choice to random, and sometimes the stars align and we get a scenario where 2 people are one character, and the other two are a different character. Whenever this happens, we have an unspoken agreement that that match is now a 2 VS 2 fight. They tend to be the highlight, and this one was no different. So if you decide to watch one match, here's Falcos VS Jokers.