Glen-i

Sounds to me like an Age of Calamity style "How low can we get it?" challenge if I ever heard one.

The pointless things that stick in your mind, huh?

And here I was thinking you couldn't make Octopath Traveler look any better... I approve massively of this!

It's a turn-based RPG where I can play as a reptile. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested.

Those new moves are proper promising! And I can finally have Krookodile and Feraligatr in the same game! And now there's a third croc in Skeledirge! The Seniors finals in the World Championships was amazing, BTW. Proper hype moments throughout!

Oh wow! I didn't even notice that! Too busy with my own fight with Simon there. Geez, you wait 5 years for that and then 2 come along at once! Congrats, @RedShell, on joining the Mile High Club!

No-one can resist the siren call of the Menu Fight! That Ditto Byleth Wombo Combo though! Easily coolest kill of the night! Doesn't even have every Pokémon on it, that list is woefully lacking!

I'm actually pretty confident about this one, to be fair.

Accurate depiction of Dcubed after that Seriously, I'm legit impressed. Winning in one turn is one thing, but losing to a CPU in one turn is really, really amazing!

Good thing you checked here then. Get in the habit of that, and save often. EDIT: I'm still only at 1 medal, I probably should stop making stupid Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged references and get cracking, huh?

The first Challenge Cup happens after your third club medal, so it might not be too late. Worst case scenario, @Dcubed just got the first Challenge Cup card, so he could theoretically duplicate one for you.

I had a theme ready to go, but then @Dcubed suggested a more timely one instead. And 2 hours later... Did Someone Say Card Games!? Pokémon Trading Card Game is finally online! Shut up! This is the first time ever, it's never happened before, and anyone who says so is a liar! The 34 characters here all feature in some kind of Trading Card Game. I thought this would be a relatively reasonable selection of characters, but it kept snowballing, so even after trimming off e-reader cards, playing cards, and any trading cards that don't actually function as a game, I'm still left with this large group. I regret everything. Stages match the series that all the characters above are from. Please keep your stage choice on "Random". The items also match the series. Format: 3 Stock, 10 minutes FS Meter: On See you at 8pm.

#2 Anniv. is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or MOBA) game developed by TiMi Studio Group. It originally released on the Switch in 2021, and mobile phones 2 months later. Yeah, mobile phones, so it's free-to-play because of course it is. Oh wait, hang on, apparently it's actually called Pokémon UNITE. Don't blame me, blame the crap icon. Each person directly controls a Pokémon, generally an unevolved Pokémon and work together with other players to accrue points. You see, unlike most MOBA's, the goal isn't to simply destroy the other team, instead, completing certain objectives such as capturing wild Pokémon, and beating up the other team will generate point balls, which players have to manuever to one of the goals dotted around the arena, getting them points. The team with the most points after 10 minutes wins. As the game progresses, each Pokémon will steadily get stronger (And evolve, when appropriate), gaining access to Unite Moves, special abilities unique to that Pokémon. There are no type advantage mechanics in this game, so those Unite Moves and how they synergise with your teammates are generally what decide matches. Anyway, it is free-to-play, so the majority of the over 50 playable Pokémon at this point have to be purchased seperately, and let's not forget the large amounts of costumes (Dubbed Holowear, it's not actual clothing, because dressing up animals is weird). Suffice to say, that adds up, so it's not feasible to actually unlock all of that. It's been downloaded over 80 million times to date. Of course, that figure neatly glosses over how many people actually stick around, but I can safely say the game is popular enough. At least, popular enough to usurp Pokkén's place in the Pokémon World Championships (Which are actually on, right now). BTW, shout out to Switch Icon Showdown, a very cool website that catalogs every Switch menu Icon in history, even ones that get updated. It also has a feature that makes you choose the best icon out of two randomly picked icons. Fun way to kill 15 minutes, and I've definitely had to vote for a crap icon, purely because it had an actual title on it. Pokkén got robbed, but speaking of robbing things... Pokémon Masters Ex is a very unfortunately named RPG developed by DeNa in 2019. At least, being an RPG is what The Pokémon Company want you to believe. In reality, it's a Gacha game, a sub genre of games especially popular on mobile phones that revolve around literal gambling with various characters. In this game's case, the various trainers from the mainline Pokémon games are what this game uses to try and rob you blind. Yeah, I know I've been trying to keep myself somewhat impartial when it comes to talking about these games, but this game doesn't deserve that courtesy. It's easily the lowest, most predatorial, Pokémon spin-off to date, and I'm not going to ignore that. I'd feel dirty if I did. The game takes place on Pasio Island, where various trainers from the series are gathering together to become the Pokémon Master Champion. This is done by teaming up with 2 other trainers to battle other teams of 3 trainers. What's that? Why don't these clearly elite trainers use more than 1 Pokémon? To make you spend three times as much, duh! To get trainers that don't suck, you'll have to scout for Sync Pairs. This is effectively a lootbox system that you pay for with the in-game currency, Gems (That can be purchased with real money, naturally). Yeah, you can't just buy the trainer you want. No, that's far too reasonable. You've gotta roll the dice, and hope you get what you want. Still, at least once you get a trainer, you have access to all the Pokémon that are associated with them? Right? Yeahhhh, no. That's not how it works. That would be far too reasonable. Pulling a sync pair only gets you that specific combination of trainer and Pokémon. You want Lance's Dragonite? Tough! You pulled his Dragonair instead, screw you! You've gotta feed more money into that gacha roulette! Maybe this time, you'll get the one you want. Just one more go, one pull doesn't cost that much, go on, do it! Oh, and these trainers have different costumes (And some of them are swimsuits, because it's a Gacha game, and they all have swimsuits), and they count as entirely different sync pairs, so you gotta roll for that too. And the game constantly goes through Power Creep, which means that newer sync pairs are generally better then older ones, so you gotta spend even more! You see why I hate Gacha games? They are all like this. It is positively gross, and no, don't give me that crap about how the game lets you pick a specific pair after a certain amount of pulls, I've done the maths. It takes 134 pulls to get that courtesy, that's 40,200 gems, which adds up to about 87 pounds! And that's not the only in-game currency, but I'm not looking into this anymore, as I'm liable to throw up Anyway, remember way back when I talked about Puzzle League? Yep, over 20 years after that game, Ash Ketchum makes his second video game appearence here. You know that unwritten rule that the game universe and anime universe are totally seperate? Yeah, forget that, gotta chase that Gacha dosh! Poor kid... I feel bad for dunking on him back then. Maybe. Anyway, some more lighthearted stuff with this game to take the horrible taste out of my mouth. I hinted at Pokémon Masters Ex being an unfotunate name for this game. If you don't see it, try making a hashtag with it. Literally, the only time this game has made me smile. The game made over 75 million dollars in revenue during it's first year. And that's depressing. Oh my god, this might be the saddest post I've done in this thread, and not in a nerdy way! Pokémon Trading Card Game Live is a rebranding of the earlier Pokémon Trading Card Game Online. Much like the original one, it's an app that allows people to play the TCG online. No, it's not a sequel to the Game Boy Games. It came out on PC and Mobiles this year. You can register any cards you get in real life and use them in the app. You can also use in-game currency to add cards you don't have to your digital collection. Amazingly enough, there aren't any microtransactions! That's a shocker, but I guess asking people to shell out cash on both real life and digital cards might have been a bit much. Still, Pokémon card collecting is proper pricey these days, and the app is pretty notorious for not running that well. You want my recommendation? Get on the Game Boy NSO app, and play some trading card game there. It's online compatible now, and it's wayyyy cheaper! Man, Gen 8 spin-offs are proper rough, huh? Everywhere I look, it's just... But wait, we're not done, there's still more next week? But what else could there possibly be...? They didn't, did they? But that's not possible...

You know why he lost? Because I believed in the heart of the cards! And also...

It started off relatively promising as well. It did clear up once you left though. And I just want it to be known that @Dcubed is a dirty cheater who just guesses at quiz minigames!

Heads up for @RedShell, @BowserBasher, and @S.C.G. I'll be booting up the N64 NSO app in 10 minutes.

Think of it as a handful of Mario Party minigames you've never heard of. Essentially the same thing, really. 8pm tonight it is then.

With save state shenanigans, I can easily duplicate this and send it to anyone who wants it. Unfortunately, it seems you can't actually get the Phantom Venusaur because of a bug in the original game's code. So Mew is all you can get.

Well, tomorrow at 8pm is when @S.C.G, @BowserBasher, and I will be taking a trip through the Pokémon Stadium 2 minigames. We still have need of a fourth player. @RedShell, would you be up for that?

Yep, you can get a cool 240 energy cards about 15 minutes after you boot up the game Make a deck that contains all of your energies (and 1 basic Pokémon) Talk to the dude to the right of Dr. Mason, and he'll give you 10 of each energy because you're pathetic. Shove all those energies into another deck. Repeat until you can't make any more energy filled decks.

The third SaGa pack is out now. 3 songs each from Rommancing SaGa 2 and 3, and 1 song from Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe, which I had never heard of before today. Seriously, what mega SaGa fan works at indiezero? That 1 song is new to Theatrhythm, BTW. These are great songs, especially the ones from Romancing SaGa 3, that game goes proper hard with it's soundtrack!

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is an action RPG developed by Level-5, it originally released on the PS4 in 2018, and then for the Switch in 2021, which is the version I played. The game opens with Roland Crane, the president of America, who is en route to some place in a limousine. That plan immediately goes awry when a nuclear bomb hits nearby, obliterating him. Instead of being super dead, Roland finds himself in another world, about 40 years younger, and in a castle, where he encounters Evan, the prince of Ding Dong Dell. His day goes from bad to worse when a coup takes place, and the king of Ding Dong Dell is killed. Evan and Roland do a runner, and decide to establish a new kingdom. Roland ended up being the rarest thing in RPG history, the competent protaganist. It's a very small group, but at least Radiant Historia's Stocke has company now. In the first 5 minutes, he responds to a knight bearing down on him with a sword by shooting him in the face. You know, because he's from the real world, and American, so of course he has a gun. And amazingly, the game explains why he doesn't just shoot every threat (Bullets don't exist here, so he has to ration them). You probably recognise Ni No Kuni as that RPG that Studio Ghibli worked on. Well, they didn't work on the sequel, despite the game retaining the style of those movies. It still looks absolutely gorgeous, even if it doesn't have any hand drawn animated cutscenes. It also isn't a turn-based RPG anymore. Yeah, Level-5 decided to pull a "Final Fantasy" and make this sequel an action game. Eh, it's only level 24, not worth wasting a bullet on. As far as Action RPG's go, it's pretty straight forward. combos, dodge rolls, spells tied to a rechargable MP bar. It functions well enough, if it's not particularly groundbreaking. Luckily, fights run silky smooth on the Switch (Not the world map, mind, that can chug at times), so it remains fun to play throughout. The AI handles other characters you're not playing as well, so they don't feel like a liability. The boss fights are a particular standout, with little gimmicks that add cool little twists to the gamplay. I said this before, but the game looks gorgeous. Lovely cel-shaded graphics with very impressive animation, there's dedicated animation for a character walking up stairs, for crying out loud. The music's top notch too. So yeah, great production values all around. Anyway, I also finished another sequel. Grandia II is a turn-based RPG developed by Game Arts that originally released for the Dreamcast in 2001, it also got a PS2 port a year later. I didn't play any of those, mind. I played the Switch version in the HD remaster collection. I played the original Grandia in that collection last year. The game follows Ryudo, a cynical mercenary who's been hired to serve as bodyguard to Elena, a songstress who works for the Church of Granas. She's taking part in a ritual to reinforce a seal on Valmar, an evil god who once fought against Granas way back. It goes proper wrong and Elena gets posessed by the wings of Valmar, which manifests itself as a woman called Millenia, whose special skills seem to be spell nukes and chewing the scenery. Ryudo then gets hired to bring Elena to St. Heim to ask the Pope there to make Elena not posessed anymore. And maybe stop Valmar from coming back. Maybe... The plot has it's moments, but I don't think it's quite as good as the first game. It's a tad by-the-numbers, thankfully the characters are fun. Ryudo and Millenia are an absolute joy whenever the voice acting (Which is quite good for a 2001 game) kicked in. It's got a cool twist, mind. Didn't expect that. You can bust this out in any old battle. It's amazing that planet gets out in one piece! Much like the original game (And Child of Light), battles revolve around the IP bar on the bottom right. It works exactly the same way as the first Grandia game, just with a few refinements to make it better. It's a very dynamic system that's always rewarding improvisation, and it's bloody unique! Well, until I found out a setup that made a character an invincible tank. Seriously, it was ridiculous! Because of that, the game felt easier then the original game, it's also about 20 hours shorter, but the length of a game isn't a huge deal. One of the main issues I had with the HD remaster of the first game was the ugly job they did with updating the visuals. There was an ugly filter that made the sprites look awful. Luckily, Grandia II uses 3D models throughout, so it looks a lot better then the first game. The soundtrack isn't as hot, though. Still good, but the series has had better. I honestly can't figure out which Grandia I prefer. So I'll just cop out and say that we still need a Child of Light sequel, please!

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to put a PSA out there. Because it's very easy to get into a situation where 100% completion gets really difficult. There's an NPC in this game, who at some point, will ask for all your unused energy cards, if you refuse, he'll leave and you won't get the Promo Slowpoke. (You can totally cheese this with the rewind feature, rewind, make a deck with nothing but 60 energy cards, as long as you have at least 1 unused, you can still get the card). Whenever you get a club medal, for the love of all that is holy, save your game immediately! Your rival, Ronald, has an annoying habit of ambushing you for a Children's Card Game Duel, and if you lose to him, you miss out on a card. As well as Ronald, make a habit of checking the Challenge Cup Venue after each club medal you get. Challenge Cups in progress will go away if you get another medal, and they have some promo cards too. If you do miss any of these, you can still get them after the credits, but it's a long, slow, and random process. Just get them the first opportunity you get, trust me.