Dufniall

Looks interesting, although they have borrowed quite some assets from the Zelda series. But indeed a weird move to put this on Kickstarter as well, especially as only the high $100 tier gives access to a physical copy. This and the december 2023 release date (surely with this kind of footage already this game is not 2 years away?) make me a bit hesitant about Yacht Club's business practice. Guess we will just wait (a while!) and see.

Back in that day you also had to actually solve caves and puzzles in Pokémon games instead of just walking straight through them. I agree with Ronnie and Julius, that it is a bit out fashion in this day and age to come up with no voice acting whatsoever. It just breaks the immersion, especially when the character is mouthing words and you just hear the bleep bleep bleep of you clicking through the text. Anyway, the bike courier is on its way at the moment (got to love living in the Netherlands and have stuff delivered by bike!) so it will be here soon! And then I can play it... tomorrow as my day and evening are full. Ah well.

In that regard Pokémon is a bit of a tricky franchise. On the one hand you have the kids and casual players who just enjoy the adventure, and don't care about competitive battling. On the other hand you have the hardcore userbase who battle competitive and have generations of well-trained Pokémon they want to keep on using. And with the franchise expanded to close to 900 Pokémon, plus new mechanics and movesets etc, I can see how they struggle to keep everyone happy and in balance. Catch them in Pokémon Go.

Same here! Wasn't really feeling it, but the positive reviews made me order it. Haven't read any reviews (but just glanced over the scores) to go in as fresh as possible. They could make a more expansive Pokémon Stadium/Colosseum kind of game, that focusses on training and battling, and leave the whole adventuring part for the "other" main game.

First post of the new year here, huzzah! The first two games I technically played mostly in 2021, but damn it, I'm going to post it all here and not split up the post. Let's a go! Sine Mora EX (Nintendo Switch) Another one from one of the end of the year sales, Sine Mora EX was heavily discounted and I bought this on a whim. I don’t play a lot of shoot-em-ups, but this looked good and reviews were positive as well. It is definitely one of the better shoot-em-ups I have played. First of all the game does look amazing, with plenty of cool visual effects and a lot of detail in the background. Maybe even a bit too detailed, as sometimes it is a bit tricky to make out enemies. Their bullets are highlighted, so that at least helps. The music hasn’t stuck with me, so that did not leave a lasting impression. It plays well too. It follows a couple of the standard shoot-em-up protocols, like upgrading your weapon from a single shot to a multi-hitting monster by collecting drops. Getting hit means your power-ups get scattered, and you have a couple of seconds to recollect them. In story mode you play a number of different characters, all with a different “ultimate attack” and slightly different primary fire. And then there is the skill to slow down time to make dodging a little bit easier, although this cannot be used limitlessly and you need to collect items to refill. Highlights are the number of bosses encountered; mostly screen-filling robots or creatures that need to be taken down in phases. One boss is a bit of a mess to navigate through, but the rest is fine. The game is difficult in parts but doesn’t feel overly unfair, something I often experience in shoot-em-ups and bullet hells. The only real downside? The story. It is a convoluted mess involving rape, genocide and time travel. Other than that a pretty great shoot-em-up for the couple of euros it cost me. The last shoot-em-up I played before was R-Type Dimensions EX and that cost more and was a lot less fun. Dark Souls Remastered (Nintendo Switch) New year’s day 2022, and since I didn’t have a wild party I was hangover-free, which meant I could finally deal with Dark Souls Remastered once and for all. And praise the sun, on the first day of this year the final boss fell by my pyromancy skills and Dark Souls Remastered was completed! This truly feels like my biggest gaming achievement yet, mostly because it took me several years and restarts to finish the game. Looking back it is an amazing adventure, but not without flaws (the game severely lacks guidance or explanation of mechanics at moments, and controls still are clunky from time to time). Those are all forgiven though thanks to the amazing world building, exceptional bosses and the constant risk vs reward cycle. Never have I been so tense during sessions, fearing what would come around the next corner and where in a moment of relaxation even two lower class enemies can kill you. I have to admit I have used a guide here and there to look up a mechanic, route or weapon upgrade path, because as said some things just aren’t apparent and I would have to rely on trial and error, grinding for drops etc. But the game is already long and I didn’t want to devote time to it. And on one boss I opened the online so I could get help from another player, which helped me take that behemoth down. For the rest I haven’t used online much (and this is also a part that is not really explained in detail), so I haven’t invaded others, and have been invaded myself only a couple of times. I think @Julius mentioned he has yet to play the DLC; I’d say go for it as it has one of the greatest bosses in the game. A lovely bit of more Dark Souls. I doubt we’ll ever get 2 and 3 on Switch, but I must say my appetite is still there. It is one of the few games where I feel it almost needs a second playthrough, as now knowing what I know, it could make a whole different game (plus I want to use other class weapons as well). I can rave on about the good and the bad but the conclusion is this is indeed a game like no others, and it has been one of the most impressive gaming experiences I have had in the last couple of years. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Google Stadia) Before talking about the game itself, some words on Google Stadia. Playing the game through Stadia has overall been a very pleasant experience. I never felt like I was playing a game in the cloud, loading times were good, graphically it looked impressive enough and I never experienced big dips in FPS. On two occasions the game froze up when I was quickly changing from one loadout to another, but I don’t know if this is a game problem or a Stadia problem. Anyway, onwards to Bloodstained! This truly is Castlevania DS in all but name. The Belmonts and Dracula are missing, but the rest is all there: Different weapons including whips, a giant castle to explore, different kinds of spells to equip that you get from enemy drops, and the classic MetroidVania structure. Throw in some extra stuff like crafting, being able to power up your spells and cooking recipes, and you have an awesome game. Instead of one of the Belmonts you now play as Miriam, a woman who has the gift (or curse?) to absorb shards that give her extra powers. These range from fireballs to chainsaws and from summoning bats to summoning massive dragons. You can also equip a passive spell (for example, increased recovery) and a familiar (a character that hovers around you and supports you in battle). I won’t go into the story, as it is a pretty standard story about someone opening the gates to hell and the church is involved and more like that. It is there but it is not why you play this game. You play it for the exploration of the castle, finding new routes after you learn a new skill and taking down bosses. The bosses aren’t as great as in the DS Castlevania games, but some of them are pretty impressive. There are also a couple of optional ones which are amazing, The music is top notch, and the game looks good as well. The only flaw I have is that the bosses could have been a bit more impressive, and on occasion it is not too clear what you have to do next. Other than that, one hell of a game. Dare I say I enjoyed this more than Metroid Dread? I think it’s mostly due to the bigger number of collectibles. Cuphead (Nintendo Switch) Pfew, this is a long post. But that is on me as I have played quite a couple of good games so enough to talk about! Next up is Cuphead, the 50s cartoon boss battler that got a surprise release on the Switch. To be honest, when I started this I thought it was a bit of a different game. I expected a much more traditional level structure, with run and gun platforming levels with a boss at the end. Instead, this game is actually mostly boss battles, with only a couple of run and gun levels. And to be fair I think I liked it this way! It means you can jump in to tackle a couple of bosses, and don’t need to get through a level first each time. Yes, you will die a lot but you can just restart your fight. The levels are mostly for collecting coins, which you can spend to buy weapons and power-ups. For the rest it is hopping from boss to boss, collecting their soul contracts for the Devil. Because that is what you do as a come-to-life cup with a gambling problem. Most bosses have various stages, and their moveset changes in each of them. What the game does well is that if you die, you see how far the boss was down, and the stages are marked with a line. So you know exactly how close you were to beating the boss, giving you plenty of incentive to keep going. And then it is all about learning the boss’s patterns, remembering what it does in which phase and keep dodging those attacks. Sometimes go out of the fight and get a different loadout and try again, until you make your way through all of the 4 worlds and defeat them all. The game is shorter than I would have expected, but it is actually a good length. The art style is sublime, hand-drawn graphics, with a crackle in it like you are watching an old tv show. Some of the boss designs are very creative, and all is supported with a jazzy soundtrack. Two things I didn’t enjoy that much: there is a parrying system where some (but not all) projectiles can be parried. These can be recognized because they are pink. However, sometimes there are purple objects which you think you can parry but cannot, and I found the mechanism for that a bit clunky. Second, loading times are relatively long. Especially since you die a lot (you can check in-game and I think I had something over 250 deaths?) and levels are short, the loading time in between feels too long. Other than that? Definitely recommended, and I am curious to see how the DLC is going to be.

Or the Lost Vikings! But yeah, quite a bold move seeing how Activision/Blizzard was under fire the last couple of months/years. I wonder what Microsoft expects here, to be the good Samaritan and clean the decks over at A/B? It seems a heavy investment, $70 billion but after that they probably have to restructure the company as well. Also interesting that A/B has quite a few PC franchises. Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm are all biggest or exclusive to PC. I also wonder if the delay of Overwatch 2 has anything to do with this. I'm not big on Call of Duty but if that goes exclusively to MS then that's a big loss for Sony. Like @killthenet says, almost too big. Same as having the Elder Scrolls 6 exclusive to MS.

More and more often I find myself reaching out to the good ol' internet to look up info about the game I'm playing. Whether it is for understanding a mechanism, where to go next, find a particular item or how to tackle a hard boss. Younger me would have detested this, but currently I'm noticing that I'm fairly okay with me doing this. Mostly it is an issue of time versus effort. I have quite a backlog of games I want to play, and limited gaming time available. If a game is interesting enough and has me in its grip, I don't mind putting in some extra time figuring things out, although even in that situation I now have limits as to how long I want to be stuck. For example, I'm currently playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and I knew I had to find a certain room. It would have meant going through the whole map again taking up maybe half an hour to an hour, but my urge to finish the game made me just look up the location of said room, saving me precious time. In that case I didn't really miss anything story-wise and it just saved me time. But sometimes it feels like it takes away a bit of the experience. It's a great feeling when you figure something out yourself, that AHA! moment. As opposed to looking it up and thinking, oh yeah, why didn't I think of this? There was this moment in Dark Souls Remastered where I was feeling pretty mixed. On the one hand I wish I figured it out myself, but on the other hand I know it would have led to quite some time loss and frustration. Another risk is, as you are googling stuff, you come across the occasional spoiler which you did not want to know. Someone mentioning the next boss or something similar. But all in all I take these things for granted, as being able to finish off more games in a shorter timespan outweighs these feelings of cheating or not getting everything out of your game. It also gives me a better closure, reading for example that I've found every optional boss in a game for me gives me the feeling I finished a game as far as I want so I don't have to replay it again (this can be a completely different discussion; are there games you would love to replay but don't because you don't have the time for it due to other games?). Again Dark Souls Remastered, some optional stuff in the game I would have missed completely on my play-through if I hadn't used a guide here and there, and now I feel like I got everything from the game. So, how do you feel about the use of internet help when playing games?

This was immediately the first thing that came to mind haha. It was a pesky rumour! There was also a rumour that if you sent your Pokémon Red/Blue game with a complete Pokédex to Nintendo, they would give you a real certificate and they could upload Mew to your game. Another rumour was that Golden Sun would have a lot of random elements in it; randomly generated dungeons and such. Don't think that ever made it into the game?

It's good that they at least showed a bit more this time around, as to get a general feel about what to do. I still don't know if I'm going to get this. On the one hand, it's good to see the series get a fresh take. On the other hand, I'm not sure it will be for me. The missions seem a bit too fetch-quest (show me a Shinx, show me a big Buizel). Seeing your reward is 3 potions also makes me think most of them don't really add to the story (like for me most of the BOTW sidequests also had underwhelming rewards). The balming of Noble Pokémon bit feels a bit out of place too, and I also fear for empty environments. Would have loved to see some caves for example which hide legendaries. Also curious if they really go into the lore. I mean, humans and Pokémon have not interacted until this point, and suddenly you can catch them and train them. Surely the Pokémon themselves may not be too happy about this domestication? Also having a "magical cellphone" feels a bit easy, could have gone completely old-school and just work around it with paper maps. I don't know, I'm just not feeling it. It's like a weird blend of Pokémon Let's Go, Sword and Shield's Wild Area with some BOTW stuff going on, but not having the best bit of all those games.

Da da da daaaah! So I'm not expecting that much from the Kirby anniversary either. Luckily, this game looks to be plenty of fun and for me is enough Kirby celebration. It looks a bit less apocalypse-y than the first trailer, but that doesn't matter.

So, there's a Foo Fighters horror comedy movie coming? Yes please! Got some serious Pick of Destiny vibes from this and it looks to be a laugh!

Thanks! Haha now I feel bad for the guy, I may put him in as an avatar to make up for it.

I kind of hope we will see Mario Kart 10 on the Switch. As much as I love 8 Deluxe, by now I have seen all the tracks. Who knows, Nintendo could go rinse and repeat again and bring us 10 this year, and 10 Deluxe when the Switch's successor launches. But yes, since 8 Deluxe is still selling buckets, I wonder if that may be the reason they are holding back. On the other hand, we have Splatoon 3 incoming as well, while they could have easily kept Splatoon 2 going (and that was also still in the top 20 of 2021). I think there are plenty of directions to go with the next Mario Kart. Like said above, add a gimmick like Double Dash had. Or a single player adventure. The Smash Ultimate route also sounds plausible. Characters from the Kirby universe for example would fit in well, although I hope they stay away from stuff like folding Ridley into a Kart. And while many are hating on Mario Kart Tour, there is plenty that can be taken from there. Seasonal tracks, different game modes, costumes, a score system more based on style instead of just finishing first. Just leave out the gacha bit and make sure you can unlock it with in-game play. But some of the costumes and new tracks in there are amazing.

This is the only online place where I use Vileplume2000 as a user name and I kind of hate it because it just screams 1999 MSN messenger era. Plus I'm not that big of a Pokémon fan anymore. So I would like to change my username to Dufniall, the online name I use on all my other gaming outlets. Is that something you can help with @Ashley?

When I was still working in the office I had my half an hour drive home that helped me wind down from the working day. Put on a podcast or relaxing music, or some sing-along punk or heavy metal if I had frustrations. Now, working from home since the beginning of covid, I usually relax after work with a game of League of Legends Wild Rift on my phone, or with a Switch game. Sometimes cooking helps to de-stress, although sometimes it feels more like a burden so that depends on the mood. If I'm really worked up from work I go for an extra walk (I also walk during my lunch break).

I figured it was because it's 2022 now haha. But yeah, the Pokémon split sounds reasonable too.

My top 3 games of 2021 would be Monster Hunter Rise, Metroid Dread and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. Monster Hunter Rise is an amazing instalment in the series, it improved in all the right places while keeping the good bits of the franchise. Especially the ease of playing online is a godsend. Metroid Dread is a great Metroid title, and although I've only played through it once, I still feel I got my money's worth from it. Finally, SM3DW+BF; it was the first time I got to experience 3D World and I enjoy the more level-structured approach it has. The game looks, sounds and plays so well. Bowser's Fury is a good addition and a nice experience and I enjoyed going through it. If I take games played in 2021 into account, three games stand out for me. On PC, I really enjoyed my time with Jurassic World Evolution. I actually played most of it in 2020, but I finished it in January. It's not the deepest sim game but the gameplay loop was addicting enough, plus dinosaurs. Immortals Fenyx Rising is a game I can recommend to any Switch owner as it can be picked up cheap quite often. The presentation is really done well, and although it doesn't play as fluently as BOTW, the gameplay is more than adequate, plus you have an amazing moveset you can use. I really enjoyed my time with this. And finally Dark Souls Remastered. I bought it at the end of 2018, played it for some hours but stalled. A couple of months later I started it again, and stalled again. This year I started it for a third time, and after hours of perseverance (and the help of a guide here and there), I finally finished it on January 1. I'll talk about it more in detail in the Gaming Diary thread, but finishing this was one of my highlights of 2021, and possibly ever.

Nintendo of Europe shared a list of the 22 most played titles on Switch in 2021: 1. Fortnite 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3. Minecraft 4. Pokemon Sword 5. Pokemon Shield 6. Zelda: Breath of the Wild 7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 8. Rocket League 9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 10. Super Mario Odyssey 11. FIFA 21 Legacy Edition 12. Pokemon Unite 13. Monster Hunter Rise 14. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe 15. Super Mario Party 16. Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu 17. Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee 18. Splatoon 2 19. FIFA 20 Legacy Edition 20. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury 21. Super Mario Maker 2 22. Luigi’s Mansion 3 Quite an interesting list. Seeing both FIFAs there (guess 22 arrived a bit too late to make the chart), Fortnite #1, Minecraft #3. Zelda still high in the chart. No Metroid, maybe it's too short of a game to make it in. Would have expected Monster Hunter to be higher as well. And Splatoon 2 is still being played apparently.

It's been a long time since I posted here, so an update is due. Next to the games here I've also finished Metroid Dread, a Axiom Verge randomizer run and I've been dabbling with Control on Stadia but I posted about that in the respective threads. I've further gotten back to and again stopped playing Animal Crossing, made some progress in Xenoblade Chronicles HD (I'm back to the point where I stalled on the Wii), and I'm making progress in Bioshock: Remastered. But let's get on to the games I've finished or played more recently: Dark Souls Remastered (Nintendo Switch) After getting stuck in the sewers somewhere last year, I kind of left the game for what it is. But this year the urge came back to finish it once and for all, and that's what I'm doing now. The game was my 3rd played game this year according to the stats, so it looks like I'm getting somewhere. To be more precise, I've acquired the Lordvessel and I've taken down Nito, so I'm slowly moving towards the end. This time I have used a guide for when I got stuck, and to be fair there were quite some times I needed it. But it also really helped me to understand the mechanisms. What stats to upgrade and which ones are useless for my build, how weapon upgrades work, what certain items do, how to get some optional sidequests et cetera et cetera. Without it I would have missed a lot, and would have progressed a lot slower I think. While the game does feel unfair at times, and sometimes you die because of weird mechanisms, I do enjoy the feeling of finally getting on top of the game instead of just struggling. Some bosses (like Nito) I took down on first try, while others took some tries but I did overcome them. On the one hand I don't want this game to end, on the other hand I'm glad when it is over. New Super Lucky's Tale (Nintendo Switch) I finished New Super Lucky's Tale somewhere early October, and it was a really fun game! Some of the dialogue is just cringe, but Lucky is a pretty charming character, plus the game has a lot to offer. There are 3D levels, 2D levels, boss fights, puzzles, auto-runner levels, so quite a good variety which means it doesn't get boring. The game is pretty easy so having that variety is a must. Lucky himself controls pretty good, something which can be tricky in 3D platformers. You have the standard moveset of jumping, a tail swipe and you can burrow, but I never felt I was losing control. The game does look decent on the Switch, although loading times are a tad long. If you're looking for a very easygoing, charming and varied 3D platformer, I'd definitely recommend it. Panzer Paladin (Nintendo Switch) A game I had my eye on since it launched, finally got a decent discount in the November sales. Panzer Paladin is a 2D platformer from a couple of old Ubisoft developers, with a couple of gimmicks. First, your weapons are breakable, meaning you have to micromanage them a bit, as you don't want to wind up at a boss with a weapon with short range for example. You can also choose to sacrifice your weapon, unleashing its magic. This can be a thunder attack, a healing spell, increasing the durability of the next weapon, and so on. The trick is to wear a weapon down to almost breaking, and then sacrificing it for its effect. The other gimmick is that you can get out of your paladin and go on foot as the android that controls it. She has limited health, but is small so can fit through smaller gaps and has a whip that lets you swing on hooks. There are usually a couple of moments in a level where you have to leave the paladin behind, some necessary and some for optional collectibles. For the rest, the game is pretty damn straight forward. Choose a level, go through it, and fight the boss. These boss fights are the highlight of the game. Some bosses are easy, some take a while to learn their patterns. They are based on mythological beings such as Medusa, Baba Yaga and Anubis and reward you with a good weapon drop at the end. The levels themselves are decent, not Mega Man quality but good enough, and ultimately are just a route to the boss encounter. The game does look fresh with its pixel graphics, and has a nice pumping soundtrack. Playing as a paladin has a nice mix of good moveability and feeling weighty as you are a big robot at the same time. If you are looking for a straightforward 2D retro platformer, this is a good mix between Zelda II, some Ducktales, some Castlevania, and some Mega Man. Mechstermination Force (Nintendo Switch) Also got this one in the November sale, as @Londragon was pretty enthusiastic about it. Mechstermination Force is a 2D boss battle game. The presentation is pretty basic, and the dialogue is nothing to write home about. But the game is fun, and I can imagine this being a fun co-op game to blast through in a day or two. I did play solo though. The game really is all boss battle. No levels to run through, you just go in and fight massive bosses. Usually this means breaking certain crucial parts to whittle it down. For example, you may need to blast off pieces of armour in order to cling onto it, so you can climb to the head. In between battles you can spend your earned cash to buy health upgrades or different weapons like a laser or spread gun. Those weapons remind me of Contra/Probotector, and the game does play as such as well. You run and gun and jump and climb. The controls feel a little bit on the floaty side. Some bosses are more impressive than others, but there is a nice variety in them. All in all not a must-play, but a fun game to pick up in a sale and play with a friend. I do like the boss fight style though, and wouldn't mind seeing this concept worked out Shadow Of The Colossus style (either in 2D or 3D) on the Switch.

Another massive eShop sale is live with 1900+ games on sale. No More Heroes 1 and 2 both 50% off. Bloodstained 60%. Steamworld Dig 2 70%. Just to name a few!

One of the worst Indie Worlds for me personally, few games appealed to me and a lot of games didn't really trigger my interest. It's good to see River City Girls is getting a sequel, although it looks to be more of the same and I have yet to play the first part. Dungeon Munchies slightly caught my eye because the mechanism looks kind of interesting. Endling looked great but the story and concept just feels to depressing, and I have a feeling they are going to milk that despair to the max in this game. Figment 2 makes me wonder if maybe I should pick up Figment in a big sale, although I wasn't that impressed with the trailer. Sea of Stars looks good, but I'm also not in the market for an RPG. All in all not a single game that I need to play ASAP, or even have to put on the wishlist, while usually there are at least 2 or 3.

After that supercute Voltorb reveal, they now come out with... this: Good way to kill the good Voltorb vibes.