darksnowman

For sure. There's daylight between me and every wall/barrier/blade of grass it thinks I'm hitting. Sometimes you can clatter around a corner and not lose too much speed but it isn't dependable. Going off and on the accelerator to initiate a drift is working better for me than trying to force it by breaking, though that could depend on the car as I just tried one I unlocked and could hardly get a drift out of it with that method. Going to need more time to get a feel for how to bully other cars and not come off the worse. Currently not too hopeful this is doable. There's a nice sense of speed in certain sections. I reckon time trial'd be good to zone out and swing around some bends.

Places like Wallbridge are to be savoured. I like the way titles are sort of like jobs in other RPGs. But you get so many thrown at you I just put it on auto and let the game cycle through them for me. Being presented straight away with the grade shop took me by surprise. If I totted it up right, it looked like it gives you enough grade to unlock everything from the off. Yeah, inventory space is tight. I had to keep dualising to free up room so pickups weren't going to waste. Indeed. "Tactical." Well, come clean then. What's so good about Graces anyway?? Can't only be the ice block sliding minigame. I think you just like Richard going Ratatosk mode and the bit at the end under friendship tree when he claps Asbel on the back and tells him courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

Are you a natural at RR64? It feels good when you glide around a corner but the collision detection is incredibly unforgiving. At least Horizon Chase Turbo has the nitro to give you a chance to recover from bonking another car. Decent reason to (not figuratively) dust off the N64 controller.

Everything already been discussed on this over a decade ago, then? Always been under the impression I'd missed out on something fairly special with this, but having now played through it, I'd say it is just okay. When I went to buy ToGfR the other weekend, I was pleasantly surprised it was on the cheaper side like Ys Memoire: TOiF the week before. More of this, please. Then when I started into it I immediately felt like I'd made a mistake—it was so naff that if the opening 3-4 hours were a demo I reckon I'd have been happy enough to take a pass on it. Thankfully, it picks up a little after that and I can look back on the beginning as a sort of charming stage setter. I'm still going to go back for the bonus scenario but it'd have to reinvent the game a fair bit to elevate my opinion of it after playing the main game itself. Deplete CC, wait for it to replenish, deplete CC, wait for it to replenish, deplete CC... oh, +2 CC from a dodge, wait for the rest to replenish...

Levelled. Progressed. Thought I was within an hour of finishing it. Got over the next roadblock at a mere three retries but that's me stuck again. Need to level more. Warrior learned all her abilities so I've conformed and changed vocation to monster wrangler. Will do the same with martial artist once the last ability comes through.

Any response from the clouds you're yelling at, old man? I ask because you sound like me when I go on Pokémon Unite. As for F-Zero 99, you're stuck with whatever's in rotation and the unlocks take care of themselves based on how you race/what mode you race/both. The current three lap, 9-race world tour is fun when it comes up. I'm hoping to make it through all nine races before long...

I put her in the cat ears and tail and it still didn't take the edge off the irritation I was getting from her. I played the whole game as Adol except when the game forced me to be Karja.

The demo sold me on the gameplay and atmosphere so I was looking forward to the full-game. A tweak here and there wouldn't go a miss but overall I had a very good time with it. Fantasian's been good stuff. I imagine the controls haven't been adapted properly because it's iffy if you keep running when you go between screens—learned that the hard way when I overshot a save point on the screen beside the first boss. Otherwise it's lovely. The day it came out the Switch news page wrongly said there was a demo, but there is one now if you want to give it a go.

It'll be evergreen. Had to get Reynatis that weekend.

Fortnite came up as my first-played game of the year. With another Winterfest in the offing, it's got every chance of defending its position. It's interesting to reflect on where the spending went because I reckon it's the first year I haven't bought a Nintendo game. Demos, Game Trials and the various NSO aside, it looks like I had these on: MH Rise Ys VIII RingFit (my return to this didn't last long either, @Cube) Mario Maker 2 Shiren The Wanderer DQ Monsters Lego City Undercover OutRun Ys IX Baten Kaitos Origins (fell off it since @EEVILMURRAY wasn't playing along) Chico and the Magic Orchards TOEM Link's Awakening Theatrhythm P5 Tactica FF Legends III (need to get back to it) The New Denpa Men Portal (back on it briefly, intended to get to Portal 2 around this time of the year) Doom, Doom II, Doom + Doom II Flashback Tinykin Metal Gear Solid Metal Gear Solid 2 Splatoon 3 Reynatis Castlevania Advance Collection (for Aria of Sorrow) MK 8 DX Ys X Nordics FF VI Tetris 99 DQ III Fortnite Fantasian F-Zero 99 Looks like 14 purchases and none from the Big N! At least I think I played what I bought. Not even treading water with them. Seems like since the GBA, it's always been the year of the RPG. It's little wonder you aren't drawn to your Switch. Yeah, there's definitely a cut-off for it. One other year, I tried running it again at the end of December but it didn't update. Good to see your Switch got some play last month, @martinist

To a finish. The final boss was a feel-good encounter. I cleared out everything except some buried treasure because I couldn't be bothered revisiting earlier areas. My main gripe with it was Karja. And not because of her character (cold/annoying becomes a partner for the ages)... her voice. Looked it up after a while and it's Makoto from P5. Any wonder I found her grating. If this new thing is DLC I'd probably be up for it. About time I bought some DLC. I'd pay to partner up with Dogi for once.

I have a feeling if I already played the eShop version I would probably have skipped this release too. It's very good and would have been an all-timer if I'd played it back in the day, sharing stories and pointers offline but coming to it now... I see what it brought to the table, but that's about it. Having played all the mainline DQs that are out here now, this one would probably be middle of the pack at best. Still, glad to have got 1 & 2 off the eShop before this because... if you know, you know. Mindblowing. Should have seen it coming. But sort of wish the game had just ended instead. Same. It's a slow grind. I just went for a standard party but it stopped being effective some time ago. The tip I followed was:

I was though yet to see it out. The going got so rough I resorted to looking up some tips but that only got me so far. Looks like I'll have to grind what I have or grind new vocations to get past the current boss. You play it elsewhere?

Another great year of gaming on Switch.

I'd the Lunar game on DS. I'm not one who wheels and deals with trade-ins, but that one was so bad I took it back and got a bit off Animal Crossing: WW. Would like to try out these entries as I know it's a well-liked series.