darksnowman

And a jangle bellsing DKC 3? You've been off my Christmas card list since, not that you'd have noticed.

Luigi's Mansion 4 would be it, but that's not coming out until... I'm sure you would, you ingrate.

That's a fair assessment, Jonnas. Did you ever get this? I'm also partial to sending eShop demos to my Switch and played the demo too back before this game came out. It intrigued me enough as well that when I spotted it in Game for £18.44 I went ahead with the purchase and stuck it in the backlog. In an ongoing effort to whittle away at my unplayed Switch games, it's Harvestella's voice that came through clearest: unshelf me now! Say you'll never shelf me again! First impressions of picking up with the full game are that, as expected, you carry on your save. However, there's no bonus from the demo. I actually stopped to look this up to make sure I hadn't missed an option. Searching for any discussion around here re: Harvestella, I came across this post of yours in the DQ III thread. I honestly couldn't remember if I'd went with a girl or boy for the main character. It looked like I'd just gone for the girl to avoid confusion... until characters clued me in otherwise through their dialogue. I agree with you on the graphics and music. I'd forgot about the miniature style of the overworld—I find it very pleasing on the eye. In fact, I would have said it was from the DioField demo... maybe it's both. Not sure what to say about the plot as I don't really remember what the setup was other than you're an amnesiac. I'm surprised about the extent it encourages you to pursue the story though. I expected it to be pretty hands-off and just let you potter around your farm. Which it seems you're free to do if you can ignore the where to go next message in the top corner of the screen. There are benefits to pressing onwards as it has been how I've learned how to make Repair Kits, activate warp points and, incredibly, create a save file. There looks to be a decent amount of land around your house so I'm looking forward to finding out what I can do with it. So far, I can still just use the plot across from your front door. The action half of the game seems it may have a bit of depth to it. Combat lacks impact but you can change jobs, there's skill trees and you get party members and enemies have weaknesses to exploit, so there's something going on with it. I kind of like that your experience from the day gets added each night—it's fun to see if you're going to level up or not. I've been keeping an eye on the in-game clock to get a feel for how much time it takes to do some things. It's not quite as restrictive as it first appeared but an Inverted Song of Time wouldn't go amiss either. Fishing can be a big time sink as you cast off and wait for something to bite. And you better not pass out from death or late-night exhaustion as you'll start the next day late with a doctors fee to boot. Too early to say if it'll amount to more than the sum of it's parts but it's promising enough. I am most pleasantly surprised to post that there are shades of Etrian Odyssey to this. Like, you're best making sure you head out with the equivalent of an Ariadne Thread to get back home when you're in trouble/ out of time, there are shortcuts to help you get back where you were quicker next time out, then warp points, and FEAR enemies which seem like FOEs right down to having a map icon and specific movement patterns.

Good to see 2025 hasn't been the year the Crucible curse was lifted.

Same. Gonna ride it out a while longer with the Switch (1) til I see how the 2's shaping up. Yup. Unless the thing doesn't meet expectations they'll expect everyone to pay through the nose for every single thing. Not the snowboarder or the professor? So many question marks over it but the games are what you buy it for. You'd have thought first-party stuff dwindling out on Switch pointed towards them just keeping it ticking over while they got ready to come flying out of the blocks on the next console. I've nothing against the upgrade packs but since they're leading with them and there's so little else from Nintendo, it just looks like they want to just keep selling the same games again like they already did with the Wii U ports. And I think it was @RedShell commented earlier in the thread, what's going on with pitting a new Kirby's Air Ride directly against the new Mario Kart...?

I'm sure I still have a flame shield around here somewhere... Err. Think when the tree wasn't the end of the game I was good to leave it there. Returned to it years ago after a break, became a fish, the sky went dark and I haven't went back to it again since. I was having fun with it until it became apparent the end was nowhere in sight. I'd like to pick it up again before XII... and I'll see about finding out beforehand how long that one is. Probably longer than Animal Crossing it's been so long in coming already...

I try to ignore the series has gone that far since I don't have a way to play those. 🥺 Based on I-XII, yeah, FF will push out in one direction for an entry and let another aspect fall by the wayside. Like you say, do something with the gameplay and there'll be a drop-off on the story front or vice versa but it always seems to try to go for it in some way or another. FF and DQ are pretty complimentary to one another, imo. With FF striving to move forward and DQ delivering the same thing with an added wrinkle here and there they've the bases covered between them. That's brought my idea of what's going on with FF down to earth since I fell off DQ XI. This thread is for CMD.

Yeah, I rate it among the best going. Due to being a PAL gamer and my pathway through the console generations, I've always either been behind with it or feeding off scraps. I applaud them for not being scared to freshen it up because it always feels (to me, at least) like a new mainline Final Fantasy puts a marker down to show how far RPGs have come and how much potential there is when you strike out and don't just rehash your original 80s template. The spin-offs I've played are generally varied, good fun and bring something to the table too.

Having played Smash Bros. 64 quite a bit—like, daily at one point—and being all-in on Nintendo, I was looking forward to the follow-up on the new system. I remember sitting up until the wee small hours (playing Conkers Pocket Tales on GBC iirc) to catch a glimpse of Melee on Cybernet or something and was of course blown away by the intro. As for the game, I enjoyed the models and their descriptions as that was pretty novel. But I didn't get anywhere near as much play out of Melee and never bought another Smash Bros. game again. I easily got more time out of listening to the Smashing Live CD that later came with a magazine than I did playtime out of SSBM. Playing as Mewtwo in Smash Bros. remains a gaming "one that got away".

Finished FF III in a week of playing it off and on. Progress was happening so quick I had to keep taking a breather. I checked in the menu several times to make sure the boosters weren't on since the game was flying by. It felt great and the redone music was top stuff. I'd one tune or another from it stuck in my head at pretty much all times this past week. Just a pity they didn't have something longer for the credits because what's used loops about four times too many. I remember enjoying the layout of the world/s in this one and progressing through the modes of transport as it opens up. Loved it later on in the bits you get attacked mid-flight and the Invincible artillery lays down cover fire. The added Pixel Remaster touch of being upfront about how many chests and items are concealed in each location kept me checking around until I reckon I got all but one chest or item in like the second town. Lol. Think I popped only one elixir the entire run through and it wasn't in the Cave of Darkness which I'd made a few runs at before I could get down it relatively unscathed, but towards the bottom of The Forbidden Land, Eureka because with no ethers in this, I turned to an elixir to refill my Devouts MP to get the rest of the party healed back up. The Cave of Darkness had me kicking myself because the job the game tells you to use there would also have helped in the cave immediately preceding it but I didn't see anyone tipping me off there! I toughed it out through those enemies that divide and multiply thinking it was just the old skool thing to be done. It was Garuda I remembered being a difficulty spike on DS. Replaying this one in 2D was a pleasure. I could only afford half a dozen shurikens at the end yet the Cloud of Darkness went down before I had to start elixiring or anything. Could one of the Warriors of Darkness not have pitched a shop right at the end to take all the gil I'd made back off my hands? Yeah, I ended it with Ninja/Sage/Ninja/Sage as I remember that coming up in discussion as a recommendation for the DS version but I'll try to stick it out with lesser jobs next time... because the short length has guaranteed FF IIIs spot in the replay rotation—if I get a clear run at it, it could be done in a weekend.

Bullet dodged. Spot anything else on sale? I've about four quid of gold coins to get shot of and that'll be the end of them.

Went ahead and got these as there's been slim pickings this past while. I've thousands of points to get through (again) so it'll once more be time to see what tat's in stock in the next month or so.

Load time of the Find Channels page.

Trinen missed a trick not asking IGN in their big Nintendo Switch 2 interview with him if they are rebranding Nintendo Voice Chat to Nintendo GameChat. Off the topic of Switch 2, I hope they asked him if he (and any others) will be sending out their Miis again for the new Tomodachi Life game.