darksnowman

I'm sure it isn't beyond the wit of our Nintendo overlords to separate it into two separate NSO slots. Taito managed to figure it out with Space Invaders donkies ago (had a 16-bit version playable on the Super Gameboy).

Honestly can't believe the lengths you went to. Is there a card that works like Libra in Final Fantasy or did you just figure out what elements to go for from trial and error? I would have been hitting him with wind when it came up for Xelha and Gibari but like I said, we "breezed" through that encounter. I think there are two more bosses I died to. Standing by for you swatting them aside. As the philosopher said, the mind is a blank magnus. Definitely. It'll be a while before I circle back for Origins. Since I talk to all NPCs anyway, I thought rounding up the bracelet people would just naturally happen. Then you meet some that are stubborn and demand an essence or something that isn't trappable on the same island and by the time you're able to freely roam I'd lost all track of who was where and what they wanted. I thought I was doing all right with the constellations until his next hint became something like "I hear flying creatures sometimes have them." Flying creatures in a particular area perhaps...? No? Well forget it. @Happenstance Did you ever get over your aversion to cards and get this??

Those'd be nice. It'd be cool to have the option for the Super Gameboy borders. I'm looking forward to Conker's Pocket Tales so @WackerJr can support us through it. I couldn't get into it on GBC.

Yeah, must have been spent. Looks like you've put plenty of thought into it already. Just pick the cards with the biggest numbers and try to resist building combos with fire+water, light+dark and the like. When the results screen showed a 80% resistance to something I just got on with it, when my combo cancelled itself out I was peeved at my carelessness. It was like Ayme and Savyna for me--rattles off a long combo that barely makes a dent. The one before, I was surprised when he keeled over too because on that retry there was barely any jeopardy. On attempts leading to that, he boosted his stats and wiped us out one by one before any healing cards came through. The luck of the draw. Only time the Great (Great ) Mizuti got a look in for me was the game of snap in the sidequest. In fact, I tried to skip that sidequest in the Tower of Zomsaaaaaargh and go finish the game but Mizuti kept gurning when I went to tell Corellia I was ready to end it. Let me know if those sidequests are optional or not.

Great example of how different our experiences have been. The boss before that gave me trouble, then that one straight after barely laid a glove on me (to the point I was healing just to use the cards up). At that point I had: But their decks weren't specialised beyond taking the strongest of what I had.

Yep, time is running out to inject it with some undead in the form of Resident Evil 2 for Halloween. They've very much got us on a drip feed with this. Doesn't seem to matter how many consoles they add. Hard to think they'd have put Gameboy and GBA on there without an onslaught queued up but here we are... and by no stretch have they exhausted the other consoles libraries. Though I think there is a rhythm to the releases? At least I'm never too surprised when something's added out of the blue. Excitebike 64 was put on recently so you can always master that to tide you over until the next addition. They're letting people see what it was like back in the day with the sparse N64 calendar. I'm in a similar spot to you with the subscription renewal. I kept it for Splatoon 3 but since going cold turkey after being a slave to it for a year, I reckon I'll be letting the sub lapse, take a free month and go from there. I've broke out the N64 controller at the moment for a bit of OoT so at least I'm getting some use out of it so I wouldn't say the jig is totally up! And I expect I'll go all-in on several NSO games when the renewal deadline begins to loom in the new year. I've been waiting for Killer Instinct online nights here since the N64-Europe days. I'll take it on SNES, GB or N64 but it seems as far away as ever. Like, there's a good amount of great games on there as is yet you can't help but feel if the Switch wasn't doing so well they'd be bolstering these catalogues week in, week out. The coins must have expired!

Baton down the Kaitos! The battle length in this is no joke. I was considering turning on the OHKO QoL option to power through the latter stages.. but where's the sense of achievement in that? I'll admit I was pretty miffed at the battle-cutscene-rebattle bit in the cabin but I lucked through it eventually. It felt like I'd went above and beyond to get the story progression. But blooming heck. And I never want to come across block-pushing puzzles like in the Tower of Zomsaaargh again. Please Baten Kaitos Origins. And what's with Komo-Mai becoming your base of operations? It never stops celebrating the Celestial Festival! A stark contrast to the story telling me the end is nigh. But that's pretty much where my criticisms end. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was presented with a Chrono Trigger-style list of party member sidequests before converging on Cor Hydrae where we proceeded to clean the clocks of the final run of bosses. It was never too late for story revelations. From graphics to music to story and battle style (just wish battle animations could be sped up or skipped. World of Final Fantasy Maxima, for instance, allows you to hold R to fast-forward battles as and when you want and that would have been so welcome here, otherwise...), truly a great game. Very heartfelt. I had it as the lesser of the Skies of Arcadia-Tales of Symphonia-Baten Kaitos GameCube triumvirate and while that may still hold true for me, I feel the gap's a lot closer than I was giving it credit for. I just remembered this as having those lovely backdrops and little else going for it but that's far from the case. Three very different RPGs that are great in their own way. If I ever do an Advanced New Game, it'll be a New Game+ and I'll flick on the QoL cheats and obliterate it. For now, they have released me. ----------------- @EEVILMURRAY Finished it off over the weekend. Those 1,000+ hits reached into the 2,000s a few times which was nice to see. And, no it wasn't because I went back to Moonguile Forest to dish out some pwnage! Not sure if it made up for all the turns when I had one or no attacking options but I suppose that was the nature of the system. I took the elemental bonuses when I got them but didn't painstakingly modify my decks for each area or bosses--just made sure I was using the strongest of what I had no matter the elemental affinity. Maybe if you could scan enemies to see their weaknesses and resistences I'd have worried about it more. If you've only wiped out once you must be making a better fist of it than I did... or your cards are just coming out in a better order. You jammy swine.

They're right about one thing: it's a good day to play.

The amnesia cliche has played out well since I've remembered so little about this game. Think it took me four goes to get past Geldoblame. Did some card management between retries (noticed it reverts the decks so you have to keep doing it for repeated attempts--annoying) but ultimately it didn't matter as I "just" needed to get lucky with his use of the OHKO move. Was my first deaths since the very early going, back when I was mentally preparing myself for many defeats outside my control. The traitor made themselves known. Wasn't sure exactly where to go next but since it was at this point you could finally move freely between islands, I thought I'd go back and check-in with the character from the beginning, and when I was there, I was curious if the mayor still hated me. Tipped me off on where to investigate if I was looking for a vortex. Which I was, and it cleared up where to find the rest. Though it did get a bit fetchquesty when you started needing an item to unlock them. At least it was always something nearby so on the way to the last one I took a punt on what magnus essence to trap and it did the job. It took a bit longer to pick up the trail again later. Not sure if I missed it in the preceding cutscene because it was a bit weird it left me with no direction and things getting ever more urgent. I actually saved and exited to see the blurb when you load your file. It said we'd be heading to Alfard so I figured that was me back on track. Except when I exited Cursa to head to the dock, I wasn't on the world map which struck me as strange it'd expect me to push back through the wind. I hunted back through the castle for Barnette to see if she'd remind me how we'd left things and it triggered the next events. I totally missed it if she said come and talk to me when you're ready to go. Alfard was teeming with easy battles and great exp returns. Going up and down those lifts pushed my mental mapping more than any previous area. An in-game map would have come in very handy. In one battle I was presented with a bunch of Pass cards... how'd Lyude get into the active party?? The boss at the top of the imperial fortress smacked me around a few times and all. Had me thinking I should retreat to a blue flower to use all that exp I was sitting on. I actually restarted to the last red flower save to redo my decks before the battle so I wouldn't have to keep tediously going through that between retries. Eventually the cards fell in my favour... only to walk into another boss battle straight after. Absolutely no peril with this one. I was using healing cards just to get them out of my hand! Scenes ensued. Heartstrings were plucked at. Chills. Somehow a speck of dust seemed to get in my eye. And we're off again. So far we've botched this world saving every time it matters. I've started landing a few 1000+ attacks so it's giving me hope this group might finally be starting to get their act together. All this after I'd been looking at the boxart, wondering about the prominence of the characters shown.

Thanks again for the races.

Watch as Nintendo drops Chain Chomp Champs 99 on NSO and that'll be the last we ever hear of Pac-Man.

It gets easier after the first one. Or so I've heard. Not so straightforward to make the distinction between games that were a letdown and those that are almost there but don't quite manage greatness. Then there's the great games I have niggles with that are still great. Here's a few I think could have been great--I'm sure I could think of plenty that snatched mediocrity from the jaws of greatness if I could consult a list of everything I ever played. Mario Golf: On Switch. With improved golf mechanics I would have expected this to be a regular fixture. I can't help but feel they've gone in the wrong direction with golf and tennis since the N64. A less abrupt ending to the single player RPG would have been nice, too. But gameplay is king so the game would still be lacking without nailing that. If there'd been a demo I wouldn't have bought the full game. The Game Trial put me off Tennis. Paper Mario: The Origami King. Very good game that regrettably just lacks that secret sauce. Second Sight could have done with that extra something too to make it a great... so long since I played it I can't say what would have been. I feel like SSX On Tour missed the mark after SSX 3 being excellent but maybe I'm splitting hairs and it was still great anyway, just less great. Forsaken 64. Buttery smooth to play yet not that satisfying and pretty devoid of personality overall. Could have been a deathmatch mainstay with GoldenEye and Duke Nukem 64 if it didn't feel so soulless. It's a tough one to quantify. DK64. The pads. The hold this press that button combinations. The Kong changing. Rare had the chops to deliver an all-time great but we ended up with a reskinned Banjo-Kazooie instead. Hollow. And Nintendo shouldn't have sold them so they could course-correct on the GameCube. You wouldn't be wrong to point out this one's further from greatness than this thread is looking for. DK Racing would have been great if it came out. Which brings me to... RPGs like Persona 5, Persona 3 (no doubt Persona 4), Xenoblade... just trim it down! You can tell a story that takes me places and makes me feel I've overcome the odds in half the time. I thought DQ VII and IX (great games for the record) were exceptions in this respect in that series but it seems to be spiralling out of control too. Insert justbecauseyoucandoesntmeanyoushould.gif here. One-player games going on and on like this just subtracts from their greatness, imo. Yes, I'm attached to the characters. Yes, I've enjoyed growing their stats and getting them better equips. Yes, it's been a journey for the ages in some memorable locations with great music but it can end now and I'll start a new file if I want more! Oh, it's only the halfway point... nooooooo. No doubt these are still great games but let the point stand. If they could just leave me wanting more because coming away wanting less leaves a bad taste. Sports Story. Years after Golf Story and it still came out rushed. They were onto something with Dragon Quest Treasures. Better monster variety could have tipped it over into greatness. (Okay, you got me. That'd only make it greater.) @WackerJr I'd like to replay SFA because I look back on it pretty favourably. Not saying it doesn't have its issues but I wouldn't put it a million miles off greatness either. I don't mind it being linear so if they made that c-stick menu more intuitive, had the Arwing bits feeling more like Lylat Wars (I'm okay with them not being the focus of the game but they could still be improved) and reworked one or two of those tests/trials that would elevate it in my book. Might be able to come up with a longer list of gripes if I played it within the last 20 years... Fox doing a mini wind kick like Jago was always pretty cool I thought. However I think Sonic Adventure to Battle would need a ground up rebuild to get it anywhere near the greatness conversation... Now Jet Force Gemini! Change that forced Tribal hunt for something optional and we'd have a great game I'd actually finish.

That's a fun find. Reminds me of having a Rabbid in my Wiimote.

Music to my ears. No really. I'm hoping (me! not sales numbers and reviews!) they find a good solid middle ground between openworld and "the formula" because I thought Skyward Sword went too far in the old direction the same way, imo, BotW/TotK goes too far in the "new direction". Strike the balance!

Took longer to unearth this thread than bumble through a puzzle in the Spencer mansion. Must remember remake for next time. Got a couple of seasonal games lined up (I'm expecting some virtual kudos from @Helmsly should I get to one in particular) and been considering slotting in a third play-through of Resi to see if there are any achievements I can realistically go for--did a Chris file in the interim since the above Jill post). I've come to enjoy/love/appreciate the game now* I've opened myself to the metroidvania-point-and-click-adventure amalgam of it despite only liking two thirds of that equation.** Ended up opting for the novelisation which was an extremely underwhelming read with some questionable backstory (I assume) however, now knowing the game, it was actually a decent retelling of the events and puzzles! * I'm a paying customer ** vania + point-and-click

I think that's my sketchy Baten Kaitos memories (pun intended) now accounted for in quick succession. The Great Mizuti, the confectionary village, the picture book village--though I visualised it differently, so I don't know if there's somewhere else akin to it later. Somehow I'd completely forgotten about the Tower of Druaga homage so it was a treat to rediscover that. Tank controls (!) would have been handy in the main room there with the upside-down entry points. Normal service resumed in battles with Xelha getting pummelled turn after turn. Haven't the faintest why she draws so much aggro. I've amassed another half a dozen plus levels so it might be time to think about visiting the church. Xelha has some defence cards that never seem to be selectable so maybe it's time to cut my losses with those. Attacking has taken a turn for the more strange with my wilted flowers and fishing rods joined by various meats, mattresses and the peach boy (??). Don't judge me, I just pick whatever has the highest ATK. Been trying to stay on top of deck management but I'd welcome a button to auto-add, say, the 20 top attack cards, 15 top defensive, then a camera and some healing. At least you can sort them to make life a bit easier. The next time there's an area with monsters and a handy way back to heal and save, I intend to swap the party around to give the other three a proper runout. They're higher level than the trio I'm rolling with so I'd expect them to be relative powerhouses. Wonder if I'll recognise any future locations when I see them. There's a story twist coming but I don't know when or where to expect it, however the breadcrumbs leading to it are there to see. Meanwhile, the party is ravaged by suspicion. Can they trust one another? Who is 100% faithful? We press onwards in the hopes that this is just a ploy from the baddies to divide and conquer us. Here's hoping I can get more blank Magnus at the next stop! ...whenever and wherever that is because I got a bit lost since the game resumed on the map at our ship but I couldn't board it. I went everywhere and talked with everyone again before I spotted a new town, Kalas' home, was available for entry. Over to you, @EEVILMURRAY. You ploughing ahead? And how's it been going for you @Tales?

Sounds like your more than ten levels worth of game ahead as I'm only up into the teens now. Didn't notice I was on the 10-second countdown until I went to use a turn to top up on HP. Timer ran out when I was looking through the HP recovery in my hand. The increased pressure is good. I've botched a few combo attempts trying to select card numbers but it was no biggie in the long run. I keep making combos like 2-4-6 that the game never deems worth a bonus. Or like 5-6-7-6-5. Come on, I'm putting in some effort here. Found my way to the equipment page no thanks to the help section which mentions its existence but not how to get there (far as I saw). I just started pressing L, R, LZ and RZ until it came up. Looks like I've missed a few on my travels but swapping everyone over to the latest had the instant impact of landing status effects on enemies. Can't be bad to that. Also, cashed in ten levels for Kalas, Gibari and Xelha which provided a welcome boost for the Celestial Tree, and brought them up to one level below the newly-joined fourth party member so it seems like I'm pretty much where the game expects. Now we are routinely dealing damage in the hundreds while enemies plink away at us! Unfortunately, the camera cards didn't come up in time to get a snap of the boss' tentacles atop the tree. It was a rare boss encounter that Xelha made it through despite being picked on as usual so the level ups paid off. I was glad not to find the tree hollowed out into a dungeon, though there was one dead end so let's see if I'm ever pointed back there. I've noticed the tornado effect for Blue Storm playing on the opposite side of the screen to the targeted enemy too. I still remember a few more locations but I'm not sure what or where is coming next. I'll be glad to put cramped Komo-Mai behind me, and hopefully there is nowhere else like the jungle. Looking forward to getting some cards that target all enemies... Reacquainting with the red- and blue-haired Folon, we should've twigged on to Baten Kaitos' return as soon we saw Fire Emblem Engage.

Got this the other week on release day but held off on starting it until the 26th. One reason was I'd code-in-a-boxed WoFF Maxima which I wanted to finish off first--very much enjoyed my time with it, two segments aside. Anyway, I have Baten Kaitos from its original release and I'm discovering I remember next to nothing about it. Maybe I was so traumatised by the card battling I locked it up in my memory and threw away the key. Took me about 45 mins to get to the first battle... and I thought WoFF Maxima had a slow start! Since then, I've been getting used to the rhythm of it yet I remember so little overall I keep wondering if I dropped the game back in the day. Like, most recently, I didn't remember Anuenue at all then I recognised Queen Corellia, followed by the library and jungle being "all-new" to me again. Though I haven't forgot the Great Mizuti and that's still to come. Wonder if it'd be similar re-experiencing Skies of Arcadia if a re-release ever comes. Think I remember Tales of Symphonia well enough but that's probably helped by the new game plus. I've come to accept that battles are slow-going affairs rather than mash A and move on. Since there are only two or three enemies per screen it probably balances out. There've been a few I had to retry (rejigging my deck in between) but I'm just going with the slow pace and being at the mercy of the cards on these occasions. Would love to see enemy health bars. I'm only level 5 or so--Lyude who recently joined is higher--as I'm saving up exp before cashing it in as it seems to give a stat boost doing it this way...? Maybe once I do this I'll be able to steamroll through for a while. I've just being playing vanilla without any of the QoL stuff enabled. Noticed a few weird things like the Shadow Wings move shooting off-screen in the opposite direction to the enemy (pretty sure damage still registered), there was an encounter we were sat at full health and took no damage for a few turns and I don't know if that was a glitch or something I did (think I defended with a strawberry), and sometimes the card numbers linger at the top of the screen after the cards themselves are gone. No idea if things like this happened in the original or not. Things I hadn't forgotten are the lovely clouds, Gibari/ Wakka and being stocked up on stagnant water magnus. PS I don't recommend doing the online registration as the free digital bonus was only a wallpaper in various resolutions. I thought they'd put more effort in or I wouldn't have bothered. Are there equips? I've noticed that on a menu but couldn't seem to interact with it. With healing items, I thought it said you use them in camp, so I was waiting for the opportunity to camp before realising you just use them any time out of battle. Agree with you on forgetting practically everything including Kalas personality!

Thanks for the races.

The key features from a fact sheet doing the rounds for the upcoming HD remaster. It'll be out on the 30th of June but £24.98 seems a bit steep, imo, so hopefully it'll get a good sale before too long. However, reading back through the enthusiasm in this thread makes it sound worth the asking price and then some.

That is correct.

Try these co-ordinates:

There was no mistaking it since my most recent point of reference for Mario World feel comes from Mario Maker.

How did that pass you by! Thanks for the heads up. Think the only one of these I didn't get a lend of on GBA was Mario World, so I had a quick blast on it... MY EARS! And I don't mean the voices; the music wasn't coming through well at all. Jumping felt a bit off too so I was down to one life before I even got to the yellow switch palace. Might play it a bit more to see if I can get used to it but I reckon the SNES version will remain the way to go unless there's something worthwhile to unlock on the GBA by doing every stage with Mario and Luigi plus collecting all the dragon coins (twice?), since this is tracked.

04:42 - Fashion Dreamer 09:44 - PROJECT MAGIA 1 2:06 - PROJECT LIFE is RPG 14:51 - STORY OF SEASONS 19:45 - Rune Factory 28:11 - DAEMON X MACHINA: Titanic Scion