darksnowman

Dormie time and Sonny goes and pulls out an eagle to keep the match alive. Ultimately it was too little too late.

This is set for an unspecified time on May 18th. Good to see they are still working on it.

Dabbled with it back in the day but even though I knew it was meant to be a good one, Swords Dance never became a fixture for me. Saw more value in utilising the turns to keep on the offensive. Always thought the Elite Four were suckers for using Swords Dance as it just gave me an extra turn to attack. Figured now I'm older and supposedly wiser it'd be time to set out my stall with buffs and debuffs to try and finesse my way to victory, but if they're duds they're duds. Noted along with Amnesia. Yup, I still think of psychic type as the top of the tree because of Red/ Blue. Just have to remember to squash the Bug types with something else. I remember having a lot of joy inflicting poison with Muk/ Grimer too... when I'd ran out of PP to scorch my way across Kanto that is.

You're right of course. Thought I'd matured into a moustache-twirling buffer/debuffer but it seems hitting first and hitting hard is still the way to go.

This thread's been quiet. Too quiet. For 11 years. Took the 3DS out and about (no Streetpass hits) and after exiting Luigi's Mansion 2, I decided it was time to unwrap that Star Fox 64 3D icon. Yeah okay, I may have done some Japanese Rail Simming too, guilty as charged. After the enforced training section which I thought was never going to end, I played through the game twice. It's as great as ever! Relieved to say it works all right with the slide pad. I just got tangled up a few times between Y and X as for some reason I instinctively pressed Y to boost and expected X to be nova bombs whereas it's obviously the other way around. Not sure why my thumb thought it'd be any different. The voices are off. Especially, from the stages I played anyway, Andross. I'm sure they did their best but the delivery just doesn't come across the same. Also, even on headphones, some of the music is a bit lacking too. In particular, on Katina when the mothership comes in. It's softer and doesn't drive home the peril of the situation. Pity the 3DS doesn't have rumble. Fichina was so reality-breaking it sent me down a rabbit hole. According to the Internet, I can skip the credits next time around. This is not something I ever considered on the N64 but the amount of time it takes to sit through the tacked-on 3DS staff credits is a big ask. Didn't help that the battery was in the red (flashing!) by the end of the second play-through, so I had to close the 3DS rather than risk waiting out the credits. Otherwise, great touch-up of a great game I used to run through pretty much daily at one point on the N64. If I had these graphics + 3D effect on the big screen with the N64 controller, rumble, voices and some more oomph where needed on the 3DS orchestral music I'd say we'd reached perfection. Let's just call it Fortuna too, okay?

Coming off Immortals: Fenyx Rising, I'm in that weird in-between spot where I'm unsure what to move onto next. Got the email that Ys IX is out on PS5 (better late than never) which made me consider getting the Switch version off the shelf, but nah, not yet. Don't fancy starting one of these other RPGs right now and couldn't choose between any of the smaller games I have either. I was even almost back on Immortals out of sheer routine. So I bounced around a few games over the weekend as tends to happen at these times. This included getting some use out of the Expansion Pack. Chilled out on Wave Race, chipped away some more at Mario Tennis (great game just to play on autopilot) and settled a bit on the NTSC version of Pilotwings 64 which I remembered I'd intended to play over Christmas.* Top stuff. I've enjoyed it even more than I did back in the day. On the N64, I think I wanted to play it more like Mario, with objectives being something to get to but not necessarily the immediate task at hand. This time I've been a lot happier to pick a mission and get to it. The Chicken Dive on the hang glider is an example of one that provided plenty of quick tries and retries. Just what I was looking for. And the music! I remember it all but it somehow fits better than it ever did. Classic game. Did a round of Pokémon Stadium as well. Lost to Brock so I'll have to put more consideration into what I rent next time out. Tbh, what cost me was choosing the wrong move on the first turn, then scolding myself to "play it properly", I next went for a Leer, followed with a Withdraw and by the time I was done faffing around and began attacking, CPU Brock was well underway with the crits. A timely whiff from me didn't help matters. THERE GOES THE BATTLE. * Also sort of planned to do the Splatoon 3 singleplayer over Christmas so perhaps I could try getting to it in this window.

Got finished up with Hephaistos—I already thought the robot sculptures were saddening, then the story wound up getting heavy too—then pressed onwards through blizzard conditions to a finish. There's still plenty to do and get, but it just felt like a good time to push through rather than delay it. Going up the mountain in the northern area was the closest thing to a slog in this game. Nice that they added some variety, I suppose, but it was still a drag. Earlier, I'd left a vault (in the northeast) that saps your stamina so I wasn't exhilarated to see the mechanic come into play in the real world. Storywise, the end sequence of events was good stuff. Truth bomb after truth bomb and the final vault was a decent victory lap of the puzzles I'd been solving throughout... some of them since Boom Blox on the Wii, in fact. After getting the armour sorted out in the forge, I went through what I had and happened upon a winning combo of helmet/ armour/ phospor that restored health and stamina through combat. Enemies were suddenly trivialised. Even Typhon. Very satisfying indeed. Typhon deserved everything he got. My jaw hit the floor witnessing what he did after the first section of the final showdown. Aside from the snow mountain seeming a bit of a dud, here are some other things I picked up on: Vaults can go on one puzzle iteration too many. Was there enemy scaling? I didn't feel like I was really getting ahead until that winning combo of equips near the end. Is there something to protect against lasers? I brute-forced a bit in the finale with potions (which I never thought to try before). Died so many times to lasers throughout. After receiving the Phosphor sidequest, I expected more "live" stuff like it but there was nothing of the sort going on. Not that I was exactly wanting for things to do so perhaps it would have been overwhelming to have NPCs dish out sidequests on top of everything else? Still, the way Phospor was introduced made the game world seem more alive and dynamic than it ended up being. I'd still like a way to auto-mark everything on the map. Not that I'm down on the game or anything; overall I thought Immortals was very good. A super first foray into these notorious "Ubisoft-style games" for me. Plenty of evenings these past few weeks I've lost track of time just going for one more nearby chest or challenge. It's been great. Saying that, I've zero intention of moving onto Assassins Creed or whatever else they offer in this vain—I'm good for the time being. Though this Immortals purchase came with the expansions, so I may well look into those further down the line, as well as whatever postgame may be lying in wait. I'm curious to load my clear game save to see if that snow storm has cleared... And now to play something I don't have to tinker with the Switch Internet connection to bypass a mandatory login.

Decent races tonight. Thanks for deputising, @BowserBasher. Could have done with you there!

Been on tenterhooks waiting for some instructions on tonight's proceedings.

Bunkum. Shrines have only been in one game and I bagsied it was LA.

I'll name one. Link's Awakening has the Dream Shrine and Face Shrine.

This is the kind of spoiler content I'm interested in. The practicalities. When you get more of it under your belt I'd be interested in a better overview. Same. The previews are all the same sugary gushing and as for the other speculative video examinations, I skip em as I want a game that's fun to play first and the hidden details can be discovered later. To be sure, it was intriguing setting out in BotW, down the slope to the Temple of Time, getting the slate powers, that iconic one time you chop down a tree to create a makeshift bridge... then you're off the plateau into the great nothingness. Funny in the TotK ask the developer interviews they allude to it as like reusing Wuhu Island and call it the Great Mundanity. They know. Wait til you see what's coming on the next page.

I get that. Based on my personal apathy towards BotW, seeing story revelations for TotK has been the least of my concerns but I wouldn't post any of it here. I've been more interested in getting a feel for if the objectives and general gameplay between story events is anything to write home about—which is no mean feat when the vast majority are people who lapped it up before and are automatically lapping it up again. It'll be fantastic if TotK's a game where the hours melt away as you delight in the fusing and collecting on your way to saving the land in a timely fashion, but from what I've seen and extrapolating from my taster, I'm apprehensive. I don't think the novelty will sustain it. I'll be listening to what people such as yourself and @drahkon have to say when you "dig" into it because trying to find any sense of balance in other previews/writeups/reviews is a fool's errand. I've actually been listening to some podcasts from around the Switch launch and thus BotW, and it's astonishing the childlike wonder that game inspires in people. It's infectious for a second until you remember these people are flapping their gums about rolling weightless boulders off hilltops, which got old fast. Reckon I'll be on MM 3DS before TotK rather than after. Fenyx... well... it'd be controversial to comment one way or the other...

It is people of culture like you I want to hear from. Your spoiler is promising. Perhaps I will end up having to reassess after all.

Right you are, thought there was maybe a typo in the URL or something. Just did a web search and got some snippets. Looks a bit of a lukewarm read.

"Something went wrong. Please refresh the page, or try again later." This just a problem for me?

(Don't think this image is a spoiler? It looked as good as any for what I want to comment on...) Forgot to mention in regards to War's Den that Ares has Sandslash for shoulder armour??! Can't not see it. Coming off the latest Splatfest and jumping back into this last night was a wee bit jarring. Near died from fall damage immediately as I needed a minute to adjust back to the buttons. Just want to draw attention again to how small the map is to traverse. It's great. The horse not being shy about galloping over rocky terrain or jumping off ledges makes getting around at pace oh so smooth. Didn't take too long to grab the three ambrosia I'd identified (limited myself to nabbing one chest, okay maybe two, along the way) then pointed the compass to N and got moving. Seconds later I pulled up at a place the narrators saw fit to chime in on. Worth checking the map to see where it was if it got their attention, I thought, in case it's worth revisiting later. Lo and behold, I was already up into the hitherto unmapped zone. Keep thinking it'll take a while to cross the map and it never does. Incredible. Uncovered the Forgelands map, marked a bunch of things to check, met Hephaistos and set off to sort out that armour I got for finishing the Ares stuff. Spent some time trying to get into the forge to no avail, so started with the Hephaistos tasks which have revealed a way to get the forge open for business. For some reason, there's something about these frozen robots that strikes me as sad when I stop to look at them.

Not sure if that's because of the device you're using. FWIW I pretty much agree with your assessment. I enjoyed the journey of Suzume but it lacked that extra something by the end, imo.

Sounds like you spent two weeks coming to terms with getting a lump in your throat over a three-legged stool and this is the best you could come up with.

I'll be taking advantage of that because the columns of light disappear when you close in them, so it can be easy to glide past the section you wanted to investigate. One time I replayed a vault for a chest I found tucked away in behind the goal area. I've checked back there every time since and it's been a more commonly used hiding place than I would have expected. Crafty.

Never crossed my mind to try. I've just been keeping en eye for the columns of light as chest indicators.

War's Den. Not the most hospitable what with it being a battlefield of giants, but I came to realise it's not the scorched hellscape I had it down as. That's because the first time I legged it through this area for the Phosphorus sidequest, I was under a wraith attack which was mayhem to experience in the early going with low health and low stamina. Then, this time, as soon as I crossed into the area, another wraith attack broke out and I figured I was going to be up against it for the duration. But it passed and a level of calm settled, and while I still don't find it the most inviting of zones, I was able to go about my business (with wraith attacks hitting at the usual inconvenient intervals). The comedy of the Ares situation (story stuff) provided a nice contrast. I grabbed a couple of ambrosia, the odd chest, a night chest (to complete a task of getting 5), transported an apple, and didn't do a great deal more. Took down two lieutenants! One was an oversized enemy beside a story quest zone and the other was the boss of the storyline here. Just the one more needed but I'm keen to put War's Den behind me so I doubt I'll mooch around for it. If I need to, I'd rather go for the remaining chests, vaults and whatnot in the other (green) areas before coming back here. To cap it off, I did a vault in a pot for Ares then took down a pair of enemies he marked on the map. Beating these pushovers yielded some armour that's the worse for wear, so I've been pointed to a forge in the (unexplored) north.

Pen and paper at the ready! @martinist finish that song on Theatrhythm and get Mario Kart on.

I thought you boys would have figured out a way to game the RNG by now.