darksnowman

Managed to catch a snippet of the live broadcast. Thought Build looked cool. Hoping to see that demo hit the eShop! And varied too. I've the first one to finish off and another one knocking around the Switch that I still need to start into. Seeing how well they treat it, It's a series I'd like to be up to date with. As for the other three, SteamWorld Headhunter (a "stylised and colourful, third-person co-op action-adventure") was announced in 2021, and a company earnings report shared last May revealed Thunderful also has a city builder (now revealed as Build), a mobile puzzle title, and a turned-based tactical shooter/strategy game on the way. https://www.eurogamer.net/steamworld-build-is-simcity-meets-dungeon-keeper-and-its-out-this-year Wonder if Shovel Knight Dig stole their thunder on the mobile puzzle title front...

You have until 27/03 to get it. https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS-download-software/Pocket-Card-Jockey-1101822.html There's a demo if you want to try before you buy.

Trying not to be the one that blinks first here. I just know the week after I buy anything they'll do a closing-down sale.

Been having a good time on P3P. That roadblock in Tartarus opened up and I battled onwards and upwards until I reached an encounter that I didn't feel I'd the tools to figure out, so having picked up Brass Knuckles which were equipable by no one in my party, I thought it was a good sign to bail out and press on with the story and see who'd be joining. I've had plenty of joy with the monk class/ martial artist vocation and their equivalents in other RPGs, so I was looking forward to what it would add here. I was hoping Mitsuru'd ditch her support role and jump in to do the fist-fighting... but it's not to be. Glad to see you're allowed four party members so I didn't have to drop Junpei or Yukari yet. Unfortunately, the cop shop isn't selling anything that nullifies wind so I might just have to tough it out with that encounter. Maybe just having four characters will make the difference. Hopped back into Tartarus to try out the brawler and get them up to speed (they're like 4-5 levels behind...) and do some quests for Elizabeth whose deadlines are up soon. Not sure if I'll stick with these but for now I'm enthusiastic enough about them even though it looks like I've missed out on one already. So apparently Akihiko's sound then but I'll be keeping an eye on him all the same. The other guy, Ikutsuki seems too obvious... his wordplay comedy for sure is going to take a turn for the sinister and then it'll all go to pot and the dark hour will reign supreme. Where I feel P5R railroads me and no matter what I opt to do, it's no doubt the least optimal use of Joker's time, here so far at least, it's like I'm more in control and I reckon my attributes and social links are already going well. Hopefully, that's not because I've just not found a lot of people and activities. Would be handy if the calendar listed all your options and meetups for each day since the game tells you this then just expects you to remember, but that must be one QoL step too far. The story is making it sound like a girl from another class will be joining us soon so let's see if that's a false dawn or not. Will Chihiro come out of her shell? How did things escalate so quickly with Yuko? Gonna let that one cool off for now. Can't believe I'm egging Kenji on... especially when I just wanna go to training, hang out with the old couple in the book shop and hop online with the hermit girl. Or if I put in enough hours in the student council room will it get Mitsuru's attention...? All this is the least of my worries in the simplicity of Tartarus.

Was thinking it was just going to let me go as far as I wanted but a roadblock at floor 16 has brought my first Tartarus expedition to an early end. Hopefully it won't be long until it allows me to go higher.

As far as I remember, Path of Radiance on Gamecube was my first FE. I thought it was great! Those cutscenes.

The Switch. Unless profiles can be carried over to the next machine, it's going to have a tough time permanently ousting this library. Can't overstate how incredible it's been to get stuff like this on a Nintendo platform. It's been such a long time coming. Out of Persona 3 and 4, I'm bucking my trend of playing these games in reverse order and going for P3P first. Persona 3 Portable? I'd been hoping for P3D on the 3DS but this is more like Persona 3 Docked. As to be expected, it's so far so cool. Fun and interesting to see how they got to P5 from here and of course, it's great as a standalone RPG. Looks like Mitsuru fills a sort of Futaba role but I'd rather have her in the party proper. Yes, Junpei, Tartarus does sound like toothpaste! Think we're on a similar wavelength here, haha. That health restore point outside Tartarus has given me the freedom to do several runs through the opening stratum—I don't care if the party say they're tired, the Dark Hour ends when I say it ends! Splitting up to search around is maybe something they should consider reincorporating. Wondering if demon Q&A will come into it when I get deeper. The jury's out on Akihido.

Went back for a bit more Paper Mario 64. Turns out my memory of it is far from comprehensive so the replay is almost like going through it for new again. Picked up from the desert level (chapter 2) and left it saved in the toy box (chapter 4). All I remembered of chapter 3 was the opening forest and Tubba Blubba himself. As for what happened in between, I was impressed with what I thought was a change of pace this early on in the game—the way I incorrectly remembered it was that every chapter up until the last one followed a similar formula. There's a lot of creativity here that sticks out all the more since I played Origami King within the last year. Tbqh, I thought the use of generic toads, goombas, koopas, etc in modern Paper Mario wasn't a massive thing to worry about however now I'm being reminded exactly what has been lost and I want it back. So much visual personality. Mistakes have been made with the PM series. It's almost had me wishing that Retro Studios Boo game would get green-lit.

This loading screen had been drawing a chuckle from me but in the end I gave in to it and went after the story quests. Game was good. Very good! A relaxed time where the hours seemed to melt away when I was in it. Always being on the cusp of achieving something was more than enough of a carrot to keep me going when I might have otherwise saved and quit. One of those "warm" games. Having seen the credits (~30 hours, ~lvl 61, rank 14), there's not only the odd leftover quest to finish off, there's also some new post-game stuff to see to as well. Not too shabby! Giving it a rest for now but can definitely see myself going back at a later date. Was getting DQ IX vibes from it. Never failed to amuse me at the end of a treasure grotto or something when you'd get your haul and Mia'd go, "Is that IT?" Never complained about digging up bric-a-brac... I want one of these. Similar to @Ike I just went with the gift monsters after I got them... for the rest of the game. I wasn't against swapping them out, just got used to them and didn't feel the need. Still got use out of the others by sending them out in dispatch teams. Will likely mix things up in the post-game. It was only right at the end there that I got the items needed to pay for a metal slime so I'd like to party up with it at least. There's a solid foundation here for an improved sequel, be that in Draconia or elsewhere. As @Hero-of-Time alludes too, perhaps better tracking of things like chests and balloons would be nice. The game lets you know precisely where to go for so many things already, having an NPC or monster ability or something to help you track these down would be helpful. Same for monsters. Sometimes part of a quest requires you to hand over a specific monster so it would be nice to know exactly where to go to recruit them—because, as far as I saw, it just tells you the island and if they appear during the day or night. A specific area wouldn't have hurt, imo. Or just being able to set it as your current quest so you have a marker. Fast travel might be a nice option to zoom to a campfire, train station, named region... but then the islands aren't huge as it is and the act of running to a train station gives you the chance to net pickups, get exp and potentially monsters, maybe do another quest on the way, spot balloons and chests... so I don't know, I can see this one both ways. Definitely think they should look into upping the monster count since there's a heck of a lot of palette swaps here. Other than that, Treasures is a very good game in it's own right. It felt like it gave me just enough to do without being overwhelming. Some good building blocks in place if they deem it worthy of following up on. Here's hoping they do.

£17.99 individually or there's a £32.99 double pack: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Persona-3-Portable-Persona-4-Golden-Bundle-2329694.html Solid pricing.

Gather round! There's now a demo. Data from which will bag you five better buddy bullets when you inevitably transfer your save to the full game. Go, go, go! https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/DRAGON-QUEST-TREASURES-2232688.html#Overview

Saw this out. Had taken a break from it because I couldn't figure out the safe code in Shinra Manor. It's just a matter of peeking through four keyholes to count four objects that give you the four numbers. Opening that safe was optional so I could have put it out of my head and moved on after all those unsuccessful attempts, but I wanted whatever was in there. Then when I decided I'd just have another look, a few more guesses and carry on with the game, wouldn't you know I spotted the object I'd been unable to see. And what was in the safe? Something I already had. From FF VII, I knew how Zack's story would have to end. However, I didn't know the when, where or in-what-way of it. I was surprised then when it happened. The final chapter I thought was another chapter, the final boss, despite the difficulty increase that had me bounce out to run through a bunch of missions to level up and get better equipment, I thought was just another end-of-chapter boss. The final cutscene I thought was starting to stretch out a bit longer than normal... (FOUR YEARS??!) before I was put in control of a scenario that was up there with the last moments of the final day in Majora's Mask. The chilling realisation that this was it. The finale bearing down on me. And still I thought I could get out of it. Damned if I didn't try. Overall I thought it was a very good game. I was drawn into it from the off—it only lost me a bit around the Nibelheim Reactor section where for some reason, those scenes came across as cheaper and cheesier to my eye... which I'm sure is how others view the entire game. I enjoyed the chapter structure, I enjoyed getting out and about around Midgar, I even enjoyed the missions I did. If you read them, each mission line is its own little story. I liked the one that has you covering for a junior co-worker and particularly enjoyed the mission line with Wutai's fledgling thief. The snippets of LOVELESS were good too. Would read more. I enjoyed being Sephiroth's friend and seeing that side of him and above all, Zack is a great character. Top guy. I'm hoping to see him, Angeal and Cissnei in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. That's the clear game saved for a new game + sometime. I think I can see myself doing it. Now I've seen the story through, I wouldn't mind getting more experimental with materia fusion without the fear of messing up and putting myself at a severe disadvantage. Also, it might be good to check around to see what interesting missables I was oblivious too. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, "I love missables. I love how they sit silently and let you go whooshing past." If you're up for an action RPG that's split up into chapters and missions, this is an easy recommend. End stats: Play time: 22:21:48 Level 44 Mission completion progress: 38% Buster sword proficiency: 10.91%

There was no big Nintendo game for Christmas this year and I still passed up on this, despite loving the first. I want it but getting Kingdom Battle on the cheap has played into my decision to hold off. Any chance of a Rabbids Go Home remaster and follow-up next? RIP Fire Emblem Engage.

@Ronnie largely laps up everything Nintendo churns out. At the very least Skyward Sword had stamina for running. Can't remember exactly what other aspects it played into. -------- Me, I don't have these "Ubisoft games", Spider-Man, Red Dead, Elden Ring and whatever as a point of reference. Literally just the Fenyx Rising demo. There's Lego City Undercover on the shelf here which I hope to enjoy when I get around to it however if I don't, I'll mention it. So, I just take BotW as the next Zelda game. Great that they had the courage to unshackle themselves from the formula that Skyward Sword was a complete slave to, but it doesn't simply end with breaking from the formula. Like, I thought SS was too long already, so a game that takes longer doesn't automatically set my world alight (yes, Ganon can be defeated immediately...). There've been plenty of times I played an hour of BotW and felt like I made no progress. Just running, climbing, riding a horse which amounts to little more than pushing the stick and waiting (hoping!) to get somewhere soon. It just felt pointless a lot of the time. It's not a nice feeling when a game makes you feel the passing of time. I haven't activated all the towers. It seemed like the thing to do in each region, then somewhere along the line, I decided they were too far out of the way. I did get a few more post-game. I don't want to live in BotW, I have Animal Crossing for that... which is another game that's become drawn out through the addition of extra steps in the form of crafting. Spending hours and hours on one game isn't necessarily the badge of honour it might once have been back in the day. Scale it back, hone it down (not to the point where it's walled-in areas like SS again). Do another Link's Awakening or Majora's Mask type entry. Give it some impetus. Orrr maybe I'd be singing a different tune if I had a history with this genre I'd a) know what to do in BotW, and b) appreciate what it fixes.

Feels like yesterday. Here's to another 25. Onwards and upwards! Haha, yessss. Take that General Chit Chatters and Other Consoles nerdz!

Personally, that stuff doesn't get my juices going when I'm playing it, but that they put the work in and created all those interactions is a great achievement. People pull off some impressive stuff with it as we've seen. Still, when I've the controller in hand and I'm standing in the middle of nowhere in BotW, wondering what I can mess around with is the last thing on my mind. Half the time, I don't know what direction I'm supposed to be going in, what button does what and I prefer not to experiment as it'll likely cost me items due to breakage. Or I'll throw a boomerang and never see it again. Last time I played, I cut loose and smashed my inventory to smithereens chopping down trees for the town-building quest. Granted, BotW isn't bloated (it's empty ), it does have a quest list to toil away at and busywork in the form of extra steps added to what were once easy-to-get items in the form of all that item collection and cooking... and no recipe tracking app on the Shiekah Slate to boot. Also see aforementioned tree-chopping busywork. Haven't seen all those. Needle in haystack stuff they are. Yup, +1 me for Fenyx Rising as I thought the demo was all right! It was open yet still steered you and felt... fun...? Oh yeah, totally. I remember all those enemy encampments that're copied and pasted all over the place! ...And cost you more items to clear out than you get in return, so I learned to give them a wide berth and traipse on. Can't believe I talk about a Zelda game like this. Oh, it exists; it happened and has motion capture! It's Bruno we don't talk about. Think I only have Phantasia, Symphonia 1+2 and Vesperia so I'm far from deep enough into the Tales series for it to be a candidate for this thread for me. The Symphonia remaster looks like a dud though I'd jump at the chance to play any of the others... and be quickly deflated by all the missables.

I remember doing a maximum turn game on that board. That was a character-building experience.

Yeah but how many times does Link pop back up again after getting killed? From Ganon's point of view, he's this undead, relentless terminator that is hellbent on hunting him down over thousands of years. Maybe never and it's all just various retellings down the years of the events of Skyward Sword. Not that Ganon was in SS so there goes that. I suppose Twilight Princess had the undead, relentless teacher Link. But yeah, since you mention it, Paper Mario's another candidate for this thread. After Thousand Year Door they got experimental (great!) while ditching the RPG foundation (poor!). Maybe the series would have gotten stale if they hadn't done this—we'll never know—but I reckon we'd have enjoyed a once-per-generation Paper Mario RPG with some bells and whistles added each time. Perhaps they're gearing up to give the Mario & Luigi series the Switch treatment... we'd be lucky to get a standalone Bowser's Minions strategy game. Lol. Once upon a time, I might've said New Super Mario Bros. too but it feels so good in Mario Maker that my perception of those games has come around big time. So much so that I wouldn't mind picking up NSMBU in the rare event that I spot it on sale.

Unless he has already, it's time for Moshiri to give Frank a vote of confidence.

Van Gerwen was rattled once Smith got going and his eventual fight back was too little far too late. Great throwing to clinch it in the final leg.

Off the top of my head, you have to at least finish him with the arrows in the first LoZ. So if you get to him without them you're snookered. And I think the arrows are the finisher in LttP too. Though it's a dramatic finish in OoT to deliver the final blow with the sword of evil's bane... once you've softened him up with other weapons and you're done distracting him with the fishing line.

Kinda? Doesn't the end boss twuntage normally hinge on the light arrows? A Link Between Worlds is a great shout. Being handed an opened-up familiar version of Hyrule was a top move. Perhaps if they'd worked up to BotW from there over a few games... Always jumping to the defence of the game makers. Maybe they are older too, less inspired, resting on their laurels. Just look how unambitious they are with the Mario sports games. Again, they had a solid gameplay foundation to build on yet they opt to shoehorn gimmicks in (wrecking the foundation) and skimp on options and modes to play through.

For me, the wrong direction Pokémon has been going is towards mediocrity and beyond. Somehow, probably because it was the early days when it was still fresh and new, I was able to cut them slack for Ruby when they dropped features because they "needed to learn 16-bit." But when they wanted the same concession for Diamond, I couldn't finish it and never went back until Shield... which unfortunately was garbage. Then you think, well, they know the Switch now, just wait til you see the next one... and it's shambolic. It seems like they're always making games that are lacking rather than taking the previous generation and building on it. So as much as I'd like to battle through and fill up a Pokédex again, until they can get the finger out and make a good game, I can cope without. I think you should embrace being free of it. It might feel hard but it's good to be able to take a step back and get some perspective. There's no need to be a slave to these things. We can only hope that some year they'll fluke it and make a good one again. Funny. Nothing was jumping to mind but yeah, you're right, Zelda meets the criteria for me. Just it's fallen so far from my mind I didn't even think of it. I was chomping at the bit for a shake-up after Skyward Sword as much as anyone and it's such a pity that BotW isn't for me. I don't deny that they put a great game together or anything. They did a tremendous job with it, crazy to think how much they bucked the trend and I applaud them for it... just open-world doesn't seem to be for me. I think I like to be able to learn the worlds and areas and secret nooks and there's just no way I can hold BotW in my head. It's one massive non-descript area after another, and it's aimless and boring and far too long, imo. Right now I'm looking forward to a new file in LttP, OoT and MM (not really up for WW or TP Switch remasters tbh) far more than the new game which I'll just get out of obligation and hope that it clicks with me. It's always the hope that gets you! I think there's a happy medium they could strike that'd be somewhere between Skyward Sword and BotW so hopefully they shorten it down and bring things back in that direction a bit... but I can't see it. Games are just ballooning beyond all belief nowadays. This is a sad thread. Pour one out for Duke Nukem.

https://sidebargames.com/PatchNotes_SS_03.html Patch incoming! Haven't been afflicted by any of that but hopefully it smooths things out for others. Funniest thing I've seen is a minecart returning to its starting point as the crow flies, ignoring the tracks entirely. I walked through a wall that I later exploded too. Thought I'd found a secret then when I went on to blow the path up I knew better. Other than that, the number of items left counters don't go down on things, allowing me to buy what I assume is a lot, and there are so many times when I can just keep "checking" something to pick up multiple. Think I lost a tennis point on a ball that was not up but no replays so... ...but if I hit one long, it comes trundling off the back wall and the CPU pops it over and get's awarded two points... I don't think a replay is needed to know that one was a home town call. These comments aged well. The shop upgraded so I can't try that glitch anymore and I've had my one and only crash on hole 3 or 4 of the Britannia course when I pressed R to check the overhead. There's 16 holes of golf available to me now and I'm currently putting myself through tennis school. I can't tell if there's the bones of a good tennis game in there or not because the camera's set to follow the ball instead of keeping the players in frame which gives it an unnatural feel. Can't get any angle on shots but you'd like to think that's something that'll come through levelling...? Early impressions are that a drop shot will win almost every point. Similarly disappointed with the cricket so far–it's just you trying to hit balls that come flying up the screen. As long as you make contact it's a job well done. No runs to worry about. Would love to see some proper matches and competitions but I'm ~8 hours in now and need to be realistic with my expectations. I can go to another area and start questing through it, so at least there are options. The travelling scene looked so cheap because the train wheels were not animated. The monster mini golf has probably been the best thing in it...? That's the kind of thing I'm here for. At least the tennis academy had a variety of drills to go through... which should be the absolute bare minimum of what this game has you doing. Sadly however, it just has you running through a story with some sporting tasks tacted on and if they think I care about the story... Reading it in an Aussie accent helps. You can at least imagine how they would have thought all this bonkers stuff would be hilarious. For me, the gamer, the story just needs to be decent enough to get me rising through the ranks in each sport. Just pepper in the comedy and it'll be memorable. Same for the quests—less can be more if they're good and cohesive. Pity they've gone the throw the spaghetti at the wall route then.

There's a way to out of bounds yourself into a developers' room (like meeting the Dream Team in one of the endings in Chrono Trigger) that's otherwise not accessible via conventional means. Anyone been able to reproduce this? Doesn't seem too hard but I just can't seem to get the box into the right position because either when I reenter I'm not far enough behind it or the game knows to put me past it. Will probably try again because it's by no means a trek to that shop. Got a slybeak frozen in flight there. There was a drawer I could seemingly get infinite 10% off coupons from but after getting up to 99 it cycled back to 1 again in my inventory, then later when I checked my items I had like 11 of them so it seems like the game was keeping track. Other than that, still waiting for the game to fall apart at the seams. My main problem with it is that it's front-loaded with quests rather than sports. I got my first round of golf in. Sadly it was only 7 holes but I'll take what I can get! Good news is that by pressing R you get an overhead view now. This is something that was sorely missing in Golf Story. Yeah, I agree. There's bigger problems here than can be sorted with a performance patch. I did far too much running around talking, figuring things out, trading items and doing quests than was necessary before getting that first round of golf with Lara. Thankfully there's only one thing on my quest list at the moment... not looking forward to populating it again. At least I should be able to replay that first course any time now, fingers crossed. I definitely think they could have ordered/ paced the opening different to get you into the sports tournaments first and build the questing around that.