darksnowman

I see you're a man of culture as well. I'll be checking back for what you think about the opening segment of the Twilight of Edo music. Forget what we've said on that chapter and be sure to weigh in with some fresh thoughts on it. Have you got around to making any more progress on the Near Future or Ancient China? @Hero-of-Time It's been interesting to watch our points of view on LAL start at different ends of the spectrum, zig-zag up and down as we've ticked off chapters in different orders, and it now looks like we're going to settle on a similar final opinion by the end of it. Wild West was my 7th and it was such an underwhelming way to cap it off. There's "leave them wanting more" and then there's LAL. If you heard this was the first SNES RPG and they put all this together as a showcase for what to expect in the 16-bit generation you could believe it. It's like a 16-bit RPG tech demo. @martinist how's it been going for you? @MindFreak did you get Live A Live, then?

Trent take note!!

Don't think the Swedes' heads will drop, let's see if they can get the breakthrough. It's the semi so they will go for it. England will have to show they're worth their spot in the final.

Not surprising. Reyn was never passing any IQ tests.

Yes, sometimes it's hard to know with those low scores if they can be trusted or if they're doing it stand out from the crowd and pull in some clicks. Taking a look at the Eurogamer review now. It's a good piece and the polar opposite of GI. One has nothing good to comment on, the other has nothing bad to say. The truth will be somewhere in the middle of the two.

Yep rating it essential makes them the outlier...

Seeing that, I pulled up the Gameinformer review for a squiz. Knowing the first Xenoblade Chronicles, I'd imagine the criticisms are valid. Then I scrolled down just a wee bit too far after the conclusion of the review and saw that the first commenter is calling for the website to die, and demands answers on as to why the Apex Legends guy was given the task of reviewing XC3. The Internet needs to take a chill pill.

I would give you a like for the effort you've put into the graphs but then I see your Nintendo comment and... ...I don't even think there's a gif that covers it. That's what I was thinking but that Oceanhorn score brings the whole thing into disrepute.

Good choice for something you know you can get through at your leisure over a week. When I first got it (primary school age) I thought I'd followed an epic chain of events just to get to the first level. That sense of discovery never lets up either. As you say, Koholint isn't the biggest but it crams plenty in. Totally right about 7. No matter how many times I start a new file, I always find myself doing extra loops of 7 and then 8 as well. Reminder set. Will give you a prod when that day's approaching and making a note to remind you it's also satisfying to jump those arms and hit the eye with the boomerang, too.

And that's the wild west done with. Barely knew ye.

Already? I'm so far behind the times I still need to get spoiled on 2.

Just wondered in case there was something I wasn't privy to. I dumped them in in batches and it didn't seem to do a great lot of use. I mostly just passed on that character's turn as all they did was plink, mostly. The only info I can offer in return is that in the back room of the home base there is an instrument, if you interact with it more than once you will hear a selection of little ditties. One might be more recognisable than the others. That's the near future finished and... was that the best chapter? I think it might well have been. Another one that took some turns for the darker. Always wanted to party up with Johnny from Chrono Trigger. I was level 17 or 18 by the end--didn't feel like I was grinding at all.

It does what it does well, but would have been nice if it was fleshed out more. Grim ending. Do you know if there's an optimal way to use: Or is it a case of as and when you get em?

It's interesting how chapter order is colouring our impressions of the game. This is how it's been going for me from a battle standpoint: - distant future -- err? - imperial china -- harder to lose than emerge triumphant. - shinobi -- I restarted my demo progression on this to try stealth, so it was a lot of hiding and fleeing. - modern-day -- done with before I could finish my coffee. - prehistory -- now we're talking. Hunting grounds where I can level? Gimme it. Thrown out onto plains to fend off stronger enemies? I'm all over it. A shop system to trade items for others? Sure why not! At last, the training wheels are off! - near future (currently playing) -- Golden Sun with attitude. Leave it to me and I'll clean up these mean streets and be double the level of the next party member by the time they join. I enjoyed the distant future and imperial china for how they played out in other respects. You've a keen eye for these. I thought there might be one going off the gameplay tips, but two? Must be cryptic. No joke. I feel like that that one took me longer than it should because I found it difficult to keep a clear picture (or any picture to be fair) of how it connected.

Wasn't aware of that. I'm just figuring the game out as I go along.

I noticed the tip for the secret boss in prehistory, so thumbs up for mentioning that @Glen-i. My intention was to have a go at tracking it down as soon as I'd reassembled the party... except going that course lead to the end of the chapter. So I'll have to try to keep that in mind for next time. Prehistory was pretty good, I thought! Reckon the only downside of starting with this one would be you might get the wrong idea about the type of game you're getting into here, because prehistory is a decent little mini-RPG and the rest isn't. Just can't believe what happened to Prince Peasly in the end. I could have smacked him about plenty more. Twas one of my preferred chapters, that one. The Beverly Hills Ninja was a standout. I wasn't smart enough to figure out any of your advice points myself and still found the chapter to be a breeze. Sure you're overpowered for the duration. Though I'd made a mental note to do protip one on future replays to see if it makes any discernable difference. What... have... you... done....

Thanks for sharing all the info. Great summary. Not shooting the messenger here but this collection (and the people behind it) has gone severely down in my estimations now. Clearly they were so preoccupied with whether slowdown could be turned off, they didn't stop to think if it should.

Just did the present day. Thought my estimated total time was shaping up to be ~30 hours but that's put me back on track for the touted 20-25. There's the seed of a cool concept there but err, yeah, seemed like an idea they had knocking about that was just thrown in to make up the numbers. Noticed a tip that looks like it could be hinting at a boss. Pretty vague though. No way will I remember it for next time so it'd be nice if these things carry over into a new game +. I'm going to check the tips for the present day and if there's the slightest hint of something hidden there I'll eat my hat. There was a good amount of spot the sci-fi reference. It was the first chapter I saw out, so I took the boss seriously and whittled away what I assumed were its minions before getting to it. Thought doing it in that order helped reduce the threat of the boss but maybe I could have just stood there and whaled on it going by what you're saying. The boss music peaked for me here too. It seemed to fit the battle so well (the visuals, the setting, the face-off between those characters, it being the only (proper) battle in the chapter--I was pumped up) and now hearing it recycled at the end of every chapter in different settings, it's quickly lost its lustre. Think I've decided I'm keeping the wild west for last. Reckon I'll take them up on the option of renaming the character in that one when I get to it... well, unless the default name is amazing. So next I'll jump back to prehistory, then to the future, and back to the west.

I've wrapped up all three from the demo now. Two of them took some unexpected turns however the shinobi chapter was becoming a bit of pain due to the mazy layout of it. I was just kind of glad to get that one over with, which is a pity. The way one of the tunes kicks off reminded me of 65000000 BC in Chrono Trigger so that was jarring, haha. I'll launch into an all-new character next. Reading here that there are optional bosses that are also secret bosses has got me wondering what I've missed so far. Thought I was being reasonably thorough, tbh. I'll have to check the Gameplay Tips to see if there's any mention. Not sure how new game+ works in this but it'd be nice to carry over what you have to make it easier to go for these bosses on the next go around.

Sooo are France gonna put the ball in the goal or... what?

The virtual console is always alluring. Might be worth factoring in that at least if you get them on 3DS it's different to just having access to them via the NSO sub and its whims. I'm still keeping an eye on the sale section. Full game-wise, I'm considering Luigi's Mansion 2 as by the time I was getting around to wanting it, I only ever saw the player's choice box. Previously, you shared a link to a list of games with DLC. Do you know if there's there an easy way to review what the DLC is? I've checked a few by inserting carts and going to DLC via the in-game menus but something more straightforward would be handy. Like, I'm wondering if I should nab the Fantasy Life DLC just in case I ever fancy going back to it, and I'd like to know if there's anything similar to that for my other games. I'm not wanting to buy potion packs if you catch my drift.

Seems I could be throwing caution to the wind with chapter selection order based on how @martinist and @Glen-i have set about tackling living these lives. I went straight in and finished off the clank's chapter. The events that occur from where the demo left off... holy moly. At one point, I had an idea of who could be behind it, then I talked myself out of it, only for it to come (half) true. There was a stretch where I thought it was erring a wee bit on the boring side as all you seemed to be doing was: talk to someone/ the group they leave the room go find them talk to them/ the group again they leave the room go find them and so on. But as with most of these things, by the time it was wrapping up an attachment had grown and I look back on it as a decent visual short story sort of thing. Next up, I reckon I'll continue one of the other remaining two from the demo.

@Ike I was sure leg strap use was part of previews and reviews. Absolutely. The bolded bit is key.

No Bowsers were bashed in the making of this video.

I'd guess it means they can get the game out the door quicker to start making cash back on it quicker. Then like you say, it helps get eyeballs back on it again when they grace us with these generous free updates. Nothing whatsoever against free updates, just don't like the "ship the thing and we'll add it later!" starting point they seem to come from.