darksnowman

The true home of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres?

Shulk, Reyn and Dunban have the three they started with, the other three with four (so +1 each).

Ha! Xenoblade also pulls a decoy ploy like in Spaceballs Episode I: Phantom Menace. LOL. Progress-wise, I'm on the verge of adding another party member, so right on the cusp of where I left off on the Wii. Like on the Wii, I don't feel like my levels are up to snuff (equipment seems to be okay) which is why I went back to investigate the Eryth Sea and sickened myself of the game in the process. Hoping to avoid that here but it's looking like I'm gonna have to zoom back somewhere (probably Valak Mountain) and quest/ explore for exp. Or drop the game to casual for bosses. It's a fairly happy-go-lucky sort of RPG which is why being caught out by difficulty spikes stands out. I've been leading with Clara... Melia, I mean, until the going gets tough, then falling back on a party of Shulk, Reyn and Dunban "I don't have time for small fry" but that's barely cutting it for me at this point--it feels like victories only come thanks to fortunate boss attack patterns after a few retries. Like, take the boss of Sword Valley, on the first attempt I took out its cronies and had it down to a third health without much bother before wiping out. I had nowhere near that level of success on subsequent attempts before eventually getting the win. Similar thing in Valak Mountain. I don't get what I'm doing wrong or what I'm doing right. I've been enjoying the game plenty (it's excellent) but now I'm closing in on the 60-hour mark, my body clock wants the end to be in sight. Thought I could break the back of it over the weekend but it's closer to inflicting break on me and leaving me open to topple. I've Colony 9 at 4*, Colony 6 at 2*, Central Bionis at 5* and Upper Bionis at 4* so you can see from that that I've been trying to take my time, smell the roses, and knock out quests as I go. It cannot be understated how much quest targets now showing up on the map has aided with this. I've done heaps of quests with Melia and Sharla in the party to try and get their affinity up for something I've had pending in Colony 9 for donkeys. They're up to blue smile status but it still isn't enough to appease the quest giver. Madness! Unfortunately, as far as I can see, required items for Colony 6 development don't show on the map. Why!? I'd enough bits and pieces on me to level it up once but I can't see myself doing much more with it if I'm stuck using hints. It's strange they streamlined so many aspects but not this.

Where does NSO tell you how long you've spent on individual games?

They can't be given a pass for the state the trilogy was in on release but it is admirable to see they've been working away on patching it up. It's estimated to have sold over ten million so that's probably helped persuade them.

Yup. My reaction was: Followed by attempting to rationalise it. It's early footage. They've still got some time. Heck, they'll already have polished and improved it since that trailer was put together. But come on, did anything improve between the reveal and release of the Sword and Shield and the one from last month? They fooled me once on Switch with Sword and Shield--shame on me--and it's not happening again. I'm not interested in a game that does some things well (by standards ten+ years ago...) if you overlook how undercooked the rest of it is. What's the point? I'll be back into Pokémon when they knock it out of the park again... which'll be never since they puke out several average-at-best games a year and make massive bank. Yeugh. I'm not even mad. Just continue to be disappointed by this series.

I haven't the foggiest, but on that page, it says the last day to buy a ticket was Feb 26th so I suppose they planned for the Johto Tour to have a promotional slot during the week of Pokémon Day celebrations. (And to FOMO stragglers into buying a ticket yesterday...)

https://pokemongolive.com/events/gotour/2022/ That's where the Feb 26th link on the Pokémon Day web page goes to, @MindFreak.

I saw that---it's a massive list of fixes! https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/4498335664275/Grand-Theft-Auto-The-Trilogy-The-Definitive-Edition-Title-Update-Notes-1-04-Switch

Worst thing in Majora's Mask is probably the Deku Palace music.

Here's the skinny on the Tweet shared by @Ronnie: Good thinking. Someone else has shared their way of approaching that particular shrine too: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-25-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-players-are-still-finding-the-most-inventive-solutions-to-everything

Gotta Wield 'Em All!

That's the kind of thing I was wondering about. Perhaps it's the act of swinging that makes the difference in this case.

Nice going @Hero-of-Time. Just in time for Linky boy to wander off and meet with a terrible fate. Thanks for going to the effort of posting the vids and screens as it has given me a chance to see how N64 games look on NSO--haven't paid any attention to it as I don't have the service. Seems to be brighter than previously reported on the Wii U (which I witnessed firsthand with the limited edition NES Fire Emblem on Switch) so that's a relief... if your posts are an accurate reflection.

I don't know the game well enough to understand why that's impressive. Ice beating fire seems expected. Here's 20 more from last month and a playlist with a bunch more similar videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpg6WLs8kxGO0sUCxow2TVQfHW1s7wBbY I've watched a few of those as they crop up in my recommendations now and again. I'm yet to be inspired to slot in the game and try any of it for myself though.

There's obviously no sign of Mario Kart IX because they're bringing back Pokémon Dash.

Dibs on AlphaDream! Oh...

Nintendo acquires SRD Co., Ltd who they have worked with from the NES days all the way up to Game Builder Garage. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2022/220224e.pdf

Anyone here play Pokémon Unite? Maybe it doesn't have enough sex appeal for people like @MindFreak. They're doing a Hoopla Pokémon Day Event from Feb 24th-Mar 14th during which you can play with and unlock Hoopla for yourself. It will also be available for purchase from March 3rd.

Already dropped Sharla in favour of the next character, then Reyn for the one after that. Not saying I haven't and won't return to them as it keeps things fresh and interesting if the party is in rotation. They're all pretty viable I think. I didn't warm to Heropon Riki on the Wii but there've been a few laugh out loud moments between him and Reyn so I'm enjoying his (and his stupid race's) inclusion a lot more this time around. Originally, I was firmly in team Fiora but I've a newfound appreciation for Melia since she's voiced by Soufflé Girl from Doctor Who. Dropped her straight in as the leader back in the previous zone. BTW Alvis, he definitely auditioned for Kingdom Hearts. Or had a role as a stunt double.

Tales from Eryth Sea Got the prompt/ notification about casual mode being available after a couple of losses to the boss in the tomb. They could have waited a few more failures before putting that onscreen. I was affronted! It was the toughest battle for me so far (despite levels between my party and the boss being on par with each other) and I went through a few party permutations before settling back on the three I had to begin with. Probably should have dropped Shulk for someone that could do more damage in that particular battle but I got to work with his shield, agility up, piddly heal move, and settled in for a war of attrition. Don't remember that battle being a roadblock on the Wii. Speaking of, it won't be too long now before I surpass where I was in the original. At some point in that, I decided it would be a good idea to swim the length and breadth of the Eryth Sea to map it out and see what pickups are out there. Not surprisingly, it wasn't long before this brought on a "what am I doing?? " reality check and, wonderful as it was, I never went back to the game. At least now it tells you exactly where to go for quests so I can skip on the epic swim and go directly for what I need, when I need it. I already swam around the waterfalls in the previous area and that was a bit much. Next story stop will be the dark tower. No, hold on, it's just a dark tower at the head of the bionis, not THE Dark Tower that stands at the nexus of all worlds. No rush then, so I reckon I'll double-back to the Makna Forest for a spot of questing there to get some cash and exp as it might be time for upgrades and level-ups before progressing.

No. Didn't seem necessary. Thought I was overlevelled as it is, tbh. Think the only part that was a close call for me was the fairy gym. I gave the Venusaur a couple more goes yesterday and had it down to a sliver once. If any of the others had got an attack in it would have been done! But no, one of them had to faint again and let the storm bring it to an end. It was being dealt an AI Weavile that made the difference as it was able to do some super effective hits against the force field.

Yeah, after going on the offensive with a fire type the first time around barely got the venusaur under half health, I threw Lance in next thinking that'd be the end of it. I noticed it didn't have the option to Dynamax but I didn't know if that was a limitation of the legendaries or something to do with an item I'd forgotten about. I've got the fire starter on lvl 72, then Lance on 70, Paroxic on 66, Major Tom and Eternatus on 64, and Hank on lvl 62. I would doubt there's anything in that range in the boxes. I'll give it another go and see if I get luckier with the support characters and losing turns to sleep, but maybe the level difference is going to be insurmountable.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-22-mario-strikers-battle-league-development-is-being-helmed-by-next-level-games https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/mario-strikers-battle-league-football Next Level Games confirmed as the developer of this third Mario Strikers instalment.

The game offered me a ten-minute update so I took it. No idea what it added or fixed but it did seem to use up the best part of ten minutes so it was a whopper. Normally those downloads say ten mins then take less than ten secs. I faffed about a bit finding the wild area on the map (don't judge me) and then faffed about even more going through the menus to see if I could take advantage of the current event without an active NSO sub. It seemed like I was going to be denied but I honestly did go through every option and button press and found a way to refresh the wild area over WiFi without NSO. Thought that was me good to go and seconds away from getting a charmander, squirtle and bulbasaur but no, not at all. I faffed around a lot more going around the wild area checking those little stone-circled holes in the ground and getting only W for my effort. After a lap of that and dodging Pokémon that for some reason wanted a piece of me, I found some with a column of light and was in battle with a thievul then a swoobat which I duly vanquished and caught--without ultra balls to boot! I was gonna call it quits after getting stormed out of a vileplume encounter when I came across a 5* venusaur all the way down back! Entered into battle with it, got put to sleep and sent packing. Tried again with the "big boy" aka the boxart legendary and was swiftly earthquaked back out of there again. It doesn't seem like I can deal enough damage to down the shield and take it out within the storm limit. The CPU colleagues it gave me should probably shoulder some of the responsibility too. Nitwits.