Ronnie

Amazing, thanks very much (to you both). Cyrus or H'aanit it is, I'll decide later when I start the game up. I know I moaned about random battles a couple of days ago but I'd definitely switch off Cyrus' passive ability in the early game.

Great work @Hero-of-Time that must have been some effort. It's an amazing time to be a gamer, regardless of platform.

Ok asking the experts (I promise to actually listen this time!). I'm reading up on the various party members to start with and I've narrowed the choices down to Cyrus, H'aanit and Olberic. I think I'd mostly be keen to brute force through enemies. Are any of those a bad choice to start out with, or are their stories a bit boring?

Peer from the NVC podcast suggested that since it's unlikely a big first party game is going to get released out of the blue, that Nintendo could release more MK8 DLC in September to coincide with their online service. Would be a great way to tempt people into suddenly paying up. Two or four new Cups, new characters etc. I could see that happening.

Very nice, thanks for the impressions and nice little clip. The pixel art is lovely. I have to admit I never paid much attention to those guys who got it early, so not surprised to hear it's 4-5 hours. That'll do me fine. I'll get to it after Octopath

Amazon have delayed my order to an unknown future date, looks like they're out of stock. I saw it was topping the bestselling video game list there for a while. Cancelled and went with Argos instead

I heard that whoever you choose at the start of the game is a pretty big deal as you can't swap them out of your party at any point, so like you I'll probably spend AGES mulling it over. Thanks for the tips. Maybe I overstated my dislike of random encounters, I think it tends to annoy me more towards the end of games rather than the beginning. I'm sure it'll be fine, I'm the kind of person who has to open every treasure chest I see so I'll have to be thorough and like you say I'll need the XP from battling anyway.

Worth way more than £4 and happy to spend way more on a quality product. *gets off soapbox*

Wow thanks for the tip haha. Sure it'll be fine for me.

Looking forward to the above two changes in particular. It really does look like they've made the entire game fairer/less difficult with lots of minor tweaks that will help. I'm all for challenge but the base game was just frustrating.

Ok much as I appreciated the advice that suggested otherwise, I ended up caving and ordering this for tomorrow. Watching a video that went over battle mechanics on Kotaku sold me on it. It looked pretty interesting. Whether it's as interesting 40 hours in, I'm not sure but I'm willing to give it a go.

Not yet I'm afraid, I'm planning on it though once I finish Captain Toad. Reviews seem pretty positive from what I've seen, nothing groundbreaking, but a fun little title.

I've put my list up already, but I always struggle with things like this. An important distinction is, are we talking "best" or "favourite" games? I'd have a hard time justifying something like Pilotwings on the SNES over God of War on the PS4, if it's a top 10 best games; but I play Pilotwings pretty much once a year and I'll probably never play GOW again (much as I loved it)l, so the former would absolutely make my favourites list.

Hard to narrow down what it is exactly. I get that the whole point is to level up and so they're necessary, I guess I just prefer action RPGs.

This is tempting, but I really don't think I'd get on with JRPGs, especially the random battles. Still, so tempting.

Sounds like you're being quite thorough! I wish I could erase my memory of playing BOTW and play it for the first time all over again. That, Ocarina of Time and the original LOZ are the only games that made me feel this way.

You should try and track down those last two memories, they add an extra scene in the ending and a bit more narrative closure to the whole game.

Got a 10 hour return train trip to France coming next month so this'll be a great way to pass the time.

Great news. Captain Toad debuted at 17th on Wii U in the UK, so that's gotten a great bump as well.

It's fantastic, I just wish they lowered the difficulty a tad.

Finally beat the final boss, you were right Unbreakable Strength was a big help, and actually I didn't use Up-A as much as a lot of people were suggesting. Stopped using Joni's Blessing too, it was handy being able to focus soul during a couple of breaks in the fight. The game is a masterpiece. I'm not sure I'll be able to play another Metroidvania after this. I have some major annoyances with it but they don't diminish the overall package (too much). The amount of polish the game has is just outstanding, so many little touches. Anyway, highly, highly recommended. Wow. EDIT: having seen it again and reflected, I take back what I said about the ending.

Japan!

I'd love to use (Fragile) Strength but I have no charm spots left. Using Joni's Blessing, Shaman Stone and Lifeblood Core. Tried spamming Up+A and manage to get to the fourth phase with the platforms, but man, only with 3 or 4 masks by that point and not much soul. I'll do it eventually but it's not easy. I'm also wondering whether I made a mistake going straight to the true ending and bypassing the regular one, which I've not seen.

The true final boss is impossible

I'm pretty sure this is the best Metroidvania I've ever played, and better than any 2D Metroid I've played at least. Not sure I'll be able to play another game in that genre after this.