Your 2020 Gaming Diary

[Nicktendo]

You're close to the end, finish Xenoblade 2...? Nah. 

Maybe start Fire Emblem: Three houses then? Nah.

Dragon Quest XI, perfect time to sink 100 hours into an apparently amazing RPG! Nah.

 

OH LOOK, Final Fantasy VIII is on sale! Quick!

"Fiiiiiithooos. Luuuuusec. Weeeeecos. Vinosec."

The opening 3 hours of this game > Opening of FFVII. I'm having a great time.
The junction system is way less complicated when you're not 12 years old.  

Edited March 18, 2020 by Nicktendo

[drahkon]

Since I don't see my friends these days I decided to start a new save file for Cuphead and play it solo. 

Halfway through and it's much easier alone. In co-op you don't deal as much damage and therefore have a harder time killing off enemies that bosses spawn. It feels like the game is not balanced around co-op.

Anyway, enjoying my time with it. Still haven't reached the point my mate and I have so no surprises, yet.

On 18.3.2020 at 12:29 PM, Nicktendo said:

OH LOOK, Final Fantasy VIII is on sale! Quick!

Don't get me started on that sale...I am very tempted to get FFVIII, DQ2 and DQ3...

But there are so many games (*cough* roguelites *cough*) coming out soon...I have to resist  

 

[Aperson]

Went ahead and continuned with Metroid Fusion (Wii U VC) regardless. Got the Plasma Beam and made my way to Sector 4 from Sector 5 having just beaten Nightmare. I died so many times to the Spider Boss battle though until I realised you could jump out of it and I also struggled a lot on the boss battle after that with the giant Torizo because I kept falling into the plants and having no idea how to get out, not realising you had to hold down the A button... Also it seems impossible to beat Nightmare without getting hit considering how you have to damage it's first weak point.

 

I get the feeling I'm in the second half of the game now. I've also started playing Metroid Prime 2 (WII U) for the Let's Play again and resuming uploads.

 

Also @drahkon I would be careful about coughing if I were you...

[drahkon]

Just now, GenericAperson said:

Also @drahkon I would be careful about coughing if I were you...

[martinist]

Finnished Dragon Quest 11 S last night after a little over 109 hours.

On to Ni No Kuni 2

[Aperson]

ITTT'S BACCCCKKKKKK

 

 

Kind of disappointing how easy the Power Bomb Guardian is considering it's after the Spider Guardian and you have to go out of your way to get to this guy but I suppose it's probably more of a relief really. At least getting the Power Bombs allows you to get back to Sanctuary Fortress pretty quickly, although I still maintain that the lifts between Agon Wastes, Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress are highly illogial due to the placement of them on the map and teleporters would have made more sense.

[Hero-of-Time]

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (3DS)

Spoiler

My obsession with this series continues. I snapped up this from the 3DS eShop and have been playing through it on and off most of the week, with me finishing it last night. Despite being an eShop only title, it was quite the lengthy affair, offering me over 20 hours of gameplay.

The gameplay is completely different from the previous entries. You now have to lay down tracks for the minis in order to get them home. These tracks/tiles need to be placed correctly so that you create a path for the minis to walk down. The tiles appear down the right hand side of the screen and you can only hold a few at the same time. If you leave them to fill up then you'll fail the level. A bomb may appear amongst the tiles and you can use this to blow up a previous placed tile. This allows you to change the direction of the minis if need be.

The other games were pretty challenging but I think this one takes it to a whole new level. There were often times where I was frantically trying to juggle multiple minis, tiles falling down and trying to place the correct path while getting rid of the old tiles. If you don't get the right tiles at the right time then the run can go completely pear shaped. It's a bit like Tetris in the sense of that in that game you set up a bunch of blocks and hope that the right piece arrives so that everything falls into place. It's the same here. You set up the tracks but if you don't get the right tile then the minis may simply walk to their doom.

There are actually 4 campaigns to the game. The first has you playing as Mario and the tiles are all random. The second has you playing as Princess Peach and you have a set number of tiles to place to get her to safety. The 3rd has you playing as Toad and you have zero tiles to place and it is instead more about manipulating the switches and blocks. The final campaign has you playing as Donkey Kong and features 3 MASSIVE stages that you have to make your way through. There is certainly a fantastic amount of content for the price of the game.

Like the other games, completing the stages isn't that hard but trying to do so while getting all the M coins is where the challenge is. Usually there are 3 per stage but on the Donkey Kong levels there are 10. I initially thought you had to get all 10 in one run. It took a while but I eventually manged to pull this off with his first two stages. Sadly, I just couldn't do it on the final stage. Turns out you can pick up a couple and then go to the exit, return to the stage and get a few more..so on and so forth. Had I known that at the start then things would have been far less frustrating!

There are a few minigames that you unlock as you progress through the game. They don't really add anything to the main game but they are a nice distraction from the puzzle based nature of the campaigns. They kind of remind me of the minigames that featured in Mario 64 DS. They are fun for a little while but certainly nothing to write home about.

Out of all of these games that i've played so far I do think this the weakest entry so far. I get that they were trying to mix things up with the formula but I don't think it's as good as the other games. The whole dual screen mechanic of it is pretty much lost. This is due to the fact that you are mainly just looking at the bottom screen most of the time because that is where you need to place your tracks. This means that the lovely visuals on the top screen pretty much go unnoticed. Still, as I mentioned earlier, the game has a fantastic amount of content to keep you busy and I did enjoy the challenge that the game offered, as well as the variety in each of the campaigns.

[Aperson]

 

I may have misremembered what the Sunburst was like, I thought it was a faster beam combo than it wound out actually being, those Dark Pirate Commandos so easily avoided it... Also finally cleared the Space Pirate Logbook data, it only took me something like 20 parts to do so...

 

In Metroid Fusion (Wii U VC) I've just got the Diffusion Missiles. I didn't get the secret message but looking at Youtube videos then the process on how to do it is insanely ridiculous. You have to carry a Shinespark how far? No wonder the developers hid something like that there although "I wonder how many people will see this message" is kind of looking silly now with the existence of the internet...

 

I've also been playing a ton of Magic the Gathering Arena (PC) to an unhealthy addictive level. I caved in and cracked open 61 packs of Theros Beyond Death which I was saving but it did allow me to upgrade several decks from the Wildcards I received, including a Wolf deck I made a while back which is significantly better.

 

Aim is to make as many wolves as possible. The key to all of this is Tolsimir who you want out as soon as possible as every Wolf you can make becomes a removal spell. The big problem is Tolsimir is 5 mana, so Wolfwillow Haven, Kethis and Nylea are used to help get her out sooner. Likewise, Transcendent Envoy makes Wolfwillow Haven even cheaper and Siona can fetch you Wolfwillow Haven. Arlinn and Garruk generate Wolves though sometimes I've found that just casting Tolsimir is enough to make the opponent scoop.

 

I also made several other decks and upgraded a few existing ones with better cards. I changed my Bant Flash deck to a Temur Flash deck and completely rebuilt the way that one works, I also have about 85% of the world championship winning Azorius Control deck, the mono-Red deck got upgraded with 4 Anax and a playset of Brazen Borrowers have gone in every Blue deck that was running Unsummon, Stern Dismissal or Callous Dismissal.

 

EDIT: Video has been removed, a few music tracks slipped in when there shouldn't have been, will reupload it.

Edited March 23, 2020 by GenericAperson

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

I completed Ori and the Will of the Wisps last night, what a conflicting game!

On the one hand, it's a beautiful, well crafted, orchestrally stunning platformer that is both addictive and a joy to play. On the other it's a technical mess and, at this point, I wouldn't recommend anyone play it while it's still like this.

With the benefit of Game Pass I can feel a little less angry as I did the £1 for a year deal, so I haven't paid anything for the game, but if I had outright bought it I'd be demanding a refund. Plenty of game freezes, plenty of slow down, plenty of lock ups have made this a more frustrating experience than it should have been. Having said that, none of them particularly stopped my enjoyment of the game too much until...the final boss. It glitched on me 3 times with literally the final blow; I even got the achievement that I'd beaten the final boss and yet the game went black and put me back in the final 'stage' of the boss fight except with no boss and nice calm music, until I died and it reset it right back to the beginning of the fight. 3 times! 🤦‍♂️ It was very much a "ONE LAST GO" situation which thankfully worked...but then I didn't get the achievement for actually completing the game.

And yet as soon as these issues are all ironed out, I'd urge anyone I could to play the game, especially if they bring this one to Switch too. It's such a beautiful game to look at (on One s) to listen to and to play; like the first one the map is such a rich tapestry of clever puzzles, stunning environments and rewarding game play, it's incredibly satisfying to play and complete (when it works!) 

Annoyingly the game has counted when I've turned the console off but left Ori on in the background as play time, so it's says it's been about 70 hours 😂 it's more like a 10-15 hour game following the story line. I've been back in to start collecting things and getting achievements, however I've heard even more of these are glitched so I'll go back in once the game has been patched and try to mop things up as best I can.

For me it's a 9/10 game hiding behind a 6/10 wall because it's obviously been sent out not ready. Once it's technically sorted out it'll be another masterpiece from Moon Studios! 

Next is Halo 5, then I've got Quantum Break to play (always intrigued by the TV show/game dynamic and this seems the perfect time to play it) and I've downloaded Yakuza 0 just for @Hero-of-Time as well to play after that if I don't need something abit more colourful and lighter by then!

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

My one man assault on quarantine saw me conquer Halo 5: Guardians, this afternoon.

I whacked it on normal mode as the days of punishing myself on Legendary are long gone. And what a boring, self important trek it was which, thankfully, was over pretty quickly.

I've never been Halo's biggest fan but I completed 3 and 4 on the 360 and then went back in with The Master Chief Collection and did 1 and 2. I've only ever really played the campaign's as, frankly, I was never any good at the multiplayer.

For some reason with the Gears of War franchise I could stomach the repetition of clear room, move on, clear room rinse and repeat whereas with Halo I found it boring. And it's still the case for me with 5.

The battle of Locke Vs Master Chief which I remember was advertised very heavily at launch quickly disappeared and gave way to a typical Halo plot. In its defence, I enjoyed following the story and tried to invest in Locke as much as possible. The standout mission for me was "Swords of Sanghelios" which I thought was beautiful in its locale and had some interesting set pieces.

I'm sure I probably will play Infinite as and when it's released if I still have Game Pass then, but I can't say it'll sell the system for me, they really need to refreshen up Halo as it's the same old stuff (I appreciate this was released about four years ago...) 

Anyway another game down and my plans to play Quantum Break are on hold slightly as I've got a new job which was supposed to start 1st May...then 5th April and now they want me to start... tomorrow! I've slightly lucked out as my career change (working 9-5 instead of restaurant hours) is in an industry that is staying open during the pandemic, so they are swamped and need another pair of hands ASAP! As appealing as a month, or at least another week, of gaming was, I couldn't exactly say no when so many other people are suffering because of the current situation. So I'll chip away at Quantum and see how far I get!

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, Halo 5 was terrible in comparison to the other games. Halo 4 was pretty meh but 5 was a new low. The marketing for the game was a massive lie and trying to shoehorn Locke and company into the story just didn't work. I HATED any scene where his little group went toe to toe with Chief and his team. It was ridiculous that they could even have a chance against them. Plus, a lot of the story points were left out of the game and you had to read the novels to get up to speed.

I used to love the series to bits but 343i have yet to prove that they can handle the franchise. There was a time where I would be very excited for a new Halo game but these days not so much.

[Ronnie]

Finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider the other day with 100% completion. One of those rare games that I loved so much I wanted to get all the achievements. Didn't get 1000/1000 though because I'm not doing a second playthrough on the hardest difficulty . Anyway, I've loved all three of the Tomb Raiders reboots but this one was easily my favourite. I much preferred the emphasis on traversal and puzzle solving over combat and having more populated areas and a hub world to explore was the icing on the cake. Better storyline too IMO, and as with the other two, expertly crafted areas, seriously impressive.

Those piranhas though 

Being indoors for the next month or two I wanted another big meaty game to get started on in between Animal Crossing sessions so I started Assassin's Creed Origins. Debated for ages between it and Odyssey and from what I gather people seem to prefer the first. More keen on Egypt than Greece anyway and those large scale battles of Odyssey with damage numbers in the 5 figures really put me off. Bayek seems a cool protagonist (still don't understand why Ubisoft keep doing the modern day stuff, ditched that within a minute). Anyway, really enjoying it so far, I'm doing pretty much every sidequest and location so I'm stronger with the combat that isn't really doing it for me as of yet.

It's funny though, the opening 10 minutes couldn't have given a worse first impression of the game, to where I was almost regretting getting it. Boring, ugly, tight corridors, meaningless looting. Really weird, it looked like a game from 20 years ago, especially coming off of Tomb Raider. Then we got to Siwa and it improved 100x.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Ronnie

[drahkon]

Now that Tom Nook has retreated into his stupid little construction site I decided to get back to Cuphead.

Three more bosses down. The game really knows how to make things difficult. Love it
I'm nearing the point where my mate's and my co-op playthrough had to stop because of the damn virus situation. One more boss and then it's uncharted territory.

Hoping to finish it by midnight. If everything goes right, Tangledeep will be on sale on the eShop and I will buy the game and its DLC immediately.

[drahkon]

3 hours ago, drahkon said:

Hoping to finish it by midnight.

It has been done.

Second to last boss was a weirdly out of place change of pace. It consisted of at least 3 mini-boss-fights. And each has a loading screen before the battle begins. Very annoying, but thankfully I only had to redo it three times before winning.
Final boss only had one difficult phase. Took a me about 10 minutes to get used to it.

Anyways, great game. Difficulty was on point and the mechanics are precise and smooth. Makes for a perfect boss-rush-platformer.

Time for Tangledeep to arrive

Edited March 25, 2020 by drahkon

[Aperson]

Had to reupload the last MP2 episode due to accidentally leaving end music in from previous episodes over the actual Let's Play footage...

 

 

On actual gaming news though I finished Metroid Fusion. I managed to get round to the 100% today but only after initially beating the game because I didn't realise going into any Recharge Room in any sector after beating Ridley was the point of no return, so there were essentially 6 points of no return in the game.

 

But fortunately I was able to go back after beating the game to collect all the power-ups. That's pretty cool. Kind of like how in Mario Galaxy you can't get all the stars without beating the game initially first.

[Jonnas]

Since I did not get leave, nor the option to work from home (*screams into pillow*), my March list isn't much different than usual. Once again, a digital title from 2018, followed by a DS game from my backlog:

Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle

Yes, that Pink Ostrich is playable

Initially launched in 2018, this Capcom Collection took us all by surprise: seven classic Arcade Beat'em Ups in a single place! Since I'm part of the Smashing Cast, we collectively decided to get it and record a couple of sessions in which we go through a few of these games. So yeah, I kind of discovered these games with @LazyBoy, @Nicktendo, @S.C.G, @Vileplume2000, and the elusive Lord_Kado...

My general opinion of them is as follows:

• Final Fight - The most aesthetically compelling of the collection, with its simple premise, straightforward setting, chunky sprites and cool memorable characters (especially Haggar). It also felt like the most difficult, since you can't brute force your way through enemies like in the other games, you must always approach them carefully and strategically. Furthermore, it's also pretty easy to get ganged up upon by enemies. Still, a true classic.
• Captain Commando - The most straightforward, "dumb fun" type of game in the collection. Fast-paced, with a good cast of compelling characters, simple moves and items, and a deliciously pulpy sci-fi setting, this is an easy one to chew through.
• The King of Dragons - The easiest game in the collection, but also my favourite. The characters feel distinct in very intuitive ways (Archer is all long range, Mage does magic, Dwarf is small but fierce, etc.), and its mechanics add quite a bit of depth without ever feeling overwhelming or complicated. Plus, the D&D setting really works with the art style.
• Knights of the Round - The worst one! Three barely-distinct characters, boring movesets, bland looks, difficulty is more frustrating than challenging... There wasn't much here I found attractive.
• Warriors of Fate - Despite being based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I found the setting here pretty bland (and the dialogue moves at breakneck speed, so the plot doesn't do much to hook me). However, it's enjoyable to play, the characters feel varied, cool pickups are abundant, and you can just ride a friggin' horse into your enemies. Definitely the sevenest game here.
• Armored Warriors - The Mecha brawler, and it is more dumb fun. Super fluid gameplay, tons of moves per character (and per item), and some really cool concepts, like combining the mecha against bosses, or the ability to trample tiny enemy soldiers. The complexity with items, equipment, and pickups means that Captain Commando is more accessible, but this one is super enjoyable once you get into its groove. Second best game in the collection.
• Battle Circuit - The wildest, most outlandish one here. You ever wanted a Guardians of the Galaxy beat'em up? Look no further! Bizarre cast of characters, creative animations, super fast-paced gameplay and A LOT of shit happening on-screen at once. I don't like the command inputs that much (having to buy them with points is counterintuitive for an arcade game, I think), and this game gets complicated and chaotic really fast. Still, if you're ready to accept this colourful cacophony, it's super fun. And it's absolutely the best to play when you have a group over.

Other than Battle Circuit (which we finished in the Smashing Cast), I didn't really complete any of these, nor do I plan to. This genre (or rather, the Arcade subgenre of beat'em ups) is clearly meant to be enjoyed in short bursts, preferably with friends, and not much deep skill. As such, I'll save these games for Co-op with guests (whenever I can have those again), and will avoid getting too used to any of them.

Oh, and as is usual with Capcom collections, I love the extra artwork and options (like the CRT filter). Great stuff.

 

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

All of these cluttered NPCs remind me of a puzzle...

So! Did you know I had never played a Professor Layton game before? Shocking, but true. This series made quite the splash back in the day, even when its debut entry first arrived in 2008. This quaint series from Level-5 was among the best sellers of the Nintendo DS, so much that it was easy to mistake for a first-party title at times. And yet, it sort of... passed me by. I knew the general gist of it, I just never got around to sink my teeth into any of the series' entries. So when @MoogleViper said he was selling this title, I decided to cross Layton off my bucket list... Can you figure out how much time passed between that purchase and me playing it? 18 months later.

Off the bat, the visuals looked stunning to me. I already knew the Layton series employed this "deformed Ghibli" look for its characters and environments, but seeing the cutscenes run on a DS was actually pretty marvelous. The art style quickly grew on me as well, because man, do I love these quirky NPCs. How many pairs of NPCs with the same silhouette can you find? No two characters seem to share the same body proportions. From Chelmey's stocky figure and bushy moustache to Franco's humongous chin, everyone looks like a delightful caricature in the best of ways. Shout out to Gordon, who looks like a perfect circumference while also strongly resembling an uncle of mine.

Gameplay-wise, the game is pretty much exactly what I expected. Point&Click navigation with several spots, objects, and NPCs throwing logic puzzles for you to solve. That's the main appeal of the game, and one I can relate to: when I was younger, I loved those "logic problem" booklets that were often sold during summer time. This game feels like an entire videogame made of those, with a plot that happens to exist in-between.

Many of these puzzles are stock (or variant) problems I've seen a few times before, so I didn't have much trouble. In fact, I thought the difficulty curve was silky smooth, which is high, high praise for a collection of 135 puzzles (the main odd exception being the fifth Queens puzzle, which was strictly easier than the fourth). What sorts of puzzles did I have trouble with? The only ones I had to look up were the "Princess Escape" series of puzzles (which I could not wrap my head around, that's my bad), and the Ferris Wheel puzzle (one in which the instructions and parameters were made dreadfully unclear. It's the only puzzle in the game I'd consider "bad"). Considering all of the above, if I had to give a rating to this game's puzzles, what would it be? All in all, that's 4 puzzles out of 135? But only one of them was truly bad, so it's a >99% approval rating from me (I bothered to do the secret puzzles and everything).

I did mention there was a story, and it's very effective. I daresay, the best story this game could've gotten. Our protagonists Layton and Luke are called to a curious village to decipher a cryptic testament, investigating the entire town in order to solve that particular mystery (as well as a few other smaller unexplained happenings). A formula as old as Sherlock Holmes, but this is one of the better executions of that formula I've seen in a videogame. The game gives you all the clues and necessary foreshadowing you need to solve its mysteries, and Layton himself invariably does, but he always gives you time to figure it out by yourself before blurting the answer. After Spirit of Justice, this is a welcome way of doing things.

Another thing that helps is the setting: semi-Victorian, semi-picturesque England, with a dash of fantasy and steampunk. Coupled with the art style, it's easy to be enamoured with this lovely, lovely world. It's also easy to shift from the leisurely pace of puzzle-solving to the exciting conclusion of the main story (which I will confess, tugged on my heart strings). What really cinches it is the excellent writing, from Layton's gentlemanly composure (what a sport, never loses his cool or politeness), to the various verbal tics from the villagers, to Luke's overuse of quaint British vocabulary... if you nothing in this game sticks to your mind, you're simply lying.

No other comic describes an experience of mine as accurately as this one

Presentation...5/5
Puzzles...........5/5
Story...............4/5
Accessibility....5/5

I now see that the Professor Layton series deserved every bit of popularity and recognition it got back in the day. A puzzle collection never needed to be this charming or polished, and yet here we are, with one of the most easy-to-digest examples I've ever seen of an otherwise niche genre. After I beat it, I bothered to do all the extras (aside from the one that requires a code from the sequel... but it's cool, I already know it's concept artwork), and it's no coincidence.

Will I seek out other games in the series? This might be a surprising answer, but no, not for now. It was pleasant to play this, but I feel fulfilled. If I were to start another puzzle-filled adventure, I'd quickly burn out. So I will lay the series to rest, content with having played at least one entry, and revisit it only if I ever feel the itch for some more Layton in my life.

Up next, I think I'll do a couple of short games to rest my brain (but I haven't shirked on Fire Emblem, I swear!)
 

  My 2020 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018) Completed (January 13th)

-Mr.Driller: Drill Spirits (2004) Beat (January 30th)

-Dragon Ball Fighterz (2018) Beat (February 22nd)

-Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (2008) Completed (February 25th)

-Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle (2018) No Goal (March 13th)

-Professor Layton and the Curious Village (2008) Completed (March 23rd)

 

Currently Playing:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

-Kirby's Pinball Land (1993)

 

[Glen-i]

Professor Layton's voice is so ridiculously buttery smooth that everything he says is pleasant to hear.

Oh, and speaking of Layton voices. (Fair warning, shows a character who appears in a later game)

 

[Dufniall]

6 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Will I seek out other games in the series? This might be a surprising answer, but no, not for now. It was pleasant to play this, but I feel fulfilled. If I were to start another puzzle-filled adventure, I'd quickly burn out. So I will lay the series to rest, content with having played at least one entry, and revisit it only if I ever feel the itch for some more Layton in my life.

It is such a lovely series, I can imagine that you don't want to play another one right away, but due time you should check out other games from the series. The one gripe I had with The Curious Village was that most of the puzzles are thrown at you without a context. In the later ones however the puzzles are much more themed to the character or the story, making the flow even better. 

I think I played about 3 or 4 games from the series, and especially that first game is magical. When you play more from the series you will see a pattern and of course certain types of puzzles are making a return, but the storytelling does get a lot better as well.

[Jonnas]

5 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Professor Layton's voice is so ridiculously buttery smooth that everything he says is pleasant to hear.

Oh, and speaking of Layton voices. (Fair warning, shows a character who appears in a later game)

 

I mean, that's just the Hound of the Baskervilles  It definitely sounds better than the twist in Sherlock

[Glen-i]

47 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

I mean, that's just the Hound of the Baskervilles  It definitely sounds better than the twist in Sherlock

Yeah, but a spot-on Layton impression is in it, so it's much more soothing to listen to.

[drahkon]

Bought Tangledeep and its DLC just now for my Switch.

After 30 minutes I can say: I love it. Barely scratched the surface, but so far it's right up my alley (turnbased roguelike )
Navigating the menus is a little cumbersome, but everything else is smooth and a joy to play.

Also bought Q-YO Blaster for 99ct a couple days ago. It's a shmup. Pretty fun. Haven't beaten it, yet.

Edited March 26, 2020 by drahkon

[Dufniall]

Dear god, March is almost over already. Time for a monthly Diary update. I've been playing a lot of games for a little bit so it's quite the list:

Animal Crossing (Switch)

I wasn't planning on getting this game, but I had a bit of a rough week (my grandmother passed away last week) so I could use a feel-good game. The latest trailers looked so charming and reading the day one experiences from people here made me bite the bullet and get it.

Oh my what a charming game. I put a lot of time in Wild World, almost no time in LGTTC, some time in New Leaf so I was a bit doubtful if I would catch the Animal Crossing virus again. I have and it is the perfect game to pick up and play for a bit each day. Online is a great addition and this is in fact the first time I really spend time visiting other islands. Can't wait to see everyone's place in a while when we have access to terraforming and pavements. More impressions in the AC thread.

Trials Rising (Switch)

I found this quite cheap physical so I thought why not. It is actually a pretty enjoyable game and easy to pick up for just a couple of quick rounds (except for the long loading time at startup). I never played a game from the Trials series so the gameplay feels fresh. The physical version contained some extra DLC so contentwise it seems pretty meaty. 

The biggest doubt I had about this was that people were missing the analogue triggers on Switch. So far I haven't really missed them and I didn't feel like I had no control over my bike. I'm done with the easy missions and now starting with the medium ones, and I do notice the increase in difficulty though.

As said I never played a game from the series before, and I'm impressed by the variety of the levels. You go all around the globe and the different stages (from Siberia to Machu Picchu to the Chinese Wall) all look cool. All in all a really fun game for in-between.

Pokémon Sword (Switch)

I keep coming back to this game once in a while. Either for doing some Max Raids with @Glen-i and @markderoos, or just to fill up my Pokédex. I finally started the post-game story and well it's just silly. 

Spoiler

Suddenly two royalty descendants show up with the same hair as the legendaries, but they actually dislike the legendaries? Dear god, this is cringy even for Pokémon standards.

I'll probably keep playing this and I hope to have my Pokédex completed before the DLC hits. I did some trading through Pokémon Home as well, but got bored with it after a week. I prefer to just catch my Pokémon in-game.

Okami HD (Switch)

Still going strong in Okami. I finished the first main story arc,

Spoiler

and I have beaten Orochi. I really thought this would be the final boss so I was kind of shocked to see him so soon in the game and get the message: Your story is jus beginning!

I'll continue this soon, but this feels like a good moment to give the game a little bit of pause. Still charming.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts and Joe & Mac 2 (SNES Online app)

I also finished two games on the SNES app. The first one is Super Ghouls & Ghosts, and you can read my impressions in the TBT article. Had a bit of a chuckle during the credits:

The other one is Joe & Mac 2. I had Joe & Mac on the Gameboy, but I never owned Joe & Mac 2. In fact I thought I never played it, but playing it now on the SNES app I had all these deja-vu moments so I really had to dig when I played this. Was it on an emulator? Did I rent it back in the day? But no, a friend of mine in primary school had it and I played it there. 

It's an okay game and you can breeze through it quite fast, especially when rewinding every now and then. The only cheap bit is in the end, when you have to do all bosses of the game in a row before the final boss, without hardly any healing. It's just making things difficult for the hell of it.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PC)

Nope, I still haven't finished this although I did make some good progress. Had a few impressive moments.

Spoiler

First the moment when Lara goes berserk after Unuratu dies. The bit where she rises from the lake was very grim, loved it. The second bit was in the Church Of San Juan, the whole setting of Jesus's crucification being acted out by corpses was quite something.

I have a feeling that I'm quite close to the end now, so I'm hoping to end this coming weekend. So I at least can scratch one big game from the list this month haha.

Finally I bought Enter The Gungeon on Switch. I played it a bit on PC but never got past floor 3. Now I have it on Switch and I never make it past floor 3... If someone has some solid advice on this hook me up! Otherwise I guess it's just a matter of git gud... And the biggest loser for this month is Wargroove, who didn't get played much this month due all the other games. Will come back to it though, I just need to sit down and take my time for it.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Vileplume2000

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

Finally I bought Enter The Gungeon on Switch. I played it a bit on PC but never got past floor 3. Now I have it on Switch and I never make it past floor 3... If someone has some solid advice on this hook me up! Otherwise I guess it's just a matter of git gud...

• prioritize unlocking NPCs
• unlock as many things as you can in the hub (weapons/items)
• brown chests are usually not worth opening (unless they don't require a key); destroy them...sometimes you might get some help
• find both chests on a floor before you start using keys - chests come in different qualities and you don't want to use a key on an inferior one
• figure out which weapons are "room clearers" and "boss killers"
• dodge roll isn't as important as you may think - this is a bullet hell game, movement is key; it's much easier to avoid bullets simply by running (there are, however, situations where you have to use dodge roll)
• whenever you beat a boss without getting hit you get an extra heart container - save your blanks for bosses!
• obvious, but: learn enemies'/boss' patterns
• die, start again, die, start again - it's a roguelite, you get better everytime (and you unlock more the more you play)

 

Made some progress with Tangledeep. Precisely: I died after an hour on my first run Learned a lot of things, though. And I got a pet.
Just started a new run with a different class. Seems very tactical. Setting traps, inflicting bleed, moving around. Very enjoyable.

Edited March 27, 2020 by drahkon

[drahkon]

Oh, Tangledeep, you are amazing.

If you find a certain consumable you can enter a weapon's/armor's dream and upgrade it upon completion. I think the Disgaea series had a similar mechanic?
Anyway, it's awesome. There seems to be so much to do.

Managed to beat the fist boss after I found out that you can simply change your class anytime if you have the cash. And you keep the skills you learned with your previous class. Lots of possibilities for different builds

Man, I'm only 2 hours and 45 minutes in but this is everything I wanted from the game. And more!

[drahkon]

Just spent an hour in a dungeon that set my character to level 1 with no equipment. It was tough but I managed to get through it. The results can be seen above. You get to take back a relic to use on your adventure.

4 hours in and I'm digging Tangledeep even more.