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Your 2024 Gaming Diary


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I've recently been playing Exoprimal. I picked it up from Amazon as they were selling it for a tenner and it's been well worth the money. I've been wanting to play it for a while now and with the game's content over and done with, I figured I best get on it now before the player base dies off completely and the servers shut.

I remember @RedShell enjoying his time on it last year and my experience has mirrored his. It's so much fun to play. With it being a run and gun type shooter, it's a great game to play after a hard day at work, no need to think, just point and shoot at wave after wave of dinosaurs.

I'm still working my way through the story and I've yet to settle on a character. I do enjoy using the class that has a sword as it's very satisfying going to town of hordes of enemies, as seen in this amazing set piece.

Very much enjoying my time with the game and one that I will be playing for a while in between other stuff due to one of the trophies requiring me to kill 100,000 dinos. Speaking of trophies, for some reason they are all in Japanese.

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Apparently this is a bug that Capcom never fixed with both PS trophies and Xbox achievements. It's a bit of a nightmare seeing what i've unlocked and what I need to do for my next trophy. :D 

 

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16 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Glad to hear you're enjoying Exoprimal @Hero-of-Time! :) Is the crossover stuff still available? Not sure if it was a rotational thing or not, but the last time I played the game there was a Monster Hunter event going on where you got to take on a Rathalos! :cool:

Yeah, all the seasonal content rotates now. So stuff like the Monster Hunter and Mega Man events are still available, it's just a question of playing at the right time.

I forgot to mention that I had to bite the bullet and create a Capcom ID for this. I've been avoiding doing it for as long as I could but figured Monster Hunter Wilds will most certainly need one and so went ahead with it. At least I'll be able to play Street Fighter VI now.

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58 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, all the seasonal content rotates now. So stuff like the Monster Hunter and Mega Man events are still available, it's just a question of playing at the right time.

Cool. 👍

58 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I forgot to mention that I had to bite the bullet and create a Capcom ID for this. I've been avoiding doing it for as long as I could but figured Monster Hunter Wilds will most certainly need one and so went ahead with it. At least I'll be able to play Street Fighter VI now.

I wasn't too keen on this Capcom ID malarkey either. But as you say, it's likely to be a requirement for most (if not all) of their games going forward, so not much choice really. ::shrug:
Hopefully it will at least mean cross-progression for everything now as standard though. Yeah, I'm still a bit peeved about my MH Rise save data being trapped on Switch. :heh:

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SI_WiiUVC_PokemonMysteryDungeonRedRescue

Oh, bloody hell, he's talking about PMD again...

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team is a dungeon-crawling roguelike for the Game Boy Advance. It's developed by Spike Chunsoft and originally released in 2006. It recently got added to the GBA NSO app, which is funny, because the GBA only had 2 Pokémon spin-off games, yet Nintendo decided to choose the one that actually has a remake on Switch.

Sorry, Pokémon Pinball...

Now, ignoring the Switch remake, there's two versions of the first entry in the PMD series. Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, each have 6 exclusive Pokémon, but the actual big difference is the console they're on. Blue is on the DS, and utilises the dual screen, as well the better resolution and audio capabilities.
Because of that, I've never actually played the GBA version, and seeing as DS games aren't on Switch, this was a good opportunity for me to try it.

You play as some human who has been transported to the "World of Pokémon" That's not the World of Pokémon from the mainline games, BTW. A different one that only has Pokémon living in it, because of this, said human is transformed into a Pokémon. How? A personality quiz, naturally.

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Shout out to @S.C.G

Why does this happen? Fun fact, that gets explained in a completely different game! Anyway, I totally didn't game it and got to be a Cubone. However, said Human/Cubone has lost all of his memories other than his name. He meets up with another Pokémon (you get a selection of Pokémon, I went with Treecko), and immediately meet a distressed Butterfree who has lost her kid in a Mystery Dungeon. After rescuing the Caterpie, the Treecko asks this human it just met to form a "Rescue Team". A string of natural disasters have been wracking the Pokémon world recently, so the rescue business is quite busy.

Probably not related to this random human showing up...

I know I've said this to death, but the PMD games are notable for having storylines that are surprisingly good for Pokémon games. This one is a tad on the simple side compared to later entries, but it has its moments once it gets going.
Also, great ending!

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Snubbull is weird!

Anyway, the game revolves around travelling through Mystery Dungeons, special places that make no sense, because they have random floor layouts every time you enter them. If any of the main two Pokémon faint in there, you're kicked out of the dungeon, and lose all the items and money you're carrying, and fainting is surprisingly easy to do here. It's a bit trickier then you'd expect from a Pokémon game, it's not as hard as some other Mystery Dungeon games (Especially Shiren the Wanderer), because you keep any experience points, but you need to really think about your actions before doing them (Enemies don't move until you do).

Anyway, I love Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. I know this, you know this, that's not the reason I played this, I wanted to see the compromises that the GBA version had to take. And there are a few which I will copy and paste from the other thread.

  • The obvious one is that there's no second screen, so you don't have somewhere to put the map or your team status. If you want a map, you have to use an overlay, and you have to open a menu to see other Pokémon's HP.
  • There's no X or Y button, so there's some interesting compromises for some controls. In every other PMD, you rotate your Pokémon on the spot by holding Y and choosing a direction. Here? You press Start! It's so bizarre! And you don't hold it, pressing start toggles "Rotate Mode", and pressing it again deactivates it. Thankfully, I found out that tapping R does the same thing (Holding R lets you move exclusively diagonally, as usual). But my muscle memory is messing me up because the Pro controller has a Y button, so I instinctively press it and then accidentally take a step because Y does nothing!
  • GBA NSO actually button maps the X button to function as a B button, which in a lucky break, means that it opens the menu, just like the DS version. Unlike the DS version, pressing X twice doesn't open up the move menu quickly, it just backs out of the menu like a B button would.
  • Oh man, the music! I was obviously expecting a downgrade here, but some of the songs get utterly mangled by the GBA sound chip! The amazing soundtrack does not deserve this!
  • The game tends to start struggling when around 8 enemy Pokémon are on a floor at once. The poor GBA is trying to program all the AI of those enemies, and it causes frame hitches when you take a step. To be fair, the DS version also has this problem, but it tends to happen when there's, like, 30 enemies at once.
  • The lovely little conversation portraits Pokémon have are the same size as the DS version's. They obviously didn't want to do two different versions of all those, but it means they take up a lot more of the GBA screen space. Not really a bad thing, just an interesting quirk.

So yeah, it's a fun curiosity for me, but now that the credits have rolled, I'm satisfied. The GBA version has too many concessions for me to carry on playing it, especially with the truly excellent remake, Rescue Team DX, available on Switch as well.
Kind of a hard sell when this one is available on NSO though, just know, it's the worst way to play the Rescue Team games.

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Anyway, enjoy an incorrectly coloured Grovyle!
Not a NSO glitch, it's like that in the original game!

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)
Miitopia (100 flipping per ceeeeent!)
Metroid Zero Mission (100%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team

 

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TOEM (PS5)

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Looking like the abstract doodles of a talented artist, I found TOEM charming and a rather delightful little adventure.

It all takes place in a monochrome world with hand-drawn graphics and no combat.  You’re gifted a camera to take while you explore a dozen different diorama-style locations.  You meet a whole cast of off-beat characters, most of whom will task you to show them a picture of a certain creature or object, with the request taking the form of a simplistic clue to what they want to see.

Whipping your tool out switches to a first-person viewpoint.  The simplistic graphics make this transition quick and smooth, good since you’ll be doing it a huge amount.

For each request you fulfil you’re rewarded with a stamp.  Earn enough stamps in a location and you’ll be allowed to catch the bus to the next location (apparently money is not a thing in TOEM’s world).  Each location is comprised of maybe a dozen small areas, each only taking a few seconds to travel through.  Despite the simplistic graphics and lack of colour, the design makes these locations all distinguishable from one another, whether it be a jungle, a beach, or a snowy mountain for instance.

While small, each area is pretty filled with characters or things to find.  There are creatures found everywhere, usually in plain site, sitting on rocks or trees.  Most requests refer to things located within the location you’re in as well, so it’s fairly quick to explore everything within each location.  There could be 20-30 requests within a location though, so everything feels swift.

Most requests are fairly simplistic, simply spotting the object needed.  Thankfully there are puzzles to solve, such as finding mysterious cubes which alter part of the surroundings (one example is a grandmother who’s car has been upturned and the cube will cause it to flip the right way).

As well as stamps, you’ll occasionally be rewarded with items, usually in the form of clothing.  While these are mainly aesthetic, some have practical uses, such as glasses that enable you to see ghosts (who of course have photo requests of their own).  You even get attachments for your camera, such as a horn which you can use to create new paths to explore.

While it may be fun for some, I wasn’t too bothered with the camera filters you earn.  If you so choose, you can simply take photos of your surroundings using a myriad of different filters.  With the exception of using them for a couple of puzzles I had no desire to spend my time trying to take obscure-looking photos of a monkey, or adding comical sunglasses to a tramp!  Each to their own I suppose though.

Due to the game conditioning me that so many rewards and items were purely cosmetic, I was thrown by some of the smarter puzzles that actually required me to use some of them.  I think I’d have appreciated those more had there been more requests using your items to solve puzzles as opposed to the higher number which were along the lines of ‘I’m going to give you a hint as to the object I’d like a picture of’.

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It was short at only a few hours long, and didn’t overstay its welcome.  As you can probably tell, I rather enjoyed this!  Admittedly I like Pokemon Snap and the photography aspects of Beyond Good & Evil, so this ticked the right boxes immediately.

Oh, and praise too to the DLC (which was free alongside the game, which I picked up when it was a PSPlus monthly title), which managed to add some new gameplay aspects and enhanced the overall package.

 

Link to my video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV0HgNv6_4E

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On 8/19/2024 at 9:40 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

Nex Machina

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Downloaded it, started a run on Veteran (one of the few trophies I still have to get requires a win in Arcade mode on Veteran) and completed the first two worlds with no problems. YEAH, there's a reason why I'm widely regarded as the best gamer in my room.

Anyways, I doubt I'll get much further on this difficulty as I don't remember anything at all about the worlds :laughing:

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