Your 2025 Gaming Diary

[Cube]

I'd be doing the PS1, Saturn and PSP versions of Symphony of the Night.

The collections collection doesn't seem badly priced, so I'll keep an eye out for an offer. 

Edit: oh, I already have the Anniversary Collection.

[Nolan]

15 hours ago, Dcubed said:

PC versions of the Lords of Shadow games are the way to go.

Alternatively, instead of Lord of Shadow, one could just play God of War (pre-reboot) or Devil May Cry instead. It’ll be much less frustrating than Lords of Shadows attempt at character action. 

I do kind of wish Konami would give an easy method of playing Curse of Darkness though (I think it’s that one or Lament of Innocence) I have it via PS3 but that’d be a chore at this point. 

[Jonnas]

Harmony of Dissonance was my first Castlevania, and for that reason I will always be fond of it. There are some legitimate flaws to that game (too large of a map, can become a slog, unpleasant soundtrack), but it's got a lot of cool things going for it as well (creepy atmosphere, intimate story, interior decorating, the most disgusting Legion in the franchise). It's a solid 3, and one I'd like to revisit someday.

On 5/9/2025 at 2:52 PM, Glen-i said:

By the way, this is officially the last game of this style left on my list of these kinds of Castlevania games! Apparently, there's some weird one called "Empathy of the Light", or something, but it can't be very good because it's in neither of these collections.

I have never heard of that title. Where did you get that name from?

On 5/9/2025 at 2:52 PM, Glen-i said:

That said, the Bible is so insanely good

Top 10 quotes out of context

[Dcubed]

4 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Harmony of Dissonance was my first Castlevania, and for that reason I will always be fond of it. There are some legitimate flaws to that game (too large of a map, can become a slog, unpleasant soundtrack), but it's got a lot of cool things going for it as well (creepy atmosphere, intimate story, interior decorating, the most disgusting Legion in the franchise). It's a solid 3, and one I'd like to revisit someday.

That's kind of the point though.  The music is purposely dissononant... I mean... it's literally in the game's title! (Yes, I know that the Japanese title translates directly as "Concerto of the Midnight Sun", but it too is an oxymoron; that's the point).

The music is purposely composed to be uncomfortable to listen to; lacking a harmony to latch onto.  It's a brave creative choice, and I do appreciate what the soundtrack is going for; but the music is let down by the awful sound quality of the audio driver the game uses.  I have no issue with the compositions themselves (in fact, I actually quite dig what they're going for), but the actual audio quality is pretty rough; even by GBA standards.

Of course, that's something that Aria of Sorrow would address directly, but that also goes for a more traditional style of Castlevania music.

Edited May 13 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

15 hours ago, Jonnas said:

I have never heard of that title. Where did you get that name from?

Vague memories. Some crummy PlayStation game that reviewed poorly because it was 2D, ewwwww!

[Dufniall]

I haven't been gaming that much but have dabbled in a couple of things. But there are at least two games I can talk about that I've completed recently:

Little Nightmares (Steam Deck)

I've played through this game as I was looking for a short experience and had it in my Steam backlog. Little Nightmares is the first game in the series and it's easy to call it Limbo/Inside but 3D. There is a similar vibe going on, with the premise of a kid in a hostile adult world and a narrative that's told by the context of the situations you get in. There are plenty of difference though. As mentioned Little Nightmares is 3D, which gives it an extra layer of depth although I sometimes had trouble navigating, for example when crossing a narrow pipe or plank and I would just walk off.

The game has a lot more colour as well, with the yellow raincoat of your character standing out. 

Most of the gameplay is some light platforming, being stealthy and solving puzzles. Nothing too complex, but it has enough variation to stay interesting for the ~4 hour the game lasts. Here and there it's a bit tricky to see what you can climb or pick up, and being detected by (quite disturbing looking) enemies felt a little cheap sometimes. Nevertheless it's a fun short little game and it definitely made me curious about part 2 and the upcoming part 3.

Resident Evil 3 Remake (Steam Deck)

Another game I played on the Deck and this time it's a pledge game! I've completed Resident Evil 3 Remake somewhere last week and loved it, in fact I'm currently replaying it again (shame there is no official Mode B this time like 2 has) just to blast my way through with some weapons I got from the shop.

It runs amazing on the Steam Deck by the way, kudos to the RE:Engine for running these type of games. The city with all the shops and neon are pretty to see. It's just a matter of time before these come native to the Switch 2 right? Anyway, it's a lot more action focused than 2, but I definitely enjoyed my time with it. The Nemesis was less of a pain in the bum than I expected, especially after the horrible tales of it and the Tyrant in 2. A bunch of satisfying boss fights, and fun to return to a couple of familiar locations. I've never played the original so don't know how it compares, and no it doesn't last that long but that fit me perfectly as my gaming time is quite limited.

4 Remake is already on my wishlist but I'll tackle Village first. And with that, I can finally cross something off the list!

I'm currently also making some progress in Hyrule Warriors and StarCraft Remastered, so hopefully I can cross these off this month before Switch 2 arrives and probably kills my pledge for the remainder of the year.

Other gaming stuff I've been doing is softmodding my 3DS so I can now install homebrew. Took the occasion to try out the Virtual Boy emulator which is fun to dabble with. But I've also spend too much time using NetPass to play StreetPass Mii Plaza games and collecting puzzle pieces haha. I just love the 3DS and all its gimmicks, what a shame the Switch and Switch 2 (for now) are a lot more bland in that regard.

Edited Wednesday at 02:59 PM by Dufniall

[Hero-of-Time]

Glad to see you enjoyed both games, @Dufniall. If you enjoyed Little Nightmares I highly recommend the sequel as well. 

Resident Evil 3 gets hard done by a lot of people. I loved it. Sure, it has some areas cut from the original but it was still a blast to play. @RedShell also enjoyed his time with it.

[Dufniall]

Thanks! Yeah, I always check if there's a topic here so I went back and read the Little Nightmares and RE3 thread, always fun to read and compare opinions in hindsight. 😁

[drahkon]

Oh, what is this? drahkon has played Slay the Spire yet again?  

"Completing the Ending" is the worst part of StS. You usually need a specific type of deck to counter what awaits you and this is no fun.
However, The Watcher is the most broken character of the game, so it was actually pretty easy. You basically need one particular card and you're golden.  

Anyways, with that trophy I think I'm done with StS on PlayStation:

Still a 10/10 game, would play again.

Edited Thursday at 08:12 AM by drahkon

[bob]

3 hours ago, drahkon said:

Still a 10/10 game, will play again.

Fixed it for you.

[Jonnas]

On 5/13/2025 at 6:10 AM, Dcubed said:

That's kind of the point though.  The music is purposely dissononant... I mean... it's literally in the game's title! (Yes, I know that the Japanese title translates directly as "Concerto of the Midnight Sun", but it too is an oxymoron; that's the point).

The music is purposely composed to be uncomfortable to listen to; lacking a harmony to latch onto.  It's a brave creative choice, and I do appreciate what the soundtrack is going for; but the music is let down by the awful sound quality of the audio driver the game uses.  I have no issue with the compositions themselves (in fact, I actually quite dig what they're going for), but the actual audio quality is pretty rough; even by GBA standards.

Of course, that's something that Aria of Sorrow would address directly, but that also goes for a more traditional style of Castlevania music.

Yeah, it was the audio quality I meant. It's one thing for the soundtrack to sound eerie, uncomfortable, and "wrong", it's another for it to physically hurt your ears in the process.

On 5/13/2025 at 4:26 PM, Glen-i said:

Vague memories. Some crummy PlayStation game that reviewed poorly because it was 2D, ewwwww!

Oh, I see what's happening...

...Mega Man X4, right?

[Glen-i]

AI: The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative is the sequel to AI: The Somnium Files. It's a visual novel/adventure game developed by Spike Chunsoft and released on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2022.

Three months after the events of the first game, newbie ABIS agent Kuruto Ryuki is taking part in a livestreamed quiz show, when the lights go out for a brief moment. When they come back on, there's half of a dead body in the middle of the set, perfectly cut vertically down the middle, alongside a sign with a QR code on it.

That case doesn't get solved then. Cut to six years later, where Mizuki Date (Pronounced "Dar-Tay"), the adopted daughter of the first game's protagonist, who has now also joined ABIS, gets a text message to go to the local stadium. Once there, she gets shot at, but also finds the other half of the body from the quiz show.
Somehow, 6 years later, and without being frozen (Forensics determine that), that half looks freshly dead.

Simply put, what the actual hell!?

Good visual metaphor there

Gameplay-wise, this plays very similarly to the first game. It's split up into point-and-click investigation sections similar to Ace Attorney's, and the more puzzle-based Somnium sections.
The key difference is that this game takes place at two different points in time. You play as Ryuki and his AI-intelligence-eyeball (They call it an "AI-Ball"), Tama, 6 years in the past, on the initial investigation. During the "present" time, you play as Mizuki, and returning AI-Ball, Aiba, who reopens the case after the second half of that body shows up.

The investigation sections have been fleshed out a little, with various segments that let you move around a VR recreation of a crime scene to find clues and piece together what happened in that place, but the Somnium sections are pretty much the same, which means they're completely insane.

You see, ABIS agents are able to utilise those AI-Balls and fancy tech to enter people's dreams. They do this to get information out of uncooperative witnesses, or those who can't remember things. There are a couple of downsides to this though. You can only spend 6 minutes in a dream at a time, and because they're dreams, they don't really have to make logical sense.

The key to getting through Somniums is figuring out how the logic works, and using that to progress as efficiently as possible. Time slows down immensely while you're standing still, but interacting with objects will subtract seconds immediately. You can also utilise "Timies", which modify how much time an action costs you.

Somehow, the Somniums on this game are more varied and mad then the first game, which is saying something. Some of them get real experimental with the formula, and they are once again, my favourite part of the game. There are options for an easier difficulty which makes the time cost for actions more lenient, so it's more accessible.

Oh, and don't worry if you haven't played the first game, the game flat out asks you if you know what happened there. If you say yes, you're then asked a couple of questions about what happened at the end, and who the culprit is. (You gotta type it in, so you're not randomly guessing). Get it wrong, or say you don't know, and the game actually tweaks the script so that it makes no mention of the first game's plot, which is neat.

Speaking of plot, this one gets complex! Not surprising, it's the same guy who wrote the Zero Escape games. It's a bit more humourous then the Zero Escape games, but still has that dark undertone to it all. Spike Chunsoft seems to like that, don't they? Zero Escape, Danganronpa, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, they have a preference.

I played the Switch version, and it ran mostly fine, although the framerate tanks whenever the game fades to black or white, and only then. It's very bizarre. I also managed to glitch Mizuki's hair somehow. You can see both of those in the first video, actually.

The graphics are fine, and the music is solid. The dream scenarios allow for a different variety in music styles, and this game takes advantage of that.

But yeah, I enjoyed the first game, and it's not surprising I liked this one too. It's more Somnium Files, and more refined. And sometimes, that's all you need for a sequel.

Green

Spoiler

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Omori
Pokémon Scarlet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Albus Mode)
Wario Land 4 (Hard Mode)
Suikoden HD Remaster
Rift of the NecroDancer
Suikoden II HD Remaster
Freedom Planet 2
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Richter Mode)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
AI: The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative

 

Edited Friday at 04:40 PM by Glen-i

[WackerJr]

On 5/16/2025 at 4:07 PM, Glen-i said:

AI: The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative is the sequel to AI: The Somnium Files. It's a visual novel/adventure game developed by Spike Chunsoft and released on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2022.

Three months after the events of the first game, newbie ABIS agent Kuruto Ryuki is taking part in a livestreamed quiz show, when the lights go out for a brief moment. When they come back on, there's half of a dead body in the middle of the set, perfectly cut vertically down the middle, alongside a sign with a QR code on it.

That case doesn't get solved then. Cut to six years later, where Mizuki Date (Pronounced "Dar-Tay"), the adopted daughter of the first game's protagonist, who has now also joined ABIS, gets a text message to go to the local stadium. Once there, she gets shot at, but also finds the other half of the body from the quiz show.
Somehow, 6 years later, and without being frozen (Forensics determine that), that half looks freshly dead.

Simply put, what the actual hell!?

Good visual metaphor there

Gameplay-wise, this plays very similarly to the first game. It's split up into point-and-click investigation sections similar to Ace Attorney's, and the more puzzle-based Somnium sections.
The key difference is that this game takes place at two different points in time. You play as Ryuki and his AI-intelligence-eyeball (They call it an "AI-Ball"), Tama, 6 years in the past, on the initial investigation. During the "present" time, you play as Mizuki, and returning AI-Ball, Aiba, who reopens the case after the second half of that body shows up.

The investigation sections have been fleshed out a little, with various segments that let you move around a VR recreation of a crime scene to find clues and piece together what happened in that place, but the Somnium sections are pretty much the same, which means they're completely insane.

You see, ABIS agents are able to utilise those AI-Balls and fancy tech to enter people's dreams. They do this to get information out of uncooperative witnesses, or those who can't remember things. There are a couple of downsides to this though. You can only spend 6 minutes in a dream at a time, and because they're dreams, they don't really have to make logical sense.

The key to getting through Somniums is figuring out how the logic works, and using that to progress as efficiently as possible. Time slows down immensely while you're standing still, but interacting with objects will subtract seconds immediately. You can also utilise "Timies", which modify how much time an action costs you.

Somehow, the Somniums on this game are more varied and mad then the first game, which is saying something. Some of them get real experimental with the formula, and they are once again, my favourite part of the game. There are options for an easier difficulty which makes the time cost for actions more lenient, so it's more accessible.

Oh, and don't worry if you haven't played the first game, the game flat out asks you if you know what happened there. If you say yes, you're then asked a couple of questions about what happened at the end, and who the culprit is. (You gotta type it in, so you're not randomly guessing). Get it wrong, or say you don't know, and the game actually tweaks the script so that it makes no mention of the first game's plot, which is neat.

Speaking of plot, this one gets complex! Not surprising, it's the same guy who wrote the Zero Escape games. It's a bit more humourous then the Zero Escape games, but still has that dark undertone to it all. Spike Chunsoft seems to like that, don't they? Zero Escape, Danganronpa, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, they have a preference.

I played the Switch version, and it ran mostly fine, although the framerate tanks whenever the game fades to black or white, and only then. It's very bizarre. I also managed to glitch Mizuki's hair somehow. You can see both of those in the first video, actually.

The graphics are fine, and the music is solid. The dream scenarios allow for a different variety in music styles, and this game takes advantage of that.

But yeah, I enjoyed the first game, and it's not surprising I liked this one too. It's more Somnium Files, and more refined. And sometimes, that's all you need for a sequel.

Green

  Reveal hidden contents

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Omori
Pokémon Scarlet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Albus Mode)
Wario Land 4 (Hard Mode)
Suikoden HD Remaster
Rift of the NecroDancer
Suikoden II HD Remaster
Freedom Planet 2
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (Richter Mode)
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
AI: The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative

 

That’s really positive to read about the sequel.  I enjoyed the first game, albeit it did overdo the crude jokes a little.  I was intrigued but didn’t know too much about Nirvana Initiative, but it sounds as though it improves upon the first while keeping the gameplay mechanics, which sounds good to me.  This is another one to add to my Wishlist! Thanks! 😃

[BowserBasher]

 

Took some time off from the pledge as I had picked this up in a recent sale on the eShop. I love the lego games and had seen that this one played differently but still thought it looked pretty fun.

Right so the main story is that your Grampa has this old theme park that's going to get taken away as it's all dilapidated and when you go to see him you end up taking on the task, with the help of your new robot friend, to fix things.

The Whole game is set up in these small squares of worlds. This is the main hub and as such is only the one screen. Each world has multiple screens though.

The way you are going to fix the park is by activating a teleport device (that blue portal) and go into the different worlds to help people. This will get you happiness crystals which power a device that fixes things. 

Everything, like most Lego games, is entirely built made using Lego bricks in the world. The floor, the grass, the structures, everything could be made with Lego if you looked closely and copied it.

One of the things I have loved is the writing and storytelling in the game. Like other Lego games there's seem to be a fair few nods to films and other media. Like above the guard did his best Gandalf impersonation there. that wasn't the last LotR one either. There's many other very funny pieces of writing in there too and there was one later in the game that I'm not sure how they got it past the censors really, I mean can you see it:

So unlike all the other Lego games, the main difference here is the rather fun (or frustrating) sandbox building mode that you have to do throughout the game. As you walk through the levels you will be faced with an obstacle in the form of a broken bridge, someone needs a cart, someone needs help to collect something. Instead of the normal press a button to make the bricks on the floor build it, you are tasked to build it yourself. You go into the sandbox/building mode, in here you get given a set number of pieces and a canvas on which to build. The canvas may have the start to the build, or certain parts that have to be there, and then you have to fill out the rest. Usually you also have two or three pieces that you must place. You get a generous number of pieces and usually there seems to be a couple of ways to go about the build. 

Generally I found most of them to be pretty easy to get what was needed. There were a few that had me sitting there for a while trying to figure out how I was going to do what I needed with the pieces if gave. But with the freedom, you could pretty easily mash something together. 

Like here you had to build a bridge\path that would get you from the start and you had to be able to reach all three of the switches. As with all builds you had to build it so that it wouldn't break under stress of a test robot walking over it. This one had me annoyed because of the middle bit that I couldn't seem to get to stay. In the end slapping a few brace parts seemed to do the trick. Others were a lot simpler and you just needed to build a cart. the bottom of the cart was in place and you just had to build the edges up and make sure that nothing fell out.

All in all these are actually really fun parts of the game, it gives you freedom to design the cart/car/bridge how. you want to yet still has you stick to a set set of pieces and a footprint in which you have to build in. However, and this is the biggest let down of the game. That editor is finicky as hell! grabbing pieces, fine, it's easy to move them around and turn them, but you want to place it in a certain position that where it starts to fall down. You've built up a bit of a wall, you want to then place something on top, so you grab the next piece, start moving it into play and the game then may decide to suddenly flick the piece higher up in the filed of play and make it suddenly move over the other side of it too. All because it got stuck on another piece and couldn't quite sort it out. Many a time I thought I'd got it set to how I wanted and then suddenly it would move and be somewhere else. I think if there was some kind of a more snappy grid system it could have made it so much better. I'd hate to think how it would be on larger builds. Yup, after you have done the build to satisfy the objective, the game will then allow you to redo the build in a more free sandbox mode. So unlimited pieces and access to regular Lego bricks too. You can even unlock more bricks in the shops in each world which include colours and themed sets.

This is the final park after I beat therein story. So the ride is what is restored but it then lets you build the cars of the roller Coaster, the seats in the ferris wheel. The boats and the last one is that it lets you build a whole pirate ship. Again letting you go back in the do again in a free sandbox mode.

As always there's lots of collectables in each world and I may go back to collect them, not that they seem to give you much, maybe some currency for the level to get the Lego parts. But it seems that most of them will be easy to get now that the little robot guy has all his abilities.

There are five worlds and there have been four DLC worlds added, these are a lot smaller though and much simpler. they are all based off of a season too, Beach (summer) Easter (Spring), Halloween (Autumn) and a winter one. 

It's a fun game and a nice twist to the Lego games. I love the little worlds and how they are designed, love that everything is Lego, love the jokes and funny lines. Just fix the damn building mode to make it less fiddly and you got a great game that any Lego builder could enjoy. I'd love to go find some creations that people came up with in the levels to see what people came up with.

Even with the bad editor and solid 8/10 game here.

Bonus photos

Spoiler

That's a lot of cats.

More LotR fun

A classic joke there.

 

 

[Glen-i]

22 hours ago, WackerJr said:

 I enjoyed the first game, albeit it did overdo the crude jokes a little.

Fair warning. The crude humour is still there.