What games are you playing?

[11clock]

I decided to play through all of the Wario platformers, including both Mario Land games (I consider them a prologue to the Wario Land series), Wario World, and Wario: Master of Disguise. I am just about finishing up the Game Boy games, so here are my thoughts on each. Note that all of these games are being played blind, except for Super Mario Land 2 and Wario: Master of Disguise.

Super Mario Land
I don't have much to say about this one. It's incredibly mediocre with questionable physics and hit detection, has very repetitive level design with repeat land marks, and is very short. I have to give a shoutout to the underground music, though. That song is so kickass.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
The physics are quite improved from the original. I like controlling Mario (he's a bit slow but that seems to be a compromise for the small screen and large sprites). The overworld is small, but compact with interesting choices for worlds, like Halloween and a giant Mario robot. That all said, I found this game pretty boring. The levels, while having interesting themes, are incredibly bland and empty in terms of level design, with the only standouts for me being the second space level where you are avoiding stars as well as Wario Castle itself. Super Mario Land 2 isn't a bad game by any means, but it doesn't really do anything to stand out from other platformers. You're better off playing its bigger brother Super Mario World (which is absolutely fantastic).

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
I quite enjoyed this one! The levels, while still basic, have a lot more variety and change things up more frequently than the levels in Super Mario Land 2. I really liked hunting down the treasures as well, with many of them bringing new challenges for you to overcome. The bosses were pretty decent compared to past entries (except for the final boss which I just found to be annoying). I have two major gripes with Wario Land, though. Firstly, I found Wario himself really clunky and slow to control, and I dislike that you have to hold up to jump higher (which is an issue that I have with later Wario Land games as well). Secondly, the coins didn't seem all that useful. You only need to spend a small handful of them for checkpoints and leaving levels, I found the post-level minigames too tedious to bother with, and the treasures are worth so many coins that the coins you find in levels are practically worthless for getting endings, with only 8 coins outside of treasures needed for the second best ending. Of course you do need a lot more coins for the best ending, but the levels don't give you nearly enough coins for it, which means grinding. I'd rather just move to the next game instead. All in all, a decent spin on the Mario formula and I recommend it. I think that Wario taking over the "Land" series was a good move, because it allows the series to move beyond just being "diet Mario."

Virtual Boy Wario Land
I wanted to like this game more than Wario Land 1, I really did. It does almost everything strictly better than Wario Land 1. Wario feels fantastic to control, and easily my favorite physics in the series so far. The levels are great with each one having its own distinct theme. The boss battles are fantastic and very creative. The introduction of the King Dragon hat is also really cool. Unfortunately, all of that is heavily bogged down by the game's focus on large, labyrinthine levels with absolutely no checkpoints. The amount of times I got lost, only to be killed and having to start the level all over again, made me incredibly frustrated by the end of the game. Every time I found the level exit without having the key needed to leave was met with a heavy sigh. Same goes for thinking I found the way forward only to be met with a room of completely worthless coins. I really mean that the coins are worthless, because they don't matter at all for getting the best ending, leaving them only to be used for tedious minigames that are not worth the hassle with the paltry rewards they give. In short, I think that this game would be fantastic, but I was burned too many times by the maze-like level design that I didn't have all that much fun. I plan on revisiting the game later, since I think that it would be more enjoyable on a second playthrough (and I am curious about that sub 2 hour ending you can get).

Wario Land 2
During the first few hours of this game, I was pretty underwhelmed. Not being able to die meant no stakes, which left me feeling bored and just wanting to move to the next game. Something clicked by Chapter 4, though, and I started to enjoy myself. I was feeling more compelled to explore the levels, find the treasures and the coins you need to buy them. Then, when I beat the final boss and saw the multi-route level select screen, it finally hit me. Wario Land 2 isn't merely just a platformer... it's an adventure game! Scouring the levels for secrets and solving puzzles were the real challenge of this game, and that is when I was actually having fun. It's a very different take compared to past Land games, which were more action driven with some exploration here and there, but competent in execution. I went from nearly skipping Wario Land 2 to fully completing it! It even solved the "coins being useless" issue that past Wario Land games had. That all said, Wario Land 2 has the single most obnoxious gimmick I have experienced in years: the f***ing minigames. There are two minigames, each required for getting the treasures needed to unlock the final level. Both minigames are unremarkable and more of a time waster than anything, and you have to beat each one 50 times each! I was already tired of them by around the 10th time, so imagine how I felt by the end of the game. I absolutely despised the minigames and they brought down my enjoyment of Wario Land 2 immensely. Another issue I had with Wario Land 2 is that exploration, while being the forefront of this game, is not all that rewarding. The vast majority of alternate routes in each level just lead to getting more coins. Sure, coins are actually important this time, but they still don't feel all that rewarding to collect, especially since you only need a minimum of 50 coins to get that level's treasure (more if you suck at the minigame). Two changes would improve Wario Land 2 for me: Replace the minigames with paywalls, and add another kind of collectible to find in levels to better reward exploration. Speaking of the latter...

Wario Land 3
I'll just say this now. This is my favorite Wario game in the Game Boy era. I absolutely love Wario Land 3! The Mario 64 + Metroid hybrid structure works so well and feels like a natural evolution of what Wario Land 2 established. Levels are more open ended and reward exploration much better, with most treasures having an impact on the game itself. This includes unlocking new levels, altering existing levels (which I find really cool and one of my favorite aspects of Wario Land 3), and giving you new abilities Metroid style. Wario feels about as great to control as he did in VB Wario Land. Level design is far more creative with some really interesting puzzles and platforming sections for nabbing the treasures. The amount of secrets in Wario Land 3 is immense and makes the game a huge joy to explore. The metroidvania elements could've easily made the game as confusing as I found VB Wario Land to be, but the cutscenes showing you levels that are worth exploring as well as an NPC telling you the next level to explore for the story keep that kind of issue to a minimum. The overworld + level structure mitigates the biggest frustrations with backtracking while keeping it fun. (Need to go back to an area halfway across the map? You're there in 5 seconds!) Even the minigames issue in Wario Land 2 was addressed, replacing the tedious and boring tile matching minigames with a pretty fun golf minigame that you only need to play a handful of times throughout the adventure (instead of twice on every f***ing level). The amount of good things I have to say about Wario Land 3 is very high, but the game isn't without its flaws. The biggest issue of Wario Land 3 is one shared with Super Mario 64 thanks to the inherent nature of the mission-based level structure as well as the key-to-exit design brought back from VB Wario Land. You're often going to need to replay certain parts of levels repeatedly. The most notable cases of this are in the Tower of Revival with needing to do a puzzle regarding lighting a series of torches every time you enter this level, the main room in the Castle of Illusions with the switch block puzzle required for all chests, and the entirety of Above the Clouds. The repeated sections are never that bad, usually not needing to take more than 10-20 seconds, but it does happen often enough that you will grow tired of it by the end of the game. Other than that annoyance, I am a big fan of Wario Land 3 and I highly recommend it if you are itching for something like Super Mario 64 or Metroid with a unique twist.

Here is the current tier list so far.



EDIT: I noticed that I gave a glowing review of Wario Land 3, and it is put in B tier. To better explain, the game's experimental nature makes it a bit rough around the edges. I believe that the level Above the Clouds is a good example of pretty much all of the flaws of this game crammed into a single level. Because of such issues, as much as I adored this game, it doesn't quite meet my A tier criteria. To give a good idea on what is required for A tier and above, I consider Super Mario World a low A tier game. For S tier, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the only Mario game I have played that was able to reach this tier, so this tier will usually be pretty empty. You practically have to be in my top 10 games of all time for me give an S rank.

[Crow]

playing two first-person games that could not be more opposite

ghostrunner: first-person parkour and swordplay - kinda works, kinda doesn't, not a fan of how trial-and-error the combat sections are but the checkpointing is generous enough that i can bear with it... runs surprisingly well for such a modern-looking game on my garbo computer too lol

call of the sea: walking sim-type thing with the occasional puzzles, mostly story based and friggin' beautiful to look at and so far i am very intrigued by the story

both of these are like 6-8ish hour long games apparently so that's the one thing they have in common

[thatguyif]

Cursed Fiesta goes wild once again. At 53 hours and 38 minutes and 1169 swaps (again, nice), a team finally beat Exdeath and reached World 3. And it was someone I didn't expect:

Team Bet: Ranger/Thief/Geomancer/Blue Mage/Summoner
Current Level: 30
When we last saw Team Bet, it was in dead last. The Cursed team of Ranger, Thief, Geomancer, and Blue Mage, the last job of which would be lost after the events in the Great Forest of Moore, suffered from being a somewhat weak team with an uncertain future. Ranger, while potent at max power, wasn't going to get to its full potential until World 3 anyway. It seemed rather hopeless.

So what happened? Level 5 Death happened.

Level 5 Death greatly shortens The Grind™ a ton by virtue of being a simple quick OHKO for the Objet d'Art that's guaranteed to hit. As a result, I did the entirety of The Grind™ in the same amount of time other teams were able to grind out a single job. Further, Level 5 Death, when used in conjunction with other math-mechanic Blue Magic spells, OHKOs any enemy, even those marked Heavy (i.e., bosses and special enemies) that are typically immune to Death. Once Team Bet left The Grind™ upon their first arrival at Bal, they made quick work of everything in World 2, up to Moore (Death Claw also helped, especially with the Crystal bosses in Moore). When the time came to initiate the Fifth Job, the team had recovered nearly all the ground they had lost, jumping ahead of Team Dalet at Barrier Tower. While there was still the issue of Reflect Rings, it was highly possible they could take the lead for a spell.

But then the Fifth Job was revealed: Summoner!

Summoner solved a lot of problems right away. The team now had useful offensive magic and not spreadsheet-based magic, such as Titan and Catoblepas, and will get more in World 3 (particularly Syldra, Odin, and Phoenix). Summoner also has powerful support magic in the form of Golem (which I had to pick up afterward because my team was too weak to protect it at Drakenvale initially, but still) and (later) Carbuncle. Most importantly, they did not need Reflect Rings for the Exdeath fight since you can pick up Carbuncle in Castle Exdeath. While the team does have Glass Cannon characteristics, they are now actually powerful. As a result, they jumped into the lead, with them being first into World 3. It's not a sizeable lead, but a lead nevertheless. The session ended with Bet and Krile approaching the Antlion in World 3.

Team Dalet: Time Mage/Black Mage/BERSERKER/Ninja
Current Level: 29
When we last saw Team Dalet, they were in good shape to potentially surpass the leaders. There was just one minor obstacle: Collecting Reflect Rings from Reflect Knights in Barrier Tower. Again, the purpose of Reflect Rings is to have protection in the final fight of World 2, Exdeath, since his -aga spells hit you like a truck. No problem, right?

Wrong.

The MIRACLE LUCK that got this team two Death Sickles in three battles went away in Barrier Tower. Reflect Knights are a tricky enemy to fight due to both the high physical defense relative to the party's capabilities at that point and the fact they have auto-Reflect (it's in the name), which not only bounces off magic spells, but magic status effects. DOUBLEZERKER's most powerful weapon up to that point, the Poison Axe, inflicts Poison 33% of the time. The Death Sickles inflict Death at the same rate. Problems, to say the least. Thankfully, the mages had spells (Comet and Drain) that bypassed Reflect, but still, it was a rather tedious drag.

However, once they got out of Barrier Tower, things went much more swimmingly. The benefit of having a team that doesn't need much ability-switching means I could just skip the grinds Alef and Gimel underwent. Also helpful: The level 5 Black and Time Magic spells in Moore, the former of which are essentially the best offensive spells in the game, the latter providing Hastega and Graviga, which are powerful in their own right (with the latter being a backup plan in case DOUBLEZERKER failed to produced results with two Death Sickles with the Crystal bosses). That said, DOUBLEZERKER prevailed in the Crystal fight in Moore, with only one high potion used to ensure none of the Crystals went into danger mode while he cut them down. So now, the team is in Castle Exdeath, with the session ending during the Greg fight.

Team Gimel: White Mage/BERSERKER/Samurai/Gladiator
Current Level: 29

Team Gimel has had a mostly even run ever since they took the lead, but that lead was dependent on how fast the second round of The Grind™ would take. While THINKZERKER is real, other teams mattered too. Iainuki (the final ability from Samurai) helps alleviate The Grind™ to a degree, but not as much as Level 5 Death. It is a slow move, and it's not guaranteed to OHKO your enemies. Still, eventually the third White Mage was mastered, as was the second Samurai.

Barrier Tower was not too difficult, again benefiting from not needing to pick up Reflect Rings. Initially, I considered farming for Staves of Light (which is the White Mage's answer to rod-breaking: Breaking those casts Holy), but I recognized that this team is already pretty potent with Gladiator's Finisher and Samurai's Zeninage, and deemed it unnecessary. After combining Iainuki with MINIZERKER to clear the Crystals, second round happened. They finished just as Team Dalet left the Great Forest of Moore. Some shuffler RNG meant they fell behind, but they're not that far back. Session ended on the third floor, just before wolf man and Galuf turn the castle into a giant Meat Fort.

Team Alef: Knight/Mystic Knight/Ninja/Samurai
Current Level: 31

For a long while, Team Alef was in a strong position to lead. They had a pretty solid run in collecting Reflect Rings in Barrier Tower. They had enough money to take out the Crystal bosses with ease. This would put them in contention, right?

Not quite.

After finishing Moore, the team returned to Bal for a second round of The Grind™, and this one is much longer than the last. They are still there as of end of this session. Why? The goal is to have every character master Ninja, for that grants the passive ability of Dual Wield. Dual Wield is an extremely powerful ability, because you can wield two weapons at once. That makes you dangerous. Combined with, say, Spellblade, now you're cutting through everything. That said, Dual Wield is a big grind: The job is 690 ABP (nice) to master, 450 of which comes from getting Dual Wield. Once they got all 4 Dual Wields, they're sitting very pretty for the rest of the game. But they're not they're yet, with only 3 of the 4 characters mastered, and the fourth (Krile) only at Level 3 out of 5 (I think). This'll take some time, even with two characters wielding Iainuki.

-

So with World 3, FFV reaches the late-endgame. It's basically made up of three parts. First, there is the beginning and seeking the first tablet, where you're with only three of your four characters. (Lenna gets temporarily voided, and her poison addiction manifests into the shape of the demon Melusine.) The second part is Road to the Rift/Cleft, which is you doing/getting whatever you need to clear the endgame. Third is the Cleft of Dimension/Interdimensional Rift, the endgame.

How long World 3 is for each team is dependent mostly on the Road. In theory, based on your preparation, you might be able to skip to the third part. But in most casual cases, it's practical to just do whatever you need to get a good team prepped, because endgame is long and tough. While there are 4 tablets to grab to get the 12 Sealed Weapons, most Fiesta teams need only 2 at most, and many only need one. However, many things that jobs need require getting at least 2, sometimes 3 of the tablets. A few cases require going to all four tablet dungeons, if only to get certain things.

More importantly, though, now is a time to level grind. The reason is Almagest. One of the parts to Neo Exdeath casts this spell, preempted by NED wiggling for a few rounds. It hits for ~1600 HP. If your team is below that threshold, they will wipe. The part has 55000 HP, making it extremely difficult and unlikely that your team can damage-race their way into preventing Almagest from firing, especially because it is scripted to fire within a couple rounds after the start of the fight. There are basically two ways around this: One is to have the ability to place Shell on your party, which halves the damage (doable with White Mage, which can cast Shell, Blue Mage with Mighty Guard, and Chemist with Mix, or wearing Protect), while the other is to leverage its weakness to Petrify through Break or Catoblepas to OHKO. The latter option is difficult, though, with one exception, because that part also has a very high magic evasion that will cause the spell to miss regularly (unless you're at levels well above what most people end up, e.g. high-50s or low-60s and beyond).

So this is the outlook for the late-to-endgame for all the teams involved:

• Team Bet has, surprisingly, the shortest Road in theory. All they need is the first tablet, where they'll collect Yoichi's Bow, Magus Rod, and Assassin's Dagger. (Earth Bell, like all other bells in this game, is hot garbage). Their main concerns are picking up the summons Syldra, Odin, and Phoenix. Bahamut, while powerful, is only slightly more powerful than boosted Syldra, and costs far more MP. Leviathan is not useful at all for the simple reason that it cannot be boosted and is midway in power between Syldra (which can be boosted) and Bahamut, not to mention it's too far out of the way to get. In practice, though, they face the issue of level grinding. They have low HP, with none of them above 1000 at level 30. While they have Catoblepas, it's no sure thing. It probably will take them to about late-40s (namely with Thief) to be safe from Almagest. At the very least, they have Phoenix Tower as a place to grind.
• Team Dalet has the longest Road. They must make a stop in every tablet dungeon, along with going to Fork Tower (which unlocks the latter two tablet dungeons). Their primary Sealed Weapon choices are Magus Rod, Sasuke's Katana, and Rune Axe, with other weapons being used for Throwing. Great Sea Trench contains Meteor (the essential Time Magic spell) at the end of it, while Istory Falls contains a Titan's Axe, which is stronger than the Rune Axe in base power (and given this is DOUBLEZERKER, Rune Axe is less useful due to limited MP). They also must level to the same degree as Team Bet, for similar reasons (they have Break, but...and the only member with more than 1k health right now is DOUBLEZERKER), and their best place is Great Sea Trench. It would not be surprising if this team finishes last.
• Team Gimel has a bit of an easier Road. Their Sealed Weapon Choices are Rune Axe, Sage's Staff, Excalibur, and Masamune. They will need to go to Fork Tower for Holy (the only offensive White Magic spell). But other than that, they don't need to do as much because of Shell. It would still be ideal to level grind somewhat, probably to the upper 30s, so that other bosses in the Cleft/Rift aren't as much of a problem.
• Team Alef has probably the easiest (though not shortest) Road. They only need to pick up Excalibur, Masamune, and Sasuke's Katana. They will need to go Fork Tower for Flare (Flare Blade being far more useful than Flare the spell, if only because Spellblade doesn't have any elemental boosts). But it's not a major issue, even with Omniscient (Silence Blade prevents Return). Istory Falls is also necessary for Enhancer (for Mystic Knight), but again, not too much to concern yourself with. The big thing though is they don't need to level grind as much. They're currently at level 31, and they could probably get through the rest of the game just fine. More importantly, though, they have Break Blade, which solves Almagest (Spellblade attacks only account for physical and not magic evasion, so if the attack lands, the Break will be applied). They will still level grind to a degree to boost Zeninage (since damage is determined by level), but it will probably be to the mid-30s at most.

It's anyone's game in this Cursed Fiesta. I may play a session tonight just to get Gimel and Dalet out of the Castle and into World 3, but no more than that. This week though: Goal will be to have at least one team enter the Cleft, ideally. Hopefully, before the end of July, this will all be over.

[11clock]

I started playing Super Metroid, intending to beat it after I gave up on it years ago and also in anticipation for Dread. Note that I am playing the base Redux romhack, which provides a lot of quality of life features without altering the core game (basically just stuff that the GBA games introduced like a more detailed map and faster transitions). My impressions therefore won’t be entirely accurate to someone’s experience with the vanilla version.

The exploration of this game is pretty fun and it rewards curiosity very well. There are secrets all over the place and I keep finding cool gear like the X-Ray Visor and Wave Beam. There is a bit of an overabundance of missile upgrades, but given how necessary they are for boss fights I don’t find this a big deal. The boss fights so far have been pretty neat (I stopped right after beating Phantoon).

My biggest critiques are on the physics and combat. I really dislike controlling Samus. She feels overly floaty vertically and overly stiff horizontally, which makes pretty much all platforming sections feel incredibly awkward. The combat seems to share the same issue I had with the combat in Axiom Verge, where enemy behaviors are so erratic that you are guaranteed to take damage from time to time (with Samus’ awkward physics not helping, either). This issue is offset a bit by your incredibly large health pool (assuming you have been collecting energy tanks) and frequent health drops, but the result is that I don’t find combat all that fun. I would prefer a faster, less tanky Samus and less erratic enemy patterns. That said, the amount of forced damage does make the energy tanks feel more rewarding to collect. That reserve tank I went back to get saved my ass on the Phantoon fight.

TLDR first half of the game impressions are that Super Metroid nails the metroidvania elements that the series invented, but everything else is subpar. Still a fun game, though.

Current tier: C

EDIT: I unlocked Tourian and am now on the cleanup phase of the game. My opinions haven’t changed and probably won’t.

[KobaBeach]

Up to Job 19 in Arc the Lad III, started in Japanese. Almost heading to North Sularto and into new content.

Also 7h32m into Tales of Phantasia SFC because I'm bored, also in JP and I'm at Alvanista. Gonna make sure my equipment is up to date before heading into the castle to cure the prince or whatever.

EDIT: 10h42m in ToP, I got Gnome, Undine and Efreet, Gnome and Undine were nightmares. Efreet less so because Undine does like ~900 damage to him. I'm surprised the PSX remake actually adds in the Basilisk Scale farming because, yike. Gonna try to do Moria Gallery tomorrow or play something else.

[KobaBeach]

Almost 20h into Tales of Phantasia SNES and I'm past the first Dhaos battle and to put it succintly it Felt Like A Bathtub

I got so mad trying to wrangle the garbage in-battle menu that wouldn't Freeze The Action When Selecting Spells that I banged on my keyboard and I never do that???? I feel kind of cringe honestly. The Pegasus bit was also garbage as usual, why would you put Charons below Cless' range of attack, Wolf Team. Took me two tries. Holy Bottles helped a lot in Dhaos' Castle. Valhalla Plains was a bit annoying with the enemy sprite placement though, Thomas bitches were everywhere.

Also I Was Wrong, the five Basilisk Scale grinding is in every version, good luck with that raocow. SFC felt like a 100% chance of Basilisks dropping it though.

Also I hate myself so I'm playing Beyond the Beyond: To Far Away Canaan (just Beyond the Beyond for yanks) and man this game feels Viscerally Bad, the map walking feels as jank as like Arc the Lad's non-battle segments, the aesthetics are ugly to me (enemy designs are top notch, the Orcs and Goblins are especially bara as fuck. totes boyfriend material), signposting is most of the time not there like a lot of things you just have to divine, the story barely exists.

I've gone to like Sharman, the desert kingdom, don't know the EN name, at the advice of the queen of Zalagoon, who is the King of Marion's younger sister, and Bison to fix Samson's curse that L'Amour (Ramue) cast, to prove to the king of Zalagoon, Samson's old friend Peat and Chancellor Glade/Advisor Glade that Samson and Edward are the real Samson the hero and Prince Edward from Marion and not fakes, and like, we've been to Opha/Ophera, then an NPC mentioned wanting to go to Monmarte/Luna I think, and now we're heading to East/Simone because another NPC mentioned the Emerald Cave (they just call it like the Northern Mine I think? I forget) to the north lead to it while talking to another NPC, there is barely any relevance to the curse subplot.

And like. The Battle System Is Like. Schoolkid rumor 100% Poké Ball catch button combination bullshit, I swear to god that's the first thing I thought of (show of hands if you still do like press A when the ball first closes or whatever because I absolutely do that shit, I press A once every time it shakes, it's my personal superstition).

Battle system details from FAQ:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Active Playing System
=====================

* This section can also be found by looking at #3 in the Tips, Hints, and Tricks
section, X.

Beyond the Beyond uses the APS (Active Playing System), which allows you to
increase the chance of winning a fight. Basically, by pressing certain buttons
while your character is attacking or defending, you may cause your character to
perform a special move. If you do this correctly, you will hear a “ching” noise.
It is also important to know that you will not always be able to activate a
character’s special move, but it is most definitely worth time to keep on
trying. Also, there are rare occasions when you will think you have activated
the special move and consequently hear the “ching” noise, but your character
will not perform a special move.

To activate the special move, I recommend rapidly pushing the “X” button either:

1) Before a character is about to attack, which will result in a double attack,
super attack, or a normal attack followed by a super attack.
2) Before a monster is about to attack, which results in a guard or
counterattack (normal or super)
3) During an attack where a character receives a lethal blow, which will
result in the character coming back from grogginess with 1 VP left.
4) During a turn when your character would normally come back from grogginess
resulting in a full VP recovery and half LP loss.

Another trick I heard about and tried to duplicate with some success is to hit
the X button while either pressing a direction on the control pad. If you hold
Up or Left when a blue diamond appears and rapidly hit the X button, a double
attack will result. If you hold Down or Right on the control pad when a gold
diamond appears and rapidly hit the X button, a super attack will result.

I'm not gonna berate people who enjoy this game because they do exist, and I save that for people who think Sonic 06 is a unironically good game instead of a bad game that manages to be fun sometimes, but I feel like this timed hits style thing could be done so much better, like not even to the extent of like getting in the way of traditional Dragon Quest combat like how Legend of Dragoon has like an entire multiple timed hit thing going on.

I don't know if an in-between of like Whatever The Fuck This Is and Super Mario RPG exists but I feel like that would be better, just a little visual hint thing to like nudge the player into doing the tricks correctly. Because while there is the little diamond things it's not enough and completing the input feels randomized, I'm literally just mashing every battle because I don't care.

Anyway grinding to Lv13 (12 for Samson, accidental ACAB joke) before heading into the Emerald Cave because the FAQ advises it.

EDIT: BtB - The Ancient Temple was draining goddamn. Simone was actually Simone/Simon. Also I like how you have to walk back through part of the Emerald Cave to get the Moon Fragment on the first place like yike. Got the Statue of Gaea/Moai Statue and I'm heading to Mist Valley. G'night.

[11clock]

I finished Metroid Fusion and am now doing post-game cleanup.

This is more of an action adventure platformer than a metroidvania, in a similar likes to Cave Story. With that said, I loved this game. Samus is incredibly fluid to control, combat is much more challenging while also being more fair with less erratic enemy patterns, great boss battles (with a couple exceptions), some very memorable moments, and the soundtrack was fantastic. It's very close to S tier for me, but the game does have some frustrating moments due to Fusion's over obsession with fake walls, more so than Super Metroid even. And a couple of the bosses were poorly designed and rely too much on trial and error. That said, Metroid Fusion is my favorite game I played so far this year and I highly recommend it. If Super Metroid didn't sell me on the Metroid series, then Fusion certainly has.

Metroid Fusion's Tier: A

Current Metroid tier list so far.



I was intending to play Wario Land 4 after Super Metroid to continue that marathon, but Super Metroid left me craving more Metroid, so time to play through all the mainline Metroid games! Zero Mission is next. I am going by order of release, and because this counts remakes over the originals it does mean I am playing through the series a bit out of order. It's basically Star Wars style order. I heard that Zero Mission is pretty easy due to being made for newcomers, but after Fusion's relentless difficulty a breather game would be nice by now lol.

[KobaBeach]

Finished the Samson curse arc in Beyond the Beyond which is basically half of the game.

Mist and Rainbow Valley were awful, East was actually Jonowan not Simone oops, I don't think any part of the game tells you about Simone, just that the Shaman folk are powerful magicians. I figured out you could disable autobattle for your party, why would you put that as the default in a turn based RPG the Gaea Shrine (Water Shrine in JP?) sounds like a nightmare without a guide, Devil Liquid (Water Demon, EN) was alright, apparently the bosses had their HP bumped up in the English release, yikes.

You have to divine to put the Magic Seed into the Magic Vase in the Ancient Temple, good game design. The Magic Vine was annoying, the Tower of God (God is "Arawn" in English. ) could be worse. The netherworld (makai) is apparently attacking the human world and that's why the Kingdom of Vandole (Bandore) is evil now or whatever and God lead us to his tower to stop the demons? Also Annie cried because she got reminded of her brother Belushi/Percy.

Samson's curse got undone because God teleported us to Honett's meditation spot and told them (they might be a man they might be neither) the haps. Heading back to Zalagoon, we beat up Glade who made a pact with the devils to help Vandole, we recovered Marion Castle by defeating the soldiers holding up the bridge from Marion to Zalagoon and chasing out Stadt (Shutat) and L'Amour (Ramue), after like eating shit multiple times because LOL Vandole Soldiers in the castle, and now we're at Vandole to rescue Master Kevins, I think Finn and him are just pupil and master in the JP version? Also I named Finn "David" in my game oops, I don't like renaming characters but his name was blank so I didn't know.

Lastly, I forgot to mention, those LP things in the Orc and Goblin screenshots, they're basically like the Life Points (same name actually) in SaGa only they diminish depending on the amount of health (Vitality Points) you recover post-groggyness (basically a temporary knockout) instead of being knockdown health that dictates whether you'll perma-die or not. The thing is, you basically have like a very small amount of health instead of like the hundreds and thousands you'd have in a normal JRPG, and when you're groggy, you're, again, basically treated as temporarily knocked out.

So imagine how I feel when I try to heal a character only for them to become groggy from taking damage and recovering like a fraction of the health they would have if the game just let me heal them, making them available for yet another groggy strike. Also, like Edward or Tont (I'd go with Tonto but that name is kind of associated with bad and racist Native American stereotyping that I understand if that was the reason they didn't go with it) casting like Fireball/Ice Storm/Attack or Salamander/Titan, respectively and just eating shit before they get to cast it and then barely recovering and making themselves available to losing more LP with another strike.

Beyond the Beyond fans confirmed to be the only JRPG fans that are stronger than me. My friend Ivan (Arc the Lad dude) had a friend who grew up with it and he told Ivan he was shaped heavily by the Orc and Goblin enemies, which I'm glad for. Big baras exist to turn young boys and nbs towards the gay and/or transmasc illuminati.

gonna play arc 3 now

[thatguyif]

Cursed Fiesta enters late game. At 57 hours and 50 minutes and 1260 swaps (approximate), all four teams are in World 3. Two have entered their late-game stage.

Progress Report:

• Team Dalet was the first to enter late game, much to my surprise. While Exdeath was a pushover thanks to combining Reflect Rings with casting Firaga on the team (it's a neat trick that more than doubles your damage), it suffered a near-wipe in the Pyramid of Moore. It was then discovered they had no Phoenix Downs, which meant Teleporting out, running to Moore to rest, buying Phoenix Downs, and going back in there. It's worth noting that Pyramid of Moore, with its high encounter rates, chests being mostly monster traps, and the fact you have to run this with three members, is easily the worst dungeon of the game. And yet, despite all this, it not only recovered, but thanks to Shuffler RNG got ahead of Team Bet at Melusine. Still, they have a long road ahead of them. They were able to get their Sealed Weapons, and now are in Phantom Village selling a variety of items to afford basic. They're the poorest of the four teams, and actually need to sell stuff to get their spells. They don't necessarily require Hermes Sandals, though, because they have Hastega. After that though, it's Island Shrine time. Current Level: 31
• Team Bet followed very closely behind in terms of entering late game. The team slowed down at bit at Pyramid, and then suffered a bit of poor Shuffler RNG. That said, as they have just recovered their three Sealed Weapons (again, Earth Bell is garbage), their tasks now after visiting Phantom Village for Hermes Sandals (which are auto-Haste) is picking up Summons: Syldra, Odin, and Phoenix (Bahamut I might pick up for shits and giggles). And then they just need to level grind...though that grind is to probably Level 46 or so. Unfortunate. Current Level: 30
• Team Gimel is not too far behind the first two teams in terms of progress. They had a bit of a rough go in Exdeath's Castle, but nothing too serious to worry about. Exdeath was not too much of a hastle. Pyramid was again a slow effort on this team, and interestingly, the team didn't have a full-powered Chicken Knife. Highly unusual. They are still in Pyramid, though in the upper half. Current Level: 30
• After two and a half hours in-game time, Team Alef finally exited its second (and last) round of The Grind™. All four members have Dual Wield. Was it immediately useful? Sadly, not right away. While Castle Exdeath was a pretty simple affair, and Greg was skipped, Exdeath was surprisingly difficult. It was only through rampant use of Zeninage that I was able to defeat Exdeath. The session ended just after they entered Alef and Krile left Castle Tycoon. Current Level: 32

Primary goal at this point is to get everyone into late game this weekend. Hopefully, by next weekend, I'll have enough for a single team to enter the Cleft/Rift.

[KobaBeach]

Yesterday's Arc the Lad III went fine. Did Jobs 20 to 32, which is most of North Sularto (there's still one job in Gislem in Disc 1, and possibly some more in Disc 2, definitely some more Wanted Monsters though later). The monster card trading was really neat, apparently the Flying Fire is named 飛炎 in Japanese which is read "Hien" (flying flame). Like Elc's airship, which it is a dead ringer for design and namewise (the airship is spelled ヒエン). Nice job Working Designs. Cheryl is alright, she reminds me of Rika from Digimon Tamers, but with Gun.

I was really scared of messing up the Census job, I'm so used to Arc 2's Koumei Traps. Gislem actually reminds me a lot of Houfion from Arc 2, and it apparently appears in Kishin Fukkatsu, I think refurbished? It's a city wide slum in Arc 3. I really liked how the game handled the suicidal mother (Content Warning, she doesn't die I think) who lost her child in the Great Disaster job. I dread to think about how WD handled it, ugh. I do like how we end up basically killing one dude for the wrong spear. oop

The power plant Job was a bit silly with all the mice, but I'm interested in Neue (Noye in EN)'s story, she tried to kill Mr. Fleming (Mr. Smythers in English :thonk:). A later Job revealed she's sisters with Ephina (Luffina), who has fallen ill with fatigue. Her friend (escort?) Lyor (Lyol? Liol? Leol lol) employs us to find a magic apple that heals her illness. Could Mr. Fleming be behind it? I'm interested.

Dorvan's job was really fun, I like the whole "everyone's poisoned and fighting against hard enemies" concept for a challenge battle, sadly I was like Lv23 and Force Ring, Card Field and Knife Rain were already dealing pretty good damage (increasing def high in CF's case) with decent range, so it was no biggy. I like how he just shoves so many items on you at the end, it's really funny.

The Junkpile (Ruined City in EN) job with the orphanage (Child House in JP, that's a terrible name, also the sign above very clearly says Kids House in the Arc equivalent of the roman alphabet, pls ) kids is really cute. I think it's really funny how you can just ignore the fact that the bandit and ninja you fight break into the orphanage right behind your back like. I get that it's meant to be a power fantasy thing for the player to choose to help, but it's really funny that that is an option, lmao. I'm wondering if shipping Clara (Kulara) and Alec is alright since Alec's like 14. I'm not sure how old Clara is, everyone looks like late teens to adults in the sprite art, Theo's like 10 and he looks around the same age as Alec and Lutz.

Gudan's gang feels like Team Rocket but the game seems to be taking them seriously which is really funny. Anyway we beat them up to help Cheryl and get the metal back. Danger Dome is like something I'd expect in like Shin Megami Tensei, like a destroyed dome for like post-apocalyptic blood sport. Only instead of battling with demons you beat each other up in a ring of barbed wire lol.

The Rainbow Bridge Bandits came back and that's always fun. Lutz calls their boss a fruit in the English version which like. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. But anyway, I insta killed them with two smackers of one Force Ring and one Knife Rain. oop. Later on we went to beat up some monsters with the help of Len (レン), who happens to have the same name as リン (Rin, Lin, Lynn) in the English version and heard Len's talking about feeling a hunter was with him helping him (it was Shu who seems to be working for the Academy as a merc and we have run into him multiple times but he never said anything, thus is the life of a hunter I guess). oops.

Portia's job seems downright virtually impossible without a guide if you didn't synthesize which, I don't like doing without guidance, it's a waste of resources. You basically have to pick an item to synthesize from a list of five. Your partner picks one (in our case Portia) and then you pick another. The answers are Shimmer Stone (白くかがやく原石), Fur Cape (毛皮のマント), Mint (ミント). Combined with Portia's items (Iron Sword, Shimmer Stone, Light Alloy), you make a Silver Sword, a Hunter Cape, and a Sleepless Guard. Gudan/Badan(?), Alba/whatever the girl in his team was called and Cheryl/Barkeep are your rivals in this.

After that we headed to South Sularto. Gaining Cheryl, we headed to Testa's weapon society to release a new item to market, passing through the Path Under the Crash Site (Secret Path), which is a neat dungeon, but sadly the item society needs Tem's Grass. Thus, we head to Ali's shop in Pandira, but first we have to speak to my wife Tosh who is friends with Ali. Getting his full name, we head to Pandira. After a dated, and honestly pretty gay/trans panic-y dialogue exchange (that is made worse by Working Designs, Content Warning) with a drag queen after the extremely nice CG introduction, we reach a town that reminds me of Ikebukuro when I saw MotorRoach play Yakuza 0. Using Power Word: Real Name on Ali, we get the Tem's Grass, synthesize the Super Magic Apple (Hybrid Mag Apple), then take it to the weapon society to synthesize the Ray Sword and get permission from Tosh to release it to market.

However, the Society and Shu abscond with a townie, Tosh did get mad at him but Shu basically didn't really give him any good excuses. Them's mercenaries.

And that was my yesterday in Arc the Lad III.

For today, I played Terranigma. Went through the Giant Tree Cave (Ra Tree) in Evergreen, an honestly fun dungeon, though there were some graphical hiccups. I made sure to set bsnes to the most accurate settings possible in the compatibility settings (I played Luigi's Adventure OSE the other day so inaccuracy was needed). Parasite was a huge mess, but that's okay.

Reviving the flora, I headed to Sanctuary (Sanctuar), saved and headed to the nearby Greatcliff (Grecliff) to revive the birds. More of a complex dungeon, but it was okay. I like how the boss' lackey shits on you, that's a mood. This would become my grinding spot for armor dosh. Restored the wind in Wind Valley (Windvale, nice localization).

Headed to Safarium next and Zoo (Zue). I got lost, this dungeon lowkey kind of sucks. Freeing the other animals, I agreed with Neo's wife (no name... hmm) to help their cub Leim in the Ravine (Canyon). Neo literally sent his cub out to fend for itself to prove he could be a part of the pride like. Mufasa would never send Simba to the Elephant Graveyard and I want to believe Panja/Caesar wouldn't send Leo/Kimba either. Bad parenting.

Anyway escort mission dungeon time. I feel like Leim ends up being faster in the EU release? Maybe I failed more, the Mudmen were awful. I actually like the Ravine's boss, it's really cute. I was scared there was more after it though, but no, Leim was nice enough to call a Migratory Bird down. Good boy.

Last was Eklemata, past the Indus River in Tibet. The goat scene is still heartwrenching. Dark Morph is like Kaptain K. Rool (tenuous connection), Agahnim and Vagullion from Ys I in each phase, no need to explain. Took me a few tries though. After that I started the third chapter, as I revived the humans. I tried to go to Neotokio early but, both sidequests were too much. Louran Ruins is next.

[Crow]

continuing the strategy of contrasting two very different games

The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass is a mystery VN that is like. as mystery-dense as umineko but very, very light on the more casual scenes which is to say nonstop brain hurt and thinking

so also i got rayman legends on switch and i'm replaying it because it's completely brainless dumb fun i've played like 5 times before

[Catabo]

Just finished replaying Spyro the Dragon in preparation to watch cowman play it soon. As opposed to my last run a decade? ago, where I was super methodical about doing all the levels in each world before moving on, I did a sort of "soft speedrun" just breezing through the game, proceeding to the next world immediately as soon as I had the requirements. Beast Makers was the biggest wall by far, forcing me to go back and play some of the levels I'd skipped, but that was actually fun! Going all the way back to Stone Hill after getting my head handed to me by Misty Bog was comfy.

Which brings me to difficulty. The game's mostly really easy for me now (especially since I learned about flame charging), but it's got a little bit of brutalism to it, where some enemies can actually be tricky to deal with and/or catch you off guard but it doesn't feel bad because the game is still playing by its own established rules.

But what struck me the most about it is how small it all feels compared to when I was a kid and the levels felt boundlessly huge. On the contrary, they're actually mostly pretty tight and avoid being sprawling for the sake of it. And it wasn't even all retreading old ground; I got some freshness out of the lategame levels that I didn't remember much of because I didn't play them very much, and after I beat the game I went back for the 100% completion bonus, which I never bothered to get before but it ended up being a fun little way to end the playthrough. Back in the day, I'd resigned myself to it being impossible.

[11clock]

I beat Metroid: Zero Mission.

A lot of times this game kind of felt like an abridged Super Metroid. That said, this game is a pretty competent Metroid game that doesn't do all that much beyond just being a fun time. The combat difficulty is significantly toned down from Fusion, with much simpler enemies that don't hit nearly as hard. Instead, Zero Mission has a large focus on puzzles, where you are often given a troublesome room and asked to figure out how to get through it. Kraid's Lair was practically a Zelda dungeon! All in all, a solid game, nothing more, nothing less.

Metroid: Zero Mission's Tier: B

...

omg the final section of the game is amazing! Being stripped of all of your abilities and being forced to sneak by and run away from enemies was such a cool idea and brilliantly executed. The most interesting platforming sections in the game are located here. The boss fight to get back your power suit was a treat, then the main theme kicking in as you completely wreck the place up... so fun! And even with your power suit back, the game still proves to be challenging with more intelligent enemies that hit much harder like in Fusion. The final section's focus on stealth and action is a stark contrast to the rest of Zero Mission's puzzle-like design, but it pulls it off so well that the game gets a tier bump.

Metroid: Zero Mission's Tier: A

[raekuul]

I managed to break mGBA on the 3ds so all GBA games are on hold for the time being until either I fix it or reinstall it outright or start playing on a different platform (VC Injection is out for the simple fact that the start/select keys are awkward as hell to reach on a 3DS, and the GBA games I want to play all use one or the other extensively).

Just reached the Moonflow in Final Fantasy X HD. Turns out I had misread the Sphere Grid a little bit and Yuna needs Lv. 2 Key Spheres to break into Kimari's area (and thus to go into Lulu's to get Black Magic) rather than Lv. 1 Key Spheres, so that's a handful of SL that Yuna's lost out on. I feel like I'll have an easier time managing all this on the Expert Grid? I'm pretty sure I prefer FFXII's licence board better even though it's a double unlock system simply because I don't have to spend LP to backtrack like I do with the Sphere Grid. Still, the Sphere Grid is what FFXII-Zodiac tried to recreate with the Class Boards (in order to keep the characters from being overly similar), and having clear goals in mind for the progression is nice.

Also started up the GBC Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets game again. I forgot how goofy the early game is.

[KobaBeach]

Is it game software? Well I pirated RPG Maker XP (hush), despite already having MV, and I've been having fun messing about with it, currently practicing pixel art by making some tiles for a short game I'm gonna try to make (and also sprites for ASM on Super Mario World). Not gonna do anything too out of this world, just practice messing about with it.

The reason I'm making tiles and sprites and whatnot is that, while the Terranigma overworld I extracted from a Mode 7 map pic from TSR worked, the Toltus Village tileset from ToP was off-scale to the RPG Maker character graphics, everyone looked too small compared to the Cless' house door and potted plant tiles. Maybe I could have made it work if I didn't just haphazardly resized every tile to 32x32. I know Arc the Lad II did something similar with huge ass apartment doors inside buildings while having detailed but still chibi sprites, but it didn't work as well on RPGXP.

Also gonna try to play some Mario and non-Mario platformers while having a critical eye towards them to help develop an eye for platformer design like I kind of have one for JRPG design. Was playing a bit of SMB1 without holding the run button for most of it yesterday and I'm shocked at the amount of thought that went into so much of its design, if you're interested, do give it a shot yourself. Though there are still the occasional romps and boppos (I have no idea what a boppo is, I want to say it's a challenging romp).

Just reached the Moonflow in Final Fantasy X HD. Turns out I had misread the Sphere Grid a little bit and Yuna needs Lv. 2 Key Spheres to break into Kimari's area (and thus to go into Lulu's to get Black Magic) rather than Lv. 1 Key Spheres, so that's a handful of SL that Yuna's lost out on. I feel like I'll have an easier time managing all this on the Expert Grid? I'm pretty sure I prefer FFXII's licence board better even though it's a double unlock system simply because I don't have to spend LP to backtrack like I do with the Sphere Grid. Still, the Sphere Grid is what FFXII-Zodiac tried to recreate with the Class Boards (in order to keep the characters from being overly similar), and having clear goals in mind for the progression is nice.

The Expert Grid is set up for easier branching out, but it's a lot less handholdy as a result, thus the Expert in the title. As an aside, IIRC, I think you can look ahead the areas with the analog stick or D-Pad when you're not expending Spheres. Yuna is a fucking bonkers spellcaster btw, if you do get her hooked up with some good Black Magic, have fun!

I managed to turn Kimahri into a backup Auron slash multi-purpose attacker, which, while he's too much of a Jack of All Trades to a fault, it worked for me since FFX is really annoying with making you min-max damage, enemies don't get dealt too much damage if the attack wasn't by a character they're weak to (like birds will usually dodge Tidus, Kimmy and Auron's attacks, they're dreadful).

[11clock]

I started playing Metroid Prime, and I am at the part where you get the Space Jump. This game is going to be put in two tiers, due to the… unique conditions through which I am playing it. I will update my review when I beat the game.

I tried playing Metroid Prime first on the Wii. I couldn’t stand the controls. I gave the game some time, because maybe I just needed to get used to them. Then I reached the first proper boss fight with the mosquitos and this fight single handedly displayed why this control scheme is terrible. You are surrounded and being attacked by all sides by the bugs, and the controls are too sluggish to properly handle them. The main issue is turning, since you need to waggle around the remote in order to turn, and the turning itself is so f***ing slow. This boss fight caused me to ragequit the game with no intent to come back to it. It already doesn’t help that I am biased against first person games as-is due to issues I have with the perspective.

Shortly after this experience, I was suggested to emulate Metroid Prime with PrimeHack. This is a fork of the Dolphin emulator that hacks Metroid Prime to control like a modern FPS, with keyboard mouse support. I went ahead and tried it (after jumping through a bunch of hoops to set it up), and I couldn’t put the game down for 6 hours. Metroid Prime is a blast! The best way I can describe it is Super Metroid 3D but with horizontal level design and Zelda style boss fights. The positives I had about Super Metroid all apply here, with a really fun map to explore and find all that sweet loot and upgrades to help you progress further. In addition, I like the new approach to boss fights. Metroid games already have a lot in common with Zelda, so puzzle-like bosses that utilize newly acquired upgrades fit right in Metroid Prime as well. Also, despite Metroid Prime not being a platformer, its level design lends itself a lot more to platforming compared to the 2D Metroid games, with moving platforms, flamethrowers to jump over, electricity to roll under, etc. Such platforming is even more blatant with the Morph Ball sections. Metroid Prime also has a sprawling map that can be easy to get lost in thanks to the 3D nature of the game, but thankfully every once in a while you are directed to a point of interest to check out while leaving how to get there up to you, similar to the Chozo Statues in Zero Mission.

I don’t really have anything negative to say about Metroid Prime so far. It’s a really fun time and a high recommendation from what I played to this point… if you hack the game with modern FPS controls, that is. There are definitely a couple of issues with PrimeHack, though. Firstly, the button prompts are still assuming that you are using a Wii Remote (which is understandable since this isn’t a romhack). Secondly, the menus can be cumbersome to navigate, especially the map. Other than these minor issues, Metroid Prime plays so much better with PrimeHack and really shows how much the Prime games would benefit from a modern Switch port. My opinion on the game went from “one of the worst games I ever played” to “an amazing metroidvania and one of the best in the genre” just with a simple change in control scheme.

Metroid Prime’s Current Tier: F (vanilla), S (PrimeHack)

[KobaBeach]

playing prime with waggle sounds like a nightmare. im absolutely playing it with a gamecube controller

did Job 33 and beat up the South Sularto wanted monsters in Arc the Lad III after finding an mcr (emulation memory card file) to vmp (psp and adrenaline's psx emu memory card file) converter *blows a raspberry*

[11clock]

So far in Metroid Prime I just got the Spider Ball ability. My opinion hasn’t changed and the game is still absolutely amazing.

I am noticing that my immense enjoyment of the game is all thanks to PrimeHack. It not only makes the game more comfortable for me to play, but it also indirectly addresses other issues with Metroid Prime. For example, one common complaint with the game is the large amounts of backtracking you need to do due to the placements of items. Thanks to PrimeHack’s control scheme, however, you can traverse the map significantly faster than with the controls of the GameCube and Wii versions. As a result, while you still need to zigzag across Magmoor Caverns repeatedly to get everywhere, the journey is shorter and thus less bothersome. I recorded myself going from one end of Magmoor Caverns to the other in the span of under 3 minutes:

[Kleetus]

Now I'm wondering if my opinion of Metroid Prime Wii would be different if I played more FPSs; I thought the controls were fine.

I would consider the third prime to be the best of the three, if it weren't for prime one's weapons. In the first game, even late into the game you need to switch between different weapons for some encounters, and the different beams have different attributes; I think this is a lot cooler than three where you just get straight upgrades to one beam.

[Nast]

Just gonna do a quick round-up of what I've been playing these past few months

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (completed) - absolutely lovely game and a superb take on the original Master System game. You can definitely tell it's an old game behind the modern coat of paint, so I guess it might not be for everyone, but I loved it.

Sega Bass Fishing (beat Arcade and Original modes) - had this in my library god knows how long and finally gave it a go, for laughs. But to my surprise it's actually quite fun. While I was expecting some sort of simulation game, instead it's like an arcade game in the vein of Crazy Taxi or something. I had fun with this one for a little while.

Portal 2 (beat story and co-op campaign) - I've played this on two separate occasions and for whatever reason could never bring myself to finish it. Finally set out to beat it, and had a great time. A very enjoyable ride through and through, though the chapters revolving around the underground facility drag on a bit. Also played the co-op campaign for the first time with my hubby and had a lot of fun as well. It's incredible how much personality they've crammed into those doofy robots

Stardew Valley (100% completion) - scratched my Harvest Moon itch far better than I could've possibly hoped for. This game was basically my life for an entire month, which I'm not exactly proud of but I did cherish the experience.

The Stanley Parable (all endings) - not a blind playthrough, which probably put a bit of a damper on my experience. Doesn't take away from its quality though, it's really cleverly written.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Normal mode clear) - though I like horror games in concept playing them is not my forte, but I'm glad I powered through it. It's an excellent entry in the genre, with great atmosphere and pacing, and some enjoyable puzzles. I thought the ending was a bit flaccid, but oh well. I'll probably tackle the expansion, Amnesia: Justine, pretty soon

Gyakuten Saiban (in progress) - not my first foray through the game, but my first time playing the GBA version and in japanese to boot. A bit on and off with this one at the moment. Finished episodes 1 and 2. I sorta miss the relatively down-to-earth tone of this installment compared to the far more goofy direction the series has progressively gone in

UNBEATABLE [white label] - a demo/side story for the upcoming UNBEATABLE. It's a rhythm game, and a really stylish one at that. Very fun so far and certainly has me looking forward to the full game, but it's not without its problems, namely some issues with conveyance/telegraphing of notes. Still, I highly recommend it!

Rad Venture (SAGE 2020 demo) - a bit overdue on this one. It's a fast-paced 3D platformer that probably draws some inspiration from Sonic but doesn't quite feel like a Sonic game. It's sort of speedy but it's less about building speed/momentum and more about flow, I guess. Weirdly enough, if I had to compare it to anything it gives me Sonic Lost World vibes, at least mechanically, though it's far more enjoyable. There's gifs floating around from more recent builds of the game that look absolutely gorgeous, but sadly my PC struggles to run even this rudimentary early build, so I'm not optimistic that I'll even be able to play the full release.

Now I'm wondering if my opinion of Metroid Prime Wii would be different if I played more FPSs; I thought the controls were fine.

I thought they were fine too when I played it a few years back. I'd even say they felt intuitive. It's been a while though, I'll have to see if that opinion holds up whenever I play the sequels.

[KobaBeach]

Did all jobs from #34 to #39 in Arc the Lad III back in the 29th, missed #40 because it was a bit of a Kaizo Trap (you have to do it before going on the battleship, but you're not warned it shows up) but did #41.

Job 33 was interesting, we find out Noye's dad was

the former vice-chief of the Society Village's plant, Fleming, and he got killed by the new vice-chief's hijacking from what I can gather

. It was pretty cool. Job 34 was a neat puzzle but I looked up the answer because reloading saves is . Job 35 was interesting, a battle turn optimization challenge featuring Alba, Enea and Belga (though only Alba's the one competing). Job 36 was another handicap challenge with a travelling salesman, it just disabled your normal attacks so, it really could have just done nothing and it wouldn't change.

Job 37 was a bit off, my lack of Japanese skills might have bit me in the dick. I also found out while looking up stuff for this quest that Working Designs actually made a drag queen character be portrayed worse in the English version. Because of that I'm currently studying compression algorithms and hacking non-SMW games to help me figure out making translation patches for at least the Working Designs games, maybe Summon Night 5&6 if I can get into PSP and Vita modding (I want to try to translate SN1-4 personally). I'll retain the voices because I'm poor rn though. Thanks Vic, fuck you.

Job 38 was a no brainer. I'm pretty good at "item under the cup" puzzles in video games, just not when it's like Chrono Trigger's Millennium Fair haha. Job 39 went alright but the battleship really drained my resources a bit. I liked it honestly. Using Tosh and Shu again was pretty neat~ Job 41 was super cute. Danny wanted to be a strong Hunter like his late father, but Alec ends up teaching him the lesson of like. True courage and that he also is an orphan and they like bond over it. It's super adorbs.

And right now I did the prologue in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC. I'm again, playing in Japanese so my gameplay isn't the most optimal. The training quest was simple, pretty much a hallway of enemies with a treasure box at the end. Rescuing Luke and Pat was also pretty simple. The shiny rock one was a bit annoying because I kept misinterpreting リノン雑貨屋の前 as "earlier at Rinon Goods" instead of "in front of Rinon Goods".

Milch Road (also it's milch as in drakkhen, not mulch) was alright, I didn't realize at first that the area extended beyond just one screen though. The Pine Plant was a bit of a pain but I got past it. The Mushroom one was fine but I had a hard time finding Orvid since I was used to him being in Rinon's store before the Klaus quest. Enemies (not the flying cats in the mandatory battle, the ones in Malga Trail) gave me a bit of trouble though! The Orbment one was easy. Divine's quest was a bit weird. I got the Bear Claw easily, but the Monster Wing, I got it by accident? Didn't even notice I had it. Soldier Training was also easy.

Mayor Klaus' quest was easy, though I didn't realize after saving the miners that I had to take the Septium to Mayor Klaus. Oops. The Mayor is pretty hot though. Liberl News was alright too, I ran a lot from monsters though. Ida's quest I was unable to reach in time. Josette's quest was a bit hard because again, Japanese knowledge. I kind of bullshitted Schera's questionnaire. The boss was also super tough, I managed though. Now I'm at Chapter 1: Disappearance of the Linde (消えた飛行客船). hells yeah

[HatKid]

Been playing the Switch version of Ys IX a bit. Currently on Chapter 6. It's pretty good, but I really hope this isn't the direction future Ys games take. It's almost like a super hero game, what with the hidden identities, silly costumes, and crazy super powers. Like Almost like how I feel about FE Three Houses, good game, but I really hope that's not yeat another waifu sim direction Persona-like direction for the series. but I have many more gripes about that game than Ys IX. Anyway, one big issue I have is just how much fluff dialogue there is. It's like Trails level of random dialogue and it gets tiresome clicking through it all. Dang it, I just want to go bash monsters not listen to what your breakfast was and how you made it. (that's not something that actually happened, but it's that sort of stuff). The game itself performs well enough, though if games not performing at 120FPS with a 60hz refresh rate and whatever nonsense people *need* to even remotely enjoy games these days then stick with the PC version. The music isn't as good as Ys VIII's, which is too bad, but what can you do. It's still good, but it is a noticeable downgrade. and ys vi still has the best Ys OST anyway so

Also, resumed my Persona Q2 playthrough after not touching it since 2019 when it came out. Finally got all the P3 characters so I booted the remaining P4 and 5 characters that were in my party (and saved from the abomination that is Japanese Teddie and Rise). It's really annoying that you have to play more than half the game (assuming it's the same length as its predecessor) to even get all the characters when Q1 gave you the remaining characters at the end of the first dungeon. Especially since that of P3-5, P3 is my favorite, like it's not even close. I miss the English voice acting. The Japanese voices aren't bad by any means, but all the voices are just not what I'm used to at all and feel so foreign and unfamiliar. Oh well. At least the game got localized at all.

And in Yakuza 5, got to the hunting village as Saejima and stopped. Game's very interesting, though even with large breaks in between, Yakuza still manages to fatigue me. Sure, I did start Yakuza 5 almost right after 4, but I haven't exactly been going hard on it.

Speaking of resuming, I picked Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne back up. PS2 version, because the remaster is insanely overpriced for what it is and I already had a decent time investment into the PS2 version. Just finished up at Kabukicho prison and had to go back to Ginza. Game is very fun, but dear lord is the encounter rate way too damn high. I think it was toned down a bit for DDS, but it's still very high there...

[thatguyif]

At 70 hours and 4 minutes, and 1530 swaps, the endgame of Cursed Fiesta BEGAN. Progress Report:

Team Bet: Ranger/Thief/Geomancer/Blue Mage/Summoner
Current Level: 42

Team Bet is in the lead, though not by much. Because this team did not have to worry about going through extra dungeons (besides Phoenix Tower), and their remaining checklist items were pretty close to one another, all they needed to worry about was their big level grind. Thankfully, they had a good spot (Phoenix Tower) and a good quick-kill spell (Odin) to make it a FAST grind. While it still took 2 in-game hours, they were able to grind out 12 levels. Midway through, I changed the routine so that that Bet (as Thief) would steal when he ran out of MP. Consequently, he was able to steal over 50 Reflect Rings from Lemures. This team never needed to get those rings in World 2, so these are just free money at 10k each. (There were also over a dozen Hermes Sandals drops, which sell at 25k each)

And they needed the money: Phoenix Tower has 5 Magic Pots that give you 100 ABP (The highest outside the final area of the game) if you feed them a random number of Elixirs. I had bad RNG and had to give all but 5 of my Elixirs. Elixirs can be bought in the Phantom Village for 50k each. So the half million, plus the general money grind that went with the level grind, as well as the fire sale of all my unneeded equipment, helped me recover what I lost. Because it went so fast, I even picked up Bahamut (which proved kind of useful with Calofisteri, because I forgot to buy Air Knives for Bet and Faris so they could boost Syldra)

Team Bet was NOT the first team to enter the Rift/Cleft. It was second due to some bad shuffler RNG and me mistakenly selling my needed Hermes Sandals. However, it recovered due to a mistake that occurred with second place, and now has the lead. Currently, they are just past Calofisteri in the Rift, and just before the save point before Omega. The main point of contention at the moment is Lenna, who is Summoner by virture of having a higher magic stat. Because of her absence, she hasn't QUITE caught up in levels yet, and it turns out she needs one more level before she's safe from Almagest. But they might get there before Twintania.

Team Gimel: White Mage/BERSERKER/Samurai/Gladiator
Current Level: 38
Team Gimel was the first to enter the Rift/Cleft. It had a lot of advantages going their way, namely that they did not need to level grind all that much or go to anything beyond Island Shrine and Fork Tower. It still did a level grind in Great Sea Trench, but only a few levels to top up and have a fallback in case Shell doesn't work out.

Pyramid went smoothly, as did Island Shrine. Fork Tower, not so much. Omniscient is tricky in the best of times if your only mage is White Mage, annoying af more often than not. Basically you have to make sure Silence lands, then immediately attack with whichever physical partner is around. You get two turns at most when Silence is active and you use Reflect Rings, three if you use Hermes Sandals. This fight took a while to finish with the constant Return casts.

Anyway, once they got to the Rift/Cleft, they went in quick, and cleared Calofisteri pretty quickly. They seemed primed to finish their game first. However, at the save point before Omega, I realized I made a fuck-up: I forgot to head back to Castle Kuza after Island Shrine to pick up the Sage's Staff for White Mage (you only get three sealed weapons per tablet, and the first three were for somewhat priority weapons for Samurai, Gladiator, and THINKZERKER). Sage's Staff is Magus Rod for White Mage in that it boosts Holy, your lone offensive spell. So an already powerful spell gets close to quad 9s in this state. It was necessary to leave the Rift entirely and pick it up. Thanks to good shuffler RNG, they were able to catch up pretty quickly. Currently, they are in the frozen Phantom Village in the Rift.

Team Alef: Knight/Mystic Knight/Ninja/Samurai
Current Level: 37
Team Alef has undergone a surprisingly difficult World 3. They wiped three times in the Pyramid due to some miscalculations on my end. Island Shrine was a bit tricky at points, with a near-wipe here and there (though Wendigo was a pushover). They wiped at Minotaur in Fork Tower. They shambled through Istory Falls to pick up one weapon. This team essentially showcases one of the big issues with FFV in an FJF: The endgame really expects you have mages around for the endgame in some capacity, and the game really favors magic over physical attackers.

Still, the team has kept pushing on. They are now doing their last level grind. They need just another level at this point before I feel ready to head into the Rift/Cleft. Regardless of their weaknesses, this team is still VERY strong and has solutions to almost all the bosses in the Rift/Cleft.

Team Dalet: Time Mage/BERSERKER/Black Mage/Ninja
Current Level: 40
Team Dalet is a rather tragic case, given they were in the lead at last report. For all intents and purposes, their run was actually pretty smooth going in the Island Shrine, Fork Tower, and the Great Sea Trench. They even did pretty well in Istory Falls.

However, the team's problem has become apparent now in that they're glass cannons with two mages on the team. Again, while they have the means to defeat the Almagest part of NED, it's not a guaranteed OHKO. As a result, it's necessary to level up, so they are grinding at Great Sea Trench using the Magic Lamp method (the Magic Lamp, which casts Summons in order from strongest to weakest, has recharge points at the place you find it (on top of Istory Falls, accessible via Boko) and a crevice in the Great Sea Trench). It's a bit slower than Team Bet's method, but more importantly, they need to level up more. Were the BERSERKER replaced with another physical job, I'd be willing to go to the Rift/Cleft now. But having only one controllable team member surviving Almagest is not a good thing. So they have to level up even higher than Team Bet, likely to Level 44 or 45.

It is extremely likely this team will finish the Cursed Fiesta. To mark its Cursedness...depending on when the other three finish, I may Quickleak Omega and Shinryuu, just so I can have a team that Triple Crowned.

--

Tomorrow's session will have a very simple goal: Have at least one, if not both teams in Rift/Cleft. finish the game. It'll be a gauntlet moving forward, but these teams have it. With luck, I'll be done with the Fiesta before the week is out.

[Bean]

Hoping to get Blaster Master Zero 3 started up later this week, but I've got a bit more work to get done first. Also found out that my bro got an Xbox Series S, so I figure I'll play a game or two with him on the thing soon enough, too.

[raekuul]

Four Job Fiesta 4x Combo

I'm a little late to the party and a lot unfamiliar with FF5, why do you lose your Blue Mage?