What game are you currently playing?

[BlueFlare]

A little bit of this and that, here and there and whenever I have time: 

Pokemon Crystal: it's been years, I love Gen 2. Today going to attempt steel gym for the first time. 

Torchlight Frontiers (Alpha test) : I like the franchise and played TL2 a ton, but have very mixed feelings on their upcoming game. It feels very messy, looks and sounds nice.

 

[Tori Himemiya]

So I decided to on a whim buy a Wii U just for a game I missed from last gen. That game? Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. You know? The Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover game no one played? I did initially hated at the time because I didn't get why it had to be a idol RPG game with the Fire Emblem characters as Personas. Now thanks to Love Live and a ton of idol anime later my idol tolerance grew that I'm a fan of this kind of thing so I decided to give this game a chance because of that. So what do I think about it now? Well its not bad but I really like it.

I should probably address the elephant in the room first thing. I actually like what they did and make an original game instead of it being just "x meets y" kind of plot you see all the time. It gives the game more room to be creative than just being another crossover game. I know people won't agree with me on this but honestly I think it works so well, especially since the setting from these two games are vastly different time periods that they wouldn't meet at all. I dunno I just think this works out for the best of both worlds. And I actually don't mind the idol stuff as I mentioned since I'm not a fan of the stuff but its not completely about idols since some of the characters want to get into show business in some kind of capacity but the idol stuff is more or less the focus.

As for the game itself? I will say this; I absolutely in love with this game's visual style. It just looks so pretty and stylish, especially in the battle system where everyone looks cool and there's small details related to the themes of the game like spotlights when you target something, attack names look like songs, and whenever a character does a magic attack they will make their signature (something I didn't notice until Kiria joined my team because she writes in English) during the casting. They went all out with the theme and it just looks so good. The game itself has a few unique mechanics too. Those coming from the Persona series might be confused a bit since hitting a weakness here doesn't grant an extra turn but instead if your party has specific skills they can jump in and make a big attack chain. You do have to be careful with these as sometimes an enemy might have a null element of one of your party members if you're not prepared. Another unique thing is that while there's no social links but side stories you'll unlock as you progress and which in turn can give you the ability to "ad lib" attacks that happen at random but when they do it hurts. Its interesting to me even its something not to be relied on but welcomed against the bosses.

As for everything else I like the characters for the most part. They're all fun and have some depth to them. I do really like Tsubasa for being the clumsy one even if the character type has been done to death. She's just an awkward mess who at least tries to keep up with everyone. I will say I do like Itsuki too despite being a supporting protagonist since I like his design and how he's supportive of everyone despite his life being directionless at the moment. I do really like the music too and they really went out on their way to get a lot of big name talent for this game.

So for some criticism here and there. Firstly while I do like the plot it can be predictable but again it doesn't mean it can't be fun. The game itself can get a bit repetitive too which might just be a general complaint but I can see someone getting bored from it if its not their thing since there can be a ton of grinding involved. And if you're a veteran of JRPGs you might find this game overall easy except for the bosses which can be pretty hard so I honestly recommend trying out the hard difficulty. And I honestly recommend having at least some understanding some Japanese too since not everything is translated. The battle lines aren't translated at all but from what I understand you can hear the character development from them. For example Tsubasa early on in the game comments how scary the situation is only for Shiida/Caeda to calm her down and later on she gains enough confidence in herself that she starts posing cutely. Its small details but it kind of makes a big difference in the game's context.

Overall I really love this game so far. Its been a fun experience and it manages to at least stand out without much of the typical crossover billing. Maybe it did hurt it a bit during release but it happens. I just enjoying this game as much as I am and I would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of both series or of JRPGs in general.

[Red Hot Jack]

I decided to buy Hollow Knight, it seemed interesting, mostly the atmosphere. And I do enjoy that, but it's likely not my cup of tea. I don't have a clue on where to go, I'm on Greenpath currently after the boss, but... Can I go wherever I want? If so, why does nothing happen unless I find the boss? It still feels like I'm forced to follow 1 route as in actual levels. Idk. I'm a bit clueless. Any tips?

[pastelspectre]

Tales of Symphonia! It's a super good game and has a really great story with lots of twists and turns. I am almost done with it. I am gonna be super sad when I finish it because I have grown ridiculously attached to the characters. Also if anyone replies to this, no spoilers please thanks

[Salamander]

9 hours ago, Jack the Shadow said:

I decided to buy Hollow Knight, it seemed interesting, mostly the atmosphere. And I do enjoy that, but it's likely not my cup of tea. I don't have a clue on where to go, I'm on Greenpath currently after the boss, but... Can I go wherever I want? If so, why does nothing happen unless I find the boss? It still feels like I'm forced to follow 1 route as in actual levels. Idk. I'm a bit clueless. Any tips?

Everything opens up after Greenpath, and you'll find yourself with many more directions to choose.

[Diogenes]

I picked up Baba is You a couple days ago and I've been having my brain melted ever since.

The gist of the game is that it's a block-pushing puzzler where you try to get your character to the goal, but the trick is that most of the blocks you'll be pushing define the objects in the level. This isn't limited to just changing the properties of a few items or certain tiles; everything, from the walls to the seemingly decorative background objects to the player character to empty space itself is defined by word blocks within the level, and thus everything can be redefined into anything as long as you can physically assemble the right phrases. You're essentially manhandling the game's code from the inside as it's running.

The puzzles start off simple enough; disassemble [wall][is][stop] so you can walk right through them, assemble [flag][is][win] to turn it into your victory condition, that sort of thing, but as they add more objects, properties, and relationships, and limit the space you have to manipulate them, things can get complex real quick. You've got to abandon your instincts and work your way through the logic available to you no matter how ridiculous it appears; I don't want to spoil much because figuring out what ludicrous bullshit idea actually works is half the fun, but I will say that

Spoiler

defining something like [baba][is][you] and [baba][is][win] to instantly win the level, because by definition baba is touching baba

...is an entry-level mindfuck, and in later levels I've ended up doing things like

Spoiler

defining a box to contain a box and a key and making it constantly explode to produce endless boxes and keys, instantly filling every empty space with a baba to reach the goal in a sealed room, and pulling on empty space to drag an out-of-reach object to me.

There's been times when I've outright cackled when the pieces fell into place and I realized what ridiculous thing I was able to do, and then putting it into practice and reaching the goal after a half hour or more of struggling is immensely satisfying. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for some good brain-twisting puzzles.

[Eurisko]

Playing the original 'Phantasy Star' for the first time. Should I be ashamed for using a guide here and there? This game is a bit of a challenge. God only knows how people worked this out back in '88. 

[Red Hot Jack]

I want to buy another game for my Switch… I currently have in my collection:

Super Mario Odyssey

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Splatoon 2 + Octo Expansion

Crash N-Sane Trilogy

Sonic Mania Plus

Octopath Traveller

Mega Man 11 (digital)

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Hollow Knight (digital)

… I know I should probably re-play or finish some of these but I have desire for something new, I had these in my to-buy list:

Mario Tennis Aces

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Super Bomberman R

Rayman Legends (never bought it and I wanted to catch up on it)

So what do you guys suggest me out of these? I have enough money to buy one of them, I wanted BotW again after I sold it along with the Wii-U, but with DLC it costs 90 so I can't afford it right now.

 

[Shaun Shikeishuu]

On 3/24/2019 at 2:53 PM, Jack the Shadow said:

 I know I should probably re-play or finish some of these but I have desire for something new, I had these in my to-buy list:

Mario Tennis Aces

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Super Bomberman R

Rayman Legends (never bought it and I wanted to catch up on it)

So what do you guys suggest me out of these? I have enough money to buy one of them, I wanted BotW again after I sold it along with the Wii-U, but with DLC it costs 90 so I can't afford it right now.

 

Only game I have on that list is Super Bomberman R which I honestly hardly ever played. Could be good if you're looking for a multiplayer game but there isn't much for single player. Mario Tennis and Mario Rabbids would probably also be best if you looking for multiplayer games. If you're looking for single player then go for Rayman Legends.

[BlueFlare]

Still playing Pokemon Crystal and attempting to beat the final gym. It really took some time to get used to slower pace of older Pokemon games but it's been fun. 

I was going to get The Division 2 but I'm short of money atm. Is it good? I never played the first game.

[Blusolyn]

I've been playing Stardew Valley and Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed again. I took a little break from SV and then started a new save file recently. At first it was a little hard getting back into the routine, but now I'm getting better at it each day. Chose the standard farm this time and want to get all the animals. Didn't get sheep and goats last time. 

Played a little bit of SART last night. I like playing single races and I'm still working on the world tour. 

[Salamander]

Blaster Master Zero II (Switch) - I never played the series this retro revival is based on, but I enjoyed Blaster Master Zero quite a bit, and the sequel was a guaranteed buy as a result.  I don't actually remember enough of BMZ to make a fair comparison, but I'm pretty sure that this game is an upgrade in just about every respect, developing the gameplay and bringing new ideas in.  The headline new mechanics are your vehicle's ability to rack up subweapon ammo by falling from a great height, which is an inspired inversion on the very concept of fall damage; and a new dungeon mechanic allowing you to counter when the enemy fires.  Both will be used extensively, but there's a lot more going on, too; quite a few of the overworld subweapons are more like Metroidvania upgrades and open up new routes as well as new combat approaches (indeed, some I used exclusively for exploration), while your dungeon arsenal is expanded considerably and the game will sometimes reward you for experimenting (or require it, sometimes).  As in the first game, a true ending area grants you a different set of abilities which feel more genuinely revolutionary this time, and the whole sequence is better-designed and well-conceived on the whole (though others disagree, admittedly).  Progression is no longer limited to interlinked maps; rather, each map represents a planet on a starfield map, with yet more additional sub-dungeons and challenges to be found on additional planetoids once unlocked.  There's an enormous amount of stuff to collect overall, much of it optional; but the game does a good job of guiding you through the critical route without necessarily feeling linear, which is a skill.  Controls, unfortunately, can be a little unclear at times (ladder-jumping has proven a problem for many), while the saving system is a bit janky and misleading.

The story itself picks up pretty much directly after the end of the previous game, exploring an unacknowledged possibility of that conclusion; at times the plot feels rather optional and like an excuse, but story interludes are quite frequent on the whole, and how effective they are largely depends on the context of the individual planet.  Unlike the first game, an expanded cast of fresh and colourful characters appear in this title, mostly confined to individual planets.  These characters tend to be pretty one-note anime stereotypes who never break out of their archetypes - but your meetings with them are brief, so it's not clear that much more could have been done; it might be more accurate to call them underused.  The character design more or less recapitalutes my points on the characterisation; it's bold and bright, but some designs are a little questionable while others are entirely forgettable.  Overall, though, an ambitious sequel and a worthy successor, and I consider my time spent with this game to have been enjoyable.

Coming up next: Baba Is You (Switch), Etrian Odyssey Nexus (3DS) (ongoing), Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (3DS).  Playing a short RPG as a break from a long one...

[BlueFlare]

On 3/26/2019 at 3:51 PM, ebongrey23 said:

I've been playing Stardew Valley and Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed again. I took a little break from SV and then started a new save file recently. At first it was a little hard getting back into the routine, but now I'm getting better at it each day. Chose the standard farm this time and want to get all the animals. Didn't get sheep and goats last time. 

Played a little bit of SART last night. I like playing single races and I'm still working on the world tour. 

I tried this for a while but never got into it. Lately tried it again but no. It's just not for me, I believe. At least my kid loves to play it.

[Thrippa]

Currently trying to platinum Ni No Kuni 2 on the PS4 and playing Hyrule Warriors on the Switch.  Getting ready to restart Breath of the Wild when the VR comes out at the end of the month. (I 'd about decided to restart anyway as my game got bogged down somewhere and I don't even remember what I was doing int it anymore.  I do remember the only really bad shrine I found I couldn't actually  complete, so I'm not losing anything to restart.)

 

[Danj86]

Okay. As my avatar would suggest, I've been playing Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk.

Another NISA game with one of my favourite character designers, Takehito Harada and favourite composers, Tenpei Sato.

Perhaps because the same people are involved, I get the same vibe I got when I first played through The Witch and the Hundred Knight. They do share elements too, both being Roguelike JRPGs. But this one is first person view with turn based combat while tWatHK was real time hack and slash. Both also heavily story driven.

We start by following a witch and her apprentice travelling to a mysterious town called Refrain. You as the player are "Tractie" or Tractatus De Monstrum, a book written by an unknown individual who was the only one to enter the Labyrinth of Refrain and come out alive. Strangely, you're technically not "Tractie" but the soul that possessed the book the very second the two characters arrived.

The Labyrinth is rich in mana and Tractie has the power to animate puppets that will accompany it on it's journey through this mysterious place. All while learning of the town of Refrain and the characters you are working for.

Dusk Witch Dronya

Fun Fact: She has a prosthetic leg. Don't often see that in fictional characters.

Your Master, (If you like it or not.) she comes across as harsh, uncaring and selfish very quickly. As you progress through the game, you'll grow to learn why. Something important is hidden within the Labyrinth and she's determined to get it.

Luca (Holding Tractatus De Monstrum)

Dronya's apprentice. She's a bright and cheerful little girl that Dronya does often treat rather harshly. The two are an odd pair and you have to wonder how they ended up working together. Though Luca is an orphan...

I haven't fully completed the game yet, but it might be worth pointing out that their is at least one character that is openly a lesbian or bisexual. She doesn't come across as a negative stereotype though is rather eccentric but most of the characters have something unique going for them, it's also looking like she's a very important character to the story and not just being in the background. (Though I haven't reached any climatic scene yet, I have a strong suspicion of where the story will go with her.)

[Blusolyn]

Recently I've been playing Nights into Dreams. Started over so I'm working on getting higher ranks to progress further in the game. I think my favorite level is Splash Garden. So again yeah I'll work on it later.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Been playing Yoshi's Crafted World. A lot. Man, beating the game is such a small portion of the total package. Beating each level with full health, all flowers and red coins collected, and every Poochy pup from the flip side, PLUS finding Sprout in each level AND hunting down the dozens and dozens of souvenirs is taking a crazy long time. Enjoying every second of it, though. What a well-crafted game. No pun intended.

After this, I have lots and lots of indie games to get through. Hoping to have my backlog knocked out by the end of the year.

[Sean]

Star Wars Battlefront II. The one that's not terrible.

I've done three missions in the story mode so far and for the most part it's been a blast. This is the first SW game I've played since renting the N64 version of Episode I Racer as a kid, and BF2 seemed like a fun enough jumping point for me. It's pretty jank and I die a lot but it's not that big of a deal for me. Afterwards I might give either one of the Jedi Knight games or the first KOTOR a shot, since both of those seem the most appealing SW games to me story-wise.

[KHCast]

Gonna try and get back into my older catalog of PS4 titles I’ve been ignoring. Starting off with Killzone Shadowfall. I’m hoping this isn’t gonna bore me as much as it did when I first picked it up with my PS4. Following that, I’m gonna start a new save file for dragon age, since I got immediately turned off to play anymore when I realized I got the supposed bad ending and the girl I hated and didn’t want to be the ruler of the land became the ruler. Gonna try and avoid that this time. 

[Haalyle]

After I played Detroit: Become Human almost all of last year, got four copies of that and eventually grew bored of it, my friend got me into Persona 5 through Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, so I've been playing those two games as of recently, with some Sonic Forces (I was going to try and platinum, but I basically quit as soon as I collect all the moon rings) and Resident Evil 6 off to the side.

I am looking forward to Team Sonic Racing, have it pre-ordered and am ready for when it comes out.

[Salamander]

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (3DS) - This is a remake which I was very much on the fence about getting; it plainly only exists to fill a hole in Nintendo's line-up, and frankly I found the original forgettable.  ...But then I heard that Bowser Jr.'s Journey was surprisingly well-written; as indeed was Minion Quest in the Superstar Saga remake.  And, well, I was intrigued; and so here we are.

So we'll start with what I came in for.  Before we get to the story, the actual gameplay of the Minion side-mode has actually been updated and reworked quite a bit, with Formations, First Officers, more command powers and a generally higher level of sophistication.  The result is that you're actually surprisingly engaged in battle, both in composing your team and supporting them while the action plays out.  This time around the game also feels a lot less grindy, too; taking careful note of advantages and bringing along fresh recruits will carry your team a long way, but having a single consistent Captain in Bowser Jr. means you'll always have one fully-leveled member of the team; and I scored countless clutch 1HP victories with only Bowser Jr. left.  Notably, the final boss seems absurdly unfair but is actually incredibly carefully-constructed entirely to make sure you can't just tank with Bowser Jr., and have to rely on your team.  There's also a lot of content in this mode... perhaps too much.  There are a fair few post-credits stages and I felt they outstayed their welcome.

But the story!  Wow.  It's an excellent, surprising character-driven piece which mostly stands alone and doesn't interact with the main storyline too much; and who knew the dynamic between Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings could be so involving.  This game finally sells the idea that only Bowser Jr. is Bowser's child, and the Koopalings come from elsewhere; how else could Bowser Jr.'s arrogance and complacency drive a wedge between himself and his allies, who are torn between an obligation of servitude and their distaste for a master who doesn't respect them?  I won't spoil the plotline, but safe to say, between the original villains (the first truly new Mario & Luigi characters in some time) and the spoilt brat himself, Bowser Jr. manages to lose his allies one by one; and is forced to confront himself and change as a person to get them back.  The Koopalings have almost certainly never been done better; a few suffer from lack of limelight, but characters like Roy and Ludwig really forge an identity and practically get their own subplots.  This is a game which made me care about Morton Koopa Jr.  Wow.  I really hope whoever's been writing this is allowed to turn their hand to the main story in the inevitable Mario & Luigi Switch.

...And since I'd bought the game, I figured that I might as well replay Bowser's Inside Story, too.  Everyone says it's one of the best Mario & Luigis, right?  Everyone is wrong.  Bowser's Inside Story is actually kind of bad.  Well, bad with considerable caveats!  Bowser himself works.  Playing as Bowser is great, his interactions are great, his feats of strength are great.  Enemy design is on point, as always.  The endgame storyline is perfect.  But a lot of what leads up to it is meandering and incoherent.  The plot is all over the place, rife with ideas that never come to fruition.  The Blorbs are set up as the main obstacle but are a complete distraction, cured incidentally as a side-effect of progressing the main plot.  Fawful can't decide if he's trying to manipulate Bowser or kill him, and is similarly indecisive about Peach (who he only decides he needs to capture the moment she re-enters the story, despite it also being presented as partly the culmination of his plans).  Midbus has an intriguing counter-Bowser sort of design, but exists purely, as his name suggests, to be a midboss, with no context, no purpose, and essentially no character; he could quite easily have been replaced by a series of faceless robots, or indeed nothing.  The plot meanders through locations which are fresh and original to begin with (Cavi Cape and Plack Beach's tooth theme is quite memorable, as admittedly is the visual redesign of the final dungeon, though I find it misplaced) but swiftly grow generic and faceless, with little sign of an overarching purpose; at one point Bowser fights a giant windmill robot, which is presented as being controlled by Fawful's minions, but which proves to host only a harmless Boo fanatic; the contradiction is never commented on.  Map connections are disjointed and unpredictable, with the map as a whole easy to lose track of as you're constantly railroaded through one-way jumps to somewhere completely different, and difficult to navigate on the many occasions when backtracking is mandated, while the fast travel points tend to be in the middle of nowhere.  The plot regains urgency once the Dark Star and the Star Cures enter the picture, but their exact relationship is incidental; the Star Cures are gathered primarily to solve the Blorbs, which is irrelevant, but just happens to remove a bunch of clouds blocking your way, which is the main plot.  And a lot of this is handed to Mario and Luigi, who return from Bowser's stomach just in time to retread almost everywhere he's already been and do most of the work.  Also, the final dungeon goes on far too long, being easily the size of two dungeons, not including another dungeon in Bowser's body midway through.

Ah yes, the actual Bowser's insides bit.  Having decided that Bowser was to be the overworld protagonist, I see why they resolved on 2D platforming to give Mario and Luigi's journey a different identity; and likewise, it makes sense for the interactions between the inside of his body and Bowser's outside abilities to be played out through minigames.  The decisions are logical.  The trouble is, they aren't fun.  The minigames are tedious and repeated endlessly; the 2D platforming is shallow and its pacing is destroyed by lengthy RPG battles.  Locations inside Bowser's body tend towards the indistinguishable; they all blur into one mass, lacking a distinct visual identity.  Giant battles are great spectacles but lack substance and tend to rely on gimmicks.  The gameplay dichotomy is also undermined by giving Mario and Luigi a lengthy overworld segment towards the last act of the game while Bowser is stuffed into a box and forgotten about.  This speaks of lack of confidence in the main gimmick of the game, which helps to undermine its identity.  Frankly, the developers should've had the guts to keep Mario and Luigi inside Bowser's body for the entire story.  Laying off the 2D platforming and making the internal overworld a top-down one, given its own identity through visual uniqueness and fewer irritating touch-screen minigames would've improved this title no end.  As for the story, the disparate elements need to be united.  Let's say that Fawful hypnotises the Minions into believing Midbus is the real Bowser, thus giving him an actual role; let's say that the Blorbs is actually caused by vacuum powers, which otherwise have zero plot relevance between the start and climax of the game; have a bunch of Blorbed Toads blocking the way to Peach's Castle instead of random evil clouds...  Those are the flashpoints, but the general flow of the storyline needs to be completely overhauled beyond that.

Bowser's Inside Story has a great protagonist, memorable showstopper moments and a winning finale.  It's also the point at which Mario & Luigi became obsessed with lengthy 2D diversions, minigames, score attack challenges, completist record-keeping, gimmicks in general - anything other than the light RPG gameplay, light overhead platforming, and original, to-the-point plotting that made its name.  I really hope these remakes have led AlphaDream to take a good, hard look at the series so they can understand what worked and what people like the series for.  Fingers crossed for a Mario & Luigi Switch that takes it back to basics after losing its way and its identity.

Coming up next: Etrian Odyssey Nexus (3DS) (ongoing), Baba Is You (Switch) (ongoing), SteamWorld Quest (Switch), BoxBoy! + BoxGirl! (Switch).  And suddenly I have a backlog again...

[Salamander]

Well, I had been intending to push on with Etrian Odyssey Nexus (3DS), not least with another Etrian Odyssey spin-off in Persona Q2 (3DS) looming on the horizon... but my N3DS suddenly developed a fault where download games could no longer save, and I've had to send it off to Nintendo for repairs.  I only got the digital version because Atlus once again massively undershipped the physical version...  But, with that being the case, I instead decided to push on to the finish with a game I'd intended to chunk with other titles:

Baba Is You (Switch) - There's another review of Baba Is You further up the page, so I won't go into too much introductory detail for what is at face value an enormously self-explanatory game - a block-pushing game where the blocks include text defining the rules for object interaction in that same level.  From this simple premise comes a vast puzzle game centring around bizarre transformations and transferences of properties, starting off basic but quickly escalating to the point of devilish intricacy and unimaginable ingenuity.  Baba Is You is an excellent game; it's also one of the hardest games I've ever played.  But it's a form of difficulty which requires no skill and no reaction times; it's almost turn-based, in a way.  So it's fair and accessible; which it uses as a platform for logical brutality.

My theory of Baba Is You difficulty is that it essentially comes in three flavours:

• What to do: Being able to anticipate the winning end state for a level.
• How to do it: Being able to anticipate the process that will result in that winning end state.
• Execution of it: Being able to mechanically perform the series of transformations or pushes in what is often only just enough space.

In other words, there's a certain amount of mechanical and spatial difficulty, but quite often the real challenge is one of pure thought and logical process... or beyond that, leaps of intuition.  There will be levels which you look at and simply can't imagine what you could possibly do.  And while that's great, what I think is arguably a problem with Baba Is You is that later processes lose that instantly intuitive and accessible logic, and become more like game mechanics you have to figure out - processes for which the nature of how they work is very much down to a developer decision which could have been completely different.  A further form of difficulty comes in the increasing accumulation of mechanics to remember; and, often, to anticipate how they interact.  By the endgame, puzzles often depend upon bizarre interactions which in any other game would be a weird exploit.  It's legitimate, but it definitely contributed to an increasing sense for me that I just wanted the game to be done; and while I'm proud not to have looked up too many level walkthroughs, most of the ones I did check were indeed solutions I'm simply not sure I'd have arrived at on my own.  We all have our blind spots; and I actually think the best way of playing this game might be alongside a friend who's already finished it.  I can't imagine what a hint system for this game would look like, but you won't have to look far online to find substitutes.

For all the difficulty, though, I applaud the game's vision and ambition.  As insane and impenetrable as the levels get, it's truly a pleasure once the game starts getting really meta with it.  I don't want to spoil anything, as it's both delightful and terrifying the places this game will take you, but there will come points where even traversing the map is a challenge in itself, while basic level victory is frequently just handed to you because secondary objectives are the actual point.  And I definitely had fun - with the countless "wow, I can do that?" moments, the one time I won a level with a method I know is an exploit because it was subsequently patched out, and the game's surreal hidden endings.  The game currently has 225... WINs, let's say.  If you like puzzles, that's a lot of fun.

Coming up next: Do I immediately jump to another block-pushing game in BoxBoy + BoxGirl! (Switch), or play something completely different in SteamWorld Quest (Switch)?  Decisions, decisions...

[Tori Himemiya]

I'm trying to clean up my backlog now that I finished DMC5 so what game am I playing now?

A visual novel called World End Syndrome and oh boy its a dozy. Its about a new transfer student aka the player character (you get to pick the name) who transfers to a rural town where he gets the chance to date 1 of 5 girls. There' Maimi the tomboy, Saya the rich girl, Hanako the girl who's actual an idol incognito (but its pretty obvious who she is), Yukino the writing workaholic, and Miu the quiet girl who's more than she appears to be. Sounds good and all but there's more to it than that. It turns out Mihate Town has its own history that plagues it, namely the legend of the Yomibito curse where once every 100 years someone comes back from the dead to bring misfortune to all. And to make matters worse one of your school mates is found dead and there's so many secrets the town is hiding.

I actually really like this setup. Yeah the dating sim part of it is the whole game but I really like learning about Mihate Town. From playing the game you start picking up little hints and clues to the bigger picture. The dating sim scenarios are actually pretty fun too; nothing you would expect but it does take interesting routes at times. If you're wondering who's my best girl well I'm leaning towards Saya since I actually have a thing for blondes but I also really liked Hanako's/Rei's route but since I haven't finished the game yet so it might change. And as another positive thing to note is that I do like how you can go places on a map and aren't really railroaded too much, at least until a certain point. There's also Missions to take up too which can net you bonuses but some I just can't figure out like Ryoko Ryuzaki's weird requests. Still there's slightly more freedom than most VNs.

If there's any criticisms well I will say I don't like how if you go to a destination you're locked into it. This can be kind of annoying when a character says "oh yeah there's something going over there! Why are you even here?" Because of this I had to restart my file a lot to find events going on so its mostly trial and error. Oh I should mention that there's also a "aura" chart where you can see how much a girl likes you which increases how much you see her outside of events. However the stats will stick for every playthrough but I don't know if this will have an affect on gameplay yet because I'm working towards beating it. It might because when I was doing another girl's route my character was dreaming of the other girls in his sleep at random. And because I was trying to start Miu's route by trying to interact with her, she ended up having the highest aura stat and which lead to a somewhat extended dream. I also don't get the importance of the white auras you get from meeting other characters other than the main girls. I'd assume its for all girls but I didn't notice any change in stats. I kind of wish there was slightly more clarity on the system.

Overall I am pretty hooked into this one. It feels nice to go into a VN blind since it came out recently. I like the mystery to it and want to see where it will go from here. I still have a few unanswered questions about the game but I have to beat it first so we'll see.

[PC the Hedgehog]

My backlog is down to 4 games! I haven't had a backlog this small in the past two years.

Unfortunately, a lot of it is due to the past few games I've purchased, all indie titles, not being enjoyable enough to finish. On the other hand, others have been fantastic. Here's the rundown:

Ms. Splosion Man- Looked like a fun little 2D platformer, but man, it's downright fantastic. You'd think a game as wacky and ridiculous as this would be subpar in the gameplay department, but the platforming is pitch-perfect down to the smallest detail. It's fun, frentic, and fast-paced enough to give Sonic a run for his money. Plus, it has probably the most insane, hilarious ending I've ever seen in a video game. You really have to see it to believe it. I can't believe this game is almost 10 years old and took this long to come to a Nintendo console.

Mechstermination Force- I'm not good at run and gun games, but I figured a run and gun based entirely around boss battles (and from the makers of Gunman Clyde) would be right up my alley. I was wrong. I still suck. A shame, because the game has some great bosses with some epic cinematic moments. If you're a fan of games like Gunstar Heroes or Contra, don't let this slip under your radar. As for me, I just found it too overwhelming for my tastes.

Venture Kid- Not gonna lie, this game is basically a Mega Man clone without robots. And that's not a bad thing. It has all the tight gameplay, great level design, and catchy chiptune music as a classic Mega Man game, just with a different coat of paint. If you're a fan of classic NES Mega Man but are looking for something a little less hair-pullingly difficult (actually, the game is downright easy, but I don't mind), this game will likely be right up your alley.

Giga Wrecker Alt- The creators of Pokemon finally give us their latest original game on consoles: a puzzle platformer with cute anime girls. Sounds great on paper, but unfortunately, the game falters in way too many areas. The physics-based puzzles feature way too much trial and error, the characters on screen are so small that you can barely see them, and it's incredibly easy to get lost because the map system is subpar at best. The only major plus, to me, is the story. The characters are extremely likeable and interesting, and it's worth trudging through the mediocre gameplay to see what happens next in the story--or, as I'm planning to do, quit the game and just watch a playthrough on YouTube to see where the story ends up.

As I said, my backlog is down to four: Evoland, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Splatoon 2, and Monster Hunter Stories. We'll see how quickly I can knock them out before Super Mario Maker 2 hits in about a month.

 

[Tori Himemiya]

So I was chosen to take part of the Code Vein closed beta because I signed up for it a couple of weeks back. Normally I don't like Dark Souls type of games but I actually didn't know what this game was about until I saw the first visual of it.

I really liked the whole anime goth in a post apocalyptic look to it and it looked interesting to me. It turns out that it actually has a vampire theme to it and if you know me well I absolutely love vampire fiction so this immediately clicked with me. I just didn't know that it was a Souls styled game but I actually had fun with it.

Firstly I absolutely love the character creator in this. I had so much fun planning out how my character looked and you can surprisingly get away with a lot here. Its probably THE highlight of the game if I were being honest. I just kind of don't some of the clothing options for the guys but they at least did their best to keep the goth look as much as they could. I did manage to make a guy who looks like a girl as possible which is something I usually end up doing to test the limits of the character creator and this one passed, clothes choices be damned.

The gameplay is typical of a Souls game. Its a hack and slash but you have to plan out your attacks because of the stamina system. I'm not too familiar with these kinds of games since my only experience is actually Nioh of all things so I'm not sure how much this differs from the rest of the genre. I will at least say they did their best to make it feel unique as there's multiple classes that have different stats and playstyles. I actually stayed to the tried and true swordsman style because I was at least killing things since I didn't know what I was doing. There is a way to play ranged but it looks too difficult due to managing resources to even use spells, or even fire your musket. I guess there's a preference for everyone and for me I like using the big sword. I did notice there's also super moves that both the player and enemies can use and it took me a while to get used to using them. However its hard to use on the bosses since they need to be launched in the air first. And there are backstabs but seems like it rarely works since I hardly get them and when I do its completely by chance.

Overall even though this was a beta test I'm actually interested in what happens next. I again really like the vampire theme, even if its more akin to like say Tokyo Ghoul down to similar powers. I'm liking the lore and I want to know what happens next in the story. There a few things that could be polished but I did think the game played fine, even if I'm not familiar with the genre. I just hope they announce a release date soon because I'm hooked to this game and really want more.