What game are you currently playing?

[Danj86]

I've been really addicted to these Picross puzzles games for a while, I don't fully understand why. I tend to resist anything involving numbers because I'm pretty bad with maths. Though the games don't involve any complicate maths problems. I do get a sense of enjoyment out of putting together the hidden picture and trying to workout what it is while working on the puzzle.

The most recent iteration I've played is the Sanrio characters Picross. A rather cutesy take with characters like Hello Kitty involved. It was still the same puzzle game. I managed to fully complete every puzzle in every mode only yesterday, I actually rarely ever do that. Those Macross puzzles tend to be a problem.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Still playing Pokemon Ultra Moon. Just about to start the whole Ultra Recon Squad stuff. The game really is too similar to the original for its own good, moreso than previous games to their "third" versions, but it's still a lot of fun. Really ready to move on to something new, though. My backlog is just way too large at this point and I need to start thinning it down or I'll never catch up, and we got some big name games coming down the pike soon.

[Thrippa]

12 hours ago, DanJ86 said:

I've been really addicted to these Picross puzzles games for a while, I don't fully understand why. I tend to resist anything involving numbers because I'm pretty bad with maths. Though the games don't involve any complicate maths problems. I do get a sense of enjoyment out of putting together the hidden picture and trying to workout what it is while working on the puzzle.

The most recent iteration I've played is the Sanrio characters Picross. A rather cutesy take with characters like Hello Kitty involved. It was still the same puzzle game. I managed to fully complete every puzzle in every mode only yesterday, I actually rarely ever do that. Those Macross puzzles tend to be a problem.

Have you tried the second (Switch) one yet?  They've replaced the Micross (where famous paintings are broken down into a series of Picross puzzles) with a 'clip art' series where certain parts of a larger picture are earned by doing the regular puzzles, each part being random sizes and when you finish the last one it gives you the rest of the picture.  I just introduced my mom to these on my last visit (she has a 3DS), and I expect I'll be buying her a new game each time I visit - the change from 'I'm not sure I understand this,' to 'Just one more then I'll head up to bed,' was exceedingly fast.  She's been repeating the Brain Age sudokus on the DSi forever, so I thought it was time to introduce her to something new.

 

On topic, I'm working Captain Toad on the 3DS and No Man's Sky on the PS4.  Community events have arrived if a bit unevenly, and I had a player actually wander onto my planet this week.  Such a strange thing to have a spacesuited figure run up, wave 'hi' and go running off into the distance.

[blueblur98]

i'm currently playing a few games.

i got sucked back into the minecraft hole again. currently have a pretty good character. full iron armor and some pretty good tools. i'm lost though, trying to find the house i built. i found the houses i previously built (and lost) while exploring. i'm playing the PS3 version.

i'm also playing modnation racers. the servers are shutting down soon, so i'm trying to snatch up those online trophies before that happens.

i recently bought kirby squeak squad on wii u virtual console. pretty good game, albeit a short one. finding treasure chests is fun, particularly when ability scrolls and spray paints are involved. i'm at the point where you have to go to earlier levels to get an item to progress.

another game i bought recently is sonic adventure. i'm at the end of sonic's story, and i'm enjoying it quite a lot. only two stages i've actually disliked so far.

Edited September 6, 2018 by blueblur98

[Salamander]

WarioWare Gold (3DS) - It is really something of a tragedy that this game took until the last days of the 3DS to appear, and indeed that early marketing gave the impression that it was chiefly a compilation.  Frankly, it feels like they finally nailed it; this is the ultimate WarioWare game.  In terms of presentation, this feels like the first WarioWare game (potentially excluding DIY and the console games, which I never played) that has really tied everything together; all the characters have their individual stories, as ever, but there's also a light overarching story which ties the game structure together and, impressively, builds up to a finale which actually feels like a final boss.  The new art style is better than ever, clean and cute, which plays well with the frequent animated cutscenes; and the full voice-acting adds a huge amount of charm for a feature which I don't think anyone ever expected to be in a WarioWare game, of all things.  Content-wise, the game is simply stuffed.  The emphasis in the marketing on certain microgames returning is really something of a red herring; naturally they're completely remade, but without compromising the highly individual, deliberately rather rough and janky art style of each microgame itself.

So that's a huge number of fresh and classic microgames; plus a hefty number of additional score-based minigames, some of which are surprisingly well-realised (not to mention the extensive card-battle game which is literally the last thing you unlock); plus again the usual array of weird additional gimmicks and a Nintendo hardware museum.  Combined with the parallel structure of the gameplay paths (Mash, Twist, and Touch leagues can be played independently), there's rarely a point in the game at which you can't just go and do something completely different.  Optional content is unlocked from a silly gacha machine funded by in-game money which comes from beating stages and mastering microgames, but also from completing missions from an enormous list, which are really just a stand-in for an achievement system; a certain postgame minigame goes even more full-on with pay-to-win gacha mechanics using entirely in-game money in a manner which is just about obnoxious enough to constitute satire rather than parody.  In other words, it's WarioWare at its most WarioWare; weird, idiosyncratic, and tons of fun.  I've 100%ed the game but for three missions which require outside hardware (someone else with a copy of the game, and an amiibo); my Activity Log records over sixty hours of play on the title.  No regrets.  A hypothetical Switch title would have a hard time topping this.

Hollow Knight (Switch) - Rumours and legends told of an amazing Metroidvania title; and the reality did not disappoint.  Hollow Knight is a fantastic exploration platformer steeped in atmospheric gloom, lore, and carefully refined combat.  The opening areas gradually introduce you to the idea of freedom of choice, and freedom to encounter dead ends which will eventually be traversable; but it's not many hours before you have enough tools for the game structure to be thrown wide open, with a surprising freedom of direction and choice of routes through the interconnected world.  I'm always impressed by a game where two different players can proceed through the same area from opposite ends and in opposite directions; I would frequently go in the opposite direction of what appeared to be progress, and the game very generously let me do so, though quite often my route turned out to be just another form of progress.

The game wisely eschews many of the standard tropes; there is no fire area, no ice area.  Its structure is largely convincingly built around its mythos of an underground civilisation and its grim fate, but with a respectable amount of variety between areas, and particularly the enemy types in those areas; and the number of bosses is simply huge, following the harsh-but-fair model which can seem insurmountable at first but can be learnt through observation and practice.  New abilities are unlocked at a respectable rate, but with a great many available upgrades; and a gameplay-modifying Trinket system has a huge number of variations and possible combinations which will produce increasingly unique builds between players.  Happily, there is no real need for grinding in this game; there's no level-up system, and, once you get past the opening hours, money is abundant.  As such, except for the true endgame challenges, the answer to difficulty is never to grind, but rather to take a different direction and return once you're better-equipped - which invariably also means being more skilful, too.  The story, as such, is oblique and largely passively-told through the optional; if you just want to play it as a game, you're quite free to do so; but there is much to learn for those paying attention.  I have very few quibbles; some secrets I feel are a bit too well-hidden, with breakable walls which are perhaps a little too subtle for their own good, a handful of which aren't visibly marked at all, and a general tendency to go behind the environment at the edges often obscuring other hidden passages; while the recently-added super-postgame appears to simply be various flavours of boss rush and not to my tastes at all.  But I had an amazing time overall, with my file recording fifty-five hours spent; and I'm more than willing to double that when the Hornet campaign DLC appears in the murky future.

Mega Man 11 (Switch) (demo) - Somehow, I never really got into Mega Man as a child.  I'm not sure why; there were plenty of Mega Man and related titles on Nintendo handheld systems, after all.  A couple of years ago, I actually got curious and went out of my way to learn more about the series; I even played the ZX titles for the DS, though by that point the series has diverged so far from its origins as to be barely recognisable.  So, I was quite interested to give this demo a shot; to see what a polished, modern-yet-classic Mega Man looked like now, and how much I would enjoy it.  Well, I think it was a pretty good experience.  The game controls well and intuitively, though I found climbing ladders to be a bit slow; bold colours, well-designed locations, fair challenges.  The characters look great, the power set is pretty diverse and adds to Mega Man's moveset without disturbing the base gameplay; the boss is challenging, but predictable and learnable.  So... why do I not feel particularly inclined to play the full game?  I'm not sure; but it might be because I feel like I have if anything too good an idea of how the rest of the game will play; that it's not going to do anything all that surprising.  It might just be because I tend to prioritise really long story-based games, though...

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Switch) (demo) - On which note.  I have a mixed history with strategy games; but the gameplay in this title (presumably the whole series, with which I was previously unfamiliar) is a more action-influenced form of strategy highly reminiscent of 3DS title Codename S.T.E.A.M., which I am one of the few people on record to have enjoyed.  Movement of multiple characters across complex maps is done in third-person, with a certain number of moves per turn, a certain range of movement per move (diminishing if the same character is moved consecutively), and a single firing opportunity per move.  On top of this fairly simple and flexible base are draped a simply extraodinary number of systems to learn; it's to the demo's credit that it actually does a pretty good job of teaching them, though it bears mentioning that this is a game with so many tutorials that it even has a tutorial on tutorials.  The game has a (more or less formally-designated) division between main characters and ordinary squad members, but each is individualised with character affiliations and certain quirks, or Potentials, which affect their stats positively or negatively in certain situations related to other characters or character types; one character might be better at working alone than in a group, while another might be a racist.  Managing these silly quirks to your advantage and choosing who you want to bring along to each stage at all adds a fun layer of additional complexity while allowing you to believe even in non-main characters as genuine individuals.  Levelling up, as such, features a refreshing absence of micromanagement; money is spent on equipment upgrades which apply flat to every class, though rare unique items can be equipped individually; and likewise, experience awarded post-battle is again invested at the player's discretion per-class, meaning that no one character ever needs to lag behind, and even whole classes could theoretically be neglected for much of the game without ending up any the worse for it.

The setting is a fantasy-world take on World War II with just enough differences and just enough character anime drama to feel a bit off; but it's the right set-up to carry the player through the story, which so far appears to be developing a period-appropriate structure of victory followed by setback.  It's actually a surprisingly meaty demo; I've no idea how long the game is (the PS4 version has been out for some time, but I'm not inclined to look it up as I don't want to spoil it), but the demo contains three story and three optional battles, and even then the number of tutorials can overwhelm at times.  But it all makes sense; the demo actually plays as a pretty coherent package and strong set-up for the full game in itself.  If I'm not locked into a chain of hundred-hour RPGs for months and months, I'm genuinely considering buying it.

On which note: Next up is a game for which I exhausted the demoes and thus can't believe I've yet to start despite having owned it for two whole months; but I had to fast-track a couple of other titles for various reasons.  Step forward... Octopath Traveler.  I would play a lot more games if I didn't like RPGs, honestly...

[Eurisko]

Spider-Man. This game has really surprised me. Nothing has matched Spider-man 2 for GCN from 2004 for me , Web of Shadows was pretty good but everything else since then has been a bit meh. 

This has blown my head off , absolutely LOVE it.

[JPunxR]

I've been playing with Devil May Cry 4... and DMC4:Special Edition... So far that's the two games ive been playing and spending most of my time just cause for the combat and how flashy/stylish you can be. (Both on PC)

Another game I've been play has been Tomb Raider (2013) on PC as well so I can try and adjust to playing keyboard and mouse(for shooting related games anyways). Difficult to switch from controller to key/mouse but I now see how accurate you can be so that's cools. 

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm playing on my Switch:

- Octopath Traveller

- Octo Expansion from Splatoon 2

Everything Octo! Basically...

I'm enjoying both, I've also bought and downloaded Mega Man 11, and will play immediately once it's available. So that will be a new record for me, playing 3 games at the same time, well, it's really a new golden age for me with videogames thanks to the Switch, definitely a great addition and worth the purchase. I have had it since May and I already own 8 games! (There are way too many games out there and so little time and money!)

[Mr Loopone]

Quite a few games at the moment (because I have more time to play on them).

Ridge Racer 6 This is the game that got me back to playing racing games again after so long not playing them and pardon the pun burntout on them (thanks to Blur that I didn't really like and Flatout Ultimate Carnage that got unfair fast), the passion sparked again. Knew what to expect and had fun playing the game, really did like that announcer. Managed to get 45% of the game done and saw the credits twice, its going to be one of those games that I'll play if I don't have time. Maybe Project Gotham Racing 4 and Forza Horizon might be on the cards soon?

Then I gave Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon on the PS3 a try that I'm surprised that it got released but I had to abandon the game... Why? It is just unfinished and fell through the ground within 10 minutes of the game! Graphics were pretty ugly outside of the character models, very poor technically from textures not displaying until you are right on top of them to pop up to muffled audio and would have imagined that the 360 version wouldn't be much different. Unbalanced difficulty that is a sign of frustration. Sort of liked the 1970s era, would have mentioned more but not here. The gameplay mechanics were actually decent, just a shame that the developers should have had it done and fixed the bugs. From what I read were more obsessed over water animations that you barely see than finishing and bug fixing, even then THQ weren't a good publisher either. Oh and I stopped because I got to the second area, a parody of Hollywood and there was a mission where you had to protect a van. Sounds doable? Nope. The enemies were spawning within the van and shooting inside of it making it mission failed no matter what I did!

Right now though, Call of Juarez: The Cartel. At first I avoided even touching the game because of the low scores and found it really cheap so hey give it a try. Sort of glad that I did as the game isn't bad. In some spots, it is actually quite good. Graphically and mechanically it is pretty solid, much better than both the previous games (Call of Juarez 1 looked basic/felt clunky but understandable and Bound in Blood was pretty blurry/overdoing the bloom) and even some other games too. No pop up, little frame rate issues, no install either and not many PS3 games are like this. Find it funny that Ben McCall looks like Geralt from The Witcher series (same actor or inspiration?). The only issues so far have been inconsistancy regarding both the enemies and yourself, there have been times where the enemies were bullet sponges and then hit them in one shot, vice versa too where sometimes I got killed by two bullets (non-sniper) and other times getting shot but enough to survive, annoying at both ends. Oh and the aim downsight isn't reliable. Sound also cuts out at parts and hear it but I'm guessing it is due to streaming the game. Only thing connecting this with the previous games were that you play as a decendant wearing the cross, that's it.

I think had it had a different name even if it was Generic FPS: The Cartel, probably would have had a better reception.

[Blueknight V2.0]

I'm starting on The Legend of Spyro The Eternal Night for the games 11th anniversary (which is today, October 2nd).

[PC the Hedgehog]

In addition to trying to finish up my playthrough of Pokemon Ultra Moon, I've also started Mega Man 11. I've always been subpar at classic Mega Man games (but great at the X games), but the casual difficulty brings down the hardness to just the right level for me. It's not a super long game, typical for Mega Man, but it's clearly a labor of love. Welcome back, blue buddy.

Also playing bits and pieces of Dawn of Breakers for Switch. Some free-to-play action RPG game. Not much depth to it, but I like the characters and am intrigued by the story. Plus, again, it's free.

[BlueFlare]

I was going to pick up Ultra Sun and Diablo 3 Battle Chest this week but decided to postpone both since I found myself still playing and enjoying Guild Wars 2 and its Path of Fire expansion.

[Mr Loopone]

Finished Call of Juarez: The Cartel, liked it (found a few more issues but they were minor) and wanted to play a different game with a different tone. Chose Toy Story 3 and sadly the game has put me off games for a little while (trying to think of something else to play but struggling and not in the mood for the games that I mentioned before). It is a bad game? Not really but found it pretty boring and annoying, not very fun to play.

The graphics are nice, probably not as detailed as the movie but they are nice, bright and smooth looking apart from the last three levels where it goes down to the toilet by comparison. Like the idea of switching the characters about. So what are the issues that put me off? The major two are button responses and collision detection, both pop up as early as nearly half way through the game and get worse after that. Yes, half way since there are only 8 levels in the entire game but realistically only something like 6 since one is a minigame hub and the other is the "final boss". The button response issues happen when you press a button and it doesn't work despite pressing it, annoying when you have to get across the gaps. Then there's the collision detection, oh boy... Died so many times due to it being off, redo platforming many times due to it, got detected in the "prison" level despite being nowhere near the lights and couldn't collect some of the collectables because it didn't register. There were also a couple of minor issues such as the boss battle with Zerg and sound just went really loud, really loud like room blasting volume and NO SUBTITLES, in a game from 2010 from Disney? Catering for all audiences my foot.

The level that really started to put me off the game was Bonnie's House, the first part being jumping over coffee where the issues really showed. The second part was very familar especially around here, where you were skating on rails in outer space. Like a certain final rush from a certain game. Then it hit me, it was just like Sonic Adventure 2 and brought me back some bad memories... Controlled as bad as that too and the button response was dreadful with many times Woody didn't jump and got hit or fell off the rails (sounds like my playthrough from that game all over again, good thing Woody doesn't have the homing attack). Honestly the only levels that I liked in the game were the first and where you play as Buzz Lightyear where it is set in that universe. The rest were either boring or annoying. Normally when I finish a game, I go back and collect the collectables or do the other modes. Just couldn't be bothered and sold it just 2 and a half hours after finishing it. Didn't even put it in my backlog.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

Been putting some time into Forza Horizon 4 (Ultimate Edition) in Photo Mode as well as general mayhem. Such a satisfying game filling the gap that NFS has left behind. Still working on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 especially the Torna Expansion that was released. Otherwise it's been rather busy on my end.

[Mr Loopone]

Currently playing Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and actually enjoying the game. Sure it's not brilliant even though it is one of the better late Activision Spider-Man games that they brought out. Last time that I had fun playing a game was Ridge Racer 6.

Really liked the idea of playing as different Spider-Men who all play differently with Spider-Man Noir being more stealthy (hints of Batman Arkham with its takedown system and Splinter Cell) while the others are more similar but still have their differences like Spider-Man 2099 being more flashier. Speaking of which, I actually like Spider-Man's character and the bosses that the developers chose for this game. Can't complain regarding the graphics, the controls apart from that it can be a bit finicky when it comes to grabbing objects and zipping across platforms (not his swing) or the beat em up/platforming gameplay. 

[SgtBloxx]

I recently started to play Saints Row the Third recently, and I gotta say that it’s pretty fun. I also bought Forza Horizon 4, but I gotta wait for my new PC to arrive first before I can actually play it.

[Mr Loopone]

Finished Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions and enjoyed it. Moved onto Supreme Commander 2 and yeah... I won't be playing anymore. It looked the part and ran well for a 360 strategy game but it had problems getting the disc to work and couldn't do a skirmish on the easiest difficulty.

I don't have any luck on strategy games... Only got up to the second mission on Universe at War and failed every time, couldn't get past the first mission on Stormrise. It seems if it isn't the first two Command & Conquer games where I get decently there (as in getting to Mission 5 or 6), I am awful at them even if the controls are simplfied. The genre isn't for me.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Been playing a bunch--like, a bunch bunch--of indie games lately, with mixed results.

Nefarious is hilarious with a fun story and characters, but the gameplay ranges from okay to downright awful. The "reverse" boss fights where you play the villain in the giant mech were fun, though, and the dialogue is Shantae-levels of charming and witty.

Next was 20XX, a Mega Man X-inspired game that's procedurally-generated, or rougelike, or whatever you call it. Light on story, but really solid gameplay. The permadeath was a dealbreaker, though. I don't like games I have to play all the way through in one sitting.

Next came Hover: Revolt of Gamers. Basically a Jet Set Radio-inspired game (complete with Hideki Naganuma providing several music tracks). Running and jumping around a big city is okay, but it's just way too basic to really make for a good time.

Currently I'm playing Iconoclasts. Incredibly solid gameplay with some surprisingly deep and oftentimes perplexing puzzles. The dialogue ranges from laugh-out-loud funny to needlessly flowery. When it all comes down to it, the fun platform-puzzle gameplay doesn't really mesh well with the dark tone of the story, which flip-flops from dark to light at the drop of a hat to a jarring degree, kind of like Freedom Planet, but with much more mature themes.

The last game on my list before all the big fall games come out: Poi. Jonesing for a good 3D platformer.

[Kittea]

Splatoon 2. Obsessively.

Someone hide my Switch please!

[SgtBloxx]

I started playing Forza Horizon 4 recently. It looks good even on medium settings and there's so much things to do. I'll probably not have enough time to actually complete the main story.

[Salamander]

Jake Hunter: Ghost of the Dusk (3DS) - I'd heard of the Jake Hunter franchise in the past, in the context of DS visual novels; I was quite surprised when I did some research to find that there'd actually been only one game localised previously (though it apparently came in two versions - a bad version with a lot of content stripped out, and an improved reissue later on).  I had a 3DS slot open, so I decided to see what the fuss was about.  It turns out that Jake Hunter console releases package in a main self-contained story, and a number of other considerably shorter stories ported over from mobile releases and the like; so this is actually a good six games in one, in a way.  Gameplay-wise, it's essentially what you'd expect from an Ace Attorney game, only without a courtroom and considerably more hard-boiled; you page through dialogue, you move between locations, you inspect the scene, and there's a dedicated button purely for Jake to light up a cigarette.  The point-and-click investigation segments are among the game's weak points in terms of gameplay; frequently you'll have to select the same area multiple times, with no indication of a change, before finally the story will let you have what was there all along.  Interrogation sequences of carefully-considered dialogue options are better-executed, but appear only in the main story, which is a shame.  Other than that - well, it's a visual novel.  You can occasionally uncover a bonus password to unlock extra content, usually an art gallery or things of that nature; but you don't come to this kind of game fore the gameplay, do you?

In terms of narrative, what you can expect is a little reminiscent of a late-evening crime drama than a lot of other visual novels.  The main story, Ghost Of The Dusk, takes a while to get going; ostensibly about a creepy mansion which brings tragedy to all who dwell there, the first half of the story seems more interested in a small concrete shack directly behind the mansion, along with an array of seedy bars.  Things pick up a bit later, but it's difficult to imagine Ace Attorney, say, squandering its raw materials in quite the same way; one wonders if a hard-boiled crime franchise was quite the right place for this premise, especially as it becomes increasingly clear that the solution to the mystery is one of international espionage and Cold War intrigue.  The other stories are a bit more of a mixed bag; Legend Of The Demon Princess and For Love start strong, but have very rushed final chapters and feel as if they could have used being longer; Four Seasons also concludes rather abruptly.  Forget-Me-Not is, for my money, the best of the lot, barring the inclusion of an ostensibly eighteen-year-old character who behaves at least four years younger than that, which might come off as endearing in an Ace Attorney game but certainly doesn't win her any friends here.  Last and in a way least is the rather bizarre Jake Hunter Unleashed: School Festival Locked Office Case, a short and farcical piece presented in, of all things, a super-deformed art style; while it's a fun breather, and features a surprisingly legitimate locked-room mystery (with a solution I've seen used in the past in a full-length classic novel), it feels extremely out-of-place in the serious, urban, and fairly gritty company of the other five stories.  But overall, so long as you have a good idea of the genre you're getting into, you probably won't be disappointed.

Text quality could've used another run-through by a proofreader.  I wouldn't say it's riddled with mistakes; but you don't have to be paying too much attention to notice the odd missing word here or there, or text box transitions with weird spacing or which somehow accidentally skip a passage, which makes it highly fortunate that you can read back over the last few lines during extended dialogue sequences.  The quality of the writing overall is a strong point; characters have distinct voices and the narrative reads well, and there are regular recaps and other ways of reminding yourself of where you are in a case and who the characters are.  Similarly, the art distinguishes the characters well; although each individual story uses the art from its original release, meaning that the regular characters have six different appearances throughout the game, which can get a little strange - not least as Jake's assistant, Yulia Marks, looks completely different every single time; conversely, Jake's art is very often a bit on the rough side.

I can't end this review without a mention of the localisation approach taken with this game.  Jake Hunter is originally Jinguji Saburo, a private eye in the Japanese city of Shinjuku; this game moves the scene across the Atlantic to a fictional U.S. city, with almost every character becoming American in the process (there are a few exceptions, mostly for people who weren't Japanese in the first place).  I understand that this is in line with the previous DS release, so in a sense the localisers' hands are tied.  This approach does make it a lot easier, I find, to keep track of the characters' names by reason of their greater familiarity; it also makes certain points of characterisation or narrative easier to communicate.  I can only assume, but cannot know, that Jinguji Saburo is just as cool a name in Japan as Jake Hunter is in the west, while Scott "King" Kingsley's nickname relies on a pun (I see that his Japanese name is Kumano, so I assume that in Japan he's nicknamed "Kuma," or "Bear").  There are a couple of other points in various stories where understanding the meaning of various characters' names is essential to the plot.  But I suspect there's a contingent which would argue in favour of having changed as little as possible, and they have a point.  Jake Hunter has a past in America, which is occasionally awkward to refer to considering that he's ostensibly still in America, and indeed the presence of hostess bars and an antique shop with a very traditional Japanese aesthetic are among a large number of signs as to where the games really take place; for that matter, the characters' original Japanese names are blatantly spelt out in the opening animation.  Furthermore, Jake Hunter Unleashed is set at a Japanese cultural festival and basically doesn't bother to localise anything, even, uniquely, down to character names.  There's a text-literal movement in fandom circles at the moment which is very critical of alterations, even when those alterations make perfect sense; but it's true that Jake Hunter doesn't need it as badly as, say, Ace Attorney (where localising character names is essential to both humour and game design).  At the same time, the Japanese context isn't as vital to the game themes as it would be in, say, Persona.  The original Japanese text will not have been written for an international audience; for that matter, the Japanese license holders will have been asked to approve each and every change, too.  There's no right or wrong or one-size-fits-all approach to be taken in localisation.  I simply think it's important to highlight the decisions which were made, and to reflect carefully on them.

So, Jake Hunter: Ghost Of The Dusk.  Good game?  Certainly, there's nothing else quite like it, and I enjoyed it for what it is, even if the script needed another check.  And it's definitely gotten me interested in checking out the previous localised game (the better version, that is).  It seems likely that more Jake Hunter games might be localised in the future, so as a reader, I guess this is a good time to get into the series.

Octopath Traveler (Switch) - In progress.  I'm over a hundred hours in, and still not done with all the Chapter 3s.  Unfortunately, either I or the game's experience curve - and I strongly suspect both - messed up; simply in exploring around, my main team has become wildly overlevelled, and now every encounter, even to the boss level, is pathetically easy.  I assumed the game would throttle the experience giveaway to higher-levelled characters to prevent that from happening, but... there it is; and so the game has become honestly a bit of a chore to play.  I will finish it, though; and my full review will doubtless consider this problem with my usual excruciating level of detail...

[Jetstreamx]

In the short term, I'm playing Sonic Lost World. With the IDW Sonic comic my interest in the franchise kinda rekindled.

Other than that for the long term I'm playing Final Fantasy XV and Just Cause 3. Though I really should get back to Shining Resonance before I forget the story and am forced to restart. Got kinda bored with it.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Trying to finish up the Jak & Daxter series with The Lost Frontier PS2. After coming from the original trilogy to the Lost Frontier, it's not a quick adjustment from a really enjoyable trilogy to a less likable entry. But I still like The Lost Frontier, it's just that I like the original Jak trilogy more.

[Blusolyn]

I've been playing Sonic 4 Episode 1 again and Stardew Valley. Year 5 Winter in SV. 

[mayday2592]

I just got Skylanders Imaginators with the Crash pack for about thirty bucks. I'm playing through with Crash mostly and having a really good time. The levels are well designed and the combat is satisfying. Planning on getting DK, Bowser, Spyro, and maybe Cynder.