Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (24th August)

I’ve taken a step back from Ring Fit Adventure due to time and energy constraints but I’m keeping my fitness consistent with UCV raises and farmer’s carries in the evening.
I’m dipping into more Alien lore with the Alien ttrpg rule book and aliens phalanx novel. I’m a nerd.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: 82 hours in and I have just about done all the different area intelligence, leaving only some remaining side quests and the main story left to do.

It's been an interesting voyage and I've particularly enjoyed the Corel and Cosmo Canyon regions, with the synergy attacks a fun wrinkle to the combat system. Tifa has been, surprisingly enough, the most compelling of our main group to watch, from seeking vengeance for her father to encountering Sephiroth in the lifestream and coming to grips with returning to Nibelheim.

It'll be difficult to leave it all behind for sure.

This weekend I plan on finishing Crisis Core: Reunion….

…. That’s actually been my plan for the last week. It’s not a super long game BUT I am compulsively doing missions instead of playing the main game. They are all essentially the same dang thing but the go by so quickly and the flashy combat/allure of getting so stupidly strong through the materia system is just too strong of a hook!

If I can stick to the plan though - build Aerith her flower cart, kick it with Sephiroth for a little bit, and then go die - maybe I’ll make time to finally start The Legend of Tianding

SUPER….HOT
SUPER….HOT
SUPER….HOT

Also Sand Land

I have still barely had time to touch Final Fantasy 9, but last week I got to the world map, and I'm really excited to explore while inevitably getting very upset at encounters, but not turning them off for some reason.

Also, for other FF fans, why is the framerate on the world map so low compared to FF7 and FF8 on switch? For the little I played, I was surprised by how much it chugged. Retro-ness doesn't usually bother me, but it just looks strange.

So I finally beat BG3!!! For me it was a hard game to master but when it finally clicked, it is so good! I went from giving up on the game in act 1 to rolling credits with a big grin on my face. I can imagine this being a game I will play over again just to take different paths in the future.

This weekend it's back to a steady rotation of hunting down the final costumes in Stellar Blade on PS5.
Forza 4 and Starfield (with the new vehicle) on Series X while waiting for Shattered Space next month.
And nothing on Switch OLED unfortunatly. I think my next game will be Lego Horizon on that console.

Im also really looking forward to Dragon Age Veilguard.

Have a good weekend.

I'm playing mostly the same games these days:

• BPM: Bullets Per Minute: slowly getting better at it, still not reached the third area, but enjoying myself more after looking up some stuff online. Music is a killer and what keeps me coming back.
• Just Shapes and Beats: so I have two go-to rythm games at the moment, completely different vibes and gameplays. I love how positive this one is.
• Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2: after doing all of the NES games (with rewind!), I was pretty sad to find out that none of the others offer this functionality. So I'm trying to play through the first X games, it's much less fun. There is an accessibilty option to make it more doable but I'm not even sure what it does. Seems like I'm invincible at times, and sometimes no longer ... I'm doing a little bit of progress like that.
• Tears of the Kingdom: luckily this one still works just great, and after the last blood moon I can go on another Lynel hunt.
• Tetris 99: playing with my favourite Kirby theme is a blast.

Happy gaming 🎮 + ✌🏻 + 🧡

@Eduard_Brenton What a fun game that was!! Super ... Hot ... Super ... Hot ... Super

Weekend already, and almost September at that... time flies so fast! For me, I'm playing:

• Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe
• Pokémon Scarlet
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

Happy weekend everyone!

@Yalloo It really…is…really…is…really…is

Having finished TTYD earlier this week, I feel a little sad, but all good things must come to an end. It's definitely in my top 5 favourite games of all time. The care and attention they put into the remake is extraordinary. The credits list 30 people working on the lighting alone, and it shows.

After finishing such an epic game, I feel like going for some lighter stuff. This weekend, I'm playing Horizon Chase Turbo and Wave Race Blue Storm. The latter through Dolphin. The graphics hold up well, set the internal render resolution to 1080p and you basically have a remastered version.

@RubyCarbuncle I think I might love it too!

Still mystery dungeon! Got done 99 floors dungeon and got a kecleon. Happy gaming everyone!

Persona 5 Tactica, I’m in the middle of the last kingdom, so I’ll finish this weekend. Story was not as good as other P5 games, but the whole game was well worth my time and money (paid about 40 euros for physical). Before deciding what big to play before Zelda, it will be Theatrhythm and LEGO Star Wars.

Blue Archive as usual, as they just put up their 0068 event this week featuring the most dorkiest wannabe outlaw as the main protagonist, put in the role of a james bond wannabe now. So I can tell the story is gonna be quite the laugh on that basis alone.

Also been playing lots of Doom 2 thanks to the new update making the game feel more like a complete experience. Yes it's mostly the music doing the work. So I might continue, though I still have the Miles Edgeworth and Emio demos to try.

And I'm still building my Wing Zero Ver.Ka so I dunno if I'm going to do all of this.

I was busy last weekend, so, my results will be combined with a last week.
Persona4 The ULTIMAX ULTRA SUPLEX HOLD – finished Episode P4 on 94%. Finished Episode P3 on 88%. Stopped on Chapter 11?
Fate/stay night REMASTERED – finished Prologue. Started Fate route, I guess. I want highlight and praise the game's highly customizable options and all types of controls. Joy-Con (R)? Joy-Con (L)? Touchscreen? Play with
the whatever controls you like! It's 100% playable in touchscreen, I think.
Another thing that worth and shall be mentioned, is Shirô Emiya. He's muted by default, for some reason. So, be sure to give him a voice before playing the game further, lol.
Corpse Party: Blood Drive – finally finished Chapter 00.
OGRE TALE – completed Prologue twice. 1st time on a false ending, 2nd time on a true ending. Finished/completed missions 01 and 02. Currently playing as Ran Onigashima.
BLAZBLUE CENTRALFICTION Special Edition – played VS Mode as Mitsuyoshi.
Guilty Gear XX ΛCore Plus R – played online with my main, Order-Sol.
Well, for now, it's all what I've played.
On a gaming related things side... I've read the 3rd volume of YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga adaptation of the YoRHa stage play! I thought that it will be ended on 3rd volume, but no. It will be ended on the 4th volume. Weirdly enough, it takes them years to translate it into English, and ±6 months to translate it into German. German translation is releasing earlier than the English one, lol.
Well, have a nice gaming weekend, everyone.

Tears of the Kingdom: The Second Quest! I've put in about 130 hours on this megamod (combo of Cook or Die, Armor mods, etc etc) and was starting to think it's not THAT different from vanilla TOTK, then I got the Mystic Headgear and read that it reduces gravity. I thought, that's not correct! But I put it on and discovered I can now have low gravity anywhere, anytime! I've had so much fun blowing up boko camps in low G! It's super fun exploring the surface and depths with moon gravity. I also love how I can get bullet time anywhere with it. I also just today realized there two extra difficult species of Aerocuda in this mod. There's Aerowanas and Aeropaimas, which I was always running away from at first, but now I've got 21 hearts, attack up armor, etc. So I'm glad to get their wings and eyes. I've also had this "gale boomerang" and just realized that's also not in the vanilla game. Oh, and I've finally completed the election quest in Hateno for the first time, and there's all this armor Cece is selling that's new to me (and isn't in the vanilla game). And of course I'm getting tons of awesome Shema Stones and Yiga Schematics from excellent Hyrule Engineer folks. I also really like the weather changes both on the surface and underground. There's lots of improvements coming along, but it's already an absolutely awesome mod for a masterpiece of a game. One last favorite thing I've been having so much fun with is using the low gravity mystic headpiece with glide shirt and tights so I can maneuver around in such a fun way anywhere I want. Oh, and a Depths battle with a Frox was amazing cuz it would flip me up and I'd hit the ceiling of the Depths, then dive down and bomb it, I swear it was a ballet of awesome Zelda fighting, so fun!
I've also been playing BOTW and TOTK on Switch. Had an awesome moment where it stopped raining and I saw Farosh with a rainbow above her. I started a new file in BOTW and had fun completing the Great Plateau then rushing to get Majora's Mask (it's right there below!) and the full Phantom Gannon set (totally doable with 4 hearts if you're sneaky and fast). Also been playing Advance Wars 1 + 2, NES Championship, and Mario Maker 2 on Switch.
On Deck I've been very impressed with Tactical Breach Wizards, Thank Goodness You're Here!, and Terra Nil (all run at 90fps!). Worm Jazz is good too, but requires setting the screen to about 47fps to get a smooth experience. I've also been playing Rocket League on my laptop.
I also saw a deer while at the beach! It was up on a cliff, so weird to see. The other cool thing recently is I've been having fun dealing with a peach tree that produced about 700 peaches this year! Had to cut branches, pick daily, give peaches away at work, cook with them, etc. It's been a fun adventure!
Have fun everyone!

This week I will be mostly playing

Mario’s Super Picross
Two Point Hospital

Some Atlas Fallen. I’m also doing a mix of Cult of the Lamb, Enter the Gungeon, and Risk of Rain 2. Been on a real rougelike kick lately.

Cassette Beasts for me. I don't even like Pokémon and haven't really had any interest in the thought of playing a monster-collecting/battling game, but I decided to go outside of my comfort zone to keep gaming from getting stale. I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I'm enjoying myself quite a bit with this one. SMT/Persona was the closest thing to Pokémon in terms of battles for me, but now I can say that I like something more Pokemon-ish.

I practically abandoned my Switch for the last two weeks in order to enjoy Burnout Legends(PSP) , Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception(PSP). and Spiderman 2(PS2) . Speaking of which, it's easy to see why Burnout Legends is one the best in the series. Burnout Paradise got trolled by its open-world implementation, making getting to events a tedious chore, and the crash time of the vehicles during races was unnecessarily lengthened to negative effect. The sheer breadth of difference these two factors make is so large it's hard to believe without experiencing both. I hope Burnout Legends and the PS2 iterations get ported to Switch (or its successor) someday, and I hope I finally get around to finishing Cat Quest this weekend, haha.

Happy gaming, everyone!! ❤︎♥︎❤︎

Other than Genshin Impact, most likely Tears of the Kingdom. I still have to beat that game. Kind of felt a bit guilty and embarrassed telling Patricia Summersett (the voice of Zelda in the game) at FanExpo Chicago last weekend that I had yet to beat it.

Continuing with my discovery of Kingdoms of Amalur on Switch... no idea how I completely missed this since 2012 and only found it a recent Switch sale, but I really enjoy this game. It looks great on the OLED and still impressive to me to have such a massive world on a portable console.

Also probably play some retro games, I am part way through a PS1 RE2 playthrough and recently picked Llamasoft The Jeff Minter Story. Fun to try the Spectrum, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit and Atari ST games as I only had a C64 at the time. Also nice to see a the official inclusion of the unfinished Konix Multi-System version of Mutant Camels. Makes me wonder what that system could have been if ever release, for 1989 and it has some impressive graphics similar to the ST and Amiga.

I'm on the demo of Emio: The Smiling Man today. I want to like it, but early impressions are that I may well cancel my pre-order. I like the presentation, and the writing seems fine so far, but the mechanics seem a little lacking for the asking price. Maybe the story will suck me in though. Stay tuned.

Also downloaded some NSO game trials - Tetris Effect and Power Wash Simulator - so I'll probably be giving them a spin.

Other than that, bound to be some Animal Crossing: New Horizons and perhaps some Tears of the Kingdom to keep that plate spinning.

Spent yesterday evening on the long overdue task of updating my Switch physical collection list. That had the inevitable consequence of getting me thinking about what other purchases to make. Could be a costly weekend...

Peace, love and pixels to all.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: I’ve been playing through the game again with the Nostalgic Tunes badge on (it plays the music of the original TTYD), and the badge was named quite well, it is very nostalgic! I have almost completed this play-through, currently on the final chapter of the game, I’ll likely beat it this weekend!

I’m also considering playing some Super Mario Maker 2, always a good game to come back to!

First and foremost, I want to thank all of those last week that sent out their thoughts, prayers, and condolences regarding the passing of my father. I was really moved by the support you guys shown to a complete stranger. His funeral is this afternoon, so I’m sure my feelings will be running rampant.

As for the game I’m playing - I finally completed Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and got the platinum trophy. Other than any Dragon Quest game, Ys might be the coziest RPG experience I’ve ever had. It certainly is one of the most well crafted action RPGs in recent memory.

To those that say the story isn’t great — I think that is a misrepresentation. The overarching plot is middling until the final chapter, but the heartbeat of this game is the characters and their personal journeys whilst being stranded on a mysterious island. You see each individual - 24, if you find them all - have their own personality, ambitions, and family. By doing their side quests, you’re rewarded with an enriching experience. Bonds are created, and watching relationships blossom in the midst of a dire situation is really inspiring.

In a way, Ys 8 is the perfect game for me at this particular juncture in my life. Similar to how these characters have their entire lives uprooted by unfortunate events, so have I. You’re able to see how each person grieves the loss of something, and it’s been oddly comforting as I mourn the loss of my father. In turn, this game reminds me of the simple pleasures that we take for granted. Sometimes, in life, the best moments are those spent with loved ones, grilling food or sharing stories. That’s what this game provides in spades. It’s a friendly reminder that life is beautiful.

Now I’m playing Black Myth Wukong. I’m a few hours in and it’s been great so far. It’s essentially a boss rush game, and I’m satisfied with that approach. Moreover, it’s purely an action game—it’s not a Souls-like by any stretch of the imagination. You won’t lose progress or experience if you die, and basic enemies are mainly an easy backdrop for the main focus: boss fights. If you’re a fan of combat focused action games with robust mechanics, with linear but beautiful environments, and thrilling boss fights, this game is a definite must play. I’ll share more of my thoughts next week.

In between ferrying the kiddos around this weekend, I’ll try to play a bit of my current main game, Grounded. I’m more used to all the upkeep the game requires, and have crafted a decent set of equipment and a couple of small bases, so now I’m happily engaged pursuing the main story.

Also after watching the reveal for next pack of 10 games for the Egret II Mini on Thursday, I’m in the mood to play some old Taito arcade classics. I’ll dust off my Egret and play some Arkanoid, Night Striker, Rayforce, or just plain ‘ol Space Invaders.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend! 🕹👾

I recently decided to give banjo-kazzoie a try and I have been thoroughly enjoying myself.

@gcunit I’m sad to hear that Emio isn’t jiving with you :/ that genre is so niche (I’m not even sure if it’s for me yet!) but I love that Nintendo took a real swing with it and was hoping for the best.

StreamWorld Heist II
Progress has been bit slower lately. I got my 7th (playable) crew member yesterday. I don't think I had this problem with the first game but the banter is kind of boring. There's lot of text but hardly any of it is meaningful. The actual gameplay is still great.

Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
This is the demo. About to start chapter 2. So far, it's exactly what I expected.

Tetris Effect: Connected
Trying this one out thanks to Online trials. I'd heard good things and from the little I played, it truly seems to be the best way to experience Tetris and I bet it's even better in VR.

Picross DS
Free picross, world 7. This game has a lot of content and none of it is recycled unlike in later games where they use the same puzzles for mega picross as a quick way to double the content.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Had an urge to play it earlier this week. I thought I'd just defeat Skarmory and that would be enough but I haven't stopped. About to go beat Zapdos next. I have plenty of Mystery Dungeon games I've never beaten, yet I'm playing this one again.

Going to be playing some Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition. Currently trying to upgrade Skull Kid, Young Link, and Agitha since they are my most played characters. Also trying to upgrade Ganondorf since I can’t progress in the Twilight Map without him

Will also be playing some Tears of the Kingdom, currently trying to get to 90% on the map completion. I also only need one more cave to have them all, so hopefully I can find it this weekend

I also will of course be playing some Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, trying to wrap up some things relating to Leaf Tickets and Gifts since those will likely be unavailable in the paid version

Returning to the Klonoa collection. Its release timing was unfortunate with XC3 a week later and then Booster Course Pass wave 2 the week after so it got lost in the backlog.

On PS5 i will be Continuing with Trails Through Daybreak and the brilliant The cult of the Lamb, how I didn't play this game before is beyond me, very addictive. I will also be playing a few matches of Concord in between single player sessions and I may even re download The Hunt Showdown.

On Switch I'm going to finally start the Splatoon 3 story mode, and I've just bought Maglam Lord in a sale so I will be giving that a try this weekend.

Microsoft Wordament (Android) - Working through adventure mode and doing dailies.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) - Onto Chapter 16 with Chase in tow.

NBA Jam (Windows Phone) - Still playing this nearly daily.

This new DOOM collection is just absolutely superb. I can't get enough of it. If I only ever had one game for the rest of my days, I'd want it to be this. I thought I was done with DOOM on Switch. I've played through them all, except for Eternal, at least once. Hundreds of hours of DOOM. And I enjoyed every second of it. But here I am again, loving and appreciating the series perhaps even more than I did before.

So with that said, I'll be playing DOOM. I've reached Map 27 out of 32 on DOOM Zero. It's been really good so far. I couldn't manage it without save states though. It throws a lot of high level monsters at you and the maps are pretty big. Once I'm done with Zero, I'm going to play the new episodes that were made for this collection.

@Kraven I'm sorry to hear about your father, my deepest condolences during this period of time. Stay strong!! Also, thanks for sharing your thoughts on Black Myth Wukong. Now I'm more certain it's my cup of tea.

"The night is darkest before the dawn" - Rachel, Ninja Garden Sigma 2.

I’m going to try to make more progress in a few games I’ve been chipping away at. In Vernal Edge, I’m trying to explore different islands to see where I need to go or what to do next. I recall exploring the debris island and getting stuck on a fight. I would also like to play a few more missions in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

In SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos, I got the good endings for Ken Masters and Ryo Sakazaki, the latter on my first try, surprisingly!

And on Xbox, continuing with Sonic Adventure 2. I started the dark story and played up to Security Hall.

Wading thru Persona 5 Royal making incremental progress and settled in on Ori and the Blind Forest for a secondary. It's going to be unbearably hot so I might get some time for those.

Also some study and working on a little microcontroller project to lower a large spider when people are detected coming up to my door, which I should have polished for use come halloween

Happy gaming everyone!

I’ve just about done all I care to do on paper Mario ttyd. Last night I completed the help board and got thru the pit and actually had to go back thru it partially again because I mistakingly level skipped over a chest floor. I could still complete the tattle log, recipe book, get some badges I don’t have, and there’s 3 hidden bosses I haven’t beaten. 1 I tried at a lower level, and it looked like it will be quite a challlenge.

Now I’ll probably play some Fzero 99 and I’d like to start alien isolation. I just recently picked up alien and never played it.

Getting into Apollo Justice at the moment, though it is sorta tempting to try the Investigations Collection demo 🤭 it doesn't matter either way as I know what happens but it's there as an option!

I'm also playing Atelier Shallie and I finally got my own copy of Smash Bros Ultimate, in which I'm spending more time in nostalgia land with the old music and stages than anything else 😅 I really miss the N64 version haha.

no man's sky- I don't even follow the missions I just love exploring.
destiny 2- my new staple in my gaming routine.

Mostly Wind Waker HD, and Zelda II. Haven't decided on anything else.

I'll try to sneak in the Emio demo, but it's not looking likely. Enjoy your games for me this weekend, folks!

Going with Easy Come Easy Golf, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Party Superstars.

I'm going with Alien Isolation this weekend. I got it as soon as it launched on the Switch, and, my God, what an amazing survival horror game it is. Having watched Alien Romulus this past week in the movie theaters, the atmosphere the movie has, it's much closer to what Isolation is, than other Alien movies. It inspired me to complete the game for another round.

This weekend I’ll be attempting to finish Control over on PC, got a little busy past couple of weeks so I’m hoping that will be able to change this weekend. Over on Switch I’ll probably continue my P5R playthrough and on PS5, more of The Finals most likely. It’s been a long week so happy weekend everyone!

Moving into my new apartment for college this weekend, so probably not a lot of time for gaming. I want to get some rounds of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax in but who knows.

I was able to beat Color Splash last weekend. Probably the best flawed game I've ever played. Right now, I've been casually playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land and a little Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. Honestly, I'm kinda tempted to start TTYD. Have a great weekend!

Started a new playthrough of Ultra Moon since I never actually finished the game. I got that shiny hunting itch after a friend sent me some pictures of shinies he got via SOS hunting and I want in…

With The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve now finished, I have completed my second playthrough of all eight Ace Attorney games on Switch. Since Emio doesn’t come out until next week and the AAI Collection doesn’t come until the week after that, it’s time to start something different altogether: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on Switch!

This game is…considerably darker than either of those series, I should say. I’ve long been familiar with the concept, but this is my first time actually experiencing the series for myself. The class trials are really fun, though usually a little too easy (even on Mean difficulty). I’m currently going into the third chapter.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Been playing it off and on for a couple of years, and the end is finally in sight. I've got everything in the hub environments, so just mopping up the collectables in the levels now. Not difficult, just takes a while.

Just finished replaying Girl Who Stands Behind. Might dig into something or other else from there, offhand wondering about the RE2 remake or GTA5.

on my second playthrough of ace combat 7 trying to finish unlocking all aircraft and do the side missions as well.

I've been playing through the Suikoden series throughout this year. I just finished Suikoden Tactics, and it was pretty good, but not overly-spectacular or anything.

I especially enjoyed the elemental tile system - it made the tactical strategy very unique and interesting compared to other similar games. I also really enjoyed the ability to exchange an active unit for a benched unit mid-battle. That's something I wish Fire Emblem had!!

The story felt pretty flat the whole time though. The ending scene was nice, but the majority of the time it felt like the story wasn't really going anywhere. I also did not like how the towns were reduced to just menus with a town illustration in the background. Kind of takes me out of the world a bit if you can't actually explore the world, you know?

I plan to play Suikoden V soon, but before I start another huge RPG I wanted to play a few smaller-scale games.

I played Animal Well, and I played Thank Goodness You're Here. Keeping up with the newer releases I suppose, haha. They were both nice, short experiences.
I'm keeping up the momentum of nice short experiences, and currently I'm playing Undertale Yellow. It's actually a lot more in-depth than I was expecting, it's pleasantly surpassing my expectations.

I'll get back to Suikoden V.... at some point. Maybe after a few more smaller games.

After Suikoden V, all I'll have left to play are Suikoden Tierkreis on the DS, and then the fan translation of that Japan-only PSP game. And then I'll have played the whole series!! Isn't that fun.

This weekend I decided to go back and tackle some Q Remastered, so far I've almost solved at least one Q from each category.

I got the game on Christmas season thanks to the Yoiko videos where they played Vampire Survivors, Suika Game, Trombone Champ and this one. And I have to say, for a F2P mobile game ported to the Switch as a paid game, the music is right up there with Tetris Effect: Connected for my favorite soundtrack for an indie game.

EDIT: I've counted them and as of today (August 25th, 2024), I've solved 181 of 1400 available Qs so far, which means I've solved barely 10% of the game.

Don't know what else I'll play this weekend, though. It's the last weekend before I go back to my deeds at the school where I work.

Chugging away at baten kaitos origins still. Got most of the story done and most of the side quests done(the very annoying ones remain 🤦‍♂️). Game has some crazy difficulty spikes and it’s much longer then I thought it was.

Don’t think I will be able to get in to octopath 2 this week or next lol.

On my ps3, still working on beating drakengard 3. Doing it’s dlc now. It has a major problem for me though.

Would love to play fdc emio but I got to play the other games in the series first.

Unpacking - Discovered this one recently on PS Plus. Will probably finish it this weekend. A very enjoyable and relaxing surprise to play. Probably because I’m such a neat freak around the house so perfect game for me.

The Witcher 3 - After exploring around Velen and Novigrad for 40 hours I guess I should finally get back to the main quests.

Baldur’s Gate 3 - Getting through the Gauntlet of Shar

Tropical Freeze for the first time.

I've missed out.

Just finished Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, Mario RPG and I went through Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 for the hundredth time. But I'm playing Octopath Traveler 2 to finish up, the same with Fire Emblem 3 Hopes, Splatoon 3, Fire Emblem Heroes and I'm also playing Mario Golf for the 3ds.

I'll be playing the Emio demo this weekend. Played the Prologue last night and will play through Chapter 1 tonight. So far I'm enjoying it. It really is like Ace Attorney's investigation segments.

@Grumblevolcano I actually came back to the Klonoa collection recently too. The first game is a cakewalk up until the last couple levels where there's a ridiculous difficulty spike.

@EarthboundBenjy I’m following your Suikoden journey from afar lol. You’ve got guts kid, cuz I have always been curious but too intimidated to jump in. I figured I’d just jump off from scratch with Eiyuden Chronicles

@Ooyah it’s so pretty!! I get why I wanted to keep going, and you never know when a missio you’re working on is going to have some obscure connection to the original game.

I think the training thing is more in my head 😅 I just love being in Soldier as Zack who wants to live up to the legacy of Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis. I feel like if I’m not killing every enemy during a story mission in one hit then Im not playing through a canonical run haha

Primary: Final Fantasy 2 (SNES)

The first stop on my chronological "Legends of Gaming" playthrough. Square flexing their design muscle here, showing off everything they had learned up until this point in 1991. The gifts they were soon to bestow upon the world with FF6-FF9, that succession of masterpieces, actually began right here. 4 was the spiritual genesis of all that FF would come to embody. Heart wrenching stories, complex and creative characters, cutting edge visuals, rich atmosphere, fast paced combat, huge worlds to explore and the most gorgeous music to ever grace a television.

Speaking of which, the music in this game is fairly underrated. 6, 7 and 9 take up all the conversation around greatest FF soundtracks, and perhaps rightfully so. 6 is my personal favorite (and favorite JRPG of all time) but the soundtrack to 4 is stellar with almost every single track being an ear worm that you just can't help but sing along to. I miss when games had soundtracks like this.

I am still early on in the playthrough, just about to head through the mountains to Fabul. I loved the fake out the designers hit you with at Damcyan.

What are your favorite memories/characters from FF4? I recently picked up my favorite character of the game, Edward. Yes, the spoony bard that everyone loves to hate. He was my favorite back then, and still is, so far.

More thoughts to come, next week.

Alternate: Dragon Quest 6 (SNES)

Having beat the game last week, I thought it would be fun to master all of the remaining job classes and tackle the bonus post-game dungeon and beat the secret boss. My calculations estimate about 65 additional hours of grinding will be required to complete all job classes to 100%. Yeah, we're going to spread that out. 1 hour a day of grinding job levels in DQ6 before focusing on FF4. Working on Metal Babble right now. Can get about 25 fights in per hour. Only 2 months of grinding to go... lol Wish me luck!

Good morning.
I played Yokai Watch 3 Tempura 3DS All Day Long. 😊

I have a mission to get all the missing 48 cards of Nyakiba48 that spreaded out all over place.
Also, I tried to finish other Hailey's quest to get more rare Yokai.

@Tasuki Did you say new HOMM?!?!?

@ScalenePowers
Haha, wow, it's nice to know that people are paying attention to the things I post. :3
If you want a much much more in-depth look at my Suikoden journey, feel free to read my blog posts about it

https://benjysgames.blogspot.com/

...though I do tend to ramble at times.

But, yeah, I can totally see that playing through an old RPG series would be rather intimidating - it's a huge time commitment of course, and if the series isn't on modern platforms, then things become a lot more involved in terms of tracking down old PlayStation 2 secondhand copies, or figuring out emulation etc. It can definitely be too overwhelming for most people to want to bother with.

I do wish that Konami would let us know when their Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is coming out. They initially said 2023, but then they had to delay it, and there's been no news since... I'd say, if getting into the series feels intimidating, then the upcoming HD Remaster version would probably be the best place to start, assuming they don't botch it horribly or something.

I was playing Anno 1800 on my PS5, but my brain got fried from the ridiculous amount of stuff you have to keep track of towards the end so I gave up. The amount of annoying messages and the terrible story with the most forgettable 'characters' I've ever experienced didn't help either. Playing with NPC's sucks too ...It's all just stressful and annoying without a pause button (that literally every other game I've played in this genre has, but this one doesn't).

That said, it looks great, sounds great and the core gameplay loop is quite fun if the annoying characters and NPC's shut the hell up and you don't feel stressed. Mixed thoughts overall. Still mildly recommended if you ditch the story after learning the basics and instead just play it alone in sandbox mode, without NPC's (thus without any constant time pressure). Might do that myself, but for now my PS5 will go right back to being a Blu-ray player lol

Away camping without the Switch so just a bit of Slay the Spire on iPad. But also played a bit of Tetris Effect demo on switch before I came which.was trippy although didn’t seem to let me play handheld with joycins connected for some reason

Soul Calibur VI and II… gotta hook up my wii as I didn’t realize the HD version is based on the PAL version. So I may play some Tatsunoko as well. Other than that MUA3.

Dead Cells. I’m terrible but I’m hooked

@Grail_Quest it's hard to explain to kids these days how hard those tropes hit back then because they weren't tropes yet. They just started here. And let's not get started on that treacherous cur [REDACTED] because I don't know the spoiler tag.

Edward could have been a better character if he was either a healer or buffs/debuffs were more effective. I get that they were still figuring out how to balance games back then, but some characters just didn't have the utility others did (to include the last one one introduced that was kept at endgame).

I finished Yestermorrow just now, and really enjoyed it. It has some major frame issues (just pausing randomly occasionally) but I was able to look past it and enjoy the gameplay. Very little action focus, much higher platformer focus.

Also finished NUTS yesterday. It's an interesting walking simulator, but that ending was... disappointing.

Now I need to figure out what to play next. No shortage of choices, thinking Chants of Sennaar.

@DemonKow Agreed. Although if I remember correctly, 4 overdid it a bit with the trope of characters sacrificing themselves for the party (usually just to make a surprise return later to save the party from impending doom!) Lol

Still, love the game and am loving experiencing it again!

@Tasuki Thank you for the tip. You never know what goodness you will discover in reading through these comments.

I watched the trailer and like what I'm seeing. Looks almost like an updated version of part 3. I really hope they bring the series composer back for this one. I will definitely be buying!

@batmanbud2 Tropical Freeze for the first time. I've missed out.

That has to be my favorite platformer. Never before has a game like that got me super excited for the next level and replaying the level to collect the goodies. The graphics, sound and charm are chef's kiss Super Mario Wonder came pretty close but in the end Tropical Freeze still reigns supreme!

A little late posting to the party, but here's my weekend lineup:

Prison City
I had already recently beaten Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (and Cyber Shadow before that), so I've been in the mood to clear out some of my neo retro backlog. Not to mention a recent article about The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest reminded me the same people did this game. Those things and, well... Setting's in Detroit, so, that part. Very good game that channels the best part of games like Shatterhand and Power Blade.

Rocket League
Trying to get my mojo back, so gotta get my practice in.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Time to get used to the digs of Mach Monastery (going by memory... Hope I didn't butcher it...), then on to the next battle.

Emio: The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club demo
Even though I'd rather play the first two first, this will at least give me a taste of this series foe the first time. At this point, I believe the prologue, ch 1, and ch 2 are available to me.

Ace Attorney investigations Collection demo
I'll be GameFly-ing this in the future, but a demo to let me sample part 2 is awesome.

Well here we go with another amazing WAYP. Been a stupendous week around here. On the Switch I made it through Chapter 1 of Trails Through Daybreak and honestly I absolutely love it. The trails games never seem to miss one bit. Love Agnés the most of this cast. Otherwise I beat FFVII Rebirth which honestly may be GOTY it absolutely destroyed me and is an absolute work of art. But that’s not the only one I also beat PERSONA 3 RELOAD. Yes after 6 months I finally beat Persona 3 for the first time. I would never have been able to do it without the help of my best friend and I send these to him each week so I wanna say right here thank you to him. Now I get like two weeks off of P3R until The Answer comes out and then it’s ALL IN again. Also played a little Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and man do I still love that game too it’s so cozy and fun. Also bought all of JJK from a guy on eBay and what with the series ending I’m pretty excited for those. Also got a preorder in on Bakeru and can’t wait for that. Rest of the weekend I’m thinking is gonna be some Dawntrail in celebration of FFVII Rebirth and P3R being done. Certainly the two games I’m swapping in their place are gonna be Dawntrail and SMTV:V. Otherwise I’m thinking this week is mostly gonna consist of some Monster Hunter Stories, Trails Through Daybreak, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Dragons Dogma 2, Emio when that ships and gets in, Concord, Star Wars Outlaws and Visions of Mana. Those last 4 are all first time play sessions since three of them come out this week. I do wanna give Concord its fair shake tho I’m not just gonna mindlessly hate it. Getting super hype for WWE Bash In Berlin too that’s gonna be kinda cool. I seriously can’t wait for Kevin Vs Cody, Rhea and Damian Vs Liv and Dirty Dom, CM Punk Vs Drew, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn vs Jade and Bianca and GUNTHER Vs Randy Orten. That’s right all the matches are announced and I’m gonna update my rating and say it’s a solid A Tier PLE. Anime of the week gotta go to Mayonaka Punch, VTUBER Legend, Oshi No Ko and Mission Yozakura Family. Oshi No Ko continues to be magnificent like always and Mission Yozakura Family is gonna sub in for Delicious in Dungeon as the long lasting 24 episode show. And a special shoutout to a show I got absolutely addicted to this week and destroyed the first season of, Only Murders In The Building. Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin are absolutely amazing and it’s such a wonderful show. Podcasts of this week gotta go to Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into The Aether, RPGsites Tetracast, Minnmax, Jeff Gerstmann, Kit and Krysta, Last Stand Media, Easy Allies, Second Wind, Nextlander, Cultaholic Wrestling and Remap Radio. As always yall stay safe, be stupendous to each other. Have a totally awesome weekend and of course Happy Gaming.

Remnant 2. I am absolutely hooked. This may be my favorite game on ps5. I haven't even begun to begin to scratch the surface and I'm 40 hours in. 😙🤌

Currently playing Luigi's Mansion 3 (it's been on my backlog for way too long!) and Darkest Dungeon, which I also want to finish. DD I've been doing 1 or 2 runs per day, as to keep it fun. Luigi's Mansion 3 I try to complete 1 floor per session. So I should be done with LM3 this week.

@Ganner yeah, I still think Kirby Planet Robobot is the best 2D platformer for me, but, man, if Tropical Freeze cutting it close, I don't know what does.