Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

I’ve been playing a lot of Huge RPGs in the last year or so, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 might be the longest one yet. I’ve completed it, but of course There’s Still More To Do, so it’s not over yet. Just 85 or so hours in.

It’s hard to talk about everything in the game without spoilers. Normally, a spoiler in an RPG like this would just spoil the ending of this game, but in the case of Xenoblade 3 it would actually spoil enjoyment of the previous two games in the series too.

What I can say, hopefully ruining nothing for you, is that the whole existence of the world of Aionios, the setting for the game, is directly related to Xenoblade 1 and 2. This becomes clearer as you play, especially if you remember locations from those games as places you visit in Xenoblade 3 are somewhat familiar, either in look or in name (or both). There are a few “wait, what?” revelations related to it too, but I won’t go into them.

Hung on the front of this is the “day to day” story of the game. Two factions, Keves and Agnus, are locked in perpetual war. Soldiers, when defeated in battle, release some sort of life essence which is used to sustain the Flame Clock of their enemy, and this clock is essential to the existence of that army. For centuries, this life force has bounced back and forth, with no overall victor – intentionally, as it turns out. To add to this, soldiers are “born” as children and only live for 10 years – assuming they’ve not KIA.

You start out as a small group of Keves soldiers, and because of $event, you end up fighting alongside some Agnus soldiers rather than (or perhaps, as well as) against them. This starts off a chain of events which ultimately reveals that this entire war is orchestrated by a higher, malevolent, power and surprise – you have to team up permanently and Become Greater Together and other tropes in order to prevent (or cause?) the end of the world. This mostly involves going round all the colonies, from both sides of the war, and destroying their flame clocks to release them from the endless fighting.

I’m amazed that the three games in the series can be so similar, but somehow still have completely different worlds and events and still be linked in ways that I couldn’t ever have imagined. It’s really clever.

But, that’s the plot. How is the gameplay? Well, it’s similar to what came before, really. You still have a party of heroes, you still have “arts” and other special moves and attacks, and it’s still real-time-ish battles as before. There’s no “foresight” power like in Xenoblade 1, and you don’t have “blades” as such like Xenoblade 2, and there whole upgrading and buffing your party and stats has been streamlined and polished, but it’s still played and controlled in essentially the same way. Battles feel quicker than they did in 2, which was one of my only negative points on that game.

Voice acting is, again, excellent. It took a while for the new characters to grow on me, but I can’t complain about how good their actors are. As before, it’s mostly regional accents – Welsh cat ladies, Australian rebels, etc. – which really adds something. There’s a big variety of characters, loads of heroes you can add to your party (only one at a time, though) each with their own missions and stories too.

And that’s it. There’s a lot more I could say, but spoilers, right? Is it better than 1 and 2? No. But the thing is, I’m seeing all three games as one massive game now, and it’s certainly not a disappointment or a dip in quality. Now, if only Xenoblade Chronicles X was also linked in to the series properly!

#completed #switch #xenoblade

Batty Zabella (Evercade): COMPLETED!

A short point and click adventure game in the style of something like Shadowgate, but themed like Elvira, Batty Zabella is a sometimes infuriating experience. The puzzles aren’t hard, but the lack of being able to tell where some room exits are (I didn’t even know there was a shed for ages!), fiddly combat (it’s a Game Boy game but really feels like these bits need a light gun or mouse pointer) and a weapon which needs recharging but you never seem to know when so you die a lot, all add up to frustration.

I did enjoy it, however, despite those issues and the slightly odd (I assume it’s translated) dialogue and overly smutty references.

#completed #evercade

Mars After Midnight (Playdate): COMPLETED!

Lucas Pope, the developer of this game, has a reputation for making weird experimental games. But they’re also good. I’ll admit, however, that apart from some time on Papers, Please (I lost my save I think, following a reinstall or something) and the demo of Return of the Obra Dinn (which I fully intended to get the full version of but for some reason never did), I’ve not really experienced them. Until now!

Hyped as a possible killer-app for the silly little cranking handheld, Mars After Midnight sets you up as an alien guidance counsellor on Mars, who, along with their robot sidekick/slave/helper runs night classes for various other aliens with issues. Issues such as, they have cracked skulls, or are cyclopseses with anger issues, or they flinch or something. All Serious Issues.

So you organise these sessions, by advertising in the right areas of town, and make them successful by providing the best refreshments. Then, aliens turn up at the door and you have to screen them to ensure they’re suitable for the session you have running. For example, you can use an x-ray machine to see if they have a cracked skull, or can surprise them to see if they flinch. If they match, in they come, help themselves to food or drink (which you then usually have to tidy up because aliens are messy, it seems), and if you’ve done everything right, they’ll leave you a tip.

Eventually, you need use this money to buy a ticket to leave Mars, but you also need to spend it on equipment (like the x-ray machine) and refreshments, so it’s a long process.

It isn’t especially hard, and although it is superficially similar to Papers, Please it has a very different vibe. The crank controls are mostly just for opening and closing the door hatch and cleaning the food table, so nothing too tricky. There’s a surprising variety in the different counselling sessions and “detection” requirements, with one of my favourites being the one where you have to translate what the aliens are saying using a phrasebook.

Definitely worth a play, and was worth dusting off my sadly neglected Playdate for.

#completed #playdate

Block Droppin (Evercade): COMPLETED!

A simple Game Boy puzzle game where you match three or more shapes to get points. Matching more than three triggers special blocks that erase a whole column, row, or shape from the grid. If you’ve played a match three game, ever, then you know the deal.

Arcade mode is, it seems, endless, but there is a Puzzle Mode where you have to get rid of so many of each type of block in a maximum number of moves, and it’s this mode that I completed.

It isn’t tricky, and I’d have liked a lot more levels, but it’s fine.

#completed #evercade

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Switch): COMPLETED!

Sadly not the full Metroidvania experience I was expecting (the reason it ended up on my wishlist in the first place, following a review), Momodora still feels like one. Creepy town with a creepy castle, a curse, a map to explore, and pixel graphics? It certainly has the look of one.

What’s missing is all the extra powers that open up new areas. Sure, there are some, but very few. That means it is more a standard explorey platformer, hence my disappointment, but luckily it was still good!

Apart from the ending. I got a bad ending after defeating the final boss, but there was no explanation why it happened and seemingly no exposition as I was playing that it was possible. After that, I returned to the game and found a couple of extra things I’d missed and that allowed me to get the good ending, but it took some extensive exploring without really knowing what I was looking for, or where to look.

Apparently this Momodora is the third game in a series of (currently) four games. The first two are mostly lost to the winds, and the fourth came out fairly recently. I might pick it up if it’s cheap.

#completed #metroidvania #switch

River City Girls 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

My daughter and I were big fans of the original River City Girls so the sequel was sat on my wishlist for ages waiting for a bit sale. That came around, and we played it through together.

It’s more of the same, really. A side-scrolling, semi-open-world beat-em-up with RPG elements set in the world of Kunio-kun/River City Ransom and made by Wayforward, just like the first game. It has a great cartoon style, loads of in-jokes (with both River City adjacent links, like Double Dragon and Crash And The Boys, and Wayforward properties like Mighty Switch Force) and satisfying and upgradable combat.

As it’s set in the same city as the first game, many locations are back – like school and shopping centre) although they have been modified so aren’t a complete copy-and-paste. There are plenty of new areas though. Similarly, there are both returning and new characters, although I don’t think most of the new ones are as good as the ones in the original. Also returning is another soundtrack from Megan McDuffee, which is also excellent.

The plot is mostly concerned with revenge on the Girls taking down the bad guy in the last game, although there are a couple of twists.

Gameplay-wise there are a few tweaks to improve stuff from before. Shop purchases work slightly differently, and there’s seemingly a lot more money available with which to buy them. The game seems easier too, meaning less death (which causes both progress and money loss).

It’s not all improvements though, sadly. Loading times are particularly bad, but also there are a number of bugs like items getting stuck out of reach, sound cutting out, and a few full crashes. Nothing major because of frequent save points but annoying nonetheless. Some of the new areas, like the overdone game trope of the “forest maze”, aren’t great either, and I’m sure there’s more backtracking this time round too, hindered by the aforementioned loading times.

That said, the fun, humour and style of the game massively outweigh the issues. It’s maybe not quite as enjoyable as the original, but doesn’t miss it by much.

#completed #riverCity #switch

Metaphor ReFantazio (PS5): COMPLETED!

I seem to have really gotten back into long RPGs again in the last year or so. Sometimes they can seem daunting to start as you know you’ve 75 or 100 hours ahead to invest, and usually they’re a slow burn getting used to the mechanics. But, Metaphor came highly recommended and once Xenoblade 2 was out of the way I gave it a go.

I wrote a bit about it the other day already, so I don’t have a lot more to add now I’ve finished it except to say it continued to entertain, and there were plenty of plot twists along the way. Also, I was worried that going into the final area would lock off both the remaining time in the game (all events have deadlines, time passes each time you do anything, and you’ve a finite number of days to complete the game) and the ability to grind to level up, but luckily the game deals with that do you need not be concerned.

Overall, I’m not sure it’s a good as Persona 4, but then, very little is. It improves on the mechanics of that game, but as intriguing as the characters and world in Metaphor are, those in Persona 4 just beat it. It’s still amazing though.

#completed #persona #ps5

The Good Time Garden (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

This was a quick play after Thank Goodness You’re Here!, and it’s sort of a prototype for what that game ended up being. It’s more abstract, but still very silly.

This time, you’re a sort of naked onionman thing who has to find food for a creature in order to progress. There’s not a lot to it, but it was enjoyable enough – and free on Steam! Bargain.

#completed #steam #steamDeck

Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

Sometimes, a game comes along which is properly hilarious. Sure, there are funny games, and games with funny events or “player made” hilarity, but it’s rare for a funny game to be this funny.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! is what we used to call an arcade adventure game. I suppose, in some ways, it’s the spiritual successor to such British 8-bit computer games as Everyone’s A Wally and Jack the Nipper. You, as a little (although his size randomly changes somehow) yellow man have arrived at the mayor’s office only to find you’ve some time to kill so wander outside. Then begins a ridiculous chain of events across this northern town where you’re expected to help out in various stupid and nonsensical ways.

For example, one of your first tasks involves freeing a portly gentleman who has reached into a drain to reach a tuppence and got his arm stuck. Off you go to the bakery to nick a load of butter with which to lubricate the arm, which frees him and reveals it to actually be a thruppence, not a tuppence. What joy!

Other tasks include arranging smoking fish in a fishmongers, repeatedly annoying a quiet old man by plopping through his chimney sooting up his living room, and fetching meat to make pies. There’s a huge number of proper Northern people who populate this town, ably voiced by Matt Berry and Jon Blyth, amongst others, who add even more silliness to the proceedings. Events that just happen around you, like the singing rats in bins, the Sausage Man, and the chap who sells bricks, as well as a few romances and rivalries (there’s a near war in the Big Pie vs Little Pie side story). Every few seconds there’s a funny event, new character, or bit of dialogue, and it all feels a bit Python-y and a bit On The Buses-y in the best possible way. There’s also a load of adverts for in-universe products which are hilarious.

The gameplay is pretty simple, mostly involving some minor platforming and fetch and carry requests punctuated with a bit of exploration and pathfinding as various areas are revisited in different ways as routes open up or close. That’s not a criticism like it might be with a “straight” game, as the point here is to enjoy the people and the setting (and the accents) more than the gameplay itself which is mostly just the vehicle to progress the story and events.

It’s a really unique game, and I wish I could forget all about it so I can play it again and re-discover it all.

#completed #steam #steamDeck

Phogs (PS5): COMPLETED!

One good thing about PS++++++++++, is that in amongst all the crap games and shovelware there are a load of co-op games that are fun for me to play with my daughter. It’s because of an afternoon where we were looking for something to play together that we were trawling through the library and spotted Phogs (or possibly “PHOGS!”), and now we’ve completed it.

In many ways, this game falls into a similar category as other wonky-physics titles like Human Fall Flat and Totally Reliable Delivery Service, in that you have inaccurate control over a character and have to manipulate objects in the environment in order to progress. An additional hinderance here, however, is that each player controls either end of a double-ended dog. Imagine a sausage dog with a head at each end, Push-Me-Pull-You style, with each independently moved by each player. You can make things cosy by sharing a single controller and having a stick each, but we were fine to go with a pad apiece.

Anyway. That’s all logistics waffle – what about the game?

It’s a sort of platformy-puzzley game, where your phog has to reach a big snake at the end of each level who swallows you and moves you on to the next. In the way are gaps you have to fill, plants you have to water, items you have to collect, water spouts you have to plug, and dark areas you have to light up (or vice versa). Mostly, these are achieved by grabbing something with one or both of your phog heads. For example, there’s a watermelon patch that needs watering so the watermelon can grow and create a platform for you to progress. Nearby is a pipe with water coming out. You grab on to the pipe with one phogmouth and then the other phogmouth becomes a hose, and – since you can also stretch your phog – you can use this to reach the patch and water the watermelon.

Cooperation is absolutely key, as you can imagine, especially on the many “swing over this gap” sections, where you can grab hold of a hook (or something) with one phoghead then swing the other phoghead to the next hook and grab hold, repeating until you’ve swung all the way over. Timing is often critical so we found ourselves counting to three a lot. Thankfully, you can’t really die and if you fall off the world (which is inevitable give the wonky physics and lack of coordination) you don’t lose much progress at all.

It’s not a very long game, with us finishing it in about three hours, but we enjoyed it and the silly hats you can unlock (which do nothing except adorn a head). There’s a fair amount of variety across the four main worlds, with bosses of a sort on each. The “night and day” world has some especially clever light-and-dark, awake-and-asleep and perspective puzzles and events. The final world also has a short section where there’s a big change to the game mechanics, although I won’t spoil it. Oh, and eating all the food you find so you get phat phogs never gets old or boring.

It’s nice and colourful and mostly low stress (unlike, say, Overcooked), and we didn’t end up fighting each other or anything so that’s probably a recommendation?

#completed #ps_ #ps5 #psn

Miss Rosen’s Wowtastic! Marching Band (Switch): COMPLETED!

Note: A free code was given to me by the devs for review purposes for an upcoming episode of the ugvm Podcast. This isn’t a full review, just a record in my gaming diary. The full review will be over there anon.

A while back, I played the totally ridiculous Switch game About An Elf. It had a very unique art style and gameplay which teeters on the very definition of what gameplay is, and was baffling before you even got into the plot. Very few games leave me with a lasting impression like that, so when I saw Miss Rosen’s Wowtastic! Marching Band, which features the same art style because, well, it turns out it’s by the same devs and set in the same universe, there was a pang of omgneed. And here I am having completed it to tell you about it.

I’ll start with the gameplay because, frankly, that’s the only bit that makes the slightest bit of sense. Each level, or rather, episode of Miss Rosen’s TV show, you’re given a number of “packing” puzzles to complete. You have to fit things on a desk, or in a suitcase, or a box, before the time runs out. That’s easy to understand, right? It’s not quite as easy as it seems because they’re mostly real-world items with their odd shapes and sizes, and later levels add gimmicks like things that are invisible or that constantly move to make it trickier.

On it’s own, it’s no Unpacking or anything, but the rest of the game. Oh my.

So Miss Rosen is a wind-up majorette. She has a TV show where she has “adventures” each episode, and you know they’re going to be fun because she’s here! How much fun? This much fun! Quite. The “fun” mainly involves talking to bizarre people, creatures and sentient objects, and then solving the packing puzzles in order to help or defeat them as appropriate. All while assisted by a child called Dunno who wears a bandana over his mouth which completely disguises the fact that he’s really a T-Rex because obviously?

As the game goes on, you find there’s Something Bad happening, with things disappearing not only from existence, but from time itself. Then your friends disappear too. Is it the work of a magician who makes things disappear in front of your very eyes? Well, that would be too obvious, surely?

What I really, really love about the game is the animation and art. Like About An Elf (Dam and her cat from that game make an appearance here too, actually) it’s hard to tell what is real, what is models, what is CGI, and what is your imagination because surely you can’t really be building a horse can you? Oh, you are? Righty-o. Backgrounds are filled with semi-humanoid mice that speed up and slow down. Is the sun made of plasticine or is it a woman wearing a mask? Why do all the women have hotpants on? THE CAR HAS A FACE. And WHY is the game called Miss Rosen’s Wowtastic! Marching Band when she doesn’t really have a marching band. Or even a band of any other sort. All important questions, none of which are answered and by the end you’re feeling bewildered and maybe a little bit sick like you’ve been on a Waltzer.

#completed #switch

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country (Switch): COMPLETED!

If the $hlmun of hours on the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 main game and DLC wasn’t enough, then thank $deity for this prequel spin-off! Yes, more Xenoblade! Amazing.

To be cynical for a moment, it’s clear that this was likely originally supposed to be integrated in the main game. There’s a number of flashbacks to events 500 years ago, and it’s those events that are retold in full here. You could complain about it being money-grabbing to ask you to buy two things, but when you get so much damn game for your money it’s hard to. Besides, despite being much smaller than the main game (both in terms of size and length) it’s still bigger than many other full price releases and did come with all the extra stuff for the XC2 itself.

Anyway. To the game itself!

It’s the same in many ways as Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and they’ve not drastically tweaked the gameplay. You still have blades (although each character only has two and you can’t awaken an army of them), battles are pretty similar, and even one area of the game – Gormott – is here as it was before (albeit 500 years younger with no town to speak of yet). A few things have gone, like the cloud sea “tides”, which was silly and underused anyway, and salvaging. Your main character and blades now fight directly, rather than you “channelling” your blade, but this doesn’t really change the gameplay. Crafting items is now a big thing, expanding on the cooking you could do before. Finally, there’s a new addition called “Community”, where things you do for people you meet builds your reputation. It doesn’t seem to do much, though, aside from allow access to a few more missions or skills.

The plot follows Lora, who is Jin’s driver, who joins up with Addam (Mythra’s original driver) and one of Mòrag’s ancestors Hugo, driver of Brigid and Aegaeon as they try to put down Malos before he destroys the world. You know, much like in the main game. Although it’s set 500 years in the past, there are a surprising number of recurring characters, including Mikhail (as a kid). It’s interesting to see how Jin is a good guy here, before he becomes one of the Big Bads in XC2. In fact, it’s a shame that it isn’t really fully explained why Jin and Mikhail swap sides, although both are redeemed in XC2.

So really, it’s more of the (almost) same. A few changes, some new locations, and a power where you can halve your HP in return for vastly reducing the cooldown of your skills which speeds up fighting lower-level enemies greatly – a really issue in the main game and I’m thankful for here. Probably essential playing if you liked Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and probably useless to play if you haven’t played (or at least, intend on playing) that as there’d be a load of missing context. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 before X comes out now? Why not?

#completed #switch #xenoblade

Rain On Your Parade (Switch): COMPLETED!

Rain On Your Parade is one of those silly arcade games that things like Donut County and Pool Panic. In this, you’re a sentient cloud who – initially – is mainly tasked with raining on things. After all, what else can a cloud do? You have to soak so many people or rust so many vehicles, that sort of thing.

Quickly things take a bit of a turn when you’re encouraged to cause chaos, set fire to stuff (you can hover over oil leaks and then rain oil), learn how to cause lightning, and so on. The game is framed within a Princess Bride style man telling a kid a bedtime story about this cloud, and he keeps adding to it to keep it interesting, so there’s the introduction of a baddie – Dr Dryspell – who wants nothing more than make everything dry.

Levels are varied, some short, some mere time or score attacks, and some pretty huge and complex. There’s quite some imagination going on (“rain” coffee into cups, get everyone covered in bird poo) but a special mention is needed to the first person shooter level, and the Legend of Zelda one for really stretching the formula. It’s also fun finding the references to other games, like Katamari, Metal Gear, and Power Wash Simulator.

Most of the levels have a number of “missions”, which usually require you to wet a certain number of things or complete the level without running out of water, and there are optional tasks, and even some optional hidden tasks, if you really want to go down the 100% complete route. There’s also a load of unlockable “costumes” for your cloud, like a frog hat and a chainsaw, and some minigames too.

Rain On Your Parade is quirky and funny, although a bit janky when it comes to things like collision detection and it even crashed on me a couple of times, but don’t let that put you off. A bit more polish would have been nice but it doesn’t detract from the ridiculous gameplay. Oh yes, and it has toilets. Five stars, would play again. Etc.

#completed #switch

#christmas #gift #completed #written #finished #thesis #phdstudent #doctoratestudent #phd #doctorate #motivation #meme #memes #phdmotivation #phdmeme #phdmemes #phdlife #phdstudentlife #phdtroll #doctoratemotivation #doctoratememe #doctoratememes #doctoratelife #doctoratestudentlife #doctoratetroll

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

This game is big, busy, and full of charm, even if it doesn’t quite hit the same epic scale as the first Xenoblade Chronicles. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll see some familiar creatures (like the adorable fluffball Nopon) and field enemies, but there’s no direct link between the two stories – at least, not initially.

That said, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is prettier than the first game, with vibrant visuals and more detailed environments. It’s also much busier, with a whole entourage of characters following you around. And noisier – if you thought the party chatter in fights was lively before, you’re in for a shock here.

Oh, and the accents? Incredible. The Gormotti cat people sound like they’ve just come from a village in Wales, the Urayans are unmistakably Australian, and the Mor Ardainian soldiers? Straight-up Scottish. It’s an absolute treat to listen to.

You play as Rex, a young salvager who grew up diving into the sea to recover lost treasures from the ruins of a world destroyed hundreds of years ago. In this world, humanity lives on the backs or inside of massive creatures called Titans, as the continents have sunk beneath the sea.

Rex gets hired by a shady organisation to retrieve a mysterious treasure. Turns out, that “treasure” is actually Pyra, a living weapon known as a Blade – and not just any Blade, she’s one of two Aegises, the most powerful of all Blades. Things escalate quickly – Rex gets killed, Pyra revives him, and they embark on a quest to reach Elysium, a mythical paradise where everyone can live in peace. Of course, it’s not that simple. The bad guys who hired Rex have their own agenda, and there’s a sprawling plot involving secret civilisations, ancient betrayals, and events from 500 years ago. Plus, there are loads of side quests.

If you’re familiar with the combat system in the first game, you’ll recognise some similarities here, but there are big differences too. In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, combat was semi-realtime, with each character having a set of moves on cooldown. Your party members mostly acted on their own, leaving you to manage the lead character.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, each character has up to three Blades, which are essentially living weapons that grant you their power. Each Blade comes with its own set of moves, and you can switch between them in battle. This means you’ve got access to up to 12 moves at any time, depending on cooldowns.

The combat also leans heavily on combos. You can string together moves to “break” an enemy’s defence, topple them, launch them into the air, and even smash them back down. Pulling these combos off isn’t easy, though. With cooldowns, short timing windows, and the need for specific moves, you’ll need some serious planning (or a lot of luck) to line everything up.

One issue with the combat is how long fights take. Even when you’re massively over-levelled compared to your enemies, battles can drag on for ages. And then there are the special “named monsters,” with their silly names like Glamorous Alfred and Machine Gun Julio. Taking them down can take half an hour or more, even if they can barely scratch you. It feels like a grind, even when you’re doing everything you can to boost your party’s power.

Now, about the Blades. You mostly get them through a gacha-style system by your characters, who are “Drivers”, bonding with crystals you find in loot drops or quest rewards. Some Blades are unique, with their own storylines and voice acting, while others are randomly generated. Over time, you’ll collect hundreds of them. It sounds overwhelming, but thankfully, the game has a clever way to manage them.

You can also send Blades on away missions, a bit like recruiting assassins in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. They go off, complete tasks, and return with rewards. It’s surprisingly addictive and helps you feel like your massive collection of Blades is actually useful, even if they’re not in your main party.

Other than these differences in combat and weapons, the game isn’t really too dissimilar to the first one. It does feel substantially bigger in terms of “hours spent” if not “physical area”, probably due to the increased density and more to actually do. By the time I completed it at around 125 hours in, I think I’d actually come to like it even more than Xenoblade 1, although the first few hours nearly put me off it completely.

I think I had two initial issues with Xenoblade 2. The first was how much had changed since the first game – the location, the combat, the salvaging, the characters I’d grown to love and/or hate had all changed significantly. The other issue was that the first main story mission was on a drab, dark submarine-type ship instead of a massive, beautiful green-and-blue vista like Xenoblade 1 started off. It took me a few hours to start to get into it, but once I’d reached Gormott – a massive, beautiful green-and-blue vista like Xenoblade 1, it had me hooked to the end.

The end, which, despite having the end of the actual world as a possibility if Rex and chums fail, still somehow didn’t have the epic feel of the first game. It was good, although I still don’t really understand the Big Bad’s motives for trying to bring it about (it was a bit like Ultron from the MCU, I suppose – might as well destroy everything because nothing can be bad if there’s nothing there). The main thing that was WHOAAAA was when there were references to Xenoblade 1. I’d hoped there would be, but couldn’t see how. Then I did. No, I’m not spoiling it for you.

The final fight was a bit too easy. I think because I’d spent so long doing side missions and unlocking the skills on the trees for my team, Blades and so on that I was a good 15 levels higher than the end boss so defeated it no problem. Aside from, as I said, it taking ages because most of the fights just do. With the game complete, I could move on to something else but… there are still places to go, missions to finish and more unique Blades to unlock. Maybe I’ll go back and do them?

#completed #switch #xenoblade

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure (Mega Drive): COMPLETED!

Since I had my Retroflag GPi out for the Mandatory Playing Of Mega-lo-Mania, I thought I’d play something else afterwards. Perusing those Mega Drive games I’d not really played before, but I remember having reasonable reviews, I came across Buster’s Hidden Treasure and gave it a punt.

And you know what? It’s alright actually.

The 8 and 16-bit console eras were drowning in character platformers, and yet none really touched Mario or Sonic. Even the big games like Dynamite Headdy or Rocket Knight couldn’t really compete, and licenced games specifically generally fared badly, especially on the Mega Drive and SNES.

Turns out that this Tiny Toon Adventures game isn’t anywhere near as bad as most similar platformers. Sure, it’s never going to be in anyone’s favourites list, but it manages to get the physics right (have you ever played Bubsy the Bobcat? Oh my) and have some genuinely fun levels and bosses. It’s by the numbers, but does it well. Even if Buster is trying very hard to be Sonic.

#completed #megaDrive #retro

Mega-lo-Mania (Mega Drive): COMPLETED!

Once more I was in the mood for some Mega-lo-Mania. I’ve gone into why I love the game before, but I just can’t stop playing it every so often. It is still The Best Game.

This time, I chose Oberon (the camp yellow guy), and when I reached the final level not one but two other gods managed to squirrel away some people for me to fight! Which took about ten seconds as I had loads and they had very few. Ah well.

#completed #megaDrive #megaLoMania #retro

Joe & Mac Returns (Evercade): COMPLETED!

Another two player Evercade game. I’ve played Joe & Mac (Caveman Ninja) before, and the sequel, but hadn’t even heard of this. In fact, I thought it was the sequel when I started it up. As it turns out, it’s a completely different sort of platformer.

Whereas the other two Joe & Mac games were sideways scrolling platformers where you club baddies, Returns is a two player Bubble Bobble/Snowbros/Rodland type single screen “clear the baddies” type game. You still club the baddies, but they now need multiple hits before they get stuffed into a snowball bag and you push the snowball bag into other baddies to knock them out too. Defeat enough baddies with the same snowball bag and you get larger fruit meat and more points. Yes, it’s very much like those other games.

With the exception that each between-level animation has the pervy cavemen spying on, or “accidentally” undressing one of the cave women. You’d never catch Bub or Bob doing that.

We completed it, which was surprisingly easy for an arcade game, and found it enjoyable although it isn’t surprising it never hit the big time like those games it apes as it lacks the cute factor and isn’t quite as much fun. Snowballs and bubbles are more satisfying than bags, obviously.

#arcade #completed #evercade #retro

Knuckle Bash (Evercade): COMPLETED!

I broke out the Evercade VS for some games with my daughter, and this was one of those we played. It’s a Final Fight clone by Toaplan, and is very silly and badly translated. You’re wrestlers, I think, one of whom is Elvis Presley, and you have to fight your way through the streets and buildings to take down the bad guys, some of whom join your cause.

It’s hilarious. But not (always) intentionally so. It’s just so ridiculous. Like the hotel level where the bellboys join in the fight and you smash through a Manneken Pis to get to the next section. Some “levels” are pretty much a single screen, like the wrestling ring, and others are longer. None of them make a lot of sense, but it’s playable (“just punch everyone” is an easy enough concept to understand) and just the right amount of button-mashy.

#arcade #completed #evercade #retro

Toilet Chronicles (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

A game with toilets in it? Surely not. And me, here, with enough spare change in my Steam account from selling trading cards to afford to buy it? Serendipity!

I went in knowing almost nothing about the game, except that it has toilets in it and you’re trapped in the toilets. And that is pretty much all there is to know. You’ve gone into the toilets of a party and then the door to the gents seems to have vanished from the inside and you’re stuck. There are urinals, a couple of sinks, and some cubicles (one locked, one locked and occupied) and you’ve got to escape.

In my head, I was expecting a first-person version of classic Spectrum text adventure series Behind Closed Doors, where the premise is similar, and in a way that’s what I’ve got. You have to find and use items to gain access to other items and areas, but it’s all a bit surreal and there are many ways you can die. Some, like the grenade, are obvious. Some, like the giant tentacle that comes out of nowhere or the humana-humana Squidward are… less so.

There are a load of achievements for “finishing” the game in various ways, although by “finishing” I mean, most are Game Over as you die. I did get two separate “good” (or as close to “good” as it got) endings, as well as all the achievements for the bad ones (which included those in the free DLC that gives you access to another area), so I think I’ve covered “completed”.

A very silly game, but absolutely the sort of nonsense I want more of, please.

#completed #steam #steamDeck