I got as far as the Demon Castle but yeah the story of SMT V is pretty lackluster. You will enjoy Persona 3 Reload whenever you have a chance to fit it in. It's a good 100 hours and Metaphor which looks to be fantastic is around the corner so watch for some good ol' Atlus fatigue.

High On Life is solid but if you like that Rick & Morty type of humor, you will have a grand ol' time. The humor/comedy makes or breaks the games, you either love or hate it due to it.

Xenoblade X (2015; Monolith Soft)

After 180+ hours, I finally toppled the Wii U exclusive.

X was one of those games I bought on launch but could never bring myself to play it due to it's enormity. More and more games would pile on and it wasn't until Nintendo announced that the Wii U was going offline that I decided to jump on board. I didn't want to miss out on any exclusives and since there's an online portion of X, I wanted to experience as much of that as possible.

For those unfamiliar with Xenoblade, it's basically an MMO style JRPG with auto-attacks. The games are often very overwhelming and it can be difficult to get invested in the combat, but the massive worlds and wonderful soundtrack is enough to keep me enthralled.

X is a spin-off from the Chronicles series and it would best be described as the SMT to the Chronicles Persona. The story is relatively paper thin, the main protag is a silent insert and players have more freedom to explore the world. It's also a classic sci-fi narrative where it's based on an alien planet and you're facing off against a deadly alien race.

While the Chronicles series does have sci-fi elements, it's a more traditional JRPG series with a lot of the tropes you'd come to expect from a Final Fantasy, Tales of, Dragon Quest type of adventure.

So how come it took 180 hours?

Well, one of the main draws of X is being able to control these huge Gundamn Wing esque mechs known as skells. To get some of the best skells in the game, you have to collect these rare drops which you can buy using reward tickets. You receive reward tickets when your online squad completes missions, which you don't have to take part in. So by letting the game constantly run and flicking the analogue stick, I was able to collect all the necessary parts to build one of the user-friendly post-games skells - the Ares 90.

The game also has two in-game currencies - credit and miranium. Credit is traditional currency you can earn through selling items and completing missions. Miranium on the other hand has to be mined out of the planet. Y'see one of the goals of X is visiting certain areas on a map that have a massive beam of light. These require you to install a probe and using the Wii U pad, you can pick between a bunch of different options to receive all sorts of perks.

Miranium allows you to upgrade your gear and skells. It all comes down to the amount of probes you have set up and you can only receive a certain amount every 30 minutes or so - so once again just letting the game run and spending the miranium will allow you to better equip your party.

As you can tell, X is one of those games where it's easy to get distracted. If I had have focused properly, I could have beaten the game in 30 hours. There's only 13 main missions to beat and a few obligatory side missions - but there's so much to do in terms of content, farming gear, farming materials, collecting chests, installing probes, hunting monsters, online missions etc Hell, I'd often just find myself sprinting along the central hub area of the game while listening to podcasts.

It's one of those games that requires a lot of polish. If Monolith Soft bother to re-release the game, they'll need to introduce so many QOL features because the game makes so many weird choices.

For example, if you want to change your party, you have to go to the central hub, go to the area where the character is standing, talk to them and put them in your party. There's 17 party members and while the game will constantly force you to pick two for every main story mission, it's just a tedious step that doesn't add anything to the game.

It's especially annoying as the game has a persona like social link system. The only way to boost an affinity is by having these characters in your party and if you don't have a certain amount of affinity you'll have to stop what you're doing and complete a bunch of missions with said characters. There's hardly any inclination other than they're involved in the main campaign.

There's other issues here as well. The game loves to set up an ambush and no matter how low a level an enemy is, they'll stun your characters, engage in a battle and prevent you from collecting items. This can be really annoying as so many missions are tied to collecting items and there's little you can do to prevent this.

X is one of those games where levels really don't matter and it's all about hunting monsters, but the game doesn't do a great job of telling you which monsters to hunt or where to find them. Whenever you win a battle, the game pauses to tell you what you collected off the enemy including gear with certain skills. There's no way to see what these skills actually do so you're left to guess.

I could keep going. It's one of those games where it throws you into the deep end and expects you to do all the heavy lifting, except the game is so easy to break that you never really have to grasp what's going down.

Which is basically what I did, once I earned my skell, I took on this one enemy and jumped 20 odd levels which gave me access to an even more powerful skell and was able to make short work of the main campaign right there. I did try to do some prep, but after a few hours, realised I could smash through the game.

With that said, there's a really great game in there. I like that you can target certain limbs and that will either weaken the enemies defence or prevent them from executing an attack. I like that defence is tied to a resistance system and that certain gear works better against certain enemies. I like that you dual wield between a long range weapon and a short range and you constantly switch between the two depending on the situation. I like the massive world and being able to fly around with your skell.

It just needs a few tweaks and stronger hardware to run it. My poor Wii U sounded like a jet engine at times trying to load the game up and while it's a miracle it runs as well as it does it's clearly hindered by the platform it's on.

Xenoblade is a difficult series to recommend for in general. XC2 was the game that got me into the series, but there was a lot I had to look past before I got fully invested. XC3 has far too many references to the prior games to recommend as a starting point. Which is to say, X is the deep cut of the series and if you really enjoy the combat and exploration aspect of the franchise, chances are you'll like X. Otherwise, I feel Monolith will really have to iron out the kinks if they're going to re-release this again.

I'll also say the theme for New Los Angeles is one of the most uncharacteristic XB songs ever. That's the central hub song, and it sounds like a weird amalgamation of 90s American music if somebody else had to play it.



Yeehaw, let's all eat cheeseburgers, fries and ketchup!

Tales of Symphonia (2004; Namco Tales Studio)

Still grinding for that 100% save file. This playthrough I'm focusing on the Treasure Hunter title which requires you to open every chest in the game. On the surface, it's not the most difficult objective in the game as most chests are in plain view of the player. I'm just about to reach the third act of the game and I imagine I've collected 99% of these tropes before. The only trophy that caught me by surprise was in the Te'ethella Base. There's a room where you have to perform a number of block puzzles to access the chests. The game makes it really obvious where to position the blocks, with one exception.

For 20 years, I wasn't aware of a chest that was hidden under a staircase. I know this because it came with an item I needed to 100% my collector's booklet.

I still have nine more dungeons to complete before I can find out if I was successful.

Speaking of the collector's book, I was so close to beating that 100% this playthrough but missed the timing window on the Pink Pearl Ring sidequest that I'll have to pick it up next time. The Tales series is notorious for having obscure side-quests that only become accessible during random intervals and there's zero indication that they're active. I don't mind them when they're easter eggs like this because it gives the game some mystery and depth. However later entries would hide far too much content behind these obscure quests.

Anyways, it's going to take at least another playthrough before I unlock everything. There's a scene in Flanoir where you have to spend time with a party member and that will open up some content. I need to pick Zelos to get his Chosen Orb, then next go around I need a Kratos playthrough where I pick Collette and get her obscure title. That's a good example of what I was talking about before. Right before one of the most important fights in the game, you have to back-track all the way to your house after picking Collette at Flanoir to get this one unique costume.

EA College Football 25

Continually playing as Mizzou (a Tier 2 team) in Online Play is the downfall of my mental sanity.

Replaying Grounded now. Still think this may be my fav game of all time. Just so good.

Aug 1, 2024 3:27:21 GMT KJ said:

EA College Football 25

Continually playing as Mizzou (a Tier 2 team) in Online Play is the downfall of my mental sanity.

Hearing it's so friggin good this year. Might have to cop it when it goes on sale by like Black Friday just because. 

Seen a ton of people playing it and loving it it seems. May be a good year to get it if into college football.

Tales of Symphonia (2004: Namco Tales Studio)

OK, moment of truth. After 15 hours, 30 dungeons/places of interest did I open all 276 treasure chests?

99.6%

1 off

****!!!

I know which one it is too. In the Earth Temple, there's one missable chest where you have to explore before you take on the escort mission. There's no indication you should scout the place and there's other rooms that draw your interest you'd really only know how significant the chest was if you followed a guide.

What a troll.

I needed to do another playthrough regardless. Symphonia has a Persona-style affection system that will affect cut-scenes and dialogue based on who your closest to. Collette is the default choice, but you can actively push other characters if you make certain decisions. I need Zelos to be one of Lloyd's closest friends to complete the collector's books and the only way to do that is neg all the other characters. It's a feature that I find pretty neat and gives the game some more depth.

One feature I didn't find out about until 10 years after it's release was this figurine crafting section. You need to craft 288 figurines based on each NPC model in the game. The inner collector in me finds this neat and if these were available in real life I'm sure I would have built a nice collection back in 2005. However when it comes to gaming, it essentially just means you're grinding away 100s of battles. It's not like you're jet-setting across the map either, if you want to do this efficiently, it's the same four encounters for the four drops you need.

Regardless, I had to master each dish with every character. Cooking in Tales basically just requires you to enter a battle and after it's over consume a bunch of ingredients to recover health/mp and receive some kind of buff. You've got 8 characters, cooking 24 dishes and it took around 5 attempts to master each dish so it's very OCD.

I think back twenty years ago and wonder why I didn't have the patience. What exactly was I doing? It took me around six months to beat Symphonia, which would have been around May of 2005. During that period I would have bought Paper Mario: TTYD, San Andreas,Doom 3, Half Life 2, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XI, Dragon Ball Budokai 3, F-Zero GX, Star Ocean III, Phantom Brave, Disgaea, Resident Evil 4, Mario 64 DS, Halo 2 among others. No wonder I rarely beat any games - just way too distracted.

Were you guys gaming hoarders? Or strictly, one game at a time growing up?

I've always been a one-game-at-a-time person. It doesn't make sense to me to play multiple games at a time. When I do that, I get sucked into the more fun game and suddenly I've forgotten everything about the other game. I prefer not to live that way.

Aug 3, 2024 1:04:50 GMT c said:

Seen a ton of people playing it and loving it it seems. May be a good year to get it if into college football.

It's a blast, but I never got into the Madden series, and I haven't any football game in over a decade. Kids (literally) are just kicking my ass and heckling me to no end.

I could never get into normal football or it's games, but got real into college football for a bit and loved some of the PS3 era games. Just loved the season and rotating roster aspects of it.

The quality of games in this gen are just crazy. Graphics truly are something else.

///

I only main one game at a time since I am mostly a steam deck player and while it has a good chunk of space it is not limitless.  I do play one offs of stuff like Slay the Spire or Binding of Isaac here and there.  But right now been going through Grounded since it got a major update a few months back adding in a cycle of new games with new stuff to find each cycle.  Down to just the Infected Broodmother for playthrough 1, then moving my base to a giant oak tree base.

Tales of Symphonia (2004; Namco Tales Studio)

Let's do it all over again.

10+ hours, 30 dungeons/places of interest yadda yadda yadda...

99.2%

****! We're going backwards!

OK, so I skimmed over the last treasure chest in the last dungeon area - no harm no foul but what could I have possibly forgotten?

So Tales has these vendors called Katz. They're normal looking NPCs, except they're done up like furries and they'll scout if you're missing any treasure chests or monster data in the area. It just costs money and they'll usually spend 10 minutes to search the area.

There's around a dozen of these stores in game and thankfully you can send them all out, which is what I did.

The Katz store in Izoold discovered one missing item, which meant it came from an inaccessible dungeon.

Oh no!

Thankfully this was the Katz store that offered an item recovery service and while this can be finicky they were able to help me on this occasion.

The one item that nearly cost me 10 hours was the Mythril Greaves which can be found in the Remote Human Ranch. This is about 2/3s through the game, right as you unlock the Rheairds, the game's version of the airship, in this maze like section where you take multiple warps, disengage three locks and have a dozen or so treasure chests to open up.

I specifically remember being unsure if I had every item, but quickly read the last few items I had and they matched the guide I was following. As it turned out, the Greaves would have been the 4th last item and it's for that one character you're likely never going to play with. The Amarant of the group if you follow me.

I nearly blew it, but after the Katz were kind enough to give the item, I spoke to the NPC that unlocks the achievement and finally after nearly 20 years, the Treasure Hunter title.

I also completed the Pink Pearl Ring sidequest, something I never knew existed. It's just a short side-quest where you help a university student with their relationship and learn more about the class divide in the game. The game is filled with these easter eggs and it clearly shows the developers had fun squeezing content in for players to find.

I still have one more playthrough to get through before I can officially say I've completed the game. It should be a more casual run-through but that might do me for awhile. It's beginning to feel like Groundhog Day and I need to touch some grass.

Cat Quest always slaps.

Aug 19, 2024 0:45:35 GMT @ness said:

Cat Quest always slaps.

Played 1 and 2 in the span of like a month, they're easy plays but man they get repetitive and mundane super fast. They play so much alike that I had to hold off on Cat Quest III just out of the likelihood of being completely burnt out of this that I would be really critical of the 3rd one. 

The amount of puns for cats and dogs they fit in these games is incredible though. 

Aug 19, 2024 1:13:39 GMT Blindy said:

Aug 19, 2024 0:45:35 GMT @ness said:

Cat Quest always slaps.

Played 1 and 2 in the span of like a month, they're easy plays but man they get repetitive and mundane super fast. They play so much alike that I had to hold off on Cat Quest III just out of the likelihood of being completely burnt out of this that I would be really critical of the 3rd one. 

The amount of puns for cats and dogs they fit in these games is incredible though. 

Honestly I really don't remember what the difference was between 1 and 2. Started up 3 and seems to be the same formula, but pirate themed. There's a ship you traverse between islands otherwise it's mostly the same. Got my ass kicked by a giant rubber ducky that I assumed I could best. I hid behind some rocks but it had laser beams from the sky so I perished. Note to self: wait.

Aug 19, 2024 1:40:22 GMT @ness said:

Aug 19, 2024 1:13:39 GMT Blindy said:

Played 1 and 2 in the span of like a month, they're easy plays but man they get repetitive and mundane super fast. They play so much alike that I had to hold off on Cat Quest III just out of the likelihood of being completely burnt out of this that I would be really critical of the 3rd one. 

The amount of puns for cats and dogs they fit in these games is incredible though. 

Honestly I really don't remember what the difference was between 1 and 2. Started up 3 and seems to be the same formula, but pirate themed. There's a ship you traverse between islands otherwise it's mostly the same. Got my ass kicked by a giant rubber ducky that I assumed I could best. I hid behind some rocks but it had laser beams from the sky so I perished. Note to self: wait.

2 incorporated co op or if you play solo, a really good AI partner. There's also dogs in the 2nd one and very small QOL improvements. 

Still Wakes the Deep

December 1975, Cameron “Caz” McLearly” is on the run after a violent altercation and signs up for a job on an oil rig hoping to save his flat & his marriage.

What could possibly go wrong?

I purchased this game as I heard it was fairly linear and as someone who always gets distracted in open world games figured I’d give it a chance.

I’m a huge horror fan so you’re mileage my vary but I found very little scares in this and whenever an enemy would get close and kill you it immediately cuts to the game over screen. So you don’t often get a good look at the horror anyway.

The controls are very awkward especially when it comes to swimming and climbing ladders. The L2 to grip only seemed to work every now and then.

The main horrors of the game is just a real bad day at work, things aren’t maintained, your co-workers expect to do everything for you and it’s horror game BS as usual with unlocking stuff, block exits for alternative routes. The story doesn’t get explained too much to you, which was the most interesting part of the game.

SPOILER: Click to show

Then old mate offs himself to save everyone in the mainland. Turns out his wife wanted to stay with him after all.

Was a great premise but it didn’t deliver.

Rating
4/10

Aug 19, 2024 1:40:22 GMT @ness said:

Aug 19, 2024 1:13:39 GMT Blindy said:

Played 1 and 2 in the span of like a month, they're easy plays but man they get repetitive and mundane super fast. They play so much alike that I had to hold off on Cat Quest III just out of the likelihood of being completely burnt out of this that I would be really critical of the 3rd one. 

The amount of puns for cats and dogs they fit in these games is incredible though. 

Honestly I really don't remember what the difference was between 1 and 2. Started up 3 and seems to be the same formula, but pirate themed. There's a ship you traverse between islands otherwise it's mostly the same. Got my ass kicked by a giant rubber ducky that I assumed I could best. I hid behind some rocks but it had laser beams from the sky so I perished. Note to self: wait.

Biggest difference in 2 was a full time partner for co-op or switching back and forth at random, so I had the cat as a warrior for melee and dog as a mage for ranged combat.

3 adds guns and ship combat, I think it lost a bit on progression though, since now the whole map is open from the start, so you just have to sail around and hope the destination isn’t too high of a level. Also surprised they didn’t have the level 99 challenges like the first 2. Either way, platinumed it. You know basically what you’re getting if you’ve played any of them, no surprises, but I enjoy them as palate cleansers between lengthier affairs.

Started in on SW: Outlaws, it’s a pretty solid game so far, not too far in.

I'm only 15 minutes into Astro Bot and yeah man, this is so much fun. Already got some ol buddies acquired

SPOILER: Click to show

Rivet, Ratchet & Clank and the Astro Playroom add on of Gran Turismo driver, Selene from Returnal, Lady Maria of Bloodborne and the monkey from Ape Escape

I do wish each character when you look at their profile gave more details ala Super Smash Brothers. Like what game they're from or a little mini writeup of who they are because unless you've played every Sony game from PS1 days, you won't know everybody.

I don't even have words to say about Astro Bot, in the 3rd world now, have done everything in the first two worlds. The amount of PS love this game goes, it has everybody. Sega Atlus is repped with 3 Persona characters, Konami gave this game 2 iconic Metal Gear Solid protags and 2 antagonists, some Castlevania representation too. Capcom gave 2 iconic fighting characters and some Resident Evil love, just waiting on SquareEnix at this point. Not sure if 2-B of Nier Automata gets in this or they actually go ham and give FF7 their own stage and group of characters. And the first party Sony rep as you'd expect, top notch. They go PS1-PS5 really and have so many mascots and side characters in this.

The platforming is just insanely fun, each stage feels just fresh and feels like a spectacle. Each time you unlock a missing robot, especially the character inspired ones, you can't help but mark out just a little bit. I think I recognized almost every single one from the offset. I haven't felt this "Like a kid going to Toys R Us for the 1st time" sort of deal about a game since the Super Smash Bros days of unlocking characters or that "A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED" thing. The gimmicks each stage has really hit home and so far, even the haptic controller usage has been more than fine for me. If you've played Astro's Playroom, you pretty much know exactly what you're getting from this.

Some bops in this game too, think I wanna try and get Stage 3 down fully before calling it a night. Just going through this bad boy. Unless Atlus has some cooking in the pot with the Persona 3 Reload DLC and or Metaphor next month, Astro Bot at this rate is dethroning P3 Reload for me. It has lived up to the hype, just an insane amount of fun. Must play for all PS5 owners really. 

Astro Bot is Mario Odyssey levels of joy. Incredible game.

Platniumed Astro Bot in 46 hours(According to PSNProfiles), just a masterclass game. If anything, I WISH I got more of the game, it took me a good 15 hours to 100% it and it made me wanting more so I hope DLC is thrown there in the future. No SquareEnix representation as I thought which is very odd and a couple of notable PS mascots not here

SPOILER: Click to show

Twisted Metal/Sweet Tooth, Tomba and Fat Princess my girl from PS All Stars. Nariko of Heavenly Sword, Order 1886 although those were 1 off games.

. There was enough challenge for me too, but it came in the form of the secret levels. No level kept me longer than like 8-10 minutes but these were great. If you like PS nostalgia and or Mario 3D games, you are in a treat with this one. Will never slander Mario as you respect your platform elders but this was a more enjoyable game than Super Mario Odyssey for me(Albeit Odyssey is the tougher one, especially to fully complete it) but this is right on par with DKC: Tropical Freeze as far as modern platformers go. Super Mario Wonder was fantastic too.

So happy this game got the light of day and I truly hope it sells well, Team Asobi deserve it between the free Astro's Playroom and now this one.

The ending levels of each world were absolutely amazing, ESPECIALLY if you like those series.

SPOILER: Click to show

Ape Escape
God of War
Uncharted
LocoRoco
Horizon

All got the love. I know the 1st and 4th ones are kinda weird choices to give full blown stages too but they're Sony Japan creations so let Asobi get some shine here. 


No Abby of Last of Us 2 BTW. #JustSayin. Very few villains on here in actuality. 

Jun 1, 2024 0:30:34 GMT Blindy said:

Dec 29, 2022 15:58:22 GMT Blindy said:

S(Excellent):
Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves(S)
Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 1(S-)

A(Great):
Elden Ring(A+)
Sly Cooper & The Thievious Racoonus(A+)
A.I. The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative(A)
Cuphead DLC: The Delicious Last Course(A)
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark(A)
Archvale(A-)

B(Very good/Solid):
Pokemon Scarlet(B+)
Vampire Survivors(B+)
A Plague's Tale: Requiem(B+)
Tinykin(B+)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge(B+) 
Pumpkin Jack(B+)
Pokemon Legends: Arceus(B)
High on Life(B)
Overwatch 2(B)
The Forgotten City(B)
Road 96(B)
Signalis(B)
Mega Man 10(B-)
The Quarry(B-)
Splatoon 3(B-)

C(Average): 
Boyfriend Dungeon(C+)
Fall Guys Ultimate Edition(C+)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice(C+) 
A Hat in Time(C+)
Kirby & The Forgotten Land(C+)
Last Stop(C+)
Coffee Talk(C+)
Horizon Zero Dawn DLC: The Frozen Wilds(C+)
Mega Man 11(C+)
Unpacking(C)
Bugsnax DLC: Isle of BigSnax(C)
As Dusk Falls(C)
Bayonetta 2(C)
The Medium(C)
Pocky & Rocky: Reshrined(C)
Beacon Pines(C-)

D(Mediocre):
Touhou Luna Nights(D+)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion(D+)
Mighty Goose(D+)
Stray(D)
Toy Story 2(D)
One Night Stand(D)
What Remains of Edith Finch(D)
The Artful Escape(D-)
Travis Strikes Back: No More Heroes(D-)

F(Not good): 
Firewatch(F+)
Somerville(F+)
The Quiet Man(F)
Her Story(F-)

- I stand corrected, Her Story was the worst game I played in 2022. At least The Quiet Man made me laugh unintentionally a whole bunch.

This was a 2022 list, not sure if I did the games I played & beat in 2023 but for 2024 so far:

S(Excellent):
Astro Bot(S+) 
Lies of P(S)
Persona 3 Reload(S)

A(Great):
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree(A+)
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin(A)
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2(A)
Ender Lillies: Quietus of the knights(A-)
Tails of Iron(A-)

B(Good/Solid):
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Rebirth(B+)
Stellar Blade(B)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown(B)
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank(B)
Animal Well(B)
Emio: The Smiling Man(B-)
Tales of Kanzera: Zau(B-)
Cookie Cutter(B-)
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark 2(B-)
Eternights(B-)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengence(B-)

C(Average):
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intermssion(C+)
Daxter(C+)
Cat Quest(C)
Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga(C)
Penny's Big Breakaway(C)
Cat Quest 2(C)
Aerial_Knight's Never Yield(C-)

D(Mediocre):
Tell Me Why(D+)
The Chant(D+)
Little Kitty Big City(D)
The Coma: Recut(D-)

F(Not good):
Foamstars(F+)
Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk(F)
Silent Hill: The Short Message(F-)
Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk(F-)

35 games down, worth the update. Astro Bot did his god damn thang. 

Been mostly silent, but quietly (here, in person I'm very loud when I play games) been on a gaming tear, since I'm several installments back, I restarted the Assassin's Creed franchise, played up to III, when I resume I just have to do Tyranny of King Washington for the platinum, I figure within a year or so, whenever I have an opening, I should be able to catch up to whatever installment they are on by that point.

Platiunumed Cat Quest 3, exactly what you'd expect if you've played the series. Space Marine 2 is very much the same, if you played the original, you know exactly what you're getting for the most part, though I preferred life refilling with executions in the 1st to just armor in the second, armor just drains too fast. Either way, good stuff, that classic PS3/360 era shooter feel, do appreciate getting a couple recently, like Evil West before it. This one sounds to be a rousing success, so hopefully not another near 15 years for a part 3, and hope they give it a definitive conclusion, don't want to keep getting set ups until it eventually disappears with no resolution, like the bane of my gaming existence in Legacy of Kain's lack of a final chapter.

Blew right through the platinum on Astrobot, god damn that's a great fucking game, true love letter to the golden age of 3D platformers. Controls tight, levels are imaginative, a treat for the eyes, fantastic soundtrack, just really hits it out of the park in every regard. Strong contender for my game of the year.

Next up, from the pure joy of fun, to the crushing sorrow...of fun. Start Black Myth Wukong tomorrow.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo; 2024)

It felt like a celebration of the series. I love how the game opens up like a Metroid with a fully powered Link taking on Gannon. This is of course a classic bait and switch and the game really doesn't begin until a rift emerges, engulfs Link and Zelda is saved by this star like creatured called Tri.

While you control Zelda, it's Tri who's the real star of the game as Zelda is merely borrowing their powers to close all the rifts. 

Tri maybe the most busted entity in Zelda history. It can summon an endless army of creatures, it can move heavy objects without blinking and can even attach itself to other objects from a distance in order to move in any direction it wants. Tri gives the player a lot of choices and freedom in terms of how they want to play the game but it can feel broken summoning up the same quick attack over and over again.

I found the main gameplay loop to be a mixed bag. I enjoyed visiting a lot of familiar locales like the Gorons, Zoras, Dekus, Gerudos etc. and seeing what their plights were. For me the highlight was the Zoras where you had the River Zoras and Ocean Zoras at logger-heads only to bond over music. It's a tale as old as time, but it was presented so well I couldn't help but be charmed by it.

However it became tedious having to do a bunch of rift dungeons before each major dungeon. After awhile they just blend together and since they tend to have a few cut-scenes it tends to just pad out the gameplay. Maybe they're better than I'm giving them credit for, but it always felt like I was eating my veggies before the main course.

Side-content felt lacking as well. I never bothered with the Dampe stuff where you could have an extra attacker. I also didn't bother with smoothies until I realised I was being showered with ingredients with nothing to use them on. Since you can just summon beds to help recharge health, you rarely need hearts, so I mostly put together smoothies that recharged my energy so I could go into Link form.

Outside of that, there's the standard pieces of heart and Link form upgrades you can hunt for.

Fortunately, I enjoyed my time with the main dungeons. Echoes takes a page out of Link's Awakening book and has a ton of 2D sections, so the change in perspective switches things up and keeps it refreshing. This is also where the Echoes system shines as well because each dungeon comes with an opportunity to get more echoes, so it has a similar hook as Pokemon where you just want to get more abilities.

Largely they did a good job of making each echo useful but there's definitely some that are merely taking up inventory space after awhile. It can get a little tedious pausing the gameplay to search out new echoes and it can lead to you being lazy and spamming a less efficient echo simply to maintain the flow of the game.

One final note, I enjoyed the OST. It's largely just remixes with a couple of new motifs thrown in, but it just keeps the whimsical tone of the game that made it so alluring.

As a fan of the Zelda series, it was well worth checking out. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it @ness - especially since it seems like a strange bastard child of Link's Awakening and Tears of the Kingdom. Your favourite and your least favourite Zeldas.

I've decided to play through Alan Wake 2 again, man I love that game.