Finished Final Fantasy XVI. I liked the story. The gameplay tho was serviceable at best and started getting really boring for the last 20 hours.

Started Persona 3 Reload. Played FES a few years ago and loved it. I like the new additions like Linked Episodes and the fully voiced Social Links. I kinda wish the combat kept the “tactics” from the PS2 games, but instead it’s just P5’s with a few things from SMTV. Also some of the cutscenes are a downgrade from the original, as I think they based them on the Portable version.

Finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and found it really disappointing.

I did like the idea of the whole story, but overall I didn’t really care about anything. The prologue and the initial parts of act 1 where really strong, but after a while it wasn’t really doing it for me. It picks back up right at the end, but the events there feel rushed, and while I do like where it goes, it didn’t really vibe with me.

The combat on the other hand is a mess. The real time defensive actions are overpowered, as they completely prevent damage, so the only meaningful stats and equipment become the ones that increase the damage you deal. Before the end of act 1, I reached the damage cap on single hits and very quickly after that I reached it on multi hit moves. The enemies also follow the nonsensical animation design of Elden Ring where they hold a pose, twitch and feint, trying to get you to react earlier, which I just don’t find fun.

Music was great tho, and I like the aesthetic even if after a while the environments got samey.

I’m occasionally playing Fantasy Life i, but mostly played Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s DLC. I think I liked it more than the original game, although it could not exist without it.

I started Claire Obscur: Expedition 33. I really like the setting, presentation and aesthetics. I’m not entirely sold on the real-time defensive mechanics in combat, I think they remove more than they add, but I do really like how each character has their own unique gimmick, which is something that’s sorely lacking in JRPGs.

Finished playing the Futures Connected extra story of Xenoblade Chronicles. It was OK as a short epilogue, but I wish the story explored more of

I’ve started the Torna DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I’m not sure sure if I wanna play it right now as it looks really bad in handheld, especially on Switch 2, where there’s both the bad resolution (I think it’s like 540p or less?) and the colors are fucked. I might wait a bit hoping a patch is released.

I’ve also started Fantasy Life i. It’s pretty fun, it kinda reminds me of FFXIV with how the job system works. I do wish there was a bit more complexity in crafting, but it’s still fun and there seems to be a lot to do.

That’s true! I hadn’t though about it, but it does feel a lot like when I tried optimising City Escape in Generations. Probably even faster paced since, you rarely need to slow down when driving.

Finished Xenoblade Chronicles, I’m playing the extra story now. I enjoyed it this time around. It’s nowhere close to a masterpiece, but the setting is pretty unique and the gameplay is rather satisfying. Especially since every character plays differently from the others.

Playing a bit of Mario Kart World. The new systems (rails, wall riding) seem fun, but I’m not a fan of the constant straight roads. Grand Prix is not great and Knockout Tour is fun but is starting to get stale. The most fun I’m having is in Time Trial, as it seems like the best way to play with the new mechanics.

I’m playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I started it years ago and dropped because I was disappointed by the writing. Now I’ve been playing the other games in the series and gave it another shot. I am enjoying it now - the combat is more interesting than the one in 2 or X and the world is fun to explore. I do still find the characters a bit shallow tho and the story fails to create mysteries, as it spoils them immediately in an attempt to do foreshadowing.

I’ve had fun playing it with friends, especially Knockout Tour, but I’m not really sold on it: I’m not sure if it’s because of the increased player count, but items feel overtuned to the point that getting to first place seems meaningless or even detrimental to winning the race, as you’ll often get thrown back 10 places. Besides that, there is too much time spent driving on the roads between tracks, which are not as fun as the actual tracks.

Haven’t played Free Roam since I mostly played with friends and I don’t find it interesting, but it seems like a decent extra mode.

Also yea obviously it’s overpriced and not worth 80 €.

A friend got a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World, so we too played that for a bit. Knockout Tour is really fun, while I didn’t like that Grand Prix races have only one lap. I think the highways are better for KT since there’s 6 tracks and there’s more risk due to the elimination. Fun game tho not worth 80 € (or 90), nor a system seller for me.

The Switch 2 feels like a huge improvement over the original, the new joycons are much nicer and the 1080p screen looks much better. My only complaints are that the screen is an LCD without HDR (not a dealbreaker since it’s good enough, but still disappointing when considering the price). The other complaint I have is the battery, as it’s too small for the system. Playing Mario Kart in portable drained at least 50 % in around an hour.

I’ve finished Xenoblade Chronicles X DE and I kinda wish I didn’t. The chapter added with the remaster was terrible, it was completely unnecessary, a waste of potential and ruined everything the original story did. It felt like the writers didn’t have a plan so they just forced these 3 quests because they had to.

Still tho, the Wii U part of the game was good, as were the other DE changes, so I enjoyed it.

I’m finishing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I finished the original Wii U story, which was alright but

I’m now doing a few of the remaining side quests and I might try fighting some higher level tyrants before continuing with the new chapter.

I tried a couple of roguelikes, it’s a genre I haven’t played much so I was curious to try it:

I tried Hades. The story is probably good, but I just can’t stand the gameplay. I didn’t find the combat to be particularly engaging, it’s too button mashy and none of the weapons feel good to use. I consistently get to Elysium in 25-30 minutes, then die at the boss and end up having to redo everything just for an attempt at fighting them.

Similarly for One Step From Eden, it takes me almost an hour to reach the final boss, for which I’m not ready since it takes so long to get to it. I do prefer the gameplay of this one, there’s more variety in the bosses and there seem to be more options for builds, although I haven’t had success in deviating from the one strategy I found.

I didn’t really find the gameplay of either interesting enough to justify the grind, so I have dropped them.

I’m continuing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I’ve slowed down a bit, since last time I played like 45 hours in a single week and I’ve gotten a bit burnt out. The game has also become a bit stale since since I’ve unlocked all the (main) mechanics and the mechs were disappointing.

I’m not saying the game’s bad or that I’m disliking it, but it feels too simple and repetitive for what the setting and mechanics could allow.

I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X.

The combat is pretty fun. It’s a bit more complex than the other two Xenoblade games I played (1 and 2), as there are more support skills you can use and overdrive requires a bit of planning. Enemies also have breakable parts, which add a bit of decision making during combat, although it does still feel a bit passive as there aren’t many enemy mechanics to interact with.

The main story is fine and the sidequests are pretty good. They are very short, but they have interesting stories. The “affinity” quests feel like they are the focus of the game instead of the main story.

I played a bit of Phantasy Star Portable, but my PSP’s battery is half dead and I’m waiting for a replacement so I didn’t play long. Seems like a fun game tho.

I finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I have a few thoughts about it.

The gameplay starts slow, too slow to be interesting, but after around 20 hours you unlock all the main systems and it gets really fun. It is however dragged down a bit by how bad the blade gacha and how grindy other secondary mechanics are (affinity charts and region development/mercenary missions).

The story was fine, it was pretty standard for a JRPG. I felt like the main characters were more interesting than the ones in the first game, but the overall plot and themes were a bit weak.

The story feels overall a bit rushed towards the end (especially the ending comes abruptly, I was expecting it to be a fakeout) and weirdly unfocused before that, but still engaging enough.

Nay, but I have a few exceptions:

FFXV really benefits from the open world and never felt copy pasted like most others.

Outer Wilds (if that counts) could obviously only exist with a continuous map.

While I dislike most open world games, I don’t think it’s an issue with the open world itself, but with how shallow the games end up being as they all copy the same formula and they all seem afraid to hide “content” from you, so exploration gets trivialized.

After La Mulana I wanted to try more Metroidvanias, so I tried Castlevania: Symphony of the Night but found it incredibly dull and dropped it after a couple of hours.

I understand the historical significance of its level design, but the combat was so easy that traversal became boring, as enemies respawn every time you change rooms. Also, the sprites are beautiful and detailed, and the game looks great, but Alucard’s movement feels off due to the animation.

I then switched to Touhou Luna Nights, which was really short but fun. The time stop gimmick was fun to use and I liked the bosses. The metroidvania aspect was a bit shallow, probably due to the length of the game, as it’s mainly used for optional powerups.

I started playing Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. It seems like a fun game, the writing seems really cheesy (but enjoyable) and the combat is fun. A big problem tho is a bug that keeps triggering a slowdown at random times, which is really annoying and got me killed in a bunch of encounters.

Finally, I wanted to play Infinity Nikki, but I kinda lost interest with how the developer has been behaving lately. Can never trust gacha games.

I’m finally free from La Mulana. It took me 50 hours, and I had to look up hints for a couple of puzzles that I couldn’t figure out towards the end (and I’m still not sure how you were supposed to solve them without guessing).

The puzzles were manageable for the most part, although not knowing what solving a puzzle did made it needlessly more confusing and IMO a bit unsatisfying.

I found the combat to be too hard and unfair in boss fights and the hitboxes were really bad as they often didn’t match the graphics.

I’m conflicted on if I enjoyed it or not - the experience was quite unique (for good or bad), and the game being hostile and designed to waste as much time as possible is a big part of that identity.

The weird controls grow on you and navigation never got boring, as you plan a safe path through the screen. I found the story to be surprisingly interesting, the puzzles were memorable and while I disliked most boss fights, I did enjoy the final one and the previous quite a bit.

Probably gonna play the sequel sometime and also other metroidvanias, as it’s a genre I haven’t paid much attention to.

Understandable, yea.

The puzzle part feels like Outer Wilds, but without the log to help you and it’s also a bit less linear, which I’m personally enjoying but I can see why it could be boring.

The platforming/navigation is a bit janky but usable after a while.

The combat is IMO absolute garbage (the bosses in particular are pretty bad fights that waste your time and the hitboxes are terrible) and wouldn’t be surprised if this is what makes most people quit.

For now at least, the exploration and puzzles overshadow the negatives, but they are pretty big negatives that are hard to ignore.

I’ve been playing Under Night In-Birth II. I had bought it last year but never actually played it. After this first week of matches I’d say it’s my favorite in this latest “generation” of figthing games.

I randomly bought Azure Striker Gunvolt on Switch, since I rememberd hearing good things about it when it came out, but it’s not much fun to play. It feels really unpolished, the levels and bosses are a bit on the annoying side and the combat gimmick, where you need to tag enemies with projectiles to be able to damage them, feels really bad to use as it’s slow and unsatisfying.

Everyone playing Blue Prince reminded me of La-Mulana, which I’ve been playing in the last few days. I’m a bit conflicted on it, since I like most of what the game does except for the combat which I find rather bad and unfairly punishing when considering how imprecise it is. I am enjoying the game, although I’m a bit worried it might be too long.

Played Splatoon 3. The different modes are really fun, except for Turf War which kinda sucks. It’s the first time I’m trying to learn how to play a team game and I’m confused on how to improve, but I’m having fun with it.

For some reason tho Nintendo thought it was a good idea to do two day events (“Splatfests”) periodically which lock you out of any mode beside Turf War for their entire duration, so I went looking for other competitive games:

I went back to Guilty Gear Strive after dropping it for more than a year, but after playing it for a few hours, I still don’t like how sluggish the game feels and I’m not too happy with the modern design trends in fighting games (or in general the curent state of them). The biggest issue that stops me from playing tho is the terrible online experience which still hasn’t been fixed after 4 years.

Not much this week, been looking a lot at the Switch 2 trailers.

I’ve played Heavenly Bodies with a friend. We liked it, although it wasn’t really designed for two people.

I’m back to Fire Emblem Engage, played chapter 16 which took me ages.