Arg! I’ve got to dodge spoilers all day so that I can watch this at home with my family! See y’all in the comment sections Friday!

I do mean Switch 2. I guess what I meant to say was when it finally arrives, it won’t feel like a Switch game. But this Nintendo Direct was supposed to be for Nintendo Switch games, only. It reminds me of the DS to 3DS transition: games just kept coming out and I never clocked when I was buying what system’s games.

Thank you for being so good about using spoiler tags! I saw the words final battle and quickly scrolled away until I remembered whose comment I was reading. Truth be told, I think I’m past having time for an RPG like Trails, but I might watch someone stream it one day.

After a perfunctory amount of Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent, I jumped straight into Xenoblade Chronicles X for a few hours. After my weekend walk to the ice cream place, I’m about to jump back in.

It’s so neat to see scenes and pictures I remember from playing way back in the Wii U days. I ran into a one creature that made me think “oh, I remember that guy from almost a decade ago!” Moments later, I was thinking, “oh, he’s running straight for me!”

I still don’t like the combat bar: the change to the Xenoblade 2/3 style double diamonds for arts was a genius UI move. But I can forgive a lot with the memories this game is resurfacing.

Maybe I should stop messing around and start chapter 5’s story mission instead of just wandering throughout Mira. Or not. Either way is a rewarding weekend play.

I suppose being in those training areas is granting permission to be attacked. I already have a feeling that these “night tournaments” which seem like a beautiful opportunity for Pokémon players to interact in the Z-A world will be versus AI only.

I knew it as soon as the first dialogue advance sound played! I was so excited but I know I won’t play it on Switch. Maybe this shows games will be for both systems for a while…

It’s pretty simple: they repeat the dialogue because “you didn’t understand it” (but will often throw shade before they repeat their explanation).

The other case has to do with affinity. There’s often two opposite dialogue choices. The polite one will get you affinity points with polite party members. The rude one will get you affinity points with more rebellious party members.

There are also risky/cautious choices, braggart/humility choices, etc. I just feel freed up to not be an upstanding member of NLA since I took that route about ten years ago.

I am also playing Xenoblade Chronicles X. Since I played through half of it in the Wii U era, I feel so comfortable picking the dialogue choices that I wouldn’t dream of selecting on the first play through. There’s a lot of funny stuff in the dialogue trees!

I just reached chapter 4!

Just confirmed Xenoblade Chronicles X was preordered: scheduled to arrive Friday after what should be a great week at school.

I’ve apply my time this weekend between the two Octopaths in my life: II is still slow going and Champions of the Continent is perfect for an hour wake-me-up. I finally realized what’s wrong (sort of) with Octopath Traveler II: the battle system is so slow compared to the mobile game. A single battle in an area where I’m properly leveled for takes a couple of minutes on the Switch with every decision made having an important impact. Most of the time, I don’t want to engage my brain!

I also played an ancient game on my old Mac: Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast. I wish that were on Switch!

Finally, I got the itch to play Gradius but did not want to shell out eight bucks with XCX on the way. I played the NES version through Nintendo Switch Online and couldn’t even make it to the first boss. That knocked the wind out of my sails enough to last me until next weekend.

About your spoiler: there’s a reason the series is so important to me. The writing in that case allows me to overlook many of the series less-than perfect cases.

Also waiting for Xenoblade, I started Xenoblade 3’s DLC last week and finished it this week. It’s not short; I just happened to have Spring Break off of school. My big questions about the series weren’t answered so I spent the last few days watching YouTube explanations of the plot and I think I’m ready for Xenoblade X.

I’m still avoiding Picross S 8 so that I give other games the proper attention they need. Of those games, I pulled Citizen Sleeper out of mothballs and played for an hour today. More than anything, it made me want to break out I Was A Teenage Exocolonist again. Or finally buy Famicom Detective Club: The Smiling Man (or whatever it is called).

I’m continuing on with Octopath Traveler II, inching my way through the story mode. I need to pay closer attention to the battles; the mobile game added an auto-battle mode so I’m very tuned out when I hear the battle music now.

In non-Switch news, I got to play Cabo, a fun card game, with my son today. I’ve been watching a walk-through of the Danganronpa fan game Project: Eden’s Garden. I was yelling at the video as I watched the first execution. I’m over ten hours into the videos now.

Hooray for Picross!

I just looked it up. Wow, that’s a fan translation from back in 2006! The name of the translation was “Comeback Courtroom 3”.

I’m still plugging along in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve inherited all of the DLC heroes now, so I’m just bee-lining toward the ascension quests now. I already have Xenoblade Chronicles X on order, so it’s a matter of time before I give up on the main quest and play the new story DLC to prepare for adventures in New LA.

Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent is still winning the attention battle this week against Octopath Traveler 2. Think that’s mostly because of I want to play Switch, Noah and Mio have first dibs.

Enjoy Ace Attorney 3! I remember playing the translation rom of that before it was announced for release in the US. There was a reveal at the start of the second case where “all of your precious English words have been stolen!” (Or something like that). Then case two was all in Japanese because the translation team was still hard at work. Between the Phoenix Wright franchise and Xenoblade Chronicles X, I’ve never felt bad about rebuying a title. I’m always happy to support great games a second time.

I’m still in tutorial mode. I just relearned how to cook and craft!

I had a real Aha! Moment in a flashback. The scenery from Noah’s early years is a location you visit later. I never put that together before. I hope that was general enough to avoid spoiling anything.

I wish I was just doing all the main quests. I can’t control my urge to empty my quest list. I’m proud when I don’t walk off the path to get collectibles I don’t need.

My main urge in the game is to unlock every class for every character.

I don’t have a computer that will run Civ VII. After almost 10,000 hours in 5 and 6 combined, I know I’ll play one day. Are you playing on Switch? I worry if I buy it on Switch it’ll be worse than waiting until I upgrade my desktop next year (especially with Switch 2 scheduled to take over my gaming some time this year).

I finished Great Ace Attorney 2 and it made me super mad that that my time with Sholmes and Wilson is over. I hope they produce another two games. The way they set up dominos in the first game to knock them down in the second was excellent.

I haven’t purchased Picross S8 yet because I know I have too much on my unfinished shelf to buy a podcast-binging accessory. Maybe I’ll buy it when my Spring Break is over so that I don’t get sucked into it and spend all of my student-free time putting together pixel puzzles.

I dived back into Xenoblade Chronicles 3 after y’all’s comments about the DLC. I’m working on my New Game+ run before I play the DLC because I’m so rusty in the combat. It’s been fun picking it up, running half a kilometer toward the objective, and then putting the system to sleep. Even if I only get five minutes of play, it reminds me why that was my game of the year.

New story dropped in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent yesterday, so I expect to go through my morning coffee slowly exploring Solista.

My secret on puzzles is setting limits. I never put more than fifty pieces together per session. I never spend more than an hour per session. Early on, I always feel like I’m stopping before I need to. In the middle, I slot about one piece every two minutes so the hour timer exists to keep me from rage-quitting. Near the end, it gets easy, even with the nearly identical pieces since there aren’t many places left to place them. (I also save the outside borders for when I need a confidence boost, so the last pieces I put in were the entire bottom row).

Typing while walking along a six lane roadway leads to a lot of typos. The only thing I miss about Xbox is Culdcept. I bought an Xbox 360 for the sole purpose of playing it. Then I bought a second one. After red ring 2, I gave up. I’m still holding out hope for a new version of that for a Nintendo system one day.

I’ve got to (probably) the last “to be continued” of Great Ace Attorney collection. The twists at the end are definitely hitting the Herlock Sholmes ideal of whatever you haven’t eliminated is the truth, no matter how improbable. I’m in the middle of walking to the ice cream shop or I’d be racing to the end right now.

I’ve been so happy with the mobile Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent that I haven’t gotten out Octopath Traveler 2 for Switch again in weeks. And with XBX on the way, the itch to play through new game plus with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 with all the DLC.

And I finished my Breath of the Wild puzzle in less time than it took to get comfortable with the idea of fighting a boss. Just under 22 hours!

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! It was nice to play a Zelda game without feeling it take over my whole life for a year.