Most of the game is amazing, but there’s also incredibly frustrating decisions and moments that can drain all the fun you were having. Its design is very uncompromising - “this is going to be crazy hard and punishing, and I don’t care if you’re not having fun with this”.

Too many things feel overtuned for extra challenge, getting stronger (more life, more damage) is a slow and difficult process, so sometimes you get in a situation where there’s no good option except “suck it up and get good”. But the game makes even that annoying! If you’re stuck you want to experiment with different subweapon/equipment configurations, but if you keep dying you quickly run out of shards to rebuild the tools and have stop and go farm weak enemies to refill.

If you’re still interested in this game I’d highly recommend going for PC, as there’s already a bunch of mods to make it more accessible.

Bold to release Mario Galaxy 1+2 on Switch when they already released Galaxy 1 as part of a three pack for the 35th anniversary. I won’t be buying Galaxy 1 again just for some extra story book pages.

Good news: It looks like you can also buy them individually:

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/super-mario-galaxy-plus-super-mario-galaxy-2-switch/

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/super-mario-galaxy-switch/

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/super-mario-galaxy-2-switch/

The non-linear aspect of this game is really good! I’ve also done quite a few things out of the “expected” order without realizing it.

Yesterday I was doing some exploring and found out the “alternate” path to the Citadel through Sinner’s Road, and from what I’ve heard you can either have Last Judge or Phantom as the final “Act 1” boss depending on the route you take which is really interesting.

Took a break this week from CrossCode since I was getting a little bored with the game. Will resume it after I finish Silksong.

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

I should be putting more time into this (Aoko is such a fun main character), but I haven’t been in a great mood for reading. Still making small progress here and there.

Playing Hollow Knight: Silksong!

This game is amazing, but it’s not something I can recommend to everyone - there’s a line between “challenging” and “punishing” and I think it crosses that line way too often.

It inherits a lot from Hollow Knight, including some of the controversial aspects. Game is super difficult, save spots are sparse (and sometimes quite distant from bosses), the mapping system is the same with all the annoying “must track the map seller in each area”, “must spend equipment slots to see your position on the map” and so on.

I’m finding Hornet a lot of fun to play with. She’s fast (in particular once you get the dash ability), and her moveset is flashy and acrobatic. The inclusion of “crests” that let you swap her moveset is really cool, and people who miss the Knight’s moveset will be happy to know that you can unlock an option to play that way. “Tools” that act as sub-weapons are another great addition, though the fact that they have limited uses and eat resources to recharge can feel limiting. I also love the new “healing” system - it’s more “all or nothing” since you eat most of your meter to heal, but you get 3 life immediately, meaning you have to take less breaks to heal and boss battles get better paced.

Bosses have been generally quite fun and well designed, though I hate the ones who have summons. Savage Beastfly is by far the worst one so far due to the small arena, big hitboxes, and being very RNG-based since some of this summons are far more dangerous than others.

In-game economy is bad. There’s two “currencies” and you always feels starved from one of them. Having to occasionally do “farming” sessions to recover my stash before progressing is one of the worst parts of this game.

The overall “feel” of growth over the course of the game is also lacking in some aspects, with the “movement” upgrades being amazing and “combat” ones underwhelming. You start with 5 life, and by the time you manage to go up to 6 there will be so many enemies dealing 2 damage that you went from “dying in 3 hits” to “still dying in 3 hits”. The first weapon upgrade is so minor that there’s some early-game enemies that still take the exact same number of hits to die. And BTW, did I mention that enemies in this game are annoyingly tanky? Having to hit 4-5 times is incredibly common, and this can get really annoying when dealing with flying enemies that love to stay out of your melee range.

Right now I’m deep into Act 2, just got the “grappling hook-like” upgrade and I’m exploring the upper areas of the citadel.

The good:

• Galaxy 1+2 remaster
• Prime 4 release date
• Hades 2 release date, and confirmation that it supports Switch 1
• New Fire Emblem

The bad:

• Nintendo getting more agressive with paid DLC… Bananza getting it 2 months after launch, and for Pokemon it’s pre-launch!

Not sure how I feel about the two combat systems, feels like I really don’t want to go into turn-based mode because I’ll take a lot of damage, but it also feels like the game really wants me to go into turn-based mode in order to deal damage.

The last two games (Daybreak 1/2) use the same system, and I used the “action” mode for two things:

• Killing weak enemies fast (which is a really good QOL/time-saving feature)
• Stunning stronger enemies so I entered turn-based mode with advantage, which was usually enough to finish them without taking damage

Would you say CrossCode is still worth a play?

So far I’d say yes, the main story (in particular the temples) is excellent. The issue I’m having is that I spent too much time on the optional parts to eventually figure out they aren’t very appealing to me.

Edit: Oh, and when are you starting Silksong? 😛

Already bought it and played 15min just to get a taste of it. 🙂 But I’m trying to resist going too deep on it before I finish CrossCode.

Finished Blade Chimera!

Another “short but good” metroidvania from Team Ladybug.

Fantastic visuals (I really love the animations), flawless performance even on the Switch 1, excellent controls and gameplay. I also enjoyed the flexibility it offers in combat, melee/ranged/magic all feel good to use and well-balanced, leaving the choice of which one to use more to your strategy and personal preferences.

There’s some rather unique choices in this game, with all the “classic” metroidvania movement improvements like sliding and double-jump being optional and acquired from a skill tree as you level up. They also included an amazing fast-travel option, which is a “Warp” mechanic that lets you jump to virtually any room in the map and makes backtracking non-existent - and you can unlock that the first hour of the the game!

Overall I had a great time even though I still prefer the other games from the same developer (Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth) .

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

Still on the “slow progress” stage.

Playing CrossCode!

Reached Chapter 8. Story took a surprising turn with some interesting twists and unexpected emotional moments.

But to be honest I’m rushing things because I’m starting to get bored with this game - while there’s a lot of good stuff in it I also think it’s overstaying its welcome. Haven’t touched most recent sidequests, I’m no longer bothering with the environmental/plataforming puzzles, and will probably lower the difficulty to speed up battles.

I think the main reason is that sidequests and environmental puzzes don’t feel rewarding, you spend a lot of time on them to just get some material for crafting/trades that you don’t really care much about.

Including a free Switch 2 upgrade!

Also Steam, and I’ve heard reports of instabilities in PSN and Xbox Store too.

Will just see the review to make sure it isn’t too bad.

From the demo I’m not concerned, looks like Falcom really put their love into this one.

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

Minimal progress this week, hoping to go back to it during the weekend.

Playing CrossCode!

Reached Chapter 6.

I love the puzzles, in particular the temples which remind me of old PS1 RPGs like Wild Arms. They can get really tricky too, there was a couple spots where I ended up stuck and had to take a look at a guide. But overall they are my favorite parts of the game.

Combat is fun and fast paced, though I feel the amount of damage you take from enemies is way too high for a game where battles can get really chaotic. I’m having a much harder time against groups of regular mobs than bosses, mainly because there’s too much going on on the screen and I often don’t even notice how much damage I’m taking, or get hit with potshots coming from the edges of the screen while focusing on a bigger enemy.

The plataforming parts definitely suck. They’re finicky, you’ll miss jumps you should have suceeded from time to time, walking on ledges is a pain, but the biggest problem is that the 2D graphics don’t do a really good job at showing height - so, so many moments where you go “sure, I can obviously jump in that direction” but it’s actually on a different height. Also, some plataforming puzzles require you to go through 3+ screens and missing a single jump means a lot of wasted time.

I also played a bit of the Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Demo and was very impressed with it - it looks and plays good, and feels like it preserves most of the charm of the original. But I’m going to keep this one on the backlog until the full game is out since I’m planning on replaying it.

Looks like there’s a PC demo but the game is not out yet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3110760/Alabaster_Dawn/

Finished Guacamelee! 2!

Didn’t enjoy this one as much as the predecessor, mainly due to final 1/3 or so the game. It felt like the developers decided the game needed to be harder but didn’t really know what to do, so they just amped up one of the worst parts of the previous game - insta-kills by touching spikes or lava.

Seriously, I think 90% of my deaths were due to this and it gets really frustrating, to the point that I decided to skip optional content and just rush to the final boss to get it done.

It’s a shame because the rest of the game was solid, I liked how they made better use of the “chicken” form and also how the maps were better designed and with far less backtracking.

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

Slow progress this week, finished Chapter 1.5 (“Seven Days of Spinning”), which is optional but a very interesting read. The segment that focuses on Alice hunting monsters was particularly awesome, being the first “break” from slice-of-life into supernatural and leaving a strong impression.

Now reading Chapter 2 (“Little Happening of Last Night”).

Playing CrossCode!

Current side-game, an indie action RPG I bought at a sale a while back. Only played 2h or so but the first impression is really good, mixing puzzle sections that remind me of older games like Wild Arms with fast-paced combat.

Looks kinda fun, but releasing this not too long after MKW seems weird. Will people really pick up 2 Nintendo racing games so close together?

It definitely is for it’s uniqueness. Even if you end up not liking it it’ll be an interesting experience.

How is We Love Katamari to play? I have seen the trailers, but can’t figure out what’s “fun” in it. Maybe it’s something I need to play.

If you want to try the series I’d go with the first game instead. There’s nothing wrong with the second game (in fact, many consider it the superior entry), but it’s kinda of an “expansion set” of the first game and I think it’s better to play them in order.

As for why it’s fun… it’s hard to explain, because it’s a mix of elements - the weird/unique gameplay, the whimsical mood, the trippy visuals and story, the god-tier soundtrack… all of this adds up and makes it a fantastic chill game to play for a while and relax.

Finished the Super Robot Wars Y Demo!

I’ve written a post in another thread about it, so I’ll just link it here.

Finished ATRI: My Dear Moments!

Another great story. I loved how this game kept a positive tone despite its melancholic, “quasi post-apocalyptic” setting.

This VN is at its strongest when it’s focused on slice-of-life, which is why I think the first “Act” was the best part. The lowest point is definitely the weak and unnecessary “villain” that shows up in the final stretch, though thankfully his participation in the story is kept short.

Finished We Love Katamari Reroll+Royal Reverie!

I take back the “more of the same” I said last week, they definitely put some effort into doing different things with the premise. It doesn’t always work, but some new stages are a blast - I loved the one where it turns into a “racing” game with a fast-moving katamari that can’t move backwards.

It’s not as good as the original game but still fun to play.

Finished Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition!

An old metroidvania I had never played and is currently at 75% discount on the eShop.

Had a good time with it, it has interesting plataforming challenges and fun combat, though not particularly hard in either aspect. It’s also very linear, which I don’t mind but some people might consider a big negative.

Playing Witch on the Holy Night!

Finally restarted this one. This is another kinectic novel, though this one is from Type-Moon and shares the same universe as the Fate and Tsukihime games.

Good lord, the presentation in this game is insane. I’m coming from two VNs with excellent production and this one outdoes both easily, with a huge amount of CGs plus exceptional framing and usage of it. Screenshots don’t do it justice, check some videos if you want to see what I’m talking about.

Playing Guacamelee! 2!

Current side-game, it’s also on sale with the same discount as the first game.

Still fairly early, just got the first power move and the grappling hook. Getting some PTSD since the grappling mechanic works the same way as Bo: Path of Teal Lotus and I absolutely hated it in that game, but thankfully it seems like it’s less finicky in this one.

Early reviews on vndb look positive. Artstyle reminds me of Fata Morgana.

I’ll read a bit more on it, looks like it’s also getting a physical edition so I may pick it up later… I made a big purchase of games yesterday so no more purchases until next month.

Just finished the Demo, which is 4 stages and took me ~2h.

First, a word of warning: Massive Code Geass spoilers in the intro. If you’re planning to watch that series please don’t play the game before that.

Really neat presentation for the opening sequence, looks like they’re taking some lessons from VNs and having more CGs for those sections. But other than that the intro stages didn’t feel as strong as the VTX trilogy, though I liked it more than the ones from 30.

Looks like we’re going with a pair of Mech+Battleship for protagonists again, and while I don’t think the A.Advent looks as good as Dreisstrager it definitely feels more unique. I went with the female MC (Forte) and I liked her and the Lunedrache more than the 30 MC/Mech combo, but still far below the ones from VTX. As for other units, Dynazeon was a beast and was one-shotting enemies way too easily, and it was great to see Rising Gundam as a playable unit again.

The lack of SR points is disappointing as that was one of the last sources of challenge in recent games. Another thing to comment is that the demo doesn’t feature any music from the anime series, so the OST feels more limited/repetitive than it should, but that’s something that will change with the full game.