Currently Playing

[Nester the Lark]

I actually liked Sonic 4: Episode I, and I thought the music was pretty catchy.

However, I finally got around the playing Episode II, and it is definitely an improvement. It controls better, has more original design, and I liked the addition of Tails as a game mechanic. Although, I don't care for the music as much.

Lately, I've been in the mood for shmups, so I've been plying a bunch of those. I generally don't care for the "bullet hell" style because I'm not very good at them. But I picked up Deathsmiles during the Steam summer sale since it's supposed to be a more accessible bullet hell game aimed at a more casual audience, and I've actually enjoyed it quite a bit. (Well, on the easier game modes. Once suicide bullets come into play, it's a bit above my level.)

I also got the remaster of Nights into Dreams since I've always wanted to try it. It took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but it's pretty fun. It's a very unique game.

[nocturnal YL]

Jul 10, 2017 10:47:47 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

I actually liked Sonic 4: Episode I, and I thought the music was pretty catchy.

I guess I watched the wrong portion then? I think part of it is that I was expecting Genesis-like music. Maybe I was subconciously comparing it to Sonic Mania?

[Manspeed]

There is no "wrong portion". Sonic 4: Episode I is godawful.

[nocturnal YL]

So, almost one month after my last post of new games… No, I didn't get anything new. But I just completed (read: saw the credits) Puyo Puyo Chronicle and Picross 3D: Round 2. Here are some thoughts:

Puyo Puyo Chronicle

With this, I continued my trend to spend more time with SEGA games than anything else. Having just finished it, I can say I'm rather… unsatisfied.

The story isn't nearly as good as Puyo Puyo Tetris. That game didn't excel in story either, but at least it didn't leave mewith more questions than answers. Arle getting warped into the book seems to be Satan's trickery, so how did everyone else get into the book's world? Why did Ally get Ecolo's pendant? Was it even intentional on Ecolo's part? Nope, no answers.

The final parts of Chronicle's story has way too many Schezo jokes (see this for examples in Puyo Puyo Tetris), which really overshadows the fact that he's otherwise the most rational character in the face of true emergency. The ending itself has an "evil wins" feel, where Ecolo and Satan essentially got away with everything because it did end well.

Everything considered, it appears that SONIC TEAM were actually rather ambitious at first. Everything looks just so grand and elaborate, and even if the overall story isn't what I hoped it would be, individual moments are excellent. The raw animations are great, ignoring the frame rate issues; and I suspect they actually planned for the game to be in 3D before having to scrap that because they didn't have enough time to polish it (I think), because if they do, it wouldn't be the series' 25th anniversary anymore. (Shouldn't the Puyo Puyo series celebrate its 24th instead, anyway?)

I mostly like it. It's a potentially good game ruined by various imperfections here and there, but at least the story is enjoyable (minus the ending). Also, it has Ally. Even if I don't like the ending and lack of worldbuilding, I can't possibly dislike someone like that.

Picross 3D: Round 2

It's great, for the most part. The advanced puzzles are, well, advanced. Turns out that having two colours adds moe to the difficulty than I think. It requires a lot of patience, and there are times when I'd keep missing and end up quitting. The post-credits puzzles are even more difficult, but I haven't started with those yet.

The touch screen sensitivity issue I had with the DS (hardware issue) didn't return, thankfully. Imagine spending an hour to perfect a puzzle only to make that kind of mistake at the end.

------------------------

I'm also (still) playing FE Fates (to collect support conversations) and Project mirai DX on the side. With all those games, the 3DS is easily my favourite game console.

Oh, I didn't go back to Umihara Kawase. I didn't have the time to play that.

[Nester the Lark]

I was streaming Deathsmiles last night, and I happened to 1CC it for the first time. In fact, this is the first time I've ever 1CC'd any bullet hell shooter. And it wasn't even on the easiest difficulty setting.

And because I was streaming it, I've got video!

[nocturnal YL]

I've just 100% completed Picross 3D: Round 2. The hardest puzzle took me a good 90 minutes, but some Miiverse users claim they finished it in 20, at the highest difficulty with no misses!

This is the final boss.

With this done, I'm about to move on to the other games. I may get Kirby's Blowout Blast in the near future.

I also bought a second hand copy of Captain Toad. I planned to buy this when it was new, but I was busy with other games at the time.

[Nester the Lark]

Because I hate myself, I decided to play through Ys I on Nightmare difficulty. As it turns out, it really wasn't that much harder, except for some of the bosses. Managed to finish it fairly quickly, making it the first Ys game I've beaten on Nightmare.

Thought about going on to Ys II on Nightmare, but instead, I started another impromptu playthrough of Xanadu Next.

I guess I'm just biding my time until all the the other Falcom games start coming out on PC.

Also, been playing through Breath of the Wild on Master Mode. So far, I've got more than half the shrines and the Master Sword. Can't decide if I want to do all the shrines before doing any of the Divine Beasts or not.

[Nester the Lark]

Been having a rough time this past week or two, so as a distraction, I decided to try taking on the optional, randomly-generated high-level dungeon in Xanadu Next. I came up with a hardcore grinding method to help give me an edge.

The way level-ups work is that you're assigned six skill points that you can distribute to your attributes however you want. You can also level yourself down to redistribute skill points if you want to change them. There are also "Guardians" that give you special abilities when equipped (and, themselves, can be leveled up), and the last one you get in the game increases the number of skill points you get when you level up. At max, you can get 9 points instead of 6; a 50% increase.

So, I leveled myself all the way down to 1 (from 21), and re-leveled myself using the Guardian so that I would have overall 50% higher stats. It didn't take as long as I thought it might (you only have to earn half as much experience per re-level, plus there's another guardian that increases the amount you earn), and my stats were already higher well before I got back to where I started.

Although the optional dungeon is still pretty hard, and I still haven't gotten through it. It's 30 levels deep, and I've only been down to 16 so far. I thought maybe I'd be finished by the time Ys Seven came out, but seeing that it's out tomorrow, I don't think I'll make it.

[nocturnal YL]

I finally completed Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation. The reason it took me too long is that along the way, I wanted to:

(1) collect all support conversations, including even the parent-child conversations that take forever to grind, and

(2) level everyone up to level 20, and do so without having their growths hampered by the stat caps (which means I also have to make more than half of the units win 100 times each to unlock the cap-raising golden statues).

So now I have a reasonably perfect save file. Didn't bother to break the level cap, and 400 hours is already too long for playing through a far from perfect game (I like Awakening better). All that, and I still haven't touched the Birthright route.

[The Qu]

I've started Ori and the Blind Forest and it's really good. A very pretty Metroidvania with an emphasis on pure platforming. If that sounds appealing, pick it up on Steam.

[Nester the Lark]

If it's not obvious, I've been playing Ys Seven, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

You might remember a while back that I noted some similarities between some of the music from the Ys series and music from the Metroid series.

Well, here's the boss music from Ys Seven:



And here's Ridley's theme from Super Metroid (also used in subsequent Metroid games):

[nocturnal YL]

There's so much overlap between this thread and the Nintendo product purchases thread. I mean, I bought something and started playing it. Where should I talk about it?

Anyway, after so much wait, I've finally bought a Nintendo Switch. The reason I wanted to wait so long is that I wanted to get the system from a batch as late as possible, so I picked a game (Fire Emblem Warriors) and used it as a reference point of when should I buy the system. I also got it at a relative cheap (read: still higher than official) price. I'm in Hong Kong, where MSRP isn't enforceable.

I got only Fire Emblem Warriors because nothing else feels like a must-have to me. And my real reason to buy the Switch is Super Mario Odyssey. Oh, and my first Switch game is a third party title! First Puyo Puyo Tetris on Wii U and now this. I've started to place more importance to third party publishers (not quite ready to care about non-Japanese publishers yet, though).

Mini-review of the Switch hardware:

• The power cord is too short! I like how they finally got rid of the power supply unit (the unwieldy large box thing on the power cable of the earlier Nintendo home consoles), but it's just so short compared to everything else (Wii, 3DS, Wii U…).
• Cables go out from the right hand side of the dock. My room layout doesn't like that.
• Playing on a monitor with headphones is… Ugh.
• I really wish they would do a bit more to appeal to the technologically picky users. Save data management and all that. Other people have covered enough of that.
• Well, it's not all bad. The screen looks excellent given its price.
• I really like the click-y feel of both the buttons and the Joy-Con attachment interface.
• The dock isn't nearly as bad as people say it is.

As for Fire Emblem Warriors, I've played up to Chapter 4. The music is great, the story is predictable, and the control is surprisingly not as complicated as I initially thought.

[Nester the Lark]

I got a Switch, too, but I haven't bothered to use it yet.

Instead, I hooked up my original NES yesterday and played some random games. It needs a new AC adapter, tho. The wire is worn out and doesn't make a good connection.

I haven't been playing anything specific, lately. I actually got a little burned out on Ys Seven before finishing it. Being that it's very combat-heavy and a little longer than the typical Ys game, it got a bit repetitive. (Part of that might be my own fault, tho, since I was trying to get each character to learn all of their weapon skills, and that requires some extra grinding.)

[Nester the Lark]

Been playing Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap on Switch. I love the original version, and this is a great remake. It's a short game, so I beat it pretty fast, but there are some new, super-challenging areas added to this version. I haven't found them all yet, but I'm also doing a hard mode playthrough.

I also got the Mario Bros arcade game. I'm aiming to get into the top 100 in the online scoreboards. I'm already in the top 200.

(Speaking of which, the hi-score mode doesn't seem to work correctly. It never uploads anything after a game, and the actual board is empty. I guess it's no big deal since it's kind of redundant, but it seems strange.)

And finally, I'm nearing the end of my Master Mode playthrough of Breath of the Wild. I've done 118 shrines and two divine beasts. I hope to have the rest of it done by the time DLC Pack 2 comes out. I also got all the Xenoblade armor in both my Normal and Master Mode game files.

[Nester the Lark]

Got Blaster Master Zero a week or so back, and really enjoyed it! Got the bad ending first, then went back to 100% it and got the good ending. Then I played it again on Unlimited Mode (basically New Game+).

It's made me interested in checking out Blaster Master: Overdrive on WiiWare before it disappears. Even though it got mixed reviews, it at least has the distinction of being the only other Blaster Master game made by the original director.