Currently Playing

[Evie ❤✿]

I keep saying I will attempt to complete the game "Space-Net" but real life can get in the way Other than this, have been enjoying Pokémon Sword and Shield I love it, but there are elements that feel a little empty (feels like there are plot holes, or specific things about the design). Other than this, a silly Nyan Cat game cheers me up.

[nocturnal YL]

Finished playing Atelier Ryza. This is counting only basic completion (see the ending), and that happened much earlier than I expected. I'm at alchemy level 52 and battle level 41 at that point, and my play time was at only 43 hours. Direct comparison doesn't really make sense, but for reference, I spent 140 hours on Lulua and 160 hours on Lydie & Suelle.

Atelier Ryza managed to be my least favourite main series Atelier game so far, but do note that it's only the third I've played. I don't really fault the game for being exactly what it's advertised to be, but there are still rather obvious problems like the hugely dialed back voice acting and lack of branched stories. It went back to a single ending structure, feels like a much simpler game overall, and lacks stuff like composer commentary.

I'd say the biggest issue is the pacing. I spent 40% of the game figuring out what even is the story and earning the approval of the village, and once the story's overall goal is known, the rest is mostly more cutscenes, some admittedly rather tough battles, and I counted a total of three item requests.

There are a lot of things they did get right, of course. Graphics are one major improvement; the game uses the same rendering style as Lulua, but individual maps are much bigger. Making items is easier this time, and while the requirement for copying items is tougher (not just "money solves everything" like in the last few games), I can finally copy battle equipment. And this is the first Atelier game I've played start-to-finish that has never crashed my console.

Full review coming later, although I'm not sure if I'll have much more to say. And with this game done, maybe I'll finally start playing the Arland ports.

[Evie ❤✿]

Been playing Vs. Balloon Fight, Super Mario World (via Nintendo Switch Online). Beat Star Fox 2 for the first time.

[nocturnal YL]

I barely started Atelier Rorona DX (I'll do them in order, though I'm actually more curious in the difficult Totori DX and the town management-focused Meruru DX). It's said to be a remake of New Atelier Rorona, a PS3 remake of a PS3 game partly to address bugs that remain unpatched even after three updates, and partly to add new contents.

				New Atelier Rorona (3DS)
			↗
Atelier Rorona (PS3)	→	New Atelier Rorona (PS3/PS Vita)
			↘
				Atelier Rorona DX (PS4/Switch)

It screams early PS3 as much as you can imagine. The motions are off (try running around and jump and see how the animation doesn't match), and the camera is fixed-angle (sideways, not top-down). Also, adult Rorona (in Atelier Lulua) is cuter than Rorona in Atelier Rorona, due to the changed drawing style and changed outfit. Not much else to say at this moment.

In other news, I pre-ordered Void Terrarium and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MEGA39's.

[Nester the Lark]

I haven't been focused on any specific game. I'm mainly bouncing off different things until other new games come out.

I've been playing a bit of Star Fox Zero. It's been a while since I've last played, and I thought it might take some time to get used to the controls again, but it actually didn't take long at all. My old muscle memory is still there. I still need to finish all 20 routes through the game.

You probably know I've been playing Vs. Super Mario Bros. I ended up using save states to get to the end, and I was actually relieved to find out that, unlike the NES version, there is no second loop. The arcade version is harder than the NES version, but in some cases, it's just cheap. The route through the repeating "maze" in 7-4 is different, and the new route expects you to get it right the first time, otherwise, I'm not sure it would be possible to do it on subsequent repetitions. Basically, you have to already know the solution.

Also picked up the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle:

- Final Fight: Still a classic. It just "feels right" the same way Street Fighter II does.
- The King of Dragons: A little simple, but addictive. Definitely a precursor to the Dungeons & Dragons arcade games (which I still have on Wii U). I quite enjoy this one.
- Captain Commando: Feels like Capcom was trying to imitate some of Konami's beat 'em ups, like TMNT, but lacks the style and personality of those games.
- Knights of the Round: They tried to add some depth with a blocking mechanic, but I didn't find this one too interesting.
- Warriors of Fate: This is my least favorite. It was just boring and unremarkable to me.
- Armored Warriors: Surprisingly complex for a beat 'em up. But it has a lot of depth, plays well, and almost feels like a Treasure game.
- Battle Circuit: At first, I didn't think much of this one, but I find myself coming back to it often. It's everything Captain Commando was trying to be, except way better. Plus, I can play as a pink one-eyed ostrich.

[nocturnal YL]

Some early impression on Rorona DX:

• Of the games I've played so far, it feels closer to Nelke than Lulua. Or rather, Lulua feels closer to the newer games with some Arland systems ported to it, gameplay-wise. Nelke mixed systems from multiple generations.
• The controls changed, and the UI is much more primitive. With the newer games I can freely jump between item selection and item description, and between descriptions of related items. Here, I can't even view what categories each material is in from the item synthesis menu.
• I had to re-learn a lot of things, naturally. Experience in Nelke helps. This is my first main series Atelier game with time limit, and I'm a bit nervous.
• It feels kind of weird to look at the story while already knowing what will happen in the coming 20+ years in their lives.
• Proper character events with full voice acting are in this game.
• Jumping into a new series like this reminds me of back when I started going through the Fire Emblem games. I started at the 8th game 12 years into the series' history there, but with Atelier I started at the 19th game, 20 years into its history, and it's known for changing game mechanics all the time.
• And speaking of these two series, they share a lot of things. Both have the 1st to 5th and 6th to 10th games feeling different from the newer ones, both started as turn-based resource management games and gravitated towards infinite grinding later on, and both have a few recurring characters.

Jan 11, 2020 15:07:11 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

I've been playing a bit of Star Fox Zero. It's been a while since I've last played, and I thought it might take some time to get used to the controls again, but it actually didn't take long at all. My old muscle memory is still there. I still need to finish all 20 routes through the game.

It makes me wonder, are you good at action games in general? The only things I did in Star Fox Zero was clear the main route and see the ending, and opening up the route to Fortuna (but not defeat Monarch Dodora). The control alone wouldn't be a huge obstacle, but the game itself still felt too hard for me, and since I have to restart the whole area after getting a game over and I start at about 5 lives, it wasn't long before I gave up on the game entirely.

[Nester the Lark]

Jan 14, 2020 13:44:45 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

It makes me wonder, are you good at action games in general? The only things I did in Star Fox Zero was clear the main route and see the ending, and opening up the route to Fortuna (but not defeat Monarch Dodora). The control alone wouldn't be a huge obstacle, but the game itself still felt too hard for me, and since I have to restart the whole area after getting a game over and I start at about 5 lives, it wasn't long before I gave up on the game entirely.

I don't know if I want to judge my own action game skills, but I'll say I'm decent. I can do well enough, but I'm far from pulling in the most impressive scores.

I would say, though, that Zero is probably the most challenging Star Fox game, at least compared to default difficulty of previous games. Controls aside, enemies are constantly coming at you from all directions, they have really good aim, and some of them, particularly members of Star Wolf, are quite smart when it comes to deflecting your shots and getting on your tail. It's hard enough to deal with all that while also trying to line up your own shots, but that's the kind of skill that builds up over time.

[Nester the Lark]

So, I've been trying to keep busy replaying games I already have.

I actually started an Ys VIII New Game+ on Nightmare difficulty last January, but I put it aside when Tokyo Mirage Sessions came out. I've recently gone back it. Even Nightmare difficulty is fairly easy at first when all your characters start out with levels in the high 70s, but I've just recruited Hummel, and the difficulty is starting to catch up with me. I've already gotten a game over. (And actually, I failed the first raid the first time I tried it, but all of the defense upgrades were reset. I wasn't allowed to re-upgrade them again until later, which I was able to do 100 percent all at once.)

I've also gone back to my Fire Emblem: Three Houses Crimson Flower playthrough. I'm post-time skip, and the one student I wanted to recruit, but wasn't able to, was Lysithea. However, I was still able to recruit her when I defeated her in battle. I haven't looked into how recruitment works post-time skip, so it was a nice surprise. (I beat her with Dorothea, so I guess it had nothing to do with defeating her with Byleth or a member of her own house. Maybe it's just because I was close to the recruitment criteria?)

I was not given that opportunity with Hilda (and I used a fair number of Divine Pulses trying to see if I could trigger it somehow), so I ended up having to kill her. Oh well, that's what she gets for being lazy.

[nocturnal YL]

Byleth. It's always Byleth. Others can't recruit them. Similarly, for those who may or may not die in story (like Claude in Crimson Flower), their fates are decided by whether Byleth is the one taking them down.

Lysithea will be part of your party if you manage to recruit her beforehand. Make good use of the ability to raise support levels early in subsequent playthroughs.

Hilda is not recruitable in this route. You can walk past her and target right at Claude (Warp abuse and range abuse; and if you have Lysithea and used her frequently, she should one-shot Claude), and thus avoid killing Hilda, but the chapter-end dialog won't reflect this.

---

Now that I think of it, I have one final things in Ys VIII that I didn't get to do; the Silent Tower B2 boss. My party is at about level 72, and I wanted to grind a bit more but can't find easy ways to grind beyond level 70.

Nothing much to say about me. I'm juggling between three games:

Atelier Rorona DX — 1/3 into it; I've been slow because I'm nervous about time management games, even though the game indicates that I'm doing fine.

Project DIVA Future Tone DX — The one game I said I'd quit but never did. Finally got my first ★9 perfect (Saihate EXTRA EXTREME, which feels more like an ★8), but there are always just a few more songs I can see some potential for perfects (beucase I generally get better over time).

Project DIVA MEGA39's (Mega Mix) — Mix Mode is a complete nightmare. Some call this Future Tone lite, but it's actually more difficult. Not only did the hardest Arcade Mode charts return, but Mix Mode requires an insane amount of eye/wrist/thumb/rhythm/flow coordination. Unlike Arcade Mode, I've only perfected ★6.5 songs thus far. I haven't seen ★10 perfects online either. The best I can find is ROKI HARD ★9.

And I still have 6 games I haven't played (Void Terrarium, Atelier Totori DX / Meruru DX / Ayesha DX / Escha & Logy DX / Shallie DX) and a few more I want to go back to (Fire Emblem Three Houses DLC, Luigi's Mansion 3 if that game's online is still a thing), and potentially new games.

Forget 2020; game publishers can announce nothing of my interest in 2021 and I'll be completely fine with it.

[Nester the Lark]

Apr 16, 2020 8:02:15 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Byleth. It's always Byleth. Others can't recruit them. Similarly, for those who may or may not die in story (like Claude in Crimson Flower), their fates are decided by whether Byleth is the one taking them down.

I... don't know what to say. I absolutely did not recruit her before the time skip, and I defeated her with Dorothea. I then got the option to either persuade her to join me or kill her. A glitch, perhaps?

I did defeat Claude with Byleth, and chose to spare him. He then requested I not kill any of his students, and I'm thinking, "Uh, guys, don't tell him about Hilda..." XD

[nocturnal YL]

I may have outdated information, actually. I got that from when the game was new and everyone was still trying to figure out how everything works. I'm fairly certain that characters that can be spared but not join can only be spared with Byleth, but maybe this is not the case for Lysithea and/or Ashe and Lorenz.

I can't confirm this myself short of a new playthrough (and not for Lysithea, since recruiting her is basically the first thing I do in each playthrough).

[Nester the Lark]

OK, so checking some guides and Fire Emblem Wiki, apparently Lysithea can be recruited in Crimson Flower Chapter 14 regardless of who defeats her.

[Nester the Lark]

Finished my playthrough of the Crimson Flower route in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Part II was shorter than I thought it would be. It was kind of depressing, though. Glad it's over.

I figured if I ever do a third playthrough, I might as well get the DLC, but with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition just around the corner, I won't be thinking about that anytime in the near future.

Also, I got SNK Gals' Fighters about a week ago. It originally came out for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 2000 at the end of the system's lifespan, so it was a bit of a rarity. It's cool that SNK brought it to Switch.

The game, itself, is fairly bare bones. Only eight characters, plus three unlockable characters, each with their own (simple) ending. The only game modes are Q.O.F. (single-player), VS., and Training. But the game is fun, plays well, and has a lot of charm.

Something interesting about it is how it uses the Switch's touchscreen in handheld mode. If you've seen footage of it, then you've noticed it uses an actual Neo Geo Pocket Color as the border around the screen. It's actually not just for decoration, as you can detach the joy-cons, and play the game using the on-screen buttons. (Of course, you can also just zoom in and make the screen larger.) Also, if you play in VS. Mode, it will divide the screen, simulating linked NGPC's. Pretty cool they took advantage of the Switch like that.

It also makes me wish that SNK had just made a straight up Gals' Fighters 2 instead of SNK Heroines.

[nocturnal YL]

So… another period of almost no progress. Yay!

Actually, I've spent much time not playing, because I was trying to perfect Meiteki Cybernetics (EXTRA EXTREME ★9) in Future Tone. It's physically demanding especially at this level (I'm still a casual player), so I often don't play whenever I'm tired or don't feel like it. I did get better over time, and my last attempt had me missing only 2 notes. But being too fixated on this one goal means I didn't have motivation to plug my HDMI cable back to the Switch, and I didn't want to play in handheld mode at home (I still play when outside or at work during breaks), thus the slow progress.

I did manage to convince myself to ease my mind (which led to the almost-perfect). There's no real need to hurry, especially since this game is still getting new contents and I'll have to get back to it anyway. A new MEGA39's announcement (which is surprising by itself) is coming in 4 days; hopefully they're also releasing the Future Tone DLC by then.

Anyway, I freed myself up a bit to play other games. And my mind wandered to Fire Emblem (again). I haven't started my 3rd Three Houses playthrough yet, instead turning to Fire Emblem Warriors, something I have 100% completed a long time ago. Well, 100% except getting all crests, getting everyone to level 150 and getting the desired attributes for all character-specific weapons, but my team is already way overpowered as is. FE Warriors isn't a big game, but its music keeps getting me back.

I don't know if I'll get to Three Houses again soon; my queue of games just keeps getting longer at this point, and Paper Mario: The Origami King is coming soon. There are already so many games I'm mildly interested in, but got skipped because I priortise series I'm familiar with.

On other news, I'm about halfway done in Atelier Rorona DX (1½ out of 3 years), not counting the extra 1-year post-game. I've pretty much given up on getting all endings at this point. Suffice to say, I can totally see why the time (turn) limit didn't make a serious return ever since Atelier Ayesha.

[Nester the Lark]

Currently, I'm right before the endgame in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. I'm putting off finishing it until I've completed Colony 6. As far as that goes, the reconstruction is complete, and I am currently searching for new residents to fill out the population.

I'm not sure if I'll jump straight into Future Connected after that. My right Joy-Con has been drifting, and I think I might want to get that repaired first. That will mean no Xenoblade for at least a week, so it might be the best time to take a break.

In related news, I got the Xenoblade theme in Tetris 99.

A few weeks ago, I got Sega Ages: Columns II when it was on sale. It was kind of on a whim, as I've never really been a big Columns fan, and I'm not very good at it, but I guess I was just in the right mood. Since then, I've spent far more time playing it than I expected. I'm still not terribly good at it, though.