
Hurray! I burnt out on Persona Q1 but it was a fun experience for 50+ hours.
And... it's an SRPG, and not really a notable one, at that. It's an intersection of just about every current cliché in Japanese role-playing games: you play as a boy who has a unique gift to awaken the magical powers of a cast of partially-dressed female characters through a ritual that's an obvious metaphor for sex; between missions, you have a limited amount of free time to spend however you'd like, including getting a part-time job, boosting your stats, or spending time with your team mates to improve the bond between you, unlocking new abilities with each relationship milestone; and of course, your ultimate adversary is a villain from the moon who is God with a host of angels.
I got "bingo", how about you?
Yup, sounds about what I expected. People went gaga over Luminous Arc on DS due to the production values, which were great for the DS, but the game was so bland and fit mid-2000's anime and JRPG tropes to a T. Sounds like Stella Glow continues that trend, but uses the current tropes, which I find even less endearing than those from a decade+ ago.
Thanks for taking one for the team.
It's the Year of Luigi!
Good reference.
I started Hey! Pikmin last night, a game that I think everyone lost interest in before the first trailer had even ended because it wasn't a proper Pikmin game.
After an hour or so, I can say with confidence: it's not a proper Pikmin game, but it might still be a good one? It's a Pikmin-themed puzzle platformer where you can't jump but can through your units around, and so far I've enjoyed it for what it is. I suspect anyone expecting a real Pikmin game would be disappointed, but I've long thought that part of being a Nintendo fan is gamely going along with it when they decide to use characters you know and love in games completely divorced from what you know and love about them.
I played the demo of it when they first released it. My memory is that I thought of it as a fun game in its own right, and if it had come out when the 3DS was my primary console I probably would have bought it.
I love my Switch too much though, it'd take a lot to get me to buy a new 3DS game at the moment. Samus Returns might do it at some stage.
I've been on a bit of a 3DS trip this past couple weeks. Sampling demos I've missed, picking away at Trio of Towns and revisiting an old favourite in Rhythm Paradise Megamix... and very nearly purchasing a few like Warioware Gold and Samus Returns.
Not played anything on PS4* or PC since digging the handheld out of the drawer.
The 3DS might have just about reached the end of its lifespan, but it'll be a fair while yet before I say bye bye.
*Edit. Oh apart from Rime with the boy.
Double edit, I might have to try that Pikmin demo. Ta.
I really liked what I played of Monster Hunter Stories. It's dawning on me recently that I fall off too many games that I'm enjoying way too easily.
It's got the style of MH but given a super cute makeover. Like it's gone through Pokefier.
I stalled out on the games I was already playing (Hey! Pikmin, Stella Glow, and Persona Q), so I started up Monster Hunter Stories.
I can see stalling on Stella Glow and Persona Q, but you had a bit of a positive response to Hey! Pikmin. I'm a tad surprised that one got stalled out. How long did it take before you just didn't feel it? Do you expect to return to it?
However, I find the last part of each hunt, when you're chasing down wounded animals to finish them off, emotionally distressing enough that I've mostly set aside the entire franchise.
I recall you mentioning that, and I remember seeing it a bit for myself when my friend showed me Monster Hunter on the WiiU. Of course, my response was closer to "Oh cool, they actually change behavior!" I was curious if I'd be bothered by it too, but in Monster Hunter World it feels so mechanical that, no matter how good the rendering, I see through the illusion.
Now, I don't bring this up to counter-argue your feelings or say it's not a big deal or whatever. I'm more curious if there are experienced Monster Hunter players that might say "Yeah, they toned down that element in World" or something. Regardless of whether they did or not, however, I can see feeling sympathy even for a fictional creature that's just trying to limp on back to its home.
I stalled out on PQ as well although that was after 60 hours.
Now, I don't bring this up to counter-argue your feelings or say it's not a big deal or whatever. I'm more curious if there are experienced Monster Hunter players that might say "Yeah, they toned down that element in World" or something. Regardless of whether they did or not, however, I can see feeling sympathy even for a fictional creature that's just trying to limp on back to its home.
No, the limping behavior in World the same as in every other MH game. The impact might be even worse for Clock than MH3 because of how much more realistically the monsters are rendered.
Clocky, did you ever play Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey?
The base game (Bowser's Inside Story) has been in my backlog for years, and I'm finally going to finish it this month. I'm definitely not going to get the expanded game because I don't have any interest in replaying the base game after I finish, but I'm curious if the extra content is really good, or just more of the same.
Yeah, I'm glad I didn't really connect Final Fantasy Explorers with an imitation of Monster Hunter or else I'd have never tried out World. It's not that I disliked Explorers, my roommate and I tried playing it co-op for a while, but it just... I mean, it's actually pretty forgettable, and it really failed to engage me in any meaningful way.
I wouldn't be surprised if you drop that one.
I've started Bravely Second just recently. Enjoying it but not a fan of some of the mobile game mechanics that they decided to include.
My 3DS is on ice for the moment but it had a good run. Finished DQ7, Xenoblade Chronicles and Bravely Default 2nd. That's probably 200 hours.
I also played through Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, which was fun-ish. I'm not a huge fan of the Yoshi series because I've never much cared for the controls, especially egg-spitting. However, this game has a pretty fun assist mode that make the whole thing a breeze. It was a really relaxing game.
The ability to aim your eggs in Crafted World seems to work well so far. I'm finding the game really relaxing too, in spite of feeling like I need to hunt down all the collectibles.
I'm now working my way through Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for a replay. It's substantially better than the first game in most ways, although the mission structure is a bit weird, especially when some of the collectibles in a location are available in any mission and some are only available in specific missions, for reasons I don't quite understand.
This is on my list of games that I'd like to play before my 3DS is retired. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Let me know if you figure out a strategy for the ice world boss. My second playthrough stalled on that guy and is largely what keeps me from going back.
I'm now working my way through Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for a replay. It's substantially better than the first game in most ways, although the mission structure is a bit weird, especially when some of the collectibles in a location are available in any mission and some are only available in specific missions, for reasons I don't quite understand.
I very much enjoyed playing Luigi's Mansion 2 ( as we call it in the UK) but I did miss the format of the first game compared to the second.
That said, I did come to appreciate it as the game went on and it's pick up and play ability compared to the GameCube's sit down sessions.
I thought the visuals were great, with the 3D on the 'New' hardware really making a difference.
The music is also stellar, Pro E Gadd's little hip hop beat will always be cool but the rest of the score was also very fitting. I think compared, naturally, to the first game the music sets a different tone - somewhat more jubilant.
King Boo, is soooo cool with his hulking presence, mean dark eyes and jewel crown. Proff, E.Gadd, is his usual slightly selfishly agenda’d self and what seems to me like an eastern European charm.
The ghosts are possibly the stars of the show in the second game, with again individual stereotypical character design to match their appearance. The cheekiness of the green ghosts capturing what seemed like to me an adolescent mischief making pest. very good.
The controls are OK, the ability to use the gyro-scope in the 3DS helps – if you’re used to that type of controller input I feel it’s something that you can really make the most of, other than that you‘ll be constantly flicking between X & B to aim up and down with your Poltergust, something that initially never felt totally natural to me and in a panic would result in all sorts of crazy moves but by the third area, I was totally down with it, not even thinking about the control inputs and pulling off all kinds of crazy 360 sucking and blowing moves.
Again, comparing it to the first one, unfairly perhaps but naturally, it doesn’t feel as good as on the GameCube controller which was a perfect fit and gave fabulous feedback with the triggers, proper analogue stick and rumble.
The games not hard, the difficulty comes from the unknown, not knowing the trick or the necessary dance required to make the ghosts vulnerable. The isolation is lost from the first game though I feel, I’d spend tens of minutes sometimes wondering around trying to work out what I had to do to trigger ghost to appear, or where to go next. Often, I’d do the old switch it off and come back to it a day later trick. With Dark Moon you can simply just keep pushing and you’ll chop through it in no time.
That said, some of the Boss fights (Clock Tower & Treacherous Mansion) are challenging and I failed them a few times, lambasting the pull of a ghost or a non drop.
What’s annoying is that once you complete the mission task, sometimes without being abundantly clear that you are doing so – it will pull you out back to E Gadd without the opportunity to look about, or pick things up – a few times I missed out on loot or things I’d spotted as I’d unintentionally fulfilled a task and got zapped back to Gadd. I didn’t like that.
Overall though, I really enjoyed my time with it and I'm looking forward to the third entry come the end of the year.
I'm not really sure how I want to be set out though, whether I'd prefer the classic single mansion option with gated doors and riddles, or something more akin to the second game - either way I think I'd be happy with either but I think I'd prefer the original style.
I also dipped my toe into online multiplayer that I found was still rather active and quiet fun.
These were my ending results.
And if you're the type who likes collectibles, there are some really fun and clever collectibles in each area.
Collectibles? I love collectibles! You wanna see the Caramel Billboards that I collected from throughout three different courses in Yoshi's Crafted World??
There's bound to be some event or time in the near future when I'll need the extra portability of 3DS. Luigi's Mansion and Samus Returns are both top of my list for when that happens.
Edit: Would ya look at that, Samus Returns just went on sale on the EU eshop... 33% off. Time to put my money where my mouth is.
I loved the first Luigi's Mansion, but I couldn't get into Dark Moon. I ended up dropping the game after a couple of hours. The mission structure made the entire game feel like a chore to play by forcing you to replay the same areas over and over again. The first game was a short Metoidvania that didn't waste your time with artificial padding. I appreciated that. I hope that the next game goes back to the structure of the first game.
Pages