Ocean's Heart (Switch)

 

Looks like the opening to Breath of the Wild

Midsummer 2024 have passed and right before I got this game on a sale. I saved it to my Wishlist thinking it was part of the Oceanhorn games, which wasn't the case. I mean, it had a blue clothed blond hero in a legend of Zelda template off a game with Ocean in the name? It wasn't, but it was a fine game. It start on an island where your character train to be a volounter navy soldier to protect the islands from pirates by her father. Pirates attack and kidnaps Hazel, an herb collector so your father follows so after a couple of months you set out yourself to find your father and Hazel.

So you travel the islands looking for pirates uncovering the story that Blackbeard the pirate is looking for the Ocean's Heart, a magical artefact belonging to Sea King who was destroyed using it since it could cause the destruction of the world. You follow clues until you find Hazel that helps you find the Sea King's Sword that can dispel curses and so on. Then you follow Blackbeard to the ancient palace where you defeat the guardian, get the heart, but Blackbeard steals it and you kill him, destroy the heart and reunites with your dad and Hazel back home.

Simple story, most gameplay is finding items and upgrades that allows you to explore more. Game looks a lot like A Link the Past. With more pirates. Only took a weekend to play through. Not that hard, but some parts of the game design irks me the wrong way. Mostly is that a lot of the dungeons forced me to go back and forth since a key opened an area here, but only brought me to another key that opened a door on the other side of the map. Take Zelda games, I feel the dungeons tend to flow so they brought you back to where you needed the item you get to continue forward. Also, the game gets some real slowdowns at times and when it goes away the main character speed up dramatically (or so it feels). 

Overall, nice enough game.

Golden Sun: The Broken Seal (Wii U)

 

Finally!

Difficulties at work made me crave some nostalgic feelings and maybe it was time to replay the game I once called the best game ever. Especially since it was 6 years since last as of writing. So no story or such since I already covered that in depth. I think I played it on the Wii U last time, but since I didn't have a decent TV I think I used the Wii U gamepad and I gotta say, playing on a big screen with a Wii U Pro Controller felt rather well. Only problem with it I would liked to have utilised more of the buttons, but that is due to the Game Boy Advance controllers. 

So what did I do to spice it up? I decided to change my classes beyond the mono-elemental one I usually do. In the first game it doesn't work that well until you get 6 djinn of each element to gain some interesting combos. So I picked up my Prima Guide and had it beside me during the whole game. Then I began noticing certain things. For example giving Ivan Flint in the beginning and defeating the three thieves makes the game give you back Flint so that you won't miss him... even if it only is really a few minutes. It actually made it easier in most parts since I didn't have to think about growth psynergy or such since I already had it.

Then it was the artefact weapons and armor. Most of them in the early game is kinda worthless. The bandit sword is already out paced by the normal weapons you can buy before getting it. What's the point? And that keeps up until something like Altin. I read somewhere someone complaining that they didn't have money so maybe that, but I just played it normally and sold off all Water of Life and other consumables meaning I had enough money for pretty much anything. No problem. Maybe they didn't explore enough.

I also decided to do the game really out of order in my usual style. For example I headed for Imil and Mercury Lighthouse before Kolima Woods. Got my ass beat my Saturnos, so I headed back to Kolima and did that before returning with more djinn and levels. Went a lot easier. I forgot that I should have skipped the Force Orb for that special cutscene in the Altin Mines, have to wait for the next playthrough in 2030. Defeated the Cyclone monster in the desert before finishing Colosso, saw another text with Sheba before she left Tolbi which I haven't seen before. Read also that you could see the colors of the stones in Altmiller Cave with Reveal which was a cool tidbit. Never knew that since I wrote down what Babi said so I wasn't lost. Speaking about Altmiller Cave I found out that the Prima Guide has an error. The guide says that the Dragon Shield is in the cave, but it is in Altin Mine. Think it was a vial there, but they probably confused the vial with the Mystic Draught. Went through the Babi Lighthouse section and headed out so I could finish off Crossbone Island. I actually went back there as quickly I had the appropriate psynergy. Still, Carry is the final one and that is in Venus Lighthouse. After that I killed Dreadbeard at level 28, started up my old save that was for level grinding so I had 42 and grinded to 44 so that Ivan had the Tornado psynergy and then I beat the game and is prepared for the next game.

Overall I fell in love with the game again. The Music, the graphics and the story just makes me happy. So since there is probably no reason for them to release Golden Sun 4 at the moment the best I can hope for is probably some kinda remake. Best option would be the first 2 games remade into one. Would I change somethings? I would prefer if running was the default, more buttons to use and maybe some tweaks so that early weapons actually is useful. The main characters don't default to defend if the target dies before a strike. A bestiary and maybe some added content. If both games are combines I would gladly take a New Game+ where the levels just continues so that you can grind to lvl 99 and max all stats. Another thing is maybe add a store or such that actually sells something like Oil Drops or Weasel Claws so that you can use different play styles. They can also put in a growth psynergy to Isaac like they did for Matthew. And more inventory space. There's like 5 open spaces when you are decked out with weapons, armor, accessories and psynergy items. I would enjoy that, but question if I still would bitch about the game straying from the pure original.

Chrono Cross (Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition) (Switch)

 

Through the Dimensions

Took me a while since I started it right after playing through the Radical Dreamers. And that post was published in 2023 and I assume I played it some months before that. It's a remake of a PS1 game from 1999 and a sequel to the SNES Chrono Trigger. Story is that the young boy Serge have dream of him, a girl and a puppy wandering through a fortress, he wakes up and has too collects items for his... I assume they hint at girlfriend... and he is transported through a dimensional portal. He ends up in the same world, albeit different. Like the fact that he was supposed to have died 14 years earlier drowning in the ocean. He gets the help of Kid, the girl that appeared in Radical Dreamers and he helps her to find the Frozen Flame in Viper Manor... this is basically the Radical Dreamers again. Lynx is also here as the main antagonist. After a lot of adventures you end up at the Fort Dragonia which is where the game started. And redoing the steps you face Lynx, Kid gets killed (?) and suddenly Lynx steals your body. You play as Lynx from this time on and tries to get into the Sea of Eden where the connections with Chrono Trigger becomes apparent. Shadows of Chrono, Lucca and Marle is there and the Bell in the town square. And the first boss I really has trouble with. To fix it I guess I had to go back to town, get red elemental magic to combine with and choose a team that adhere to that. I didn't so I got beaten up and in the end I quit for a time. 

And a year or so later it hit me, all these remasters Square Enix put out have things that make this game easier right? Speed-up and boost right? So I got to it and what did they do? They made you invincible since the battle system doesn't work like Final Fantasy games where they just gives you constant special attacks. And here is probably best to describe the game mechanics. There is levels, and yet not. Defeating a boss gives you a star level and with it a stat boost that goes to all characters. In between the bosses you can fight say 5-10 enemies and get mini stat boosts, like HP and one of those gives you something better. After that you don't level up until the next boss. Meaning the challenge is constantly scaled. Which forces you to learn the magic system and such. And I'm bad at that. Maybe if the equipment side would compensate, but either I didn't get it, since I ended using the quick smithy thing and decked them out with that and nothing else seemed to come up, except the rainbow equipment, which I never got around to since I couldn't get the hammer the smith asked for.

And that isn't mentioning the most problematic thing about this game. It has 45 characters to play as... Jesus. And people complained that Final Fantasy VI had 16 characters. You see the problem here? If you only get those mini-level ups by fighting monsters? Do you need to use them all? Yeah, if you want to min-max yes but doesn't matter. But how can you keep all these characters separated? Especially hard since they actually have counterparts in the other dimension. So you are gonna confuse them. I prefer parties that have set characters for this reason, I might grow with them and feel for them. The only one that matters is Serge, and Kid, but she is killed half-way through. And in the end I just used Pascal the pirate and the alien guy, who for some reason is very important for the story since you need his UFO to get to Terra Tower where the Time Devourer awaits... and you fly there with a machine from the UFO installed on the sail boat. It's f***ing awesome!

I might not like the battle system and all the characters, but it was a bit of fun. Graphics are nice, music great and the story draws me in. First the question on where Serge ended up and then what happened at Fort Dragonia. Then getting to Chronopolis, a city pushed back 10 000 years from the future and Terra Tower, another city brought back 10 000 year. How the story begins claiming humans to be infestation on the Earth since they are "children of Lavos" compared to the Reptites and the dragons that are part of the Earth. Lynx is actually your father corrupted by FATE, the computer that... I don't remember, the story goes crazy here. Kid is actually the clone of Schala and so on. It's so convoluted I actually like it.

The problem though makes it hard for me to know where to go. Several points I ran back and fourth through all locations in order to figure out where to go, and I didn't use the no encounter button. Gets tedious, especially since you don't gain levels beyond the first points. Don't say no to money and items and such. Doesn't help that you might need the right character, do you have the item? So many variables that it makes it hard to get it for me. Coming back a year or so later made it rather hard to guess what all items I carried did, but at least I got it working to power through the end. Helped that all battles was made easy by being invincible. Still, found the final battle interesting since you have to use the Chrono Cross to get the good ending, and how do you use it? I got that since the chimes and colours that appears after getting it is important and that being seven means I have to use the different magics to create a pattern. But it only works on the end boss and I get that climbing the Terrra Tower tells you the pattern, and that the second to last boss uses that pattern himself. I got that since I looked it up before and could see that it was the pattern. The game is a bit obtuse is all I'm saying. 

Still, I can't say I didn't like it. Maybe playing it in New Game+ works better, but this is a game that if you gotta 100% it you need a guide. Another complaint people have was that this game actually undoes everything you did in Chrono Trigger. That message was that you could change the future, every game over screen have that the future refused to change and in the end you did it, Lavos defeated and everyones happy. Well, not here. Lavos conjures a city back in time which forces the dragon gods to summon a reptilian city from the future and so on. What then do I think about it? Eh, in another dimension Chrono succeeded, this is more like a what if. They even hint that Radical Dreamers is an alternate dimension so why not the original Chrono? Like the third timeline in Zelda it might be one part where they die and so on. Really, the only time that bothers me would be if it goes in a boring direction. I can't say they went there. As said the story goes bonkers and I kinda like it. Can understand why not the whispered about third entry Chrono Break never got made cause where are you gonna go? Didn't think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would tie in with the others, but they did. And I saw it floating around that they registered Chrono Break again so who knows.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch)

Throw a book at them!

Yet another GameCube-remake, this time of a game I actually finished... not that long ago either... 6 YEARS AGO? Boy, must have played it as soon as I got my home. Should probably play Golden Sun again so I can get a remake of that as well, but that was 6 years ago as well. Got nothing to add really since the last playthrough regarding story or so. Same story. They changed some lines, no catcalling goombas in the sewer and Vivian clearly a trans-character in this. Somehow this was controversial before the games release, but I don't really care, I get to send a shadow demon queen back to the abyss with jumps!

Mostly the remake have been upgrading is the graphics with what people speculate is the Origami King-engine. Now, I can't instantly see that the graphics have been improved unless someone shows me a side by side comparison. As someone said, it looks like I remember the game to look. Especially since last time I was using a small screen so it will probably look rather awful at my current setup. I now that they also added a match with Prince Mush, the former champion of the Glitzpit, which I haven't beaten, my attacks just stops working after passing 50 % health. I beat everything else like Bonetail, and every trouble, all star pieces and upgraded all characters. Which unlocks all the art galleries and music players. Best addition probably the increased coin purse sine it goes to 9999 instead of 999. Less need to use coins constantly and actually have a buffer for special occasions.

Game stills great. Fun and engaging. They also apparently added some shortcuts which minimise the traveling time between areas and thank god for that with the General White quest and side-quest. Hope this will make Nintendo do another adventure like this. The badge system is so fun since it gives you freedom to play however you want as long as you got the badges. I ended powering up Mario to max in jumping, even disabling the hammer for extra damage. Kinda fun hitting 7 damage constantly. If I was a bit more daring I might even have lowered the hp get more badgepoints to push danger (5 hp or lower) and critical (1 hp) extra damage. Of course, one hit and your dead so better be good at those super guards.

So I tried it for Prince Mush, and I got so close so many times. I get him down to 9 hp and then I have to time the damn super guard to be able to damage him. I make it in the beginning to get him to the second phase but after that I just can't seem to do it, and I use both simplifier badges I have. Either start leveling up for more bagde points or actually get good at the game... might be time to change game.

A DnD tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Lost in Omu (part 3)

 

They dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to El Dorado and the Mysterious Cities of Gold.

So back at it again our brave heroes heads of with their newly acquired airship on their way to Omu, cutting the 60-70 days of traveling down to 3. The crew of the ship tells them that their destination is very close to the place where they were attacked by flying monster that made their ship crash. And as they approach 10 gargoyles attack them from all directions. Since they have two people that can use Cone of Cold they make short work with them even if they have limited range attack. After the battle we also learn that the blood spear Immeral is carrying actually gives a +2 magic bonus to attack rolls and damage... which is kinda typical us, especially since we used the last session to just fix the characters sheet, make new characters in case of and look up things that was written. We missed that detail though.

After that they arrived in Omu. Freya, Immeral, Hope and Destinova goes alone into the city to check it out. They encounter a destroyed Thay encampment where wild dogs are eating the corpses and below the rubble they find a man, dying of exhaustion. They save him and he tells them of the nine shrines of the gods and the poem that tells them about the keys that will open the way to the tomb. The players get that they should look for the nine keys so they continue walking. Here I gotta say I'm a bit disappointed in the official map set for this module. First, all the maps needed to be larger, and the hex crawl really needed better lines between the hexes so that you could follow along. And the city maps probably needed indicators where things where better since it didn't help my players so they gave me a direction and I had to push them to the different locations. Better than nothing, but still. 

They found the first shrine they could find with the unicorn rabbit. One of the easier shrines actually since there isn't a death trap that instantly kills you. But my sisters are still too stupid to understand the riddles. I had the floor plan for this shrine printed out with the different symbols and such and they stare at it for 10 minutes and then roll enough to get the answer from Destinova (my DMPC). They didn't understand it was the floor, but thought it was a wall mural... even though I clearly stated it was the floor. At least they are getting a bit paranoid. They avoid being hit by one of the axes since I rolled a 1 so it jammed the mechanism. They got the cube and left.

Next stop was the destroyed encampment belong to the Company of the Yellow Banner where they found the note about them getting into the tomb, hinting again about the cubes and such. Then they found the destroyed wagon where they notice the stone below it where they can copy the old Omu text so that they don't have to use a spell to comprehend languages every shrine or so. We end here since its around 15:00 and my sisters doesn't wanna end up in a shrine to figure it out again or in a fight. Good for them since next up is the colosseum and the fight with the King of Feathers. So I can prepare that so we have a great battle!

Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising (Switch)

Red and Blue, the main character colors

Decided to get the game Eiyuden Chronicles, but the physical game doesn't release until a month or so after the digital release so I got the prequel that was released a year earlier. Eiyduen Chronicles is supposed to be a spiritual successor to the Suikoden games where the first two games was supposed to be rereleased in 2023, but got moved to 2024 and as of writing (early may 2024) no words of when they are gonna be out. So I might play through them on my PS3 as I snapped them up on the Classic releases years ago. 

That game was a full on JRPG with battle mechanics, this game though is an action-rpg plattformer where you go through several areas to mine materials and fight enemies to help the people in this little town that have been struck by an earthquake. You play as the scavenger girl CJ (as we learn in the end credits scene means "Crown Jewels") who look for a bigger treasure than her father so that she can go home due to her homes rite of passage. You begin helping the town to get access to the Barrows that exists below the town. Together with the kangaroo samurai Garoo and the acting-mayor Isha, who can use magic without rune lenses (rune lenses grants magic for some reason), you explore the forest, quarry and barrows around the village. Turns out that the town is besieged by bandits that in reality are soldiers of the Empire that looks for rune lenses. 

The Barrow was also sealed long ago to stop an evil sorcerer from escaping and turns out that he still there, possessing Daksa, Isha's father and the lost mayor of the town. Apparently the sorcerer created a sigil that created rune lenses in people in order to harvest them, and this in turn created Isha's magic. She's not the first one from that town and it seems to be a curse upon the town with a person being born once in a blue moon with blue hair and magic and a rune lense in their body that will kill them before growing up. So of course you destroy them.

It was a fun game. Got really addictive with the gameplay loop of going through areas to collect resources, solving quest and upgrade the town to get more stuff. Mostly the story beats and some of the characters will probably appear in the main game. CJ, Isha and Garoo feels like a no brainer, as well as Melora the magic girl and the mercenary samurai that protects the village. And the imperial bad guy of course. 30 hours to 100 % everything. Might try Suikoden 1, heard some say it's only 8 hours. 

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD (Switch)

 

What it's supposed to look like

Well, more Final Fantasy and I pretty much only have one game left besides playing the original games again... and the sequels to XIII on the PS3... or the sequel to IV I got for the Wii, but ease of start and play is really better on the Switch. So it was XV the Pocket edition in HD. I don't have a Playstation 4 or 5 so this was the best way to play it. I read somewhere someone didn't know who this is for, like everyone got a phone that can play this or you got a Playstation. Well, apparently it's for me who don't want to play games on a phone and doesn't have a newer Playstation. So let's wait 5 years until I got around to it.

So basically, you play prince Noctis on his way to his wedding with the lady Lunafreya. With him he has three friends, Gladiolous the muscle, Ignis the smart guy and Prompto the wisecracking one. After getting their car fixed by Cid and Cindy news reach that the Empire have attacked their kingdom and killed Noctis father the king in order to get a ring and crystal. On their journey they bump into the empire's chancellor Ardyn that seems to help them for some reason. Suddenly we start to collecting summons that represents the six gods. I don't know if a lot got missed in the smaller Pocket Edition, but at times I just went with the motions cause I didn't quite get why I did everything.

That goes on until we get to this island republic under the empire's protection where Leviathan lives and Lunafreya is there as well to get the blessing. So after an action packed sequence the beloved are so close to reunite and then... Ardyn shows up and kills Lunafreya. And somehow Ignis got blinded. Some sad moments, the light of day is disappearing and daemons attack the civilians. Collecting the last things and entering the empire's capital to get the crystal they stole. And Ardyn reveals that he is actually immortal and a former king of Noctis kingdom, but he somehow was demonized and turned evil... as said, I don't always follow why things happen. Doesn't matter, Noctis enters the crystal and get Bahamut's blessing and suddenly it has gone 10 years. The world is overrun by daemons and only one city is left standing due to a power generator. Noctis meets up with his friends and they head out to get the throne back from Ardyn. After battling it turns into a one-on-one fight between Noctis and Ardyn. Noctis wins and then I guess he dies since he needed to sacrifice himself to return the light. Doesn't explain how he sits on the throne at the end with Lunafreya. 

Story is passable, gameplay is interesting. You got three weapons to chose from, which I only used the normal sword since it was fast enough. I wonder if they were supposed to have weapon triangle system, but it doesn't seems to be working. You got magic... but you gotta pick it up from power sources and they are one use only. Better using the armitage system were the royal weapons are used for great attacks during a short time. It has a cool-down timer, but it works. Voice acting is good, the graphics are not up to the normal game, and looks a bit like Bravely Default, although they looked better there. There is one funny scene where someone is painting the gang and they use a really high-res picture of the group from the normal version where everyone laughs at how ridiculous it looks. That was kinda funny. Other graphical things people talked about was the food it was life-like, no such thing here. Would have been fun with just a still image of the food. Also, no need to save treasures as all they are for are selling for cash. I got that you used to use it upgrade your weapons, but they simplified it with just being able to buy the things. Fine by me. Also the reason for the magic system is that you needed items so they used the power sources instead. 

Overall, if you can't play it in a normal way it works. Rumours of Switch 2 is high and I would probably get the normal version if they got it as well. 

Update 2025-05-28: Well, now the Switch 2 is just one week away and sign of Final Fantasy XV.